Monthly Archives: July 2023

#3402: Molecule Man

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

MOLECULE MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Owen Reece aka Molecule Man possesses near-limitless power to re-order the world around him at the molecular level”

Molecule Man was first introduced during Fantastic Four‘s second year, and was initially a rather formulaic creation from Stan and Jack.  He’s a normal guy, bombarded by radiation, granting him super powers.  So, he puts on a green and purple outfit and decides to become a supervillain, because he was in a book that had somebody else’s name in the title.  Despite his formulaic origins, Reece was a rather high-power-level character, which meant coming up with unique ways to keep him out of commission, which they did for about two decades, before rolling him into the otherwise pretty heavy-hitter driven Secret Wars event.  At that point, it was revealed that the radiation that bombarded Owen wasn’t just random, it was in fact part of the Beyonder’s power, making Molecule Man an even stronger player than he realized.  He plays a key role in getting the people stranded on Battleworld home, and has since then tended to fall into the part of a man attempting to reform himself…sometimes literally.  And now he has a Marvel Legend.  Let’s check that out.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Molecule Man is figure 1 in the Puff Adder Series of Marvel Legends, which is officially branded as an Avengers assortment, though Molecule Man’s place in such a line-up is a little bit iffy, since he’s more FF, or just general Marvel Universe.  I mean, the last FF wave had High Evolutionary, so I guess there’s a degree of trade-off going on there.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Molecule Man uses the Red Skull jumpsuit body as his starting point, which certainly makes a fair bit of sense for the character.  He’s got a new head, torso, and skirt piece, which suitably transform him into a different character.  Molecule Man’s look has made some pretty radical evolutions over the years, as he’s gone from quite deformed and unattractive to something more conventionally handsome.  This one is closer to his more recent appearances, seemingly taking the most influence from Mike Detato’s version of him from Dark Avengers.  It’s not strictly classic, but it’s also not a terrible look, so I don’t hate it.  At least he’s still got funky hair to keep him *a little* weird looking.  Paint is quite minimal on this guy, with the vast majority of his coloring being handled by molded colors.  He still gets all of the important details, mind you, and the molded pieces result in a pretty sharp color set-up for the guy, suiting his classic design nicely.  His face gets some printed detailing, which works especially well with the scarring.  Molecule Man is packed with two sets of hands (in fists and open gesture), two purple energy effects, and the left leg to the Puff Adder Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Molecule Man is one of those characters I’ve always liked in concept, but never definitively latched onto in practice quite as much.  He’s been rare on the toy side, with only the Minimate prior to this.  I did like that one, though, and I was *kinda* intrigued by this one.  However, I was still a touch on the fence up until getting my set to review.  Having him in hand, I actually do really like him.  If I had one complaint, it’s that we didn’t get an alternate, earlier looking head sculpt, just to give him a broader coverage, but beyond that, I do find myself quite enjoying this 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 and their eBay storefront.

#3401: Drax

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

DRAX

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Drax finally dons a shirt and becomes a more active member of the Guardians by helping set up their new headquarters–but he still has trouble thinking before he acts.”

Everybody gets a real character arc in all three Guardians movies, and Drax’s is getting a shirt on over his sensitive nipples. Right? Okay, no, not quite. In fact, his arc, much like the other Guardians, is about learning how to be a part of a family again, even if it’s not quite the family he was expecting. It’s admittedly a pretty nice arc for the guy. Also, he starts wearing shirts. Good for him.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Drax is figure 1 in the Cosmo Series of Marvel Legends, which serves as the tie-in for Guardians Vol 3. He’s seen here in his full team uniform, a marked change from his last two figures. The figure stands about 6 3/4 inches tall and has 30 points of articulation. Like Star-Lord, Drax is making use of prior molds for the character, though in Drax’s case, those molds go back to the very first film’s tie-in stuff. This figure makes use of the legs and feet from the previous movie Draxes, and apart from the visible pins on the knees, they honestly hold up quite well. Drax obviously gets a new torso and arms, so as to give him his shirt. It matches well with both the movie and with the Star-Lord figure, so those are both pluses. Drax also gets a new head. Like his first figure, this one is back to being calm. It’s not drastically different, but it does get a slight improvement to the Batista likeness. Drax’s color work is generally alright. Nothing major to write home about. As with Star-Lord, the red stripes stop right at the hips, rather than continuing into the pocket the way they do in the movie, but that’s a symptom of those re-used parts. Application on the reds is a little sloppy around the edges, but otherwise he looks pretty clean. Drax is packed with his two knives, as well as the front right leg of Cosmo.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Drax is a character I keep thinking I don’t need to update, and then I keep liking his new figures more than I expected to. I largely grabbed this guy because I was getting the whole team in their fancy new suits, but I really like how he turned out, especially with that new likeness.

