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The PopCult Toybox
In the bizarre clustermess that was the year of our lord, 2020, I have to admit, “Dollar Tree releases an exclusive, original, high-quality collectible action figure line” was not on my Bingo card.
Because of the pandemic and your PopCulteer’s seriously-curtailed toy hunting activities, I didn’t even know about this line until a few weeks ago. There was no advance word. This line just showed up in November in some Dollar Tree stores, and was available nationwide (and online) by early January.
Final Faction is a line of Science-Fiction, alien-fighting action figures in the popular 1/18 (roughly four-inches tall) scale. Most of the figures have five points of articulation. Most come with at least one accessory. The paint detail is above-average. There is a backstory and accompanying nine-minute CGI cartoon on YouTube, and most importantly…they only cost a dollar each!
For a mere buck, you get a hell of a lot. Quality-wise, the figures are just a notch below ReAction’s line of licensed five-point figures, but those sell for fifteen to twenty times as much. If you are a 1/18 scale hobbyist, these figures are great customizing fodder. At this price you can try all sorts of things–from total repaints to attempting to add joints.
The backing cards are printed in full color on both sides and include Power Ratings and a bio for each character, along with this intro to the series…
In the year 2050, a large asteroid collided with our moon. Among the debris, we discovered a hibernating alien mothership. Now, the Kharn are awake and they want to plunder our precious natural resources. So, we recruited teams of special operatives to defend Earth from their alien threat.
They are the…
FINAL FACTION!
There you go. A cool space-opera premise with well-sculpted figures that sport decent (if limited) paint detail, and a computer-animated short. And they cost a buck apiece. You can collect the entire first series of figures for eight bucks (fourteen dollars if you buy all six extra accessory packs). For less than the price of one ReAction figure, you can own the entire line (if you can find them–in some stores the aliens and the robot are sold out).
Let’s take a look at that cartoon…
After the jump, I’ll bring you a detailed photo essay of the Final Faction figures.
The “good guys” of the line are Alpha Team 1, lead by Master Sergeant Steadfast.
His backstory…
The A.C.R.M. is a breakthrough in virtual reality tech with a helmet and special suit allowing piloting of the mech via a modular system.
The A.C.R.M. is currently piloted by Boyd, a 15-year-old disabled boy.
This mech is adaptable and aids in all combat and rescue missions.
The website also mentions Steadfast’s pet dog, who has a mech suit, but they didn’t include a figure in the first series. He is pictured in the graphic for the second series, which you can see earlier in this post.
The Bad Guys
The KHARN are the evil space Republicans trying to plunder our natural resources. The figures are notable for not being too derivitive of existing alien designs. They are considerably heavier, made with huge chunks of solid plastic. These guys are also good “troop builders” and that, combined with the low price, might explain why I didn’t see any when I finally did venture out to a Dollar Tree yesterday.
Except for one of them, they sport the same articulation and assembly configuration as the Alpha team, despite their excess bulk. Two of them come with an accessory. All of the figures have some paint details.
They are…
Hive Class Synthoid
Okay, first, yes I think it’s funny that this alien’s name is one letter off from a popular thyroid medicine, aside from that, this is the oddball of the whole line. He is a hefty sumbitch, with the head and torso combined, so that he has one less body piece. However, his body is so bulky that it takes three screws to hold his torso together. This is the only figure in the line that is not sold with an accessory.
His arms plug in and out very easily, which is on purpose. He has a dedicated accessory kit that includes extra limbs. He comes with one blade-like arm and one regular arm. The accessory set includes the opposite limbs as blades or a regular arm, and one extra set of blades molded in a different color.
He looks sort of like if H.R. Giger designed ED-209 from Robocop.
This is Synthoid with his extra arm from his accessory pack. I think it looks better than the blade, which you can see above.Here is the big fella in his package.
Synthoids are used in all Kharn operations and are not to be underestimated. They have very advanced technology, a synthetic biology, and are highly intelligent.
Hive Class Brute
This is just a great monster alien, big, bulky and scary-looking. He has five points of articulation and comes with a blaster. Paint detail is on his head and the front of his torso. This is a very impressive sculpt.
“Dude, do you really gotta get that close?”The fearsome alien with his giant dildo ocarina.Here’s he is, hanging out behind his package.
The Kharn Brute Class specializes in power and destruction. They have very low intelligence and are controlled by a commander. Their skin is nearly impenetrable and it’s hard to take them down.
Hive Class Drone
Another impressive sculpt, the Drone sports paint on his torso, legs and head, and he comes with a bright blue blaster.
The Kharn Drone Class is a basic grunt used for combat and labor operations. Not highly intelligent, but able to accomplish mission tasks.
There are also six accessory sets, three for the Alpha Team and three for the KHARN.
For the good guys, you get AIR ASSAULT, a variety of jet packs and anti-gravity devices; COVERT OPS, for steath missions this set includes a drone, a hoverboard and a variety of small arms; HEAVY ARMS, is a collection of space blasters and laser rifles, for when they need the heavy artillary.
The bad guys have SHOCK ARMS, a collection of three blasters; QUAKE ARMS, two weapons that plug into the backs of Brute and Drone, plus a blaster; SYNTHOID gets a unique accessory set with replacement limbs. The figure looks best with the regular arm from this set attached.
To sum things up, this is an incredible value. Any fan of space toys, 1/18 acion figures or just cool cheap stuff in general should seek these out. I do have one other strange observation: While each figure and package is stamped with “Greenbrier International, Inc.” (that’s Dollar Tree’s corporate name), there are no copyright or trademark symbols on the figures, packaging, or cartoon. I guess they didn’t see any reason to go to the expense, since it’s not like anybody is going to produce a knockoff and sell them any cheaper.
Final Faction is exclusive to Dollar Tree, but Dollar Tree owns Family Dollar, so I wouldn’t be shocked to see these turn up there, too.
This makes me really eager to see if Dollar Tree and FourStarEntertainment Group might team up for more action figure lines in the future, perhaps superheroes or cowboys or ancient Egyptians…or a combination of the three.
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