Yearly Archives: 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.

#3238: Kate Bishop

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

KATE BISHOP

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Uncomfortable with her wealthy birthright, rebellious Kate Bishop’s well-meaning determination sets her on a collision course with her Super Hero idol, Hawkeye.”

Initially introduced in the pages of Young Avengers, Kate Bishop became the second Hawkeye when granted the title by Captain America, who passed it to her during a period when Clint Barton was dead.  When Barton inevitably returned to the land of the living, he initially attempted to take the title back, but ultimately agreed to share, and it was brought to the forefront for Fraction and Aja’s run on Hawkeye, which placed Kate as a deuteragonist. Disney+’s Hawkeye show followed suit, and introduced Kate into the MCU as Clint’s successor to the mantle of Hawkeye.  And, in the process, she even got her second ever action figure, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kate Bishop is figure 4 in the the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends, where she’s the second of the two Hawkeye figures.  This marks Kate’s second time in Legends form, following up on the multi-pack release for her comics counterpart from 2016.  Like the Clint figure, Kate’s seen here in her finale attire, which seems inspired by her earlier Young Avengers gear.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 31 points of articulation.  Her movement scheme is actually pretty solid.  She gets butterfly shoulders, which we pretty much never see on female figures, but are a great help on the archery poses.  And, in contrast to Clint, she gets a ball-jointed mid-torso joint.  It doesn’t offer quite as much forward and back as the ab-crunch, but it has side-to-side movement, which offers a good deal more variety to her posing.  She’s got the pinless construction for the elbows and knees as well, which adds to her feeling of advanced motion.  Kate’s sculpt is an all-new one, done by sculptor Eddie Mosqueda Jr.  The sculpt is a pretty strong one overall.  The head’s not *quite* a spot-on likeness for Hailey Steinfeld; the face is perhaps a touch too thin, I think; however, it’s close enough that the context sells who it’s supposed to be.  The body sculpt does a rather nice job of capturing Kate’s adventuring gear from the show, with all of its differing textures and folds and such. The costume details also match up quite well with her show design, which is always nice to see on the MCU figures; obviously there was a more finalized design to work from here. The body’s proportions are again just a touch skinny for Steinfeld, but they’re far from the ridiculous proportions we’ve seen in the past; she still looks like a real person.  The color work on this figure is generally not bad; the colors seem a little bit more saturated on the figure than they were in the show, but it’s more than likely it’s a lighting thing.  It’s also a lot of purple, which always looks way different in photos than in person.  The paint application all looks decent enough; there’s a few small spots of slop, but nothing major, and the face printing is on point as always.  Kate is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and relaxed), her bow, and the left leg of the Infinity Ultron Build-A-Figure.  The hands are notably a different selection than she was initially shown with, which was two fists, and a gripping/open gesture combo.  I’m not entirely sure why this changed, but I honestly prefer what we got, so I don’t mind.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been following Kate in the comics since her earliest appearances, and I loved what Fraction and Aja did to work her and Clint into a story together.  I was also really happy when she was confirmed for the solo series, and even more so when I heard they’d cast Hailey Steinfeld, who I feel was a great choice for the role.  The show made her one of my favorite new additions to the MCU, and I’ve definitely been looking forward to the figure.  Like Clint, she’s not quite perfect, but she’s still a lot of fun.

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.

#3237: Hawkeye

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

HAWKEYE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Hawkeye’s only shot at taking down a dangerous criminal conspiracy is an unlikely new partner: Kate Bishop.”

