Category: Toy Box

When Hasbro first obtained the Marvel license, one of the issues that plenty of folks were hoping would be corrected by them was distribution. Toybiz did a mighty fine job on Marvel Legends, but it seemed to be a complete crap shoot as to when – and often, if – your store would ever get them in. One chain might get them in weeks before another, and worse, one area of the country could see them months before another. That was just downright annoying, and Hasbro managed to avoid any of those issues with their first wave of ML figures.Unfortunately, with wave 2 it seems that they are swimming in the same pool of distribution muck as was Toybiz. I finally…FINALLY…found a full set of these after other parts of the country have been happily playing along with them for months now. Prior to this, I had one sighting of one of the eight figures at a local Wal-mart, and that was weeks ago. The third wave is actually due to hit anytime, but I won’t be holding my breathe to see them any time soon.

Hasbro Marvel Legends Series 2 – She-Hulk, Xorn, X3 Juggernaut and Ultimate Wolverine

There are eight figures in total in this second wave. I’ll be covering four here today (She Hulk, Xorn, Ultimate Wolverine and Juggernaut), with the other four being covered tonight at my other site, MROTW. Those four would include Thor, X3 Jean Gray, Yellowjacket and Quicksilver. Collect all eight and you can put together the Build A Figure (BAF) of the Blob.

These are now hitting Target’s in pretty decent quantities, but it’s still very hit or miss which stores have them. At ten bucks a pop, you’ll be dropping a wad of cash to get all the pieces to the fat guy, and I’m not sure any BAF is worth eighty bucks.

Packaging – ***1/2
I know some folks have hated the new packages, but I’m still a fan. There’s a ton of personalization here, with plenty of character specific graphics on the front of each. The bubble/cardback design is so sturdy it’s practicallly a clamshell, yet you can rip into it without a knife. Yea, they’re still a bit oversized and a bitch for any MOCers to store, but generally speaking, I like the direction.

Sculpting – Xorn ***1/2; She Hulk, Ultimate Wolverine, Juggernaut ***
The majority of the sculpts are solid, but the paint work doesn’t support many of them. That’s too bad, since folks can get a bad impression of the sculpt work from a quick glance.

Juggs is a perfect example. I think the head sculpt is actually quite good, but it’s very hard to see under the awful eyebrows and hair. It appears that they managed to pull off the actual actor’s likeness, certainly as well as they did with series 1 Beast, but it’s tough to tell. He’s sculpted in the smaller scale of the X-men movie lines (at just under 7 inches tall he might seem to big, but remember, he was huge in the movie), and has some pretty interesting unique hand sculpts.

The Wolverine almost has the constipated look, but they managed to get away from it a bit by going with some seriously snarling eyes and eyebrows. I really like the expression, which is unusual for something so extreme, but with the awful paint work again it’s hard to be sure how good the sculpt really is. His scale is in line with other recent Wolverines, making him smaller than the regular figures, but he’s not quite as tiny as some recent versions, standing about 6 inches tall. The sculpted claws look good, although they suffer from the usual plastic warping.

She Hulk has a beautiful face sculpt, showing that you can make pretty female ML figures, but she’s got a bit of the NECA hair going on. It looks worse in close ups though than it does in person, and has some good detail for this scale. Again, they’ve done some nice sculpting on the hands, and she’s at a good height for posing with the rest of the series at about 7 1/4 inches tall.

Last but not least in anyway is Xorn. He’s my fav of the bunch in this category, with some very nice detail work on the helmet, underlying face, and even the chain/chest. Again, there’s some paint issues, but at least on this figure I could see past most of them to find the underlying quality of the sculpt. His hands have unique poses too, which is a huge plus. None of these figures have simple fist or open hand poses that are just reused. Instead, they all have interesting and different poses, unique to their characters. Xorn stands just a hair over 6 inches tall, falling into the middle range of figures.

Paint – Xorn, She Hulk ***; Ultimate Wolverine **; Juggernaut *1/2
Ah yes, the paint. With the first wave, the big complaint with the paint was largely with what was NOT painted. The shiny, cast-in-the-color plastics used for large areas tended to be cheap looking. Unfortunately, the paint ops that we do get this time around are often poorly executed.

Of the set, my She Hulk and Xorn had the fewest issues. There’s still a bit of slop here and there, and the dry brushing they added to She Hulk’s hair may or may not have been such a terrific idea. But the eyes, lips, hairlines and other small details are relatively clean. This isn’t the kind of work that would stand up next to good specialty market toys, but it’s reasonable when compared to most other mass market stuff.

Xorn’s Magneto face isn’t quite as nice as the rest of him though, with the color cast plastic skin looking a bit too shiny and cheap. I don’t expect most folks to pose him without the helmet though, since it makes up so much of his personality. It’s also extremely well painted, with a nice dark wash used to bring out the sculpting details and very clean lines around the eyes.

Ah, but then we get Wolverine and Juggernaut. Juggs has two eyebrows the size of snakes, writhing over his eye sockets. Add to that the expression of surprise in which they’ve been painted, and you have a recipe for ruining any sculpt underneath. Ah, but his bad paint job doesn’t end there. Take off the helmet and you get Hasbro’s attempt at his uber short buzz cut. It appears as though they’ve dipped his bald pate in crap. Literally. And they didn’t even take the time to do it evenly.

Move down to his torso, and you get some awful work on the chest, arm and belly hair. Again, it looks more like dirt than hair, and given the choice, I’d vote to skip it altogether on this figure.

Wolverine’s only saving grace is actually his arm hair. This is something that is normally poorly done, and you can look no further than the aforementioned Juggs for proof. But I really like how they handled the very small lines of hair on his arms, and it confuses me as to why they could do this, but couldn’t handle Jugg’s eyebrows.

Unfortunately, Wolverine’s face paint drags the figure back down again. The hair line isn’t just uneven, I have a whole side edge that’s missing paint! The eyes, brows and teeth are all sloppy, and he’s certainly not a ten buck figure with this kind of work.

To add to all the issues with the small details across the line, there’s still the issue of the casting the plastic in the color of choice. On Xorn and She Hulk this works out better than it does on Wolverine and Juggernaut, and I think that’s because the color that works the worst in this type of casting is normal skin tone. Since those two figures don’t have any (I’m pretending you’re leaving Xorn’s helmet on), they end up looking better.

Articulation – Xorn, Ultimate Wolverine ***; She Hulk **1/2; Juggernaut **
Marvel Legends have always set some sort of standard – good and bad – when it comes to articulation. If you hate articulation in your ‘action’ figures, then these aren’t for you. But if you like to see what can be done in this scale with a great design, you’re looking in the right place.

All of these figures have very similar articulation – ball jointed shoulders and hips, double jointed knees, pin and post elbows, pin and swivle ankles, pin wrists, cut waist, clicky chest, and even a psuedo ball jointed neck. I say psuedo, because these are the standard ML necks that have a pin, so that the head can tilt forward and backward along with turning. However, unlike a true ball joint, there’s no tilt. I’ll point out any additions or reductions in this sort of standard set up as I mention each figure.

Once again, Juggernaut was the biggest disappointment in this area He’s got all those joints, no problem, and in fact adds cut calves to the picture, but I had one Hell of a time getting any sort of reasonable poses. The legs and hips were the biggest issue, and even with the ball joints they simply wouldn’t move into reasonable places. You can have all the articulation in the world, but if you have trouble just finding a pose that can keep the figure standing, that’s not good. And while he adds the cut leg articulation, he has only pin elbows with no peg inserted into the bicep.

Wolverine didn’t have nearly the same issues with posing. He loses the joint on the arm side of the shoulder ball (clearly for aesthetic reasons), but has the peg and pin elbow to allow the lower arm to turn. There’s no swivel to the ankle, and because of the design of the boots it operates only as a cut joint.

She Hulk has some serious issues with her leg articulation as well, although eventually I was able to get them to work in a few poses. The arms and hands were much better at posing, but she loses the arm side joint at the shoulder ball, the cut waist, and even the rocker aspect of the ankle. Her hair pretty much completely removes the usefulness of the neck joint, but that’s not particularly uncommon. Still, she’s one of the least articulated Marvel Legends so far.

Finally, there’s Xorn. Like Wolverine, he poses pretty well, but there was still more effort involved in getting the leg joints in just the right place to keep him standing and make him look interesting. He adds a cut joint at the calves, along with double jointed elbows.

The articulation is a huge selling point for this line of figures, and I do believe that Hasbro has improved the quality of the joints themselves. They stick less, and are far less likely to rip or break under tension. Still, the joints have to actually work for them to be much of any real use, and quite a few of these figures have real issues when it comes to finding multiple great looking poses.

Accessories – Ultimate Wolverine, Juggernaut, Xorn **1/2; She Hulk **
For most of these figures, there’s really only one accessory – their piece of the Blob. This BAF is much smaller than past BAF’s at just 8 1/2 inches tall (compare that to Sentinal’s height of 15 inches!), but he’s still pretty damn cool once you get him all together.

Of course, that’s the trick. You’ll need to spend eighty bucks plus tax and/or shipping to get him, so that’s mighty expensive for a figure. On top of that, if you’re not interested in building the Blob, than what accessories are here are useless to you.

Once you get past the basic Blob parts, there are a couple more accessories. Juggernaut and Xorn both have removable helmets, so I’m boosting they’re score slightly because of it. Wolverine also gets a slight boost here, because he gets both large halves of the torso, making up in plastic what he lacks in amount.

Fun Factor – ***
Okay, they aren’t so perfect for collectors, but kids will still find these great fun. That is if they actually know who any of them are. I supposed that the Movie Juggs has potential, but considering that he’s the lamest of these four, it’s certainly wasted potential.

Value – *1/2
Ten bucks? What did I pay ten bucks for? A basic mass produced action figure with really one accessory – a chunk of the blob. And considering how much smaller this BAF is then BAF’s of waves gone by, I gotta say that we’re getting charged at least two bucks, maybe three, too much. Unless you spend eighty bucks, the accessory is completely worthless to you, so for the person just looking for a couple of these guys, they’re getting seriously pinched.

Things to Watch Out For –
Paint of course. Some of the joints were stuck, but they are sturdy enough that freeing them up shouldn’t raise too much of a risk.

Overall – Xorn ***; She Hulk, Ultimate Wolverine **1/2; Juggernaut **
Of this set, Xorn was the only one I thought really stood out. I don’t mind adding him to the line up, and for such a B (or C or D) character, he really was a nice surprise. I’m not thrilled with the head underneath the mask, but I’ll only be displaying him that way anyhoo.

She Hulk is going to be well liked by lots of folks, at least until they take her out of the package. I finally did find a pose I like, but the articulation really made her a tough poser. Still, it’s not like we’ve been treated to any better versions of her in this scale.

If your a huge Wolverine fan, grab this Ultimate version. He’s nothing to be staying up late and writing long letters home over, but the sculpt and articulation are solid. If you can find one with a reasonable paint job, all the better for you.

And Juggernaut? Unless you absolutely have to get all the X3 figures you can lay your hands on, skip him. Bad paint and worse articulation annoyed the Hell out of me. Who really liked this character design all that much anyway?

But if you want the Blob – and there are good reasons to want the Blob – then you’ll just have to stomach buying the full set and find something to do with the ones that are bad (Juggs) or merely uninteresting (see the other review for a good example). As with series 1, the very best figure in the full bunch is the one you have to buy all of them to get.

Where to Buy –
As I said earlier, your best bet right now is the local Target store.

Related Links –
I’ve had more than a few ML reviews:

– Let’s start with the reviews of series 1, first at MROTW and then here at QSE.

– you’ll want to check out my review of the other four figures at MROTW.

– Hasbro has also released several of the 12″ Marvel Legends Icons, including Punisher and Doom, and my favorite, Thor.
And if you still pine for the days Toybiz –

– in the 12″ Icons line, there’s Spider-man and Beast, Wolverine and Venom.

– The Face Offs series 1 (with Hulk/Leader in one review and the other two sets in another) and series 2 both had guest reviews.

– there’s the guest review of the Fearsome Foes of Spider-man boxed set, Urban Legends box set, X-men Legends boxed set, and the Fantastic Four boxed set, along with my review of the Monsters boxed set.

– The previous Sentinel BAF was guest reviewed.

– then there’s the various series reviews, including the Wal-mart series, series 13, series 12, series 9 (including Galactus), series 8 Captain Marvel and Doc Ock, series 7 Vision, series 6 Juggernaut, Wolverine and Deadpool, series 5 Blade, Nick Fury, Sabertooth and Colossus, along with series 5 Red Skull, Silver Surfer and Mr. Fantastic, series 4 Goliath, Punisher, Beast, Gambit, and Elektra, series 3 Daredevil and then the rest of the series, series 2 Thing and Namor, and finally, from three and a half years ago, the series 1 review.

