I do like the outer coat, which has a nice textured sculpt and is made from a soft, thin rubbery material. The
stance is designed for conflict, and he remains upright on his own
quite easily. The left hand is sculpted in a gesturing pose, while the
right holds the wand nicely. He stands about 6 3/4 inches tall with bent
knees, fitting in pretty well with the rest of the NECA series.
Paint - **
Bad paint can play Hell with even the best sculpt, and I suspect some of that is what's going on here. The
paint work is sloppy all around, and not sloppy in that Mcfarlane-esque
sort of way where it's intended to add realism. Here, it's just plain
sloppy. The hair line is a bizarre conglomeration of brown and
skin tone, mixed in haphazardly around the sculpted hairs. Brown flecks
spot the face, and I've already mentioned the atrocious job on the
chest hair. Other small details, like the buckles on the coat, exhibit
weak edging and errant strokes. There's also a distinct
difference in the face skin tone and the chest/hands. The faces on all
the figures I saw were much lighter, almost like he'd been hit in the
mug with a powder puff of white makeup. This difference doesn't show as
much in photos, but in person it's truly distracting. I picked
the best one I could find out of about a dozen on the pegs, too. Others
have far more splotches and even worse hairlines. It's not all bad though - I do like the work on the mouth and teeth. This is a guy in serious need of a Sonic Care toothbrush.
Articulation - **
This is almost a Nerd Hummel - just enough articulation to get him into
one or two poses and that's it.
The ball jointed neck does allow
for some tilting, but nothing extreme. It will give you the chance to
add a little personality to the basic poses, however.
The shoulders are cuts, with no
ability to move outward from the body, just forward and back. The
wrists are ball joints, but the sleeves restrict them a bit. The left
elbow is a cut joint, allowing the lower arm to turn inward and outward.
There's also a cut waist and cut
joints at the top of the boots, and stands great on his own.
Accessories - **1/2
There are technically two, but only one is going to count for a whole lot. That's
his wand, done in scale and with a sculpt that looks very close to the
real deal. Fenrir doesn't have a particularly complex wand, however, so
matching it was a bit less of an issue. There's also a plain
black display base. There's a foot peg on the base to attach the
figure, but he stands great on his own with little chance for toppling
over, so the odds you'll use the no frills base are pretty slim.
Fun Factor - **1/2
If you can get past the lack of articulation, you may find some fun
here. Let's face it, he represents some Voldemort muscle, something we
haven't seen a lot of, and gives a nice fighting counterpart to the
other heroic wizards released so far. Kids who are the right age to
love the movies AND still love action figures may find him more fun to
play with than we'd expect.
Value - **
Mass market action figures have climbed past $15 each to $16, $17 and
more. With little articulation and few accessories, this figure is a
tough sell at that kind of price point. Throw in the weak paint work,
and I suspect a lot of people will be putting him back on the peg after
they have a look.
Things to Watch Out For -
Take your time picking these out on the shelf - while none of the ones
I saw were great, there was still quite a wide variety in quality,
especially with the paint.
Overall - **
I've been pretty disappointed with the last couple waves of Potter
figures from NECA, and it's largely due to the weak paint work. I
suspect there are decent sculpts hiding under the slop, but the paint
is so egregious that you have a hard time seeing past it. If
the paint ops were up to snuff, these figures would be a nice
alternative for folks that can't afford or don't want the other two
solid collectibles based on this license - the Gentle Giant busts and
the Noble Collection wands. Coming in at half to a third of the price,
they could certainly be a better bang for the buck - but not with these
sort of quality issues. If you spend some time searching through
the pegs (you should have a pretty good assortment to choose from - at
my store there were about a dozen of each character), you may manage to
find one that will at least be good enough for you to take home. Most
folks won't find it necessary to buy Snape or Harry, but with Fenrir
being a new character, he's a pretty important add.
Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - **1/2
Paint - **
Articulation - **
Accessories - **1/2
Fun Factor - **
Value - **
Overall - **
Where to Buy -
Finding these on line is a bit tricky, so your best bet is to hit the
local Toys R Us, where you should be able to pick them up for around $15. You can search
ebay for a deal as well.
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