Monday, January 30, 2012

Blackheart #160, Classic Marvel Figurine Collection Review

Remember those little lead miniatures that came with D&D sets? You had to paint them yourself and they were TINY. If so then you're already familiar with the concept of lead figurines. A company in England called Eaglemoss International makes a line called The Classic Marvel Figurine Collection. They're hand-painted statues of your favorite Marvel characters that come bagged with a magazine that covers the history of that particular character.

Here we have Blackheart #160 in the set. He's made of lead and there's a warning right on the bag. Lead is bad for you if you ingest it so don't chew on the figure. Since the lead is covered in paint it's not that much of an issue because these aren't children's toys, they're collectibles. Each one is individually numbered on the bottom and have felt bases. Blackheart is pretty heavy and comes in a plastic clamshell that fits inside a box.

His sculpt is really detailed with all sorts of musculature, textured skin, and individual spines that stick out of his head. This is the monsterous form of Blackheart and the pose looks great, him walking forward towards his next victim. The face (or lack of) looks creepy with two large eyes and a covered, stretched mouth. The claws could have been a bit pointier like his spines but overall he looks great. Speaking of the spines, watch out, they bend really easy.

Each figurine is hand painted and it shows. Here there's not a whole lot of colors but you can see the deep body shading and grey highlights. His eyes are a vibrant red and cleanly done. The small Marvel logo at the bottom has a wash to it and completes the statue image. He's just short of being Marvel Universe size and there's no real scale because somtimes taller characters are shortened to 3" and vice versa.

Obviously there's no articulation here since Blackheart is a lead miniature and is meant for display. The full-color magazine included is equally awesome, 15 pages of Blackheart's character history complete all of his appearances, characters fought, and tons of information. The way they're bagged together tho means the comic is usually dented/bent over a little where the box has been pressing up against it during shipment.

So what's the verdict? At around $14 you get a hand painted, imported from England, individually numbered (runs of 10,000 I think?) figurine with a character specific magazine. That's really good when you think about what normal collectibles or mini-statues go for. Blackheart is really well sculpted and painted but you should see the other figures! Some like Man Thing are downright amazing and Galactus is oversized and weighs a ton. Our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store has him in stock along with many others. Be aware that some of the past figures are hard to come buy and you'll end up having to use Amazon or Ebay to locate them. Also remember these are made of lead, not plastic, and you'll want to be careful handling them.

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