Monthly Archives: June 2015

#0616: T1000 – Patrolman

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

T1000 – PATROLMAN

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY REACTION

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Hey! It’s Funko’s ReAction brand! I actually haven’t looked at one of these in like six months. That doesn’t mean they haven’t been releasing a steady stream of the little guys, though. They’re making figures from just about every license under the sun, which is cool, but it also means that not every figure is going to appeal to every collector. So, the last few licenses haven’t really been my thing. However, Terminator 2 is totally my thing, and that’s one of their most recent licenses. Score for me! Let’s have a look at one of the film’s two Terminators, the T-1000, in his Patrolman gear!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

T1000MotorCop2The T1000 is part of the first set of Terminator 2: Judgement Day ReAction figures. The figure stands 3 ¾ inches tall and has the basic 5 points of articulation sported by all the figures in the line. He’s based on the T1000’s second major look in the film, after he steals a motorbike cop’s cycle and assimilates his look. It ends up being the look he has for the huge chase scene leading up to the final battle, which makes it somewhat distinctive, though it’s probably not quite as distinctive as his more basic cop look. That said, it’s still a pretty cool, important look, and it checks a few more of the standard “terminator” boxes than the other look. The figure features a new sculpt, done in the Kenner-style which ReAction replicates. Generally, the sculpt does a pretty good job of replicating the look of one of those figures. It’s not perfect; the torso still suffers from a little flatness, and the arms feel a tad too straight. However, it fits in pretty well with Kenner stuff, and it goes well with the Terminator ReAction figures from last year. The details of the sculpt are simple, but what’s there is pretty sharp, and things look pretty clean. Most of the face is covered, so the likeness is fine. What you can see looks close enough to Robert Patrick’s face to work, so that’s good. It’s not really a bad thing, but there’s a part of me that really wishes that one of the arms had a blade at the end in place of the hand, just to make the figure a little more clearly the T1000. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Paint-wise, the figure is decent, but there’s some room for improvement. The body is generally pretty good, with no real issues with bleed over or slop. The head’s a different story, with the silver of the glasses bleeding onto the nose and the left side of his helmet. Also, the silver band on the visor is really sloppy. Both of these issues are rather distracting, and were present on both samples of the figure that I looked at in the store. The T1000 is packed with an MP5K submachine gun. It’s the gun he’s carrying while flying the helicopter in the chase scene, so it’s a good choice. I do wish he could hold it a bit better, but oh well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

These figures really ended up sneaking up on me. I think I might have heard about them somewhere along the line, but they weren’t really present on my mind until I came across this guy at a slightly out of the way Toys R Us. They didn’t have anything else I wanted and I certainly wasn’t walking out empty handed, so I got this guy. That makes it sound like I didn’t really want him, but I did. I love the T1000, so my Terminator ReAction stuff just wasn’t complete without this guy. He’s not a perfect figure, and I’d like to see more in the way of actual T1000 stuff, but this guy’s fairly entertaining, and he’s a lot better than Funko’s early output from this line.

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#0615: Wizard

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

WIZARD

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOYBIZ)

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The 90s was a great time to be an action figure fan, especially if you liked Marvel comics. Thanks to animated versions of several of their properties airing on TV, there was a lot of tie-in product to be found. Entire lines of figures would be devoted to one particular hero and his rogues and allies, providing a rather large depth of characters, many of whom had not and would not get another figure. One such character is today’s focus, the Wizard, a slightly lesser-known Fantastic Four foe.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wizard2The Wizard was part of the fourth series of ToyBiz’s first Fantastic Four line. The character made an appearance in an early episode of the show’s second season, which had just kicked off when this series of figures was hitting stores. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and features 9 points of articulation. The figure features an entirely unique sculpt, which is…odd to say the least. Let’s start with the posture: he seems to be somewhat hunching, with widely splayed legs, and strangely outstretched arms. His head is atop a crooked, flexing neck, and his torso is oddly shifted to the left. Then there’s the proportions: his head and hands are huge, and his torso is far too short. The Wizard has always had a helmet that made his head look a little bigger than it was, but here it’s his whole head that’s huge, which ends up making the helmet look too small by comparison. Then there’s the arms, which start off somewhat normally sized, and then quickly shift into some sort of jacked-up, oversized monstrosity. I actually kind of like the positioning of the hands, but they look like they belong to another figure. And, of course, you can’t look at this figure and not mention the muscle definition. Seriously, most of those are just made up. The figure’s paint is passable, but not really anything outstanding. It accurately represents his garishly clashing color scheme of the comics, so that’s good, I guess. However, the figure has more than a few instances of bleed over, and his belt in particular is only a slight approximation of where it should be. If you read my Medusa review, you’ll remember that Series 4’s gimmick was that each figure had a base with some sort of action feature. Medusa got her hair, which wasn’t bad, but Wizard’s been given some strange disk…thing. I really don’t know what it is. It’s big, yellow, circular, and so goofy. There’s this lever on the right, which he can loosely hold. It doesn’t do anything, though. If you want to activate the action feature, you have to use a second lever, located behind the first, which shoots some blue disk things. That’s fun I guess.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Wizard was one of the many figures I picked up from my local comicbook store a month or so back when they were running a big sale on action figures. They had several, and I’d passed him up several times over the years, so I figured I might as well break down and buy one. I don’t say this often, but he’s really not a very good figure. So much about him is just so off, and there’s no real rationale as to why. And, to make things worse, this is literally the only figure the character’s ever had, which makes it a serious bummer.

