{"id":16529,"date":"2012-01-31T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=16529"},"modified":"2012-08-18T03:05:36","modified_gmt":"2012-08-18T08:05:36","slug":"ghostbusters-vigo-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=16529","title":{"rendered":"Ghostbusters:
Vigo Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Review-A-Palooza chugs on with a short review on a much-anticipated addition to Mattel\u2019s Ghostbusters line, Vigo! I\u2019ve put this off review because I wasn\u2019t sure what tone to take with it. Do I get hung up on its limitations? Focus on what I like? Ideally, this review falls somewhere in between.<\/p>\n

Mattel\u2019s Ghostbusters sometimes feel like a noose around my neck. It\u2019s a property that I\u2019ve loved since I was a wee tot. I love both the movies, the cartoon, the old toys, t-shirts, stickers, buttons, there\u2019s even a \u201cvintage\u201d Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man notepad (granted, I never use it) is my desk drawer just beneath this keyboard. I love Ghostbusters. And, so, Ghostbusters figures should be a foregone conclusion. <\/p>\n

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They were at first, and then I escaped until Stay-Puft drew me back in. I got caught up again late last year, but the last figure I snagged was Louis\/Vinz and, let me tell ya, that figure will leave a bad taste in your mouth. Combine that Vigo not being quite up to my expectations and the cancellation of the Club Ecto-1 Subscription and a good dose of dissatisfaction has re-entered my feelings on this line. In fact, I almost didn\u2019t order RTBY Peter after I saw the shipping. I finally caved and spent $30 for him and the upper half of the Taxi Cab Ghost (review coming soon), but I\u2019m still not convinced I’ll be buying Dana, but that\u2019s a discussion for a later date. <\/p>\n

See, I\u2019m a couple paragraphs in and still I\u2019m not talking about Vigo. Everything I just said is stuff I\u2019m thinking about when I look at him. There are some specific criticisms which I\u2019ll get to, but I can\u2019t help but feel this figure has issues with the line hanging on it like an albatross. There are collectors happy with it \u2013 are they crazy? There are collectors dismissive of it \u2013 are they crazy? I don\u2019t know, but I do know I\u2019m somewhere in between (and surely crazy). <\/p>\n

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Vigo is a wholly new sculpt \u2013 which hasn\u2019t been a good thing for the line since the Horsemen were moved to \u2018greener\u2019 pastures. For the most part the line is reuses a lot of the 4H-sculpted pieces, which I do think has helped the line. The first foray into using in-house sculptors resulted in Vinz Clortho and that is a fairly bad figure. The likeness is mild and the torso is just crappy. Granted, when I compare Vigo to one of the better Ghostbuster figures like Egon or Winston, he doesn\u2019t measure up as nicely \u2013 but compared to Vinz? Mattel\u2019s learning curve is pretty steep. <\/p>\n

For the body of the figure, I\u2019m happy with the sculpt. The hands are a little soft, but there\u2019s some great layering with the softer plastics and the armor, laces, rivets, and general texturing are good throughout. It does feel like there should be some more texturing on the torso – or maybe it should just be beefed up a little, but I think the figure looks fine as a whole. I really love the height he has over the other figures. In terms of sculpt, I think the main complaint for is going to be the head. <\/p>\n

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First a confession, I don\u2019t really care about the head sculpt. I know that it doesn\u2019t look like Vigo from the painting. I also know that it doesn\u2019t look like Wilhelm von Homburg. But the thing is, the painting from the movie doesn\u2019t look like Wilhelm von Homburg either. It looks like the sculptor worked off the painting and made some guesses about von Homburg face that just weren\u2019t right in three dimensions. I can lament that the sculptor didn\u2019t call me up and ask to borrow Diggstown<\/em> or In the Mouth of Madness<\/em> from me to get a more realistic depiction of Homburg, but I\u2019m not really going to. It\u2019s a clean sculpt and the figure is undeniably Vigo.<\/p>\n

I’m mostly good with the piece except, if you remember the movie, Venkman made more than a couple comments about Vigo\u2019s hair? You know, blonde jokes? I can forgive a sculptor for not quite being able to hit a likeness, but since when did Vigo have gray hair? Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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But there is something I do find even more unforgivable than a wrong hair color and that\u2019s the articulation. There\u2019s a lot of good articulation: ball-joints at the neck (limited) and shoulders, swivels at the boots, waist and wrists, hinges at the elbows, knees, and ankles, the Mattel hips (limited), and rocker ankles. Two things would\u2019ve made this figure loads better. The minor one is thigh cuts because they would open up his stance – particularly when they\u2019re partially blocked by his armor. The one that really bugs me though \u2013 the elbows. This figure needed<\/em> either ball elbows or swivel biceps. Vigo doesn\u2019t need to move much, truthfully the leg articulation is probably fine as is, but he does need to be able to do a few things for me to be happy and one of them is to be able to be in his iconic pose<\/em>. <\/p>\n

