Jazwares is kind of irritating the crap
out of me. They have a tendency to produce extremely flimsy or
otherwise low-quality action figures like yesterday’s Space Ghost, but they keep nabbing licenses that interest me.
The fact that they have the
Hanna-Barbera license is irritating. They also have the license for
Regular Show, which bothers me. And Adventure Time.
That’s just… ugh. The one that I didn’t care one way or the
other about was their Nicktoons license. Or at least, I didn’t care
until I saw the Target Exclusive Ren & Stimpy merchandise.
Target has a whole endcap of Nicktoons
merchandise set up – half Ren & Stimpy and half some
other Nicktoon. I mentioned above that I didn’t care about Jazwares
having the Nicktoons license. That’s because I have never been a
fan of Doug, Rugrats, The Fairly Oddparents, or really any of
the other cartoons that fall under the banner. I don’t know exactly
what it is, but so many of those cartoons were extremely off-putting
to me. But the Ren & Stimpy half of that endcap was
exciting to see.
They had plushes of the titular
characters as well as action figures, and a box set of PVC figures
featuring more of the cast. It had Ren, Stimpy, Log, Mr. Horse,
Powdered Toast Man, and Stimpy’s cousin that wore the lederhosen (I
can’t remember his name). This was the most appealing item, but the
figures’ scales were all off. Mr. Horse and Powdered Toast Man were
far too small. I can’t deal with figures in the same line
not being in scale, let alone figures in the same box set. So
I passed on that and bought the plushes for Lil’ Troublemaker and
the action figures for myself. Plush is much less likely to fall
apart than plastic.
First Glance: Ren has the
flimsy appearance and apparent disregard for balance shared by many
Jazwares products, but he sure does look like Ren. I can’t fault
the sculpt.
Articulation: Despite
Ren’s diminutive stature and narrow limbs, he has nine points of
articulation.
Head – ball joint
Ears – swivel/pivot
Shoulders – swivel/pivot
Wrists – swivel
Hips – swivel/pivot
Maybe not a ton of joints, but I’m
impressed they aren’t all just swivels. Each one is fairly tight
and was sturdy enough to handle not only my posing for pictures, but
Lil’ Troublemaker playing with the figure for a while.
Despite being massively top-heavy, Ren
stands up fairly well. It takes some adjusting, but once you get him
upright he stays that way.
I love that his ears are articulated.
Ren’s ears moved around with his moods in the cartoon, and even
though we’re stuck with his crazy face on this figure, I like the
posing options.
Sculpt: The head sculpt
is amazing. I would have preferred a more neutral look, but I say
that about everything. I almost always want my figures to be that way
unless they’re variants from a particular scene or situation like
that “KHAAAAAN!” Kirk that DST made. But I get that Jazwares was
going for Ren’s maniacally happy look from “Stimpy’s
Invention”. And they nailed it. This is a very involved and
intricate sculpt, what with the eyes and weird mouth and everything.
He even has a uvula.
The rest of Ren is proportionate and
looks good. His body is the right shape and size compared to his head
and the posture is spot-on. And... he has a butt. The hands and feet are oversized in the
right way and are apparently what help to balance the figure. I think
Jazwares made good choices in how to represent the limbs and body on
this guy. Every part of Ren looked a hundred different ways over the
course of the cartoon, but Jazwares has captured a fairly iconic and
functional style with this figure.
I also like the plastic used to make
the figure. It has a bit of a texture that makes look more cartoony
and gives it a different feel than other figures. This guy feels
very flimsy. I was nervous while playing with him and felt sure
something was going to break off. But nothing did.
Coloring: Ren’s paint
job looks very good. Most of the detailing is on the head and it is
all tight and accurate.
The beige on the body is accurate and
the sickly pink and red of the eyes is well done. The placement of
the details is great, as the teeth, mouth, nose, and everything else
all stay within the borders and aren’t fuzzy or blotchy anywhere.
Flair: Nothing to report
here.
Accessories: Ren comes
with Stimpy’s Invention, or the Happy Helmet. It’s a great sculpt
that looks exactly like the animation and the coloring is well done
on the exterior. They didn’t really bother with the inside, but
that’s okay with me. No big deal.
It took me a minute to figure out
exactly how this thing was supposed to sit on the figure’s head, as
there are a couple of ways it can look right. You have to sort of
push it all the way back and down.
There are any number of possible
accessories this guy could have come with, but I agree with this one.
“Stimpy’s Invention” is still one of the very best animated
shorts ever made and features so many iconic moments. I’m always
surprised when I’m reminded that it’s the twelfth episode of the
first season.
Packaging: I do love the
new packaging for these Hanna-Barbera toys. It has a nice,
distinctive shape and the design can carry across all the different
licenses and seem right. Also, it isn’t a clamshell. So bonus
points for that. Jazwares cheaped out(!) and opted not to print bios
or cartoon histories or anything neat on the backs. That’s pretty
lame.
Value: It’s been a few
weeks since I bought these and I can’t actually remember how much
they were. I know they weren’t more than ten bucks. I’m thinking
they might have been $8.99. I’ll say this for the value – ten
bucks is a bit steep, but worth it. If they were eight bucks then
they were a bargain.
Overall: I think the only
thing that could have made me happier with this figure would be if he
had interchangeable heads rather than the helmet. A neutral-faced Ren
and also this crazy Ren with the helmet on. Otherwise, this is a
pretty great figure. I can’t complain.
4
out of 5
I don’t know what the plan is for
these toys. I haven’t seen them in any of my regular Targets since
buying ours. Not the figures or the plush. I would hope they’ll be
restocked, but who knows? If you happen to see them and are a fan of
Ren & Stimpy, these toys have my recommendation.
Come back tomorrow and find out about
Ren’s idiot friend.
-Phantom
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