Category Archives: Reviews

#3960: Cloud Car with Cloud Car Pilot

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

CLOUD CAR with CLOUD CAR PILOT

STAR WARS: EXPANDED UNIVERSE (KENNER)

“Cloud cars are atmospheric vessels that employ both repulsorlifts and ion engines, filling the important gap between airspeeders and starfighters. Functional in many ways, twin-cockpit, patrol cars escorted the Millennium Falcon and her crew onto Cloud City during The Empire Strikes Back. It was here that Darth Vader had Han Solo frozen in carbonite while Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO were held prisoners of the Empire. This single cockpit cloud car was designed and built based on production sketches found in The Art of Star Wars; its brainchild was renown Star Wars artist, Ralph McQuarrie.”

Back in early 2021, I wrapped up the last review of the standard “Expanded Universe” figures from Kenner’s Power of the Force run.  I was, however not *truly* done with the “Expanded Universe” sub-line, because in addition to the nine standard figures, there were also three smaller-scale vehicles, each including their own unique figure.  The slight switch up there is that, rather than go proper Expanded Universe, the vehicles were all early concept designs.  Thus far, I’ve reviewed one of those, a fact I almost forgot because I found the set so “meh” that it continues to leave virtually no mark on my memory.  Perhaps today’s offering will fair a bit better?  I sure hope so.  Here’s the Cloud Car and its associated pilot!

THE TOYS THEMSELVES

The Cloud Car with Cloud Car Pilot was released alongside the rest of the “Expanded Universe” sub-line of Star Wars: Power of the Force II in 1998.  As noted in the bio, this set is based on illustrations by Ralph McQuarrie as part of Empire’s pre-production, making it, I believe, the earliest McQuarrie-based item in the toyline.  This was the largest of the three vehicles, though not by a ton.  It’s about 6 inches long and about 4 inches tall.  While the Cloud Cars seen in the final film are a rather odd twin cockpit design, the initial look was a more conventional single-seater.  It’s actually not a bad little design, with a very fun futuristic vibe that’s very clean.  It doesn’t feel like it’s totally out of place with the final design, either, so perhaps it was still there, just elsewhere?  It certainly feels like more of an older, Clone Wars-era design.  The toy does a nice job translating it, and working in a number of fun playable features, so it can be fully collapsed or deploy the wings.  It’s even got a rather clever missile launcher design, which isn’t too obvious or silly.

The Cloud Car’s pilot is a unique figure, and not really at all like the established Cloud Car pilot from the film, largely because he’s not actually based on a pilot design, but rather a more generalized Bespin citizen, presumably an early version of the Bespin Guards.  The figure stands just shy of 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Like the last pilot I looked at from this line, this guy feels a bit small compared to the rest of the line.  Of course, he also feels like he’s from a different line entirely, just in terms of styling.  He’s more angular and cartoonish, again a bit more like a Clone Wars character, or perhaps Rebels.  In contrast to the Rebel Pilot, I feel like this stylization helps him to keep the original charm of the design, making for a generally more entertaining figure.  His paint work is a bit of a departure from the usual Star Wars shades, making it rather eye-catching and different.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t recall much about this set, or really much about getting it.  I know it was part of a larger purchase, and more than likely I grabbed it at the same time as the other vehicle I was missing.  It’s also been sitting unopened for a good while, continuing the theme of all of my recent Power of the Force reviews.  There was more reason this time, because the speeder bike was so underwhelming, and I just wasn’t sure about this one.  I’m happy to say, this one’s a pleasant departure from the earlier set, and I actually found it to be an immensely enjoyable set.

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.

#3959: Mister Spock

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

MISTER SPOCK

STAR TREK (PLAYMATES)

