Rinzler

Review by JoshB

Despite good intentions, this figure just falls flat.

While I kind of dug the vehicles from Tron Legacy, I was hesitant about the figures. I heard bad things about the quality, and some of the sculpts were really awful. Despite this I decided to give a few a try. I stuck with figures whose faces I could not see due to the horrid sculpts on Flynn and Sam.

This figure here is Rinzler. I think he’s one of CLU’s henchmen, but his true identity is hinted to by the decoration on his chest. I’ll say no more about that.

Rinzler is 3 ¾ scale – comparable to Star Wars and GI Joe figures.

The package is attractive, with a Try Me feature activated by pulling the tab from the package. The figure lights up when pressed.

When you first remove the figure from the package, the lack of QC is immediately apparent. My figure had leftover flash and sprue from the mold on the arm section. For the purposes of this review, I trimmed it off with a hobby knife.

Within minutes of opening the figure, I broke it. I tried to turn the head, but it just snapped off. Super Glue to the rescue.

Rinzler has articulation in all the right places, but none of it is implemented properly. The shoulders are ball joints, the elbows swivel and bend, the wrists turn. There’s no waist joint due to the light up feature.

The legs have the ball and swivel hip joints that are all the rage these days, but are executed in such a way that they have a really limited range of motion. There’s no crouching or kneeling to be had here. Knees are swivel and hinge, ankles are swivel and hinge. Detail on the limbs is soft and muddy.

The body is nice and sharply detailed with the cool light up feature. However, the inclusion of the feature makes the figure look chubby. You can see the large protrusion on the back where the batteries and button are – it looks awful.

For weapons, Rinzler comes with two light batons, one completed light nun chuck, and two identity discs. I’m assuming the two batons are the nun chucks when not powered up. These attach to the thighs of the figure. Rinzler comes with two identity discs, which unfortunately cannot be stored on his back.

Also included is a display stand.

I feel like there was a lot of missed opportunity with this figure. I attribute this mostly to the manufacturer, Spin Master, who is not exactly known for their action figures. Compare this to a Hasbro Star Wars figure, and the difference is night and day. I applaud the ambition in trying to make some cool gimmicks and accessories for the figure, but the toy was just too ambitious for a manufacturer without action figure experience.