#4112: Jean Grey

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

JEAN GREY

MARVEL HALL OF FAME (TOY BIZ)

“It’s non-stop action when the Marvel Universe’s greatest heroines join forces against the power of the Black Queen! Locked in mortal combat with the notorious Queen, Jean Grey of the X-Men uses her telepathic powers to summon help. Jean is joined by fellow X-Man Storm, Avenger Ms. Marvel, and the mysterious Spider-Woman. Together, this team has all the power it needs to stop the Black Queen in her tracks!”

Hey, remember Marvel Hall of Fame, from way back in last month’s reviews?  Well, it’s back, in pog form!  Or, like, Jean Grey form, I guess.  Despite her rather prominent spot in the franchise and its various media adaptations, Toy Biz’s X-Men line was sparse on Jean Grey figures, especially her ‘90s outfit, was absent for most of the run.  It’s first real appearance in 5-inch form was not in the X-Men line at all, but rather Hall of Fame, where it cropped up as one of the line’s quick, slapdash repaints.  Let’s see how that turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jean Grey was released Series 2 of Marvel Hall of Fame, in 1996.  This was the Puzzle Zoo-exclusive line’s first “She-Force” assortment, before they really became a trend.  Jean was still in the Jim Lee get-up at the time, so this figure was more or less accurate to what was in the comics.  Sort of.  Let’s dig further into that.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation.  All of the Hall of Fame figures were repaints of some variety, and in Jean’s case she’s a complete re-use of the X-Force line’s Domino.  It’s…fine.  I do like that the figure gets proper hip joints, and not v-hips, but I don’t love the total lack of neck articulation or the odd swivels at the elbows.  In terms of actual costume design, while there are some similarities between the two costume designs if you squint, it’s not exactly a 1 for 1.  Generally, they do their best with the paint, which kind of tries to mimmic the layout of Jean’s costume.  The head gear is better than I’d expected, and the shoulders and wrists are pretty close, but it’s really the extraneous belts and pouches that ultimately throw it all off.  Also those crazy eyes.  Don’t love those crazy eyes.  Jean was packed with Domino’s guns and missiles, recolored to match better.  They make no sense at all for the character, but I do like the coloring at least.  Also included was a trading card, in my case Belladonna, Gambit’s ex.  I think she might be the most common card I’ve had turn up with these figures at this point.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember seeing the figure from time to time in the earlier days of my collecting, mostly in larger lots of figures online.  Something always felt rather off about her, though, and I’ve hesitated to track her down for many years because of that.  She’s actually the most recent addition to my Hall of Fame figures, in fact purchased as part of a larger Toy Biz lot, so I guess that’s just how she hits the market.  She’s odd, just from top to bottom.  I guess I can sort of see where they were trying to go with the costume similarities, but the thing is that Domino and Jean are very different characters with very different demeanors, and that translates to an odd match-up.  Ultimately, I don’t really love this one, but I admire what they were trying to do.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0088: Night Creeper

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , ,

NIGHT CREEPER

G.I. JOE: SPY TROOPS (HASBRO)

Hey there faithful readers, and welcome to the end of the week.  Oh, yes, it’s ending.  Fantastic.  Since it’s Friday, let’s celebrate it the only way I know how, with a Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Today, I’m going in for seconds on a particularly sneaky ninja, with a return look at the Spy Troops Night Creeper!

