Review of Well and RV Walkers - Walking Dead action figures

Introduction

Walking Dead fans, the wait is almost over - season 3 starts back up on February 10th. I know the wait has been killing me, and in the interim I broke down and picked up two more of the McFarlane action figures.

These are the RV Zombie and the Well Zombie, both characters from season two. These specific zombies had some decent screen time and factored in specific, memorable attacks on our favorite zombie apocalypse survivors.

The best place to find these is your local Toys R Us, where you'll pay around $16 each.

Packaging - ***
The packaging remains attractive, and it does a nice job showing off the figure. I hate the twisties, though, especially the industrial grade one used on the Well Zombie. You'll definitely need a knife or clippers to get him free. Of course, these bubble/card back packages aren't collector friendly, but they could still be a tad easier to work with.

Sculpting - ***1/2
I'll say this more than once tonight - the zombies in this series are far superior to the living characters. That improvement starts with the much better sculpting.

Of course, it helps that making these exact representations of the on screen characters is a bit easier. You don't have the intricacies of a human likeness to capture, and the extreme nature of their wounds makes it simpler to make a reasonable facsimile.

Still, there's no doubt these sculpts are better. Both have lots of nice detail and texture, with special attention paid to open, damaged flesh. They're gross, but that's the point.

One of the cool features of the Well zombie is the addition of the rope around his chest. When you first pull him out of the package, you'll find the end wrapped up (and possibly stuck) on his back, but when you pull him apart it will unroll. Now all you need is a T-Dog figure to be pulling the top half along the ground.

These figures stand about 5 inches tall, and fit in nicely with the earlier releases in the series. Both stand great on their own, although the minor articulation in the legs goes a long way to make that possible.

Paint - ***
These guys are dirty, bloody, oozing and gross - perfect for the McFarlane style of purposefully sloppy paint.

Of the two, I like the RV's paint job a smidge better. The checkered shirt looks great, with just the right amount of staining, wear and damage. and the open sores and deteriorating flesh is very well done.

There's a few color issues with the Well zombie. The head doesn't quite match the body, and the internal organs don't have quite enough paint detail to allow the sculpt details to show through.

Still, there's some nice work on the rotting flesh, and the overall quality is solid. The work on the zombies, especially the paint work, has been consistently better than what we've seen on the living in this series.

Articulation - **1/2
These aren't super articulated, but the joint count has gone up.

The RV zombie has a pin jointed neck, so that the head can flop back like a Pez dispenser. There's cut shoulders, a cut right elbow, pin wrists, a cut waist, and cut hips. The cut hips allow you to find the sweet spot to keep him standing, and the arm articulation is good enough to get some decent poses.

The Well Zombie has a cut neck, cut shoulders, pin elbows and knees, and cut hips. That's fewer joints, but the arms work well. The real drawback is the neck, since you can't alter the direction of his stare, but it's a minor quibble. These are zombies after all, and at least they both stay upright.

Accessories - Well **1/2; RV **
There's not a ton of extras with any of the figures in the line, but these two end up getting the short end of the accessory stick.

The Well Zombie has two extras - the hunk of ham that was lowered into the well (and that he had no interest in), and a section of intestines, designed to be put in his lower body when you have him separated. The ham is cute, but not particularly exciting, and the extra intestines are very specific to displaying the figure in parts. The dangling intestines tend to look a bit silly and rope-like, and this extra piece for the lower abdomen isn't any better.

At first glance, you might think that the RV zombie has zero accessories, but that's not true. The screwdriver planted in his eye is removable, and he looks great with or without it.

Action Feature - ***
Like the other zombies in this series, each has an 'action' feature. Neither are actually mechanical, but are less obtrusive than many other action features.

The RV zombie has a hinged neck, so that you can flop the head back at a 90 degree angle. The interior of the wounded neck looks great, and it's the sort of action feature I like - it doesn't hurt any other aspect of the figure and still works well.

The Well zombie isn't quite as unobtrusive, but the coolness of the feature is probably going to outweigh that issue. The jagged wound around his stomach is pretty obvious, and in fact it has trouble with gapping, making the seam all the more glaring. But this means that you can pull the zombie apart, just like the on screen version, and he's complete with those trailing bloody intestines. How cool is that?

Fun Factor - ***
While no one thing is exceptional here, the parts do add up to a decent toy. The articulation and action features add some real fun, even for the adult collector.

Value - *1/2
The biggest issue here is that you are getting figures that are 5" at best with very few accessories, but paying a whopping $16. They simply aren't worth the high price tag, and that overshadows the better qualities.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a  thing.

Overall - **1/2
The zombie figures are much, much better than the living humans in the Walking Dead line up, no matter the series or the source (TV show or comic). These guys are a bit too big to fit in with 4" scale figures, but if you have some other 5" figures that need zombie enemies, these are great.

Unfortunately, the high price point hurts the overall score quite a bit. Ten or twelve bucks, and these would get another half star, but with a price point similar to 6 - 8" figures (that generally more accessories), you're going to feel a tad ripped.

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

Where to Buy 
These can be had at your local Toys R Us for around $16 each.

Related Links -
Previous Walking Dead figures include Shane and the Bicycle Girl, Walking Dead figures series 1, the two humans in series 2, as well as the first series of comic based figures. And don't forget that NECA is doing busts, one for this same 'biter', and one for this same 'walker'. And if you like the RV Zombie, Mcfarlane also did a cool blu-ray case using his head.

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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