Chez Louis pour la Toussaint (updated with Part II: Review; photo heavy)

Part I (for Part II, see below)

I have started putting together a makeshift Lestat to go with Louis.

















































Happy Halloween!

Part I (for Part II, see below)

I have started putting together a makeshift Lestat to go with Louis.

Hahaha! Ahhh I remember this film, and what a gorgeous job they did with the figure - probably the best Brad Pitt head sculpt I've ever seen (perfect stand-in for The Beast's human form, too). Great work on the lighting and posing for this, and love how Belle and the goblin help to 'awaken' Louis from his slumber (I swear the goblin works so well here as a mini-butler type character for the two). The dancing and laying in the coffin photos are spot-on, so well done! Those flame-lit shots at the end are awesome, too - love the reflection in the eyes.

Side note: since this is for Halloween's sake, I think it would've been funny for Samurai Tom Cruise to show up at the end...as a time-traveling vampire hunter or something.

AlKelAstra91 wrote:Hahaha! Ahhh I remember this film, and what a gorgeous job they did with the figure - probably the best Brad Pitt head sculpt I've ever seen (perfect stand-in for The Beast's human form, too). Great work on the lighting and posing for this, and love how Belle and the goblin help to 'awaken' Louis from his slumber (I swear the goblin works so well here as a mini-butler type character for the two). The dancing and laying in the coffin photos are spot-on, so well done! Those flame-lit shots at the end are awesome, too - love the reflection in the eyes.

Side note: since this is for Halloween's sake, I think it would've been funny for Samurai Tom Cruise to show up at the end...as a time-traveling vampire hunter or something.

Thank you very much. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I barely remember the film (not much into vampires), but I agree, they did a remarkably good job -- hardly anything bears improvement, except possibly an additional articulation point at the base of the head and (though it would be excessive to ask) yet another sculpt with fangs (I imagine, don't really remember). There was a bit of Beauty and the Beast reference there too, and not just because of Emma (who is the only figure I own that wears an even approximately matching period attire). But I haven't seen that film, so I will take your word for him being a perfect stand-in for the Beast's human form. I also interpret Griphook as a random goblin assistant. Alas, I do not own a Samurai Tom Cruise -- if I did and if I had a flicker of your creativity, he would have made it in; I can easily bash modern Tom Cruise's characters but would have been less inclined to throw those in. I was fleetingly wondering about putting together a Lestat with a reworked Tom Cruise head, but sourcing an appropriate outfit would be very difficult (I think); besides, it was too late for this now, and I'm not actually that into the character. But it would have made sense if it were doable easily enough. And how about a young Kirsten Dunst? Actually, how about an adult Kirsten Dunst?

Hilarious!
Great choice of characters and equipment. Griphook is excellent.

great pics of a really nice looking set of characters Ian!

Fantastic photos!

Beautiful photography. The lighting is really impressive, because I would imagine that it’s not easy to get the right ambiance just right and evoke an overall mood as you’ve here. Some of those shots look like paintings at first glance, and I mean that as a compliment.

Oh, ha, this is excellent! Really beautiful lighting, compositions, and creative use of props and characters! I have to admit I had a similar idea --- that is, to use Louis as stand-in for The Beast, and you totally beat me to it!  

Illusion wrote:Hilarious! Great choice of characters and equipment. Griphook is excellent.

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it. This is the Griphook custom on the Mr Z child body.

BAMComix wrote:great pics of a really nice looking set of characters Ian!

Thank you very much, Dal! It just came together once I decided to do something Halloween-ish -- originally I was just going to review the Vampire Lou set.

csyeung wrote:Fantastic photos!

Thank you very much, Craig, glad you liked them.

Xavion2004 wrote:Beautiful photography.  The lighting is really impressive, because I would imagine that it’s not easy to get the right ambiance just right and evoke an overall mood as you’ve here.  Some of those shots look like paintings at first glance, and I mean that as a compliment.

