For this figure, I preordered him after my preorder for Sidney Verry by Men’s Virtue Studio fell through as production was cancelled:

I preferred the colours and theming of this one to Green Pepper and wasn’t sure I’d really have the space for the pair – original plan was to see how this one turned out then potentially scrabble around for a Green Pepper if he sucked. Sidney is a lot more incubus-themed than Green Pepper, which made him the more interesting preorder for me. However, seeing as I wasn’t going to get him any more I jumped on the Green Pepper preorders. Fortunately Green Pepper was popular enough to complete production and eventually make it to my doorstep.

Box

The box is huge:

I didn’t include anything for scale, but it’s large – 57x47cm.

Depending on which language you speak, it’s either a rave party (English), stuffing party (Chinese) or a jam (of the fruit variety) party. I believe “stuffing party” is supposed to be the intended translation.

On the front we have an 18+ rating by “CADPA”. Didn’t know that game rating organisations now rate figures 😂. CADPA is the Chinese equivalent of PEGI or ESRB. Also we’re told to recycle the box – I think I’ll keep mine, thanks. Interestingly we only have Milk Club mentioned on the front of the box.

Front edge of the box:

The back of the box is the same and the other sides are more of this design, so didn’t bother to include. Bottom of the box is plain black.

The silhouettes give the box some nice Halloween theming. The Chinese text reads Halloween & Pumpkin & Stuffing. We also have a fake barcode that has the text “HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL” and “MADE BY YYGN & MILKCLUB”, so YGNN do get some of a mention on the box.

Figure spin-around

Let’s have a look at this guy and see if he’s worthy of doing some stuffing:

The transparent bits came out better than I hoped and love the details on the base. The figure was surprisingly easy to assemble – the parts went together well and he sits firmly on the pumpkin. One improvement from the prototype is he has no arm seams which is nice to see.

There are two disappointments for this figure. The first is the scar marks – they’re too distinct in my opinion and look more like tattoos rather than scarification or wounds. In the prototype images they’re much closer to his skin colour and thinner which makes them look more like marks on his skin rather than ink. It doesn’t ruin the figure for me, but it does detract. The second disappointment I’ll get onto later – see if you can spot the omission.

He also comes with a brown-haired head:

They’re both the same sculpt, so all you’re choosing is the hair colour here. I prefer the white hair, so have gone with that in this review.

Display bust

If you love both of his head designs, you also get a bust to display the head you’re not using:

An interesting addition that allows you to keep both heads on display. Seems fairly stable – haven’t had issues with it falling over. The sculpt and skin paint are the same as the figure, but it doesn’t have the scars on his shoulder. Can’t say I miss having them on this bust. This bust was advertised in the original promo images but I completely forgot about it so was a surprise on unboxing. It’s fine – I’ll sneak it into one of my displays, but it’s something I could take or leave.

Close-ups

OK, let’s start with the elephant in the room – the missing feature:

Yup, due to the Chinese restrictions he came with no penises. He was supposed to come with three choices but came with… none. Mine was a proxy order so there was a chance I missed out, but I talked to someone who preordered from an internationally-facing site and they didn’t get any either. Bummer.

Due to where he’s holding his hands he gets away with being a Ken – if displayed at a mid or high level it hides that there is nothing there. Which is fortunate as the underwear he comes with is absolutely terrible:

I did try doing a test fit with the gusset and it was a nope. It also transferred a little paint that I had to clean off 😒. The straps don’t clip to the main part so it’s a total waste of space in my opinion – you have to provide your own glue or putty to keep it together. It does give the impression of him having anatomy but it’s not really worth the grief of making it work. If I wanted to give him undies I think I’d buy or make a fabric pair for him. Can always give him some cotton balls…

OK, with that out of the way, let’s check out some of the details on the base:

The ghosties are cute but do seem to be dust magnets 😅. The cross doesn’t have a big peg, but seems stable enough. The wood texture is nicely done on it.

