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For the first Hellboy movie, director Guillermo del Toro stuck with Mike Mignola's comic stories, pretty much giving us a film version of Seed of Destruction. For the sequel, however, Mignola and del Toro worked together to create a new story, focusing on ancient mythology more than Nazi mysticism. That meant cool new monsters, like the villainous Mr. Wink.
This giant cave troll is Prince Nuada's right-hand man - literally!
Though not very bright, he follows orders well, crushing the elf-prince's enemies with his brute strength and giant metal hand. He's large and immensely strong, and may be more than a match for Hellboy.
Mezco returned to bring us the Hellboy 2 figures, which means the new line will integrate perfectly with your original movie collection. They're still in the 7" scale, and the sculptural detailing is just as good. Wink is huge, so the figure stands 9½" tall, but it's still packaged like the rest of the figures, and still has the same $15 price point. He's got a balljointed head, balljointed shoulders,
pin elbows, balljointed wrists, balljointed chest, balljointed hips, swivel thighs, hinged knees and hinged ankles. That's a lot of toy for not much price!
Mr. Wink was a del Toro creation, like most of the exotic creatures seen in the film. He seems to have been conceived as sort of an "anti-Hellboy," what with the brutish size, crushing strength and, of course, the big crazy right hand. It never comes up in the movie,
but it's almost like he was chosen to fill a specific slot that Hellboy had abandoned.
Wink's gray skin is covered in deep cracks, which reveal a lighter shade beneath the surface. His leather wraps are brown and black, and the metal plates look tarnished. The wood armor he wears on the outside of his shins is detailed to look like individual planks tied in place. They even got all the thick little hairs that sprout from Wink's back: the upper part of the figure is soft rubber, with rows of hairs laid underneath and fed through to duplicate the effect seen in the film. It's kind of gross, but that's as it should be.
The head on the figure doesn't look exactly like the movie version, but there's a reason for that:
the character design changed after Mezco had already started on the toy, and there wasn't time to update it. However, unlike some companies, who would just say "screw it, you'll take our version and like it," Mezco is offering a free replacement head that matches the final design. The two aren't drastically different - it's mostly the placement of the nose, the width of the eyes and the sideburns (or lack thereof) - but it's still nice that Mezco is doing this for its fans. Heck, buy two Winks, and pretend the original head is just another member of the same species.
Mr. Wink's right hand is detailed very nicely,
with a texture that makes it look like metal rather than plastic. The hinges in his finges are just sculpted, not functional, but they look real. The figure even has the big spike on the elbow! The normal hand is open wide, but the figure also includes a closed fist - on the end of a chain. Pop the hand off at the wrist, and you can replace it with the "launched" fistball. The chain is 8" long, so you can get quite a range with it. It can be tough to pull the balljoint back out of the wrist, but not impossible; this isn't like NECA's parasite-headed monk or some of SOTA's Street Fighters, where the wrong part would come off. The links of the chain seem t be metal painted with a flat grey so they look aged.
The figure's only other accessory
is the iron box he was carrying at the start of the film. It has a human-sized handle and, since that would be way too small for Mr. Wink to use, a big leather strap. Sadly, he's not quite poseable enough to carry the box slung over his shoulder, but you can get close. The box is slightly soft, but holds nice detail. It would have been awesome if it opened to reveal a tooth fairy, but as it is, it's still a nice extra. Honestly, the hand would have been enough.
In this age of cheap and seamless CGI, it will probably surprise you to learn that Mr. Wink wasn't computer-generated at all: he was achieved pratically, by a guy wearing a complex, 120-pound costume. The puppetry for the metal hand was even so fine-tuned
that it could launch off the arm and walk back to Wink live on the set - when you see that in the movie, the actors all saw the same thing when they were shooting the scene. How cool is that!
Mr. Wink is an outstanding figure, and a reminder of why we all loved the original Hellboy toys so very much. But the best thing about him is that you don't have to bend over backwards to buy one. Mezco managed to get beyond the specialty shops this time around, so you can buy Hellboy II: The Golden Army action figures in Toys Я Us right alongside the Hasbro and Mattel stuff. Of course, some sacrifices had to be made (such as the name "Hellboy" only appearing in the tiny legal print - the logo is just "HBII" and the main character is identified as "Red"), but if that means more sales, then hey, more power to them! Putting these where casual fans can see them can only mean increased sales for Mezco. It was great being able to stop at TЯU and buy Mr. Wink right before going over to the mall to watch Hellboy 2. The figure is really good, and really huge, and therefore really worth your money.
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