Monthly Archives: October 2021

#2939: The Mummy

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

THE MUMMY

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS MONSTERS (SIDESHOW)

“In 1932, Boris Karloff starred in Universal Studios’ The Mummy.  The story tells of Im-ho-tep, a high priest that is buried alive, locked away in the darkness of a sealed Egyptian tomb.  As the seal breaks open, the towering figure comes to life after 3,700 years.  Fragile bandages rip and tear.  The withered skin is wrinked and grey.  The eyes widen, glowing intensely, remembering a mission unfulfilled, a passion undiminished by time.”

It’s once again Halloween.  How about that?  Halloween typically consumes the whole month of October, but both this year and the last, it hasn’t seemed quite so far-reaching.  I guess it’s hard to get into a mood of horror and fear in a “fun” sense when there’s, you know, everything going on, you know, everywhere.  Still, I do like to at least try to get that spooky mood for at least the one day a year.  So, in that sense, I’m going to be continuing a look into the line I looked at last year, with a focus on a figure from one of my favorite of the Universal Monsters movies, 1932’s The Mummy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Mummy was part of 1998’s inaugural series of Sideshow Toy’s Universal Studios Monsters line.  In a set that included both Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolf Man, Im-ho-tep was certainly the more minor inclusion, though he’s far from an unknown choice.  Im-ho-tep’s got two major looks in the movie, but this figure goes for his main mummified look from the beginning of the film.  It’s a short-lived look, but it’s also the most classically “mummy” look, so it’s the best visual.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  As I discussed in last year’s review of the Invisible Man, these figures were more plastic statues that just happened to have articulation, and less actual action figures, and Im-ho-tep sticks right to that.  Notably, the right elbow in particular is effectively useless.  He’s really just good for slightly tweaking the pose for the sake of better stability.  Im-ho-tep’s sculpt was an all-new offering (re-used for both his glow-in-the-dark and silver screen editions), and it’s quite an impressive one.  It’s definitely more consistent than the Invisible Man, since the texture work on the bandages continues over the whole body.  He also has a pretty decent likeness of Boris Karloff, which is certainly a plus.  The paint work on the figure is generally pretty strong.  The best work is on the bandages, which have quite a bit of accenting, bringing out the texturing of the sculpt.  The exposed skin’s not quite as well detailed, but it’s still better than just base color work.  The Mummy was packed with a scroll, a sealed chest, and a rather elaborate display stand.  All in all, not a bad selection of extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Last year, when I picked up the Invisible Man figure from this line, which is the one I really wanted out of the bunch, I also picked up two others.  The Mummy was included there.  I wasn’t planning to grab him at first, but his package was messed up, and he wasn’t going to be very expensive.  That, coupled with me being a fan of the movie, made it easy enough to just go ahead and grab him.  He’s not a super playable figure, but he’s a pretty nifty display piece, much like the rest of the line.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#2938: Falcon

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

FALCON

AVENGERS: UNITED THEY STAND (TOY BIZ)

“As the Falcon, Sam Wilson became the dedicated defender of Harlem. Pledging to protect the innocent, Wilson used a falcon as inspiration when inventing high-powered armor – extendable robotic wings for swift aerial maneuvers and soaring flights, razor-sharp claws from wrist, and battle boots with retractable steel talons and missiles. He fights crime and shares a telepathic link with his trusty falcon, Redwing. As one of Earth’s mightiest heroes, he is always ready to answer the call, ‘Avengers Assemble!'”

