Yearly Archives: 2017

#1232: Son of Batman

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

SON OF BATMAN

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

Two Mattel figures in a row?  Uh oh, this can’t be good.  Nah, it’s okay guys, things aren’t ugly (just wait until next week, though; oh boy).  Today, let’s have another look at Mattel’s DC Comics Multiverse line.  It’s been a real mixed bag, to be sure.  It started more than a little rocky, and has been the subject of a lot of changes, the most prominent of them being a jump from 3 3/4-inch scale to 6-inch.  The 6-inch line spent most of its inaugural year devoted to the lackluster Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad lines, but there were some slightly less sucky items in there.  For me, the best stuff was definitely released in the Dark Knight Returns 30th Anniversary sub-set of the line, which more or less returned back to the DC Universe Classic days.  Today, I’ll be looking at another figure from that set, the Son of Batman!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Son of Batman was part of the three-figure Batman: The Dark Knight Returns series of the DC Comics Multiverse line, which was exclusive to Walmart.  For those not familiar with the story, the Son of Batman isn’t one particular character, but rather one member of the larger Sons of Batman gang, which is formed from the remnants of the Mutant Gang after the Mutant Leader is taken out by Batman.  There are quite a few of them, and they don’t have a completely uniform look, but this one more or less checks all the basic boxes, and can suitably pass for just about any of the members.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  While the majority of the Dark Knight Returns figures were built on a variant of the Masters of the Universe Classics body, the S.O.B. (clever, right?) breaks from the back, making use of the medium-sized DCUC body.  Specifically, he uses the body of the Green Lantern Corps boxed set Guy Gardner figure, along with an all-new head and forearms.  While the DCUC bodies were alright for their time, at the time of this figure’s release, the pieces were eight years old, and very much showing their age.  This is most evident in the articulation, which, in addition to not being very well worked into the sculpt, is also not privy to the best range of motion.  The knees can’t quite make a 90 degree angle, and the elbows barely even make it to 45.  This is kind of ridiculous for a collector-aimed figure from 2016.  Also, some parts of the mold, the hands especially, are showing some serious degradation from over-use.  Those things aside, the body is hardly the worst thing ever, and at least he fits in with the older line, I guess.  As for the decision to re-use the Guy Gardner pieces, they work alright I guess, and he does bear a passing resemblance to the basic S.O.B. look.  There are some inaccuracies (the big belt being the most glaring, but the turtleneck is wrong too), but it’s pretty much a certainty that this figure only got made because of the limited number of new pieces required, so it was slightly off or nothing.  The new pieces are pretty basic stuff, but reasonable enough.  They match up with the pre-existing parts, and the head still retains a little of the Miller flair (albeit a more cleaned up version).  As far as paint, the S.O.B. is pretty basic.  Mostly, he’s molded in the appropriate colors, with some very moderate solid color application here and there.  There’s no real accent work to speak of, and the only paint of note is on the eyes and bat tattoo on the face, which is, admittedly pretty sharp work.  The S.O.B. is packed with a rifle and a torch.  They’re decent enough pieces (aside from the giant “CHINA” stamped into the side of each of them; seriously Mattel, you don’t have to label every single piece; we can figure it out on our own), though he can’t actually hold the rifle the right way, since it was outside of the budget to give him new hands, I guess.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I’ve noted in several of the prior anniversary figure reviews, I’m at best a moderate fan of DKR.  So, the Son of Batman wasn’t incredibly high on my list.  On top of that, he was the short pack of the exclusive assortment, and an army builder to boot, so I didn’t exactly have much cause to run into him.  When I moved down to SC, the closest Walmart actually had one, which I picked up and looked at several times, over the course of several months.  Eventually, I found him moved over to the clearance section, with a tag that read $5.00.  For a quarter of the price, I figured he was worth it.  And honestly, yeah, he’s worth it.  Full price?  That’s iffy.  The fact is, this guy’s made from parts that are at least five years out of date, and for the same price, you could get a Marvel Legends or Black Series figure from Hasbro, or one of the Aliens or Predator figures from NECA, and those offer a much better value.  Still, he’s worth what I paid for him, and that’s good enough for me.

