Serenity! In plastic form!
Sadly, none of the ladies of Serenity have been figured, but here’s what’s available so far, with comments. WARNING: the more spoiler-centric of you might wish to avoid reading, just in case. Just look at the pictures.
Each character comes in a fairly standard bubble pack, with an assortment of accessories, an appropriate Inkworks trading card, a cardstock Serenity logo, and a flyer for the Serenity roleplaying game, the other figures, and the latest Buffy and Angel line.
The Big Damn Hero is here, and what a fine figure of a man he is! Although, as has been pointed out numerous times, the face coulda used some work. The rouge effect is a bit strange — although Nathan Fillion does tend to get colorful when he gets worked up — and there’s only so much you can do with plastic hair. The nose is pretty spot on, but the rest just looks… off. Maybe it’s the arched eyebrows. Or the oddly prominent adam’s apple. The body is fine and the costuming is perfect. His gun is in place and fits nicely in his holster, if not very well in his hand. He can’t sit, but he can twist his legs sideways and bend at the knees, so at least he can dance. Also, his shoulders don’t move, but his elbows and wrists do and his browncoat is nice and flappy.
His accessories include his usual dogleg gun, a rifle, a grenade, and an easy-to-run-with satchel.
Jayne doesn’t look too bad, especially in comparison with Mal. There’s an interesting attempt at a three-day growth on his face and he seems to be stuck between two facial expressions, but overall it ain’t bad.
And he can move his shoulders. Also his elbows and wrists, hips and knees. Costuming is good, he looks like a commando on his day off, which is more or less the case.
Jayne, as you might expect, comes with a holstered pistol, a sheathed knife, a rifle kind of thing, a grenade, and (of course) Vera, which is almost as big as he is. He can hold her if he uses both hands.
Then there’s the the exclusive unpainted Jayne T1 figure created by Diamond Direct as a San Diego ComiCon 2005 exclusive, now available as a Diamond Select Toys web exclusive (click the picture for a closer look). He’s kind of gray, and actually looks more like Adam Baldwin this way. Could be your chance to paint him yourself! Limited to 500 pieces, it comes in a plain white box with unpainted accessories. Buy it at Things From Another World or from Diamond Direct.
There’s a limited version of Jayne w/cigar that I haven’t pictured here.
The Reaver figure is pretty much dead on. As it were. He (?) comes with a funky axe thing, a homemade sword, and some kind of spiky ball throwing thing.
Final Battle Mal
From Diamond Select we have the limited edition Mal. He’s a bit stressed, has lost his coat, but still has his gun and has acquired a sword and a screwdriver. Ain’t tellin’ why. The face is different but still not very Fillionesque, especially with three feet of forehead. Eyebrows look a lot closer, though.
Overall I’m not as happy with the faces as I could be, but I’m delighted to see them at all so I won’t bitch. Much. Although I have to say I’m kinda glad they didn’t do the rest yet; I’d just as soon wait til they get the faces down pat before they do Kaylee or River. I’ll be waiting for Series 2…
Buy: Things From Another World, Poplollies, ToyWiz, 258 West, Diamond Select Toys, StarStore (UK)
Unfortunately, these aren’t the best quality. When I took my Mal out of the box, the limbs were really stiff, and the leg popped right off!
Better to keep them in the box as collectors items, if you ask me. Personally, I have mine all hanging on a wall.
I wonder where Reavers get the patience to do things like lace up their boots.