#0614: Domino

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

DOMINO

X-FORCE (TOYBIZ)

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Grrrrr! 90s! Everything had to be soooooo X-Treme! And no one was more X-Treme than the X-Men! Well, okay, actually, that’s not true. There was one team than was more X-Treme, by design. They were the X-Force and they were super hardcore 90s. So hard. One of their more prominent members was Domino, who had luck based powers. You know, like a domino!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Domino2Domino was released in Series 6 of ToyBiz’s X-Force line. It’s surprising to see one of the team’s higher tier members not being released until one of the last few series of the line, but, hey, it was the 90s, and we were in the worst dregs of boys thinking girl toys were icky, so…..yeah. The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. While she was fortunate enough not to be saddled with the dreaded v-style hip joints that plagued many female figures of the time, she’s completely lacking in neck articulation, and for some strange reason her elbow joints are just simple cut joints. This ends up severely limiting what can be done with the figure, which is quite a bummer. Domino featured an all-new sculpt (though it would see a couple of re-paints later on down the line). It’s…passable. They’ve done a fairly decent job of capturing the design from the comics, which, it should be noted, is her second, non-Liefeld-designed costume. It’s got all the requisite buckles, pouches, shoulder pads, and even a weird head thing! The proportions aren’t the worst thing ever and she has one of the better female faces of the time. That said, she’s rather boxy, especially in her lower half, and I’m really not sure what’s going on with the straps on her torso. They certainly can’t be comfortable configured that way. Also, she seems to have lost a row of abdominal muscles, which ends up making the legs look way too long. The paintwork on the figure is alright.  Nothing amazing, but the colors are pretty good matches for the look in the comics, and there isn’t any substantial slop or bleed over. Domino originally included a set of gun attachments, which hooked into her legs. Yeah. Not really sure why they did that, since she just held the guns in her hands in the comics, but hey, whatever. Mine didn’t have them anyway.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Domino was another figure that I fished out of a box of loose figures at one of the dealer’s tables at this past Balticon. I was never really into X-Force growing up, and Domino never played a prominent role in the X-Men cartoon, so I didn’t really have a reason to get this figure while it was still new. But, it was a dollar. It’s not ToyBiz’s best work, but it isn’t atrocious.

#0613: Ripley – Compression Suit

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

RIPLEY –COMPRESSION SUIT

ALIENS (NECA)

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No movie toyline is every truly complete without a bunch of variations of one of the film’s main characters. Sometimes they’re manufactured by the toy makers, resulting in strange neon colored variations, aimed at capturing the attention of small children (which has been known to work…occasionally). However, there’s been an increasing trend towards variations that are accurate to the source material. NECA is pretty big on these, especially when they get ahold of a major actor’s likeness rights. When they managed to get Arnold Schwarzenegger’s likeness from Predator, they released five variants of the character right off the bat. Now that they’ve gotten Sigourney Weaver’s likeness from the Alien films, and it looks like they’re going to be approaching her figures a similar fashion. I looked at the first version of her the other day, and now I’ll be looking at the second version, from the very same series.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

