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Packaging - ***
Mezco stuck with clamshells for these guys, and the work just great of
course. The insert is a solid cardboard, rather than thin paper.
It's pretty sparse though, and while that simplicity works well for the front
of the card, there could be a little more in terms of text and graphics on the
back. Still, it's going to hold up well to peg wear, and store fairly
easily for the MOCers. It shows off the figures in the darker suits
better than this one, because the white suit tends to blend in with the white
insert.
Sculpting - ***
If I were grading this figure on head sculpt alone, it would get another
half star, maybe even another full star. This is easily my favorite
version of Scarface that's been out to date.
This sculpt is about 90& realistic, 10% cartoon. That's okay by
me, and is a big improvement over the rotocast versions. We haven't seen
the final version from Sideshow yet, but until then, this is the winner.
The other two in the series didn't do as much for me. The variant
Player was more cartooned up than this one, and the Fall version is in an
extreme moment in time, a snapshot of his craziness that didn't really
translate well. Still, serious fans are likely to want all three, and
going with different head sculpts (and not just different paint schemes) for
the two versions of the Player was a nice touch.
Unfortunately, there's also the rest of the sculpt here, which pulls down
the overall score. It's a very rough sculpt, with harsh lines, lots of
texture, but things look clunky and thick. The shirt collar doesn't look
like a shirt, it looks like thick plastic roughly carved, the vest and buttons
blend in together with little definition, and the jewelry, while it's all
here, looks more like a mass market job than what we've come to expect from
Mezco.
The body is also more cartoony than the head. The thick legs with
oversized bell bottoms, the exaggerated length of the arms, and the generally
odd proportions end up making him look more like a Saturday morning cartoon
than a Cuban killer.
The hand sculpts are perfect for holding the two accessories, and the
bracelets are sculpted hanging in a very realistic pose. This figure is
a 7" scale, and works fine with other 7" scale figures, if you
overlook the fact that Al Pacino is so short that this figure really goes
better with 8" figures.
Paint - **1/2
I can live with the sculpt issues though, but it's the paint that really
disappointed me.
The most obvious issue is the dirty nature of the white suit.
Obviously, this wasn't a problem with either of the other two versions.
Mezco likes to use a blue wash to give shadows and highlights to white
surfaces, but on this figure, it ended up dirtying up the suit way too
much. Tony wouldn't have been caught dead looking like this.
Even if you ignore the issues with the white, you'll find plenty of general
quality control problems. There's white on the black color, all the gold
jewelry is bleeding into the skin, and most of the lines of definition between
colors are poorly done.
There are some highlights still. The face paint is still great,
although you'll notice the dark wash in the close up photos. In person
though, these dark areas aren't nearly as noticeable, and work to give him the
worn look in the film. The hands themselves are done nicely, ignoring
the jewelry. There's even the small tattoo on his left hand, in perfect
detail.
While the other variants didn't have the problems with the white suit, they
did have the same QA issues.
Articulation - ***1/2
Tony has quite a bit of articulation, much more than I anticipated.
There's the required ball jointed neck, which doesn't have quite as much
mobility as you'd like to see, but it still a huge improvement over a cut neck
joint. Then there's ball jointed shoulders and hips, pin elbows, ankles
and knees, and get this, ball jointed wrists. Oh, and let's not forget
the cut waist as well!
Cut biceps would have been nice - they would have blended in pretty well,
and given him a lot more arm poses - but in general, you couldn't ask for much
more. Tony isn't supposed to be a super articulated ninja, and the
articulation he has lets him stand perfectly on his own, and pose his arms in
enough ways to make me happy. And making me happy is what it's all
about, right?
Accessories - ***
Tony has a grand total of two accessories, but what beauties they both
are.
There's a very nicely sculpted, and nicely painted, briefcase that fits in
his left hand. He can carry it perfectly, something that seems to be so
rare these days. The scale is a squige small, but that's nothing to get
worked up over.
Then there's his gun, and the scale here is perfect. That's another
problem these days - getting the scale right on weapons. Here the gun
looks excellent in his hand, not oversized and not puny. There's a
silencer as well which is removable if you're not worried about drawing
attention.
These are accessories you'll use with the figure, and won't just toss in a
box.
Fun Factor - **1/2
Kids are likely to be completely uninterested in this character, simply
because he's not the most interesting visually. He's a guy in a
suit. Worse, it's a corny looking suit from over 20 years ago.
They might even mistake him for *gasp* Tony Manero.
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