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Super Poseable Helm's Deep Aragorn - LOTR; TTT, Toybiz Meat and Potatoes; 4.5 Perks; 5.0 Homer Facor; 4.0 |
Description; Aragorn is back and baaaaaaaaaad... well, almost. The figure is the standard 6" high and wears the chain-mail and leather surcoat from the Battle at Helm's Deep. Aragorn is very well sculpted, but the articulation is outstanding in quantity but not necessarily quality. The future king of Middle Earth is armed with a sword and knife, with a corresponding sheath for each. |
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Why in the name of Tolkein would anyone want ANOTHER Aragorn figure? Um... well... let's see... because the person is an obsessed fan of the movie and wants just about every incarnation of the descendent of Elendil? Ok, that's a good enough reason. Well, there's also the fact that Toybiz has done a thoroughly butt-kicking, foot stomping, amazing job with this figure line. No detail is too small, no character too insignificant. Sure, this is the umpteenth version of Aragorn, but each version brings something new and unique to the figure. Besides, this is a SUPER POSEABLE version of Aragorn in the battle-gear from the battle at Helm's Deep. Yes, there was already a figure out from that scene, but the articulation was not as good as this figure promised. So how amazing and incredible is this piece? Am I ready to name this the Toy of 2005? Um... well... ya see, the problem when you have a figure line this good is you better make daaaaaaaaang sure the figure is THAT GOOD... if not... well... Meat and potatoes are the biggest problem. The sculpting, fortunately, isn't bad. It's not a spot-on likeness of Viggo, but good enough. The sculpting, as usual, captures the umpteenth details on the costume. The problem is the articulation. Yes, I said ARTICULATION. Taking a cue from Marvel Legends, the figure has a TON of joints; toes, mid-torso, blah, blah, blah, blah. Nice. Problem one; the fingers. Yes, the fingers flex. Normally, that isn't a problem but in this case, having the finger articulation means Aragorn has problems holding his sword. Doh! Ok, ok, we can cheat round this by jury-rigging SOMETHING to keep the sword in his hand. Not elegant, but doable. The biiiiiiiiiiig problem is the arms. The shoulders have wonderful ball-joints that give a huge range of motion... accept the figure can't put his arms parallel to it's torso. Every other figure is designed so that there's a bit of a divot under the arms so that the arms can go pretty close to flat against the body, giving a more natural look. In this case, the divot isn't there, so the arms stick out. Imagine you're bundled up in your winter wear, a ton o' layers to keep you nice and warm. You start to wander around outside. Notice how your arms tend to stick out from your sides? Imagine Aragorn, sword in hand, leading a charge... with his arms stuck out to his sides like that. Yeah, it's pretty horrible looking. Unfortunately, unless you're very handy with a Dremal tool, there's no way to MacGyver your way past this one. Doh! Perks are very similar to the other Helm's Deep figure; sword, knife, sheath for both. Homer factor... oy. I really, really hoped to find a GREAT figure here. So far ToyBiz has been a juggernaut at creating incredible figures at a nice price-point. This figure is a huge disappointment. No figure is perfect, but something as fundamental to the figure such as arm and hand joints cannot be over-looked. Oh well, you can't with them all, and it doesn't change the fact that there are still a TON o' figures from this line that rock. |