#1631: Black Widow

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

BLACK WIDOW

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (HASBRO)

All of our favorite heroes are back for Infinity War…okay, most of our favorite heroes…amongst our favorite heroes, many of them are—right, I’ll come in again.

Today, I’m looking at the latest figure of Black Widow, a character who has far too often been left out of the whole merchandising thing. For Infinity War, Hasbro looks to be making a conscious effort to avoid that, with two figures already out and a third one on its way.  I’ll be looking at one of those first two today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Widow is part of the first series of the basic Avengers: Infinity War line.  This figure gives us Widow’s brand new look for the film, which, despite her prior looks all being just slight variations on the same basic design, is actually kind of new and different.  This time around, she’s sporting a look based on the second main Black Widow from the comics, Yelena Belova.  It’s mostly the blonde hair that informs this.  Supposedly, she’s changed her hair color while on the run after the events of Civil War.  The figure stands 5 1/4 inches tall and she has 11 points of articulation.  It’s the same articulation scheme as we saw on Cap (and before that, Shuri and Star-Lord).  Her sculpt is actually quite good.  The proportions are well-balanced, the head has a pretty solid Scarlett Johansson likeness, and the level of detail is almost on par with what you’d get from a Legends release.  My only real nit with the sculpt is that only one of her hands is in a gripping position, which limits her posing potential slightly when it comes to her weapon.  Even her paint is pretty decent.  It’s still rather on the basic side, but her face in particular gets some really clean work.  Certainly cleaner than what we saw on Cap yesterday.  Widow is packed with her staff, which is sadly only in its full assembled form.  No separate batons, but I guess she couldn’t hold them anyway.  There’s a rather obvious peg on it, where the Infinity Stone is meant to attach.  Not the smoothes way of handling that, but I guess it’s not awful.  Widow’s included stone is the Power Stone, which is the only one to be doubled-up in the first assortment (it also comes in the Rocket/Groot pack).  Giving her, rather than a bruiser like Hulk, the Power Stone is certainly an interesting choice.  I wonder if it means anything.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Widow is actually kind of the figure that sold me on this line.  I saw her in the store and I really liked her, and almost bought her on the spot.  That said, she was actually one of the few figures in the set I did *not* pick up from Toys R Us.  They were all out, so I ended up finding her at Target the next day, rounding out the set that way.  She’s actually a pretty good figure.  I’m curious to see how much the Legends release is able to improve on her.

#1630: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (HASBRO)

Apparently, there’s some sort of an Avengers movie coming out at the end of this month.  I know, it’s easy to miss it.  It’s not like there’s been *any* coverage or anything.  I’d imagine most people are planning to stay home that weekend, right?  Or perhaps go and see…<checking movies for April 27th>…the re-release of When Harry Met Sally perhaps.  Yep, that’s totally what the people want.  Or, I suppose, they could just see Infinity War.  I mean, I’m planning to see it.  I have to justify all this stuff I bought!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is from the first series of Hasbro’s basic Avengers: Infinity War line.  He depicts Cap with his bearded “Nomad” look, which is looking to be his main (possibly only) look from the movie.  It’s the same suit he was wearing in Civil War, but it’s looking a bit more worn.  As the name suggests, it’s calling back to his Nomad identity from the (first) time he quit being Captain America in the comics, though it doesn’t really look much like that particular design.  The figure stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  The lack of knee joints is still kind of bugging me, but he’s actually pretty posable for the price point.  His sculpt is unique to this particular figure, and does a pretty respectable job of recreating what we’ve seen from the trailers.  The level of detail isn’t quite on par with a Legends release, but it matches up well with the Homecoming and Black Panther offerings.  The paintwork is likewise a slight step-down from other offerings in the scale, but it’s not like it’s awful or anything.  Honestly, I think my only real complaint is how dark the hair and beard are.  At least some highlights or something would make it look a little better.  As it is, it’s decent, but kind of looks like an animated version of the character.  Cap is packed with one of his new Wakandan-designed shields, which he can’t quite hold like an actual shield, but it’s fairly cool.  Each figure in this series also comes with an Infinity Stone; Cap gets the Mind Stone, which can be clipped onto his shield.  It’s kind of nifty, and apparently ties into the “Hero Vision” gimmick that Hasbro’s currently pushing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was initially just planning to stick with the Marvel Legends offerings for Infinity War, but I ended up seeing these figures in the store, and they sort of oddly called to me.  I passed on them the first time I saw them, but ended up picking up Cap alongside most of the rest of Series 1 on one of my very many trips to Toys R Us recently.  He’s actually quite a good figure, especially for the price.  Sure, he’s not high-end, but I was hardly expecting that, now was I?

