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Andrew
04-18-2012, 12:34 AM
Mortal Kombat
Pop Culture Shock (http://www.facebook.com/PopCultureShockCollectibles)
1/4 Scale Exclusive Scorpion Statue


Mortal Kombat (http://mortalkombat.wikia.com/wiki/Mortal_Kombat_Wiki) has been a cult classic in the gaming industry for over two decades and Pop Culture Shock Collectibles (http://www.popcultureshocktoys.com/), founded by Jerry Macaluso (http://www.facebook.com/PopCultureShockCollectibles), has stepped up to the plate to bring us a fully sculpted 1/4 scale version of Mortal Kombat's flagship character, Scorpion.

This statue was first revealed in April of 2011, shown finished in July of 2011 at SDCC, and has just recently shipped in April of 2012. The anticipation for this statue has naturally been high, so the question is...was it worth the wait?

Let's start with the packaging;

This statue was packaged very well. An outside cardboard box covers the fully colored product box which was surrounded by styrofoam to keep the product box snug in the shipper. The product box itself is nice and colorful with a description about who the character, Scorpion, is. Opening the product box reveals a large styrofoam box containing the statue. Unfortunately we are greeted by the cheapest quality styrofoam around and instantly this thing begins to crumble upon manipulation. This is not a first for Pop Culture Shock, as almost all of their products are shipped with this quality styrofoam. By the time I finished completely removing the statue, my clothes, carpet, and dog were all covered in this stuff and a vacuum was required to clean up the mess.

Despite the cheapness of the styrofoam, this statue made the trip from the factory in China to the Side Show warehouse in California to my house in Virginia fully intact. My statue arrived undamaged! The statue I received was packaged very carefully within.

Inside the box were 10 items;

-Certificate of Authenticity
-Base
-Two hands that attach to the base
-The main body
-Three interchangeable heads
-A set of swords
-Scorpion's Spear

Let's take a look at the base;

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_33638592.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/33638592.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_e1ad685e.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/e1ad685e.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_936607a5.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/936607a5.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_164f7121.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/164f7121.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_570caabb.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/570caabb.jpg)

The first thing that will jump out at you about the base is the color. The paint used for the lava is EXTREMELY bright. It's almost florescent. To me this is a problem because it's very distracting and forces the eyes of the viewer to focus more on the base rather than the statue itself.

The skeletal parts look good and the two hands that fit into the base attach nicely and also have the lava painted on them to show the effect of them reaching out to grab an unknowing victim.

Overall the base is okay, but loses a lot of points for the color and execution of the lava.

Now let's look at the statue;

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_f008cdfd.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/f008cdfd.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_3d92550a.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/3d92550a.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_36a73aa8.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/36a73aa8.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_74080db5.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/74080db5.jpg)

Quite the opposite of the base, the statue is much darker and dull in color. The paint itself is applied without flaws, however I would have preferred the gold portions of the costume to be a little more vibrant. As it is, it's difficult to appreciate the detail that went into the sculpt because of the amount of black and the darkness of the gold. This is especially true of the masked head. The viewer will have to get very close to the statue to see the finer detail or have the statue displayed in very bright light as was done for these pictures.

The pose for the statue is excellent. Probably one of the most famous moves in Mortal Kombat, you can almost hear Scorpion shouting, "Get over here!" as you look at the chain launching from his hand. The chain itself is plastic and painted to look metal. At first this surprised me and was a bit disappointing because holding it in your hand makes it feel cheap, but after attaching it to the hand and stepping back, the chain meshes with the statue perfectly and is not distinguishable from the rest of the body. Also, given the fact that the chain is attached to the hand by a small magnet, it probably would have been too heavy for the accessory to be real metal. In the end, the chain being plastic does not take away from the statue.

Andrew
04-18-2012, 12:34 AM
Zooming in a little;

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_3dc49dd6.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/3dc49dd6.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_d3a2fc2b.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/d3a2fc2b.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_1aecaf68.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/1aecaf68.jpg)

It's difficult to see, but the rest of Scorpions costume is intact although it's difficult to notice because he is hunched over. The skull knee pads look awesome and the shoes look really nice as well. The only thing up close I'm not crazy about is the belt buckle. It looks not as detailed and a little off center, but not very noticeable compared to the rest of the statue.

