Having received Tanooki
Mario and a Shy Guy for Christmas I decided that I should like at least a
Princess Peach and Bowser to go with them and if I saw one I’d pick up a Donkey
Kong and Fox McCloud too. This is my way of thinking to mask the truth when the
truth is ‘I’m now buying into this line’ but don’t want to admit I’m weak. The
novelty of having these characters in shops has also really set in, you must
remember that when these characters were making their names in games like Super
Mario Bros, A Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Starwing there was no toylines for
them, for years the best Super Mario figures in the west were the set that came
from McDonalds. I personally think this is a mix of toy companies’ general
dislike of the Nintendo (and later Sega) for taking part of their market away
and thus lack of desire to pay for their licenses and the lack of interest in
action figures and thereabouts in Japan where the few companies that did have
Nintendo and Sega licences (like Tomy) were from, but in depth and baseless
theories aside being able to see a Starfox or Zelda figure hanging in a toy
shop is rather thrilling.
Anyway I manged to fill half of my ‘top four wants’ within a week of Christmas on a morning out in Exeter the day after the day after Boxing Day during my trip to Devon (Which I make every year because half my family pissed off down there, no I’m not over it). Exeter still has a Toymaster, do you remember them? With the dog in the pyjamas? These two figures were the only things I bought in there (their Monster High second was rubbish) but I loved the experience of being in one all the same, they even have carpet down, what shops still have carpet? Brilliant.
Anyway Princess Peach,
Princess Peach wasn’t Mario’s first damsel in distress (that was Pauline) but
has fulfilled the role most often. She debuted in Super Mario Bros back on the
NES and was first playable in the western game that used the name Super Mario
Bros. 21 and finally got her own game with Super Princess Peach on
the Nintendo DS. Until the release of Yoshi’s Safari she was known as Princess
Toadstool over here but all the localisations (like Bowser being King Koopa)
were done away with in Super Mario 64 and now she no longer uses a name with
‘stool’ in it. She’s the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom and I THINK her father
is still alive, hence why she’s still only a princess but Mario continuity
is…vague.
Honestly I will probably
replace this with a Figuarts version when one is made, Princess Peach is my
go-to character on Mario games where she’s available to play - it started out
just because I liked the precision her gliding ability in Super Mario Bros 2
USA afforded me but then just became a thing - and this really isn’t the best
Princess Peach could look in figure form but I’ve never had an action figure of
Peach before and the thought of having her in scale with Tanooki Mario was too
good. So what’s wrong with her? Well sculpt-wise not very much, she looks like
Peach, her hair and dress are pretty much perfect with the exception of her
puffy sleeves which have a bit of a lumpy and ‘clay’ looking surface and
they’ve even gone to the trouble of giving her uniquely tooled legs. Mainly the
problem is she looks like someone’s just shoved a Starman up her, that VERY
surprised look is all the crappy paint apps fault as she has a smile sculpted
on her, they’ve just been a bit cack-handed with the lipstick and made her look
like she’s been flashed by a Shy Guy. I also don’t like her dress, here I took
a shot up it, it’s quite rude but as she already looks like someone’s taking a
photo up her dress I didn’t feel too bad:
I appreciate the legs (and
painted in panties, this was designed by a man wasn’t it?) what I appreciate
less is the complete lack of articulation and the two smudges of red that make
her look like she has cellulite. As for the dress it’s hard plastic and held
together with big plastic plugs, nothing else on her is hard plastic (in fact
her hair is soft rubber for virtually no reason, the very design of her hair
hampers her neck articulation to a point that no amount of rubberyness will
improve things, maybe it was a health and safety thing, her hair is petty
pointy) and surely the one thing out of all of her that should be softer
plastic her dress? I’m going to assume it was done to guarantee she’d stand up but
I’m sure this could has been achieved as easily with the same plastic
everything else in the line’s made from. Weird.
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| "...I was in the film?" "I don't think I was in that" "Who was THAT chick then?" |
Then there’s Fox McCloud,
Fox is the main character from the Star Fox series, which is very popular with
Gamers and Nintendo fans but not quite the household name Mario, Zelda and
Donkey Kong are. He debuted in Star Fox (Starwing here in the UK) for the Super
Nintendo or Snes but this figure is based on his appearance in Star Fox 64 3D and
thank fuck for that. You see Starfox got a rather ugly, snubby nosed and
stylised look for the game Star Fox Command and this look is the basis for his
design in most games except 64 3D (a re-release of Star Fox 64). Had it been that
look (or the revised Smash Bros 4/Star Fox Zero look based on it) that JAKKS
had chosen to use I wouldn’t have bought a figure; but a happy bit of timing has
this figure seemingly being developed when Nintendo’s style guides were still
for promoting 64 DS and I got the figure I wanted. See I’m not really big on
Star Fox, I enjoyed the original, 64 and Adventures but I’m hardly a fan, no
mostly my affection for Fox comes from the awesome puppets used in the adverts
for Starwing, I used to see them in the Marvel & DC comics of the time they
just fascinated my seven year old ass (like most puppets and animatronic
animals always did/do, I think it’s related to my fear of mannequins) and
looked so badass, obviously I’m not going to get a figure of that in World of
Nintendo but getting the 64 3D look is easily the next best thing and that
leaves me warm and satisfied.
This warm feeling of
satisfaction runs through the whole figure, well except the hands, his sculpt
is satisfactory, his articulation is satisfactory, his poseability is way more
than satisfactory, even his paint apps are satisfactory – especially when you
compare how complicated they are to Tanooki Mario, they’re not perfect, in fact
nothing about the figure is really, but they’re of a completely satisfying
level of quality, I look at the figure and am completely satisfied, with the
money I paid for it and the final product. Except for the hands; Fox has no wrist
articulation again but he also has fists, now with Mario I’m ok with fists
because the man has his hands in fists for most of his time on-screen but Fox
has a habit of holding things – Arwing controls, blasters, big hitty sticks,
Krystal’s buttocks, he’s usually using his hands for something being a fucking
pilot an’ all. I think the fists thing is just because he has his hands on his
hips/arms folded a fair amount official artwork but all the same, a pilot who
can’t hold anything is a bit daft.
His ‘mystery accessory’
meanwhile is tied into this hand-issue and is… a tiny Arwing. I’m happy to have
this, who wouldn’t want a tiny Arwing? It’s an iconic video game vehicle and a
cool little ship for something that was made of polygons on a video game system
that wasn’t meant to display polygons
but wouldn’t, oh, I dunno a blaster have been better? Or his hitting
stick from Adventures? Y’know an accessory he could actually use? Of course that would have meant
putting a hole in his hand and I think the team at JAKKS are scared of doing
that in case the Palm Monster comes and eats their livers. On the other side
though, not having an accessory he needs to hold completely negates the issue
of him having closed fists so in the end the figure ends up being better than
the sum of its weird choices and the feeling of satisfaction somehow prevails
throughout. Also I’m told they’re doing away with the Mystery Accessory element
for the next wave, which worried me – what will I bitch about when they do
that?
All-in-all then I’m either
a contradiction or a hypocrite or it’s something a bit cleverer and I’m too
tired/thick to work it out – because one figure is flawed and that’s
unacceptable and one figure is fine despite its flaws, either way I’ve got a
fine Starfox figure and a Peach that will do just fine.
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| "Woo! Just like Starfox Adventures!" "I'm a movie star dammit!" |
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