Monthly Archives: April 2017

#1264: Fire Fighters

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

FIRE FIGHTERS

M.A.X. MINIMATES — ELITE HEROES

“Mobile Action Xtreme, the world’s premier action response team!”

A large piece of Minimates success is how closely tied they are to all sorts of pop-culture.  There’s a definite novelty to having all of your favorite characters from numerous media sources in one cohesive style.  With that being said, one of the biggest holes in just about any toy collectors collection isn’t the main, licensed heroes; no, it’s actually the everyday joes who populate the background of all our favorite stories.  The cops, firefighters, soldiers, etc.  In 2010, DST offered Minimates fans the chance to add a few of those average joes to their collections, under the banner of M.A.X. Elite Heroes.  The line was sadly limited to just two series of two-packs, a box-set, and a handful of vehicles, but what was released was pretty darn awesome.  Today, I’ll be taking a look at one of the line’s sets of Fire Fighters!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

There were actually five varieties of Fire Fighters available in the M.A.X. Minimates — Elite Heroes line.  This represent the most basic of the group (the others were Smoke Jumpers and Chiefs).  This set was offered in both Series 1 and 2 of the line, with one slight tweak;  mine is the Series 2 version.  Included in this set are effectively two versions of the same figure, albeit with brown hair for one and black hair for the other.  Both figures stand about 2 1/4 inches tall and have the usual 14 points of articulation.  They use the basic ‘mate body as a starting point.  Both figures include standard Fire Fighter garb, which includes a helmet, a jacket, sleeves for the wrists, and a unique set of feet with bulky pant cuffs attached.    The pieces all sit well on the body, and look like the gear gear that the real guys use.  The details are nice and clean, and fit well with the slightly simplistic stylings of ‘mates.  The second guy includes an extra set of arms, hands, and feet, as well as a belt piece and hair, allowing for a dressed-down appearance.  There’s also a clear torso piece to allow for storage of his jacket and arms when he’s not using them. The paint on the two figures is virtually identical, apart from the previously mentioned hair colors.  This means both guys have the same face.  Most of the M.A.X guys were really generic facially, but these two were less so.  They’re still generic enough to work, but they look a bit like twins.  Fortunately, the nature of Minimates makes it pretty easy to swap the heads out if you want to.  The rest of the paint is all pretty solid; there’s some slight bleed over here and there, but nothing beyond reason.  The set was quite heavy on the accessories.  In addition to the already mentioned extra body pieces, there was a hair piece for each figure, a helmet with a mask attached, an oxygen tank, a polearm, a flashlight, the jaws of life, and a fire extinguisher, and two axes.  That’s a fun selection of extras, and allows you to build your Fire Fighters pretty much how ever you want to.  There’s a reason these sets all ended up being rather hard to find.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I completely missed the first series of M.A.X.  Literally never saw a single one in stores.  They were pretty popular, and hit at a time when I wasn’t able to just swing by Toys R Us every few days to check.  I almost missed these guys too.  One of my local TRUs was going out of business and had a good chunk of products marked down pretty far.  I ended up grabbing pretty much all of the Minimates they had in stock, which included most of the second series of M.A.X. (I never did get those Police Officers, though).  This is probably my least favorite from the set, but that’s kind of a hollow qualifier, since they were all really awesome.  It’s a shame we didn’t get more of these guys, but I’m happy I got the ones I did.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0010: Green Goblin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , ,

Oh yeah, it’s Friday!  You know what that means: it’s time for another installment of Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Today, we flip back over to the Marvel side of things, with long-time Spidey foe Green Goblin, from back when he was Willem Dafoe!

