Garnet with Arcade Mania 

       

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Made By:
McFarlane (set #12891)
Type:
Building Blocks
MSRP:
$8.99
 
Steven Universe

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Garnet with Arcade Mania
Garnet with Arcade Mania box Garnet with Arcade Mania figure Garnet with Arcade Mania with doorway Garnet with Arcade Mania operating control panel Garnet with Arcade Mania Garnet with Arcade Mania reverse

 

With the success of McFarlane's The Walking Dead building block sets, they expanded the concept to include more properties. One of those was Cartoon Network's Steven Universe, the coming-of-age story of a young boy who lives with the Crystal Gems and learns about life, love, family, and saving the world on a regular basis. One of the smaller sets in the series is #12891, Garnet with Arcade Mania. It contains 50 pieces and a block-style Garnet figure. The box is bright and colorful, with nice graphics that combine the animation and the actual building set and a window to show the actual figure that is included. Instructions are a full-color stapled booklet, with a small sticker sheet and the cardboard game sign tucked between the pages of it. The stickers are paper, so you won't be able to easily reposition them if you miss when placing them, but they're durable enough for minor adjustments and the printing is sharp and the edges are cut nearly perfectly to fit the parts. The billboard has precut holes to fit over the two pieces above the screen, and fits beautifully.

Of the three small sets, this has the most literal and accurately-sized accessory. The Meat Beat Mania machine has the main cabinet, large screen, base, billboard, and controllers with holsters. Assembly balances clever and easy very nicely, never getting too repetitive nor too difficult. The only thing that didn't seem right was the placement of the single floor stud to allow Garnet to stand in front of the machine. Officially, it's supposed to be right at the far edge of the base...but that means that part of Garnet's foot is hanging out in space unless she's perfectly positioned facing the game. By moving it closer to the screen by one stud, it allows her to look better in different poses. The only stickers were the screen and panel directly under the screen; everything else was either preprinted or a cardboard accessory. Fit and finish were generally excellent, with the parts snapping together exactly as expected. Build time was about 10 minutes.

Garnet is in the appropriate outfit for the episode, missing her signature visor after Steven had pulled it off. The expression isn't quite right, as McFarlane decided to go with an angry snarl rather than Garnet's usual cool detachment or (in this particular scene) hypnotized stare. All three eyes are painted correctly, though, which is a nice attention to detail. She has longer legs and a longer torso than any of the other figures, making her the proper relative height. She moves at the legs, hips, torso, shoulders, wrists, and neck. All of them are simple cut joints. She can be disassembled along any of the main vertical joints. These joints all use the same sized studs and sockets, which is the same size as the studs used throughout the rest of the set.

This is the best of the smaller sets, with a great design and pretty accurate look. Garnet is almost perfect, held back only by the weird expression. If a future wave has her with the visor, it would be worth swapping heads to get the best of the best.

 

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