Author Archives: Ethan Wilson

#2632: IG-11

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IG-11

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“One of a series of dangerous assassin droids largely outlawed in the galaxy, IG-11 is a hired gun programmed to follow Bounty Hunters Guild protocols to the letter.  This distinctive collection features premium deco applications inspired by the end credit images from The Mandalorian, plus a collectible Imperial Credit accessory”

Usually, around the holidays, I’m out of town for the week surrounding Christmas, meaning that, pretty much since I began the site, I’ve been jumping into my Post-Christmas reviews as the new year begins.  2020 was having none of that, so I was still at home this year, allowing me to just turn these reviews right around.  Don’t you guys feel so lucky?  For the first few years I was running the site, I kicked off these sets of reviews with an Alien Queen, but in recent years, that’s shifted to Star Wars, something that will stick this year, as I kick things off with a variant of IG-11!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

IG-11 is part of the “Credit Collection” sub-set of Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Black Series.  These guys hit right around the launch of The Mandalorian‘s second season, and were effectively this year’s equivalent to the Carbonized figures from last year.  Theset was split up as exclusives amongst a few different retailers, with IG-11 being available through GameStop.  Structurally, this figure is the same as last year’s standard IG-11.  That means he too stands about 7 inches tall and has 21 points of articulation.  It also means that he too is based on the IG-88 figure, and is therefore a little bit inaccurate for IG-11.  That said, it’s not like anyone was really expecting a new mold for this release.  He’s designed to be a quick repaint, and that’s exactly what he is.  At least the IG-88 mold is still a pretty fun toy mold.  The differences on this guy come down to two things, the first being the paint.  He, and the rest of the figures in this set, are based on the illustrations seen in the show’s closing credits, which showcase some of the early art for the show.  IG-11 is illustrated in these images with a much warmer, and more colorful palette than is seen in the show, and that’s replicated well here.  I really dig how they’ve captured the sort of graininess of the illustrations, as well as the really divergently bright colors used.  These two definitely won’t get mistaken for each other.  The second change to the figure are the accessories.  He gets the same two blasters as the prior release, but also gains one of the credit pieces that the bio talks about.  It’s a pretty basic piece, and obviously not meant to go with the actual figure, but it’s a cool little extra nevertheless.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve got all of the standard color versions of the figures chosen for “The Credit Collection”, so I wasn’t in a rush to pick any of them up, especially given their exclusive status.  I did kind of want the IG-11, because I just really like the IGs.  I wasn’t going to buy it from Gamestop for myself, though.  It’s okay, because I didn’t!  Max and I were discussing the figures when they were shown off, and I said I’d hold off, so he went ahead and ordered an extra IG for me for Christmas.  I’m glad to have this guy.  He’s not my primary version or anything, but he’s a fun alternate deco, and goes well with my other IG-related stuff.

#2631: Grand Admiral Thrawn

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GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Five years after the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance has driven the evil Empire into a distant corner of the galaxy. But a new danger has arisen: the last of the Emperor’s warlords has devised a battle plan that could destroy the New Republic. A tactical and military genius, Grand Admiral Thrawn rallied the remnants of the Imperial fleet and set in motion a plan to destroy the New Republic. Using Force-inhibiting ysalamiri, he became vitally close to achieving his evil plans.”

Last week, I was discussing EU characters who really ran away from their expanded universe origins and became lasting pieces of the franchise in their own right.  While last week’s focus, Mara Jade, was prominent, she never made the jump to official canon proper.  Today’s subject, Grand Admiral Thrawn, actually did.  First introduced by author Timothy Zahn in 1991’s Heir to the Empire, Thrawn has also been confirmed to exist in the post-Disney-acquisition world of the franchise, having served as the primary antagonist for the second half of their Rebels series.  And, perhaps his future in the franchise is unexplored, if The Mandalorian‘s quick reference is anything to go by.  Well, in the mean time, let’s look at a little bit of toy coverage!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Grand Admiral Thrawn was released in the Expanded Universe sub-line of Power of the Force in 1998.  Like many of the characters included, this was his first figure, though thanks to actually becoming proper canon, he’s had a few more of them in recent years.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Thrawn is an all-new sculpt, but not exactly an unfamiliar or unique one.  He takes a lot of cues from how Kenner handled other Imperial Officer figures, which makes a bit of sense, from a consistency stand point.  Like Mara Jade, he’s clearly not a direct lift from the comics illustrations of Thrawn, in order to help him look a bit more in line with the rest of Power of the Force.  His head seems a touch large in my eyes, but otherwise it’s not a bad looking sculpt, and is consistent with how Thrawn generally looked.  It’s basic, but appropriately so.  The paint work is also pretty basic and straight forward, but again consistent with the character’s depiction.  It’s definitely a more unique color scheme, so he stands out nicely in a group of Imperials.  Thrawn is packed with a ysalamiri, the weird thing he’s got on his shoulders there, as well as a small blaster pistol, and the fold out diorama.  This time, it’s the bridge of ship, presumably the Katana.  It’s pretty sweet.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