The first Spider-Man movie may have been surpassed by other superhero movies in recent years, but when it was released it was my favorite superhero movie, and remained in that spot until it was dislodged by its sequel. The movie was also one of the earliest comicbook based movies to get a decent tie-in toyline, on par with, and perhaps even better than the comic stuff at the time. I’m certain it surprises no one that I owned a few of the figures from that toyline, and today I’ll be looking at one of the figures of the film’s big bad, the Green Goblin.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Goblin was part of the first series of Spider-Man movie figures. The figure stands 6 inches tall and features 38 points of articulation. He has an all new sculpt based on Willem Dafoe’s performance as the character in the film. It’s a pretty good sculpt and, whether you like the suit or not, it’s a good representation of the suit’s design. Under the figure’s removable mask is an unmasked Norman Osborn head, which bares more than a passing resemblance to Dafoe. The resemblance might be a bit closer were it not for the slick back hair style, but it was necessary in order to facilitate the removable mask feature. The mask is a well done piece and is essentially a scaled down version of the real thing, though it is missing the backing it had in the movie. This is once again to aid the removability. The paintwork is cleanly applied, with no real issues with slop or bleed over. His skin tone is a tad too yellow for my tastes, but only a tad. The figure came packaged with his goblin glider and a flight stand, but both of mine have been lost. Sorry!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Green Goblin from the KB Toys in my local mall shortly after the first series was released. That would have been a few months before the release of the movie. For some reason, I wanted Green Goblin, but none of the other figures in the series. So, I only had the Goblin for a while. He’s a quality figure for sure, but that goblin costume looks worse every time I see it.

Okay, so first of all, I feel the need to apologize for the complete lack of a shot of his unmasked face in the original review.  I’m not sure how that got completely left out.  It’s now been added as part of his Wilson photo.

This was another short review, though it does hit on most of the major points.  Perhaps I should try for brevity more often? Nah, that’s silly!  Anyway, as nice as the actual details on the costume are, the actual body they’ve been placed on is rather oddly proportioned, and suffers from a lack of any useful articulation on the torso.  Still, he’s on par with most of the early Marvel Legends and Spider-Man Classics, so he’s not awful.  Missing from my original review was his Goblin Glider, which I discovered during The Find.  It was actually split between several different boxes, so finding the whole thing was quite an accomplishment.  It’s honestly one of the best parts of this figure.  There’s a ton of detail and it’s not undersized like so many of the gliders end up being.  There’s even some slight articulation, so you can get him posed on it just right.

This guy feels a lot more complete now.  His design’s still really, really goofy, but this was a pretty fun figure for its time, and it was honestly the best Goblin Toy Biz put out until the Series 13 Legends release.

#1263: Yondu

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

YONDU

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A captain of a Ravager faction, Yondu is a powerful warrior shrouded in mystery.”

