Nostalgia plays a big part in a lot of the toys I buy, I know this. But nothing made it as clear to me as the sharp desire I had to buy an action figure of a cereal mascot that appeared on so many TV ads when I was younger. That’s right Tony the Tiger is now a highly articulated 1:12 scale action figure and i have it in hand.
Product Description
This Tony the Tiger 6-inch scale action figure is GRRREAT! Bring the iconic mascot of breakfast champions to your collection with the Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes Tony the Tiger 1:12 scale action figure by Jada Toys! This highly detailed collectible captures the larger-than-life personality of Tony the Tiger, the beloved cereal icon who has been inspiring generations with his great attitude and unstoppable energy.
Ingredients
Inside this package (I’ll come back to the actual box) you get the Tony action figure, 7 hands, a scale appropriate cereal box, bowl of cereal, basketball and spinning effect.
The selection of hands is nice and varied and work perfectly with the other accessories. You have two pointing fingers but one has a peg on the end that allows you to plug in the basketball. An open palm hand also has a peg to hold either the ball or the bowl. The spoon holding hand comes with the spoon in place but it can be twisted as needed.
The cereal box is surprisingly good. Printed on 4 sides in quite a high level of detail. Up close you can see the print is not perfectly clean but to the naked eye it’s pretty perfect.
The basketball is simple (it has no paint) but satisfactory and the spinning effect helps bring it to life.
Its worth also quickly mentioning the packaging in a bit more detail, even though I always free my figures from their cardboard prisons and usually bin the box.
It has an opening flap that is magnetised where you can see the figure, but aside from that its a mock up of a Frosted Flakes box, right down to the nutritional info style text box describing the figure rather than food. I liked that a lot…
Nutritional information
Perhaps surprisingly, this offering from Jada is not just empty calories, their is real substance here.
The sculpt is genuinely exceptional and the proportions are just what you would hope for. Tony is a big solid, top heavy recreation of the Kelloggs mascot.
His orange is vibrant and brought to life with painted highlights all over, not just on the head and hands (looking at you Hasbro) and the white is clean. The fine details are not perfect, I can see some slight imperfections on the face and on some of the black stripes, but for a figure in the £25-£30 price range, I’m not complaining.
On top of that he has a soft goods neckerchief and whiskers that are a soft plastic that don’t feel like they will break off.
Articulation wise I was also impressed. His torso and waist have amazing range. His arms look a bit funny when straight but I can see why they made that part so thin. It allows a bit more range when bending the elbows. The head and legs are most limited but I didn’t have any trouble getting Tony to stand.
Contains traces of … Buts
All good so far, but there must be some flaws? Well I already mentioned some sloppy paint work in the fine details and the fact the head movement is limited. But aside from that I have just two issues.
I would have liked another head, but for a corporation mascot I understand why we don’t get say, an angry or unhappy face. Still an option to vary the expression would have been cool.
Also, my figure had a few chips on the paint work, most notably in the cereal holding hand.
None of these really detracted from my enjoyment of the figure though.
Serving Suggestion
Tony is a solid feeling figure and is quite a big chap at just over 6 inches. It means he looks quite tall next to other 1:12 scale figures and his cereal box is definitely a bit too big at that scale. I don’t really find that to be a problem but some of you might.
Breakfast is Served
This is a weird figure to recommend, I never crossed my mind that I might want a figure based on a cereal mascot. But when I saw the preorder pictures it just brought a huge smile to my face. And that smile came back when I got the figure in hand.
Jada Toys are doing some amazing work right now in this price range (£25-£30). Their Street Fighter figures are superb and this may even top them, I’m sure this is a super niche item though and it won’t be for everyone. But if you just like good action figures for a good price and you have any affection for this corporate cartoon cereal salesman then you will not be disappointed with this, I would even say… It’s Grrrreat!
Second Helpings
A few bonus pictures for you.
FREETHEFIGURES 