Hot Toys Jake Sully *and* Neytiri (new pix Nov. 17 -- welcome Neytiri!)

[Alliecat]

Thanks for the nice comments ages ago!  I can't believe it's been almost ANOTHER year!!  

It is like Jake has constructed a totem or sculpture of Neytiri to remember her by... or to summon her!

That's a good idea!  We'll go with that...

So I took him out for the pic-a-week shot and as usual, I can rarely take Just One Photo of any of my models, so even though the light wasn't great, I took a few more.




The fact that it gave an opportunity for a few movie-reminiscent shots is NO consolation for the trashed woodlot next door which has become a building lot, complete with horrible racket far too early in the mornings.








Yeah, let's torch it.

And I felt pretty much like the movie characters did watching the trees fall several years ago.  I am bitterly cursing Dad's decision not to buy the lot when it was for sale (he said it was overpriced) and then my own failure to inquire when it went up for sale again (after they'd wrecked the trees).   >sigh<



Sometimes, you just get tired of the fight...






...but you gotta keep going.

Thanks for looking!

[davidd]

Soon you will have a multi-storey mansion looming over you, it seems.

Strange how Canada (and many other places) can be locked down, yet destruction... I mean construction... proceeds apace, or even accelerates.

People of an older generation - my parents and grandparents definitely come to mind - simply did not or could not grasp the rate at which the population was growing and how rapidly development was encroaching on every open space. I have heard the "nobody will ever pay that much" and "that patch of dirt will never be worth anything" line far too many times in my life. Somebody always paid that much," and "that much" inevitably turned out to be a bargain within a few short years.

The intensity of Jake's blue color comes across well even in subdued, diffuse lighting.

[Elfy]

This is rather reminiscent of movie Jake’s fight.

[dargosmydaddy]

Jake does melancholy well.

[Alliecat]

Well dang, coming back to this thread after another almostayear just made me sad, because the construction/destruction next door has ruined the neighbourhood as far as I'm concerned.  Private yard is compromised, early morning trucks/equipment in/out is a regular thing. 
Anyway, I got a few quick shots of Jake in my no-longer-really-private veg garden.  I wanted to pose him in the jungle before I tidied it a bit.











"Somebody needs to weed in here!"

[davidd]

The first pic, in particular, looks wild and savage!

You're kind of living in a real life "Avatar" scenario now, aren't you, with development destroying your wilderness home.

And people claim they're concerned about "climate change." Uhm, excuse me, but every square meter/foot of ground that gets "developed" contributes to climate change, global warming, carbon release, and water pollution through runoff.

If I were Absolute Dictator, there would be a 1:1 requirement for development - every inch (centimeter for you enlightened types) of "new development" would be required to be offset by returning old, unused development to a pristine state, with wild foliage and trees. No, not "parks" or "greenways" with paved paths and benches and gazebos. Natural wild state.

But I'm not Absolute Dictator, so the planet is screwed. Screw the planet, our neighborhoods and our quality of life everywhere is disintegrating on a daily basis. More houses are going in across the valley from where I am. Dump trucks, cement trucks, and drilling rigs are busy busy busy with development development development.

So... do you ever feel guilty about pulling up weeds? I mean, weeds are plants, too. And weeds have to struggle hard to get by, as they generally don't get pampered and cared for like "nice" plants.

You need a real life Jake to come in an go all "Avatar" on the construction company next door.

Weren't they required to have a public meeting or something before putting in a construction yard in a residential area?

You need to start a heavy metal band... that practices at night.

[Alliecat]

Kinda sad reading through this thread and seeing the nice photo setting I used to have and what has happened since. 
Man, everything is really broken, even Flickr today which didn't want to let me upload anything till I'd fired up 2 different laptops & tried 2 browsers. 
Well anyway, a little distraction with nice things for a while....

