Harvinger Studios, Savage Crucible

Yeah, all their recent bluster and marketing weirdness aside, worth at least checking to see about a replacement for a QC issue. None of my figures have any issues other than initial stiffness.
 
docsilence said:
Got Elric, Brynyar, and Naraka from BBTS yesterday.

At the risk of pissing off the entire toy collecting community... I think Elric is INSANELY overhyped. He's a good figure. Nice head sculpt, armor looks good. The ruby ring on his left hand? Fuckin' beautiful bit of detail there.

But his arm articulation is ROUGH. My right arm also came out of the socket while just trying to get him warmed up into basic poses and while I popped it back in, it does not feel like it wants to stay there, and my biggest requirement for an action figure in any line is just... to stay together when posing him. The worst thing a figure can do is fall apart through basic use. (Okay, not moving at all is probably even worse, and Elric was TOUGH but a quick hot water bath fixed his frozen knees, ankles, elbows, and wrists). between the armor and the hair, his unmasked head has kinda limited ROM (neck ROM I'd say is usually one of the great strengths of Savage Crucible, too).

The butterfly shoulder joint has nice range and is very well hidden, but I lose a lot of the joy of that because the rest of his arm doesn't really want to do much. I can't get either lower part of the elbow to bend, so he's basically got 45 degrees on either arm. (I want to give him another hot water bath but again, don't want to fuck up the shoulders any more than they are.) The shoulder pauldrons are rubbery and awkward, but unlike some of the other figures in this line where I thought you could, in a bit of brilliant design, remove just a single piece of shoulder armor and really improve their ROM, he's only got bare shoulders under there. (I've pulled the top layer of armor off Jaeger, Who-Man, and Kreiger and REALLY liked a slightly less busy look for them.)

I mean honestly, he's fine - I think it's been the insane hype (and my own attachment to the character) that makes him a letdown. If I just bought him from a third-party seller with no hype he'd meet expectations.
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That sounds horrible man. You should just send him to me. I don't want you to suffer, so I'm willing to take on the burden for you! ;)
 
Speaking of marketing weirdness. What do we make of this recent Instagram post?

CRUCIBLE CODEX: ENTOMBED
Not every figure that disappears from the store is merely sold out.
When we say a figure is ENTOMBED, all inventory has been sold, allocated, or claimed.
No reissues.
No restocks.
No additional production planned.

In plain English:
Gone forever. The journey is complete.
An entombed figure has passed from our hands into the collections of those who claimed it. Its story continues with the collectors who carry its legend forward.

Words matter in the Crucible.

Isn't every sold-out item on their site "entombed?' I thought they don't do reissues, period. Are they walking that back, now?

And which figures are actually entombed? I didn't see a list or any kind of identifier in the store listings. A pic of the Savage Slate accompanies the text on Instagram. I guess that is?
 
GrumpyMatt said:
Speaking of marketing weirdness. What do we make of this recent Instagram post?

CRUCIBLE CODEX: ENTOMBED
Not every figure that disappears from the store is merely sold out.
When we say a figure is ENTOMBED, all inventory has been sold, allocated, or claimed.
No reissues.
No restocks.
No additional production planned.

In plain English:
Gone forever. The journey is complete.
An entombed figure has passed from our hands into the collections of those who claimed it. Its story continues with the collectors who carry its legend forward.

Words matter in the Crucible.

Isn't every sold-out item on their site "entombed?' I thought they don't do reissues, period. Are they walking that back, now?

And which figures are actually entombed? I didn't see a list or any kind of identifier in the store listings. A pic of the Savage Slate accompanies the text on Instagram. I guess that is?
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This just seems like a response to - or doubling down on - the Elric sellout kerfluffle.
 
One read is they will keep some in stock for replacements and so on for a bit that they might make available at a convention. Or maybe retail returns (unlikely) could add stock.

Another is that they are leaving the window open just a tad.
 
I wish they wouldn't be fucking vagueposting, if it was supposed to be about Elric they should have said Elric was or would be "entombed" instead of using the lizard savage as the example.