Back at the beginning of the year, I had a small string of Star Trek reviews, which was certainly notable, because I don’t do a lot of those.  Did you know that I actually planned to go further but got distracted had other things to drop on the schedule? Of course not, because I literally don’t discuss my review schedules with a single other human being, for they are my burden and my burden alone!  Right, so, umm, where’s my burden taking me? Back….to the beginning.  No, really.  It’s “The Cage,” the first Star Trek pilot, which famously has a mostly different cast than the series proper, and which was re-cut into the series proper with a framing device for “The Menagerie.” There was one very notable crossover character between the two casts, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, who the network didn’t personally like, but was popular enough with audiences to keep, resulting in one of the franchise’s signature characters!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mister Spock (As Seen in the Pilot Episode “The Cage”!) was released as part of Playmates’ Star Trek line in 1996, as one of four figures based on the show’s pilot episode.  While he’s the least plot relevant of the four, he’s also Spock, so you kind of have to expect it, right?  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  Spock’s articulation scheme is the standard layout for the line, so it’s not great, but it’s also not terrible.  Really, it’s just the hips that aren’t ideal.  Spock wasn’t just an excuse to include a recognizable face, he was also a way to include a total parts re-use as well.  His head is the standard Spock, going all the way back to the first classic figure, and it’s been plopped on the head from the “Where No Man Has Gone Before” Kirk packed in with the Shuttlecraft (which was also re-used for Scotty and Sulu from the same episode).  The head’s not exactly a spot-on likeness of Nimoy, but it works fine.  The body’s notably short and squat for Spock, who was otherwise depicted as a bit more lean than Kirk elsewhere in the line.  The color work here more or less matches the rest of the line.  The shades look right, and application’s not too bad.  It’s probably the cleanest paint this face sculpt ever got, so that’s nice.  Spock is packed with a phaser, a communicator, a toolbox, console, and display stand.  The phaser and communicator are the same ones as the standards, which makes them notably incorrect for what Spock would have had in the pilot.  Given new sculpts were created for Pike, it seems odd they weren’t re-used here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had Pike as a kid, but never had the others from this set, at least for myself.  My dad had all of them, and this Spock was always my favorite version of the character, so he got borrowed a lot.  Spock was the earliest I tracked down after Pike, picked up loose in the summer of 2018.  He was sans accessories at the time, but I tracked them down after the fact, so here he is!  He’s pretty basic, and ultimately I think it’s kind of a shame he’s the only representation Pike’s crew ended up getting.  Not even a Number One?  Ultimately, I’m glad to have only him rather than none at all.

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.

#3958: Superman – Golden

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

SUPERMAN — GOLDEN

DC HEROES UNITE (SPIN MASTER)

It’s been *over a year* since I last looked at anything from Spin Master’s DC line, despite them still very much holding the license (at least until the end of the year when Mattel takes over as master license holder again), because, like, I had some stuff going on or whatever?  Honestly, as nifty as the figures are, they’re really little more than that, and I’m personally not really their target audience, so I can’t really fault them for not catering to me.  I do still like messing with a nifty figure every now and then, though, so today I’m looking at a Superman that I’ve been putting off reviewing for far too long.  Here he is.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman was released in the third assortment of Spin Master’s DC Heroes Unite line.  He was one of the “super rare” figures, and initially hit at the end of 2020, but started showing up in greater numbers when Spin Master put out additional runs of the figures in ’21 and ’22.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation.  Sculpturally, he’s the same as the line’s first take on the basic Superman mold.  Technically, that means he, like the other releases, is based on Supes’s second Rebirth costume, but in the case of this release, unless you’re looking *really* close at his belt, it’s a bit harder to tell.  Generally speaking, it’s still a decent sculpt.  A bit bulky and rudimentary, but genuinely a nice offering for the style.  Like the standard, he’s got a cloth cape, which is still really cheap, but it’s not awful.  The change-up to this figure, much like was done with Batman and Wonder Woman before him, is that Clark’s all gold.  In his case, that’s actually a bit more cannon than the other two, since it means he can stand-in for his appearance in the future world of DC One Million, which is extra fun. Largely, the color’s just molded plastic, but he does get a little bit of paint for his logo on his chest.  Superman gets the same blast effect, torso armor, and Kryptonite pieces packed with the other two versions, but they, like the figure, are all gold.  In the case of the Kryptonite, that means we get Gold Kryptonite, meaning you can permanently remove his powers…if you’re feeling especially evil or whatever.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Wonder Woman from this set/style pretty quickly, and had help getting a Batman after the fact, but I really wanted a Superman to finish out the trinity.  I completely missed the first run, but during the re-runs, probably in ’22 I think, I lucked into one, who I bought, and then….kind of forgot about?  He’s been unopened since I got him, and I kept meaning to open him and review him, but I kept forgetting.  Not this time!  He’s not really anything new, but I do like him in all his goofy not-new-ness.

