abake
Rex Tremendae Majestatis
The "Greek General" has finally reached these shores, but in lieu of glory and immortality, he found, well, me.
I just had time to unbox him and futz around a bit, so a quick review of my first impressions. (sorry, no time for pics)
Overall:
The figure is very well made, it has heft to it and feels very solid. Materials are great and everything is very well put together. On the shelf Achilles has some presence.
Head Sculpt/Body:
The head sculpt is good, with a passable likeness to Brad Pitt’s Achilles. Having seen the unpainted sculpt somewhere here in these boards (or at least a version of it), I can’t help but think that something got lost in the process. Maybe it’s the paint apps.
The body is great, nice sculpt all around, decent range of articulation and tight joints. It doesn’t really look like Pitt’s physique, which is a shame, since the physicality of the character was quite an important part of the part, IMHO.
Clothing/Gear:
The leather duds look and feel great. The material has a nice supple feel to it and just looks great on the figure. The tailoring seems a bit off in certain aspects, like the leather belt, which seems a tad small.
The gear is nicely sculpted, and the choice of material works very well for me, all of it being made in a softer plastic so you can handle it easily without fear of breakage. My main complaint here is that all of the pieces of armor look way too large. Both the greaves and shin guards look big and clunky (not to mention the comically big helmet), making Achilles not at all tight and lethal like in the movie.
The sword looks and feels great, nice and heavy, as do the shield and spear (a re-use of the Hoplite’s spears).
The boots look terrible, the shape is wrong and they are just sculpted too big. Reminiscent of the Roman General’s awful boots in how wrong they got them.
Paint Apps:
Here’s where it all goes down hill, really.
The paint apps are bad. That’s it. It’s not just that the color palette is wrong, it’s the actual application which is pretty substandard for such an expensive figure. If Sideshow ever put out something this sloppy, all hell would break loose in these forums. I mean, they didn’t even try to get the armor to look believable, there’s just these thick brush strokes all over the place. It’s really sad, because the sculpt and way it’s put together is very neat.
The head sculpt could probably look a lot better, but the paint apps are uninspired.
Final thoughts:
For such an expensive figure, this leaves a lot to be desired. A repaint is mandatory, not just to correct the color palette, but to get a decent paint job. I’ll probably look into changing the body to see if I can find one that looks more like Pitt’s physique. Thankfully, we’re getting a new helmet, so that should help a lot. I’ll also look into finding better boots.
I don’t regret getting the figure, I just think it’s a huge missed opportunity.
While lengthy, these really are first impressions, so maybe as I futz around with the figure some more, some of my impressions might change, but for now it’s a 6/10.
I just had time to unbox him and futz around a bit, so a quick review of my first impressions. (sorry, no time for pics)
Overall:
The figure is very well made, it has heft to it and feels very solid. Materials are great and everything is very well put together. On the shelf Achilles has some presence.
Head Sculpt/Body:
The head sculpt is good, with a passable likeness to Brad Pitt’s Achilles. Having seen the unpainted sculpt somewhere here in these boards (or at least a version of it), I can’t help but think that something got lost in the process. Maybe it’s the paint apps.
The body is great, nice sculpt all around, decent range of articulation and tight joints. It doesn’t really look like Pitt’s physique, which is a shame, since the physicality of the character was quite an important part of the part, IMHO.
Clothing/Gear:
The leather duds look and feel great. The material has a nice supple feel to it and just looks great on the figure. The tailoring seems a bit off in certain aspects, like the leather belt, which seems a tad small.
The gear is nicely sculpted, and the choice of material works very well for me, all of it being made in a softer plastic so you can handle it easily without fear of breakage. My main complaint here is that all of the pieces of armor look way too large. Both the greaves and shin guards look big and clunky (not to mention the comically big helmet), making Achilles not at all tight and lethal like in the movie.
The sword looks and feels great, nice and heavy, as do the shield and spear (a re-use of the Hoplite’s spears).
The boots look terrible, the shape is wrong and they are just sculpted too big. Reminiscent of the Roman General’s awful boots in how wrong they got them.
Paint Apps:
Here’s where it all goes down hill, really.
The paint apps are bad. That’s it. It’s not just that the color palette is wrong, it’s the actual application which is pretty substandard for such an expensive figure. If Sideshow ever put out something this sloppy, all hell would break loose in these forums. I mean, they didn’t even try to get the armor to look believable, there’s just these thick brush strokes all over the place. It’s really sad, because the sculpt and way it’s put together is very neat.
The head sculpt could probably look a lot better, but the paint apps are uninspired.
Final thoughts:
For such an expensive figure, this leaves a lot to be desired. A repaint is mandatory, not just to correct the color palette, but to get a decent paint job. I’ll probably look into changing the body to see if I can find one that looks more like Pitt’s physique. Thankfully, we’re getting a new helmet, so that should help a lot. I’ll also look into finding better boots.
I don’t regret getting the figure, I just think it’s a huge missed opportunity.
While lengthy, these really are first impressions, so maybe as I futz around with the figure some more, some of my impressions might change, but for now it’s a 6/10.