I feel really bad about a couple of you guys getting poor QC versions. Mine just had a couple very tight joints that needed a lot of working to loosen up. I don't know how hot the water you're using is but for figures like this I poor fully boiling water straight from the kettle directly onto the joint area. I think I had to do that a couple times with his knees, one elbow and one shoulder. I've never had any arms come out on SC figures but my Jaeger upper torso pops off as soon as you start to move it, but I bought him for the legs so it didn't bother me enough to ask for a replacement.
 
Haven't even taken this Elric out of the box yet, too distracted by Batman toys and getting my toy collection back up and running, and I am sorta just... whelmed? The only exciting thing about this for me is "Holy shit! Elric figure!" The actual take on the character is drab garbage that looks more like a background Peter Jackson Sauron goon than it does Elric. Yes, there are dragon-inspired elements to the armor, but they get lost in the all black armor, even with silver drybrushing and edge highlights. Even just unarmored arms would break up the monotony enough.

When I think of Elric, him in his full armor is certainly not among the first looks I think of, but when I do think of his armor I envision a regal presence despite the black, plenty of golds and reds and purples, etc. If not for the cape, the figure itself would practically be grayscale. His hair also just looks like a greasy mess compared to the volumous appearance I expect.

And all this is funny to me considering the face is spot-on to his description and typical illustrations, and the two Stormbringers we get are Michael Whelan's depiction as seen in his "Stormbringer" illustration, and John Coulhart's depiction as seen on the cover of Hawkwind's "Chronicle of the Black Sword." They should have spent more time studying Gould, Whelan, Brom, Amano, Russell, and maybe even Simonson before landing on an armor design.
 
Armored look isn't my first image of him either. I wish they'd gone with one of his "softer" looks because the articulation on their non-armored figures I find is even better. Maybe with armored Elric entombed they'll do a lighter one.

And I was harsh on the figure above but really, it's a good figure, just not figure of the year worthy. I do still think Warrior with Ball and Chain is the best Frazetta warrior figure I've got so far (even though I find the Frazetta Girls Conan the best LOOKING figure... SC's warrior is more fun to pose).

And I'm also irritated because honestly, I'm not above saving a bit of cash and just BUYING a replacement later on, but this game they're playing with entombing stuff means the minute that arm popped off I was like "WELP, FUCK THIS THEN." I could've seen myself throwing them another sixty bucks in a month or two if they weren't doing this entombed cryptic bullshit.

TheCaptain said:
I feel really bad about a couple of you guys getting poor QC versions. Mine just had a couple very tight joints that needed a lot of working to loosen up. I don't know how hot the water you're using is but for figures like this I poor fully boiling water straight from the kettle directly onto the joint area. I think I had to do that a couple times with his knees, one elbow and one shoulder.
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I usually start with just regular hot water running over the joints if it's just one stuck joint like an ankle or knee. For something like Elric (and a lot of recent Mythic Legions, actually) I'll boil water and then dunk the figure into a boil of boiling water til he softens, work the joint a few times, then run cool water over him so he doesn't warp. This did fix everything but Elric's shoulders this time - his legs were totally frozen on arrival but like, 12 seconds in boiling water or so and he was perfect from the waist down (as Cymoril would say).
 
fac said:
One read is they will keep some in stock for replacements and so on for a bit that they might make available at a convention. Or maybe retail returns (unlikely) could add stock.

Another is that they are leaving the window open just a tad.
Click to expand...

I gotta be real: how do you read that from this?

All I read is If you missed out, you missed out; doubling down on the no going back stance.
 
Niko (protozoalord) said:
They should have spent more time studying Gould, Whelan, Brom, Amano, Russell, and maybe even Simonson before landing on an armor design.
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Last night I was showing a Final Fantasy fan but not toy collecting friend this figure and mentioned how I can see where Amano was inspired.

And he said he couldn't see it at all.

But I didn't doubt it because come on.
 
Alt said:
Last night I was showing a Final Fantasy fan but not toy collecting friend this figure and mentioned how I can see where Amano was inspired.

