At year's end, I was invited to visit the workplace of one of the major on-line gaming and miniatures retailers in the business, Cool Mini or Not. So on Friday (yesterday), my lady and I made our way north to take them up on their generous offer. . .
It was one of the best afternoons in recent memory! The weather was crisp, cool and sunny-- which took me back some 15 years to my last championship game in roller hockey a mere mile or so down the road. We first ran into Travis, whom we first met at the AMFS show last year, pleasant and welcoming as always; and shortly thereafter we were ushered into the warehouse, which is now overseen by Josh, a fellow hockey fanatic and all-around great guy!
WOW!!! As I told Josh, I now know what Santa's warehouse looks like. What a rush!! Figures, accessories and supplies, oh my! I quickly selected what I had come for (more on this below), but there was no rush whatsoever--in fact, my lady picked up a "picking basket", and a casual hour later had picked up SMOG 1888's Mrs. Dudley; Studio McVey's new release, Hathya; and BaneBeast's Krull, a monster of a masterpiece!
We spent the rest of our time there talking shop with Travis, who is in the process of putting together a 28-30mm WWII Soviet wargaming army. No short cuts were being taken, and I am hoping he has a decently-sized sample of his work at the Atlanta Show in a few weeks: ought to be impressive!
Time flew and we just beat rush-hour traffic, which on a Friday can turn a 40-minute jaunt into an hours-long trek. Our sincere thanks to our most gracious hosts, the good people at Cool Mini or Not.
My main reason for going was to inspect and hopefully pick-up KM's 1/10th scale bust of Boba Fett (KSTB002). I am not that great of a fan of Fett, Jr., or this particular rendition; but it would be a superb base to convert into Boba's father, Jango Fett, IF I could find a decent casting. As I had explained to Josh, this had been one of the poorest received miniatures
from this line (and that is saying something!) due to production problems which
they apparently chose to ignore rather than aggressively address: at last
count (before losing the Lucasfilm license) they were on their third
(!) caster. Given the problems I have had with
Knight Models over the last four years, I was averse to putting money out without any reasonable assurance of receiving
what I am paying for.
CMON had two of the 4-piece busts in stock (nos. 135 and 136): they are now apparently O/S! Both of these were superbly cast from relatively fresh molds in the now-standard light grey PUR. Were the castings perfect? No; but I would still rate them as VG+++. Save for a few (< 10) stray air holes, and the usual fit problems (these more at design and pre-production than molding and casting), this is a top-notch kit!
The main difficulties involving this conversion revolve around correcting the imprecise, seemingly unfinished, stylizations of the sculptor, José Miguel Caballero Delso. This is essentially an armoured figure, and armour demands symmetry; or if there is asymmetry, purpose and pre- cision. The helmet is very, VERY good; but the "coat of plates" and the jetpack shell leave much to be desired! This 'new school' approach to figures where the painting is expected to hide the shortcomings of the canvas is pure rubbish! If one buys a figure, one should be able to display it unpainted if one so desires!! Not this one -- or its many disappointing stablemates.
That being said, I am delighted with my acquisition (many thanks yet again to Josh and the team at CMON!), and quite excited at the prospect of what lies ahead: to have an "original" bust of the father of Boba Fett and the Clone Troopers in my collection!
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