How about this for random. It's time to review a toy!

The Jakka new '35th Anniversary' Wave 25 I think of the Sonic the Hedgehog figures out are out and we have the first official Tikal action figure!

It comes with a reissue of the Master Emerald which came with Chaos a number of years back (still has a hold in the bottom for a stand but no stand. oh and Chaos is re-issued with this wave too, with a Chao). Unlike most Jakks accessories, this one has a connection with the character!.. I mean, they aren't great for accessories.. Classic Amy came with some weird Ring which has a solid number 10 in the middle for no reason, Tails came with a monitor box which.. it was a classic Tails but NOT a classic monitor. Fang the sniper for some god awful reason came with a small cardboard wanted poster..

Jakks figures, for the prices, are crap. the quality control isn't fantastic, the paint apps are a bit slap dash, there 'box sets' are really weird (like doing a set based on a certain level, featuring badniks which never appeared in that level, and often not even that game ¬_¬). Most of the times I have gotten any of there figures, there has to be a special reason.. I got the Classic Amy one for £1. brand new. In box, in a supermarket. Yep.

So lets look at this Tikal. I got 2 cause I wanna do something but that'll be later when I get around to it. Both feature the expected marks on the figure like someone pressed the soft-ish plastic with their fingernails. Not a HUGE issue but not what you would expect for a big company and the overprice price point.
The paint is... a bit slap dash. Some bits are mis-aligned, some aren't quite big enough for the area.. I'm debating touching up the paint on this one but I'm not sure If I can correctly match the colours..

Design wise.. it's okay. I would say a couple of bits don't quite match Tikal's model sheets. but they do match fairly okay. Does atleast match some of the more modern tweak (like when they made her spine wraps symmetrical). They are missing the wrap on her left arm which I think matches some of her modern appearances.

Again with her shirt which is the larger version used today which doesn't show off her belly, where the original one did, an the skirt pattern is larger then it should be, so it doesn't look quite right but it's close enough.

They also did one of the other modern things.. removing her gold and making it a plain yellow.. never understood that. Her muzzle skin is also a bit small and doesn't quite go as far back to her neck as it should, but it's acceptable..

All in all, this is a good figure, but for a Tikal fan like me, there are minor issues. which could be fixed ^_^

anyway.. Articulation.. Jakks aren't too bad on this, getting a balance between posing and looking good. when they first started to go mad with articulation in figures, they made the joints look soo awful. That package has.. pretty poorly posed photos (hey, remember the day of great box art? or are you all that young?). But it claims 11 points of articulation.. lets see now..

Head: this has a swivel joint and even with her spines, she has a fair amount of movement there.
shoulders are them joints I forget the name of. you have a 'key' shaped bit which slots into the main body to give 360degree rotation up and down, while the other end clips into the arm to allow the same rotation but at 90 degree angle. this gives a fair amount of arm movement forward and backwards, up and down, Howeveer, no elbow so her classic pray/pleading pose is impossible.
Wrists are swivil joints
Legs connect to the body in the same way a the shoudlers so she has a fair amount of leg movement, with the skirt being a softer plastic she isn't limited a much as she could have been.
Knees are are peg joints which allow them to go backwards 90 degrees, much like real knees but unlike real knees ,can't go back to touch her own arse. they also have a swivel joint just above them.
Ankles are ball joints for some reason but a bit tight.

so.. yep. they is 11..She has no waist rotation which is weird. The Feet are cast white plastic painted orange so there is a bit of a disconnect with the shades but it's not awful. The 4 spines which have the wraps.. mm.. they are cast as a sperate piece from the rest of the head, and like with all Jakks stuff, you can see the joins. there is also a huge mould line through her mouth. and you can often see the glue marks where parts of the model was put together (the head is the top part, the 4 spines with wraps, a Piece which has the eyes and muzzle, and the underside of the head. The Tail has no articulation and angles down compared to her original design. The skirt has two slices with a gap either side to help the soft plastic move more for her legs to move.

Oh and unlikly her in-game model, she now has white panties.

For the price, I kinda wish this was better but the price I got for it was better then I often see these go for new, so that's not too bad. I wouldn't have paid that price if it wasn't 1) Tikal, 2) the first Tikal Action figure to ever be released.

So.. I won't go on about the packaging cause.. they are pretty crap these days.. wheres the character bio? where's the artwork? nowhere.. package design these days is just made to be scrapped without having anything of interest. It doesn't even call her 'Tikal the Echidna'. just 'Tikal'.. 'with Master Emerald'

So.. objectively.. 7.5 out of 10