Monthly Archives: January 2015

#0438: The Alien Queen

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

ALIEN QUEEN

ALIENS (NECA)

After a bit of a pseudo start yesterday, the Christmas Reviews officially begin today! There was something of a theme to a lot of my Christmas gifts this year, and that them was Aliens. Let’s be honest, though, what better theme could there be? Aliens is, after all, the greatest movie ever made. Today, I’ll be looking at the center piece to all the wonderful Aliens stuff I got this year, the Alien Queen.

The Alien Queen is probably the most distinctive thing from Aliens. Ripley’s Power Loader-aided battle with the beast is one of the best parts of the film, and it’s the kind of thing that a toy collector like me might want to immortalize in plastic. However, the Queen hasn’t been the easiest thing to toy-ify. She’s a pretty massive creature, and she has lots of intricate little details. She’s had a few figures over the years that didn’t totally suck (I even reviewed one of them recently), but none of them quite lived up to the creature seen in the movie. Enter NECA.

NECA has already been killing it with their regular Aliens series based on the normal sized people and creatures from the movie. But if there’s one thing that NECA does well, it’s large scale figures. So, it’s not exactly a shock to see this figure pop up. Still, it took some time. You don’t just start with the Queen; you work your way there. After some waiting, the Queen is finally here! Let’s see how she turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Alien Queen was released as a supplement to NECA’s main Aliens line. She found herself bridging the rather lengthy gap between Series 2 and 3 of the line (Although, as chance would have it, Series 3 is right behind her). Officially, the Queen is billed as a “Deluxe Set,” which is not surprising, given the size. Speaking of size, this sucker is big. She’s roughly 12 inches tall and a whopping 27 inches long (though about 15 inches of that is tail). The figure truly towers over the rest of the line, as she well should. The Queen has the sort of design that can be difficult to articulate, but NECA’s done a pretty amazing job. The figure has 57 points of articulation, as well as a wire armature tail that can bend all along its length. There’s quite a lot of posability, though most of the joints require some very particular positioning if you want the figure to have any sort of balance. The Alien Queen has appeared in three films, all of them based on the same basic design, but this one is very definitely based on the original Aliens design. The figure features an all new sculpt to replicate the design. It’s a little hard to tell, because the creature was generally shot in the shadows, but the sculpt appears to be incredibly faithful to the movie. All of the basics are definitely there, and the figure is definitely the Queen. In addition, the sculpt is loaded with lots of fine details and texturing, all done in a way that perfectly conveys the creature’s meld of biology and mechanics. The details continue on every side of the figure. I was particularly impressed by the volume of detail on the underside of the figure’s head, an area that could have easily been overlooked. Perhaps the only downside to the sculpt (which isn’t so much an issue with the sculpt as it is an issue with implementation) is that the Queen’s back spikes are separate pieces that have to be attached when the figure is taken out of the package. It’s a bit difficult to get them in place, and they have a tendency to pop out of place while the figure is being posed. That said, they’re just as well sculpted as the rest of the figure, and the match nicely when in place. Just like it’s difficult to get a 100% accurate view of the figure’s sculpt due to the film’s lighting, it’s also hard to get an accurate comparison of the paint. At first glance it seems like the figure may be too bright, but upon reviewing the film, it seems accurate to what she looks like when we see her properly lit in the airlock. Generally speaking, the paint is very well handled. The figure was originally black, with a fair share of blue highlights added. There are also a few touches of bronze, so that this figure should match okay with both colored varieties of Xeno Warriors. Perhaps my favorite touch, coloring-wise, is the transparent teeth, which are just plain cool! The Queen is a pretty massive figure, so little to no accessories is fairly acceptable. That said, the figure includes a few items. Since the design doesn’t allow for the sliding version of the inner mouth seen on the Warriors, the Queen includes two of them, of differing lengths, which can be swapped out for the desired look. They’re both very nicely sculpted, and help spruce up the figure well. The figure also includes a much needed display stand. It’s done in three parts, and the actually support piece comes in both short and long varieties, which allows for a nice selection of poses.

