#2582: Clobberin’ Time Thing & Super Skrull

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

CLOBBERIN’ TIME THING & SUPER SKRULL

MARVEL MINIMATES

After being introduced into the line in early 2004 with a single team member, the Fantastic Four got another Marvel Minimates release in fairly short order.  It was great, another team member to–what’s that?  Oh, it wasn’t another team member at all?  It was just the same team member a second time?  Yeah, that sounds more appropriate.  Well, at least we got another FF foe out of the deal.  Also, full disclosure: this set’s not as bad as it seems on the outside.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Clobberin’ Time Thing and Super Skrull were a Tower Records-exclusive pack, added to the Marvel Minimates line in October of 2004.  They were Tower’s second exclusive for the line, following 2003’s single-release of Silver Surfer. Rather surprisingly for figures from this early in the line, these two remained wholly exclusive to this pack, though the pack itself was never incredibly hard to get a hold of or anything like that.

THING

Yes, for the second FF set, we got yet another version of The Thing.  This time around, he’s wearing one of his more extensive FF uniforms, with the tank top and boots that Byrne outfitted him with during his run on the book.  Honestly, I’ve always loved this look myself, so I can’t really complain that much.  The figure stands 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  Ben’s built on the standard ‘mate body, but wait, what’s that I spy?  Would those be C3-style feet?  Indeed they would.  Though they wouldn’t make it into the main line until the beginning of the next year, 2004’s summer/fall exclusive packs were all given the C3 treatment, a first for the Marvel line.  He’s got add-ons for his head piece and fists, which, like the prior release, help to bulk him up just a touch, while still keeping him more true to the core body than later versions.  While the head piece remains the same as the prior release, the hands are actually new, and actually do the reverse posing of the prior release: right is gripping, left is closed.  It’s a small touch, but still a cool one.  The paint work is a fair bit changed up for this release, adding the necessary details for his uniform, as well as some actual musculature for his torso, which works very well.  Additionally, his facial expression is changed to a close mouthed one, which really appeals to me and my desire to have more close mouthed Thing figures.  The face is seated slightly better on the face this time as well, so it works even better with the head piece this time.  Thing included a small cigar accessory originally, but mine hasn’t had one as long as it’s been in my possession.

SUPER SKRULL

Facing off against this new version of the Thing was an old FF foe whose whole gimmick is mimicking all four team members’ powers.  Maybe not the best choice when you still haven’t put out the whole team, but hey, new is new.  Like Ben, Kl’rt uses the new and improved C3-footed body.  He also gets new add-ons for his cowl, shoulder pads, flame effect, and extended rocky fist.  All of these pieces were re-used as the line progressed, and they’re all pretty solid additions.  They go more for the basic detailing of the earlier offerings, of course, but there’s plenty of sculpted detailing on that rocky fist, matching closely to what we saw on Thing’s hands.  It’s definitely cool.  Super Skrull’s paint work does a solid job of merging the typical Skrull with the effects of the FF’s powers.  He’s got the appropriate flamed-on effect for the right hand and forearm, and transparent lower legs.  It’s a good look, and it’s a lot of fun.  Super Skrull didn’t get any accessories, but given the number of new parts included, that’s hardly the end of the world.  I suppose some standard Skrull parts might have been cool, but that extensive level of alt parts wasn’t really a thing yet at this point.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Though these two are a two pack, I got the respective ‘mates about 8 years apart from each other, and neither one of them was new.  I fished Thing out of a small loose figure bin at a teeny tiny comic con I was attending back in 2011, and only had him for the longest time.  When All Time got in their huge Minimates collection last fall, Super Skrull was in there with no accompanying Thing, and so it just kind of felt meant to be.  Though the set’s doubling down on Ben seems like a bad move on the outside, he’s actually a really fun ‘mate, and remains my personal favorite version of the character in the line.  Super Skrull is likewise a really fun ‘mate, and he was new and different at the time.  Honestly, this is one of the coolest sets from ’04, and is a real pick-me-up after suffering through Series 7.

#2581: Batman & Joker

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

BATMAN & JOKER

BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN (DC DIRECT)

“An epic tale of mystery and suspense that takes Batman deep into the underworld of Gotham City.”

