I really like Gremlins, because it's a great movie with an equally great (I daresay greater) sequel. Mogwai Stripe comes from the original and is tiny - keep in mind, this thing came out at ten bucks. It's not a $10 figure - it has 3 joints and the sculpt doesn't feel very retro. It's about the size of a quarter, a little shorter than a M.U.S.C.L.E. figure. This is appropriate for scale, but it also means that this figure would have been better as part of a Mogwai 2-pack. I normally save these complaints, but it's worth mentioning - it's really neat, but it's not $10 worth of toy. At all. (And yes I bought the entire series.)
I should warn you that the arms on mine felt rather stuck when first moving them - but they have very thick pegs relative to the arms, and in my case a little force got it going without any stress or breakage.
The sculpt is good and the body is wisely repurposed as the two (or more) Gizmo figures. The neck turns and each arm moves - the legs are static with teeny tiny and separate toes. Those of you who follow action figures know this sort of thing was impossible, or at least never seen or really discussed, until around the year 2000 when Star Wars started doing it on some of the Darth Maul figures. As such, it's out of place on a figure that could have existed in 1984. It's very small, which isn't out of line, but the fur detail seems like it could have been of that era. It's good - on par with the Ewoks and Chewbacca from that era. The backs of the ears have visible sculpted veins, which I think is a bit above and beyond what we would have seen then. The same is true of the mohawk - the texture is really quite impressive, and this feels like a good modern figure instead of an authentic retro figure. It's a fine line to cross - doing something bad to look old, versus doing something good to warrant the ten bucks.
The figure is covered in paint, with no glossy finish like the older toys may have had. The eyes have white, black, and skin colors in very tiny detail with very little slop or room for error. The face is a little imperfect on my sample, but for something this size that's still pretty exceptional. I can't imagine this much paint or this much detail going on a figure this small today, let alone 30 years ago. If you got a dot for the eyes, that would be amazing at this size. Applause did a nice job with their figures for the sequel, as did LJN for the original, but they were larger. Seeing something this nicely done is almost off-putting.
The accessory is a non-branded Coleco mini tabletop arcade game, which were pretty glorious relics of the era. Arcade games were big, consoles were relatively new, and something like this was incredibly impressive even if you don't have a game on it. It's like you have a giant arcade unit in your home, and now you have one scaled to your action figures complete with a tiny joystick and a couple of buttons. This may be a selling point for toy collectors and video game fans. I believe it's fully-painted with blue, and the buttons are a nice bonus. It has no moving parts and does not explicitly interact with the figure, but the 1980s artifact is a heck of an amazing bonus item for kids of that era. I'm pleased.
The value proposition on this line is pretty mixed. Ten bucks, for something the size of spare change, is a lot of money. On the other hand, tiny arcade game reproduction. That is probably worth as much or more than the figure itself in terms of novelty for fans of this old stuff. I can't deny I feel both taken and elated, because there's no way this is worth ten bucks but there's no way I'd miss that tiny arcade game for about that price, either. If you're on the fence for this, and you've got the money, go get one. It's neat, it's cute. I can't promise you'll love it, but I'm pretty amazed that it exists.
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