Monthly Archives: April 2016

#0901: Vision

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

VISION

MARVEL UNIVERSE 10-INCH (TOY BIZ)

During Toy Biz’s run producing Marvel toys in the 90s, their standard scale of choice was 5-inch scale. Since most of their prototypes were done as two-ups (sculpted at twice the size and then scaled down during the production process), they also had the ability to produce virtually the same sculpts at twice the size, allowing them to produce a fairly vast line of 10-inch scaled figures. The figures were generally produced on the cheap, which Toy Biz achieved by building as many of the figures as they could out of a bank of common pieces. This led to them producing a number of more (at the time) obscure characters who happened to be easy builds. One such character was the Vision, who ended up getting his very first figure courtesy of this line (though his next three figures would arrive in short succession).

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Vision10inch2Vision was released as part of the 10-inch scale Marvel Universe line during the late 1997/early 1998 assortment. He predates the line’s move to being KB Toys-exclusive, though not by much. The figure stands 10 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. Vision is depicted here in his mid-90s costume, which was the look he was porting when the figure was put into production, but he had gone back to his classic look right around this figure’s time of release. As far as structure, he uses an up-scaled version of the second Archangel body as his base, with a head from Silver Surfer. Both were favored pieces by Toy Biz, so they showed up a lot, and the same formula would be employed for the smaller-scale Marvel Gold version of the character. The body seems a little on the large side for Vision, but isn’t a terrible fit. He still has the wrist bands from Archangel, but he’s hardly the first figure to use this body that just acted like those weren’t a part of the sculpt. Re-using head sculpts is generally a bit iffy, but it works okay here, because Surfer’s head was chromed and Vision’s is normally painted, plus Surfer’s head was just a generic bald head to begin with. Unfortunately, the head and body aren’t really meant to go together, so there’s a lot of excess space at the base of the neck, especially in the back. This figure originally had a cloth cape to complete the look, which I recall being slightly ill-fitting, but overall a good piece, and it masked the previously mentioned neck issues (EDIT: I found the cape!  my assessment of it based on memory was correct). Vision’s paint is cool looking, as long as you don’t look too close. The colors are all nicely chose, and the metallic green looks pretty awesome. That said, the application is pretty sloppy, with lots of fuzzy and wavy lines, with the change over from red to green on the head being the worst offender. Vision included no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Vision from Toy Liquidators, back in 1998. Anybody remember Toy Liquidators? They were on their way out, even in 1998. Anyway, I had been to this Toy Liquidators with my grandmother on my mom’s side, and gotten some other figures, but not Vision (because getting her to accept anyone that wasn’t Batman or Spider-Man was already enough of an uphill battle. Explaining why I needed a Vision figure because he was the first ever was not happening). When I mentioned Vision to my Dad, he took me back to the store to get the figure, because Dad gets me (my Grandmother got me too, but it was a different sort of bond). Is he a perfect figure? No, but he was literally the first Vision figure ever made, and that was the best thing ever to 5 year old me (I still think he’s pretty cool).

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#0900: Captain America – Star Spangled Man Version

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA – STAR SPANGLED MAN VERSION

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (HOT TOYS)

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Whelp, looks like I’ve stumbled my way through another 100 reviews, bringing my total reviews up to a resounding 900. Wow, that’s a lot. I need to get a life. Oh, right, the toys. The toys are my life. That works out, then. As is customary for all reviews divisible by 100, I’ll be doing another Deluxe Review.

When you’re dealing with high-end action figures, where each figure costs a small fortune, you would think that you might want to avoid doubling up on characters. By and large, that’s been what I’ve attempted to do in my high-end collecting. However, there was one main exception: Captain America. For some reason, I just kept buying the guy. Cap’s costume in the Marvel Studios movies has minor changes in each film, in an attempt to take him just a little closer to his comics counterpart. However, he actually started out in a costume that was an almost exact replica of his classic comics look, even if it ended up being a bit of a joke.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

CapSSM3Captain America was released as figure number 205 in Hot Toys’ Movie Masterpiece Series. He was one of three figures “exclusive” to San Diego Comic Con 2013 (I say “exclusive” because he was available through Sideshow’s website, and didn’t actually ship until a while after the con). Chronologically, he’s the first of the three exclusives. This version of Cap hails from Captain America: The First Avenger, and is based on the propaganda costume Steve wears during the “Star Spangled Man” musical montage (hence the name). With the exception of covering up his ears (for silly practical reasons like being able to turn his head), it’s a pretty straight recreation of his comics look. The figure stands roughly 12 inches tall and has “over 30 points of articulation” according to the blurb on Sideshow’s site.

