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3-22-01 Dormammu- The Dark Side, Marvel Toys. Meat and Potatoes; 3.7 Perks; 4.0 Homer Factor; 4.0
					Description; a very simple demonic figure. Approximately 5" figure, very simple body styling, so it looks like Dormammu is wearing a simple jump-suit.  Articulation on knees and elbows as well as shoulders, hips, neck, waist.  Body of figure is dark purple, the figure's head being painted in red and yellow to look like flames.  The head is also has a piece of plastic molded like flames surrounding it. The piece comes with a connical 'bottle' containing an orange demon.  Dormammu also comes with a pair of giant orange hands, each with two fingers and opposible thumb.  The hands are sculpted with grusome details such as bugs, eyes, and mouths.  Ick.
Oh, what could have been.  I got the first Dr. Strange figure years ago, when it was part of the Spider-Man line.  Granted, it could have used some improvements, but it was still a great piece.  Unfortunately, that was the only Doc Strange figure to come out; no Baron Mordo, no Ancient One, nada.  After a long wait, Marvel finally released a line of figures called Dark Side, basically figures with a supernatural slant, and created  a Dormammu figure.  Considering how well done the Strange piece was, and how colorful and bizaree Dormammu was in the comic, I expected something to make my eyes hurt, and loads of fun.  Well, not quite.... The meat nd potatoes of this figure are 'eh.'  Not horrible, but not stunning, either.  The articulation is solid,  with elbow and knee joints as well as the basics.  Not quite MS Gundam, but not as stiff as a Star Wars figure, either.  The sculpt and painting aren't horrible, but could have been so much better.  This incarnation of The Dread One is no where near as garish as Steve Ditko's vision in the original comic-book.  Dormammu wore costumes of mauve, red, and yello, with all sorts of frills, shoulder pads, billows.... kinda like a demonic Liberace.  Instead, Marvel has gone for a minimalist look that is kinda neat; plain purple out-fit with a large halo of flames over the head.  Ok, so it looks like the Red Skull with his head on fire.  Deal.  The perks are also solid.  You get the obligatory demon in a bottle and a pair of large orange... well, things.  They are two orange pieces which look like they have three fingers.  Each piece is sculpted with some gruesome details, like eyes, mouths, an errant maggot, to give it a ghastly look.  In the press photos, the 'things' are always wrapped around the demon, so it seems like these orange things are some sort of altar for the demon.  Then I noticed these were literally fingers sticking out of the orange things, and there were grooves at the base of each thing, like something was supposed to fit in them.  Well, after some tinkering, each one of these is actually a giant hand which attaches to Dormammus' wrist.  Think of it as Domammu's version of techno-wisardry, ala Rifts from Paladium.  It's a nice touch, having the figure attach these mini-demons to it's hands, giving the piece a nice demonic look that's missing due to the simplicity of the figure. The Homer factor on this was originally huge.  I like Dr. Strange a lot, and I was very excited to see his nemesis brought to life.  Since Marvel does great work on figures in general, I couldn't wait to see what they had in mind. Unforyunately, what came out isn't what I had hoped.  It's not a horrible figure by any  means.  The simple costume does keep in the new, simpler style, ala the new costumes for the X-Men movie.  However, I do miss the gaudy look Steve Ditko created for this character.