Monthly Archives: July 2017

#1362: Luke Skywalker

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

LUKE SKYWALKER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Raised by his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru on their Tatooine moisture farm, young Luke dreamed of being a pilot for the Rebel Alliance. He realized his destiny after being saved from the Tusken Raiders by the mysterious Obi-Wan Kenobi, who told him of his past and began to teach the boy the ways of the Force. When the Empire killed Luke’s family, he and Kenobi set off to find Princess Leia, whose message hidden inside the droid R2-D2 beckoned them to join the Rebellion.”

Hey-o, it’s another Star Wars review.  Alright, let’s do this.  As I’ve noted a few times before, my main introduction to Star Wars toys was the 1990s revival line.  I came into it during the second year, meaning I generally missed out on the “main” versions of a lot of the characters.  Main versions inevitably found their way into my collection, of course, which is how I can look at this figure I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke was released in the very first series of Kenner’s Star Wars: Power of the Force II line.  He was the first Luke in the line, and is based on his farm boy look from A New Hope.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  As one of the earliest figures in the line, Luke falls victim to just about all of the oddities that plagued the line in its early days.  The pre-posing isn’t the worst, but he’s definitely got the odd proportions, especially those rippling pecs beneath his shirt, and those super tight clinging sleeves.  It’s Star Wars if Star Wars had been a harlequin romance, or an ‘80s action film starring Dolph Lungdreon.  Look, if your in a loose fitting shirt, your muscles shouldn’t be showing through as they please.  The head sculpt is kind of so-so.  None of the likenesses on these early figures were particularly close, but I’ve always found Luke’s to be one of the weakest.  It’s the same head they used on several of the earliest Luke figures, but it never really looked right.  It’s not a bad sculpt in and of itself, I guess.  The paint work on Luke is mostly pretty passable.  Everything’s pretty cleanly applied and all.  The color choices are a little off, mostly on the legs, which have an odd green tone to them.  Luke was packed with his lightsaber and a grappling hook thingy.  There were two versions of the saber available, depending on which run of the figure you got.  Earlier runs had the long saber (seen here) which is laughably long, to the point of being taller than the figure proper.  Later figures fixed this, replacing it with a more reasonably sized model.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Dagobah Training Luke was my first Luke Skywalker figure.  This one was my second, picked up for me by my maternal grandmother from a convention dealer’s room.  I settled for him because the look I really wanted (Bespin Luke) wasn’t yet available.  I can’t really say he’s ever been a favorite of mine.  This particular look just doesn’t work as well in the “x-treme” stylings of the PotF2 line.  Ultimately, he’s about par for the course for this line, which is at the very least entertaining.

#1361: Cye

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

CYE

RONIN WARRIORS (PLAYMATES)

