Review of Pruneface - One:12 Collective
Action Figure

Introduction

One of the many things I've always loved about Mezco is their interest in older, unique, and unusual licenses. From the recent Owlman from Lord of Tears to the old school Popeye, they've used their One:12 Collective series to show off their eclectic tastes.

For those of us with similar weird, uh...unique tastes, they're a God send. With lines like the Goon or Gangsters Inc, they have always been a source of the weird and off beat. I've already mentioned their love for Popeye, but this adoration extends to other pulp characters as well, and they've dropped the first figure in their new Dick Tracy releases - Pruneface.

Pruneface is a Nazi sympathizer and spy, and a primary villain of Dick Tracy. We'll be getting Tracy himself in the One:12 series of course, shipping in a two pack with another classic villain, FlatTop. Pruneface was originally $95, and just started shipping in the last couple weeks.

Packaging - ***1/2
The figure comes in the standard size One:12 box, with some terrific comic based artwork. It's all collector friendly of course, with no reason not to open it up and remove the figure and accessories.

Sculpting - ****
All of the Tracy villains had extreme looks, but Pruneface is one of the more wild. His aged, extremely wrinkled face was the result of a skin condition, and led to his unfortunate nickname.

This figure comes with four different heads, common for One:12 releases. He has the stoic, stern, but not extreme expression he comes wearing, plus an angry, screaming face with open mouth, a mean look with a slighlty open mouth, and a slightly amused, smiling portrait.

All of these have the heavy wrinkling, and lots of skin texture. The hair has some very fine stranding, and while the teeth (when exposed) are a little blocky, it fits the style of the forties comic strip look.

The heads and necks are all one piece of course, to allow for the wrinkled look to extend downward. The heads swap easily enough, but you do have to ensure they pop all the way onto the ball to stay seated.

He stands about 6 1/2" tall, fitting in nicely with the rest of the series. I've included a shot of him with the golden age Two Face for comparison.

Paint - ***1/2
The paint work is excellent, and that's the rule rather than the exception with the One:12 series. The hairline is clean, the skin tone realistic, and the eyebrows, teeth, and lips stand out but aren't excessively obvious. Even the eyes are sharp and clean, with no lazy or wandering pupils. I don't normally include macro photos this large with figures in this scale, but the quality of the One:12 series makes it possible.

The extreme detail work on the accessories is also worth noting. The typewriter is particularly impressive, with plenty of tiny paint applications, all very clean and realistic.

Articulation - ***1/2
The underlying body can manage plenty of normal, natural stances. Of course, the one piece head and neck makes the ball jointed neck slightly less useful, but it's definitely necessary for the sculpt to look right.

The shoulders, elbows, wrists, torso, hips, knees, and ankles all work about as you'd expect. You won't get any extreme poses, but you will get natural ones.

The most important change to the body in recent releases is the ankles. I'm not sure what they've done, but you can get much more movement out of these ankles, and can easily keep the feet flat on the ground even in very deep stances.

It's also worth nothing that both the suit jacket and the long overcoat have wired edges, allowing you to better pose them with dynamic stances. These wires also make it possible to get the material to hang more naturally on his body.

Accessories - ****
This is one of those One:12 releases with a TON of extras, and they have lots of use with both this figure and others.

We already talked about the three extra heads, which is always a big boost in this category. I'm not sure which one I'll go with, although I think the slight smile is my favorite. The screaming look is pretty useful as well though, and you should have no trouble finding one you like.

There's also a ton of hands, 4 sets to go with the pair of fists he comes wearing. These are designed to work with the other accessories, or various poses. They swap easily, and stay in place while posing the figure.

He has a few weapons to battle Tracy. There's a submachine gun, and an extra clip just in case. There's both a Luger and a 1911 pistol, the latter including two more clips of ammo. There are four bullet firing effects of varying sizes that can attach to the barrel of any of the three guns for a more dynamic action pose.

