GERALT OF RIVIA

 The Saga of Geralt of Rivia, a series of sword and sorcery novels that trully builds on a completelly original vision of the medieval times, pawned a fantastic game long time ago called The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt and sparked a series of comics, board games, merchadise and finally an awfull Netflix series that had buried the brand in the worst way. Sure, a new game is coming but something tells me it wont be able to fill the shoes of The Wicther 3.

The videogame spawned a big collection of Dark Horse statues based on the characters but later on McFarlane Toys got the licence and released a pretty awfull and cheap looking action figures that looked....just.....nothing like a McFarlane Toys figure. Things got even much worse when they started release figures based on the Netflix show, they Henrry Cavill sculpt was a grotesque atrocity that didnt lasted long since the series also saw a huge fall in popularity.

But there was a single item i really like from the McFarlane Toys line, a 12" statue of Geralt that reminds me the old big size Tortured Souls or Spawn figures from the 90s. A piece i surelly could not resist when i saw it. Like i said this statue is huge and have a pretty strong presence in the shelves since each details stand out in all its glory.

It can stand on its own perfectly but just to be extra safe it comes with a huge circular black base with a pin that can be inserted in Geralt feet. The base is black with the logo of the game and nothing more. Its pretty elegant, looks good and do the job perfectly fine tough it takes a little bit of space.

Like i said, this reminds me a lot of the old McFarlane Toys figures feelt and that includes the articulations, soo while this is a statue, it have pretty limited articulation. The shoulders can move up and down a little bit and the left glvoe can rotate soo the position of the sword can be adjusted. The swords on his back can rotate as well and his thigh can rotate a little bit t adjust his feet but not too much. This is way too much for a statue really.

The sculpt is really really good. Entirelly based on the game design and by default, the original novels, this shows Geralt on all his glory. The wrinkles on his forehead, the scars on his ehe and nose, the thin lips, the beard, everything is sculpted in a pretty subtle and realistc way and the beard really surprise me because they usually dont know how to sculpt a beard at all, but here it looks perfect.

The strands of hair are really well defined and his armor not only have the seams sculpted but also cuts and other prints of heavy use as well. The lower half of his shirt have a leather texture and his pants and sleeves looks like soft cotton. The chains mails design looks really good as well and all the belts, the shoulder pads and the hook on the front of his waist are made with soft plastic despite replicating the same textures.

His left hand is actually made of soft plastic, soo the fingers can be open to place any of the two swords on it and this was a huge and very positive surprise for me since most of the time they leave the hands in hard plastic, makinf the sword changue a nightmare, His rigth hand holds four harpy heads tied with a thick rope. This peice is also amde with soft plastic tough the only sections that felt actually soft are the hair. 

The wrinkles, the huge teeth and tongue, the rope moving bwteeen mouths and in between the hair, this section is pretty gruesome and helps for Geralt to stand out more like the monster hunter he is.

Sadly, i have issues with the paint. Each section is cast in the dominant color of the peice soo the brown and blue of his top armor looks pretty clean as well as the different browns on his pants and qhote on his sleeves. The belts around him also looks pretty clean but thats the biggest issue here....theres no shadows, no wash, no signs of wear, everything looks supernatural clean to the point it almost looks cell shading. 

Strangelly, his boots actually have a light brown that works perfectly with the texture used on them and make them looks like rino skin, pretty cool and natural, but pretty much this is the only section were texture and color works together. 

The hair of the harpys are just black but the skin is a mix of dark green with a dark wash that makes them looks rotte, and while the tongues and gums are red, the eyes and teeth are not painted at all. The chainmail metalic paints isnt perfect either and mix with the brown pretty badly in some sections.

Both the hair and beard tough have a soft blue tones that helps aparts the strands of hair and gives the beard a bushy and natural look and Geralt face paint is really good and natural. The lips are wet. the scars and eyebrows are perfectly painted as well as the eyes with the yellow pupils but theres also a weird.....purple tone at the side of his head that looks really awfull. It covers the neck and ears and the sides of the face. From the sides looks terrible, but from the front this weird paint frames the face very nicelly and make his eyes stand out. Really i dont know wath to think about this....

Aside of his base, the only accesory this statue have are his two swords: one for humans and another made of silver for monsters. The sculpt is very simple and while the normal sword have marks is use and identations in the blade, the silver one for monsters have runes and symbols carved on the blade. But then again, one is silver with black, the other one is silver with brown and nothing more, no marks of use, no blood or mud, no nothing.

Both swords can be fit on his free hand pretty easyand the glvoe can be adjusted to have the sword close to Geralt,s body or away from it or also they cna be fit on the sheath on his back and they fit perfectly there and this way the statue take less space on the shelve.

I really like this figure, i love the scale and the sculpt and the addition of the monster heads and two swords but the paint job really fill me with doubts. The face looks terrific, but the rest is just antinatural clean and looks extremelly cartoony and thats a HUGE dissapointment for something with the McFarlane Toys brand on it. Then again, comapred with the smaller scale action figures, this statue is a piece of art!!