#3957: Triton

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

TRITON

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“Cousin of the mighty Black Bolt, Triton is another powerful member of the Royal Family called the Inhumans! Like his relatives before him, Triton was exposed to the mutagenetic qualities of the Terrigen Mists at an early age. He emerged with aquatic mutations that included dorsal fins, and a scaly green skin which covered his body. Super-strong but unable to breath out of water, Triton uses an intricate infiltration system to respirate when his adventures with the Inhumans bring him to the surface land.”

Hey, remember when I was talking about the Inhumans a couple of weeks ago?  Well, I’m talking about them again, as it seems.  Since the group was introduced in the pages of Fantastic Four, Toy Biz used the FF tie-in line as a way to introduce them to the action figure world as well, putting one of them in per series.  Black Bolt led the charge in Series 1, followed by ol’ stompy boy Gorgon in Series 2.  For Series 3, Toy Biz went with the aquatic guy.  No, not Aquaman.  Or Sub-Mariner.  Or Abe Sapien.  It’s the other guy, Triton.  You know, the one what hangs out with the Inhumans?  That’s the one.  Let’s look at Triton.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Triton was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four tie-in line, which contains a whopping *three* underwater guys.  That’s crazy.  He slightly predates the character’s appearance in the show, but not by quite as much as the other two.  It does, however, mean that he’s not *quite* on model for the character’s animated appearances, but he’s not super far off either, so it’s not a big deal.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Generally, it’s the basic set-up, but he’s got an action feature in the shoulders, which doesn’t eliminate their movement, but does make it a little bit…wonky?  His sculpt’s okay.  It was new to him, but got re-used later down the line for an aquatic Spidey variant.  It seems maybe a touch bulky for Triton, especially when compared to the far more reserved builds of Black Bolt and Gorgon, who are traditionally a little bigger than he is.  But, there’s a lot of fun texture detail work, which is always fun.  The webbed hands, though not accurate to the show, and an incredibly neat detail, which I do quite love.  Triton’s color work is basic, but does what it needs to, replicating that purple/green combo that makes you think he might be a villain even though he’s actually not.  Triton was packed with two accessories: a shark and a sea trumpet.  The shark has a spring-loaded jaw, which I do rather love, but it’s also got no real way at all to actually interact with Triton at all.  The trumpet is at least shaped in such a way that you can loop it over his hand so he can hold it.  Both accessories feel a bit more Sub-Mariner than they do Triton, but neither is a bad piece or anything.  He’s also got a “swimming” feature; squeezing his legs makes his arms swing downward at the shoulders.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

During our many runs to Ageless Heroes, a comic store near my parents’ house that closed down in 1999, my dad got most of the Inhumans, which included Triton.  I didn’t get one at the time, but I always liked the figure, so when I found him amongst the piles of other Toy Biz figures at the KB liquidation center in 2003, he was the one I absolutely made sure to grab.  Though I’ve never had much attachment to the character, I nevertheless made a lot of use of the figure, and I still do really think he’s quite a nifty figure.

#3956: Wampa & Luke Skywalker

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

WAMPA & LUKE SKYWALKER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Sometimes, your sci-fi adventure series needs cool, original monsters, and sometimes, it really just needs a pretty standard issue sort of monster that everyone understands.  The latter is well represented in Star Wars’s Wampas, a race of Yeti/Abominable Snowman types that are a pretty natural fit if you’re confined to an ice planet.  Hey, what’s the antagonistic force here? Oh, yeah, it’s exactly what you’d expect it to be!  Solid.  No notes.  The Wampa’s a good choice for toy coverage, since it’s a good basic design, from a memorable and punchy sort of scene from the movie, and also pairs well with a Luke Skywalker variant, as is the case today! 

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The Wampa and Luke Skywalker were one of the 1998 Creature Sets in Kenner’s Star Wars: Power of the Force II line.  It followed up on the Empire-inspired Luke and Tauntaun set from the prior year, and also paired off with the similarly Empire-inspired Han and Tauntaun set from the same year.