#1629: Ultimate Spider-Woman & Vault Guard

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

ULTIMATE SPIDER-WOMAN & VAULT GUARD

MARVEL MINIMATES

Minimates are great, because they give you a wide swath of characters, but there’s also a little side bit of amusement, drawn from their multi-pack nature.  While there are plenty of totally natural pairings of characters, every so often, you just get a couple of left-overs, who deserved to be made, but had not hard-set compatriots.  Today’s pairing is notable in that, not only have the two characters never met, they aren’t even from the same universe!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Ultimate Spider-Woman and the Vault Guard were released in Series 30 of Marvel Minimates.  Spider-Woman was the one-per-case variant, swapping out for the more heavily-packed May Parker Spider-Girl.  The Vault Guard was packed in both versions of the set.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-WOMAN

“The result of genetic experimentation by Dr. Otto Octavius, Ultimate Spider-Woman actually shares a majority of her DNA and memories with Peter Parker. Choosing to abandon her previous life, she takes the name Jessica Drew and continues fighting crime.”

At the time of this figure’s release, Ultimate Spider-Woman was a relatively recent and still quite relevant member of the Ultimate Spider-Man supporting cast, though she did come after the Ultimate line had mostly disappeared from Marvel Minimates (Series 27’s Ultimates line-up notwithstanding).  Her placement likely had a lot to do with the character having one of the better designs to come out of the Ulitmate line in later years.  The figure stands 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  She’s built on the usual body, with an add-on for her hair.  The piece was originally designed for “Natalie” Six from the BSG line, but since that figure never made it to release, I believe this was its first appearance.  It’s a decent piece, though slightly restricting to the articulation on the neck.  The rest of the costume is handled via paint, which turned out relatively well.  The metallic red gives her a more unique look, and the creative use of shading, especially on the face, capture’s Bagely’s depictions of the character quite nicely.  The black on her face ends a little bit earlier than I’d like, but it’s not terrible.  Spider-Woman didn’t include any accessories, which always struck me as a bit of a waste.  The lack of an extra unmasked head is somewhat forgivable, since they weren’t yet a common item, but not even giving her a webline or something seems a bit weak.

VAULT GUARD

“Tasked with monitoring and protecting the maximum security super-villain prison known as the Vault, the Guardsmen utilized a variation of Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor to create their super-powered battle suits and weaponry.”