All of these were rare when released, and Thrawn’s quite a fan favorite, so he was also always pretty rare.  Fortunately, that whole set came through All Time last year, so I was finally able to snag one then.  He’s not the most technically impressive figure or anything, but he’s still pretty nifty, and I’m glad I have one.

#2630: Iceman II

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ICEMAN II

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“One of the youngest X-Men, Bobby Drake always resigned himself to the role of the jokester, using his ice powers to cool off the attitudes of his more serious team-mates. But for the short time the White Queen inhabited his body, Iceman’s powers were pushed to the max, affecting his appearance and the performance of his mutant ability. Now back in control of his own body, Iceman has begun to redefine himself, testing his limits to discover how powerful he really is.”

Though a founding member of the team, Iceman was not really one of the X-Men’s most prominent members in the ‘90s, at least when it came time to make the cartoon and pick its main cast of characters.  He got one guest appearance, but that was all, and subsequently, he didn’t get a *ton* of coverage in the toy line at the time, either.  Granted, he still got a little bit of coverage, by virtue of that whole helping to found the team, thing, so he wasn’t left completely high and dry.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iceman II was released in the Invasion Series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  In the comics, Bobby’s body had been taken over by Emma Frost for a brief period of time, and she’d unlocked Bobby’s ability to actually make himself out of ice, resulting in a slightly different appearance for the character, which this figure was based on.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  I’ve actually looked at most of this figure before, as all but the head was re-used for the Mutant Armor version of the character.  It’s not a bad sculpt at all, and the head included here is a rare look at a proper Bobby Drake face, albeit a slightly icy one.  The whole sculpt was used again for a two-pack release with Pyro in 2000, but with a slightly different coloring (which is the one seen next to Wilson in the photos).  The standard release of this one was molded in clear blue plastic, with a little bit of white airbrushed on to help give him that frosted appearance.  It didn’t work so well on the Mutant armor release, but I think it looks a bit better here.  For the two pack, he was a more opaque blue, which also isn’t a bad look.  Iceman II (and the two pack release) was packed with two ice hand attachments, done up to match the figure’s finish.  They’re a pretty cool extra.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I didn’t have the original Iceman II in my collection as a kid (though I did have the two-pack version, who I mostly got because I wanted the Pyro he was packed with), I do remember looking at him during the mega 5-inch figure purchase period that was local comic shop Ageless Heroes going out of business back in 2000.  I almost picked this figure up at the time, as I was working on putting together a set of Champions figures.  However, I already had *an* Iceman, even if it wasn’t this one, so I refrained in favor of someone I didn’t already own (fairly certain it was Black Widow).  This one here came into my collection via a bunch of figures that just came into All Time a few weeks ago.  He was complete and I didn’t already have him, so why not?

#2629: C-3PO & R2-D2

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HOLIDAY EDITION C-3PO & R2-D2

STAR WARS SAGA (HASBRO)

“Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. are delighted to present, for the first time, this Star Wars Holiday Edition commemorative. Inspired by the artwork of renowned artist Ralph McQuarrie, this specially designed set captures the imaginative vision of McQuarrie’s art in collectible 3-3/4″ action figure scale. Our gift to you, this piece is a distinctive addition to any Star Wars collection. May the Force be with you, and happy holidays.”

