Tag Archives: hot toys

Jul 10 2013

The First Avenger: Red Skull Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys, Part 2

Alrighty, I’m back to finish up my look at Hot Toys’ Red Skull figure. Yesterday we covered the figure as he comes out of the box, but as we all know about Hydra, “cut off one head and two more will take its place!” so it’s only natural that this figure comes with a spare head. Wait, doesn’t that mean he should have two spare heads? Well, I was never very good at the maths. Let’s pop his noggin and take a look.

htmmredsk6

htmmredsk5

I’m still relatively new to Hot Toys figures and I’ve never swapped a head on one before, so I got to pop my cherry on this one. Boy, was I nervous! It took a lot more force than I thought it would, but thankfully everything went Ok. I gushed enough about the Hugo Weaving sculpt sculpt yesterday, but I gotta say the actual Red Skull portrait is every bit as amazing. The wizards at HT have done their usual magic, in this case reproducing the make-up used for the film. Christ, this guy is creepy looking, with the same great spark of life in his eyes and a grim visage. As impressed as I am with the Weaving likeness, I have to confess that this is the head I’m going to be using for display. It seems a crime to keep the other head, as nice it is, tucked away in a box, but truth be told, I doubt I’ll be swapping them out much.

htmmredsk7

Of course, besides the head switch you also get the full length leather trench coat, which is f’cking glorious! I was not looking forward to the ordeal of getting this thing onto the figure, as I’ve heard some horror stories online. In practice, it wasn’t nearly as tough as I thought it would be. The coat is cleverly designed with a series of interior snaps that help the coat fit snugly and stay in place. The interior snaps were a little tough, but once those were on, everything else went plenty smooth. There’s also a redundant Velcro belt that cinches the waist tightly so that you can put the regular belt on top of it and it won’t pop off.

htmmredsk8

Once the coat is on, and a little futzing later, it looks incredible. The material is pliable and feels great. The silver buttons coupled with the embossed Hydra belt buckle, the red piping and Hydra emblems on the shoulders, all contrast nicely with the rich black faux leather. The coat also fits quite well. I was afraid it was going to look puffy and awkward when worn over the uniform, but it’s an impressive piece of tailoring. I can’t see myself ever wanting to display the figure with the coat off again.

htmmredsk9

htmmredsk1

And then there are the accessories. First off, you get the basic Hot Toys figure stand. This one is identical to the one that came with my Captain America figure, only with the Red Skull nameplate. You also get the Cosmic Cube and a pistol. The Cube is just a clear blue plastic cube. It’s a simple piece, but since it played such a big role again in Avengers, I’m happy to have one. He can hold it well enough in either of the open hands, but for best results there’s a hand specifically made for clutching it. The pistol is a very cool piece and is one of the custom Hydra weapons designed to be powered by the Cube’s energy. It’s a fairly well detailed piece, right down to the visible wiring.

htmmredsk11

The frustrating thing about Red Skull is that he’s two figures in one, and unless you have an extra body and pair of boots lying around, you can’t enjoy both at once. So who to display? Johann Schmidt or Red Skull? Fortunately, it’s an easy decision for me. I love the Weaving head sculpt, and he looks great in his uniform, but once I popped on the Red Skull head and the amazing trench coat, I knew that was the way he was going to reside on my shelf. At $200, he’s a bit pricey for a figure with very little accessories, but with two amazing head sculpts and that great coat, I think it’s easy to see where the money went. Besides, I think the days of Hot Toys offering figures for under $200 are soon coming to an end. It took me a while to getting around to buying him, but he’s a gorgeous figure, and I’m thrilled to finally have him standing next to my First Avenger Captain America.

Jul 9 2013

The First Avenger: Red Skull Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys, Part 1

This week I finally added Hot Toys’ Red Skull to my collection. It was an inevitable purchase since Cap’s movie was my favorite among all the stand-alone Avengers films, and “The First Avenger” Cap was my very first Hot Toys purchase. Buying Red Skull was a no brainer. Nonetheless, he kept getting pushed back again and again in favor of other stuff. Luckily, he’s hung around at Sideshow long enough for me to finally buy him. For all intents and purposes, Red Skull is two figures in one, so I’m going to look at him in two parts. Today we’ll cover the packaging and the Hugo Weaving likeness and tomorrow we’ll check out the real deal in his black jacket and all his skullified glory!

