Mars Attacks is one of those properties that just keeps popping up decade after decade. There’s no “major” media push behind Mars Attacks at the moment, aside from an IDW comic and this apparently being the 50th anniversary of the property, so it was a bit of a surprise to see this figure hanging on the pegs. The Martian Commander here came out last fall, but if you wanted him, you had to hope your comic shop ordered enough to meet the demand, or you had to order from an online store. Despite being “released” back in the fall, he’s just now popping up at Toys R Us stores, so if you missed him, now is your chance to pick up one. And given the army-building potential of this guy, I was happy to see my local store had 20 of them on the pegs. I grabbed one to serve as my “test drive” figure, and when I went back to snag another, all 20 were cleaned out, so there is definitely a market out there for this guy.
Toys R Us is stocking him in the same aisle where you’d find Walking Dead figures, Half-Life figures, Portal figures, etc., so the bright colors of the packaging definitely stand out in the sea of blacks and greys that part of the store can sometimes be. He caught my eye from several feet away thanks to the bright greens and the contrasting red of the packaging design. Aside from that, it’s a pretty standard blister card with few frills, if any. I like that the figure appears to be very faithful to the design of the figure on the card. Given the fact that my store had a ton of these on the pegs, I had hoped for a few different characters, perhaps, but both pegs were rammed full of just this guy.
The sculpt is absolute dynamite. Mezco, or whoever actually sculpted him, really outdid themselves with this figure because it is beautiful. It terms of just sculpt alone, I could not imagine a more perfect representation of this character in plastic form. The attention to detail here is top notch, and the paint apps accentuate it even further.
There aren’t a whole lot of paint apps to speak of, but what’s there is done really well. His body/suit appears to be cast in a mint-green plastic, but there’s been a paint wash applied that brings out the detail of the suit nicely, and the orange tanks on his back really pop in contrast to his green suit. The yellow gloves and boots further round out the eye-catching color palette that makes the figure stand out so well.
Where the figure really shines, though, is the head sculpt. The intricate detail is just awesome. It’s evident that a lot of care went into this to make it look as authentic as possible. My only crit here is I wish the clear dome of his helmet were just a single, smooth piece because you can see how the seam of the two halves obscure the head sculpt. It’s not horrible, but it could have been done more elegantly so as to not compromise the figure’s greatest strength. Fortunately, it’s only an issue when viewing his profile.
The paint apps on the head sculpt are superb and add dimension and depth to the figure.
For weapons and accessories, he comes with a classic-looking space blaster (pictured above). It looks like a ray gun straight from the 1950s. I love it. It fits in his hand snugly and perfectly, which is cool. His fingers wrap around the grip perfectly. This is my favorite weapon of the bunch because he can hold it the most convincingly.
The rifle, above, is also really cool looking, but he can’t really hold it as a rifle should be held — you know, with two hands and all. This is were trouble really comes into paradise with this figure; his articulation is rather limited. The gun looks cool and all, but becomes rather superfluous once you realize he can’t wield it properly.
He also comes with what’s called a “ray stick.” I’ve never seen the Tim Burton movie, and I’ve only seen a few of the original trading cards, so I really have no idea what this thing is or how he’s supposed to hold it. Hopefully I’m close.
There’s no getting around it — his articulation is a bummer. It’s very limited and it’s difficult to get him in just about any “non-vanilla” pose. His legs have very little range of motion in the hips, which then make his knee-joint and ankle-swivels rather useless. The above pic is really the best I could do in terms of showcasing his articulation, which is kinda sad. It seems like the creators had the best intentions, but much of the articulation here is functionally useless. His arms fare better than his legs, but there just isn’t enough here to make it interesting. A simple swivel at the shoulder would have gone a long way and would have helped him to be able to hold his rifle properly. But, alas, this is all we get. It’s a good thing the figure is as beautiful as it is.
He’s just about a perfect 6 inches tall at the top of his helmet, so it’s possible to fit him into almost any 6″ figure collection, and finding a place for him to fit will be key since he’s a stand-alone figure, at least for now. I think he looks great with DCUC figures because of his bright colors, but your mileage may vary, of course.
He can be had at Toys R Us right now for $15, which feels about right for this figure. He looks super cool, but he’s lacking in a few areas that hold him back from being an awesome “action” figure. He’s still worth a purchase if you find him, though, because he definitely looks completely awesome on the shelf. Amazon also has him for about $18, so that’s another option if you prefer to not hunt.
