#1529: Rey – Island Journey

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

REY – ISLAND JOURNEY

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (HASBRO)

There she is!  I found her!  I found Rey! 

Ah, remember the good old days when not being able to find a toy of the main character was the most polarizing issue surrounding the new Star Wars movie?  Back when the birds still sung and the sun still shined and Disney hadn’t “killed teh franchise”?  I miss those days.  On that oh so positive note, let’s look at this here Rey action figure.  That won’t piss anyone off, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rey (Island Journey) is the fourth of the six figures in the second Orange assortment of Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi line.  Also included in the set were R2-D2 and Jyn Erso, but they were similar enough to prior releases that I opted not to grab them, meaning Rey’s the last figure I’ll be looking at from the set.  Rey has two distinct looks over the course of The Last Jedi.  Today’s figure uses the Resistance look that carried forward from the end of The Force Awakens.  The figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation (she gets some sweet mid-arm motion, which proves very useful).  Given the fact that this figure is replicating a look that is mostly identical to the one seen on the Resistance Rey figure, I was admittedly expecting for there to be at least some parts re-use between the two figures.  That being the case, I was a bit surprised to find that this figure was an all-new sculpt.  It is, in many ways, quite similar to the old one, but everything’s a little bit different.  There’s the added articulation, of course, as well as an improved likeness on the head, and a holster that is now a separate add-on piece, rather than a sculpted part of the leg.  Rey features two removable add-on pieces for her vest and her poncho.  She’s wearing both when you take her out of the package, and that’s admittedly not the best look for the figure.  To quote Tim “she looks like she’s wearing football pads.”  It’s mostly due to all that thick plastic taking up way more space than actual clothes.  I found that if you remove the vest when putting on the poncho it looks a lot better (that’s how I configured it for the shot at the top).  Her paint work is fairly decently done overall.  The application’s mostly pretty clean.  There’s a small touch of slop on her chin, but that’s about it.  The coloring of the vest and such has been tweaked from the last figure, making it more grey than tan, in order to reflect how the costume was lit in the film.  Rey is packed with her blaster and the Skywalker lightsaber.  She does *not* come with her staff, which was a little surprising, since she uses it quite a bit in this get-up.  It’s also a little weird, because the last Resistance Rey didn’t have her standard staff either.  Don’t know why that is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rey, like Luke, is another impulse buy.  I was content with Resistance Rey and didn’t really like how bulky the poncho was.  But then I saw her in person, and she looked a bit better, and there was a sale, and I’d just seen the movie, and I caved.  I know.  Bad Ethan.  That said, I’m sort of glad I did.  She’s an improvement on the last version in just about every facet.  And, after realizing how much better she looks without the vest under the poncho, I can now create one what is probably my favorite Rey look.  This is the sort of figure I can see a lot pf people skipping, but she was certainly a pleasant surprise to me!

#1528: DJ – Canto Bight

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

DJ – CANTO BIGHT

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (HASBRO)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi saw the return of a lot of old favorites, but, like it’s predecessor, The Force Awakens, it saw a handful of new character introductions as well.  The biggest standout by far was definitely Kelly Tran’s Rose Tico, but I also quite enjoyed Benicio Del Toro’s turn as the roguish hacker commonly referred to as “DJ” (which isn’t actually a name; it’s merely a shortening of his credo “Don’t Join”).  But then, again, I generally enjoy in Benico Del Toro in just about any role.  Except maybe Sicario… Getting side-tracked.  Here’s this figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

DJ is part of the second Orange assortment of Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi line.  He’s the only unique character this time around, but I feel like we’ll at least be seeing a Holdo at some point down the line.  The figure stands 4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  I was a little bummed that his hands don’t move at the wrists, especially since they’re already separate pieces, and Luke got those joints.  I like consistency.  DJ is sporting an all-new sculpt, which is a pretty solid piece of work.  The likeness on the head is perhaps not a spot-on likeness of Del Toro, but it’s close enough that you can tell who it’s supposed to be.  I think it’s the nose that throws it off; it’s a bit too up-turned, like one of the Whos from the live-action Grinch movie.  The body sculpt has nicely balance proportions, and there’s some really amazing texturing on his jacket.  If I had one complaint, it’d be the collar.  In the movie, DJ tended to have it somewhat popped and disheveled, but here it’s flat against the rest of the jacket.  He does have it like that occasionally in the film, but it’s not what I’d pick as my ideal look for him.  The paint on DJ is decent enough.  The colors are rather dull, but that’s accurate, and the application’s all pretty clean where it needs to be.  For the first time…well, pretty much ever, actually, Hasbro’s done a halfway decent job of giving DJ that appropriately scruffy facial hair.  It certainly looks better than any of their attempts at Poe’s, that’s for sure.  DJ is packed with a blaster pistol, which is rather involved and probably one of my favorite blasters from this line.  He’s also Force Link compatible.  The line’s I got were “I can get you out of here if the price is right,” “I’m a thief by trade,” and “Let’s get this over with,” all in a voice that is undoubtedly not Benicio Del Toro at all.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While Luke was an impulse buy, DJ was one I was definitely planning to grab, though he was most certainly helped by the fact that I found him the day after seeing the movie.  There are some slight issues with the likeness, but beyond that he’s a pretty fantastic figure of an intriguing character.  Also, I think this might actually be the first Benico Del Toro figure, so that’s pretty cool, right?

#1527: Luke Skywalker – Jedi Exile

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

LUKE SKYWALKER – JEDI EXILE

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (HASBRO)

Two years with no new trilogy Luke Skywalker figures, and now, in the span of three months, we’ve got two of them!  We’re moving on up, homebiscuits!  Oh yeah!

