Packaging - **
If you're the kind of person that keeps their goodies in the box, then
you may find yourself disappointed with this package.
It's
not the colors and graphics, as those look great. But I ended
up
with two of these (yes, I managed to screw up again), and both boxes
were badly damaged. The large window is easy to crush, and I suspect
that most folks buying on line are going to end up with damaged
packages.
If you're an opener, be prepared
with some wire
cutters. This figure has several twisty ties that could be used in the
construction of a suspension bridge. Seriously, I saved these for
projects around the house.
Sculpting -
****
There are three different possible head sculpts for this figure. I did
not get the one I wanted, even when I ended up with two. They both had
the same head sculpt. How's that for luck?
There's
the version showing his teeth in my photos. It's not that I hate it,
it's just not my favorite of the three. It also doesn't help that this
is the same look my other 18" movie Hellboy has. More of that same sort
of luck.
There's also a
closed mouth version, and a version with his cigar in his mouth. I
really, really wanted the cigar version. So much so, that I may end up
buying another.
But no matter which head sculpt
you end up with, they're all well done. There's good skin
texturing, realistic wrinkles in the forehead and eyes, and a fairly
fine sculpt to the hair.
While I would prefer the cigar
chomping version, the gritted teeth version has the trademark snarled
upper lip that makes him so intimidating. If I didn't already have this
version, I'd prefer it over the closed mouth without the cigar.
The Right Hand of Doom sculpt
looks excellent in terms of scale and detail, bit this new version has
a
wide open hand pose. This was designed to allow him to hold
the large Big
Baby
weapon in both hands at once. It does this pretty well, and yoiu can
also get some decent "I'm going
to grab you and rip your head off" poses", but I suspect some folks
will find it more limiting than the old fist version limiting.
The left hand is sculpted to
hold either Big Baby or the Samaritan
by the grip, but you'lll have to work at it. Softening up the hand with
hot water helps, especially for the Big Baby.
If you're wondering
how much of this sculpt is different than the original, I can't be
exactlly sure (yea, mine is still in storage), but I'm pretty sure on a
couple points. The head sculpt is new, even the one with the
gritted teeth. The leg sculpts are also different, with a narrower
stance. I suspect that the forearm section of the Right Hand of Doom is
still the same, but clearly the hand itself has been resculpted. And
the left hand looks new to me too, with a more realistic appearance.
He stands great on his own, and
clocks in at a whopping 18 - 19 inches tall, depending on what you do
with his waist and head.
Paint - ***
While the overall paint quality is high, there are a few sloppy areas
on my particular figure.
On
extreme closeup, you'll be more apt to notice the dark wash used to
bring out the surface details, particularly on the face. It's a lot
less obvious in person, but it can still be a little sloppy in some
areas.
My biggest issue on the head is
a light rub mark across
the top of the head. Short of repainting the head the exact red, I'm
stuck with it. If I didn't have this issue, the paint would have scored
another half star higher.
The work on the horns, hair,
eyes and teeth is
solid though, and both hands and the the pants/boots look good. I do
think
they should have done something - anything - different with the pants
and boots to give some visual differentiation to them. Maybe
a
gloss on the boots, maybe a slightly different shade... something. As
it
stands, these blend in together too much for my tastes.
Articulation - **1/2
Remember
that this is a rotocast figure - these body parts are not solid
plastic. While using a rotocast process keeps the costs down, it can
cause some engineering issues when it comes to articulation.
However,
Mezco has been a pioneer in using this style for figures in scales of
7" and up, and have developed articulation designs that work well
within the constraints of rotocast production.
Hellboy has a ball jointed neck,
my personal single favorite joint. No, not that kind of joint. Dude,
you're harshing my mellow.
This
ball joint allows for all kinds of forward, backward, tilting and side
to side movement. It addds personality to poses that a straight cut
joint simply can't handle.
There's also ball jointed
shoulders
(jointed only at the torso), as well as a cut left wrist and a cut
right elbow at the top of the Right Hand of Doom. The right
wrist
is a ball joint, and while it's a restricted by the sculpt of the
'stone', it's still fairly useful.
The tail is a soft, hollow
rubbery material, and it has a wire in it to allow some limited
posing.
Other useful joints include
the ab crunch chest and ball waist, as well as cut joints on both
thighs just above the knees. More leg articulation would have
been nice, but can
also
be problematic with the hollow plastic, making the legs too weak to
hold up over time. If I have my druthers, I'd druther have a figure
that stands forever in one leg pose than one that wilts in several.
Had all gone well with my
figure, he would have gotten another half
star in this category. Unfortunatelyl, that wasn't the case. The waist
is really a ball joint both in the pelvis AND in the torso. I know this
because the post between these two balls snapped in half with almost no
effort on mine. Be careful!
Accessories - ***1/2
Hellboy
comes with two main accessories, and both of them are excellent. One is
the Samaritan of course, his huge, intimidating trademark revolver. The
gun opens
to allow access to the cylinder, just like the real deal, but there are
no bullets to put in or take out. The sculpt and paint are excellent,
and it even has a real 'rope' strand hanging off the butt. It fits
nicely in the holster, and looks great in his left hand.
Then
there's his new accessory, straight from the film - Big Baby. This sort
of "shotgun crossed with a Gatling gun that shoots explosive rounds"
weapon also has a fantastic sculpt and paint job, and is scaled nicely
to the figure. There's a leather strap for him to wear it
around
his shoulder, and it opens for easy loading and unloading as well.
Again, there's no shells to put in, but it's still a nice feature.
Outfit - ****
Unlike
most other rotocast or solid plastic quarter scale figures in this
price range, these are actually mixed media figures, incorporating
various materials to get the most realistic appearance. That
means Hellboy actually has some costume pieces!
