
James Bond
- Dr. No
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Last February at Toy Fair, there were three
upcoming lines that had everybody talking - Muppets, Peanuts, and these
figures from Sideshow Toy, James Bond.
Sideshow
has plans to produce a total of 14 figures so far, covering every
actor who played Bond, and at least one villain for each. Hold on for
the list - Sean
Connery and Joseph
Wiseman from Dr. No (reviewed here); Sean
Connery, Harold
Sakata (Odd Job), and Honor
Blackman (Pussy Galore) from Goldfinger; Pierce
Brosnan from Die Another Day; Roger
Moore and Christopher
Lee (Scaramanga) from The Man With the Golden Gun; Roger
Moore, and Julius
Harris (Tee Hee) from Live and Let Die; Timothy
Dalton and Robert
Davi (Sanchez) from License to Kill; and finally, George
Lazenby and Telly
Savalas (Blofield) from On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
*whew* With a total of 24 films, and
five different actors playing Bond, there's plenty of material for Sideshow
to choose from!
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Packaging - ***1/2
The boxes are the usual beautiful Sideshow work. The artwork appears
to be from the movie posters, and each box (Bond and No) are different.
The box includes info on the characters, cast list, and general movie info.
The only negative here is that
they aren't the usual collector friendly style. The stands are bubble
sealed to the back of the cardboard inserts, and Dr. No's ultra-cool
radiation suit is also attached to the back of the insert. Of course,
you can still cut the covers off the boxes and display them behind them.
Sculpting - ****
These figures are both done by Mat Falls. Once again, Sideshow is the king
of sixth scale sculpting. McFarlane may have it all wrapped up in the
smaller scales, but no one does actual people in the 12" format better
than Sideshow.
This is Sean Connery, toupee and all. He has a
slightly wry, sarcastic look on his face, as if he's about to spout one of
his trademark wise cracks. The wrinkles are just right too - it's
crucial to get the wrinkles in the face just right for the expression and
look.
Joseph Wiseman as Dr. No looks excellent as well. I
believe one of the keys to Sideshow's success in this area is the non-zombie
look. Other companies like bbi and Dragon have trouble at times
capturing a look on a face that isn't too zombie, and actually has some
liveliness to it. Looking at these sculpts you can see what I mean -
you expect them to speak any second.
Wiseman's hand sculpts are also new of course, as they were
mechanical devices in the film. They look true to the source material,
and are sculpted in a nice pose.
Paint - ***1/2
Another reason the heads look so good is the paint ops. Great ops on
great sculpts means perfect figures. The skin tone on both of these is
great, and the eyes, lips and eybrows are very clean and accurate. The
lips look just right, without that annoying lipstick look that many
companies end up with.
The only reason it's not four star is the hair line on
Connery. It bleeds down too far on to the forehead.
Articulation - ***1/2
The standard Sideshow body is in effect of course. If you like it,
you'll like it here
. If you don't, guess what - you won't.
There's the ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders, cut
biceps, double jointed elbows, special wrists (which really add quite a bit
to the number of poses Bond can have with the guns), chest, waist, ball
jointed hips, cut thighs, double jointed knees, and ankles.
The joints were all tight, and I found no reason to have to
use the stands, although the work as well.
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Outfit - ***1/2
Of the Bond figures, the basic tuxedo is one of the less exciting.
But while it might not be exciting, it's very well executed.
The shirt has full length sleeves, and snaps. The jacket and pants
are well tailored, and fit tightly. The tux has the shiny black
stripes on the coat and pants as you'd expect, but there's no belt.
His tie looks great, defying the seemingly natural law that all ties on
sixth scale figures have to look to big or simply goofy.
Dr. No has a light cream colored suit, matching the style of the
film. Again, it fits nicely and uses snaps everywhere rather than
velcro. The pants are a little high water, but that's not surprising
considering the source material, and he has calf length black socks.
