Two of the six in this set are episode specific - Lethal Lois from
"Lethal Weapons", and XXXL Stewie from "He's too sexy for his
fat". There are also variants of course - check the section on
Things To Watch Out For for more details.
Packaging -
***
Mezco is capable of some amazing packaging, but it looks like FOX is keeping
them fairly restricted to a pretty basic design with this line.
Knowing FOX, that's not surprising.
The only uniqueness on each package is the front sticker, which gives the
name of the character. The accessory info is on the back of every card
with each character.
Sculpt - Mort, Mr. Weed ****; Lois, Cleveland, Tom Tucker ***1/2;
Stewie ***
If you liked series 3, you're going to love series 4. This line gets
better with every release.
Now, some people will have characters they don't want. Hey, I don't
understand it either, but there are some so called fans that don't feel the
need to own, oh, say, XXXL Stewie. Hey, he's not high on my list, but
I have to have them all.
The sculpt work on Mort, Mr. Weed and Cleveland is the best of the
set. Mort's expression is priceless, and fits his character
perfectly. The sculpted mouth is a smart move too, rather than trying
to simply go with paint.
Weed's expression is great as well, in both versions. You can
almost hear his accent when you look at him.
I think Cleveland has turned out the best head sculpt of the main
buddies, looking much better than I expected. His chin is still a
little to obvious and pronounced, but the proportions and scale between his
various body parts is right on.
Lois is, well, Lois. The standard expression works well with the
stance, and I was surprised how well she stands on her own. That's
rare for a figure that also looks good suspended in a flying pose.
Tom Tucker has a slightly bland expression, but it works well for his
'news face'. Now we have to get Diane Simmons to go along side him.
Fat Stewie leaves me a bit cold, simply because he's not really a variant
I was waiting to get. The sculpt works well though, and I like how the
sculpted expression works with the articulation and included ice cream cone
to allow you to pose him eating.
Paint - ***1/2
Mezco appears to have upped the QA on their paint operations, because the
paint work here is above average once again. There's still the
occasional stray mark, and some of the more difficult colors have bleed here
and there, but overall the work is great.
If you're looking for small details of course, you won't find them.
This isn't a cartoon with small details, but big strokes of obvious color in
everything they do But the critical areas - like Mr. Weed's eyebrows
and moustache, or Stewie's tongue - are very clean and neat.
They've used the blue shadowing technique again on Lois' martial arts
uniform. I'm not a huge fan, but it's been growing on me.
Articulation - Mr. Weed, Tom Tucker ***1/2; Lois ***; Mort, Stewie,
Cleveland **1/2
The level of articulation across this series varies quite a bit.
Weed and Tucker have quite a bit of useful articulation, including ball
jointed necks, ball jointed shoulders, cut arms, cut wrists, and a cut
waist. The posing possibilities are pretty good with both of these
guys.
Lois has surprisingly useful articulation as well, but lacks the ball
jointed neck. She has a cut neck, ball jointed shoulders, cut wrists
(where the hands pop on and off), a cut left arm, a cut waist and cut
ankles. She stands well thanks to the cut ankles.
Stewie has a cut neck, cut arms and cut waist. He's not really
designed for posing, which is not particularly surprising considering the
character design.
Mort and Cleveland are a bit disappointing after Weed and Tucker.
They lack the ball jointed neck, just having a cut joint. They do have
the ball jointed shoulders, but lack any other arm articulation. They
replace the cut waist with a ball waist, but that's not really as useful as
either the ball neck, or the additional cut joints on the arms.
Accessories - Mr Weed, Mort, Lois ***1/2; Stewie, Tom Tucker,
Cleveland ***;
One of the best features of almost any cartoon line is the unlimited
possibilities for accessories. Smart companies like Palisades and
Playmates exploit this - Mezco is a smart company.
Every one of these figures comes with some very cool accessories, often
episode specific. Let's start out with Mr. Weed, who comes with the
sniper rifle, muffin (with one bite removed), and hypno-glasses mentioned on
the package. He also comes with Eduardo, his little friend, not
mentioned on the package back, but hidden behind the sticker inside the
bubble. Not only are these an excellent set of choices for his
accessories, but they all work well too - he can hold Eduardo and the rifle,
and the glasses fit perfectly.
Cleveland has three accessories, and again, one of these is not mentioned
on the package. There's a big plate of Rice Krispie treats, with a
sculpted handle on the bottom to allow him to hold them, and the clam trophy
the neighborhood won in the Harvest Day Parade. He also has a big
frothy mug of beer hidden behind his sticker. Adding the handle to the
plate of treats was a welcome surprise, since accessories like these are
pretty much useless if no one can hold them.
Fat Stewie (or XXXL Stewie) comes with his wagon to get around, and an
ice cream cone. The sculpt and articulation work so that he can appear
to be eating the ice cream. There's a peg on the cone that fits into a
hole in his left hand. The wagon is also sculpted to appear as though
it's buckling under his weight, and both the wheels and handle move.
