About a year ago we all got our first look at ReAction Figures from Funko, born out of a Super7 idea to recreate (and create) new Kenner-style action figures for a modern collector audience. The resulting products are all over the place - while the quantity is nothing short of impressive, quality is all over the place. A lot of these figures are going to get a bit of a pass, because the likes of Marty McFly and Sarah Connor are pretty scarce as toys and collectibles go. No kid-driven Sarah Connor action figure was ever made, and she was completely left out of the original Kenner toys for Terminator 2: Judgment Day despite being one of the biggest badasses in the movies. This version goes back to the 1984 original film, complete with the appropriate hair and costuming.
Getting one's hopes up can be a dangerous thing. The hopes and dreams based on flights of fancy and memories of a bygone era are difficult if not impossible to truly meet, and even when things seem to be clearly spelled out as to how a thing should roll out, well, sometimes it just doesn't work that way. Unmet expectations can hurt a figure just as much as poor engineering or a bad sculpt, and dealing with what a child from 1984 might have expected is probably an impossible task. The way vintage Kenner figures were manufactured was not replicated, so you'll see figures with a lot more paint than in the old days because it's molded in a single color. There's no orange torso, blue legs, or green head to be had here - it's almost always all the flesh tone, for better or for worse.
At 3 3/5-inches tall, Sarah Connor certainly isn't tiny - but she isn't big either. In what may be one of the biggest poodle-inspired hairdos we've ever seen in an action figure, the sculptors managed to convincingly exaggerate her locks and make a figure that is very much of that era. The shirt is similarly retro - it doesn't quite match the movie, but it gives a close impression of what the outfit on-screen looked like. This sort of thing happened with countless action figures into the 1990s, including the celebrated Playmates Star Trek range - a lot of the times, all we got was "close enough." And with a reddish brown wig instead of something closer to blonde, well, she does fit in with the authenticity by way of inauthenticity.
The strangely split back pockets on her jeans are something you'll probably never notice, and she has some difficulty standing thanks to the fact that her small feet face outward. Getting her to balance isn't impossible, but it's not as easy as the old Kenner toys which inspired this new one. The engineers did a good job with the joints on this one, as her big hair doesn't hinder neck movement and all of her limbs can move freely and allow her to sit in a vehicle. The only real complaints I have are that she's a little pale, and on my sample the eyes are off a tiny bit giving her a strange, off-model and almost bootleg look. Accuracy maters in deco, and even when a figure is intentionally wrong a misplaced eye is a difficult thing to forgive.
The fashions of 1984 are hard to make cool, no matter what you do with a toy. Sarah Conner's Kenner-sized footpegs will keep her standing, but I suspect the fact that she's not a T2 Sarah Connor will be the thing that turns most people off of this one. Thanks to the somewhat ugly outfit and general old-feeling look of her figure, I gotta say buy it if you stumble on her on a sale or clearance. It's by no means perfect, but it's so weird that even if you don't recognize the character you'll no doubt enjoy having a 1980s action star/waitress toy on your desk.
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