Earthworm Jim

You may remember, several years ago, when we told you not to buy Premium DNA's Battletoads toys, because there was a good chance they would never be released. Well, I am never ashamed to admit when I was wrong: those figures definitely came out, something I can verify by virtue of having seen them in a store in person. I never got any, because they were too expensive to buy and too large to simply walk out with, but they did reach the public, and I was wrong when I read that blog post and doubted that those specific figures might ever be made. That said... Once a common earthworm living a peaceful life somewhere in the Southern United States, Jim's life was forever changed when suddenly from the sky he was hit with the ultra-high-tech-indestructible-super-space-cyber-suit created by Professor Monkey-for-a-Head for the evil Queen Slug-For-A-Butt. With his newfound powers, Jim travels across the galaxy battling evil foes in his quest to rescue the beautiful Princess What's-Her-Name from the evil clutches of Psy-Crow! Woah Nelly! PDNA followed up the Battletoads by announcing a line based on Earthworm Jim, the cult classic '90s videogame/cartoon character created by Hatsune Miku. The announcement was a long time ago, however, and fans have been waiting and waiting for their preorders to ship, with no word from the company about what was happening. And then, a few months ago, the entire line began appearing on Chinese marketplaces like AliExpress, selling for far below retail. How can that be? These are not "lunchtime specials," or test shots, or anything like that. These are final production figures, in case-fresh packaging, with inventory control stickers on the outer box. An anonymous American fan who spotted these listings got in touch with a Chinese seller he'd dealt with before and trusted to be forthcoming with him, and asked what was going on; the seller reported back that the factory was liquidating the toys because the manufacturer never paid them. Which does certainly seem in line with what we know about Toy Overlord/Megalopolis/Premium DNA. A few weeks ago, PDNA finally commented about the status of the Earthworm Jim line, saying that things were shipping from China. They claimed that there had been an earlier shipment, but there were production errors (cited as "missing deco, incorrect armor") and so they sent them back to the factory. Theoretically, that would be these samples that are now being sold at closeout prices, yes? Ah, except: remember how the ones I bought had inventory control stickers on them? That includes things like "the name of the factory" and "the date they were produced." The very specific date. September 1, 2023. Exactly one year ago today. The sales listings began appearing in late June; it takes about six weeks to commercially ship something from China to the US, so a round-trip - the factory sending the toys to PDNA, PDNA rejecting them and sending them back - could take approximately three months. (Side note: this is why most companies send someone to China to check samples there, first.) But that's only if the factory sent the entire order via cargo ship, and not just a case or two via air; kind of unlikely, right? Even being generous and giving this entire ordeal four months, back-counting from June only gives us February; meaning the toys, packaged and ready to go, were taking up valuable warehouse space for a minimum of five months before being sent out to Premium DNA for approval; what was that delay about? Based simply on the verifiable facts, the situation and claims would already be sketchy from a trustworthy company, and are even less believable from Premium DNA. Always on the lookout for flanker brands for their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line, and inspired by the cultural success of Sonic the Hedgehog, Playmates approached Dave Perry, the guy who developed both Disney's Aladdin videogame and 7-Up's Cool Spot videogame (which sounds like a joke but isn't) to create something new that they could build a big multimedia franchise around. They weren't the first to try starting with a game instead of a cartoon, but as Battletoads was too hard and Bubsy was too boring, they were the first to (somewhat) succeed. Though it was conceived as something of a satire, the game was ultimately still a '90s platformer, which means lots of farts and burps and highly repetitive gameplay, but experienced design and quirky art combined into a moderate hit. It's not really clear what scale this figure is supposed to be in, because it's not really clear what size the super suit he wears is meant to be. Like, the figure crests the 6" mark easily, but stand him next to 6" figures, and his shoulders are about an inch lower than theirs. Is the suit designed to be worn by a human-sized character? Then this is a 5.5"-scale toy, like old ToyBiz Marvel pre-Legends things. But also the sculpt is very cartoony, so how much leeway are we giving for stylization? Our suggestion? Stand him next to different characters until you find a pairing you like, and just decide for yourself that's what scale he's meant to be. Jim has a super-broad chest and shoulders, beefy arms, and then thin spindly legs that lead into large, narrow feet. The straps crossing his chest are a separate piece that's both attached to the belt and glued into the shoulders at the sides of the collar, meaning the chest flexes within them rather than having to break up the sculpt when you move him. The majority of the suit is blank white, with some extremely light airbrushing to create shadows and a feeling of depth. We've come such a long way since the days when companies could only slather on blue shadows to sell