NEW PRODUCT: TBLeague - Bastet, The Cat Goddess-Black/White

EDIT: Note from TBLeague:

"Dear all,
Regarding TBLeague recently released products - Bastet, The Cat Goddess- two versions: black/white, we have modified them based on some common criticism
of yours. This is our belated thank you- thank you for giving the comments, we accepted your criticism kindly and wanted to make sure you know this.
On that basis, quick action has been taken to improve the dolls. Sorry for not communicating this until now.
We have updated the pics as you will see, the dolls’ images are to be like in the new pics.

We have made these modifications:
1. They are smaller-breasted now;
2. The neck and head are more proportionate to the body.

Once again thank you all for giving us your opinion, it’s valued external supervison and support."

Here is a comparison shot by a user on BBICN:

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Bastet, also called Bast, ancient Egyptian goddess worshiped in the form of a lioness and later a cat.

While she's not the only cat goddess from ancient history, Bastet is probably the most famous cat goddess today.


Packing List:

1)        2 x cat head sculpts with non-removable headdress
2)        1 x TBLeague 1/6 scale female seamless body with metal skeleton
3)        1 x one-piece armor for protecting neck and shoulders
4)        1 x decorative belt
5)        3 pairs x claw-shaped interchangeable hands
6)        1 x top
7)        1 x underpants
       1 x skirt of two layers
9)        1 x cloak
10)    1 x Egyptian cat
11)    1 pair x claw-shaped feet
12)    1 pair x decorative bands for upper arms
13)    1 pair x wrist armor
14)    1 pair x ankle armor
15)    1 x scimitar
16)    1 x sceptre with a detachable end
17)    1 x ankh
18)    1 x base with holder

Packaging:
1 product/individual box
GW: 2.08 kg
Measurements: 24cm*16cm*38cm

4 products/master carton
GW: 9.32 kg
Measurements: 50.5cm*34.5cm*40.5cm

Item Name: Bastet, The Cat Goddess-Black 1/6 Scale Action Figure
Item No: PL2021-181A
Bar Code: 697 127233 108 3
















Item Name: Bastet, The Cat Goddess-White 1/6 Scale Action Figure
Item No: PL2021-181B
Bar Code: 697 127233 109 0

Thanks for posting, Diana. But as far as the set itself is concerned... also thank you TBLeague for being kind to my wallet. When the action figure stand is (relatively) the most successful part of a set, it says a lot. For all of TBLeague's impressive rich and fine detail and excellent photography, this is just so... wrong. As we have already discussed elsewhere, the size of the head is woefully small for the body, whether or not one takes Egyptian artistic convention into consideration. The type of cat they chose to depict for said head is also not entirely appropriate for the subject matter (it is too furry). Even the little cat accessory misses the opportunity, its animated pose in stark contrast to what would have made a convincing Egyptian-themed piece (they did somewhat better with their larger cat statues that came with one of their Cleopatra sets -- or was it with something else, I forget), and its head is... well, not very good. Oh well...

That's a nice looking sword. For whatever reason I don't really like most of TBLeague's sword, but I'll have to pick this one up on ebay at some point.

Also, release the viking woman body, you cowards!

Sadly disappointed. The heads are the biggest deficit, indeed.

If these figures are selling, then good for TBL, but it just seems like a genre that would have limited appeal to me.

Agreed. The head is too small and too furry. It's barely bigger than that of the actual kitty.
And the neck is terribly long. It's like they noticed the head wasn't right, so they moved it into the higher position by elongating the neck.

I like the clawing hands. And the bracelets.

GubernatorFan wrote:Thanks for posting, Diana. But as far as the set itself is concerned... also thank you TBLeague for being kind to my wallet. When the action figure stand is (relatively) the most successful part of a set, it says a lot. For all of TBLeague's impressive rich and fine detail and excellent photography, this is just so... wrong. As we have already discussed elsewhere, the size of the head is woefully small for the body, whether or not one takes Egyptian artistic convention into consideration. The type of cat they chose to depict for said head is also not entirely appropriate for the subject matter (it is too furry). Even the little cat accessory misses the opportunity, its animated pose in stark contrast to what would have made a convincing Egyptian-themed piece (they did somewhat better with their larger cat statues that came with one of their Cleopatra sets -- or was it with something else, I forget), and its head is... well, not very good. Oh well...

