Series: Spawn 19

Craftsmanship: 8.3 out of 10

- Lots of detailed armor

- About 30 points of articulation

- Hair looks slightly ridiculous

- "Nightmare" refers to the process of trying to get him to stand

- Good paint job but on the dark side

- Reminds me of the Three Stooges

Playabilty: 8.9 out of 10

- Three-headed dragon = cool

- For all its articulation, pieces don’t snap off easily

- Bird kneecap makes for some funny situations

- Necks and tail are bendy and will eventually "snap"

- Medium size figure

- Plastic neck armor can be ripped off

Number of twist ties: 10

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Jyaaku the Nightmare (Spawn 19) by McFarlane Toys

Dragons are cool. Every dragon figure I can think of has rarely ever been left on retail shelves for more than a couple of days. Anyone that has looked for the very popular Dragon from Shrek will know this to be true. Jyaaku the Nightmare (reminiscent of The Horrid from Spawn 11 and looking like he should be battling

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Godzilla) is the latest dragon-esque figure from McFarlane and part of the Spawn 19 series.

This is one of those action figures where the back is more detailed than the front (although, overall the detail is very high). To say the armor is elaborate would be close to understatement. There are plates, spikes, and flaps all over the place –

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each lovingly etched with sharp designs. Hidden among all the armor are a variety of articulation points – lots and lots of points. There’s at least 30 joints, not including the tail and necks, which are made of bendy material. (Even the club on the end of his tail can be swiveled!) But the one that should get the most attention is his right knee, which is sculpted in such a way as to be a bird head complete with articulated jaw. It’s not exactly a 2-for-1 figure but it does add to the playability. The paint job isn’t imaginative as it could be. Mostly dark browns and blues highlighted by gold, he could have benefited from more colorful armor. If you’re into displaying your figures, Jyaaku will prove to be a nightmare. His right "arm" acts as a third

leg so he can stand via the popular tripod stance. Getting the legs correctly positioned is tough – this is trade-off of having so much articulation. Most of the joints are stiff enough to maintain the position you put them in but all it takes is one gimpy ankle and you might as well give up. (Tip: use his tail as another point of contact.) The other strike against Jyaaku is that his hair looks ridiculous. It’s made of a wad of frizzy orange polyester or nylon. There’s no way to control it – my wife attempted braiding it unsuccessfully. Part of the problem is that Jyaaku is pressed to the top of the box – mashing his hair into flat plateaus. In short, he’s in desperate need of some conditioner.

Jyaaku is extremely playable. For one, he oozes cool and he’s a dragon. The articulation helps quite a bit. Rough play will tear the rubber plating off his neck easily, but all the joints are moderately tough. After slamming him around for twenty minutes he was still in one piece. Be warned that really twisting the necks and tail over long periods of time will wear out the wire that runs through them and snap, which doesn’t affect playability much but will affect poseability. As mentioned above, the bird head that makes up his knee is fun to play with too. My favorite is pretending to bite the heads off my 3 ½" GI Joes. (They watch the heads but don’t notice the menacing knee until it’s too late!)

A highly detailed figure with lots of play potential, but a little on the dark side for young kids. If you like display, Jyaaku is good for that too (if you can coax him to stay standing).

- Omni