Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0093: Tomar Re

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

TOMAR RE

GREEN LANTERN (MATTEL)

Hello and welcome to Friday!  It’s a great day for a Friday.  Or, at least, it’s Friday, which is, let’s face it, the day for Friday.  It’s also the Friday before the finale of Lanterns, and I marked the Friday before the premier with a throwback to a movie GL review, so I’m gonna mark the finale with another one of those.  So, let’s return back to one of my very favorite Green Lanterns, Tomar Re!

The 2011 Green Lantern was certainly not the greatest thing to be shown on the silver screen. That being said it’s far from the worst, and I personally found it to be about on par with the Tim Burton Batman films, which suited me just fine. One of the nice things about one of your favorite characters getting a movie is all the toys that are bound to be released to coincide. Sadly, while I found the Green Lantern movie to be inoffensive, the same can’t be said for the vast majority of the toys released for it. One of the few figures from the line I didn’t hate is Tomar Re, the subject of today’s review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tomar Re was technically part of the first series of Green Lantern figures, but he was not amongst the initial assortment of figures. I think he came in the second wave of product. The figure is about 3 ¾ inches tall and he features 8 points of articulation. The articulation is one of the most annoying parts of this line, because it was about 10 years out of date at the time of release. It’s completely useless for anything outside of a standing pose, and in some cases it couldn’t even do that. Case in point, Tomar’s right leg is slightly warped, and the articulation is such that standing is not a thing that happens. Tomar’s sculpt is fine. There was a deluxe Tomar in wonky colors that was released first, so technically this one’s a re-use of that one. There’s some okay texture work on the body, which is nice, I suppose. However, the head is rather smooth, and definitely too squat for the character. In fact, the whole body is off when compared to the on screen character. He’s just too bulky. Were this figure 10-15 years older, the scale might be excusable, but come on, Hasbro’s Battle Droids from 1999 looked better than this. The paintwork is rather vaguely handled. In some places, lines are very sharp, but in others, everything just sort of runs together. That’s sort of what they looked like in the movie, but it wasn’t this bad. He just ends up being a bit of a mush of colors. Tomar included a construct of some sort, but I threw all the constructs together, so I don’t remember which was his.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Tomar from a Walmart near where I was vacationing the year these were released. This was notably two days AFTER I broke down and bought the wonky colored deluxe Tomar because I hadn’t been able to find this one. Yay. It’s hard to say much about this figure that isn’t negative. I honestly don’t hate it, and I really think it was one of the better small scale figures Mattel offered in this line, but that isn’t saying much. There’s a reason this line didn’t sell well, and it wasn’t the poor performance of the movie.

Tomar here ran about a month into my second year here on the site, and would have been one of my “pull from the randomized list” reviews, which I actually did quite a bit of at the time.  He was my third review from the movie line, and I was definitely wearing a bit thin on the line already.  I was pretty fresh off of its initial release, and the disappointment the line brought me was immense.  I think I maybe took that out on this figure in particular more than maybe others, which isn’t quite so fair, because, yes, he’s got the flaws of the rest of the line, but he ultimately holds up alright.  When I reviewed him, I noted that I had thrown all the constructs together and couldn’t recall which one was his.  Apparently, the idea of, oh, I don’t know, looking it up was a foreign one for past me.  It’s actually some sort of a harpoon launcher looking thing?  It’s weird, but not awful.  He also included one of those wearable rings that were super small.  Tomar Re is my favorite of the alien Green Lanterns, and also my favorite part of the 2011 movie, and I think maybe my high expectations came down on him in my original review.  Upon revisiting, he’s one of the figures from the line I don’t mind so much.  He’s even, dare I say, kind of fun.

#4135: Clone Wars Volume 2 Pack 1

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

ANAKIN SKYWALKER, SAESEE TIIN, & CLONE TROOPER

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“In this time of galactic civil unrest, Anakin Skywalker sets off on a spiritual quest that foreshadows his dark destiny. Obi-Wan seeks to give strength and encouragment to his gifted student and through his guidance, Anakin is awarded the prestigious title of Jedi Knight. Meanwhile, Yoda, Mace Windu and the clone troopers battle a massive Separatist droid army that has suddenly attacked Coruscant. Led by the cunning warrior General Grievous, the Separatists succeed in kidnapping Chancellor Palpatine. Now the stage is set for a re-emergence of the Sith and the birth of a dark new Galactic Empire.”

