NEW PRODUCT: ZCWO: 1/6 World Comedy Guru - Charlie Chaplin Action Figure

#newproduct #ZCWO #iminime #CharlieChaplin #male #comedian #movie

While I am not particularly a Charlie Chaplin fan, this looks very good, and there can be little doubt it is instantly recognizable; whether it is spot on, I will leave to someone more knowledgeable than me to say. It was a great idea to include two head sculpts. At least one of them (the smiling one) might have been even better with movable eyes. The outfit looks excellent.

HOLY COW I'll be pre-ordering that one.

It's just a straight-up re-release, isn't it? For that matter even the company copyright date on the promos is 2014, which seems about right. For the "100th Anniversary" aspect of it, I can't think of any event from 1921 (from 2021), but Chaplin entered films in 1914, so that must be it. When this originally came out I wanted to see it paired up with the Jack Nicholson '89 Joker Mime version.

It looks excellent, especially for an 8-year old figure -- you don't see a lot of those good enough to support a straight-up re-release. I love that camera, but my emotional investment in Chaplin isn't quite there. But if they made Buster Keaton I'd swim to Asia to get one.

Moonbase Alpha Male wrote:But if they made Buster Keaton I'd swim to Asia to get one.

Funny, isn't it, that no matter what extremely cool or unusual or obscure figure comes out, some of us will say, "that's great, but I really wish they'd do a X or Y or Z." My immediate response was identical to that of Moonbase Alpha: I wish it were Keaton!


But Keaton doesn't have quite the same level of instant recognition, especially as we approach a hundred years after his prime. While Keaton portrayed a number of similar characters, Chaplin is instantly identifiable by his "Little Tramp" character and costume.

Side note: Keaton's film, "The General," was filmed in and around Cottage Grove, Oregon in 1926. My grandfather grew up in Cottage Grove, and when he was a young man, he and most of the town turned out to watch the filming of the climactic plummet of a locomotive off a burning bridge. He even has a somewhat blurry Brownie camera snapshot of the event in his old photo album. When I was a kid, I asked my grandpa to tell me about that event a number of times. There's a brass plaque on the wall in the old Cottage Grove Hotel stating that Buster Keaton stayed there while filming "The General" in 1926.

Moonbase Alpha Male wrote: I love that camera, but my emotional investment in Chaplin isn't quite there.

Yes, I would really like to get my hands on one of those hand-cranked cine cameras! Or a couple of those cameras.

I, too, was confused by the "100th Anniversary" notation. I also could not figure out the significance of 1921 or 1922 relative to Chaplin. The 100th anniversary of his most well-remembered film, "The Gold Rush," will be 2025. Is this an older figure that is only finally being released now? Is it a re-release? Is it an out-of-production figure being posted here for reference?

Whatever it is, I'm off to eBay to search for vintage cine cameras in 1/6 scale.

EDIT TO ADD:

Wellll.... a China-based seller claims to have one of the cameras in stock: https://www.ebay.com/itm/254526258183
I have taken the risk and paid the absurd price. I wonder how long before I receive a "Dear Friend! Thank you for your purchase. Unfortunately...." note.

A US-based seller also has the item in stock... or so they claim... but have it listed as a "Bruce Lee Film Camera" - https://www.ebay.com/itm/353786845649
Quite the price. I was tempted before I found the China-Chaplin listing.

I see a few of the Chaplin figures listed on eBay. I was tempted by the one that is listed at $229, only twice the price of the camera alone, until I saw the $129 additional shipping charge. eBay asking prices for the figure currently range from mid-$300 to nearly $600 USD.

davidd wrote:Yes, I would really like to get my hands on one of those hand-cranked cine cameras! Or a couple of those cameras.

I, too, was confused by the "100th Anniversary" notation. I also could not figure out the significance of 1921 or 1922 relative to Chaplin. The 100th anniversary of his most well-remembered film, "The Gold Rush," will be 2025. Is this an older figure that is only finally being released now? Is it a re-release? Is it an out-of-production figure being posted here for reference?

