Review of Hans Landa - Inglorious Basterds
Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

While there were a number of great performances in Quentin Tarantino's film Inglorious Basterds, none was quite as amazing as the performance given by Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa. He snagged a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work, and the creepy, sadistic, yet somehow charming villain will go down as a classic character.

About 7 months ago, I covered the first Hot Toys figure based on the film - Aldo Raine. Brad Pitt's character was one of the good guys - sort of. Hot Toys did a truly amazing job with Raine, and he's likely to be on many Best Of lists for 2010. But as I said back then, without his nemesis Hans Landa, he seemed awfully lonely.

Hot Toys heard the pleas of fans, and have now released their figure based on the evil bastard. You can pick this guy up for around $135 or so, depending on the retailer. If I had to guess, I'd say Hans will be the last figure we'll get from this license, but with Raine and Landa together, they make a terrific display.

Packaging - ****
I really love the Inglorious Basterds boxes. Not because of the graphics or text - both are fine but a tad skimpy. No, the key here is the construction. The outer box is a standard cover over a thick box, much like a high quality shoe box. Inside are two levels of plastic trays with plastic covers - one for the body and a couple hands, and the other for the majority of the accessories. This looks and works great, and is much more sturdy than even their usual work.

There's no instructions this time, but I'm assuming that's because there isn't anything particularly complex with this figure, and with the standard TrueType body there's no need for any warnings.

Sculpting - ***
When Hot Toys first showed off this figure, and then again when I saw it in person at last summer's San Diego Comic-Con, you could color me unimpressed. While I was certainly interested in adding him to my shelf next to Aldo Raine, the head sculpt didn't remind me of Landa or Waltz.

As is often the case, Hot Toys altered up the sculpt a bit before the final release, and they did improve it. In hand, this figure does remind me of the character, and in fact, I'd say it's about 80% there. The shape of the head, the eyes, the chin, the hair - these all look extremely good. The one aspect that tends to throw it off - and it effects it quite a bit - is the nose. The actor and character have a very distinctive nose with a bit of a ball shape at the end. This sculpted nose is much more generic, and doesn't look like Waltz at all.

I think it would have also helped had they gone for a more distinctive expression. Landa's wry grin would have given a bit more personality to the portrait. While most companies can't pull off distinct expressions particularly well, we've seen Hot Toys do it a number of times, and I think this is a figure that would have benefited from it.

The sculpt is tremendously realistic however, just like always. There's lots of fine detail in the hair, and the skin texture is amazing. Even when the likeness isn't quite perfect, the realism is still there.

Paint - ****
While the sculpt might not be quite there, the production paint work certainly is. I ran out of cute descriptive words for the quality of their production paint long ago, and at this point I can't even make up any more of mine own.

It's worth pointing out that the life-like eyes are painted looking upward, slightly. This works pretty well for quite a few poses, and I think it was a good choice.

Articulation - ****
I love the standard TrueType, be it narrow shoulder, normal or wide. The articulation is great, but more importantly, the joints are engineered in such a way to allow for very natural, flowing poses.

If you've owned any Hot Toys figure made in the last few years, then you know what I'm talking about. Ball joints, double joints, and specially designed joints (like the shoulders) allow these base bodies to take just about any pose. Jeff Parker did a nice overview of the TrueType here.

One of the key aspects with this particular figure is the soft boots. When I say 'soft', I really mean it - the ankles have complete mobility inside. I've included a shot of Landa in a very deep un-landa-like pose to show that the feet can remain on the floor even with the legs spread wide.

Accessories - ***
There aren't as many extras with Landa as we usually see with most Hot Toys figures, including Raine. But what's here is extremely well done.

He has his Luger, with moving slide action and hammer, and removable clip. It fits inside the included holster, but it's very, very tight. In fact, I decided to leave it out of the holster, although I plan on leaving the holster on the belt full time.

Speaking of the holster, it has a leather flap and is held closed with a leather strap that fits inside a metal loop. There's also plastic reinforcement on critical areas on the inside. There are two loops that you can slip the belt through to position it.

