HOME...REVIEWS...TOYS...MONTY PYTHON
By Daniel Lipkowitz, Assistant Editor
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Manufacturer: Sideshow Toy, Inc. (www.sideshowtoy.com) |
It's...
The Dirty Knights!
When Sideshow Toy released their first set of 12" figures from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the limited edition of 10,000 sold out quickly. With the line still going strong, they've just reissued the original five Knights of the Round Table as the "Dirty Knights," losing some of the original accessories, adding a new one, and featuring clothing with a newly muddied appearance.
Packaging:
The five figures come in uniform boxes with essentially the same design and artwork. Each has his character and actor's name on the front of the box, a close-up photograph of the figure's head on the side, and a photo of the figure on the inside front flap. Otherwise, the boxes are pretty much identical to one another. Like the last few releases in Sideshow's Holy Grail line, the packaging features character-specific decoration -- in this case, a splattering of simulated mud around the bottom.
As always, the package text includes some Pythonesque silliness, in this case a tongue-in-cheek scolding of both Sideshow for rehashing the original figures and the purchaser for buying them. Anticipating and poking good-natured fun at the inevitable collector backlash against any modified re-release, the boxes explain that "Made from lesser quality materials, this edition was slapped together for that band wagon jumping late comer collector" and that it "comes incomplete, sorely lacking in exciting accessories. They are dirtier and somehow the paint jobs just don't capture the realism as the first and more finer edition does." It's not at all true, of course (well, except for the part about being dirtier and having fewer accessories), but obviously these people know how a fandom reacts to this sort of thing.
Inside the box, the figures are bound securely into their plastic trays. Most are easy to remove, attached by a few loops of twistie-ties, but King Arthur's wraps around his torso under his clothing, making extraction a bit of a chore. Like the first series, the shields are attached to the cardboard backdrop with sealed bubbles and must be torn or cut loose.
Accessories:
Gone are the extra props of the first series. Now each figure comes with his own copy of "The Book of the Film," opened to the relevant page for that particular Knight (or to Scene 24, in Sir Bedevere's case). The book is molded open and nicely sculpted and painted, with good detailing on the cover and clasp. The individual pages are represented by stickers, which reproduce the movie images well but are prone to peeling a bit along the spine (easily fixed with a fingernail). Sir Galahad's book refers to him as "Gallahad," which I expect is an issue with the original film, not the accessory.
Each figure also comes with a sword and shield. Arthur has the gold-hilted Excalibur, while the other knights share the same plain but solid weapon. They feel a bit more fragile than the Black Knight's two-handed sword, but should hold up to collector-style play and posing. They fit perfectly in scabbards and hands.
The shields also share a single mold, with the exception of the cowardly Sir Robin's comically oversized one. They've lost the faded weathering of the first-series shields (which is a pity), but have been realistically "muddied" with several shades of brown paint (which is nice). Arthur's shield has also been splashed with red, no doubt the result of his famously bloody battle with the Black Knight. The colors and symbols are painted cleanly, although there are some odd dark smudges at the top of Bedevere's shield in my set.
Unfortunately, the shields also share the problem of the first series: the handles are just too small. With their forearms slipped into the elastic bands on the back, the knights' arms aren't at the right angle to easily wedge their fingers through the sculpted handles. Bedevere has the easiest time, but Launcelot, Galahad and Robin's gloves really put a strain on the glued-on piece, and Arthur's double-layered gauntlets can't get through the loop at all. Fortunately, the elastic holds the shields in place securely (as does forgoing the elastic and just using the handle alone), but a larger gap between the handle and shield really would have been a welcome improvement.
I was hoping that the Dirty Knights might also come with stands like the last few figures in the Holy Grail line, but alas, they do not. It's hard to complain, though, since they retail for $10 apiece less than the other figures, and Sideshow has recently started selling Holy Grail figure stands separately on their website.
Sculpting and Paint:
The face sculpts are largely excellent renditions of the Monty Python troupe, although Michael Palin's Galahad looks slightly off (and rather toothy). Arthur and Robin have especially good expressions, the one serious and somber, the other clearly frightened out of his wits. I had been holding out hope that Robin and Launcelot's heads might have been remolded with hair this time around, but they're still as bald as two eggs, probably because the hairstyles from the movie would have interfered with the shape of their hoods. The paint jobs are crisp and the fleshtones and other colors quite good. I'm particularly pleased with the way the figures' eyes came out, with just the right level of reflective glossiness and well-painted pupils.
The other sculpted pieces are also very good, from sections of armor to scabbards and gloves, and are painted with an excellent weathering effect. Arthur's non-removable crown is well done, as is Sir Bedevere's helmet, complete with hinged faceplate and plug-in feather plume.
Articulation:
No complaints here; it's the usual super-articulated 1/6 scale Sideshow body. The figures pose nicely and can generally hold those poses well, although the arms do occasionally loosen up a tad.
Costume:
The knights' costumes are fairly basic, which is accurate to the rather low-budget film. Like the first series, chain mail is reproduced with a slightly stretchy black fabric laced with silver glittery bits, which looks great and does a good job of matching the sculpted chain mail on some of the figures' gloves. Armor pieces are held on with elastic (you'll notice in the photo gallery that one of Robin's straps came loose, but a spot of Krazy Glue fixed it right up again later). The colors and emblems on the knights' cloth tunics are sharp, and the fabric is actually a slightly more coarse material this time around, with a better heft and woven appearance to it and less of a propensity for picking up lint. It may sound like a minor change, but it really does improve the look of the figures. Arthur's sun symbol is also improved over the original's, with a darker brown and thicker lines that make it stand out much better.
The gimmick of the set, of course, is that these are the "Dirty Knights," muddied and filth-encrusted by the end of the film. On the figures, this is represented by a splatter of brown (and red for Arthur) spots across the lower half of the knights' cloth tunics. This works pretty well, although some additional ‘mud' on the legs wouldn't have hurt and the spots, especially Arthur's bloodstains, can look a bit faded, having been absorbed a little too well by the cloth.
Overall:
As a "refresh" of the original sold-out Knights of the Round Table figures, the Dirty Knights neither offer a tremendous amount of new stuff nor claim to do so, pointing this out to very funny effect on the packaging (oh, how I love that packaging). The original set was terrific and this one is just as good, offering a few costume improvements at the cost of a few accessories. If you're a die-hard Python fan, there's probably enough that's different that you won't mind owning both sets. If you missed the original, there isn't so much that's been changed that you should resent having the second series instead. And if you really want to own one set and one set only, you won't make a bad choice with either edition. It's pretty much a win-win situation.
You can see pictures of the Dirty Knights in our Gallery!