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars was split into three “seasons” when it originally ran, with a clear division of time between season’s 2 and 3, thus splitting the series into two “volumes”.  Volume 1 maintains the aesthetics of Attack of the Clones, while Volume 2 takes everything decidedly closer to Revenge of the Sith.  While there was a notable merchandising push for the first design set-up, by the end of the series, there was less time to get things out before the larger RotS push.  What we got instead of a proper assortment of figures was two boxed sets of three, heavily leaning on pre-existing parts.  And, today, I’m looking at one of those sets.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Anakin Skywalker, Saesee Tiin, and the Clone Trooper make up “Volume 2 Pack 1,” one of four sets offered in the “Commemorative DVD Collection” of Hasbro’s Star Wars: Clone Wars tie-in line.  The set was released in 2005, before the release of Revenge of the Sith.

ANAKIN SKYWALKER

The newly knighted Anakin Skywalker spends most of Volume 2 isolated, on a mission on the planet Nelvaan, where he winds up with a rather distinctive and cool design, which is kind of torn down and sporting some pretty nifty tribal markings.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He makes use of a decent amount of tooling from the second single Anakin Skywalker release from the line.  Since they both have him sporting a sort of damaged and stripped down look, it’s a sensible choice for re-use.  He gets a new head and torso for this release, showcasing his updated design.  He actually got the most new parts of any of these multi-pack figures, since he’s got more than just a new head.  That new head is a very nice piece of work.  It captures his Sith style hair-do, and even manages to get his facial features a fair bit closer to the the model than either of the previous attempts.  The torso isn’t really different from the one on the original figure, but it lacks his vest/tunic/whatever it is.  His color work is a good match for the cartoon; in contrast to the single release figures, his skin tone is a molded plastic, rather than painted, and I think it looks a little bit better here.  He gets some more involved work on the tribal markings, which grant him some rather nice pop.  While the original Anakin used a flatter orange-ish sort if plastic for the robotic hand, this release used gold…which, though a softer plastic, is somewhat susceptible to “Gold Plastic Syndrome.”  Mine broke and has been very carefully repaired.  Anakin was packed with his lightsaber and a display stand.

SAESEE TIIN

Each of the Volume 2 packs got one new character, and this set’s new guy was Saesee Tiin.  He’s virtually a non-entity in the movies, but the 2D Clone Wars gave him a decent focus he hasn’t really gotten anywhere else.  Personally, I’d have preferred Kit Fisto, but there’s some good reasons for going with Saesee instead.  Well, mostly just the one reason, and that’s parts re-use.  It’s also the same reason that Saesee is in his standard robes, rather than his more distinctive armored appearance, because this way he can re-use the body of Obi-Wan.  It’s a rather pre-posed body, but it’s at least a good pose, and it’s a generic enough robed body to work for multiple characters.  Saesee gets a unique head sculpt, which is a solid recreation of Tartakovsky’s take on the character, right down to the broken off tip to one of his tusks.  His color work is fine, if perhaps a bit underdone.  There are definitely some spots where it just kind of ignores the sculpt, most notable the figure’s forearms, which don’t have the wraps painted.  Saesee is packed with a lightsaber and a display stand.

CLONE TROOPER

There was also a clone in each Volume 2 pack, so, you know, here’s one of those.  In Volume 2, the Clones have upgraded to their Phase II armor, which for the purposes of the animation really just means a new helmet, and for the purposes of this figure, really just means a new head.  As such, this guy’s really just the same mold I looked at last week, but with the adjusted head.  It’s decent, if maybe not amazing.  While I think the Phase II helmets look fine in a more realistic set-up, I never felt they translated as well to Tartakovsky’s style as the Phase I, and this figure really just exemplifies that.  But, it’s hardly a bad offering.  The Phase II is without any color or rank, just a basic white shiny armored guy.  Paint is respectable, if perhaps a bit fuzzy on the line-work.  The Clone Trooper is packed with his blaster rifle and a display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, the ARC Trooper (aka Fordo) was my entry into the line, and this was actually the only follow-up I got during the original run.  In fact, I very nearly missed it, but managed to find just this set, sitting off on its own right after the holiday rush in 2005.  I never saw the companion set, but always meant to track it down.  Maybe I still will one of these days.  I do like this one.  The Anakin in particular remains my favorite version of the character from the line, and honestly from the prequel era, and the other two aren’t as definitive, but they’re still fun.

#4134: Snarl

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

SNARL

TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS (KENNER)

“Snarl is seldom seen until the instant he attacks. His camouflage coloring allows him to sneak into Predacon base-camps undetected. Powerful legs give him the ability to lunge forward to attack startled enemies, and in robot mode he can jump straight up to escape incoming missile fire. Snarl is a fearless fighter whose gnashing, serrated teeth and razor-sharp claws are enough to fend off would-be attackers. if they know what’s good for them!”

