Author Archives: Ethan Wilson

#3693: Parker & Brett

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

PARKER & BRETT

ALIEN REACTION FIGURES (SUPER 7)

Before being the ever-expansive line of just about everything that it’s become, the Reaction Figures line was borne out of Super 7 acquiring the rights to finally release the abandoned Kenner prototypes for a 3 3/4-inch Alien line.  Super 7 originally intended to produce the figures themselves, but as a smaller company, there were concerns they would be able to produce enough of them to meet demand.  Funko stepped in to assist, and built an entire imprint out of it in-house, applying it to a great many of the licenses they already had.  The actual Alien line was initially limited to the five figures that there were already existing prototypes for from Kenner, since that’s all there was.  Funko retooled and repainted to put a few others out, but we didn’t really see truly new* figures, notably the missing three members of the crew, until ReAction moved back under Super 7 exclusively.  A decade and 40 ReAction Figures reviews ago, I actually reviewed the very figures that launched the whole imprint, and now I’m finally adding two of the three missing crew members to the mix!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Parker and Brett were released alongside a bloody deco version of the Alien in the second of the three “Crew of the Nostromo” three-packs, which Super 7 used to re-release the first series figures in new colors and add the missing members of the crew once they took over the line solely.

PARKER

Hey, it’s Parker!  The most sensible person in the movie after Ripley, and also Yaphet Kotto doing his Yaphet Kotto best.  In case you’re wondering, his Yaphet Kotto best is “being Yaphet Kotto.”  Just so that’s clear.  Parker’s seen here in his main garb from the movie, sans-jacket, but before he loses the headband and button down shirt.  The figure’s just over 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Parker’s sculpt was new to him, and a pretty good mimic of the five Kenner sculpts we got.  The head has a passing resemblance to Kotto, while still being within that Kenner realm of “not really a full likeness.”  I’d say it’s still a bit better than the first series figures, and certainly a lot better than Funko’s in-house stuff.  Parker’s paint work is also a noted improvement on the earlier stuff, losing some of the coldness of the first series, as well as its relative sloppiness.  There’s an errant mark of white just above his mouth, but otherwise, it looks pretty good.  Parker was packed without any accessories; it’s a shame they didn’t at least repack the flamethrower here, but the multipack thing offset that, I guess.

BRETT

Parker’s “Right” hand man, Brett!  …Do you get it?  Cuz he always says “right?”  Isn’t it funnier now that I’ve explained it to you?  Look, I bet Brett would have laughed at it.  He would have at the very least said “right.”  Brett’s really only got the one look, and that’s the one he gets here.  I mean, I guess you could do the “turning into an egg” Brett, but that seems like a weird way to go.  The figure’s 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s got another unique sculpt, and it’s honestly another pretty solid one.  It feels very authentic, and, much like Parker, I feel the likeness, this time of actor Harry Dean Stanton, is actually not bad, especially given the stylings.  Honestly, I think he reads better as Stanton than the NECA figure, just by leaning more into caricature, and thereby missing the issue with the more subtle details not quite working.  His paint work is similar to Parker’s, and it’s better than what came before.  I do somewhat miss the pattern on the shirt, but that’s probably not very true to the style.  The jacket lacking the “NOSTROMO” on the back feels like more of a glaring omission.  Also an omission is the lack of a cattle prod accessory for him, but it’s once again a multipack thing, so there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Somehow, I just missed these.  I know there was the exclusive release where they did the single cards, and then the three-packs followed, and I just never got to getting them, and then they were gone.  I had the NECA figures, of course, but I likewise never got the whole crew that way, either.  These ones landed in front of me a month or so back, and I was honestly pretty happy to find them.  They’re certainly my favorites from the crew, and I like having them to go with the rest.  I guess now I just need to find a Lambert.

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

*I know there are the two Kane figures that are new sculpts, but they suffer from some of the worst of Funko’s in-house sculpts, and they’re heavily reliant on each other.  Also, we already had a Kane, so…

#3692: Nightwing

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NIGHTWING — KNIGHTFALL

SUPER POWERS (MCFARLANE)

“Dick Grayson began his crime-fighting career as the original Robin—Batman’s protégé and crime-fighting partner. An expert acrobat and skilled fighter, Dick eventually left the nest and ventured out on his own as a new hero called Nightwing. His childhood experiences as a circus acrobat and trapeze artist make him extremely agile. He is a superior fighter and a highly skilled martial artist who has been personally trained by Batman. Nightwing is a keen detective, a natural leader, and a strategist with advanced knowledge of a variety of technologies.”

