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(Click on a portrait to pull up a dossier.)
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 I've
been giving some thought to officially expanding the Blackboard's roster
of personnel recently. With all of the craziness in the world, some
extra bodies would probably come in handy. Mr. Downtown has needed some
work for a while, so he became the focus of my attentions. I was pretty
satisfied with his outfit, but his body needed work. I wanted to find
a less common head, and a body that had some decent articulation to
it. So, on a whim, I got my hands on one of the Hot Toys Truetype pilot
bodies, which features 34 points of articulation and poseable fingers.
Surely that would be enough for my needs! |
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| Written and photographed by Bruce Harlick. (C) 2001. All rights reserved. Please send questions or comments to Bruce at foxbat@got.net. |
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| Well, the first thing was pretty obvious: the new guy was a lot taller than the old one. Almost a full head. About half of that was in the neck and the rest was in the legs. I liked the face on him; it has character. (But then, so does the old one, which is one of the Tuskegee Fighter Pilot figures.) | ||
Next
came the kneeling test, a very important one for figure flexibility.
Hot Toys did an excellent job here. The figure kneels well and balances
in that position, while keeping the body upright. He could be ready
for class in his Judo dojo. Good marks on this one so far.. |
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He
does an easy toe-touch, balancing in that position. The figure is just
about as poseable as I could ask for; he would have actually been able
to reach into his jacket and draw his piece at the first sign of danger,
which is where the old Mr. Downtown failed.
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The next test was how he'd look in his Mr. Downtown rig. It was quite a collection of gear: Coat, pants, shoes and socks from the Praying Mantis Green Hornet Captain Action, waistcoat and cravat from George Washington, shoulder holster and pistol from Haywire Toys, hat from Adventure Gear, and sunglasses from some G.I. Joe set. A motley collection indeed, but one with the exact look I wanted. Well, you can see for yourself. The upper body looks OK, though a little strained and tight on the coat (due to the shoulder holster.) The sleeves are long enough. By the way, his hands don't seem to be detachable. However, the bendable nature of his fingers and thumbs make it less of a chore to dress him than with the previous figure. Where the look totally fails is in the pants. They are way too short; Mr. DT looks like he's waiting for a flood. I'm not sure if this is going to be a problem with every pair of trousers I find for him, or just the Praying Mantis ones. More research is called for. |
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| I
was left with the choice of having an outfit I liked on a doll with limited
range of motion, or using a doll I really liked and having to munge up
an entire new look. In the end, I decided to let the old fight the new
in a battle to the death to see who would reign supreme as Mr. Downtown.
Would it be style or articulation that would win the day? See for yourself,
and thanks for checking this out!
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I
suppose we could deduct points from Ballet Boy there, since he's not
pointing his toes. But you get the idea. Poseable.
| Created:
10/12/01. Updated: 10/12/01. |
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