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Old 01-02-2016, 09:29 PM   #1
dechirico7
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Sideshow Collectibles - Court of the Dead - Gallevarbe (Death's Siren) Review (NSFW)

Court of the Dead
Death’s Siren
Gallevarbe Premium Format Figure

Limited edition of 1750
Retail: $399.99

Description from Sideshowtoy.com:
Based on an original character design, Sideshow Collectibles is proud to introduce Gallevarbe, Death's Siren from our Court of the Dead collection.
Death offered me a second chance, to rise up from the depths and be reborn... All I had to do was say 'yes'.
Conjured by Death as a reaper of souls, Gallevarbe navigates the vast oceans that separate the realms of Heaven and Hell, hunting for lost spirits who dared attempt escape the long grasp of her new master. Called by many names among the mythologies of men - mermaid, siren, harpy - the irresistible assassin lures her victims with powerful illusions, while the sinister truth of their fate is hidden in the murky depths below. Standing 24" tall with a striking composition and intricate attention to detail, this mesmerizing sculpture is an outstanding addition for dark fantasy or horror collectors.

Product details:
License: Court of the Dead
Scale: Premium format figure, 1/4
Product Size: 24" H (609.6mm) x 12" W (304.8mm) x 11" L (279.4mm)*
Product Weight: 15.00 lbs (6.8 kg)*
Dimensional Weight: 24 lbs*
Int'l Dim. Weight: 32 lbs*

Artists:
Art direction, design and paint: Tom Gilliland
Design and sculpt: Mark Newman
Design: Walter O’Neal
Sculpt: Andy Bergholtz
Mold and cast: Adam Smith
Paint: Kat Sapene
The Sideshow Collectibles Design and Development Team

Introduction:
Hey everyone! (Hopefully there are enough statue-enthusiasts checking out this review to use that term, lol.) Thanks for checking out my review! I am very delighted about this one. This is my "highly anticipated" statue of 2015.
I've wanted to take a new direction with the review. I want it to be more of a photo-driven, look at the statue and not so wordy (unlike the novel-sized review I did of the Jean Grey Premium Format.) This piece is definitely one that you have to see in person. I don't think it is possible to share in words how insanely detailed and great this piece is. I even found it difficult to fit all the detail into my photos.

I had to wait for some sunny, bright days to take these pics. (Just a note: the lighting is inconsistent. I took these on three different days.)

Review:
Sculpt: When you have two master sculptors like Mark and Andy working on the piece, you know it is going to be stunning. And it really is. You have a combination of two great styles in this piece, beauty (smooth) and beast (rough). Two completely different textures. This has to be a traditional sculpt, I think Mark and Andy both prefer that method of sculpting. The last time I saw a piece this advanced in technique was the Species Maquette. It really is beyond what we have seen with just about every other line Sideshow produces. This is just an assumption, but I am going to guess that Mark did what is above the water and Andy did what is below. Doesn't really matter much, since both halves are absolutely fantastic.

There are a total of 9 pieces to this piece:
Portrait
Left Arm
Torso with right arm
Chest cover ("bra")
Base/Tail (everything from the waist down)
Left waist tendril
Right waist tendril
Left side of water ring
Right side of water ring

Paint:
The paint really has a nice and clean application. I don't see any stray marks. The hues and colors are so close that even if there is a stray mark, it won't be obvious. There is a lot of dry brushing used to highlight rough areas of texture on the sculpt. The applications even emphasize the difference in textures between the top and bottom of the piece. The paint in the fleshy parts of the tail are adequate. I think they could have been a bit more involved. I was surprised by how well the little corpse-guys are painted. There is actually quite a bit of color on them. I really like the glowing eyes on the one and glowing stomach on the other. They seem to use this method on quite a few of the Court of the Dead pieces, like the eyes and spell on Xiall and eyes on Oglavaeil. And it really does look like it is glowing.

I was stunned by how cool the bottom, murky area of the base is. It has a smooth black base with highlighted details like skulls and bones. But there is silver, pearl-like paint dusted over the black. It gives it a slight glimmer. I thought that was a real nice touch.

Design:
I feel like this is similar to the "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" question. What did come first, the statue or the art? I am sure Tom and the Sideshow Creative Team had to do some kind of concept sketches before the statues were actually sculpted. But most of the art we have seen, the prints and paintings on courtofthedead.com were probably based off the statue. It would be interesting to know. Hopefully the book, The Chronicles of the Underworld, will go into more details about the conceptualization of this line.

I think this piece has a great balance, there is a great composition as far as a story, and context but also visually. I love the whole monstrous beauty concept. She lures me in but also scares me. I've always wanted a mermaid statue, and I've always loved horror. So, it is a great unification.