CapSSM4While masked and unmasked heads have more or less become the norm on HT’s Cap figures now, this guy only includes the masked look. This is presumably due to him being a follow-up figure to the Rescue version, which was unmasked. The head sculpt is the usual HT quality; tons of little detail work that makes it look like the real person it’s emulating. Well, it looks like a real person. There’s certainly a bit of Evans in there, but it’s not as spot-on as other HT sculpts. Also, his face looks oddly out of proportion with the rest of his head, like it’s just a bit too big. This probably isn’t helped by the fact that his neck is nowhere near as thick as it is in the movie, which makes him look slightly bobble-headed and less heroic. The expression on his face is rather serious, which seems a bit out of place for this costume within the context of the movie, but makes sense when you recall that a major appeal of this figure was selling it to people who just wanted a comics accurate Cap. The texturing on his mask is pretty nicely done; it seems a bit heavy when viewed up close, but looks just about right when viewed from a little further away. The head is finished off with an absolutely top-notch paintjob, which does a lot to distract from some of the more minor issues present here.

CapSSM2Cap’s costume makes use of seven different pieces; He has a cloth bodysuit, which makes up the majority of his costume, as well as a pair of shorts to go over it and a belt. The pieces are fairly well tailored, but not completely without issue. The shorts seem a bit more obtrusive than they were in the movie, and the red and white stripes on the torso stick out a little bit on the sides. The star symbol is actually a sculpted piece, which plugs into the center of his chest, in order to keep it properly centered. There are sculpted pieces for the boots and the tops of the gloves, which are very nicely handled and do a great job of simulating the leather used for the real items in the movie.

The weakest part of this figure by far is the underlying body. While I haven’t undressed my figure, I’ve seen pictures of the underlying body; it’s a Frankenstein’s Monster of earlier base bodies, which don’t all quite fit together, resulting in some odd gaps. The gaps have been filled with padding, which does an alright job, but has to be shifted from time to time to prevent him from getting weird lumps, and it also gets in the way of some of his articulation. Also, for reasons I can’t begin to fathom, the arms they chose are the ones with the most limited elbow movement available, which is incredibly limiting in what you can do with the figure, and makes little sense, since the joints could have easily been hidden by the sleeves.

Cap’s accessories complement does a fair bit to make up for the somewhat lackluster body. He included:CapSSM6

  • 7 different hands
  • Tommy gun
  • Pistol (w/ holster)
  • Grenade (w/ pouch)
  • Utility belt (w/ two pouches)
  • Ammo belt
  • Leather strap
  • Shield
  • Cue cards
  • Display stand

The hands are all sculpted to match up with the top parts of the gloves on the costume. They come in relaxed (R and L), fists (R and L), tight and loose grips (both L), and a trigger finger (R). The one glaring omission here is a pointing hand for an “I Want You” style pose. You can sub in the trigger finger (as I did), but it’s not quite the same.

The Tommy gun, pistol, grenade, utility belt, ammo belt, and leather strap are all based on the sequence in the montage where Cap is filming a propaganda film. The gun is the coolest piece, and it even has a removable ammo drum, with a few rounds visible at the top. All in all, these paces make for a pretty cool alternate look.

CapSSM5The Shield is the coolest piece, not necessarily for itself (though it is a good recreation of the first shield in the movie), but for the cue cards. In the movie, Cap has a speech about buying war bonds, which he has to give at each Star Spangled Man performance. It’s revealed during the montage that he has cue cards with the words from the speech taped onto the inside of his shield. It’s a brief little moment, but a cool character piece. You have to attach the cards yourself, but it’s a super cool touch that HT included them, and it offers a fun extra that most companies would overlook.

Finally, there’s the display stand, which is a fairly standard, run of the mill piece, but nice to have regardless.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This Cap is the “newest” of my HT Caps. The First Avenger was my favorite Phase 1 solo film, and I love the whole Star Spangled Man sequence, and Cap’s costume is one of the most distinctive in comics, so I was pretty excited when this figure was first shown off. Then there was the waiting (since it took over a year from showing him at a con for him to actually get a slot in the line). I bought him through Sideshow’s site when he was finally listed. Then the real trouble began. See, Sideshow ships through UPS, and they require a signature for delivery. I missed the driver the first two times Cap went out for delivery, and wouldn’t be home for the third, so I contacted UPS about having him held for pickup at the distribution center. They told me they weren’t allowed to do that, and that he’d be sent back to Sideshow if I wasn’t there the next day. A few calls later, I was told to just show up for pick-up that evening, despite it not being officially set-up. Well, surprising no one, that didn’t work out, resulting in another 5 hours of phone calls, before I was finally get it all sorted out, and was able to pick him up the following morning. After all of that, this better be the best darn Cap figure I’ve ever owned, right? Well, not quite. Honestly, he’s not a bad figure, but he’s probably the weakest of the Cap figures I have, due mostly to the weird body. Still, I’m glad I have him, and he rounds out my set of First Avenger Caps quite nicely.

