You know you're about to unwrap something expensive when a box that you know contains a Tomb Raider collectible needs to be carried into my house by two people.
Sideshow's new Lara Croft piece, announced last year but only just recently released, depicts the classic character as she appeared in 2010's Guardian of Light (read our review here).
Which was a while ago, sure, but thanks to licensing the toy world can be a slow-moving one. And besides, this is Lara Croft, not some one-game wonder. It's not like she has to be tied to a single timely release.
WHAT YOU GET IN THE BOX
- 1x Lara Croft (comes partially disassembled), 1x base
WHAT I LIKED
This is a polystone statue. If you don't know what that means, it means you've got some tradeoffs to consider. The positives are that it's got a wonderful glow to it, especially her skin. It's also heavy in a way that you can put it down and never, ever need to worry about it toppling over.
While Lara's skin, hair, boots and Uzi are polystone, her outfit is real fabric, which on smaller figures can look a bit stupid, but on a piece this large (it's nearly 20" tall) it looks great.
I also really liked the design of the base and her pose; it's easy to make marketing Tomb Raider "sexy", but given the character they're working with here Sideshow have played it pretty straight.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
Like I said, polystone is a tradeoff. The negatives are that it's expensive. This statue clocks in at USD$350. It also doesn't allow for quite as much detail as you'd expect from, say, a smaller action figure, so some aspects of this - like her face and hair - look a little bland (though to be fair part of this is down to the game's particular character design as well).
THE FINAL WORD
OK, so USD$350 is a lot of money, but it's also standard pricing for Sideshow's Premium Format statues, so it's not like this is out of the ordinary. If you can stomach that sort of outlay - and really, it's not uncommon in the collectible world for a piece of this size - you'll be getting one of the most dynamic and colourful (not to mention big and heavy) pieces of gaming memorabilia around.
You can buy Sideshow's Lara Croft from the company's online store.