Category Archives: Reviews

#4001: Superboy

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

SUPERBOY

JLA (HASBRO)

“Created to replace Superman, Superboy was genetically engineered by scientists at Project Cadmus to have a close approximation of Kryptonian DNA. His power of tactile-telekenesis gives him super-strength, flight, and grants him a number of unique abilities, such as disassembling an object through touch alone.”

One of the tenets of the change-over from the Superman of the Golden Age to the Superman of the Silver Age was the creation of Superboy, who was Earth-1 Clark Kent’s alter-ego as a teenager.  After Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman’s origin was once more re-established, and he was no longer a superhero as a teenager, eliminating Superboy from the timeline.  But, if you don’t want to lose your trademark to such a fancy name, you have to use it, so in the ‘90s they brought the name back, now attached to a separate character, Kon-El, a clone of Superman.  He operated solo for a while, before eventually joining “Young Justice,” a sort of re-imagining of the Teen Titans.  It was during the period that he got his second action figure, which I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superboy was added to Hasbro’s JLA line in its third series in 1999.  He was also available in the line’s fourth boxed set, alongside Impulse and Robin from the third series, and a pair of exclusive “Hologram” figures of Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.  Like his earlier Man of Steel figure, he’s based on Conner’s original look, though this time around he’s without his usual leather jacket.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Since JLA was all about getting as much mileage as possible out of re-used parts, Superboy is a lot of re-use.  His torso is the modified Superman torso that a lot of the line used as a starting point, and he’s got the legs from Black Lighting (albeit with some serious mold degradation, which removes a lot of the sharpness of the details) and the arms from the Legends of Batman Riddler.  It was rare to see them reach outside of the Total Justice molds, but it happened.  The Riddler arms are designed with a narrower gait to the legs in mind, though, so his hands can’t clear his legs when posing.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is decent enough, though it’s a bit on the large side, in order to off-set the sizing on the body.  The face is a little bit goony, but it fits the later ‘90s take on the character alright.  His paint work carries a lot of the work on selling the character design.  Mostly, it’s not bad, but it’s a little odd to see the straps and belts all just as painted elements, rather than with any sort of dimension to them.  The hair is also quite odd; in the comics, he had the back and sides buzzed, which the original figure more or less just ignored.  This one didn’t sculpt them in, but then they were painted black, and then painted back over with a sort of a grey shade, and then there’s sort of stubble effect.  It’s weird looking.  Superboy was packed with a JLA display stand, in bright red.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had the Man of Steel Superboy, which I really loved, but I was always bummed that you couldn’t take off his jacket, since he did that so often in the comics.  I remember this guy getting shown off, and I remember really wanting him, to the point of printing out a prototype shot and turning it into a paper figure.  I don’t recall exactly when I got him.  More than likely it was from the KB Toys near where my family vacationed, but it was also probably during one of our fall trips, rather than summer.  I remember being excited to find him, but perhaps not quite as enthralled by the final product once I’d opened it.  Superboy without the jacket certainly has novelty, but this figure’s more on the goofy side of things for this line, and the Man of Steel figure’s definitely the stronger offering.

#4000: Captain America – Captain America: The First Avenger

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER 

MOVIE MASTERPIECE SERIES (HOT TOYS)

Today marks my 4000th review here on the site, if you can believe it.  I can, because, you know, I’m the one that wrote them all, but also it does feel like rather a strange concept.  When I first launched the site, I decided I wanted to mark my “monumental” reviews with looks at some of the higher end figures in my collection, meaning predominantly my Hot Toys figures.  It was initially every 50 (which was only every month and a half, so really not significant), before moving to every hundred after 300, then every 250 after 1500, then every 500 after 2000, and then every 1000 after 3000 (though that one was more because I forgot to write a monumental review at 3500 and just decided to roll with it).  The thousands are especially notable, since it means that the first numeral on the reviews changes, which is rather significant.  The largest sub-set of my Hot Toys figures is my Captain America collection.  I’ve actually reviewed *most* of them here, but the only one I haven’t is actually the very first one.  So, I’m taking this here 4000th review to amend that!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is figure MMS 156 in Hot Toys’ Movie Masterpiece Series.  Numerically, he’s wedged between the updated Batman Begins Batman and Baby Doll from Sucker Punch, which is one eclectic sort of batch of figures, huh?  He’s based on his primary appearance in The First Avenger, and was released domestically in December of 2011, just making it out in the same year as the movie’s release, which was notable for a Hot Toys release at the time.  The figure stands just over 12 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

