Welcome to our review of the McFarlane Toys Stranger Things exclusive figure of Will Byers in the Upside Down. This special version of Will was released as a Walmart exclusive in the US at the same time as the 3rd wave of Stranger Things figures which contained the standard version of Will as well as Mike and Punk Eleven. Outside of the US the figure was offered as a specialist retailer exclusive.
"On the night of November 6th, 1983, Will Byers disappeared into an alternate dimension dubbed the Upside Down. Although he was eventually rescued and returned to normal life, his time in the Upside Down left him with a mysterious connection to the alternate realm."
Packaging 2/5
Upside Down Will has to be one of the oddest titles for an action figure for those who don't know anything about Stranger Things and see this exclusive release on store shelves. While it uses the same card design as the other Stranger Things figures, it includes the "EXCLUSIVE" gold text around the character name. It then positions the figure upside down in the packaging. While this gimmick makes sense in terms of the show and plot - it still looks odd and more like a mis-pack at the factory.
The figure is exclusive to Walmart in the US and if bought there would come with a Walmart exclusive sticker that they apply for stores. Ours was a UK purchase where the figure is simply offered from independents and specialists.
Upside Down Will is essentially an exclusive add on to the Wave 3 figures and the card back displays him alongside the basic Wave 3 releases of "standard" Will, Mike and Eleven in her Punk gear. The lack of any "coming soon" info as seen on early waves does cast some doubt on the future of this line.
Blister packs like this are great for a retro feel but are suspect to damage, with obvious card warping straight out of the case. The figure is also impossible to remove without some damage to the card - and once out you can't repack like the more widely used window boxes.
The figure of Will comes out of the blister on a second tray. He strapped in place with clear ties at the waist and legs. These can cause paint damage if handled roughly. Around Will is his accessories, and behind him the figure stand.
Paint & Sculpt 2/5
As with all Stranger Things releases to date, you will need to position Will on the supplied figure stand in order for him to stand on his own. The McFarlane designers have put very realistic feet on the figures with rounded soles and shaping which make standing difficult - and this is compounded with some weak joints on the legs.
The stand itself is clear plastic, with a slight yellow tinge, and a single peg which connects to Will's right foot socket. The fit is snug, but not overly tight - once posed Will does stay where he is, but watch the ankles as they are quite loose.
Looking first at sculpt, this is a pretty good likeness to actor Noah Schnapp if you look beyond the green shade of the face. The shaping of the face and hair are a good match. The expression is a touch flat, but you can detect a flicker of emotion around the lips.
My issue is the painting on the head, and this will be a theme that continues through this review. Going into the Upside Down doesn't turn your skin green - the hues of the Upside Down are darker, more washed out. And while there is a green hue at times on the lighting, it is not as extreme as this.
Will also gets a smear of green on his cheek, more akin to being slimed by Slimer than the dark grimy "much" we see from the Upside down.
The sculpt on the body is excellent, McFarlane have knocked all these out of the park in terms of costuming. Will is wearing a checked blue shirt with a fantastic decor across it. The body warmer is glossy and puffy and coloured red with yellow panels. The trousers are textured when you get up close and painted in a stonewash denim effect.
All of this would be great on the standard release - and this is exactly what this body is, the standard version with its bright reds and blues. Over this they have lazily added a bit more green slime and grime - a bit down the arms and legs.
Again the Upside Down is a washed our almost colourless place, and the decor on the figure should have been radically toned back to reflect what we see on screen. What we get is sadly lacking and almost contradicts itself by putting a bright red glossy body warm next to what they want us to think is green pale washed out skin.
Accessories 2/5
Like the members of the main foursome that have come before, Will gets the standard pack in of the walkie-talkie. We can debate accuracy of whether Will had a walkie talkie in the Upside Down (I can't recall him having it) but as this is a repaint of the standard release, throwing it in seems sensible. It remains the same sculpt and paint as the others and it comes with its own hand.
The hand has a large plug on the palm to slot into the walkie talkie to recreate it being held. Once again there is a serious issue with the wrist joint which is tiny and really hard to engage the hand without breaking. This Will figure is arguably the worst of the bunch so far and I just can't get the walkie talkie hand to engage - in these shots its being held in by a touch of blu tack - not the best engineering McFarlane, particularly when a simple plug in hand would have worked.
Out of the four boys released, Will has got the shortest straw for accessories. While the others came with torches, Will has nothing else other than the backpack.
The backpack is again a new sculpt and cast in grey plastic with a touch of washing to bring out the detail. I suspect the decision not to paint zips and clasps as seen on earlier figures might be a monetary one.
The bag slides onto one arm and then round onto the other - best done with the figures arms out behind him and elbows bent. The bag does not sit anywhere near as well as the others with the puffy body warmer collar pushing it up and out around the neck area and pushing the straps out sideways towards the arms - a position where it would slip off in real life.
Articulation 3/5
Will has 13 points of articulation, the standard for the line. The head is ball jointed and can rotate and look down, but any leaning back motion is blocked as hairlines meets collar. There is no articulation at all in the main body - McFarlane not utilising a waist joint or any form of torso movement.
Arms are ball jointed and are pretty mobile and can raise up fully and rotate. Elbows are also not bad, bending to a right angle. And even those wrist joints work better on Will as they can rotate and pivot thanks to the slimmer arms and no big coat sleeves as seen on the other three.
Legs are t-joint hips moving out to side and front fully. Knees are single joins and bend to 90 degrees as well as having a rotation built in if you need to splay out the feet more.
The feet themselves are sat on ankle rockers. These dont do alot, you can wiggle the feet but they just spring back to the standard position. As we said at the start, these ankle joints and the shaped rounded feet make Will difficult to stand without his stand and even here there is a risk of flopping over.
Summary
I made the wrong call in buying the Exclusive Will Byers over the standard release, teased by that E word that quite often are the bane of collectors lives. As a standard figure I think Will would score much higher as there would be no issue with the paint or sculpt.
In this guise the figure just isn't right. From the upside down posing of the blister that looks like a packing error to the horrible green washed out skin sitting alongside a bright red jacket.
Exclusive Will needed a full washed out darker paint job to be truly accurate to his time in the Upside Down. What we've got feels lazy and whether that sits with McFarlane or with the commission from Walmart it is not great for the collector.
There are some positives with the articulation getting better on each release, albeit by a few mm's each time. The sculpt is also impressive under that green skin and the decor on the checked shirt is impressive.
I score Upside Down Will a disappointing 2 out of 5, mainly due to it not living up to its name and looking more like a halloween costume with fake slime than the character trapped in the alternative dimension and being stalked by the Demogorgon.
