Review : Drax the Destroyer & Baby Groot Marvel Select (Diamond Select Toys) Wave/Series : Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Released : February 2018
£24.99
Pros : The tiny Groot is very well sculpted and articulated
Cons : Drax head is too small and has been sculpted in an uncharacteristic "glum" look and the lip paint looks like lipstick.
Fans have waited almost a full year to get their hands on Diamond Select's first Guardians of the Galaxy movie figure. After skipping the first movie, the only MCU movie they've missed making a figure for since they started with Iron-Man 2, the team at Diamond planned to bring us four of the five principle Guardians characters in their 7" Select scale.
Drax arrives in the usual Select blister packaging. As there is no diorama piece included, he does look a little lost within the blister with only the tiny Baby Groot to keep him company.
I do like the design scheme and fonts used on the Guardians figures, with the blue space nebula backdrop overlaid with the GOTG2 logo, with Groot sat on top. We also get a flash of gold with the Guardians bag at the base of the wrap around section under the character name which is simply "Drax".
The side spine is gorgeous and captures Drax in one of his trademark angry poses as he prepares for battle, with a bemused baby Groot atop his shoulder. It is a pity this angry expression wasn't carried through on to the figure itself.
The card back repeats the design principles and the majority of it is turned over to a actual image of Drax and Groot and some bio text which predominantly talks about Drax and his history in the MCU and finishes with how he teamed up with the Guardians and Groot in particular.
To the side of this we get the also available section with an image of Star-Lord and Rocket who are the other Select release for the movie.
The packaging has to be ripped to access the figure, and once opened you are presented with Drax in the inner tray. He is strapped into the tray with twisty ties and these have to be carefully removed considering the paint on the chest area - not something you want to damage. Groot is taped into his socket as are the spare hands and the knives.
Remember that battle angry Drax we saw on the packaging? Well the actual figure is as far away from that look as you can possibly get. The best way I can describe the expression is forlorn. The look really doesn't work for "The Destroyer" and it is such a shame as it has been sculpted pretty well and you wonder what they would have done with a screaming version.
There are other issues with the head in that they've given him what looks like purple lipstick. This is a bizarre decision considering how Drax looks on screen and after they've done so well with the facial tattoos and the eyes which do have that purple hint we see in the movie.
Zoom out to view the full figure and the other issue with the head is that it looks too small. It is basically the same size as a 6" figure, and if you do some rough measurements vs a screen grab of Drax it is about 5% too small for the width of the shoulders. While you can pose this so the head size is not noticeable, it is more evident when stood with other figures.
The rest of the body is proportioned well and the musculature is a good match for Dave Bautista. The skin tone is perhaps a bit too bright in terms of the blue shading, but the tattoos are done well and are relief sculpted so they aren't just a painted pattern. The trousers are nicely weathered with a good wash over the blue. The belt and boots are a deep black with dirty silver clasps and accessories.
Drax stands just under 7 1/2 inches tall, which puts him taller than Star-Lord and is consistent with the movie and that classic criminal line up image from the first film.
Articulation for Drax comes in at 18 points a couple more than a standard select thanks to the addition of a bicep swivel under the shoulder joint. The trunk of the body has a ball jointed neck and a ball joint in the chest to allow some rotation and forward and backward leaning - not loads though.
The arms are very maneuverable with ball jointed shoulders, the aforementioned bicep swivel, an elbow joint which also rotates and a pegged pivot wrist. The arms can move out to eh side and above the head. The elbow bend is not great, and while you can see the wrist pivot it doesn't move too much.
The legs utilise the T-Joint hips which swing the legs out to side and in front or any combination in between. you can therefore sit Drax down if you wish. The thigh swivel is pretty clever in that the padding covers this up and yet is only fixed to lower leg so the whole thing still rotates. The knees are double jointed. On the figure I have here the left one bends fine back on itself, but the right is frozen on lower joint - even with hot water it won't shift and I can already see the white stress marks in the joint.
Drax comes armed with his knives which are cast in a crisp plastic with two tone silver paint and some intricate red decor on the blades. These can be held either way in both hands.
When not in use you would assume that you can slide these in the holsters either side of the boot. After all that should be fairly easy to do shouldn't it and the holsters look big enough. But no, Diamond have made these solid pieces so they do not work and your knives need to go in Drax's hand or the bit box.
The hands swap out for three other options included in the pack. As we've seen the gripping hands are for holding the knives and the second set of fists make sense for hand to hand fighting. The final hand is only a right hand and is in a gesture with a pointing finger - it almost looks like a shooting hand with a trigger finger?
While I can't say it was ever designed for another weapon, it can be teased to hold Baby Groot if you wish.
Baby Groot is an inch and a half high, and is the based on the version we see at the start of the movie and not in the Ravagers outfit we see later on. For his size he has plenty of sculpted detail and this is then painted with shades of green included into the brown. The eyes are black with a white pupil.
Groot is even articulated, which is a surprise. He has 5 points of articulation starting with a rotating head. The shoulders are ball jointed, but these are held back from moving out from the body by the shoulder pieces above. The hips are also ball jointed, but with the shape of the groin piece these only move a short way.
My only gripe with Groot is that he is very difficult to stand in anything other than a neutral pose. Being so small and lightweight, any movement of the arms will simply overbalance him
While Diamond always say they are not a team building line, there is something nice about putting the four figures together on display and collectively they seem to be a little more than the sum of their parts. Gamora is of course a miss and I am not convinced we will see her anytime soon.
While £25 is a lot to pay for a Baby Groot, this little one and a half inch figure is perhaps the highlight of this release. While Drax ticks some boxes, that expression ruins the look of the whole figure and the lipstick adds insult to injury. With a decent head sculpt I could look passed the undersized head and the non-working holsters - but when you add up everything wrong with this figure there is nothing that Groot can do more to save this release.
After waiting so long for the Guardians figures, both are a disappointment. With this one, the disappointment is considerable and I am scoring him a low 2 out of 5.
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