World of Nintendo 4" Series 2-1 & 2-2 and 2" Series 2-2 and 2-3 Review

With my usual slow down in reviews over the summer, it wasn't just Ninja Turtle toys that piled up. Over the last few months I have accumulated a small mountain of new figures from Jakk's Pacific's World of Nintendo lines. Sadly it appears that their six inch line isn't going to survive past the second series. But the four inch and the smaller two inch lines are still going strong. Series 2-2 and 2-3 of the smaller line has seen a few new Super Mario Bros. enemies in the form of a Goomba and Chain Chomp, a red pikmin, the male Villager and Tom Nook from Animal Crossing and even the first Splatoon character, an orange squid. They have also relaesed series 2-1 and 2-2 of the four inch line. Series 2-1 gives us a Wind Waker version of Link, a Para Trooper/Koopa Trooper, a red repaint of Yoshi and White repaint of Tanooki Mario and another Star Fox character, Falco Lombardi. And series 2-2 includes Cat Mario, a Red Toad, Princess Zelda from Ocarina of Time, Skull Kid from Majora's Mask and Slippy Toad from Star Fox. And if that wasn't enough, I also finally broke down and bought one of the larger Shy Guy figures from series 1-4 of the four inch line. That's eighteen figures that I have picked up in the last few months and I haven't even been able to find all of the two inch line series 2-3 figures that I want. So in the interest of keeping this from being a monsterously long review, I'm going to use my white tanooki leaf and skip most of the minutia of going over each figure with this review and let the photos speak for themselves.

Packaging - 8/10

The packaging design remains largely the same. They have kept the accessories visible for the four inch line which is a nice change. And the overall design works well to tie together the variety of license while still allowing you to easily distinguish them on the store pegs. The one issue I do have with them is the use of Wind Waker artwork and logos for Princess Zelda and Skull Kid in series 2-2 since neither of those figures is based on that game.

Sculpting - Falco, Slippy, Skull Kid, Zelda & Squid 5/10, Cat & Tanooki Mario 6/10, Others 7/10

The sculpting for these figures is the same simple, clean style as the previous figures. How well that works varies from figure to figure. In general, the Super Mario characters look great. Mario's two outfits could use some fur texture though. It works well for Wind Waker Link as well. Zelda and Skull Kid are more detailed. But they still look just a bit too cartoon-like. That goes for Falco and Slippy as well. But at least the style is consistent. The smaller figures are surprisingly well done as well. The orange squid look nice from the front. But he is also quite flat. That does allow it to glide along the ground as they do in the game. The pikmin is nice, but very small to be sold on its own. Tom Nook is great. He actually looks almost identical to the Tom Nook Amiibo. The Villager is a bit smaller and both of them could use bases to stand as their feet are tiny. They can stand. But they are not very stable.

Paint - Skull Kid 5/10, Zelda 8/10, others 7/10

The paint work on all of the figures is pretty simple and clean. There's no real problems with them either in terms of neccessary details being missing or quality control issues. But they also don't really stand out in any way either thanks largely to the simple style. Zelda is a bit more elaborate due to all of the details of her costume. But other than the printed graphics on the banner on the front of her skirt, there's no real detail work. The Skull Kid is the one figures I do have a problem with. When I think of the Skull Kid, I picture a character dressed in burlap rags that are quite dirty thanks to his time living out in the woods. The figure is completely clean and the colors seem way too bright in my opinion. If I had more ambition, talant and a second figure, I would love to see him given a paint wash just to dirty him up a bit.