Whatever it is, I'm off to eBay to search for vintage cine cameras in 1/6 scale.

EDIT TO ADD:

Wellll.... a China-based seller claims to have one of the cameras in stock:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/254526258183
I have taken the risk and paid the absurd price. I wonder how long before I receive a "Dear Friend! Thank you for your purchase. Unfortunately...." note.

A US-based seller also has the item in stock... or so they claim... but have it listed as a "Bruce Lee Film Camera" - https://www.ebay.com/itm/353786845649
Quite the price. I was tempted before I found the China-Chaplin listing.

I see a few of the Chaplin figures listed on eBay. I was tempted by the one that is listed at $229, only twice the price of the camera alone, until I saw the $129 additional shipping charge. eBay asking prices for the figure currently range from mid-$300 to nearly $600 USD.

You have to be careful distinguishing the 1/6 cameras.  The one you got is great in all respects -- and it must be authentic for the ZCWO because the photo background has the "door with horseshoe" that ZCWO had for the Deluxe in the original 2014 Chaplin release.  But the other one you see on E-Bay represents I think a much later camera than Chaplin's.  And I don't think that's actually what they call a "Bruce Lee camera" either -- maybe mislabelled or a clone.  To my understanding when you hear a "Bruce Lee camera," that's a 1/6 term (an IRL cinematographer wouldn't have a clue), and it denotes the camera that came with Enterbay Bruce Lee Game of Death (see below).

 

davidd wrote:Side note: Keaton's film, "The General," was filmed in and around Cottage Grove, Oregon in 1926. My grandfather grew up in Cottage Grove, and when he was a young man, he and most of the town turned out to watch the filming of the climactic plummet of a locomotive off a burning bridge. He even has a somewhat blurry Brownie camera snapshot of the event in his old photo album. When I was a kid, I asked my grandpa to tell me about that event a number of times. There's a brass plaque on the wall in the old Cottage Grove Hotel stating that Buster Keaton stayed there while filming "The General" in 1926.

Great side note -- you/your grandfather should post that pic somewhere, it shouldn't go lost to history.   Keaton's genius for that moment -- to set up a huge, insanely expensive actual event, and yet deliberately relegate it to the background of the comedy story he was trying to tell -- that's a sly joke that holds up remarkably well 100+ years later at the expense of our current "blockbusters."

Now I want a "Bruce Lee camera" too! That's a nice-looking rig!
But I'm putting myself on a self-imposed (or budget-imposed) buying moratorium for a while.

My grandpa told me that the film-makers offered $50 to anyone who would volunteer to ride in the cab of the locomotive as it fell through the bridge. He said that was a lot of money back then, but nobody was foolish enough to try, so the film-makers put a mannequin in the cab. There were also concerns that when the hot boiler hit the cold creek water it would violently explode and injure onlookers, but that didn't happen.

I’m surprised no one noticed or mentioned the iminime logo. For those unfamiliar, iminime is a small group of artists who over the last 20 years or so are responsible for hundreds of custom figures (like The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly) that have then been bootlegged by companies like Redman. To see them connected with an actual larger-scale manufacturer is interesting to me to say the least. I think the figure looks great, and am on the fence on this, since Chaplin was never one of my favorites of that era (give me Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Laurel & Hardy any day).

Stryker2011 wrote:I’m surprised no one noticed or mentioned the iminime logo. For those unfamiliar, iminime is a small group of artists who over the last 20 years or so are responsible for hundreds of custom figures (like The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly) that have then been bootlegged by companies like Redman. To see them connected with an actual larger-scale manufacturer is interesting to me to say the least. I think the figure looks great, and am on the fence on this, since Chaplin was never one of my favorites of that era (give me Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Laurel & Hardy any day).

