Asmus Lord of the Rings Gimli

It sometimes can take years for a company to complete a core series of characters, and in some cases companies just give up! The Lord of the Rings is one such movie series, where the cast of characters is so extensive even large companies like Sideshow give up on it.

So when Asmus started producing official Lord of the Rings figures, there was doubt they would be able to complete the core Fellowship cast. But they promised they would, and they have delivered on that promise in the best possible way!

This Gimli is a fantastic figure, and shows just how far Asmus has come from their first figure to this new Gimli. Click through below to watch my 2-part review of the figure that is definitely one of their very best figures to date.

Part 1, covering the main figure and accessories.

Part 2, covering the final setup of the figure and the complete Fellowship cast of figures.

The packaging is the same style as their previous releases, with decent cover art and clamshell. As always, the figure comes with a decent array of accessories of exceptional quality. The 5 axes are all made of diecast metal, with intricate detailing that shows the likes of Hot Toys how weapons really should be done in this scale!

The elven cloak is the same nice soft material as previous released with the other figures, this time with an improved brooch. It's a shame the brooch is pretty much hidden by the beard once put onto the figure! The array of hands are nicely sculpted and painted, but definitely need some hot water to soften them to hold the weapons.

The helmet is also nicely done, with a strap that goes under the chin of the head sculpt. It was a little tricky at first to get it on, but I realised it had to be put on at an angle. This way the knotches inside the helmet fit over the ears of the figure nicely and the centre sits just above the bridge of his nose. It's nicely done, but just be careful taking it off as it may catch the rooted hair.

Once all set up, the figure simply looks amazing. Asmus spent a lot of time prototyping the rooted hair, in particular the beard and moustache. They took collectors on that journey with many behind the scenes photos of their trials. The end result is spectacular, and shows that they now have the skills to manufacture in large scales the intricate details of braided hair.

The thicker braids along the outer beard, and the finer braids for the moustache are done beautifully and realistically. It all melds together with the face sculpt perfectly, with little sculpted and painted areas on the skin that blend it all.

The facial paint app is also an improvement over previous figures, with nice skin texture and realism. There probably isn't as much wrinkling and details as the prototype, but that's probably expected going into final production. Overall, this is the best work they've done in the series so far I think.

You can display the figure without the helmet, but I think the classic look is definitely with it on. It fits nicely and frames the head sculpt perfectly. Some have had issues with the head sculpt sitting a little too high, but I put some hot water on the joint, and it pushed down nicely for me.

As I mentioned, the axes are beautifully done. The brushed metal gives a realistic weather appearance, and the minute details really show the skill they have in the manufacturing process for these. It puts to shame weapons like the Hot Toys Wonder Woman sword that was made out of plastic.

All the weapons have slots on the costume to hold. The only issue is trying to fit the two smaller axes onto the left side of the belt. The holes for them are very small, and it will take some careful adjustment to get both in. My belt looked like it was starting to split when I tried to put both, so I stopped and left only one in there. I have seen photos with both axes in, so it is possible, but just be very careful.

But for the most part, the weapons go in easily enough. The medium sized axes fits on his right side nicely through the loops on the belt and his torso strap. The larger axe fits through loops on his back and through the hole in the elven cloak. Just adjust it to balance where the axe lies so that it doesn't slip down.

The rest of the costume is right up there with the best from Asmus. They have always excelled at clothing, and Gimli is no exception. There are multiple complex layers, so just futz around until you get things laying naturally. My only concern would be the material they've chosen for the chainmail. It's a silver type patterning on the front, with some sort of semi-rigid rubber backing. I think that over time that might start to crack, so it's probably best to avoid too much bending at the elbows.

Overall, Asmus has now completed the core Fellowship of the Ring with an outstanding release in Gimli. They are the only company I know of that have been committed enough to do all 9 characters from the Fellowship. The consistent quality makes them all look fantastic displayed together.

With their rooted hair technique now perfected, I really hope they go back and release an expansion set for Legolas with rooted hair. That would definitely take that figure to the next level and top off a set of amazing figures. I'm glad Asmus has come through on their promise, and these figures will be a centerpiece of my collection for many years to come!

Asmus Toys Lord of the Rings Boromir (rooted hair edition)

I've been loving the Lord of the Rings series by Asmus Toys. The head sculpts aren't quite up to the standards of Hot Toys, but the tailoring of the clothes and the quality of the accessories is second to none!

