Monthly Archives: December 2022

#3241: Thor & Nighthawk

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

THOR & NIGHTHAWK

MARVEL MINIMATES

Early in the run of Walgreens taking their own exclusive sets of Minimates, everything was completely animation based, drawing from Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble, and Guardians of the Galaxy.  While this meant there was a lot of re-hashing of the heavy hitters in their animated designs, it also allowed DST to sneak in a few lower tier characters with animated appearances who had not yet shown up in the main line.  Avengers Assemble‘s inclusion of the Squadron Supreme in particular was taken advantage of, giving us a whole line-up of those wacky not-the-Justice-League guys.  Today, I’m looking at one of those Squadron-inspired sets.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Thor and Nighthawk were released in Series 2.5 of Walgreens’ exclusive Marvel Minimates.  Yes, there’s a .5 in there.  For some reason, the first four assortments at Walgreens used the half-series numbering.  They abandoned it after this one, presumably because it was just kind of confusing.

THOR

“The Prince of Asgard, where magic and science are the same, Thor uses his hammer, Mjolnir, to protect Earth as an Avenger.”

Slowly bust surely, DST pieced out the animated versions of the core Avengers, intermixed with their alternate universe “Dark Avengers” counterparts.  Thor’s Dark version came first in Series 2, and the standard followed shortly after.  The figure is based on the standard post-c3 base body, so he’s about 2 1/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  Thor gets three add-on pieces, for his helmet/hair, cape, and belt.  The cape is re-used from the DCD Superman, while the helmet and belt were first used for the Dark Thor in the prior assortment.  It’s a clean set of pieces that match up well with the character’s animated appearance, and sit well on the base body.  The paint work on this figure is pretty solid.  It’s clean and simple, and it works well for the aesthetic they were aiming to capture.  He looks like the animation models, but also still fits in alright with the pre-established line.  Thor was packed with Mjolnir, a flight stand, and a display stand.

NIGHTHAWK

“Disguised as SHIELD Agent Kyle Richmond, Nighthawk secretly paved the way for the arrival of the corrupt Squadron Supreme.”

Despite his mainstream counterpart bouncing around amongst a number of teams and not being *absurdly* obscure, Nighthawk was not able to get any ‘mate coverage until he showed up in animation.  I suppose it’s not the worst thing.  On the plus side, his animated counterpart kept the character’s classic costume design, so he can at least pull double duty very easily.  Nighthawk’s got two add-ons, one for his mask, and the other for his cape.  The headpiece is just the standard full-face mask, while the cape is an all-new one.  While I would have liked to see a proper sculpted piece on the mask, it’s a simple enough that the full-face set-up doesn’t look too terrible, and if it was either the mask or the cape, they definitely made the right choice.  The cape is really nicely handled, and sits quite well on the figure’s shoulders.  Nighthawk’s paint work is clean, colorful, and a good half step between the animation and the comics, which I certainly appreciate.  There’s a full face under the mask, and he’s also got an extra hair piece (borrowed from BttF‘s Doc Brown) to show it off.  He also includes a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m gonna be honest, I don’t actually recall exactly how I got this set.  It was probably at a Walgreens, but it’s also entirely possible I got it second hand because I just really wanted the Nighthawk figure, and there was enough weirdness with the early Walgreens exclusives that I don’t remember exactly how these particular chips fell.  I do recall being excited about Nighthawk, but also kind of meh on another Thor.  Ultimately, Thor’s not terrible, and I don’t hate having him, but he’s certainly not the draw.  Nighthawk has to make due with the re-used head piece, but he’s otherwise really great, and I’m glad they were able to work him into the line one way or another.

#3240: Green Lantern John Stewart

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

GREEN LANTERN JOHN STEWART

DC ICONS (DC COLLECTIBLES)

