Buzz Lightyear is one of the most beloved animated characters you can come up with. On top of the Toy Story series being one of the best film franchises in cinematic history, it's no surprise that Buzz Lightyear remained a timeless character, being one of the pillars of quality we should expect up until his random tendencies to play with himself (not that way, get out of the gutters) in Toy Story 4 before his even further unnecessary spinoff movie that claims to be the in-universe inspiration for the toy-character of Buzz (because Disney and Pixar are pussies that refuse to acknowledge Buzz Lightyear of Star Command). Anyways, the Signature Collection is a line that won fans over on the 15th anniversary of the first movie/10th anniversary of the second movie/tie-in with the third movie; the higher accuracy to the film models is present for the most part, as we'll go over in this review.
Here we have Buzz Lightyear in-hand, being quite a good display piece overall despite not being 100% screen accurate given the fan mods that popped up later. Buzz Lightyear's character design is one that is fairly easy to recognize thanks to the color scheme and overall proportions; the use of neon green and purple on a predominantly white spacesuit was a reference to the favorite colors of big creep John Lasseter and his wife (who may or may not also be a creep). The upper body is bulkier than the lower legs, though moreso in a Batman: The Animated Series style of physique and not whatever McFarlane tried to do with his stab at the design. Stickers are used on the center badge, his name tag, the upper edges of the wings, the border above the laser button, and the afterburners on the jetpack. There are some paint scuffs from the previous owner, so forgive me on that. Despite that, the rest of the figure holds up fine, and this could represent how Buzz sort of looked near the end of the third movie before he was cleaned up (and somehow didn't mess his electronics up). Speaking of, he is supposed to have three modes. The toy mode where the speaker is quieter and says a select few phrases. The space ranger mode where the speakers are louder, he says more phrases, his neck can rotate, and has a whole lot more interactivity with his play features. The microphone mode allows you to talk to him, and he will respond. When not in use, Buzz will turn off to save battery power, though turning him off entirely is recommended. Also, no, he doesn't have the ability to retract his helmet entirely.
His head sculpt is iconic, straight up THE signature expression for a character like Buzz Lightyear. The raised eyebrow, the confident grin, and the chin swirl all come together to result in a remarkable character we all know and love. I know it's not accurate to the movie since he has his eyes open a bit more, but honestly, who cares? On a side note, it's funny how the facial expressions was something many called out DreamWorks for reusing to contrast Pixar, yet Buzz Lightyear did that himself before DreamWorks was a thing! Plus, it's not like DreamWorks characters had different expressions while Pixar characters reused Buzz's facial expression. For articulation, his head is on a swivel though it is motorized due to the gimmick, shoulders rotate and move in and out (though they don't go all the way down due to the way they're designed. The elbows rotate and bend, the wrists rotate, and the fingers can move individually. The abdominal section can tilt to the sides and crunch front and back. His legs can move front and back as well as in and out on normal hip joints, yet the knees and ankles are on ratchets.
The features I can show off in text form is a button that activates his laser. It may only blink for a bit and play the sound normally heard when he's scanning an enemy, but you don't want to be in the way when his laser goes off. His wrist communicator reveals a sticker that thankfully hasn't been damaged since not only would she be a concern, but that was something Buzz did himself in the first movie. There is a button that plays either an opening sound or a closing sound depending on if the button is unpressed or not. In Space Ranger mode, Buzz can interact with it.
His wings can pop out from the back to showcase some decent length to them, as they used to be pretty short for safety reasons. There is a bit of translucent plastic used on the purple, but the wing tips light up green and red. And no, he has no karate chop action.
As far as other uses of the sculpt are concerned, Mattel has given us a Buzz with most of the features stripped out, including the wing tips lifting up, the talk-back interactivity, and the articulation. To make up for it, the prices are lower and the figure remains the same quality. There have been other versions, including Power Blaster Buzz (who has a colored tint for his helmet along with a giant laser gun and riot shield) and Power Up Buzz (whose torso lights up sort of like on the old repaints we used to get).
The one you'd probably need more is Utility Belt Buzz, also from the Signature Collection. He includes the iconic belt found on the New Buzz we saw in Toy Story 2, and that naturally means new voice clips to go with the more militaristic personality. As for a size comparison, you don't need one if you already know Buzz is meant to be the same scale as he is in the movies. The Signature Collection version is highly sought after, especially with fans making their movie-accurate mods, but boy is it pricey in the aftermarket. That being said, my love for Toy Story is bigger than my hatred towards Disney as a current company, so I recommend you splurge a lot of cash on him if you got a monthly payment set up. I mean, this is Buzz Lightyear! Any other toy would give up its moving parts just to be him. He's got wings! He glows in the dark! He talks! His helmet does that...that...that 'whoosh' thing. He is a cool toy! As a matter of fact he is too cool. Though Buster Optimus Prime is close. And Super poseable Spider-Man from the second Raimi movie.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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