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I know I just said that I can overlook that the figure itself doesn\u2019t quite match the actor or the oil painting, but this one just bothers me \u2013 because it\u2019s stupid. The sculptor did a decent job on the head and just didn\u2019t find the telling details to make it Homburg. But the engineer behind this articulation blew it by cost-cutting the elbows down to hinges. This figure couldn\u2019t hold a baby if his life depended on it. Dumb. <\/p>\n

Since Vigo is an all-new sculpt, he ate up the ghost pack-in budget pretty much entirely. For accessories, the gang at Mattel came up with a decent idea \u2013 a lenticular \u201cposter\u201d that features all three versions of his painting. The lenticular side can be moved so that Vigo appears to disappear (and it does work better than in these pics, I just couldn\u2019t quite catch it with the camera) while the backside features the Ghostbusters portrait from the end of the film. It\u2019s a nice pack-in, but I wish Mattel had the foresight\/budget to include his base. Where\u2019s the mountain of skulls? The little wall of the castle of pain? I think it\u2019d be awesome to have that as a base here, but, again, he couldn\u2019t pose on it properly. Still, I like the little painting and I need to go about getting a little frame for it (I don\u2019t care about the GB-side). I\u2019m sure the folks in the GB community, ever vigilante and creative, have already figured out the perfect frame for it. <\/p>\n

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Overall, I know I\u2019m going to take some flak for liking this figure. I\u2019ve heard a lot of bad things about it, but I really do think that\u2019s more about things endemic to the line than this figure itself. The sculpt is likable despite being a little off-model (and might look better as a blonde, I\u2019m tempted to do a little paint work), the other paintwork is solid, and the articulation is really just a few aggravating points from being… how does Mattel put it, \u201cextremely posable\u201d? <\/p>\n

I do want this line to be better though. I want it to get very far away from Vinz Clortho and, for the most part, it looks like Mattel is moving that direction even as the line seems to be on life support. They still got me to pick up RTBY Peter, so I\u2019m in for another few months, but Dana is going to be another 100% in-house sculpt and if she\u2019s not as good as Vigo or better? Well, Mattel cancelling Club Ecto-1 just might work in my favor…<\/p>\n

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Check out our Ghostbusters Classics Collector’s Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review-A-Palooza chugs on with a short review on a much-anticipated addition to Mattel\u2019s Ghostbusters line, Vigo! I\u2019ve put this off review because I wasn\u2019t sure what tone to take with it. Do I get hung up on its limitations? Focus on what I like? Ideally, this review falls somewhere in between.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[11,34,10],"tags":[2561,1348,20,686],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-4iB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17322,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=17322","url_meta":{"origin":16529,"position":0},"title":"Mattel Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Review","date":"March 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As I\u2019ve mentioned before, I\u2019ve got quite the review backlog going and some of the figures have been waiting for awhile. Rather than get further behind by trying to still fit them into the regular schedule, I\u2019m going to do some occasional weekend reviews. I\u2019m starting with Mattel\u2019s Stay-Puft Marshmallow\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ghostbusters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":199,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=199","url_meta":{"origin":16529,"position":1},"title":"ItsAllTrue Review: Ghostbusters Minimates","date":"July 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Ghostbusters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9300,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=9300","url_meta":{"origin":16529,"position":2},"title":"Most Requested Figures: Ghostbusters II Vigo","date":"September 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"With our Round 2 finalists chosen, it's time to kick off Round 3. Who will lead off our final dozen? I'll give you a hint: He was poisoned, stabbed, shot, hung, stretched, disembowled, drawn and quartered. His last words were \"Death is but a door. Time is but a window.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31949,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=31949","url_meta":{"origin":16529,"position":3},"title":"NYCC 2015 Armchair Coverage: First Look at DST Ghostbusters Playset","date":"October 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Ghostbusters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12787,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12787","url_meta":{"origin":16529,"position":4},"title":"Checklist Updates: MOTU Classics, Ghostbusters, & Captain America","date":"June 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A good checklist is almost always a work in progress and while we were away the last couple weeks we missed a fair share of updates. As IAT returns to its normal schedule, I need to spend some time getting our various checklists in order. I've started with MOTU Classics,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=88","url_meta":{"origin":16529,"position":5},"title":"Egon Spengler Packaging Revealed!","date":"July 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Ghostbusters"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16529"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16529"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20364,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16529\/revisions\/20364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}