Category Archives: Reviews

#3224: Toad

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

TOAD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Mortimer Toynbee was a greedy, pathetic little toady when the genetic evil mutant known as Magneto took him in as a member of his original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But years of hard knocks toughened the Toad’s hide, and the once-sniveling creature grew a spine. Now, a leaner, meaner Mortimer stands poised to exact revenge on all those who mistreated him.”

When Marvel Legends launched 20 years ago under Toy Biz’s lead, it launched with a four figure assortment sporting some of Marvel’s big names….and Toad.  Okay, so, technically, in Toad’s defense, he was actually the only one of the four debut characters to have been in a theatrical film at the time.  But that’s not what got him into the line-up.  In actuality, it was all sheer luck.  Iron Man, Captain America, and Hulk were supposed to debut alongside Dr. Doom, a far more formidable opponent.  However, Doom was delayed, and Toy Biz was in need of a quick replacement.  So, they grabbed the completed mold they had for the comic-style Toad from their cancelled “Evolution of X” line and stuck him in Doom’s place.  To say he was out of place is something of an understatement, and the figure was rather infamous early in the line for how unwanted he was by the fanbase.  While the figure would eventually gain a rather hefty aftermarket value, the poor sales early in the line effectively guaranteed no follow-up release for the character.  And, that’s why, 20 years later, he’s just now getting his second Legends figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Toad is the final figure in Series 1 of the “20th Anniversary” sub-line of Marvel Legends.  He’s a fair bit removed from the other three, both in terms of when he was shown off and when he arrived at retail, which is all rather fitting, I suppose.  The figure stands roughly 6 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  The previous Toad was rather infamously under-articulated, since he was a pre-Legends mold being re-purposed.  This one, on the other hand, is a fair bit better, and is in fact the most posable of the four figures in this subset.  Unlike the prior figure, he can actually crouch and get into generally Toad-like poses.  The figure’s sculpt is largely new, though there’s just a touch of re-use.  I know that the upper arms at the very least are Pizza Spidey; I’m not sure about the lower arms, because they look just a little bit off.  Beyond those pieces, though, the rest of it’s all-new.  It’s….a mixed bag.  The original Legends Toad was very definitely a ’60s Toad in terms of styling.  This one’s something else.  He seems to lean a little bit more on the ’90s vibe overall, but even then, it’s kind of non-committal.  Given how closely Cap and Hulk both stuck to direct updates on their original figures*, it’s certainly an odd choice to change things up on Toad, especially since he’s still got X-Men #4 as his backdrop piece.  Like, he’s not even really in the same costume as the Toy Biz one.  You could be forgiven for thinking they’re different characters entirely.  I will say, I do at the very least like the way the costume is detailed on the body; Toad’s costume was always somewhat in disarray, and I like all the wrinkles and seams on this sculpt.  The part I’m the least fond of, however, is the head, which is the part that really loses the hold on what version of the character they’re going for.  It’s just sort of messy.  Like, the facial features seem to not really jibe with each other, and it’s kind of large for the body, and then there’s the hair, which makes him look a bit like he’s wearing a wig modeled after Leonardo DiCaprio’s ’90s hair.  Just a lot of odd choices.  In terms of paint work, Toad’s alright.  He again removes himself from the first Legends figure by changing up the palette, with the purple in particular being a totally different shade.  He’s not nearly as dirty either, though that’s I suppose a change that’s part of the wider line-wide shift under Hasbro.  I do like the accenting on the main body suit, though, as it really helps to sell the detail work of the sculpt.  Toad is packed with an extra head (with tongue extended), two sets of hands (fists and open gesture), two different toads, and a display stand with a cardboard backdrop.  The extra head still has all the same issues as the main one, which is a little disappointing, but it does at least have some more variety to it.  The toads are a fun reference to the original figure, and I appreciate that a lot.  The stand is the same one included with the other three, and his backdrop has one side with a recreation of the Series 1 figure’s swampy stand, with the other being X-Men #4’s cover.  Compared to the other figures, Toad feels a little light, but he’s also the figure with the most new tooling, so I suppose it evens out.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never bought the original Toad figure.  I don’t really know why, honestly.  It’s not like I dislike the character, and I had a pretty decent X-Men selection going at the time.  But, for whatever reason, I didn’t, and then he was expensive, and he just didn’t feel worth it.  I did sort of hope for an update, and was kind of looking forward to this one.  I had hoped, with him being so far back from the other three, that Hasbro might have been building up to something truly amazing.  Sadly, in hand, he doesn’t quite feel that way.  In a line-up that gives us definitive takes on Cap and Hulk, as well as a really solid new Iron Man variant, Toad, much like his original release, feels like the odd man out.  He feels like a figure we’d have all been very happy with a few years ago, before Hasbro had really gotten to their current level of quality with the line.  But, with the other three being very on-point, it’s hard not to see this figure as a little bit confused in its purpose.  These figures were billed as proper updates on the Series 1 figures, but Toad’s not really an update or an improvement; he’s just a completely different figure that happens to have the same name.  He’s not terrible by any stretch, but he’s not particularly great either.

