License:	Serenity	Type:	Animated Maquette
Size:	7″ H x 5″ W x 7″ L	Weight:	5 pounds

This is my second statue review from a show created by the mind of Josh Whedon. As you may already know, I’m a huge Whedon fan and Firefly is without question my favorite television show of all time. The animated sculpt of this piece is based on the likeness of character River Tam from the TV series Firefly and Serenity movie. River Tam, played by Summer Glau, is one badass female, much like Buffy Summers from another of Whedon’s creations. The River Tam – Big Damn Heroes Animated Maquette from Quantum Mechanix retails for $69.95. The statue is limited to an edition size of 1,500. I received statue #1,426.

Fun River Quote #1: “No power in the ‘verse can stop me.”

My first impression upon receiving River in the post was of the small dimensions of the box and upon unpacking the statue I saw why. This piece is very small. River plus her base measures approximately 6″ high by 7″ in length, looking more like a “Small Damn Heroes” line. I knew this when I placed the preorder over two months ago, but didn’t really have an idea of how small it would be since all of my previous statues have been much larger in comparison. This is basically toy action figure size. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I prefer larger pieces of 1/6 scale or bigger, but a little variety in my collection will be a good thing. She also fits and displays nicely on my DVD rack with Serenity and Firefly as a backdrop.

This is an animated interpretation of River Tam. They did not use the likeness of Summer Glau for the portrait. In my view Summer Glau is River, so it creates a bit of a disconnect from the series/movie and the animated likeness bears little resemblance to River Tam. It would have been a much wiser decision to sculpt the piece so she actually looks like the character we have all come to know and love. That being said, I knew about this decision long ago and have come to terms with it. There is very little quality Firefly memorabilia on the market so I’ll take what I can get for now.

The sculpt is very detailed for such a tiny piece. They captured her pose perfectly. River is sculpted in the battle pose shown during Serenity while she was kicking some Reaver ass. Her clothing and weaponary are all accurate from the movie. The base also matches very nicely. It features a dirty, metal grate floor and vents surrounding it, similar to the ships design. No complaints here, just would have preferred Summer Glau over an “Animated Maquette”.

The paint applications are wonderful. River is covered literally head to toe in Reaver blood, along with her axe and sword. Her dress and boots are as detailed and accurate as one could hope for a statue in this scale and her facial area is also well done. There are no paint flaws to be found even in the very small areas such as River’s eyes and silver boot buckles. The paint apps aren’t perfect though, as the handles of both her axe and sword are less detailed and a bit bland looking compared to the rest of her.

Despite being an animated maquette not based on Summer Glau, the likeness is still exceptional. River’s pose, weaponry and clothing are all recreated very accurately and the paint style does a great job of capturing the “gritty” reality of Firefly.

Fun River Quote #2: “Also: I can kill you with my brain.”

Conclusion

The River Tam – Big Damn Heroes Animated Maquette is a must own for Firefly fans. Get it now. It is very inexpensive, selling for as little as $52 from some online retailers and to be honest, with the lack of quality Firefly products available, there is no reason not to own this unless you are unwilling to live with the fact it isn’t sculpted as Summer Glau. Aside from some really high end and overpriced Firefly ship and vehicle replicas, there exist relatively few quality pieces from the Firefly verse. This one isn’t perfect, but until someone decides to make some larger scale statues with sculpts based on actors who play the characters, this will have to do.

Where to buy:

• Things From Another World
• Sideshow Collectibles
• Amazon