Lest I just fall into a pattern of opening all of my Marvel Legends reviews with song lyrics, I opted to not open this one with the lyrics to “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”  I mean, I suppose it would have been at least slightly appropriate, what with the actual time of year, and the fact that Hawkeye was largely set at Christmas time.  But, I’ve not done it.  Instead, I’ve just spent far too much time talking about a thing I’m not doing.  Yikes.  Moving on.  After playing second fiddle to the rest of the Avengers for most of his movie run, Clint Barton finally got his own central focus in his self-titled Disney+ show, which dropped a year ago this week.  Though perhaps not the MCU’s most subversive or unique offering, it was certainly a fun adventure story, and a good emotional send off for Clint.  It’s also a good excuse to finally give him just a little bit more toy love, which I’m taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hawkeye (or, more accurately, “Hawk-guy”) is figure 5 in the the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends.  This assortment is an entirely Disney+ based set, divvied up between the various Marvel shows, and Clint is the first of the two Hawkeye-based figures.  He’s based on his LARPer-designed costume from the end of the show, which is a pretty close recreation of his long-sleeved David Aja look.  Still no mask, but that’s a battle I’ve accepted we’re never going to win as far as Renner Hawkeye is concerned.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 33 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this guy is generally pretty decent, though not quite as advanced as other recent figures.  He’s still using the standard ab-crunch, rather than the ball-joint set-up, but he does also get butterfly joints at the shoulders, as well as movement at the top and bottom of the neck, which is some pretty solid movement, especially compared to prior MCU Hawkeyes.  Hawkeye’s sculpt is an all-new one, done by sculptor Rene Aldrete.  Clint’s honestly not had the best selection of Legends sculpts, so this one definitely had some ground to cover.  It’s not perfect, but it’s a marked improvement on what we’ve gotten before.  The facial likeness is certainly the best version of Renner we’ve seen at this scale.  It’s not 100% there, but it’s pretty close, and the detailing for the bandaging on the forehead is a particularly nice touch.  The neck’s definitely a touch too long, but past that, the body’s proportions are actually pretty nicely balanced.  The detailing on his outfit is all nice and clean looking, and the folds and creases help to really sell the real-world look for him. I also really dig how you can make out his boots underneath of his pants legs.  The paintwork on Hawkeye is largely pretty basic.  There’s a fair bit going on for the face, but it’s otherwise some standard color work for the purple and the flesh tones.  Nothing crazy, but it works.  Hawkeye is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and a fist/open gesture combo), his bow, a removable quiver, and the arm to the Infinity Ultron Build-A-Figure.  The hands provide some decent variety, and I like the little touch of the wrapping on the handle to the bow.  The quiver’s also got a full stock of arrows, which is more than can be said for other movie Hawkeyes.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been hoping for a decent Renner Hawkeye pretty much since he was introduced.  I’ve not been successful in that hope up to this point.  I was rather disappointed that we didn’t get him from Civil War, since that was my favorite of his film looks, but I did also dig the design from the show, as well as its general focus on giving Clint’s MCU counterpart a bit more depth.  This guy isn’t perfect, but he’s easily the best MCU Hawkeye we’ve gotten in Legends form, and he sure is a lot of fun.

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.

#3236: Captain Rex

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

CAPTAIN REX

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Captain Rex accompanies Anakin Skywalker to the planet Teth to rescue Jabba’s kidnapped son. Like all clone troopers, Captain Rex believes that the mission always comes first. When he and his fellow troopers are surrounded by battle droids, outnumbered and outgunned, he never wavers in his commitment to the mission, even if it means this battle could be his last.”

The Clone Wars begins with a focus on characters we’ve seen before in the main movie, but to allow for a little bit of visible growth, given its status as an inter-quel, there were a few new characters as well.  Over the course of the series, two of these new characters, Jedi padawan Ahsoka Tano and Clone Trooper Captain Rex, become the central focus of the series, as their unique views on the titular conflict allow for quite a journey for both characters.  Today, I’m looking at the first figure of one half of that pair, Captain Rex, today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain Rex was figure 4 in the first series of Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in line, and was released with the main product launch before the pilot movie hit theaters.  Just before this figure’s main release, there was a special mail-away “Sneak Preview” version, which is more or less the same figure, albeit with an ever so slightly different paint scheme, and slightly different accessories.  The one seen here is the initial release, however.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  The Clones always had the best articulation in the line, and, apart from t-hips instead of universals, it really didn’t get any better than this.  Rex shares a number of parts with the standard Clone Trooper, namely the arms and legs.  The head, torso, and pelvis were unique when the figure first dropped, but pretty much everything on the figure would eventually be re-used elsewhere.  It was generally a pretty strong sculpt.  It’s not perfect, and it certainly doesn’t have the polish of the later Jet Pack Rex, but it was a good effort for the start.  The articulation on the hips is a bit stiff, but he’s otherwise quite posable, and it’s generally a good mix of function and aesthetics.  The helmet on this figure is removable, and it’s probably the weakest aspect of the figure.  Later removable helmets were more consistent with the non-removable ones, but this one’s oddly shaped to accommodate the design set-up.  The underlying head is a passable sculpt, but it suffers from the recurring issue of the early clones, where their faces made them look much older than they should have looked.  Rex’s paint work is fairly involved, and very much on par with the rest of the figures from the same time.  The base work is a little bit on the dark side, especially on the blues, so some of the contrast is lost a bit in some spots.  As a first release, he’s also got a lot of that black wash to add the grimy look to him.  It’s a little heavy handed in some spots, but he’s at least unique when compared to later clones.  Rex is packed with his long blaster rifle, two small blaster pistols, a grapple attachment for the front of the rifle, and two different missiles for it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back when the line launched, this was one of the first four figures I grabbed from Target, prior to seeing the movie or the show.  Obviously, I didn’t know who Rex was yet, but I had liked Fordo in the 2D series, as well as his corresponding figure, so I saw this one as at the very least an update to that.  Rex would wind up becoming one of my favorite Star Wars characters, so it was a figure purchase that certainly worked out for me in the end.