WAMPA

Making his debut in the revived line was the Wampa.  He’d shown up in the vintage line as his own stand-alone creature release, but this one started the trend of packing him with a Luke figure, which would become the standard approach going forward.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has a rather minuscule 3 points of articulation.  There’s the shoulders and the waist, and that’s it.  And even the shoulders are kind of spotty, since the right one is just a cut joint, to allow for removal like at the end of his scene in Empire, and the left has a spring-loaded swiping feature that’s a bit limiting.  So, not a lot of posing is what I’m really getting at here.  The sculpt here is rather big and imposing, but also rather on the soft side in terms of detailing.  Though rather cartoony, the original Kenner figure had some pretty sharp detailing, especially on the fur.  This one, less so.  He’s at least a bit more accurate to the Wampa prop from the movie, or at least what we can see of it.  His paint work does the usual Wampa thing of being inexplicably heavy on the accenting, making him look like he’s got splotches of something brown in his fur.  Not the best look.  The rest of the work is fine, though, so it’s not all bad.

LUKE SKYWALKER

This was the third time Luke showed up in his Hoth gear in this line.  There was the single and the one with the Tauntaun, both of which are his pre-attack look.  This one’s the only post attack one, which makes it a bit more unique, as he was the first of his kind.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation, which may seem normal, but it’s slightly skewed.  See, he doesn’t get waist movement, but he *does* get an articulated face covering, so that it can swivel to look like he’s hanging upside down.  It might be more practical if you actually had something to hang him from, but it’s a cool touch nevertheless.  Otherwise, his sculpt is rather similar to the other two Hoth Lukes, as you might expect.  He’s a little sharper on the detailing, though, and also has the expected changes, with the removal of the goggles, and the addition of the scarring to his face.  In general, I’m a fan of the new set-up.  The paint is again very similar to the others, which makes sense from a consistency standpoint.  He’s packed with his lightsaber, which is the same standard one used multiple times throughout the line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember the Tauntaun set at retail, but this one kind of slipped under my radar as a kid, displaced by the Saga era release.  It wound up being the second to last of the Creature sets I located (I still haven’t actually gotten the last one), pulled out of a much larger collection of Power of the Force figures.  As with so many of these things I’ve been reviewing lately, it’s been sitting unopened for a lengthy amount of time, but I finally did it in preparation for this review.  Hooray for me!  The Wampa’s fine.  He works as a display, but I can’t say he’s thrilling.  The Luke’s actually really nice, and the best of the three Hoth Lukes, so that’s a quiet victory there.

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

#3955: Fantastic Four

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

MISTER FANTASTIC, INVISIBLE WOMAN, THE THING, & HUMAN TORCH

WORLD’S GREATEST SUPER HEROES (MEGO)

Hey, remember last week when I was talking about Mego, specifically how they finally got a chance to bring back Marvel?  Cool, well, there’s more of that going on today.  Yaaaaaaaaay.  In light of the insanity that was the drop for the Spider-Man-themed set, Mego partnered again with Disney for a follow-up, this time based on Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four, in a lead up to their 2025 film release over the summer.  Sure, I didn’t have them before the movie’s theatrical run, but I have a nice tie-in with it dropping on Disney+, so how ‘bout that synergy?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Thing, and Human Torch are the second set in the Marvel sub-set of the revived World’s Greatest Super Heroes.  As with the first set, they went up for pre-order through Disney’s online store, and then started showing up intermittently at the actual parks locations after that.  The set includes the four, each in their own replica box, as well as a coin, much like the Spidey one, based on the ones available in the Marvel in-house ads in the ‘70s, this time showing off the whole team.  Notably, unlike the last set, this set is all reproductions, with no new characters.

MISTER FANTASTIC

Leader of the team and best signifier of the “standard” uniform, it’s Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic.  Or, Mr. Fantastic if you’re more for brevity.  I’m not often for brevity, but this is apparently one of the places I am, so there’s that.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  As with all of the more recent figures, he’s using the revamped bandless body, which is a generally good piece, apart from some slightly reduced range on the elbows and knees.  It does mean you can’t “stretch” him like the old one, but you really shouldn’t have been doing that in the first place, right?  He gets a recreation of the original Mego Reed head, which is honestly one of their nicest standard person heads.  It’s very dignified and scientistly, as a Reed Richards head should be.  His outfit is a multi-piece assembly, with a jumpsuit that has an attached collar and belt, and plastic boots and gloves.  These guys were notable in their use of plastic gloves, rather than the vinyl mittens of the earlier figures.  They look better, but also mean the hands can’t be used practically.  The jumpsuit has a sort of rubberized logo on the front, which looks really nice and also holds up well, and just generally has a pretty nice presence. 

