Category Archives: Reviews

#0122: Xenomorph – Big Chap

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

XENOMORPH

ALIENS (NECA)

Today, I’ll be wrapping up my reviews of the second wave of NECA’s Aliens line.  The focus of today’s review is the original big bad, the somewhat humorously named “Big Chap.”  For a lot of people, this is THE definitive Alien, so this figure’s certainly got a lot riding on it, and is easily the anchor figure of the series.  So, let’s see how it turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This guy is based on the appearance of the titular creature in the original film, ALIEN, otherwise known as the Big Chap to the crew of the film, and thereby many of the more die-hard fans as well.  The figure isn’t officially called this on the box, but Xenomorph is a long word, and spell check doesn’t like it, so I’m gonna call this guy by his nickname.  Anyway, the Big Chap stands between 8 and 9 inches tall, keeping him in scale with the rest of the line, and has 36 points of articulation.  Initially, upon seeing this figure, I assumed he would more or less be reuse of pieces from the Xenomorph Warrior, with, at most, a new head and hands, and maybe feet.  NECA’s really gone the extra mile on this figure, though, and the only pieces he actually shares with the previous figures are the pelvis, tail, and removable back fin thingy.  The torso looks to share some of the same sculpting, but the tendrils on the back are space out differently, and the neck is a new sculpt, meaning it was tweaked, and would still require new tooling costs.  So, how are the new pieces? Well, the quality is just as good as the previous aliens, and the details are all accurate to the Big Chap’s look in the movie.  The most important part for most is the head, which is one of the biggest differences between the two alien designs.  Kyle Windrix seems to have captured the Big Chap’s noggin perfectly, and there’s even the appropriate details hidden underneath of the misted dome, which is super cool.  The figure’s articulation is a bit more restricted than the previous Xenos, but that’s actually quite understandable, as the design of the Bog Chap was said to be much more restricting, and that was the big reason for the change when they made Aliens.  Like the rest of his series two compatriots, the paint is great all around.  I was glad to see this guy wasn’t plagued by the same issues as the series one Xeno, as it really helps the figure.  Like previous Xenos, the Big Chap doesn’t include any accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, this is it.  Final figure in Series two of NECA’s Aliens.   This guy was the one everyone was waiting for, and I feel NECA delivered.  Looking at the series as a whole, I have to say I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of this release.  I mean, I had no problems with the tribute figure, the Xeno certainly looked a bit better in blue, and the original alien is always important, but for some reason, I didn’t have the same enthusiasm as I did when series one was released.  However, once I received these figures in person, my opinion changed completely.  As much as I loved series one, I think series two improves upon the quality of the figures in more than one way, and these three were a whole lot of fun to mess around with.  I can’t wait to see what the lineup for series three is going to be, because I am totally hooked on this line!

#0121: Xenomorph Warrior – Blue

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

XENOMORPH WARRIOR – BLUE

ALIENS (NECA)

So, uh, it’s Valentine’s Day.  And in honor of the holiday, I’m reviewing…. a Xenomorph.  Yeah.  Well, he’s blue, so maybe he’s lonely because he doesn’t have a facehugger to call his own.  Or…uh…yeah.  Just… Let’s just move right along!

Okay, today I’ll be getting back to the Aliens Series 2 figures that I started last week!  Last time, it was a bit of a special review, so I didn’t do my whole frantically excited post about getting the second series and how awesome they were.