#1231: Baron Zemo

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

BARON ZEMO

MARVEL SUPER HEROES: SECRET WARS (MATTEL)

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Mattel’s Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars is a strange beast.  It’s one of the earliest examples of true cross-media promotion when it came to action figures and comics, since Marvel essentially created a giant cross-over event out of whole cloth simply to give Mattel a slightly easier time of marketing the toys.  But then, Mattel, being Mattel, went and made some really odd choices.  Despite Marvel purposely filling the comic with many of their heaviest hitting heroes and villains, and wrapping them in a neat and tidy package with a bow, Mattel’s character choices for the series are beyond odd.  Sure, there are the clear hits like Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man and Wolverine, but Marvel mainstays like the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk were absent, while many minor and in some cases rather recent additions to the Marvel ‘verse were released, despite playing no part in the actual comic Mattel specifically requested to have as a tie-in.  One such character was Baron Helmut Zemo.  The character was not a part of the Secret Wars event, and though he had appeared back in 1973, he had only taken on the Baron Zemo identity seen here in ’82, just two years prior to this figure’s release.  He wouldn’t even truly become a major player in the Marvel universe until three years later, during The Avengers “Under Siege” story arc.  An odd choice.  Still, he got the figure, and now, 33 years later, it feels a little less odd to have a Zemo figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

zemosw2Baron Zemo was released in the second series of the Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars line.  As noted above and like everyone else in the series (barring the Black Costumed Spider-Man), he played no part in the Secret Wars maxi-series.  Interestingly, though this figure is clearly meant to be Helmut, the second Baron Zemo, and the back of the package lists his identity as such, the short comic on the back of the box presents a Zemo that far more resembles Heinrich, Helmut’s father.  This was hardly the only discrepancy of this nature in this line, of course.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation.  Unlike Daredevil and Spider-Man, who’s presence in this line-up seems to have mostly been due to the low number of new parts needed, Zemo actually got an impressive selection of new parts.  The torso is the same basic piece seen on several of the other figures I’ve looked at, but the arms, legs, head, and belt add-on were all unique to this figure.  The new pieces of course are all still victim to the very simplistic style of this line, but Zemo looks passable enough.  There’s some mild texturing on the fur bits, and the folds on the sleeves are rather believable.  The head looks to just bee a slightly re-worked Spider-Man head, but that’s actually not an unfair re-tooling.  A basic masked head is a basic masked head.  In terms of paintwork, I suppose Mattel can have points for effort on this guy, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go.  The colors are okay, but the contrast between the mask and the jumpsuit is not as drastic as it should be.  There’s quite a bit of slot, and fuzzy lines all over the place.  Similar to what we saw on Daredevil, the black detail lines seem to start and stop wherever they please, with little regard to aesthetics.  His neck, for instance, has no details, making for a jarring break from the face and the shoulders.  Likewise, the lines have a clear break above his headpiece, which has the unintended effect of making him look like he’s got a bit of a receding hairline.  For accessories, Zemo was given one of the blasters included with Dr. Doom, as well as, what else, a goofy lenticular shield, like the ones included with every other figure in the line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

You know how I keep claiming I never intended to really collect this line?  I think I’ve officially lost the battle, because this is the first figure I’ve bought with no real rationalization.  I got Iron Man because it was the only way to get the classic armor at the time.  Wolverine was $1.  Cap was because I like the character, and wanted him to go with Tony.  Doom and Kang were cheap.  Daredevil and Spider-Man were gifts.  Zemo?  I bought Zemo because I wanted to buy Zemo.  I picked him up from Yesterday’s Fun during the holiday season.  He’s the most I’ve ever personally spent on a Secret Wars figure (which, to be fair, was still a lot less than I’ve paid for most of my Super Powers figures).  Zemo’s what I’ve come to expect from this line: a slightly sub-par figure with a disproportionate amount of charm.  The average collector might not get a lot out of him, but to a hardcore collector like myself, there’s some nice history. 

#1230: Hulkbuster Iron Man

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

HULKBUSTER IRON MAN

MARVEL MINIMATES

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One of the cool things about Iron Man (and one of the most toyline-friendly things about Iron Man, as well) is the ability for creators to come up with story or mission-specific armors to suit whatever needs they had.  In the ‘90s, this came to a head with the Modular Armor (probably my personal favorite Iron Man armor), which was by design meant to allow for customization via armor add-ons.  While many of the derivations of the Modular Armor were rather short-lived, the Hulkbuster armor (first debuting in Iron Man #304) was a favorite of just about everyone.  Since it’s introduction in the ‘90s, there have been  no less than three updates to the design, and it’s made its way into just about every Iron Man toyline, and most forms of media.  So far, it’s made four appearances as a Minimate, and today I’ll be taking a look at the first of those.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

