In-Hand: Avatar The Last Airbender Figures by Diamond Select Toys

Diamond Select Toys have obtained the Avatar the Last Airbender rights and will be producing multiple products with the license. To kick things off we have 7 inch scale figures of Aang, Katara, and Zuko. These are a welcome addition because there haven’t been figures for this show in the US for a while. Avatar (not to be confused with James Cameron’s movies) was an anime by Nickelodeon during the 00s and even spawned a live action movie. Which wasn’t horrible, but wasn’t great either. The property pretty much ceased after that on all fronts.

These figures from Diamond Select Toys give us some new options to add the crew to the shelves. Read on to check out some quick thoughts and see what they can do courtesy of Diamond Select Toys in our gallery!

Overall Thoughts:

Pretty sharp! When I saw these announced at SDCC, it caught my eye. I wasn’t a diehard fan of the show when it was out, but I did get sucked into random back to back binges on Nickelodeon while it was running. It’s a well produced anime with a great story line that spans seasons. These figures really capture the look of the show, that was my first thought then, and now that they are in hand. They are painted head to toe, no raw plastic anywhere. Accessories are sparse, but purposeful. Katara and Zuko each get an extra hand with their element based attack and Aang gets his staff. Each also come with a basic black stand.

The sticky point here is articulation. It’s not horrible, and in some areas it’s above and beyond, while other areas of the same figure it’s lacking. Take Aang for example – double jointed knees, rocker ankles, upper thigh swivel, t-crotch with outward and forward/backward poseability. Waist swivel with an ab joint that allows some rotation, but not full ab-crunch level movement. Head on a ball joint, average level range, could be better. Shoulders – average with a rotation, but no extra cuts for forward motions, which is still normal for most figs. So far so good. Problem is the elbows. We get a basic 90 degree bend with a rotation at the peg point. Hands do have bends in addition to the peg rotation. So everything is here except advanced elbows, which limits the ability to pose the staff and get dynamic with his martial arts level moves. The same situation is present on the other two figures. Zuko even has an ab cut for full upper body movement, which is then under a thick rubber robe, making it less important to being there. Katara has limited upper body movement, and her robe sculpting makes her arms stay pushed outward in most poses.

So bottom line, there are like 80% awesome, with the elbows and shoulders limiting true martial arts posing. I get there are probably budget concerns in place here affecting this, because these guys are only $19.99, at the 7 inch scale with full paint. An equivalent SHF or Mafex version would be way smaller since they are kids, have more articulation points, but be like 60+ bucks. So pick your poison. For the price, they are a great way to get some sharp looking figures tucked in on the shelf. Hopefully they do well, and they can expand the line up and articulation level. Something similar to what they did with recent Bruce Lee Select figures would help out greatly here.

These are early copies, they should be out at your local comic shops in December 2019! Check the gallery below until then! Thanks to DST for sending these through a bit early to take a look at.