Many years ago, Hobbymaster (one of the first and most famous artists from the Philippines making unlicensed Marvel statues) released this 1:4 statue devoted to Silver Surfer
and when I noted it on the ebay network I could not help buying it immediately. The dynamic pose of the character and the elegance of the sculpt really impressed me and the piece as
a whole appeared very close to the same idea I had always had of the hero, among my favorites on the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, the packaging was not very good and the
custom also opened the parcel: the statue arrived broken at the connection between the figure and the surfboard and with some other minor damages. It was not an easy task to repair
the piece and make it stable to achieve a safe display, but I succeeded in doing it and I was very happy, since the piece was exactly what I expected. The silvery herald of Galactus
stands out on his surf with the right leg fully stretched and the left one bent forward, supporting the weight of a majestic physique; the body exhibits powerful and well defined
muscles on chest, abdomen, and back, two broad shoulders and swollen biceps and triceps, with the left hand closed in a fist and the right open and focused on target,
ready to launch a devastating cosmic ray!
In other words, the overall sculpt was very fascinating and the piece could count on an excellent visual impact. Nonetheless, like many other custom Philippine statues, the piece was
very lightweight and lacked finishing touches: the coloring was bright and well done on the figure, but the shape of the surfboard was rather rustic and its size (in my opinion) did
not fit well the figure; furthermore, the original base, although nice and with a plexiglass support, was heavy and a little bit high, thus making the display not easy.
Then, after some years, I decided to make an attempt of improving the statue and gave it to an Italian professional modeler, Sante Corbacio (known on Facebook with
the nickname "Sonny The Tourist").
The work was very long, but the final result fully met my expectations. Sante completely re-designed the surfboard of the character, by making it slightly
longer and positioning the character in a more rearward position with respect to the original; moreover, a slight slope was added, to enhance the dynamism of the whole figure. The
plexiglass support was replaced by a rather classic and curved wake (inspired by the one used in the Sideshow comiquette), colored with an evocative mix of black, blue, violet and fuchsia colors
and embellished by a starry effect. The statue was partially filled with resin (especially at the right foot, where the fulcrum linking the figure with the surfboard is located and also the
end of the same foot was re-designed), in order to
increase the robustness and the overall stability of the piece. Finally, the statue was completely re-painted, now adopting a much more brilliant color, halfway between silver and chrome, and
also adding the (originally missing) thin black lines at the hero's eyes. The new painting increases the elegance of the sculpt and emphasizes the perfect shape of the powerful body, by pointing out the
muscle contours at best. Thanks to this deep re-styling (and the skill of Sante), this old Hobbymaster piece reached a top-level aesthetics and I think now it represents one of the best Silver Surfer
statues of my collection; a "one of a kind" piece which has nothing to envy to the many, amazing custom statues dedicated to the character that, in recent years, are
literally swarming the collectibles' market.