*ahem*

So, I’ve got series two of the line!  What brand new, exciting figure am I going to start with?  The Xenomorph Warrior!  You’ve already seen that one four times you say?  But, this one’s in blue.  That’s very different!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Okay, so you should probably know the drill by this point.  This figure is based on the appearance of the titular aliens in the second movie.  He’s part of the 2nd series of NECA’s Aliens line.  Being an 8-foot tall character in a 7-inch scale line, he’s between 8 and 9 inches tall, and he’s got 38 points of articulation.  The sculpt is exactly the same as the Xeno from the first series, and thereby the Xenos in the Genocide 2-pack and most of the Xeno in the Hicks vs Xeno 2-pack.  If you want my thoughts on the sculpt, I’ll point you to my review of the first series release.  The big difference between this figure and its predecessors is the paint scheme.  I talked before about the differing opinions of how the Aliens should be colored.  NECA seems to be taking the approach of pleasing all fans, so they’re planning on releasing the figure with all the possible color variant.  So far we’ve had black with brown highlights (series 1) and black with silver and bronze highlights (Genocide).  This figure uses the color choice that seems to be most popular with fans, which is black with blue highlights.  This is usually seen as the best look because that’s how the aliens were lit in the movie.  I mentioned liking the blue highlights when I reviewed the battle-damaged alien.  I’m really glad to have this scheme on an unscathed alien.  One of the biggest pluses of this figure is that the paint is quite a bit better than it was on the series 1 version.  I like the blue better in general, but NECA really seems to have cleaned it up a bit, which makes for an all-around better figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like I did with series one, I preordered series two from an online store fairly early on.  The figures arrived last week, and I’ve had quite a bit of fun messing around with them.  This version of the Alien is my favorite version so far!  It’s got the best paint to show off the amazing sculpt that the Xenomorph figure has.  If you just want a single, basic Xenomorph, then this is the figure for you!

#0120: Brutok Novum Veridiohm & Crayboth Eaglet

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

BRUTOK NOVUM VERIDIOHM & CRAYBOTH EAGLET

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

Today, I’ll be finishing up my reviews of the most recent set of releases from Spy Monkey Creations’ Weaponeers of Monkaa line.  I mentioned in my first review that there were 4(ish) figures released.  Well, the ish is coming into play in today’s review.  I’ll be looking at both Brutok Novum Veridiohm and the Crayboth Eaglet, mostly because I don’t feel the Eaglet really warrants its own review.  Let’s take a look at these guys!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

CRAYBOTH EAGLET

First up, I’ll take a look at the Eaglet, as it’ll be a quick little review.  The Eaglet is a crossover between Spy Monkey and Onell Design, another company that’s made a pretty big splash in the online, small production toy scene.  It’s nice to see these two companies working together, as it’s a refreshing change from the huge rivalries of the bigger toy companies.  The Eaglet stands about 2 inches tall, and has 4 points of articulation.  He’s made from 5 separate pieces, which are all compatible with the Weaponeers, although the Eaglet isn’t quite as modular.  He’s a bit stylistically different from the Weaponeers, but he fits alright.  For the most part, the figure is molded in the appropriate colors, but he’s got paint apps on each piece, which makes him a bit more detailed than some of the other figures.

BRUTOK NOVUM VERIDIOHM

Next, the main focus of this review is Brutok.  This is the second release of the former right hand man of the villainous Uberous, depicting him after his encounter with the Veridiohm in the recent “Golden Age” chapter of the Weaponeers story.  Brutok is reconstructed from the same energy that makes up the Veridiohm, resulting in him being all translucent green too.  Which is totally cool with me.  Brutok is built from the same selection of pieces as the rest of the figures in the line, and is molded in the same translucent green plastic as the Veridiohm figure.  In his default set up, Brutok stands 4 inches tall and has 17 points of articulation.  The sculpt is made up from the same pieces as previous figures, but Brutok actually throws a few more pieces into the mix.  He’s got four vac-metalized half-spheres which can plug into the ports on his arms and legs, and a larger half-sphere that can be plugged into his torso, in place of one of his insignia squares.  These pieces add a unique flair to the figure, and I really enjoy them.  As a DX release, Brutok has a more complicated paint job.  While it’s not as extensive as the one on Gearion, I think it’s a bit more intricate, with several “digital” looking textures painted at various points, not to mention the silver skin and yellow eyes present on each head.  Brutok is packaged with the standard short blade and sickle, molded in the same lovely green plastic as the rest of Brutok.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the rest of the set, I picked up these two as soon as they went up for sale.  The Eaglet is different, which adds a bit of diversity to the lineup.  Apparently, he was a big hit, as he was the first item to sell out.  Brutok wasn’t far behind him, and I can honestly say that’s not a surprise to me at all.  I thought it’d be tough for any of these releases to overthrow Lifespring Empyreus as my favorite figure in the line, but Brutok here seems to have done just that.  The coloring of the plastic coupled with the unique paint detailing on this figure make him really standout from the pack!

