Lucius Malfoy

NECA's wasted no time in taking full advantage of their Harry Potter license. Rather than just focusing on Harry and... well, just Harry (the way Mattel did), they've really filled out the ranks of the Rowlingverse. We've had Harry and his friends, his mentors, his teachers, and even a large selection of his enemies. Lucius Malfoy is a well-liked and respected member of the wizarding community, but few know he still has a direct connection to Voldemort. Malfoy is just biding his time, waiting for the Dark Lord to return and reclaim the power he and his followers deserve. Much like Voldemort himself, Lucius Malfoy is a name we first hear second-hand: we meet his virulently unpleasant son, Draco, as soon as Harry gets to Hogwarts, and learn what a pleasant bunch of racists the entire clan is. Lucius himself makes his first appearance the next year, when the Chamber of Secrets is unlocked, and immediately lives up to all his nasty promise. Lucius is wearing some very impressively detailed clothing. He has a floor-length robe, with silver detailing on the hems and over the shoulders, and a pointy hood hangs down his back. His boots have crossed ties running all the way up, and his pants bunch where they are tucked in. His tunic has a quilted texture, with tiny sculpted stitches, and a swirling, serpentine pattern on his chest and sleeves. His belt has a silver clasp, and his rings match. To say that the toy's likeness is good would be an understatement. This isn't one of those sculpts that kinda sorta maybe looks right from a certain angle in the right light, this is top-notch work. You look at the figure's head, and you see an inch-high Jason Isaacs. It's really quite uncanny. We're talking even miniscule details, here, like the mole on his cheek or the fine wrinkles around his eyes. Honestly, I can't say enough good things about the sculpt. And we're not done yet. In case you want Lucius to run around perpetrating crimes that would even make a neo-conservative blush, the figure has a removable head. Pop off the normal one and replace it with the version wearing his Death Eater mask. The pattern on the mask doesn't match the movie prop exactly (or, more specifically, it doesn't match the replica props you can buy - more specific than that, I couldn't say), but it is very close and all the details are fully sculpted. You can see his eyes through the slits in the mask, but this isn't "removable" in the way the other Death Eaters' masks were: it's an actual separate piece, and there's a fully-sculpted face beneath it. Neat! The only problem ares for paint is the figure's hands: the black glove... sleeve... things have too much pink around the edges, and the silver of his rings is sloppy. Other than that, things are great. The silver on his robes is subtle, the mask has an aged patina, and both faces are clean and crisp. NECA found a really clever way to show Lucius' tow-white hair for the unmasked head: the hair is molded from translucent plastic, then given a slight white drybrushing; the effect works quite nicely, conveying colorlessness rather than age. By contrast, the masked head has solid, painted hair. Lucius comes with a flat oval base to help him stand, though he'll manage without. Better, though, he comes with his cane, a 4¾" long piece with a silver serpent's head grip. His wand is concealed inside, though it's remarkably difficult to pull out. I'm afraid it may snap, so now that I managed to extract it without incedent, I'm not going to put it back in. That's fine, though; Lucius' pose is really intended to have both the cane and the wand in his hands at the same time. The distribution on this series of Harry Potter figures was nearly non-existent. And it's a shame, too, because Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange are both so good. The likeness on this toy gets better the more you look at it, and a lot of work obviously went into the entire package.

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