Silver Surfer Limited Edition
Marvelous News had an updated on a Hasbro limited edition Silver Surfer figure this last week. Normally, I’m excited about Silver Surfer toy news as I think he’s Airwolf, however this figure demonstrates what’s wrong with having too much articulation (besides looking like he’s squating in preperation for a cosmic dump).
I’ve given McFarlane Toys crap in the past for not having enough articulation (in my humble opinion), but this is the other end of the spectrum. Whenever a character doesn’t have enough bulk, like the Silver Surfer here or many of the lithe female superheroes like White Queen, they seem to look like a bunch of ball joints and swivel points much like an artists mannequin, rather than a cool looking action figure. I guess there’s some magic middle ground somewhere that makes up the perfect action figure in my mind, but Marvel Legends figures like this are nowhere close to it.
Another knock against this figure is that it is a previously released Marvel Legends figure, except it doesn’t include Howard the Duck like the Toy Biz edition did. There goes about half the fun right there.
What do you think toy fans? Is there such a thing as too much articulation or am I right on this one?
Superhero, toy collecting, toy, action figure, Marvel Legends, comic book, Hasbro
March 12th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I’m biased, since most of my toys get to stand on the desk lookin’ awesome to the max. I don’t require that much articulation. Even when my kids play with newer toys they don’t use the articulation that much. They may extend an arm or something, but that’s about it.
March 13th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
I believe Hasbro has stated before that kid’s don’t care as much about articulation as adults do, which I guess is true in a way. I remember not giving a crap about the original Star Wars figures being able to only move their arms and legs up and down, but as I got a bit older I totally began digging G.I. Joes articulation.
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I like being able to “pose” figures different ways when I do open them. I guess this is the one topic where you and I don’t completely agree, Keith.
March 26th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
thank goodness I’m been off ML for good. Be waiting for their 12″ Marvel Icons version though.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Yeah, I almost bought a Psylock the other day, then couldn’t get over how weird she looked.
April 26th, 2008 at 1:27 am
The Toybiz one (with Howard) suffered blue highlights and grey shading.
The Ronan series Hasbro one has a silver finish and T-bar stomach crunch hinge, but suffers from a stretched necked case of ’someone is pulling my dang head off!’ that only Sentry (short haired version) could empathized with.
Also, it’s eyes are just too human, losing that ‘1940’s Vision’ look to the eyes that the artist originally intended the Surfer to have (and sadly lacks in the abyssmal ‘F4: Late Rise of the Web Surfer’ movie.
The Hasbro Limited Box edition has best of both world’s.
1.) From the ToyBiz there is: The far more correct face/eyes; the normal neck without painful-looking elongation that makes you think an invisible hand is pulling his head like it’s toffee stretched further from his shoulders than the horrifying distance between marvel comics and their film adaptations.
2.) Also you get the advantages that the Hasbro/Ronan version enjoys: a nice silver finish; and a t-bar stomach crunching waist.
There’s no sign of any blue highlights or grey shadowing.
Sure, there’s no Howard. But then again, there’s no accessory like a ‘film version of Galactus’, rendered as a cloud of stale air hanging ’round like a bad smell. Nor is there an accessory of a ‘movie version of the Ultimate Nullifier’ which no doubt would be a cosmic can of air freshener which protects the world from the smelly, cloudy threat of Galactus for 12 hours, but can do little to lessen the stench of either F4 films from cinemas or from your DVD shelf.
For all their faults, both Toy Biz and Hasbro can do what Hollywood, so far, cannot.