Many years ago, at age seven or eight, I was reading through the only comic I read at the time, Marvel UK's Transformers, when I turned onto a page advertising a new comic. It depicted a Superman-like character with a T-rex's head, and he had a massive hole blown through his torso. Opposite Super Rex stood, what looked like, a leather bound, German prison guard aiming two massive guns. Long after I had finished reading the 107th variation of good robots punching bad robots I would go back to that advert and pour over the artwork from Kevin O'Neill over and over again. I had never seen anything like it. "They must have to lock this guy up at night" I thought to myself as I obsessed the tiny details O'Neill would include on his art, right down to the puns scribbled on guns and bits of the background. A year later- thanks to a randomly bought issue of fantazia- I would find out the fascistic cop was the (anti)hero of this unknown comic strip, his name was Marshal Law and he hunted super heroes. Having eventually read Pat Mill's scathing satire of the super hero genre (Law is cited as a huge influence on Garth Ennis' The Boys) the last thing I expected to ever see was a figure of Law himself, but Unbox Industries - who made the Zombo figure I reviewed at before- have only gone and produced a vinyl figure of San Futero's top hero hunter. If only he could find some.
The moment I pulled the tray out of the box I was blown away by the sculpt and paint job. There's a big trend lately for figures and statues based on the style of comic artists, and the results are hit and miss. Even with an established manufacturer and great sculptors, sometimes you just can't translate a piece of two-dimensional art into the 3D. Some artist's work can be too idiosyncratic to capture as a figure, which I had feared, But that's not the case here. Kevin O'Neill's distinctive style has been adapted exceptionally. Just like that original advert, I spent ages just to take in how brilliant the figure looked. Those hard eyes, glaring out from behind the mask with all it's zipper detail is right out of the comic. And absolutely fantastic sculpt. Something I love about the art in the comic are the bizarre little details, and this figure captures this, along with the distinctly angular nature of O'Neill's art so well. Essentially, the good/bad Marshal is a ultra violent policeman dressed up as a S&M nazi, the imagery of which is brought across with the subtlety of a bulldozer (could you tell Pat Mills doesn't like superheroes?): the bullets in hat brim, the chain wrapped around the gloves, the barbed wire, the super hero mask kept on the belt as a trophy, all the zips and ring pulls are all so wonderfully done. The wrinkles and creases all over the body suit really captures O'Neill's style so well. Even O'Neill's penchant for hiding little written gags throughout his art is referenced with "looking for trouble" carved into his sidearm.
All this sculpted detail is made even better by the strong paint apps. Apart from a scuff of silver paint on a belt pouch, the paint has been expertly applied from the black wash over the whole body, to the zip rings and the subtle flesh-shading on the right arm and the barbed wire wraped around it (which puts an end to that fan argument). As well as the clean pin-striping on the uniform proving this figure's description as a high end collectible. While taking photos, I just noticed an extra detail- the embossed "liberty" on the sleeve has a trigger on the "L" making it look like a gun. That level of detail just makes me love this figure all the more, even if it was completely static- as most vinyl figures are- this was still be a stunner of a figure. Except it isn't static.
By the standards of your average vinyl figure, the articulation on Marshal Law is pretty good, eventually. I read the figure had eight points of articulation (I even checked with Unbox Industries to be sure) but all the parts were stuck tight. I had to gently warm them up with a hairdryer, to soften the plastic then let cool down in the hope the sockets expanded. I had to do multiple courses of heating up and cooling to get all the parts moving, and honestly, I'm not sure if it's really worth it. Especially trying to get the head to turn, which dig right into your hand as you try to force it due to the sharp corners on the hat. But after enough heating courses, the head does give in and will turn slightly left or right. It may very well turn further but I'd spent so long on getting it to just move at all, I'm fine with a slight turn. Both arms can turn forward or backward facing at the shoulder only. The torso restricts complete arm turning but you can get a gun pointed straight at you and the baton raised above his head, and both hands rotate at the wrist. The waist rotates completely which, obviously isn't necessary but can give the figure a slight walking pose when combined with the boot-cuts which also rotate completely just below the knee. Not exactly a stellar amount of articulation but for a vinyl figure it's quite possible, but I imagine most would be happy with the basic stance it comes in out of the box.
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| "Hey! Teacher! Leave those ki- oh, sorry. Wrong metaphor for facism there. |
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| Slight turn of the waist and boots and it's almost a stepping pose |
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| Is it me, or does this look like a sad face? |
Something you don't often get with vinyl figures is accessories but you do here, which is nice. You get two alternate hands: an open right hand, which is exactly like the open left hand the figure has fitted on already. The other is a (sort of) gripping hand which is made to hold the third accessory, a police baton. The baton is painted in a dark gunmetal and is meant to be held in the gripping hand- which is just about does. It does hold, due to the grooves in the handle, but it is a loose grip, so I'm not overly confident it wont go missing if the figure falls or moved about too much. Also, something that blights all vinyl toys, is that it's warped, so despite being painted to look like a metal bludgeoning tool, instead it resembles those novelty inflatables you get down the seaside (while Kiloton gets himself some candyfloss). Personally I would've preferred it if the baton, like the sidearm, was sculpted into the hand as there's nothing else for it to hold and might have made it more rigid. Or better yet, a second, larger gun because the sidearm is all well and good but a little lacking in the typical firepower Marshal wields in the comic.
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| Only a fiver from down the end of the pier! |
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| "You get back here, Top Cat!" |
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| Size comparison with Unbox Industries Zombo figure |
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| Next to Play Arts Kai Solid Snake |
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| Next to Mezco 1:12 Judge Dredd |
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| Next to Neca police assault Terminator |
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| Next to Super 7's vintage filmation he-Man |
On looks alone this figure is an absolute winner. The sculpt is superb and exceeded my expectations with a paint job to match. Even with the limited articulation, the pose suits the character down to a tee- even though leaving him as is might be because you can't actually move the parts in the first place. It should also be noted that the figure is rather hollow, mening it's easy to tip over so consider that should you want to display this on a high shelf. Another thing to consider is the price. 95 Dollars (£73.45 at time of writing) for a vinyl figure is a big ask for any Marshal Law fan. Personally, I had to really weigh up the cost and ponder how annoyed would I be if I missed out on the one chance of getting a Marshal Law figure- seeing as characters like this usually end up being sold as super expensive statues. It's not like I always have 74 quid burning a hole in my pocket every day (or month for that matter) but this figure looks so good, I don't feel ripped off. In fact, if Unbox did more characters from the comic, like Suicida (please do that), I would buy it as the shipping to the UK was a reasonable eighteen dollars and luckily avoided getting flagged for import tax. And, because Pat Mills and Kev O'Neill own the rights to the character, they both get a royalty, so you're not just a comic book geek. You're also a patron of the arts! Try getting all that out of a lego mini-figure.
Company: Unbox Industries
Price paid: £73.45
Bought from: Unbox Industries web store
Age: 15+
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