If there’s one era of Transformers I’m decidedly light on coverage around here, it’s Beast Wars, which is, honestly kind of amusing, given its the incarnation of the franchise that really introduced me to the whole concept.  I guess I had other focuses in the ‘90s for the most part, so they never quite clicked with me.  As such, I don’t have a ton of connection to this version of things (with the most notable exception being Silverbolt, who is one of my favorites in general).  That said, it didn’t *totally* pass me by back in the day, so let’s look at one of the very few figures I actually got during the original run, Snarl, who, it should be noted, is not the G1 guy who turns into a stegosaurus.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Snarl was released in the second year of Kenner’s Beast Wars line, as part of the fourth wave of “Basics,” the smallest of the main classes.  In a three figure assortment, he was the lone Maximal.  Yay for good guys.  Snarl was notably not included in the cartoon, so he’s just a toyline guy (though his Japanese equivalent, Tasmanian Kid, was in the Beast Wars II anime, so there’s *sort of* some cartoon coverage there).  In robot mode, the figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 11 practical points of articulation.  Beast Wars marked a real turning point for articulation in the Transformers world, and Snarl showcases that, with a range of motion that’s on par with, if not a bit above the standard for the era in which he was released.  His robot mode is a pretty fun, rather basic and by the numbers design.  It’s got a bit of kibble, especially on the back, but the main bot works in the beast elements rather cleverly.  He’s got sort of a cannon thing that mounts on his arm, which is neat, if not terribly involved or anything. Snarl’s alternate beast mode is a Tasmanian devil…well, allegedly, anyway.  Whether it, you know, actually looks like a Tasmanian devil is a different matter.  Common opinion is that he looks more like a quoll?  Honestly, I don’t really know much about either animal (at least in real life; I’m obviously familiar with the Looney Tunes character, who this beast mode *also* doesn’t look like).  It’s at least a pretty neat look, with a fairly intuitive transformation sequence, and the end result is sufficiently different from his robot mode.  The cannon thing becomes his tail, and it is tied into his action feature.  There’s a spring-loaded launching thing, which, in contrast to the usual set-up, actually has the spring in the “missile” part, which launches the main figure forward.  It doesn’t do a lot, really just scooting him forward maybe an inch if he’s on a smooth surface, but it’s good for general amusement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was either my first or second Transformer…I don’t know exactly which, but definitely in the first two.  I got him on a trip to, I think either Toy Works or Toy Liquidators, which I went on with my Nana, most likely in celebration of finishing up Kindergarten (which also means it was probably my last notable day of fun before I fell down my parents’ kitchen stairs and broke my collarbone, landing myself in a brace for most of my first summer break), where I was allowed to pick out a selection of stuff.  The break down was two Toy Biz Marvels, a Tom Cruise from Mission Impossible (bought because his name was also Ethan, and pretty much no other reason), and this guy, who I mostly got because he turned into a Tasmanian devil…or at least a close approximation.  I don’t know why exactly this guy called out to me, or even why he stuck with my collection, but he did, and I even managed to unearth his tail a few months ago to complete him.  He’s just a thoroughly fun little figure, and I quite like that.

#4133: Starfire

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

STARFIRE

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“As brilliant as the sun from which she derives her powers, Koriand’r of Tamaran has refused to let the torments she’s suffered crush her spirit.”

During the original Kenner Super Powers run, the line only just barely touched on the Teen Titans.  Obviously, Robin was there from the start, but he wouldn’t be joined by any additional members until Cyborg showed up at the very end of the line, in a notoriously difficult to get release.  Up til now, the McFarlane line has really just retreaded on the Titans, with an assortment of Dick Graysons, as well as an updated Cyborg, but, after four decades, we’re finally up to three whole Teen Titans, thanks to today’s figure, Koriand’r of Tamaran, aka Starfire!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Starfire is the second figure in Series 14 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation, where she is numbered 68.  Though Starfire wasn’t amongst the figures planned for Kenner’s original line, she is nevertheless a rather spot-on choice of character for the line, as a central part of one of DC’s top books at the time.  She’s seen here sporting her original Perez design, which is likewise perfect for her inclusion in the line.  The figure stands just shy of 4 3/4 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation.  The sizable hair somewhat restricts her neck movement, as well as making her *slightly* difficult to balance when standing.  Structurally, she’s using the new female base body built on the updated Wonder Woman mold, used thus far for both Supergirl and Power Girl.  She gets a new head sculpt, which is, honestly, one of the line’s nicest.  It feels very much authentic to how Kenner might have done the figure, with a sufficient amount of Perez’s style present, while still keeping her in line with the overall Garcia-Lopez stylings of the original run.  The hair is big and very present, but it’s got a nice dynamic flow about it, and looks like hair, while also being slightly simplified.  The base body is without any adornments or extra sculpted pieces, which isn’t really how Kenner would have done it (her outfit would have almost certainly been sculpted on), but is what we’ve come to expect from Kenner.  The use of the generic body means the torso is definitely meant to be clothed, so there’s no cleavage to speak of, which is sort of an issue when it comes to Kori’s classic design.  That being said, they’ve spaced her top in such a way that it’s not too obvious, and it’s certainly a better look than the DCUC Starfire, which had a similar issue.  Given the bank of parts they’re working with here, I think it works out alright.  The paint work does the heavy lifting on the outfit, and generally does it well.  I like the shades chosen for sure, and the line work is nice and clean.  I do sort of wish the line work covered all of the outfit, rather than just parts of it, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Of the figures in this particular set, Starfire was probably at the top of my list.  Once it was confirmed that the EE waves would be adding a female base body into the mix, I was really hoping she might be one of them, so it was nice to see her crop up so quickly.  In a perfect world, she’d get a unique sculpt with her outfit as a proper raised element, but this works well in a pinch, and it really helps that the head sculpt is so nice.  She’s one of the McFarlane figures that really does slot in almost seamlessly with the original run.

