Borag Thungg, Earthlets!

When I first saw the teasers for ThreeA Toys's Tharg I was chuffed.  Especially as it was My Tharg.  The Tharg from when I was a nipper.  As ThreeA have impressed me no end, I naturally purchase the figure.  And this is what arrived:

Now don't get me wrong, I do like the crazy weathering that ThreeA put on their figures, but this is just too much.  And I seem to be one of the few, if the only one, who has received a Tharg in this state (according to the ThreeA forum).  The good thing is that ThreeA are excellent with customer services.  I asked them how to sort it, and instead they've asked me to return it for replacement.  Which is nice (if possibly expensive).

Now, other than the weathering Tharg is an excellent 1/6 character.  He has a waistband with pouches containing LRDs (Liquid Refreshment Dispensers - the prizes given away to best letter and/or drawing sent to 2000AD, back in the day at least).  The head sculpt is excellent, I was worried it might be a bit goofy, but it really isn't.  And the leather-like outfit is well constructed and neatly weathered (I'd have liked a totally unweathered version, mind - Tharg, to me, was always a sharp dresser!).  All in all a great figure... but for the snot stains.

Getting back to the snot stains, or coffee stains (too much drinking from his LRDs?), one issue I've had with ThreeA recently is their weathering.  To say it's excessive would be... well, underplaying it.  The most recent issue with it I've had is on my Jung de Plume, where the clip to open his holster is frozen shut tightly due to whatever they used to weather him.  Other figures, most specifically the NOM Commanders, have been so heavily weathered that upon opening the boxes the fumes from the figures almost make you pass out.  And, when you handle them, your fingers are left with a layer of weathering powder on them, to the point that when I washed my hands after checking out my NOM Commanders my sink turned a shade of brown.  That's heavy weathering alright.  Too heavy.

This is all at odds with previous releases, meaning that my Adventure Kartel Tommy Mission figure doesn't exactly match my Adventure Kartel Boiler Zombie.  Now this isn't a massive issue, but it does cause a slight break in the line.  And it's evident in other lines too, my WWRp Euro Bramble isn't as heavily weathered as my WWRp Dirty Deeds Berties are.  And, oddly, the WWRp Nom de Plume is also not as heavily weathered as the Dirty Deeds, but I guess that's down to it being a 1/12 figure, and so likely to look ridiculous if heavily weathered.

And so it leaves me pondering my relationship with ThreeA.  The figures I already have from them are great.  Awesome, in fact.  And I have some more on the way, but now I'm concerned that the weathering is going to be too heavy.  That it's going to affect what I think about the figures.  I hope that isn't the case, but recent evidence hasn't helped...