Review of Michonne - Walking Dead
Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

Occasionally, companies do odd things with licenses and characters, things collectors can't quite understand. There's usually good reasons - usually - but the buying public aren't privy to the details, and hence the confusion.

A good example is ThreeZero and their Walking Dead license. Rather than start with an A character, or a B character, or even a C character, they started with a couple extras that got paid scale. The first figures were Michonne's pet walkers, who were with her when she was introduced to the audience. The combination of the three of them was visually striking, and while there was some importance to them in terms of her backstory, they didn't last long. Of course, getting them first made sense...if you were getting Michonne shortly after.

We didn't. In fact, ThreeZero did very little with the license, and in the intervening 4 1/2 years, has only produced Rick and Merle.  But patience does pay off, at least this time, and Michonne is finally shipping.

She'll run you around $165 at most retailers, and there is only the one version, no variants or exclusives that I know of.

Packaging - ***
The thin, tall box has a wrap around cover, complete with a great photo of the actress/character herself, front and center. Everything inside is collector friendly, with no need to damage the packaging when removing the figure and accessories. There's some plastic wrap here and there to protect the body from staining, but it's easy to remove.

Sculpting - ***
This is a tough one, because it's a mixed bag.  Of the three human portraits in their Walking Dead series so far, this is easily the best in terms of accuracy. Ignore the hair - more on that in a minute - and just focus on the face, and you'll get a better feel for the accuracy of the features and likeness. The eyes, nose, lips, facial shape, even the shape of the eyebrows - it's all very, very good.

It's also realistic, with a nice skin texture and wrinkling. It's not as extreme as you'll see with some other high end companies, but it's reasonable. Sadly, this is where the hair really rears its ugly head. This is a tough look to capture in plastic, no doubt about it. The thicker locks are prone to a tootsie roll appearance, and while there's quite a bit of sculpt detail, they can't overcome the fake look. There's a number of mold lines on the locks hanging from the front too, making them even more plastic-ky looking, contrasting with the realism of the face.

The last piece is another big plus - the emotive nature of the portrait. She's serious, with her trademark look of simmering anger just underneath. Combing this expression with the quality of the facial portrait makes her easily my favorite of the three they've released so far - the hair holds her back from a higher score.

It's worth noting here that they've used plastic sleeves on the arms to hide the elbows. These are not rubbery, but harder, thinner plastic, something we've seen more often in recent figures. This harder material - more automobile grade stuff - is clearly less prone to breaking down over time, but is more restrictive and less lifelike.

She's shorter than the men in the series of course, and comes in at about 11 5/8".

Paint - **1/2
The paint work lets her down a bit, particularly around the eyes.

The skin tone and color is good, and there's a consistency between the arms, neck, and face. It's a little too shiny for my tastes, but it's not atrocious. The lip color is great, and the eyebrows are clean and sharp.

The eyes themselves are sloppy, particularly the whites. There's some bleed and stray marks, and they don't have the realistic look of the clear plastic eyes we see with some of the higher end makers.

Perhaps the best work is on the headband, where the multi-color paint work mimics the fabric appearance extremely well. The other accessories, like the sword and scabbard, are clean but pretty basic when it comes to this category.

Articulation - ***
The basic female body is long and gangly, similar to the male figures they produce. It works better here with Michonne than it did with Rick, thanks to the long legs on the character herself.

The hair restricts the neck quite a bit of course, and while the shoulders and wrists work great, the skin covering does make the elbows less mobile. There's some good crunch, twist, and lean in the torso, and the hips, knees, and ankles can take short to mid-range poses easily. Deeper poses are possible, but the feet can't stay flat on the ground, due to some limitations in the ankles created by the stiff boots.

The hands swap easily as well, and while you don't have to take the head off, it does pop on and off easy enough. This comes in handy when working with the bag, scabbard, and poncho.

Accessories - ***
She's not loaded, but she does have her critical extras.

There's the sword and scabbard of course, and the sword fits neatly inside. The leather strap needs serious adjusting right out of the package, and I never did get the buckle to lay quite the way I wanted, but the overall quality was excellent.

There's one extra set of hands as well. She comes wearing a set of relaxed hands, and you can swap in sword grips. These swap easily, but stay in place when posing.

She comes with a satchel too, and you can pop those extra hands in there for easy storage. The bag has the sort of wear and dirt that you'd expect, and has a sturdy metal snap for the flap.

There's also a pancho of course, but I'll cover that in the next section.

Outfit - ***1/2
The outfit itself consists of her boots, pants, belt, tank top, and vest. As mentioned earlier, there's also a poncho included as an accessory.

The outfit is excellent, with the trademark wear, dirt, and damage that Threezero is so very, very good at.  It's not over the top, but quite realistic and appropriate.

The leather vest with properly scaled and working zipper is perhaps the best piece of costume here, but you can't ignore the cool belt or great boot sculpts. The boots look different too, and that asymmetry adds to the realism. Everything is perfectly tailored, and the quality is excellent.

The pancho is a bit of a mixed bag. It's a lightweight material, and the shape and flow are pretty good. The hood is large enough to manage the hair, and the quality of the stitching and manufacture are top notch.

But I ended up liking the look of the pancho much better with the hood down than up. There's a lot of hair to deal with here, and getting the hood to lay naturally over it all can be a trick. It's not terrible, but it's not quite as good as I'd hoped.

Fun Factor - ***
You'll find plenty of ways to display Michonne, and once you find the Pet Walkers you bought 4 years ago, you'll have a great time arranging them together. You'll notice that there are no photos of her with the Walkers in my review...that's because the damn things have been in a box somewhere for the last 4 years, and I haven't been able to find them yet.

Value - ***1/2
At just $165, you're getting more than you're paying for. Most figures in this scale are in the $220 - $240 range right now, and while the quality here isn't quite there for that price point, Michonne is still easily in the $180 - $200 range. It's rare that we get a figure that's actually worth more than the asking price.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not much. Everything is sturdy and well made, and you shouldn't have any real issues with the overall quality.

I would recommend popping the head off, then putting the pancho on and replacing the head. The very first photo shows her wearing the pancho after placing it on her in that order. This works better than trying to pull the pancho down over the head, even when you have to pull the hood back up around the long hair.

Overall - ***
This figure is very, very close to a *** 1/2 overall - it's the combination of the slightly sloppy eye paint, along with the mold lines on the dreadlocks that pulls it down for me. Slightly better hair would have tipped the scales - so would just a slightly better paint job.

The other areas - facial portrait, accessories, outfit, articulation - would support a higher score as they stand. This is a big improvement over their Merle in my opinion, and a good sign for the line overall. We have Daryl coming next, and I'm much more hopeful now on the final result.

Now where did I put those damn pet walkers...

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

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth is also at $165, but include free shipping!

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
ThreeZero has released several sixth scale figures based on the show, including Merle, Rick Grimes, and her two pet walkers.

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

Discussion:
Want to chat about this review?  Try out one of these terrific forums where I'll be discussing it!

Enjoyed this review? Be sure to head back to the main page to find thousands more just like it!