No, no, no … I’m not having a new figure “breakdown”; I broke down one of the new Mezco One:12 Collective figures for a closer look!
Last week I gave you guys a look at the new Dawn of Justice One:12 Batman figure. In it, I mentioned that the base body was significantly different than the earlier phase figures.
One key difference that Batman (and Captain America) have with the older figures is the scale. Instead of the exaggerated comic size of the Dark Knight Returns Batman, who is around 6.75 inches tall, these guys are squarely around 6.5 inches, which is, of course, closer to the Marvel Legends sizes of similar-build characters — in Cap’s case, they’re damn near even.
Interestingly, the proportions of the heads are still slightly more realistic, easily larger than say DCUC and larger than most of the Legends ones as well.
Cap being, again, very close to his Legends counterpart, at least the newer one.
This does line up well with the Star Trek figures, though. The effect is surprisingly cohesive, even if the Trek heads still look a little bigger. Add to that a slimmer new build like Daredevil’s, and there is still some really good variance among the figures. Now, granted, I was too dumb to grab some of these figures while the getting was good, but luckily Roufuss did, and he was able to help me out with some comparison shots.
That stuff is all pretty obvious to a casual observer, though. What is significantly different, and came as a surprise to me, was the changes made to the base bodies, under the cloth goods.
I broke down a Captain America figure here. And some others.
First up, the chest piece has several peg-in spots across the center. This is for various symbol attachments, like Cap’s star or the Bat emblem. How these work is, as you would imagine, there are pre-cut holes in the uniforms for the symbols to attach through. This also means if you ended up with a Cap with an off-center star, this can be corrected. I was able to remove mine with just some heat and evenly applied pressure.
The plastic material itself has changed a little as well. Whereas Dredd and Batman reminded me of the softer ABS plastics of old SOTA Street Fighter toys, these newer figures have a mix of that and harder plastics, particularly in the transition from chest to abdomen. Here is a Dredd body for comparison, which also helps illustrate the size change.
Now the big change is the joint setup. Earlier figures used a traditional peg system, like any Legends or DCUC figure, where the peg is set in through a hole on the outside of the body, though the joint, and out the other side. These new Mezco figures have a riveted captive joint that then pegs into a single piece body part, eliminating the exterior holes.
Why no peg holes? Well, on a cloth-covered figure, this does smooth out some potential articulation lines, but I think the real benefit here is for figures with short sleeves, or bare arms and legs.
Pretty slick, I’d say. Even the ball hips have changed a little- they are more of a ball-socket setup now than the captive disc-and-peg style, fairly common on older ball-hip Legends figures. All this stuff adds up to things I haven’t seen done to this degree outside of the 1:6 market.
I can’t help but wonder if some of these changes may be a factor in the delays we’ve seen in product the last six months. Of course, I have nothing to really base that on, no insider dirt or anything, but it seems possible. What I can tell you is the resulting base bodies are some of the best I’ve ever seen in this scale. The articulation feels smoother but still very sturdy, they have a more cohesive scale, and they even managed to streamline some peg holes.
Any other questions? I’ll do my best to help below. And special thanks to my friend Roufuss on the Fwoosh boards for getting those Trek and Daredevil comparison shots!
