- Joined
- Dec 29, 2007
- Messages
- 1,696
- Reaction score
- 44
I'd like to know as well - got a link for that American Girl stand? Also, how much glue do you think it took to make Jimmy hold the gauss rifle like that?
For anyone on the fence and keeping track of issues with these awesome figures, mine finally arrived. I pre-ordered two and a half years ago yet didn't get mine delivered until after people had been getting their ebay purchases for several weeks, so this was my first and last pre-order from Sideshow and it kind of made me grumpy to realize that pre-orders fell so far behind non-pre-order customers which will probably color my initial review here, so let me start out saying I really like this figure. Detailing is great, paint is terrific, and I really feel they did justice to the iconic Starcraft marine armor.
Jimmy arrived with both a missing right index finger and a missing rear left exhaust vent over his butt; both were found loose in the packaging. The finger went back in place easily; there is a tiny plastic dowel that holds it, so if yours is missing search the packaging carefully for it, mine was loose but unbroken and it just slides back in for a pressure fit. The exhaust vent just presses back in place but falls off every time the figure is handled so it's going to need some glue. Right thumb is so loose it's utterly useless and left wrist is extremely loose as well; there is a ball socket that hopefully could be tightened but I haven't decided how to do that, so at the moment Jimmy is incapable of holding any of his weapons. Left wrist is very loose as well. Legs are nice and tight aside from the ankles / feet, which makes standing difficult and I wouldn't trust him not to topple, so he's back in the box until I can find a usable stand. Lights are intense! I think I'm going to remove two of the batteries and just deadshort the connections there to see if half-brightness works a little easier on the eyes, or maybe try a few resistors. He lights up the whole room easily, these LEDs are super bright!
Leather holster is soft and unexpectly nice. The pistol is comically large in the arms of an unsuited sixth scale figure, so it's apparent that Blizzard rescaled it in the game to make it fit right. I'm jealous of URDNOTsullivan's pics showing him holding the rifle in one hand, hopefully I can make my copy grip as strong with some modification. The one leg on an elevated stand in his photos also gave me an idea - it'd be cool to have a dead hydralisk base for him to place his foot on, like the one in the scene where Jimmy saves Warfield by shooting one's head off. I'll draw that one up and print it out & will share the file for anyone that wants it.
Overall impression: Figure is amazingly detailed and exactly what I wanted. Lots of love went into this figure. There are QC issues with assembly that hopefully go away in later builds, and the shipping delays prioritizing regular orders over people that paid years ago is confusing, but my overall takeaway is THIS GUY IS GREAT. I'll be ordering Tychus, assuming I can get the joint issues fixed and/or Sideshow sorts those in future production runs. I won't be pre-ordering though, it seems Ebay is the faster and cheaper way to go.
Also, for anyone interested in a custom (I doubt there will be many at this price but it crossed my mind and if unpainted kits are made available I'll get three!): The helmet visor still has the textured "hexagon" patterning from the early prototypes. The outside is smooth and opaque mirror coated so you don't see it, but the inside is hex textured so if you remove the paint and use a more transparent coating instead, the hex pattern should come through with the inside lighting (which is built in, though I never noticed in the pics - Jimmy has an LED in his back that allows for ambient helmet lighting and would shine through the visor if it wasn't completely opaque.
Excellent summary on your overall impression of the figure. Too bad about the crappy production issues. I am looking forward to mine, but I am also pensive. I don't want to get one with problems. On a side note, It baffles me as to why these companies continue to light up these collectibles with the brightest LED's. I think these companies should look more into fiber optics as an option. That way the ambient lighting could light up the gimmicks just enough.