#0899: Spartan Buck

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

SPARTAN BUCK

HALO 5: GUARDIANS (MCFARLANE)

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Well, as sad as it is to admit, the master Halo license has been passed to Mattel, bringing an end to McFarlane Toys’ eight year run with the franchise.  McFarlane isn’t quite done, though, as they had one last series of Halo 5 figures already in production when the changeover was worked out.  So here’s their last hurrah.

Spartan Edward Buck, the focus of today’s review, was the one member of Agent Locke’s Team Osiris that wasn’t new to game players.  He first showed up as an ODST in Halo 3: ODST (shocking, I know), and he’s had a few other cameos throughout the series, before making the jump to a Spartan.  In Halo 5, Buck ended up being a replacement for Gabriel Thorne, whose actor wasn’t available to do the game.  Lucky Buck!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SpartBuck2Spartan Buck is part of the second (and final) series of Halo 5: Guardians figures from McFarlane Toys. He’s the only unique character in the series, which will no doubt prove frustrating to those hoping for Linda and Vale to finish up the game’s main teams.  The figure has 32 points of articulation and stands 5 ½ inches tall.  There seems to have been a gradual creep upwards in scale on this line, as Buck ends up being the largest of the Halo 5 Spartans, despite not being noticeably larger in the game.  Also, he’s got the somewhat questionable hip joints that all the post-Halo 4 figures have gotten, and his general mobility is a bit limited.  However, he still moves on par with the rest of the Halo 5 figures.  Buck wears the Helljumper armor in the game, which is in many ways meant to be a call back to the ODST design (the  name “Helljumper” is even a slang term for ODSTs in the game’s universe).  The armor’s clunky and made to take a beating, just like the ODST armor, and I like the design a lot.  Since we haven’t seen the Helljumper armor before, Buck’s sculpt is new(though it’s mostly shared with the basic Spartan Helljumper figure from this same series).  The sculpt does a pretty nice job of translating the game design into plastic form; it’s a little rough around the edges in a few spots, but there’s a ton of really awesome detail work present here.  Buck gets a knife/sheath on his shoulder and a pair of pouches on his right calf to help set him apart from the basic Helljumper.  Buck’s paintwork is overall pretty great.  There are a few sloppy spots here and there, but not enough to distract from the good.  The best work is definitely on the insignias on his shoulders, both of which are nice and sharp, as is Buck’s name tag.  Buck is packed with a Hydra Launcher and a standard issue Magnum.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While out and about, I stopped at an out-of-the-way Walgreens, which netted me not only the Walgreens-exclusive Yellow Daredevil, but also this guy.  When Buck was absent from the first series of Halo 5 figures, I was a little bummed, since he’s by far my favorite design from the new game.  I was quite happy to see him show up in the second assortment, but now that he’s out, his arrival is a bit bittersweet.  He’s not a perfect figure, but he’s good enough to make me sad that we won’t be getting the rest of the teams.  Now, I guess all I can do is wait and see what Mattel does with the license.  Yay.

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#0898: Roger

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

ROGER

HELLBOY (MEZCO)

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The artificial man is a recurring story element in lots of different popular culture. Typically, it’s the likes of Frankenstein’s monster, or even characters like Ash and Bishop from the Alien franchise, or perhaps just a more generic robot. They’re created through scientific means. However, there are a few examples, such as the Golem or the Homunculi, which are created through supernatural means. Today’s focus, Roger, is officially the latter, but functionally works as the former. Just go with it. Without further ado, here’s Roger!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Roger was released in Series 2 of Mezco’s comic-based Hellboy line. The figure stands just shy of 8 inches tall (Roger’s a big guy) and he has 23 points of articulation. Roger has a sculpt courtesy of Inu Art, and he’s based on Mike Mignola’s artwork from the main series. A lot of Roger’s appearances were actually in BPRD, which was drawn by Guy Davis, not Mignola. However, it makes sense to have all of the figures in this set be in the same basic style (plus Davis’ style isn’t too far removed from Mignola’s to begin with). Roger’s sculpt is totally unique to him. His proportions are a pretty spot-on rendering of what’s seen on the page, and the resemblance to Roger is definitely there.  Roger’s far less clothed than the other two figures I’ve looked at from this line, but that doesn’t mean he lacks Roger2the attention to detail. Like Lobster Johnson, he has that chiseled look, with a ton of cool texturing, which really makes this figure stand out from others. The hatch at the center of his torso is actually articulated to allow it to open (though the interior of his torso is merely simulated, not actually shown). The loop on Roger’s… modesty… plank (?) is a separate, metal piece, which is a nice touch. Roger’s paint consists almost entirely of variations of browns, but there’s enough there to keep him from being too boring. The paint is all nice and clean, and there’s some pretty cool shading throughout the figure. Roger includes a BPRD flak jacket, if you prefer him a bit more clothed, as well as a book with a skull on the front of it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

At the time of this figure’s release, my only real exposure to the franchise was the first movie and a handful of comics I’d picked up, none of which featured Roger. Not knowing the character, I didn’t pick him up. Then I actually read a number of his appearances, and quite enjoyed the character, but finding the figure at that point was…less than practical. At this year’s MAGFest, one of the vendors had a Lobster Johnson figure, which I very happily snapped up. The next day, they had added Roger to the table, and I happily snapped him up too. I don’t find him to be quite as fun a figure as Lobster J, but he’s still pretty solid, and I’m happy I got him.

