I got this statue a couple of weeks ago and haven't had a chance to photograph it until today. Let me tell you, it's been a real challenge, but more on that later.
Initial impressions:
- Great sculpt. Both head sculpts are excellent.
- Questionable paint job. (See below).
- The saber hand is VERY loose. So loose in fact that the hand fell out on a few occasions. I remedied this by using a bit of putty on the inside of the groove to hold it in place (No Magnets which is surprising considering the way it connects to the body, the heads have magnets).
- The scale it comes in makes it very difficult to display with other statues, but once you have more Mythos statues in your collection, this won't be an issue.
Overall, the paint job is good, the colors are accurate and work well on the statue but it does have an issue. Have you ever wondered why the Sideshow photos of this product look bland and no where near as good as the other Mythos statues in the line? Well I have an answer for you, when they painted the heads, they painted them with a highly reflective paint or sealant that is far more reflective than the body, so when you try and photograph the statue, the head will always be shinier and more reflective making taking decent photos of this statue a challenge at best without turning it into a whole mess. Just look at the photo below for reference which by the way is the best I can get at the moment without ruining the photos, I have lots of photos which are really just meant for lighting tests which really show this issue more clearly. Notice how the body is no where near as reflective as the head. Both heads exhibit this problem. I went back to Sideshow's site to see their photos and sure enough, the photos are really bland with very generic lighting to try and hide this issue. It's not really a big problem if you want to just display the statue, which is what it's meant for. But if you enjoy taking photos of your statues like I do, it definitely poses extra challenges.
I hope to have a review of this guy up by the end of this week, but all the issues I'm having taking photos of this guys, it might be a bit longer. I'll give it another shot later tonight and see how it goes.
Sideshow Collectibles Darth Maul Mythos Statue Preview by
More Than Just Reviews, on Flickr
Another photo that really highlights the paint issue. Notice how the body is perfectly exposed (even slightly underexposed) with no blown highlights , now look at the head and how reflective it is compared to the rest of the body. I really suggest you view the full sized photo instead of the shrunken one so you can see the full effect. Maybe they should have named this piece Sweaty Maul because his head sure looks like it's perspiring a lot.
Darth Maul Mythos Lighting Test by
More Than Just Reviews, on Flickr
That's fine I have no problem with the extra time...
. its times like this i envy the rich...those $%£$.
