Got the figure. Analyzing it. Here's my
NITPICKS:
In the end it's good. Not as good as Data or Geordi. Data is the best of TNG crew with a solid almost 5 star rating. Geordi is great, strong 4.5. I think Picard is a 4.
I saw the pics, now I see it in my hands. The sculpt is good IMO. I think the thing that lowers this from a 4.5 to a 4 is what I thought. The eyebrows and eyes.
Picard's eyebrows are taller. They look bushy. They're not super defined and just kind of fade away at the sides. They're like, naturally blurry. The eyebrows on this figure are too... normal? They're too defined. Not squished at the sides enough. Just a bit wrong. They go in a bit too much and aren't... round enough or something... just not shaped 100% right. More like 80% right. They should have been taller up and down and less defined and shorter left to right.
The eyes are a bit of an issue that's harder to really pinpoint but they don't look 100% either. I think the iris is too small. I think I often think that with EXO figures. But Picard in like all the photos, even with his eyes open wide, you can never see so much white in his eyes. His irises are always being covered in any natural photo I can find. In the figure his irises are just too small and you see too much white.
If anyone knows how to repaint this I think the sculpt isn't the thing holding it back. His head isn't as wide as in photos and it looks the part. But I feel them irises and eyebrows hold it back from a 4.5 or a 5 if the paint is amazing. Sculpt has little to do with it (maybe his nose is a bit too pointy?) and is good enough IMO.
But here's Picard's eyebrows:
(Really hard to read due to lighting) and honestly other photos he simply has different makeup on and has more defined eyebrows which sometimes even go into more grey and sometimes are really maskara'y.
Here's the figure (bad photo but shows the eyebrows and eyes in clear light):
Just a bit mishaped eyebrows, not fuzzy enough, not tall enough, reaches too near the nose, too "well shaped".
The eyes... way too much white. Irises too small, too light too probably.
I swear the skin tone is a shade too dark maybe too but that's super hard to tell because of the lighting in the TV show (though this figure will never be as light as Picard SEEMS in some of the show on the extremely well lit Enterprise)?
(This photo is BAD though and he looks more like Picard than in this photo lol. Again, just lighting up the eyebrows and eyes as best as I could).
4/5.
It's clearly Picard. It does look like him. It's just not something that'll blow you away like some of the other figures.
Make no mistake, it's still a
must have despite my nitpicks. It's just so much easier to point out everything that isn't perfect. The accessories are great. The unicorm is great. It's great.
I wish I had Locutus to compair with my own eyes and hands. I look at the Locutus pictures online and they seem to not have the eyebrow and iris issue I percieve. But I could be wrong.
If I had any skills at repainting I'd try. I really think a slight paint job could fix everything and bring this as high as Data.
EDIT: I've gotta say it's really hard using a phone camera to get good photos. The shape with my own eyes of the sculpt is more accurate than what I can photograph. It's like when I look in the mirror and I look at photos of me and it looks different. Whatever effect that is called. I ain't a photographer!
EDIT 2: And Data and Geordi are so close I might actually put them in the same tier. Tier S, with Geordi just behind Data. Picard being in Tier A. I should open my Rho and Bashir...