Monthly Archives: January 2024

Jan 10 2024

Elf Archer (White Version) Sixth-Scale Figure by Phicen/TBLeague

Regular visitors will probably get tired of hearing this, but 2024 is going to be a year for unfinished business on FFZ. I’m looking to catch up on my backlog, especially areas that were neglected last year. And boy do I have a backlog of figures from TBLeague! I only reviewed one TBLeague figure last year and that was way back in February when I checked out their Ramses The Great. I’ve been really obsessed with their Egyptian themed figures, but today I’m going to venture back into their fantasy based offerings with the Elf Archer!

As always, these figures come in a shoebox style package with a trifold cover that is secured to the sides by magnets. The art is very minimalist, showing just her crown on the front and arrows on the side panels. It’s very pleasing to the eye and mysterious, not to mention a bold move to not picture the figure on the front. The figure and accessories inside are nestled in black foam and when you open the box you are immediately enveloped in a soothing aroma of tea. No, seriously! This figure was available in two versions, white and black, which only refers to the coloring of the outfit. Many times TBLeague will use these variants to change up the accessories, head sculpt, or hair color, but that isn’t the case here. The Elf Archer requires quite a bit of set up to get her kitted out, including attaching her plastic armor pieces, so let’s get her ready and have a look!

This is definitely one of the most complex outfits I’ve seen from TBLeague in a while. It’s also the one of the more modest outfits, as TBLeague often likes to show off lots of synthetic skin on these seamless bodies. In this case, she’s nearly covered from head to toe, so you have to settle for a flash of thigh under all those layers. The costume is extremely regal and consists of a white, long sleeve top with a combination bodice on top and tailcoat below the waist. I may not know what to call it, but it looks great! The outer garment has some beautiful gold leaf patterns and a wire running through the edges to allow for some dynamic posing. There’s a bit of green cloth trim around her waist, and under that she has a short green skirt with a pointy-leaf motif. The plastic armor pieces include high-heeled armored boots, with lacy leggings peeking out the tops, armored bracers on her forearms, elbow pieces, and shoulder pieces. There’s a green leather-like shoulder strap and a soft green cloth mantle surrounding her neck. The tailoring here is immaculate and everything fits the figure beautifully. It certainly gives her a majestic look, and despite all the layers nothing really gets in the way. I do, however, have two minor issues with it. The gem under her chest tends to get askew pretty easy, as you’ll see in some of the pictures where I neglected to straighten it. Second, there is some color transfer from the green shoulder strap to the white fabric under her arm. Granted, I’ve had this figure on display for about a year now and that sort of thing is inevitable. It might be a reason to consider favoring the black version of the costume, but I like the coloring on this one a lot better, so I’m happy to live with it.

The portrait is quite nice, with a some absolutely wonderful paint. Her eyes are shiny and reflective, and her lips are painted with a high gloss to give them a moist sheen. You also get some excellent rosy pigmentation in her cheeks. Her pointed ears are directed more outwards than upwards, which is rather evocative to an anime-style elf. The blonde hair is quite voluminous and can be a bit of a chore to tame. It’s rooted to allow it to part on each side of her face and in front of her ears while the rest cascades down her back and includes two sets of braids. Like the outfit, there is some seriously cool complexity in this coif. I’m sure a little styling gel would help, but I’m not going to start styling dolly hair. Gotta draw that line somewhere! Her outfit includes a soft plastic crown that fits around her head. It has a nature motif that’s evocative of antlers and tree branches. She also has a rather large pendant that hangs around her neck.

As always, the Phicen seamless body is built on a steel skeleton with some very realistic articulation hidden inside. There is virtually no restriction from the costume itself, making her lots of fun to play with and that’s certainly not always the case with some other companies’ sixth-scale offerings. She’s also an incredibly well balanced figure and I was impressed at how easily it was to get her to stand on those high-heeled boots without any assisted support. She comes with three sets of hands, which include relaxed, gesturing, and accessory gripping and these are all easy to swap out thanks to the steel ball joints in the skeleton’s wrists.

