Sunday, April 14, 2013

Biff Bang Pow's 3 3/4" Venture Brothers Action Figures - Hank and Dean Venture


Weirdo Playthings
Biff Bang Pow's 3 3/4" Venture Brothers Action Figures
Hank and Dean Venture

For a few years now, Bif Bang Pow has been making 8 inch, Mego-style retro cloth action figures based on the TV show "The Venture Brothers."  Now they are adding to their Venture Brothers lineup with a series of 3 3/4" plastic action figures.

They launched the line last summer with a Brock Samson action figure.  It came in a standard, black t-shirt version, and a  2012 San Diego Comic-con blood spattered variant.  In March of 2013, they released three more figures, with more slated to come soon.

Hank Venture, Brock Samson, Dean Venture, and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch
The figures are in the 3 3/4" scale, although their actual height varies according to how tall they are on the show.  The scale seems to be based on the Venture Brothers themselves, as both Hank and Dean are just about exactly 3 3/4", while their bodyguard Brock towers over them at 5", and their nemesis Dr. Mrs. The Monarch looks up to them all at just under 3 1/2".

Venture Brothers with other action figures of similar scale.

Packaging

The packaging on these  toys is simple and serves its purpose just fine.  It has an image of the Venture Compound from the cartoon as the backdrop, and the figure displayed in front.  The back of the card has the Venture Brothers giving each other the "Go Team Venture" salute in their bedroom, along with a season one quote from Dean, "I dare you to make less sense," which I thought  was pretty random, yet perfectly in tone for the series.  The figures come out of the package easily, so no complaints on that score.  If the package was resealable, it would have been just about perfect, but as it is, it's still pretty good.
Venture Brothers action figure packaging, front and back.

Value

The toys retail for $9.99 each.   I'd probably object to paying that much for something like Batman, Star Wars, or G.I. Joe figures in this scale, but it seems like a pretty reasonable price for a line of niche-market collector's toys like this.

Appearance(Sculpt/Paint/Likeness)

Overall, Hank has a nice looking sculpt, and it captures his goofy looks quite well.  The paint on his head is pretty good, but the rest of the body is pretty sloppy.  Hank's Fred Jones ascot in particular looks pretty bad, and I'm thinking about getting some paint and trying to touch it up.  Dean looks a lot nicer.  He has some minor paint issues, but nothing that noticeable, and his sculpt is perfect, he looks just like he does in the cartoon.
Hank and Dean.

Articulation/Playability

Both Hank and Dean have  articulation at the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, which is a reasonable amount for figures of this size.
Dean and Hank's points of articulation.

Accessories

Hank comes with a giant machete and Dean comes with an oversized shotgun.  The fearsomeness of their weapons looks hilarious next to the goofy smiles on their faces.
The Venture Brothers show off their deadly weapons.

Ratings



Hank: 3 ½ Robots (out of 5)

Dean: 4 Robots (out of 5)


Hank Venture and Brock Samson Compare Blades
Trigger Happy Dean

Run, Ventures, Run!

Overall, both of these figures are a lot of fun.  Dean's my favorite, but I like Hank a lot, despite his paint issues.  Check back on this blog next week, when I'll be continuing my Venture Brothers toy reviews, with Brock Samson and Dr. Mrs. the Monarch.

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