Yearly Archives: 2016

#0990: Mark Hamill

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

MARK HAMILL

THE SIMPSONS: 25 OF THE GREATEST CELEBRITY GUEST STARS

MarkHamill1

It’s a rather rare occurrence for one toy company to deliberately design a toyline with the express purpose of directly emulating and continuing another company’s toyline.  But, that’s what NECA did when they picked up the Simpsons license for the property’s 25th anniversary: they put together a line of figures deliberately designed to emulate the style and scale of Playmates’ World of Springfield line, despite it having been years since World of Springfield had ended.  It’s worth noting that NECA did have a much more focused aim than Playmates, placing a direct focus on The Simpsons’ plethora of celebrities who had guest stared as themselves.  The line introduced 25 new figures for collectors to add to their Simpsons displays, including today’s figure, Mark Hamill!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

MarkHamill2Mark Hamill was released in the second series of NECA’s The Simpsons: 25 of the Greatest Celebrity Guest Stars line.  He’s based on Mark’s guest appearance from the Season 10 episode “Mayored to the Mob.”  The figure is about 4 ¾ inches tall and he has the same 4 points of articulation that would be sported by a standard WoS figure.  Sculpturally, Mark is tasked with two things: capturing his look from the show, and capturing the style of the Playmates figures.  These can be slightly conflicting ideals, since the Playmates figures weren’t always 100% accurate (though they were always very close).  Ultimately, I think this figure does a good job balancing the two aesthetics.  He’s about as good a 3D rendering of the 2D design as you’re gonna get, and he also manages to fit in pretty seamlessly with prior offerings.  Hamill is just wearing a fairly generic button-down shirt and a pair of khakis, <which is one of the outfits he wears in the show.  The other is the more distinctive Luke Skywalker outfit, but something tells me that there would have been some legal issues with trying to do that look, which makes this the more preferable design>.  The likeness to Hamill is admittedly filtered through the usual Simpsons style, but it should be pretty clear to most fans who this is supposed to be.  The paintwork on Mark is pretty basic and straightforward.  Lots of flat color work, which is befitting of an animated design.  Everything is pretty clean, and he matches up pretty nicely with what’s seen on the show.  Mark Hamill includes no accessories, which is a little sad, since accessories were one of the defining parts of the WoS line.  Obviously, he couldn’t come with anything Star Wars specific, but a microphone or I don’t know, a fork in reference to the “Use the forks” gag would have been pretty amusing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I mostly skipped the World of Springfield line, I also mostly skipped this line while it was at retail.  I did occasionally eye up one or two figures, but I’m honestly not a huge Simpsons fan, so I never felt a big pull to get them.  However, I do remember “Mayored to the Mob” being one of the few episodes of The Simpsons that I saw when it was still current (mostly due to Mark Hamill being in it).  Back when ToyFare magazine ran their article proposing potential celebrity guest stars who might be made in the World of Springfield line (this was the same article that revealed that it was Stephen Hawking who would actually be getting a figure), I was rather disappointed to find out that the Mark Hamill figure shown was just a custom, and no official figure would be made.  So, when NECA finally released the official figure, I really kept meaning to pick him up, but never got around to it.  While taking advantage of my local MovieStop’s going-out-of-business sale, I came across this figure for under $3, a price at which I definitely wasn’t passing him up.  Is he the most exciting figure of all time? No, he’s a normal guy in normal clothes, and he’s not even all that posable.  That being said, he’s perfect for the style NECA was going for, and he’s pretty much exactly what I was looking for when I bought the figure.

