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Baby Doll - Sucker Punch
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."

Join me in welcoming a new guest reviewer tonight, Ryan Siller. He has a great site over at Uryaen.com, which I highly recommend you check out. Take it away, Ryan!

Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Ryan Siller, of www.uryaen.com. Today marks my first guest spot on mwctoys, but certainly not my last. I highly encourage you to visit my main site and see more images of each of my reviews. I have also produced exclusive images for this review. I do reviews on hardeware and other media, but for 1/6 I'm adapting my unique review style to the expected format for readers of these sites. Let's get into it:

I’ll say it up front. I’m a big fan of Sucker Punch. I see the movie as one of those intelligent movies that intelligent people love. If you love Fight Club, Memento, and Inception, it’s highly likely you’re going to love this tragic tale.

I could go on to write an entire treatise on the movie and its thematic elements, but I don’t want to spoil it in case you haven’t seen it. Just check it out. The movie centers on, but does not necessarily revolve around a girl who tragically lost her mind a little. We only know her as “Babydoll”. Her world is a “dream within a dream” and her only allies are four other girls who all are in an impossible situation facing impossible odds.

Hot Toys has only produced two of the five girls. Sadly this is a bad habit with 1/6 scale makers. They’ll do 14 different Iron Mans, but never complete a collection from a different movie. One can argue that this stems from demand, but it’s still something that has been going on the entire time. We’re still waiting for the rest of the LOTR Fellowship. If they ever release the other three girls, I’ll be all over that.

I’m planning a full scale Sucker Punch cosplay shoot. Some of that will involve the figures that they have released, and most of it is just for fun. Be sure to check out the FB page for that shoot here.















Packaging - ***
Babydoll comes in a box that features a half flap held on by what may best be described as a garter strap. Sexy? Maybe.  Once this is undone and lifted away, the figure is revealed behind a plastic window, held in a plastic holder.

At this stage of the game, I honestly hoped for better. When I release the first Enterbay figure review right after this one, you’ll see the state of the art in package design and implementation.

My Babydoll came with her hair all a mess, and part of this is the way it’s packaged. Although most of the figure sits loose on hard plastic, the head is held in by a bit of foam. But in this case, that works against us because it tugs at the hair, and the user is required to place the hair strap in. Why? I do not know. I’ve reached out to HT for comment. I await response.

Sculpting - ***1/2
I’m of two minds when it comes to this sculpt, and to tell you why, I would need to direct you to the images of the prototype, which I cannot do. You can find them online easily. If you compare those images to the final release sculpt, it feels as though it has changed. I note that there is commentary to this effect elsewhere, and thus, I’m not alone in noticing this.

The sculpt itself is gorgeous, no doubt. Take a look at the close-ups I’ve provided. You can see the texture of the skin down to individual freckles. The permanent catch light in those sad eyes is equally just remarkable.

But is this an ACCURATE portrayal? If you ask me if the sculpt conveys the tragic beauty and heart break of the character? Absolutely. Does it look dead on like Emily Browning? Not exactly. It’s darn close, but the figure has a less rounded, less baby like face.

So it depends on if you are looking for accuracy in the emotional resonance dimension, or in the “looks like the actress” dimension. Either is valid, and this strikes a very harmonious balance.

I don’t have the DX Jack Sparrow in the lab, although I’m hoping that he’s forthcoming, but from the images I’ve seen, he appears to convey more the Actor himself, and that should be interesting to see.

Do I include the hair in sculpt or paint? Either way the hair is a mixed bag. On one hand, this character would never work with sculpted hair. On the other, we immediately see the downside upon opening the box, and this is that the hair tends to go everywhere. Mine has a number of hairs that came out from the rubber band straps, and I dare not attempt to redo those straps.

Paint - ****
No doubt about it, the paint is perfect. Flawless even. Getting in there with the macro lens, one can really see the details in every part of her. Unfortunately when doing this, we see a lot of bits and hairs clinging to the paint, which ruins the effect a little, but that’s hard to avoid.

I’m going to be producing exclusive images for publishing on this site, on my guest spots for certain other sites, and on the Facebook page for my site. Look for special images at each location for some really close up views of this paint.