In the wake of the success of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, quite a number of Japanese action-adventure shows were imported to the US, with the hopes of finding the next big thing.  None of them succeeded in that venture, of course, but some were certainly better than others.  Ronin Warriors was one of the better shows of the era, but, like so many, it’s faded into relative obscurity.  It had a toyline, courtesy of Playmates, which was decent enough.  Today, I’ll be taking a look at one of the main team members, Cye Mouri, Ronin Warrior of Trust!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cye was released in the basic assortment of Playmates’ Ronin Warriors line, which was in pretty much consistent production for a good chunk of the ‘90s.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  The articulation is very different than any other line I’ve collected; the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees are all done via springs.  There aren’t any hinges, just cut-joints and springs.  It’s a little weird.  Not sure why this was the way they handled things, but it’s not awful; just different.  All of the figures were built on the same standard body, with unique heads and armor.  The base body is rather on the bulky side, especially when compared to the models from the show.  The hands and feet are particularly sizable, but he’s really just over bulky in general.  The body is also really geometric and inorganic, making him look more robotic than human.  It’s an odd choice, but it kind of reminds me of Micronauts/Microman, so I sort of dig it.  The head sculpt is decent enough; the hair is a little more matted to the head than in the show, but that’s to facilitate the helmet, I suppose.  Beyond that, it’s a fairly faithful sculpt.  He’s also got 11 armor pieces, which can snap into place on the body.  I’m not the biggest fan of the armor, since it just further bulks up the body. At the very least, it’s a decent recreation of his armor from the show, more or less, so that’s good.  The paint work on Cye is pretty clean.  It’s not really complex or anything, and there are a number of paint apps shown on the prototype that were cut from the final product.  The application is clean and sharp, and the colors are pretty vibrant, so he looks pretty decent overall.  In addition to the armor pieces, Cye included a tree of various weapons from the show.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Cye is an interesting development in my toy collecting habits: he’s the very first action figure I bought without being familiar with the source material.  I was at KB Toys with my grandmother, and I thought he was cool, so she bought him for me.  It was only years later that I finally discovered the show on Toonami, and actually enjoyed it a fair bit.  Sadly, the figure went missing over the years, and the costs on the aftermarket made getting a replacement infeasible.  But, as luck would have it, my brother asked to stop at Collector’s Corner two weekends ago and they happened to have this figure for $10, which was more than worth it for me.  He’s goofy and a little weird, but I still really love this figure, and he just makes me happy.

#1360: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With HERBIE by her side, Sue Storm uses psionic energy to suit up as the incredible hero, Invisible Woman!”

Fantastic Four Marvel Legends?  It’s a Christmas miracle!  Or something.

The poor FF has fallen out of fashion in recent years, in no small part due to the lackluster-to-atrocious quality of their live-action films and the fact that their film rights aren’t currently with Marvel proper (it also doesn’t help that creative teams who actually know what to do with the characters are a dying breed, meaning their comic hasn’t really been selling well either).  On the plus side, it looks like things are on the upturn for the Fab Four, with a triumphant return to the toy aisles, starting with Sue Richards, aka the Invisible Woman!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman is the latest Walgreens-exclusive Marvel Legends figure.  This marks only the second time that Sue’s been offered as a single figure in the Legends line. Unlike prior Walgreens exclusives, Sue’s not attached to any other particular series.  Instead, she’s the first of a sub-set of FF figures exclusive to Walgreens, and she’ll be joined by her brother Johnny later this year.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  She’s built on the new base female body (seen previously on the likes of Phoenix, Kitty Pryde, and Kate-Guy), which is, as always, a welcome choice.  It’s a pretty solid base overall, and serves as a good starting point for Sue.  She also gets a new head, which is just a, pardon the phrase, fantastic piece.  Easily one of my favorite head sculpts from Legends as of late.  Definitely Hasbro’s best female, and that’s saying something, given their recent track record.  Sue’s had a number of hair-dos over the years, and a lot of them have been really period-specific.  The one they’ve gone with is pretty timeless and true to the character.  I like that the face is calm and friendly, as Sue should be, rather than being too bland or intense.  The paint on Sue is pretty decent, but there are a few things that seem a little off.  The overall application is really sharp and bold.  The face is particularly clean, as is the emblem.  The emblem being all in grey is a little different than I was expecting, but I can’t say I dislike it.  The only real issue I have is how they’ve implemented her powers.  The actual work isn’t bad; her right arm starts full color and slowly fades out.  It’s a cool effect, and very well rendered.  The real issue is that there’s no option to swap the arm out, meaning she’s always stuck like that.  Still, that’s a pretty minor issue.  Sue *does* include an extra hand, that’s done up to match the right arm, so that’s cool.  And, since it’s going to be a little while before the rest of her teammates are released, Sue also includes a HERBIE pack-in figure to keep her company.  Believe it or not, this is actually HERBIE’s third time as an action figure, and second as a Marvel Legend.  He’s about 3 inches tall and has a joint as the neck, as well as a removable flight stand to let him hover.  His sculpt is pretty awesome, and his paint is nice and clean.  He’s just an all-around awesome inclusion.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Here’s a shock: I got this Walgreens exclusive figure at Walgreens.  I know.  Thrilling.  In all honestly, I’ve been patiently waiting for this figure ever since Toy Biz released Reed back in Series 5 of the original line.  14 years is a lot of waiting.  Ultimately, I’m glad I waited, because this is best Invisible Woman figure ever released.  I can’t wait to get the rest of the team to match!

