There are few films that have had such a marketing push and viral marketing strategy as the upcoming TRON Legacy, the sequel, re-imagining of the original 80’s classic TRON. And as usual, with a big movie push, comes big movie merchandise.
The most exciting of the new TRON Legacy line from Spin Master, to me, is the 7″ Impulse-Projection-Technology figures. Admittedly, this is a gimmick, but it’s a damn cool one, and unique at that.
Basically, aside from the standard LED lights in the chest, which fade in, stay on for about 10 seconds, then fade off, you get another added electronic bonus. With a second press of the button inder the figures arm, the face will flicker a few times and then fully light up, with a talking face of Clu, somehow shifting between 2-3 frames, in time with audio clips from the character. This works amazingly well, and I’m still not sure how it works.
The lines the figure speaks in random order are:
- “So, you like bikes?”
- “Greetings Programs!”
- “Out There…is our destiny!”
- “Flynn Lives.”
- “You’ll get what you deserve.”
In addition to the light and sound gimmicks, the figure comes with decent articulation and 2 accessories. He comes with a clear orange katana and his identity disk. The disk can clip onto the figures back for storage, which works nice, aside from being how it works in the film. The articulation is somewhat limited in the hips, and because of the projection gimmick, there is no articulation in the torso or head.
At a price point of $13-16.50, this is definitely more than the average figure. But it is also a larger scale than we have been getting lately, and the sculpted detail and paint work that is there is impeccable. With a little better articulation, this would be a perfect figure. Worth picking up for sure if you have any interest in TRON, or even just seeing some cool technology that has not been seen in action figures before.
I should also mention, there are 3 settings on the electronics, Off, Try Mode, which makes the chest and face/sounds activate all at once, and then normal ON mode, which just turns on the chest lights first, then if you push the button again, the sound and face effects.
Love these figures, but unfortunately (due to the projection feature) the articulation is somewhat lacking. The 3 3/4″ figures have better articulation, but do not allow the disk to clip to the back (like the larger figures) and obviously don’t have the projection feature either. In other words both scales have their good/bad. For my money though I’d go with the larger scale any day of the week.
How’s the ball hips on these guys Talyn? It doesn’t look like there’s a lot of range there…
The ball hips suck. They are even worse than the dreaded “hasbro hips” on the IM2 figures, as the plastic is too high at the thigh joint to allow for much forward/back/sideways motion. If this plastic could be shaved it might improve the figures leg movement, but I am loathe to potentially screw up my figure- especially with the special projection gimmick and at the $15 price point. This could potentially be a costly mistake.
The leg stances you see above are all it can do. The hips are very limiting, and the knees do not behind inward much either, so its hard to get low poses. You can get the hips a little wider by getting the thigh top edge under the hip cut, but its pretty tight.
Ugh. I love the new tech stuff, but c’mon the joints are there but they don’t do the job! I’m an articulation junkie and all gimmicks and no poseability is a big fail for me. I’d be all over these if they had double-jointed knees and elbows, and good hip articulation. Wish they had done some super poseable figs!
I really hope these reach Philippine shores. I’m disappointed with the articulation, but I think the fact that you can store the weapon and the electronic gimmicks make up for it. I’m willing to try it out. I’m also wondering how the smaller set of figures are, if their articulation is similar.