|
|
Packaging - **1/2
The biggest plus these huge (and I do mean huge) boxes have going for them
is their collector friendliness. By that I mean the same thing I've meant
for the last decade or more: the statue and all it's parts can be removed
from the box without damaging anything, and then replaced later for storage
or sale if you so desire. While there's a few pieces of tape to cut, that's
it. There aren't even any twisty ties - yay!
On the minus side, these things are HUGE. They are much bigger than the Star
Wars Kotobukiya boxes, and there's an awful lot of wasted space. That's a
problem for shipping, for storage, and even for the environment these days.
If you're used to the Star Wars boxes, you'll quickly notice that there's no
way to see the entire statue inside this time. However, they do have the
heads displayed in a small window on the side of the packaging. Clearly they
understood how critical the head sculpt and paint are to selling these.
Sculpting - ***
Let's talk about the sculpting from the neck down first. Yes, it's not the
first thing you look at (unless you're truly one sick little puppy), but the
bodies on both these statues is one of the highlights.
Henry Sr is shown in his pose from the beach, when he used his umbrella to
scare the seagulls up into the plane, crashing it. This was a key scene in
the film, as it was the first moment where we saw Indy truly appreciate his
father for his intelligence and help. It's a defining moment in their later
relationship, and was the perfect choice for Kotobukiya's design.
They did an excellent job capturing the slightly dynamic, jaunty, giddy
moment in the pose and design of the stance. In fact, I'd hazard a guess
that if you took the head off, people would still instantly recognize who
this was supposed to be.
The work on Indy is even better, at least from the neck down. The
dynamically posed legs and torso actually work quite well with both sets of
right hands and left arms, giving you four completely different looks. And
although the body is clearly posed in an action stance, there's nothing
awkward or uncomfortable about it.
My only nit with the body work is the lack of textures on almost everything.
Indy's shoes are the same smooth plastic as his pants and his jacket. That
makes the statue a bit less realistic looking, similar to many of the Gentle
Giant mini-busts.
However, it wouldn't be fair to say there's absolutely no texturing. Henry
Sr's vest is given a slightly different texture, and of course his hat has
the sculpted pattern. Still, more of this would have gone a long way to
elevating these from good to great.
Now let's talk about the head sculpts - you knew we'd get there eventually.
Both Henry Sr and Henry Jr are recognizable. Both look fantastic from
certain angles, and both look...well...not so fantastic from other angles.
I've discussed on more than one occasion already how tough it seems to be to
capture Harrison Ford. They've done an admirable job here, but it's not as
good as the recent Sideshow Han Solo, for example. It's better than some
versions we've seen, but like many of Kotobukiya's human likenesses, it's
not quite there.
Part of the issue is the gap in the teeth, which is also a paint problem.
Part of the issue is the hat, which while it looks good on it's own, looks
too large on his head. And part of it is the smile they've given him, which
is very straight and even...there's no smirk to it at all. Ford, like Drew
Barrymore, is one of those folks that tends to smile and talk with their
mouth open wider on one side than the other, but this hasn't been translated
particularly well to this sculpted smile.
Henry Sr. is also very close...but not quite there. Again, under certain
conditions and angles (see the third photo immediately to the left) he looks
very much like Sean Connery as Henry Jones. But scroll down three more
photos and you won't even recognize him.
I think this is due to several issues as well. First, it's clear that from
any angle, the nose is too large. The sculpt is also too 'young', with fewer
wrinkles and no skin texture, making him much too smooth. And finally,
there's something slightly wonky about his smile as well. Seeing both the
upper and lower teeth like that makes it look less like a smile and more
like he's displaying the results of his recent whitening procedure.
On the plus side, both the hat and glasses are very well done. The glasses
in particular are good, almost perfectly sized. Getting them in scale and
and realistic in appearance at this size is very tough, and they've done a
nice job.
Remember that these are technically 'kits', and that you'll be putting them
together. The various parts all fit tightly, but you'll be able to assemble
them with little trouble. Nothing locks together, so you can always
disassemble them later if you feel the need. Once together, the joints
should be fairly well hidden.