Pumpkins:

These are the stars of the show on the base – they have a good detailed texture and have vibrant orange colouring. They maybe could’ve put the paler yellow in the eyes of the bigger pumpkin like the smaller one, but this doesn’t show so much once Green Pepper’s ass is on it. The dimples on top of the large pumpkin are to keep Green Pepper sat still, and they seem to do the job well. The pumpkins aren’t initially on the base and install with large pegs.

Branch:

This part is also initially separate and connects magnetically to the side of the base and was easy to attach. In terms of assembly, this figure was easy to put together. Only part I had some trouble with was his head but once I got the angle right it snapped into place.

The sculpt on this branch is detailed. There is some shading on this part but it’s not very distinct. It looks the part though and fits in well with the base.

The tilework on the base is also nicely sculpted and shaded. Overall, the base is a solid addition to the figure and compliments Green Pepper well.

Faces:

Looking closer I’ve finally noticed there is a difference I was picking up with the faces – his left eye is cross-eyed on the white-haired face and not on the brown-haired face. I knew there was something bugging me. Honestly I find the expression kind of strange – like he’s about to say something. Would’ve been nice to have included a head that was smiling or otherwise more interacting with the viewer.

Both are nicely sculpted and painted, so no complaints as to the quality from me.

Side of the head:

I do like the way his horns aren’t a simple shape making them more unique. The white hair has a decent amount of shading it to make it feel like hair.

Back:

Looks like mine got a stray dot of yellow in the middle, whoops. Other than that, we have plenty of sculpting here to give his hair depth and detail.

Markings:

Unfortunately the edges are far too crisp, the colours too dark and the transfer backing is too visible to pull off the effect they were going for. They really do look like some kind of Halloween temporary tattoo, which is a bit of a shame.

Leg:

Here we have a bit of a leg weld, where the parts of the leg are joined together. Could’ve done with some darker paint in there to hide that or moulded so more of his leg is pushing into the upper leg so there’s less of a slit. The upper thigh markings have the vibe of a 00s barbed wire tattoo. The skin shading is really nice though.

Wings:

The wings come as one piece – taking them out of the box was a bit of a fun time but assembly is dead easy as the whole thing just plugs into his back. Love the colour and the gooey texture moulded into them. Transparent parts can be a hit or a miss – these ones are a hit for me.

Spine:

He has this interesting spiky design down his back. I like it, and kind of wish they played with this motif from the front – maybe some spiky elbows or around his ankles or something like that.

In the above photo you can also see the big peg that keeps the wings in. And the magnet that’s mostly hidden by the spine. So do wonder if this was actually some artistic license to help obscure this joint.

Tail:

Love the shape of the tail – he could do some real damage with this fellah. The colour matches with the wings and has more of a gradient in the tail, fading to clear at the tip of it. Whilst the wings do have some clear tips it’s not as obvious as the tail. There isn’t any blend between tail and his back, but not personally bothered by this. Overall I’m happy with the detail and look of the tail.

You can also appreciate his toned bum from this side too 😉

Conclusion

Overall, I’m pleased with the look of this figure. It’s disappointing his penises were cancelled, but he interestingly looks fine without one. If I could change one thing about him it would definitely be the scars/cuts – they do look like cheap Halloween temporary tattoos and I much rather they had the more realistic look in the promos. The promo had them as healed scars, in the final product they’re kind of neither wounds or scars. For the skin some people may find the shading overdone – I think his collarbones ended up a little over-dark, but otherwise happy with it. I like the way his body is muscly but not an overdone beefcake.

The transparent parts came out better than I hoped, plus the base detail was well-executed. The underwear was an underwhelming disappointment, but thanks to his pose these can be left in the box. I have a feeling if he did come with penises I would be mildly disappointed how hidden they were thanks to his pose. Swings and roundabouts.

Could I recommend this figure? Ehhh. Depends if his negatives detract too much for you or not. Most of the figure is solidly executed – parts fit well (if we ignore the underwear), the painting and sculpting is solid in most areas, but then we have the skin markings that have a temporary tattoo vibe.

This is the first figure by the company UnBound so was a gamble of a preorder. However, they have partnered with Native for distribution so less of a gamble than an independent manufacturer. Native usually have fairly high standards for their own figures and those they distribute.

