Pac-Man's one of those guys you gotta give a lot of credit for, from his contributions in the history of gaming to the fact that he was a recognizable mascot even in this modern day. The fact that he (and Mr. Game & Watch) existed a year before Mario and Donkey Kong were created surprised me! Sure, I may have a bigger fondness for the plumber in red and blue, but I owe it to this yellow pellet eater for making video games have identities of their own that make them stand out from one another! When I'm not seeing Pac-Man in his arcade days, however, I expect to see him in his more obscure games for curiosity sake, delve into the World trilogy while hoping Martin Sherman would return to voice the character and get weirded out when I see the modern design (best-known for being in that Disney XD cartoon that looks worse than Sonic Boom). Either way, I like Pac-Man, and I also like this Figuart, too, so let's take a look at it!
Here we have Pac-Man in-hand, which is a character design that needs no introduction. He's a sphere with a smiling face on the front with a nose, eyes that look like little Pac-Mans, eyebrows that are pointy, and arms and legs with punching gloves as well as boots to go with him. The colors are nice and vibrant, the paint apps are applied professionally and look crisp, and the appearance is very accurate to the character design. It's an easy one overall, and there is nothing that needs to be altered as with Mario. Given his character design, you would think he wouldn't be that easy to pose, but it turns out that he has quite the range of motion! Obviously, he can't really look in any other direction because his face is his body, but the arms can move front and back, in and out, they swivel at the biceps, bend at the elbows, and his wrists can wiggle on their ball joints. The hips can slide back and forth, they can also hinge front and back underneath the sliders, swivel above the hinges, swivel at the boots, bend at the knees, and the feet are ball-jointed as well as pivot side to side. The best part is that even with this articulation, the character design doesn't look disjointed and feels on-model.
Here are Pac-Man's accessories, which consist of a winking face, a Blinky sprite, a cherry sprite, a pair of karate chop hands, and a right hand giving a thumbs up.
Using Luigi's flight stand, you can further enhance the display options so that Blinky looks like he's floating towards Pac-Man or pretend Pac-Man's got a cherry on his hand. The open hands are just as expressive as the fists, but the thumbs-up hand combined with his winking face makes him even more expressive. That being said, I'd like to see at least one more face or the rest of the ghosts. I don't know if we'll get an expansion pack for this man or if his wife will have the other ghosts.
As far as the parts that come off are concerned, Pac-Man's faces can be swapped around while his legs can come off. I haven't tried it and probably won't, but you can likely remove the shoulders and give Pac-Man a more spherical look to him than he currently has. I should mention that while the back half is solid, the front half is hollow.
For a size comparison, here he is sandwiched in-between fellow Figuart Mario and another $20 toy in the form of Kingdom Huffer. Pac-Man's surprisingly bigger than I expected, and his size puts him in the decent comparison of a baseball, more or less. Honestly, paying $20 isn't that bad of a deal. Compared to the Mario Bros, which cost $30 each, or the Sailor Moon Figuarts, which each cost nearly $60, this is a good entry for anyone who wants to own an affordable Figuart that is also of a familiar character. Sure, there are people who'd want a MCU character or a Goku from one of his many bajillion forms, but those cost much more than Pac-Man does. He may be the same size and probably the quality of the $10 Mario and Sonic figures from Jakks Pacific line, but he is worth the money compared to the Mario Bros and even some WFC Trilogy Deluxes! I recommend getting him if you haven't done so already.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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