Oh dear, oh dear – Titus, what have they done to you? Lieutenant Demetrian Titus, protagonist of Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2, has been immortalized as an action figure for the second time, and somehow Macfarlane Toys has transformed his stern, august visage into a bloated, jowly mess.
Macfarlane unveiled its new Lieutenant Titus figure over the weekend – retail price $30 (£22.84) – and the online reaction, from Space Marine 2 fans and generic Warhammer 40k hobbyists alike, can be summarized as “what? how? how is this… what?”
So much about this figure seems to me spot on for representing a noble Space Marine officer – the Mk X Tacticus armor; the sharply detailed gold Ultramarines detailing; the detachable power pack, heavy bolt pistol, and thunder hammer.
Even the helmeted head option looks fine – which is good, because you’re really going to want to keep that on the figure. Only the tragically disproportioned head is wrong – but it’s wrong enough to make me sad.
We at Wargamer weren’t the only terminally online gaming types who quickly clocked the uncanny resemblance to the ‘Luv me X, Simple As‘ meme – a fat, jowly, stubbly, grumpy, middle aged British man sharing stereotypical boomer opinions.
I’m not going to crow – sculpting and recreating members of Games Workshop’s iconic Warhammer 40k factions in seven-inch scale, with 22 articulated moving parts, in suitable, hard-wearing, flexible materials, for a low price (compared to some action figures, at least) is likely a very difficult job indeed.
A bunch of fans have compared the figure directly to the Titus made by competing Warhammer 40k action figure manufacturer JoyToy, but that’s not fair – that figure gets the face much better, but it’s also several inches shorter and 19 bucks more expensive.
It’s not like Titus is a super deep, meaningful, expressive character, either – one read of our Space Marine 2 review will tell you how we feel about that. He’s a dour, boring, one-note slab of a man, so in one way this figure’s face is the perfect representation.
But there’s no denying it’s a bizarre experience to compare this saggy-faced, dead-eyed, plastic mug to the noticeably narrower, handsomer chap depicted on the back of its very own box. Something, somewhere along the line, went wrong – and they did my boy dirty. I wouldn’t have minded if it was Leandros.
For more Imperial-approved astartes faces, read our complete guide to Space Marine chapters – or, to stay up to date with daily tabletop goodies, follow Wargamer on Google News.
Source: Wargamer
