BSG Morning After Review

[CrimsonGhost]

Just for the sake of argument, could you do a photo of the Richard Hatch head next to Ponch? Because I'm ok with the size of Ponch's head.

[The Bat]

Ya know, I wanted these to be great as well...but it seem like every time BBP puts out a Prototype and the head is too big to to begin with they always say..."don't worry this is just the Prototype, the head will be the proper size on the final figure". Well, if this this is the final figure...the head is WAAAAAAY to BIG!!

[Tothiro]

Remego vs Mego Face-Off:


Ok so the "It's all in your mind those heads are perfectly scaled!" line of thought is, now, I earnestly proclaim, dead. Dead with a fork in it's cold, grey heart.
I don't take joy in that at all. I really wanted to be as stoked when the package was open as I was in waiting to open the package. I don't like regretting my toys, and when they're well made I don't.
Anyway - I won't spend a lot of time or photos on the basics and front presentation of Apollo, everyone knows what he looks like and this harshing is a bit of a drag :/

I will say that the belt is done well. The pants too. I'm a classic styling guy, so I would much rather have preferred a plastic belt and holster ala AJ Western gunslinger - without belt-loops. I get that it would have been way too costly, and ridiculous since Apollo is southpaw and Starbuck a rightie. Also people dig the fabric and belt loop thing, so I won't diss their joy. Having said all that the belt material is solid and it does what it's supposed to do. The front velcro isn't bulky like some have been either.
The pants are a little loose in spots but otherwise good. The shirt is pretty basic, and almost a HD Potsie affair though again it's tailored a bit wrong, but otherwise pretty accurate remego.

The boots are unaltered black dm boots. I guess that's a cost issue too, but I'm frankly surprised they aren't dark brown or mego brown. Failing a side buckle sculpt like they had on the show, and since BBP! isn't one for boot sculpting like, at all, I guess I can see it. Repro Little John boots would have been a better choice though.

All of that is incidental - the big thing here is the head, the jacket, and the helmet.

Wow is it big.

While I'm at it - the Apollo head sculpt is pretty good. I would say the cheeks/jowls are cut too sharply giving him a bit of missing teeth/Boris Karloff deal, and he has helmet hair - missing the top comb-over pop the character's hair actually had. Enough about that. Look at this helmet. For real.

On a Cylon:

On a Frakking Sontoran:

And just for fun - on a 12" Neo-Henshin Cyborg...


So... the jacket.
It's the same material type as the Dr Who jacket, in a different tone. The shoulder pads are the coated material like the Dr's elbow pads... except here's the thing: the jacket is tailored poorly. It's kind of botched, I think.
there isn't enough back material to let the shoulders lay correctly, so the end result is the shoulder pads become a detail on the back of the jacket, which sucks. This also means the collar is not wide enough to actually fit the guy wearing it - and instead of the mandarin collar as seen in the show,

We instead end up with Mr Rodger's sweater vest. There's also too much fabric in all the wrong spots on the front, so basically the dimensions are all weird. I think someone was really thrown off game by the raglan sleeve cut.

I like the Colonial Warrior insignia, and the plastic add on for the front buckles is really nice. I might cut this apart and use those elements to make a new one that fits with little Klingon pips on the collar - I dunno, I haven't decided yet.
In the interest of figure swapping - it's a little better on a standard headed body - but you can see the collar and shoulders are still an issue:

Here it is with helmet btw...


In the end, for me, I can't pick these up and be excited about them/happy with my purchase out of the package. Which really sucks.
Others maybe can - and that's totally cool. I would be glad for them probably.
My friend said he looked at the other two figures and decided not to get them for me because of lack of shelf appeal. I can't say now that he was wrong, and I probably would have left them behind in his shoes too.
I think I may get them - it depends on how successful my efforts are to rework Apollo here are. Not everyone can shrink/resculpt/recast/repaint their own heads and be satisfied having spent $20 on what is a resin custom with a whole new suit and a few parts as starter bits. Nor should they.
I know BBP! is into this game and in heavy - clearly. A lot of cash has been sunk and licenses acquired and I know that that was a lot of work and investment. I know it's a fan job and not a day job. I don't understand - really, I don't - why so little seems to have been done to ensure product standards. That is like throwing your time and effort away.
Listen, I don't know what the process was or the hurdles to get over, I'm sure it was very demanding with a few sleepless nights. Maybe this is unavoidable for a small operation - maybe nothing else is possible. I just know what ended up in my little consumer hands, so if something else is possible, i sure hope they do it. (Well I probably also know that my phone will now likely never ring with a job offer - but ... you know... this really is meant as a helpful, honest critique) Better to address problems that effect bottom line than to pretend they don't exist.

PS - the helmet actually IS hard plastic ala AJ helmet - I expected it to be soft and squishy. So irony of irony, it is exactly as I would have wanted it to come if it just weren't scaled for a 9" Denys Fisher Dr Who. Cue sadface.

