Tag Archives: build-a-figure

Apr 24 2012

Doctor Who: K-1 Robot Build-A-Figure by Character Options

A couple of years back, Character Options actually released their Classic Doctor Who figures in waves of single carded releases, rather than episode themed boxed sets. One of the cool things about these waves is that one of them came with Build-A-Figure parts to build the K-1 Robot seen in Tom Baker’s debut story as the 4th Doctor, which was aptly but unimaginatively named “Robot.” I like “Robot” a lot. Besides the fact that it introduced us to that most iconic of all Doctors, its a pretty good story that takes the core element of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story and runs with it. Its one of those few old Who episodes where the villain is complex enough to earn our sympathy. Let’s set aside the whole part where it has the K-1, grown huge by absorbing radiation, running around with an unconvincing Barbie doll of Sarah Jane. Of course, the other thing I love about this episode is the amazing design for the K-1 itself.

And there he is, in all his Build-A-Figure glory. No package shot, because he came scattered over eight carded figures, which included: A Sea Devil, a Zygon, two robots from “Robots of Death,” Magnus Greel, as well as the 4th, 5th, and 6th Doctors. I recall picking up this wave all in one shot, so I was able to put him together all at once. Its a good thing too, because a couple of these figures became notoriously hard to find, and I probably would have blown rent money if I had to in order to complete this beauty.
I can’t gush enough over this guy’s design. He has that classic retro kind of look and the figure is a beautiful recreation of the costume used in the episode. He’s big and has a real bulky upper body with fanned segmented shoulders and an amazing head sculpt with clear red translucent dome in his head. There are little sculpted instruments and dials on his chest and back, as well as some clear hosing. The cylindrical, mechanical arms end in soft rubber claws so that they can hold his gun. Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure I’d shit myself if this thing was coming after me.
K-1’s articulation is a tad limited, but it matches the mobility of the actual suit perfectly. The head is ball jointed and can turn and look up and down a bit. The arms have some limited movement at the shoulders. Its just enough so that he can raise his gun a bit. He has a ball joint in his waist that lets him swivel at the waist and bend a bit. His legs will swivel at the hips and he can move his legs back and front a bit. Lastly, the front of his feet are hinged.                          

There’s not a ton of paint apps on this guy, but he didn’t really need them. There’s a little black paintwork on some of his dials and his mouth and eyes. You also get a little red striping on his shoulders. The rest of the figure is cast in a really satisfying metallic silver finish.

The K-1 ranks up there as one of my all time favorite Doctor Who Classic figures. He was a perfect choice for a BAF, since he is so bulky and required a lot of special tooling and joints. He would certainly fit in one of the boxed sets CO releases now, but back then he was just too big for a standard card. He holds together perfectly and looks amazing standing at the back of one of my Doctor Who displays and towering over the rest of the figures. Looking back, I was pretty shocked that I hadn’t featured this guy here on FigureFan before, nor have I explored the wave of figures that contained the parts. Maybe I’ll try to dig those out for next week.
Apr 8 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2 Build-A-Figure: Arnim Zola by Hasbro

As promised, I’m back with the prize at the bottom of the cereal box. All them parts we’ve been collecting from tearing open six of the seven figures of Wave 2 (Sorry, Spidey, no parts for you!!!) pays off and we can finally piece together Arnim Zola. He’s that kooky Nazi geneticist who dared to dump his brain into a cloned body. I seriously love that shit! The whole idea that Nazis were engaged in all this secret Frankenstein mumbo jumbo never gets old for me and Zola, in all his ridiculousness, is the posterchild for it.
Let me cut right to the chase and say how much I adore this figure… I adore this figure! You could argue its because I’ve wanted a Zola figure for a long time, but then you could also say that because of that I should be more demanding and less forgiving. Truth be told, as far as I’m concerned this figure is perfect. I’m not really sure it needed to be a Build-A-Figure, as he’s rather an average size and I tend to think of the BAFs as being larger figures, that couldn’t be offered in standard packages. There’s no reason why Zola couldn’t have come carded. But I digress…
The screen in the torso showing Zola’s face is extremely well done. The graphic is behind a piece of plastic, which really conveys the illusion that its a projection on a screen, rather than just a sticker stuck onto his chest. I think it would have been cool if Hasbro used some kind of lenticular image, but that’s ok, I’m perfectly happy with what we got here. Its a great illustration with Zola peering out and giving you the evil stink eye. The ESP Box sits atop the shoulders, where the head should be. There’s some cool additional details on the figure like the gemetric patterns on the front and back of his pelvis, the sculpted rumples on his shirt and segmented lines in his legs, and the orange, purple and gold deco really makes the figure stand out.
Zola’s articulation is a bit more limited than the regular figures, but for what he is he’s still fairly poseable. You get a ball joint in the ESP Box, his arms feature ball joints at the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and ball joints in the wrists. His legs feature ball jointed hips, double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the ankles. His torso swivels at the waist. Like I said, quite a few points missing from what we’re used to, but overall not bad.
Arnim Zola is really fun figure and a great representation of the character. Sure, he could have just as easily been packaged as part of the wave, rather than as a BAF, but considering he’s probably a very high demand character, it was a pretty crafty move to deliver him this way. Chances are we’ll revisit him again when I finally track down Viper with the variant torso.

Marvel Legends Wave 2… Epilogue:

And that wraps up Marvel Legends, Wave 2. This time, I didn’t do a running score of the assortment, but I tried to be pretty clear in which figures I thought were hits and misses. Overall, I think this wave was almost as good as the initial one. The only real letdown here was Spider-Man, as I think that figure deserved better paint apps. better scaling, and a few more points of articulation. The rest of the figures were perfectly solid additions to my collection. Then again, apart from Zola, I don’t thnk there were any five-star figures like Thor or Steve Rogers. I don’t want to take anything away from Terrax, but Zola was a really high demand figure for me and I’m glad to finally have him in my collection.

If Marvel figures aren’t your thing, I’ll thank you for your indulgence this week. With only one more wave of Marvel Legends due out this year, my guess is you won’t see another ML week here for a little while. You will, however, likely see this wave pop up again here at FigureFan, as I’m still committed to tracking down Piledriver and Viper.