#2443: Iron Man

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

IRON MAN — GAMERVERSE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Tony Stark developed his cutting-edge Iron Man armor and helped found the Avengers to protect the world against catastrophic threats.”

As the MCU moves away from the two of them, the Marvel Legends line has to find new ways to keep new variants of heavy hitters like Iron Man and Captain America coming out.  Fortunately, the two of them are still pretty pivotal to the upcoming Avengers game from Square Enix, thereby guaranteeing the two of them another couple of easy-sell variants.  I took a look at the Captain America yesterday, and I’ll be following that up with the Iron Man figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iron Man is the second of the three game-inspired single-packed figures in the Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  He was actually the first of these figures we saw, before we knew there’d be a full assortment of figures to go with him, back in the fall of last year. He’s again based on the character’s standard design from the game.  While Cap’s design took quite a few more artistic liberties with its implementation, the Iron Man design by and large sticks pretty close to the MCU Iron Man playbook.  It’s a little more streamlined most places, except for some reason the helmet, which is where the majority of the changes happen.  The figure stands just over 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  The movement on this guy is a little stiff, even for an Iron Man figure, with the shoulders in particular being rather difficult to work with.  Also, the decision to give him a torso crunch, instead of the ball-jointed style we’ve gotten with the last several movie Iron Men is rather baffling, especially given that the design has a clear spot for such a joint to be included, but Hasbro still opted for a far more limiting method.  He does at least get to keep the full wrist joints on his arms this time, so it’s not all bad decisions.  This Iron Man is sporting an all-new sculpt, which looks to be fairly faithful to the game.  It’s not bad, and is about on par with the various MCU sculpts in terms of quality and feel.  While I thought Cap’s design translated pretty nicely to toy form, I don’t think that’s quite true with Iron Man, or at the very least his helmet.  It looks fine in the game animation I’ve seen, but I really don’t care for it in toy form.  I think it’s how closely it contours to his face; that visible nose really seems odd for Iron Man, and it ends up making him look fairly alien, which I don’t think was the intended feel.  Other than that, though, the body on this figure does look pretty cool, and the detailing is all pretty sharp.  The paint work is pretty standard Iron Man fare.  The red is molded in that sort of swirly metallic plastic, and everything else is painted.  The application’s pretty clean overall, but there are a few spots of bleed over here and there.  The arc reactor uses the printing technique we’ve been seeing on the faces to give it some more variation, which looks pretty decent overall.  Iron Man is packed with two sets of hands (one in fists, the other in repulser blast pose), two effects pieces, and the left leg to the Abomination Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this figure was first shown off, I really didn’t have much interest.  We’d just gotten the Mark 85, with is really everything I want in a real-world Iron Man figure, and it looked like this guy might be another one-off release like Spider-Man was, so I was content to pass.  Once he was part of a full assortment, the story changed a bit.  Ultimately, I wasn’t expecting much out of this figure, and that’s for the best.  He’s not bad, but I think the 85 or even the Tenth Anniversary Mk VII are stronger modern Iron Men than this one.  He’s kind of a middling figure for me.

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

#2442: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — GAMERVERSE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Injected with an experimental Super-Soldier Serum, Steve Rogers has the peak potential of strength, endurance, and dexterity.”

