I forgot I ordered this figure. To be fair to myself, I did order The Scientist from Hasbro’s Victory Royale Series during the massive Pulse-Con related fury of toy over-spending last October and I ordered a lot of stuff. All that is to say this guy showing up on my doorstep this week was a pleasant surprise. Let’s take a look at The Scientist!
At first glance, I thought this was going to be my first experience with plastic-free packaging from Hasbro, but it turns out this box does have an opening flap on the front to reveal a very small plastic window to check out the figure similar to the current retail figures. I do like the larger space devoted to the artwork on the box front.
The figure comes with a shotgun, six total face plates, and a backpack/cape combo. It was also nice to see an instruction booklet for the light-up feature. Not that I really need it, I just love the simple line drawings on the things.
The gun is pretty basic in all black with a little bit of silver detail. It fits in the hand well, but the figure cannot hold it in two hands because his body is just far too bulky for the arms to come together.
The back bling has a bunch of nice detail and is made up of a couple different materials that gives it a more complex feel. I think the lighter silver pieces could use some paint, but I do like that they added some weathering graphics to the darker piece of the pack. Unfortunately, due to the electronics the peg is pretty small and the hole and the back shallow, so it doesn’t stay on as securely as I’d like.
The highlight (ahem) of this figure is probably the light-up face plates, though they do include one face plate where the design is painted on in case you want to keep him displayed on the shelf without the light up feature. The head is three pieces, the main body of the head and two smaller plates, a clear and a black one. The black plates are sandwiched in between the clear outer plate and the main body of the head.
The black plates have designs cut into them so that the red LED in the neck can shine through the clear neck peg and light up the face plate in unique ways. The wire on the front of the chest is the activation button and there are two modes, pulsing and solid light.
It’s a pretty successful effect, though it works best when you look straight on and in lower light. There is a bit of light spill under the face plate at the figure’s chin.
I think the sculpting nailed the bulky proportions and high tech detail on this guy perfectly, so much so to the detriment of articulation. This figure is pretty stiff poser due to the general thickness and the armor design. The Scientist has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, hips, wrists, and ankles
- Double hinged knees
- Ball and socket mid-torso and head
- Swivel thighs
Unfortunately the swivel/hinge in the ankles swivels where it attaches to the calf rather than a forward facing pin at the foot, so he has no rocker action. I only know that joint swivels because I heated it up, the figure at room temp will not swivel at the ankle. The ankle also has no forward motion, so he can be tough to balance. The head also gets minimal up/down and tilt, it’s mostly swivel at the ball joint. He also can’t hold a gun in two-handed gun holding pose because the arms can’t reach across the body, which is just as well since the plastic on the left hand is really stiff and wouldn’t hold the gun without heating up anyway. The arms and hips also kick to the side when raising them forward due to the bulk of the armor and the arms don’t raise above the head due to interference from the armor shoulder pads that are attached to the shoulder with a tab of plastic.
The paint is good on this figure with most of it cast in this glossy metallic plastic that’s actually a decent match for the armor finish in the game. There is some weathering grime effect stamped onto the figure around the armor and solid red lines decorating the armor in various spots. I think the orange bits on the knees could use some of the orange metallic paint that you see on the center of the back.
The Scientist is the first Victory Royale Series figure we’ve got that we already saw in the Jazwares six inch Legendary series. I think Hasbro’s got the edge with the proportions and armor finish. I also like how the orange wires around the knee and elbow are separate pieces on the Hasbro version. Both figures are similarly clunky in the articulation department, but Jazwares does have the edge at costing about 20 dollars less than what the Hasbro version cost with three swappable face plates and three weapons though he is missing the pack/cape combo and of course, the light up feature.
Overall, this is a nice looking figure and I appreciate the attempt to do something a little different with the light up feature, but he’s not a lot of fun to play with and pose. He will go great in a vanilla pose on somebody’s shelf, but is a bit clunky for my taste.
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Source: Fwoosh
