Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Review 1: Hot Toys "Resident Evil: Afterlife" 1/6 Alice Collectible Figure

This figure has been a long time coming. I've waited a long time for a 1/6 scale Milla Jovovich 12-inch female action figure since she appeared in the 1997 French / American science fiction film "The Fifth Element" directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson and also starring Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman.

So it has been a more than ten years wait for this 1/6 scale Milla Jovovich female action figure (femfig) and Hot Toys does not disappoint. Hot Toys has certainly delivered the goods with their recently released Movie Masterpiece Series MMS139 movie-accurate Milla Jovovich as "Resident Evil: Afterlife" Alice 12-inch collectible figure. She is specially crafted based on the image of Milla Jovovich in the movie, highlighting the newly sculpted head, detailed costume and weapons.


"Resident Evil: Afterlife" is the latest (fourth) installment in the Resident Evil film series, which is based on the Capcom survival horror series Resident Evil. The film follows Alice (Milla Jovovich) searching and rescuing the remaining survivors in Los Angeles after the T-virus outbreak, and team up against Albert Wesker, the head of the Umbrella Corporation. Chris Redfield (played by Wentworth Miller), a primary character from the video games was featured for the first time in the film franchise. Other characters from the games and films who returned are: Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), Albert Wesker and Jill Valentine.


Hot Toys "Resident Evil: Afterlife" Alice 12-inch figure comes in a very nice box packaging (don't they all) and is rather unique in that the picture is landscape oriented with a screen shot of Milla Jovovich as Alice with her pair of 5" barreled Smith & Wesson Model 460V revolvers. Since the movie was 3-D, if only they had designed the cover as a 3-D one as well ;p just wishful thinking.


The box opens to reveal the Hot Toys RE4 Alice figure in the main tray with winter jacket in another smaller tray, along with her sword (a straight-bladed odachi) and sheath plus an extended police baton (non-collapsable). The box packaging has a nice design of broken / shattered glass around the edges (similar to that seen in the movie posters) revealing the figure underneath.

Click on the picture for a bigger and better view :)

And here's Hot Toys Alice in her tray, with three (3) pairs of palms including: One (1) pair of relaxed palms, One (1) pair of palms for holding her guns (hands with trigger fingers), and One (1) pair of palms for holding her knives and sword. All her other weapons are included and then some. The pair of kukri knives were used to great effect in "Resident Evil: Extinction" but they were shown and never used in "Resident Evil: Afterlife". The strange looking thing on the top right is actually an additional hair sculpt which gives you the option to switch hair styles if you like.


There's also the all-important Instruction Sheet which shows you how to switch the interchangeable hair sculptures, put on the jacket with neck warmer and the usual dos and don'ts.


And here's the Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series MMS139 movie-accurate Milla Jovovich as "Resident Evil: Afterlife" Alice 12-inch collectible figure out of the box without her brown leather-like weapons vest / gun holster with belt and weapons, wearing just her costume / outfit consisting of black short-sleeved T-shirt, black military vest, pair of black leggings, pair of leg warmers, and pair of black boots.


Scroll down for turnaround views of this magnificent and lovely femfig by Hot Toys. So far, Hot Toys seem to be the only company who has got the female action figure done right. All of Hot Toys female figures look feminine enough (unlike those transvestite looking female figures other 1/6 manufacturers have released and tried to pass them off as females by enhancing their bust size to a double D!) and yet NOT Barbie or doll-like. There is a fine balance and if you look around at other companies' female figures, you'll see what I mean. Most don't make it. Even the supposedly seamless female figures have too broad shoulders and hips which makes them look too cartoony physically and anatomically. Most of the female head sculpts are unappealing and bland and look more like badly drawn anime girls than realistic looking women.




Here are some close-up views of Hot Toys 1/6 scale Milla Jovovich as Alice head sculpt from "Resident Evil: Afterlife". I think they did a damn good job with the sculpt and this is as close as you are ever going to get to Milla Jovovich without getting arrested for harassing or stalking! AWESOME head sculpt by the Hot Toys team on Milla to make the figure look this good and realistic :)




And below are two close-up pictures of Hot Toys Milla Jovovich as RE Alice with the alternate hair sculpture which is intended to give Alice the hair swept back look. It shows off more of her face and cheeks and the hair sculpts are interchangeable using magnets located at the top of her head and inside of the hair sculpts. I didn't take pictures of a bald Alice because I just cannot accept seeing her that way, even if she's just a 12-inch female action figure.



