After reading this thread I was afraid what monster on griffins back I would get. But thankfully mine is not so bad. Especially when looked at from some distance. I also suspect that when we look at photos of supposedly good sculptures which are taken from some distance we don't see those small defects and expect it to be like that from up close.
Yeah, I think you got one of the good ones - mine arrived today, and it looks more or less like yours. Whoever painted it clearly wasn't given enough time, but it was someone who knew what he was doing and had the good sense to focus on the important stuff - both of the faces look good (especially the Griffin's), the buckles on Geralt's outfit are painted correctly and pop very nicely, and there are no glaring errors that I can find. On the downside, the drybrushing is definitely fast and loose in a lot of places, everything that faces downwards or isn't close to the focal points received very little attention (I see the Griffin's mane on yours, for example, is basically unpainted at the bottom as well.) It looks good as soon as you look at it from about 40cm away, but it's definitely a rush job by a skilled painter. Nothing's broken on mine. I'll take some pictures in daylight tomorrow.
Honestly, I think CDPR probably got ripped off here. The company who made these showed them a beautifully painted prototype, promised them they'd all look that way, cashed in and then produced the actual sculptures in about 20% of the time it took to make the prototypes. Since mine isn't a disaster, I don't feel cheated, but it's a bit of a shame because the CE - this needs to be said - is otherwise spectacular. The design of the packaging is fantastic, the art book is glorious, and the wolf medallion gives me the warm fuzzies everytime I look at it. Leave alone pick it up - the thing's heavy as hell, and the chain is thick and rugged looking. Really, really cool.
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