Simon "Ghost" Riley from Call of Duty Modern Warfare, was released by McFarlane in 2018 as part of their brand new Call of Duty action figure line. Other figures released at launch include Ruin, Seraph and John "Soap" MacTavish.
Packaging 2/5
The first few Call of Duty release from McFarlane were packed onto blister cards - the later figures would move to a boxed release. The card is white with grey map decals in the background. Within the backdrop, sat behind the figure, is a larger grey logo which represents the version of CoD that the figure is from. For Riley it is the Modern Warfare logo. The character name is an insert to the right hand side of the figure and adds some colour to the pack with the deep orange character name and an image of his face. The back of the card has no bio or background details, it simply carries images of the first 2018 figures. The odd thing is that McFarlane have put this side on, which feels a strange decision.
Paint & Sculpt 4/5
Ghost is a fantastic looking figure, designed around the British SAS look with a sleek black suit - over which is sculpted a combat vest with various canisters and pouches. The head is masked with a balaclava with red lenses sunglasses over the top of the eye section and a headset and microphone over the ears and to the mouth. There is a skull design painted in the balaclava.
Paint apps outside of the skull mask are limited, but where paint is applied over the base plastic the coverage is good with no obvious errors. Riley is also sculpted to wear a watch on his left arm which is also well painted with a clear face to the clock - this may be a decal. There are other uses of decals with a UK flag patch on one arm and some text applied to a box segment on the left arm.
I was very surprised by the scale of these Call of Duty figures. I had wrongly assumed they were 7 inch scale like other McFarlane figures, and those from NECA. It's actually aligned more to Marvel Legends - and therefore works well as background characters. Crossbones for example has just found a few new mercenaries!
Accessories 3/5
Riley includes a single accessory, an M16 machine gun which is cast in a hard brittle plastic. The details are great at the scale and there are paint apps applied with military green applied to the black plastic of the weapon and a white and black ammo cartridge.
The weapon will be easily broken, particularly the barrel, so handle with care. This includes putting it into the figures hand. The fit into the right hand is tight, but achievable and the left hand comes up to cradle the barrel in a two handed weapon poses.
The figures also come with a circular figure stand. This is black glossy plastic with the Call of Duty log at the front. The stand has a single peg that corresponds with the right foot of Riley. The fit is tight and the stand works well - although Riley has enough strength in the ankle rockers to stand fine on his own.
Articulation 3/5
Ruin weighs in with a total of 14 points of articulation, average for a figure of this scale. He doesn't get double joints at either the elbow or knees which does restrict posing.
Head : ball joint
Body : waist swivel
Arms : ball joint shoulder, single joint elbow, wrist ball joint
Legs : T-joint hip, single joint rotating knee, ankle rocker
The legs can't get into a kneeling or sitting position, and the joints do not look great when the T-Joint hip is opened up. The arms are fairly mobile, but the elbows do restrict some poses - particularly firing poses for the weapon.
All joints are tight and move well within their movement range.
Summary
Ghost is a well executed figure in terms of his sculpt and the application of paint and decals. I would have liked some more accessories. The one you do get is great, another great sculpt and good paint apps, but is prone to damage. Articulation is not quite there yet for this line, we need some double joints on elbows and knees and some form of ab crunch to really open up posing for these military characters.
I score Simon "Ghost" Riley a just above average 3 out of 5.
About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
action figures, reviews, review, articulation, McFarlane, Call of Duty, Modern Warfare, Simon "Ghost" Riley