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WALL-E and Eve
Deluxe Figures

 Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys

Last week, I looked at several figures from the new WALL-E Pixar movie, coming out in June. These were the small figures, standing about 2 - 4" tall depending on the character. Thinkway is producing several lines however, and tonight I'm looking at the two critical characters - WALL-E and Eve - from the larger action figure line. These figures are more in the 4 - 6" range, but whether they fit in nicely with 6 - 7" figures from other lines or not will be up to your judgment.

The line includes a number of different WALL-E's, Eve of course, and the Captain. I haven't seen any other robots in this line (unlike the smaller line where they are all represented), but time will tell if there are further waves. These two are technically called "Cube and Stack WALL-E" and "Search and Destroy Eve".

I also noticed a new talking, moving, responding version of WALL-E last night at Toys R Us, that runs $30. He appeared to be sort of a 'Furreal' version of the robot, as he responds to your voice and to an Eve that wasn't present yet.

These figures run $10 a pop at Toys R Us, who seems to be getting them in early, similar to what they did with Narnia.
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys

Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys
Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys

Packaging - ***
The packaging for the larger figures isn't quite as cool as the smaller, more svelte bubbles on the little figures, but it's still quite attractive and eye catching. There's enough personalization on the back to make me happy, including instructions on the action feature, and some small photos of the other figures in this series.

Sculpting - Eve ****; WALL-E ***1/2
Both sculpts are extremely nice, very close to movie accurate as far as I can tell at this point. Of course, once the movie is actually out, we'll have a better idea, but from the stills I've looked at both of these are excellent representations.

It looks like all the sculpting details on the small WALL-E are also on the large version, but being a larger version he ends up appearing a bit less detailed. The most notable area is his head, where the details themselves seem softer and less defined.

Still, he's an excellent looking figure, and the sculpt issues are all minor nits. Unlike the small version, his treads are actual rubber, and he has some other additions too, like the hoses on the back of his head. His sculpt and action feature also work nicely together, neither getting in the way of the other. WALL-E stands about 4" tall, but he takes up a fair amount of volume, so it's up to you to decide from the photos whether he makes a good fit with 6", 7" or 12" figures.

Eve is slightly bigger than WALL-E, in accordance with her look in the film. In fact, the proportion of one character to the other is much more accurate in the larger figures than it was in the smaller ones. Without the base to support her, she'd stand about 5" tall, but with it she's 6" tall.

While I had some minor issues with the shape of the head and body on the smaller version, I think this one is dead on. It still reminds me of some sort of iPod, but there are only so many designs in the world. Eve doesn't have the issue with detail that WALL-E does, since she has no real details to begin with.

Paint - ***1/2
Eve has little in the way of paint, too, so it's not surprising I suppose that she does well in this category. Her white surfaces are high gloss, mirroring the look in the film, and her blue eyes look great. The white also matches extremely well between body parts, including the extra right arm accessory. She has a mirror finish sticker in her 'belly' that was put in place a little off center, but it's a minor issue.

WALL-E has the dirty look, like the small version, but they wiped a bit too much of the wash away. He ends up a little too clean for me, making him a bit more toy-like than the smaller version. He also lacks much in the way of paint ops on his head, adding to the bland detailing there.

However, all the paint ops that are here are extremely well done, with no slop and excellent cut lines. Sure, much of the plastic is cast in the correct color, but they've added enough details to keep it interesting and relatively film accurate. I do wish he had some of the blue to his eyes, or perhaps a way to close them down a bit to add to your ability to give him emotions.

Articulation - Eve ***1/2; WALL-E ****
Both of these figures are about as articulated as you can get with the designs, and both can hold a far greater number of cool poses than I expected.

WALL-E has a much better neck joint than the smaller counterpart. There's the cut joint at the top, but there's also a cut joint at the torso, and a pin joint at the bend. On top of that, there's a pin joint down the center of his two eyes, allowing them to move together or apart. Unfortunately, they can only move a little bit due to the design, but I was shocked to see they even tried to give us this joint.

All this neck articulation means WALL-E can look down or up, tilt his head in any direction, and have all kinds of personality and emotion added to his poses.

He also has the pin/post shoulder joints, and the small wheels on the bottom of his treads (even though the treads are rubber, the treads themselves don't turn). He has the pin joint on the hands too, but he adds cut wrists, a huge addition to the articulation in terms of posing. Both the front and back of his torso open as part of the action feature, but you can also just open them and leave them that way as part of another pose.

All the major joints use metal screws for posts, rather than plastic pins. This means he's very sturdy, and should be able to hold up to just about any play situation, short of an bad encounter with the lawn mower. You can pop off the arms or neck as well, and pop them right back on. This might be because the same arms and legs are used as part of the "you build him" WALL-E that's also in this series.

Eve has some very impressive joins as well. Her neck is just a cut joint, not a ball joint, and this is due to one of the action features. More on that in awhile, but for now I'll just say that this is an action feature so important that I'm willing to forgo the ball joint to get it.

Her shoulders are very unique. The arms can sit inside the body, completely flush with the surface. But the shoulder joint slides outward, allowing the arm to move out from the body. Once there, a second ball joint allows for a tremendous range of movement! This ball jointed post also pivots where it meets the arm, giving you the ability to get many of the same poses as in the film, where the arm actually floats way from the body. They even went the extra mile in making the posts for the arms and neck clear plastic, to emote that feeling of floating separate from the torso, rather than attached.

