It seemed appropriate then that I review one of the second series of South Park action figures today. The first series, consisting of Cartman, Kyle, Stand and Butters, came out last year. This second series contains Timmy, Tweak, Kenny (finally!) and Towelie. I reviewed the first three at MROTW when I got them a couple weeks ago, but it took me a little longer to find the elusive Towelie.

These have only shown up at Hot Topic stores so far, and my local Hot Topic didn't have Towelie. The girl working there - you know who I'm talking about, she looks like she fell down a flight of stairs carrying a bottle of ink and a tackle box - had no idea what I was talking about, so I had to start hunting other Hot Topics.

I hit the jackpot this weekend. Towelie was $13, no small potatoes. I suspect these may also show up at Media Play and Sam Goody in the near future, and I have some on-line options for you at the end of the review.

"Towelie"

This is a pretty ironic action figure. The character of Towelie was created on the show as a spoof of the kind of ridiculous, worthless characters that are often created simply as a marketing gimmick. coughJarJarcough. The fact that they then went on to market him in plush and plastic is the ultimate joke. And I bought one. Christ, I'm pathetic.

Packaging - **1/2
As card/bubble packaging goes, these are fairly basic. They make nice use of the common South Park icons for graphics, but they don't go too far out of their way in terms of design. They have a line up listed for Series 3, including Mr. Garrison, Chef, Mr. Mackey and Wendy. A wave four has been announced and may include Shelly, Big Gay Al, Officer Barbrady and Cartman's mom, but we'll have to see how these sell before any other series makes it out.

Sculpting - ***
Towelie is a towel. His only redeeming quality, if you can call it that, is his tendency to be stoned. They've managed to sculpt a towel fairly well, and that's saying a lot. Let's face it, something like a towel is a tough sculpt to pull off, but it does look fairly close to the source material. They went with the stoned version of Towelie of course, but there's no sign of a butt in his hands.

The most amazing thing here is that he actually stands on his own. I wouldn't bump the shelf he's on, but still, they managed to get his center of gravity just such so he could stand on the tiniest feet I've ever seen.

Towelie's scale seems a little large, but I haven't watched an episode with him in quite some time to be sure. Thank goodness.

Paint - **1/2
The paint ops are fairly basic, but they did a good job with the "towel" look of the blue with the white wash. The lines are fairly clean, certainly more than some of the other figures in the line, but there's still some slop between the white of the legs and arms and other areas. They eyes are bloodshot, just as any Towelie fan would expect.

Articulation - Bupkis
That's right. There's not a joint to be seen. And no articulation either. Not that it would have worked particularly well with this character, but it still means a big goose egg in this category.

Accessories - **1/2
He comes with one accessory, the infamous town sign. It looks good, although it's fairly small compared to him and the kids. It's a pretty important item, and goes nicely with the overall display, but I'm very surprised they wimped out on any sort of drug paraphenalia.

Fun Factor - *
Towelie is not the most fun. Even on the show, he's pretty much a downer. What kid wants to play with an 'action' figure of a towel, let alone one with bloodshot eyes?

Value - *
Ouch! Thirteen bucks? That was a rough price for the rest of the figures in this line, but they all had something a little more going for them. This figure has got to have the highest margins ever. Really, how much could it have cost to make what really could have been a pack in with one of the others?

Overall - **
In the first series, Cartman was the big disappointment. This time around, it's Towelie. That's really no surprise, but I wish we'd seen one of the other planned figures - like Garrison or Barbrady - before this silly little piece of plastic. I will give him this though, he's the skinniest action figure in my entire collection!

Where to buy
Like I said, I picked him up at Hot Topic. Online options include:

- CornerStoreComics has this set up for pre-order for $50 for all four, or each figure individually for $13. They also have pre-orders up for both series 3 and series 4 for just $50 a set.

- Killer Toys has them up for pre-order at $50 for the set of four.