Monthly Archives: November 2014

#0378: Gamora & Nova Corps Centurion

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

GAMORA & NOVA CORPS CENTURION

MARVEL MINIMATES

Two months after the release of the movie and the TRU tie-in series, the main specialty assortment of Guardians of the Galaxy Minimates has finally been released. The TRU Assortment offered four of the five guardians, but it was missing that key fifth member. Unfortunately, this also happened to be the team’s only female member, which ended up causing some upset amongst people who didn’t have a full understanding of how Minimate releases work. But, Gamora is here now, and the team is complete. She brings with her a Nova  Corps Centurion, one of the film’s key army builders. There’s been quite a wait for both of them. Were they worth it? Let’s find out!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Gamora and the Nova  Corps Centurion are both a part of the 57th series of Marvel Minimates, which is based on the Guardians of the Galaxy movie released this year. This is the only set available exclusively through the specialty assortment (Nebula is also exclusive to specialty, but she’s packed with the Sakaar Trooper, who is available in both assortments).

GAMORA

Gamora is the final missing member of the titular team. She makes her second appearance in the Minimates line, following a comic inspired version in 2008. Gamora is about 2 ½ inches in height and she features 14 points of articulation. She’s based on the look that the character sports for the majority of the film, which means she made out a bit better than poor Star-Lord. The figure makes use of the standard Minimate body, with an additional piece for her hair. The piece was originally used on the Thor movie’s Lady Sif figure. It’s a good piece, with lots of nice detail work, and it’s pretty accurate to what Gamora’s hair looked like in the movie, so Diamond chose well. The rest of the figure’s details are handled via paint, and they’re handled pretty well at that. All of the base paint work is nice, clean, and evenly applied. The colors all seem like perfect matches for the movie, too, so that’s an added plus. The line work is all clean and sharp. The Zoey Saldana likeness is pretty good, though the eyes may be set just a bit too apart. Gamora includes her trademark sword and a clear display stand.

NOVA CORPS CENTURION

The Nova  Corps Centurion isn’t as important as Gamora, but the Nova Corps play a key role in the movie, so this figure is still pretty important. The  Corps Centurion stands 2 ½ inches tall and features 14 points of articulation. There are a couple of named Nova Corpsmen in the movie, but this one is just meant to be a generic  Corps Centurion, whom we see quite a few of in the movie. The figure is built on the basic body, with a separate piece for his helmet. The helmet is a new piece, and it’s a very nice one at that. The sculpt is accurate to the design in the movie, and everything looks smooth and symmetrical. The Nova  Corps Centurion’s paintwork is key to the rest of the figure’s look, and it’s handled expertly. Everything is clean and even, and the colors are nice and bold. The helmet shows a tiny bit of slop, but everything on the rest of the figure is really great! Under the mask is a complete face, ears and all. It’s appropriately generic, and it has a decent “otherworldly” look to it. The Nova  Corps Centurion includes a rather large (and rather cool) gun and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Star-Lord and Ronan, Gamora and the Nova  Corps Centurion were purchased from Luke’s Toy Store, along with the rest of Series 57. This set was the one I was most interested in from this series, and I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint! Gamora nicely finishes off the Guardians, and the Nova  Corps Centurion is a really well done, really fun army builder. I foresee this set being a bit more difficult to track down, so if you’re interested in it, I’d track it down sooner rather than later.

#0377: Star-Lord & Ronan

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

STAR-LORD & RONAN

MARVEL MINIMATES

There were quite a few awesome movies released this summer. The cool thing is that, thanks to three of those movies being Marvel movies, there are Minimates from those movies! One such movie was Guardians of the Galaxy. I looked at a few of the Guardians Minimates a few months ago when the TRU series first hit stores. The specialty series was just released, and I acquired a set. Today, I’ll be looking at the film’s primary hero, Star-Lord, and its primary villain, Ronan.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Star-Lord and Ronan are one of the two carry over sets from the Guardians Minimates. They saw release in both the TRU exclusive series, as well as Series 57 of the main Marvel Minimates line.

STAR-LORD

Who!?! Star-Lord, legendary outlaw of—never mind. Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, makes his first foray into the world of Minimates with this figure. Star-Lord is about 2 ½ inches tall and he features 12 points of articulation. He’s obviously based on the film version of the character, but more specifically, he’s based on Quill’s look early in the movie, primarily the opening credits scene. It’s the look Marvel was really pushing, and it’s the look that just about every figure has, but it’s unfortunately not a look he has for very long in the movie. Star-Lord is built on the standard Minimate body, with additional sculpted pieces for his hair, coat, left wrist padding, and boots. The hair is a re-use from Tomb Raider’s Roth. I’m not sure about this piece. It seems a bit off for Star-Lord. The rest of the pieces are new to this figure. They’re all well sculpted, but there are some questionable choices. The decision to have the coat closed at the top is a strange one. In the short time he wore this coat, I don’t believe he ever had it closed like that. Perhaps it was based on some sort of early costume design or preliminary shooting. Regardless, it looks rather goofy, and makes the character look unnecessarily bulky. To DST’s credit, the work on the boots is nothing short of amazing, so they deserve props for that. The paint on Star-Lord is alright, but sort of confusing. The coat exhibits passable work, but there’s some slop here and there. The arms are nicely detailed, and while the torso under the coat is completely blank, he features a fully detailed belt that no one will ever see. The face is an okay Chris Pratt likeness, but it seems that there was a bit of a mix up with the colors, leaving his eyebrows and stubble far too bright. Star-Lord includes his helmet, his twin guns, a walkman with headphones, and a clear display stand. The helmet is okay, but the paint is sloppy and too light, and the sculpt is too…wide? It just doesn’t look right. The blasters are well sculpted, but the figure does have a little trouble holding them.

