Thomas reviews Medicom Toys‘ new Shazam figure – but finds nothing magical to say about it!
MAFEX continues to expand its DC Comics line with Shazam and as usual, this figure comes with a lot of accessories – 16 interchangeable hands, 3 interchangeable heads, a phone, a beer can, a pack of beer, a chest lightning effect, and the usual basic stand!
You get three different facial expressions with these head sculpts. The first one is a semi-smiling face and it’s spot on Zachary Levi. The second one is a big smiley face that has a pretty good likeness to the actor while the last one is a bizarre expression that is horribly scary.
The outfit itself is screen accurate with vibrant red paint and a beautiful soft good cape with a golden pattern on it. I really love the little details on his suit very much like they did on the Superman figure.
However, there is a huge problem in terms of articulation. Mafex has created a new elbow joint that is closer to what you have with Hasbro figure mixed with another elbow joint and that doesn’t work at all. It greatly limits the articulation range of the arms so it doesn’t work for me at all. I do hope it’s a one- time thing and they revert back to the old elbow joint. This figure has 27 points of articulation, the other POAs are the same as usual so the rest of the articulation is good.
I’m really glad that they included all kinds of accessories like the phone and the beer can so you can recreate classic scenes from the movie. I haven’t tried the lightning effect chest as I haven’t been able to remove the normal chest piece. Because MAFEX tends to be a lot more fragile, I didn’t try to force and just let it go.
Gallery:
Final Thoughts
MAFEX was once the best in the 6-inch business. It’s clear now that they’re not anymore, with recent paint apps problems on previous figures and now this, MAFEX needs to wake up and get back on track. It’s a good figure but it could have been better in terms of elbow articulation and head sculpts.
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Thomas Storai is the Senior Collectables Correspondent for The Future of the Force. He is passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and a wide variety of movies. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasStorai where he uses the force frequently!
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Author
Collectables Editor at Future Of The Force.
Star Wars and Marvel specialist, anime expert
