by Michael Crawford
Those wacky guys at Toynami sure do love those vintage cartoons. I recently reviewed the new Thundarr the Barbarian line, and this week it's another blast from the distant past, HERCULOIDS! No idea who they are? That might not be surprising, since they came long before Thundarr -- 1967 to be exact. They were rerun for years though, and thanks to a second version of the cartoon in 1981, even children of the eighties have an appreciation for this Hanna-Barbara classic.
The show format was two 10-minute cartoons in a thirty-minute format which I hated so much as a kid. Talk about too many commercials. There were 36 original episodes, and another 11 when it came back in 1981. Then it was part of an hour-long show that included other cartoons called The Space Stars, and was mixed in with Space Ghost and others.
The Herculoids are actually the beasts, not the humans. The three humans in the show (and in the series of figures) are Zandor, his wife, Tara, and their son Dorno. The Herculoids assist these three in protecting their land (they are the King and Queen, of course), and consist of Zok, the dragon-like character; Igoo, the rock ape; Tundro, the armor plated dinosaur that can shoot rocket blasts out of his horns; and Gloop and Gleep, two energy blobs that can take the shape of just about anything. Throw them all together with the usual goofy villain and the wackiness ensued.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can always reach me at mwc@mwctoys.com. If you enjoy this review, take a minute to check out my other site at Michael's Review of the Week, and let me know what you think. Now on to the review!
"Herculoids -- Zandor and Zok"
Toynami is producing three large boxed sets that include all eight of the main characters. The first set, reviewed today, is Zok and Zandor. Soon to be released will be a set of Tara, Igoo and Gloop, and a third set of Dorno, Gleep and Tundro. Each set comes with a large display base that goes together to form a big diorama with the word "Herculoids" across it.
Packaging - ***
The box is huge, not just because Zok is huge but because the diorama piece takes up lots of room. You could display this in the box just fine, although you'll need a ton of shelf space. The packaging is attractive, with a nice "caveman" appearance, but likely to take some real shelf abuse over time.
Sculpting - ***1/2
The humans are about a five-inch scale, but the Herculoids are massive. The sculpts are basic, similar to the look of the old cartoon. They've captured the style perfectly, and fans won't be disappointed, particularly in Zok. Zandor is alright, although the softness of his sculpt in this scale makes him a less impressive figure than Thundarr, for example.
Zok is huge, with an amazing wingspan when it's fully extended. He (I'm assuming Zok's sexuality here, but I don't remember if it was implicitly stated on the show) towers over Zandor, who can ride his back as well. Zok stands great on his own, although that's not much of a surprise considering how much baby, er, Zok got back.
The sculpting is simplistic, but if it wasn't, these figures wouldn't match the two dimensional characters you expect. What is important is that the sculpts aren't too soft, losing any of the basic detail, and they aren't overboard, turning them into the Twisted Land of Quasar. One can only shudder when considering how that might turn out! The only complaint is that Zok's neck seems off...it seemed longer and thinner to me on the old show, but perhaps my memory just isn't quite what it used to be.
Paint - ***1/2
Overall the paint application is clean and neat. There isn't a lot of small detail work, with the exception of Zandor's face, but even the large expanses of color are consistent and even. The colors match up to the show fairly well, right down to Zandor's loincloth. There's the smallest bit of bleed between a few of the colors, but nothing major, and there was no over-spray or errant blotches.
Articulation - ***
The articulation on both Zok and Zandor is solid, with a decent number of joints that don't hurt the overall appearance. Zok has two neck joints, one right at the head and one at the body. Both move forward and back, and the top joint is how the light up feature works (more on that later). All four legs are also jointed at the shoulders, and his "arms" are jointed at the elbow and forearm. His wings are jointed at the body to move up and down, and mid-way to fold in and out. Overall he has plenty of articulation for most poses.
Zandor has quite a few joints as well, including neck, shoulders, wrists, waist, hips and knees. The knees are a nice touch, since they allow Zandor to ride Zok like a stallion. I'll leave that to your imagination. Neither figure is at the top end of articulation, but both have more than the average bear.
Accessories/Features - ***
Zandor comes with two accessories -- his trademark slingshot (it fired little energy balls) and his shield. The shield attachs to his arm well, and the hand sculpt allows him to hold the slingshot perfectly. The slingshot also fits into a holder on the back of his belt. Zok comes with nothing other than his handsome looks, but he does have a cool play feature - his eyes light up! While it might look like this works perfectly in my photos, in reality it's tough to see. The light was either off center slightly, or too weak to fully illuminate the eyes, particularly in a normally lit room. They looked much better with the lights off, just like Oprah. The eyes light up when you move the head into position, so they will stay on without having to hold in a button. While that can be great, keep in mind that you want to make sure you don't leave him like that and wear out the batteries too fast.
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The other major accessory is the diorama base. It's tough to fully appreciate the base with only a third of it out so far, but what's here looks pretty good. The plastic is a little too brittle (mine already had some cracks in it on the top corners), and I had a hard time figuring out how to display Zok there once his wings were on. But the sculpting and paint ops are good, and I'll wait til I see the other two-thirds before I pass final judgement.
Value - **1/2
Zok is huge, but so is his price tag. The only thing hurting this line is the value, although the massive size and lower run on these (they are selling through specialty shops only) is what's driving the price up. Even at a suggested retail of $40 each, they aren't a terrible value, but the price point is likely to scare off all but the die-hard Herculoids' fans. There may be some on-line stores that will be lower than $40, and obviously that will help this category quite a bit.
Overall - ***
For fans of the show Herculoids, these figures will be well worth the price, and are fantastic representations of the characters. Price is the only real killer, although the brittle plastic for the diorama hurt slightly. This is also likely to be a set that gets better as you add the additional sets, giving you the complete line up. Unfortunately, Zok is really the least interesting of the Herculoids for me, as I was always a much bigger Igoo and Tundro fan.
Where to Buy -
Specialty stores like Media Play and Gamestop along with most comic shops are you're best bets. On-line options include:
- Entertainment Earth has this first set for $40, with pre-orders up for the next two. Just search for "Herculoids."
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