Bad Sculpted Likenesses 4 : Gandalf

Here's something a bit different, Sideshow is releasing 2 Gandalf products....

As you can see... the Gandalf the Grey bust is pretty spot on, not quite an accurate likeness, but it captures the character extremely well. It mightn't quite be Ian McKellen, but it is definately Gandalf the Grey as portrayed in both the movies and the books.

Now... then there's The Gandalf the White PF... now admittedly the movie version wasn't quite what I was expecting (especially if you've seen the promo shot where you can see his knee high boots), but Ian made you believe in the character, especially since he didn't have any props like that hat or pipe to work with. With Gandalf the Grey, you can slap the hat and pipe on any old man with a beard and you end up with the iconic image of the wizard. The White Wizard depends a lot on the subtleties.


So Sideshow came up with this as a preview..... after waiting over a year since the last LOTR PF announcement.

Not only does it not look like Ian... it doesn't even capture the character. The face is ok... what really lets it down is the beard and hair. I've got the Luke and Yoda PF... and Sideshow went to special lengths to try out a new technique for the hair.... it has loads more detail than this effort. There is no where near enough detail, its way to clumpy. And why is the beard in perfect little waves!!!

In Sideshow's defence... it really is a bad pic to use as a preview. Not only does the photo cut off his forehead, which makes his face look longer, but in attempt to get detail in his hair his skin has turned out really dark in contrast. So it's really a combination of bad lighting and cropping.

I really hope I can update this with waaaaaay better pics when its on display at comic-con.