Elf Archer also includes an optional hood, which snaps onto the green mantle, includes adorable little slits for her ears to pass through, and two long flaps that hang down her back. As much as i dig the crown, this hood is going to be my preferred look for her on the shelf, as I think it suits her role as an archer and gives her a bit of a Robin Hood vibe. It’s kind of a shame to cover up those braids, but at the same time, the hood helps keep the rest of that hair in check.

Her accessories include a bow, a quiver, and five arrows. The quiver is plastic and hooks onto the shoulder strap behind her back and can hold the arrows by simply sliding them in there. The recurve bow has a sculpted wrapped grip in the center and an actual string. She can hold it with either her left or right hand, depending on which shoulder you have the quiver slung over.

The arrows are all identical with some pretty vicious looking heads and sculpted plastic fletching on the backs. The tips have some nice gradient paint going from silver to black and the fletching is painted green with a little wash to bring out the detail. Her gesturing hands can do a pretty good job of knocking the arrow by placing the shaft between her fingers, and even her grippy hand has a gap between the fingers to keep the arrow in place. Between the hand design and the articulation, the only thing that keeps her from doing a full draw is the tension on the string, which I don’t want to pull too far as it may snap.

I picked up the Elf Archer for $189 and I’m certainly satisfied with that, especially considering how hard it is to find any Sixth-Scale figures under two hundred these days. The only real downside with this figure is the lack of stand. TBLeague is wildly inconsistent on this point, including lavish diorama bases with some figures while completely ignoring others. Still, as the price of these continue to creep up to that $200 mark, I think it’s about time they start throwing in a generic figure stand as the absolute minimum. I also would have liked to get some kind of blade with her, either a dagger or a short sword. My guess is that a lot of the cost for extras went into the complexity of her outfit and all those extra armor bits, and that’s cool. As she stands, she’s quite an exquisite figure and one that I’m happy to have in my collection. She’s a huge step up from the last fantasy-themed TBLeague figure I looked at. This white version seemed to perform better at retail, as she is sold out at all the regular places I could think to look, but the black version is still available at many of those.

Jan 8 2024

Marvel Legends (No Way Home Wave): Spider-Man, Spider-Man, and Sandman by Hasbro

What’s this? Marvel on a Monday? A sort of… Marvel Monday? Yeah, well don’t get used to it. I do have more Marvel Legends reviews planned for the first half of 2024, but I’m not ready to bring back Marvel Mondays. I am, however, ready to dig into the second half of this No Way Home themed wave of Marvel Legends! On Friday I checked out the Tom Holland Spider-Man along with MJ and Matt Murdock and today we’re checking out Tobey Maquire Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield Spider-Man, and Flint Marko, aka Sandman!

As with last time, this assortment comes carded rather than boxed, but the standout oddity here is having Garfield Spider-Man appear on his own movie card, Amazing Spider-Man 2, as opposed to following the No Way Home theme like the rest. I’m sure this had to do with some kind of Fox-Disney rights issues, but it’s still odd to see. If you think multiverses are confusing to navigate, try corporate copyright law! And yes, the No Way Home cards are still inaccurate as they feature the wrong suit for the Holland Spider-Man. There are no BAF parts in this wave, as both the heavy hitters, Doc Ock and Green Goblin, were released as higher priced boxed Deluxes, and I’ll be getting around to them soon! Let’s start with Maquire Spidey…

I still adore the Raimi Spider-Man movies and can even find something to love in the mostly awful third outing, so it’s really cool to get this suit as a modern Legends figure. While the other two suits in this wave could very well stand in as a modern comic look for me, this one will always be totally unique to these movies and so I love the design as it’s own thing. The basic suit colors are very traditional with the bright red and dark blue looking as classic as ever, but it’s the addition of the silver webbing pattern that makes it so distinctive. Sure, thanks to the PlayStation games, Spidey has almost as many suit variants as Iron Man, and I’m not a big fan of that concept, but back in the early 2K’s this variant was a big deal to me and I thought it was totally bad ass. The execution is great, with the webbing and emblems all part of the sculpt and in this case the blue parts of the suit are textured as well as the red.