hulkbusterimmate2Hulkbuster Iron Man was released in the seventh TRU-exclusive series of Marvel Minimates, as part of a two-pack with Gamma Hulk.  The set was timed to coincide with the release of Series 36 of the specialty line, which was a comic-based assortment, itself designed to tie-in with the release of Iron Man 2 that summer.  The figure is built on the standard ‘mate body, but with the add-ons, he comes close to 3 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  The armor is based on the second iteration of the Hulkbuster, from around the time of the “Extremis” arc, which is a popular choice for Hulbuster figures (and it was the one DST chose for their Marvel Select Hulkbuster as well).  It’s not my favorite Hulkbuster design, but it’s far from a bad one, and it was still more or less current at the time of the ‘mate’s release.  The figure uses add-ons for the helmet/torso, pelvis, hands, thighs, and boots.  All of these pieces were new to this particular figure, but they’ve been privy to reuse in subsequent years.  The best work is definitely in the hands and feet, which are pitch-perfect recreations of the comic design, and exhibit some really great mechanical detailing.  The rest of the pieces are pretty decent too, and I quite like the flip-up helmet piece on the torso.  Of course, it’s at the cost of some of the detail on the faceplate, but it’s not an awful amount of loss.  The paintwork on the figure is passable; it’s from just after the move to make most Iron Man ‘mates all metallic, which means there were still some lessons to be learned.  Namely, the gold is the sort of paint that doesn’t hold up very well to the test of time, which is why my figure looks really worn down.  Still, the red’s pretty nice, and the finish is really clean (also, while the boots look like a different color in the photos, they don’t look that way in person).  Under the torso armor, ther’s a fully detailed torso and head, made up to look like the Extremis armor, which is a pretty cool touch. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Hulkbuster (and his pack ‘mate) was the last set of Minimates I ever bought from what was my local Toys R Us growing up.  I happened to stop in on my way home from work, and found the set.  It was only upon the cashier ringing the set up and applying a discount and sharpie-ing an “x” across the UPC that I realized the store was in the midst of closing down. It was kind of a sobering concept.  Of course, a month after they closed, another TRU opened right across the street, so it was something of an exercise in futility, so whatever.  I ended up giving the Gamma Hulk to my brother (since he’s a big Hulk fan), and keeping this guy for myself.  He hasn’t perhaps aged the best, but he was a pretty cool ‘mate for the time, and is still a solid ‘mate overall.

#1229: Bane – Detective Mode

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

BANE – DETECTIVE MODE

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

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Hey look, another DC Comics Multiverse figure.  These figures are always sooooooooooo great, right?  While the line switched over to the 6-inch scale last year, there are still quite a few entries from its earlier, 3 3/4-inch scale, based primarily on Arkham Origins and Arkham Knight.  I watched my brother play through Knight, so I’m familiar with that one, but I don’t really know Origins all that well.  Amusingly enough, I actually own more Origins merch than any of the other games.  There were just a lot of toys from that one, I guess.  Anyway, I’ll be looking at one of the smaller Origins figures, Bane.  Of course, it’s not a basic Bane.  No, no, this is a wacky variant Bane.  Let’s do this.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

banedetvis2Detective Mode Bane was released in Mattel’s small-scale DC Comics Multiverse line.  I couldn’t begin to tell you what series.  I didn’t follow the line super closely, and from what I can tell online, no one else did either.  The back of his box shows Arkham Knight, Arkham Origin Joker, and some sort of Batman derivation.  I’m guessing he hit around the time of Arkham Knight’s release?  The figure stands a little over four inches tall and he has 16 points of articulation.  He’s built on the same mold as the standard Arkham Origin Bane figure.  It’s okay, I guess.  Not the worst thing Mattel’s put out.  I guess he sort of looks like Bane from the game.  It’s hardly the most exciting Bane look, and the figure suffers from the same clumsy articulation issues that plagued pretty much this entire line.  The paint’s what makes this figure “unique.”  As his name denotes, he’s based on how Bane looks when he’s viewed by the player using Batman’s Detective Vision in the game.  In the game, this means the foes are seen through an x-ray filter, showing off their skeletons and what not.  For the figure, it means he’s molded in clear blue plastic, with a skeleton pattern hastily painted on the front of the figure.  He ends up looking like one of the Skeleton Men from Scooby Doo, Where Are You?.  I don’t think that was quite what they were going for, but that’s what they got.  An x-ray figure is really the sort of thing you have to fully commit to, not just a quick repaint  (for instance, every “Emperor’s Wrath” Darth Vader has at the very least an actual skull imbedded in the middle of his helmet), so this ends up looking more like a guy wearing goofy makeup than anything else.  Bane included no accessories, because why offer anything new with this figure, right?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the Knightfall Batman I reviewed two weeks ago, this guy was another figure given to me by my Super Awesome Girlfriend, picked up during one of her stress buys.  The fact that he was a gift from her is probably the best that can be said about him.  I mean, I’ve still owned worse figures, but this one’s not offering a whole lot of positives.  The gimmick is cool in theory, but as usual, Mattel was lazy about it, and that makes him kind of a pointless figure.  I can’t really imagine what the market for this figure is supposed to be.  People who like failed concepts?

