Inbox review of "SPACE ADVENTURER 1" (Yuri Gagarin)

[Trex]

With the recent release of "SPACE ADVENTURER N0 3" by 2dreamers, I though it would be useful to present a review of "SPACE ADVENTURER No 1".

I bought this bust as soon as it was released because I thought it was quite an innovative and interesting release.
It set foot in a thematic area that no other company has "touched" before.

With this review, I hope you'll get an idea about the 2dreamers company and its products .

to be continued...

 

[Trex]

2dreamers is a relatively new Czech company and they describe their vision like this:

Come with us and meet those who put their dreams into reality, who led the armies and sailed the oceans. Each of our figurine has its great story and an amazing human life. With every our figurine you will experience an adventure you've always dreamed of.

As their first release, they chose a bust of the famous cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in the suit he was wearing during the first mission of the Vostok Space program.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin made history as the first human to travel in space, orbiting the earth in his Vostok 3KA spacecraft on 12 April 1961.

"SPACE ADVENTURER 1" is a resin bust that represents the cosmonaut in 1/9 scale.

It is sculpted by Pavol Ovecka, who I consider as one of the most talented sculptors.

In general, this kit consists of resin pieces, photoetch parts, a stencil for the helmet letters, thin wire for suit details, painting instructions, a booklet with relevant information and promotion stickers.

to be continued...

 

[Trex]

The kit box is made of a sturdy recycled carton and has stickers on all sides.

The round sticker with the company logo serves as a box seal also.

The box contents are very well organized and they are tacked inside the box in three layers.
Between the layers, there is protective foam to prevent friction damage.

At the first level, we find a booklet about Gagarin's history and his legendary space flight.
There are also two stickers with the company logo and some thin and bendable wire to represent wires on the bust's space suit.

At the second level, we find the 3 main resin pieces of the bust.

Here we get a very nice surprise by 2dreamers:
There are no visible casting lines on the resin parts and therefore, only block cleaning will be needed before assembly!

to be continued...

 

[Trex]

Now let's see the resin parts in detail:

The main bust part, represents Gagarin's SK-1 Sokol (Falcon) space suit with very realistic details.
The suit was made by Zvezda and was the the first one used in space.

The casting of the suit piece is quite crisp and shows off the excellent sculpting by Pavol Ovecka.

The second resin part represents the cosmonaut's head.
It's obvious that the face was carefully sculpted as to resemble the real one in the best possible way.

The third resin part represents the cosmonaut's helmet.
This piece is also sculpted to resemble the real SK-1 spacesuit helmet in the best possible way.

The helmet has been sculpted in such a way to be able stay in position without glue.
This way you can show your bust both ways, with the helmet on or without it.
As you can see, the internal cap is very well sculpted too with all the gear and the characteristic webbing present.

to be continued...

 

[Trex]

Looking at the third level, we find the rest of the paraphernalia that the kit is comprised of: photo etched parts, stencil, painting instructions and more stickers.

The photo etched parts are to be used mainly to build the microphones.
There is also a very nice addition here, the Vostok missions logo which will look great on the bust's base.
Completing the photo etch fret is the 2dreamers company logo, which could also be placed on the bust base.

Another very nice addition which shows attention to detail and production with customer satisfaction in mind, is the included stencil.
This is to help you paint the red CCCP letters on the helmet top.
CCCP is the Russian abbreviation of "Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик" (Sojúz Sovétskix Socialistíčeskix Respúblik, “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”) or better known to the western world as USSR.

The painting instructions card is informative and in English.

Concluding the kit contents, are a couple of stickers.
The Gagarin sticker is very nice and artistic and it could also be used as decoration for the bust base.
The last sticker promotes another affiliate site, I don't know if you like it.

to be continued...

 

[Trex]

Finally, this is how the finished bust looks like painted:

In a nutshell, this is a very nice bust of Yuri Gagarin.
It is very well sculpted and casted and it's also historically interesting and accurate.

Company: 2dreamers
Code: 2D0001
Sculptor: Pavol Ovecka
Art: Radek Dosko
Box Art: Michal Krepelka
Scale: 1/9
Price: 45 euro

As I said at the beginning, this was a risky first step by a new company going in a thematic area that no other company has "stepped into" before.
I personally liked it and hope it will prove commercially successful.
As long as 2dreamers stick to this level of quality and keep their prices reasonable, I am sure they will do well and we will keep seeing more interesting releases by them.

That's all for this review, I hope you find it helpful.

All the best and keep painting...

 

[ranchhand]

Good review, Its a great bust!

 

[kagemusha]

Top notch review of a unique product

 

[DEL]

Outstanding review Trex. You'll have brought this company to the attention of a lot of painters who might have missed it.
Much appreciated.
Cheers
Derek

 

[Nap]

Trex,

Excellent Review of a really great release , good reference and information , really good to see another company releasing and subjects that are not the "norm"

Thank you

Nap

 

[offo]

Thank you Trex It is very nice your recenz

 

[2dreamers]

Hallo Trex,
we are very thankful for you great review of our Space Adventurer 1. We are proud , you like this bust. Great sculpt from Pavol Offo Ovecka and paintjob of boxart from Michal Krepelka.

 

[Grod]

Great subject and sculpts.
Gordon

 

[kilsh]

Thanks Trex for taking the time to review, very useful

Cheers

Neil

 

[Babelfish]

Great review of a nice piece, thanks for that.

The only minus I can see is the lack of a clear visor for the helmet, which would have been the icing on the cake. I'd have preferred that to company promo stickers! Not a deal-breaker for me though.

- Steve

 

[Juan]

I can vouch for the quality and service from the company. I am just painting their latest sculpt of the TT rider Franta Stastny. Easy to deal with and just impresses from the care shown at every stage. Look forward to many more interesting busts from this company. Top sculpts.

 

[Wayneb]

Just took a good look at this again and must say the whole package is very impressive and tempting.Great review.
Regards,
Wayne

 

[bogusman53]

Just got Yuri and Alexai from 2 Dreamers, beautifully packaged with lots of goodies including Photo etch details, metal wire and painting masks for the visor and CCCP logo,
very clean casting oozing with details, excellent likenesses. I just thought I would add my praise for these unique kits, waiting for Valentina the first woman in space now!
Thanks for the great review and unboxing.