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.

*Iron Man gets a pass, since the 80 Years release had already updated the Series 1 design, and he was serving to properly adapt the variant figure from Series 1.

#3223: Galactus

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

GALACTUS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A near-omnipotent being who must consume entire planets to survive, Galactus cares not for the lives doomed by his hunger. His is a power beyond mortal understanding…and an appetite without limit.”

Well, it seems “shortly” was pretty short, huh?

A little over a year ago, I took a look at the Sentinel, the first Marvel Legends entry in Hasbro’s HasLab, a crowd-funding platform for larger and otherwise not retail-ready items.  By the time I’d received and reviewed that figure, Hasbro had already launched and successfully completed a campaign for a second figure, an even larger and more daunting offering than the first.  Yes, this time around, it’s the world devourer, Galactus.  First introduced in “The Galactus Trilogy,” a story which spanned Fantastic Four #48-50, Galactus’s presence brought with a whole host of larger cosmic story telling, and he’s remained a constant in the Marvel universe since then.  He’s been many things over the years, including a cloud, but we don’t talk about that anymore.  He’s also been a toy a handful of times, and was in fact Marvel Legends‘ first Build-A-Figure back during the Toy Biz days.  But nothing was ever quite on the level of the figure I’m taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Galactus is the second Marvel Legends HasLab project, launching in mid-July of 2021 and ending on August 30th.  His initial target was 14,000 backers, more than twice that of the Sentinel, and he wound up finishing with over 30,000 backers, which was almost 10,000 more than what the Sentinel got.  It began shipping out just last month to backers.  The figure stands 30 inches tall (even larger than the Sentinel) and he has 70 points of articulation.  Like the Sentinel, about 40 of those points come from the hands, which feature movement at each of the knuckles, which is really impressive.  Beyond that, the scheme is a little less crazy, but generally not bad given the chunkiness of the figure.  That being said, compared to the Sentinel, Galactus’s articulation isn’t quite as easy to use.  In particular, the legs are a lot stiffer.  Since there were complaints about the knee joints on the Sentinel, Galactus winds up getting ratchets on his knees.  While it does lock the knees in place more securely, I found that on my figure it made getting his legs into that sweet spot for standing was a much trickier prospect.  Once he’s there, he stands alright, but it definitely takes a good deal more doing.  Galactus’s design over the years has somewhat evolved, but he’s certainly kept a consistent general feel since his debut 56 years ago.  He’s a mix of purple and blue, and he’s got that very distinctively shaped helmet.  This figure’s design takes his classic elements and modernizes them a bit.  He doesn’t appear to have a direct comics equivalent the way that the Sentinel did, but it makes him a little bit more all-purpose.  I really like this particular design.  There’s no denying who he’s meant to be, but there’s a ton of detail work to help fill the larger canvas.  As with the Sentinel, this figure’s sculpt is an all-new one (courtesy of sculptor Rene Aldrete), and its got quite a lot of engineering.  There’s a ton of smaller pieces, all assembled over a core figure, making him actually look like a properly armored person.  The segmented assembly of the figure’s sculpt aids with his color work, since it allows for a lot more molded coloring.  That said, there’s still no shortage of paint work on this guy, covering the smaller accent work, which really sells the sculpt work for the design.  There’s just a ton going on here.  Galactus gets a light up feature, which is actually quite an involved thing itself.  Two AAA batteries in his head and two more in the torso allow the chest, eyes, and four spots on the helmet to light up.  It stays on for a surprisingly long time, about 7 minutes on mine.  It’s got a sort of a fading in and out feature, which looks a bit like it’s pulsating.  The button on the chest turns the whole lighting set-up on, but thanks to the batteries in the head, it does actually light itself separately, and there’s even a button on the back of the helmet to allow you to turn the upper lights on by themselves, if you so desire.

