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Sculpting - ***1/2
For some reason, Drac doesn't look quite as menacing as I think he should.
Maybe it's the particular expression they chose, the angles the original
movie was filmed in, or maybe it's that his face looks a tad wide to me.
(He does look correct when comparing him to his back picture.) His hands
have very dramatic poses, and his shoes look like new sculpts to me.
My first impression was that
his head was a tad large, but after adding the cape, he looks alright.
Comparing his head to Buffy's makes his look about 1/5 larger. A side to
side comparison to the 21 century mercenary in the son of Dracula shows
this better. Paint -
***
The general paint application isn't bad at all. Close inspection on my
Drac showed that the shadows under his brows aren't fully painted, but
look like they are supposed to be. The face has blushed cheeks, and a
blushed forehead... this almost gives him an odd suntanned
look. The color selection is appropriate though. His
hands also have some of the same "suntanning", but something
somewhat disappointing, is that the forearms aren't molded in the basic
color, but are the usual body pinkish color. My drac already has the paint
rubbed off on his wrist joint. Simply coloring the forearms the main color
would have fixed this. Articulation
- ***3/4
I can't knock off a whole half a point here because of the ball neck
joint, but adding an additional ball at the base of the head would
have given drac MUCH better dramatic head poseability. Sideshow is
well known for their outstanding articulation, but they seem to miss the
mark by just a hair quite a few times, with the poor choice of one joint
here or there. It's a choice of adding that visible joint, lowering
the basic appearance, or adding it, and raising the poseability. I'd have
made the later choice, with Drac. Still, he's fangs down the best that's
out there, in 1:6 scale. Accessories -
***1/2
Dracula comes with the all too familiar by now stone look base, the rats
that also come with the Nosferatu figure, and a new bat. The bat looks pretty
good, but after the excellent sculpting we see sideshow do, it looks
almost toyish. Fortunately, the paint ops help him look a tad classier.
Having a few extra rats ain't bad though.. ;)
I'd much rather have seen
them add Dracula's Candelabra instead. It would have been unique, and
allowed for that famous Staircase pose. Bats are pretty easy to find
especially around Halloween. Oh! and a nice small plaque Added to these
bases would be nice as well!
Outfit - ***1/2
We've seen some skimping on outfits of late, and Drac is no exception.
Fortunately, what they did do comes off very nicely. First
off... if your Drac doesn't look like he has his cape, DON'T
RETURN HIM! Look under the base in the package. Notice it's got a
black square behind it? It's his cape folded up behind it! I almost
emailed TNC that my Drac had no cape! Packaging it this way also does not
really do the figure justice. MIB collectors might be a tad disappointed,
that his cape is bundled this way. I'm guessing a few mistaken returns
because of this. The
vest, shirt, ribbon and medallion are all one piece. Making the separate
might have made Drac a tad bulky, so I can forgive the lack of a separate
vest. They also added very nice stitched detailing on the vest edges,
making it actually look like a separate piece. Why
they didn't make his medallion and ribbon a separate removable thing is an
odd decision, IMHO. As you can see on mine, the ribbon is a tad off
center, though the medallion is centered. The vest buttons and chain are
excellent additions though. His cape is also done very well, with the gray
liner, and his pants have an excellent cut. the overall presentation of
the outfit looks VERY nice, even though some corners have been cut. In
addition, they did a very god job at Drac's ring, and shoes as well.
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