Strasburg action figure review and photos. *NEW PHOTOS ON PAGE THREE*

[Vega]

I picked up a Mcfarlane Playmakers Stephen Strasburg action figure two weeks ago. I figured that you guys might want to see it, so here's my review:


Let's first start with what the hell Mcfarlane is. Mcfarlane is a collectibles company started by Todd Mcfarlane, the creator of Spawn. They make Halo action figures, Spawn figures, creepy S&M inspired fantasy figures, and other stuff, but most notably, they make figures for all four of the major sports leagues. These are known as SportsPicks. They're six inch tall statuettes of athletes. (In case you're wondering, Chad Cordero and Alfonso Soriano are the only Nats ever released as SportsPicks.) They're very detailed, high quality collectibles; I purchased quite a few NFL figures myself before figuring out that they only make figures of megastars from popular teams. Last year, however, Mcfarlane branched out and started making four inch scale NFL and MLB figures that actually have articulation in an attempt to get kids to buy their products. The results are mixed at best, which leads me to this figure.



Yup. It's the savior himself in plastic form.




(Notice he has holes in the bottoms of his feet so that he fits on G.I. Joe stands. Oddly, he doesn't come with a stand of his own.)





Looks kind of cool right? Well, it's actually not. First, his articulation sucks. They used really odd rotating joints on his hips instead of ball joints, probably in an attempt to avoid visible joints, but it doesn't work. All it does is wreck his ability to do basic poses. Also, look at his torso. It's basically a brick with arms tacked on. Really clunky and really unrealistic looking. Now let's take a look at his face:



Yeah. Doesn't look much like Stras at all, however, I can't complain too much about that. I'd imagine that it is extremely difficult to make accurate face sculpts on something so small, so I'll let that one pass.



Those rotating joints in his shoulders look really odd. I guess they have to have them that way to achieve any sort of baseball poses at all, but they're still weird looking.

Now, let's take a look at some comparisons with G.I. Joes, the absolute best action figures at this scale:





Beachhead and Crankcase demonstrate how G.I. Joes can kneel down as well as hold their arms in realistic poses:



Stras attempts to replicate, but all he can do is the "about to take a crap" pose.



What is this? Stras can't even FREAKING SIT DOWN? Good gravy! Destro can do that easily, and he's wearing a crapload of bulky armor! Cobra Commander points and laughs at Stras' epic failure.



Well, if he can't sit down, he obviously can't drive a vehicle either. His failure is mounting, and it's all because of those damned hip joints. If he had ball joint hips like Joes, he wouldn't have any of these problems.



And because he has no hand under his glove and because the baseball is glued on to his other hand, he can't hold a gun properly.



However, he can sort of hold a chainsaw.



Now he's doing yoga. He should find a better yoga partner than Shadow Tracker. Shadow Tracker kills people with knives and crap.



THE ONE POSE STRAS CAN DO THAT JOES CAN'T. Yeah...



Zartan offers Stras a suitcase full of money to play for the Loudoun Hounds. Stras refuses...



... So Zartan sends ninjas to kill Stras.



Luckily for us all, members of G.I. Joe save his ass.



Stras attempts to shake Duke's hand to thank him, but alas, Stras has a baseball glued to his hand, making handshakes very difficult.

A few more random pictures:







In conclusion, Stras is a crappy action figure. His articulation is awful, he's got bizarre proportions, and he isn't very poseable. I can't recommend him as an action figure, however, as a nifty piece of Nats memorabilia, he's fan-freaking-tastic, and I definitely recommend him.

[MarquisDeSade]

Somebody got me this one for my birthday:

[Tyler Durden]

That.  Was.  Awesome.

[Evolution33]

This might be the greatest thing I have ever seen in my life.

[Mr Clean]

Can he do the inverted W thing?

[Hondo]

That was hilarious!

[Sharp]

Thanks, this is just what I needed after last night.

[GburgNatsFan]

Thank you. Just... thank you.

[Lintyfresh85]

POTY.

Not even close.

Also, he's wearing wristbands. 

[daggerrrrrr]

 :lol:OMG that's the funniest thing i've ever seen. I love the one when Stras gets beat down for refusing the money, and then saved by the Joe's. Man, I wish I still had my G.I. Joe's from when I was a kid along with my Batman(the one from the first Batman(1989) movie and the one from the cartoon back in 94), Ninja Turtles, Captain Planet, Flash, RoboCop, ThunderCats. I miss my childhood

[Lintyfresh85]

I had a ton of Ninja Turtles. Probably over 30.

Wasn't big on GI Joes.

More into Legos and baseball cards.

[MarquisDeSade]

I thought McFarlane might have just used a prior mold for Strasburg.  I was secretly hoping they would have used this one since, you know, they share the "Inverted W" and all:

[UMDNats]

He's got Roger Bernadina's arms.

[hammondsnats]

He's got Roger Bernadina's arms.

thank god not his bat

[ProudNationalsFan]

Awesome.

[Vega]

Somebody got me this one for my birthday:

(Image removed from quote.)

That's the SportsPicks version of him. I think it's pretty rare.

[MarquisDeSade]

That's the SportsPicks version of him. I think it's pretty rare.

Pretty rare but I think my wife got it off of eBay for $40.

[MarquisDeSade]

i only had one crappy baseball team to root for instead of two.

I didn't have any.  At least now we have two crappy teams!

[Lintyfresh85]

Vega, you made the big time!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/post/stephen-strasburg-gets-subdued-by-zartan/2011/05/25/AGJP9IBH_blog.html

[Vega]

Vega, you made the big time!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/post/stephen-strasburg-gets-subdued-by-zartan/2011/05/25/AGJP9IBH_blog.html

Holy crap. That's awesome.

[comish4lif]

Vega, you made the big time!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/post/stephen-strasburg-gets-subdued-by-zartan/2011/05/25/AGJP9IBH_blog.html

Did the Washington Post request permission to use your photographs?

[Vega]

Did the Washington Post request permission to use your photographs?

No, but they can. No problem whatsoever.

[Vega]

No, but they can. No problem whatsoever.

[chemist]

what up 45 guests

[comish4lif]

Pretty rare but I think my wife got it off of eBay for $40.

The rare one is the one with the white jersey, limited to a numbered run of 100.

This one went for over $430 - http://bit.ly/mqXzYt

I just won the auction for a red one - limited run of 1750 - with shipping should be about $30. Still too high, but better than driving to every Toys-R-Us in the DC area looking for one.

http://bit.ly/mqXzYt