A big plus here is that both figures are designed and sculpted to stand fine
on their own without the bases. This is great for crowded shelf space, or
just for posing them with each other.
The scale on these is advertised as 1/7th by Kotobukiya, although sometimes
their ARTFX statues could pass for a sixth scale figure. Not so here, as
both of these come in just under 11" tall.
Paint - ***
Like the sculpting, the paint work here is better below the neck than it is
above.
They've done a nice job with the shading and shadowing on Henry Sr., and the
clothing on Indy looks terrific. There's no slop, and cut lines are
extremely clean. The finish is a hair glossy, but not bad enough to be
distracting, and there's a good range of accurate colors used on both
figures.
There's a bit more slop on the face, and Indy has that weird gap in his
teeth. The teeth on both figures are a bit gloppy, and there are other
distracting issues with the paint work, like the too heavy beard on Indy and
the very different color between Henry's beard and moustache. Yes, his
moustache was darker, but in real life this difference is
much
more subtle. The problem here isn't that the moustache is darker than
the beard (it should be), but rather that the beard and moustache are
distinctly different. Tthe beard is ALL the same exact color gray, while the
beard is ALL the exact same color white. In reality, the moustache is mostly
gray with a little white, while the beard is mostly white with a little
gray. It doesn't sound like much of a difference, but in reality it makes
for a very different appearance.
Articulation - Indy *1/2; Henry Bupkis
Keep in mind that these are statues, not action figures. That means that the
expected score here would normally be Bupkis, so anything other than that is
a positive result.
Usually, Kotobukiya kits are not movable at the joints. For example, both of
these have arms that attach at the shoulder, but there are two pegs that
hold them in place, making it impossible for the arm to turn at all.
That's true for all the joints on Henry, hence the bupkis score. However,
Indy actually has a couple points of articulation. First, his right hands
have a round peg to attach them to the arm, not square or oddly shaped in
any way. Of course, that means the hand can be turned, making the poses with
the gun and whip slightly easier to accomplish.
The other area of articulation is his whip, which has a wire that runs about
half way through. That means it can be posed in a number of ways in back or
in front of his body, or twisted out to either side. Finding a spot that
works best for you based on his stance is pretty easy.
Accessories - Indy ***1/2; Henry ***
Likewise, statues usually don't have accessories. Kotobukiya has upped the
ante with these by giving you multiple arms and items to personalize the
look of the statue. Again, you'd normally expect a Bupkis here, so the fact
that there are scores is a huge positive.
Henry Sr. comes with a display base of course, but he doesn't require it. He
can stand just fine on his own, which is a pretty nice feature. There's also
a suitcase and seagull, and the seagull is designed to fit inisde two small
peg holes on the top of the case. The case is also designed to rest in a
specific spot on the sandy base, but I didn't have as much luck with that.
Using the specific indentations in the base, the case tended to lean, making
it look odd with the seagull on top. I just adjusted where it was sitting to
get a better appearance.
Both the gull and case are well sculpted and painted, adding a lot of value
to the overall statue. But Henry also comes with two versions of his
umbrella, one open and one closed. They both use the same brown handle, but
the rod for each attaches to this handle. These rods are metal, and very
unlikely to ever wilt due to the weight of the umbrella itself.
Both umbrellas are nice sculpts, although the open version is probably going
to be most folks favorite. Considering the scene, and considering the
sculpted arm pose, it looks the best in position. And it spins too!
Indy comes with even more extras, but he also starts out with a nice looking
plastic base that isn't necessary for him to stand. If these bases had been
necessary, I wouldn't count them as accessories, but part of the basic
statue itself. But because you can stand Indy and Henry Sr on their own, I'm
adding it in to the Accessory scores.
I love the detailed stones, and both the paint and sculpt is quite
realistic. Indy's feet fit on the pegs easily enough, although you'll want
to still take some care to avoid damaging the pegs.
