Review of Professor Farnsworth, Hermes
Futurama Action Figures

Introduction

Good news, everyone! With the release of series 7 of Toynami's action figures based on the exceptional animated show Futurama, we now have a complete (for the first time!) Planet Express crew!

We've all wondered if this day would ever come. It seemed inevitable that one of the most critical characters to the show, Professor Farnsworth, would never make it into plastic form. In fact, Toynami had to release seven waves - SEVEN, that's more than 14 figures plus BAF's - for us to finally get the good doctor.

His counterpart in the wave is Hermes, the only character who actually seems to care about the financial welfare of Planet Express.

It would be great if we could get a Scruffy of course, and I'd be willing to shell out the #12 for a Cubert too, although he's not my favorite character. But for me, these two finish off the main cast, and everything else that comes is pure gravy.

That includes wave 8, which has already been announced. That's a good thing too, since that wave contains the final pieces to complete the Build A Figure started with this series - Roberto. Stabby, stabby!

Wave 8 brings us another Bender variant, and one that was already done by MAC back in the day: Chef Bender. The new character is Mom, a mighty fine addition to the line up.

You can find these online at several of my sponsors, and some FYE and Hot Topic stores will get them in stock. Expect to pay the usual $12 or so each.

Packaging - ***
The packages are completely collector friendly - all you have to do is slit the tape on the bottom, and you can slide out the tray, remove the figure and accessories (not even a single twisty!) with no damage whatsoever.

The boxes are easy to store as well, and personalized to the character. The hanger top isn't really necessary, but it's a minor nit. In fact, I've upped the score in this category from previous reviews, due in large part to the lack of twisty ties.

Sculpting - Farnsworth ***; Hermes **1/2
Farnsworth has been a long time coming, so it's not surprising that he's going to get a lot of scrutiny. The work is good, but not outstanding, and I have a few nits that hold him back.

The age wrinkles and lines are all there, but a better paint job was necessary to bring them out. The glasses are also a bit too large, and the nose doesn't quite hook enough. Overall though, it's clearly Farnsworth, and his scale (he stands about 4 3/4" tall) works well with the rest of the line. He also stands great on his own, although he does tend to tilt a little forward.

Hermes is one of those two dimensional character designs that simply does NOT translate well into three. The mouth looks way off, the nose is too narrow, the glasses set too wide, and even the face and neck look too fat. He's normally smiling as well, and here the bland expression doesn't do him any favors. He stands about 5" tall, and does so on his own quite easily.

Both of these figures are less detailed than past releases, and even considering the medium (cartoon figures tend to be less detailed in general) you have to admit that these come up a bit short in the minutia department.

Paint - **
I hate to say it, but it seems like cost cutting hit this wave pretty hard. Since paint ops are something that are a unit cost, not a fixed cost, they tend to be a place where you see such budget constraints reflected first.

Many of the parts are cast in the color you see, like the heads. The lack of paint on the faces (and other areas, like Hermes torso) means that certain critical details are left wanting. While Farnsworth has sculpted wrinkles and bumps on his head, you can't see them without any sort of paint detailing. He does have a couple age spots, but without any of the darker wrinkles, they look out of place, almost like round stickers on his head.

There's also some quality problems with the paint ops that are here. There's some very noticeable slop around the Professor's glasses, and the 'eyes' on the front of Hermes glasses are merely stickers. The inclusion of sculpted and painted eyes under the glasses is a nice touch, but since the eye wear is not meant to be removed, it's something most folks will never notice.

Articulation - **
While these two figures have the same articulation as the previous wave, I'm docking them a bit more. There's just the cut neck and cut shoulders. I couldn't get the wrists to turn on either one, although I had the same issue with Amy in wave 6 and found out later that they SHOULD turn, mine were just glued tight with paint.

I'm docking them more than past waves because of the awkward arm poses you're left with. Even with Cloberella you could get a couple arm poses out of her due to the sculpt, but here you get straight arms. They look terrible in any pose other than straight down, making the shoulder joint less than useful.

There's also a real need for ankle cuts on Farnsworth. He tends to tilt forward with the sculpted ankle/foot pose, and if you could turn them out just a hair, you'd get a much better stance.

A nice surprise was a cut neck joint on Nibbler, who I'm counting as an accessory but is really another member of the Planet Express team.

Accessories - Hermes **; Farnsworth ***
Both figures come with a BAB (build a bot) part for Roberto. If you're interested in building Roberto (which requires you to also buy Mom and Chef Bender in wave 8), then it's important to get the torso piece with Hermes. If you aren't, then Hermes comes up very short in this category, since he has nothing else.

The torso piece is pretty cheesy too. It's fairly small, the door doesn't open, and the hollow nature makes it feel cheap. Once Roberto is assembled it won't be as noticeable, but when the torso is all you get, it's pretty obvious.

Farnsworth has the pelvis and legs. The legs are bendy, similar to past robot releases.

Farnsworth also comes with the aforementioned Nibbler. The paint and sculpt are good, including his diminutive scale. He stands about 1 1/2" tall, fitting in pretty well with the overall line. He also stands great on his own, something that surprised me given his small feet and large head.

Fun Factor - **1/2
While these aren't super-poseable, they still would be fun for the kid into the show. Kids can deal with limited articulation better than adult collectors can, and can have tons of fun with even completely un-articulated soldiers. The real question is, what play scenario would they have for an old bald professor and a fat Jamaican with short dreads?

Value - **
While these are going for the usual $12 or so, I have to admit that they simply don't *feel* like $12 figures. The lack of articulation, lack of paint, and general quality drives the value impression down.

Things to Watch Out For -
Zippo.

Overall - Hermes **; Farnsworth **1/2
I really wanted to love these, but the quality just isn't there this time around. I don't know if the cost pressures are starting to show, or if the factory was simply trying to improve their own profit, but there's clearly a drop off with this series.

I bet a repainted Farnsworth, done by somebody with a lot more talent than I, would look pretty damn good though. I don't know if anything can be done to improve Hermes, and I suspect he's just a character that was too difficult to translate. I'm glad we finally completed the set, but I'm hoping that we see an improvement with series 8.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - Hermes **1/2; Farnsworth ***
Paint - **
Articulation - **
Accessories - Hermes **; Farnsworth ***
Fun Factor - **1/2
Value - **
Overall - Hermes **; Farnsworth **1/2

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth has the pair for $24.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I've covered a fair amount of Futurama goodies:

- last was series 6 with Amy and Clobberella.

- there are reviews of series 5, series 4, as well as the Robot Santa and Santa Bender SDCC exclusive, and series 3 in a couple reviews, since I didn't get them all at the same time.  Here you can see Bender and the Robot Devil BAF, and here's Kif.

- I also covered the second series and first series as well.

For more Futurama stuff:

- Toynami got their feet wet with the Futurama I-men.

- there's the series 1 set from MAC, along with the Toyfare exclusive Leela.  There was also some Christmas ornaments, a larger scale (8") Nibbler.

- Rocket USA did some cool die cast figures and the tin wind up Bender.

- there were also quite a few bendies, including Kif and Leela.

- and if you're looking for the unique, try the Horrible Gelatinus BloB, or the Brain Slug!

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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