Category Archives: Reviews

#3628: Soundwave

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

SOUNDWAVE

TRANSFORMERS PRIME BEAST HUNTERS: CYBERVERSE (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0107: There are five Prime Soundwave figures: three by Hasbro and two by Takara.  I own all three of the Hasbro ones.

You know what?  I’m feeling a little Transformers today.  Good thing I have this little Transformer on hand!  ….Get it?  Do you get it?  It’s funny!  Cuz the…okay, I’ll drop it.  I do feel like reviewing a Transformer, though, and when I want to pull and TF review out of the ether, it’s a solid bet it’s gonna be either Ultra Mangnus or Soundwave.  This one’s gonna be the latter, and from Transformers: Prime to boot!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Soundwave is part of the second wave of the third Legion Class Series of the Prime Beast Hunters: Cyberverse line.  Legion Class served as a smaller scale line for Prime, akin to the modern Core Class set-up.  In robot mode, the figure stands about 3 inches tall and he has 12 workable points of articulation.  He’s using his design from the show, which is honestly one of the coolest from the show, and one of Soundwave’s best.  While the translation here isn’t quite as cleanly done as the Deluxe Class version of the character, relying on a more rudimentary version of things, it still works very well, especially for the scale.  He’s got the proper angles and details visible, and even his vehicle mode kibble is pretty well-matched.  For me, the only real downside to the mold is the head being fused to the shoulders, but even that’s minor, given it was typical for the scale at the time.  His color scheme hits a lot of the same marks as his larger counterpart, at least in tone, but some of the exact details are moved around a bit.  Soundwave’s shading on the show is such that both schemes work closely enough to read as accurate.  The main thing missing from this one is the purple highlights.  Soundwave included a “Sonic Saw”, which is a bladed rifle thing which actually saw quite a bit of use in this particular line.  It doesn’t feel super Soundwave-y to me personally.  Like all the Prime Soundwaves, this one’s alt-mode is a spydrone.  It’s a pretty basic transformation, but one that works well, and the end result is a pretty nifty little drone.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Prime Soundwaves are honestly the perfect spies, because they just keep sneaking up on me.  The Beast Hunters one was notably my first modern TF purchase, in a time when I wasn’t into them in the slightest, and the standard version was a surprise gift from Max a few years back.  This one?  Well, Max and I were busy figuring out which one of us was getting a different figure from a collection that came into All Time, and this one was just there and I was like, wait, that’s a Soundwave I don’t have.  And then I had him.  Cool, right?

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3627: Vision

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

VISION

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0106: Before creating the synthezoid version of The Vision with John Buscema, Roy Thomas originally intended to bring back the Golden Age Vision, Aarkus, to join the Avengers.