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0006: Ultron

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

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Alright, it’s time for another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Today’s figure is another Toy Biz Marvel entry, though this one’s from a bit later in the reviews.  Let’s have a second look at Avengers: United They Stand’s Ultron!

Ah, yes, Avengers: United They Stand.  Poor A:UTS. it gets a lot of hate and I’m not certain it deserves it.  Perhaps it wasn’t the greatest depiction of the Avengers to grace the small screen(That honor goes to the more recent Earth’s Mightiest Heroes), but I didn’t think it was all that bad.  The designs and animation may be late 90s over complication at its finest, but I thought the characterization was actually nicely done, and I loved the fact that the focus was on the slightly lesser known Avengers instead of Cap, Iron Man, and Thor.  One of my other favorite things was the tie-in toyline, which is what I’ll look at today.  In particular, the toy counterpart of the shows recurring antagonist: Ultron!  This isn’t the first time Ultron’s been mentioned on this blog.  I previously mentioned him in passing in my Vision review, where I mentioned Ultron was the creator of Vision.  Ultron himself was the creation of Avengers founding member Hank Pym, aka Ant-Man, aka Giant-Man, aka Goliath, aka Yellow Jacket, aka Wasp, aka Dude with serious identity issues!  Ultron rebelled on his creator and became a powerful Avengers foe.  He’s also set to be the villain in the upcoming Avengers sequel.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultron was released as part of the first wave of Toy Biz’s Avengers:United They Stand tie-in line.  Ultron had several different looks over the course of the show, but this one seems to be a bit of an amalgam of the various looks, with the largest portion of influence coming from his appearance in the show’s first two episodes.   He stands just over 5 inches tall, and features 11 points of articulation (13 if you count the moving knee-pads).  Ultron is a completely new sculpt.  It’s well done, and quite detailed, especially for its time of release.  In particular, the head really captures the look of the character.  The paint is pretty well done, being mostly all one color; a nice bluish silver.  There’s a wash over the whole figure to help bring out the details.  The figure also features a light-up feature.  By pressing the button on Ultron’s waist, you could make the figure’s eyes and mouth light up.  It’s a neat feature that helps to further simulate the look of the character from the show and comics.  At one point, Ultron had a large cannon that hooked onto his right arm, but I’ve since lost that piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My dad bought Ultron for me when he was initially released.  We happened to stop at a Toys R Us and there he was.  He was one of the last figures I acquired from the line.  It wasn’t because I didn’t want one, but because the A:UTS figures were quite difficult to find initially, so I kind of got them when I saw them.  Growing up, he was the closest thing I had to a classic Ultron.  Because of that, I have quite the soft spot for him.

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere!  This review is from my second month writing reviews, and you can start to see some of the regular review features coming into play.  Height, articulation and paint are all actually addressed this time.  And I even made it past 500 words!  Granted, most of it was the intro, but still.  Also, this is my first Flashback to a post-random review period. Cool.  Cool cool cool.

My actual review was pretty on point for this guy.  The only thing missing was his big ol’ arm cannon, which was amongst the many items excavated during The Find.  It’s goofy, but also manages to match pretty well with the rest of the figure stylistically, and, amazingly, it doesn’t impede his movement when attached (of course, the shoulder’s still a bit restricted thanks to the wiring that allows it to light up).  Also, I neglected to mention in my original review that Ultra’s sculpt, was an early product of the fine folks at Art Asylum, who would later launch one of the best Trek lines ever put into plastic, as well as creating my favorite brand of all time, Minimates.

I’ve actually got a story about this one! As a kid, I lost this figure around Christmas time and couldn’t locate him for a whole year.  Come the next Christmas, I put on my robe I wore one a year on Christmas morning and found this guy in the pocket.  Seems I’d stowed him there for safekeeping the prior year and total forgotten.  To date, this figure remains my favorite figure of Ultron, so I’m happy he wasn’t missing for too long!