At this point, it’s pretty much a lock that every Hot Toys Captain America comes with multiple heads, but that wasn’t the case for his debut here, which just gives him the one helmeted look.  It was a respectable offering for the time, but not without some caveats.  The construction, using multiple pieces for the actual head and his helmet, helps add some depth to it, like he’s actually wearing a helmet, which looks very nice.  The underlying head is a rather lifelike offering, with plenty of realistic detailing.  That said, it’s not really a spot-on Chris Evans, especially not when compared to later sculpts they did for him.  I’ve always gotten more of a Tom Cruise vibe, myself.  It’s not so far off that it doesn’t work at all, but it’s definitely not as strong as it could be.  The paint work is *mostly* up to Hot Toys’ usual standard of incredibly detailed and life-like, with one notable issue: the “A” on the helmet isn’t properly centered.  On mine, this is exceedingly minor and pretty much not noticeable in person, but there was a lot of variation across the production, and there are some that were quite a bit worse.

Cap’s outfit is rather involved.  Like in the movie, there’s a lot of small little pieces layering on top of each other to create the final appearance.  For the figure, pretty much the entire upper half is functionally one piece, and it’s all fixed to the figure’s torso using the star at the center of the chest.  Compared to later offerings, the stitching here feels a little bit heavy-handed, but it wasn’t awful for the time.  The biggest issue with it is that it ends up looking a little sloppy around the edges of the shoulders.  We get some issues with QC again here, this time having to do with the material used for his belt and holster.  It’s a simulated leather, and it’s really soft, making parts of it prone to tearing, especially on the clasp for the holster.  Additionally, the glue used to hold the holster straps in place didn’t adhere well to the material, so they pull off with relatively minor posing, and you either have to strategically tuck them, or try to glue them back.  The glue likewise didn’t hold well on the belt, leading to it releasing from both sides of the buckle on mine.  The cuffs of the pants are folded inward, and a little bit too high up, so when you pose his legs, the shins are sometimes visible above the boots, which looks a little silly.  There are a number of sculpted elements present, which do look a bit better, and are far less prone to issues.

The underlying body is hard to get a total read on, since the costume’s rather attached.  The upper portion isn’t incredibly posable, especially when it comes to the arms, so you have to sort of work carefully to do much with it.  The lower half is at least a bit better, though it’s worth noting that they determined his legs were too short later in production, and addressed this by swapping in a longer set of ankle pegs to off-set it (the original length pegs were also included for those who wanted the option), which helps in some ways, but ends up odd in others, and also ties into the issue with the exposed shins mentioned in the costume section.  Overall, though, the build of the body looks pretty close to Evans in the movie, and stands well on the shelf.

Cap is packed with 9 pairs of hands, his shield, a Thompson 1928a1, a Colt 1911, and a display stand.  The hands give him a variety of posing options, though like earlier HT offerings, they can be a bit tricky to swap.  The guns were packed pretty much standard across all of the TFA Caps, and they’re as good as any HT small-scale weapon.  They’ve got moving and removable parts, and certainly look cool.  The stand is a stand, but it does what it needs to.  The shield?  Well, let’s talk about the shield.  

HT opted for a vac-metalized finish on the shields to start, so they’d be shiny and chrome.  It’s an odd choice, since the shield’s not that at all in the movie, where it’s actually got more of a brushed steel finish, which would be much easier to replicate.  What’s more, because of the vac-metalizing, the red and blue paint on the front of the shield didn’t properly adhere to the surface, meaning that it eventually just started flaking off over time, leaving you with a kind of unpleasant mess of a shield, that just slowly degrades more and more over time.  I’ve included a photo I took in 2014 of this one, so you can see just how far it degraded just sitting on a shelf between then and when I packed it up in 2020, at which point it was packed away, and only pulled out for the photos that ran with this review.  The “clean” shield from the Avengers release was the same, but we already knew about the issues, so I left that one packed away, so it’s the one seen in the accessories shot here.  Even so, it’s surface is completely cracked, so handling it anywhere but the very edges will cause it to flake just like the original.  The Avengers release at least got a spare shield with a different finish.  This one’s not so lucky.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This was my seventh Hot Toys figure, I’m pretty sure?  I got him new, as a (ever so slightly late) Christmas present from my parents, back in 2011.  I really loved The First Avenger, and while I had some initial misgivings about the costume design, it grew on me, and I knew I needed to own the high-end version of this guy.  Little did I know at the time just *how many* high end versions of him I’d end up getting.  When he was new, he had some minor issues that I just sort of had to overlook.  As he’s gotten older, more issues have cropped up, and better Caps have come along, which has made him a rather unfortunate release.  But, I’m still happy I got him.  A year after his release, my brother got me a scale bike for him, and he looks pretty fantastic propped on that, with his shield on his back so you can’t see the flaking.  Ultimately, he’s a rough release for Hot Toys, but without him, we wouldn’t have all the others, and that’s pretty darn cool by me.

Incidentally, way back in 2014, I mapped out all of my “Monumental” reviews, and built Word documents for them, as was my way at the time.  While I’ve moved away from most of those old documents, Cap here was written in his, just for old time’s sake.

#3999: Princess Leia with Sporting Blaster

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

PRINCESS LEIA with SPORTING BLASTER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Her ship under attack from Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer, Princess Leia downloads the secret Death Star plans into R2-D2 for safe-keeping . After being stunned by a stormtrooper blast, Leia became a prisoner of Darth Vader. R2-D2 avoids capture by fleeing with the valuable data in an escape pod.”

When The Phantom Menace hit in 1999, its tie-in toyline took over the main focus of the toys, but, while Power of the Force was winding down, it didn’t go away right away, and in fact ran concurrently with the Episode I line the whole time.  It was, however, a far more scaled back approach, and almost a different line, revamping the heavy hitters from the Original Trilogy to fit better into the slightly updated style of the new movie line.  A New Hope was really the focus of this last run, so we got all of the major players in updated versions of those looks.  For the fourth time, Princess Leia showed back up in the all-white get-up with the hair-buns, albeit with a slightly different approach than earlier.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Princess Leia with Sporting Blaster was added to the Star Wars: Power of the Force II line in 1999, as part of the first portion of the CommTech offerings, concurrent with the early Episode I line.  This was the fourth white dress Leia in the line.  While the original and Princess Leia Collection figures were more all-encompassing, and the Freeze Frame figure was post Detention Block, this one is specifically based on her appearance at the start of the movie, which was a unique approach at the time.  The figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  She followed the trend of scaling Leia down a bit.  She was still a little too tall for proper accuracy, but was certainly better scaled than the rest of her figures in this line.  Movement wise, she’s okay, but you can’t really move the neck joint, due to how the sculpt is set-up.  Her sculpt was all-new to her, and remained unique to this release.  It’s not bad.  The hood is sculpted up, which is a nice change of pace, and means it meshes better with the torso sculpt.  The skirt is cloth, which doesn’t look as consistent, but it means that she has less limitations on her hip movement, meaning she has an easier time sitting than most Leias.  Her paint work is fine, with quite a bit going on with the head, since it’s all molded in white.  The application’s a bit thick, but overall pretty clean.  Leia is packed with a blaster pistol (accurate to the scene she’s based on), as well as a CommTech stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The CommTech figures in general aren’t as common as most of the earlier run of the line.  I only got one of them actually new, and the rest I’ve been slowly piecing together since.  This one was ultimately the last of the set that I tracked down; after finding Wuher on a dealer’s table, I dug through some of the other PotF figures there, and this one was there, letting me knock two figures off my list at once, which is always fun.  She’s more limited in her application than other versions of Leia, but she’s not a bad figure, and an interesting exploration of the direction the line was going before its end.