Add to that the fact they're pretty much the only 1/6th scale company to actually follow through and promise to complete the Fellowship of the Ring! With Boromir released now, only Gimli is left, and the teaser of that looks amazing.

This Boromir was released with two options, being a rooted hair version or a sculpted hair version. I think rooted hair adds just that bit of realism, so I went with that option. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it!

Click through below to check out my full review over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel. Make sure to subscribe and stay tuned for upcoming reviews :)

The packaging is consistent with previous releases in this series. It should be noted though that there was no cardboard insert with artwork this time, and no numbered edition as well. Their previous figures had these, so it's surprising they didn't do the same for Boromir.

Either way, it's another fantastic set by Asmus. Again the head sculpt isn't perfect, but the ability to futz the rooted hair gives plenty of opportunity to get the likeness better with good placement of the hair.

The accessories again are outstanding! The real metal sword and dagger have great detail to them, and really show that the likes of Hot Toys and Sideshow et al should not get lazy and just use plastic! The shield also has a nice wooden paint app with good weathering on the metal. The two cloaks are beautifully tailored and made of high quality materials. I'd go with the elven cloak because it's thinner and sits nicer on the shoulders.

The horn of Gondor is beautifully painted too, although it's let down by a strap that is far too short. It would've been so much nicer if Asmus had just given it an extra bit of length to hang on the body more naturally.

The outfit itself is outstanding. Lots of layers, and the attention to detail is definitely on show. With the assortment of hands to cater for the weapons, there's plenty of posing options. Overall articulation is decent, and once he's all setup, he looks pretty damn good!

I haven't set him up with the others just yet. I need to get some extra room in the cabinet, but once the  Fellowship are together, Asmus would have created an incredible display in 1/6th scale. I cannot wait to complete the core cast with Gimli, and I think Asmus has done the Lord of the Rings justice with this series of figures.

Asmus Toys Lord of the Rings Legloas "Luxury Edition"

Overall I've been pretty happy with the Asmus Toys Lord of the Rings series of figures. I think all their figures have excelled at costume tailoring and use of materials. But one area they have fallen behind other companies like Hot Toys and Blitzway is their sculpting of the head sculpts and hair.

With this new Legolas, I think they've improved a lot with the facial likeness, but then fail in the execution of the hair. Check out my two-part review at the links below to the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel.

Part 1 gives the overview of the figure, and Part 2 goes through the main issues I had when trying to put everything together for display. Hope you can check them out and give the videos a like and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already! :)

PART 1:

PART 2:

I preordered the "Luxury Edition" that includes the extra troll head diorama base. The packaging for this set comes in a very large black box that contains the actual Legolas box and the separate troll head box. The troll head is housed in ridiculously bad quality foam that crumbles in your fingers as you grasp to try and remove it from the box. Make sure you have a vacuum cleaner handy!

After removing the troll head, I was further disappointed with the realisation that one of the boots that are meant to be used to stand the figure on the troll head was actually glued into place rather than being removable! Apparently Asmus have indicated this was done for stability, but I don't really see how the figure could be that unstable if balanced correctly and the boot peg was deep enough.

With the boot in place, this removes the ability to display the troll head on its own without the figure on top. There were also reports that the boot actually snapped off during shipping for some collectors, meaning they couldn't even display the figure on the troll head! I think this is one area that Asmus had a decent concept, but was badly executed.

The unboxing of the Legolas figure is a far more enjoyable experience! This figures comes with a nice array of accessories, and as always with Asmus the costume tailoring and material is very nice! This time, the head sculpt itself is pretty nice too, with a good likeness and a decent facial paint app too! It's just all let down by a badly sculpted hair piece that gets in the way of articulation (more on that later).

The bow and arrows are nicely detailed and painted. I especially like the flexible bow string that works very well. The various sculpted hands also work well for holding the included knives or the arrows.

Setting the figure up for display was indeed a pretty frustrating task, even more so than Aragorn for me. The scabbards for the knives are incorrectly oriented out of the box, so they need to be removed and reinserted under the quiver, which was a bit difficult since they're inserted quite tightly.

But the hardest part was actually adjusting the cloak. The head needs to be removed to add the cloak, and is an absolute pain in the arse to reattach once the cloak is in place. There is a gap in the cloak to get over the quiver and scabbards, but getting it adjusted nice and flat with the not-so-flexible sculpted hair was tough. The ball joint on the head sculpt was also quite tight to attach properly to the peg, and the back of the hair kept pushing against the quiver and scabbards to prevent the head going on properly.

