Jack Sparrow "Stranger Tides" Jakks Pacific 4" Figure Review

 

Introduction

 

Jakks Pacific may not be a household name to most of you. This is forgivable considering that Jakks Pacific operates under a variety of brand names, and releases a large number of third-party licenses.

 

For my first-ever Toy review I wanted something unique, and an opportunity to showcase a company that may not be familiar to all of you. Everyone knows the standbys: Hasbro, Mattel, even McFarlane. Starting soon; I will be featuring product from higher-end toy and collectible companies and those reviews will be even more comprehensive than this one. For this first review I picked something that I could really showcase the unique feature of on video.

 

 

 

For this review, and all reviews of toys and collectibles, the video and written reviews are meant to be used together. Each contains similar but separate information, so please do view the video also.

 

Overview of Jack

 

Jack sparrow needs no introduction of course; after three movies and numerous toy and collectible lines he is a household name. This particular figure is a 4 inch poseable action figure. Normally; mass media market figures are low quality, poorly assembled, poorly painted, and generally not worth your time. For only eight dollars; this Jack deserves a close look and represents a very interesting stopgap from cheap toy to semi-respectable collectible.

 

  

 

Make no mistake; this figure is a mass-market release. As such; it comes on a standard card, includes only a smattering of accessories, is of limited pose ability, and is priced in line with similar toys. Would I suggest shopping this figure against the HOT TOYS 12 inch version of the same character? Of course not. But if you don't have $230 to blow on one toy, but still want a few figures to look good on a shelf, take a close look at what we have here today.

 

First impressions

 

As you can see; I have included an extensive 30 min. video of not only the unboxing, but also a very comprehensive tour of this figure. It is standard for me to create videos for each of my reviews; but in the case of collectibles and toys, these videos will be more comprehensive than a simple unboxing. For most tech items the unboxing itself is sufficient. In the case of toys and collectibles; a lot of the excitement and a lot of the review process go into the aesthetics, feel, and interaction.

 

While the card screams “mass media” it is nonetheless quite attractive, including a finger hole in order to interact with the gimmick ring. The ring that comes with the figure represents the unique feature, and I'm the only one who will show you this feature in action in such high quality. We'll get to what it does specifically in a moment.

 

  

 

The first thing that catches one's attention is the level of detail at this scale. For the price and scale we expect considerably less detail, sloppy paint, hard plastic, and few or no accessories. Upon close inspection I found absolutely no flaws in the paint, and was extremely impressed with the level of detail achieved at this scale. Indeed; even the eyes were accurately painted, and the face represents an extremely impressive representation of the actor himself.

 

A scant few years ago, you would be hard pressed to find 1/6 scale figures with this level of detail, at five times the price. Progress is nice, eh?

 

The Line

 

As my first Toy review and indeed my first review of any collectible of similar nature, I have nothing on the review table to compare this to. This does not mean that we cannot glean a great deal of useful information, and as you'll see from both the video and this review I will give you the most comprehensive look at this figure you will find online.

 

The Jakks Pacific "Stranger Tides" 4 inch figure line includes several characters so far and a pirate ship playset. If I get the opportunity; I will look at the rest of the toys from this line as a follow-up.

 

Features

 

The figure itself is dressed in molded-in boots, pants and loose-fitting white shirt. Over this is an impressively soft and most likely removable blue vest. Around this vast is a sword scabbard, and a double belt, adorned with a variety of items, including the compass, and the natty looking sash. You would expect that the paint on any of these items would look terrible at this scale, but everything was painted almost flawlessly. I have an extensive gallery of ultra-high resolution images included in this review. If you scroll to the bottom of the review you'll see a gallery of images. If you look below that, you will find a link to download the full resolution images, which I strongly encourage you to do.

 

"Reveal The Secret" Gimmick

 

The “gimmick” is a large plastic ring, containing what I can only discern is a pocket black light, which is meant to be shined on the figure itself ( and is easily worth the price by itself ). Even in bright lights the effect is quite dramatic. See video and images for extensive demonstration. Again; for a figure of such small-scale to have such a unique feature is quite impressive.

 

  

 

  

 

I applaud Jakks Pacific for trying something new and different at this price point and scale. It just goes to show that a little ingenuity can go a long way. Sure; there are a few other figures of this scale that look decent, but the combination of build quality, paint quality, and gimmick makes this line quite unique.

