Wink from Hellboy II

I got Wink way before I actually had a Hellboy for him to fight.

Since A), Wink is monster figure, easily twice as massive as Hellboy, B) is a fantastic sculpt that rivals that of those Four Horseman toys, and C) came only 1 per case, it was only natural that this one would be sold faster than a geek can say "Kristen Bell, OGC!" As soon as I heard that he had reached our shores, I heard that he had disappeared from shelves. Luckily, the local NECA/Mezco distributor, 2Rats, was able to bring in more of them. Even better, they had the movie accurate heads (the first ones apparently had ones based on an earlier design).

Unluckily, the second time around, 2Rats decided to sell them in sets. While I'd normally applaud this kind of a move for a Marvel Legends wave or a DC Universe Classics wave, on this line I think it might have been a mistake. Each Mezco figure costs p1,500.00, and they were in sets of 5 or 6 toys, which is a ton of scratch. These are big 7" toys that require a lot more room than your average superhero figure. There is no real reason to get the whole set since many of the figures in the Golden Army set were sup-par, and there is no build-a-figure part to collect. Plus, demand for Hellboy toys is low, so you're not going to unload unwanted ones as easily as I did the ones from the Red Hulk wave. Understandably, the toys were on the shelf a long time after the show had gone from screens.

But finally, things turned around and the retailers realised their mistake, breaking the sets up. I was in Toy Kingdom on one of my regular visits and lo and behold, there he was, sitting next to the Goblin, Princess, Prince, Abe, Liz, and drunk Hellboy toys that he had been packaged with, waiting for me to pick him up. I was estatic and proceeded immediately to check out.

The first thing you'll notice about this thing is how HEAVY he is. I mean absolutely elephantine. The toy comes in a clamshell which is easily twice as thick as the one for say Abe or Liz.

I'm glad they chose the clamshell package for this line, since normal cardbacks would have been mauled if left for more than a day on toy racks. The sheer weight of Wink or even Hellboy would have ripped the bubble right off the pack and we'd have toys with missing parts all over the place. Sure the clam is a hard to open as (insert obvious, potentially offensive joke here), but it looks great, can withstand  a lot of abuse, and protects the figure. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those packages that you can store the figure in after opening. You're really going to have to cut your way into this sucker and forcibly remove the toy.

The back of the card has some pics of the other figures in wave 1. I would like to get the 3 other protagonists, Abe, Liz and Johann, but the quality of this set is significantly worse than the toys released for part 1. I'll get to that in a minute.

Out of the clam, this guy towers over 3" and 4" inch figures. He makes a great cave troll if you're into mixing GI Joe with Lord of the Rings. Next to 6" and 7"ers he's not as overbearing, but he is tall. I'd say he tops out at about 9" or so. Easily taller than anything else I have except for BAFs, Transformers, or statues.

He's covered in great textures. From the rusted iron of his glove to the wood grain of his greaves, it's all there. He's also got a nice brushing to really bring out the detail of his rhinocerous hide. There are great details all over, like his scarred eye, the crest on his stomach, and the rivets on his armor. The effect of the sculpt is a very pleasing and makes it feel like that he really is worth the p1,500.00.

He's even got the grotesque back hair, just like in the film.

One of the best things about Wink is the accessories. Or rather one of the accessories. He comes with two; a useless box with a strap (the one he carried with him into the auction house in the film - wtf?) and his hand-mace. It's as bad-ass as it was in the film. Sculpted as a clenched fist-on-a-chain, you can readily switch it out with the other hand which is sculpted in a gesturing pose. The chain is real, too, not one of those crappy plastic things.

Articulation on him is decent, but very limited. Since he's a big character, there's a lot of bulk that there's just no way around. You can't really put double joints on guys like this without ruining the look. Many of the earlier Marvel Legends Hulks had that problem. So I can understand the limited range of his elbow and knee hinges. What I really hate are the lack of bicep swivels. On a figure this big, those arm cut joints are as important as thigh cuts. The fact that Wink doesn't have them really limits the way he can move.

I do however love the neck joint. It's made up of two ball joints; both the neck and the head have the receptacle and there's a third piece, two balls on a stick, that connects the two. It's very effective in allowing Wink to move his head side to side despite his bulk. It's light years ahead of the old swivel heads on things like the Marvel Universe Hulk. Hasbro should get a clue.

Sadly, there is bad news. All the Winks I've seen share the same bad paint. Sure there are a lot of nice applications on him, but none are without huge areas where the wash or the dry-brushing were forgotten. Or worse, where paint was literally just dropped onto the figure's foot like on mine. It's really hard to catch it since the feet are hard to see in the package and even if you could, it's so hard to find that choosing one that has good paint is impossible.

Still if you have any skill with a brush, a quick touch up should be enough to remedy the situation. I really can't do anything but recommend this figure, despite the quality issues. He may be expensive and hard to find, but he makes such an excellent display piece on your shelf that the issues become moot.