The guns turned out real nice though.

[Teemu]

these are an EASY pass...thanks for the review,it saved me $90

[megoscott]

That's a very fair review, Tothiro, and a massive bummer.

[Tothiro]

so Tothiro - is the jumper underneath the armor glued at the forearm/wrist as well?
If it pulls back, you might be able to get the forearm off by removing the pin. I am sure you would have done that, tho if it was possible. Looks like there is one to many ringlets on the black upper part of the gauntlet. If you cut one of those off, do you think it would be able to regain the elbow articulation?

I do like the looks of this figure. Very ambitious for a Mego ish item.

I am not exactly an old skool Mego style purist. Rather, I like items in a line to match. So I am OK with designs sort of in between cartoony and ultra realistic as long as they are fairly consistent. It looks like this line is doing that. Nice sculpts, but a bit on the CHiPs side. Good details on the soft goods even if they are not ultra realistically tailored. And a supreme effort on the robot even tho he ends up with a bit of Tin Man-itis. I am sort of thinking most of these are designed with the idea that they will stay static in a blister or on a shelf display and not get much in the way of 9yo torture testing.

Thanks for the early pics and review, btw.

Re-sleeves/cuffs.
Let me expand on that - the wrists were already removed. i mean the pins are taken out, the rest of the body is stripped and disassembled, and I broke one elbow and popped a sleeve seam just trying to separate the loose, hand free forearms and sleeves from the cuffs. I haven't gotten one apart, but mine acts like maybe the whole damn thing was heat melded together.

No worries on pic posts - Ayup! I just hope honesty isn't misconstrued as negativity for it's own sake, that isn't my intent.

I gotta call foul on the Mego tinman though, because he could actually pose. I do like the look of cylon here, and I would have bought several if he wasn't made wrong. To me this turned out kinda the spawn toy of remego. Hell if I can fix them somehow I still might buy more, but they have to move.

[Tothiro]

That's a very fair review, Tothiro, and a massive bummer.

Thanks Scott, I do wish it had written itself differently.

Addendum:
I checked Chips hands against the Cylon Rifle, and they don't quite fit. but if someone wanted to make that mod for themselves, I think there's enough material in the blaster stock to shave the edges down and make that happen without much cosmetic sacrifice.

[Tothiro]

Just for the sake of argument, could you do a photo of the Richard Hatch head next to Ponch? Because I'm ok with the size of Ponch's head.

- Next best thing?
A quick tour of the spares boxes confirmed I sold my last Ponch - but I have Sarge here:


The angle is a little misleading. From base of neck (where the plug disappears into the body) Sarge is 3.6cm tall. Hatch, with his longer neck, is exactly 4cm tall. Even with the neck, the overall face and other proportions are a touch larger on Hatch. If memory serves, Ponch is either equal to or ever so slightly smaller than the sarge head.

So there ya go.

[starsky]

wow, i wish they would have charged more for the figure and make it a little better.

[Tothiro]

Yeah.
I mean - the Lucifer looks good, right? And with any luck the other figures in pipeline can be reigned in to a better final product.
TZ heads come out great, the Venture figures were spot on... what is happening with these licenses that isn't happening with the bigheads?

It feels like I'm a Mego weirdo outside of City Hall protesting Martian bee swarms and posting long-winded fliers on street posts.
...and I totally messed up that right collar on the stop-mo doll I just did, and the vest fabric was my third choice - so no one should think my criticism is reserved for others =)

[MegoMark71]

I think your review was fair. It shows it actually hurts to be harsh but damn i was looking forward to these. Thanks for your hard work.

[ODBJBG]

That's disappointing. Cylon heads are too small, just as I feared and the excellent likenesses on the BSG humans end up saddled with bobbleheads. This combined with a Steve Austin that looks nothing like the Six Million Dollar man, is kind of a one-two punch of disappointment.

I really love the things BBP is doing, but I'm dying for some consistency. Some of the figures have perfect scale and then others come out all wonky and disproportionate. It seems like they've finally started to get a handle on the near translucent head issue, but they haven't nailed down the rest.

I really feel like these are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed and not just sweeped under the "we're a small company, we're giving you figures of niche licenses, this is perfect you're crazy" rug. BBP has some of the best licenses around, now the product really needs to live up to them. Build it right and they will come. Keep misfiring and eventually it will have an effect.

I'm still in BBP's corner, honestly, but I expect better. Hopefully the next round of releases will raise the bar.

[Tothiro]

So more post-review Cylon examination and modification tomfoolery happening :::here:::

[thunderbolt]

wow, that's really too bad. Looks like this and 6MDM will not last all that long.

[enyawd72]

Wow...this is really too bad. The wonky head sizes has to be a sculpting thing, since some of the heads are also too small, like on the Cylon and TZ Kanamit.

I really, really hope the SMDM don't turn out like this.