SCOOBY DOO, SHAGGY, & VELMA

SCOOBY DOO (CHARACTER OPTIONS)

Almost a year ago, I took a look at a few Scooby Doo figures, which are a little bit outside of my usual reviewing bubble.  Not super far or anything, but just outside.  Of course, as anyone who reads this site with any regularity can probably tell you, all it takes is one figure and the next thing you know, I’m getting a whole set.  So, I had Fred, I had Daphne, and I had the Mystery Machine.  But the Mystery Machine needed the rest of its passengers, right?  I certainly thought so.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The figures included here are all part of the “Mystery Solving Crew” boxed set, which is part of Character Options’ overarching Scooby Doo line.  All of the figures available here are also available a few other places, but this is the most convenient way of getting the whole gang.  Included in this set are Scooby, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, and Fred, all based on their slightly modernized appearances from Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated.  Daphne and Fred are the same ones reviewed here and here.

SCOOBY

This is quite a landmark for me, because this is actually my first Scooby figure.  Handful of Scooby Doo figures, and not a one of them’s been the main character.  Yeah, I know, I’m weird.  Anyway, Scooby’s Mystery Inc design was one of the least changed; mostly he just had a few sharper angles.  The figure stands about 3 inches tall (since he’s on all fours) and has 10 points of articulation.  He gets a whole extra point thanks to that tail of his.  His sculpt is a pretty decent translation of the design from the show; I think Scooby’s design translates better to three dimensions than some of the others.  This results in a slightly less wonky looking figure than some of the others.  And when you really get down to it, it makes a bit of sense that Scooby’s figure would be the best, since he *is* the title character.  His paint is fairly basic, and there’s not a ton going on, but it’s certainly clean, which is better than the last two figures I looked at.

SHAGGY

You can’t have Scooby and not have Shaggy.  It’s just wrong.  So, here’s Shaggy!  His figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation.  He’s the tallest of the five, and also the scrawniest, both of which fit the character, so that’s good.  His sculpt is also a pretty decent translation of the show design, with only minimal changes being made to help him work in three dimensions.  I can’t really point to anything in particular being different on him the way I could with Fred and Daphne, and I think he’s second after Scooby in terms of a successful translation.  I like that they’ve carried over his distinctive posture, since the other four humans just got fairly generic standing poses.  Shaggy’s paint is also pretty decent, but it’s once again pretty simple, so there wasn’t a whole lot to screw up.

VELMA

Last up is Velma, the perpetual fifth wheel of the group.  Her figure stands about 4 inches tall and has the same 9 points of articulation as Shaggy, albeit with far more limited hip joints.  Velma’s redesign for Mystery Inc was actually one of my favorites, as I felt it injected some new life into the character.  I’m not sure how successful the figure was in that venture.  She’s rather similar to Daphne in that regard.  I think she still ends up looking decent, but it’s not as strong a sculpt as some of the others, that’s for sure.  Her head’s a little big, and the glasses seem a bit misshapen.  Also, her right hand is sculpted to hold an accessory of some sort (I’d guess a magnifying glass), but no extras are included, which is a little weird.  Velma’s paint is passable, and for the most part pretty clean, but it ends up missing a few details (such as the barrettes in her hair, which are just left brown), which is a little annoying.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In my review of Daphne, I noted that I just needed to resist the urge to finish off the gang.  I’d like it to be noted that I managed to do so for a whole 10 months.  Kudos to me, right?  I found this set at one of the last K-Marts in the area, priced at $9.99, which I’m fairly certain was an error, since the two-packs with the monsters were $7.99.  Regardless, I wanted to finally have the whole gang, and even with the extra Fred and Daphne, this was the cheapest way to go about it.  None of these figures are amazing or anything, but they’re kind of fun, and I’m happy to have the set.