Licensing hasn't been a historical part of Playmobil's bag - once in a while they'll do a special set for somebody, but rarely do they do studio tie-ins. We got dinosaurs, but not Jurassic Park. Similarly, a catch-all spy figure makes sense - you don't pay royalties on an Adventuress but there's a guarantee and a royalty if you wanted Aeon Flux toys. It's likely not in Playmobil's best interest for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that the cartoon is familiar mostly to toy collecting insomniacs in their 30s and 40s or the women who marry them... and nobody bothered to see the live-action movie that inspired this piece.
If you're a long-time fan of toys you may be familiar with the concepts of "plays with" or "inspired by." Comparing this Playmobil figure to Charlize Theron's costume from Aeon Flux will prove to you that they're clearly related - but not identical. The pants are different. The shoes are more sensible on the toy. The figure retains the triple triangle cleavage window, but drops the open back of the movie outfit's shirt. The hair is parted on the opposite side and has a mild Kate Pierson vibe. Since the figure doesn't infringe on any trademarks or remotely resemble the famous actress, you can do this sort of thing - nobody has the sole license on pretty spy lady toys, and with enough changes anybody can make pretty much anything.
Assembling the figure is a little tricky, as getting the arms and legs and everything aligned just-so requires a little finesse. This really does make you happy that most of your toys are assembled by someone else. Everything fits together nicely, and the accessories all fit because it's Playmobil. If a Playmobil accessory doesn't fit in a Playmobil hand, it's one of the many signs of the world coming to a hasty end. The German toymaker has a nearly flawless track record on forward and backward compatibility with these toys, which is one of the reason it's fun for me to jump back in every few years.
The 3-inch figure has the same articulation as countless other figures. Seriously, there's nothing new here - 6 joints will let her sit in vehicles or stand around without a fuss. The pistol fits in her hand, and the red stick can be in her hand or on her back. Why does she have a red stick? I have no idea.
The movie costume is a strange choice, but a sensible one - the heroine from Peter Chung's animated cartoon was relieved of the burden of such design elements as pants, which may be less desirable for kids and more desirable for their moms and dads. (It's a great costume.) Given that Playmobil is sort of an ultimate catch-all line of weirdness for kids and kids who grow up, anyone still into this line would be well served to track this one down if for no reason other than to say "Can you believe this exists?" A lot of my Playmobil purchases were made for those reasons. More will be in the future.
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