Alright, I took a bit of a break for the weekend, but let’s jump right back in to Marvel Legends, shall we?  I looked at the comics-based half of the most recent Avengers set last week, so now I’m jumping into the video-game-based segment, all of which hail from Square Enix’s Avengers game, originally due out this May, but recently delayed until September.  I’m kicking things off with the game’s altered take on Captain America!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is the first of the three Gamerverse-specific figures in the Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s based on Cap’s standard design from the game.  All of the core team designs have been fairly highly criticized, and Cap’s probably got the worst of it, with the general consensus being that it looks a little bit low-rent cosplay for a Cap design, especially in contrast to the MCU’s far better recieved “real world” adaptations of his classic comics get-up.  I don’t hate it quite as much as others, but I definitely have my qualms with a few of the design choices.  Still, it’s not the worst choice for toy coverage.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Cap’s sporting a brand-new sculpt to replicate the game design.  It’s a pretty spot-on recreation of the models we’ve seen so far, for better or for worse.  It honestly benefits a bit from being seen in three dimensions, as the depth to the various parts of the costume is a little better viewed this way.  Some of the iffier design choices, such as the larger head wings, also look a little less odd here.  His face does seem maybe a touch square, and his hands seem a little small by my metrics, but I do generally like the look of this figure, and Hasbro certainly took advantage of the extra costume details to help keep the sculpt interesting.  The paintwork on this guy is pretty decent, with a little bit of a caveat.  There’s nothing wrong with it from a technical standpoint.  The application is all pretty clean, and they even used the face printing to make him a little more lifelike.  He’s an accurate recreation of the colors from the game.  There in lies the problem.  While the design looks better on the figure from a sculpting standpoint, the colors don’t translate so well.  They’re really just too muted, and I’m not super crazy about some of the color placement.  In particular, I think he’d look better if the white on the shoulders and the blue on the biceps were swapped, and if he had more red overall on the costume.  As it stands, he looks a bit more like an adaptation of Cap’s Secret War costume, rather than his more classic gear.  Cap is a bit light on the accessories front, with just his shield.  It’s an all-new sculpt, representing the slightly tweaked design from the game.  While it’s not a bad design in its own right, it doesn’t stay on his arm very securely, which is a little frustrating, but it does at least plug into his back without any trouble.  Not giving Cap one of the BaF parts is okay, but it’s a shame he didn’t at least get some extra hands or maybe an unmasked head to help fill out the package a little bit more.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I wasn’t immediately won over by this design, I don’t think it’s the worst thing ever, and I’m a sucker for a decent Captain America, so I was certainly interested in this guy from the get-go.  He wasn’t as high on my list as, say Mar-Vell, but I was a little excited.  Ultimately, he’s not going to win everyone over, but I do think he makes for a really solid Captain America figure, and I think he’s going to look pretty cool alongside Hasbro’s new G.I. Joe line.

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

#2441: Senyaka

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

SENYAKA

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“A member of the humanity-hating Acolytes, Senyaka is perhaps the most ruthless soldier in Magneto’s war against mankind! Often leading the other Acolytes into battle, Senyaka uses his psionic whips to course pain into his ensnared foes! Even more deadly, however, is his power to energize his own energies by sapping his victim’s very life forces. Though struck down in battle by Magneto himself, Senyaka has returned to plague humans once again, with each attack more lethal than the last!”

Remember in my last two Toy Biz X-Men reviews, where I was discussing characters who were pretty much only relevant during the ’90s?  Yeah, so today’s focus wasn’t even particularly relevant *then.*  That bio up there? Probably the most that’s ever been said about Senyaka.  I think I actually learned stuff from that bio, which I guess is the point, isn’t it?  Well, Senyaka got an action figure, so I guess I should maybe review it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Senyaka was released twice during the Toy Biz X-Men run.  Initially, he was offered up as a TRU-exclusive alongside Series 7 in 1994, and then was added to a proper assortment in 1995 as part of the Mutant Genesis Series.  He’s the same figure either way, and mostly it just served to make him *incredibly* easy to find.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  He’s got no movement at his neck or right elbow, due to how the figure is designed, making him a bit on the stiff side.  Apparently, Senyaka’s had multiple costumes?  Who knew?  Well, he’s sporting his Alcolytes costume, which seems reasonable enough.  The sculpt is pretty typical for the line.  He’s stiff, he’s buff, and he’s got pouches and shoulder pads.  There’s not a ton of detailing going on, but it looks like all of the important stuff is there.  Senyaka’s paint work is pretty standard.  The base color work is all pretty clean, and the colors seem to more or less match what Senyaka was usually sporting.  Senyaka had a slightly different accessory selection depending on release.  Both included his whip, but the Mutant Genesis release also added a nunchuck-looking thing.  Mine has neither, so I guess doesn’t really matter.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Senyaka’s another one of those “if I’m getting the rest of the line, I might as well” figures.  I’ve got no attachment to the character, but then who really does?  I got mine loose, hence the lack of accessories.  Perhaps someday I’ll find them.  Ultimately, there’s nothing really impressive about this guy, but he’s certainly not the worst thing the line offered, and fills in a line-up of villains alright.