Close-up shots of Hot Toys Alice wearing her black military vest and arm warmers. They certainly aren't gauntlets because I seriously doubt that they can offer her any protection other than keeping her arms from getting cold.



Closer look at Hot Toys "Resident Evil: Afterlife" Alice's boots with extra warmers. The warmers are molded together with her boots so that they look like she's wearing knee-high boots. She certainly wants to look fashionable while killing zombies. Who cares as long as she looks good doing what she does :)



Here's Hot Toys Alice figure with her weapons vest on and arm warmers off to show the elbow joints which are otherwise always concealed by the warmers.


A closer look at Hot Toys "Resident Evil: Afterlife" Alice's 1/6 scale brown leather-like weapons holster / vest attached to belt

Front of Hot Toys Resident Evil Alice's weapons holster with belt

Back of Hot Toys Resident Evil Alice's weapons holster with belt

Alice (Milla Jovovich) carries a pair of 5" barreled Smith & Wesson Model 460V revolvers in a dual shoulder rig setup. At one point, she hands them off to both Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller) and Crystal (Kacey Barnfield). Alice is then seen using them to shoot through a horde of zombies in the prison yard, and tosses them away when they are empty so she can use her double barreled shotguns.


Alice (Milla Jovovich) wields a pair of Sawed-Off 12-Gauge Double Barreled Shotguns in a dual shoulder rig setup. She fills her shotgun shells with quarters (killing zombies with American currency) to create more damage and spread, but these would not fit in even the most overbored 12 gauge barrel (standard sizes is 18.5mm-20.3mm, a quarter is 24mm). Pennies and dimes are the only coins that would fit a twelve guage. Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) also uses one of Alice's shotguns during her confrontation with the Executioner.


Alice (Milla Jovovich) uses an Heckler & Koch MP5K that is thrown to her by Claire when the survivors are fighting off zombies on the prison rooftop. She uses it until it runs empty. The only time she is seen with double MP5Ks is on the movie posters and in the film's beginning when Alice clones attempt to kill Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) at his base in Japan.


In "Resident Evil: Extinction", Alice carried two Uzi submachine guns and a pair of kukri knives, and used them to great effect. They were shown but never used in "Resident Evil: Afterlife".


Alice preferred the straight-bladed odachi (a term given to any sword that is larger than a katana that is handled by two hands) japanese sword in "Resident Evil: Afterlife". Hot Toys Alice 12-inch collectible figure comes with 1:6 scale sword and sheath plus the extended police baton which is non-collapsable.


More pictures in the next few reviews and posts including action poses of Alice as she puts away the zombies with her full arsenal of weapons at her disposal :)

If you haven't gotten yours, order now at BigBadToyStore.com AND tell them ToyHaven sent you ;p

6 comments:

Wingin' It said...

As always, a wonderful review. You know, I've yet to find a manufacturer who can get female hair 'right'. It never does the figure justice and by the look of this one, it falls into that category. Still, the face sculpt and accessories look amazing.

alex teo said...

Thanks for the kind words, Ian :) I have to agree with you about the female hair issue but this certainly is the closest I'm ever going to get to Milla haha CHEERS

Marc Bowker said...

First-time visitor to your blog. Very thorough review of Alice. Thanks for taking the time to review it. Looking forward to more of your reviews in the future.

alex teo said...

You are most welcome Marc ("1st time visitor" - sounds like what a Martian would say haha). Toy collecting is my passion and blogging about it is my way of sharing that passion with others and I'm glad you enjoyed the review as much as I did putting it up. CHEERS

Anonymous said...

Hello, I'm a big fan of your blog and reviews. Always fast and great reviews. However, one thing bothers me the most is your use of lenses. most your photos look like fish-eyed. This can give very wrong ideas for other collectors who doesn't own, but thinking about buying one.
If I didn't have the Alice figure and saw your photos, I would think she has big head and short legs...:)
Best way to shoot it would be keep distance and use zoom (instead of using macro or get too close to figure)
My 2 cents :)

alex teo said...

Thanks for the encouragement and tip on photo-taking :) I'll keep that in mind for the other later reviews. Always wondered how to correct the fish-eye effect and now I know. Thanks again, very much appreciated.