Random Toys – Heavy Metal Nelson B-17

Sometimes a figure shows up that completely surprises you because you didn’t even know it was coming, that’s today’s review. We’re looking at the Heavy Metal Nelson B-17 Gunner Fig Biz figure from Incendium.

I haven’t heard of Incendium, nor their Fig Biz line until I just happened upon an ad on Facebook for this very figure. The ad looked like a pretty good figure and I love this part of the Heavy Metal movie so I ordered it right away.

The card is made just like an old Toy Biz X-Men card back in the 90’s. This style has had a resurgence the last couple of years with the Marvel Legends Retro line so undoubtedly you’ve seen this style card in stores even if you weren’t alive during the 90’s.

The artwork is pretty good and we get a little bit of a bio for “Nelson” on the back. There is also an ad for their other Heavy Metal figure, Taarna.

 

The figure sculpt is nice. It’s not super detailed all over but is well detailed were it counts. The brown uniform has a black wash over it that grimes up the figure nicely.

The head sculpt looks great. I love that they made the open mouth a solid black piece as that allows them to sculpt the mud tendrils running down the face without them having to be thin, fragile pieces on the open mouth.

 

The figure looks pretty accurate to one of the zombies on the island near the end of the movie segment. Although, I don’t believe that character was the Nelson mentioned in the movie. (Perhaps the name is just a nod to movie) I like the addition of the “glare” paint job on the goggles.

 

Nelson stands 5″ tall and has 9 articulated points. Ball Socket Neck, Swivel-Hinge Shoulders and Elbows, Ball Socket Hips and Double Jointed Knees. This allows for some poseability, but I’ve found that the hips could be improved if they cut into the waist piece more like GI Joes are. Instead the waist doesn’t allow the legs to swing forward too much. Nelson will not be sitting down anytime soon.

 

The guts hanging out of Nelson is a soft rubber piece that is translucent. They don’t really do anything nor does the torso move so other than giving them a translucent appearance, I’m not sure why they’re rubber. It almost feels like there should’ve been a light up feature to make glowing guts here or something.

 

Nelson comes with an Ammo box, 50 Cal Tail Gun, Spare Zombie Hand and Figure stand with the Fig Biz logo on it.

 

Right out of the box, the stand doesn’t really work. The peg is too thick for the hole in the foot. (Kudos on them sculpting the boot tread BTW, I love seeing little details like that) I haven’t tried forcing the figure on the peg yet or heating up the foot. I have found that the pegs on modern GI Joe figure stands work great for the Heavy Metal Nelson figure.

 

The left hand can slide out of the wrist and you can plug in the open, clawed hand. Honestly, I love the open hand more than the regular hand. I kinda think they should’ve just made the hand open and not worry about making it interchangeable OR make both hands interchangeable and add two open hands. 

Even though the wrists don’t move, if you keep the arm sorta straight, you can use the elbow joint to rotate the lower arm to get a good pose for the open hand.

 

As I said, I really like the open hand. I’m not sure why the regular hands are your typical C position hands since Nelson doesn’t really come with anything he can hold. The box doesn’t have any handles and while the 50 cal is nicely detailed, the handles are too small and too close together for Nelson to hold it at all.

 

I absolutely love the sculpting on the left knee! It keeps the torn open pants leg with bone knee inside appearance no matter what position the knee is in! This isn’t always an easy task, I’ve seen other figures not pull it off as well.

 

One last feature about this figure that I also love….it glows in the dark! The paint glows pretty well under blacklight and looks pretty creepy. I wish it went further down the head though. It stops before it gets to the teeth and the lower jaw doesn’t have any glowing paint on it at all.

 

It’s fitting that there are so many nods to Toy Biz in the packaging for Nelson since he fits right in with the Toy Biz Resident Evil figures! He’s about the same size, has a similar aesthetic and just looks great with them.

This Heavy Metal Nelson figure was a must buy for me for many reasons. I love skeleton/skull headed toys, this is from my favorite sequence in the movie Heavy Metal and it’s glow in the dark! There are only a few things I’d tweak about this figure (mostly articulation issues) but I had no problem dropping $30 for this figure. I can’t say the same about the other Heavy Metal figure as I don’t have the same affinity for Taarna. Especially since Marvel Legends and Star Wars Black figures are around the same price and a bit bigger. I saw that Incendium has some Eddie figures from Iron Maiden scheduled and if they are on the same level as this figure, I can see myself buying one or two. If they’re a little better, I may have to buy more of them. I suggest checking out the company’s Fig Biz line, they also have Bill & Ted figures. I’m excited to see an new option for some licensed 5″ figures.