The Walking Dead Andrea figure review
Generally, I’ve preferred the treatment of the characters of The Walking Dead TV show to their comic book counterparts. Still, I continue to be amazed at how the show managed to botch Andrea, one of the more endearing characters in the comic on the show.
The bad a$$ sharpshooter in the comics was reduced to an audience loathed conflicted pawn in the middle of The Governor’s war with Rick Grimes and his crew on the show.
Regardless of your feelings of her, McFarlane Toys released Andrea in her Woodbury glory days and it’s a pretty solid figure of one of the more polarizing show characters.
Packaging: Nothing all that different than what we’ve come to expect from the line. Slender packaging with very little wasted space, a picture of the actress and a back portrait with the rest of the wave and accessory break down.
I actually prefer this yearbook style presentation to the wave portrait McFarlane Toys has done in more recent series with one large picture of the figures and little personalization.
Likeness: Considering the smaller scale of this line, Andrea’s head sculpt is a terrific likeness to actress Laurie Holden. The sculptors nailed the prominent features like her wider nose and mouth as well as the flow of her hair when pulled back into a ponytail.
Andrea was one of the figures that made me start to take a second look at this line as McFarlane Toys sculptors really began showing improvement at this point.
Paint: The likeness is impressive at this 5″ scale, but the paint job is equally noteworthy. Everywhere from the more noticeable details like the wash on the vest lining to the tiny bits like the vest zipper, the paint work is really strong.
Andrea’s white shirt probably has a heavier coating of a grey wash than necessary, but it definitely brings the sculpted details out. There was a slight overspray of the white of the shirt onto Andrea’s neck area, but it’s mostly obscured by her head and looks more like a shadow unless you’re looking really close-up at the figure.
Scale: Andrea comes out a bit on the slight side, just a tad smaller than she should be, but compared to the male figures, she looks more teenager-sized than adult woman.
Articulation: This line has made some dramatic improvements on the likeness and an improved articulation scheme, but it’s still not at the levels you’d want for a line that needs superior articulation to fully take advantage of the license.
Andrea has:
- ball neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- elbow
- wrist
- swivel hips
- knee
- boot
That’s not bad, but the range of movement with the elbows and knees isn’t as deep as needed to hit some really dynamic poses. Additionally, like the rest of the line, Andrea really would benefit from waist articulation to help with posing.
Accessories: Andrea comes with a nice supply of accessories. Since it’s removable, I’m counting the vest although I doubt I’ll take it off again.
She also comes with the same rifle we’ve seen with the Series 9 Dale albeit with a spiffy paint job to give it a slick wooden material appearance.
Like Dale, holding the rifle is more of a challenge than I’d like and it’s too awkward to have her do more than hold it in one hand let alone attempting a shooting pose. The shoulder strap is a little too hard so it has a nasty habit of sliding down to her elbow. It would have been nice if the vest collar had enough of a cut to allow the strap to slide under it.
Andrea’s pistol fares slightly better in the sense that she can hold it in her hand with some effort. You won’t be able to get the trigger finger in the trigger area without heating up the hand, which is frustrating. On the plus side, the pistol fits smoothly into the working holster.
Ironically, the pitchfork is the accessory Andrea has the easiest time holding and it works easily in either hand.
Worth it? As an older figure in the line, Andrea can be found at a decent price at the right retailer. At $15, the line is higher than I’d like, but the $10-$13 price range is a better deal. You can pick her up for under $10 now, which is a great price.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Small stature and mostly useless weapons aside, I really liked this figure … probably more than the character on the show.
Where to get it? Online is pretty much the best way to go at this point. Lyles Movie Files’ affiliate partner Amazon.com has the figure currently for $9.44: McFarlane Toys The Walking Dead TV Series 4 Andrea Action Figure
Check out some other Walking Dead figures including Andrea’s Woodbury squeeze The Governor: McFarlane Toys The Walking Dead TV Series 4 The Governor Action Figure
McFarlane Toys The Walking Dead TV Series 7 Gareth Action Figure
