Ganesha

The Four Horsemen? Making an elephant? It'll never work! One of the most recognizable deities in the Hindu pantheon is the elephant-headed Ganesha. With a name that joins the words gana (meaning "group") and isha (meaning "lord" or "master"), Ganesha is often referred to as the "Lord of Hosts" or the "Lord of the People," a fitting moniker for this beloved deity. Yeah, there's no way we're putting all the text from the back of the box here, because there's just too much. I'm pretty sure we've said this before, but the Four Horsemen give us beautiful toys, beautiful art, and "I don't need to hire anyone, I can make this garage sale flyer myself on Canva"-level graphic design. So while we're not going to copy it all here, I'm a petty bitch and will absolutely spend the time to transcribe it in its entirety for counting purposes. [...] Five-hundred six! They put 506 words (a full single-spaced page if we're going by homework measurements) in a space that's 4" by 5" - a quarter of the size of a sheet of paper! To cram all that in there without being crowded, they made the font almost farcically small, to the point where they might as well have put nothing for all the legibility it has. *smack* No! Bad! Bad Horsemen! No. No. But let's not focus on the negative, when the actual figure is so good. As hinted at above, the Four Horsemen have made anthropomorphic pachyderms before, in the form of Ramathorr and the Elephant Soldiers, but that was almost 20 years ago, so this is a study in how far they've come. Ganesha is not technically an animal-headed being, the way the Egyptian gods are (and we're just going to put an asterisk on this sentence that's going to have to wait until the next Figura Obscura Gods of Ancient Egypt set, so check back for that later); or at least, not in all the stories. To streamline as many as possible into one brief recap, while Lord Shiva was absent one time, his wife, Parvati, created a child to be her companion; when Shiva got home he didn't know who this brash new kid was, and angrily decapitated him; this pissed off Parvati, who made him promise to bring the boy back to life; not wanting to waste any time, Shiva grabbed the first head he could find, which was of course an elephant, and so the Ganesha we know and love was born. In Mythic Legions terms, Ganesha is a "brute" scale figure, but he's all new - the arms and legs may have been reused, but why wouldn't we take the Horsemen's word that they're different? He has four arms, with two packaged separately and needing to be plugged into his back. Given Ganesha's legendary voraciousness, it's fitting that this body has more of a pot belly than any of the existing molds - this one's for the lovers of dad-bod out there! His baggy dhoti are softgoods from CJESIM, but the impressively ornate belt he wears, with layers of cloth and metal and pearls, is sculpted. He has anklets sculpted directly onto his feet, and the wrinkles on his face are far more intricate than the Seventh Kingdom toys were. Plus his tinier ears are suitable for an Indian elephant. Ganesha comes with a lot of accessories to allow you to customize how he looks. Want Ganesha to be in the full regalia of his office, ready to kick open some (metaphorical) doors and remove all obstacles in your way? Then load him up with his crown, the backpack that creates a Prabhamandala halo behind his head, the gold-trimmed green shawl, the diagonal sash, the various strings of beads, and the collection of large golden necklaces he's wearing. Want a Ganesha who's more casual, just hanging out with his friends and relaxing? Take all that stuff off. It's two quite distinct looks for the character. There's also a bag with a dozen various bangles and bracelets that you can put onto his four wrists any way you like (personally, I looked at the stock photos to figure out what the Four Horsemen considered the "right" way to do it). Although he's often described as being red (one story has Parvati sculpting him from turmeric), Figura Obscura Ganesha is a normal elephantine grey. There's a light airbrushing of pink inside his ears and under his nose, and his face is painted white with red symbols from the forehead all the way down the trunk. Both trunks. He has one bendy, and one pre-posed. His pants are yellow with blue hems, his belt is purple, and all his ornamentation is expertly detailed, no matter how fine the sculpt gets. This must have been some painstaking work for the factory to do so well, but they didn't let us down. The number one thing we all know for certain about Ganesha is what, class? Say it with me: that's right, "Ganesh is graceful!" He has the usual Legions articulation, and it's all easy to move, yet tight enough to hold the pose you want it to. Big Daddy G (as it's probably sacrilegous to call him) has swivel/hinge/swivel ankles, swivel/​hinge knees, swivel thighs, swivel/hinge hips, a balljointed waist, swivel/​hinge wrists, swivel/hinge elbows, swivel/hinge shoulders (yes, that's in all four arms), a