Review - SuperPlastic Gorillaz Mini Series Cyborg Noodle and Phase Three Noodle

During Gorillaz' Plastic Beach (or "Phase Three") era, you had two Noodles; the human, and the robot. While the human is lost after falling off Angel Island Zone, Murdoc builds a gun toting cybernetic clone to protect him and his mansion from enemy pirates.

Though the doppelganger characters only ever interacted offscreen - resulting in the robot's epic, not animated, illustrated or very much detailed at all death - they were a central focus of the album's games, videos and story, all being major elements of Plastic Beach's mixed-media experiment.

Unlike their preceding designs, the Noodle twins never got figures back in 2010; much to my dismay, as a gigantic geek. Well, ages later, and they're finally here; featured as part of SuperPlastic's Gorillaz Mini Series, a blind box line featuring various characters and designs from the band's expansive illustrated history. 

Check out my review of SuperPlastic's Phase Three 2-D here! 

Let's start off with Cyborg. The sculpt, coming straight from the cover of Plastic Beach's lead single, Stylo, is nice - it's a cool translation of a decidedly "flat" image into a three-dimensional physical pose. There's lots of nice, art-accurate details, with some appropriate figure specific quirks such as the bullet hole in her skull showing through both sides.  I particularly dig her well realized head sculpt, with a sly, evil smile and big, boofy bangs. However, the sort of soft, less stylized weight and anatomy can throw off the likeness, giving her a much less dark and angular appearance.  

This is only furthered by the paint work. Serviceable, at best... Chinese knock-off, at worst. It's all mostly accurate to, or at least clearly inspired by, the source material; I'm just not a huge fan of the figure's overall brightened color scheme. She's ghastly! Pale skin may be hard to capture, but Cyborg's is certainly meant to be more of a washed out pallor than... stale... highlighter... lemon. She almost looks glow-in-the-dark. Just like 2-D, this is a figure where some sort of grungy wash or finer, smaller detail work would really enhance the smaller aspects of the sculpt.

However, to be fair, that all's not much of a deal breaker. The palette is sort of off, yes, but I suppose it communicates the general look of the character. So what's the big issue, then? 

It's the nose! All of the decos - especially that one - are totally off-center. Your mileage may vary, as no two figures are all quite the same, but I seem to have struck out with this one. Some areas suffered worse than others; but then, her teeth are floating, her patch is walking away, and she's even got some sort of historically inspired facial hair styling going on...

Which, interestingly, makes for the second Axis Power themed Gorillaz figure. Props for brand consistency, SuperPlastic.

Why paint in the nostrils, first of all - especially if you're not going to do it guaranteed, 100%, no doubt on-center? It's a lousy thing to mess up. There's even paint/glue slop spattered about the figure, some of which has chipped off between photos. Beautiful! Really weak quality control, all around. 

Maybe I'm being overdramatic, but if you're gonna bother to paint in something as irrelevant as nose holes, why not also paint details that will increase the accuracy of sculpt? For example, the dark definition around Cyborg's teeth in the original illustration; a small bit of shading, yes, but an important aspect of the likeness which actually was present on the figure's digital prototype. Y'know what wasn't? Nostrils. How about the rusty red color bleeding through her wound? Maybe some shadow on her hat? Or hey, what about eyes? There's clearly a concave space for them. 

In fact, put a pin on that - Noodle's got pretty bad luck when it comes to eyeballs, it seems.

Cyborg is a passing figure, if nothing too especially notable. It's biggest appeal is, really, the fact it's the only figure of this particular character. As was the case with 2-D, the sculpt is good, but very questionable paint work and overall build quality knocks it all the way down, next door to McDonald's Land; and I don't mean Living Island. 

Is that harsh? Look, I'm a toy nerd, I've got astronomical standards when it comes to garbage.

Yes, these are tiny figures, and yes, they're intended to be constructed a bit sparingly, but that's not an excuse when they're clocking in at $20 bucks apiece; let alone, what that'll become on the aftermarket; a very real thing to consider when it comes to the bane upon existence that are blind box collectables. Isn't the idea of an "art toy" that it's of a much  higher level of quality or artistic presentation compared to your average product? 

As an aside, coincidence though it may be, I think it's so neat how similar little Cyborg is to KidRobot's Phase Two Noodle. Seeing as Cyborg is canonically based on that Noodle's design, their shared cross-armed pose, militaristic getup and further similarities are just wicked side-by-side. Very cool parallels. For what it's worth, I actually think SuperPlastic's managed a much stronger "Noodle" likeness than the good ol' KidRobot, too. If only she were in-scale...

Well, up next, we're onto the real Noodle - y'know, that cat-butterfly mask one. Plastic Beach's take on Noodle is one of Gorillaz' most iconic images; in no small way thanks to her simple, but effective design, spawning an endless avalanche of horrifying art, cosplay, and adult oriented WattPads. 

Just like 2-D and Cyborg before her, this Noodle is directly inspired by a Jamie Hewlett original; most recognizable for it's use as the basis of Gorillaz' music video, Broken. This figure looks very nice; I love the visible sense motion throughout her sculpt, wind gusting through her wild hair and wispy dress. Of the three, I think it's plain to say Noodle has the best base sculpt. Sharp edges, solid build, and just look at all those neat little details; her dress' decorative pockets, the loose ends of her scarf, the individual keys of her teeny-tiny melodica. She's even got a face back there; cool, right? Again. Pin. We'll get there in a sec.