Today, I’ll be taking a look at an entry in the original Action Figure toyline, G.I. Joe!  Like my last G.I. Joe review, this figure hails from the Real American Hero incarnation of the line.  In the early 2000s, Hasbro attempted to bring this incarnation back after a few years of hiatus.  The reinvented line started as a simple “G.I. Joe vs. Cobra” idea, but quickly moved from gimmick to gimmick to keep things fresh.  One of those gimmicks was called “Spy Troops” and revolved around certain figures featuring special gear that would allow them to blend in with their enemies.  This time around, I’ll be looking at one of the Cobra forces from the line, the Night Creeper.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Night Creeper was released as part of the 2003 wave of Spy Troops figures.  He was paired in a two pack with Kamukura, one of the many G.I. Joe ninjas.  The Night Creepers were one of Cobras many ninja armies, so the pairing makes sense.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and features 20 points of articulation.  The sculpt on the figure is a bit dated now, with an odd kind of “v” shape to the body and long arms, but at the time, it was actually quite good.  Viewed through that lens, it’s pretty good, if not perfect.  There’s lots of cool little details present, which give the figure a lot of character.  The paint on the figure is minimal, with most of the figure being molded in the appropriate shade of blue, but the small amounts of paint present are all nice and clean.  The Night Creeper was actually very well accessorized, with a sword for his basic look, plus a dive mask, re-breather, flippers, and a harpoon gun to allow the Creeper to masquerade as G.I. Joe Wetsuit.  I’ve lost the Wetsuit pieces, but they did the job quite convincingly, and actually made for a slightly better figure than the official Wetsuit release.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually bought Night Creeper solely for the Kamukura figure that was packed with him, but I quickly grew to like the Night Creeper a bit more.  The early 2000s G.I. Joe line was far from perfect, and was even downright bad at times, but the Night Creeper was one of the better figures.

The Night Creeper was actually only my second G.I. Joe review here on the site, which is honestly crazy.  Some lines started off on the site with looks at particularly significant figures or at least early additions to my collection, but the Joes kicked it off with a Rise of Cobra figure followed by a random ‘00s off-shoot trooper.  Guess that’s just how it be sometimes.  I was generally rather complimentary towards this figure the first time around, and I’ll stand by that.  Though I have no real attachment to the Night Creeper in general, this figure is quite nice, and I think holds up as one of the better offerings of the era.  When I first reviewed the figure, he was missing all of the parts for his “spy” disguise as Wet Suit, but I’ve since located them.  I think it’s a pretty convincing set-up, and sells the gimmick a lot better than a good portion of this line ever did.

#4111: Scout Trooper – Imperial Patrol

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

SCOUT TROOPER — IMPERIAL PATROL

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE JEDI/SAGA (HASBRO)

“Although lightly armored, Imperial scout troopers are essentially highly mobile stormtroopers. They patrol perimeters, perform reconnaissance missions, and scout enemy locations. They are equipped for high maneuverability and long periods without support.”

Hasbro’s Power of the Jedi line, more than being its own standalone line, was more than anything about wrapping up loose ends before moving onto the next thing.  In addition to serving as a way to release the last of the Episode I product, they also added a few new items to the Power of the Force stylings, with some OT characters that didn’t quite get proper coverage earlier.  While all of the environment-specific Imperial troops got some degree of coverage in PotF2, the Scout Trooper notably only got a vehicle pack-in release, and a kind of wonky one at that.  Power of the Jedi offered up one that served as a slightly more conventional figure, and I’m looking at that one today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Scout Trooper — Imperial Patrol was released in Star Wars: Power of the Jedi’s first year, in 2000.  There were two versions of the figure available, clean and dirty.  The dirty version, seen here, was re-released in 2002 with a bunch of new accessories as part of the Saga line’s “Endor Victory” accessory set.  The core figure is effectively the same, though the pelvis piece is reversed on the second release.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  In contrast to the vehicle pack-in figure, which was specifically built to ride the speeder bike, this one is specifically built to stand around, which he does pretty well.  He’s got some minor pre-posing, mostly limited to the arms, but the articulation all has decent clearance, and he can do some nice basic posing.  It’s interesting to be getting such a basic articulation set-up this late in the game, but as mentioned in the intro, there was definitely some attempt to close out the PotF style a little bit.  The actual detailing on the sculpt is quite nicely handled.  His proportions aren’t anything crazy (though his head’s arguably a little small and his hands are a little big) and his uniform is rather well detailed, and accurate to the source.  It’s not hyper detailed, but there’s plenty to keep the sculpt from getting boring.  The color work starts out with some pretty basic black and white, but adds some dirt and battle scarring on the top of it.  It’s a touch heavy-handed in some spots, but it generally works okay.  I definitely like the boots best of all.  The Scout Trooper is packed with his blaster pistol, which he can hold or store in his ankle holster.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never actually got a chance to pick up the original Power of the Jedi release of this guy, but in 2002 I was in prime buying so much Star Wars product mode, and ended up snagging the accessory set release.  Over the years, I’ve lost pretty much all of the accessory set parts, but I managed to hang on to at least the main figure.  He’s basic, but fun, and pretty well up my alley in terms of how I like my Star Wars figures.