Galactus is a quite large and impressive figure in his own right, but he also gets a whole host of accessories.  At the start of the campaign, Galactus included three different faceplates for the helmet.  There’s a standard calm expression, an angrier teeth-gritting expression, and a skeletal one based on his Cancerverse counterpart’s remains from “Thanos Imperative.”  The calm expression’s my preferred of the three, but the options are always a plus.  Based on the success of the campaign, there were four tiers for more accessories.  The first three each added one of Galactus’s Heralds, with Tier 1 adding Frankie Raye, Tier 2 adding Silver Surfer, and Tier 4 adding Morg.  The fourth and final tier added one more piece for the core figure, an alternate Dr. Doom head.  Doom has taken on the Power Cosmic, or otherwise been enlarged on numerous occasions in the comics, but this one in particular seems to be most clearly based on the alternate universe Doom from Marvel 2-in-One.  It’s obviously not going to be anyone’s go to for the figure, but it’s a fun extra piece, and I dig its consistency of design with the smaller Doom figures.

Remember those three heralds I was talking about?  Yeah, let’s discuss.  The first one added was Frankie Raye, typically known as Nova, but not billed as such, presumably to avoid confusion with the Richard Rider version of the character.  Frankie’s a rather classic design, but one that has as of yet not gotten any sort of Legends treatment, though she did get a figure from Toy Biz’s Silver Surfer line in the ’90s, as well as a Minimate.  This figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation…or at least he should.  Frankie’s apparently prone to seized joints, and in the case of my copy, that’s on her neck.  I’ve not yet tried to free it up, so right now I’m just relying on the ball-joint portion.  Frankie is making use of the upgraded female base body we saw on Shriek.  It’s a nice, basic body, and with balanced proportions and a decent articulation set-up.  And it’s also got the pinless elbow and knees, so that’s cool.  Frankie gets a new head sculpt, which is alright.  I don’t know, it’s just maybe not my ideal version of Frankie.  I’m partial to the pointed crown look for the forehead, which this one doesn’t do.  To my eyes, it leaves her a little more generic looking than I’d like.  In terms of color work, the paint is confined to the head, largely the hair, but with some minor detailing for the face.  She’s using molded plastic for the gold, which is a change-up from what Hasbro had originally said they’d planned.  Originally, she was supposed to be painted gold, which honestly would have looked just a little better.  That said, this gold plastic is at least not all swirly.  Frankie is packed with three sets of hands (fists, gripping, and open gesture), and a flame base that allows her to clip onto Galactus’s right hand.

For the second tier, we got Galactus’s best known herald, Norrin Radd, aka the Silver Surfer.  Surfer’s not a stranger to Legends, and was released solo as recently as 2018, as part of the Walgreens-exclusive sub-set of FF-themed Legends.  That figure’s gotten pretty pricey on the aftermarket, so rolling him in with Galactus was pretty sensible.  The figure stands a little under 6 1/4 inches tall and has 34 points of articulation.  He’s using the same basic set-up as the last one, so he’s on the 2099 body again.  I felt it was a little small the last time around, but I’ve warmed up to it a bit more in the years since, especially with Johnny moving to the same base, and with Firelord using it too.  Rather than re-use the last Surfer head sculpt, this one gets a brand new sculpt courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding.  I didn’t hate the previous one, but it still wasn’t one of my favorites.  This one, on the other hand, I really, really like.  Surfer head sculpts are always the downfall of the figure, but this one’s really strong, and easily the best Surfer sculpt we’ve seen in toy form.  His paint work is slightly changed up.  He’s still all silver, of course, but it’s a slightly brighter, slightly more matte finish.  I honestly kind of dig the change.  Surer is packed with three sets of hands (fists, flat, and open gesture), an effects piece (in purple now, contrasting the yellow of the last release), his surfboard, and a flight base designed for Galactus’s left hand.

