writes:
Gaming with 4" action figures is somewhat on the fringes of our hobby, but if that interests you, take a look at the new Final Faction range from Dollar Tree.
The basic premise is:
In the year 2050, a large asteroid collided with our moon. Among the debris, we discovered a hibernating alien mothership. Now, the Kharn are awake and they want to plunder our precious natural resources. So, we recruited teams of special operatives to defend Earth from their alien threat.
They are the... Final Faction!
There are over a dozen packs in the first release, five of which are unique Alpha Team 1 figures. Although there's no mention of a gaming system, each figure comes with stats on the back of the pack:
My local store had three of the figures. Let's start with Sgt. Ruck:
Ruck is the 'comic relief' member of the team. He's a big muscleman from Austria, and in the video speaks with a thick German accent. He comes with a weapon and a backpack.
The figure has a number of insertion points for optional parts. The gun (it sounds like a machinegun in the video) fits on the shoulder, and the backpack on the back (took some force to get it on all the way). The arms and legs move, but not the elbows and knees; the head doesn't move.
The figure carries a giant rotary gun at one point in the video; that's probably in one of the optional parts packs.
The Augmented Combat Rescue Mech (A.C.R.M.) is a remote-piloted fighting mech with lots of attachment points, but doesn't seem to have any of the cool weapons shown in the video (upcoming optional pack?).
Specialist Shift is from "the mountains of East Asia" (though she has no accent in the video). She comes with a pair of swords (it's one piece of bendy plastic, but it's cast so that the blades cross over without touching).
Based on the video at the official website, the basic premise is that the alien Kharn are raiding to mine Earth's resources, and the Final Faction team is tasked to eliminate the alien harvester, rescue any local humans, and eliminate dozens of aliens before they can reach their teleport point.
For gaming purposes, you'd probably want to base the figures to make them more stable, and possibly touch up the paintjobs. (For instance, apply silver marker to Shift's blades.) The official video gives some good ideas on what the figures should ideally look like.
I'll check back as more of the packs trickle into my local stores!