Asmus Toys - Thranduil

[sixxshooter]

Asmus toys never cease to amaze me . Great job !

 

[Sassafras]

Looks great!! Mine has shipped so it should be here in about a week.

Still waiting to hear from BBTS...anything. Thranduil looks stellar!

Haven't gotten my invoice from Asmus. Had to e-mail them about this. They overlooked my order for the Conner set, so I'm guessing the same thing happened again. Don't know what's going on with them. I put in an order with BBTS just to protect myself.

Have had problems w. ASMUS site, so use BBTS *shrug*. Seems to work fine for other people, tho.

 

[TheWordWizard]

Does the BBTS one come with the pre-order exclusive staff? I've been meaning to place my pre-order on there, but haven't seen anything about the bonus.

 

[Travis Baumann]

Love it!

This is my first Asmus figure (and first time i buy directly from them). Do they send an email/tracking when they ship?

They did in this instance, I got my notice/tracking number this morning but they warned that it may get delayed in transit due to Chinese New Year and that the tracking number would not show up right away online.

I have ordered most of their figures direct and sometimes they just show up without a notice and one time I got the notice two days after the package showed up so it varies a bit but they seem to be getting more consistent with them.

 

[Dresky]

They did in this instance, I got my notice/tracking number this morning but they warned that it may get delayed in transit due to Chinese New Year and that the tracking number would not show up right away online.

I have ordered most of their figures direct and sometimes they just show up without a notice and one time I got the notice two days after the package showed up so it varies a bit but they seem to be getting more consistent with them.

Thanks for the reply!

So i guess it's pretty random lol. I hope i'll get an email before tomorrow.

 

[Thainitty]

I pulled those pics off their fb page, it's not my figure. If I was into the Hobbit more I would have preordered this immediately.

Ah I see, I don't do Facebook so thanks for sharing anyway....I am not planning on collecting hobbit figures either except maybe Bilbo and Thorin....this figure is tempting though

 

[YanSnoopS]

I was looking foward for legolas after looking at thranduil prototype... but now .... lol forget about it...

 

[hoodonit00]

I was looking foward for legolas after looking at thranduil prototype... but now .... lol forget about it...

I said it once and I'll say it again. You don't like the released sculpt that's fine. But that prototype sculpt looked less like Pace than the released sculpt.

 

[Keegan]

This looks pretty ok. The expression is petulant, which fits the character (at times - he looks like he just realized that Tauriel does not approve) and whatever they used for the Elven chainmail seems unique. Armor looks really nice, cape looks challenging, hair looks replaceable. Another Asmus fig where some minor customizing could really make it zing.

But if you're going to make an elf then I'm thinking...ahem...that this guy might rank...



Sorry! Stoked for all who are stoked. Never would have imagined a figure of this character and cheers to Asmus for making Thranduil!

 

[rjszar]

I think the figure turned out great. I ,however, will have to wait awhile to get mine, as Asmus screwed up again. Second time in the last three orders. I didn't get an invoice. When I inquired about it, they said they had the order, but didn't know why I didn't get the invoice. Now I'm waiting until after their holidays to get it sorted out. I'm going to have a difficult time ordering direct from now on.

 

[Sassafras]

Does the BBTS one come with the pre-order exclusive staff? I've been meaning to place my pre-order on there, but haven't seen anything about the bonus.

Was recently e-mailing back and forth w. BBTS about the WS Cap set I ordered - didn't ask about the staff, but when I PO'd Gandalf w. Sideshow his extra staff was there, no problem. Did ask about when they expected Thranduil - they don't know, either. But if the staff doesn't come w. a PO, I would fuss - either w. BBTS or ASMUS, IMO if it states that you PO you get something, you should get it, no matter who you PO with. From BBTS:

With Thranduil on preorder, I'm happy to explain. With items that are listed as 'preorder', this means that at this time we are still awaiting our shipment(s) to arrive. We are at the mercy of the suppliers and manufacturers when it comes to preorders, as they tend to provide very little information about exact arrival and/or ship dates. Often times we may not receive any updates on products until they are in transit to our facility. If an update is provided by the manufacturer that a product will be delayed, we do our best to send out notices in advance to keep our customers aware. If there is no update available, we will then change over the month or time frame of every existing preorder once the previous month or quarter has ended. We would love to have everything arrive on time as expected with firm release dates like movies and video games for example, but unfortunately in the world of toys it can seem anything but consistent! I apologize that no further information is available.

If they are starting to hit the market, this leads me to believe that our shipment(s) are not far behind. The nature of these items can be the source for a lot of headaches and needed patience as the arrivals are, unfortunately, out of our control as indicated previously. We have to rely on the manufacturers getting the items to us, and how they ship them to us (land, sea, air) can be a large determination on how quickly our items arrive. We sometimes have the capability of receiving items sooner than other vendors and begin shipping, while the alternative can also happen in some instances.

Since you have the figure on preorder, if we do receive any information regarding the figures, we will be happy to let you know right away. Otherwise, watch that email inbox closely as we will inform you when your order is being filled. Typically, we are able to begin filling orders the same day the items arrive in stock!

GtG took quite a while from SSC, but when he came, no problems.

