Category Archives: Reviews

#0152: Wild Bill

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

WILD BILL

GI JOE VS COBRA

Today, I’ll be taking another look at the original Action Figure, G.I. Joe!  Once again, this is a figure from the successful A Real American Hero incarnation of the line.  This is another look at the re-launch of the line in the early 2000s, under the “G.I. Joe vs. Cobra” branding.  After the first few waves, Hasbro started offering figures featuring “sound attack” weapons, which generally meant that the figures’ weapons had these large tabs and could be inserted into a slot on a specially marked “sound attack” vehicle to get that weapon’s specific sound.  It was an interesting concept, I suppose, but wasn’t the most reliable thing.  Anyway, I’m actually looking at one of the figures from the sound attack line without a sound attack weapon.  Hang on to your hats, it’s Wild Bill, G.I. Joe pilot!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wild Bill was released as part of the 2002 assortment of G.I. Joe vs Cobra.  He originally came packed in a two-pack with a repaint of the Neo-Viper, one of Cobra’s troops, but my research shows me that he also was released single carded later on, which I believe is how I got mine.  The figure is 3 ¾ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  Like so many of the figures in the G.I. Joe vs Cobra line, the sculpt on Wild Bill is a little bit dated looking now.  He doesn’t quite have the “v” shaped torso that we saw on the Night Creeper, but he still has the long lanky arms, which look a bit odd.  The detail work still looks great, though, so there was obviously a fair bit of effort put in to the figure.  The paint work is pretty good.  Not hyper-detailed, but done well enough, with no slop or bleed-over.  Wild Bill had a decent accessory compliment, with two revolvers, a rifle and his trusty hat.  The hat is definitely my favorite piece, as it sits very nicely on his head.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m pretty sure I picked up Wild Bill single carded from KB Toys on a trip to the mall with my Grandmother.  I’ve never been the biggest fan of the character, but this was a pretty cool figure that I thoroughly enjoyed when I was younger.  He actually stands the test of time a lot better than most of his compatriots from the same line.

#0151: Scarlet Spider & Hobgoblin

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SCARLET SPIDER & HOBGOBLIN

MARVEL MINIMATES

Well, we took a break to do the usual HT review for the 150th review, but now we’re back to, that’s right, the Minimates.  Once again, it’s an entry from the expansive Marvel Minimates line.  This time around, it pulls two characters from the Spider-Man corner of the Marvel universe: Scarlet Spider and Hobgoblin.  Scarlet Spider is Ben Reilly, clone of Peter Parker.  Hobgoblin’s been a few people, but in general, he’s kind of a successor to the Green Goblin legacy.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two were released as a FYE & Suncoast exclusive set a few years ago.

SCARLET SPIDER

Scarlet Spider is up first.  He’s based on the original Scarlet Spider, not the more recent one, so he’s in Spider’s early 90s look, which was assembled from pieces from a novelty shop, I believe, on his first adventure.  Dude wore a hoody with the sleeves torn off and his first adversary was Venom.  Can you get much more 90s than that?  Spider is built on the basic Minimate body, so he’s about 2 ½ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  He’s a vanilla ‘mate, so all of his details are painted on.  Everything is pretty clean, though he is a bit basic, which does date the figure a bit.  I also do wish the eyes were a little higher, but that’s more personal preference.  Scarlet Spider included a web-line.

HOBGOBLIN

Up next is Hobgoblin.  He was a pretty big character in the 90s, but his popularity has died down a bit recently.  This figure is based on the character’s more reserved original appearance, instead of some of the more ghoulish looks the character got later on.  Hobgoblin is built on the usual body, so he’s got the standard stats.  He’s got 3 sculpted pieces: Hood, cape, and hand holding a pumpkin bomb.  These pieces were all new to the figure, though the pumpkin bomb has been reused a few times since.  The hood and cape are nice, and look pretty spot on to what the character looked like in his classic incarnation.  The paint is much more detailed here than it was on Scarlet Spider.  He actually holds up pretty well, if you’re really looking for a classically styled version of the character.  Hobgoblin includes no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up this set at a Suncoast at my local mall.  The Suncoast isn’t there anymore, which is a bit sad.  This was one of the few times in recent years that I can actually remember being surprised to find an item I didn’t know was being made.  I’ve always kind of liked Scarlet Spider, so I was glad to get him, and Hobgoblin’s not bad either.

