Review – Asterian Parasitoid

We first took a peek at Mondocoyote’s Galaxy People (webstore, Flickr) back in May (mentioned here), and at the time I was keeping my eyes open for the launch. Unfortunately, I completely missed my chance . . . at least until this Asterian Parasitoid one-off resin toy hit the Super7 Store. I grabbed him immediately; in fact, I’m ashamed to say I ordered him before mentioning the resin toys were up for sale (mentioned here). Well, I hope you guys can at least enjoy this review and these photos.

Sculpt

Roughly 4.5-inches tall at the tips of his outstretched arms, the Asterian Parasitoid resin toy has a clean, smooth sculpt that looks like an alien creature with a starfish for a head. It’s a neat sculpt, and I am constantly impressed with resin toys that are so damned smooth. The amount of sanding required to make this happen astounds me, and while I wouldn’t create such a toy I have to respect anyone who puts this much work into their design. The starfish and claws are the only textured areas on the sculpt, and even those elements are smooth in the right places.

This thread at Skullbrain shows other color variants of this design, and of the three sculpts I’ve gotta say that this one is the best. (It’s the starfish. Seriously.)

Paint

Bright is the first word that comes to mind when I look at this toy. Sprays overlap across the body, the toy having a paint scheme more along the lines of what we see from the kaiju market than several resin toys I’ve looked at before. The gloss coat over the toy brings out that kaiju-like feel, as does the glass eye. I love this look, and like every time I pick up a toy using this style of paint I get the urge to buy an airbrush. Great work!

A Good Price for a Fun Design

This resin toy cost me $30, which is a pretty decent price for a thin, medium-sized resin toy. It’s arguably on the higher end of the price range — especially for a toy without any articulation — but I think that resin toy collectors who are attracted to the design will feel that $30 is a fair price for the toy.

The toy feels great in hand, even if it is a little light and thin. As a shelf toy it’s great; I’m betting a host of these in a collection would look fantastic together. In fact, I know I’m right because Ben Mininberg (blog, Twitter) owns three in the series and posted photos and thoughts. I’m kinda jealous that Ben has three toys in the series, but I think I’ve got the better color toy so in the end I win.

For future releases in the series I recommend watching this thread at Skullbrain. Recommended if you’re a resin toy fan.

Philip Reed is now going back to the garage to paint the resin Cthulhu kit that he’s been working on. Talk to you guys later!