Monday, June 22, 2015

REVIEW: Imaginext Collectible Figures Series 4 - Witch

Imaginext Collectible Figures Series 4
It's no secret that we love Imaginext toys here at That Figures. You can imagine, then, my excitement, and subsequent disappointment, over the last few months when the awesome Series 4 figures failed to materialize in any of my local shopping haunts.

Thankfully all that changed a couple of weeks ago when I was able to locate Series 4 at an out-of-town location - just in time for Series 5 to make their surprise appearance everywhere else... 

But let's concentrate on what we have, rather than what we don't, and take a look at one of the horror-themed entries in the Fourth Series, the Witch.

The Witch
The Witch - Code Number 72 - is one of two female characters in this wave. Yes, Fisher-Price has finally realized that there's a place for non-superpowered women in the Imaginext world, too! It's great to see them expanding the line to include female characters, as it offers a lot of potential new figures to the line-up (and of course, it goes without saying that there's no reason why we shouldn't have had female characters from day one but that's another discussion for another time...)

It's interesting to see the different proportions of the female figures in the line-up and the new shapes certainly add some extra - and much needed - variation to the range.
OK, so maybe you can't see much there in terms of different proportions, but that's because - like many Imaginext figures - the Witch sports a removable head/torso/chest piece. We'll come back to it in a moment but here she is, sans headpiece.
I'm surprised they didn't elect to give her a flesh-colored face. Not that I don't like the green-skinned ''unmasked'' face but I half-expected Fisher-Price to make her a figure in a Halloween costume, rather than an actual Witch. It's neat this way too, though, as it allows you to pretend she's cast some kind of glamour spell or something to disguise her witchy features.
Anyway, back to the torso piece. As you can see, there's some great up-close detail here. I love the Puritan-style costume (complete with buckled shoes, belted tunic and pointed hat) but there's also some great face detail. The features scream ''Witch'', from the single tooth to the warty chin and straw-like hair.
And if that wasn't enough, she also comes with a really neat broom to ride to her Sabbat. Again, there's some great sculpting here, with the crooked shaft sporting some nice detail, right down to the cord holding the broom's straw. 
The Witch has the standard Imaginext articulation rig: ball-jointed shoulders, a twist neck (sadly restricted by the hood/torso piece), twist joint wrists and connected hip joints. I'm not sure if Fisher-Price used a different grade of plastic here or whether it's due to the Witch's thinner limbs but there's a slightly ''bendy'' feel to the figure, so much so that the legs can almost be moved individually (although I don't recommend it, as you'll be bending the plastic joint to the point where you may sheer it off...)
Paint is acceptable but there are a lot of details here I'd have loved to see picked-out with a more detailed app, such as the shoe and hat buckles, her single tooth and her claw-like nails. Still, there's enough here to help identify what's what. I'm not entirely sure but her eyes look like they might be painted with glow-in-the-dark paint. That would certainly be a very cool feature...!
And finally here's a shot of her from behind, showcasing her cape and - of course - obligatory Imaginext ''i'' logo!

Final Thoughts
If you're a fan of the Imaginext Collectible Figures, classic monsters or, best of all, both, then this is pretty much a no-brainer. Go track her down immediately. 

For those on the fence, all I can say is that this is probably the best representation of the archetypal witch you can find. Pretty much everything you'd expect is here (and also great). I say ''pretty much'' because the only thing missing is a black cat familiar. But that's a very minor point and I'm sure you could find a suitable cat elsewhere if it's that big an issue.

As I said above, a little extra paintwork would have been welcome and the fact that she's still ''witchy'' under her mask could be argued as both a positive and a negative (personally I like it though) but these really are very minor quibbles, because the overall figure is excellent.

It's also great to see females making the cut now. If, like me, you've always hated the argument that ''female figures don't sell'' then now is your chance to prove the toy companies wrong and score an awesome figure - irrelevant of gender - that will be a most welcome addition to any Imaginext collector's display.

A witch hunt you need to conduct. Go track her down right now.


Image Gallery

8 comments:

  1. She is definitely one of the best figures from Series 4! She reminds me of the witch from Banjo Kazooie (I've others say Elphaba but I haven't seen Wicked) when she uses her machine to glam herself up.

    I just received my series 5 figures in the mail and will probably begin reviewing them in the next few days! Hooray for more Imaginext stuff!

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    1. Haha! Yeah, she does! I'd never thought of that.

      Nice. I'm hoping to find Series 5 around here soon, although given Series 4 has only just hit, it'll probably be a while before they show up!

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  2. The black cat that comes with the Catwoman/Catcycle set would make a perfect familiar for this witch.

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  3. Nice! This one, Space Ape, Robo-Surfer & the mad Scienist are all on my want list for Series 4, whenever they show up. Series 4 was in my neck of the woods very briefly: we were at Walmart and saw an empty Series 4 box. Such an annoying feeling to have just missed them. But I went to the same store today and they had 3 boxes of Series 5 on the shelf, which allowed me to nab the ones I wanted.


    I really wish Imaginext would release all the spooky figures (Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula, etc..) under one banner so I could buy them to hand out on Halloween for tr trick or treaters.

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    1. Yeah, I had a similar experience with Series 4 - lots of empty boxes (or boxes filled with non-Imaginext toys) or shelf-stickers proclaiming Series 4's presence but no actual boxes! Thankfully I was able to find the figures I wanted and my local Target now has a single box (which has already been picked over) and then Series 5 showed up pretty quickly after that. I think I got everything I wanted, though I may go back for the Snowboarder, as I like a diverse range of figures.

      And yeah, a Halloween pack would be awesome!

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