The Sands of Time

So I finally broken down and bought some Prince of Persia figures. I was skeptical when they announced them because they are made by McFarlane Toys, who for most of their lifetime, has made, in my honest opinion, limited articulated statues as opposed to action figures, but with these figures it's quite the opposite.

These figures surprise me as they have 14 points of articulation, which is 9 more points of articulation than any other McFarlane Toy I've ever seen. On a side note; while I know it sounds like I'm bashing McFarlane, I'm not really. I actually have a great deal of respect for the man and the company. I just think they should stop calling their products "action figures". If anything they are more like statues with odd, unnecessary points of articulations. These points of articulation are accompanied by the wonderful, detailed sculpting which they are famous for. See, I can say nice things about McFarlane Toys! The sculpting is very detailed even down to the rubber capes, which are not so heavy that they make it fall back. Though I do have a few quibbles in this department. Prince Dastan's neck seems to be a bit thick, otherwise, a great figure. On all the figures they have a ball and socket hip joint which makes it difficult to position them to sit. So on a scale of 10 I give these figures a 10 for scuplting and a 8 for articulation.

The next category is accessories. While these figures are full of rich sculpted details they are really lacking in department, especially at $7.99 a figure. The prince comes with two swords, different from each other but well detailed and nothing more. I was rather disappointed that the Dagger of Time was NOT included and is only available with Prince Dastan in his desert garb (w/or w/o the horse) and not his warrior version which I purchased. Zolm who is a the lead Hassansin (Idk what this means I just read it off the box), comes with a simple but detailed sword and an odd snake shaped dagger or something of the sort. It doesn't seem like much of a dagger but the details... whoa! I forgot to mention that both figures have scabbards to put away their swords, always a nice touch. And lastly Setam who is also a Hassansin. He is supposed to come with a sword but to be honest, I think someone messed up and he doesn't come with one as it says on the box. There's no molding for a weapon on the plastic tray which hold the figure in the packaging and not scabbard to put a sword away into. VERY disappointing McFarlane... AS far as accessories go, I give them a 5 because they're nice but the fact that one figure has nothing just brings the group score down.

Lastly we have packaging. I know what you're thinking: why packaging? And the answer is simple. The packaging is part of the appeal for any toy. It grabs peoples attention on the shelf or pegs and it helps describe the world that the toy exists in. It explains what a character in the packaging does and what where they are going. Without this explanation it's just a hunk of plastic. Unfortunately, these figures are pretty much that until I see the movie. I mean yes, I've see the trailers, so I know a thing or two about Prince Dastan but Setam and Zolm are absolute mysteries to me. Are they allies, are they villains? Who are these guys in the world of Prince of Persia? As for the design/ attention grabbing of the packaging, it's not so bad. They don't have any information about the characters themselves, the world they exist in or even about the movie itself but it does show you the whole collection of toys. It's a small collection but it's all there. This is the only highlight to the packaging as the blister card and bubble are rather blah. Yes, I just used blah as an adjective. To me it looks like a lazy designer decided to take a standard card and just have cut at angles to make it look more exciting and failing at that objective, same with the bubble. It's kind of a shame since I have seen packaging WAY more visually interesting with their other figures. Perhaps Disney has something to do with this? I don't know. Overall packaging score, a 5.

After all is said and done this line, from what I own, which is most of the line, has an average score of 7. Which means they're not bad figures, they are actually great figures, they just lacking in accessories and in packaging. Which if you take your figures out of the packaging gives the a score of 7.66 (taking out the packing score) but just to make it even I'll say an 8. Well done McFarlane Toys, well done. Now make some Spawn figures like this and we'll be in business!