It’s Christmas once again, which means it’s time for me to churn out another festive review!  After years of purely Christmas-themed items, two years ago I took my first look at a rather popular toy concept: the festive variant.  You’d be surprised how much mileage  you can get out of shoving a Santa hat on a popular character.  From 2002 to 2005, Hasbro made it a point of doing this very thing with the Star Wars characters once every Christmas season.  Their very first offerings were a natural pairing, C-3PO and R2-D2.  I’ll be looking at them today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released in late 2002 as a Walmart-exclusive offering.  Officially, they’re part of the then running Star Wars Saga line which was launched for Attack of the Clones, but the packaging doesn’t bear any sort of notation of that.  This was very much its own standalone release, originally intended to be a Star Wars Fan Club offering, but ultimately re-purposed.

The first of the two figures here is 3PO, clad in a Santa Claus get-up, or at least the hat and jacket of one.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 5 joints, but it’s really hard to classify any of them but the neck as actual articulation.  The arms and legs both end up pretty restricted by the design of the jacket.  He’s a bit pre-posed, in the same way that any 3PO is pre-posed, though, with his arms held slightly aloft and bent.  The fake beard is permanently attached to his right hand, as though he’s about to put it on, I suppose, though how he’s going to get his arm up to his face is anyone’s guess.  The detailing on this figure is rather on the softer side, especially for the era of figures he was a part of.  It’s not like it’s bad, though, and it has a sort of artistic merit to it.  Plus, as a standalone piece, it’s not quite as imperative it matches the rest of the line.  Speaking of matching, let’s discuss the paint, and it’s whole not matching thing.  So, at this point in the line, 3PO figures were always vac metalized.  This figure follows that…for the head and legs.  Unfortunately, vac metalized plastic doesn’t hold large quantities of paint very well, so painting the jacket over it wouldn’t have gone very well.  Their solution was to paint the hands and what we can see of the chest a flat gold…and it’s pretty obvious.  I can’t really fault them, because their hands were tied.  Maybe if they’d done a cloth jacket instead?  It’s not the end of the world, though.

Pairing off with 3PO’s Santa impersonation, we also get R2 doing his best Rudolph.  The figure is 2 1/2 inches tall and has 3 points of articulation.  He’s built not from an R2-D2 figure, but from 2000’s R2-B1…for reasons, I guess.  The mold’s lack of the usual third leg was something of a shame, but not the end of the world.  The figure gets a new head-dome, which has been decorated with a rather hastily applied pair of antlers.  I dig that these are deliberately designed to look kinda tacky; it’s a nice touch, acknowledging the kitschy nature of the set.  R2’s paint is less compromised that 3PO’s.  Mostly, it just keeps to the standard R2 paint scheme of the time.

In addition to the figures, the set also included a little stand and backdrop which replicate the holiday card they’re based on, as well as a copy of the holiday card itself.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never much got into these seasonal figures as a kid, and my parents didn’t shop much at Walmart, so I never really saw this pair.  It wasn’t only years later that I knew of their existence, and felt the need to pursue them (I’ve got holiday reviews to write, after all).  I ended up getting this set when one was traded into All Time earlier in the year.  I then had them sitting there unopened for about eight months, until I finally cracked them open for the purposes of this review.*  Are these figures great?  Nope, but they sure are a bunch of kitschy fun.

*Full disclosure: I wrote this review a year ago before replacing it at the last minute with Crackshot for last year’s Christmas review.  Hope you enjoyed it this time around.

#2628: Soundwave

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

SOUNDWAVE

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON TRILOGY (HASBRO)

Oh man, was my last Soundwave review on the site really Bayverse?  Yikes, I can’t let that stick.  I mean, at least he wasn’t some stupid sports car or something, but still.  Okay, let’s got extra, primo classic with this one then, I guess.