#3998: Cyclops – Gamerverse

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

CYCLOPS — GAMERVERSE

SH FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

Two Marvel reviews?  In the same week?  Is that allowed?  Well, it’s my site, and I say yes, so that’s the definitive answer, I’m afraid.  Don’t worry, though, this one’s totally different….but also kind of the same.  While most of my Marvel reviews these days are ‘90s Toy Biz, I do occasionally break away for more unique releases.  And, while most of my Figuarts reviews are of Japanese properties, I do also break into their Marvel stuff from time to time, as well.  In the past year, Marvel’s been doing a push with “Gamerverse” a branding that encompasses all of their video game stuff.  It’s previously been more modern in focus, but last year Hasbro started getting into the ‘90s era fighting games, and now Bandai is following suit, kicking things off with objectively the best Marvel fighting game character, Cyclops!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is the first figure in the “Gamerverse” sub-line of the Marvel portion of Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts line.  He started hitting overseas just before the end of last year, and shortly after the new year domestically.  The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and he has 39 points of articulation.  While the Spider-Verse figures went larger on the loose 1/12 scale set-up of Figuarts, Cyclops is back to more usual slightly smaller than Legends scaling, which is more practical for the purposes of intermingling with Bandai’s earlier versions of some of the Capcom characters.  His articulation scheme is generally the more straight-forward approach we’ve gotten in the more recent Figuarts releases, so he generally feels less fiddly.  The only part that’s still a little more involved is the moving “shorts” at the tops of his hips, which can sometimes get stuck up or down during posing.  His sculpt is all-new to this figure. This version of Cyclops is meant to encompass his sprite designs from the earlier MvC games, for a full ‘90s feel, and the sculpt does its best to replicate that.  It’s a really clean sculpt, which definitely feels like a classic ‘90s Cyclops.  I hadn’t noticed before this figure that the Capcom Cyclops’s back design mimics the strap layout of the second Toy Biz figure, rather than the single-strap set-up of the comics and cartoon appearances.  It’s a rather specific element, and I like to see it kept here.  As has become common with Cyclops figures these days, this one includes multiple heads, three specifically.  He’s got calm, gritted teeth, and screaming.  Taking it even further, there are also three different necks, in standard, tilted back, and leaning forward, giving you a lot of options on what exactly he’s doing with his head.  All three heads have one hair piece to swap between them; it’s a good rendition of his game hair, and it sits well on all of the heads, with out falling out of place too easily.  Cyclops’s color work is a good match for the game sprite, which trended a little oranger on the yellow than other versions.  A lot of the coloring his molded here, bit there’s some really good accenting on the blue sections of his suit, as well as some very clean base work.  Cyclops is packed with five pairs of hands (in fists, flat, two different types of open gesture, and two fingers extended), and four different visors (standard, with energy trail, with small optic blast, and with large optic blast).  The hands offer a nice variety for posing purposes, and are fun as usual with these sorts of releases.  The different visors are great for showcasing his power set, though the larger optic blasts both have a tendency to fall out on their own.  As with some of the other fighting game figures, Cyclops includes a pair of cardboard backdrops, specifically showing off his huge optic blast attack from the games, as his name, simulating a fighting stage.  They’re a bit touch to keep standing, but a cool enough set-up for a rather low-cost extra.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My knowledge of the existence of the Marvel fighting games owes a lot to my buying the old Toy Biz Cyclops vs M. Bison pack, because I just wanted a good ‘90s Cyclops figure.  I’m always game for a good figure of that look, and I’ve sure bought a lot of them over the years.  Did I need one more?  Well, maybe not need, but want for sure.  I knew I wanted this one as soon as he was shown off, so I jumped on the pre-order right away.  He’s got his minor issues, but boy is he just a really nice looking, very fun version of my favorite Cyclops look. 

#3997: Superman – Power Flight

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

SUPERMAN — POWER FLIGHT

MAN OF STEEL (TOY BIZ)

