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Bigshot Toyworks 1:6 Scale Bertie the Pipebomb
I must admit, I'm coming at this review from a biased opinion. There are about 5 artists I would consider my favorites, my inspiration, my idols and they include everything from classical to comic book artists. Ashley Wood, designer of ol' Bertie here, is one of them. All the same, I will try my best to be level headed and unbiased.
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Packaging
The Good: This is some gosh darn attractive packaging. To start, the brown shipping box has printed on two sides a line art illustration of Bertie with a gatling gun standing with Bamba, Ashley Wood's webstore's namesake. This is a real nice touch and totally unnecessary and completely great. The box proper is similar to a lot of 1/6 scale figures with two folding leaves. The figure on one side, accessories on the other. What's a little different, at least to figures I have had in the past, is that the box also has a slip cover. The slip cover essentially doubles the amount of possible packaging artwork which is great when you have someone like Ashley Wood to do all the art and design.
The Bad: Only complaint I can make is that it's way too pretty for packaging, something that I personally do not normally keep.
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Sculpting
The Good: Bertie is molded in what feels like a high quality vinyl, similar to what you see in collectable vinyl. This makes him lighter than you'd expect, which is good since he's also big, 14" tall. The vinyl also means the sculpting is soft without any fine sharp detail. This may sound like a bad thing but it serves to bring the figure closer to the spirit of Ashley Wood's artwork. Also, against reason, makes him appear larger and more realistic. When friends saw pictures of him they thought he was a very large full sized robot, particularly in close ups. Industrial machines do not have fine sharp details, especially well used ones as Bertie clearly is.
The Bad: I've got nothing.
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Paint Application
The Good: When you drop your $300 USD on this guy, my guess is, this is where a lot of that money is going. This is by far the best paint work I have ever seen on any collectable that wasn't a one off hand painted custom. Even in the realm of customs this is on par with some of the better painters out there. There's thick textured paint that appears to be rust, crisp yet chipped logos, airbrushing that imitates paint discoloration, washes that appear to be grime and dirt, etc. The painters used pretty much every painting technique in the book and more importantly, they did it with restraint. Too often paintwork that's meant to appear as "weathering" or "dirt" on even 1:1 scale items just comes off as sloppy paint work. This is not the case with Bertie... for the most part.
The Bad: Are you seeing pattern here? I'm trying, really I am. My only complaint with the paint is that in a couple of places the paint is just slightly too messy (in particular on the right arm). This is a minor complain and more an opinion than any flaw in the work itself.
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Accessories
The Good: Bertie comes with a nylon belt with numerous pouches, two rockets, one rocket launcher, two... grenades... I think?, a tactical rope, and a revolver. The belt and pouches are great, if simple. The rocket launcher is the real gem here. I have never been a fan of rocket launchers and because of that I did not expect to ever really display Bertie with his. Yet when taking pics I found myself taking most of the pictures with him holding it. It's just a really nice looking piece with really, really nice paint. It also has some serious heft to it, you could certainly use it to knock someone unconscious in a pinch. The grenades (I think?) and rockets are equally nice cast in the same heavy material. He also comes with a heavy base which is a slightly disappointing, but classy, flat silver disc and a rod to support him on those tiny legs.
The Bad: The revolver. Not so much the actual sculpting of the gun. I actually really like the design and sculpting of the revolver, in pics it was my favorite of his accessories. What I don't like is, that for some reason, the gun is cast in a lightweight polystyrene like plastic. All the other accessories are cast in what feels like heavy resin. The only reason I can think of why would be to facilitate the moving parts, of which there is one... the revolving bit of the revolver. I would have preferred either more movement in the gun (trigger, hammer, etc) or it to just be cast in solid resin like the other accessories. The paint work is also lacking in comparison to the rest. Just a solid mustard yellow with silver dry brushing to emulate the paint rubbing off but it comes off looking like... well... dry brushing.
