Author Archives: Ethan Wilson

#0824: Predator Minimates

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

BILLY, CHUCHILLO, EDWIN, CITY PREDATORS, JUNGLE PREDATORS, & THERMAL PREDATOR

PREDATOR MINIMATES

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I really can’t just do one Minimates review, now can I? That would be wrong. One of the newest additions to the stable of Minimates licenses is Predator. Seeing as they added Aliens last year, this wasn’t a super huge surprise, but it was still pretty cool to see it actually happen. Like Aliens, they kicked off the line with a set of single-packed ‘mates, prior to moving onto the usual two-packs. However, unlike Aliens, these singles were blind-bagged.  I, of course, went all-in on said blind-bags, so I’ll be taking a look at the lot of them today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

All of these are part of the first series of blind-bagged Predator Minimates. There were eight unique Minimates in all in this first set, available in cases of 18 blind-bagged figures. The humans and the thermal predator are unique to this particular assortment, with the others finding their way into the first series of two-packs.

BILLY

PredatorMates3Billy is the first member we’ve received from Dutch’s squad of super-macho-men from the first film. He’s the squad’s tracker, which is a tad stereotypical, since he’s also Native American, but he never really steps into offensive territory, fortunately. Billy’s really only got one look in the film, and this is it. The figure stands about 2 ½ inches tall and has the usual 14 points of articulation. He’s got four sculpted add-ons: hair, vest, belt, and sheath. The hair and vest are both new to Billy, and they’re both fantastically sculpted, and pretty spot-on matches for Billy’s look in the film. The belt and sheath are both the same as those seen on Dutch; they’re both good sculpts, and it makes total sense to reuse them here.  Billy features some great paintwork, all-around. The camo on his paints is pretty well handled, and the face looks sufficiently like Billy; it’s definitely got that terrifying stare down. Under the vest, there’s a fully detailed torso, which even features the wound from where Billy slashes his own chest before his stand-off with the Predator towards the end. That’s an awesome touch! Billy includes an assault rifle, a machete, a small knife, and a clear display stand.

CHUCHILLO

PredatorMates4Well, now we can officially add Danny Trejo to the list of people who have Minimates, which is pretty cool. Oh, right, I should probably talk about the actual character, Chuchillo. He’s Danny Trejo’s character from Predators. He’s pretty much the same as any Danny Trejo character, but this time he’s fighting Predators. That’s about it. Chuchillo has one add-on piece, for his hair, which is re-used from the Marvel Minimates Series 42 Thunderstrike figure. It’s a decent match for Trejo’s hair from the film, so it’s a fine choice. Everything else here is done with paint. The detail work on the various parts of the figure is all pretty sharp, and the Trejo likeness is absolutely spot-on. There’s no denying who this guy is, which is good, because aside from the face, he’s just a dude in normal clothing. Chuchilllo is packed with a sub-machine gun and a clear display stand.

EDWIN

PredatorMates2I can honestly say, I never expected to get a Minimate of Topher Grace’s character from Predators, and certainly not in the first assortment of characters. Guess that’s why he’s the one-per-case figure. This is actually Topher Grace’s third Minimate, as he got two previous ones via the Spider-Man 3 ‘mates. Edwin has two sculpted add-on pieces for his hair and his hood. The hair is the same one that was used for all of the Dutch ‘mates, and the hood was first used on Walking Dead Series 2’s Amy. They’re reasonable enough matches, though Edwin’s hair was a little spikier in the movie.  Edwin’s paint is perfectly reasonable from a purely technical standpoint; the colors are pretty good, and all of th various detail lines are well-handled. Unfortunately, he’s just another guy in totally normal clothing, and unlike Chuchillo, he doesn’t have a spot-on likeness to sell him. I really can’t see any Grace in there at all. Edwin’s only accessory is a clear display stand.

JUNGLE PREDATOR(S)

PredatorMates5Now, we finally get to the actual “Predator” Minimates, starting with the main creature from the first film, the Jungle Hunter. There are two versions of the Jungle Hunter in this set: masked and unmasked. They’re pretty much the same, the only difference is the head. The unmasked version is more or less the same as the Battle-Damaged version; the only real difference is the paint and the addition of the plasma caster on his shoulder. The masked version obviously gets an all-new head, in addition to the plasma caster. While I do tend to prefer the Predators masked, I’m not sure I like the masked head quite as much; the dreds seem a little shorter, which looks a little goofy. The paint on both of these guys is pretty good (and mostly identical). The figures (obviously) lack the blood detailing of the battle-damaged version, but they also lose the gold rings from the dreds, which is sad to see. Both Predators are packed with a clear display stand.

THERMAL JUNGLE PREDATOR

PredatorMates7There’s one more Jungle Hunter variant in this set, though this one’s a fair bit different than the other two I looked at. Sculpturally, he’s the same figure as the basic masked Jungle Hunter. The real change here is the paint, which is wildly different from the rest of the Predators we’ve seen. This one is meant to depict him as though he were being viewed through the Predators’ signature thermal vision. Now, why the Predator is looking at another Predator, I can’t begin to tell you (apparently it’s from a video game), but I honestly don’t care, because the end result is this pretty sick looking Predator variant.

