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