The mystery bagged figures seemed to go away - heck, all of Imaginext has been reduced to a smaller and smaller footprint in stores. The anniversary wave, with the likes of Jett Cosmoblast, so far has only shown up in grocery stores. I found them marked down to $1.74 the very fist time I found them - it was probably just a sale, but still, that's dirt cheap for a new release. For whatever reason, the long-running boys action brand has just not taken off like it had in previous years. But, thankfully for us, at least we're getting new releases and this time we don't have to fondle foil packets to guess which ones we're getting.
This time around, we got six figures - two castle, two space, and two pirates. It's a good mix, but doesn't necessarily represent the line's earliest days as it took a while before space toys made it out. The new packaging looks reat with wonderful illustrations and a flap you can open to see the figure before purchase. In this case, the figure is mostly a mix of old parts, drawing inspiration from the classic 3 3/4-inch Adventure People line - specifically, the orange Alpha Interceptor pilot figure.
The 3-inch figure uses the same body as two previous releases, an Astronaut and a Clawtron update. Now molded in a redder orange color, the figure has a different head with no nose, but a painted cap. Why is there no nose? I can't say. It looks great - they painted the back of the helmet and torso white to stand out, and gave him a repurposes white blaster from the first line of space sets. It's nothing special, but it works, and it's cheap.
Articulation is consistent with other releases, refusing to buck the trend of the last 10 years. As always, there's no problem with standing or sitting, and the accessories always just plain work. It's a sturdy one. You can't move the head, though, so be sure to examine the assembled figure before buying it if you can. As far as I can tell, there's no way to pop the helmets off without damaging the figure. Thankfully mine is just fine - and the arms, hands, and legs all move without a fuss. There's not much new going on here with the sculpting, but that's what you want. The design of these figures seems to have been crafted with reuse in mind, so there are a few other figures they could probably crank out if they felt like it. However since it has been quite a while since the last mystery foil bags, I don't know if we're going to see a whole heck of a lot more of these in the near future.
I paid $1.74 for this, and would have gladly paid up to $5 for a nod to a classic figure line - and at about $3 it's a surprisingly good figure. It lacks the zany extras of the foil bagged figures, but given the fact it has more complex packaging and a lower cost, it's not bad. There are precious few figures you can buy for $5 these days, so for anyone to offer something decent for about half that is a real rarity. I assume this will appeal more to fans of retro space toys and classic 1980s action figures than actual Kids These Days, but if you're reading this, that's probably you. You should get one of these. And check out the original Alpha Interceptor too, they're wonderful toys.
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