Labyrinth, the 1986 fantasy film from the mind of Jim Henson mixed puppetry, fantasy, and music to create an astounding and timeless experience. The film featured a very young Jennifer Connelly as Sarah, a teenager who wants nothing more than to escape her modern life for fantasy world. Asked to babysit her baby brother, Sarah makes a fleeting wish to The Goblin King to take her brother away. When Jareth The Goblin King, played by the late David Bowie, shows up to fulfill her wish, Sarah is forced to take on an impossible Labyrinth to rescue her young brother. Along the way, Sarah meets various inhabitants of the Labyrinth who all help in guiding her to the center to face Jareth and find out who she truly wants to be. The film is one of my all-time personal favorites. The music by David Bowie and Trevor Jones is as memorable as the assorted Jim Henson Studio creations.
The new Dance Magic Jareth The Goblin King 7″ Scale Figure is the second Labyrinth release by McFarlane Toys. In late 2017, they released their first Jareth 7″ Scale Figure. As the name implies, the figure represent Jareth’s appearance during the iconic “Magic Dance” sequence. The figure includes a whip, a miniature Goblin, and a figure stand. We picked up the figure from Toyark sponsor Entertainment Earth. After the jump, you can check out my thoughts on the figure, as well as a full photo gallery.
Related Entertainment Earth Links: Magic Dance Jareth, Jareth Pop! Vinyl Figure, All Labyrinth Items
Labyrinth – “Magic Dance” Jareth The Goblin King7″ Scale Figure
Pros
- Excellent overall sculpt
- Great likeness of David Bowie
- Clean paint apps
Cons
- Articulation isn’t as good as their current figure offerings
Overall
The figure is packed in a collector friendly window box. The front consists mainly of a large window, which gives you a great look at the figure. The back of the packaging features one of the great posters for the film. Jareth sits on a plastic tray, held in by a few plastic ties. The figure includes a mini Goblin, a whip, and a simple figure stand.
Jareth hit right before McFarlane switched their figure articulation over to the higher articulated style. While the figure is by no means a statue, it doesn’t quite have the range of motion that their Fortnite or new anime figures have. Here you get about 14 points of articulation. Joints were solid, with no paint locking issues. What you do get, like the original figure, is an incredibly sculpted figure with a really solid likeness of David Bowie. The sculpted details are actually fantastic, with nice texture work on the clothing and boots. The highlight of the figure is the excellent portrait here, which is a pretty spot on representation of David Bowie’s Jareth. While the hair sculpting is a little thick in spots, it still works well. Paint work is mostly solid, with the face paint coming out especially nice. There are multiple layers of paint throughout, with only a few slight bleeds, but nothing I noticed until I got the photos onto the computer.
The only thing this figure really needs is a throne and a few more Goblins. I used the chair from NECA’s Pale Man for this shoot, which wound up working well enough even though it’s nothing like the one used in Labyrinth. But I’m still happy to own this figure, and hope we see additional characters eventually. Check out some select photos below, and the full gallery after that.