htmmrs1

In a way, I’m surprised this figure exists. Weaving has gone on record that he wasn’t enamored with the role and wouldn’t be interested in doing it again. Fair enough. Honestly, the film did a fantastic job developing Cap as a character, but didn’t do nearly as much to build up Red Skull as a formidable and multi-layered villain. Nonetheless, Weaving did a great job with what the script offered him, and I’m mighty glad he consented to lend his likeness to the figure.

htmmrs2

The packing is the same style used for The First Avenger Cap figure, which is great, because anything else would aggravate my OCD. The box has a faux leather deco with a giant and sinister looking Hydra emblem emblazoned on the front. It also has the name of the film on the bottom. I don’t think Red Skull would appreciate the fact that his figure’s box has Cap’s name on it and not his. Thankfully, the back of the box features a shot of the figure with his Skull head and leather overcoat, along with a list of the people who contributed to the making of the figure.

htmmrs3

Open the lid on the box and you reveal a cardboard insert covering the tray with yet another shot of the figure. This time it’s him in his uniform and sans coat. The cool thing about this packaging is you get a nice sampling of all the different display options the figure offers as you go through the process of opening it. On the inside of the lid, there’s an enclosed tray with the figure’s overcoat.

htmmrs4

Lift the insert and you finally reveal the figure and get the first look of him as Johann Schmidt, with the Hugo Weaving head attached. The figure is flanked by the usual array of extra hands and accessories that one associates with Hot Toys releases.

htmmrs7

Here’s a surprise, the likeness is pretty fantastic. Hey, it’s Hot Toys, what do you expect? I have to imagine that Mr. Weaving has been reproduced plenty of times in action figure form, but it’s hard to imagine anyone nailed it quite as well as this one. He certainly has a very distinctive face, and I’d wager that that helps with the sculpting process. The skin tone is eerie and the eyes have that faint spark of life to them that only Hot Toys knows how to do. Schmidt offers a stern, but otherwise neutral expression. Besides the likeness being spot-on, they also included the incidental little scars by his ears that betray his mask. Very cool! It’s almost a shame that he comes with two heads, because I’m really going to be torn on which one to display the figure with, but more on that later.

htmmrs5

htmmrs6

I really like the styling on Schmidt’s uniform. It’s very retro-future-nazi looking, if that’s a real thing and the material feels like it’s a nice quality. There are a lot of fashionable little touches to add to the complexity, like the straps on the arms, the pockets, and the epaulettes. The red piping is beautifully done and adds that extra little snap to what is otherwise just a solid grey outfit. I do think it could have used an extra Hydra insignia somewhere, but that’s really the fault of the film designers and not the figure. As it is, the only Hydra emblem is the one embossed on his belt buckle. The high collar is executed quite nicely. It’s glued down so to maintain its shape and it hugs the neck very well. I was afraid it would require a lot of futzing, but happily that’s not the case. The uniform looks solid right out of the box.

htmmrs8

The figure comes with a total of six hands, all gloved. He’s boxed with two fists attached. There are three additional choices for the right hand. You get one open hand, one designed to clutch the cosmic cube, and one designed to hold his gun. There is only one alternative for the left hand, and it is a regular open hand. A cube clutching left hand would have been nice, as my preferred pose would be pistol in one hand cube in the other. You can still make it work with his open left hand, but not as well. I think this was a bit of an obvious oversight by the design team. You also get an extra set of posts for the hands in case you snap one off.

htmmredsk2

The articulation seems pretty standard for Hot Toys. I’m hardly an authority on the line, as this is only my fourth figure, but he can do most poses that I would want. The uniform offers a little bit of restriction in the shoulders, but it’s not nearly as restrictive as the shoulders of Captain America’s uniform.

htmmredsk3

And, I’m going to break there. I’ll go away and do some tinkering with the figure and when I come back tomorrow we’ll check out Johann transformed into Red Skull as well as the accessories.

Hail Hydra!!!

Mar 16 2013

Avengers: Black Widow Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys

Way back when, the Iron Man 2 version of Black Widow very nearly became my first Hot Toys purchase, but she sold out before I could get the funds together and she was going for ridiculous prices on the second hand market. And so that honor eventually fell to Captain America. But some things happen for a reason, and one look at Widow’s second version from Hot Toys and I found myself actually glad I missed out on the first, because I can’t say as that figure has aged well. Needless to say I pre-ordered The Avengers version as soon as Sideshow put her up. It was a long wait until December and then, as is often the case with Hot Toys releases, she was delayed and delayed again until finally arriving fashionably late here in the middle of March.

htabw23

The packaging is nowhere near as flashy as my previous Hot Toys purchases, but it certainly gets the job done with just enough style to boot. The figure comes in a window box with a cardboard sleeve over it. The sleeve has a newsprint-style photo of Widow on the front with the Avengers logo in foil print. Apart from the fine print on the back, the only other printing on the sleeve are the two hourglass emblems on the sides.

