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The two
packs include a Wer-Wolf with Castle Raid Caspian, the Centaur Glenstorm
with Peepiceek, the Minotaur Asterius with the Faun Mentius, and a slightly
redecoed Final Duel Peter with a slightly redecoed Final Duel Miraz
(reviewed tonight). There are also deluxe two packs, one with Peter and a
large Griffen, and the other with Lucy and Aslan. That's a whole lot
of figures for a single wave! I didn't see the Susan or Trumpin single
carded figures at my local Toys R Us, so either someone already grabbed
them, they haven't shipped yet, or they is more than one assortment
shipping. All the rest of the singles, doubles and deluxe figures were
there.
Packaging - ***1/2
Getting packaging just right can be tricky, especially when it comes to mass
market cardbacks and bubbles. But for me, the Narnia stuff works
extremely well.
There's lots going on with the front of the cardback and with the inserts
in the bubble, but it doesn't end up being too busy or hiding the figures
themselves. It has a nice fantasy look, and also ties in with the them
of this particular movie (with the castle walls).
The actual back of the cards do everything right. There's photos of
the rest of the series to help kids pick out the ones they want to look for,
there's a nice large photo of the figure inside, and the personalization
goes all the way to a fairly long chunk of text giving you the background on
that particular character. This is a big plus, and a huge improvement
over generic cardbacks.
Sculpting - Miraz ***1/2; Peter, Tyrus, Edmund ***;
These are done in a 3 3/4" scale, and do fit in extremely well with figures
from lines like Star Wars. Both the boys are right about 3 3/4", while
Miraz stands about 4" tall at the very top of his helmet, and Tyrus just a
squeak over 4". The volume of these figures is also very consistent
with lines like Star Wars, making them look great on the shelf together.
Not sure why you'd put Luke Skywalker with Peter Pevensie, but you can.
More likely, you'll mix these with Golden Compass or the upcoming knights
line from Unimax.
Of the three, Miraz is getting the best sculpting score. The helmet
is not removable, so he cuts a break in not having to look like an actual
actor. His armor is quite detailed for this scale, and there's quite a
wide variety of sculpted textures. From the chain mail, to the
clothing, to the hard metal armor, each piece has a different look and feel.
He stands great on his own, and both hands are sculpted to work nicely
with the accessories. I had a bit of an issue getting the sword into
his right hand because the plastic is so hard, but once there it's not going
to fall out.
While there may be a sculpting difference between this Miraz and the
single pack version, I didn't notice it on a cursory glance at the store.
Peter and Edmund both have head sculpts that approximate the characters,
but certainly aren't dead on. The work we saw with several of the
Golden Compass and Harry Potter figures from Popco was better in getting
actual actor likenesses in this scale, but these two aren't terrible.
The hair sculpts have plenty of detail, and the armor on both looks
excellent. Of course, Peter has less armor in this particular version,
but the clothing has appropriate wrinkles, folds and textures as well.
This Edmund differs slightly from the Final Battle Edmund in a number of
ways. There's battle damage to the let arm and tunic, as well as the
lack of any helmet. Both figures stand great on their own, and both
have hands that are sculpted to work perfectly with the accessories.
Of the two, I think Peter is the better likeness, and he would have edged
out a slightly higher score if not for the attached scabbard. Yes, it
does hold his sword nicely, but it's quite thick and large. It's not
way out of scale, but it's oversized enough to hurt the appearance a bit.
Edmund, like his partner Miraz, has no scabbard or way to attach his sword
to his body, which is just fine by me.
Finally, there's the Satyr Tyrus. One of the changes between the
first film and the second is that many of the half human, half animal
mythical creatures have become far more animal, far less human. This
is particularly true of the Fauns, like Tumnus, and the new characters of
the Satyr's. In early mythology, they weren't even the half human,
half animal variety, but by the time the Romans got hold of them, they
became the upper body of a man and the lower body of a goat. Satyr's
were also often connected with sex and physical pleasure, being compadres of
Pan. I'm not quite sure how they snuck their way into the very
Christian Narnia tales, but something tells me they won't be depicted quite
the same way.
Tyrus is no man, all goat. He's simply a goat that stands on two
legs, and has human like intelligence. From promo shots, it looks like
the sculpt is extremely accurate, although the face itself is a bit plain.
