FARAMIR

LORD OF THE RINGS (ASMUS TOYS)

Fun FiQ Fact #0082:  David Wenham, who portrays Faramir in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, has been part of two comic book adaptations: 300 and Iron Fist.  Look, he was good in Iron Fist, even if the show around him…wasn’t?

The Lord of the Rings movies were pretty much an inescapable part of the cultural lexicon when I was growing up, hitting theatres during the back half of my elementary school years.  So, I obviously couldn’t really avoid them, and I’ve got my own particular interests within them.  I’ve never been so much a main characters guy, so I didn’t latch so much onto the characters everyone else did.  One of my favorites since pretty much when the movies came out was Faramir, Ranger of Gondor.  I never did get any of his figures growing up, but I’ve been working to make up for that in recent years.  Here’s more to that!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Faramir was added to Asmus’ Lord of the Rings line towards the end of 2020.  There were two versions of him available, with an extra accessory that was only offered with Asmus’ direct store exclusive version.  I’ll touch on all of that a bit later down.  The figure stands about 12 inches tall and he’s got over 30 points of articulation.

Asmus is priced in the same realm as the lines of Sideshow and Hot Toys, so that’s the type of figure they’re aiming for.  That’s certainly evident in the included head sculpt, or at least the intent is.  It’s definitely not quite Hot Toys quality, but I’d put it on par with the average Sideshow sculpt.  The face has an alright likeness of David Wenham; it’s certainly got his glum expression as Faramir down, at least.  The face is perhaps a touch narrow, and I think the nose isn’t quite the right shape, but it’s all pretty close.  Faramir’s hair is sculpted, and it’s a big honking chunk of hair, for sure.  The joining at the front is not so subtle, which I’m not a huge fan of; normal lighting masks it alright, but the photos show it off front and center.  At least the shaping of the hair’s not bad.  The paint work on the head is respectable, if again not quite Hot Toys quality.

Faramir is depicted in his ranger gear from Two Towers and the beginning of Return of the King.  It’s certainly his most distinctive, and let’s all be honest, coolest, look.  The figure uses a mixed media set-up, with a lot of different parts and layers, much like his real outfit.  The sculpted boots are nice enough to look at, but don’t have any sort of posing, which can be rather limiting.  His cloak, outer “jacket”, belt, and quiver, all need to be put on the figure out of the box.  Some of that’s easy, some of it’s less so.  You need to pop the head off to get the cloak on, which gave me no trouble, but I’ve read there were some issues of breakage on the neck joint.  The quiver and belt are both really tricky, and the quiver’s actual assembly looks to just be wrong, so it hangs a little odd.  But, once everything is all assembled, it all vibes together quite nicely, and he doesn’t look too over padded or anything, which is a plus.

The underlying body seems to be pretty basic.  With all the extras on it, it’s not super amazingly posable, but it at least gets some okay poses.  The ratcheted joints were a bit frightening at first, but I ultimately like how they work for holding poses.

Faramir’s standard release (which is the one I’m looking at here), gets three sets of hands (relaxed, fists, and gripping), a diecast sword, five arrows, and a display stand.  Did you notice the mention of the arrows?  And the quiver in the outfit section?  Cool.  Yeah.  Well, the standard version *doesn’t* have a bow.  Nope, that was the exclusive piece.  Sure, let’s just give him the quiver full of arrows, but no bow.  Nothing weird about that, right?  Right.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Remember the big epic collection that All Time got that they’re still processing?  Yeah, well there were a lot of Lord of the Rings figures in it.  But it’s okay, because I didn’t need them.  I don’t need much in the way of Lord of the Rings.  I can just focus on the other stuff and–right there was a Faramir, wasn’t there?  Oh, and he’s got that mournful look, right there on the box.  The sort of look that asks me if I wish now that his and Boromir’s places were traded.  You can’t just leave that look behind.  So, umm, I didn’t?  Honestly, I was tempted by this figure when he was new, so getting the chance to snag him was very nice.  I’m annoyed by the bow thing, but beyond that, I really do love him.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.