Every once in awhile, it is always refreshing, and sometimes amusing, to see what smaller players in the 1/6 figure market has to offer. Refreshing, because the figures portrayed are usually older / more obscure characters from less popular comics, movies, mythology. Amusing, because they always come up with creative ways to name their products in ways that tells collectors what they are supposed to be, without having to pay for the license to make them in the first place. But what excites me the most is when all new, 100% original creations are made, and Foxbox Studio's Hades figure, from their God Complex line, is one such example.
When Hades was dropped on Foxbox's website, there was a minor hiccup with the website, and it was due to a technical fault caused by a typo in the hyperlink, rather than overwhelming response that crashed the server. Sorry I can't be more specific, but html (and any other programming language for that matter) is really alien to me. I wasn't quick enough to be the 1st 100 customers to complete their purchase, who were given a high quality print of the poster made for the sale, but I wasn't too bothered by that either. I liked what I saw from the previews prior to the sales, and took a plunge with it.
It took around 8 months from sales to the completion of production and its delivery to purchasers. I would say it is well within what was preempted to purchasers at the point of sale, which is great. The product came in a brown shipper, but there wasn't any protection on the actual box itself. While the box was designed to be very sleek, there were some flaws caused by abrasion between the box surface and the cardboard shipper. On the inside, 2 layers of sponge foam, cut out to fit the figure and its accessories. Sorry, no box photos here... nothing really out of the norm to be honest.
The Hades figure sports a skull head, hidden behind a fancifully designed mask / helmet, with orange highlights that immediately brings to mind one word: Tron. The jacket is made from materials that are very thick. It is exactly the same as what was shown in the previews though, and I remembered someone making the same comment on their Facebook about the thickness of the jacket material and tailoring. Due to the thickness, you can see that the collar doesn't really stay down, and tends to flap upwards, which, comparing to Byran Lie's art, clearly contradicts the design intent to create a more sleek, smart looking suit to a suave villian. Other than the collar, the thickness of the jacket is also very noticeable around the sleeve ends and trouser ends. There are some decorative white threadwork done to where the ribs of the figure are.
An armour on the right shoulder completes the costume design, rendering the figure assymmetrical. This armour is actually articulated with 2 hinge joints. This articulation, coupled with the way it is secured to the jacket (via velcro), reduces its impact on the shoulder and arm movement of the figure. In fact, I would say that it doesn't really limit the arm movement at all.
Some QC issues with Hades' attire: The jacket is fastened up by means of 3 buttons. The positioning of the 3 buttons could be better, cause when they are secured, the jacket tends to pull away and the top most and bottom button on mine can actually be seen from the front of the figure. I think they should be concealed better. Another issue I had was that the trouser ends on mine are different in opening size. While the left side is big enough to cover the top part of the shoe quite comfortably, the right side is slightly smaller and couldn't do the same.
On a side note, I thought it would've been much better if the base body underneath the whole get up was black in colour. I know that the manufacturer probably bought standard skin-toned bodies available in the market rather than making new ones on their own to save costs, but sometimes, at certain angles, you can catch glimpses of the unnatural skin tones revealed, especially under the neck armour and at the ends of the gloves or shoes... Nothing to scream about of course.
The figure comes with 3 pairs of interchangeable hands, which I had hoped to be better detailed. Right now, the fingers are quite fat, smooth with glossy paint, and devoid of any details. I think they are supposed to represent leather, but really what comes to mind is those black rubber gloves you see some fishmongers use in the local wet market. They serve their purpose of holding the weapons, end of story.
The mask / helmet is made of 2 parts, the first being a one-piece comprising of the neck armour and skull head, and the other is the visor. Before it was released, one of the previews on Foxbox's blog boasted the use of magnets on the mask visor. In hand, however, I was quite disappointed with the particular detail. When the visor is down, what is really securing the helmet is just the magnet, and it was not a snug fit between the two parts of the head, so any slight movement and the visor will shift out of place. With the visor pulled up, the skull face is revealed, and apart from the magnet providing some support, the visor sits well onto the back portion of the neckpiece, which is a much more stable position. My Hades is now displayed that way, partly because it is more stable, but mostly because I like seeing the skull face.
Above, the detailing for the magnets that hold the visor in place. There is another magnet embedded on the top of the skull, which is clearly visible despite efforts to conceal it under primer and paint. 2 magnets are embedded but not concealed on the underside of the visor, 1 for each position (visor down, or visor up with skull face revealed).
Below, the paint app of the white on the skull actually smudged the rims of the neckpiece on my figure. I was quite taken aback by this cause I had expected higher quality for a small production run of 500 (mine is no. 122 btw). I couldn't remove the white smudges with my finger / nail, but later on I tried to scrub it with an old toothbrush and it worked. If yours had the same problem, suggest you do the same. The sculpting on the skull is pretty nicely done, though I had hoped the paint app to show more contrast between the white and the light blue wash. It is just very white and blend as it is.
Hades' weapon of choice: pistol and light saber concealed as a walking stick. I would've thought that a pistol will be easy enough a weapon to get right, seeing that there are so many 1/6th versions in the market. Alas, the metallic gray paint chosen makes the pistol look further than a real pistol than it should... The other weapon though, is interesting. The concept is cool, I've always thought it was a nice idea to conceal a saber / sword within a walking stick... even Dr Watson carries one in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. But how was this idea executed in real...? The sheath of the sabre is made from a metal pipe, painted black until the part where the sword handle and sheath overlaps when closed. I guess it is because of the overlap that the paint might tend to be scrapped off, and so it is left unpainted all together. However, if it was intentional, I thought it would be better to introduce a ring around the sheath where the sword handle ends, so that the detail terminates better. Right now, on mine, the paint just stops short in a slanted ring which is just neither here nor there. The sabre is akin to a light sabre the way it is painted, with an orange to yellow gradient between the handle and the sword tip. On mine, there remains black paint that I cannot remove at the tip, which is irritating... It is not shown in the photographs here because they are on the reverse side of what is shown.
There is a saying that could somwhat summarize what I think about this figure and it goes like this: "Good from far, but far from good". I think the front part of this statement definitely stands true for this figure. From afar, it looks pretty darn awesome. You can tell the thought that went into the character design, with cool looking armour, helmet, highlights and weapons, etc. The execution, however, leaves much more to be desired. Certainly much, much more for a figure that commanded such a high retail price. I think it is too harsh to say that the figure is overall "far from good", but there certainly is much more room for improvement.
The next figure to be released should be Inari. I like what I am seeing from the preview photographs and teasers so far, but I hope that the price is maintained, if not lowered, especially if there aren't any improvements made to the detailings. The character designs are really nice, but the execution really needs more work.