#1359: VF-1S Roy Fokker – Last Stand

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

VF-1S ROY FOKKER – LAST STAND

ROBOTECH: VERITECH SUPER POSABLE FIGURE (TOYNAMI)

For someone who’s so hardcore into media that has to do with giant robot fighting suits, you’d probably assume that I’d be all about Robotech.  Truth be told, I only actually started watching the show a month ago.  I’ve absolutely been loving it; I can’t really say why I put off watching it for quite so long.  Anyway, there are a ton of Robotech toys out there.  They aren’t the most common items to find, since there’s a pretty big fanbase that collects them, but every so often you do find the occasional stray figure, and I was fortunate enough to do so.  Today, I’ll be looking at the Veritech fighter of my personal favorite character from the show, Roy Fokker.  So, let’s look at the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

In 2001, Toynami picked up the license for Robotech, and they put out a line dubbed Robotech: Veritech Super Posable Figures.  Roy Fokker’s VF-1S was from that line.  This particular version is dubbed the “Last Stand” version, presumably based on Episode 18 of the series, which contains Roy’s final stand and eventual demise (spoilers, I guess).  The figure was released as an exclusive through ToyFare magazine, as a way of promoting the line.  Sculpturally, the VF-1S is the same figure as the standard release, just with a tweaked paint job.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall (largely due to his splayed legs; he’d be closer to 8 standing straight) and he has 22 points of articulation.  It’s somewhat amusing to see this figure branded as “super-posable” in this day and age, given his lack of a number of joints that are kind of essential in this day and age.  The most egregious omission is the lack of anything beyond cut joints on the hips, which means he’s perpetually stuck in this slightly splayed-leg-pose.  It’s far from the worst thing ever, and there’s no denying that he’s highly posable in several other areas, but it’s still a little limiting.  For the time, though, it was actually pretty amazing, so credit where credit is due.  The sculpt on this guy is really solid work; he pretty closely follows the show’s design and the detail work is all really sharp and geometric, just like it should be.  The joints are also worked in very nicely, but that’s just a matter of keeping consistent with the character design (which isn’t exactly something that’s always done; looking at you, Hasbro!).  This is a non-transforming figure, so he’s always in robot mode (which is the cool mode), but the important elements that remain from the original mode are still there, and very nicely detailed.  They’ve even made his skull leader insignia a raised element, to help differentiate him from the other Veritechs.  There are a few mold lines that I wish were a little less obvious, but beyond that, I’m very happy with the sculpt.  The paint is what differentiates this from the normal release; where the basic figure was clean and shiny, this figure depicts Roy after he takes a beating.  There’s a bunch of heavy shading and burn marks, as well as some pretty amazing bullet holes and puncture wounds.  Those are all still just painted on, but are quite convincing as actual damage to the figure.  I find that all of this extra work really does a lot to bring out the strengths of the sculpt and makes for an all-around more visually interesting figure.  Roy’s VF-1S is packed with three sets of hands in fists, trigger finger, and open gesture poses, as well as his rifle, which has adjustable pieces, allowing it to be held in his hand or slung over his shoulder.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As noted in the intro, I only got into Robotech very recently, so I didn’t get this guy new (though I do recall when he was offered in ToyFare, since I was a subscriber at the time).  Instead, I found him just a few weeks ago at this awesome place around the corner from me called Lost In Time Toys.  My brother got their card at AwesomeCon and we went to check them out and just happened to catch them in the middle of a moving sale.  This guy was amongst the handful of items still yet to be moved, so I got him for half of his usual price, which was a pretty darn good deal.  I will admit, I was a little annoyed by the hips when I got him out of the box, but other than that small issue, I just can’t help but love this guy.  I foresee myself tracking down more of this line.