The head sculpt looks wonderful and the paint on this one fared better than what I got on my Holland figure. The silver on the lenses isn’t quite perfect, but there’s nothing here that is easily noticeable with the naked eye. Also, I really love the way that chest emblem is layered on top of the raised web pattern.

Of course, you get the unmasked head as well, and this one is not the slam dunk we got for the Holland likeness. I can definitely see a bit of Toby in there, but that’s with a bit of squinting and a lot of imagination. Less nose and more cleft chin would have been the way to go. Granted, I was a little shocked when I saw how much Toby aged in No Way Home before I reminded myself that at 51 I’m practically an old man and I’m not one to talk.

There are no surprises in the articulation, other than having to heat up the figure to get the ball joint in the chest to loosen up. The poseability is identical to the Holland figure, and the pinless joints are always welcome in my Spider-Mans as unpainted pins were often an eye sore on these figures. This guy is just tons of fun to pose and play with.

Toby Spidey comes with the same two hands as when he was first issued in that three-pack, so you get one pair of thwippy hands, a right fist, and a left graspy hand. And here’s the biggest disappointment, as it sucks that Hasbro couldn’t pony up for the same three sets that came with the Holland figure. That’s especially true when you consider this is the second time they are selling this figure, albeit with the addition of the unmasked head. Regardless, it’s a great figure and a much needed replacement to my horribly dated 2003 magnet-hands Toy Biz figure. In truth, I’ve been waiting for a figure like this for a long time, and I am thrilled to have it! Let’s move on to the Garfield Spider-Man…

It’s no secret that I hated the Amazing Spider-Man movies. Someone actually gifted me the Blu-Ray as a misguided, but well intentioned, Christmas gift, and that’s the only reason I ever watched it. I only begrudgingly made it through the first one with a scowl on my face and the trailers made me not even want to try to watch the second. I’ll concede that the problem was more the writing and bad creative decisions than it was Andrew Garfield, but he still got his share of the blame from me. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him show up in No Way Home, but I have to admit, he was great in it, and he really sold me on how likeable he could be given the right framework to hang his performance on. The suit design was one of the only things I liked about those movies, but I kind of feel this figure misses the mark. The sculpt is fine, but the colors are so dark. I shot this figure with the exact same lighting as the other two Spider-Mans and it just managed to absorb it and still come out way too dark. Also, I got more of an electric blue vibe off the screen used suit which just isn’t conveyed here at all. At least the texturing looks really good.

The head sculpt is fine. I like the pearlescent paint used for the lenses, but they didn’t convey the compound-eye style of the lenses. Maybe that’s asking a bit much for this scale.

The unmasked head doesn’t reach the heights of the Holland likeness, but I think it’s more on point than the Tobey likeness. The hair sculpt is a little chunky, but they got his outrageously tall pouf down pretty well. All in all, I’m pretty happy with the way this sculpt came out and the printing on the facial features is pretty solid too.

As for articulation and extras, I’ve got the same praise and nitpicks as I did with the Tobey figure. The poseability is excellent, once I gave him a bath in hot water to loosen up that ball joint in the waist, however, it actually tightened up again the next day and manipulating it makes me feel like I’m going to twist it off. And, like Tobey, he comes with the same two sets of hands that were included when he was first released in the three-pack. This isn’t a bad figure at all, but it’s by far my least favorite of the three web-heads. But to be fair, some of that has to do with the suit being my least favorite as well.