   

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Queen was my main Christmas present from my truly amazing parents, given to me this past year. I have anxiously been waiting for this figure for quite some time. I was absolutely thrilled to open her on Christmas morning. This is a figure that could have turned out badly if it weren’t well handled, but I’m happy to say NECA truly hit it out of the park on this one. It makes for a wonderful centerpiece to my collection. Now I just need to figure out where to put it….

#0437: The Other Doctor

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

THE OTHER DOCTOR

DOCTOR WHO

And let the gift reviews begin! Today’s review is the first of my “Christmas Reviews” so to speak, but it’s not exactly a Christmas gift, for reasons I’ll get into at the end. So, let’s consider this Christmas Review #0.

A year ago, I owned no Doctor Who action figures. In fact, just a few months before that, I’d never seen an episode of Doctor Who. Two things changed that: a) My girlfriend got into it and encouraged me to start watching it, and b) virtually everyone was talking about how cool the 50th anniversary special was. One of the things that intrigued me the most was John Hurt in the role of the “War Doctor;” I’m a fan of John Hurt, largely due to Alien. So, I caught up to the show, and I am now a very definite Whovian. So, in honor of the thing that pulled me into the show, and by extension the toyline, let’s have a look at the War Doctor in toy form!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The War Doctor, or the “Other Doctor” as he is referred to on the package, was an individual release in the Doctor Who line, meant to capitalize on the 50th Anniversary special. He is notable in that, while he was released after the line’s move to the smaller 3 ¾ inch scale, he was done in the previous 5 inch scale, so he could fit in with the older figures. As such, he is a little under 5 inches tall (Hurt’s not a particularly tall guy), and he features 20 points of articulation. Near as I can tell, the sculpt is all new to this particular figure. It’s really a great sculpt. His jacket is perhaps a little too bulky, but not overly so, and the rest of his body is well-proportioned and has some nice detail work in the folds and textures. The head is pretty much a spitting image of Hurt, which is great. Hurt is notoriously strict about his face being used on merchandise, so this is, I believe, the only official Hurt sculpt to date. They did well on this one. War Doctor’s paint work has its goods and it’s bads. The overall paint work is pretty good,; everything is pretty much clean, and there’s no slop or bleed over to speak of. There some truly tremendous work on the pants and boots, and some exceptional work on the funky pattern on his ascot. It seriously looks like they shrank the real thing down. However, the figure has some seriously goofy looking eyes. They aren’t too bad from a little distance, but up close they look weird. The jacket’s paint is definitely a case of good in theory, but less so in practice. They’ve tried to give it a weathered, broken in look, but the lighter brown is inconsistently applied. It’s really thick some places, but totally absent elsewhere. It’s not terrible, but it’s obviously not the effect they were trying to get. The War Doctor includes his version of the Sonic Screwdriver, the “Moment” accessory from the 50th Anniversary special, and an extra Paul McGann Eighth Doctor head, depicting him from the “Night of the Doctor” short done to lead into “Day of the Doctor.” The head’s a neat enough idea, though Eight never actually wore this getup (though War Doctor did grab the bandolier right after his regeneration).  It’s still a cool idea, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The War Doctor was a gift from Super Awesome Girlfriend, given to me as an anniversary gift (yep, I got the Anniversary Doctor for our anniversary. She’s a clever one.) “But, wait, Ethan, didn’t you say this was sort of a Christmas Review?” Yes, I did random imaginary reader! See, we’re the crazy sort of people who started dating on Christmas Eve, so, extra present I guess. The War Doctor has a small fault or two, but, overall, he’s a phenomenal figure. They really hit it out of the park with this one.

Guest Review #0017: Master Chief & Cortana

Posted by hodgeppodge42 in Guest Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

MASTER CHIEF & CORTANA

HALO MINIMATES

Chief&Cortana1

Heeeeeeeyooooo! This is the first guest review done by the mysterious Super Awesome Girlfriend, who is way too supportive, that Ethan keeps talking about. Yes, that’s right folks; I’m a real girl! I honestly don’t know much about minimates, or this particular line of figures. So unfortunately, I won’t be able to give you any of that background information because action figures aren’t really my forte. Instead, I can give you a very brief background on the actual game characters since gaming is my guilty pleasure!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These figures were released in the 4th Toys R Us exclusive series. The series was based on Halo, the popular gaming franchise created by Bungie. The set includes characters from all the games, including some of the main alien characters, the Rookie from ODST, and even the Hayabusa armor from Halo 3 multiplayer (you know, the one that took hours to get because you needed to collect the bloody skulls throughout the game to unlock the individual pieces. And yes, I did get the armor, though it took me forever to get). This particular two pack includes Master Chief and his AI Cortana.

MASTER CHIEF

Chief&Cortana2As most people know, Master Chief is the main character of the Halo franchise, without him and his very recognizable voice the game would not have been as successful. He is the playable character for all of the main games, Combat Evolved, Halo 2-4, and is briefly mentioned in Reach and ODST. He’s the mysterious masked badass that defends humanity with an assault rifle, some grenades, and a witty AI companion, Cortana.

The figure is roughly 2 ½ inches in height and he has 12 point of articulation. This figure is based off of the design from Halo: Combat Evolved, which is personally my favorite. According to my boyfriend, this figure has the standard minimate body with unique arms and add-ons for his helmet, torso, belt, thighs, boots, and hands. The figure successfully captures Chief’s design in CE, which is really refreshing because some of the other figures didn’t transfer very well. Now, the figure isn’t flawless but the flaws are pretty amusing, so it’s okay. Master Chief doesn’t have two left feet (though we never see him dance…) but he does have two left thighs, making one leg taller than the other. His right leg is literally the left one but switched, so he has a butt plate on the front of his leg. But other than that little hiccup, the figure is well painted and very satisfying. The Minimate also comes with a well recreated version of the original assault rifle and a really tiny Cortana on a chip that can clip into his hand!

CORTANA

Chief&Cortana3Since Combat Evolved, Cortana has been a constant companion for gamers as they played the games, guiding you in the right directions and giving you constant and witty dialogue. In the story, she wasn’t made for the Master Chief, but under the circumstances their paths crossed and their relationship grew as they took down the Covenant and the Flood together. Basically, there is no Chief without Cortana. Period.

Minimate Cortana is modeled after what I believe is the Halo 3 design. She is roughly 2 ½ inches with 14 points of articulation. According to Ethan, she has the standard Minimate body, which has a painted female body, with removable hair. The figure doesn’t have any noticeable flawless, like two left thighs, but she doesn’t have anything really unique about her except for her stand. Since Cortana is an AI, she is usually stored in a data chip that is stored in the back of Chief’s helmet. For this figure, her stand is the data chip which actually has pretty good detailing, not a lot but enough to be satisfying.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got these Minimates on our one year anniversary, which was Christmas Eve. I knew that I was getting figures this season, because Ethan wanted me to join the guest reviewing family, but I was really touched that these were my first. If you haven’t noticed already, I am a gamer. I love video games and I have been playing for more than a decade now. Halo: Combat Evolved was the first serious game that I played on the original Xbox when I was six or seven with my older brother. I have been a fan of the series for a long time and I stuck with it, and will probably continue to stick with the story until 343 Industries really piss me off. I’ve told Ethan a few times about how I got started with video games, and Halo, so I wasn’t surprised by what he got me. Instead, I found it poetic that the first figures that I got where the characters from the first game that I played that really got me into gaming. I grew up with Master Chief and Cortana, and I find it sweet and a little surprising about the things that Ethan remembers.