Tide‑Realm Corsairs Pirates

The height doesn't bother me as I tend to not mix and match across lines, and for fantasy type stuff scale is a bit more fungible, but I get why it would be an issue at least for the human pirates.

The addition of the crew members makes it more interesting to me, as does the second head for the fish pirates - will consider backing this.
 
I'm still in for the squid-headed Captain Karibdus. He looks cool and he's got a lot of nice detail. The suckers on his hands are great. The size kind of works to his advantage, for this figure anyway.

Not sure about the rest. Considering these guys are first-timers on Kickstarter, I wouldn't back for more than one figure anyway — the Austin Gentry rule.
 
I feel very similar to this as I did when they first started showing stuff off. And, unfortunately, I'm way more negatively-disposed towards it than positively. Which sucks, because I love pirate shit. One of my great toy disappointments is that Boss Fight collapsed into a shit company before ever getting to the HACKS Pirates theme.

But there's so much going on here that just leaves me cold. The scale is VERY 'meh.' There's no way they'll produce enough variety in a short enough period of time where I'd really want these as their own thing. And the scale means they won't fit in with basically anything else I have that I might want to slot pirates into. And it's just bizarre because that's not really a -ME- thing. Almost anything these would go with that people collect, they are out of scale with. Just a strange decision when you could make them half-an-inch shorter and sell them as compatible with tons of current stuff.

I don't love the sculpts. They remind me of like.. the worst aspects of Diamond Select stuff; very lifeless and static-looking. I'm not sure how else to say it. They LOOK like toys that pose and move awkwardly (and in DST's case, that was basically always true in hand). And the sculpts just have an overall kind of weird softness to them? I'm sure I'm not explaining that well.
As well, they have weirdly big hands and it's actually bad enough to be distracting.

And no fucking butterfly joints? In 2026? These figures are going to feel REALLY dated -today-, let alone sometime in like late 2027/early 2028 when people actually have them in hand.

I'm not really sure how they could do it better, but the coats just scream 'traffic cone' at me. Like yeah... I want pirates in pirate coats. But they don't seem to have done anything with these to make it so that, when using their coats, these figures can be posed in any meaningful way. And the way the coats like.. stick out from the body? They have a very triangular shape to them rather than looking like something that's hanging naturally. Which gives them a VERY '90s Dollar Store toy' aesthetic.

And the gear sucks. It sucks so bad. You tell me you're making a pirate line and then do ANYTHING but make them seem like actual pirates with their gear. Just pure fantasy garbage.

I think I kind of hate these, actually.

Which, whatever - that's fine. They're just not for me, then. CLEARLY my opinion on this puts me in the minority, considering how fast the funding is going. I wish them well. But man.. I am massively disappointed that we're getting a modern action figure line of pirates and it's.. this.
 
I actually agree with all of these criticisms, actually. I would be such an easy mark for these if they scaled with Classified or with the Classics/Ultimates... but being even bigger than those mean these are a hard pass for me.
 
Damien said:
You tell me you're making a pirate line and then do ANYTHING but make them seem like actual pirates with their gear. Just pure fantasy garbage.
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I think you explained your own critique here, they aren't really making a Pirate line, they are making a fantasy line set in a pirate motif. Like Marvel Thor not looking like Norse myths because Marvel Thor is a superhero with a Norse motif.

I do wonder if 4H said they'd help but only if it was in 1:10 scale, in case 4H ever get around to their own pirate line on their own?
 
fac said:
I think you explained your own critique here, they aren't really making a Pirate line, they are making a fantasy line set in a pirate motif. Like Marvel Thor not looking like Norse myths because Marvel Thor is a superhero with a Norse motif.
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Okay, but the thing is... Marvel Thor does not have a Norse motif at all. He's entirely conceptually 'what if Thor was real but lived in our universe and was an alien?' VERY little of his related iconography in the comics (and virtually none in the movies also) is even remotely similar to anything Norse.

