For the number of action figures I own and buy, it's not often that I really "gush", but McFarlane Toys' new Assassin's Creed Blackbeard figure is the real deal. He's far and away my favorite McFarlane release in years (and that includes Halo and Walking Dead releases, as well).
Blackbeard stands 6" tall to the top of the feathers in his hat, making him an imposing figure beside Edward Kenway. He comes in the standard AC bubble card sans hat, with some game renders (which he honestly doesn't really resemble facially). Besides his removable hat, he comes with a sword and 4 pistols of various lengths. The sword can be worn on his hip, but looks right at home in his hand, while the pistols can be worn in the bandolier strap across his chest. I'm not sure the grips will allow for all 4 to be housed at once, but they look terrific however they're worn.
The hat fits perfectly and completes the look, though the bandana underneath is fully sculpted and weathered, and looks great, too. In short, he comes with a great number of accessories, which are also well-sculpted and painted with some neat silver highlights. It's not often that a figure will come with 5 useful accessories nowadays.
That said, it's really the sculpt that steals the show here. Edward Teach is nothing short of spectacular. The face is stern and grim. The beard is brilliant, with lots of braids and a neatly tied ponytail in back. The beard has two "wings" on the sides that might simulate the fuses that Blackbeard purportedly wore from beneath his hat and lit before battle to intimidate his foes. I'm not sure whether he wears lit fuses in the game or not, but you won't find them here.
The rest of the sculpt is just as impressive. The outfit seems to be made of at least 3 or 4 different materials, even though it's all plastic. The bandolier looks like cracked leather, his wide waist band features deep folds and a rich maroon color with dark washes to offset it. The jacket and tails look like weathered leather, while the arm straps seem like a smoother leather. The brown boots look like a softer, more comfortable leather. In short, it's the kind of sculpt that you can really spend some time returning to again and again.
The only major oddity about the sculpt, as far as I am concerned, is with the knees. They are done with the thick pins visible, which allows the calves to bend forwards. It's a weird look and an unnecessary range of motion. There's got to be a better way to design the knee articulation. My only other real gripe with the figure is with the paint. 99.9 percent of it is fantastic- there's plenty of tiny highlight work with the silver, and I've already mentioned the pistols and waist band. No, my paint problem is with a conscious design choice: the eyes. For some reason, it was decided to paint them looking to the right. I don't much care for figures that look off to the side, and to compound the issue, they seem to be painted badly. They are just off enough to ruin the faces of many of the figures that I've seen on the shelf, and I had to search through to find one I thought acceptable enough for me. I'd suggest avoiding buying sight-unseen, and I'm really skeptical about what I'll end up with from the Pirates 3-Pack I've ordered from Amazon.
The articulation is enough to get you a variety of standing poses. Blackbeard has a swivel head that works, despite the wide beard. Additionally, he's got ball pin shoulders that swing out as well as forwards and backwards, ball hinge elbows and some odd ball jointed wrists. The hips are those super-restricted McFarlane hips, the knees are ball hinged and the ankles swivel and allow for a little rocker motion to lay flat. It's enough to get Blackbeard to stand up tall and wield his weapons. I'd love a waist swivel and some better hips, but I'm ok with what we've got here.
McFarlane's Edward Teach is a terrific action figure. He's got a brilliant sculpt, excellent paint, loads of appropriate and useful accessories, and he looks great on the shelf. The articulation is good enough for my purposes, as well. Blackbeard is available as a Gamestop exclusive, where he will run you $15 or so. He's well worth the price, and I'd highly recommend picking him up while you can...
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