Of those three, my favorite has always been PULP FICTION. Sure, RESERVOIR DOGS was great, and plenty of other folks enjoyed JACKIE BROWN. But for me, his best film remains the classic tale of Vincent, Jules, Mia and Marsellus.

If you haven't seen PULP FICTION, then by all means do so. If you have, you know all about the exceptional dialogue and nifty story telling techniques. And this film isn't just the best Tarantino movie - it's also the film that re-launched John Travolta's career for the third round. That's a good thing or a bad thing, depending on which side of the Travolta camp you sit.

Toy companies have picked up on the pop culture popularity of all things Tarantino, and provided us with action figures. If you're a faithful reader, you already know that NECA has done figures for KILL BILL, including the Crazy 88s, and The Bride and Go-Go. In the past, we have gotten figures from Mezco and Palisades of RESERVOIR DOGS, in two different scales. And now NECA steps up with PULP FICTION GeOms. Now all we need are JACKIE BROWN Legos!

So what the hell are GeOms? Remember all the past discussions on mini-figures? These are NECA's addition to that particular spawn of Hell. Okay, I don't actually hate mini-figures in general, but there are so many different kinds out there these days that it really is quite amazing. The GeOms follow a similar pattern, but they have their own slightly different take of course. They have squarish bodies and limbs, but a round head with sculpted hair. The major facial features are painted on, but the hair, ears and some additional details are often sculpted. They come with more accessories than the average mini-figure, and overall are slightly bigger.

NECA has produced four distinct sets of four GeOms each based on scenes from the film, and they retail for $20. You can find them at many on-line stores - I have a great suggestion at the end of the review - and I've seen them at the local Media Play as well.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can always reach me at mwc@mwctoys.com. If you enjoy this review, take a minute to check out my other site at Michael's Review of the Week, and let me know what you think. Now on to the review!

"Pulp Fiction GeOms - The Cast and Overdose"

As I mentioned, NECA has done four different sets of four figures each. I'm reviewing two of those here today - Overdose, with Vincent, Mia, Lance and Jody, and The Cast, with Vince, Jules, Mia and Marsellus - and the other two sets, Clean Up and The Gimp, over at Michael's Review of the Week.

Packaging - ***
Each set of four comes in a small window box. The packaging will hold up to shelf wear well, shows off the figures nicely, and is collector friendly. That's also nice because these consistently shaped boxes are very easy to store for the MIBers.

The only downside is the graphics. They aren't terrible, but all four of the boxes are identical except for the text telling you which set this is. A little more variety would have been a nice touch.

A special note when taking them out of the package - be careful! The ears can get stuck in the bubble, and get pulled off if you aren't gentle.

Sculpting - Jody ***; the rest ***1/2
There's more sculpting here than most mini-figures, with the exception of Mez-itz. All eight of these figures are nicely done, and there's no doubt who's who. Characters are distinguished not just with the hair sculpts and paint jobs, but with the little extra sculpting touches. For example, the forearms on both Mia and Lance have had extra sleeve details added, and the Overdose version of Vince has pony tail hair and a sculpted earring, while the Cast version has straight hair and no earring.

I really like the rounded heads as well - they allow the little figures to look much more like actual people than the square or cylindrical heads of other mini-figures. Of the eight figures here, only one doesn't work particularly well for me, and that's Jody. Maybe it's that the hair was tough to capture, but something about this character ended up plain and she looks very little like the actual character to me.

Paint - Jody ***; the rest ***1/2
The paint ops are extremely clean on every figure, with great choices in color, and lots of very small detail. The faces have unique expressions, something that's pretty uncommon in the mini-figure market.

For example, Mia in the Overdose set has a wide eyed expression, with blood running from her nose, that matches the scene perfectly. Vince and Jules have steely expressions, Marsellus is just plain pissed, and the Mia included in the regular Cast set has that slightly bitchy look that Uma does so well.

Again, the only one that's a bit of a let down here is Jody. They had to try to convey the piercings through paint, and it just doesn't work very well. Perhaps if they'd used a slightly different color - they tend to blend in a little too much with her brows and other marks on her face. Even here though, the detail work is exceptionally clean and neat.

Articulation - ***
They have plenty of articulation, but not all of it works quite as well as I'd like. There's a ball-jointed neck, ball-jointed (pin) shoulders, pin elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles. The joints are all tight, which is crucial since the large heads are quite heavy.

Many of the pieces pop apart as well, although not all (and some I'm unwilling to try). The heads, hands and legs pop off easy enough, and the lower arms pop out of the biceps if you pull. Overall, these don't have the 'swapping' capabilities of some of the others, like mini-mates, but I'm not sure it would really make much sense anyway.

My only real articulation nit to pick is on the hips. Like many of these style figures, they only work well from front to back. The amount of side motion is very limited. The outfits limit some of the leg movement as well, like the bottom of Mia's jacket or the bottom half of Lance's robe, but that's to be expected.

Accessories - Overdose ***1/2; The Cast ***
Here's an unusually high score for mini-figures in this category. It's pretty odd to get many accessories, and here we get some great ones that are specific to the scenes. Most also fit nicely in the figure's hands.

In the Overdose set, Vincent comes with the huge hypodermic needle. This is the one for Mia's chest, of course, and even has a working plunger. Mia has her bag of heroin, painted white on the bottom. And Lance comes with his bowl of cereal and a spoon. No sign of any Crunchberries, though. It's only poor Jody that loses out in the accessory category.

In the Cast set, everyone gets a gun. Sort of. Vincent, Jules and Marsellus all have extra hands included and a gun, allowing them to be either righty's or lefty's. These three guns are identical sculpts. But Mia gets a unique gun - the lighter, naturally. The end is even painted red, just in case you weren't sure.

The sculpting and paint work on all the accessories is great, and it's nice to see such a decent variety in this scale.

Value - **
Unfortunately, all this cool comes at a pretty hefty price. At twenty bucks a set, you're paying $5 a figure. While these are slightly bigger mini-figures than usual, it's still a buck or two high per figure, or at least $4- $5 too high a set. The limited nature of the sets though - with so few retailers picking them up, they couldn't have made huge numbers - that drives the costs up and therefore the price. Hmmmm, me thinks I've had this conversation before.

However, there are some on-line places that have them closer to $16, and at that price you can add another half star. I have one at the end of this review in the Where to Buy section.

Overall - ***
Okay, so Jody's not perfect, but the other seven figures are great. As a matter of fact, if you were to press me for which one of these sets I prefer, I'd say the Overdose set, even though that's the one that includes her. Why? Because the pony tail look on Travolta is great, the accessories are cool, and the sheer idea of a set of figures based on this scene just makes me chuckle. In fact, that set might be my favorite of all four, although the Gimp set is pretty snazzy too.

So why not another half-star? It's all about the Benjamins, baby. The prices on the mini-figures are going up all over, and it's a trend I don't see ending soon.

I wanted to add one more caveat - if you don't like mini-figures, you aren't going to like these. You can't compare these to a sixth scale figure, or an 8" action figure, and expect them to be the same - they're not trying to be. If you aren't a fan of the design or style, these aren't for you. However, if you do like this genre, then you should really check them out.

Where to Buy -
I got my four sets through Killer Toys, and they have them for just $16 a set. That's a decent price, and brings up the value score to a more average level.