Tag Archives: McFarlane Toys

#0705: Spartan Jorge

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

SPARTAN JORGE

HALO: REACH(MCFARLANE)

Jorge1

You know what goes well with Halo? More Halo. So, how ‘bout some more of that? Of all the Halo games, I think Halo: Reach may be my favorite play-through experience. I really liked the customizability, and I liked Noble Team (well, most of Noble Team, anyway). The coolest member of the team was definitely Jorge, the team’s heavy weapons guy. So, let’s have a look at one of his figures, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jorge2Spartan Jorge was released as part of the first series of McFarlane Toys’ Halo: Reach line of figures. The figure stands a whopping 6 inches tall and has 34 points of articulation. Like Mickey, his size is a bit divergent from Spartan Thorne, though in the opposite direction. It is once again accurate to the source material, as Jorge’s listed height is 8 feet on the dot, so he’s a pretty tall dude. His joint layout is more in line with Thorne than Mickey, but the hip joints are still different. It’s for the better, as Jorge’s hips allow for a much better range and a stronger set of joints than Thorne’s. Jorge got his own unique sculpt (which would later be re-used for an unmasked Jorge.) It’s a great translation of the game design. The armor has a nice amount of texturing and weathering, which adds a nice touch of realism to the figure. He’s also got a suitable amount of bulk to him, which is definitely true to the character. If there’s one drawback, it’s his backpack; it’s a separate piece, and it doesn’t stay in place very well, which is super annoying. However, it’s nothing a spot of glue can’t fix. Jorge’s paint is a good match for the sculpt, with plenty of variety to the colors and nice bit of weathering, which brings out the sculpted details nicely. He’s even got some very nicely handled insignias on his torso, which are a great touch. Jorge’s one accessory is his signature mini-gun, which is exquisitely detailed, even if it is a little difficult for him to hold.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After picking up Mickey and Thorne, I knew my next purchase would have to be Jorge, my favorite member of Noble Team by far. I was fortunate enough to come across an eBay auction with him, Carter and Noble Six. The other two were missing most of their parts, but Jorge was totally complete, which I was very happy about. Jorge is a very nicely handled figure, with only a few minor issues that don’t hold him back.

Jorge3

#0704: Mickey

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

MICKEY

HALO: ANNIVERSARY (MCFARLANE)

Mickey

Over the course of the last several months, I’ve gotten pretty well sucked into the Halo games. I really have come to enjoy them. One of my favorite parts of the games are the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, or ODSTs, who sometimes assist the game’s Spartan lead, Master Chief. The ODSTs actually had their own game, Halo 3: ODST (that I am still currently playing my way through. I get distracted…), which gave us a whole team of named ODSTs, each with a unique design. As an added bonus, three members of the team were voiced by Firefly alums Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, and Alan Tudyk. Alan Tudyk, known for playing the plucky, upbeat, sometimes panicky pilot on Firefly, played ODST Michael “Mickey” Crespo, the team’s plucky, upbeat, sometimes panicky pilot (well, he flies a few of the ships, anyway).

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mickey2Mickey was released in the second series of McFarlane’s Halo: Anniversary line, which was released to coincide with the special 10th anniversary re-release of Halo: CE. The figure stands 4 ½ inches tall and has 26 points of articulation. He’s a good half an inch smaller than Spartan Thorne, but that’s actually accurate to their respective heights. The articulation scheme is also a bit different than Thorne’s. Some of it, such as the wrists and shoulders, is a bit more primitive, but other parts, such as the hip articulation, are actually a far better design. It’s an interesting assortment of joints. Structurally, Mickey has a lot of pieces in common with the Halo 3 line’s version of the Rookie, which is sensible, given they’re both ODSTs and all. The sculpt is really nicely done, with a ton of detail work and some very intricate work on the armored pieces. He’s also the spitting image of his in-game counterpart, which is always a good thing. I really love all of the patchwork details of the armor, especially the little add-ons like the ammo strapped to his calf. The little details really make this guy work. The paint accents the sculpt marvelously, Mickey5showing off all the various bits of armor quite well. The best part of it is once again the little details, in this case the small things printed on his armor, such as the emblems and writing on his chest. They even got the piece of tape on his helmet with his name handwritten on it. That’s really cool! Mickey was packed with his rocket launcher, which is his primary weapon from the game. It’s just as nicely detailed as the rest of him, and even has instructions on use written on the side. It does have one small piece broken off, but that’s not the worst thing. He also included a piece of the “Build-A-Logo” thing, but mine didn’t have that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After really liking Spartan Thorne, I decided to dive headfirst into McFarlane’s Halo line. Since I like the ODST design so much, I figured one of them would be a good starting point. Of course, most of them are on the pricier side now. Fortunately, I was able to find Mickey, courtesy of a seller on eBay who had a large selection of Halo figures loose. Thorne may have been cool, but Mickey’s even cooler, and definitely gets my vote for personal favorite!