When is the standard version of a character not the standard version of a character?  When it’s the ‘90s!  Or at least that’s the case when it comes to Superman, who spent a decent chunk of the decade moving between rather off-brand designs.  Following his death and return, he kept the same general suit as before, but one of the apparent side effects of coming back from the dead was getting a sick mullet, so that’s what he had going on (at least until he went all electric blue for a bit).  DC made a big splash of keeping this updated look as his evergreen appearance for a while, so it served as his primary look for his first proper toyline under Kenner, Man of Steel.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Power Flight Superman was the second of the two Superman variants in Series 1 of Man of Steel.  He served as the line’s basic Superman, and was the heaviest packed figure in both standard assortments of the line.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Due to his action feature, his articulation is kind of wonky.  He doesn’t get any side-to-side movement on the neck, instead having the slightest, tiniest, almost imperceptible up and down motion.  The shoulders are also tied into the whole thing, so there’s a mechanism that moves them in tandem.  You can pose the separately, but it’s a little more work.  His sculpt was totally unique to him (he was, notably, one of the few Supermen in the line not to use the “standard” head sculpt introduced on Laser Superman), and it’s fine.  It feels very skinny, and very stiff.  The head doesn’t feel as true to the character as Laser Superman; there’s something about it that just feels kind of pinched.  Otherwise, things are pretty basic, and the details generally work well.  The cape is removable, and is a softer rubber piece, which plugs into the back.  His color work is generally very basic.  It does what you’d expect.  The torso is prone to some discoloring over time, but it’s not as bad as some figures I’ve encountered.  He’s packed with a weird sort of chain thing, which clips over his wrists.  It’s meant to be used to capture bad guys, but it’s awkward at best, and his very narrow stance makes it a struggle to get him to use it at all.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In 1995, while I was busy giving away and replacing Batman figures, and my dad was rediscovering Iron Man, my mom, not one to be left out, got her own action figure of Superman, a character who had been her favorite since the first Christopher Reeve Superman.  She’d never had a figure of him, and this was the only standard one available at the time, so he fit the bill.  And then *someone* borrowed said figure, and lost his cape, so a replacement was purchased for my mom, and the now capeless figure became mine (alongside the Laser Superman specifically purchased for me alongside the replacement).  Over the years, the cape turned back up, so, hey that worked out okay.  He’s not a great figure, but he’s what we had, and that was good for me.

#3996: G.W. Bridge

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

G.W. BRIDGE

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Wherever there’s a private war being fought, or an Evil Mutant that needs to be captured, you’re sure to find G.W. Bridge, the special agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., America’s top secret, high tech security agency. This battle-scarred veteran is a weapons-master extraordinaire and has tracking abilities that put a bloodhound to shame. Everyone agrees that once G.W. Bridge is on an Evil Mutant’s trail, one thing is certain-that evil Mutant is as good as caught.”

Okay, so remember when I was talking about Kane a couple of weeks ago, specifically in regards to not really knowing a lot about the guy?  Well, we get to go down that path again, today, with GW Bridge.  Like Kane, he’s from Cable’s past, and he’s like, tough, in that sort of generic ‘90s way that people were tough.  He was also in SHIELD, so I guess that’s an additional thing he’s got going for him?  And, he was set-up to be such a big deal.  So, you know, here’s Mr. Big Deal himself.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GW Bridge was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s X-Force line, and that was it.  He had no variations, no re-releases, and no follow-up figures, so he wasn’t even on Kane’s level in that regard.  He’s seen here in his “Six-Pack” era attire, which s certainly his most Liefeldian.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  No elbow joints again, but he gets all the other standard movement.  He’s still pretty stiff, which was very common with these earlier figures.  His sculpt was new, and remained largely unique to him (though his head was re-used later for an unmasked Rhodey).  It’s pretty much the same quality as the other Series 1 X-Force figures, which is to say it’s rather soft in terms of details.  Also quite small given the ultimate direction of the line.  I think GW in particular seems sort of…uninspired?  He’s just kind of bland, and shallow, with his expression in particular seeming rather devoid of any sort of character.  Not even a Liefeld grimace.  His body sculpt is kind of awkward in terms of posing, and he’s also very difficult to keep standing. GW’s color work does its best to replicate his Christmas decorations-looking outfit, and generally does fine at that.  It’s prone to wear, as you can see from my copy, and there’s a fair bit of bleed over on the edges.  GW Bridge is packed with a “Rapid Fire Gun” accessory.  It’s an odd sort of rifle thing, which he can’t really hold very well.  There’s a switch on the side, which slides back and forth, in a sort of bolt-action motion, and there’s a clicking noise that accompanies.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I knew a little bit about GW Bridge as a kid, because I seem to recall him appearing as a SHIELD agent in something I read, and also the re-used head for that Rhodey figure.  I didn’t have a figure of him, though, because I can’t say he made much of a lasting impression.  He was pulled from the same bag of junk figures as Kane, and likewise given to me by Jason from All Time.  He didn’t have the gun, but that got re-used a few times, so I thankfully had a spare laying around.  Kane had some novelty, but GW rather lacks even that.  He’s just sort of unimpressive, and it’s kind of a shame he never got a better figure.

#3995: Wuher

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

WUHER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (HASBRO)

“The surly human Wuher saw a lot of action while working at the seedy Mos Eisley cantina. His policy not to allow droids in the establishment was facilitated by a droid detector unit. Upon entering the cantina with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, R2-D2 and C-3PO were promptly ousted.”

Oh good, an action figure of a racist.  That sure sounds fun.  Like, here’s a guy so racist that it’s, like, his second most defining trait.  It’s Wuher! Who’s Wuher?  Well, he’s a bartender and he’s racist.  How do we know that?  Because his one bit of dialogue is delivered from behind the bar, and it’s about how he’s a racist.  So, you know, that’s who the guy is.  Anyway, here’s an action figure of the aforementioned racist.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wuher was offered in February of 2000 as a Fan Club-exclusive figure in the Star Wars: Power of the Force II line (which was now under the Hasbro brand, following the release of the Episode I tie-in product).  He was originally meant to be an early Fan Club-exclusive, before a wider retail release, but retailers weren’t interested, so that plan was scrapped.  However, like some of the other Fun Club figures, quantities of him ended up at Toys “R” Us later down the line, at discount prices.  Wuher’s packaging shows off the last handful of figures from the line, all from the last assortment, which kept up the CommTech gimmick from the Episode I line.  Curiously, it also shows off a Chewbacca figure that would ultimately be released under Power of the Jedi, sans CommTech.  But what of Wuher himself?  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation.  While others in the last assortment got improved movement, Wuher maintained the basic approach from the bulk of the line.  His sculpt was all-new at the time, but would be mostly repurposed for a two-pack release in different colors in 2004.  It regards to capturing the schlubby and dirty racist guy, it does it pretty well.  His face has a more than passing resemblance to actor Ted Burnett, who played Wuher in the film, and he’s got that appropriate slack jawed sort of sneering look he had during his one bit of dialogue.  The body sculpt is on par with earlier offerings from the line, so it’s basic, but it works.  Perhaps the oddest quirk about it is that the glass in his right hand is permanently molded there, which is an odd choice to say the least.  The 2004 release would alter the mold to him a more normal hand.  The color work here is, much like the sculpt, rather basic, but there’s some more intricate work on the face, which makes him appropriately scruffy.  The glass is once again an issue, with some rather obscenely sloppy paint around the edges on that one.  Wuher is packed with his droid detector unit (for all of his racist needs), which is a neat enough piece, albeit hollow on the back side, as well as a CommTech stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I make my way closer and closer to completing my Power of the Force collection, I’ve started encountering some of the slightly odder releases.  Wuher’s one of those, because he’s not particularly pricey, but he’s also not all that common (admittedly, none of the 2000 figures really are).  So, I was pleasantly surprised to find him sitting on a dealer’s table at Ocean City Comic Con last year, mixed in with a bunch of others more common offerings, for a good price.  He’s….fine.  I mean, it’s not like Wuher’s a great character with a great look.  So, this figure really does the best it can, and it honestly looks pretty great behind the bar in the Cantina playset, and that in and of itself is pretty cool.

#3994: Soundwave with Ravage, Laserbeak, & Buzzsaw

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

SOUNDWAVE with RAVAGE, LASERBEAK, & BUZZSAW

TRANSFORMERS: STUDIO SERIES (HASBRO)

