Mortal Kombat Klassic figures by McFarlane Toys

They're in stock in Canada in some places for sure. I'm annoyed with myself for even being tempted by them. They really just don't look very good. But they're hitting a lot of nostalgia buttons for me. I love the original two MK games so much and I haven't had legit figures since the G.I. Joe crossover days.
 
Damien said:
They're in stock in Canada in some places for sure. I'm annoyed with myself for even being tempted by them. They really just don't look very good. But they're hitting a lot of nostalgia buttons for me. I love the original two MK games so much and I haven't had legit figures since the G.I. Joe crossover days.
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This is exactly where I am. MK was the only fighting game I owned and played as a kid and I've wanted good figures for it forever. I thought that was Storm Collectibles but they dropped the line and I sold those off. These don't look the best but I'm afraid two years down the line if there is a semi-complete roster I'm going to regret passing on them.

It also doesn't help matters that Todd McFarlane to me is like Brian Flynn to you. I just can't stand him.
 
Justice said:
It also doesn't help matters that Todd McFarlane to me is like Brian Flynn to you. I just can't stand him.
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Same. I met Todd back in the 90s at a convention, and he was, hands-down, the rudest, smuggest asshole I've ever encountered that was a "celebrity". Many people have told me he is nice at conventions now, but anytime I see an interview with him I still get that feeling that he is a smug prick. I own more of his figures than I care to admit, but I still think he's a total dick and hate to support him.

With his MK11 line, I bought quite a few for the same reasons you cite...I just didn't think we had much of a chance of getting these characters in plastic form anytime soon. I did go out of my way to buy about half of them loose from comic shops, so at least I was able to minimize my support of him.
 
Shinigami Customs said:
I don't get why the line is such a letdown when the MK11 figures were quite good.
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That Kitana is still a high bar for McFarlane in general.

J. Scott Campbell was my Kill Your Idols experience as a teen. Dude acted like he was doing me the world's largest favor signing three books at his own signing table during his Gen 13 peak.
 
My Purolator was delayed yesterday, but now I have them.

Eating lunch first, but just doing the paint once over (perfect!), I don't know why there'd be hostility or downers on these.

Yes, there should have been extra hands with everyone. Yes, why no pinless.

Sub-Zero and Scorpion have great sculpts in hand. I say that having them come from SDCC footage being a little skeptical. But in hand, the sculpts are great, and the dry brushing really pushes it over.

Kitana also looks fantastic. Ripped from the arcade cabinet. All of my criticisms would have to do with how she was portrayed on screen. Smooth. Not a lot of detail work. But that's how she looked in 2. It's accurate.

I will play with them once I finish my delicious Jamaican jerk chicken plate, but my first impression is these are good. I cannot say they're great now that Storm and Jada are setting new bars, buuuut let's see if iron will sharpen iron going forward.
 
altcunningham said:
I don't know why there'd be hostility or downers on these.
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I think the issue, for me, is that there's too many things I don't like and they all add up. Pinless would be great, but I'd settle just for 'pins that you can't see from fucking space.' Then there's the proportions, which I just don't like with McFarlane figures (is it just me? Do they have tiny heads?). The integration of the articulation, because it's not part of the actual sculpt, looks bad and creates a bit of a gangly effect on the figures. It's just a lot of small stuff that adds up to what I overall find to be kind of an aesthetically displeasing figure. And it's not like they make up for it with import-level articulation, either.

It's just sort've.... meh.


altcunningham said:
buuuut let's see if iron will sharpen iron going forward.
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I love ya', but come on. If McFarlane was going to improve how his figures are made, he had tens of thousands of action figures to use as examples before he even decided to go back into making articulated action figures. McFarlane's figures were already dated by modern standards when he started up again. He clearly has no interest in learning from the competition. He's barely willing to learn from his own customers. And I say that as someone that -generally- has a lot of praise for the way McFarlane does things.
 
I don't know about tiny heads. I would say Kitana's neck might be too long, though. Gonna play with the peg.

Regarding the improvement, I think he can get there. We get flashes of it in DC, and I like the Elite line so far. The problem is to get those flashes, we see a ridiculous upcharge for execution and accessories, and his pins and stuff still aren't to par.

Maybe it's just the only game in town at the moment.

For me particularly, it will be interesting because I found myself losing interest in a lot of the comic merch because most of my needs have been met. I find myself nostalgic for '90s arcade stuff lately. Storm and Jada doing Capcom. Storm doing SNK. JoyToy with smaller SNK.

Of all the big fighters MK kind of caps out for me around the third game and I feel like I could hit my satisfaction really quickly here. With good capcom and SNK product coming out, am I going to want to focus there? I don't know yet. It's early. But I'm happy to keep reporting on it.
 
To be clear, I also don't think McFarlane necessarily makes BAD figures. Just... worse than what's generally available from other companies within the scope of 'what I currently collect.' I also think McFarlane just makes a lot of bizarre decisions that have kept me away from a lot of his DC stuff (like grip hands for figures that don't have accessories and wouldn't need accessories - just to make the figure look dumber on display, I guess). Night Master being able to hold his sword only with his left hand, and the sword being hideous (as most of McFarlane's retail-figure swords are) made me so angry as that's a character I was begging for during the entire DCUC run.

So I definitely have some anti-McF biases.
 
The head sizes on the ninjas look okay to me. Maybe the eyes are a little high? Usually McFarlane sculpts go off the rails for me at the waist as he puts these incredibly long legs on a lot of the DC figures. The worst ones look like two different figures in one. Just looking at Sub-Zero, the legs look fine, but the shoulders are really low. Worse than Legends low.
 
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