Premier Toys Wasteland Gladiator 1/6th figure

[Asta]

That's looking pretty much perfect already Kam! Like you I'm interested to see what I can salvage. Maybe the dog and some of the tools.

I was thinking the same thing.

It'll be slim pickings from the three new figures for parts to actually improve kam's figure as it stands already.

 

[Asta]

The sculpt and paint are better than they appear in most photos. But the head is small, indicating that it's a recast.

The pleather looks and feels good. Soft and not too shiny, though the left jacket lapel doesn't want to lay flat. I'll probably have to use double sided tape.

The body is strange. Out of the box his shirt was showing below his jacket, and tucking it in at the back revealed a big gap where the pelvis plugs into the abdomen. I'm not even sure whether the body is plugged together properly as he's quite tall. (About half an inch too tall for Mel Gibson).

The arms don't move where I want them to at the shoulders, but it could be that the joints are stiff.

He'll need to be broken down and rebuilt, and shortening the body may help to offset the small sculpt.

He only comes with two gloved hands, and they aren't designed for holding the shotgun.

The other three hands are just regular flesh sculpts.

I'm not even sure that the leg brace is metal. It feels like plastic, and wasn't at all cold when unboxing.

The shotgun hinge is so loose that it won't keep the barrel in place. It always drops open.

The knife and axe are hard plastic, and reminiscent of figures from around the year 2000 and before. In fact the whole figure is largely reminiscent of a BBI figure from around 2000.

The dog scales okay. It's made of hard rubber and seems to lean over to one side, so I'll probably have to drop him in a mug of hot water and reset his legs.

It's the worst figure I received since Toys Works' bait and switch Jessica Jones.


This is straight out of the box. All I did was tuck his shirt in:

 

[cpoll36]

Sorry to hear that Asta but thanks for the thorough and helpful review. I was really hoping it might be comparable to the quality of the VTS Max from Fury Road. Looking back that was a great figure and value for money at the time.

 

[Asta]

Sorry to hear that Asta. I was really hoping it might be comparable to the quality of the VTS Max from Fury Road. Looking back that was a great figure and value for money at the time.

The pleather is on par with VTS' Max. It's that same, soft material, and actually finished better than VTS' as it isn't so shiny.

The boots are good. I like the sculpt and detail.

The weapons and accessories aren't VTS quality. Even the shotgun shells are of differing size, with one quite a bit smaller than other.

The undersized head and uncooperative and overly tall body are let downs.

I'm also pretty sure now that the brace is plastic, not that it effects its function or appearance.

The holster is fastened to the trousers, so maybe they had issues with it sticking out and not keeping flat to his leg, as with Hot Toys' Mandalorian holsters.

The body is a more unique design. The neck is thinner than on a TTM19 style, to accommodate the smaller sculpt. The ankle pegs aren't removable, but attached to the legs. So to shorten it I had to break them off. It'll probably go half the way to losing the half inch required.

I was looking at using a different body, but the reddish suntan on the neck and arm of the stock one matches the sculpt, so I'll have to work with it.

The rubber chest piece is so poorly designed that it catches under the upper edge of the abdomen section.

The arms are of different styles. The right one is from a muscle body, while the left is from a narrow shoulder type. The muscle arm actually lays closer to the body than the other, and also has an elbow swivel which the left lacks. I'll carve away the rubber torso to see if I can get the arm to hang more naturally.

I think if I can sort the body out, I might be able to start salvaging the figure. Going to need to use double sided tape and white tack to keep the wayward parts in check.

 

[Asta]

Cutting a section of the rubber torso out from under the left arm made a surprising difference.

Before cutting his wrist was 25mm away from his thigh, and after cutting it's down to 15mm.

However, a lot of the gain is negated by the clothing.

Another problem is the jacket is too short. It doesn't cover the top of the trousers. The problem is compounded because the holster is fastened to the trousers, and the shoulder strap attached to the belt is set at a fixed length.

Overlooking the obvious before, there was no reason for them to fasten the holster to the trousers because it already has a pair of leg straps to keep it in place. I'm going to have to try and safely break the connection because the whole set up doesn't fit properly - the belt needs to be lower to take up the slack of the shoulder strap, but then the holster doesn't hang, but bags out at the top.

 

[Godfather1408]

As Asta is the 3rd person to say this it's another cancelled pre order for me. I'll wait for dark toys, not paying the same price for something this low in quality.

Was really hoping the leg brace would be metal. Sculpt being small is an issue, the body choice and the outfit issues just sounds like 1 big headache.

This is a $185 figure that realistically should be $100.

 

[Asta]

Yes, this is a very frustrating figure.

Due to the scale and quality of the body, scale of the sculpt, and all the parts that don't fit as they should - jacket too short; straps that can't be tightened, and are prone to coming free of the pegs, as on the leg brace, where one strap hole actually ripped through and had to be glued back to the peg; the spanner fits into pouch, but the prongs on the spanner are too long for the pouch flap to close; lack of a full set of gloved hands.

The holster was only fixed to the trousers by a tiny spot of glue on each of the straps, which was safely removed just by gently prising it off the pleather. This enabled the set up to be futzed.


This is the best I can get the figure at the moment:

Height is now about correct for Mel. I took the ankle pegs off and pulled the peg out of the head so it sits lower on the neck.