#4132: Carnage

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

CARNAGE

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“Of all Spider-Man’s foes, Carnage is perhaps the most dangerous, the most feared! Criminal Cletus Kasady shared a prison cell with Eddie Brock (better known as the Lethal Protector, Venom) – that is, until Brock’s symbiote freed its human host. However, Venom left behind a fragment of his alien costume, which bonded with Kasady… creating the sinister menace known as Carnage!”

When the Spider-Man spin-off Venom had gotten too popular to suitably serve as a proper antagonist in the Spider-Man titles, it was decided that the spin-off needed a spin-off, and thus, we got Carnage.  He’s sort of the ur-example of the Marvel approach to new characters in the ‘90s, where they’d take a successful character concept and make it more violent, more edgy, and more extreme, and it’s further dialed up, because Venom was already kind of that to Spider-Man himself.  Carnage was Venom on steroids (which is funny, since he was always depicted as being much smaller and skinnier), and should absolutely not have worked in the long run, but…he did? Like, actually kind of worked within the larger universe, and has proven to have a life outside of the characters that spawned him.  It’s honestly a bit remarkable.  Two years after his 1992 comics debut, he got his first action figure, and I’m looking at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Carnage was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in line, in 1994.  The line was more directly based on the cartoon designs (unlike a lot of the other Toy Biz Marvel “tie-ins” which trended more towards comic based), but in the case of Carnage, that was sort of a moot point, as he hadn’t really had enough time to develop distinctly deviations in his appearance the way some of the others had.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is pretty much the Toy Biz standard at the time, though he does get a waist joint, which wasn’t always a guarantee.  Said waist joint is tied into his action feature, as is his right shoulder; turning the figure at the waist moves his arm up and down, in sort of a chopping motion.  Carnage’s sculpt was all-new, and would serve as the basis of a few figures to follow, as it was scaled up for the 10-inch line, repainted for the “Maximum Carnage” tie-in, and ultimately slightly re-tooled for the later unmasked Carnage mold.  It’s a good sculpt.  It’s got the basic set-up down well, with good proportions and all of the important details.  His far more fluid symbiote design is handled via sculpted details, which feature a lot of texturing and “movement”.  The paint aids in this, using a relief style of black accenting to bring out the most from the sculpted texturing.  It does a surprisingly good job at replicating Carnage’s distinctive visual design from the comics.  Carnage was prone to creating a lot more constructs out of his symbiote than Peter or Eddie, so this figure showcases that with three different clip-on pieces, with an axe, a claw, and a more generic goopy symbiote thing.  They clip on easily enough, and help further sell the Carnage look.  The only sort of downside to them is that they’re totally smooth, rather than replicating the texturing of the main figure.  There’s at least some paint work to help sell it, but it’s not quite the same.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I had a surprising number of Carnage figures in my collection, but I seemed to have just missed this one.  Given how many others I had, I never really put the effort into tracking this one down, since he seemed rather basic.  As is the case with a lot of other “never put the effort in to track it down” Toy Biz figures, I wound up getting this one mostly because a complete loose one landed in front of me at work a few years ago, and given he had all three of the attachments, I didn’t really feel like I could pass him up.  While he mostly serves as a precursor to the figures that followed and would slightly tweak the formula, I gotta say, as a first figure, he comes out of the gate swinging for the fences.  There’s not really much you could do better, and he’s just a solid all-around figure.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0092: Snake Eyes & Agent Scarlett

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

SNAKE EYES & AGENT SCARLETT

G.I. JOE VS COBRA (HASBRO)

Behold!  It is Friday!  The day at the end of the week where I do all the flashing back with the addendums and what have you!  What a day!  This week’s jump back into the past is jumping over into the G.I. Joe side of things, with a return look at Snake Eyes and Agent Scarlett!

