Art-Figures: SAVES "Punisher: War Zone" Figure REVIEW 1

From a masked hero in the previous post to an anti-hero from Marvel.

The Punisher is a vigilante who employs murder, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence and torture in his war on crime. Driven by the deaths of his family, who were killed by the mob when they witnessed a gangland execution in New York City's Central Park, the Punisher wages a one-man war on the mob and all criminals in general by using all manner of conventional war weaponry.

The Punisher has appeared in three films unrelated to each other. The first film "The Punisher" was released straight to video in 1989 and starred Dolph Lundgren. It was most notable for lacking the character's signature skull. The second film was released in theaters and starred Thomas Jane. After an unsuccessful script of Punisher 2, the film was then rebooted in 2008 with the film "Punisher: War Zone" starring Ray Stevenson.

This is the Art-Figures: SAVES AF-003 1:6 scale 12-inch action figure which is essentially Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle / The Punisher from the 2008 film "Punisher: War Zone", the third film on the Marvel character. Even the picture on the cover of the box is a copy of an image used on the DVD cover. Box opens up like a book to reveal the figure and all his accessories.

Here's the Art-Figures: SAVES Frank Castle / The Punisher 12-inch figure in the black packing foam tray lying alongside his weapons and accessories, including a very nice customized base

And this is the basic 1:6 scale Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle / The Punisher out of the box, without his gear or weapons. The Punisher wears Black Tactical Sweater, Black Tactical Pants with Belt, Black Tactical Boots and Black Fingerless Gloves. Notice how everything to do with the military or special ops theme becomes "tactical". Scroll down for the turnaround view of this Art-Figures: SAVES AF-003 1:6 scale 12-inch action figure

And this is the 1/6 scale head sculpt of English actor Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle "The Punisher". He is the third actor to play the Punisher. IMHO I think the head sculpt is pretty good and captures the likness of Ray Stevenson quite well.

Here's 1:6 Frank Castle showing us his black tactical boots, as Art-Figures calls them

And here are some of the 1:6 weapons (pistols) the Punisher carries - twin stainless Beretta 92FS Inox pistols (in the comics, the M1911 is Castle's pistol of choice, but it appears only briefly in the movie and is never used), a SIG Sauer P228 pistol (in the film, Frank Castle uses a Heckler & Koch USP Compact Tactical as a backup for his full-auto Beretta Inoxes), three pistol magazines and two spare mags with double-magazine pouch,  right leg drop-down holster, left leg drop-down holster with M16 magazine pouch and PALS (Pouch Attachment Ladder System) Holster

M4 Carbine Rifle (with Sling) with Aimpoint red dot sight and two 30-round magazines, black Ka-Bar combat knife and sheath.

Here's all the 1:6 weapons assembled and ready, locked and loaded for action! During the final assault, Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) takes a custom M4A1-type carbine with KAC Quad-rails, a C-More red dot optic, an M4-2000 by Advanced Armament Corp suppressor, and a short version of the AG36 grenade launcher. This M4 released by Art-Figures is different from the one seen in the film.

Of course, let's not forget the Punisher's personal protection - his Black Body Armor (with death's head skull) and Neck Protector. In the Marvel comics, the Punisher's costume has the death's head skull taking up most of the character's chest, with a cartridge bandolier added that formed the skull's teeth. Art-Figures has added a rather nice Diorama Base. Also included but not shown here are the Black PALS Padded Belt and two (x2) General Purpose Pouches.

Here's a picture of the diorama display base assembled with M4 Carbine leaning on it for an idea of size and scale.

NEXT: A kitted out Art-Figures: SAVES 1:6 scale 12-inch Frank Castle "Punisher" ready to take on the bad guys.