By Andrew Liszewski
2001: A Space Odyssey predates Star Wars by almost 10 years, which means at the time the movie studios hadn’t gotten a real taste of how they could profit from merchandising. And it’s too bad because it meant there were no Dave Bowman, Frank Poole or even HAL 9000 action figures ever released. Don’t feel too sad though because the real stars of that movie, the monoliths, have finally been immortalized in action figure form.
I’m assuming the company behind this figure went to great lengths to digitally scan the original props from the movie, since it features the exact 1:4:9 dimensions of the monoliths, and the same zero points of articulation as well! This is McFarlane Toys-level detail here people. It’s available from ThinkGeek for $12.99, though you’ll have to find your own Playmobil astronaut to go through a trippy slit-scan sequence because the one pictured above is not included.
Actually, there have been several 2001 action figures – the infamous 'Twinch Squad' hi-quality ones (expect to pay $1,000 on eBay!) and the toy 'Madelman' version. Oh, and a half a dozen resin garage kits, too…
Bob