Like so many people that seem to be collecting Fortnite figures lately, I have never played Fortnite. I’m not an online gamey dude, so games that are strictly online remain outside of my primary interest zone. However, the Fortnite action figures are doing one heck of a job at filling in a much-needed hole in my collecting, which is figures of banana guys and guys with tomatoes for heads and, in the case of Crackshot, a wooden-soldier style nutcracker action figure.
So yeah, I guess I’m collecting Fortnite figures now. All the cool kids are doing it.
Crackshot is a modern action figure with all the modern action figure articulation and style that are omnipresent in some of my favorite lines. From what I’ve heard, some Toybiz people are working on the line, but there are almost none of the pitfalls of older Toybiz action figures. Toys have come a long way, and we’ve moved past giant shoulder balls that jut outside of the body. Thanks the plastic gods for that.
Fortnite figures are being handled by two different companies right now. McFarlane is doing the seven-inch scaled stuff and Jazwares is handling the 6-inch scale. My overall preferences lean towards six inch stuff, so I’m no doubt going to be going with Jazwares for most of my cool figure needs, outside of giant bananas. Knowing next to nothing about the property, it’s going to be a continuous surprise seeing the new weirdass design and immediately needing it.
I love the overall aesthetic of Crackshot. I don’t have anything like it in my collection. He’s very specific in his look, but he feels like he can fit into a wide variety of scenarios. But I’ve never been a “don’t have a place for this on my shelf” person. A cool ty is a cool toy, and can exist in its own specific limbo.
Besides, I quickly bought enough of the other figures that one figure is already a collection, and I just don’t know where my money goes.
Crackshot has all the required articulation: double jointed knees and elbow, great hips and ankles, butterfly joints (that don’t do a lot but give you some wiggle) and a ball joint in the torso that gives you minimal crunch along with a swivel.
The only negative is in the use of the articulated hands that Toybiz figures were known for. While they work in some instances for holding certain things, I’m so used to static hands that grip the accessories tightly that the fiddly nature of trying to get him to hold his gun was annoying. I’ve really enjoyed the multiple hand options instead of one hand that tries to do everything. It’s a minor irritant but it is one nevertheless, and if this line were to migrate toward multiple static hands I wouldn’t be sad about it.
Crackhot comes with a number of accessories. He comes with a slightly cartoon gun in keeping with the aesthetics of the game. It looks good when you get it situated in his hands, but again the hand articulation make it harder that it should.
He comes with a candy cane pickaxe held together with Christmas light, which is just awesome, and is now my current favorite instrument of death-dealing that any toy I have comes with. That’s right, this thing just unseated the lightsaber. The rest of his accessories include a balloon, dynamite and a bird. I love the dynamite—I don’t have a lot of figures that come with dynamite, and it gives me some nice Looney Tunes vibes—and his hands open up wide enough so that he actually holds it very well. He holds the dynamite better than his axe and his gun, actually, which is one benefit to the articulated fingers. The recent resurgence of Pennywise paraphernalia makes red balloons a lot creepier than they should be. I’ve never had so many toys come with balloons.
I don’t know what the bird is supposed to be. If I did research I’d probably find out. It has a peg that corresponds to Crackshot’s back, so I attached the bird to his back, which may or may not be correct. If it’s incorrect I don’t think I want to know. Crackshot seems like the type of dude to wear a bird on his back. I think I’d be much more afraid of a wooden soldier wearing a bird on his back than I would just a regular wooden soldier, but that might say more about me than it does him.
Finally, Crackshot comes with three faceplates that all slide on and off easily. They are happy, neutral and angry. I like the neutral for the neutrality of it—it evokes that classic nutcracker thing he’s got going on—but the happy and angry are both equal shades of creepy. He’s either too happy or too angry. I wouldn’t want a happy giant nutcracker coming after me any more than I would an angry one. Of course, I wouldn’t want a neutral one coming after me either. Mainly because that wooden soldier part of the classic Laurel and Hardy Christmas movie Babes in Toyland is surreal as can be.
So yeah, no wooden soldiers coming after me. Also I keep typing “solider” and have to go back and correct it, so that’s driving me nuts. Which means Crackshot is going to be coming to crack me. And that’s how you bring it all 360 kids.
Crackshot is a Wal-Mart exclusive and is available right now.
