Review of John Wick Action Figure
Deluxe Boxed Set

Introduction

John Wick came out of no where, and created a modern hero quite unlike any other. With uber-violence, and stunts galore (done mostly by the terrific Keanu Reeves), it pumped some much needed excitement back into the action hero genre.

There's been a number of collectibles, but it's really Diamond Select Toys that went heavy with their series of 7" action figures. Tonight's review is looking at their 'deluxe boxed' set, with the figure and a ton of extra accessories.

This guy will run you around $45, depending on the retailer, and is in stock at number of online stores.

Packaging - **1/2
This box is huge, especially for a 7" action figure. You could put a Hot Toys or Sideshow sixth scale figure in here, with room to spare. The size is necessary thanks to some of the accessories we'll be discussing, but I still think there's quite a bit of wasted space, and I'm not a big fan of packaging waste in today's market.

It's also not completely collector friendly, which seems odd. There's ties holding in the figure, as well as several holding down accessories. You'll have to cut these to get the figure out, and the cigar band name wrapped around the box is taped in back as well. You can remove it without damaging anything if you're careful, but it's a lot more effort to free the figure and accessories than I expected.

And while it is very attractive and shows off the figure itself, you won't be able to see the accessories in store, and they are pretty much the selling point of this set.

Sculpting - ***
As I mentioned, this figure is in a 7" scale, coming in right about that size.

There's only one portrait, and it's stoic and serious, but not extreme. He's beat up a bit, with a few cuts and gashes that are bleeding, and he has the beard and mustache. The hair, both on his head and face, is nicely detailed with some reasonable stranding and texture.

It's also a very solid Reeves sculpt, better than what we saw with Mezco's release, but still not particularly realistic. This is more cartoony, almost a caricature of Reeves, but it is definitely recognizable.

The suit looks about like you'd expect, but they added a sculpted flip to the tie that gives it some dynamic movement in static poses. Obviously, this will work better with action stances than relaxed looks, but even then it isn't bad because the look could be caused by Wick moving, or it could be from the wind blowing.

A negative that's related to the articulation - and could also be discussed there - is the wonky look due to some of the joints. The knees are particularly funky in certain poses, but if you're a joint junkie, you'll prefer the articulation to the sculpt. If not, you may find the joints distracting, and they may hurt your opinion of the sculpt.

Paint - ***1/2
The paint work is solid, with clean lines and edges on most areas, and very little bleed or slop.

Of course, this guy is basically all black, with a black suit and black hair. It's not like there are a bunch of smaller color details, but they did vary the finish on some of the black areas to add some visual differentiation.

Most of the detail work is on the face, where the hair line is decent, and the bloody damage is realistic enough. The accessories sport most of the paint operations, but even then there's fewer paint details than you might expect.

Articulation - ****
DST has done a terrific job designing the articulation for their Wick figures. As I mentioned in the Sculpt section, some of them (like the knees) might be less attractive overall, but they provide a terrific range of movement and posability.

The ball jointed neck twists and turns of course, but there's also a bit of lean and tilt. He has rotating hinge shoulders and cut biceps, that with the double pin elbows and rotating hinge wrists, allow for great arm poses.

He has an ab crunch, but as you'd expect, the jacket and shirt design don't allow for a ton of backward movement. There's enough forward crunch though to make it useful, and while he can also turn at this joint, there's a cut waist that turns freely as well.

The hips are double hinge - they can swing forward and back as well as out on separate hinges. The thigh is cut, and there are double pin knees as well as fantastic ankles with excellent rocker movement. You'll have no problem keeping the feet flat on the ground even in the deepest fighting stances.

The accessories only have one point of articulation - you can open the lid of the large crate. It's obviously necessary, but still worth mentioning.

Accessories - ***
There's a ton of extras, although there's less than you might expect with such a huge box.

There's no additional hands, so the sculpted gun right and the gripping left will have to do with all the extras. Considering it's mostly guns, it works fine.

The big extra is the large crate he took out of the floor with his emergency supplies. It has metal hinges on the lid, which ensures they'll last quite a while. There are two trays that sit side by side on the top - one with sculpted banks of gold coins, the other with sculpted weapons. The former isn't super detailed, and you might not realize what it's supposed to be if you haven't seen the movie. The later looks great, since each weapon is individually sculpted and glued in, and they left three slots open. They provided another handgun, grenade, and stack of coins to go in these three slots, or he can hold them in either his left or right hand.

He also comes carrying a second hand gun, and there's a shotgun and two automatic rifles to round out his weaponry. Thanks to the articulation, he can hold these in convincing one or two handed poses, or they can be stored in the trunk.

You can put the three long guns under the trays, resting on racks. It's a nice set up for the price tag, but it does seem HUGE. I haven't watched the original movie in awhile, but I don't remember the case being this big. In fact, you can use this accessory as a sixth scale prop if you'd like, especially with characters like POTC or Indiana Jones. Yea, it's that big. I've included a shot of it with a sixth scale Hot Toys figure for comparison.

There's a small black display stand, but you won't need it. He stands great on his own in just about any stance.

To finish it up, there's two full scale prop replicas. One is a coin, while the other is a blood marker. Made of plastic, they look decent, and will make for nice additions to my pirate chest.

While that's a good amountt, I'm a bit disappointed. No extra hands, no extra heads...it seems a bit light for a deluxe release. Still, the crate is really nice, and can serve multiple purposes.

Fun Factor - ****
This is a really fun figure, thanks to the terrific design of the articulation. You can get some really great looking poses out of him, and he goes great with the other Wick's they've released. Being in a 7" scale, he can also fit in with some of your NECA releases.

Value - **1/2
At $45, he might seem steep for a 7" figure, but most are in the $30 - $35 range these days. Considering the size of the crate and the extra trays of goodies, the additional ten bucks seems about right.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing. Everything is sturdy and well made, and you shouldn't have any worries about breakage.

Overall - ***
I waffled around a bit on this one. There's reasons to go up another half star, including the sculpt and articulation. But I was a little disappointed in some other areas, and in the end my overall dropped slightly.

Still, he's a great release, and I plan on keeping him in the display. I don't think I'll use this trunk with him due to the size, but I'll be adding it into my sixth scale Indy set up as a background piece.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - **1/2
Sculpting - ***
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ****
Accessories - ***
Fun Factor - ****
Value - **1/2
Overall - ***

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth $45. Use my link and get an additional 10% off, plus free shipping on in stock items!

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I've also covered the One:12 Collective John Wick, which is a 6" scale.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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