DIMIC

Already a long time ago, Gaming Heads announced, surprisingly, a new licence; Soul Reaver 2 – Legacy of Kain. Now the first statue has arrived and we are ready to review him!

The Soul Reaver 2 game is already from 2001, nearly 20 years ago. It was orginally meant as a PlayStation and Dreamcast game, but in the end released by Eidos Interactive on the PlayStation 2. The game was developed by Crystal Dynamics.

This game was from an era that the market was not that ready to make a lot of collectibles. Gaming was still a bit niche and frowned upon and not the big business it is today. So not a lot of merchandise was made of Soul Reaver at all. We know of some action figures and one pretty rare Oxmox statue (that we reviewed before). Luckily for us, Gaming Heads was ready to make some changes in this.

The first statue in the line is the protagonist of the game, Raziel. They made the choise to make the statue in 1/4 scale. This is a good thing as it means big, a lot of details, an acte de présence… but it also made the statue rather expensive, coming in two boxes and big (space wise this is also a disadvantage).

The statue was previewed and placed on the site ready for order around February 2017 and was normally planned to be shipped in Q2 2018. But as so often happens with statues, it was delayed. Next to regular delays that are in the nature of this hobby, the licence holder also requested some changes when the product was already in development. Which doesn’t make the process any easier.
The change was replacing the orange/yellow Soul Blade by the blueish Wraith Blade. As mentioned before, this was done on request of the licencor to “benefit further projects”. No idea what those projects can be, but it means that this licence hopefully will be extended with another statue. My guess would be Kain, seeing as it is the most obvious choice.

Now on to the statue. The best thing about this statue, above all, is the pose. They didn’t go for a static pose but dynamic; Raziel hanging on a pillar, ready to leap into action. This is magnificent. I imagine that the engineering in making this one was a bit more challenging. I really hope they calculated it right and the statue will not have leaning issues in the long run. This is sadly always a risk with the more elaborate poses. Only time will tell, but for now he is fitted and standing perfectly.

Raziel comes in nine different pieces; interchangeable claws, torso (two parts), two wings, head and the base is separated as bottom and pillar. Just be careful with the wings as they are not really that thin, but will break the easiest.
It is a bit a puzzle to get everything connected, but it al fitted together without applying too much force and without any gaps.

The pain application on both Raziel as the pillar are well done. To be fair, this is not a character with a lot of different colors nor a really difficult paint job, which might be an advantage when taking older game licenses. The colors are really vibrant and the shading is nicely applied.

The exclusive is the light up in the Wraith Blade. It is not really possible to see on the pictures, but the effect is nicely done. Three small button batteries place in his shoulder are providing the power that is needed. The regular is the same, but without the lights. There is also a switch out arm to replace the blade with a claw which is included with both the regular and the exclusive. They also offered a so-called Collective Edition which is essentially the regular but unpainted. We have yet to see someone who owns this version and painted it themselves…

Conclusion

If you are a Soul Reaver fan, this statue is a definite must have. There is not a lot of merchandise made for this game and even less in a high end grade. The exclusive is waitlisted but both the regular and the collective are still in stock. The light up is nice, but to be honest, nobody really uses light ups. Superb statue and glad to add it to the collection.

Item reviewed: Raziel Exclusive
Type: Resin
Manufacturer: Gaming Heads
Variations: regular (without the light up blade)
Rarity: Exclusive is 350 pieces, Collective edition (non painted) is 50 and the regular is 750 pieces.