Even before getting his big on-screen focus in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Falcon’s always been pretty fortunate when it came to the smaller-scale tie-in stuff.  He’s been included in every major Marvel scale and style when it comes to toys, and when it came to 1999’s Avengers: United They Stand cartoon, he got the important role of being the team’s newest member, and in many ways the audience surrogate as the team makes their way through the larger Marvel universe.  I’m looking at his figure from that line today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Falcon was part of the second assortment of Toy Biz’s Avengers: United They Stand tie-in line.  This was only Falcon’s second figure from Toy Biz, but it was his fourth overall, following his Mego and Secret Wars figures. The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 13 points of articulation.  He continues the trend of improved articulation on these guys, which was really great.  Falcon’s design for the show was a much more armored up design, much like the rest of the cast.  He did keep more of the broad stroke elements of his classic design than the others, and this design differed from the rest in that it actually even made a transition to the comics, at least for a short while.  Some parts of it are a little clunky, but it’s generally one of the better looks from the show, and I’ve always had a real soft spot for this one.  The sculpt does a very nice job of replicating his animation design, keeping him rather clean looking.  The armored parts actually use some separately sculpted pieces, which gives him a nice depth to his design.  His wings are also split between upper and lower arms, allowing for more posability, making a notable improvement over the Secret Wars figure, and even putting him above Toy Biz’s own Marvel’s Gold release.  Falcon’s paint work is generally pretty solid.  It’s largely just basic color work, but it was pretty clean, and the accenting on the armored parts is pretty cool.  Falcon was packed with his pet falcon and sidekick Red Wing.  Redwing had a magnetic connection on the front of his harness which could connect to Falcon’s corresponding magnet on his right arm, and would launch a pair of missiles from his back pack.  There were a lot of gimmicky accessories in this line, and this one certainly had a gimmick, but it was at least not terribly disruptive, and it meant we got a proper Redwing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Falcon and Tigra were the first figures I got from this line when it dropped.  While they weren’t quite at the top of my list, they were both still pretty high (really only Wonder Man and Vision topped them).  The show and this toy both served to really solidify Falcon as a character I really, really liked, and he’s remained one of my favorites to this day.  This figure is still a lot of fun, and remains my favorite version of the character.  And there have been some really good Falcon figures, so that’s saying something.

#2937: Surtur

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

SURTUR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Empowered by the Eternal Flame, the demon Surtur rises from the ashes to unleash his fury upon Asgard.”

As I discussed on Monday, Thor: Ragnarok is really the only one of the Thor films to truly get a proper spread of figures in Legends form.  In fact, it’s really got one of the better spreads of any of the Marvel films, since we’ve gotten the whole principle cast, as well a a couple of the notable supporting players.  Despite how thoroughly covered the film has been, Hasbro decided they just weren’t done yet, so we’ve got yet another figure to look at!  I suppose it’s really only fair that in your tie-in toys for a movie called Ragnarok, you include Surtur; he’s kind of important to that whole thing, really.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Surtur is a mass-release part of the Infinity Saga sub-set of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line.  He’s at his own price point, above even the usual deluxe price point.  Hasbro definitely seems to be using this line to explore some more flexible price points.  The figure stands just shy of 13 inches tall measured from the top of his horns, and he has 31 points of articulation.  Surtur’s a pretty sizable guy in the movie (he actually grows in size as his powers increase, so there’s some variation there), and the figure does what it can to replicate that.  He’s technically a few inches too short for even his smallest size in the movie.  That said, he’s way larger than any of the other figures from the set, so the effect still works out.  His articulation scheme is generally pretty good for a figure of this sizing, though it has some notable restricted spots.  The shoulders don’t have a ton of up and down, due to how they’re designed, which is definitely the biggest issue with the figure.  Slightly less of an issue, but still a bit of an issue, are the hips, which, at least on my figure, are a little sticky when it comes to posing.  They feel like they should have some sort of a drop hip set-up based on the way they move, but there’s not one there, which does give me some pause about the long term durability of the figure’s pelvis.  Otherwise, it’s decent set-up, and he’s even got the pinless elbow and knee set-up.  Surtur’s sculpt is all-new, and it’s a pretty solid matchup to how he was depicted in the film.  There’s quite a bit of sculpted texture work going on, which gives him that appropriate molten skin appearance that the film gave him.  The head sculpt opts for an angry, shouty sort of expression for him.  It’s perhaps a little more limiting in terms of what sorts of poses he can go into, since it doesn’t really fit the lounging about version of the character seen earlier in the film, but we don’t have throne or anything for him anyway, so it makes him a better end of the movie Surtur, I guess.  It helps that it’s quite a nice sculpt.  It’s very dynamic, and looks more unique compared to other, more neutral expressions.  Surtur is molded in a translucent orange plastic, in order to aid in that molten appearance.  The shade of orange shifts a bit on the actual flame parts, going from more of a red to a yellowish hue, as they get nearer the edges, which looks fairly convincingly like actual flame.  There are large patches of darker paint, not actually dry brushed, but designed to simulate such an effect.  It works pretty well.  Surtur is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and a open gesture/fist combo), as well as his sword, which is almost as tall as he is.  Getting a picture of him holding it was no small feat, let me tell you.  I suppose it would have been nice to also get maybe his crown, separate from his head, as it’s seen in the film, but since we don’t even have a proper opening scene Thor, its applications might be a bit limited.  The sword and hands are pretty useful directly to this figure, at least.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It’s hard to say I’ve been heavily campaigning for anything more from Ragnarok, since it did get a good selection of figures and all.  Moreover, I figured Surtur’s size would be his undoing anyway, since even scaled down he’s a hard sell.  This guy being shown off earlier this year was a bit of a surprise to be sure, but certainly a pleasant one.  The figure has some issues, especially when it comes to the articulation, however the sheer size and detailing on him is enough to make him a worthwhile purchase.  And hey, here’s another Ragnarok figure!