Our final stop for this assortment is Flint Marko as Sandman. I wasn’t all that excited about this figure based on the solicitation shots, but in hand he’s actually surprised me quite a bit. The sand texture that covers the figure is extremely well done and it’s bolstered even more by some excellent paint work. This would have been an easy figure for Hasbro to cheap out on, but the the final product feels like they actually put some work into it, especially for what is likely to be a one-off body. The pinless body features some solid articulation, but it does lack the shoulder crunches and ab-crunch hinge that we got on the Spider-Mans. Still, the lone ball joint under the chest is perfectly serviceable.

The portrait manages to convey the character likeness while still being just a sandy facsimile. It actually does a remarkable job of recreating what the CG looked like in the film and that’s pretty cool.

While Toby and Garfield were hands poor, Marko makes out big time with two regular pairs and a pair of enlarged hands with adapter pieces for the forearms. So, you wind up with normal sized graspy hands and fists, and the bigger graspy hands too. I actually would have preferred one large graspy hand and one large fist, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. I don’t really have much else to say about this figure other than this Sandman came out really good. I was initially surprised they didn’t make him a BAF release for this wave, but in the end it worked out just fine.

And that’s the Marvel Legends No Way Home wave! All around, this was a solid wave, and really the only figure I had a lot of gripes with is Garfield Spidey, and that’s probably mostly due to personal taste. Sure, I would have liked to get an extra set of hands with the Sony Spider-Mans, but it was nice to see the extra big hands with Sandman. Also, I sure am glad I didn’t pony up for the No Way Home three-pack, but it’s not going to stop me from chastising Hasbro for re-releasing three figures so soon with bonus heads. That’s a really shit move and it just punishes collectors for running out and buying your figures. Probably not something you want to do, when a lot of people are already inclined to wait for clearance when so much Hasbro product is hitting discount stores. I have both the Deluxe Green Goblin and Doc Ock on deck for the near future, but I don’t know when I’ll get around to doing another complete wave of Legends. I did buy a bunch on deep discount late last year to complete some BAFs, so maybe I’ll run some speed reviews of those in the coming months.

Jan 5 2024

Marvel Legends (No Way Home Wave): Spider-Man, MJ, and Matt Murdock by Hasbro

I only looked at two complete waves of Marvel Legends here on FFZ last year, so let’s check one out in this first week of the New Year! Hasbro rolled out this No Way Home wave during one of their Fan Channel steams, which kind of worked like a Hail Mary Wave, because it actually got me excited to buy some Marvel Legends figures again, rather than just bottom feeding when they hit the clearance bins. It was a smart move to go back and revisit this film, because besides Guardians Vol 3, it was one of the few MCU films in the last few years that didn’t fall flat and had the appeal to sell merch. I think there are a lot of factors that go into Hasbro’s current financial woes, but you won’t convince me that Disney’s mismanagement of Star Wars and Marvel aren’t a huge part of it. Neither one has the gravitas they did when Hasbro signed the licensing agreements.

Anyway… This wave was released on cards rather than in boxes and there is no Build-A-Figure, so what you see is what you get. The assortment consists of six figures: All three Spider-Mans, MJ, Matt Murdock, and Sandman. The cards are heavy stock, which should please mint-on-card collectors, and the art is pretty enough, but there’s no retro charm here that makes me sad to tear into them. Also, it’s kind of odd that the art they chose for Tom Holland Spider-Man isn’t wearing the same suit as the figure we got, but I’m cool with that because the figure features my favorite suit from the films. Let’s start with Spider-Man!

Oh yeah, this is peak MCU Spidey for me right here. The classic blue and red deco looks so gorgeous! You get a fully sculpted web pattern on the red bits, a raised spider emblem on his chest and back, and some nice texturing on the red, while the blue is left smooth. The spider emblems are sculpted on, although it’s weird how the one on his back is so much more prominent than the one on his chest. Still, with all the gimmicky suits that have been showcased over the years, between the movies and the games, this is quite possibly my favorite and it’s great to see it released on the updated body.

