Monthly Archives: October 2016

#1077: Deadpool

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

DEADPOOL

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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Just a few weeks ago, I took a look at most of the latest set of X-Men-themed Marvel Legends.  I got all of the figures necessary to complete the build-a-figure, but there was still one more figure I didn’t have at the time, so he didn’t get reviewed.  But now I’ve got the figure, so why not give it a review?

It’s worth noting that I run hot and cold with Deadpool.  I was never really into him in the ‘90s, since he was still sort of being formed at the time.  I had a few of his figures from the old X-Force line, and they were cool and all.  I was actually pretty into the character around the time of Ultimate Alliance (where he was one of my favorite characters to play), and picked up a couple of his comic book runs over the years. Then he sort of did the Wolverine thing and became really really popular really really fast, and certain parts of the character got more exaggerated, and they happened to be the parts I was a little less fond of.  But, you can’t deny he’s a popular guy, and his latest Legend seems somewhat over due.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

deadpoolhas3Deadpool is the last figure in the Juggernaut series of Marvel Legends. He’s the only figure in the set not to include a piece of the unstoppable guy, which was probably a good idea, since it allows Deadpool fans to buy just the one figure without getting the random piece and it allows fans wanting to complete Juggernaut to not have to worry about tracking down what is undoubtedly the most popular figure in the series.  Deadpool has sported more or less the same design for most of his 25-year career, but there have been a number of minor changes here and there over the years.  This figure is based on the character’s most recent Marvel Now! look.  It’s a pretty good design, offering fans without prior Deadpool figures a basic Deadpool, while also offering something new for the older collectors.  The figure is 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 deadpoolhas4points of articulation.  Wade is built on the Bucky Cap body, which is a good fit for him.  He has a unique head, forearms, hands, shins and feet, as well as add-ons for his harness, belt, and thigh holster.  The new pieces blend well with the base body, and they offer a lot of really fun character-specific elements, from the slightly askew eyes, to the pinky-out trigger finger.  Clearly a lot of fun was had sculpting this guy.  Though he’s built on one of the most common base-bodies in the Hasbro stock, he actually feels incredibly unique.  Deadpool’s paintwork is pretty standard Legends faire, but it’s worth noting that, like the rest of this series, the application is a lot cleaner than some of Hasbro’s prior attempts.  Hands down, the best thing about this figure is the accessory selection.  Since he doesn’t have a B-a-F piece, Hasbro’s made sure to pack him with a full arsenal, which includes two pistols, a large machine gun, a smaller machine gun, two katanas, a knife, and a rocket launcher (with a boxing glove at the end, because why not).  He also includes an extra unmasked head, and most amusingly, a taco.  Combine that with Spider-Man’s pizza, and the Legends are starting to get some nice food options.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had sort of resigned not to find this guy, since he was the most sought after figure in an already very sought after set of figures, and I didn’t need him to finish Juggernaut.  After finding Rogue and writing all of the reviews, I figured I was done with this series.  A couple days after the Juggernaut review went live, I was moving into my new apartment, and my parents had stopped by a nearby Walmart to pick up a few necessities.  When they arrived at the apartment, this guy was also in the bag, which was a nice pleasant surprise.  Despite my mixed feelings about the current state of the character, this is a really awesome figure, and caps off what is perhaps the best series of Hasbro’s run with Legends, if not the best series of Legends period.

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#1076: Faramir in Gondorian Armor

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

FARAMIR IN GONDORIAN ARMOR

LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING (TOY BIZ)

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Hey, remember how I didn’t really have a lot of Lord of the Rings figures in my collection?  Well, this summer I sort of tried to fix that.  Now, I’ve already looked at my favorite of the villains, the Witch-King, but what about the story’s heroes?  I think I’ve talked before of my aversion to main characters.  I gat why they’re there, and I even tend to like them, but my favorite characters are always the ones just slightly off the side of things.  For the Lord of the Rings, my favorite hero is definitely Faramir, brother of Boromir (I was also pretty fond of Boromir, too), and Ranger of Gondor.  Fortunately for me, Faramir got a couple of figures over the course of Toy Biz’s Lord of the Rings line, one of which I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

