Though quality has been a bit mixed in the past, I must say I am quite pleased with my final purchase in this line of LOTR collectibles. The box is positively massive, roughly on the same scale of the Sauron statue box (if you own that one,) and subsquently the statue inside is equally large and impressive. Like Sauron, you get some appreciation for where your money went. While the sculptures have been unequivocably exquisite in the past, where Sideshow has let us down once in a while has been the paint job. Preview photos of the demo model certainly looked good on the website, but as we've seen in the past, once they start to produce these things en masse, the final product doesn't always measure up.
Well, I'm happy to say that, at least for my particular statue, the quality of the paint job is excellent. The level of detail is remarkable, and the colours equally vivid and subdued where required. Aragorn's armour in particular looks very good, with the chainmail looking just like metal, and the steel pauldrons and greaves painted in nice, dark metallic tones. Anduril's scabbard and the Elven Hunting Knife look perfect and just like UC's versions. Brego looks awesome too, and I couldn't find anywhere that they went wrong, including the mud splashes on the hooves and Aragorn's boots. To round things up, I got number 80 of 5000, which is my lowest numbered Sideshow product ever.
Of course, nothing is ever perfect and I do have a couple of complaints. First, the little rubber feet under the base must be uneven because the statue wobbles slightly when placed on a flat surface. I tried different shelves and tables and the result was always the same. The odd part is that looking at them, the feet all look the same size. Next comes where Brego attaches to the base with one of his front hooves. The fit is not perfect, leaving a small gap between the base and the ground-with-hoove part that fits into the slot on the base. Lastly, and perhaps by biggest disappointment, is Anduril itself. In the past, Sideshow usually molded their character weapons in polystone also, though obviously a much thinner material than the rest of the sculptures. For some reason, on the Anduril blade they opted for what looks like mere plastic, so while the sword 'looks' ok, it's very bendy and feels toy-like to the touch. My guess is that they wanted to minimize the chance of breakage in shipping since it is a very long sword, but I must say I'm not impressed with their solution. Sadly, the pommel for Anduril *is* made of polystone and is not correctly aligned with the blade, so it looks slightly bent as it comes out the underside of Aragorn's grip. No amount of careful and tentative bending on my part is going to fix this, and I dare not apply more force.
Overall, and despite all that, I am still quite happy with my purchase, and just know it is going to make a fine display alongside Noble's Elessar Crown and Danbury's Minas Tirith (when it comes out.)
:th