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Hercules Toy Line: Disney Heroes Manufacturer: Disney Meat and Potatoes; 4.9 Perks; 5..0 Homer Factor; 5.0
				Description: the legendary Greek/Roman hero brought to life, biiiiiiig time! Herc is recreated in MASSIVE scale at 7" of muscle-rippling action figure.  The figure looks similar to the 'Hercules' animated film accept his features are much more angular, resulting in a manga slant.  Herc is clad in Roman battle-armor from head to toe with is very well sculpted, capturing details as small as the buckles on straps.  The figure also has solid articulation.  He comes with a very, very, very large sword, a giant shield, and a display stand with 'Hercules' sculpted into it.
One challenge in being a toy collector is traditionally this stuff is made for kids.  I know, this is pretty obvious, but just follow me for a sec.  A lot of the time stuff made for kids is still pretty dang cool.  Look at Transformers: made for kids 5 and over but still a lot of fun to transform, display, merge, re-transform, play with, the whole smash.  And the work put into the pieces is pretty impressive: detailed sculpts, lots of articulation.  The piece doesn't' have to be a stunning, Bandai level piece of work, but it's not JUST a toy. Disney stuff tends to be specifically for kids.  The sculpting captures the look from the movie very well but it's pretty simple and in exchange for articulation there are usually some funky action features.  Then I ran into a few articles mentioning the Disney Hero line available only through the Disney Store.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmm... promising name for a line, then again so was 'Armada'. (Sorry, cheap shot but it's so easy.)   The line promised collector level figures of prominent Disney characters.  Unfortunately this could mean anything from super-detailed sculpts with bells and whistles to same-old-same-old but with a crappy stand.  Oy!  Well I saw the first Hercules figure and was intrigued.  It didn't look like the ones released with the movie.  It looked... well, it looked like it was kinda pissed and ready to kick someone's butt.  Good sign!  So I took a chance and let EBay help me get my hands on one.  Tell you what, this is a VERY nice piece of work. Meat and potatoes are very well done on this piece.  To start with the figure is BIG.  7" and very weighty, which fits being old Hercules.  The figure is a huge departure from the original pieces.  The face doesn't have the artificial smile, instead old Herc has a scowl that means business.  The figure is clad in bronze Roman-esque platemail.  Ok, ok, technically he should be wearing the skin of the Nemean Lion, but this looks much cooler.  The sculpting on the armor and musculature is sweet.  The rivets and buckles on the armor are beautiful to behold.  Articulation is pretty good, although could be better.  The figure is pre-posed a bit so he's always looking to the left and his left arm movement is a bit limited.  It's not as bad as some McFarlane pieces but it can be a bit annoying.  The perks are also a surprise.  Naturally you have an obligatory stand with the 'Hercules' logo on it.  This figure is incredibly stable so you don't need the stand but it's a nice way to display the figure.  Herc is armed with a huge shield and a MASSIVE sword.  Again this isn't traditional but ya know what?  It looks cool just the same!   Both weapons are well sculpted and I'm not kidding about the size of the sword.  It's almost as tall as Herc.  Hey, if you're the mightiest hero in Greek/Roman mythology you should have a massive sword.  Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet! Homer factor?  Very high.  I remember as a kid reading stories in kids' books about this guy and always being fascinated by him.  The twelve labors, the cool lion-skin armor, fighting all those monsters!  A kids dream.  Unfortunately toys were always few and far between.  Even the 'Hercules - The Legendary Journeys' figures were 'eh'.  So seeing this come out was very cool The end result is a very, very, very good figure.  Disney did a great job catering to the collectors by creating this figure.  Veering away from the usual gimmicks and concentrating on a well-crafted figure is a nice change.  And just remember there are more on the way.   Woohoo!