Review of Pride, Glutony - Seven Deadly Sins statues

Introduction

There was a time when every child knew the lessons of the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, wrath, sloth, and greed. But over time we stopped hammering them home, leaving generations to learn the dangers of these obsessions on their own.

The exceptional Fincher film Se7en reminded us all of what they were (everyone could rattle off the list in 1995), although the movie is less a life lesson and more a class in cinematic drama.

With the popularity of the more extreme McFarlane series of action figures a few years back (like Twisted Oz, Twisted Christmas or Tortured Souls), it's no surprise that the young Spanish company Geek Toys Collectibles announced in 2009 that the were doing a series based on the seven sins concept. As is often the case for a new company and their first line, it's taken them awhile to get them on the shelves, but the first series is finally here.

Series one consists of Pride and Gluttony, which I'll review tonight, along with Wrath and Envy. Sloth, Lust and Greed are coming in series 2. The Geek Toys website has images of the other 3 already up. Buy all seven and they make one long sinful diorama, kinda like my life.

The designs were created by the well known comic book artist Carlos Pacheco, and these were translated into statues by the sculptor Javier Murcia. These are actual limited editions, with only 500 produced of each statue.

Beyond the obvious general design aesthetic, there's another similarity between this series and the type of toys McFarlane used to produce. During their heyday, McFarlane Toys were dogged each year by the whack job Reverend Rose, who never failed to put one of their more extreme action figures on his "Worst Toys List", never getting it that they weren't 'toys'. Geek Toys has been granted a somewhat similar honor with their statue of Wrath. The "European Office for the Harmonization for the Internal Market" (does that sound like a government agency intent on sweetening their true agenda through a mind bogglingly senseless name?) are in charge of registering marks, models and designs. They approved the other statues, but rejected Wrath because it is "contrary to public order and good behavior, due to the fact it represents an act of extreme violence which, also, seems to be characterized by schoolchildren (minors)”. And with that, Geek Toys has gotten their first taste of politics crashing head long into art.  They've announced that this rejection will have no effect on the design or the release of the statue - good for them. Any time you can do something that the government thinks is "contrary to public order and good behavior", I'm all for it.

Packaging - ***
The boxes do the job well, keeping the statue pieces very safe inside the high density foam trays.

The boxes include shots of the statues but no window. The descriptive text on each character from the website is also included here, but I think it might be worth it to get someone who speaks English as their first language to do some translation work for them. It's not that the text is nonsensical, but I think the concepts they are trying to impart would be a little clearer with a better translation.

Sculpting - ***1/2
I don't believe I've seen any of Murcia's work before, but I have to say that he's done a very nice job here.

These are billed as 7" scale statues, and would fit in pretty well with something like the Batman Black and White series.

Gluttony is a massive, overflowing beast of a man, sitting on top of a pile of refuse. While some of the garbage is recognizable - I see a half eaten pizza in there, along with some fast food containers - it's mostly a nasty mashed up pile of crud. I think I saw this guy on a segment of "Hoarders".

The work on him specifically is solid, particularly in the face and teeth. He's gnawing on a turkey leg, with a strand reaching from his mouth to the meat. It's definitely a disgusting sight, just what they were going for.

His skin texture is very realistic, with lots of little wrinkles and folds. There's some big folds too, as you'd expect from someone this large.

Pride is the true opposite, model thin, with terrific legs and a great butt to go with them. The story on the box explains that when she looks into the mirror she sees her true self inside - an ugly, hideous demon-like monster. Rather than make herself a better person, she cuts out her eyes with the shards of the large broken mirror so she never has to see her ugly side. While Gluttony is a pretty straight forward design, doing Pride required a bit more imagination, and I like what they came up with.

Gluttony is all one piece right out of the box, but Pride comes in three pieces. There's the unattached large mirror, which you can place anywhere, plus the base and the girl herself. Assembly was easy, and the resulting statue is quite sturdy.

In case you're not able to recognize each one for the sin they are, they have their own labels. Pride wears a beauty pageant style sash which says, appropriately, 'pride', while Gluttony has discarded a scrap of paper with his sin written on it. Their labels are also on the bottom of the bases, with the edition size and number.

