Challenge: write a review about two pieces of cardboard. I'll try to keep this below 1.000 words.
The Buffy Pop-out People are originally published by Dark Horse Comics but you can order them also at Eden Studios' Buffy site. There may be other sets available in the future but it's not sure yet if Eden will distribute them. The pop-outs come in a shrinkwap in which you find two pieces of sturdy (11.5" x 4.5") cardboard. The cardboards are printed on both sides.
One piece has a picture of the UCS building entrance on one side and a nocturnal view of a Sunnydale cemetery. The cemetery picture looks a bit reworked but I'm not enough of a Dark Horse or Buffy geek to tell whether the names on the tombstones are famous people in comic land.
The other sheet contains 9 pre-perforated figures of the main members of Season five's cast. Giles and Riley measure about 3" while Dawn is just under 2.5". And there's Buffy, Spike, Dawn, Willow, Giles, Xander and Anya but no Cordelia (and God, I miss Joyce). This 'page' also contains the bases that should be slotted in the bottom of the figures and the background sheet. Overall quality of the pictures is good enough but still below the quality of the pictures in the Buffy role-playing game or the Director's Screen. But for figures they'll do.
Or would do. Now comes the negative part of the review. I'll nit-pick. I did not playtest the product in a real session but I did go through character creation and some basic movement, relative positioning and combat sequences.
The image of the cemetery is too big in relation to the figures. Also the bases are not wide enough to give the background enough support. As a result the scene will lean over to one side or the other. Same problem with the figures. Some base's fit is too loose to keep the figures steady and thus Spike tends to fall over Buffy or any other member of the cast that happens to be in his reach (chip or no chip. Oops! Was that a spoiler?). All this may be rectified with some glue but I haven't tried this yet. As it is, when you move a figure the base falls of in half of the cases.
But my main problem with the figures is the reverse side. On the backside you get the same picture but in reverse. So not only does this mean I can't see Anya's posterior. Not only does this make it hard to adjudicate line-of-sight or Perception-based modifiers. The worst part is that this mirror image of the original picture this gives you that icky feeling like when you see your own face in a double mirror. You know who it is but it still looks wrong somehow.
Conclusion: If you have a shrine dedicated to the Buffster et al, you will want to add this to your collection. You can create dioramas with your favorite characters and if you don't slam the doors too hard they will remain upright. But as accessories for a role-playing game (the reason why I bought this pack) I think they are less useful. I'll still keep an eye open for a Big Bad pack.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)