Never in my life did I expect to purchase a piece of Crash Bandicoot merchandise—but that expectation was shattered when First4Figures announced their Activision licenses and started showing off their masterpieces. While the first resin Crash and Spyro statues won’t be arriving until next year, the PVC Crash Bandicoot Exclusive Edition went up for sale in the summer and is starting to arrive now. Is the Crash PVC up to the usual F4F standards? Read on for my review…
The Right:
After the successful launch of the new First 4 Figures PVC line earlier in the year with the Zelda Breath of the Wild Link Statue, F4F was ready to forge ahead with their next headliner character getting his due in PVC form: Crash Bandicoot.
And unlike Link, an exclusive edition Crash Bandicoot was created to be sold through the F4F website (where he’s currently on Wait List—get on the list now if you want one)! What does this first PVC Exclusive bring to the table? Let’s take a look…
The box that arrived on my doorstep this afternoon was much like every other F4F box that I’ve received this year, which is fine by me—the sight of these First4Figure logo shipper boxes always brings a smile to my face (although the courier tried to shame me, sarcastically saying “Crash Bandicoot? That’s kid stuff!“, clearly not realizing that when it comes to collecting, I know no shame).
I thought the shipping box seemed a little big, but that is of course because there’s a second brown box inside of it, protected by the beloved PVC corners.
It probably wasn’t necessary to add the extra artwork to the sides of the inner shipping box of this piece, but as usual, First 4 Figures believe in going all-out with little touches, and the attention to detail impresses (as always).
And inside of that box is another box—the faux-“crate” packaging which is what makes the exclusive version of this Crash Bandicoot Statue special!
The graphics on the Crash EX box look absolutely fantastic, with a great wooden texture across the entire box, as well as Aku Aku Masks on the sides, a Crash Bandicoot logo on the front and an image of the statue on the back.
As far as style goes, this box has it in spades and is a real treasure. Many collectors would balk about the “exclusive” part of a statue being the packaging, but when the packaging is this good, it’s tough to be a Scrooge.
The “crate” is held closed magnetically, but the flap can be folded open to show off the interior of the box, including the authentication card (two cards if you ordered on Day One!) and yet another box (covered in tissue paper) that the actual Crash Bandicoot figure is within.
The art cards look wonderful as always, and I can always use more Alex Davis autographs in my collection. I got two art cards since I ordered on Day One, while later orders won’t come with the autographed card.
I also got my first bonus “Day One” sticker, as Crash is the first First 4 Figures statue I ordered during a Day One event to arrive (Link on the King of Red Lions had a “Zero Hour” sticker, of course).
The innermost box containing the actual Crash statue is the same as the box that the regular version ships in.
I really like the Aku Aku Mask on the top of the box, where the Sheikah eye was on the BOTW Link statue.
While it’s not “exclusive” this box is covered in colorful graphics and is pretty beautiful in its own right.
Of course, there’s also a statue that I’m reviewing here today and not just packaging (as stupendous as that packaging may be). And that statue? It’s also pretty rockin’.
First off, let’s talk size. While this F4F Crash Statue is retailing for less than a quarter of the cost of typical First4Figures resin statues these days, that definitely doesn’t mean it’s puny. In fact, the Crash statue is about 9” tall, and doesn’t look out of place at all next to my Link on Epona Statue!
PVC Crash Bandicoot also has a lot of heft to him—he doesn’t feel hollow like a lot of PVCs out there, such as a lot of Kotobukiya figures I have.
From a sculpting perspective, this figure is positively bursting with personality. The spiky hairs on his head, the wacky tongue protruding from his mouth, the crazed eyes—I daresay that this is one of the most expressive sculptures that F4F has ever released.
Although Crash Bandicoot has never had the most detailed character design around, First 4 Figures really managed to capture every possible detail on this piece. From the subtle fur texture on his back to the creases in his shorts to the bumps of his eyebrows, the sculpting detail on this statue is unquestionably top-notch.
The paints chosen for this piece are eye-poppingly colorful, and I love the bright, cheerful color scheme on Crash. Combined with the animated sculpt, the Crash PVC statue is a real attention-grabber—even in a display with larger and much more expensive pieces.
The circular black logo base for the statue is simple, yet elegant. The logo keeps it from being too plain, but at the same time the base is still simple enough to not draw attention from the actual sculpture at all. The black is also a great complement to even out the otherwise super-bright palette of Crash Bandicoot.
Because I bought the exclusive version, the bottom of the base is numbered (I got #726 of 1450) and has little black riser dots on the bottom to keep the number from being rubbed off.
There was also a little brochure packed in with the statue, which gave 500 F4F Reward Points and featured silhouettes for the Spyro statue and the upcoming resin Crash Bandicoot statue. It’s a cool insert, but it’s tough to match the unbridled excitement over Rider Link and the Sheikah Slate being announced within BOTW Link’s brochure.
The Wrong:
Ordinarily I find little or nothing to gripe about when I’m reviewing a First 4 Figures Statue of any kind. The Crash PVC figure falls into the “little” category.
The only thing I don’t really like about the sculpt on this figure is that there’s one very obvious and distracting seam line running from the middle of the right side of his mouth to his armpit. It sticks out enough that I know my OCD won’t allow me to ever display the figure from this angle.
Whereas I found the Breath of the Wild Link PVC statue I reviewed in the spring to be near-perfect as far as paint deco goes, my copy of the Crash Bandicoot PVC falls just a little bit further from the proverbial bullseye of perfection.
First thing I noticed about Crash’s base as I pulled him out of his packaging was little discoloration spots in front of his shoes. They’re not big, but because the base is black, they stick out. I tried wiping them off with hot water, but to no avail—the little spots are here to stay.
There’s various other minor paint imperfections on my Crash EX as well: various places where the red and white paint bleed on each other on his shoes, a paint scratch on his right glove, the aforementioned ugly seam line on Crash’s right side, some inconsistent paint lining on his teeth where the paint went outside the lines a bit.
I would never expect a $100 PVC figure to have paints apps on par with a $300-$500 statue, but I was surprised that the paint apps here just weren’t quite as exceptional as they were on BOTW Link.
Overall: If I were grading the F4F Crash Bandicoot Exclusive Edition PVC solely based on packaging (which is some of the best I’ve ever seen for a statue) and sculpting, he’d be an ‘A+’ easily. However, I’ve got to factor in the minor paint inconsistencies and the seam on his right side, which bring him down a notch.
Even so, I think this is a fantastic PVC Crash Bandicoot figure for the price-tag, with some of the best presentation I’ve ever seen from a statue company packaging-wise. This figure is both fun and fantastic-looking—he’s just not quite at the level of perfect that I’m used to from resin First4Figures statues and the previously released Link PVC. If you like Crash, however, this is easily the best piece of merchandise for the character that’s ever been released to date. Highly recommended.