The final herald in this set, added when the campaign met its third stretch goal, is Morg.  After Galactus relieved Frankie Raye of her duties after deeming her too kindhearted for the role of herald, he found Morg, who was very much *not* too kindhearted.  In fact, he kind of went too far the other direction, leading him to ultimately turn on Galactus and all of the former heralds.  So, Galactus took away the Power Cosmic, and Morg died.  And then he came back.  And then he died again.  And now he’s kind of a minor player, often forgotten.  He’s previously had a Minimate, but that’s the extent of his figure coverage up to this point.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Despite his bulkier stature, Morg is actually pretty well articulated, with double elbows and knees, which don’t even wind up breaking up the sculpt too badly either.  He’s also making use of the pinless construction, which looks a heck of a lot cleaner.  Morg is sporting an all-new sculpt.  It’s a pretty respectable match for his comics counterpart, and it’s certainly got a lot going on.  I like how the proportions work, and he’s certainly as hideous as he’s supposed to be.  The figure’s color work is generally pretty decent.  Not a ton of painting, mostly just molded colors, but it works.  Interestingly, the pants are black, while initial renders from Hasbro showed them as brown.  Both are accurate, and I personally prefer the black, so I’m not upset about it.  Morg is packed with his axe.  It’s not the bevy of extras that the other two got, and he’s also the only one without a way to directly interact with the main figure, but he’s also a completely new sculpt, rather than a new head on an old body.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I don’t *quite* have the same level of personal love for Galactus that I do for the Sentinel, I do still have quite an attachment, stemming back to my original Toy Biz figure, who I got back in the day from KB Toys (he was actually defective and had to have his electronics repaired by my dad and granddad).  My brother Christian was a huge fan, though, and I fondly remember him carrying his Marvel Universe figure everywhere with him back in the day.  That Galactus was, of course, bigger than my Galactus, so it goes without saying that I needed to one-up him.  Right?  Right.  This figure still took just a touch more convincing than the Sentinel, but honestly not by much.  I backed him pretty early into the campaign, before we even knew about the extra figures.  He’s a lot of fun, and so are all the extras.  This one’s certainly going to be hard to top.

As with the Sentinel, I got this guy directly through Hasbro.  However, I’d still like to give a shout out to my sponsors at All Time Toys, who again allowed me use of the back room photo tent so that I could actually get proper pictures of this guy for the review.  It definitely wouldn’t have gone nearly as smoothly without that.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#3222: Firelord

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

FIRELORD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Galactus transforms Xandarian naval officer Pryreus Kril into his newest Herald, the unwavering Firelord!”

How about a little fire!?!  No?  No on the fire?  Yeah, that’s probably fair.  Hear me out, though: what if it’s not *just* fire?  What if there’s inexplicably a “lord” attached to that?  Does that change things up enough?  I mean, it does for me.  And it’s my site.  So, I make the rules.  And I’m looking at Firelord.  It’s been a shockingly short span of time since my last Firelord review, which was just back in May of this year.  Two Firelords in one year.  I don’t know if that’s, strictly speaking, legal.  But, I’m willing to give it a try.  I actually did a respectable job of giving that character’s background in that review’s intro, allowing me to go all meta on this one, and then just sort of jump right into the review.  Onto the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Firelord is a Fan Channel-exclusive standalone offering for the Retro sub-set of Marvel Legends.  He’s a continuation of the retro FF-style packaging from last year, and also clearly meant to tie-in with the arrival of the Galactus HasLab figure (which I’m hoping to review shortly). This marks Firelord’s third time in figure form, following the original Toy Biz and the Minimate.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Firelord is built on the 2099 body, which seems a pretty suitable base for the character.  It’s the same one that was used for the last Silver Surfer, and while I had my reservations about that choice at the time, I’ve warmed up to it over the years since its release.  With a second Herald on the base, it feels more unifying, and it’s honestly a solid match for how he tends to be portrayed.  He gets a brand-new head sculpt (courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding), which is quite an impressive piece; it’s an impressive update of the stylings of the original Toy Biz figure, while also serving to capture his appearance in the comics.  It’s got an appropriately ’70s vibe, and I’m impressed by the flow of his fiery hair.  The color work on this figure is largely on the basic side, at least as far as the “costume” is concerned.  The head gets some slightly more involved work, with transparent plastic for the hair (so it looks really cool when backlit), as well as just a little bit of printing to give the eyes just a little more life.  Firelord is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and gripping, as well as his flaming staff.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The old ’90s figure, coupled with his appearance in Uncanny Origins, which I got not long after, gave me a serious soft-spot for Firelord.  When he wasn’t amongst the Heralds revealed alongside Galactus, I was hopeful that meant he might be getting a standard release.  This guy’s pretty much exactly what I was expecting, and I’m honestly very happy about that!

