Boss Fight Studio Vitruvian HACKS Medusa

Medusa’s most identifiable trait throughout all renditions of the character was, no doubt, the slithering snakes she had for hair. While Boss Fight Studio certainly included fantastic looking aspects of that, they decided to go a step further and put her into full on Gorgon “snake” mode, engineering, from scratch, a fully articulated snake’s tail using ball joints to try and mimic the pose and movement of a real snake.

Throughout the entire concept and design process, how this new engineering would work was probably my biggest question, especially since they used it on so many different characters.

Now, after seeing it born and evolved over the past couple of years, I’m ecstatic to say, it works GREAT. Like, really, really great. The sculpting and texture are amazing, Dave and Fred (the Boss Fight sculptors) put their usual 110% into the sculpting work of the scales and the contours of the under belly. What really puts me over the edge, though, is the material used. Over a solid plastic armature consisting of posts with ball and socket attachments, is a very soft, almost rubber snake skin, that allows for nice movement, but still bends and is contoured like you might expect an actual snake to be.

The weight and balance of the tail are both terrific, and it can twist and pose in many different ways, allowing the figure to be tightly coiled or slightly elevated, without risk of falling. It’s a terrific balance between aesthetics and functionality, and I’m ecstatic with how well the design team pulled it off.

Medusa’s torso and arms are the same as Coral and Black Racer Gorgons, tightly sculpted, but slender…however, even though they’re slender, they still remain very durable and highly articulated. I’m amazed at how thin the body is, yet how much movement it retains, as well as still feeling like it can take some punishment. In fact, I accidentally knocked Medusa off of a display shelf from about five feet up onto my concrete floor, and she remained fully intact afterwards.

Looking at paint applications, Medusa is fantastic, with a great shade of greek skin and a really nicely developed pattern on her snake body. The overall combinations of different shades of green really looks spectacular together. The head sculpt as well, is immaculately done with all of her separate snakes sprouting from her head and her hissing, angry mouth. Intricate paint details abound here as well, making her look nasty and about as realistic as a green, snake-haired reptile woman can look.

But her nastiness doesn’t stop with attacking humans. She comes with what look to be a dagger and whip made out of reptilian backbones, very nicely designed. They are a rubbery material, but don’t seem to be at all warped.

Her armor is different from the other two Gorgon releases, with a great shoulder pad and brushed metal armor on her right arm, a really nice looking breastplate (removable if you take her apart at the mid-section joint) and nice armor at her hips as well. This does a great job differentiating her from the more standard Gorgon “infantry” and gives her a sense of leadership. It would be pretty awesome so stockpile some other Gorgons and perhaps outfit some with this various of armor to make “Black Racer Leaders” or what have you.

No doubt I’ve been excited to finally get my hands on the Vitruvian HACKS figures, and I dare say that my expectations have actually been not just met, but beaten. The material of the snake tail is fantastic, and even though I know these designers well, I had my own doubts about how well they’d pull off the snake body. Well, they pulled it off in spades. The figure looks beautiful, and even better, is exceptionally playable, meaning you can pose it around and just have fun with it. In a time when retail offerings seem to just be continuously offering collectors more of the same, it’s a brisk breath of fresh air to get my hands on something like this, which is offering a completely new outlook on 1:18 scale action figures, and is a line I can see a long and rewarding future from.

Pre-Orders available at BossFightShop.com!