In 1965, Hasbro invented the action figure with the very first GI Joe. The figure offered a take on the traditional doll idea, but meant for boys. He was 12 inches tall, had a cloth outfit, and was a pretty straight forward military man, offered in a variation for each of the four branches of the US military. After the end of the Vietnam War, soldiers and war were seen in a more negative light, so Hasbro had to change things up. This led to the Adventure Team era, which prevailed for most of the 70s. At the end of the decade, they faced another issue. Thanks to Kenner’s smaller scale Star Wars line, the industry was moving to smaller, less accessorized figures. Hasbro had to move quickly to reinvigorate GI Joe for a new audience, leading to the creation of GI Joe: A Real American Hero, which reworked the scale and made the line a collection of unique characters. It also provided the Joes with their first real foe, Cobra. It has remained the definitive take on the GI Joe concept pretty much since its inception. While the line never went away, after the 80s the line dwindled, until it was once again re-worked in 2002. That’s when I came on board. The line operated mostly on new sculpts, but there were a few re-releases mixed in. Today, I’ll be looking at one such release, with Joe mainstays Snake Eyes and Scarlett.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released as an exclusive two-pack through Toyfare magazine. They were meant to tie-in with the then current GI Joe VS Cobra.

SNAKE EYES

This is the 15th version of the ever silent ninja/commando/everything but the kitchen sink, Snake Eyes! Snake Eyes is 3 ¾ inches in height and he features 14 points of articulation. He’s meant to be a slightly more high quality recreation of the very first Snake Eyes figure, so he unsurprisingly used a lot of the same pieces. He’s mostly built out of the version 1.5, after Hasbro added the now standard swivels to his biceps, but instead of the original, he’s been given that of the second version of Roadblock. Not sure why that is, but I assume Hasbro had a good reason. Anyway, it’s a pretty great sculpt, even if it does show its age just a little. Obviously, it’s a tad more simplistic than most modern day sculpts, but that’s not too bad. He still has his fair share of detail, and he looks pretty great! The paint is a key point on this figure, as the original Snake Eyes didn’t actually have any. For this one, they’ve added some additional details to the various pouches and straps on the body to give him a little more variety. There is also a shade of very dark gray applied to the visor on his head, which was so subtle I almost didn’t notice it at first. Overall, the paint is pretty good, but there are a few areas where he has some bleed over. Snake Eyes included a submachine gun, a sword, some explosives, and a back pack, which a pretty impressive accessories compliment!

AGENT SCARLETT

This is the 6th version of Scarlett, or Agent Scarlett as she’s called here. She’s 3 ¾ inches in height and she has 14 points of articulation. Like Snake Eyes, she’s meant as a recreation of the original Scarlett figure from way back in the very first series of GI Joe: A Real American Hero. The figure is a complete re-use of swivel-armed version of the original figure, which is reasonable. Admittedly, the Scarlett sculpt is not as nice as Snake Eyes. Her arms sit a little bit far out at the shoulders, and the face is rather on the mannish side. It’s not terrible, but it’s not the greatest. The paint on Scarlett is a bit more intensive than that on Snake Eyes. All in all, it’s pretty good. There’s no real slop or bleed over, so that’s good. They’ve also made her a bit more colorful than her original incarnation, which is probably for the best. Scarlett comes armed with a crossbow and two swords, as well as a backpack.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

GI Joe was mostly in a lull when I came into the world of action figure collecting. As such, my first real introduction to the property was GI Joe VS Cobra. Once I had gotten the newer figures, I began looking into the older figures, particularly those of Snake Eyes. Thanks to an article run in Toyfare magazine, I learned of the second version of the character, which I really wanted. It didn’t prove easy to find, so I had to go without it until recently.

In the meantime, I purchased this set from Toyfare to hold me over. I remember being extremely excited when I first saw the order form in the issue in which they were offered! My always supportive Mom was feeling particularly awesome, so she ordered the set for me. Since then, it’s easily remained one of my favorite pieces of my GI Joe collection. It’s a great set and I really love it!

This review was very near the end of my first year on the site, though going by my records, I wrote it about a month in advance.  I certainly did go pretty in-depth on the background of the line, which is interesting, given that it was far from the first of my small-scale Joe reviews.  Earlier reviews were a bit more brief on the intros, so I guess I was probably trying to make up for that.  I recall rediscovering this set over the summer that year, after getting a few figures from the vintage line and doing a bit of digging in my personal collection.