Okay, I can get behind the first half of this bio, but the second half is sort of losing me.  Is Yondu’s mysterious past going to be a key piece of GotG Vol 2 or something?  Because he honestly doesn’t seem that much more mysterious than the rest of the cast from the first film.  Here I am critiquing bios again.  I gotta stop with that.  So, if you hadn’t already gathered, today’s focus is Yondu, who, after being left out of Hasbro’s offerings for the first film, has found his way into Legends form for the sequel!  Let’s check him out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Yondu is figure 2 in the Titus Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s the last of the three movie-based figures in this particular series.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and has 30 points of articulation.  Yondu’s appearance in Vol 2 is largely the same as his Vol 1 appearance, with the only real change being his “mohawk,” which us now an actual head-fin thing, closer to his comics design.  Yondu’s Ravager garb makes him somewhat similar to the first Star-Lord figure in design, so Hasbro’s opted to re-use a number of that figure’s pieces here.  He’s got the same pelvis and upper legs for sure, and he might have the same arms.  I say might because Yondu’s arms definitely have a texture to them that isn’t present on the first Star-Lord.  It’s possible that the first Star-Lord was *supposed* to have the texture and it was just lost in the production process, and Yondu is Hasbro learning from their mistakes.  It’s also possible they slightly tweaked the mold to help Yondu fit in better with the newer figures.  It also appears that Yondu’s torso was built on the Star-Lord torso, given that they share the same neck and basic shaping, but the differences are enough that it’s effectively a new sculpt.  There are still some slight oddities with the proportions of the Star-Lord pieces, especially the gangliness of the arms and the odd flatness of the pelvis.  Thankfully there’s the all-new long coat piece to hide some of that.  The coat is very nicely crafted, and feels a bit sharper than the Star-Lord coat it replaced.  It’s also totally removable, if you so choose; it appears that the long coat section is more of a vest thing, which goes over the base Ravager uniform.  I’d honestly not noticed that before, but it kind of explains the varying length of Quill’s jacket in the first installment.  Yondu’s torso is full detailed, front and back, and does match up with the arms, so you can display him sans coat, in theory anyway.  In practice, I find he looks rather goofy.  He also gets new hands and boots, as well as a pair of heads.  Yes, like Black Widow before him, this Yondu figure is pulling double duty, acting as Yondu from both the first and second films.  He’s packed wearing the head from the first film, which has the shorter mohawk and a spot-on Rooker grin.  The second head is sporting the sequel’s taller head-fin style mohawk, as well as whistling expression meant to go with his arrow accessory.  I generally prefer the taller mohawk, but I do wish there were a way to swap the mohawk length between the two expressions, since my ideal look would really be the tall mohawk with the grin.  Nevertheless, both head’s are really solid sculpts, and both have a pretty dead-on Rooker likeness.  Yondu’s paintwork is fairly solidly done.  I might have liked some more variety in the large sections of red, but Hasbro tends to be of the opinion of “let the sculpt speak for itself” so here it is.  It’s still worth nothing that what paint is there is in line with the much cleaner work we’ve been seeing on this line as of late (it seems that Vance was the single exception to that).  In addition to the two interchangeable heads, Yondu also includes his golden arrow; it’s sculpted with a little trail on it, as seen in the movie.  When used in conjunction with the whistling head, it makes it look like he’s controlling it, which is pretty cool.  I wish we’d also  gotten one sans trail to put in the holster; as it stands, I just have him hover his hand over the empty holster when posing him “relaxed.”  Yondu also includes the right arm of the Build-A-Figure Titus.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Yondu seems to be one of the more popular figures in this series at the moment, so I didn’t see him the first several times I found the series at retail.  Fortunately, my parents were nice enough to keep an eye out for him, and my dad ended up picking him up from a Walgreens, where he was apparently the only GotG figure in stock (this isn’t a unique phenomenon, either.  About a week late, I saw the same thing at a Walgreens near me).  He was nearer the top of the list of the figures I wanted from this set.  I definitely like him, though I feel there are some minor issues that keep him from being quite on par with the some of the others I’ve looked at.  Still, he’s worth it for those head sculpts alone.  Those are definitely top-notch work.

#1262: Vance Astro – Masters of Mind

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

VANCE ASTRO — MASTERS OF MIND

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With incredible powers of both body and mind, these heroes prepare for any intergalactic mission.”

When the Guardians of the Galaxy first appeared, they weren’t really the team they are now.  Instead, they were kind of Marvel’s answer to the Legion of Superheroes; a team of aliens, each from a different species, living in the year 3000.  The team’s leader was Vance Astro, an astronaut from the 20th Century preserved for 1000 years in order to battle the Badoon.  Theoretically, he’s the same character as New Warrior member Justice, though he’s officially classified as an alternate universe counterpart these days.  Since the Guardians as a whole are a bit more high profile these days, Vance has been lucky enough to get a whole two figures in the last year.  Today, I’ll be looking at the most recent of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Vance Astro is figure 3 in the Titus Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s officially named “Masters of Mind,” which is a name he shares with Darkhawk.  It’s far from the worst shared name we’ve gotten.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation.  Vance is predominately re-used parts (which is likely the biggest reason he found his way into this series, since it’s pretty heavy on new parts).  He’s built on the Reaper body, which, I gotta say, I’m liking less every time it’s used.  It’s not bad, but it really doesn’t hold up when compared to newer bodies such as the Spider-UK body.  I’m also just not sure it’s the right choice for Vance; sure, he’s usually depicted as being slightly larger than average, but I don’t really think of him as being the same build as Wonder Man or Cap.  I feel like Spider-UK would have been the better option here, but maybe that body just showed up too late in the game.  Vance gets a new head sculpt.  It’s definitely on the generic side, which is appropriate for Vance’s design.  I can definitely see this being re-used for some other characters down the line.  I will say that Vance’s head seems to be much better scaled to the body than a lot of the Reaper-scale heads, so that’s good to see.  The rest of Vance’s details are carried out through paintwork.  The overall paintwork is pretty solid.  I really dig the metallic blue; it’s pretty much exactly how I’d expect the character to be depicted in real life, and it looks really cool.  Most of the line work is clean, but there’s a bit of slop.  The insignia on his chest is slightly out of sync with the outline, and, most noticeably, the white section of his left leg comes to a rounded end, in contrast to the pointed end on the right leg.  It’s rather distracting.  Vance includes Captain America’s shield, which is a more than appropriate extra, since he’s been carrying Cap’s shield in the comics for quite some time.  Of course, he uses a different shield mold than the last several Caps (it’s the same as the one used for Red Guardian and Taskmaster, so it’s really the go-to knock-off Cap shield), but it’s the thought that counts.  Maybe the sculpted edges get rounded down 1000 years into the future.  He also includes the left leg of Titus.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My fandom of the classic Guardians is largely via my Dad, who’s more of a fan of them then I.  I think I’ve read a handful of their appearances, and I’m a fan of the characters for sure, but they aren’t at the top of my list.  So, while I wanted a Vance at some point, he wasn’t a figure I had to have.  So, when I found both him and Nova at Toys R Us, and could only really afford to grab one, I went for Nova, hoping to come back for Vance later.   Of course, Super Awesome Girlfriend was there with me, and she doesn’t really stand for me putting figures back, so he ended up coming home with me anyway.  Vance isn’t without issues, but he’s still a decent figure overall.  Here’s hoping we can get the rest of the classic team!

