I want to start by saying that the premise behind the I Am Elemental Figures is awesome. They’re a series of action figures designed to encourage girls to aspire to a healthy, realistic body type; feel good about themselves based on what’s on the inside and not the outside, and to teach the values each figures is named for. It’s awesome. I’ll talk more about that in A Call to Action (Figures) later this week.
Punching the Patriarchy in the face…
…with Persistence.
With that being said, let’s get to the figure itself.
The individual figure comes in a mystery bag (though I bought the one I wanted off Amazon because being an adult means getting the toys that I want), which is a play I’ve seen Funko and NECA make with keychains and tiny mystery figures. I’d bet that this was a marketing move, trying to nudge buyers toward buying the $65 lunchbox set with all seven figures, or get people to have to buy more than seven figures to get a whole set if they’re buying individually.
I question the logic of bagging the figures. What the blister card and window box packages do is encourage impulse buys by letting potential customers see the figure. I think it’ll be harder to get impulse buys without the purchaser seeing the figure first, though I haven’t seen these in any stores. My guess is the bag was a cost-reducing call, and I’d bet more than a few dollars that the creator’s really thought this through before making the choice.
On a sidenote, the disclaimed on the bottom of the bag, “Warning: Too Powerful for Children Under 4” is all kinds of amazing. The pictures look good too.
The accessories are up and down as well. The bag says that the figure comes with “2 Powerful Accessories,” and they must be counting Persistence’s cape, which won’t come off unless I pop her head off.
The shield is very cool, though. Apparently it’s also designed to be a charm on a bracelet that comes with the lunchbox set, which is freaking awesome. The figure also comes with two trading cards with a little bio and a drawstring bag to keep the figure in, which is a nice inclusion for parents trying to keep their homes clean.
The figure itself moves very well. It’s got:
- swivel/hinge shoulders
- swivel/hinge elbows
- ball joint hips
- swivel/hinge knees
That’s only nine points of articulation, but they’re put in smart places, so the figure still has a lot of flexibility. I think Marvel Universe/Infinite look a little strange with the double knees and the chest joint, so I’m glad this figure doesn’t have them.
The less pronounced joints also enhance what I think is the best part of the figure: the sculpt. Persistence looks like an actual woman. She doesn’t have the ridiculous skinny legs and heavy hair that some of the more obnoxious 3 and ¾ inch figures have (Sorry, Marvel. I love you, but you are terrible about this). That means Persistence can actually balance quickly, and be posed with the same ease as figures without ridiculous proportions.
The paint is very cool as well. It’s a simple color design, but the cartoonish pink, gray, and blue works extremely well because of the quality of execution. I’ll take well-executed simplicity over poor quality control on a detailed design any day.
I highly recommend picking one of these figures up, if not the whole set. I would have, but I am a poor writer, and couldn’t afford it. Buy them for your friends too! It’s a high-quality figure that is striving to make gender equality a reality. If that’s not worth $10, then nothing is.
You can get I Am Elemental action figures for $10.99 from Amazon, though they’re out of Persistence. If that’s too steep, you can always head on over to eBay and search for the I Am Elemental action figures.
