Ok, taking another second to actually look at the Venkman sculpt again...
Looks pretty good to me. Say that's atrocious and you're lying to yourself.
Why does everyone keep using the most unflattering pictures they can find of these figures (the ToyArk ones) to make their case on how poor these figures turned out?
IAT has shared several in hand images showing how nice these turned out overall and how a little futzing can make them look even better, but people seem to ignore those and elect to focus on the ones that show them in the most unflattering light?
Ok, taking another second to actually look at the Venkman sculpt again...
Looks pretty good to me. Say that's atrocious and you're lying to yourself.
Okay... so... it's a dog.
Thought maybe an ultimate troll stunt might get things back on track from the absurd "atrocious" and "awesome" extremes pendulum this is back to.
I think we all just need to agree that Venkman is neither "atrocious" nor "awesome." It's very solid and decent, it's got a big dose of recognizable Murray in there, but the likeness isn't ideal, and the expression - while perhaps working for a handful of "stunned" Venkman moments, doesn't capture his character's mischievious, fun and sardonic vibe.
But it's a strong, hyper-realistic, high-end effort that handily eclipses anything that has been done with customs in the past, and is very much a worthy introduction of Venkman into the realm of $200+ figs in the Detolf.
I'd actually say there's maybe 10% John McEnroe in there somewhere too. I seem to recall liking the "talking"/open mouth Snyder Venkman sculpt a little more then the closed-mouth, but likeness issues aside, they just don't have the level of sculpt detail the BW sculpt has, and they'd cost more than the entire BW fig to get a top-level paint up.
From a likeness and expression perspective, I still think the 1/4 scale Hollywood Collectibles statue is the best Venkman sculpt ever done (by Trev Grove) but it's 1/4 scale, doesn't have the same level of ultra-detail as the BW, and has statue-type paint apps - aka Sideshow Premium Format circa 2010 apps - so not even in the same realm as BW or HT 1/6 apps. In that way, hard to compare really.
Do you ever have anything of substance to offer? I mean ever?
Well I don't think anyone necessarily needs to agree on anything. As was mentioned before, all these likenesses are subjective. Personally, I would give Egon and Ray 9 out of 10's, Venkman an 8.5/10, with Winston being an 8 only because of the subpar paint job. Better paint apps would probably push that one up to the best sculpt of the four at a 9.5/10. Regarding Venkman, 8.5/10 obviously isn't perfect. Like I said though, I think when it comes to 1/6 scale, getting someone's likeness utterly perfect is extremely difficult when you're dealing with something this small. It does happen, but very rarely. I consider anything 8 and above to be a pretty good sculpt on my scale.
So in this case, I do agree with you that the Venkman sculpt isn't dead on accurate as it does have its inaccuracies, but it's by far not horrible and is a pretty darn good 1/6 rendition of him as Peter Venkman if I must say so myself. If one thinks the sculpt is horrible, that's fine of course, but I think to come in and simply say "nope, it's bad" without giving any sort of input or offering anything of substance, comes off a bit trollish and douchey.
I couldn't be more excited to receive these guys and I think they're going to be the jewel of my collection.
I'm still going with the 60/40 Maher/Murray ratio. It literally looks like an amalgamation of those two to me.
As I mentioned, if BW didn't make these figures, I suppose that sculpt would be your best option. However, the Murray likeness in my opinion between the Snyderman and BW sculpts is no comparison; I see Murray hands down way more in the BW one. It doesn't look like anyone else. It's only drawback to me is the shape of his head is slightly incorrect which is what throws it off, but facial likeness wise, it's Murray all the way.
Well Soldier Story is tackling Egon and Venkman, but based on just their prototype pictures, they pale in comparison to these while being slightly more expensive. M8 had them on their list of licenses they had when they first started, but going by the current John Lennon figure fiasco (last time I checked at least), who knows what to believe with them.
