Four Horsemen Outer Space Men Cosmic Creators Mel Birnkrant Astro-Nautilus Action Figure Four Horsemen, 2012
Day #431: June 28, 2012
Astro-Nautilus a.k.a. "Deep Blue Ultra-Nautilus"
Outer Space Men Cosmic Creators Mel Birnkrant Edition Toy Tokyo / Toypocalypse II Futuretro Exclusive
Item No.: n/a Manufacturer:Four Horsemen Includes:Staff, art print, more figures Action Feature:n/a Retail:$125.00 (sold as a set with Xodiac, Inferno, and Metamorpho) Availability: February 10, 2012 Other: Fifth release of Astro-Nautilus in this line (of seven, at least)
My initial reaction to the first-ever painted Astro-Nautilus redeco was an eyeroll and much complaining, as the black armor didn't do it for me and the metallic purple head seemed kinda bland. And I went to New York, bought it, and shrugged-- I wanted the set, so I got it. It looked OK. And then I got it home to compare it to the original painted release and it was painfully obvious that the "Deep Blue Ultra-Nautilus" was like a kajillion times better. This shows me that if I initially dislike something from Mel Birnkrant or the Four Horsemen, it's entirely possible I'm just wrong.
Made up of 18 pieces connected with Glyos plugs, the figure sports tons of articulation and just plain looks gorgeous. The joints are not necessarily going to enhance the play factor, but he has no problems sitting or standing, plus you can goof around with his tentacles to enjoy a wide variety of poses. The sculpt is good as always, with segmented arms and tons of sculpted suction cup on his head and hands. The design remains a neat throwback, but the coloring actually brings a lot to the table in terms of modernizing the design.
His gold staff is similar (if not largely identical) to the one in the Galactic Holiday 2010 release, assuming you got the gold variant of that one. It looks perfect, but I like silver more because I'm basically stuck in 1984. His black outfit suggests the inky blackness of the deep sea, and the metallic purple skin suggests... something. I have no idea what. The gold eyes fit nicely in the dark purple head, and the red dot with the blue diamond around it matches the belt nicely. The overall design and color combination looks pretty good, and remains one of the most expensive "new" figures I've bought in recent memory.
The set remains in stock several months after its release, which may not sound like much but the run was of a mere 200 sets. That's puny, but I figure I'm largely subsidizing this line by buying every last damn recolor of these molds. The figures are great fun, and the 4-inch scale fits in with many of Hasbro's action figure releases. Given the price I don't necessarily suggest that you buy this version of the mold, but perhaps one of the other cheaper ones should be on your toy shelf. I really dig this one and it stands out nicely in my big giant toy closet. Although I will confess that due to the high price, I'm not giving it a lot of "play" time. It just kinda sits around.
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