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#2936: Iron Monger & Obadiah Stane

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

IRON MONGER & OBADIAH STANE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Obadiah Stane suits up as the powerful Iron Monger to threaten Iron Man. After a long stint as second-in-command of Stark Industries, Stane is eager to exact revenge on Tony Stark.”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe officially launched in 2008 with the release of Iron Man.  It proved that Marvel had the ability to sell characters beyond just the top of their A-list, and also laid the groundwork for the merchandising juggernaut we have 13 years later.  At the time of the movie’s release, Hasbro was still figuring out what they were doing with the Marvel license, and while the resulting tie-in line wasn’t bad (in fact, it was probably some of the best work Hasbro put out in their first five years or so with the license), it doesn’t quite hold up to modern standards.  Though we’ve had plenty of anniversary stuff, Iron Man has thus far been largely untouched (barring one straight re-deco of an older figure during the First Ten Years line in 2018), leaving some pretty prime real estate available for their latest MCU-centric throwback line.  There are two Iron Man-based releases this time around, and I’m looking at the first of them, Iron Monger and its pilot Obadiah Stane, today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Iron Monger and Obadiah Stane make up one of the two mass-release two-packs for the Infinity Saga sub-set of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line.  Both of the mass release sets pair off one standard sized figure with one deluxe sized figure, which is an interesting choice.  Monger and Stane are a sensible pairing since, while Monger would certainly sell on his own, Stane’s unlikely to really find a spot otherwise.

IRON MONGER

While Tony Stark is emphatically named “Iron Man” by the events of the first film, Obadiah’s armored persona never actually gets called by the “Iron Monger” moniker within the film proper.  We get a reference to him being a war monger, but that’s really it.  That hasn’t stopped it from being his go-to merchandising name, of course, because why wouldn’t it be.  It’s a cool name.  Iron Monger’s MCU incarnation has always had to contend with the limitations of standard release pack-outs when it came to toys.  Both of his original film figures were quite under-scaled for the 6-inch line they were sold alongside, and that continued into the 3 3/4 inch figure line as well.  This release’s primary aim is getting us a true and proper movie Monger.  To that end, the figure stands 9 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation.  In terms of articulation implementation, this guy starts by taking a page out of the old Iron Man 2 figure’s book, and then using the over a decade’s time since then to further improve things.  He’s obviously still a bit restricted, but given the sheer bulk of the guy, he’s just about as posable as possible.  The sculpt is an all-new offering, as would be expected.  It does a really solid job of capturing Monger’s film design, improving on Hasbro’s prior attempts quite a bit.  Again, it’s been over a decade, so it kind of goes without saying at this point.  The proportions match up well, as does the basic layout of details.  He’s even got some slight texturing going on with the larger sheets of metal, matching up well with the film appearance, and adding a detail usually left off of Mongers.  The engineering on the figure is pretty decently handled as well.  There are a few moving pistons, which don’t quite work as real ones would, but do move to properly allow for posing the figure, and also add some extra depth of detail to the design.  The head and torso also make use of multi-piece construction to add some extra depth to what’s visible of internal mechanisms and the eyes and reactor.  I quite like the clear dome over the reactor in particular.  There’s a part of me that kind of wishes they’d worked in the opening hatch as seen in the film, but I get the extra logistics involved might have caused some issues.  You can kind of cheat it by popping the Obadiah head on there, so it’s not a total loss.  Iron Monger’s paint work is largely rather basic, since so much of him is just unpainted silver plastic.  There’s a fair bit of actual painted silver as well, though, which mixes up things.  Additionally, the paint for the reactor, as well as the weapons on the arms, is all pretty cleanly applied, and makes for a nice little splash of color on the otherwise sort of drab design.  Iron Monger is packed with two sets of hands (fists and open gesture), as well as two separate effects pieces for the gun attachment on the arm, a rocket for his back, and an ammo belt.  Certainly not a bad selection of extras in the slightest.