I went through a lengthy stretch of Transformers being a regular fixture here, but these days….well, not so much.  I reviewed a single Transformer last year, and that was all the way back in February.  Only a few months before that, I took a look at the at the time most recent update to the G1 Soundwave, an updated version sold at the Leader Class tier so that he could be packed with his cassettes.  Great, I don’t need more of those, right?  Well, you know, until today, when I’m looking at an updated G1 Soundwave, sold at the Leader Class tier to that could be packed with his cassettes.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Soundwave (with Ravage, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw) is part of the first Leader Class assortment of Transformers: Studio Series.  At this point, the “86” sub-line has been fully folded into the main line, so they’re just fully inter-mingled.  Like the Legacy Soundwave, he uses the Leader Class price-point to release what is really a Voyager Class Soundwave, alongside three of his cassettes.  They’re all equally billed on the package, but obviously Soundwave is the main star here, so let’s review him as such.  In his robot mode, Soundwave stands about 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 32 practical points of articulation.  This figure’s sculpt is specifically focused on recreating Soundwave’s animation model from Transformers: The Movie (which was of course the same model used in the show, albeit with a bit more polish in the movie), rather than the slightly more generalized approach of the War For Cybertron molds.  They’ve moved away from not only the “greebles” of those molds, but also more of the panel lining, so this figure’s sculpt is a much cleaner look on the surface  Also, he’s scaled more directly to the other Studio Decepticons, which is why he’s about 1/2 inch taller than the earlier figure.  There are parts I still prefer on the older figure, but also parts I certainly prefer on this one.  The forearms in particular are nice because they lack the leftover elements from first Siege mold, as well as leaving him without the gaps on the interior for where the hands fold up.  I also generally like the proportions better on this mold than the Netflix one.  I do miss some of the detailing on the upper arms, though, as they look kind of bland this way.  I’m also not a fan of how the “knees” collapse into the legs without much resistance, because it’s a pain to get them back out again in robot mode.  As is the usual for Soundwaves, he gets a spring-loaded chest cavity, which is slightly more complex on the interior than the WFC molds.  It’s still compatible with the same size cassettes, though, so he remains compatible with the earlier releases.  Since he’s directly based on the ’86 movie, his alt-mode is once more a cassette player.  The transformation scheme isn’t too terribly different than the Netflix mold, nor is the size of the final product.  There are a few more panels that fold out to cover things up, resulting in a look that’s a little bit cleaner.  It’s still kind of off when viewed from any angle but the front, but it’s not as bad as the earlier look. Soundwave’s color work is another change-up, as this one favors flatter finishes than the metallic look of earlier releases.  I do generally like it, and it’s still a little bit more metallic than, say, the RED or Super 7 releases, but it’s certainly closer to the animation.  Mine has a notable spot on his mouth guard, which is annoying, but otherwise the coverage isn’t bad.  Soundwave is packed with his usual shoulder cannon and handblaster.  The blaster can collapse, again like the usual.  He is also packed with new versions of Ravage, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw.  They’re all-new molds, though, obviously, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw share the same mold.  The bird mold is decent, but perhaps a bit underposable in bird mode.  I actually quite like the Ravage mold, which surprised me, because I’m usual not very impressed by Ravages.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t really *need* the last Soundwave, but I bought and I liked it, and I kind of figured that would be all I’d really need at this scale.  He kind of seemed to fill the ’86 spot well enough and all.  But, as I saw with Magnus, doing a proper ’86 release is bound to drag me back in, and that’s what this one’s done.  He’s fun.  I don’t know that he’s my favorite Soundwave I own, but I certainly like aspects of him, and he’s an interesting, if somewhat different, approach to this style of figure.  The new cassettes are very nice, and feel like a genuine step-up from the prior ones, bringing them up to the level of the improved Frenzy/Rumble mold.  So, here I am with another Soundwave.  Oh, darn.

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

#3993: Laser Superman

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

LASER SUPERMAN

MAN OF STEEL (KENNER)

