If you’re going to fork out almost two grand for a video game collectible, then Weta Workshop’s Tomb Raider statue should be the kind of quality you get.
Weta Workshop has paired with Crystal Dynamics to help mark the 25th anniversary of Tomb Raider, although even by their standards this take on Lara Croft is a bit extra. Most of Weta’s creations usually cost around a couple of hundred bucks, but at $1940.25 this 1:4 scale figure is hands down one of its most impressive pieces.
The whole thing was brought to life via three sketches, which WETA staff ended up voting on. It’s actually inspired by The Lost Valley, the third level from the original Tomb Raider where Lara runs through a series of caves and velociraptors before venturing out into the jungle and coming into contact with a T-Rex:
Crystal Dynamics provided the original Tomb Raider assets, but that wasn’t enough for Weta. So they borrowed a model’s time and did a photo shoot of their own to properly model the statue. The whole thing weighs 12.6kg, with dimensions of 40.6 x 80 x 44.4 cm.
The amount of detail is just seriously so, so good. Even tiny little bits, like a bit of scarring on the lbow, the definition in the muscles, the accuracy of the skin tones and the inside of the velociraptors’ jaws — Weta has properly knocked this out of the park.
There’s a full video of the statue’s creation on the Weta YouTube page too. You can see how the statue was keyed and modelled so the entire thing didn’t fall over. The whole thing is actually 25 separate components, and the amount of work and colour that’s gone into it is pretty awesome.
What I love about this so much is the way that it’s brilliant no matter what angle it’s viewed from. Of course, that’s also why the entire thing costs nearly two grand. Still, if you’re a massive Tomb Raider fan, it’s hard to imagine something that will honour the anniversary better.
If the statue takes your fancy, you can register your interest in purchasing it via the Weta website. It won’t actually ship until October this year, and orders will only be open until May 4 Australian time, with the “final edition size” determined “by the total number of orders made during this period”.
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