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Packaging - **1/2
Nothing special on the packaging front. The figures are bubbled to a
card, but you can play with the voice box inside the package.
Lots of red, white and blue,
so this is obviously in response to 9/11, but the back of the package
shows the vitals of each figure, includes instructions on putting in the
voice box, and other information.
Sculpting - ***
It's hard to say how many head sculpts there actually are, although I
saw four - three Caucasian and one African American. Since all four
figures come in both Caucasian and AA versions, there could be up to 8
head sculpts, although I doubt there are that many.
The head sculpts aren't too
complicated, but they look decent. This is actually good news for
customizers, as these could be used as base heads for a variety of
characters.
At the bottom of the review
is a picture of the four figures with three other common 9" figures -
Red Skull from the Famous Covers line, Superman Blue from the DC 9"
Heroes line, and Captain Kirk from the Playmates Star Trek line. You
can see that the head sculpts are all very similar in size, although the
heights of the figures are slightly different.
Uniform - ***
The uniforms are very nice for this price range. The material and
stitching is all high quality, and the closure of choice is velcro for the
most part.
The officer comes with the
shirt and pants, boots, gun belt and hat. The hat seems a bit small
to me, but I suspect if it was any bigger it would look out of
place. His belt is a bit big as well, but comes with a holster for
the gun, and a space to put the radio.
His uniform fits tightly,
although they are easy enough to take off and put back on. The badge
on the front of his shirt is made of plastic, rather than just a print.
The fire fighter uniform is
even nicer, and looks very much like the standard urban uniform.
It's black with the reflective stripes, although they aren't really
'reflective'.
The fire fighter doesn't have
a belt, but his helmet is nicer and includes a chin strap. Actually, his
helmet is the only really great one of the bunch - they seemed to have
trouble with the headgear.
The Shuttle Astronaut has a
one piece orange jumpsuit. His suit also fits very well, although
his helmet seems a bit wide on his head and body. The visor lowers
and raises, and there are cutouts on either side to allow you to reach the
voice buttons on the shoulders.
The SWAT Commander has the
most spartan outfit, and easily the worst headgear of the bunch. He
has this funky helmet, too small for his head, with an obtrusive chin
strap. The black uniform fits well, but there's no belt this
time. Oddly though, he's the only one to have plastic snaps at his
sleeves.
The best part about the
uniforms are the details though. Lots of pockets on all the clothes,
with good velcro closures that aren't excessively thick and obvious.
You'd expect more re-use here
than there is. All four uniforms are completely unique, even the
SWAT and Police Officer. The boots are all very well done, with a
good sculpt and made from soft material. The Astronaut and the SWAT
officer have the same boot sculpt, but the boots on the police officer and
fire fighter are unique.
The only other re-use is in
the walkie-talkies that three of the four figures carry. Speaking of
the walkie-talkies...
Accessories - ***1/2
Both figures come with several accessories, and there's an extra touch on
several of them.
The fire fighter only has two
- his axe and his radio. He's a little light in this department, and
I think one or two more would have been good, especially considering how
many cool accessories are possible.
The officer is much better
outfitted, the best of the bunch, with a handgun, night stick, flashlight
and radio. As I said earlier, both the handgun and radio can be
carried in the belt/holster.
The Astronaut has really been
ripped off, considering how many cool accessories there could be. he
only gets some sort of air tank to carry. At least I'm hoping it's
an air tank. Considering the placement of the hose, there are other
possibilities.
The SWAT Commander has an
automatic rifle, walkie-talkie, and some goggles. The goggles don't
work to well with the already dopey looking hat.
So what's the extra
feature? These accessories get an extra half star because several -
the radios and the guns to be exact - have small posts attached to
them. There is a small hole in both palms so that the accessories
can be placed in the hands and not fall out easily. The posts fit in
the holes smoothly, and the pose of the accessory using the post is
great. Nice touch!
Articulation - ***1/2
These figures aren't quite as articulated as the current industry standard
12" figure, but they are an improvement on both the Famous Covers
body, and the DC 9" body. It appears they've learned from both.
The neck has a psuedo ball
joint, allowing the head to look up and down, at least in a limited
way. The chest is heroic without being over done, with a ball
jointed waist. Ball joints are also at the shoulders and hips, with
cut joints at the biceps, jointed ankles, knees, elbows and wrists, and
the jointed hands similar to DC 9" figures.
While 12" figures are
more articulated, the level of articulation here is very good, and better
than any other current 9" body. Construction is also very
solid, and these bodies will give customizers another option in the
9" format.
Referring to the last picture
again, you can see that these guys are slightly taller than the DC 9"
figures due to the boots, but are almost identical in height to the FC's.
While these bodies look a lot
like the DC bodies in some respects, they aren't the same. They are
just based on a similar design.
Paint - **1/2
The paint ops aren't bad, although there isn't a lot of detail here.
The face work is pretty good, but the hair lines are a little sloppy on a
couple.
There's not much detail on
the accessories, but the paint work is fine, and there is a pretty spiffy
tattoo on the bodies right shoulder, showing the Real Heroes badge.
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