While I remain a fan of this Egyptian Gods series, which I know you are not, I cannot legitimately dispute any of those criticisms.  I have a generally negative reaction to this one as well.  Actually I would add one criticism -- now that the series is over a half dozen deep (and double that if you count variants) I think there is too much uniformity.  Too much of the clothing style, iconography etc seems to be applied automatically, and virtually the only variety is whichever animal head the particular God is supposed to have.  I wish they could find a few more details to differentiate.

On the mildly positive side, where TBL had previously shown us the screeching head on the displayed prototype whose photo was circulated, I do find that the quiet head is at least somewhat better.  I concede, the type of cat still seems wrong.  The head size still seems way too small for the body but it's clearly a deliberate choice, and they're sticking with it though they must know it's very offputting visually.  On reflection, that style may be artistically and intellectually valid, at the price of seeming disproportionate and oddly designed.  I think it must be done to emphasize (and without using "Egyptian artistic convention") the genuinely weird concept that this is a human body with an animal head on it.  It's not some science fiction thing where a creature or alien has commingled cat and human DNA, which would have been the easy design choice.  It's a human woman and a cat's head and you just have to buy into the concept, ditto for a Jackal's head and the bird gods.  Admittedly then the heads are too big but there are inevitable structural design constraints.

If they put a similarly coloured human head on that body they'd sell a million of 'em!

As it is, I can't help but be reminded of the Lanard Catwalk Kitties line from a few years back:


Y'all remember Catwalk Kitties, right? Anthropomorphic cat dolls? Cat heads on fashion doll bodies?

No?

Well... they were a thing... for a while. A very short while. They were available in 1/6-ish scale and 1/12-ish scale (the "Catwalk Kitties Petites" line).

I had no knowledge of catwalk kitties and if I did I must have suppressed it. LOL
MBAM - what you say makes sense. There are different factors at play and obviously different observes would have different reactions to such products. For the most part, TBLeague's execution is pretty flawless, in terms of actual product. Occasionally the aesthetic is made dubious by questionable design choices like overly small heads. And then there is the whole pseudo-Egyptian (but not quite Egyptian, just fake Egyptian-flavored) thing going on, which annoys me. If this were a truly novel creatively imagined line of characters that either went out of their way to be eclectic in the way they borrowed names, visual elements, etc, or were original fiction, I would have no issue with them, regardless of whether I liked them or not. But when they market them as, e.g, Bastet, and end up producing this, I'm not only not interested in owning it, I resent it. Similarly, when I was looking for good Egyptian reference depictions of Bastet, having to go through a bunch of either fantastical modern depictions (plenty of them still better than this) or modern copies of ancient artwork that are ever so slightly off.

I only knew about the Lanard Catwalk Kitties because I once got one, undressed, at a thrift store, and didn't know about the smaller scale ones, thanks.  On a similar note but not relevant here, there's a similar series of dog based dolls called Pinkie Cooper.  They were designed by the guy who did Bratz, and faced the larger challenge that it's much harder to adopt traditional feminine doll values to dogs than to cats.

More relevant for present purposes, I propose that a good basis for a bashing a Bastet from scratch, or possibly a good (larger sized) head substitution on this actual TBL figure, might come from the 12" Doctor Who figure "Novice Hame":

I do not fully understand their strategy. They are devoting their resources to such a - IMHO very layered - product, while missing out on minimal cost opportunities such as the release of other (natural) skin tones of current body types. Or a separate release of the oft mentioned - also already existing - Viking body.

Sigh. I think I need to research how many more deities are in the ancient Egyptian pantheon so I can calculate roughly when they will be done with these and possibly get back to releasing figures I want to buy. At least my checking account is happy. And it's nice for the folks that are into these, I would just prefer that they spread them out a little more for the rest of us. This is the fifth in a row in their 1/6 offerings. C'mon TBL, I want to give you money! Make me something awesome in 1/6 like that squad of 1/12 imperial guardians!

It makes me think that despite my personal preferences, these must be selling better than the Royal Defenders, Knights of Fire or Elvish Archers. I wish they published sales or production run numbers.

