The Triforce be praised, after all these years there is finally a retail-level line of action figures based on characters from some of Nintendo’s most popular franchises, including Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda. This line, dubbed “World of Nintendo,” took many of us by surprise; after years of static figurines and honest-to-goodness “action figures” available only as pricey imports, many fans have learned to not expect too much from a Nintendo toy line. That’s why it’s been rather exciting to see these figures on the pegs at retail stores. Link, in particular, has been a pleasant surprise because even though he’s a $9 retail figure, which, let’s face it, doesn’t translate into much in 2014, he’s almost as good a figure as the much more expensive Figma offering, and that is really saying a lot. So let’s take a look at the World of Nintendo’s Link and see what it has to offer!
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The packaging is pretty standard retail-level action figure packaging. The character-specific design and snappy green color help the figure stand out among the sea of superhero figures in the toy aisles. What’s really fun about the way these figures are packaged is the “mystery accessory” each figure comes packed with. I had managed to dodge all “spoilers” concerning what this accessory could be, so it really was a surprise for me, so I apologize to any of you for whom I may be spoiling this surprise — if you look at the packaged pic and then look through the following pics, it should be pretty obvious what the mystery was.
This is a fantastic-looking figure and it nails Link’s likeness from the Skyward Sword game. The sculpt is tight and clean, and even though there isn’t all that much here in terms of paint applications, what is here is clean and pretty much perfect. His eyes in particular look awesome. Seriously, compare Link’s eyes to anything Hasbro or Mattel has been giving us. How come Jakks Pacific can deliver this kind of work on a $9 figure?
Link comes with three accessories, including his “mystery accessory.” All three feature some great detail work and are nicely functional. He has no trouble holding or wielding any of his accessories, and he can be put in some cool poses with all of them, thanks to a good articulation scheme and a good range of motion. The only articulation trouble he has are his hips — they are hindered substantially by his tunic-thing, so he can’t really get into any running poses, but he is capable of something slightly more than a vanilla pose. His breakdown is as follows:
- Ball head (I think it’s a ball, that is)
- Hinge and swivel shoulders, elbows, wrists, and ankles
- Mid-torso swivel/ab crunch
- Hip articulation (not sure exactly what kind, however, but they can move side-to-side and back-and-forth)
For a $9 figure, I think this is an outstanding offering. It’s definitely on the small side, though. Compared to Death’s Head from Hasbro’s 3.75-inch Marvel line, Link looks pretty small. Fortunately Death’s Head is on the larger side of things, so I do think Link is closer to a true 4-inch offering. And it’s crazy how good this Link looks when compared to the Figma version. It almost looks like the Figma figure shrunken down, which is just nuts. Jakks did some good work here.
Link can be found at Target, but be aware — he is packed one-per-case. Lord knows why, but he’s definitely a tough one to find at the moment. He’s worth the trouble, though, and if you can manage to find one, I think you’ll be quite happy with him.