Review by Cat Eldridge: Accurate representations of Rocket Raccoon, best known from the two Guardians of the Galaxy films plus various animated outing and even some graphic novels as well, are difficult to find without spending a lot of cash on the accurate one-sixth scale models costing in the hundreds of dollars. 

I wanted one such figure largely because I thought that Rocket and Groot were the most interesting characters in those films.

The Marvel character, by the way, goes back over forty years, as he was created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Keith Giffen, first appearing in Marvel Preview #7, Summer 1976. 

He is apparently an intelligent, anthropomorphic raccoon — uplifted to use the David Brin term — who is an expert marksman, an accomplished thief and sometimes master tactician. Oh, and a complete smartass. His name is apparently a riff off the 1968 song “Rocky Raccoon” by The Beatles.

So off I went searching for him on Amazon and eBay. The one I got was on Amazon for four times what I paid for it on eBay. He is an authorized figure made in Hong Kong! Most of the official releases lean towards the more cartoonish animated versions which I already have one of but this, as you can see in the illustration, is more realistic representation.

So I paid for it (using PayPal as I didn’t trust using my bank account being used overseas) and waited for it to arrive, which it did well over a month later in a square box with all the labeling in Chinese except for my address. To my surprise, there was not a statue inside but rather four separate pieces — his head, his body, his effing big gun and Groot’s head and shoulders. It’s was also obvious that the image used had been enhanced as he’s been more subtly colored than the image.

Glued together as otherwise they kept coming apart, I’m pleased with him and I’ve placed the statue among the house plants which seemed appropriate. I’d have been happier if he was as large as described, seven inches, as it’s smaller than that, but I like the look quite a bit.