You get two heads, one masked and one unmasked. The masked head is standard stuff in terms of sculpt, but has some issues that I didn’t notice until I punched in close with the camera. The white on the right eye bleeds into the top edge of the lens, while the center of the web pattern is offset toward the right eye. The first issue doesn’t bother me, as it’s not that noticeable with the figure in hand, but the second issue is pretty annoying, but it’s not going to ruin the figure for me.

The unmasked head is quite spectacular and it really shows how good these likenesses can be when Hasbro is on their game. Everything about this noggin is just wonderful from the sculpt to the printing and even the color in his cheeks. I even love the disappointed dachshund look he’s got going on, which is pretty faithful to some of Holland’s emotes on screen. The hair is a separate sculpt, which creates a clean hairline and looks fantastic. This is quite simply one of Hasbro’s best likenesses at this scale.

The body is built with the new pinless engineering, which is a huge win for a Spider-Man figure as unpainted pins are often an eye sore on these the Spideys. You do get a little of that still evident in the armpits, but it’s still a big improvement. Otherwise articulation in the arms and legs is standard stuff, and you do get the standard Spidey shoulder crunches. The combination of a hinge down in the waist and the ball joint in the chest is pretty cool. It’s definitely a fun figure to play with. Sure, the pattern of the suit breaks up when you work the ball joint in the chest, but it’s kind of unavoidable.

Spidey comes with three sets of hands, and you probably can guess what they are: You get a pair of fists, splayed wall-crawler hands, and thwippy hands. About the only thing missing here are any web effects. Hasbro experimented with these a bit in the past, but it sure would be nice to get a couple thrown in now and again. I didn’t buy the No Way Home three-pack Hasbro put out a short while ago, but as I understand it this is the same figure but with the new unmasked head included. Needless to say I’m glad I waited. This turned out to be a great figure and definitely my favorite version of Holland Spider-Man to be released so far. Moving on to MJ…

I believe this is the second version of MCU MJ in Legends, with the first being released in a Homecoming two-pack. I certainly don’t remember getting one from Far From Home. Either way, we get a bit of recycled parts here from that Homecoming release, mostly from the waist down with repainted pants and repainted socks. Instead of wearing a jacket, this time she’s got on a striped sweater, which is layered onto the figure, giving it some nice depth, and having the sleeves sculpted onto the arms. Because the legs are reused they have pins in the knees, while the newly sculpted arms are pinless. Unfortunately, the arms go with rotating hinges in the elbows, rather than the double-hinge elbow and bicep swivel, which I prefer.

You get one head sculpt, which appears to be entirely new. It’s not quite the total slam-dunk that we got with Peter, but I think the likeness is still pretty damn great. Once again the printed features are very much on point and I like the way they sculpted some strands of hair dangling on each side of her face. While I still quite like the heads included with the Homecoming version, I think this one is technically better in just about every way.

Michelle comes with two sets of hands, fists and open, which I assumed were going to be reused from the previous MJ figure, but the open hands are actually different and much more natural looking. She also comes with The Machina de Kadavus, the cube that Dr. Strange used to contain his wonky spell. It’s a pretty complex accessory and definitely a welcome addition to the figure. On to our last stop… Matt Murdock!

Murdock’s cameo in the film was a total surprise to me and I really got a kick out of it, and it’s pretty cool to have a figure of Netflix Daredevil in full-on lawyer mode. Yeah, it’s just a suited body but I was surprised to find that it was pinless, as I wasn’t aware that Hasbro had invested in a pinless suit body yet. Or is this the first? Sorry, but I just haven’t been paying very close attention to Legends this past year. The suited body looks great, but I don’t have a whole lot to say about it. I like that the tie is sculpted separately to hang down and the sculpted arm sleeves do a passable job lining up with the jacket.

