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Old 11-13-2017, 04:02 PM   #1
GaryTonge
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Darth Vader Legacy Replica Statue by Iron Studios - Review

Darth Vader Legacy Replica Statue by Iron Studios

My HD video turnaround of the Darth Vader Replica Statue: HERE



Sculpt:
Body: Iron Studios did a remarkable job with the sculpt on Darth Vader. His helmet is beautifully sculpted and has a cinematic quality to it. The shape of the dome, eyes and vents are all fairly accurate when compared to screenshots of The Empire Strikes Back. Iron Studios have also included details such as the clamps on the collar of the helmet. For those concerned with weight, fear not, his head is heavy!

The quilted body suit is sculpted in great detail. The suit features fabric creases, wrinkles and the quilted stitch patterns. No shortcuts were taken with the sculpt of the suit. Every stitch is present and looks like mixed media. The gloves have a good amount of flare to separate them from the rest of the suit. They also feature a different quilt pattern from the suit, resembling the design used in ESB.

The cod piece and boots have a sculpted texture that resemble padded leather. All other suit elements such as the shoulder armor and shin guards closely match their EBS counterparts.

This piece also features two nicely sculpted 1/4 scale lightsabers; one for use with the in hand pose and the other as an accessory to be use with the non-lightsabered poses. As a nice little extra, both sabers feature a functional D-ring that can be repositioned.



Base: The base has a simple but effective design that tells a story.
The sculpted snow features varying textures with some rocky elements. The floor lamp has detail to the face including damage to the glass. The mechanical object in the background has a severed pipe that adds character and a story element to the base. Additionally, the lower mounting platform has an elegant design that nicely ties the base together.



Score: 10/10


Paint: Iron Studios have done an excellent job with the Harlequin pattern used on the mask. The shoulder armor is also nicely done, however I wonder if the silver should be toned down slightly for a better degree of screen accuracy.

The quilted suited has a nice sheen to differentiate it from more matte appearance of the gloves. In contrast, the cod piece and boots are completely matte. A high gloss paint was used for the helmet, armour and shin guards. Overall, the varying levels of sheen to the different costume components helps to push the level of realism of the piece.

Additionally, Iron Studios included other details such as snow on boots, hoses ant the base's mechanical feature.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the inclusion of weathering to the belt components!

The use of white for the snow elements is not blinding and contrast well with earth tones use for the rock appearing from beneath the snow.

The sliver for the mounting platform is elegant and once again helps to tie things together.


Score: 10/10


Mixed Media: The mixed media for this piece is excellent. The cape is a double sided high quality material with a matte outer shell and satin inner layer. The inner robe is pleated and sewn into the figure. I think the snow details to the bottom aspect of the cape and inner robe are a nice detail that blends the statue into the base.

All of the above being said, this piece requires some TLC to make it looks its absolute best. The fabric comes quite wrinkled and I needed to steam the cape and inner rob to have the material flow properly. In addition, the pleated inner robe needs to be organized a bit and shaped somewhat to ensure it looks the way it does in the movie. After this is done though, it looks very nice.

Posing the cape was a challenge. I spent several hours playing with the cape to get it the way I wanted it. I'm still not 100% pleased with it. For the those in the audience with OCD, have fun with this!

I think part of the challenge with the cape is due to how massive it is. From what I recall, the cape is probably about 2.5-3ft long when fully stretched out. I think if the cape was half of the material it is, it would be much easier to pose.


Score: 9.5/10


Design:
Design-wise, Iron Studios went with an aggressive, mid-action pose Darth Vader storming the Rebel base on Hoth. It was courageous of them to go with a "non-cannon" pose for this piece, but I think the gamble paid off. Vader looks powerful and determined. We could only have imagined how awesome it would have been to see a scene with Vader slicing his way through rebel troops upon entering the base. Now we get to see that in statue form! Thank you Iron Studios!!

Choosing the Empire Strikes Back for their first Vader statue was a great decision. Arguably the favorite film in the saga for most, a few of the switchout options help to capture some of the poignant moments of the film, specifically, the "rule the galaxy as father and son" scene.

The Hoth inspired base in combination with the snow on the cape and Vader's menacing appearance, helps to pull everything together cohesively for a story that even the most layman of Star Wars fans to recognize.


