Review of Bilbo Baggins
Lord of the Rings Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

Very few sixth scale companies go deep into a license. This isn't a new situation - it's always been the case. But I love when they do, and adding another character to a large line is always a treat. When a new threezero Walking Dead or Game of Thrones figure arrives, or even better, an EXO-6 Star Trek release, it makes my month.

Also at the very top of my list - Lord of the Rings and Hobbit figures from Asmus. They were the first - and only - sixth scale company to give us a complete fellowship, and while there were a few hiccups in the early years, the releases over the last few have been excellent, all at a much better price than usual in the current market.

Their latest is Bilbo. Now, they already gave us a young Bilbo from the Hobbit films. But we needed an old Bilbo from the Lord of the Rings, especially to put with their excellent Crown Series Gandalf. They've delivered, with both a regular and exclusive version. I'll be looking at the regular today, but know that the exclusive - which was only available through the Asmus website - comes with one additional accessory, a diorama style base.

This regular version sells for about $185, depending on the retailer, and just started shipping over the last couple weeks.

Packaging - ****
This is one of the nicer packages I've gotten in awhile. Most companies have backed off from the fancier packaging, sticking with basic shoe box designs. Asmus gives us a nice wrap around cover, with a foam tray holding the figure and second portrait. There's a plastic tray below for the other accessories, and even a cool woven bag for the Gandalf hat. More on that in a bit.

It's also quite sturdy, and of course, it's all collector friendly so there's no reason not to open it up and free him from his packaging prison.

Sculpting - ****
Asmus has done a number of really nice sculpts in this series, especially in the last couple years, but this is one of my favorites. They've stepped up the realism and accuracy another notch, and the quality of the skin texture, wrinkles, and other facial details rivals even what we saw on Gandalf.

The hair is sculpted, but it's an extremely nice sculpt. The style is unkempt yet purposeful, and the strands are well defined. The hairline, especially along the forehead, looks great, and the extra bits hanging down look natural. However, there is one issue with the hair on the second head, where the sides of the long locks don't lay flat. There's a slight gap, that isn't an issue on the normal portrait.

And yes, there's two portraits. The normal portrait is the one I'll be using on the shelf, and it's an excellent likeness, immediately recognizable as the actor and character. Pop this head off the body and hand it to anyone alive on the planet, and they'll tell you it's Bilbo. The expression is stern and serious, but not devoid of emotion. It's an excellent look for him on the shelf in general.

The second portrait is a bit more extreme, you might say. In fact, this is when we get the 'crazy' face, when the power of the One Ring makes him lose it, and we first get a glimpse of the control it can have. The hair is pulled back, the eyes are wide and bulging, the mouth screaming with wild, sharp teeth, and it was a pretty shocking moment in the movie. As I mentioned earlier, I don't love the gap along the lower hair line and face, but otherwise this is another excellent portrait. The glassy eyes and janky teeth look great, and this is a look that can work in the right display. In fact, this makes me want a second figure to display with both heads.

It's also worth noting the hairy feet in this category. The previous hobbits had some glue applied to the top of the feet, and hairs added in a bit of a haphazard way. It worked, but wasn't the most realistic look. Still, it was better than just gluing a hunk of hair in place.

This time, they created more of a natural looking hairline along the top of the foot, and ran the hairs - not sculpted, but synthetic - down the foot. It's a much more natural and realistic design.

He stands about 7 1/4" tall, similar to the other Hobbits that Asmus has produced, as you'd expect.

Paint - ***1/2
The paint on both portraits is top notch, able to hold its own against any other figures on your shelf. It's particularly impressive to see work this good on figures that are sub-$200.

In macro photos, the skin can look a little too freckled, but in hand it is far more realistic. The eyes and teeth, especially on the crazy version, are glassy and wet looking, adding that lifelike aspect to the portrait.

The hair is particularly good, due to the difficult color. Graying hair, like true blonde, can be tough to replicate with paint. They do a nice job creating shadows, highlights, and variations to get a more natural appearance.

Articulation - ***
The smaller hobbit bodies lack a little articulation, but you can still get plenty of good poses.

The head and neck are one piece, but the neck has a ball joint at the torso that allows for decent lean and tilt movement. There's also enough lean, tilt and crunch in the torso, even with the padded clothes, to add some personality and break up straight lines in the upper body.

The shoulders, elbows, and wrists all work pretty much as you'd expect, and you can get natural arm poses with the accessories. The hips and knees work well, but of course there's no ankle joint, allowing the big, hairy feet to have an unbroken sculpt. He can sit and stand well, but getting deep or walking stances is tough due to the ankles.

