Guest Review #0051: Mola Mola

Posted by hodgeppodge42 in Guest Reviews and tagged with , , ,

MOLA MOLA

HALFTOYS OCEAN SERIES (HALFTOYS)

Mola mola, otherwise known as ocean sunfish, are the heaviest bony fish in the ocean, but are ten times smaller than whale sharks, the largest cartilaginous fish. One Mola mola was recorded to weigh 2.5 tons, which is comparable to an SUV! And do you know what they eat? Planktonic organisms and jellyfish!

Wait, why am I talking about ocean sunfish? This is an outrage! This is a blog about action figures, not fish and the ocean.

You’re right; this is outrageous because this goofy looking fish head with modified fins got an action figure! Well, technically it’s more toy than action figure because it doesn’t have any moving joints…

Ethan said I could review him, and so review him I shall!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mola is the second figure in the HALFTOYS Ocean Series. If you remember, they were the company that launched with their Half-Dinos, the cute little dinosaur toys made of hard plastic and magnets.

Mola mola measure at about 14 feet from head to end and 10 feet from the tip to tip of its modified fins. The Mola figure measures at about 2.5 inches long and 3.25 inches tall—significantly smaller than its real world counterpart!

This figure has no points of articulation. Mola is comprised of five pieces, three bone pieces and then the two that make up the skin. The skeleton is very easy to put together, the pieces just slide into place and fit rather snuggly. The skeleton isn’t quite accurate, but it’s a simplistic representation of what someone can find in a Mola mola. Then the outer covering snaps over the skeleton and is held together by magnets that line the edge of the skin.

Fun fact: Mola mola don’t have scales like other fish do.

There’s no paint job for the Mola, the hard plastic is all one color. The skeleton is all white, obviously, and the skin is a nice shade of sky blue.

Now, let’s talk accessories.

Mola comes with a build-it-yourself diorama with 31 cardboard pieces, including the stage and the stand for Mola. Luckily, this guy also comes with a manual that shows you how to put it together using pictures and numbers. The diorama was honestly really fun to construct, and it’s really easy to pop the pieces out of their cardboard holders. The diorama includes sea rocks, three brightly colored sea anemones, what I believe is some kind of coral, and three schools of smaller fish. The schools of fish can be positioned wherever you want them to go, to make your diorama slightly different from everyone else!

I will warn you that while the cardboard is pretty sturdy, it can still bend or tear if you’re not careful with it. I recommend someone with steady fingers to construct the diorama and to not take it apart once you put it together.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really enjoy the Mola and its diorama! It’s a clever way to get kids into ocean life and science. The color job on the diorama is great. The sea anemones are brightly colored as they should be. Mola mola don’t really hang out around coral reefs where you would find the flashier fish, so the simple blue and yellow fish in this diorama make perfect sense and match beautifully. The platform, or stage, is colored in blues and greens, giving the suggestion of seagrass. And the coral-like structure is a nice shade of orange that is striking while also going along perfectly with the rest of the set up.

My super awesome husband, Ethan, got the Mola and the rest of the ocean series for me as a surprise. I had wanted to get them, but couldn’t justify the cost at the time. So one day, a package came in the mail addressed to him and he told me I could open it. The amount of squealing that followed I swear alarmed the neighbor’s dog! This is a great gift for children and ocean fans alike. I highly recommend it for everyone.

And if you’d like to read more about the goofy fish that is the Mola mola you can read all about them on my blog, A Siren’s Call to Sea! It’s a daily blog about marine science and all things related to the ocean!

