Category Archives: Reviews

#4105: Supergirl

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

SUPERGIRL

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE TOYS)

“As the most powerful teenager on the planet, the Girl of Steel possesses all of Superman powers from superhuman strength, speed and invulnerability all the way down to his flight and enhanced senses.”

Somehow Super Powers returned.

No, wait, that’s probably not the vibe, right?  Super Powers being back is a good thing.  Hmmm… “It’s just been revoked?”  No, not it either.  “The reports of Super Powers’ death have been greatly exaggerated.”  Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Right, so if you haven’t gathered by now, McFarlane’s Super Powers revival line is not quite as done as it seemed to be when I wrote my review of Cyborg almost a year ago.  It genuinely looked that way at the time, but then Entertainment Earth swooped in and seemingly salvaged the line for at least another four waves.  So, that’s actually pretty cool.  One of my notably complaints about the McFarlane run when I wrapped things up in that Cyborg review was that, despite adding 72 figures to the line, McFarlane hadn’t actually addressed a major issue with the original Kenner run, which was the lack of female characters outside of Wonder Woman.  Now, I’m not going to take *all* the credit here, but we’re literally one figure into the continuation and the count of female characters has already doubled.  Let’s check out Supergirl.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Supergirl is part of Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation line, officially released under the DC Direct branding.  This is the first of the four Entertainment Earth-exclusive assortments, sold as sets, and it started shipping out right at the end of July.  A bit of curious housekeeping right at the start here: on the backs of the boxes, the figures are all shown on a yellow background, each with a number, mimicking the wave 3 cardbacks from the Kenner run.  Supergirl is figure 61, which is interesting because that spot was previously occupied by Deadman from the Gold Label Wave 11 assortment from last year.  The rest of the single carded figures remain, but all of Wave 11 has been removed, and their numbers re-used for some reason, despite the fact that even the cases of this assortment still number it as “13,” and you can only get to that number if you count the Gold Label assortment.  So, that’s kind of weird.  Doesn’t affect the actual figures, but weird.  Moving on.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation.  Structurally, she’s using a variant of the McFarlane Wonder Woman body, which I actually haven’t personally handled.  It’s not too far removed from the original Kenner mold, though, and this likewise feels pretty closely related.  At first glance, I felt like she was too tall, but relative to the other figures in both the McFarlane and Kenner runs, she’s not too far out of place.  Her outfit’s sort of an interesting choice.  Kara was part of both the original Kenner pitch for the line in the early ‘80s and the planned continuation of the line post-Series 3, both times using her design from the 1982 style guide, which is her blouse and hot pants look from the ‘70s.  It’s been theorized that by the time she actually hit the line, they’d have put her in her updated headband-sporting “jazzersize” outfit from 1984, but that’s all rumor.  What we see here is actually something that the mainstream Kara really never wore, since her original look was an all blue dress without the red skirt, her replacement was the blouse and shorts, then there was the headband look, and then she died.  This is ultimately closest to the look sported by the Matrix Supergirl in the ‘90s (though the belt’s not quite right), who wasn’t actually Kara.  In actuality, the design is essentially lifted from some additional style guide work DC hired Jose Garcia-Lopez to do in the ’00s, as part of a more “evergreen” branding for the character.  Given Garcia-Lopez influenced the bulk of the original line, it means she remains consistent.  Moreover, the original Supergirl movie had started with the ’84 redesign, before ditching the headband and red shoulders, resulting in a look that was very close to this, and it’s not too far of a reach for Kenner to have potentially used such a look had they introduced her to the line, so I can’t really complain.  In terms of the actual figure, she gets a new head, which very much dials into the ‘70s/early ‘80s Kara, which I quite like, and she also gets a belt piece, which matches well with her cousin’s usual get-up.  She gets a cloth cape and skirt, which work well enough.  The cape sits a bit odd due to the size of the clip and how the hair interacts with the shoulders, but with a little bit of futzing, it looks okay.  Kara’s color work is bright and colorful, just like it should be.  In contrast to most of the rest of the line, her skin tones, especially on the head, are molded, which is more accurate to the Kenner approach, so I’m definitely a fan.  What I’m not a huge fan of is the removal of the “S” on her cape, which has been on most of the Supermen in the line, so it’s a bummer it’s missing here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really thought the line was done, and I was really bummed we never got a Supergirl, who I’d honestly wanted since before the revival even happened.  I was thrilled that there were more figures coming, and even more thrilled that Kara was amongst the first batch of them.  Interesting quirks to her costume aside, she’s really great, and does what this line does best, which is feel like an authentic Kenner product.  I have minor quibbles, but that’s really all they are.  Perhaps the biggest drawback to her is that you have to buy five other figures to get her.  Less an issue for me, but not great for the more casual fan.