OBADIAH STANE

Obadiah winds up as more of a glorified accessory to the main piece, but he’s billed separately, and he is a separate figure, so let’s give him that much respect, I guess.  Most of Obadiah’s time in the film is just him wearing a pretty standard business suit, so that’s the look the figure goes with for him.  It makes it more multipurpose than putting him in the jumpsuit, so I can get behind it.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  He’s built on Nick Fury’s updated suit body.  Given Jeff Bridges’ taller build, it’s a good choice for his usual look, and in general it’s a slightly better implemented in terms of how the articulation works.  As with Loki, the re-use here means that Obadiah winds up keeping Fury’s sculpted holster, which isn’t accurate, but it’s completely hidden by the jacket, so it’s never going to be seen anyway.  Obadiah gets an all-new head sculpt, which sports a pretty spot-on likeness of Bridges in the role.  He’s also got an all-new right hand, which features a more open grip, as well Obadiah’s ring.  Obadiah’s paint work is generally pretty good, but not without its flaws.  The face printing works very well here, and I really love the striping on his shirt and the pattern on his tie.  The holster is left unpainted, as it was on Loki, which makes sense.  The neckline is also very uneven, which was also an issue on both Fury and Loki, leading me to believe that its something to do with how the body is laid out for paint masks or something like that.  It’s not awful, but it’s not great either.  Obadiah is packed with the improved Arc reactor he steals from Tony (which fits nicely in his newly sculpted right hand), as well as a briefcase, you know, for papers, um, just papers, uh, you know, uh, his papers, business papers.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As much as I loved the old opening hatch Iron Monger figure from the ’08 line, there’s no denying that there was some definite room for an upgrade.  With all of the various MCU figures we’d gotten in the last few years, it did feel a bit like poor Monger had just completely fallen through the cracks.  I’m glad that Hasbro made a spot for him in this line-up, and I’m also glad he turned out as well as he did.  The main Iron Monger is truly an impressive piece of engineering on his own, and very much makes this set, but I’m also glad that we got a proper Obadiah.  All in all, it’s a very fun set.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with these figures to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#2935: Odin

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

ODIN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The king of Asgard, protector of the Nine Realms, and father of Thor, Odin has learned to appreciate peace over the centuries.”

Thor’s supporting cast kind of gets the short end of the stick when it comes to Marvel Legends treatment.  The line was on hiatus during the first film’s tie-in run, and Dark World wound up as one of the least merchandised MCU films in the entire franchise.  Ragnarok had a much better spread, but it was also the one least focused purely on the Thor cast.  Fortunately, the various anniversary and throwback lines have helped a little bit, and we’re finally getting a second 6-inch figure based on the first film (it only took us a solid decade), in the form of the Allfather, Odin.  Let’s have a look at him.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Odin is one of the five single-packed Infinity Saga sub-set figures from Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, and the second of the four that got a wide release.  He’s based on his appearance in the first Thor film, specifically his fully armored attire from the film’s first half, which is certainly his most distinctive.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Odin’s articulation scheme showcases a lot of the more recent improvements to how things are handled in the line.  The elbows and knees both have the pinless construction, and the range of motion is generally better than the early MCU-based figures.  It’s certainly more than enough for Odin, given his actions within the films.  The only slightly frustrating bit on the movement is the shoulder armor, specifically the part on his bicep, which has a tendency to pop out of place and get caught on the joint when you’re posing him.  Odin’s sculpt is an all-new piece, as it kind of has to be.  The build is a decent match for Hopkins in the role, and the details of the gear generally match up pretty well.  There are some minor things, like the shoulder pads not quite having the right placement, but it generally works well.  The head he comes wearing has a more stern expression, which fits with Odin’s more typical disposition in the films.  The hair’s a bit more matted down on this one, as it’s directly designed to work with the included helmet.  The helmet is a strong piece.  It’s notably based on Odin’s more ornate throne room helmet, rather than his battle helmet; generally, I think this one has the superior design, so I’m alright with the choice. It sits well on the head, and is secure without being too tight, but also isn’t too bulky or goofy looking.  Odin’s paint work is rather nicely handled.  The mix of metallic and matte finishes sells the armored parts, and the application is generally pretty clean.  The face and hair have rather lifelike features to them, as you would hope to see.  Odin is packed with an extra head, this time with a smiling expression, and designed more for a helmetless look, as well as two pairs of hands (gripping and an open gesture/fist combo), and his spear Gungnir.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I bough Odin largely because I was planning to buy the whole Infinity Saga set.  I don’t know that he really spoke to me on his own, and he’s ultimately the one I had the least excitement about going into it, especially given how little else we’ve got from Thor at this scale.  He did look cool in hand, and I do have to say there’s a lot I like about this figure in the end.  He’s still not gonna be my favorite from this set, and I think he’s one that’s gonna fall through the cracks for a lot of people, but he’s certainly a solid offering.  Now, can I please get the Warriors Three at some point?

