Seems like just the other day I was reviewing Club Black Freighter’s Comedian figure… well, it was just the other day. Comedian kinda sorta fell by the wayside when it came to review time. And the truth is that Ozymandias could well have joined him in late review limbo, but l’ve been at work for 10-12 hours a day the last three days and well, I could use a short review. Thankfully (I guess?) Mattel is often great at making figures that don’t leave you with much to write home about.
That’s not to say Ozymandias is a bad figure. Like the best of the Watchmen figures, he has some serious flaws, mostly brought about by bad engineering, but the base of the figure is strong and the sharp sculpting goes a long way to aid the figure overall. I have no idea what I’m about to say, but I should say at the outset that I do enjoy having the figure.
Fun Fact: Ozymandias is my favorite character whose name I steadfastly mispronounce!
Ozzy kinda matches up with Rorschach to bookend the line. Both of the figures look gorgeous standing on your shelf. Rorschach mainly got by on the little costume details; Ozy does too. The collar, belt, gauntlets, and boots are all news pieces with simple line work, but they really make the figure pop visually. The drapery is good on the tunic. And the head sculpt itself, particularly on my preferred unmasked head, is one of the better DC 4H head sculpts in recent memory (It’s kinda the face I wish they would’ve used for Superman).
The colors, particularly because Mattel wisely opted for the gold over yellow, looks striking. That may make for some more paint issues down the road, but this figure won’t be seeing a ton of heavy play that could cause it to get scratched up. The purple areas are molded and contrast great with the satin sheen. The head is molded in the blonde plastic for the hair with a painted skin tone, but features sharp work. In all, I think he just looks great!
But there is one little hiccup, just like Rorschach, that kinda skews the whole deal. Matte, this is supposed to be an action figure. Emphasis on action. For toys that generally implies movement, posing, or that dirty word: articulation. Continue to Page 2…
Excellent review and pics. Every one of these Watchmen figure reviews has made me glad I didn’t sign up for them or try to get them day-of-sale. These (and other products, like the BBC’s Mongrels Series 2 DVD) seem to show a distressing trend in modern merchandising: the “Now buy this, shut up, and leave us alone” release, where the manufacturer puts out a disappointing, minimum-effort, yet eagerly-anticipated product in the hopes that the customers will give up on any future releases.
Thanks, Beedo!
I think minimum effort does describe these well. They look great on a shelf, minus one blue head, but those aesthetics and a lack if more careful engineering sully the figs somewhat.
you truly baffle me homes… you’ve had issues to varying degrees with every single one of these figs, and you’d sign up again for more? i don’t know what to say to that.
“Thank you, Master. May I have another?”
Because the pile of issues collectively aren’t enough to dissuade the fact it’s still cool to have these six in figure form. I think I wrote that in there, but it was late.
no, you wrote that, my sentiment was that i don’t understand that sentiment, that’s what i was saying. for me, if it’s a character i like, i want a great toy. i try to pass when i know the figure’s inferior. so like w/ watchmen, i passed on these, they just didn’t look great, but i also passed on the movie figs that dc direct did cuz they looked nice but weren’t really articulated. for me, IF i were going to invest in watchmen figures (more on that in a second), i want a great set that move well but also look good or i guess more importantly, accurate.
that said, i think there’s an element of watchmen fandom that requires we not buy the merch. if you love the story, and if you respect alan moore, i think that truthfully watchmen toys, watchmen t shirts, etc… should be the very last thing we buy… but then, i guess one could make the case that we ought not to buy the comic either, and there would certainly be a nugget of truth to that. but yeah, i have to draw the line at merch, personally. it would be like buying commemorative vials of thomas and martha wayne ash… that’d be beyond tacky, no? even if they’re not real people, it’d be kind of disrespectful to the whole property, wouldn’t it? the only watchmen figure that could be properly justified in purchase would be adrian.
“Nothing ever ends”.
This was the first Watchman I could have bought day of sale, but damn if that tunic didn’t turn me off him. Surely there’s a short sleeve bicep piece they could have used for saving articulation in the arm? and could DeSaad’s tunic top be re-used for Ozy, or was his robe one piece?
Sure, the heads look great, but that’s not enough for me to buy a figure that’s basically covered in a robe for twice the price of retail.
and that group shot DID happen in the book, in the Watchmen group meeting where Blake burns the map. Granted, we don’t have Capt. Metropolis (or Janie Slater), but his inclusion in the movie in that scene was left out, unfortunately.
Also, I just watched the D.Cut *WITH* the Black Freighter and Bernie/Bernard scenes added this weekend. The cartoon bits were okay, but the B&B scenes had me wishing for the cabbie and her gf, too.
You gotta watch your details. Only two of the figures appear as they did in the map burning scene! Ozy gets there by virtue of his second, masked head and SS is the only one who doesn’t undergo any physical transformation in the story.
Rorschach & Nite-Owl are from the modern setting of the story, appearing tubby & dissheveled, Doctor Manhattan can not appear as his modern look for obvious reasons, but it’s the Comedian that mucks it up no matter what era you pick – he really needed alternate heads.
now it needs only his pet lynx ‘Bubastis’ – that would make a great display piece and round up the collection. ah well…