Packaging - ***
The art and style of the cardbacks is pretty good, reminiscent of the
show. However, names of all the figures in a series on the card back
would be nice.
Sculpting - ***
The sculpting on these figures tends to vary. Scooby, Shaggy and the
villains were all good, but something seems off about Fred.
If they'd pulled off the Fred
sculpt, this would have been close to a perfect ****. The
accessories are also well sculpted, with lots of great detail.
The only other flaw to the
sculpting is the fact that the figures can't hold their accessories.
Some aren't really made to be held, like Scooby's sundae, but others, like
the Racer's books or Shaggy's sandwich, are pretty much on their own.
Paint - ****
The paint ops on all my figures is excellent, particularly the tough
details like the Racers face. Everyone's
eyes are pointed in the right direction, and all the detail lines are
clean and crisp.
Technically it's not paint,
but I'm giving extra points in this category as well for the nicely
colored translucent plastic used for the electrifying ghost. It
looks great, and matches up with the source material really well.
Articulation - ***1/2
These figures have good articulation, particularly in this scale.
Most have neck, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. All the joints
work well, and the figures can hold a lot of great poses, including
various running and screaming poses.
The only thing knocking this
down a half star is the quality of some of the joints. Some of them
seem weak, particularly on Shaggy and Scooby. The new villains were
great, so perhaps this is a carry over from the original sculpts on those
two figures. I had trouble keeping Shaggy standing, while the other
figures including Fred work far better.
Accessories - ***1/2
The accessory selection is very good, and fits the episodes and
characters. There's a little flip book that comes with each figure
that explains who the criminal is (remember, there never were any real
monsters on Scooby Doo), and why they did what they did. It's a nice
touch, and works pretty well.
Every figure has one
accessory - scared Shaggy with his sandwich, Phantom Racer with his
hypnosis books, the Ghost with the rope that was wrapped around his body,
and scared Scooby with his sundae.
Value - ***
Unfortunately, these are a little too expensive. With only one
accessory, in this scale, these are really $6 figures. At seven
bucks they are slightly overpriced.
Overall - ***1/2
I'm surprisingly pleased with
this. I hadn't picked up any of the first figures due to the scale,
but I like these enough to pick up the whole set so far. If you're a
big Scooby fan, I highly recommend them.
Where to Buy -
I've only seen the five pack once at a
KB, so if you see it and think you're interested, I'd grab it rather than
waiting.
The other figures, including
the new Mystery Machine, are showing up at Targets first. On-line:
- Comics
Infinity has the five figure set with the ladies for $9 plus shipping.
I haven't found any other
on-line retailers with the other new figures yet.
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