#2440: R2-D2

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

R2-D2

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Inside the Imperial Death Star, R2-D2 uses one of his many mechanical assets to rescue his Rebel companions from certain death within a rapidly closing trash compactor.”

As I was mentioning last week, droids make up quite a subset of the Star Wars universe, be they background, or even main characters.  Of note are C-3PO and today’s focus R2-D2, who have appeared in every film in the franchise to date, making them the real connective tissue that holds things together.  Being as frequently appearing as they are in the films, they are similarly pretty frequently appearing in the accompanying toy lines, usually with some sort of gimmick to help set them apart from prior releases.  Let’s dig into what makes this specific R2 so unique.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

R2-D2 was released in 1998 as part of Kenner’s Power of the Force line.  He’s the second R2 to be released in the line, following the more standard version from ’95.  The figure stands 3 inches tall and has 3 points of articulation.  This R2 was a totally new sculpt.  It’s not terribly different from the initial figure, but it’s different enough to be noticeable.  Unlike the prior R2, he doesn’t have the retracting third leg, or any third leg at all.  Instead, he makes use of the extra space in the torso to add a slightly different gimmick: a retracting datalink arm.  It’s a cool enough feature, though it would probably be cooler if it hadn’t immediately broken on mine.  Maybe I’m just too rough on my toys?  He’s also got another built-in gimmick, a  pop-out scanner in his head dome.  That one works a lot better, and is probably my favorite part of this particular release.  The paint work on this guy is a definite step-up from the prior figure.  He keeps the chromed head (this was a wonky licensing thing with Lucasfilm, despite its inaccuracy), but corrects the missing third blue stripe on his “face.”  He also gets quite a bit of weathering on his lower portion.  While he’s *technically* a New Hope R2, this added dirt means he pairs quite well with the ESB Dagobah figures, which is another plus in my book.  R2 is packed with both a grasper arm and a saw arm, both of which can plug into the front of the figure.  He also included a Freeze Frame slide depicting R2 and 3PO on the Death Star, though I somehow managed to misplace that one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really only had the need for one R2 growing up, so this guy got left out.  He’s one of the ones I was more interested in when I started to go back and fill in the holes in my collection, though, and wound up as part of one of my earlier splurges of PotF figures back in 2018.  He actually sat packaged for a good while before I finally got around to opening him.  Issues with the datalink aside, I think this guy was the best of the R2s offered up by this line.

Thanks to my friends at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy.  They’ve got a decent back stock of Power of the Force, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2439: Leader

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

LEADER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Gamma radiation turned Samuel Sterns into the hyper-intelligent menace, the Marvel’s Leader.”

Brains vs Brawn is a fairly common trope when it comes to super hero comics, so it’s not a huge surprise that Hulk, kind of the ultimate “brawn” character frequent finds himself facing off against equivalent “brains” villains.  Probably the best example of this is Samuel Sterns, aka The Leader, a character whose story is a pretty clean inversion of Banner, with a gamma radiation-induced mutation that takes him from a man of average intelligence and makes him a super genius.  Well, now he’s a super genius with a new Marvel Legend.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Leader is the last of the comics-based figures in the Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Sterns’ second time getting the Legends treatment, but the last time was under the Toy Biz banner, so it’s been a while.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Leader is built on the Reed Richards variant of the Pizza Spidey body, a fairly reasonable choice of body given how Sterns is usually depicted.  It does have the unintended play feature of removable arms, which makes for some entertaining posing options with other figures.  Leader gets a new head, harness, and belt piece to round out his classic design.  The head’s definitely the best piece, and makes for a solid rendition of that ’70s/’80s pre-further mutation head.  It’s non *quite* as classic as the Toy Biz variant was, but it’s a nice middle ground.  It feels really appropriate for the character.  The paintwork on Leader is pretty bright and eye-catching…though why a green guy decided that orange and yellow were his best options is really anyone’s guess.  The head is again the best work, as they even put some slight shading under his eyes, which really helps them pop, and pushes that whole villain thing a little bit more.  Leader gets no character-specific extras, but he does get the right leg of the Abomination BaF, which is at least a pretty sizable piece, so he doesn’t feel too light.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Leader is one of those characters that I’ve never found a need to own in figure form, so I actually haven’t before this point.  But, since I’m more or less going all in on this Legends stuff, I guess it’s as good a time as any to add him.  There’s not a ton of new going on with this figure, but he’s another solid formula figure from Hasbro, and a good way to add another character to the Hulk’s rogues roster.