Score: 10/10


Light Up Features: The light up features with this piece are tremendous. The chest piece has the same alternating flashes as seen in the films, the green lights on the belt are vibrant and the brilliant crimson glow of the lightsaber is icing on the cake.

The base features a lamp which casts an eerie effect on the figure. The light blue glow from the lamp and crimson of the light saber echoes the fantastic lighting featured in the "carbon chamber" scene.

There are a few aspects of the lightup that holds the statue back from getting a perfect score in this area; the lack of an AC adapter and the annoyance of activating all of the switches.

The light up feature for the base light and light saber requires three AA batteries. When I received my statue I installed fresh Duracell batteries. I've had the lights on for about two hours total and everything seems good so far. Without the AC adapter, the statue will need to be completely disassembled whenever new batteries are needed.

The chest piece and belt have switches similar to the Sideshow PF. They need to be switched on independently from the main light switch. Both items use watch batteries. When wanting to use the chest lights with the double handed light saber pose, you need to completely remove both arms in order to do this(this is problematic in itself and I address this in Production and Build Quality).



Score 9/10


Production and Build Quality:
I was apprehensive about the quality of this piece and especially of Iron Studios after the issues with the Spider-man statue. Once in hand photos and videos were released I knew I needed to jump on it.

Let me just say that the quality of this piece is as good as anything on the market presently. From the sculpt to the paint, light ups and mixed media, this is a very high quality collectible.

The statue is heavy and the portrait in particular has a lot of weight to it.

The only issue I have with this piece is the lack of a magnets to any of the right arm switchouts. In particular, the arms in the dual handed light saber position are tricky to install. It becomes especially problematic if you want to activate the light switches.

That being said, I'm not really one to use the light up features on these statues, and the only way I'll display this piece is with the dual handed light saber pose anyway. So, I'm not too worried about that.

Score 9.5/10


Overall:
Iron Studios have crafted a Darth Vader statue that lives up to its monkier of Legacy Replica.

I think this is the finest Darth Vader statue ever made and perhaps one of the best Star Wars statues of all time.

As of writing this review, this statue is on waitlist at Sideshow. If you're a Darth Vader fan, try to acquire this piece. With an ES of only 1000, it's going to be highly sought after in the years to come.


Overall Score: 9.7/10
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Old 11-13-2017, 04:03 PM   #2
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Old 11-13-2017, 04:32 PM   #3
moonlightdrive21
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Great review !!! Thanks for doing it.

I would have given Iron Studios a much lower score in the lighting category as I find it appalling that a piece this expensive does not have an AC plug.
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Old 11-13-2017, 05:03 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moonlightdrive21 View Post
Great review !!! Thanks for doing it.

I would have given Iron Studios a much lower score in the lighting category as I find it appalling that a piece this expensive does not have an AC plug.
Thanks for checking it out. I think the score for the light ups have a direct correlation with one's irritation factor. It's a pain, but they look great. Sideshow used the same setup for the Vader PF.

Perhaps it's a limitation with the factories?
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Old 11-13-2017, 05:28 PM   #5
risingstar
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9.7! Wow!

Cool statue. Who doesn't love a battle primed Vader???
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Old 11-13-2017, 10:59 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by risingstar View Post
9.7! Wow!

Cool statue. Who doesn't love a battle primed Vader???
Thanks for commenting Charles!

This is simply a wonderful statue. I believe it's the best Vader statue yet made. Out of the 7 1/4 scale statues I received this year(1 sideshow, 1 Iron Studios and 5 XM), it's in my top two of the year and probably top 5 in my collection.
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Old 11-14-2017, 10:07 PM   #7
Bmutha
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<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/jd6TVgsph6w7e" width="480" height="270" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/cheezburger-dancing-star-wars-jd6TVgsph6w7e">via GIPHY</a></p>
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Old 11-14-2017, 11:00 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bmutha View Post
<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/jd6TVgsph6w7e" width="480" height="270" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/cheezburger-dancing-star-wars-jd6TVgsph6w7e">via GIPHY</a></p>
That's actually a gif of me in my Vader jammies after I got this statue!
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Old 11-16-2017, 01:59 PM   #9
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excellent review and awesome pics as always!

did you do anything beyond the usual futzing with the mixed media like steam it or anything? looks like you did a nice job getting everything in place
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Old 11-16-2017, 05:31 PM   #10
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This just makes me hope twice as much that my waitlist converts (it sold out while I awaited a refund, typical)
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