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Packaging - ***
Generally, Hot Toys does a nice job with packaging, but there were a few
issues this time around.
The boxes are standard fifth panel flap style boxes, but they are inside
a shiny sleeve. The film graphics used on the sleeve are quite
attractive, but I was generally unimpressed with the actual toy photos this
time around. There also is only a limited amount of text, even with
lots of package real estate.
The figure and accessories sit inside a thin plastic tray with not one
but TWO clear plastic covers. Even with this 'double baggin', they
used tape to hold some of the accessories in place. Even more
annoying, there are six twisty ties on each figure, holding it down in the
tray! This tends to wrinkle the uniform and create lines where the
twisties are tightly constricted across the material, and is generally
unnecessary considering the use of two covers.
Sculpting - Jack ****; Sao ***1/2
There's been some debate around the Jack sculpt. Just how much he
looks like the Depp as Sparrow is up for debate, but I will admit that it does
depend a bit on the angle you look at him from. The face seems a
*little* fatter in the cheeks, but the eyes, nose and lips are awfully close.
What really takes this sculpt to the next level is how much it looks like an
actual human, whether it's Depp or a Jack Sparrow impersonator.
The hand sculpts look amazing, including the sculpted wrist bands up on his
right arm. The boot sculpt is extremely realistic, and the detail work
in the hair (both on his head and on his face) is great.
There's some other aspects of the sculpt that are worth noting.
First, the hair is sculpted from a softer, more rubbery material, which allows
for much more poseability. Even though it's made from a softer material,
there's still plenty of detail. There's also some terrific small details
like the real metal tiny chain links running off the disk in his hair on the
left side. This is the kind of work that looks tremendously realistic in
the right light and from the right angle.
Sao isn't quite as good, although he's still well above average.
They've done a nice job with a skin texturing, and adding in the sculpted
scars. The hands have long fingers with even longer nails, and the
likeness to the actual character might be even stronger than the Jack sculpt.
Still, there's something that's a bit off to me. Perhaps the head is
a smidge big, even with the clothing on. Perhaps it's the slightly too
round look to the head, even when Sao was pretty round in this film.
There's something there bugging me, even if I can't quite put my finger on it.
Most likely it's the angle of his beard, which tilts back in toward his body a
bit rather than coming down straight. Still, he's damn near perfect, and well
worth the 3 1/2 star score.
These are on the large size, running around 12 1/2" tall. They
actually fit in pretty good with the Sideshow line, although they may be a bit
big to go with even other Hot Toys figures, and are certainly bigger than
Medicom figures.
Paint - Jack ****; Sao ***1/2
If you want a great sculpt to really stand out, it requires a really great
paint job. I think that the paint work on Jack is what actually takes it
to this level.
He has the usual eye makeup, and some wonderful small paint detail work on
the baubles and beads in his hair. The softer material they've used for
the skin seems to work well with the paint, giving him a slight texture to his
skin and a very realistic variation in tone. Some folks have thought
he's a little too dark, but I don't think that's true. It may be due to
the conditions of some photos, but in person the skin tone looks great.
The paint detailing on the lips, eyes and beard is top notch, with perfect
cuts and extremely realistic colors. I couldn't find a single thing
wrong with the paint work on this entire figure. Some folks may find the
way the eyes are painted - with the pupils looking out through the upper lids
of the eyes - difficult to get used to, but the look works really well with
the head tilted down.
Sao has an outstanding paint application as well, but he does have some
issues around the color used on his hands and feet. They are much darker
(dirtier?) than his face, throwing off the look a bit for me.
Articulation - Jack ***1/2; Sao ***
Hot Toys always have well articulated bodies, but depending on the character
design, how much articulation there is and how well it works can vary.
Jack has a ball jointed neck that works extremely well, even with the long
hair. That's because they used a soft rubber for the hair, which allows
you to move it either in front or back of the shoulders, turning and tilting
the head as appropriate.
He has all the excellent articulation from his neck to his knees including
ball jointed hips and shoulders, double jointed elbows and knees, and cuts all
around. The hips, waist and chest work extremely well together too,
allowing the figure to take some very realistic poses. Generally, the
Hot Toys body (like the Medicom) does a nice job of 'hanging' naturally.
Jack does lack a couple joints though that you might expect. The
swappable right hands both run all the way up to the end of his wrist bands,
which means that the right hand can turn, but can't move in any other
direction. That's a pretty big loss for this particular character.