CITY PREDATOR

PredatorMates8Say what you will about Predator 2, it didn’t disappoint on the main Predator design. While the City Hunter isn’t quite as much of a classic as the Jungle Hunter, it’s still a pretty strong look. The City Predator has six sculpted add-on pieces for the shoulder armor, belt/skirt, hands/gauntlets, and feet, as well as non-standard pieces for the head and upper left arm. Surprisingly enough, absolutely none of these are re-used from the Jungle Hunter, which is nice, since they’re designs were different in the movies. If anything, I’d say the City Hunter translates a little better to the ‘mate aesthetic. Unlike the Jungle Hunter, the basic City Hunter’s masked and unmasked heads are both included with the same figure, and they are both fairly decent recreations of the source material. The overall paint on the City Hunter is quite good; the colors are nice matches and he’s got a ton of small detail work, which all looks amazing. However, my figure also has a substantial amount of slop on his left gauntlet, which is quite annoying. In addition to the previously mentioned extra head, the City Hunter includes a Kambi Stick and a clear display stand.

CITY PREDATOR – BATTLE DAMAGED

PredatorMates6Of course, even if the normal City Predator has both masked and unmasked heads covered, we can’t very fairly leave him with only one variation in this set, right? Enter this version. Unlike the Jungle Hunter, the City Hunter actually takes a fairly substantial beating over the course of Predator 2, including losing a hand about ¾ of the way through. So, this figure showcases the character as he’s seen in the last quarter of the film. Structurally, he’s mostly the same as the regular version, albeit with an all-new stump piece in place of his left hand. It’s the same as the normal piece, just cut off before the hand, as it should be. His paint is also mostly the same, with a few changes. Obviously, there’s the green blood splattered all over the place, to indicate he’s been damaged, but he also is sporting the breathing apparatus he wears while fixing himself up, after losing the hand. I actually don’t remember it all that well, but it’s been shown on a few of the City Hunter toys. It’s a cool feature, and it helps to differentiate him from the other City Hunter, so it works well. Unlike his pre-battle version, this figure’s only accessory is a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I wanted a full set of the figures included here, my best purchasing option was buying a whole case of these guys. Fortunately, Edwin was the only single-packed figure, which meant I got two mostly complete sets, allowing me to split the case with my buddy Tim. Ultimately, I think getting a complete set is the best way to get these guys. On their own, there are a couple of figures here (Edwin and at least one of the two basic Jungle Hunters) who might be a bit disappointing. However, as a full set, the lesser figures are easily balanced out by some really strong figures. Billy, the Thermal Pred, and the City Hunter are all really strong figures, and the rest are well enough made to make the whole set feel pretty cool.

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#0823: Ghostbusters Ghosts Minimates

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

JOGGER GHOST, VIGO THE CARPATHIAN, SLIMER, & TITANIC GHOST

GHOSTBUSTERS MINIMATES

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You know what this site could always use more of? Minimates. While Marvel Minimates have undeniably been the flagship line for the brand ever since their inception, the number two spot is one that’s been passed through a number of different licenses. For a while a few years ago, it was very definitely Ghostbusters, which was largely due to Minimates being the first expansive line of toys from the property to actually be based on the first two movies. Over the course of the line, they covered just about every ghost seen in the first two movies. These were typically distributed through two-packs, with each ghost being packed with a variant of one of the Ghostbusters. Of course, not everyone feels the need to own an army of Venkmans (Venkmen?), so DST was kind enough to offer some of the ghosts without their human foes.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These four were each initially released in one of the Toys R Us exclusive two-packs, throughout the run of the Ghostbusters Minimates line. This set of four was released through specialty locations in June of 2011. The four figures contained in the set are identical to their two-pack releases.

JOGGER GHOST

GhostMini5The Jogger Ghost was first released in the second series of two-packs, alongside an Egon variant. He’s one of the ghosts during the “back in business” montage in Ghostbusters 2. He’s caught via a well-placed trap while running a marathon. The figure is roughly 2 ½ inches tall and has 12 points of articulation, due to his shoes blocking ankle movement. He has four add-on pieces: his hair, watch, and shoes. The hair was first used on the 24 Minimates “Day 2” set’s George Mason; it’s a fairly standard receding hair piece, which fits the jogger’s look on screen. The sneakers are from the Back to the Future 2 version of Marty McFly, and work reasonably well for running shoes. The wristwatch was originally used on of the Rocky ‘mates, where it wasn’t actually a wristwatch, but hey, it works. The Jogger’s paint is particularly cool, because he’s done completely translucently, which looks pretty darn cool, and gives him that proper ghostly look.