#4110: Orko – 200X

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

ORKO — 200X

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE ORIGINS (MATTEL)

Well, this year hasn’t been *without* Masters of the Universe reviews, but it has been a little sparse.  I had the two movie tie-in figures of two of the three figures I always buy from any given incarnation, but that’s been it.  And, that decidedly leaves me without a review of the third guy, Orko, who as of yet doesn’t have a movie figure.  So, with that lack of movie Orko, I guess I’ll just have to sub something else in.  As luck would have it, there’s a new Orko I haven’t reviewed, and this one’s based on my favorite incarnation of the franchise, the 2002 cartoon!  In 2022, Mattel dipped their toes in the 200x well with a He-Man translated into Origins’ more ‘80s style, and in 2024 launched the Cartoon Collection sub-line which was patterned more closely on the Filmation models.  This year, they expanded the Cartoon Collection to include the 2002 show, and there’s 25 figures released or shown off thus far, which is really quite a few.  Anyway, here’s the Orko!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Orko — 200x is part of the 30th Wave of Masters of the Universe Origins, which is the fourth assortment dedicated to 200x under the Cartoon Collection banner.  This is the line’s third Orko, which is a nice number of Orkos for sure.  The figure is just over 3 1/2 inches tall without his flight stand and he has 17 points of articulation.  In a trend of continuing improvements to how the Orko figures move, he not only has fully articulated arms and ball joints on the top and bottom of the head, allowing for full posing of the head and hat, but also has swivels on the ears, so that they can finally be properly oriented when the hat is repositioned.  This Orko is yet another all-new sculpt, this time based directly on the animation model from the show, something not even the original 200x figure did.  He’s notably a bit lankier than the prior Orkos, and his hat and cloak are slightly more disheveled.  Additionally, the lower portion of the cloak is more dynamic and tailored, which looks cool, but does mean that, unlike the last two Origins Orkos, this one can’t stand without the included flight base.  In general, it’s a decent enough match for the cartoon, and it all pieces together pretty well.  I did find my copy had a lot more flashing than I’m used to seeing on these figures, especially on his scarf and hands.  It’s not hard to clean it up myself, but it’s a little annoying.  Orko’s color work is more on the muted side, just like show that spawned him.  It’s still very Orko, though, so that’s really the important thing.  The paint work is minor, but what’s there works well enough for the most part.  That said, there’s some slop around the edges of the yellow trim.  Orko is packed with the more simplistic flight stand seen on the last Orko, a variation of his “hero’s medal” (which was actually part of his standard design in the show), and a pair of magic effect pieces that go over the hands.  While the magic parts are an interesting idea, I find the execution a little clumsy.  Personally, I’d have loved to see an alternate helmeted head for his “play” from the pilot, but I guess that’s a very specific extra.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Remember back when I almost didn’t buy the original Origins Orko and then I did and I thought that would be all I needed? Ah, simpler times.  In my defense, I never did imagine they’d do a whole 200x run.  It’s the show that gave me my love of Orko, and we’ve never gotten a proper animation based figure of him, so I was pretty happy to see this one.  He’s a neat figure.  I think, in terms of straightforward figures, the Filmation one may still be the slightly better figure, but this one’s quite nice, and does some cool stuff.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#4109: Power Girl

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

POWER GIRL

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“Power Girl is the Earth-Two equivalent of Supergirl, native Kryptonian and cousin to Superman”