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#2934: Captain Marvel & Rescue Armor

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

CAPTAIN MARVEL & RESCUE ARMOR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Hasbro did their best on giving us the most thorough line-ups possible when it come to the Infinity War and Endgame casts, but given the sheer size, there were of course a few that wound up slipping through the cracks.  The purpose of the Infinity Saga line seems to be equal parts getting figures out that were missed, and fixing ones that weren’t quite right the first time around.  Today’s focus goes for a bit of both, as well as serving as a nice representation of some of the film’s own internal representation of the franchise’s female heroes during the big climactic battle, all rolled into one package.  So, without further ado, and before I rack up too many pissed off commenters, let’s look at Captain Marvel and Rescue!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Captain Marvel and the Rescue Armor are the first of the two-pack portion of the 10-piece Infinity Saga sub-set of Marvel Legends.  This particular pairing is an Amazon-exclusive.  This set is one of three items from the line to be based on Endgame, which does seem like a lot, but, of course, it’s a rather jam-packed movie, isn’t it?

CAPTAIN MARVEL

“Captain Marvel uses her incredible powers to battle evil in the ultimate fight for the fate of the universe.”

Given that she had gotten her own assortment devoted to her, and that all the promo material showed her in a costume that was largely unchanged from her solo film appearance, it really wasn’t a shock that we didn’t get a proper Endgame Captain Marvel at the time of the film’s release.  That said, the inverted color scheme on the costume, as well as her fancy new hair style were both changes I really liked to her look, and ones I was hopeful to see in toy form at some point.  Here we are at some point.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Structurally, she’s largely the same figure as the one from her solo outing.  It’s generally a pretty solid starting point, it’s not terribly far off from Larson’s build when she’s playing the character, and the broad strokes details line-up with her suit from the film.  Some of the smaller details aren’t *quite* right, but given how brief this look’s appearance is, and how small those details are, they don’t generally feel too out of place.  My figure does wind up with one notable QC issue, which is that she’s got two left forearms.  Just my luck.  Regardless of QC issues, Carol gets a new head, as well as a new sash piece add-on.  The new head is a very nice piece, and definitely has Hasbro’s best Brie Larson likeness to date.  It’s a marked improvement on the solo film figures, and is just generally a pretty good match.  The sash is a pretty basic piece, but does a lot to change up the sculpt just a bit more.  The biggest change-up is the paint, which is sporting her inverted color scheme from the movie.  I find this to be a lot more appealing, and more classically “Captain Marvel” like, so I’m definitely a fan.  I also kind of dig the change to the flat colors vs metallic.  It’s not a huge shift, but I think it works.  Carol is packed with three different sets of hands (fists, flat, and relaxed) and Stark’s nanotech version of the gauntlet, this time just meant for holding.

RESCUE ARMOR

“Outfitted with repulsors and a unibeam, Pepper’s Rescue suit is ready to step into battle against Thanos.”

