Review of The Crow sixth scale action figure

Introduction

There are few films surrounded with as much tragedy and mystery as The Crow, the final film starring Brandon Lee, son of the great Bruce Lee. Brandon had a promising film career, and his work on The Crow was proof - but a bizarre mishap with a prop gun on the set cut his life short.

The film has been a cult classic ever since, and for those of us that love the revenge theme, it's a great movie on its own merits. There have been a few collectibles produced, but nothing particularly high end, until now.

Hot Toys picked up the license to produce the Eric Draven character, in full Crow regalia. It's just now shipping, and will run you around $220. Like many Hot Toys releases, there are two versions. The standard and the exclusive, which includes an additional accessory.

Packaging - ***1/2
At first glance, the package is pretty basic Hot Toys stuff. Shoe box style, it has the usual plastic trays to hold the various pieces safely in place, and is completely collector friendly of course. There's not a ton of text or graphics, but it does the job.

However, the very top cardboard cover is special this time, with a broken cathedral style window in the center. This is a iconic moment in the film, and it can be used as a backdrop for your figure, always a nice extra touch. Without it, I would have gone an average three stars here, but by adding the window backdrop, they upped their score a bit.

Sculpting - ***1/2
Hot Toys does some amazingly realistic portraits. They add skin texture that's out of this world, and get perfection in details like the glassy eyes and enameled teeth.

This head sculpt is an excellent example, due to the grinning, open mouth and long hair. This provides them the perfect opportunity to showcase their work, making this head sculpt look like a real person in the right lighting.

I have but one nit this time around. In person, the hair line at the top of the forehead, where the majority of the hair (a separately sculpted piece) is married up to the rest of the head sculpt, just doesn't flow. In photos it looks decent, but that's because of the scale and the excellent fine stranding in both areas of the hair. But in hand it's a weird looking seam, and breaks up what is otherwise a fantastic head sculpt.

It's also worth noting that the hand sculpts are in a bit better scale this time around. Sometimes Hot Toys (and several of the other high end sixth scale manufacturers) oversize the hands, but not this time.

Paint - ****
The paint work is excellent, as you've come to expect. The clown make up looks like make up, not like paint on a plastic head, and the subtle differences in color and tone, especially in the eyes and teeth, give the overall portrait a spooky real appearance.

Outside of the face, there's not a ton of operations. The gloved hands have some work, and there's a few details on a couple of the accessories, but for the most part it's the work on the face that garners him the high score.

Articulation - ***
This guy is on a slim TrueType, which is the closest Hot Toys has to the slender look of Brandon Lee...but is a bit too slender to look right without the black coat.

There's a knobby look the the ball shoulders that's not something we're used to seeing with these figures, and while the articulation is outstanding, it's more of a visual distraction this time.

Put that aside, and it's a great body. It works well, with plenty of joints and lots of fluid movement. You'll be able to get the classic poses without too much trouble, and the ball jointed neck and excellent ab-crunch will give you all the hunched stances you could want.

He also stands great on his own in deep stances, in no small part to the wide, flat bottoms on the big boots.

Accessories - ***
Eric doesn't have a ton of extras, but the exclusive does include one additional item.

There's the usual of course - a standard display stand with logo, as well as several extra wrist pegs for the hands.

Speaking of hands, there's the two relaxed poses he comes wearing, as well as a set of fists and a set of gripping hands. They swap easily, with no fear of breaking a post, but that's pretty light when it comes to additional hands.

He comes with his Ibanez guitar, although it doesn't actually say that on it. I'm assuming it's another one of those licensing issues, where they were looking to save money. 

While this guitar is nice, we've already seen really exceptional guitars in this scale, and they weren't that expensive. Resaurus did a series called Pick Ups about 12 years ago, and they retailed for around $8 each. You can still pick them up on ebay for $10 or so.

The regular version has one more extra - an actual crow, with the wings spread and feet out for landing...or attacking. To support him in a flying pose, there's a small black stand and clear plastic rod.

The crow itself is a nice sculpt, although the all black look makes it tough to get fancy with the paint work, and causes some of the sculpt detail to get lost to the eye.

The exclusive includes one more extra  - the weather vane. It's a nice sculpt (not much in the paint department, like the crow), but the plastic has a slightly flimsy feel to it. You'll want to handle it with a bit of care.

Outfit - **1/2
The outfit consists of the leather pants, boots, shirt with wrappings, necklace with ring, and leather overcoat.

The boot sculpt looks great, with the unlaced fronts and thick soles. This is a fairly unique look for Hot Toys, but they pulled it off just like every other boot sculpt.

Unfortunately, the tailoring and fit of the rest of the outfit just doesn't seem up to par. The shirt hangs oddly on the aforementioned ball shoulders, and the leather pants seem a bit too thick, causing odd folds and bends. Even the necklace hangs oddly at times, and you have to futz with it quite a bit to get a natural look.

The overcoat is  better, with a thin wire in both the back of the collar and the bottom coat seam to allow for some additional posing. It still seems thicker than usual, but the tailoring and fit is a bit better, and it hangs off his shoulders properly.

I was really hoping to go with the coat-less look in my display, since that's so much more iconic to me, but the simple fact is that he looks better, more filled out, when wearing the long coat.

Fun Factor - ***
There's not a lot here for play, or even for changing the poses over time, but he's a sturdy figure and will stand up to handling better than most high end collectibles.

Value - *1/2
I have some sponsors who have this down close to $200, but most retailers are in the $210 - $220 range, and the exclusive with the weather vane will run you $230. Considering the handful of accessories and lack of any lights, sounds or other special features, that's a lot of cash. This is a basic Hot Toys figure, and as such shouldn't be priced at more than $200.

Things to Watch Out For -
If you get the weather vane, be careful when handling it. The thinner plastic tip and edges could break under the right (or wrong) circumstances.

Overall - **1/2
Major Crow (or Brandon Lee) fans are going to shell out the money for this figure, and they will be very happy. It's a terrific likeness and excellent paint, just as you'd expect from Hot Toys. The issue is more around the lack of accessories and basic costume, which just don't seem to match up with the $200+ price point. Regular Hot Toys collectors are going to notice this discrepancy more than the one time buyer who is simply picking this guy up to have an exceptional Crow figure on their shelf.

I have to admit to being a bit disappointed by this one. I just covered their Tony Stark Mechanic figure, and that makes the inferior quality of the costume and accessories all that more apparent. If you removed the head (which is obviously Hot Toys quality) and handed me this figure, I would have assumed it was produced by another company, one that is close but hasn't quite reached the bar set by Hot Toys.

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

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Sideshow has this exclusive, with the weather vane, for $230.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I haven't reviewed a ton of Crow collectibles - there hasn't been that much. I did cover these comic based statues, but I never reviewed the 7" figures in the Cult Classics or Movie Maniacs series.

If you like the sixth scale guitar he has, you should also check out the Pick Ups from Resaurus, who did a number of classic electric and acoustic designs.

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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