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Early ads promoting the Hellboy
comic book had left me cold. I
remember my first thought upon seeing Hellboy was, “Why is he wearing
goggles on his head?” Little did I know that those were actually horn
stumps and that the funky looking character was actually the Beast of
the Apocalypse incognito. I truly regret those eight years between 1993
and 2001 that Hellboy never made it onto my pop culture radar screen.
Thank goodness for the graphic novel reprints, or I might have missed
the boat altogether…at least until 2004 and the release of Guilermo Del
Toro’s live action take on Mignola’s creation.
At the time of the writing of
this review, the sequel to Del Toro’s
Hellboy is to be released in a mere 3 days on Friday, July 11, 2008.
The early reviews are very good and it looks like this Hellboy outing
will be even better than the first one. One of the reasons why I think
this will be an even greater success at the box office is due to the
greater recognition of the character by the general public. When the
first movie hit theaters Hellboy wasn’t that well known outside of the
circles of comic book fandom. But now, he is much more of a household
word due to the two terrific animated movies that Del Toro produced
during the four years between the two live-action films.
Just in time for the opening of
the live-action sequel, STARZ
entertainment has re-released the two animated films in a deluxe 2-Pack
along with an exclusive action figure similar to the one they released
as a Best Buy exclusive back in early 2007 when the second animated
film, Blood and Iron, made its way to DVD. Gentle Giant managed to get
the license to produce action figures and a myriad of other collectable
items for the animated version of Hellboy. I was really surprised that
Mezco didn’t get the nod to do these figures, as they pretty much have
been the go-to vendor for Hellboy action figures since 2004. I was
quite nervous about what we were going to get from Gentle Giant as
their wares have been a real mixed bag over the years, especially when
it comes to action figures. I needn’t have worried as their product was
superb and stood up quite well when compared with the Mezco produced
figures.
Even though Captain Mike has reviewed these figures
previously, I felt that it was worth revisiting this line one more time
to add my two cents worth and let folks that haven’t already acquired
the figures or the DVDs know whether or not their money was worth
laying down for this set. Soooo…now that I’ve managed to rationalize
all of this to both you AND myself, let’s dig into the review!
Packaging: ***1/2
The
packaging on both the DVD 2-Pack with Hellboy Animated (HBA) Figure and
the Best Buy Exclusive Blood & Iron are quite similar. It looks
sorta like a clamshell package that they forgot to slap a plastic back
on and heat seal. Instead the whole schmear is slapped together with a
colorful cardboard band holding it together. With the 2-Pack, they went
one better and actually had the back of the card band be a full size
backer card with some great info about Hellboy and what all is included
in the pack. Finally, a nice heavy shrink-wrap keeps everything
together in a nice little bundle. I would have to say this is one of
the most economical and collector friendly package designs out there.
It opens easily, you have access to everything without having to do any
slicing or dicing and it all bundles back up and sits on the shelf
lookin’ pretty until the next time you get the hankerin’ to watch the
DVD or send HB out on another mission to search for things that go bump
in the night.
The only draw back I can see is that the full size
card back may get dog-eared over time, wear as the previous cardboard
band looks as good as the day I bought it about a year and a half ago.
I’m taking off a half star for the potential dog-ear issue. Outside of
that I really can find no fault with it.
Sculpt: ****
This is truly a spot on sculpt of Hellboy in his animated incarnation.
I love all of the wonderful texture and great details incorporated into
this sculpt. Gentle Giant did a tremendous job of porting a 2-D
character into our 3-D world. The pebbled skin texture is a real wonder
and adds so much to what could have easily been rendered as a smooth
skinned figure.
So
far as the overall character design is concerned, there are few things
that I’d have done differently. I’m not a fan of the tiny legs and I
know I am not alone in this. I am really amazed that these legs work as
well as they do on what is a really massive figure from the waist up. I
will talk more about HB’s legs in the articulation area of the review.
