Review of Marty McFly - Back to the Future 2
Exclusive Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

Perhaps my favorite actor of my generation is Michael J. Fox. There are movies he's been in that have been bad movies, but he's never been bad in a movie. Add in the fact he's a great person with a inspirational attitude and outlook, and you have the perfect combination.

So any figures Hot Toys makes of him from any movie are going to be instant buy for me.  While they had already produced a nice Marty McFly from the first Back to the Future, it wasn't without its issues. They took a second crack at it with this release, based on the second film in the series.

Even if you did pick up the first release, there's another good reason to get this one - Doc Brown. The version they are producing of his mentor and friend is from BTTF2 as well, making this one a pretty important add to the shelf.

There's a regular release and an exclusive version on this one. I'm checking out the exclusive tonight, which includes an extra accessory or two. The exclusive is still available through Sideshow for $235, and the regular will run you around $235 as well. The exclusive is still available, and clearly it's better to get more stuff for the same price.

Packaging - ***1/2
The exterior artwork really sells this package. I like how they patterned it after one of the movie posters of the time, and the additional text is well placed. Inside, the graphics are less inspiring, but everything is collector friendly and well packed.

Sculpting - **1/2
This is a bit of a sticky wicket. This is a very realistic, very life-like portrait...but is it Michael J. Fox?

As I said, the realism is terrific. Nobody does hair like Hot Toys, with super fine detail and styling. The skin texture is about perfect for the age of the character - not too old man wrinkly, not too baby soft smooth - and the minute details around the eyes, eyebrows, and lips are the usual top notch quality.

I'm not really digging the emotive aspect. There's an expression here, but I'm not quite sure what it is. He's looking slightly to one side, lips tight, very serious, and very un-Marty like.

Which ties in to the problem - I'm not really seeing Marty here. From certain angles the likeness is better, but from others it's non-existent. A better expression would have gone a long way to selling the likeness, but you can't ignore that the overall sculpt isn't quite there.

There's some areas that work, like the nose and the shape/placement of the eyes. The sculpt for the first release might have been too old, but it was a better Michael J. Fox likeness. This one is certainly younger, but looks more cosplayer than real deal.

I still might go three stars here if that were my only issue, however. But Hot Toys consistently has an problem with their oversized hands, and with Marty, it's particularly egregious. It's those E.T. fingers, most clearly on display with the hands designed to hold the hover board. These hands work great with the soft goods too...but they look awful. You'd think correcting the ridiculously long fingers - and often too large hands - would be a pretty simple thing, yet it has plagued them for years now.

If you're wondering about height, yes, he's about right, coming in at just about 11 1/4" tall.

Paint - ***1/2
Another terrific paint job, which supports a realistic and life-like look overall.

The skin tone is great, with just the right amount of speckling for the age of the character. It's this subtle coloration that isn't obvious but makes the difference. For an example, look at the upper lip, where there's just a hint of a mustache pattern. It's pretty damn impressive.

There is some pretty obvious bleed into the whites of the eyes though, particularly along the lower eye lids on both. It's the only real negative in an otherwise stellar paint application.

Articulation - ***1/2
The underlying small body is well articulated and sturdy, with tight joints and plenty of flexibility.

My only real negative here was the neck. The head tends to pop off pretty easily, and the neck is beyond tight. It made getting good lean or tilt in the joint a bit more frustrating.

The rest of the joints are tight, but not overly so. The costume is not restrictive until you get to the ankles, where the one piece shoes do affect the ankles somewhat, but the material is soft enough that the effect is minimal.

Accessories - ****
The best part of this figure is the excellent accessories he comes packed with.

There's enough hands for just about every pose, including the relaxed pair he comes wearing, a tight grip pair, a hover board grip set, a wide splayed left, and a 'pencil grip' left. The exclusive actually includes two more hands that aren't mentioned in the marketing documents, both designed to hold the gun in different ways. The hands all swap easily, and there's a couple extra wrist pegs just in case.

This is a movie about time, so Marty has to have his watch. It will be covered up by the jacket in most poses, but he still had to have it, and the sculpt and paint are well done.

Another cool item from the movie - that everyone went nuts over last year when Pepsi released them in silly small numbers - is his futuristic bottle of soda. This one actually looks like the prop from the movie, unlike the Pepsi release.

There's a bunch of soft goods too - paper products from the movie. There's the USA Today paper with a key headline, as well as Gray's Sports Almanac. They really went the extra mile on both of these, printing on every page of the almanac, and including multiple printed pages with stories on the inside of the paper!

He needs the Blast from the Past silver bag to carry the almanac, and it's here. It's made from a quality plastic, and you can slide the book inside.

Perhaps the most critical extra is his hover board. This one looks great - a million times better than the awful one produced by Mattel - and includes a magnet effect that works with his feet. These are strong enough to hold it in place when he's off the ground in various flying poses.

He's wearing those cool shoes - more on that in the Outfit section - and he has the large locker labeled 'footwear'. This actually opens up, and you could store a few accessories inside.

They wanted two looks for this figure - with his silver hat and without. Rather than do two complete heads, they went with removable hair. He comes wearing his normal flowing locks, but you can pull these off - they are held with a magnet of course - and pop on his 'hat hair'. What's interesting is the hat itself is actually a separate piece too, not permanently attached to the second hair sculpt.  I'm assuming that's so you can pose him holding the hat as well, if you'd like.

The last extra for the regular release is his stand. It's one of the large flying stands, with the heavy, bendable metal support and waist grabber. You should be able to get some pretty cool in-air poses with a little effort.

The exclusive has one more extra. I mentioned the two additional hands, and these are included to hold the arcade gun accessory. There's even a real metal chain on the butt!