Kraglin

Isn't this guy supposed to have a beard? Former first mate of Yondu and Ravager who fought alongside the Avengers against Thanos, Kraglin sets off with the Guardians to protect the galaxy. The wingnuts who are mad that James Gunn is being brought in to salvage DC's movie universe are doing that thing powerless losers always do when they have no other recourse to getting their way: shallow attempts to shame their opponents into losing. You see it all time, but unfortunately, "lol gottem" is not an effective replacement for actual winning. The current tack they're taking is to point out that James Gunn puts the same set of actors in a lot of projects. Just wait until they learn about Martin Scorsese! Or Christopher Nolan. Or Kevin Smith. Or Robert Rodriguez, Christopher Guest, Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, Guillermo del Toro, Wes Anderson, Edgar Wright, John Favreau, Sam Raimi, Mel Brooks, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Tim Bur-- [I'm just going to clip his list off here because otherwise we're never going to get to the actual review --ed.] Of particular ire to them is the inclusion of his wife and his brother in supporting roles. Kraglin Obfonteri is played by notable James-brother Sean Gunn. Sean Gunn, an actor who's appeared in such things as Gilmore Girls, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Bones - god, what a nepo baby! The toy's likeness is very good, but the top of the head is more bulbous than looks natural (possibly because of the prosthetic he had to wear to accommodate the fin he inherited from Yondu), and his facial hair is painted way too lightly: you can barely make it out! Kraglin isn't quite a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy yet, so he doesn't get one of their nifty blue uniforms and instead still dresses like a Ravager, in that brick-red space biker gear. The actual sculpt of the costume is great, with all the weird sections and patterns, and realistic wrinkles, but the proportions are kind of weird. Like, his right arm seems fine, but his left arm (the one with metal armor attached to the outside of the jacket's sleeve) is thinner. Meanwhile, his legs are scrawny enough that it looks like he's wearing tights, except the texture suggests thick material, so I guess he's got Jake Sulley legs under there. They don't even look like his hips are the right size to fit into his pelvis correctly. It's possible something went wrong at the pantograph stage, and that the upper body was tooled too large. Why do we say that? Well, Dave Bautista is 6'4", Chris Pratt is 6'2", and Sean Gunn is 6'0", but the Kraglin figure is taller than both Star-Lord and Drax. Sad thing is we might see these wrongly-made molds again in the future, because they gave him the current articulation (you know, barbell neck, balljoint chest, that kind of thing). With any luck, by the next time he gets a toy, Kraglin will have changed clothes enough that these can't be used anymore. Speaking of reusing things, since Kraglin has inherited Yondu's arrow and fin, this toy has inherited GotG2 Yondu's arrow accessory. It was only a so-so execution in 2017, and it hasn't improved with time. Having the trail of red energy to lift it into the air is a neat idea, but not being able to get the arrow apart from that trail is bad. If pistols can have muzzle flares or gun smoke, the arrow and energy could be separate. Also, while the sling Yondu wore his arrow in was at least somewhat horizontal, allowing it to stick out in front of him, Kraglin's sling is more vertical, so it just lays against his chest. You'll be best off cutting the red energy off and just having it be an arrow. He also gets a little knife that sheathes behind his left shoulder, famously known as the best, most convenient place to keep a small hand weapon. If you want to build the Build-A-Figure, Cosmo the GOOD DOG, this is where you'll get the front right leg. Surprisingly, Kraglin is a character from the comics - or at least, the name "Kraglin" appeared once, applied to an alien from A-Chiltar III who tried to step on Ant-Man and the Wasp and was some kind of fuzzy bear-thing wearing a suit of armor and not a plain human. The character would be just as popular if they'd grabbed any other random name from the obscure Marvel characters list; there's nothing about "Kraglin" that wouldn't work for "Kogar" or "Korgon" or "Karjee" or "Kehil" or "Kistur" or "Kurrgo" or "Kusoom" or even a name that begins with some other letter. If there are any. But as much as we like the character, this toy isn't nearly as good as it should be. -- 05/15/23

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