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

#2438: Marvel’s Rage

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

MARVEL’S RAGE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Accidental exposure to toxic chemicals as a young man gave Elvin Haliday superhuman powers.”

Okay, I’m gonna be real with you all, I’m going into some uncharted territory here.  Not because of the Marvel Legends thing; I can write these reviews in my sleep.  I’m just doing something I really never fathomed: reviewing a second Rage figure.  I even noted in my last Rage review that I expected him to be the only one we’d ever get.  Now there’s a second one.  What a world we live in.  Well, guess I’ll do the unthinkable and review another Rage figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Marvel’s Rage, as this figure is rather humorously named, is the third of the four comics-based figures in the Gamerverse-centered Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  Like the smaller figure, this guy’s based on Rage’s original costume, which is honestly his best and most distinctive, so that seems pretty sensible.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Rage is built on the Hyperion body, with the new lower legs from Crossbones, plus a new head, and add-ons for his wrist bands, vest, and belt.  The new pieces are all nice enough.  The mask is actually a separate piece from the head, and can be removed if you’re determined, though the underlying head isn’t designed to be looked at; it’s honestly a little frightening.  The other add-ons have some nice, sharp texture work going on, especially the vest (which, incidentally, helps to hide that unpleasant looking torso shelf of the Hyperion mold).  Rage’s paint work is all pretty solid stuff.  Mostly it’s pretty straight forward, but there are some nice smaller touches, such as actually painting his visible gums, and even giving him his chest hair.  There’s definitely some nice attention to detail going on there.  Rage doesn’t include any of his own accessories, but he does get the right arm of the new Abomination Build-A-Figure.  Honestly, I don’t know what else you would give Rage anyway.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rage is one of those characters I’ve always been aware of, but not one I’ve ever formed a major attachment to.  Finding out he was in this assortment was more of a surprise due to the unlikeliness than anything else.  I’m not sure what to really say about him.  I guess it’s nice to get another New Warrior, and he’s a decent enough by-the-numbers figure, but by-and-large the figure just fills me with apathy.  Oh, sorry, *Marvel’s* Apathy.

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

#2437: Mach-I

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

MACH-I

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Abner Jenkins suits up in his Mobile Armored Cyber Harness as Mach-I.”

For the second time in modern Legends, Abner Jenkins is coming in here with a “finally” figure.  We’ve had a surprising number of figures of this guy, most of them under his former Beetle moniker.  It took us four different Beetle figures to finally get Abner’s classic Beetle armor.  His later heroic identity of Mach-I has been teased at as a repaint of an existing Beetle twice before, but is only just now coming to fruition.  Better late than never, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mach-I is another of the comics-based figures in the Gamerverse-inspired Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  He marks our third yearly addition to the founding Thunderbolts line-up, following Songbird and Citzen V.  One of Abner’s gimmicks as a hero was his knack for constantly upgrading his suit, each time dubbing it with a new number at the end of the Mach name.  This figure wisely opts for his earliest design, from when the team first showed up.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  As had been theorized ever since the original figure was released, Mach-I is largely a re-working of the Ultimate Beetle figure, with a more standard set of hands and feet, and a new head and upper torso.  There are definite similarities between Ultimate Beetle and Mach-I (they were designed by the same artist, after all), so the re-use is a sensible one.  The mold’s not quite as slick these days as it was when it was new, but it’s still not terrible.  Replacing the feet makes sense, but I will admit the standard hands are a little odd.  They clearly aren’t gloved and the choice to go with the gripping hands makes little sense, given he’s got nothing to hold.  Not sure why they didn’t just keep the Beetle hands, honestly.  The new parts are decent enough overall, though not without one slight set-back.  For some reason, his shoulder pads are just permanently attached at that very slight angle.  Typically such things are articulated, but that’s not the case for Mach-I.  It’s an odd choice.  The paint work on Mach-I is pretty solid overall.  The varied shades of blue are a lot of fun, and I dig the overall metallic sheen on this guy.  Mach-I has no accessories specifically for him, but he gets the head for the Build-A-Figure Abomination.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been anticipating this figure ever since the Ultimate Beetle figure first hit, and he’s only become more obvious an inclusion as we’ve gotten more Thunderbolts members.  I don’t know that I personally *needed* this figure, but he’s a cool enough design.  Ultimately, he does feel ever so slightly behind the times, like he was a figure that Hasbro had ready to go fairly shortly after Beetle’s release, but kept shelving.  Had he hit a year or two ago, he’d have fit right in, but right now he’s out of place.  He’s still not a bad figure, of course, and he looks great with the team we’ve gotten so far.  I look forward to building more of this set!