RipleySS2Ripley was released in Series 4 of NECA’s Aliens line. The series is devoted completely to the 35th Anniversary of Alien, so all of the figures are from that particular movie. The figure stands about 7 ½ inches tall and features 24 points of articulation. The first Ripley figure depicted her in her jumpsuited look, which was her primary look from the movie. This one is based on her look from her final confrontation with the creature, while in the Narcisus. It’s not the look most would associate with her for the movie, but it’s a strong second, being from a rather pivotal scene of the film. As an added bonus, it gives NECA another opportunity to use the compression suit body into which they’ve put so much work. Surprising pretty much nobody, the figure uses the same pressure suit body as Dallas and Kane (she also has the same hands as Dallas). Ripley’s suit was just a slight bit more streamlined in the film, so she doesn’t sport the front piece of armor (not sure what it actually is) and she also doesn’t have the holster strap for the flare gun. The helmet is RipleySS3similarly streamlined, being pretty much the same as Dallas’s, but without the head lamp. Under the helmet is a Ripley sculpt that is completely different from the one on Jumpsuit Ripley. It’s different, but I honestly can’t say if it’s better or worse than the other sculpt. It’s still got a pretty good likeness of Weaver, and the hair has been sculpted to more properly fit within the helmet. This ends up making the figure look a bit more goofy with the helmet off, but she looks great with the helmet on, which is the preferable outcome. Ripley’s paintwork is a little more simplistic than the other two compression-suited figures, but this is once again accurate to the movie, where Ripley’s suit is only used within the confines of the ship. Though it may be more simple, it’s hardly a bad paint job. In fact, it’s probably one of NECA’s best. While the suit is all white, NECA has made sure to include some slight variation in color and finish, providing quite a bit of dimension to the figure. The head also features some incredibly clean work, with no slop or bleed over, and some nice smallerRipleySS6 details. Ripley includes the harpoon gun, which figures prominently into the last moments of the film and has both opened and closed-hook harpoons, as well as another version of the film’s other survivor, Jonesy the cat, this time in a frightened pose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ripley is the last piece of the Series 4 set I ordered from Big Bad Toy Store. While I think the other Ripley is still the standout of this set, this version is incredibly solid. Like Dallas, she makes use of the strong compression-suit sculpt we saw on Kane, but doesn’t suffer from Kane’s drawbacks. Also, and this applies to this whole series, the paint here just seems like a huge leap forward compared to the previous three series of figures. All in all, this a fun figure, and definitely a must for anyone who’s an Alien fan.

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#0612: Dallas – Compression Suit

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

DALLAS – COMPRESSION SUIT

ALIENS (NECA)

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While Alien may not be quite up to the same level as its sequel Aliens (at least in my mind), it’s still a tremendously well-made film. One of the greatest aspects of the movie was its incredible design work. H.R. Giger’s main creature design tends to get a lot of the focus, but the film also had some awesome work on the human side of things, such as the incredibly memorable space suits, worn by three of the main characters during the exploration of the derelict ship. NECA first brought the suit design into their Aliens line in Series 3, where it was worn by the ill-fated Kane. Now we’ve gotten another of the trio, with the Nostromo’s well-meaning captain, Dallas.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dallas3Dallas was released in Series 4 of NECA’s Aliens line. Like all the others in this series, he’s from Alien, and is meant to somewhat commemorate the film’s 35th anniversary last year. The figure is about 7 ½ inches tall, and he has 24 points of articulation. As noted in the intro, Dallas is presented here in his Compression Suit look. It’s a pretty distinctive design, and a few of the character’s key scenes occur down on the planet, so it was well chosen. Rather unsurprisingly, the majority of Dallas’s sculpt is from Series 3’s Kane figure. Seeing as the suits in the movie are just palate swaps of each other and they’re bulky enough to hide the figure of the wearer, it would be silly for NECA not to use the parts they already had sculpted. The re-used parts are just as good here as they were on Kane. The body features a ton of texture and detail, and the add-ons for the armored parts add a nice bit of dimension. Dallas gets an all-new head, and, though you might miss them at first, a new set of hands. The hands are pretty much the same as the ones on Kane, except the poses are reversed. It’s a nice touch and it allows for a neat bit of variety. The head is a fairly Dallas4decent sculpt; the Tom Skerritt likeness isn’t as spot-on as the Sigourney Weaver was, but it’s passable (though, I can’t help but see Tom Hanks in that face. Not sure why.) In general, the head feels a little less defined than the rest of the sculpt. Fortunately this is fairly hidden by the helmet. Speaking of the helmet, it should be noted that it has the same two piece design as Kane’s. The bottom portion is the same piece (though it sits a little closer to the torso than Kane’s does) while the top is a slightly tweaked piece, showing an undamaged version of the helmet. Paint is where Dallas really gets a leg up on Kane. While things certainly aren’t perfect (especially when it comes to the face) the amount of bleed over is a lot lower, and the detailing and texturing looks superb. And the biggest improvement: he’s not sticky! Yeah, Kane was rather tacky is some areas, which isn’t a good thing, but Dallas suffers from none of that, showing that NECA’s really committed to learning from their mistakes. In addition to the removable helmet, Dallas also includes the same flare gun and flashlight that we saw with Kane.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Dallas was part of the set of Series 4 figures I ordered via Big Bad Toy Store. I can’t say the guy was super high on my want list, but I’m pleased to have him. He takes what was good about the Kane figure and improves what was bad, resulting in an overall very solid addition to the line. I can’t help but feel it’s a little unfortunate that he got placed in this series, as I’m sure a lot of people will end up overlooking him in favor of the two Ripley figures he’s packed with. And that’s too bad, because he’s really one of the best figures the line has offered so far, at least as far as quality is concerned.