The fifth figure in the army building venture was one of the armored Guardsmen from super villain prison The Vault.  Thanks to some shared designs, he can also sort of double as a non-army builder as well, representing either Kevin or Michael O’Brien.  This is quite the versatile figure!  He’s built on the same standard body, with add-ons for his helmet, chest plate, gloves, and boots.  All these pieces are re-used, with the helmet being a standard mask piece, the chest plate coming from the Mark I War Machine, and the gloves and boots coming from the DC Series 1 Lex Luthor.  It all adds up to a Guardsman that’s a little bit of a departure from the sleeker design of the comics.  Why would they do this?  Simple, it’s emulating the Toy Biz Techno Wars Vault Guardsman figure from the 90s, which is actually a pretty nice little nod.  As designed, he was even supposed to have all of the detailing for a proper classic Guardsman painted under the extra armor bits.  For the final product, he ended up losing the proper detailing on the wrists and shins for boots and gloves, but still has the classic torso detailing (as well as a bonus face under the helmet).  If I have one complaint beyond those small missing details, it’s that his palette’s a bit more monochromatic than it should be.  He’s classically been all green, but the greens tended to be a little more divergent.  They aren’t awful as it is, though.  Guardsman included a spare set of standard green hands and feet, as well as a pair of mini-gun attachments for his shoulder armor.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked these guys up the day they were released from my usual haunt Cosmic Comix.  I’ve always been a big fan of the Guardsman, so I was thrilled about the inclusion here.  That said, I wasn’t super into either of his pack-mates.  I ended up going with the one whose design I most liked.  In the end, both figures have some minor nits, but they’re overall really cool additions to the collection.  Even if the pairing is still totally whack.

#1628: Man-At-Arms

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

MAN-AT-ARMS

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (MATTEL)

“Man-At-Arms aka Duncan was a mentor to the young Prince Adam as well as a foster father to Teela.”

Most of my knowledge of Masters of the Universe comes from the 2002 reboot of the franchise, which served as my introduction to the context, and also provided the backbone of my MotU collection.  As such, most of my reviews here on the site have also been from the 2002 series.  Today, I’m going into less charted territory, and looking at a vintage offering.  So, let’s look at He-Man’s mentor, Man-At-Arms!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Man-At-Arms was part of the first assortment of Masters of the Universe figures, released in 1982.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  MotU was largely about getting as many uses out the same few bodies as possible, and Man-At-Arms follows suit.  He uses the standard Barbarian body (seen on the previously reviewed Tri-Klops figure), meaning he’s got those same goofy, overly-muscled proportions seen on the rest of the line.  They picked a style and they stuck with it.  Man-At-Arms had a new head, as well as add-on pieces for his chest, shoulder, and shin armor (mine’s missing the shin armor).  The head is infamously missing Duncan’s signature mustache, present on all other incarnations of the character, due to the figure’s design being put into production before Filmation added the mustache for the cartoon.  It results in a slightly different look for Duncan, but not an outright terrible one or anything.  The helmet has some pretty decent detail work going on, as do the clip-on armor pieces.  Man-At-Arms has a pretty simple paint scheme.  For the most part, he’s just molded in the appropriate colors, with only his face, helmet, belt, and boots getting any actual paint.  Application is mostly pretty clean, but the boots in particular have some definite slop.  The armor has no paint at all, making it look rather cheap and goofy, which is a real shame given how much detail went into the sculpt.  Man-At-Arms included a mace, to be held in his right hand.  It was the same color as his armor, and a little small and non-threatening, but I guess if you have muscles like that, you can afford for your weapons to be small and non-threatening.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

With the exception of a few personal favorite characters, the vintage Masters line isn’t one I really go out looking for.  That being said, the 2nd Ave Thrift store nearby seems to have gotten in someone’s ’80s toy collection, which has been slowly trickling out.  This guy and a few others popped up, and for a few bucks for the set, I felt like I could do a lot worse.  This line’s not totally my thing, but Man-At-Arms isn’t a bad figure.

#1627: Psylocke

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

PSYLOCKE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“A master of martial arts, Psylocke is also one of the most powerful telepaths on Earth! Focusing her mental power, Psylocke can create what she calls her “psychic knife”. Using this weapon, Psylocke is able to incapacitate her opponents without any physical injury! As beautiful as she is powerful, Psylocke is a key member of the X-Men team!”