One really unexpected design was the tail. You either expect it to be a mermaid tail or snake tail and it is neither. It forms these really odd, tendril like fingers with nails. I really found that neat when I pulled the piece out for this review. I like that they strayed from typical, mythological expectations.

Gallevarbe is obviously a really tall piece. She is a quarter scale, Premium Format, with a long tail. I think she is also large compared to other quarter scale female pieces. Her torso is quite a bit, 25% or more, larger than the Jean Grey Premium Format. I wasn't able to compare them, yet, but I would say she is closer in scale to the original Lady Death Premium Format. Likely larger. But we all know that the first Lady Death was quite a bit larger than the Marvel female pieces.

Production and build quality:
This is one of those situations, where the production piece closely resembles the prototype. Actually, I don't even care if it doesn't. I love how it came out. The sculpt and paint are fantastic. After viewing early pics, there was one aspect of the piece that bugged me, the dull jewelry. The prototype had more of a shiny chrome applied to the silver. But after seeing it in person, I am happy with it. It is bright and eye-catching.

They obviously produced the base in a hand full of pieces. All the decomposing corpses had to be separate and later glued into place. There is a large, puttied seam between the rock and Gallevarbe. This obviously made it easier for them to paint and assemble the piece.

This piece is heavy. I am actually shocked at how heavy the base is. You really have to grab onto it and heave it out of the foam. BTW, don't pull her out by the tail!!!! Grab the rocks. I will tell you why later. The heavy base really makes the piece stable.

There are also some strong magnets in the side tendrils, torso, head and arm. No magnets in the water. They aren't really necessary in the water. It fits really snug into the slots on her waste and into itself.

I usually can see some messy casting on Marvel pieces. Like seam-lines and rough patches, mostly in hair. But this piece has none. It is really clean and cast well.

You can feel that there are quite a few different plastic composites used. The rock forms feel hard, jagged and heavy, like real rocks. The figure itself feels like typical polystone, the tendrils and fins feel softer and more rubbery.

I found the assembly easy and straight forward. Seams meet up well. My only complaint is how the head fits on. With the far-left look, it makes lining up the head a bit harder than other pieces. I actually ended up scratching the bottom of the hair along the left shoulder, leaving some black marks.

Also, the bra-top doesn't fit tight to her chest. It still works and represents a top.

I am not a huge nude statue person. But I really like the natural appeal that the statue has when the top is removed.

Ok, so here is the bad...
The puttied seam between Gallevarbe's tail and the tall rock is finger-applied putty that was painted. It isn't a whole piece. So you can imagine what will happen if anyone pulls on that tail while removing it from the Styrofoam. It is going to pull that seam and crack the putty. That is exactly what happened to me. But! I did notice the crack before I even removed the piece. I just thought it was a fold or applied crack that happened while they were applying the putty. Not an actual deep crack that went through the whole seam.

So, if you are getting this piece, make sure you don't lift her out by the tail, because it will pull the tail away from the rock base, causing this rough patch of finger-applied putty to crack.

This is definitely a huge production/design problem. Most people are going to pull this piece out by the tail. There is no way a thin application of putty is going to keep one large heavy piece connected to another.

My main concern is the putty. There is already a huge crack. What happens when the rest of it starts to give away? I think they would have been better off not using the putty at all.

It will be interesting to see what they say about my request for a replacement.

Hopefully I covered everything.
If you have the piece and feel I did miss a certain detail, please add it to this thread.

Thanks again for taking to time to read this review.






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Old 01-02-2016, 09:31 PM   #2
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Old 01-02-2016, 09:35 PM   #3
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Old 01-02-2016, 09:39 PM   #4
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Old 01-02-2016, 09:40 PM   #5
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Old 01-02-2016, 09:42 PM   #6
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Other details:

I love the hands.

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Old 01-02-2016, 09:47 PM   #7
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Old 01-02-2016, 09:57 PM   #8
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The cracking seam:
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Old 01-02-2016, 10:25 PM   #9
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Excellent photos. You've really shown off the details.

Pity about the cracked seam. Does the tail "key" into the rock? If it does then at least the structural integrity is not compromised. But it's as you said, they were better off not puttying a gap that's also a stress point.
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Old 01-02-2016, 11:38 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EnShinNoi View Post
Excellent photos. You've really shown off the details.

Pity about the cracked seam. Does the tail "key" into the rock? If it does then at least the structural integrity is not compromised. But it's as you said, they were better off not puttying a gap that's also a stress point.
What do you mean by "keyed?" Fits in with a peg? or rods? I can't tell. The crack isn't large enough for me to look into it.
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