Review – Secret Cinnamon Squad Moakies

“Far off on the ancient island of the Secret Cinnamon Squad, the Moakies reign supreme. Watching and waiting for their time to once again rule the Earth.”
— from the box

Note: A few of these are still available. If you’re a collector, and want complete sets, you may want to grab this now regardless of what I have to say. But do it now, because these won’t last much longer.

The guys at Secret Cinnamon Squad are back with another resin toy, but this time — unlike their first release, Argus 3000 (reviewed here) — they skipped the “bootleg” approach and went instead for an Easter Island-style original sculpt. I grabbed one when it went online, but it’s not nearly as cool as Argus 3000 (or their upcoming The Stranger).

So what is this thing?

Packaging

Where Argus 3000 was a carded release, Moakies is a resin toy packed inside a hand-crafted, silk screened box that comes in at about 5.5-inches tall. It’s a pretty flimsy piece, but after a brutal ride through the US Postal System the box reached me in decent shape and a few twists, turns, and forced flattening and it turned back into decent shape that’s going to look just fine hiding amongst my slowly growing resin toy collection.

After ripping the box open, and releasing Moakies, I happened to notice that the inside of the box was marked up. It looks like a faulty silk screen job was flipped over and the piece reused, which means that my box is marked inside and out. It’s a little touch, and not really important, but I thought some of you guys might enjoy the shot of the box.

Moakies is Mokay

He’s big, heavy, and gold, but he’s not nearly as cool and exciting as Argus 3000. Sure, Moakies is an original sculpt, but as an Easter Island-style head/statue he’s got a lot of competition for awesome Easter Island designs and, unfortunately, he doesn’t quite measure up.

There’s nothing really bad about Moakies, but neither is there anything that pushes it over the top and turns it into a must-buy item. And, to be completely honest, this is only a toy because the designers say it’s a toy. Unlike other resin toys that are inanimate, this feels a lot more like a sculpture/art object than it does a toy object. If the guys had blended some toy elements into this, say adding faces into the piece kinda like they did Argus 3000 or maybe adding stormtrooper arms or droid legs, it would have been a lot more exciting.

A Tough Review

This is really hard on me to put down, but I feel that I need to let you guys know my opinion on every resin toy that I buy. Unlike mass-market items, like G.I. Joe or DC Universe toys, the resin market is tiny and growing, and there are very few reviews of the items online. I wanted to like this piece, but in the end it’s only a sculpture and not at all a toy or even related to a toy.

I don’t doubt that this will — someday — be an item that collectors want to own, because after Argus 3000 and the shots we’ve seen of The Stranger I think the Secret Cinnamon Squad is going to grow and build a following, but this feels like a stumble and a mistake for their second release. The packaging, as you can see in the photos above, looks nice and is well-crafted, but the resin toy itself is uninspired and not really any fun at all.

Dear Secret Cinnamon Squad

Guys, I hope that if you create any future completely original sculpts you try to add a little more toy to the design. If you can’t incorporate existing toy elements into the design, creating a blend of an original piece and a bootleg, then please look into adding in some articulation. The peg and hole system used in the V’r (review here) and Bullhorn (review here) is pretty simple but a nice touch.

Please don’t stop releasing resin toys, because I loved Argus 3000 and I am buying The Stranger.

Philip Reed feels bad for writing this review, because the resin toy market is so small that any review at all may be the only review of an item. Despite not really liking this piece, though, Philip fully intends to order the Secret Cinnamon Squad’s next release because the advance shots look great.