ne of the best-known cartoons to air in recent years has to be Dexter's Laboratory. Airing on Cartoon Network, the show has introduced a new visual style to viewers—clean, exaggerated and somewhat surreal. The co-creator and frequent director, Genndy Tartakovsky, who had worked previously drawing for Batman, The Critic and the wildly popular Power Puff Girls, now produces Cartoon Network's newest cartoon, Samurai Jack.
In ancient times, the evil wizard Aku laid waste to a feudal land. A young man was sent to train as a samurai in order to defeat the shape-shifting Aku. When the young man returned, Aku, not confident he could win against the newcomer, opened a portal to the future, thrusting the samurai into it, believing that by the time they met again in a far distant time, he would be powerful enough. When he emerges from the portal, locals dub him "Jack" and try to help him return to the past to face Aku.
The visual style of this new cartoon is impressive—flashy, clean graphics, rich sound, split screens and stylized characters. This visual style translates well into 3-D as Cartoon Network makes available several action figures based on this new series.
Samurai Jack comes in two sizes, 12" and 8" tall.
The 12" figure comes in a display box and includes three weapons—katana, wakizashi and a long battle blade. He comes dressed in a black ghi with red trim. His block sandals are molded to his triangular feet, and his legs are well articulated at the ankle, knee and hip. His waist swivels, and his shoulders, elbows and wrists are multi-jointed. His neck swivels. His face is modeled with a set determination, ready for anything. His back has a push button which triggers arm-swinging action.
The 8" figure comes packaged on card, and includes three weapons—katana, wakizashi and battle axe. He comes dressed in a smaller version of the black ghi with red trim. The 8" figure is articulated at the hips, knees and waist. His arms come in a pose suitable only for wielding either of the three weapons, and a button on his back triggers attack action. Jack's face is modeled in mid-attack scream.
Accurate features, clumsy execution
The style of the cartoon translates well enough visually to the toys, but while these figures are well molded, with features that adequately reflect the characters, their execution is somewhat clumsy.
As expected, the larger version is superior, both in flexibility and posability. This solid, hefty figure can sustain many poses, both armed and unarmed. The various angles of rotation of the leg joints allow for a freedom of movement similar to many 12" action figures today.
His hands are quite hard, however, and fixed in a closed grip that makes it difficult to hold a two-handed sword correctly, but he looks impressive dual-wielding two blades, or wielding his battle blade. His neck swivels, but does not tilt, limiting action a little.
The addition of a button to trigger attacking action must have seemed like a good idea. Here, though, the clever gimmick gets in the way of posability. Both arms are linked to the mechanism, forcing them to move together, which is limiting. Still, it does work well, and can be fun in some situations.
Jack's katana and wakizashi come in scabbards with belt clips, allowing Jack to carry both swords conveniently, and easily remove the weapons as needed.
The fact that Jack is dressed in a cloth robe, rather than having this item molded on the body, is a plus, allowing for a realistic flowing appearance that doesn't hinder movement in any way.
The posability of the 8" Jack is incredibly minimal. The ankles are non-articulated, and angled so he can only stand in one position, making his knee and hip movements practically unnecessary. His unjointed arms are frozen in a two-handed sword-holding pose, and his face is contorted, eyes closed, into an attack grimace. This is fine for a single pose, but not so great for imaginative play.
The smaller weapons come similarly sheathed, and clippable to Jack's black belt. The axe can be held in the belt as well in a pinch.
Again, the cloth robe adds to the figure somewhat, a wise move in a time when these things would normally just be molded from plastic and jointed.
These two figures are part of a series of toys which includes a wind-up spin-attack Aku, a white-clad Jack with side-slashing action, and Jack in a Buzz Lightyear-like space battle suit, all exclusively available through Cartoon Network.