Once on, the head is forced to look in a downward position, and cannot be pushed up to look in a straight position. This is OK when the figure is placed on top of the troll head, but for those who just get the regular version, the fact the head always looks down would annoy the crap out of me.

The hair itself is far too yellow, and the fine stranding is badly done so that it looks quite clumpy. Hot Toys figures such as their Thor have far finer and more detailed stranding in their sculpts that improve the realism a lot. There were some photos by a customiser on the Sideshow Freaks Forum that showed the Legolas sculpt with rooted hair, and it looks amazing! Hopefully Asmus see the error of their ways and release a rooted hair version soon.

The troll head is nicely sculpted and painted. I especially like the teeth and the wetness around the nose. It is a little undersized, but that could be a design choice for some camera perspective similar to the way the Hot Toys Boba Fett Sarlacc Pit base was smaller in scale.

Inserting the legs into the boots for the troll head was easy enough. Just make sure to use a small flat tool to push the tights into the boots so that they don't bunch up. The tights are a nice soft material that don't restrict the movement of the legs. The separate boots for the figure have separate sculpted ankle boots that match well with the calf section. This also helps with articulation when not displaying on the troll head.

The best part of the costume is definitely the tunic and undershirt combination that has great stitching and use of material. The only other thing that was annoying was the overly tight strap over the shoulder and chest that covers the tunic. This attaches the quiver, but is too tight that makes the buckle on the front ride up too high. It's all glued in, so the straps are not adjustable without breaking those glue points.

Once all set up on the troll head, the figure does look very nice on display.

It's unfortunate that Asmus haven't been able to get a complete home run on a LOTR figure yet. There's always a few things that count negatively to the overall impression of quality, and it's a shame because overall they do a great job.

Their costume tailoring is great, so if they could just get around the head sculpt issues, they would really be some good competition for the likes of Hot Toys, Sideshow, Blitzway etc. I'm definitely glad that they've announced Boromir and have teased Gimli. This would make them the first company to actually complete the whole Fellowship in 1/6th scale form. That in itself is a pretty amazing achievement, and I think they'll look amazing together.

Asmus Lord of the Rings 1/6th scale Frodo and Sam

In 2016 I started out collecting the Asmus 1/6th scale Lord of the Rings series in the hope that finally a company would complete the Fellowship. It definitely looks like Asmus has taken on that challenge, and the figures were overall very good. I was quite impressed with their Aragorn back in 2015, and then Merry and Pippin and Gandalf in 2016.

So I was pretty excited when I heard news of their Frodo and Sam release, but that was dimmed once photos of the head sculpts surfaced. I was hoping there would be some final production tweaks, but the final sculpts are not that great. Watch and read on more below!

Click through below for my fill video review on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel :)

The packaging art continues the LOTR style, and the insert shows the edition number. Seems like they have gone with numbering these with a limited edition size, which should please some collectors. I don't really mind either way to be honest, as long as the figures turn out well!

Similar to the previous Merry and Pippin figures, the accessories are nice, and the outfits are particularly well tailored with a variety of materials. The layering of the clothes, and the display options for the accessories adds some great display value.

Sam in particular gets a nice set of cooking ware that you can strap to the backpack. Getting the strap through the tiny holes in the accessories was an absolutely pain in the arse though, so be wary of that!

But despite the great clothing and accessories, the main feature that everyone looks at first in a 1/6th scale figure is the head sculpts. And this is where the Frodo and Sam figures disappoint. The Merry and Pippin sculpts weren't that great either, but are definitely better than Frodo and Sam for me.

The area in which Asmus has improved on the head sculpts is the hair. The stranding is much more detailed and finer than on Merry and Pippin. This gives the hair a much more realistic finish. However, the likenesses themselves are off. There is a slight resemblance, and the character is recognisable thanks to the outfits. But if the head sculpts were viewed in isolation, it would be rather difficult for people to pinpoint the actors, especially Sam.

The major issue for me with the sculpts is a slight deformation in the mold. Asmus has had a bad track record in this regard, with some previous figures like Gandalf the White and Tauriel exhibiting some obvious deformation in the sculpts. It's slightly less noticeable on Frodo, but Sam definitely shows it where his left side of the face seems to be pushed to one side and down. You can see it slightly in Frodo's eyes too where the left is lower than the right.

I am not sure why this keeps occurring in Asmus production, but this is one area they need to fix as soon as possible.

Despite that bad likenesses, once setup with the other LOTR figures, these do look pretty great on display. The scale of the Hobbits in relation to the others is good, and they all complement each other well.

In the cabinet, they look good. If Asmus can improve the sculpts, these would truly become very sought after figures. Every other aspect of the figures is excellent, so they need to put in some more effort to resolve the sculpting and mold production issues.

Hopefully they can fix all that before they release Legolas. The recent teased head sculpt looks pretty great, so to ruin that in production would be a massive letdown. Either way, I'm all in on the Fellowship figures from Asmus - here's hoping for announcements on Gimli and Boromir soon!

Asmus Toys Gandalf the Grey exclusive

The new addition to my Lord of the Rings collection finally came with the release of Asmus Toys' Gandalf the Grey. Check out my full video review below :)

Overall it's another fantastic set by Asmus. Not quite as impressive as the Aragorn figure, but still pretty damn good! The head sculpt is not perfect, but the attention to detail across the outfit is very nice indeed.

There are a few nits to pick that I go through in the video review, so check that out for all my thoughts on the figure!

Asmus Toys 1/6th scale Lord of the Rings Merry and Pippin

After I got the Asmus Toys Aragorn figure recently, I knew I'd have to get the rest of the Fellowship if they were to release them all. With their latest release with Merry and Pippin, I'm not as impressed as I was with Aragorn. But overall, still happy to have these in the collection.

Here's the full video review on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel. Hope you can check it out! :)

Some pics of the packaging and figures.

The head sculpt likenesses could've been a bit better, but the tailoring and material of the outfits is awesome. Looking forward to seeing more releases in this line!

Asmus Toys Lord of the Rings Aragorn

I had held off on getting into the Asmus Toys 1/6th scale Lord of the Rings figures because I had heard some back things about their quality in some of the earlier figures. But gradually I heard some decent things, and their Aragorn got some fairly decent feedback.

So after talking to some collectors who also had the figure, then assured me it was worth the purchase. I read that there was an "exclusive" version that came with an extra screaming head sculpt, and it looked like Big Bad Toy Store still had it in stock. So I took the plunge and made the order.

And I am definitely glad that I did! I have not been this impressed with an overall 1/6th scale figure package in a very long time! The amount of accessories and overall quality of the costume and headsculpt make this one helluva value for money proposition!

Click through below to see my full video review of this great figure. Scroll on down for more pics and thoughts :)

The packaging is really nice with some great photos of the character from the movie and the figure itself. The figure is housed in similar foam to that used in previous Hot Toys DX figures, and the overall presentation is very high-end.

Once you get everything out of the box, you're sure to be impressed with the amount of stuff included! The diorama base is a definite highlight for me, with gorgeous felt moss that really give it a realistic texture and look.

The array of accessories is immense, with good quality throughout too. The blades are metal, the cloak is thin yet poseable, and the travel bags have great fake-leather look and feel. Even the bow has an awesome rubbery string that really helps in action poses with him drawing back on it.

With so many things to place on the figure, it does take a while and a lot of patience to get things to sit well on the figure. Tying the sword sheath, quiver, and travel bags on the figure, and then trying to get the cloak and cape to drape nicely certainly took time.

With some advice from collectors I managed to get things arrange in a way that I liked, and posed up on the great diorama base. All setup, it certainly carries a lot of presence on display.

One area of course that troubled many was the accuracy of the head sculpt. The alternative open mouthed sculpt is pretty bad, but the standard one does look much better. The forehead is a little high, but from most angles he doesn't have too much of a cone-headed look. In fact, after heating up the hair and pushing it down a bit, I managed to improve it slightly to my liking. The paint app on the face itself is certainly not to Hot Toys standard, but is definitely on par if not slightly better than most from Sideshow.

In the end, if you're a fan of Lord of the Rings and collect 1/6th scale figures, I highly recommend this figure. Now that Merry and Pippen have been released, Gandalf the Grey is up for preorder, and Asmus have teased Legolas, it appears they will make the entire Fellowship. So I for one am all in now for the Fellowship figures from Asmus!

Get yours from BBTS at the links below! :)

Asmus Toys LOTR Aragorn

Asmus Toys LOTR Merry and Pippen