Are you in the market for a hunka hunka burnin’ love? Then I have good news, and bad news. The bad news is that I’m not available. The good news is that the next best thing in the form of not one, not two, but THREE Elvis figures from Mcfarlane are.
Mcfarlane has had the Elvis license for awhile now, and started with the figure that’s still my favorite, the 68 Comeback Tour version. Since then, they’ve produced 5 more versions: Rockabilly, Las Vegas, New York City, Jailhouse Rock and Blue Hawaii. This new boxed set is a re-release of versions 4, 5 and 6, all in one handy package, and is exclusive to Spencer’s stores.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me a line at mwc@mwctoys.com or hit my other website at http://www.mwctoys.com. On to the review!
“Elvis – 1956. 1957 and 1961”
The box lists these by the year of his appearance, but the first is the New York City appearance version, the second is his look in the film Jailhouse Rock, and the third is his appearance in the film Blue Hawaii. For a guy that wasn’t much of an actor, he sure did star in an awful lot of films.
Packaging – ***
Boxes are always nice, because they store easily for MIBBers, and can be used to display the toys a little better than cardbacks. It’s not a collector friendly box, unless you’re really masochistic, because there’s a ton of twisties and tape. However, it does show off the figures well, and does a nice job looking good on the shelf.
Sculpting – Jailhouse ****; NYC ***1/2; Blue Hawaii **1/2
There are major differences between these three head sculpts, although the period of time they cover is fairly short in Elvis’ career.
Of the three, Jailhouse Rock is easily my favorite. They’ve captured his face and expression so well it’s scary, and the detail work on areas like his teeth and tongue is outstanding. Going with closed eyes is always a risky venture, since so much of a person’s personality comes from their eyes, but they pulled it off beautifully here. The sculpted pose is also perfect, going with a trademark dance move from the film that’s both dynamic and cool.
Next on the list is the 1956 gold lame outfit version. Here, the head sculpt is extremely good, but not quite as perfect. It’s definitely Elvis, right down to the pouty lips, but he’s a little less expressive this time. The detail work on his costume is fantastic, espeically the ruffles and contours of the shirt and suit. Again, the pose selected is a classic, and fits the character perfectly. This is critical of course, since these figures have very little articulation. The pose they sculpt you is the pose you get.
Finally, there’s Blue Hawaii. Now, it’s a little tough to separate the issues with the sculpt from the issues with the paint. This is one of those cases where the sculpt may be getting unfairly abused by a less than stellar paint job, and it’s always hard to tell. But of the three, this face is the farthest from the Elvis likeness. The lips are much thinner than the other two, and the nose is longer and narrower. The body sculpt is still the usual excellent McToys work, and the pose is another nice dynamic choice, expressing the energy and flamboyance of the singer. But without the outfit and base, some folks might have a tough time picking this out as Elvis.
Paint – Jailhouse, NYC ***1/2; Blue Hawaii **1/2
On some of these figures, great piant improves great sculpts. On others, eh, not so much.
Again Jailhouse Rock is my favorite. The bold black and white color scheme looks great on the shelf, and they’ve done a good job with the thin lines and dotted seams of the black denim. I do wish that the white lines of the shirt wrapped all the way around (although I can’t be positive that they should), and there are a few stray marks here and there. But the face paint is excellent on this version, and the details generally clean and sharp.
Next favorite again is the 1956 New York City appearance version. Are we noticing a trend here? This is a very colorful version of Elvis, with lots of gold and silver. These are traditionally tough colors to do with a consistent application, with no thin spots or other colors showing through. They do a pretty good job, although it’s not quite perfect. The gold is a little inconsistent in thickness and coverage in some spots, but it’s not enough to hurt the figure in a major way.
Again, his face paint is excellent, especially the subtle difference in color between the lips and skin on his face. There’s a little bit of clumpiness to the skin tone, but again, it’s quite minor.
Finally, there’s Blue Hawaii. Here, the face paint is the big let down. The eyebrows don’t follow the sculpted lines well at all, and instead are pointed downward at an odd angle. The skin tone itself has more issues with clumpiness on the face, neck and arms, and isn’t as clean and consistent as the other two.
The costume itself is fairly good, although I was left with a pretty obvious mark on the white pants from the ukelele. I suspect a better paint job woud have done wonders for this particular likeness of Elvis, but that’s lost with this application.
Articulation – Jailhouse, Blue Hawaii **; NYC *1/2
If you’re thinking uber-articulation, you aren’t thinking about this line up. These are supposed to be little statues, cheaper than the high end resin stuff, but with a similar level of quality. What they aren’t is *action* figures. If you understand and have no issue with this going in, then this category won’t mean much to you.
Each figure has very basic articulation – cut neck, cut shoulders, cut waist. A couple also sport cut wrists, to assist in getting just the right hand pose to hold an accessory. But the articulation that’s here is designed to do one thing and one thing only – get the figure in a single, good looking dynamic pose and stay there.
The gold lame version gets a lower score than the other two not because of less articulation, but because mine has a huge gap at the left shoulder that I couldn’t correct. This kind of quality issue really detracts from the overall appearance of the figure.
Accessories – ***
Each figure comes with a base, and perhaps one or two more goodies depending on the version.
The NYC Appearance version has the best looking base of the three, with a great backdrop of the poster art for the appearance suspended between two columns, and a base designed like a stage. He also comes with the microphone and stand, which is a separate piece and can be held in his right hand.
Blue Hawaii has a base with the Elvis name cut into the front, and a nifty sandy beach top. Behind him is a cardboard backer with the Blue Hawaii logo, but this backer is a tad on the small side, not even reaching the top of his head. There are two small pegs that are used to attach the backer to the base, and you’ll find these on the underside. There’s also a separate surf board with fits into two sculpted notches in the base. There’s a lai of flowers for around his neck, and there’s the ukelele which is removable if you want to try hard enough, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Jailhouse Rock has a base shaped like an album, with two sections of jail cell and a name plate that attach to the side. Again, there’s a small pin in a bag on the underside of the base that you can use to affix the top of the name plate to the top of the one section of cell.
Fun Factor – *1/2
If you’re looking for an Elvis figure for your son to use in his karate tourniments with G.I. Joe, this ain’t him. Figures like this are the Hummels of our age.
Value – ***
At around $12 – $13, these are a solid value on the current market. The cool bases add to the value of course, and even having a couple accessories is a big plus.
Things to Watch Out For:
Not a thing, really. If you pick them out in person, you might want to watch for bad paint, particularly on Blue Hawaii, and any joint gapping like I had with NYC, but things should be pretty consistent otherwise.
Overall – Jailhouse, NYC ***1/2; Blue Hawaii **1/2
The quality varies between the three figures, and there’s no doubt that the Jailhouse and New York City versions have better sculpts and paint. Still, for the big fan of the King, these are a great addition to the collection. Where else can you get six different versions of Elvis, all in the same scale and style, except from Mcfarlane? And grabbing this exclusive three pack means you save a few bucks as well.
Where to Buy:
This three pack is an exclusive to Spencers, but you can snag some of the singles online:
– CornerStoreComics has the singles of Jailhouse and Blue Hawaii for around $13 each, but don’t have the boxed set listed.
– Amazing Toyz is likewise only selling singles, including Jailhouse, at around $13 each.
– Clark Toys has him at $15, but the other two are sold out.
Related Links:
I previously reviewed the Jailhouse Rock figure, as well as the 68 Comeback Special version.
Comments: None
Leave a Reply |