World of Warcraft Series 4: Deluxe Collector Figure: Lady Vashj
Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at
3:56 pm
- World of WarCraft is the massivley multiplayer online role-laying game with over 10 million devoted subscribers, and its characters are captured in 3-D by DC Unlimited
- Lady Vashj is the perfect companion to Illidan Stormrage, the deluxe collector figure from Series 1
- Lady Vashj stands 10.5″ tall
- Exquisitely sculpted for life-like representation
The first female deluxe figure to join DC Unlimited’s lineup, formidable sorceress Lady Vashj is the perfect companion to Illidan Stormrage, her master in the wastes of Outland and DC Unlimited’s deluxe collector figure from Series 1!… More >>
World of Warcraft Series 4: Deluxe Collector Figure: Lady Vashj
Bought this for my nephew, he loves WoW and this is the latest in a series of toys he collects. Excellent quality and fast delivery.
WoW players – this is not a purple item. Maybe a blue, but more likely a useful green. Non-Warcraft players, sorry for the geek-out, the rest of this review will be in English.
I am a big fan of the super-detailed figurines. I loved it when MacFarlane Toys started making the Spawn figures and then all the other toy companies that followed suit. The initial Warcraft figures were a bit… iffy – lots of flash left on the bits of the mold details, sloppy paint, mangled looking faces… but they got better. Unfortunately Lady Vashj is a bit of a step backward – at least in my opinion.
What’s Good:
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The model itself isn’t too bad – if this was an unpainted model, I would probably score it higher. The details are crisp with very little excess plastic left around the edges, and the weapons have nice accents – even the arrow.
She’s sturdy – Lady Vashj comes with a base with two stubs that you mount her serpentine body to (think old fashion GI Joe figurines). Once you put her on the base, she’s not going to wobble and fall over like many of the other Warcraft figures.
She’s very accurate – makes you want to put together a group to go raiding again.
What’s Bad:
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The paint is pretty bad – especially for a figure you’re paying $40+ on. Vashj is scaled – and those scales are 3D, not just imprints – which I’m sure adds to the difficulty of painting, but there’s a lot of overlap and messy lines. There’s no real effort taken to detailing the paint on the weapon – most of the highlight lines on my bow were in the correct general area, but that’s about it. Her claws were sort of black, sort of… well sort of not colored in several areas.
The extras (bow, arrow, cape thing) are all loose, which has always irked the heck out of me and is a pet peeve of mine. The manufacturers did make a leap forward by allowing the bow and sword to come in two pieces so that the sword and bow can slide into the hand and then be snapped back together. Unfortunately the sword hand is the only one with a square hilt and a tight grip; once you put the sword in, it’s not moving. The bow hand, however, is a open “O” and therefore the bow just rocks around in the grip. Same for the arrow – the arrow has an extended piece behind the feather which slips into a hole on the draw hand, however the fingers are open so the piece rocks around in the little hole – so both the arrow and bow are pretty freestanding.
The tail joint is very obvious. In the picture on Amazon’s site, the tail joint is very carefully hidden from view. Lady Vashj’s tail comes in two pieces – the main body, then a secondary part which curls up behind her. Unfortunately the segment at which both parts join, while sturdy, is very, very obvious. There’s no extra bit of armor to hide the joint or anything along those lines.
Conclusion
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All in all, Lady Vashj isn’t a great figurine. I think the “Deluxe” in the product name is simply for the sheer size of the figure rather than the detailing. The cost of the figure really calls for a little bit more love to go into the small details – and that really wasn’t done. If you happen to find this figure for $30 or so, it’s worth it – however for the MSRP, it’s not a very good deal.
For parents looking for a toy for their kids – like all of the Warcraft figure series, these aren’t really “interactive” figures. They’re made to sit on a shelf and look neat – so probably not the best choice for a ten year old.