Blizzard Diablo 2 Action Figures - Diablo & The Unraveler
Written: Dec 22 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice Sculpts, Detail, Weapons - true to the game
Cons: articulation is so-so, figures aren't in scale
The Bottom Line: They aren't McFarlane, but they aren't as expensive and they're really cool, especially for a one-shot company.
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| shocka's Full Review: Blizzard Action Figures |
Blizzard Action Figures
Diablo 2
Blizzard are the gaming company that, by now, every gamer and his dog should know back and forth without fail. The legendary creators of some of the greatest games ever, Warcraft II, Diablo and Starcraft, all of which are played continuously on Battle.net day after day. With some fricken awesome characters at their helm, Blizzard considered some companies to make action figures of some of the more popular models from their games, but decided none were good enough, and created their own company to produce action figures, beginning with two characters from Warcraft II, and then representations of the main races from Starcraft. These figures had decent sculpts and articulation, but the culmination of the forces coincided with the release of a sequel to the most popular Blizzard game to date, to be released as Diablo II earlier this year. Today I'll be reviewing two of these great figures, Diablo and The Unraveler.
Diablo
The main demon from the excellent Diablo and Diablo II, Diablo is the big mother not to be messed with. Although I can't remember the exact story, the end of Diablo had you entering the darkest pits of Hell to fight him, and even after killing him, you can't control his power and impale your head with the gem from his forehead. Nasty.
The Lord of Terror, banished to the mortal realm, left a trail of fire and destruction in his wake, using nightmares to weaken and corrupt those who can best serve his dark purpose. Diablo employs illusion and fear as his greatest weapons in his tireless battle against Order.
The figure comes carded on a well decorated card, with some pictures and a character description on the back, plus some details on the other figures in the line, plus Blizzard video games and instructions for the figure. All of it's decorated with the same colours and imagery as the Diablo game boxes, so it's very nice and fits the material.
Out of the package, Diablo stands 7" tall, decorated in hellish dark red, blacken horns and a slimy underbelly. He's dead on to the game, detailed well all over; no sloppy paint application here, he's all good. Everything is shaded well, the horns look deadly and claws mean; even the gem on his head is decorated with red-fluorescent plastic. His tail, packages separately, snaps onto his back so he stretches a full 6" from front to back. He looks mean and represents the big D from the game very nicely. He stands well, with a good center of balance. All in all, it's a five star sculpt.
His articulation isn't so good - with a mere six spots: arms, midsection, tale, head and legs; and none of them are even ball joints. He has few poses, only one of them really fitting to the sculpt. While this doesn't render Diablo useless, it subtracts from his overall appeal; but the articulation ensures some play value, even if he only has a couple of decent poses. Sadly, he comes with no accessories, but because he's a big nasty demon, he doesn't need anything but his demonic powers.
The big problem with Diablo lies in his size and scale. Diablo is huge in the game, and yet stands just as tall as the rest of the figures in the action figure series. This guy really honours a box set, where he can be as big as the Violator Movie Boxed Set from the Spawn Movie series. Diablo isn't going to tower over anything, and it's a shame, since he's got a very nice sculpt and detail. He's still very kewl, but these improvements would make him an icon needed on every gamer's computer desk.
The Unraveler
The Unraveler is a character specifically from Diablo II, and he resembles something between a CGI mummy-monster from The Mummy Returns and a rotting corpse from He-Man. His fleshy, mummified body is suited with remains, bandages and cloth, with a tangle of live snakes encasing his midsection; his head is a crocodile skull, adorned with an Eqyption headdress, fit with the snake sceptre he holds in one hand, an enormous bone scythe replacing the other. He's a joy to look at, and he doesn't seem at all tacky like He-Man's skeletor.
The sculpt is well decorated and painted, everything in a darkened color scheme and decorated in a marble tint. He stands 6" tall, with colorful snakes and apendages and a bare ribcage. Although not as well made as Diablo, he certainly looks cool and fits the source material.
Unraveler is articulated far better than Diablo; ten spots; arms, wrists, legs, midsection, and three different pieces for the head. He has heaps of threatening poses and a whole lot of play in him, an excellent contrast to the scary but dulling demon. The mouth of his skull opens and shuts, and his sickly worm tongue can be posed as well. The midsection joint is nicely sculpted to allow him to rock back, lean and move, almost ball-jointed. Unraveler also comes with a nice few accessories- the head dress can be removed to reveal his bare skull, and the nicely painted sceptre can be removed and held in different spots due to the pegs on each side. Both are painted and detailed nicely.
Both figures are very nice, but the real kicker comes with their value; when these figures were released, they retailed for a ridiculous $9.99, which was definately not worth the asking fee. However, while Diablo sold out and became something of a collectors item, the Unravelers remained unsold, eventually being marked down to $2 at EB. With $10, you can get a minor army of these excellent figures, that can be used in anything, from your Spawn display, to a nice scene from a Mummy film. Plus, the customisation possibilities are endless. Diablo was later part of a promotion where you can purchase a Diablo game and get him for free; now that the games are cheap, you can get Diablo for about $5 and the game to boot. It's a nice purchase, and you shan't be disappointed. On the other hand, if you find a store doing this promotion, a little chat with a friendly staff member and you should be able to get him to sell you one for a good price (a buddy and I talked this kewl guy into giving us one free with a discounted purchase of Heroes Might and Magic 3 at a Myers Store - the gift of the gab is very useful, my friends).
Overall, I think these figures are excellent and worth the asking price; although, I'd much like a huge boxed set of Diablo with more articulation and scarier sculpt, this guy will do for a display. The other figure in the line, Barbarian, is also very nice, and worth a pick up if on sale. I recommend these figures, and also suggest fans of the game look for the Warcraft and Starcraft figures for their collection or just for display on the computer desk to play with while waiting for Battle.net to load. Hopefully, for the second Warcraft sequel, there will be more figures like this created.
These definately aren't McFarlane, but they are awesome for the price. An army of Unravelers, anyone?
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2
Type of Toy: Action Figure
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shocka
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