My first McFarlane Super Powers figure, which I reviewed over a year ago now, was Nightwing.  He was a figure I remarked wasn’t terrible, but which missed the mark of “Super Powers” by, amongst other things, putting Dick into a modern costume, rather than something more era appropriate.  Well, it’s okay, because they did another Nightwing, and he’s in an older costume.  Surely there will be no problems with this one, right?  Riiiiiight?  Look, let’s just get into the review, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightwing (Knightfall) was released in Series 5 of the McFarlane Super Powers line under the DC Direct banner.  He was accompanied in the line-up by a similarly Knightfall-themed repaint of the Tim Drake Robin figure from just a series prior.  So, here’s where we encounter our first problem: costume choice.  The last figure was in his modern costume, which didn’t exactly fit with the vintage line.  This one goes earlier, but it’s only a little bit earlier, since this one made its first appearance in 1992.  That would place the vintage of this design not with Kenner’s run, but honestly closer to, say, the Toy Biz run, continuing to add to my theory that Todd’s actually trying to homage the TB line, not the Kenner one.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation.  We’re back again to the figure’s being too large, but that’s really because of the parts re-use, since he’s just a repaint of the Series 3 figure.  And here we are again with the problems.  See, if we’re throwing in the towel on an accurate costume choice for the line, can’t we at least get an accurate depiction of the costume we’re getting? Well, it would seem no.  The most glaring thing here is that there are two distinctive hairstyles associated with this costume: the mullet and the ponytail.  This sculpt is neither of those, and it robs the design of some of it’s punch.  I can forgive the body sculpt re-use, but couldn’t we at least get a new head?  His new paint is at least alright.  I dig the metallic color choices, which give him a rather nifty appearance.  Nightwing is packed with his eskrima sticks, now in black.  They’re also not really accurate to this costume, since he was pretty exclusively using the discs at the time, but this one I’ll let slide, because you could have just as well left him with no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure frustrates me immensely.  I got the first Nightwing, and I accepted him for what he was, but getting a second Nightwing who’s still in the wrong costume, and said wrong costume not even being done the right way seems downright insulting.  So, why’d I buy it?  It landed in front of me, it’s a Nightwing, and I’m week.  Honestly, I don’t hate him.  The choices are weird, but I still kinda find him fun.

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

#3691: Casey Jones

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CASEY JONES — ONE-MAN WEAPONS RACK

TURTLES OF GRAYSKULL (MATTEL)

Toy crossovers are becoming a pretty common thing, and, honestly, when it comes to that sort of thing, TMNT has pretty much always been the king of that sort of thing.  At the very tail end of last year, Mattel launched a crossover between TMNT and their own in-house property, Masters of the Universe, dubbed “Turtles of Grayskull”.  I got the Donatello, of course, because that’s what I do.  The Metalhead/Roboto combo is a Build-A-Figure, so there’s a barrier for entry on that one, but that leaves me with one more TMNT character I always buy: Casey Jones!  So, let’s see how his amalgamation worked out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Casey Jones is part of the third assortment of Turtles of Grayskull figures.  He and Mikey are the two Turtles characters, and are joined by Teela and Skeletor from the Masters side. The figure stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  Donatello and the other Turtles were making use of a lot of new base parts, but Casey’s actually just using the standard Origins male buck.  It’s a little buff for Casey, I suppose, but it seems like when you travel to Eternia, you just immediately get jacked.  Donnie was specifically patterned on Man-At-Arms as his MOTU-equivalent, but Casey’s “One-Man Weapons Rack” gimmick makes him a bit more his own thing.  He’s pretty decidedly the classic Casey Jones cartoon design, but assembled using MOTU parts.  It’s honestly a pretty cool concept.  He gets a new head and a new overlay for the torso.  The head’s unmasked, and is certainly more in line with Casey’s more modern “pretty boy” interpretations.  It’s also rather unique when compared to the standard Origins heads, giving Casey a lot of character.  The new torso piece pairs up with a re-used Man-At-Arms shin guard to give him his slightly more padded appearance.  He also gets a new facemask and armored glove, patterned on Ram-Man’s headgear and the Jitsu/Fisto hands, respectively.  The glove’s a little tricky, because it feels like it *should* just slide over the hand, but because it’s an open hand, it sits way too far down.  You can remove the hand, of course, but then it feels like it sits a little too high, and it’s never totally secure.  I feel like just having it swap for the standard hand and putting a peg in place to hold it would have been the best solution.  Casey’s color scheme is his classic color lay out, with the saturation pitched up ever so slightly, and a few more metallic colors thrown in for good measure.  The paint work is minimal but generally clean, with the only notable issue on mine being some slop on the white paint for the boots.  Casey gets quite an impressive assortment of extras, with the previously mentioned mask and glove, as well as a MOTU-ified version of his usual sports bag, as well as a hockey stick, warhammer, axe, katana, and staff.  The “bag” clips securely onto the harness, and everything fits well inside it.  There’s even a special spot on the side to clip the hockey stick in place.  Obviously, the hockey stick is the classic armament here, and I love the translucent green, but I also love the warhammer so very, very much.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Donatello was fun, but as I said in that review, I didn’t see myself really jumping into this line.  Metalboto being a Build-A-Figure that I wasn’t given much of a chance to complete seemed to cement that…and then they showed off Casey.  I already have a soft spot for Casey figures, and this one also looked really, really cool.  As it turns out, he *is* really, really cool!

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

#3690: Green Lantern

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

GREEN LANTERN

SUPER POWERS (MCFARLANE)

“John Stewart is a former U.S. Marine who uses his military training and discipline to protect Earth, and the rest of Space Sector 2814, as a member of the intergalactic peacekeeping force known as the Green Lantern Corps. As Green Lantern, John wields a power ring, which creates a protective shield around him, allows him to fly, and generates hard-light energy constructs in the form of anything he imagines. Fueled by willpower, Green Lantern’s power ring is one of the mightiest weapons in the universe!”

Introduced as the second back-up Lantern of Sector 2184 (which makes him the back-up back-up, I guess), John Stewart’s introduction under Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams provided DC with their first African American super hero. John subsequently took over as the primary Lantern from Hal Jordan on and off, and was notably chosen as the central Lantern for the Justice League animated show, which elevated his status tremendously, placing him more or less on the same level as Hal Jordan.  He’s had quite a number of figures over the years, but his first *would* have been a Super Powers figure, had Kenner gotten a fourth year out of the line.  Instead, he had to wait for McFarlane to revive the line…to mixed results.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern was released in Series 2 of McFarlane’s Super Powers line under the DC Direct banner.   He’s from that early era of the line where it was still just a Walmart-exclusive.  It’s also the era of the line where the figures are all using modern designs, hence John using his post-return, animation-inspired costume.  It’s not the design that Kenner was going to use (as they were more than likely just going to do a straight repaint on Hal), and it’s not a look that quite vibes with the rest of the line.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  As with all of the early line figures, he’s scaled about 1/2 an inch too tall, and is just generally too round and puffy to fully fit in with the Kenner figures.  The sculpt’s a bit on the soft side, and the shaping of the face is…I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but it’s off, that’s for sure.  In general, I find he looks not like a Kenner Super Powers figure, but rather like a Toy Biz DC Super Heroes figure.  Even the right hand is held vertically, rather than horizontally, much like the TB Hal.  This is further continued with the coloring, as the green in particular is a very close match to the TB GL.  Otherwise, the paint work is fine.  Fuzzy on the edges, but generally fine.  John is packed with his power battery, which he can hold in his left hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I saw this figure a number of times, and couldn’t bring myself to buy it.  It upset me, because it’s a John Stewart Green Lantern for Super Powers, which is something I very definitely wanted.  Why finally buy it?  Well, a loose one landed in front of me, right in the midst of me buying all of the more recent figures.  And, I mean, it’s one of the lost Kenner figures, in a continuation of the line.  What’s not to love?  Well, honestly, everything about the execution.  I mean, he just manages to get every possible detail wrong, and is quite possibly the most demonstrative of the core problems of the line’s beginnings.  It’s gotten a lot better since then, but if anything, it makes me more frustrated that this is the John we got, rather than a figure that’s more thematically appropriate with the rest of the line.

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

#3689: Martial Arts Batman

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MARTIAL ARTS BATMAN

BATMAN (MATTEL)

Back in 2003, there was a huge change-up in the world of super hero toys, as the DC license passed from Hasbro (who had inherited it when they had fully absorbed Kenner at the end of the ’90s) to Mattel.  While Mattel had focused decidedly less on the action figure market for a lot of the ’90s, in the early ’00s, they’d relaunched their in-house brand Masters of the Universe, with former McFarlane sculptors the Four Horsemen doing the sculpts.  Having netted the DC license, they launched a line of Batman figures, also primarily sculpted by the Four Horsemen.  McFarlane sculptors on DC figures?  It’ll never work….

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Martial Arts Batman was one of a whole plethora of Batman variants present for the launch of Mattel’s Batman line in 2003.  While the standard Batman (dubbed “Zipline”), Robin, and Joker all flew off shelves, the Bat-variants were less speedy.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  While the articulation scheme’s nothing to write home about these days (or even when the figures were new, considering they were contemporaries of Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends), it was actually a pretty nice step up from what we were typically seeing from Hasbro before the license transferred.  All of the Bat-variants were sculpted by the Four Horsemen, centered around the core sculpt done for Zipline Batman.  It’s a solid starting point, being a clean and rather “generic” take on the then current Batman design.  The iconography definitely holds up.  Each of the variant figures got their own little selection of unique parts, which, in the case of Martial Arts Batman, was the hands, feet, and belt.  The belt and hands would also see re-use for the Batman packed in with the Nightwing figure later the same year.  Generally speaking, the parts aren’t bad.  They match well with the core body pieces, and the general “martial arts” vibe is captured decently enough.  The wrappings on the hands, in particular, are pretty cool.  Also, in keeping with a theme that the Four Horsemen were very insistent on early in the line, he’s got the little bat-symbol on the bottom of his feet, which is a pretty nifty little bit.  His paint work is…odd.  They saddled him with a lot of maroon, as it’s the base color of his suit for some reason.  There’s some black, of course, but he’s also quite reliant on gold for the accents.  It’s a weird set-up.  I’m also not entirely sure how I feel about the bare hands under the wraps.  The application is at least pretty clean, so he’s got that going for him.  He’s packed with a bladed staff thing which can split into two, as well as a wrist mounted bladed thing.  Look, it’s all very technical, but there are a number of things, and they’re all rather martial arts-y, I guess?  I mean, I guess they’re at least kind of nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hasbro’s last few years on the DC license were rough.  Mattel gaining the license was a breath of fresh air….until the product actually hit.  This line is a great example of that, being a perfectly fine line, while also being more or less indistinguishable from what Hasbro was doing a year before.  I didn’t get a ton of these figures when they were new, and this one in particular is a rather recent addition to my collection…relatively speaking.  He came into All Time a few years ago, and his package was such that he was going to wind up in the loose figure bin anyway, so I snagged him, because why not.  He’s fine.  Nothing amazing or anything, but fine.  He’s got a good sculpt at the very least.

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

#3688: Abe Sapien

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

ABE SAPIEN

HELLBOY REACTION FIGURES (SUPER 7)

In what has to be one of the quietest and understated moves the franchise has ever taken, apparently there’s a Hellboy movie coming out in two weeks?  The franchise got a reboot in 2019, and this one’s another reboot, specifically adapting the comics story “The Crooked Man”.  I guess that gives this movie a slightly better reason for not including Abe Sapien, since he’s not part of the original story, nor would he really fit its aesthetic.  It does mean that I’ll have to supply my own Abe Sapien appreciation, so here I am, doing just that!  Oh yeah!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Abe Sapien was released as part of the single-carded first assortment of Super 7’s Hellboy ReAction Figures line, alongside HB, Liz, and Lobster Johnson.  The figures are all comic-based, filtered, of course, through the usual ReAction lens.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt was unique to him, and it does a respectable job of taking Mignola’s fish-man design and making it look like a Kenner figure from the ’70s.  Proportionally, his head seems maybe a bit big, but I think that may also be slightly linked to the way the gills work.  Beyond that, it’s a neat sculpt.  They’ve gone more for the “underwater adventure” look for Abe, so he’s got his shorts and belt, but that’s it.  The feet are an interesting quirk; as far as I know, Abe’s always been depicted with actual toes, albeit frequently webbed ones, but this figure gives him sort of hooves, kind of like what Hellboy classically has.  I’d chalk it up to shared parts, but the two have very different details elsewhere on their legs, so it can’t really be that.  Just one of those things, maybe to sell the frequent Kenner inaccuracies? The color work on Abe is pretty fun; the teal sort of color is brighter than Abe is usually depicted, but it fits the vibe of the line very well, so I very much dig it.  Application’s all pretty clean, and there’s a surprising amount of accenting.  Abe is packed with a harpoon, which is great for all those harpooning needs.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

These figures all hit during a period of time when I didn’t have much in the way of disposable income, so I wasn’t really able to jump on any of them when they first hit.  It’s always bummed me out, because I definitely dug the style, and it meant there was an Abe figure I didn’t have.  Thankfully, things have a tendency to come back around, and Abe here got traded into All Time a few months back, giving me an opportunity to finally snag one.  Yay!  He’s not a terribly complex or involved figure, but I enjoy him for his simplicity.  Definitely fun, and I’m now fighting the urge to track down all of the rest of them.

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

#3687: R5-D4, BD-72, & Pit Droids

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R5-D4, BD-72, & PIT DROIDS

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Peli Motto makes quick work of refueling and repairing battered ships with the help of R5-D4, BD-72, and a team of hyperactive pit droids.”

There’s a lot of cool things going for Star Wars as a concept, but one of the most infinitely marketable pieces has to be the droids. There’s just so many models, and there’s a bunch of unique names thrown at the models, and when they introduce new models, we get to see them get worked into the background with other, older models, and that’s cool too. And there are so many toy possibilities, too, which works out very well for me, a toy collector. The titular character from The Mandalorian having a distrust of droids at the outset did limit the droids he interacted with initially (barring, of course, IG-11, whose just too awesome to be limited), but they’ve worked their way into the show as it’s progressed, and there’s even been enough of them to warrant a whole special pack. How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

R5-D4, BD-72, and the Pit Droids are a Target-exclusive Star Wars: The Black Series offering, which started showing up mid to late summer.

First and foremost, we’ve got the one “proper” figure of the set, R5. R5’s reappearance on the show was a fun little touch, since we’d seen nothing of the little guy since his motivator blew in A New Hope. Obviously, with stuff still happening on Tatooine, it’s not the craziest thing for him to reappear, but I don’t know if anyone was expecting him to actually get to go on a full-fledged mission with Mando.  R5 got a GameStop-exclusive Black Series release back in 2017, but that was on the old, smaller Astromech body.  Since then, of course, Hasbro has totally redone the Astromech, and we actually got an updated R5 on that body last year as a single.  This one is more or less the same as that one, albeit with a few minor differences.  Regardless of release, he’s a new head on the body of R2, which is pretty typical of an R5 (you know, unless he’s the GREATEST R5 FIGURE OF ALL TIME).  It’s a pretty solid mold on its own, and the new head makes it nice and distinctly different from the prior R2.  The one structural difference between this figure and the single is that his motivator panel, removable on the single, is new glued in place.  His paint work is pretty much the same, and is likewise pretty similar to the R2, just with some adjusted colors.  Application is generally pretty clean, which is cool.  I’ll be honest, though, I kind of miss the shiny silver sticker from the GameStop one, as hokey as it might have been.  In terms of accessories, R5 gets the same five attachments as his single release (borrowed from the R2 mold), as well as brand new swappable side panels featuring the jet boosters used by R5 in The Mandalorian.  Presumably, we will at some point see these get used on some form of R2 re-release, since it was the only notable attachment missing from the last one.

Since first debuting as a pack-in figure with the original Cal Kestis figure in 2019, we’ve had our fair share of BD droids.  Most of them have actually just been BD-1, but the BD that appears in The Mandalorian is officially a different droid, BD-72, making this officially a new character.  The mold’s a straight re-use, which is fair enough, because it’s quite a nice one, being surprisingly poseable *and* surprisingly stable for a mold of its size.  It’s got a new deco, which is fairly basic, but heavier on the blues than the original.

Now we get to the real meat of the set.  Look, R5 and BD are all well and good, but the real reason anyone’s buying this $40 set isn’t for the two minor tweaks to prior releases; no it’s for the Pit Droids!  Though we’ve technically gotten a Black Series Pit Droid once before, it was in one of the Disney Parks-exclusive multipacks, which is far from the most convenient way to get a new mold.  Thankfully, this set makes up for it, with two whole Pit Droids, each in their own color scheme!  Yay!  The figures both stand 4 inches tall and they have 23 points of articulation.  They’re quite poseable, and I’m glad their smaller size doesn’t make them too spindly to allow for that.  The sculpt is a solid recreation of the design from the movies and shows, and definitely looks he part of the Pit Droid.  It’s a nice, clean visual, and it’s translated well here.  But, one of the coolest things about the Pit Droids is how they fold up when not in use.  Their smaller figures could never quite capture that, but these ones actually do!  Sure, it’s a little fiddly to get them there (and there’s no instructions like a Transformer would get), but you can get a surprisingly accurate folded up look out of these two.  In terms of coloring, we get one Pit Droid in tan, and the other in maroon.  The bulk of the coloring for both is molded, of course, with paint for the “eyes”, and a little bit of accenting for both.  On the tan guy, it’s a little more subtle, while the maroon guy gets some more obvious offsetting.  Of the two, I’m partial to maroon, but they’re both fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I quite like Pit Droids, but they’re frequently tricky to get as figures due to weird release schemes.  I wasn’t thrilled when the first Black Series one was stuck in a Parks set with other figures I didn’t really need, so I do like another option.  Not sure Target-exclusive set with other figures I don’t need is *ideal*, but it’s not the worst thing ever.  Since I opted not to grab the single R5 release, he’s not really a double up for me, at least with this mold, and another BD isn’t the worst thing.  Plus, I do get two whole Pit Droids, and they’re truly fantastic little figures, so I’m happy to have them.

#3686: Donatello

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

DONATELLO

TALES OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (PLAYMATES)

I sort of tipped my hat on today’s review last Wednesday, I suppose, when I reviewed a Metalhead figure from a line that contains a Donatello I have *not* reviewed, and then even mentioned getting said Donatello at the end of that review.  Have I shattered illusions that I review things in the order that I get them?  For that matter, were there ever really any such illusions?  Well, a week after reviewing Metalhead, I guess I’m reviewing a Donatello I bought myself a month and a half prior.  Oh yeah.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Donatello is part of the first tie-in assortment for Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the show that’s spun-out of last year’s movie.  The first assortment just covered the four turtles in their slightly tweaked show looks, which seems like a pretty good starting point for a Turtles line.  As with the second assortment, this one plays into the “Mutations Mix N Match” feature.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is all-new, based on his aforementioned tweaked design for the show.  The core design remains the same, but he’s been given a little extra armoring, with a plate on one of the shoulders, as well as the knees.  He also gets a more proper strap for his bo staff going over the chest, as well as wrappings on his feet, which averages him with the 2012 design just a little bit.  I definitely dig that decision.  Additionally, his build is a touch bulkier than the film design, showing a bit of maturing on his part.  Overall, I like the new design, and the sculpt does a nice job of translating it.  The figure’s still got the removable glasses, which pretty much attach the same way as before, so they hopefully shouldn’t get lost during regular play.  The color work on this version of Donnie is very similar to the standard Mutant Mayhem figure, albeit with some minor tweaks to make it all line up.  The application’s all pretty clean, and he looks pretty solid.  Donnie is packed with his headphones, 3 throwing stars, and his Bo Staff, as well as a metal pipe looking thing.  And, for the mix-and-match feature, he’s also got the head of Metalhead and the left arm of the Mechazoid.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back in June, the wife and I were doing a last minute Target run before our summer family vacation, and I happened upon the first series of these guys.  I honestly hadn’t been tracking the line, so the presence of the Metalhead head really was what grabbed my attention.  Not knowing when the figure proper that would be arriving, at the urging of my wife, I opted to grab this one, since he had the head, and, once I got the full Metalhead, I’d still have a Donatello.  I didn’t realize I’d be getting the Metalhead figure quite as quickly as I did, so this one’s purpose got re-worked really quickly.  Honestly, just as a Donatello, he wound up being cooler than I expected, and now I have both him and Metalhead for full Mix ‘N Match-ing potential.

#3685: Metamorpho

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

METAMORPHO

SUPER POWERS (MCFARLANE)

One of the neat things the Kenner’s Super Powers did was pull the occasional oddball character for no reason other than “they’d make a cool toy.” While he wasn’t on the docket of what got cancelled when Kenner packed up the line, Metamorpho, Ramona Fradon and Bob Haney’s oddball element man from the ’60s, sure does feel like he would be right up the line’s alley. McFarlane seems to have agreed on this point, since he’s in the latest assortment of their revival line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Metamorpho is part of Series 8 of McFarlane’s Super Powers, released under their DC Direct banner. He’s another all-new character for the line.  The figure stands right over the 5 inch mark and he has 7 points of articulation.  The height puts him taller than even the standard figures from when the line launched, which did initially surprise me, but it comes across more as an intentional thing than a “just got the scale wrong” thing.  While I myself tend to think of Metamorpho as being a more average height, there have been depictions with all sorts of ranges of size to them, and adding a little bit of variety to the heights isn’t the worst thing. Metamorpho has an all-new sculpt, and it’s generally a pretty decent one. The build feels right, and he’s got a pose that’s similar to the original Martian Manhunter and Shazam figures. The texturing is also quite nice, giving each of his four “quadrants” its own feel. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the head, which feels strangely lacking in detail. Maybe it’s just the more reserved expression, but this is the first of the more recent figures that feels like one of the earlier figures to me. I almost have to wonder if this was a sculpt that was prepared earlier and just didn’t make it out until now. It’s not bad, though; just off. Metamorpho’s paint work is alright. The biggest issue he faces is matching molded plastic with painted colors, but honestly it doesn’t wind up looking that bad. Metamorpho is sans accessories. It would have been cool to maybe get some clip-on element parts, but ultimately it’s not the end of the world.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Going into Series 8, there were two figures I knew I wanted for certain. The first was Booster, and the second was this one. Metamorpho is the last of the batch I ordered from GameStop, and also the last to arrive, because he got shipped on his own for whatever reason. Booster is one of my favorites from the line in general, while Metamorpho? Well, he gets the job done. I won’t lie, after the swing for the rafters on the last few I got, I was a tad disappointed by this guy. It’s not really his fault. He’s honestly not bad, he just suffers from not being quite as good as the others.

#3684: Nightwing

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

NIGHTWING

WORLD’S GREATEST SUPER HEROES (MEGO)

If I had a nickel for every 2020s retro revival toyline that gave me Nightwing in a time period inaccurate modern costume…well, I’d only have two nickels, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. The revived Mego has had a mix of old and new product since they first came back, and that thread continued once they got back to full DC license. That said, the more recent stuff has been centered on the 50th anniversary of the original figures, so it’s been generally more classic. That makes Nightwing sort of the odd man out, but you know what? I think we can make an exception for him.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightwing is part of Wave 18 of the relaunched Mego line-up, as part of the World’s Greatest Super Heroes line-up.  This is the third assortment to be under the 50th Anniversary banner, and he’s even got one of the fancy window-boxed set-ups to go along with it.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he’s got 26 points of articulation.  Like all of the 50th Anniversary figures, he’s on the Type-S body, which is the most upgraded version of the body we’ve gotten thus far.  I’m still not crazy about the knee articulation, but beyond that, it’s really nice.  Nightwing’s also got a re-used head sculpt, courtesy of Wave 13’s updated Robin.  It actually works pretty well, since that was meant to be an older Robin anyway, and it keeps some continuity for the character.  I actually hadn’t gotten Robin, so it’s new for me, and I think it works surprisingly well.  The paint does do some of the heavy lifting on fully selling it as Nightwing; it ignores some of the sculpted lines on the domino mask to give him Nightwing’s more distinctly shaped version, which honestly doesn’t look too bad.  Now, admittedly, it’s a black mask, and I’m always gonna prefer the blue, but I think it ultimately works better this way, because the differences of the sculpt would be far too apparent with a lighter color.  Nightwing’s outfit is made up of a jump suit and a pair of boots.  The jump suit is silk screened, with his blue wing pattern, and even a bit of blue highlighting for the rest of the suit as well.   The boots are the standard ones, which was honestly surprising to me, because his comics design is practically begging for another re-use of the Will Scarlet boots.  I might honestly swap the boots between this guy and my Rocketeer, because I feel like they might both be more accurate that way.  Nightwing is packed with a pair of Eskrima sticks, which are pretty much his standard go-to for accessories, and which work out pretty well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this guy from the person responsible for my Mego collection: my father.  He doesn’t like to miss an opportunity to buy me a Dick Grayson figure if he can help it, and he was ordering himself the rest of the wave, so he got me this guy too.  Sure, his costume’s not exactly the right era, but it’s a classic design, and it honestly translates pretty well to the style.  And, he frustrates me less than the Super Powers Nightwing, which is certainly nice.