Predatorstuff Reviews the Pancore Bust - Possibly One of the Most Underrated Kits Around!
February 28th, 2008
Today I want to re-introduce you to what I feel is one of the most under-rated Predator kits around, and surprisingly enough, it’s a Narin kit. I consider it underrated because since I started selling kits last year, I have never sold a single one. I had 2 in-stock, so I sent one to Joe Dunaway for the paint treatment and wanted to show you just how kick-ass this bust can be when painted properly.
I’ve always thought that the complete lack of decent pictures of this piece was directly related to the lack of sales on it. Granted it does break away from the traditional Predator pieces we see, it’s an amazing piece with fantastic details and good size at 1:4 scale. Sculpted a few years ago, the bust more or less crept out on the market and really didn’t take off, but I can honestly say it’s one of my favorite busts and I’m glad I decided to order a couple to check it out in person. As Joe Dunaway says “This is a HELL of a lot cooler looking in person!”.
The kit features a menacing looking beast-like Predator with one giant clawed hand and some massive mandibles, and includes a cool fossilized style monster skull for the base. It’s a big piece with minimal armor, so this is a great piece to practise and show off your skin texturing abilities, and with all the bumps and horn-like stems on the shoulders, you can really let your imagination run wild.
In fact, that’s exactly what I told Joe to do… I think his exact instructions from me were “Do whatever the hell turns you on” and you can see the results speak for themselves. So to celebrate what I feel is really everyone’s first look at how cool this piece is, I am having a brand new batch of these cast up in the same new material that we’ve used for the Hybrid and Wolf kits and you can grab these nice kits for well under 100 bucks! I’ll get 5 units to start, so if you want to be in on the first batch, you can pre-order yours by clicking HERE in our shop!
The kit itself is just over 9″ tall when assembled and weighs about 3 pounds. Great size for a bust!
So hopefully this is a bit of an eye-opener for people that weren’t so sure about how good this bust was based on the somewhat crappy pics that have been shown so far. The second one I had in stock sold the same day as when Joe posted his pics of this build-up on the CH forum late last week, so obviously seeing it in high resolution with some good paint slinging is turning heads!
Want to see more photos? Click the ol’ photo icon below for all the photos I snapped today of this gorgeous piece and I promise you’ll be hooked:
If you want to pre-order one, check out the shop, or please click the comment button below and use the form to tell me what you think!
Thanks!
Dan
I think it´s an exellent sculpt but the overall theme of predator is not there, it´s kind of mutate predator or hybrid predator. Still, Damn Good Scultpt!
Superb sculpt, superb paint-job, superb photos by both Joe and Dan. I was lucky enough to get one of these busts first time round - as Dan says - the photo’s originally available do NOT do this thing justice - it truly is gorgeous.
Any serious Pred fan should have this in their collection - unique, stylish and a sure attention-grabber on your shelves!
That shot with the backdrop is the business Dan! Joe - well - you know! (* Spike bows to both *).
Wow!! Joe, you are a god! This is one of the best peices I have seen yet. The fine detail and even the blotchy looking skin is breath taking. Nicely Done.
Ive always liked the look of this PREDATOR/Creature, and if I wasnt trying to save for a home… I would definetly pounce on this. Truly a unique take on my favorite Galaxy Hunter.
Yeah, hes a brute fo sho’!
Thanks Dan for letting me paint him up for you!
All the best
Narin is a phenomonal sculptor, and that comes through loud in clear in pretty much anything that the guy/gal does… but I agree with the first poster. This just doesn’t look like a Predator, at all, beyond its mandibles and dreadlocks. It looks mindless and the inner mouth is completely off, sporting what appears to be a full compliment of teeth.. since when do Predators have molars?
One of the things that has always fascinated me about the yautja is that despite their appearance.. there is a frightening sort of intelligence in their eyes. Its the ONE aspect of their face that lets you know.. hey, this isn’t just some big alien crab that will beat you to death with a rock and eat you. This guy just looks dumb, plain and simple.. perhaps the Neanderthal equivalent of this race. You can look at it, know exactly what it is trying to be, but it looks far more primitive and “me hit you with big club!!!”
A large part of art, of course, is interpretation and so.. one really can’t fault Narin for so dramatic a departure from the predator ‘norm’. Personally though, the design of the creature itself is a large part of what has made me so big a fan of it. Something that misses that mark so dramatically as this piece does.. that’s not something I feel all that enticed to own.
Certainly not putting Narin down.. some of his stuff (like the Wolf from AvP-R) is simply mind blowing in its awesomeness. Think Steven Spielberg.. you may love him, love many of the movies he makes.. but not everything that says “Directed by Steven Spielberg” is golden.
On a side note… the guy who painted the bust is very good. Fantastic work.
Well this is what I LOVE about it.. it’s like this raw pre-historic version of a Predator, sort of like how the Saber-Tooth Tiger was before evolving in to the smaller Tigers we see now.