#1358: Star-Lord

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

STAR-LORD

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (HASBRO)

“When the fate of the universe hangs in the balance, Peter Quill is ready to defeat interstellar evil!”

With the recent release of Spider-Man: Homecoming just last week, and a whole other slew of summer blockbusters in the last month or so, it’s easy to forget that this year’s summer blockbuster season was kicked off by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.  That’s a shame, because I really, really loved Guardians 2.  Like a whole lot.  I have yet to find the second assortment of Marvel Legends from the film (I’ve seen remnants at stores, but I’m hoping for a full set), but I’m sort of bridging the gap with some of the non-Legends stuff that’s hit in the mean time.  Much like Spider-Man: Homecoming, there was a slightly smaller, slightly less high-end line of figures based on the Guardians and a few of their supporting players.  Today, I’ll be looking at Star-Lord!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Star-Lord is from the first series of the smaller Guardians of the Galaxy line of figures, which hit sometime last year, I believe.  The figure stands just a little over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  It’s a bit of a shame that he hasn’t got any knee movement, but I do really like the mobility of the arms.  Now, you’ll recall that in my review of the Homecoming Spider-Man figure, I mentioned that his scale was a little hard to place; that’s less an issue with this guy.  He’s right about in line with the mid-to-late ‘90s figures from Toy Biz in terms of scaling, which is quite cool, since Peter was never privy to a figure from TB.  Obviously, he’ll fit in better with some figures than others, but he’s a nice fit.  In terms of design, he’s based on Peter’s appearance in the Guardians animated series from the last few years.  The show is itself borrowing a lot of its designs from the movies, but the characters are a little more angular and simplistic.  This is another point in favor of compatibility with the older figures, since it means he’s not quite as hyper detailed as more recent figures have become.  Even as an animated sculpt, there’s actually a lot of really sharp detail work, especially on the helmet.  For the price point of this line, I was pleasantly surprised by how clear the details were.  The paintwork is pretty straightforward color work; what’s there is mostly pretty clean, and it’s all pretty bright.  He does look a little washed out to my eyes, but that’s really just a symptom of the design he’s based on.  Peter is packed with his two element guns.  They’re pretty well sculpted, but completely un-painted.  Also, they aren’t compatible with his sculpted holsters in the slightest bit, which is rather perplexing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really kept meaning to pick this guy up to give the line a try.  I saw him so many times in the store and came so close to buying him, but just never did.  What finally got me to crack was finding him on clearance at Barnes & Noble and also having a gift card, meaning he cost me nothing.  Honestly, at full price, I still would have been very happy with this figure.  Obviously, he’s not on par with a Marvel Legend or anything, but as I noted, he’s a great fit with the old TB stuff, and just a pretty fun figure in general.  This is the style of figure that got me into collecting, and I’m happy to see it back!

