Skeleflex is a new toyline featuring build-it-yourself skeletons of dinosaurs or aliens. Basically, you can not only build the dinosaur, but also jumble up the body into any sort of freakish concoction, if you so choose. For my first Skeleflex purchase, I picked up the Spinosaurus.
Company: Wild Planet
Size: roughly 10" tall standing
Price: $14.99 at Toys R Us
Packaging: Carded in Case
Looks: 4/5
Spinosaurus looks pretty awesome. The skeleton sculpt is recognizably a Spinosaurus, but the style has been characterized to give it a bad-assed look. The detail is pretty nice, with every bone given some sculpting attention. The color is appropriate, and there's a little bit of spotted variation, but I would have liked to see the bones be given a wash to look more realistic and weathered.
Articulation: 5/5
You build the creature yourself out of a bunch of bones, and the bones create a point of articulation where they pop together. That means the figure has a whopping 32 points of articulation, most of them ball-in-socket! I would have liked to have better jaw articulation, but I feel like a whiny putz asking for more since I've been given so much.
Accessories: 3.5/5
Spinosaurus comes with some flexible joints and a carrying case/playset. I'm not sure what the point of the flexi-joints is (they basically replace a joint, making the joint flex instead of articulate), but the big skull carrying case is pretty sweet. On the other hand, if you collect a lot of these things, you'll have a lot of skull cases, which I imagine will be overkill.
Value: 4/5
$15 for a figure of this size, with this play value, is a pretty good deal. Throw in the skull carrying case, and you've got not only a lot of plastic, but also a fun toy for a great price.
Coolness: 3.5/5
This figure came really close to getting a 5 in this category. What held him back? Well, since pretty much everything in the figure is articulated, including the vertebrae, that means there will be some weak points when you go to pose the figure. In particular, the classic horizontal theropod pose is difficult. The vertebra that connects to the pelvis is a bit too loose to hold the pose, and Spiny tends to flop face forward. And since that pose is the most dinosaur-like, that's a big downside. Still, you can give him an upright Godzilla pose with no problems.
Overall: 4/5
Skeleflex is a great line that I hope people go nuts for. It's certainly one of the best dino-related mass-production toylines to come around in a long time. Spinosaurus has a great sculpt and great playability, both of which makes this figure one to seek out if you're a dinosaur fan.
5 out of 5 - Simply incredible!
4 out of 5 - Pretty awesome!
3 out of 5 - Cool enough, I suppose.
2 out of 5 - Not quite good enough.
1 out of 5 - Pretty horrific!
0 out of 5 - No redeeming quality at all.
4 comments:
Wow, I have to say this is one of the more unique lines to come along in a while. Great review.
I was thinking a comparison shot would be nice... and then you finished with one. Excellent!
Cool! I'm glad you enjoyed the review!
In the interest of full disclosure, I actually learned about the Skeleflex line first because Shortpacked did a few strips about it.
Eh, I've picked this thing up twice, and both times the midsections of the legs have snapped at the ball. That thicker ankle joint wasn't well constructed, and any movement at all stresses the ball connection to the breaking point. I'd normally dismiss it as a fluke, but it happened to two Spinosaurus sets (exchanged the first to a new one on the defective basis, exchanged second for a Stegosaurus)
I will say right now, the best of the "bone case" sets is the Velociraptor.
That's too bad that you had such problems with this set. I didn't have any trouble, but I can see where the figure would be weak in that area. And thanks for posting that... it's good to hear about these things when there are quality control issues.
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