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#0611: Mega Man

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

MEGA MAN

SUPER SMASH BROTHERS AMIIBO

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I am not the foremost expert on video games. However, I’ve got a decent knowledge of some of the higher profile stuff, and I do have my personal favorites, both in terms of games and the characters within them. Over the winter, my brother and I got pretty invested in the most recent iteration of Super Smash Brothers. One of the new things that Nintendo has added to the game are Amiibo, which are these little figurines of the characters which can be used in conjunction with the game, allowing you to name and train NPC versions of the characters they represent, as well as unlock a few additional things within Smash and other games. Unfortunately, it seems like Nintendo’s kinda terrible at this whole collectibles thing, so a lot of the characters I’d like to own are ridiculously hard to find. That kind of ruins the whole thing for everybody. Anyway, I actually managed to find one of the characters I wanted, thanks to a rerelease. So, let’s take a look at Mega Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

MegaMan3Mega Man was part of either the second or third round of Super Smash Brothers Amiibo (EDIT: He’s from the third round!). I know he definitely wasn’t amongst the initial assortment of characters. The “figure” is about 3 ½ inches tall, with the base adding about ½ an inch to the height. Amiibo aren’t designed as actual action figures, and as such, Mega Man doesn’t have any articulation. Sort of a bummer, but it’s not like it’s unexpected. Mega Man’s sculpt is pretty great. It’s sufficiently accurate to the design of the character. It’s specifically based on Mega Man’s appearance in the latest Super Smash Brothers game, with a few little details lifted straight from the game. Of course, his design hasn’t changed that much from prior appearances, so this could certainly stand in for an earlier Mega Man if MegaMan2that’s what you want. He’s sculpted in a fairly in-character pose, with his legs in a wide stance and his buster cannon held high. It’s a good pose, though it might be nice if the cannon was a little further away from his face, just so it didn’t block him. Mega Man’s paintwork isn’t the greatest thing of all time, but it’s better than what lots of other companies are putting out there right now. Some areas, especially the shorts, exhibit a little bit of bleed over, but nothing too bad. I really like the decision to use metallic paint for the darker blue portions; it has a really nice sheen to it, and it makes the figure really pop. Mega Man doesn’t include any physical accessories, but he does have the interface with Smash, which works pretty well. Also, when scanned in for the first time, each Amiibo gets you a small portion of a classic game. In Mega Man’s case, it was the first few minutes of Metroid, which was pretty fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed out on Mega Man in his initial release, which bummed me out a bit. However, I ended up coming across one at a Toys R Us while I was out with the rest of my family. He’s my first Amiibo, and overall I like him. He works well with Smash, and I like the basic sculpt and layout of the piece. That being said, if you’re just looking for a Mega Man figure, this one might not be the one for you. It’s really more of a display piece and less of a toy.