#0150: T-1000

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

T-1000

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (HOT TOYS)

Would you check that out?  I made it to 150 reviews!  I think that’s pretty cool!  I’m gonna continue the trend with the milestone reviews and do another one of my “Deluxe Reviews”.

This is another figure produced by Hot Toys, a toy company based in Hong Kong who are renowned for their almost life like 1/6 scale figures.  They cater strictly to those with a large amount of money to spend on such things, as each figure costs anywhere from $200 to $300 on average.  They do a lot of figures to recent popular movies, but they also do some older films, like Terminator 2.  My 50th review was a look at the recently released Battle Damaged T-800, and today I’ll be looking at T2’s antagonist, the T-1000!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This figure’s pretty much a catchall of all of the looks of the T-1000 in T2.  This figure was released as part of HT’s Movie Masters Line.  He’s designated as figure 129 in that line.  He stands about 12 inches tall, and has a bunch of assorted articulation.  Like with other HT figures, the costume covers the joints, and I don’t have any plans to undress him.

THE HEAD IN QUESTION

The T-1000 actually includes two heads, but as with the T-800, I’ll be looking at the undamaged head here, and the other head down in the accessories section.  So, this head is obviously what the T-1000 looks like for most of the movie.  It’s a very good sculpt.  Perhaps not as spot on as some of HT’s efforts, but it’s undoubtedly Robert Patrick as the T-1000.  The expression is dead set determination, which is perfect for the character.  The paint is up to the usual HT standards, which means it’s pretty darn phenomenal.

THE COSTUME IN QUESTION

The costume features a few sculpted parts, namely the badge and shoes, but for the most part, the costume is done through actual cloth pieces.  The tailoring on the uniform is superb, with everything very carefully handled.  Everything is well scaled, and he’s even got working pockets on his shirt.  .

THE ACCESSORIES IN QUESTION

T-1000 features an enormous selection of accessories, allowing you to duplicate just about every look he sports in the movie.  They are:

  • Split Head
  • Helmet
  • Sun Glasses
  • Coat
  • Biker pants
  • Boots
  • Hook Hand Constructs
  • Stabbing Construct
  • 6 interchangeable hands
  • 7 magnetic bullet wounds
  • Police belt
  • Handcuffs
  • Walkie Talkie
  • Flashlight
  • Machine Gun
  • Handgun with two extra clips
  • Display Stand

The alt head depicts the T-1000 after the T-800 splits his head with a shotgun and the T-1000’s head begins to reform.  It’s a really cool head, and looks pretty close to the scene.  I really like the way the eyes are staring off to the side.  It switches with relative ease, which is nice.

The Helmet, sunglasses, coat, pants, and boots allow you to change theT-1000 into his “Biker cop” look that he sports later in the movie.  These pieces, plus the extra head pretty much mean that you get a whole second figure included, so long as you can find a spare body, which HT just happened to sell around the time of this figure’s release.

The hook hands and blade are really great add-ons, and are very true to the character.  The transition from metal to uniform is a bit iffy, but it’s just a limitation of the medium, so I can’t really fault HT there.

There’s six hands: trigger finger (R and L), flat for running (R and L), finger wagging (L), and stabby-finger (R).  They all look really great, have some really nice poses, and offer some nice scene specific looks.

The belt attaches with little difficulty, and can hold the handcuffs, walkie talkie, flashlight, handgun, and spare clips very nicely.  All of these pieces are scaled properly and nicely sculpted, and the handgun even has all the proper moving parts.  The machine gun is also nice, and goes great with the biker look.