Back during the site’s first month, I reviewed the original Toy Biz Marvel Legends Vision (well, both of them, actually, since I also had the variant).  I actually realize I talked very little about how I acquired the figures.  ToyBiz Legends were very hard to find, and Series 7 and its one-per-cased Vision and Hawkeye figures were some of the worst at the time.  I never saw them at retail, and it was only a few years later, with the help of the then relatively new local toy store All Time Toys, that I was able to get them.  Unfortunately, Vision got left in a motel room shortly after I got him, so my dad got me the phasing variant as a replacement, and then I later got a proper replacement for the original, once again from All Time Toys.  Through all of the updates, the original Vision has been my favorite, but I’ve been looking for a good, solid replacement.  The first Retro carded one was decent, but not quite on mark.  How about another go?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Vision is Figure 4 in the Void Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s a proper classic Vision, which makes fourth appearance in Legends here, and its third under Hasbro.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Vision is built on the Vulcan body.  The Vulcan is serving as the replacement for the Bucky Cap, and all but one of the “modern” comic Visions was on the Bucky Cap, so the move makes a degree of sense.  Vulcan’s a little bigger than the Bucky Cap, which, for me, actually makes it work a bit better for Vision than the Bucky Cap did, and certainly better than the 2099 did for the first Retro card version.  The last couple of Visions have all used the same head sculpt as the Hulkbuster Series Vision.  That was passable, but not the strongest, and I felt it never lived up to the strengths of the Toy Biz version.  This release gets a new head sculpt, courtesy of Paul Harding, which is based on Harding’s “Marvel in the 70s” series of sculptures.  It’s a very strong one, and I feel a worthy successor to the Toy Biz sculpt.  It’s certainly my favorite of the Hasbro Legends Vision sculpts.  He also gets a new cape piece.  This one, I’m not sure I like as much as the Retro card version, but it’s not bad.  I think it’s just the upward flow at the ends of the shoulders that’s bugging me; it makes it seem like the cape is meant for a bigger figure, and just stuck on this one.  The Retro Vision’s color scheme went metallic, at least for the green.  This figure takes him back to all flat colors, and I think it works.  It’s quite striking.  The base application is generally clean; the boot and glove tops are a little odd, but not awful.  I particularly like the darker accenting on the face, which really brings out the details in the face sculpt.  Vision is packed with two sets of hands: fists and open gesture.  After too many Visions stuck with only fists, I’m glad he’s got the option in place.  He’s also got the head to the Void Build-A-Figure.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I was content with the Retro Vision when he was first released, but there were definitely some flaws that, over time, overtook the things that worked about the figure in my mind.  So, I’ve been hoping we might see a revisit for a little bit.  I was definitely happy to see this one shown off, and very glad to finally get him in hand.  I feel like I finally have a successor to the Toy Biz figure, and that’s a mighty fine thing.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3626: The Beast

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

THE BEAST — SPACE RIDERS

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0105: The Beast’s real name is Henry McCoy, and he’s a doctor, which can get real confusing if you call him Dr. McCoy while he’s on a space mission.

Spaaaaaaaaaaaaace Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiders!!!!!!  Oh, yeah, gonna look at some more Space Riders.  You know, cuz it’s a set of five and I’ve looked at four of them, so, like, let’s wrap that up, I guess.  Now, the undeniable heavy hitters of the set are Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey, so they’re a lock.  Xavier does a lot with the space side of things, and he’s rarer with action figure coverage, so he’s decent.  But, if you’re doing five of them?  Who else do you do?  There’s got to be some degree of playing favorites, I suppose.  Whatever the chase, the choice was Beast, whose scientifically-inclined mind certainly sets him up for success in a space-faring environment.  So, here he is, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Beast is the fifth and final figure from the “Space Riders” set that Toy Biz released in 1997 as part of their X-Men line.  The figure stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme is fine.  Restricted a bit, since he doesn’t have any elbow or wrist movement.  Also, he lacks any ankle movement, which was kind of a standard for Beast, to help with his crouching poses.  This one has to rely on some slightly more awkward posing to accomplish it.  The figure’s design goes for the “add some armor to the character’s usual look” angle, which we saw with both Jean and Logan.  In Beast’s case, that means a good portion of his body is just completely uncovered, which doesn’t really seem ideal for space, but, you know, maybe there’s a good scientific explanation for it?  Hank would probably know, I guess.  Beast’s sculpt is all-new, like the rest of the set.  It’s a rather unique one, not really following in the footsteps of any of the other Beast figures Toy Biz put out.  It’s…interesting.  The head keeps the hair more tame and refined, more in line with his earlier furred appearances.  The face isn’t quite right for that, though, and feels kind of, I don’t know, un-Hank McCoy-like.  The body sculpt has a good variety of textures, which at least keeps things visually interesting.  The fur texturing in particular is quite impressive.  The color work on this figure is a lot of blue and yellow, consistent with the others in the set.  The paint application is notably cleaner on this guy than the other four, at least for my set, which I certainly like.  As with the others in the set, Hank is packed with a face mask and a big space sled thing.  His sled is, understandably, much larger than the others.  It’s got a lot more vertical play, and there’s a large cannon thing…I don’t know that it works as well as a vehicle on its own as some of the others, but it works well as part of the larger interlocking vehicle assembly.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

After passing on the whole set many times when they were new, I finally managed to snag a whole set of them this past fall, courtesy of Factory Antique Mall.  Beast, much like the figure proper, was just along for the ride.  If I was getting the whole set, I was getting him.  He’s not as phoned in as Jean, but he’s definitely not the strongest entry in the set either.  But, I have the whole set, and they do look pretty fun together.