In terms of the review itself, I think I did alright.  I didn’t quite know all the ins and outs of the vintage ARAH molds back in 2014, so I didn’t know the reasons for the Roadblock pelvis on Snake Eyes, which is just that the original pelvis mold was one of the many vintage molds lost when Hasbro returned to the scale in 1997, necessitating a lot of Frankensteining to get the old molds back up and running.  At the time of my original review, the figures were missing most of their accessories, but I’ve done a lot of digging, and managed to find the missing parts, which for these two is quite a lot of parts.

#4131: Clone Lieutenant

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

CLONE LIEUTENANT

STAR WAR: CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Through the creative vision of Lucasfilm Ltd. and the Cartoon Network, the Clone Wars are brought to life in an exciting new series of short animated chapters. A unique animation style captures the drama of this epic period in galactic history along with its outstanding heroes and adversaries. Noble Jedi warriors lead Clone Troopers into battle against the evil Separatist forces and their droid armies. Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda and their comrades struggle against the rising power of the dark side and confront personal challenges against a backdrop of war-torn planets.”

Undoubtedly my favorite thing to come out of the Prequel Era of Star Wars is Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars, a 2D animated bridging of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.  While the films rarely branched out beyond the core cast of characters, Clone Wars established a precedent, later followed by The Clone Wars, the 3D animated show, of placing focus on less fleshed out characters.  While its time spent with the titular clones was still a lot less than the later show would feature, they’re still a notable presence, and they made up a sizable portion of Hasbro’s tie-in line from the time…albeit mostly through a lot of repaints, but it’s kind of what you expect, right?  Okay, let’s take a look at a Clone Lieutenant.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Clone Lieutenant (who is only actually identified as “Clone Trooper” on the package, due to sharing all packaging elements with the Captain and the Commander) was released alongside the other two colored Clone variants as a late addition to the Star Wars: Clone Wars line in early 2005, before all the Revenge of the Sith product hit the shelves.  He’s based on the Phase I trooper designs, as seen in the first two seasons of the show.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation.  He’s rather standard for the line on the movement front, with movement at the neck, shoulders, and waist.  They weren’t really built for poseability, but more as mini-maquettes of the show’s designs.  The Clones did get a leg up on the rest of the line, though, since they all got ball-jointed necks.  It doesn’t do a ton, but it gives him some subtle variety in his posing. He, as well as the Captain and the Commander, really just existed as way of putting the standard Clone Trooper mold back out there, so he’s just a complete re-use of that mold.  Like the rest of the line, it does a really good job of taking Tartakovsky’s designs and making them work in three dimensions.  He’s slightly pre-posed, but not in a crazy sort of way, which is ideal for a guy you’ll probably get a lot of.  Just the one raised arm for the rifle is a good look, and he’s honestly pretty stable on his feet.  The first use of the mold was all white, but the re-releases add the color markings for the different ranks.  The Lieutenant is blue, which, let’s be honest, is the coolest of the color markings.  Both literally and also in a figurative sense.  The application here is a little bit fuzzy around some of the edges, but in general, it looks alright.  The use of panel lining on the armor also does a lot to help the mold, as well as bringing it closed to animated stylings.  The Lieutenant was packed with his blaster rifle and a display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back when these were new, the line was rather a hot commodity, so I only had a few pieces, and this guy wasn’t one of them.  In more recent years, I’ve found more of them, and in the case of this guy, I bought a lot of the recolored clone troopers, mostly just for him.  He wound up being the only one I actually got around to opening, and he’s been sitting mixed in with my 3D figures for a couple of years now.  For as simple as these figures are, I always really enjoy messing with them when I get the chance, and the Clones are really the star pieces of the line.

#4130: Ripley

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

RIPLEY

ALIEN: RESURRECTION (KENNER)