Before they went out of business and then got reinvented as little more than a glorified way for McFarlane to put out more of the same figures, DC Direct/Collectibles went through quite a few attempts at creating a central, singularly styled line of figures.  There were a few extended lines based on specific works, such as Justice, which took advantage of the large cast of the book to do a sizable swath of the DCU in one style.  Their first deliberate aim at a consistently styled, full universe-spanning line was History of the DC Universe, which honestly was kind of doomed before it began, because it arrived only half-formed and never really tried to improve that.  After rebranding as DC Collectibles, the company launched with a New 52 line, again with the same basic idea, but given the lukewarm reception to the New 52 and its designs, the line again had short legs.  After that failed, they tried again, with DC Icons.  Icons had a sort of rocky start, but it managed recover pretty quickly, and actually was shaping up to be a really strong line…until DCC decided they didn’t have faith in it anymore, and decided to reboot once again with DC Essentials, a line doomed before it even began.  Though short-lived, Icons did at least have a solid run of figures.  I reviewed a bunch of them back when the line was still relatively new, but today I’m looking at one more.  It’s John Stewart Green Lantern!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern John Stewart was part of the fourth series of DC Icons.  He was figure 15 in the line, placing him just before the previously reviewed Firestorm, also from the same assortment.  Each of the figures in this line was specifically patterned on a certain comics appearance.  In John’s case, he’s based on Green Lantern: Mosaic, a GL-spin-off series from the early ’90s.  The series was a showcase for John in particular, and laid a lot of ground work for the modern interpretations of the character, so it’s a pretty distinctive choice for him.  It was also nice to see them go for something a little bit older.  It does have the sort of odd side effect of not putting John in the outfit he’s been sporting since the early 2000s, which would match a good number of other figures in the line, but we’d seen that look a couple of time recently at this point, so the change-up was seemingly a show of good faith that they might possibly do more than one John.  How foolish we all were.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall (since this is after they’d started to address the early scale issues of the line) and he has 33 points of articulation.  He got the improved articulation set-up that came with the fourth series forward, which included the addition of drop hips, which makes for a much better posing situation.  John’s sculpt was completely unique.  It’s a pretty nice offering.  He’s got a larger build than Hal did, which feels appropriate for the character.  The head’s not my favorite take on John (that’s still the DCUC version, which just really slaps), but it’s certainly better than a lot of other recent takes.  It at least gets away from the “generic black guy” issue that I had with the McFarlane and Mezco figures.  It’s honestly not a bad translation of how he looked in Mosaic specifically, which is really the point.  The figure’s paint work is pretty decent; he matches up with Hal alright, keeping that satin metallic finish for the green, as well as the high gloss finish on the white.  Application’s pretty clean for the most part.  The eyebrows are a little bit misaligned, and there’s a spot of green missing on one of his shoulders, but otherwise things look pretty decent.  John gets a solid selection of accessories, including two different forearm/hand combos for both gloved and ungloved looks, since he alternated in Mosaic.  The gloved look gets an extra right hand, with a hole in place of the ring, allowing for use of the three construct attachments.  It’s a shame there’s not another one for the ungloved hands, but I understand the line being drawn somewhere.  He also includes a power battery, for all those recharging purposes.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I slept on a lot of Icons, unfortunately, and John was one of those that I really slept on.  Thankfully, I got another chance with him, since one got traded into All Time a couple of years ago.  I already wanted one, so he was an easy sell for me.  While the Mosaic design isn’t top of my list for John’s look, I can appreciate the variety, and I think it did turn out pretty well.  And, at least he actually got a figure in the line, which is more than can be said for a lot of DC’s prominent heroes.

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.

#3239: Sharon Carter

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

SHARON CARTER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“In hiding after breaking the Sokovia Accords, Sharon Carter inevitably finds herself entangled in Sam and Bucky’s globe-trotting fight.”

Sharon Carter was introduced in the comics, rather shallowly perhaps, as a love interest for Captain America in the “modern era” of the ’60s.  She was originally the younger sister of Cap’s WW2 love interest Peggy Carter, before the sliding timeline necessitated her becoming Peggy’s niece, and eventually grand-niece.  Since Peggy is a far less present character in the comics, that allowed Sharon an opportunity to grow far beyond her role as simply love interest to Steve, making her quite an in-depth character in her own right.  When Emily Van Camp was cast as Agent 13 (who was not actually confirmed to have any relation to Peggy in her first appearance in The Winter Soldier), there was clearly a plan to carry forward much of her comics arc, but thanks to the movies deciding to make Peggy a far more fleshed out character on her own, Sharon was left without quite as much to do.  The Falcon and The Winter Soldier brought Sharon back, and gave her a new role, perhaps divergent from her comics counterpart, but nevertheless intriguing.  And, after presence in two movies and a TV show, she’s gotten a Marvel Legend!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Sharon Carter is figure 6 in the the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s a little bit of an odd-ball in this assortment, as not only the only figure from Falcon and The Winter Soldier (largely covered in the first Disney+ assortment), but also as the only figure in the set from pre-What If…?.  She’s specifically based on her incognito look from Madripor, but given the general loose structure of her usual attire, she can kind of work in a few different settings.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Sharon’s articulation scheme is honestly kind of behind the times.  In fact, her whole sculpt is kind of behind the times, which is curious, because, as far as I can tell, this is the first time we’ve seen any of it.  She’s still got single universal style joints on the elbows, exposed pins at the knees, and a rather restricted ball-joint set-up at the neck and mid torso, all of which points to older sculpt.  Sharon is, of course, the oldest source material in this batch by a bit, but it still doesn’t track, because even being a year and a half removed from the rest of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier figures, they all had more modern articulation schemes.  And what’s even more confusing is how specific Sharon’s sculpt is to that one appearance in the show.  This is very clearly Sharon from when they’re all exploring the storage containers in Madripor, and the details of her outfit all directly match-up, so this is not re-used.  It’s weird.  It’s not an awful sculpt, all things considered.  The likeness on the head is a respectable match for Emily Van Camp in the role, and the detailing on her outfit is pretty solid work.  She’s perhaps a touch too skinny, especially on the legs, but it’s pretty minor.  Sharon’s color work is largely rather basic, witch mostly molded colors.  The hair and face get the most involved work, and they honestly work the best, giving her a rather lifelike appearance.  Sharon is packed with her baton, a knife, and the head of Infinity Ultron.  The baton’s a decent piece, and it seems like she’s lacking any sort of gun for licensing reasons (which happed with the other TFATWS figures), but the knife is just straight up goofy.  It’s so cartoonish and flat; it’s not like they don’t have other knife sculpts sitting around, so why they went with this, I don’t know.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Sharon was the odd-ball in this round for so many reasons.  Her reveal was held off for a surprisingly long time, given how it wasn’t tied into any spoilers or reveals like the others, and she’s two series removed from the rest of her set.  Add in that she’s got this very old-feeling sculpt, and it feels like she was maybe a sculpt that had been sitting around for a while that got moved up when something else had to get dropped?  I don’t know.  I’m happy to have a Sharon figure finally, though, so I’ll consider it a win, and even if she feels a little out of date, she’s not a bad figure at all.

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.