This summer, Netflix dropped a new Transformers cartoon, based on Hasbro’s currently running War For Cybertron trilogy of toy lines.  Hasbro corresponded with a set of Walmart-exclusive re-decos of some of their figures, making them a bit more show accurate.  With the show’s second part, Earthrise, upon us, Hasbro’s doing something a little different, and actually using this exclusive line to do some slightly reworked sculpts.  In the case of today’s Soundwave, that means he actually gets an earth mode this time.  Gee, I wonder what it might be?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Soundwave is part of the second assortment of Walmart’s War For Cybertron Trilogy line.  He’s one of two Voyager class offerings this round, with the other being Optimus Prime.  In his robot mode, the figure stands 6 1/2 niches tall and he has 25 workable points of articulation.  As I touched on in the intro, some of the second assortment figures got some new tooling, and Soundwave is included there.  He’s got quite a few parts in common with his Siege counterpart, including the head, forearms, hands, feet, and parts of his pelvis.  I was a little bummed that the forearms were kept the same, since they were one of my only complaints about the original, but I guess they had to draw the line somewhere.  Additionally, much of the inner workings of this figure, notably the articulation, are shared between the two.  Siege Soundwave is a very nice figure in his own right, and very strong recreation of his G1 bot mode, so keeping a lot of the parts is fine by me.  The new pieces are largely just about changing up some surface level details.  Some of the more greebly bits are removed from the arms and legs, and he’s generally just made cleaner and sleeker, bringing him a little closer to his original design.  The biggest changes occur on the torso, which is a little wider hand has a slightly different construction at a few spots, as well as removing a number of the moving parts from the Siege mold.  The reasoning behind this change comes more into play in the next section.

Boom, here we are in the next section, where we discuss the figure’s alt-mode.  Since the ‘80s, Soundwave figures have had to deal with the question of what to do for an alt-mode for a guy who turns into out of date tech.  The Siege figure gave him a weird sort of dropship mode, which I didn’t hate, but I also didn’t love.  This release just decides to not even try and come up with a more up-to-date mode, so he once again turns into a cassette player.  The new torso has been designed to help facilitate this change more fully, and ultimately his transformation scheme isn’t too far removed from the vintage figure.  There are a few more moving parts, and the end product’s a touch more fiddly, but it’s overall a set-up that works.  In addition to the new alt-mode, Soundwave also gets a new, much cleaner and bolder paint scheme than the Siege release.  No silver paint this time, or at least no silver paint where his basic design doesn’t call for it.  He’s got all the silver paint he’s *supposed* to have.  Soundwave is packed with the shoulder and hand cannons that were included with the Siege release, as well as is gun that folds into a staff.  Additionally, he comes with Laserbeak and Ravage packed right in this time, instead of them being separate releases.  Both figures get new decos to make them look a bit more like actual tapes (with Ravage’s being the one that really sells it), and Laserbeak also gets a new more Earth-y bird head, which I really like.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like so many Transformers before him, this figure is Max’s fault.  Well, okay, it’s mostly Hasbro’s fault, since they, you know, made it.  But Max showed me the original leaked photos, and let me know it was a Walmart exclusive, and ultimately hooked me up with this one I’m reviewing here.  I love the Siege figure, but I didn’t love his alt-mode.  This figure fixes that, and also just makes for a slightly cleaner robot mode.  I like that a lot.  I don’t know that I’d say he’s definitively better than the Siege release, but I do really like the adjustments made here.  He’s definitely a good Soundwave.

#2627: Mighty Morphin Z Putty

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MIGHTY MORPHIN Z PUTTY

POWER RANGERS: LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Late last year, Hasbro put out a couple of two-packs for their Lightning Collection line, one of which paired fan-favorite Green Ranger Tommy Oliver off against one of the fan favorite minions, the Putties.  It was a pretty popular set, but packing an army builder in a two-pack with a non-army builder doesn’t make for very easy army building.  Hasbro addressed this twice, first with a Hasbro Pulse-exclusive pair of Putties, and now with a variant Putty actually getting a main line release.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Mighty Morphin Z Putty is part of Series 7 of Hasbro’s Lightning Collection line, an overwhelmingly MMPR heavy assortment, which also includes a variant of the Putty’s original pack-mate the Green Ranger.  As the name denotes, this guy isn’t just a standard Putty, he’s a Z Putty, one of the upgraded Putties from the second season of the show, after Lord Zedd takes leadership of the bad guy brigade.  Essentially, they’re just slightly more armored versions of the same minions from earlier in the show.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Structurally, this putty has quite a bit in common with the first figure, but he does get a new set of knees and boots, as well an add-on piece for his chest armor, all of which does a really solid job of capturing the upgraded appearance from the show.  In particular, I really dig the new boot sculpts, because they’re the sort of thing that could’ve gotten overlooked, but I’m very glad didn’t.  Like the prior Putty, this guy is fairly monochromatic, as a Putty should be, but it’s worth noting that he’s differently monochromatic than the last guy, which does make him feel slightly unique.  Kudos to Hasbro on actually putting in the effort there.  In particular, I like seeing the face painted a darker grey than the hood, since they frequently appeared that way on the show, and it ends up really helping to bring out the sculpt.  The best work is again on the hands, which get some accenting to help really sell their rocky nature.  This Putty is actually quite impressively accessorized, getting two different sets of hands (one gripping, the other in fist/open combo), a flame effect piece for the fist, and an effect to clip over the torso simulating him getting hit by one of the rangers.  It’s a solid selection, and honestly more than I was expecting.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been wanting more Putties since getting the first version, and I was definitely hoping for some sort of a single release.  That being said, I’m starting to move past my need to just own a bunch of identical army builder figures, so when this guy got shown off, it really worked for me.  I like the changes he makes, and I really like the new accessories he gets.  I definitely consider this guy a win.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#2626: Imperial Stormtrooper

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IMPERIAL STORMTROOPER — THE MANDALORIAN

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Stormtroopers are elite shock troops fanatically loyal to the Empire and impossible to sway from the Imperial cause.”

Given their prominence in the original trilogy, it’s no surprise that we got figure coverage of the Imperial Stormtroopers fairly early into Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Black Series.  However, there’s really no denying that the quality of the figures has improved leaps and bounds over the last few years.  Many of the central characters have gotten some more recent figures in alternate looks to help update them a bit, but a character such as the Stormtrooper, who has the same basic look in all three of the original movies, doesn’t exactly make a variant release very easy t justify.  Fortunately, their reappearance in The Mandalorian gave Hasbro a pretty good excuse to give them the re-do treatment, which I’ll be taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Imperial Stormtrooper is, much like yesterday’s Mando, part of the first wave of the relaunched Black Series.  He too is from The Mandalorian sub-set of figures, where he’s figure #02.  He’s officially based on the trooper design from the show (and Rogue One, since they use the same armor), but he works as a pretty basic OT-era Stormtrooper just in general.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  The original Stormtrooper was the most posable figure in the line at the time of his release, but that was at the sacrifice of appearance, as a good number of those joints really jumped out off of the figure.  This one takes a page out of the recent Clone Trooper page and does a total overhaul on the movement scheme.  The joints are granted a much larger range of motion, while also being a bit more cleverly hidden, though use of actual armor plates that are separate pieces, rather than just sculpting them right onto the body.  This results in there being much more depth to the sculpt, which helps the give it a more realistic quality.  The helmet gets a re-work, so that now, instead of being a solid piece, it’s an actual helmet sitting on a head.  The head’s the same as the Clone Trooper, but at least this way we know there’s some consistency in sizing and design, and we won’t be faced with the same issues the original body had when the repurposed it for Luke and Han.  The helmet also seems to be just a touch more screen accurate than the original.  In general, the armor on this guy is a little closer to the movies and a little bit sharper in terms of detailing.  It’s just an overall slicker appearance.  The Stormtrooper’s paint work is pretty decent.  Fairly minimal, since the separate construction of the body and the armor allows for them to each be molded in the proper colors, but the accents look nice and sharp.  The Stormtrooper is packed with a single blaster rifle.  It’s a new piece, and certainly a nice one, though it’s kind of a shame that we’re down to just one accessory on these guys.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I quite liked the original Black Series Stormtrooper when he was released, but after a few years of the line improving, I was definitely eager to see what Hasbro could do with an improved one.  I was on board for this guy as soon as he was shown off.  As with the rest of this first wave, he’s been pretty scarce, even more so given he’s an army builder, but I was able to at least get my hands on one, and I do really quite like him.  I look forward to seeing what other trooper variants they build on this body.

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

 

#2625: The Mandalorian – Beskar

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THE MANDALORIAN — BESKAR

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“The Mandalorian is battle-worn and tight-lipped, a formidable bounty hunter in an increasingly dangerous galaxy!”

The Mandalorian just wrapped its second season last Friday, so I guess what better time to actually start reviewing Mando product again then right now.  It couldn’t be more time relevant, could it?  Last year, we got our first figure of the show’s main character, based upon his appearance in the show’s debut episode.  Though we didn’t know when he was released, that look wound up being rather short-lived, replaced just three episodes in by a shiny, new, all Beskar set of armor, which has subsequently remained his primary appearance.  Thanks to the same secrecy that kept The Child a total surprise, the Beskar armored Mando was likewise not shown to licensors until he appeared in the show, leaving something of a delay in getting him made in figure form.  Fortunately, he’s finally making his way to collectors, right as the second season comes to a close.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Beskar Mando is part of the first assortment of the latest re-launch of Star Wars: The Black Series.  Rather than one overarching numbering scheme, they’re now breaking them down into smaller sub-sets.  Mando is, unsurprisingly, part of the Mandalorian sub-set, where he’s figure #01.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Structurally, this guy’s very similar to the prior Mando, which makes sense, them being the same guy and all.  His articulation works exactly the same, which is fine by me given how mobile that figure ended up being.  He shares a handful of parts with that previous release, specifically the helmet, hands, lower legs, and cape.  These parts actually remain constant in the show, so it’s sensible to re-use.  It does come with its own slight drawbacks, notably with the helmet and cape. The helmet is just slightly off from the show’s design in terms of shaping.  It’s minor, but there was a part of me hoping they might fix it for this release.  It’s not the end of the world, though, and I guess they’re at least consistent this way.  The cape isn’t a problem on its own, but is sort of a problem when you factor in the included jetpack.  In the show, he pushes the cape up and out of the way when wearing the jetpack, but with the cape here being plastic, you have to choose between one or the other when displaying him.  This isn’t screen accurate, so it’s a touch frustrating.  Either a cloth cape, or a newly sculpted cape piece would have fixed this.  As is, he’ll require a little bit of modification.  Mando gets a new torso, arms, and upper legs featuring his newer armor pieces.  They’re certainly a cleaner design, though they match up with the prior figure in terms of actual styling of details.  In order to match up with the inclusion of the jetpack, thereby making this a post-Chaper 8 Mando, his right pauldron includes Mando’s Mudhorn signet, which is certainly a very nice touch.  The Mando’s paint work is all pretty clean.  It matches with the depiction of the armor from the show, and is just generally pretty slick.  Mando is packed with the aforementioned jetpack, plus the same rifle and pistol that were included with the last version of the character.  Not a bad set-up.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been patiently awaiting this armor set-up since it debuted on the show, and was curious exactly when it would show in the line.  Once it was announced, it was once again a patient wait until I could actually get my hands on one, because he’s been far and away the most demanded figure out of the newest Black Series line-up.  The end result isn’t perfect.  The helmet doesn’t bug me so much, but I was a bit let down by the cape.  I’m sure we’ll be seeing yet another version of this guy in the near future, of course, what with him being the main character and all.  This one’s still really good, though.

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

#2624: Mara Jade

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

MARA JADE

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Five years after the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance has driven the evil Empire into a distant corner of the galaxy. But a new danger has arisen: the last of the Emperor’s warlords has devised a battle plan that could destroy the New Republic. Before the death of Palpatine, Mara Jade was the Emperor’s right hand assassin. Five years later and now a successful smuggler, the last thing Mara expected was to stumble upon her former arch-enemy – Luke Skywalker.”

The Star Wars Expanded Universe had a whole host of new characters to add to the mythos, coming from all sorts of different mediums, and doing all sorts of, some times, contradictory things.  A few of those EU characters because rather pervasive, but few were quite as recurrent as Mara Jade, a character who appeared about just every medium other than the movies.  Destined to become Luke Skywalker’s eventual wife, Mara was revealed to be just on the outskirts of plenty of prior events, just waiting to peer into the shot, I suppose.  She’s become rather downplayed since Disney took over, of course, but she was pretty big with the fanbase, and did get a few action figures, the first of which I’m taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mara Jade was released alongside the rest of the initial Expanded Universe line-up of Power of the Force figures in 1998.  As such a popular character, she was a rarer figure from an already scarce assortment, at least at the time.  She was one of the three figures in the line-up to be based on the Heir to Empire story, fittingly Mara’s first appearance.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  Mara’s sculpt was unique to her, and based at least somewhat on her appearance in the Heir to Empire comics adaptation, though it’s mostly in regards to her attire, since her features don’t match the rather stylized depiction of the character from the comics.  Neither was she really based on Shannon McRandle, the model who portrayed Mara on the covers of the novels she appeared in.  Instead, she’s just sort of an averaged appearance, I suppose.  It works fine for the character, and it’s not like she’s any further from her usual appearances than any of the characters who actually appeared in the movies were.  Mara’s paint work is rather eye catching, especially the bright red hair, and the application is all pretty clean.  They did actually differentiate between the black of her body suit and her boots, so that looks pretty nice.  Mara is packed with Luke’s lightsaber, a blaster pistol, and another 3D backdrop like the rest of the series.  This one shows off a downed ship, and is definitely one of the cooler backdrops.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t know anything about Mara when these figures were new, and I certainly didn’t really see her in person to push me to find out.  As I’ve become more versed with Star Wars over the years, I’ve of course come to know a bit more about her, and I’ve been subsequently more invested in these figures.  I picked her up at the same time as most of the rest of the set, when they all came in through All Time.  Mara’s a pretty cool little figure.  Perhaps not the flashiest of this line up, but a fun and unique figure nevertheless.