Today’s review subject is brought to you in part by Tim, who ran through about five potential review subjects, before we both agreed to a Psylocke figure.  Sometimes that’s just how things work here at the FiQ offices (okay, it’s not so much an office as it is the Jeep Cherokee that we both happened to be riding in at the time).  So, without further ado, here’s Psylocke.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Psylocke was part of the “Light-Up Weapons” Series of Toy Biz’s X-Men toyline.  This was Psylocke’s first action figure, and is based on her Jim Lee-inspired post-mind swap look.  While it’s not my personal favorite, it’s the look that she was sporting for a decade or so and it’s how most people know her.  The figure stands about 4 3/4 inches tall and she has 9 points of artiuculation.  As with all of the figures in this particular assortment, she looses movement in her arms in order to facilitate the light-up feature, so her posablity is a bit down.  She’s also got the dreaded v-hips, so sitting isn’t much of an option.  Essentially, she’s only good for a basic standing pose.  ….Which is odd when you take into account the sculpt’s decision to give her very dynamically flowing hair.  That just ends up looking weird, like she’s standing sideways in a wind tunnel or something.  I mean, the rest of the sculpt is decent enough, though, and for all of her restricted posing, the figure has a natural sort of posture to her, so she doesn’t look too unreal.  The paintwork on her is alright, but has some notable flaws.  The straps on her arms and legs are really showing some slop, which is a bit frustrating.  Also, the coloring of her hair is a bit off, since it shouldn’t really be so much a straight purple color as a black with purple dye.  Psylocke was packed with her psychic knife (which is the basis of her light-up feature), as well as a more standard katana.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Psylocke is a recent addition to my collection.  I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot recently.  I swear, I had a lot of these figures growing up, I just happen to be reviewing the more recent ones.  Anyway, I picked her up back in December from Time Warp Toys, during Ellicott City’s Midnight Madness event.  She’s an alright figure, but, admittedly, not one of the stronger Toy Biz X-Men or even one of the stronger figures just in this series alone.

#1626: Mantis

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

MANTIS

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

“Mantis, an evil resident of Apokolips, decides to lead an invasion of Earth after the apparent demise of Darkseid.”

Of all the New Gods characters, I think Mantis may be the least developed.  I mean, he’s always been there, since Jack Kirby created the group in the ‘70s, but Kirby never did much with him, and subsequent creators sort of followed.  Mantis essentially just exists when writers need a New God for the heroes to battle without throwing off whatever’s going on with the New Gods that actually matter.  Despite that, Mantis inexplicably has four action figures.  Who’d have thunk?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mantis was released as part of the amusingly typo-ed “Attack from Apolkolips” 6-pack from Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited line.  That’s the best name I’ve seen since the good old days of “Muntant Armor.”  The figure stands 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s built on the large male body (patterned after the original Justice League Superman), which is a good fit for the character.  He’s got a brand-new head sculpt, and though it’s made of rather rubbery plastic, it’s actually a pretty decent piece, rather deftly recreating Mantis’ design from the series.  Mantis’ “wings” are handled here has a cloth cape piece.  In a line of figures that used almost exclusively sculpted pieces for such things, this seems a little out of place, especially since it’s not a particularly *good* cloth cape.  There’s no hem on the outside, and it’s held in place by some rather obvious clips.  Organic flow is not among this figures strong suits.  The paint work on Mantis is decent enough; his colors all match up well with the on-screen ones, and the greens are nice and complimentary.  There’s a little bit of slop on his face and mask, but he’s otherwise pretty clean, and the detail lines on his costume are quite sharply defined.  Mantis included no accessories, but this was within the norm for the multi-pack figures.  Also, having seen a number of the accessories that were included with the single-carded figures, I can hardly feel like I missed out on anything.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My interest in JLU had largely waned by the time this set came along, so I didn’t buy it new.  This guy was bought all on his lonesome from Yesterday’s Fun, during my family vacation last summer.  He’s not an exceptional figure or anything, but he’s not awful either.  He’s about average for this line, which I guess is about as much as you can expect.

#1625: Mr. Sinister

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

MR. SINISTER

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Mr. Sinister is a mysterious Evil Mutant mastermind who loves to plot and scheme but prefers to let others do the fighting for him. But if he’s trapped and has to fight…watch out! He’s super strong and super tough…even cannon shells bounce off him! Mr. Sinister’s goal is to make everyone – even Evil Mutants – his slaves! And what scares everyone is the fact that he has the power to make that goal a reality!”