#0610: Ripley

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

RIPLEY – JUMPSUIT

ALIENS (NECA)

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As faithful readers of the site know, it’s no secret that my favorite movie of all time is Aliens. So, it’s probably not a huge shock to find out that I’m rather fond of Alien, the film Aliens sequel-izes, as well. Granted, I don’t view it with nearly as much reverence as its sequel, but I appreciate it for what it spawned, and I think it’s a tremendously well assembled film. When NECA made their announcement that they had managed to acquire Sigourney Weaver’s likeness rights, they quickly followed up by confirming that the first Ripley figure in their Aliens line would be based on her debut appearance in Alien. Now, that figure is finally here, and I’m really excited to see how it turned out.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

RipleyJS2Ripley was released as part of Series 4 of NECA’s Aliens line. Series 4 is the first series in the line not to feature any figures from Aliens, as well as the first series not to feature any of the titular creatures. There’s no need to fret, though, because a) Series 5 will be making up for both of those things, and b) Series 4 suffers in no way for the lack of either of these things. NECA has taken advantage of Alien’s 35th anniversary, and has offered three figures based on that film’s designs. This particular Ripley represents her in her main jumpsuited look, which she sports for most of her screen time. The figure stands just shy of 7 ½ inches tall and has 26 points of articulation. It’s refreshing to see a female figure that isn’t dwarfed by her male counterparts (in fact, she’s taller than Bishop, and the same height as Hicks), and it makes this an accurate depiction of Ripley as portrayed by the 6 foot tall Sigourney Weaver. Ripley has a brand-new sculpt (in fact, she’s the only figure in this series to get one) and, simply put, it’s phenomenal. She has great proportions, tons of detail, and the articulation is very nicely worked into the sculpt. When NECA did Bishop in the last series, I had a few issues with overlay piece used for the torso part of the jumpsuit. I was somewhat concerned about those issues cropping up here. Fortunately, NECA has made sure they didn’t, and have tweaked the overlay part to be two pieces, allowing for a more form fitting look and avoiding the slight diaper-like appearance of Bishop’s waist. The overlay allows for a bit more dimension, and they’ve done a wonderful job of sculpting the collar of her uniform shirt so that it just barely shows RipleyJS4under the jumpsuit. Now, we all know that NECA can do an awesome job on the body, but the real pull here is that, for the first time ever, we got a Ripley that’s actually allowed to look like Sigourney Weaver! So, how’d they do? If I’m totally honest, when I first saw the sculpt, I was a little underwhelmed. Sure, it bore a resemblance to Weaver, but it seemed off. After taking the figure out and viewing the sculpt in three dimensions, my opinion’s changed greatly. This is definitely Sigourney Weaver. At least the face is, anyway. The hair, I’m not 100% sold on, though I’d chalk that up to the impossibility of perfectly replicating something so fluid in a solid medium. Also, this may seem like a weird thing to comment on, but I’m really impressed by the hands. Like, I looked at them and immediately thought “wow, those are Sigourney Weaver’s hands.” It’s something that’s really minor and easy to overlook, but it really adds a lot to the figure. Ripley’s paintwork is, while not flawless, pretty darn good. Application is nice and clean, and there’s some great detail work on the patches on her jumpsuit. The face is pretty decent for the scale and the price point, but the edges on the eyes are just a little off, and there’s a little scratch on her nose. Nothing too major, though. She does seem a little on the clean side, but it’s fair to say she’s supposed to be from earlier in the film, and would therefore be a little less messy. Ripley includes two accessories: a flamethrower and Jonesy the cat. Both pieces are excellent additions to the figure. The flamethrower is superbly sculpted and painted and fits quite nicely in her hands. Jonesy is pretty decently sculpted and features ball joints at the neck and tail, allowing for some decent movement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been patiently waiting for this figure’s release ever since it was announced. I picked her up, along with the other two figures in the series, from Big Bad Toy Store, as soon as they got her in stock. This figure is fantastic. It does a wonderful job of translating the character from the film to three dimensions and gives us our first shot at a character that the line couldn’t be complete without. Sure, it’s not the version from Aliens that I’ve been oh so anxiously waiting for, but it’s more than enough to hold me over until that figure comes along. NECA has done a tremendous job with this figure, and they’ve set the bar pretty high for the Aliens version in Series 5. Here’s hoping that one’s just as good!

*Ripley also has the added notoriety of being the 3000th unique figure to be added to my collection!  That’s a big number!

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#0609: Jarknoid Zain

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

JARKNOID ZAIN

ASSEMBLE BORG (REVOLTECH)

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“What the hell is a Jarknoid?

