Category Archives: Reviews

#3976: Dagobah with Yoda

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

DAGOBAH with YODA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“The boggy, swamp planet Dagobah is the principal planet in the star system of the same name. Although explored, Dagobah remains sparsely populated because of its inhospitable climate and generally unpleasant surroundings. Constantly shrouded in mist and strangled by dense vegetation, the planet is the home to numerous animal life, including dangerous flying predators. The Jedi Master Yoda also makes his home and hideout there and is the only resident of notoriety.  When the evil Emperor Palpatine ordered the Jedi Knights erased from the galaxy, Yoda went into deep hiding there, using its natural defenses and the power of the Force to discourage visitors. It was not until near the end of his days, at the arrival of Luke Skywalker, that the 800 year old Yoda would have a purposeful visitor. 

Dagobah is totally without spaceports nor any other modern technological convenience. It has been considered a haunted planet due to its history with the dark side of the Force and an evil group of Dark Jedi that terrorized it and the neighboring Sluis sector during the Clone Wars.”

Hey remember that sub-set of Star Wars figures I’ve been looking at for two weeks? Well, I’m not done with them.  So, you know, there’s more.  Yay?  Well, maybe let’s not get too excited.  Bring it down a notch.  Can’t say I’ve got much else to get at here, so away we go!

THE TOYS THEMSELVES

Dagobah with Yoda is the third of the four “Complete Galaxy” sets added to Kenner’s Star Wars: Power of the Force II line in 1998.  This was the only set specifically based on Empire….although given that Yoda and Dagobah also show up in Jedi, I guess it could work for the third movie as well.  There was at least one more Empire set planned, as the single-carded Hoth Leia was originally meant to be included in a rebel base-inspired set before the whole sub-line got scrapped.  Like the Death Star set, Dagobah is a bit more solid on its base than Endor, which is nice in a sense of “it doesn’t always fall right off.”  We get the usual globe set-up on the exterior, showing Dagobah’s swampy nature, with a few important spots labeled.  Inside, there’s a recreation of Yoda’s Hut and some of its exterior on the bottom, as well as one of the “dangerous flying predators” from the bio mounted up top.  Said flying predator is not designed to be removed from the rather obvious post its attached to, and if it breaks, it’s no small chore to get it to stay in place again.  I speak from experience on that one.  There’s a small little spot at the front where you can stand Yoda, and spin him, in case you feel a need for spinning your Yoda figure, I guess?

Speaking of spinning Yodas, the Yoda what gets spun is the included figure here and he’s…different?  Ish?  A little.  Like, honestly, this one’s almost virtually identical to the standard release Yoda figure, which was hardly a rare figure.  He’s got the same general sculpting, right down to the same pose, and the same lack of hair.  I guess maybe the sculpt is a little sharper?  And they did change the date stamp, so, you know, you gotta have that.  Spin that guy around and check out that sweet new date stamp, am I right?  His paint work’s a touch darker than the standard, but again not by much, so it’s hard to note the difference without having them both in front of you.  He has a cane, which looks suspiciously like the cane from the standard figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked this set up, still sealed but in a pretty banged up package, as part of a larger lot of Power of the Force figures I snagged about a year or two ago.  It was the most recent big push to fill the holes in my PotF collection.  This got picked up purely because I didn’t already own it, and was by far the least exciting part of the stuff I picked up, which is probably why it’s the last one I got to reviewing by a fair bit.  It’s…not great.  The Yoda offers nothing new, and I think the set proper is kind of bland and uninspired.  It could be worse, I guess, but it also could have been a lot better.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3975: Baron Karza & Biotron

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

BARON KARZA & BIOTRON

MICRONAUTS REACTION+ FIGURES (SUPER 7)

While I’ve discussed Microman relatively recently here on the site, it’s been since 2018 that I’ve properly talked about the line’s American cousin, Micronauts.  Micronauts is kind of the story of defeat in the face of defeat.  Though quite successful when brought to the US by Mego in the late ‘70s, it was ultimately ahead of its time, and got lost in the shuffle into Star Wars at the end of the decade. The line sort of disappeared domestically, with an attempted revival in the ‘90s by Takara, and an actual (but very ill-fated) revival by Palisades in the ‘00s, which wound up going so badly it killed the company.  SOTA proposed another revival that went nowhere, and then Hasbro bought the brand, did, like, two things with it, and then abandoned all their plans, including an entire, completed cartoon.  Hasbro started sub-licensing out some of their brands to Super 7, and Micronauts got mixed in, so we’re getting *something* at least.  So, far overdue, I’m taking a look at Super 7’s takes on Baron Karza and Biotron!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Baron Karza and Biotron make up the first series of Super 7’s Micronauts ReAction+ Figures.  Like the ReAction+ G.I. Joes, these ones are o-ring construction, rather than the standard 5-poa set-up of earlier ReAction offerings.  In the vintage line, both Karza and Biotron were larger, non-o-ring figures, but in the Marvel comics, both of them were the same general size as the other characters, so these figures allow them to interact with the more standard sized figures from the vintage line.

BARON KARZA

The original Karza was one of the line’s magnetic construction figures, much like the Red Falcon I reviewed.  He maintained the same general structure, but was larger, and had a tendency to fall apart a lot.  This one simply takes the design of that one, in its full, predating Darth Vader by a number of years, glory, and moves it to a more conventional construction.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  His sculpt is new (though most of it, much like his vintage counterpart, is shared with the second series’ Force Commander figure), and it’s a solid match for the original in terms of styling.  It’s got a good, classic, retro sci-fi appearance, which is incredibly distinctive.  The slightly more geometric shaping of the sculpt, while slightly odd on the Joes, is totally at home on a character like Karza.  He doesn’t come apart like the original, which is a blessing and a curse, since it means he loses a feature, but he’s also sturdier for it.  He’s got rather basic color work, but the essentials are covered, and he’s even got silver detailing where the original magnets would have been.  Karza was packed with a backpack, modeled on the rocket packs from the original, but now as one single piece.

BIOTRON

Biotron was notable in his original incarnation for being less of a figure proper, and more of a playset/vehicle for the standard figures.  In order to allow him to more easily with the main characters of the comic, he was shrunk down to a regular size (the later “Biotron II” was the size of the actual toy).  The revisits to the original line have never gathered enough success to get to anything larger than the magnetic figures, so he’s had no coverage since the vintage line.  This figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  While he doesn’t have the bicep swivels like Karza, he does have wrist swivels, which are fun.  His sculpt takes the elements of the vintage figure, and puts them onto a fully articulated frame, which is very fun.  While he’s obviously not large enough to house a full-sized figure like the original, the chest hatch is still removable, so you could *conceivably* put a micro figure of some sort in there.  The color work on Biotron is very bright and eye-catching.  He brings back the trademark Micronauts chrome, for the head and hands, which is always very fun.  He’s packed with a backpack, which looks like the original Biotron’s back wheels, and is also chromed.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wanted to jump on these right away, but admittedly, I’ve been burned before by Micronauts relaunches, so I was apprehensive, and then I got distracted, and then it was most of the year over, and I realized I just never bought them.  The weekend after Thanksgiving, Cards, Comics, and Collectibles always does a huge storewide sale, which I haven’t been able to make it to in well over a decade.  But, I finally had the time this year, and intermingled with a bunch of stuff for Matty, I snagged these two for a very good price.  They’re quite a neat pair, and I’m happy I finally got them.  Now I feel like I need to get the second set.  Also, I know it’s virtually impossible, but I would kill for a Bug and Marionette in this style.

#3974: Martian Manhunter

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

MARTIAN MANHUNTER

JLA (HASBRO)

“As is common among telepaths, the Martian Manhunter is an intensely silent figure. Even in his darkest moments, his mood is often reflected only the expression in his eyes. When he speaks, others listen. His accent is deep and indescribable. Possibly the most highly regarded by his JLA peers, he is a founding member of every incarnation of the team, an alien whose loyalty to his adopted world is beyond words. J’onn prefers to use his shape-changing powers to maintain several identities so he can move among the humans he admires so much. J’onn is the only Leaguer to whom Batman defers. Green Lantern is his favorite of the group.”

Before I jump into today’s review proper, I feel it’s important to note the date, which also informs a bit of my headspace.  December 16 is my late wife’s birthday, and this one would have been her 30th, a pretty significant one.  It’s also the fifth one I’ve spent without her, another bit of significance.  As I’ve discussed many times before here on the site, Jess was an incredible influence on the site and an immense support of my hobby and me in general.  I reviewed a great many things she got for me during the site’s run. Almost five years after losing her, of course, there’s not much she bought me that I haven’t yet reviewed, so I instead am going with something I hope might have amused her.

Martian Manhunter, known to some late wives of the Super Awesome variety as “Martin Spartan,” is a founding member of the Justice League, and has, for much of the team’s run, been one of the quintessential members of the line-up.  He had some times away, but when the team was being rebuilt at it most distinctive in the mid-90s, J’onn was placed back in the line-up, as your do.  He *just* missed inclusion in Kenner’s Total Justice, but would find his way back to action figures in Hasbro’s follow-up JLA line, with a figure that I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Martian Manhunter was released in the second series of Hasbro’s JLA line, and also in the third boxed set, which repackaged the Manhunter, Zauriel, and Superman from the assortment with an exclusive Lex Luthor and Joker.  He’s based on his then-current design, which is largely his classic look, with the only real caveat being the inclusion of his red eyes.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Manhunter was actually a lot of new parts, notable in a line that tried to be pretty heavy on re-use.  His arms are shared with Superman, but he’s otherwise unique (or at least unique to Martian Manhunter figures; there was also a hologram re-color of him later) with a sculpt that’s very true to the general styling of this line, as well as the Total Justice ones.  He’s a bit pre-posed, and also feels maybe a bit skinny for J’onn, but generally, it’s not bad, and I love that they’ve sculpted all of his costume details in.  He’s got a removable cape, which fits the figure well, and is quite dynamically rendered.  His color work is generally basic, but hits all the main notes.  The green is a bit on the bright side for a Manhunter of this era, feeling a bit more like his classic incarnation, and also making him feel a bit more at home with the Total Justice figures than the usually more subdued palettes of the JLA line.  Martian Manhunter is packed with one of the standard display stands, this time in blue.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Martian Manhunter was the first of the single release figures from this line that I got.  In fact, my dad and I bought him together, because of the novelty of a Martian Manhunter, and there was some plan to “share” but he ultimately wound up really just being mine.  He’s quite a nice figure, showing some of the line’s strengths for sure.  

#3973: Human Torch

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

HUMAN TORCH

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“The youngest member of the Fantastic Four, Johnny Storm tends to get a little hot-headed when fighting alongside his teammates as the Human Torch! Able to ‘Flame On’ and engulf himself entirely in fire, Johnny has also developed the ability to ignite only certain parts of his body when necessary. Precise control, coupled with the searing nova heat he can generate, makes Johnny Storm the hot-shot member of this cosmic ray spawned team.”

There are some designs that translate well to toys, and there are some that are really, really tricky.  Three  of the four members of the Fantastic Four made the jump from page to plastic without much trouble.  But one of them?  Not so much.  Johnny Storm’s most distinctive look being his fully flamed-on appearance means that were he really in three dimensions, he’d always sort of be in flux, so nailing that down exactly can be tricky.  There’s been a lot of goes at it, to varying degrees of success.  After three tries at fully flamed on, Toy Biz opted to try a more unique approach, which I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Human Torch was released in the fourth and ultimately final series of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four line.  It was Johnny’s third figure under the line, and fourth overall from Toy Biz in this scale.  Rather than going for totally flame covered like the prior versions, or even totally normal like the 10-inch figure, this one goes for sort of a half-and-half set-up.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall (he was the tallest Johnny they put out in this style) and he has 9 points of articulation.  This whole assortment was built to be a bit more dynamic than earlier offerings, and as such they were all a bit more pre-posed than earlier offerings.  In Johnny’s case, that translates to some slightly odd posing on the arms, but otherwise nothing too crazy.  The sculpt was new to this release, but would see one more use under Toy Biz, for one of their later two-packs.  Honestly, it’s pretty strong.  Aside from the face maybe feeling a touch on the old side for Johnny, the general layout of the details works, and I do like the sculpted distinction between the parts that are on fire versus what’s not.  The dynamic nature is definitely distinctive, and it especially works well with the hair’s flow.  The pose also sells the whole thing, as if he’s mid-flame-on.  His paint work is generally pretty basic, but does mostly what it needs to.  The only slightly odd thing is that he’s for whatever reason not wearing gloves.  No idea why, but there it is.  I guess it makes it sort of unique.  My figure’s had quite a bit of wear over the years, as you can see, but that’s not on the original application.  Johnny was packed with a rather large and elaborate base.  He can stand on it, and it’s got wheels, and when it moves forward, various parts of it spin.  It’s gimmicky, but honestly not too bad.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got into collecting right in the window between Series 3 and 4 of this line, so this Johnny would up being my first figure of the character, and was my only version for a little bit.  Even after getting other versions, he was my go-to until there was a scale change.  This is a cool approach for the character and has remained my preferred way to handle the power set for figure form.  I think it’s maybe a little dated and stylized here, but I definitely dig it, and he’s my personal favorite of the Toy Biz Johnny figures.

#3972: Endor with Ewok

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

ENDOR with EWOK

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“The Endor star system was long thought to be an insignificant, removed cluster with few planets and no major travel routes. For that reason, it was considered the ideal construction site for the second Death Star battle station and in turn became the location of the Galactic Civil War’s final battle. The Battle of Endor resulted in the destruction of the Death Star, the slaying of Emperor Palpatine, and the scattering of the Imperial fleet.

Endor’s moon (Sanctuary Moon) is home to vast forests of giant trees, many predator species and the tribal Ewoks. The tree-dwelling Ewoks are curious creatures; they stand about one meter tall, rely on primitive spears and bows for hunting, and dwell in village clusters built high within the forest’s giant trees. Their understanding of forest survival skills are extremely advanced and came in quite useful during the Battle of Endor where they helped a Rebel strike force destroy the Death Star’s force field generator.”

Last week, I stared into the Kenner “hey exactly how far can we stretch the Star Wars license” abyss, and that abyss, “The Complete Galaxy Collection” stared back.  And in that staring, I found that there were in fact *more* Complete Galaxy sets than just the one I looked at so, hey, I guess this is a running thing here, right?  Cool.  Cool cool cool.  So, let’s take a look at the line’s Endor representation, along with its resident figure, an Ewok!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Endor with Ewok is the second of the four sets that made up the “Complete Galaxy” portion of Kenner’s Power of the Force line.  Like the others, it was released in 1998, at their height of the Kenner Star Wars sprawl.  There were two sets specifically from Return of the Jedi, and this was one of them.  Like the Death Star set, the bulk of it’s this sort of globe thing that’s supposed to be Endor…’s moon?  I think that’s what the text on the box is implying? Anyway, you get a sort of basic approximation of it as seen in the movie, with some spots labeled.  Apparently there was a lot of water that we just didn’t see?  That makes a bit more sense, I suppose.  While the Death Star base is pretty solidly attached when you want it to be, Endor really just rests on top, so it falls off a lot.  Also, the base clearly says “Endor,” despite the words on the back implying otherwise.  No consistency, which makes sense, honestly.  The interior of the set is probably the most ambitious of the ones we got.  You get part of the Battle of Endor, complete with a downed AT-ST, and there’s a glider mounted to the top so that the included figure can make use of it.  The glider has spring-loaded arms, so I think it’s meant to fold-up and pop-out when the set opens, but..it doesn’t really do that.  There’s a lot of points of failure, and it just sort of clunks about.  It certainly tries its best to be cool, though.

The included Ewok figure has the distinction of being the only truly unique figure these sets spawned, since he’s actually a separate character from the other Ewoks released.  He’s about 2 inches tall and has 4 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s very similar to Wicket from the standard line.  Totally unique sculpt, ultimately, but similar.  I do miss the removable headdress, but I can understand its removal.  He’s got a spot on his back where his glider can be mounted, which isn’t too obtrusive when he’s not on it.  The color scheme is distinctly different from the other two, and it looks pretty decent.  There’s some slight bleed over around the edges, but generally it’s minor.  The Ewok includes the…whatever you would call the things they drop on the stormtroopers in the battle.  It’s rocks with rope.  It’s pretty well sculpted and fits nicely in his hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION 

As with so many Star Wars items recently, I bought this a little while ago, still sealed, and am only just now getting around to opening it.  This one’s not quite as old as a lot of the others, in a sense that I purchased it within the last year, but it’s still been a tick.  I think this one tries to be more than the Vader set, and I can admire that, but it’s also not a fantastic execution, and there’s more room for error, so the final product is just sort of…fine.  It’s nice to get a unique Ewok out of it, though.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3971: Dr. McCoy in Dress Uniform

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

DR. McCOY in DRESS UNIFORM

STAR TREK (PLAYMATES)

“The Enterprise is enroute to a neutral planetoid code-named Babel. We’ve been assigned to transport the ambassadors from several Federation planets to a very important council debating a petition from the Coridan planets to enter the Federation.  Coridan is rich in dilithium crystals, which makes it a target for illegal mining operations.

Captain James Kirk has ordered me to attend a formal reception for the ambassadors. I don’t know about all this spit and polish. I can’t stand this dress uniform much longer. I feel like my neck’s in a sling! The only thing worse than the uniform was trying to give Ambassador Sarek the Vulcan salute. And now it turns out that Sarek is Spock’s father!

I’m curious why Sarek retired from Federation service at the relatively young age of 102. I think I’ll ask him about it at the reception.”

Remember last week when I ran out of figures from “The Cage” but I decided to keep doing Trek reviews anyway because why not?  Well, I’m not giving up yet.  I’m still keeping up the TOS theme of it all, though, because that’s where I’m at.  Waaaaay back in 2017, I took a look at the dress uniform versions of Kirk and Spock, and that’s all well and good, but the other piece of the big three, Dr. Leonard McCoy, also sported a dress uniform from time to time, and I can’t very well leave him out of such things, right?  Right.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. McCoy in Dress Uniform was released under Playmates’ general Star Trek line in 1997, in the same assortment as fellow TOS-ers Harry Mudd, the Mugator, and the Gorn Captain.  He rounded out the Dress Uniforms set started with the boxed set release in 1994.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  It’s the exact same articulation scheme as all the other standard figures, so it’s what you’d expect.  He’s quite similar to Kirk and Spock in his construction, in that he’s re-using the head and legs from his Bridge Crew set release, along with a new torso with his fancier tunic thing.  The torso feels, like, especially small, I feel?  I don’t know, it just seems like his head is really big.  The head’s decent enough; it’s a respectable DeForrest Kelly likeness, and certainly feels closer than the Shatner or Nimoy likenesses.  McCoy’s paint work is basic, but generally decent.  Much like the other two, his face is noticeably ore matte in its finish, which does better for the sculpted details.  I don’t know why this subset in particular got this treatment, but I’m not complaining.  McCoy is packed with his communicator, tricorder, a hypospray, an anabolic protoplaser, and a display stand with the science insignia on it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually bought this figure, like, maybe a month after the other two Dress Uniform figures.  Since I’d found them, I was sort of looking for this one, and he happened to be part of an estate sale table in the dealer’s room at a con (the same table that had the Talosian Keeper figure I looked at a couple of weeks ago), so it all sort of fell into place.  Of course, then I left him packaged for eight years, and only *just* got around to opening him.  I gotta stop doing that.  I can’t say he’s anything amazing or anything, but he rounds out the set, and he’s always been my favorite of the main three, so that all works out pretty well.

#3970: The Atom

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

ATOM

JLA (HASBRO)

“A true product of modern science, the Atom was born when physicist Ray Palmer harnessed a fragment of a white dwarf star, giving him unique powers that allow him to radically reduce his size while retaining his full mass – and all with just a thought.”

After spending a stretch of time aged down to a teenager and hanging out with the Teen Titans, by the mid-to-late ‘90s, Ray Palmer had returned to pretty much just being his regular old Atom self.  And, as had been frequent in the years prior, that resulted in his inclusion as a recurring character for the JLA, even as it reformatted into a more core team line-up towards the end of the decade.  Atom was on the shortlist of characters who didn’t quite make the cut for Kenner’s Total Justice line, and would have had at least a “micro” version of himself (albeit in his wonky teen look) had the line continued.  When it came time for Hasbro’s JLA continuation, Atom managed to sneak in for the line’s final assortment, with what was his first proper action figure.  Let’s check him out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Atom was released in Series 4 of Hasbro’s JLA line.  He, alongside Red Tornado and Wonder Woman, represented the “new” for the assortment, a fitting send-off for the line, filling in some of the classic roster.  Atom is pretty much as classic as the line got, in fact, because he was just in his original costume, rather than an updated equivalent like most of the line.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  As with a lot of these figures, Atom was banking on a lot of parts re-use.  Curiously, his parts weren’t re-used from JLA or its predecessor Total Justice.  Rather, his body from the neck down is the Batman & Robin line’s Dick Grayson figure.  It gives Atom the distinction of being hands down the least pre-posed figure in the whole line, by virtue of his very basic standing pose.  It’s honestly not a bad bit of re-use, though, with its generally basic layout of design elements and the nice raised gloves sculpt.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is pretty respectable, and fits well with the re-used parts.  I like the sculpted insignia in the forehead quite a bit.  The figure’s paint work is generally not bad.  Unlike others in the line, he doesn’t have to ignore any sculpted costume elements, or anything like that, and the colors are generally a good match for how he was being colored in the comics at the time.  Mine’s got a spot of wear on his nose, but that’s hardly the fault of the figure.  Atom was packed with a JLA display stand in bright red, as well as a miniature version of himself, which I unfortunately lost a good many years ago.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was very excited for this figure when he was announced.  I recall seeing him on Raving Toy Maniac, and having my dad print out the picture of him, which I carried around with me a lot while I waited for his release.  My dad made a point of tracking him down for me relatively quickly after they started hitting, and gave him to me for some sort of occasion, although I can’t recall exactly what.  I think the mini Atom made it maybe a week from opening, and then I just had the main one, who did get a heck of a lot of play time from me.  He’s honestly just a pretty clean, solid take on the character, not really held back by the usual weirdness of this line, which is really cool.

#3969: Attuma

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

ATTUMA

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“Believing he is the prophesized conqueror of the undersea world, due to his super-human strength, the depth-dwelling Attuma has dedicated his life trying to overthrow the peaceful empire on the lost continent of Atlantis. Although he has come close on many occasions to realizing his twisted scheme, launching numerous attacks against the city and its prince – Namor, The Sub-Mariner; Attuma has never been able to claim a lasting victory over Atlantis, thanks to Namor and his powerful allies – The Fantastic Four!”

If you were to ask Arnold Schwarzenegger, circa the 1990 classic Kindergarten Cop who his favorite Marvel super villain might be, I don’t know that he’d have an answer for certain, but he’d probably insist that “It’s not Attuma!”

….Did you like that?  Was that good?  No.  Yeah, I didn’t really think so either, but I’ve had it running through my head the whole time I was trying to write this, so now you guys have to live with it too.  Don’t you feel very lucky?  In contrast to the assumed words of former Governor Schwarzenegger, today’s review focus here on the site, in fact, *is* Attuma.  So there.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Attuma was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four line.  What’s interesting about this guy is that he’s not even shown on the back of the box at all.  The back shows a line-up that included Adam Warlock, who was ultimately dropped, while Attuma, not at all advertised, was included, pairing off with his nemesis Namor, and making him the third and final aquatic-themed figure in this assortment.  Despite the line being based on the show, Attuma was actually not featured in either season of Fantastic Four, though he would make an appearance in 1999’s Avengers: United They Stand, albeit with a rather different design.  So, this figure is based on his classic comics design, which works out more in his favor than his nemesis, truth be told.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has…well, his articulation’s a bit tricky.  He’s got at least 8 points, thanks to more regular joints on both legs, the neck, the waist, and the shoulder and elbow of his left arm.  His right arm has points of movement at the shoulder and elbow, but neither really moves freely, as they’re instead tied into his action figure, which kind of sort of does a sword slashing thing, but not all that well.  It’s an odd choice.  The sculpt on Attuma is unique to him, and it’s generally okay.  It certainly captures Attuma’s look, but seems to struggle a bit with getting some parts of it into three dimensions.  The bit of yellow behind his head seems like a particular point of contention.  Beyond that, some of the proportions do feel a little wonky, and the feet seem especially off, with some of Blizzard’s “two left feet” syndrome seeming to kick in.  Attuma’s color work is reasonable enough.  They’ve gone with his more blue look, which works fine enough, but it’s not how I usually think of him, outside of this particular figure.  Attuma is packed with a three-pronged sword, which his can either hold awkwardly in his right hand or store awkwardly on his back.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t get Attuma when he was first released, but instead picked him up when I took my trip to the KB Toys liquidation center in the early ‘00s.  I don’t recall having a particular draw to him beyond “I’m getting others and I don’t have this one.”  This was further supported by me not actually opening him for a good couple of months after the others, which was especially odd for me at the time.  That figure would eventually lose one of his lower legs along the way (because I just was sold on not paying him much mind, by that time; I swear I wasn’t meaning to neglect the poor figure), so I ended up buying a replacement from Cosmic Comix several years back.  That one was *also* sealed, and *also* remained sealed for longer than the others I bought at the same time.  It’s not Attuma’s fault, really.  The figure’s…fine?  He’s weird.  But, he’s also one of the very few Attuma figures, so I guess he’s got that going for him?

#3968: Death Star with Darth Vader

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

DEATH STAR with DARTH VADER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Designed to invoke fear throughout the galaxy, the Death Star battle station is the largest, most powerful object in the galaxy. The size of a planet or small moon, the massive weapon took nearly two years of construction in the Horuz system located in the Outer Rim Territories.  A fully-equipped array of surface weapons including turbolaser batteries, laser cannons, ion cannons, and tractor beam emplacements served as deense to the centerpiece offensive weapon — a superlaser system more powerful than the entire Imperial fleet. Capable of disintegrating an entire planet with a single pulse, the superlaser was demonstrated on the planet Alderaan during an attempt to extract vital information from Princess Leia.

Commanded by Grand Moff Tarkin, who oversaw its construction, the Death Star is in effect a self-sustaining world. it houses a crew of approximately 800,000 enlisted soldiers and officers, nearly 400,000 support and maintenance personnel, over 25,000 stormtroopers, and an additional 400,000 droids of various sophistication to assist the support staff.  Also found on the Death Star are several of Darth Vader’s specialized meditation chambers. Exactly like the chamber first seen aboard the Super Star Destroyer Executor, these compartments function as pressurized spheres offering Vader an inner sanctum.”

Have I mentioned recently how Kenner was really just trying a little bit of everything with the Star Wars license in the mid-to-late ‘90s?  Because it’s gonna come up a lot as I get into the depths of what I haven’t reviewed from Power of the Force.  1998 was sort of the height of all the craziness, with lines all over the place, any one of which could have been the straw that ultimately broke the proverbial camel’s back.  In addition to the main line, the “Princess Leia Collection,” The Expanded Universe, and a CD-ROM Game-based playset, Kenner also got into the “Complete Galaxy,” an assortment of weird little contained globe kind of things based on locales from the movies.  I think they were meant to be like Micro Machines or Polly Pocket, but scaled up (which is funny, because there were officially branded Star Wars Micro Machines already).  Largely, they seemed to justify doing another figure with each set.  Today, I look at the Death Star and its occupant, Darth Vader.

THE TOY ITSELF

The Death Star with Darth Vader is one of four sets that make up the “Complete Galaxy” sub-line of Star Wars: Power of the Force.  They were part of the single 1998 assortment.  This set was unique in not being an actual planet-thing (I guess…Endor’s hard to classify), and also being the only one from A New Hope….technically.  Why technically?  Well, while the Death Star itself is very clearly its first movie design, when you open it up to view the “playset” inside, you get a version of Vader’s hyperbaric chamber, which makes its debut onboard the Executor in Empire.  I suppose there *could* have been one onboard the Death Star, but it’s certainly not something we see in the film.  Questionable accuracy aside, the interior is a neat enough set-up.  There’s a swiveling chair for Vader to sit in, and a console behind him, as well as an arm affixed to the top part, which can hold the top portion of his helmet for him.

The included Vader figure is a good indicator of the majority of this set’s figures, which is an overwhelmingly “different for the sake of different” figure.  He stands a little over 3 3/4 inches tall and  has 8 points of articulation.  His construction is fairly similar to (though notably different from) the Gunner Station figure, especially with his added knee articulation.  The details on this one are once again leaning into the Empire designs, with the robes running under the shoulder armor.  The biggest change-up is that his hands are turned to the side, so as to better rest on the sides of the chair.  His head is shared with the figure from the Board Game release, with its removable dome.  It’s all topped off with a cloth cape, which is better for letting him sit in his chair.  The color work is the basic Vader set-up for the most part, with the addition of the visible skin under the removable dome.  The application is generally pretty clean, and about what you’d expect for the line.  Apart from the removable dome, he’s got no other accessories, notably missing  his lightsaber, though I guess he couldn’t hold it anyway.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

These are one of those oddball parts of Power of the Force that I completely missed when the line was new.  I’ve seen them a few times since, but there’s not a lot of uniqueness going on there, so I skipped them a bunch of times, until I finally realized that I might need to get around to finally picking them up.  Vader was the first one that ran past me after I decided to finally get them.  It’s fine.  The globe thing is an odd gimmick, but I guess it’s fun enough.  The included figure is sort of middle of the pack, but I suppose it could be worse.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3967: Janice Rand

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

JANICE RAND

STAR TREK (PLAYMATES)

Well, I’ve officially run out of Playmates Star Trek figures based on “The Cage” and while I could easily use that as a reason to stop doing Trek reviews, I’ve decided to not…do…that.  Because I’m nuts, or something.  I’m sticking to the Classic Trek side, though, because that’s where I feel the most comfortable.  I’ve looked at all of the core crew members, as well as one of the more notable recurring crew, Nurse Chapel.  I haven’t looked at the other most notable recurring crew member, Janice Rand, who was a pretty notable character until her actress Grace Lee Whitney was suddenly let out of her contract halfway through the first season.  Despite her abrupt departure, Rand still made an impact, and that makes her more than worthy of the action figure treatment!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Janice Rand was released in the fifth “mixed assortment” of Playmates’ general Star Trek line, the same assortment that included Chapel.  The two of them served to round out the bridge crew set from earlier in the line.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and she has 12 points of articulation.  Her articulation scheme is almost identical to that of Chapel, with the standard line set-up and the more restricted hip joints due to the skirt.  Rand’s sculpt is unique to her, which is somewhat surprising, given it’s the same uniform as Uhura, but it was totally new.  The exact layout of her uniform is slightly different, but it’s accurate to how it looked on the show.  The head’s not a pitch perfect Grace Lee Whitney likeness, but it’s close enough to sell the general idea of who she’s supposed to be.  Certainly, it’s as close as most of the other figures in the line got, especially when it comes to the classic Trek characters.  Like Chapel, she avoids the big-headed-ness of the earlier figures in the line, which is always a plus.  Her color work is basic but generally well handled.  The red on her uniform is a little darker than the color used for Uhura and Scotty in the boxed set, for not particularly clear reasons, but internally it works fine.  Rand is packed with a phaser, a tricorder, a communicator, a data pad, and a display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As with Chapel, I didn’t have Rand as a kid, but I do remember my dad getting one for his collection.  I ended up snagging this time in mid-2018, at the same time as the Spock from “The Cage.”  I got both of them loose without their accessories, but as with Spock, I was able to find her accessories after the fact, and here she is in all her complete goodness.  She’s not quite as strong a figure as Chapel, but she’s still a better figure than the core crew set figures, so that’s not so bad.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.