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

#2436: Mar-Vell

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

MAR-VELL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The powers of flight, superhuman strength and stamina make Mar-Vell a celebrated warrior.”

First introduced in 1967, Kree captain Mar-Vell took on the moniker of “Captain Marvel” pretty much exclusively so that Marvel could lay claim to the name, which Fawcett Comics had lost control of years prior.  He was a modestly developed character, and helped to really launch the cosmic side of Marvel’s comics line.  Perhaps most notably, however, the character faced his own mortality and eventual death in Jim Starlin’s Death of Captain Marvel, and has subsequently remained one of the few comics characters to truly stay dead (though many writers have found ways to bring Mar-Vell back under very specific circumstances that wouldn’t keep him back long-term).  Mar-Vell found his way into Legends form during the Toy Biz days, but hasn’t seen a release since, even with all of his successors accounted for.  Fortunately, that’s changed.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mar-Vell is part of the Gamerverse-oriented Abomination Series of Marvel Legends, which is one of this year’s Avengers assortments.  He’s officially only called “Mar-Vell” on the box, no doubt to avoid any brand confusion as Marvel continues to push Carol as the true Captain Marvel.  Honestly, I don’t think it matters all that much, so it’s cool by me.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Mar-Vell is built on the Spider-UK body, with the Nega Bands from last year’s Genis-Vell, and a brand new head.  The body is a good match for how Mar-Vell was classically depicted, and is just one of my favorites of Hasbro’s current stock.  The only downside is that the Nega Bands, which were sized to the Reaper body, are kinda loose on this guy.  I’m planning to stick something in there to help them stay in place a bit better, but it’s a little bit frustrating.  I do quite like the new head sculpt, which captures Mar-Vell’s rather ’70s ‘do pretty darn well, and gives us a nice, clean-cut hero look on the face.  Mar-Vell’s paint work is fairly decent overall.  The metallic blue looks really slick, and the application is generally all pretty clean.  There are a few fuzzy spots on some of the transitions on mine, but nothing too noticeable.  Mar-Vell doesn’t get any accessories of his own, which is too bad.  A couple of effects pieces would have been fun.  He does get the right arm to the Abomination Build-A-Figure, though, which is a pretty sizable piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Toy Biz Mar-Vell is definitely one of my favorites of that era, but he was starting to show his age.  If there was one thing I regretted not seeing in last year’s Captain Marvel-centric assortment, it was a proper classic Mar-Vell update.  I was very happy to see this guy crop up here, and he was definitely my most anticipated of the set.  He’s a fairly basic figure, but he’s a solid update to the prior version, and a great addition to my ranks of Captains Marvel.

Mar-Vell was purchased from my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2435: The Child

