Action Figure Review: The Clown from Spawn by McFarlane Toys

The Facts:

The Positives:* The headsculpt is excellent and is full of personality. It's not the kind of personality you'd really like to interact with or even be around, but it's personality none the less. The face paint looks fantastic and menacing and his teeth are hideous. The paint is really good on his mouth and teeth as it actually looks "wet" inside there. Gross!
* Rather than just a solid sculpt the Clown's jacket, bandoliers, and belt are additional pieces placed over his main body. They're not removable but they really do a fantastic job of giving the figure a more complex look and feel. Having stuff like this being separate from the main sculpt just makes the figure feel more alive.* The Clown's sporting some seriously detailed jeans. It's tough to see here but the pattern on the denim of his jeans is just eerily realistic. It really does look like worn denim! That's a heck of a paint application for something that seems like a very mundane part of the figure.
* Despite having a physique that doesn't seem like it would lend itself well to articulation, McFarlane really did a pretty nice job of adding in lots of useful articulation here. You're not getting this guy in Spider-Man poses or anything but he has a great range of motion in his legs, shoulders, and head, and a great balljointed waist. He's also designed to be able to move and shift to accommodate the weight of his enormous backpack of weapons with hinged toes and such. 
* The Clown comes with four interchangeable hands: Two right hands in different grips (one for the blades and one for the trigger of the control for his backpack), a left hand fist, and a standard left hand grip. The hands pop off easily and the pegs are incredible sturdy. Consideringing the size of the Clown's meaty paws, is that any surprise, though?
* The Clown comes with some nasty little accessories, one of which is this very cool straight razor. This is a fantastic sculpt and the only thing that could have made it better is if it were actually hinged so the blade could fold out all the way and retract. Still, it's pretty neat and not something you see in action figures too often. Maybe on a couple Joker figures. What's the deal with clowns and razor blades?
* The Clown's second blade is a pretty decent sized knife. It's long, straight, and sharp with a serrated blade and an intricately designed handle with little skulls on it. Custom piece or something that the Clown picked up at the flea market? You tell me!
* The Clown's third accessory is... well, it's larger than him. It's a massive backpack with two humongous guns (which seem to be made up of different guns) and a missile launcher on top. This thing is crazy and has a ton of articulation on its own: Swivel control stick base, swivel/hinge missile launcher, and two arms with swivel hinge shoulders pivots, hinged elbows, and swivel/hinge gun turrets. I guess when the Clown doesn't want to go hand to hand as the Violator he whips these out instead. * Overall the giant gun rig is awesome but the amount of articulation and the weight of the guns themselves does give me some hesitation about the long stability of this piece. the plastic quality is good but I still get the feeling that overtime things might warp. As cool as this piece it still feels very cumbersome and some of the articulation doesn't quite feel like it adds anything to the display of the piece. I would have preferred fewer joints and more stability. 
* While the giant backpack is a big part of the draw of this set the Clown is a major Spawn character and I'm sure there are plenty of collectors who want to display him on his own. Too bad there's no way to cover up the giant slot where the backpack plugs in. It's bright yellow, too, so that makes it very noticeable. A little plug or something to pop in here when the pack isn't in use would have been a nice touch.    The Clown is a very cool figure with some might impressive accessories. I didn't realize that I needed a new action figure of the Clown but now that I have one in hand I'm quite glad that I have him. The Clown himself is amazing while his backpack is incredibly cool but somewhat flawed. You're definitely getting a lot of cool stuff in the package for sure though I wish the engineering on the arms of the gun pack was a little sturdier. Sometimes I still get the feeling that McFarlane products are engineered with the intention that collectors are keeping these sealed in the package. The figure is definitely designed to be posed and reposed, though, and he's a Great figure.