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it. The lighting was subdued to begin with, but the final result does include color manipulation (temperature change, less brightness, more contrast -- but otherwise no special effects). And I will take the compliment -- some do wander into the fantasy painting spectrum, don't they?

skywalkersaga wrote:Oh, ha, this is excellent! Really beautiful lighting, compositions, and creative use of props and characters! I have to admit I had a similar idea --- that is, to use Louis as stand-in for The Beast, and you totally beat me to it!  

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it, Sky. I'm glad I went the extra step to play with the colors a bit and create and maintain the mood. As for the Beast, well, it was sorta accidental -- I recently acquired the figure, was toying with the idea of reviewing it, then it came close to Halloween, and vampires and all that. But Bella's dress was the only other piece of (approximately) appropriate period clothing I had. And once I used her dress, and then also her head, I decided the Beast parallel was natural... But my knowledge of anything from that movie is merely incidental, based on whatever promotional materials I may have come across.

Well, it might have been incidental, but it worked! And I'm glad you 'reviewed' the figure in this way -- he's on my non-SW wishlist and these photos make me want him even more.

skywalkersaga wrote:Well, it might have been incidental, but it worked! And I'm glad you 'reviewed' the figure in this way -- he's on my non-SW wishlist and these photos make me want him even more.

Would you like me to add some real color photos (partly the original versions of some of the above, partly additional)? That's what was going to be in the intended review, and while a lot less artsy, they are more informative.

Well, that was entertaining. Nice job, Ian.

Stryker2011 wrote:Well, that was entertaining. Nice job, Ian.

Thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoyed it, Mark.

Cool figure his clothes are really nice and that coffin box is very on point considering the figure, a bit more padded than a standard coffin, the man is wealthy.

Theboo-bomb wrote:Cool figure his clothes are really nice and that coffin box is very on point considering the figure, a bit more padded than a standard coffin, the man is wealthy.

Thank you very much. The set is pretty much superb. The coffin looks great, although the details are just printed on it. Indeed, Lou appears to be very well off, materially.

Part II - Brief Review of Vamp Lou by Figure Masters

The photos above were a slightly modified version and selection of a set I took with the intention of reviewing the Vamp Lou set. Below you will find a brief review with a smaller selection of photos, many of which are real color versions of what you was shown below, but also a few different ones. May favorite one is at the end.

Figure Masters' Vamp Lou (I guess Vampire Louis would have been too on the nose) came to me in a plain cardboard shipper with the company logo and brief product info printed on its side. Inside, under a layer of white plastic foam, you find a coffin and a white cardboard box sunk inside more white plastic foam. It is brilliant, or would be, if it were not for the missed opportunity of having black or dark brown plastic foam, which would have been reminiscent of soil, from which one would excavate the coffin and the accessories. There is also an additional large cut out, that has been filled with more white plastic foam. I wonder what it was intended for, or whether there is a deluxe version of the set that included more stuff...



The white cardboard box contains the extra "real" hair head sculpt and two additional pairs of hands: pair of slightly pointing hands and a pair of hands reaching to grab the vampire's prey.



The coffin is given a very nice printed detail, with nothing sculpted or embossed, but it looks reasonably convincing from most angles. If you remove the lid and a thin layer of black plastic foam under it, you find Louis slumbering in the snug embrace of more black plastic foam. They really should have used the same for outside the coffin. Louis comes with the tied hair head sculpt and relaxed hands on the body, and stands 33 cm tall. This is perhaps a bit too tall, since Brad Pitt, who portrayed the character in Interview with the Vampire, is 180.3 cm tall, which translates to 30 cm in sixth scale. Then again, his slip on shoes (which work great) have a little bit of a heel. But not that much of a heel...



The sculpt is very clean but realistic, the skin tone suitably pale, with slightly redder veins visible on the face (especially on the tied hair head sculpt). Although the heads seem virtually identical, there is some subtle difference, with the loose "real" hair head sculpt looking a little more tired and weary, and not quite as pale (or powdered) as the other one -- to see them side by side, look at the last photo below.