faramir2Faramir was part of the second series of Toy Biz’s Return of the King line (alongside the previously review Witch-King).  This was his second of the three figures he got from Toy Biz.  This one depicts him in his Gondorian armor from the last film in the trilogy.  It’s not his main look, but it got some decent play during RotK’s big battle scene.  The figure is a little over 6 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Or at least he should have 30 points of articulation.  Mine is down one of is bicep swivels, due to soft pegs and sticky paint, resulting in his arm tearing off on his way out of the packaging.  Fortunately, my handy dandy tube of super glue fixed him up, but now he’s a little more restricted.  As a whole, though, this guy’s a fair bit easier to pose than the Witch-King, which is certainly a pleasant change.  However, on the flip side of things, his sculpt is a little weaker than the Witch-King’s.  On the plus side, his head sculpt sports a pretty good likeness of David Wenham as Faramir.  It’s not as spot on as some of the figures in the line were, but it was definitely better than the Two Towers Faramir.  In particular, they did a good job capturing the slight detailing of his beard, and also avoided making his hair too bulky.  The rest of the figure is certainly well detailed.  The armor is very lovingly recreated, based on what Faramir is seen sporting in the film, and there’s some wonderful fine detail work exhibited by the various layers of it.  This figure’s biggest issue is proportions.  The head and torso are fine, but the arms end up being rather on the large side, resulting not only in them being out of scale with the rest of him, but also in him not being able to put them down at his sides properly.  The hands in particular are huge, and the elbow joints are painfully obvious.  The legs are also rather on the large side, with the feet definitely possessing a clown shoes vibe.  The overall appearance is fine, but it could certainly be better.  He also included an action feature, which is rather similar to than of the Witch-King.  When the button on his back is pushed, Faramir’s right arm swings down.  It works alright, but results in there being a rather obvious button on his back, which is rather frustrating.  Faramir’s paintwork is pretty good.  There are some minor issues here and there (the placement of the eyes being a major one), but he generally looks like he should, and he even has some cool washes on the armor to bring out more of the details in the sculpt.  Faramir included a sword and the helmet which accompanies his armor.  Both pieces are pretty cool, though the helmet is a little larger to accommodate Faramir’s hair.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never had any of the Faramir figures growing up, which is sort of weird, because I always rather liked the guy.  I do remember this one, but I just never bought him for whatever reason.  I ended up finding back a couple of months ago from Complete In Box (at the same time that I got Tormund).  He’s not a perfect figure by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s still pretty cool, and I’m just happy to have a Faramir.

#1075: Grand Slam

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

GRAND SLAM

G.I. JOE: SIGMA 6

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GI Joe as a franchise has always been subject to change.  Despite being the creators of the action figure market, Hasbro has spent the better part of their 50+ years with the franchise playing catch-up to the rest of the industry.  In the early 00s, anime was hitting pretty big with the hip kids in the US, and Hasbro tried to cash in on that fad via Sigma 6, an anime-styled retooling of the Real American Hero incarnation of the line.  Though the line initially started out rather focused on a small selection of characters, towards its end, many of the old mainstays from the ‘80s line were added to expand the line-up a bit.  One such character was Grand Slam, one of the earliest Joes in the ‘80s line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

grandslam2Grand Slam was released in the first 2007 Commando wave of GI Joe: Sigma 6.  Though the figures up to this point had been based on the corresponding Sigma 6 cartoon, Grand Slam was a design totally original to the toy line (it’s possible he was set to appear later in the cartoon, prior to its cancellation).  The figure is about 8 1/2 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Grand Slam was deliberately introduced into the line with the intent of re-using the already existing Heavy Duty molds, so the fact that he uses a lot of HD’s parts isn’t a huge surprise.  He uses the torso, arms, hands, and boots from HD. Those parts were cool the first time around, and they were still cool here, if rather on the stylized side.  The flip-up comm link still remains one of my favorite features from this line.  Grand Slam also gets his own head and leg sculpts. The head is, obviously, there to make it clear he’s a new character (though that would become less and less common on new characters as the line continued).  It’s somewhat generic, but works reasonably well for Grad Slam, and it’s well-fitted to the body.  The legs are the result of a change in style as the line progressed.  Initially figures made use of cloth parts for things like coats, vests, and even pants.  By the time Grand Slam came along, Hasbro had started aiming for more conventional action figure sculpts, so Grand Slam’s pants are sculpted rather than tailored.  This does the figure a lot of favors, in my opinion.  Not only does it differentiate him a bit more from HD, but it also allows his look to be a bit more consistent, stylistically.  Plus, they’ve got a lot of really great detail worked into them, which adds a bit more character to what could be an otherwise rather generic figure.    The paintwork on this guy is fairly decent, if not anything particularly outstanding.  By this point, the line had mostly given up on the wacky bright colors, so Grand Slam sticks to mostly drab greens and browns.  It’s not thrilling, but it’s still rather appealing.  As a Commando figure, Grand Slam originally included a whole bunch of extras, the only of which I actually have is his set of metal dog tags.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was initially very excited by the change to Sigma 6, but fairly quickly lost interest because of how difficult it was to find many of the figures.  Grand Slam was released a good ways after I’d stopped collecting the line, so I didn’t get him at retail.  I actually found him just a couple of months ago at the 2nd Avenue near where I live.  He was only a few bucks and was just laying there sans accessories, so I figured why not? He’s a pretty cool figure, actually, and I’m glad I picked him up.  He actually did a bit to reinvigorate my interest in my Sigma 6 figures.  Which may not be the best thing…