the idea of visual depth! The yellow stripe at the top of the glove could really use a thicker application of paint, to keep the blue beneath from showing through, but that's our only issue with the paint. So the paint isn't a reason to reject this production run. The articulation's quite good for a company of this size. Jim (or his suit, technically) has swivel/hinge ankles, double-hinged knees, balljointed hips, a swivel waist, a balljointed chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, and a balljointed neck. The chest joint is tight, but not exceedingly so: like, enough that you won't accidentally move him too far and snap his suspenders, not enough that it feels like you can't move him at all. All the joints are strong enough to hold their poses nicely, even in those scrawny legs. The arms are so big, however, that even with two hinges you can still really only get a 90° range of motion. So the articulation isn't a reason to reject this production run, either. When the game was in development, it originally just had a placeholder main character, a formless blob dubbed "Snot." (Similar to the way Nintendo's Kirby was originally just a steerable circle for the developers to guide through the level while designing.) Then one of the artists showed Dave an earthworm character he had created, and that became the star. However, a character named "Snott" appeared in the cartoon, and made it into the second game, apparently having hitched a ride in Jim's backpack when he was fighting Major Mucus on the Phlegm Planet. Snott was basically a pet on the show, but the game made him a mobility aid, allowing you to traverse certain sections with his special abilities. So in addition to a freestanding Snott with a smile on his face, the top flap of Jim's backpack can be removed and two different versions of Snott (either short enough to barely come up to Jim's shoulders or long enough to reach the ceiling) can be slotted in there instead. So this set covers both the cartoon and game appearances in one go! The fit of the flap is very tight, but that means none of the pieces will fall out of place when you don't want them to. Finally, the set includes a pair of fists, a pair of open hands, and a pair of hands designed to hold Jim's big red ray gun, all great stuff. So the accessories also aren't a reason to reject this production run. Although Jim is indeed just an earthworm sticking out of a human-sized super suit, the character was still able to be delightfully expressive thanks to being given gigantic eyes, eyes that are so big a single one of them would be wider than his narrow head. The figure includes three heads so you can decide what kind of emotions you want him to be displaying. Right out of the package he has a stern look, with his lower lip jutting out and his eyes half-lidded; there's an angry head with a mean snarl and deeply angled lids; and a happy head with a goofy smile and the eyes open wide. The eyelids are sculpted to stick out over the eyes a bit, rather than just following the shape of them perfectly, and in true Jim style, his pupils are different styles: right eye is just a black oval, while the left gets a green iris with a white highlight painted on. The heads swap out easy thanks to a balljoint where the neck meets the body. If those aren't enough, there's also a box set of additional heads available to buy. The packaging sees the figure and accessories in a plastic tray in front of a cardboard backdrop depicting outer space. The box is white with a digital render on the back showing what's included, images of the full line on the right side, official character art on the left, and die-cut character portrait on the lower front corner. That whole thing is then covered by a purple slipcase featuring just a large image of Jim's head. As a graphic designer, I'd say the logo on top of the box should face the front, not the back, and the spelling of "whoa nelly" on the right side should be changed to match the "woah nelly" in the bio on the left - issues we wouldn't even bring up or bother to mention if we weren't trying very hard to find something wrong with this toy that would require Premium DNA to reject the entire production run months and months after letting them sit, unshipped, in the factory warehouse. So like we said at the top of the review, the reason these figures are appearing for sale now is unclear. The factory claims it's because Premium DNA never paid them; Premium DNA claims it's because there were problems with the production run. Well, I've taken the risk and bought one, and franky, no problems worth scrapping them have become apparent. The plastic quality's as good as anything else you'd find at the store, the paint is fine, the engineering of the joints is up to standards, the packaging has some mistakes but nothing to be ashamed of... so if there's some problem with the toy, it hasn't come up during the process of reviewing it. You're of course free to believe whichever version of events you find more likely, but I know what I think. I think the Earthworm Jim figure is great. I think I hope they actually come out, and they sell well enough to warrant doing a second series, with Peter Puppy, Princess What's-Her-Name, and, given Premium DNA's obvious willingness (as seen in the Battletoads line) to eschew traditional ideas about what is and isn't too large a figure to sell, maybe even a Queen Slug-For-A-Butt. And then I think Premium DNA should try bilking their factory again, so the second series gets put on sale just like Series 1 did. Because I think for the $15 I paid, this is probably the best toy I've bought all year. -- 09/01/24

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