Review Thread for Weta's PC Statues (Now all 4)

[Griffle]

This review is for Reepicheep statue # 71/100


Promotional photography © Weta Ltd. 2008 - used with permission.

Availability: SOLD OUT!
Edition Size: 100
Dimensions: 8.7" x 8.3" x 7.1" (H x W x D)/22 cm x 21 cm x 18 cm


PACKAGING
It comes in this incredibly boring white box with a b&w sticker on it. The sticker’s only real purpose is to help Weta keep track of what’s in the boxes. The LWW statues had full colour boxes with printing on all sides.

The packaging gets an extra star for enabling the statue to be delivered to me undamaged.

Packaging rating:





SCULPT
The statue is sculpted by Weta sculptor Greg Tozer (who also sculpted the Girls on Aslan statue for the LWW line), based on a drawing by Weta’s Nick Keller who designed the look of Reepicheep’s rapier for the film. Tozer has done a great job! It’s an amazingly detailed sculpt with incredible detail work to the fur, the eyes, the ears, hands and feet. I especially love the detail put into the red feather attached to the golden ring around his left ear.

If there’s anything to complain about regarding the sculpt, it’s that the rapier is far from as detailed as I had hoped. But given the size of the statue that’s understandable.

The base it is standing on is basically the same hexagon shaped base used for the LWW statues, but instead of the snowflake design found in the middle of those, these have a design based around the compass rose used for the Telmarine shields etc.



Sculpt rating:





PAINT
The paint job on this statue is very well done. The colour of Reepicheep’s fur can be discussed of course. Here, it’s sort of grey with a hint of green to it. The Reepicheep Plushie (Disneystore) is dark grey and a plush key ring I got from Japan is light brown. Of the three, the Japanese key ring is the closest to the colour of Reepicheep in the movie.

I still like the colour of the fur on this statue, doesn’t feel wrong at all for some reason. The rest of Reepicheep’s body is just as meticulously detailed in it’s paint job and it really does match the level of quality found in it’s sculpt.

Little details like dark spots in the pink of the ears, the different shades of colour to the hands and feet, the texture of his tail, the red feather and the golden ring around his ear all help make this a beautiful statue.

The base is absolutely stunning! The paint job makes it so! It’s black with a highly convincing marble effect to it and it also has been dirtied down a bit to make it look old and worn out.

I would have liked the armour to look more like metal than it does though. It wouldn’t have hurt if it had looked a little bit more like the armour on the Oreius statue from the LWW line. It's way too dark! Also, the sling going over his right shoulder that hold the sheath for the rapier looks more like plastic than leather.



Paint rating:





DESIGN
Well, Nick Keller did a great job here. I love the pose of this statue. I love the placement of the tail, which as you all know is the honor and glory of a mouse, and the design of the armour and the rapier. It’s a pity there’s not enough detail in those areas on the statue. The blade of the rapier and the feather are removable. The blade didn’t want to stay in place on my statue so I had to stick a nail into the hole of the hand guard and fix it. Not a big problem though, easily fixed. As for the feather; it does feel as though it fit into it’s hole rather loosely but that let you place it the way you want it.



Design rating:





VALUE
I pre-ordered mine early on and got it for $162 plus shipping, which came to a total of $204. It was later sold for $225 excluding shipping, so I made a good deal there. But is it worth the $204? In my opinion it certainly is. I love this statue although it does have it’s blemishes. It’s only about 7” tall without the base, but considering the subject, it’s suitable. Also, the fact that it’s a limited edition statue they only made 100 copies of makes it even more valuable. This is statue # 71 out of 100. They’re sold out!

Sure, $225.00 + Shipping is a LOT of money, but given the fact that we're talking about a statue that was made in a limited edition of ONLY 100 statues, this is a pretty good deal.

Value rating:





OVERALL
This is a wonderfully sculpted, painted and designed statue that unfortunately has an armour that is too dark and a rapier that isn't quite as detailed as I had hoped for. Also: the box is disappointing to say the least...

Overall rating:

[Griffle]

This review is for Minotaur Bust # 71/100.
This specific minotaur does not appear in the book, but is a character in the film called Asterius.


Promotional photography © Weta Ltd. 2008 - used with permission.

