Fast forward two months and my birthday has just gone and one of my presents is this set! Looking at the figure in the box alone, I can tell the face has been painted perfectly, eyebrows done perfectly and the hair is pretty much perfect. So I take the figure out of the packaging and having not seen any images bar the promotional pictures beforehand, I'm well and truly shocked! It's great.
Anyway, back to the review. River's articulation is great, bar the lack of thigh articulation, I appreciate the fact River has a holster on her right leg means she wouldn't have any, but it would have been nice. Fairly new to the range is ball joints in the shoulder, which I love, a great addition! Looking at other lines, it can be very hit or miss, with the arms sticking out a fair bit, but it's done right in the Doctor Who line and I'm happy. Other than that, the head can't really move due to the sheepskin jacket, the elbows and knees bend and the boots swivel 360 degrees. Not a great deal of articulation, but it works.
The detailing on this figure is great! You may know that just after this set made its way to the UK, Character Options released a jacketless variant in the second wave of Series 6 figures (with the figure labelled as "Series 5 River Song"), I do own that figure, and I have to say it isn't a patch on this. Yes, you can move the belt, but the figure doesn't really do it for me compared to this variant. As I said, the main difference is the sheepskin jacket, which is a lovely addition, but what lets the figure down is the fact that the shirt and belt is a separate piece, just a flimsy bit of plastic, which I have to say is the negative of the figure. However, other than that slight niggle the figure is fabulous! 100% accurate and despite my original complaints, the headsculpt is spot on, just a bad bit of quality control on this product with badly applied paint and hair. My advice is to look for this figure in store because you want a lightly painted face that maintains the detail without it looking waxy and hair that doesn't hover above River's head.
I'm aware the Wave 2 River figure was revised and extra curls were added to the hair to disguise the massive gap. In my opinion, it makes it look worse and I'm glad the Pandorica set wasn't revised.
River has just the one accessory, her gun. Lovely little piece and unlike a lot of figures, it fits in the holster perfectly. I would've liked to see her scanner released with the figure, but you can't have everything.
Overall, the River figure is surprisingly impressive, bar the flimsy piece in between the jacket. I would have liked to have seen the Wave 2 figure with a jacket on it, but I can't help but feel it'd look a tad too big. I can't stress how great the head is, I do prefer the head released with the Astronaut River, but can't justify buying two new figures just to slap that head on the Pandorica Opens/Big Bang version!
Swiftly moving on to the Pandorica Chair. Yes, it is compatible with the Collect-And-Build Pandorica wave from late 2010/early 2011. I don't actually own and of the Pandorica wave figures, so I can't tell you how well it works, but based on images it looks great, especially with the moulded walls released in America!
The chair is of course designed to seat the Doctor. As you can see in the image above, it works really well, but I've seen a few people not place the figure on the chair properly, so it looks like he's hovering. I am surprised we didn't see a variant or re-release of the Doctor figure in this set, but at £22.99, it would have been taking the piss a little. After all, the big selling point of this set was River and she did remain exclusive to the set for a short period of time.
There isn't much to say about the Pandorica chair, it's just a lump of grey plastic! It's really nice, don't get me wrong, but there isn't a great deal to it. Sadly the paint applied is Matt like so it scratches and marks easily, however it is a permanent display piece for me so doesn't prove a massive problem. The lights on the chair and done with stickers and the ones on the floor are carefully painted. They do look a bit like the Turkish eye, but they're great!
The chair does have some moving bits, the handcuffs on it clip into place, as do the shoulder and waist things, meaning there is no escape for the Doctor it seems...
Overall, the chair is great, a lovely little display piece and looks even better with a small light inside and the Pandorica pieces in place!
Many have asked me would I prefer an Amy or a Rory figure with the set rather than River Song. I actually wouldn't have minded either three, would have still bought the set. It would have made some sense to put a Roman Rory figure in the set and keep River exclusive to Wave 2, but I'm not overly fussed, happy with the figure and happy with the set!
I'd personally give the set a 9/10, the quality control deducts a point from it. Now, it hasn't affected me seriously, but there is still elements of it in my set.
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and I shall see you next time!
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