Wakko

"...I'm Wakko..." Wakko is the sibling always loaded up on caffeine, constantly hungry, and prone to slapstick comedy gags! Wakko looks ready to have a sandwich or belch out a symphonic classic. Once again, that's the text from the ReAction figure, because not only did Super7 not put any text on the Animaniacs' boxes, they don't even have any on their website, either. When Animaniacs was in development, the main characters were going to be three ducks (because Baby Plucky Duck was the Baby Yoda of mid-90s Fox Kids afternoon programming) named Yakky, Wakky, and Smakky. As development progressed, their species was changed, a sister was added, and two of the brothers were combined: oddball Wakky's personality (and name, obviously) was applied to angry Smacky's character design, and the character we know today was born. So if you've read the Yakko review, you'll know how a promotional balloon of the character appeared on the real-world WB Water Tower for less than a day in 1993 - the studio head saw it up there, thought it looked too much like Mickey Mouse, and ordered it removed immediately. But if Bob Daley had been a little bit later to work that day, things might have gone much differently. See, for years the story was that Yakko was the only inflatable; but then, randomly at Burning Man 2008, someone showed up with the long-missing balloon... along with the previously unknown Wakko and Dot! So it seems the promotional plan was to put all three Warner siblings on the tower, but Bob stopped work before that happened. If there had been more than just Yakko sitting up there when he first saw it, maybe he would have understood what was going on, and the trio would have actually served their purpose of promoting the show. Super7's Animaniacs toys may not be in any kind of standard scale, but at least they're consistent with one another: Wakko is shorter than Yakko, so the action figure is similarly downsized. His head remains weirdly large, though. It's not as bad here as it was on Yakko, but you gotta wonder how these got approved. Did Super7 even look at the model sheets? Did WB? If we're paying ridiculously high prices for these (and we are), they should be as good as they can possibly be (and they're not). Wakko stands out from his siblings by being the only one to wear a shirt. And a hat, but in the world of cartoons, the major divide is between your Patrick Stars and your Winnies the Pooh - you'd have to be goofy to wear both clothes on both halves of your body! The shirt falls down lower in the front than in the back, which is usually a result of Wakko's posture, but is here obviously part of the sculpt. His long sleeves wrinkle slightly, and his turtleneck collar seems way too small to actually fit over his gigantic head. He wears his red baseball cap backwards, because he's a cool kid, and his ears poke up through it. The toy may have trouble breaking the 5" mark, but it doesn't skip any of the articulation. Wakko has swivel/hinges at the ankles, knees, wrists, elbows, and shoulders, and balljoints at the hips, waist, head, tail, and ears. The ears normally point forward, but why not sweep them back like his hat? Or flopped both to one side, like he's a dog trying to understand something by tilting its head? His waist isn't as flexible as Yakko's was, which is odd: you'd think being covered by the lower edge of the shirt would mean it could move just as well, yeah? Inspired a bit by Harpo Marx, Yakko is the mosy physical of the Warner siblings; that's why his accessories include not only the same stick of dynamite Yakko had, but also a large mallet - something he can literally pull from hammerspace! He's got a pair of relaxed hands, a pair of splayed hands, two sets of nearly identical holding hands for some reason (both left hands are for holding large objects, and both right hands are for holding smaller ones), There's also an alternate tail, which is bent and crooked rather than sticking straight out like the normal one does. His alternate head is confusing. Not because of its design - it's him in a centurion helmet, which is something he wore in the cartoon - but because he's the only one who has one. All three Warners wore one, while riding on top of a bus in Season 1's "The Big Candy Store," but neither Yakko nor Dot include a matching alternate head, making this one a total waste of plastic. I suppose technically they all look alike enough that you could give this head to any of the figures, but you'd still need to have three of them, not just one. Changing his expression from a big smile with his tongue hanging out to a purse-lipped "oooooo" is a good start, but interchangeable faceplates would have been a better choice. If you recall the Yakko review, we hinted at there being a reason his world map was on a blackboard instead of a chart like it should be; Wakko is that reason. While his older brother was singing (most of) the countries of the world, Wakko sang about the US state capitals, and when he did it, he did it in front of a chalkboard. So this mold was meant for Wakko and merely repurposed for Yakko. It's still assembled weird, with the heavier part of the board above the pivot point instead of below, but it's still nice to get. And since he was playing "Turkey in the Straw" while he sang, his accessories include a fiddle and a bow that he can hold. Wakko has better proportions than Yakko, but worse accessories - that alternate head is utter junk. A lot of Super7 Ultimates have been making it to sale prices lately, so maybe hold out for a price drop before getting this one. -- 04/26/23

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