#2433: 2-1B Medical Droid

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

2-1B MEDICAL DROID

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Height: 1.5 Meters
Status: Industrial Automaton Surgical Droid
Classification: GeenTech 2-1B Series
Affiliation: Rebel Alliance
Weapon of Choice: Medical Diagnostic Computer”

Droids make up one hell of a subset of the Star Wars universe, and much like the Stormtroopers, they have lots of specialized models.  Also like the Stormtroopers, they’re a really easy thing for toy companies to make bank on, especially when it’s a droid that got some decent screen time.  Today’s focus, 2-1B, showed up in Empire two separate times, patching Luke up first after his run-in with the Wampa, and again after losing his hand to Vader’s lightsaber.  That’s not a bad spread of appearances, now is it?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

2-1B was added to Kenner’s Power of the Force II line in 1997.  He’s the second figure of 2-1B, following up on the vintage release.  This sculpt would remain in service through The Vintage Collection in 2011, so clearly Hasbro thought it was a fairly worthwhile effort.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  As with many of the droids released in this line, the poseability’s a little bit restricted on this guy.  That said, he can pretty easily move his head and arms, which is just about all you need from him.  The actual sculpt is quite a nice one.  It’s pretty faithful to the film design, which is quite good for a PotF figure.  I really dig the texture work that went into him, and I especially dig the transparent torso with the visible mechanics within it.  Very fun.  His paint work is also pretty solid.  There’s not a ton going on with it, but all of the appropriate colors are there, and the application’s all pretty clean.  2-1B is packed with his handheld Medical Diagnostic Computer, for all your handheld Medical Diagnostic Computing needs.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like so many of my Power of the Force figures, this guy was a more recent addition to my collection, added during a PotF buying-spree in the fall of 2018.  As far as this line’s droids go, he’s honestly one of the best, and has the benefit of slotting in pretty alright with the more recent stuff as well.  He’s also one of the cooler, more unique droid designs, and one with some decent screen time, making him one of the best in general.

I got this guy from my friends at All Time Toys.  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.

#2432: Ultra Magnus Spoiler Pack

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

ULTRA MAGNUS SPOILER PACK

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON TRILOGY (HASBRO)

Okay, so, uhh, here’s something a little different, I guess.  At the beginning of the year, back when the world was still relatively normal, Hasbro debuted the trailer and accompanying toy line for their Netflix-based Transformers War For Cybertron: Siege cartoon, which is, of course, based on the toy line of the same name.  Despite the toys being pretty directly recreated for the animation (down to using the same CAD files), there’s still an even more-show-specific set of figures, which are a Walmart-exclusive here in the US.  At the center of this line is a rather gimmicky concept: a spoiler pack.  And before we get into any sort of confusion about this being a box of car parts, since that wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a Transformers line, it specifically references spoilers for the show’s plot, although technically the contents of the box as well.  We found out fairly early on that the box contained an Ultra Magnus, but further details weren’t initially revealed…or at least they weren’t supposed to be.  I’m going to play nice to that small handful of people who might actually like to still be surprised when they open this thing.  If that’s you, the following review is technically a SPOILER, so you’ve been warned.

