#2732: Omega Sentinel

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

OMEGA SENTINEL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Harnessing the power of enhanced sensors, flight, and nanite regeneration, Omega Sentinel dispatches enemies with ease.”

In the ’90s, the giant, lumbering, mutant-hunting robots the Sentinels found themselves upgraded for the times, becoming the Prime Sentinels, a merging of humans with robotic components and programming.  Amongst this new breed of Sentinels was Karima Shapandar.  Karima was a reluctant foe of the X-Men, and would ultimately work by their side a handful of times over the years, taking on the name “Omega Sentinel”.  More recently, her Sentinel programming has taken over more and more, leading to her playing the role of antagonist during the “House of X” story line.  Hey, it got her a figure, at least, right?  Full disclosure: I have virtually no first hand knowledge of Omega Sentinel, and am entirely operating off of what I could find online for the purposes of this review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Omega Sentinel is figure 2 in the Tri-Sentinel Series of Marvel Legends, and is the only non-team member included in the line-up.  She’s shown here in her more fully Sentinel-ized appearance, as seen in the mini-series, which is a fairly distinctive appearance, and certainly on-brand with the current set-up of figures.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Omega Sentinel is sporting an all-new sculpt, just for her.  It’s a tiny bit surprising, especially given how a Xavier wound up on the Pizza Spidey body, but it means that all of her costume elements can be actual sculpted elements, as opposed to relying more heavily on paint.  It’s actually a pretty nice visual set-up, and generally gives her a little more pop than she might otherwise have.  By far, the most impressive piece of the figure’s sculpt is the arms, which have that proper mechanical design, and a lot of very nice smaller detail work.  Her standard head out of the box is based on her primary look from the mini-series, which had her bald, as she has been a few times prior.  It’s really the coolest look, I think, and it presents well here.  Omega Sentinel’s paint work is pretty standard Legends fare; base work that’s generally pretty well applied.  There’s a little bit of missed coverage on her upper legs, but otherwise my figure’s pretty solid, and it’s a pretty striking color palette.  Omega is packed with both an alternate head and lower arms.  The head is supposed to be Karima from earlier in her career, before the whole bad guy thing, and it’s not awful from a sculpting stand point, but the coloring is just plain wrong.  Karima’s supposed to be Indian in the comics, and has classically been depicted with close to black hair and a darker complexion.  This one goes for more of an auburn hair color and a much lighter skin tone, making her look rather caucasian, which is just inaccurate.  I’m not exactly sure why they went this direction with it.  I prefer the other head anyway, but it still would be nice if this one was accurate.  On the plus side, the alternate arms are far cooler, and haver her lower arms shaped into weapons of some sort.  I like them a lot, and they’re going to be my default set-up for the character.  In addition to the character-specific pieces, Omega Sentinel also includes the torso for the Tri-Sentinel Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in the intro, I had no prior knowledge of Omega Sentinel prior to this figure’s announcement, and actually had to look her up when she was shown off.  I was honestly not really much looking forward to this one, and expected her to kind of be the week point of the set for me.  However, I did some reading up on the character, and I can get behind the concept, and I can also get behind actually getting some new characters in figure form.  It helps that, in hand, I found myself quite liking this figure, and she’s far from the dead weight I thought she would be.  She’s honestly just a pretty nice figure, and I look forward to putting her with my Prime Sentinels once they arrive.

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

#2731: Charles Xavier – House of X

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

CHARLES XAVIER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Xavier reveals his master plan … one that will bring mutants out of humankind’s shadow and once again into the light.”