The bullet wounds are a neat idea.  They have magnets on them, and the figures torso has metal plates, so you can place the impact points anywhere on the front of the torso.  I wish they had put some plates on his back, so you could mix it up a bit, but it works really well as is, and makes for some cool displays.

Lastly, the T-1000 includes a black display stand with his name and the T2 logo.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The T-1000 was a Christmas gift from my parents a few years ago.  He was my fifth Hot Toys figure, and I consider him the one that officially pushed me over the edge on HT figures.  I’ve gotten quite a few HT figures since, but he still holds up as one of my very favorites from my collection!

#0149: Winter Soldier – Agent of SHIELD & Hydra Elite

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WINTER SOLDIER –AGENT OF SHIELD & HYDRA ELITE

MARVEL MINIMATES

Okay, so I may have lied about “new Minimates” reviews being done for a while.  Yeah, I was kinda at Toys R Us, and found the one set of figures from TRU wave 18 that I hadn’t found yet.  So, I’m reviewing those today.  It should be a quick review, as I already reviewed one, and the other is only a slight tweak on a figure I already looked at.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Winter Soldier and the Hydra Elite were released as part of the 18th Toys R Us exclusive wave of Marvel Minimates.

WINTER SOLDIER

So, after being turned into a Russian-Assassin, Bucky got better, and became an Agent of SHIELD.  So, he got a haircut and stuck a new bumper sticker on his robot arm.  Now he’s a hero!  Yay!  He’s pretty much the same figure as the last Winter Soldier I looked at.  The difference is that he’s got a different hairpiece, his uniform is a brighter blue, and instead of having a red star on the robot arm, he’s got a white star in a blue circle.  Everything, including the accessories and the detail lines is the same.  I can’t blame Diamond for taking advantage of the near identical looks.  They’re close enough to share parts, but just different enough to require separate figures, and there was demand for both versions.  I still prefer the other version a bit more, though I may swap the robot arms.

HYRDA ELITE

This figure is exactly the same as the Wave 54 Hydra Elite.  Exactly the same.  No minor differences or anything.  However, it is an army builder, so I doubt anyone will complain about it being more plentiful.  I certainly was glad to get another one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, this isn’t the most thrilling set if you’ve already got wave 54, but it’s a decent accent.  Plus, I got it for $3.98, so I’m pretty much just buying it to get another Hydra Elite.  Now I have 4!

#0148: Green Lantern

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

GREEN LANTERN

DC TOTAL HEROES

 

For someone who tries not to talk about the current state of DC Comics, I sure do seem to review a lot of modern DC lines, don’t I?

I’ve talked before about DC Universe Classics and how much of a success it was, for a while.  Then, for a number of reasons, it was pulled from retail and ultimately died.  Since then, Mattel has been attempting to find a new DC line to succeed with the general public.  Total Heroes is the most recent attempt.

It’s a line of fairly stylized versions of DC’s heavy hitters, in a roughly 6 inch scale.  The line just started hitting stores recently, and being the addict I am, I had to buy the Green Lantern figure.  So, let’s see what I think of the new line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern was released as part of the second assortment of Total Heroes figures as far as I can tell.  They don’t have defined waves anymore, and I know he wasn’t amongst the very first set of figures, so I think he and Sinestro are both later releases.  He’s the Hal Jordan version of the character, and he’s sporting Hal’s New 52 look.  Of all the New 52 redesigns, I find Hal’s redesign least offensive.  Still not my favorite, but it could be worse.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and features 20 points of articulation.  Most of the articulation is pretty good, but some sort of swivel somewhere on the legs would be appreciated.  As it is, the leg articulation is a bit limited.  The sculpt is done to match the angular style of the rest of the line.  Not having any of the other figures, I’m not sure how much of the figure is reused from others, but I imagine that all of the more generic bits are.  I do really like the ring hand’s slightly angled sculpt.  It allows for some cool poses and really adds a bit of personality to the figure.  I’m iffy on the head sculpt.  It’s certainly not bad, and I really do like the face, but the hair seems off.  They’ve given Hal a very close-cropped cut, which doesn’t really fit the character, who is often depicted with a more loose hair style.  It looks okay, it’s probably just more of a personal preference thing.  The paint work is basic, but pretty good.  There’s a spot or two of misapplied paint, and mine has a black spot on his right glove, but nothing too noticeable.  GL includes one accessory: a clear green axe construct.  It looks fine, though the double blade thing is a bit weird.  I would have preferred if he had something that could clip onto his ring hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I found this figure while killing time at a local Toys R Us during my brother’s chorus practice.  I decided to give the line a try.  The figure is a pretty fun figure, but I can’t really say that it’s swayed me on buying any of the other figures in the line.  I think it will continue to be a figure by figure basis with these guys.

