i'm writing this series of 3 reviews to give my honest opinions of the 3 baf waves that i have just recieved. these are my experiences and my opinions. others may have better or worse opinions/experiences. my main motivation is to be honest and precise. after writing a review for the torchwood figures, i got the feeling that some people felt i was biased towards character options, and too hard on scifi collector. well, here is my unbiased reviews of character options 3 latest baf waves.
overall, i give the gelth baf wave a 50/100 score. the individual figures in this set are not bad(i will go into single reviews), but the goal of a baf wave should be the figure you are building, and that's where this line fails.
the gelth is a cheap piece of flimsy plastic. most photos only show it from the front, not showing the sides and back(which are hollow/non existent). the only "full" part of the figure are the blue ghots(who do not want to stay on the main part, i will super glue them on to stay on). one part of my set, the blue ghost body, had a faulty joint inside. when i went top put the tail on, the piece inside snapped off. i will now have to glue those two pieces together. i would say this is just a random piece, but i experienced this in the vespiform wave, and the cyberman wave too. i think character options is using cheap joints to make the build a figures. this is what irritates me. the reason you are buying the set is to have a great extra figure that you can put together. parts should not break(or be a pain to put together). this is where character options is failing. the gelth, as a flimsy plastic statue is ok, but that's it, ok. not great, not articulate. basically you can put the gelth zombie under it right now untill they come out with a gwyneth figure. out of all the baf's, the gelth does not move, is flimsy, and i think has too many breakable "cheap" joints that are meant to hold it together. i don't mind using super glue on this figure, but if i had a baf that was actually supossed to move, super glue would ruin it.
ok, enough about my disapointment with the gelth. onto the single figure reviews.
first off, captain jack with hand in a jar. i had the previous captain jack, so i did a side by side comparison. everything is the same. the face, jacket, paint. my old jack's head moves a bit better, but that's about it. the hand in the jar, which i was looking forward too, is as big a disapointment as the gelth. the hand, in every scene i saw it in, was kept in some sort of liquid. i was thinking character options would do this(i think they pulled off hath pecks' breathing aparatus great). nope. nothing. it's just a cut off hand in a plastic container. i could almost make something like this(sure not as accurate, but at least mine would have liquid or slime or something in it).
purple clockwork man. what can i say? the same clockwork man as the previous molds, just purple. i'm a huge fan of the clockwork man series(i even have the doll), but this will be the last clockwork man i will buy. character options needs to give into the fan demand and make a clockwork woman.
the master in professor yana's clothes. you know, as good as the sculpt is for john simm, i think they always missed something. especially in profesor yana's clothes. he should have had a smile, a grin, something to express his maniacal joy of being regenerated. nothing. i don't have any of the previous professor yana figures(i was waiting for indidvidual releases). the clothes look great, the paint job is good. overall, a good figure if you didn't have it before.
the tenth doctor, aged and ancient(or the dobby doctor as i call him
). this is a mixed bag. the aged doctor looks great. it looks just like david tenant, except 30 years from now. he wears the same suit that the other doctor figures wear, only the face and the attention to detail is amazing. you could even use this figure for a human nature recreation. the dobby doctor is where i am disapointed. all the photos online show it bigger that the figure actually is. while this may be more size accurate to the show, but making the figure smaller ruins the proportions, and the sculpt, so it doesn't really look that great any more. i was really looking forward to this one, and i think character options messed it up by making it too small.
next, astrid peth. i don't have any of the previous releases, but i am very pleased with this. it is a beautifull head sculpt, and everything from the paint to the outfit is great. i was in love with the character(kylie!), and i'm in love with the figure(to each their own).
next, banakafallata(i will shorten it to bana from here on in). this is a mixed bag again. a great sculpt to start with. so far, i have every jimmy vee figure(moxx, child slitheen, the graske), and it is the same size of the other's. the face is great, the outfit is priceless. the thing that impressed me the most about this figure is the ability to take off his white shirt and underneath is his android body, complete with the ability to insert his power generator. the first time i did this, the generator come out again. but after putting it in again, and leaving his white shirt on for a day, i can't seem to remove the power generator(if anyone has any ideas let me know).
lastly, a figure i was really looking forward to, and again am disapointed, jabe. every picture online i saw looked just like the actress. the one i got isn't even close. i think this is a quality issue where they post photos of the prototype, and then release a subpar figure. it made me very sad, just like my torchwood figures.
this is the end of the first review of 3. i'm open to criticism of my opinions, or if people agree, i would like to hear from you too. looking back, i think character options did a far better job on the baf for the classic series one. all the figures were great, and the k-1 robot was easy to assemble, and the parts don't break. it is the best of what a baf line should be, and this one is, in my opinion, the worst.