In recent years, Native has partnered with AmiAmi for international distribution and this was my first Native-distributed preorder with them. After placing my preorder I waited. Then I waited. And waited some more. He was originally supposed to release in January 2025 but didn’t release until December 2025.

In terms of price, he was JP¥25,200 and the shipping was JP¥3,310 for registered air small packet.

Box

For the front and the sides they went with a mostly greyscale photo:

And then a colour shot of him on top:

Felt it was rather interesting to do the art this way but does make for a striking box. The texture of the box is plasticky – I’ve seen people comment it feels cheap and I agree. The cardboard isn’t of a premium thickness, but the main issue in my opinion is that it was a poor choice of cardboard texture. It makes it feel like a cheap plastic folder – the kind you’d get from Daiso. There are parts that have gloss on them like the feathers on the front of the box so I don’t think they were cheaping out on the box design overall.

It also has a nice liner:

We’re greeted with a silhouette of the figure with logo and chains. Wasn’t initially going to include a photo of the liner in this review, but thought the detail here warranted showing it off.

Technical difficulties

When taking him out of the box one of his wings flopped off:

Er, that’s not supposed to happen. Reading the My Figure Collection comments for this figure, I’m not the only person this has happened to. Guess the QC didn’t double-check the glue on the wing pegs. From the grey smudging, I’m guessing gluing was attempted but didn’t see any evidence of residue otherwise. Pretty sure the pegs are not supposed to be friction-fit into the wings themselves.

Thankfully AmiAmi supplies you with plenty of paper, so I was able to tear a corner off and use it to gently plier out the loose peg and glue it back into the wing. Then delay the photoshoot a few hours whilst I waited for it to bond…

Clothed spin-around

Wing fixed, we can now take a good look at him as he comes out of the box:

Upon getting him out of the box his small size is immediately noticeable, compounded by the chosen pose. He’s pretty much a palm-sized figure and I don’t exactly have large palms. I like the way his wings are posed around his body and the way he has a lead attached to his clothing – wish this was an option you could clip to the other body piece.

Clothed close-ups

Face:

He has a concerned expression to fit with the “tied up” theme, along with flushed cheeks and droplet on his face. Sweat? Tear? Whichever you like. The eyes are nicely detailed and the purple colour is up my alley. The hair unfortunately lacks paint detail in the bulk of it, and in my opinion the shiny grey is odd. I’d like to see a bit more shading here and a different finish for the hair.

Clothing-wise, everything is painted neatly and there is a nice range of textures- from the metallic shiny of the clothing fabric to the shininess of the belts.

Hair from the back:

They’ve given him braids, but… ehh. The mould really isn’t selling them. There is more shading back here, but it’s not really making up for the overall finish and moulding. The two manacles look good, but one major issue – there isn’t any way of connecting them to anything without supplying your own part. His arms are nicely painted and so are his fingernails.

Side of the top:

Not sure if the pattern is supposed to represent something but does add detail to the top. Looking up close I’m not sure the inner and outer parts aligned properly but not really noticeable at a viewing distance. As this part I believe is supposed to be fabric, alignment between the pattern and the fold isn’t necessarily to be expected. In the ring they’ve snuck in a purple gem detail to give it a bit more colour.

Wings:

The sculpt isn’t super-detailed here – we just have large, coarse wings with no feather patterning but the feathers are sculpted on both sides. The paint has a few colours in it which helps add depth to the wings and not make them feel plasticky.

In the lower picture we can see where his skirt has lacing detail, which is a nice addition, plus his painted toenails.

Back:

He has a cute tie at the back of his top. Plus the super short skirt that covers absolutely nothing. They’ve sculpted some creasing back here to give the impression that it is tightly pulled over his backside, however this illusion is somewhat broken by it being a loose floating part.

Looking at this skin we can see some subtle shading – this does help add depth to his skin and I do like the gentle shading.

Feet:

Here we can see his delicately-sculpted toes and the fact they’ve actually painted the strap from his stockings around his toe. I do like this attention to detail. There is a bit of a gap where his crotch is, but that might have been me pulling at it before I did the photoshoot.

