Tuesday-Toy-Review: Wet Suit Maria (Green Edition) from Erick Scarecrow x ESC Toy
QUICK TOY CATCHUP: The Wet Suit Maria Green Edition is a 6" tall vinyl toy designed by Erick Scarecrow and produced by ESC Toy, in a production run of 200 pieces in this colorway. This edition was billed as a New York ComicCon "Special" release in 2010, and I have this figure in my humble collection dude to the efforts of Justin Rudy of Dynomight NYC.
This is the first of three colorways currently released, alongside the Orange WSM Maguma and light-blue-suit WSM Buru Daiba.
PACKAGING: The one particular trait of all ESC Toy products, is the treatment of their packaging, involving swell eye-grabbing graphics, and an obvious effort in producing it. One perfect representation of this is their box for Wet Suit Maria from Erick ~ housed here in a full-print box with window display. No doubt a splendid box where it could easily be displayed at any angle, and the basic info of the product and company producing it, is displayable with no apologies. Good call, methinks.
ARTICULATION / PAINT APP: Packed secure within the box is a clamshell plastic-tray holding the figure with zero cable-ties (which is pretty cool), and out pops the figure! For all intents and purposes, this is a non-articulated vinyl statuette with surprisingly decent paint applications. The only exception with my particular piece, was the uneven paint between the hair-fringe and face area, smack dab right front. Other than that, I have zero additional gripes.
The back of the head features an "autograph" by Erick ~
PRODUCTION QUALITY / FORM: What I really like about this figure, is the lack of "production seams" visible especially at the head area, with the frog-headwear an adorable attribute to frame the signature cute face from Erick. And the most unique aspect of this sculpt, beyond the character design itself, is it's ability to stand alone on it's one leg! As well giving it a frozen-moment vibe, with the hand-claps sure to represent something
For sure this is not shelf-dive-proof, but once the figure stands, it stands well and thus gives Wet Suit Maria a special stance as seen in the animated video, which I felt somehow could be included with the figure.
CONCLUSION: The figure has since sold out via ESC Toy and the only possibility to score this cutie is via after-markets or toy retailers (go bug your fav for availability) that perhaps distribute DKE Toys (an unproven assumption from me). Price was pegged at US$55, which is a decent price for a designer vinyl figure, IMHO.