Perhaps my favorite movie of all time is Aliens, which is, quite frankly, a bit surprising when you find out that the movie that introduced me to the franchise and got me super invested in it to the point of wanting to see the other movies and own the toys and stuff was…Alien: Resurrection.  It’s…well, it’s not a great film.  It’s not really even a good film.  Honestly, “film” seems like a stretch.  I don’t really buy into the distinction between “film” and “movie,” but Resurrection might be able to make a good case.  On the toy side of things, the original Alien film had gotten a little bit of toy coverage from Kenner upon its release, but it didn’t go over very well, and so all subsequent toys were canceled (including a whole line of 3 3/4 inch figures, put out many years later by Funko and Super 7, launching the ReAction brand).  Because of this, Alien’s sequels, Aliens and Alien Cubed, didn’t get toys at the time of their release (though Aliens got a toyline from Kenner in the ‘90s).  The first Alien movie to get a proper toyline in conjunction with its actual theatrical run was Alien: Resurrection, and oh boy, am I looking at one of those figures today.  So, let’s look at the eighth clone of Ellen Ripley, Ripley 8.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ripley was one of the six standard figures that made up the Alien: Resurrection tie-in line, released alongside the movie in 1997.  Though billed on the front of the box as being part of the “Hasbro Signature Collection” (whatever that means), the back of the box still lists Kenner, so, you know, it’s all very confusing, but that’s really just the whole Kenner/Hasbro deal in the ‘90s.  We just all decided to pretend we didn’t know they were one company masquerading as two, like some sort of strange Andy Kaufman bit.  Ripley (who is just listed as “Ripley” on the box, with neither first name, nor number) is described by the packaging as “Warrant Officer, Alien Expert,” which is…not really her in Resurrection?  I mean, I guess she knows the Aliens pretty well, but clones being different people and all, she was most certainly never a warrant officer.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  None of the articulation on these figures was particularly useful, and Ripley really showcases that.  It’s all pretty much just there for minor tweaking of the one single pose she can really pull off.  In terms of scaling, she’s got a real lunge in her pose there, so it throws off the overall height, but she’s ultimately closer to the usual 7-inch set-ups than 6-inch.  Which, you know, with the Kenner Aliens line being very much a 5-inch line, is odd to say the least.  The sculpt is, as noted, rather pre-posed, with sort of a guns akimbo, wide-stance sort of thing.  Her sculpt is…fine?  The likeness is an okay Weaver likeness, though I’m not really sure it quite gets her specifically from Resurrection.  I think the hair really throws it off, ultimately.  Ripley has a couple of outfits in the movie, but this one is the one she spends a good chunk of the movie in, and is, rather amusingly, the one that’s also worn by Hillard during the journey through the ship.  Weaver saw Kim Flowers’ outfit and asked for one like it, and that’s the one that wound up as an action figure.  The paint work on this figure is generally good for the era and style.  It’s mostly just base work, which is rather clean, but she does also get some decent accenting, and a wash on her outfit to make it look appropriately grimy.  She’s packed with a pair of rifles, an egg, and a queen burster.  Oddly, the hands aren’t really sculpted to hold the guns, so they have these extra guards that wrap around the backs of the hands.  Why not just make the hands properly hold them?  Because shut-up, that’s why.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was just shy of 11 when I saw Resurrection, and really loved it at the time, so you’d think I’d have tracked down some figures, but, even though I looked at them a few times, I never actually did buy any of them.  Since then, I’ve had this sort of odd relationship with the movie, where every time I watch it, it’s worse than I remember.  So, I wasn’t really ever planning to buy any of these.  But, then she got donated to the Farpoint charity auction, and my dad knew I didn’t have her, so…you know, here we are?  She’s been sitting on my shelf unopened for a couple of years now, and I finally decided it was time to crack her open for the review.  She’s honestly not a bad figure from a technical stand-point.  Very much dialed into the style of the era, and all, but in a world before the likes of NECA, she’s not really bad.

#4129: Batman Beyond

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

BATMAN BEYOND

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“Batman Beyond – Decades into the future, Gotham City has evolved into Neo-Gotham, a metropolis of tremendous skyscrapers, flying cars, and sleek technology. In that brave new world, a new kind of Batman is required to keep the peace.”