Changing of the parts

In the box he comes with a replacement crotch and upper body half. Despite already knowing this I still turned around the upper body part thinking it was a lower half at first – and I know I’m not the only one to do this. So here it is the right way up:

The skin shading is nice on this part, and we have shiny nips. Yay for male figure with nipples.

As can be seen here, there is a lot of reassembly to be done – remove arms, head, wings and lower body. The removal went smoothly, but getting his head on and wings in were a struggle. And I really didn’t want to risk being too rough with the wings with the earlier issue – I did heat up the body which helped some, but didn’t quite get the wings fully in. Likely with enough persistence I could get them fully in, but just would rather not risk it.

And now we have some leggies:

I don’t know why this amuses me, but it does. Without the skirt on, we can now see why he has some of a skirt – it works to hide the joins between the front panel of the underwear and the waistband.

In this half-assembled state we can also gain an appreciation of the skin shading – is one of the standout features of this figure in my opinion. They did well to highlight his body shape without going overboard.

Close-up before we change out the crotch:

It does look a bit gappy here, but I think that may be my fault. Wasn’t particularly noticeable until editing the photos so don’t think it’s a big issue. Though the underwear join will still show – if you don’t like this, can hide it with the skirt.

This figure doesn’t have a full SFW option – his manhood can be seen pressing up to his underwear. The effect is nicely done and looks like skin under fabric – I have seen other figures that fail to replicate this effect so kudos for UnBound doing a good job on this. Oh, and the dust “pube” isn’t included – sorry, that’s dust floating around the room.

The tattoo is cleanly printed but isn’t very detailed. Would have liked to see a bit more flair here, but it’s fine for what it is.

The crotches connect via a magnet:

We don’t see this much in licensed products, so nice to see it becoming more common. And if you’re curious, yes the chain he comes with is magnetic and can stick to the shown magnet 😆

And if you’re scrabbling around in your box going “where’s the penis?!”, it’s hidden under the cross. I think this is the other reason that people think the upper half is a lower half at first – you’re expecting to unbag a penis and you get…. a chest piece. But no, you have to dig deeper into the box to find the “goods”.

Installing the second option:

As expected of this body type, he has a dainty member. He has a very dark tip and pale shaft. I like the way they’ve done the underwear – they’ve made it fit in with the figure and be revealing at the same time. Whilst a fully naked lower would’ve been nice, this does keep the figure cost down by not having to have another lower body part.

And before we fully assemble, here he is without the wings:

If you just want a cute male figure without the wings, this works from the front. I’ll think you’re missing out, but if you prefer your men to not fly away this is an option. I’m sure there will be at least one person out there who’ll display him like this.

Less clothed spin-around

Whilst I call this his “naked form”, he’s definitely not fully naked, with the underwear, leg and arm coverings. But if you prefer your men less clothed, this “mode” definitely provides. The strap across his chest does well to hide the join and fits with the theme of the figure.

Base

The base is a fallen cross in some kind of courtyard to fit the theme of the figure:

I like the weathering and crumbling effects. I’ve seen some people complain about this base, but I like it. There is paint detail here, but the stone isn’t super-stonelike. Though to me that just makes it feel more like a modern, veneered type construction.

Close-up on the paving:

Plenty of shading to be found here. For me, I don’t mind the very defined edges, but I can see people not being a fan of how sharply the edges are defined, especially around the stairs. For me, I don’t mind it being a vignette.

In the top-right near the stairs there are some round dimples – these are for his toes to help hold him in place. There’s also a dimple for his knee by the raised tile plus two more toe dimples near the base of the cross. It’s not a sturdy hold, but does make it so he’s harder to accidentally skid across the base.

Base display spin-around

Now to put the bits together!

The base compliments him well in my opinion – it really does add to the piece especially with his small stature. Often with freestanding figures I’ll display them without base, but this one I’ll make an exception as the base adds to the figure.

