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Resident Evil: Afterlife - Alice
Hot Toys

Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys

   "The following is a guest review.  The review and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the guest author."

Jeff steps in with a review tonight of the figure that won the Poppies for best female figure over 11" released in 2011 - tell us why that is, Jeff!

The Resident Evil franchise continues to be one of the best represented licenses that Hot Toys has undertaken. But so far all the figures have represented the way the characters looked in the video-games… the movies got no love, until now!

Here we finally have a figure of just about every fan-boy’s favourite fantasy pin-up (well for the cool ones who go for quirky beauty over pneumatic breasts and fake tans) Milla Jovovich. Starring as the long-suffering heroine of the on-going Resident Evil movies- Alice (surname Abernathy apparently, but it’s a closely guarded secret). She’s an actress that has packed over thirty roles into a career that is just over 20 years strong… and of course if you make that many movies it stands to reason that some will be a lot stronger than others, and it has been noted that she has made some true stinkers!

However, having been blessed with the face and body of an angel it seems the casting agents don’t go by the adage ‘you are only as good as your last job’ and she just keeps on coming back atcha. Perhaps best remembered as Leeloo from the Fifth Element, but she is now probably better known to many as Alice, a role she has reprised four times and is due to play again later this year in Resident Evil: Retribution.

For those interested in a look back at the video characters that came before’ they all linked to archived reviews below
Leon S Kennedy x 2
Jack Krauser x 2
Ganado (Chainsaw) 
BSAA Chris Redfield
Sheva & Wesker
STARS Chris & Wesker
STARS Jill Valentine
Battle Suit Jill Valentine

Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys

Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys

Packaging - ***1/2
This goes for the landscape format, and is a pleasing, clean bit of graphic design, but it doesn’t do anything particularly innovative. Of course design shouldn’t always have to be ground breaking, but the work coming out of the studios at Hot Toys is so consistently strong that they have set a bench mark that even they themselves can’t always live up to.

The front bears a pic of Alice in the rain… all wet… and dripping… and holding two revolvers and… I’ll stop there, it’s a nice image. The side is held shut with magnets and unwinds to reveal a tray attached to the inner flap with her extra coat, straight bladed katana, saya and telescopic baton. Opposite this is a die-cut window, fashioned to look like it is framed with fragments and shards of broken glass. Inside the box the figure is as always held snugly in layers of die-cut vac formed plastic and on this occasion a couple of twisties are used around the feet to keep her from rattling around. You will also notice on close inspection that the top layer of the plastic tray is even formed to support the die-cut glass fragments… nice attention to detail, but still not quite enough to garner a full score!

Sculpting - ***3/4
This is another one of those sculpts that has divided people greatly, some love it while I’ve heard some say they don’t see Milla at all… well, I guess we all see things differently but this is a very strong sculpt to my eyes, and if you truly don’t see her at all, well perhaps you ‘should have gone to Specsavers’.

It’s the work of Song Hye Hyun and shows Alice with a focused, determined expression, but still manages to keep the soft curve of the cheeks and delicate chin. The lips are full, pouty and sculpted with a deep recess into the mouth, in such a way that the shadows cast from it give the illusion of an even deeper opening.

She comes with two different hairpieces, both essentially the same style, but one is worn pushed back at the sides while the other is hanging down at the sides. Both swapped over easily and are held in place with a magnet concealed on the top of the inner head. You’ll need to futz a while to get the optimum fit, but once all aligned the join is almost invisible.

I just spent the last ten minutes Googling various hi-res images of Ms Jovovich, hey it’s a tough job but I think I can handle it. And having deliberated, cogitated and digested the various images I almost gave this a full score… but I do feel some angles work better than others so I’m keeping her just shy. It is a beautiful job though, and Song has done a sterling job.

Paint - ****
Another perfect 10! Some might choose to quibble over the likeness of the underlying sculpt, but the paint app is (as we know expect as standard) virtually beyond reproach!

Beautiful warm clean skin tones, luscious shiny cherry lips with just a hint of her teeth showing on the interior of her mouth and super crisp glossy eyes. The hair is a deep chestnut brown with marginally lighter streaks and highlights on the raised strands, there are two alternate hairpieces that can be swapped over and both have the same finish. JC Hong really knows how to make this look effortless, and its testament to his talent that we all know it is actually very far from effortless. It is in fact nothing short of a little miracle that Hot Toys consistently put out paint apps of this quality… but let’s all give thanks that they do!

Outfit - ****
Although this ensemble is what can best be described as post-apocalyptic combat wear, the inclusion of the tight ‘bodice’ means it still manages to make Milla look like a total fox, just look at this pic and tell me I’m wrong!

It’s one of those outfits that is actually more layered and complex than you might notice at first. And the inclusion of the winter coat, as seen here adds even more value and display options.

From the ground up, she wears long sculpted boots, incorporating a laced up section to the mid-shin then a strapped section that goes up over the knee. Under the boots she has knitted cut-off ribbed green leggings to the mid-thigh and a pair of skin-tight black ski-pants. Her top half sports a black T-shirt beneath a fabric and webbing bodice that laces up the back. Over this is a leather gun harness and belt combo to holster her mini arsenal. Over her lower arms are strapped and bound separate sleeves that come up to just over the elbow.

Lastly there is the extra Russian military style coat with its fur-wrap collar. This has the tiny plastic press studs (so beloved of Michael) to do up the front and the fur collar. It also has a belt around the waist with a working buckle (but is meant to be tied in a knot ‘trench coat stylee’). All the pockets are sewn shut and it has tiny metal buttons glued in all the relevant places. The cut is well suited to the figure and fits well, but as much as I like it, the look ‘sans manteau’ is far more iconic.

