Reviews (1)

Hey! Remember when Alfonso Soriano played for the Yankees?
There are three New York Yankees in the MLB Series 8 Figures from McFarlane Toys, but Alfonso Soriano is not one of them. There is Hideki Matsui in the Yankees gray road jersey, but then Kevin Brown is still wearing number 27 for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Alex Rodriguez, who was traded for Soriano, is still decked out in the road uniform of the Texas Rangers. You have to appreciate the great irony here that Soriano and Rodriguez would both come out in the same action figure series just after they were traded for each other (there are no action figures planned for either the player to be named later or the money paid by the Rangers to the Yankees).

This is the second McFarlane figure of Soriano and is a great improvement over the previous figure, which had Soriano suspended in mid-air to avoid being taken out by an unseen runner having just made the throw to first base in an attempt to turn the double play. Soriano does have one of the more distinctive batting stances and follow throughs, and it is the latter that is captured this time around. I was thinking that Soriano's bat, one of the heaviest in baseball today, was not as big as it should be, but that really depends on the angle. In terms of details you have not only Soriano's name on his bat, but "12 AS" on the back of his shoes, "AS 12" his batting gloves, and a "12" on the shin protector, the wrist band, and the batting helmet (which is made of plastic, a nice touch).

The only points of articulation is Soriano's right forearm, which you can position as you want (ideally it should be parallel to the square of his shoulders), and his head, which should be aligned with the center of his body as the ball is deposited into deep left center field (at the stadium in Arlington for all we know). Both of the metal posts easily fit into the batter's box base plate and the figure has no problems standing upright. This figure is right up there with the Bernie Williams action figure as the best of the bunch for the New York Yankees; too bad he no longer plays for the team that plays in the big ballpark in the Bronx.

One thing I want to emphasize is that now that we are up to Series 8 one of the great improvements McFarlane has made is the knob of Soriano's bat comes off so that you can slide the bat handle into position and then put the knob back on. The same thing holds true for the Matsui figure, so it must apply to the Jeff Bagwell one as well. This is a vast improvement over the older figures, where you had to cut open Jason Giambi's hands to get him to grip the bat. Final Note: Jeff Bagwell, Richie Sexton and John Smoltz are the other figures in MLB 8. Yankee fans can look forward to Mariano Rivera in MLB 9. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Little tiny figures of Randy Johnson and Alfonso Soriano
I am not really sure about the value of McFaralane Toys introducing 3" scale figures based on their 6", although I suppose they allow you to have your favorite players on your desk at work and you can reenact Gulliver amongst the Lilliputians using them. In this particular set we have a miniature versions of the second Randy Johnson and the first Alfonso Soriano figures.

Johnson, the multi-Cy Young Award winning pitcher of the Arizona Diamondbacks, made headlines against this year when he became the oldest (and tallest) pitcher in baseball history to pitch a perfect game. Ironically this is a more horizontal figure of Johnson than you would get if the 6' 10" pitcher were standing straight up on the mound. However, if you compare this figure to the rest of the McFarlane pitchers and you will notice that his front leg is a lot farther down the pitching mound than any other.

Soriano, who saw his second figure as a New York Yankee come out after he had been traded to the Texas Rangers, is shown leaping up in the air to try and complete the double play with a throw to first. I have to admit I am less than thrilled by this pose, because it looks strange for Soriano to be suspend in the air by the little stand like this when there is no base runner underneath him (cf. the MLB Two-Pack figure of Nomar Garciaparra sliding into Derek Jeter)

McFarlane has released six sets of the 3" scale figures. In addition to this pair there is Jim Thome and Ichiro 2, Alex Rodriguez and Eric Gagne, Sama Sosa 2 and Chipper Jones, Barry Zito and Derek Jeter, and Mark Prior and Ivan Rodriguez. The idea here is to provide something for collectors who enjoy extreme detail in a small scale. They are also coming out with 12" figures of Nolan Ryan and Sammy Sosa around World Series time to market the other end of the spectrum as well. I am rather happy with my collection of 6" New York Yankees figures on top of my television set (it is a big television set). ... Read more