And a bonus shot with him with his skirt on:

I did try to get it to sit under the tattoo – it would fit under it but it “pings” up. Probably fixable with some heat, but not bothered enough to try. I’ll be displaying him without. Not having it clip in does mean he’s displayable without it, but any deformation and it doesn’t sit in the right spot. Not 100% sure what the best solution would be to make it friendlier to fit overall, but if you do want to display him with skirt you may need to deal with it not sitting exactly in the right spot. And displaying him without means you do have the gaps in the underwear.

And pondering that – maybe bigger gaps in the underwear would be the answer – the skirt could peg into the gaps and then supply a couple of wing-shaped bows to plug in the gaps when he isn’t wearing his skirt would look cute and hide the join. Have seen this on other figures, usually on their armbands when casting off.

Base and chain

The instructions say “you can place the chain freely”, and I suggest you should – the suggestion in the instructions is to wrap it around the cross, but doing that it is barely visible. One thing I will point out is the chain is magnetic so there is likely to be iron in there – this means if you’re in a hot and humid country you may want to periodically check for rust or place it on the base only if you don’t want to risk the figure. UK has the humidity but not the heat – not personally had issues with figure chains rusting. I have imported some from Japan that did have rust, but the rustiness hasn’t increased on figures with the imported rust. The chain I believe is painted so that will also help not having it mar the figure. The rusted chains I’ve “inherited” were unpainted.

Tied to the cross:

Chain me up:

It is disappointing that his manacles don’t allow you to attach the chain nor is there any connecting loops provided. I would’ve liked for the latter to be provided – easy and cheap to supply a pile so there isn’t any issue if the connectors break. Can understand the manacle loop being all as one part – it does make it far more delicate to have a joint or gap here which may break during assembly. Have had to assemble manacles with a gap before – it’s very nerve-wracking as it’s so easy for it to go wrong and break. Plus there can be issues with the chain slipping back out again.

From the front, the chain display looks good, but from a side angle you can see his manacles aren’t attached to anything and that looks a little goofy. So if you have him displayed where you can see the side and want to use the chain, you may want to consider supplying your own jewellery rings/clips.

Conclusion

Overall I’m happy with this figure and hope to see more male figures by this brand. They do have one in the works, but awaiting for pre-orders to open for that one. Especially for a first figure, this is a solid piece and would recommend to anyone interested in it. The use of textures and shading is great, the sculpting is fairly solid and he’s cute overall. On the downsides, he is pretty small so may feel rather petite amongst bigger figures and the wing sculpt is rather on the basic side. There’s also some minor technical issues with the fitting of parts – notably that wing joint, the way the skirt sits and getting the parts into the unclothed top half. I don’t think any of them are dealbreakers personally, but can see these things being of a big annoyance to other people.

For anyone pre-ordering from this brand, I’d bear in mind he was delayed by a year. Whilst we don’t know if this will be a trend going forward, you may want to consider buying in stock if delays may affect your enthusiasm.

As of time of writing, he’s still in stock at AmiAmi if you want to grab him.

For this one, I originally decided to pass on the preorder, being very undecided which variant I wanted and the price. However, I saw some photos from Wonfes Shanghai and changed my mind – so I ordered the last one in stock of the “Isys” variant. They did three versions –

Blue Prey (Unlimited):

Keraha (limited to 20):

And the one I ordered, Isys (limited to 20):

The limited variants were CN¥2,280 to preorder and Blue Prey was ¥1,980. I couldn’t resist the shininess of Isys, so into my cart it went.

Box

The box is nice and sturdy, decorated with a custom sticker that wraps around it:

You do need to tear through the sticker to open it, but at least this ensures it won’t open in transit. They have carefully placed the designs so you don’t need to tear through one to get into the box. For a small producer, it’s a very nice box, higher quality than my previous purchases with them which is nice to see.

Inside of the box:

The foam insert held the parts well, with extra foam pieces to ensure nothing rattles in transit. I didn’t have any big issues taking anything out of the foam. The small square held some head feathers and some putty to help stick them.

Bonuses

In the top of the box, there were two promo images printed on photo paper:

As they’re printed to photo paper, it does give them a glossy finish. I got prints 56 and 77 in the run 😆. I like the fact they gave two so you can choose what vibe you want if you wish to display these. I probably won’t, so they’ll go into my postcard album.