#4104: Junkpile

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

JUNKPILE

X-MEN 2099 (TOY BIZ)

“With a bad attitude and the brawn to back it up, Junkpile is one mean machine. Once aligned with the mutant outlaw X-men, he turned against his teammates and helped arrange the attempted assassination of their leader Xi’an. Now their sworn enemy, Junkpile uses his ability to “rebuild” himself with scrap metal and spare parts to make waste out of any piece of “meat” that gets in his way.”

You gotta respect X-Men 2099, they really did do their best to replicate the sheer volume of backstory of the main timeline books into a backstory for the 2099 equivalents.  There’s, like, lore, and all sorts of archetypes and concepts in place.  It’s astounding given how relatively small a run it is.  There are multiple former members of the team, one of the Junkpile, who was a recurring character who bounced around multiple roles, including at one point working for SHIELD.  He had a neat gimmick and a decent design, so that got him an action figure.  Let’s look at that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Junkpile was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s X-Men 2099 line, and then again during the Marvel Universe run later.  Why the re-release?  Who knows.  Toy Biz felt the need to make sure the people had ready access to Junkpile.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  His movement is pretty much the base standard for he scale and style, albeit somewhat restricted by the nature of his design, which is rather on the bulky side.  The sculpt was unique to Junkpile and it’s quite a nice one.  These figures in general really captured the art style of the books quite well, and Junkpile was no exception on that front.  He’s got a sort of unique flair about him, a lot of personality in that head sculpt, and a ton of small detail work.  Junkpile’s action feature, worked into the whole body, allows him to pop apart and be reassembled, using connection points, much like the ones used on Robot Wolverine.  Pushing down his head shoots out the arms and legs and the shoulders and hips.  They clip back in, albeit with some careful positioning.  He has a tendency to pop back apart without much pressure, but he’s a bit better than the Robot Wolverine was.  Junkpile also had four pieces of removable armor, on the shoulders and shins.  He looks best fully assembled, but the variety is fun, and it works well to illustrate his powers.  Junkpile’s color work is sort of monochromatic, but also rather colorful for what it is.  There’s little splashes of brighter color mixed in.  The application is all very cleanly handled, and there’s no major details missing.  The Universe re-release lost some of the smaller paint, but they’re otherwise the same.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hey, remember the way that I got most of my other X-Men 2099 figures, where there was a big lot of them I bought loose through work back in 2020?  Well, here’s another one of those…mostly.  He was missing a couple of the armor pieces, so I had to find replacements, but he’s otherwise been with me that whole time.  He’s fun.  He’s very gimmicky, but it’s a fun gimmick, and it’s paired with a really neat sculpt that I think stands out nicely among the other 2099 figures.

#4103: Darth Vader – Dagobah

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DARTH VADER — DAGOBAH

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE JEDI (HASBRO)

“Taking the form of Darth Vader , the Dark Lord of the Sith, this spirit is the embodiment of the dark side of the Force. It dwells in a cave on the swamp-covered planet of Dagobah. Although defeated by Luke Skywalker in combat, its unmasked face revealed that Luke has yet to master the ways of the Force and become a Jedi.”

