SIDESHOW JAWS MAQUETTE EXCLUSIVE EDITION
Question. What was the first film to make more than one hundred million? What film launched the career of the most powerful man in movies? What film spawned scar comparison parties in frat houses the world over? What film has had the least attention given to it in terms of collectables despite having enormous influence? What film could possibly inspire me to keep typing even though I'm running out of stuff to say?
Oh...yeah. I guess the title of this review renders the above paragraph null and void.
BUT the extra words do let me sneak in a third picture of this outstanding maquette. The Jaws Maquette is 28 x 16 x 14 and weighs in at a hefty twenty something pounds. Sideshow Toy shows themselves to be the fans best friend with a labor of love release like this.
Jaws changed my life. My mother took me and it was also the last time she ever gave me “the warning.” Looking me directly in the eye and wagging her finger she let me know in no uncertain terms that this would the last scary film I ever saw if I came to her later with nightmares. Of course the implication was that movies weren’t worth such trouble. I knew my mother was wrong to worry about either.
For one thing living in a land locked state (Indiana) pretty much held ocean-fear of any kind at bay. For another, movies were clearly worth the trouble. No nightmare was gonna change my mind about that. And Jaws didn’t give me nightmares anyway what it did do was utterly transform my notions of what a mainstream film could be. I never saw film the same way again. It is quite simply an American masterpiece that can be held up to any other American film you’d like. Everything about Jaws is archetypal, basic, it’s a horror story, meets drama, meets comedy, meets suspense thriller. It’s true to its very core about the story it tells and the characters who live and breathe through it.
And it did the impossible regarding it’s main character. Spielberg didn’t just get away with showing his shark he made it into an unforgettable movie monster scaring the living hell out of an entire generation of beach lovers. You wouldn’t think that the figure of Bruce himself would present that much of a challenge or end up being a very dynamic statue. A fish is a fish etc. But Sideshow has done a magnificent job of detailing what could have been a very bland figure.
Besides the absolutely pristine, anatomically correct, paint job you’d expect, Bruce shows film accurate scarring, wonderfully rendered bloodstains around the jaws and a fabulous set of inner and outer teeth. And like Quint says in the film, “…you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya.” This is a fierce looking dead eyed movie accurate collectable that will absolutely be the centerpiece of any Jaws display.
The base is another big sell point. There is no doubt that the McFarlane Jaws is a wonderful piece full of the dynamism we all associate with the films last moments but like all non resin figures it lacks a certain elegance. Sideshow’s Bruce sits atop a clear acrylic wedge containing blue tint and bubbles which in turn sits on a slim black base offering a moveable simple nameplate with the film’s title.
The best aspect of owning this maquette is the way it bridges the culture gap for my friends who aren’t necessarily horror fans. The exclusive edition offers the original mechanical blueprints that were used in Bruce’construction. Put them together with a poster from the film and you’ve got a nice display for a screening room. In a perfect world I’d ad on one of the three dimensional Jaws poster plaques by McFarlane.