The head sculpt is definitely the weakest likeness of these three figures, but I don’t think it’s a total miss. I’m not sure I could recognize Cox in there if you just handed me the head, but knowing who it’s supposed to be I can definitely see it. The glasses are pretty well done for this scale and the tinting looks pretty good.

Murdock comes with two accessories: His mobility cane and the brick that was thrown through Parker’s window. I like the idea of having him do all sorts of crazy Daredevil combat with the cane. The brick is pretty well done for what it is and is almost certainly my first vandal brick accessory, so I can cross that off my bucket list.

So far, I’m enjoying this wave quite a bit. As much shit as I give Marvel Legends these days, it feels great to get some figures that I’m interested in again. The Holland Spider-Man is definitely my favorite of the trio, being the best representation of the character in my Legends display. MJ is a nice upgrade from what was already a pretty solid figure. Murdock is fun. I probably could have gambled on him turning up on clearance, but it was just easier to pre-order the whole wave. When I come back on Monday, we’ll check out the second half of the wave with the other two Spider-Mans and Sandman!

Jan 3 2024

Darkstalkers: Morrigan Aensland Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Before any of you Koto fans get your hopes up, I’m not really starting to collect Bishoujos again. No, seriously. I’m not! It just so happened that a few of these went up for deep discount during the Holiday Sales and I got weak. That’s why I picked up Mai from King of Fighters and that’s why we’re here today with a certain busty succubus from another fighting game franchise. Truth be told, there isn’t enough Darkstalkers merch out there and I’m pretty much compelled to buy anything Morrigan related that isn’t in the $1000+ range. Now if that happens to go 50% off, I’d be in real trouble. It’s actually been almost ten years since Morrigan last graced FFZ, and it’s long past time I remedy that!

Koto always does a nice job with these boxes, serving up some wonderful character art and providing ample windows on the front, top, and side panel to let the light in and see what you’re getting. They’ve also started making the boxes a bit more durable, which is nice as I do tend to keep these. The statue comes wrapped in a lot of plastic, but if you unwrap it and put her back in the box, she displays really well in it. Morrigan is all assembled and ready to go, but she does have some rather fragile points and a modicum of care should be spent unwrapping these, as I could easily see them snapping.

And oh boy does she look enticing! Clad in her classic trademark outfit, Morrigan dons a matte black one-piece with ruffled white top and her ample bosom nearly spilling out. Hey, you can’t be a modest succubus, it just doesn’t work! Below that, she has mauve tights (and I do mean tight!) with printed bats, and black high-heeled boots, Her arms are adorned with long orange sleeves that end in loop between her fingers. Meanwhile her batwings jut from her back, flanking her on either side. All of the costume is executed beautifully, but I really have to give extra props to the texture work on the outside of the wings. It’s not something I expected to see, as a smooth surface would have been more evocative of the animated aesthetic, but I really dig it and I’m glad that Koto decided to go that route.

The pose is quite iconic and designed to showcase all of Morrigan’s best assets. She is in mid stride with her right foot out in front of her left, while bent forward to simultaneously show off a little succubus T&A. And not to get too inappropriate about it, but man the way the one piece practically disappears between those cheeks is some A-Level sculpting! I will confess, I would have liked to see her posed in one of her victory stances, like levitating with her legs crossed, but this works fine. And as always, the coloring on these statues is just lovely. The range of black and purple and blue-green makes this statue pop, and her skin tone is warm and even with some shading to catch the eye.

The head sculpt is playful and a lot more in character than the last Morrigan statue I reviewed. Here she looks like she’s jumped right out of the game. The sculpting on her mouth is absolutely fantastic with a hint of teeth showing up top and her tiny pointed tongue slipping out. The hair sculpt is also outrageously good as the strands of super vibrantly colored blue-green hair whip all around her head. The eye printing is colorful and precise, and her head wings are as adorable as ever with some gorgeous deep purple paint on the membrane. This portrait is a perfect victory!