Continue reading →

#2431: Crimson Dynamo

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

CRIMSON DYNAMO

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Hey, remember how I mentioned Black Widow needing to borrow some foes from Iron Man?  Well, she did it again.  It’s okay, there’s more connective tissue this time.  When it comes to Iron Man foes, it’s a bit tricky for them to really stick.  I mean, how do you manage to become the arch enemy of a guy who’s actually just his own arch enemy?  The spot’s pretty much permanently taken!  There have, nevertheless, been a few characters that have hung on for a bit, including one of his two Soviet counterparts, the Crimson Dynamo.  Dynamo’s a pretty early addition to Stark’s rogue’s gallery, and the original Dynamo is definitely interwoven with Black Widow, who was still a villain at the time.  Of course, there’s been twelve different people in the armor since then…yeah, there are a lot of Crimson Dynamos.  It makes getting decent toys a little tricky, because, honestly, where do you start?  Well, let’s start here, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Crimson Dynamo is the Build-A-Figure for the titular Crimson Dynamo Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Dynamo’s first time as an official Legends release.  He was originally slated to be part of Toy Biz’s Series 13 “Bring on the Bad Guys” line-up, but was dropped before they went to prototype.  The Valentin Shatalov did get a 6-inch release in the Iron Man: Armored Avenger line that ran briefly after Iron Man 2, but proper Legends was on hiatus at the time.  Now we’ve actually got one.  I know.  It’s a pretty big deal.  There have been 13 different Dynamos over the years, so there are plenty of designs to choose from.  Hasbro opted for the Gennady Gravilov version of the character, which was introduced in the early ’00s Epic Comics miniseries based on the character.  While it doesn’t quite have the staying power of Dmitri Bukharin’s more classic armor, it’s honestly not a bad design at all, and it’s at least one that got a little bit of dedicated focus in the miniseries.  It’s also a slightly more natural fit for a Build-A-Figure.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  There’s a little bit of re-use here: he’s got the legs from the Iron Monger/Mandroid Build-A-Figure.  While not a perfect match for the armor design in the comics, they’re close enough to work, and flow pretty well with the rest of the sculpt stylistically.  The design of the articulation scheme is also really great, so I can’t fault Hasbro for wanting to use them again.  The rest of the sculpt is all-new, and it’s quite impressive at that.  It translates the comics design quite nicely into three dimensions, and there’s a lot of really fun little detail work mixed in.  The slight cracking on various pieces of the armor, the texturing on the upper armor, and the rivets all throughout really give this thing a lived-in appearance.  It’s not a sleek, top-of-the-line Stark design; this thing is built for functionality over appearance.  I was also impressed by how well they worked in the articulation.  I liked the Mandroid a fair bit, but it was a little restricted in its movement, at least on its top half.  This guy, on the other hand, is surprisingly poseable.  He’s also incredibly stable, which I’m all about.  The paintwork on Dynamo is mostly pretty basic.  A lot of the color work is just molded colors.  It’s all pretty clean, and replicates the comic colors well enough.  I really like the clear plastic for the vials on his wrists; it adds some dimension to the figure.  There aren’t any accessories for Dynamo himself, but given the size of this guy, that’s pretty easily excused.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really like Crimson Dynamo.  I’d go so far as to say he’s probably my favorite Iron Man foe (although I also quite like Titanium Man).  Perhaps my biggest problem with Iron Man 2 was not getting a proper Crimson Dynamo out of it.  I’ve been waiting for a good Dynamo in Legends form for a while, and I was definitely happy to see him crop up here.  Yeah, I still really want the Dmitri Bukharin armor at some point, but this is a really good design, too, and this figure is an early contender for my favorite Build-A-Figure this year.  He’s really solid, and I really like him.

With the movie being pushed back, I think this assortment is one that people might overlook, and that’s actually kind of too bad.  Crimson Dynamo is the definite star for me, and building him was honestly enough to get me on board, but upon completing the set, I find myself enjoying pretty much the whole thing.  The movie figures are all really solid (even if Red Guardian’s not quite screen-accurate), Winter Soldier’s a fantastic solo release, and Crossbones is a good clean update of a pretty important character.  Only Spymaster’s really a drag, and even then, he’s not a *terrible* figure.  I expected very little from this set, but I’m actually really happy with the final product.

#2430: Spymaster

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

SPYMASTER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“An undercover operative skilled in sabotage, Spymaster possesses superb fighting capabilities.”