All the items are tailored and constructed to a very high standard, and regardless of what you think of the costume design, you have to admit it’s been fabricated to near perfection for the scale. I would have perhaps liked the boots to have been more flexible at the ankle, but even that isn’t enough to keep this from a full score.

Articulation - *** 1/4
Alice is built around a variation of the classic female True-Type (TT), you can see the configuration of the classic base TT’s here.

However they have continued to use the new less effective elbow design for this figure (as they did on the other RE female figures), it lacks the double elbow joint evident on the base female TT’s in the link above, and so has a single joint which only affords about 90 degrees of bend. It’s especially frustrating as the elbows are covered by her long bound gauntlets, so it’s not even as though it’s to help in the aesthetic. You’ll also find the waist articulation is now gone, but there is a joint in the upper torso where the breasts meet the trunk of her body. Just enter ‘Hot Toys Alice body’ on an eBay search and you’ll see plenty of examples of how the base body is configured (well, you will at the time of writing which is Jan 2012, if you’re reading this retrospectively in the archive you may be out of luck, but hey, that’s pop culture!)

Apart from this everything else is as we have come to expect from female TT’s, meaning it’s a solid well-built figure. However it could most certainly do with a few tweaks and just a little more of the love and attention that the male TT’s get to enhance its range of mobility even further. It’s especially vexing because we KNOW Hot Toys is capable of oh so much more.

Accessories - ****
I guess Milla’s hubby Paul W.S. Anderson has been watching a few John Woo movies. As every weapon she is equipped with (bar the katana and baton) comes with a twin for that double handed flying through the air giving it both barrels look. The haul consists of:-

2 Gurkha knives
2 Smith & Wesson Model 460V’s
2 dual 12 gauge sawn-off double barreled shotguns
2 Heckler & Koch MP5K’s
1 katana with saya
1 telescopic baton (though it’s not actually telescopic)
1 Russian military coat
1 extra sculpted hair style
1 classic black figure stand

The katana has a real metal blade with a moulded plastic saya that fits into straps on the back of her leather harness. The twin revolvers have cockable hammers and flip-out chambers while the shotguns can both be broken at the hinge and the tiny shells can be removed. The machine guns have removable magazines and a small rotating link at its hub for a lanyard. The twin Gurkha knives aren’t metal (sadly) but the paint app and detailing do go some way to make up for that fact. She also comes equipped with a rather underwhelming baton that is sculpted to look telescopic but isn’t. I’m sure this served some pivotal role in a kick ass scene in the movie, but as I still haven’t seen it, it seems like something to leave in the box, especially with the wealth of other goodies she has to pose with.

Of course there is also the extra hair style and her coat which are also very much accessories, but I’ve already dissected that in the outfit section. Lastly there is the standard classic oval black figure stand; we all know how I feel about figure stands, so moving along!

In the past pretty much all the RE figures from the video games have come with a solid selection of weaponry, and it’s good to see that tradition carry over to the movie figures, and she certainly seems to be packing everything she could conceivably need (plus a telescopic baton).

Value - ***1/2
It looks like the $150 Hot Toys figure is now firmly a thing of the past, and with this having a full RRP of $164.99 it kind of proves that point!

In this present climate of pricing (which we are going to have to get used to) this is pretty much par for the course… so even though I’m not going to whinge and whine about it being too high, neither can I ignore it and give a full score.

I guess at the end of the day its worth what its worth, and that will vary hugely from one individual to the next. While some ‘worthy’ adults will just tut-tut and shake their heads at the thought of another grown man (or woman) shelling out this kind of green on what is essentially a doll, there are of course others… a brave, proud and modern group of individuals (yeah, that’s us) who just HAVE to get a 1/6th version of Milla for our collections, and if you are a member of this proud troop, I salute you!

Fun Factor - ***
Alice is quite the action girl, and to be fair you can strike quite a few dynamic poses with the figure, but the base female TT is still in need of a few modifications, especially when intended for the more ‘extreme’ action orientated characters like this.

The price is as always a pointer that this is no kiddies play thing, and in the hands of an adult collector you’ll have no real problems… well, I didn’t anyway. I would however advise care and caution with the leather harness, it looks like it could potentially be fragile and if a kid did get its grubby mitts on this, I’d give it five minutes before the harness was in tatters.

Overall- ***1/2
I’m someone who freely admits to being partial to Ms Jovovich’s charms, and as such I like this portrait. She comes with a solid selection of weapons that are doubled up throughout and the outfit is very well researched and fabricated. So all in all I’d recommend her as a keeper.

I am however keeping her shy of the full score purely because of the price (which is high, but not unreasonable) and also because of the articulation. It’s a double edged sword getting a figure to look right but also be able to pose freely without too much restriction coming from the outfit, and here they have done a reasonably good job. But the intrinsic limitations that the female TT, coupled with the moulded boots mean she gets close to perfection, but is not quite there yet!

I guess I ought to try and see the movie now!

Where to buy
Sideshow still has her in stock for $164.99 here or you can try some of Mike’s sponsors where you could potentially save up to $15 on the RRP.

Fan Boy Collectibles $149.99

BBTS $154.99

Urban Collector $156.99 

Or hit eBay where her BIN prices are between $150 to $180.

Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys
Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys


Alice Resident Evil Afterlife action figure by Hot Toys


This product was provided free for the review by the manufacturer. Photos and text by Jeff Parker.

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