You never know what kind of base you’re going to get with these figures. Sometimes just plain disks and sometimes a more environmental affair, like this one here. It’s a stony floor with some excellent paintwork creating a vibrant glow where Morrigan’s feet touch the ground and reverting to a grayish-blue stone color around the edges. I do dig it a lot!

Go back through my old Koto Bishoujo reviews and you can see that I almost always ended them by calling these the best value in statue collecting. Well, those days are done and these now sell for about twice what they did back then. Case in point, Morrigan here retailed at $129 and while the quality is definitely there, it’s just beyond reach of what I’m comfortable paying for these. I picked up Morrigan on sale for $79, which was right about the price of these figures when I decided to start tapering off. I’m happy to have her in my collection and she will get a prime display spot in my Game Room. And I’ll keep an eye out for Lilith to see if she happens to dip in price at some point too, otherwise I’ll be content to own the Pop-Up Parade figures of this pair when they eventually ship next year.

Jan 1 2024

Clint Eastwood Legacy Collection: The Outlaw Josey Wales Sixth-Scale Figure by Sideshow

Happy New Year, Toyhounds! I was going to start the year with a retrospective, but truth be told I have so many figures piled up, I decided to just jump in and get going. And I’m kicking off the year with one of my most hotly anticipated figures in a long while! It’s safe to say that I have been beyond ecstatic over Sideshow’s Clint Eastwood Legacy Collection line, as I’ve wanted quality figures based on so many of his iconic film characters for all my adult collecting life. I grew up watching Clint Eastwood and John Wayne westerns with my Dad, usually on lazy Sunday afternoons, so my love for these flicks is practically in my DNA. I’ve already checked out Sideshow’s Dirty Harry and The Preacher figures, and today we’ll be checking out The Outlaw Josey Wales!

If pressed, I’d have to say The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is my favorite of Clint’s westerns (and I’ll get to Sideshow’s Blondie figure soon enough!), but The Outlaw Josey Wales is for sure a close second. And perhaps, on any given viewing, may edge out ahead. The first is an epic adventurous romp, while the second is more of an emotional and gut-wrenching story. It’s a tapestry of colorful characters with some fun moments here and there, but all executed against a brutal and dark landscape of Post-Civil War America with a main character who has lost everything and is fueled only by revenge. I loved this movie so much I used to use the poster image of Josey as my avatar for every forum I was ever active in and I’m thrilled that it’s used to grace one side of the shoebox-style packaging.

Josey comes out of the box all set to go, with very little fuss or muss. There’s some plastic to remove, and I had to dig his scarf out from under his jacket to make it a bit more visible. Otherwise, there’s no outfitting or rigging necessary. You can loop the braid through the shoulder, but I chose to leave it hang long. And once again, I love the work Sideshow is putting into tailoring these 19th Century wardrobes. Wales has a pair of brown trousers and a matching brown coat with some heavy stitching on the pockets and reinforced shoulders. It features the rawhide straps coming off the shoulders and the backflap, as well as the long braid hanging down from behind the right lapel. The jacket fits the figure beautifully and it looks fantastic! Under that you get a blue long sleeve shirt accessorized with a bright red scarf. The light brown boots have detailed spurs, and, oh my, is Sideshow amazing at sculpting these intricate little spurs! The jacket is cinched at the waist with a brown gun belt with a holster on each hip.

This is the third Eastwood portrait I’ve looked at here from Sideshow and every one has been an absolute banger, despite representing very different ages and periods. Here we see Clint a full decade younger than what we saw in The Preacher figure and with his unkept backwoods coif and whiskers to match. The likeness and nuances of the sculpt are outrageously good from the scar inflicted by a Jawhawker saber slash to his right cheek to the trademark squint in his eyes and the exposed teeth in his sneer. I can practically here him scowl, “You gonna pull them pistols, or whistle Dixie?” The skin tone is really well done, and I’d say only a bit of heavy handedness in the whisker paint keeps this from being up to Hot Toys quality of crazy realism. But hot damn, it looks great! As with The Preacher, the hat is permanent and I’m OK with that. He spent the majority of the film wearing it, and I don’t think it even came off at all until the last quarter or so of runtime. An extra head sans hat would have definitely bolstered the value here, but I’d probably never use it.

