Action Figure Reviews

The Conan Series II Figures, McFarlane Toys consist entirely of characters from Robert E. Howard's only Conan novel "Hour of the Dragon" (a.k.a. "Conan the Conqueror" for those of us who read the Lancer paperbacks with the Frank Frazetta covers that we ran to once Marvel's "Conan the Barbarian" comic book reintroduced the character to a new generation of fans). The story is of Conan when he is the middle-aged king of the ancient kingdom of Aquilonia who has to fight a final battle against Xaltotun, a resurrected sorcerer. Armies are not going to win this one and Conan has to find the fabled Heart of Ahriman to defeat his enemy. Along the way he will meet a slave girl in Nemedia that he will make queen of Aquilonia.

This 6" figure is of Xaltotun the Undead (the short and sweet way of saying he is resurrected), who is brought back by the the conspirators Orastes, Amalric, Valerius, and Tarascus using the power of the magical gem called the Heart of Ahriman. The skeletal sorcerer comes with scepter and a book of evil spells, along with a base to stand on as he comes right for you. Obviously the figure looks like something out of an ancient Egyptian nightmare, but, of course, in the Hyborian world created by Howard he is a Stygian. As the end result of a long line of necormancers, Xaltotun represents evil incaranate in the novel, so it is probably a good thing that he is not aware that he has been raised from the dead. This is a pretty creepy looking raised from the dead Stygian necormancer.

Series II includes the King Conan of Aquilonia on his throne, which comes in a big square package as opposed to the blister packs like the Battle Conan figure. The rest of Series II consists of Pallantides of the Black Dragon, Conan's field commander in full battle armor; Zenobia, the beautiful harem girl; and the Haunter of the Pit (which links up with the Battle Conan to make the Series II diorama).

The Hour of the Dragon was Robert E. Howard's full-length Conan novel and one of his best stories in my opinion. Conan has become King of Aquilonia, usurping the throne from the tyrannical and crazed King Namedides by strangling him on the throne. Now the righful heir Valerius, a defrocked Priest, and other conspirators plot to take back the throne and to this end use an artifact called the heart of Ahriman to bring the Necromancer named Xaltotun back to life after 3,000 years. Xaltotun was a High Priest of Set in Acheron in what is now Stygia in the present day Hyborian world and is first seen in his tomb has a mummy as slowly his dusty limbs renew with the vigor of life.

In the actual story, Xaltotun was full restored. In Howard's own words, "For as they watched, an awful transmutation became apparent. The withered shape in the sarcophagus was expanding, was growing, lengthening. The bandages burst and fell into brown dust. The shiveled limbs swelled, straightened. Their dusky hue began to fade." From this we gather that he really didn't appear as a mummy after being brought back to life, but what the heck, it sure makes the figure look much cooler. Very nice figure. Great display piece.

For the Series 1 deluxe "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" action figures we have three sets of Buffy and Faith. What we have here is the "Graduation Day" Faith, which has a Buffy counterpart, representing the two-part episode that ended Season 3. Part One had Buffy and the Scooby gang not only worried about graduating from Sunnydale High, but Mayor Wilkins's Ascension. Then Faith shoots Angel with a poisoned arrow and Buffy learns that the only cure is "to drain the blood of a Slayer." Buffy goes off to sacrifice Faith for the vampire with a soul she loves, handcuffing herself to Faith during the fight. When Faith breaks the cuffs she is stabbed by Buffy with the wicked looking knife the rogue Slayer received from Mayor Wilkins, but Faith falls off of the roof and onto the bed of a passing truce that drives away. That limits Buffy's option for Slayer's blood for Angel to drink in Part 2.

This 6-inch figure of Faith is wearing a black leather jacket over a t-shirt with black pants. You can remove the arms from the figure, take off the rest of the jacket, and put on a pair of bare arms. I just do not think the bare arms are an improvement over Faith in a black leather jacket, although the right arm is tattooed. Besides, the figure comes with Faith's blood dagger, still covered with the blood of geology professor Lester Worth, secured to her right hand by a thin strip of plastic. In terms of accessories Faith also has the hi-tech bow and the poisoned arrow she used to shoot Angel along with a lead pipe. The corresponding Buffy figure also has the pair of handcuffs used in the Slayer-e-Slayer fun from "Graduation Day, Part 1" (along with a Sunnydale High yearbook and diploma). Consequently, there is nothing to stop you from setting up a little "Graduation Day" tableau (although suddenly the idea of a pair of Buffy and Faith figures from the dancing scene at the Bronze from "Bad Girls" sounds pretty good).

The reason these are deluxe action figures and not regular action figures is that these ones come with 29 points of articulation: a double one for the neck, shoulders, biceps, above and below the elbows, doubles for the wrists, chest, doubles for the hips, both above and blow the knees, doubles for the ankles, and toes. It took me several of these figures to figure out al 29, by which point I was pretty much convinced this was really overkill. That is because the other key difference between the regular 6-inch "BtVS" and "Angel" figures and these new deluxe action figures is that the latter do not come with bases. Consequently, despite all of those points of articulation you are limited on your posing options if you want your Faith "Graduation Day" figure to stand up all on her own (pay attention to the toes, because in the final analysis those become key in getting these to work).

Also included in Series 1 are a pair of Buffy and Faith figures for "End of Days," the penultimate episode from Season 7, and then a "Once More With Feeling" Buffy from Season 6 and a "Bad Girls" Faith from Season 3 which is very similar to the "Graduation Day" faith except it has a black vest over a white sweatshirt. Of the three Faith figures I think this is the best looking one, mainly because of the black leather jacket, although the sculpt of Eliza Dushku's face on the "Bad Girls" figure is slightly better (but notice the shade of lipstick this one is wearing). I do not know if it is intentional or not but Faith sort of looks like she just been stabbed. Since the "Graduation Day" Buffy is also wearing a black leather jacket you can switch right hands and give Buffy the knife, so that Lester Worth's blood now becomes Faith's blood.

My 3.5yo son is very much into dragons and knights, etc. He absolutely loves this dragon. I think his favorite part is that it breathes fire. As with all Playmobil, there are many little pieces that are easy to get lost. We also have a younger son, so he is only allowed to play with this toy when his brother is napping.

In particular, I have put away the swords for the figures until he gets older. They slip into a "holster" on the belt and it's easy for them to fall out when he's making the guy run around. Also, I don't think it's very easy for the guy to sit on the dragon. There doesn't really seem to be a place for him to naturally sit and stay on.

However, none of these things bother my son. He loves it. These Playmobil toys have really helped him to continue to develop his imagination. It is just amazing to watch him learn every day through play! I think the age range on these toys is very appropriate. My 3.5yo has just reached the stage where playing with these toys is appropriate, both in terms of the little pieces and the developmental factor.

My 13-year old gets the McFarlane football figures as rewards when he does well with grades and citizenship in school. They are a great incentive for him. Quality toys that don't cost too much that he is mature enough to keep as collector's items. I wouldn't recommend them for "playing" with, but for collecting they are detailed (down to grass stains on their uniforms) and have inventive poses. I rated educational value as a "3" because they don't really educate, and durability as a "4" because I think playing with them would destroy the collective value of them. Overall though, for our purposes, they are great collectibles.