#3625: Cassian Andor & B2EMO

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

CASSIAN ANDOR & B2EMO

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0104: Diego Luna, who plays Cassian Andor, was in the 2004 movie The Terminal, where his character’s love interest is a Trekkie played by Zoe Saldana.

Amonst the handful of character spin-off shows we got in the last year and some change was Andor, a prequel to Rogue One, focusing on Cassian Andor before he joined the Rebellion.  Rogue One was certainly a change of pace for the franchise, and Andor was even more so.  One of the biggest things about Andor was that it really wasn’t built for merchandising the way the rest of the franchise is.  People just don’t rush out to buy action figures of all the morally questionable players from a show based heavily on political intrigue, I suppose.  Well, I don’t suppose.  I actually know.  Because, as it turns out, I’m one of the people.  I very much enjoyed Andor, but I also didn’t go out and buy, you know, any of the figures from it.  I’m part of the problem, guys.  But, maybe I’m working on that?  No, I’m not, but I did at least wind up with an exception.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cassian Andor and B2EMO were released as part of Star Wars: The Black Series in the fall of 2022.  The set was initially exclusive to Hasbro’s online PulseCon event, but it was ultimately distributed through other venues when it was met with a softer than anticipated reception.  The Cassian figure is the same as the mainline release, while B2EMO remains, to date, exclusive to this pack.

CASSIAN ANDOR

Cassian was already no stranger to figures thanks to the various Rogue One tie-ins, but Andor elevated that, giving him the Jyn Erso-style “we’re shoving the standard look into multiple releases” treatment. The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation. For Andor, Cassian is a lot rougher around the edges than when we catch up with him in Rogue One, and his main look shows that off. He’s got a lot more layers all thrown together a bit more haphazardly, and his hair is a fair bit shaggier. The new sculpt does a good job of following the look. The head gets a better likeness of Luna than the Rogue One stuff did, and the ratio of sculpt integrity to range of motion is a pretty good one. His coloring is a lot of brown. Like a lot. Very brown. It’s accurate, though, and the paint work handles it all pretty well. Cassian is packed with a blaster pistol, and that’s all.

B2EMO

Look, we all know why we’re here, and it’s B2EMO. Since K2 isn’t yet reprogrammed, Cassian needs another droid to pal around with, and that’s B2EMO. He’s like Marvin, but squarer. Same disposition, though. The figure is about 2 1/2 inches tall. He can collapse and extend his core body, as well as his little casters he uses for feet, and his head has a swivel joint. B2EMO is a rather unique looking droid, and so he gets a unique sculpt as well. It’s a very good one. Hasbro knows how to sculpt a good droid. All of the moving parts fit together well, and he’s got the appropriate denting and damage. Certainly an accurate depiction of the droid from the show, I’d say. His color work is a little more exciting, being reds and blues. He’s still muted, of course, but it’s at least a little different. The paint work continues the wear and tear started by the sculpt, resulting in a sufficiently used looking bot. B2EMO is without accessories…or, depending on how you look at it, he includes a whole Cassian as an accessory. That seems like a better value, I suppose.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I liked B2EMO a lot in the show and wanted a figure, so I was tempted by this set, but it just felt far too expensive for what you got, so I passed. It did the rounds and got cheaper and cheaper, so by the time one with popped tape seals came into All Time, it was so cheap I didn’t feel like I could pass it up. Cassian is an okay figure, just not one I needed. B2EMO, however, is a fantastic little biscuit of a figure that I’m very glad to have.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3624: Namorita

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

NAMORITA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0103: Namorita is the daughter (and genetically clone) of Namora, who is cousin to Namor.  If they didn’t have a tendency of only being alive two at a time, that might get confusing at dinner.