#1357: Kit Fisto

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

KIT FISTO

STAR WARS HERO MASHERS

Hey, look guys!  A Mashers review.  I haven’t done one of these in a good long while.  It’s probably got something to do with me not actually being that into the line, or, more likely, it’s that the whole concept appears to have been abandoned by Hasbro.  That’s a good way of getting me to stop buying something.  Well, in theory.  Less in practice, as you can see, since I still got another one.  Without further ado, here’s Kit Fisto!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kit Fisto was part of the first series of the basic line of Star Wars Hero Mashers…which is a little strange, when you consider that this series was released to coincide with all the Force Awakens stuff, and Fisto was barely even relevant during the trilogy that he was actually a part of, but whatever.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 18 points of articulation.  As with all the Mashers, Kit Fisto’s been stylized a bit.  He’s a little bit less removed from the source, since it appears they followed the design from the 3-D Clone Wars show more than his live-action look.  I have no issues with this, since I’ve always found the animated look to be the superior design.  Anyway, he’s been made extra angular and chunky, which I think works very well for a more alien design such as Kit.  I really dig the open-palmed hand for the left hand; it’s a nice change when compared to the other figures.  Just like every other Mashers release, Kit can be disassembled at the neck, elbows, hips, and knees, allowing for swapping with other figures in the line.  Still can’t say I completely understand the concept in general, but there it is.  He’s also got an assortment of ports and the like, allowing for various accessories to be plugged in, though Kit himself doesn’t include any real parts to do this with.  He does include his lightsaber, which is a pretty awesome piece itself.  On the paint front, Kit’s fairly decent. Not the most exciting color scheme in the world, but it’s clean, and fairly accurate to the character.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Why’d you get another Mashers figure, Ethan?  Why’d you do it?  You keep complaining about them, so why do you keep getting more?  In this case?  Price.  Super Awesome Girlfriend and I found him on clearance for like $2 at a Walgreens.  I’ve always had a soft spot for Kit Fisto, so I figured why not, right?  Honestly, he’s one of the best Mashers I’ve gotten, right up there with the basic Vader.

#1356: Kingpin

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

KINGPIN

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“The colossal overlord of the underworld, the Kingpin has his dirty hands in almost every criminal enterprise on the East coast. His enemies often mistake his massive girth for flab – it is, in fact, over three hundred pounds of solid muscle!”

What’s this?  Kingpin in a Spider-Man line?  What?  It’s almost as if he was originally a Spider-Man villain or something.  Yes, before becoming the big (in every sense of the word) bad for Marvel’s resident horn-head, Wilson Fisk began life as a foe to everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood arachnid.  So they put him in the ‘90s cartoon, and that meant he got his first action figure!  Let’s have a look at him!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kingpin was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series line from the ‘90s. The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall (he’s a bit taller than the average figure from the line), and he has a whole 3 points of articulation.  Woooooo.  This guy had an all-new sculpt, based on his show appearance, which was also his standard look in the comics for a very long while.  It’s certainly a unique sculpt; it’s almost as wide as it is tall.  No doubt the cut articulation was to help ensure he’d cost the same as the others in the line.  The quality of the sculpt is fairly decent, but not without a few issues.  The head is way on the small side, or perhaps the shoulders and arms are in the large side.  Either way, the proportions are off.  In addition to that, he’s wearing the wrong style of jacket for animated Kingpin; it should be double breasted, but it isn’t.  Beyond that, it’s actually pretty decent.  The head definitely captures Fisk well, and his overall size is definitely impressive.  The paintwork on Kingpin is fairly good work.  The colors are all appropriate to the character and the application is all nice and clean.  Kingpin is packed with a diamond topped cane, which can be placed in either hand.  He also has a “crushing” action feature.  His arms can be pulled upwards and clipped into place; when the lever on his back is pulled, they swing down.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Kingpin is another more recent addition to my collection. Like a few others I’ve looked at recently, he came into my collection courtesy of the supremely cool Bobakhan Toys & Collectibles.  More specifically, he’s a Super Awesome Girlfriend purchase.  Honestly, he’s not a character I was ever dying to track down, and the figure’s just so-so, but I’m still happy to have added him to the collection!