#1261: Marvel’s Nova

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

MARVEL’S NOVA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Sam Alexander searches the galaxy for his father as the Nova Centurion, Nova.”

Does that bio seem a little redundant to anyone else?  I think it’s the two uses of “Nova” so close together.  Maybe it would flow better if they dropped “the Nova Centurion” all together.  Ah, look at me, critiquing the bio.  As if that actually has any impact on the figure, right?  I’ve actually reviewed five Nova figures on this site already, which is a surprisingly high number, if I’m honest.  I mean, I like Nova and all (mostly due to the closeness in concept to the Green Lanterns), and he makes for some good toys, but five just seems high.  Anyway, here’s another one.  Today’s Nova is the latest Marvel Legends offering of the character, based on the second Earth-based Nova, Sam Alexander.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nova is figure 6 in the Titus Series of Marvel Legends.  Unlike Drax and Star-Lord (the last two figures I reviewed from this series), Nova’s not based on the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but is instead comic book-based.  I guess Hasbro just likes putting comic-based Novas into the Guardians assortments.  The figure stands about 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Sam’s built on the teen male body, which was introduced with the Ultimate Spider-Men figures from the Space Venom Series.  Of course, the Space Venom Series didn’t actually show up around me, so Sam’s the first figure I’ve gotten on this body.  The body feels a lot like the Pizza Spidey body, but scaled down a bit.  It’s a very nice sculpt; he actually looks like a guy in his teens, rather than a shrunken adult, which is a definite plus.  Nova uses the arms, legs, and hands from the base body, with unique pieces for his head, torso, pelvis, and forearms.  The head is made of two separate pieces: one for his helmet, and one for the underlying face.  They handled the Richard Rider Nova the same way, so it’s good for consistency, and it also adds some nice dimension to the sculpt and makes sure the change from helmet to face is appropriately sharp.  Sam was originally drawn by Ed McGuiness, who definitely has his own flair to his art; like with Kamala, Hasbro’s managed to keep some of McGuinness’s influence, while also tweaking Sam to fit in with the rest of the line stylistically.  The rest of the new pieces are all pretty solid work as well, and I really appreciate that Hasbro actually went the sculpted route for most of the costume details, especially when they could have very easily just painted them on.  Speaking of paint, the work on Nova is pretty much on par with Hasbro’s upward trend of paint these days.  There’s still some slight bleed on some of the edges, but overall he’s pretty sharp.  I like the shade of gold used here; it’s nice and metallic, but preserves a lot of the yellow that’s sort of necessary to keep his look consistent with the comics and prevent him from being too drab.  I also appreciate that the dark sections of the costume are actually a very, very dark blue, rather than black.  It’s a minor change, but the artist in me likes that he matches up just a tiny bit more with the Richard Rider figure.  In addition to the usual Build-A-Figure piece (Titus’s torso), Sam has one other extra, which is actually a whole second character.  Yes, he includes The Phlish, who was one of the Supernovas that served alongside Sam’s father Jaime when he was a Nova Corpsman.  Really minor character, but a really fun addition nonetheless.  I only wish he included a flight stand of some sort, as he just leans on Sam’s foot at the moment.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Sam was one of the figures I knew I wanted from this set pretty much as soon as he was announced.  While I’ve not followed his solo adventures really closely, I’ve loved him as a part of Waid’s Avengers and Champions books, and since Hasbro seems to be releasing the rest of those teams, I knew I needed him.  I ended up finding him at my nearest TRU not long after grabbing Star-Lord and Drax.  He’s simple, but very effective.  Definitely a strong Legends release, and that’s saying something, given that he’s in the same series as that Star-Lord figure.

