A quick look on the MEZCO One:12 Collection’s Punisher!!!

MEZCO Toyz ONE:12 Collective - Punisher

Let me start today’s post by mentioning that I’m a huge Punisher fan for as long as I can remember. I remember immediately riding my bicycle through the rain during my younger days to get to the comic store just to get the latest Punisher War Journal & War Zone comics after receiving a call from the comic store owner. I even recall re-watching the Dolph Lundgren Punisher flick every now and then on school nights(!); and endless playing of that sweet ‘Operation Wolf-like’ 90s Punisher 1st person shooter game from NES/LJN (I still play this game with my son on our retro game console at home) . Good times! 

And of course being an action figure enthusiast I try to get my hands on every single Punisher action figure there is. I used to own the 5” Toybiz’ Marvel Superheroes Punisher which I may credit as among the earliest action figure that got me interested to become the action figure curator that I am today. Sadly that piece of pre-Marvel Legends collectible was lost/misplaced sometime in the mid-90s when I was in a very confused state of my life. 

Anyhoo…. 

Back when the Marvel Legends 6” line was launched in the early 90s I knew I was destined to own a Punisher in a matter of time. That came in the form of that sweet Series 4 Punisher action figure. That action figure was the first of the many Punishers that would eventually join my growing collection of stuff in my man cave with the exception of the camouflage Punisher that came in the Nemesis ML Series (this Series/Wave never reached retail here in Malaysia. What a bummer!). The recent Jon Bernthal Netflix Punisher is also a good action figure IMHO but he just doesn’t scream ‘comic Punisher’ in my books (I do have him for my collection but I still haven’t gotten around to open nor review him yet so let’s just leave him there). 

So before I digress even further…. 

Today I would like to share my joy of successfully getting my hands on the holy grail of my Punisher obsession (there WAS that Ray Stevenson sixth scale Punisher figure that I really wanted in 2014 but alas I skipped it for some reason)……MEZCO’s One:12 Punisher!!!!!! 

MEZCO Toyz ONE:12 Collective - Punisher

Let me just say a huge thank you to the collector who parted ways with this excellent piece of collectible at a lower-than-retail price. Your loss is my gain my good fellow! As fate had intended it to be, this gentleman had lost interest to collect any further MEZCO’s ONE:12 action figures in favor of a new line of collectibles so he had listed whatever he had on a collector’s forum page online. He had barely displayed or played with his ONE:12 figures due to his hectic work schedule so it made his decision to part ways with them so much the easier. A few exchanges of messages and negotiations later saw an agreement made between us and the rest is history. 

MEZCO Toyz ONE:12 Collective - Punisher

I remember drooling over the preview pictures almost 2 years ago and I attempted to place a pre-order with one toy store for this Punisher. I was told that stock was expected to be in abundance since MEZCO had learnt their lesson with their under-stocked TDKR Batman released earlier. It turns out to be untrue as MEZCO still only produced their ONE:12 figures according to the number of actual orders received from wholesalers. Can’t really blame the toy store owner for telling me something he wasn’t sure of since I hadn’t done my own checking back then as well. No matter, this action figure has now safely arrived in my hands. 

MEZCO Toyz ONE:12 Collective - Punisher

It’s such a relief to finally found a private collector who was willing to let this one go below the RRP! I mean looking at crazy secondary prices for this baby makes you even wonder about the prices people would pay for a 6” scale action figure. As good as this action figure could be, I find it VERY hard to fathom Hot Toys-level price points for a 1/12 scale action figure. For those not familiar with the ONE:12 line, what MEZCO had done here was simply giving their 6” action figures the kind of quality that we’d normally see in a Hot Toys action figure i.e. the cloth attire, superb articulations, a smorgasbord of highly detailed accessories and a killer head sculpt (or 3 head sculpts in Punisher’s case!). 

MEZCO Toyz ONE:12 Collective - Punisher

I had previously remembered MEZCO only as the toy company that had produced one of my most beloved action figures of all times i.e. the comic & movie Hellboy action figures. Those were also hard to find at the time so I guess that MEZCO kinda like to ‘under produce’ their offering for some reason. 

MEZCO Toyz ONE:12 Collective - Punisher

Coming back to the Punisher, I can truly see why so many collectors had placed this so high on their want list once I have this on hand. You get three superb head sculpts and IMHO these alone makes your purchase of this action figure set worth it! And mind you this is at the 1/12 scale! I wonder if MEZCO could truly kill it in the 1/6 scale with these kind of sculpting prowess. 

MEZCO Toyz ONE:12 Collective - Punisher

Frank also comes with heaps of weapons/accessories. These are insanely detailed and I guess a bulk of work was dedicated by them MEZCO guys in this department alone next to the crazy head sculpts shown earlier. Most people like the inclusion of the gunshot blast effects but I am not too crazy about them as I prefer to edit the gunshot effects in during the editing of my shots. To each his own eh? 

Some of the most repeated criticism is how his clothing seems to be a bit ‘loose’ and not snug as one would like it to be. Let me just reiterate that this is a 6” scale we’re talking about and Punisher here isn’t as bad as his other ONE:12 peers to say the least. I’ve seen the others and I can say that there are some with even more loose fitting looking clothing on them (with the exception of the TDKR Batman). 

I understand that I currently own the ‘standard’ version and there are two (2) other versions that exist for youse who’d want the variant look of ol’ Frank. One is the Toy Fair deluxe release which is rather impossible to own if you don’t own a toy store and the other is the classic ‘white boots and gloves’ version. Some extra accessories would be the differences between this standard release and those special editions. One similarity between all versions is that they are currently being scalped to death on eBay and other online selling platform so ultimately I’m happy to get my hands on one. 

Maybe a full review on this figure will come very soon from me. Or not.

Till next time. 

Excelsior! 

Comments

If you're interested, the Retro Revival Blog Challenge is alive again. You can check it out here http://bit.ly/2wGrjI9
The Rebel said…
Cool....I'll check it out Mickey! Cheers =)