Ace is one of my
favorite companions from Doctor Who and I’ve been looking
forward to the day Character Options/Underground Toys would get
around to making her. I’m actually a little surprised that it took
as long as it did given that Sophie Aldred has always been a big
supporter of the franchise.
As for Ace
herself – she was independent, smart, and a bit reckless. She
combined the best elements of many prior companions – Leela’s
fierceness, Sarah Jane’s enthusiasm, and Jamie’s wit. Ace also
represented a new level of story arc for a companion. While Romana,
Nyssa, Adric, and others had experienced varying degrees of personal
growth and character development during their time with the Doctor;
Ace’s story was the first to truly become central to the show’s
ongoing narrative and set the standard for what we see in modern Who
today.
First
Glance: Ace’s face didn’t look great in the online
production pictures I first saw. Sadly, the situation isn’t much
better with the final product. I can’t wait to hear my fellow Earth
Station Whovian Jennifer’s reaction to this. Lots of accessories,
though!
Articulation:
Underground has gotten much better with the articulation on these
figures. Ace has about as much as you could want at this scale,
though certain joints could use improvement.
Head – swivel
Shoulders –
swivel/pivot
Biceps - swivel
Elbows –pivot
Wrists –
swivel (jacket arms only)
Waist - swivel
Hips –
swivel/hinge
Thighs - swivel
Knees – pivot
Thankfully Ace
has the new style shoulders, so they have a better range of motion
than older releases. Her arms can do pretty much whatever you want,
and both sets of arms – jacket and short sleeves – are
articulated well. I can appreciate the aesthetically-motivated
decision to forgo swivels on the bare arms.
Her leg movement
is slightly restricted by her skirt.
Otherwise all of
Ace’s joints function well. There was some paint that I had to
loosen up to get the shoulders on her short sleeve arms to move.
There was an unfortunate side effect there that I’ll cover in the
“Coloring” section.
Sculpt:
As is the case with any new character from this line, Ace is 100%
newly tooled.
For the purposes
of the review I am going to consider the jacketless Ace the base
figure and the jacket and related arms accessories.
Her head is
pretty terrible. This thing might have passed muster in the 80s, but
for a modern toy the likeness is just bad. It makes the normally cute
Sophie Aldred look like she has some sort of affliction that causes
massive head swelling. Maybe she’s allergic to penicillin. It’s
simply no good. The sculpt does vaguely resemble Ms. Aldred, but…
blech.
The hair looks
great, though. There is sculpt rather than just painted lines to
suggest actual hair. The braid looks great and has a ton of detail.
The short sleeve
arms are proportionally nice and even feature a watch on the left
wrist. I love the shape of the rolled-up sleeves. The sculptors did a
bang-up job of making them look right.
The torso looks
good and isn’t too big. The shape of the t-shirt was done well and
I really like the haphazard way it is tucked in. It gives the figure
an interesting profile while still allowing for a waist swivel.
The legs have
full articulation that is somewhat restricted by the skirt, as I
mentioned above. My issue here is that Ace’s tights have a very
specific design that was ignored. I suppose that should really be
addressed in the “Coloring” section, but in a perfect world it
would be a sculpt issue. Either way, these are simple, unadorned
black tights.
Ace’s shoes
look pretty much right to me.
I don’t often
address stature and scale because for the most part lines these days
are doing a decent job with them (Star Wars) or ignore these factors
entirely as part of the functionality of the line (Masters of the
Universe Classics). So I just wanted to take a paragraph to
acknowledge how fantastic Character Options are with scale. I may not
understand their motivations for starting the Doctor Who lines in a
5” scale, but they have done an outstanding job of maintaining
proportions and relative scale within the lines. There may be the
occasional issue with Dalek size, but for the most part the
Doctor Who lines have the best scale continuity in the business.
Doctor Who lines have the best scale continuity in the business.
Coloring:
This is an area where CO puts so much work in, but sometimes their
process leaves the figures a bit lacking. For the most part Ace looks
great, but there are a couple of bad spots.
The detail paint
on the head does not help the sculpt situation any. The hair is
somewhat blobby and a bit too dark. It seems that the paint goes a
bit beyond the sculpted hairline and looks a bit weird. I do like the
highlights and the fact that the scrunchie is painted. Ace’s lips
are the right hue and in the right place, but her eyes a kind of
wonky. They seem a bit too big and while I do like the fact that it
kind of looks like she’s rolling them at something the “Professor”
just said, they don’t look right.
The rest of Ace
looks great, though. Her skin tone is right and the graphics on her
Facts of Life-looking t-shirt are perfect. All of the paint
apps stay within their areas and there’s no blotching or messy
parts. The only areas I have issues with are the armpits.
Those
hinges were stuck on my figure and when I worked them around the
white paint on them came off, leaving bare white plastic that –
while still white – does not match the paint. It isn’t terrible,
but it is a result of the way CO has its figures painted.
Flair:
Ace’s skirt has a great shape and a good sculpt, but it’s a bit
too deep and wide, so to speak. I understand that CO probably wanted
to leave a bit of room so the leg articulation wasn’t totally
useless, but it’s still mostly useless and that isn’t much
better. Mostly useless combined with too big is pretty much worse.
The skirt
doesn’t look awful on its own, but when combined with Ace’s fat
head it makes her look positively stout.
Accessories:
This figure comes packed with an unbelievable number of accessories.
Mattel would decapitate a designer who suggested even half this many.
Ace has:
- A bomber jacket
- An extra pair of jacketed arms
- Two inactive Nitro-9 canisters
- One active Nitro-9 canister
- One RPG launcher
- One RPG
- One baseball bat
- One rucksack
It’s insane.
It would take at least five DC figures from Mattel to get that
many accessories. And Ace from Mattel would not have had the costume
options and would have only included the baseball bat. A later
variant would have had the bomber jacket and one Nitro-9 canister.
The bomber
jacket looks perfect. All of the patches are represented and the
paint apps are perfect. The jacket and arms switch out easily.
The rucksack has
a removable panel that allows you to store stuff inside:
And it has a
nice paint job.
The baseball bat
– which has been enhanced by means I still do not understand,
despite having seen “Remembrance of the Daleks” several times and
even having reviewed it on Earth Station Who – looks great.
The sculpt incorporates all of the ridges and stuff. The paint is
solid.
The RPG launcher
looks great and the RPG can be plugged into the front.
Al of the rest
of the pieces look like they should and can interact with the figure.
The most impressive thing is that aside from the extra arms,
everything can fit on Ace at once.
Packaging:
The Doctor Who line comes in clamshells. I don’t like them, but
that’s just how it is. I do have to admit that I like the
old-school design of the packaging.
The bio on the
back is a concise and fairly thorough encapsulation of Ace’s story.
Value:
I was lucky enough to have a friend attending San Diego Comic Con
pick this up for me (thanks, Rebecca!). I believe it was $20, which
isn’t bad considering the number of accessories.
Overall:
I can overlook the skirt because it really isn’t that bad, but the
head is. The rest of the figure is so great that I would totally buy
it again if CO could just get a better likeness.
3
out of 5
As of this
writing this is our only option for an Ace figure. In my opinion she
is a must-have, and just sitting on the shelf next to your Doctor
Seven her big ol’ head doesn’t bother me that much. I couldn’t
not have her, even if I had seen the big head in person first.
If you can overlook the head, you can buy this one from BigBad or
Entertainment Earth.
-Phantom
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