In the ‘90s, most of Kenner’s success with the DC license was through movie and TV tie-ins, which were predominately Batman based.  Through the decade, they did try to maintain some form of comics presence as well, and in the middle of the decade, they launched a pair of lines, Legends of Batman and Man of Steel, meant to focus on DC’s top two heroes (but not their third top hero, Wonder Woman, whose licensing was…more complicated).  Legends of Batman was a Batman line, so it did well.  Man of Steel was not a Batman line, so it didn’t do as well, but it still gave us two full assortments of Superman-related figures.  The whole thing rolled out of the “Return of Superman” storyline that had just wrapped in the comics, granting the main character a few refreshed looks.  While the line leaned more into wonky variants (though was less rife with them than Legends of Batman), there was a solid comics basis as well.  So, let’s look at a comics-based Superman variant, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Laser Superman is one of the two Superman variants present in Man of Steel Series 1.  He’s the less standard of the two, drawing his look from Superman’s all-black “regeneration suit” from when he came back from the dead.  It doesn’t make it past the end of the “Return” story, but it’s a signature look, and nice and distinct from his standard design.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He gets the basic 5-POA that Kenner was pretty much locked into at this point.  It does well enough, though the legs don’t get much range, and he’s not very sure on his feet, so he has a tendency to fall down unless you lean him back.  His sculpt was all-new, and honestly not too bad.  The head is a good take on the rather dated mullet-sporting Superman look, and would be re-used by a couple of other variants as the line continued.  The body’s unique to this figure, and shows some of Kenner’s tendency to go for pre-posing, though it’s mostly limited to his arms.  His paint work is basic, mostly just black and silver, which is accurate to the design as seen in the comics.  It’s somewhat prone to wear, as you can somewhat see from my copy, but it’s generally still pretty good.  If you’re wondering why he was called “Laser Superman,” the accessories can help you out on that front.  He includes a big, honking, missile launcher, and two missiles, done in a translucent red to look like “lasers.”  Superman was without his powers for most of his time in this suit, so he carried large guns from time to time.  While this isn’t *quite* what they looked like, it’s close enough to sell it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was my first Superman, in sort of reversal of how things went with my first (and second) Batman.  My mom had Power Flight Superman (the more standard of the two) because she’s a big Superman fan.  *Someone* (who was certainly not me) lost his cape, so a replacement needed to be bought, and while we were out buying said replacement, I got to pick out my own Superman, and I settled on this one, in an effort to be different.  He’s obviously not as bright and colorful, but he’s nevertheless a fun variant on the character, and I do certainly still dig him.

#3992: Shatterstar

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

SHATTERSTAR

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“An alien warrior from another planet, Shatterstar’s whole body has been scientifically redesigned to make him the ultimate warrior! That means his reflexes are super-humanly fast, his endurance is unmatched and his ability in battle is overwhelming. Shatterstar can learn how to use any weapon, no matter how strange, in seconds. But his favorite weapons are his swords which can easily slice through even the toughest steel!”

How often do you get to write a review of a guy who’s his own grandpa?  Well, if you’re me, about once every year and a half, averaging it out.  Admittedly, that’s literally all Shatterstar and Longshot, who are locked in a time-travel-based cycle of father and son…or something.  Look, we’re not gonna deal with that, because today we’re jumping back to a time before all of that, when Shatterstar was just a guy with weird two bladed swords and no discernible backstory or motivation at all.  Oh yeah!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shatterstar was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line.  It was his first figure, and one of three he got during Toy Biz’s run.  This one, unlike the later ones, was based on his original costume design, in all its inconsistent Liefeld-y goodness.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  His articulation is all the basics for the scale, and, unlike a number of the others in this first set, he even gets both elbow joints.  His sculpt was new, and remained unique to his release.  It’s on par with the other figures in the first series, which is to say it’s kind of an awkward sort of thing.  Details are kind of on the softer side, with his face in particular just sort of seeming like silly putty.  The build on him is skinnier than later figures, which is ultimately closer to Shatterstar’s usual build, especially under Liefeld, but he’s got an oddly small waist, and oddly large legs.  His stance is sort of stiff, and not really natural, and his feet are strangely positioned.  So, you know, the whole thing’s just rather awkward, is what I’m getting at.  It’s not really a shock this one never got re-used.  Shatterstar’s paint work is notably thick and shiny in its application, which makes him look especially fake and plastic, but…I mean, the color work is good, so there’s at least that.  Shatterstar is packed with a pair of his two bladed swords.  They’re both the same sculpt, which means the left sword’s blades angle the wrong way outwards.  That said, the sizing feels more accurate than the later ones, since they’re not too small, and the alternate coloring on the hilts is really nice.  Shatterstar has a “slashing” action feature; turning his waist swings both arms up and down in an alternating fashion.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Two-and-a-half decades ago, give or take, I was staying at my grandparents house, and found a random issue of X-Force (issue 6, I’m fairly certain), which my father had rescued from a donation bin while working at the library years prior.  It was my first exposure to the book, or Liefeld in general, and, being 8, I loved it.  Shatterstar was central to the issue, so my next trip to Cosmic Comix involved me getting this guy, because I thought he was cool.  He is absolutely not a great figure, but I loved him at the time, and it’s saddled me with this nostalgic twinge for Shatterstar ever since, which is, I guess, okay?  So, you know, I kinda love him, even if he’s not great.