#0147: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly Minimates

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THE MAN WITH NO NAME, TUCO, ANGEL EYES, & SHOWDOWN BLONDIE

THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY MINIMATES

Okay, here’s a review that should be fun.  It’s another Minimates set, but it’s based on The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly, a movie I’ve never actually seen.  Yeah, I know, bad Ethan.  How can you not have seen that movie?  It’s a classic!  Well, I’m not a Western kinda guy.  I like them in theory, but the actual watching doesn’t always work out for me.  It’s not a hard set rule, but it’s the excuse I’m using in this case.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This set was released a while ago, when Diamond was attempting to get the license to do anything they could as Minimates.  They released three boxed sets, each based on one of the movies in the “Dollars Trilogy” (For a Few Dollars More, Fistful of Dollars, & The Good, The Bad &The Ugly).  This set is based on the final film in the trilogy.

THE MAN WITH NO NAME

First up is “The Good.”  This is one of the versions of Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name.  This one looks to be a bit better dressed than the others, with a nice grey over-coat and a scarf.  TMWNN has 4 sculpted add-ons: hat/hair, coat/scarf, and boots.  The hat and coat were new pieces and look pretty good; the boots were the same ones used for most of the characters in the set, which seems to be a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  The paint is a bit of a mixed bag.  The facial details are really great, and it’s a spot on representation of Clint Eastwood, but the more base paint is pretty sloppy.  TMWNN is easily the worst painted in the set, which is a shame.  The figure includes a six shooter which can be placed in the holster on his jacket.

TUCO

Next up is “The Ugly.”  Apparently, he’s a guy named Tuco.  Okay.  Tuco’s built on the usual Minimate body, so he’s got the standard 14 points of articulation and stands about 2 ½ inches tall.  Tuco’s got 4 sculpted pieces: hair, coat, and boots.  They’re all well done, and all of these pieces appear to be new to the figure, even the boots, which lack the spurs present on the others.  The paint is better here than on TMWNN, and he’s got some more detail work on his torso, which looks good, plus he’s even got a ring on his right hand!  Tuco also includes a single six-shooter, though it is different that TMWNN’s.

ANGEL EYES

Lastly, but not really, is “The Bad.”  Who is a guy called Angel Eyes.  This guy seems keen on nick-names.  He too is built on the standard Minimate body and has all the usual stats.  Angel Eyes has 5 sculpted add-ons: hat/hair, coat/vest, gun belt, and boots.  The boots are the same ones seen on TMWNN, but all the other stuff is new.  The hat is cool, because it’s tipped forward to hide his eyes.  My favorite part of the figure is the gun belt, which has a front holster, which is just really cool!  The paint on this figure is really confined to the face, but that looks really good.  As with the rest of the set, Angel Eyes includes a six-shooter.

