Spawn vs. Al Simmons (Spawn 27) - Action Figure Reviews

Series: Spawn 27, The Art of Spawn

Craftsmanship: 9.0 / 10

- Exceptionally hideous toxic smell

- Great detail and sculpt

- Easy to assemble

- Useful articulation is extremely low

Playability: 2.0 / 10

- Diorama options only (if you can stand the smell)

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Spawn vs. Al Simmons

(Spawn 27) by McFarlane Toys

As far back as I can remember, Spawn figures have always smelled. Usually the slightly chemical/plastic smell vanishes after a few hours. If can be renewed by storing the figure in a Rubbermaid container for a few weeks – just in case you

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want to be reminded of that new Spawn figure smell. Spawn vs. Al Simmons, the deluxe package the 27th series of Spawn is an exception. No, Spawn vs. Al Simmons smells so toxic and rancid that you’ll want to get them stored away in an airtight container soon after freeing them from the box.

Even after a good scrubbing – both the figures and the bases –

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with some mild soap and leaving the pair outside to face the elements for six days straight, they still smell like warmed-over toxic sludge. And it’s a damn shame! If it weren’t for the awful smell, I’d whole-heartedly recommend it as a purchase because this may be the coolest Spawn figure yet – at least as far as capes go.

Though the figures come in one box, they’re packed separately. Installing Al on his metal post is simple – one end in his knee, the other in the small base. This is the only way to display him for obvious reasons. Spawn is just as easy to install but the included base won’t actually prevent him from tipping over. (The cape weighs a lot.) McFarlane has remedied this by including a small angled post that plugs into his right leg and the base. This really cements him in place. Apart, they look great – the detail and sculpts are super – but when displayed together the effect is somewhat less than what you might expect, because Al Simmons’s post is way too long. It throws off the idea that they’re supposed to be battling each other. A shorter post of making Al poseable (or both) would have addressed this problem. (Try as I might, I just cannot get them to look the way they do on McFarlane’s official site.)

Articulation is nil. Well, useful articulation is nil. Spawn has a few points of articulation and Al has a few more (all seam joints) but none of them can be put to any dramatic use.

Aside from diorama options (if you can stand the smell) there’s very little play value to be extracted from either Spawn or Al Simmons. As for accessories, Al has a couple of wicked knives but once they’ve been installed they are hard to lose.

Even though Spawn vs. Al Simmons should strongly appeal to fans of the comic and it’s a deluxe package that I think is cool, overall it misses the mark with some opportunities wasted (like articulation for Al) and horrifically smelling materials.

- Omni
(May 8, 2005)