For those who had been following my humble blog for a considerable period of time may or may not notice that column to the left of my blog page that says "Geeky action figure wish-list". As the name suggests, that is where I've listed a number of those action figures which had somehow rather eluded me in the past hence never made it into my collection as they should have been in the first place. Together with the ultra-rare Aquaman from the Alex Ross 'Justice' series, the 2007 Comic Con exclusive Abe Sapien here was also always on top of my 'had-to-find-no-matter-what' list. For the record, both Aquaman and Abe Sapien are now both gone from that list for obvious reasons. Naturally, I had to wait for the right price to come along before I make my purchases....hence explaining why it had taken me so long to finally get him. I was lucky enough to have found a local Malaysian eBay seller who was kind enough to listen to my offer for the item.
The plastic bubble packaging works well for those who wants to have a clear view of everything inside. Truth is, personally I don't really care how these action figures are packaged anyway since I open 95% of the toys I own (with some notable exceptions like the excellent retro-lookin' VOTC Star Wars figures). I really dig the packaging art by the great Mike Mignola himself (that's the creator of the whole Hellboy universe to those in the dark!).
Back view of the packaging.
He's a 2007 Comic Con (SDCC) Exclusive so presumingly there's only so much quantity made (can't remember how many exactly were made). Being limited inevitably means that he's constantly being marked up by scalpers.
Here's a clearer view of the excellent packaging art done by Mike Mignola (sans lighting glare!). Mignola is one my most favourite comic artist ever. His unique blocky style of illustration has been at the forefront of the comic industry ever since he first emerged into the scene....none of the other artists come close dare I say it!
And here's the character bio in case you weren't able to read it through the plastic packaging in the picture way above. For further readings, I suggest picking up Vol 1 of the Hellboy Library Edition if you wanna know more on Abe's origins.
Freshly out of his plastic cell, Abe Sapien comes only with his standard issue BPRD vest and a spear. A stark contrast to the movie-version Abe Sapien which came with heaps of accessories (dig his toilet-seat neck thingy! lol...).
Front view of his vest.
Back view of his vest with the BPRD emblem/logo.
What's not to love about this figure? Great sculpt and nicely toned paint job complete with wash. He's the epitome of a great action figure within the 6-7" scale. He's pretty well articulated too...it's just that I didn't really maximize his poses much for this photo shoot.
Abe holding his spear.
I love it that even with his vest on, Abe doesn't look that bulky at all.
A buddy of mine, Marc (of the www.makingmymarc.com fame and IMHO one of the most excellent toy photographer around) said that this next picture reminds him of a bunch of players waiting to bat for the home team....lol.
Hellboy with Abe.
My verdict on Abe? He's totally worth it....and definitely a MUST if you want to have the core members of BPRD in your collection. After years of hunting Abe down, the gang's finally complete. Can't believe MEZCO didn't go ahead and continue with the line. There were other characters of course from the series but these five is definitely the CORE ones you should get if you're into completing your BPRD main lineup.
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