htabw24

The interior window box is silver with the same hourglass emblems on the sides, the Avengers logo on the front and “Black Widow” in big print on the top and bottom. The back panel has the usual Hot Toys credits listing the people who worked on the figure. The window shows off the figure, but until you open her up and clear all the plastic and wrap away, you won’t really get a great look at her. Inside the window box, the figure rests in her tray, flanked on both sides by her accessories and extra hands. Her stand is positioned at the bottom of her tray, between her legs. Sometimes less is more, and in this case I think there’s a certain minimalist grace to Widow’s package. Nonetheless, long time Hot Toys collectors may feel let down by the lack of flashy presentation here. But enough about the packaging, it’s time to get her out and see what we’ve got…

htabw1

htabw2

Let’s deal with the elephant in the room… rooted hair! ROOTED HAIR!!! Widow’s rooted hair was the only thing that made me think twice about ordering her. I am not a fan, because it’s often hard to manage and quite frankly the idea of sitting at my desk and brushing and styling the hair on an action figure comes dangerously close to making me reconsider my hobby. It’s one of those things that when successful, it looks amazing, when unsuccessful it looks terrible. It’s a big risk to take on a $200 figure. But even more so, I have a real problem with inconsistencies, meaning if I have one Hot Toy figure with sculpted hair, I think they all should have sculpted hair. That’s my borderline OCD talking. Either way, I was a little bit terrified to open her up and see what I was going to be up against.

htabw4

Fresh out of the box, it certainly looks rather frazzled, but I don’t think it’s as bad as it could have been. There are inevitably going to be some stray hairs, but even those are usually easy to get under control. Most of the problem comes with when you’re manipulating the figure and her hair gets mussed as you can see in some of the photos. On the other hand, if she’s going to be on the shelf and left alone for a while, spending five minutes to get it under control is worth the pay off. Besides, I always thought Widow’s hair was a little too perfect during the intense battle scenes of the movie, so a few flyaways here and there don’t bother me all that much. I’m not going to say Widow converted me to an advocate of rooted hair, but in this case Hot Toys knew what they were doing and in retrospect, I probably wouldn’t change it. 

htabw7

As for the portrait itself, this is a solid representation of Scar-Jo, but not a perfect one. It’s not one of those instances where I marvel at whether or not I’m looking at a figure or the actual person. The nose and mouth and overall face structure are great, but I think maybe the eyes needed to be a little bigger? I’m not sure. I do know the paintwork is so good that it’s downright eerie. I thought the head sculpt on the Iron Man 2 version was passable, and I think this is an improvement over that release. In the end, it’s still an amazing sculpt and I’m perfectly happy with it. The body is a huge improvement over the train wreck that was the Iron Man 2 release. Some may argue that the proportions still aren’t quite right, but I think she’s pretty spot on.

htabw13

htabw14

I wasn’t expecting to have a lot to say about Widow’s outfit. I mean there’s only so much you can do with a leather body suit, right? Well, in hand I really am impressed. The material has just the right weight and pliability. It fits the figure extremely well and yet it hardly inhibits her articulation. Although, granted there’s only so far I’m willing to go with her hip joints, because I don’t want to pull the stitching. The blue piping looks great and there are even more subtle “panel lines” running throughout, plus the SHIELD patches on the shoulders are superb. The stitching is all neat and clean and sculpted rubber boots blend wonderfully with the legs of the suit.

htabw18

Widow features a regular belt with her hourglass belt buckle and a second weapons rig which rests on her hips and secures her two thigh holsters around her legs. The straps are all tight and look amazing and I absolutely love the minimalist approach to the holsters. They basically just hold the muzzle of the weapons and yet they are totally secure. The weapons rig also has four sculpted pouches with non-removable throwing discs, two front and two back.

htabw5

htabw6

Widow comes with a lot of hands! These are all easily swapped out, and you also get an extra set of posts in case you snap the ones that come on the figure. She comes packaged with a set of fists attached, you also get a set of pistol hands, you get a right hand designed to rest on her hip, and you get a right hand that is designed to hold her throwing discs. I don’t often do a lot of hand swapping with my figures, so the gun hands will spend the most time on my figure. You also get a set of “tazer effect” fists to allow her to show off her “Widow’s Sting.” These come in a separate tray and accompanied by a second set of bracers. These parts have some blue paint to show off the electrified effect of the sting. It looks Ok on the fists, but it’s barely noticeable on the bracers. 

