INTRODUCTION

Hailing from Blizzard’s massively successful Overwatch, Mercy (aka Angela Ziegler) is surely no stranger to most of our readers. As I mentioned in my previous review of the Mercy Nendoroid, this battle medic is one of favourite characters from the game, and though I don’t play the game much any more, I’ve still got a soft spot for her.

Today’s review is something of a deviation from the norm. We usually review figures from Japanese companies, which are most commonly made from PVC. This statue, however, is a Western style statue made from polystone. These are the sort of statues you’ll often see from manufacturers like SideShow; in comparison, they’re quite a bit heavier, usually much bigger and often very expensive.

My preference tends towards the Japanese figures over Western statues. I’ve owned a couple of statues similar to Mercy in the past, and there was always something just a little… off about them. There’s always something uncanny about the face, and the details just aren’t quite as crisp or as sharp in places as you’d expect. Granted, the statues I owned weren’t quite as super premium as Mercy, but I still had my concerns going in. These concerns unfortunately turned out to be well founded – but we’ll get to that later.

Fans who are familar with Overwatch’s promotional material will recognise the pose Mercy is taking. It’s roughly based on the image seen above, where our favourite angel of mercy extends her helping hand toward the viewer. It’s an appropriately iconic pose to choose for a statue like this.

Upon first impressions, this statue is very impressive. Mercy stands around 35cm tall (floor to head) and her base is about 32cm in diamater. She’s sure to stand out in your collection by virtue of size alone, but her bright, clean colour scheme and wide-spanned wings add a lot to her visual appeal as well. The Blizzard Gear store page doesn’t show off the wings very well, but they are fully translucent, which is very cool. The logo base is a nice touch, too.

However, there were some immediately apparent quality issues, too. I’ll get into these in more detail later on, but I did find myself a bit disappointed when I looked at her up close. Bearing in mind that this statue costs upwards of £150 (not accounting for postage), I expected better.

PACKAGING AND ASSEMBLY

For such a large statue, you can expect a large box. Arriving in a banana yellow affair decorated with various logos and info about Mercy, it’s a pretty by-the-numbers box. You can probably tell from the photos that my box was a little banged up when it arrived. Thankfully, inside the box is a sturdy polystyrene shell which securely shelters Mercy. It seems unlikely that anything but the biggest accidents would cause serious damage while she’s in transit.

Once unpacked, assembling the statue is quite simple. Instructions are provided, but you probably won’t need them. Pegs on Mercy’s foot easily slide into the base, and her staff-holding hand fits easily into a socket on her arm. No fuss at all.

It should be noted that the base is quite heavy – heavier than the statue itself, from what I could tell. This is a double edged sword; on the one hand, it’s very unlikely that Mercy will move unless you move her on purpose. On the other, it can be difficult to move her once she’s assembled, especially since the statue is designed to easily separate from its base. It’s not a big deal, but it’s something to bear in mind so that you don’t accidentally break your new toy before it’s on your shelf.

SCULPTING

Mercy is no doubt a well made statue. Her sculpt is appealing and does a great job capturing the intricacies of her Valkyrie suit. It’s funny how you don’t really notice things until you really take a look at them. As an example, this is the first time I noticed that the design running up Mercy’s spine is based on the Caduceus – with the rod flowing directly into Mercy’s wings. It’s a cool detail that I probably wouldn’t have caught onto otherwise. She looks quite similar to her in-game counterpart, especially at a distance.

Unfortunately, the sculpt isn’t perfect. This is very much a statue that looks great when you look at the whole thing from a distance, because the flaws stand out when you get in close. While the sculpt is very detailed, some of those details aren’t as crisp and sharp as I’d expected. The tips of her hair are very round, for example, and the aforementioned Caduceus design is blobby and indistinct. This strikes me as odd, because other details – her boots, for example – are very clean cut. I especially like the subtle texturing on her tights. Her face is actually quite good too – much to my surprise – although at some angles her eyes begin to look bulbous. This inconsistency in quality is a little annoying, especially when you consider the price tag.

I also noticed that two of her “feathers” were slightly bent in the wrong direction. Another has a small crack in it. These aren’t issues that will really be noticed at a glance (they probably don’t even appear in the photos) but they’re still indicative of lacklustre quality control.

PAINTWORK

You can sadly say the same of the paintwork, which has a very ‘hit and miss’ quality to it. Starting with the good, Mercy’s colours are bright and eyecatching. The variety of finishes on show are appropriately used, with metallic features gleaming and the more matte white body suit having a more subdued sheen. The various decals are sharp and have been cleanly applied. Subtle use of shading helps shape the statue. Her translucent wings are especially cool, and create gorgeous effects when light is shone through them.

On the bad side of things, there’s a frankly silly amount of sloppy paintwork. Paint spills over from one part to another all over the figure – it’s as if it was painted in a hurry. Fortunately, none of the messy painting is exceptionally bad, so you’re not likely to spot these flaws from a distance. But the sheer volume of these errors… I’d really expect better. As a good example, you might notice – if you look closely – that Mercy’s mascara is in her eyes. And not just a little – quite a lot of it. You won’t spot it from a distance, but it’s there.

The issues aren’t strictly with the application of the paint, either. There’s several parts of the statue where the paint looks lumpy (particularly her hair and shoulders) as if dust has been trapped under it. Her sleeves also seem to have some sort of lint stuck in the paint, and sadly it wouldn’t wipe off. I’m also pretty sure there’s dust stuck in her wings. Again, you’re probably not going to notice all this when she’s on your shelf, but that’s beside the point.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So, at the end of all this, would I recommend Blizzard’s Mercy statue? It’s an attractive piece of work, for sure, and it looks outstanding as a centrepiece on my shelf. When you look at her from a distance, she’s excellent. What flaws she does have – and there are a lot of them – are generally unintrusive and easy not to notice unless you take a closer look at things. So yeah, I think if this is something you had your eye on – especially for Mercy fans – then it’s still worth considering. I feel that the price is perhaps a bit too high considering the very apparent lack of quality control, but the overall product is still really appealing.

That said, I’m still left wondering why Western companies don’t follow the lead of Japanese companies. While they’re certainly not all perfect, I’ve seen plenty of Japanese figures that are just of a higher quality standard overall – despite being cheaper. It’s a bit puzzling.

Regardless though, this is a really nice collector’s piece. Fans of Mercy will no doubt love it. I just wish they’d given it a little more polish.