Hate to be the downer of this thread, but....
This has not been a great week for me and these statues. This is three in a row all in a week.
I got a special version where the jaguar won. Lara was decapitated. As I struggled to remove the tree from the styrofoam, I looked to see what in the world could be keeping it wedged in there. Oh - it was HER HEAD. Really, the way this was packed I wasn't seeing how that head isn't snapping off in transit, so those of you getting these intact are pretty lucky. Sometimes, there is such a thing as jamming these things in there too tight.
The jaguar also had a small white spot on it that would've bothered me.
Really, it is for the best as long as I can get a refund. I do not like the portrait. I thought it when I saw nearmint's pics, but it was even more obvious in person. This does not look like the prototype. It's like the prototype squeezed in. I am not sure I would have known who this was if I had to display it - it doesn't look at all like the in-game model. Maybe the styrofoam was designed for the less stretched out head.... maybe they had to stretch the design to try and get it closer to 1:4 scale (which it doesn't sound like it really is, either).
Proto's on the left, in-game on the right, nearmint's in-hand in the middle. I don't know. Maybe it's the angle, although I looked at some of the early con videos and there wasn't really a "bad" angle to me on those. Whenever I picked up her head in person, I immediately did not think it resembled the proto images/videos I've been looking at.
I don't know... maybe this is an improvement. Yeah, I would probably be trying to be more positive if this didn't happen, but I can't see any way I wouldn't have been severely disappointed.
