Review of Family Guy action figures

Introduction

As I mentioned in my previous review, Walgreens is becoming a place where you can actually find new action figures. Family Guy has been treated to figures more than once (most notably by Mezco and Playmates), but those lines ceased quite awhile ago. Imagine my surprise when I happened upon a new set of figures at my local Walgreens, while hunting for the new Tyrion exclusive.

There are six figures in this wave - Peter, Stewie, Brian, Quagmire, the Evil Monkey, and the Chicken.  Also quite surprising is the inclusion of a BAF, although they call it a 'create a figure' feature. Buy all six figures, and you can put together the figure of Death, complete with alternate head sculpt.

These figures are running $8 at Walgreens right now, and even include a "As seen on TV" logo on the front. Not sure if that means you'll find them at other locations that sell those products, but these are clearly made through a relationship with Walgreens.

Because there are seven figures in the wave, this is going to be a review that's quite a bit more photo heavy than text. You've been warned.

Packaging - **1/2
Think classic dollar store sort of packaging here. There's a heat sealed bubble on a thin card backer.  It does show off all the figures in this wave on the back, but the only personalization is the character's name on the paper insert on the front of the bubble. There isn't even a specific graphic...

They also have the 'As Seen on TV', although I don't know if that means they'll be available at those stores as well.

Sculpting - **1/2
These aren't particularly attractive figures. Some, however, are much better than others.

In general, scale is the single biggest issue. Or rather, the complete and utter lack thereof.  Put Peter, Death and the Chicken together, and they don't look too bad. But Quagmire is slightly too large to fit with that group, as is Brian.  Then there's Stewie and the Evil Monkey, who are monstrously large compared to the rest. I've included a group shot so you can see them together, plus a shot of this Stewie with his smaller cousin from Mezco.  Finally, there's a shot of this Peter and Brian with the Mezco Peter and Brian. In that photo, the two on the inside are the Mezco versions.

Peter is my least favorite. They've given him this weird, open mouthed expression, perhaps meant to go with drinking his beer. Unfortunately, the included mug can't be held in his hand, resulting in a major fail all around. Peter stands about 5 inches tall.

The Chicken isn't bad, although he lacks any battle damage of any kind. His tail feathers are a separate piece in the package, and snap on fairly easily.

Also not bad is Brian. In fact, I like his smaller size when compared to the Mezco line, and I think you could swap him in there and he'd look decent. He's also one of the few that can actually hold any of his accessories, thanks to a reasonable hand sculpt.

Quagmire is a bit of a mess, with a huge head, poor expression and a weird knee-bent stance.  I suppose it's a 'giggity' stance, but it's not working for me. He also has mold lines (excess plastic) on his face from the manufacturing process, always a turn off.

The Evil Monkey looks reasonable, if you can get past his huge size. Same for Stewie, who is at least twice his appropriate size. I actually like the more elongated shape of Stewie's head, but the size makes him incompatible with his own series, as well as any other.

The BAF of Death is potentially the best of the series, with a good skeletal sculpt on the hands and alternate head.

These are made from a hard rubber, almost like a super ball. I bet your dog would love to get his teeth into them!

All the figures stand great on their own - no problems there - but the hands are generally not sculpted to work with the accessories.

Paint - **
This is some pretty basic paint work, with plenty of slop and mistakes. There's a dollar storel roughness to the look, with poor cut lines, and lots of rub marks on all the major colors.  There's not a ton of detail, but that's to be expected with this cartoon style, but the little that's here is weakly done.

Articulation - Death **1/2; Brian, Chicken **; Monkey *; Quagmire, Peter, Bupkis
This is the one category where there's some real variation.

Quagmire, Peter, and Stewie have no articulation. It might look like Stewie should be able to turn his head (unlike Peter and Quagmire, it's clearly a separate piece) but that's not happening.

The Evil Monkey is a solid piece as well, except for his tail. It can turn side to side on a cut joint.

