ALEX ROSS' CONAN GOES FROM 2D TO 3

**MattBrady** · 03-30-2006, 11:02 AM

Press Release

Dynamic Forces today released images and information concerning their upcoming release of the first-ever full-size Conan Statue from the premiere collectibles company.

The statue is based on the previously released, exclusively commissioned, Conan Lithograph.

That lithograph featured the first ever painting of Conan by master artist Alex Ross, and now, with the help of sculptor Lou Cella and painter Tim Bruckner, Ross’ stunning vision comes to life as a collectible, limited edition statue.

“The opportunity to work with Alex on this project is a dream come true for fans, and now, to be able to turn his incredible painting into our first-ever statue is a double treat,” explained DF President Nick Barrucci. “Lou, Tim, and of course Alex, really hit a grand slam with this one. Fans should note that this is the only statue planned to be released this year!”

“We’re thrilled to see Alex Ross’ vision of Conan come to life. This breathtaking statue really captures the essence of the character – exciting, savage, and a true barbarian.”

-- Fredrik Malmberg, Head of Creative Affairs & Licensing, Conan Properties International, LLC.

The CONAN BY ALEX ROSS STATUE (APR063131) and an MSRP of $249.99 and is available for PRE-ORDER from your local retailer now.

Standing over 12” tall by 16” wide, sculpted by Lou Cella, and paint-mastered by Tim Bruckner, this incredible Conan piece captures the power of Ross’ artistic vision with the brutish ferocity of the world’s most famous barbarian!

Strictly limited, this is one statue release this year you will not want to be without!

For art and more information, please visit:
http://www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/p-C104914.html

PLEASE NOTE: This item is ADVANCED SOLICITED and schedule for release in NOVEMBER 2006.

xomanowarfan · 03-30-2006, 11:10 AM

love the litho but that is one ugly statue.

Skinshark · 03-30-2006, 11:11 AM

Conan should be uglier IMO.
His skin doesn't look tanned and worn by the elements. He looks like he was brought up in an English home an educated at a school for pale young boys.

I wish someone would get this right.

=s=

The Beyonder · 03-30-2006, 12:06 PM

Whoah - his face certainly doesn't look pampered.

He looks like the villan from the Goonies, but with hair.

senseimonkey · 03-30-2006, 12:19 PM

Wow that is bad, even the base is awful. Have yet to see a decent conan statue outside of Moores' Frazetta one from years ago and the price!!!!! What are they thinking ?????

Master Bates · 03-30-2006, 12:21 PM

That looks like trash.

samnoir · 03-30-2006, 12:33 PM

As much as I like Ross' stuff, I'd rather see a statue based on Frazetta or even Boris Vallejo's work.

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Camelot3000 · 03-30-2006, 12:40 PM

Didn't McFarlane do some Conan figures? I remember those being cool. This looks rather plain and unintereting. Yeah, Frazetta's Conan would kick this Conan's ass!

WildKard · 03-30-2006, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Camelot3000
Didn't McFarlane do some Conan figures? I remember those being cool. This looks rather plain and unintereting. Yeah, Frazetta's Conan would kick this Conan's ass!

Yeah he did and the figures rocked.

rogue_tomato · 03-30-2006, 12:55 PM

Not a bad statue... but I'm not a fan of the artwork it was based on, sorry

I actually prefer the McFarlane figures over this statue in terms of subject matter, pose, details, etc.... how weird is that?

Stromboli · 03-30-2006, 01:38 PM

For the price, this one doesn't measure up. The Conan from Hard Heroes by Seth Vandable was great and cost less:

EmeraldGuy32 · 03-30-2006, 02:08 PM

not one of his better works

Ragnarokker · 03-30-2006, 02:49 PM

I think they should base more statues on Cary Nord's work. It is amazing.

DynamiteKid · 03-30-2006, 03:10 PM

The litho was/is great but the statue doesn't measure up.

McFarlane's line of Conan semi-posable statue/figures are the best Conan sculpture-ish products in recent memory. They had a great balance of realism and the fantastic. It was like the designers were truly tapped into Howard's writings when they came up with the designs.

There are three details of the Ross inspired statue that strike me immediately as odd:

1) The face, as mentioned already, looks pretty bad. It's scary but not in a good "angry barbarian is about to kill someone" way. More of a "this guy was born face first into a pile of rocks" way.

2) The details(clothing, skin tone, and the red paint, err, I mean blood). For such a price tag, I expect far better detailing of the clothes of the character. For a statue that stands over a foot, the detail of the boots and especially the wristbands and loin cloth/furry skirt are lackluster. I know there's only so much to work off of when you refer to the source material of the litho but with help from Alex, I expected a higher level of detail and quality. The skin looks red/orange/pinkish, which is plain odd. Finally, the blood looks like red paint. Need I say more? It's all about the details.

3) The posture/expression and the resulting "feeling" or "mood". I'm looking at the litho and there's a feeling of intensity and explosiveness. This comes from Conan's grim expression, the depiction of the background as a sort of "whirlwind" of motion, and the spray of blood coming from just "out of screenshot". Only Conan's expression can be recreated in the statue. The "whirlwind" background and spray of blood will have to remain in the painting. To recreate or approximate the feeling of the painting, you could/would combine the expression on Conan's face from the painting with a suggestive posture of the statue. The problem is the statue's face looks brutish but not grim or angry. Looking at the photo of conanstatue1.jpg, Conan looks mildly displeased at best. Then take a look at the statue's posture. He looks like he's "posing" for a photo rather than in the middle of an act of violence. There's no sign of stress in his muscles like he's lunging or deeply stepping into a simultaneous hacking with his sword and axe. So combine that relatively posed/relaxed posture with his almost annoyed expression and it looks like the statue is depicting a person posing as Conan at some boring photo op.

I know, I probably spent way too much time analyzing why the statue doesn't look good to me but I did so blah. Blah, I say!

No offense to Alex Ross, who seemingly had input into the statue from the write-up, and to the people on the design team for the statue but it is simply not up to the level of quality I expect from a statue at such a cost.

xomanowarfan · 03-30-2006, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Stromboli
For the price, this one doesn't measure up. The Conan from Hard Heroes by Seth Vandable was great and cost less:

That one's cool. Where can I get that?

I've noticed alot of the DF statues are poor. They just don't get the characters they are licensing. Thier recent Solar statue suffered from the same problem. He was all muscular and posing...which is not what Solar is about.

lobocomics · 03-30-2006, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rogue_tomato
Not a bad statue... but I'm not a fan of the artwork it was based on, sorry I actually prefer the McFarlane figures over this statue in terms of subject matter, pose, details, etc.... how weird is that?

Not weird at all.... those McFarlane figures were amazing... and there are..I think two series

kiddo · 03-30-2006, 05:08 PM

WOW! That is one boring looking pose. DF statues are really getting bad. I see most people waiting till this one is on Ebay for a way lower price before they even think of buy one. Frazetta's Conan should be the only one they use for a statue.

rpace · 03-30-2006, 05:19 PM

Man -- the face looks like Jack Black. . . .

Ew.

~R

Templar1305 · 03-31-2006, 09:06 AM

I like the Seth Vandable/HardHeroes statue a LOT Better.
For one thing, it actually looks like John Buscema's version of Conan come to life and frozen in time.
For another, it has nice details on it. ( A friend of mine has it, but I have the Ploog looking Kull that HH did).
For the other there would be less of a breakage factor.
For the final, it looks more like Russell Crowe from Gladiator than Conan to me.

terry · 03-31-2006, 11:26 AM

Certainly seems that everyone is of the same opinion , and I agree too , it's very poor.

Terry

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