Since Kenner’s Super Powers ended in 1986, the line was pretty locked into characters and concepts that already existed at that time, and in fact, just a little before then, what with the necessary timelines for toy production and all that.  The proposed waves that might have been carry things forward a little bit, but not by much, again, pretty well locking the idea into a specific timeline.  A continuation that picks up four decades later is, obviously, going to be in an interesting spot, since you’re trying to hold to an aesthetic from the ‘80s, but there’s been a lot of ground covered since then.  What do you do?  Well, the McFarlane approach, especially at the start, was just to do characters and looks that didn’t exist in the ‘80s when they felt like it.  It’s become far more restrained later in the line, but we do still get the occasional oddball, like today’s entry, Batman Beyond.  He’s a character first introduced in 1999, thirteen years after the vintage line ended…which is actually less than half the time between his introduction and his inclusion in McFarlane’s Super Powers, 27 years later.  Maybe vintage is just a little bit relative.  Let’s take a look at the figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman Beyond is the first figure in Series 14 of McFarlane’s Super Powers.  He’s figure 67, which, I assure you, brought some amusement to my 10-year old.  Well, it’s possible it brought me more amusement bringing it up to him than it actually brought to him directly.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Terry is built on the smaller male body, based on the Flash mold.  It’s a good fit for him, as he’s usually depicted as being a fair bit smaller than Bruce, more comparable to Dick Grayson, who used this base body in the last assortment.  He gets a new head, arms, and belt.  The head leans more into his animation model than it does the line’s overall aesthetic, but I feel that’s the right way to go; attempts at making more realistic versions of Terry’s masked face always look a little bit weird to me, and I don’t think the animated design is too far out of place to work with the rest of the line.  The only slightly odd part of the sculpt is the way it sits on the neck; it’s a bit too thin at the back, so there’s a notable gap where the neck from the body overhangs the head sculpt.  I have to wonder if this sculpt might be left over from some sort of more direct animated figure that got scrapped along the way.  The arms aren’t much different from the standard pieces, just adding the arm spikes at the back.  I’m a little surprised they did them at all, since they’re not super visible from the front, but I certainly don’t mind them.  Finishing out his distinctive silhouette is the belt piece, which is simple, but gets the job done.  Terry’s color work is generally simple, but the application of what paint is there is rather clean and adds some nice pop to the figure.  He’s sans accessories.  The solicitation mentions a cloth case, but I have to imagine that was a copy error, rather than an actual scrapped part.  I suppose a pair of cloth wings wouldn’t have been too out of place, but as it is, I think he’s fine without extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When they teased the silhouettes of Series 14, I figured this guy out right away, which I think is actually a testament to how good a job they did getting down perhaps the most important part of Batman Beyond: the silhouette.  I can’t say Terry was on my list for characters to be added to this line, but I also can’t say I’m unhappy with the choice.  He’s hardly the most modern character included in Todd’s run with the line, and I think he translates really well to the aesthetic, resulting in a figure that was quite a pleasant surprise when this set arrived at my door.

#4128: Venom

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

VENOM

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“Eddie Brock, former newspaper reporter, has joined with an evil, alien symbiote, giving him spider-like powers greater than those of Spider-Man himself! Driven by a twisted sense of justice, Brock has become Venom, humanity’s Lethal Protector…and he’s decided that humanity needs protection from Spider-Man!”

For a character only introduced in 1988, by 1994, Venom had a surprising amount of action figure coverage.  Toy Biz had added him to their run right at the start, and really just kept adding him.  By the time they launched their dedicated Spider-Man: The Animated Series line, they’d already done four versions of him under the Marvel Super Heroes banner, but that didn’t stop them from putting him in the first Spider-Man line-up too.  I mean, really, can you blame them?  He was pretty popular, and also on the cartoon, so it’s hard to avoid such a thing.  Let’s look at that fifth Venom today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Venom was released in Series 1 of the Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in line, which hit retail in 1994, right in time for the show’s launch.  Like others in the early assortments, Venom was drawing more directly from the show’s design, rather than the comics.  The figure stands 5 1/8 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  He gets the standard movement on the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, but loses the neck articulation in order to accommodate his action feature.  Much like the Marvel Super Heroes figures, this Venom is about he same height as his corresponding Spider-Man, mostly just relying on bulk to differentiate them.  That would become a gradual shift towards more monstrous sizes as the line progressed, but at this point, he was downright diminutive.  His sculpt was all-new, and a departure from the earlier Venoms, which had leaned into the character’s “symbiote with a mouth” look from the early days.  This one more represents his turn towards beastlier depictions, with much more intensely shaped eyes, a wider spread mouth creeping well past his ears, longer teeth, visible gums, and a whole lot of veins.  Truly, he’s a Venom who probably thinks this song is about him.  This was the Venom sculpt that served as the basis for the 10-inch figure as well, though that one had a more conventional neck.  Apart from being perhaps a little bit on the small side, it’s a pretty good sculpt, and looks quite a bit like his animated counterpart.  Squeezing the figure’s legs together activates his action feature, which extends his head upward, while keeping the jaw in place, so it looks like he’s opening his mouth.  It’s only a small extension, so not super noticeable, but it’s not the worst thing in the world.  In terms of color work, he’s predominantly just molded black plastic, with accenting in white and red.  The paint work is generally fairly clean, with only some minor fuzz, notably around the top of his logo.  Venom didn’t include any accessories, not even one of those weird plastic pins.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I’ve noted before, I didn’t have any of the proper 5-inch Venom figures as a kid, though I did have on of the 10-inch figures that was based on this mold, so I kind of experienced it a bit.  This one’s actually one of my most recent additions, picked up over the summer while I was on vacation.  He’s generally a rather straight forward figure, as far as Venoms go.  A bit more involved than some of the earliest offerings, but certainly not as crazy as some of the later versions got to be.