Last week, we checked out the mini-bust for one Star Wars bounty hunter, Zuckuss. We have ourselves a theme going here, with another review of a Star Wars bounty hunter this week. This time it’s Bossk, and it’s his new Vintage Original Trilogy Collection (VOTC) version just hitting stores.

The first series of VOTC figures was part of the 2006 Galactic Hunt. If you bought the full series, you could send in for a George Lucas figure. Big whoop. If you pick up this second series, you get a much cooler mail away. Buy all six figures (or any combination of six figures), place the gold stickers inside each package on the redemption form, and send it in. Hasbro will send you back a set of the six metal coins for these VOTC figures, plus a seventh Toy Fair exclusive coin, all in a nifty box! I’m tempted to pick up the other five figures just to snag the coin set, which is the perfect example of an excellent mail away offer.

You can find these guys at regular retailers right now for a whopping $12 each. Target is where I picked mine up, but you can snag them online as well if need be.

VOTC Bossk

Packaging – ****
If you love vintage figures, you’re going to love this packaging. There’s an outer clamshell designed to keep the interior vintage style package safe and sound. This outer clamshell is heat sealed unfortunately, which means you’ll have to cut it open and not be able to reuse it.

Inside is a terrific vintage style bubble/cardback. Anyone who has fond memories of picking the original line up off the pegs will enjoy the flashback these provide.

Inside the package is the small gold sticker and redemption certificate, both inside a small plastic bag and taped to the clamshell. Remember to pull these out before you toss the packaging.

Sculpting – ****
On occasion, I hear from collectors that complain that I’m too hard on sixth scale figures, busts and statues for the sculpt. That it’s difficult to capture detail and appearance at that small of a scale. But if that’s true, how is it possible for Hasbro to manage to do this amazing of a sculpt at this tiny scale? This figure is just under 4″ tall, yet has excellent skin texture and scaling.

The figure has several outfit pieces that are separate pieces and added later. The suit straps are done in a softer material, and hang fairly well on his body. His hands are sculpted to hold the gun, and he stands great on his own as well.

All the VOTC figures have been above average, but Bossk is clearly one of the nicest of the series. For fans of this particular bounty hunter, he’s the perfect version.

Paint – ***1/2
The paint isn’t *quite* as strong as the sculpt, but it’s still strong. There’s a nice wash on some of the outfit, along with a good use of paint to bring out the details in the skin and face.

The teeth aren’t quite perfect, and there’s a little bit of slop. But considering how small the scale is, it’s still a tremendously impressive job.

Articulation – ****
This is the most impressive set of joints in this scale I’ve seen, using what they’ve learned with some previous figures and engineering all the joints to work extremely well.

There’s a ball jointed neck that tilts and turns extremely well. There’s ball jointed shoulders, cut forearms, and the pin/socket elbows that allow both forward and backward motion along with turning 360 degrees.

The knees work the same way, with a very good range of movement. The ankles are pin joints, and there’s a great ball joint at the chest. Finally, he has the usual T hips, but the uniform straps would reduce the usefulness of any sort of ball joint here.

That’s some truly impressive articulation, and the fact that all the joints work extremely well is icing on the joint cake.

Accessories – ***
Bossk comes with one accessory, his blaster. It fits nicely in his sculpted hands, and he can hold it in one or both. The strap that holds it around his shoulders is formed into a rather large loop, and it’s somewhat stiff plastic so that it doesn’t easily conform to his body. It looks much better in his hands, and that’s the way most folks will display him.

Fun Factor – ****
This figure practically defines fun. Excellent sculpt and paint, with terrific articulation, all in a sturdy package that won’t break easily under normal play. What could make it better? This guy is an alien! He practically screams “play with me”.

Value – *1/2
Unfortunately, the one category that hurts this figure is Value. At $12, he’s definitely overpriced. Eight bucks I can see, and even ten wouldn’t be terrible, but at twelve it might be hard to convince folks to pick him up, especially after most of the first wave ended up on clearance.

Things to Watch Out For:
Nothing with the figure, but don’t forget to snag the small gold sticker and redemption certificate from inside the bubble before you toss out the packaging.

Overall – ***1/2
This was *almost* a four star figure. Had the price been more in line with the regular line, he would have easily gotten four stars. With the amazing sculpt and great paint and articulation, this is easily the finest version of Bossk we’ve ever gotten, and one of the nicest figures in the whole line up.

But at $12, you really are paying a huge premium. Even at eight bucks, I’d give this guy the full score, but at this high of a price tag there’s no way I can do it and still sleep at night. Okay, I’d still sleep just fine, but you get the idea.

Where to Buy –
You can find these guys at Target stores, but for a terrific online option for all things Star Wars, check out Andrew’s Toyz.

Related Links –
The latest reviews of the smaller figures I’ve done include the 30th Anniversary Galactic Marine, Lava Miner, concept Stormtrooper, and Airborne Trooper; Hem Dazon; Foul Moudama; and the Firespeeder Pilot.

There are bad ass bounty hunters (Boba Fett) and ridiculous bounty hunters (Dog). And someplace in between, there’s Zuckuss.

Originally from the plant Gand, he looks an awful lot like the original Fly from the 1958 film, and is really one of the less original designs from Empire Strikes Back. But we all know how much kids love a good bounty hunter, and even without any lines in the film, his action figures have always been popular.

Gentle Giant has just added him to their extremely extensive line of mini-busts, with a limited edition release of 5000. You can pick up Zuckuss for around $45, and I have some excellent suggestions of online retailers at the end of the review.

“Zuckuss mini-bust”

Did you know Zuckuss was played by a woman? Neither did I. I guess you really do learn something new every day, whether you wanted to learn it or not.

Packaging – ***
When Gentle Giant uses the window boxes, they make me happy. I like to be able to see the bust before I open it. Of course, this really only helps if you’re buying in person at a store, but it’s better than nothing. The graphics are dull as dishwater, with the same angular black and gray design that we’ve seen on the Medicom sixth scale boxes. It’s consistent, but still consistently dull.

Sculpting – ****
When Gentle Giant does it right, they do it oh so right. Zuckuss looks amazing, with a very detailed sculpt all around. They’ve even added some light texturing to the robe, something missing from most of their Star Wars busts.

The head and body proportions do seem a little off to me, with the head being a bit bigger in proportion to the body than I remember in the film. It’s not so much that the head is too large, but rather that the body is too small. I seem to recall an on screen character that looked more like a fly that’s been hitting the twinkies way too hard. This Zuckuss is a tad more trim and slim, which is probably causing the discrepency.

The eyes are particularly well done, with a lot of depth and sharpness to the cuts. There’s a distinct difference in the texture and style of the character’s flesh and the clothing and equipment, adding a nice realism to the bust.

Paint – ***1/2
Another very strong area, although there are a couple minor issues here and there. One of the nice features of a oddball character like Zuckuss is the wider range of colors, and all of them are quite bright and clean, giving him more pizzazz than you’d expect.

There’s a little slop here and there, but it’s minor enough that I suspect most folks won’t mind. The robes are also a tad more glossy than I like, but this is more a personal preference than a serious quality issue. Finally, the bronze pieces of the costume are a little inconsistent in coverage and thickness, but that’s fairly common with this type of metallic color.

Design – ***1/2
Zuckuss is holding his blaster pointed to his left, while he looks over his right shoulder. The pose and design are extremely strong, with enough dynamic feel to make him interesting without making him silly.

I really like the large ‘rope twist’ black wire on his back, which looks quite realistic but is actually polyresin as well. The bronze pieces of his costume also add a nice touch, and this is one of the cleaner designs of the series.

Value – **1/2
He’s running the same $40 – $45 as the rest of the line, but lacks any special features that would boost his value above average. you won’t mind spending the money though, so this category is really a wash.

Things to Watch Out For –
Not much. From what I’ve seen, the paint seems pretty consistent for this line, so you should be good to go. And short of dropping him on a concrete floor, you should have no issues with breakage.

Overall – ***1/2
Zuckuss is another strong offering in the Star Wars mini-bust series. Unfortunately, Gentle Giant continues to pump out far too many exclusives in this line, making it harder and harder for their fans to get the busts they want. I haven’t actually counted them up yet, but I honestly believe that they’ll be doing MORE exclusives in the Star Wars line up than regular releases this year, and there’s really no excuse for that.

But if you’re like me, you’ll be trying to get the busts you want for your collection, playing right into their hands. I suppose we get exactly what we deserve.

Where to Buy –
I recommend any of these online options:

– Hero Hunt has an excellent price at just $40, and he’s in stock.

– Fireside Collectibles has him at an excellent price – $40 – but he doesn’t appear to be in stock yet. You might want to give them a call to see when he’ll ship.

– Andrew’s Toyz carries all kinds of great Star Wars merchandise, and has Zuckuss on pre-order at just $41.

– Dark Shadow Collectibles has him at just $42.

– Alter Ego Comics has him for $42.50.

– Amazing Toyz and CornerStoreComics have him in stock at $44.

– and for the U.K. readers, Forbidden Planet has him for 29 pounds.

Related Links –
Other Star Wars mini-busts I’ve covered include Chewbacca and Darth Maul, Jedi Luke, Qui-Gon Jinn, Palpatine and Skiff Lando.

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.

At this point, you’d think I was a Fruits Basket expert. About two months ago, I reviewed the Kyo Sohma statues from Southern Island right here at QSE. Then,

Tonight I’m covering Southern Island’s first mini-bust under the license. This one is of the main character herself, Tohru Honda. You can find it at a number of online retailers for around $40.

Tohru Honda mini-bust

Fruits Basket is one of those shows (and corresponding manga) about a young school girl (Tohru Honda) who’s an outsider, never quite fitting in. She ends up working for a family, the Sohma’s, who are definitely outsiders themselves. Each of the Sohma’s are possessed by the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, along with one extra – the cat. The theme of this show is the loneliness and pain when you’re not part of the crowd, a universal condition certainly but one that’s all the more poignant in Japan, where the population is so dense.

Southern Island has also produced a statue of Tohru in the 6″ statue line, but this is the first of their mini-busts of any of the Fruits Basket characters. Tohru is a limited edition of 2000.

Packaging – ***
The bust comes in the standard window box, with a solid foam insert to protect it. The window is a big plus if you are lucky enough to see these on the shelf of your LCS, since they allow you to see what you’re buying before plunking down the cash. Unlike the statues though, there’s no Skybox playing card included this time.

Also, there’s no marking on the box as to what number the included bust is in the limited edition, which is a bit unusual.

Sculpting – ***1/2
While anime characters tend to be quite basic, the sculpt here does everything it can to add detail and depth the the simple character design. The hair has a nice dynamic flow to it, with some of that dynamic movement translated into the clothing as well. There’s sculpted edges on the eyes, and the mouth isn’t merely painted on, but sculpted into the face.

The bust is a tad small if you’re comparing it to other industry standards. Most (but not all) ‘mini-busts’ run in the 6″ range, while this one is closer to 4″ tall. It’s made of a very sturd polyresin, so it won’t break easily under normal handling, but still has the heft and feel of quality that you expect. And while the bust is a bit small overall, the internal proportions (head to body, hands to head, etc) are quite good.

Paint – ***
The majority of the paint work – especially the large areas – is very clean and consistent, with good coverage and an even finish. Southern Island picked attractive colors that match up with the appropriate look for the character (unlike Hasbro, who still seem to think Venom is purple), and key areas, like the eyes and mouth have clean edges and cuts. One question I had was in the choice of black for her hair color. It tends to be shown as more of a brown in the show, but that may simply be a liberty of the need for shading and highlighting.

Not every spot exhibits the same level of quality though, especially the thinner, finer lines in the costume. There’s a little slop here, and some bleed between the blue and the white, pulling the score down a bit.

Design – ***
Tohru is an upbeat, generally happy and optimistic character, and that general attitude is translated nicely into the general design. She’s happy, she’s animated (literally), and it all is clearly expressed in the overall look.

My favorite touch is the edition of the rat and cat on either side of her body. Unlike the Sohma’s, Tohru has no animal counterpart to spice up her collectible. But rather than simply leave out that aspect, Southern Island decided to add the two characters who are most diametrically opposed on the show – the cat (Kyo Sohma) and the rat (Yuki Sohma). This adds quite a bit of visual punch to the bust and was a very smart move.