#1260: Drax

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

DRAX

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Drax the Destroyer travels the galaxy seeking revenge against those responsible for his family’s death.”

Going into the first Guardians film, the only of the title characters I was more than passingly familiar with was Drax the Destroyer.  He was a character with a rather complicated backstory, which proved to be more than could be fully covered in the confines of an ensemble cast movie, necessitating some streamlining.  The problem with streamlining a character like Drax is that he can very quickly end up boring and two dimensional if you aren’t careful.  Fortunately, James Gunn and Dave Bautista worked together and created a character that was an immensely enjoyable commentary on the “revenge-driven noble warrior” archetype.  I loved him in the first film, and it looks like I may love him even more if the trailers for Vol 2 are anything to go by.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Drax is part of the first assortment of GotG Vol 2-themed Marvel Legends, also known as the Titus Series.    He’s based on Drax’s appearance in the second film, but it’s worth noting that Drax doesn’t look to have had much change in appearance since the first time around.  The figure is about 6 3/4 inches tall and has 30 points of articulation.  Drax’s sculpt is mostly re-used from his prior figure.  Given that he was easily the strongest of the original movie’s sculpts and, as I noted above, that his design really hasn’t changed, this is actually quite a sensible bit of re-use.  Three years later, the sculpt still holds up very nicely, and it’s doesn’t look out of place next to the latest Star-Lord, which is no small feat, let me tell you.  He does at the very least get a new head sculpt.  Where the first Drax’s head was more on the calm side of things, this new head gives us a far more intense Drax, as he would look in the heat of battle.  Honestly, this seems more true to a character whose subtitle is “The Destroyer,” so I’m very glad Hasbro opted for this look.  The head is still fairly consistent with the calmer sculpt, as well, so you can still see that they’re the same guy.  Since the sculpt is largely the same, Drax really relies on paint to help differentiate him.  The biggest change is the color of the pants; the first figure was sporting the red pants he got from the Ravagers, but this figure is sporting the blue ones he picked up from the Nova Corps following the first film’s final battle.  It actually brings him a little more in line with the comics version of this design, so that’s pretty cool.  I also think the blue is just a more flattering look for him, so that’s another plus for me.  There’s also been a slight change in the pigmentation of the skin.  It’s more green here than the last one, which is another welcome change, since I always found that figure to look a bit drab (although, sadly, this means you can’t swap heads between the two).  This time around, the finish on the figure is also a whole lot less shiny, which makes him look just a lot better as a whole.  Drax is packed with the same pair of knives included with the first figure, which are still very nice.  He also includes a rocket launcher (which looks to be the same one he was carrying in the first movie), as well as the left arm of Titus.  I wouldn’t have minded another head (either the calm one or a laughing one) to make up for all the re-used parts, but the launcher’s a nice addition, and he doesn’t feel too light on extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Despite liking the character a lot, I didn’t initially plan on picking up Drax, given just how similar he was to the first release.  I ended up getting him from Super Awesome Girlfriend, who picked him up for me after feeling sorry that I wasn’t having much luck with the Warlock Series.  I gotta say, having him in hand, I feel the purchase was warranted.  He’s very similar to the original, but the small changes they’ve made really add up, and result in a figure that just feels like a step up from his predecessor.