One of the aims of Power of the Jedi was to reintegrate the Original Trilogy characters into the main Star Wars line, to assuage retailers after the concerns surrounding the unsold Episode I product.  In some ways, it feels like a continuation of Power of the Force, but it also leans into a concept not quite as explored in PotF: scene specific variants.  They went to the scene specific well twice for franchise icon Darth Vader, and I’m looking at the first of those two instances today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Darth Vader — Dagobah was released in 2000 as part of the first year of Star Wars: Power of the Jedi.  Though listed as a Vader variant, he’s not technically one, since he’s a figure of the spirit Luke sees in the cave on Dahobah, and is therefore not the actual guy.  But, he’s good enough for the toy company to count him.  The figure stands a little over 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  Though he he feels quite similar to the later run PotF Vader figures, this one had an all-new sculpt, which, as far as I know, remained unique to this release.  It’s slightly more on the pre-posed side, dialing more into the specific shots we see of the spirit in its one scene.  He’s made for holding his lightsaber and standing there with a bit of menace, which he does rather well.  He’s still got a bit of residual bulk from Power of the Force, but nothing crazy.  The actual detailing is all pretty sharp, and they do a good job with his costume details, and the elements specific to the Empire design.  To fully replicate the scene, the figure’s faceplate is removable (a feature that’s surprisingly well hidden), showing Luke’s face beneath.  You can also remove the figure’s head, through use of a kind of rudimentary peg.  He was originally supposed to use a magnet to attach the head, but that was deemed too involved for the line, and delayed until Saga came along.  The figure’s color work aids in the “spirit” vibe, with a slight translucent feature to it, most visible on the cape and cloak.  Vader is packed with his lightsaber, which notably gets actual detailing on the hilt, in contrast to the Power of the Force figures.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember seeing pictures of this figure when the line was running, and I was always fascinated by the look with the Luke face.  But, because he was packaged with the faceplate on, I didn’t ever realize which Vader he actually was.  It wouldn’t be until much later on that I realized how it worked, at which point I reaffirmed my search, tracking one down a few years back through Yesterday’s Fun, during one of my many family vacations in the area.  He’s a nifty little variant, and really the best way to recreate a rather memorable scene from the movies.

#4102: Undertow

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UNDERTOW

G.I. JOE VS COBRA (HASBRO)

“Any frogman can operate efficiently in clean water, under optimum conditions, but the UNDERTOW are specially trained to function and fight in the murky, polluted waters surrounding busy industrial and military waterfronts. Their wetsuits are made of a nontoxic, anti-corrosive material, and their face masks are coated with silicone to repel oil slicks. They are almost impossible to capture or defeat because others cannot enter the hostile water environments in which they work.”

It may have been my introduction to the smaller scale version of the franchise, but I haven’t talked too much about the early ‘00s G.I. Joe vs Cobra re-launch of the A Real American Hero incarnation of the brand.  While the initial offerings from the line were all-new sculpts, and in fact even moved away from the traditional O-ring construction, a stronger interest than Hasbro expected, and a need for product fast resulted in a lot of padding of the re-launch’s first year with older molds.  In particular, a lot of molds used for the 2000 drug store run found their way back into circulation.  One of those molds was Undertow, whom I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Undertow was released as part of the G.I. Joe vs Cobra line in 2002.  He and seven other figures made up a “Sound Attack” themed 8-pack of figures, which was a BJ’s Wholesale-exclusive set dropped near the holiday season.  While the original Undertow was introduced as part of Destro’s forces, this one moves them under the Cobra banner.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  Undertow makes used of the entirety of his 1990 v1 figure’s sculpt, which I reviewed in its original form.  Honestly, it’s a strong sculpt.  I think it’s a bit more reserved than others of the era, and that works in its favor, making him feel generally more timeless in his design.  The change-up here comes in the color work.  The original release had a color scheme I described as “Christmas pageant reject” and I stand by that.  All the Cobra forces in this set went heavy on the red for whatever reason.  Undertow was almost entirely red and, honestly, I kinda dig it.  It’s bright, but less garish than the original.  The grey accenting works pretty well too, and the addition of the Cobra logo on the forehead feels like it’s adding an element that was missing from the beginning.  Undertow gets none of the original’s accessories, instead getting an…odd assortment of parts.  There’s a blaster pistol that originally belonged to the 1992 Destro (missing from mine), a chainsaw with a Sound Attack tab on it, which began as Buzzer’s, got refitted for the 2002 Zartan, and a backpack recolored from the original Snow Serpent.  Nothing remotely aquatic there, which makes it real hodgepodge and like they’re just filling space in the set.  His Joe counterpart, Wetsuit, was pretty much the same way, so at least they were consistent?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I jumped into the line with the first assortment, specifically the Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow set, and picked up quite a few others over the course of the year.  My parents made note of the interest, and this set was snagged for me for Christmas, and it was certainly a major focus. Of the figures included, this was my favorite, for whatever reason, though I pretty much never used him as a proper villain.  My original didn’t make it through my childhood intact, so I’ve been looking to replace him for a while.  I had tracked down the original, but he didn’t *quite* hit that same mark for me.  I was glad to find this one at Yesterday’s Fun while on vacation this summer.  He’s cool.  I still love the mold, and I do think these colors work better than the originals.  The accessories are weird, but otherwise, I really like him.

#4101: Robin

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

ROBIN

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (KENNER)

While I had a handful of reviews from Hasbro’s running on fumes continuation of the Batman Animated tie-in line in the last few months, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve actually reviewed any of the original Kenner run of Batman: The Animated Series figures.  For today’s review, I’m actually going way back to the very beginning of said tie-ins, for a look at the first animated variant of Batman’s trusty sidekick, Robin!  So, let’s take a look at this early release for the other half of the dynamic duo!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Robin was released in the first series of Kenner’s Batman: The Animated Series line in 1992.  He joined two Batman variants, Penguin, Riddler, and Two-Face for the line’s debut at retail.  At this point, the line was actually sticking to rather faithful costume designs, rather than the wacky variants that followed, so Robin’s wearing Dick’s standard attire from the show.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Robin was pretty notably predominantly parts re-use, which was rare for this line early on.  From the neck down, he was the Batman Returns Robin, topped off with a new head sculpt.  I’ve looked at the whole combo before through one of its re-releases during Hasbro’s run.  It’s sort of a mixed bag, since the original use wasn’t meant to be an animated style figure, so he’s very heavy on details that really shouldn’t be there.  The head’s perfectly serviceable, and a decent match for the show model, especially when filtered through the same lens as the other early run figures from the line.  Like the later release, he gets a cloth cape, similarly two-toned.  The cloth’s a bit thinner on this one, though, so it hangs quite a bit better, making for a much better overall look.  What’s also much better overall is the figure’s coloring; the re-paint from Hasbro was very cold and neon, and that was quite off model, but this one’s colors are much closer to his on-screen colors.  While the core figures of the early Kenner run were fairly standard depictions, there were definitely some wonky accessories going on, and in Robin’s case, that’s a whole hang glider set-up, which also has, like, guns, or something?  That doesn’t seem very Batman-y, now does it?  Honestly, it’s not a terrible piece, though, and it’s unobtrusive, so it really doesn’t bug me.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like I said when I reviewed the Hasbro repaint, I kind of missed the main runs of these guys, so I didn’t have a chance to pick this guy up new.  What can I say, I was a newborn at the time, and my parents wouldn’t give me any spending money.  I got the Hasbro one, and I’ve honestly always kinda loved that one, so I didn’t *need* this one, but also I’m a sucker for a Dick Grayson figure I don’t own, so I did kind of want one for posterity’s sake.  He’s been on my list, but I wasn’t actively searching.  But, while I was on vacation with my family this summer, I swung by Yesterday’s Fun early in the trip and struck up a conversation with the woman who works the counter, and mentioned I’d probably be stopping in a few times while we were there.  On one of my return trips, she pulled a box of just priced Batman stuff that hadn’t gone out for me to look through, and this guy was there for a very reasonable price, so I really couldn’t refuse.  He’s neat.  I like the differences between the releases, and I won’t deny this one’s a bit better than the later one, even if I don’t have quite the same nostalgic tie to him.

#4100: La Lunatica

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

LA LUNATICA

X-MEN 2099 (TOY BIZ)

“Before joining the X-Men, the fierce La Lunatica was a prisoner of the sinister Brimstone Love. A psychic vampire, La Lunatica feeds on the traumatic memories of others — memories she brings screaming back to life with the slightest touch. Tough as nails and super strong, La Lunatica has broken free of Brimstone’s control and aims to bring the curtain crashing down on his sadistic Theater of Pain.”

Hey, remember back nearer the beginning of the year, when I was taking a decent look at the world of X-Men 2099?  Well, let’s do that again!  While a lot of the team members had sort of a “hey, we slapped two words together and made a character out of it,” today’s focus takes a different approach: what if we just used regular words, but in Spanish?  Behold, La Lunatica.  She’s crazy.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Name certainly does a lot of implying, though.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

La Lunatica was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s X-Men 2099 line.  She was originally shown as part of the Series 1 line-up, but was ultimately pushed back.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation.  While she was technically a new mold, La Lunatica was clearly reworked from Rogue, with whom she shares a general pose, articulation, and action feature set-up.  I don’t really feel like the uppercut feature really makes as much sense here, and it’s more awkward to use the right shoulder, what with her super large hair and all.  Her sculpt is kind of stiff and stilted, but I guess it looks pretty close to how she was depicted in the comics.  Certainly as close as the bulk of the rest of the line, so she fits right in.  There were two color set-ups for this figure, the first having a simple purple paint scheme for her outfit, and the second adding additional black sections to the costume, presumably to make the costume a little more modest for the purposes of a line ostensibly aimed at children?  Whatever the case, the variant with the black is generally less frequently appearing.  I do kind of like the additional contrast added by the extra black details, but as is so common with Toy Biz in this era, it just ignores the sculpt.  La Lunatica is packed with…like, I guess a sort of wrist mounted lacrosse stick thing, which she can use to “launch” her “energy ball” which looks more like a railway spike than a ball.  She’s also got an arm blade thing.  Cuz she’s crazy.  Maybe.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have a La Lunatica figure as a kid, but I remember her being *everywhere* in comic shops and the like.  It kind of made me want to avoid her, for whatever reason.  I don’t know, maybe I just got sick of seeing her.  I ended up grabbing the standard version alongside most of the rest of the line, back in 2020, when I had the chance to snag them all loose.  The variant I actually just got quite recently, and I even bought her sealed, just to open.  I know.  Crazy.  Maybe.  She’s…fine.  Aggressively middle of the road.  There’s definitely some things that hold her back, and I don’t think she’s as fun as the rest of the line, but she’s not bad either.  She’s certainly still got that charm of the line.

#4099: Obi-Wan Kenobi – Cold Weather Gear

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OBI-WAN KENOBI — COLD WEATHER GEAR

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE JEDI (HASBRO)

“A Jedi must always be well equipped for any circumstance. Obi-Wan Kenobi, a loyal and disciplined Jedi, is often sent by the Jedi Council to resolve matters on worlds where the environment is very cold. He often must prepare for these missions by bringing special gear with him to handle the colder temperatures.”

With my review of IG-11 last week, I’ve once again exhausted my new Star Wars merch, so it’s time to go back to the retro stuff.  With my meager Episode I collection wrapped up, I’m moving onto that which follows, Power of the Jedi.  The diminishing returns of the Episode I line at retail led Hasbro to rework it into a more franchise comprehensive line, more in the mold of the just wrapped up Power of the Force.  In addition to putting out the handful of remaining Episode I toys, the new line offered up some Original Trilogy stuff, and also a handful of early stage concept figures from the Episode I production process.  A few of the heavy hitters got some variants this way, especially Obi-Wan, whose Cold Weather variant I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Obi-Wan Kenobi — Cold Weather Gear was released during Star Wars: Power of the Jedi’s second year in 2001.  He’s one of two Obi-Wan concept variants from that year.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Obi-Wan was sporting an all-new sculpt for his all-new cold weather gear design.  The gear design is pretty consistent with the other looks we’ve seen in Star Wars, bringing to mind the Hoth looks for sure.  The sculpt captures it well, with minimal pre-posing, and an extensive level of detailing that’s all pretty sharp.  The design’s a little limiting on the movement front, especially on the hips, but it’s not as bas as some.  The head sculpt is, to my eyes, the strongest McGregor likeness of the ’99-’01 run, generally just hitting the mark a bit better than the others.  It lacks the Padawan braid and the rat tail is pressed into the head, rather than sticking out, making him far less prone to breaking as well.  His color work brings to mind Han’s Hoth Gear, or the toy version at least, which is a decent set-up.  It’s always nice to see a little bit of blue on a Star Wars figure, especially in this era.  Obi-Wan was packed with a lightsaber, removable cap with goggles, and a survival pack.  The lightsaber is notably missing the black detailing on the hilt, which is a bit of a step down.  The paint on the visor of the goggles is also quite prone to rubbing off, due to the soft rubber construction, but it’s otherwise a very cool piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m fairly certain this was my first Power of the Jedi figure.  I’d seen a fair number of figures from the line, but I remember this guy showing up in ToyFare, and thinking he looked super cool, so I kept my eye out for him.  He was ultimately a comic book store purchase, if I recall, probably Comics to Astonish, which tended to have the best off the beaten path selection of newer Star Wars figures at the time.  I’ve always really liked this one, and time hasn’t really changed that.  He’s quite a fun variant.

#4098: Tarzan of Mars

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TARZAN OF MARS

TARZAN: EPIC ADVENTURES (TRENDMASTERS)

Way back in February, I took a look at Edgar Rice Burroughs’ first enduring pulp hero, John Carter.  But John’s not really his most famous creation.  That would be Tarzan, occasional lord of the jungle, occasional Disney property, and definitely the one of the two that gets the more prominent merchandise push. The John Carter figure I reviewed back in February was actually part of a line of Tarzan figures, and I’ve apparently not actually reviewed anything Tarzan here on the site, so I guess here’s a Tarzan, but of a more Mars-y variety than usual.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tarzan of Mars was released in Trendmasters’ Tarzan: Epic Adventures line in 1995.  He was, like the John Carter figure, released under the “Conqueror of Mars” subline, first in a two-pack alongside one of the Plantmen, and then in a few other configurations as the line progressed.  The figure stands (or, rather, much like John, crouches) 3 1/2 inches tall and he has 3 points of articulation.  Articulation is just at the neck and shoulders, but he’s at least got slightly better range than John.  His sculpt is mostly unique.  The head is shared with all the smaller Tarzans, but otherwise he’s new.  It’s an interesting design, not based on anything specific that I know of.  It’s certainly got quite a Warlord vibe to it, which isn’t a terrible vibe to give a Mars-themed Tarzan.  The posing is quite intense, and like John, the resulting proportions are certainly a bit odd.  The arms in particular are a lot longer than they should be, and also I don’t think they’re the same length.  Tarzan is screaming, which definitely makes more sense for him than it did for John, so I can dig it.  Tarzan’s color work sports a nice selection of differing colors, to keep him visually interesting, while also staying true to most depictions of the character.  His skin tone is notably a little different from John, which feels appropriate.  Tarzan was packed with a helmet, spear, and knife.  The helmet is by far the coolest piece, but all of them are pretty neat extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this line came out, my Dad was set on getting a full run of the Barsoom related characters, which also included the various alien races.  Since Tarzan was packed with on of those, he bought the whole set, and gave me, a kid far more invested in Tarzan than anyone else in the line, the Tarzan, making this my first Tarzan action figure, albeit a slightly non-standard one.  He’s goofy, but I still really dig him, and he remains my favorite Tarzan figure in my collection.

#4097: Night Hunter Robin

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

NIGHT HUNTER ROBIN

BATMAN & ROBIN (KENNER)

Okay, we’re gonna do this Batman & Robin thing.  One.  More.  Time.  For now, at least, because this effectively wraps up what remains of my childhood collection, such as it is in reviewing condition.  Might change later, I guess, because who knows?  So, let’s cap things off with a Robin figure, since that’s how I started these reviews in the first place, some six years and some change ago.  This time, he’s red, for…reasons.  Anyway, here’s Night Hunter Robin.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Night Hunter Robin was released in 1997 as part of Kenner’s Batman & Robin tie-in line.  He was one-half of one of the two-packs they did early in the run (the other half being Poison Ivy), which largely seemed to exist to pump out some extra variants of the main cast relatively quickly.  In the case of this one, he’s at his core not super removed from the basic Robin design for the movie, albeit colored rather differently.  Exactly why that made him “Night Hunter” is sort of lost on me, but maybe they just though it sounded cool.  It does sound cool.  It sounds like perhaps the coolest descriptor a Batman-themed figure could get.  Sounds like the sort of descriptor that could, I don’t know, pull someone in to a whole lifetime of action figure collecting if they weren’t careful.  It also shows that the rather “grab some common descriptor words out of a hat” approach can lead to some doubling up, even when it’s seemingly unintended.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is…well it’s really, really similar to the Iceboard Robin sculpt, but it’s not the same.  It’s not different in any ways that actually really matter, mind you.  The posing on his right arm is *slightly* less bent, and his pelvis is *slightly* wider, and the placement of the peg holes for his cape are *slightly* different.  If you didn’t have the two figures right next to each other, you could be forgiven for not actually knowing the molds were different.  In that regard, it’s a good sculpt, just like Iceboard was, so that’s pretty nice.  The main change-up here is the coloring.  The two packs really liked having at least one of the included figures be chromed, and that was Robin.  He’s predominantly a chromed red, which, as you can see on my figure, it’s quite prone to flaking over time.  The sections that were red on his main costume are now a very shiny black, which is a good contrast.  The rest of his coloring, like the mold, is different from the standard in very slight, very easily missed ways, but they’re there.  Night Hunter Robin was packed with a sort of missile/batarang/crossbow looking thing, which went over his arm.  It’s missing from mine, but I can’t say I really feel like I *need* it, so that’s okay.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m writing this review on the eve of my 34th birthday, which I suppose is appropriate, because he’s one of the many Batman & Robin figures I got on my 5th birthday, back in ’97.  In contrast to the others, this one I very specifically asked for.  I don’t really know why, but I remember I *really* wanted the two-pack, pretty much exclusively for this Robin figure.  I recall losing all but his cape for a very long while, but if I recall correctly, he turned back up during “The Find,” my big excavation of missing figures and parts at my parents’ house from just before I moved out of state back in 2016.  He’s a bit worse for wear, but I do still quite like him, and I do get something of a giggle out of him sharing a descriptor with my original Batman, a fact that escaped me until I sat down to write this very review. 

