If I do decide to get it, I'll try to have someone paint it darker for me because the orange color just doesn't do it for me.
Balrog Legendary scale bust
- Thread starter Karma
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Uh oh I see flames...you know what that means.
Two words - Ghost Rider.
Two words - Ghost Rider.
WrathofSauron
Super Freak
Personally I am glad it doesn't have a light up feature I think it would look tacky and cheapen the look of the bust, this is a high end collectible and at this price I don't need bells and whistles and lights I want an excellent sculpt and I think from what we've seen so far thats what we got, well in my opinion anyway 
And before anyone says it, yeah yeah we know the Balrog would look funny with a whistle in his gob and bells hanging out of him!!!
And before anyone says it, yeah yeah we know the Balrog would look funny with a whistle in his gob and bells hanging out of him!!!
woodsy
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Personally I am glad it doesn't have a light up feature I think it would look tacky and cheapen the look of the bust, this is a high end collectible and at this price I don't need bells and whistles and lights I want an excellent sculpt and I think from what we've seen so far thats what we got, well in my opinion anyway
I liked the idea of a light up balrog, but I too was concerned that it might cheapen the look. This is a terrific sculpt and I think Steve West has done a fantastic job. Steve also did the Cellar Cast wall plaque balrog several years ago, but I think this is a much better representation. I read somewhere that Steve had very little reference material to work with when sculpting his original balrog, so I think this is a much more accurate rendition.
WrathofSauron
Super Freak
What bothers me most is how it doesnt go at all w/ the base..
Radagaster
Trolling the Woods
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Bodie, that's because this was meant to be a plaque!
Now that the cat's out of the bag with this not being a light-up . . .what the heck are those plastic flames for then, at this point?? I can see where plastic flames justifies a light-up, but now that the light-up feature has been nixed . . .there's no reason those flames should stay plastic. It'll just cheapen the overall item.
As someone already said . . .the value of this just went down even further.
Now that the cat's out of the bag with this not being a light-up . . .what the heck are those plastic flames for then, at this point?? I can see where plastic flames justifies a light-up, but now that the light-up feature has been nixed . . .there's no reason those flames should stay plastic. It'll just cheapen the overall item.
As someone already said . . .the value of this just went down even further.
RoboDad
Super Freak
If, by 'plastic', you mean 'translucent plastic'*, I could only guess that someone felt that it looked more flame-like, since flames are also translucent. Whether that was the right thing to do, I don't know. It looks nice, but opaque, painted flames still might have looked better. Didn't the original plaque have flames sculpted as part of the same piece as the head, rather than a separate piece?
* I clarified, because as we all should know by now, the whole thing is made of plastic.
Darth Rage
WhySoSerious???
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Here's a link I found with painted pics of the original. Yup, there were some flames.
https://jallred.homestead.com/balrogpg.html
Fritz
My muse is a fickle b**ch
This isn't the first time they've used translucent flames. The exhaust on the Green Goblin PF scooter is translucent and it doesn't look bad at all.
RoboDad
Super Freak
And Johnny Storm on the Fantastic Four Dio (which also looks very good).
Mesa
Super Freak
If, by 'plastic', you mean 'translucent plastic'*, I could only guess that someone felt that it looked more flame-like, since flames are also translucent. Whether that was the right thing to do, I don't know. It looks nice, but opaque, painted flames still might have looked better. Didn't the original plaque have flames sculpted as part of the same piece as the head, rather than a separate piece?
* I clarified, because as we all should know by now, the whole thing is made of plastic.
Correct. Translucent resin makes for a more realistic flame.
Radagaster
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Heh . . . translucent flames is fine for something like a Marvel statue, but applying that to something like LOTR just doesn't seem to feel right, especially if I'm forking out $400 for it. Fact is, this thing costs more than the original Daddy Rog. The flames on the Daddy Rog looked classic. I suppose because I own other Balrog representations, this one bucking the trend with translucent flames (and not being light-up) devalues its look.
tomandshell
Blue Flame of the West/Mod
From the product description of Sauron's Mace:
Even without a lightup feature, pieces that incorporate translucent material can look great with the proper lighting behind them.
Even without a lightup feature, pieces that incorporate translucent material can look great with the proper lighting behind them.
RoboDad
Super Freak
People can choose whatever reasons they like for ordering (or not ordering) this piece, but I'm not sure that comparing the price of the LSB to that of the original Balrog statue makes much sense. For one thing, that statue was released five years ago. It stands to reason that it would cost more to design and manufacture today than it did then. And inflation aside, the LSB is nearly twice as tall as the original statue (22" versus 13.5"), so it also stands to reason that it will use quite a bit more polystone than the statue did.
RoboDad
Super Freak
That's my biggest factor as well. I love the look of the piece, but $400 for this one is just out of my budget right now. I could buy a bunch of the 12" figures I've been putting off (Buffy and Universal Monsters) for the price of this one bust.
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