Packaging - ***1/2
Sideshow uses the usual excellent original graphics for the cover art, and gives
us the cast list on the fifth panel. The box is completely collector
friendly, looks terrific, and earns the distinction (along with their other
packages) of being worthy of keeping just for the art.
Sculpting - ***1/2
Sideshow is well known for producing some of the finest sixth scale licensed
product sculpts. Even one of their weaker jobs is heads above the
competition.
The Moleman head and hand sculpts are very well
done. There's tons of detail, and they've captured the look from the film
pretty well. My nit to pick this time is on the shape of the head - it's a
little more pinheaded than the artwork, or the 8" version. It seems
slightly thinner and taller, although it's not a tremendous amount or extremely
obvious.
Paint - ***
The paint ops on the hands and face are solid, but there is some area for
improvement.
The greenish skin color is nice and consistent,
with a wash to pull out all the detail. The eyes are straight and clean,
and the claws have cool highlights.
The work that's here is good, but there could be
more here. There's very little detail around the mouth, and very little
use of multiple colors. The 8" version had several colors, and they
worked extremely well. In a such a larger scale, the lack of these colors
is even more obvious.
Also, the green of the eyes is much darker here
than in the artwork or the 8" version. I prefer the lighter green,
although it's been years since I watched the film - and can't bring myself to
see it again just for the review - so I'm not sure which is more accurate to the
movie.
Articulation - ***1/2
The Sideshow body has all the articulation you could ever want, plus some great
wrists joints that are unique to this body.
He has neck, ball jointed shoulders, cut biceps,
double jointed elbows and knees, chest, waist, the special Sideshow wrists,
ankles, ball jointed hips, cut thighs...I think I got them all. The body
is also a solid brown color, similar to the Werewolf figure.
While there's plenty of articulation, I had some
trouble keeping him standing on his own. Since he doesn't have a stand
included, that's a pretty important problem. Part of this is due to his
boots (I'll get to those in the Outfit section), and part of that is due to
loose hips.
Accessories - ***
If you've seen the movie, you'll know what Moleman has for accessories - they
were pretty integral in the film. He has his canvas sack, and a bunch - a
six pack really - of various sized mushrooms. That's a decent number of
accessories for the price point, and the various sculpts on the 'shrooms are all
well done.
Outfit - ***
The outfit is fairly simple, but with enough detail from the movie to make it
interesting.
There's a tunic, with padded shoulders and back
to represent the 'humps' these poor creatures had. The soft padding
doesn't work quite as well as the sculpted 8" version, but it makes sense
in this scale. The tunic is tattered at the cuffs and hem.
There's also the tattered trousers, and a pair
of laced up boots. The boots are entirely cloth, which always cause some
issues. It's never easy to get a figure to stand in cloth boots, but they
are quite accurate to the film.
Value - **1/2
Forty bucks is a lot of money for any figure, but the low run on these, combined
with a decent number of accessories and solid sculpting make it a little easier
to take.
Overall - ***
The Moleman character is not my favorite in general, so that throws a strike
against any figure of him. Still, it's a unique design, and Sideshow has
done a nice job putting together a decent version. I wouldn't say this one
is a must have, but if you're a fan of Universal Monsters, you may want to have
him to complete the set. He looks great on the shelf with the rest of the
series, but if I could only buy one of the two new releases, it would be the
Werewolf of London. If I could buy both, well, I'd buy both!
Where to Buy -
I doubt we'll see these in any main stream stores, because the run on them is so
small. On-line:
- they are at Sideshow
of course The Wolfman's
run is also only 1500.
- Time and Space Toys
has them in stock and ready to go at $38 each. They also carry a lot of
the earlier 12" and 8" Universal Monsters from Sideshow.
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