Good old Lou stands and poses very well without the assistance of a stand. The body appears to be Coo Model's or similar, the knees and maybe the elbows are double-jointed. For the most part the outfit is not too restrictive, and you can achieve most poses within reason. I wish the head and neck were separate, so that there could be an additional point of articulation at the base of the head. With the high collar of the jacket and the cravat, there is little to recommend a seamless line between head and neck -- besides, plugging in and out the two head sculpts messes up the cravat. Other than that, Lou is pretty versatile and will sweep a lady right off her feet, tempted to sink his fangs into her exposed neck. But if she is too short for him, he might not be able to bend low enough...



But ever the gentleman, he will yield to her his comfy spot and offer her drinks, while regaling her with his heart-wrenching story.



The hands are made of somewhat soft plastic, which makes using them and swapping them easier.



They are nicely sculpted and each sports a ring.



The tied hair head sculpt has mostly sculpted/molded hair.



Only the part of the hair hanging below the bow at the back is made of "real" hair, and the match between it and the molded hair is very good.



The outfit appears to be excellent (I'm no expert on this era). The stockings do not ride down and even with them on the foot slips easily into the shoes, which sport oversized decorative buckles. Only the creasing where the upper foot meets the lower leg is less than ideal. The breeches look tight but allow for surprisingly wide range of motion. The billowing white shirt looks great with its cuffs hanging below the frock's, the brocade waist coat has shimmering gold thread detail against a red background. The neck is covered by a fine cravat, which will get partly pulled out and undone if you keep replacing the head sculpts. You better know how to tie it back together. The frock coat is the top layer, with distinctive lining, decorative buttons, and a wrinkled, worn fit. I'm not certain it always hangs quite right, but on the whole it works very nicely.



As mentioned above, the loose "real" hair head sculpt is sculpted and painted very slightly different from the tied hair head sculpt. The loose "real" hair head has a face with a slightly darker, warmer color, and some additional wrinkles, making it look sadder and wearied.



The tied hair head sculpt is neutral or even slightly cheerful by comparison, more serene, paler (or powdered?), the wrinkles (if identical) much less noticeable; it does, however, have some fairly distinctive painted veins.



On the whole, Figure Masters has created a very good rendition of the appearance of Louis, and provided for two looks with the two head sculpts and plenty of layers of clothing. The likeness is realistic (given its source) and recognizable in both sculpts. The ornate clothing is reproduced in loving detail. Functionality is very good, with very few minor limitations or imperfections. For now Louis has no one to pose with or play with, and cost and limited production do not make it likely that we'll see much in the way of a line. I am not vested enough in this film or in vampires to really bother, but am toying with the idea of trying to put together a Lestat with one of the many Tom Cruise heads out there; but the clothing is going to be a big challenge. There are no accessories (besides alternate body parts), and no stand. Prices should be lower, but then again I have only seen it on eBay. Overall, I'm happy with this set. If I liked it this much, I imagine true fans of either the film or the character or the actor are likely to love it.

Very nice ics and review.
It's a great figure overall, lots of nice details and quite a good fit for the elaborate outfit. I still think the head sculpt has a bit of Travolta going on, but maybe a repaint could bring out more of Pitt?

Thanks for the more detailed review. I have been eyeing this one for a while, and your review did nothing to dissuade me, lol.

Oddly I think the 'sad' headsculpt is a slightly better Brad Pitt likeness when looking at it straight on, but both sculpts 'work' just fine once on the body and posed. Though it is a bit strange that one headsculpt has a longer sculpted part of the neck than the other.

You might have already answered this (apologies if I missed it), but where did you get those LED braziers?

Haha this one mad me laugh. The "expression" of Pitt is priceless and very fitting to this scene.   "Ummm, I..take this head...thank you..."


Very nice lighting and super cool figures. I often thought about getting the vampire, cause of the awesome outfit. Nice to see it in detial

I think the problem with the sculpts is that the upper lip is wrong, BP's is a lot straighter, not heart shaped like in the sculpts. Also the cleft not he chin is too pronounced on the rooted hair version, as well as the eyebrows being the wrong shape... so there's a lot of BP there, I just think some details are wrong, which throw the sculpt off for me.

ahbake wrote:I think the problem with the sculpts is that the upper lip is wrong, BP's is a lot straighter, not heart shaped like in the sculpts. Also the cleft not he chin is too pronounced on the rooted hair version, as well as the eyebrows being the wrong shape... so there's a lot of BP there, I just think some details are wrong, which throw the sculpt off for me.