balljointed head, swivel trunk, and swivel/hinge ears. Articulated ears! How fun! The trunk's peg is very large, so you won't have to worry about it breaking while switching them out. The figure includes four gripping hands, two flat hands, and one flat hand with a large peg molded on the palm side so he can securely hold one of his accessories. That specific accessory? A heaping bowl of modaka, the sweet rice flour dumplings that are filled with coconut and sugar that Ganesha loves so much. The bowl has a large hole underneath for the peg to fit into, so it will look like he's carrying the treat on his up-turned left hand. He also include a plate of grapes, a bunch of bananas, and several apples, but all those will just have to rest on his hand for real instead of attaching. (Presumably this was done because the bowl of modaks would have a higher center of gravity and thus be more likely to fall off the hand.) He also has a parashu battle axe and a pasha, which is a symbolic object associated with the deity; literally translated as "lasso," the pasha is a twisted coil that in Ganesha's case represents his power to control and remove obstacles. We do not, sadly, get his cracked-off tusk: the figure is sculpted with the right tusk cracked off, as it should be (Ganesha was tasked with transcribing the Mahabharata as it was dictated, without taking a break; when his quill broke, the clever god snapped off his own tusk to use as a writing tool). Interestingly, there's fossil evidence the Four Horsemen were originally intending the toy to have replacement tusks: the ones in his mouth now are removable, and there's a conspicuous empty slot in the tray that's shaped like larger tusks would be; the idea must have held on until fairly late in development if the accessories tray had already been molded and tooled before the idea was dropped. Maybe that was just a convenient corner that could be cut. Maybe giving Ganesha full tusks would be disrespectful to worshippers. Either way, it was the plan, but it didn't end up happening. There's also a spot where his hat or crown or whatever would have been in the lower tray, before they moved it to the upper tray. Finally, he includes a stool to sit on, as well as a rat. Why a rat, when elephants and rodents are the bitterest of enemies? Because Ganesha is associated with them, even using one as his primary ride. (Presumably bigger than this one, but who's to say?) Basically, it shows him as being able to control the uncontrollable, which is his whole deal after all. This is just a normal rat, no saddle or collar or anything, but the association with Ganesha is still in effect. The packaging is beautiful, as always. It's a window box with a magnetic "book cover" flap that wraps around three sides, showing Ganesha seated in glory on the outside, and an oppulent lounge for him on the inside. The box itself an illustration of the story of Ganesha and his brother Kartikeya the war god vying for a magical mango; it shows Kartikeya flying away on his peacock while Ganesha ponders what to do; meanwhile, Shiva and Parvati rest on a nearby hilltop. If there's one thing that's constant among both the gods and humans, it's parents giving their kids pointless, distracting tasks so they can finally have a moment's peace for a change. "Oh no, all these buttons need to be sorted before they can be used for sewing! Here's a muffin pan, go at it." "Uh, this mango is ... magic! First one to go around the world three times can eat it." We also get a little booklet featuring several stories about Ganesha, to introduce his personality to those of us who are unfamiliar. (And the graphic design is better on this than before. Even if it does at one point accidentally spell "modak" with the wrong vowel.) Rather than doing two drops of the toy on the same day, like they usually do, they announced the first one for April 19, and will be having the second later in May; their stated reason was because the big crowdfunded dragon set just closed and they wanted to make sure everybody had time to recover from that, but our question is: who does a special sale the day before a holiday? Easter was on the 20th; how many people weren't home and therefore able to buy a limited action figure on the 19th? You couldn't push it back even a week? Come on, guys. On the plus side, you get to read this whole review before the second round of figures go up for sale, allowing you to make an informed decision. Unlike Anubis and Bastet, Ganesha is a god people still actively worship, so the Horsemen strived to be as respectful as possible while still making a fun action figure. I can't personally judge the first half (because that isn't my religion), but I can definitely tell you they delivered on the second (because that is). Now I think I'll have to go get my Hanuman and Lord Rama figures to put with him. -- 05/03/25 There's never been a Spring figure before: are we getting four Figura Obscura releases this year? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.