When I first saw the character model sheets for the HBA character I was
really turned off by it, but it has grown on me considerably over the
last couple of years and I actually have come to like it quite a bit. I
really admire Mike Mignola for being so willing to let his character be
ported into so many different media and allowing other artists to put
there own touch on Hellboy and company. Of course, I’m sure the big,
fat royalty checks don’t hurt, either. 4 Stars
Paint: ***1/2
The paint apps on my figure are
quite well done, as was the paint
on my Best Buy Exclusive HBA figure. Clean color breaks and subtle,
airbrushed shading along with a nicely applied black wash on the Right
Hand of Doom add up to high marks in the paint category for this
figure. I actually had more issues with the paint on the HBA figures
from the mass retail release than with these special versions. There
were a few rubs on the airbrushed shading that surrounds the lower
pivoting chest joint, but I was able to touch that up with a black
china marker of all things. I just gently applied the waxy marker to
the rubbed area and then blended it into the surrounding paint with my
finger. It worked great and you can’t even see where the rub was. I
also had a few blobs of stray grey paint on HB’s lower legs that I was
able to gently remove and then cover back up the bright red plastic
with the China Marker method again. These small flaws add up to a half
star demerit in the paint category. 3 ½ Stars
Articulation: ****
32 points by my count and they
are as follows:
Neck: ball-in-socket joint = 1
Shoulders: ML style ball joint = 4
Biceps: swivel = 2
Elbows: single pin = 2
Left Wrist: cut swivel and pin = 2
Right Hand of Doom: cut swivel and pin = 2
Chest: ball joint = 1
Waist: cut swivel = 1
Hips: ML style ball joint = 4
Thighs: cut swivel = 2
Knees: single pin = 2
Calves: cut swivel = 2
Ankles: single pin = 2
Toes: single pin = 2
Tail: cut swivels = 3
All
I can say is WOW. I really like the way Gentle Giant handled the
articulation of this action figure. It is the perfect balance of
aesthetics, functionality and posability. The ranges of motion on all
of the joints are very good, even on the single pin elbows. HBA is a
really well engineered figure and a lot of time must have gone into the
design and incorporation of the articulation points. Even the skinny,
little legs are extremely well articulated and are capable of
supporting Hellboy in a variety of poses (usually with the subtle aid
of his well-articulated tail) without falling over. I have had several
HBA figures on my self for 6 months without the stand and nary a one
has taken header due to leg wilt. I attribute this to the ratchet
joints Gentle Giant engineered into the knees, ankles and hoof-toes of
Hellboy. These ratchet joints along with the high quality plastic and
steel dies used in the fabrication of the action figure make Hellboy
Animated an articulation wonder. 4 Stars
Accessories: ***
Hmmm…I’m
in a bit of a quandary over how to address this area of the review.
Should I include the DVDs as accessories or is the Hellboy figure
actually an accessory to the DVDs? ACK! ACK! MY BRAIN’S SEIZIN’ UP!!!
Sheesh, that hurts…I hate it when that happens. Well for the sake of my
brain and ever-so-fragile grip on sanity, I will not count the DVDs as
a direct accessory to the Action Figure. I’ll only count those things
that actually can be used to accessorize HB hisself. So let’s see what
we got here…
1 Samurai Sword
1 Big Freakin’ Gun (BFG) - a.k.a. THE SAMARITAN!
1 Interchangeable left hand
1 Cool figure stand with colorful sculpted Hellboy Animated logo on it.
Sweet!