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 and their eBay storefront.

Matty’s Corner #0006: Iron Spider

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Matty's Corner

IRON SPIDER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Hi, Ethan here!  Welcome to Matthew’s Corner, where I’m collecting the mad ramblings of my 7 year old Matthew, who also likes to talk about action figures.  What can I say, I’m sympathetic to his need to ramble about action figures.  So, I’m just gonna let him take it away…though, for what it’s worth, I’m still transcribing for him.

Hello!  I’ve not been doing the actual figures I was supposed to be doing, because there are a lot of other figures you would actually see.  In other reviews that I have been saying that I would be doing Venom next, but I’ve only taken the pictures and I keep forgetting to do the actual review.  I haven’t reviewed in a long time.  I’ve been waiting to collect more figures.  I had a hard time finding the right review for Venom, so I’m not reviewing him today.  I’m sorry that I didn’t find the right review.  I was really trying to.  I am actually reviewing Iron Spider.  Can I say one more thing about Venom?  Because there’s one more thing!  I’ve actually started the review, but I got stressed out, and couldn’t find the right thing to say.  I think we’re gonna move to the figure itself. *screeching noise* [At this point, he woke up his mother, who thought his screeching was the baby.  We’re gonna promise to be quieter now–E]

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This is Iron Spider.  He’s from Marvel Legends.  He’s from the Spider-Man anniversary line.  The figure is 6 inches tall and for points of articulation, he has 52.  It is good articulation.  The claws on the back have a little bad articulation, but you can still move them around.  The sculpt is good.  With most of them, you can’t move the head like a real person’s head would go.  The neck is a little more skinny than a figure neck would be and you would reference it as a figure neck.  I think they did a pretty good sculpt of the tentacles on the back.  They got pretty good detail on the hands and the head.  For the head specifically, it’s got a pretty good shape.  It’s actually pretty much the shape of a real person’s head.  The colors are red and gold.  It’s a weird amount of colors.  You usually see like five or four, but there’s only two on this one.  And it’s really easy to remember if you do a review, if you lost that one figure that you were doing and you searched all over your room.  If that actually happened to you today.  The colors are in good spots.  I would prefer the red on the eyes, but they made it how they made it.  Pretty good for a figure.  He comes with four hands and three tentacles, which are also good sculpting and color.  Especially for the fist hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I like this figure and my Dad got it for me.  There’s a reason.  I did a lot of good stuff around the house and saved up to get him.  As you see, my Dad is very nice and makes a lot of good deals with me.  He really likes getting me stuff.  He gets me like two things a week.  Last week he got me three.  Pretty good, but I’ve lost most of the pieces already.  Should I end the whole review on it?  What do you guys think?  I want to get comments.  If you really like this review, you should give me comments of what I should do.  I want maybe three or four.  Probably four because that’s a higher number so it’s better.

#3400: X-Men Villains

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

STRYFE, PRETTY BOY, ZERO, VERTIGO, & RANDOM

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Heroes are only as good as their adversaries and in their 60-year history, the X-Men have faced some of the fiercest foes in comics.”

That bio is definitely some poor Hasbro copy-writer’s way of saying “I’m not looking up info on all of these low tier X-villains.” And who can blame them, really? The X-Men have had a lot of villains, but, admittedly, only a handful have really stuck. Starting in the mid-80s or so, there were more and more space fillers, as every evil mutant gained their own team. And, in honor of those space fillers, Hasbro’s done a whole box set of them, seemingly chosen at random. And also with Random. Get it? Because Random is in the….and his name is…yeah, I’ll see myself out. Or I’ll just jump into the actual review.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Stryfe, Pretty Boy, Zero, Vertigo, and Random make up the Marvel Legends X-Men Villains set, which is a Fan Channel set. There’s not really a strict theme to this one beyond being villains from a roughly overlapping period of time in the late ’80s/early ’90s.