Charles Xavier, more commonly referred to as Professor X, doesn’t, in his default state, tend to make a classically exciting action figure.  Bald guy in a suit and tie, sitting in a wheel chair isn’t exactly getting kids to go crazy for the toys (unless they’re some weirdo kid who wants Xavier before Wolverine and Magneto because he’s far more plot important and is less likely to get  another toy as quickly, and why don’t you understand that, Nana?…sorry, I went places there…).  Because of this, various media does have a tendency to give Xavier excuses to put on slightly more toy-etic gear.  Most recently, Xavier’s ditched the suit and the wheelchair, and is wearing something more classically comic-book-y, I guess?  Well, there’s a toy of it, so let’s check that out.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Charles Xavier is figure 1 in the Tri-Sentinel Series of Marvel Legends, and like Wolverine, he’s officially “House of X” branded.  Xavier is in his current default attire, which puts him in a spandex jumpsuit, and makes the Cerebro helmet a more permanent fixture.  It’s a different visual for the character.  I don’t know that it’s all that different a visual for the formerly-idealistic-now-morally-grey-leader-of-the-team-following-a-relaunch, since it’s rather thematically similar to Cyclops’ Marvel Now appearance.  But, maybe that’s on purpose?  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Xavier is built on the Pizza Spidey body…which is an interesting choice.  I guess it’s not the worst, as Xavier’s been depicted as rather svelte, especially recently, but it feels weird for Professor X to be on a Spider-Man body, to me.  They’ve replaced the hands with ones from the suit body, so that fixes those slightly cartoonier proportions, but the feet remain the same, so that’s still going on.  He’s got a new head sculpt wearing his new helmet.  It’s an okay sculpt, and certainly is the most visually intriguing portion of the figure.  Paint on this guy is exceedingly basic.  There’s paint on the visor of the helmet.  That’s it.  The body’s all black plastic, which isn’t technically accurate; there should be some piping or minor detailing on the suit.  There’s also been inconsistency about whether Xavier has gloves on his suit or not;  I would have preferred not, since it would break up the colors a bit.  Xavier has a decent selection of accessories, with two sets of hands (in relaxed, and pointing/telepathy hand combo), an alternate un-helmeted head with a telepathy effect, and the right arm to the Tri-Sentinel Build-A-Figure.  The alternate head’s definitely the coolest part, especially given it’s potential uses with the previous Professor X figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Xavier’s newest design is one of the more drastically changed ones, but I find it to be too drastically different to really feel like Xavier.  When it comes to more action-oriented Xaviers, I’ve always been more partial to the tactical gear in the hover chair look from the ’90s, and I’m still waiting for that one to get some proper toy coverage.  But that’s not what I got here, and I suppose I shouldn’t hold it against him.  Of course, what I probably can hold against him is the slightly phoned-in nature on this guy.  The extra head’s cool, but there’s not really much else about him that really speaks to me.

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

#2730: Wolverine – House of X

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

WOLVERINE — HOUSE OF X

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With adamantium claws unleashed, Wolverine is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice in the fight for freedom for all mutants.”

Last year’s main X-Men-theme per Marvel Legends was very event-based, specifically centering on 1995’s “Age of Apocalypse” event.  For the first X-themed assortment of this year, Hasbro is once again going event-based, but this time around is something far more recent, this time being 2019’s “House of X”, the event which served as the launching point for the Jonathan Hickman-driven current era of X-Men.  A lot of the team’s biggest names were central to both that event and what’s followed in the on-going books, making this a nice way of refreshing some of the X-Men’s heaviest hitters.  You don’t get much heavier hitter than Wolverine, I guess, making him a pretty solid starting point if I do say so myself.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wolverine is part of the Tri-Sentinel Series of Marvel Legends, and is officially branded as “House of X,” much like the rest of the assortment.  He’s the only non-numbered figure in the set, as the only figure not to include a Build-A-Figure part.  He’s sporting his current costume design, first showcased in the event.  It’s an update on his brown costume, with a little bit of the Black/Grey X-Force layout worked in.  It’s not a bad look for the character, and really checks a lot of the classic Wolverine boxes.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s built on the modern Wolverine base first introduced in the Juggernaut Series.  He uses the more utilitarian gloves and boots from X-Force Wolverine, which are good match for what he’s sporting in the comics these days.  He’s also got a new head sculpt, and an add-on for his belt, both of which are pretty decent pieces.  The head in particular I quite like, as it’s got him actually cracking a smile, which is a nice change of pace for a Wolverine figure.  I also like that the mask is differently shaped than other Wolverine figures, and that they’ve included all of the seams and such on the cowl that help to “modernize” this design.  Wolverine’s paint work is generally pretty solid.  He follows the established color scheme from the comics well, and there’s no notable slop or bleed over, so that’s good.  I do like that they actually went to the trouble of differentiating the browns on the main costume vs the accessories.  The arm hair detailing on the arms is about the same as other recent Wolverines, which works from a consistency stand point if nothing else. Wolverine is the lightest figure in the assortment on the accessory front, due largely to the lack of a Build-A-Figure part.  He does at least get an extra head, based on his time as “War” in the future sequences of “Powers of X.”  The main difference is the presence of a beard.  Very different.  It’s a decent extra, I suppose, although the likelihood of getting the other three horsemen seems slim, giving this particular piece limited applications.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The whole House of X thing just sort of happened around me, I guess.  I read it, and I was familiar with the whole concept, and I’ve stuck with the comics since then.  The designs are generally pretty decent, and Wolverine’s a good, fairly standard Wolverine.  The figure doesn’t really do anything new, but he’s not bad, either, and certainly has more reason to exist than some of the other recent Wolverines.