 –Tim Marron

When Mego imported Microman as Micronauts, they started off with a selection of figures that were more or less the same as their Japanese counterparts. However, as the line moved forward, Mego decided to add a few of their own touches. The Japanese line had relied on the Acroyear as the foes of the heroic Micromen, and Micronauts had started much the same way. Mego decided that the ‘nauts needed a more diverse selection of foes, and created their own set of unique foes, under the heading “Aliens.” These Aliens became some of the more distinctive Micronauts, and are the primary point of separation of the two lines.

Assemble Borg, is no doubt inspired by Microman. In fact, one of Borg’s main designers originally worked on Microman. What’s interesting to me, though, is that Assemble Borg’s main set of villains, the Jarknoids, actually seem to have more in common with Mego’s line than they do the line it was based on. That kind of makes Assemble Borg the closest thing Micronauts has to a successor. And that’s actually pretty cool. So, let’s take a look at one of those freaky Jarknoids, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Zain2Jarknoid Zain is entry 008 in the Assemble Borg line. Numerically, he was the last of the trio of Jarknoid villains, released as a direct follow-up to the original heroic Assemble Borg figures.  Each of the Jarknoid’s was given their own epithet, and Zain’s was “Astro-Killer,” which is simple, but rather effective in establishing the character, I guess. Like Panzer, Zain predates the line’s changeover to the more modular “Nexus” style, meaning he’s a more traditional style of action figure, but the customizability is still a present feature. The figure is about 6 inches in height and has 42 points of articulation.  Zain is built on what was the standard Assemble Borg body. We’ve seen some of this before, as Panzer made use of the same torso, pelvis, and thighs. The sculpt is definitely on the more basic side, but it offers a nice sleekness, which offers a nice contrast to the more intricate character specific pieces. Speaking of character Zain3specific pieces, holy crap is that head a really impressive piece of work. He’s got a mask that just looks like a giant skeletal hand is just grabbing his face, which is a truly disturbing design. The mask can be removed, revealing a smaller chrome head underneath, which is a fairly neat feature, though I can’t see anyone displaying this in favor of the mask. He’s also got a chrome chest piece, which is really pointy and fit’s with the mask pretty well. In addition to the basic body, each of the Jarknoids included a few character specific parts that could be swapped in place of the normal body parts. Zain gets a cool arm piece, which, depending on how you configure it can either be a big gun arm or a big claw thing. Both are pretty cool, and they have a nice bit of silver detailing to bring out the awesome details. In addition to those parts, the figure includes four sets of hands (fists, open palm, trigger finger, and Zain4pointing/splayed), a sword, an axe, a small gun, a slightly larger small gun, a medium gun, a huge gun, an adaptor to attach the weapons to any revolver connector, an assortment of revolver joints, and a coin worth 10 revolchip points.  I really love the weapons, because they all have some really fantastic spikey detailing that looks pretty awesome. Like the other Assemble Borg figures I’ve looked at, paint is relatively minor on Zain, but I do really love the color of the plastic he’s molded in.

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I tried to ease into this whole Assemble Borg thing. I really did. I picked up Panzer because he was relatively inexpensive, and I thought he would hold me over. Then I got Nexus for free. I wanted Zain, but I was trying to hold off. Then Tim (who still remains at fault for all of this) showed me the Yeeg figure he’d bought (Yeeg’s another of the Jarknoids) and I found myself really wanting one of the villains. So, I ended up getting this guy off of eBay. Zain is a really, really cool figure, and he’s definitely my favorite of the Jarknoids. He’s properly imposing and just a lot of fun to mess with. Man I love this line.

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#0608: MODOK

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

MODOK

IRON MAN (TOYBIZ)

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MODOK! The Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing! That is, unless he’s on a children’s cartoon on Saturday mornings, in which case, he’s the Mental Organism Designed Only for Konquest. You remember how Konquest is spelled with a “K,” right? Hey, it could have been worse; originally he was going to be Mental Organism Designed Only for Kittens. That just doesn’t seem as threatening, does it?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