STRYFE

If there’s a solid selling point to this set, it’s this guy. He’s certainly the most notable of the characters included here. He’s also the only one to have a prior Legend. That said, the figure was part of the Jubilee Series, which is one of the most difficult modern assortments to get, leading to a hefty aftermarket value for Stryfe. The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation. Stryfe has a good number of parts in common with his last release, with the bulk of the body being shared between the two. The legs have been modified to remove the pins at the knees, and he’s got a new head and arms, as well as what looks like a new cape. The new head is definitely doing most of the heavy lifting for this figure; the last one wasn’t bad, but it didn’t have a lot of depth. This one’s using a multi-part construction, which makes it far sharper in terms of detailing, and really sells the absurdity of “Wolverine’s mask but more so” that Stryfe’s mask always had. This Stryfe figure’s color work errs a little closer to his earlier appearances than his last figure, going for a brighter shade of silver, as well as some blue accenting. It’s a lot of molded colors, but there’s paint for the face, as well as those blue accents. The face gets the printing, which adds some life to the sculpt. The accent work for the blue is a touch on the sloppier side, but not awful. Stryfe is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture.

PRETTY BOY

Pretty Boy’s honestly a pretty decent selling point for this set, too. The Reavers have been kind of a slow build in the line, going back to 2019’s Caliban Series, and with Pretty Boy, we’ve got the original core group. So, of course he’s in a big boxed set. Ah well. Over the years, just how much of Pretty Boy is cybernetic has ebbed and flowed, but this one goes towards the heavier side. The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation. Pretty Boy gets an all-new sculpt, featuring a head courtesy of Paul Harding. It’s a good mix of aesthetics, as you’d hope to see for the character. I quite like the head, which captures the early depictions of the guy quite nicely. The body sculpt gets a lot of fun technical details, and I’m curious to see if it gets pulled again for future uses. It’s certainly a good, solid robot body. Pretty Boy uses a lot of molded plastic for his coloring, but still gets true face printing, as well as a little bit of wire detailing on the midsection. Pretty Boy makes out the best of any this set’s figures for accessories, with two sets of hands, a pair of guns (from Flashback Winter Soldier), two blast effects, and two smoke effects. The effects are in a funky green and I really dig it.

ZERO

The only other Mutant Liberation Front figure in the set besides Stryfe, and also by far the most minor of the bunch, Zero is honestly the best choice for this sort of set. Zero only has a few appearances, so just the one look, but it’s kind of fun in its simplicity. The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation. Zero is built on the Spider-UK base body, which is honestly a pretty good match for how he tended to be depicted. It’s still got all the visible pins, but I’ll take what I can get. He gets a new head, which is all blank. It’s basic but it sits very well on the body, and it gets the job done. Zero is largely just molded white plastic. He does get a little bit of paint for the face and torso for the zeroes, and that’s pretty sharp. Zero is packed with two sets of hands, as well as the portal effect from the Defender Strange figure from last year.

VERTIGO

Vertigo is a character that’s kind of done the rounds in the X-verse, first serving as one of Magneto’s Savage Land Mutates, and then joining Mr. Sinister’s Marauders, and yet she’s still never had a figure. First time for everything. The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation. While all of the other figures in this set have some degree of new parts, Vertigo is a total re-use figure. The head is the modern Invisible Woman, and the body is Psylocke.  While I’m not generally big on direct head re-uses for separate characters, especially for unmasked heads, this one honestly works out okay.  It helps that it’s on the Psylocke body, which is genuinely still a pretty solid one.  The big change-up here is the paint, which gives her the proper white and green set-up, which is pretty distinct.  Vertigo is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture.  It’s a bit light, given her status as a total re-use, and it’s a shame we couldn’t get any sort of effects pieces for her powers or something.