Articulation - Chain Chomp & Squid 0/10, Pikmin, Villager & T. Nook 3/10, Toad 5/10, Skull Kid, Koopa Paratrooper & Goomba 8/10, Others 7/10

The four inch line packs a surprising amount of articulation into all of the figures. Unfortunately the character design for most of the characters with their short little limbs negates a lot of the range of motion and usefulness of the articulation. There are a few notable standouts both for the positive and negative. Toad's limbs are so small that there just isn't room for much articulation. Both the Skull Kid and Koopa Paratrooper have way more articulation than I would have expected, especially on Skull Kid. If not for the fact that his joints are both a bit ackward and too loose, he would have been nearly perfect. Obviously articulation is more limited on the smaller figures. Chain Chomp and Squid have no articulation at all. The Pikmin have rotating necks. And Villager and Tom Nook have rotating necks and shoulders. They're not terribly impressive. But I wasn't expecting much at this size. But I do have to call out the Goomba. He has just a single ball joint where his top and bottom portions connect and it doesn't even give much verticle movement. But it is far more range of movement than I would have expected and more or less covers the entirity of what a Goomba is actually capable of in the games. It's subtle, but enough to make the Goomba to be one of my favorites.

Accessories - Pikmin & Squid 4/10, other 2 inch figures 0/10, Falco & Shy Guy 3/10 Toad, Slippy, Zelda, Yoshi & Koopa 4/10,
Tanooki & Cat Mario 5/10, Link & Skull Kid 7/10

The only accessories included with any of the two inch figures are the stands included with the pikmin and the orange Squid. And those were only included since those figures wouldn't be able to stay upright without them. Why they didn't also include them for Tom Nook and the Villager who also barely stand is rather confusing. Each of the four inch figures has at least one accessory:

Shy Guy - propeller
White Tanooki Mario - leaf
Red Yoshi - egg
Cat Mario - bell
Red Toad - coin
Para Troopa - wings
Link - shield, sword & sheath
Princess Zelda - ocarina
Skull Kid - Majora's Mask
Falco - Arwing
Slippy - Bomb icon

The accessories for Falco and Shy Guy are all rather underwhelming. The propeller for the Shy Guy is new and unique. But it is just a monochrome chunk of plastic. If it actually spun, it would be far more impressive. The Para Trooper wings are nice in that it gives you the option of either a regular Koopa or a Para Trooper. It's just too bad that they didn't include a flight stand to go with them. The rest of the accessories for the Super Mario figures are all recycled and in some cases repainted from previous figures. Some look better than others. But there isn't really a way for the figures to interact with the accessories. Slippy's bomb icon is an improvement over a tiny Arwing. But again, there's nothing for the figure to do with it. The three Legend of Zelda characters represent the best opportunity to include some great accessories given the source games. And they do have the best accessories of all the figures. Zelda has the blue ocarina of time. Skull Kid comes with a wearable Majora's Mask. Wind Waker Link has his shield, sword and a sheath for the sword. All of those are nice. But they aren't enough. Yeah, the ocarina is nice, but I also want a bow with light arrows and every other weapon from the Ocarina of Time game that weren't already included with Link. Skull Kid also only has a single accessory. But the mask is so well painted and removable that the quality makes up for the lack of additional goodies.

Value - Villager & T. Nook 3/10, Pikmin, Squid & Shy Guy 4/10, Tanooki Mario 5/10 Link, Skull Kid & Para Troopa 8/10, others 6/10

The two inch figures sell for $5 while the larger four inch line sells for $10 in most stores. The quality of what you get for that money varies a lot from figure to figure. The standouts like the Wind Waker Link and Skull Kid are a great deal. Sure there are better Wind Waker Links available or coming so from the import market, but they sell for a lot more than $10. And even the figures that aren't spectacular do have one big selling point going for them, this is likely the only time we are likely to get figures of characters like Slippy, Falco or the Pikmin. As a fan of the Pikmin games, I am glad to see they continued to make more of the Pikmin. Though I wish they would add more value for the Pikmin such as alternate budding or flowering heads.

Happy Hunting:

One of the biggest challenges with Jakk's World of Nintendo line seems to be just finding the figures. Technically the line is carried at most stores including Target, Toys R Us and even Walmart now. But most of those stores carry the line in fairly limited quantities. And when stores only allocate room for a few figures and you get any characters that don't sell well, it becomes very difficult to ever find newer releases. And then, to make things even more complicated, the series often seem to be shipping simultanously to different retailers. But if you do get the chance to pick them up, do it.

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