Review of Moon Knight
Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

Marvel's shows have been up and down, although I don't think they've done a bad one yet. Just a few that were better than others - and to be fair, I haven't started watching Secret Invasion yet. Somewhere in the bottom third was Moon Knight, a show I enjoyed once, but will likely never watch again.

So you might wonder why I would immediately preorder the figure when Hot Toys made it available. But that would also mean you don't regularly read my reviews. If you did, you'd know I much prefer unique characters in my collection over the 1024th Iron Man variation. The costume from the show looks great, and he would add some visual uniqueness to the shelf.

The price tag was a bit daunting, which is really getting more and more true. At $285, he's really up there with what was once considered the high end for Hot Toys pricing. However, three hundred bucks a pop is getting more and more common, and for me, that means fewer and fewer figures.

Packaging - ***1/2
The box looks terrific, one of the nicer packages in awhile from Hot Toys. The character themed slip cover includes a rotating emblem on the front, and inside everything is packed in a very collector friendly way. You can easily pop this guy out and put him back, with no real damage to the box or trays.

Sculpting - ****
I spent a lot of time comparing this final product to the suit as seen on the show. At first, I was at a ***1/2, prior to comparing, simply based on my mental recollection. After looking at the actual suit, going back and forth between photos, I raised that to the full four stars.

Oh sure, there's still a few nits. There's some areas where the proportions seem a little off, something a little too long, something a little too short, but overall it's a tremendous recreation of his look on the show.

The hands are sculpted in specific poses, designed to work with some of the accessories. His height is about right, coming in at just about 12 inches tall.

However, he only comes with one portrait, wearing the mask. Lacking a Oscar Isaacs portrait is a big issue here, but I'll be hitting them up for it more in the Accessories section where it's appropriate.

There's a ton of fine detail on the costume, with lots of texture to create a cloth-like appearance. It's so well done that there's almost a perfect transition from the sculpt of plastic parts to the actual cloth cape, making the overall look extremely realistic.

Paint - ****
The costume is a gray/white, and is darker in hand than I expected. That's actually a plus - I was worried it was going to be too bright white. It actually might be slightly darker than the original costume, but it's hard to be sure because of the effects of lighting, both in hand and on screen.

The slightly gray color does allow them to bring out the sculpted texture more, and they used darker shading on the edges of the strips on the body and chest to create an even more distinct appearance. There's a lot going on, but it doesn't all blend in together.

The gold sections pop underneath, with just enough showing to let you know they are there. Overall it's a great look, and I'm really happy with how it fits in with the rest of the general MCU display.

Articulation - ****
How could I possibly be giving a figure with such a clearly tight suit such a high score for Articulation? Because not only did they use a material that's more stretchy than, say, what we saw with Vision, but they gave us a most marvelous, amazing, posable cape.

Yep, this score is really all about the cape. But the body has the usual articulation as well, and by making the hood a separate piece that attaches only to the head, not the body, they kept most of the tilt, lean, and twist of the ball jointed neck. The shoulders are probably the most restricted area, and the tight suit does limit how high you can raise the arms. But the hands and elbows allow for decent arm poses nonetheless.

The torso has a bit of crunch and lean, so you can break up the straight torso a little, but just a little. The hips take advantage of the softer material, and the knees can bend fairly deep. The cut boot design allows the ankles quite a bit of mobility, and you should be able to do at least medium fight stances with both feet flat on the ground.

But it's the cape that takes even a basic pose and makes it cool. The thin, narrow cape has several wires running long wise, and you can use these to pose it in just about any dynamic, flowing way imaginable. The wires are also stiff enough to hold those poses, even those that seem to defy gravity. I love this cape.

Accessories - ***
The one big problem with this figure is the lack of extras, particularly at this price point. It really needs a Isaacs portrait at almost three hundred bucks.

There are plenty of hands, as you might expect. There's five sets in total, including the fists he comes wearing. Several of these are designed to hold the other major accessories, the 'crescent blades'. There are three sizes of blades, small (three of them), medium (three of them) and large (two of them). Using the hand designed for the blade, you can have him holding one or more in fighting poses.