RONAN

Ronan, the first Kree ever to be seen in film! That’s gotta be an accomplishment! Like Star-Lord, this is his first Minimate, though it won’t be his last. A comic version of Ronan has already been announced for the 19th TRU Exclusive series of Marvel Minimates. But that’s in the future; let’s focus on this figure, shall we? Ronan is 2 ½ inches tall and he features 13 points of articulation. He’s built on the usual body, with additional pieces for his headpiece and skirt. Both of these pieces are new to this figure, and they look to be accurate to the movie design. They are very nicely sculpted, and incredibly detailed. The headpiece renders the body’s neck articulation motionless, but going by how Lee Pace was moving in the movie, it seems safe to say the real piece did that too. The Kree are all about evolution. Maybe Ronan just evolved beyond the need to look to the side. One of this figure’s greatest highlights is his paint work. While it would have been easy for Diamond to phone this one in and just do a straight black/dark grey, they have placed texture detailing on just about every surface of the figure. It helps keep the figure from being as drab as he might have otherwise been and really gives the figure that extra pop. Ronan includes his trusty hammer and a clear display stand. Unfortunately, it seems the head of the hammer is on upside down. I don’t know how this happened, but a quick comparison shows this is very definitely the case. While it sucks, I honestly had to have it pointed out to me by someone else, so I feel like most people really aren’t going to be bothered by it. At the very least, a corrected version should be offered with the comic Ronan, so there’s that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set was purchased, along with the rest of Series 57, from my favorite Minimate retailer Luke’s Toy Store. I mostly bought the Series for the two specialty exclusive sets included. Admittedly, I’ve been putting off buying this set. I passed on it at TRU, and I only really got it from Luke’s because I was buying the series in a bundle. I think Star-Lord is the main reason for that. Sadly, he’s the weakest figure in the series. Diamond obviously put in the effort, but he just ended up turning out sorta goofy. That being said, the set is worth it for the Ronan figure. For all that went wrong on Star-Lord, Ronan gets pretty much everything right. On the plus side, Star-Lord is the low point of this series, so, it can only get better from here!

#0376: Superior Spider-Man

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

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS INFINTE SERIES

Alright, well it looks like the horror stuff is taking a break for a little while. So, why not return to what I know best: Super Heroes! And if we’re going with Super Heroes, why not go with Marvel, cuz they’re kind of on top right now! And if you’re going with Marvel, why not one of their top characters of all-time, Spider-Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superior Spider-Man was released as part of the Amazing Spider-Man 2 Marvel Legends Infinite Series. For next year, Hasbro should really look into shortening the ML names a bit. They’re a bit long-winded. Anyway, Superior Spider-Man is one of the mainstay figures from this series, which means that unlike the previously reviewed Spider-Girl and Boomerang, he’s not a replacement, nor was he replaced by another figure. The figure is about 6 inches tall and he sports 32 points of articulation. As the name denotes, he’s based on the “Superior” version of Spider-Man, which was he looked like when Dr. Octopus took over his mind. Specifically, he’s based on the second Superior costume, which itself was based on Alex Ross’s proposed design for the first Spider-Man movie. As far as I can tell, Spidey’s a new sculpt. I feel like I’ve seen the body before, but I can’t quite place it. At the very least, the head and hands are new. The body sculpt is pretty good. It’s nicely proportioned and well-articulated, which is always a good combination. The head and hands are obviously a bit more character-specific, and they are both handled very nicely. The head is simple, but right on the mark, which can be tricky with some Spider-Man figures. The basic hands are just in a loose gripping pose, which isn’t too bad, I suppose. The figure’s paint isn’t really up to the sculpt. It’s not a huge surprise on a Hasbro offering, but it’s still a shame. The figure has a fair bit of slop and fuzzy lines, and even a few spots of uneven paint. The worst of it is his web pattern, which is not as straight as it should be. Still, viewed as a whole, the paint doesn’t look terrible, so it could be worse. Spidey included a spare set of hands in the trademark Spidey pose, as well as the right leg of Ultimate Green Goblin, the Build-A-Figure for this series. I don’t really want this particular BAF, but somehow I keep ending up with pieces of him…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This particular Spider-Man was a gift from my Super Awesome Girlfriend, who just keeps up living to the name. While visiting her for the weekend, I had seen the figure and decided not to get it due to not having the money. She came up to visit me three weeks later with this figure in tow. She’s really too supportive of my insane hobby! The figure isn’t without issues, but it’s really a fun figure, and it’s one of the better Spider-Men to see release in recent years!