Mort has some more terrific character specific items, like the jousting
pole from the episode Mr. Saturday Knight (which, coincidentally is the same
episode that Mr. Weed died at Peter's house), the soap on a rope, and the
hemmorrhiodal cream. By the way, I had to look that word up in the
dictionary, since my spell checker couldn't figure it out. I had no idea
there were two rr's AND two h's!
Tom Tucker has the fewest accessories with just two, but since one of
those two is a whole 'nother character, I'm cutting him some slack.
He comes with his microphone - which I bet we see again with Trisha
Takanawa in series 5 - and his poor son, Jake. Jake suffers from a
rare disorder...his face is on upside down. He's also got a cut joint
at the neck and shoulders, and an excellent sculpt.
Finally, there's Lethal Lois, with her deadly weapons. She comes
with a break apart set of concrete blocks, a break apart board, and extra
set of fisted hands, and a display stand with a clear rod that holds her in
the air in a flying kick pose.
Her hands pop on and off pretty easily, but the connectors are sturdy and
thick, so breakage is unlikely. I had to hollow out the hole in her
butt a bit to allow the rod to fit, but once I did she was good to go. That
wasn't nearly as much fun as it sounded.
Fun Factor - **
Family Guy isn't exactly a kid's cartoon. If you thought the Simpsons
wasn't really for kids - and I know lots of parents that felt that way -
then you REALLY don't want them watching this show. These are actually
pretty fun toys, very similar in many ways to the Playmates World of
Springfield line. In fact, I'd say that Mezco has managed to take many
of the better aspects of that line and incorporate them here, while
improving in several areas.
Value - ***
You can get these as cheap as $10 each if you shop around - I have some
sponsors below that have them at that price. For this score I'm
assuming around $11, which is also very possible, and considering the level
of quality and number of accessories, that's a slightly better than average
value in the specialty market.
Things to watch out for -
I didn't have any real problems or issues. If you're variant hunting,
you'll want to keep your eyes peeled though. There isn't a definitive
list yet of the variants, although it appears as though besides the obvious
Mr. Weed pink shirt/alternate eyes version (see the packaged photo of him to
see his variant), there's also a different Mort expression and a different
Lois expression. There may also be Lois' with black and red belts,
although that's not confirmed yet.
Overall - Mort, Mr. Weed, Cleveland, Tom and Jake Tucker ***1/2;
Lethal Lois ***; Fat Stewie **1/2
I'm not surprised that Fat Stewie ended up at the bottom of my
list. He's not a particularly interesting variant, and lacks the level
of accessories, articulation, and visual impact that the others have.
The rest of the series is extremely good. Lethal Lois wasn't my top
choice, but like most women, the more I play around with her, the better she
gets. I'm particularly impressed that she looks good in the fighting
stance, can stand on her own, and still looks good suspended on the display
stand. Okay, so she doesn't look quite as good in the air as on the
ground, but it's still a pretty adaptable sculpt.
You have to have Cleveland of course, and while neither Mr. Weed or Tom
Tucker are critical to the show, they make very complementary figures to the
display. I can see this line going 10 waves easy, if Mezco is smart
about it. With God, Trisha Takanawa, and what is sure to be my
favorite all time Peter variant, Peter the No Trash Cougar, all coming in
series 5, this line is looking good for a nice long run.
SCORE RECAP:
Packaging - ***
Sculpt - Mort, Mr. Weed, Tom Tucker, Cleveland ****; Lois ***1/2; Stewie
***
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - Mr. Weed, Tom Tucker ***1/2; Lois ***; Mort, Stewie,
Cleveland **1/2
Accessories - Mr Weed, Mort, Lois ***1/2; Stewie, Tom Tucker, Cleveland ***;
Fun Factor - **
Value - ***
Overall - Mort, Mr. Weed, Cleveland, Tom and Jake Tucker ***1/2; Lethal
Lois ***; Fat Stewie **1/2
Where to Buy -
You can find these at specialty stores right now, or hit the following
online sponsors:
- Amazing Toyz has the
individuals for $10 - $11 each, with the full set for just $60.
- Alter Ego Comics has the
set for $61.
- CornerStoreComics has
the individuals for $11 each, or the set of 6 for $65.
- Killer Toys has the set for
$70.
- OMGToys has the individuals for
$12 each.
- YouBuyNow
has the singles for $12 each as well.
Related Links -
There's been a fair share of reviews so far:
- the most recent release was the series 1.5
family boxed set.
- Here's my reviews of wave
1, wave 2, and wave
3.
- also, I reviewed both the Peter
and Lois two pack, and the Peter
and Chicken two pack.
- Finally, there's the review of the large
talking Stewie.
KEEP SCROLLING DOWN FOR LOTS MORE PHOTOS!
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