#0897: Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S. Wave 1

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

MEDUSA, SPARTAN WARRIOR, CORAL GORGON, & CURSED SPARTAN

VITRUVIAN H.A.C.K.S.

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You gotta love the classics, and the fact is that it doesn’t get much more classic than Greek mythology. That stuff’s just pretty darn cool. It’s so cool that most modern-day storytelling is just reinterpretations of things that first appeared in Greek mythology. Unfortunately, if you’re a fan of the Greek myths and also love toys (like me), you’re kind of out of luck. Sure, you’ve got stuff like Clash of the Titans or some of the Hercules adaptations, but other than that, there’s a bit of a void.

In 2014, Boss Fight Studios set out to fill that void, and launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a series of figures based on Greek history and mythology. The campaign went far beyond its original goal of four figures, ending with a whopping 43 figures funded. The figures were initially supposed to start hitting last summer, but some production snags occurred, pushing them back a ways. Fortunately, they’ve started hitting stateside, and the first wave of figures has made its way to (most) backers. Today, I’ll be looking at Medusa, the Spartan Warrior, the Coral Gorgon, and the Cursed Spartan.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These four figures make up Wave 1 of the first series of Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S. (H.A.C.K.S. stands for “Highly Articulated Character Kit System”). They’re the four figures that the Kickstarter was originally meant to fund.

BossHacksW1PackagingThough packaging isn’t my usual thing, I did have a few general thoughts I kinda wanted to touch on. The styling of the packaging isn’t too different from Fresh Monkey Fiction’s Amazing Heroes; the basic set-up resembles a traditional blister pack, but the whole front is actually a big plastic sleeve, which folds over the edges of the backer. The backer can be slid out, allowing the figure to be removed without doing any damage to the packaging. The execution of the packaging is pretty polished, but if I have one slight issue with the figures, it’s that the layout work on the actual backer card seems a little…amateur? It’s certainly not anything close to bad, but it lacks that professional finish that everything else included seems to have. Honestly, that’s probably just the layout designer in me being hyper-critical. My interest is the toys inside; these things could ship in egg cartons for all I care.

MEDUSA – CURSED GORGON SISTER

BossHacksw1bThe one named character in the first wave of figures is the Gorgon Medusa, who was cursed by Athena to turn all those that gazed upon her to stone. She figures prominently into the story of Perseus, and has as such been adapted to film a few times. Stylistically, this figure looks to take a lot of influence from the 1981 Clash of the Titans design for the character, giving her a generally reptilian appearance. When fully extended, the figure is just over 8 inches tall, and she has 26 points of articulation. Boss Fight has base male and female bodies that they build each figure on, and, unsurprisingly, Medusa uses the female body. Well, part of it, anyway. She uses the basic upper torso, arms, and hands, along with a lower torso and tail that’s being used on several of the Gorgons. The base pieces are a great starting point, and the basic proportions are nice and balanced. I wasn’t initially sure about how the tail would turn out, but it works really nicely in hand, and offers a lot of fun posing BossHacksw1coptions. Medusa also gets a unique head, as well as add-on pieces for her chest and shoulder armor, belt, and the bracers on her right wrist and bicep. The quality of these parts is all pretty top-notch. The armor has a ton of fun detailing. The head is pretty cool too. The hair is obviously a separate piece, and it sticks off the head a bit, but it doesn’t look terrible, and I really appreciate that they didn’t try to make her face overly attractive. That’s a scary face right there, just like Medusa’s face should be. The paint on this figure is pretty darn cool. The armor has some great dry brushing work to help accent the sculpted details and really give it a grimy, worn in look. The upper half of the body is pretty basic, but solidly handled, and the tail gets some pretty sweet pattern work, which really sells the reptilian-ness. Medusa includes a large blade-whip thing, a small knife styled like the whip, a spare set of hands with side to side wrist joints, and a display stand (which she can’t actually use, but it’s the thought that counts, right?)

