Review of Walter White/Heisenberg - Breaking Bad action figure

Introduction

Watch out, Florida Mom - Walter is back, ready to introduce your 8 year old to the glorious world of cooking meth! Actually, he's more likely to introduce them to Member's Only jackets and pork pie hats, which might be worse.

Mezco has expanded their popular 6" line of Breaking Bad action figures to the larger 12" scale.  I wouldn't call this guy 'sixth scale', since I tend to reserve that term for highly articulated figures with cloth clothing, but he's in the same ball park. Everything here is sculpted and rotocast, and of course this is technically Heisenberg, and not Walter White.

The best part? This guy is only $25 or so, depending on the retailer. Yes, that's right - a 12" figure from a popular license that's as cheap (and in some cases, cheaper) than a lot of the current 6 - 7" 'collector' figures out there.

Packaging - ***
The box is attractive, and has a nice big window that shows off the figure and the accessories quite well. It's not completely collector friendly, as there are some SERIOUS twisty ties that will have to be removed and tossed, but it will store and display easily for the MIBers.

Sculpting - **1/2
This figure is the 6" version of Heisenberg, all growed up. They've taken the sculpt and up sized it to the larger format, and you're assumption might be that this means the result is exactly the same. While that might seem like a reasonable assumption, you'd be wrong for two reasons.

First, it's lost some of it's detail, particularly in the portrait. I'm going to go out on a limb here and bet that the original was sculpted in scale, not as a two up, and when they blew up that 1/12th version, detail was lost. It makes the portrait a little more toy-ish, and it also brings out a couple of the issues that were less apparent in the smaller scale, like the slightly narrow and tall look of the bald head. That squeezed look is much less obvious when he's wearing the hat and glasses, but bare it's pretty glaring.

The second issue is at the neck/jaw line. With the smaller version, the head and neck were all one piece, making it a smooth transition. Here, the head is separate from the neck, jointed at the jawline. This doesn't look bad from the front, but is awkward looking from the side.

The rest of the figure is pretty much as you'd expect, with a nice texture on the jacket, and a reasonable amount of detail in the clothing. He stands slightly over 12", and does said standing just fine on his own. His head and torso are rotocast, so they are hollow, but there's a chunkiness to his proportions that makes him seem a bit out of scale with standard sixth scale figures. I do think a good customizer could get some use out of this head sculpt, however.

Paint - ***
All of the paint work is clean, although there's not a ton of detail.

The best work is on the face, where the eyes, eye brows and beard have sharp edges and no slop. The beard could use a little more detail - it's a bit too clean to be realistic - but at least there is no slop.  It's very hard to see in photos, but the top of the head has the shadow of hair as well, and in person it looks quite good.

There's a bit more slop on some of the clothing details, like the buttons or the jacket zipper, but it's fairly minor. Considering the price point, the work here is on par.

Articulation - **
This is not a super articulated figure, but it does have more joints and range of movement than the 6" version.

That starts with the aforementioned neck joint. There's not a ton of tilt and lean, but there's enough to add a little personality to most poses.

The shoulders are cut joints, as are the wrists and waist???. The ankles can turn, and they have just a smidge of a rocker movement from side to side too, but it's really there so you can get him to stand in his one sculpted leg pose.

Accessories - ***
He comes with three accessories, and sadly, none of them are a bag of little blue crystals. I'm hoping that was a result of keeping the costs down, and not because of a few whiny adults.

He also lacks the gun that the smaller version had, another disappointment. But if cutting a couple of these extras kept the price below $30, I can certainly see the wisdom.

He does have his classic hat, and it fits great.  It's also not over sized, often a problem for figures in this scale. He comes with both his sunglasses and his regular glasses, and these fit pretty well on his face. Neither are high end quality, but again, at this price point that's not to be expected.

Fun Factor - **
This is one of those figures that you'll pop on the shelf and leave there.  He's really the definition of a Nerd Hummel. There's no real potential for posing and re-posing, but you might change up the look with the hat and glasses occasionally.

Value - ***1/2
One of the important aspects here is price - this guy is only $25 or so, depending on the retailer. You're paying over $30 with shipping on MOTUC right now, and I've seen Marvel Legends edging up to $22 at some retailers. Mezco has done a good job keeping their 6" Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy figures under $20 so far, but I was still surprised to see this guy at only a few bucks more.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing.

Overall - ***
If you're looking for a high end sixth scale version of Heisenberg, this is NOT it.  It's not intended to be it, and they aren't going after that market. If you are looking for such a beast, check out the version coming from ThreeZero, but be prepared to pay around $150.

This guy is intended for the more casual collector who is looking for something in a larger scale for their desk or cubicle. I did grade the head sculpt slightly lower than on the 6" version for reasons I explained earlier, but the price point really makes up for a number of sins.

I would be interested in seeing what a good customizer could do with this head, particularly with a new, more detailed and realistic paint job. I don't think that the glasses would have a lot of use in this regard, but the hat is a reasonably well done accessory that could be used with a kitbash.

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

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth has him for $25

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I covered the smaller 6" version of this figure quite awhile back.

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