#0119: Veridiohm

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

VERIDIOHM

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

Today marks the third entry in my reviews of the most recently released set of figures in the Weaponeers of Monkaa line.  So far, I’ve looked at Midas: the Golden Gohlem and Gearion: Lord of Light and leader of the Golden Gohlem army.  I’ll be jumping over to another segment of the line with the Veridiohm.   Let’s take a look at the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Veridiohm uses the basic layout of the Gohlem figures from the line, but according to Spy Monkey, this isn’t actually a Gohlem, it just looks like one.  Supposedly, the Veridiohm is like a hive-mind type entity made of green energy.  Pretty much it’s an excuse to release a Weaponeer in translucent green plastic.  And I most certainly won’t complain about that!  The Veridiohm is built on “Old Faithful”, the same set of parts used for every figure in the line.  In the default setup, the Veridiohm has 16 points of articulation and stands just shy of 4 inches tall.  Verodiohm is one of the basic releases, so he’s got a much more basic set of paint apps.  There pretty much exactly the same as those seen on Midas, but in green plastic instead of gold.  The insignias are nice and crisply painted, and the eyes don’t have any real slop or bleed over.  The Veridiohm includes the standard short blade and sickle, molded in the same green plastic as the rest of the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Veridiohm was purchased on the first day of release, as soon as they went up for sale on the Spy Monkey website.  As simple as he is, I really enjoy the figure, due mostly to the color of the plastic.  I’m a total sucker for translucent green!

#0118: Gearion – The Lord of Light

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

GEARION: THE LORD OF LIGHT

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

I’ll be continuing my look at the latest set of figures from Weaponeers of Monkaa today.  Yesterday, I looked at Midas, the Golden Gohlem.  Today, I’ll be looking at his leader, Gearion: The Lord of Light!  On to the review!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

According to the backstory on the Spy Monkey website, Gearion is the former leader if the heroic Gearo, and the father of current leader Empyreus.  His look here is based on his appearance as the Lord of Light and the leader of the Golden Gohlem.  As with the tow previously reviewed figures, Gearion is built from the same basic parts as everyone else in the line.  Like Midas, Gearion is molded in gold plastic.  In his default setup, Gearion stands about 4 inches tall and has 17 points of articulation, 19 if you count the swivels on the ear thingies.  Like the rest of the line, he features all of the other heads in addition to the one he comes wearing, and he can use several of them to change up the build of the figure.  The sculpt is the same as the rest of the line, which is to be expected, as that is the nature of the figures.  The big thing that differentiates Gearion from Midas is the level of paint apps.  Gearion has what is probably the most intensive paint work in the line so far.  He’s got paint on every surface, and he’s even got a pretty sweet beard to help make him look a bit different than Empyreus, with whom he shares a head.  The other heads all have great work too, and look pretty good when switched out.  There’s a tiny bit more slop on Gearion than was present on the previous figures, but I’m willing to be more forgiving, given the more extensive nature.  As a DX figure, Gearion includes two vac-metalized swords, as well as the standard short blade and sickle, molded in gold to match Gearion’s armor.

 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Gearion and the rest of the new set of Weaponeers as soon as they were up for sale at the Spy Monkey Store.  Gearion is pretty impressive, especially since he features so much more paint than previous figures.  He’s not my favorite in the set, but he’s up there, and he continues the line’s trend of just being plain fun!

#0117: Midas: The Golden Gohlem

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

MIDAS: THE GOLDEN GOHLEM

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

So, I took a one day break, and now I’m back to one of my favorite toylines of late, Weaponeers of Monkaa.  They just released their 4th set of figures about two weeks ago, and mine arrived earlier this week.  So, I’ll be taking a look at the  4(ish) figures that were just released.