Remember what I was saying yesterday about Widow’s supporting characters not being quite so developed?  Well, we’re back to that.  Switching over from Captain America, we now move to Black Widow’s Iron Man ties, taking a look at Spymaster, a character whose ties to Widow are pretty much limited to “they both fought Iron Man.”  And they’re spies, I guess, but honestly, that’s practically the same as saying “they both fought Iron Man;” guy fought a lot of spies.  Spymaster’s primary claim to fame is his role in the “Armor Wars” storyline, where he was responsible for giving Tony’s designs to Justin Hammer.  Beyond that, there’s not a lot to this guy.  Well, now he’s got a Legends figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spymaster is figure 6 in the Crimson Dynamo Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s the final single-packed figure in the assortment.  I know, I’m as disappointed as you that this is what we’re wrapping up with.  Talk about going out with a whimper.  It’s okay, the Build-A-Figure’s tomorrow; he’ll make up for it.  This guy stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Bucky Cap body, and boy is this thing showing the wear on the mold.  The gaps between the torso and the shoulders are really getting pronounced, to the point that I initially thought my figure might be misassembled.  I’m thinking this thing is hitting its end of life really fast here.  It’s still not a terrible base, of course, and build-wise it fits Spymaster just fine.  He gets two new pieces, for his head and his belt.  In both cases, I was genuinely surprised.  The belt can at least be chalked up to there not really being a piece that properly matches, but I fully expected the head to be another re-use of the Blizzard mold, since it’s just a masked head.  The fact that they went to the trouble of sculpting in the mask’s details, and actually changing the very structure of the mask and how it lays on the face is a very nice touch that I think pretty much everyone is going to miss.  Spymaster’s paintwork is decent enough.  It’s a little sloppy at the changeovers, but not terribly so, and the color scheme is at least pretty bright and eye catching (which, admittedly, doesn’t seem quite right for a guy who’s a spy, but what do I know?  I’ve never stolen Tony Stark’s designs, now have I?).  Spymaster is packed with a recolor of Yon-Rogg’s gun (the same one Crossbones used), as well as the right leg to the Crimson Dynamo figure.  Let’s be real here: that’s what everyone’s gonna buy this guy for.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spymaster’s a character I was “meh” on back when he got a Minimate, so the Legend likewise doesn’t exactly spark me into a verbal frenzy.  He’s a pretty by-the-numbers figure of a pretty by-the-numbers character, though the fact that his mold isn’t in the best shape hinders him even a bit further.  I was impressed by how much new work went into this guy, really, and on that front he’s a little bit better than I’d expected him to be.

Spymaster 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.

#2429: Crossbones

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

CROSSBONES

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Crossbones makes it his mission to take out Captain America, no matter the loss of life at stake.”

Though Black Widow’s cast of supporting characters isn’t quite as widely developed as some of Marvel’s other heroes, she’s spent enough time around both Cap and Iron Man that slotting in some of their characters into her tie-in assortment’s really not the worst fit.  Take, for example, Crossbones, whose bio even mentions his Cap connection.  That said, her time in Cap’s book during Brubaker’s run, as well as both of their turns in the MCU has given them enough connective tissue that Crossbones’ appearance here doesn’t feel all that forced.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Crossbones if figure 5 in the Crimson Dynamo Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Crossbones’ third time getting a comic-based Legends release, all three of them coming in under the Hasbro banner.  The first two, however, were exclusives, making them both rather tricky to get a hold of, even when they were new.  They were also built on the Hulkling body, so they looked more than a little outdated.  This one opts for a more classic take on the character, pulled straight from his ’80s appearances.  The figure stands 6 3/4 inches tall and he’s got 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Hyperion body, which I was a little skeptical about, especially since he’s still using the old “pectoral shelf” torso piece.  His design, especially the coloring, does manage to hide it better than most uses of the body, so it’s not terrible.  I may end up throwing Nuke’s tactical vest on him to hide it, though.  He gets a new head and lower legs, as well as new add-ons for his belt/holsters and his wrist pouches.  They all fit well with the body, with the head in particular sitting better on the body than a lot of the ones that have been designed for it.  It’s a fairly nice, fairly basic assortment of parts.  The boots are actually really detailed, and I was a little surprised that they didn’t just leave him with the standard feet for this body.  I’m hardly complaining.  His paintwork is pretty basic as well.  It’s fairly clean overall, though the nose detail on mine is slightly crooked.  Crossbones is packed with two of Cable’s Barrel Break-inspired guns, as well as two of Yon-Rogg’s more sci-fi-y pistols, which look a little more normal sized in Crossbones’ hands.  He also includes the right arm to the Crimson Dynamo Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Crossbones is definitely a formula figure.  He’s a stock body with a few new parts, and stock accessories.  The thing is, this isn’t really an issue for a character like Crossbones, especially a classic Crossbones, so he’s honestly a pretty great way to fill out the assortment without going too crazy on the tooling budget.  I don’t think he’s going to be topping anyone’s list, or anything, but he’s a solid stock figure, and a great addition to the Cap Rogues Gallery.

