Review of Bruce Lee - Enter the Dragon sixth scale figure
DX04 Exclusive

Introduction

Bruce Lee is a true icon, and one that will never grow old, never fall from grace, never disappoint his fans. His death at a far too young of age forever froze his skills in the consciousness of his fans at his peak.

He has been immortalized in action figure forms dozens of times, including the high end sixth scale format. But Hot Toys hadn't touched the license...until now.

They have quite a few figures planned, but they started off with a bang, doing him up in their Movie Master Deluxe series complete with PERS eye system. There are two full costumes, tons of accessories, and even two dioramas - and if you buy the Sideshow exclusive for another $20, you get a second body to complete two full figures.

I'm looking at the exclusive tonight, but you'll be able to discern the differences and judge the regular as well. The regular runs about $200, while the exclusive comes in at $220. I have the usual list of great places to pick this guy up at the end of the review.

Packaging - ****
Hot Toys does some of the finest packaging on the market with their DX Movie Masters figures, and Bruce is a fine example.The large outer box is very thick and very heavy. Inside are several layers of foam, each holding various accessories along with the figure. There's tissue paper to protect each layer from the other, and the foam and paper inserts are excellent quality. Until you see one of the DX boxes in person, it's tough to fully appreciate them.

Of course, it's all collector friendly, and there's no tape or twisties or rubber bands or any other sort of annoying impedance.

The exclusive comes with the second body and small display stand, and these come packed in another small box. The box is color coordinated to go with the larger box though, which was a nice unexpected touch.

Sculpting - ****
I've heard some people say this isn't that great of a Bruce Lee likeness - sure looks great to me. And for some reason, Lee is one of those guys that's tough for sculptors to capture.

As with every recent Hot Toys portrait, the appearance is extremely realistic. The subtle skin texture, the finely detailed strands of hair, the separate inset eyes - the overall look is like a real person standing right there in front of you.

The PERS eyes work great on both portraits. Yep, there's two head sculpts here, one with the slash marks given to him by Han, and one without. Both have the PERS (movable) eye system developed by Hot Toys and present on all their DX figures.

This time, the entire hair piece comes off, not just a section in back. The hair fits over the head pretty tightly, but is also held in place with a magnet. With the wig in place, there's a tiny gap between it and the face, but it's quite minor, and I think this approach looks better than those were only one section of hair was removable.

They went with slightly pursed lips, one of the many trademark Lee expressions. It works pretty well, but is a bit specific to some scenes.

Overall though, this is one of the finest Lee sculpts I've seen, and is certainly worth of the DX logo.

Paint - ****
The skin tone is even and slightly dark, with the hands and body matching the face perfectly.

The eyes, eyebrows and lips are very clean and realistic, and the slash marks on the face and torso (don't forget he has a set on his back as well) match the screen version perfectly.

Paint work is one area where Hot Toys excels beyond every other company right now, and how they manage to get such realistic, clean and consistent paint work out of their production facilities is the puzzle everyone else is trying to solve.

Articulation - ***1/2
The figure comes on the TrueType with the slightly soft rubber skin over the torso, giving him a more realistic appearance than a standard body. But the joints in the arms are not covered or restricted, allowing you to put him in just about any fighting pose.

The standard figure comes with the slashed torso, while the exclusive comes with an additional undamaged body. That's right - two complete bodies, two head sculpts, two outfits - that means you have two complete figures with the exclusive version. And you can pick up this body independently as well, although it will cost you more than the $20 extra that the exclusive runs.

Both bodies are the shorter TrueTypes, putting him properly in scale with most other standard sixth scale figures.

The joints are very tight on the body, and some of the joints - like the double ball jointed ankles - all for a tremendous range of movement. The tight joints also hold deep and extreme poses without any trouble.

The instructions will warn you about turning the head after tilting it downward, because that can damage or mark the throat. I noticed that even without having the chin pushed down, you can mark the neck when turning the head, so take some extra care.

I did have one issue that caused me to knock off a half star - I snapped a wrist the first time I tried to remove a hand. And not the peg you'd expect - not the peg that goes into the forearm or the peg that goes into the hand, but the peg that goes through the ball itself! Thankfully, both bodies come with a couple extra posts, so I was able to swap it out, but it's still a bummer when that happens and it can be very difficult to remove the broken wrist. After popping in a new one, I changed the hands many times without any further fuss.

Accessories - ****
He's outfitted to the nines for either costume.

He comes with the rope and small bag that he used when he went snooping around the compound, and both look great and are properly in scale. There's also the coiled snake, nicely sculpted but with a bit of a plain paint job.

There are three weapons - a long bo staff, two short sticks, and his trademark chuks. There's a real metal chain on the chuks of course, and all the weapons fit nicely in certain hands.

