Ian McKellen
The Ian McKellen celebrity action figure doll portrays him at 60 years old in his character Gandalf the White from the last two films in Peter Jackson’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The 2023 Asmus Toys The Crown Series: Gandalf the White set (LOTR003) comes with a 1/6 replica of the white silver horse Shawdowfax made of polystone with real hair. The doll set was designed by Andy Hsu and Shand. Asmus Toys also made a Gandalf the Grey action figure (CRW001).
Ian McKellen is an English actor who began his career on the stage over 60 years ago. The school boy actor’s first exposure to Shakespearean theater was attending plays at his sister’s school. He studied literature at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge and took a variety of roles on television and the West End stage. He was best known as a Shakespearean actor and branched out to Broadway and film. His breakout international film role was Shakespeare’s Richard III in 1995. His more recent commercial success are from X-Men and J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.
My final twentieth century job was X-Men and my first of the new millennium was The Lord of the Rings, playing two iconic men of power, Magneto the Master of Magnetism and J.R.R.Tolkien’s wizard Gandalf. I was introduced to the multitudinous fans of both works via the Internet and was intrigued to enter the world of franchises and plastic dolls. — Ian McKellen, August 2000 from his website mckellen.com
The head sculpt is a detailed version Ian McKennon as Gandalf with hand glued yellow white wool hair and hand painted skin details. The eyes are a dark gray blue with a brown inner ring.
The action figure comes wearing a light tan hooded cape tied at the collar with a silver clasp. Unfortunately the clasp doesn’t come undone and the head must be removed to take off the cape.
Underneath the cape is a white on white embroidered satin vest that has a tiny zipper opening in the back. Underneath the vest is a long sleeved white satin patterned habit with four panels from the waist that drape to the feet. At the waist is thin beige suede paneled skirt with a front opening and underneath that are off white pants that tuck into calf high handmade laced gray suede fabric boots. The gray plastic soles of the boots are stamped ©Asmus Toys in white.
In addition to the hands on the doll, there are eight extra removable hands (6 left, 4 right): palms open, relaxed, weapon holding, and pointing gesture. A imprinted suede leather belt with leather loops to hold the sword holder and silver buckles is around the waist. It comes with a textured white plastic wizard staff and a bronze Glamdring sword with elvish printing and a blue grip.
The doll comes with an instruction book and an Asmus Toys Crown series Gandalf labeled display base with an artificial grass top. Use this link to download the Asmus Toys Gandalf the White Instruction Booklet
The Gandalf the White action figure is currently available as a preorder at Sideshow Collectibles
and it may occasionally appear for resale at Amazon or Ebay. Sticker shock before you click, the set retailed for $385.
The Celebrity Doll Museum has affiliate accounts with Ebay and Amazon and a small commission is paid for qualifying purchases.
Here is a Youtube video of a BAFTA( British Academy of Film and Television Arts) interview with Ian McKellen about how he got his role as Gandalf.
Another Youtube video with a short synopsis of the immortal Gandalf’s humble power in Middle Earth for those less familiar with The Lord of the Rings.
and yet another Youtube video walking through the Lord of the Rings story line from Gandalf’s perspective.
Comments
Ian McKellen — No Comments
HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>