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.

#3221: Obi-Wan Kenobi

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

OBI-WAN KENOBI

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“To gain free passage through Jabba the Hutt’s shipping routes, the Republic agrees to rescue the crime lord’s kidnapped son, Rotta the Huttlet. Obi-Wan learns that Anakin and his team have found the child and are under attack by Separatist forces. Obi-Wan races to join them on the remote planet, bringing much-needed reinforcements to Anakin and his embattled team.”

When the 3D-animated Clone Wars went into production, in order to save trouble on the animation concerning the flow of the robes that were signature to the Jedi Knights, the designs for the characters were somewhat ruggedized. Calling back on Obi-Wan donning a set of Clone armor during a sequence in the 2D Clone Wars, all of the Jedi were granted far more armored appearances, with Obi-Wan himself getting a more unique set of attire, merging his armored and robed looks. He kept the look for the shows first two seasons, and it was present for all of the launch product. Today, I’m looking at the first figure he got based on the design.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Obi-Wan Kenobi is the second figure in the first series of Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in line, which hit shortly before the movie that launched the show in 2008. The figure stands just shy of 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  Early in the line, only the Clones were getting full articulation, so Obi-Wan only gets proper movement above the waist, and even that’s slightly more limited.  Below the waist, he gets t-hips, and that’s it.  No knees or ankles.  As a result, he’s a little bit stiff.  The sculpt is at least a decent one.  Like the other early line sculpts, he’s not quite as accurate to the show model as later figures would be, but he gets the general gist of it.  The broader elements are there, with some of the edges rounded and lessened a bit, so that he comes just a little bit closer to the main line.  It’s an appealing look, and it’s at the very least quite in the spirit of the character.  The paint work on this guy is very indicative of its era; the base colors are pretty cleanly applied, and then the whole thing gets a sort of a messy wash over it.  It makes the details of the sculpt pop pretty well, but it’s also a bit heavy handed at times.  Obi-Wan was packed with his lightsaber, an alternate helmeted head, a jetpack, and a missile that can be launched from the pack.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a little bit skeptical about The Clone Wars when the toys first dropped.  I’d liked the 2D version a lot, but I was still pretty iffy on the prequels as a whole at the time.  Nevertheless, I did still grab a small handful of the figures when they launched, with hopes that I’d enjoy the source material.  The movie *wasn’t* what I hoped for, but the show at least picked things up pretty quickly.  Obi-Wan was one of the first four figures I grabbed, because I’ve always been an Obi-Wan guy.  He’s not a perfect figure, and there were better ones later in the line, but this one wasn’t a bad start.

#3220: Warpath

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

WARPATH

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“He’s super-strong and super loyal! He’s the Native American known as Warpath! The X-Force team loves him for his rock-steady calm in even the most dangerous situations. Because he’s so big and so strong, Evil Mutants often attack him first, thinking that “the bigger they are, the harder they fall”. But in Warpath’s case, it’s the Evil Mutants who fall!”