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Articulation
The Good: There's a lot of articulation, as you would expect from a robot toy where joints are easy to hide. Here's the run down; hinge at each knuckle of the finger, a ball-joint at the base of each digit, a ball joint at the wrist, hinge elbow, a cut at the mid biceps (which could have been easily hidden at the shoulder but is lower and obvious, an aesthetic choice), a very neat double ball-jointed shoulder, cuts at the... neck and... um... waist? He also has ball jointed hips and hinged knees. The last few joints where particularly surprising. I thought, with the tiny legs that either the articulation would be useless or even that the legs would be unarticulated. Because of Bertie's light weight his legs can actually support his body, if not balance it. The rod serves only to balance the body. In many of the photographs the legs are fully supporting the weight of the body with the rod only partially inserted.
The Bad: He had a few loose joints right out of the box. The upper arm cut joints and the ball joint at the base of the thumbs where both very loose. It doesn't really impact the poseability of the figure. The thumbs don't really support any weight outside of themselves and despite being very loose the joint can still support the weight of the thumb itself. The biceps can sometimes be a bother, but for the most part the arm balances very well, only in certain extreme poses holding heavy objects is it a problem.
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pocket knife NOT included...
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Editor's Note: Favorite photo/pose
Cost and Overall Impression
Is this worth $300? It kind of depends on your perspective. In comparative terms I feel it's easily up to the same standards as other collectables in this same category and I don't know for sure, but at only 500 units total I think it's gotta be much lower production numbers. It's also $300 for a toy, which is honestly not something I'm proud to tell people I spent on a toy. Additionally it's a limited toy designed by one of my favorite artists, so if you're in the same boat as me, and can afford it, then yes it is worth $300.
I struggled to come up with some complaints on this guy and I'm sure to most people Bertie will be "perfect" but to my critical brain there's always room for improvement, even if it's a very small room that you can't even use to store your 1/6 scale shoes in. Bertie may not be perfect, but he's the damn nicest "collectible" or more honestly, toy, I have ever owned or seen.
For more photos of Bertie, click HERE.
- review and photos by James Basom Seaman (dedguy)
For more of dedguy's work, check HERE.
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I must admit, I'm coming at this review from a biased opinion. There are about 5 artists I would consider my favorites, my inspiration, my idols and they include everything from classical to comic book artists. Ashley Wood, designer of ol' Bertie here, is one of them. All the same, I will try my best to be level headed and unbiased.
Packaging
The Good: This is some gosh darn attractive packaging. To start, the brown shipping box has printed on two sides a line art illustration of Bertie with a gatling gun standing with Bamba, Ashley Wood's webstore's namesake. This is a real nice touch and totally unnecessary and completely great. The box proper is similar to a lot of 1/6 scale figures with two folding leaves. The figure on one side, accessories on the other. What's a little different, at least to figures I have had in the past, is that the box also has a slip cover. The slip cover essentially doubles the amount of possible packaging artwork which is great when you have someone like Ashley Wood to do all the art and design.
The Bad: Only complaint I can make is that it's way too pretty for packaging, something that I personally do not normally keep.
Sculpting
The Good: Bertie is molded in what feels like a high quality vinyl, similar to what you see in collectable vinyl. This makes him lighter than you'd expect, which is good since he's also big, 14" tall. The vinyl also means the sculpting is soft without any fine sharp detail. This may sound like a bad thing but it serves to bring the figure closer to the spirit of Ashley Wood's artwork. Also, against reason, makes him appear larger and more realistic. When friends saw pictures of him they thought he was a very large full sized robot, particularly in close ups. Industrial machines do not have fine sharp details, especially well used ones as Bertie clearly is.
The Bad: I've got nothing.
Paint Application
The Good: When you drop your $300 USD on this guy, my guess is, this is where a lot of that money is going. This is by far the best paint work I have ever seen on any collectable that wasn't a one off hand painted custom. Even in the realm of customs this is on par with some of the better painters out there. There's thick textured paint that appears to be rust, crisp yet chipped logos, airbrushing that imitates paint discoloration, washes that appear to be grime and dirt, etc. The painters used pretty much every painting technique in the book and more importantly, they did it with restraint. Too often paintwork that's meant to appear as "weathering" or "dirt" on even 1:1 scale items just comes off as sloppy paint work. This is not the case with Bertie... for the most part.