My first introduction to the New Warriors was the preview copy of the first issue of Volume 2 included with the Wizard Magazine Avengers special.  I remember not knowing exactly what I was looking at, but being somewhat intrigued.  I ultimately had more proper encounters with most of the team in other books, and in the case of Namorita, the first story I remember her in was the Namor storyline that updated the Invaders to “modern” day (that being the ’90s, of course).  I can’t say I’ve had a ton of attachment to the character, but I’ve grown to appreciate the New Warriors as a whole, especially in light of how badly they got butchered in Civil War.  Legends has been zeroing in on getting all of the founding members accounted for, and its Namorita that seals the deal!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Namorita is figure 5 in the Void Series of Marvel Legends.  She joins Justice as the New Warriors contingent of the set, and is also alongside a new version of her cousin Namor.  Namorita has had a number of rather divergent looks over the years, and, for reasons I myself don’t *fully* grasp, this figure goes for her Civil War era look.  I guess it’s unique.  I myself don’t *hate* the blue skin, but I’ve always been iffy on the red suit.  It also means she doesn’t match with anyone else, and, unlike Justice and Firestar, who have costumes that at least read as similar to their looks from early on, Namorita’s is one that really only works for that one specific era, and it’s not exactly an era people are looking to really remember.  Maybe Hasbro just felt there was too much green in the line right now?  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  Namorita is built on the Spinneret update to the Phoenix body, which is a solid base body, apart from the weird peg holes in the back.  She gets a new head, add-ons for her wrist guards, modified shins to add her ankle wings, and new bare feet.  The new parts are solid, if not really anything major to write home about.  I do like the flow the hair, though.  Her color work matches the look from the comics, for better or for worse.  The application’s a slightly mixed bag.  The markings on her skin are nice and crisp, and the face works out well.  The suit, however, is pretty fuzzy on the edges, which looks kind of cheap.  Namorita is packed with two sets of hands, one open, the other in fists.  Curiously, while the open ones re-use Winter Soldier Widow’s fingerless gloves, the fists are basic fists, without even having the fingers painted blue.  It’s an odd lack of internal consistency.  She’s also packed with the torso of the Void Build-A-Figure.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Honestly, Justice stole the thunder on finishing out the New Warriors in this assortment.  Not helping things is the costume choice they went with just emphatically not being the one I would want.  So, sure, we got her, but I’m just waiting for the inevitable follow-up figure that does the version that everyone actually wants.  Presumably, she’ll be in some sort of multi-pack with modified versions of prior New Warriors.  Until then, this one’s passable, and I’ve got a complete, if somewhat eclectic, New Warriors founding line-up.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3623: Radioactive Man

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

RADIOACTIVE MAN

THE SIMPSONS ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Fun FiQ Fact #0102: The Simpsons’ in-universe fictional super hero Radioactive Man shares his name with a Marvel Comics villain, meaning that Disney owns two completely unrelated Radioactive Men!

