Finally managed to get a hold of the poster boy from Blizzard's popular RPG - Starcraft II, Tychus Findlay. Personally I haven't played the game and don't intend to. I remember playing the first one just to watch all the short animations, which was pretty cool (not without some help, of course. I remember the cheat phrase to be... Power Overwhelming?). I don't particularly remember the Terrans, but it is probably because they are the typical armour clad human beings, and not as interesting as the alien races. That said, this Tychus Findlay figure is pretty awesome. You just don't see many 9" sci-fi figures that are done to this level of detail and articulation around, and much less these days...
This figure is from DC Unlimited's Starcraft II line of action figures. In fact, it is from the 2nd Series, partnered with Sarah Kerrigan (the game's poster girl). To be honest, I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't articulated... not a huge fan of "stactions", which are cheaper, plastic statues like his companions in this line of figures. I can see why the manufacturers decided to give this figure some articulation though. The armour design does give them loads of opportunities to hide the joints well enough that it doesn't affect its overall look. Now, item in hand, I'm glad they did it.
The
Terran Sergeant comes with one lone accessory, a blaster / rifle that measures
roughly 5" long. It is huge, and both hands are either sculpted (left
hand) or articulated (right hand) to be able to hold it. Holding the
blaster in either hand isn't going to be an issue, but holding it with
both is. Due to the bulk of the armour, and the somewhat limited
articulation offered in the arms, you don't really get great poses out
of it.
The figure is quite heavy, which is almost always a plus for me. The joints all hold up pretty well, except for the hip ball joints where the legs connect to the groin area. These ball-joints are not as tight as they need to be, and due to the weight of the legs, they tend to fall straight once you hold the figure up. A small issue, but reduces the stability and poseability of the figure quite significantly.
Tonnes of details have went into the armour, and if you compare them with artwork from the game, they are pretty spot on. The visor opens up to reveal Tychus human head, but too bad, it doesn't sport a lighted cigar. There's something cool about smoking a cigar within an astronaut helmet, that reflects the character of the badass Sergeant. Omitting it is an opportunity missed.
DC Unlimited did try to do some whethering with the paint scheme for the action figure. There are some scores, like the mud smeared around the feet. For the rest of the armour, where there are scratches and grease stains, to be honest, I've seen better weathering in mass produced toys. I can imagine that someone down the assembly line is using a silver marker to add some strokes on the painted armour at random... Still, a good attempt.
If you are a Tychus Findlay admirer, this is undeniably the best figure that the market has to offer today... unless of course, Hot Toys or ThreeA suddenly declares that they got the license to produce the game's merchandise. However, I don't think that it is not worthy of being a "grail" level action figure. It is arguably better than Toybiz's Mecha Hulk, but not as cool as Kaiyodo's Monev the Gale. My opinion, grab it if you see it at retail price (30 USD), but don't buy it from a flipper / scalper at inflated prices, unless you are building a nerd shrine for your idol, Tychus Findlay.
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