Hi everyone,
@OmarColeccionador,
I received my Deckard today and I thought I would share my initial impressions. I am overly impressed, his face doesn't looks as waxy as most of the online photos and videos I have seen of him, very happy with that. For my first real-life/ film character figure, I guess I am not that fussy in this moment.
I manged to pop off his left hand to replace with a shooting hand, I found that I had to gently heat up the hand and ball joint using my hair dryer for it to fit in - my first time doing this and worked a charm. I had previously used heat to bend Kaneda's hands for his bike and gun, so I had a good idea of what and why to do this.
I am slightly worried as his replaced shooting hand fits tighter and more snug than his other stock right, relaxed hand. This means that,
- it doesn't move quite as freely as his other hand and there is less of a gap when bending at extremes
- Deckard's sleeve falls just slightly further down over his gun hand
- moving his hand also often turns the ball joint - is this normal? I assume it might be, due to variation/ variation to the stock, factory fit of the relaxed hands
- it squeaks a bit from rubbing, whereas the relaxed hand barely does
I did try taking his gun hand once and reinserting, this time without using heat, but the fit was the same afterwards. Perhaps and hopefully it will loosen with some movement and a change in temperature. I didn't notice any such inconsistencies and things with Kaneda, though, his ball joints are tied to his hands, which I really like. Any advice/ comments about this would be much welcomed.
Contrary to some, I am finding re-working his tie easy, possibly my pianists fingers help here. I'll iron out the strong wrinkles where the tie has been bunched up in two places from being tied first and then re-tie to be more screen-accurate. I'll have the short end stop at shirt button 4 to 4-5 (including counting his top shirt button that is covered by his tie). Some quick looks at photos show it to stop there.
His iris looks smaller than in photos but perhaps that is a trick of light and or cameras. And his pupils are slightly raised on my head, with some white showing beneath. But I did notice it looks so in some photos and at least in Justin's review. If this is a unit variation, at least it gives me a different look to some others.
Totally happy with Deckard's entire outfit and coat, and how everything drapes and fits as is for now. I'm also happy with his shoes which will pass for me as I think they look similar enough to the film and they won't be my main focal point on display. I might still try the Artisus shoes, however.
Initially thought his coat sleeves and cuffs ended a bit too far down over his hands, but looking at photos from set and film, it looks accurate.
One or two loose threads beneath the edge of his coat sleeve on his left arm, but I put this down to poor workmanship/ QC. Could probably be fairly easy re-stitched but they easily tucked back in after I finished fitting his gun hand and rolled them back down. My Kaneda also has similar, but worse, in the form of some fraying to the left side of his inside collar, still a minor blemish with the whole figure in mind.
Contrary to what seems like the consensus on here that Deckard is too short, I am also very happy with Deckard's height. I have no frame of reference to other figures, though.
Note that I got his gun holster and gun holster belt in a separate small, plastic baggy inside the second foam accessory container. I read that some boxes were missing them.
Very happy with all of the accessories after a quick look through them.
Best wishes and happy collecting,
Indian Jones
I've spent the day working with Deckard and can share some updated impressions and thoughts. I'd rate this figure an 8/10 at the moment. Like many folks have said, it has great potential, and I think with some improvements, can be a masterpiece. I think that Deckard's likeness is uncanny at times to Ford in Blade Runner, and that extends from his face sculpt down to his entire body. I feel that Dark Toys have captured the essence of Deckard, which is what we want to see and feel. Something about the proportions seem off to me at times, either Deckard's coat and or body which make him look a bit too bulky than he should be. His shoulders seem a too broad. In that respect, perhaps it is the body.
I did quickly realise how difficult articulation is, I find it a bit fussy, but the 3 layers of clothing does add to this. I'm in no rush to try a different body, but will eventually and it will be important experience for me.
I tinkered with Deckard's shirt collar fold height, stock it seems to high up at the back. I opted to leave as is in the end, as I found with my figure that this height helps to cover up,
a. the neck gap joint to his torso when his neck is fully bent backwards
b. helps to cover up his slightly elongated neck
On the point of his neck, I really don't mind it. Thankfully I find that his clothing and especially, coat, helps to mask any disproportion here.
My steam iron is very old and so as usual, I dampened Deckard's tie and covered with a clean white t-shirt and gently ironed on a moderate/ low temperature to remove the two heavy crunching/ creases from stock that I mentioned in my post above. This made re-tying his tie far easier. But it actually ended up taking much longer than I expected as I found it hard to get the heights for both ends exactly how I wanted them, but I figured it out in the end, mimicking myself putting on a tie at the same time for reference. I also used this to gauge where I wanted and thought his tie should sit on his neck. It was a bit annoying and difficult deciding due to the excessively long neck. I didn't want his tie sticking out below his collar at the back, even though you can't see it with his blazer and coat on. It annoyed me. But I eventually managed to get it just right!
Despite his great sculpt and appearing far less waxy and off-putting than many photos and videos online, as I mentioned in my above post, it could be better of course for all of the reasons stated before.
I liked that for me at least, his hands were easy to fit his blaster into without using any heat. I used some the second time I fitted his blaster, though, for good measure and to fine-tune his grip.
Does anyone's have eyes like mine? Are they all like this? I'm very curious to hear people's responses. As I mentioned in my above post, his pupils are higher than what I have seen in most photos. There also seem a tad smaller, too, perhaps. I think Ford's overall eyes need to be a bit larger to be screen-acurate.
Some quick snaps, pre-tie fix. Thankfully, I was able to capture some without the annoying yellow, overly waxy look that the camera for some reason adds:
At the moment, I like and don't like the look he has with his pupils raised, as sometimes I'd want for him to be looking straight-on. The raised pupils make him look peculiar in certain lighting.
I find that so far, he captures best at side profiles rather than head on, where he looks a bit off to me:
Some shadow cast:
And in my cabinet:
I fixed his collar up nicer.
I only managed to remove his coat to inker easier with his shirt collar height and better tuck his tie neatly beneath it. His blazer was very tight and the lining and I think some stuffing on his left side started showing, so I stopped. His tie is very finicky and I can see why people tape it down, and or tuck the back portion inside his shirt. I find it workable as is for now post-ironing and it sits nicely for me once posed, as shown above.
Some further negatives for me:
Annoyingly Deckard's bottle of Johnnie Walker can't stand upright, due to it being cut unevenly at the mould join on the underside - is this so with other people's?
My tie has this odd blemish to a small part of it, some white smudging/ dots to the fabric/ colour. It's more noticeable and looks more like a milky smudge in direct natural daylight. Minor and I opted to have this part behind the front length of this tie so it doesn't show at all:
I was worried I might have caused it with my iron, but I doubt it, likely to be another factory flaw.
My crouch grabber and stand base have some marks, again a factory flaw, rather annoying.
I find Deckard's second face fairly redundant but useable still since it does have the blood paint app, albeit very basic. I would have like to see a different expression on this head, and ideally a third head expressing an air of intensity and replicating a scene of action, like when he is aiming to shoot Pris. This would have given him more poseability and longevity to the figure, I think.
I'm very happy and humbled to have him and am looking very forward to chipping away with possible improvements.
Indian Jones