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#0989: Jaime Lannister

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

JAIME LANNISTER

GAME OF THRONES: LEGACY COLLECTION

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What’s this? Four Game of Thrones figures? Yikes, this is getting bad. Three’s company, but four’s a crowd. Or something like that. So far, I’ve looked at two Starks and Brienne, who’s worked for both the Starks and their main antagonists the Lannisters. Today, I’ll be looking at a member of the latter house, and one who’s even had lots of direct interaction with Brienne. Yes, it’s the Kingslayer himself, Jaime Lannister!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

JaimeLann2Jaime was released in Series 2 of Funko’s Game of Thrones: Legacy Collection. He’s figure number 7, which makes him numerically the first figure in Series 2. The figure stands right about 6 inches tall (he’s just a smidge shorter than Brienne, as he should be) and he has 26 points of articulation. In terms of joint movement, Jaime’s much more similar to Robb than to Brienne. No stuck joints on this one! Yay! Jaime is presented here in his Kingsguard attire. He’s clearly meant to be a Season 1 Jaime, which we can tell due to the length of Jaime’s hair. Oh yeah, and there’s one other tell, but I can’t remember what it is. Can anyone give me a hand? Well, Jaime sure can’t, since he lost his dominant one in Season 3, which was before he re-donned his Kingsguard armor again. Jaime’s sculpt is incredibly detailed, and it’s a pretty fantastic recreation of the Kingsguard armor from the show. I particularly like the level of depth to all of the details and layers, which make him look like he’s wearing all of the different pieces of armor and such. In terms of facial likeness, I think Jaime is the best work I’ve seen on one of these figures. There’s absolutely no denying that this is Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, through and through. It’s also worth noting, that, unlike the other three figures I’ve looked at from this line, Jaime’s hair has very fine detailing and is nowhere near as chunky as the others. The only real flaw with the figure’s sculpt is actually just with my figure: my figure has two right forearms. It’s not a super major issue (and, in fact, it took me a little while to notice it at all), but it does sort of highlight Funko’s consistent problems with quality control.  As detailed as Jaime’s sculpt is, he needs a paint job to match. Fortunately, this figure has such a paint job. All of the details of the armor and clothing are painted the right colors, and each bit has its own very nice accent work, to help give Jaime that sufficiently worn-in look (but not quite as worn-in as the likes of Robb and Brienne). The head gets a very nice paint job as well, with eyebrows that aren’t too large, eyes that aren’t off-center, and probably the most successful attempt at five o’clock shadow that I’ve seen on a smaller scale figure. He also has just the slightest bit of gloss on his hair, which is surprisingly good at making it look like actual hair. Jaime includes his sword, which can be stowed in his scabbard, or held in his hand, provided you’re willing to do a bit of modding work to separate his thumb and forefinger. It would be nice not to have to do that, but I suppose it’s simple enough.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Jaime was picked up at the same time as Brienne, which I felt was appropriate. As with Brienne, he was slightly marked down, due to MovieStop being in the process of closing. On the show, Jaime is a surprisingly likeable character. Likewise, his figure is a surprisingly enjoyable one, and is certainly a lot more fun than I’d expected him to be based on the pictures I’d seen. I’m very happy to have picked up this guy.

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#0988: Brienne of Tarth

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

BRIENNE OF TARTH

GAME OF THRONES: LEGACY COLLECTION

Brienne1

Okay, guys, I gotta confess: I’ve been roped in by this whole Game of Thrones thing. Action figures and all. I get one action figure, it’s no big deal. Two? Well, maybe they’re keeping each other company. A third? That’s when I’m in trouble. So far, the two GoT figures I’ve looked at have both been members of House Stark, my personal favorite side in the great game. While today’s figure isn’t strictly from House Stark, Brienne of Tarth has quite a few ties to the Starks, and she’s even currently in the service of Sansa Stark in the show. She’s also genuinely one of the coolest characters on the show, and who can turn down an action figure of a character like that? Not me. Never me. That’s kind of why the site exists….

