Right, here it comes.
The moment has rather gone on these as, when they first went up on pre-order, they were under $40 in many places ( I got mine for $32). They were therefore a cheap alternative to the TTM-19, my favourite Hot Toys body to date. However, it seems that they are now in the region of $50 and up. Not such a bargain, but still cheaper than trying to find a TTM-19. But is it as good? I put it through its paces. The shoot ended up looking like something out of a dodgy magazine, but what ya gonna do?
Build quality is good. This is a solid figure and heavy. The joints are tight and there are no rough seams, as there are in parts of the TTM-19. The colour of the body is pretty light and is not that Hot Toys friendly. The few Hot Toys heads I have were too dark and orange to be a good match. The entire body is made of the same rubbery vinyl as the TTM-19 torso. This means it is likely to stain with dark clothing. Joints are of a slightly darker hard plastic, but not so dark as to be glaringly mismatched with the body.
Aesthetically, it is very close (I mean VERY close) to the TTM-19. The sculpting of the upper body and arms has a touch more detail and they have nearly fixed that wonky belly button. The big difference is in the legs, which are now detailed, and the feet, which are now huge and very well sculpted. They have also changed the engineering of the ankles and the hip joints, which makes them look more natural and certainly good enough to show unclothed.
Detail of the chests, to show the similarity of the sculpts.
It also shows how shiny the World Box plastic is. My eyes!
Engineering. With muscle bodies, you sacrifice in flexibility what you gain in realism, so this was never going to be the best articulated body on the market.
Elbow flexion is 90 degrees for both. This is the same as the TTM-20 and other bodies with big biceps and partially hidden joints. The lower arms also rotate at the elbow, as they do in the TTM-19. This is useful as neither can put their arms down fully at their sides or cross their upper arms in front of their chests.
Abduction at the shoulder. Both can get about 60 degrees. The World Box needs a little determination as the plastic at the shoulders is a little thicker than on the TTM-19 and the arm needs a firm push to get it started. When you have done it once, though, the plastic seems to soften up fine. Of course, both can swing their arms up over their heads parallel to the body, just not laterally.
Crunch. Close as damn it. TTM-19 can get his legs slightly tighter into his body, but not by anything worth worrying about. World Box appears to have no neck articulation, which means he can't tuck his chin into his chest as easily as TTM-19. This doesn't make a huge difference either.
Back bend. Mr Teeny Peeny has the slight edge here as his upper torso slides down the mid section a fraction further than can the TTM-19. TTM-19 retaliates with his superior neck articulation.
Side bend. Too close to call, but this shows up another difference. That is as close together as World Box's feet will go. This is the only advantage to HT's ball-type hip joint that I can see.
Stability. Both can stand pretty well unaided. But only World Box can do this.
It wasn't easy, but I have a lot of patience, but no amount of patience was going to get Mr HT standing on one leg. The stronger ankles and larger feet of Mr World Box made a real difference.
A photo I forgot to take was of the cycling shorts test, to see if the bonus part makes any difference to how realistically clothes hang on these chaps. In cycling shorts, it does make a difference. TTM-19 is obviously missing something, poor chap. Would that bother most people? Probably not. I can take a photo of this if anyone is interested.
In summary, this body is at least as good at the TTM-19 in terms of engineering. In terms of aesthetics, bar the shiny, pale skin, the introduction of sculpted legs has made it what the TTM-19 should have been, a figure that could be shown with little or no clothing whilst retaining decent flexibility. Personally, I think the shine and colour could be fixed with a light colour wash and a quick squirt of matt acrylic varnish, which is what I intend to do.
For what I paid for it, and probably for quite a bit more, this is a good body.
