Out of the Box: Aveline de Grandpré (McFarlane Toy's Assassin's Creed Series 2)

Aveline with her pistol and whip.

Good news!  I've found my camera!  So on we go with the toy talk!

Back in late 2012/early 2013, I attempted to get through the entire Assassin's Creed series. I made it through 1, 2, Brotherhood, Liberation (I even bought the special edition PSVita for that one) and about a quarter of the way through Revelations, when the sameness of them all started to get to me.   Still, I do still have a fondness for the player characters from those games, and while I see to have missed seeing the first series of figures when they were new (I'd have considered picking up Altaïr and Ezio if I had), on Monday I happened across the new series.  Having not played AC3 or ACIV, I wasn't interested in the tie-ins for those, but since Aveline de Grandpré (the main character from Liberation) was on the shelf as well, she made her way into my shopping basket.

Before getting to the figure, I have to say that I'm impressed with the minimalist packaging for this line - too many figures come with ridiculous layers, but this one had the single card, a basic front + back of plastic and only a single tie-on.  I appreciated that both in terms of ease of unboxing, and in terms of not having to throw out huge amounts of packaging for what's ultimately a fairly small toy.

In the box.

For a figure at this price point ($13USD), I was impressed with the amount of detail:  the clothing is fantastically well sculpted and painted, and she comes with a variety of accessories including a hat, a whip, a pistol and a variety of blades.  The figure has 11 points of articulation (although the hip movement is quite limited due to the outfit), and poses well.  Her balance is less than ideal though - a stand would have been helpful for this one.

With her machete and knife.

 Overall, I'd give this figure top marks - she's a good likeness of the character with lovely detailing and a solid number of accessories (which I will probably lose, but hey).

Out of the Box: Mulder & Scully (McFarlane Toys' Fight the Future series)

Scully and Mulder

I've talked about my deep and abiding fondness for The X-files before (when I was excited to find the Sideshow Autopsy Scully for my sister), and yet somehow I've never shared my standard-sized figures before outside of a few group shots with them in the background.

The alien.

 These figures were part of a 1998 McFarlane Toys release that tied-in to the decidedly mediocre The X-Files: Fight the Future film.  In addition to the traditional suited Mulder and Scully, the line included parka-wearing variants (which I quite like, although I don't have them myself  - my sister owned them at the time, and they were nicely done), an alien and a couple of semi-developed alien and corpse-gestating-alien figures.  Personally, I was always baffled by the inclusion of the corpses and pod-aliens - they were so specific to the film rather than the show, and so limited in terms of display (and play, although clearly the line wasn't marketed for that), that I've never understood the appeal of them.  I've met a multiple people who own (or once owned) these figures, but I've only once met someone who isn't a MIC collector who actually did anything with those parts.

The figures also included some small accessories including flashlights, cell
phones and ID badges. That I've managed not to lose the flashlight that you can see in the photo above is somewhat miraculous, given that these guys have been out-of-box for more than a decade (I'm usually not that organized!).

As is standard for McFarlane's releases of the time, the likenesses are solid and the details are fabulous.  The resemblance to the actors is significantly better on these than on the much larger Sideshow line.

I used this photo for a Christmas card one year.
Yes, I know that's silly, and no, I don't care. ;)

Size comparison: the McFarlane Mulder doesn't
quite reach the Sideshow Krycek's waist.