#3235: Hobgoblin

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

HOBGOBLIN

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“A criminal mastermind bent on Spider-Man’s destruction, the Hobgoblin employs an eerie arsenal to carry out his malevolent schemes. Hurling pumpkin bombs and razorsharp bats from his jet glider, the Hobgoblin has Spider-Man constantly on his guard!”

When Spider-Man: The Animated Series was going into production, its story editor John Semper, who guided the show throughout its run, was not part of the initial crew.  When he arrived, he discovered that a number of odd decisions had been made by higher ups, in an aim to keep the show more relevant.  With the Green Goblin identity having been abandoned in the comics and Hobgoblin serving as the main goblin antagonist, initial plans had Norman Osborne assuming the Hobgoblin identity, rather than Green Goblin.  This choice was so cemented that Toy Biz’s tie-in line’s first assortment had already gone into production with Hobgoblin in its roster, in place of the more classic Green Goblin.  Semper disliked the choice, but was forced to keep Hobgoblin for merchandising purposes.  However, rather than make Norman Hobgoblin, Hobbie was kept a separate character, and the order of the goblin appearances was reversed, with Norman’s Green Goblin joining the show later.  But, Hobgoblin was still in the show’s opening line-up.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hobgoblin was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in line, with re-issues in both the Marvel Universe and Marvel Super Heroes lines.  The mold was also up-scaled for the 10 inch line, and downscaled for the diecast line.  He was based on Hobbie’s classic design, just like the show design.  It was really his only look at the time, so it made sense.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is rather odd; he’s got shoulders, hips, and knees on both sides, but only his right arm gets elbow movement, and he lacks a joint for his neck.  It winds up making the figure rather stiff.  His sculpt was an all-new one at the time, and wound up more or less remaining unique, though there were a couple of re-issues and minor re-colors.  It’s a decent one for the most part.  Some of the details are a little bit on the soft side, but the general layout of everything looks pretty decent, and he wasn’t a terrible match for the animation design.  His paint work is generally pretty good.  The application’s not particularly intensive, but it’s generally clean.  Though he’s clearly got sculpted elements on the hips for his shorts to go a little further, they are unpainted.  It’s not terribly noticeable, though.  Hobgoblin was packed with his Goblin Glider and a pumpkin bomb.  His arm is spring loaded, and there’s a notch in his hand so he can fling the pumpkin bomb, and the Glider also features a launching missile at the front.  None of it’s terribly obtrusive to the figure’s design, which is certainly a plus.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have the regular Hobgoblin as a kid.  I was never much attached to the character, really.  I did have the little diecast version, and one of my cousins had this particular release, but that was the real extent of it.  The one seen in the review came to me courtesy of Max.  I’ve been working on my 5 inch Marvel collection for a while, and he had snagged this guy, but ultimately didn’t feel like he needed to keep him, so he was kind enough to pass him on to me.  How very kind of him.  The figure’s okay.  There were better Hobgoblins and just better figures in general in the line.  Even the basic Green Goblin’s honestly a better figure.  But, he’s certainly not bad, especially for the era.

#3234: Mr. Knight

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

MR. KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“An expert on ancient Egypt, Steven Grant is thrust into action as Khonshu’s avatar, Mr. Knight, relying on his keen mind to enact his master’s will.”

