Spinmaster Shapes Collection PlayStation Figures

TheSameIdiot

TheSameIdiot

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I've talked a bit about this elsewhere, but this is one of those lines for me that feels a bit like a video game movie; created entirely by opportunists that don't like the thing they're doing. There's some really good stuff here. But I also feel like if these were being made by people that legitimately love action figures, they would have turned out better. Is that.. too mean, maybe?

My son and I have Jin, Kratos, Joel and Ellie. They're fine. They're not aggressively bad. But they're not great, either. The frustrating part is how close they are to being really good. In that way, they remind me of when Funko did their Legacy collection. So close, but there's just stupid shit here that didn't need to happen. Jin not having removable swords is, honestly, fucking ludicrous. As is Kratos, Joel, and Jin being basically the same height. Ellie's torso articulation is hideous for no good reason at all. The plastic on Jin, in particular, looks too shiny and cheap.

Like.. these aren't egregious things. Maybe that's why it hits so hard. They could have just done a LITTLE bit better and ended up with a FAR better product. I'm hoping they learn from this and the next figures are even better. But they've also been deathly silent since these figures were released, so who knows if the plan is even to do more at this point. The current economy probably isn't helping make that likely.
 
I think this is Spin Master's first 1/12 line. I'm impressed with what they've done so far, but can definitely see the negatives too.
 
ManOfTheLamb said:
I think this is Spin Master's first 1/12 line. I'm impressed with what they've done so far, but can definitely see the negatives too.
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Yeah, it's their first line. But I mean.. I just don't think that gives it a pass, you know? It's their first 1:12 line. It's not THE first 1:12 line ever made. They have the benefit of hundreds of thousands of action figures to look at. Indeed, literally any action figure collector in the 1:12 space could have taken the factory samples and rattled off a quick list of what was wrong with them. That's what bothers me - the Super7-style 'good enough' attitude that seems to be in place here.

Either they didn't care that the figures could be done better - which sucks. OR they didn't see the problems - in which case my point stands that it's like figures made by people that technically understand what we want, but don't actually like action figures enough to critique them on their own and fix problems before we see them.

I've said this a bunch of times about a BUNCH of lines; You shouldn't NEED the customers to tell you what the problems are across the first few waves of a toyline. You should understand and like the style of product enough to identify those issues yourself before you even release the toys to the public. It's not that complicated.
 
Oh, I'm not saying give them a pass. But up until now, I don't know if they've done any collector friendly stuff. They for sure should've done better, and I think and hope they will with time. I guess I just hope the line continues, and continues to get better and better. But I agree, they should've already done better than what they have.
 
ManOfTheLamb said:
Oh, I'm not saying give them a pass. But up until now, I don't know if they've done any collector friendly stuff. They for sure should've done better, and I think and hope they will with time. I guess I just hope the line continues, and continues to get better and better. But I agree, they should've already done better than what they have.
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No, you're definitely right that they haven't done anything like this before. Their big claim to fame has been kids' garbage. And I mean that literally -- stuff even actual children don't seem to want because it sucks. But it's so cheap to make that it gets cranked out by the hundreds of thousands of units and sold next to WAY better figures for a super cheap price to try to entice parents away from spending money on something worth having for their kids.
I'm willing to give them the pass of 'haven't done this before,' actually. I just don't think most of the problems these figures have can actually be written off as 'first time jitters.' Weirdly, the stuff I'd expect first timers to fuck up is actually fine on these figures. It's the stuff you'd expect anyone could see that didn't get fixed, and that's what makes it so weird and disappointing.
 
They’ve got the same issues most American action figure lines have. Comparing them to Super 7 is really not fair.
 
ASM said:
They’ve got the same issues most American action figure lines have. Comparing them to Super 7 is really not fair.
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Could you elaborate? Because my assertion is that, like Super7, the final product seems to be a compromise between the vision they have of what collectors want, and a disinterest in going back to fix things that obviously don't work or look as good as they could. That's what I have been, for years, calling the S7 'Good Enough' attitude. Because it's literally the entire way S7 operates.
 
Isn’t that most action figure lines? Marvel Legends do that, black series, macfarlane compromise for the sake of the price point. They also have Shiny plastic, missing accessories, odd looking articulation. That stuff is everywhere. I will concede that Jin not having all his swords is ridiculous, but it’s not out of the norm for figures at this price point to be missing things the character should have.

I guess I just don’t understand the comparison to super 7 specifically. I have the entire PlayStation line, and in my opinion they are much better than super7s qc riddled releases that I wish I didn’t have.
 
I've given them enough of a pass, if only because, like previously mentioned, 1:12 figures aren't their thing, and for a company to branch out a bit and try something a bit outside their wheelhouse always has an adjustment period. I know articulated figures isn't a totally foreign concept to them (like when Funko had their Legacy line), but I would imagine that the difference between 3 3/4 inch, lightly detailed figures aimed at kids are a different ballgame than more collector-focused, detailed figures.

As collectors, of course we all want the most detailed, articulated, accessory-ridden figures imaginable, but that's not always feasible, especially at an affordable price. Especially if SpinMaster knew that this was a line that wouldn't be carried in big box stores, they had to keep costs down somehow. Now, personally, I'm someone who would sacrifice a little articulation if it meant getting important accessories, but not everyone feels the same. Some folks are content with less accessories if it means more posability, since you can always sub in extra accessories from other figures. No matter what they do, there's always some sect of collectors that'll chew them out for it, but if nothing else, they get brownie points from me for making archer characters that can actually hold their bow and arrow, which, for some reason, seems to be a difficult task in this day and age.