Up first, it’s Midas: The Golden Gohlem!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Midas is one of the Gohlem, who are essentially the army builders of the line.  He’s the second case of one of the Gohlem getting an actual name, but the Gohlem are supposed to all look the same, so if you had a bunch of this figure, you could certainly build quite the Golden Gohlem army.  Most of the Gohlem don’t have a specific affiliation, which allows you to choose which side to put them on, but Midas and the rest of the Gohlems are actually affiliated with Gearion, who was also released as part of this set.  I’ll be looking at him tomorrow.  Like I mentioned in my review of Lifespring Empyreus, every figure in the line is built from roughly the same parts, just in different color sets.  Midas is (unsurprisingly) molded in gold plastic.  In his default setup, Midas has 16 points of articulation and stands a little under 4 inches tall.  However, my version of Midas stands a little taller, and has 3 additional points of articulation, as I added the ear-thingies from the Empyreus head and the lower torso piece, which is typically not included in the default Gohlem setup.  Not much new to say about the sculpt.  It’s exactly the same as Empyreus’s, and it looks just as nice here.  Midas is quite a bit lighter on the paint, with detailing only on his two insignia plates and the eyes on the various heads.  This is to be expected, as Midas is one of the basic releases, which have less paint apps.  What’s there is nice and clean, with no noticeable issues.  In addition to the assorted extra heads and the like, Midas includes the standard short blade and sickle, molded in gold.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I procured Midas along with the rest of this set as soon as they went up for sale.  I’ve been anxiously awaiting each subsequent release in this line.  Midas is a good example of what the basic figures in the line can offer.  And like I said in my review of Empyreus, I can’t recommend this line enough!

#0116: Father of Ultra

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

FATHER OF ULTRA

ULTRA-ACT

It’s been 25 days since my last Ultra-Act review, but man did that fly by for me.  It feels like just yesterday I was reviewing Mother of Ultra, and today I’ll be taking a look at her husband, Father of Ultra! …Or if you’re feeling a bit less formal, Ken.  But that doesn’t really have the same presence as “Father of Ultra!”  Like Mother of Ultra, Father’s name is a bit misleading, as he’s actually only the father of Ultraman Taro.  But, let’s not split hairs.

Father of Ultra was initially released late last year, but he sold out pretty quickly.  He just received a second run of figures, and he’s just now showing up in the US.  On to the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Father of Ultra is one of the 2013 Ultra-Act figures, and he’s just received a 2014 re-release.  Ken here (I feel like I can be on a first name basis with my action figures) stands around 6 ½ inches tall, not counting his horns.  This makes him one of the taller figures in the line, and he’s certainly got the bulk to match.  He also features the standard 40 points of articulation that most of the figures in the line have.  Like his wife, Ken’s only really had the one look over the years, so Bandai had a pretty easy time picking which design to go with.  Ken’s sculpt was something of a point of contention for some of the more die-hard fans, as he’s been depicted a little bulkier than his live action appearances.  I can understand how that might annoy some, but honestly, it’s not that major, and I feel the figure really benefits from the change.  As he is now, he really stands out from the rest of the line, and has a more commanding appearance.  The sculpt is the usual fair for the line, and aside from the possible build issue for some, he looks accurate to the character’s appearance on the show.  He’s got a paint job to match, with no slop or bleed over.  It wouldn’t be a proper Ultra-Act release without a hefty compliment of accessories, and Ken certainly doesn’t disappoint on that front.  He’s got an extra head, an extra color timer, the “Ultra Array”, his cape, and 8 hands: Karate Chop (L and R), Open Gesture (L and R), Fists (L and R), Grasping (R), and a right hand with and energy beam attached.   The extra head and color timer are both in their “powered down” states, allowing you to show Ken after he’s been worn down in battle.  The Ultra Array is his dumbbell shaped weapon that he’s frequently depicted using.  It’s pretty cool and looks about right to the show.  The hands look standard for the line, and are pretty easy to swap out.  The cape is probably one of the coolest pieces.  It has its own articulation to allow you to put into various poses, which is pretty cool, and a much better solution than trying to mess with cloth capes at this scale.  My only complaint is that it can be a little easy to get it off of the figure once it’s attached.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Oh, boy there’s another story of annoyance, bad communication, and difficulty getting an item I had ordered.  I pre-ordered Father of Ultra from Amazon back in December when they put him up.  I was told he would be released on January 15th and I should receive mine shortly thereafter.  So I waited.  January 15th came, and nothing happened.  It’s understandable, I thought, for there to be a little bit of a delay in the item being sent out.  I’m a pretty patient guy.  I’ll wait a few days.  So, I waited a week, to the end of my projected delivery window.  Nothing.  No notification of stock arriving, certainly no ship notice.  So, I contacted Amazon.  I was told that estimates are just estimates, so the fact that it hadn’t shipped yet didn’t mean anything.  They had received the stock and they were shipping it out.  And they very kindly offered to bump mine to one day shipping so that I would get mine as soon as possible once they received the next shipment of stock.

