Available for sale now at BossFightShop.com!
What is about the Vitruvian HACKS figures that just brings a smile to my face every time I get a new one in my hands, even if they are ostensibly, just repaints? There is an ingrained sense of quality and craftsmanship that just doesn’t exist with many other lines out there, where each application of paint deco, each accessory choice, and each design based decision is something actually thought about and executed as a part of an overall design aesthetic, not just stuff thrown at the wall, hoping that some stick.
This repaint of Medusa takes the familiar design cues from the first, but goes in some different directions.
The skin tone here is a pale mixture of green and brown (at least it appears that way my eyes, I’m notoriously color blind) which separates it distinctly from the previous version. Offsetting the skin tone is a dark snake hair application which adds some great deco variety.
Along the surface of the tail, the scales and pattern continue to stand out very nicely, adding awesome detail to the rough texture of the sculpt there, and no matter how many of these Gorgons I get in hand, I continue to be utterly blown away by the engineering involved to make one of these figures. They are truly and utterly spectacular. The articulation is smooth and flawless, the joints stay together for play and display, yet are also fairly easily removable for customization.
This version of Medusa has some starkly different armor than the previous version. It’s still a very metallic shade of silver, but where the previous armor was worn down by some spectacular paint applications providing an awesome sense of battle worn metal, this armor is clean and unmarred. The effect is the opposite of the previous armor, but no less impressive. One of the many things that Boss Fight Studio does right is the various shades of these colors. This armor isn’t just “silver” it’s a fantastic, resonant SHADE of silver, and picking that exact right color is an art and a science. Anyone who looks at the various accessory packs or figures can tell that the people designing these things are doing so with meticulous care and attention to detail.
Accessories
Along with the armor paint changes, Medusa version 2 also comes with the same snake knife and snake whip as the original, but also with some minor tweaks. On the cosmetic side, the wraps are black here instead of the green/brown of the original version. On the structural side, the weapons are firmer material, which is especially cool for the snake knife, which was a little soft and floppy the first time around.
At first blush the weapons look nearly identical, but there are some critical changes that help.
This figure is fantastic. I own three of the original Medusa (cannibalized to make one longer tail) and countless Gorgons at this point, yet I am still immersed and captivated by the quality of this update. I think ultimately, just from an aesthetic perspective, I do enjoy the vibrant green of the original Medusa a little more, but there are certainly qualities to this one that are great, too.
And for those of you folks who don’t feel like you need another Medusa, I assume you’ve grabbed some Grab Bags along the way… grab one of those spare Gorgon heads and make this one another soldier. It’s worth considering!
Medusa v2
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Character
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Sculpt
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Articulation
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Paint Deco
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Accessories
Summary
If you’d asked me if I thought we needed a second version of Medusa, I would have certainly said no, but considering the first deco sold through, I’m thrilled that Boss Fight Studio continues to make the character available in a good paint deco. Ultimately I prefer the deco of version 1, but version 2 has some great elements as well, with the clean silver armor, the adjusted green/brown skin color, and the somewhat more rigid material of the snake knife. It all adds up to a figure that might look like just a repaint, but has enough new twists and turns to make it desirable even to folks who already have 1 Medusa (or 3…)
Available for sale now at BossFightShop.com!