Are these first figures perfect? Not at all- far from it. But all things considered, they're quite a valiant effort for the first foray into a new scale and style. The real question and test will be what, if anything, SpinMaster learns from the shortcomings of this first wave, and how they adjust accordingly. I know it's been radio silence since that first wave, but I do hope that the line continues.
 
ASM said:
Isn’t that most action figure lines? Marvel Legends do that, black series, macfarlane compromise for the sake of the price point. They also have Shiny plastic, missing accessories, odd looking articulation. That stuff is everywhere. I will concede that Jin not having all his swords is ridiculous, but it’s not out of the norm for figures at this price point to be missing things the character should have.

I guess I just don’t understand the comparison to super 7 specifically. I have the entire PlayStation line, and in my opinion they are much better than super7s qc riddled releases that I wish I didn’t have.
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I'd argue no, it's not most action figure lines. Take odd articulation as an example; that only seems to occur in lines that are testing out new methods of articulating figures, or from companies that just suck at it and don't care. I'll give a pass, for example, to early TB Marvel Legends for odd articulation. They were innovating. McFarlane has weird-looking articulation points because Todd is basically on-record as hating articulation and he CLEARLY doesn't really understand or like it beyond 'I know this is what the customers want to see.'
What I'll give Todd is that he is, at least, consistent and has a set and established articulation method for his figures, I guess.

But while SpinMaster may be new to this part of the action figure world, they're not innovating. They're not trying anything different. This is bog-standard ML-style articulation that's been pretty open-and-shut for the last 8 years? More? That still begs the question; Didn't anyone LOOK at the figure before they produced it?

Also, I wouldn't go so far as to say characters not having what they should at this price point is 'not out of the norm.' If Wolverine only came with 4 claws because 6 claws is too expensive that would be insane, right? I can't think of very many modern action figures that didn't have their core accessory/accessories at basically any price point beyond dollar store figures. Sure, there's often going to be issues where we'd LIKE for a figure to have this or that. But absolute core, identity-tied accessories? Every NECA Leonardo has come with BOTH swords. Not just one. You know what I mean?

Does it require someone with decades of 1:12 figure experience to make sure Kratos isn't the same size as Jin? These figures don't scale well with each other or anything else, so it's not like they were tied to either direction (Kratos bigger or just Jin smaller). It's just bad oversight and not REALLY caring how the final product turns out beyond a certain point. And that's why I compare them specifically to Super7, because that's how I view Super7's entire Ultimates line-up. It's always an idea that gets a little bit half-assed, doesn't innovate anything, and then releases figures that are 80% of the way there because actually getting to that 100% would have required a tiny bit of extra effort and they didn't want to bother.

I think what I mean to say is these are specific things that are fairly easy to fix or notice, rather than problems inherent in the style of figure or branding or whatever, you know? Like, we know what to expect from a Legends figure. It wouldn't be a fair criticism to say that Magneto would have been better if they'd just done a wired fabric cape. They don't do that. But if Magneto turned out 2 inches too tall and used Iron Man's body (har har, right?), then that would be an issue of just not really caring to fix an obvious problem.

To be clear, this isn't me saying that the SpinMaster figures are terrible. Just that they need to avoid the S7 philosophy of getting a figure most of the way there and then not caring anymore. (Sorry this post was so long.. I swear I kept trying to edit it down without butchering my point.)

joshsquash729 said:
Are these first figures perfect? Not at all- far from it. But all things considered, they're quite a valiant effort for the first foray into a new scale and style. The real question and test will be what, if anything, SpinMaster learns from the shortcomings of this first wave, and how they adjust accordingly. I know it's been radio silence since that first wave, but I do hope that the line continues.
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Yeah, they're not the worst figures by a long shot. But the problems they do have were EASY to see, and EASY to fix. So why didn't they? That's kind of my ultimate point, I guess.
 
Damien said:
Does it require someone with decades of 1:12 figure experience to make sure Kratos isn't the same size as Jin? These figures don't scale well with each other or anything else, so it's not like they were tied to either direction (Kratos bigger or just Jin smaller).
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The articulation is rough, but I hold some hope that they'll improve with future releases. I don't think they'll fix the scale. They apparently look at these figures as one-off pieces even though they're all under the same umbrella.

The way Aloy turned out, I thought I'd be in the market for all of these. Instead, I'm only interested in characters we've never gotten before, like Ratchet, Clank, and Sly Cooper. I'm not sure they'll ever see the light of day. Making Deacon from Days Gone before Ratchet & Clank is bewildering.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
The articulation is rough, but I hold some hope that they'll improve with future releases. I don't think they'll fix the scale. They apparently look at these figures as one-off pieces even though they're all under the same umbrella.

The way Aloy turned out, I thought I'd be in the market for all of these. Instead, I'm only interested in characters we've never gotten before, like Ratchet, Clank, and Sly Cooper. I'm not sure they'll ever see the light of day. Making Deacon from Days Gone before Ratchet & Clank is bewildering.
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I'll agree that the safest bet would probably have been to mix what's popular nowadays with some classic lines- Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, etc. Heck, I'd even have taken a Sir Daniel Fortesque from Medieval. Or at the very least, alternate waves of current and classic. But I guess they're banking more on current popularity vs. nostalgia, and I can't say it's necessarily the wrong choice, per se.

Again, I hope the silence we've gotten is them taking in some criticism as they plan the next wave. I'm one of those folks who would rather have an imperfect figure of something I love than no figure at all, but I totally get the folks who are the opposite.
 
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