1:4 scale Samaritan

My god this thing is heavy! It's not really, like, shockingly heavy, it's just heavier than one would expect just by looking at it. The Samaritan is, for all intents and purposes, the exact same size as the version that comes with the 18" roto-cast Hellboy that Mezco put out. The obvious differences are that this version, done by Sideshow, is much better quality and cast in a metal, probably pewter. This replica includes a very cool, very detailed display base and four bullets. The base is textured to look like stone, has a raised and angled cylinder with the B.P.R.D. logo (the black lines are sculpted into the cylinder) and a has a logo plate in front with the Hellboy logo sculpted onto it; there are also four places to set the bullets. The bullets are fairly simple, painted with a brass shell and silver bullet (no, not a Coors logo). The Samaritan itself is very detailed. The B.P.R.D. logo is sculpted into the handle, as are screws, complete with driver-slots. There is a moveable ring at the base of the handle with a braided piece of leather hanging from it. There are paint washes and highlights on the gun itself and the thing even opens. An important note, for those who, like me, are not gun-familiar: there is a spring-loaded lever on the right hand side of the handle that "unlocks" the barrel portion and lets it swing down – I hadn't found that out until after I had forced it open and bent the metal hole for the peg. The cylinder not only turns, but can also be completely removed. There are four chambers for the four bullets, and what's cool is that the chambers are fully hollow – you can see right through them. This leads to the only real disappointment in the piece: the barrel isn't hollow. At the end of the barrel, it is very shallow, and there is no opening at all on the interior. The high quality and realism of this piece really makes the solid barrel disappointing and it's the only thing holding this back from being as cool as it could and should have been. The quarter-scale Samaritan is certainly one of the cooler high-end pieces I now have, and is totally recommendable for just about anybody. A hollow barrel would have been cool, but ultimately it doesn't really hinder this piece at all. What do you think of the way Sideshow handled their exclusives? Tell us on our message board, The Loafing Lounge.

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