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Brienne2Brienne is from the second series of Funko’s Game of Thrones: Legacy Collection, where she’s officially number 8 in the line (which places her second in the second series line-up). The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 26 points of articulation. Or, she’s supposed to have 26 points of articulation, anyway. Yep, though I managed to avoid the notorious stuck joints of the Legacy Collection on my first two GoT figures, I was not quite so lucky with Brienne. Her neck, left shoulder, and waist joints were all totally seized right out of the box. Through use of alternating freezing and heating, I was eventually able to free up the neck and shoulder (the shoulder actually finally freed up while I was writing this review, two weeks after I purchased the figure), but I’ve had no luck with the waist joint, and I don’t want to force it for fear of it snapping. On the plus side, the only joint that is truly stuck isn’t one that ruins the figure’s playability, but it’s still annoying that this was such a common thing with the line. Brienne is based on her early appearance on the show, when she was serving under Renly Baratheon and then when she was tasked with getting Jaime Lannister to King’s Landing. It’s not quite as cool a look as her more recent armor, but it was still current at the time of this figure’s release, and it is admittedly more colorful. The sculpt on this figure is a bit frustrating. While her height is correct for the 6’3” Gwendolin Christie, her build is somewhat off. She’s definitely a bit scrawny for Brienne, but I think the biggest issue is with her shoulders. They’re too narrow (in fact, the torso as a whole seems rather undersized), which creates an optical illusion that makes her head look too big and by extension makes the rest of her body look too small. I genuinely thought she was just too small in general until I stood her next to my Captain Phasma and determined that they were in fact the same height, so I really think it’s those shoulders. So, issues with the proportions aside, how’s the rest of the sculpting? Actually not bad. While I’m not she’s quite on par with Robb, the detailing on her armor is very sharp, and the face bears more than a passing resemblance to Christie as Brienne. The hair’s a little thick, but not too terribly so. Brienne’s paintwork is generally pretty good. The armor in particular gets the best work, with some nice solid colors and some tremendous accent work to offset them. Sadly, some of the areas of her clothing are without any accenting, which looks a little out of place. There are a few spots of slop here and there, most noticeably at the bottom of her jaw, but her paintwork is very clean otherwise. Brienne is armed with a broadsword. Since this is a season 2/season 3 Brienne, it’s just a nameless sword, not Oathkeeper. It’s still a cool sword, even if it doesn’t have some fancy name.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ever since getting Robb and Arya, I’ve been eyeing up the other figures in the line, with Brienne being right at the top of the list. I ended up finding Brienne at my local MovieStop, which, thanks to Hastings filing for bankruptcy, is currently having a sale to clear out their inventory. This allowed me to get Brienne for a reasonable (if not amazing) price, rather than a slightly marked up price. If I’m honest, Brienne’s the weakest of the GoT figures I’ve picked up. It’s mostly the shoulder thing. However, she’s not a bad figure at all, and the coolness of the character certainly helps to make up for some of the figure’s shortcomings.

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#0987: Dynamole

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

DYNAMOLE

THE TICK

Dynamole1

SPOOOOOON!!!!!!!!

Does anyone else love The Tick?  Because, let me tell you something: I love The Tick.  I super-duper love The Tick.  I love the comics, I love the cartoon, and I even love the short-lived live action show.  Through his many adaptations over the years, the Tick and his supporting cast have been privy to a number of different styles of toys and action figures over the years.  None of them have quite lived up to the awesomeness of the source material, but I think they’ve all at least tried.  In the 90s, when the cartoon was on the air, Bandai America tried their hand at a few different lines, including a smaller scale line of figurines that covered a large number of cast members, both major and minor.  On the more minor side of things is Dynamole, a minion of the villainous Chairface Chippendale.  Not necessarily one of the most exciting characters from the show (or even the most interesting bomber on the show.  That would be the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight!), but he was part of the ensemble none the less.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dynamole2Dynamole was part of the first (and only) series of Bandai’s small-scale The Tick line.  He stands about 3 inches tall (making him to be too large to be in scale with most of the other figures in the line, a common issue with Bandai America’s products) and zero, count ‘em, zero, points of articulation.  This guy and all the figures in this particular line were deliberately designed as figurines, not as full functioning action figures, so none of them got any movement.  The pose you see here is the pose that you get…for eternity.  He’s also permanently attached to a stand, one would assume for additional stability.  Dynamole’s pose is fairly generic, standing straight up and down sort of look, with his right arm bent outwards and his index figure pointing out as if he’s about to press a button or something.  Presumably, it’s a detonator of some sort.  The actual quality of the sculpt is overall pretty decent, if nothing particularly noteworthy.  He looks like the character from the show, which is the important thing.  The details could stand to be a little more defined in several spots, but it’s hard to tell if that’s truly an issue with the sculpt or if it’s to do with the paint.  Speaking of the paint, while the colors are pretty decent, the actual application is incredibly thick, and the details only tend to be in the same approximate area as the sculpted elements.  The paint is also incredibly glossy, which is a slightly odd choice, since I don’t believe Dynamole is supposed to be slimey or shiny or anything.  Kinda weird.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Somehow, I managed to miss out on most of the cartoon-based Tick merchandise when it was still new.  I ended up finding Dynamole and most of the other figures from this particular line at a nearby antique store a few years back.  I mostly got Dynamole because I was buying the set, and I mostly bought the set because it was the most expansive selection of characters from the show that was readily available.  Ultimately, Dynamole isn’t a super exciting figure, but he’s interesting enough, and looks decent with the rest of the set.