VIGO THE CARPATHIAN

 GhostMini2Vigo was first released in the third series of two-packs, alongside the “World of the Psychic” version of Peter, who I reviewed here. He is, of course, the main antagonist of the second film, so he’s somewhat important. He uses six sculpted add-on pieces for his hair, chest piece, gloves, and boots. All of these are unique to Vigo, and they do a pretty decent job of looking the part. The only real complaint I have is that his arms end up being just a tad long compared to the rest of him. He definitely would have benefited from a torso riser of some sort. Other than that, the parts are actually quite nicely sculpted, and manage to look fairly imposing. Vigo’s paint is generally not bad, though the work on the body is a little sloppier than I’d like. He’s got one of the most detailed faces I’ve ever seen on a Minimate, which does actually look a fair bit like the character in the movie. Vigo includes a mask piece, which depicts him in his more monstrous form. The cool thing about this piece is it can go on Vigo himself, or be placed on another ‘mate, as if Vigo is possessing them.

SLIMER

GhostMini3Slimer, or Clear Slimer as he was dubbed originally, was first released in Series 1 of the two-packs, alongside a slimed version of Venkman. However, that figure had a few issues, leading to a Best Of release a little while later, which is the one this figure is a re-release of. Slimer is based on his appearance in the first film (making him the only ghost in this set not to be from GB2), where he was a bit more frightening and less “cutesy” than GB2 and the cartoons would later make him. He only uses the upper half of the usual Minimate body, replacing the legs with a flight stand (Slimer was the very first to use the flight stand, actually). In addition to the flight stand, he also has a piece that slips over his head and torso, making up Slimer’s “body.” It’s a fairly simple piece, but it does a pretty good job of capturing Slimer’s basic shape. Slimer’s paint is by far his best feature. He’s done in a nice, disgusting clear green, with detail lines on the add-on piece to represent his face. The best part is the food printed on the actual torso block, which can be seen through the add-on piece, to make it look like Slimer’s just eaten. Definitely a cool touch!

TITANIC GHOST

GhostMini4The Titanic Ghost was released in the third series of two-packs, which a GB2 version of Egon. He’s another GB2 ghost, from the scene towards the end when the ooze is playing havoc with the streets of New York, including finally bringing the Titanic to its intended destination. He’s not a super notable ghost himself, but the scene is somewhat memorable. He makes use of two add-on pieces, for his hat and the bottom portion of his jacket. The hat is from the Marvel Minimates Series 22 General Ross, and it’s a pretty decent fit for a captain’s hat. The skirt piece was first seen in the BSG line, and it’s simple enough to do its job well. The paint work is kind of key on this guy, and it’s pretty on point. Like the Jogger Ghost, he’s done in all translucent parts, which looks sufficiently ethereal. The face in particular has some really nice detail work, with a whole lot of depth, which really sells what could have been a fairly boring ‘mate.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I received this set from my friend Diane, over the summer. She’s been a friend of the family for quite some time, and has long been supportive of my action figure habit. She apparently won this set somewhere, and since she doesn’t really collect Minimates, I was the first person she thought to give it to, which was really nice of her. It’s a pretty solid set all-around. None of the actual ‘busters are present, but these are easily four of the strongest ghosts DST produced in the line. Each of them has something cool to add to the collection.

#0822: Donatello

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

DONATELLO

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a trend that I seem to always juuuust miss, since the first cartoon and toyline were big right before I got into collecting, and the second cartoon was just after I was watching Saturday morning cartoons on a regular basis. The 2002 had quite a few fans, which included my younger brother. Since we were into a lot of the same stuff, I actually had a small handful of figures from that particular toyline. Today, I’ll be looking at my personal favorite member of the Turtles, Donatello.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Donatello2002bDonatello was part of the first series of the 2002 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line from Playmates. He’s the first version of the character released in this particular iteration, so he’s just a fairly standard version, before the onset of the wacky variants. The figure stands 5 ¾ inches tall and has 13 points of articulation. The articulation isn’t terrible, but he can’t really do much but stand in the one pose. Later figures added a bit more, but these early figures weren’t so lucky. The sculpt of this figure is pretty good. It’s specific to Donatello, but it really could be any of the four depending on the paint. It captures the look of the characters on the show fairly well. He’s definitely a bit more detailed and “toyetic” than a straight translation would be, but it’s clear which of the incarnations of the show this is based on. There’s some nice texture work on the shell and the sides of his torso, but it doesn’t really extend to the rest of the figure, which is a bit odd. The paintwork on Donatello is pretty nicely handled; the basic colors match up with Donatello’s from the show, and he’s got a decent amount of accent work. The figure included his signature Bo staff, a sword, axe, and two throwing blades. Mine has none of these, however.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I actually didn’t get this guy when he was new. I ended up finding him at the same place where I purchased the recently reviewed Secret Wars Wolverine. I don’t have any undying need to own the figures from this line, but he was $1.99, so I figured he was worth it. The 2002 figures actually weren’t that bad, and they hold up pretty well over a decade after release, which can’t really be said of most figures from 2002.

#0821: Grey Gargoyle

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

GREY GARGOYLE

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

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Iron Man is really not a guy with the greatest gallery of rogues. Characters Batman and Spider-Man are as much defined by their amazingly entertaining foes as they are by their own personalities. And while they may not be quite as defined by their villains, even the likes of Flash (who has my personal favorite rogues gallery), Captain America, Daredevil, and the Hulk make out pretty well. But Iron Man? Yeah, his best foe, hands down, is himself, which doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for others. So, his foes tend to be a lot more forgettable than those of other heroes. Take for instance, Grey Gargoyle. He’s French, and he’s made of stone. He can also turn other people into stone. That’s really all there is to him. He’s never had a defining story, and he’s not really out there enough to be memorably kooky. So, he’s just there.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GreyGargoyle2Grey Gargoyle was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, based on the cartoon from the 90s. He got himself a slot in the line by being one of the Mandarin’s many flunkies on the show, but even there he was mostly forgettable. The figure is 5 ¼ inches tall and has 8 points of articulation. He has one of the more unique sculpts than this line, depicting his actual chiseled nature.  The look is somewhat simplified, at least in terms of what he looks like in the comics, so as to better match the animation model from the cartoon. There are a few odd choices, though. First off, there’s the collar for the cape, which, for some reason is attached to his torso, despite the rest of the cape being a separate piece. There’s also the somewhat odd choice to remove the elbow movement from the right arm, to facilitate his (ill-conceived) action-feature. What is said action feature? When you pull his right arm back, it springs forward. This is supposed to facilitate a throwing action of some sort, but it doesn’t really work. Gargoyle’s paint is really simple. He’s mostly just molded in grey, with a tiny bit of slightly different grey for the mask/mustache, and two different blues for the gloves and the innards of his cape. What’s there is cleanly applied, but, like the rest of this figure, and the character himself, the paint is rather unexciting and forgettable.  Grey Gargoyle included two bits of stone, supposedly to be thrown by the action feature, as well as one of the weird ID badge thingies that most of the line included.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Grey Gargoyle was NOT amongst the Iron Man figures I owned growing up. In part because the first series was mostly gone from stores when I started collecting, but also due to my lack of any real interest in the character. I ended up buying him from the House of Fun, while attending the most recent Philcon. Mostly, I just got him to put towards completing the set. Truth be told, he’s actually a well put-together figure, and very true to the character. He’s just not terribly exciting….

#0820: Wolverine

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

WOLVERINE

MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS (MATTEL)

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I’ve no doubt that a number of people looked at yesterday’s review of the All-New, All-Different X-Men and thought to themselves: “Where’s Wolverine?” Well, the answer to that question is that Wolverine action figures were all over the place in the ‘90s, so Toy Biz felt he didn’t need to also be part of the set. But, who am I to ruin everyone’s fun? Let’s look at a Wolverine figure. In fact, let’s look at the very first Wolverine figure, from all the way back in 1984!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

WolverineSW2Wolverine was released as part of the first series of Mattel’s Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars line. The line was, of course, designed to tie-in with the Marvel’s Secret Wars comic (the first one!).  However, it was kind of a round-a-bout sort of tie-in, since the comic was actually published at Mattel’s request, because they wanted their toys to have a more direct tie-in. Thanks Mattel. Anyway, Wolverine was in the comic. So was the whole current roster of X-Men at the time, but he was the only one to get a figure from it. This was the true start of the “Wolverine publicity,” I suppose. Since it was 1984, Wolverine was sporting his spiffy brown costume, instead of his usually more known yellow and blue get-up. The figure stands 4 ½ inches tall and has 5 points of articulation. Like pretty much every Mattel line ever, Secret Wars was built on a hefty sum of parts re-use. Wolverine uses the basic arms and legs of the line, along with a unique head and a slightly larger torso piece, which he shared with Doctor Octopus and Hobgoblin. In general, the sculpt is rather on the soft side, with the exception of the soles of his boots, which are oddly well-defined. Of course, they’re only defined right at the base, so the tops don’t stick out from the sides like they should. The head isn’t anything particularly amazing, but it’s a decent enough likeness of Wolverine, and it certainly fits in with the rest of the body sculpt. The general proportions of the figure are fairly decent; the torso’s a bit on the flat side, but not terribly so. Most of this figure is carried by the paint job, since that’s where most of the character-specific elements come in. The paintwork is decent enough, and the colors are nice and bold (even if they did make him brown and yellow, instead of the proper brown and orange). There are some fuzzy edges, but nothing too bad. Wolverine was originally packed with a pair of snap-on claws (which came in either silver or black), and a lenticular shield thingy. Mine has neither of these, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, clearly I didn’t pick this figure up when it was new. Truth be told, Secret Wars was never a line I really thought about trying to track down, due to them lacking a lot of the quality of their contemporary, DC Super Powers, of which I am quite a fan. However, while at a small nick-knack shop on Small Business Saturday, my brother told me there was “some Wolverine figure” on one of the low-sitting shelves. It ended up being this guy, who was marked $1.99. For that price, I certainly wasn’t going to pass on a vintage figure in decent shape. There’s no denying that this figure is far from the quality of other lines from the same time period, but he’s a cool piece of history, and I’m happy to have him.

Guest Review #0037: Overworld Alex

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

OVERWORLD ALEX

MINECRAFT (JAZWARES)

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The following is a guest review by Jill Mardesich.  For more from Jill, check out her blog Future Music Educator Rambles on Life.

Minecraft by Mojang is a game that has managed to sweep the nation, and one of my personal favorites. It is available in just about every platform you can think of, minus Wii and other Nintendo consoles. Because, you know, Nintendo doesn’t play well with others. Alex is the female version of the basic player character (Steve), and I absolutely adore her. She’s not super exciting, but the design is so much more interesting than Steve’s, and she’s a girl.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Alex2Alex is, as stated before, the female player character in the wildly popular game, Minecraft. She is a part of the third series of Minecraft figures. She stands approximately 3 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation. She is a very blocky figure, which follows the game’s overall aesthetic. Her paint work is exceptionally detailed, but there are some fuzzy edges along the facial features, and there’s some pretty noticeable slop on both of her arms, but especially the left one. The orange of her hair is nice and vibrant on top of her head, but when painted onto the body, it seems to have been applied overtop the green of her shirt and causes the color to look really dingy and just… off. From a distance she looks awesome, but up close she gets a little disappointing. I don’t care that much though, because I’m really into her as a character anyway. For her accessories, she comes with a bow, a gold sword, and a Slime. The box looks pretty cool, but the edges of the paintwork are not clean, and it’s a little tricky to get her to hold it in a secure fashion. The sword is pretty nice, the paintwork is super neat and the sword is immediately identifiable as the material it is made of in the game. The Slime is a cool item to receive, replacing the normal building block that comes with the figures in this line. It also looks really cool, a 1.5 inch cube made of transparent green plastic with different shades of green plastic on the inside to provide the detailing. It leads a super clean likeness to the Slimes in the game, and a really cool looking piece. My one complaint about the Slime character is that the color green for the transparent plastic is a rather dark green, which is inaccurate to the game and causes the detailing inside to be difficult to see. If the transparent plastic was a lighter green like it is in the game, I think the details inside the Slime would be more vivid and impressive.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Even though there is literally no story to the game Minecraft, I have loved Alex since she was introduced. She was a surprise to me in one of the updates (because honestly, who actually reads the entire update list when they log in to Minecraft?) and I was ridiculously excited to discover that my Doctor Who skin wasn’t working and it was instead I got to meet Alex. I think she has a really cool design, and I think the fact that she was such a surprise to me is part of the reason why I love her so much. She was like a present that I never expected. It seems fitting that my wonderful boyfriend Tim got her for me at the store in the same manner. She’s not a perfect figure, but she is still really cool and I’m excited to have her.

#0819: Giant-Size X-Men #1 Boxed Set

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

STORM, COLOSSUS, NIGHTCRAWLER, SUNFIRE, BANSHEE, & THUNDERBIRD

MARVEL COLLECTOR EDITIONS (TOY BIZ)

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In the 1960s, when Marvel Comics was on fire with all sorts of new ideas, the X-Men were created. The team was Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Beast, and Angel. While the series was a moderate success, it wasn’t as big as other titles of the time, and so the book eventually became solely a reprint series, before ending entirely. But, as anyone who has so much as thought about a Marvel comic in the last 30 years can tell you, that was far from the end of the X-Men. In 1975, the series was relaunched with Giant-Size X-Men #1, which featured an all-new, all-different cast of characters. This new cast proved far more successful than their predecessors, and the series went on to become one of Marvel’s most popular. In the 1990s, the X-Men were no strangers to toys, but most were based on the contemporary designs. To appease older fans, Toy Biz launched a line of special boxed sets, based on more classic incarnations of teams, including the All-New, All-Different X-Men, which I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

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These six figures were released as one of the three sets in the Marvel Collector Editions line. All six are based on their appearances in Giant-Size X-Men #1.

STORM

ANADXMen2Though she’s by far the most well-known of the figures in this set, this was the first time Storm’s original costume had seen plastic form, and only the second sculpt the figure had gotten in the expansive 5-inch scale. The figure stands 5 ¼ inches tall and has 13 points of articulation. Her sculpt is generally pretty good, and certainly much better than the Marvel Girl sculpt from this set’s X-Men #1 companion piece. The head is definitely the nicest piece here, as it captures Cockrum’s take on Storm quite well. The body is decently sculpted, but suffers from a few issues. First off, she seems to lack Storm’s usual imposing stature, which is sadly common with her figures. She’s also got these odd, claw-like hands, which are definitely too big for the rest of her body. To top it all off, she’s nearly impossible to keep standing for very long. I do like the way they’ve handled the cape, though; it’s cloth, but it’s multiple layers, which give it enough weight to keep it from hanging oddly, and it avoids cutting off articulation as well. Her paintwork is pretty much on par with the rest of what Toy Biz was doing at the time. The colors are nice and vibrant, and everything is pretty clean, if perhaps lacking in subtlety. The edge of her collar is missing some yellow in a couple of spots, but other than that, everything looks pretty good.

COLOSSUS

ANADXMen4This marked the third time Toy Biz made a Colossus figure. They had a bit of a Goldilocks thing going on with them, though. The first one was too small, the second one was too big, but this one was juuuuust right. The figure stands 6 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. The decision not to give him any wrist movement is a little baffling, especially since he’s got a built-in way to mask the joints, but the rest of the movement is all pretty good. Colossus is probably my favorite sculpt in the set. He’s not saddled with any real pre-posing, and his proportions don’t get too wonky, apart from his hands being maybe a touch on the large side. The details here, especially on the exposed metal parts of his body are really stand-out, and he just looks really sharp. His head has an expression that’s intense, but not so intense as to make him look villainous. The paint on Colossus is pretty sharp too. He’s got no noticeable slop, and the details on his costume really look great. The red and yellow really just pop on this guy.

NIGHTCRAWER

ANADXMen3Nightcrawler received probably the best of the initial figures from Toy Biz’s X-Men line, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t room for improvement, especially since the original had sported odd suction cups on his hand and leg. It was also hard to get him into any of Nightcrawler’s distinctive crouching poses, which was the main thing this figure set to fix. The figure is 5 ¼ inches tall and has 16 points of articulation, as well as a bendable tail. If there’s one major issue with this figure, it’s that he’s just too tall. Nightcrawler should really be noticeably shorter than the rest of the team, but were the figure not crouching, he’d be taller than half the figures in the set. That’s kind of off. Aside from that glaring issue, the sculpt is generally pretty passable, though he’s more of an Excalibur-era Alan Davis-styled Nightcrawler than a GSXM Cockrum-styled one. The general quality of the sculpt is definitely nice, and he has some pretty sharp detailing. The shoulder pads are rather obviously separate pieces, which is frustrating, but not the worst thing. Paint is definitely this figure’s strongest suit, and he’s definitely got the strongest paint in the set. The colors of his costume are nice and bold, and everything is very sharp. What’s really cool is that his costume is all matte finish, while his skin/hair is much glossier, making an instant distinction between the two.

SUNFIRE

ANADXMen5The shortest-lasting (but not shortest-lived) member of the ANAD team was definitely Sunfire, who quit after just one issue. In addition, as he was not new to X-Men the series at the time of Giant-Size X-Men #1, having previously appeared as a “foe,” so he wasn’t even on the cover of that issue. This all ends up making him one of the least-remembered members of this team. Amazingly enough, it wasn’t his first 5-inch figure from Toy Biz (though it was his second of two, so he didn’t get anymore), but it is, to date, the only figure of his classic costume ever made. The figure stands 5 ¼ inches tall and has 16 points of articulation. Sunfire’s sculpt is kind of complicated. There are some really great parts, such as the brilliant texture work on the scaled part of his costume, and a very nice translation of his somewhat goofy-looking mask, but it’s all placed on an almost comically skinny body. Sunfire certainly wasn’t a body-builder, but he wasn’t scrawny either. Then there are his feet, which look to have been sized for the body he should have had, which creates this sort of clown shoe effect. The sculpt isn’t terrible, but it’s also not great either. The paint is good in theory, and decent in practice. The application is pretty solid, and aside from one tiny inaccuracy (having his neckline go all the way up to the mask when it should end just north of the collar bone) it looks pretty good. The only issue is the black wash they’ve used to bring out the details of the scaled parts. It works overall, and is especially good on the arms, but the coverage is inconsistent, and the top of the right leg on my figure is totally missing any painted detail, which sticks out quite a bit.

BANSHEE

ANADXMen7Banshee was the other “not new to the series” character, though he had shown up more than once before. He also stuck with the team a bit longer than Sunfire, and hung around as a supporting character even after leaving the team, which resulted in him being a fair bit more memorable than Sunfire (of course, one of them spent the last decade dead, and it wasn’t Sunfire, so maybe popularity isn’t always a great thing). This was his third figure from Toy Biz, but his first to sport his classic green and yellow, which is definitely my favorite of his looks. The figure stands 5 ¼ inches tall and has 16 points of articulation, just like the last two figures. Like Sunfire, his sculpt is a mix of good and bad. The general build isn’t bad, and he isn’t quite as scrawny as Sunfire. However, he’s fairly pre-posed, and the “wings” limit his posability a bit. Also, I get that his main thing is screaming, but I’m not sure how well it turned out on this head sculpt, where he looks like he’s just sort of opening his mouth kind of wide. I feel like an extra, non-screaming head should kind of be a requirement for all Banshee figures, but none of them have ever done such a thing. Banshee’s paint is pretty decently handled; the costume definitely fairs best, with some nice, subtle airbrushing to help highlight some of the sculpted musculature. The head has a passable paintjob, though I feel the colors end up looking a bit too muted.