There was a moment, about a month ago, when I was a little concerned that I might run out of a good stock of DC stuff to review on Tuesdays.  I’m significantly less worried about that these days.  Why’s that?  I’ve got so many new Super Powers to review, that’s why!  Last week, I was marveling at Supergirl, the first new female character added to the line since the vintage run, who actually doubled the number of them in the set.  Well, we’re bringing that count up to three today with Supergirl’s alternate universe equivalent, Power Girl!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Power Girl is the second figure in Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation line, officially numbered 62 in the line, a number she’s stealing from Cyborg, due to Wave 13 doubling up on the Wave 11 numbers for whatever reason.  In addition to following up on Supergirl’s Super Family theme, Power Girl also joins the rapidly increasing Justice Society line-up that’s been added by the revival, though this time we’re getting a later run addition, though one that’s certainly still within the purview of the vintage line’s run.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation.  Structurally, Power Girl is very similar to Supergirl, which makes a degree of sense, especially for this era of the character, before certain assets became quite so prominent in her design.  Speaking of design, she’s more or less using Power Girl’s second costume design, when they removed the boob window in favor of a v-neck collar.  It’s what she was wearing at the time of the original line, so I can’t really fault it, and I think it translates the best to this style of all the available choices.  Like Supergirl, she’s using a modified version of the Wonder Woman body, which has removed all of the Wonder Woman-specific elements.  Power Girl gets a unique set of lower legs, featuring buccaneer boots, as well as a unique head sculpt.  While not quite as strong as the Supergirl head, this one’s still pretty solid, and it’s certainly sharp.  Like Supergirl, she’s got a cloth cape, and it’s still kind of odd sitting, but in Karen’s case, that’s not as much of an issue, since her cape usually hung over her shoulders a bit more, which this one does.  Her color work is generally strong.  It’s bright, eye catching, and fairly cleanly applied.  For whatever reason, she’s got a choker painted onto her neck, which isn’t really a Power Girl thing, at least with this costume, but admittedly I don’t hate it, and it breaks up the neck a bit, so I don’t hate it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I wasn’t exactly bummed about the line having no Power Girl the way I was about Supergirl, I was at the very least a little sad to see the end of more JSA members when all was said and done.  In that regard, I was certainly pleasantly surprised to see her crop up here.  She’s a fun addition, while maybe not quite as polished as Supergirl was, she’s quite nice.

#4108: Shadow Dancer

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

SHADOW DANCER

X-MEN 2099 (TOY BIZ)

“Centuries ago, an alien spacecraft from a distant galaxy became trapped in a cave deep within the deserts of Oklahoma. Stranded, the craft’s lone survivor made the surrounding hills and mountains its home, undisturbed by the general populace. Despite its monstrous appearance, the Shadow Dancer is a being of peace, and uses its ability to blend into darkness to serve as silent guardian to those who pass through his desert.”

Toy Biz’s X-Men 2099 line might not have come even close to completing any line-up of the team from the book’s run, but at least they did include a bunch of non-team members, right?  Right.  Take for instance, the super crucial character, Shadow Dancer, who had all of three appearances.  Gotta get an action figure of that one, right?  Oh yeah.  So, let’s look at the Shadow Dancer, being of three appearances!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shadow Dancer is the final figure in the Series 2 line-up of the X-Men 2099 tie-in line, wrapping up an assortment that was light on characters from the titular team.  The figure stands right at 5 inches tall (and almost as wide) and has 7 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme is sort of oddball here.  There’s joints at the shoulders, elbows, and hips, as well as a swivel on the tail.  The hips and shoulders are pretty standard, but the elbows only move outward and inward, not up and down like usual.  It makes it so the Shadow Dancer can, at best, do sort of a hugging thing, while not really offering much other variety on posing.  At least the figure’s imposing stature makes up for it.  There’s no denying this figure sure is a big hunk of plastic, but it kind of needs to be, to accurately depict what’s in the comics.  The sculpt is appropriately big and monstrous, with some decent texturing and smaller detail work.  The jaw is hinged, and when you turn the dial on the figure’s back, it chatters up and down.  It’s gimmicky, but neat.  The color work on the Shadow Dancer is predominately a sort of maroon, which is molded, with a fair amount of dark silver accenting via paint work.  It’s nothing crazy, but it does what it needs too.  Shadow Dancer didn’t include any accessories, but given the size, it’s understandable.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As with almost the entirety of this line, I got Shadow Dancer in a big bulk lot of loose figures, back in 2020.  While I had to augment a lot of them with parts from other figures later, the Shadow Dancer, with its lack of smaller easily lost parts, was included in its entirety, which is pretty nifty.  There’s not a ton going on with this figure, but at the same time, there doesn’t really need to be.  It’s a big, chunky monster thing, with a rather neat and understated action feature.  And, I can say from the amusement it brought my son Matty when he was digging through my figures a few years  back, it does seem to resonate pretty well with that kid mindset.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0087: Hal Jordan

