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Sculpting - **
As yoiu may recall, I loved the original 18" Jack Sparrow. I think the
head sculpt is still my favorite Jack so far, and the overall quality was
top notch. He looks terrific on the shelf, and I highly recommend him.
Unfortunately, the sculpt on his dad didn't turn out quite as well.
The general resemblance is there, but it suffers from 'up sizing'.
The sculpt was really designed for the 7" line. That meant that to
get great detail in the wrinkles of the face, it required broad detail at
the larger scale. Shrink that broad detail down and voila! You
get some excellent small detail.
Unfortunately, when you look at that detail at the large scale, merely
upsized, it loses much of it's sharpness. The sculpt gets rougher, and
in this case it's so rough that it reminds me of something carved out of
wood by Native Americans 100 years ago.
The wrinkles are very deep and broad, and the dark paint only accentuates
the effect. Other areas lack necessary detail, like the moustache,
which ends up looking more like Tootsie Rolls under his nose. This was
a head sculpt that really needed to be reworked for this much larger scale
rather than simply being increased in size. Keith has lived a hard
life, and it's readily apparent in his appearance, but even he doesn't have
wrinkles quite like this.
The body sculpt doesn't suffer as badly from the loss of detail.
There's some nice texture work on the various pieces of clothing, and some
terrific items added to his belt, like the flasks or the shrunken head.
But the body suffers from a weird pose, especially with the right arm and
hand. The design allows him to hold one of the flintlocks pointed down
in front of his body, but it doesn't look right to me at all. It
appears uncomfortable and awkward, as if he's looking to stick the gun in a
belt or holster that doesn't exist. The positioning of the head, torso
and legs isn't bad, but the awkward arms hurt the otherwise good body work.
Paint - **1/2
You know the speech - great paint can improve a weak sculpt, weak paint
can ruin a great sculpt. Here, the great paint on the body is hurt by
the lackluster job on the face.
The dark wash used to highlight the wrinkles and furrows does its job a
bit too well, over emphasizing how deeply and broadly they are cut.
This just adds to the 'wood cut' appearance, and does nothing to improve the
appearance of the sculpt. To top it off, he's got a bit of a lazy
right eye (even the one on the box has it), but that's actually something
that Richards has as well, so I'm not docking them for it.
The body work helps pull the overall score back up to average. The
general quality of the work is good, but I still have some aesthetic issues.
The red of the coat is much to bright and shiny for my tastes, look far more
like plastic than it should,
Articulation - **
These aren't super articulated. Are you surprised? I didn't
think so. There's a cut neck, NECA style shoulders, cut elbows and cut
wrists. There's also the cut waist and cuts at the top of the
boots.
Most of these joints move very little, with the exception of the elbows
and shoulders. Even these don't do a whole lot though, especially with
the odd pose. There's also a ton of gapping on mine at the cut elbow
on the right arm.
Accessories - ***1/2
For an 18" figure like this, he has a surprising number of accessories.
There's his hat, which is made from a soft rubber. It looks
terrific, and fits much better than many of the Sparrow hats.
He also has two flintlocks, one that can be fitted in his sword belt, and
one that can be carried in his right hand. The sculpts are different
on the two, which is a nice touch.
Finally, there's his sword, which can be removed from the sheath.
You can also get it to fit in his right hand, but take some care.
Talking Feature - **1/2
Teague has a switch on back to turn on the talking feature, which is then
activated by motion. He says 10 phrases, including:
"You're in my way, boy"
"The code is the law"
"Take what you can, give nothing back"
"The brethren court has spoken"
"Present your piece of eight"
"It's not just about living forever...it's about living with yourself
forever"
"A pirate's life for me"
"Dead men tell no tales"
"Honor the court"
and one that sounds like "She tells me" but I don't think it is...
EDIT: One of my oh, so smart readers, Doug, let me know that it's "Sea
Turtles, mate". Thanks Doug!
The talking feature is nice and loud, with a clear tone for most of the
lines. It doesn't
sound a whole lot like Teague to me, but then he wasn't on screen for a
whole long time, and I'm assuming they took the audio right from the film.
The only real problem the feature has is that I couldn't get the motion
detector to work reliably, and that's a pretty major issue.
Fun Factor - **
This isn't designed as a toy, so this score really won't hurt the overall,
but it's worth noting in case you were considering it for your 8 year old.
Value - ***
This is actually a pretty damn good price. We've seen most 18" figures
run in the $40 plus range, and with the added talking feature and likely
small production run, I'm surprised they were able to keep these at the
cheaper price.
Things to Watch Out For -
Not much. You might find some variation in the paint quality, so keep an
eye on that, but otherwise, he should be just fine.
Overall - **1/2
Teague will go along just fine with the rest of the big guys on my 18"
shelf, but he's not at the same level as the original Jack. The folk
art look of the head sculpt, along with the shiny jacket and weird pose,
ends up hurting this one quite a bit for me. If those aren't issues
for you, you'll be much happier, especially with the solid talking feature
and great accessories.
Score Recap:
Packaging - **1/2
Sculpt - **
Paint - **1/2
Articulation - **
Accessories - ***1/2
Talking Feature - ***
Fun Factor - **
Value - ***
Overall - **1/2
Where to Buy -
Online options include these terrific sponsors:
- Dark Shadow
Collectibles has it in stock for $42.50.
-
Amazing Toyz and
CornerStoreComics has him for
$34.
Related Links -
I've covered plenty of POTC items:
- NECA has had plenty of goodies in the 7" line, including the
7" Sao Fen, the
series 2 figures,
Clanker, the cursed boxed set of
Jack and Barbossa, and the full
first series, including Barossa, Turner,
Sparrow and a dead Pirate.
- there's also 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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