Review of Deadpool - SDCC Exclusive Variant
One:12 Collective action figure

Introduction

My current favorite line is the One:12 Collective series from Mezco. Their showing at SDCC was impressive, and I love the combination of blockbuster movies licenses with old school properties. They've created Hot Toys style figures at half the size - and a third of the price.

One of the very soon to come figures is Deadpool, a release that I'm very much looking forward to. The prototype looks terrific, and he's the perfect character for the style. We have to wait a little longer for his 'normal' release, but the 'summer exclusive' variant (available a couple weeks ago at SDCC) is now shipping to those that ordered through the Mezco site.

This variation has Deadpool in his X-Men outfit, something a bit different for the merc with a mouth. As I mentioned, he was available at SDCC and originally through their own web store, but he's on wait list at this point. The original price was $80, the same as all normal exclusive releases in this series.

It's worth noting that along with the regular Deadpool release, there's another exclusive - a Previews Exclusive - in a similar costume to this X-men design. He's available for $80 at most retailers as well.

Packaging - ***
While this box looks similar to the other releases in photos, it's actually a step down in overall quality. The cardboard is lighter weight, and there's less here. It's a simple box, and inside is the usual plastic trays to hold the figure and accessories. There is the 'exclusive' sticker however, and it does job one of keeping everything safe and sound, and doing it in a very collector friendly way.

Sculpting - ***
There are two portraits, the normal situation for One:12 figures. They are both masked however, at least with this particular variant.

He comes wearing a pretty standard, scowling face, with slightly closed eyes and some nice texture work on the surface.  An issue in macro photos is the difference in texture between the sculpted masked heads and the cloth uniform - it's much less of an issue in hand, where the scale takes over.

The additional portrait has one eye open a bit more than the other, with a slightly raised eyebrow - at least that's what it looks like based on the wrinkling around the eye in the suit. Both are well sculpted, but neither has a wow factor.

There's a variety of hands, sculpted in a softer rubber to work nicely with the accessories.They swap easily and stay in place once affixed.  The heads swap cleanly as well.

I would have gone another half star here, but I'm disappointed with the packs on the harness. They are quite thick and bulky, and accentuate the issue with a poor fit. I'll hit him up for the bad fit in the Outfit section, but the size of the packs is more of an issue with the sculpt itself.

He stands just shy of 6 1/2" tall, fitting in appropriately with the rest of the series in terms of scale.

Paint - ***1/2
The overall paint work is clean and sharp, with very little in the way of quality issues.

The majority of the paint is on the heads of course, and both have super well done eyes, including the yellow patches around the defined whites. It looks like they used a little bit of a wash to bring out some of the detail, and added a black highlight in key areas for emphasis.

The paint work on the plastic armor - shin guards, gauntlets - looks great as well. There's some nice wear and damage sculpted in, and the paint work highlights these details.

My biggest issue for the paint is on that damn harness again. It's a little too platic-y and cheap, and the paint application - or lack thereof - does nothing to really help. A wash or added detail on the pouches would have gone a long way to adding some realism.

Articulation - ***1/2
The underlying One:12 body works great, with little restriction from the costume.

The ball jointed neck has good tilt and lean, although it could always use a *bit* more. The rotating hinge shoulders, elbows and wrists allow for plenty of dynamic arm poses, and he can easily lift his arms over his head or hold the rifle in two hands.

There is a torso joint under there, and the harness doesn't interfere with it all that much. It is pretty tight though, and has a limited range of forward/backward and side to side movement. The waist allows the torso to turn as well.

The rotating hinge hips, knees, and ankles allow for short to deep stances, but there isn't much rocker movement in the ankles, thanks to the shin guards. A little more mobility here would go a long way to improving the look of deeper stances.

Accessories - ***1/2
He's well outfitted, although some of these are just multiples of the same item.

It's always good to start with the hands, and Mr. Pool has eight in total - a set of fists he comes wearing, a set of gun grips, a set of medium grips, a wider right hand grip for the hand grenades), and a left flashing the shaka sign. Or you could use it to make him look like he's signaling you to call him on the phone...