INVISIBLE WOMAN

Also doing the whole standard uniform thing is Sue Storm/Richards, the Invisible Girl/Woman.  At the time of the original figure’s release, she was already Sue Richards, but was still operating as Invisible Girl, which her original packaging reflected.  She changed it to Invisible Woman during Byrne’s run on the book a decade after the original figure’s release, and that’s a change that’s stuck, so for the purposes of some synergy, her box has been adjusted with the appropriate name.  She stands 8 inches tall and she has 16 points of articulation.  Unlike the men, who get the new and improved bandless body, Sue’s still on an older version of the female body.  This one’s slightly modified from the original, in that the neck is attached to the torso.  Also, like every replica of the original female body, the hips are really square and wide, which looks kinda odd.  She’s got her original head, complete with its rooted hair, which manages to not look too crazy or weird.  Her outfit is a close mirror of the one on Reed, albeit tailored to the different body.

THE THING

Hey, it’s the guy what knows when it’s time to clobber stuff!  Our first deviation from the standard get-up is Benjamin J Grimm in his little blue shorts.  The figure stands 7 3/4 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  As with his original release, Ben is the shortest of the four, by virtue of the “bulked up” body he was using (which the original shared with the Hulk).  This one’s upgraded to the bandless construction, which means that, where the original lost a fair bit of the articulation on the standard male body, this one actually keeps the same general set-up as the regular.  The only change-up is the elbows, which, due to the flipped nature of the construction, don’t actually get the side to side movement.  He gets his original head sculpt.  It gets kind of a bad rap, I think, with all the “it’s napping time” comments and the like, but I’ve personally always loved it, in all its hokey glory.  He also gets unique hands and forearms, which feature the rocky detailing, much like the original, but now with wrist articulation.  Ben’s outfit is just a jumpsuit, which gets the attached belt to match the other two.  Most of it is depicting his rocky texture, which us silk screened onto the suit.  It’s a surprisingly effective pattern, very evocative Kirby’s illustrations of the character.

HUMAN TORCH

Also deviating from the standard gear, it’s Johnny Storm, depicted here in all his fully flamed-on glory.  He matches Reed in terms of height and articulation, since he too is built on the basic updated body.  He gets a replica of the original’s head.  The original sculpt does its best to replicate the flamed-on look, which is tricky to get into three dimensions.  Ultimately, the success is, I think, at best, spotty.  But, that’s been the case for almost 50 years, so it is what it is.  Johnny’s outfit is the simplest of the four, just a jumpsuit, not even a belt like the other three.  Like Ben, Johnny’s outfit has a silk screened pattern to try to get his flame effects down, but I don’t think it works as well.  It just sort of looks like shapes, not really fire.  At the very least, the tried something different, which is better than not.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had none of the FF for myself as a kid, but my dad had a full set that got a lot of playtime from me when I’d stay at my grandparents house, usually while watching my *totally legal* VHS copy of the ‘90s Fantastic Four movie.  I tried to get my own equivalent via Toy Biz’s Famous Covers, but they stopped with just Reed and Sue, as Toy Biz loved to do.  I tried to get these when they went live on the site, but they sold out in, like, five minutes, so that was a no.  But, during the Disney trip where my dad was able to order the Spidey set, he was also able to find these in person, so he snagged an extra for me.  My opinions on these pretty much just replicate my feelings on the originals.  Ben’s definitely my favorite, and I love the new base body.  Reed and Sue are both very nice.  Johnny is kind of the weak link, but that’s always been the case, really.

#3954: Superman – Zero Hour

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

SUPERMAN — ZERO HOUR

DC MULTIVERSE (McFARLANE)

In the ‘50s, DC rebooted its super hero line, starting with the introduction of the second Flash, Barry Allen.  In the ‘60s, they brought back the original Flash, Jay Garrick, establishing the existence of a Multiverse. Through the ‘60s and ‘70s, that Multiverse grew, and in the ‘80s, DC decided it had grown too much, and consolidated everything down to one single universe in Crisis on Infinite Earths.  For all of their plans to simplify, Crisis brought with it all manner of complications and odd loose ends. In the ‘90s, DC made one of a number of attempts at rectifying those issues with Zero Hour, another crossover to end all crossovers.  DC’s two top heroes, Superman and Batman, were both rather fresh off of some upsets to their status quos.  Superman had died and returned, with the major lasting remnant at that point being his ‘90s-tastic mullet.  It’s a great way of getting an extra variant out of the Man of Steel, and that’s the case today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman — Zero Hour is part of the latest round of “Page Punchers” from McFarlane’s DC Multiverse line (officially under the DC Direct banner).  He’s paired off with a Crisis Joker, and he’s the standard release, with Zero Hour’s secondary antagonist Extant as the unadvertised Red Platinum chase.  This is the second time we’ve gotten mullet Superman, following up on the Collector’s Edition one that got stupid expensive a while back.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 37 points of articulation.  As has become the formula for most Supermen from McFarlane in the last year, this figure is built on the Earth-2 Superman base body.  It’s by far the best take McFarlane’s had, and it’s a good, solid classic Superman body, so I can’t really fault it’s continued use.  He gets a new head sculpt, sporting that oh-so-important mullet.  It’s a strong sculpt, feeling consistently the same guy as the Silver Age Superman, but looks a bit older and more defined.  The hair’s got a good, dynamic flow to it.  Something with less of a dynamic flow, however, is the figure’s cape.  It’s a cloth one, like the others on this body, but for whatever reason, they’ve omitted the wire in the lining this one, meaning it just sort of hangs their flat.  It’s especially odd because the stitch on the cape clearly is designed with a wire in mind; it’s just not there.  The cape also sits back too far at the shoulders, which is especially notable given how his cape was usually pretty flared at the shoulders during this era.  His color work is a bit darker than the Silver Age version, which is accurate to the comics from the time, and looks pretty good and unique from the others.  Superman is packed with two pairs of hands, one in fists, the other in open gesture, and basic display stand, a collector card, and a copy of Zero Hour #4, which is, oddly, the first issue of the crossover.  It’s really prone to damage, because the paper’s really thin, but it’s an entertaining enough read.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I came into collecting in the ‘90s, my first Superman line was Man of Steel, so the mullet is kind of etched into my brain as a signature look for the character.  I missed the last mullet Superman at retail, and the only time I saw him he was crazy expensive.  Since I’m just sort of keeping up with the new Supermen as they hit now, I was on board for this guy when he was shown off.  He sold out super quick, but GameStop came through for me again.  I don’t love the cape, but otherwise, he’s a fun little variant on a tried and true formula for a Superman figure.

#3953: Super-Skrull

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

SUPER-SKRULL

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“By the order of his Emperor, a select Skrull warrior was bionically re-engineered to become the living weapon in a plot of revenge against the world’s greatest super-hero team. Through advanced technological means, the Super-Skrull was granted the ability to perfectly mimic each of the powers of the Fantastic Four! Sworn to bestow a crushing defeat upon Mister Fantastic, The Thing, The Invisible Woman, and the Human Torch, Super-Skrull seizes the combined force of their awesome powers, and throws it back at them with a bitter vengeance.”

The shape-shifting aliens the Skrulls are one of Lee and Kirby’s earliest additions to the Marvel Universe after launching the Fantastic Four, appearing in the second issue of the series.  Just over a year later, in issue #18, they would get an upgrade in the form of Kl’rt, the Super-Skrull, a Skrull warrior imbued with the powers of all four members of the titular team.  He’s been perhaps the most notable and prominent recurring Skrull since his introduction, facing down not only the FF, but a fair number of other Marvel heroes along the way, and even becoming less antagonistic from time to time.  He’s had a handful of figures over the years, the first of which came from Toy Biz in the ‘90s.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Super Skrull was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four line, designed to tie-in with the show of the same era.  Super-Skrull appeared in the show’s first season, sporting his classic design, and this figure serves as a pretty close adaptation of that set-up.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He’s largely got the standard set-up for movement, but the right arm just gets a swivel at the elbow, rather than a hinge, due to how his action feature works.  His sculpt was unique to him.  It’s very…wide.  Admittedly, that’s true to his Season 1 design, which was itself true to his ‘80s/early ‘90s depictions.  It’s certainly not a bad sculpt, and feels pretty in line with the character. The head’s suitably angry and sporting that signature wrinkly chin, and the arms do an okay job of selling the combined powers of Reed, Ben, and Johnny.  His right arm sports an action feature that extends the fist outward when the button on his shoulder is pressed.  It’s the same basic gimmick used by Doom, but it makes a bit more sense here.  Honestly, it’s a bit odd it never got used for Reed, since it’s his power it’s meant to replicate, but that’s a whole other thing.  His color work is basic.  It’s bright, and again matches the Season 1 look.  I’ve never been crazy about the blue used on the cowl and mid-section of the torso; I definitely prefer the usual black there, and I don’t feel it’s a great contrast here.  Otherwise, though, things work pretty well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Super-Skrull is another purchase courtesy of the one single trip I got to take to the KB liquidation center with my Grandmother, back in the early ‘00s.  I recall this one being one I was particularly excited to find, because he wasn’t one you saw nearly as often as the rest of the figures.  He’s definitely based on a very specific incarnation of the character, but it works, and I think he results in a pretty clean, pretty fun little figure.

#3952: Ronto with Jawa

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

RONTO with JAWA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Given it was the line running when the movies were released, Kenner’s Power of the Force II makes up most of the admittedly pretty small selection of toys based on the Star Wars Special Editions.  Mostly, the focus was on the new CGI creations, with a specific focus on the new creatures the movies had to offer.  Some of the creatures were new just replacing pre-existing models, and could serve as updates to older figures in a pinch, but there were also completely new ones, which includes today’s focus, the Ronto!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The Ronto was released in 1997 as a later addition to the first year of Star Wars: Power of the Force II’s Creature sets.  As with the other two sets from that year, the set’s based on A New Hope’s Special Edition, pairing off one of the new CGI creations with a standard figure, in this case a Jawa.

The Ronto was, as noted in the intro, completely crafted for the Special Editions, added to the background of the Mos Eisely Spaceport scene.  It was modeled on one of ILM’s Brachiosaurus models from Jurassic Park, and was nicknamed “Bronto” during production.  George Lucas, in one of his most Lucas-y moments, just dropped the “B” off the name for the official name.  The figure stands about 9 inches tall and has moving legs.  The neck joint is connected to the rear leg, so you can make it “move” that way.  You can also move the ears and horns, for a little bit of variety.  The sculpt is…well, it’s a dinosaur with a different head, which is appropriate to the source material, so good for them.  The sculpt has a nice selection of texturing on the skin, which gives it a realistic vibe.  The color work on the figure has a fair bit of accenting, which helps to showcase the strengths of the sculpt.

Included with the Ronto is a Jawa.  This was the third of four Jawas released in this line.  He’s very similar to the carded Jawas from the main line, with the single hip joint and the light piping.  Scaling wise, he’s right between the two of them, and his sculpt also sort of feels like an averaging of the two sculpts.  It’s a little lighter on the texturing than those two, but still gets a lot of respectable work, especially given the smaller scale of the figure.  The coloring of the figure is a little more on the washed out side, landing closest to the smaller of the two standard Jawas.  It also means we get two of each shade, if you’ve got all four, which is cool.  The Jawa is packed with a small blaster pistol, which was missing from mine, a fact I can definitively confirm because I opened it just prior to taking the pictures for this review.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t buy this set new, because I honestly don’t remember it existing when it was new. It wasn’t until going back to look more into the line as an adult that it even really came across my radar.  I ended up snagging it during a Star Wars Day sale at Cosmic Comix about 5 years or so back.  As you may have figured out from the main body of the review, it’s been sitting on the shelf unopened for all of that time, as I only just opened it the night before writing this review.  The Ronto’s a cool, big creature thing, which is nifty, and the Jawa is different, but still a very fun additional Jawa for the line-up.

#3951: Spider-Man, Green Goblin, The Lizard, & Electro

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

SPIDER-MAN, GREEN GOBLIN, THE LIZARD, & ELECTRO

WORLD’S GREATEST SUPER HEROES (MEGO)

After a few sort of false starts in the ‘00s and early ‘10s, Mego seems to have well and truly made a return in recent years.  Perhaps their biggest boon for the main line was successfully landing the DC license, which has become a backbone of their offerings.  Of course, back in the ‘70s, Mego was home to both DC *and* Marvel, so you gotta have both for the full success, right?  Marvel being a much bigger license than it used to be, and also being tied-up in Hasbro’s master license means that it’s not as simple a score.  However, Mego was able to partner with Disney Parks, allowing for at least a little bit of Marvel to go with all that DC.  Yay!  Anyway, the first set was Spider-Man themed, and I’m looking at it today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Lizard, and Electro were the first offering in the Marvel off-shoot of World’s Greatest Super Heroes line.  They went up for order through Disney’s online store at the end of last year in limited quantities, and have been showing up at the parks locations intermittently since then.  The set includes the four figures, each with their own replica box, as well as a coin, based on the Spider-Man Medallion coins offered in Marvel house-ads in the ‘70s.

SPIDER-MAN

Star of the show and one of the most distinctive of the original Megos, it’s Spider-Man.  Spidey was one of the few figures to get re-released during the previous attempt at relaunching Marvel Megos under Diamond, so we’ve gotten the replica with the box once before.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  He moves over to the updated bandless body that the main line’s been using for a while now, meaning he’s less prone to breakage and also more posable.  He’s still using (a replica of) his original head sculpt, which remains a very strong take on the character.  As with prior versions of the character, his outfit is a single, silkscreened jumpsuit.  The DST version went with the earlier circle-logo version of the costume, but this release goes for the more standard issue, from the wider run of the line.  The finish on the costume is also closer to the original, rather than the shinier finish of the last replica.  The print is generally pretty good, but the belt seems to go a little lower than it should, especially the dip at the front.

GREEN GOBLIN

Spidey’s primary antagonist Green Goblin was added to Mego’s run in the second Marvel assortment, and hasn’t been revisited by any sort of follow-up since.  Like his original release, he gets a unique head.  It’s not quite as definitive as Spidey, generally dialing back some of Goblin’s features to something closer to a standard human face, but it still looks enough like the character to read pretty well.  His outfit gets a jumpsuit, assembled from different parts for the torso and limbs, as well as including a sewn on belt piece, and cuffs for his gloves.  The arms and legs have a printed scale pattern, which is fun, and a good match to the vintage equivalent.  It’s all topped off with a pair of plastic boots, which have a tendency to make him topple, unless you get him posed *just* right.  Goblin is also packed with a plastic satchel piece.  Like his vintage counterpart, he lacks his glider.  It’s a bit of a bummer that they couldn’t add it this time around, but it’s not quite within the scope of what they’re going for.

THE LIZARD

Joining the vintage line alongside Green Goblin (and Iron Man and Hulk) was The Lizard.  Though the package also billed him as “Spider-Man’s Arch-Enemy”, that doesn’t quite feel like it fits for Lizard, who’s hardly obscure, but still seems a little more of a deeper cut than Goblin.  Lizard was the most involved of the original Spidey line-up, and that’s replicated with this figure.  In addition to the “new” head sculpt (which was shared with Star Trek’s Gorn during the vintage run), Lizard also got specially sculpted hands and lower legs.  They all sell the reptile angle pretty well.  The head’s pretty goofy and all, but also has that perfect charm for the line.  The left hand’s notable for being in a fist, a unique feature for the original line, and still unique here as well.  Lizard’s outfit is involved like his sculpt, with a lab coat, and a shirt/pants combo that also includes a cloth tail piece.  The tail has the same pattern of scales as Goblin, just in a darker green color.

ELECTRO

Electro is notable in this set because he *wasn’t* in the vintage line, making him the set’s one new addition to the line-up.  He gets a replica package made-up to match the others, so that you can just sort of pretend he always existed.  He gets a totally new head sculpt, which isn’t bad, apart from the one drawback that the way the package tray is set-up, his head is pressed up against it, so the top “bolt” of his mask is folded down.  It’ll need some work to get it properly reset.  He gets a single piece jumpsuit, with a printed pattern matching his classic costume set-up, and additional pieces on the forearms mimicking the bolt attachments from his gloves.  He also gets a standard pair of boots, molded in yellow.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I have a few actual proper vintage Marvel Megos, but for the most part, I rely on my dad’s collection for my memories of them.  He actually didn’t have any of the Spidey characters, and Spidey himself was one I got when I was about 9 or 10.  Lizard in particular is a figure I’ve wanted for a good long while, but I’ve never gotten the chance to track one down.  The prospect of re-issues was intriguing, but then they sold out really fast online, and they’ve been getting scalped pretty consistently since.  My dad took a trip to Disney a couple of weekends ago, and was planning to keep an eye out for this set, but before he even got to the park, he got notified that they were back in stock online, and was nice enough to order an extra set so that I could also have one.  I’ve got no shortage of Mego Spideys, but that doesn’t make him any less cool.  Goblin’s a respectable replica of his original figure, Electro is a fun new addition (slight issue with the mask aside), and Lizard just rules.