htabw21

htabw16

htabw15

Accessories… Assemble! On paper, it looks like Widow comes with a lot of goodies, but in reality once you get through all the hands (so many hands!) there’s not a lot here that I’m interested in. I’ll start with what I considered essential and that’s her guns. She comes with a pair of Glock 26’s. These compact little beauties were great choices for her in the film and Hot Toys really nailed their 1:6 versions. Not only do they look great, but they actually have spring loaded action and removable clips with painted rounds showing at the top. These pistols fit perfectly in her holsters and in her set of gun hands.

htabw12

htabw10

htabw11

Next up is the Chitari rifle. The Chitari were the only thing I didn’t like all that much about The Avengers, so I certainly didn’t consider this piece essential. On the other hand, it is a pretty cool looking alien rifle and I am very glad they included it with the figure. It’s nicely sculpted and beautifully painted, but it doesn’t have any moving or removable parts. Will I ever display it with the figure? Probably not.

htabw8

Lastly, you get a pair of her teeny-tiny throwing discs. I don’t scoff at extra accessories, but it’s hard to justify the point of these little things. She can barely hold them and I can’t imagine many people choosing to display her with them.

htabw19

htabw17

Black Widow set me back $189 and there are no regrets here. She’s a fantastic looking figure and well worth the wait. I know some people have been grousing about the cost. She is, without a doubt, what would be considered among the basic assortment of Hot Toys figures and yet she was $20 more than the last Marvel Hot Toys I bought (First Avenger Cap was $169), but if you take into account the rising costs of everything, I don’t think the increase is all that bad. I mean if Deluxe Transformers can jump a third more in price in a year, the extra Andy Jack it cost me to get Black Widow doesn’t seem so bad.

htabw20

htabw22

I’m not setting out to pick up a full set of Avengers, but rather just cherry picking my favorites. Indeed, the next Hot Toys purchase I make will be doubling back to pick up Red Skull. On the other hand, if Thor hangs around long enough at any e-tailers, I might be tempted enough to pick him up at some point.

Jan 2 2013

FigureFan’s Favorites 2012, Part 2

Second verse, same as the first. And again in no particular order…

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Mumm-Ra by Mezco… I had such high hopes for the Thundercats in 2011. Some of it paid off. I got some decent figures and the 8-inch Classic Lion-O proved to be my favorite figure from that year. But 2012 saw the prospects of a continued line die a slow death. In the end, I had to live vicariously through Mezco and the hopes they might keep the Classic Thunderkitty goodness going with their Mega-Scale statues. In 2012 we got Mumm-Ra and Panthro. I still haven’t opened my Panthro yet, but Mumm-Ra proved to be another outstanding effort in this line. I love this big guy, and I think he was one of the best values of the year.

Marvel Universe: Cable by Hasbro… I’m sorry to say it, but overall Marvel Universe has been disappointing me lately. Maybe the Marvel Legends figures are just pushing their smaller cousins out of my field of interest. It’s also possible that I’m just evolving beyond the 3 3/4” scale. GI Joe and Star Wars were the only lines that really tied me to it, and I don’t collect a lot of those anymore. Maybe the new 3 ¾” Doctor Who figures will bring me back. Either way, the MU figures this year have been competent enough, but not spectacular. The exception to that, however, was Cable, a figure executed so well that he barely feels like an MU figure at all.

Green Lantern Classics: Collect & Connect Stel by Mattel… I came into 2012 with a lot of Green Lantern fatigue from that shitty movie and the carpet bombing of marketing that followed it. But that didn’t stop the franchise from producing one of my favorite figures this year. Sure, Stel is a C&C figure, but he’s amazing in every way. The sculpt, the coloring, the articulation… he’s got it all. I never had much affinity for the character, but he certainly made for some excellent action figure fodder and Mattel went above and beyond.

Marvel Legends: Punisher by Hasbro… It may be because Frank Castle has been absent from my collection for so long, but this figure really hit the spot for me. It captures all there is about the character, he comes with all sorts of great weapons, and I just can’t stop playing around with him. One of the greatest compliments I can pay an action figure is to keep it standing on my desk, rather than regulate it to the shelves in the other room, and Punisher has been on my desk ever since I opened him up. It seems like I can’t go more than an hour without reaching over and picking him up.