#4096: Tigra

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

TIGRA

MARVEL HALL OF FAME (TOY BIZ)

“Blasting out of the Marvel Universe are its most powerful heroines, the She-Force! Joining together to fight evil are mutants Marvel Girl, Wolfsbane and Dazzler along with Avengers Tigra and Ms. Marvel. Challenging the threat of the Brotherhood of evil Mutants, the She-Force has what it takes to get the job done. Using their combined abilities, the She-Force takes down the Brotherhood in one explosive battle!”

We started off this month’s theme of Toy Biz Marvel reviews with a feral heroine (who is *not* Feral, mind you), so why not finish them off that way as well, with this month’s singe non-X related Toy Biz review.  Today’s focus, the Avenger Tigra made her figure debut with today’s review focus, though she wound up with a rather quick follow-up to it, all things considered.  But, that’s later on, and also in the past (since I’ve already reviewed it), so let’s keep the focus on this specific figure.  Oh yeah, here’s Tigra!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tigra was released in Series 6 of the Puzzle Zoo-exclusive Marvel Hall of Fame line, the second of the three “She-Force” branded line-ups.  She’s the last one I’m looking at from this particular set, which is notably in stark contrast to what I said when I reviewed Marvel Girl last week…yeah, I made a bit of a oopsie there.  Sorry about that guys.  I’d say it won’t happen again, but the rigors of a daily review site mean it *probably* will, so we’ll just deal with it as we can.  Anyway, here’s this Tigra figure.  She stands 5 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  She’s an almost complete parts-reuse of the Spider-Man line’s Black Cat figure, albeit it ever so slightly modified to add a tail to the back.  Honestly, it’s a pretty inspired choice.  Apart from the fact that she’s good boots, rather than bare feet, there’s not really any issues getting the details to match up pretty well with Tigra’s usual comics appearances.  The sculpt is a little bit stiff and pre-posed, and there’s admittedly not a lot to be done with the articulation, but at least she can just sort of stand there, I guess?  Well, slight asterisk on the standing, since that’s definitely something this mold was never very good at.  Thankfully, though, she’s got peg holes in the feet, so you can supply your own stand, if need be.  In terms of color work, she’s actually pretty great.  It’s interesting, because Hasbro had a bit of trouble getting her shade of orange right, but Toy Biz pretty much got it right out of the gate.  Otherwise, the color layout and the patterning of the stripes is pretty impressive, and there’s some nice accenting on the darker sections of her fur.  Tigra is packed with a recolored version of Lady Deathstrike’s big claw thing, which is now black.  It was an odd extra for Deathstrike, and it’s even odder for Tigra, but also it’s really not all that out there for the average “She-Force” accessory.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I had the United They Stand Tigra, which at the time fulfilled my Tigre-related figure needs.  That one’s not bad, but she’s admittedly a bit more queued into the show design, making her slightly more limited in her applications.  This one’s been on my radar for a bit, but doesn’t turn up as often as some of the others from the set, I’ve found.  Back in June, I took a trip down to South Carolina for a memorial service for Jess, and I got to swing by our old comic shop in the area, Power Comics, who still had a really nice selection of Toy Biz figures, so I got to snag a few I was missing, including Tigra here.  She’s not much for posing, but she certainly looks the part, which puts her a bit ahead of a number of the Toy Biz repaint figures.  Honestly, not a bad figure.