I’m going with a Lost theme here, since I just rewatched the series and the new season premiered last night. A few years back, McFarlane released 2 waves of toys for Lost. I’m normally not a big fan of McFarlane’s stuff, but these impressed me far more than I expected. They were ambitious figures, with quality sculpts, huge accessories, sound, and a life-size prop with each figure. Unfortunately, this made them expensive and limited their appeal. The sometimes outright bizarre choices for poses didn’t help either. The toys sold somewhat poorly and the third wave was cancelled. I’ve seen on the ol’ internet that some fans are doing their own figures, which is pretty cool.
Recently, I picked up Sawyer and Mr. Eko on clearance. Jin and Sun were also available, but they suffered from the bizarre design choices I mentioned earlier. Jin was in a running pose, with his hands tied behind his back. All the sequences available in the show, all the cool stuff Jin does…and he gets a pose where he’s tied up? Pretty damn lame. As for Sun, she was standing up in a bikini. Same problem. Great character that does lots of stuff, and she gets the Shannon treatment. You’d think Shannon sitting on shelves to this day, years after the line was cancelled, would’ve given them a clue that it was a poor idea (she was sitting on shelves back then too).
Sawyer is enormous. His raft is huge. From the bottom of the raft to the top of his head, it’s about 10 inches tall. These things take up a lot of space. There’s no articulation (ok, 1 area that can move, but it’s the hand that holds the raft so it makes no sense), since these are pretty much mass-market toy statues. The paintjob suffers a few flaws here and there, but for the most part it’s very good, and I thought they did a terrific job on his face. The piece of the raft that he leans on, at least on my particular toy, leans off to the side. Sawyer’s hand ideally would’ve been sculpted slightly differently to help support it better, but it’s alright. The pegs on Sawyer’s feet were tight. Even with my HULK STRENGTH, I had difficulty cramming those little pegs into his feet fully. That might just be another mass market mistake but whateva, it was worth noting.
The prop they included with this toy was a superb choice. Throughout the series, Sawyer always carries a letter with him, it’s very important to his character. And hey, here you go! It’s simple, since it’s just a piece of paper with writing, but it was exactly what the toy needed.
Mr. Eko is about 8 inches in total, since his base isn’t nearly as large as Sawyer’s. His sculpt in general is quite good, though his face isn’t as good as Sawyer. I’m pretty sure they wanted to make this character because he looked good (which he does), not because of anything else, because he’s not as well thought out as Sawyer and a good few of the Wave 1 figures. He comes with his stick, which even features tiny little writings like it does in the series. The base is just the jungle, nothing more. No doubt you’ll be as excited as I was to find out that Mr. Eko has a whopping two points of articulation, and not really useful ones at that.
His life-size prop is a frame or two of the Dharma Initiative orientation films. It’s a neat little prop, but they could’ve picked something better for his character.
Rating wise, I’d give these 2 figures a 4/5 overall. Sawyer a 4.5, Mr. Eko a 3.5. Wave 2 in general? 3/5. Jin and Sun were such wasted opportunities, and I’ve got a feeling that those two, as well as Shannon, are the primary reasons the line was shut down. Oh well!
Buying Options : These were clearanced out at most places ages ago, but you can sometimes find old stock at like … K-Mart or at comic conventions. Ebay is a good bet for Lost action figures too
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