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Qee (pronounced 'key' I believe) are a collection of various style vinyl
figures produced by a company called Toy 2 R. Part of the Japanese
vinyl scene, Qee's come in a variety of styles, from eggs to dogs and cats.
The bears are perhaps the most popular, but there are plenty of styles to
choose from.
Like a number of other vinyl designer toys, Qee's come as 'blanks' as well,
plain white versions that the buyer then customizes. This has been a
huge draw for the line.
Toy 2 R announced this last summer that they'd be doing a series of Qee
figures in both the 3" and 10" sizes based on everyone's favorite
underachiever, Bart Simpson. At SDCC they had one normal version of
each scale available, along with blanks for you to paint yourself.
They have announced a wide variety of additional Barts in the future,
including a set of 24 in the 3" scale due later this year.
Packaging - Keychain **; 10" ***1/2
The two sizes come in very different packaging, as you might expect.
The small 3" keychain figure comes in a bubble/cardback package.
The cardback has a diecut image of Bart's head, spiky hair and all.
While the graphics are good, and the package doesn't waste space, the diecut
backer is going to end up damaged on the peg or even in your hands.
Since these are theoretically 'collectibles' and not mass market toys, I
would expect a package that's a little easier to keep nice for the MOCers.
On the flip side, the 10" version comes in a large box. It's
completely collector friendly, right down to the snug plastic trays that
hold the figure inside. There's lots of text, some of it a tad corny,
but grammatically well written. The graphic design is also unique, so
it's nice to see FOX letting them use a bit of their own creativity.
Sculpting - ***
These are Qee's, and as such they have pretty much the same general
style to the torso, arms and legs as other Qee's. There's some slight
alterations because of the character design of Bart, but they are quite
minimal.
The heads on both are well sculpted, although a tad large for the bodies.
That is again part of the general Qee style, and not quite in proportion
with the actual character on screen. That's similar to something like
a bobblehead, where the design of the product implies a particular set of
proportions that may not match cartoon reality. I'm not complaining
about it, but pointing it out to set expectations.
These are sculpted with a fairly blank expression, with no real emotion
being imparted by the set of the mouth or eyes.
The keychain Bart is about 3 1/2" tall, while the larger version is
actually closer to 10 1/2" than the advertised ten.
The 'keychain' feature of the smaller figure works pretty well,
especially if you aren't interested in him as a keychain. The actual
figure is just that - a figure. There's no holes or snaps to attach
the chain. Instead, you can remove the head by turning and pulling
outward, place the small white loop that is attached to one end of the key
chain around the neck post, and re-insert. The keychain is now
attached at the neck by the white loop, and no harm has come to the figure.
Paint - ***1/2
The paint work here is impeccable. Perhaps too impeccable in fact.
These are in the same vein as 'artist' vinyl figures. The paint
work on Bart is outstanding, with a clean, consistent yellow, red and blue
on the major areas, and extremely clean cuts between colors. The skin
actually looks a bit green in the photos to me, but it's not - in person,
it's the shade of yellow you would expect.
But the lines and colors are SO clean, that he reminds me of a
manufactured product than an artistic one. His paint job reminds me of
a car, or a washing machine, where every paint application is exacting...and
exactly the same. That clashes (for me) with the general concept of
these figures. I'm not saying I want them to be sloppy, but there's a
sterile feel to their appearance.
There's also not much detail due to the style of a Qee, especially on the
10" version. Of course, Bart doesn't have a lot of small details on
the show, but when you're holding a figure like this in your hands, that
becomes all the more obvious.
Articulation - **1/2
If you're looking for super articulation, you want to look at my last review
on the LCBH figures. These are Qees...and on top of that, this is Bart
Simpson, not a character design that lends itself readily to
hyper-articulation.
He has the standard Qee joints - a cut neck, cut shoulders, and pin hips.
Because the arms are attached forward on the torso, the cut shoulder moves
the arms in a rather awkward way, in toward the centerline of the character
rather than straight forward and back. The hips work pretty well, but
I found that on both characters it was easy to damage the paint on the top
of the leg if you're not careful. Rub marks are easy to get, so don't
go nuts with the hips unless you have to.
That's all the articulation on the smaller figure, but the larger one
also has cut wrists. Unlike some other mini-figures or even other
vinyl designs, Qees really have one pose, with very little variation on that
theme.
Accessories - Bupkis
Unless you're counting the keychain attachment that comes with the smaller
figure, neither of these have any accessories.
Fun Factor - **1/2
These are designed for adults, based loosely on the concepts of
mini-figures, block figures and PVC's. Kids can still have fun with
things like this - I sure did when I was a kid - but it's not the same play
pattern as a full on articulated action figure.
Value - **1/2
The prices that are being charged for these varies wildly depending on the
retailer, so this is a tough category to nail down. I'm assuming
you'll pay less than ten bucks for the keychain version, and $30 or less for
the 10" version. Pay more than that, and you can further deduct points
in this category.
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