15.04
The latest film licence to be given the Minimates treatment is The Spirit, Frank Miller’s critically mauled commercial failure which tried to emulate the successes of his previous Sin City work. Some may be surprised that the Minimates even came out, given the cancellation of the wave of Minimates based on the Ghost Rider film which also bombed. Let’s see if the Minimates fare better.
Packaging
This style of card has been used for most of the 4-pack sets. The Spirit artwork is all mean and moody monochrome with the red Spirit logo being very distinctive. One of the film’s most risible lines (and admittedly there were a lot of them so the competition was fierce) is written on the background. The reverse of the packaging is really good as it utilises the silouette of the Spirit amongst the dark city along with some blurb that sounds like a pre-sell rather than any meaningful character biography. The card shows off the Minimates themselves very well.
The Figures
The Spirit
First up in the set is the titular character. Denny Colt is the Spirit, a former cop brought back to life to be the saviour of his city.
There’s not a great deal of Gabriel Macht in the face of this Minimate, he looks pretty cartoony and the domino mask looks really big on the face because they tried to add too much detail to the eyes. The expression is fairly relaxed and confident. You can imagine the Spirit getting off a quip, but not facing down the Octopus. He wears a hat/hair hybrid piece similar to the Riddler’s bowler hat. It looks good, but can be replaced by a normal hairpiece if so desired. The hair is neatly styled and makes for a great alternative look.
The body is practically all one colour except for the tie. This is a very nice piece that hangs quite naturally around the neck and the figure definitely benefits from it being a sculpted item and not just painted on. However, the paint on the red of the tie bleeds in to the black of the collar piece slightly, it’s not anywhere as clean as it should be. The chest block has shirt detailing on it, including pockets and buttons; the latter being a nice piece of detailing as they are completely covered by the tie unless it’s removed. The look of the Spirit is completed by the trenchcoat, which looks as dynamic as it should, and the grey detailing on the shoes, which were a much brighter white colour in the film.
The Spirit has no accessories except for the aforementioned hairpiece.
In conclusion, this Minimate succeeds in being a really cool figure as well as being faithful to the film’s source material.
MMC Score – 8 out of 10
Sand Saref
Sand Saref is a comic book standard; the femme fatale thief who may just have a heart of gold. Sand Saref’s inclusion means we finally get an Eva Mendes Minimate, since her figure as Ghost Rider’s love interest never made it to retail.
There is a lot of Eva in this Minimate, and no, I’m not just talking about the heaving bosom (more on that later!). Eva’s face has been captured well, with her big brown eyes and beauty spot, helping to convey the determined side of Sand Saref. The hairpiece looks really nice and flows well around her face. Overall one of the better female Minimate faces whilst retaining a good likeness to the actress.
The body of the figure is quite simply detailed, being a black catsuit with a red stripe down it. The stripe goes down the arms but is also present on the sides of the torso block which is nice to see as this sort of thing is sometimes overlooked when it comes to cost-cutting on paint apps. The main visual interest on the body is the chest, which shows off Eva’s impressive curves as well as a gold necklace detail.
Sand Saref comes with no accessories. She needs some bling! I know the treasure chest from the film might’ve been too big to be included but she could’ve come with a gun or something.
In conclusion, this is an accurate version of the character and you can’t really go wrong with a girl in a skintight catsuit.
MMC Score – 7 out of 10
The Octopus
Samuel L Jackson was one of the first actors cast for The Spirit and his incredibly over the top supervillian performance is a highlight of the film.
This Minimate IS Samuel L Jackson as the Octopus. Without overdetailing the face they have managed to capture him perfectly in one of his more unforgiving moods. This guy looks as pissed off as only Jackson can show, and you just KNOW he’s gonna open a big can on somebody in the near future, with the pursed lips and angry eyes. The hat has been well done in this scale too – if only the Luke Cage beanie had been pulled off with such aplomb. The hat looks suitably furry and even has some paint on it.
This extraordinary level of detail continues onto the body, with one of the most bizarre outfits in cinema history recreated in superb style. The coat is amazing, from the fur-lined neck to the sheer amount of detailing present. The Octopus has one of the most complex paint apps in a long, long time for Minimates and it is pulled off flawlessly.
The Octopus is the only figure in this set to come with any weapons, and boy has he made up for it. To recreate the final showdown from the film the Octopus has two guns. Not ordinary guns, though. These are several guns all cobbled together to present as much firepower as possible, and the figure looks very menacing with them.
In conclusion, this is one of the best Minimates to come out in ages in terms of capturing both the essence of the actor and the look of the character.
MMC Score – 10 out of 10
Silken Floss
The last figure in the set is the scientist Silken Floss, who helps the Octopus in his scheme to gain immortality.
Scarlett Johansson is a very attractive woman, and this results in possibly the best ever female Minimate face. Those eyes framed by the glasses, the full lips, it’s about as sexy as a block figure can get. No unnecessary detail here, as female Minimate faces never look right when they are too busy. Sadly the hairpiece IS too busy, the fringe is sculpted as being frizzy but it just looks a bit of a mess in this scale.
Silken Floss is wearing a nurses outfit, complete with headpiece, however she is revealing some rather spectacular cleavage on the chest block. Which is a bonus because the execution of the rest of the outfit makes her look frumpy, especially the skirt which makes her look squat visually and her backside look gigantic from the side. I think that the skirt piece may be a reuse from the Spider-Man 3 Mary Jane figure, and it did the same thing to her as well. At least this is a skirted Minimate who is actually wearing something underneath. It makes a change, but to be honest if any character was going to go commando it’d be Silken Floss. She’s bonkers.
Silken Floss comes with no accessories.
In conclusion, great face, shame the rest of the figure wasn’t done as well. The worst figure in the set but still not a clunker by any means.
A set containing two good guys versus two bad guys is always going to be well regarded in terms of playability. Couple that with the high quality of the figures and DST have come away with a real winner. The only shame is that the negativity surrounding the film may well mean that people won’t buy this very strong set, but they’ll be missing out.
MMC Score – 6 out of 10
Review and pictures by Danny Mills
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