weekend haul (with NOW PLAYING open pics)

[moviemaniacks]

Picked up 4 figures at the mall the other day. Jack Sparrow and the Nightmare Demon, and Gozer and Erin (MM7) for $5 each.



I figure Gozer, Erin and Jack are all old enough to not warrant pictures, so I didn't take any. I'll still offer my opinion on them though.



Gozer- Not too bad, but I wouldn't have paid full price for it. I would have liked some more options for posing the arms, especially with the lightning hands.



Erin- I actually only bought her for the base, but once I opened it and set it all up, it turned out to be a pretty good figure. Not a great likeness, but the sense of capturing the moment is there. Since I don't care for the movie I'll probably still just use the base, but a surprisingly good figure overall.



Capt. Jack- Not too much to say about this one. A good figure, not great. I would have liked to see the base that the concept drawing called for, the figure is a little static without one.



Nightmare Demon- The review you probably care about. This is probably the worst figure of the 3, but I don't care about the other 2 characters. It seems like there should be something more to this figure. The sculpt is good, the articulation seems below average. There are no useful leg joints at all, and only one or 2 of the upper joints serve any purpose. I probably wouldn't have paid $13 for it if I didn't want to make sure I got the variant(s) I wanted. I also hate the packaging, it is way too big and cumbersome. It works better on Darkman who is a larger figure overall, but on the demon there is just a lot of empty space in the clamshell.

Let me also say that for a company who claims to have the collector's best interest in mind, SOTA certainly isn't doing them any favors with the retarded variants they made on this figure. If you want to do alternate heads, thats one thing. But making the gun/knife a variant as well is completely pointless and even frustrating. I was able to get both the head/weapon combo I wanted, but the idea is pretty insulting. Especially looking at how much more complicated of a figure Darkman is. For the same price, they could've easily included both weapons and the 3 non-exclusive heads. The helmet head also looks a little strange when viewed from the side, because the neck is designed for the original head. The transition was not considered very well. Overall, this figure doesn't impress me very much, and seems like a very "freshman" effort on SOTA's part. The figure is average, and the needless variants makes me even less hesitant to support the line.



Anyways, here are the pics:

[TCM Hitchhiker]

Well, about the only thing I agree with, is the neck problem, and I don't care much for the base. Other than that, I think it is a fantastic figure, especially for a first outing. The standout figure in this line though, is definitely The Toxic Avenger.

Nice score on him and Jack!

[TCM Hitchhiker]

Oh, and Jerry said the packaging will be smaller for future lines. He agrees it is too big, and said it is also too expensive.

[moviemaniacks]

good to hear about the packaging. I guess they were trying to make their figures stand out from others, but they will look better in MOC collections if they use the same style clamshell as everyone else.

You reminded me, I've still never seen flames produced well in plastic. It always looks cheesy, and this case is no different.

I think SOTA really got under my skin with the variants, so it probably led to a more negative review than was necessary. I wouldn't say it's a "fantastic" figure by any means, but its not bad either. I'd probably give it a 7 or 8. Toxie looked like a good figure, but I think Darkman is probably the best of the 3. I will get that one if I ever see it on clearance, or at least less than $12.99

<font color="#cd6600" size="1">[ March 20, 2005 08:53 PM: Message edited by: moviemaniacks ]</font>

[chaserfan]

do they have any non smiling Jacks?

[moviemaniacks]

yeah, mine is the non smiling one actually, maybe you can't tell from the pic. When I was there it looked to be like they had 2 smiling and 3 or 4 "serious" Jacks.

[ghostdawgg®]

Nice haul! [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
I'm still in the hunt for a non smiling Jack. [img]frown.gif[/img]

[moviemaniacks]

guess I got lucky, I went to a suncoast out of town that apparently just opened up. Looked like at least a case of POTC and a case or 2 of Now Playing