I don’t talk too much about The Simpsons here on the site, largely because I’ve never been incredibly invested in The Simpsons, and therefore don’t have a ton of the associated merch.  It’s worth noting, however, that one of the things I did during the pandemic was watching through the show’s whole run, at least up to what was current at the time, which gave me a slightly different perspective, I guess.  I still can’t say I have *that* much of an attachment to the franchise, but I’ve certainly narrowed in on the things I like.  Unfortunately, there’s a shortage of Sideshow Bob merch, and they never did anything for Cecil, so my Simpsons-based Frasier set-up is a no-go.  Guess I’ll just have to settle for something else.  Well, I do like super heroes, so I could do worse than Radioactive Man, I suppose.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Radioactive Man is part of Series 3 of Super 7’s The Simpsons Ultimates.  This set wound up being the final assortment of the line, as the Simpsons license has transferred over to Jakks Pacific.  It’s…well, it’s an interesting send-off, I guess.  While Playmates’ old World of Springfield Radioactive Man was based on Rainier Wolfcastle’s interpretation of the role from the episode “Radioactive Man,” Super 7’s version is based directly on the in-universe comic character, which is a nifty switch-up.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  His articulation is…something.  The elbows are restricted, as per usual for Super 7, and the tolerances on the joints are definitely a mixed bag.  On my figure, the shoulders are really tight, while the hips are quite loose, especially the right one, which pops off a lot.  Also, one of his two heads never truly clicks into place on the ball-joint.  QC was definitely very lax on this assortment.  His sculpt is, admittedly, pretty decent.  It translates the design into three dimensions pretty well, and actually manages to look good from multiple angles.  There are two different heads included, one calm, the other with his teeth bared.  The calm one doesn’t click in place quite right, but they’re both at least pretty nice sculpts.  The figure does a bit of mixed media, with a cloth cape piece, which has a wire running through it for posing options.  It sits a little weird on the neck joint, but it’s otherwise decent to look at.  The color work on Radioactive Man is basic, but bright an eye-catching.  There’s minimal paint work, and what’s there is a little on the sloppier side, again because of the clearly lax QC for this round of figures.  There’s a lot of small scratches, fuzziness, and even errant marks that shouldn’t be there, especially given the retail on this thing.  Radioactive Man includes the aforementioned swappable heads, plus six hands (fists, two different right gripping hands, a thumbs up left hand, and a pointing left hand), a Radioactive Man comic, and an American flag (which has 43 stars, for some reason).  Personally, I’d have loved to see some goggles that do nothing, but that wouldn’t actually be right for this one, with him not actually being the Wolfcastle version.  As it stands, though, he does feel a little light.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

While I’ve never been crazy into the Simpsons stuff, the Playmates line was always very tempting to me.  I particularly liked the Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy set, though I never actually owned one.  The Ultimates line has also been tempting me, but the higher price point kept me from jumping in on most of the figures.  I was honestly holding out for a “Cape Fear” Sideshow Bob to be my entry into the line, but with that off the table, I was back to being tempted by this guy.  With the line ending, and uncertainty about availability, I bit the bullet and bought one.  He’s…well, he’s a bit of a mess, honestly.  The general set-up is great, but the QC is *rough*.  I was rather unhappy when I pulled him out of the box.  That said, I’ve had some time to mess with him and let my opinions form more fully, and I do find myself liking him a lot more than I did initially.  There’s still issues, but he’s at least fun to pose and stick on the shelf.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3622: Justice

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

JUSTICE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0101: Vance Astrovik was originally introduced purely as the “present day” counterpart of Guardians of the Galaxy member Vance Astro.  After a split in the timeline, he became the second Marvel Boy, and eventually Justice.

As a kid, my earliest interactions with Marvel comics were largely through my dad’s ’70s and ’80s books.  My first real interaction with “current” books, at least as far as the mainstream line, was Busiek and Perez’s run on Avengers.  After the big launch that brought every living member of the team up to that point back for a reality-warping adventure fighting Morgan le Fay, they settled into a line-up of mainstays, joined by former New Warriors Firestar and Justice.  There was a poster of this new line-up, drawn by Perez, included in the issue that introduced it, which my dad pulled out of his copy and gave to me.  It hung over my bed for a good many years and only further cemented the run as definitive for me.  I’ve longed to build that version of the team in toy form since that poster came out, and it’s been a slow-going experience to say the least.  A particular hang-up has been Justice, who has, up to this point, not gotten any figure coverage that wasn’t “Vance Astro.”  Hey, look, a Justice figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Justice (or “New Warriors Justice” as he’s listed on the box) is figure 3 in the Void Series of Marvel Legends, which is the first Avengers-based line-up of 2024.  Vance has had a number of different looks over the years.  This one specifically goes for his second look from New Warriors Vol. 5, which was right around the Marvel Now! era.  It takes elements from his prior designs and is notably pretty similar to his Perez era costume, while still being a little different.  I’m still partial to the Perez look, of course, but this one’s not bad, and it’s technically “current.”  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s based on the 2099 base body, which is a respectable match for Vance’s usual build.  It’s interesting that it’s not using the modified versions of the arms and legs, without the visible pins, but there seems to be some sort of strategy to which version gets used for which figure.  Justice gets a new head, upper torso, and cape, all courtesy of sculptor Dan Mitchell.  The head is decidedly dialed into the 2014 Vance look, which is, as noted, no my go-to, but I can’t help but like this sculpt nonetheless.  I feel it does a really nice job of matching the energy of Speedball sculpt in particular, and I really liked that one too.  The new upper torso is designed to work in tandem with the cape sculpt, to give him one seamless design.  It’s very clean and concise, and works well to capture the design.  Justice’s color work goes for a slightly more reserved take on his look, which works well for the specific design they’re aiming for.  Paint application is all pretty sharp and clean, which is definitely key for a design as simplistic as this one.  Justice is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and relaxed, as well as the tendrils to the Void Build-A-Figure.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