Mickey4

#0682: Old Fred

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

OLD FRED

YELLOW SUBMARINE (MCFARLANE)

OldFred1

Yellow Submarine is a very strange film. Very, very strange. But, as a fan of both the Beatles and animated films, it’s a movie I enjoy quite a bit (it helps that I was 7 the first time I saw it). While the film obviously stars the Beatles as its main protagonists, for most of the film, they’re paired up with lovable goofball Old Fred, a native from Pepperland, the undersea land that the Beatles are recruited to save from the Blue Meanies. I told you the film was weird. Back in ’99, McFarlane Toys of all companies grabbed the Yellow Submarine license, and put out a small assortment of figures from the movie, including Old Fred.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

OldFred2Old Fred was technically part of the first series of Yellow Submarine figures from McFarlane, but he was a rather late addition. The initial shipments of the series featured Ringo and the Blue Meanie, John and the Boob, George and the Submarine, and Paul and the Glove. When fans complained about the lack of Old Fred, McFarlane responded by replacing the Glove with him in subsequent shipments. Why he wasn’t just released separately is beyond me, but oh well, here he is. The figure stands 8 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation. His sculpt was new to him, and it does a good job of capturing the admittedly inconsistent design of the character from the film. He’s mostly constructed out of connected abstract shapes, but that’s about right. The details of the face are absolutely spot on, and the uniform is basic, but accurate. He’s sculpted in a mostly normal standing pose, but for some reason, his right arm is bent at the elbow and extended outward at the shoulder, which looks sort of odd. Like, I’m not sure how the arm is meant to be positioned, because it looks equally weird in all of the poses.  I just don’t recall him having this pose at any point of the movie. Paint is a bit iffy on this figure. The basic colors are fine and all, but the application is really sloppy, especially on the yellows. The buttons don’t even always get fully covered. It’s not ideal. As he’s sort of an accessory himself, Old Fred includes no accessories of his own. Which is fine I guess.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Yellow Submarine Paul McCartney was actually my very first Yellow Submarine figure. However, that one was an earlier release, so he didn’t come with Fred. I got Fred about two months ago when my brother found a Fred and Paul set at a nearby antique store. Not a whole lot to say on this figure to be honest. He’s about on par with the rest of the set, so yay consistency, and I’m happy to have one to go with my Beatles.

#0679: Spartan Thorne

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

SPARTAN THORNE

HALO 4 (MCFARLANE)

