I’m super excited to show you this guy today! This is the Real Posing Woody doll by Takara Tomy, available from Japan (I got mine on eBay). He is a full size Woody doll, but he is articulated so you can pose him in different positions. This is something that is super important for me in my photography, and I do already have the Medicom Ultimate Woody doll who is amazing. However, my ultimate Woody is getting a little fragile. I’ve used him a lot and with how much he has increased in value since I got him, I wanted to semi-retire him and find an alternative to use instead sometimes. When I saw this Woody online, I was hopeful that he may be a suitable alternative.
He comes in this big presentation box which has a book-opening type front. When you open the front flap, you can see him standing proudly in there. Behind/around him, the box is printed to look like a scene from one of the movies. On the inside of the flap, it shows you some of the poses you can do with him.
Straight out the box, impressions are pretty good. He can stand well, but he does also have a clear stand you can use to display him or give extra support when posing him. From the feel of him, it feels like he has some sort of plastic ball skeleton inside, a bit like the Gorilla Pod camera mounts! So, he can bend his arms and legs pretty well, his hands move well at the wrists, you can bend his torso etc. He does not have interchangeable hands or faces like Medicom Ultimate Woody, but you can position his eyes with your fingers to make him look in different directions etc. At first I thought his torso looked a bit weird and “empty” but actually, if you take the time to position him well, I quite like the effect it gives as it does make him more toy-like.
I think he is going to be great for what I want him for, but there are some things that definitely could have been improved upon. The detail on things like his boot spurs and belt buckle isn’t as impressive; the colour of them is a bit off, so I’m going to paint over those myself. He doesn’t “feel” as high quality either but that’s to be expected really as he is cheaper than what Ultimate Woody originally retailed for; and it would have been nice to have at least one extra face or set of hands. I would also have preferred it the face he does have didn’t have an open mouth. However, despite those issues, he is still really nice and definitely a great alternative to Ultimate Woody if you are looking for a more affordable full sized Woody doll with posing abilities. He looks super smart in the box too if you are an in-box collector.
