Well freaks, I got my CM Godfather yesterday.
As I unpacked it, I relished in the way CM does this so well. The Godfather collector box reminded me, oddly enough, of a coffin, lol. It was very appropriate.
I pulled the statue out, then the chair. Here are my thoughts for what they are worth:
1. The chair is perfect, absolutely one of the best bases/props I have ever seen. The detail on it, seems to me to be an exact replica of the one from the movie. I dare anyone to even find a tiny mark that is different. I swear, even the screws on top of the chair are facing the same direction. In this area, money is more than worth it, CM obviously did painstaking research into this part.
2. The statue: The basic shape and pose is outstanding, so is the hair (although a bit long), and the mustache is literally perfect. Where it fell short was the following;
a) The paint pigment in the silicon head was just too grey. I even tried using the powder to brush it up a bit, to no avail. It should be noted though, that under strong display halogen lights, the head looks much better as the shadowing begins to play a big factor and really looks good. But it has to be strong halogen displays. The "greyness" from the head is a clear contrast from the skin flesh tones of the hands (BTW CM did a perfect job with placing the skin marks on the hands).
b) The actually body of the sculpt was not "chubby" enough. I replayed clips of the godfather from that scene to be sure, and yes, it is just not chubby enough and needs a bigger belly (to CM credit, if you run your finger from the chest to the belly they did get a belly in their). Filling it out, as some people in the forum have suggested, is not an easy thing to do and not practical on this type of figure.
c) because of a) and b) together on whole, the sculpt makes the Godfather look like he is "ill". The silent strength and respect the Godfather character embodied in the film simply does not make it into the sculpt when pulling together points a) and b). It also makes the head a bit disproportionate to the rest of the body.
I am sad to say then, that I made the painful decision of sending the sculpt back to CM. Being of Italian decent and huge Godfather fan, I was hoping that this was going to be a great piece to display. The shortcomings of the sculpt simply did not justify the $2000 price tag. I felt it was a sculpt that would quickly depreciate in value, not maintain or grow in value.
I am hoping that in CM second production run of these they will quietly modify this piece (as we know some other pieces have been done with statue companies).
So I took some pics, and sent it back (well it will be picked up tomorrow).
This is an important note: When I phone CM today, the representative was extremely helpful in assisting me with my return. What was just as impressive though, is that he took the time to ask about my opinion of the sculpt, and noted the comments I have made in this thread. He took the comments not as negative criticism, but instead a way to improve CM. I cannot say enough great things about this company.
This will make me a return customer to add to my Cinemaquette outstanding pieces T-850 Arnold, TX, Endoskeleton, Alien, and soon hopefully Predator.
sick