Hot Toys’ Captain America: The First Avenger… 2012 was the year I finally broke down and bought some Hot Toys figures and Cap was my first. I was really apprehensive about blowing the money as I am generally not a 1:6 scale collector and I was a little afraid that the figure would be lost on me. Nonetheless, from the moment I had the package in hand, I knew there were no regrets. Cap’s outfit in this movie is my favorite design and I just had to have it in this epic format. While I doubt I will ever go all out into collecting Hot Toys in a hardcore manner, I can certainly see myself grabbing two or three a year.

And that’s all the good stuff… tomorrow we’ll start the one-two punch to the gonads that make up my biggest disappointments of 2012… Hang tight, ya’ll are already halfway through this wonderful week of shitty filler articles!

Nov 8 2012

Resident Evil Afterlife: Alice Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys, Part 2

And, I’m back and it’s time to check out all the cool shit that comes with Hot Toys’ Alice figure. You get a baton, a katana sword, two kukri knives, two revolvers, two double-barreled sawed-off shotguns, and two HK machine guns. Damn, woman! In the words of Captain Mal, “How many weapons you planning on bringing? You’ve only got the two arms!” Alice’s weapons rig can accommodate her katana sword, both shotguns and both revolvers, although you can get creative and put her kukris in the shotgun slots. Still, between her hands and her rig, Alice can carry almost everything she comes with. Let’s start with the melee weapons and work our way up to the big guns, eh?


First off and least impressive is her telescoping baton. I’m not one to argue with extra accessories. An extra pack in never hurt no one. But, I really have no use for this thing. It doesn’t telescope, and there’s really nowhere for her to store it when she isn’t holding it. And when you consider all the other choices, I doubt she’l ever be holding it. Having not seen the movie, I have no idea what context it was used in, but if it was me, I wouldn’t whip this thing out until I spent every last bullet, threw both my kukris and broke my katana in half.

Next up are the kukris. Made infamous by the Gurkha warriors of Nepal, these babies are vicious, hooked chopping weapons. I’ve owned a number of the real ones in my blade trading days, and I’m sure I still have one sitting around here somewhere. I’ve always had an affinity for their distinctive form. The sculpts and paintwork on this pair make them look like real weathered metal and wood, when in fact they’re just plastic. Very nice!


The last of Alice’s “up close and personal” weapons is her katana sword. The sword’s blade is die cast metal and the hilt is beautifully detailed. As far as katanas go, this one is a bit more functional than decorative. It comes with a plain black plastic scabbard that is a little bit of a tight fit. I prefer to leave the blade peeking out a bit so it isn’t so tough to draw. The scabbard fits through the three straps on the back of Alice’s rig so that it is worn straight up and down. It’s kind of an awkward position as it bumps the back of her head and it bumps the figure stand, but it can be made to work. It probably should have been angled over the shoulder, but with all the other hardware she’s carrying, I can understand why it wasn’t.


Alice’s Smith & Wesson chrome finish revolvers are absolutely gorgeous. The detail is superb right down to the flip out chambers and I’ll be damned if you can’t pull back the hammers. Inside the chambers you can see each individual sculpted cartridge.

The sawed-off shotguns are possibly my favorite of this bunch. They are hinged to break at the breech for loading and, yes the tiny little cartridges are removable. Insane! The cartridges are tough to get out unless, you don’t want to, and then they slide out when you’re not looking.


And finally she has a pair of Heckler & Koch machine guns. They have a matte black finish, removable magazines with a painted cartridge showing inside the magazine. The detail on these weapons is pretty insane, right down to the tiny safety switch. These are the weapons my Alice will most likely be holding while on display, since there’s no room on her rig to store them.

With an original MSRP of around $169, Alice is not cheap, but she’s also not one of the pricier figures in the Hot Toys catalog. Nonetheless, she’s a really solid figure that comes with a bewildering number of weapons and accessories. The excellent likeness, along with the quality of the figure and outfit certainly justifies the price, but when you toss in so much extra stuff, I really feel like the cost is justified, particularly since I only paid a little more than two-thirds the original price. I was a little concerned about buyer’s remorse with this figure, since it is only my second Hot Toys purchase and I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the film property, but in the end I’ve got no regrets. And she looks great standing on my shelf beside Captain America.

Nov 7 2012

Resident Evil Afterlife: Alice Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys, Part 1

I’ve only featured one Hot Toys figure here on FigureFan, that was Captain America and it was quite a while ago. It’s not that I don’t want to look at more of their exquisite pieces, but I juggle a lot of toy collections, and to tie up $150 or more in a single piece takes a lot of willpower that I rarely possess. I honestly thought that the next Hot Toys figure I’d be looking at would be the new Black Widow, which I have on pre-order and is due to come out in December, but an acquaintance of mine has decided to unload a good portion of his Hot Toys collection to free up room and funds for the upcoming Avengers. He was willing to let Alice go at a price I couldn’t refuse. We’re still negotiating over his Baby Doll figure.