Value – **
Most current mini-busts run in the $40 – $45 range. This has been the average price point for a number of years now, and somehow most of the bust manufacturers have staved off the effects of inflation. The Tohru bust follows the price point, but it’s definitely smaller than the usual mini-bust on the market. It’s not a terrible value, but you are getting a little less for your dollar.

Things to Watch Out For –
If you’re picking her off the shelf, check those paint ops. Otherwise, you should be good to go.

Overall – ***
Fans of the Fruits Basket show don’t have a lot of high quality collectibles to choose from right now, so they are likely to be quite pleased with the work being done by Southern Island. This mini-bust does a nice job of capturing the look and character of Tohru, and is hopefully just the start of a full set of mini-busts.

Where to Buy –
You have a couple online options:

– Southern Island carries them themselves, for the srp of $40 each.

– Circle Red has all the statues at $34 each, but hasn’t listed the mini-bust yet.

– Entertainment Earth has her listed at $45.

Related Links –
As I said earlier, I reviewed the Kyo Sohma statues and the Shigure Sohma statue earlier. These are all being produced by Southern Island.

Yep, this is the week. You know what I’m talking about. That is unless you’re from another planet, and living there under a rock all alone. Or you’re a woman.

That’s right, this is the week for Spider-man 3. This is also the week that begins a MASSIVE summer movie season, with major blockbusters hitting every weekend from now through August 10th. The sheer number of major films hitting this year is staggering, and we’ll have Spider-man 3, Shrek 3 and POTC 3 all in theaters for Memorial Day weekend. That’s some heaving hitters!

We’ve been getting hit with Spider-man product for several months now in anticipation of the film, but if you’re like me, you’ve been less than impressed. I’m not a card carrying Hasbro hater, but even I have to admit that they’ve pretty much screwed the pooch on their offering. But thanks to a guest review on my site last week by Big Guido, I have found some very cool TOYS (please note the emphasis on the term TOYS) for the film.

Back a few years ago, when Toy Story first hit, a company called Thinkway Toys made one of the coolest toys we’d seen in years – the talking Buzz Lightyear. It was a huge hit that year for Christmas, and became one of those legendary releases. Now, Thinkway is back with some more cool goodies this time for the new Spider-man film. They’ve made three ‘room guards’: a Spider-man, Sandman, and Goblin. I picked up the Spidey and Goblin for today’s review.

Spider-man 3 Room Guards

While these are technically motion sense room guardians, they are also very cool action figures. If you’re looking for something for your kids to have fun with based on the movie, these might just be what you’ve been waiting for.

Packaging – **
The external box is the usual mass market contrivance. It has a j-hook hanger on top, but can sit on a shelf as a box as well. At least sort of. The box has a slightly curved top and bottom, making it tough for it to actually stay standing on one end. There’s also all the usual twisties, and I think the package weighs an extra pound just from the million ties holding him in place. And it’s definitely not collector friendly, since you’ll pretty much destroy things getting him out.

There’s also a little weirdness going on here. Both figures have pegs screwed onto the bottom of their feet. These pegs can attach to the bases, and that’s what the instructions imply. That means the figure would stand about a quarter inch up off the base, and can’t really stand on flat ground without the base. Ain’t that weird?

Actually, it probably makes sense. I’m betting that Hasbro wasn’t interested in Thinkway – or anyone else – competing with them for ‘action figures’, so when they got the license to do these room guards, they had to come up with something that would make the figures less ‘action’, more room guard. Screw a couple posts on their feet that attach only to the room guard, and you have a solution.

However, all you need is a Philips screwdriver, and you’re good to go. In fact, there’s an alternate hole on the bottom of the character’s feet that also fits the pegs on the base, so even once you’ve removed the posts, they can STILL stand on the base. And viola – now they’re really action figures too!

Sculpt – ***
It’s important at this point in our discussion to keep that term TOYS clearly in your head. If you’re looking for collectible action figures of a high quality that are designed to look life-like and make women swoon, then you’re looking in the wrong spot. But if you’re looking for some cool, fun toys that both collectors and kids can enjoy, these are an excellent choice.

Both figures stand about 8 inches tall, which makes them a tad too small for other sixth scale lines, and much too big for most other 6 – 7″ lines. These really only fit in with other figures in the room guard series, but with three out already – and rumored plans for at least a Venom as well – you can make a reasonable movie set up.

Spidey has the webbing and insignia sculpted on, giving him some texture and dimension. The proportions are good if not perfect, and he’s made from a very lightweight plastic, making it possible for him to hold some pretty difficult positions. Even though he’s lightweight, I didn’t find any joints that felt weak or easy to break.

This Goblin is the new version, more thrasher than villain I suppose, but if you don’t mind the design he looks pretty good. There’s a ton of detail work on the backpack, but I was disappointed that the weapons are permanently attached, and not removable or usuable.

Again, his proportions are good, but he has some huge honkin’ feet. They are more anime or vinyl toy style, and did seem a bit out of place. Still, it means he can stand extremely well in a number of awkward poses, so that’s a plus.

Paint – ***
These are classic mass market paint jobs. Most of the large pieces of plastic are cast in the color they need to be, with smaller areas painted on. The paint work is fairly clean, but consistentcy is focus, not the highest possible quality.

The small, silver webbing on Spider-man is a bit sloppy, but not quite as much as I expected from a toy of this style. There’s also some poor cuts on the Goblin between colors, but none of it is terrible, and none of it is bad enough to interfere with the purpose of these figures – to be fun.

Articulation – ***1/2
One of the strong suits of these guys is the articulation, which is surprising for something that’s supposed to just stand there and yell at you for coming in the room.

Both have neck joints similar to Marvel Legends, where the peg/disk allows the head to tilt forward and backward (quite a bit in Spidey’s case), and turn side to side. I had to really twist hard to break Goblin’s neck free (painted stuck), but once I did it worked well. It didn’t quite have the range of movement that Spider-man’s has due to the slightly more confining sculpt, but it was still decent.

Both have ball jointed shoulders, jointed on both sides, that work quite well, and ball jointed hips that are designed to allow the leg to move all the way forward and out to the side. However, because of the butt sculpt, the legs don’t go backward very far.

Both also have double jointed knees and elbows, and cut joints at the waist, thighs and ankles. The wrists have a cut joint for turning, along with a pin joint so it can move forward and back, and the middle two fingers on both hands have a pin joint so he can take the traditional ‘web shooting’ pose. The ankles also have a pin joint, and a rocker joint as well, plus the mid-foot has a pin joint. Finally, there’s a chest joint that allows a good range of movement, and holds positions pretty well.

That’s a LOT of articulation for a toy that theoritically didn’t need it. Perhaps Thinkway knew Hasbro was dropping the ball on the ‘action’ in action figure? Or maybe they’re just smart when it comes to making fun toys.

Accessories – ***
The only accessories are the room guard bases, which house the electronics. Both are done in the same rock style, although they are cast in different colors. Press the button on the top, and it plays a random line. Press it quickly twice, and the motion sensor activates, playing a line when any intruder is spotted. I’d tell you how to deactivate it, but since I’ve replaced my Brink’s system with a number of these placed strategically around the house, I don’t think it would be a good idea.

Both figures have a number of cute sayings, intended to scare off any intruders. Or at least amuse your kids.

Neither of the bases are using the actual actor’s voice, but rather some poor slub who happened to be hanging around the sound booth that day. Both figures attach to the base easily with the pegs removed, or you can just pose them in the same general vicinity.

Fun Factor – ****
While the sculpt and paint might not be ideal, these do make for really fun toys. They take poses extremely well, have tight, sturdy joints, and are a nice scale for small hands. I just wish there were more figures in scale with these that kids could play with.

Value – **1/2
At around $17 – $20, you’re paying a pretty good chunk of change for the room guard feature. If you’re buying them just for action figures, that’s a bit hard to swallow, but don’t over look the many fun uses for the room guards. Maybe you don’t have kids that want them, but you can always take them to work and place them in strategic locations.

Things to Watch Out For –
I suspect that mass market consistency will make these all about the same, with no real perfection but no real issues either.

Overall – ***
These aren’t going to wow your fellow geeks with their life-like appearance. They’re toys, and they are meant for kids to have use in having fun. But there’s plenty of us out there that still collect toys, because we love what the represent. Sure, perfect pop culture collectibles are nice too, but we shouldn’t forget that great toys are cool as well. And that’s what these guys are – great toys.

If the pricing had been $15 or less, I would have given these guys another half star. As it is, I plan on picking up the Sandman for my son as well, and having some fun with him re-enacting scenes from the film, and making up a few new ones of our own.

Where to Buy –
Target has the best price I’ve seen at about $17 each. You can find them at most major retailers, however.

Related Links –
As I mentioned Big Guido did a guest review of the Spidey last week, and I reviewed some of the smaller Hasbro figures a couple weeks or so ago.

Harry Potter kicks ass. Really. The books might not be grammatically, syntactically, or structurally the finest pieces of fiction ever produced by humans, but they’re damn fun to read. Ms. Rowlings snagged on a formula that works, and not the least important aspect of this formula is how the books grow in complexity and darken in tone as they move forward, just as her young readers age.

While all the films haven’t been quite as good, they’ve done an admirable job telling the story in that medium. The international trailer is out for Order of the Phoenix, and it looks fantastic. Anticipation is certainly running high for this film, and with other major blockbusters hitting this summer like Spidey and Jack Sparrow, this is likely to be a record setting box office year.

Gentle Giant began making their line of Harry Potter busts about a 18 months ago, and they’ve given us some good, and some amazing. The latest release is just hitting, and includes lovable but huge Hagrid, and much smaller and a whole lot less lovable Mad Eye Moody. Retail on these is around $45, just like the rest of the series.

Gentle Giant Hagrid/Mad Eye Moody Busts

If you’ve been buying these from the start, you’re collection is starting to round out pretty nicely. These two make busts twelve and thirteen (or thirteen and fourteen, if you count the convention exclusive repainted Sirius), with all the major characters (Harry, Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore, Snape, and Hagrid) having a bust, along with a few secondary characters (Sirius, Dementor, Deatheaters, Moody) and some visually interesting C string characters (Nearly Headless Nick, Dobby) to round it out. Next up is Voldemort and the Riddle gravesite (should be out in the next month), with an older Harry, Cho Chang, and Malfoy all hitting this summer.

And for those interested in numbers, both of these are limited editions (of course), with 2000 made of Hagrid, and 1750 made of Moody. These are small edition sizes, especially considering the overall popularity of the line so far.

Packaging – ***
Both come in the standard Potter boxes, with window – a big plus! The box for Hagrid is also huge, at least twice as wide as the regular boxes due to his expanded girth and separate hands. They include the nifty little baseball card sized Certificates of Authenticity as well.

Sculpting – ****
It can be tricky at times to pull Sculpt and Paint apart. The final result depends on both so heavily, and one can effect the other so much, that seeing where one ends and the other starts is quite the trick.

I think that’s going to be an issue for these two, and Hagrid in particular. Underneath the face and hair paint is a fantastic sculpt, capturing the facial contours and proportions of the character extremely well. There’s also some very nice texturing in the clothing, a complaint on some other Gentle Giant busts, and the small detail work is top notch. The only issue I have with the sculpt itself is the scale, and that’s a fairly minor nit. Hagrid is a huge character on screen, and while this bust is much larger than usual (there’s probably twice the polystone here over the usual adult bust), he’s still not as big as he really should be to be in scale with the rest of the line. However, I fully understand the need for Gentle Giant to try to keep this bust in the same price range as the rest of the series, and to do so required cutting back a bit on the size.

Moody is also an excellent sculpt. There’s something in there that’s not quite as dead on accurate for me – perhaps the face is a little thinner than I expected – but I’m not sure that’s so much the sculpt as the paint. He has some wonderful work on the mad eye, and the facial scarring (especially on the right cheek) is really, really impressive. His outfit is also quite detailed, and while there isn’t quite as much texturing as with Hagrid, he does sport more than the usual GG bust.

Both of these sculpts are near the top of the series, capturing the characaters extremely well. But I suspect that the next category causes them a couple issues when it comes to convincing everyone of that fact.

Paint – ***
Don’t get me wrong – the paint work here isn’t awful. In fact, most of it is extremely clean, especially the work done on their costumes. There’s even some excellent weathering added to Moody’s outer coat that looks terrific. Ah, but the faces…

Hagrid’s sculpt is held back a bit by the paint work on his face. The edge of the hair line, where the face and mane meet, is the biggest problem. It’s tough to get that line to be realistic, and companies have tried lots of tricks. In the end, it is the one spot that detracts from the realism of the sculpt the most, making it all the more obvious that this is a painted bust, not a real person.