#0986: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“When Captain America throws his mighty shield! All Foes who chose to oppose his shield must yield!”

–Captain America Theme Song

My first introduction to Captain America was through VHS copies of the ‘60s cartoon. As cheesy as they are, I loved every minute of them. Sadly, in the mid-90s, when I was becoming so fond of Cap as a character, he was more or less absent from toy shelves. I eventually got the Spider-Man: The Animated Series version when it was finally released, but the figure I always wanted was Toy Biz’s first version of the character, which I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line. This Cap stands just under 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation. This figure predates elbow articulation becoming a standard for Toy Biz’s Marvel stuff, as they were still very much aping the Kenner Super Powers style, and none of those had elbow movement. Really, this whole figure in general feels like a Captain America figure done to fit with Super Powers (well, aside from size, since he’s taller than any figure Kenner put out), which is far from a bad thing. Rather than the more ‘90s-esc proportions of which Toy Biz would later become so fond, Cap is pretty subdued, and looks more or less like a real person. His torso features some awesome detailing for the scale-mail, and I love the way they’ve sculpted the star logo so as to make it pop a bit more. Figures of Captain America have the unfortunate tendency to miss the mark on the good Captain’s face. I guess he’s just one of those characters where it has to be just right. I think this figure’s the closest anyone’s ever gotten to my ideal Captain America, at least from a comic-based perspective. It’s a little round by today’s standards, but I really like the overall style present here.  There’s just a certain sincerity to it that lots of Caps lack. Cap’s paintwork is quite nicely handled, especially for the time. The colors are all nice and bold, and he really sells the whole patriotic super hero thing. His eyes are admittedly a little wonky, and it would have been nice for his belt buckle to be something other than the unpainted blue plastic, but those are relatively minor complaints. Cap was packed with his mighty shield, as well as a weird launching device for it. However, my figure sadly lacks these pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in the intro, this was a figure I really wanted growing up. Unfortunately, he was released before I got into collecting, and wasn’t very easy to find after the fact. So, I had to settle for the US Agent repaint from a few series later. In fact, my dad, as awesome as he was, even bought me an extra US Agent and we painted him up in proper Cap colors, which held me over quite nicely. This particular figure ended up being one of the fifteen figures I picked up at the last Balticon. I’m glad to finally have the official version, and he’s aged a bit better than a lot of Toy Biz’s output from the same time period.

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#0985: Mr. Freeze

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

MR. FREEZE

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (KENNER)

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There’s no denying that Batman: The Animated Series is probably the greatest comic book adaptation in the history of comic book adaptations, and it’s also one of the greatest things to come out of the ‘90s. While the show as a whole was always very high quality, there are definitely some episodes that stand out above the rest. My two favorite episodes of the show’s run are “On Leather Wings” and “Heart of Ice” (which, no small coincidence, were both animated by Spectrum Animation, a sadly short-lived studio that produced some of the best animation ever seen on Saturday morning TV). “On Leather Wings” was the debut episode, which perfectly set the tone of the show. “Heart of Ice” comes later in the first season, but is just as defining an episode, taking a second-string Batman villain and turning him into one of the mythos’ greatest characters. I speak, of course, of Mr. Freeze, who is the subject of today’s review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

