Johnny Silverhand

"Marley was dead... to begin with." By 2077, Johnny Silverhand has been dead for over 50 years, but that doesn't stop him from being one of V's closest companions throughout their adventure - whether he's welcome or not. Johnny is one of Night City's most iconic and controversial entities; a legendary rockerboy who gained traction as the frontman of chrome-rock band SAMURAI, he's as anti-corpo as they come and his grudge against Arasaka knows no limits. Now that his digital construct is stuck inside V's head thanks to the Relic, Johnny finally has the chance to finish what he started back in 2023 when he detonated a tactical nuke inside Arasaka Tower. If you, like me, are unfamiliar with the history of Cyberpunk (the specific game, not the speculative fiction storytelling genre), you may be surprised to learn that it began life as a tabletop RPG. In the late '80s, former game developer Mike Pondsmith wanted to make something inspired by futuristic settings like those in Walter John Williams' Hardwired or Ridley Scott's Bladerunner, but he recognized that videogame tech at the time wasn't capable of meeting his needs and so turned to pen and paper, instead. "Maximum Mike" and his friends spent lots of time playtesting his homebrew gaming system, and in 1988 the first Cyberpunk game (retroactively renamed Cyberpunk 2013 for clarity's sake) was released. And when it was, the sourcebook was full of the characters those friends had created while they were playing, including the now-iconic Johnny Silverhand. Back then, Johnny Utah Silverhand was based visually on Daryl Hall and emotionally on David Bowie. But what made a character cool in 1988 is not what makes a character cool in 2020; so the game's version of Johnny has dyed his hair black, grown some stubble, and wears glasses with red lenses. This isn't McFarlane Toys' first Keanu Reeves figure, but this likeness isn't really any better than the Neo was decades ago. The newest edition of the RPG, Cyberpunk RED, talks about how Johnny Mnemonic Silverhand was living in his own head and changing his style, so it makes sense that this figure isn't exactly dressed like a rockstar or a punk; unless maybe he's doing some kind of retro thing by dressing up like 50 Cent? Who else would be wearing what looks like a bulletproof vest? To borrow a(nother) gag from the Action Button review, this outfit feels slightly too much like 2020's idea of 2077, and just barely not enough like 2020's idea of 2005's 1990's 2020's 2035's 2077. Back when he was still just Robert John Linder from College Station, TX, Johnny enlisted in the military, so the dog tags he's wearing might be authentic. And obviously a processor-pushing videogame in 2020 is going to be better detailed than a pencil drawing from three decades prior, so the sculpt of his mechanical arm is quite intricate. Maybe he got an upgraded model at some point after his intro adventure, huh? The arm is painted well, with washes to bring out all the detail, and red sections to break up the grey and silver. Oh, I just got his name! It's because his arm ends in a hand! That's clever. All his tattoos are painted on, more or less where they should be, but his beard is kind of a mess. The clothes aren't exactly colorful, but he does have his band's logo on his back. Isn't it supposed to be tacky to wear your own merch? Wearing tight clothing in non-distracting colors on a skinny body means it's very easy to notice the weird McFarlane Toys proportions. Why are the legs always so long? It has to be a directive coming from the top, because with any number of sculptors doing any number of licenses, the odds that all of them would have extra-length legs across the board? Just by the law of averages, there should be at least one toy with legs that are too short. Every single one of them is like they were designed to have a single knee joint, then had a second added and required more room. The right elbow is a double-hinge, but the left is just a single; shouldn't a cybernetic prosthesis have as much movement as your natural parts? Or even maybe more? You can't even turn it because they didn't want to cut in a bicep swivel. The figure's accessories include his guitar and a bottle of presumably alcohol. Since his left hand is shaped to hold the neck of the guitar, he also includes an alternate version throwing up the horns. There's a variant Jonathan Harker Silverhand available, as well, and that one includes a duffel bag and a gun. Seems to us like one release could have included all these things, but then McFarlane wouldn't be able to charge people twice for one toy, would they? Neither version seems particularly rarer on the secondary market, so if you want one, you can pick which you'd prefer. It's kind of funny that the game Cyberpunk 2077 came out in the year 2020, when the adventure that led to Johnny Constantine Silverhand's scripted death, Firestorm Shockwave, was a supplement to the second edition of the TTRPG, Cyberpunk 2020. So we, in real 2020, were seeing a version of the character that would have been made around fictional 2020. Appropriate! The game was notoriously a buggy mess when it released, but several years' worth of patches and updates have apparently made it eminently playable, now. Even if they hadn't, the simple fact of getting an action figure of a character from a tabletop roleplaying game is a fun and rare thing (although it did become less rare in the years after this toy's release). The toy itself is neither as bad as the game was on launch, nor as good as it is now. McFarlane Toys' Johnny Wick Silverhand is the exact middleground of mediocrity: decent, competent... but not breathtaking. -- 11/16/24 What was your favorite Cyberpunk 2077 glitch or bug? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.