Questions for Asmus

Am I the only one who gets excited when one of the Asmus threads gets bumped only to get disappointed when I find out there are no updates?

Nope there are at least two of us.

Make that three. LOL

Four!!!

Wor-Gar said:

As Guritz is likely next to ship, can you tell us how many pieces will be offered? I'm keeping a tally based on the below post.

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Yes, Guritz has only 500 pc made

hoodonit00 said:

Am I the only one who gets excited when one of the Asmus threads gets bumped only to get disappointed when I find out there are no updates?

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Thank you guys,
we will have some intensive updates this week~
Be prepared!

How exciting!

Outstanding!

Asmus said:

Yes, Guritz has only 500 pc made

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Wow! That's low. Thank you for the info.

Not a crucial character by any stretch and definitely only a must-have for those who either love villains like me or are army builders. Might be the hard-to-find piece 5 years from now. If you're looking.

Thus far have ordered Witch King and GTW. I may get a Gothmog at some point but to be honest those are kind of fringe second-tier releases IMO. I prefer starting with more central characters first as opposed to those only on screen for a couple of minutes with one or two lines. Eowyn and Saruman are definites for me. When will we see characters like Aragorn, Arwen, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Gollum, Elrond, Galadriel, Theoden, Eomer, Boromir, Faramir etc? Those are the kind of figs I'm most looking forward picking up to really start building out the line.

Those are all great figure possobilities but I think if Asmus started out recapping all the previously released SSCs figures, things would have got off to a slow start. I don't think as many fans would have jumped on the wagon. Starting with highly demanded fan favorites that have never been made in this scale was a very very smart move. This way, they hook all the collectors right away.

Lee in MI said:

Those are all great figure possobilities but I think if Asmus started out recapping all the previously released SSCs figures, things would have got off to a slow start. I don't think as many fans would have jumped on the wagon. Starting with highly demanded fan favorites that have never been made in this scale was a very very smart move. This way, they hook all the collectors right away.

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Excellent argument for Gimli being one of the first releases...

Aragorn, Arwen, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Gollum, Elrond, Galadriel, Theoden, Eomer, Boromir, Faramir etc?

These are all figures that Sideshow never did in 1:6 scale. Plus there are a ton more such as other hobbits, Saruman, Orcs, Elves, Denathor, etc. Anyway, with the possible exception of Gandalf the Gray, Sideshow did not exactly set the world on fire with these figures. Customizing aside they were dreadful. I bought Aragorn and Legolas and promptly sold them off. It took several years and several price increases for SS to find its footing with Star Wars 1:6. They let the LotR 1:6 go, so IMO nothing from that line is untouchable. I look forward to seeing Asmus's versions of Boromir, Faramir, Legolas, etc, not to mention the Hobbit figures. Really hoping this is a prolific and successful line and not something that gets derailed by low initial sales. That's the main reason I'm advocating for more popular characters.

Also remember not everyone was collecting when sideshow did their run of Lotr, so not repeating characters because they were done(poorly) years ago cuts off any new collectors.

nexus said:

Aragorn, Arwen, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Gollum, Elrond, Galadriel, Theoden, Eomer, Boromir, Faramir etc?

These are all figures that Sideshow never did in 1:6 scale. Plus there are a ton more such as other hobbits, Saruman, Orcs, Elves, Denathor, etc. Anyway, with the possible exception of Gandalf the Gray, Sideshow did not exactly set the world on fire with these figures. Customizing aside they were dreadful. I bought Aragorn and Legolas and promptly sold them off. It took several years and several price increases for SS to find its footing with Star Wars 1:6. They let the LotR 1:6 go, so IMO nothing from that line is untouchable. I look forward to seeing Asmus's versions of Boromir, Faramir, Legolas, etc, not to mention the Hobbit figures. Really hoping this is a prolific and successful line and not something that gets derailed by low initial sales. That's the main reason I'm advocating for more popular characters.

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Good point.

Maybe if they do a rotation new bad guy, new never been done good guy, redo SS figure, new bad guy, new never been done before good guy.

Could go something like Saruman, Theoden, Aragorn, Lurtz, Gimli, Legolas, Azog, Bilbo, Boromir. . . . peobably not a perfect set up but maybe something like this with soldier figures fitting in whenever they are ready. Because I want some Uruks!

I could definitely go for that kind of an approach. I think Asmus would see the popularity and sell through rates of the line rise very quicly. I'm all for having figures like Gothmog represented, and look forward to characters like Mouth of Sauron and Wormtongue, but I'd rather see them as sprinkled in surprises rather than feeling like launch releases. There's a reason companies generally launch lines with highly popular characters like Superman, Darth Vader and Captain Kirk.

. . . and why compainies like Hot Toys normally leave lines incomplete.

I like the idea of having 3 major character releases a year with 1 to 2 lesser known characters sprinkled in and maybe 1 or 2 solider types. That would still equal 5 to 7 figures a year which is a lot for a single liscence. The way they are doing it know I'd see/label WK and Gandalf as major chacters with Gothmog being a lesser one and Gurtiz being the soldier type.

Remember that Asmus' plan for the "first five" was:

Gimli
Aragorn
WitchKing
Gothmog
Gandalf the White

That's an excellent balance between central and 2nd tier (or villain) characters in my opinion.

The "2nd wave" is shaping up to be:

Eowyn
Guritz
Mouth of Sauron
Ringwraith
???

That might be heavy-handed on the villain side of things for most.

True but if the release goes

1. WK
2. Gothmog
3. Gandalf the White
4. Guritz
5. Aragorn
6. Ringwraith
7. Eowyn
8. Mouth of Saruon

Out of that 8 three are good guys/gals and five are bad guys. Three are absloute top tier characters and I would argue that Eowyn and the ringwraith are major chacters as well with Gothmog being a lesser and Gurtiz being minor and Mouth of Suaron could fall somewhere between Ringwraith and Gothmog. Looks like Guritz might end the first year of product and Aragorn thru MoS might be the second year (not too sure but seems roughly to be the case). 4 figures a year is probably a good pace and having 2 major characters a year is probably a good idea. Maybe even try themes Lurtz, Boromir, Uruk Hai scout and either Gimli, Merry or Pippin for a Aom Hen themed year and Legolas (with Rohan armor), Saruman, Rohan soldier and Berseker for a Helms Deep year if they can squeeze in Theoden or Eomer even better.

I joined this forum just to follow Asmus' updates. I've bought the Witch King and its by far one of my favourite figures. Did the water treatment , and he loooks gorgeous. I'm excited about the bad guys. Definitely would buy the Ringwraiths and their horses, plus one day I hope they'll release Sauron in all his might.

From the good guys , They definitely have a lot of potential. They have been hearing the feedback from the fans, and it looks like they have a great sculptor ( or sculptors, dunno) Plus their extras are awesome. I hope they stick around for a while, and keep the prices fair and more attractive than Sideshow or Weta.