THE ROCKETEER

THE ROCKETEER: LEGACY COLLECTION (FUNKO)

I love 1990’s The Rocketeer. It’s legit one of my favorite comicbook movies ever.  Just everything about it is so much fun, and it’s lead character, Cliff Secord, aka The Rocketeer, has a really, really cool design.  Unfortunately, the movie was a box office flop, so rather than being yet another entry in the Disney merchandising giant, and getting tons of cool toys, it was instead buried for many years.  However, it’s built up quite a cult following in the last few years, which seems to have made it marketable again.  Funko, masters of getting every license ever, have released him in just about every style of figure they offer, including their 6-inch Legacy line, designed to compete with Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Black Series.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Rocketeer is figure 1 in the The Rocketeer: Legacy Collection.  I’d place pretty good money on him being the only figure this line sees, but maybe Funko will pull a surprise out of their hats.  Time will tell.  Though the line was designed to compete with The Black Series, the figure is actually at a slightly larger scale, standing just shy of 6 ½ inches tall.  The figure also features 26 points of articulation.  Some of the joints are a little tougher to move than others, but movement is decent overall.  Structurally, this guy’s an all-new sculpt.  It’s a pretty good one, to be fair, though it isn’t perfect.  For one thing, the sculpt seems to favor the appearance of the basic standing over any other pose, meaning he looks slightly off in certain poses.  Also, I’m not sure what’s going on with the cut joints at the hips, but man do they look weird.  Like, I feel like Funko was trying to hide the joints a bit, but they ended up being more obvious than they would have been if they’d just been straight cuts.  The biggest issue is the helmet, though.  It’s not bad; in fact, it’s really good; but there’s something about it that seems just a bit off-kilter, almost like someone leaned on the mold while it was cooling.  It’s really close, but just shy of being right.  Those assorted issues aside, the sculpt actually shows off some very nice work, especially in terms of proportions and finer detailing.  The signature rocket is handled exquisitely, and is a near-perfect match for the prop from the movie. The paintwork on the Rocketeer is pretty decently handled.  There’s no real slop to speak of, and there’s even a nice wash on the pants to help bring out the details.  The figure includes his signature Mauser C96, as well as an un-helmeted head.  The head is a decent enough sculpt, with more than a passing resemblance to actor Billy Campbell (who was himself the near spitting image of the comics version of Cliff).  The paint is a little basic, but it’s not bad. Also, while some of the promo pics show the front of the jacket and the jetpack as removable, they don’t appear to be so on the final figure.  Not a big deal for me, but just worthy of noting.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I ended up snagging this guy at a somewhat out of the way Toys R Us, after a few weeks of searching.  Seems there was a fair bit of demand for this guy.  I’m really glad I found one.  The figure certainly isn’t without issue, but I’m just glad to have an awesome Rocketeer figure after all these years!