Instead of an edition stand, it came with a signed coaster:

Confirming I did indeed order 20 out of 20. So I suspect they did take into account the order the limited editions were ordered in – which is nice because usually you get a random allocation. I likely won’t use it as a coaster but it’ll probably float around the desk as it’s pretty. I prefer to use coasters I don’t care about ruining.

Figure spin-around

Wow, he’s a shiny, fancy fellah. I love the way he coils around the skull and feels like he’s looking at you.

Figure close-ups

Head:

So much detail to the head – the shading is excellent, the eyes have a fiery shine and the tiny details on the horns.

The three feathers on each side to the back are not initially attached to the figure – these need to be added with the putty provided. Looking into the gaps, they did do a test fit so there was already some putty on the figure. They did give plenty of extra putty if there isn’t enough – I did end up having to add a tiny bit more to get a couple of the feathers to stay. There isn’t a guide of which one goes where, so had to just fiddle around and look at the photos to work out where to put them. So whilst this was a fiddly process and I did need to reseat one after it slipped it does mean they’re not at risk of breaking whilst in transit.

I may have gone a bit overboard with the head photos (this wasn’t all the ones I took….), but it is so well-shaded. The colours are lovely and blended well. It has a very striking appearance thanks to the well-chosen colours. The glass domes over the eye print give the eyes some depth, but do not give a “following eye” look. Though the rest of this guy’s presence, you know he’s watching.

Crest:

As well as the head feathers, we have some going down the top of his spine. I like the black banding detail – gives a vibe of snakelike patterning to them. The feathers also have a good texture sculpted into them which helps with the feathery vibe.

Belly scales:

If you’ve seen my review on the Animal Planet Baron’s Racer, here’s what a more expensive belly scale paint job looks like – the shading is much more blended in and gives more depth to the scales.

Body scales:

Man, painting this must have taken forrevvverrr. I just love the shininess of the blue paint and the stripy pattern down the back. The scales are also raised, giving a spiky appearance befitting his lava skull.

Tail scales:

The colour and patterning changes at the tail, which is a neat inclusion. The colours gently shift so there isn’t a stark change between the two.

Skull:

Last but not least, the skull. With this feathered viper it has been given a lava theme, which I think fits well with Isys’s colour scheme. Here you can also see where Isys’s body colours shift from the main colour to tail colour. There is also shading on the body to represent the glowing light coming from the skull which is a neat addition. The texture and colouration of the skull work well to complement Isys himself.

Conclusion

Often with garage kit pieces, you don’t get to buy a prepainted version. Tooth Fairy Studio often offers both unpainted and painted versions of their pieces – and for this I’m grateful! I have little painting ability, let alone enough skill to produce a paint job of this quality. At CN¥2,280 it’s not a small chunk of change but for a limited production piece with this quality of paintwork I definitely felt like I got my money’s worth with this one. This is my third purchase of their prepainted kits, and it is definitely my favourite. If they release any other prepainted kits in my wheelhouse, I would definitely be considering an order.

For the more budget-conscious snake figure collector, I now present the Blue Baron’s Racer (philodryas baroni) by Animal Planet. This figure was CN¥428 and is the second figure in their “Realistic Nature Series”. Most of Animal Planet’s figures have a chibi quality, so this is a line of reptiles with realistic proportions.

As they’re a company that mass-produces, we get a pretty retail box:

The company name gets translated a few different ways so you may also see “Animal Heavenly Body” and “Animal Nebula”, but it will always be the same logo. It’s a very solid box, and we have some product photos so we know what we’re getting. The lid slides off, but due to the sturdiness of the cardboard it forms a strong vacuum seal so takes some effort and time to open. They do provide a couple of small cut-outs to grab the inner of the box, but they don’t give a huge amount of purchase.

Foam:

Interestingly the foam that contains the snake is on top and the base is underneath this. Most companies will put the base on top to make it obvious it’s in there. Wonder if they’ve had to field complaints of a missing base when it’s really just hidden underneath.

The hole in the top right is for the bonus item, for those that preordered.

