admin
22 December 2023
I’ve always been a huge fan of the television show The X-Files. It had everything a socially inept young man stuck at home on a Friday night could ever want: vast alien conspiracies, nocturnal paranormal activities, action, suspense, and even an occasional campy vampire romp thrown in to fill the blank spaces of an empty social calendar.
With all of the colorful characters from the show, you would think someone would have taken advantage of it to create a full line of action figures. And to be fair, there were a few minor attempts. McFarlane Toys created a small line based off the movie The X-Files that were pretty good for the time, and Mattel made a two-pack of Ken and Barbie dressed like Mulder and Scully that was beyond abysmal (although, the image of Agent Scully beaming that gigantic plastic smile while tearing open a diseased corpse is creepier than anything ever portrayed on the show).
Yep, it’s been pretty slim pickings, but that’s all about to change. Sideshow Collectibles is now producing 12\" dolls. And they kicked it all off with the dynamic duo of conspiracy crackers themselves, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
Sideshow has an excellent reputation for making great 12\" figures, and once again they have not disappointed with these new creations. To begin with, both figures have terrific head sculpts. David Duchovny’s sculpt is a little off, but Gillian Anderson’s is near perfect. It was an especially nice choice to sculpt her hair rather than use rooted, real hair, which almost never works. Poor Mulder’s slight sculptural mistakes are unfortunately only magnified by an overbearing paint job. His paint application makes him appear like he’s wearing thick eye makeup and lipstick. Maybe Mulder wasn’t really toiling each night in that basement office, but was in fact dancing the night away at the Blue Oyster Bar. I must have missed those episodes, but they sound really sweet.
And what’s a good head without a body? Nothing, I tell you! Nothing! Lucky for us, these heads come with a pair of super-articulated bodies clothed in the finest threads. These clothes must have been tailored by tiny, magical elves with minuscule, nimble fingers. The stitching is fantastic-- especially in Scully’s jacket. And they are topped off with so many details, like the tiny little buttons on Mulder\'s shirt. These dolls have better clothes than I do! Dammit! Why couldn’t I be a 12\"?
The one thing Sideshow has always needed to improve upon is the number of accessories they include with each figure. But this is the category where these babies shine beyond all other Sideshow creations. Mulder and Scully are loaded with show-accurate items to aid them through their quest for the truth. Each figure comes with the key items: a cell phone, handgun, flashlight, stand with the X-Files logo, and an FBI badge. Mulder also comes with his \"I want to believe\" poster, and the alien stiletto-- handy for dispatching aliens and cleaning your fingernails. But it\'s Scully who wins the contest with her unique accessory-- an X-File case folder filled with pictures from the show. You even get a picture of that shit-eating fluke worm monster! (I still haven’t been able to go \"number two\" in an outhouse since I’ve seen that episode. That, and the fact that I have a slight problem being only three feet away from hundreds of different bowel movements. Yeah, I’m funny that way.)
I really love these figures, in case you couldn’t tell, and am eagerly awaiting others in the series. Sideshow Collectibles has already announced plans for figures of The Cigarette-Smoking Man, Agent Doggett, and Frank Black, although there’s a whole core of other characters I would love to see first, like A.D. Skinner, Krycek, Deep Throat, or The Lone Gunmen. And I would prefer to see some of the monsters from the show over anything else. Monsters like the Flukeman, the shape-shifting alien bounty hunter, one of the alien rebels that mutilated their eyes and mouths to stop the black oil, or even that creepy rubber guy who could squeeze through a heating duct.
Needless to say, this has the potential to be a long, fruitful line, and I am already clearing a large space on the shelf with the hope of good things to come.
With all of the colorful characters from the show, you would think someone would have taken advantage of it to create a full line of action figures. And to be fair, there were a few minor attempts. McFarlane Toys created a small line based off the movie The X-Files that were pretty good for the time, and Mattel made a two-pack of Ken and Barbie dressed like Mulder and Scully that was beyond abysmal (although, the image of Agent Scully beaming that gigantic plastic smile while tearing open a diseased corpse is creepier than anything ever portrayed on the show).
Yep, it’s been pretty slim pickings, but that’s all about to change. Sideshow Collectibles is now producing 12\" dolls. And they kicked it all off with the dynamic duo of conspiracy crackers themselves, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
Sideshow has an excellent reputation for making great 12\" figures, and once again they have not disappointed with these new creations. To begin with, both figures have terrific head sculpts. David Duchovny’s sculpt is a little off, but Gillian Anderson’s is near perfect. It was an especially nice choice to sculpt her hair rather than use rooted, real hair, which almost never works. Poor Mulder’s slight sculptural mistakes are unfortunately only magnified by an overbearing paint job. His paint application makes him appear like he’s wearing thick eye makeup and lipstick. Maybe Mulder wasn’t really toiling each night in that basement office, but was in fact dancing the night away at the Blue Oyster Bar. I must have missed those episodes, but they sound really sweet.
And what’s a good head without a body? Nothing, I tell you! Nothing! Lucky for us, these heads come with a pair of super-articulated bodies clothed in the finest threads. These clothes must have been tailored by tiny, magical elves with minuscule, nimble fingers. The stitching is fantastic-- especially in Scully’s jacket. And they are topped off with so many details, like the tiny little buttons on Mulder\'s shirt. These dolls have better clothes than I do! Dammit! Why couldn’t I be a 12\"?
The one thing Sideshow has always needed to improve upon is the number of accessories they include with each figure. But this is the category where these babies shine beyond all other Sideshow creations. Mulder and Scully are loaded with show-accurate items to aid them through their quest for the truth. Each figure comes with the key items: a cell phone, handgun, flashlight, stand with the X-Files logo, and an FBI badge. Mulder also comes with his \"I want to believe\" poster, and the alien stiletto-- handy for dispatching aliens and cleaning your fingernails. But it\'s Scully who wins the contest with her unique accessory-- an X-File case folder filled with pictures from the show. You even get a picture of that shit-eating fluke worm monster! (I still haven’t been able to go \"number two\" in an outhouse since I’ve seen that episode. That, and the fact that I have a slight problem being only three feet away from hundreds of different bowel movements. Yeah, I’m funny that way.)
I really love these figures, in case you couldn’t tell, and am eagerly awaiting others in the series. Sideshow Collectibles has already announced plans for figures of The Cigarette-Smoking Man, Agent Doggett, and Frank Black, although there’s a whole core of other characters I would love to see first, like A.D. Skinner, Krycek, Deep Throat, or The Lone Gunmen. And I would prefer to see some of the monsters from the show over anything else. Monsters like the Flukeman, the shape-shifting alien bounty hunter, one of the alien rebels that mutilated their eyes and mouths to stop the black oil, or even that creepy rubber guy who could squeeze through a heating duct.
Needless to say, this has the potential to be a long, fruitful line, and I am already clearing a large space on the shelf with the hope of good things to come.
artid
2857
Old Image
7_4_toybox.jpg
issue
vol 7 - issue 04 (dec 2004)
section
entertainmental