The underlying body feels identical to The Preacher, and I imagine that Sideshow is using the same body for all of the figures in this series. Articulation is good, with no loose jointing, but to be fair that hasn’t been a problem with Sideshow’s figures for a while. The range of movement in the upper body feels great, but the snug pants really inhibit the range of the hips. If you have a sixth-scale horse, I’m sure he’d be able to mount it, but anything wider and you risk popping some stitching in his britches. As with Preacher, you get four pairs of hands, and these include fists, relaxed hands, reaching for the guns hands, and trigger finger hands. Popping them out is easy peasy and the connecting pegs are stout and sturdy.

Josey carried four pistols in the film, and you get all four of them here. For starters, he has his matched set of Colt Walker M1874s. These are some of my favorite American pistols from the period and I even have a functional Uberti replica Walker cartridge conversion chambered in .44. Sideshow is doing a beautiful job with these sixth-scale weapons. The paint depicts the different materials used in the original as well as each and every tiny screw.

Next up, he comes with a Colt Army M1860. It’s another wonderful recreation of a beautiful weapon right down to its sleeker curves and slightly more elegant design. And yes, I still love the boxy and utilitarian designs of the Walker more!

And finally, you get a M1843 Colt Pocket Pistol, which is a lovely little depiction of this last resort weapon. In the film, he carried this in a holster concealed under the left side of his jacket, which is not included in the figure’s wardrobe, but I’m kind of glad they didn’t because the jacket would never have fit nearly as well with the added bulk under it. As it is, I’ll likely just keep this one tucked into the front of his belt, Preacher style, or just have it in one of his holsters, since I plan on displaying him with the two drawn Walkers in his hands.

So, one of my very few call outs on these figures is the amount of extras versus the cost. With four pistols, Josey comes out on top over The Preacher’s two, so that’s an improvement. But, there’s a big omission here, and that’s the the scoped Sharps rifle that he uses as the pole for his parley flag and to shoot the ferry rope. The later is one of the most memorable scenes in the film and this weapon is so damn cool, it’s a real shame that Sideshow didn’t include it. I’d say this was as egregious an oversight as The Preacher not coming with his dynamite. I was able to remedy that thanks to Ebay and I will likely do the same here, only I’ll have to settle for a Sharps rifle without the scope, so it won’t be quite the same.

And lastly, you get a generic black figure stand with a crotch cradle post to support the figure. These have the Legacy Collection logo on the bottom. Sideshow has been using this exact same base for the entire series, so at least you get some uniformity on the shelf. But yeah, for the price of these figures, something with a bit more flair would have been nice. I would have at least like to see a name plate.

I’ve been waiting a long time to own a figure like this and I am eternally grateful for the union between Eastwood and Sideshow that made it happen. And there has definitely been a running theme with these releases. What’s here is absolutely exquisite: From the tailoring of the costume to the likeness of the portrait, and detail in the accessories… I could not be happier. But at the same time, with the price on these approaching the $300 mark, the extras seem light. It wasn’t a big issue for me with Dirty Harry, as there wasn’t anything obviously missing, but both Preacher and now Josey each had that one key accessory that should have been included to help along the value. And yes, I would imagine that Sideshow paid a lot for the licensing rights, so I understand the economics at play, but couldn’t they have grabbed a Sharps from their old Brotherhood of Arms series and attach a tube to it? While The Preacher, Blondie and Dirty Harry have all sold out, Josey is currently still available through Sideshow. I hope to get to checking out The Man With No Name soon, and as I write this I have received notification from Sideshow that the Dirty Harry variant will be shipping soon!

By figurefanzero
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