Review – Combat-R Zero “Swamp”

Manufacturer: Atomic Mushroom * Year: 2007 * Ages: 16+

“Built in secret, Combat-R Zero is mankind’s last hope against the evil Tyran invaders. With his comrades, will Combat-R Zero be able to defeat the alien menace?”
— from the card back

You know, sometimes a product’s description really doesn’t do it justice. For example, consider this text description at the Atomic Mushroom website:

“Ready to fight evil in hostile jungles. The CRZ “Swamp” Stands 9.5″ inches tall. Molded in Army green and grey vinyl with orange brown and metallic silver details. Features three points of articulation with removable rocketpack. Comes in a re-closeable clamshell style packaging. Limited to 500 pcs worldwide.”

None too exciting, right? Well, the photos — plus a healthy dose of curiosity — led me to order one of these guys. And you know what? I’m glad that I placed that order.

Packaging

Nothing too exciting or elaborate, Combat-R Zero “Swamp” (hereafter I’m just gonna call him Swamp) comes packed on a custom clamshell with a color insert. It’s cheap, but that’s okay because the insert tells you exactly what to do with this clamshell:

“Remove me from this package, NOW!!”

Roger that, Swamp.

The back of the insert shows Swamp and the other releases in the Combat-R Zero series. Out of all of the other designs, I’m gonna have to say that MK-1 “Zero” looks like the one I would grab if I was going to grab a second figure. The red design is almost as nice as Swamp’s green paint scheme. I doubt I’m going to grab another one of these figures — I really don’t need the same figure in a different color — but this print at the Atomic Mushroom website would probably look pretty cool hanging in the game room.

Now That’s a Robot Toy!

Like the description says, Swamp’s about 9.5-inches tall, but what the description neglects to mention is that he’s about 7-inches wide and 6-inches deep. This is one big, solid vinyl robot toy. And he’s hefty, feeling nice and solid in my hands and the weight really makes your eyes arch a little when you pick him up; he’s a rotocasted vinyl toy but it feels like the vinyl is just a little thicker than I’ve seen on some other designer toys.

Clean, Smooth Lines

As with a lot of the designer toys out there, Swamp’s sculpt is very clean, with every inch of him so smooth and polish that he almost feels as if he were built by a robot toy-making robot or something. The sculptor did a great job of translating the line art to toy form; from his feet to his spike I can’t spot any rough spots or ragged edges.

Not Much in the Way of Articulation

It’s not really a surprise when a designer toy doesn’t sport many points of articulation, so I wasn’t at all shocked when I started moving Swamp around and all he could do was rotate his arms at the shoulders and twist his waist. His backpack — a cool rocket pack design — is also removable, giving you another way to display the robot, but I recommend not removing the backpack because ever since popping the backpack off of my toy the pack has become pretty loose. Not so loose that it falls out when I pick him up, but loose enough that it’s a little annoying.

Stand Here for Paint, Robot

Cast of green plastic, all of Swamp’s non-green bits are painted by hand (and with a brush, if the marks around the eyes are any indication of how he was painted). Using six different paint colors — pale green, yellow, silver, gray, black, and orange/brown — really gives Swamp some depth, especially since a lot of the paint was used to bring out the small details in the sculpt. There are some rough paint lines — with too much paint splashing outside of the eyes and a few of the decorative lines a little fuzzy — but nothing terrible. Overall, the paint is probably a B job, which is certainly good enough for playing with the toy or displaying it on a tall shelf.

A Playable Toy

As I already mentioned, Swamp is solid and heavy. Even though the packaging says he’s only for ages 16 and up, I don’t see why it would be a problem to give this to a kid at least half that age. Hell, I could see four-year olds absolutely loving Swamp because he’s so big and heavy and has such a fun, light-hearted design.

And even though he doesn’t have much in the way of articulation, the limited movement just helps portray the toy as a huge, lumbering robotic contraption. Kinda like something that would chase a Jawa if it ever had the chance.

Closing Thoughts

For reasons I can’t understand there’s some weird divide in the toy collector market in which mass-market toy buyers seem to avoid designer toys. Guys, they’re all toys, just grab whatever looks cool to you regardless of where it comes from. And if Swamp doesn’t look cool to you then you just don’t love robots. And not loving robots is wrong.

Swamp’s flawed paint and limited articulation are negatives, but the toy’s weight and overall appearance overcome those minor errors and turn this into an awesome toy. This is exactly the sort of thing I would have loved when I was five, which is probably why Swamp had to fly around my living room and then take a trip out to the yard.

He’s got a great design, a beautiful color, and a rocket pack. What more could you want?

Philip Reed doesn’t know how many Combat-R Zero’s are left at the Atomic Mushroom website, but he does know that robot toy lovers should grab at least one of these figures. A great toy!