A pretentious, lazy, gluttonous scoundrel. A mooching, cowardly layabout. A weak-willed man of low character and little honor. A ravenous narcissist with delusions of class.
J. Wellington Wimpy is all of these things and more. He will pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. You are more than welcome to come to his house for a duck dinner.
…
You bring the ducks.
The Boss Fight Studio Popeye line is in the top three of my current favorite toylines. With wave 2 finally in hand, Wimpy narrowly edged out his wave-mates as the first of four to be released from his packaging. Having missed out on Mezco’s 2001 Popeye line this is the first time I’m getting many of Popeye’s extended cast in action figure form. These figures are of course far better, with much more articulation as befitting a modern toy line.
Wimpy is as Wimpy as he can get. As with the Wave One figures, Wimpy looks like he jumped right off the printed page. There is a very specific silhouette that Popeye characters have, and Wimpy’s stout and dumpy physique is perfectly captured.
These aren’t what one would call ridiculously articulated, but the articulation that is there works very well in allowing the figures to do what they need to do within the confines of the very specific designs. The single-jointed elbows and knees work well, with a 90 degree range in the elbows and a little less in the knees. There’s no hip swivel, but the ball joint allows rotation in lieu of that particular joint, so it works well enough. There’s a ball joint at his waist and neck, and ball joints at both ankles that allow you to get his feet flat even if his legs are spread.
I love the little knobs on the knees.
Overall, while Wimpy (and nobody in the line) is not quite going to be a ninja, it balances mobility and design in a way that, for me, is satisfying enough.
Wimpy comes with a few hands, and an array of character-specific accessories. For hands, he has a tight grip hand, a couple of looser grip hands, and one grip hand with the pinky out. I love the hand with the extended pinky. A cultured man eats his hamburgers with his pinky out. I know I do.
For accessories, Wimpy comes with three hamburgers. Two are whole, one has a bite taken out of it. Because he’s hungry.
He comes with a meat grinder with working handle. Wimpy is the kind of guy that stands next to a cow and waits patiently for it to die. He is ready to grind. He is always ready to grind.
He comes with his signature derby. Now, the wave one Popeye had a removable sailor hat that had issues staying on. I ended up using Blu-tac on mine, which has worked very well. I was worried that the same issue might occur with Wimpy, but there’s a groove inside the hat that seats down over the little fin of hair he has on his head and holds the hat on surprisingly well. The hat stays securely to either of his heads, so that’s a nice improvement.
The two heads in question are very minimal in different, but again, fit his character perfectly. One has his eyes closed, and one with eyes open. I wouldn’t have scoffed at a third head with an open mouth, ready to eat, but that’s me being as greedy as wimpy. These two heads encapsulate the many moods of Wimpy.
In closing, I love this figure, I love this line, and I love Boss Fight for doing them. While a third wave has yet to be shown, I’m hoping for a Rough House for Wimpy to pester for burgers.
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Source: Fwoosh