We get four nifty accessories to go with our figure, two of which are
newly tooled for this release of the HBA action figure. We’ve seen HB’s
gun and the perineum piercing (OUCH! Hellboy musta’ ticked-off Vlad the
Impaler in a previous life! The base works great though and will
definitely keep HB standin’ on those little legs for the long haul.)
style logo base before, but now we get his stylin Samurai Sword from
(appropriately) the Sword of Storms DVD and a specially sculpted left
hand for him to hold it in. Very nice, indeed, but…there always seems
to be a “but” with me which seems to really tick people off. Sorry
folks, BUT I gotta go there…I have two gripes with this figure and they
are as follows:
1.) Why did Gentle Giant go
with the open handed Right Hand o’ Doom (RHOD) as opposed to the closed
fisted version that was packed with every other HBA figure as an
accessory? The closed version is pretty darn cool and as you can see in
the photos, HB’s samurai sword fits perfectly in it. I love it when I
can load up my figures with multiple weapons for two-fisted mayhem.
Without the closed fist version of the RHOD, Hellboy is limited to one
weapon at a time – and then you have to go through the wearisome task
of changing out the hands in the process! I think they should have made
the closed fist RHOD the standard mitt and just dropped the open
version altogether. The alternate left hand for holding the sword was a
good idea and should have been included even if the RHOD could have
held the sword. That way, the customer has the ultimate choice of
posing options.
2.)
My next gripe is the same
one I had with the Best Buy Exclusive and the mass retail versions of
this figure: WHERE THE HELL IS HELLBOY’S TRENCH COAT?!!! A Hellboy
figure without his trademark trench coat is like a Batman figure
without his cape. It just isn’t right I’m tellin’ ya - this is
especially true if you suffer with obsessive/compulsive tendencies like
Ol’ Guido. I think I spent close to a hundred bucks U.S. tracking down
the exclusive trench coats for all of my HBA figures. Now I have
another one and he’s still missin’ his beloved trench! GAHHHH!!! Curse
you, Gentle Giant!!! Make those things available for purchase on your
website, DANGIT!
I’m knockin’ off a whole star for the above
gripes. The only reason I’m not taking more is covered in the Value
Section of this review. 3 Stars
Fun factor- ****
This
figure, as was all the previous releases of it as well as the Animated
Abe Sapien figure are extremely FUN TOYS. Tons of play value throughout
for kids and collectors alike. One of the best action figures in my
collection in my honest opinion. 4 Stars
Value: ****
I picked this up on sale for a mere $19.99 at
Best Buy, which had an SRP of 22.95 listed as the original price. I
have seen this elsewhere for as much as $39.99. Man, two feature length
animated movies with tons of extra features and a truly great action
figure with gobs of articulation and accessories for only $19.99? If
that doesn’t deserve the coveted 4 Star treatment, then nothing does.
It is because of this extremely good value that I let Starz/Gentle
Giant slide on my aforementioned gripes in the Accessories section of
the review. 4 Stars
Things To Watch Out For -
The
only thing I saw was that of the six packs they had in stock, two of
the figures were missing their holster and Samaritan accessory. They
weren’t loose in the package and it appeared that the holster had never
even been glued to the figure. The socket for the holster’s peg was
clean as a whistle – no glue residue or missing paint. It looked like
someone on Ol’ Chang of Guangdong Province’s assembly line fell asleep
at the wheel. I keep tellin' him to let them take their coffee breaks
at their workstations! The same sentiment goes for Ol’ Chang’s quality
assurance guys who gave those figures a pass. I pulled them off the
shelf and gave ‘em to one of the sales drones to make sure no one got
stuck with a bad 2-Pack. Just make sure to look your figure over
closely prior to purchase and you should be fine.
Overall: ****
This is a 4 Star action figure and even the lack of a trench coat and
the closed fist Right Hand o’ Doom accessory can’t hurt it and when you
add in the DVD 2-Pack, you’re in Hellboy Heaven! My only hope is that
Gentle Giant will produce a second series of Hellboy Animated figures
so that we can get an animated style Liz Sherman. I read somewhere on
the net that a third Hellboy animated feature might be in the works and
that Lobster Johnson would be appearing in it. An animated style
Lobster Johnson figure…Ooooo…now that would truly be sweet indeed!
Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpt - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ****
Accessories - ***
Fun Factor - ****
Value - ****
Overall - ****
Where to Buy -
Guido got his at Best Buy.
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