Sundance Central Productions figures

1:20.3 scale figures
Sundance Central Productions
2654 Success Dr.
Odessa FL 33556
Price: $15 each (some sold in groups for a discount)
Website: www.sundancecentral.org

1:20.3 scale, unpainted resin-figure kits; can be assembled in a variety of poses

Pros: Well detailed, realistic features

Cons: None

If you’ve ever had the chance to see the Sundance Central modular railroad in person, or even in photographs, then you know how high the bar is that the builders set for fidelity in modeling. They’ve been wowing convention and train-show crowds with their display for quite a few years. Apparently, enough folks asked about their figures that populate this railroad that, in response to popular demand, they’re making several of them available for sale.

Sundance Central offers 18 figures (19, if you include the dog) to populate your railroad. These are unpainted resin castings and they come in varying numbers of pieces; some are mostly assembled except for the head, while others require you to glue the arms, legs, and head in place. The advantage of them being modular, in a sense, is that you can customize your figures to a certain extent. You can swap heads between figures and, with the arms and legs being separate, customize poses somewhat to fit your needs.

Sundance sent four figures for review; Moe, Ken, Sparky, and Brian. Moe is a seated figure who apparently enjoys a good cigar. Ken and Brian are brakemen. Ken is posed to be perched on top of a boxcar, turning the brake wheel. Brian is posed as if standing on the step of a caboose, tender, or passenger car. Sparky appears to be the local hard-labor lackey, posed lifting a board.

Each figure comes in a bag with a 4″ x 6″ photo of a sample painted figure that you can use for reference. Sparky came fully assembled and painted (for purposes of the review only), though he also suffered two broken arms in transit (another advantage of having arms and legs supplied separately).

The castings are quite clean, with no flash. Detail on them is well done, with buttons, button holes, buckles, and suspenders all faithfully represented. Bodies are well proportioned; arms, legs, torso, and head balance each other. Most of the figures are posed in positions that are inherently stationary; that is, if you saw them in real life, they wouldn’t be moving much. I like that in figures, as our railroads are not snapshots but something we view over time. You’d expect to see the lumberjack swing the axe, not hold it up over his shoulders forever. (Alas, Bert and Ernie—the two lumberjacks—are stuck with their axes above their heads, poor fellows.) Photos of all the figures are available on the company’s website.

Overall, I’m impressed with these figures. They’re well done and each one has a bit of a personality to it—something that’s not easy to capture in a figure. If you’re wanting to increase the population of your railroad, this is a good place to recruit.