174: Nanmu Watchmen Standing Brachiosaurus Review

Well! Here we are again!
A few days ago I gave you a brief report on 
the damage sustained to my Nanmu standing  
Brachiosaurus, and a warning that this 
will probably happen to you as well.
I then sent this for repair, expecting 
it to take maybe a week or two.  
Thank goodness the good man rushed 
this for me, and so, here we go again.
As much as I’d like to review 
this in my usual format,  
I have to violate my sense of order 
and preface this with ANOTHER warning.
You see, I know a few brave souls will 
probably decide to roll the dice on this  
and take delivery after all, prepared for 
fracture and fixing. All that you already know.
What I didn’t expect was ANOTHER 
problem I need to warn you about,  
so that even if yours arrives 
unscathed, you avoid another tragedy.
That’s because when I received this 
dead on arrival, I saw no need to  
add insult to injury by setting 
the headless statue on the base.
In fact when you saw the base in the foam, it 
was because I never even bothered to take it out.
I really hope this is just my copy, 
but the problem is right here. The fit.
When the pegs go into the holes the 
right way… you see the footprints here…  
it is loose.
Extremely loose.
So loose that a moderate 
knock, will likely dislodge it,  
especially forwards, with disastrous consequences.
Whether it’s your clumsy elbow, or another figure 
next

to it falling over and knocking it down.
So, there are three solutions.
The first is to find a kind
of support under this foot.
Not this one obviously, but don’t worry,
this is new and completely unused!
The disadvantage is you lose that
illusion of a rearing dinosaur.
Perhaps use something acrylic that at least
looks like it isn’t there after a few drinks.
Second, you could fill out this area,
then affix it with very strong glue.
The disadvantage is you’re no longer able
to remove it for storage or transport.
The third is what the buildup
artist did as he repaired this.
He put it the opposite way, which is a little
tighter, and which gravity helps secure better.
But you really need to know this isn’t
something you can just set and forget.
Again I hope yours fits better than mine.
Ok, so let’s pretend all this never happened,
and that the review for this
model, actually starts here.
For me the first Jurassic Park
movie brings back a lot of memories.
It was the first time dinosaurs were brought
onscreen after a long hiatus from Hollywood,
in a more serious way, and the
state-of-the-art technology
to give us real animals imbued with
spirit we’ve never seen before.
For me it was also the last
movie we ever watched as a family
before various events and incidents
made that no longer possible.
And there’s no scene in
Jurassic Park that moved me
more than the very first appearance
of a dinosaur, that Brachiosaurus.
That moment when it reared up,
before dropping again with a low
pitched thud that reverberated
throughout the cinema theatre.
And so I’m delighted to bring you this
Nanmu’s Watchmen standing Brachiosaurus.
This is a resin model, it’s supposed
to be limited to 500 pieces worldwide.
As you’d expect, it weighs more than the
standing version I’ve already reviewed.
It weighs 1.96kg/ 4.3lb, which is 400g/
0.9lb heavier than the walking Brachiosaurus.
Like that model, it’s also
intended to be 1:35 scale.
Including the base, this statue is about
8cm/ 3.2in taller than the walking version,
or 50.5cm/ 19.9in total.
Detail wise, it’s probably easier
for me to give you a once over
Starting in the head, look at that sculpt.
The standing version has the mouth open which
of course gives you more details like the teeth,
which are very sharply captured.
The detail is really good in the head,
not just the ridges but the detail crossing
those ridges and lines of separation.
In terms of paint, you’ll see the various blends
of colour giving it an overall brown, though
with enough regional variation to be interesting
and more complex than a simple drab application.
We have the arms and shoulders.
Notice the different shades.
The hands. Torso.
I really like this banding here.
Thighs and legs.
And finally, the tail.
I thought I’d also throw in the PVC version so
you can see if there’s any difference in quality,
and whether they’re sufficient
to prefer one over the other.
That said, most of us would probably choose
the resin simply because of the pose.
One of the advantages of resin,
is supposedly to discerning eyes,
being able to capture
sharper, more refined detail.
To my plebeian eyes they are very similar, with
no great enhancement in the resin over the PVC.
Nor do I find the paint application superior,
even though I like the colour and pattern.
So unless you really want
a standing Brachiosaurus,
you don’t need this one, and can
be very happy with the walking one.
Put another way, if the standing had a PVC
and a resin version, I’d just get the PVC.
Now a quick look at the base.
Nothing too fancy here. You see a tree
trunk here, some vegetation, and then
just these two prints to indicate
where the Brachiosaurus fits.
As with all Nanmu figures I
won’t talk about the accuracy,
but I do want to shout out one
thing: the actual standing pose.
In the movie as you see from this
still, the verticality is extreme,
with the tail acting like a real tripod.
If this is the exact look you prefer,
this Nanmu won’t give you that.
For that the 1:20 Iron
Studios captured it perfectly.
What you’ll see in this Nanmu is
something more anatomically plausible,
and more natural, which is also why it’s not
that much taller than the walking version.
It’s almost like Nanmu tried to
sneak in some science and reality.
Just for fun, we’ll thrown
in the W-Dragon Giraffatitan,
and we do have a nice little group here.
For those of you who don’t have the other two,
here’s my customary PNSO Wilson
T Rex for an idea of scale.
So let me finish with some
thoughts on the packing.
That has been the big letdown, because the
statue itself looks great. But using the
same packaging for a resin model you used
for a PVC one is mindbogglingly insane.
It’s baffling they didn’t learn from
other companies who have done the same.
Some people say it’s to save cost.
If so that’s equal baffling, because surely the
cost saved doesn’t outweigh the negative feeling
and backlash from a bunch of angry, previously
loyal customers paying for this statue.
And please… ensure the connection
to the base FITS securely!
So that’s it for my review of the
Nanmu Watchmen Standing Brachiosaurus.
It truly is a beauty to behold and brings
back one of the most iconic moments
in Jurassic Park while modifying the
pose to something more realistic,
and so fits better with
the other sauropods I have.
If you thought a Brachiosaurus was imposing on
its own already, the standing one ups the ante.
Let me know what you think in the comments
below, and I’ll see you soon for another video.