#1228: Squirrel Girl & Jet-Pack Spider-Man

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

SQUIRREL GIRL & JET-PACK SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL MINIMATES

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Squirrel Girl?  They made a Squirrel Girl?  Like, for real?  That’s awesome!  Now, for those of you wondering “who’s Squirrel Girl?,” let me ‘splain: Squirrel Girl is a minor character from the ‘90s, created by Will Murray and Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko.  In her very first appearance, she teamed up with Iron Man to defeat Dr. Doom.  Defeating Doom gave her something of a jokingly legendary status in the comics, and over the years, there was a running gag where she would reference beating some other infamous foe off-screen.  She was eventually added to the Great Lakes Avengers during Dan Slott’s mini-series in the mid-00s, which kind of cemented her status as a fan-favorite.  Since then, she’s bobbed around in the background of the Marvel universe, before eventually picking up her own series in 2014.  More recently, she’s cropped up in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, which has netted her a Minimate, half the subject of today’s review!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Squirrel Girl and Jet-Pack Spider-Man are part of Series 3 of Walgreens’ exclusive line of Marvel Minimates.  Due to the slightly odd numbering scheme of the Walgreens assortments, this actually makes it the fifth series released, but whatever.  Squirrel Girl was granted her spot in this set thanks to an online fan poll, of which she and Man-Thing were the winners.  Spider-Man was granted his spot because he’s Spider-Man.  He does what he wants.  Both figures in this set are based on their appearances in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon.

SQUIRREL GIRL

spideysquirrelgirl2This marks not only Squirrel Girl’s debut as a Minimate,  but also as an action figure in general.  As noted above, the figure is based on her animated design, which is itself a pretty straight adaptation of her comic design from GLA until around the time of her solo series.  It’s a pretty classic look, following all of the various comic book super hero conventions.  The figure is built on the standard Minimate body, with add-ons for her hair and her belt/tail.  Both add-on pieces look to be new to this particular figure, and they suit the character pretty well.  Some characters look a little lacking on the animated-style ‘mates, but I think Squirrel Girl is one of those that actually fits with the style a bit more.  It helps that her paintwork is really sharp.  The colors are remarkably vibrant for just being grey and brown, and all of the detail lines are really crisp.  She’s sporting a somewhat goofy grin, which is really the only expression a Squirrel Girl figure should ever have.  I also appreciate the shading, especially on the torso, which helps keep her from looking too blocky (I mean, yeah, she’s a block figure, but still…).  She’s missing a few of the seams on her arms and legs, but those are minor enough details that I don’t feel it really holds the figure back.  I’d chalk it up to simplifying the design for translation to the ‘mate aesthetic.  Squirrel Girl is packed with her three squirrels (Monkey Joe, Tippy Toe, and Mr. Lieberman.  Monkey Joe and Tippy Toe are from the comics, but it looks like Mr. Lieberman was added to bring the total up to three, for whatever reason), as well as a pair of burritos (apparently from an episode of the show), and a clear display stand.  The stand is more essential here than usual, thanks to the tail making it virtually impossible to keep her standing on her own. 

JET-PACK SPIDER-MAN

spideysquirrelgirl3So far, every Ultimate Spider-Man pack has has its requisite Spider-variant, and this set’s no exception.  You can sort of see them starting to reach with this one.  He’s pretty much just a basic Spider-Man, but with an extra accessory.  I suppose there have been worse variants.  The figure is built on the standard body, with the addition of the aforementioned jet-pack, which is an add-on piece.  The actual pack is the same one used for both Hope Summers and the Age of Ultron Nick Fury, but the straps are new to this particular figure.  I liked the jet-pack the first time I reviewed it, and it’s still pretty cool here, and the new straps actually make it nicely versatile.  The rest of the details are handled via paint, which is pretty decent overall.  He’s still exhibiting the slight bleed through issue on his eyes, which has been present on most of the recent Spider-Men.  That’s a bit annoying, but it’s less present here than on some of the other examples.  The rest of the paint is pretty clean, and replicates the look from the show, so I guess that’s pretty good.  Spider-Man was packed with a blast-off base that plugs into the jet-pack, a thumbs up hand (re-used from Buddy Christ), an extra surprised head, and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve not had much luck finding these sets at any of the local Walgreens, so I had to call on the help of my family to track them down for me.  My dad ended up finding this set for me a few weeks ago, which was very nice of him.  The Spider-Man I can kind of take or leave, but I’m really enthused to have a Squirrel Girl finally.  She’s definitely worth the cost of the set!

