Gir (Invader Zim) Review

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Gir (Invader Zim) Review

Gir
Invader Zim (Palisades)Ah, Invader Zim, a show that's generally agreed to be one of the best Nicktoons ever. Between its great art direction, absurd humor, hilarious dialogue, and being able to get away with darker content than the network could allow, it was pretty much perfect. While the show sadly got cut short because of who knows what, it has managed to put out new material in the years after it ended, such as a comic book series and a movie.

Around two years ago, Diamond Select announced they'd be making figure two-packs for the show, but production issues held them back greatly, to the point where they had to take down pre-order listings for them. Years before that, around the time when Zim had a general presence at Hot Topic, there was a cool line of figures by one of the best toy companies to exist: Palisades.

The packaging graphics are simple, but effective. The front has a white background with some bluish-purple splats, obviously a licensor mandate, along with a listing of all the figure's accessories on a sticker. The back is green, with a bio of the character and a cross-sell with the other figures. This is a clamshell, however, so you'll need an exacto knife to get it open. Once you do that, though, everything inside should be easy to get out.

The figure I'm covering is Gir, Zim's adorably stupid robot buddy. The box credits the sculpt to Toxic Mom's Studio and Johnny Apokolips, and they did a good job bringing the character to three dimensions. The style of the show is angular with thin proportions, and some of those proportions have to be made thicker to work better in plastic. Gir's body is supposed to hover above his legs, but here, they're connected together. This doesn't take away from the sculpt, and it all looks pretty great.

Standing close to 3 1/2" tall up to the tip of his antenna, Gir has a blank stare on his face, a pretty common look for him. The mouth is only painted on, not sculpted, fitting with the flat, simple designs. For extra coolness, the top of his head can be removed, allowing you to store stuff inside it (at least really small stuff). It comes off easily, but still fits tightly. The paint is good, with a mostly clean finish, but there are a few small marks and areas of bleed.

The character designs don't lend themselves too well to articulation, but Palisades managed to do what they could. Gir has a ball/socket head, swivel/hinge shoulders, and swivel biceps. There's no movement on his lower body, but it's not hard to tell why. These figures tend to be pretty delicate no thanks to the thin limbs, and I've had a few of these guys break on me before. Gir has no issues when it comes to movement, but it's still important to treat him with care. He's unable to stand on his own, but a small stand is included to help keep him up.

If there's one thing Palisades did well, it's accessories, and they made sure to give Gir some very nice ones. He includes one of the saucer hats from "Attack of the Saucer Morons", a "Krazy Taco" bag, and a "Suckmonkey" cup. The accessories look great, but Gir can't really use any of them, since his hands aren't sculpted to hold them. Be careful when using the cup, as the straw broke in two places for me, and now I have tape holding it together. As I've said, these things are delicate.

The real big thing here, and I do mean "big", is the the pig. From the aforementioned Saucer Moron episode, Zim lost his Voot Cruiser to the alien fanatics, and thought the best way to disguise the retrieval unit was a giant pig. The pig spans about 6" long, 3" tall, and 4" wide, and the sculpt on it looks spot-on. In addition to Zim being able to grip the handlebars, there are pegs near the back of the cockpit so Gir can stand on it. The paint on it is pretty bad, though, with an inconsistent finish, and the paint on the tail was still wet when I opened it. Adding to the pig are a grassy base with a podium to prop up the vehicle, a banner that goes in the back of the base, and a rope in the front.

In my mind, Palisades was one of the best toy companies, and Gir is proof of that. Sure, there are a couple issues, mainly regarding paint, but he's still pretty solid. While I am hoping the Diamond figures eventually get released, I doubt they'll be able to top Palisades.

- 4/15/23