Thorne1

Well, guys, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I think I’ve gotten hooked on video games. Well, a video game, anyway.  I know, the video games were supposed to be the guest reviewers’ thing. I’m cutting into their area. So, the game (or game series, rather) in question is Halo. Given that both Tim and Super Awesome Girlfriend are pretty big fans of the franchise, it was really only a matter of time. Of course, another factor for me getting into the games is so that I can have an excuse to buy all the cool toys from the game, like today’s focus, Spartan Gabriel Thorne.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Thorne2Spartan Thorne was released in the third series of McFarlane Toys’ Halo 4 line. Thorne is one of the main Spartans featured in the story portion of Spartan Ops. His armor is a re-skin of the Recruit armor, which is the armor set every player starts out with in Halo 4‘s multiplayer portion. McFarlane’s Halo stuff is kind of in a scale all its own; Thorne is about 5 inches in height, which puts him at about the same height as all the other Spartans in the Halo 4 line, and he has 32 points of articulation. His articulation is very similar in design to McFarlane’s Walking Dead line, though it’s a series or two behind in some of the joint styles. In particular, he’s still got the rather restricting ball jointed hips, which really can’t do much but a basic standing pose.  Also, the shoulders and elbows are somewhat restricted, but this is more to do with the character design than it does the articulation scheme.  Although the character himself may just be a re-skin of an existing game model, Thorne’s figure is actually a unique sculpt.  Overall, it’s an impressive piece of work.  The Recruit armor has been very nicely translated to plastic form, and the figure has lots of nice detail work, especially on the more heavily armored portions. One thing that is a bit of a let down is the sculpt on the hands. Neither of them has a trigger finger, the fingers are just one solid piece.  For a figure based on a game where 99% of the characters are carrying some sort of gun at all times, that seems like a silly decision.  As it stands, it means he holds every weapon awkwardly at best, which is not cool.  The paintwork on Thorne is pretty nicely handled.  There’s a bit of slop here and there, but nothing too noticeable, and the armor has some tremendously well-handled weathering to it.  He looks appropriately battle-hardened.  Thorne was supposed to be packed with a basic Halo 4 assault rifle, but the piece was missing from my Thorne’s packaging.  Given that Halo‘s really big on the whole two weapons at a time thing, it’s a bit of a letdown that Thorne didn’t include anything else, and it’s just made worse by my figure not having the one piece he was meant to have.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wasn’t going to get into Halo toys.  I really wasn’t.  Then Tim and I found a clearanced Commander Palmer figure at Target.  Tim ended up getting her, and I caught this guy on the back of the box.  He wasn’t anywhere to be found at that Target, but I kept my eye out and eventually found him at a slightly out of the way Toys R Us.  Of course, he was missing his gun and they only had the one, but, fortunately, Tim offered to loan me one of his spare Magnums, so Thorne wouldn’t have to go unarmed.  Thorne has a few minor issues, but he’s a pretty great figure overall.  Of course, he also opened up the floodgates on getting more Halo stuff…

#0593: Rick Grimes

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

RICK GRIMES

THE WALKING DEAD (MCFARLANE)

RickComic1

When McFarlane Toys first launched their Walking Dead figures, they were…well, they were pretty darn terrible. The sculpts were weirdly proportioned, they looked very little like the characters they were supposed to represent, and their articulation was awkward at best. They had launched the comic and TV-based lines pretty much simultaneously, and both were met with a less than stellar reaction. So, the comic line went on hiatus and the show line…um, removed the articulation? Just for one series, anyway. Then the TV line revamped itself with Series 3, to a fair bit of success. The comic line followed suit, and has been doing a lot better. Let’s look at the line’s most recent take on the lead character Rick Grimes.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

RickComic2Rick was released in Series 3 of McFarlane’s comic-based The Walking Dead line. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and has 22 points of articulation. Losing a hand generally cuts back on articulation, so he’s down a few points there. Rick’s based on his look post issue 50 or so. He was pretty consistently grizzled from that point forward, so this figure can represent just about any point in the series after that. Rick has what appears to be an all-new sculpt. It’s possible his legs might be shared with a previous figure, but I really can’t tell. Like Andrea’s, Rick’s sculpt does a pretty great job of managing to look like artist Charlie Adlard’s illustrations while still managing to have a decent real world feel. I don’t think the head sculpt is quite as good a match for the art as Andrea’s, but it’s not too far off. The body sculpt does a great job of capturing Rick’s more diminished build as the series has gone on, and it features some fantastic detail work, especially in areas such as the bandaged arm. Rick’s paintwork is pretty well handled. His colors are RickComic4appropriately dulled without being too boring. He’s got a substantial bit of blood splattering, which adds a nice battle worn touch to the character. It’s also worth noting that, unlike Andrea, Rick’s arm joints are molded in flesh tone, so the color won’t scrape off. Rick is armed with his revolver, a hatchet, a shotgun, and an assault rifle, which is a rather impressive assortment.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up Rick here at the same time as yesterday’s Andrea, from Cosmic Comix during a pretty great sale. I had actually though about buying him a few times before, but just never got around to it. I was happy that he didn’t have any of the breakage/molding issues that Andrea did. He’s not the most exciting figure of all time, but he’s a pretty solid take on the series’ lead character and definitely worth a purchase, though maybe for not for quite the full price.