SPARTAN WARRIOR – SPARTA’S ELITE

BossHacksw1dSpartan Warrior seems so cold and detached, so I named this guy Lenny. Lenny the Spartan is a fairly standard Spartan soldier. Unlike what 300 may have had you believe, these guys did actually wear armor. This figure stands just over 4 inches tall (without the helmet; he gains an extra half-inch with it) and has 25 points of articulation. Lenny’s built on the standard male body, which structurally feels very similar to one of the more recent G.I. Joe figures. It’s rather muscular, but not insanely so, and it has a fairly balanced set of proportions. Lenny has a unique head, plus special sandaled feet, and add-ons for his helmet, chest armor/skirt, and shin guards. The head has hair and a beard, and has a suitably intense facial expression. He works as an individual, but isn’t so specific that he can’t also be an army builder, which is right about where you want this guy to be. The armor pieces are sculpted to fit pretty tightly to the body. The helmet is easy to remove, but also stays in place pretty well, and looks really cool to BossHacksw1eboot. The torso armor is a little restrictive, and a bit bulky from the side, but works pretty well, and has a nice, sharp sculpt to it. The shin guards actually surprised me a bit, because I didn’t think they were removable at first; that’s how form fitting they are. While Lenny’s paintwork doesn’t quite have the subtle work present on Medusa, his paint is no less well-handled. Everything is incredibly clean, and the colors are all nice and vibrant, which makes this guy really stand out amongst his peers. Also, I find his pair of red shorts pretty funny; Lenny is a modest Spartan! Lenny includes both long and short swords, a strap and scabbard for the short sword, a spear (which is really sharp), a shield, a spare set of hands, and a display stand.

CORAL GORGON – GORGON HORDE

BossHacksw1fOne of the big things that Boss Fight was pushing with this line was army building. Getting an army of Spartans seems pretty natural, but you need something for them to fight, and it can’t very well be one lonely Medusa, can it? No, you need a whole army of Gorgons! So, this here is the first Gorgon army builder, who, going by her bio was once a human, but was transformed into a Gorgon by the bite of Stheno. Clearly she needs a name too. I’m gonna go with Diane. Diane uses the same basic body as Medusa, but she gets a different head and the edge of her tip is no longer rattle snake-inspired. The new head is nicely detailed; it loses most of the human features, for something much more reptilian, and has some pretty awesome texturing. Diane also gets add-ons for her helmet, chest armor, and wrist bracers, all of which are nicely fitted to the figure. The armor bits are simpler than Medusa’s, but still really cool. The helmet can be a little stubborn to work with when posing the figure, but it looks pretty imposing, and BossHacksw1git stays in place surprisingly well. As her official name implies, Diane’s paint scheme is patterned after a coral snake (“red-on-yellow kills a fellow” and all that). The work is much bolder than Medusa’s, but like the Spartan Warrior, the quality is no less on this figure. Diane includes a large broad sword (different from the Spartan’s), a shield with Medusa’s face on it, spare hands, and a display stand (which, like Medusa, she can’t actually use).

CURSED SPARTAN – STONE WARRIOR

BossHacksw1hAw, poor Jeff. He really shouldn’t have looked at Medusa. Jeff, like so many unfortunate soldiers before him, is the end result of Medusa’s curse, having not had the foresight to make use of Perseus’s method of dispatching of the beast. As a fellow Spartan, Jeff uses most of the same pieces as the basic Spartan Warrior, but he has enough differences to make him stand out. His helmet is a slightly different design, with more of his face exposed and a bit more detailing on the front and at the base of the “mohawk.” Under the helmet, he’s also got a different head, this time without the hair or beard, and with a slightly different expression. It’s worth noting that, while the pieces are more or less the same, the shin guards on my Cursed Spartan wouldn’t budge, most likely due to the differences in paint. It’s certainly not hindering my enjoyment of the figure in the slightest, but it’s worth noting. The main selling point of this guy is the paint. Unlike the others in BossHacksw1ithis set, Jeff here is totally painted from head to toe, to ensure that he has an appropriately rocky finish. The end result works really well, and he looks pretty cool. He’s the dullest of the four color-wise, but he’s far from boring to look at. Jeff includes the longer sword and spear included with the Spartan Warrior, the shield from the Coral Gorgon, extra hands, and a display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, you’ve probably pieced together that I got these guys by backing Boss Fight’s Kickstarter. Yep, I pledged in for these four, as well as two more add-on figures (plus another three figures that I’ve pre-ordered from Boss Fight’s online shop). Initially, the only one of these four I definitely wanted was the Cursed Spartan. He’s probably my favorite of the four in the end, but the other three are no slouches either. The two Gorgons are a lot of fun (and the Coral Gorgon is giving ol’ Jeff a serious run for that top spot), and the Spartan offers a nice, bright figure. As a whole, this set is just a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to get the rest of my figures.