FreezeBTAS2Mr. Freeze was released in Series 3 of Kenner’s Batman: The Animated Series line, based on his appearance in the above noted episode, “Heart of Ice.” Despite that being the story that elevated Mr. Freeze to the public eye, this is actually the third Mr. Freeze figure to be released, following the Super Powers and DC Super Heroes versions (though, if you want to get technical, those two are almost the same figure). The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation (it’s possible there’s an articulated neck, but since the dome isn’t removable, it’s not ever moving). He’s based on Freeze’s initial animated appearance, which, in my opinion, is the superior of the two. Kenner was known for tending to approximate the animated looks, without getting them dead-on. Freeze actually fairs quite a bit better than most of the figures Kenner put out. The head’s a little on the large side, but it’s a pretty much perfect recreation otherwise. Likewise, the body is overall quite solid, with the only real downside being the very skinny arms featured. That being said, they don’t look terrible, and the figure as a whole recreates the look very nicely. Freeze’s paint is pretty straight forward, but that’s to be expected with the animated designs. The colors are a very good match for the show, and the application is generally pretty clean. Freeze was packed with his freeze gun, which was connected to an over-sized version of his cold-tank.  The tank could be filled with water, and when squeezed, the water would shoot out of the freeze gun. Not a perfect effect, but not bad.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Okay, I don’t know for sure, but I’m fairly certain that this Mr. Freeze was the first Batman rogue I ever owned. My dad got him for me not long after I saw “Heart of Ice” for the first time. This figure went a lot of places with me, including a trip to Gettysburg with my dad and Mr. Freeze himself, Michael Ansara. He also got stuck on the roof of my house once, through no fault of my own.  This is probably one of my favorite figures I own, mostly for sentimental value.

#0984: Jack O’Lantern

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

JACK O’LANTERN

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

JackOLanternTB1

During their lengthy run doing 5-inch Marvel figures, Toy Biz really took a stab at getting out as many characters as they could, even if they were rather obscure. Though they never got as far into any property as they did X-Men, their Spider-Man line sure gave it a shot. Among the huge slew of villains the line gave us was the very first action figure of the somewhat offbeat villain Jack O’Lantern, which is the figure I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

JackOLanternTB2Jack O’Lantern was released in the “Bug Busters” series of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man line. He was an interesting inclusion, seeing as he wasn’t ever featured on The Animated Series, but this was around the point that Toy Biz was moving away from using the cartoons as an influence in general. The figure stands about 5 ½ inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  This figure is based on the classic Jack O’Lantern design, which means it can serve as both the Jason Macendale and Steve Levins (the first and second Jack O’Lanterns), since they both had essentially the same design. Sculpturally, this figure was totally unique, which is both a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, the more character specific details, such as his head and his scale-mail tunic, are handled very nicely. The downside is that this figure came at the height of Toy Biz’s fling with oddly proportioned figures. The hands are enormous, dwarfing even his extra-large head, but they’re attached to a rather scrawny set of arms. Well, maybe the arms aren’t scrawny. From some angles, anyway. What they really are is flat. Jack also has in impossibly tiny waist and pelvis, which continues into a rather large set of thighs. He’s definitely got an odd appearance. The paintwork on Jack is pretty solid. He matches the multiple tones of green from the comics quite well, and he’s even got some very nicely rendered accent work on his head and torso. It would be nice if some of the accent work continued onto the rest of the figure, but it’s not too horribly jarring. Jack included a large bug thing, as well as a disc for it to shoot. These were both part of the gimmick of this particular series, and neither really adds to Jack in any meaningful way.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Jack O’Lantern is figure 13 of the 15 I got from this year’s Balticon. I didn’t have Jack growing up, mostly due to being relatively unfamiliar with the character. I’ve come to appreciate him over the years, and have been on the lookout for this figure since. Like a lot of Toy Biz’s output from right around this time, this figure shows his age. The goofy proportions are the biggest issue, though, given the character’s ghoulish look, they aren’t impossible to overlook. Not a bad figure at the end of the day.

