Legionpichon
Super Freak
For me "Upper and lower" pic are a night and day difference , I'd be happy to receive one with a paint app as good as the "lower".
Bute everyone has his degree of "tolerance" I'll give my final opinion once I receive mine
Statue Weta Workshop Smaug the Terrible Statue
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For me "Upper and lower" pic are a night and day difference , I'd be happy to receive one with a paint app as good as the "lower".
Bute everyone has his degree of "tolerance" I'll give my final opinion once I receive mine
From the in hand pics I'm seeing I'm not impress about the paint job at all.
It'll be interesting to see when mine arrives but from the pics the paint job isn't matching the price tag.
It'll be interesting to see when mine arrives but from the pics the paint job isn't matching the price tag.
SurlyJ
Super Freak
Some more in hand pics from facebook (not mine)
Pork Chop Express
I never drive faster than I can see...
The red body looks like a matte finish on the in hand pics compared to the proto.
Does it looks that way in person? For the price I hope mine comes out looking great.
Does it looks that way in person? For the price I hope mine comes out looking great.
Actually, no, those are all the same, the only difference is colour temperature and hence the vibrancy of the red.
None of those have the yellow/orange tones of the prototype image.
Exactly.
On the proto you see the lower part of the head(from side) and some scars are supposed to be yellow&orange. Colour gradually turns from dark red into orange
Everything comes down to preference. The owner is the person to like it or not. But when I paid 600eur based on a certain picture I want to own a statue which looks like that very picture.
Legionpichon
Super Freak
I do see orange an yellow in the production piece, not just red...Maybe I'm imagining colours
From another owner:
Most of the shots seem to show a darn good job, IMO. Some up close shots will make things look worse because of how blown up the photos are. So You have to take all of it with a grain of salt. People need to take a deep breath and let everything play out.
Legionpichon
Super Freak
Just received mine! Unboxing was a pain in the as$
I'm no great collector with over 300 statues, I've been 2 years in this hobby and I have 22 1/4 statues and 8 1/5 statues, most from sideshow a couple from XM and some others from F4F. This is my first weta piece, and I like it but I'm not really impressed. I would give this piece an overall 7.5/10, what brings the piece down imo is without any doubt paint app, it has to be one of the sloppiest painted pieces in my collection I know this statues won't be seen from an inch away, but for the price tag a better paint app should have been the rule. No breakage or defects, it just came with a painful duty & tax invoice.
I'm not returning this but I will be more cautious with my future WETA pieces, just as I am with sideshow.
Those are my two cents
I'm no great collector with over 300 statues, I've been 2 years in this hobby and I have 22 1/4 statues and 8 1/5 statues, most from sideshow a couple from XM and some others from F4F. This is my first weta piece, and I like it but I'm not really impressed. I would give this piece an overall 7.5/10, what brings the piece down imo is without any doubt paint app, it has to be one of the sloppiest painted pieces in my collection I know this statues won't be seen from an inch away, but for the price tag a better paint app should have been the rule. No breakage or defects, it just came with a painful duty & tax invoice.
I'm not returning this but I will be more cautious with my future WETA pieces, just as I am with sideshow.
Those are my two cents
rayeknor
Super Freak
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Seems to be the consensus across forums that the paint job on this statue is the weak spot. And it kind of makes me scratch my head - the sculpt and detail is nothing short of fantastic, as is the packaging and care gone into the rest of the production.
So why does Weta let obviously sloppy paint jobs pass qc and drag down an otherwise truly impressive statue? For $750 you should expect a paint job closer to the prototypes then to $20 plastic dinosaurs, which a lot of the in hand photos resemble.
In my opinion this has to be some bad qc or other factory problem missed by Weta cause the difference in quality between most of the paint jobs seen on in hand pieces so far and the rest of the statue is just in completely different leagues.
They do not strike me as a company not caring about what they deliver to their customers as long as it earns, plus they created Smaug's design for the movies - this should be a prestige piece for them to get right. I bet for the 3d artists and sculptors it probably was.
So why does Weta let obviously sloppy paint jobs pass qc and drag down an otherwise truly impressive statue? For $750 you should expect a paint job closer to the prototypes then to $20 plastic dinosaurs, which a lot of the in hand photos resemble.
In my opinion this has to be some bad qc or other factory problem missed by Weta cause the difference in quality between most of the paint jobs seen on in hand pieces so far and the rest of the statue is just in completely different leagues.
They do not strike me as a company not caring about what they deliver to their customers as long as it earns, plus they created Smaug's design for the movies - this should be a prestige piece for them to get right. I bet for the 3d artists and sculptors it probably was.
Wise yoda
Freaked Out
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Middle eart should be a little raw 
It's totally something different then the shiny Gentle giant paintjobs,but fot what I have seen so far it looks fine to me.
I'm think I'm in the later batch from the Uk warehouse.
Tho I'm expecting Faramir this week.
It's totally something different then the shiny Gentle giant paintjobs,but fot what I have seen so far it looks fine to me.
I'm think I'm in the later batch from the Uk warehouse.
Tho I'm expecting Faramir this week.
Kratos
Super Freak
Finally received my Smaug Statue, yet to open it as I know I have to repack it away, will post pics when I do. I received statue number 0011/2000
flankster117
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So kratos what's your thoughts? Worth it? How's the paint and sculpt? Close to proto seen at the comicons?
flankster117
Super Freak
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pics please
SurlyJ
Super Freak
Does it look like the pics we've been seeing and you are happy with it or is it better than the pics everyone is complaining about?
It will be a bit. I've got a backlog of statues I need to take pics of and review.
rjszar
Super Freak
Just finished unpacking Smaug. As I was the one who posted that I had avoided buying Weta after having seen some Kong statues that looked like they had been painted by a third grader, I can say that I am very happy with this. Is this a high end paint job that you would pay someone $500-$1000? No, but it is a very nice mass production paint job. It doesn't have all the finest detail that the proto did, but I wasn't expecting that. When I saw the picture of the one where there was clearly paint missing on the chin, I got worried. I'm pretrty sure that will be in the minority though.
Not that you should have to on a piece that costs as much as it does, but if you want some extra highlighting, do a little drybrushing. I'm sure some are protesting right now, but it's really pretty easy. It's an animal with some very rough skin. Probably get some amazing results, if so inclined. You don't even have to try all that hard to match colors. But.......as I said, you really shouldn't have to. Just some thoughts from someone who builds a lot of models.
Not that you should have to on a piece that costs as much as it does, but if you want some extra highlighting, do a little drybrushing. I'm sure some are protesting right now, but it's really pretty easy. It's an animal with some very rough skin. Probably get some amazing results, if so inclined. You don't even have to try all that hard to match colors. But.......as I said, you really shouldn't have to. Just some thoughts from someone who builds a lot of models.
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