The hands swap easily enough, but the gauntlets on the suit combined with the deep set of the hole inside the hand means they tend to pop off.

The other big addition is the display base. It's not really all that much different than usual - there's the large base, and the bendable metal support that you can use for leaping and flying poses. But they added a large crescent that attaches to the metal rod thanks to a special clip. It's very light weight, and looks quite nice, but while it's large enough to be a prop replica, it's too soft and fragile for you to use in any sort of cosplay.

Light Feature - ***1/2
Regular readers know while I like light features, I'm usually unimpressed thanks to the difficult nature of actually using them. If you can't use them, they aren't really worth it no matter how pretty.

Thankfully, that's far less of an issue this time. It's a pretty simply light feature - his eyes. Rather than putting the light in the head, they've put it in the neck. This allows the neck to retain that articulation we talked about earlier. This extended neck post holds the light and battery, and you simply slip the sculpted masked head off to reach them. Pop in the three batteries, and the switch is right on the post. Since the head slides off and on very easily, getting to this switch is much easier than many other designs we've seen from Hot Toys.

The light itself is also very, very bright. It will easily illuminate the eyes even in a fully lit room. Just make sure the head is pushed all the way down to avoid getting light leak around the neck.

Outfit - ****
The costume is the big selling point here - if you don't like the tv look, you won't like this figure.

I've seen some people whining about the chest plate, and the collecting world has been subjected to the stupid term 'man boobs' far too often. The design of the chest plate matches the on screen look - stop blaming Hot Toys for something they got right.

They've used a more natural, less rubbery/plastic material this time, and I suspect it's because they want to stop the worries over long term degradation. No idea if this material will hold up better, but it's certainly easier on the posing. Areas that are more sculpted, like the gauntlets, shoulder pads, or hood, are more of a rubber material, but they are thick enough that I don't see any likely issue over time.

I haven't talked too much about the terrific two piece boot sculpt, but it looks great and allows for decent ankle articulation.

But yea, it's that cape, that posable, flowing, beautiful cape that makes this costume really shine. If they only did this well with every cape they produced.

Fun Factor - ****
Thanks to all the great posability and the decent light up feature, I found this figure to be a lot of fun, far more than I expected. You know when something exceeds your expectations your all the more likely to rave, and that's clearly the case here.

Value - *1/2
Alas, this is a very expensive figure. At $285, I had to really ponder whether it was worth it, but I don't think we'll ever get another unless Moon Knight becomes a key part of a future film. Normally I'd assume that a B character like this at such a high price point would actually be fairly cheap on the secondary market for awhile after he ships...but because they really did a great job with this one, the opposite might end up being true.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not much. I didn't have any fears of breakage, and while the hands tend to pop off too easily, it's not really the sort of situation that cases angst. I did find that when replacing the battery compartment cover, it's easier to line up the screw and get it started first, and then push it up to get the small tab at the bottom in place.

As I mentioned earlier, if you don't slide the head all the way down, light can leak out. Just push down a bit more if you notice it. And the belt is made from cloth, so it can slip down a bit below the waist and uncover the seam. Just pull it up a bit again, easy peasy.

Overall - ****
I haven't picked up a ton of Hot Toys figures this year. Of course, as I say that, I have Marty McFly, Fennec Shand, and Koska Reeves all winging their way to me. When it rains, it pours.

But Moon Knight has definitely been a very pleasant surprise. I knew I'd appreciate getting another unique character for the Marvel display, but I didn't expect him to have this much shelf presence. I'm happy with the materials they've chosen as well, hopeful that they will have less long term issues.

I'm going to bet that a lot of collectors passed on this one due to the lackluster reception of the show, and Hot Toys ended up producing a much lower number than usual. I'm glad I grabbed mine, and he's definitely one that will be in the Institute for a long time.

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

Where to Buy 
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My only other Moon Knight reviews - or figures at all for that matter - are the regular and Crescent edition from Mezco in their One:12 line.

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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