RANDOM

And now we get to Random.  As random an inclusion here as his name suggests.  Also, very much toeing the line on fitting the set’s whole “villains” theme, since he’s never really been worse than a hired gun, with no real villainous tendencies, and he’s frequently been actively in the heroic camp, notably his time with X-Factor.  But, I’m not gonna turn my nose up at a Random figure, however I get him.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Random makes use of a good number of parts from the Thanos Series Hercules figure, with the vest from Rage, plus a new head, boots, and left forearm.  The whole thing winds up as a pretty impressive recreation of Random’s main ’90s look. I’m especially a fan of the head sculpt, with its multi-part construction for the head, bandana, and sunglasses.  There’s just a lot going on there, and it really works.  Random’s color work is actually pretty impressively handled.  The head again gets a lot of really in depth work, with printing for his stubble, and even slightly transparent lenses for the glasses.  I also really dig the tattoos on the arms; they add a lot of character.  Random doesn’t get any accessories, but honestly, he makes out alright without them.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set’s announcement filled me with mixed emotions.  They’d shown off Pretty Boy first, and I was excited about rounding our my Reavers, but then they showed off the whole set of them together and I was suddenly less sure.  I mean, it’s a lot to spend, and how attached was I to the whole set?  Well, okay, it was really just Stryfe I wasn’t sold on, as it turned out.  But, wouldn’t you know it, at the same time, Max was frustrated that the Stryfe he wanted was bundled with other figures.  So, we struck up a deal, and he got his Stryfe, and I got my….rest of the set.  Random and Pretty Boy are the real stars here for me, thanks to rounding out two sets I’ve been working on.  But, the real underdog for me is Zero.  He’s basic, but where else are you gonna get a Zero?

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

#3399: Starjammer Corsair

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

STARJAMMER CORSAIR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Cyclops’ world is forever changed when Starjammer Captain and cavalier space pirate Corsair reveals he’s Christopher Summers, Scott’s long-lost father.”

Man, spoilers much?  I mean, seriously, what if I’m not up on my reading from the ’70s?  Or my viewing from the ’90s?  Won’t you think of the people that live under rocks, and yet still inexplicably buy toys?  No?  Well, that’s probably fair.  Since we already know his big secret, I guess, here’s Corsair!  Corsair, the assiumed name of Christopher Summers.  Which is just one name.  Like Madonna.  Or Beyonce.  It’s certainly not “Corsair Summers,” I’ll tell you that much.  Why bring this up?  Personal trauma, that’s why.  But let’s not get into that.  There’s an awesome Corsair figure to be looked at!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Corsair is figure 4 in the Ch’od Series of Marvel Legends.  This assortment has an interesting flow to it, all sort of headed by Cyclops, so it’s rather appropriate that Scott’s father would be a part of the set.  This is Corsair’s first time as a Legend, and only his third time as a figure, following his Toy Biz and Minimate counterparts.  He’s based on his original, sans shoulder pads design, which makes sense, since that’s the one he’s spent most of his carreer wearing.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Corsair makes use of the Vulcan body, which is a sensible choice, seeing as it’s the one used by two of his three sons, and he’s typically depicted as about the same build as them.  He gets a new head and belt piece, as well as a modified upper torso (adding the collar) and forearms (adding the gloves).  I love the new head sculpt.  It really captures that feel of Corsair, and he’s even got that flowy hair!  Plus the dynamic flow on his headband looks really cool, too.  The new torso piece is somewhat baffling, not because it’s bad or anything, but because it’s a different piece than the nearly identical piece that was just used for Banshee, who is also built on the same base body.  Sure, the collars are a little different, but different enough for there to need to be two distinct and different pieces?  I don’t really feel so.  I’m not complaining, or anything, but it’s certainly odd.  Corsair’s paint work is clean, bright, and bold, which are really all of the things that I’d want out of it.  There’s a little extra detailing to help bring some more life to the face, which is very nice, and it’s otherwise just very clean.  Corsair is packed with two sets of hands (in gripping and fists), his pistol, his sword (re-used from Citizen V), and the right arm for the Ch’od Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

“The Phoenix Saga” is hands down my favorite portion of the X-Men books (and also the animated series), so I’m down for anything related to it in toy form.  I’ve held onto my old Toy Biz figure since he was new, but I’ve been hoping to see some Legends love for a while.  Hasbro definitely didn’t disappoint with this one.  He does what he needs to, and he does it well, and he’s just a lot of fun, as a good space pirate should be.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3398: Wasp

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

WASP

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Hope Van Dyne is now the leader of Pym Van Dyne Industries, a global organization focused on improving life on Earth with groundbreaking technology.”

