Monthly Archives: February 2024

#3546: Ahsoka Tano

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

AHSOKA TANO

STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0029:  This is the fourth time an Ahsoka figure has been justified as a separate release due to the addition of a poncho.

Do you ever feel like you’re seeing double?  Well, okay, like, double, but with a poncho?  Is that a normal thing?  No.  Ah, well.  The point is, hey, here’s this additional Ahsoka figure.  She’s real similar to another one I already looked at.  Wanna read a review of it?  I mean, you’re here, so I assume you probably do.  But, you know what they say about assumptions….they make an Ahsoka out of you and mption?  No, that’s not right.  Ah, well.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ahsoka Tano is the first figure in the Ahsoka-tie-in assortment of Star Wars: Retro Collection.  I mean, I suppose that tracks.  Gotta have the title character.  She’s based on her poncho-wearing look, which debuted over in The Mandalorian, and made a return for her own show.  The figure is just under 3 3/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  This figure’s sculpt is the exact same one as the last Retro Collection Ahsoka because she’s just that one with a poncho as noted before.  It looks as good here as it did the first time around.  The paint work is the same basic layout as the prior release as well.  It seems a touch sharper on my copy than the prior figure, but that could just be a case by case thing.  Ahsoka is packed with the same two lightsabers as the last figure, as well as the poncho, noted many times previously here in this review of the poncho-wearing Ahsoka.  It’s a nice piece, and definitely feels in the style of vintage Kenner figures.  It also does change-up the look pretty sufficiently.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I was pretty content with the first Ahsoka, so I wasn’t sure I needed this one at first, but I wanted the rest of the set, and it didn’t make much sense to skip just one figure.  I wasn’t expecting much, but I actually really like the figure’s general look, and the poncho is a fun extra.

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.

#3545: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

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

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0024: Delays in the production of the original Spider-Man movie meant its tie-in line had to be shelved, leading Toy Biz to create Spider-Man Classics to fill the gap, ultimately leading to the creation of Marvel Legends.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was a pretty big deal for superhero movies, and proved perhaps the most influential film since Superman The Movie it terms of how the industry treated comic book movies. Though certainly a product of its time, without Spider-Man, there’s not really an MCU. So, it was certainly appropriate for Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker to show up in No Way Home, officially crossing over into the very universe he indirectly helped create. It was also really cool for me, because, much as I love Tom Holland in the role, Tobey Maguire is *my* Spider-Man. I saw all of his movies in the theater, and I loved them all (yes, even Spider-Man 3). A lot of my attachment to Spider-Man at all comes from those movies. And getting new toys based on the characters from them, especially Tobey as Spidey? Just kind of the best.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is part of the retro-card backed No Way Home tie-in assortment of Marvel Legends. Previously, he was available in a Pulse-exclusive three-pack with Tom and Andrew. The two releases are identical core figures, with different accessories, which I’ll touch on in that section.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is pretty much the same as the Finale Tom figure, so it’s a slightly more restricted version of the Amazing Fantasy set-up.  It’s still a little stiff, but generally not bad.  Tobey’s sculpt is an all-new one (shared with the three-pack, of course), courtesy of sculptor Dennis Chan.  While he’s billed as specifically No Way Home Tobey, the sculpt goes for a little more middle of the road for all of his movie looks.  The masked head isn’t quite a spot-on recreation of his mask from the movies; the shaping of the eyes and the layout of the webs looks right, but the underlying shape of the head is off.  It’s not terrible, but it’s not quite right.  Admittedly, it was an issue on his figures from during his movie run too, with the super poseable figure from Spider-Man 2 being another prominent offender.  The head also seems maybe a bit large relative to the body.  The body sculpt’s pretty nice, though, and has a nice set of proportions, far more balanced than prior figures.  The paint work on this guy is another area that doesn’t quite hit the mark.  It’s not bad, but the colors seem a little too bright and saturated to properly convey Tobey’s suit.  It results in the weblines in particular getting a little lost.  The application’s still clean, though, so it’s less a technical issue, and more a design choice one.  The three-pack version of Tobey got three sets of hands (in fists, open gesture, and thwipping) and a webline.  For this release, he gains an unmasked head sculpt (handled by Daniel Salas), but loses the webline, the right open gesture hand, and the left fist.  It’s a bummer that we lost one each of the non-thwipping hands, since they were already sculpted and all.  The unmasked head is okay; something seems off about it.  It’s hard to tell which Tobey it’s supposed to be, and it looks more like Tyler Hochlin than Tobey Maguire to me.  Still, it’s not the worst likeness I’ve seen in this line.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Tobey’s return was the thing I was most excited about in No Way Home, and I definitely wanted a figure of some sort.  I actually managed to get a good deal on the three-pack version *right* before the singles got announced, so I’ve have the figure for a bit and opted to upgrade to the single when he finally hit.  This figure’s not perfect.  In fact, I’d say he’s the weakest of the three Spideys in this line-up.  But, I can’t help but love him, and I’m happy to have gotten 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.