THUNDERBIRD

ANADXMen6Now, here’s a short-lived X-Man. See, cuz he died. Get it? Yeah, you get it. Yes, Thunderbird was officially the first X-Man to die in action, just to prove a point. According to writer Chris Claremont, it was actually a toss-up as to whether it would be him or Wolverine who died during the X-Men’s second mission. Thunderbird got the axe because his powers were more non-descript than the others, and also because he was just a tiny bit on the stereotype side of things, but could you imagine how different X-Men would be without Wolverine? Seeing as he was dead for most of the team’s run, this was actually the first Thunderbird figure ever made, though it wouldn’t be the last. The figure is 5 ½ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. His sculpt is actually pretty good, overall. The head has some very nice detail work, and is probably the most realistic looking of all those in the set. The body is less realistic, with some slightly out-there proportions, but it’s not too bad, overall. The right hand is sculpt to hold something; I don’t know what it was supposed to be, since he included no accessories, and I can’t really think of anything Thunderbird would need to hold, but whatever. The paintwork on this figure is quite nicely done. Everything is nice an clean, and I love the slight accenting on the various parts of the costume.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting the other two sets in this line as a kid, I bet you think I got this alongside them, don’t you. Well, you’d be wrong. My dad did have this set, and he even offered to buy me one of my own, at a discounted price, when the now defunct Ageless Heroes Comics was going out of business. I was feeling particularly silly that day and turned the set down, a decision I proceeded to regret for the next 18 years, after the set’s price jumped on the aftermarket. This past November, while attending Philcon, I stopped by the House of Fun, and pulled this set out from underneath several boxes. It was actually less than I would have paid for it back in the day, which made me doubly happy. This is by no means a perfect set, but there are some definite gems within, and I’m happy to have it at last.

#0818: Batman

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

BATMAN

JUSTICE LEAGUE: GODS & MONSTERS

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And here we are with day 17 of the Post-Christmas reviews, the final day of this round (I’ve still got a couple more gift-based reviews, but I’ll cover them later). I’ll be going back to the DC animated branch one more time, but it’s not the same universe as before. This time, the figure comes from Bruce Timm’s newest animated venture, Justice League: Gods & Monsters, launched by a movie of the same name back in mid-2015. In this new universe, the Justice League are just the main trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. DC Collectibles has produced figures of the three, and today I’ll be looking at Batman, who in this universe is not Bruce Wayne, but a vampiric Kirk Langstrom*.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

BatmanJLGM2Batman is figure 01 in DCC’s Justice League: Gods & Monsters line. The figure stands about 6 ½ inches tall and has 24 points of articulation. Like a lot of DCC’s more recent offerings, he would really benefit from some lateral movement on his legs, but other than that, the movement is pretty decent. The figure is, of course, based on his animated design from the film. Batman’s look is a nice throwback to the classic sci-if pulp hero look; it’s somewhat basic, but it definitely has a bold look. I had actually expected for Batman to built similarly to Batman: Animated’s Nightwing, but he’s actually a fair bit bigger than Nightwing. That doesn’t bug me too much, since I actually felt Nightwing was generally too small. The sculpt does a good job of translating his design into three dimensions. It’s not perfect, and the torso in particular feels a little flat, but the overall quality is pretty great. The head is a good match for the film, but the long ears, while cool, are susceptible to warping in the packaging, which has left my Batman with one slightly droopy ear. Batman’s paintwork is fairly straightforward. Like the overall design, his color scheme is BatmanJLGM3fairly basic; it’s just black and off-white, with some red thrown in for good measure. The overall application is pretty good; some of the edges are a little fuzzy, and there’s some bleed over here and there, but it’s mostly pretty clean. Batman is packed with an extra unmasked head, two pairs of hands (in fists and… some sort of weird, pseudo-grip sort of pose?), and a display stand with his control art on it. He’s a bit on the light side when compared to other animated releases, but it’s a decent enough selection, I suppose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Batman was given to me by my oh-so-awesome parents. He wasn’t actually among the presents I opened Christmas morning, as he hadn’t quite arrived yet, but he got here just a few days after. I was pretty happy to get him, as Batman was my favorite of the three designs (if perhaps not my favorite of the three characters after seeing the film). The figure does a pretty admirable job of translating him to figure form, and he fits in nicely with my Batman: Animated figures. I don’t know that he’s quite convinced me to pick up the rest of the set, but I could definitely see myself tracking down a Wonder Woman at some point.

*For those of you who don’t know, in the mainstream universe, Kirk Langstrom is the Batman villain Man-Bat.