With each New Warrior we’ve gotten in Legends, I’ve hoped we might be that much closer to getting Justice.  It’s been a wait, for sure, but I kept hoping.  I knew he’d be the last proper member I added to my Avengers line-up, and sure enough he was.  He’s not in the right costume, but, honestly, I don’t care.  I got a Justice figure, and he’s really, really nice.  I’ll take what I can get, especially when what I get is as solid as this figure.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3621: Jean Grey

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

JEAN GREY — SPACE RIDERS

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0100: “The Dark Phoenix Saga” is the proper storyline to be published in the trade paperback format by Marvel.

You guys didn’t forget about the Space-themed X-Men figures, did you?  Because I certainly haven’t.  They’ve been sitting on the floor of my room for months, and, you know, I kinda wanna not have them there.  Reviewing them seems like the easiest way to go about that, honestly.  I’ve done Wolverine and Cyclops, so might as well do the third point on the triangle and get Jean Grey reviewed!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jean Grey is the fourth member of the deluxe-sized “Space Riders” assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, which was released in 1997.  The figure stands a little under 5 inches tall and she has 8 points of articulation (which includes a spinning ponytail).  Jean is lacking the single wrist swivel that a bunch of the others in the set got, which is a bummer.  In general, she’s a bit stiffer, I feel.  Her sculpt is all-new, and it’s…fine.  Her design is dialed very closely into the Jim Lee look, making this the closest the main X-Men line got to actually doing that look during the ’90s.  Crazy, huh?  It’s pretty much just that look, with some extra armoring.  The sculpt is rather on the soft side, especially on the head.  It’s in rather stark contrast to the heads on Cyclops and Wolverine, which are easily the best parts of their respective sculpts.  For Jean, that would be…I don’t know, maybe her boots?  Those seem pretty nice.  Jean’s paint work is fine.  It checks the boxes, but like the rest of the set, it’s thick and a little sloppy.  Jean is packed with her own Space Racer, which has folding wings, and a pair of missiles.  She’s also got a mask piece, though hers is missing any actual enclosing around the mouth, which feels like it defeats the purpose.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I actually got this one before the others, when a sealed one came through All Time a few years ago.  I even had to fight Max for it.  Okay, not really.  He wanted it, but I said I didn’t have one, and he told me I got first dibs on Toy Biz Marvel, which was very considerate.  No actual fighting.  Probably for the best, really, since she’s…well, she’s not amazing.  I mean, I guess she’s not terrible, but she certainly feels like the most phoned-in of the figures thus far.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3620: Darth Vader – Duel’s End

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

DARTH VADER — DUEL’S END

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0099: This is the 17th Darth Vader I’ve reviewed on the site.

