Original review is over here :
http://www.whatsyourobsession.com/si...statue-review/
Has higher-res photos than I can fit here and here's the Youtube video link since I don't think you can embed Youtube videos on the forum, can you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3rqEKM6Bdg
Anyways, on to the review!
Dutch comes in a standard artbox. It looks good with images of Dutch and Predator imagery and a jungle theme. He’s packaged well with almost all the pieces being on one side, the two plants placed under a taped cardboard section on the other side and he includes an instruction manual, though mine was printed a bit dark and difficult to make out. Assembly is with pegs and magnets. The gun was a little tricky to wedge into place but with around a minute of wiggling it got in there. The head was also a bit difficult. See how he has that tight top? You need to stretch it a bit to wedge the head in underneath.
Let’s talk about how incredible this headsculpt is. I absolutely love it. This might be the best Arnold I’ve seen to date. Trevor Grove knocked this one way out of the ballpark. He’s got an intense look like he’s gone through hell already fighting the Predator. The shape of the face, the hair, the facial hair, and especially the paint, it’s a great match to Arnold’s look in the film. The exclusive (which I don’t have) was a switch-out head with cigar. From a couple angles he looks slightly cross-eyed but from most, his eyes are perfect. I saw some people had more serious eye issues with theirs but seems I was lucky!
In the intro picture and one of the ones above you can see my two primary issues with the statue. The pores on his arms are a little too prominent and his skintone is off. It’s too yellow and should’ve had more red in the mix. The pores look like pock marked areas and while I understand the effect they were going for, they should’ve been much more subtle. From a few feet away though the effect looks fine. If you look at the face, which has a more subtle implementation of it, it looks like a much better effect.
There were a bunch of notes cases of bent rifle tips, some pretty severe. They were fixed by people using dryers to bend them back into place. This is how mine looked right out of the box so seems I was lucky twice on this one! The choice of weathering on the gun magazine was an interesting choice, it doesn’t look convincingly like mud and since there isn’t muddy weathering on the rest of the statue, it’s a little out of place. The sculpting on the gun is great though.
The base is fantastic. The muddy glossy effect is very well done and I wish more of the base were done in that style. Even so, it accents the piece nicely. The mix of technology and organic might not make much sense in the context of the movie but instead, it works well with the feel of the movie. Plus, it looks super cool. The paint over the base is full of dark browns and green highlights, with the growing plants a different shade of green.
The accessories (one knife you attach, one pistol you put in a holster, then the gun/knife which are already on) are well made. The fabric choices are superb and well tailored. Look at the different types of fabric used across the vest, the shirt, and the belts/straps. This is also perhaps the first Arnold statue to get his absurdly huge musculature right. While I was a big fan of the T-800 I previously reviewed, it wasn’t quite as large as it needed to be (and that’s when Arnold was smaller). I can’t see a better Dutch being made than this one. Though I’d love to get the T-800 from Enterbay to compare the two headsculpts!