In the mid-80s, after reforming Magneto, killing the Phoenix, and thoroughly humiliating the Hellfire Club, the X-Men were in need of a new big bad.  Enter Mr. Sinister, a character with dubious origins and a dubious plan and a dubious obsession with Scott Summers that wouldn’t be fully explained for quite some time.  Even the bio here doesn’t really say much about him, since his origin wouldn’t actually be given for another three years after this figure’s release.  At this point in time, he still had the potential to be a dark take on the Shazam concept.  Kind of crazy, right?  Well, let’s just get onto the review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Sinister was first released in Series 2 of X-Men.  Despite the packaging showing him clean-shaven, that particular figure was sporting a goatee.  This fresh-faced fellow is from the repaint series, which coincided with Series 3’s release.  The only difference between the two is the facial hair, which isn’t even a sculpted element.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  He’s missing the joint at the neck that most X-Men figures, due to a light-up feature in his eyes, not unlike Series 1’s Cyclops and Storm.  The sculpt is pretty decent, and an early example of Toy Biz finding their footing, after the slightly more rudimentary sculpts in Series 1.  It may look somewhat familiar to my loyal readers, as it served as the inspiration for the smaller-scale Steel Mutants figure.  It’s a good summation of the character, especially as he was depicted in the late ‘80s.  The proportions are well balanced, especially for the era, and he’s got a passable amount of detail work.  Like the smaller figure, the cape is removable.  It still sits a little high, but at the larger scale, it’s not quite as bad.  The paint work on Sinister is passable.  Not amazing or anything, but it’s about par for the rest of the line.  There’s some slight slop, especially on the belt, but I’ve seen worse.  Mr. Sinister included no accessories, instead just relying on the previously mentioned light-up feature to add extra value.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mr. Sinister is a somewhat recent addition to my collection, in my current drive to get a complete set of ‘90s X-Men figures.  I picked him up last fall from House of Fun, fished out of their rather extensive selection of loose figures.  Mr. Sinister is actually a lot better than I’d been expecting.  The character’s never done a whole lot for me, but his design really suits an action figure.

#1624: Batman

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

BATMAN

TOTAL JUSTICE (KENNER)

“Batman – and alter ego millioinaire industrialist Bruce Wayne – relies on his superb athletic skills, excellent detective work and amazing crime-fighting devices to combat the forces of evil. Using his Fractal Techgear armor equipped with side rocket thrusters and rigid glider cape, the Dark Knight is able to soar through the night skies to take on evildoers.”

In the ‘90s, any DC product that wasn’t Batman was a serious rarity.  Less than a decade after the expansive Super Powers line, Kenner’s only full DC line was Total Justice, a line that didn’t even manage to get us a whole Justice League line-up.  Still, it was all we had, and we liked it, darn it.  So, what figure am I looking at from this decidedly non-Batman-centric line?  Batman, of course.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman was released in Series 1 of the Total Justice line, the first of two variants of the character available over the course of its run.  This one was the more standard of the two.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation, plus sliding glider wings.  I know what you’re thinking:  sliding glider wings?  Why on earth does Batman have sliding glider wings?  Your guess is as good as mine.  I guess Kenner just wanted to do something different.  Beyond the wings, we have a sculpt that is perhaps the most Total Justice-y Total Justice sculpt ever released.  Pre-posed doesn’t *begin* to describe this guy.  He’s contorted in all sorts of crazy ways.  Why?  Because he’s Batman, I guess.  On top of that, his muscles are insanely detailed and just about to tear through his costume.  His muscles have muscles.  He’s likely beaten up crime and stolen all of its muscles, just to augment his personal supply of muscles.  And then he used his fortune to buy a few more muscles on top of that.  Lot of muscles is what I’m getting at here.  The crazy thing about it all?  I actually kind of like it.  It’s crazy extreme, but the tiny details in areas like his boots and gloves are rather impressive.  As insane as this sculpt is, someone was clearly having fun with it.  The paint on Batman is decent enough, though it’s fairly basic stuff overall.  A lot of the color work is just molded plastic, but what paint’s there is cleanly applied.  Batman, like his line-mates, was packed with a bunch of goofy tactical armor.  Because what Batman really needs is a set of tech-y armor with a rocket mounted on each knee.  That’s so like him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I did not have this particular Batman growing up.  I *did* have the JLA repaint, but he didn’t have the fancy Tactical Armor, and what’s this Batman without the armor?  I picked this guy up from Lost In Time Toys, back during the holiday season, when they were running a 50% off sidewalk sale.  This figure is kind of ridiculous, but in the best possible way.

