All in all, not a bad selection of toys, though I do have a few nits to pick.
Above: My OSM Holiday lineup, comprised of the most festive combinations of Holiday, Infinity and Birnkrant CC wave figures and accessories.
I've included a second Gamma X in the mix, as I think the mashup of white, clear, metallic and translucent blue parts make for a cool Winter Warlock/White Walker effect. Not exactly festive, but certainly chilling...
The Good:
Ni's paint and finishes are surprisingly dynamic. Ed mentioned the iridescent effects on the main page when he posted photos, and he was right; light really plays with the appearance of all the figures, albeit in different ways for each. The silver metallic accessories really pop against these paint jobs.
Terra and Jack legs appear opaque metallic orange, but when backlit are translucent!
Horroscope's head is a real standout - it appeared in the early photos (I may have seen on a different board - Matt's maybe?) that the heads of Horro were not all identical - a range of greens, golds, reds and mixtures thereof. I got a mixture version and think it's great! Her bright transluscent purple body has a silver overlay that disappears when back-lit and gives her a frosty look when front-lit.
Ohpro's pink body is surprisingly vivid for a smoke grey base. the finish gives her a real glass appearance and there is a really lovely wash effect on her gold head(s) that has the feel of very old-school ornament patina. Very nice. I might eventually display her without the helmet for good to show this off.
Gamma X has the same glass-like finish, and Ni's signature blending style is nicely showcased here. His silver head also is the opaque/translucent hybrid.
Colossus Rex might be my least favorite, but that doesn't mean it's a bad figure/paint job. His head, hands and feet have a matching green opaque metallic finish that looks (again) like a Christopher Radko Christmas ornament - appropriate for the Holiday wave. The color and sparkles in his armor are really subtle. (I had a tough time initially getting Rex's staff into either hand, but after it was in the house for a while and warmed up, it finally slipped in fairly easily. It's been pretty frickin' cold this week, which is why I think it was tough going right out of the box)
The Bad:
Overall, I really would have liked to get Gold accessories for most of these figures, as I think that would have made them look a bit more properly finished, given the color schemes. Gamma X is the only one I would have preferred in Silver (and that's only for use on other versions), but the gold would have really worked with the yellow arms anyway, and I think we'll get at least a silver back-half of his armor for the Infinity version. The silver probably works best on the two astronauts - the contrast works great, but again I think the gold would have pushed them further into the Holiday ornament realm. I'll probably swap Metalmorpho's and Ohpromatem's metallic discs and knobs for the long haul too. Depending on what Infinity Rex's armor looks like, I may swap that out as well. The black doesn't scream Holiday, and I think an opportunity was missed to make this gold or red.
The Ugly:
Right off the bat - the Flags are of the Alpha Phase/Crap.0 vintage. Inexcusable. The upgraded flags would have worked great on the silver accessories (I wonder which version will be shipping with the upcoming separate Silver accessory pack)
There are NO extra arms for ANY of the figures.
Resealable plastic bags of the same kind that were used in the first 3 years of the OSM non-Infinity phases are okay (but still no card toppers), but Colossus arrived in a Glad Ziploc Sandwich bag. ("blue and yellow make green") Oh, the indignity.
The price point. I've rationalized it to myself in another thread, but $33 apiece for these figures feels like too much, coming from the point of view that the OSM Faithful were expecting a Fourth Annual Holiday phase selection, and are offered either expensive customs, or REALLY expensive customs. I'd be interested to see if there is a Completist left in our bunch. I might have been a little more forgiving if these shipped on time, or even earlier, in the first place, too.
The Wrap Up:
These are some nice looking figures. Ni did a great job, and although I would have made some different choices, or at least given some different direction (I'd be interested in learning how much direction he did receive from the 4H, and how much back and forth there was prior to production), they are an interesting addition to my OSM collection. They occupy an area between the translucents and the painted Infinity and Cosmic Creator versions, and I'm going to have fun trying to figure out where and how to display them.
It's nice to get a couple more translucent purples in the mix, and some of the decos scream Holiday more than others (even more than previous Holiday releases). I just wish this whole release was just a *little* more perfect.
(PS - I'd like to trade my Mystron Holiday metallic Blue accessories for the Lavender ones someday - I have a thread in the Trade forum for anyone interested a trade
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