The X-Men were really big in the ’90s, and the best way to capitalize on that is spin-offs!  Previous X-book The New Mutants was made more x-friendly with its own x-themed title, X-Force, and, with X-Force itself becoming a pretty big deal, it got its own spin-off of Toy Biz’s own X-Men toyline.  They got right to work filling in the team’s roster, in an assortment that, in a form of dramatic irony, didn’t actually feature any of the New Mutants members who had transferred over.  It did, however, feature Warpath, brother to X-Man proper Thunderbird, getting a figure years before his brother did.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Warpath was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s X-Force toyline.  He was one of three actual team members in the set.  The X-Force line was a bit slower on getting out actual team members than the X-Men line, but then again, the actual book was far more focused on side characters most of the time too.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Warpath lacks elbows and knees, which were still kind of phasing in and out at this point.  Presumably, the lack of them here was somehow linked to his slightly larger stature.  Not much larger, mind you; he’s actually surprisingly small for Warpath, who is classically a quite large and imposing guy, especially in the ’90s.  The sculpt is also kind of soft in terms of detailing, and sort of pre-posed, but also really stiff?  It’s an odd mix.  His muscles are also just kind of odd lumps.  I mean, aside from the very definite presence of feet, he’s not a bad match for a Liefeld drawing.  Perhaps not in terms of actual look, but certainly in terms of vibe.  The paint work on the figure is honestly not bad.  It’s bright and colorful, and the application is pretty sharp and clean.  Warpath is packed with…a red bazooka?  Not really sure why.  Not exactly true to the character, but, well, there it is.  He also featured a “Thunder Punch Action,” which just means his arms swing opposite directions when he’s twisted at the waist.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is another one of those figures that I looked at a lot growing up, but never actually wound up buying until I was an adult.  I snagged him sealed in the summer of 2017, alongside a bunch of other ’90s Toy Biz stuff.  He’s…not a terribly impressive figure.  I mean, he’s not awful either, I guess, but that’s not exactly a lot to write home about.

#3219: NED-B

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

NED-B

STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Star Wars sure does have a lot of really cool droids.  And, with each successive addition to the franchise, we get a few more really cool droids.  Hey, if they sell, you gotta make more of them, right?  Kenobi had two such droids.  Lola was the one that got the early lead-in promotion for the show, but the one that really seemed to stick out in the show proper was the non-verbal NED-B, a big, lumbering droid that works with the Rebellion in its early days.  So, let’s have a look at a figure of NED-B.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

NED-B is the final figure in the six figure line-up for the Kenobi tie-in series of Hasbro’s Star Wars: Retro Collection.  He’s unique in this series as the only character who’s making his figure debut here, though he’ll be getting a Black Series release early next year.  The figure is the tallest of the figures in this assortment, standing 4 1/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The sculpt is totally new to this release.  Of all the figures in the assortment, this guy feels the least like a proper vintage figure.  There’s just something about the exact sculpting and styling that winds up feeling just a little bit too advanced for the original run.  It’s not bad, and it’s not so drastic that he feels out of place with the rest of the line-up, but it’s notable.  If anything, he feels maybe a bit more on par with something more of the ’90s era, almost like he’s just a bit more of a progression than the other figures.  He certainly captures the spirit of the character, though, and the detailing is all pretty solid.  He’s obviously dialed back a bit from what we see on the screen, but enough of him remains to sell which character it’s supposed to be.  The paint work on this figure is similar to the sculpting in that it’s not bad, but it’s also a bit more advanced than it *should* be for the line.  It certainly does look nice, though, and I appreciate the bright colors on him, especially in comparison the the generally drab colors of the other five figures.  I also kind of dig that they’ve painted sections that wouldn’t really be painted on the vintage versions, as it just ends up making him feel a little bit more finished than he might otherwise.  NED is packed with his hammer, which is a pretty solid extra for him, given its key role in a few of his scenes.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

NED is far and away the figure I wanted the most from this series.  I just really dug his design on the show, and I wanted him in figure form.  He’s interesting, because he at once feels like he’s a natural for this style, and also just a bit too removed for a clean translation.  He’s a bit like Grogu from the first assortment, where he may not quite land the vintage feel, but he’s still a really fun version of the character, so I can’t ultimately complain.  And, like that figure, NED here just makes for a good toy.