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

#2729: Luke Skywalker

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

LUKE SKYWALKER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Hey, remember yesterday, when I was talking about a mid-90s line’s use of light-up features in order to re-introduce some of the core characters into the market place again?  Well, as it turns out, Toy Biz’s X-Men wasn’t the only line to try that.  Kenner’s Power of the Force did it too!  Everything’s better with lights, right?  Well, Kenner certainly felt so.  While I’ve looked at the line’s one outlier, R2, already, they also covered the original trilogy’s four most action-oriented force users.  I’m kicking my dive into the line-up off with our hero, Luke Skywalker!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke was released in 1997 as part of Power of the Force‘s “Electronic Power F/X” sub-line.  Luke gets more to the actual point of the line-up than R2 did, actually focusing on one of the OT’s cool fight scenes, in his case the battle between Luke and Vader on the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi….well, sort of, anyway.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he’s got 5 points of articulation.  He loses the usual waist joint, and also gets severe limitations on the right shoulder, both due to the electric feature.  Beyond that, none of the other joints really give him much actual range, due to the somewhat pre-posed nature of the figure’s sculpt.  He’s…sort of, like, mid-lunge, I guess?  Like, for stabbing?  I don’t know.  The actual sculpt’s not exactly Kenner’s finest work.  The head’s distinctly different from the original PotF2 Luke head that looked nothing like Mark Hamill, but still looks nothing like Mark Hamill, so it’s a lateral move.  The light-up features have a direct impact on the quality of the sculpt on the right arm and the torso, since that’s how the feature works.  The torso’s rather bulked up, especially at the back, in order to house the batteries, which give him sort of a hump back.  Not the most flattering thing, which is why he also gets the cape, which Luke doesn’t actually wear in the scene this is replicating, in order to hide the hump a bit.  The arm has been designed with the lightsaber built into it, with his hand kind of folded around it.  It’s kind of crude, and not really hand shaped, and the hilt is really wide, short, and basic in its detailing.  It’s definitely goofy looking.  There’s also this sort of cap piece that goes over the the actual blade.  I think it’s really just meant to be part of the packaging, but it’s not coming off of mine.  The actual light-up feature’s okay, I guess.  Not terribly bright, and barely noticeable in the photos here.  It’s also a little hard to activate, due to it being behind the cape. The paint work is all pretty basic work.  It’s not bad, but the right arm’s definitely a bit fuzzy.  Otherwise, pretty standard for the line.  Luke’s packed with a large base piece, meant to look like one of the halls from the Death Star.  Like R2, there’s an arm for moving him around, though this one doesn’t do the whole magnet thing; it’s just a basic peg set-up instead.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, this was actually the only of the “Power F/X” figures I had, because I was all about Luke, and I was all about a good gimmick.  Unfortunately, these figures, more than others from the line, don’t really stand up to play so well.  As such, my original Luke is in pretty rough these days.  Fortunately for me, All Time had four of the five figures in the set right as I was ramping up on filling in my PotF collection, and that gave me the opportunity to pick up this guy again, alongside the rest of the set.  This guy’s hella gimmicky, and hella goofy, but I can get behind it.

