Another one bites the dust… UH! Another one bites the dust… OWE! Another one… Uh, wait, what? Oh yeah, another vintage figure to mark off your list folks, as the good General Crix Madine is nixed from the “Hasbro's most wanted” list of vinty figures that needed to be redone in modern sculpts. How'd he turn out? Pretty darn great to tell you the truth! Best figure of the Endor wave, and one of my favorite figures of the entire Saga line even, if that tells you anything.
He's not flawless, sure, but he's an example of how good Hasbro can do at articulating figures if they want to put their best foot forward. The Imperial defector is looking spot-on to his on-screen counterpart, and Hasbro made a figure most consider really, REALLY dull into something really cool to have on your shelf. Check the review out for yourself, and read about all his action-figure greatness, as well as his few shortcomings.
PROS
Sculpt: Definitely a nice match for the good General. This guy looks like a dandy on the card, or off. Lots of detail in the sculpt, such as cloth texturing to his uniform, folds galore (especially in his loose-fitting trousers), and nice creases where the uniform would button up - all of this adding to the life-like realism of the figure.
I really like the head sculpt, most notably. I personally think he looks a tremendous amount like the actor who played Madine (the name escapes me at the moment). The figure's wavy hair (very weird style, but I digress) looks pretty great and accurate to the film. Come on, everyone remembers Madine's hair! And his beard, nice and neatly trimmed, is sporting some nice texture to it as well. Very well done.
The figure's “skirt” piece, always a favorite addition to any figure in this reviewer's opinion, is SEAMLESS integrated with the rest of the body. Very realistic looking and major kudos to Hasbro here for their efforts!
Articulation: OK, who'd have thought we'd be talking articulation as a major “Pro” to General Madine? I mean, this is General freakin' Madine here. One of the vintage line's biggest pegwarmers, and someone who likely was “pegged” (lame pun, not my fault because it wasn't intentional) as pegwarming fodder in the modern line as well. He's a complete bore in the film, for God's sake!
But no, Hasbro actually goes and gives this guy more articulation than the General Lando resculpt in the same wave. Why? I mean, seriously, what's with Lando getting less articulation? He's a main character, has a gun, etc… Oh well.
Old man Crix is sporting:
-2 standard shoulder joints
-2 standard hip/leg joints
-1 standard neck joint
-1 standard waist joint
-2 ball-socket elbow joints
-2 standard wrist joints
With a total of 10 points of articulation, and 6 of those being in the arms alone, Madine is actually pretty poseable for a guy that did nothing in the way of movement on-screen. That said though, good job Hasbro! The added articulation really makes Madine quite neat. I mean, General Madine can actually hold a rifle with two hands, yet how many prior figures that came with a rifle can hold it with both hands? Yeah, not many, and that's rather dejecting when you think about it.
Let me reiterate this point once more here… EVERY army builder, and EVERY main character should have this much articulation in their arms, and in this same style as well. It's really quite great, and only ball-socket shoulders could have made it any better. It's all very well hidden too, so you really can't go wrong.
Customizing/Army Building Fodder: Good news to me anyway, is that Madine turns out to be INCREDIBLE customizing fodder. With a minimal amount of work, Madine can also be turned into some of the other random officers he had as his little cohorts on Home One.
Madine makes some great generic custom fodder in the end though, especially with the useful articulation in his arms. A little touching up, and a good customizer can really bring the figure's details to life that Hasbro didn't with their rather lackluster paintjob (read on for that in the “CON” portion). This figure's simply great to buy a few of for your armies or customs. I've already got some fun plans, should I be able to actually find some more of him.
CONS
Paint Aps/Decoration: While I really can't say that General Madine's the most colorful guy - I mean, he has a brown coat and pants, blue shirt, and black boots/gloves, I can say that what little painting he needed, Hasbro did poorly. On my sample, Madine's brown details on his jacket's shoulder pieces (where they meet with the blue of his undershirt) bled pretty noticeably onto the blue of the shirt, to the point that it's actually distracting.
The brown of Madine's suit has slight blue detailing to the collar and his chest badge, but unfortunately the blue paint bled onto the brown here as well, just as bad as the arms had brown bleeding onto blue. It's even more noticeable here, especially around the collar.