 

[TheWordWizard]

Was recently e-mailing back and forth w. BBTS about the WS Cap set I ordered - didn't ask about the staff, but when I PO'd Gandalf w. Sideshow his extra staff was there, no problem. Did ask about when they expected Thranduil - they don't know, either. But if the staff doesn't come w. a PO, I would fuss - either w. BBTS or ASMUS, IMO if it states that you PO you get something, you should get it, no matter who you PO with. From BBTS:



GtG took quite a while from SSC, but when he came, no problems.

Ah, cool. guess I'll put my pre-order in soon then!

 

[Dresky]

Checked my tracking and i should get it by thursday. So hyped!

Actually watched Battle of the Five Armies for the first time last night just to see Thranduil in action lol.

 

[Travis Baumann]

Well the tracking info shows that he showed up in Los Angeles customs at 3:45 AM this morning so hopefully he makes it to me in a day or two.

Looking forward to this guy.

 

[gideon]

Checked my tracking and i should get it by thursday. So hyped!

Actually watched Battle of the Five Armies for the first time last night just to see Thranduil in action lol.

I dearly hope you viewed the extended edition as its twice the film that the theatrical release was.

 

[Dresky]

I dearly hope you viewed the extended edition as its twice the film that the theatrical release was.

Nope lol. The movie didn't make any sense to me (felt rushed), but it's in the end i really knew something was wrong when there was no burial for Thorin.

 

[Sassafras]

Nope lol. The movie didn't make any sense to me (felt rushed), but it's in the end i really knew something was wrong when there was no burial for Thorin.

Gideon is right IMO, theatrical was edited way too tight - try the extended cut.

 

[xequae]

I think mine is sitting at home. Going to be a long couple of hours.

 

[Travis Baumann]

Got my Elven King today. He actually came yesterday but as with all Asmus packages, no one is home to sign with the postman so I ran and picked him up on a break. Since no one has posted in-hand or really any full production pics on this guy, this one is going to be photo heavy.

Overall, I am happy with him.

Number one standout is his face sculpt looks good. It looks a lot like Pace (also a tiny bit like a young Pearce Brosnan or the guy who plays Jamie on GOT), He looks enough like the actor that it is immediately recognizable and the paint apps look good. I would not have minded a bit more pronounced of an Elven ear but looking at screencaps, looks correct. The hair is thick and not as crazy long as their proto. It has a lot of product to keep it in place and I am at work so not going to futz that as well as it will be. The crown is glued onto the hair so the top of the hair is immobile (which is a good thing really).

The armor plates look really good, but the swords are just outstanding. Solid metal, well designed and the type of weapons we should be seeing from all 1/6th companies (looking at you GOT plastic swords). The hands are much softer rubber so they swap with ease (and they included extra wrist pegs to boot) but his grip on his metal swords could be tighter. The wrists are snug enough so the hands don't spin on the peg but the actual grip is a bit open so you have to position them just right.

The cape is long and lush. There is a very small wire in the edge for posing but the cape is pretty heavy so the drape overtakes the wire quite a bit. Patience will get it into good looking action poses but it will not fan out into some of his spinning/slashing poses as it is just too heavy.

He comes with a regular stand and then a toppled column base which is really heavy. I am not putting this together at work so photos of that at some other point.

I tried to get him into some of the same poses as screencaps I got on line. Here are my first light on futzing attempts with crappy phone camera:



going for this pose:







Some shots of the sculpt






for comparison:


Back for those interested:


Box art:


Which was taken from this shot:


The first pose I put him in right out of the box:



I do have two small knitpicks that once I futz his hair will not be noticeable but they did bother me at first.

First one is the plastic hairline that is under his rooted hair. It has a small gap between it and the material they used for the skin. Once I get home and have a chance to lightly comb out some of the product in the hair at the temples and get the hair to lay more like he wears it in the film this will not be noticeable.

The second one is there is some weird rubber body/neck on him and the rubber comes up too high and is too thick so it is really hard to get his head into some angled positions. The rubber neck actually buckles as you try to put him in some looking down poses and leaves a gap at the base of the head join. With some futzing/posing this can be overcome and once the collar is up, the hair futzed, etc, you cannot see this effect but just made me wonder why they bothered with some sort of rubber body suit thing on him as it prevents a perfect join on the neck.

Here is close up photo of the area:


These two things can be overlooked as they will not be noticeable once properly posed and minor futzing needed (mostly with hair and cape).

One other thing to look out for, the little armor pieces that come out over his hands are attached with what seems to be a fabric strip. They flop around a bit but can be futzed easily. My biggest concern is while changing hands, something could go wrong.

As I said, happy with this guy. I would have sacrificed the display base to knock some cash off the price as he is pretty expensive but I am happy to add the Elven King to my collection and cannot wait for his son to arrive. I really (really) wish all four Hobbits (and Gandalf the Grey too actually) were up to this level of craftsmanship.

 

[Dresky]

I think mine is sitting at home. Going to be a long couple of hours.

Mine cleared Canada customs, but it's been sitting there for the last 4 days (curse you Richmond, BC!!!).

If only i could see in-hand pics or a video review while waiting lol.