His skin tone is a bit wonky as well, with a little too much variation. He has sort of an odd tan thing going on, and the mottling hurts the realism as well.

Moody is another tough one to pull off. The scarring is pretty good, and the uninjured eye looks great. The hair and skin colors are a little too close together though, and blondes are always tough to do right. The paint work on his hands is a little gloppy and thick, but my biggest issue is that the pupil and iris of his fake eye are a squidge too small. Just a little is obvious even in this scale, and the smaller size makes the eye less bizarre and scary looking.

Design – ***1/2
Hagrid has the advantage over Moody – he’s been in the films since the very beginning. The choices for design for him are far greater, but Moody fights back by having one Hell of a bizarre appearance.

Fans of the films will recognize Hagrid from the first film, as he takes Ron, Hermione, Harry and Malfoy into the woods to search for the killer of the unicorns. Hagrid took with him the lantern and the cross bow, both being carried by him at this point. His hands are removable, carrying the bow in his right and the lantern in his left. The sculpt is dynamic without being over done, and matches extremely well with the scene from the film.

The big plus here is that the lamp actually lights up! Push a small button on the bottom, and viola – let there be light! It glows with a soft blue light, and looks terrific in a darkened room. Adding in this clearly more expensive detail on a bust that’s already much larger than the others was something I hadn’t expected them to pull off.

Moody isn’t quite as classic (at least I can’t pick out this exact screen moment from memory), but the pose works well. He’s leaning on his wooden walking stick, staring off center from his body. While the general pose isn’t too dynamic, his funky eye actually moves within the patch, and can be posed staring in any direction! That’s a huge plus, and quite a nice addition to the basic bust design.

Value – Moody ***; Hagrid ***1/2
Retail on these is $50, the same as previous releases. However, you’ll find them at most places around $45, and some (with links below) even have them as cheap as $40. Generally, at $45 I’d give a regular release **1/2 stars in this category. But with these two guys, you’re getting some extras. Moody has his cool moving eye, and moving parts is something you don’t generally get in a mini-bust. And Hagrid isn’t just huge compared to the other busts, but he has a very effective light up feature, all for the same price as the much smaller and less complex busts like Hermione. Now that’s a value!

Things to Watch Out For –
Obviously, you’ll want to take your time inserting the hands on Hagrid. The pegs are made from resin as well, and can be broken or chipped if you’re careless. Once they’re on though, they stay on, and I’ve leave them that way. If you’re handling the bust though, don’t forget that they ARE a separate piece and can fall off. That would be very bad.

Moody has some minor issues with his eye. Moving it can be tough, especially if it gets too far over to one side. The slightly elevated pupil can stick a bit on the edge. Take your time with it, as scratching it is a distinct possibility. Again, I got it in a place I liked it and left it there once I was done with the photos.

Overall – ***1/2
I have tons of mini-busts in my collection for every conceivable license from companies like Palisades, and Sideshow, and Bowen, and Diamond Select, and many others. Very rarely am I a completist in any of them, and even the Gentle Giant Star Wars line, which I have *almost* all of, I feel no real compunction to complete.

But the Harry Potter line has been extremely well handled so far, with generally excellent sculpts for what is predominately a human based license. It’s always easier to do monsters than it is to do real people, and yet GG has shown that they can do amazing work with this series. This is one series that I’ll be doing my damndest to complete, and I suggest that if you are interested in these, you pick them up sooner rather than later. Very few of the previous releases are still available, and I’m betting Hagrid ends up being a tough one to find very shortly.

Scoring Recap –
Packaging – ***
Sculpt – ****
Paint – ***
Design – ***1/2
Value – Moody ***; Hagrid ***1/2
Overall – ***1/2

Where to Buy –
Lots of online options:

– Fireside Collectibles has them for just $40 each.

– Alter Ego Comics has them both for $42.50.

– CornerStoreComics has them for $43 each.

– Andrew’s Toyz also has them in, at $45 each.

Related Links –
I have a fair share of Harry reviews:

– there are my reviews of the other Gentle Giant busts including Ron and Hermione, Snape and Dumbledore, Dobby and the Dementor, and both Deatheaters and Nearly Headless Nick, and I have a guest review of Harry and Sirius.

– don’t forget the new action figures from NECA!

I attended college (the first time) from 1979 until 1983. Those of us that went to high school and college during the late 70’s and early 80’s got to see the birth of many modern concepts, including the concept of a ‘cult film’. It was during this period that being bad became good, and the worse, the better. But to label all cult films as bad would be incorrect – some just speak to us in a unique voice.

That’s where I’d put the father of all cult films, the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I remember going to the film in the late seventies, as it’s cult status was just starting to build. This was when you could still take in toilet paper, hot dogs and water guns, and theater owners were still surprised when members of the crowd rushed up to the screen during Susan Sarandon’s song. People went over and over again, not for the film alone (which is actually a pretty damn funny movie on it’s own), but for the crowd activities.

Rocky Horror Picture Show 3-D Poster

Mcfarlane Toys has added the classic iconic ‘lips’ poster to its series of 3-D movie posters. While this particular poster isn’t quite as complex as some others (I can’t wait to see how well they do with Robocop), it is certainly an image that is almost as famous as the film itself.

Packaging – **1/2
The posters have been coming in slightly different packages, depending on the image. For example, the Nightmare On Elm Street package had a full plastic window over the front of the poster, protecting the fingers of Freddy’s hand. This time, there’s no window, just an exterior box around the shadow box of the poster. It protects the edges, but leaves the image itself open to touching. Somehow, that seems appropriate, if not particularly safe.

Sculpting – ***1/2
Obviously, this is NOT a particularly complex poster to create. There’s a set of lips, and some words. Fortunately, both are done quite nicely.

The lips are very impressive. The skin texture is excellent, and done in combination with the paint, is extremely life-like and realistic. The lettering is held out from the back of the shadow box with solid metal pegs, and have a bloody, drippy texture. Scale is good between the lettering and the rest of the poster, and it does look just like the original, white border and all. I’m particularly happy with the ones that use this shadow box treatment, rather than those (like the aforementioned NMOES) that are missing it.

Paint – ***
A great paint job was essential in capturing the very real appearance of the lips and teeth on the original poster. In that regard, they did an excellent job. The highlights and shadows are painted with such a convincing look that from more than a few inches away, you’ll swear they’re real. What you see in the photo is NOT due to my lighting, but rather due to the paint work on the lips, and it matches the look of the poster almost perfectly.

Unfortunately, the general mechanical quality of the paint work doesn’t live up to the design. There’s red slopped down on the teeth, and the masking just isn’t as clean as you’d expect. From a slight distance the poster looks amazingly real, but on closer inspection the quality issues become more apparent.

Value – ***
At twenty bucks, you’re getting a solid value. These are large enough (around 13″ tall and 3″ deep or so…) that the stand out nicely on the wall, and make for an excellent media room or home theater decoration. This is one of those rare pop culture collectibles that’s cheap AND you’d be willing to have your in-laws see it.

Things to Watch Out For –
Pick out the one with the best paint ops, and pay particular attention to the work around the teeth.

Overall – ***1/2
This isn’t my favorite of the overall line of posters, but it’s certainly a worthy buy. If you’re a huge fan of the film (and there are an awful lot of you still out there), then this is one of the better reasonably priced collectibles available, at least until Sideshow does a line of sixth scale figures (or a premium format Frank-N-Furter!).

Where to Buy –
There are plenty of online options:

– Killer Toys has it available for $18.

– for the U.K. readers, Forbidden Planet has it for 20 pounds.

– CornerStoreComics has him listed at $20.

Related Links –
I’ve reviewed several of the past 3-D posters, including Jaws and Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street.

The Star Wars universe was just too big for any one company to handle (or so I assume George thought), and so the license has been shared over the last couple years between Sideshow and Medicom. Originally, Medicom figures were being marketed outside of the U.S., but the differences go deeper than that. While Sideshow has stuck with producing entirely none armored figures in their sixth scale series, leaving these for Medicom to handle. Just to add to the confusion, Sideshow also distributes for Medicom in the U.S. now

The two most recent Medicom figures to hit the streets are the Shadow Stormtrooper, and the Clonetrooper. Everybody knows what a clonetrooper is of course, but what in the name of all things holy is a ‘shadow’ trooper? Ah, that would be something from the old comic strips of the late 70’s, and they’ve also been known as ‘blackhole’ troopers. They’ve never made an appearance in any film, but you can’t argue with how cool the all black armor looks. I haven’t seen any 501st wearing this outfit yet, but I’m betting there will be plenty at SDCC this year.

Medicom figures aren’t cheap, and the fact that they are imported only makes things worse. You can expect to pay around $100 – $150 each for these guys, depending on the dealer.

Medicom Clonetrooper/Shadow Stormtrooper

Medicom already released a regular Stormtrooper last year, which I reviewed awhile back. They’ve focused largely on armored characters, like Darth Vader and the troopers, but also did a Jedi Luke early on. Jango and Boba Fett will be hitting this year as well.

Packaging – ***1/2
Medicom makes boxes that excel in two ways – they’re very collector friendly, and they’re very compact. Collector friendly is the ability to take the figure out of the packaging, pose it around, display it for awhile, and then later return it to its box, without ever damaging it. Medicom does that beautifully, and there’s nothing you’ll need to rip, tear or even untie in freeing these guys from their little prisons.

The boxes are also quite compact, wasting as little space as possible. This is great for MIBers of course, and will save on storage space. It’s also great for the environment, as any card carrying tree hugger could tell you. Medicom hasn’t always been conservative in this area (just check out their Darth Vader for a huge, wasteful box), so it’s nice to see the change.

Sculpting – ***1/2
If you own a regular Medicom Stormtrooper, then you own a Shadow trooper…just a really pale one.

The big difference here is the black armor of course, and the overall sculpt has the same pluses – and minuses – as the regular version. He’s a little short to be displayed with the Sideshow figures, but he fits in nicely with the previously released Vader. The hands are too small, but the rest of the scale and proportions on the body and helmet look very film accurate. The sculpt work on the cool armor is top notch, and it doesn’t restrict the ability to use all the excellent articulation underneath.

The Clonetrooper is a big taller, and is actually big enough to fit in with some of the Sideshow figures. He’s only got about a half inch on the Stormtrooper, but it makes a huge difference in how he looks with the Sideshow stuff. He’s still a smidge short, but it’s not as big of an issue.

Unfortunately, his armor does get in the way of his articulation big time. The armor looks good, but he isn’t going to be able to take any extreme poses. It’s those elbow and knee pads, don’t you know. I bet they were mighty uncomfortable for the actors to wear, too. If actors had actually worn any of it.

The helmet is also a smidge small for the body. For the helmet to be this small, he’d have to have one serious pinhead under there. It doesn’t look too bad for the average collector, but the more anal collectors are sure to notice the proportion issue.

Paint – ***1/2
Both figures exhibit extremely clean paint jobs, but of the pair I prefer the white Clonetrooper. The small detail work on the Shadow Trooper is great, including the eyes and grill of the helmet. But the shiney black appears slightly less consistent across the larger plastic pieces, making it a bit more toy like in appearance. The Clonetrooper may have issues in the other categories, but he takes this one by the smallest edge for me.

It also helps that all his small detail spots are perfect as well. They work on the black areas of the armor is quite impressive, considering how easily it would be to have overspray or stray marks if the masking isn’t done perfectly.

Articulation – Shadow ***1/2; Clonetrooper **1/2
The armor these guys wear is always going to restrict them somewhat, but the Shadow trooper, like his earlier white cousin, still manages to pose extremely well. He has all the joints you expect in a 12″ figure, and the Medicom body has made that step up to the next level, where the body ‘hangs’ in very natural ways.

The Clonetrooper doesn’t quite have the same posing ability. It’s not because the underlying body is inferior, but rather that the armor is so restrictive around the elbows and knees, that he can only take very stiff arm and leg poses. It’s a bit unfortunate, because expectations have been set so high by the stormtroopers.

Accessories – ***
Neither figure is packed to the gills with extras, but they have enough items to give you some display options.

Both figures come with the clear plastic Medicom display stands, and while these are attractive enough for displaying, you’ll be happy to know that neither are really necessary. You should be able to get these guys to stand for long periods in very convincing, life-like poses.

The also both come with extra hands. The Shadow comes with the same two as the regular Stormtrooper – blaster right hand, thumbs up left hand. The hands swap easily enough and are very sturdy, but they also have the same problem that the all white version has – they are way too small. This poor guy better hope the old rumor about hand size isn’t true.