SHOWDOWN BLONDIE

Lastly, for real this time, it’s “The Good” again.  Apparently, the Man with No Name gets a name and it’s Blondie.  This is Blondie in his “showdown” look, which I assume is from the final duel with Angel Eyes (EDIT: my friend Tim informs me that the Showdown actually occurs between Blondie, Angel Eyes and Tuco.  My mistake).  But I don’t know for sure.  Anyway, this depicts Eastwood’s more distinctive look from the movies, as this is the look he has once per film.  The figure includes 5 sculpted add-ons: hat, poncho/vest, gun belt, and boots.  All of these pieces are reused, with the hat coming from the Eastwood figure in the first set and the vest/poncho and gun belt coming from the second.  The reuse is sensible, however, as these are meant to be the same pieces in the movie too.  The paint work is pretty good, and he’s got the most detailing with a full set of shirt details under the vest, which is cool.  My one complaint would be that the face detail seems to be up a bit too high, causing the five-o’clock shadow to just stop abruptly.  Like the rest of the set, Blondie includes a six-shooter.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set was purchased at a store in Rehobeth Beach called Music For A Song.  They had a decent selection of non-Marvel Minimates, all of which were being clearanced for really low prices.  I ended up buying them mostly for the extra pieces, as I was an avid Minimate customizer at the time, but I did end up keeping a few of the sets that I though looked cool.  This set was among them.  One of these days I’ll see the movie…

#0146: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

MARVEL UNIVERSE

We’re taking another one day break from Minimates because I don’t want to get too monotonous here.  I’ll be taking another look at Hasbro’s 3 ¾ inch Marvel line, Marvel Universe.  It’s a bit surprising to me that the only Marvel Universe reviews I’ve done so far are X-Men related because the majority of my MU collection is Avengers –related figures.  Oh well.

Today’s figure is a version of the X-Men’s field leader Cyclops!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This figure was released as part of the 13th wave of the Marvel Universe line.  He’s based on Cyclops’s Jim Lee-designed look from the 90s.  It’s one of those costumes where I know, deep down, that it’s not a good design, but I’ve got a huge bunch of nostalgia for it.  Thanks a lot 90s X-Men cartoon!  Cyclops stands about 4 inches tall and has 29 points of articulation.  He’s built on the later base male body.  This is in his favor, as this body was sculpted after they realized their first few body’s totally sucked.  The figure features a uniquely sculpted head, belt/bandolier, leg straps (upper and lower), wrist straps, and hands.  The head is my favorite part, perfectly capturing Cyke’s 90s look, and the straps and pouches perfectly punctuate that this was definitely a 90s design.  The paint is pretty good overall, though the hair line is a bit sloppy, and I do wish they had molded the ankle joints in yellow.  Why blue, Hasbro?  That’s just silly!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like I said in the review, I really like this design, as terrible as it is.  This was the version I had a toy of when I was 5.  This is the version on all those worn out VHS tapes I had.  There’s some serious nostalgia there.  So, I was really happy when it was announced that this look would be appearing in Marvel Universe.  Plus, when I finally found one, Target was running a Buy-One-Get-One-Free sale on Marvel Universe figures, so I got him and a whole bunch of others!

#0145: Armored Thor & Beta Ray Bill

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ARMORED THOR & BETA RAY BILL

MARVEL MINIMATES

See, I told you guys we wouldn’t be away from Minimates for long!

Yep, it’s another Marvel Minimates review, this time looking at two characters from the Thor-niverse(I’m making that a thing!).  The two figures in this set are Armored Thor and Beta Ray Bill, both of whom hail from Walt Simonson’s run on Thor in the ‘80s.  Armored Thor is from the time when Thor’s bones became super brittle, so he had to start wearing…. Oh my God, that Captain America I reviewed recently was totally from a rip-off of this Thor story!  That’s weird.  Moving on.  Beta Ray Bill was on original character Simonson created in during his run who was another being that briefly wielded the power of Thor and eventually was granted his own hammer called Stormbreaker.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two were released in the 42nd wave of the Marvel Minimates line.  This wave was released to coincide with both the Cap and Thor movies, though it definitely leaned more heavily to the Thor side.

THOR

Like I said above, this is Thor as he appeared during one of the ongoing stories during Simonson’s run on the series.  It’s a pretty good design, and it translated well to the Minimate aesthetic, so it works for me.  Armored Thor features 6 sculpted add-ons: helmet, cape, arm-brace, skirt, and boots.  Everything was brand new and I don’t believe we’ve seen any of it used again, making this a very unique figure.   Everything is very cleanly sculpted and looks pretty good.  With all that sculpting, it would have been easy for Diamond to phone it in on the paint, but they really didn’t.  The basic paint apps are all very clean, plus he’s got some great detail work on his arms, legs, torso, and head.  The torso has a nice chainmail texture, and the head has really cool grimacing face with a very finely detailed beard.  Armored Thor included two accessories: a spare hairpiece and his hammer Mjolnir.  Near as I can tell, both of these pieces were new too, but they’ve seen a fair bit of reuse.

BETA RAY BILL

Beta Ray Bill is an interesting entry in the world of Minimates.  It’s not a surprise to see him here; he’s a fairly popular character amongst Thor fans.  What’s a bit surprising is that he got two almost identical Minimate releases at around the same time and hasn’t seen a release since.  Anyway, here’s one of the two releases.  This one seems to be more based on what the colors of the character would be if he existed in real life, with more metallic and such.  This is the color scheme that practically every other release of the character has used, so it’s tried and true.  The figure features 9 sculpted pieces: head, torso/cape, gloves, belt, upper legs, and boots.  That’s quite a few pieces, and they’re all new to the figure, though most of them were shared with the other Bill released.  The pieces are all pretty good, though the hands aren’t my favorite.  The paint is pretty good on Bill, though nowhere nearly as detailed as that of Thor.  Bill’s got one accessory: his trusty hammer Stormbreaker!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Wave 42 was one of my earliest purchases from my favorite Minimate retailer Luke’s Toy Store.  I purchased the whole set, which was odd because I’ve never been a really big Thor fan.  But, this wave looked pretty cool, so I picked them all up.  I’m really glad I did, because it’s one of my favorite waves of Minimates, and these two are a very big part of that.

#0144: The Creeper

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

CREEPER

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS

Hey, look!  Something that’s not Minimates!  Yeah, don’t get used to it.  There’s another Minimate review scheduled for tomorrow.  You can’t escape the Minimates!

This figure comes from DC Universe Classics, a line I’ve looked at a few times before.  I feel I’ve said my piece on the line as a whole, so I’ll just jump straight into the figure itself.

Today’s review focuses on the Creeper.  For those of you who don’t know:  The Creeper was a character created by comics legend Steve Ditko (of Spider-Man fame) in 1968.  The Creeper was talk show host Jack Ryder, who got fired and took a job in security.  He’s sent to rescue a scientist being held hostage at a costume party, so he improvises the costume seen above.  Ryder is injured in the rescue, so the scientist injects him with a healing serum, and plants a device that allows the costume to disappear in the wound.  So, now he had enhanced physical abilities, but he’d be cursed to look like this whenever he used them.  How ‘bout that?  The character’s origin was revised numerous times, most prominently in the “Beware the Creeper” episode of Batman: The New Adventures, where he was given a connection to the Joker.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Creeper was released as part of the 16th wave of DCUC.  He’s obviously based on the character’s comic book appearance overall, but it appears that the figure took a few cues from the animated version.  He stands just shy of 6 ½ inches and features 27 points of articulation.  Creeper was based on the tall-skinny buck, which was released in the line a bit later.  I don’t remember for sure whether Creeper was the first figure to use this body or not.  I have to say, it’s a bit of an odd choice for him in my opinion.  I’m not saying Jack Ryder was a huge guy or anything, but he was usually depicted being a bit stockier than this.  He’s got character specific lower arms and lower legs to show off his distinctive feather trimmed boots and gloves, which look pretty good.  Mattel opted to sculpt Creeper’s feather boa, which is a fair choice I think, but does end up being the slightest bit restrictive.  The head is probably my least favorite part of the figure, which has a lot to do with the animated influence, I feel.  I would have preferred to have a more Ditko inspired sculpt, Beatles hair and all.  It also doesn’t help that the sculpt doesn’t look to have translated very well from the prototype stage, making Creeper look more like a yellow Joker, and less like his own character.  A lot of this has to do with the paint.  The paint work on the body is up to the usual standards of the line, but the head is just a bit off, particularly on the eyes and very definitely on the teeth.  Creeper’s only accessory was a piece of the wave C-n-C figure, Bane.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually kind of like the Creeper, and I was looking forward to this figure when it was announced.  It’s not a perfect figure, and I remember being a bit disappointed at the time, but I’ve grown to really like the figure over time.  Wave 16 was actually one of the few waves that I found almost all in one shot, except for one figure that I eventually paid too much for.  Fortunately, Creeper was not that figure, so I can enjoy he him for what he is.

