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As to those upcoming series, they've switched to a four figure per wave plan, down from the past six figures per wave. Wave 8 is scheduled to include Workout Chris, Diane Simmons, Secret Agent Astronaut Millionaire Peter, and Quagmire in a bathrobe. The ninth series has been discussed as the Black Knight, Bonnie Swanson, Lando Griffin, and Stewie with an extra full diaper. Series 9 is still quite a way out though, so I wouldn't be surprised to see line up changes.
Packaging - ***
If you were expecting it to change, don't. It's fairly basic, but it does the job and it gets the point across. I wish they were a little smaller - seems like there is an awful lot of wasted space - and you know I prefer clamshells, but there's quite a bit to be said for maintaining a consistent package appearance for an entire license.
Sculpting - Bionic Peter, PA, BG Lois, Groovy Death ***1/2; Neil, Stewie
***
I was a bit surprised by a couple of these figures, as I hadn't expected to
like them as much as I do.
One of those is Bionic Peter. These one gag sort of variations are
usually less appealing to me (at least Stewie wore the commando duds for
awhile), but I really like Peter. Oh, most casual observers might wonder
'huh?' when they see it on your desk, but it's such a cool looking character
that I can overlook the obscurity. The proportions are good, and the
various 'bionic' pieces - magnifying glass eye, rake right arm, plunger right
leg, garbage can left leg - look fantastic.
But my favorite of this line is the Performance Artist. The head
sculpt is dead on, the body looks excellent, the sculpt and articulation
compliment each other, and the hands are even sculpted to work well with the
plate of cookies or other accessories.
Lois was another big surprise. I'm not really sure we needed another
Lois variant, and this one really didn't do much for me in the early
photos. But once I had it, I realized that they'd done quite a bit of
updating to the original look. The nose is smaller, the lips are
smaller, and the slightly wilder hair all come together to make a much better
looking - hot or not - version of Lois. She's slightly smaller than the
previous versions too, including her head, and I like the new proportions and
scale better.
Her lips are sculpted with a small hole for the cigarette, but it's not too
noticeable if you decide to make her a non-smoker.
The first series Death got ***1/2 for his sculpt, and I actually like this
one better. There's a little more depth to the interior of the hood, and
the funky afro looks terrific. The only downside to him is the softer
plastic they're using, especially in the wrists.
Neil is good, and he's going to take an honorable place on the shelf next
to Meg, but there does seem to be something slightly off. Perhaps it's
the shape of the head, or perhaps it's the proportions in general, but he's
not *quite* Neil. Still, I'm most happy about getting this character after the
PA, since he adds someone new to the collection.
The only one I'm not particularly thrilled with is Stewie, but in the
sculpt department he's not bad. The regular top half of his head snaps
on well, and because of the bandana, the hair is sculpted back a bit farther
on his head. The combination of the bandana and the hair actually makes his
head appear to be shaped a little more like it is on the show, although I
don't think they've actually changed the size of the head in any way.
The shirt is sculpted rather than just painted on, and his right hand is
sculpted to hold the knife. The opening is too big for the star to work
correctly (you can jury rig a pose but it doesn't really look right), and the
left hand is sculpted in a fist. I could have swore I saw early photos
of him holding both accessories, but that's not the case with the production
figure.
Paint - Groovy Death, Neil ***1/2; PA, Bionic Peter ***; BG Lois,
Commado Stewie **1/2;
This overall line has always been plagued with paint issues. The broad,
bright colors often suffer from poor cuts between them, and other standard
issues like stray marks and sloppy details are common.
That's still true with this line. For me, the Neil and Groovy Death
had the best work, with almost no slop. Even Neil's braces were fairly
clean, and the variant has the tampo of Neil and Meg kissing on the front,
lined up nice and neatly on his chest. The colors on Death and his dog
look great, but even he has some inconsistencies in finish, with some spots
brighter and glossier than others.
The other figures in the series largely suffer from poor cuts between
colors. The edges are sloppy, with bleed from one color to the other or
overspray. It's not terrible, but my Lois and Stewie exhibited the most
problems.
The lesson? Pick your set carefully. I'm betting you can find a
Lois that's perfect if you try hard enough, or and up with a Death that looks
terrible if you're not careful.
Articulation - PA ***1/2; Bionic Peter, Commando Stewie, Neil ***; Death
**1/2; Lois *1/2
As usual with cartoon figures, none of these are super articulated.
Still, there's good and bad.
The Performance Artist showcases the good side. He has an excellent
ball jointed neck, with a ton of posing possibilities and the ability to add
lots of personality to the figure. He also has ball jointed shoulders, but
these are the same style we've seen with most other figures in the line.
The balls at the torso don't allow for a whole lot of movement away from the
body.
He also has a cut waist, cut wrists, and the all important angle cut
elbows. The elbows are a big addition to the figure, and allow him to
hold his plate of cookies.
The bad is Bad Girl Lois. She does have a ball jointed neck, but it doesn't
quite have the same range of movement as the PA. And that is the one and
only joint she has. Although the shoulders look like cut joints, they're
glued in place. There's nothing moving here other than her head.
In between these two extremes are the other figures. Neil has a ball
jointed neck, pin ball shoulders, cut wrists and cut waist. Peter has cut
joints at the neck, waist, where the rack attaches to his body and where the
plunger attaches to his body. He also has the standard FG ball jointed
shoulders. And Death has a cut neck, cut shoulders, cut wrists and one
cut elbow. Commando Stewie is similar to past Stewies, with a cut neck,
pin ball shoulders, cut waist and cut hips.
