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Resident Evil: Afterlife - Alice
Hot Toys
"The
following is a guest review. The review
and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford
or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the
guest author."
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Jeff steps in with a review tonight of the figure that won the
Poppies for best female figure over 11" released in 2011 - tell us why
that is, Jeff!
The Resident Evil franchise continues to be one of the best
represented licenses that Hot Toys has undertaken. But so far all the
figures have represented the way the characters looked in the
video-games… the movies got no love, until now!
Here we
finally have a figure of just about every fan-boy’s favourite fantasy
pin-up (well for the cool ones who go for quirky beauty over pneumatic
breasts and fake tans) Milla Jovovich. Starring as the long-suffering
heroine of the on-going Resident Evil movies- Alice (surname Abernathy
apparently, but it’s a closely guarded secret). She’s an actress that
has packed over thirty roles into a career that is just over 20 years
strong… and of course if you make that many movies it stands to reason
that some will be a lot stronger than others, and it has been noted
that she has made some true stinkers!
However, having been
blessed with the face and body of an angel it seems the casting agents
don’t go by the adage ‘you are only as good as your last job’ and she
just keeps on coming back atcha. Perhaps best remembered as Leeloo from
the Fifth Element, but she is now probably better known to many as
Alice, a role she has reprised four times and is due to play again
later this year in Resident Evil: Retribution.
For those interested in a look back at the video characters that came before’ they all linked to archived reviews below
Leon S Kennedy x 2
Jack Krauser x 2
Ganado (Chainsaw)
BSAA Chris Redfield
Sheva & Wesker
STARS Chris & Wesker
STARS Jill Valentine
Battle Suit Jill Valentine
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Packaging
- ***1/2
This
goes for the landscape format, and is a pleasing, clean bit of graphic
design, but it doesn’t do anything particularly innovative. Of course
design shouldn’t always have to be ground breaking, but the work coming
out of the studios at Hot Toys is so consistently strong that they have
set a bench mark that even they themselves can’t always live up to.
The
front bears a pic of Alice in the rain… all wet… and dripping… and
holding two revolvers and… I’ll stop there, it’s a nice image. The side
is held shut with magnets and unwinds to reveal a tray attached to the
inner flap with her extra coat, straight bladed katana, saya and
telescopic baton. Opposite this is a die-cut window, fashioned to look
like it is framed with fragments and shards of broken glass. Inside the
box the figure is as always held snugly in layers of die-cut vac formed
plastic and on this occasion a couple of twisties are used around the
feet to keep her from rattling around. You will also notice on close
inspection that the top layer of the plastic tray is even formed to
support the die-cut glass fragments… nice attention to detail, but
still not quite enough to garner a full score!
Sculpting - ***3/4
This
is another one of those sculpts that has divided people greatly, some
love it while I’ve heard some say they don’t see Milla at all… well, I
guess we all see things differently but this is a very strong sculpt to
my eyes, and if you truly don’t see her at all, well perhaps you
‘should have gone to Specsavers’.
It’s
the work of Song Hye Hyun and shows Alice with a focused, determined
expression, but still manages to keep the soft curve of the cheeks and
delicate chin. The lips are full, pouty and sculpted with a deep recess
into the mouth, in such a way that the shadows cast from it give the
illusion of an even deeper opening.
She comes with two different
hairpieces, both essentially the same style, but one is worn pushed
back at the sides while the other is hanging down at the sides. Both
swapped over easily and are held in place with a magnet concealed on
the top of the inner head. You’ll need to futz a while to get the
optimum fit, but once all aligned the join is almost invisible.
I
just spent the last ten minutes Googling various hi-res images of Ms
Jovovich, hey it’s a tough job but I think I can handle it. And having
deliberated, cogitated and digested the various images I almost gave
this a full score… but I do feel some angles work better than others so
I’m keeping her just shy. It is a beautiful job though, and Song has
done a sterling job.
Paint
- ****
Another
perfect 10! Some might choose to quibble over the likeness of the
underlying sculpt, but the paint app is (as we know expect as standard)
virtually beyond reproach!
Beautiful warm clean skin tones,
luscious shiny cherry lips with just a hint of her teeth showing on the
interior of her mouth and super crisp glossy eyes. The hair is a deep
chestnut brown with marginally lighter streaks and highlights on the
raised strands, there are two alternate hairpieces that can be swapped
over and both have the same finish. JC Hong really knows how to make
this look effortless, and its testament to his talent that we all know
it is actually very far from effortless. It is in fact nothing short of
a little miracle that Hot Toys consistently put out paint apps of this
quality… but let’s all give thanks that they do!
Outfit
- ****
Although this
ensemble is what can best be described as post-apocalyptic combat wear,
the inclusion of the tight ‘bodice’ means it still manages to make
Milla look like a total fox, just look at this pic and tell me I’m wrong!
It’s
one of those outfits that is actually more layered and complex than you
might notice at first. And the inclusion of the winter coat, as seen here adds even more value and display options.
From
the ground up, she wears long sculpted boots, incorporating a laced up
section to the mid-shin then a strapped section that goes up over the
knee. Under the boots she has knitted cut-off ribbed green leggings to
the mid-thigh and a pair of skin-tight black ski-pants. Her top half
sports a black T-shirt beneath a fabric and webbing bodice that laces
up the back. Over this is a leather gun harness and belt combo to
holster her mini arsenal. Over her lower arms are strapped and bound
separate sleeves that come up to just over the elbow.
Lastly
there is the extra Russian military style coat with its fur-wrap
collar. This has the tiny plastic press studs (so beloved of Michael)
to do up the front and the fur collar. It also has a belt around the
waist with a working buckle (but is meant to be tied in a knot ‘trench
coat stylee’). All the pockets are sewn shut and it has tiny metal
buttons glued in all the relevant places. The cut is well suited to the
figure and fits well, but as much as I like it, the look ‘sans manteau’
is far more iconic.
