Toy Review: Super7 Disney ULTIMATES! figures – Wave 2

Super7 is back again! This time with a new wave of action figures from your favorite Disney animated features. They’re called ULTIMATES!, and they like to yell it out, the same way Fantasmic! does, but Super7 uses ALL CAPS. The ULTIMATES! line of figures covers a lot of ground, from Transformers to G.I.Joe, Thundercats to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and many, many others… so it’s a little wild that the Disney giant finds a way to be included in that conversation. This wave includes four classic characters with accessories, and the figures won’t always be from the same film. This wave does have a stronger focus on Alice in Wonderland, with Alice and the Mad Hatter. The other two characters in this wave are Robin Hood and Fantasia’s ballet-dancing hippopotamus, Hyacinth. (Refresher: Wave 1 of the Disney ULTIMATES! line-up only featured three characters: Sorcerer Mickey, Pinocchio, and Prince John from Robin Hood)

Where to Buy

The figures included in this review cost $54.99 each. And while these figures are no longer available directly from Super7, you can still purchase them from third-party retailers. Here are the listings and prices from Big Bad Toy Store:

• Disney ULTIMATES! Alice figure
• Disney ULTIMATES! Mad Hatter
• Disney ULTIMATES! Robin Hood
• Disney ULTIMATES! Hyacinth Hippo
• Or, if you want to buy all four figures from Wave 2 in a bundle, it is $219.99

Packaging

When you pick up one of these babies, you can tell there’s a concerted effort to make it feel like a gem of a toy you’re holding with so many layers. We’ll use the Mad Hatter to demonstrate Super7’s packaging prowess.

There’s a plain cardboard box with the movie title and character on the front, a plastic bag containing a much shinier box that consists of a top sleeve, and the main box with a window on the front revealing, at last, the figure.

On the back of the box is a still from the animated film, along with a little blurb about the character. 

Within the inner box is a plastic tray (sometimes two of them) holding the figure and the many accessories.  While the packaging is beautiful, it’s a bit much for my tastes, and I think we can lose most of it, such as the cardboard sleeve, clear plastic bag, and even the outer cardboard box. There’s just so much here that is unnecessary, and it’s not exactly a box I would want to display. For the ULTIMATES!, it’s all about what’s inside.  

Alice & The Mad Hatter

“Alice in Wonderland” may have been a flop in 1951, but by 2022, it’s a beloved classic despite its imperfections. The highlight of the film, of course, goes to the Mad Tea Party, as seen in all of the Alice-themed attractions in several Disney theme parks around the world. While Alice and Mad Hatter are the key releases in this wave, it’s also fun to see what other characters are included in the box.

Included Accessories

Dinah, Alice’s cat, is included as well as a Glasses Bird from Tulgey Wood and a smaller version of Alice after biting into a cookie.  The Mad Hatter comes with the adorable Dormouse inside his yellow kettle. If we’re keeping track, that’s five characters from Alice in Wonderland in one go! 

Since we already covered some inclusions, let’s jump straight to accessories. Both Alice and Mad Hatter also come with two alternate heads. Alice’s heads are mouth closed, mouth open, and mouth agape.

Mad Hatter has a big smile, mouth open, and a head from the moment he asks “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”.  Sadly, there isn’t a head with the expression from when he says, “MUSTARD??”

Alice comes with two extra pairs of hands, including one with a hand holding a cookie, a “drink me” jar, a glasses bird, and a tiny Alice figure.

The Mad Hatter comes with an Unbirthday cake, a teapot pouring out of three spouts into three cups, a mad watch, a teacup, and two pairs of additional hands. One of the hands is permanently holding a saucer which has a bite mark on it. For those wondering, there is a cut in the tea cup where Mad Hatter can dip, but it’s the wrong color cup. Sadly, for all the accessories given, none of them are the Mad Hatter’s actual hat, which isn’t removable. 

Figure Appearance and Articulation

Sculpt-wise, Mad Hatter is really, really great and captures his goofy expressions perfectly. I’m not quite sure what happened with Alice as she is enormously off-model. Compared to the digital renderings that Super7 debuted at the time of pre-order, those were FAR more screen-accurate than what we eventually received. Even the smaller mini-Alice is closer to how she looks in the film. I truly don’t know what happened here, and it’s too bad. She looks a whole lot better with the Glasses Bird sitting on her face, so that just might be how we end up displaying her. 

Alice’s fabric dress is also a bit off and might have been better as a plastic one. From the side, it’s pretty flat, and it might be weird to say, but also probably too long. It sadly just doesn’t feel like Alice, unfortunately.

The Mad Hatter does have a fabric coat, and it looks okay for the most part, but it does get in the way of some of the articulation. Again, I think a sculpted coat would have been fine here. 

Despite all the points of articulation, it’s not all that helpful in posing the figure. Alice has roughly 24 points of articulation, but because she can’t stand too well, getting her into various poses just isn’t going to happen. And there’s no display stand to help out, either. The Mad Hatter has about 17-20 points of articulation and, similar to Alice, doesn’t quite serve him well due to his smaller stature and coat that restricts him from doing that much with his arms. 

Robin Hood

Next up is the heroic ROBIN HOOD, who steals from the rich to give to the poor! Wave 2 Robin Hood joins Wave 1’s Prince John (still available at Super7), and we’ve been waiting for an action figure of this guy for 49 years! This figure looks great, but it’s not without some issues.  The main issue is that when these figures were put up for preorder, the listing appeared to include a Robin Hood AND a Robin Hood Stork (or the Spindle-legged Stork from Devonshire)… two figures in one release. Unfortunately, all you get is Robin Hood and several parts to build the Stork, but you can’t have both; only one or the other. 

