I have been wishing for a good line of action figures featuring Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses since I was a young child. I was obsessed with Egyptian culture, religion, and treasures since I got my first library card at the age of seven. Even at a young age, I could see the toyetic potential in the pantheon of animal-headed gods adorned in colorful beads and gold. ThunderCats touched on it, and a few episodes of G.I.Joe teased me, but I went largely unsatisfied. In the late 90s, I was in college and missed an Egyptian Renaissance in pop culture. Mummies Alive! from Hasbro and Ramses the Golden Pharaoh from Giochi Preziosi were both too scarce and expensive to collect by the time I discovered them. But this new theme, Gods of Ancient Egypt, in the Four Horsemen's exclusive Figura Obscura line is the perfection I've always wanted. I couldn't be more happy. Bastet is easily my most wanted, but my mind is reeling with future potential: Hathor, Isis, Selkhet, Ma'at, etc. I can't wait to see who is next.
Although Bastet and Anubis were sold as a set, they are packaged independently. The photos above show the shrinkwrapped outer box of Bastet. You can see on the side with the image of the Hathor statue that this packaging has a wrap-around shell like a book cover. Below is the inside of that book cover with a printed diorama.
The photos below show the inner box.
There are many options to display Bastet. The images facing right show her with the headdress and human feet. The images facing left show her without the headdress and feline feet. Details of the other display options will follow.
I didn't show this in any pictures, but her tail is attached with a peg and is easily removable.
Her tail is made of a flexible rubbery plastic with a bendable wire running through it.
I'm also excited about those back ports. I'm assuming we will see a beautiful set of ornate Isis Wings at some point.
The Four Horsemen are always impressive. But the detailed accessories included with Bastet raised them to a whole new level for me. I am a bit of an Ancient Egypt fanatic. And the fact that they included real artifacts as accessories brings me immense joy.
The large feline statue is the Gayer-Anderson Cat.
The three vessels on the left are Canopic Jars used to store removed organs in the tombs and representing the four children of Horus:
Imsety (human) stores the liver.
Babi (baboon) stores the lungs.
Qebehsenuef (falcon) stores the intestines.
Missing: Duametef (jackal) stores the stomach.
The gold cat mask below the jars is the Mask of Sekhmet the Warrior Goddess found in the Treasures of Tutankhamun. Bastet is wearing smaller version of this artifact on her belt.
The falcon ornament next to the mask is the Pectoral of Horus. Bastet is wearing a smaller version of this on her Weskhet or Menat Necklace (in the center of the photo).
The black device to the right of the bib necklace is a Systrum - a percussion instrument with metal rings on bars.
The blue ceramic ornament on the right is the Aegis of Sakhmet (a necklace ornament).
Bastet also comes with a removable headdress, a basket, six pairs of hands, and two sets of feet.
Bastet also comes with four heads.
The placement of the heads in these two photos is in the same order from left to right.
There are two distinct colors: Dark blue and almost-black. The two heads on the right have square pegs on the back to attach the blue headdress. Additionally, the almost-black heads have subtle carved imperfections which I believe is meant to imply they are carved out of stone, like an ancient statue. The dark blue heads also look statue-like, but they have organic details like whisker holes. The earrings are real metal and dangle naturally.
Here is a headless picture. I like the blue hombre paint on the neck to transition to the feline head more fluidly. There are similar paint details on her tail and feline feet.
Above and below show Bastet without her bib necklace.
The series of photos below show the four different heads (with the necklace).
These hands were my favorite and I felt the plastic of the wrist pegs was straining too much so I didn't photograph her wearing any others.
I didn't open my Anubis so here is a solicit pic of the pair.
Time for a Comparison Pic!
Cheers!
You know what I hate about your site here? You're often that last "push", that final deciding factor that makes me buy a figure I was looking at. But thanks for going into detail ob the accessories... was wondering why she had so many heads and perusing a bunch of eBay entries to find out went nowhere.
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest, the heads in the solicit photos really confused me so when I got them in hand I wanted to make it super clear for this post. I hear all the time that I am a detriment to peoples' wallets. I recently got my brother into collecting toys and he texts me every few days with a photo of a new purchase saying "you're a bad influence" haha
DeleteThis really is a sexy figure. TBLeague also recently came out with a Bastet figure (like the black skin on that too), but it's comical compared to this one, because it looks like they literally sewed a housecat's head high up on someone's neck lol.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm always surprised at how many of the high-end 1:6 scale figures get simple proportions wrong. At that scale I would think they could be exact. But beyond proportions, the details and sculpting of these 4H ones are leagues above anyone else.
DeleteHonestly seeing this really reminds me of Nefertina from Mummies Alive. It even has an option for normal feet or clawed feet.
ReplyDeleteMe too! Some company needs to reboot that line because I need a Nefertina in my collection and the original is too rich for my blood.
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