World of Nintendo 4" Series 4 and 5 Review

After taking many months to finally getting around to my second review of Jakk's Pacific's various World of Nintendo lines, it only took a few weeks before new assortments of the four inch line showed up. And then to make things even better, Jakk's Pacific has released two series of figures almost simultaneously as both series 4 and series 5 showed up in stores within a couple of weeks. So it's time to check out these new additions to the ever growing collection of Nintendo figures from Jakk's.

Packaging - Series 4 7/10, Series 5 8/10

The packaging design for the four inch line received it's first change with series 5, though it is a fairly minor one. Starting this series, the accessories are no longer hidden. The overall design doesn't change much. The accessories are in the same place and the inserts are the same shape. But now they tout the accessory and it is clearly visible both in the blister and on the back of the card. As I said, it is a minor change, but I would much rather know what I'm getting than not. So this is an improvement in my opinion.

Sculpting - OoT Link 7/10, Cat Luigi & Tanooki Mario 8/10, Others 9/10

The sculpting for Jakk's World of Nintendo remains quite simple and clean. It is a style that works quite well for the Super Mario Bros. characters. Gold Mario and Fire Flower Luigi are reuses of the regular versions of those characters. The other characters are all new sculpts. And they turned out extremely well with the possible exception of Ocarina of Time Link. I would like to have seen some texturing added to Cat Luigi and Tanooki Mario for their fur. Cat Luigi in particular should be furry. Ocarina of Time Link has a nice design, but the details lack sharpness. Gravity Suit Samus is the same sculpt as the previous Samus. It's a nice sculpt, but it would be nice if they made some modifications such as opening the arm cannon for it's missle launching position.

Paint - 8/10

The paint work on most of these figures is relatively simple, but came out clean and well executed. Some are much simpler than others of course, such as Gold Mario. But even he has decos over the gold paint for the letter M on his hat and his eyes. Bowser Jr. has a lot of great painted details. But the extra effort that they put into him is offset by some sloppiness in the paint on the spikes on his shell.

Articulation - Waluigi 6/10, Bowser Jr., Link & Sheik 8/10, Others 7/10

Jakk's Pacific manages to put a surprising amount of articulation into these figures. Mario, Luigi and Waluigi all have fifteen points of articulation: rotating neck and wrists, rotating and hinged shoulders and hips and hinged elbows and knees. Cat Luigi and Tanooki Mario add some extra ankle joints and a hinge in the neck joint, but the sculpts greatly limit the hip movement. Amazingly, they manage to pack in all that same articulation onto his squat little frame. The Ocarina of Time figures have a lot more articulation, twenty one points for Sheik and twenty eight points of articulation for Link. Some of the joints have fairly limited range of motion. So Link can't actually put his arms down at his sides. And Sheik's leg articulation isn't really good for anything other than standing up.

Accessories - Gold Mario & Waluigi 6/10 Others 8/10

With the exception of Ocarina of Time Link, each figure comes with one accessory.

Fire Luigi - fire flower
Tanooki Mario - leaf
Cat Luigi - bell
Gold Mario & Waluigi - coin
Bowser Jr. - bob-omb
Sheik - lyre
GS Samus - Morph Ball

Officially Link's accessory is his shield, which is still hidden in the packaging. But of course he also has his Master Sword and a sheath into which it will fit. They are a nice pair and do constitute Link's primary equipment. But that still leaves a huge list of all of Link's other weapons and power up items such as hearts, heart containers or ruppees that Link doesn't get. Jakk's could release a set of nothing but these extra accessories. But getting back to the accessories that are actually included instead of what could be, most of the accessories make a lot of sense, are well sculpted and painted. (The bell, leaf and coins could all use stands to help them stand up though.) And then there are the coins included with Gold Mario and Waluigi. We have already seen this same coin included with several other figures in the previous three series, so it is really over used. And it isn't even gold or painted, which makes it seem like a poor consolation prize. Granted, giving Gold Mario who turns most of his environment and enemies into coins makes perfect sense. But if you wanted to reuse an accessory, give us a gold flower since that is something that we won't have another logical opportunity to produce unless they make a Gold Luigi. Gravity Suit Samus comes with a purple repaint of her morph-ball form which is no surprise. But again it would have been nice to see Jakk's put a little effort into distinguishing Gravity Suit Samus from the previous Samus. It's not like there is a lack of items from the Metroid games that they could have included.

Value - Bowser Jr. 8/10, Others 6/10

The price for the four inch figures differs quite a bit depending upon where you buy them, anywhere from $10 each to $15 each. So of course, so does the figures' value. Bowser Jr. is the best figure of the two series. He's just too cute, and his bob-omb accessory is the best looking accessory that Jakk's Pacific has made so far. But for the $10 price tag, these are a fairly solid value and it is nice to see Nintendo's intellectual properties represented in physical form. At the $15 price tag, the price was high enough that I passed up these figures the first time I saw them and I still didn't buy the Shy Guy figure that was part of series four.

Happy Hunting:

I have found both series four and five at Toys R Us here in Madison, WI. I also found the series four figures at one of the local Target stores. So they are making their way out to stores. But the distribution for this line has not been great. It is the type of line that when you see it in a store and you pass them up, you may not get a second chance. They are available online from a number of retailers. But even there, the availability and price can vary quite a bit.

Back to the reviews page

Gold Mario MIB

Luigi and cat bell

Cat Luigi