There's also his pipe, which was included in several key scenes in the movie. He can hold it in a couple of his specialized hands.

Speaking of hands, there are three extras. One gun grip for the right, one loose grip for the left, and one tight grip (that works well with the briefcase) for the left as well. These go with the two relaxed hands that he comes wearing in the box.

The briefcase is leather as well, and can be opened. There's a hard foam piece inside to keep it's shape, and it is nicely scaled.

There's also a pair of gray dress gloves, intended to be held in one hand or hanging off his belt, I suppose. I don't think he can actually wear these - the relaxed hands seem way too big to fit - but you can always give it a shot.

Finally, there's the usual display base and a couple extra wrist pegs. Thank goodness, since I needed one this time!

Outfit - ***
This time around, the outfit is very similar to the sculpt - high quality, with great realism, but not as film accurate as it should be.

The outfit consists of the shirt, jacket, pants, boots, hat, and outer coat.  All of them are made from extremely high quality materials, and the stitching and construction is excellent.

The outer coat looks great, but with the large epaulets on the jacket, it tends to fit a bit tight. I originally thought I'd be going with that coat for my display, but in hand I've decided to stick with just the jacket.

On the other hand, the hat looks much better than I expected. It still has some of the issues that most cloth sixth scale hats have, mostly being the fact that it's a bit out of scale. But it fits tightly and looks better than I expected - certainly better than the awful hat that came with Aldo.

The jacket and pants are made from a very thin, very soft material. At first glance it looks great, but when you compare it to film stills, you can see how inaccurate it is. Yea, I get it - you can't sell anything that looks like a Nazi any more. Personally,  I think it's utterly ridiculous.

The uniform collar is off, the jacket lacks many of the medals, insignia and patches, and even the shirt is white, rather than brown. The tailoring and fit are excellent, but there's too many inaccuracies this time around.

My favorite aspect of the uniform is the soft boots. As I mentioned earlier, the ankles still have their full range of movement with the soft material.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jeff pointed out to me that this is intended to be a closer match to his first uniform, not his later uniform. I haven't watched the film in awhile, so I remember the uniform he wore most of the movie - no surprise there I suppose. Still, while this outfit is more accurate to the early costume, I stand with my score - it still lacks to much of the correct insignia.

Fun Factor - **1/2
I can't quite picture the situation in which this would make a good toy. The outfit and accessories really aren't all that much more delicate than some stuff I see on the shelves at the local Toys R Us, but he's a Nazi officer from an R rated Tarantino film - he doesn't seem like a particularly good fit with the under 12 crowd.

But if you're a big fan of the film, there's nothing quite like having these high quality, highly poseable plastic versions of your favorite characters.

Value - **1/2
At around $135 or so, he's on the lower end of the current Hot Toys price range. While he doesn't have as many accessories as we usually see, he's still a licensed character, and the outfit is very well done.

Things to Watch Out For -
As always with the standard, smaller wrist pegs with the TrueType bodies, be very carefully swapping hands. I managed to break a peg this time, and that hasn't happened in a long time. Thankfully they pop in extra pegs these days.

Overall - ***
Not that many Hot Toys figures get a B score from me, and usually that means there's some major issue.

That's not really the case here. The likeness is about 80% there, so for most folks it's going to certainly be acceptable. Likewise, the outfit looks amazing - it's just not particularly film accurate either. I understand the reasons, but I was still hoping for something a bit more sadistic pig and a bit less politically correct.

I'm happy to have Landa on the shelf with Aldo, and one is incomplete without the other. I expect to see the price on Raine go up now on ebay, as folks who originally passed him by think better with Landa available.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ****
Sculpting - ***
Paint - ****
Articulation - ****
Accessories - ***
Outfit - ***
Fun Factor - **1/2
Value - **1/2
Overall - ***

Where to Buy 
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Related Links -
Earlier I reviewed the Aldo Raine figure, the perfect match to Hans.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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