Pepper Potts in her Rescue armor was notably *not* absent from the Legends tie-ins for Endgame when it was released, but, similar to the War Machine from that same assortment, getting her out that close to the film’s release resulted in some inaccuracies and some stripping of more film relevant accessories.  This release serves to address some of that.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and has 31 points of articulation.  At her core, this figure’s sculpt is the same as the one from the main line release.  It wasn’t a bad sculpt at all, so re-using it feels like a pretty good call.  I liked it the first time, and I still like it now.  The first set of changes are in the form of paint.  The standard release wasn’t far off, but there were some small tweaks to the final film design, which have been reflected here.  The overall color scheme has also been toned down slightly, which looks a bit truer to what we see on screen.  The biggest changes are in the form of accessories.  She still gets both versions of the back-pack, but now she also gets two additional head sculpts, one with the face plate up, and the other with the helmet entirely removed, as well as some extra attachments for the open back pack to showcase her nano gear a little more, and also a pair of blast effects.  It’s a shame we didn’t get any extra hands mixed in with all of that, but I’m not going to be too greedy on this one.  The new parts add a lot to a figure that I already really liked.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Today’s review is a significant one for me, on two counts.  Today would have been mine and Jess’s second wedding anniversary.  It is also the first one I’m spending without her.  Jess’s encouragement of my collecting was a prominent piece of our relationship, and it was something that she maintained up to the end.  When this set dropped online, I was pretty excited, and made mention of it to her.  Then things got serious, and my mind moved onto more important matters, and I wasn’t really thinking about toys.  After Jess’s passing, I discovered that she had ordered this set for me, the very day I’d mentioned it to her.  And so, three months after her passing, its arrival marked my final gift from her.  It’s something of a bittersweet moment.  It’s a set I very much wanted, and one I’m very happy to have.  Jess absolutely adored the moment with the female heroes assembling in the film, so this set was already bound to remind me of her.  She was always so thoughtful and caring, even in her darkest moments.  And because of that, she gave me this one last gift.  But I know that it’s the last one.  And I wish it weren’t.  And I wish I could tell her how much it means to me.  But I can’t.  All I can do is take solace in the fact that she loved me, and she knew I loved her too, and that was why she worked so hard to take care of me, even after the fact.  So, now I have one last testament to just how Super Awesome of a Wife she really was.  Thank you for everything, Jess.

#2933: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Armed with Wakandan Gauntlets, Steve Rogers steps forward to defend the world from the impossible threat of Thanos and his minions.”

Okay, I’m gonna level with you guys: you better like Marvel Legends reviews.  Hasbro’s been really switching it into turbo with the line, and though they’ve been *trying* to space it out, that hasn’t so much worked out.  The result is a metric ton of them all dropping at once.  So, it’s gonna be at least a month of Legends around these parts.  I hope I can cling to my sanity.  Let’s kick things off by jumping back into Hasbro’s Infinity Saga sub-line, which is yet another throw-back to the first decade of the MCU.  It’s covering films from the beginning of the saga, up through Endgame, filling in some holes in a few of the line-ups, as well as offering some updates to figures that weren’t quite there the first time around.  Today’s figure, Captain America from Infinity War, falls into the latter category.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is the second of the 10 figures in the Infinity Saga sub-line of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends.  He’s one of five single-packed standard figures, and also one of the three exclusives in the line-up.  Yes, once again Cap is a Walmart-exclusive.  I’m going to do my best not to harp on that too much, but it continues to feel like really terrible planning for overall line performance to have one of your central pieces always wind up as an exclusive to a chain that’s really bad at handling exclusives.  Moving on.  Cap is based on his Nomad appearance from Infinity War, a design that has been done in Legends once before, but not in a particularly accurate fashion.  This one aims to fix those issues and go a little more screen accurate.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s a bit of a mix of old and new articulation styles, due to the nature of his construction.  His arms are using the pinless construction, which looks quite nice, and they’ve reworked how the bicep cuts work to make them a little more pleasant to look at when posing.  The rest of the movement more or less remains the same as it was on the first version.  A lot of that is due to most of the parts being shared between the two figures.  The head and arms are new, but everything else is re-use.  It’s sensible, since most of the old figure was pretty decent; don’t fix what’s not broken and all that.  The biggest issue with the prior Cap was the inaccuracy on the head, which this one fixes, more or less.  The hair and beard are far closer to their on-screen looks this time, which is a definite improvement.  I don’t know that the likeness is quite as spot-on as, say, the Endgame figure, but it’s certainly not un-Evans-like.  There’s a second head sculpt included, this one more expressive than the first.  It’s not a bad face sculpt, but I’m not sure the hair works as well.  He looks like he’s got some very serious helmet hair going on.  The new arms not only improve the aesthetics of the articulation, they also fix the issue of the last figure only having the one glove.  Now he’s nice and symmetrical.  In general, the new sculpt is a resounding success.  If things seem to be going too smoothly, that’s because they are.  The sculpt is great, but as with pretty much every IW Cap, there’s always a trade off.  In this case, it’s that the paint ends up making his uniform much brighter and cleaner than it should be.  The colors were one thing that the first figure did alright on, so the move to something brighter feels like an odd misstep.  It’s not terrible, but it’s definitely off.  The paint on the heads is at least up to the usual standards, so that’s good.  In addition to the previously mentioned extra head, he also gets two sets of hands (gripping and fists, both gloved this time), as well as two of the Wakandan shields.  The shields aren’t a matched pair; one is open and the other closed.  It would be nice to get two sets of each version, especially given the extra price on this round of releases.  At least they actually gave us two this time, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure fills me with mixed feelings.  I wanted an improvement on the last release, and that’s what I got, but there are once again trade offs, and I do really feel like if you’re going to force us to buy the same figure twice, you could at least go the extra mile by throwing in more accessories.  Just to spruce him up a little bit.  And that’s all without getting into the Walmart exclusive thing, which continues to be a rather stupid move on someone’s part.  Not entirely sure whose, but someone’s.  All that said, I was at least able to get mine without any major issues (apart from the one delay that pretty much everyone got), and in-hand, I do really, really like this figure.  It’s a shame we couldn’t just get him this way from the start, but then I suppose we wouldn’t appreciate this one as much.

