Review – Project Squadt Gassed S 002

Manufacturer: Jamungo * Year: 2009 * Ages: 17+

The Project Squadt toy series designed by Ferg (Fergbag on Twitter) has been building steam — and popularity — since it started earlier this year. Well, after watching release after release drop and immediately sell out I decided to take a stab at getting one of these and a few weeks ago my first, Gassed, hit the door. Cute, great accessories, and an excellent blend of genius and evil, this guy looks great on my shelf but not so great that I need any more in the series.

Packaging

A black box with spot varnish and a sticker for detail, this is an elegant design that’s nice enough that I’m going to keep the box in my collection. The sticker was a great idea — since many of the releases in this series are 150 to 200 copies this allows the manufacturer to reuse the basic box over and over — and it looks good. This is a clean, attractive box and it’s an excellent example of a box design we’ve been discussing at the office for one of next year’s new releases; I’ll have to take this box to the office and show it to the guy’s in production so that they can get a close look at the sort of thing we’ve been considering.

Hi There, Little Fella

Gassed stands about 7-inches tall and looks menacing with his two submachine guns, rocket launched, and awesome gas mask. The vinyl feels quite durable, and all of the joints move freely without any fear that something’s about to snap. After some bad experiences with other high-end toys — Gassed was $75 — I’m always worried when trying a new toy line but I feel confident in saying that Gassed, and likely every other release in the series, is plenty durable and can be played with without fear of breaking something. Sure, the snaps on the clothing need to be treated gently and you shouldn’t go dropping this guy, but overall he feels quite well-constructed and should hold up to a moderate level of play.

Nice Shirt and Tie, Dude

There was a time when I hated actual cloth outfits; the cloth made the toys feel too much like dolls. Well, these days — after getting my hands on some of the different toys — I can appreciate how actual cloth outfits add to the attractiveness of a toy’s design. And Gassed is an excellent example of a plastic toy dressed in actual cloth clothing. A tie, a shirt, and a jacket give this little guy a feel unlike sculpted clothing and the fact that everything is removable really gives you some flexibility in how you display the toy.

Personally, I prefer Gassed with the jacket on, but I can see where some people would be happy showing off his shirt and tie. You could also go with having the jacket unsnapped — the jacket and shirt are both closed with tiny snaps — but the jacket doesn’t hang open enough to show off the shirt and tie all that well.

Check Out That Face

The photo above shows Gassed without his helmet on. Poor, poor mouthless creature. The gas mask is awesome (as all gas masks are), yes, but I was pleasantly surprised to see what a cute little faceless freak is hiding under the mask. And in an example of the level of design put into this toy the eyes line up very well with the yellow semi-glassy eyes on the mask. You can’t see the toy’s eyes through the eye holes in the mask, but the mask’s eyes look good enough that there’s the illusion of the toy’s eyes behind the lenses.

Great toy design!

A Smooth, Featureless Body

Peeking under the clothes (see the photo, above) you can see that Gassed has absolutely no details on the sculpted body. Completely smooth, the toy’s obviously intended to be wearing clothes and was never intended to be displayed naked. Too bad, since I was kinda hoping to find some secretly sculpted details hidden under the toy’s clothes. Nope. And not even something painted on, like a wacky undershirt or some goofy underwear.

Hey, what the hell are we doing looking under this guy’s clothes? Let’s move on, folks. Nothing to see here. And I mean nothing.

Make Stuff Go BOOM!

Above you can see Gassed with his rocket launcher, a hard plastic accessory that’s molded out of two parts and painted with some dark gray and bright green paint. (In fact, this piece has more paint applications than anything else included in the box.) The cloth strap included with the toy is a little too long — Gassed can’t carry the rocket launcher very well on his back — but a few twists and turns of the cloth over his shoulder makes up for the unnecessary extra length in the strap.

The rocket launcher looks great, and is neatly painted, but it’s the one piece of the toy that feels and looks a little cheap. It’s very light and the mold lines are far too obvious and not clean at all. I would have much rather seen this cast as a solid piece with some sanding on the mold lines, but what we have here looks good enough as long as you view the toy from a display distance and don’t pick it up and play with it.

A Great Toy, but Not So Great That I Need More

On the one hand I’m a little relieved that Gassed didn’t turn out to be one of the most amazing designer toys that I’ve ever seen. The last thing I needed was to get into a series of high-end toys that have monthly releases, extremely limited runs, and price tags of $75 and up. By being part of a series of figures in which only the accessories and colors really differentiate one toy from the next I can save some money in the future (unless, of course, there’s ever a stormtrooper-inspired design).

On the other hand, and I swear I only have two hands, it would have been a bit more exciting if there had been something so overwhelmingly amazing about this toy that I wanted more in the series. I’m betting someone with a complete collection (of what has been released so far) has a fantastic display, but there’s absolutely no reason for me to try putting together my own complete display.

Gassed is a fun, durable toy with only a few minor down checks. Anyone collecting designer toys should keep an eye on the Project Squadt website and try to score at least one release in this series. For the quality of the toy and accessories, and the low runs, the $75 price tag is a good deal. And the Project Squadt toys do look great on a shelf with other vinyl and designer toys.

A very, very good addition to my collection and one I’ll show off to people for the next few years.

Philip Reed loves his Gassed and has added the little guy to the shelf of designer toys that sits right by the front door. Everyone who comes over to visit gets to immediately see Gassed as they step in.