Doll-A-Day 2019 #364: Eric Idle as Sir Robin

  Today we're looking at this guy.

He's Eric Idle as Sir Robin the Brave,from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

You may have seen my post on Sir Michael Palin as Sir Galahad from this same series. If not, you can see it HERE. This figure is also 12 inches tall.

These figures are made by Sideshow.

Sideshow figures were pretty impressive when they came out.  Some of the likenesses to the actual actors were fairly good. This is one of them.

Eric Idle as Sir Robin, fourth from left.

For their price point they're still pretty good,but the likenesses of the characters pale in comparison with super expensive figures like those made by Hot Toys.

The accessories for this figure include a sword...

... a shield...

His coat of arms is a chicken.

The back of the shield has an elastic handle,and a molded plastic handle.

...and The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.

Sir Robin is NOT brave,as his name suggests. He's a coward,thus the chicken on his shield and clothes.
 

"I soiled my armour I was so scared."

He was very afraid of the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog,although he survived it's attack to eventually meet his end on the Bridge of Death...or off of it really.

The costume looks more like the real thing...except for that gingham belt!

He has a belt with a sheath for his sword.

 He has a chain mail body suit on. His chain mail is made of nylon mesh type fabric. He has a hard time standing on his own with the feet of his outfit having narrow soles on the chain mail.

As I mentioned in my post on the Sir Michael Palin/Sir Galahad doll,in the movie the chain mail was actually made of knitted wool,because they couldn't afford chain mail. It was much lighter,I'm sure. Itchy maybe,but lighter.
 

He also has arm guards. Or should that be 'arm armour'?

His gloves are not removable. The gloves are his hands.

The figure itself has one big difference to the real thing:

Eric Idle had quite long hair in real life at the time, and wore a long wig as Sir Robin,so what the?!

I suppose it was so his head looked right with the cowl up,but still.
The box boasts that the figure has 'over 20 points of articulation'. And when it says 'over 20' it does in fact mean 21.

He's jointed at the neck,with a swivel joint,the shoulders, the upper arms,the elbows,lower arms, the wrists, and when I say 'wrists' I mean 'gloves',  upper body,the waist,the mid thighs,the knees,lower legs,and the ankles.

It was so cold I rushed so much that I forgot to hide his prop stick!

His hands can hold his sword or his shield.

There were two series of Holy Grail dolls.The first series, that Robin is from, featured the main characters, King Arthur,Sir Lancelot,Sir Robin, Sir Galahad,Sir Bedevere, and the trusty horse/bearer, Patsy. The second series consisted of muddy versions of the knights,and the third series was made up of supporting characters like the French Taunter,the Dead Collector,the Black Knight,the Bridge Keeper,Tim the Enchanter,The King of Swamp Castle,Prince Herbert,and the super sized (18") Knight Who Says Ni.
That's the doll for today.

  Tomorrow we'll see the last doll of the year. It's a review of a beautiful doll,so I'll see you then.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #3: Michael Palin as Sir Galahad

   Yesterday we saw Twiggy,who is being made a Dame this year. The announcement was made in the New Year's Honours List. Today we're looking at another person, who is receiving a Knighthood this year. In honour of the announcement of Michael Palin's upcoming knighthood, today we're looking at Sir Micheal Palin as Sir Galahad.

This 'Sir Galahad' is from the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

These Holy Grail figures were made by Sideshow,which has made a lot of figures based on movie and TV characters.

The Sideshow figures were pretty good, but these days they are overshadowed by the amazingly realistic figures made by Hot Toys and others.

Galahad is 12" tall.

Oh look.He found that shrubbery he needed...

He has 'over 20' points of articulation,which means 21.

He's jointed at the neck,(His head is on a swivel joint.),shoulders,upper arms,elbows,lower arms,wrists,(or,in this case,gloves.),upper body, waist,hips,upper legs,knees,and ankles.

The upper arm and upper leg joints are kind of hard to use, especially through the slippery chain mail. There also isn't much posability with the gloves. The arms and legs have a lot of movement though.

The likeness to Micheal Palin is pretty good if you look at the sculpt.

 

The paint job could have been a lot better though, and the resemblance would have been more obvious.



The figure comes with a shield, which has an elastic strap and molded plastic hand grip on the back.

 He has a gingham belt for some reason. It's not quite movie accurate. I wouldn't think gingham was popular in the middle ages.

He has a belt for his sword's sheath too,but it seems to have stretched out over time. It's way too long now.

The sword is nice,and really fits in the sheath.

His chain mail is scratchy nylon. In the movie it was made from knitted yarn,because real chain mail was too heavy. (Probably too expensive too. The whole movie cost less than 250,000 pounds.) 

His hood can be put up or down.

The leggings have soles on the bottom.

 

He has elbow pads too.

 

There is some nice detail in the gloves.
 

The gloves are his actual hands,and not removable.
He even comes with the 'grail shaped beacon' from the Castle Anthrax.

The little door opens to reveal the candle inside.
 

There were quite a few Sideshow Monty Python figures. In the first series, which this doll comes from, there were all four knights, (Lancelot,Bedevere,Robin, and Galahad), King Arthur, and his 'faithful servant' Patsy.
 

 

There was also a series of muddy knights, which were basically the same figures with 'mud' covered clothes,as well as most of the other random characters in the film, including the Black Knight,the dead collector, the king of Swamp Castle and his son Prince Herbert,Tim the Enchanter,the French Taunter,and the bridge keeper.

  Even the box is full of Pythonesque jokes,many based on jokes or lines from the movie.

Sir Michael Palin KCMG,CBE,FRGS was born in Ranmoor,Sheffield, England in 1943.

 He graduated from Oxford University,and went on to a career as a writer and actor. After achieving huge success with the Monty Python comedy troupe in the Tv series "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and the movies that followed, he went on to appear in his own TV series,"Ripping Yarns,co-written with fellow Python Terry Jones. Sir Michael also appeared in movies,including "American Friends",which he wrote,based in his grandfather's journals, "A Fish Called Wanda",(with fellow Python John Cleese),for which he won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor,and "Time Bandits",which he co-wrote with it's director,Terry Gilliam, also a fellow Python. 

  These days Sir Michael is probably best known for his many travel programmes. His first was "Around the World in 80 Days With Michael Palin" in 1989, and his most recent was "Michael Palin in North Korea". He is receiving his knighthood for 'services to travel,culture, and geography'.
  As you may have read here before, I love Monty Python. I visited their offices in London several times...

Monty Python office in 1986.

...and I've shown you my prized possession in a previous post.
 

My signed photo, which I took in the Python office in 1985. It took months to get all the Pythons to sign it while it lingered in the office. I was panicked something would happen to it while it awaited the last signature,and when they mailed it to me after I went back to America.

I'm pretty proud of Sir Michael.
 Don't forget to check out tomorrow's doll.