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#0896: Machine Man & Iron Man

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

MACHINE MAN & SUPERIOR IRON MAN – MECHANICAL MASTERS

MARVEL LEGENDS (3.75)

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As much as I love what Hasbro’s been doing with the Marvel and Star Wars lines, I do have to admit to being baffled by their recurring choice to give multiple lines of figures the exact same title. When they first started doing Marvel figures in both 6 inch and 3 ¾ inch scales, the larger figures were Marvel Legends and the smaller were Marvel Universe. They also offered some 12 inch figures, under the heading Icons. Well, by the end of this year, all three of those scales will be titled Marvel Legends. I’m sure that won’t be at all confusing. The 3 ¾ inch line has officially switched its title over, and the first product to hit is a series of two-packs. Today, I’ll be looking Machine Man and Iron Man from that particular series.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released in the first series of two-packs in the new 3 ¾ inch Marvel Legends line, under the name “Mechanical Masters.” When these figures were shown off at last year, the assumption was that they would be single figures with a shared name, since that’s a pretty common practice for Hasbro. Then they just kind of showed up in two packs, which certainly caught me off guard. In addition to the figures, the set is also packed with a reprint of Superior Iron Man #1, which makes sense for one of the two figures, but not the other.

MACHINE MAN

MechanicalMasters2If you had told me five years ago that I would own two figures of Machine Man, I would have had a long hard laugh. Seems pretty out there to think that such a minor, low-tier character would warrant multiple figures, within a year of each other, but hey, here we are. The figure stands roughly 4 inches tall and has 19 points of articulation. This Machine Man is decidedly more modern take on the character than the larger figure. He’s based on his Tron-styled post-Nextwave design, which I believe is still his current look. More specifically, the character-unique parts (his head and forearms) are directly based on Daniel Acuna’s Avengers 50th Anniversary poster. The real tell here is the forearm configuration; he’s got a buzzsaw and a Sci-fi blaster sort of thing, which are lifted right from the poster. The sculpts are all pretty solid work; the technical stuff on the arms is particularly sharp. The head’s details are a little soft, but they stand out well enough for the scale. All in all, the parts look good, and match up with the mid-sized body that the figure is built on. Machine Man’s paintwork is passable; the general application is pretty clean, though the face is a bit sloppy. The metallic purple is pretty cool, but it probably would have looked a bit better if it were a little brighter, so as to stand out more from the black base color. Machine Man includes no accessories, not even an extra set of normal forearms, which ends up being a little bit limiting.

SUPERIOR IRON MAN

MechanicalMasters3This figure is the required heavy hitter of the set, and…yeah, that’s really all I got. I can’t really figure why this guy got packed with Aaron, since the two don’t really have any history. Retailers just like Iron Man, I guess. The figure is a little over 4 inches tall and has 24 points of articulation. This figure is based on the “Superior Iron Man” design, from the comic of the same name, after Tony became more of a jerk than usual. This figure gets a new head sculpt and uni-beam and re-uses the body of the Marvel Universe line’s Extremis Iron Man (which was also used for Iron Patriot). That was a decent Iron Man, but it wasn’t even the strongest of Hasbro’s Iron Man sculpt when it was new, and it feels really dated now, especially in terms of poseability. It was also pretty under-sized, and that’s made even worse by the fact that the new head is larger than the original. What’s more, the Extremis armor had a number of major deviations in design from the Superior armor, so it’s not even a particularly clever re-use. The paint is really what the figure hinges on to sell it as Superior Iron Man. Unfortunately, even that’s not really great. In the comics, the suit is bright white and sleek (it’s kind of similar to something produced by Apple), but here it’s mostly a dull silver. Also, while the design in the comics has the black sections, they seem to stand out way more here. With the base colors being darker, the light blue details also tend to be easily lost, which is a shame, because they could have helped to sell the differences in the armor a bit more.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was obviously planning on getting this set as soon as they showed it, though I didn’t initially realize I’d be getting both figures. I got the set from my Dad, who found them while running an errand at Target. Machine Man is definitely the selling point; he’s got some really cool new parts and he’s a really fun version of the character. I do still hold out hope that we might see a Nextwave version down the road, but this one is definitely a welcome addition. Iron Man is kind of a waste of space, if I’m honest. His body is inaccurate and out of date, and I wasn’t much of a fan of the concept to begin with. But who cares? I got another Machine Man!

#0895: Spartan Vale

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

SPARTAN VALE

HALO HEROES (MEGA BLOKS)