Hold up, run that by me again.  You claim to have them in stock, but you’re actually waiting on another shipment?  That being the case, the next shipment must be arriving soon, right?  Well, no.  See, Amazon actually didn’t know when they’d be getting the shipment.

I’d like to point out, I’m not mad that they had to wait for a second shipment to fill my order.  That happens sometimes.  No biggie.  I’m not even mad about the lack of a firm arrival date.  That also happens.  What I’m mad about is the fact that Amazon didn’t feel they needed to contact their customers waiting for the item about this change.  If they’d just sent me an e-mail informing me that I’d have to wait a little extra time to get my item, I would have totally understood.  Instead, I spent a week wondering if my order had just been forgotten, and worrying about having to track the item down elsewhere.  A simple e-mail could have prevented that.

Anyway, as you can see, there wasn’t much of a delay at all.  The figure arrived about a week after I contacted Amazon, and all was well.  If they had just contacted me on the 15th, no issues would have been had at all!

BONUS MINI REVIEW!

As I mentioned in my review of Mother of Ultra, while staying at the beach over the Christmas holiday, I come across a nice little shop sell a few old Ultraman vinyl figures, and Father of Ultra was amongst them.  I thought it might be neat to do a comparison like I did with Mother of Ultra.

This version of Father of Ultra appears to have been released in 1989.  He stands aboiut the same height as the Ultra-Act version, though not as bulky.  He has a whopping 3 points of articulation as most of the vinyl figures did.  Like with Mother of Ultra the paint has worn off, which was a common problem with the older vinyl figures.  The sculpt isn’t bad.  The proportions could probably be a little better, but compared to stuff of the time it’s about average, and Father’s a bit better than mother in that respect.  It’s a fun little throwback, and shows how far the figures have come.

#0115: Lifespring Empyreus

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

LIFESPRING EMPYREUS

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

LifespringEmpyreus3

Today I’m reviewing a figure from one of my favorite toylines out there right now: Weaponeers of Monkaa!

“What’s Weaponeers of Monkaa?” you ask? Allow me to fill you in a bit.  Weaponeers of Monkaa are made by a small company by the name of Spy Monkey Creations.  They got their start producing accessory kits for several popular toylines, like DC Universe Classics and Masters of the Universe Classics.   The accessories were modular, and fit in with numerous lines outside the target lines.  These sets went over pretty darn well, and two years ago, Spy Monkey decided to create their own line of figures to go with some of their weapon sets.  I have to admit, I wasn’t really all that interested at first.  Sure, they looked okay, but they weren’t anything spectacular.  But, then reviews started popping up.  The figures may have looked a bit simplistic initially, but they were completely modular.  Take them out of the package and you could make the look however you wanted.  And that was pretty cool!

Spy Monkey just released a new set of figures, so in preparation for their arrival, I figured I’d take a look at my favorite of their releases so far: Lifespring Empyreus!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Lifespring Empyreus represents the second look of WoM’s main character Empyreus, leader of the Gearo.  He’s shown here after accessing the “Lifespring energy” to defeat the “Bloodlust” powers held by Umbreus, leader of the villainous Vilhain (How cool is that?).  Effectively, that means he’s cast in glow-in-the-dark plastic, which is always super nifty*.  Every figure in the line is effectively built from the same parts, just cast in different colors and painted differently.  What this means is that, while this is technically a figure of Empyreus, he includes the parts to make him into any of the four main characters, or even one of the army builders, the Gohlems.  This adds a whole new level of fun to every figure, as you’re getting five figures in one.  Plus, three of those heads can also double as hands, adding even more options.  I’ve included a shot of the figure using four of the extra heads in varying capacities to demonstrate.  In his default state, Empyreus stands about 4 inches tall and has 17 (19 if you count being able to move the ear thingy’s on the Empyreus head) points of articulation.  The articulation is a bit different than on most lines, as it’s completely accomplished through simple swivel joints.  However, thanks to the modular nature of the figures, you can actually reconfigure him to get some deeper poses out of him.  The figure is assembled from about 25 different pieces, depending on how you have him laid out.  The sculpting on the pieces is pretty straight forward.  At first glance, it isn’t anything amazing, but after playing with them a while, you realize how much work had to be put into getting pieces to look like completely different parts depending on how they’re oriented.  Empyreus is technically one of Spy Monkey’s DX releases, which means he has some slightly more advanced paint apps than their “regular” line.  The paint is used sparingly, but very well.  There’s no slop, and the colors accent the molded plastic perfectly.  Empyreus includes a small blade and a sickle, molded in the same color plastic as the rest of him.  In addition to the additional paint apps, DX figures also include a vac-metalized piece of some sort.  In Empyreus’s case, it’s a large broadsword.  I liked the broadsword so much I also picked up the separately sold Lifespring Accessory pack, which is why my Empyrous is shown holding two of them.

LifespringEmpyreusDisassembledLifespringEmpyreus (2)

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was slightly late to the game getting into this line.  The first series had been out for a while before I got around to ordering them, and even then, it took me a few months to even order the whole set.  But by the time this guy was released, I was totally hooked.  He was the very first figure in the line that I waited patiently to order the first day he was up for sale.  This line is a whole lot of fun, and it’s really nice to see a series of toys that are just good toys, on their own merits.  No tie-ins, no big marketing.  Just fun toys.

If you’re interested in getting into the line, you might be in for a bit of a struggle tracking down the older figures, but as of this writing, Spy Monkey’s webstore still had a few of the figures from the most recent set in stock, and I’m sure it won’t be long before another release.

LifespringEmpyrusAccessories

*As cool as glow-in-the-dark plastic is, the coloring of it, and the way it absorbs light make it virtually impossible to see this figure in pictures taken with the usual white background.  So, for those of you wondering, that’s why he’s on a black backdrop.

#0114: Sgt. Windrix

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

SERGEANT CRAIG WINDRIX

ALIENS (NECA)

As most readers of this site are I’m sure aware, I’m a pretty big fan of the movie Aliens, and by extension, NECA’s recent line of figures.  The second series was just released, and mine arrived earlier this week.  I have a few other new acquisitions that were supposed to be up for review first, but given some recent happenings, I’ve decided to jump one of the figures ahead a little bit.

The figure today is Sgt. Craig Windrix.  That name’s probably unfamiliar to most people reading.  No, he’s not a background marine that you just missed.  The story behind Sgt. Windrix is much more touching.  Craig Windrix is the brother of Kyle Windrix, the man responsible for the amazing sculpts present in the Aliens line as well as countless other NECA toylines.  Craig was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer not long ago.  Craig was always a big fan of Aliens, and to support him in his battle, NECA decided to make a figure of Craig as a member of the Colonial Marines.  This was a lovely gesture on their part, and really speaks to their character.  Furthermore, I believe they have also made mention of donating a portion of the sales of the figure to support Craig’s family, which is another big gesture.