Eve's chest also opens up with the push of a button on her back, and this is fluid and smooth. Inside is what appears to be a 'green' symbol, and All this articulation for such an egg shaped figure was really surprising to me, especially the shoulder joints. You can tell Thinkway designers put a lot of time and thought into how they could best capture the look of the character from the film, and I have to say that they did a marvelous job.

EDIT - Wall-E has another feature I didn't first notice, and that wasn't mentioned on the package that I noticed.  His arms can be removed and attached at the lower front corners!  I'm assuming this has something to do with the film as well.  There are peg holes on either side (you can even see them in the photos) where the arms can be relocated.

Accessories - Eve ***1/2; WALL-E **1/2
WALL-E doesn't do quite as well as Eve here, and that's partly due to the fact that even from the previews we know that there is a tremendous potential for pack ins with his character. Where's the cockroach? Or the bra? Now I have to find one in this scale on my own.

He does come with two compacted hunks of garbage, designed to fit inside his body and work with one of his action features. These are made from a hard rubber, sort of like a super ball. They aren't particularly detailed, but I suspect that's going to be true in the film as well.

Eve comes with a light bulb, old boot with a plant growing out of it, a hunk of rock outcropping, and her blaster right arm. This right arm pops on and off easily enough, and the blaster arm looks great. The light bulb is designed with a cut at the base so it can rest on her arm, and I'm betting the boot with the plant is a key item in the film. The boot sculpt is so detailed it even has a complex sole pattern!  There is also a hunk of rock with a section that pops off with the press of a button.  Again, I suspect this is related to a specific scene in the film.

Eve also has her clear display stand, but there is one disappointment here. On the smaller Eve, there was a ball joint where she popped onto the stand, so she could tilt in various directions above the ground. On this one, the connector is designed so that the figure can't tilt in any way, taking away some posing potential.

Action Feature - Eve ***1/2; WALL-E ***
Both figures come with 'action features', and amazingly enough, both are damn cool.

WALL-E's is pretty simple. Open up the front Open up the back. The piston like compactor will slide toward the back as you do, and you can place one of the appropriately shaped (they are cut so that the back is smaller than the front, making it easier to slide them in and out) garbage blocks inside. Push down on the back and POP - out comes the trash.

The best part of this action feature is that it doesn't interfere with the figure in any way, and in fact adds to the number of poses since the front and back can be open at differing positions.

Eve's action feature is even better though, and I'd go so far as to say it's critical. Actually she has two - one critical and one not so much.

The not so much feature is her pop open chest. Press a clear button on her back, and the doors on her chest open to reveal what I'm assuming is a storage compartment. There is a weird circle sculpted where her heart would be...I wonder if that has some significance in the film.

I could live without this feature if just to get a smooth body. The seams for the door are a bit distracting, but it's not a major issue.

The critical feature involves her eyes. Obviously, with the lack of dialog in the film, using the body poses and eye poses to emote is going to be crucial in the film. With this Eve, you can press down on her head, and her eye position switches to one of six different expressions. There's the full wide eyes of course, as well as tiny slits, what looks like winking, eyelids part way down in anger or concern, drowsy, and happy. Not since Mezco's posable eyebrows have we gotten such a variety of expressions that you can set yourself! The feature works smoothly, and is really more for the displayer than the player.

Value - ***
At $10, these figures are actually a far superior value to the $6 figures. Rather than just make them bigger, they added articulation, accessories and action features that are all well designed and well thought out. This is the kind of work we've come to expect from Thinkway!

Fun Factor - ***1/2
These are both made from sturdy materials, and are well designed toys. Even though there isn't exactly a lot of physical conflict in this movie (or so I surmise), kid's may still find these characters a ton of fun.

Things to Watch Out For - 
Not a thing.

Overall - ***1/2
It's amazing to me what the extra four bucks bought me on both these figures. Better articulation, better accessories, cool action features...and bigger figures on top of that! I still recommend picking up the small WALL-E to go with your R2-D2, but if you're looking for the better value and better overall figures, stick with this series.

These are excellent toys, perhaps the best movie related line we've gotten so far this year. With the paint issues on Indy, articulation issues on Kung Fu Panda, and the numerous issues on lines like Speed Racer, Hulk and Batman (with the exception of the MM stuff), it's looking right now like the WALL-E line could top my list. Hell, if some of the other figures in this series are this good, it will end up on the short list as one of the best lines of the year.

I've included a photo or two with some other figures so you can decide if these fit in with other lines. I think they're too big for any 6" or 7" line, and really too small for any 12" line. For me, they'll have to stand on their own.

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpt - Eve ****; WALL-E ***1/2
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - Eve ***1/2; WALL-E ****
Accessories - ***
Action Feature - Eve ***1/2; WALL-E ***
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy -
Toys R Us is beating the competition on getting these out first. This line runs $10 a figure. Or you can search ebay with MyAuctionLinks.com.

Related Links -
Just last week, I covered several of the smaller action figures as well.

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Wall-E and Eve deluxe action figures by Thinkway Toys


Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford.

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