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One of the main dynamics of Halo 5 is the presence of two distinct teams of Spartans, whom the player alternates between as they progress through the level. Series lead Master Chief was given a team made up of previously established characters from expanded universe stories. However, excepting fan-favorite Edward Buck, Spartan Locke’s team was made up of newcomers, including today’s focus, Spartan Olympia Vale. Vale had the misfortune of being the only member of Spartan Locke’s team not to make it into McFarlane’s line of figures, but she did manage to get a figure in the Mega Bloks line, so she wasn’t totally overlooked.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Vale2Spartan Vale was released in Series 1 of Mega Bloks’ new blister-packed line of single figures, Halo Heroes. The figure stands about 2 inches tall and has 16 points of articulation. She’s based on her appearance in Halo 5, which I do believe is her only official appearance to date. In the game, Vale wears the Copperhead armor, though it was actually designed for her, and she’s the first Mega Bloks figure to sport it. As such, she’s got a lot of new parts. The sculpt does a pretty nice job of translating her look into the Mega Bloks style. She’s even more stylized than the last two figures; in the game, her design is fairly sleek and streamlined, but here it’s a bit more clunky, due to the nature of how these figures are constructed. It’s still pretty clear who this is supposed to be (if you’re familiar with the game, anyway) and the design looks pretty cool. Vale has a removable chest piece and thigh armor, like her compatriots, but she foregoes clip-on shoulder pads in favor of painted on parts, which aid in streamlining her just the tiniest bit. Vale’s paint is probably the least exciting of the three Halo Heroes figures I’ve looked at so far, mostly due to her in-game design just not having as many necessary details. Still, what’s there is pretty nicely handled, and she looks like a good match to her game counterpart. Vale is packed with an SMG, a plasma pistol, and a three-piece display stand. I love that the SMG is painted, but I wish the plasma pistol had gotten a few details too.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Vale is third and final figure I picked up on the trip that netted me Buck and Thorne. I don’t have quite the same attachment to her that I do to the others (due to not having played Halo 5 and her not having any other figures), but I think her design is a pretty cool one. I would have loved to get a full-scale version of her, but this figure is certainly an acceptable consolation prize.

#0894: Spartan Thorne

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

SPARTAN THORNE

HALO HEROES (MEGA BLOKS)

ThorneMB1

The main character of the Halo series is John-117, aka Master Chief. Well, he’s the main character in the main games in the series, anyway. However, the series has spawned a few off-shoot games, each with their own protagonist. Halo 3: ODST had the Rookie and Halo Reach had Noble 6. While the Spartan Ops levels in Halo 4 just had the player using their basic multiplayer appearance, the animated shorts that went along with said levels needed a unique protagonist, so they created Spartan Gabriel Thorne. He just found his way to Mega Bloks form, and I’ll be reviewing that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

ThorneMB2Like ODST Buck, Spartan Thorne is part of the first series of Halo Heroes, Mega Bloks’ new blister-packed line of single figures. The figure is roughly 2 inches in height and he has 16 points of articulation. He’s based on Thorne’s only appearance, Halo 4: Spartan Ops, where he was wearing a modified version of the Rookie armor. Since he just uses the basic armor, he shares his sculpt with all the prior Rookie armored figures. The design is a little more noticeably stylized than the ODSTs, but it’s translated pretty well, and there’s a ton of great texturing and small detail work. The chest, shoulder, and thigh armor is all removable, but stays in place very securely. The underlying body is a bit different that the ODST body; the musculature is a little more defined, and there’s some extra “tech-y” detailing. Technically, as a Spartan, Thorne should stand a bit taller than the ODSTs, but here he’s the same height. However, this is kind of forgivable, since one of Mega Bloks’ big things in interchangeability, and they wouldn’t be quite as interchangeable if they were different sizes. Continuing what we saw with Buck, Thorne is a bit more detailed than the usual Mega Bloks figure. He’s mostly just cast in the appropriate colors, but he’s got some nice accent lines to spice him up a bit, as well a cool insignia on his left shoulder. Thorne includes a three-piece display stand and a Promethean Suppressor. The gun gets extra painted details, which are pretty cool, but it’s also got a big nub where it was originally attached to a Promethean Knight, which is kind of annoying.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up this guy at the same time as Buck. Thorne has the notoriety of being my first ever McFarlane Toys Halo figure, so I have a bit of a soft spot for the guy. While I’m not sure he’s as much of a standout as Buck was, I do really like this figure, and he’s a whole lot of fun!

#0893: Buck (ODST)

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

BUCK (ODST)

HALO HEROES (MEGA BLOKS)

BuckODST1

A little over a year ago, I wrote my very first Halo-themed toy. It was an ODST, which, as anyone who has followed my Halo reviews can tell you, is one of my very favorite designs/concepts from the games.  That particular toy came from the Mega Bloks Halo line, possibly the cheapest and most expansive collection of Halo figures on the market. The figures are offered with larger building sets, as well as in blind packaging, but very recently, they started offering them in more conventional blister-style packaging, under the new heading Halo Heroes. Characters from throughout the franchise are being offered. Today, I’ll be looking at one of the older characters in the set, ODST Buck.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

