Series: The Matrix, 1

Craftsmanship: 8.5 out of 10

- Great overall pose and sculpt

- Issues with face and likeness

- No articulation for play

Playability: 0.0 out of 10

- Uh.....

- Um.....

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Trinity (The Matrix)

by McFarlane Toys

For a long time, McFarlane Toys has been known for its action figure art – imaginative toys with beautiful sculpts and excellent paint ops, but with little-to-no

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playability. While these figures retain popularity with many MOC and display-only collectors, children and collectors who like the playability have been shunned by these figures, preferring articulated, poseable figures instead. Fortunately, McToys has always been a company who listens to it's fans, and as the recent, nicely moveable Spawn and Movie Maniacs figures have shown, they have

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plenty to offer to both players and non-players. Unfortunately, McToys have fallen back into old habits with the Matrix series, a move sure to not impress plenty of collectors, including this one.

From the original Matrix film, Trinity is pre-posed straight from the famous Lobby shootout scene, running up a wall to flip and avoid the shots of the attacking security force. The figure/set includes Trinity, a decently sized (realistically damaged) recreation of the cement lobby floor, a crumbling column (separate from the base) and three guns. For the most, Trinity has an excellent sculpt – posed in mid-air through the miracle of pegs, she's really running up the wall, frozen in time with an excellent, accurate body sculpt. Her sculpted coat hangs realistically and she looks great. However, her face sculpt is horrible, especially for McToys. It only just looks like Carrie-Anne Moss when on display, and close up it looks terrible. I would have thought it was easier to sculpt a likeness if the character wore glasses, but I guess not.

The concrete base and column are very, very nice. Adding to the realism of the whole figure, they're covered in bullet holes, exploding pieces of concrete and all kinds of damage, accurate to the film. Most of the wall is just sculpted and painted simply, but it is effective and looks really good. In addition, there are miniature dust clouds made from a slightly-see through rubber, several extending from the walls where bullet holes have supposedly hit. I didn't like the idea of these when I heard about them, but they do look great, and further add to the effect. (Those who don't favor them can pull them out, which doesn't make them very kid-safe – the rubber is very chokeable).

Finally, we come to playability… well, it’s completely absent. Although she has minor articulation at the arms, neck, right bicep, wrists and legs, they don't move much and she isn't going anywhere – she's frozen in the dioramic stance. She even comes with three guns as accessories, pistols fitting into her holsters and an automatic gun she can hold, but these don't add anything to her (and the automatic gun isn't accurate to the movie). This is a real issue for me, as I really don't like statuesque toys. Nevertheless, many collectors will like her and she's not a bad toy by any means – she's just not a playable, poseable toy.

Overall, I do and don't recommend Trinity. There is a nice little diorama here for collectors, but little else, and there are some problems with the sculpt, namely the poor facial likeness. Children should stay far away from this; with small parts, no playability and no real fun, this is collector-only territory. Matrix fans will probably like this toy, even non-collectors, which is good news for McFarlane, but not for me. I really want a poseable Trinity (and Neo too for that matter). Oh well, here's hoping for the next series.

- Shocka
(June 18, 2003)