MODOK2MODOK was released in the second series of ToyBiz’s 90s Iron Man line. The line was released to tie-in with the cartoon of the time, so MODOK is based on his appearance there. Though, to be fair, his look on the show was largely unchanged from his comic appearance, so the figure can easily pull double duty. The figure is about 5 inches tall and he has 6(?) points of articulation. The articulation is a little hard to get an accurate count on; the attachments on the head definitely move, but it’s hard to tell if the arms and legs are actually supposed to move. If they are, they’re quite limited. MODOK has a sculpt that was totally unique to him, and it’s actually pretty great. It captures the character’s design rather nicely, and it has a surprising level of detail for a figure of the time. The face has some nice, deep set wrinkles, making him appropriately grotesque and all of his armored parts have some nice etched in details. While the sculpt may be impressive, the figure’s been saddled with one of the more lackluster paintjobs of the time. It isn’t actually bad, but it’s incredibly basic, with most of the colors just being molded plastic. Plus, the colors are all flat, which doesn’t really showcase the sculpt all that well. A little bit of a metallic finish would go a long way. MODOK included an ID Card with his picture, powers, and a quick little bio (these were included with all the figures in the first two series of the line), as well as a blast piece that works with the figure’s “action feature.” When you press the button on the back of the figure, or squeeze the head, the blast piece gets launched, at least in theory. In reality, the button doesn’t actually work; you can still go with the head squeezing method, though the launch distance is a little…underwhelming.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

MODOK is another one of those figures that I missed out on growing up. I feel like he may have been one of the more difficult figures to find. He ended up being one of the figures I came across in the dealer’s room at this past Balticon. He actually ended up being the most expensive of the figures that I picked up, though he still wasn’t all that pricey. As an adult, I can appreciate this figure, especially for the strength of the sculpt. As a kid, I think I might have found this figure a little bit less exciting. No real articulation and a lackluster action feature don’t do the figure any favors. That said, he’s a decent looking figure and works perfectly fine as a display piece. I guess it really just depends what you look for in a figure.

#0607: Superman – Blue

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

SUPERMAN – BLUE

JLA: CLASSIFIED

SupermanBlue1

The 90s were weird. Like, for everyone. Marvel had their whole shoulder pads and pouches thing going on, which is one of those things we’d all like to forget now. DC was getting in on the weirdness too, and few characters got hit as much as Superman. First he died and got replaced with four “x-treme” takes on the mythos. Then he came back, but he was different and he had a mullet. Then he lost the mullet, but the sun also got blotted out, preventing him access to his solar-based powers. The only logical solution was to convert his powers to electricity. That’s just obvious. Anyway, the result was Superman Blue, a radical departure from the Superman we all knew and loved. He didn’t really stick around for long, but he had a rather distinctive design, which did build up a rather decent fan following, resulting in a few action figures over the years. Let’s take a look at the most recent version!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SupermanBlue2Superman Blue was released as part of the second series of DC Direct’s JLA: Classified line. All of the figures in the series were based on looks from the 90s, so Superman fit in pretty well. The figure stands roughly 6 ½ inches tall and features 13 points of articulation. Due to the nature of the sculpt and how the articulation was implemented, most of the articulation is ultimately pointless, and the figure’s only real pose is a basic standing one. The JLA: Classified line worked as a companion line to the four assortments of Ed McGuinness-styled Superman/Batman figures produced not long before. So, Superman Blue is presented here in Ed McGuinness’s style, though I’m not sure that McGuinness ever actually drew Superman Blue. Admittedly, it’s a style that works pretty well for the design, so I can’t really complain. Most of the McG-styled figures made use of a lot of the same pieces, and Superman Blue is no exception. He gets a brand new head, but from the neck down he’s a straight re-use of the basic McG body first used for Captain Atom. It’s not a terrible body, but it’s not without its flaws either. It’s definitely well-defined, and in keeping with a lot of McG’s illustrations, but the arms are definitely way too stubby. The head is a pretty decent sculpt; it matches up pretty well with the regular McG Superman, but it’s got a slightly more smug expression, which at the very least adds some variety. The character’s spiky electric hair is quite nicely conveyed, and the head-band-thingy is appropriately sharp and clean. The only real issue is that the head is just a tad too big for the body. The paintwork is alright; the blue and white are appropriately bold, and the figure definitely stands out. However, the application of the white areas is a little uneven, and the elements on the arms and legs which should mirror each other end up not doing so. The figure’s one accessory is a small black display stand with the JLA: Classified logo printed in blue.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Superman Blue was another piece of the large selection of figures I bought on sale from my local comicbook store. He’s not my favorite design of all time, but at $3, I figured he was worth it. The figure is overall pretty decent, and while it’s not perfect, it does add a certain degree of “pop” to the shelf.