Just as Gorillaz are dropping (yet) another album - the standout track being "Captain Chicken", on which the amazing Del the Funky Homosapien raps for the first time with the band since 2001 - I figured I ought to go back to the SuperPlastic mini series I've covered a few times before and look over another blind-box; if only as an excuse to take some fun photos of a few literal shelf-warmers. Yikes. Take this as a lesson, kids - no matter how rare the other, older merchandise may be, you can't scalp 'em all.
Who else to shove to the showcase, of course, but Murdoc Niccals - The creepy, soulless, and worst of all, visibly British bassist of Mr. Albarn's magical mystery tour. I recently went over KidRobot's 2006 figure, sporting a villainous urban look quite unlike Murdoc's green goblin design of today, as well as the Plastic Beach 2-D, Noodle and Cyborg Noodle figures from Superplastic's same mini figure set. Perhaps in my sorrow, yearning for a Plastic Beach Murdoc figure to round out the crew - and a Russel, too, if they'd be so kind - I've decided it's time to zero-in and talk about this mixed bag of a toy; horrible grubface, Happy Meal aesthetics, $22~ price tag, and all. You've seen me praise the cool sculpts of the Plastic Beach characters, so let's take a lot at a figure I'm not so immediately fond of.
For those who don't know, Phase Four served as Gorillaz' 2016-2018 comeback era, centered around the album Humanz and it's various singles and spin-offs. Phase Four's Murdoc sported a unique, surreal take on the character, having been the characters first appearance in about 5 years at that point; lanky, yet humanoid porportions, tinier, yet more exaggurated features, a vibrant green complexion, a looser, freeform flow to his poses, and - by far, most notably - a honkin' jaw not unlike Leno's ever-growing Crimson Chin.
Superplastic has sort of rounded out that modern look, going for something perhaps more obviously akin to Murdoc's illustrations during The Now Now's era. As with the Tranz and Song Machine 2-D figures, Murdoc's base model seems to be reused from the previously released Song Machine figure - which I've praised before as a pretty cool looking take that captures a lot of the "Murdoc" traits I like - and while the sculpt certainly works there, I'm not so sure it translates over into this figure.
Well, cut to the chase - it doesn't.
Should that be the case, its obvious why the figure doesnt quite click as well as, say, the Plastic Beach Noodle twins; those recreated their source material from the ground up, while this retrofits an existing sculpt and does its best to adapt it into the gist of a totally separate look. While I don't necessarily expect these to be a one-to-one recreation of the art - hell, even Plastic Beach's 2-D was a bit of a departure - the differences, while small, totally throw off the look. His face, in general, is the heart of the issue - It certainly captures the wonky, formless jaw and high grin of Humanz era's Murdoc, and I think the look works alright from the correct angle... but, beyond that, just ends up looking warped and wack from most perspectives. The worst offender of the bunch is the most obvious - what's with the gigantic bushy eyebrows? Even his eyes themselves aren't the right shape, though I'd be able to overlook something like that if it weren't for how strange they look pushed so far below his bangs. The tight smile, the big lopsided cheeks, the Dumbo ears - he's meant to be an ugly old mug, sure, so I suppose your mileage may vary, but I don't think this was quite what the art was going for.
Now, being fair, the sculpt's got some nice little details - I like how they've done the clothing, which, along with the pose itself, is sort of the real centerpiece of the figure. Above all else, the figure's got character - even with the smudged-up, weirdo pug face, the pose and overall look of the figure just screams Murdoc - perhaps, less so than the awesomely evil aforementioned Phase Two figure, but nevertheless, he's got that snarling punk energy I like to see from the rotten demon rocker.
His proportions, while not really representative of the wobbly half-humanoid Murdoc seen in the illustration, look appropriately surreal; at just about 4 inches tall, he scales more-or-less well next to his bandmates, such as fellow Phase 4 rep Russel, who's rocking his funky Saturnz Barz video outfit.
The paint work is where things sort of fall apart - er, even more, that is. I'm not a fan of the blinding highligher green they've chosen for Murdoc's decaying corpse complexion; it's definitely not accurate, and besides that, is a bit too light to look very quality. Something about the pallette just screams "cheap" to me - as said in previous Gorillaz Mini reviews, a paint wash here, some finer details there, and a lot more quality control could've done these guys leagues in upping the ante.
That said, the small decals are mostly well done, and where present, bring out a nice amount of detail to such a little figure. I love the striped handkerchief hanging out of his back pocket, or the bit of skin showing between his boots and pants. Even his little cigarette and match are properly painted, unlike his full scale Song Machine predecessor. Go figure. Again, it all comes back to the face - the eyes are really faint, and clearly off. The whites of his eyes are off-center and, because of this, slightly oversprayed, fading back to neon astroturf before filling in the entire sculpted area. Where exactly is his gaze? They just have a weird aimless stare that doesn't work. I think having him glare forward from under his bangs would've worked out best - the shifty side-eye just wound up, how you say, "totes derp".
As with a handful of other figures of the set, he also received a black-and-white variant - though I'm not sure I'd describe it as "chase" per se. I'm not sure what they were going for with the monochromatic colors - maybe pencil art? - but, while it is a bit random, it looks solid enough. As I mentioned in a previous review, the finer details on each chase figure seem to be cleaner and bolder than on the fully painted counterparts, probably thanks to the simplified designs.
Phase Four, as it were, was a bit of a disappointment to many fans; low on music videos, low on direction... hell, you could even argue it was low on Gorillaz. But at the end of the day, I have a lot of nostalgia and positive feelings for the brief, but special little era; with two-ish years of buildup between teasers, interviews and the teensiest of leaks, its the most excited I've ever been for an upcoming content - even if the album itself didn't exactly pay off, I can definitely say I've got a soft spot for it's art and related concepts, and I love to see the designs I ogled over so long ago on instagram translated into the world of plastic.
Overall, I think the figure is flawed enough to not actively seek out, but still a fun prize to find in a blind box. You can't always expect top-tier quality with these kinds of figures, even with the most astronomical - or, yknow, dumb - of price tags, but that's not to completely downplay the guy; it's a cool and memorable little figure of Muds, especially if you happen to not have any other. There's certainly much better - and, arguably, worse - Murdoc figures out there, and I wouldnt say this is anywhere near a favorite or even particularly "good" figure in my light, but it's still a nice, ho-hum, right in the middle kinda toy, and most importantly a fun enough representation of the character at that.
Hey - as a guy who likes dinky desk figurines, things to fidget with, and look at - sometimes, that's okay. That's all you need.
Or, at least... good enough?
Eh? Meh? Enough to fill a review?
Whatever.
No comments:
Post a Comment