There's a very large bayonet style knife, so big it looks like a sword almost. And there are three gas bombs, with two small gas 'clouds', translucent effects that can be attached to the ends of the canisters. These are pretty specific to Pruneface, as he was involved in a couple different gas related weapons over the years, one being a nerve gas, and the other an explosive.

To protect himself from the gas, he has a gas mask. This can fit over any of the four heads, but you should pop the head off, put the mask on, and put the head back on the body.

He's not just a run-of-the-mill bad guy, but he was also spying for the Nazis, and he comes with a typewriter just for that purpose. A typewriter you say? Yep! The back opens up to reveal a secret radio, and there's head phones he can wear that plug into this radio. If that's not cool enough for you, the typewriter can actually hold paper (if you have or cut something the right size), the roller turns, the paper bar lifts, and even the carriage moves side to side. This sort of attention to detail with cool accessories like this is one of the things that makes the One:12 series so good.

He also has a more formal look. There's a hat, which fits nicely on any of the portraits, as well as a pair of glasses (two included in case you break or lose one) that also work great on any head. There's a white scarf for around his neck, and a long black overcoat for heading out on the town. While I don't think I'll use the black coat in my display, it's extremely well tailored and looks great.

This was the forties, so everybody smoked, and Pruneface was no different. Probably why he looks like this. There's three burning (with attached smoke) cigarettes included, and they can be held in a couple of the included hands.

Finally, he comes with the usual base, that has both the foot peg and the larger translucent support rod.

Outfit - ****
The suits for the series can vary in quality, although generally the tailoring is excellent. Sometimes it really stands out though, as is the case here.

There's a shirt, tie, pants, jacket, overcoat, hat, scarf, and belt. You can mix and match of course, although I think I'll be going with the three piece suit and fedora for display on my shelf.

The sculpted shoes look good, and the aforementioned hat is properly scale and fits neatly on any of the heads. The suit pants and jacket are extremely well fitted, and even the large overcoat looks good over the other layers.

The materials used are high quality, and the construction is excellent. Small details like buttons and pockets are properly sized, and the overall impression is one of top notch work.

Fun Factor - ****
While this is a pulp comic character, he fits in nicely with the Golden Age DC stuff we've gotten so far. He's also going to look fantastic when we get the Tracy/Flattop two pack, and I have high hopes these three won't be all we get from the license.

And now how about some other pulp characters, like Zorro and the Phantom?

Value - **1/2
Regular readers know how my Value ranking works - **1/2 stars is average, and has no effect on the Overall either up or down. In essence, you're getting what you're paying for. Anything over **1/2 increases my Overall, and anything below reduces it. At $95, you're pretty much getting what you're paying for.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not much. There are several very small items, like the cigarettes or glasses, but with a little care you should be able to avoid losing or breaking them.

Overall - ****
While it's always great to get another DC or Marvel character, the fact that Mezco continues to do these off the radar characters from unusual licenses is what I truly love. I'm hoping we see more than the upcoming two pack announced for Dick Tracy, and I'm hoping we see more pulp characters in the future. The quality of the suit and overcoat is a very good sign for the Dick Tracy figure, who will also have both.

I suspect that this particular figure is going to be easy to get, at least for awhile. Let's face it, there aren't a lot of Gen-Xer's clamoring for Dick Tracy, but remember this was the same situation with Popeye, and those become harder to come by as collectors realized how well done they were. Once Dick Tracy has been released, I suspect the supply of Pruneface will dry up.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - ****
Outfit - ****
Fun Factor - ****
Value - **1/2
Overall - ****

Where to Buy 
You can always pre-order these figures directly from Mezco's online store, where Prunceface was $95. Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth has him at $95 with free shipping, but it's still a pre-order. Once he's in stock you can use my link and get an additional 10% off, plus free shipping!

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Other recent One:12 releases include the Ghostly Ghoul Sodcutter, Lord of Tears Owlman, and Silent Hill 2 Red Pyramid Thing.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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