[TokuMonkey]

The Fantastic Four showed up a few days ago. Some thoughts:

- I've never picked up any 1:12th Collective stuff before, and on the whole, I'm pretty impressed. The figures both look terrific and scale well with my Marvel Legends and the Mafex Iron Man and Thor. I didn't realize I'd care about the seamlessness, but it looks surprisingly great on a shelf.

- The tin it comes in is HUGE. When you're calculating display space, you'll want to consider this. You're unlikely to want to get rid of the tin since the clamshells inside are probably the single best way to keep track of the figures' many, many accessories.

- These are definitely designed specifically for action figure photography: for instance, the Invisible Woman's small-shield effect piece is held in place by a clear clip and rod connected to her arm. Looks great from angles that obscure the clear piece; otherwise, looks like a toy.

- It's a little wild/weird that the tin depicts the Jack Kirby versions of the characters, given that the figures themselves are obviously based on Michael McKone's art.

- I haven't tried out every accessory. Most look/work great so far, but there are a few exceptions.

- The effect piece for Johnny's flaming shoulders doesn't fit well enough for it to stay on should you do anything like, god forbid, move the figure.

- I was gobsmacked that the figures's legs feature gender-appropriate bulges. It's a tiny detail, but it makes the figures look less like toys.

- The flaming piece for his chest emblem also doesn't stay on, but that may be partially my fault: in struggling to get the shoulder/back piece to stay put, I'd guessed that part should maybe fit around Johnny's neck and act like a hook for the divot in the back of the shoulder piece. I only realized today it's supposed to connect to the emblem. (In my defense, Mezco wrapped it around Johnny's bicep in one of their promo photos.) I'm hoping the plastic hasn't been permanently warped beyond usage.

- Speaking of Johnny-related stuff that isn't ideal: the light-up head works, but doesn't look terrific, maybe because the light is a tad too bright? You can sort of control whether it's active without removing the batteries by slightly adjusting the head-peg connection, but it's a little fussy and I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. I haven't tried the other light-up elements to see if maybe they look better together.

- The instructions make it very clear that the figures are fragile and the cloth costumes can be warped/torn by over-posing. The instructions also note that the costumes are *not* intended to be removed.

- Be a little careful switching hands: you can inadvertently remove the entire glove piece by mistake.

- Sue and Ben have unique hands, whereas Johnny and Reed have a single set of non-stretchy hands to share between them.

- You'll absolutely need a stand in order to get Reed to stay upright if he's using any of his stretching pieces. I've been unable to get much of a stretch out of the neck piece, and I don't feel comfortable trying to force it too hard. You get a lot of individual stretchy pieces as accessories because you fundamentally can't do parts-replacement on the core figure.

- The coloring on Ben is a total misfire. The orange is much too muted, which doesn't look right alongside the bright blue FF uniforms. It looks like Mezco used the color of the darkest parts of Mike McKone's art, but if you actually look over his art, there's more light than dark going on. His selection of hands also leaves something to be desired: we get two not-so-different sets of posed fingers, but no calm hands. Ben is understandably musclebound, and other than his shorts, he can't benefit from the seamlessness the rest of the figures enjoy. Maybe it'll be less glaring if he's in his trenchcoat and hat?

- Reed-with-his-big-stretchy-parts aside, I have zero problem posing any of them on my shelf. Can't always say that for Marvel Legends.

- I haven't touched H.E.R.B.I.E. yet. My shelf space is pretty limited, and he's larger than I'd expected. Same goes for the figures' really big accessories. Reed would probably pose better if I used the included base, but that thing is huge. Displaying these figures together with their accessories (the big stretchy Reed torso, Johnny's flying stand, Sue's large forge shield, most of Ben's stuff alone would take up most of a shelf).

Although the Thing's coloring and the couple of ill-fitting Torch accessories bug me, I like more than I don't about this set and I'm overall glad I picked this up (despite the eye-popping price tag), enough so that I'm considering picking up the Green Goblin and classic Spider-Man Mezco is offering. I'm a little worried about Spider-Man's poseability due to the limitations of these the FF figures, and the apparent mixed materials of his costume, but the Goblin looks about perfect and doesn't come with an iffy light-up feature.

If anyone else picked this up and has any advice about the Torch's flaming accessories, I'd love to hear it.