All the items are tailored and constructed
to a very high standard, and regardless of what you think of the
costume design, you have to admit it’s been fabricated to near
perfection for the scale. I would have perhaps liked the boots to have
been more flexible at the ankle, but even that isn’t enough to keep
this from a full score.
Articulation
- *** 1/4
Alice is built around a variation of the classic female True-Type (TT), you can see the configuration of the classic base TT’s here.
However
they have continued to use the new less effective elbow design for this
figure (as they did on the other RE female figures), it lacks the
double elbow joint evident on the base female TT’s in the link above,
and so has a single joint which only affords about 90 degrees of bend.
It’s especially frustrating as the elbows are covered by her long bound
gauntlets, so it’s not even as though it’s to help in the aesthetic.
You’ll also find the waist articulation is now gone, but there is a
joint in the upper torso where the breasts meet the trunk of her body.
Just enter ‘Hot Toys Alice body’ on an eBay search and you’ll see
plenty of examples of how the base body is configured (well, you will
at the time of writing which is Jan 2012, if you’re reading this
retrospectively in the archive you may be out of luck, but hey, that’s
pop culture!)
Apart from this everything else is as we have come
to expect from female TT’s, meaning it’s a solid well-built figure.
However it could most certainly do with a few tweaks and just a little
more of the love and attention that the male TT’s get to enhance its
range of mobility even further. It’s especially vexing because we KNOW
Hot Toys is capable of oh so much more.
Accessories
- ****
I
guess Milla’s hubby Paul W.S. Anderson has been watching a few John Woo
movies. As every weapon she is equipped with (bar the katana and baton)
comes with a twin for that double handed flying through the air giving
it both barrels look. The haul consists of:-
2 Gurkha knives
2 Smith & Wesson Model 460V’s
2 dual 12 gauge sawn-off double barreled shotguns
2 Heckler & Koch MP5K’s
1 katana with saya
1 telescopic baton (though it’s not actually telescopic)
1 Russian military coat
1 extra sculpted hair style
1 classic black figure stand
The
katana has a real metal blade with a moulded plastic saya that fits
into straps on the back of her leather harness. The twin revolvers have
cockable hammers and flip-out chambers while the shotguns can both be
broken at the hinge and the tiny shells can be removed. The machine
guns have removable magazines and a small rotating link at its hub for
a lanyard. The twin Gurkha knives aren’t metal (sadly) but the paint
app and detailing do go some way to make up for that fact. She also
comes equipped with a rather underwhelming baton that is sculpted to
look telescopic but isn’t. I’m sure this served some pivotal role in a
kick ass scene in the movie, but as I still haven’t seen it, it seems
like something to leave in the box, especially with the wealth of other
goodies she has to pose with.
Of course there is also the extra
hair style and her coat which are also very much accessories, but I’ve
already dissected that in the outfit section. Lastly there is the
standard classic oval black figure stand; we all know how I feel about
figure stands, so moving along!
In the past pretty much all the
RE figures from the video games have come with a solid selection of
weaponry, and it’s good to see that tradition carry over to the movie
figures, and she certainly seems to be packing everything she could
conceivably need (plus a telescopic baton).
Value
- ***1/2
It
looks like the $150 Hot Toys figure is now firmly a thing of the past,
and with this having a full RRP of $164.99 it kind of proves that point!
In
this present climate of pricing (which we are going to have to get used
to) this is pretty much par for the course… so even though I’m not
going to whinge and whine about it being too high, neither can I ignore
it and give a full score.
I guess at the end of the day its
worth what its worth, and that will vary hugely from one individual to
the next. While some ‘worthy’ adults will just tut-tut and shake their
heads at the thought of another grown man (or woman) shelling out this
kind of green on what is essentially a doll, there are of course
others… a brave, proud and modern group of individuals (yeah, that’s
us) who just HAVE to get a 1/6th version of Milla for our collections,
and if you are a member of this proud troop, I salute you!
Fun
Factor - ***
Alice is
quite the action girl, and to be fair you can strike quite a few
dynamic poses with the figure, but the base female TT is still in need
of a few modifications, especially when intended for the more ‘extreme’
action orientated characters like this.
The price is as always a
pointer that this is no kiddies play thing, and in the hands of an
adult collector you’ll have no real problems… well, I didn’t anyway. I
would however advise care and caution with the leather harness, it
looks like it could potentially be fragile and if a kid did get its
grubby mitts on this, I’d give it five minutes before the harness was
in tatters.
Overall-
***1/2
I’m someone who
freely admits to being partial to Ms Jovovich’s charms, and as such I
like this portrait. She comes with a solid selection of weapons that
are doubled up throughout and the outfit is very well researched and
fabricated. So all in all I’d recommend her as a keeper.
I am
however keeping her shy of the full score purely because of the price
(which is high, but not unreasonable) and also because of the
articulation. It’s a double edged sword getting a figure to look right
but also be able to pose freely without too much restriction coming
from the outfit, and here they have done a reasonably good job. But the
intrinsic limitations that the female TT, coupled with the moulded
boots mean she gets close to perfection, but is not quite there yet!
I guess I ought to try and see the movie now! Where to buy
Sideshow
still has her in stock for $164.99 here or you can try some of
Mike’s sponsors where you could potentially save up to $15 on the RRP.
Fan Boy Collectibles $149.99
BBTS $154.99
Urban Collector $156.99
Or hit
eBay where her BIN prices are between $150 to $180. 
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This product was provided free for the review by the manufacturer.
Photos and text by Jeff Parker.
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