Paint - Pride ***; Gluttony **1/2
Unfortunately, the production paint work isn't quite as good as the sculpt, nor is it quite as good as what we saw with the original prototype examples.

Pride is the better of the two, and her glossy blood looks quite realistic. There's still a bit too much slop in some areas, and Geek Toys needs to try to tighten up the quality of the applications. It's tough for a small company like this though, and the final paint work is usually the hardest category for them to get right. Getting the actual manufacturer of these pieces to understand what they are really expecting from them is going to be their big challenge.

Gluttony's issues aren't so much about slop. Instead, the paint work here looks just like what it is - paint. The final work lacks the realism that would set this statue at the top, and if the smudges and smears on his body looked more like what they are supposed to really be, the gross level would rise ten fold.

Some of the small detail work is well done, however, especially around the teeth and face. I particularly like the glossy look to the blood and juices running down his chest, but it's not quite enough to get him up to the same level as Pride.

Articulation - Bupkis
This is one of those situations where the score here will have no effect on my overall, but is rather intended as informational only. Some folks might have expected articulation, and I believe even Geek Toys considered it early on. In fact, if I recall correctly, they intended on including some swappable parts too, but I think that idea has fallen by the wayside, certainly at least for Pride and Gluttony.

Accessories - ***
Most statues don't include 'accessories', but both of these have something that can count.

For Pride, it's the large mirror. Since this is a completely separate piece that you can place anywhere - or not use at all - I consider it an accessory to the statue. It looks great as well, and is designed to stay upright without any issues. It's a nice add to the display, but if you're tight on space it can be left in the box. 

Her sash is also removable, although whether you really consider it an accessory or not is up to you. While most of it is a simple ribbon, there's also a sculpted medallion at the point where it crosses on her hip.

Gluttony comes with something a bit more traditional - a print of the design sketch by Pacheco. An 8x10, it's fairly large for this sort of thing. It's on mid-weight cardboard stock, and will look good framed behind the figure. Including the edition size and number on it - in effect, making it a Certificate of Authenticity - would have been nice, but isn't critical.

Value - **
Similar statues are the Batman Black and White series from DC Direct, as well as their slightly larger Cover Girls of the DCU. Both of these series sell in the $80 range these days, and you're paying $20 - $30 more for the Sins. Part of the reason for this higher price tag is the actual limited nature of the Sins statues, with only 500 produced of each. The aforementioned DCD statues are done in the thousands but called 'limited'.

With the low edition size, something more comparable might be the Gentle Giant Disney maquettes, like Bolt, where the edition size was much smaller. Bolt, Remy, and Wall-E were all in the $100 range as well.

I did dock them a half star here though, simply because while the price is about average compared to the Disney set (and for me an average value gets **1/2 stars and has no effect on my Overall rating), these are an unlicensed product, which removes one additional cost that the Gentle Giant line still had.

Things to Watch Out For -
The metal pegs on Pride's feet could damage the softer resin base, so just take a little care when inserting them. Otherwise, you should be good to go!

Overall - ***
These are both well done statues, with interesting designs if you like the odd and grotesque. Once you have all seven together, it would make for one Hell of a mantle display. And if you think that's odd or strange, you haven't been watching the show Oddities. Some people collect far freakier stuff than this.

I do believe that Geek Toys will have to do what they can to tighten up on the paint application with future releases. To really get the gross factor at it's peak, the paint work must be realistic, and here (particularly on Gluttony) it fell a bit short. I understand how tough it is for them to do that, since this is a very common problem with companies just getting started. Great paint work comes at a premium price, and even then, it can be difficult to get the heads of the contract manufacturers out of "it's just a toy" mode. But it's the one area where I think they could take things to a higher level.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - Pride ***; Gluttony **1/2
Articulation - Bupkis
Accessories - ***
Value - **
Overall - ***

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth has both Gluttony and Pride in stock for $100.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Obviously, you'll want to head over to the Geek Toys website, but if these are your cup of tea, then check out the reviews of Tortured Souls, Twisted Fairy Tales, Six Faces of Madness, Twisted Oz and Twisted Christmas figures as well.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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