Front:

The Baron’s Racer comes preassembled onto the branch and does not come off. It’s not glued on, so will move around a bit. Apparently I had him slid up the branch for most of the photos, but it does slide down and sit on it properly, which will be shown in a later photo. The branch attaches to the base via a peg moulded into the base. The attachment is sturdy – sturdy enough to make it feel OK to pick it up by the branch only, but I wouldn’t recommend doing this lest the base does detach itself.

I do like the dynamicness of the pose – it was the main thing that attracted me to buy this figure.

Face:

D’aww, what a cutie. Up close we can see how the paint is less precise than expensive small batch figures – the black line does bleed a bit but will still look great on your shelf.

Lookin’ atcha:

From here we can see where there’s darker colouration near its spine and the upturned nose. It’s definitely not letting go of this tree.

Tree view:

They’ve done a really good job of the bark on the tree. Definitely has a realistic feel to it. In the second photo above you can see where there is a join in the snake – as far as joins go on mass-produced items this is actually pretty well-hidden.

Back:

The belly scales are nicely sculpted and have been given their own shade of paint and dark wash. Close-up it is a bit uneven, but from a short distance it does the job. With the unevenness of the colour some bits look a little like it has picked up some dirt vs shading on the scales.

Tail:

At first, you may miss where its tail ends, but here it is. Looking at photos of Baron’s Racers (they’re not a snake I’m super familiar with) they do indeed have no real distinction between “arse” and “tail” – whilst snakes may look like one long tail, they do actually have a tail below where their cloaca is. On some snakes there will be a distinct size/shape/pattern difference between body and tail, others you have to flip them over to find their tail. On this model we can actually see where the tail starts – if you look at the top photo you’ll see a dark line – pretty sure this is a paint detail to show the anal plate (that’s where the stinky poos and wee come out of).

Looking at the inner part of the tree, I like the texture on it but the way they’ve painted the core makes it feel like a cartoon tree versus the rest of it. Whilst some trees do have a band between the lighter and darker parts, I feel it would have been better to either not have it or blend it in. It’s far from a dealbreaker though as this part isn’t really that much on show.

Couple of angles:

I love that they went for a tangled pattern around the branches and it is poised to potentially strike – it certainly gives the figure more interest versus a simple coil or pile. So what it may lack in paint detail it makes up for in pose and sculpt.

And now for that preorder bonus:

Aww, a hatching Baron’s racer! So cute! Does seem to have a bit of bug-eye but it’s not a real snake, so no need to worry about its genetics.

Some other angles:

I feel some artistic license has been used here to make it more aesthetically pleasing – snake shells are normally quite thin and snake babies normally cut a slit (or six..) so they don’t fold out as is shown here. But to model that would be a pain and potentially not show much of the snake head, so I think this is a reasonable compromise as this way you don’t get any seams on the egg. You wouldn’t get the egg yolk-looking stuff in the egg either – normally it’s mostly snake with some egg white. They may have some yolk left to absorb attached to their belly button (yep, they have them!).

When displayed, you don’t really see into the egg unless you plan to put it on a low shelf. The base has a velvet bottom so you can place it on the main base without damaging it:

The eggs bonus helps the large base look less featureless:

You can also enjoy the main Baron’s Racer being sat properly on its branch in this photo. When the egg is posed like this, it does look more like a slit in the egg rather than a large hole, so the artistic licence paid off. It’s also a bonus item that you technically paid less for, as the instock price for this figure is CN¥448, so preordering saved CN¥20 as well as netting this extra cutie.

I do like the way it adds detail to the base and stares up at moma? papa? Due to the way the main snake stretches out on the branch it needs a bigger base to counterbalance, so having something to add to the base does make the whole piece more aesthetically pleasing. For instock orders however, going to have to find your own snake-flavoured decoration if you want to add to the base.

Overall I like this figure – it’s pretty unique as far as snake figures go on the current market. In terms of improvements, I’d prefer if the tree ends were less cartoony and if the seam was a little better hidden, however the seam does show up less when not under photography lighting. For the price point, the paint detail and quality is as you’d expect. For anime collectors, it’s about the same price as a Pop Up Parade or a couple of prize figures. I feel it fits into that space of premium budget figures, but is a figure for snake lovers.

