Comparing Art Figures 1/6 City Police with VTS (Virtual ToyS) Stone Cold Killer 12-inch figure

At least two 1/6 scale companies / manufacturers have produced and released 12-inch figures based on the 2005 film adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City John Hartigan character. In the 2005 movie, John Hartigan is played by Bruce Willis and it seems Mr Willis is a very lucrative character to be made into 1/6 scale because there have been countless 1/6 scale figures released that bear a resemblance to Bruce Willis, so much so that I actually have a label on my TOYHAVEN toy blog just for Bruce Willis :)

There are other interesting characters from the Sin City film that could be made into 12-inch figures as well such as The Salesman (Josh Hartnett - at least Dragon Models did release two 12-inch figures of him - Pearl Harbor HERE and Black Hawk Down HERE), Jackie Boy (Benicio del Toro), Dwight (Clive Owen) and most notably Marv (Mickey Rourke) but we haven't see any of them hit the market. The girls in the film are even more exciting: Goldie (Jaime King), Shellie (Brittany Murphy), Becky (Alexis Bledel), Gail (Rosario Dawson), Miho (Devon Aoki) and Nancy (Jessica Alba - Dragon also released a Jessica Alba lookalike 12-inch female action figure as well - see the pictures HERE).

In the 2005 American crime thriller film "Sin City", a neo-noir based on Miller's graphic novel series of the same name, aging police officer John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) tries to stop serial child-killer Roark Junior (Nick Stahl) from raping and killing eleven-year-old Nancy Callahan (Makenzie Vega). Scroll down to see comparison pictures of the two 12-inch John Hartigan figures released so far.


Here are the two figures placed side-by-side for comparison. Art Figures 1/6 scale City Police 12-inch figure (reviewed earlier HERE and HERE) is on the right and VTS (Virtual ToyS) Stone Cold Killer 12-inch figure (reviewed HERE) is on the left.

It is interesting to see how the 1/6 manufacturers interpreted Sin City's John Hartgan character in color since the film's unique color processing rendered most of the film in black and white but retained or added coloring for select objects which was how Frank Miller's graphic novel comic panels were.

In Neca's design of the Sin City toy action figures, they kept John Hartigan pretty much in gray hues (fifty shades of gray?) except for his blue shirt. At least Neca did release the principal character Marv from which the whole series was created.

Scroll down to see more comparison pictures of Art Figures 1/6 scale City Police with VTS (Virtual ToyS) Stone Cold Killer 12-inch figure, both figures most likely based on the 2005 film adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City John Hartigan character played by Bruce Willis.

Both 1/6 figures look like Bruce Willis and yet are not identical. VTS Stone Cold Killer 1/6 head sculpt looks more harsh with sharper features while Art Figures City Police 12-inch figure has a softer, more life-like head sculpt. Both have their merits and it's nice to be able to have the two side-by-side for comparison.

I'm certainly glad that these other companies have stepped up to the plate and taken on big boys like Hot Toys and Enterbay, and shown them that more than two can play the game. What's even better? These other companies are offering 12-inch figures at such affordable prices and you can get two 1/6 figures for the price of one Hot Toys / Enterbay figure. Now that's the clincher for me!