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Nice review Jon and some great photos. I wish I could share your enthusiasm.
Pardon my post if it comes off as ranting and raving, as that's not my intention... But man, these seem like such a swing and a miss to me. I love that NECA is trying something new and they're one of my favorite toy companies right now because when they try, they can hit some serious homeruns. Unfortunately this one just seems to have missed every mark.
First, I find this license such a bizarre choice and as I've mentioned before, while I get the whole "retro with Tarantino" thing, this just doesn't seem like the logical route to go. I suspect if NECA had made their normal movie style figures for Django, they'd sold more. Whereas the Mego-ish format is great for a Taratino property, probably not THIS particular one and certainly not as the only figures.
That aside, these figures just come up short. The body design is decent and I'm glad to see that they don't feel beholden to the Mego style in construction. I think that is holding back the "Mego Movement" more than anything these days... But unfortunately that's about where the positives stop. Aside from the ball joint neck, they didn't improve upon the body in any way. They basically just created a new body that's as limited if not moreso than the original Mego. They should have just cloned the ZICA body as close as they could. It's a no brainer. THAT'S what the future of Mego-like figures should be. Anything less, from a major player in the industry no less, is a disappointment.
Sorry, but it's absolutely frustrating that so many toy companies are either completely copying the vintage design to a fault or they're making their own body and yet not bothering to actually improve the damn thing while they're at it. And the only companies that have made substantial improvements to the bodies, are the ones who are no longer producing them. Makes me quite sad. Instead of getting a new body type for customizers, we're left with something that's sub par at best.
The hands are atrocious. They are like mannequin hands or something. They're not dynamically sculpted in any way, nor do they allow for any sort of realistic poses. I know that the basic Mego hands are very similar but somehow these manage to be even WORSE! Again, why not sculpt better hands? Why recreate something that's hardly the brightest spot of that which you are cloning? Even if you aren't including guns, why not at least sculpt them so they can hold stuff in a convincing manner? At $25 these hands are inexcusable. They seriously look like placeholder hands that were on a model or something before the real hands were finished. It's not like NECA hasn't sculpted hands before.
The lack of weapons is also annoying. The story goes that they only had art for Django's gun and hat, thus he's the only one who got anything. Why not at least include generic pistols? A whip? Anything? Perhaps their licensing agreement forbid them from doing it, but it's still a bit absurd any way you look at it.
The head sculpts are bizarre too. They look nice, please don't get me wrong. But they're not realistic enough that you go "wow" like ZICA's stuff did, nor are they stylized enough that you can see that they were trying to get a certain "look". Instead it's just like, slightly off sculpts. Like something someone might sculpt up at home as a custom or some of those Chinese sculpts of famous actors that aren't licensed. Not fun bootleg sculpts, but the ones that are clearly supposed to be someone else but are just different enough to not be them. Ultimately it makes these sculpts a bit unsatisfying for me as it doesn't hit the mark in any of the particular categories that would make the head sculpt great.
Lastly, the clothing. While it does look nice, it's just far too bulky. Too many layers, unfortunately. While I appreciate them giving full shirts, coats, etc, this is actually a scale that can more often than not, benefit from using shortcuts such as faux undershirts and such.
The end result is a bunch of figures that look like they're overstuffed, waddling, penguins.
Again, I'm really not hating on NECA and I'm sure some folks will love these figures. I wanted to really like these guys and was excited that a new player was going to get some new bodies and parts out there into the genre, but I am absolutely flabbergasted that companies keep entering the scale and yet keep repeating the same mistakes over and over ad nauseam.
Perhaps these will sell well enough for NECA to listen to the criticisms and reevaluate some of the choices they made. I will give NECA that much. They are bold enough to redo figures or to continue to update their lines as needed. I can't help but feel like this line was rushed and instead of getting NECA's best crack at the Mego movement, we're left with a half hearted, half finished result.
