I hunted down a good close-up of the actor that the doll is supposed to portray, Liam Hemsworth. He's a good-looking man and he does have a pronounced chin but Tonner's combination of chin, broad jawline and small mouth make the doll look as if it has an underbite and a huge head.
I'm trying to figure out what is wrong about the mouth...is it too close to the nose? There's something that throws the entire face off in spite of the fact that the features are not that dissimilar.
I think a good re-painter could fix the mouth, reshape the jaw and restyle the hair. But why?
Anyway, if you are interested in purchasing this doll, the retail price is $169.99. Look around for discounted prices.
I had to do it.
Is this better?
It looks like the sculpt is the culprit; the mouth starts jutting out and it continues with the chin, and wow...it would take a miracle in repainting (calling Noel Cruz) to fix this one. I remember reading once (maybe here) that someone said that the reason Tonner has issues with huge jaws on their sculpts has to do with how the head fits on the neck. Other doll companies don't seem to have this issue, so I'm not buying that one!
ReplyDeleteI find that explanation odd as I've had many Tonner heads off their bodies and have not seen anything that would require large jaws.
DeleteAll of the male doll looks like variations of the Matt sculpt: it seems to be a Tonner obsession to have that lantern jaw center "pinched in" face. I can already see this being on the next Tonner sale site. (And judging from past experience, the prototype shown will be watered down for the produced model.)
ReplyDeleteAs a PS to Dave, I have seen the Noel Cruz repaint of the Tonner Marilyn and even that amazing talent couldn't produce a likeness out of the wreckage.
The last few "portrait" dolls do seem to have strayed pretty far from the person's likeness.
ReplyDeleteIf the features aren't proportionate then no amount of paint is going to make the image better.
Hope the finished doll looks better.
Will C.
Toby McGuire and Kirsten Dunst from Spiderman were pretty good, as were Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.
Deletethe pinched in face was the same issue with the marilyn.....even noel cruz couldn't save her IMO...she's passable as a MM stand-in though
ReplyDeleteyou really can only save those dolls as likeness images by reproportioning them with digital surgery in the images after the fact...
Very good pictures
ReplyDeleteSame problem with Marilyn. Even though I did cave in and buy one, her chin juts out too much, and her jawline is incorrect. Won't even talk about the mouth. Noel Cruz did the best he could on this one.
ReplyDeleteI found an older (2011) YouTube video of Tonner, where he sends the finished wax sculpt to an engineer in Chicago, who removes the head and adjusts the neck hole to fit the neck. Does anyone remember seeing this video? (Do I need to up my meds?).
If this gentleman is an engineer and not a sculptor, that could be the problem. Well, at least Kirsten Dunst looked like MaryJane from Spiderman.