Well, we’re firmly a week into November.  Perfect timing for me to have *just* missed Halloween in order to properly theme what I’m about to review.   Yes, I’m jumping into the world of Batman: The Long Halloween, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s year-long miniseries following an early in his career Batman as he tracks down Holiday, a serial killer who strikes once a month on a holiday.  While on his quest to find the killer, Batman also manages to face down most of his major rogues gallery, making it a nice, all-encompassing Batman story, and certainly one of the best out there.  It’s distinctive style, and the fact that it includes so many heavy hitters made it a perfect choice for a toy line.  Today, I’m delving into the heaviest of hitters, Batman and the Joker.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Batman and The Joker were released as a special collector’s set from DC Direct in 2008, after they’d completed their main Long Halloween and Dark Victory lines.  The set included the two figures and some stripped down accessories, as well as a trade paperback of The Long Halloween.

BATMAN

“Batman races agains the calendar as he tries to discover who the killer Holiday is before he claims his next victim.”

Tim Sale’s Batman is a rather distinctive piece, and the chance to own it in three dimensions was one of the primary selling points of the first Long Halloween line.  It was so popular that it sold out the first time, so they just did a straight re-issue of it when it came time for the figures from Dark Victory…and then that one pretty much did the same thing.  So, this guy was the third pretty much straight re-release of this figure, although this one did get a new head sculpt out of it.  He’s almost 7 inches tall and he has 13 points of articulation.  It’s not a ton of posability, but it’s enough to get a few decent poses out of him.  The real weakness of the joints, I’d say, is the shoulders, which don’t really have much up and down.  This means he’s always just got them sort of jutting out to the sides like that.  Given Sale’s tendency to draw Bruce in rather dynamic poses while in costume, it’s not the end of the world, but it’s somewhat limiting.  In terms of the actual sculpt, Sale’s artwork proved a little difficult for DCD to translate into 3D.  His style is somewhat impressionistic, and he likes to keep his characters fluid, so getting them really nailed down in a single sculpt is tricky.  That’s definitely the case with Batman, who ends up looking close to Sale’s work to be sure, but there’s something…off.  The face in particular seems a bit out of place.  It’s a little bit pinched, I think, and almost too simian for the character.  It’s not far off, and definitely a marked improvement over the two single releases, but it’s still not quite there.  The other piece that seems to have given them trouble is the cape.  Sale always had Bruce’s cape all over the place, and he liked for it to be really long.  This figure aims to capture that, with a cape that trails behind and even lays on the ground at the back.  It’s not terrible, but the shaping doesn’t quite seem right here.  In this case, it’s really a matter of fighting with gravity, and it’s hard to fault DCD there.  The paint work on this guy remains pretty much the same as the two prior releases.  It’s black and grey, with just a touch of brown, which is to say it’s exactly what you’d expect from a standard Batman.  It’s pretty cleanly handled, and there’s no notable issues with mine, so I’m calling it a win in my book.  Batman includes a batarang with a line on it (which is the Dark Victory release) and a simple display stand with the book’s name printed on it.  I do miss the cool sidewalk stands that came with the single releases, but it’s fairly minor.

JOKER

“Sofia Falcone risked innocent lives when she unleashed The Joker after the Holiday killer!”

Joker’s an interesting choice for inclusion here.  I mean, yeah, he’s definitely Batman’s most distinctive foe and all, and his appearance in the book is a notable one, but beyond being the Joker, he’s not that prominent.  Two-Face and Catwoman are both far more plot relevant, and would have made for a more sensible second.  But, at the end of the day, DCD was hard pressed to say no to another Batman/Joker pairing, especially one the same year as The Dark Knight…which, of course, also had Two-Face in a prominent role, making his inclusion the more logical–nope, I’m spiraling again.  Stop it, Ethan.  What’s done is done.  This figure stands again just shy of 7 inches tall and he has again 13 points of articulation.  In terms of movement, Joker is even more static than Batman, largely because he’s far more pose-specific than Batman.  He’s patterned on a specific visual from the comic, which was more important for the single release of the figure, since it more tied in with that figure’s accessories.  Whatever the case, it’s got him in sort of a mid-stride appearance, which is a little tricky to work with, since it makes him rather hard to get standing.  I was mentioning above how Sale’s characters are very fluid; well, going by that method, his Joker is fully liquified.  He goes for the height of expressiveness, and that means he’s really hard to nail down in three dimensions.  Because of this, his sculpt is probably the weakest of the whole set.  It’s not bad, and when viewed from the right angle, it actually looks really cool.  The profile in particular is really killer.  It’s just not great for posing, and looking too closely at the internal proportions is bound to drive you batty, and not in the thematically appropriate way.  Joker’s paint work marked quite a change from the prior release, with a few changes to the actual color palette.  This is actually a case of DCD making good use of a second release of a mold, as Joker’s colors shift later in the series.  His single release matches the earlier appearance, while this one’s more of an end of the series look.  This release also cleans up the application a bit more, especially on the face, which is now a much cleaner end product.  The accessories are where this guy really takes a hit compared to the single.  He gets his gun and a display stand, but loses the santa hat and bag of gifts from the original.  While I get why they were cut, it’s still a little sad that they aren’t here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I hadn’t yet read Long Halloween when DCD first released figures from it.  By the time I got around to reading it (and loving it, because boy do I love it), all of the figures, including this pack, had disappeared.  I’ve had my eye out for a set of them for a bit, but never really went to the trouble of tracking them down.  This pair came into All Time as part of a rather large collection a few months ago, and they were at the right price at the right time, so I was definitely on board.  These two were probably the weakest of DCD’s Sale-based figures, but that doesn’t make either one of them a bad figure at all.  In fact, I really quite like them, and I’m happy to finally be making my way through this set of figures.