The socks tend to bag up around the ankles though, so you'll want to grab a
couple of those tiny rubber bands you've been getting with your Star Wars
toys and wrap them around the tops of the socks.
Oh, and let's not forget the shoe sculpts - I'm pretty sure Bond's are a
re-use (can't place which figure off the top of my head, but I'm pretty
sure), but Dr. No's loafers are brand new. They look great, and
there's even some paint spray to make them appear slightly dirty.
Accessories - ***1/2
Here's a category where they almost out did themselves. Almost.
If it weren't for that shoulder holster...
First, they've given us more accessories than usual - most Sideshow
figures these days have one or two, or the some might have 4 or so if you're
really lucky, like the Young Frankenstein stuff.
Bond blows those away with eight cool accessories. Okay, seven cool
accessories and one total piece of...well, you'll see. There are two
silencers for the two guns - the Walther PPK and Beretta. Both guns appear
small, but they ARE small handguns. He has a tough time holding the
PPK though, and I liked the Beretta better.
Bond also comes with a bottle of vodka, glass, and martini shaker, all
perfect compliments to the tuxedo outfit. But here's the odd ball
accessory - he also comes with a shoulder holster. What in God's name
happened here?
The shoulder holster itself is a hard
plastic, glued to a stretchy blue cloth belt. There's a white elastic
band that ties around his chest. I've never seen this bad of an accessory
from Sideshow - it really is that bad. It seems cheap, and the awful
color combination is just atrocious. I certainly never remember Bond
wearing anything this ugly. The only thing I can figure is that they
ran out of budget before they had the holster figured in.
Wiseman comes with his extra outfit as his
only accessory. But what a cool accessory! This clear plastic
radiation suit is simply perfect. It comes in two pieces, the hood
over his head and the body suit.
The two pieces snap together with clear rubber snaps. I don't think
you want to take it on and off too many times, because I don't now how well
these will stand up to repeated use. The body suit fits on easily, and
is made of a relatively thick and sturdy material. Exercise a little
caution tucking him into it though - it goes on over his legs and up his
body through the large neck hole, and it might be possible to rip it at the
neck if you aren't careful.
There's also a pair of white boots to complete the ensemble, and they
look pretty damn snazzy all together.
Oh, and let's not forget that both figures come with the now standard
Sideshow stand, with the Dr. No graphic emblazoned on the base.
Value - ***
The one category that Sideshow always takes a hit is value. At
$35-$40, depending on where you pick these up, they are at the high end of
the sixth scale market.
We get some really terrific figures though, and considering
the license and the number of accessories this time, I gave them a slightly
better value than usual
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Overall - ***1/2
As I mentioned at the start, this was a very anticipated line.
It's great to see Sideshow get a great start. These two figures are
very nicely done, and (ignoring that shoulder holster - let's pretend it was
some sort of Twilight Zone aberration) I couldn't ask for much more. I
can't wait to see the future lines, and I'm particularly excited about the
Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnon and Odd Job figures.
Something that's also possible with this line, and has been
mentioned to Sideshow by myself and many others, is accessory packs.
Once we have the main players out, there's a huge variety of cool outfits
and accessories that they could produce in packs to sell to outfit
Bond. I hope the explore the possibility, so that we can get a wider
variety of looks for Bond without having to buy another figure every time.
Where to Buy -
You may find these at Media Play or Sam Goody stores soon, but I
haven't seen them there yet. I'm betting they'll be around $30.
On-line:
- Sideshow
has them for $80 for the pair,
or $40 each for them individually. (MROTW Affiliate)
- Entertainment Earth has them individually at $38 each - Bond
and Dr.
No. (MROTW Affiliate)
- Big
Bad Toy Store has a great price at $60 for the pair, but the site says
Sold Out. You might want to call to confirm.
- Aisle
Sniper has them at $33 each, but they are still showing as a pre-order.
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 Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford. |