RickComic3

#0592: Andrea

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

ANDREA

THE WALKING DEAD (MCFARLANE)

Andrea1

The Walking Dead is a massively successful television show, however, as just about everyone knows, it didn’t start out on the small screen. The brand began its life as a comic book series, which itself became rather successful. McFarlane Toys managed to snag the toy rights to both the comic and TV incarnations of the series. Things didn’t start off so great for either line, but McFarlane seems to have turned the lines around. The TV line has become their main focus, but they haven’t abandoned the comic side of things. Today, I’ll be looking at their version of Andrea, a character who was treated a little better by the comics than she was the show.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Andrea2Andrea was released as part of Series 3 of McFarlane’s The Walking Dead comic book line. The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and features 26 points of articulation. On my figure, one of the wrist joints was broken out of the package, so she lost a point there. Andrea is based on her appearance in the series from around the issue 90-100 range. She’s got the scar she received during her stay at the prison, but it seems to have faded, as it did later on in the series. This means that she matches pretty well with the other two human characters in Series 3 as far as the timeline of the books. Andrea has an all-new sculpt, which does a pretty good job of capturing how she looks in Charlie Adlard’s illustrations. The face, in particular, is spot on to her design. What’s nice about the sculpt is that she stays true to Adlard’s style while also still looking like a fairly realistic person. There are plenty of fine details throughout the sculpt that add some pretty great dimension to the figure. Even though she’s a comic-based figure, she probably wouldn’t look too out of place with the TV-based figures. Andrea’s paint isn’t terrible. For the most part, the details are clean, and there isn’t really any slop or anything. I wish they had molded her arm joints in flesh tone plastic instead of painting them; a few poses and the paint’s mostly gone, revealing an unappealing grey. Some of the paint is also a bit on the thick side, which tones down the sculpted detail quite a bit. Andrea includes a knife, pistol, and her trusty sniper rifle. It seems like my figure was towards the end of a stock of plastic, as the knife and pistol both appear to have just a little less plastic than they should.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

A while ago, I stopped reading The Walking Dead, due in no small part to a rather adverse reaction to the comic’s 100th issue. The show was enough for me. At that point, the comic line of figures was on an extended hiatus between Series 1 and 2, so when the line returned, I had moved away from all things comic related, so I didn’t pick up any of the figures. So, why did I pick up Andrea? Well, a few things. For one, as I noted in the intro, I was never totally pleased with the show’s handling of her. Secondly, Cosmic Comix was having a sale where Walking Dead figures were $5. That was a substantial enough mark-down that I figured I’d go for it. The figure’s got a few flaws, several of which I’m sure are isolated to my figure, but are flaws none the less. At full retail, I probably would have been slightly disappointed. At the price I paid, she’s really not bad, and she’s certainly on par with anything from the TV line.

#0462: The Governor

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

THE GOVERNOR

THE WALKING DEAD

So, last day of Walking Dead stuff (at least for a little while). In my review of Carol, I mentioned how the TV Show has really turned around my opinion of some of the comic characters who have made the transition.

The Governor in the comics generally seems to be a rather popular character. However, I’ve never really cared for him. To me, his over the top nature and the fact that he was completely devoid of any likeable traits just made the character rather annoying to read. In the show, he was given a much quieter demeanor and numerous episodes focusing on his rationale for the things he did. He was still a bad guy and he was still crazy, but he was a wildly more intriguing character. So, let’s have a look at the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Governor was released in Series 6 of The Walking Dead TV-based line from McFarlane Toys. This marks the second Governor figure in the TV line, following his first figure in Series 4. The figure is a little over 5 inches tall (David Morrissey is a tall dude) and he has 23 points of articulation. Sadly, he’s the only (human) figure in this series not to get the new style hip joints, but his long coat would have restricted them anyway, so it’s not too bad. The first Governor figure was based on his look in early Season 3 (though a later look was possible with the extra eye-patched head), where as this one depicts him after he’s begun to sink more into his villainous side. In his default setup, this figure depicts the Governor from smack-dab in the middle of Season 3, but it can also represent the character’s later appearances. Starting with Series 5, each series of the line has one figure that’s built on a previous figure. The Governor takes that spot in this series. He makes use of the pelvis, legs, feet, and hands of the Series 4 Governor, as well as a slightly retooled torso, an all-new head and arms, and an add-on for his coat. Issues with the old hip articulation aside, the re-used pieces were all pretty good the first time around, and they add some nice consistency between the two figures. The new pieces are quite well sculpted, which is really great. The new head sits just a little bit too high on the neck, but the coat collar covers the issue for the most part, and the head itself is pretty fantastic. The head is really well detailed, and it’s a very good likeness of David Morrissey. Paint seems to be a pretty consistent issue with The Walking Dead figures, and the Governor is no exception. There’s a bit of slop, especially around the edges of the bandaging on the head, and the hands and lower face both have a rather inconsistent wash. Other than that, the paint is actually pretty good; the clothing is sufficiently detailed, and there’s lots of work done to bring out the details of the sculpt. The Governor includes an alternate head with an eye-patch (the same as the one included with the last Governor), an assault rifle, a handgun, and a knife. While the alternate head presents a more default look for the Governor, it’s not as well sculpted or as well painted as the bandaged one; it looks a little like his face is sliding off. The assault rifle is a nice piece, but the figure has some serious difficulty holding it, meaning he’s pretty much limited to the knife and the handgun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Governor was ordered via Amazon, along with Rick and Abraham. I have to admit, he was probably the figure I was least interested in this series, for whatever reason. In hand, that all changed. I can’t say that the Governor’s really any better than any of the other figures in the series, but for whatever reason, I just really like this figure. He just looks really cool!