BuckODST2Buck was released in Series 1 of the Halo Heroes line. The figure is about 2 inches tall and has 16 points of articulation. In case the name didn’t clue you in, this particular Buck is based on his appearance in Halo 3: ODST, where he serves as the commanding officer (well, until ONI Dare butts in) of the group of ODSTs that serve as the story’s protagonists. Buck’s design is a slight variation of the basic ODST design, and as such, this figure uses a lot of the same pieces as the previously reviewed copper ODST from the Drop Pods series. He has a slightly tweaked head (which adds an antenna to the side of the helmet) and his chest armor also has an extra nub so that his knife can be mounted there. The rest of the figure is sculpturally identical to the other ODSTs. The basic sculpt is pretty nicely done; the proportions are a fair bit less skewed than other minifigures. That can look really strange for some characters, but it doesn’t look bad on a mostly armored character. His torso, shoulder, and thigh armor is all removable, should you feel the need to do that, but the figure definitely looks better all armored up. Buck’s paint is more detailed than a lot of the Halo Mega Bloks; it’s an accurate depiction of his look from the game, and he matches up quite nicely with the previously released Rookie minifigure. The actual application isn’t super clean, but it’s certainly passable. Buck includes an assault rifle, a knife, and a three-piece display stand. The rifle is fully painted, which is an awesome change, and the new stand is definitely an improvement on the standard block prior figures have had.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Buck was a rare surprise find. I was at Walmart, picking up some stuff (after being snowed-in for four days in January), and just happened to see the small display with these figures. Obviously, I wasn’t going to turn down another ODST, right? Buck’s not super different from the prior ODSTs I’ve gotten (in fact, he’s nearly identical to the Rookie), but I like the character, and the few small changes and extra details really make this guy feel worth it.

BuckODST3

#0892: Superman

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

SUPERMAN

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

DKRSuperman1

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was released last week to reviews that were…well, I’ll be generous and say “middling.” Though they tend to be presented as a more friendly pair, Superman vs Batman is not a new idea for the film. They’ve done battle a few times over the years. One of the better handled face-offs is in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. In the story, Batman’s gotten pretty far removed from his usual self, and becomes rather unhinged, prompting the US government to send Superman in to take him down if need be. Though Batman is technically the story’s hero, Superman isn’t portrayed as being in the wrong, just a guy looking for a glimpse of hope in the bleak, nihilistic future of DKR. Anyway, the story is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year, and Mattel has done a small sub-set of figures based on it, including Superman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

DKRSuperman2Superman is one of the three figures that make up the Walmart-exclusive Batman: The Dark Knight Returns series of the main DC Comics Multiverse line. The figure stands just shy of 7 inches tall and he has 25 points of articulation. Structurally, he has a very similar build to the figures in Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Classics line. He re-uses a lot of pieces from the prior DKR Batman released in the Batman Unlimited line. Mattel insists that the only pieces these two share with the MotUC figures are the shoulders. I can’t say that they have much incentive to lie about something like this, so I guess I’ll believe them, even if the parts do look really similar. Anyway, Superman uses the majority of the aforementioned Batman figure, with a unique head, forearms, shins, pelvis cover, and cape. The piece make him sufficiently different, while also keeping the similar build of the two characters, which makes sense, since Batman and Superman were portrayed as about the same size in the story. While he’s definitely put on some muscle mass in the story, Superman has aged far more gracefully than Batman. The figure does a pretty good job of replicating that in the head sculpt; he’s obviously a little older when you look at him closely, but he can pretty easily pass for a normal Superman, should you want him to. The rest of the new pieces are all pretty basic, but they capture the look of the character nicely, and they’re all pretty sharp sculpts. The paintwork on Superman is kind of a mix of good and bad. The overall look is definitely very good. The colors are nice and bold, and I absolutely love the larger “S” logo on his chest. He’s noticeably missing the symbol on the back of his cape, though, which is a bit of a shame. Also, the actual application of the paint is quite sloppy. In the store, I had to choose between sloppy belt and decent neckline or decent belt and atrocious neckline. That’s not a fun choice (I went with the former). Superman includes one of Green Arrow’s…uh, arrows, which has a kryptonite tip. It’s a nice piece, even if he does have a little trouble holding it. It sure would be nice if we got an Ollie to go with that arrow, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m at best a moderate fan of The Dark Knight Returns. I own exactly one issue of the series. Care to guess which one? Yeah, it’s the one where he fights Superman. I picked up the first DKR Batman when Mattel released him a few years back in hopes that it would eventually lead to this particular figure, and in a roundabout way, it did. Of course, actually finding him was no easy feat. I stopped at several Walmarts and was never able to find anything more than the Batman re-paint that accompanies this guy. However, at the last Walmart, after I admitted defeat, my good friend Jill noted a few items had been placed on the top shelf at the far end of the aisle. Sure enough, I spotted two Multiverse packages, and when I pulled them down, they were both Superman. Someone was hiding figures! I’m really happy to have this guy, and I think he turned out incredibly well. Were it not for the NECA Christopher Reeve Superman, this one would probably be my favorite Superman in my collection.

Well, here was the real review, but this was my April Fools day post for 2016.  Read the altered version here.

DKRSuperman3