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 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 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
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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 Trinit (and Neo too for that matter). Oh well,
here's hoping for the next series.