#0461: Abraham Ford

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

ABRAHAM FORD

THE WALKING DEAD

Hey hey, more Walking Dead stuff. Today’s character, Abraham Ford, is probably one of the few characters that I was actually waiting to see on the show, as I quite liked him in the comics. The character on the show is similar to his comic counterpart, but he’s been given a different relationship with the main cast, which makes for an interesting change up. He also showed up a lot quicker as a toy than a lot of people expected. Usually, a character has a little bit of a wait after showing up on the series before they can get their own figure, but Abraham here was announced almost as soon as he’d shown up. So, here he is.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Abraham is a part of Series 6 of The Walking Dead TV-based line from McFarlane Toys. He’s about 5 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation, which includes the new style hips, which I am definitely a fan of. Unlike most of the figures in this series, Abraham is based on his earliest appearances in the show, though that still places his look somewhere in mid-season 4, which means he lines up pretty well with the rest of the characters in the series (with two exceptions). Abraham features an all-new sculpt, and it’s a pretty good one at that. He’s definitely a bigger guy than the others in the series, which is nice to see. It also helps to further distance him from the tiny wrists that used to plague the line. The figure has a pretty much spot on likeness of actor Michael Cudlitz, which is great to see. I’m also oddly fascinated by the gloves, which are just really well sculpted. The only real issues with the sculpt are the tops of arms, which are sculpted to look natural hanging down, but look odd when placed in other poses. While the paint on this figure is better than a lot of the others in the series, there are still some oddities about it. For the most part, the basic paint work is pretty clean and seems to avoid any real slop or bleed over. However, there’s a dark wash that’s been applied to the figure’s skin that looks odd in places. Specifically, it’s too heavy on his face, and then it just ends abruptly and starts back up further down. It looks strange. Abraham includes an MP5, a Desert Eagle, and a knife.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Rick, Abraham was purchased via Amazon. I had actually seen Abraham a few times on his own, but I didn’t want to get him without the rest of the series. In hand, Abraham is one of the more solid releases from the line, though I can’t say he’s the most thrilling. Still, he’s certainly not a bad figure, and I’m sure he’ll be even more desirable once the rest of his group are released.

#0460: Rick Grimes

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

RICK GRIMES

THE WALKING DEAD

We now return to our regularly scheduled reviews of things Ethan actually owns!

