Born Christopher Wallace, Notorious B.I.G. was perhaps better known as Biggie Smalls. Loved by some and hated by others, the exceptional rapper’s life was cut short in 1997, the anniversary just one month ago. Mezco Toyz is producing a collectible figure based on Biggie, and for the upcoming New York Comic Con, have produced 2000 variant figures, with Biggie wearing a yellow shirt, right out of the Juicy video.
Mezco NYCC exclusive Biggie Smalls figure
New York Comic Con is this weekend, April 18th – 20th. You can pick up this Biggie variant there from Mezco for $30, or through their own website.
Packaging – ***
Mezco went with a basic black and white box, with nice clean lines. Biggie is silhoutted against the white background. The packaging is collector friendly, and will certainly store easily for the MIBers, but there’s no way to see the figure inside before buying it.
Sculpting – ***1/2
This figure is done in Mezco’s usual ‘stylized’ format. What this generally means is that the figure has a bit of a caricature style, where the more prominent features of the figure are exaggerated for effect.
That has been certainly done with Biggie’s body, following a designer vinyl style. The over sized hands and feet, and somewhat cartoon body works well in that format, and this figure follows that standard pretty well.
There are some small detail additions though, like the ring on his finger. But generally speaking, the body is much like the usual designer vinyl figure.
The head sculpt is less of a caricature style than usual, however, at least to my eye. They captured the look of the man quite well, and while they exaggerated his features a bit, they still kept him in a more realistic look than usual. The use of texturing on the hair, skin and lips helps of course, something that’s not as present on the body work. I’m quite impressed with the head sculpt, and I think most fans will be too.
Paint – ***1/2
The paint work on the face is extremely well done, giving the slightly cartoony appearance a greater touch of realism. The slight variance between the lip color and skin color, the proper use of matte finishes on the skin with some slight gloss on the eyes and lips, and other techniques come together to give him a very lifelike appearance for the designer vinyl world.
The work on the body is largely well done, with consistent colors and clean lines. There’s a few rough edges here and there, and some very minor bleed can be found if you look hard enough, but for the most part it’s a very clean, specialty market paint job.
Articulation – ***
He’s not super articulated, but if you’re used to the world of designer vinyl, then he probably has more articulation than you’re used to.
He has a ball jointed neck, as well as ball jointed shoulders with articulation on both sides of the joint. These are hollow vinyl figures of course, which means that these ball joints aren’t quite as useful as the kind seen in hard solid plastic figures, but they still work surprisingly well.
He also has cut wrists, waist, hips and cut joints at the top of the boots. He isn’t going to be taking any extreme poses, but the style of figure doesn’t allow for that anyway.
Accessories – ***
He comes with three main accessories – a wireless microphone, towel and sunglasses.
The sunglasses are scaled well, but they do ride a little high on his nose. They have some nicely painted small details as well.
The microphone is pretty much what you’d expect, and it fits fine in his sculpted left hand.
I’m also counting his bling as an accessory. The large metal chain and pendant look terrific, and the chain is real metal. It fits over his head easily of course, but there is a bit of a kink in mine that I can’t quite get out. Fortunately, it can be pretty easily hidden.
Finally, the towel works well either in a hand or over his shoulder, and is scaled particularly well. That’s one thing that Mezco seems to do really well – scale clothing and soft goods in the 8 – 9″ scale.
Outfiit – ***1/2
While the outfit isn’t extreme, what’s here is very well done, particularly considering the scale.
There are three main pieces of clothing – his shorts, t-shirt and his tank shirt. All are nicely tailored, fitting him quite well and not appearing too thick or silly looking. The shirt is done in yellow for the exclusive version.
Fun Factor – **1/2
This isn’t a toy designed for kids, but rather for fans of the big man. He’ll look great on your desk or in your cube, and he has enough articulation to allow you to get some very different looks from the poses.
Value – **
The run size on this figure is 2000, which is pretty common for a convention exclusive. The $30 price tag is a bit of a step up from some previous year’s (in terms of exclusive prices), but the rise is not too unexpected. The simple exclusivity of items like this tends to drive up the price a bit.
Things to Watch Out For –
I’d take some care with the microphone, since it’s a tight fit in the hand and could rub off the paint. Otherwise, you should be good to go.
Overall – ***1/2
Fans of the rapper should be very happy with this version. Mezco reports that even his mom approved of the look of this figure, and I can see why. They did a nice job translating the real person into this style, backing off a little on the caricaturishness but still remaining true to the designer vinyl style. The marriage of rap with this style of collectible makes complete sense, and Mezco has been successful with other rap stars in this format. While this exclusive is only a shirt color change, it’s still one that Biggie fans will want to check out, even if they pick up the regular version.
Where to Buy –
As I said, the number one spot is at NYCC this weekend. If you can’t make it, you can pick it up through Mezco’s own store at their site.
Comments: 3 Comments
3 Responses to “Toy Box: It’s Biggie, baby, and he’s an exclusive!”Leave a Reply |
April 17th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Mr Crawford- You made a couple of errors;
1) The sunglasses fit exactly as they did on the man himself. Do some photo research before you make a comment.
2) There is no “regular” version. This is an all new outfit. Again, research!
3) Funny how with labor costs rising in China, plastic costs rising, transportation costs rising, and everything needing to be lead tested, people still expect prices to stay the same. You of all people should understand the economics of the toy industry.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Mike- I think you goofed here, there isn’t another version with another shirt. The other version is in a black suit with black PL shoes. You may want to fix that lest you look uninformed.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Hi Mike,
You forgot to mention his cool boots. They look well done.
Take care my man,
Greg