On that note, I will mention, the shape of her mask immediately struck me as a little weird; it had that sort of flat, folded look in some illustrations, sure, but my mind tends to jump more towards it's usual rounded look. Especially since that's how it looks in the source image. I also noticed she's wearing long white gloves, despite these not appearing in her aforementioned appearances. Big deal, but it's got some precedent -  it seems the figure is just as much based on the Broken video, as it is On Melancholy Hill's. From the mask to her gloves, I think the inspiration's clear. Neat-o!

Again - the paint. First and foremost, the deco on her mask is so... blurry. It's like a Nintendo 64 texture. Imagine if the mask had the reddish brown vignette seen in the art and video. A man can dream... Some broader edges are, likewise, oversprayed - the stripes on her leggings really reveal this. Worst of all, there's loads slop and even scuffs, clean out of the package - lame. I will say, her Baja Blast-esque complexion works slightly better here - probably due to the lessened contrast - but, again, a more dull, subdued sort of color would've looked much better.

Here's where we get to that pin I've been hyping up; check behind her mask, as anyone would, and what do you get? A face - which could've been cool, sure... if it were painted. At all. I wouldn't care about something intentionally hidden being left unpainted - God forbid - if it weren't for the fact she has specifically sculpted eyes. I mentioned a concave space where Cyborg's eyes could've been, right? That's nothing;  Noodle's got straight up empty sockets where hers are meant to be. Spooky. It's too bad, because even though her mask isn't removable, it looks like they've done a solid job replicating her not-oft seen face. Could've been a fun aspect of the toy.

Credit where credit's due, they did manage to nicely paint in many of the sculpt's other details. Her melodica looks sick; again, cool for it's miniature size. The trim of her dress, as well as her buttons and scarf, look great. Her hair's even a slightly lighter shade of blue compared to that of her dark robotic counterpart; who, I want to note, is a bit taller than the humanoid Noodle. Makes sense, seeing as one's got strapping punk boots, and one's got Hot Topic socks.

For the sake of completion, I figured I ought to also go mention Noodle's chase variant, a fully monochromatic redeco. Thrilling! Various figures throughout the line received this black-and-white stylization, though I can't imagine... why? It's so dull. Doesn't seem to make much sense with the brand, either; though, I suppose it doesn't necessarily look bad. I like to refer to them as the "funeral editions". 

Oddly enough, while the variant's paint work may be uninspired, it's much cleaner than that of the full color alternative. Just look at the difference in quality between their masks. Night and day. Comparing the other chase and standard figures I own, this seems to be a consistent issue throughout the line.

If we're going to have variants, how about a version without her mask? That'd make up for, and make use of that unpainted face sculpt. You could do shades of green, as seen in the Rhinestone Eyes music video. How about pink? Or hell, forget about Noodle - half of Cyborg's appearances were in some color-swapped variation of her figure's getup. Same goes for 2-D. Could've been a solid opportunity. 

So what are my overall thoughts on these figures? They're very exciting to own as a longtime fan, especially as I'm very into the specific era of Gorillaz from which these guys originate. For that reason alone, I can't be too harsh on 'em; if it weren't for that terribly high price tag, I'd have no problem accepting these as dinky little cheap toys. I'm a big fan of those. The issue is that.. they're not. Certain ones are already barking up over a hundred second hand, let alone the already high retail. If you're a fan of the characters, the design, whatever, they're certainly worth it, as long as you know what you're in for. They're advertised as art toys, but they're about as high grade as some mid range gashapon. If you're more of a casually interested collector, maybe someone who's more into the general idea of Gorillaz, I'd recommend you seek out the original KidRobots; even after years of eBay price gauging, they'll still give you more than what you paid for.

I will say - besides the annoyingly short packed Del - these are easily, and by far, the best looking of the line. 

So, assuming they do make a wave two (fingers crossed, despite my ever-hateful cynical heart of coal) I think it's safe to guess they'll be making a Phase Three Murdoc. It's actually a bit surprising we didn't get one the first time around, especially over Cyborg or 2-D; seeing as he was more or less the central focus of the album's marketing cycle. I think his existing Song Machine likeness looks a bit like Phase Three's to begin with, what with his hooded eyes, and long, evil chin; Pop on a gaudy pirate's hat, and boom! You've got your Murdoc.  That in mind, I think they'll do the character justice; despite what this line's fucking atrocious Murdoc sculpts might suggest. Good Lord! I'm hoping they go for his On Melancholy Hill sweater look; maybe hauling that big whaley spikey thing, seen here. Or maybe that classic banana-wang pose everyone knows and loves. How about the o2 design?

As for Russel.. I know they won't - it's a pipe dream - it's gonna be that weirdo hooded one - but I'd adore a large scale take on his usual Phase Three design. It wouldn't have to much bigger than their usual Gorillaz figures; just enough to give the implication he's a hulking giant compared to the rest of the crew, just as he was during the events of Plastic Beach. 

Only time will tell... as will what makes up the rest of the potential wave's slots, 'cause the case of these figures I bought is moving about as slowly as a partially deaf grandmother on highway nineteen. Here's hoping. Either way, it's wicked to finally round off a complete set of the original era of Gorillaz, in toys.