Cult Vinyl Judge Dredd review

When Dredd 3D came out in the cinemas, one thing that was sadly missing (apart from box office success) was the lack of  merchandise one comes to expect from a comic book movie. But recently, there's been a statue of Karl Urban's Dredd, an unofficial 1/6 scale figure, and now a vinyl figure. Take that, Judge Dredd bubble buddie! There's just one catch...




As you can see through the box window, this figure, from Planet Replicas, is based upon  the live action incarnation of Dredd, so the figure is entirely in flat black, bar the gold badge and red trim on the helmet, and the tampographed armour detail on the body. Looks-wise he's like a Funko Dorb- in that (by the look of the next Cult Vinyl, Brains) the line uses an identikit body with painted on detail, but with a uniquely sculpted head. Stylistically, it reminds me of the Titans figures a bit. Somewhat pinched at the bottom with an inflated head, which I can give or take. The face sculpt- or rather his chin sculpt- makes it look like Dredd is a sulky toddler with no neck and a zit-like chin. Like Donald Trump in cosplay. However, he does, just, pass the profile test.

Chin is almost proud of the visor. It's a pass

 There might not be huge amount of detail to it, but the helmet absolutely looks the part with panel lines for the gold badge and red trim bit that no one knows the name of. The paint job is clean, with the  only issue being a slight glob of skin tone under the chin, which is nothing I would lose sleep over.  I would of really liked it if the visor was done in a gloss black, as a break from all the matt, but this is a fun, little collectible. You can't expect Hot Toys levels of deco for the price asked.

The tampoed on detail, on the body, is smart enough. Representing the body armour quite nicely with sold blocks of grey, with no scuffs or cuts in the print. The only downer is the gold parts of the body. Except they're flat yellow, so they don't match the gold on the helmet badge, and because there's so little space to work with, I can barely see the chest badge, and the shoulder eagle looks like a paint smear at first glance. It also would have been nice to have had the elbow pads printed on. Again to help break up the monotony of all the black.

As you would expect from a vinyl figure, there's not much posability on offer. The head turns 360 degrees, while the arms can rotate to point strait forward or straight back as they cannot point upwards due to the neck brace- which I would of liked to have been part of the body, so it didn't move with the head as you turned it.

For some reason my camera won't zoom in on small items unless it's in my hand. Professional!

Unexpectedly, there is an accessory- the lawgiver! I couldn't see it inside the box but giving Dredd his sidearm is a much welcomed addition. It's pretty well detailed with a decent sculpt and solid panel lines. It fits well in either hand but, due to the way the gap in the hand is designed, it can only be held across the body. Like he's presenting arms, as it were. So the closest thing to a dynamic pose is to turn the head to the side.

The first thing I thought, when looking at it, was, "I bet customisers would want this". So how does it look with some 6" Dredds?

Mezco 1:12 Dredd

3A 1:12 Dredd

Despite the awkward looking handle, it fits pretty well with the Mezco but doesn't quite fit in the hands of the 3A Dredd, unless you want to chance your arm at cutting away the highlighted section. Personally, I think it's a little big for a 6" figure, but if you wanted to make your own custom Urban Dredd, then you might want to get your hands on this figure. And that's where the problem lies.

with the 1:12 3A Dredd

With the Mezco 1:12 scale 

With the Funko blind box

With the Pop Vinyl Dredd

If you want to buy this Dredd figure, you can't. It was a packed in with December's MyGeekBox- as will all future Cult Vinyl figures- so your only way of getting Dredd now is on the secondary market. I asked MyGeekBox what the RRP of a Cult Vinyl was and they said it's £11.99, so use that price as your rule of thumb when searching on ebay. SPOILER ALERT! Not many sellers are, so be careful not get gouged on bad prices and exorbitant postage.

I wasn't immediately wild about the looks at first, and the piffling shoulder eagle still grates (what can I say, I'm one of those Dredd fans) but the overall design has grown on me, and not just because I finally have some figure of the Urban Dredd. I'm interested to see what future characters will get the Cult Vinyl treatment, especially seeing as PR has the Dan Dare license- a Mekon  would be perfect for this line. If you want one, then sign up to MyGeekBox. I've been told they should be packed in on differing months,  which leads to my biggest gripe. If you want future Cult Vinyl figures, then that means paying £17.99 for a mystery box of stuff you probably don't want- such is the nature of these subscription boxes- so you have to ask yourself, do I like these vinyl figures enough to buy another six pounds worth of stuff as well? That's if there's going to be a Cult Vinyl in the box you receive. Not the greatest way to collect a new figure line, is it? But if you're gonna take a gamble on a sentence in the cube (see what I did there?), don't make the same mistake I did by thinking buying one box means one box only. Unless you cancel your subscription, you'll automatically be charged for next months box. Be lucky.

Company: Planet Replicas

RRP: £11.99

Bought from: My GeekBox