Indy comes with two right hands: one holding the gun and one holding the
whip. These hands pop on and off the arm easily enough, and because you can
turn them at the wrist joint, allow for more posability than usual. Both
look terrific, although the overall dynamic pose of the figure is probably
better suited to the whip.
Indy also has two complete left arms. One of these is posed in a gesture,
out from his body, while the other is clutching the Fertility Idol close to
his chest. Both of these also look great, although I have to admit my
preference for the gesturing hand/arm.
Indy's hat is removable, and looks good on it's own although it's a bit big
on his head, as previously mentioned in the Sculpting section.
Kotobukiya also shows some excellent attention to detail with how they
handled the whip. As I said, there's one right hand that is holding the
extended (and bendable!) whip. There's a second coiled version of the whip
that can be attached to his belt, so that he looks right if you have the gun
right hand in place. But what if you have the whip hand in place? Never
fear, Kotobukiya included an itty bitty empty whip holder (strap) that can
be attached to the belt, making him look complete in any combination of
whip/gun/arm/hand. It's damn easy to lose though, so keep an eye on
it.
Fun Factor - *
These aren't intended as toys, and they aren't designed for play. I'd assume
you'd expect that, and a low score here has no effect on my Overall, but I
wanted to point it out in case you're looking for something for the kids. Go
with the Hasbro 12" figures instead.
Value - **1/2
You can pick these up in the $85 price range, which is still pretty
consistent with Kotobukiya's past offerings. These aren't super limited
however, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see them start turning up on ebay
for something more in the $60 - $70 range.
The thing that keeps these at an average value is the extra hands and
accessories. Giving you two or three display options with each makes them a
much better value than the usual 'statue'.
Things to Watch Out For -
Not much. You might want to take a bit of care with putting these on the
plastic bases, as it's not that hard to break the pegs. But the figures
themselves are very sturdy, and you won't be able to do much about seeing
the paint ops in advance.
Overall - ***
If I were grading these kits on the head sculpt/paint alone, they would not
score this high. At $80 - $100, I expect a much more accurate head sculpt,
and more lifelike paint work, than what we see here.
However, these manage to come up big - very big - in a number of other
areas, helping to offset some of the issues. For example, the extremely nice
poses are a huge plus in terms of the display of these statues, and the
added benefit of multiple items to personalize the appearance is another
huge asset.
You also have to consider that other statues from other companies - like the
Indy on horseback from Gentle Giant - are costing upwards of $200 each, and
you start to realize that these are probably the most cost effect statues
you'll find. While they have some issues, they also have some real benefits,
and I for one hope to see some other characters produced by Kotobukiya in
the license to join these two on the shelf.
Score Recap:
Packaging - **1/2
Sculpting - ***
Paint - ***
Articulation - Indy *1/2; Henry Bupkis
Accessories - Indy ***1/2; Henry ***
Fun Factor - *
Value - **1/2
Overall - ***
Where to Buy -
There are a number of excellent sponsors carrying these:
- Urban Collector has them in stock for $85 each.
- Alter Ego Comics has either in stock for $85 each as well.
- as does CornerStoreComics.
- Things From Another World has them in stock for $90 each.
- YouBuyNow has them listed at $95 each.
- Andrew's Toys, best know for their Star Wars figures, also has these
in, for $100 each.
- Entertainment Earth has them at $110 each.
- or you can search ebay, where you often get great Kotobukiya deals, using MyAuctionLinks.com. For the Australian readers, check out
Shopping.com, a
member of the Ebay family.
Related Links -
First, check out Kotobukiya's own website
for other products. Let's look at some related
reviews:
- The last of their statues I covered was the Snowtrooper, but I also reviewed their
Boba Fett.
- I had a guest review of the Terminator T-X.
- and if you're looking for other Indy reviews, check out the recent Mighty
Muggs, as well as my look at the Indy Game of Life and
Monopoly.
More general Indy reviews include:
- another unusual Indy item is the Blockbuster
exclusive DVD case.
- I also put together a print article for the Toledo
Free Press on the various Indy collectibles out there.
|
Stumble It!