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum

HAL JORDAN

GREEN LANTERN MOVIE (MATTEL)

We’ve officially made it to another Friday!  Alright, welcome to Friday!  We’re once again doing that fun Flashback Friday Figure Addendum bit, this time flipping back over to the DC side of things, with a moderately topical choice.  Since The Lanterns will be bringing Hal Jordan back to the world of live action DC this weekend, let’s have a return look at a bit of product from the *last* live action Hal Jordan project.

Having rounded up all of my Christmas gift reviews (barring any late gifts, I suppose), I’ll be moving back to my regularly scheduled programming of random figures from my vast collection.  A large subset of my collection is solely Green Lantern items, due to me being a really big fan of the character.  Being such a fan, sometimes I buy stuff solely because it’s Green Lantern.  That was the case with today’s figure, which hails from Mattel’s toy line to tie in with 2011’s Green Lantern movie.  It’s the basic version of the main character, Hal Jordan.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hal was released in the first wave of figures from Mattel’s Green Lantern line, which came out a few short weeks before the movie’s release.    He stands about 4 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation.    He’s based on Hal’s fully GL’ed up look from the movie.  The sculpt is passable, though the details are a bit on the soft side. The likeness on the head is pretty good, with a decent representation of Ryan Reynolds from the movie.  The paint is fine, nothing spectacular, but there’s no slop of smudges which is nice, but details like Green Lantern’s power ring are left completely unpainted.  This gives the figure a cheap look, but it’s wasn’t a “cheap” figure to buy.  Hal includes a clear green construct.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Yeah, so this figure is, well he’s not very good.  If he’d been released 10 years earlier, perhaps it’d be okay, but not for a modern day figure.  It’s cheaply made, the paint is as simplistic as possible, and he has practically no articulation, which means he’s not a very entertaining figure.  I have this figure because and only because it’s a Green Lantern action figure.

Hey, look at us, being back in the pre-third digit days.  This review was my first one to run after my first post-holiday season in January of 2014, though I’m fairly confident I’d written it prior to the full bulk of my gift reviews.  As I recall, the house my family was staying in for the holidays still didn’t have wifi at the time, so I spent a lot of my time writing reviews.

As early as this review may be, it was actually my third Hal Jordan review, and my fourth Green Lantern review.  They were definitely packed in there in the early days.  I was…well, I think I tried to be as nice as possible with this figure in the original review, but that still wasn’t super complimentary.  It’s not a great figure, so I do think I had a valid point.  What I didn’t have on hand (heh) during the original review was his construct.  The standard Hal included a giant fist construct, a classic Hal construct, and that’s honestly pretty cool.  I mean, he can’t really stand with it attached, but still kind of cool.  Also included was one of the “wearable” rings that were super small.  What are these, toys for children?

#4107: Obi-Wan Kenobi – Jedi Training Gear

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OBI-WAN KENOBI — JEDI TRAINING GEAR

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE JEDI (HASBRO)

“Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Knight training under Jedi Master Qui-Gin Jinn, has proved his loyalty to the Council and Jedi code time and time again. In missions involving great danger, the Jedi don specially made training gear that protects them in close combat without hindering their movement.”

