Griff Tannen

Welcome to the thrilling, far-flung future of "now seven years ago." "[Griff] turned and looked at Marty, with a gaze that held no kindness, no humor, no mercy - only contempt that something as low as a McFly should sully the face of the Earth." That's not the text from the back of the box: every NECA Back to the Future release has had the same standard block of info on there, and we're utterly bored of it. You can look at any of the other four reviews to see it, if you feel the need. Griff Tannen is the grandson of Biff Tannen, and while it seems he's going to be the movie's antagonist, like his grandfather was, and his great-great-great-grandfather would be, he's taken care of by the end of the first act and then has no bearing on the film ever again. But he makes for a flashier toy than Golf Pants Biff, so he gets to be made first. Eugenia Grifwald Tannen gets the honor of having his face sculpted by Trevor Grove, who already had experience making Thomas F. Wilson portraits thanks to the existence of 1955 Biff. Griff is way more unhinged than his grandpa, so his standard head shows him with a wild grimace. You can almost hear him bellowing "batter up!" He's wearing his silver Bart Simpson helmet, which is impressive: Griff doesn't seem like the type who would worry about skateboard safety. He also includes a second head, with a mocking smile, but this one just has his hair, not his helmet; since Griff was never seen without the helmet in the movie, we can only assume this is meant as a bonus Biff head for anyone who has that figure. (Except Biff's hair would be cut shorter on the sides.) Griff wears a perfectly normal outfit: a gold lamé tiger-striped jacket over a black mesh shirt, textured dance pants, boots with metal spikes on the toe, and a single hockey glove. So yeah, exactly the type of thing we were all wearing in 2015. He has a silver kneepad on his left leg, a nuclear symbol on his crotch, and the buckle for his belt is a tiny chainsaw. On his left hand, he wears a mesh glove (to match his shirt) and some kind of weird bracelet thing, with a band by the wrist, another by the elbow, and golden wires connecting them. Fashionable! Whatever was going wrong with all the previous BttF toys' paint has finally been gotten under control, here - four Marties, two Docs, one Biff... and yet Griff is the first figure who doesn't look like he was standing in front of Homer's make-up gun when it went off. Painting the mesh parts of the costume like gold sequins is a good way of showing that it's black fabric with his pink skin showing through. Griff's articulation is up to par. He moves at the ankles, knees, thighs, hips, waist, chest, wrists, top and bottom of the elbows, shoulders, neck, and head. The ankles are balljoints, but sturdy enough to support the figure even with him being a massive chunk of plastic - nearly 7¾" tall, towering over the other figures in the line. The weird bracelet thing is a separate piece slipped onto the arm, so it will turn freely and you won't have to worry about it breaking if you should flex something too far. With no rubber shirt covering the entire torso, his waist and chest balljoints are easier to move than the previous figures' have been, and this release sees a return to double elbows (after 2015 Doc Brown's singles). Of course, he needs all that movement to properly use his accessories. Naturally, he includes his Pit Bull hoverboard, a more powerful device than the toy Marty rode. It's got jets in the back, spikes all around, and really looks more like a chainsaw than a skateboard. There are three straps in the back where his gang could hook in to be towed. Like Marty's board, the footpad is removable, but this one doesn't come with a replacement: it only has the version with a peg to support the figure. Nor does it come with an alternate accelleration booster without the socket for the clear hover stand. The reason he needs as much articulation in the arms as possible is his bat. A "Slugger 2000" endorsed by one Kirk Gibson Jr. (not "Ken Griffey III," as the rumors claim), the red bat is an adjustable model. Does that only refer to the way it can telescope, or is it like the weapon Punisher 2099 carried, which could vary its density from rubber to titanium? Sadly, this is a solid piece; it doesn't actually collapse or expand. But with the full elbows, he can really get into a good batting stance. Sadly, our prediction that Griff would have a USA Today-themed cover on his packaging was wrong: all we get is a Pit Bull logo on black, though it's not the actual logo used in the film (it's too symmetrical for that). The odds of Griff's gang ever being made are functionally zero, so unless NECA makes a 2015 Biff, this is as far as the Tannen gang will go in the future era. Griff may have been in the film for less than 10 minutes, but he's got a great figure now. -- 07/10/22

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