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The Boys: Homelander on a budget (review and comparison info)

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GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
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DISCLAIMER: Neither OneSixthFigures nor the author of this post is endorsing any specific company or product or encouraging the purchase of unlicensed goods. The following is intended for discussion purposes only.

The Boys: Homelander on a budget (review and comparison info) Rep0110

Superman gone bad. This has been done in a variety of ways, but one of my favorite is actually the Superman-like man-made character of Homelander from the Amazon comic-book-based live action series The Boys. I confess I am unfamiliar with the comic books themselves (as usual), although I have done enough research to realize that there is more nuance (especially there) to the series protagonist (who is far more questionable a character than we see onscreen) and to the series antagonist (who is more of a tragic character than clear villain). It remains to be seen how consistently this would be portrayed in coming seasons, but either way, Homelander makes for a compelling, if unnerving character.

So, here is what happened. I got tired of waiting for the version of Homelander I had preordered, and stumbled across this budget version, which I picked up without much in the way of expectations. I also picked up some parted-out pieces from the licensed Star Ace version, which I wanted to use for comparison, but of course inconveniently displaced. There is actually an embarrassment of riches when it comes to released or yet-to-be-released Homelander figures, as there are at least half a dozen of them:
Star Ace's The Boys: Homelander
Young Rich Toys' Homelander
Soo Soo Toys' John Lander
Toys Works' The Republican
Premium Toys' The Hero (both as an action figure set or as a separate set of five head sculpts)
Toys Era's The Sigma

It is Toys Works' The Republican that I picked up and review here. But I should point out that it turns out that Toys Works, Premium Toys, and Toys Era are all different names for what is essentially the same company, and that there is significant overlap between their Homelander sets; they appear to be essentially variants of each other, with slightly different quality and features for different prices -- from Toys Works (lowest) to Toys Era (highest). I will be mentioning the differences based on my research and link the relevant Justin's Collection reviews if you would like to explore further.

Packaging

Perfectly nice packaging especially for a "third party" company. Toys Works made both a specific box and shipper for the product, complete with labeling and a logo. It is a basic shoebox type container with removable lid. Inside lie two black plastic treys, each with a clear plastic lid containing the figure and its few accessories. The lower of the two, containing the base and stand, has an empty compartment designed for the extra head sculpts that come with the Premium Toys and Toys Era sets. Everything is reasonably safe and collector friendly. Graphics and text apart, the packaging is identical for the Premium Toys and Toys Era sets.

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Accessories

Lets get this out of the way. There are none, apart from the extra hand sculpts and stand and base as accessories. There are three sets of extra hands, making four sets total: 2 fists, 2 relaxed hands, 2 grasping hands, 1 left pointing hand, and 1 right thumbs up hand. All the hand sculpts are made of fairly soft plastic, making swapping easier and safer. If Homelander was in the habit of brandishing firearms and if they had provided trigger hands from the same material, it would have been a walk in the park to work with them. The base is simple, without a specific nameplate but with space for one of your own choice and making. It has a nice printed cracked concrete surface on top. The crotch grabber stand attaches securely and works well. Apart from the additional four head sculpts, the Premium Toys version has the same accessories as the Toys Works set, and uses the same base; the Toys Era version has a different base. A little instruction sheet for the light feature is included, but bears the brand and product name of the Premium Toys version.
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The promotional materials for Toys Works' The Republican promised another accessory, which was NOT included after all: a bottle of milk to go some way towards satiating Homelander's insatiable appetite for the stuff. As far as I can tell, only Star Ace's Homelander set delivered such an accessory, and not a very well made solid painted one (Young Rich Toys promises both a bottle and a carton, but I don't think it has yet been released). I substituted a tall glass of milk from something else for some of the photos here.

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Sculpting

Toys Works' The Republican comes with a single head sculpt with a neutral expression. It is not the head sculpt shown in the original promotional materials. But it is a very good one (more accurate and realistic than the different prototype) and the sculpting is exquisite, much more realistic, accurate, and detailed than the pretty soft licensed one. In fact, the Toys Works' head sculpt is the same as the neutral head sculpt included in the Premium Toys and Toys Era sets, except that in those sets there are four additional head sculpts. Toys Works' set is the budget version, so it only gets the one. The five head sculpts in the Premium Toys version are identical to the Toys Era ones in terms of sculpting. Where they differ, minutely, is the paint job and light feature. Is this sculpt a perfect rendition of Antony Starr as Homelander? Probably not. But it seems to be the best one available, more accurate than the more emotive additional versions (in the Premium Toys and Toys Era sets, or the ones by the other companies or their promotional materials).

The Boys: Homelander on a budget (review and comparison info) Rep0410

The other sculpted or molded items include the hand sculpts, the two-part boots, the softer plastic belt, shoulder armor in the shape of stylized eagle heads, and vambraces. All are beautifully and precisely sculpted, and work very well.

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Paint

The paint application is good and nuanced without being perfect. This is all the more noticeable if one compared the Toys Works set with the Premium Toys and Toys Era sets. The higher-end sets have more weathering and shading applied to the sculpted parts of the outfit and greater and even more realistic detail to the painting of the head sculpt. However, in itself, the Toys Work paint job is still pretty good and sufficiently realistic. I am getting a couple of the Premium Toys and Toys Era heads for the better paint job.