Speaking of hands, there's a metric ton of them here. He comes wearing fists (as does the extra body), and there are 12 more in various poses. That means if you have the exclusive, you got 16 hands to go with the two figures! Some of these are very specific to particular poses, but they all look great and have a consistent skin tone and size.

The extra body also comes with a small extra stand with Lee's name on the front - in Chinese.

That's a lot of extras, but that's not all you get with this guy. He comes with the parts to create two different dioramas, although you can't have both together at the same time.

There is a diamond shaped base, part plastic, part cardboard, that is intended to be used with both backdrops. One backdrop is the Mirror Room, complete with center section that turns to reveal a secret passage. The second backdrop is from the Dungeon, another key location in the film. There is a cardboard cover for the plastic/cardboard base, one side colored light for the Mirror Room, once side done up dark for the dungeon. Both dioramas look great, and are made from very heavy cardboard and sturdy plastic. I love the turning mirror feature, although you should be careful when trying to move it - it can hang up on the sides.

On the back of the mirrored wall is the Asian artwork as well, a very nice touch that wasn't necessary but is appreciated.

Outfit - ***1/2
The one other area where I had a minor nit was the outfit, but learn from my painful lesson and you'll have much less trouble.

Technically, you're getting not one, not two, but two and a half outfits here. There are two pairs of soft slipper-like shoes, one with white soles, one with brown. Pay attention to that small fact, since you could easily end up with a mismatched pair on your figure. I think the white was supposed to go with the pants/sash/shirt outfit, while the brown soles were worn with the jumpsuit, but I got mine swapped around.

There are also two pairs of socks, one white and one black. Each pair goes better (in a screen accurate way) with a different outfit, but the white pair is much longer than the black, and will easily stay up due to the tight fit over the calves.

The main body also comes wearing dark spandex undies, something from the Hanes Michael Jordon collection.

The slashed figure is wearing the dark paints and belt that he wore in most of the film. This pair of pants works with the slashed look at the end, during the battle with Han, but they also work with the white dinner shirt. This jacket has tiny snaps and is extremely well tailored. It can go over the slashed torso and cover up the damage, and you can use the un-slashed portrait with it. This jacket makes the extra "half" outfit.

However, I suspect that most folks will pack away the white shirt and stick with the slashed torso and face with these pants, recreating the final battle. Word of warning - don't take these pants off of him. It's not hard to remove them, but getting them back on is a whole 'nother story. The problem is twofold - first, the ankle wraps are very tough to get just right, and it took several tries before I finally got them looking good enough. Second, The belt that wraps around the waist (and is sewn to the pants on one end) has a small snap to hold it in place, and I found it very difficult to get it re-snapped once I had it open. Very difficult. So difficult in fact that at one point I thought I'd end up resorting to glue. I finally did get it reattached, but it was a lot of wasted energy, so learn from my mistake, and leave those pants on!

The second outfit is the dark lycra jumpsuit that he put on to spy around the compound at night. The black socks work with this suit, and you can put it on completely, or you can drop the top half down and wrap it around his waist, which was another key look from the film. I prefer it that way, but your mileage may vary.

So with all those extras, you can actually fully dress and outfit two complete figures, based on key scenes from this classic movie - how cool is that!

Fun Factor - ***
Avoid the issues I've mentioned with the outfit, and this figure is a ball to pose. It's not a toy for kid's though, and there are plenty of other lower priced Bruce Lee figures from years past if that's what you're in the market for.

Value - ***
How in all things holy can I give a figure that costs $220 an above average value rating? Pretty simple really - buy purchasing the exclusive, you get not one but TWO complete figures. That's just $110 for each of the figures, well below the average price of $150 for a normal Hot Toys character. Add in all the hands, extra accessories, the PERS eyes, and the high quality dioramas, and you're getting a much better deal than might be obvious just from the price tag.

Things to Watch Out For -
I already mentioned my trials with removing the pants. Don't do it. You should also be careful with the wrists, just in case I didn't get a fluke.

The lycra body suit looks great, but it is easy to snag, so keep it away from any sharp objects.

Overall - ****
I had a couple minor issues, but overall this is an outstanding figure. I don't have any of the Enterbay Lee's, and I have to say that I'm glad I waited - Hot Toys has done the actor and this particular role proud. 

It helps that by getting the exclusive, you're getting two complete figures, something we haven't seen from Hot Toys in the past but something I'd like to see a whole lot more of in the future! Add in the very well done dioramas, and you have a set that just can't be beat.

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

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Sideshow has both a regular ($200) and an exclusive ($220), but the exclusive is only 750 pieces, and is currently on wait list.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Other Bruce Lee goodies include:

- Enterbay has done a lot with the man, including this 1/4 scale statue, this Kato version, the Fist of Fury version, the Game of Death version, and the Way of the Dragon version.

- Sideshow also did a 14 scale statue in their Premium Format series.

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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