R.O.N. REAPER OF NIGHTMARES, NEXUS, AMERICAN CRUSADER, CAPTAIN FUTURE, PUZZLER, CHROMETURION

AMAZING HEROES (FRESH MONKEY FICTION)

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?  Is this another review on the same day?  Oh no…it couldn’t be.  Yes, faithful readers, you’ve done it.  You’ve stumbled onto another one of my crazy “Ethan does a marathon of reviews all in one day” schemes!  And you can’t stop me…largely because I’ve, you know, already written and scheduled them all.  So, you know, it’s kind of done and all ready to go.  Yes, at the beginning of the week, I was pining for the thrill of the Day of the Vipers and the Day of the Wolverines, and I may have hinted at doing something like that again.  Well, I wasn’t *quite* planning to do it again quite this soon, but the spot opened up in my schedule and I was feeling dangerous.  So, without further ado, welcome readers to The Day of Amazement!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These figures are loosely grouped as Series 2 of Amazing Heroes, but the path to getting them released was not an easy one.  After running successful Kickstarter campaigns for Series 1 and 1.5, Fresh Monkey Fiction ran into issues getting the next assortment funded.  The initial Series 2 campaign failed (which, admittedly, wasn’t their fault; toy Kickstarters had been hit by a slew of projects that never delivered, and it dragged the whole platform down), so they attempted to move the line to a different scale and style.  That didn’t work either, so they refocused, launching a Kickstarter for just American Crusader, and carrying Puzzler, Captain Future, and Chrometurion through as add-ons.  Cosmic Madman (not reviewed here) and Nexus arrived as “pre-orders” through Backer Kit after the campaign had ended, with all remnants moving to Fresh Monkey Fiction’s site, and R.O.N. was released as his own artist-sponsored figure.  The point is, they made it out.

American Crusader was the ship that carried the rest, so to speak.  Archie Masters gained super powers when he absentmindedly wandered into a room with an atom smasher built by one of his colleagues.  Yes, for real.  He uses the standard body, so he’s 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He makes use of the sans-hair head, which works well for his full cowled head.  He’s also got a cape, which is a basic black cloth piece.  In the comics, it was lined with blue, but that was probably more of an artistic thing than a true color choice.  American Crusader’s paint work is a little on the sloppier side, at least for my copy.  It’s not awful, it’s just some wavier lines on some of the change-overs.

Captain Future, aka Andrew Bryant, was a scientist who crossed gamma and infrared rays and discovered that when you do that, stuff blows up.  But, instead of just blowing up, he got super powers.  You know, as you do.  Captain Future was originally owned by the same publisher as American Crusader, Nedor, but it’s worth noting that they actually took his name from a pre-existing pulp character and magazine.  There were no similarities beyond the name, and his name actually had very little to due with the character himself.  Andrew here is using the standard male head, with no additional add-ons.  Like Crusader, his paint seems a little fuzzier, especially on the head.  I’m also not so sure about how the molded flesh tone works, but it’s not awful.

Hey, it’s a villain!  That’s a shift!  Yes, the Puzzler, who isn’t to be confused with the Riddler, the Cluemaster, or even the Puzzler (the other one), is a Black Terror foe.  He’s also a character who’s in a sort of a grey area where he’s kinda public domain and he’s kinda not, but no one knows for sure, and it’s all just kinda “hey be cool everybody.”  He’s got an interesting visual, which always makes for a fun figure, especially in this styling.  The paint’s again a little spotty, but it gets it done.  There’s just a lot going on with this one, so I think it’s easier to have those small mistakes add-up.  He actually gets proper accessories, which is fun.  There’s three different heads included, so that you can have classic Puzzler with his cowl, plus a full face mask look, and also a domino mask-wearing henchman!

The last of the Kickstarter figures was Chrometurion.  Whatever you may think, I assure you, he’s not Silver Surfer.  I mean, do you see a surfboard anywhere?  No, I didn’t think so.  Chrometurion is…well, he’s not actually a pre-existing character at all.  Like the Blank Slate from Series 1, he’s a made-up character used to get one more mold out there with minimal paint, making him a good base for customizing.  So, he’s a silver guy in a cloth cape.  Honestly, that’s pretty fun.  Also, that base body looks real nice all painted up in silver.

There are a selection of characters in the line that aren’t actually public domain, but are independent creations who creators were on board with the line.  One such case is Nexus, a creation of Mike Baron and Steve Rude.  Nexus, aka Horatio Valdemar Hellpop, is a super powered bounty hunter from the future, with influences from various Hanna Barbera properties, especially Space Ghost.  It’s as cool as it sounds.  Nexus is exciting, because he actually gets an all-new head sculpt, based on Rude’s illustrations of the character.  It’s basic, but also pretty darn good, capturing his look, and also merging well with the existing base body.  Once again, paint’s a bit iffy on this release; it all seems to be just a touch to thin, which is especially noticeable on the lighter colors.  The blues do look really nice, though.

R.O.N. Reaper of Nightmares is an oddity on his own.  He’s not *technically* a Series 2 release, but he’s closer to them then anything else.  R.O.N. was designed by artist Alex Pardee and…well, he’s a guy with his skin ripped off.  It’s the simple things, right?  Honestly, it works pretty well with the line, in a sort of an EC Comics kind of way.  He’s just the basic sans-hair head on the standard body.  The paint on this one is far more involved, what with all the revealed musculature and all.  It’s actually a lot sharper and cleaner than the others, which is cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, here’s the thing: I got pretty much all of the Amazing Heroes figures in one shot.  I missed out on all of them the first time around, but one of the regulars from All Time decided to unload them in one fell swoop, which was honestly a fantastic opportunity, and I just couldn’t pass that up.

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.