#0983: Punisher

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

PUNISHER

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

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Hey! It’s another Punisher figure. That’s actually a pretty rare occurrence in my collection (since only own two of them). I’ve never been much of a Punisher fan, but Jon Bernthal’s truly amazing turn as the esteemed Mr. Castle in Daredevil has definitely changed my opinion, at least a little bit. So, let’s have a look at the second half of my Punisher collection!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

PunisherWJ2This Punisher was part of the “Monster Mayhem” set from Toy Biz’s 5-inch Spider-Man line. The set was initially a BJ’s exclusive, but it later showed up at KB Toys as well. All the figures in the set were loosely based around the “Man-Spider” arc from Spider-Man: The Animated Series. This figure stands 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. Structurally, this figure is the same as the last Punisher I looked at. It’s a fairly sensible re-use, since that figure was a fairly decent rendition of the animated design. The only downside to the sculpt is that it lacks any sculpted indication of a headband, despite there being one painted on. Speaking of the paint, it’s kind of the figure’s main selling point. The prior Punisher was based on his classic black and white look. When they were translating Punisher to animation, it was decided that black and white would be too hard to animate. So, he was given a slightly altered version of his War Journal look from the ‘90s, and that’s what this figure represents. With the exception of the clearly just painted on headband, the paint on Punisher isn’t bad, aside from the obvious wear and tear present on my figure. Punisher included a cloth trenchcoat (to complete the cartoon look) and a knife.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My dad bought me the whole “Monster Mayhem” set from the KB Toys in Rehoboth Beach, on a trip we took just after my brother was born. I remember being incredibly excited by the set, even though Punisher was not a favorite. I actually gave my original Punisher to my friend Charlie, who was a much greater Punisher fan than I, and seemed rather happy to have the figure. Of course, years later, I regretted this decision, since it meant my set was now incomplete. It’s okay, though, because I ended up finding myself a replacement at this year’s Balticon! Now no one’s the wiser….apart from everyone reading this review….which I believe actually accounts for about 100% of anyone who cares about my action figure collection in the slightest. Oh well.

#0982: Commander Decker & Ilia Probe

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

COMMANDER DECKER & ILIA PROBE

STAR TREK MINIMATES

Decker&Illia1

There’s this old adage about Star Trek movies that it’s only the even ones that are good, and the odd ones aren’t. The fact that Wrath of Khan and First Contact are numbers two and eight, and Star Trek V is, well, number five kind of supports this. That being said, a lot of the other films don’t really support the adage, with some even-numbered films being middling at best, and some of the odd-numbered ones not being the dreck everyone claims them to be. Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the first film on the franchise, often catches flak, and is frequently used as proof of the odd-movies-bad rule. In reality, it’s not a bad movie, it just wasn’t the movie a lot of people were looking for at the time. It’s one of the last of the more cerebral, slower-paced Sci-Fi movies of the ‘70s, and in a post-Star Wars world, that just didn’t fly. If nothing else, the movie gives us a nice little arc for its two original characters, Captain Decker and Ilia, who are the two figures I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released in the fifth series of Star Trek Minimates, which happens to be the last series of the line. Way to go guys, you killed the line!

COMMANDER DECKER

Decker&Illia2Poor Decker. Guy gets no respect. He’s supposed to be commanding the Enterprise, but he gets downgraded at the last second, and forced to serve as a first officer. Then nobody listens to him about anything, and to top it all off, his love interest gets vaporized. And he constantly gets left out of the toylines, too! Sure, Mego made him in their two scales, but Playmates totally overlooked him, and he never got one of the larger DST figures. Fortunately, he did get a Minimate, placing him above quite a few Trek regulars. The figure is about 2 ½ inches tall and he has the usual 14 points of articulation. He has add-ons for his hair and belt/tunic. Both of these pieces are new to Decker, and they do a pretty decent job capturing his look from the movie. The hair in particular is a lot more detailed than prior Trek Minimates pieces, and it’s still on par with current offerings. Decker’s paintwork does a very nice job capturing his look from the movie. The likeness is pretty spot-on, and even the simple details of the uniform are really sharp and a great recreation of its on-screen counterpart. Decker was packed with a Motion Picture-style phaser.