The Shadow comes with two hands as well: one is the blaster holding right hand, while the other is a slightly different open left hand. It’s nice to see they just didn’t use the same poses as the standard Stormtrooper. Again, while the hands are too small, at least they swap easily and are unlikely to break in the process.

Finally, both figures come with their blasters. The old school blaster that comes with the Shadow trooper fits nicely in his leather holster, but it does seem a bit undersized to me. The older design (yet newer looking) blaster that comes with the Clonetrooper is larger, more rifle-like, and has an excellent sculpt. He has no holster to carry it, but it’s not the kind of thing you could toss in a holster anyway.

Outfit – Shadow ****; Clonetrooper ***1/2
I’ve already mentioned quite a bit about the armor – the sculpting, paint and fit. But it’s worth mentioning again that these suits really do look quite amazing.

The Shadow Trooper has the same outfit as the white trooper of course, although his underlying body suit seems slightly lighter in color. This may only be a matter of perception though, since his is next to the much blacker armor, while his brethren has his next to the very white armor.

His suit under the armor is that same sort of rubbery material that we’ve seen with the other trooper, but the Clonetrooper went in a new direction. His suit is more like a standard stretch material, with an interesting light pattern of lighter and darker black stripes. It looks fine, although I’m not sure that it’s actually screen accurate. From more than a couple inches away you won’t even notice though, making it somewhat moot.

Fun Factor – ***
Both figures are very sturdy, with tight joints and solid construction. Kids COULD play with these, if you were insane, or you’d hit the lottery.

Value – **1/2
Ah, these are mighty sweet troopers. But you’re not getting any break for your cash though, and these are certainly selling for well above average. The plastic armor is going to drive up the cost over figures like Ghost Rider or X-men 3 Wolverine, but these are still slightly over what feels right. Get one at $120 and you’ll feel pretty good about it – down around $100 and you can add another half star to this score.

Things to Watch Out For –
Not much of anything. These are well built, nicely designed, and quite sturdy considering the cost. You might want to take some care with the soft leather holster on the Shadow trooper, but there’s no obvious issues you need to be aware of.

Overall – Shadow ***1/2; Clonetrooper ***
It should be no real surprise that the Shadow version of the Stormtrooper scores as well as the very cool regular version. He’s a little short to be displayed with other 12″ scale figures, but he looks terrific with the Medicom figures. Oh, he has those itty bitty hands, and the blaster is a bit small, but these are minor complaints on what is otherwise a fantastic figure. Whether you prefer your troopers black or white is a personal decision.

Ah, but the Clonetrooper version isn’t quite as cool. The armor really limits the articulation, which makes is so much more difficult to get those natural, realistic poses. He’s stiffer, and a bit clunkier appearing, so while he’s good, he doesn’t quite hit the same level of trooper cool.

Still, these are the Medicom troopers are the best ever produced in sixth scale, making them awfully tough for the diehard collector to pass up.

Where to Buy –
ShopStarWars.com has these in at $130 each, but you may be able to find a better deal through ebay or one of the other smaller online stores that import Medicom products.

Related Links –
Other Medicom Star Wars reviews include:

– guest reviews of the VCD Yoda and Boba Fett.

– guest reviews of the ROTS Vader, Jedi Luke, and this very Trooper.

– and my review of their first release Darth Vader, along with the regular Stormtrooper.

When you make a list of all the best Jedi, Mr. Koon probably doesn’t ran in the top 5. Unless you’re his mom. But he was considered an ass kicker even amongst other Jedi, and there’s no doubt he has one Hell of a cool alien appearance. He’s a Kel Dor, and has to wear protective goggles and breather whenever he’s in oxygen rich atmospheres, which in the world of Star Wars is pretty much all the time.

Gentle Giant has finally added him to their Star Wars mini-bust series, in a limited edition run of 4500. Yea, I know – that’s not too limited, but he might just be a cool enough bust to sell through. Expect to pay around $45 for him, and he’s available now.

Gentle Giant Plo Koon mini-bust

Packaging – ***
These use the new dull 30th anniversary colors of gray and black – did I mention that these were dull? However, there’s some good points. There’s a nice window that allows you to see the bust, which is always a plus for me. Also, there’s the usual GG baseball card style Certificate of Authenticity. And of course, the interior foam is designed to keep Plo and his saber nice and safe. So while it’s not perfect, it’s better than average.

Sculpting – ****
The sculpt is extremely well done, with some wonderful skin texture and amazing small detail work on the breather and claws. The robe itself doesn’t have any texturing, which some fans may end up not liking, but it is consistent with other GG mini-busts.

While he’s not quite as impressive as Chewbacca, he certainly ranks up there with Maul and some of the Jedi released previously. Because he has such an interesting face and skin texture, they could get more detail and style in this bust than a more boring human, and they took advantage of it.

If you haven’t picked these up before, they stand around 6″ tall, and they are close to sixth scale from the waist up. Close, but they are a smidge small when compared to something like the Sideshow Star Wars line.

Paint – ***1/2
The paint doesn’t quite rank up there with the sculpt, but it’s still well above average. I was actually a little worried when I saw him through the window of the box, because the paint looked too washed out. However, once I had him out of the box, I was much more impressed.

They used a wash to pull out the cool sculpt of the freaky skin and head, and did some amazing paint work on the finger nails. There’s also a nice range of colors here, both light and dark, that adds some nice pop to the shelf.

All the paint is well applied of course, with clean cuts between colors and no slop whatsoever.

Design – ****
These mini-busts can be tough to design. Jedi’s are men of action, especially Plo Koon, who felt that justice was best served violent. But with only half a body, how do you manage to pull of the perfect pose? This bust answers that question. They did a perfect job with the pose of the arms, head and even the flow of the hood on the back of his robes. This is the best Plo Koon we’ve ever gotten (although the Sideshow 12″ version may end up giving him a run for his money), and fans should be very happy.

Value – ***
Most mini-busts run around $40 to $45 these days, and GG sets the bar for quality in sculpt and paint. Usually. This mini-bust is an excellent example of GG at their best, and as such, gets a better than average value rating.

Things to Watch Out For –
I had a bit of an issue getting the saber together. It’s a very tight fit, which is a good thing due to the angle that he’s holding it at, but you’ll want to use a slow twisting movement to get it to fit the first time.

Overall – ***1/2
This is a great looking bust, and will fit in perfectly with the rest of the series. Of course, only the regular buyers of the GG Star Wars mini-busts is going to pick this guy up – seriously, how many Plo Koon only fans are there? All three of you can write me and complain, but the rest of us know he ain’t no Boba Fett.

Where to Buy –
Online is your best bet, unless your LCS gets these in regularly. Options include:

– Alter Ego Comics has him at $42.49.

– Dark Shadow Collectibles has him in stock at $40.

– Amazing Toyz has him in stock for $43.99.

– CornerStoreComics has him as well for $43.99.

– Hero Hunt has him in at $44.99.

– and for the U.K. readers, there’s always Forbidden Planet, who has him for 32.99 pounds.

Related Links –
I’ve covered a fair share of GG Star Wars busts and statues:

– the most recent was the excellent Chewbie and Darth Maul, the poor Qui-Gon, Palpatine, and Lando in Skiff Disguise.

While it’s true that most Japanese anime somehow manages to involve school girls, it’s not what you think. Really. Okay, maybe a little.

Fruits Basket is one of those shows (and corresponding manga) about a young school girl (Tohru Honda) who’s an outsider, never quite fitting in. She ends up working for a family, the Sohma’s, who are definitely outsiders themselves. Each of the Sohma’s are possessed by the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, along with one extra – the cat. The theme of this show is the loneliness and pain when you’re not part of the crowd, a universal condition certainly but one that’s all the more poignant in Japan, where the population is so dense. And before you write me complaining that I just made a rude comment on the intelligence of the Japanese, I meant dense as in ‘crowded’.

Southern Island, in concert with Funanimation, is producing a series of small statues based on the license. The first release is Kyo Sohma in two paint schemes, both reviewed here today. They also have plans to release Tohru Honda (the main character), Shigure Sohma, and Yuki Sohma. These will retail for about $40 each, and all available now.

Kyo Sohma – Fruits Basket

Kyo is possessed by the spirit of the cat. This was the one animal not included in the Chinese Zodiac, and he blames the rat, who has possesed Yuki. As you might imagine, that makes Kyo and Yuki enemies, and makes for interesting family holidays.

The regular version of Kyo is a limited edition of 2000. The repaint is intended as an FYE store exclusive, and is liimited to 3000. I think this is the first time I’ve seen an exclusive with a higher run than the regular release.

Packaging – ***
I like my statue and bust boxes to have windows, so you can check out the actual product before you buy it. Thankfully, that’s what you get here, even if the window isn’t huge. The graphics on the box are attractive, with some basic stats on Kyo on the back. There’s no mention of the edition size or the actual statue’s number on the box though, so you’ll be playing a crap shoot if the numbering is important to you.

Each figure also comes with a free Fruits Basket playing card from the folks at Score.

Sculpting – ***1/2
They’ve done a pretty nice job capturing the anime appearance of Kyo, with a slight build and reverse Bart Simpson hair style. Small details like the wrist band are nicely sculpted, as our the pockets on the pants and even the shoelaces. While the anime style tends to be fairly minimalistic when it comes to detail, these statues capture a reasonable amount. One of my favorite touches on the sculpt is the hair, which is so thick in front as to appear like a separate piece, but which flows into the overall head sculpt in back to be almost smooth with the neck.

The cat is a tad off, at least to my eye. This is the cat spirit of Kyo of course, but the proportions seem a bit different than the cartoon. I’ve only seen a couple episodes though, and it’s been awhile, so I may be misjudging. Still, it’s off enough to detract slightly for me.

The bases are plain with no sculpt details at all. This plain appearance works fine considering the license, and lends a nice visual consistency to the entire set.

The biggest surprise will be the size, since these statues are fairly small at just 5.5 inches tall for just the figure sans base. Even with the small size, the body and head proportions are well done.

Paint – ***1/2
The majority of the paint work mirrors the quality of the sculpt, with the right amount of small detail work for the anime style. Broad colors, like the pants or jacket, are consistent and even, and the cuts between colors are generally sharp and clean.

Just like with the sculpt, the cat is a bit wonky for me. The eyes are smaller than I expected, although the details on the ears and eyes are extremely clean.

The difference between the FYE exclusive and the regular edition is purely paint. In the photos, the darker colors are the standard, while the lighter colors are the regular edition.

Design – ***
Both the human Kyo and the cat are done in relatively relaxed poses, although the fisted left hand of Kyo tends to imply he’s not a happy camper. While the basic designs work fine, they lack that extra oompf of personality that would have put them over the top.

Value – **
These are relatively small statues, and have a fair large edition size combined. At $40 to $50, you’re going to feel a bit underwhelmed by the size, but I suspect serious Fruits Basket fans will overlook the cost.

Things to Watch Out For –
Not much. The quality is quite good on the paint, and what you see in the photos is likely to be what you see when you open your box.

Overall – ***
These are very nice statues, and some of the nicest licensed product I’ve seen for the show so far. However, at $40 – $50 you’re paying a pretty good premium, even at the low production run of just 2000 of the regular and 3000 of the FYE exclusive.

Where to Buy –
Southern Island still has them for sale, but I believe they are already sold out through them. Entertainment Earth has them listed on pre-order, but are charging $50 each.

When Mcfarlane Toys announced their 3D posters, I was not impressed. They’d already started doing 3D album covers, and these were small, overpriced, and underwhelming. On top of that, other companies had already forayed into the world of 3D posters, and the results had been fairly weak.

But with the release of their Jaws and Friday the 13th posters, my opinion changed. First, they were much larger than I expected, running around 8.5″ wide and 12 – 13″ tall. Second, they managed to capture the best elements of the original posters in unique ways, making them more visually appealing than the originals in some ways. And third, at twenty bucks and the larger size, they weren’t a bad deal.

Since those two, they’ve released several others, including the uber-cool Alien poster (it even lights up!) and the nice Rocky Horror ‘lips’ poster. I’ve been sticking with the horror related ones, and recently bought the Nightmare On Elm Street.

Nightmare on Elm Street 3D poster

While the original poster doesn’t have quite the visual impact of, say, Alien or RHPS, it is still a solid piece of poster art. In exectuting this one, Mcfarlane diverged a bit from the previous style. Does it still work? Let’s see…

Packaging – **
The packaging on past posters hasn’t been terrible, but has always been fairly basic. That’s alright though, especially if you give the box a huge window and let the poster itself do most of the selling. Once again, that’s the case.