Again, this is a re-issued figure from 8 years ago. The iminime to ZCWO relationship was noted at the time, but it's ancient history now. Afaik the collaboration didn't lead to anything exceptional in the intervening years (just a Gwyneth Paltrow and one or more soccer players) and I don't know if they are still collaborating on anything. For that matter ZCWO itself seems to have shifted much more into vinyl and pop art creations. Running off a second batch of Chaplins seems more like an easy and high ROI cash boost in the post-pandemic desert, than any kind of creative or committed reentry into 1/6.

Interesting release. It will no doubt be 'new' to many like myself who were not in the 1/6 scene eight years ago.

I'd love if it there were a proper line of old hollywood and classic cinema figures. Everything from silent film to the late '60s. It feels like there are a smattering that get anniversary or special releases here and there, but there are so many actors and actresses from previous era's I'd love to have in 1/6, and it often feels like there's little chance of most of them getting made outside of a one-off custom or group project.

I'm also not long enough in the hobby to know this figure. I think it looks very good. 

I think this character would be perfect for a moveable eyes head sculpt though. Would be a nice upgrade on the original release imo.

Unfortunately that Bud Spencer by Kaustic is a statue and not an action figure.

Stryker2011 wrote:Unfortunately that Bud Spencer by Kaustic is a statue and not an action figure.

They released a new one:

https://action-figure-district.de/infinite-statue-kaustic-plastik-bud-spencer/

As an action figure.

Holy crap! I hadn’t seen that. I’ll have to keep an eye out for an official release notice; if you spot it before me feel free to post it in this section. That’s exciting. So much closer to getting the Trinity brothers.

It is already released. The article I linked is the review with the inhand figure from a friend. 

On KP homepage it is already sold out. Check on ebay, there are some offers still.

The eBay seller from whom I purchased the "last" Chaplin cine camera has one more "last one" listed now:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254526258183

"Chaplin" camera arrived promptly; order placed on Jan 7, item arrived from China on Jan 18.

Item is exactly as pictured in the listing. It is not the camera with the "weathering" on it that was included with the Chaplin figure. Rather, it is a 1/6 camera of a similar type that was sold as a stand-alone collectible.

It's very similar to the "Chaplin" camera, but not identical. There is no indication on the packaging that this camera is from ZCWO, but it is the camera pictured in the listing I linked to previously.

Of course, now I find a seller offering the camera I received for a lower price:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403223309578

davidd wrote:"Chaplin" camera arrived promptly; order placed on Jan 7, item arrived from China on Jan 18.

Item is exactly as pictured in the listing. It is not the camera with the "weathering" on it that was included with the Chaplin figure. Rather, it is a 1/6 camera of a similar type that was sold as a stand-alone collectible.

It's very similar to the "Chaplin" camera, but not identical. There is no indication on the packaging that this camera is from ZCWO, but it is the camera pictured in the listing I linked to previously.

Of course, now I find a seller offering the camera I received for a lower price:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403223309578

Interesting to know another camera variant is out there. Weird, and maybe suspect, that they're promo-photographing it in front of the actual ZCWO Chaplin door. Talking to you about it, and this thread, are now making me want one. But, as I was borderline about Chaplin anyway, and almost bought the original 10 years ago, the camera may just push me into an outright Chaplin purchase rather than chasing the loose accessory.

Weird the only place that I’ve seen this up for PO is KGHobby (which makes it, unfortunately, a no go for me as their shipping to the US is usually too insane to justify — even worse than Sideshow).

I asked Amelia about it, and she said they missed the deadline on this, so will probably not be selling it.
I ordered from KG. I'm a little worried. With shipping it came to about 250 USD. Previously shipping to Germany was free, so I hoped the import fees would be included, but the invoice states "tax included: 0". Will see...

Good luck, Diana. Hope it isn’t too bad for you.

I ordered from KGHobby in the end and he is already on his way to me.

Diana wrote:I ordered from KGHobby in the end and he is already on his way to me.

Oh, that is so cool! Please show us photos as soon as possible!