Yeah, if you are a stickler for exact likeness, I can understand. I personally want this figure to use as a totally different character rather than Louis, so the impression is good enough for me. ;p

ahbake wrote:Very nice ics and review.
It's a great figure overall, lots of nice details and quite a good fit for the elaborate outfit. I still think the head sculpt has a bit of Travolta going on, but maybe a repaint could bring out more of Pitt?

Thank you very much! Now that you mention it, yes, I can see a bit of Travolta in there (though the nose and forehead are different). It still looks sufficiently well as Pitt for me. I don't know if I will be messing with the paint, but who knows? What do you think would make it more Pitt-like in terms of paint?

skywalkersaga wrote:Thanks for the more detailed review. I have been eyeing this one for a while, and your review did nothing to dissuade me, lol.

Oddly I think the 'sad' headsculpt is a slightly better Brad Pitt likeness when looking at it straight on, but both sculpts 'work' just fine once on the body and posed. Though it is a bit strange that one headsculpt has a longer sculpted part of the neck than the other.

You might have already answered this (apologies if I missed it), but where did you get those LED braziers?

You are very welcome. I agree on the sculpts. I just noticed the neck difference after you brought it up -- no idea why they differ, but it confirms my impression the head sculpts are not completely identical -- the overall neckpiece length ends up being the about the same anyway.

You didn't miss anything, I did not discuss the LED braziers. They came parted out from those POP Toys Henry V sets with a throne. They come in six parts: base and capital (which are identical), stem, dish, a small ball-like light and battery compartment with a couple of batteries that you separate with a little plastic tab to turn off the light, and the translucent molded flame that you place on top. The whole thing fits very precariously, so if you have a safe way of storing it complete, it may be advisable to apply a little glue, especially to where the stem attaches to the base and capital; maybe even to the places where the dish rests on the capital; but you need to keep the battery compartment and the flame loose so you can turn it on and off.

Valiarde wrote:Haha this one mad me laugh. The "expression" of Pitt is priceless and very fitting to this scene.   "Ummm, I..take this head...thank you..."

Very nice lighting and super cool figures. I often thought about getting the vampire, cause of the awesome outfit. Nice to see it in detial

Thank you very much! I'm delighted it made you laugh, that was its purpose. Did you also notice he handed the head right over to the goblin, preferring to focus on the girl (and her neck)?

ahbake wrote:I think the problem with the sculpts is that the upper lip is wrong, BP's is a lot straighter, not heart shaped like in the sculpts. Also the cleft not he chin is too pronounced on the rooted hair version, as well as the eyebrows being the wrong shape... so there's a lot of BP there, I just think some details are wrong, which throw the sculpt off for me.

There is something, but I'm not sure what it is. In most images the upper lip may be vertically narrower, maybe a little less wavy, but it really varies. The eyebrows too. Look at the photos below. I think you are right the cleft in the chin is not very noticeable on the real Pitt. All these details are more pronounced on the loose hair head sculpt than on the other one. The loose hair head sculpt is intended to look more disheveled, and that was probably their rationale for the bushier eyebrows.

skywalkersaga wrote:Yeah, if you are a stickler for exact likeness, I can understand. I personally want this figure to use as a totally different character rather than Louis, so the impression is good enough for me. ;p

I looked up the live action manifestation of the Beast (Dan Stevens?) and I can see how these heads would work quite well for your purposes, perhaps with a little bit of modification.

Beautiful, that light filter really creates a great mood. And of course intsillygent gubernational practical bodyhorrmor.

Ovy wrote:Beautiful, that light filter really creates a great mood. And of course intsillygent gubernational practical bodyhorrmor.

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it. And I will take intsillygent as a compliment, since as usual I was aiming at something like that, even if I didn't know what to call it!

Thanks for the additional photos, Ian. The whole figure looks really cool, and it's nice to see a costume like this -- something different for a change. I didn't care for the movie (or the books), but the figure as a stand alone is really nice and could be used for something unrelated to vampires.