"Wim, you promised we wouldn't get in trouble, but now we're way, way out past the Barrier, in so much trouble that we're lost forever."
As Skeleton Crew debuted on Disney+ in December 2024, Hasbro put a full wave of Skeleton Crew figures into immediate stock. The six-figure wave consisted of Jude Law’s mysterious character Jod Na Nawood, Captain Brutus, and the four main characters including Neel.
Neel’s name on the box is followed by ‘At Attin’ as a subtitle. Neel was seen in both his school uniform and this casual gear during the At Attin scenes before they were whisked off the planet and therefore the ‘At Attin’ suffix doesn’t quite make sense. The Skeleton Crew Galaxy Collection has been given a rich Yellow accent colour which is used on the character name and the side artwork with Wim numbered as the 2nd figure in the Skeleton Crew collection. His side artwork connects between Jod Na Nawood and Wim for the wider side montage. The rear of the box carries a repeat of this artwork and a short synopsis of the series rather than the character - avoiding any specific spoilers. The backing cards of each of the newer boxes are also now aligned to the same accent colour scheme and feature a background. For Neel, this artwork shows us a section of planetscape with a couple of buildings that seems to be those seen on the Observatory Moon, further contradicting the ‘At Attin’ of the figure’s title.
As mentioned above, Neel is wearing the outfit he wears for much of the Skeleton Crew adventure which consists of a pair of red dungarees with painted buckles over an orange sweater. The rest of the paint application is limited to Neel’s belt, which has a silver buckle and a number of further components slung around it - most in a plain gun-metal finish, but others feature gold and cream components. The outfit is concluded with Neel’s yellow boots with sculpted gripped soles but again, no paintwork.
Neel’s species is (at the time of writing) not confirmed, but the figure’s head sculpt is a good recreation of the animatronic mask used on the show. This is mainly blue as a skin tone but there is graduation and fading to a flesh tone under the chin and around the base of the trunk and under the ears. Neel doesn’t appear to use facial printing instead the eyes are painted in a black tone with a white outline and small white reflective dots in the top corner. Neel’s hair is a darker blue as part of the head sculpt, this does mean the painted edge is slightly off in places but not overly noticeable considering the similarity of the two colours.
Neel features 14 points of articulation incorporated around his smaller frame. The joints are all pinless and allow for a basic set of movements in both legs and arms. The waist allows rotation rather than a tilting motion afforded by the ball joint. The head has more movement, and while the shape of the trunk and ears do present a physical restriction, there is sufficient motion to allow Neel to both turn and tilt/raise his head.
When posing and displaying Neel, the feet need a bit of work to sit flat thanks to the way the hem of the trousers sit over the ankle-rocker joint. You will need to use the rotation within the knee joint to widen the stance to have Neel stand securely otherwise the lack of backward movement at the rocker does make Neel overbalance particularly with a slightly top-heavy design thanks to the head.
The accessories included with Neel are all designed to sit on the figure as well as being held in his hand. This starts with his Walkie Talkie which is a grey piece with a sculpted control piece in orange with blue, white and silver buttons - and a silver-painted speaker. As well as being held in either of Neel’s hands, the device can also hang on Neel’s belt thanks to a plug and socket to the left-hand side near his hip. The belt can also hold the second of Neel’s accessories, the silver component device. If you work your way around the belt to the rear you will find another socket onto which this device can be clipped - otherwise, like the Walkie-Talkie the piece can be held in either hand.
Neel also comes with a backpack which he can wear thanks to a pair of flexible plastic straps. The bag itself is a tan brown finish with sculpted folds, pockets, straps, and further components sticking out such as a sandy-coloured pad or book and a gun metal tool. These are not removable. There is however a larger hole further up the backpack which can be used to stow the torch that comes as Neel’s third main accessory. The torch is orange with silver detailing and another tiny control panel with buttons. The torch will fit in either hand and when not in use slots into the socket on the backpack. The backpack, once worn does partly counteract Neel’s stability.
The Star Wars Black Series release of Neel is a strong recreation of the onscreen character and the costume worn for much of the season. Hasbro has also loaded Neel with accessories to widen his display options, all of which are also engineered to be stowed away on his belt or in his backpack which is a nod to Neel in the show. The only negatives on Neel are the stability issues caused by the position of the ankle rockers - an issue that can be resolved using the other joints to compensate. As with any ‘team’ Neel’s true value will be in a combined display with the rest of the crew and characters from the show.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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