#2728: Nightcrawler

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

NIGHTCRAWLER

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Once misunderstood because of his appearance, Nightcrawler is the warmest and most charming member of the X-Men. A trained swordsmen and acrobat, Nightcrawler’s mutant ability to teleport lends itself well to his unique fighting style! A swashbuckler at heart, Nightcrawler would be at home in the age of pirates and buccaneers – but finds more than enough adventure with the X-Men!”

Though there were plenty of variants of the titular team’s members to be found, the early run of Toy Biz’s X-Men line was really without a lot of straight up redos of prior figures, at least from a ground up sort of approach.  That changed in 1996, when, five years into the line, they realized some outright updates might be an okay idea.  Our first taste of this new mission statement for the line came in the form of the “Classic Light Up Weapons” assortment, which gave us proper updates on the likes of Gambit, Juggernaut, and today’s focus, Nightcrawler.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightcrawler was released in the above mentioned “Classic Light Up Weapons” set of Toy Biz’s X-Men in mid-1996.  It marked his second inclusion in the line, after a rather lengthy hiatus following his Series 1 inclusion.  The figure stands about 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  Like the others in this assortment, his light up feature hampers the movement on his right arm, and his left removes the usual elbow joint in order to more properly match-up.  He does, however, gain ankle joint movement, which is quite useful for him, as well as an additional cut joint at the base of the tail (which is not bendable this time).  Nightcrawler gained an entirely new sculpt for this figure, and one more in line with the line’s stylings by this point.  It’s not bad, but it’s definitely removed from the more classic interpretations of Kurt I tend to prefer.  It also makes him a bit taller than he really should be, as well as amping up the definition in his muscles.  At least he wasn’t as majorly bulked up as the other male figures in the set.  Nightcrawler’s paint work is generally pretty decently handled, with all the usual colors.  There was a variant of this figure with less of the usual colors, which swapped out silver for the spots that are usually red.  It was an odd color variant, but it was there.  It’s not one of the one’s I have, though.  Nightcrawler’s only accessory was a sword, which was also the source of most of his gimmick, as it wasn’t just any sword: it was a flaming sword.  Pretty nifty, and definitely on the better front as far as the light-up accessories for this set went.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Any reliable stock of Series 1 Nightcrawler had long since dried up by the time I got into the line, so this Nightcrawler was my first shot at the character.  For whatever reason, this one never really clicked with me.  I mean, he’s not bad, or anything, but I guess he doesn’t quite fit my mind’s eye version of the character.  He got replaced by the Series 1 version as soon as I got a hold of one, and that one’s still the one I stick with for my main display.  That said, I have warmed more to this guy in recent years, and I can acknowledge his pretty cool, even if he’s not my preferred.

#2727: IG-11 w/ Speeder Bike

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

IG-11 w/ SPEEDER BIKE

STAR WARS: MISSION FLEET (HASBRO)

After following the line for a good chunk of last year, I finally dove into actually reviewing Hasbro’s current, more all-ages aimed Star Wars line, Mission Fleet, in January of this year, and I ended that review by saying that I should probably go back and review some of the others…well, I haven’t gotten to that yet, and I’m not starting it today.  However, I do have another Mission Fleet review just the same, of a non-back-log item.  As The Mandalorian is the main event for Star Wars right now, the line has taken something of a focus on it, and we’ve already gotten a handful of show-inspired sets, with plans for more.  I looked at the main version of Mando in January, and now I’m looking at one of his compatriots, and certainly my favorite portion of the show, IG-11!

