Welcome to Figures & Speech, Nerdist’s regular column by, for, and about grown-ups who still play with their toys but might want to know more before they buy. From product reviews to informed editorials, these are most definitely the articles that’ll make you want to strike a pose. Click on all images to enlarge for detail.

Those of you who have commented that you like the somewhat random juxtapositions that occur when toy companies send me items from different licenses should enjoy this week’s column, which is the result of my asking our friends at McFarlane Toys if they had anything available that they would like reviewed. One week later, The Walking Dead‘s Carl Grimes and a Titanfall 2 Titan showed up on my doorstep. They don’t really go together at all besides coming from the same company, but they do represent somewhat opposite ends of the spectrum, in that one represents the kind of thing McFarlane does best, and the other…less so.

While I’m not much of a gamer and haven’t played Titanfall 2, I love big giant robots, especially ones with pilots inside. And while 3A Toys have created some insanely perfect figures based on the first game, they’re way out of my budget, and most of yours, I’m guessing. McFarlane doing more affordable ones sounded like a great idea, especially when the company revealed they’d come with in-scale pilots.

Titan BT-7274 comes in a window box that showcases the figure nicely, and the back of the box also displays the 7-inch figure of Pilot Jack Cooper from the Color Tops line, if you prefer him in that scale.

You do have to cut some hard-plastic clear twist ties to free the figure from it’s plastic tray, but unlike with, say, NECA quarter-scale figures, you do not have to destroy the back insert to do it. In fact, this could be repurposed as a diorama backdrop if you wanted.

It doesn’t even have to be for Titans.

Okay, so the Titan has some pretty cool detail, as you’d expect from McFarlane…

Would you care to guess the key aspect that they missed? Think hard, and remember, this is a vehicle that comes with a pilot…

If you guessed “The vehicle doesn’t actually open to allow you to put the pilot inside,” give yourself a gold star. Jack is designed and posed to stand atop the Titan, via the small peg indicated here with a crudely drawn red arrow…

…which plugs into a hole in Jack’s foot, shown here:

Jack’s legs are stuck in that crouching pose, too. He has some articulation: cut shoulders and wrists, restricted waist, and a ball-jointed neck. But you can’t do much with him aside from the intended position.

I sometimes think Todd McFarlane must have never actually played with toys. His Lego-ish sets, cool though they are, are designed to be built one way only, and now this vehicle leaves out the key fun feature of the games. The Titan also has way less articulation than you might expect: like, you look at this leg and may think it’s going to have a cool double-jointed knee. It does not.

The arms have some range, with ball-and-cut shoulders. ball elbows, and ball wrists. But the legs have limited ball hips and ankles, and that’s it. Not even a waist joint, either.

If you just want a Titan that looks cool, you’re in business. But if you wanted one more playable, you might have to keep looking.

Carl Grimes has a bit more room to maneuver. His legs are in a weird pose that makes him require his included base to stand, but with ball-jointed shoulders, elbows, wrists, and ankles, plus a ball neck that actually works in multiple positions (thank you, McF, for learning from the first series), he has a means to gesticulate wildly. Or sullenly. Whatevs.

Carl comes with multiple accessories. First, his hat, which is technically his Dad’s, but it only barely balances on Rick’s head.

He also has a bloody alternate head and a poncho stained with walker guts. Even if you don’t know the show, they make him look a bit like some sort of J-horror ghost.

This is what McFarlane does well: blood, guts, and actor likenesses. Carl’s annoyed expression is perfect…and eminently meme-able.

I do wish he came with a gun, but they already gave him more accessories than usual. Besides, the poncho restricts his movement so he can’t really wield one with it on.

The Titan will run you about thirty bucks; CORAL closer to $18. The latter, IMO, is the better deal. If you wind up buying him, please share your CORAL photo memes with me on Twitter, as I will never tire of them.

Images: LYT for Nerdist

Luke Y. Thompson is Nerdist’s weekend editor and resident toy obsessive. Tweet him @LYTrules