I started my return to Power of the Jedi with one of the two concept Obi-Wan figures from the line, and after a quick stop off with a wacky sort of Darth Vader, let’s head back to the Obi-Wan concept well for another one.  This time, less environment specific and more…um, like, merchandise specific?  They wanted a different color palette, I guess? Well, anyway, here’s Jedi Training Gear Obi-Wan.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Obi-Wan Kenobi — Jedi Training Gear was released in the second year of Star Wars: Power of the Jedi in 2001.  He’s the second of the two concept Obi-Wans that year.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  It’s sort of an odd articulation set-up, because he’s got wrist swivels on both arms, but an elbow swivel only on the left arm.  This is coupled with a really quite strange pose for the body.  Like, he’s got…something going on, but I’m not entirely sure what.  Parts feel like they’re meant to be sort of loose, while other parts are really stiff and rigid.  He feels like his pose was designed by committee.  His actual design is interesting, mostly in the sense that there was also a Jedi Training Gear Qui-Gon Jinn that year, and the two don’t really share much in terms of design aesthetic, so they don’t really work as a pair, despite what the names might imply.  Beyond that, it’s an okay design, with a bit of OT stylings with the ribbing on the jumpsuit underneath and all.  Obi-Wan’s head sculpt is yet another variation.  This one’s…fine.  Not the strongest, but I guess not the worst either.  He looks a little…pudgy?  I don’t know, maybe it’s just how stiff the posing is.  The color work on Obi-Wan is heavy on the black shades, because we sure do love putting a Jedi in all black.  This one has some variation, though, with different parts getting different shades and finishes.  Obi-Wan is packed with his lightsaber (without the black detailing on the hilt, much like the Cold Weather Gear) and his training helmet.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had the Cold Weather Gear figure as a kid, but somehow I missed this one.  I remember the Qui-Gon variant, and kind of wanting an Obi-Wan to match, but I don’t think I remember seeing this one new at retail.  I do remember seeing him later on, but by that point I’d moved away from Power of the Jedi.  As with Jedi Knight Obi-Wan, post-Power of the Force, I’ve found myself looking at some of the other spots from the era, and decided to work a bit on my McGreggor Obi-Wans, and happened upon this guy at Yesterday’s Fun while vacationing this year.  He’s odd and quirky, and not as strong as the Cold Weather Gear, but he’s nothing if not unique.

#4106: Alan Carter

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

ALAN CARTER — CHIEF EAGLE PILOT

THE ANDERSON COLLECTION (MASTER REPLICAS)