Pardon my post if it comes off as ranting and raving, as that's not my intention... But man, these seem like such a swing and a miss to me. I love that NECA is trying something new and they're one of my favorite toy companies right now because when they try, they can hit some serious homeruns. Unfortunately this one just seems to have missed every mark.
First, I find this license such a bizarre choice and as I've mentioned before, while I get the whole "retro with Tarantino" thing, this just doesn't seem like the logical route to go. I suspect if NECA had made their normal movie style figures for Django, they'd sold more. Whereas the Mego-ish format is great for a Taratino property, probably not THIS particular one and certainly not as the only figures.
That aside, these figures just come up short. The body design is decent and I'm glad to see that they don't feel beholden to the Mego style in construction. I think that is holding back the "Mego Movement" more than anything these days... But unfortunately that's about where the positives stop. Aside from the ball joint neck, they didn't improve upon the body in any way. They basically just created a new body that's as limited if not moreso than the original Mego. They should have just cloned the ZICA body as close as they could. It's a no brainer. THAT'S what the future of Mego-like figures should be. Anything less, from a major player in the industry no less, is a disappointment.
Sorry, but it's absolutely frustrating that so many toy companies are either completely copying the vintage design to a fault or they're making their own body and yet not bothering to actually improve the damn thing while they're at it. And the only companies that have made substantial improvements to the bodies, are the ones who are no longer producing them. Makes me quite sad. Instead of getting a new body type for customizers, we're left with something that's sub par at best.
The hands are atrocious. They are like mannequin hands or something. They're not dynamically sculpted in any way, nor do they allow for any sort of realistic poses. I know that the basic Mego hands are very similar but somehow these manage to be even WORSE! Again, why not sculpt better hands? Why recreate something that's hardly the brightest spot of that which you are cloning? Even if you aren't including guns, why not at least sculpt them so they can hold stuff in a convincing manner? At $25 these hands are inexcusable. They seriously look like placeholder hands that were on a model or something before the real hands were finished. It's not like NECA hasn't sculpted hands before.
The lack of weapons is also annoying. The story goes that they only had art for Django's gun and hat, thus he's the only one who got anything. Why not at least include generic pistols? A whip? Anything? Perhaps their licensing agreement forbid them from doing it, but it's still a bit absurd any way you look at it.
The head sculpts are bizarre too. They look nice, please don't get me wrong. But they're not realistic enough that you go "wow" like ZICA's stuff did, nor are they stylized enough that you can see that they were trying to get a certain "look". Instead it's just like, slightly off sculpts. Like something someone might sculpt up at home as a custom or some of those Chinese sculpts of famous actors that aren't licensed. Not fun bootleg sculpts, but the ones that are clearly supposed to be someone else but are just different enough to not be them. Ultimately it makes these sculpts a bit unsatisfying for me as it doesn't hit the mark in any of the particular categories that would make the head sculpt great.
Lastly, the clothing. While it does look nice, it's just far too bulky. Too many layers, unfortunately. While I appreciate them giving full shirts, coats, etc, this is actually a scale that can more often than not, benefit from using shortcuts such as faux undershirts and such.
The end result is a bunch of figures that look like they're overstuffed, waddling, penguins.
Again, I'm really not hating on NECA and I'm sure some folks will love these figures. I wanted to really like these guys and was excited that a new player was going to get some new bodies and parts out there into the genre, but I am absolutely flabbergasted that companies keep entering the scale and yet keep repeating the same mistakes over and over ad nauseam.
Perhaps these will sell well enough for NECA to listen to the criticisms and reevaluate some of the choices they made. I will give NECA that much. They are bold enough to redo figures or to continue to update their lines as needed. I can't help but feel like this line was rushed and instead of getting NECA's best crack at the Mego movement, we're left with a half hearted, half finished result.
, fantastic film, it just flowed......... Im definately in for a few of these. They really should of given Scultz his long range rifle at least.
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