My assembly experience was similar to the others, and I did not let them rest and get "to room temperature" at all - which I thought sounded like an odd approach anyway.
I immediately took them out and started by roughly assembling the parts labeled "2" together (cape and skirt combo) and then assembled the others accordingly to see if they simply fit, or needed some additional effort.
I did have to heat the torsos with a hair dryer for 10-12 minutes on both medium to high heat (alternating) in order to get them to seat as expected. Mostly, I found, it was one hand position that was preventing the waist from being seated as tightly as possible, so I used some extra heat there and finally got it.
The foot pegs on both were about 1/8 off, so not as bad as some and they eventually went in cleanly without any distortion or extra working needed. The "2" base is very "angled" once put together with the portrait facing front, but there was no forcing or manipulation that caused that - it's just how it was molded/tooled. Definitely much different to the other base.
The non-cape torso did not fit tightly into the trunks legs, and the key has a fair bit of rotational play and wants to rotate counter-clockwise about 1/16" which makes the middle of the belt off-center with the trunks, and causes a gap in the seam on one side behind the hand. For this, I used a small dab of Fun-Tac inside the recess to keep the torso piece where I wanted it to be which, in turn, tightened up the seam correctly. Once that was positioned, I noticed during my photo shoot that the head on the non-cape version was mounted slightly off center. So, in choosing to center the portrait for my "hero" photo, you will notice the bodice appears to be turned a bit, but the center of the belt is still centered with the trunks/legs.
After keeping them assembled like this for the first 2 weeks, I swapped the torsos for the first time during my photo shoot and found that they swapped just fine and actually really easily. In fact, the non-cape torso seats much better into the skirt version, but since she never wore the skirt without the cape in the series, I did not keep her that way, and only took that photo for reference to the original "Exclusive Edition" without the cape add-on and then swapped them back.
I have not (and will not) try swapping the legs/bases. I have kept them assembled as instructed, and only swapped the torsos to show both version of each maquette variation. I have also been checking them daily and thankfully nothing has shifted.
Beyond the assembly differences noted above between the two pieces, other factors that occurred to me as I was working with these pieces under close-inspection -- which further contribute to them not being truly a "matched set" -- are:
> The caped portrait has full-color printed decals for the eyes, lashes AND brows, while the non-cape version only has decals for the eyes, but the lashes and brows are fully painted. The non-caped version is a much softer and more accurate portrait of Lynda as a result.
> The flesh tones/airbrushing on the caped torso are significantly darker/pinker than the other
> The tiara star on the caped torso is very sharp, and is likely either imprinted or a decal, while the other is obviously painted and not as precise.
Seeing the pieces in person finally after all this time, there is a lot to appreciate about how intricate the scope of the project and the detail of the finishing are compared to other statues. But also many obvious and frustrating QC issues that seem to not justify the wait time and end result. As I was fussing with the assembly originally, I said to myself I honestly would have been happier with the two distinct maquettes also offered, rather than have to deal with all of this just to be able to swap pieces that don't really fit properly when swapped anyway.
Correcting/reversing the cape paint early-on was appreciated for accuracy, and the later adjustment correcting the number of stripes from the painted sample shown, however you can still see the original sculpted lines for stripes in the casting which is a bit distracting for the (now) solid red half. The omission of the small stars on the bracelets is a major detail that is missing as well, which could have been easily achieved with painted red "dots", imprint or even as decals (like the eyes) for all the extra time these were kept in production.
Despite everything, I do enjoy having them on display as a pair side-by-side!
