The Walking Dead merchandise juggernaut continues on and on, and it’s no surprise that McFarlane Toys are keeping the fires burning to meet maximum demand, with three ongoing scales of action figure. The big addition this year was big, bad Negan, and he’s hitting stores now in ten-inch scale. Depending on your point of view — but assuming you like accurate sculpts — this is the best Negan figure to date.

The ten-inch line is designed with old-school McFarlane Toys collectors in mind — the kind who buy Todd McFarlane’s line that when it comes to action figures, the “action” can be in the dynamic pose rather than the ability to re-pose a figure into different positions. In other words, regardless of the articulation, it is basically forced-pose.

That said, Negan has more articulation than most of his 10-inch brethren, but it’s only super-useful if you want to pose him looking at his own butt. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Mostly, the joints — cut articulation on the boot tops, waist, and shoulders, and limited ball-joints on the wrists and neck — are to get him into the sweet spot of pummeling, in which you can find a few degrees of variety.

Most of the ten-inch figures come with a flat disc to help them stand. Negan was obviously originally intended to come with this…

…but in the end it was switched out for a rugged-terrain diorama base, which is a good improvement. It’s cut a bit like a jigsaw, which implies future figures may have bases that interlock with it.

The likeness to Jeffrey Dean Morgan, presumably from digital scans, is pretty spot-on.

And while a lot of the ten-inch figures have held generic “weapons at the ready” poses, Negan’s smashin’ heads swing makes him quite versatile, depending on what you want to pose him with.

Also unlike the others, he will stand unassisted, though it may entail making his legs look slightly awkward.

No felines were harmed during the taking of the following image:

Hell, you can put just about anything in front of him and it makes a photo op.

With the possible exception of Rick, who comes pointing a gun to somebody’s head, this is the best dynamic pose in the whole line so far. The detail on Lucille is solid too.

Compared to the awkward 7-inch figure, this really is the big bad you want, if indeed you want him at all. Just don’t let your spouse catch you taking photos like this one:

Y’all won’t tell her, right? We’re pals here.

Like the others in this line, Negan retails for around $34.99. In the post-Hilltop world, that’s a lot of liquor.

Whom would you have him beat down in photographic poses? Suggest away in comments.

Images: Luke Y. Thompson

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Luke Y. Thompson is Nerdist’s biggest toy fan.  Tweet at him for more toy madness.