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

#3218: Fifth Brother

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

FIFTH BROTHER

STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Originally introduced in the second season of Rebels, the Fifth Brother is a character that’s never been all that deeply explored, despite now having been in two different shows.  Like, I’ve watched all of his canon appearances, and I couldn’t really tell you much about the guy beyond that’s he’s got that fancy hat thing going on.  I suppose that’s a pretty respectable thing in Star Wars, though, since distinctive looks tend to be a character’s biggest selling point.  Did wonders for Boba Fett.  Anyway, let’s look at this guy and his fancy hat.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Fifth Brother is the fifth figure in the Kenobi-inspired series of Hasbro’s Star Wars: Retro Collection.  He’s the third of the three Inquisitors included in this assortment, and marks the Fifth Brother’s third figure, following up on a small-scale figure from Rebels and a Black Series figure from Kenobi.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is all-new, though it certainly has its share of similarities with the Grand Inquisitor.  That makes sense, of course, since they’re kind of in the same profession and all.  That said, they’re totally unique from each other when it comes to the actual parts break down.  He’s a little bulkier than the Grand Inquisitor, which makes sense, and allows for the uniform to sit just a little bit differently.  His head, and his face in particular, gets quite a bit of sculpted detail, moreso than the others in the set.  It gives him quite a distinguished look.  The Fifth Brother’s paint work is pretty much on par with the other Inquisitors in the set.  Still feels like a bit too much for a proper vintage paint scheme, but honestly, it still works out pretty well, and I do appreciate the internal consistency.  The Fifth Brother is packed with his Inquisitor Saber, which is the same one included with the Grand Inquisitor.  It makes sense, since they have more or less the same weapon in the show, and it’s definitely the way Kenner would have handled things on a proper vintage figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t have much attachment to this guy.  I mean, honestly, does anybody?  Well, somebody does somewhere, I’m sure.  Like, just statistically, right?  Anyway, I wasn’t invested enough to get the Black Series figure, but since I was planning to pick up the rest of the series, this guy was along for the ride.  He’s not a bad figure.  Not my favorite or anything, but I can see the appeal.

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

 

#3217: Grand Inquisitor

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

GRAND INQUISITOR

STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

While some of Kenobi‘s returning characters were picking up from where they’d left off earlier in the timeline, there were also a few that were *technically* making their earliest appearances within the timeline.  Today’s focus, the Grand Inquisitor leans heavily on the “technically,” since, via retcon, he was actually present in one scene in Clone Wars, but as far as proper appearances go, the Grand Inquisitor truly hails from Rebels, where he serves as the primary antagonist for the first season, and ultimately closes off his story.  For Kenobi, he’s more of a background character, sidelined for most of the story, but he’s still present enough to justify some toy coverage!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Grand Inquisitor is the fourth figure in the Kenobi-series of Star Wars: Retro Collection, the fifth overall series of the line, and the third at mass retail.  Thus far, this is his first figure from the show, since his Black Series offering is still pending.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s sporting an all-new sculpt, obviously meant to be based on his live-action design, though thanks to the styling of the line, he serves as a nice mid-point between live action and animation.  The sculpt on this guy is pretty decent.  Obviously, lighter on the detail side, but all the key stuff is there, and his outfit is actually quite well detailed.  It’s cleanly handled, and the details are well rendered.  He’s got another vinyl cape; this one’s got a far more unique cut to it, which fits the design from the show pretty well.  It does make it a little trickier to get it on and off, but it’s certainly not impossible.  His paint work is again probably a touch too involved for proper vintage coverage, but it’s consistent with that of Reva, so they go well together.  It also still dials things back just a little bit, so it won’t look too out of place with actual vintage offerings.  The Grand Inquisitor is packed with his lightsaber, which is similar to Reva’s, but has a guard that goes all around, accurate to his personal weapon.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I enjoyed the Grand Inquisitor well enough in Rebels, but given how his story wrapped up in that show, I wasn’t really sure there was much more to do with him in Kenobi.  I actually kind of liked the misdirect within the show, and I don’t mind the opportunity to get him in figure form.  This one’s actually a lot of fun, more than I was expecting, even.  He honestly makes me kind of want the proper Rebels cast in this style, just because that seems like it would be pretty nifty.

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

#3216: The Creature From the Black Lagoon – Glow-in-the-Dark

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

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON — GLOW-IN-THE-DARK

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS (JADA TOYS)