#1259: Colossus

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

COLOSSUS

MARVEL BOOTLEGO

Hey, remember when I reviewed those knock-off Lego mini figures last week?  Well, how about one more?  Last week’s mini figures were based on Game of Thrones, which is a property that Lego doesn’t, and never plans to, hold the license for.  Today’s focus, is a slightly different story, hailing from the Marvel side of things.  Of course, it’s still a character that doesn’t yet have an official Lego figure, which is why I’m reviewing a less legitimate version.  Without further ado, here’s that merry metal mutant, Colossus!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

As noted in the intro, this guy’s an unofficial product.  As such, he’s not strictly part of any series or assortment.  Also, unlike the prior BootLegos, he’s not part of a larger set that I can find.  The figure’s about 3 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation (though, there’s not really much movement in the neck, thanks to the hair).  If the height didn’t already cue you in, he’s patterned on the “Big Fig” body that was first introduced for the Avengers mover version of the Hulk.  While Colossus is usually depicted a little slimmer than the Hulk, this is actually how the character was depicted in Lego Marvel Superheroes, which gives him an extra sense of officialness, since any legit Colossus seems likely to be built this way.  What I personally find interesting is the fact that this guy’s a wholly original sculpt.  Every other one of these I’ve picked up has uses stock Lego pieces, but this guy’s totally unique.  I’m honestly curious if there’s actually a Colossus in the works from Lego, since it just seems odd for this one figure to be all-new.  If he really is a unique sculpt, he’s a very good forgery.  The sculpt is pretty solidly done, with all of the proper details outlined.  The only real issue I have is the hair, which has actual texture, which just doesn’t seem right for Colossus; it really should just be smooth.  A closer look at the piece makes it look like it might be an upscaled basic spiky hair piece, modified to fit the body.  That would certainly explain the extra details.  As nice as the sculpt work is, the paint does seem to be a slight step down.  red seems a bit deep in shade, and the edges are all pretty sloppy.  There’s also a splotch of red on his right arm, which is super distracting.  Lego’s well-known for their high standards of quality control, so this guy’s lack of said QC kind of shatters the illusion.  I mean, he’s not terrible, but he could be better.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up this guy at the same time as the GoT mini figures.  The vendor had a special deal for three basic mini figures and one Big Fig, which is what I opted to go for.  Colossus is one of my favorite X-Men, so I was hardly going to turn down the chance to get a Lego version of him.  He’s not quite as good as the other three, but he’s still pretty fun!

#1258: Robotman

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

ROBOTMAN

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

Wasn’t I just talking about DC Universe Classics a few days ago?  Okay, technically it was only in passing, since Catwoman was actually from one of the spin-off lines.  The main line is particularly noteworthy due to just how deep into the DC Universe it went (something that may have contributed to its downfall in the end, unfortunately).  One of my personal favorite subsets from the line was the Doom Patrol, who are one of my favorite DC teams.  I’ve looked at Negative Man and Elasti-Girl, but now it’s time for me to take a look at the team’s final founding (and most consistently present) member, Cliff Steele, better known as Robotman!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Robotman was released in Series 10 of DC Universe Classics, which was the second Walmart-exclusive series in the line.  He was the first member of the Doom Patrol to be released, which was rather sensible, as he’s probably the most popular of the main three.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  There are a few different Robotman looks to choose from, but Mattel went for his classic ‘60s design.  It’s definitely a wise choice; it’s easily his best design, and it’s one he’s returned to a number of times over the years.  Cliff is built on the medium male body, with his own unique head, hands, and upper torso.  The new pieces all fit pretty seamlessly with the pre-existing stuff, and it all does a really great job of capturing Cliff’s retro-sci-fi design.  The head is a pretty decent piece; it’s not quite as streamlined as Cliff frequently was in his classic appearances, but it’s a pretty close match.  That slightly less streamlined appearance is also there due to the removable scalp, which allows us a view at Cliff’s brain.  It’s a pretty fun little touch, which takes this figure from average to awesome.  The upper those isn’t too far removed from the basic piece, but adds a few of Cliff’s extra robotic bits, as well as the video monitor that allowed the Chief to keep in contact with the team when they were on missions.  Also, since the upper torso includes the ridges above each shoulder, some of the shoulder’s size is masked, thus remedying what I find to be the weakest aspect of the basic DCUC body.  Cliff’s paintwork is some of the cleanest DCUC had to offer.  In the comics, he was always just orange, but here he’s more of a copper sort of color, which looks really slick in person.  The black shorts preserve his robot modesty (and also break up the colors a little bit), and there’s some really sharp detailing on the monitor.  The straps for the monitor are a little rough around the edges, but not horribly so.  Robotman’s only extra was the torso of the series Collect-N-Connect figure Imperiex.  It would have been kind of cool to maybe get an extra robotic Chief head from when he replaced Cliff on one of the missions, since poor Niles was never going to get his own figure.  But, that’s honestly pretty issue-specific, and probably a bit much for a character that was already lucky just to be getting a figure at all.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I found most of Series 10 at retail when it was released, but I never had any luck with Robotman.  It was made worse by the fact that I really needed to find a pair of them, since my Dad’s a huge Doom Patrol fan too.  Fortunately, my good friends at All Time Toys came through for me, and I was able to find two Cliff figures for a reasonable price.  Robotman is a great example of the sort of awesome stuff this line could do when they actually put in the effort.  He’s a lower tier character with exceptional execution, and just a really fun figure all around.  As much as I rag on Mattel, this guy is really one of my favorites, and the whole Doom Patrol set is just really fantastic.