Availability: Shipping Now! <---- Click here to order!
Edition Size: 100
Dimensions: 15" x 7.1" x 7.9" (H x W x D)/38 cm x 18 cm x 20 cm
USD $130.00


PACKAGING
Well, it’s the same old boring white box Weta used for the Reepicheep statue... obviously. Don’t really need to say anything more.

The packaging gets an extra star for enabling the statue to be delivered to me undamaged.

Packaging rating:





SCULPT
The Minotaur Bust is sculpted by Weta sculptor Jamie Beswarick. Jamie has done a tremendous job of capturing the ferocity of a minotaur in battle. The wavy hair of the creature look as if it is flowing in the air, the horns have cuts in them that have been caused by battle and the gaping mouth with it’s detailed teeth and tongue, scream of rage.

The pauldrons, which are similar in design to those on the General Otmin (LWW) statue sculpted by Ryk Fortuna appear to be made of leather and look more crude compared to the those, but it’s all in key with the context of the story. In Prince Caspian, 1300 years have passed since the first battle of Beruna and the Narnian creatures have all but been extinct. The days of professionally made armour are long since gone and you wear what you can get hold of.

The leather armour chest piece worn by the minotaur has a fine texture to it that realistically copies the look of real worn down leather. The same goes for the pauldrons. Small metal buttons that decorate the armour adds to the realism of it.

The blades of the mace are almost paper thin and so delicately crafted that it feels as though they would break if the removable part of it was to drop to the floor. The thin blades makes the mace look extremely dangerous and a blow from a mace like this in the hands of a minotaur would most certainly kill you.

This is an amazing sculpt and I find myself unable to stop looking at it as I’m typing this review.



Sculpt rating:





PAINT
As always, an amazing sculpt is nothing without a paint job to match it and in this case we have a clear match.

The paint applied to the armour is what makes it look like real leather, the silver metallic paint applied to the mace is what makes the mace look like it’s made of metal, and the detailed paintwork done on the horns is what make the horns look like they’re real horns.

Every single nuance of colour on this statue is perfect, just perfect. It looks so realistic and so lifelike that I can’t even begin to describe how much I love this statue!

The Chinese gentleman or lady who did the paint job on my bust messed up in a few places though, as there are a couple of droplets of paint that have landed where they shouldn’t be (one on the tip of his right ear), but it’s nothing I can’t fix myself if I felt that I had to. As there are a number of nuances of colour to the hair of the creature, they blend in and doesn’t really show. I only noticed them upon closer inspection.

Another thing I noticed while inspecting it up close is that there’s a spot on his right bicep where the paint seem to have flaked off, but this is microscopic in comparison to the droplets of paint that in themselves are very small, so none of this affects the rating.



Paint rating:





DESIGN
First of all, lets talk about the base of this bust. I guess there was a few of these left over from the scrapped PC miniature helmet line, so I understand why they were put to use for this bust, but I still think there could’ve been some kind of work done on it to make it more special. It looks like the base of one of those plastic flower pots people have in their gardens.

The part of the mace that is above the handle of it is removable. It appears to be slightly crooked on mine, but it doesn’t really show that easily and if I put it in the right way, I can almost convince myself that there’s no problem with it at all.

The Bust is in perfect balance with the base and there’s no problem with it tipping over in either direction.

It should be mentioned that the bust is designed by Stephen Crowe and that he helped make the minotaur look so powerful and ferocious. I hope for his sake that he's not responsible for the bases.



Design rating:






VALUE
There’s not a lot to talk about here. You get this brilliantly crafted piece of art that was made in a limited edition of only 100 statues for just $130.00 (USD)+ shipping. Enough said.

$130.00 + Shipping is a LOT of money, but given the fact that we're talking about a statue that was made in a limited edition of ONLY 100 statues, this is a bargain.

Value rating:





OVERALL
Overall that would make for a 4.0 out of 5 star average. A near perfect statue with a crude looking base, a slightly flawed paint job and a boring white box. Highly recommended! Get one before I decide to buy another one!


Overall rating:

[Griffle]

This review is for Caspian and Steed statue # 78/100
THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN REVISED


Promotional photography © Weta Ltd. 2008 - used with permission.

