Monthly Archives: January 2025

#3764: Golden Pharaoh

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

GOLDEN PHARAOH

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

“British archaeologist Ashley Halberstam was working on a dig in Giza, Egypt, when he was struck by a mystical bolt of energy that emanated from a lab run by the New Gods. This bolt of energy Transformed Halberstam, unleashing the latent energies inherent in his body and turning him into Golden Pharaoh. Golden Pharaoh uses his uncanny pyramid power for the forces of good.”

Something that’s been a fixture of my Christmases for a good long while is Kenner’s Super Powers. Somewhat unique about last year was how many Super Powers figures I got between my two Christmases, thanks to McFarlane actually really stepping up their game with their continuation. But, I’m going back to the proper Kenner stuff for the day. And what a proper Kenner thing it is, since it’s one of the two characters they made up for the line, Golden Pharaoh! Who’s Golden Pharaoh? Well, he got that little bio and…that’s actually really it, since he never made the jump to the comics outside of some tie-ins. He did get a DCUC figure, which I’ve reviewed previously, but now I’m going back to the beginning!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Golden Pharaoh was part of Super Powers‘s third abs final assortment, released in 1986. Obviously, this was his first figure, and like his fellow Kenner creation Cyclotron from the same year, it would be his only figure until DCUC. The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation.  While the general set-up of his articulation is pretty standard for the line, the positioning of his arms, coupled with the nature of his costume design with the wings and all, limits his range on the shoulders a fair bit.  The neck is also rather stiff on mine, but that might also be linked to the age of the translucent plastic, and I’m certainly not gonna force it.  Pharaoh’s sculpt was unique, based on Jack Kirby’s design work for the character.  It’s certainly a unique look, and while the sculpt proper is a little soft in some spots, it generally works out alright.  He’s got a rather basic color scheme.  It’s certainly an odd of assortment of colors, and notably no actual gold (something that was ultimately addressed by the DCUC figure).  I do dig the translucent purple on the torso, though.  Golden Pharaoh was packed with a staff, which he can hold in his right hand.  He also had a “Power Action Soaring” feature, which pops his arms upward when his legs are squeezed.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Golden Pharaoh was, as has been the trend for the last few years, my “big” Christmas gift from my parents.  He’s certainly one of the line’s more oddball offerings, and one that I don’t know that I really, truly imagined owning at the outset of collecting this line.  He just seemed like one of those far away things.  On his own, he’s perhaps not the most impressive, and could use maybe a bit more flair.  I have to wonder how much cooler he’d have been if he’d maybe been vac metalized gold, but ultimately, he’s not a bad little figure.  And here I am, three figures away from finishing up Super Powers.  Which feels increasingly odd.

#3763: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four are transported to a strange planet, Captain America is chosen to take the lead in fighting the ultimate war!”

As much as it’s become something of a rarity these days, since I tend to buy most Marvel Legends for myself, there was a time when Legends invariably made up a large component of what I got for Christmas.  We’re, of course, going largely back to the Toy Biz days, but still.  Thanks to a new set of figures that came in right under the wire on last year’s deliveries, the timing astoundingly lined-up for that to happen again.  2024 marked the 40th anniversary of Secret Wars, an event designed to sell toys, so what better way to mark the occasion than by selling some more toys?  It gives Hasbro a good excuse to re-release some heavy hitters, like, for instance, Captain America!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is part of the six-figure “Secret Wars” anniversary assortment of Marvel Legends, which hit right at the end of last year.  He’s joined by the similarly heavy-hitter-y Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Iron Man, as well as the all-new but still very much important to the actual event Beyonder and Titania.  They’re all patterned on the vintage Mattel line, with replica retro card backs, and a few of the gimmicks as well.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Structurally, this figure’s the same kind of “Ship of Theseus” set-up as the Renew Your Vows Spider-Man, just for Cap.  His oldest parts are from the Grim Reaper body, who was reworked into Cap Wolf.  Cap Wolf got upgraded to 80th Anniversary Cap, who was also used for the 20th Anniversary Series 1 Cap.  This figure further upgrades the body by adding pinless construction on the arms and legs, as well making the glove cuffs a separate piece, making for a cleaner assembly.  In general, it takes a base body that was already quite strong, and gives it that winning edge, making this the best Cap base body to date.  Cap gets two new head sculpts, both sculpted by Paul Harding, who handled the heads on the 20th Cap.  According to him, all four heads were sculpted at the same time, and these ones were saved for later.  This time around, he’s got one smiling head, and one gritting his teeth.  They’re both quite nice, and just as solid as the prior two.  Personally, I think the smiling one’s my favorite of the bunch, but I like the versatility in general.  There’s only one drawback, and that’s to do with the colors.  This figure is notably NOT the same color palette as the 20th release, which in a vacuum isn’t terrible.  Clearly, they’re trying to emulate the Mattel colors more directly, right down to the reversed stripe pattern on the mid-section.  The blue in particular is a bit warmer, and I do honestly prefer that.  The biggest trouble with it, however, is that it means you can’t swap the different expressions between this guy and the 20th, so there’s no neutral expression for this figure, and you can go more intense with the 20th.  It’s not the end of the world, but it’s a little more limiting than I’d expected.  In terms of actual application, he’s generally alright.  The glove construction in particular clears up the problem with messy edges on the gloves that we saw with the earlier mold.  On my figure, both heads do have some slight issues, with part of the A being scraped off on the happy head, and a weird flecking of flesh tone paint on the angry head.  Neither is a major issue, but it’s frustrating.  Cap is packed with three sets of hands, in fists, gripping, and flat/pointing.  The gripping are an interesting choice, and I assume they’re just there to reference the vintage figure?  I do miss the open gesture hands from the 20th, but I always miss the open gesture hands when they get left out, honestly.  He gets two different shields, and neither of them is standard, continuing the bit of this updated Cap mold not getting standard shields, and also the gag of the vintage Secret Wars Cap not getting a standard one either.  He’s got a throwback vintage shield, complete with the lenticular gimmick, as well as a shattered version of the standard shield, which even includes the broken off pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I love the 20th Cap, but even when he was new, I was aware there would be another on the horizon.  This one didn’t surprise me.  I ended up getting him as a gift from Max, who sniped me purchasing him on the basis that he didn’t know exactly what to get me, and knew I wouldn’t have the new Cap that just came in.  It’s a solid observation.  I’ve gotten something out of every successive iteration of the Caps that led to this version of the mold, and this one is certainly the best thus far.  Sure, the color change is frustrating, and we still don’t have a proper undamaged classic shield for him, so I know there’s another one on the horizon with all the heads and a repainted Ultimate shield.  And, I’ll buy that one too, because I’m weak.  But, until then, I do really, really like this one.

#3762: Space Suit – Light Blue Version

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

SPACE SUIT — LIGHT BLUE VERSION

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY MAFEX (MEDICOM TOY)

Welcome back, everybody!  I hope you guys enjoyed…my holiday break?  Well, I did, so there’s that.  We’re officially post-Christmas, so that means I get to kick off the year with some Christmas-gift-related reviews.  I kicked things off last year with a MAFEX review, and I’m duplicating that effort this year.  Not exactly by design, but here we are nonetheless.  It is, however, quite a different direction in terms of branding.  Rather than DC Comics, we are instead turning to 2001…not the year, mind you, but the movie.  I can understand your confusion.  Kubrick films are generally a rarity in merchandising, especially action figures, but we’ve had a few goes at 2001.  Medicom released a small selection of the film’s distinctive space suits in a variety of colors under the MAFEX banner, and I’m looking at one of those today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Light Blue Space Suit is figure 090 in Medicom’s MAFEX line-up.  It is numerically the last of the four colored suits to be released, hitting in 2019.  The blue suit is a unique oddity amongst the four, as it is the only suit not to be used at all within the film’s run.  The orange and yellow get used by Bowman and Poole respectively, and the helmet and gloves from the green suit are used by Bowman following his space walk.  The blue suit simply hangs next to Bowman and Poole’s suits.  Waiting.  Watching.  Plotting.  Reading lips.  No, wait, that’s HAL.  My mistake.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  As these are 1/12 scale figures, the suit is about an inch shorter than the Super 7 Bowman.  Its mold is shared with the other three suits, which is sensible.  The sculpt is crisp and clean, and the figure is easy to pose, and doesn’t feel too fragile.  The helmet is affixed with no movement of its own, which initially surprised me, but is true to the design, so it makes sense.  The color work is pretty solid for the most part.  The blue is a good match for what’s seen on screen, and the smaller detail work on the instruments and patches is quite impressive.  The visor is completely blacked out, as was the case for all of these.  It hides the face, or in the case of this figure the lack of a face, allowing all four to share the same mold more easily, and simplifying the construction somewhat.  The figure is packed with three sets of hands and a display stand.  While the suit just sits there and really just needs the relaxed hands, the additional ones are fun for theoretical posing, and the display stand assists with that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

With a lot of the Kubrick stuff, there winds up being something of a back and forth on licensing, and I seem to recall that being the case with these guys, I think?  I don’t know, but I do know that they all wound up going under the radar for me when they hit, so I didn’t snag any of them.  I honestly wasn’t super picky on color, but I did sort of pull for the blue, thanks to its aforementioned uniqueness.  So, it was rather lucky for me that this was the one that ended up coming through work, and even more lucky for me that it wound up being my Christmas gift from the company.  It’s a very nice piece.  Certainly a different breed of figure from the Super 7 stuff, but I still like both offerings for what they are.  Ultimately, this one is quite fun.  Now I just need to resist the urge to own all of the different colors.