Of Elephants and speedboats.
Anybody remember that old seventies game show when the two guys
won a speedboat? There was a pretty big
elephant in the room as the prize was unveiled.
The two guys were from Birmingham.
For our cousins across the pond, Birmingham UK is about as far from the
sea as it’s possible to get. And the gentlemen
who had won such a wonderful shiny new water going craft were 105 miles away
from any water. And neither of them
owned a car.
What, you might ask, is that to do with action figures? Well I’ll get to it presently. First things first. I don’t normally cover action figure boxes,
but this peaked my curiosity, in that its brain numbingly stupid. The slipcase…
Shows a design of the figure and upon the case’s removal, we’re
left with a matte black box. At first I
couldn’t open it, but then I realised…it opens with the end flap. That’s the stupid part. Not only was it packed in face down, there
was nothing apart from the foam packing to grab, in order to remove it. And, if you’re in a bit of a hurry to get the
figure open, then no doubt yours will be upside down too and the contents will
scatter all over the carpet. So to avoid looking like a small boy playing with
Hot Wheels cars on his mum’s kitchen floor, be careful opening the silly box.
Now down to the nitty gritty. Obviously this “newshen” is supposed to be
April from the turtles cartoon, and the outfit and sneaker boots are pretty
accurate and tailoring is fine. In fact,
the only thing that possibly could tick me off is the collars of the suit that
brush up against the face.
And coming to the face, this isn’t one of the new
super-realistic heads that we’re used to seeing from the likes of Hot Toys or
Phicen. This is definitely in the “stylised”
category, similar to the sculpts produced by Original Effect and Triad Toys.
Which in a way is more fitting for a character borne of a cartoon show. Hair is sculpted, and when I look at the
head, it reminds me of a Resident Evil Mila head from a long time ago. Paint is fitting for the stylised cartoon category,
make up is nice and both eyes point in the same direction (always a bonus for a
news reporter). The head itself is
pretty solid plastic.
The alternative sculpt is frowning more, and obviously (in a
nod to the show) fitted with a gag in order for the collector to re-enact all
those episodes where April played damsel and got herself captured, though the
set is missing rope to tie up the lady, so presumably she can just walk away
when she gets bored.
Accessories wise, she comes with everything that I remember
her having in the television show. All
are plastic, but heavy plastic, and printing is good. The ID card is printed with her details.
So far so good. Many folks
will scoff at the old school animated style head, but it’s a nice change from
the ultra-realism we’ve come to expect. Two
spare sets of hands are present, and a chair for her to sit in (presumably when
she’s been captured, or else to stand on to get that hard to reach news scoop).
You’re waiting for the “but” aren’t you? And yes, there is one. And it’s a biggie. The body. Remember those guys at the start of this review, who owned the speedboat? They can sit there admiring it as long as they want to, but they’ll never escape the elephant sitting there in the room, and the fact that they’re 105 miles away from water. In a similar vein, I can admire April till the proverbial cows return home, but I can never escape the fact that she comes with an ancient ZC body.
Yes, you heard that right, a ZC body. Our elephant is a ZC
body.
The stone-age body with the odd chest shape, the loose limbs and the extra bit of neck attached to the underside of the head. From back in the days before most collectors here were even born. On Newshen, the limbs are ok, but the wasp waisted body is otherwise untouched from its ZC girl days, even down to the CG girl style wrist joints. A body even ZC girl abandoned in the end in favour of a CG clone.
The stone-age body with the odd chest shape, the loose limbs and the extra bit of neck attached to the underside of the head. From back in the days before most collectors here were even born. On Newshen, the limbs are ok, but the wasp waisted body is otherwise untouched from its ZC girl days, even down to the CG girl style wrist joints. A body even ZC girl abandoned in the end in favour of a CG clone.
It’s such a shame, because everything else is pretty nice,
and it isn’t that easy to replace the body with it having that extra bit of
neck underneath the head. Of course a
seamless body would be wasted here, but I feel certain there could have been a better
proportioned alternative.
That said, I do like her.
I liked her in the original show, and even more so now she looks more
like the lovely Ms Jovovich, and I can gag her and put her firmly in her chair
to await rescue by some overgrown tortoises.
In fact, she may go out on display at some point.
But…like the lads from Birmingham that opened this review, there’s a pretty sizable elephant in the room. And it’s made by ZC-Girl. Perhaps I can get it to pull my speedboat closer to the sea?
But…like the lads from Birmingham that opened this review, there’s a pretty sizable elephant in the room. And it’s made by ZC-Girl. Perhaps I can get it to pull my speedboat closer to the sea?
Until next time.
Copyright A.R.Birch 2017