#0143: Spider-Man & Nova

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

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN & ALL-NEW NOVA

MARVEL MINIMATES

Today’s gonna be another Minimates review, guys.  There’s actually quite a few more coming up.  I swear this isn’t on purpose; the random list I generated is just giving them all to me in a bundle.  Sure, I could mix up the list, but if I’m honest, Minimates reviews are much more formulaic, and are therefore a little quicker to write.  So, there!

I’m going back to the flagship line, Marvel Minimates, for today’s review of Superior Spider-Man and Nova!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two were released as part of the 51st wave of Marvel Minimates, which was a wave centered around the launch of Marvel Now!  If you don’t know what “Marvel Now!” is, it’s a movement by marvel to keep their books “fresh” by changing up a few creative teams and resetting a whole bunch of books back to issue 1.

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN

I’ve discussed the “Superior” incarnation of Spider-Man previously, when I reviewed the character’s second look.  The basic gist is that Peter Parker’s mind was replaced with Doctor Octopus’s, resulting in a very different Spider-Man.  In a shocking move predicted by no one (read: sarcasm), Marvel just announced that come April, Peter will be back in control and Spider-Man will once again be Amazing.  Anyway, this figure is based on the initial design of Superior Spider-Man, which was a bit more of a minor change than the one that followed.  The figure is built on the standard Minimate body, so he’s got 14 points of articulation and stands about 2 ½ inches tall.  Spidey is a “vanilla mate”, meaning he’s got no sculpted add-ons, just paint on the basic body.  The paintwork is actually really nice.  All of the detail lines are nice and clean, and the web pattern even continues all the way around the wrists, which is a detail that’s been missing from a fair share of Spider-Men.  Spider-Man includes a webline, a clear display stand, and a jump stand that allows you to display him mid-swing.  The stand is a cool idea, and I hope to see it more often.

NOVA

If you’re a faithful reader of the site, this figure probably looks familiar to you.  That’s because I’ve pretty much already reviewed it.  For the most part, this figure is the same as TRU wave 17’s version of Nova.  The biggest change is that this figure sports a unique set of shoulder pads.  They look fine, but they’re really loose, and you can even see one of them has slipped out of place in the photo in this review.  For this reason, I prefer the piece used on the wave 17 version a bit more.  Paint wise, Nova is identical to the other version, fuzzy lines and all.  Nova’s accessories are another marked difference between releases.  This version doesn’t have the large complement the other featured, instead only getting the spare Sam hair, a basic flight stand, and a display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually bought an entire case of wave 51 in order to get more of the SHIELD Agent army builder, so I have three of this set.  So, if anyone reads this review and really wants a set, I have two spares for sale.  Anyway, I like this set, but with the release of superior (heh) versions of both characters in TRU wave 17, I can’t help but feel this set is a bit redundant.  They’re quality minimates to be sure, and the Spider-Men are different enough I suppose, but poor Nova really gets the short end of the stick.