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Mezco made a horrible choice with their booth design at this year's SDCC. Well, horrible for us - it was brilliant for them. They put a display case full of their exclusives right next to the cash register that we all were stuck in line next to for several minutes. They had five or six Extreme Hellboys on display showing off all that can be done with it, and yeah, I had to get two. But I probably shouldn't have.
Extreme Hellboy was a great idea and I was really excited for this figure when Mezco announced it. However, I was a little disappointed with it once I saw pictures mainly because it wasn't "cartoony" enough. Mezco has really been able to find a good look for their roto figures, but Extreme Hellboy just looks fairly normal. I guess I was expecting a more interesting head, bigger hands, bigger feet – basically much more exaggerated proportions. But when I saw what all it came with and all of the various possibilities, my opinion changed yet again and I began considering getting two.
XHb does indeed come with a handful of accessories and interchangeable parts: a closed-mouth head, an open-mouth head, a cigar, a zippered T-shirt, a tank top, a cigar, his trench coat and his gun, the Samaritan. However, despite his 14 points of articulation, the lack of a couple crucial points really does hinder what could potentially be done with this figure.
He's got v-crotch and peg joints just below the knees, so the legs are basically position-less;
the torso has a peg waist and a balljoint at the ribcage, which basically is only good for side-to-side movement; the head is a double balljoint, but only at the end of an unmovable neck; the shoulders are balljointed (and weak) and then the left wrist has a peg joint, as does the Right Hand of Doom, which also has a balljointed fist. Oh, and the tail has one peg joint at the base and another where it turns into soft PVC that conceals approximately two inches of bendable, poseable wire.
So what's the problem, you ask? Well, again, the shoulders are weak and don't remain raised very well, but mostly, it's the lack of elbow articulation that really hinders the posing process. And again, neither head is really a) that cool, or b) as detailed or angular as the rest of the figure. They just look out of place, somehow. The sculpting of the body is really the saving grace of this figure. The detail is pretty incredible, and the bare upper body has a very cool "angular" sort of look to it, particularly in the biceps.
The coat is pretty cool, too. It's still a little too oversized, but the quality is nice. Just as on the other vinyl-coated Hellboys, the buckles on the right arm have to be undone to remove the coat. Also, on this version, there is no holster for the Samaritan, it just fits in a fold in the coat.
[Wouldn't that be a holster? --ed.]
Shut up, wiseguy - the "holster" isn't detailed like a real holster at all, but is instead a simple loop of cloth stitched into the lining of the cloth. Sure, it holds the Samaritan, but it could have been something better, more detailed.
Ultimately, I don't really know what to say about this figure... I suppose I'm glad I have two so I can have one with the coat on and one without, but the tank-top shirt works really well, and I'd like to display a version just wearing that, too. But then, the torso is too well-sculpted to have it hidden on both figures I have. Yet, when I think about the cost of this figure ($35 each!) I am somewhat regretful - $70 for a set of "okay" figures is quite steep, even for exclusives. I guess all-in-all this is a cool figure, but I can see lots of ways to improve it: better/more interesting heads, elbow articulation, a rubber right hand of doom with bendy fingers, more leg articulation, et cetera.
How much would Extreme Hellboy have been worth to you? Tell us on our message board, The Loafing Lounge.
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