#1227: Red Space Ranger

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

RED SPACE RANGER

POWER RANGERS: LEGACY (BANDAI)

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When most people think “Power Rangers,” they think of the Mighty Morphin’ incarnation, which launched the show.  That’s pretty fair, as it’s by far the most distinctive, and represents the franchise at its highest point in terms of popularity.  I was born in ’92, so, while I still remember a little of Mighty Morphin’s original run, it’s not what I consider *my* Power Rangers.  That would be the show’s fourth incarnation, Power Rangers In Space, which is actually pretty well-regarded in the community, and is widely considered the season that saved the show, following the less than stellar performance of Turbo.  Unfortunately, nowadays, there’s very little product for any Power Rangers that aren’t either the current incarnation or the Mighty Morphin’ Rangers, meaning I’m mostly reliant on my old figures from the show’s original run.  I’d love some Figuarts, but those are little more than a dream.  Lucky for me, Bandai America is offering the next best thing, courtesy of their Legacy line.  I picked up Andros, the Red Space Ranger, which I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

redspacerangerlegacy2The Red Ranger is part of the second series of Power Rangers: Legacy.  He’s one of the two In Space Rangers included in this set, with the other three figures hailing from Mighty Morphin’ (the  rest of the main In Space Rangers are in Series 3, and the Silver Ranger is as of yet unannounced).  Though the line has been touted as being about 6-inch scale and the figures are clearly designed to mimic Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, the Red Ranger stands 7 inches tall, placing these figures more in scale with the Masters of the Universe Classics or something from NECA.  There’s no commingling with the Figuarts Rangers, that’s for sure.  The figure sports 36 points of articulation, which is certainly an impressive count.  The movement on the joints isn’t terrible, but there are some slight oddities on a few of the joints, which means it can take a fair bit of careful posing to make sure he doesn’t look a little mangled.  Still, it’s a pretty major step-up from the last Banda America Ranger I looked at.  In terms of sculpt, the US Rangers figures have always skewed the proportions a bit more to the side of super-heroic.  This guy does some of that, but reigns it in a bit, resulting in a final product that is somewhere between the old figures and the actors in the suits.  I don’t mind the look, and it’s consistent with all the others from the line so far.  The sculpt is of varying quality.  The helmet is by far the best work on the figure, and it’s a pretty much pitch-perfect recreation of the helmet from the show.  The redspacerangerlegacy4body is decent, but the articulation sticks out more than a little bit, especially on the hips and shoulders.  The shoulders in particular feel like they’re set too far out from the torso, as if they got the length of the pegs off or something.  Also, it would appear that the forearms have been reversed, which makes them look rather strange.  By and large, he’s pretty solid, but there’s still some of that Bandai America flavor of “why would you do this?”  In terms of paint, the Red Ranger is pretty straight forward.  Everything is pretty basic color work; all the lines are nice and crisp and the colors are pretty much on point.  For extras, Andros includes his trusty Galaxy Blaster, as well as the torso and head of the In Space Megazord.  Bandai’s doing something slightly different with these figures and only packing corresponding Zord pieces with each Ranger (i.e. the Mighty Morphin’ Zord is only packed with those Rangers and so forth), meaning each Zord is spread over a minimum of two series. Time will tell how this works out for them, but the fandom seems rather split.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I caught the first series of this line several times, but I don’t really have any attachment to Ninja Storm and I’ve already invested in the Figuarts versions of the original team, so I passed.  As soon as I learned the In Space figures would be part of the Series 2 line-up, I started looking out for this guy.  He seems to have been the hottest figure in the set, at least initially.  I finally tracked him down at my closest Toys R Us, back in January.  Ultimately, the figure’s okay.  I can’t say he’s fantastic, but he’s better than the usual Bandai America product.  I’m holding out to hear if there’s going to be a Silver Ranger before committing to the rest of the In Space team, but I can see myself picking up the occasional figure from this line (especially the Series 4 Gold Ranger).  If you don’t have the Figuarts stuff, I’d definitely recommend checking this line out.  I think lack of comparison may do these guys some favors.