Happy Halloween, readers!  In honor of the day, I’m erring slightly on the spookier side, as I like to do, settling in for another Universal Monsters review.  In something of a change for the site, my last Universal Monsters reviews were actually not last Halloween, but in fact were in February of this year, when I took a look at Frankenstein’s Monster and the Bride from Jada’s own Universal Monsters line.  Today, I’m taking a look at another figure from the line, in the form of Gill-Man from The Creature From the Black Lagoon.  Let’s see how he turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Creature From the Black Lagoon is the first follow-up to the first four figure series of Jada’s Universal Monsters line.  He takes the standard Gill-Man from the first series and makes him Glow-in-the-Dark.  He was released as an Entertainment Earth-exclusive.  The figure stands just shy of 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  As I touched on when I reviewed Frankenstein back in February, the articulation scheme on these figures is actually pretty impressive for a company of Jada’s standing; it’s on par with some of Hasbro’s best offerings, albeit perhaps a year removed from where they are now.  2022 was a good year for Hasbro on the articulation front.  That doesn’t undermine what Jada’s got going on here, though, and Gill-Man’s articulation is even better than the Monster’s, due to his slightly less bulked-up build.  The figure’s sculpt is another strong offering.  He does quite a nice job of capturing the film design for the character, right down to getting all of the texturing and everything down with quite sharp detail.  Additionally, all of the articulation is worked in pretty nicely to the aesthetics of the overall sculpt, and they don’t require his sculpt to be broken up too badly when he’s posed either.  For the purposes of this release, in order facilitate the glowing feature, he’s molded in glow-in-the-dark plastic, with the rest of the paint built on top of that.  The plastic takes a fair bit of time to charge up for a proper glow, but it does at least hold it for a while.  The accent paint works out pretty nicely, though, and offsets the general look of the plastic rather nicely.  Gill-Man is packed with an alternate head with the mouth closed, an extra left hand for gripping, a harpoon gun, a net, and the decayed creature hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Creature has never been one of my favorites of the Universal slate.  It just always felt like the red-headed step-child of the group, and it’s really just never clicked with me the same way.  That being said, it’s hard to deny that Gill-Man has a killer visual, and one that makes for some cool toys.  This one in particular, in all of its glow-y glory, was one I definitely wanted to mess with, if perhaps not one I was dead set on owning.  One got traded into All Time a few weeks back, and they were kind enough to let me borrow it for the purposes of this review.  He’s honestly a ton of fun, and I look forward to the upcoming figures from the line.

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

#3215: Batman Beyond

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

BATMAN BEYOND

BATMAN: ANIMATED (DC COLLECTIBLES)

Before their demise, DC Collectibles had quite a run with their Batman: Animated line, dedicated to specifically the Batman side of the DCAU.  The stuff was mostly based purely on Batman: The Animated Series and The New Adventures of Batman, but towards the end of things, they tried expanding their reach a little bit more.  Keeping things within the Bat-family, there was one single boxed set based on Batman Beyond.  I’m gonna let you know upfront, I’m not doing the whole set.  But I do have the BB, so, you know, there’s that!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman Beyond is one-third of the “Batman Beyond” three-pack from DCC’s Batman: Animated line, which was released in early 2017.  The figure stands about 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  The articulation schemes for these figures were always spotty, up until the last assortment, and BB is more of that.  He’s not terrible.  The head and the ankles do okay on the range of motion, but the elbows and knees are, on the flip side, kind of restricted.  He also has the issue of no lateral movement below the hips, which plagued so many of the line’s figures.  The ankles do at least work out a bit better in conjunction with everything, so he’s not quite as pigeon-toed.  The quality of the sculpt is at least pretty good.  Honestly, this is probably the closest to an animation-accurate Batman Beyond we’ve ever gotten.  Yeah, that was the aim of the line, but they also tended to miss the mark, so them getting it so close here was definitely an accomplishment.  BB’s paint work is pretty basic, but it’s checks all the right boxes.  The colors match the cartoon, and the application is actually pretty clean.  It’s again a pretty nice change of pace, given how fuzzy the work on other figures in the line tended to be.  BB was packed with four sets of hands (in fists, gripping, and two different styles of open gesture), a removable set of wings, two batarangs, and a display stand.  My figure is without the batarangs and stand, but he’s got everything else.  The wings being removable is nice, since, you know, not everybody does that.  I’m not super keen on the way they get broken up by the joints, but I suppose it’s kind of a catch-22.  It could be worse, though, and when posed properly, they honestly look better than I’d expected.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I kept up with this line pretty closely when it first launched, by the time this set came along, I had kind of gotten burned out.  With just about everything eventually going on serious mark down, I opted to hold out on this one.  Unfortunately, it wound up being short-printed, since just about everyone else was seemingly burning out around the same time.  It wound up picking up quite a hefty price on the aftermarket, and that was all she wrote.  Well, until a Batman Beyond got traded into All Time all by himself.  I’m still looking for the best possible version of the character, and, honestly, this one’s better than I’d expected.

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.