If there is one thing Jakks Pacific is not afraid of with World of Nintendo it is to repackage or re-purpose existing figures in a new way to try and get fans and collectors excited.  Open Hands Mario is the perfect example of this.  Mario was originally released in his normal plumber outfit over a year ago and was easy to find at the time of his release.  Jakks wisely wants to release one of Nintendo’s most popular characters but instead of just bringing back the same old figure, they instead made a slight change to try to make the figure appealing even if you already have that old Mario figure.  Are they able to pull it off?  Let’s take a closer look at this figure and find out!

Articulation – I’m going to get right down to business and tackle the most interesting part of this new figure.  Essentially, the articulation on this Mario is the same as older ones.  The shoulders, elbows and knees all bend.  His head will swerve from side to side a bit but not a ton like with previous Mario figures and that is about it for articulation.  However, going from a closed fist to an open hand leads to a very different and much more expressive figure.  As you can see from the above and below pictures, Mario can wave now, look like he is talking, lift something, put his hands up to surrender, and so many other things.  This is one of the first World of Nintendo figures I have reviewed in a while where I couldn’t wait to come up with new poses and play around with it.  I took more pictures than normal to show you just how much you can do with this figure.  All too often in previous reviews, I would say something like, “the figure has decent articulation but you can’t get many fun poses out of it,” and I’m happy to say that is not the case at all.  You’re more limited by your imagination than anything else with this Mario figure and that is a fantastic thing to say!

Paint – I’m also happy to report that this Mario figure has no real issues with paint.  In fact, this one is one of the better ones I’ve purchased in the World of Nintendo line for a while.  Jakks doesn’t always get this right so they deserve credit here and I hope that this is a sign of improving quality with figures even if there have been a lot of ups and downs in this figure line thus far.

Accessory – While other Mario figures have released questions blocks, this is the first one in World of Nintendo that I am aware of.  It is the perfect accessory to come out alongside Open Hands Mario because he can actually hold this and many other accessories (like the coin in the picture above which comes with a different figure).  While Mario never really carries a question block around in the video games, it is cool that the figure can.  It also helps that Jakks did a nice job with this accessory like the last few I’ve reviewed.  The sculpting and paintwork are both excellent and this is another nice piece to add to a Mario collection.

Closing Thoughts – I really can’t find any faults with this figure outside of the limited head articulation and perhaps the lack of detail with Mario’s mouth.  Other than that, this figure is a blast to play with, it looks really cool, it builds off any other Mario figures you might have in a fun way, and comes with a solid accessory.  What more can you ask for?  I highly recommend this figure even if you have the original Mario because I’m confident that you will enjoy playing around with this figure more.  It is the definitive regular Mario figure to own in World of Nintendo.  The only question I wonder now is: should Jakks re-release more figures with open hands?  Would I (and feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below!) buy other characters I already have just with open hands?  I think I might based on this figure, especially if I really like that particular character like I do with Mario.  Maybe Link or Samus just wouldn’t work this way but regardless, Jakks have definitely stepped it up and I look forward to seeing what they come out with next!