Sadly, Craig’s condition worsened rapidly in the last week, and it was announced yesterday morning that he had passed away.  In light of the news, I decided to push up my review of the figure as a bit of a tribute to Mr. Windrix.  My condolences go out to the Windrix family.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Sgt. Windrix was released as part of the second series of NECA’s Aliens line.  Obviously, he’s based on Craig Windrix, but as far as his uniform goes, he looks to be based on the uniform worn by Sgt. Apone in the film.  Since the two have the same rank, this is appropriate enough, and it’s nice to have several different entries in the Marine command structure.  Sgt. Windrix stands about 7 inches tall and features the same 30 points of articulation as previous marines, Hicks and Hudson.  Windrix’s joints are a bit tighter, though, which makes the figure a bit easier to put into various poses, and he’s less likely to fall off the shelf.  Windrix shares a fair bit of pieces with Hicks and Hudson, which is understandable, given the uniformed nature of the characters.  Windrix has a newly sculpted head and arms.  The arms are different from the previous marines, this time showing a full sleeved look.  I really appreciate this, as it adds some nice variety to the marines.  The Head is the other new piece, and I think that Kyle’s really gone all out here.  I’ve seen a few pictures of Craig and the sculpt looks spot on.  Moving on to paint, I think this is an area where Windrix outshines the previous marines.  Everything looks cleaner overall, and he seems to be a little less orange than the last two, which looks much better.  In the movie, each of the marines had customized their armor with various graffiti unique to each character.  Sgt. Windrix has rightly received some of his own graffiti that gives us some nice insight into his character, such as a heart with “dad” written in it, a set of bowling pins, and a face of some sort.  These details are all nice and crisp.  Sgt. Windrix includes 4 accessories: A flame thrower, a welder, a shoulder lamp and a motion tracker.  The welder, lamp, and tracker are all reused from previous Marine releases, and look as good here as they did before.  The Flame thrower is a new piece, and looks extremely faithful to the source material.  Once again, it’s nice to see a new piece here that allows collectors to diversify their Marine collection a bit.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Initially, I was uncertain what to expect from this figure.  This early into the line, it’s easy to be disappointed by a figure of a character that’s not one of the major players in the story.  However, my opinion quickly turned around when I saw the level effort that NECA had put into the figure.  Not only is it a very nice tribute to Craig, it’s also an extremely well done figure, and is enjoyable on its own merits.  I really have to commend NECA for a great showing on this figure. I’m happy to have him as a part of my collection, and I’ll proudly display him with the rest of my marines.

WINDRIXTriumphant

#0113: Spike

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

SPIKE

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (MAC)

Today, I venture into an area I haven’t really looked at before:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer!  Back in the 90s and early 2000s, Buffy was pretty much THE show to be watching in the fan community, so I was definitely watching it.  While I don’t think it holds up to most of Whedon’s other works, it definitely helped to put him on the map, and get us all those other great shows we all love.  And for that, I can certainly appreciate it.

One of the breakaway characters from the show was the evil-vampire-turned-unwilling-ally-turned-legitimate-hero, Spike!  So, of course, there were quite a few figures of him over the years.  Today, I’ll be looking at the very first.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spike was released as part of Moore Action Collectables’ Buffy the Vampire Slayer line.  The figure is based on Spike’s red shirt/black leather jacket combo, which works well, seeing as it was his most prominent look on the show.  He stands a little over 6 inches tall and features 15 points of articulation.  The sculpt is pretty decent, I suppose.  The head definitely looks like James Marsters, who played Spike on the show.  The rest of the body is a bit of a mixed bag. As a whole, it looks the part, but it’s a bit odd in a few places, and despite his 15 points of articulation, he really only looks right in a single pose.  Unlike on most modern figures, the jacket is big, solid piece of plastic, which makes the figure pretty heavy, and pretty much negates all of the leg articulation.  The paint on the figure is pretty decent overall, though the skin has a particularly shiny sheen to it, which makes him look a bit off.  The denim texturing on the paints is actually really nice, and they even went the extra mile and painted his shoe-laces, so they definitely put in some effort.  Spike continued the line’s tradition of packing all of the figures in the line with display stands that depicted a section of cemetery.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up this figure at a convention while he was still fairly new.  I paid a rather large amount of money for the time, given the character’s popularity, but I don’t feel like I was ripped off.  He was a good offering for the time, and he’s an okay figure over all.  He looks really nice when placed on the shelf in his one intimidating pose, and he encapsulates the character pretty well, so he serves his purpose, I suppose.  When Diamond Select Toys took over the line, they had a few superior offerings, although they never directly rereleased this particular version of the character. So, if you want this specific look, this is about your only option.  I am desperately attempting to bring a little levity to this review so it’s not the most boring thing I’ve ever written.  But, I feel I may have failed.  I used to be really into these figures, but now I find them slightly on the boring side.  However, the randomized list of figures from which I work told me to review Spike, and I don’t dare argue!