Up close and personal;

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_cc7fd23f.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/cc7fd23f.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_ba0c5f37.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/ba0c5f37.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_577e5d2f.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/577e5d2f.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_6f7770c6.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/6f7770c6.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_0e8efc25.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/0e8efc25.jpg)

The exclusive version of this statue comes with two additional heads for an alternate display. Both options are skulls with one being completely engulfed in flames and one being a plain skull. Both look nice, but the plain skull looks absolutely incredible! It's hard for me to decide how I like displaying this statue more, mask or plain skull. As you can see, a lot of detail went into the sculpts of all three heads.

Andrew
04-18-2012, 12:46 AM
Additional pictures and comments;

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_020ee641.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/020ee641.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_d4bc2d7b.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/d4bc2d7b.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_fb52fe85.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/fb52fe85.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_8bcfd8e8.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/8bcfd8e8.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_6cf761d1.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/6cf761d1.jpg) http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/th_423b138c.jpg (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/423b138c.jpg)

Overall this statue is a must have for any Mortal Kombat fan. The statue and the base are both solid and when holding Scorpion by himself without him being attached to the base, he feels heavy yet sits very firmly when attached. There is a very good weight and feel to the whole design.

There are a few things that I would consider negatives such as the paint being too vibrant on the base and too dark and dull on the actual costume of the statue. In fact, the colors that are shown on the COA (http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f330/speedy485/bb4c431b.jpg) are exactly how I would have wanted the lava on the base and the gold on the costume to be painted. Also, the cheap styrofoam is very annoying and somewhat takes away from what should be an exciting experience of unpacking a much anticipated statue.

However, I'm impressed with the choice in pose as most statues this size are not given an action stance like this unless they are in a diorama setup. As well, the display options with the three heads is a great bonus especially considering that originally there was only going to be one additional head, but Jerry Macaluso once again came through and listened to fan feedback and went the extra mile.

I'm very excited about this statue and am pleased that I decided to purchase it. I'm looking forward to seeing what else Pop Culture Shock brings to the table with this license.

loricstone
04-18-2012, 02:49 AM
Thank you for a nicely done review! Good showing the great points and not so great points. A very nice critique!

Congrats on your statue!

Andrew
04-18-2012, 03:09 AM
LMAO!!! Looking at my pictures I just realized that the swords are upside down...:doh!:

And to be clear, it's my fault that the swords are upside down as they are detachable. :)

DeadGhostKnight
04-18-2012, 06:27 AM
Excellent review! You pick up on all the problems i have with the statue, especially the base.

Its hard to be negative about something you just put down close to $400 on but you tackled it just right!

bebohawk
04-18-2012, 07:41 AM
Great review!!!!

JAWS
04-18-2012, 09:12 AM
Great review.

L Deimos
04-18-2012, 12:05 PM
I really do appreciate non-biased reviews. Good read!

wvg9250
04-18-2012, 04:28 PM
Truly appreciate your time and effort writing this up. Congrats bro :buttrock:

CelestaDragon93
04-18-2012, 04:59 PM
Nice review on Scorpion! I enjoyed reading it and you also take good pictures of the statue. :)

Ryu
04-18-2012, 05:32 PM
LMAO!!! Looking at my pictures I just realized that the swords are upside down...:doh!:

And to be clear, it's my fault that the swords are upside down as they are detachable. :)

http://youtu.be/RYCT77YNHsk :hilarious:

derekrodneysim
04-19-2012, 02:08 AM
Great review, Andrew, my brother! Very helpful for guys like me who are considering. I really want one but the styrofoam worries me a great deal.

I don't recall any mention of how well it was cast. Was it crisp. Is it heavy? And would appreciate your overall rating.

Thanks brother! :thumbs2:

derekrodneysim
04-19-2012, 02:46 AM
http://youtu.be/RYCT77YNHsk :hilarious:

:hilarious:

Andrew
04-19-2012, 03:05 AM
I don't recall any mention of how well it was cast. Was it crisp. Is it heavy? And would appreciate your overall rating.

Both the statue and the base feel solid. Scorpion has a very heavy feel to him, but he sits nicely in the base. It really is a high quality statue overall.

I addded that part to the review at the end. :thumbs2: