Monthly Archives: November 2024

#3724: Kilowog – Max Charge

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

KILOWOG — MAX CHARGE

GREEN LANTERN (MATTEL)

Oh, man, Green Lantern stuff?  Like, from the movie?  I must be getting desperate for review subjects, huh?  Or, you know, just trying to mix it up with the back catalogue items I review.  So, here we are, with a Green Lantern movie review, I guess.  I haven’t really discussed the movie since way back in 2016, and at that time, I looked at Kilowog, whose Michael Clarke Duncan performance I noted was one of the better aspects of the film.  I guess it was good enough to justify me talking about it again, because I’ve got another Kilowog.  Yay for variants!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Max Charge Kilowog was part of Mattel’s basic small-scale Green Lantern movie tie-in line.  There weren’t really strict assortments, so to speak, or at least none that were really advertised, but I recall this particular figure was of a later run than others, and I believe he hit after the movie’s release.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s the same as the basic Kilowog, for all the good and bad that brings.  His articulation’s still sub-par for the era, and I’m still not the biggest fan of the movie Kilowog design.  That said, the sculpt itself isn’t a bad one, and I can get the desire to re-use it.  Prior to this figure, there was a “Max Charge” Hal Jordan, who took the basic Hal mold and did it in translucent green, with only some white for the eyes and his insignia.  This figure does the same with the Kilowog mold, and it honestly is a pretty fun look.  It does sort of make him look like a construct, though.  Speaking of constructs, like the first figure, this one gets the larger hand construct adapter piece, as well as a wearable Green Lantern ring.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This isn’t the sort of figure that I needed or anything, but in 2011, I was still very excited about all things Green Lantern, and I did still get pretty hyped about the movie release and its tie-ins.  I snagged a bunch of them new, for full price no less.  This one wasn’t one of those, though.  A bunch of the late run stuff was unloaded to Five Below pretty quickly, and I stumbled on them and did a pretty decent clean-up of them, including this guy.  He’s goofy and non-essential, and very much like the rest of the line.  That being said, he could certainly be a lot worse, and the fully transparent look certainly has a charm about it.

#3723: Flash Gordon – King of the Impossible

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

FLASH GORDON — KING OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

HERO H.A.C.K.S. (BOSS FIGHT)

Hey, it’s more FLASH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!  SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE!  …Do you see what I’m getting at here?  It’s, uh, it’s Flash.  You know, Gordon?  He’s the savior of some stuff, and some things as well.  Perhaps even the whole universe.  When last I discussed Flash Gordon, it was NECA’s first round of movie figures.  Now I’m looking at more movie figures, but not more NECA ones.  Admittedly, that would require NECA to make more, which they haven’t, so I guess I have to outsource things.  Boss Fight Studios picked up the whole King Features license a few years back, and amongst their stable of offerings was a couple of Flash Gordon movie figures, one of which I’m taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Flash Gordon — King of the Impossible is part of the second assortment of Hero HACKS Flash Gordon, which was the one, and sadly only, movie assortment for the line, and was released in 2022.  It was Flash and Barin, released following the “preview” release of the Lunchbox with Football Flash.  The figure stands just under 4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  He’s got the standard HACKS articulation set-up, specifically the slightly more improved range of motion like we saw with the Zorro figure.  His sculpt was largely new, and a pretty solid one at that.  His build is slightly more idealized set-up, but the costume details are nice and sharply defined, and a good match for the movie.  The folds and hang of the outfit are especially nicely rendered.  The head is one of the ones included with the Lunchbox release, and it’s a respectable likeness.  It’s certainly on par with NECA’s work, and it’s at a much smaller scale.  The paint work on the figure is generally alright.  It’s on the basic side, but clean and crisp.  The head’s detailing is a bit low contrast, with the hair being a bright yellow, fairly similar to the skin-tone, so it gets a little lost.  His accessories cover the basics, with two sets of hands (gripping and fists), two different styles of rifle, his sword, and a red Hero HACKS base.  I don’t believe I’ve gotten fists on a Boss Fight figure before, so those are cool.  I also really like that not only can he easily hold the sword with both hands, he can also hold the rifle without the trigger breaking off.  Those are certainly both plusses over the NECA release.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I recall the announcement of the license from Boss Fight for these guys, and fully intended to jump in on the line, but by the time the figures actually materialized, my mind was on other things, and I wound up missing them.  This one wound up getting traded into All Time, which gave me a shot at actually getting one.  He’s quite a nice little figure, and he’s at least as good as, if not a little better than, the NECA figure.  It’s a bummer the line was so short-lived, because Boss Fight certainly put together a solid 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.