Allow me to preface this feature by saying, I haven’t seen Resident Evil: Afterlife, but I’m guessing that’s probably a good thing. I only saw the first two Resident Evil movies. I remember thinking the first one was enjoyable enough, but I can’t remember anything about the second. Most of my Resident Evil love comes from the games, and I’ll freely admit that I’d much rather be looking at one of the game related ladies of the RE world like Jill Valentine or even Sheva. But Alice is the hand I’ve been dealt, and that’s ok, because I’m rather fond of Milla Jovovich, so having her in my collection isn’t a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all. I should note that last week Hot Toys revealed their Ada Wong figure and I promptly dropped in a pre-order so I’ll finally have one from the actual games.

Hot Toys likes to go all out on their packaging and I love that about them. Alice comes in a cardboard shipper. Inside is a very distinctive landscape oriented box with a great image of Milla in action, brandishing her revolvers. The front of the box has an embossed feel to the artwork, which makes it all the more satisfying. The box has a wrap-around flap, which is ever so gently secured with a magnet. Open it up and you get to see the figure alongside her jacket and gear. And holy shit does she come with a lot of gear. The box is cut around the window to resemble shattered glass, which makes for a pretty cool effect. The flap that holds her jacket also has the list of people who worked on the figure. It’s a typical Hot Toys thing to do and you always know you’ve got a classy figure when it has its own credits! Today we’re just focusing on the packaging, the figure and her outfits, and we’ll look at her well stocked arsenal tomorrow.

One thing I’ve learned about Hot Toys is that the unboxing can be a bit stressful. Besides having to unwrap tightly wound plastic from various parts of the figure, I take the time to learn just how fragile some of the outfit can be. Captain America had some very thin straps and between Alice’s weapon rig and arm wraps, it’s especially true here. I’m also really paranoid about damaging the package, because it’s part of the presentation and thus part of the whole ensemble. Generally speaking I’m not a package keeper, but obviously with Hot Toys, it’s different.

The head sculpt! Oh, the head sculpt. These guys are usually right on the money with their likenesses and I still think Alice is one of their better ones. Not only is it a great likeness to Milla, but the paintwork is absolutely incredible. The skin tone is perfect, the eyes are very lifelike, and there’s just the right amount of gloss on her lips. Even the way her lips are slightly parted to show a little of her teeth gives the head sculpt a convincing depth. She has a fairly neutral, maybe slightly determined, expression that succeeds without being vacant.


Hot Toys went with sculpted hair on this figure, and it was probably a good call because her hair is very short. She does, however, have two hair pieces that can easily be swapped out and are held securely on her head with a magnet. There’s not a lot of difference between the two styles. The one that comes packaged on the figure has her hair framing her face; the other has it swept back a bit. Like I said, it’s a subtle difference, but enough to make me prefer the swept back look just a little bit more.

The body is nicely proportioned to fit the actress. She’s shapely, and I’m glad that Hot Toys resisted the temptation to give her a boob job. Milla’s a great looking woman without being terribly well-endowed up top and the figure respects that. It’s classified as a True Type body and has a little better than 30-points of articulation. I’ve said before that I’m not a big 1:6 scale collector so I’m not what you would consider a connoisseur of articulation and body types in this scale. I will say that Alice has a satisfying level of poseability and unlike my Hot Toys Captain America, her outfit doesn’t inhibit her movement.

Ironically, the outfit is the only reason I hesitated buying this figure when it first came out. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a spot-on reproduction of the outfit she wore in the film, but I didn’t find it all that great a design, iconic or sexy. It also looked very bulky on the figure in the pictures that I saw. In hand, it’s actually not bulky at all. You get black skin tight leggings and a short sleeve t-shirt, a web-gear style military vest, which actually looks more like some kind of hardcore corset. She has a pair of very delicate arm wraps, heavy knee-high socks, and tall boots. The figure is capped off with a brown leather weapon rig that can store just about every piece in her ample arsenal.


Alice also comes with a Russian military-style jacket. It’s a gorgeous piece of work with excellent stitching, a working belt and snaps, and a furry collar. It’s a bit of work to get it on her. I had to pop off her hands, carefully remove her arm wraps and then slip it on and do some fidgeting. I was glad to see that it fits quite well over her empty weapons rig, as I wasn’t prepared to risk taking that off the figure to put on the jacket. I doubt I’ll display her with it on, but it sure is a very nice extra.