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#1226: Wonder Woman

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

WONDER WOMAN

DC SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

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No matter how great they may be, pretty much every DC Comics toyline from now until the end of time will always be measured to the standard set by one of the earliest DC lines out there, Kenner’s DC Super Powers.  There’s something about the line that just made for the perfect mix of fun, character, and faithfulness to the comics.  Sure, not every figure in the line was top-grade, but it gave us some of the greatest plastic versions of all of the mainstay members of the Justice League of America.  Perhaps the one major drawback of the line was its notable lack of female characters.  In a line of 34, only one of them was female (though, designs discovered in 2004 show that there were another two planned, had the line continued).  That figure was Wonder Woman, and it’s the figure I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

wonderwomansp2Wonder Woman was released in Series 1 of DC Super Powers.  She was based on Wonder Woman’s then-current Bronze Age era look, as seen in the 1982 DC Style Guide.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation (although her hair restricts most of the movement on the neck joint).  Super Powers is notable in that every figure in the line had their own unique sculpt (which wouldn’t have been the case had the line continued).  Wonder Woman’s sculpt is pretty good, especially for the time.  She’s not as rail-thin as she tended to be portrayed in the comics and Super Friends, but that’s actually not totally out of place for the line, which gave more realistic proportions to most of the figures.  She’s definitely a good depiction of what someone with Diana’s powers should look like, all things considered.   Her costume captures all of the important elements from the comics and while she’s still sporting heels, they look to be a slightly more sensible design than those seen on a lot of female action figures (and she can actually stand!  Hooray!).  There are some slight issues that crop up due to assembly, with the lines on her thighs being one of the more standout issues.  That being said, they actually don’t look quite as bad in person as they do in the photos; you won’t really notice them.  Diana’s paint work is nice, clean, and bright, all the things it should be.  There’s a bit of slop here and there, particularly around the edges of the white parts of the boots.  That being said, the stars on her shorts are impeccably detailed, and done with an amazing consistency, which you likely wouldn’t see these days.  Wonder Woman was originally packed with her lasso of truth, which was really just a bit of golden thread, and easy to lose, so mine didn’t have it when I got her.  Like every Super Powers figure, Wonder Woman has a special “power” of her own.  Her’s is actually one of the more cleaver ones: when you squeeze her legs, both arms raise and cross in front of her face, replicating her oft used maneuver of deflecting bullets with her bracelets.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Wonder Woman comes from right around the mid-point of my Super Powers collecting.  At that point,  it was pretty much an assumed thing that I’d get a pair of Super Powers figures every year for Christmas from my parents.  I’d gotten Green Lantern the year before, so I knew I wanted a Green Arrow to go with him.  As it turns out, the most economical way of getting me GA was to buy me a big lot of figures, which ended up giving my collection quite the jumpstart.  Wonder Woman was amongst those figures, and I have to say, she’s one of those figures that you have to see in person to truly appreciate.  She’s the figure that set the standard for female action figures, and rightfully so.  As someone who started collecting in the ‘90s, a female figure like this was a serious breath of fresh air as a kid, and she remains my favorite Wonder Woman figure to date.

#1225: ODST Romeo

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

ODST ROMEO

HALO HEROES (MEGA BLOKS)

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“Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?”

That’s the question that Juliette and all the other Halo 3: ODST fans have been asking ever since we started getting toys based on the game’s titular team.  McFarlane held the main license at the time, and one by one gave us each member of the team, mixed in with other assortments.  Romeo, the team’s plucky sniper, was slotted to be part of their Halo Universe line, which would be comprised of figures from all of the games, but the line was cancelled rather last-minute, leaving poor Romeo out in the cold.  Fortunately, he’s finally made his way to the toy world, courtesy of our friends over at Mega Bloks.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

romeo2Following the trend started by ODST Buck, ODST Romeo is the resident ODST presence for the second series of Halo Heroes.  The figure stands about 2 inches tall and he has 16 points of articulation.  Like Buck before him, Romeo is really just a slight variation on the standard ODST look, and as such is built on the same basic body as both Buck and the Copper ODST from the Drop Pods series.  That being said, he’s probably the most unique of the ODSTs we meet in the game, so he gets his fair share of newer pieces.  His head has been tweaked to add Romeo’s signature goggles (easily the coolest part of his design), which are comically large, but that’s in keeping with the style of these little guys.  He also sports just a single shoulder pad (allowing him to better hold his sniper rifle), which is a different design than the base ODST shoulder armor used on both prior figures (and the ODST Rookie, which I never got around to reviewing).  As with all the prior figures, the shoulder, torso, and thigh armor is all removable.  The Heroes line is notable for the slightly stepped up paintwork the figures sport.  Romeo features mostly basic color work, but it’s all pretty cleanly applied and it matches up with his in game look.  It also mostly matches Buck and the Rookie for the shared colors, with the only real difference being the color of the visor, which is a more vibrant blue on Romeo than it was on the others.  If I’m honest, I think I like the color they chose for Romeo a bit more, and it’s not like it’s completely implausible that his visor is just a slightly different color than everyone else’s.  Romeo is packed with his sniper rifle (with actual paint ops, like the rest of the Heroes weapons), as well as the same three-piece display stand included with the rest of the Series 2 figures.  I’m not sure I like the orange as much as the blue for the stand, but that’s minor.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The first series of Halo Heroes snuck up on me, but I knew the second series was coming.  While I could take or leave the rest of the assortment, I knew I was getting Romeo.  The guy’s probably my favorite member of the team (and that’s saying something, given that he’s on the same team as characters voiced by Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion), and I was really bummed that his McFarlane figure wasn’t released.  Seems I wasn’t the only one, as Romeo was pretty consistently the first figure to go from cases of Series 2.  I did finally manage to track one down last summer while on vacation with my family, so that was a relief.  I quite like this figure, and I’m happy to have another piece of the team!