He has those two heads of course, and while I've already discussed them in the previous Sculpt and Paint categories, it's worth noting here that they greatly improve this score as well, merely by being there. I would have liked a bit more variation with the second expression, but I'm not going to complain too much.

He also has a nice selection of weapons, including his sword that slips into the scabbard on the back of the harness, a handgun, and a rifle that also doubles as a grenade launcher. This last gun has a removable magazine, as well as an opening chamber to load one of the four included grenade cartridges.

Speaking of grenades, there's four of the hand held variety as well, each decorated with his eye symbol.

Finally, he has the standard flying/posing display stand, this time with the X-Men logo. You can use it with the clear plastic support to create in-air poses, or with a foot peg for something more grounded.  There's also the small plastic bag with the One:12 logo, perfect for holding all these extras when you toss the rest of the packaging.

Outfit - ***
The outfit is pretty straight forward - a cloth body suit with plastic greaves and gauntlets, plus a funky harness/belt/scabbard arrangement for his chest.

The armor pieces look great, and I already mentioned the wear and damage detailing in the Sculpt and Paint sections. They are well made, and look terrific.

The body suit itself shows the improved crotch - nothing baggy here! - as well as a very tight fit, much tighter than we saw with the prototype. There are a couple loose threads along the inside seam that worry me, but nothing that's actually an issue at this point. I particularly love the yellow striping, which is very clean, straight, and even.

But then there's that damn harness, which drags the score down from a much higher place. The belt section is too tight, riding too high on the hips and forcing the harness and pouches up too high on the shoulders. I'm going to play around with some heat on the belt area - it's made of a softer material to begin with - and see if I can stretch it out permanently just a smidge, just enough to allow the belt to sit lower on the hips, bringing the pouches down on the shoulders. I'll let you know how it goes.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
While the figure has a few nits, almost of all which are centered on the harness, it's still a very posable, very playable release.  He'll be all the more interesting on the shelf once you get the regular and PX versions to go with him.

Value - **1/2
I can't complain too much about the $80 price tag - it's in line with the pricing for all the exclusive releases, and the production numbers on this guy are going to be much lower than a regular release.  Would I be happier around $70? Yes, and I think that fits the overall 1/12 market better right now, but it's hard to argue with the quality we're getting here.

Things to Watch Out For -
Everything here was sturdy and well made. However, the clip can drop out of the machine gun pretty easily, and if it does so when you're not paying attention, you'll never find it. Keep an eye on it whenever you're moving or posing the figure.

Overall - ***1/2
A great looking figure, with one real issue - that ridin' high harness. The large plastic pouches don't help, and I'll be looking at ways to improve this if I can.  Fortunately, it's not as obvious in hand as it is in macro photos, where the small scale is less obvious.

The regular release Deadpool is clearly the one we're all waiting for, but until he gets here - and even once he does - this variant is an interesting addition to the collection. This is the way variants should be - interesting, but not necessary, so the completist can be happy picking them up, but other collectors who just want a standard Deadpool can be happy too.

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

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth has this one and the Previews Exclusive version for $80.

- Mezco Toyz was the place to order this originally, and you can still join the wait list there.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Other One:12 figures include the exceptional classic Punisher, the regular release Punisher the Toy Fair exclusive version, Shazam, the classic Daredevil, the Flash and Reverse Flash, the BvS Superman, the comic based Joker, Green Arrow, the Frankenstein Monster Diorama, Frankenstein Monster, the BvS Batman, the Bvs Armored Batman, Captain America, Star Trek Kirk, the Mirror, Mirror and Cage variants of Spock, Sulu, the Toy Fair exclusive Spock, and the regular release Spock as well. Other One:12 Collective figures released so far include Dredd and his Lawmaster, the NYCC exclusive Judge Dredd, the DKR Batman and Mutant two pack, the Batman exclusives, and the initial DKR Batman.

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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