When The Walking Dead television series first started up, McFarlane Toys was pretty quick to pick up the license to it. They kicked off the line with a few zombies, as well as lead character Rick Grimes and fan-favorite Daryl Dixon. Unfortunately, the figures weren’t exactly good. The line reformatted in Series 3, and the quality took a serious upturn. However, this left Rick, the show’s central character, without a figure that matched up with the rest of the characters. McFarlane has attempted to fix this issue, releasing a new Rick as part of the latest series.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rick is part of Series 6 of McFarlane Toys’ The Walking Dead TV line. The figure is roughly 5 inches in height and he has 26 points of articulation. Like Carol and Hershel, Rick sports the new style of hip joint, first introduced on the deluxe Daryl, which greatly improves the figure’s pose-ability. Previous Rick figures were based upon his appearance in the first and second seasons, but this one depicts Rick with his more rough look from seasons 3, 4, and 5. Like many of the characters on the show, his post season 3 look is more identifiable as the character, and shows the character after he’s grown more comfortable in the world of the show. Rick’s sculpt is all-new to him, and it’s generally very well done. The figure is (mostly) well-proportioned and well detailed. The figure also seems to be moving away from the odd wrist joints that have plagued the last few series, which is good to see.  The head definitely has more than a passing resemblance to Andrew Lincoln (sculpturally, anyway) and that’s nice to see in light of the last two Ricks. The torso is the only real issue; for some reason, they’ve made him slightly pear-shaped. Rick is very svelte on the show (something that tends to happen when you’re a survivor of the apocalypse who doesn’t have a consistent source of food), so it’s noticeably wrong for him to be shaped that way. As good as the sculpt is, the paint is probably the worst I’ve seen in the last few series. The clothing is okay; the colors work and they look appropriately grungy. The biggest issues lie on the face. The flesh-tones are really thick, and the hair is at best a close approximation of what staying in the lines is supposed to be. There’s a lot of slop, and a lot of spots that just seem to be missing the appropriate colors. The skin tone of the face is also too dark, which is only made worse by the fact that the skin on the rest of the figure is deathly pale. And that’s not even mentioning whatever that is that’s growing on Rick’s neck. He might want to have that checked out, it looks unhealthy. Rick includes a decent selection of accessories, which includes an alternate bandaged right hand, his signature revolver, a machete, a handgun with a silencer, and a set of clamps.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After finding Carol and Hershel at Cosmic Comix, I decided to finish up the rest of the Series 6 set, so I purchased Rick here from Amazon. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t just a little let down by this figure. The prototype looked really good, and I think the sculpt is genuinely a pretty good one. Sadly, the paint just isn’t up to snuff, which is a shame. Still, this is the best Rick that McFarlane’s released so far, and he’s not terrible when placed with the rest of the survivors.

#0454: Hershel Greene

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

HERSHEL GREENE

THE WALKING DEAD

Being a rather dark, usually bleak show, The Walking Dead is the kind of television show that needs to have some sort of moral compass, generally present in one character in particular. Unfortunately, on a show such as TWD, moral people don’t always hang around the longest, so it’s a role that has been handed down a few times. Perhaps the character to best fill the role is Hershel Greene, the subject of today’s review. He stared out jaded and harsh, but after about a season on the show, he grew into one of the most genuinely loveable characters on the show. McFarlane has seen fit to add him to their line of figures, so I’ll be taking a look at that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hershel is part of Series Six of the TV-based The Walking Dead line. The figure is about 5 inches in height, with 26 points of articulation (or 25, depending on which leg you use). Hershel’s appearance is based on his look from the show during the third and fourth seasons. The figure depicts Hershel following the loss of his leg. It’s a good look for Hershel, and it’s definitely the look I’d associate with the character while he was at his best. The figure has an all-new sculpt, although it’s worth noting that the majority of this figure will be re-released in Series Seven, along with a new head. Simply put, Hershel’s sculpt is fantastic. The head is the spitting image of actor Scott Wilson, and every inch of the figure is covered in some really great detail work, and all of the proportions are right on. In his default setup, Hershel has a stump where his right leg used to be. The leg is well done, and looks like a partial leg, so… umm… there’s that I guess. Paint can be spotty on the TWD line, but it doesn’t seem to have affected Hershel here. All of his paintwork is nice and clean, with no real slop or bleed over. He also got some incredible texture work, especially on his clothing. And, in what may be a first for this line, no wonky eyes! Yay! Hershel comes packed with a set of crutches, an alternate false leg to swap out for the “stump”, and a small handgun that goes in the holster on the front of his belt. The crutches are great, and he can actually balance on them, which is cool. The alternate leg is great for the season four look, and it swaps out nicely. Hershel has a little trouble holding the gun, but he wasn’t exactly known for his shooting, so that’s okay.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Carol, Hershel was a purchase from Cosmic Comix. I wasn’t quite as excited for Hershel as I was for Carol, but he’s still one of my favorite characters from the show. This figure surprised me. I thought he’d be okay, but this figure may well be the best one in the line. He’s that good!