The articulation is all about as much as you can really get for these
designs, so there's no real surprises, positive or negative.
Accessories - Neil ***1/2; PA, Lois, Death ***; Commando Stewie **1/2;
Bionic Peter Bupkis
The accessories are a bit lighter this time around, but there's still some interesting goodies here.
Groovy Death has the same two accessories as before - his sickle and his dog. This time though, his dog is done up in the same groovy colors as he is. The dog isn't
articulated, just like the first time around. Death also has a gold
chain, disco sized, with a gold medallion. The chain itself is metal,
but the medallion is plastic, making the two look quite a bit different.
The chain isn't easily removable, but pop off an arm and you can do it.
I wouldn't recommend it though.
Bionic Peter hasn't got jack. I suppose it's because he's large, and
fairly complex - but it's still tough to pay $13 or more for just a single
figure with nothing else.
Neil gets the best score of the bunch, since he has a nice assortment of character specific unique items. There's the clipboard, corncob pipe, table and A/V equipment.
The table has four legs hidden underneath, but the wheels on the feet don't
turn.
BG Lois might look hot, but she's not quite as warm in this category. She does have a boom box though, to help her do her thing.
She also has a small display stand, a smart move on Mezco's part.
Without it, you can't get her to stand. She also has one more accessory
not mentioned or shown on the package - a cigarette. I mentioned earlier that
her mouth is sculpted to hold it, and it looks pretty good in there.
Commando Stewie has a knife and throwing star, but he can only hold the
knife. The right hand is the only one sculpted to hold things, and the
gap between the fingers and thumb is sized for the larger knife, not the
thinner star. His coolest accessory is his camouflage head gear. The
top half of his head actually pops off, and you are supposed to pop the head
gear on. Too bad this works poorly, because he looks much better wearing
the grass than not. But the regular head top pops on and off with a
snap, but the grass top won't stay on tightly for me. It pretty much
falls off, and because of the size, he has to lean quite a way foreword to
stay standing with it on.
Finally, there's the Performance Artist. He only has two accessories, but they both fit him perfectly from a character perspective, and one is huge. He has a plate of cookies, along with the CPR dummy.
The dummy is very hollow, very light plastic, and unarticulated, but it's in a decent scale and
looks cool. The paint ops are a tad weak on this accessory, but that
seems consistent with the rest of the line.
Fun Factor - ***
These are fun figures, even if they don't have uber-articulation. There's plenty of cool accessories, the sculpts look great, and the episode specific characters take you back to some of the funnier moments from the show. If this was a kid's line, kids would actually enjoy them, but they lack the one key ingredient for a line aimed at the younger set - conflict. One of Michael's Top Ten Rules of Action Figures is that a license MUST have conflict within it for it to make a good kid's line. That's why action figures based on Power Rangers, Ben 10 or Avatar do well, and while shows like Spongebob or Fairly Odd Parents might have a huge fan base, they'll never sell as action figures, at least to kids.
Value - **1/2
These still run around that $12 mark, which is pretty average right now on the specialty market. You're best bet for getting a full set AND saving money is to pre-order thsese through reputable online companies - you'll get them faster than waiting for the store to get them in, and almost always cheaper even with shipping.
Things to Watch Out For -
Paint ops once again. If you're picking your set off the peg, do what
you can to compare and get the best set.
Also, take care with some of the joints. Some, like Death's wrists,
are very soft plastic, and can easily break if they are paint stuck.
Overall - PA, Neil ***1/2; Death, Bionic Peter, BG Lois ***; Commando
Stewie **1/2
If you're only picking up new characters, you'll be happy with Neil and the
Performance Artist. Both look terrific on their own, but even better
with previously released characters.
Unless you're a completist, or a huge fan of the particular episode, I'd
skip Stewie. His one saving grace is you could put him with the previous
Bertram, instead of the Stewie from that wave, to give the shelf a little more
interesting look.
Groovy Death, BG Lois and Bionic Peter are all solid variants, and they've
managed to make what I thought would be uninteresting actually pretty
cool. But I'm betting that only the hardcore will pick up the entire
wave.
Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpt - Bionic Peter, PA, BG Lois, Groovy Death ***1/2; Neil, Stewie
***
Paint - Groovy Death, Neil ***1/2; PA, Bionic Peter ***; BG Lois, Commado
Stewie **1/2;
Articulation - PA ***1/2; Bionic Peter, Commando Stewie, Neil ***; Death
**1/2; Lois *1/2
Accessories - Neil ***1/2; PA, Lois, Death ***; Commando Stewie **1/2; Bionic
Peter Bupkis
Fun Factor - ***
Value - **1/2
Overall - PA, Neil ***1/2; Death, Bionic Peter, BG Lois ***; Commando Stewie
**1/2
Where to Buy -
Plenty of online opportunities to spend your scratch -
- YouBuyNow has series 8 up for pre-order, and a ton of the older figures in stock. They'll put up their Series 7 figures when they hit stock.
- Amazing Toyz and CornerStoreComics
have the set of 6 for $65, or single figures for $11 - $16, depending on the character.
- in the U.K., Forbidden Planet
has them for about 10 GBP each.
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