Accessories - ****
He has a nice assortment, and there's really enough here to pick up two figures and have completely different looks on the shelf.

As I mentioned earlier, there's the two portraits, and getting two sculpts of this quality at a price point like this goes a very long way to a perfect score in this category.

There's also an assortment of hands. He comes wearing a pair of relaxed hands, but there's also fists, tight grips, pipe grips, a wide grip left, and a pointing right. They swap easily, and stay in place when you're working with the figure. There's also a couple extra wrist pegs, just in case.

The pointing hand comes with the Ring in place, but this is a separate item and can be removed. Just remember - drop it on a carpet and you may never see it again.

For his travels, he has a great looking pack with small bedroll, with detailed sculpted decorations and excellent construction. It fits neatly on his back, and there's an extra pot that can be attached. However, to do so you have to unbuckle the back strap and rebuckle it, and I'm not sure I want to do that yet. For the photo, I simply hung it off the buckle itself.

Also for his travels, he comes with the thinner brown coat. In the package he's wearing the thicker, heavier blue coat he wore at his birthday celebration. Adding in this coat, along with the extra head, is what's driving me to want that second figure for display.

If that wasn't enough, he comes with this walking stick. While it's a basic sculpt, it looks great in his hands.

I mentioned the small pot that can be attached to his pack, but there's also a mug, as well as the journal. This is an actual bound book with paper pages inside with writing on them, and the quality is really impressive.

This regular version also has his pipe, and he can easily hold it in one of the two special hands.

Finally, he also had the Gandalf hat. If you recall, the hat that came with their Crown Series Gandalf was pretty weak, and most of us would have never used it. Asmus is a company that does not like failure of any kind, and they work to correct any mistake that might occur. With the hat, they produced a new sculpted version, and started providing it with other figures they are releasing. They've also said there will be other ways to get it, although I haven't heard yet what those are. This hat came in a cool cloth bag, and is a huge improvement over the previous one.

Outfit - ****
The outfit consists of his shirt, tie, vest, jacket, and pants. There's a second brown jacket that I discussed as part of the Accessories.

The tailoring and fit on all the pieces is excellent. There's some padding in the waist to give him a slightly thicker look, appropriate to the on screen appearance. The quality of materials is excellent, especially with the blue birthday coat. All cloth outfits like this are also nice because you'll have far less worries about anything degrading over time.

Swapping coats is simple, and both look great, making it hard to choose!

Fun Factor - ***1/2
With two heads, two coats, and a variety of extras, you have lots of options on the shelf. If you can't afford two, you'll be able to change him up with some regularity without too much effort, adding the fun for collectors.

Value - ***1/2
Getting a figure of this quality for under $200? It's pretty much unheard of. In fact, you can get the exclusive with the polystone base from Asmus for under $200 - that's crazy!

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing. I did have to use a bit of heat to swap the heads, but you have a handy blow dryer, right? I also didn't undo the strap on the pack to attach the pot, although I may end up doing depending on my long term display strategy. And remember that the ring is a separate item from the hand, lest you drop it.

Below you'll see two Gandalf/Bilbo photos. The first is with the original Gandalf hat. No, not the one that came with this Crown Series Gandalf - that one sucked. This cloth hat actually came with the first Gandalf the Gray they produced several years ago, and worked better than the clunky version that the more recent Gandalf was sporting. The second photo shows the newly provided sculpted hat, which was shipped with this figure. I was using the first cloth hat in my display, but I think I'll switch to this sculpted version.

Overall - ****
While I love this figure, I did waffle around a bit on the final score. Was the gap on the hair of the second portrait a big enough deal to pull this down a half star? Did the slightly lower score on the paint outweigh the excellent sculpt? In the end, it was the overall impression I had pulling this guy out of the box that gave him the edge to four stars. He was impressive on first examination, and while there's a couple minor nits, he remained impressive at this price point on a more detailed review.

I'm also really happy to add him to the shelf, and this is one of the very few times where I feel a compulsion to get a second figure to display both portraits on the shelf.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ****
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ***
Accessories - ****
Outfit - ****
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***1/2
Overall - ****

Where to Buy 
You can still pick up the exclusive at the Asmus site for $195. Online options for the regular release include these site sponsors:

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Other recent Asmus Lord of the Rings/Hobbit releases include Death Frock Arwen, Elven Warrior, and Gandalf. And don't forget about young Bilbo!

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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