I like the detail work on the hair (both face and back) and horns, but the
skin and outfit lacks some of the detail we see on the other figures.
He does stand fine on his own though, which is no small engineering feat
considering the two small hooves he stands on. He also holds his sword well,
and even has a small sculpted holster for it that works nicely.
Paint - Miraz ***1/2; Tyrus, Peter, Edmund ***
Again, Miraz takes top honors, and it's again due in part to not being
able to see his face.
Peter and Edmund's biggest paint issues are around the face and skin
tone. Miraz doesn't have that problem. The armor looks great,
and the wash used on the chain mail really brings out the detail. I do
think that a little heavier wash on the bronze armor might have helped, but
it would have required a VERY light touch to make it work.
As with the sculpt, I didn't notice any difference between the paint on
this King and the single pack version.
As I said, both Peter and Edmund suffer slightly in this category due to
the skin paint. Both seem a little thick, and not quite the right
shade. Peter's face and neck don't quite match in tone, and Edmund's
exposed arm looks particularly bleached out.
However, the detail work on the costumes and clothing is excellent.
Edmund's chain mail doesn't look quite as good as Miraz', but it's close.
They also managed to get the painted lion on his chest to properly match up
with the folds and wrinkles in his uniform.
Like his sculpt, Tyrus' paint work is good but not outstanding. He
has a pretty simple pallette, but they did add some nice details on the
shoulder armor and belt. The eyes and teeth show a bit of slop, and he
sports a more mass market job in this category than some of the other
figures.
Articulation - Tyrus ***1/2; Edmund, Peter, Miraz ***;
Miraz takes a slight hit here, especially compared to some of the other
figures in the line, but he still has fairly solid articulation.
He has a cut neck, but both shoulders are ball jointed, and the shoulder
pads have pin joints as well to allow them to travel up fairly high, giving
the shoulders a greater range of movement than would be possible otherwise.
He has pin elbows and knees, as well as a cut waist, T hips, and cut wrists.
None of the joints gave me any trouble with sticking, and none (including
the wrists) felt weak or likely to break under regular use.
His articulation works quite well considering he has not one but TWO
action features that could have interfered. More on that in a minute.
The articulation on Peter and Edmund is better than you might anticipate,
looking at them in the package. Both have a bit of a ball jointed
neck, although the ball is so far up in the head that it doesn't quite have
the range of movement that it could have. Peter has the skinnier neck,
so his works better than Edmund's, having more ability to tilt in different
directions.
Peter has a cut right shoulder and ball jointed left shoulder, while both
shoulders on Edmund are cut joints. These are all designed to work
with the various action features, yet those features don't restrict the use
of the joints as you might expect.
The both have pin elbows and knees, T hips, cut waists (which can be used
for posing, not just the action feature), and cut wrists. As with
Miraz, none of the joints feel weak or cheap, and there were none that were
paint stuck.
Here's the category where Tyrus shines. He has a ball jointed neck, with
the tiny ball way up inside the head. There's enough clearance around
the torso though that it can tilt and turn much better than I expected,
especially since his action feature is also part of the neck.
He has ball jointed shoulders, but unlike the others, his shoulder armor
is not jointed. The one shoulder pad is made from a fairly soft rubber
though, so it works better than you might first assume.
He has pin joints at the elbows, with a cut waist and cut wrists, as well
as the T hip joint. He doesn't have pin knees, but does have a pin
joint at the ankle. This allows you to hit the sweet spot with his
hooves to keep him standing, which was pretty impressive considering how
small the feet are.
Accessories - Miraz, Edmund, Peter ***; Tyrus **1/2
While these figures aren't loaded to bear, they all have at least their
critical weapons.
Remember that this Miraz is the two pack version. The single
version comes with a different shield, and perhaps a different sword (I
wasn't paying enough attention at the store). This two pack King has a
smaller, round shield, which he can hold in his left hand, and a fairly
intricate sword that fits in his right. There's no scabbard or way to
attach the sword to his body, but I can certainly live with that.
Peter and Edmund both have their sword and shield. The shields are
designed to fit in the left hands, with the swords in the right, and the
sculpts and paint are all standard mass market style and quality.
Tyrus has just one accessory, his sword. It's certainly a deadly
looking weapon, and it fits well in both his hand and the small holster-like
scabbard.
