Thanks Mr Asmus for allowing us to peek into your development process and allow us to voice our opinions.
I am afraid that with such an important character, lots of questions unavoidably arise:
1) Judging by your post, it still not clear to me whether there will be a rooted hair version of this Aragorn or not. Will we be given the chance to choose?
I of course, like many others, prefer rooted hair: it is much more exciting for me seeing the actual, real threads of hair than just seeing a sculpt of them. It is quite like when boots are made of real fabric: I like them much more even if they are not so accurate as when they are sculpted. Moreover, and as it happens with fabric boots too, rooted hair contributes a very important advantage: improved articulation.
2) Is this new Aragorn a Crown release? Will the Strider outfit be included too? Will there be real metal chainmail like Coomodels is already using on their figures? (e.g. Hospitaller Knight)
3) There are common parts among both outfits, like weapons, boots, and some pieces of clothing. Will we be getting improved versions of the already known parts, like weathered fabric boots/belts/scabbards/blades, better quiver/arrows/bow, clothes, or improvements on tailoring?
4) Are you considering rooring the beard, improving upon what DiD did with their Koulikov?:
5) What accessories should we expect?
6) Any Deluxe version, like with Elrond?
7) Will the head be made available independently?
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My 2 cents on the sculpt are below, comparing with pics of Viggo from the net. I might be utterly wrong, so please take all this with more than a pinch of salt:
1) The nose should be longer in the top-bottom direction. The distance between eyes and mouth is ok, but the nose should end closer to the upper lip.
2) The nose should be narrower in the left-right direction.
3) The tip of the nose is to thick. Viggo's nose indeed has a round tip but it is not so big.
4) Viggo's cheeks are less meaty. I bit more skull-ish.
5) Eyes and eyebrows are ok. They are a big part of Viggo's likeness and they are quite ok as they are now. If you improve the above, new subtleties might arise on the eye area that might need more attention, but for now they don't seem a priority. Same applies to the forehead.
6) Maybe the jaw lines should be more straight and angular. The angle of the jaw should lie higher, maybe at same level as the line between both lips.
7) As far as I am concerned, you should not invest any more resources in sculpting hair or facial hear. You'd be way better off investing those resources in improving your hair rooting tech with each new effort you undertake.
LUK
Thanks,
m.
Root hair isn't the option this time,
in many ways we still prefer sculpted hair, to maintain the standard of in hand quality to all our consumers (not everyone is a great hair dresser)
If we are going to make Aragorn root hair again, we will do it to make sure the hair is in prototype condition when collectors unboxing it.
Such case the Crown Gandalf will take us a lot of time just to tidy up with gel and brushing.