DIMIC

Almost a year ago, I previewed Sota Toys’ Embrace statue. If you’ve read that one, you’d know how horrified I was at the preview pictures of said statue and how sad it made me. Sad because I really, really like the idea and pose but as usual with Sota products, the quality really is sub par…
Luckily they stated that the final product would be better. And my, were they wrong…

The main reasons I ordered this statue was simply because I love Darkstalkers and really liked the pose and general feel of this statue. Also the fact that I could get it locally for a fair price wasn’t bad. Unfortunately my predictions regarding Sota’s quality did, indeed, proved to be true.

Let me start of by saying the stuff that are wrong with this one. First of, those faces! I know that Sota has trouble with face sculpts and especially those of female characters, just look at their Cammy’s, but I never expected it to be this bad…
The colors are of, the expressions are blank and the overall feel is just unfinished. Luckily, you can position this statue so that you don’t see the faces. But still, it’s such a missed opportunity. Next to the ugly faces, the next big issue I have with this statue are the extremely visible seams. There are multiple ones; the shoulders, neck and the base of the wings. Especially the shoulder seams are just too noticeable which is weird because they can smooth these lines out easily. Or just had the parts disconnect right there at the ruffles instead on such a visible place.
Another thing that really bothers me a lot is the unfinished, rough feel of the sculpting. It feels like they didn’t sand it down enough or something. Lot’s of rough edges, bubbles, webbing fingers, craters, … It just gives of an unprofessional vibe that you wouldn’t expect from a company that have been making statues for quite a while now. It just feels like they’re not interested in improving their quality.

Having said the bad stuff, you might wonder why I actually bothered buying this thing since it was clear from the beginning that it would look like this. Even though there are a lot of things I don’t like about this statue, I can actually forgive them all that simply because I love the pose and the whole feeling it has. It’s a wonderful pose and it just has something. That, and I love the wings! They’re so pretty. I don’t get why they have such a bland color scheme and can make the wings look so beautiful. Especially those of Morrigan are so pretty.

I don’t really know about any issues with this statue since I don’t know anyone who actually bought it… We did have an issue with it however. One of the talons on the wings was broken clean off but it was an easy fix with some superglue and now you don’t even see it.

Even though there are 500 made of this statue, you don’t really have to hurry if you really want it since it isn’t even sold out at the official website yet… Sigh, if only they’d improved their quality or at least dropped the price a notch…

Oh, and a little side rant; that horrible font! My eyes! My eyes!

Conclusion
If you’re a really big fan of Darkstalkers, this can be interesting. That is, if you’re willing to look past the flaws. It’s a good statue when viewed at a normal distance and in some certain angles but I do advise to look around to get it somewhat cheaper then retail because no matter how you look at it, it isn’t worth the 159.99 bucks they’re asking for it.
Even though I like this statue (again, from a distance), The Embrace comes nowhere close to the Morrigan made by Pop Culture Shock or the many good quality PVC versions out there. I still need that Morrigan and Lilith from Yamato… Now, those are some nice resin statues!

Pictures

Item reviewed: Darkstalkers – The Embrace
Type: Resin
Manufacturer: Sota Toys
Variations: none
Rarity: Absolutely not rare… Still for sale on the official website even though it was a SDCC exclusive. 500 made worldwide