#0817: Malcolm Reynolds

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

MALCOLM REYNOLDS

FIREFLY REACTION! (FUNKO)

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Today is day 16 of the Post-Christmas gift reviews, the penultimate review of this particular sub-set of reviews.  For today’s review, I’ll be looking at a figure from a line I haven’t looked at in a fair bit of time, Funko’s ReAction line. Yes, today I’ll be looking at Captain Malcolm Reynolds, from their Firefly ReAction line. But, wait, didn’t I already review him with the rest of the first series? Yes, I did, but this one’s got a new hat—I mean, this one’s shirt is blue!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

MalBlue2Mal is technically part of the first series of Firefly ReAction figures, though he was released a fair bit after the original selection of figures. He was exclusive to “go!”. For those of you who have no clue what that is (like me!), you know those mall kiosks that sell calendars? Yeah, those are owned by go!. Mal was, in fact, a calendar store exclusive. Funko will literally give anyone an exclusive. And, honestly, I can’t really see a problem with that. The figure stands 3 ¾ inches tall and has 5 points of articulation. His sculpt is 100% identical to the regular, red-shirted Mal figure, reviewed here. It’s not one of Funko’s stronger sculpts. That said, I certainly wouldn’t want an improved Mal sculpt to be implemented on a weird, out of nowhere exclusive. The key difference here is paint. Instead of red, his shirt is now a light blue. It’s not a signature look for Mal, but it actually is kind of appealing. The application is a bit sloppy, especially at the hairline, but he looks okay as a whole. The other main change to this figure is his included weapon. The regular release had Mal’s signature revolver. In its place, this figure includes a shotgun, which is the same as the one included with Zoe.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mal was given to me by my friends Cindy and Lance, who are pretty good at finding me harder-to-get items as gifts. I had no clue this figure even existed until I opened it. It’s not often that I’m surprised like that. It was actually a nice change of pace. He’s not super different from the regular release, but he’s a fun little variant.

MalBlue3

#0816: Batman & Two-Face

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

BATMAN & TWO-FACE

BATMAN (MATTEL)

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For day 15 of the Post-Christmas reviews, I’ll be taking a step back to a few years, and actually looking at a Mattel product. Weird, right? In 2002, the DC license moved to Mattel from Hasbro (who had inherited it via their buyout of former holder Kenner), marking the first time in over a decade that the license had formally changed hands. It was something of a quick change, resulting in Hasbro being unable to release some of the product they had designed beforehand. When Mattel took over, they ended up making use of some of these already existing designs (which were all Batman-related), releasing them as a quick, one and done line of two-packs, each containing Batman and a supporting player. That wasn’t enough, apparently, as they also occasionally trotted the figures out for re-release over the years, usually single-packed and with wonky color schemes. Today, I’ll be looking at a pair of figures from one of those re-releases.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Batman and Two-Face were released in 2008, in a line simply branded Batman. I should specify here that they were both single releases, which I’m just reviewing as a pair here for my own convenience. There was also a Joker figure in the set, which I don’t have.

BATMAN

BatsTwoFaceMatt3First up is Batman. Not just any Batman, though! No, this here is a wacky variant Batman! The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation. The sculpt is based on the New Batman Adventures version of Batman. It’s not a terrible recreation of the design, but I don’t think it’s quite as good as the prior Kenner version of the design, and it’s definitely not as good as the recent DCC version. However, it’s still a pretty decent sculpt, and it’s clear which version of Batman this is supposed to be. Plus, it’s got a much more natural pose than the Kenner version, which is a nice change. Wait, didn’t I say this was a wacky variant Batman? Why, yes I did! That all comes from the paint. Instead of the traditional grey for the body, he has this odd orange/silver thing. It’s not based on any particular look or anything, just random orange and silver Batman. How ‘bout that? The paint is decently applied, for what it’s worth, so there’s that. Batman included no accessories, just like all of the other Batmen who used this same exact mold.

TWO-FACE

BatsTwoFaceMatt2So, Batman was a wacky variant, but Two-Face is an actual adapted design, right? Not really, no. But that’s okay! Because toys! Like Batman, this figure stands about 5 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation. It’s worth noting that this guy feels like he’s just a bit smaller-scaled than Batman, which is especially notable when you compare head sizes. The sculpt is also based on his New Batman Adventures design, and it’s not quite as strong as Batman’s. It’s not terrible, and the body in particular is a pretty decent Timm-style suit sculpt (which is probably why Mattel ended up using a tweaked version of it several times in their JLU line). The head is pretty off, and it has a really obvious mold line running along the chin, which looks pretty bad. The paintwork is kind of interesting. It’s definitely not show-accurate, but it’s also not quite as out there as Batman, since it isn’t all that far-removed from some of his classic color-schemes from the comics. That actual application is reasonable enough. The colors are pretty vibrant, and most of the paint stays in the lines, which is nice. Two-Face also doesn’t include any accessories, but he does have his coin sculpted in his hand, so at least he isn’t totally lacking.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Batman and Two-Face were given to me for Christmas by my Super Awesome Girlfriend. And where did she find these 8 year old action figures? Some second hand store? Nope, it was CVS of all places. I was genuinely shocked by that. Neither of them are particularly standout figures, but they kind of a nifty throwback to the wacky variants of old, and I was happy to receive them.