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This isn't actually Gal Gadot.
What? Really? You were pretty sure about that to begin with?
The Mezco One:12 line is a relatively new toy line, popping up in recent years as a response to the various 1/6 figure companies becoming more and more expensive. Most of them retail for $80 USD, though of course there are probably come con exception.
Now, through the years I've read reviews of various figures, but never bought any due to the fact none of the characters were particularly appealing to me, and I had missed the Armoured Batman from the BvS movie.
I had ALMOST actually bought Wonder Woman here over Christmas during the Boxing Week sale at the Silver Snail, but held out, thinking that my $100 + tax would be better used towards what I thought was going my inaugural analysis, Hela, which still hasn't materialized yet.
Mezco, as far as I'm aware, is an American company. I don't typically purchase American toys, with the exception of Transformers, so I had no idea what to expect, though I know enough that in general that my expectations should be tempered as compared to Figma, Figuarts, or even the Storm Collectibles stuff.
At any rate, enough preamble - lets get on with the show. As this is my first One:12 product, I'm going to be whining about everything.
So the exterior box is shipped protected by various plastic tags and sheets to protect against scratching. The actual packaging itself was fairly functional, consisting of an inner windowed box with a slip cover. Graphics are clean and bright, though somewhat simplistic compared to the Hot Toys, Medicom, hell even the Figuarts and Figma boxes, though that glossy image of what I think is the Mezco logo is quite nice.
Actual cardboard is pretty average quality, being fairly lightweight with a natural matte finish. I understand that the convention exclusives and other more uncommon figures come in a metal tin, which reminds me very much of those metal tins you get Mooncakes in.
The actual contents of the box are mostly spelled out on the back of the box: the figure, an alternative head, four additional hands, coiled and uncoiled lasso, her Godkiller Sword, her shield, a base with arm for dynamic posing, as well as a Figma styled plastic bag for holding the various loose goodies in.
Actual cardboard is pretty average quality, being fairly lightweight with a natural matte finish. I understand that the convention exclusives and other more uncommon figures come in a metal tin, which reminds me very much of those metal tins you get Mooncakes in.
The actual contents of the box are mostly spelled out on the back of the box: the figure, an alternative head, four additional hands, coiled and uncoiled lasso, her Godkiller Sword, her shield, a base with arm for dynamic posing, as well as a Figma styled plastic bag for holding the various loose goodies in.
The figure is, as one would guess, a 1/12 figure, putting it roughly 6 inches high. The only other competition the Mezco figure has is that Mafex BvS Wonder Woman that I picked up last year. I'll make this as painless as possible - with the exception of one factor, albeit a very important one, the Mezco destroys the Mafex I own.
Off the bat, I'd like to note that with the exception of the very fine detailing on her face and maybe some smaller metallic features, the overall paint work is actually pretty good. No areas where overspray caused me to gawk, nor was there any areas with obviously poor masking or line work, though I will admit that the lines on her bracers come awfully close. Her skin tone is a bit on the bronze side, which can make photographing her using yellow lighting challenging.
It goes without saying that the work here is significantly better than that of your Marvel Legends figures, and probably even the Black series stuff. Of course, these do cost almost 4 times as much.
Her sword is seems about the right length and girth, but the shield is definitely smaller than what the prototype picture on the box itself shows.
Grasping hands were all of a soft rubber which is easily malleable, allowing for easy manipulation to hold the sword without fear of constant breakage. Fingers look kind of muddled on these hands, and there are concerns on my mind about overall longevity of painted rubber parts (i.e. the split head on my Microman Chun Li) but only time will actually address that.
One of the key selling points of the One:12 line are the tailored outfits that the characters wear. Wonder Woman, unfortunately, really only has fabric skirt, and as such, much like the Hot Toys version, her armour is a moulded and painted piece of plastic.
The bracers and her leather strap are separate pieces, which is nice. I couldn't find any instructions included with my figure, so I'm guessing they never made a way for you to actually strap the shield and her sword to her back.
Her lassos are functional, though to be honest i didn't play around with the uncoiled one at all.
The box proclaims over 30 points of articulation. I didn't bother counting them because my point is this - it certainly didn't feel like there were that many. Her outfit effectively removes the waist as a point of articulation, nor are there any any ab crunch options. Shoulders do not collapse, which basically makes doing the cross armed pose impossible. Legs can at most be raised 90 degrees from a vertical position thus making kneeling poses with the figure very unnatural looking. Similarly, crossing her legs isn't happening either, making more stylish or elegant poses very hard to pull off. Thigh swivel joints are quite unsightly.