#1623: Black Panther & 90s Storm

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

BLACK PANTHER & 90s STORM

MARVEL MINIMATES

The subjects of today’s review, Black Panther and Storm, have actually been on my review docket since February, believe it or not.  For one reason or another, they’ve been on the chopping block no less than five times since they went on the schedule.  Fortunately for them, the original item I planned to review today has itself been bumped.  Gotta love that, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Panther and 90s Storm were released in the 29th Series of Marvel Minimates.  At the time of their release, Panther and Storm were still married, so I guess this pairing made some sense, though the choice of costumes was sort of incompatible.

BLACK PANTHER

“The leader and defender of his native Wakanda, T’Challa became the Black Panther afther his father’s demise at the hands of the villainous Klaw. His blend of physical prowess, mental discipline and scientific study makes him a truly formidable opponent in any setting.”

This wasn’t Black Panther’s first Minimate, but it was the first complete one, since the Marvel Zombies variant that preceded it was missing an arm and a leg.  He’s based on his at the time current design from the comics, which was certainly a sensible choice.  The figure uses the standard ‘mate body, with the standard 14 points of articulation and an approximate height of 2 1/4 inches tall.  Panther came from a time in the line when the necks had gotten kind of short and the feet had become shallower, which isn’t 100% ideal, but not the end of the world.  He has add-on pieces for his mask, cape, belt, and wrist bands.  The mask was re-used from the Zombies variant, and it’s an okay piece, but in conjunction with the shorter neck, and shallow feet, it kind of makes him look a little bobble-headed.  Fortunately, it’s masked (heh) a bit by the cape piece, which was new to this particular figure, and is a pretty decent piece.  The only problem it has is how top-heavy it made the figure, so it can be a little difficult to keep him standing.    As far as paint work goes, Panther was ambitious in idea, but ultimately rather flawed in execution.  There’s a lot of detail work on the mask and torso, which would look really great if it were actually visible, but the shades are just too close together.  Similarly, there is detailing on the shins and wrists, which is meant to capture the striped gloves of Panther’s classic costume, if you take off all of the add-ons.  But, as with the other details,  these are essentially lost on the final figure.  T’Challa included a hairpiece, allowing for an unmasked look.

90s STORM

“The leader of the X-Men’s Gold Team, Ororo Munroe’s weather-altering abilities are powered by an innate control over nearly all forms of energy – limited only by her emotions and fears.”

