Jakk's Pacific Super Mario 4" Wave 19 through 26 and Super Mario World 3D Multi-Pack Review
|
It's been another year and a half since my last review of Jakk's Pacific four inch Nintendo figure line which seems to have officially
given up the World of Nintendo name in favor of being just a Super Mario line. I have to admit that the loss of the opportunity to
include other Nintendo characters saddens me. But on balance, the change means we are getting a much deeper roster of characters from
the Super Mario games. So I guess I'll just take what I can get. And under the Super Mario name, this line has continued to churn out
wave after wave. And while most waves have consisted mostly of repaints, they still seem to work at least one new character or variant
into each wave. So by now, my pile of unopened figures is getting out of hand. So lets fix that.
Packaging - Box Set 5/10, Carded figures 7/10The packaging design change when they switched over to being exclusively a Super Mario line has remained unchanged wave after wave. And that's not really a bad thing. It's bright and colorful design that is very fitting for the Super Mario license. My only real complaint about the packaging is that it comes off as a bit generic. The multi-lingual packaging means that a lot of space is used to not say much. And with the limited articulation and lack of action features, the photos on the back don't really have a lot to show off. On the positive side, I'm really thankful that they still have the cross sell photos of the other figures in each wave on the bottom of the card since it can be very difficult to tell which figures are new verses which are old stock when they keep releasing very similar variants wave after wave. The Super Mario 3D set uses the same basic graphical style and layout. But the window uses most of the space on the front and the photo of the three figures takes up almost all of the back. So there really isn't much to this packaging.
Sculpting - Penguin Mario 6/10, Cat Peach, Magikoopa, Shy Guy and Bone Piranha Plant 7/10, Others 8/10Let's get the easy stuf out of the way first, Shy Guy, the Toads, the Yoshis, Cat Mario and Cat Luigi are all reuses of previous sculpts. And generally that is fine as they are pretty great sculpts, with the exception of Shy Guy being way too large. The Boomerang Bros. and Mario with Cappy are both slight alterations to previous releases. The Boomerang Brothers are almost identical to the Hammer and Fire Brothers released previously, but with a hand molded to hold the boomerang accessory. Mario has the same body, but this time is molded with Cappy on his head. Larry, Lemmy, Bone Pirahna Plant, Magikoopa, Penguin Mario and Cat Peach are all new sculpts. Cat Peach is a bit disappointing as they seem to have messed up her neck, leaving the joint exposed. Penguin Mario is lacking much detail, though that has more to do with the design in the game. With Lemmy, Larry, Iggy and Ludwig, we're down to just three remaining Koopalings. And I'll be very disappointed if they don't complete that set.
Paint - 7/10The paint work for all of these figures is inline with what we've come to expect from this line. The paint applications aren't very complicated, but they are generally done quite well. From my cursory inspection, the only quality control issue I have seen is on Mario with Cappy's boots. And that is a very minor issue.
Articulation - Shy Guy & Magikoopa 3/10, Toads 4/10, Bone Pirahna Plant 5/10, Yoshis & Boomerang Bro. 6/10, Others 7/10The level of articulation for these figures varies wildly. Shy Guy and Magikoopa are barely articulated. Both can waggle their stumpy arms and Shy Guy can rotate his feet slightly. But that's it. Toad can move his shoulders and turn his head. The Bone Pirahna Plant can open its mouth and rotate his neck. It can also rotate at the pipe base, but rotating in a round base is pointless. The Yoshis have ball jointed hips, double jointed shoulders and rotating neck joints. With the Boomerang Brother, we finally get to a "fully" articulated figure with hips, knees and ankles, shoulders, elbows and wrists and a double jointed neck. Larry and Lemmy both lack knees or elbows due to their stumpy little limbs. But they do have articulated tails which can serve as a third leg to make the figures very stable. Mario with Cappy has knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists and neck. The Cat figures add ankle joints and a second neck joint so that they can look up when running on all fours. Penguin Mario has limited movement, but that is all down to the character design, not a lack of articulation with the figure. It has rotating ankles and rotating and hinged joints at the hips, shoulders and neck. They even made sure the neck would allow the figure to look straight ahead when posed on his belly.
Accessories - 3D World Set 0/10, Shy Guy 2/10, Magikoopa, Lemmy, Larry, and Boomerang Brother 6/10, others 5/10The carded figures all include one accessory. Surpringly they skipped the accessories for the Mario 3D World set which is a slightly annoying ommission even if it would have just been more cat bells. The Toads, Yoshis, Penguin Mario and Bone Pirahna Plants all come with an unrelated power up item from the Super Mario games. The Koopalings, Magikoopa and Boomerang all come with their scepters, wands and boomerang respectively. None of the accesories are particularly impressive. But they do make a nice little bonus.
Value - Shy Guy 1/10, Mario 3D World set 3/10, Toads & Yoshis 5/10, others 7/10The regular carded figures for this line sell for just under $10 each while the three pack sells for $28. For a figure like the Shy Guy that is a simple repaint of a figure that wasn't that great the first time around, it's kind of a waste of money. Even with the Toads and Yoshis, $10 for a simple repaint isn't going to appeal to everyone. But when you get into the new figures such as the Bone Pirahna Plant, Koopalings and Boomerang Brother, that's a pretty reasonable price. Then there is the three pack. As I already have Cat Mario and Cat Luigi, this set doesn't hold a lot of value. I basically had to pay three times the normal price for Cat Peach. It seems like such a missed opportunity to include both Cat Peach and a Cat Toad to complete the Cat Suit variants.
Happy Hunting:Distribution of this line has varied a lot over the years. But with them having a spot in the aisles of both Walmart and Target this fall, as well as Gamestop, the carded figures seem to be readily available. Though which wave happens to be available in any given store will detirmine which figures are available. The Super Mario 3D World 3 pack is a Target exclusive and should be available both in stores and online.
|
|
