I had the pleasure of seeing Onward for one of the advanced screenings on leap day, and it was absolutely INCREDIBLE! It turned out to be a very Onward themed day too as my order of some of the Mattel action figures arrived so I’m going to show you those in detail today!
All the figures come on the same style packaging, with the figures held to the cardboard backing with string, and plastic blister holding on any extra accessories. The front of the boxes all show the same Onward artwork, and the backs show the featured figure in an example pose and what other figures are available to collect. These ones show only Ian, Barley and Wilden as being available, but there is an individual Manticore available too, though this hasn’t been released in the U.K. yet.
Barley comes with one extra accessory which is the sword. He is an absolutely incredible figure! He is so detailed with all the patches on his jacket, and you can even see the detail of his beard stubble and the design on his arm cuff etc. I love his hair and they just captured his face so well. His posing is really good too, and he is a nice sturdy figure and stands easily on his own. The sword is not as detailed, but I’m not bothered as the figure himself is just so awesome.
Ian comes with his wizard staff and Blazey! I love how they have captured him; his face is great and I love his hair and they got his skinny awkwardness spot on! I was worried that he would be difficult to stand etc but actually, he can do so really well and again, his posing ability is brilliant. The one thing I wish could be different is his shirt, as it’s not painted to be like it is in the movie. The plastic is textured but the detail hasn’t been painted on, it’s just plain red. The same thing happened with Gabby Gabby from the Toy Story line, where you could see the spots on her dress in the texture of the plastic, but it was just painted yellow, the spots where not painted white. I can understand it, as it would need to be done by hand which would take a long time and likely to result in painting errors etc, so it’s much easier and quicker for them to stick with the plain colour; but in an ideal world, I wish it had been done. I painted the spots onto my Gabby Gabby figure but I don’t think I will paint Ian’s shirt as I don’t think my skills would be up to it and I don’t want to risk ruining him. He’s such a great figure in so many other ways that I can overlook his shirt being plain red! The wizard staff is really cool and he can hold it easily. I’m going to consider painting the “gem” on that to make it look a bit more glowing. The Blazey figure is adorable; pretty detailed and I’m pleased that his head can be turned rather than him being a completely static figure.
Wilden is brilliant! I was thrilled to see that his arms are made of a rubbery material so they really flop around just like in the movie. The one downside of that is that fluff and dust sticks to them a bit, but it’s worth putting up with as it just works so well for his character and accuracy. His posing ability is really good, the legs pose really well and his head can move a bit too which is useful. The detail is pretty good again, and he even has his purple socks! Another cool feature too is that you can remove the legs from the top half which again, opens up more play opportunities to recreate more moments from the film. He comes with two tiny figures of two of the pixies too and considering how tiny they are, the paint job and detail on them is brilliant! They can even stand, supported by their wings.
I am really impressed with these figures and highly recommend them. The detail and posing on them is great and they all look so good together! I really hope we get the Manticore available here soon. I’d also really love figures of Laurel (Ian and Barley’s Mum), and Colt Bronco but as far as I’m aware, they sadly haven’t been made. A Guinevere for them all to actually fit in would be amazing too! We can dream I guess!
Aww I love this, you’re a great writer Lucy ! Love the pictures to