Crossbones 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.

#2428: Winter Soldier

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

WINTER SOLDIER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Winter Soldier is a fierce combatant and an asset in battle, no matter which team he fights for.”

Alright, let’s jump back into these Marvel Legends reviews, shall we?  Like most movie assortments, the Black Widow tie-in is split between film-based figures, and some appropriately-themed comic-based figures.  I’ve looked at all of the movie figures, so now I’ll be jumping into the comics guys.  The first of the bunch is the one that’s probably got the best ties to Widow, the Winter Soldier, Natasha’s love interest in the comics for the last few years.  We’ve gotten a few movie-styled takes on the character, but it’s been a good long while since a comics version came along.  Let’s have a look, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Winter Soldier is figure 4 in the Crimson Dynamo Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s our second comic-based Winter Soldier Legends figure, following up on Hasbro’s two-pack release way back in 2010.  That’s a long wait, but that old release was honestly pretty strong, so any follow-up had a lot to live up to.  The figure stands just over 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  The sizing is the one issue I really have with this figure.  At his current height, he’s a little taller than the 80th Cap figure, which doesn’t seem quite right, since Bucky’s typically depicted as a little smaller than Steve.  It’s not a terrible size difference, but it gets a bit nuts if you compare him to anyone built on the Bucky Cap body.  He just seems a touch too large overall.  It’s admittedly minor, however, and I’m used to seeing the flip side occurring more frequently.  Sizing aside, Winter Soldier is a pretty sensible mix of old and new pieces.  He uses the pelvis and legs from the Netflix Punisher, and the right arm from tactical Killmonger, along with a new head, torso, and left arm.  The overall design is based on Winter Soldier’s earliest comic appearances, which is really when he was at his most distinct.  He’s got the long-haired appearance, which is typically how he’s best remembered.  He does slightly amalgamate a few later design elements in, such as the pouches on the front of his harness, which showed up during Brubaker’s Winter Soldier solo series (who’s design inspired the very impressive Select figure).  I like them more than the initial holster design, though, so I’m not really bugged by it.  What I *am* a little bugged by is the permanently sculpted-in gun that resides in Bucky’s hip holster.  It’s something that every use of this mold has, but it’s no less frustrating here.  Bucky’s paint work is mostly pretty basic stuff.  I’d have liked to see him get more detailing on the various add-on bits; a lot of stuff just gets left an un-painted brown, which doesn’t look quite right.  Nothing super pivotal is missed, though, so I don’t hate it; I just think it could be a little better.  To match the updated harness design, he also gets the slightly more ornate red/white/blue star insignia on his metal arm, signifying this as a post reformation-Bucky, so he’s firmly on the hero side, I guess.  Winter Soldier is packed with an M4 with a grenade launcher and a Colt 1911 (rather American guns; he *is* a post-working for the Russians Bucky, so I guess it makes sense.  Shout out again to Tim for the gun ID here), plus the head to the Crimson Dynamo Build-A-Figure.  It would have been nice to get an alternate short-haired head to mix up the display a bit, but he doesn’t feel *too* light.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Winter Soldier is definitely the single-release figure I wanted the most from this set.  I missed out on the two-pack version, mostly due to not really being up on the character at the time.  Since then, I’ve definitely picked up an appreciation, so I was down for this guy.  He’s not perfect, and I definitely wish he were just a touch smaller, but he’s still very high on my list for this assortment, and there’s no denying he looks very nice next to that 80th Cap.  He’s a very fun figure.