Unfortunately, this box fails in a critical test. The window is right against the blades of the fingers, especially the ‘twinkle’ that’s been sculpted and attached in plastic on the end of the index finger. This is almost center in the window as well, where the box provides the least amount of support. Any hits against the front of the window, even light ones or extended pressure, can damage the ‘twinkle’ or the blades. Pay attention to this when picking yours out to ensure there’s no damage.

Sculpting – ***
Like previous 3D posters released by McToys, this one has excellent sculpte details. The finely textured hair, the sinewy fingers of the hand, the rotted flesh of Freddy’s nightmare face…all are done with a deft hand for small detail work. They’ve also managed to pull of the ‘3D’ work extremely well, sculpting in relief about 80% of the actual poster art. The only parts not sculpted are the top section above Freddy’s eyes, and the lowest section showing the small credits.

The best thing about this poster is the way they handled the nifty star of light that glints off Freddy’s index finger. They did this in a translucent white plastic, and the look really works much better than I had anticipated.

The poster itself had one major failing – the dopey expression on Nancy’s face. I always assumed she was sleeping with her eyes open – very open – and that’s why it seemed so much like a mannequin, even in the original poster. That’s also true here, and even more obvious in three dimensions. The bizarrely wide eyes with lax expression make the expression very unnatural. Like I said, I’m assuming that’s because she’s really a asleep, and you can’t really fault this representation of the poster for it, because the poster itself was identical.

Another flaw that existed in the original but is much more noticeable here is the thumb. Again, it’s just a little stub, which is true in the original work. But when you pull it out from the page like this, it becomes all that much more obvious and odd looking.

But if those two areas were my only complaints, this sculpt would have easily gotten another half star. The reason it didn’t isn’t because of the quality of the sculpt, but rather the changes to the basic design. The previous posters were encased in ‘boxes’, with four sides, which gave them a) more depth and b) more of a poster feel. This one lacks the outside box, which also makes the poster itself much thinner than the previous ones. This means that to stand it on a desk or table, they had to include the little feet. While this new look isn’t terrible, I prefer the original shadowbox design.

Paint – ***
The paint work is fairly good across the entire poster, with some really excellent work on both sets of eyes. Mcfarlane exhibits they’re usual capabilities with the consistent skin tones and garish exposed flesh, and when they’re necessary, they have very clean cuts between colors.

There is one glaringly odd looking spot, right above Freddy’s left eye, where it looks like the white of the eye is actually on the flat section of poster, although the entire eye is in 3D below. This odd spot should have been filled in with color, and it’s surprisingly noticeable in person.

My only other complaint is that some of the highlights in the hair are too light, clearly where too much paint was rubbed off. They were going for three levels of color – natural dark, slightly lighter streaks, and very light streaks. It was an admirable attempt, but the lightest streaks ended up looking like mistakes or damage rather than streaks.

There’s one other item worth mentioning, but I didn’t factor it into my score, because the jury is still out on whether I like it or not. There is one section of text on the poster that actually follows the flow of the sculpted poster, rather than laying flat. That would be the name of the director, Wes Craven. This text actually flows with the rippling bed sheets, and I’m not sure if I prefer that, or one of the other options. They could have sculpted a section inset into the covers to paint it on flat, or they could have raised the letters above the covers (like they did the movie name) so that while they were raised, they were still flat from left to right. Like I said, I’m not sure which I prefer, but I thought I’d point it out to you so you’ll never be able to look at the poster again and not see it.

Accessories – *
Okay, so there aren’t really any accessories as we generally think of them, and there really shouldn’t be any. That means this category won’t mean much come Overall score time. But I did want to mention the small feet that come with the poster. These attach to the bottom so it can stand on a table or desk. It’s best to insert the front of these into the bottom of the poster first, then snap them into place toward the back. They work alright, although they’re a bit tough to get off once they’re on.

Value – ***
At around $20, these are actually a pretty good price. These will look good even in high end home theaters, and yet are cheap enough for a dorm room budget. In the distant future, when we all have flying cars and I’ve finally remodeled my basement, I plan on hanging them on the wall myself.

Things to Watch Out For –
Not much. Be sure to inspect the hand in case of any damage on the peg, but other than that you should be riding high.

Overall – ***
I’m not as enthralled with this poster as I am with the previous three I’ve picked up – Jaws, Alien and Friday the 13th. This is largely due to the change in style, which doesn’t do much for me. Interestingly enough, from early production photos it looks like upcoming releases (like Rocky and Robocop) go back to the shadowbox design.

This is a line that I’ll be picking up hit and miss, selecting those posters that translate the best or fit a general theme. I suspect that will be true for most buyers, and if you’re a huge fan of these films, I suggest taking a close look at them. Several of these also fit in well as backdrops to various sixth scale figures, and adding this poster to your Sideshow Freddy and Furnace diorama will really spice it up.

Where to buy –
Your local comic shop may have these in, but online is your most consistent opportunity:

– Dark Figures has the Alien, Friday the 13th and Jaws posters available for $25 each. They haven’t listed the NOES one yet.

– Entertainment Earth has them listed in stock at $25 each, with preorders up for the next three in the series.

– for the U.K. readers, Forbidden Planet is sell them for about 20 pounds each.

– Clark Toys is always a good source for all things Mcfarlane, but don’t have this particular poster in. However, they have pre-order pricing up for a number of upcoming posters at just $18 each!

– Amazing Toyz and CornerStoreComics have this guy in stock for just $20, with some of the earlier posters on sale even cheaper!

Related Links:
There’s my reviews of the Jaws and Friday the 13th posters from last year.

Jabba the Hutt is one bad mamma jamma. Oh, Lucas tried to ruin the character by adding in that ridiculous scene at the hanger, turning him briefly into a whiny bitch, willing to leg that poor white trash Solo step on his tail without repercussion. But some of us can still remember him fondly as the disgusting, bloated, stinky and dangerous crime lord.

While Jabba didn’t have all that much screen time, he was the center piece of two of the best loved sequences in all the films, first when Luke arrives to speak with him and then goes on to battle the Rancor, and then again on the barge in the sequence that spelled doom for so many, including Jabba and Fett. These two sequences produced so many unforgettable scenes – dancing slave girls, the terrific Rancor, Han in carbonite and Leia in her brass bra… and Jabba was at the center of it all.

Therefore it’s no surprise that he’s been a regular in the action figure and statue world. Now Sideshow is releasing a huge sixth scale version of both The Hutt and his impressive throne (or dais). I’m going to review Jabba and his throne separately, because that’s how you buy them from Sideshow, and you might – for some bizarre reason – only want one or the other. I’ll be covering the throne here at QSE, with my review of Jabba going up later today at MROTW.

“Jabba’s Throne”

Jabba’s Throne was sold as a regular release, but in the U.S. was available only through Sideshow’s website. The edition size is 4200, and the cost was $199.

Packaging – ***
The throne comes in a large box – a very large box. There’s some very simple photos on the exterior of the prototype version, with a little text. There’s the edition number on the base, but although this is a ‘Sideshow site exclusive’, there’s no exclusive sticker on the front. The base is packed quite safely inside, but getting it out isn’t as huge a nightmare as say, the Premium Format Mummy.

Sculpting – ****
The throne is made out of polystone, with some metal, rubber and other goodies thrown in for fun. The website estimates the weight at 20 lbs, which is probably a bit more than it actually is, but it’s damn close. This is one big, honkin’ display. It is about 17″ deep and 29″ wide, with plenty of room to fit Jabba, Salacious Crumb, and even Bib Fortuna. The actual throne is about 13″ tall if you measure up to the height of the hooka bowl.

I’ve learned through years of reviewing figures that it’s almost impossible to give someone a feel for how large the truly large collectibles are. No matter what you photograph them with, including people, it doesn’t really impress the sheer volume they take up. That’s what this throne (and the companion Jabba) are like. Until you have this thing in your hands, you won’t be able to process just how big it really is.

But I’ll tell you anyway – it’s huge. This is a centerpiece of the collection sort of thing, the type of item that would look great in a museum and even better in your home theater.

The throne sports a beautiful sculpt. The rocky lower base has perfect texturing, giving the appearance of actual stone blocks with grout lines in between. The single eyed gargoyle serpents around the front (six in all) have the texture and appearance of metal, and have real metal rings in their mouths. The rail behind the base is more smooth than the base, but has enough texture to appear as carved stone. On top of the rail, hidden by the hooka from anyone standing in front of Jabba, is the small control panel that can open the trap door to the Rancor. There are actually a couple buttons – perhaps one of them releases the hounds.

The hooka and bowl have the most intricate of the small details, but these are a tad softer than I had expected. It looks like the original prototype sculpt was quite intricate, but that some of this detail was lost in the manufacturing process. The hooka bowl on top is a hard plastic, with the clear ‘food’ bowl underneath. There’s a couple little tasty treats down inside the nasty looking liquid in this bowl as well.

The hooka pipe is connected to the bowl with a PVC tube. It is quite sturdy, and is less likely to wear or break than cheaper alternatives. That also means that it is tough to straighten it out though, once folded up inside the box. It will take some time for it to return to a more relaxed look.

I do wish that they had some sort of added hook for the pipe itself to attach. If Jabba isn’t holding it, you end up hooking it on the bowl itself in a makeshift way, and while it might not be movie accurate, adding a place to attach it would have made the diorama more attractive.

You will be putting this diorama together of course. The base has two holes for the large steel pegs on the railing, and the hooka attachs to the rail with a magnet set inside an indentation. While that’s it for assembly, you’ll probably find yourself dealing with the metal hoops quite a bit. These can fall out of the mouths or get turned at odd angles within the teeth fairly easily. To move or replace them, find the small break in the metal hoop and use that to put the hoop over the teeth. Put it over the back teeth on one side then turn the hoop until the space is on the other side and put it over those back teeth. Obviously, take some care to avoide damaging the fangs.

Paint – ***1/2
For such a large scale item, there isn’t a huge number of colors, or even a large number of small paint details. Most things are pretty broadly decorated, but it’s the subtle variations in individual colors and the shading of different areas that makes the throne so realistic in appearance.

The paint application is clean and even, with almost no slop – at least none that’s unintentional. The gold on the hooka bowl is a little too bright and untarnished for my tastes, making the hooka look a tad more toy-ish than I expected, but it’s a pretty minor annoyance. Adding a light inside the hooka would have been great, and would have definitely justified the two hundred buck price tag.

Articulation – Bupkis
There’s no real moving parts on this set. Oh, I suppose you could say the hooka pipe moves, but that’s not a point of articulation. Still, I had no expectation that anything would move, so this score will have no effect on my overall.

Accessories – ***
The set comes with a nice group of accessories, although I think folks will wish that some of the additional creatures that had been sold separately were actually included.

The diorama comes with two sculpted resin pillows, that look as uncomfortable as they sound; a plate of goodies for Mr. Hutt; and a leather (and it’s real leather) ‘drape’ that can be placed anywhere you like, although most of the time it’s under Jabba’s big ass, keeping him soft and secure.

The pillow sculpts and paint work is fine, but not outstanding. Neither look too convincingly like actual pillows, although I don’t know how you could have pulled off the mangy, nasty, stained look going with the real thing. The bronze plate of food looks good, and is nicely scaled to the rest of the environment. The throw rug is made from a nice, high quality leather, but is much, much less ragged and beaten than the prototype version. There’s a feeble attempt to rough it up, and a couple holes are punched on one edge, but this is clearly a brand new throw rug that Jabba just picked up at the local Ikea.

All the best goodies for this diorama have been sold separately in two different creature packs through Sideshow. The Salacious Crumb pack included Salacious of course, along with a Goul, Wortt, Sand Skitter and Veractyl, and the Buboicullaar pack includes Bubo, a couple Womp rats and a rock wart. Several of these creatures would be right at home on Jabba’s throne, but you’ll need to shell out the extra cash to outfit it right.

Fun Factor – ***
This is clearly not a kid’s toy, but that doesn’t mean the kid in you won’t have some fun with it. It’s a ‘set up it and look at it’ sort of fun, but adults find the oddest things entertaining. The ooh’s and ahh’s from your Star Wars fan friends will be their own sort of fun.

Value – **1/2
At $200, the throne isn’t cheap. But considering the size and detail, along with a decent assortment of extras, it’s priced about right. At around $150 it would have been an easy three stars. The big issue here really isn’t the cost of the throne, it’s the cost of the complete package. I do think it was a good idea to split Jabba and the throne up for purchasing, because there will be folks that decide getting Jabba by himself is good enough. I don’t know anyone though that will be picking up just the throne, so in reality you’re looking at another $120 for the big guy.

