Al Simmons (Spawn 17R)

People named "Al" seem like they should be nice people. However, when Al’s holding a submachine in one hand and a combat knife in the other it’s a safe bet he’s not looking to make any friends.

Al Simmons (Spawn 17, R3) is one bad looking dude and looks a whole lot more manly than his original sculpt. Al used to have a leaning stance, making him look more like a guy that should be working in a dress shop rather than a hardened soldier type. Now Al stands straight and correctly assumes the "Did you look at me? BLAM!" stance that’s associated with anyone packing this much hardware. (Plus he’s now got a knife and leg holster for it.) The rest of sculpt is very well done, especially in the head and boots. His clothes are rippled as are all the muscles in his arms. Articulation points are integrated in such a way as to make them unobtrusive. All of them are located at logical seam points. For example, his left arm has a swivel point at an arm band. But there aren’t many useful points of articulation – the boots and the waist come instantly to mind. On the back of his belt he has a canteen and a holster of some kind that prevents any radical "look at his own butt" poses. In fact, there’s barely room to do a quarter turn. The other upgrade that Al has undergone is a paint job. His clothes have been given the urban commando treatment, unfortunately there’s quite a bit of oversplash and inconsistent markings (at least on the figure I used for this review). But I do like the mud on his boots – it’s a small touch but it’s good attention to detail. There are two other points that detract from the overall craftsmanship: the ridiculous headset and the pegless base. You would think that with all the hardware Al’s got access to he would have picked a headset that wasn’t so obvious! There’s no peeking over logs wearing this thing – the enemy would have a clear indication of where Al was about to appear. He might as well have a bulls-eye painted on his bandana! It might seem like I’m nitpicking, that I should 

allow for some creative license since it’s an action figure – but when the other accessories are so accurately produced I can’t help but point out how silly the headset is. The base that came with Al lacked a peg to plug him into. At first I thought I was looking in the wrong place but there’s just no peg where there should be one. Maybe it snapped off in the package somehow? No, couldn’t find it anywhere. He’s unstable on the base due to this, since the mold of the base isn’t flat. This is probably unique to the figure used for this review. Standing him on flat surfaces is easy thanks to his unarticulated legs.

As with any figure that sports a variety of accessories, the small bits can go missing if played with. Al is pretty tough – I have yet to snap a limb off even after dropping a dictionary on him repeatedly. His normal stance makes him easy to use in mock battles with GI Joes and other Spawn figures. However, this figure would have kicked some major butt had there been more articulation in the legs. I wanted to put him in a kneeling stance but it’s just not possible. The weapons fit pretty well into his hands, particularly the handgun, but I would have liked the rubber hands given the NHLPA (series 2) figures. It would have made getting Al to hold the machine gun a lot easier.

Nearly equal parts display and recreation piece.

- Omni