I always try desperately to curb my spending around the holidays, but when a good deal comes up, a good deal comes up. So when Amazon temporarily mispriced the Iron Studios Rocket Raccoon & Groot BDS Statue down to 45 bucks last week, what was a GOTG fan to do besides one-click purchase them for himself, right? They caught the mistake reasonably quick and spiked the price back up now, which begs the question: is this 1:10 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Statue worth the full MSRP?

The moment I first laid eyes on Iron Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Battle Diorama Series (BDS) statues over a year ago, I knew I wanted the whole set. But with an obscene amount of Marvel toys and statues released over the course of the past year-plus, I’m ashamed to say I just never quite got around to it.

But hey, I’m never one to turn my nose up at an Iron Studios Statue marked more than 50% off, and now the BDS Rocket & Groot are in my home! Am I in love with them…? Sadly, my response to them is a lot more ambivalent than I’d hoped.

As far as packaging goes, the Battle Diorama Series Rocket and Groot come in a pretty basic box. The front has an image of Rocket (in orange) from the first GOTG movie, along with a weird-looking shot of Baby Groot.

Meanwhile, the back of the box just shows a photo of the statue inside. I don’t really care about or score the packaging for statues, but I have to admit this is a bit bland.

Inside, the three components of the set are packaged separately in sturdy styrofoam compartments. I don’t expect XM Studios-styled bells and whistles here, and none are present. No biggie.

For an MSRP of around $100, poor little Rocket Raccoon at the 1:10 scale just doesn’t feel worth it compared to normal-sized characters like Star-Lord, Drax and Gamora. Rocket himself is only about 4” tall, or 7” when attached to the Abelisk base. Basically, this is a resin statue almost the same size as a Marvel Legends Figures, but at 4 to 5 times the price. That’s a tough sell.

Whereas I think Iron Studios does an excellent job capturing most costumes and armored characters in this 1/10th scale, Rocket doesn’t look quite right to me. His eyes are really drowning in the dark paint on his face, making him look kind of soulless, and I don’t think Iron Studios captures fur as well as they do other things.

All that said, I think Rocket’s clothes and jetpack still look pretty nifty–it’s just Rocket himself leaving me cold.

The independent-standing little Kid Groot mini-statue, on the other hand, looks amazeballs in comparison. The friendly look etched onto his face fills the little miniature statue with life, and the dancing pose is dynamic and fun. The Walkman attached to him looks good as well, although it (obviously) has limited detailing at this scale.

I know it’s probably ridiculous to say so, but this 1.5” Groot figurine is my favorite part of the whole statue. Just looking at this little guy puts “Mr. Blue Sky” in my head, which is always a positive (I mean, unless it’s in my head for too long and starts to drive me insane).

Other than the life-size Baby Groot Hot Toys figure, I’m not sure anyone made a cuter representation of the little twig from GOTG Vol. 2. Good work, Iron Studios.

The last part of the statue to discuss is the base, which is (sort of) a character in its own right: the Abelisk tentacle monster from the opening credits. The base consists of two curling pink tentacles and an explosion made of painted translucent plastic.

The explosion on the base allows some light to pass through, giving it some extra flashiness and a dynamic aesthetic as well.

The tentacles caught me by surprise, as they’ve got a wonderful gloss to them and a really creepy octopus-like feel. The little serrated edges running along the length of each tentacle and the twisted, organic sculpt make them exceptionally horrific. In most cases I prefer for bases to be subtle, but the tentacles here have so much energy and life to them that I prefer them to poor Rocket Raccoon himself.

There’s a Deluxe version of Rocket and Groot which also contains the huge head of the Abelisk for an extra 200 bucks, but that edition is sold out almost everywhere now—and I think most collectors are okay without having a $200 tentacle monster head for their display centerpiece.

Overall:

Iron Studios is one of my favorite newer Marvel Statue producers, and I’m really impressed with their work more often than not. But as much as I’ve been enamored with the Avengers Infinity War and Spider-Man Homecoming statues, this Rocket & Groot BDS duo is sort of ho-hum.

While the tiny Dancing Groot mini-statue is adorbs beyond a doubt and easily the high point of the set, Rocket just isn’t quite as good, with the Obelisk tentacles and explosion on the base even outshining the main character of this set. It’s really unfortunate that Rocket is the weak link of this set, because everything else IS did is wonderfully executed.

Ordinarily I don’t have an issue with recommending any Iron Studios 1/10 Statue at full price, this is a rare instance where I think the piece’s MSRP is too high. If you’re getting the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy BDS series, you’ll want to grab this one at a discount when you can find it. If not, this is a statue you might want to pass on.

GRADE: C+