Availability: Shipping Now! Less Than 10 Left! <---- Click here to order!
Edition Size: 100
Dimensions: 17.7" x 12.6" x 13.4" (H x W x D)/45 cm x 32 cm x 34 cm
USD $299.00


PACKAGING
Once again; it comes in a boring white box. This time however, it is, if possible, even more boring than before as there is more of it. I'm going to be a little bit more generous with the rating this time around though as it is quite a feat to ship a box of this size, containing a statue with so many fragile elements to it, and to have it arrive undamaged. Same goes for the other two statues of course, so maybe I was a bit rough on them?



Packaging rating:





SCULPT
Eden Small and Daniel Cockersell, who sculpted this beautifully detailed statue, have done something immensely difficult here; they’ve managed to sculpt a statue that effectively simulates and captures a moment of hectic battle frozen in time. The steed is about to make a quick turn; it is on two legs, its mane flowing, tail whipping through the air. Caspian is leaning out from the saddle. His sword drawn, raised, about to cut the head off of some poor Telmarine.

The sculpt for this statue is extremely close to being perfect. Every part of this statue is literally covered with details. Let’s start with the horse, or the "steed", as Weta likes to call it…

The first thing that you notice while looking at this statue is the lifelike roughness of the hair and the superficial blood vessels of its hide. You then start noticing all the other little details, like its tongue, teeth and eyes; its defined muscles and its horse shoes.

The coolest part of the sculpting done on the steed is without a doubt the mane though. Wow! It looks so cool it’s hard to describe. It’s as if it has just thrown its head to one side and the hair has been caught in time just as the balance of the body of it is about to shift and throw the hair in the opposite direction. Super cool!

Caspian: So…does the sculpt look like Ben Barnes playing Caspian? Good question. I’ll let you decide for yourselves with the help of the thumbs posted below, but in my opinion…? Well, it’s not totally off in my book, but it’s far from spot on as well. From afar and from certain angles, it actually does look a lot like Ben, but it doesn’t quite work up close.

As for the details on Caspian: I love the individual rivets, rings of chainmaille and steel plates of his armour. I love the dagger hanging at his side, the creases in the fabric of his pants and boots, the design cut into the steel of his centaur designed pauldrons and the sculpt of his Telmarine royal guard's sword.

Caspian and the steed complement each other perfectly and make for an impressive statue that will be hard to top.

The base has the same beautiful design as the base for the Reepicheep statue.



Sculpt rating:





PAINT
My initial thought was that the "steed" in this case was Destrier, Caspian’s horse, that he rides on from Miraz’s castle to the woods at the beginning of the book/film, but after having watched the movie yet another time, keeping track of all the horses, I have to say that I was wrong in that assumption. The horse Caspian rides on throughout the title sequence; the horse that he lends to Susan and Lucy when they’re off to find Aslan; is black.

The horse Caspian is riding on during the battle is brown with a diamond shaped, white mark to its forehead though, so it’s definitely not Destrier.

While studying the film to make up for the lack of research done for my original review, I noticed a few continuity errors not listed on IMDb. The colour of the horse carrying Trumpkin changes from brown to black between cuts during the scene where the Telmarine soldiers return to Miraz’s castle after having captured Trumpkin. Similarly, the white mark in the forehead of the horse Caspian is riding on when he rescues Susan from being run down by a horse mounted Telmarine soldier in the woods changes between cuts. Two different horses have been used here, one that has a mark that is less pronounced and one that has the clearly defined, diamond shaped, white mark seen on the horse Caspian uses in the battle.

Exactly what horse Weta based their “steed” on is anyone’s guess. The colour of the coat on the steed is more of a light brown colour, whereas the horse in the film has a darker brown to it. It’s not dark brown, but the brown is darker on the horse in the film than on the “steed”. I honestly don't care though....

The Steed: The paint job done here is perfect in every way. The shading of muscles look realistic, the colouration of the area around its muzzle look natural and the black of its mane and tail make it look like real hair. I also love the pink of its tongue, the white of its teeth and its dark, black eyes.

Caspian: His skin tone looks about right, although there is a bit too much of the red applied to his cheeks. His eyes are brown like Ben’s eyes; his teeth are white and his tongue and lips a nice cerise.