#1257: Black Knight

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

BLACK KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

You know who’s pretty cool?  Black Knight.  He’s one of those characters I just really enjoy.  That’s probably why I own like every action figure version of the character out there.  Of those figures, one of them is a Marvel Legend.  Usually, that’s awesome, but…well, I get to that in a bit.  Without further ado, here’s Black Knight!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Knight was released in Series 3 of Hasbro’s first run on Marvel Legends.  This would mark his second figure ever, and it hit almost an entire decade after his first.  He’s not privy to a ton of figures, I guess.  This figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 25 points of articulation.  The last two Black Knight figures I looked at were both based on Dane’s classic design, but this one opted for one of his more recent designs, which he sported in the back half of the ‘90s.  It’s more armored than he usually is, and it ditches his cape, in favor of a loincloth sort of thing, and also loses the chainmail for a smoother under armor.  I can’t say it’s my preferred look for him, but it keeps most of the important elements of his usual designs, so I guess it’s not an awful choice.  After inheriting a lot of Toy Biz’s un-used sculpts, Black Knight marked one of Hasbro’s earliest in-house efforts for Legends.  It’s definitely a product of its time, there’s no doubt about that.  He’s got a lot of the hallmarks of Hasbro’s earlier work: the slightly less detailed nature, the smaller stature, and the kind of obvious articulation.  Also, on top of the obvious articulation, there’s some serious limitation on most of the joints, especially at the elbows and knees.  It was a serious step down from the double joints of the prior Legends.  The legs in particular seem rather disjointed from the upper body sculpt; they’re not really to scale with the rest of the figure, and the sculpt just doesn’t feel as refined. With all that said, Black Knight’s sculpt actually isn’t bad, especially given how downhill the line went before the Return of ML re-launch.  The proportions of the upper half of the sculpt are actually pretty solid, and the details on the armor and such are fairly sharp.  The paint on Black Knight (and the rest of the early Hasbro Legends) was pretty by the numbers and bland, if I’m honest.  I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it, per se.  It’s clean and all, but it lacks any real spark, and just looks rather dull over all.  Dane’s design would have really been helped by some metallics and bolder accent work.  The purely molded shades don’t really do the sculpt justice.  Black Knight was packed with his Ebony Blade and a shield, as well as three of the Build-A-Figure Brood Queen’s legs.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When Series 3 was first announced, Black Knight was definitely at the top of my list.  Of course, I was hardly the only one.  I ended up finding pretty much every other figure I wanted from this series first, because that’s how these things seem to work out.  I don’t actually remember the exact circumstances of how I got him.  I want to say my Dad got him for me, and I’m pretty sure I got him at the same time as Bucky from the same series.  I was happy to have him at the time, but I always knew he was less than stellar. He kind of marked a turning point for Marvel Legends for me: Series 3 was the last series I really sought out, starting a break from Legends that more or less lasted until 2014’s Infinite Series launch.  He’s not a bad figure, and in fact he’s better than I’d remembered him to be.  Still, he’s rather mediocre.  I’m hopeful that Dreadknight’s presence in the SDCC Raft set might signify a new version’s in the works.

*Well, here was the real review, but this guy got all click-baited for April Fools day 2017.  Read the altered version here.