Accessories

Looking at the accessories for Robin Hood himself, he has two swappable heads, one with an arrow going through his hat and a shocked expression. Again, if you’re looking for a Robin Hood without his hat, you won’t find it here.

Robin has an additional pair of hands, a bow and arrow, and a quiver that has the appearance of having three arrows inside. If you wanted to add the fourth arrow, you, unfortunately, cannot. 

For Robin Hood as a Stork, he comes with a head, lower torso, stilts, three pairs of wing hands, a bow and arrow, a quiver, the golden arrow prize, and a fabric tunic. 

With Robin Hood, the total package, regrettably, doesn’t add up. His quiver doesn’t rest across his back as it should and instead tends to fall down across his back. I’ve been having some issues with the bow and arrow accessories in the hands as well, as they’re really temperamental and want to pop out as soon as I have a pose I want.

To build the Spindle-Legged Stork from Devonshire, you need to deconstruct the entire figure except for his upper torso. Add the squatted lower torso, his feet with stilts, then wings on his wrists, and he’s pretty much complete. I particularly love this figure iteration, so it is a shame they didn’t just throw in another upper torso to give us two figures that we can display together. Hopefully, if they ever release Little John in his Sir Reginald outfit, maybe they can throw us all a bone and include an extra torso. The stork put together is pretty fun, but I’ve had some trouble getting the bow and arrows into his winged hands all the same.  It’s workable, though, and with the fabric cloak on and a much tighter quiver strap, the figure comes together rather nicely.  

Figure Articulation

The articulation on these figures is there but doesn’t lend itself to dynamic poses. No amount of articulation in his legs will actually get you into any poses that he can stay in. Oddly enough, the stork is a bit more poseable, but with his spindle legs, it’s hard to have him stand up.

Overall, Robin Hood is a bit short of being the real ultimate. He’ll look good on his shelf, but getting him to hold his gear doesn’t work well. It would have been great for both quivers to be able to hold the included arrow accessories for better play value, and Robin Hood should have come with a sword as well, as he uses that to fight quite a bit in the film. In the end, I’m having trouble deciding which version to display. 

Hyacinth Hippo

Fantasia’s segment “Dance of the Hours,” featuring music from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, gets its first action figure. There’s a menagerie of animals from this animated ballet, including ostriches, elephants, and alligators… but Hyacinth Hippo is the first out of the gate, and she is a monster of a figure!

She’s also essentially the first Disney ULTIMATES! troop builder, meaning you might need to buy more than a handful of them to recreate the scenes from the film (seven, to be precise). 

Accessories

Hyacinth comes with two alternate heads (mouth closed, smile, mouth agape), a hand mirror, a hand holding a powder puff, a hand holding grapes, five additional hands, alternate pink shoed feet, and a pink fabric tutu. Hyacinth is already packaged in her yellow tutu and yellow shoes, so you’ll need six more in pink to be her posse! The tutus are removed via velcro and stay on pretty well. Hands and feet are swapped with relative ease, but a word of caution on swapping heads! You WILL need to heat up the figure or joints with hot boiling water or a hairdryer. The material used for the neckpiece is not the right combo for easy head swapping, and you can risk breakage. 

Figure Articulation

For as big as Hyacinth is, she’s a lot easier to pose and mess around with, thanks to her roughly 23 points of articulation being easily accessible and free from too much cloth getting in the way. She can’t be posed in all of the dance moves seen in the film, but I feel like it isn’t too bad. So aside from the difficulty in swapping heads, Hyacinth somehow became my favorite of the wave. 

Conclusion

In closing, this was almost a home-run wave, but a few nitpicks keep it from being great, especially if you paid $55 apiece. Robin Hood was maybe the biggest disappointment as he was the figure I was most looking forward to. But despite it all, Robin Hood is still something I’m glad I have on my toy shelf. Mad Hatter turned out great, as did Hyacinth. Alice, unfortunately, is not a win for me, and Super7 needs another crack at it. 

These toys aren’t cheap, so collecting them all might be difficult for many (I wouldn’t mind if Super7 came out with a smaller release down the line of just a figure and a few essentials for a smaller price point). Disney fans will mostly love these figures and the variety available. And with 100 Years of Disney characters, this ULTIMATES! line may never see an end. Here’s hoping!

More Super7 Figures on the Horizon

Next in Wave 3 is the Queen of Hearts (and the King), Stitch, Big Bad Wolf, and Ben Ali Gator (Fantasia). Wave 4 is Jack Skellington, Sally, and Oogie Boogie. These waves are no longer available to preorder directly from Super7, but they are still listed on Big Bad Toy Store.

Suffice it to say, there are a lot of Disney action figures coming your way from Super7, and you definitely want to preorder them when they are announced, as you might miss out when they are finally released. I would suggest checking Super7’s social media accounts for future preorder announcements.

[Product samples courtesy of Super7]

Let’s Hear from You

Which of these Super7 Disney ULTIMATES! figures is your favorite? What characters would be fun for Super7 to make next in this line? And do you collect figures or other toys? Let us know in the comments below!

Related Reading

Super7 also makes much bigger Disney figures. In fact, they are “supersized!” Here are some reviews of several Disney toys from Super7’s Supersize figure line:

MiceChat Reviews: Super7’s Supersize Ebenezer Scrooge & Queen of Hearts Figures

MiceChat Reviews: Super7’s Supersize Disney Figures & Pixar Lightyear Set

 

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