This year at New York ToyFair, NJ Croce had a great surprise reveal of their Scooby Doo bendables being offered. These figures are based on the classic Scooby Doo episodes of the 1970’s, and since their debut these characters have become icons for each new generation coming in. The franchise has seen multiple series, spin-offs, direct-to-videos, TV movies, and even theatrical movies since the very first episode aired in 1969, and continues to create new offerings each year. In tribute to how this all started, NJ Croce is offering a line-up of Scooby Doo bendables figures that are offered in multiple offerings, including a box set, single cards, and a Shaggy and Scooby 2-pack. This initial wave includes all of the core Mystery Inc. characters, including Shaggy, Scooby, Fred, Daphne and Velma.
Thank you to NJ Croce for providing their Scooby Doo Bendable Figures for review.
Availability: April/late Spring 2019
The figures are packaged in a window box, that features nicely done artwork inspired by the classic cartoon, including images of the characters on the front and back, and digital markups of the figures on the back.
Interestingly enough, there have never been too many options for Scooby Doo action figures, and even in the 70’s-2000’s, except for recent years has been the only time fans have been able to purchase toys such as these shown here. Sure, there was merchandise, and a lot of it, and this raised over $1 billion in profits for Warner Bros. The surprising thing is that none of it was action figures, and it wasn’t until 2010 or so someone had realized this, which is when Scooby Doo action figures started to show up on store shelves.
This initial wave offers the full line-up of Mystery Inc., all in their classic animated colors and outfits that you should remember from when it was on, or in reruns. Interestingly enough, the style of these characters hasn’t changed that much over time, including the scarf on Daphne, Fred’s orange tie, Velma’s bold glasses, Shaggy’s green shirt and brown pants, and Scooby’s collar. All of the details and animated colors are offered, including their outfits, Shaggy’s long neck, and Daphne’s purple headband. The head sculpts look pretty much spot on to the 70’s series, but for some reason Fred’s likeness isn’t quite there with the eye balls looking down, and Velme is missing her freckles. Since these are bendables, they can only do just that, and posing them in a running or sitting position isn’t an option here. Standing Daphne and Velma on those feet can also be a challenge at times, and it would have been nice to have figure stands so they don’t keep falling over. Even with that, the likenesses and animated likeness makes up for some of these issues.
Since there are no villains offered in this wave, you’re going to have to be a bit creative, and we found that NECA’s Toony Terrors work great with these, as well as previous offerings from NJ Croce such as DC villains (the Panda is from the Suicide Squad line), and similar offerings. A figure stand would have been great to have to help pose them in a running position, as you can easily picture in your mind the Scooby gang running from Pennywise and frightening villains like them. Scooby is easier to pose in a running position because of all of his legs, and what is also nice is that his tail can bend to create some nice poses.
Overall, the Scooby Doo bendables are excellent figures and these are surely something you would want to pick up. They work best for 5″ scale figures, and make a great addition to your toy shelf. We’re hoping that villains are coming soon, also based on the classic series. It’s unlikely that NJ Croce would offer additional characters from all of the series and movies that have aired, but if they did we would love to see Scrappy Doo, characters from the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo (1985), the Boo Brothers (1987 – Scooby Too Meets the Boo Brothers), and others would all be fun to own in this line.
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