The Blaster In Question #0014: Spider-Man Rapid Reload Blaster

Posted by Tim Marron in Nerf Reviews and tagged with ,

RAPID-RELOAD BLASTER

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

Spider-gun, spider-gun, radioactive spider-gun. Ok, so it’s not radioactive, and the proper term is blaster, but it is indeed a Spider-Man blaster. Nerf and Hasbro in general have had several iterations over the years with varying mechanics and degrees of commercial success. Given the recent release of the Spider-Man: Homecoming film, I thought it was appropriate to review the tie-in Rapid-Reload Blaster, so let’s get right into it.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

The Spider-Man: Homecoming Rapid-Reload Blaster was released in summer of 2017 to coincide with the July release of the movie. The exterior of the blaster is completely original and deco’d up to look like a part of Spider-Man’s costume, complete with straps for mounting to the user’s wrist. The internal mechanics are a mix of old and new, using a smart AR system arranged in a unique setup. The actual barrels that hold the darts are part of the detachable 3-round clips that let you reload quickly from the included clip holster, hence the name. The priming slide serves two purposes, first being to prime the blaster, obviously. It should be noted that the priming pull is very short, but I’ll get back to that in a bit. The slide also functions as the ejector for the clips by pushing it towards the front of the blaster. The blaster is one of the chunkier Spider-Man blasters I’m aware of, given the complexity of the internal mechanisms. The barrels protrude far enough forward that they cover the user’s palm, making grasping anything else while wearing the blaster clumsy and practically impossible for larger objects. This eliminates the use of this as a tactical backup blaster for Nerf wars and such, which was a popular use of the previous model of Spider-Man and Venom themed blasters. The rapid reload feature, while novel, doesn’t work quite as smoothly as I might like. The idea of jamming the blaster onto the clip holster to load a clip as the instructions suggest falls apart when you realize how much hand-eye coordination it must take to accomplish that effectively. As I mentioned earlier, the priming pull is exceptionally short, and fairly light, which means performance from the blaster is mediocre at best, and laughable at worst. Clunky form factor, awkward loading, and disappointing performance, that leaves just one thing left to consider. While this was clearly not designed as a competitive, performance driven blaster, it works quite well as a playing pretend kind of toy. Sure, you’re not gonna be sniping people from 50 feet, but you can still bust into your siblings’ rooms pretending to be Spider-Man and give them a sound pestering. I think that should be the main use of a blaster like this. All that matters is that it shoots something. The Spider-Man: Homecoming Rapid-Reload Blaster comes packaged with a clip holster, 2 3-round clips, and 6 funky Spider-Man darts, which even feature uniquely molded dart tips.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

You may have gathered that this isn’t my favorite blaster out there. It has plenty of issues, but that’s not to say I hate it either. It still has a decent potential for fun, just as long as you know exactly what type of play the blaster is suited for. Once I found that out, I began enjoying it a good deal more. Can it swing from a web? I don’t know. That’s a really odd question to ask. You’re weird for asking it. If I had to guess, though, probably not.

 

#1355: Captain Keith

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

CAPTAIN KEITH – STEALTH VOLTRON FORCE

VOLTRON: THE THIRD DIMENSION (TRENDMASTERS)

“Strength, lion-like reflexes, the cool confidence of a leader.  These are the qualities that propelled Keith to the helm of the Voltron Force – the most ferocious fighting force in the universe.  Sitting within the head of Voltron, Keith boldly dispatches commands to his team – commands that shred Robeasts, blast space pirates, and light up the universe with firepower!”