Things to Watch Out For –
Be very careful with those metal hoops. You don’t want your poor gargoyles to be missing teeth.

Overall – ***1/2
This is a truly impressive throne for a truly disgusting character. It has a few minor issues, but this is a diorama that is very much a ‘center of the collection’ type item. Add in Bib, Jedi Luke, and Salacious Crumb, along with the upcoming Boussh Leia and Buboicullaar, and you’ll have a diorama that will rival almost anything in the collections of even the big boys.

Scoring Recap –
Packaging – ***
Sculpt – ****
Paint – ***1/2
Articulation – Bupkis
Accessories – ***
Fun Factor – ***
Value – **1/2
Overall – ***1/2

Where to Buy –
Sideshow’s the spot – click here to head over and get on the wait list. You have other options for the regular release of Jabba as well:

– Dark Figures is the only dealer I know that has the throne available outside of Sideshow. Technically, this is a Sideshow site exclusive, but Dark Figures has them listed at the full $199 as well.

– CornerStoreComics has him at $101.99.

– Alter Ego Comics also has him fro 101.99

– as does Amazing Toyz, who has just gotten him in stock.

– if you’re in the U.K., you can find this throne at Forbidden Planet for 140 pounds, or the Jabba for 70.

– the Salacious figure to go with the throne is just $28 right now on sale over at Dark Shadow Collectibles.

Related Links –
I’ve reviewed a ton of Star Wars 12″ figures, the the ones that go most specifically with this set are Bib Fortuna and Jedi Luke.

This week is Toy Fair, or more specifically,Winter Toy Fair. This is traditionally the opportunity for the toy makers to get their goodies out in front of the retailers and press, and make all kinds of big announcements.

The power of Toy Fair has diminished in recent years. This started with Toy Fair being split into two shows a couple years ago – a fall show designed primarly for the big retailers, and the more traditional winter show for smaller retailers and press. And then the San Diego Comic-Con started to erode the importance, first by duplicating much of the info, and then by supplanting the show entirely. This year it’s more evident, with important announcements of late year releases by even large companies like Hasbro and Mattel being held for SDCC.

But Toy Fair is still important, especially for smaller companies. With retailers continuing to dry up at an alarming rate, Toy Fair may be the only chance smaller companies get to convince those remaining to carry their product. I’ll be doing a ‘state of the industry’ column once again this year in a couple weeks, and I’ll be discussing the changing face of Toy Fair more then. But for now, let’s just say it’s still Toy Fair.

I didn’t go this year. My twins birthday is the 12th, which landed smack in the middle of this years dates, and as much as I love toys, I love them a whole lot more. But the coverage of Toy Fair by a wide variety of websites gets better and better every year, so let’s chat about what I (and you) have seen so far.

Sideshow Collectibles

One of my favorite companies, Sideshow always uses Toy Fair to the best advantage. They’ve announced over 30 new items through their site, and you can go there to get the full coverage right from the horse’s mouth.

Unfortunately for the sixth scale collector’s, there’s not much Sideshow product so far. They are announcing a number of Medicom and Hot Toys figures though, including the uber cool (and probably uber expensive) Aliens Power Loader. Premium Format collectors get a crack at Elvis Presley, a new Buffy, and the very cool Darth Maul. And Sideshow is also showing off several of their new ‘diorama’ statues, including one for Star Wars and one for Lord of the Rings.

Mcfarlane Toys

McToys hasn’t been at a Toy Fair in the last 4 or 5 years, but they are returning this year. They’ve discussed the Simpsons movie line, but have yet to show any images. Likewise, they announced they’ll be doing figures for Beowulf, a new film based on the epic poem, but have no photos yet. However, they are showing several of the Lost series 2 figures, including Sawyer, Ecko, and Sun. While you can get some of the info at the official Mcfarlane site, I recommend Figures.com for shots of Ecko and the regular upcoming Simpsons figures.

Mattel

The big boys have a big showing this year, and Mattel has some great Four Horsemen sculpts in the DC Superheroes line, including Clayface (who you can see at Action Figure Insider) and Man-Bat (who you can see at Toy News International). Unfortunately, they aren’t showing much for Justice League or The Batman, but they have some other surprises, like Ratatouille. Action-Figure.com has a pretty good coverage of the overall Mattel line up.

DC Direct

While DCD is announcing several DC themed lines, their big announcement is around DC Unlimited, a new brand that will be covering non-superhero lines. They’re first two announcements are big ones – Afro Samurai and World of Warcraft. Wizard Universe has great shots up of both lines.

Diamond Select

DST has lots of new Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, and Stargate, but they’ve announced some new cool stuff too. There’s Mouse Guard, Back to the Future mini-mates, Marvel Zombies, and even Office Space! That’s sure to be the cubicle figures of the year.

NECA

NECA has some big licenses this year, including 300, and Harry Potter. Let’s jump back over to Figures.com to check out a ton of photos of all their lines. I’m particularly happy to see how great the Harry Potter stuff is looking. There’s also some good additions to the Pirates of the Caribbean and Nightmare Before Christmas lines, both big licenses for them.

Marvel Toys

One of the most anticipated lines this year is the Legendary Comic Book Heroes, from Marvel Toys. You know Marvel Toys…they used to be Toybiz back when they made Marvel toys. Now they’re Marvel Toys, and don’t make Marvel toys. Yea, I know.

But they are making a fantastic set of action figures based on independent comic books, old and new. Check out Wizard Universe for some terrific photos and info. Many of the things we saw with Marvel Legends, including great articulation and Build A Figures, will continue with this series. Fans of books like Pitt, Monkeyman and O’Brien, Savage Dragon, Madman and others are going to be thrilled!

Mezco

For fans of Family Guy and South Park, Figures.com has some photos of the upcoming series. Mezco didn’t have much in the way of new announcements though, but at least we’ll be seeing the Hellboy animated Abe Sapien, and another wave of Attack of the Living Dead. They’ve also picked up New Line Horror line, and they’ll be doing a caricaturized version of old favorites like Freddy and Jason.

Hasbro

Marvelousnews.com has lots of coverage up of Hasbro’s Marvel lines, although far less was shown than many would have liked. The 12″ Dr. Doom in the Marvel Icons line up looks good, but that’s about it at this point.

That’s about it for the highlights so far. As the show progresses through today and tomorrow, keep your eyes peeled on the above sites for additional coverage.

Call me crazy, but I think the ladies of Sideshow are in charge of the sixth scale Lord of the Rings line. Why? Well, if the manly men were in charge the character selection might have started out a little different. Perhaps we would have seen Gimli, Gandalf, or Orc…most definitely an Arwen would have been in the early contention. But with Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir and Faramir starting things out, it’s like Middleearth as interpreted by the Chippendale dancers. Hey, I’m just saying.

But even if they are the hunks of Hobbiton (and were featured in a calendar of the same name that was quite popular in the Shire), they’re still pretty damn key to the story. And they make for some great looking sixth scale figures.

Legolas is the second figure to hit, just shipping over the last couple weeks. As usual, there’s a regular and an exclusive version, with the exclusive having not one but TWO extras this time: the Lothlorien cloak complete with elven broach, and an extra hand sculpted to hold an arrow in a stabbing pose.

Expect to pay around $55 for Legolas, at least for the time being. While the exclusive is long gone from Sideshow’s site, you can get on the wait list, or find the regular version at a number of online stores. Check my Where To Buy section for some suggestions.

If you have any comments or suggestions, just drop me a line at mwc@mwctoys.com. On to the review!

Sideshow LOTR 12″ Legolas

Packaging – ****
Once again, Sideshow pulls out all the stops. While all their packages are great, the work on the Star Wars and LOTR lines is exceptional. Plenty of photos, lots of text on both the general story line and specifics on Legolas’ background, and a beautiful presentation using a die cut flap on the front all add up to a great box.

And yes, it’s collector friendly too. You can take Legolas out, play around with him, display him, and put him back some day for storage or sale if you so desire.

My one complaint is the velcro closures on the flaps. Yep, I’ve been spoiled by the magnetic closures on the Star Wars boxes, and these are simply not as good. The top two velcro ‘dots’ pulled free from the box almost immediately, and that’s a fairly common problem. Still, you got to give them credit for producing some truly beautiful packages.

Sculpting – ***1/2
The sculpt is from Andy Bergholtz, one of Sideshow’s best sculptors. He’s since moved over to work exclusively for DC Direct, and I for one will miss his work on the sixth scale and Premium Format lines.

This is some of his best work, which is saying quite a bit. Orlando Bloom as Legolas has been a consistently difficult likeness for companies to capture. Toybiz tried a number of times, including a sixth scale version, but never quite pulled off the perfect version. Weta tried as well with the Legolas bust, and I thought it was, well, weak. And you thought I was going to say “a bust”, didn’t you? Even NECA tried in the quarter scale figure line, and it was not the success their earlier Aragorn was.

I’m going to lay down the claim that this is the best version we’ve gotten so far in any scale, and any format. That’s not to say he’s not without any issues, and he is a bit harder looking than in the films, especially Fellowship when Bloom was still quite young. If you look at him straight on, his ears do appear pushed out to far from his head, and the chin is slightly large. He also has a thin mold line across the top of his head, something that bugs me particularly at this price point and expectation level. While this might sound like a lot of problems – ears, chin, age – each is very minor, and the overall effect is not as great as I’d imagined. You do have to assume this Legolas is an older version than you’re used to though, which might be tough for some fans.

The regular version also has four hand sculpts, each with a slightly different positioning of the fingers and thumbs. These are all designed to hold the weapons though, and there are no open hand poses.

Paint – ****
When Sideshow has production problems with the paint on their figures, I’m one that always complains. No matter how good the sculpt is, if you don’t back it up with amazing paint ops, you’ll disappoint the buyers. And the poor sculptors.

This time, the paint work is excellent. First, there’s no slop what so ever. The hair line is perfect, the eyes are clean and straight, the lips are just the right shade, and the skin has just enough shading to add to the angular lines of the sculpt without becoming too obvious.

Some folks may think Legolas is a little too tan, but I think that works better in this scale than light skin. Even if he is paler in the movie, pale skin in this smaller scale tends to look cheap and unrealistic.

I’d also like to thank them for not putting any dark paint in the nostrils. That’s been a common thing lately for Gentle Giant with their mini-busts, and I really don’t like it. Here you can see that it’s not necessary to add that dark color to get the right amount of shadow.

Articulation – ***
The bulky tunic helps the underlying body here quite a bit, at least in terms of appearance. But the leggings simply can’t hide those skinny legs. Now, I realize that Orlando Bloom isn’t Ahnold, but he’s not Kermit either.

The body does have all the articulation you’ve come to expect, with the exception of a good ball jointed neck. They really do need to improve this joint, if they expect to give us a body that rivals companies like Hot Toys or Medicom.

The future of sixth scale bodies is NOT in more articulation though. Given all the standard joints (including a good ball jointed neck), and you have the expected body that will keep you even with the competition, but not give you the advantage. The advantage is going to come from developing the best body in terms of how that body ‘hangs’.

You can have the exact same number of joints, but the better designed joints hang and pose more naturally. And it’s this natural appearance that will be the next big advancement in the market. Hot Toys, Medicom and Takara are working hard in this area, and have made some great strides. They have some work still to go, but Sideshow needs to begin pushing the envelope in this area to bring them up to the competition, and then hopefully take them to the next level.

Outfit – ***1/2
The outfit starts out with the nifty well made leggings, which fit tightly. Unfortunately, a tight fit does tend to mean that the appearance of the skinny Sideshow legs is highlighted.

The shirt is made from a silk-like material, and is extremely well tailored. It has to be to fit well under the tunic, and not make the overall figure look too fat. The tunic, made from a very thin suede, is a bit poofy, but it’s not the fault of the shirt.

The tunic has high quality snaps in front, and a great combination of light and dark colors. It’s not quite as tight of a fit as I’d like, but that’s a minor nit. It’s held tight at the waist with a thin leather belt, that has a plastic sculpted buckle and imprinted pattern.

The boot and gauntlet sculpts look terrific, especially the boots. Sideshow has done some amazing boot sculpts in both the LOTR and Sideshow lines, and this pair does not disappointment. The intricate details are highlighted with some nice paint work on the silver designs.

The right gauntlet is sculpted to hang down slightly over the right hand. This looks terrific. The left gauntlet is sculpted tighter at the wrist so that it can’t reach down onto the hand. This is another minor nit, but the difference in appearance bugs me. I’m not sure that it’s inaccurate from the films, but in person it looks odd to me.