Ohhhh! Every day I wake up, then I start to break up, lonely is a man without love!  Every day I start out, then I cry my heart out, lonely is a man without love! ….Are you guys tired of this yet?  Because, I can keep going.  Maybe I’ll just start every review with that.  You know, kick off every day with a with a little bit of Englebert?  No?  Yeah, okay, that’s fair.  Hey, how about just a little bit more Moon Knight?  There sure is a lot of Moon Knight stuff these days, and I’m on board for pretty much all of it, which translates to plenty for me to review here.  So, for the second day in a row, let’s have a look at a Moon Knight!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Knight is figure 1 in the the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends, which is, as noted yesterday, a Disney+ themed series.  He’s the second of the two Moon Knights in the set, and is, as mentioned in the bio, based on Steven’s powered up version, which is itself based on Declan Shalvey’s fancy-suited design for the character from the 2014 re-launch.  It marks the first time that the look has actually been translated into Legends form, though it’s supposedly been on the books since before we got the armored version in the Vulture Series.  Obviously, the figure’s patterned specifically on the show interpretation of the look, but there’s enough wiggle room for it to work either way.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation.  He’s structurally built pretty heavily on re-used parts from the Coulson suit body.  I’m gonna be honest, it’s a body that was decent for its time, but it’s kind of starting to show its age.  To try an update it at least a little bit, Hasbro’s fitted it with a new head, neck, tie, coat overlay, and legs.  The new head gives us his distinctive mask; it seems a little bit on the small side, but there’s at least a decent set-up with the texture work.  The new neck piece is similarly a little bit small, but the texturing matches well with the mask.  The new tie piece is likewise far more textured, capturing the unique patterning of his neck wear from the show.  The jacket piece features both the jacket and its underlying vest, with a lot more going on from a detailing standpoint than on prior pieces.  His new leg pieces aren’t drastically different than the previous ones, but now feature the pinless joints at the knees.  The feet, in contrast to the head, do seem a touch on the large side.  Not like clown shoes large or anything, but noticeably on the larger side.  Paint is rather sparse on this guy, as he’s almost entirely molded in white.  He does get just a little bit of accenting for his eyes and the buttons on his vest and jacket.  It’s enough for a visual pop, but he keeps the clean white look from the show.  Mr. Knight is packed with two sets of hands in fists and gripping poses, as well as his pair of eskrima sticks, which, it should be noted, are two distinctly different pieces, as they were in the show.  That’s impressive.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Obviously, there’s no way I could get one Moon Knight and not get the other.  The Mr. Knight look has been curiously absent from the toy world, and I’ve been waiting to see it show up somewhere.  This one…well, I overall like him.  That’s the most important thing.  That said, some of the specifics I’m not so keen on.  The arms on the old mold are kind of rough, and the new parts do wind up looking a touch piecemeal when placed together.  Ultimately, I was expecting to like him just a *touch* more than I ultimately do, but I still like him a lot.  And it’s another Moon Knight.  Gotta have another Moon Knight.

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.

#3233: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Clad in the ceremonial armor of Khonshu’s chosen warriors throughout the centuries, Marc Spector is Moon Knight, sworn to obey Khonshu and deliver his vengeance accordingly.”

Ohhhh! Every day I wake up, then I start to break up, lonely is a man without love!  Every day I start out, then I cry my heart out, lonely is a man without love!  …Wait a minute…this all seems very familiar.  Have I been here before?  Yes, yes I have.  Because I totally did this bit at the start of the last Moon Knight review.  But it was also pretty funny, and I was kinda proud of it, so I decided to do it again.  So, you know, there you go.  When last I was discussing Moon Knight, I brought up how thrilled I am about the character going mainstream.  There’s just so much more Moon Knight love going around, and I really am all for that.  It’s, of course, very much centered around the show, and I loved that too.  We’re just now starting to see the main push of actual show tie-in stuff.  I already got all the Pops (yes, Moon Knight got me to buy a whole set of Pops), but they’re not all that thrilling to review.  Marvel Legends, on the other hand, are an entirely different story!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is part of the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends, which is another Disney+ inspired round of figures.  Moon Knight is the unnumbered, no Build-a-Figure, double-pack figure for this assortment, which, given his newfound popularity, feels appropriate.  He’s actually one of two Moon Knights in the set, with this one being based specifically on the Marc personality’s powered-up look.  It’s a design that’s obviously looking to update Marc’s classic all-white costume, albeit with a few other elements mixed in.  He gains some of the armoring from the Now design, as well as some wrappings that give him a bit of a mummy vibe, certainly embracing some of that Egyptian angle for the character.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/2 inches tall and has 28 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this guy is alright, but perhaps not the top of the line.  The hips and the shoulders are a little restricted, but beyond that, he gets overall pretty decent range.  He’s also using the pinless knees and elbows, which are always a treat.  Moon Knight’s sculpt is an all-new one (courtesy of sculptor Rene Aldrete), and it’s quite a good one at that.  There’s one small inaccuracy on the figure, namely the one extra band of wrapping running over his nose; clearly this figure was based on some late stage concept designs.  It’s honestly a pretty minor thing, and I don’t mind it so much myself.  Beyond that, the sculpt tracks well with the show design, and sports an impressive selection of detail work, especially on the texturing for the wrappings.  The figure’s paint work is fairly decent; largely, he’s just molded in the appropriate color of off-white, but the accenting for the gold sections is pretty decently applied, as is the slight grey accent work.  He does strike me as a figure that could possibly use a wash to bring out some more of the texturing in the sculpt, but as it is, the sculpt’s still strong enough to do the heavy lifting.  Moon Knight is packed with two sets of hands in gripping in fists, and a pair of crescent blades, which can be combined into one.  It’s a little on the lighter side, but given the all-new sculpt, it’s not terribly surprising.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Have I mentioned that I’m a Moon Knight fan?  Because I am.  Just a touch.  I absolutely loved the show start to finish, and I’m down for anything that means more figures.  When images of the show costume first surfaced, I wasn’t sure how much I liked it, but I really enjoyed how it looked in the show, and I think that it translated really nicely to action figure form.

