THE RIDDLER
BATMAN: HUSH (DC DIRECT)
Batman’s regular foes have always had a pretty easy time with toys. I suppose that comes with the territory, being a part of the most successful comics franchise in history and all. That being said, some of them take priority over others. While there’s never going to be a shortage of Joker figures, some of the second stringers get left out. Take, for instance, Riddler. Certainly high on the list of well-known Bat-Rogues, but he goes rather lengthy spans of time without action figures. It actually took DC Direct a good couple of years before they got to him, and it was really only because he was a pivotal player in a storyline they were doing a full line of figures for. But hey, beggars can’t be choosers. Let’s take a look at that figure!
THE FIGURE ITSELF
Riddler was released in the second series of DC Direct’s Batman: Hush toyline, and is based on Jim Lee’s illustrations from the “Hush” storyline. The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation. “Hush” saw Riddler in the business-suited attire he picked up in the mid-90s. It’s a decent enough look, and helped to separate Riddler a bit from the legions of spandex-clad characters DCD was producing at the time. With that being said, it was perhaps not a design that lent itself to a super exciting action figure, especially when it comes to articulation. I would think that, at the very least, they would have tried to give him some knee joints or something. Perhaps they wanted to preserve the integrity of the sculpt? On the plus side of things, the sculpt is actually pretty solid. He’s very clean and sharp. The head definitely capture’s Lee’s artwork very well, especially the snide and serious expression, I also really dig the question mark-shaped spit curl. The body is really only designed to work in one particular pose, but it’s a decent enough pose, and you do have some options. The paintwork is all pretty good; par for the era of figures. The colors are all pretty bright, and the application is really clean. Lee had removed the question marks from the suit, so the figure’s a little more basic looking that usual, but it’s accurate to the material. Riddler was packed with his hat and cane, as well as a display stand. My figure is missing the hat, but it was cool when he had it.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
I missed out on the first series of Hush figures when they were released, but when I saw the prototypes for Series 2, I knew I wanted to have this guy in my collection. I got him new, courtesy of my regular store Cosmic Comix. I remember this series got pushed back a couple of weeks, which was really frustrating, so I was thrilled when they finally arrived. Riddler is, I think, the figure in this set that’s aged the worst, and he certainly shows his age. That said, he’s still one of the best Riddlers out there, especially when it comes to depictions of his suited look.
KRONOS XVIII-500
“Hang on a minute, didn’t we just have a Rival review, like, two weeks ago?” I hear you ask. Why yes, sharp-eyed viewer, indeed we did. Ordinarily I’d try and spread stuff out and keep you guessing about what the next blaster will be, like a game, but this is new and hot. The new hotness, you might say. So this week I’m looking at the Kronos. Something that bears the name of the father to the Olympians must be a behemoth of a blaster, right? Actually, it kind of goes the other way, but trust me, it’s not the size that counts, it’s all about the balls.
The Kronos XVIII-500 was released in 2018 as part of the Phantom Corps subset of Rival blasters. I was initially under the impression that Phantom Corps was a Target exclusive line, but this blaster was purchased from TRU which confounded me to no end, at least for a few minutes. No idea what the deal with that is but whatever, you’re here to read about the blaster. The Kronos is a spring powered pistol with a 5 round integrated magazine à la MEGA Magnus or Star Wars Rey (Jakku) Blaster. Like both of those examples, the Kronos is loaded through a port on the top of the blaster that opens when the slide is primed back. The Kronos also has an additional flap covering the port which I guess isn’t really necessary but it does preserve the silhouette of the blaster a little bit. The shell of the blaster is all new and sports functional front and rear sights as well as 2 Rival accessory rails, one on the slide and one just above the muzzle. Interestingly, while the blaster is labeled “XVIII-500” on both sides, the name Kronos appears nowhere except on the packaging. Something to note about the rails on the Kronos is that, after attaching the Rival red dot sight, I noticed that it could slide back and forth just a little bit, just a few millimeters at most, and the nature of the attachment mechanism means it wasn’t in danger of falling off, but it’s just something I’d never had 
