Jakks Pacific is coming to Comic Con this year, and they are bringing their World of Nintendo line with them. In fact, they are bringing it in a BIG way! The Entertainment Earth booth is aways a busy place with all kinds of exclusives, and Jakks is adding this giant Skyward Sword Link from The Legend of Zelda to the mix. Be sure to bring that extra large suitcase to SDCC this year.
Jakks has been in the giant figure game for a while now, and their licenses for this scale cover everything from DC to Star Wars. If you haven’t been paying attention, they have quickly built up a pretty diverse collection of characters and properties at this scale, and judging by the toy aisles, they are showing no signs of slowing down. Whenever I go into a Toys R Us store, without fail I see kids enamored with these figures, and the impressive size seems to hit the notes, so Jakks is onto a corner of the market I think a lot of collectors might have discounted at the beginning. However, a lot of collectors are starting to take note, especially with the Star Wars license… but more on that later this week.
However, Jakks is the master license holder for the World of Nintendo property, and they have already covered a wide variety of characters and scales, from a ½ an inch scale all the way up to this massive 20-inch scale. I have figures from every corner of the WoN license, even though it is pretty young in terms of timing, I am having a lot of fun with the figures because a comprehensive Nintendo line is something I have been waiting for for most of my life. To that end, I find the giant Super Mario 20-inch figure to be the best that Jakks has done at this scale, and Mario’s proportions work with that size really well. So I am actually pleased to see that they are taking a chance with other Nintendo properties, and Link was a very logical place to start.
I LOVE The Legend of Zelda. LOVE it. In fact, it is probably my favorite Nintendo-owend property, and I could rank the original game and A Link to the Past as two of my all-time favorite video games. Thus, I am a pretty easy mark for any kind of merchandising for the property, especially action figures. So, even though I don’t have a ton of giant-scale figures, once I saw the giant Link back at Toy Fair, there was no way I wasn’t going to get him. Jakks has been following a mostly modern footprint in terms of the character versions they have been producing, so this “Skyward Sword” Link fits into their pattern well, and while it is certainly an update on the original, this version does hold design cues from the Link we first met back in 1986.
The sculpt is pretty solid overall, and there is no mistaking that this Link, just in gigantic form. The classic green jerkin has a nice texturing built into the sculpt and the chain mail that is peeking out from underneath is very nice as well. While this is not the original costume, which is my favorite, this one is pretty much just a nice update to the original with some added details and functional aspects, like a harness and some pouches. The head sculpt is very on-model as well, and it is a nice representation of the character at this large scale. Nintendo art and models don’t hold a ton of detail in the face, so the simplified sculpt translates well. His eyes, however, are very detailed and all of this is done with paint rather than sculpt. The stamp captures the shape and somewhat placid Link expression, but they are very much a two-dimensional part of the face.
I think my favorite parts of the figure are actually the accessories, though, and if they were just a touch bigger I would probably be running around the house with them right now. The sword and shield are both very detailed, and the hilt and Triforce crest on the sword have some great sculpting. Likewise, the insignia on the shield is all sculpted as well, along with all of the silver accents. The red bird is painted, but all of the paint is very crisp without a whiff of bleed or slop. That is something Link has in common with Mario in that these are very “clean” figures and that works well for the Nintendo aesthetic. Additionally, for just attaching to his back, the sheath is very nice and very detailed and the sword fits right in perfectly. These pieces are all really, really nice and that is important not only for the overall quality of the figure, but also because these things are very important for the Link character.
Now, if I have heard a consistent concern with these larger figures, it is that they seem a bit “static,” and I can see some of that critique. Now, I imagine that articulation can get especially expensive as you go bigger in scale, but if I had to call out anything with Link, it is that I wish he had just a few more points of movement. I am not really bothered by the lack of knee or lower leg articulation, but I really wish he had elbow joints. His hands can hold his weapons fine, but without being able to bend his elbows, he is not able to take on some of the better fighting poses. Now, this articulation IS consistent with other figures in the Jakks 20-inch scale, so I am not surprised Link does not have elbow joint, but this would be the first place I would challenge Jakks to take on. I think elbows would make a HUGE improvement to almost all of their figures.
That quibble aside, I am having a lot of fun with this figure, and my 3-year-old daughter is too. She already takes Mario from time to time to wrap him up in a blanket and call him her “mustache baby,” and she was eyeing Link during his photo shoot. I think this scale works well for a lot of Nintendo characters, and I can see these being staples in “game rooms,” perhaps flanking a large TV hooked to countless video game systems. Like I said, this figure will be available at the Entertainment Earth booth at SDCC, so that is where you should head straight away if you want to pick him up. I believe another version of Link will be at retail later this year, but if you are a fan of Skyward Sword, don’t miss this one.
*Thanks for reading and thanks to Toy Guru and the Jakks Nintendo crew for sending along this sample for preview. Don’t worry — we will have more BIG previews coming soon.
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