In the ‘60s, producer Gerry Anderson made his name in TV with his “Supermarionation” shows, most famously Thunderbirds, which made use of advanced marionette-style puppets to tell generally kid-oriented adventure stories.  By the end of the decade, Supermarionation was winding down, and Anderson moved into live action shows aimed at a slightly older audience.  His first fully live-action show was UFO, released in 1970 with a single 26 episode season.  Success of the show in US-based syndication led to plans for a continuation, but things ultimately shifted, and the second series was scrapped.  Not wishing to lose all the work that had been done, Anderson retooled the concept into a separate show, Space: 1999.  Set in the far off year of 1999, the show followed the residents of Moonbase Alpha after a cataclysmic event shot the Moon out of Earth’s orbit and hurtling through the cosmos.  Space: 1999’s first season was rather high concept, and deeply pondering of the human condition and what exactly “survival” was.  So, of course, the second season ditched a bunch of the cast, and made it a fun romp through space, with all sorts of zany adventures and antics, and ended every episode with a sly wink to the audience and a borderline “everyone laughs” ending (I say this, by the way, as someone who is a staunch defender of the show’s second season).  One of the show’s breakout characters was Chief Eagle Pilot Alan Carter.  Actor Nick Tate was originally brought in to play a one-off pilot in the show’s…pilot, but the producers were impressed with him and created a larger role, eventually bumping him up to series regular.  Tate wasn’t originally coming back for the second season, but he was receiving the most fan mail of all the actors, and Alan was a favorite character of one of the producers’ daughters, so they kept him on the show.  And also he got some action figures!  Alright!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Alan Carter is part of Collection 2 of Master Replicas’ The Anderson Collection, a comprehensive line covering several of Anderson’s projects.  Alan is the line’s second Space: 1999 figure, following up on the John Koenig figure released in the first collection.  He’s a Season 1 Alan, sporting his standard Moonbase uniform, sans any space or planet exploring gear.  The figure stands just shy of 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The line is *supposedly* 1/18 scale, but generally trends a bit smaller, so Alan’s the slightest bit under-scaled, especially when compared to the likes of, say modern, or even ‘90s era Star Wars.  Compared to vintage stuff, he scales a little more favorably, though, as you can see from the photo with Han.  The sculpt is sort of trying to thread the needle between proper vintage figure and modern detailing, and I think it does that pretty well.  The proportions are generally well balanced.  His torso’s slightly boxy, but the limbs are more on the natural side.   The outfit’s pretty well detailed, if maybe slightly soft in some sections.  That said, it’s not like the uniforms were exactly crazy textured, so this is about right.  There’s some nice work making the clothes look like they’re hanging on a real person, with folds and wrinkles.  The head sculpt is a strong offering.  There’s a lot of Tate in that sculpt, for sure, and the detailing on the hair is pretty sharp, and finely tuned.  I will say the sculpt is the slightest bit let down by the color work, especially when it comes to the head.  It’s molded in an almost translucent skin tone, and a lot of the sculpted detail is hard to see if you’re not looking closely.  There’s definitely a Tate likeness there, but so many of the smaller details get a little lost.  They do at least offset a little bit with some painted accents, and what’s on the face is pretty clean.  The main body is a little better, mainly focussing on base work.  There’s a little slop on the zippers for mine, especially the one on his arm, but overall, they look pretty good.  Alan is packed with his stun gun and communicator.  Both can be either held or stowed on his belt.  The stun gun seems like it’s maybe a little under-scaled for the line, since it should run the entire length of his fingers.  The sculpted work is good for the size, as are the painted details on both, though.  Alan also includes a clear display stand, which is nice, even though he has very little trouble standing on his own.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Space: 1999 wrapped up 15 years before I was born, so it’s probably a little surprising that I’m into it.  Well, mostly I blame my father, who was a huge fan, and who owned *a lot* of the show on LaserDisc.  Yes, LaserDisc.  I turned 7 in the actual 1999, and by that point, I’d seen most of the show’s run at least in some capacity.  It was certainly enough to identify Alan as my favorite character.  My Dad had the Mattel Eagle, which I would play with from time to time (very gently), but I was always a little bummed by it’s inclusion only of the “main trio” of John, Helena, and Victor.  My Dad and I made plans to properly crew his Mattel Eagle with custom figures made from Power of the Force figures, but it never quite came to fruition.  I did have a bendy Luke Skywalker, which I’d painted the left arm gold on, so that he could be an Alan Carter, and that was really the closest I got for a while.  In 2019, my Dad and I attended Breakaway, a Space: 1999 fan con, where I spent most of my time assuring everyone else there that yes, despite being a good two decades younger than every other person there, I really was there for the Space: 1999 convention.  Nick Tate was in attendance that year as well, so I got to meet the real Alan Carter, which was very exciting for me, and it was also exciting enough for him to meet me, a fan 20 years younger than everyone else there, that when I asked for a photo on my phone, he agreed and then asked if he could take one with his camera as well. Right, where was I going with this?  Well, I’m a big fan of Alan, and I didn’t have a proper figure of him, so when these got shown off, my Dad made sure to order me one.  It’s been a bit of a wait, but he’s here.  He’s not perfect, but he’s really nifty, and checks a lot of boxes for me, and I do like having an Alan Carter action figure, especially at this scale, after all these years.  I sure do like having a nifty Alan Carter figure.

#4105: Supergirl

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

SUPERGIRL

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE TOYS)

“As the most powerful teenager on the planet, the Girl of Steel possesses all of Superman powers from superhuman strength, speed and invulnerability all the way down to his flight and enhanced senses.”

Somehow Super Powers returned.

