The Good: Great sculpt, Good accessories, Fair collectible value
The Bad: Severe balance issues, Vastly over-accessorized, Cannot hold any of his accessories
The Basics: The Invader Zim Series Two Of Doom Almighty Tallest Red figure is an essential toy for Invader Zim fans!
On a recent trip downstate, my wife and I were visiting a comic book shop and when she saw the action figure of the Almighty Tallest Red from Invader Zim and there was no hesitation when I asked her, “Would you like me to get that for you for a future gift?” She enthusiastically told me “yes!” With its green and red colorscheme, I figured the winter holidays were a perfect time to gift it to her, so I did!
From the Palisades Toys Invader Zim Series Two Of Doom action figure set, Almighty Tallest Red is the primary version of the co-leader of the Irken Empire
action figure.
Basics
The Invader Zim Series Two Of Doom Almighty Tallest Red figure is an 8" hard plastic representation of Almighty Tallest Red as he appeared in most of the episodes of Invader Zim (reviewed here!). This version of Almighty Tallest Red is made of hard plastic, save for the antennae on the back of his head, which are made of softer plastic.
The Invader Zim Series Two Of Doom Almighty Tallest Red is a pretty impressive sculpt based on the two-dimensional representation of Almighty Tallest Red on television. Fleshed out well into the three dimensional figure, the Almighty Tallest Red figure is tall and screaming with an irregular body shape and tiny extremities! The animators on Invader Zim designed for a specific sense of style, not for the practicality of future action figure releases! The Almighty Tallest Red is sculpted accurately, which means that his legs are tiny and pointed without distinct feet and his arms are also very thin with tiny clawed hands. His back has a hump on it and he has almost no waist area. The Almighty Tallest Red’s mouth is cast open in a scream with a finely detailed, striped, tongue and a row of sharp teeth on both the top and bottom of the mouth.
On the coloring front, Almighty Tallest Red is exceptionally easy to render correctly and Palisades Toys did an excellent job with him. Because he is based on an alien character created with monotones, things like skin depth and shading do not apply. Instead, Palisades kept the figure appropriately with solid colors for his red robes, gray torso ribbing, and thin green arms and big green head. On the coloring front, Almighty Tallest Red is perfect and his accessories match the level of detailing the action figure has.
Accessories
The Invader Zim Series Two Of Doom Almighty Tallest Red comes with a simple “floating” stand cylinder, a Mobile Command Platform Thingy Base stand, Irken Slushy, Irken Popcorn, Irken Chips, Irken Burrito, 4 Irken Monitors with screen stickers, and connector tentacles.
The four food-related accessories are based on the snacks the Irken leaders are obsessed with in various episodes of Invader Zim. Sadly, not one of them fits in the grip of the Almighty Tallest Red! The Irken Popcorn and Irken Burrito both have the symbol of the Irken Empire silkscreed on the front of the accessory. The popcorn is a 1 7/8” rhombus shaped “box” meant to mimic a bag of popcorn. Out the top of the “bag” are white shapes that resemble popcorn, though they cannot be removed from the bag portion of the accessory. The Irken Burrito is a 1 5/16” long cylinder that looks like a tiny sleeping bag or wrapped burrito. The blue “wrap” has a white Irken Empire symbol on it and only looks like a burrito based on the toy’s claim and the appearance of it, partially wrapped, in the television show! The bag of chips is an unopened bag of potato chips, with a drawing of a chip and the word “Chips” silkscreened on the bag. The 1 5/8” tall, 1 1/8” wide and 3/8” thick bag does not actually fit in the hands of the Almighty Tallest Red’s hands. The slushy is a 1 7/8” tall cylindrical cup with a straw sticking out the top of it. The straw quality mimics the quality of the Almighty Tallest Red’s tongue and is a wonderful quality of fine detailing. Unfortunately, it cannot be held for long in the Almighty Tallest Red’s hands to actually be held to his screaming mouth!
The four Irken Monitors are purple and green and vary in size from 1 ¾” wide by 1 1/2" tall to 1 1/2" wise and 1 1/4" tall. The figure comes with four different stickers that fit the customized screens (I think that’s somewhat obnoxious; Palisades Toys could have just stuck them on prior to shipping, like the Monkey painting on the Robo-Parents’ wall. The figure comes with four connectors that allow one to connect the monitors to one another and the Mobile Command Platform Thingy Base. Sadly, they are terribly hard to balance and illustrate the serious difficulty with trying to translate something oddly animated like Invader Zim into viable merchandise that actually works in real-world physics.
For an added selling point, the Almighty Tallest Red Series Two figure comes with his half of the Mobile Command Platform Thingy accessory. Intended to interface with the half that accompanied the Almighty Tallest Purple figure’s base, the Mobile Command Platform Thingy Base accessory is essentially a display stand that allows one to hold their Almighty Tallest Red action figure and the monitor accessories in one place. This is a molded platform base 8” long at its straight side, 3 3/4” wide (at its widest point) and standing 3” tall. It is a gray platform with a gray railing that goes around the outside of the platform. There are six holes around the base that allow the Almighty Tallest Red to be placed at more than one point on the platform. The Mobile Command Platform Thingy Base snaps together with the other half, which comes with the Almighty Purple figure.
Playability
The Invader Zim Series Two Of Doom Almighty Tallest Red is a very problematic toy on the playability front. First, the figure is absolutely unable to balance on its own, which makes sense given the physics of the figure. The body of Almighty Tallest Red is disproportionately small relative to his head and upper body, especially relative to the toothpick-like legs. It makes perfect sense that the thin legs would not hold him up. Off his stand, it is impossible to get him to remain standing. On his transparent stand – the 1 3/4" cylinder that connects to the bottom of the action figure and to any one of the six holes in the Mobile Command Platform - he is entirely solid and that helps make him a great display piece, if not a very playable toy.
The Series Two Of Doom Almighty Tallest Red has pretty limited articulation, which is also based in part on the limitations of the sculpt. This Almighty Tallest Red comes with only nine points of articulation: waist, torso, fingers, wrists, shoulders and neck. I was pleasantly surprised that the arms and wrists are attached by hinged ball and socket joints, which allows for greater articulation and a decent range of motion. The neck joint is on a ball and socket joint, which gives it an exceptional range of motion. The torso, wrists, and waist are on simple swivel joints, so they basically rotate, without providing much else on the poseability front.
Collectibility
This figure seems to be one of the easier ones to find and it is one of the few Invader Zim action figures (from either series) that is easily found under $20. I’m not at all sure why Almighty Tallest Red would not have exploded in value (especially considering the display base connects to the more expensive Almighty Tallest Purple figure), but this is an affordable, easy to find figure for fans of Invader Zim!
Overview
Palisades Toys got a lot right with this action figure and for anyone looking for an Irken action figure will find this to be a cool representation of the invaders!
For other Invader Zim toy and action figure reviews, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Invader Zim GIR from “Germs” plush
Series Two Of Doom! Hot Topic Exclusive Robo-Parents
Series Two Of Doom! Gaz
7.5/10
For more toy reviews, please check out my Toy Review Index Page!
© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment