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.