Message #766125

[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.