Toy Review: Zombie Kong

4D Master
Zombie Kong

Someone once pointed out to me that my buying habits are skewed towards the way Americans shop. Pinoys, will usually target one toy when they set out to do some toy hunting. They will seek out that toy, and failing to procure it, they will go home, perhaps frustrated, but with that money still in their pocket.

I can’t do that.

What usually happens is I’ll target something (in this particular case, the last wave of the Iron Man 2 figures), and failing to find it, will shop around until I find something that doesn’t necessarily fit into my collection, but looks pretty cool and will allow me to rid myself of the cash that is burning its way through my pocket.

This is exactly how I got the Chap Mei figures, the Ghost Brigade, April O’Neil, the T-1, Bulma, my squad of Cybertron Seekers and dozens of others. I don’t normally regret getting any of these since they’re pretty cheap, and have a high fun vs. cost ratio. This time was no different.

This little bad boy is Zombie Kong.

That’s right. ZOMBIE. KONG.

The name alone is enough to satisfy me that the Php 200.00 (around $4.50 US) I spent on it wasn’t wasted. It’s part of the product catalog of Fame Master, another toy outfit out of Hong Kong. They make the 4D Master line, which features different figurines and models that are broken up into pieces and require assembly. Zombie Kong here is from a sub-line that is sold in trading boxes like Japanese gashapons called “Mons Wars”.

It’s an awful name, I know.

Awful name or not, it’s a pretty decent toy. Like the rest of the 4D Master line, the figurine comes packaged in pieces which you need to assemble. No tools are required. There’s a runner that has several tiny pairs of balls attached by a bar which you use to connect pieces of the body together. It’s a chore pushing those little ball joint connectors into place, but the end result is a figure with several joints with some excellent range.

He certainly could have benefitted from elbow and wrists joints, but you can’t expect the world for Php 200. As it is, he’s got a neck, shoulders, and hips. The fab five. The joints are technically ball joints, but the clearance issues due to sculpt limit them to little more than swivels.

But the sculpt makes up for the lack of articulation. Apparently, the 4 “D”s in 4D Masters are height, length, width, and detail. Ah, Engrish. Ain’t it something?

This little guy certainly has a lot of detail. I’m not sure if he’s really a “zombie”. He does have some bones poking through and some brainage on display on the top there, but with the huge green eyeballs growing out of the bubbling exposed flesh, he looks a lot more like an unfortunate mutant. Either way, it’s a cool looking thing.

There are some paint issues on mine. There’s some spillage of the pink where it’s washed into the black parts. The worst is underneath his intestines where the pink’s dripped onto the fur of his crotch. I figure it’s ok, since it just looks like internal juices pooling there. I’m sure it’s an easy fix, and again, it’s Php 200.00.

I do wonder why the face comes assembled already. Kind of took some of the fun out of it.

Whatever. The wickedness of this little figurine has convinced me to go out and get the other 3 figures in the line; 2 dragons Ancalagon and Galegon, and Cyborgic-Rex. I may have a harder time getting an Ancalagon as he was partnered in boxes with Zombie Kong and this was the last piece I saw in Toy Kingdom Megamall. I’ll probably either have to expand my search perimeter, or just try and order it direct from China…

Probably not the later, since there’s so much stuff that looks interesting on their site (dragons, military figures, dioramas, etc.) that I might get tempted into getting other figures as well.

If you have kids, though, you might consider getting them hooked on this line instead of Transformers or GI Joe. There’s a lot of great stuff on their site that can get kids’ imaginations going and also stuff that can get them interested in science, history, biology. Sometimes I worry that kids these days could use more of that kind of stuff.