#1223: Governor Tarkin & Stormtrooper

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

GOVERNOR TARKIN & STORMTROOPER

STAR WARS: COMIC PACKS (HASBRO)

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Back before they were both owned by the same parent company, the first comic book company to hold the Star Wars license was Marvel Comics.  They had a pretty solid run with the license, going a full decade.  The series started off with a pretty straight adaptation of the events of A New Hope, and then eventually filled in the gaps between movies with some of the earliest Expanded Universe stuff.  When Hasbro started releasing packs based on specific comic stories and issues, the Marvel stuff was right at the forefront, including today’s pair, Governor Tarkin and an Imperial Stormtrooper!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Tarkin and the Stormtrooper were part of the very first series of Star Wars: Comic Packs from Hasbro.  They were pack 03 in the line, and included issue #2 of the Marvel Star Wars comic (albeit with all the Marvel stuff scrubbed off and replaced with Dark Horse, the then current holders of the comic license).

TARKIN

tarkintrooper2This was only Tarkin’s third time in the 3 3/4 inch scale, which is honestly a bit surprising.  In the Marvel adaptations, the colors were rather different from the movie, in order to make some of the designs a bit more comic friendly.  Tarkin and the rest of the Imperial officers were dressed in grey in the film, which was a rather difficult color to replicate with 1970s printing processes.  So, Marvel changed their pallet to something more akin to Hydra, their in-house branch of fascists.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 10 points of articulation.  As far as structure, he’s a pretty straight re-use of the Revenge of the Sith version of Tarkin.  It’s slightly odd, since that’s not actually a Peter Cushing Tarkin sculpt, but it was the most recent Tarkin sculpt at the time, and, by virtue of being meant to emulate a comic version of the character, I guess he’s not really that far off.  The sculpt is a decent enough piece of work.  He’s rather cartoony, which ends up working a bit better for this particular figure than it did the originator of the sculpt.  There’s not much in the way of posability, but Tarkin was never a super mobile sort of dude, so I guess that’s okay.  The paint work is okay in some spots (mainly on the head), but really bad in some others (mainly anything that’s yellow).  Seriously, I’ve painted customs that looked more professional than this.  Maybe the yellow’s so off because it’s not actually following any sculpted lines?  Tarkin was packed with a standard Stormtrooper short blaster, which is better than nothing, I suppose.

STORMTROOPER

tarkintrooper3The Stormtrooper’s comic design was more or less the same as the movie look, which makes this figure a bit more reliant on replicating comic shading than anything else.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 13 points of articulation.  Not an awful amount of articulation, but slightly disappointing.  See, this figure is a repaint of the CommTech Stormtrooper, which was, at the time of this figure’s release, 7 years old.  That’s not an insane age for a Star Wars mold, and it’s a decent enough sculpt, but the issue that really arises is one of consistency.  The comic versions of Han and Luke from this same line were both also sporting the Stormtrooper armor, but those two figures were built on the body of the Vintage Collection Stormtrooper, which was quite a bit more advanced than this one.  Why didn’t Hasbro just use that body for this guy too?  Wouldn’t that make more sense?  Then he’d at least be able to hold his gun the right way.  Oh well.  The main selling point on this guy is the light blue shading of the paint, which showcases the whole dynamic lighting thing of the comics.  It’s replicated pretty well here, though, as with most figures of this nature, it really only works from select angles.  The Trooper is packed with a Stormtrooper longblaster, which, as I noted above, he can’t actually hold.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like last week’s Baron and Hobbie, this pair came from my Super Awesome Girlfriend.  This is actually a set I almost picked up a few times back when it was new, but never got around to.  Now I understand why.  I’m not an advocate for leaving toys in the package, but this is definitely one of those times where I was more impressed with something before I took it out and played with it.  Both figures are perfectly fine, and I’m happy to have them, but the execution could have been so much more!