In addition to the outfit and extra hair piece, Alice comes with three sets of hands. The ones packaged on the figure are relaxed, and I’ll probably never use them. The other two sets are designed for holding her guns or her bladed weapons. She also comes with a set of extra hand posts, and you get the usual figure stand with the “Resident Evil: Afterlife” logo.

So far, pretty awesome. I’m going to break here, but tomorrow I’ll be back to see the copious kind of killing tools that Alice brings to the party.

Jan 24 2012

The First Avenger: Captain America Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys, Part 2

Alrighty then, let’s check out the Hot Toys treatment of Captain America: The First Avengers. We’ve already covered the packaging, and now the figure’s out let’s go ahead and start with the head.

I really dig the final head sculpt. Yes, I’ve seen plenty of complaints about how it doesn’t quite look like Chris Evans. Honestly, I think it looks pretty close. Hot Toys tends to either nail it perfectly or get that, “hmmm… close, but there’s something not quite right about it” vibe. Granted, he’s wearing a mask and that may go a long way to conceal the resemblance, but there’s something about the mouth that just ties the likeness together for me. I seem to be in the minority here, but so long as it looks good to me, that’s all that matters, right? Apart from that, the helmet and mask is excellent and while its all part of the headsculpt, it definitely has a 3D look to it as if you could unbuckle the chin strap and take it off. The paint apps for the “A” and his wings are all crisp and clean. I’ll go with a baseball metaphor here, since we’re on an American theme, and say that the head may not be a Homerun, but its definitely a Triple.
The costume itself, on the other hand, now that’s a homerun. Granted, it helps if you love the movie costume as much as I do, and the way its executed here is just plain awesome. Cap’s duds have an uncanny vintage WWII look to them, particularly in the quilting on the shoulders and the use of grey cloth instead of pure white for the arms and mid section. The stitching is all beautifully done and the outfit fits the figure extremely well. The metal rank pip on his collar is a really nice touch too. His gloves and boots are all sculpted plastic, and simulate the look of leather very nicely.
Besides his belt, Cap has straps on his biceps, holding the quilted shoulder flaps down and a low slung pistol holster for his automatic, that includes a thigh strap. He also has the aforementioned shoulder strap that is packaged off the figure, and a “Y” harness on his back that is actually part of the costume itself and culminates in a metal catch, which is where the clip is used to hang his shield. The faux leather strapping on the figure is all extremely delicate, particularly the super thin shoulder strap. You have to be really careful slipping it onto him and I really felt like I was going to pull it apart. The pistol holster is the same way, which is why you won’t see the pistol pictured anywhere else in this feature. It took me forever to get it in there and fasten the flap, and I probably won’t be removing it ever again.
Captain comes with no less than seven extra hands, most of which I will never ever use. Popping the hands off is easy, but getting the new ones on is a little frustrating. I’m not going to criticize Hot Toys’ decision to include a lot of variety here. Variety is always good. But I’m happy with just using the hands designed to hold his goodies. I may swap out his gun with something else from time to time, but he’s always going to be standing on my shelf holding his shield.
And speaking of guns and the shield, let’s talk accessories. Here’s where Cap comes up a little light. Don’t get me wrong, comes with everything you would expect, but it still feels rather light compared to the inventories of some of the other Hot Toys figures. The shield is absolutely fantastic, and fairly complex. Its made of plastic, but thanks to the shiny lacquer finish you wouldn’t know that unless you touched it. The paintwork is absolutely gorgeous. The reverse has two straps, one that fits around his forearm and the other that threads through one of his gripping hands. It’s rather tricky getting it in place, especially because the straps are so thin and delicate, and the catch is so tiny, but once he’s got it on his arm, it stays on great and looks amazing. There’s also a simple hook that allows you to hang it on his back. It’s a lot of work to swap out the shield from back to arm, though, so I probably won’t be doing it a lot, although you can actually hang it on his back without going through all the trouble of removng the hand from the strap.
Besides the shield, Cap comes with two weapons. I already touched on the automatic pistol, which is a very nice sculpt, but feels a little undersized to me, which is another reason I’m happy to keep it in the holster. I have a fair share of WWII era weapons in the 1:6 scale, so I will likely use a different .45 automatic pistol if I ever want to display him with one. It’s not a big issue, but when you’re paying this much for a figure, you shouldn’t have to swap in a better weapon. The Thompson machine gun, on the other hand is excellent and even includes a removable clip and just looks outstanding, whether in his hand or slung over his shoulder. That said, I may wind up displaying him with an M1 Garand or a Grease Gun.
You also get the personalized display stand. It’s pretty simple and serviceable, so don’t expect any kind of environment or diorama base. The post has a little wire cradle that the figure rests on between its legs and it does a fine job of holding him up.
Cap’s articulation is perfectly fine from the chest down, but the arms are somewhat restricted at the shoulders. The arms are only designed to rise up to 90-degrees and the instructions specifically point out that trying to get more motion out of them may damage the figure. My Cap’s arms actually don’t quite make it to 90-degrees, and I’m not about to force it to try to get that extra one or two degrees out of them. I suspect the joint was limited so as not to tear the snug stitching on his shoulders. I can still get Cap into most of the poses I want to, so I’m not overly concerned about this issue, but let’s face it, when people buy a 1:6 scale figure at this price point (or even less), they are usually expecting optimal articulation and you just aren’t getting it with Cap here.
In the end, Cap’s certainly got a few issues, but I knew about all of them coming in to the purchase. I loved this figure from the moment I got him out of the box and after spending a week fiddling about with him and putting him into different displays I still love it to death. He looks amazing on display and really the only thing I would have liked to see would have been a better sidearm. I picked up this figure through the fine folks at Big Bad Toy Store for about $170 shipped. That puts it at the lower end of Hot Toys product price range. You get a great figure for that price, and while I can’t think of much I would have added, accessory whores used to a gaggle of goodies with their figures may feel a little disappointed.
Jan 23 2012