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Articulation

I don't know what kind of body Toys Era uses (it is apparently the same as the one used for the Premium Toys set), but it is presumably very well articulated. The knees are double jointed and the elbows seem to be double jointed too. There is swivel and crunch at the waist and neck, good ankle articulation (helped by the two-part boots), and at least potentially good wrist articulation (slightly impeded by the vambraces). It is the rubbery bodysuit that tends to impede or interfere with poseability -- it is often possible to bend the limbs as desired, but they spring back some way under the pull of the bodysuit's material. Nevertheless, with some effort, one could still get plenty of action stances and poses, and even have Homelander sit still for a minute. Apparently, this is still an issue with the Premium Toys version (which uses the same body and same bodysuit), but less so with the Toys Era version (which uses a different body and a different, fabric body suit). The Star Ace rendition used a solid boot, which limited ankle articulation.

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Outfit

Homelander's outfit consists of his bodysuit, fabric American Flag cape, and the soft plastic molded pieces covered under Sculpting above -- the shoulder armor, belt, vambraces, gloved hands, and two-part boots. The bodysuit is made of a rubbery material, which works reasonably well but can interfere with the poseability of the underlying body; there is some padding to enhance the musculature. The bodysuit's blue surface is covered with a tiny eagle pattern in a slightly lighter color. The appearance is reasonably screen accurate, but not quite as striking as in the promotional materials. The same bodysuit, with additional shading, is used for the Premier Toys version. The Toys Era version, however, employs a fabric body suit with enhanced detail, over a different body (with less padding). The Star Ace version was fabric, and had the additional feature of having a functional flap over the chest that could be opened or closed.

While it would have been nice to have a fabric suit with more striking detail, or even a functional flap, the bodysuit looks good enough in itself. It is the cape that is most disappointing. Its colors are overly light, as if sun-bleached, and there is no sufficiently sharp and clean border between the white and red stripes. The blue field is too light, and the white stars do not stand out from it sufficiently well, appearing to be very light blue themselves. It appears that the set I received suffers from this issue even more than others in the Toys Works line. The Premier Toys version uses the same cape, apparently with some of the same color issues, but it is wired, allowing for dynamic posing. The Toys Era version has, unsurprisingly, the best cape, with crisper and cleaner colors and stripes.

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Light Feature

Like Superman, Homelander can shoot laser beams from his eyes and wreak havoc on enemy and innocent bystander alike. Toys Work's head sculpt, and all five of Premium Toys' head sculpts attempt to replicate -- it might be better to write "reference" -- this with a light feature inside the head sculpt. The head pops off the neck with the peg attached to a little lid screwed into the underside of the head. Remove the screws with a tiny screwdriver, and place three LR41 batteries into the opening, then replace and screw in the lid. You have to use your own LR41 batteries (none come provided with the set). The light is activated through pressure, or, as I discovered by accident, if you blow some air at the base of the neck (I will resist making silly jokes). It stays on for maybe 15 seconds, then you have to activate it again. The effect is bright, but difficult to capture well in photos. It is not completely accurate. There are no laser beams, of course, but also one still sees the eye's pupil as a dark dot and the light shows trough the plastic area below the eye, which is simply insufficiently opaque.

The Boys: Homelander on a budget (review and comparison info) Rep1410

Note that in Toys Era's head sculpts (otherwise identical to the Premium Toys ones), which were supposed to be voice-activated according to the promotional materials, work much like some recent Hot Toys releases: their eyes are painted with luminous reflective paint, intended to work with a UV flashlight.

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Fun Factor

With several characters from The Boys released or about to be released from different companies, the fun factor of this set (or any of its variants and counterparts) would only increase in time. The set already looks good, and performs reasonably well, albeit far from perfectly. A less restrictive outfit would have gone a long way to improving this score, as well as a better looking cape; so would a better, more screen-accurate light feature, but that would likely require a specific extra head with eyes painted accordingly. Of course, having five head sculpts instead of one would make for a much more versatile set; that said, the emotive head sculpts are less accurate or realistic.

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Value

Is this set worth the $140 I paid for it? In this day and age, probably yes, considering how inflated prices have become. It is true there are hardly any accessories to speak of, but, the promised milk bottle apart, there really was nothing specific to Homelander that they could have included in the first place. Maybe at least one extra head sculpt? Since I was waiting on another one that I had already ordered, I picked this as the least expensive alternative. And even so, it appears to be better than at least one of the other releases.

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Things to watch out for

Not a thing. Which is a good thing. As always, be considerate with the wrist pegs, and perhaps don't plan on extreme poses overstretching the suit for a long time. But really nothing jumped out at me as a particular cause for concern.

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Overall

If this were the only Homelander I ordered, I might have held out for one of the two higher end variants. Since I was already waiting on one by yet another company, I settled for this in my impatience. Even so, and with various comparative or absolute limitations (number of headsculpts, restrictive/interfering bodysuit), I like it quite well. Getting this, and comparing to its other variants and rival renditions was also an educational experience. While two of the rival renditions are yet to be released (as far as I can tell), one already has a choice between several Homelanders, and I hope this little review helped highlight some of the points of contrast, comparison, and consideration.

