Art Design: Very colorful window box with a painted background and another painting on the back of the box along with a description of the contents.
The Villains Concept: The Villains series by 21st Century Toys (who also made the 12" Ultimate Soldier and America's Finest action figures) was a great idea. Good villains make the diorama, photo-story, or play-action a lot more fun and interesting. However, perhaps the Villains line personalized their villains too much. "Beech and Crossroads" is a good example. Collectors have no idea what the title of this set has to do with anything. It looks like a motorcycle gang's bike & biker. Where is the story that explains the name of this set? Unlike GI Joe, which had comic books, cartoons, animated movies, and even Wrestling (Sgt. Slaughter figure) and NFL Football (Refrigerator Perry figure) tie-ins, the 21st Century Villains had no storyline even on their own website. No Adventure Team-style comic was included with this set.
The Headsculpt: The headsculpt has that "biker" look. It even looks a little bit like Lorenzo Lamas, the star of the old Renegade TV series.
Articulation: The body is the Super Soldier style which I replaced with a Misfits body with black gloved hands. The larger body filled out the jacket better.
The Outfit: A really well-tailored pair of jeans and a vest made from the same material. The figure includes a black t-shirt and a black pleather jacket which I replaced with a camouflage long-sleeve shirt. The biker boots are very accurate but not detailed or painted (like Dragon might have done). A red oil rag, a belt with a skull buckle, sunglasses, and a shotgun are included. The jeans outfit is great, as is the black pleather jacket. The rest of the stuff was recycled from other sets.
The Motorcycle: is excellent! This bike is very detailed. It has some diecast metal parts, and accurate steering of the front wheel. The handle-bars, brake lines, and other details look very accurate; and they are well painted. The bike also has a shotgun rack on the side and working saddlebags. This is a very nice motorcycle, especially for photo-stories or display. This set really should have been promoted better.
Overall: This set was originally $69.99 and was way over-priced. Especially since the actual figure could not have sold seperately for more than $19.99 and there are several other companies selling 1:6 scale motorcycles for $19.99 or less. If this set had originally been $39.99 it probably would have sold very well. Sadly, these sets stayed on the shelves forever until Toys R Us finally marked them down as low as $9.99 at some stores. Finding them now may not be easy except from online dealers or e-bay.
Grade: A
