OK guys, finally got the chance to unbox this guy and have a good look. Pics to come soon, but I thought I would post up some thoughts first before I do.
First of all, as expected, this definitely looks better in hand compared to the pics...but it does have it's flaws, which I'll explain in a bit (along with the good bits).
The presence of this piece is amazing. This is my first 1:3 scale statue, so I'm not used to having statues this large, but it definitely makes a statement on display. When set up and put on display and I sat back on my couch, I just thought, 'wow'. From a distance, this looks absolutely bang on. It's definitely not as good as the proto, but it's still great. It's also very heavy. Has a nice solid feeling to it.
The sculpt is phenomenal. The likeness is really good IMO, skin texture is there and it's painted beautifully. Eyes are not decals, they are painted, and look really well done IMO. They have a nice glossy appearance to them.The sweat apps on the head sculpt are not as bad as I expected them to be to be honest. They are not great, but certainly not bad. I was worried about large blobs of j!zz on Bruce's face, but it actually looks OK. Could have been better, but still OK.
The hair is actually much more detailed in person than has come across in the pics we've seen so far. The hair sculpt itself looks nice IMO, but I do get what 30cm was talking about in regards to the hair looking like a wig/helmet. I think it's because in certain spots it is not touching the skin, giving the wig appearance, whereas in other bits the fitment of the hair is perfect (it's touching directly against the skin). I think this comes down to the nature of sculpted hair though, and something hard to pull off with Bruce's hairstyle without it looking like a wig. To overcome this, I think Blitzway could have probably added an 'under layer' of hair that was sculpted directly onto the face/head, then add the helmet hair sculpt, creating a layered look and giving it a more realistic appearance. Still, even as is, I'm not really bothered by it to be honest, but just putting it out there as I know some of you are very picky.
The seam for the head sculpt is ugly. I think it was poorly done to be honest, and looking closely at mine, the fit isn't even 100%, as you can see a slight gap/overhang under the chin where the chin doesn't meet the neck 100% cleanly. I think they will all have this problem. From the front, you don't see the seem due to the angle of the neck, but it is noticeable from the sides. I'm not sure what Blitzway can do to hide this better next time to be honest, as there doesn't appear to be any other spot for a seam that's less noticeable, but perhaps they can slightly sculpt over the seam and blend onto the face? That might work better.
OK, the body. First off, it is NOT shiny, lol. It does not have that shiny plastic appearance in person. It's a matte finish. As for the colour, it's light tan base with some pinkish tones with a hint of yellow/green. It actually looks pretty nice and certainly not as pale as some of the pics suggested, but I think it would have benefited from some more toning/shading around the muscles to add a bit of depth to them. Something a little darker. I don't think this needs a full repaint at all, but with a bit of skill, one could add some slight toning/shading on the cuts of the muscles just to add that extra bit of realism. It still looks nice as is, but this would top it off IMO.
Sweat effect. As expected, this looks crap. Really crap in fact. Not much sweat, just a few random blobs on the body which don't even look like sweat, especially as they are flat. I think the ones going down the chest and centre of back look passable, but some of the others look laughable lol. Thankfully, I don't think it really hinders the appearance of the statue on display as it's something only really noticed from up close when looking around the statue with lights, as there aren't too many of them, but I'm definitely going to have a crack at painting on the sweat like 30cm did, as I think this will really top the piece off. Where the current sweat is, it makes the skin underneath look more tanned an generally brings out the colour more, so I think doing it properly all over the body will make it look more realistic.
The cuts. Seriously, WTF Blitzway? They look shocking! These really let down what is otherwise a pretty nice paintjob on the body IMO. Having these painted and some decent sweat I think would've really topped off the paintjob on the body IMO. From a distance they look OK, but up close, it's pretty obvious they are decals, and I'm definitely going to paint over them.
The pants have plenty of slack in them and can be puffed out, so no worries there. It just looks the way it does in pics because the pants get squashed in the box. You need to play with them a bit once you take the statue out of the box. The bottom of the paints are secured by velcro, so you just undo the velco to loosen them, then you can lift up the pants a bit and re-do the velcro. Personally I didn't even bother, I just pulled up slightly and played around with the thigh area and they looked puffy enough to me.
The base is HUGE, and looks really beautiful. I think it compliments the statue nicely and adds to the 'museum look'. It's also really heavy.
The gold base on Han's claw and the base of the claw itself are actually made of metal and are quite heavy. The claws themselves feel like plastic.
Overall, I'm pretty stoked with it to be honest. I'm not 100% happy with it, but the only 2 things that really bother me are the ones I suspected would bother me based on the pics, which is the sweat and cuts, both which are fixable without requiring a lot of skill. The rest I'm actually pleased with, and even with the statue as is out of the box, it still looks really nice on display from a distance.
I think once the sweat is re-done and the cuts properly painted, this piece will look pretty epic IMO. If you're really picky and want the definitive Bruce piece, pay an artist to re-do the sweat/cuts for you, and add a bit more shading around the muscles and you'd be pretty close I think.
I will take some pics now to share, and will do my best to capture what I see in person, but I think this may end up being one of those 'looks better in hand' statues.