Continuing my snake purchases from Snake Gorge, I pre-ordered this ball python figure. I was particularly interested in this one as I have a normal morph ball python as a pet. Ball pythons are also known as Royal pythons and have the scientific name of Python regius.

So I paid my deposit, paid the balance and CN¥1,880 and some days later…

See the red writing on the right? Yeah, that restriction stops you from shipping an item out. Oops. And that’s a lot of money to spend on something I couldn’t return and potentially ship out. After writing an email to support, thankfully they changed the restriction and allowed me to ship out. I wasn’t worried about customs issues personally – on an x-ray it would appear as an inorganic “poo” (last I checked PU resin didn’t have any bones or organs), and anyone inspecting it for more than two seconds would know it was a resin model. However the proxy was nervous about it, so slapped it with the most restrictive restriction… which still allowed EMS, so EMS it went. Didn’t even hesitate to clear Chinese or British customs. Glad to know I can still import PU resin.

But hey! It’s a testament to Snake Gorge’s quality! So realistic your proxy may refuse to ship it 😅. I would love to order one of their 1:1 scales, but they’re around CN¥5,000 and not sure if I want to deal with the back and forth to be allowed to ship it. Oh, and also scrounging up the CN¥5,500-6000 to buy and ship it.

Snake Gorge just package their snakes in foam:

Not the most glamourous, but gets the job done. The snake itself came in a plastic bag so that it wouldn’t rub up against the foam.

So let’s have a look at him:

Well, I say “him”, not sure how you can sex a resin snake, especially when the species lacks external physical traits to denote gender. No cloaca to probe on this one. But hey, this one I won’t have to clean up any stinky poops! Or get lost behind my desk…

Let’s take a better look at his face:

D’aww. Certainly looks the part with his cute face, heat pits and triangular body. At first I wasn’t so keen on the whitish areas between some of the scales, but this is part of the patterning of a ball. Can see my pet snake has these too. The painting is very precise – the patterns are sharp and keep to the scales.

Some side views:

Honestly can’t fault the shape. They’ve even given his body some folds near where he’s sharply folded himself. This fellow has decided to tuck his tail up into a fold – mine I’m pretty sure prefers to curl his tail beneath him and tuck it in there.

Back view:

He looks nice all around – his pattern stretches all over his body which is nice to see. The faded areas are where the pattern would fade towards his belly scales, but think there are some areas that may have benefitted from a bit of darker paint.

On the second image you can see where they have moulded a flat bottom for him – one key feature a real snake doesn’t have. This doesn’t show when viewing him normally, and didn’t really notice it until photographing him to show it off.

From the top:

Yep, that’s definitely a ball python in a ball! Can definitely appreciate the pattern from this angle, and the way they’ve incorporated the colour fade into the head stamp. His head looks a lot like my pet python’s head.

Bottom:

Instead of the coaster depicted in the original promo images, they’ve gone for giving him a flat base and a layer of velvety material to protect your table/vivarium top.

And what’s that?

Another feature that real snakes lack – a logo baked into their side to say who made them. Another feature I didn’t notice until I sent some photos to someone on Discord. Can also get an appreciation of the paintwork up close – there’s some speckling to add texture and detail to the scales.

Overall, I’m really pleased with him. He was pricey, but you do get a lot of detail and accuracy to the real thing. He’s a handful in size – so you could think of him as a juvenile or a ~1/2 scale adult. There’s a good amount of weight to the figure – I’d say heavier than a python of this size would be. Would recommend to someone who has the budget for a realistic-looking snake model.

And for those who want to see what the cork base looks like, here’s the one I got with a hognose I haven’t reviewed yet:

He covers up pretty much the whole design, pretty much only leaving the outer circle. So I can see why they ultimately chose not to include the cork base. The hognose only takes up the centre so you can read the outer text. I put the hognose in an acrylic case with the other two snake models I reviewed and it wasn’t big enough to accommodate this base, so I could sit him on it if I want to.