THE TOYS THEMSELVES

IG-11 with Speeder Bike is part of the first crop of Mission Fleet sets to be added to the line in 2021.  The set is officially dubbed “Protect the Bounty” and is another Expedition Class set.  It’s specifically patterned on IG-11’s retrieval of the Child from the Biker Scouts at the beginning of the first season finale.

IG-11 is the core figure of this set, and is presented here in his slightly dressed down appearance following his rebuilding by Kuiil, where he drops the twin bandoliers from his earlier appearance.  The figure is about 2 3/4 inches tall and has 10 points of articulation.  IG-11 is also available in the “Defend the Child” boxed set, with the bandolier, which hit at roughly the same time, if not a little bit earlier.  It’s the same core figure, just with the extra piece.  It’s a pretty solid sculpt; IG is hit a little less heavily by the stylization of the line, being a non-human character already.  In a rather amusing fashion, because of his hands actually having IG-11’s proper adjusted manipulators, this IG-11 sculpt is currently the most-show accurate version of the character we’ve gotten from Hasbro.  How about that?  Beyond that, it’s a very nice sculpt.  The detail work is quite sharp and in depth, and the articulation scheme works best for him out of all of the figures I’ve gotten so far in the line.  IG’s paint work is pretty nicely handled.  The bulk of his coloring is molded plastic, but there’s a surprising amount of paint apps, and he’s nice and cleanly defined.  IG-11 is packed with his two blasters, like the ones seen with earlier releases of the character.  He also includes another version of the Child, this one less of his own figure and more of an accessory.  He’s in the bag he was in during the finale.  It’s molded to sit on IG’s shoulders, and is scaled well to the other version of the character.

The vehicle component of this set is another speeder bike, this time the Imperial one that IG steals during the finale.  Like Mando’s vehicle, this one’s about 6 inches long, and scales well to IG and the Child.  The detailing’s all pretty solid, and it does a nice job of capturing the classic speeder bike design in the smaller scale.  It’s been adapted to add a couple of ports to it for use with the line’s various canons and such, which keeps the play style for the line going pretty well.  The color work on the bike is generally pretty basic, mostly with just molded colors, but there’s a touch of accenting on the main body of the bike, which is pretty impressive.  The bike is packed with a large missile launcher and corresponding missile, which can be mounted at any of the port points on the bike.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I knew of the “Defend the Child” set thanks to an in-hand photo late last year, and I knew of several of the other early 2021 offerings for this line, I didn’t actually know this one was coming.  My first knowledge of it came from Max finding two of them in-store, and texting me to find out if I wanted one.  Since IG’s my favorite part of the show, and this is one of my favorite sequences in the show, I was definitely down for this set.  It’s another nice little contained package set.

Quiq-FiQs #2726: Figure-ing Out Food Prep With 10 Amazing Life Hacks!

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with

Imagine yourself: you’re standing in your kitchen, and you just need something to eat!  But suddenly it dawns on you:  you don’t have any clean utensils!  Now, kitchen utensil advocates would have you believe that washing your utensils is the easiest path, but that involves who knows how many untold seconds of work.  You’re hungry now!  Well, don’t worry!  We’ve got 10 great at-home hacks that’ll make your life so much easier, and have you eating in no time, no cleaning required!

Step 1: Make Your Flour!

If you know the Juggernaut, you know he’s gonna wreck it!  Why not channel that wrecking into something handy?  You’ll need flour, so go ahead and grab those oats you’ve got gathering dust, and grind them into a nice, fine, flour.  No work required!

Step 2: Roll Your Dough!

That tall lump of dough isn’t going to do you any good in it’s current state.  Better flatten it out with your Transformers War For Cybertron: Kingdom Ultra Magnus (or other similar Ultra Magnuses, depending on what you’ve got available in your kitchen)!  That tall dough’s not a problem any more!

Step 3: Makin’ the Sauce!

Oh no!  Plain dough is so bland and tasteless!  Better grab some tomatoes to make a tasty sauce!  Rotorstorm will make the perfect tool for blending those tomatoes into NOTHING!  Wow, delicious!

Step 5: Making Ice Ice Baby!