#2932: B’omarr Monk

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

B’OMARR MONK

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

So, these days, I fear, like, nothing, but other people do fear things, and one of those things, at least pretty consistently, is spiders.  Seriously, when I bring up my lack of fears, it’s like a 50/50 chance that the next question that follows is “Even spiders?”  Why am I talking about everyone’s fear of spiders?  Well, I wanna be kind to my readers who aren’t so big on them, so I’m gonna give a little bit of a content warning on the pictures that go along with today’s review.  Enter at your own peril.

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#2931: Hawkeye

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

HAWKEYE

AVENGERS: UNITED THEY STAND (TOY BIZ)

“Clint Barton is the heroic marksman known as Hawkeye. A master acrobat and hand-to-hand combatant, Barton has honed his bow-and-arrow skills to near superhuman accuracy. Drawing the high-tech weapon from his back, and locking it with chest piece, this ace archer utilizes his custom-built arsenal of arrows, and laser sighting to trounce all evil powers. As one of Earth’s mightiest heroes he answers the call, ‘Avengers Assemble!'”

At the end of next month Hawkeye premiers on Disney+, finally giving Jeremy Renner’s live action version of the character a proper focus after being purely an ensemble player for five films.  Hawkeye’s got a pretty rich comics history to draw from, so it’s great to see them finally take a little more note of Clint Barton.  As a quintessential Avenger, he’s almost always included in Avengers projects, of course, including 1999’s Avengers: United They Stand, where he served as one of the show’s focal characters.  Since he was a team member not named “Scarlet Witch” he got a toy out of it, which I’ll be taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hawkeye was part of the second assortment of the United They Stand tie-in line from Toy Biz.  It was, as noted before, a purely clerical division, as they all shipped at the same time.  This marked Hawkeye’s third figure from Toy Biz, and would be one of four released during their tenure with the property.  The figure was somewhat oddly on the taller side, standing a little over 5 1/2 inches tall and sporting 10 points of articulation.  Hawkeye was a slight step down from the rest of the line on the movement front.  The legs are up to the same base level as others (though the hips are a bit more restricted by the costume design), but his arms don’t get elbow joints.  His right is already bent, and has a bicep cut joint to add some extra movement.  Maybe they though elbow joints would make the arms too weak to hold the bow properly?  Hawkeye’s sculpt was an all-new one, based on his much maligned design from the show.  Generally, I didn’t hate any of the looks the way other people did, and I don’t really hate Hawkeye’s look either, but I will say he’s probably the weakest of the main team in terms of design.  I’m very much a classic Hawkeye fan, so I hesitate when it comes to anything that doesn’t have at least the old mask design.  Also, the armor looks a little goofier on him than the others.  All that said, it fits the general aesthetic they built with the show, and I don’t hate it.  The figure’s sculpt is a reasonable match for his design as seen in the show.  Like the others, he’s been slightly tweaked in terms of stylizing in order to fit better with the rest of Toy Biz’s Marvel output at the time.  The one notable thing here is that his head was clearly sculpted based on the initial design for Hawkeye (seen in most of the show’s promotional material), which had a headband, rather than the proper mask.  Fortunately, it was an easy enough thing to change convincingly with just some paint.  Speaking of paint, his was generally okay.  Nothing amazing or anything, but he follows the show’s look pretty well, and there were no glaring issues.  Mine has taken a little bit of wear over the years, but not too much.  Hawkeye was packed with his bow, which is absolutely huge, by the way, as well as six different styles of arrows.  I’ve only got two of them left from my stock, but they’re pretty cool, and even had metal at the ends so that you could use the magnet in Hawkeye’s right hand to draw them back and fire them.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hawkeye was nearer the end of my purchases for the line, I believe.  He was never quite as hard to find as the others.  He was one of the few I actually found in the store myself, as opposed to having someone else just get it for me.  I already had the Iron Man Hawkeye, which was really always my go-to version, even after getting this one, so this guy really just tended to be auxiliary.  He’s not bad, all things considered, but he’s probably one of the weaker ones from this particular set.

