I have been pretty quiet the last couple weeks. Why? Well, it’s called the great toy drought of ’07. With the collectibles market collapsing in on itself, retailers disappearing regularly, and manufacturers going belly up left and right, product has been a tad scarce lately.
But finally I have something worth talking about – the fifth series of South Park figures from Mezco. There are four new figures to add to the ever growing legion of South Park residents, and here at QSE I’m covering Damian, son of Satan who’s an average kid otherwise, and Hippie Exterminator Cartman, doing his best to rid the world of the unclean, long haired types. Over at MROTW, I’m covering the other two in the set: Mephesto and Tweak.
South Park 5 – Hippie Exterminator Cartman and Damian
Damian fits in nicely with the rest of the kids, and if you have to get another Cartman variant, one that’s dressed up like a Ghostbuster ain’t a bad choice.
Packaging – ***
For those who have been picking up the line all along, there’s nothing new here. The usual South Park text and graphics right from the show, with some basic photos on the back of the interior card. The clamshell has the show name embossed on the left side, which is a nice touch, but the packages remain very oversized, making the contents seem smaller and less impressive.
Sculpting – ***1/2
Both Damian and Cartman sport nice sculpts, with wild hair and properly scaled bodies. Obviously, there’s not going to be a lot of detail here, but as I’ve said plenty of times before, that doesn’t mean you can’t screw it up. Check out my reviews of the Mirage attempt (at the end of the review) at South Park to see what I’m talking about.
The key to capturing these is getting the proportions right – head to body, arms to body, legs to body. Get these proportions off, and you’ll have figures that sorta kinda look like the characters, but something is missing…you might not even be able to put your finger on it, but you’ll know something is wrong. Thanksfully, the proportions here are very good, with really no issues.
Scale is good as well, with Damian fitting in at about the same size as the other kids, and Cartman his usual fat ass self. Cartman also has the advantage of having some additional sculpt details with his outfit, including some pouches and straps. These all are very well done, and make him one of the cooler Cartman variants.
Damian’s standard left hand has a small flame coming off the finger, while Cartman’s right hand is sculpted to hold either of his accessories. That’s a much appreciated touch, since as I mentioned in the other review, Tweak can’t even hold his included coffee cup.
Paint – Cartman ***1/2; Damian ***
Both of these are actually better paint-wise than most of the figures in series 4. I didn’t have any eyeball issues this time, and there were far fewer stray marks or mistakes. Damian still has some consistency issues with the black body, with some shiny patches here and there.
Cartman again has the advantage here, because he has alot more detail in the outfit. There are additional colors and small details on the belt, pouches and straps, including zippers and buttons.
Both faces look terrific as well, and I went with the serious mean looking closed mouth on both. They also can be had with open mouth expressions, but I don’t really see either of these characters yelling.
Articulation – ***
Both of these figures lose a little articulation over some past figures, but they have the one thing I love the most…articulated eyebrows. Damian adds his ball jointed neck, cut shoulders and cut waist. His left arm has a cut wrist as well, since the hand is swappable. It’s not a lot, but the neck and eyebrows give a lot of cool posing possibilities.
Cartman also has the poseable eyebrows, ball jointed neck, cut shoulders and cut waist. He does not have cut wrists, and that’s too bad, because that would have really helped with posing the left hand holding the accessories.
Accessories – ***
Both of these figures seem pretty well outfitted, especially Cartman. Damian comes with two extra arms, both with the small thumbs sticking out. He also has an extra left hand to replace the ‘flame’ hand if you’d prefer. But his coolest accessory is his included demon, made from a thin but very sturdy plastic that attaches tightly to the flame base. The red eyes look terrific, and the translucent plastic gives him a smokey appearance.
Cartman comes with his flashlight, but it doesn’t have any sort of lens or color on the face, and no detail on the body. It looks like a large bolt more than a flashlight. At least he can carry it in his right hand.
He also has his very cool fire extinguisher, perfect for extinguishing those hippies It attaches to his back, and the nozzle can be take off and put in his right hand. There’s an included foam attachment that makes it look like it’s being fired, and it fits neatly in the nozzle. Finally, the small top on the extinguisher can turn so that you can get things lined up perfectly on his back.
Fun Factor – ***
They aren’t technically toys for kids, but they could work that way. Most of the joints are pretty sturdy, and they could take a pretty good beating. Even if an arm does pop off, it pops back on easy enough in most cases. While these are designed as pop culture collectibles, they haven’t lost sight of their roots as action figures.
Value – **1/2
You can expect to pay around $12 or $13 each for these, the current going rate for most specialty market action figures. Cartman and Damian have some decent accessories, so they make an average rating at this price point.
Things to Watch Out For –
If you’re picking them off the peg, of course you’ll want to watch those paint ops. And don’t forget that each one comes in at least two facial expressions – open and closed mouths. Each person is going to prefer one over the other, so choose wisely.
Overall – Cartman ***1/2; Damian ***
While I like Mephesto as well, Cartman is probably my favorite of this set. I’m glad I got Damian and Tweak, but that’s largely because they round out the kids. Mephesto (and the included Kevin) are good B list characters, but this variant on Cartman really looks cool on the shelf, especially when he’s firing the extinguisher. I wasn’t a big fan of this episode, but that doesn’t make him less visually appealing for me.
Where to Buy –
Hot Topic is supposed to have these in, but if your store is like mine, it isn’t happening. Online options include:
– Amazing Toyz only has them in stock in sets of four for $45 at this point.
– CornerStoreComics has the sets at $45 as well, but has some singles for $11 – $13 depending on the character.
– YouBuyNow has pre-orders up for the next series (Nurse Gollum, Mr. Slave, Starvin’ Marvin and Ming Lee Cartman) for just $13 each.
– Circle Red doesn’t have series 5 listed, but if you’re looking for series 4 they have a good price at all four figures for $35.
Related Links –
I’ve had a fair share of reviews so far:
– I reviewed series 1 of course, which has the very cool Cartman figure, along with series 2, series 3, and series 4.
– and let’s not forget that – Mirage did series 1, series 2 (I reviewed Towelie separately), and series 3 of their figures before packing it in. They also did an exclusive Mr. Hanky.
Comments: 1 Comment
One Response to “Toy Box: South Park Series 5 – Damian/Cartman”Leave a Reply |
February 17th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
you shoukld make a mirage of ALL the figures (series 1-whater) together.