In Gears of War 4, humanity is trying to rebuild after the devastating war with the Locust. After 25 years, a new, Locust like species begins to abduct entire colonies of people. Known as the Swarm, the creatures begin harvesting humans to form an all new army. New protagonists JD Fenix, Del Walker and Kait Diaz must find the only person who may be able to shed light on what’s happening…JD’s estranged father, Marcus Fenix. As they fight their way through the Swarm, they learn the terrible truth of what is happening. The team must face new challenges, find old friends and make sacrifices all in the hopes of saving all that humanity has built.
Since the release of the game, McFarlane Toys has released multiple characters as part of their Color Tops Collection. Earlier figures were very statue-esque in design. With their newest release, Marcus Fenix, fans get a figure that is much closer to what they have been looking for. The figure includes over 14 points of articulation, a Customized Lancer Assault Rifle and Snub Pistol sidearm. McFarlane Toys sent along the Marcus Fenix 7″ scale figure for us to check out. Read on to see my thoughts as well as a full gallery.
McFarlane Toys Gears of War 4 Marcus Fenix 7″ Scale Figure
Pros
- Excellent sculpt
- Good paint apps
- Decent articulation
- Includes downloadable code for Gears of War 4 game content
Cons
- Hips have limited range of motion
Overall
Packaged in a collector friendly window box, the packaging includes the standard design used in the Color Tops Collection. Simple, but eye-catching. The Gears of War 4 Marcus Fenix figure sits on a plastic tray and can be placed back in for easy storage or display in-box. The figure includes a figure stand with a logo, a Customized Lancer Assault Rifle and Snub Pistol sidearm. The included instructions feature a code for in-game downloadable content.
I’ll start off talking about the overall articulation of the figure. With McFarlane Toys releases, articulation is always a point of contention among fans, especially fans who are used to the mare articulated 5″ figures they were doing a few years back or comparable releases by companies like NECA. Marcus has over 14 points of articulation. Not a crazy amount, but they’re thankfully not just cut joints in a pre-posed design. For the most part, the articulation is handled very well actually. The arms have a great range of motion, allowing the figure to hold the Lancer with both hands and pose in a variety of firing poses. The head is ball jointed where it meets the neck. The torso is ball jointed. Knees are single jointed, but have a solid range of motion. The one spot that suffers is the hips. They use an odd double ball joint that connects the hips to the legs. This offers a bit of motion, allowing for some variations in the leg poses that, admittedly, look fairly natural. But the range of motion is very limited there. Thankfully, this style looks to be short lived in their designs. Overall the range of motion is decent and I was able to easily get a pretty solid variety of poses out of the figure.
Now the sculpt for the figure is as good as I expected, if not a little better. The head sculpt looks accurate to the older Marcus Fenix from Gears 4. The COG suit looks nice as well. There’s a lot of texture variety on the suit, from the scuffed armor pieces to the leather-like texturing used on the straps. Weathering and a bit of battle damage is actually fairly prevalent throughout. The figure features good paint apps, with heavy washes to bring out the sculpted details. The head sculpt is very detailed, with heavy scarring and very clean paint application. Eyes are aligned properly and there’s no paint bleed in the beard or hair.
Marcus is a pretty release, and is definitely another step in the right direction for the 7″ line. The articulation and range of motion are an improvement over figures like JD Fenix and Del Walker, while not sacrificing sculpted detail or paint application. Check out a few select photos below and the full gallery after that.
The background in some shots comes from Extreme Sets. Use code TOYARK at checkout for 15% off your order!
