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Sculpting - ***1/2
Obviously, the main sculpting feature
is the two portraits. Yes, that's right - two! One is stern but not
excessive, while the other is ticked off. And Lee wasn't a man you
wanted to tick off.
These are both fantastic head
sculpts, with
amazing realism and tremendous accuracy to the man himself. Big fans of
Lee are going to appreciate the time and effort that was put into
creating both portraits. The head sculpts alone are going to make this
figure a holy grail for many of them.
There's one issue though, at
least for
me, that holds them back from four stars. It's not aesthetic, but
rather practical. The sculpts are beautiful, true art, but both have
the eyes looking off to his right. While I realize this was one of his
trademark expressions, it means that you can't do any poses with a
straight forward look, like the one right on the front of the box. It's
a shame that they included two heads, and yet made them less useful by
choosing such a similar eye position.
All the hands are nicely
sculpted, but even with five sets there's some critical poses missing.
Most notable is any sort of fully splayed hand, which you can also see
in the pose right on the front of the box.
If you weren't aware,
this is a very large figure. He's quarter scale, and for Lee that means
he's about 17" tall in a standard stance.
Paint - ****
There's no
doubt that the paint work is outstanding - Hot Toys no longer has the
market completely cornered on exceptional production paint. It's still
not quite as
realistic as some of the best Hot Toys work, but it's certainly as good
as most, and good enough to rate a full score.
The consistent rubbery skin
color is also critical, since a lot of people will be posing this
figure without the gray shirt.
Articulation - ***
This
is the most articulated quarter scale body currently on the market.
That doesn't mean it has the same fluidity or range of movement of the
smaller sixth scale Enterbay body, but it is has a reasonable number of
joints.
The neck is a double ball joint
- triple, really. You can
get a ton of tilt and lean action, giving any pose that perfect Lee
attitude.
Ball joints (pin and disc style)
at the shoulders,
elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles allow for some decent poses,
but don't quite have the range of movement that you might expect. For
example, the elbows can't bend at extreme angles, and the arms can't
cross the body as far as I'd like.
There's a waist joint and an
ab-crunch too, but these are a bit restricted by the rubber skin
covering the torso.
You're not going to find a
better articulated 18" figure these days, but there's still a little
room for improvement.
Accessories - ***1/2
The
big accessory here is the hands, with a total of five sets. He comes
wearing a pair of relaxed hands, and comes with a set of fists,
gripping hands, slightly posed gripping hands, and a tight gripping
right hand and flat palm left hand. Some of these are too similar, and
I would have liked them to get a bit more specific with some of the
poses.
The hands swap easily - a
little too easily, actually. I found they popped off when I was posing,
but at least they are easy to replace.
Mr. Lee was a master of
weapons as well, and he has his bo staff, made of real wood (yea, it's
a dowel rod that's stained a dark color, but it's still wood), two
nunchucks (both with a
metal chain and wooden handles), and two of the small wooden darts he
employs in the film.
Scale looks good across the board, and it's always terrific when you
get real materials rather than simply plastic.
Also included is
his TWA airline ticket, and his blue folded cloth 'bag' that works as
his
carry on. There's a piece of foam inside to make it appear full. These
aren't mentioned in the advertising for the figure, but appear to be a
late add by Enterbay.
The
big extra here is the additional 'grouchy' (hey, their words, not
mine) head sculpt. I already discussed it in the sculpting section, but
suffice to say it keeps this score in this category at ***1/2. Without
it, the high
price tag would have caused this score to drop a half star.
Finally, there's
a display stand. The base is fairly basic - it's hollow, with an
aluminum top and his name in both Chinese characters and English. I
love the post and clamp, because the post can be adjusted to multiple
heights, and is extremely high quality.
Outfit - ***
The costume
includes the 'kung fu' shirt, pants, and shoes, all done with great
care
and nice tailoring. The traditional knot and loop closures work well,
and the shoes have solid soles that help in deep stances.
There's
also black socks and the white tank t-shirt underneath, as well as a
tight black cloth belt. The jacket is easy to remove, but the belt is
tightly tied, and I'd suggest not stripping him down any further than
that because of it.
The costume is well done, but
it's not exceptionally complex or detailed. It's certainly not as
expensive or difficult to produce as the Masterpiece HD T-800 or Batman
suits.
Fun Factor - ****
Most of
the time (we're talking 99% here), high end collectibles are fragile to
some degree. Some are a bit less breakable than others, but it's rare
to find one
just as sturdy (or even more sturdy) than the average kid's toy at the
local Toys R Us.
But that's actually what you
have here. The
underlying body is extremely sturdy and solid, with great joints. The
heads and hands are hard to scratch or damage, and the clothing is made
from a high
quality material with tight stitching. Even the accessories, made from
metal and wood, could stand up to normal play.
That doesn't
mean I'd hand over this $400 figure to the average 4 year old to bang
against the concrete. But this is the sort of figure that collectors
can pose and handle without any real fear of damage.
Value - *1/2
I'm going to take a bunch of flack for this
one, and I know it, but this is my first Masterpiece HD and I have to
say I'm a bit underwhelmed with what you're getting for the $400 price
tag.
It doesn't help that I just had
the Iron Monger in
my hands,
another 18" figure that's about the same price. That figure has some
amazing engineering, lots of moving parts and complex joints, and even
a light up feature!
With it's more basic uniform,
straight
forward accessories, and a couple obvious issues, it's tough to see
this figure being worth a comparable amount.
Things to Watch Out For -
I
noticed that you can scratch or scape the soft rubber on the front of
the shoulders against the inside of the shoulder joint on the torso.
I'm betting it would also be possible to damage the front of
the soft
neck by twisting the head with the chin against it. With a little care,
you can avoid both issues.
Overall - ***
If this figure were n the $200 - $250
range, he'd easily pick up another half star overall. The lack of a
forward looking portrait, and the rather basic nature of the
accessories and outfit make it tough to pull a full four, but at a more
reasonable price I can easily see another half star.
But $400 is
a lot of green, and he is no less expensive than the price of the other
much more complex Masterpiece HD figures, like Batman, Joker and T-800.
To
be fair, I'm going to be reviewing the Dark Knight Joker within the
next couple weeks, and from what I've seen so far, I suspect he'll do
much better when it comes to Value.
The big question is...will
Enterbay give us a quarter scale Norris, complete with hairy back, to
go with this Lee?
Be sure to scroll all the way
down - I took quite a few photos of this guy and his accessories.
Score Recap:
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ****
Articulation - ***
Accessories - ***1/2
Outfit - ***
Fun Factor - ****
Value - *1/2
Overall - ***
Where to Buy -
You can pick up the figure directly from Enterbay for just
$375, or try these other online options:
- Fanboy Collectibles
has him for $400.
- Alter Ego Comics
has him for $430
- Big Bad Toy Store
is at $430 as well.
- or you can search
ebay for a deal.
Related
Links -
Other Bruce Lee products include:
- Enterbay has done a lot with
the man, including this 1/4
scale statue, this Kato
version, the Fist
of Fury version, the Game
of Death version, and the Way
of the Dragon version.
- Hot Toys has also done several
sixth scale versions, including the Casual
Outfit, and DX04.
- Sideshow also did a 14 scale
statue in their Premium
Format series.
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