Asmus is not a "young, start-up company"
The reality of the situation is that Asmus has been around just as long as ACI has, or longer, but Asmus' lack of polished sculpting skills and amateur style of product presentation leads the community to believe they have a lack of experience. Meanwhile, ACI is producing professional-level products where the expectations are higher, and people are being unfairly critical of them.
These Asmus threads feel like bizarro world. Their products have physical problems with them, the Ringwraith has loose joints, the Gothmog headsculpt was completely off-model, the Gandalf head was deformed in production, Eowyn's hair was even more unruly than Aragorn's. . . but no one is largely upset with these issues. Meanwhile, ACI's figures really have nothing wrong with them.
It's like when your kid bakes a cake and forgets the sugar, and you have to lie and say "Oh, yeah, Timmy this cake is great". But when your co-worker buys a chocolate cake from a bakery and shares it with the office, but it has the raspberry filling in it and you say "Eww gross, this cake is awful."
The reality of the situation is that the professionally made cake is a better cake, you just don't like the taste of it. It's a personal preference thing. Meanwhile, your kid's cake is actually a poorly made cake that has problems, but you have to accept it because he doesn't know any better.
No one wants to hurt Asmus' feelings because they appear to not know any better, because they appear to be inexperienced. . . but that same guarded criticism is not applied to ACI, because they appear to be a more professional company and should be able to handle that criticism better. It's that double standard.