Now that I think about it, the elbows didn't bend more than 90 degrees either.
All in all, the various other high end 1/12 ish Wonder Woman figures offer better articulation than this one. I'm hoping this body is not the base one used for their various figures, but rather like the Hot Toys seamless body, one they developed specifically for Wonder Woman. But looking at preview pictures for all of the other One:12, articulation may be limited like this for all of their product.
While we're on the subject, if this is a custom body, then Mezco needs to improve the silhouette a bit, and really improve their game on the muscle tone, particularly on the arms and her back.
We now come to one of the greatest points of controversy for this figure, the face/head. From what I have read, release of this figure was significantly delayed due to Mezco fiddling with the heads, and many accounts I read said the final product was a marked improvement over the prototypes. Some even claim that the sculpt looks exactly like Gal Gadot.
Hence "This is not actually Gal Gadot".
No matter which way I stare at it, I honestly don't see any aspect of her at all in any of these, and still stick with my original analysis of "she looks like Olivia Munn".
Another hot topic is "why the hell does she look like she has chipmunk cheeks?". Several factors.
First off, to my eye, the base of the back of the neck for the default head sculpt is way too thick, and as such, this serves to widen her already problematic face. To my eye, the back of the neck on the alternate sculpt (one where she has no bangs) is slimmer in this area which helps to given a more streamline look.
Secondly, the sculptors really didn't emphasize her cheek bones that well. It's there, but you really need to have the light shining the right way for them to appear. Because these cheek bones are not emphasized, her jaw looks like a continuation of a blob that starts from her forehead. I also feel a dash of contouring paint apps would have helped with this issue, and allowed for easier photographs.
Sculpting of the hair is pretty good, but I think they missed an opportunity to have one sculpt feature a head of hair that is blowing sideways as opposed to having one that is all behind her head.
So that was my first foray into the One:12 line. A bit of a mixed bag, with my real disappointment being the surprisingly limited articulation, particularly given what Figma, Figuarts, and Mafex figures can do at a slightly smaller size. I'm going to wait for Hela to tell me how good their tailored costumes are, and hopefully see why people are highly excited about these products.
Hi all :) :) Here is a card I did ... the idea for the fox sleeping wrapped around the tree popped into my head so I had to make it. I love the new fox stamps, the sleeping one is my fav! For the thought bubble I used a cloud and then used the bubbles from Oceans of Joy.
Hero Arts Stamps:
Sleeping Fox
Designer Woodgrain
Thanks for peekin' :) :) :) :) :)
This shot was taken in Sathyamangalam Bus Stand. Near to the bus stand there were flower shops. From this place only the ooty flowers are getting exported to all other places. This old man is also one among the person who work for the shop. We all got down in bus stand and did brushing and drinking tea near to that shop. He was standing in that place and thinking what these guys are doing? We were taking photos also. I think this was new to them to take photos of that shop and the men around that place.
Model: Xenia Moreu
Same parameters as the previous shoot, except for the lens. This one with the 70-200 2.8 is II
Too good to resist, I made a few captures of these patrons at Cafe Hillel one morning
this week. At least they're not talking on their cell phones.
We've had great weather recently and I've largely been thinking appropriately sunny thoughts but after reading that up to a third of Britons are apparently just one paycheck away from homelessness I've had to take a quick detour to a slightly darker place. It seems to me that once a small problem somehow grows into something larger then it's hard to avoid a series of negative thoughts that can have a succession of negative consequences that can then spiral and link together to force you even further down. It's not something I really like to consider very often but in reality it's not hard to see how easily it can happen if circumstances conspire against you...
Cheers
id-iom
Take time to rebuild your future, take what you learn about our world right now and how you will improve your space in it.
I made this card for Barb's August challenge, Gray + Pink. All stamps are Hero Arts.
Ticket (K5542), Ticket Frame (DI0010), Ticket Background (S5772), Thinking of You Messages (CL140), and Stamp It Floral (CM001). Thanks for looking.
Created by Martin Wattenberg with Marek Walczak (who licenses it under this CC license), Thinking Machine 4 explores the invisible, elusive nature of thought. Play chess against a transparent intelligence, its evolving thought process visible on the board before you.
The artwork is an artificial intelligence program, ready to play chess with the viewer. If the viewer confronts the program, the computer's thought process is sketched on screen as it plays. A map is created from the traces of literally thousands of possible futures as the program tries to decide its best move. Those traces become a key to the invisible lines of force in the game as well as a window into the spirit of a thinking machine.