The Bad: Are you seeing pattern here? I'm trying, really I am. My only complaint with the paint is that in a couple of places the paint is just slightly too messy (in particular on the right arm). This is a minor complain and more an opinion than any flaw in the work itself.
Accessories
The Good: Bertie comes with a nylon belt with numerous pouches, two rockets, one rocket launcher, two... grenades... I think?, a tactical rope, and a revolver. The belt and pouches are great, if simple. The rocket launcher is the real gem here. I have never been a fan of rocket launchers and because of that I did not expect to ever really display Bertie with his. Yet when taking pics I found myself taking most of the pictures with him holding it. It's just a really nice looking piece with really, really nice paint. It also has some serious heft to it, you could certainly use it to knock someone unconscious in a pinch. The grenades (I think?) and rockets are equally nice cast in the same heavy material. He also comes with a heavy base which is a slightly disappointing, but classy, flat silver disc and a rod to support him on those tiny legs.
The Bad: The revolver. Not so much the actual sculpting of the gun. I actually really like the design and sculpting of the revolver, in pics it was my favorite of his accessories. What I don't like is, that for some reason, the gun is cast in a lightweight polystyrene like plastic. All the other accessories are cast in what feels like heavy resin. The only reason I can think of why would be to facilitate the moving parts, of which there is one... the revolving bit of the revolver. I would have preferred either more movement in the gun (trigger, hammer, etc) or it to just be cast in solid resin like the other accessories. The paint work is also lacking in comparison to the rest. Just a solid mustard yellow with silver dry brushing to emulate the paint rubbing off but it comes off looking like... well... dry brushing.
Articulation
The Good: There's a lot of articulation, as you would expect from a robot toy where joints are easy to hide. Here's the run down; hinge at each knuckle of the finger, a ball-joint at the base of each digit, a ball joint at the wrist, hinge elbow, a cut at the mid biceps (which could have been easily hidden at the shoulder but is lower and obvious, an aesthetic choice), a very neat double ball-jointed shoulder, cuts at the... neck and... um... waist? He also has ball jointed hips and hinged knees. The last few joints where particularly surprising. I thought, with the tiny legs that either the articulation would be useless or even that the legs would be unarticulated. Because of Bertie's light weight his legs can actually support his body, if not balance it. The rod serves only to balance the body. In many of the photographs the legs are fully supporting the weight of the body with the rod only partially inserted.
The Bad: He had a few loose joints right out of the box. The upper arm cut joints and the ball joint at the base of the thumbs where both very loose. It doesn't really impact the poseability of the figure. The thumbs don't really support any weight outside of themselves and despite being very loose the joint can still support the weight of the thumb itself. The biceps can sometimes be a bother, but for the most part the arm balances very well, only in certain extreme poses holding heavy objects is it a problem.
pocket knife NOT included...
Editor's Note: Favorite photo/pose
Cost and Overall Impression
Is this worth $300? It kind of depends on your perspective. In comparative terms I feel it's easily up to the same standards as other collectables in this same category and I don't know for sure, but at only 500 units total I think it's gotta be much lower production numbers. It's also $300 for a toy, which is honestly not something I'm proud to tell people I spent on a toy. Additionally it's a limited toy designed by one of my favorite artists, so if you're in the same boat as me, and can afford it, then yes it is worth $300.
I struggled to come up with some complaints on this guy and I'm sure to most people Bertie will be "perfect" but to my critical brain there's always room for improvement, even if it's a very small room that you can't even use to store your 1/6 scale shoes in. Bertie may not be perfect, but he's the damn nicest "collectible" or more honestly, toy, I have ever owned or seen.
For more photos of Bertie, click HERE.
- review and photos by James Basom Seaman (dedguy)
For more of dedguy's work, check HERE.