Okay, I’m gonna level with you guys: I don’t have a good intro for this one.  Like, I really tried.  I wrote several variations of an intro explaining something about Hope Van Dyne, and it just never clicked, and it all felt boring.  So, I’m sorry.  I couldn’t come up with anything better.  It’s not even that I don’t like Hope, or the Wasp.  I do.  But, what is there to say?  It’s all been said, right?  Right.  So, you get this thing instead.  Ta-daaaaaa?  ….let’s just look at the figure, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wasp is the first figure in the Cassie Lang Series of Marvel Legends, based on her updated design from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.  While Scott just gets minor tweaks to the overall design, Hope’s new look is a little more removed.  It borrows a lot from Jan’s black and gold number from the comics.  I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of that look in the comics, but something about how it was adapted here just feels like it works a bit better.  Maybe it’s the blue accenting?  It could be.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 26 points of articulation, 30 if you’ve got her set-up with the fully-extended wings.  Hope gets an all-new sculpt, and it’s honestly a pretty good one.  Her last figure wasn’t bad, but it was a little bit odd on the proportions.  This one is definitely a bit more natural, and the articulation is definitely more worked in.  The detailing on the textures is definitely top-notch here, and she once again gets that awesome transparent lens set-up on the helmeted head.  It looks super spiffy.  Wasp’s color work is pretty solid stuff.  The colors on her suit are actually largely painted, which is a bit of a change-up, but they’re handled quite well.  The application’s nice and clean, and the yellow and blue definitely give her some pop.  Wasp is packed with a second, unmasked head, which has a respectable likeness of Evangeline Lily, which is honestly even better than the last one, which was a pretty good offering itself.  She’s also got an alternate wing pack that’s collapsed, as well as two sets of hands, one in fists, the other open, and the right leg to the Cassie Lang Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After the last Wasp, I wasn’t in desperate need of a new one or anything, since that one was pretty good.  Her new design is pretty cool, I’ll admit, but cool enough that I needed another figure?  Well, sort of, but it was largely the BaF piece that was fueling it, I think.  But, I was kind of open-minded on this one, I think, and it paid off.  Like Ant-Man, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one.  She’s not *quite* on the same level as Ant-Man, but she’s pretty nice.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3397: Wonder Man

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

WONDER MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Longtime Avenger Simon Williams makes a move out West to join his friends as a founding member of the West-Coast Avengers”

When he was introduced in Avengers #9, Wonder Man was originally intended to only be a one-off character, seeing as he died at the end of his first appearance and all. This was further solidified by DC Comics letting Marvel know that they weren’t really fans of a “Wonder Man” potentially confusing readers of their own “Wonder Woman”. Marvel repurposed much of Wonder Man’s arc with the similarly powered Power Man…and then DC introduced a “Power Girl”, and Marvel decided all bets were off and brought Wonder Man back from the dead. When Simon came back, he held onto his original green outfit for a bit, before getting a George Perez designed update.  That update (dubbed by some fans as one of his worst, though I don’t fall in with them myself) was itself pretty short-lived, and was damaged just a few issues later.  Simon donned what was meant to be civilian garb in the mean time, but the look, which featured a pair of sunglasses and a distinctive red safari jacket, wound up sticking, lasting over seven years.  It’s a rarity on the toy front, but it’s gotten a Minimate, and now, it’s also got a Marvel Legend.  And, would you look at that?  I’ve made it all the way through this intro without totally going crazy about the fact that THEY TOTALLY MADE A SAFARI JACKET WONDER MAN MARVEL LEGEND AND IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED AND ITS BEEN MADE AND NOW IT HAVE IT AND I’M TOTALLY GONNA REVIEW IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