No, wait, that’s probably not the vibe, right?  Super Powers being back is a good thing.  Hmmm… “It’s just been revoked?”  No, not it either.  “The reports of Super Powers’ death have been greatly exaggerated.”  Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Right, so if you haven’t gathered by now, McFarlane’s Super Powers revival line is not quite as done as it seemed to be when I wrote my review of Cyborg almost a year ago.  It genuinely looked that way at the time, but then Entertainment Earth swooped in and seemingly salvaged the line for at least another four waves.  So, that’s actually pretty cool.  One of my notably complaints about the McFarlane run when I wrapped things up in that Cyborg review was that, despite adding 72 figures to the line, McFarlane hadn’t actually addressed a major issue with the original Kenner run, which was the lack of female characters outside of Wonder Woman.  Now, I’m not going to take *all* the credit here, but we’re literally one figure into the continuation and the count of female characters has already doubled.  Let’s check out Supergirl.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Supergirl is part of Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation line, officially released under the DC Direct branding.  This is the first of the four Entertainment Earth-exclusive assortments, sold as sets, and it started shipping out right at the end of July.  A bit of curious housekeeping right at the start here: on the backs of the boxes, the figures are all shown on a yellow background, each with a number, mimicking the wave 3 cardbacks from the Kenner run.  Supergirl is figure 61, which is interesting because that spot was previously occupied by Deadman from the Gold Label Wave 11 assortment from last year.  The rest of the single carded figures remain, but all of Wave 11 has been removed, and their numbers re-used for some reason, despite the fact that even the cases of this assortment still number it as “13,” and you can only get to that number if you count the Gold Label assortment.  So, that’s kind of weird.  Doesn’t affect the actual figures, but weird.  Moving on.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation.  Structurally, she’s using a variant of the McFarlane Wonder Woman body, which I actually haven’t personally handled.  It’s not too far removed from the original Kenner mold, though, and this likewise feels pretty closely related.  At first glance, I felt like she was too tall, but relative to the other figures in both the McFarlane and Kenner runs, she’s not too far out of place.  Her outfit’s sort of an interesting choice.  Kara was part of both the original Kenner pitch for the line in the early ‘80s and the planned continuation of the line post-Series 3, both times using her design from the 1982 style guide, which is her blouse and hot pants look from the ‘70s.  It’s been theorized that by the time she actually hit the line, they’d have put her in her updated headband-sporting “jazzersize” outfit from 1984, but that’s all rumor.  What we see here is actually something that the mainstream Kara really never wore, since her original look was an all blue dress without the red skirt, her replacement was the blouse and shorts, then there was the headband look, and then she died.  This is ultimately closest to the look sported by the Matrix Supergirl in the ‘90s (though the belt’s not quite right), who wasn’t actually Kara.  In actuality, the design is essentially lifted from some additional style guide work DC hired Jose Garcia-Lopez to do in the ’00s, as part of a more “evergreen” branding for the character.  Given Garcia-Lopez influenced the bulk of the original line, it means she remains consistent.  Moreover, the original Supergirl movie had started with the ’84 redesign, before ditching the headband and red shoulders, resulting in a look that was very close to this, and it’s not too far of a reach for Kenner to have potentially used such a look had they introduced her to the line, so I can’t really complain.  In terms of the actual figure, she gets a new head, which very much dials into the ‘70s/early ‘80s Kara, which I quite like, and she also gets a belt piece, which matches well with her cousin’s usual get-up.  She gets a cloth cape and skirt, which work well enough.  The cape sits a bit odd due to the size of the clip and how the hair interacts with the shoulders, but with a little bit of futzing, it looks okay.  Kara’s color work is bright and colorful, just like it should be.  In contrast to most of the rest of the line, her skin tones, especially on the head, are molded, which is more accurate to the Kenner approach, so I’m definitely a fan.  What I’m not a huge fan of is the removal of the “S” on her cape, which has been on most of the Supermen in the line, so it’s a bummer it’s missing here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really thought the line was done, and I was really bummed we never got a Supergirl, who I’d honestly wanted since before the revival even happened.  I was thrilled that there were more figures coming, and even more thrilled that Kara was amongst the first batch of them.  Interesting quirks to her costume aside, she’s really great, and does what this line does best, which is feel like an authentic Kenner product.  I have minor quibbles, but that’s really all they are.  Perhaps the biggest drawback to her is that you have to buy five other figures to get her.  Less an issue for me, but not great for the more casual fan.