SWAMP THING

 

When Todd McFarlane created Image comics he did it shatter the chains DC and Marvel put on comic artists for many years, and when he opened McFarlane Toys he did it too to create figures on his own therms without the big corporations over him (Kenner, Mattel...), soo McFarlane was the rebel boy of the 90s, kind of like George Lucas or a Tim Burton. See McFarlane working for DC now is actually pretty shocking for me and i still dont get used to it.

In the last years, McFarlane has focused his entire existance to mass produce Batmen on each of his many version as well as other JL characters with irregular results: some figures looks pretty cool, some other looks hiddeous and horrific (Lobo?) but all of them stick to the "quantity over quality" philosophy. I knew i somehow was going to fall into that rabbit hole eventually tough wasnt sure wit"who" and now i know it: Swamp Thing.

I love Swamp Thing since i was a little kid, with the Kenner action figures, the silly movies and the Alan Moore comics, even this blog started with a figure of Swamp Thing and i am very happy McFarlane finally worked with the character, its odd he did it until now since the character fits perfectlly with Todd´s grotesque style pretty good.

And this figure is actually gargantuan....GIGANTIC!!! Swamp Thing is twice as tall as the rest of action figures of the same brand of NECA. He is actually taller than a Hot Toys or a Play Arts Kai, reaching in high the Sideshow figures, making this guy one of the tallest figures i ever had. Tough he is quiet light and thats a good thing since helps him stand...kind of....sometimes. With his impresive size sometimes is not easy for him to keep balance.

Tough McFarlane gives him a base....a tiny black tokken thingy that fits with a peg on a hile of the figure feet. This small thing is totally useless of course and wins the prize of the most pathetic base i ever seen in this whle century.

Swamp Thing is articulated on the head, chest, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, knes, ankles and halg feet, all this are ball joints soo they have a pretty wide range of motion but they also sre super strong ball joints that make a loud "click" when moved and they keep the possition despite Swamp Thing weigth. All of them except the half feet articulations, those ones keep beding and making him fall.

He is made with hard plastic, bbt have a cover of soft plastic moss and nature elements that cover the articulations perfectly. Like an example on his shoulders he have palm leafs that cover the ball joint completelly or his chest section that have some kind of "ribs" like structure covering the torso ball joint, pretty good aesthetic.

And this is where the figure shyne, since the Mattel figure that came out 10 years ago is covered in soft plastic, his articulations are very limited but this McFarane version have a total movement range and a sculpt to match that.

The sculpt is juts beautifull and impresive. This figure is totally asimetric, since on his shoulders have palm leafs, but on the other shoulder he have wood cover. Each inch of his body is is nicelly scupted to be different to the rest of the body and fill with amazing details, like roses growing around his spinal cord or some bony structures under the web of vines and moss. Even his joints are sculpted following the nature pattern, this when they dosnt looks like amall blank spaces with no texture.

My favorite part are his claws, he does have claws, pretty harp claws and his face, thick jaw with a fierce smirk and sunken deep eyes with pasture growing around it, it almost looks like a soft beard. The expression is really good, pretty stoic and strong, perfect for Alec Holland.

The paint tough, this is the element that ruins everything. He is green and thats it, just green....plain green with some brownish washes here and there but that all. The roses, the flowers, the roots, fungus, fruits and bones sculpted all around his body are just...all green. From a distance its ok he looks very green, but once you see the magnifiscent sculpt, its pretty evident how many elements are not painted at all.

The only detail on the paint are his mouth and eyes. He have pretty thin black lips and black shadows around his eyes that makes his bloody red eyes shine even more. The paint on his face is really good, but thats it....

He dosnt have any extra hands or heads or anything at all, aside of that pathetic and stupid base, he only have a kind of blade looking appendage that at first i tough was his penis. You can remove the hands and put this "blade" hand on the sucket of his arm. The process is kind of difficult but given how big he is i dont think it will be easy to break him. This blade thingy looks really good and is even articulated as wellm tough....its made of wood but is just all green....

Aside of that he also comes with a card. The photo on the card is pretty good looking and while is such an useless accesory, it feels a lot like something Playmates or Kenner would add if they made a DC serires of figures back in the 80s.

Despite the complete lack of accesoryes (i wish they gives him vines or rubber tentacles...) and the hottible and lazy paint job, this figures is extremelly imposing and menacing looking. By just standing in a plain museum straigth pose, this guy feels like a true dangerous monster. His silhouette and muscly frame is impresive and he towers over anything eles on display.

Its sad that McFarlane cannot reach the level fo perfection he had in the 2000s, not even with this amazing character and sculpt. This is soo clsoe to be the definitive Swamp Thing figure, it even tempts me to repaint him, tough this is deffinetly ine of the best monster and horro figures i ever seen.