There are two
cloth pieces, his shirt and his jacket. The older 18" Hellboy used a
pleather jacket, but this time they went with more of a burlap material
with pleather collar, and this works extremely well. It looks in scale
on him, hangs and flows well with the poses, and doesn't stick out or
lay at odd angles.
If you want to get the jacket
off, you'll have
to find a way to remove that right arm. If you use hot water on the cut
joint at the top of the Right Hand of Doom, you should be able to pop
it off, but I haven't tried it so I make no guarantees.
The shirt
is slightly different than the first version. In that one, he
had
a zipper running down the front, but this time it's the plain 'over the
head' type stretch muscle shirt, with a Velcro closure down the back.
It fits him perfectly, and looks
terrific with the stylish red piping arond the neck.
He also has a leather belt with
hard plastic pouches
all around. This belt looks and feels extremely realistic, and the soft
leather holster fits on it nicely. The belt also has his trademark
horseshoe hanging from it, as well as a long, large, and detailed
rosary.
Although the pouches (which run
all around the belt
including in back) are sculpted plastic, they look very much like the
leather used in the belt, making it a seamless visual transition from
one to the other.
The holster is very high
quality, and has a
metal snap to hold the flap in place. The Samaritan fits
perfect
inside, but I do wish it hung a little lower on his leg, a bit more
gunslinger style. It has a leather tie down around his leg, but because
the holster is so high on his waist, this doesn't look quite right.
I'm
also including his second rosary as part of his outfit. This
one
is wrapped around his left wrist, and is much smaller than the one on
his belt. The chain is real metal, with a basic plastic cross.
Fun Factor - ***
Technically,
this isn't a 'toy', but it certainly knows its own roots. Even with the
limited articulation, your average 10 year old would find it mighty
cool, particularly if they managed to see either Hellboy movie. There's
a cleaned up version of the first film running on cable, right?
Value -
***
The previous movie Hellboy's in this scale ran around $45 - $50, which
was about the going rate for most of the rotocast style quarter scale
figures at the time. Prices started rising though, and since then we've
seen some of the releases of similar figures in the $80 - $100 range.
While the $60 (or less if you shop around) you'll pay for this figure
isn't cheap, it's certainly not at the level I was expecting.
Considering how expensive the 7" figures have become in a fairly short
time, I'm surprised this figure can still be had this cheaply. This guy
isn't the steal the 18" Alien was earlier this year, but he's still a
better than average value in the current market.
Things To Watch Out For
-
Getting the guns into
that small left hand is going to be tough - or impossible - without
using some hot water. Soften up the hand first, then put the
weapons in place. In fact, if you put the Samaritan into his
softened hand and then let it cool, the fingers will be hardened in a
wider grip, making the next time much easier.
Hopefully your waist joint will
hold up better than mine, but take some care with it anyway.
Overall - ***
Mezco and NECA are keeping the lower cost 18" market alive, and I have
to say I'm pretty pleased they are. With the release of the NECA Alien,
this Hellboy, and the NECA Beetlejuice, we'll have a very good group of
large scale figures this year.
I ended up having two quality
issues that pulled this overall score down. There's the rub mark on the
head, and
mine snapped in half when I breathed on it. Take those two issues away,
and this figure
would be getting another half star in the Articulation
section,
Paint section, and in the Overall. Hopefully you'll have better luck in
these
particular areas than I did.
If
you picked up the old version, this one might be less necessary. I do
prefer the canvas coat to the pleather version, and the Big Baby adds
quite a bit as well. I'll be happy to have them both on display, but
those of you that are more fiscally responsible may be a bit more
particular. If you skipped the original, then this is the one you'll
want to add to the collection.
Score Recap:
Packaging - **
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***
Articulation - **1/2
Accessories - ***1/2
Outfit - ****
Fun Factor - ***
Value - ***
Overall - ***
Where to Buy -
There's a few online options amongst my sponsors:
- you can pick him
up from CornerStoreComics
for about $57.
- Showpiece
Collectibles has him at the reasonble price of $59.
- Urban
Collector has him fro $59.49.
- Things From Another World
has him at $63 for any version, and they let you pick which head
variant you want!
- YouBuyNow
has him listed at $70.
- Entertainment
Earth has him at $70.
- for the UK fans, you can pick
him up at Forbidden
Planet for 40 GBP.
- or you can search ebay using
the sponsor MyAuctionLinks.
Related Links -
I've covered quite a
number of Hellboy related products:
. Gentle Giant did some animated
versions, including one
included in the most recent release of the movies, and there
was also a guest review by Poe Ghostal of the first DVD release of Hellboy. I looked at the
regular release animated
figures as well.
- Mezco released series 1 of
their movie figures, which are covered in two guest reviews, one here and one here.
- I love the 4" line, even if
the only figure we have so far is the SDCC
exclusive Hellboy.
- I ran two 'retro
reviews of the old Hellboy movie line - one for Hellboy, and one for Sammael.
- I also have guest reviews of
some of the comic based figures, including Kreigaffe #10, Lobster Johnson, and the
old
Graphitti Designs version.
- I have my own reviews of the
comic based battle damaged Hellboy
and 18" version,
the stylized Extreme Hellboy,
the movie 8" line
(including the Nazi
Kroenen in the second series), the 18"
version, and even some Mez-itz.
- also movie based, Sideshow has
done several 12" figures, including Abe
Sapien, Nazi
Kroenen, regular
Kroenen, and regular
Hellboy.
- for those into mini-busts,
there's also this
version that came with the release of the DVD.
Discussion:
Want to chat about this review? Try out one of these terrific forums where I'll be
discussing it!
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