The First Avenger: Captain America Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys, Part 1

You need only look back at the barren wasteland of content in November to see how busy I was at work toward the end of last year. Well, by the end of the year all that hard work started paying off, and I mean quite literally. In that higher tax bracket sense of the words. Besides some heavily padded paychecks, I was promoted and bumped up a significant paygrade. As a result, I wanted to take some of that fun money and splurge this year on something a little pricier than I usually buy and at the same time start getting in on a new line of figures that I’ve previously avoided for budgetary purposes. Hot Toys is going to be one of those outlets. And while I’m not prepared to start digging into the older figures because they have a habit of getting so prohibitively expensive, there are a number on the market right now that I plan on picking up.

For my first figure, I thought it appropriate to go with Captain America, despite some issues I knew ahead of time that existed with the figure. I did a lot of research on this guy before buying and ultimately decided that he looked so good, I was willing to live with the issues. I’ve just always loved Cap to pieces and while there were certainly some things about the movie I would have done differently, one thing that I wouldn’t have changed at all was Cap’s final appearance. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunities to pick up Thor and Iron Man from Hot Toys when The Avengers movie comes out, but Cap’s outfit is going to change quite a bit, and I really wanted him in his WWII-era costume. So let’s take a look and see what Hot Toys did with it. I’m going to start out today by just checking out the packaging and then I’ll try to be back tomorrow with a look at the figure itself.
Cap comes in a nice sized box emblazoned with his shield deco on the front and a whole lot of production information on the back. It looks like you’re about to start reading the credits from the movie, but its actually all the damn people who worked on this figure and its pretty impressive. You get a shot of the figure’s prototype on the back of the box and some assorted stills on the sides. The box is about as tall as you would expect from a 1:6 scale figure, but it’s a hell of a lot deeper. The design is like a shoebox, where you just lift the top off to get at the goods inside. Overall the outer packaging is attractive and sturdy, but possibly not as flashy as one might expect from a figure in this price range.
While in concept, the packaging is pretty simple, there’s a whole bunch of layers and stuff at work here. There is a tray tucked under the top cover that contains Cap’s gear. You get his iconic shield, an automatic pistol, a Thompson machine gun, a clip to hold his shield on his back, and his shoulder strap with pouches.
Next you have to lift out a cardstock poster of the figure to reveal the tray holding the figure, the stand, and his array of no less than seven replacement hands. You also get a baggie of replacement pegs for the hands and feet and a folded instruction sheet. There’s a cover over that, and another cover over that, and plastic over the hands and head. It takes some time to get through all this, but its nice to know he comes well protected and its cool how my anticipation was building the whole time.
I’m usually not a big packaging whore, as a fair number of my toys just get taken out and the package gets thrown away, but as a rule I keep my 1:6 scale figures in their packages. This is usually the case because they have a lot of extra accessories to keep track of and to help keep their soft goods clean when they aren’t out on display. Granted, Cap here will likely spend more time on my shelf than in his box, but there’s plenty of extras to keep track of, so this box is obviously a keeper for me.

 

Tomorrow, I’ll be back for Part 2 and we’ll actually dig in and start looking at the figure itself!