I got a surprise courtesy of FedEx today... my Anakin Skywalker figure a day early!!!
I've been fiddling with him for the last two hours and I must say that I'm a lot more disappointed with it than I thought I would. And it's not because of the much discussed paint colors. I'm not known to severly criticize Sideshow figures... but this figure really frustrated me at times.
1 - That gloved arm is REALLY a pain! It falls off VERY easy. You can't imagine how easily it falls off. And when it does, especially if you have him wearing the Jedi robe, you have a hard time finding the hole in the socket underneath all the layers of clothing. The first time his arm fell off I had to take off all of the clothing to see how to line up the arm with the hole again.
2 - I was hoping to tuck the shirt underneath the glove (the way they have it in the film) but you can't. As you can see from the Pixeltwin's picture, there is no space between the arm and the glove. So there is no room to tuck the inner shirt nor the flaired tunic sleeve.
3 - The inner shirt has a right arm sleeve that is the same length as the left sleeve. You wouldn't think that would be a problem, but it is with this figure. You can not use the fore arm of that sleeve for either the gloved arrm nor the mechanical arm. As a result, the right sleeve is constantly hiked up with a considerable amount of fabric gathering around the shoulder and bicep. This extra fabric also adds to the problem when the arm inevitably falls off. Why not have the sleeve of his right arm be shorter than the left arm? It's not like you are EVER going to use this extra fabric regardless if you are using the gloved or mechanical arm.
I might have to shorten the sleeve myself.
4 - The hood of the Jedi Robe is WAY TOO BIG!!! It does have the wire in the hood rim but I couldn't for the life of me get it to look right. I may have to use an iron.
5 - The leather straps are stitched to the wrap. This would be okay... if sewn correctly. However the right leather strap on MY Anakin gathers at the top of the shoulder, creating a loop that rises slightly above the shoulder. SO when he stands one strap is higher than the other. And there is no way of pulling down the strap (like the Hasblow version
) without pulling down the whole sash and belt assembly. I currently have Anakin wearing the Jedi Robe to hide this. I hate to do it, but it looks like I'm going to be popping some stitching.
Don't get me wrong... I love the look of this figure. The sculpting of Anakin is simply stunning. Andy outdid himself. And, after fiddling with it for those two hours, the figure looks unbelievable in person. However it looks like I'm going to have to overhaul the figure (doing some things I don't normally like to do with a $60 figure) in order to make him more presentable. And that damned removable arm makes the figure FAR MORE fragile than I like my toys.
I never claim to know what I'm talking about.
