The Mini Directory Home     News Reviews     The List NYTS     Links Dictionary   Gallery
					Roy's Toys Shelf
						The Greatest Hits
Manga Samurai Spawn-Manga Spawn II, Todd Toys Meat and Potatoes; 5.0  Perks; 5.0 Homer Factor; 5.0
				Description; Spawn figure with a gorgeous manga slant. Approximately 8"tall figure with the usual manga flourishes of large shoulder-pads, over-sized boots, and big horns adorning the head.  The entire toy is painted in gold, dark blue, and brick red.  The figure is also etched with swirls, waves, and other patterns to give the armour the appearance of a piece of art, rather then just utilitarian battle-armour.  The figure is equipted with a shield, lance and large back-pack with 6 spidery, golden legs.  All three parts combine to form a remote done.
	Oddly enough, I've never been a huge Spawn fan.   I flipped through the tittle a few times, seemed ok, but it never grabbed me.  The action figures were another story.  After years of figures with ok articulation, mediocre sculpting, and horrible painting, Todd Toys created a stir with figures that you could put on your mantle and display like statues, not simply another toy for your nephew.  Unfortunately, I was a struggling '90s graduate, so I never snagged the figures.  A few years ago,(And a real job later) Todd Toys came out with the Manga Spawn line.  Ooohhhhhhhhhhh.  I am a proud owner of series 1 and 2... or whatever the series numbers should be.  The figures on the whole are stunning, but the winner for me is Manga Samurai Spawn. The meat and potatoes on this piece are typical McFarlane; awesome.  The articulation on this piece is very good over all, knees, elbows, shoulders, the works.  The only problem I have is the hips can't move as much as I would like, an armored skirt keeps the figure from moving it's leg all the way forward for a good kicking pose.  The sculpt on this piece is what really stands out.  As the name implies, you're looking at a piece that crosses Toshiro Mifune with Gundam.  Massive sections of armor, etched with wonderful swirls, waves, and other patterns giving the armor a very ornate appearance. As usual, the painting on this piece is outstanding; out-lining panels perfectly, capturing the detail of whirls and waves in the armor.  Wow. The perks for this piece are very good also.  MS Spawn comes with a back-pack with spidery 'legs', a shield, and a large lance.  The lance has a handle on it so it can be held sort of like a traditional samurai sword.  I personally wish the figure came with the lance and a smaller version of the lance so it can carry a daisho.(paired swords.)  All three items combine to form an insect-like drone.  Not something Akira Kurosawa had in mind, but hey, this is manga, and manga armour has to have a robot drone.  The Homer Factor on this figure is huge.  Todd Toys transformed the action figure industry by showing fans will pay for something more then just a lump of plastic.  Toy fans are discerning collectors who will spend money, not just kids who are going to beat the crap out of their toys for four hours on Christmas morning then forget it.  Like other pieces from McFarlane, this one is something you could put on your desk and people will look and go 'hey, that's pretty cool.' Todd strikes again with another rocking piece of plastic.  Altlhough the Manga Spawn line ended with two entries, Todd has a new line this year called Samurai Wars on tap.  hehehehehehehehehehehehhe.