Action Feature - Miraz, Edmund ***; Tyrus, Peter **1/2
Let me start by saying that if you don't like action figures, don't worry
about these figures. None of the action features takes very much away
from the posability or displayability of the figures, which is huge plus as
far as I'm concerned.
On top of that, most of them actually work quite well! Miraz has
not one but two action features. He has a very traditional one first -
turn his torso back to the right, let it go, and a spring snaps it back to
center as if he's stabbing you with his sword. Both Peter and Edmund
have a much better version of this same feature that I'll get to in a
minute. Miraz's version works, but this traditional style means the
cut waist doesn't actually allow for any posing.
Miraz also has a lever on his back, that's quite small and relatively
unobtrusive. Push down on it, and the left arm punches forward, giving
him the ability to smack you a good one with his shield. This works
cleanly, and neither of these action features interfere with the use of the
ball jointed shoulders.
Edmund also has two action features - at least he's advertised as having
two. On my figure, only one actually works, resulting in his lower
score for this category.
The right arm works much better than Miraz's, although the intended
effect is much the same. Rather than using a spring in the waist, you
simply twist the waist back and forward yourself. As you do so, gears
in the torso push the arm further forward in a stabbing movement. It's
smoother than the old spring action feature, and it allows the waist joint
(and the shoulder) to still be fully used.
He is also supposed to have a punching action with his left arm, but I
can't get it to work. Such is life.
Peter has only one action feature, the same right arm stabbing feature as
Edmund. It works fine, and again, doesn't interfere with the look or
posing of the waist or arm.
Tyrus has a head butting feature, which seems quite appropriate for a
talking goat. Pull back on his head, and it snaps forward.
Getting him close enough to another figure to make this actually useful in
play is tough though, so it's not a particularly worthwhile action feature.
On the upside, it doesn't restrict the neck articulation, so you can pretend
it doesn't even exist.
Fun Factor - ***1/2
These are great little toys, action figures that are truly action figures
first but also realize that kids aren't stupid. Just because they're
kids doesn't mean they won't respond quite positively to figures that LOOK
good as well.
Value - ***1/2
I don't know about you, but when I can still get great action figures for
six bucks, I'm pretty damn pleased. I do wish we'd gotten another
weapon or two, but these are a much better value than usual these days.
Even Star Wars figures in this scale are tough to find at just six bucks.
The two packs are an even better deal, since the figures come with just
as many accessories AND cost .50 a piece less. Not all the two packs
are quite as good, since some have very small secondary characters, but it's
still a decent value.
The deluxe sets at $15 include not just two full figures (one of which
tends to be larger than others) but also a small hunk of diorama or
backdrop. Again, these days that's a pretty damn good deal.
Things to Watch Out For -
I managed to pop one of Edmund's shoulder pieces off, and it was tough to
get it back on and keep it on after that. Take a little care when
working with the shoulder articulation.
Overall - ***
I'm not as excited about this line as I was about the Golden Compass,
but as toys these are the superior figures. Why? The first
reason is because the articulation and action features work better for play.
The second and bigger reason is because there's much more of the proper
conflict with this line and this film to make playing with action figures
fun. There's swords and monsters and weird creatures and plenty of
battle. That type of conflict always makes for better toys. Yea,
violence!
The sculpts here aren't quite as strong as the work from Popco, or even
in the larger series that Disney had with the first film. But they are
certainly solid, and kids will appreciate the attractive detail in the armor
and clothing. They can fit in nicely with other lines in this same
scale, so if you want to have a Minotaur attacking Indiana Jones (when those
finally hit stores), you'll be able to do it.
This is a good movie line that might do well with kids, given the chance.
Unfortunately, they might not get it, since at my Toys R Us, they were
buried in the clearance aisle next to the marked down Golden Compass
figures. I went back the next day to double check on the swords
between the single packs and the two packs, and they were all packed up and
put away...maybe when they come back out, they'll get an end cap.
Score Recap:
Packaging - **1/2
Sculpt - Miraz ***1/2; Peter, Tyrus, Edmund ***;
Paint - Miraz ***1/2; Tyrus, Peter, Edmund ***
Articulation - Tyrus ***1/2; Edmund, Peter, Miraz ***;
Accessories - Miraz, Edmund, Peter ***; Tyrus **1/2
Action Features - Miraz, Edmund ***; Tyrus, Peter **1/2
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***
Overall - ***
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