I know they did it for the appearance of the sculpt, but it still ends up an
Articulation negative.
The other problem is at the ankles. The boots are an amazing sculpt,
but are one solid (and fairly hard) hunk of plastic. That means no ankle
movement at all, and I found it difficult to get his legs in any sort of deep
stances because of it.
Still, he poses better than most 12" figures out there, and in a very
natural way. Oddly enough, Sao did not.
Considering that his costume is a fairly loose design, it was very
surprising that I had a tough time getting him to even stay standing.
The ankle joints (which I just whined about not existing on Jack) are too
loose, and in fact, the left foot tends to fall right out. Even ignoring
the ankles, the body simply didn't hang and pose as well as I expect with a
Hot Toys figure.
I also wanted to mention that the ball jointed neck works well, but it
means that you can put a lot of pressure and even damage on the center hunk of
hair hanging down from his beard. Be careful when moving his head
around, so that you don't rub the beard across the armor too much.
Accessories - Jack ****; Sao ***1/2
Both figures come with quite a few accessories, but Jack has an excellent
assortment.
He starts out with his sword and scabbard, which fit inside the special
shoulder belt quite well. The sword is a little thin, but the
lightweight nature means it will allow for some good poses.
He also has several items that are intended to attach to his belt.
There's a couple sculpted (together) pelts that hang over the belt, the
monkey's paw which ties to the belt, the compass that ties to the belt, and a
small bone and rock on a string that can also be attached. All three of
these are on thin strings which I had to tie myself to attach them. If
you have big fingers it's a tough task, but it does allow you some flexibility
in length and position, and doesn't require you to remove the tight belts to
attach them.
The compass is very cool. It's very small and delicate, so I was very
surprised to find that it opened. There's even a small latch that holds
it closed!
Jack also has a very, very nicely sculpted and painted flintlock, which is
done in a reasonably good scale. Jack also comes with an extra right
hand sculpted to hold the flintlock.
There's a set of skeleton keys too, and these have a metal ring. This
ring opens quite easily so that you can attach it to his belt without removing
it. That's key, since the belt is on so tightly and cleanly right out of
the box. Most of us aren't going to want to remove it.
Finally, what pirate would be complete without his bottle of rum?
Certainly not Jack! That's quite a number of very well done accessories,
even at this price point.
Sao has a fair share of goodies too, though not *quite* as much as
Jack. He also has his trademark sword and scabbard, but these don't fit
in his 'loop' quite as well. In fact, the loop is very tight, and made
from a hard plastic, so that damaging it is actually a very real possibility.
The sword is great though, with a nicely sculpted design right on the blade.
He comes with a flintlock too, and not just a re-used version of
Jack's. It's not quite as cool looking, but it's nice to get two
versions.
His final weapon accessory is the specialized boating 'awl' with the handle
and sharp point. The scale is pretty good, although it does seem a
smidge small.
He has not one but two swappable hands, designed to hold the
accessories. Unfortunately, none of the hands do that particularly
well. The weapons are all a sloppy fit, and the sword is particularly
difficult for him to hold, even in the specially sculpted hand.
Both figures come with a display stand, which is pretty much standard these
days. However, this pair is a little different, because they've added a
small plaque on the top of the base at an angle that has the name of the
character on it. Generally, I'm not a huge fan of name plates, since it
should be fairly obvious to anyone who the character is. But these do
look pretty nice, and give an interesting look to the base.
Outfit - Jack ****; Sao ***1/2
Both outfits are stupendous, but Jack's edges out Sao's once again.
Sao has his under clothes, along with his very well done robe. The
armor is sculpted rubbery plastic, and holds detail extremely well. Some
of it is removable (like the gauntlets) if you're so inclined. In fact,
you should be able to complete undress him if you decide to spend the time.
The robe is outstanding, with the larger symbols embroidered on the
outfit. The fit on the overall outfit is also excellent, and the quality
of the material and stitching is top notch.
In fact, the outfit might be a little too tight. There's a very thin
velcro used to close the front, and I found that to even attempt any deeper
stances (which generally didn't work all that well due to the earlier
discussed articulation issues) the front had to be opened up a bit.
I'm going to count Sao's red hankie as part of his outfit, although I
suppose you could call it an accessory as well. It can be removed from
his hand, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's a bit large, certainly
larger than what was in the film, but it's a nice inclusion nonetheless.
Jack has a very detailed costume, from his hat to his sculpted boots.
Everything is done in very high quality material, and the tailoring is
stupendous. Every layer fits well and appears to be completely in scale,
even though there are multiple layers. Even with the shirt, vest and
jacket, he doesn't appear too poofy or fat.
There are two belts as well, made from slightly different materials and
different colors. The buckles look excellent, and the figure comes with
these belts synched quite tightly. Usually a figure really requires a
redress to look decent, but Jack comes right out of the box looking terrific.
The white sash was a little annoying - you can see in the photos that it
wanted to pop up on me, and I will have to iron it eventually to get it to
hang the way I want - but it has a nice weathering to it and does look good if
you futz with it long enough.
I mentioned the hat earlier, and I actually like the figure better without
it. But if you position it just right, you can make it look pretty
good. The trick is to try to get it as far down on his forehead as
possible, just like in the actual photo of Jack on the cover.
Finally, there's the coat. While I already mentioned the great fit,
excellent material and top quality stitching, there's also a wire that runs
along the bottom edge! With this wire, you can get the jacket itself
into some excellent poses.
Fun Factor - **
These aren't exactly toys, and they aren't really built to be played with. You
have to take some care even posing them, so the Fun Factor is clearly not
high. They look great on the shelf once you get them where you want
them though, and since I don't expect something like this to be too 'fun',
it doesn't effect my personal Overall.
Value - Jack **1/2; Sao **
I ordered early, and paid $95 each for these. That's a decent price, and
I feel that Jack is definitely a $100 figure. He's not an amazing
bargain, but if you understand my rating system around value, you know that
a score of **1/2 means 'average', and it won't hurt his Overall assessment.
Sao isn't quite as good. He's great in some areas, but with the
issues around articulation and to some degree paint, I just can't say he's
really worth the extra $25 or $30 over a high end Sideshow figure, for
example.
Now, finding these around $100 is going to be a trick now, and at the
more likely price of $125 - $150, you can drop a half star off each one.
Things to Watch Out For -
These are high end collectibles - that tends to translate into "don't toss
them around".
The various small parts on Jack can be damaged, like the belts or thin
cords. Don't put too much pressure on any of the smaller items to
avoid breaking things. The good news is that there isn't anything here
that is MORE fragile than you'd expect if you've bought figures like this in
the past.
Sao has a couple problems though that are unusual. First, that
center chunk of hair on his beard is going to get damaged or broken over
time if you rub it against the armor repeatedly. Keep it in mind,
since it's tough to avoid. Also, that loop for the sword is likely to
pop off (mine did) and might even break if you're not extremely careful.
Overall - Jack ****; Sao ***
If Hot Toys continues to produce figures at this level of quality, they'll be
getting a ton of my money. I ended up buying a Rambo when I was at SDCC,
and after seeing the Rocky figures, I'll probably end up breaking down and
getting a couple of those as well! The quality rivals any other sixth
scale company out there, at any cost, and yet runs in a middle range between
Sideshow and Medicom in cost. Jack is already one of my favorite figures
of the year, and I'm certainly looking forward to their pirate Elizabeth
Swann!
Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpt - Jack ****; Sao ***1/2
Paint - Jack ****; Sao ***1/2
Articulation - Jack ***1/2; Sao ***
Accessories - Jack ****; Sao ***1/2
Fun Factor - **
Value - Jack **1/2; Sao **
Overall - Jack ****; Sao ***
Where to Buy -
Now that the figure is in hand, the price is a bit higher at those
stores that have it. These are still pre-orders, which are a little
cheaper:
- Alter Ego Comics has either
for $121.49.
- Dark Shadow
Collectibles his a pre-order price of $121.50, and Elizabeth is at
$112.50.
- Amazing Toyz is also at $122,
and $112.50 for Ms. Swann. Do you see a trend?
- CornerStoreComics has
the pre-order at $122 as well, and Elizabeth is again at $112.50.
- and you can also order all of them through Sideshow Collectibles - ();
(); and ();
Related Links -
There's plenty of other POTC reviews:
- the last POTC review covered the 7" Sao
Feng.
- not too long ago, I reviewed the series 2
figures from NECA, and the Clanker from
the newest series.
- then there's the 12" Sao Feng and
Jack Sparrow from Zizzle, and had a guest
review of the Will Turner.
- I reviewed the new cursed boxed set of
Jack and Barbossa.
- there's a guest review of Elizabeth Swann
and my review of the second cursed Pirate,
as well as my review of
Pintel at Movie
Poop Shoot, and Regatti here.
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