McFarlane SportsPicks KEN GRIFFEY JR.

[JeffSaylor]

CLARKtoys.com Exclusive knocks it out of the park...

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The limited edition Ken Griffey Jr. SportsPicks action figure is exclusive to www.CLARKtoys.com and can be ordered now priced at $19.99 HERE.

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What can you say about one of the greatest baseball players of all time? Watching him play over the years has been a show of spectacular catches and awesome hitting displays. Ken Griffey Jr. definitely has the pedigree (his father a 3x All-Star during his 19 year career) and followed his being drafted 1st overall in the 1987 draft by the Seattle Mariners. His stats are Hall of Fame worthy: career .285 batting average, a whopping 630 homers, 1,829 RBIs, 2,763 hits, 10x Gold Glove winner, 13x All-Star, and perhaps one of the prettiest swings in the history of the game.

It’s not only because of the gawdy hitting stats that fans have loved watching Junior play all these years. Clips of him jumping up the centerfield walls in Seattle's dome to make homerun saving catches are still frequently shown on highlight reels. The rocket of an arm throwing runners out at the plate with a laserbeam from 250 feet away. It’s all these tangibles that made the decision for McFarlane Toys to make a special exclusive Griffey Jr, SportsPicks figure an easy one. And add to that giving one of the most well known and respected toy sites on the web, www.CLARKtoys.com, the sole rights to selling this figure also came easily.

As far as the figure goes, McFarlane could've easily given this exclusive lackluster treatment with shoddy paint and inadequate sculpting and still produced good sales numbers. Fortunately though, McFarlane produced a figure that dates back to a few years ago when their SportsPicks were known for excellent sculpts at a decent scale and paint applications that seemed to be done meticulously by hand.

SCULPT: When McFarlane Toys introduced their line of Sportspicks several years ago, they instantly became known of the quality of likeness their figures bore to their real life counterparts. But over the last couple years the sports lines have become increasingly smaller in stature and poses have been rehashed for other players with some lines having no original sculpts at all. So when fans and detractors alike heard that a Griffey Jr. exclusive was being produced everyone had the right to be doubtful if McFarlane could bring back the luster it seemed to be missing.

I’m glad to say that they have done quite well on this piece as Griffey's trademark follow-through is accurately portrayed. I have heard grumblings that some don't like the girth of Griffey’s midsection for the sculpt, but if you have seen him recently one would know he's not built like he was 21 years ago as a rookie. As this sculpt is from his current playing days the body shape is quite accurate. Other details such as the legs, arms, and other extremities are all nicely done as well.

I do have one quip though about the pose and it's that the jaw is a little too wide. Griffey Jr. has pronounced cheek bones with a slender jawline and the sculpt here portrays his face as being slightly chubby. Now, I did mention earlier that he has gained a few pounds around the ol' midsection but his face still has that iconic look to it that isn't quite captured here. But despite the gripe about this inefficiency I would still rate the sculpt of this figure as being higher than last few MLB lines and nearly equal to that of the top lines.

PAINT: This is the area where many McFarlane SportsPicks collectors might be wary because of inadequacies in recent lines. I’m happy to say that any past issues (molded plastic instead of actual paint has been a big gripe) have been resolved for this piece. Everything from the shoes to the uniform are painted very evenly with no sloppy application and no part of the body itself is glossy resulting in contrasting looks (one part of the uniform having a plasticy shine to it while another has a dull look from bad paint). The white paint is bright in hue yet evenly portrayed throughout. The dark blue that acts as the secondary color is also nicely applied with no spottiness. The Mariner’s emblem on the left sleeve is simply a work of art in that every detail of a fairly extensive logo expertly comes through.

Some other details I should point out are the lines down the sides of the paints, through the middle of the jersey, and that of the gloves, Each line is very straight in nature and never deviates from the intended width. The gloves have some detail in them as well that really shows how much effort McFarlane put into this figure. The only area I wasn’t completely happy with as far as the paint app is that of the base. I think that the lightening of the textured portions of the dirt could’ve been done in a manner that it didn’t seem like dead grass was growing in the batter’s box. Again, not a big detail and it certainly doesn’t detract from the piece.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: Overall, I must say that Clarktoys received an impressive figure as their store exclusive. I’m sure Mariners fans, as well as baseball enthusiasts, are glad to see Junior back with the team that introduced him to all fans. McFarlane has done a near masterful job in capturing the quintessential essence of what makes Griffey so iconic: that backswing follow-through on one of his many bombs.

You can order this figure exclusively at www.CLARKtoys.com for the suggested retail price of $19.99, while supplies last.

For more images of the Ken Griffey Jr. figure, CLICK HERE!

Review and Photos by Aaron Binder
Review Sample Courtesy of www.CLARKtoys.com

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