I hear it all the time -- griping from collectors who want something new and different for their action figure shelves. Apparently the New Amsterdam Spirits Company has been hearing the very same thing! The New Amsterdam Gin bottle offers these collectors the chance to add an unusual display piece to their shelves -- but is it worth the price? Keep reading to find out!

Name: New Amsterdam Gin (375 mL bottle)
Line: New Amsterdam No. 485
Manufacturer: New Amsterdam Spirits Company
Released: 1st Quarter 2010 (???)
Price: Retail: $5.49
Scale: 1/1
Accessories: Removable cap, 80 proof liquid filling

At a glance the sculpt of a New Amsterdam Gin bottle is unremarkable, but a closer look reveals it to be rather fetching. The bottle's 4-inch wide body gives it a certain shelf presence, yet the 1.5-inch depth ensures that -- if you so choose -- you'll have ample room to place figures behind and in front of it in any given display. The rounded corners are also fairly attractive, and they also ensure that you won't hurt yourself on any sharp edges should you become disoriented after drinking too much of the liquid inside. In addition, while the bottle is mostly smooth, there are ridges sculpted on the rim of the base in order to give the bottle a firmer grip on the shelf. "32 C" is also sculpted in the center-right area of the base, though I have no idea what that means.

Sculpt Score: 8 / 10

There's very little paint on the New Amsterdam Gin bottle, and what little there is -- the code "LV2501100837" printed just below the label on the back -- is very faint and almost imperceptible at a distance. Instead, the folks at the New Amsterdam Spirits company rely upon decals and cast colors to make the bottle more attractive. On the front of the bottle, a simple label sticker conveys the company name and the nature of the product in a plain, yet nevertheless attractive manner -- the only blemish being the word "Straight," which appears in a somewhat gaudy red color and cursive font -- and the back describes the product's origin story (somehow the essence of New Amsterdam was distilled to create this classic drink), features some lyrics from the hit song "Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants, and the requisite government warnings. This rear label is also two sided, with the innermost side featuring a monochrome tower that I assume was present in old New Amsterdam. The image itself wouldn't be all that attractive, but when viewed through the clear glass of the bottle and liquid therein it gains an ethereal quality: almost as if one is looking back in time to a distant nighttime scene in this forgotten city. Finally, although the cap is cast in a metallic silver that somewhat clashes with the subdued labels and clear glass, it nevertheless helps to draw the wandering eye to this attractive display piece.

Paint Score: 8 / 10

There's only one point of articulation here: the swivel cap. It's disappointing to say the least, since it works rather oddly -- if you turn it clockwise too much, it gets stuck and won't move any further, but if you turn it counter-clockwise it becomes loose and falls off. Granted, I appreciate that the cap is removable, but the looseness is rather undesirable from a play and display perspective. In any case, this single joint is hardly very useful, though you can use it to tweak the bottle's pose by leaving it in different degrees of tightness or looseness.

Articulation Score: 2 / 10

On its own, this New Amsterdam Gin bottle isn't very fun. When you display it with certain action figures, however, it gains a charm that few action figures can match! Yeah, you might enjoy posing War Machine next to Iron Man -- but when you display him next to a New Amsterdam Gin bottle, he's no longer merely an Iron Man action figure on your shelf: he's Tony Stark come home after a difficult satellite mission in space. The bottle similarly breathes new life into a Hellboy comic figure: when you pose that toy next to it, Hellboy suddenly seems like he's taking a drink break in the midst of his explorations in a land of giants. And even though the taste is rather bitter, you can probably also have quite a bit of fun with the liquid that comes inside the bottle! That said, Articulated Discussion reminds you to drink responsibly.

Fun Score: 9 / 10

While you can find certain bottles containing mixed drinks or rum for even less, $5.49 isn't a bad price for a glass bottle this fetching -- you'd pay almost this much for a plastic bottle of similar size, and it'd probably have a cheap plastic cap and come filled with liquid soap. The New Amsterdam Gin bottle, on the other hand, has a nifty silver cap and is filled with gin, which you can mix with your Capri Sun drinks to delightful and delicious effect! Make sure you squeeze the juice out of the Capri Sun pouch and into an appropriately sized glass before trying to mix any gin into it, though -- I speak from experience when I say that attempting to pour gin down those tiny yellow straws is a shockingly bad (and messy) idea.

Value Score: 9 / 10

76 / 100 - This is a Good Toy Thing [TAO's Note: Um... for legal reasons, let's not say this is a "toy"]

With the exception of its very limited articulation, the New Amsterdam Gin bottle is a fun little piece that will undoubtedly add a certain charm to your shelf and new life to certain figure displays. If the score seems low, keep in mind that it's only $5.49! At that price -- and considering the myriad uses for such an item -- you'd do well to pick one up. For instance, if you've started collecting Hasbro's 4-inch Iron Man 2 figures, I imagine this bottle would make a great centerpiece in a display featuring those little dudes. This recommendation assumes that you're 21 or older [TAO's Note: This is a good comment.], of course -- if not, you'll have to wait until you're old enough to add the New Amsterdam Gin bottle to your collection.

-Wes

This could won't be the figure given away in this month's Review Commentator Contest. Nevertheless, join the discussion by leaving a comment! [TAO's Note: You never know, we might get desperate or cheap.]

_________