Hello, I'm new to this forum and this is my first post.
I already have a few TBLeague figures from this series, which I find excellent.
For that my opinion is not the same ... like the majority I find this head too small compared to the body, and with a neck too long ... and why such a chest? ...
But i think that I will still pre-order the "Golden" version to continue my serie ...

Egyptian mythology has always been a favorite subject of mine (along with Greek, Norse and Welsh), but honestly -- even I'm getting bored, and this one is just (as mentioned with all of the other contexts and complaints) awful. Sad, really, since after Anubis, Bast was one of my favorites in this pantheon. This is tragic.

God this is sooo boring. Next....

The sad part is, it had so much potential. I know others don't care about canonical orthodoxy nearly as much as I, but even they see this as a step down from the earlier striking (if fantastical) products in the line. I didn't mean to "hate" on this (or any other product), but it does seem like a missed opportunity.

Undersized head, overly-long neck - check.  Even allowing for the stylised nature of the subject matter I think it's the head/neck ratio that's really throwing things off with all these animal god sets. If either the head were larger or the neck shorter, I think it would maybe be a bit more acceptable.

There are certainly some interesting parts to this set, but those parts don't add up to anything approaching a satisfying whole.

Sad, because this should have been great.

Xavion2004 wrote:If these figures are selling, then good for TBL, but it just seems like a genre that would have limited appeal to me.

Honestly, these would appeal to me greatly, if they were better realised.

Shopping around, I'm finding the 1/12 Anubis seems somewhat more attractive than the 1/6 version for some reason, so perhaps it's something to do with the scale?


But yeah, instead of this wearying treadmill, let's have the Viking Woman body and some new base bodies in various ethnicities, please TBL.

OHH Stryker you like welsh mythology hehe what are the chances of a Bran the Blessed figure?

3Afr wrote:Hello, I'm new to this forum and this is my first post.
I already have a few TBLeague figures from this series, which I find excellent.
For that my opinion is not the same ... like the majority I find this head too small compared to the body, and with a neck too long ... and why such a chest? ...
But i think that I will still pre-order the "Golden" version to continue my serie ...

Welcome 3Afr!

It's nice to have representation of the fans of this series. I knew they had to be out there, or they wouldn't be producing the series for as long as they have!
I hope the flaws of this set won't be quite so noticeable when she stands with the rest of your collection.

Delanie wrote:OHH Stryker you like welsh mythology hehe what are the chances of a Bran the Blessed figure?

That would be cool. Sadly, I don’t imagine we’ll ever see an official version, but I imagine, with all the available armor, cloaks, swords, etc., it may not be too hard to kitbash one. I’d also wouldn’t mind a Gwydion and Arawn, since I used them for a book I wrote for my wife (though I changed a lot of their “real” personalities to suit the story).

Diana wrote:

3Afr wrote:Hello, I'm new to this forum and this is my first post.
I already have a few TBLeague figures from this series, which I find excellent.
For that my opinion is not the same ... like the majority I find this head too small compared to the body, and with a neck too long ... and why such a chest? ...
But i think that I will still pre-order the "Golden" version to continue my serie ...

Welcome 3Afr!

It's nice to have representation of the fans of this series. I knew they had to be out there, or they wouldn't be producing the series for as long as they have!
I hope the flaws of this set won't be quite so noticeable when she stands with the rest of your collection.

Thank you Diana ...
Yes there are many fans of this Egypt series. and I hope that finally this "cat woman" will be well suited to the rest of the figures ... wait and see, in a few months ...

Looks like Phicen has heard everyone's complaints about this figure and decided to make some adjustments. This newer version has smaller breasts, and the head is a little more proportional to the body.

https://bbs.bbicn.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=376893&extra=page%3D1

Looks like they're using the Month body, but no way to tell for sure.

Hmmm... maybe a little better, but not enough. Nice to know they sometimes (kinda) listen...

GubernatorFan wrote:Hmmm... maybe a little better, but not enough. Nice to know they sometimes (kinda) listen...

Either that, or the Goddess Bastet herself complained to TBL (Licensor Approval and all that...)

I've updated the original post with the note from TBLeague and the new photos.