any of my other Rival blaster do. I doubt that’s going to make or break anyone’s opinion of it, though. Aside from that, everything about the Kronos’ construction is solid. The grip in particular is very comfortable and secure in the hand as it follows much more organic lines than the more hard-lined rest of the blaster body, which is a style I quite like, visually and practically. The slide has a surprising amount of thought and engineering put into it. Priming the blaster is fairly easy with the grip panels that add a good amount of traction as well as providing a more defined surface to pull back on. On the underside of the slide, there are a couple of telescoping flat panels that extend when the slide is pulled back, I assume to either keep the mechanism clean or to prevent kids pinching their fingers in the internals. The very rear of the slide also has a cutout so you can see the orange plunger when it’s primed as well as a button to release the lockup if the blaster jams. Like all other Rival blasters, the Kronos has a safety which locks the trigger when engaged. Unfortunately this particular safety has the same after-the-fact addition kind of feeling that the Zeus’ had. It’s hard to describe verbally, but it feels like it’s flexing before it clicks rather than pivoting and is generally unpleasant to operate, not that it’s a necessary feature per se. For its size, the Kronos holds its own surprisingly well against other Rival blasters in terms of performance. Shots fly and hit with the expected Rival accuracy and power, making it a 
real terror for younger siblings, especially given how low profile and nimble it is due to its smaller size. I’ve even found that it fits rather handily into standard jeans pockets for holstering, just so long as you have jeans with actual pockets (why are fake pockets even a thing? Sorry, side-tracked). The Kronos comes packaged with another set of red and blue Rival flag/ribbon things, provided you got the Phantom Corps version and didn’t shell out $70 for the Deadpool variants, as well as one Rival round- what’s that? It comes with 5 rounds? Ok.. if you say so. Scratch that, I guess it’s supposed to come with 5 rounds. Hmm…
Sometimes a really good idea isn’t something entirely brand new, but rather, a refinement of something that already exists. Up till this point, we’ve had the Raider CS-35, the Alpha Trooper CS-18, the Rampage, Elite Alpha Trooper, and Stormtrooper Deluxe blaster (the first one) that all fill the role of pump-action magazine fed blasters. Well, with Nerf’s latest wave of products, we have yet another to check off those boxes and then some. Let’s have a look at the Modulus Mediator.
First things first, I have no idea why they went with “Mediator” for the name of a blaster. It doesn’t have quite the same sort of imposing punchy quality as something like the Rampage or Retaliator. Even in the context of a conflict, a mediator is supposed to be a neutral third party that gets two opposing sides to agree on something. I don’t know, just feels like a weird choice, but that’s what it’s called so I guess let’s just roll with it. The Mediator was released in 2018 as part of the Modulus line of products, Like I said, the Mediator operates much like other pump mag blasters but with 2 major differences. I would say they’re improvements, but I’m sure there are people who aren’t fans. Probably the same weirdos that thought The Last Jedi was the worst thing ever, but that’s neither here nor there. The shell of the Mediator is all new work apart from the standard Nerf barrel and stock attachment points. That actually brings us to the first big improvement, that being customizability. While you could expect to find a stock attachment and a rail on pretty much all other pump mag blasters, what you never found was a second rail (I’m counting the Raider/Rampage’s rails as one big one, fight me) or a barrel attachment lug, both of which the Mediator provides quite handily. The extra rail on the right 
side obviously grants you greater potential for decking out your blaster with tactics. That’s all well and good, but the inclusion of the barrel lug is really what’s new. Given blasters like the Rampage and Alpha Trooper needed already pretty lengthy front ends to accommodate the pump action, extending the barrel further doesn’t make much sense as it would only work to slow the dart after being fired. As such, they never had barrel extension lugs, but the Mediator pulls it off thanks to it’s second major improvement over previous blasters. The whole thing is super compact with just a short little barrel. This means adding extra barrels doesn’t drastically reduce performance, which in turn means even more customization. The ergonomics of the Mediator are pretty great. I’d say it’s probably the best we’ve seen from the Modulus line so far. The pistol grip is a good size and has a really nice grippy texture to it that I haven’t seen before but certainly hope to see again. The same texture is also on the pump grip, which is a little short, but not enough to hinder, and I can understand the desire to not have it protrude too far from the body of the blaster. Everything feels nice and solid, though I wish the ratcheting on the pump grip was a little quieter when cycling the bolt. Nothing a little light modification can’t fix, though. My last gripe is purely aesthetic. I wish the blaster had a raised front sight parallel to the very prominent rear one. While this would have looked better in my opinion, it turns out the little stubby nub at the front end IS a front sight and is even relatively well calibrated to give slightly arced shots for a subtle boost to the range. On that note, the performance of the Mediator is decent. Shots fly and impact right on par with those of other comparable blasters. The ability to slam-fire is also a plus when busting into your younger sibling’s room and laying down heavy fire. The Mediator comes packaged with the magazine well detached (needs to be installed to operate the blaster), a 6 round magazine, and 6 white Modulus styled Elite darts.