#2930: Rippley

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

RIPPLEY

FORTNITE: VICTORY ROYALE SERIES (HASBRO)

Fortnite has become quite a merchandising juggernaut in the last few years, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon.  Just in the realm of action figures alone, there are no fewer than three toy companies that hold the license.  Despite still never having played the game even a single time, I’ve looked at offerings from both Jazwares and McFarlane.  Hasbro has just recently gotten in on things as well, offering up their own 6-inch-scale line of figures, dubbed the Victory Royale Series, which is just starting to show up now.  And, at this point, I’m not even gonna fight it, really.  So, let’s look at Rippley, a little blobby guy added during Chapter 2’s first season in the game.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rippley is one of the four figures that make up the first basic assortment of Hasbro’s Fortnite: Victory Royale Series.  The line just started showing up at retail in the last month or so.  Rippley’s kind of the resident “goofy” figure, in with three of the more straightforward designs.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation, which, yes, even includes a neck joint, as much as it might look like it doesn’t.  In general, Rippley’s articulation scheme follows the set-up we’ve seen on Hasbro’s Classified figures, albeit without the drop hips and butterfly shoulders.  It’s a pretty good set-up, and while he’s slightly more restricted by his design, he’s still quite posable.  As far as scaling goes, Rippley and the rest of the assortment will more or less fit right in with Jazwares own Legendary Series offerings, as well as other 6-inch-scale Hasbro lines (barring the slightly under-scaled Overwatch figures, but that line’s dead anyway).  Rippley’s sculpt is all new, and it’s pretty fun.  He’s a little bulkier than the others, and the blobby parts are very smooth and basic, but all of his gear has an impressive level of detail and texturing, which really adds a lot.  In order to facilitate proper posability in the neck joint, the top of Rippley’s blobby self is designed for removal.  It’s pretty seamless, since it connects right at the edge of his vest, and it stays nice and secure.  You could be forgiven for not even realizing it was removable, honestly.  Rippley’s color work is generally pretty basic, but it works.  I really dig the translucent blue, and the cartoony smile on the face is a nice touch.  I’m curious to see if Hasbro decides to do the other color variants, just to get more uses out of the mold.  Rippley is packed with the Sludge Hammer harvesting tool, Containment Pack back bling, and the pump shot weapon, sporting the Rippley Wrap, a string of words that mean it’s translucent blue, like he is.  I can get behind that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As stated in the intro, I’ve still not played any Fortnite, nor do I ever really intend to, so I don’t *technically* have a reason to keep buying any of the toys.  Hasbro taking over the 6-inch line didn’t feel like something I needed to try or anything, but then I saw this blob guy, and I just really found him way too nifty to pass on.  Plus, hey, I got to try out the line, so that’s cool.  At least as far as Rippley is concerned, the line doesn’t feel too terribly far removed from what Jazwares was doing, but I guess that’s not a bad thing, since those figures were pretty cool.  Rippley is a lot of fun.  I’m as unlikely to grab more of these as any of the other Fortnite lines, but I’ll still probably be grabbing them if they look cool.  And Rippley certainly looked cool.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.