Sedefkar Simulacrum Unboxing

As my last post was rather long-winded and ranty, I decided to cut it off before getting round to what I had planned as the main event, that is the unboxing of the Sedefkar Simulacrum, as delivered to me last week.

Each set came with a letter from Delphes, the campaign organiser and artist, as well as a certificate of authenticity. A packing error meant I got two copies of the letter and certificate, but as the certificates are not numbered, this isn't an issue.

The Box

First off, the box itself. Aged to look like it has sat on a shelf for some time (even the hinges are rusted), and labelled on the outside as part of the Miskatonic University collection. Inside, the Simulacrum is hidden in wood shavings/straw, and on the inside of the lid is a faded and slightly warped insignia for the Simplon Orient Express.

As was mentioned by Delphes on the KS page, the box is a touch too short to lie the Simulacrum flat, due to a later change in the positioning of the leg magnets, but it doesn't really seem to matter, either the Simulacrum can be disassembled for storage, as would likely the real thing, to protect the parts, or, he can be sat in the box, slightly bent, reclining on the straw inside.

The Sedefkar Simulacrum

The simulacrum itself is a wonderful thing. I was worried that the finish would be underwhelming after seeing some images online, but in real life it truly does look slightly otherworldly. Of course, my images here are no exception to the others I have seen, and don't quite do the figure justice.

The magnets on the arms and legs are nice and strong. There seems to have been some issues with some of the magnets falling out, but this isn't an issue with this copy. he magnets are also attached in a way that the right leg and left leg cannot be reversed, to ensure they attach with the torso facing the right way, and the same with the arms. This does mean however, that the arms and legs can be swapped!

The Shroud

The shroud is an Item I'm not quite sure what to do with. I think the suggestion is it is something the players can use to collect the parts if the Simulacrum as they find them. However, I'm not quite sure I'm at ease with players tossing the limbs of this sculpture in a  canvas bag together when there's a perfectly serviceable box for storage, after all, if you have this prop on the table, it makes sense to want to have it on display, not in a bag. There was an add-on to the campaign to buy an alter to do exactly that, but I felt I had already sunk enough cash into this adventure, so I didn't bother with that.

The Traveller Kit

I'm not quite sure why this name was chosen for the paper add-ons to this campaign, but I'm glad I went in for them, and not just the Simulacrum, they really add life to the project, and give something more visual to help the players get into the game. The Traveller Kit consists of:

• A postcard with the portrait of an arrogant XVIIIth century nobleman (not send from the Louvres)
• The close up pictures of the Simulacrum
• The scientific paper about the Scroll of the Head.
• A fine art print of an excerpt of The Scroll of the Head.
• The translation of the text from the excerpt
• A nice packaging

Postcard from the Louvre

Each of these images represents the close ups of the surfaces of the Simulacrum, 

Scroll of the Head

The translation of the text of the excerpt of the scroll of the head is included in the article as appendix B, as is a transliteration (the text in Turkic). The final appendix is a list of the contributors, yours truly included of course!

The nice packaging refers to the box the Simulacrum was sent in, (see above).

The Poster

The stretch goals reached meant that I also received 'a poster made in the style of the 1920s presenting "Caterina Cavollaro in Aida at the Scala of Milan".'

Finally, there was one final stretch goal that was not reached during the campaign:

30 000 € : HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT when unlocked every backer with the Simulacrum in its pledge will receive 6 printed copies of original drawings done by myself representing each part of the Simulacrum in context, from the point of view of the characters, when they find each part during the campaign. The drawings will be consistent with the sculpted simulacrum, and can of course be presented to the player as a visual support to dramatize each discovery.

However, even though this level was not reached, Delphes really wanted backers to have the chance to get these prints, so sent out details of how to buy these prints after the campaign had finished. I decided to go for it, and thus, have received these too. In fact due to a printing error, everyone got two copies of each, and what's more, due to a packing error, I got 4 copies of one of them. Lucky me.

The KS also gave backers the opportunity to buy a female head and torso to go with the male version, as indeed the Simulacrum is supposed to start to resemble more and more the person carrying it. I did not take this option, and I am regretting it dearly now. I already spent more than I had planned on this KS, with the additional art work, but now that I have it i my hands and see the quality of the workmanship, I see that it would have been worth the extra expense.

Finally, the pledge I went for included the the Eye of Light and Darkness too, but I'll post that in another post, as this one's already getting rather long.