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

#2580: Stan Lee

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

STAN LEE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

The world of toys is full of figures of the fantastical creations that we all love, but it is a much rarer occasion that we actually see the focus shift to the creators of said creations.  Not entirely out of the question, of course.  Quentin Tarrantino’s gotten a few figures from his movies (even the ones where he doesn’t explicitly appear on screen), and James Cameron joined his Colonial Marines from Aliens in NECA’s line from the movie.  Even George Lucas has gotten a few toys.  Today, our sites are set firmly on the world of comics, with the most publicly known comic creator of all time, Stanley “Stan Lee” Leiber, father of the modern Marvel empire!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Stan Lee is his own stand alone Marvel Legends release, packaged in a similar fashion to last year’s “80 Years of Marvel” sub-line.  He’s not Stan’s first time as a toy, with a prior SDCC-exclusive Legend and a somewhat baffling Masters of the Universe Classics figure preceding him. This figure was originally designed to be a Build-A-Figure across a handful of MCU-based two-packs (which included Ross/Killmonger and Bucky/Falcon; we even saw some early production samples of the Ross/Killmonger set that still included the legs), but that was ultimately scrapped for this single release.  Honestly, that was probably the better call.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Stan is built on the suit body, specifically the Bruce Banner version of it, with the unbuttoned shirt.  He gets a new set of arms and jacket, as well as a new head, of course.  Most of the body wound up getting re-used for the Peter Parker figure, which actually beat this guy to market in a lot of places.  It’s a decent parts share idea, since not only was Stan pretty open about Peter being his author avatar, but also the last Legends Stan doubled as a Peter figure, so there’s precedent.  Stan’s new head sculpt is pretty much the spitting image of the real thing…albeit perhaps a little younger than the intended source material.  Technically according to the box, he’s supposed to based on Stan’s cameo appearance in The Avengers, but he ultimately looks like he’s a little more based on Stan circa the ’90s/early ’00s.  Ultimately, it’s still during a very visible period of time for Stan, and it even works a little more for me, since it means he ends up looking more like his appearances in the lead-ins for The Marvel Action Hour.  The point is, it’s a good sculpt, and does a great job of capturing Stan’s signature smile.  The official decision to base him on The Avengers seemed a touch limiting anyway.  Stan’s paint work is overall pretty monochromatic, and appropriately real world.  He uses the face printing, which works well here, and adds some nice weight and depth to the face sculpt.  The hair gets some accenting as well, which makes it again more in line with a slightly younger Stan, given how dark it is.  Stan’s accessory selection is…well, it’s something.  It’s definitely the least straight forward bit of everything about the figure.  He’s got a Captain America shield with his signature on it, which is cool, I guess, but kind of a weird piece.  Like, why has he signed it?  Also, there’s the added oddity of only including a single Marvel-related prop and having it be something from a character Stan *didn’t* create.  Were there at least a few other pieces (say a Mjolnir, or an Iron Man gauntlet), it’d be less weird.  As is, it’s…strange.  Also included is a small brown rectangle, which is supposed to be the box of chess pieces from The Avengers.  It’s really scene specific, and honestly doesn’t have much behind it.  it’s just another reminder of the supposed source for the figure, and not a great one at that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this figure was originally rumored as a BaF, I was not super thrilled, not because I didn’t want him, but because completing him felt like it would be a daunting task.  When he was cancelled, I was sad we weren’t getting him, but relieved I wouldn’t have to worry about completing him.  I was further relieved when he was confirmed for this single release.  It’s been a bit of a wait to get him, and the accessories are a little weird, but the core figure’s pretty great, and he looks awesome on the shelf with all of his creations.  Now, can we please mend some bridges to get a Jack Kirby figure to go with him?

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy 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.

#2579: War Machine

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

WAR MACHINE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Colonel James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes unleashes a torrent of explosive devastation from the air as War Machine.”

In the last few years of Marvel Legends, War Machine’s gotten a fairly decent amount of coverage, but it’s been almost entirely MCU-based coverage, due to the character’s numerous armor upgrades throughout those films.  Our only comics-based War Machine wasn’t actually Rhodey, and was instead a Punisher variant (and a not particularly comics accurate one, at that).  We haven’t actually gotten a proper 616 Rhodey since all the way back in the Toy Biz days, which is quite a gap of time.  Fortunately, Hasbro’s getting into the classic War Machine game with some style with a deluxe release of the character.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

War Machine is a standalone Deluxe-sized Marvel Legends offering.  Much like Black Widow and Archangel before him, he’s a standard sized figure with some extra bells and whistles added to justify a slightly higher price point.  This War Machine is based on the second rendition of the armor, which is the first version worn by Rhodey, and certainly one of the looks most associated with the character.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  Much like the old Toy Biz Legends War Machine, this version of Colonel Rhodes shares a few parts with the most recent Classic Iron Man in the line; he’s still mostly new, but the upper arms and legs are the same.  It’s hard to say they should look different, really, and they’re really well rendered parts anyway.  Plus, this helps to keep the sizing consistent between Iron Man armors.  The new parts, which include the head, torso, pelvis, forearms, hands, lower legs, and feet, are all clean renditions of the War Machine armor as seen in the comics.  There’s a nice geometric layout to them, and their boxy nature accents the sleek classic Iron Man design pretty well.  War Machine’s shoulder-mounted guns are the things that give most highly articulated versions of the character some trouble.  Hasbro’s prior attempts have all cheated the issue, and not really allowed for proper storage, and even Toy Biz’s old Legends release just had a plug and play set-up.  This one actually manages to pretty much replicate them as seen in the comics, right down to their ability to slide onto his back for storage.  In a perfect world, I’d like them to go back just a touch further than they do, but it’s certainly closer than any prior attempt (at this scale, at least), and I can definitely appreciate that.  War Machine’s paint scheme goes for a pretty stark black (or very dark gun metal grey, I guess) and light silver.  It’s a good look, and certainly helps some of the sculpted elements on the figure really pop out.  As far as actual paint application, there’s not really a ton, but the more basic, clean look works well with this design.  War Machine’s accessory selection is where a lot of the “deluxe” price point comes into play.  He gets an extra unmasked head, the four piece blast-off effect that we saw previously with Iron Man 2020, a missile firing effects piece for the missile launcher, a blast effect for the minigun, and three different effects configurations for the wrist gun: an in-motion shooting set-up, two individual blasts, and two smoking pieces for the barrels.  It’s quite a lot, and when he’s all kitted up, he makes for quite an impressive display.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I like War Machine, or at the very least I like Rhodey as a character.  War Machine’s figures tend to be a little bit hit or miss, and honestly the one I’ve liked the most previously was his old 5″ figure.  Legends are always fun, but something tends to keep them from being properly definitive for the character.  So, I was interested in this guy, but he was definitely a slow burn for me.  In-hand, I’m really impressed with him, and he gives me some serious cartoon vibes.  Now I *really* need a Modular Iron Man update to go with him.

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.

#2578: Red Hulk

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

RED HULK

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“General Thunderbolt Ross transforms into the Hulk, a creature he swore to destroy.”

From the second appearance of the character, the Hulk’s been no stranger to changes in color.  Originally shifting from grey to green, and then back to grey, and then green again, there’s certainly been some back and forth.  In 2008, Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness through another color into the mix, shifting the Green Goliath into the Crimson Goliath.  Of course, this new Red Hulk wasn’t just a recolor of Bruce Banner, but was instead someone else, whose identity remained a mystery for over a year…and then it turned out to be Thunderbolt Ross, in one of the most convoluted, fake-out-filled reveals in comics history.  Nowadays, of course, the reveal’s common knowledge, and gets used for toy packaging bios like that one above.  But hey, toy bios mean there’s a toy to go with them, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Red Hulk is a Target-exclusive deluxe Marvel Legends offering.  This marks Red Hulk’s second time in Legends form.  The first time was as a Build-A-Figure way back in 2008, and he was actually a Target-exclusive that time as well.  They sure do like those red exclusives, don’t they?  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Red Hulk is our fourth use of the 80 Years of Marvel Hulk body, which is, again, not much of a surprise.  It’s a good sculpt, and it’s no surprise that Hasbro wants to get more uses out of it.  As with Grey Hulk, this guy changes the body up a bit by adding a new head sculpt into the mix.  This one’s got Red Hulk’s spikier hair style (which, by the way, never really made much sense, since it’s not like this is anything like Ross’s usual hair style…and where the hell does his mustache go?), and also changes up the expression.  He’s still angry and screaming, but it’s a slightly different looking angry and screaming.  It’s more like someone barking orders, which feels appropriate for the character.  He ditches the torn shirt piece that the last two Hulks had, which is sensible, since I don’t believe Red Hulk’s ever really done the torn shirt thing.  The paint work on this guy is pretty basic, and that’s honestly a little bit of a let down when compared to the other two Hulks I’ve reviewed on this body.  He lacks any real accent work, apart from a little bit on the face.  That much is at least pretty cool, but his body ends up feeling, I don’t know, unfinished, I guess.  In terms of accessories, he gets two sets of hands, one in fists, and one in open gesture.  They make for some nice variety for posing.  In a perfect world, I’d have liked to see maybe another head sculpt as well, maybe with the grin the character frequently sported, but I suppose that, given his size, just the extra hands are acceptable.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Red Hulk hasn’t exactly been the most readily available figure, at least in my neck of the woods.  I’ve not seen him at retail myself, and Target’s site’s really not been much help.  I spent a good chunk of time looking for him, but with no luck.  Fortunately for me, my former co-worker Jon Nieto, who knows how much I like Legends, happened to catch them while they were in stock on the website, and was kind enough to snag a second one for me.  That sure made my life easier!  Thanks Jon!  There’s not a ton new going on with this figure, but the updated Hulk body is still always cool to see again, and he sure does contrast nicely with the 80th Hulk.

#2577: Kingpin

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

KINGPIN

MARVEL LEGENDS RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“Wilson Fisk ruthlessly rules New York City’s underworld with cunning and a keen intellect.”

Waaaaaay back at the beginning of 2019, which feels like several decades ago at this point, if I’m entirely honest, there was a somewhat soft and not particularly thrilling assortment of Spider-Man-themed Marvel Legends with one notable hook: it’s Build-A-Figure of Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin.  This subsequently made said Kingpin figure pretty darn pricey on the aftermarket, only adding further barriers to entry on owning a modern Legends Kingpin.  Fortunately, Hasbro’s been doing a pretty good job of keeping their fingers to the pulse on these older releases, and has been pretty steadily providing new avenues for people to pick them up.  Kingpin found his way into one of said avenues, and now I’m taking a look at the resulting figure.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kingpin follows in Mysterio’s footsteps, and is his own standalone release for the Retro Collection sub-line of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends.  He’s at their deluxe price point, but comes in his own replica vintage card, which is downright massive, as you would expect for a figure this size.  The figure stands 7 1/4 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation.  Rather unsurprisingly, this figure’s sculpt is mostly a re-use of the Build-A-Figure.  That was a really strong sculpt that did Fisk a lot of justice, so it’s certainly a sensible and well-chosen bit of re-use.  Also not even the slightest bit surprising, what with it being the same guy and all.  There’s one sculpting change between the two releases: this release trades out the last one’s tie for a far more fashionable ascot.  It’s a far more classically Kingpin piece, and it really sells the character even further.  It’s about the only change I could ask for, so I’m happy they went for it.  Beyond that small change, everything else on this figure relies on paint to sell the differences.  While the BaF went for a far more modernized color scheme for the character, this newer release leans into that retro angle, and gives us a far more classically inspired color scheme for the character.  While I didn’t mind the more subdued modern color scheme, there’s just something to be said for how well these colors pop.  And he’s even got the purple pants!  Dig!  The heads even get some minor reworking as well, with the eyebrows on both now being black instead of grey (again, helping things pop a little more), and the screaming head also gets some painted battle damage.  Again, dig.  This Kingpin once again gets his diamond-topped cane.  He’s still got some trouble holding it, but it’s still cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a big fan of the BaF version of Kingpin when it was released, but I’ll admit I was hoping for an ever so slightly more classically colored version of the figure.  When this was announced, I was definitely on board, though he was, perhaps, not quite at the top of my list, given the similarities to the prior figure.  That said, he ended up being an even better figure than I’d expected, and this new deco adds a lot more than I’d expected to the figure.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy 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.

#2576: Mystique

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

MYSTIQUE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A shapeshifter with a shadowy origin, Mystique is a unique and devastating threat to the X-Men.”

A couple of weeks ago, I touched on the somewhat tenuous relationship between the live action X-Men films and Marvel Legends, which has all been rather nicely cleaned up via Disney’s purchase of Fox.  With things taken care of, we’re finally able to get some decent toy coverage of the Fox X-films, courtesy of an off-shoot of Marvel Legends akin to the earlier Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years sub-line, but this time focusing on 20 years of X-Men movies.  I’ve looked at a few of the Deadpool-themed figures, but there’s also some coverage going all the way back to the first film from 2000.  Today, I’m taking a look at Mystique, inspired by that very film.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mystique is one of the three standard single-release figures in the X-Men sub-line of Marvel Legends.  So far, she’s the only figure to be explicitly based on the first film, but time will tell as to exactly how deep into this line Hasbro decides to go.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 26 points of articulation.  Mystique’s articulation set-up is pretty much the same as Domino’s, and it’s likewise a strong set-up here, just like it was there.  I wouldn’t mind just a touch more range on the hip joints, but otherwise the range and tolerancing is really good.  It’s certainly an amazing step up from the *last* movie Mystique we got, although I suppose two decades will do that for you.  As I noted in the intro, this Mystique is specifically based on the character’s appearance in the first movie, and there are a few specifics in the sculpt that confirm this.  The most obvious tell that it’s an early movie version fo the character is the fact that it’s clearly Rebecca Romijn’s face underneath of the make-up on this one.  It’s actually a pretty strong likeness, at that.  Getting some one’s features down when they’re covered by this much appliance work isn’t always easy, but Hasbro’s done pretty well, with not only a strong likeness, but also some solid texturing work on the scales.  This solid work on the texturing continues onto the body, which does a good job of replicating the layout and design of the appliances seen in the movie.  The build on the body also is a pretty solid match for Romijn’s build, as well as just looking like a real person in general.  She’s notably missing the three scars on her belly that she got from Wolverine stabbing her in the first film, which is what signifies this as officially being a first movie figure, although the scars are a minor enough detail that she’ll work alright for the later movies as well.  The paint work on this figure’s better than you might think at first glance.  She’s a lot of blue, but she’s a lot of different blues, and it’s a nice layout of accenting.  Mystique is packed with two sets of hands (open and in fists) and an alternate left arm that’s shifting into a normal skin tone.  The alternate arm’s a fun way of showing off her powers, and I definitely dig it.  I was a little bit surprised that they didn’t toss in a Jennifer Lawrence head as well, just to let this figure pull of some double duty, but given what happened with her planned Marvel Select figure, I can see Hasbro not wanting to chance her pulling likeness approval again at the last minute.  It’s not like she’s without cool extras as is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mystique’s been a prominent fixture in the X-films since their beginning, so the fact that the only figure she got was way back during the first movie’s tie-in line was kind a major oversight.  It’s nice that we got more than a bunch of Wolverine variants to start with, and it’s nice that the older movies are still getting some appreciation as well.  Mystique’s a slightly understated figure, lacking some of the flair of the other figures, but that doesn’t make her any less a cool figure.  Here’s hoping we get to fill out the rest of the first movie cast a bit more.

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.

#2575: Spider-Man 2099

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

SPIDER-MAN 2099

MARVEL MINIMATES

When last I talked Marvel Minimates, I was discussing the rather infamous Series 7, the line’s dreaded “retread wave”, an assortment that was more than 2/3 redundant.  I had delved most of the way into it, but of the two actually new ‘mates included there in, I have thus far only reviewed one, leaving one last figure for me to look at.  Gee, I wonder what I’ll be looking at today…perhaps that exact figure?  Yeah, probably.  Let’s do this, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man 2099 was one of the two unique pieces in the seventh specialty assortment of the Marvel Minimates line.  In fact, if you *really* want to get into it, he was actually the only truly unique piece in the line-up, since the other one, Chameleon, actually got two releases within Series 7 itself.  So that’s…cool, I guess?  2099 was packaged with Silver Surfer, which was an off the wall pairing to be sure.  Surfer had, of course had one prior release, and had another two on the horizon following this one, and is a ‘mate I’ve already reviewed.  2099 is a vanilla ‘mate, relying on just the core long-footed Minimate body, meaning he’s 2 1/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  2099 is, notably, one of four ‘mates in Series 7 to not use any add-ons, making it a very parts sparse assortment as a whole.  He really *should* have gotten a cape piece, and honestly would have probably benefited from Venom’s clawed hands.  It probably would have helped add some pop to the design, because as it is, he’s kind of…flat?  The paint work is doing the heavy lifting here, and while it’s fine from a technical stand point, it doesn’t really do a ton to make the design pop off of the page.  The blue seems a little light, and the red a little dark, and he lacks any sort of musculature detailing or anything.  Again with the flatness.  2099 included no accessories, lest he have anything else going on to add potential excitement to the assortment.  Can’t have that, can we?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When Series 7 hit, the only set I actually picked up was 2099 and Silver Surfer, because it wasn’t totally redundant, and I didn’t yet have Surfer.  As I noted in my review of Surfer, I lost a good chunk of the parts to my 2099 over the years.  The one seen here is actually on loan to me from Max, who was kind enough to help me round out this last piece of Series 7, just so I could finally be done with it.  Honestly, there’s not much to write home about here.  He was new and unique at the time, but I can’t say he was particularly thrilling.

#2574: Invisible Man

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

INVISIBLE MAN

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS MONSTERS (SIDESHOW)

“Universal Studios created and truly defined the horror film genre beginning in the 1920s.  In 1933, Universal released The Invisible Man, starring Claude Rains.  It was Rains’ unique speaking voice that won him the part and which was vital to portraying a man who, in a great portion of the film, would be invisible to the audience.  The role also assured Rains a place in Universal Studios’ unique and rich history of horror films.

The Invisible Man is the story of a mysterious doctor who, through his relentless experiments, discovers a serum that renders him invisible.  Covered by bandages and dark glasses, it is only his clothing that will reveal his form and presence.

Fleeing to a remote English village, the doctor tries to hide the effects of his serum.  However, the drug that was his ultimate discovery is slowly driving him to the brink of insanity, as he begins his spree of horror.”

It’s Halloween dear readers!  I know, given the general horror abounding in our everyday lives this past year, today is, perhaps, not as hard hitting as prior Halloweens.  But let’s try to be somewhat in the spirit, you guys!  Every Halloween, I like to review something appropriately spooky for the day.  In contrast to 6 of the 7 prior Halloween reviews, I’m not reviewing a Minimates set, though I’m still sticking with the overall Universal Monsters theme I’ve grown so accustomed to.  Sideshow Collectibles was kind of synonymous with Universal Monsters for a solid chunk of the ’00s.  While their main claim to fame for years has been their impressive output of 1/6 scale figures, their initial offerings were actually a little bit on the shorter side.  I’m looking at one of their earliest figures, the Invisible Man, today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Invisible Man was released in 2000 as part of Series 3 of Sideshow’s Universal Studios Monsters line.  Packed alongside the Hunchback and the Metaluna Mutant, the Invisible Man was definitely this assortment’s heavy hitter.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  The Invisible Man has a couple of looks over the course of the film, and this figure opts for the robed appearance.  It’s probably the most distinctive of his looks, and certainly makes for the sharpest looking figure.  The sculpt on this figure was unique to him, as was the case for most of the line.  He, again like the rest of the line, was designed more or less as a plastic statue that happened to have some joints for minor tweaking to the pose, rather than being a more traditional action figure.  The best range is definitely on the neck joint, though the elbow and shoulder joints do have a little bit of flex to them as well.  The mid-leg cut joints are pretty much exclusively for tweaking the balance of the figure to keep him standing, which isn’t too dynamic, but does help keep this guy standing.  Moving past the mobility of the figure, the actual quality on the sculpt is pretty good, if perhaps a touch un-even.  The best work is definitely on the head, which has a ton of texturing and pretty much perfectly recreates the masked appearance as seen in the film.  From the neck down, there’s markedly less texturing work.  It’s still a good recreation of his garb from the film, in a sharp and clean fashion.  It’s fairly striking looking, and honestly works out pretty well, even if the texturing is absent.  Given what he’s wearing, it actually looks pretty solid.  The figure’s paint work is pretty strong work as well.  Again, the head’s the best work, with a believably weathered set of bandages.  The rest of the figure is more basic coloring, but there’s some impressive work on the patterns on the robe and the pants.  As with the rest of the line, there was a “Silver Screen” edition, which did all of the paint work in a grey scale color scheme, matching the actual film presentation.  It’s a little more limited in its application, but it’s still a cool concept.  Regardless of version, the Invisible Man was packed with an unmasked head, three books, and a display stand.  The head’s a fascinating piece, because honestly it’s something that would be far more accurately recreated with just a removable head, but they went to the trouble of sculpting a really impressive Claude Rains likeness and then totally hiding it by leaving it translucent and unpainted.  That’s commitment right there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This line hit right in tandem with my first real stint with the Universal Monster movies, so I was very actively aware of it.  I only ever owned one figure from it, largely due to it being a pretty popular line, and me being an 8 year old without any money or transportation of his own.  I recall seeing this particular figure one time in a Toys R Us, while on a shopping trip with my Nana.  She was always pretty invested on pushing me into more conventional toys, so I ended up leaving the store with two X-Men: Movie figures instead (though, me being me, I went with Jean Grey and Professor X; yes, the girl and the guy in the wheel chair, which still raised some comment from Nana, who was really pushing for Wolverine and Magneto).  That marked the only time I saw this figure in person until earlier this month, when an entire set of this line came into All Time.  I snagged this guy for me right away, and I’m honestly really happy to finally have him.  He’s perhaps not the most action oriented piece, but he’s a really nice display piece.

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

#2573: Mountain Trooper

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

MOUNTAIN TROOPER

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Like all First Order Stormtroopers, specialized units of Batuu Mountain Troopers are trained from birth, growing up with unit designations instead of names and fed a steady diet of First Order propaganda to ensure absolute loyalty.”

There were no shortage of new Trooper variants introduced into Star Wars with the latest trilogy of films, and as such there’s also been no shortage of Trooper variant toys.  I’ve looked at a fair number of them here on the site, be they prominent in the films, or exceedingly minor.  What makes today’s particular Trooper different?  Near as anyone can tell, today’s focus the Mountain Trooper exists nowhere but in the toys, and only in a very exclusive set of them at that.  That’s actually pretty out there for a Star Wars concept, if you can believe it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Mountain Trooper was originally added to the Black Series line in the Disney Parks-exclusive “The First Order” boxed set with Kylo Ren, Commander Pyre, and a Mouse Droid.  Like DJ R3X, he was given an outside of the parks release this year courtesy of Target’s exclusive “Trading Outpost” sub-line.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation.  From a design stand point, there’s a lot of similar lineage here as we saw on the Scarif Troopers, as well as a little bit of Biker Scout thrown in, albeit with all of the elements somewhat updated to the slightly tweaked First Order aesthetic.  Ultimately, he ends up feeling like the First Order answer to the Biker Scouts, and I am totally on board with that.  Structurally, the figure uses the legs and hands of the Scarif-based troopers as a starting point.  Everything else is new, but it definitely all has a similar feel about it as the other Scarif figures in terms of how the construction is set-up.  The articulation scheme in particular sticks out as being pretty much the same.  This ultimately makes the figure a touch more restricted than some more recent troopers, especially when it comes to the elbow movement.  It’s really the only flaw with the figure.  Beyond that, the sculpt is a pretty impressive one, with a lot impressive and clean detail work.  The figure’s paint work is pretty solid.  The base colors are nice and strong, and the application is clean.  The figure also takes advantage of the printing technique to give the Trooper some pretty solid looking weathering.  The Mountain Trooper is packed with a single accessory: an all-new blaster rifle, which also sports some impressive weathering.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My love of the Biker Scout and Scarif Trooper designs is no secret, so it’s probably not a terrible surprise that this guy intrigued me as soon as he was shown off. I hadn’t had the opportunity to procure the three pack, for obvious reasons, so when the Trading Outpost figures were announced, I was hopeful to find him.  Life’s been pretty jam-packed and hectic for me recently, so a few weeks ago Christian and Cheyenne forced me to take some time for myself and took me to Target to pick up a few things just for me.  I just so happened to walk back to the toy aisle right as the Outpost figures were going out, and boom, there this guy was.  He’s not anything amazingly special or anything like that, but he’s pretty fun, and I’m glad I was able to get a hold of him.