Eytukan
The figure that practically sealed the deal for me in regards of picking up more figures from Mattel’s Avatar line was Eytukan, who is the chieftain of the Omaticaya (Bright Flute) clan and father of Neytiri.
The basic Na’vi body is another completely new sculpt, it’s frame somewhere between the fairly athletic Jake Sully figure and the wiry, lean hunter Tsu’tey. Alike the others, Eytukan sports a very nicely detailed loincloth, with additional sculpted pieces over his ribcage and arms. The most distinguishing piece of attire is some kind of shoulder-length grass cloak, closed at the front by a necklace made of animal teeth or claws.
The head sculpt is quite nice, with clearly distinct facial features and a thickly braided mane spilling over his back. As further signs of status, Eytukan wears copper colored earrings and a light gold plate at the forehead.
Something else I hadn’t noticed before is that the wild Na’vi figures have only four fingers and toes on each hand and foot, while the RDA grown avatars all have the normal (for us humans) five fingers. I can’t help but wonder if this little detail plays a role in the upcoming movie.
Eytukan has the exact same articulation than Tsu’tey or Avatar Jake Sully:
• Ball jointed neck. Which works as a simple swivel because the ball rests too deep inside the head. Rotation is also impaired because of the lack of space between hair and cloak.
• Peg & hinge shoulders. The joint are there but again, the rubber cloak limits motion range.
• Peg & hinge elbows. Very good 90° bend and 180° sideways rotation.
• Swivel waist. Free 360° swivel.
• Double hinged hips. These are designed after the same type of joint Mattel uses for their DC Super Heroes line, and allow the legs to extend sideways as well as rotate back and forth.
• Peg & hinge knees. Very good bending range and sideways swiveling.
• Hinged ankles. Pretty good movement up and down but no lateral rotation whatsoever.
Eytukan is molded entirely in light blue plastic, with a reddish brown rubber used for the loincloth and a more ashen rubber used for the grass cloak. Both loincloth and cloak are heavily textured but only the cloak sports extra paint applications to differentiate the several adornments on it. The necklace is picked out in dark gray, and the collar was painted in a reddish brown hue with a couple of bone-like spikes or daggers hanging from the sides. Like all Na’vi, Eytukan sports the deeper blue tiger-stripe pattern on his skin, and his hair is also painted glossy black. The eyes are painted neat and clean in black and white, complete with white catch lights on the pupils.
Eytukan comes armed with some alien equivalent to a composite bow, sculpted with an extended string and a nocked arrow. The bow is molded out of dark brown plastic and has extra paint decorations applied to it, but the overall result is rather crude.
The figure also comes with a personalized iTag plate made of translucent, amber-colored plastic and sculpted to resemble a carving. The sticker on top shows a close-up portrait of the character. The CGI model assigned to Eytukan is that of an alien tree, the massive Na’vi Hometree, thus it doesn’t have much in terms of actual animation cycles other than the (so far) standard three tidbits of trivia.
Scarce few days before the movie opening, I must confess I find myself hooked on the Avatar toy line, mostly thanks to these Na’vi figures. Eytukan is definitely among the best in this line in terms of looks and design, to the point where I can overlook his minor shortcomings and even begin to justify the price I paid for it.
Errex Score: 90/100
Category: Avatar, Toy Reviews
Hi,
Just a thought – besides the detail of the four fingers/ toes, they also hold a bow & arrow differently. When they draw the bow, the palm is facing outward, not inward as with humans. The one picture shows a figurine drawing the bow like a human.
A nuance, I know, about fictional characters, but there ya have it.