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Packaging - ***1/2
Dragon does very good sixth scale packaging, often with great graphics and
collector friendly. This package follows that trend.
They've used photos from the film, and made sure that if you want to replace
all the parts and figure, you can do so without causing any package damage.
Sculpting - ***
You won't be buying this figure for the head sculpt. It's not
terrible, but it's not exceptionally close to the source material. Like
many Dragon sculpts, he has a bit of that zombie appearance, and the hair -
which is a separate removable piece - is pretty average.
Paint - **1/2
The biggest problem the sculpt has isn't the sculpt - it's the paint
ops. They don't do much to compliment the figure, and he suffers from a
pretty common problem with Dragon.
The paint on the face is quite shiny, and not a particularly realistic
tone. The brown of the hair is consistent, but with no variation or
shading. They did try to go with some gray shading in the beard (which I
don't see in the photos of the character, oddly enough), but this doesn't turn
out very well. Heads just aren't Dragon's strong suit.
Articulation - ***1/2
Arnaut has all the joints you've come to expect from a high end 12"
figure, and the majority are unrestricted. Some of the armor does block a
few of the joints, but that's to be expected with this kind of figure.
It's not as bad as a photo might make it appear - the shoes are separate from
the leg armor, and all the ankle articulation can be used, and the top of the
leg armor is not attached to the leg, so the knee still has a wide range of
motion.
He doesn't have floppy joints either, something that still plagues
Ignite. You'll have little trouble getting him standing, and he'll hold
his pose, at least the basic ones, easily. The joints are 'clicky', and
hold their position well.
Outfit - ***1/2
There will be comparisons between this figure and Ignite's
Crusader - it's bound to happen.
Rather than use material to simulate chain mail, the Dragon Arnaut uses
rubber. The rubber chain mail tunic works pretty well, and there's a
rubber cowl as well. The hair is removable, so that the chain mail cowl
and helmet can fit on the head. This works pretty well, and both the cowl
and hair fit the head nice and tight.
The rubber chain mail is actually in several pieces. The arms are
separate from the body tunic, so that there is no restriction in the movement of
the ball jointed shoulders. Likewise, the leggings are separate, allowing
the legs to have full range of motion.
The blue cloth tunic over the chain mail is well designed and tailored, but
the edges aren't hemmed. I'm sure they couldn't figure out how to do that
with such small cuts on the shoulder pieces, but without the hemming they will
eventually have unraveled threads.
The sculpting on the helmet and various armor is good, and the armor fits the
body well. It's a rubber as well, although it is stiff enough to appear
more 'metallic'. The belt has a hole to attach the sword's sheath, and
that's a pretty neat design idea. It works much better than threading the
belt through the back of the sheath. It pops on and off easily, and looks
great.
There's also some interesting mud and dirt effects on the armor, which work
fairly well. Overall, the sculpting, paint and tailoring of the whole
outfit is extremely good. The only thing stopping this one from four stars
is the lack of a hem around the decorative edge.
Accessories - ***
Another area that will be compared to Ignite's figures is the accessories.
While Ignite goes with die cast metal in most areas, Dragon stuck with plastic.
That's not a huge problem here though. The sword is a tad brittle, but
it's certainly not suffering from the droopies. He also has a small knife
and sheath that can be fit into his belt, but the black painted blades on both
the knife and sword aren't nearly as impressive as the buffed metal of Ignite.
The shield is very similar, although it's slightly smaller than I would have
expected. He also comes with a amulet that goes around his neck, right out
of the movie, which looks okay, but doesn't fit as well with the hair as it does
without.
There are two cowls to take advantage of the with hair vs. without hair
look. One has the cowl up over his head of course, while the other has it
down around his neck. It's this second cowl that the necklace does not fit
on quite as well.
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