Review : Vigo the Carpathian Ghostbusters Select (Diamond Select Toys) Wave/Series : Series 6 (Ghostbusters II) Released : February 2018
£24.99
Pros : Costume is nicely painted and sculpted Cons : Vigo stands too short. Costume is too wide at shoulders. Articulation is poor, he can't achieve that iconic hands on hips we see in the movie
When Diamond announced the plan to release Ghostbusters II figures the one figure I, and everyone else, immediately started to think about was the movies main protagonist, Vigo the Carpathian. Diamond soon confirmed that Vigo was to be released, and he would be part of Series 6 - the first wave of the GB2 products in early 2018.
To date, Vigo had only had one figure in the Mattel collectors line. Having a new 7" version would be awesome.
The Ghostbusters Select packaging has undergone a few tweaks for the GB2 line. We see a new yellow and black hazard stripe trim around the base, and on the spine we have the 15th anniversary badge for Select figures. Of course we also get the logo updated to the Ghostbusters II logo.
Another big change, and one that will cause some concern for boxed collectors, is the decision to drop the movie still images from the art side spine and replace it with a close up of the figure. The same happened in the Gotham line, and for anyone collecting and displaying by the spine art may see this as a frustration.
The card reverse has been updated to include a simple black background, split by a proton beam image. We have a picture of Vigo in the centre and atop this is an overview of Vigo and his role it he move. To the side we get the "also available" figures of Ray and Louis - and to the side of them an image of the diorama we are now collecting across Series 6 through 10 - the Ghostbusters firehouse.
Vigo slides out from the main packaging in the large inner tray. He has no accessories or swap out parts and is strapped in with three twisty ties. Behind him, and thankfully filling out the packaging, are the diorama pieces.
The head sculpt for Vigo is essentially a job well done. It looks best from certain angles, particularly head on. There is some good work done on the skin tone and shading around those protruding cheeks and chi. The lips are a tad too thick and this isn't helped by the colour and the fact the figure we have has some bleed from the lip paint to the skin, making it look a little like he has smudged some lipstick.
The hair is not bad, but is perhaps too far receded vs what we see int he movie. It is painted in a straw colour with a darker brown washed through to pick up some depth. It does appear to be floating at the bottom over the shoulder rather than sitting naturally.
Vigo's 16th Century outfit is also fairly well executed, albeit with some gripes. The colouring is a nice leather brown with painted stud work and panels in black with silver accents as needed.
The issue is the separate shoulder piece which is far too wide. While it does allow the arms to move it is a size or two too big for the body and even with the arms out to the side, it looks like it is swamping him.
The legs are plain but with a lot of sculpting to make it look like bunched and creased fabric that is then tucked into those knee high leather studded boots.
But here is the real kicker with Vigo.... he is far too short. He weighs in at a measly 6 and 3/4 inches high, and while we never get a sense of his true height in the film, his presence and persona would for me indicate someone who stood taller than many and that would overshadow any of the other Ghostbusters figures. In reality and when you compare the figures from Series 6, Ray is a good bit taller.
If we apply what we do know, actor Norbert Grupe was 1.9m tall, that is 6ft 3 inches give or take. In 1/10 scale that would make a Vigo figure needing to come in at 7 1/2 inches high.
That is frankly disappointing and means the figure is a good 3/4 inches short.
Articulation is pretty limited for Vigo. While there are 15 joints, many are frozen in position or move very little. We start with the head which will rotate but even with a visible pivot in the ball joint there is no up or down motion - and that is a shame as Vigo is portrayed looking down on his minions. The torso joint is neatly hidden under the chest piece and this too will rotate but unlike the head this gives plenty of leaning back motion and a touch of lean forward. There is a joint in the waist and this moves slightly to either side.
The arms are the biggest issue for me. They have a ball joint shoulder which will move fully out to the side, but can't go above the head due to shoulder panels. The elbows are then a single rotating joint that don't even go to 90 degrees. We then end with a pivot wrist which rotates. Both wrists look to also be pivoted, but everytime I try and move mine the hand simply flies out of the arm socket. And here is my problem, this arm articulation is not sufficient to get the one single pose that Vigo had through the majority of the movie. I want my Carpathian to have his hands on his hips replicating that painting pose. Without double jointed elbows that is never going to happen, and the nearest you can get is the slightly awkward pose we see in the centre image above.
The legs have a T-joint hip and a single joint knee. While the hips move OK, I don't need Vigo to do the splits or sit down. The knees are incredibly tight and treat these with care as mine already show signs of stress marks in the plastic.
While Vigo comes with zero accessories or swap out parts, he does come with a couple of parts for the Diorama. The first is the GB2 hanging sign, and it is only when you see how big this is that you comprehend how big the final diorama will be.
The second part, that arrives in a baggie, is one of the side columns.
The column has a number of different paint apps and these look brilliant, particularly the sandstone effect and how the yellow actually looks like painted concrete. Be careful that inside the pillar is a further baggie or what will be connectors. Keep these safe as I suspect they will be critical to the build when we finally have all the parts.
The quality of the diorama parts seems OK, and unlike the parts I received in the other Series 6 figures there is no obvious damage or scratching. Perhaps all of the parts should be protected by an outer bag.
I can't help but be disappointed with Vigo overall. After promising so much, you end up with an undersized Carpathian who is shorter than the other Ghostbusters - who can't look down and who's articulation is restricted so he can't replicate that pose from the painting. If costs were an issue then I would have rather had Diamond give us a fixed set of legs and then used the money saved here to give us double jointed arms an an extra inch in height.
While you can play with size and scale by standing Vigo on a plinth in your display, the posing is something we can't really fix as collectors and when you go with the neutral arms by the pose size it makes that shoulder section look two sizes too big.
With these issues and disappointments I am going to score Vigo a 3 out of 5. And he only scrapes this purely on the basis that Diamond were brave enough to include this figure at all in the Ghostbusters II series.
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