http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up3VMa44CCY There's the HD video review, on to the text review.
First4Figures has a history of delaying statues, but Zero Suit Samus here was crazier than most. I think she was delayed about 3 years. Their Metroid Gunship had a similar delay, yet the regular Metroid suits had no such problem. WEIRD. Anywho, I picked up the exclusive, let’s see if all that waiting was worthwhile.
Metroid is easily one of my favourite franchises, ranking just below Zelda, and maybe a tiny bit below Mass Effect at this point. It’s been with me for a long time and almost always delivered. Zero Suit Samus? Hellllllo, don’t mind if I do. It’s a great design, but obviously one that’s easy to screw up because attractive females are difficult to sculpt. Want a great example? Look at the original sculpt from 2007.
Ugh, UGH. She looks kinda tarded there. When the statue looked like that, I wanted nothing to do with it. I’m sure they heard a lot of that, because they significantly revised the statue, especially that head sculpt. Let’s look at what we actually got. The regular edition clocks in at 2500 or so units, the exclusive comes in at 250 and a higher price tag. The exclusive has a light-up base, not nearly as elaborate as the light-up Phazon (or was it Dark Phazon? whatever) suit, but still.
The body sculpt on this is superb, as I’m sure you can tell. It’s appealing, attractive, and not a bad pose. I have zero issues with any parts of the body. I’m sure most people won’t either. The colours, especially on the back-end (and for once, I don’t mean that in a pervy way) are vibrant where they need to be, muted where they should be. The suit itself is a skin-tight warm blue that from what I remember, is exactly how it should look.
The base wasn’t as nice as I was expecting. The black part is fine and it has a switch that you press to light it up. However the top of the base looks cheap. It’s fine in photos but in person it looks like a flimsy metal cut-out so they could shine lights through it. The area where they drilled the peg hole for the statue was a little jagged on mine and the peg didn’t fit comfortably, I had to jam it in there.
Now we’re all up in the face. You can see that it’s vastly improved over the original design. But it turns out I’m still not the biggest fan. She looks a little bored to be here. She doesn’t look strong, sexy, or confident, which is what you’d expect from a badass woman that’s saved the galaxy multiple times, right? The hair is cut a little strange, I don’t remember her haircut looking like that, but it might have. On the plus side, the eyes and everything else are painted just fine, though the hair could’ve used more shading.
Here’s two shots of the exclusive feature, the light-up base. I shot this in pitch-black and my lighting conditions almost replicated how it looked, if anything, my picture is a little brighter than it was. Keep in mind this is inside a light-box, so that’s why the back is lit and shows more of the silhoutte. In a dark situation, I think that’s the best you’ll get. It’s a little disappointing to say the least. I was hoping the lights would be more powerful and better replicate the shots found on their product site. I think if you had some partial ambient lighting, it would produce a more dramatic effect.
3.5/5.