Winter Soldier 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.

#2427: Trevor Fitzroy

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

TREVOR FITZROY

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“An evil criminal from the future, Trevor Fitzroy used his power to create portals through time to elude the authorities of his native era by escaping into the past. Now trapped in our century, he uses his mutant abilities and futuristic battlesuit to fulfill his every lethal wish – and to attempt the destruction of his arch-enemy Bishop!”

You didn’t think I was just going to walk away from 5-inch X-Men, did you?  Okay, actually, that would be pretty sensible.  I reviewed 19 of them all in one day, just over a week ago, and that’s like a 30% increase in the number of them reviewed for the site as a whole in the 6 1/2 years I’ve been running it.  I think I technically met my yearly quota already.  Well, in actuality, all the Day of the Wolverines really did was reignite my desire to review these guys, although perhaps not in quite as crazy a fashion.  So, I’m picking up where I left off and diving into the world of ’90s X-Men with a character that exists purely within that world and pretty much nowhere else, Trevor Fitzroy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Trevor Fitzroy was released in Series 6 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, and was quite renowned for being a notorious peg warmer for the assortment.  Even at peak ’90s, nobody really wanted this guy.  Poor Trevor.  Despite general lack of interest in the character, there were two variants of Fiztroy produced, one as part of an FAO Schwarz-exclusive four pack (which traded out his blue for purple), and the other in a KB Toys-exclusive two-pack with the previously-reviewed Maverick, which is actually featured in the picture at the bottom of this review.  Whichever version of Fitzroy you get, the figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  His sculpt was unique to him, and it’s honestly not a bad one.  He definitely reflects the trend of these figures bulking up as the line progressed, but this one looked okay.  He’s exaggerated, but not too insanely so.  The head’s got a decent bit of character to it, as well, and they were finally starting to really get a grip on translating some of those radical ’90s hair styles into plastic by this point.  His paintwork is decent enough; nothing amazing or anything to write home about, but it gets the basics down.  The standard release had a yellow stripe down the middle, while the two-pack version swaps it out for gold.  In general, the two pack version isn’t quite as nicely painted, I found.  Fitzroy is packed with some clip-op armor which, if I’m being totally honest here, was more than a little disappointing.  It pretty much won’t say on the figure at all.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have a Fitzroy growing up, but boy do I recall seeing Fitzroy…everywhere.  He was just all over the place.  That’s probably why I never bothered to get one, honestly.  Well, that, and his two episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series not being terribly impressive.  After getting Maverick all by his lonesome a few years ago, I tracked down the standard Fitzroy loose, and then discovered that the two-pack one was different, at which point I lost my drive for completion because it meant buying another Fitzroy.  However, when All Time got in their mega Wolverine collection, this pack was in there (because of the small diecast Wolverine included), and it was honestly easier than going through the trouble of getting Fitzroy by himself.  Fitzroy is perhaps not the most thrilling figure, but he’s better than I expected him to be, so I can’t really knock him all that much.

#2426: Snowtrooper

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

SNOWTROOPER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“The ice planet Hoth was the site of the terrible conflict between Rebel and Imperial forces called the Battle of Hoth. Though the alliance resisted the Imperial assault for a short period, they were eventually forced to abandon the Echo Base headquarters as it became overrun with fearsome snowtroopers, the Empire’s elite frozen-weather corps.”