Articulation - ***
Female bodies are hard to do, even these days. HT has done a couple, Enterbay is just getting into them, and some smaller outfits are experimenting with seamless bodies. Think “Barbie” but higher quality and less stretched out.

The first issue I have with the body is that the ankles are quite weak. I have reached out to expert council on this issue and it’s something that is common with HT females. I suggest that HT produce stronger ankle joints and offer them as replacements to buyers.

The legs bend in all of the usual ways one would expect but the arms are highly restricted by the unforgiving outfit. One might argue that this is a separate issue but who’s really going to display the figure without the outfit? She can raise her arms about level, and slightly above, but don’t push beyond this.

I would like to see a neck joint that allows for the head to look down more than it does, so that we can create more dramatic poses. As it is, she’s pretty limited to what she can realistically do without the stand. Even with the stand, the figure only sits naturally in a fairly limited number of poses.

Accessories - ***
No map? They go through all the trouble to create a beautiful case for the map, but didn’t take two minutes to print a paper map? I made my own, and as you can see, it’s perfect. I did it in about 90 seconds from having the idea to printing, cutting, bending and rolling it into the case.

Included accessories are shown below, and for a non DX figure I guess we can’t complain, but this figure has been delayed by almost half a year from the initial promised ship date. I expected to see better or more accessories, or maybe one more outfit but nope.

My 1911 gun arrived with one of the stickers half peeled off. I was able to smooth it down, but I don’t trust it now.

The H&K MP7A1 came with a red dot sight that was bent pretty far to one side. This is not easily correctible.

The sword and sheath are beautifully done, but fit loosely together. I would have liked a nice snap to their fit. Likewise, the braided gold strap for the sheath holds only very loosely. The whole thing drops off quite easily.

Outfit - ***1/2
Say what you will about the semi fetish nature of Sucker Punch outfits, but that’s just par for fantasy course. The school girl outfit scales well, but mine had a lot of loose threads and extra material. You can see this in the pictures. I left them all there for the photography. I intend to hit the figure with a compressed air gun later to clean it up, but it’s kind of a mess starting out. The collar doesn’t quite sit evenly, and the bow is a tad long.

Value - ****
These 1/6 figures get more expensive every year. Our economy gets worse every year. This is hard to quantify in today’s market. $170 is a lot for one figure, even as the DX and competing figures hit north of $220. Is it worth it to me? Absolutely, but I love Sucker Punch. I do kinda miss 2005 when the average 1/6 figure was $60. Are they three times better now? I’m not sure I want to comment on that, but I’ll just say that if you’re a cinephile like me, you’re likely to find a small set of these figures per year that you’re going to HAVE to own.

Fun Factor - ****
If fun is playing with something actively, you’re looking at the wrong review. If fun is posing a quality figure in movie accurate poses for your shelf, it doesn’t get any better. If you’re not a fan of the movie, you’re probably not going to get it, but if you are, you’ll find nothing better.

Things to Watch Out For -
Mind the hair. Seriously, be very careful with it. The ankles are delicate as well. Otherwise, she’s as sturdy as you can expect for a collectible of this nature.

Overall- *** 3/4
I would implore HT to release Sweet Pea, Rocket and Blondie, but with no word about any of them at this juncture, I’m not holding my breath. Maybe next week?

Based on the lateness of the figure to the market, I honestly expected a last minute addition. An extra accessory or better packaging. Something. But alas, what you see is what you get.

Next up: Amber! What’s after this? Only Sideshow and Hot Toys can tell us. 

Integrity Check -
This is a special feature I do on my site. Be sure to check it out at www.uryaen.com.

Conclusion  -
Stay tuned as I add additional images for the review featuring a full scale Babydoll cosplay model in full costume, coming in a couple of weeks, plus a full scale Amber model as well. After this, the entire five girl cast! Again, check out the Facebook page, and like the page and come back for updates and test shoots leading up to the final shoot taking place in a couple of months.

Comic Con is taking place next week, and I anticipate announcements from both Hot Toys and Sideshow. What will my next review be? I have ideas, but it’s up to them. Enjoy the images, and thank you for reading.








This product was provided free for the review by the manufacturer. Photos and text by Ryan Siller.

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