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.

Since there are two of this guy in a case, I was also able to snag a second one for my son Matthew, of this site’s Matty’s Corner feature.  He’s gotten quite into Moon Knight himself (though the show was just a little too intense for him), so he wants his own collection.  He insisted on sharing his thoughts on his own figure as well, so here’s what I transcribed for him!

It’s me, Matth-ew!  I like this Moon Knight figure!  My opinion of this figure is really good.  I like it.  There’s one kind of detail on the moon thing that’s kind of off.  I don’t like that they kind of put all the bandages around parts of him.  There’s a lot of gold over all of it, so the moon thing on the chest looks like a whole circle.  But other than that, I do like him, as I mentioned in the first part.  No other thoughts.  I think we’re good.  Now we can end.

#3232: Morph

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

MORPH

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The mutant shapeshifter Morph returns to haunt the X-Men after being captured and manipulated by Mr. Sinister.”

Oh, yeah, it’s all finally starting to pay off, you guys!  Remember all those X-Men: The Animated Series-themed Marvel Legends I’ve been looking at since June?  And remember how up until this point they’ve all just been reworks of other Legends releases?  Well, today, that changes!  Admittedly, it only changes for the one release, and then it’s back to the reworks, but I’ll take the wins where I can get them.  When The Animated Series launched, the creators wanted to show the seriousness of the X-Men’s battle with the Sentinels by having a casualty within the first episode.  So, they dusted off a rather minor ’60s character, Changeling, re-christened him “Morph,” and went forth with their plan of killing the poor guy off just as soon as possible.  They didn’t anticipate him being nearly as popular as he wound up being, so in the show’s second season, he was revealed to be still alive, and under the control of the season’s arc-villain, Mr. Sinister.  Though not completely original to the show, Morph is still a very show-centered concept, so he’s not been quite as privy to all the toy goodness that the rest of the team received.  He got a standard figure, a Metal Mutant, and even a Shape Shifter back in the day, but it’s only now, 20 years into Legends, that he finally shows up there.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Morph is the sixth figure in the X-Men: The Animated Series sub-line of Marvel Legends, and the first figure to debut a character in Legends….well, unless you count his AoA counterpart as his actual debut, but that’s a legal grey area at best.  Following Jean’s precedent, Morph was shown off and put up for sale on his own.  Like the rest of the line, Morph ships in a VHS-styled box (sporting art by Dan Veesenmeyer), and I still really dig these things.  Morph’s is certainly a lot of fun.  The figure stands just over 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Structurally, Morph is built on the Vulcan body, which is a sensible enough starting point, especially if Hasbro’s looking to really cement it as the Bucky Cap’s replacement.  He also makes use of the jacket piece from Old Man Logan and the arms are from Punisher, as well as an all-new head, belt, and altered legs.  All of the new pieces are courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding, and they’re quite an impressive selection.  The head does a good job of capturing the animated Morph’s general character, while also being just a touch more in line with the standard stylings of the line.  The new legs replicate the various ’90s X-Men straps, previously handled via add-on pieces that tended to fall down a lot.  Now, they’re worked into the legs, and it’s honestly so much nicer this way.  Morph’s paint work continues with cel-shading that we’ve seen with the rest of the line, thought this time around it does seem just a touch less present, so that he won’t look nearly as out of place with non-animation based figures.  It’s rather considerate, since this is Morph’s first 6-inch figure.  Morph is packed with a second head sculpt, based on his “evil” look from Season 2, and two sets of hands in fists and relaxed poses.  The extra head is really nicely handled, looking consistent to the standard head, but again capturing the feel of the show design.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Morph is the figure I was most hoping to see in this line, right from the beginning.  He wound up going up for order while I was on the road, actually, but I was able to get him ordered without too much fuss.  I’ve been eagerly awaiting his release, and I’m thrilled to have him in hand.  He’s easily my favorite figure from this set thus far, and he gives me a bit more hope for the line after being a little bit underwhelmed by a few of the mid-run figures.  He turned out really well, and he’s a great update to the original Toy Biz figure.