The only thing I haven't put on are the binoculars - and even there Premier failed to add the leather button strap to them which they showed in their proto photos.

 

[Asta]

Now with the binoculars and some re-futzing of the belt and shoulder strap:

One other thing that doesn't fit: the shotgun didn't want to go right down into the holster. It was too wide, and stretching the pleather too much as it went down.

I just hope all these kinds of issues don't resurface with Immortan Joe.

 

[ebor]

Wow looks like quite the project! Thanks for the heads up Asta. Mine should be here by the weekend. Getting the exacto knife ready...and a pot of hot water...lol

 

[FlyAndFight]

Now with the binoculars and some re-futzing of the belt and shoulder strap:

View attachment 553096




One other thing that doesn't fit: the shotgun didn't want to go right down into the holster. It was too wide, and stretching the pleather too much as it went down.

I just hope all these kinds of issues don't resurface with Immortan Joe.

Mine is still in shipment and now I dread its arrival...

Based on your detailed review, Asta, what a truly disappointing figure, especially at the price. I knew that I had some "tweaking" ahead of me but not a complete restructuring of the figure. HUGE fail from Premier. They should be forced to change their name to Inferior.

 

[Asta]

Wow looks like quite the project! Thanks for the heads up Asta. Mine should be here by the weekend. Getting the exacto knife ready...and a pot of hot water...lol

Mine is still in shipment and now I dread its arrival...

Based on your detailed review, Asta, what a truly disappointing figure, especially at the price. I knew that I had some "tweaking" ahead of me but not a complete restructuring of the figure. HUGE fail from Premier. They should be forced to change their name to Inferior.

Now I've got him to this stage the only thing I'm finding hard to look past is the small sculpt with its wistful eyes.

I think a better and bigger sculpt would transform him.

I looked back and compared him to Dark Toys' proto pictures, and I still prefer the Premier. The only things I would take from Dark Toys are the larger shoulder armour, and maybe the sculpt because it's likely bigger. The Premier has really nice pleather, boots and a very fine jacket zip.

The Dark Toys' pleather has a more vinyl appearance in their photos, and the pronounced zip which put me off.

Present Toys is the other one I pre-ordered. It's the only one that may have a metal brace, but to use it on the Premier would mean ditching the nice sculpted boots, because they already have part of the brace in their sculpt.

I'll probably use the holster from Present, along with the knife and shotgun. Present's binoculars have the correct brass tube, but no strap, as they connect to the belt with a metal hook instead. It also has the combi-penknife.

Presuming Present has a properly sized sculpt, it's colour will dictate which body is going to be the base for Premier's outfit.

 

[Wor-Gar]

The plastic leg brace is sculpted to the plastic left boot?

Very disappointed to hear your review, Asta, but more or less what I was seeing from pictures. At this point, this figure is a straight pass for me and I'll see what the other two chances give.

Truthfully, I only need some good tools and a solid leg brace to complete my custom missing pieces... maybe a better pair of leather pants and a good headsculpt (which none of these 3rd parties look to be supplying).

 

[Asta]

The plastic leg brace is sculpted to the plastic left boot?

Yes, that 'metal' band is part of the boot, and the rods either side are attached to it.

Present is more accurate with the brace being completely separate, and the band above the top of the boot.

I can't tell what Dark Toys did, but it may be the same as Premier, though the band doesn't look like metal, and the rods look like thicker plastic:

 

[Wor-Gar]

I have Mr E's leather boots so that brace won't work. Thank you.

How about the tools? Are they oversized? They look a little big, especially their corresponding pouches.

 

[Asta]

I have Mr E's leather boots so that brace won't work. Thank you.

How about the tools? Are they oversized? They look a little big, especially their corresponding pouches.

If this was the axe they were going for...

...then it looks like that.

Though I've seen photos that seem to show that Max cut the handle shorter.

The hydrant spanner seems alright, but the pouch itself is too small to close over the prongs.

 

[Asta]

Here's something I never noticed in the box... the knife scabbard...

...not that I'd have used it.

This was a good look at the boot/brace:

Weird that it actually looks more like metal there than it feels in hand.

 

[Entropy]

I had bought pieces from this but the eBay seller canceled saying they were damaged… then relisted them at a higher price. Lol. Worked out for the best!

 

[Wor-Gar]

Max's ax handle is definitely cut short. Easy to do I suppose but the ax head still looks large to me.

Again, with the plastic leg brace and too-large tools (possibly) there is nothing here that is worth ditching my old gear for. Maybe the dog but I still feel he's underscaled a bit. Maybe once Max is the correct height and proportions, it will look better?

Ah well, at least we are getting Mad Max stuff at all, right?

Nervous about Immortan Joe now too. But I guess Premier matched their proto fairly well so fingers crossed.

 

[Asta]

I had bought pieces from this but the eBay seller canceled saying they were damaged… then relisted them at a higher price. Lol. Worked out for the best!

The standout parts from this set are the 'leathers' and the boots. But if you take the boots you have to accept the leg brace with them.

The belt and Sam Browne are good, but the holster itself needs upgrading.

The axe and its pouch would work, as the handle could be cut down.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I'm not a fan of the sculpted boots personally.

The Sam Browne is sadly inaccurate. For one thing, its missing the buckle strap on the front between should and hip.

Sorry, negative Nancy I am right now. Disappointed.