Where to Buy

I got mine from GianToy, but they might be out of stock at present. There are plenty on eBay but also check out the usual stores you turn to for sixth-scale collectibles.

For more information on the four currently released versions, you can check out Justin's Collection's reviews, which are the main source for my comparative information:
Star Ace Homelander
Toys Works The Republican
Premium Toys The Hero
Toys Era The Sigma

As always, what do you think?

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Randam Hajile

Randam Hajile
Very nice review with great photos, Ian! Having been overfed with superhero movies, I completely skipped "The Boys", but the figure seems to be a good catch at this low price point.

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Randam Hajile wrote:Very nice review with great photos, Ian! Having been overfed with superhero movies, I completely skipped "The Boys", but the figure seems to be a good catch at this low price point.
Thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yep, the show and the figures are not for everyone, but if you are fed up with superheroes, it might actually be a fun alternative take on them for you. And thanks for noticing, as no comments were hardly incentive for future reviews.

I just hope this and the extra information I turned up while researching, will be useful. The triple whammy of Toys Works-Premium Toys-Toys Era was interesting for me to look into. I have seen others of their products (and have a couple I might review) that do not exist in such parallel versions. Also, even the higher-end brands often have fewer accessories (like the Premium Toys Superman).


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Diana

Diana
Wow, Ian, what a great review again, especially with the added comparison/research. Thank you! Smile

I am surprised at how well the head turned out. I don't remember any heads of his looking that good in any of the previews! Also, the suit with that added sculpting makes this figure really useful as a drawing reference! Very nice. I'm assuming the more flexible and detailed fabric version cancels out some of the body's sculpting, as they do.

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Diana wrote:Wow, Ian, what a great review again, especially with the added comparison/research. Thank you! Smile

I am surprised at how well the head turned out. I don't remember any heads of his looking that good in any of the previews! Also, the suit with that added sculpting makes this figure really useful as a drawing reference! Very nice. I'm assuming the more flexible and detailed fabric version cancels out some of the body's sculpting, as they do.
Thank you very much, Diana, glad you like it and appreciate the comments.
Ideally, I would have had more or all of the versions, and had real side-by-side comparisons.
Yes, I like the head a lot, and look forward to seeing how much better the paint job is on the otherwise identical Premium Toys and Toys Era heads. I will post a photo of that for sure, and maybe a comparison with the Soo Soo rendition, if and when it arrives. I did also pick up one of the smiling Toys Era head sculpts, but it hasn't arrived yet. Remember, you can also pick up the (intermediate quality) Premium Toys version of the five head sculpts on their own.
The body does look great. The fabric suit version (in the Toys Era set) is put on a different (or partly different) body, with different molded muscles (and little or no extra padding, from what I gather from reviews). You can see it in Justin's review here: Toys Era The Sigma. The Star Ace rendition also used a fabric suit and it is the only one that peels open at the front.


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Valiarde

Valiarde
Another good review - but I don't really know the character and have no connection to him.
I like the head.


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GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Valiarde wrote:Another good review - but I don't really know the character and have no connection to him.
I like the head.
I'm glad you do and thank you for the kind words, which are appreciated. Even if you are not familiar with the characters. The Boys can be an entertaining, atypical superhero show.


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Diana

Diana
GubernatorFan wrote:
Diana wrote:...Also, the suit with that added sculpting makes this figure really useful as a drawing reference! Very nice. I'm assuming the more flexible and detailed fabric version cancels out some of the body's sculpting, as they do.
...You can see it in Justin's review here: Toys Era The Sigma.

Oooooh, wow. That video makes the differences very noticeable. Ok, I retract my previous comment. I like the fabric suit better. ^^
But I didn't notice until I saw the video, so it's still a good figure, especially for that price point.

Stryker2012

Stryker2012
Founding Father
Extremely thorough review. I think it looks pretty good for the cost, but the knees are probably the most unsettling to me. The rest looks alright. Don’t have any version of this guy, as I hated the character.


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The Boys: Homelander on a budget (review and comparison info) 1f10

GubernatorFan

GubernatorFan
Founding Father
Diana wrote:Oooooh, wow. That video makes the differences very noticeable. Ok, I retract my previous comment. I like the fabric suit better. ^^
But I didn't notice until I saw the video, so it's still a good figure, especially for that price point.
I myself am divided, both looks working for me in different ways, but think the fabric version will indeed improve articulation, and Justin confirms this. From a drawing perspective, the light bouncing back from the rubbery suit might be a minor plus?

Stryker2012 wrote:Extremely thorough review. I think it looks pretty good for the cost, but the knees are probably the most unsettling to me. The rest looks alright. Don’t have any version of this guy, as I hated the character.
Thank you very much, Mark, I appreciate it. Yes, double-jointed knees leave much to be desired visually, and a skintight bodysuit would not hide that well. From my admittedly limited research, it appears the show has taken some liberties, making Butcher a little more likeable and Homelander more despicable.


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