Bobby’s so tightly wound these days!  We need to help him chill out!  A little water and a trip to the freezer will be the perfect touch!  Totally refreshing!

Step 6: It’s a Great Day for Grating!

This block of cheese is the wrong shape and it’s just awful!  Let’s destroy it!  The pauldrons on your Medieval Spawn will make the perfect surface to shred that cheese down to size!  Not even all the angels in heaven can save you now cheese!

Step 7: Getting Straight to the Sauce

With those tomatoes pulverized into submission, it’s time to dispense some American justice!  The natural properties of Cap’s vibranium shield make for a nice even spread.  Thanks Cap!

Step 8:  Have a Blast–Of Cheese!

It’s time for the finishing blow!  Load up your Nerf Cheese Shotgun, and let that sucker have it!  Who’s your Superman? Oh, yeah!

Step 9: The Iceman Cometh

Bobby’s coming out for a thirst trap!  Dunk that boy in a tall glass of water!  Totally refreshing!

Step 10: The Two-Pronged Approach!

Ouch, that oven sure is toasty!  Better grab your extra long Stilt-Man in order to safely open up the oven door, to reveal your tasty treat!  Third degree burns are a thing of the past!

Step 10: Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage

This Pizza seeks to deny you your happiness.  Time to divide and conquer your creation!  Your Carnage figure’s axe hand attachment is the perfect instrument of your pizza’s doom!  Show that cheesy ingrate no mercy!

Delicious Time!

Now you are master of your creations!  Devour them and cement your legacy!  There is no escape!  Your domination is now absolute–What a breeze!

#2725: Hydron

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

HYDRON

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

“Hydron is a space sea commander from the domed undersea city of Orca, situated not far from Titus, a small island in the Guardian Sea on Primus. He was ordered by Darius to locate the legendary twin warriors prophesized to defeat the Horde Empire. Arriving on Eternia shortly after Skeletor’s victory at the Second Ultimate Battleground, Hydron and his Lieutenant Icarius recruited not only He-Man and She-Ra, but several of the members of the Masters of the Universe who were eager to pursue Skeletor. Preferring the Triton Spear Gun, his weapon of choice is suitable for intergalactic as well as undersea fighting.”

After a bio that in depth, is there really much more I can do with an intro?  I guess so.  It’s been a little bit since I’ve looked at any Masters of the Universe figures, and there’s a whole new iteration of the franchise running.  So, am I looking at one of those?  No, don’t be silly.  Why would I do that?  Instead, I’m digging into a portion of the franchise I’m so overly familiar with: New Adventures of He-Man…Yeah, familiar…that’s the word I’m going with…that mean’s “barely a passing connection,” right?  Though I’ve never had much in the way of direct interaction with this version of the franchise, I do know the tiniest bit about it, and one of the things I do kind of know is Hydron, the guy what the the bio above talked about.  I hear he’s pretty cool.  He looks pretty cool at least.  Is he pretty cool, though?  Let’s find out.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hydron was added to Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Classics line during their 2014 sub year, as the March figure for that year.  As with all of the New Adventures-inspired figures from the line, he takes the original design for the character and sort of homogenizes it with Classics‘ heavier vintage stylings.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  Like most of the line, Hydron was built on the standard core male body, with all its pluses and minuses.  It didn’t on its face suit the New Adventures guys quite as well, but they were pretty far into the line when they started doing them, so it’s hard to say there wasn’t some precedent.  It certainly made Hydron far bulkier than he had previously been, especially in conjunction with the new parts.  Said new parts are a brand-new head, forearms, right thigh, lower legs, and waist, as well as a new add-on for the chest armor.  The majority of the bulking up is being done by the chest armor piece, which comprises the whole torso cover/helmet/rebreather set-up.  By making the cover a separate overlay, they add a lot of bulk to the mid section of the figure, and ultimately robs him of his mid-torso articulation.  It was an attempt by Mattel to unilaterally handled the torso designs for the line, but it ultimately hurts this guy, who would have more benefited from a more specifically sculpted torso piece.  It’s still got some cool detailing, of course, so it’s not a total loss, but I feel it could be a touch better on the implementation front.  On the plus side, the figure’s other new parts are all pretty fun, with the star piece being the head beneath the domed helmet.  It depicts Hyrdron with his scuba cap and rebreather device, giving him a really nifty retro sci-fi appearance which I really dig.  Hydron’s colors are a bit different from the norm for Masters, with a lot of light blue and green.  It’s an eye-catching look to say the least, and certainly a rather nice change of pace.  The paint work on this guy was fairly basic but generally fairly good.  The only slightly off part about it is the slight shift in color between the main body and the torso overlay piece.  It’s not major, but it’s there.  Hydron was packed the Triton Spear Gun mentioned in his bio, which is an awkward weapon to say the least.  I think mine’s probably holding it wrong, but I like it better this way, so I’m sticking with it.  MOTUC were never heavy on extras, so Hydron’s fairly average, but after getting the extra un-helmeted head with Flipshot back with his release, it was a shame that Hydron didn’t get more of an unmasked appearance as well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Even with no attachment to the NA version of the franchise, Hydron’s always been a design that I enjoyed.  Back when these figures were still coming out, Hydron was honestly on my list of figures I wanted, but Mattel’s mismanagement of the line left me rather burned out on the whole thing, and I just gave up.  As such, I didn’t Hydron when he was new, and I probably wouldn’t have gotten him at all, but then he came in with the same collection that got me the BAT and Blake, and I was kind of a weak mark.  Plus, I had Tuskador, and he just looked so lonely.  Ultimately, this guy’s got his flaws, but he’s still pretty fun, and I’m glad to have finally added him to my collection.

