SDCC Sackboy

I am not a videogame person, odd as that may be. I have the pedigree, no doubt, but when it comes to the actual watching or playing of videogames I can't tolerate much more than Tetris, Super Mario Bros, or God of War (at the most extreme). Making things stranger is my near-complete collection of BioShock and Resaurus Street Fighter figures, not to mention the vast plethora of Halo and various game figures from NECA in my collection. While I don't like to play them, I'm certainly not opposed to collecting them, that is, as long as they're cool enough. And this San Diego Comic Con version of Sackboy from Little Big Planet is just that. The figure is a simple, generic Sackboy. He stands 4½" tall and features eight points of articulation, including balljointed shoulders, swivel wrists, swivel waist swivel hips, but angled pegs at the ankle allowing no motion. The sculpt is pretty accurate to all the reference I've seen. He's got a great, subtle pattern on him giving him a cloth look and a big, simple grin on the face of his oversized head. In fact, the head is so big, and connected to the body by a simple (and shallow) ball-and-socket joint, that it's very easy for that huge noggin just to pop right off. On his torso is a big zipper with pull which fits well in the exaggerated, semi-cartoon look of the figure. The paint is really nice too, with a straw-colored basecoat covered in a light wash of black to fill in the crosshatch pattern and draw out all the simple detailing in the sculpt. The stitch-work along his "seams" is painted in white while the eyes, which are separate sculpts glued into place, are a very glossy black. The tongue is a separate piece, painted, pink and cast in a very soft and rubbery plastic. He comes with two-ish accessories. One is a yellow ballcap that rests snugly on his head. The bill is folded up like a '90s bike messenger. There is also a blue and white logo printed on the front of it that is unfamiliar to me and my ignorant ways. One of the nice benefits of the semi-conical shape of Sackboy's head is that the hat will fit on in a number of configurations. The second "accessory" is essentially what makes this guy particularly special. He's wearing a black cloth T-shirt featuring the SDCC logo. The shirt is good, but not great, and the soft goods nature of it seems pretty out of place considering Sackboy's hat and "cloth" body are both sculpted plastic. The stitching is white, a nice touch to mimic Sackboy's, but the SDCC logo has a less-than-stellar iron-on look to it. The shirt has no velcro split nor is easy to remove and thus he gets the quotation marks around the "accessory" for this. The line is based around the alternate costumes from the game and thus the figure is designed for maximum change-age. For instance the eyes and tongue are separate pieces which can be easily swapped in manufacturing with variant molds. Likewise, both the feet and hands are removable - in fact the only way to remove the shirt is by popping off the head and the hands. Theoretically these are swap-able between the various figures so you can customize to your heart's content. Sackboy came in two variations - the same sculpt, packaging and accessories but either tan or blue ("Denim") skintone. Initially Mezco announced this tan version was going to be $5 more than the Denim one, but at the show they both retailed for $20 so I was able to get the one I liked better. This is a fun toy, but he packs little punch for what I paid for him. He's easy to pose but the head is becoming increasingly more difficult to keep on his neck. I am a sucker for anything with the SDCC logo on it, so this was on my list as soon as I saw and am more than happy to add him so my Comic Con display. While I enjoy him, in all honesty you're not missing anything without this figure. -- 09/25/11

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