As for the armour…Where to begin? The Prussian blue of the rectangular steel plates look screen accurate to my eyes. The little rivets on the plates are individually painted, and there are hundreds of them! The seal brown colour of the pauldrons, vanbraces, gloves, boots, straps and belt look like they’re made of the material they’re supposed to be made of: leather. You’d be right in thinking the centaur designed pauldrons and the faun designed vanbraces made for the film were made of leather skinned steel, but you don’t see the steel on this statue or in the movie so don't be picky.

The boots and pants have been dirtied down a bit, especially the boots, but Caspian have a couple of big stains, that probably were caused by the same mud on his left pant’s leg.



Paint rating:





DESIGN
Caspian and Steed is designed by Weta concept designer Paul Tobin. Tobin’s inspiration for the Caspian and Steed statue came from the works of artist Frederic Remington. Remington is mostly known for his paintings of the old west, many of which depicts men riding on horses.



"The Cow Boy" by Frederic Remington, 1902
(The image has been cropped at top and bottom)


The hand guard and blade of Caspian’s sword, the sheath of the sword and the steed’s tail are removable parts on this statue. The tip of the armature of the sword is slightly bent on my statue so I was worried that it wouldn’t fit into it’s hole at first, but it did, and there was no problem with attaching it or any of the other parts to the statue.



Design rating:






VALUE
This is the most expensive of the Weta statues made for Prince Caspian at $299.00 + shipping. There’s a good reason for it though as it is a pretty big statue. The sculpt itself is about twice the height of Reepicheep; that would be about 14”, but Caspian’s sword adds another 3-4” to it, so it comes to a total of approximately 18”.

Whether it’s worth the money or not is an individual decision, but I’d say that for me, it’s totally worth it. This statue is one of the coolest statues I’ve ever seen and as with the other two, this is one of only 100 statues worldwide.

Value rating:





OVERALL
This massive statue is literally covered in details, the sculpt is perfect, it has a flawless paint job and it could easily be described as a piece of art. It’s rather expensive, but you get what you pay for, that’s for sure.

The star average doesn't quite add up to a 5 out of 5 star rating because of the pale, white box, but that doesn't stop me from giving it a 5 star rating anyway, now does it?


Overall rating:

[Griffle]

This review is for Warrior Satyr statue # 80/100.


Promotional photography © Weta Ltd. 2008 - used with permission.


Production Prototype Photography © Weta Ltd. 2008 - used with permission.

Availability: Shipping Now! <---- Click here to order!
Edition Size: 100
Dimensions: 10.6" x 13" x 6.7" (H x W x D)/27 cm x 33 cm x 17 cm
USD $199.00


PACKAGING
Two words: White box!



Packaging rating:





SCULPT
It’s hard to tell which sculptors contributed to the sculpt of this statue as all it says under the base is “Sculpted by the artists of Weta Workshop“. I’m not familiar enough with the sculptors’ styles and trademarks to guess either. What I do know though, is that I really like this sculpt.

The official word is that there were more than one person involved in sculpting the statue and that none of those people did enough on their own to claim it as their creation.

Anyway; the sculpt for this statue is a product of a collaborative effort worthy of a lot of praise. I’ve run out of superlatives to use by now, so forgive me if I regurgitate a few that I’ve already used…This sculpt is absolutely stunningly beautiful, it’s amazingly detailed in every way and its action pose makes it undeniably cool!

Have a look at the thumbnails below to marvel at the level of detail found on this statue. I mean, it’s insanely detailed. From the hair of its fur, the ribbed texture of its spiralling horns, the big finger nails of its hands, the cracks in the leather around the rivets of its armour and the horns protruding from its pauldrons, to the V shaped and quilted leg-protection on its left side, the buckles and straps of its armour and vanbraces, the worn down undersides of its hoofs and the teeth of its mouth. It’s all so immaculately detailed. Have a look at the other side of the quilted leg protection part of its armour for instance, and you’ll be able to see how it’s put together. That’s so cool!

My favourite part of the sculpt is the horns. I love how they’re not symmetrical; that one of the horns seem to have sustained some damage during battle as it is shorter and deformed at it’s end tip. I’m not 100% sure whether or not it’s a “unique” feature found only on my statue or if it’s deliberately sculpted that way. It doesn’t really matter though. It’s cool all the same.