#2623: Spiral

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

SPIRAL

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Any place the other dimensional sorceress known as Spiral chooses to dance her spells of mayhem, is not a good place to be. A humanoid creation of the slave driving television personality Mojo, Spiral’s six arms lend themselves as adeptly to combat skills and swordplay as they do to the casting of spells. Of fleeting allegiance and no apparent agenda, Spiral teleports herself across dimensions searching for ways to satisfy her disorderly whim.”

The denizen’s of X-Foe Mojo’s Mojoverse first appeared in the comics as part of 1985’s Longshot miniseries.  Appearing in issue #1 along side the title character was Mojo’s right-hand woman, Spiral, a character whose backstory is just as convoluted and dependent on time travel shenanigans as any other Mojoverse resident.  She and the rest of the Mojoverse characters made their way into the main stream universe shortly after, and have all been bouncing around the background of the Marvel Universe since.  Spiral’s got a pretty unique look, which has graced her with a small handful of figures over the years, including today’s figure, her very first offering.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spiral was released as part of the Invasion Series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line in 1995, a decade after her debut in the comics.  She joined the previously released Longshot, but was rather curiously separated from her boss, who wound up in the X-Force line instead.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation.  Though she’s got all those extra arms, it doesn’t do anything to bump up her articulation count, since only the upper-most arms get elbow movement, and they have just a single cut joint running across all three shoulders.  It’s odd that she didn’t get at least the elbows, since 6-Arm Spider-Man got those, but I guess they weren’t willing to throw Spider-Man level money at Spiral.  Her sculpt was an all-new offering, and never got any re-use, no doubt due to its more unique nature.  It’s not too bad.  It’s perhaps a little stiff, and the unmoving splayed arms are some what limiting when it comes to posing, but she’s at least a good recreation of Spiral’s comics design.  The only weird part is how far her arms jut out to the sides.  It’s a side effect of the lack of joints in those arms, since they’d be liable to bash into her legs and sides otherwise.  It’s not the worst, I guess, and fits with the general aesthetic of these figures when you get down to it.  Spiral’s paint work was generally pretty on point for the character.  It’s not one of the more colorful designs of the era, but it also doesn’t make your eyes bleed either, so that’s generally a plus.  The application is decent overall, with minimal slop or bleed over.  Spiral’s accessories were pretty straight to the point.  She had two of the same sword.  Only two, despite the four open hands.  I know.  Seems a little light.  She also had an arm-spinning action feature, which was engaged when her legs were squeezed.  It’s not actually that bad for a swordswoman, so I’m alright with it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spiral was a bit of a pegwarmer back in the day, at least according to my dad.  Apparently, we saw her a lot, but I wasn’t interested at the time.  She was kind of minor on the show, I suppose, which probably contributed.  Ultimately, I only just recently got her, because she’s not quite as prevalent as she once was.  She came out of a rather large lot of 5 inch Marvel that came in at All Time, most of which ended up coming home with me.  She’s not a bad figure, but she does seem a little bit limited by some of Toy Biz’s design choices.  Still, I’m glad to have her, and I’ll never say no to another Invasion Series figure.

IF YOU’RE READING THIS ON TOYNEWZ, THAT MEANS IT WAS STOLEN FROM THEFIGUREINQUESTION.COM.  THAT’S NOT VERY NICE, IS IT?