Some of my most anticipated figures in a while, the Revoltech Buzz Lightyear and Woody from their Toy Story line! Sure, you can get the nearly movie-authentic Toy Story toys locally (and at some point I will) but since I’m all about Revoltech lately, I absolutely had to get these. It helps that they’re the first Revoltech figures to have the new eye system and I wanted to check that out as well. Let’s get on with the review!
These will run you about $30-$40 each at import shops or domestic stores and they come in the newer, larger boxes that some recent Revoltechs have shipped with. Buzz comes with an awesome alternate face, a little nameplate, 3 awesome little Army soldiers, and his wings. Woody also comes with a nameplate, a variety of hands (including an extra one for Buzz), a microphone, a super creepy face, and Lenny the binoculars. The alternate face is meant to emulate when Woody is laughing at Buzz, but as you’ll see later in the review…it looks like something else.
Here’s a warning about Buzz, I’m not sure if this was an error with mine or a general problem. You’re supposed to slide out the lower part of his backpack and insert the wings. YEAH RIGHT. I had to use pliers and it took a few minutes to get the damn thing out. I managed to scuff up the paint but at least I didn’t destroy it, which I was PRETTY SURE I would do, considering how much force I had to use. After the initial removal, it slides out easily and the wings fit in perfectly.
Instead of using a variety of hands, Buzz has some articulation to his main fingers, with separate articulation for his thumb. While it doesn’t look as natural as extra hands would be, it does the job and looks decent. His helmet is easy to open but it can be difficult to pop his face off to replace it with the other one, though you can pop his dome off if you have issues. Here’s one area where I felt Buzz suffered. Due to how his head is setup, adjusting the eyes to a variety of positions (looking up/forward for flight) made the right eye peg hit the back of his head, resetting it to the center position. Revoltech should have adjusted the peg size behind his eye because otherwise it limits the areas he can look. A few seconds with a dremel should fix that.
You’ll also notice in some shots that Buzz’s arms are slightly out of their sockets. While this may look unnatural, it allows you to adjust him to a wider variety of poses, most of which can hide the arm socket. It threw me off at first but now I like it. Buzz is incredibly sturdy and easy to pose, and his accessories are great. The sculpting looks fantastic, both the regular and alternate face have nailed his personality. The paint is very well done with a few minor blemishes, barely noticeable.
Woody is more the traditional type of Revoltech. Multiple hands for different looks (and one to hold Lenny). He’s more difficult to pose than Buzz simply because he’s a stringbean. Keep at it, he’ll eventually get into the poses you want. Lenny the Binoculars looks just as good as the Army guys, except both Buzz and Woody can hold him. Woody’s hat easily fits on top of his head.
Woody’s eyes seem to function better than Buzz’s, mostly due to the larger size of his head. Aside from the stability issue, Woody is problem free. Since he’s a more simple figure than Buzz, I’m not surprised. Much like Buzz, his sculpting and paint is exactly what you’d want out of a figure. Oh, I should mention that both of them have Andy painted on their shoes, since that’s an important part of the first movie!
4.5/5.
While both incredible figures, the Buzz does have minor issues. The ONLY reason they’re not a full 5/5 is because excellent (and much larger) film accurate versions are available at your local toy shop for what, $50~? When you consider that, the value of these figures isn’t quite as good. I still highly recommend them, they’re both excellent Revoltech releases and have great accessories. Enjoy the rest of the pictures!
Buying Options : Check your favourite import shops, I got mine at HLJ. BBTS has Buzz and Woody available through Amazon at $39 a pop. Otherwise, you can check Ebay.