Brian and the Chicken each get two cut joints - for Brian, it's his shoulders, and for the Chicken it's his legs.

Finally, there's Death. As the BAF, he has the most articulation since he had to be assembled. He has a cut neck, and cut shoulders.

All in all, not much in this category.

Accessories - ***
Most of the figures come with two character specific accessories.  Peter only has one, but I like it quite a bit, so I'm cutting him some slack.

He has a beer mug, full of foamy goodness. What sets this one apart is that it is translucent, so it looks like a full clear glass. That's a nice touch that we usually don't get.

Unfortunately, Peter can't hold the mug in his hand. He's supposed to, but he can't.

This inability to work with the accessories harms most of the figures. Stewie has Rupert and a death ray gun, and can hold neither. At least Rupert is sculpted in a nice sitting position.

Quagmire can hold his martini glass, but he also comes with a weirdly scaled couch. It's closer to a foot stool in terms of size.

The Chicken has a bomb, as well as a funky dart. I'm assuming these are from one of the classic battles between he and Peter. Again, he can hold neither.

Brian does slightly better than the rest. He can't hold the rolled up paper, but he can hold the cup of coffee. I suppose you could give Peter the paper - he should be able to sort of hold it in his left hand - and pretend he's scolding Brian.

The Monkey also has two accessories, a TV and his hat. The TV is once again weirdly scaled.  At least the hat looks good, but it merely rests on his head, with nothing keeping it in place.

Every figure also comes with a piece for Death, which they manage by breaking up his figure into two arms, a body, a sickle, and two heads.  The heads swap easily enough, and the skull even has the sculpted hood hanging down the back of the neck. 

It's really Death that does the best in this category too, although he himself is really an accessory. He comes with two accessories - the sickle and the extra head sculpt. He can hold the sickle, and the heads swap cleanly and both work well. Compared to the rest of the line, that's a major win.

Fun Factor - **
With little in the way of articulation and no real way to work with the accessories, these aren't a whole lot of fun for kids or collectors.

Value - *1/2
Even at a lesser quality, it's unreasonable to expect these to be under $5. But $5 is really the limit on something like this, and $8 is asking an awful lot of even the die hard fan.

Things to Watch Out For -
Don't let your dog get these - he'll love tearing up the rubbery material

Overall - **
These are pretty weak figures, particularly in hand. The wonky scale issues and the inability to use the accessories are the biggest issues for me - if they were corrected, I could have looked past some of the other sculpt, paint and articulation problems.

Still, there's some positives. I think Brian actually fits in pretty well with the old Mezco line, perhaps even slightly better in scale with them than the Brian they produced. And many of the accessories could find a spot in your display as well.

But overall, it's a disappointing set. I doubt we'll see another wave, but if we do, I'm hoping they take a shot at some sort of consistent scale. Since Peter, Death, the Chicken and Brian are reasonable, perhaps they could head in that general direction with any additional releases.

While I think Walgreens move toward having exclusive figures from established waves is a great idea, I believe these figures are good example of why they should leave the production up to someone who has the experience with collectors, and not venture off on their own.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - **1/2
Sculpting - **1/2
Paint - **
Articulation - Death **1/2; Brian, Chicken **; Monkey *; Quagmire, Peter, Stewie Bupkis
Accessories - ***
Fun Factor - **
Value - *1/2
Overall - **

Where to Buy 
You can pick these up at Walgreens for about $8 each, or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
There's been plenty of Family Guy merchandise over the years, including figures produced by Playmates. Other cool stuff includes:

- a couple years ago, we had the Blue Harvest bobble heads.

- I reviewed most of the Mezco series, including wave 1, wave 2, wave 3, wave 4, wave 5, wave 6, wave 7, and wave 8.

- there's the boxed sets, including the Peter and Lois two pack, series 1.5 family boxed set, and the Peter and Chicken two pack.

- Finally, there's the review of the large talking Stewie, and the deluxe Evil Monkey.

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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