…sorry, I could only hold that in for so long.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wonder Man is figure 4 in the Puff Adder Series of Marvel Legends, which is this year’s first Avengers line-up.  This figure marks Simon’s second Legends figure from Hasbro (the last one was back in the Abomination Series), and his fourth overall (counting the Toy Biz version and his variant).  Thus far, they’ve all been based on different outfits, and not exactly in any particular order at that.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation (though that ab-crunch is largely rendered motionless by the jacket).  Wonder Man makes use of the jumpsuited-base body from Red Skull, along with the arm bands from Genis-Vell, and a new head, jacket, and turtleneck piece.  The new parts are courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding, and the head in particular is really the star piece here.  Harding has his own running project called “Marvel in the 70s”, and this piece is definitely designed to fit right in with those.  He captures that classic Perez feel, without actually being too artist-specific.  I especially love that toothy grin; perfect for the character, especially in this incarnation.  Wonder Man figures so frequently look rather dour, so this one is a very refreshing change of pace.  On my figure, his glasses are ever so slightly askew in their attachment, which appears to be a recurring thing, but it’s honestly minor, and easily fixed if one is so inclined.  The color work on this guy is quite bright and colorful, exactly as you’d hope to see for this design.  It’s largely molded colors, which keeps it pretty clean.  He gets a little bit of painted detailing for the silver on his zipper, as well as printing for the face.  The glasses are transparent, so you can make out the eyes beneath, which is definitely a cool touch.  Wonder Man is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture, as well as rocket effects to plug into the sides of his belt, and the left arm of Puff Adder.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been a Wonder Man fan since Busiek and Perez’s Avengers #2 hit in 1998, and I first asked my dad who the heck this Wonder Man guy was.  Once I figured out who he was, I started reading whatever I could of him, and one of my favorites was his 1986 one-shot, which features him in the Safari Jacket get-up, which quickly became my favorite of his looks.  I’ve honestly been waiting for a good figure of it since then, and it’s been a long wait.  Thankfully, this isn’t just a good figure, it’s a great figure.  Such a great figure.

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

#3396: Star-Lord

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

STAR-LORD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Peter Quill must do whatever it takes to save a friend whose life is in danger.”

Oh, man, what are we looking at today?  Is it more Marvel Legends?  Of course it is, silly.  Why would it be anything else?  There’s, like, five assortments that hit all at once.  I gotta get through them somehow.  When the first Guardians of the Galaxy was released, Star-Lord was a very minor Marvel character, played by a guy whose main claim to fame was as a supporting player on an NBC sit-com.  Three films and just shy of a decade later, Star-Lord’s a household name, played by a movie star who’s in literally everything.  Seriously, they just announced a film adaptation of the Figure in Question, and Chris Pratt’s playing the Question Mark Guy.  Who does this guy know?  Well, let’s just jump into the review before I too am replaced by Chris Pratt.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Star-Lord is the un-numbered double pack figure for the Cosmo Series of Marvel Legends, which serves as the tie-in assortment for Guardians Vol 3.  Remember the days when they had to rely on Iron Man as the assortment’s heavy hitter?  After several figures detailing various variations on his Ravager look, this time around Star-Lord’s sporting his new, more comics-inspired team suit.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  This Star-Lord makes use of a lot of parts from his Vol. 2 sculpt.  It’s not a perfect match for his look in the movie, but it’s close enough to fudge it.  He gets a new head and torso to sell it.  The new head is Hasbro’s best Pratt likeness to date, which is saying something, because the Vol. 2 head was honestly pretty good itself.  But, this one just showcases the subtle improvement’s Hasbro’s made in the six years since the last one, and it really works in his favor.  The coloring on Star-Lord is a bit different, since he’s got the new color scheme for the uniform.  The head gets the printing, which is nice and lifelike, and one of the big improvements over the last one.  The uniform is generally pretty solid in its paint, though they did go a bit more basic on the smaller details.  That said, the major elements are all there, which sells the main look well.  Peter’s a little light on the accessories front, getting only a pair of blasters.  They aren’t his usual blasters, and are instead modified to only feature the top blaster element.  It’s noteworthy that he actually uses his classic blasters with this look, and uses the modified ones while incognito during the film’s heist sequence.  That said, I don’t mind the new pieces as an option, especially since we’ve gotten the other ones so many times before.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I kind of thought I was done needing new Star-Lord figures after Vol. 2, and I’d even skipped the Love and Thunder version to illustrate that point.  That said, I hadn’t anticipated the proper team suits, and at that point, they got me back in.  How dare they?  He’s not a perfect figure, and he’s definitely light on the accessories, but I enjoy him.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3395: Banshee, Gambit, & Psylocke

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

BANSHEE, GAMBIT, & PSYLOCKE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Intrigue over the throne of the Shi’ar Empire has drawn Banshee and his sonic scream to space fighting alongside fellow X-Men…or possibly against them. New recruit Gambit leaps and blasts his way through the Starjammers and Imperial Guard with his kinetically-charged deck of cards and bo staff. Telepath Betsy Braddock cuts through secret plots that lurk on Shi’ar homeworld Chandilar with her psychic blades.”