 

Gimmick

 

Jack is covered in an invisible surface over most of his body that reacts to the light from the ring to create an appropriately creepy disease like effect. Having not seen the movie; I can only venture to guess what the nature of this effect is, or even whether it has anything to do with the movie at all. I can only say that it is quite fun, but looking at the package; the image makes it look kind of wrong.

 

For additional fun, go into your bathroom, close the door, and turn out the light. Shine the ring on your teeth and look in the mirror. Shine it at your toothbrush, or other white surfaces. If you're over 30, commence with the nostalgia and perhaps run screaming from the room. 

 

Build Quality

 

Base figure is made from a very sturdy plastic, with approximately 12 points of articulation, which is quite good at this level, and is covered by clothing made of a much softer rubberlike plastic. His molded hair is also very soft and allows for decent head poseability.

 

The accessories which we will get into in a moment are made of either of these materials as appropriate.

 

Aesthetics 

 

I can't wait to acquire the rest of the figures from this line as well is the pirate ship itself and display them, as I feel that they are worthy of display.

 

The face sculpt especially is remarkable in that it invokes "Johnny Depp" from virtually any angle. See video for more on this.

 

Paint

 

Paint is virtually flawless, and indeed I had to look very hard to find anything wrong with any of it. I found one tiny bit of orange in his hair and that is it. The level of detail for this scale and price point is extremely remarkable and makes me wonder what a sixth scale figure from this company would be like.  I have a feeling that they would give HOT TOYS a run for their money, or at least give us an extremely high value cost effective alternative.

 

Accessories

 

  

 

Jack's hat

 

The hat is iconic; even more so than the sword or guns, and having a stiff hat that does not fit on the head would be unforgivable even at this price point. Fortunately this hat is made of a very soft flexible material and fits perfectly over the head even to the point of being poseable in a variety of angles. See video and images for examples.

 

Sword

 

The sword is unfortunately made of the softer material rather than the harder one. I suppose this was necessary, but it still saddens me slightly. The sword has some lost detail in the hilt, but is otherwise serviceable for this scale. Jack has a scabbard around his shoulder that does in fact hold the sword perfectly, which was a surprise to see. We are used to seeing accessories not work properly at this scale.

 

Guns

 

Does Jack have two guns in the movies? he might in the new one, I'm not sure. These guns are of the hard plastic, but are homogenous in color. It appears there is quite a bit of sculpted detail, but the paint was fairly thick here. Jack is not capable of holding his guns in either hand. Although I wouldn't take off for this; it still represents the one minor disappointment in an otherwise extremely impressive offering.

 

  

 

Issues?

 

Other than the fact that Jack cannot hold his own guns, I find nothing of note to complain about.

 

Integrity Check

 

As this is a brand new paradigm in product reviews, I will take a moment to explain the logic behind it in each of my early reviews.

 

This is how it works:

 

For my site, my keystone paradigm is “Integrity”. It governs everything that I do. I do not “scoop”, I do not “spy”, nor will I purchase stolen hardware, or less serious but still crappy behavior such as copying content, posting something on my site as if it was my content, with a “via-“ link. There is no via ANYthing on my site. 100% of all of my content is generated by me. Period.

 

On that same token, I have certain standards for vendors. It has been my long experience that vendors will treat their reviewers equal to how they treat their customers. The only difference between a professional reviewer and an end user is that reviewers don’t pay for the product. However, we still, or at least, I still expect a certain degree of support, communication, acceptance of feedback, and level of behavioral conduct.

 

As part of this process, I will detail my dealings with each company from first contact, product acquisition, support, and follow up. Exceptional companies will gain a lot of credit here, and the poorly run, greedy, or otherwise “less thans” will be outed.

 

COMPANY

 

This is my first offering from this company, and I don't yet have any dealings with them personally, so I will reserve this judgment for later.

 

Support

 

Figure comes with a 90 day warranty. Would I bother to invoke a warranty on an 8 dollar figure? I'm not sure, but I doubt it, as my time is quite limited and valuable, and I'm sure yours is too. Regardless the figure had no issues to speak of, and therefore I doubt a warranty replacement would be necessary.

 

Conclusion

 

Extremely well wrought value for the price point. If you have not already; make sure you watch the video, as it is an integral part of this process. Also be sure to view each of the images below for detailed showcase of the remarkable detail of this figure.

 

I am greatly looking forward to seeing the rest of this line and showcasing other products from this company. I hope you have enjoyed my first toy review, and I'll see you next time.

 

  

 

 

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