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

THE CHILD

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

The Mandalorian was a pretty huge hit right out of the gate, but pretty much everything else about the show pales in comparison to the Baby Yoda phenomenon.  Kept a well-guarded secret by those involved in the show, “The Child” (as he was officially dubbed by Disney) was immediately met with pretty much universal approval, and an insane demand for all the merchandise imaginable.  Of course, part of keeping Baby Yoda such a well-guarded secret was not letting any of the licensors even know the character existed until after the first episode had dropped, meaning there was a bit of a gap between his appearance on the show an any merch.  Fortunately, things have turned around pretty darn quickly on that front.  There are a lot of options right out of the gate, but I’m kicking things off with a look at Hasbro’s Black Series offering.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Child is a one-off Black Series release, which started hitting retail right at the beginning of May.  He’s using the packaging style introduced in 2018 with the Porg two-pack, but he’s at a slightly higher price point.  The figure is incredibly small, and indeed a lot smaller than many people expected.  However, at just over an inch tall, he’s pretty much exactly the size he should be to go with the rest of The Black Series line.  He’s better articulated than you might expect, with 7 points of articulation.  That includes ball joints at the neck, shoulders, and ankles (yes, he’s got a fully detailed pair of feet that no one’s ever going to see).  His range is rather limited overall, especially on the shoulders.  I was, however, quite pleased with the mobility on the neck joint, which allows for a good deal of expressiveness to his posing.  The sculpt is rather well detailed for the size, with the head exhibiting the best work.  The likeness to the puppet from the show is pretty spot-on, especially in the face.  The paintwork on this figure is fairly light.  The construction of the figure is such that most of the color work is done via straight molded coloring.  There’s a little bit of work on his face and ears, which is up to par with the current standard for the main line, so no complaints there.  Baby Yoda’s got a fun selection of cool extras, including the frog-like creature it eats after the Mando finds it, the bowl of broth he carries during Mando and Cara’s face-off in Chapter 4, and the knob from Mando’s ship that he gives to Baby Yoda as a toy.  There’s also a clear box to keep all of the extras in, so that you don’t lose them.  I definitely appreciate that, and they’ll be staying in that box pretty much exclusively for my display.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I will fully admit to being drawn in by the Baby Yoda craze, and his inclusion in The Mandalorian was definitely one of my favorite parts of the show.  I definitely wanted him for my Black Series collection, in what ever capacity Hasbro chose to deliver.  It’s hard to say that this guy’s really a full-fledged figure in his own right, but he’s a pretty fantastic companion to the rest of the Mando stuff they’ve put out so far.  He’s a fun little package.

I picked up this little guy from my friends at All Time Toys.  He’s currently sold out, but they’ve still got a bunch of other Black Series, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2434: Random

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

RANDOM

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“If the price is right, there’s almost nothing that Random won’t do! And with forearms that transform into powerful blasters, there’s almost nothing he can’t do!”

Perhaps the most enthralling thing about Toy Biz’s ’90s X-Men line was how many “product of their time” characters made their way into the line, just by virtue of their brief moment to shine being during the line’s hey-day.  Though not quite as exaggerated a case as some of the characters, Random is still a character who really hasn’t found his footing since the decade that created him, which is probably why his only figure to date comes from that same period.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Random was released in Series 6 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  He was hardly the most obscure character in the line-up, and marked the second figure in the X-Factor subset started by Strong Guy.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  He lacks any elbow or knee movement, which is a little bit of a bummer.  The left elbow makes some sense, but the knees in particular really just don’t add-up.  Maybe the extra plastic that went into making this guy a little larger meant they couldn’t cost out those extra joints?  The sculpt was unique to Random, and its a pretty respectable translation of his comics design.  He’s maybe a little bit squashed, but that’s about it.  There’s a lot of pretty nifty details, including sculpted stubble on his face.  That’s pretty easily missed, so the fact that they included it is pretty darn impressive.  Random’s paint work is mostly pretty basic, but the coolest bit by far is the inclusion of the tattoos on his arms.  Those are a lot of fun, and take what could have been a somewhat drab looking character and make him really pop.  Random included three missiles, which work with the spring-loaded launcher on his left arm.  The two spares can actually be stored to either side of the launcher, which is a nice little touch, allowing you to actually hang onto them when not firing them.  The launcher itself isn’t terribly impressive, since there’s not lock or release; you just put it in and it launches right back out.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In my quest to fill in the holes in my Toy Biz X-Men collection, I actually picked this guy up a couple of years ago from a small place called Shazam Comics.  He was, I believe, the only action figure in the store, and the owner didn’t even realize he had him.  I don’t have much connection to the character, but he does make for a rather nifty figure, and the little touches in the sculpt and paint really make him work.