This article will be the first of two articles that review a Falco figure and in the next review I will compare the two figures and discuss what each one offers.  It has been far too long since the last World of Nintendo review (it took a really long time for any stores to stock the newest waves near me sadly) and Falco has been one of my most anticipated World of Nintendo figures so I am excited to bring you this review.

Articulation – Falco comes with 13 points of articulation which is pretty standard when it comes to World of Nintendo 4″ figures.  The first thing I noticed when I opened him is that he has much tighter joints than the Fox McCloud I reviewed a while back.  That makes posing easier and is much appreciated.  Most of the articulation you would expect such as shoulders that rotate and knees and elbows which bend a decent amount.  Falco can move his tail up or down like Fox can as well.  The two parts of articulation that are perhaps the most interesting is his head/neck which can rotate a little to the left and to the right, but not a ton because of his collar sticking up and Falco’s “feather hands” are more or less stuck in the position they are.  While this is common with most World of Nintendo figures, it is noticeable in several of the the pictures I took.  Obviously, we can’t expect swappable hands with World of Nintendo, but figures like this show why it is so nice to have that option.  Ultimately, you can do some decent poses with Falco and he is fun to pose alongside Fox, but even with good articulation, the simplicity of the figure keeps you from having a ton of display and posing options.

Paint and Details – Much like Fox McCloud, Falco is based off his simple, but iconic Star Fox 64 design which works well in this scale.  Generally the paint looks good and Falco’s head and eyes look nice which is the most important part of his design.  I liked how Jakks Pacific sculpted in a kind of smirk on Falco’s beak which fits his personality perfectly.  The only paint issue I spotted is on his arm.  Unfortunately, some of the light blue paint got on his elbow in a couple of spots.  Fortunately, the shade of blue is light and doesn’t stand out against the gray as much as it could have.  Mistakes on World of Nintendo figures are not uncommon and paint issues are perhaps even predictable which is probably why I’m not more disappointed.  Other than that, this figure looks good and is another solid job by Jakks Pacific.

Accessory – While it is not a surprise, it is nice to see the return of the Arwing accessory with Falco.  I really like the tiny ship as an accessory, but I was disappointed to see a fairly sloppy paint job on mine.  The paint has bled on different parts and it keeps the ship from looking as nice as it could.  I’m hopeful that one day a cool display can be made with the Arwings and the full Star Fox team.  Please Jakks Pacific, make Star Fox fans’ dream come true!

Closing Thoughts – When you think about it, Star Fox is a pretty obscure game series.  The releases are usually years apart and many of the games have not been big hits.  And yet, World of Nintendo is giving us figures of these characters which is both fortunate and awesome.  Falco is a somewhat safe and predictable World of Nintendo figure, but to see him next to Fox really helps make up for that.  This is not my favorite World of Nintendo figure, but it is far from one of my least favorites too.  If they can create a Slippy and Peppy as good as this, it will make Nintendo fans happy and be one of the only ways you can assemble the Star Fox team.