Toy OTD: Upper Deck All Star Vinyl Figure: Brett Favre

I thought it might be interesting to post the only sports figure that I own as a Toy OTD! Generally, I find sports figures to be pretty dull - either they're poorly made, or technically impressive but not very imaginative. Fortunately, Upper Deck took notice of the designer toy movement and decided to incorporate that look into a line of sports vinyl! Sean Galloway is the artist behind the NFL toys.

His design work is certainly a breath of fresh air in the rather conservative world of sports toys - I'd say it's sort of a cross between Bruce Timm and Jack Davis. There's some nice stylization and exaggeration going on here, so it definitely made me want to support the brand!

Compared to current designer toys, this is still a pretty conservative approach, but it's a huge step in a new direction for the genre. The color work, stylization and posing are somewhat restrained, but the forms are getting sleeker and more dynamic. At eleven inches tall, the figure will definitely have a presence on your shelf, too!

The technical side is quite nice - the paint work is tight with some good subltety to set off the larger expanses. The 'grass stains' are a little half-hearted, but in general the color and paint apps are confidently executed.
The hand plants seem a bit awkward, but the construction overall is solid and clean, befitting the design. While a figure base would've been a nice bonus (green plastic with an astroturf texture?), the balance of the toy is good and makes this less of an issue than it might've been.

The packaging is slick and sturdy, though not particularly eye-catching. While it's great that the box design prominently features the original design turnaround and opens to reveal the actual figure, it still comes across as more cluttered than punchy.

This was one of the early figures released in this line (a limited edition of 1000), and now there's more variants available - there's a white jersey version limited to 1500 pieces (with a helmet), a black and gold edition of 250 pieces, and a retro uniform edition of 500. I think I originally paid sixty dollars for mine, which I think was pretty close to retail. It's long sold out from Upper Deck, unfortunately, but you can get this version on sale at imaginegate.com for $29.99 + shipping! The white jersey version goes for $29.39 at underbid.com, the retro variant sells for $74.95 at bigboyztoyz.com, and the black and gold colorway is on eBay right now for $90 + shipping. Bargain hunters can get the white and retro versions loose on eBay right now for $21.99 + $13.45 shipping. Good luck!