ILIA PROBE

Decker&Illia3So you know how I said this was a figure of Ilia? Yeah, that was technically a lie. See, as noted in the section on Decker, the real Illia is vaporized about a third of the way through the movie. What this figure (and two of the other three Ilias made) represents is the probe sent by V’Ger to interact with the Enterprise crew. The probe takes on the form of the deceased Ilia as a comfort to the crew, thus allowing her actress to still be one of the film’s leads. This figure has two add-on pieces to help recreate the collar and skirt of the robe the Ilia probe spends her time wearing. While the skirt piece is a pretty decently sculpted part, the collar seems overly boxy and bulky. Ilia ends up looking a bit larger than Decker, despite her being a bit smaller in the film. The paintwork on Ilia isn’t bad, though I’m not sure it’s quite as good as Decker’s. The robe has some nice line work, and the head, while not a spot-on likeness, is a decent enough showing. Ilia included no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like so many of the later Star Trek Minimates, I got Decker and Ilia from Record & Tape Traders for a rather hefty discount. This is actually a set I probably would have grabbed for full retail, but they seemed to go straight to clearance. Admittedly, I can see why sets like this might have led to the line’s demise. As cool as I think they are, neither ‘mate is particularly exciting, and I can’t see them having much appeal to anyone who isn’t a fan of the movie.

#0981: Egon Spengler

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

EGON SPENGLER

GHOSTBUSTERS: CLASSIC (MATTEL)

EgonSpengler1

“If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?” Well, the song would have you believe it’s the Ghostbusters, but in reality, you’d probably call the cops. At least, that’s what I’d do. But, let’s be honest here, the Ghostbusters are the far more exciting choice. Also, they make for better toys, and that’s the most important part to me! For the last several years, Mattel has held the main toy-license for the Ghostbusters franchise (though Diamond Select has been a pretty steady contributor of products as well). While the license has been a bit dead the last few years, it’s finally returned, like some sort of…ghost. Weird. Actually, it’s not weird at all, seeing as there’s a movie titled Ghostbusters coming out next month and Mattel obviously wants to get on the marketing bandwagon for it. In addition to the stuff based on the new movie, there’s also a decent amount of merch based on the original films, including today’s focus, Egon Spengler!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

EgonSpengler2Egon is figure number 3 in Mattel’s recently released Ghostbusters: Classic line. It would appear that this particular set of figures is exclusive to Walmart, but time will tell if they remain that way. The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and has 26 points of articulation. Egon is based on his appearance in the first Ghostbusters, which is kind of the obvious choice, really. Structurally, Egon is mostly re-used pieces from Mattel’s previous Ghostbusters line. The head is taken straight from their original Egon, and while it’s not a perfect likeness of Ramis, it’s pretty close. The legs and upper arms are also from the first Egon (and by extension, the Ray and Winston figures as well). The lower arms and hands are from Mattel’s Venkman figure to give him the gloves that the prior Egon figures lacked. The torso is the one new piece here, as it’s been re-sculpted to include a removable proton pack (all previous figures had the packs permanently affixed). While the new pack obviously isn’t as snug a fit as prior figures, it’s fairly decent for the scale. The pieces all mesh together fairly cohesively, which is good, I guess. The level of detail is a little low for a figure based on a real person, but that’s pretty typical for a figure from Mattel. Points for consistency. The biggest flaw with the sculpt is that the body wasn’t sculpted with Egon in mind. Since the same basic body pieces are being used for all of the ‘busters, the body has to be sort of an amalgamation of all four of their body types, which robs them all of some of their individuality. Egon in particular should really be a little taller and skinnier than this figure is. The paintwork on Egon is passable. There’s not really anything to write home about, but it’s mostly pretty clean. I do wish his name tag were just a little better placed. In addition to the removable proton pack, Egon also includes the, uhh… Yeah, there’s really no other way to say this: he comes with the butt of the logo ghost. I guess that would be cooler if I had the other three pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Egon was something of an impulse buy. I was at Walmart with my family and noticed they had several pegs worth of these figures. I knew they existed, sort of, but hadn’t really sought them out, mostly due to never being very much impressed by the prior figures Mattel had done. Egon’s always been the ‘buster I most closely identified with, and they only had the one of him, so I bought him. I must admit, I’m pleasantly surprised by this figure. He’s not perfect, but he’s far better than I’d expected him to be. Take this candy bar Mattel. You–you’ve earned it.

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