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Packaging - **1/2
Serviceable and fairly average. Fox won't let any of their licensers get
to extravagant or creative with the designs, so it's not surprising.
Sculpting - ***1/2
There's two levels of sculpting - the McBain figure, and the playset
itself. Both are quite good, although the set isn't in the same ball park
as the kitchen or comic shop.
McBain is his military bad self, looking like he just stepped off one of the
posters in the theater. Two of the grenades are sculpted to his body, but
one is removable. There's some nice detail work around the ascot and the
boots, and there's plenty of little bags and gadgets on his body that really
should have had more paint ops to bring them out.
His scale is good, especially when compared to his 'real' persona. I've
included a photo so you can be the judge. The arm and leg sculpts allow for him
to do quite a bit of posing even with the limited articulation.
The set is even better. There's some intricate work around the screen,
and the curtained walls and nasty garbage can look just like my local
Showcase. The seats are a little narrow, so that's fairly realistic as
well. Ms. Botz looks perfect sitting there though, and her poor posture
pays off with this set.
Paint - ***1/2
The paint application on this set is something to behold. It's quite a bit
better than the average WOS set, with some very nice touchs in both the paint
and the stickers.
There's lots of color and detail, particularly around the screen, but also on
the trash. The popcorn under the seat is yellow, but the box is
white. The gum on the back of the seat is pink. All the little
details that are so often skipped due to cost actually got the treatment this
time.
The posters are all great stickers, and the scene on the screen is a classic,
as his partner lay dying just moments from his retirement. Or was that
Family Guy?
McBain brings the score down slightly, since he has fewer operations than
you'd expect. He has lots of details on his outfit that could have been
given color, but most is predominately green. He has quite the Christmas
look though in green and red.
Articulation - ***
McBain has the usual neck, shoulders and waist. No surprises here, and
nothing on the set opens or moves.
EDIT - my mistake! The theater seats do move up and down! I
bumped the score a half star for it.
Accessories - ***
There are three - two guns and a hand grenade. Guess they aren't too
worried about 'violent' toys. Thank goodness.
The guns can fit in McBain's hand, and the one grenade fits nicely on his
chest. Even better, the handgun fits right in a shoulder holster.
The accessories make sense, are all new, and look good. It's slightly
light for a play set, but not terrible.
Value - **1/2
This depends of course, but I'm betting you are paying closer to $25.
If you did manage to pick it up at Target for just $20, you can add another star
here.
Talking Feature - ***
Unfortunately, the talking feature has taken less of an importance over the
years, as it becomes harder and harder to match up proper figures with sensible
sets. Still, they manage to capture some good lines here.
McBain's lines: "Yah, my new film is a mix of action and comedy. It's
called "McBain, Lets Get Silly!"; "The film is just me in front
of a brick wall for an hour and a half. It cost $80 million dollars."
Unfortunately, that's it for the pack in figure.
There are new lines though for some of the newer figures like Botz, Raphael,
Hawking and even Disco Stu. Even so, the talking feature has become far
less of an importance to the overall series.
Overall - ***
Some folks are going to love this set - it has terrific detailing and
excellent paint ops. And if you look at my scores, this could have easily
swayed to a ***1/2 star set, depending on how I weighted each of the factors.
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