Since its very first entry, the Star Wars universe has dabbled in environment-specific variants of its various troopers.  When Empire Strikes Back brought our heroes and villains to the icy planet of Hoth, it brought with it a whole set of cold-weather gear variants.  That included today’s figure, the Snowtrooper!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Snowtrooper was added to the Power of the Force line in 1997.  This was the Snowtrooper’s second time as an action figure, following his original vintage release.  The figure stands 4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The Snowtrooper is a far more restricted figure than others in the line in terms of articulation.  The nature of the design means that he doesn’t have a neck joint, and the skirt piece means that the hip joints have reduced mobility as well.  The sculpt itself is a reasonable effort.  By this point, pre-posing and wonky proportions were mostly worked out of the line, and the Snowtrooper is reflective of that.  That said, the actual detailing on the sculpt is a little more on the soft side, so a lot of the details get a little lost.  The line was a bit up and down with the sharpness, so it’s too bad that the Snowtrooper falls more into the down, especially given the quality of the vintage sculpt.  The paintwork on the Snowtrooper is actually more complex than you might expect at first glance, with a good deal of weathering mixed in, in order to prevent it from just being an all-white design with nothing to break it up.  It honestly looks pretty good.  The Snowtrooper included a standard Stormtrooper blaster rifle and his supply pack, making for a pretty nice, fairly film-accurate package.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Snowtrooper was added to my collection during one of my PotF buying sprees, in the fall of 2018.  He was actually added to my collection by Max, so it’s technically his fault, I suppose.  The Snowtrooper isn’t one of the line’s most technically impressive figures by any means, but he’s respectable enough in his own right, I suppose.

#2425: Leonardo

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

LEONARDO

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: TURTLES IN TIME (NECA)

What?  No Legends review today?  But I’ve only reviewed half of the set!  How can this be?  Well, I got a lot of Legends in the last two weeks, so I’m going to be trying something a little different in terms of how I drop the reviews, so that I don’t get too Legends-ed out.  So, let’s jump over to something a little bit different: Ninja Turtles!  They’re hardly one of my primary interests, but the Turtles have been showing up with a decent amount of frequency on this site in the last year.  Back in March, I took a look at the Foot Soldier from NECA’s recently launched Turtles in Time line.  Now I’m following that up with a look at the Turtles’ leader, Leonardo!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Like the Foot Soldier before him, Leonardo is part of the first series of NECA’s Turtles in Time line, which is somewhat of a follow-up to their arcade-based boxed sets from 2016.  Unlike those, however, these guys are available at mass retail.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  All of the figures in the first assortment barring Slash make use of the sculpts from the 2016 set, which, in the case of Leo, means he also shares his mold with all three of the cartoon-styled Leos released in the last three years as well.  It’s a nice, clean sculpt, which captures the design from the cartoon quite nicely.  It also does a pretty respectable job of working in the articulation, although in the case of this particular figure, I did have some troubles with stuck joints that took a little bit of working with.  Leo’s paintwork is much like the Foot’s, going with a slightly stylized approach to the game’s 16-bit graphics.  It’s a little more pronounced here than it was on the Foot, and is in fact an exact match for the boxed set release this time around.  It still looks pretty cool, and works in its own way.  Leo is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and gesturing), his twin swords (which are actually distinct sculpts from the one included with the Foot Soldier), and a hoverboard with a flight stand.  The board is again the coolest extra here, and I really dig the color coordination with Leo’s mask going on there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Foot Soldier was really the only of the figures from the first assortment that I truly felt like I needed to own, since I’m starting to hit my limit on how many versions of the Turtles I can have in my collection.  If I’m going to break that rule, it’s also probably not going to be for Leo, what with him being my least favorite and all.  Why am I reviewing this guy, then?  Poor packaging design, that’s why.  While moving the figures from one location to another on the store floor at All Time, Leo’s hook broke off (that’s why you shouldn’t really make them out of cardboard), so since he was going to need to be opened anyway, Jason passed him along to me for a quick review.  He’s not a bad figure, and it’s nice to get a taste of the cartoon Turtles molds.  If you’re a Leo fan and just want a solid version of his ’80s look, you could do a lot worse than this one.

As mentioned above, I was given this guy to review by my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’d like one of your own, he’s still available via their webstore here.   Or, if you’re looking for other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.