I will give props that Madine's head has a nice application of paint. The eyes, beard, and hair are all crisply detailed, and my figure's eyes in particular look very subtle and even. The uniform's simplicity warranted a good paintjob though, so it's disappointing to see Hasbro not deliver there. Also, Madine's chest badge could definitely have stood a better detailing, as it's merely been painted the same color as the rest of the blue from his uniform's shirt, and that's inaccurate as well as sloppy.
Madine wears a brown belt with silver highlights on the buckle and a pouch, and while my sample's silver highlights are nice, the brown of the belt is spotty. It missed the pouch in spots too, and one corner's missing paint all together. Madine's boots have similar paint flaws to them, with bleeding or missed lines. The soles aren't painted black separately, as many figures lately have been, and that's somewhat of a step down to me as well.
Accessories: Madine sports very little in this regard. A meager flimsy baton, painted a single silver color, as well as the standard “Star Wars” rectangular stand, adorn this figure as his extras, and that's a weak offering.
Personally, I would've packed in a little holographic Endor with mini-holo Death Star II orbiting it somehow. THAT would've been a nice accessory. Other possibilities could've included a simple console with the Imperial Shuttle diagram on it (kind of an EU accessory like the recent OTC Lobot's laptop perhaps?), or some such item. A weapon would've even been nice, despite the fact that Crix was never seen using one. Let us put his killer arm articulation to some use!
In the end, he's a little disappointing in accessories. I gave mine an extra Death Star II holo I had from an R2-Q5 that I had repainted - something to make him stand out a little, and I've got a handful of those things I can't use otherwise it seems.
Legs A Bit Unusable: If you wanted to pose Madine's legs it would be a pain due to the “skirt” piece on him. Hasbro's figures with these types of extensions have always been a bit tough to pose, but recently 21 st 's X-Treme Detail 1:18 scale line has been doing the same thing, but making them flexible enough that the figure's articulation isn't lost in the legs. It's worth it.
I'd personally love to see this carried over to Hasbro's line, as it gives the figure its range of motion at no cost to aesthetics. Not that Madine really NEEDS his legs to be poseable, but since they are, it'd be nice to be able to do if any of us wanted him in “battle mode” or something.
Mine Broke! My biggest gripe, by far, is that my Madine's so flimsy, his left hand snapped right off. The plastic Hasbro uses has taken a serious turn for the worse in recent years, but Madine feels particularly delicate.
You may not experience this problem yourself, but since I did and it's a HUGE deal, I'm griping about it. I'm trying to fix it by making a new plastic post from scratch, but it's slow-going, tedious work. Hasbro's quality should be better than this, on a figure that basically costs anyone with a piddly job an hour's worth of their work to purchase. Even if this only takes ? of an hour of your workday's pay, you still should feel cheated. It's disappointing I feel.
Availability: Not gonna harp a lot on this since this is the third and final figure of the wave I'm reviewing, but I'll still mention it. This wave's been a pain to find. I'm particularly annoyed since my Madine's broken as well. This wave is supposedly still coming down the pipeline though, so keep your eyes peeled. Plus, the Endor wave's also due out on the new OTC cards so there's some hopeful good news on further availability later on, presumably in greater numbers than the Saga versions have showed us.
OVERALL
Sure the CONS outweigh the PROS on paper, but what do I really think? I really think that Madine's a good figure. He's a worthy addition to any collection, not to mention that he fleshes out the vintage line into the modern line a little more. He's really quite accurate looking, and beyond my figure breaking, I am generally happy with it.
The figure's really poseable too, and that's truly what won me over here. I'm a sucker for poseable action figures, if you hadn't noticed. After all, that's what action figures are supposed to ultimately be, so even if Madine is about as interesting a character as any old guy who stood around in Star Wars and said a couple lines, he still makes one hell of a neat figure to play with.
In the end, I give him two thumbs up - bad paintjob, poorly accessorized, and all… Pick him up if you see him. He's still worth it. Now if we could just get some army builder figures that are this nice! This isn't even as top-of-the-line as Hasbro is capable of, as we've seen with their “Super Articulation” on recent figures like the Clone Wars Clonetrooper. Madine's practically mediocre in comparison, but is still great for what he is folks.
