TOY NEWS FOR 5/7/2014 - ARTSTROM (FEWTURE) /DID - FRINGE - 1/6 SCALE FIGURES COMING (PART 2)

SEE ORIGINAL POST (PART 1) HERE.

Okay folks, so we've got a little more info on the 1/6 scale Fringe figures, and a boatload of new pictures!

It seems that Artstorm will be working with DID (one of the larger 1/6 scale manufacturers focusing mainly on military figures) to bring these figures to retail.

This is very good news because it means that the price won't be overly outrageous (although expect Hot Toys prices, more than likely) and we'll probably have them here stateside (as DID is distributed here in the US by CalTekUSA) without having to hunt them down on Chinese (or Japanese) websites and pay crazy shipping.

Still no word on when we can start to expect to see any of the figures, though.

It also seems that the figures will come one of two ways. 1) A single figure with a second set of clothes and, in Walter/Walernate's and Olivia/Fauxlivia's case, a second head. 2) Each figure will be sold seperately making a total of six figures.

It also looks like they are doing some nice diorama accessories in the form of the typewriter used to communicate with the "other side" and the window that Walter used to see over to the "other side". Now these could just be used for display purposes at conventions and such, but hopefully they will be made available for purchase, either separately or perhaps they'll come with the figures.

Lastly, it looks like we're finally getting our first look at the final (or close to final) Olivia head sculpt. Many people on certain message boards are very unhappy with the Olivia sculpt-- I am not one of them.

True, she doesn't look as accurate as Walter and Perter, but female likenesses are not as easy to capture as male likenesses. Compared to what I thought the Olivia sculpt was going to be (see Part 1 of this article), I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief to see this new version-- which, while not perfect, is obviously and definitely Olivia (Anna Torv). I know a lot of people demand 100% perfection from their figures and likenesses, but, again, I am not one of them. I expect to know who the character is and for the sculpt to look like the actor, but I don't expect a real-life head shrunk down to 1/6 scale. If a figure reaches that level of perfection, then I consider it a bonus, but I don't expect it in every case and then condemn the entire figure for not being "perfect".

So, let's take a look at some of the new pics. First up are some official photos from DID.

Since we're finally seeing some official photos, hopefully we'll have some official news to go along with them soon.

Next up is this "hairless" look at just the Olivia head sculpt.

Seeing this really got me super excited to get these figures-- and it was a huge relief! These figures are a major dream come true for me, and if they fouled up Olivia, I was going to pass on the entire line. But, now seeing this sculpt, I can finally let myself look forward to owning all of them!

Finally, we have some pictures from a showing in HK (or possibly Japan). These pics give us our first real look at the figures from multiple angles, and you'll also see the aforementioned diorama accessories.

Many people have not liked the Olivia figure based on these photos-- but I have a little "test" I did that you'll see at the end of this article.

Okay, the thing that is making the Olivia figure look "off" and not as good as Peter and Walter is the hair.

With the properly styled hair, she would (will) look much better. Is this how the final figure will look? Since we don't have any official pictures of the final Olivia yet, we just don't know. If the figure comes as it looks in the pictures above, it will require some styling, so go out and buy some cheap Barbies to practice on!

To reinforce my theory, I took two of the Oliva pics and placed them over actress Anna Torv's face.

The only changes I made to the pics was changing the skin to to match Torvs' in the original picture, and I changed the "display figure's" eyes from blue to green, as they are in the "hairless" head pic.

First up is Ms. Torv herself.

Here is the "hairless" sculpt over her face.

And finally, here is the figure from the display pictures with the eye color changed to green.

Perfect? No. Does it look like Olivia? To me, yes.

Much better than what we were originally shown?

HELL YES.

Like I said, I'm happy and excited for these figures. Fringe is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi shows and always thought they were deserving of some kind of action figures, but to have 1/6 scale figures done this well?? I thought I'd never see it.

Hopefully we'll all know more about these soon!