[Veronica Mars]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boy Blunder

All righty, this may be a bit pic-heavy, but here's my thoughts on Punisher in-hand.



Punisher's on the Grim Reaper body-type, and makes good use of it. Articulation on mine is tight all around, barring a little bit of looseness in the left hip - not enough to impair him in any way, but worth noting. Except for the waist, which is impeded a bit by the belt, his articulation is standard and excellent, as to be expected from this mold.



Frank comes with two heads - a Jim Lee-styled 'War Journal' head with the bandanna, and a more modern version with slicked-back hair, five o' clock shadow, and eyes that don't know the luxury of sleep. I'm torn on which head I like more, because the bandanna speaks to my sillier side, while the 'gritty' head feels more 'Frank' to me. Though that head is also a little too 'pretty' in the sculpt, and honestly looks like a Superman who's been keeping Batman hours.



Paint work is fan-friggin-tastic. Hasbro really knocked it out with painting white-on-black (the skull) and black-on-white (the forearms). Hell, if it weren't for the white plastic showing through at the pegs, I wouldn't have been able to tell which color was the base. All crisp, no slop or bleed, except on the heads - the 'War Journal' head has some fuzziness on the bandanna, and the 'gritty' head didn't get complete black coverage at the bottom, near the neck.

Something to note about the head/neck area, I'm not 100% certain, but I think the heads were originally designed with the Bucky Cap body in mind, since they really look awkward from any angle but the front, if you look too long.

Accessories include a bazooka, a drum-fed shotgun (riot gun?), and a really long machine gun (afraid I'm not much of a gun enthusiast, so I don't know what it's actually called), and some web gear. The straps and belt are nice and bring the look together, but they're both pieces that were attached during assembly, and have no fasteners, so you'll have to either disassemble the figure, or cut the straps, in order to remove them.



The bazooka has a peg to affix very nicely to Frank's back, which is great, since it suffers the most from the ONE flaw in Hasbro's execution here: A COMPLETE LACK OF TRIGGER-FINGER HANDS. I mean, come on, this is Frank Castle. His weapons are guns. His training is guns. His superpower is guns. He needs hands that hold guns. You can fudge it a little, but the handle on the bazooka is too short to work well without a trigger finger that can fit in the guard. Say what you will about Deadpool's pinky finger, but at least he doesn't suffer this glaring oversight.



The machine gun fares better, with a longer handle, and also features a carrying grip on the top. Which is good, because it's pretty damn big, and makes an impressive two-handed wielding piece. Probably the best weapon to pair with the 'War Journal' head.



I know some people complain about the shotgun being white, but what can you do. For whatever reason, it is. That said, it's still a nice piece, and can be held in a proper two-handed grip, though it also has a shorter handle and suffers from Frank's kung-fu grip hands. Not awful, but not the best.



Here we have Frank with sometimes-ally, sometimes-enemy Daredevil, showcasing the differences in build. Here, I swapped out Frank's guns for the rifles that came with that old Walmart MCU Nick Fury, and with the longer handles, these guns actually look really good with him, even without trigger fingers. In fact...



...Frank seems to work better with weapons that he didn't come with.
(Left to right: DCUC Deathstroke's assault rifle, Agent Venom's submachine gun and laser-sight handgun, Agent Venom's twin handguns, Demolition Man's shotgun, Demolition Man's handgun and knife)



Lastly, we have a shot of Frank with fellow Walgreens-exclusives Agent Venom, Ant-Man (Black Ant), and Namor (the camera refused to focus on Frank, no matter how much I tried).

All in all, Frank is a solid figure, and definitely one I'm glad we grabbed despite having zero intention of picking him up. I hope everyone who wants one can get one, and I hope this helps a couple of people who are on the fence about him.

Dang it! I was totally going to pass on this one but seeing the in hand pics I kind of want one