The base for this statue has the same compass rose design as the bases for the Reepicheep and Caspian and Steed statues. It also shares the same edge design with those, as well as with the bases for the LWW statues.




Sculpt rating:





PAINT
I love how the colour of the hair of the satyr’s fur, gets darker and darker the further you get from its face, how the top layer of the fur is lighter in colour on the rest of it than the bottom layers of the fur. I love the beige and black stripes of the horns, how they bend like waves around them. I love the auburn coloured eyes with their horizontal ellipse pupils, the black of its nose and lips, the carmine pink of its gums and the chestnut coloured tongue.

The horns on its pauldrons are darker around the edges that connect with the leather where they are attached. It has a nice gradient effect to its colour shift that looks really cool. The silver colour of the pole sword’s blade and of the buckles is neither matted nor shiny, it’s an adequate mix of the two that works quite well. The brown of the leather armour and vanbraces (cause it is all leather this time around) looks highly believable and it’s painted to look worn down in places.

Let’s discuss the base for a moment though… Whoever did the paint job on the base of my statue messed up royally. I mean, really, really bad. It looks like someone has put their finger over the not yet dry, white paint of the relief movie logo and then rubbed it across it, removing some of the paint, while at the same time discolouring the area around the relief print and then just left it like that. Unprofessional is the word. Sure, it does kind of go together with the aged look of the base, but it’s still distracting.

The base for this statue is also twice as dark in colour as that of the Caspian and Steed statue (Reepicheep‘s base is somewhere in the middle), which I have to say is quite odd as I guess there is supposed to be some kind of consistency between the bases of the statues. On the other hand, every statue and every base is unique…

I love the rest of the base, in fact, I’d go as far as to say this is my favourite of the bases,… if we forget about the logo for a minute. It’s more black than the others and certain areas of it have a yellow/green tint to it that looks really delicate in combination with the black.





Paint rating:





DESIGN
All the sculptors working on the Prince Caspian statues have done an amazing job of posing their statues so that it looks like the characters are right there…in the battle, fighting. This statue however, takes it to a whole new level. The satyr is literally suspended in the air, held up only by the aid of his pole sword.

The pole sword in question has a metal rod in the center it, making it very unlikely to break. You have to make sure it’s stuck down into the base all the way though as the Satyr tend to sway a bit if you get in touch with any part of the base if it’s not stuck into the base properly.

My statue had one of those "stripe" things that you use to bind cables together (among other things) around one of it's arms. This one is made of small pink plastic pearls. I have no idea what it's for as it doesn't seem to have any function in this case. Weird...

There is no information available on who did the design for this statue.



Design rating:





VALUE
This statue sells for $249.00 + shipping over at wetanz.com. That’s quite a lot of money for such a small statue, sure, but they don’t get any better than these, so you definitely get what you pay for.

In my opinion, it’s more than worth the money, so that’s why I give it a 5 out of 5 star rating for value.

Value rating:





OVERALL
This gets a 4 out of 5 star rating overall because of the downright sloppy paint job done on the logo of the base that I just can't forget.

Overall rating:

[Griffle]

Please feel free to comment on the reviews and let me know if you want me to review anything else from my collection.

[icarus]

Excellent reviews as usual Griffle! Havent been into the merchandise forum much recently due to the obvious lack of any recent merchandise to discuss, but your reviews were very much worth coming in here to read.

Although i mentioned it to you once before, i still think you should definitely consider making a Wardrobe Door style Narnia merchandise website. I'm sure there are plenty of people amongst the NarniaWeb community who are more than a dab hand at web design who could assist you. Even if not, still great work on the reviews, keep them coming!

[Griffle]

Thank you very much! (3 weeks late)

The idea was that I would continue on, doing reviews for the LWW statues as well. Weta's specifically, but I'd consider doing reviews of the NECA statues too if there was any interest.

Anyway, I might get onto that when I have some spare time as I feel as though I've pulled away from Narnia a bit the last couple of months. Need to get back in action.

I have of course thought about doing a Narnian merchandise site. But I'm sorry to say I don't have the skills required to maintain a working website. I could learn though, my brother is an expert on these things.

DEAL ALERT! The price of the Warrior Satyr statue has been reduced to $199.00 from the original price of $249.00!