I would say Thor is far more similar to Valaverse doing 'Blackbeard.' If that makes sense.

Clearly what this line is -trying- to do is 'Pirates, but with fantasy.' Like a more fantastical Pirates of the Caribbean (which also had skeleton and squid pirates). And the clothing items, if poorly done in my opinion, are a clear indication these are pirate characters. Then you get to their weapons and it's just such stereotypical fantasy trash, PLUS, the like.. two 'real' weapons that also look pretty shit.

The best comparison I can think up is imagine you want to do fantasy meets the modern world. So you design an airplane based on a Boeing 747, but you cover the thing in dragon motifs, with an open mouth carved into the nose and the tail literally designed to look kind of like a dragon tail. But then you absolutely fucking whiff it at the end by turning the wings into giant extension ladders.

It goes from 'okay.. cool cool.. I see what you're doing here and I dig this idea' to 'what the fuck is that and why did you do it?'

But again, I also recognize this is something that bothers me more than it bothers others, considering how close to funding they are already. And I'm also not trying to convince anyone else not to like them. Just explaining one of the reasons -I- don't like them.
 
Fair enough, I was mainly reacting to many of the comments about wanting a real Pirate line - I feel that holding that against this line for not being "accurate" is like reviewing a comedy and saying it wasn't dramatic enough. Its a reason to not want the figures, but not sure its a reason to say the line is badly done? At least in my opinion.

And most of the iconography around pirates that people are familiar with is based on Treasure Island and the NC Wyeth illustrations and not really what actual pirates ever looked like anyway, as you know, so an accurate pirate line wouldn't look like "pirates" to most people.
 
Alt said:
I would say I like fantasy pirate, but I don't really care about this fantasy pirate character design.
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Pirates of Dark Water is the gold standard when I think "fantasy pirate". like 60/40 fantasy to pirate ratio. This feels like off-brand Pirates of the Caribbean with stolen World of Warcraft weapons. That combo just doesn't work for me.
 
I was unable to come up with my own descriptor (maybe because they're that bland to me?), but I like that.

And it's not that either of those are bland, but it's just Seen It Before, and combining them isn't done in a way that intrigues.
 
Alt said:
And it's not that either of those are bland, but it's just Seen It Before, and combining them isn't done in a way that intrigues.
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I think it's because they don't feel integrated. Like you grabbed one toy line and grafted another toy line's accessories onto it.
 
fac said:
Fair enough, I was mainly reacting to many of the comments about wanting a real Pirate line - I feel that holding that against this line for not being "accurate" is like reviewing a comedy and saying it wasn't dramatic enough. Its a reason to not want the figures, but not sure its a reason to say the line is badly done? At least in my opinion.
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I would hazard to say that anyone saying it isn't accurate are referring to thematic accuracy. Kind of to your point; accuracy to what they see in their brains when they think of pirates. But that can also be a separate issue from saying the line is poorly done. I think it's -both- poorly done and not accurate enough to the feel of what I'd expect from 'fantasy pirates.' They might inform each other, but they are separate points.


JakeEkiss said:
This feels like off-brand Pirates of the Caribbean with stolen World of Warcraft weapons.
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Exaaaactly.


JakeEkiss said:
Pirates of Dark Water is the gold standard when I think "fantasy pirate".
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I would commit so many felonies for a proper Pirates of Dark Water line.
 
I've been following this campaign and have to say I agree with the sentiment here. $50 Kickstarter figures need to be better than this.

The scale, weapons and coats kill it for me. Especially those coats. Im not a big soft goods guy, but I think that would have worked better for something like this. AH well, all good - probably for the better since I would find some well done pirates hard to resist...
 
I'm honestly surprised at how little interest I have in this given I'm dyin' for pirate figures. It's just not the right combination of factors for me.

I would also commit a felony for Pirates of Dark Water figures. Though I always worry it'll be Super7 who gets the license.
 
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