Today, I’m reviewing this here Voltron figure.  This here Voltron figure was very hard to prove the existence of, by the way.  Apparently, I’m the only person on the planet who owns this figure.  Or, at the very least one of the only two people who have both this figure *and* an internet connection.  Maybe we were all supposed to chose one or the other and I just showed up late that day?  I don’t know.  Anyway, without further ado, here’s Captain Keith!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain Keith was released as part of Trendmasters’ tie-in line for Voltron: The Third Dimension, the CGI relaunch of Voltron from the ’90s.  This particular figure was part of the “Stealth Voltron Force” sub-set of the line, from around 1999 or so.  The figure was available both with the Black Stealth Cycle and on his own.  Going by what I’ve seen on line, the single release is a lot rarer, but that’s the one I have.  So there.  The figure stands about 4 1/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  His sculpt was largely unique to him, though he shares his head with the regular Keith, which is fair enough.  The sculpt doesn’t really look much like the character from the show, but that’s okay.  The show designs were…less than stellar.  Not that this figure’s anything amazing himself.  This guy’s sculpt feels rather on the clunky side for something of this vintage.  The proportions are really odd: he’s, like, 93% legs, his head’s super small, and his hands are only vaguely hand-like.  He’s also rather on the stiff side in terms of stance, but also has this weird, partial squat thing going on.  And, to top it off, most of the articulation isn’t worked into the sculpt at all, which definitely looks wonky.  On the plus side, there’s some nice work on the head, especially on the face, which looks nice and determined.  One of the cooler things about this particular set of figures was the paint; the armored sections are all vac-metallized.  Why the “stealth” variants were made extra shiny is beyond me, but the end result certainly looks cool.  The only downside is that the process makes his paint more prone to chipping, but it’s far from the worst case of this I’ve run into.  Keith is packed with a giant missile-launching cannon and a removable helmet, which are both pretty fun extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve never seen an actual episode of Voltron: The Third Dimension, but I did catch the original show while it was still in syndication, which meant I was very much familiar with the characters.  Of course, the only toys around were these ones from Third Dimension, so this was the best I was gonna do.  I’m not 100% why I got Keith (since I never got any of the others), but I recall really wanting him and being very excited when I finally got him.  He’s not the greatest figure out there, and is in fact quite deeply flawed, but he’s entertaining enough, I suppose.

#1354: Mary Jane Watson

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

MARY JANE WATSON

MARVEL FAMOUS COUPLES (TOY BIZ)

Hey, so Spider-Man: Homecoming is out today.  That’s pretty cool.  I mean, it’s not a super rare occurrence in this day and age, what with this being the sixth Spider-Man flick in less than 20 years (and the second reboot in five years).  Still, this one looks like it should actually be pretty good, which puts it above the last two movies in my eyes.  Anyway, in honor of the film, I’ll be looking at long-time Spider-Man recurring character, who may be his funky and fun female friend, his girlfriend, his wife, or his awkward ex via deal with the actual devil.  Yes, it’s Mary Jane Watson!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mary Jane was released in a two-pack with a Spider-Man variant as part of Toy Biz’s Marvel Famous Couples line.  It’s not a huge shock, since the odds of getting a Mary Jane in plain clothes sold on her own would be far from a solid business plan.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation (albeit with limited motion on the neck joint).  She’s patterned on her design from the ‘90s animated series, which is certainly a solid look, and more importantly, it’s a look that was fairly easy to pull off with completely re-used parts.  Yep, Mary Jane is head-to-toe a re-use of the Series 2 version of Fantastic Four’s Invisible Woman.  The sculpt works surprisingly well for this design, and it’s also more unique than a lot of re-paints, since the original figure was all clear.  The hair’s not right for MJ, but you take what you can get, I guess.  The heavy work here is being carried by the paint work, which does its very best to turn Sue’s spandex costume into a sweater and jeans combo.  It actually works out pretty well, since MJ’s outfit was usually depicted as rather formfitting both on the cartoon and in the comics.  The only really unconvincing part is the boots, which are just painted on, and therefore look a little goofy.  Still, the paint is very bright, pretty clean, and largely very convincing when it comes to making her look like MJ instead of Sue.  Mary Jane included no accessories, unless of course, you count the included Spider-Man.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I saw this set a number of times growing up, but I wasn’t enough of a Spider-Man fan at the time to get the pair.  Since then, it’s never been super easy to find, so I just never got one.  Mary Jane was another figure from Pop Culture Exchange in Omaha.  She was loose and by herself, which is fine by me, since I have plenty of Spider-Men.  She’s not anything amazing or spectacular, or even sensational, but she’s decent enough, and she’s an important enough player that I feel my collection would be incomplete without her.