This marked Storm’s fourth time as a Minimate, and also the fourth ‘mate in the ‘90s X-Men sub-set that ran for a few years.  This depicts her white Jim Lee-styled costume, which has a fair bit of notoriety, being on the cartoon and everything.  She has add-ons for her hair and cape/shoulder pads, and she was the fist ‘mate to have the unique puffy sleeved upper arms.  All of the pieces were pretty well sculpted, airing heavier on the detailed side of things.  She’s a bit on the bulky side, and a little hard to pose (those upper arms don’t stay in place quite as well as the standard ones), but a decent recreation of the design from the comics.  The paint work on Storm is a bit better than T’Challa’s, by virtue of not having all those issues with contrast.  The pearlescent white is pretty great looking, and the details are pretty sharp.  The shading on the torso was an interesting experiment.  It was a style they were trying in this series, but it was pretty quickly abandoned.  Also, like the rest of the ‘mates in this assortment, the color palette is a little washed out.  I’d have at least liked a more yellow-y gold.  Storm was packed with a pair of electricity effect pieces, which are a little tricky to get in place, but pretty neat nonetheless.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As with most ‘mates of this era, this pair was picked up brand-new, on the day of release from Cosmic Comix.  I was excited for them when they were announced, given how much I like Black Panther, and my at the time lack of a Storm Minimate.  With that said, I’ve never been as happy with these two as I’d hoped to be.  In retrospect, they’re better than I remember, but they both have some notable flaws.

The Blaster In Question #0049: Stark Strike Blaster

Posted by Tim Marron in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

BlasterInQuestion1

STARK STRIKE BLASTER

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (NERF)

starkstrike1Another week, another late review. One of these days I’m going to get the hang of this. And what’s that? April 1st? Time for jokes and pranks and whatnot. Well, kinda, I don’t have quite the same elaborate gag-posts Ethan pulls off, but this week’s blaster is a joke in and of itself in a way. That’s me saying it’s bad. It’s a bad… you know what? Nevermind. On to the review.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

starkstrike2It’s the Marvel Captain America: Civil War Iron Man Stark Strike Gauntlet Blaster… from Hasbro. At least, that’s what the friendly marketing guy in the video ad for this product told me. It’s the longest name for a Nerf blaster I can think of since the Nerf N-Strike Accu-Zombie Elite Strike Fire Mega Fury Strike Rapid Modulus Strike Fire Strike Strike… from Hasbro. The MCA:CWIMSSGB… fH was released in 2016 as a tie-in product for the Captain America: Civil War film. The blaster uses spring power to launch the dart, but instead of using it to push a plunger into a cylinder to create air pressure, the spring just impacts the dart directly. I’ve mentioned this system a couple times I the past, largely in reference to how terrible it is, and that assessment holds true here as well. The body of the blaster is pretty good, actually, the main feature being that the actual blaster part pops up from the rest of the platform before allowing you to fire. The construction feels solid and the sculpt is all new with starkstrike3some painted gold accent work here and there. The only controls on the blaster are the two buttons on the back, one causes the blaster to pop up, the other fires. Interestingly, due to the nature of the firing mechanism, even if the blaster is primed, it can’t be fired without a dart in the barrel, I assume to prevent the spring from beating the crap out of the internals of the blaster. The strap is small but I can still get it around my adult-sized wrist without too much trouble. Unfortunately, the problem with arm-mounted blasters is that aiming is pretty much out of the question. They say you can’t lick your own elbow, and it seems just about as impossible getting a sight-picture with it too, not that aiming would improve your chances of hitting anything with this blaster. As said before, calling the ranges on this blaster “disappointing” would be the understatement of the month, that is, if it fires at all. More often than not, the shock of the top part snapping up into position is enough to shake the dart forward in the barrel to where it no longer presses on the firing lock, meaning you have to re-seat the dart before the blaster will fire. If it does work, then you can watch the dart go flying up to about 10 or 15 feet. Woo… So unless you have some really emotionally fragile siblings, this blaster won’t help much when you decide to bust into their room and light them up. It’s probably best to leave it back in your room. The Marvel Captain America: Civil War Iron Man Stark Strike Gauntlet Blaster… from Hasbro comes with 2 Eilte darts in red and black but I seem to have lost mine, oh well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I think It really says something about a blaster when the most enjoyment I’ve gotten from it is hearing the guy in the ad say the full product name and almost forget to mention it’s from Hasbro. Sure I like gimmicky blasters, but that’s predicated on them being blasters first, and this one is pretty awful. Heyyyy jokes! But seriously, though, I wouldn’t recommend this blaster.