Category: Figure reviews

Snake Gorge – Ball Python (normal morph)

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”, 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.

Sense Energy Studio – Kenta

This fellow was a random purchase – bought him from a collector in a Discord for collectors who collect male statues/figures.

After doing some research, turns out this dude has a backstory:
In 2230, humanity’s exploration of multidimensional space eliminated material scarcity and simultaneously led to the evolution of the spirit, gradually progressing towards a higher level of life.
With evolution, humans lost their emotions and feelings, which circulated and were sold as currency. Only a few people are born with the ability to generate emotions; they are called emotion creators.
If it is proven that androids can generate emotions, it will be a great step forward for humanity.

So… I guess we’ll see what kind of emotions this guy generates!

In the box, he comes naked, so let’s try him out in his naked state:

Definitely some good muscle tone on this guy! I like the way the skin is shaded – adds a lot of definition to the piece. The joints on his arms are nicely blended in, however the legs less so. Whilst he doesn’t have any extra legs, they do detach to facilitate dressing him so you don’t risk breaking him at the crotch or ripping the trousers. He has speckled skin – not sure if I’m fully sold on the speckles. On some figures the speckling can help the skin look more realistic but on this guy I think they went a little over the top and in certain lighting it can look more like dirt than skin texture. At a distance it isn’t distracting though. I may have checked a couple of times it wasn’t dirt…

Face:

Some definitely chiselled looks going on here. Not sure I’ve seen a human with such a boxy nose, but he is an android, so we can let him off. Not quite sure what to make of his expression – I think he might be up to something.

He can also be pleased to see you:

Don’t think that’s made him much happier, but both these attachment options work well and look good.

Let’s check out another angle:

That’s definitely some sproing going on there. The muscliness continues around this side, though his upper arm muscles are looking somewhat odd. On this side, we can see he’s gone for a fade to blend his hair to his beard. The hair has been moulded so it is raised from the skin, but from some angles it does look a bit like a tattoo than hair as there isn’t texture to it.

Butt view:

He has an interesting pattern on his back – I think they were aiming for bodybuilder but it doesn’t really match up with that and looks like a symbol so I feel it gives “constructed human” vibes – which isn’t off the mark seeing as he is an android.

Looking at his hair also gives a bit of android vibe as the cut at the bottom of his fade is very straight, again, giving that almost tattoo look.

The arm and leg seams are pretty apparent – arm seams aren’t the most distracting, but there’s no missing the butt seam. Especially as it’s attached to one of the most rectangular butts I’ve seen – wish his cheeks were a bit more rounded.

Finally, we can see he didn’t skip leg day and we have some muscle definition back here too. Not quite as much as the front, but enough to let you know those legs are strong.

Closeup of the “goods”:

A good amount of sculpt and paint detail down here. No shading in the pubic hair, but his face/hair is more cartoon than realistic appearance. The colour tone also matches the body well.

OK, what if we prefer our androids to be more… cyber? Well, we’re in luck!

Yeah! The 90s strike! He has transparent arms and cock to match. In a very cyberesque blue-purple combo. There isn’t any transition between the shoulders and the arms, so I can see that being off-putting for some people. I think it would’ve been nice to paint a transition on the translucent part, but in some way it does give a “plug and play” feel to him.

Closeup of one of the arms:

Very glossy. Also highly refractive so you can’t really see through it which I think helps improve appearance.

Let’s spin him around:

Cyber sproing, Not too much to add, the arms do look nice with their glossiness and the colour transitions on them work well.

Let’s go to the back:

No cyberbutt to install, so just the arms back here. In a way, feels like there’s less of a seam versus the fleshy arms.

Flaccid cyberdick:

He also has a flaccid dick in the same style, just in case you don’t want him ready for action. This one does suit his expression better.

Close-ups of both the cyber options:

No blending in with the skin colour here, but the colours work well for what they are. Here we have the hair to help with the transition between body and penis.

Now to clothe him:

Heh, android torso.

OK, let’s put him back together:

Dressing him wasn’t too hard. The trousers were tight so getting the legs in was a bit interesting, especially when trying to not let the leg tops scrape each other when putting the second one in. Was expecting to go thigh up the trouser leg, but that wouldn’t go so he put his trousers in the more normal direction. Being able to put his legs in one at a time was certainly less fiddly than trying to get two very tight trouser legs on at the same time.

For the shirt, I ended up having to disconnect the arms to get them into the shirt then remagnetise them and slip the shirt over his shoulder. Due to being folded in transit, the clothes do have a bit of a life of their own, but could be fixed with an iron should someone want to.

Both the trousers and shirt have velcro openings. So you could shut the shirt if you wanted, and open his trousers to attach a penis – the trousers, much like a cheap hotel, have no ball room.

Closeup of his face and glamour shot in the shirt:

Honestly, I like the clothes more than I thought I would. If you wanted an ordinary dude looking figure, this would fit the bill. The clothes have been nicely made with a good amount of detail. We have the correct seams and buttons, which is nice to see at this scale.

The back:

Looking very smart-casual from the back. His shirt does ruck up a bit strange at the back, but it does give his body more shape. Can see the trousers hugging tight to his legs and buttocks. His arse does look better in the trousers imo.

However if we take the shirt off:

…he clearly didn’t get the trousers tailored. Due to the shape this gap isn’t helped by adding anything at the front. So if displaying him shirtless, he only looks good from the front.

Overall, the clothes look better than I anticipated – clearly effort went into making these clothes as they have details like buttons, pockets and belt loops. However, if the main appeal is the “cyber” parts, the shirt will obscure a portion of the arms and for the penis you’d need to have it poking out of his trousers. I won’t be using the clothes after this review, so can’t comment if they’ll stain over time – for clothes on figures, I’d recommend handwashing prior to use, and see about putting a protective layer between the figure and the clothes where possible. If dye leaches into a figure, it’s very difficult and sometimes impossible to get out.

Overall, he’s a nice figure but not without his flaws. Personally I’d be happy to do without the clothes and have the legs as part of the body. It may have been fun to have some cyber legs, but that may have been a bit much. Human upper, cyber lower may have been a fun look though.

Now, let’s get onto the price… From what I can find he had a domestic price of ~US$240 (CN¥1680) and was being sold internationally for ~US$270-300. I paid US$100 plus US$26 shipping, which is a far more reasonable price for him. I don’t think he’s worth over US$200 – there are too many seams and small imperfections to command this price, as well as being a very straightfoward pose. If we compare him to Gentleman Studio’s Samael, he was only CN¥888, and there is a lot more paintwork and detail on offer there. Gentleman Studio likely has far better economies of scale, but this guy should’ve really been closer to the CN¥1000 mark in my opinion. If someone handed this statue and asked me to guess the MSRP in USD, I probably would have said somewhere $100-150, not $250! So I’d say this is only one to chase down if you’re really into the aesthetic and happy to pay a premium for that or manage to find one cheap.

For me, I was attracted to the “cyber” aesthetic parts, so I’ll be displaying him with the clear arms and erect penis. Certainly a unique figure. And does he inspire emotions? That he does. Maybe not in spades, but there’s definitely something there.