At the tail end of the ’80s going into the ’90s, eventual superstar artist Jim Lee became Uncanny X-Men‘s regular penciller.  He would eventually pay a major role in a revamp the entire line, but before that, he did some slightly more minor re-working in Uncanny.  Since the founding five were still over in X-Factor, and Nightcrawler and Kitty had moved over to Excalibur, Uncanny placed its focus on some of the more minor characters, who were at that point still bouncing around Muir Island.  This more eclectic (at the time) cast of characters were given an updated version of the original matching X-uniforms and rebranded as the “Strike Force Team.”  While the looks were generally short-lived, they serve as a great excuse for a toy companies to put out a whole set of popular X-Men with one consistent look, utilizing very similar tooling for the figures.  As part of the 60th Anniversary of the X-Men, Hasbro’s decided to jump on that particular band-wagon, putting out the whole team at once.  Today, I’m looking at three of those figures.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Banshee, Gambit, and Psylocke are one of the pair of Marvel Legends three-packs (the other one featuring Storm, Forge, and Jubilee) that, in conjunction with the single-release Wolverine from the last retro card assortment, give us the whole seven-member line-up of the Strike Force.  All of them are based on their designs from Uncanny X-Men #275, where the team debuted.

BANSHEE

Okay, let’s all be clear on the real selling point of this set: it’s Banshee.  Banshee was one of the very first Marvel Legends from Hasbro….and it wasn’t exactly a high point for the line.  It was also 16 years ago, and sporting his classic green and yellow, rather than the blue and gold.  Banshee was one of two characters to keep the Strike Force uniform as his main look into the larger ’90s relaunch, which gives this one a little extra range, adding to the hook of him selling the set.  Gotta have him for that X-Men #1 line-up.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Banshee is built on the Vulcan base body, with the Lee-strap-bearing legs from Morph, as well as a new set of forearms, a modified upper torso with a collar, and two new head sculpts, all supplied by sculptor Paul Harding. The last Banshee was built on the Bullseye body, which was still new at the time. The Vulcan is a replacement for the Bucky Cap, which was itself the effective replacement for the Bullseye, which makes this a solid choice for Banshee. The new pieces are definitely fun. The two heads give us options for screaming or not, as well as offering up two different hair styles. The calm head gets his muttonchops and is decidedly very ’70s, so it’s definitely my favorite of the two. I’m sure it’s also already tapped for reuse on the inevitable green Banshee. Banshee’s wings are cloth pieces, which is pretty standard. I’m not super keen on the big tabs sticking off of the body to attach them, but at least they don’t constantly fall off the way the original did. Like Syrin, they’re only printed on one side, but at least the way they hang, you won’t really see that. Banshee’s color work is nice and bold. A lot of it’s molded colors, which keeps it very clean. The faces get the printing, which looks lifelike, and what paint is there is cleanly applied. Banshee gets two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture.

GAMBIT

The Strike Force set-up was an important one for Gambit, who wasn’t yet a proper member of the team prior to that sequence of events, but wound up a series regular for quite a while afterwards. He’s had a couple of figures with this look in the past, though no Legends. He was actually amongst the possible candidates for the Fan Poll figure in 2007, but lost out to AoA Sunfire, who actually managed to get two whole figures before this guy got one. The 2007 figure would have gotten a sculpted jacket, though, while this one goes sans-jacket instead. The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 34 points of articulation. His construction is a lot of the same parts used for Banshee, but without the wings, and with a different collar piece. He gets a brand new sculpt, also from Paul Harding. I think that the Retro card release still has my favorite sculpt for the character, but this one’s absolutely no slouch, and certainly a close second. His color work is similar to Banshee, as expected. It’s bold and clean. The face is printed, which does the sculpt a lot of favors. The headgear on mine has a couple of noticeable paint chips, which aren’t awful, but are a little annoying. Gambit is packed with standard gripping hands for both sides, as well as two alternate lefts, one for holding a single card, the other throwing three of them. He also gets his single charged card, his staff, and a satchel (re-used from Green Goblin).