In addition to the return of Ewan McGregor in the title role, Kenobi also brought back Hayden Christensen, now not just playing Anakin, but in fact playing a full-fledged Darth Vader. I never had the full-fledged hate-on for Hayden’s work in the prequels the way others did (though I’ll admit to getting in on some of the joking about it when the prequels hate was at its height), and it was super cool to see him get to do more work with the character. His Kenobi portrayal brought out a rawness to Vader that we hadn’t really seen in live action, and that was really impressive. I skipped the standard Kenobi Vader from Black Series, since he was very similar to other releases, but I couldn’t turn down a shot at a more obviously show-specific version!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Darth Vader (Duel’s End) is figure 15 in the Kenobi-sub-set of Star Wars: The Black Series. Like the rest of the back portion of that set, he was an exclusive, specifically to Target, hitting at the end of last year.  As the figure’s name indicates, this guy is based on his appearance at the end of his climactic duel with Obi-Wan, after Ben’s given him quite a beating.  The figure stands a little over 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  This figure is obviously using a good deal of parts from the standard Kenobi Vader, which itself was mostly re-use from the #43 Vader.  Once you’ve got a good base Vader sculpt, you just really need to move some details around, so I can get it.  He does get an all-new head and torso, though.  The torso gets some minor change-ups, with the slashes across his control box, as well as the one on his back (which is very easy to miss).  The head’s the real star piece, though, as the helmet is split open, revealing traces of the scarred Anakin beneath.  There’s a whole head sculpt under there, which is fun, even if you can’t see the whole thing.  The split helmet is great, because it’s got the proper updated look from the show on the undamaged parts, while also replicating the damage very nicely.  As with prior Vaders, he’s using soft goods for his cape and underlying robe.  The tailoring is a little better here than the prior ones I’ve messed with, and they even added extra damage to everything to match up with his sculpted damage.  The only issue I’ve got with it is that, at least on mine, the robe isn’t all the way under the shoulder armor the way it should be.  Vader’s paint work is standard Vader for the most part, but he does get some more exciting parts with the head under the helmet.  Vader is packed with his lightsaber and…well, that’s it.  It’s light, but it’s Vader, so we all kind of know what to expect, I guess.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I don’t really play the exclusives game, so I wasn’t thrilled by this one being only at Target.  But, over a long enough period of time, pretty much everything seems to show up in front of me, so I was able to snag one that got traded into All Time.  I’m glad, because I didn’t need the basic Kenobi look, but after getting Jabiim Kenobi, I really wanted a Vader to pair off with him.  This one’s an impressive piece in his own right, and a great companion piece too!

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3619: Man-Thing

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

MAN-THING

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0098: In the mid ’70s, Marvel published extra-long issues of some of their books under the “Giant-Size” banner. Through this venture, there are not one, not two, but four issues of Giant-Size Man-Thing.

For the most part, I tend to map out my schedule of reviews at least a few weeks in advance, but I didn’t actually pick the subject of today’s review until just yesterday afternoon. It was definitely more down to the wire than I like to go. But, here we are, with a Man-Thing. So, you know, umm, there’s that? Look, let’s just call him Ted, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Man-Thing is the Build-A-Figure for the self-titled series of Marvel Legends from 2017. The set was the first Marvel Knights-themed series, meant to loosely tie-in with the release of the Netflix Defenders show, and giving us a handful of show-based figures mixed with some comics-based ones. Ted here was purely comics based at the time, but he’s made the jump to live action since, with a look that honestly isn’t that far removed from this one.  The figure stands 7 3/4 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation.  The sculpt for this figure is a totally unique one.  I’ve long felt that the Toy Biz Legends Man-Thing was one of their best offerings, so this one had a very serious bar to clear.  It takes a decidedly different approach, going for a larger, more bulked up version of the character.  He’s also a little more balanced out and less piece-meal looking than the Toy Biz version.  That said, it’s still a very detailed, very rich sculpt, and certainly ranks as one of Hasbro’s best.  The color work does a fair bit to assist the sculpt, as he gets quite a bit of accent work, far beyond what we tend to see from Hasbro.  There’s a darker wash on most of the body, plus some lighter detailing on a few spots as well.  It all works quite nicely, and it’s one of the few times that a Hasbro paint scheme honestly rivals the original Toy Biz version.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

The Toy Biz Man-Thing remains one of my favorites from that line, so when this got shown off, I wasn’t 100% sure I needed one.  But, I did give it an honest try at finishing it, before giving up when the assortment proved rather difficult to get my hands on.  After five years, I got down to needing two parts, and then wound up just getting a complete one when it was traded into All Time last year.  Sort of takes the fun out of it, right?  Okay, not really.  This one is cool.  He’s different from the Toy Biz one, but in a way that makes them both equally cool.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.