The Lothlorien cloak is perhaps my favorite cloak of the LOTR and Star Wars lines so far. It’s made from very thin cloth, and includes the thin wire in the hood for posing. The tailoring is excellent, and the hood poses well both on the shoulders and over the head. The big problem is the cheap looking elven brooch, which stands out against the green cloth. It’s not the quality of sculpt or paint detail that you’d expect, and is perhaps the one real disappointment here.

Accessories – ****
The figure comes with the standard base, emblazoned with the LOTR emblem. But you’ll be happy to know, if you’re like me, that the stand isn’t necessary to keep him standing in poses.

The exclusive version comes with three hands, while the regular comes with two. These are sculpted in various finger/thumb poses, and are designed to hold the various weapons. They come off and go on easily, but the posts are long enough and tight enough to avoid the problems with them falling off with basic posing.

The exclusive hand is designed to hold a single arrow in a stabbing pose, similar to what he did in the films. It’s a good sculpt, and looks quite a bit better in practice than I expected, but it’s probably not going to be the key pose for most folks.

Legolas needs weapons of course, and he has his standard ones here. There’s a nicely scaled bow, with five individual arrows. There’s also his pair of elven knives, which are done in a rather unique way.

There’s a pair that are full size, and there’s a pair of cut off knives, that are really just handles with stubs. These are designed to fit in the scabbards, and look good doing it. By doing this, they could make the scabbards and swords look terrific on his back, and yet give him a pair to hold as well. They aren’t quite perfect though, as they are scaled a little too small, and the handles are the incorrect silver color. Still, the sculpt detail is good, and the pair fitted into the back of his pack look great.

Speaking of the quiver, it fits nicely on his back either with or without the cloak. The pleater straps fit over his left shoulder, with the single strap running around his body under his right arm and attaching to the quiver again on his back. There’s a small hook at the base of the quiver on the right side, and there’s a small hole punched in the single strap. Attach the quiver there, and it will look just like it does on the box.

The bow and arrows are better scaled, with the exception of the string. It’s quite thin, and much smaller than it would be in reality in proportion to his hands and body. Still, it has enough bend to it to work with some interesting ‘aiming’ poses, and is affixed tightly to both end of the bow.

The arrows fit easily in the quiver, and the actually look great threaded on the bow. Each has the small notch With the various hand sculpts, you can get some terrific poses with the bow and arrows.

Fun Factor – **1/2
These figures aren’t really designed to be toys, so a lower fun factor should be no surprise. Small parts like the belts and straps aren’t going to hold up to normal play, and these are designed to look great on the shelf, not the sandbox.

Value – ***
Most of the other LOTR figures coming out from Sideshow are $65. I’m not sure why Legolas managed to come in ten bucks cheaper, but he’s an excellent value. On top of just running $55 at the official site, the regular version can be hand for as little as $47 at many online stores. Considering the number of accessories and the quality of the outfit, that’s an excellent value, and could very well be worth another half star in this category.

Things to Watch Out For –
I’ve already gone over how to attach the sling on his back, but be mighty careful doing it. That itty bitty hole and small hook can easily get damaged. Other than that, this is a very sturdy figure for the level of detail and quality.

Overall – ***1/2
I had some issues with Aragorn’s sculpt and paint, issues that were largely due to manufacturing problems. It didn’t help that his leather jacket didn’t come out as well as the prototype, or his hair looked a bit like tootsie rolls. Still, he was a better figure in person than most photos made him appear.

Legolas is a big step up from Aragorn. The excellent head sculpt is improved, not hurt, by the paint work, and there doesn’t appear to be any of the manufacturing quality issues. The costume and accessories have a few minor nits that hold him back from a perfect score – and I’ll keep harping on joint improvements – but if Faramir and Boromir are this good, fans are going to be mighty pleased.

This line doesn’t seem to be selling as well as the Star Wars line, nor as well as you might expect a license like this to do. The exclusive Legolas was a run of just 1750, and the regular edition is just 3500. I’m betting that this is a line that collectors will be kicking themselves over in a few years, especially if the quality stays like this.

Where to Buy –
You’re going to most likely look to the online stores to pick this guy up, unless you want to pay inflated toy show prices:

– Sideshow still has regular Boromir ( ) and the regular Legolas ( ) available, or you can get on the wait list for the exclusives.

– CornerStoreComics has Legolas at $46.74, which is a steal for this figure.

– Amazing Toyz matches that terrific price of $46.74!

– and not to be outdone, Alter Ego Comics also has him at $46.74.

– at only a penny more, you can pick him up for $46.75 at Fireside Collectibles.

– Dark Shadow Collectibles also has him at $46.75, in stock.

– Dark Figures has him for just $49.99.

– and for those of you in the U.K., Forbidden Planet has him on sale at 35 pounds.

Related Links:
I’ve had a share of Legolas reviews, as well as other Sideshow LOTR reviews:

– first, check out the sixth scale Aragorn and Premium Format Lurtz from Sideshow.

– Dragons in Dreams did a version of Legolas in this scale as well. Some of the costume or accessories from that figure would do well with this Sideshow version.

– Toybiz also did a nice rotocast 10″ version, that was very well done for the price point. They also did several 6″ scale versions, including this very early one, and a Two Towers style. I also reviewed their 12″ version over at the old Movie Poop Shoot.

– And if you like you’re Legolas cute and tiny, check out the Mini-mates version.

So you say you’re not into anime or manga. Can’t get past the oversized puppy dog eyes, almost non-existent nose, and freakishly blocky hair. Or maybe you just don’t like to read when your watching a movie. Hey, I get it. I’m not a huge anime fan either. But even if you hate horror movies, youi know who Jason is. Even if you hate fantasy films, you best be able to indentify a Hobbit. And even when you hate anime, you oughtta know who the Fullmetal Alchemist is.

If you don’t, I’ll give you the thirty second version. You remember the idea of alchemy? That was this wacky theory that you could transform other substances – most notably lead – into gold. In reality though, it was really the beginning of science, and the idea of turning lead into gold just happened to be the most obvious thing to try first.

In the story of the Fullmetal Alchemist, two young boys live in a land called Ametris, where alchemy is a combination of real science and magic. The transmutation of many things into other things is possible, particularly when dealing with the most adept and capable alchemists. Edward and Alphonse Elric are two brothers, who at a young age, lose their mother to illness. They decide to pull a mighty tough act – human transmutation – to bring their mother back. They fail however, and Ed loses his left leg and Al loses his whole body in the attempt. Ed then tries desperately to save his brother, transmutating him into a suit of armor. He succeeds, but loses his right arm in the process. Ed gets prosthetic versions, and Al gets to be truly ‘full metal’. However, when Edward becomes an official alchemist, he gets the name “fullmetal” because of his stubborn attitude. Confused yet?

Southern Island has partnered with Medicom to distribute their high end sixth scale versions of the brothers here in the States. These were out in the fall in Japan, but SI is now shipping them to buyers in the U.S. I reviewed the exceptional Edward figure earlier this week at MROTW, and tonight I’ll be looking at Al.

Fullmetal Alchemist – Alphonse Edwards

 

Packaging – ***1/2
Medicom packaging tends to always be short on text, which is my biggest issue with it. Okay, so even what text it has I can’t actually read, but I’d like to see them giving a little better background on the characters.Still, this box has a terrific mechanical appearance in the color and graphics. The steel color works great with the license, and the collector friendly packaging – you can easily remove Al without any damage to the box or trays – is a basic expectation with figures in this price range.

There’s some extra packaging material around Al’s neck, so be sure to pull that chunk of plastic out. It’s in there to protect the black paint from rubs, and it works well in that regard.

Sculpting – ****
Al is part of the VCD line from Medicom – Vinyl Collectible Doll. This line is predominately made up of superdeformed style figures, so many people mistakenly assume all VCD’s are super deformed. Not so, and Yoda is probably the best example of that NOT being true. Al is another in that same vein, designed in sixth scale but under the VCD logo because they’ve used the vinyl rotocast style of manufacturing.

So yes, that means Al is hollow. Technically, so is the actual character, since he’s a suit of armor. That reduces his weight significantly, which is a huge plus when it comes to keeping him standing. However, like most rotocast toys, he does not have the same level of articulation.

Back in the old days, another negative to rotocast was a lack in overall definition in the sculpt. Small details were lost, and figures came out looking more like dog chew toys. However, in recent years that’s not been the case. Companies like Mezco, Toybiz and Medicom have pioneered new methods of rotocast that have significantly improved the look of the sculpts. Al is a perfect example.

While most of the armor is going to have a smooth texture – of course – the sharp points and lines are absolutely spot on. There’s nothing soft about this sculpt, from the feel of the materials to the definition of the details. And a great sculpt it is, capturing Al’s appearance extremely well.

The sculpt is also designed with the limited articulation in mind, and the two work quite well together. The proportions are generally good, and his height is about 12 1/4 inches. This is perfect for the Ed figure that Medicom released, and he should stand about head height at Al’s elbow. Check out the end of the review for a comparison shot of these two together.

However, because Ed is actually a little short (by about an inch), Al is also a little short. He’s supposed to be over 7′ tall, and in sixth scale this would really be around 14″. Still, because of his sheer bulk, he still looks great next to other sixth scale figures.

Paint – ****
When it comes to paint, there’s not a lot of variety here, but the important colors are done consistently and very cleanly.

Of course, the steel color of his armor is the most critical, and it is bright, solid and very consistent. There’s no blemishes or variations in thickness, and this gives it a much more realistic appearance. While much of the figure is this blued steel color, there’s also some browns, whites and blacks mixed in. Everything has sharp clean lines, and excellent definition.

Articulation – ***
Being rotocast, there’s obviously less articulation than a standard sixth scale style figure. However, Medicom has done a great job getting enough joints in here to make him plenty poseable.

The neck is a ball joint at the top, and can also turn inside the torso. The range is a bit limited by the design of the armor, but it still worked better than I had expected.

Likewise, the cut shoulders and cut hips are designed in such a way as to provide a greater range of movement than you’d assume. Combine these joints with the pin knees and elbows, cut wrists, cut waist, and ball jointed ankles, and you get quite a bit of posing choices, including deep stances. The large feet and light weight nature of the figure allow him to stay standing without any additional support or assistance.

Accessories – ***
Unlike Edward, there’s not a lot in the extras department here. What is here is extremely well done however.

There’s an extra set of hands, done in a knife hand style. The hands pop on easy enough, but be careful with the many points on Al’s armor. You won’t damage them, but they may damage you! They’re very sharp, and there’s a lot of them.

There’s also the extra cylindrical head, and the head’s go on and off easier than you might first realize. I know I was trying very hard at first, but when you get them lined up just right, they slide right on and off. There’s no need to get cranking on them, but rather take your time and they’ll lift straight off and drop right back on again.

There’s no display stand with this figure, but none is actually required. There’s also the loin cloth, which attaches to either hip, but is not removable. And no, I have no idea why he needs a loin cloth.

Fun Factor – ***
This is actually a great toy, and not just a pop culture collectible. Then again, any great pop culture collectibe based on action figures shouldn’t forget its roots. Medicom knows that, and has done a terrific job translating that understanding with this figure.

Of course, the odds that this guy will end up in the backyard battling Spider-man are pretty slim. And if he did, the kid would probably put his eye out with one of the spikes. But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have a ton of fun before the terrible accident.

Value – **
Both Ed and Al are expensive figures, running about $25 more than you probably expect. Well, more than I expect. For regular buyers of imported Japanese figures, the price tag won’t be a shock – for buyers of $8 action figures, it might give them pause.

We’ve seen some truly amazing rotocast work in the $70 – $80 range, and those were figures in a much larger scale and much smaller production runs. While you can’t deny the cool that is this figure, the price tag is going to be tough to swallow.

Things to Watch Out For –
Not much here. Try not to puncture yourself with his armor – and don’t let the kids hit the cat with him.

Overall – ***
Of this pair, Al is probably the more visually impressive figure, especially at first glance. He has bulk, he has shine, and who doesn’t love a suit of armor? But the hollow rotocast figure, with fewer accessories and less articulation, becomes less substantial in person. Of the pair, I’m more impressed with Ed.

That being said, both are pretty damn cool collectibles for the big FMA fan. It’s unlikely you’ll ever find a better representation of these guys produced by anyone, but be prepared to part with some serious cash to add them to the collection.

Where to Buy –
Southern Island is the place to pick this guy up if you’re in the States. They have him as the exclusive distributors at $125.

Related Links –
Don’t miss my review of Edward as well!