PSYLOCKE

Is it really an X-Men three-pack without a Psylocke?  I mean, okay, sure, it is sometimes, but also there’s been three separate instances where she’s been part of one, so, like, that’s kind of crazy, right?  I mean, seriously, we’ve had four Psylocke Legends under Hasbro, and three of them were in three-packs.  It’s an interesting metric.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 31 points of articulation.  Psylocke is sporting the body that’s been designed to be the female equivalent of the base body Banshee and Gambit are sporting, and it’s also shared with Storm from the other pack.  It seems maybe a touch squat and short for Betsy at this period in the comics, but overall it works reasonably well-enough.  She gets an all-new head sculpt, which gives us Psylocke with a ponytail, which is at least a more unique set-up.  Her color work matches up with what we saw on the other two in the set; it’s bright and colorful, and the application on the paint is fairly crisp and clean.  Psylocke is packed with two sets of hands, one set in gripping, one in a flat/fist combo, as well as her assortment of psychic weapons (the psychic knife, katana, and effect piece) from the last two releases.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been waiting for an update to Banshee since…well, shortly after the release of the last Banshee, really.  With Black Tom and Siryn getting updates, the lack of an updated Sean was getting really notable.  This one isn’t the look I wanted the most, but it’s still a good one, and it’s a key look for the Lee X-Men line-up.  He’s also a pretty strong figure in general, and definitely feels worth the wait.  Oh, and there’s the other two figures, too.  They’re fine, I guess.  They’re not Banshee, though.  So.  You know.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3394: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With the loss of Jean Grey still weighing on the team, Cyclops must rally the X-Men to face unprecedented new threats.”

At the turn of the millennium, the X-Men were in a rather creatively bankrupt spot, having burned out exactly all of the momentum they had built up at the beginning of the prior decade.  In order to rejuvenate things, as well as bring things more in line with the first live action film, Marvel hired JLA scribe Grant Morrison, who did a hefty re-work on the team.  And, at the end of Morrison’s run, which was admittedly a rather self-contained story, they needed to re-work things again to keep them rolling forward.  So, they brought in another big-name writer, Joss Whedon, and paired him with a big-name artist, John Cassidy, and they launched Astonishing X-Men.  The results were admittedly pretty mixed, and ultimately, the book kind of thrashed around without purpose for another good while.  But Cassidy did at least come up with some pretty cool costume designs for the team, and that included a cool Cyclops who also makes for a cool figure.  Neat.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is the one unnumbered figure in the Ch’od Series of Marvel Legends, which is the second X-Men assortment of the year, and the first to get a Build-A-Figure.  Cyclops himself is the non-Build-A-Figure-piece-bearing double-pack figure for the assortment.  He’s based specifically on Cassidy’s revamped costume for the character, and marks the second time the look has been adapted to Legends, following one waaaaaay back in Hasbro’s first year with the license. The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation. His articulation scheme is pretty much the same as the Vulcan body, which is a pretty good set-up for Scott. That being said, his actual sculpt doesn’t appear to be borrowing any parts from the Vulcan body, instead being and all-new offering, courtesy of Rene Aldrete. It matches the build of the Vulcan base, which is a good fit for Scott, but adds all of the specific elements for this particular design, with all of the piping, seams, and buckles being 3D elements. It works quite well. I’m not a fan of how the wrist pieces sit, but beyond that, I do like it. The head in particular is rather fun; the little bit of stray energy trailing from his visor is a unique touch.  Though not advertised anywhere, like, at all, the energy effect can be removed, if you so choose.  It leaves quite an indent on the head, and you can’t swap it for other blast effects, which is a slight bummer, but the options are nice. Cyclops’s color work is pretty solid. Not a ton going on, but what’s there is very clean, and gets the job done. Cyclops is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and a relaxed/visor operating combo. It’s a bit light, given he’s got no Build-A-Figure piece, but he’s also a totally new sculpt, so it’s offset.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Astonishing X-Men was the first X-book I actively read while it was coming out, so I have a bit of a nostalgic kick for it. Admittedly, it doesn’t really hold up in the end, but there’s no denying that Cassidy’s art was its strongest suit. And I’m always a sucker for a new Cyclops. This one is quite nice. Is he VHS Cyclops? No, but he’s still very nice, and it’s clear a lot of care went into him.

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 and their eBay storefront.