And he said he couldn't see it at all.

But I didn't doubt it because come on.
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Tell them to read the first Elric book, then play Final Fantasy IV.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Alt
Alt said:
I gotta be real: how do you read that from this?

All I read is If you missed out, you missed out; doubling down on the no going back stance.
Click to expand...
Once entombed, no going back. Before they do that classification there could be more inventory out there, or on the way.

Basically, we will tell you when a figure is out of production and gone, no one else knows - those asking for more or those saying it's gone are speculating.
 
docsilence said:
Got Elric, Brynyar, and Naraka from BBTS yesterday.

At the risk of pissing off the entire toy collecting community... I think Elric is INSANELY overhyped. He's a good figure. Nice head sculpt, armor looks good. The ruby ring on his left hand? Fuckin' beautiful bit of detail there.

But his arm articulation is ROUGH. My right arm also came out of the socket while just trying to get him warmed up into basic poses and while I popped it back in, it does not feel like it wants to stay there, and my biggest requirement for an action figure in any line is just... to stay together when posing him. The worst thing a figure can do is fall apart through basic use. (Okay, not moving at all is probably even worse, and Elric was TOUGH but a quick hot water bath fixed his frozen knees, ankles, elbows, and wrists). between the armor and the hair, his unmasked head has kinda limited ROM (neck ROM I'd say is usually one of the great strengths of Savage Crucible, too).

The butterfly shoulder joint has nice range and is very well hidden, but I lose a lot of the joy of that because the rest of his arm doesn't really want to do much. I can't get either lower part of the elbow to bend, so he's basically got 45 degrees on either arm. (I want to give him another hot water bath but again, don't want to fuck up the shoulders any more than they are.) The shoulder pauldrons are rubbery and awkward, but unlike some of the other figures in this line where I thought you could, in a bit of brilliant design, remove just a single piece of shoulder armor and really improve their ROM, he's only got bare shoulders under there. (I've pulled the top layer of armor off Jaeger, Who-Man, and Kreiger and REALLY liked a slightly less busy look for them.)

I mean honestly, he's fine - I think it's been the insane hype (and my own attachment to the character) that makes him a letdown. If I just bought him from a third-party seller with no hype he'd meet expectations.
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Honestly after messing with him today before running errands my biggest takeaway is that he feels very overhyped. His articulation is kind of meh, especially his arms like you said. He has bad equilibrium and never seems to want to stand right without tons of fiddling. I keep feeling like his cape is going to rip, especially with how much you have to manhandle him into poses. The belt peg system I previously mentioned is terrible. He's spiky and constantly jabs you, which is a problem since you have to manhandle alot of poses.

My copy his joints are okay, but his knees and ankles are pretty tight even after superheating him.

Also at this point I'm pretty convinced that most of the people who posted alleged REVIEW videos of him either got paid by harvinger, or were auditioning for sponsorship with them - because every one I found was endless glazing 10/10 figure of the year hype, and there's no way in hell nobody caught any of these issues unless they had some incentive not to.

With all that said I think objectively he was definitely worth his retail cost, but I feel bad for people having to go aftermarket because he definitely isn't a 150$+ figure in any universe.

His shelf aura is absolutely crazy though. And once you do pose him he looks phenomenal.

https://imgur.com/a/TEJ5VuT
 
fac said:
Once entombed, no going back. Before they do that classification there could be more inventory out there, or on the way.

Basically, we will tell you when a figure is out of production and gone, no one else knows - those asking for more or those saying it's gone are speculating.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I see now. I misread. My error. :)
 
Cold Blue said:
Also at this point I'm pretty convinced that most of the people who posted alleged REVIEW videos of him either got paid by harvinger, or were auditioning for sponsorship with them - because every one I found was endless glazing 10/10 figure of the year hype, and there's no way in hell nobody caught any of these issues unless they had some incentive not to.
Click to expand...
I pretty much gave the figure a 9/10-ish. I don't have ANY of the issues you are describing. I was not paid by Harvinger (I wish).
 
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