So...  she is finally here!!!!!!!
I'd heard stories about pre-order delays, or just how long it took in general, but this still seems ridiculous to me.  I found out Hot Toys was finally going to do a Neytiri in JANUARY of 2023!!!!!  She was kind of an appalling price and I do NOT spend that much on collectibles normally.  But, well, having Jake, I kind of HAD to get her, right??
So FINALLY, around the end of September, I inquired of the store whether they had any news because I found on the website that she'd been released & was shipping but I hadn't heard anything.  They replied they'd just got a shipping notice the same day.  Fun synchronicity.  I thought you had to pay the remaining balance before they would ship but I guess not.
Anyway, then I was going to pick up in mid-October on my way up the bay for a concert.  The concert got cancelled, so I had to put it off till another appointment on the 28th, so finally she is here.
I was hoping to do some outdoor photos but between cold days, no privacy in my formerly lovely little mossy patch out back, and trying to get the fall garden work done while dodging roaming brats, I haven't yet. 
But here's her arrival at least.



I got him in 2019.  He's waited a very long time!






I got this little string doll before I got Jake.  Someone said it was like he had a little talisman he was trying to conjure her with, so OK, he's been standing holding that for quite a while 



Ready for the big reveal...



...



Hmm.  Well, someone else looks like they've had "a fifth of tequila and an ass-kicking". 



"Well hey."
"Kaltxi."









She comes with a couple extra pairs of bow-shooting hands, a bow & 2 arrows, a knife, and a stand that is fairly basic if you didn't get the "deluxe" edition.



So Hot Toys decided to get cute, and give her "moveable" eyes.  This little lever is supposed to go inside her head and hook onto a little peg that will move the eyes.  Well, I looked inside her head, and without trying to force it cos I didn't want to break anything, I could NOT get the lever in contact with the tiny eye parts.  The attachment thingy is in the way.  I think trying to move the eyes individually could turn into a mess anyway -- they could end up wonky.
Also, the posing photo just below my hand shows that her arms are supposed to raise 90 degrees out from her sides.  They do NOT.  They'll go forward and backward, but they will NOT move "out".  I haven't tried hair-dryering them yet, but, having read a review of Jake ages ago where someone's broke and he found the pieces holding the arms on were about 3mm of plastic -- he dissected his figure!! -- I am extreeeemely reluctant to try forcing anything.
This means I can't pose her shooting the bow. 
Both figures have pretty limited basic-Barbie articulation anyway, although Neytiri's wrists swivel a wee bit more, and her torso a wee bit less.



The bow looks nice.
Unfortunately again, the effort to make her eyes movable resulted in kind of a goggle-eyed stare-y ex/pression.  She's not going to photograph well face-on.
And dangit, I hate to complain at all because I was blessed to be able to afford her anyway.  But, for the price, I really think Hot Toys cheaped out this time around.  Jake's details are fantastic.  He has terrific hair, all braided.  Neytiri's hair is MOLDED.  Except for the queue.  Come on, Hot Toys -- for that price, she should have had HAIR!!!!  Jake's beaded accessories & feathers are real; Neytiri's are also molded plastic.  It just seems like they took cheaper options with the outfit and especially, did I mention, the hair.
Also about eyes, I was really annoyed to find that Jake's were going cloudy.  Guess it's a reaction of the resin to light?  I didn't know he should've had sunglasses!!!!    So he looks kind of blind close-up.  I guess I'll have to to try to paint eyeballs?  Yikes.
Well, we'll see how she photographs at an angle outside, sometime....  In the meantime, a few more pix.



"So, um, I've had this doll of you for a while..."







Yeah, OK, I'll leave you two alone now....


Thanks for looking!

[Alliecat]

I haven't had a very good chance to take pictures of Neytiri yet.  I didn't like any of the light on these, but they were salvageable with Photoshop.  Today I had a rare completely quiet day with the neighbours-from-hell away, so I went out a bit earlier to try to get some pix in the few patches of light from the already-too-low sun.  I promptly lost one of her arrows.  I spent the next hour & a half looking for it.  It is exactly the same colour as all the twigs on the ground, and I wasn't exactly sure where I'd walked even though it wasn't much more than 15 feet.  A spiritual insight about lost things dawned on me during this search, and, as if that was the cue with the message received, I found it.
By then the light was gone and no photos ensued.  Oh well.  So these are from a few days ago.
(I see a lot of "broken links" here too??)






Not much of a hunting ground left for them.









He looks like he's not paying attention to Anything Else At All these days 



The last flowers left he could find.



Describing future adventures.