You ever see a company pick up an entire license because they only wanted to release one single figure?
At the 2016 NHL All-Star Game, the Philadelphia Flyers' marketing department realized they were missing out on opportunities by not having a team mascot, and so set about changing that. Inspired in part by the city's baseball team and their weird mascot, the Phillie Phanatic, they came up with Gritty, the furry orange monstrosity. Gritty was revealed on September 24, 2018, and the reaction was instant and unanimous: everybody haaaaaated him.
But Philadelphia, the city that booed Santa Claus and murdered a friendly hitchhiking robot, can be weirdly protective at times. So when they saw the rest of humanity making fun of Gritty, they embraced him. And somehow, within days, the rest of the world had as well. It took mere hours for Gritty to become unfailingly popular, an unprecedented swing from 100% negative to 100% positive accomplished at a speed no other property has ever achieved. Gitty is a populist icon, and functionally the only NHL mascot any normal person could name. So McFarlane Toys may be doing an entire line of mascot figures, but you know the only reason for it is Gritty. They can put out as many as they want, but Gritty is the only one who matters.
McToys refers to this as "Gritty V2," but it's not like they've released him before, so what was Version 1? Was Gritty himself
redesigned at some point, and the number signifies not the toy, but the mascot? That would certainly explain why this figure seemingly gets a lot of things slightly wrong. Like, he's got the manic eyes, but they're slightly smaller than on the real costume, and the pupils are painted on rather than being 3D like they are on the real suit. His hair isn't wide and mane-like as it should be, which means we can more easily tell that his beard and eyebrows are separate things, rather than seeming to blend together. This is absolutely recognizable as Gritty, but it doesn't appear to be Gritty, if that makes sense. A Funko POP! is meant to be stylized, but a McFarlane toy is meant to be accurate.
The body's no more accurate. He's chubby, but not chubby enough - his waist should be about 25% wider, with a direct line between the lower edge of his shirt and the top of his pants, rather than the pants being in-set as they are here. And on that note, the pantlegs should be shorter, showing off more of the furry orange leg. So again, he's Grittish, but he's not perfectly Gritty. He's got flat shoes, rather than having ice skates underneath - they could have done either, since he does appearances wearing either, but clearly this one makes it easier for the toy to stand up securely.
The NHL Mascot figures are part of McFarlane's SportsPicks line, and so are made like those toys: pre-posed, with zero articulation. The pose isn't anything dynamic, which may be good or bad depending
on what you were hoping for. Gritty is just standing there, with all his weight resting on his left leg, and both hands pointing vaguely off to the right while he looks straight ahead. The detail on the sculpt isn't as good as you expect from SportsPicks, with everything appearing rather soft. You could have chalked that up to it being a mascot costume, except that Gritty's clothes aren't part of the costume, they're actual clothes. That is, the suit is a big, full-body thing that's 100% orange fur (with a lumpy green belly button?), and he just puts oversized tailored clothing on above it. So yes, his skirt and pants should wrinkle like real cloth, not like foam rubber. Plus, neither the hair nor the fur are very good. Consider the Muppets we're seen recently from NECA and Boss Fight Studio, and how good the hair/fur looked on those. Gritty falls short.
The paint is weird, too. His uniform is good, getting the accurate shade of orange for the Flyers team colors, but his fur is way darker than it should be. His hands and shins are darker than his face, for some
reason, while the beard and the rest of the hair are far lighter than they should be. There's also some kind of weird gloss coat applied to the hands, making them permanently shiny in a way that doesn't make sense. In the package, it looks like they're wrapped in plastic, but when you open it you realize they just look like that. The logos, numbers, and name on his jersey are crisp, and his eyes are painted with highlights and reflections.
The set includes a few sheets of stickers bagged under the tray, featuring images of Gritty, and Philadelphia Flyers logos.
The Flyers' directive for their new mascot was that he'd be something you could high five, but not hug. He needed to be friendly enough for kids, but tough enough for hockey. Him becoming an antifa icon wasn't planned, but they certainly haven't shied away from it, either. Gritty is, functionally, the only NHL mascot any normal person would be able to name, so it's not at all surprising he's got merch. But an actual action figure would be better, one that could take part in your other toys' shenanigans instead of just standing idly by and pointing at them. Unless you need a Gritty immediately, maybe wait and see if McToys does a Gritty V3 that fixes all this one's problems.
-- 07/09/26
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