“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” — J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita.
Only Ashley Wood and 3A Toys could pull this off because by all accounts, this figure should have been a dud, and it really took a lot of work to talk myself into buying one when the Bambaland sale happened last November. I kept chickening out because I didn’t expect the figure to be worth the cash. There was nothing really new here, but I was still intrigued. And I have to say I’m glad I finally rolled the dice because I find myself liking this figure a lot.
A couple years ago 3A effectively beat the glow-in-the-dark concept into the dirt. It seemed, at least for a while there, every 3A release offered through Bambaland was also getting a limited “secret drop” glow-in-the-dark variant colorway. You could pretty much count on it, release after release. It became so commonplace that whatever excitement had initially been attached to the concept had effectively vanished because of predictability; everything from Popbots to Caesars to Nablers were getting glowing variants.
Around the same time, the market was flooded with Adventure Kartel 12-inch Zombs. Between Bambaland drops, retail releases, NYCC and SDCC exclusives, and freebies to make up for a few disappointing releases, there were Zombs EVERYWHERE it seemed, and the secondary market was absolutely flooded with them. The Zomb was one of 3A’s more popular releases, but no matter how well received any idea may be, enough eventually becomes, well, enough.
So what happens when you take two of 3A’s most tired and played-out concepts and put them together? Something more awesome than it had any right to be.
Oppenheimer is a glow-in-the-dark Zomb — 3A’s chocolate and peanut butter together, basically. The difference here, and why this works, is the glow effect is actually part of the character, and it’s a feature that actually makes sense in the context of the character. He’s named after J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the fathers of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer’s glow would then based on the effects of radiation, making him a walking dead causality of nuclear fallout. It’s a cool idea, even though it may be a somewhat obvious one for a 3A line. Aside from the glow-in-the-dark vinyl used for the body and a few details on the boiler suit, this is the same 12-inch figure we’ve seen released several times now, but somehow it feels fresh and new here, even though, at the end of the day, this is just 3A-by-numbers.
The box is the standard 12-inch 3A figure packaging featuring a large sketch of the Zomb’s head — nothing too fancy here. It looks cool enough, though, and I like the “Boom” in the word balloon above the Zomb’s head — it comically ties the character to the historical figure with whom he shares his name. Apart from that, there’s nothing special or new here.
What I noticed right away is the dark wash on his head sculpt and hands ends up looking like outlined details. The lines created by the wash make him look like a pencil drawing, sort of like the original NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures. It works well with the glow effect, maintaining detail that may otherwise be obscured when the glow is activated.
The boiler suit is something we’ve seen many times now between all the Zombs and the 10-Finger Gang, but it doesn’t feel old or played-out here. This could be due to the fact that we haven’t seen a boiler suit in a while, but whatever the case, this boiler is doing it for me this time. The deep, blood red color works as a strong backdrop to the character-specific details printed on the suit: the “Oppenheimer” on the breast and the fallout symbol on his back (just to drive the point home that his glow is radiation-based). I was sure those details were going to glow as well since the paint used looks to be a GID color, but unfortunately just the actual figure glows.
The weathering is fairly effective, but it’s not the best we’ve ever seen from 3A. The suit looks lived-in, mostly, but from some angles it just looks dirty. However, it’s better than some of the boilers we’ve seen on many of the later-period Zombs, but it doesn’t have the same authenticity of the original Adventure Kartel Zomb.
Oppenheimer’s boots are the newer boots we first saw with the NOM4 figure. They’re highly realistic and feature real laces that actually need to be tied. The weathering here is more realistic than it is on the boiler suit, which makes for a pair of boots that maintain the craftsmanship that made 3A so unique in the first place.
The glow effect works well and he looks kind of awesome when he’s glowing. It’s a vibrant, clean green glow, one that I wish would show up at least a little in normal light so it could be seen in tandem with the red boiler suit, but it needs to be pretty darn dark for the glow to show up at all. In order to get the glow to show up on camera, the room had to be completely pitch-black dark, which is why there’s no trace of anything else in the pic. That wasn’t an artistic choice — it was the only way I could get the glow to be at all visible in pics.
I can report that his entire body is made of the same glow-in-the-dark vinyl material, so his birthday suit yields the best, and maximum, glow results. They could have easily cheaped-out here and just fashioned him with a glowing head and a glowing set of arms since that’s all that’s visible when he’s got the boiler suit on, but nope — the full monty glows just as brightly as the moon.
He fits nicely when displayed with any other 3A 12-inch figures, and I really do think he’s the nicest Zomb we’ve seen since the original Adventure Kartel Zomb. They look great together and I’m definitely glad I picked him up despite my being pretty burned-out on the 12-inch Zombs. 3A took two fairly tired concepts and gimmicks and made something that turned out to be a fun addition to the collection. I’m very pleasantly surprised.
If you’d like an Oppenheimer for yourself, eBay or the various 3A buy-sell-trade boards are your only bet now since the Bambaland sale happened months ago.I do recommend him, especially if you’ve somehow managed to avoid picking up a Zomb before now.