#2724: John Blake

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

JOHN BLAKE

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES MOVIE MASTERS (MATTEL)

Man, remember when DC movies weren’t totally divisive and the subject of much ire between fandoms?  Me either.  But I do remember Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, and there are certainly opinions about that one, aren’t there?  Personally, I break from the few agreed upon ideas about the trilogy, namely that I’ve never been that terribly impressed by The Dark Knight (not that I think it’s a *bad* movie by any stretch), and I actually quite like it’s rather divisive follow-up, The Dark Knight Rises.  Amongst the things that I really enjoy in Rises is Joseph Gordon Levitt’s turn as GCPD Detective John Blake, the closest thing this incarnation of the franchise got to a Robin (and as much as I enjoy the film, even I will admit that reveal was a little bit ham-fisted).  Mattel actually went pretty in-depth for their Movie Masters component to the film’s tie-in toys, covering most of the major players, John included.  I’m taking a look at him today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

John Blake was released in the third round of Mattel’s Dark Knight Rises Movie Masters figures, technically alongside Ra’s Al-Gul, though that implies that the two of them ever shared any shelf space at retail…or made it to retail at all, for that matter…This line was a little bit mismanaged to say the least.  The figure is just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  As a Mattel product, especially from their movie lines, it’s probably not a huge surprise that his articulation doesn’t have the greatest range of motion.  In particular, the ab-crunch and elbows are quite restricted, not that any of that was surprising for this line.  Blake gets two distinct looks for the movie, his standard GCPD officer’s uniform, and the more dressed down attire he gets after being promoted to detective.  At the time, Mattel was doing pretty much everything they could to put as many of these guys as possible on the standard suit body, but despite that opted for Blake in his GCPD attire.  It’s his slightly more distinctive look, and the one used for most of the promotional stuff for the movie, so that made sense.  It also meant he got a surprising amount of new parts, with only the lower half of the figure using the suit body pieces.  The rest was new, and honestly not bad for Mattel’s usual output from this era.  The head’s got one of Mattel’s better likenesses for Movie Masters, and actually kind of looks like JGL.  He’s still perhaps a little on the cartoony side, but it’s pretty close.  His paint work is all pretty basic, but not bad.  It more or less gets the job done.  The hands are painted, rather than molded with makes them a little thick and devoid of detail, but it’s not terrible.  Blake was originally packed with part of the Bat Signal Collect-N-Connect scene, and that was it.  No character specific extras or anything, which feels kind of lazy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really wanted this figure when it was released, as I’d really enjoyed the character in the film, and I’m just generally a fan of Joseph Gordon Levitt as an actor.  Unfortunately, I never actually saw one at retail, nor did I even really see him on the secondary market, even for inflated pricing.  He was just rather uncommon.  I resigned myself to not have the figure, and kind of forgot about him.  That was until the same collection the got me yesterday’s BAT, also had this guy.  Huzzah, finally a John Blake!  Ultimately, he’s not really much to write home about, but he’s probably one of the best Movie Masters Mattel did during their tenure.

#2723: Cobra B.A.T. V1.8

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

COBRA B.A.T. V1.8

G.I. JOE: COLLECTOR’S CLUB (HASBRO)

Though they have so far been absent from the most recent incarnation of G.I. Joe (well, the toys, anyway; the video game is a slightly different story), Cobra’s robot forces, the Battle Android Troopers, have been a ready fixture in the franchise since their introduction in 1986.  They’re generally quite privy to adjustment tweaks over the years, under the guise of “upgrades.”  The 25th style figures generally just focused on re-interpreting the classic BAT for a new generation, but there are plenty of different Cobra BAT designs to choose from, and we did *just* manage to get one of those before Hasbro put 3 3/4 Joes on hiatus a few years back.  I’m taking a look at that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Cobra BAT V1.8 was released as part of the “Force of Battle 2000” boxed set, which was a Collector’s Club-exclusive set offered up at the International G.I.Joe Convention in 2017.  There were actually eight of this guy packaged in the set, alongside a commander and the Battleforce 2000 contingent of G.I. Joe.  I’ve just got the one, though.  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  This BAT serves as an update of the V2 BAT from 1991.  That figure was a completely unique sculpt from its predecessor, where as this guy actually relies pretty heavily on parts from the V1-inspired 25th Anniversary figure.  Given the common features between the two designs, it’s not the worst call, and it helps that the 25th BAT is probably the nicest sculpt of that era.  There’s just a lot of depth to it, especially what’s visible of the inner workings of the torso (actually sculpted, as opposed to the lenticular of the older BATs), and how you can make out the robotic frame beneath the uniform.  To bring the sculpt more in line with the V2 design, the figure gets a new head, which is a pretty spot-on recreation of the original toy, and also ditches the 25th figure’s shoulder strap with grenade.  It makes for a respectable approximation, although there do still remain some elements that don’t quite match, such as the thigh holster, and the slightly more robotic lower arms.  Ultimately, I find the design works a touch better in this incarnation, and I don’t mind the changes, but your mileage may vary.  Since the V2 BAT was a ’90s Joe, he had a ’90s-esque color scheme to match, which this figure replicates.  He’s very bright and obnoxious, and I love it.  I do wish we had maybe seen a little bit of accenting on the mechanical sections, as we did on earlier uses of this mold, but in their defense on this one, I don’t know how that would have mixed with the orange.  The BAT V1.8 has an impressive selection of extras, including the standard hands for both sides, a flamethrower hand, a blaster hand, a claw hand, and a sword hand.  He’s also got the V1-style backpack to hold a few of them, a gun, a display stand, and the standard and damaged torso plates that later versions of the 25th mold sported.  You’ve got a lot of options for those eight figures that came packed into this set.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I was pretty heavily into the 25th through 30th lines, I fell out of Joes during all of the Retalliation tie-ins, and was completely gone for all of the club-exclusive stuff, so I didn’t get this guy new. However, he came into All Time last summer as part of a rather large, rather spread out collection, and I’ve always liked BATs, especially on this mold, so I was a pretty easy mark for this one.  He’s a pricey boy these days, but that doesn’t make him any less of a cool figure, especially with all the extra pieces.  If they weren’t so darn expensive, I wouldn’t mind having a few more.  Alas, not for now.