*ahem* Aaaaanyway, The Last Jedi presented a very different look at our esteemed hero Luke Skywalker, and his two distinct looks from the film sort of play into that.  The first look, seen at the end of The Force Awakens, presents a Luke we’re all a bit more comfortable with.  He’s sort of a merging of the classic Luke and old Ben from A New Hope.  Older and wiser than when we last left him, but certainly continuing down the path he was set on at the end of Return of the Jedi.  The Last Jedi opens and (almost literally) throws that aside.  The wise teacher Luke we were presented with in TFA is mostly ceremonial, and he quickly changes his garb into something removed from his Jedi teaching, and more in line with the isolated, bitter, and morally compromised hermit he actually is.  It’s utilitarian and practical, and perhaps not as distinct, but in it’s own way, it’s still true to the character.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke Skywalker (Jedi Exile) is, like his sister, part of the second Orange assortment of Hasbro’s The Last Jedi line of figures.  This figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall (he’s a smidge shorter than the last Luke, which is a little odd, but it’s not a terribly noticeable difference) and he has 7 points of articulation.  Yep, this is another figure that’s sporting the wrist movement.  Those joints are showing up with enough frequency at this point that I’m a little bit surprised they aren’t just standard.  It’s certainly nice to have them, though.  Luke’s sculpt is all-new to this figure, and it’s decent enough, but not without its flaws.  The articulation, particularly at the hips, isn’t very well integrated.  I also don’t like the likeness so much on the new head sculpt; I think the last one is a better Hamill.  Sadly, the size of the two neck pegs is different, so you’ll have to pad the socket on the old head if you want to do any sort of swap.  On the plus side, the jacket’s pretty nice, and he has a nice selection pf textures to help keep him visually interesting.  Luke’s paintwork is decent enough.  Aside from a slight bit of slop on the beard, everything’s pretty clean.  Unfortunately, the color scheme just isn’t all that dynamic, so he’s not the most thrilling Luke figure.  This figure’s packed with a walking stick and a removable hood.  The stick is very thin and a bit warped by the packaging, however, it’s a decent enough recreation of Luke’s prop from the film.  The hood’s sort of bulky and goofy, but not terrible.  I do wish there was a pulled down piece to swap out for it, though.  Luke’s Force Link-compatible, and the lines I got out of him were “How did you find me?” “Reach out with your feelings,” “What do you know about the Force?” and “You shouldn’t be here,” along with an assortment of battle sounds.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Luke was a bit of an impulse buy.  I was definitely getting Leia, but Target was doing 20% off all Star Wars toys, and I figured I’d take advantage of the sale.  I like him better than I expected to, but I still don’t like him as much as the Jedi Master figure.  But, if this is the look you prefer, I’m sure you’ll be happy with the figure, and I’m glad there’s more than a single Luke available.

#1526: General Leia Organa

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

GENERAL LEIA ORGANA

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (HASBRO)

In The Force Awakens, Leia got a slightly lessened role compared to her prior films.  She was still prominent, but her screen time was most definitely reduced.  The Last Jedi amends that.  Due I’m sure in part to this fact, she had a much easier time getting a figure this time around.  After being totally absent from the TFA basic line, Leia’s actually made her way into the Last Jedi assortments pretty quickly, allowing me to review the figure you see before you.  Alrighty!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

General Leia Organa is part of the second Orange wave of figures from Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi line.  Unlike the second Teal assortment, Orange assortment 2 has no re-packs, which I’m certain retailers will be thankful for.  Leia actually has two different looks in TLJ, though they’re similar enough that you’d be forgiven for not noticing it.  This is the more “regal” look she was sporting early on in the film, as opposed to the slightly more action oriented design from the film’s climax.  Personally, I slightly preferred the second look, but seeing as the only really noticeable difference between them is how much collar her outer layer has, I’m not terribly worried about it.  It’s nowhere near as bad as the baffling costume choice from the last movie’s first Leia figure, that’s for sure.  This figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall and has the standard 5 points of articulation.  Leia’s sculpt is an all-new one, and it’s easily one of the best from the whole Last Jedi line.  The likeness on the head is quite a good match for Carrie, and is certainly an improvement on the TFA figure from a few years back.  It probably helps that she’s got a far less goofy hair-do, thus making her more aesthetically pleasing, to me at least.  The rest of the sculpt is pretty decent work.  The base body is a little bit on the skinny side, but that’s mostly so she’ll look okay while wearing the outer jacket.  Since I can’t really imagine displaying her without the extra overlay, I don’t have a problem with that at all.  I especially like the texture work on her dress and jacket, which makes her stand out quite nicely.  Leia’s paint is generally pretty straightforward, but solid work nevertheless.  Apart from a small bit of missing paint on the underside of her hair, my figure’s paint is very clean, especially on the face, which is one of the cleanest examples of work I’ve seen on a Star Wars figure.  Leia is packed with her distinctive blaster pistol, which she holds very well.  Like the others in this line, she’s also Force Link compatible.  The lines I got were: “All troops open fire,” “I will do everything I can to help,” “May the Force be with you,” “Send them in,” and “Together we can defeat the First Order,” as well as some blaster sounds.  It wasn’t Carrie, but it was closer than some of the soundalikes.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Leia was shown off just after Force Friday II and I knew immediately I wanted one.  I’ve been keeping my eye out for this assortment for the last month or so, and, as luck would have it, ended up coming across her (and the rest of the series), the day after seeing Last Jedi in the theatre.  That was definitely a huge plus!  Leia’s a pretty fantastic offering, and definitely one of my favorites from the modern offerings.  Definitely a highlight of the line!

#1525: White Christmas

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

BETTY HAYNES, PHIL DAVIS, & BOB WALLACE

IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS (EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE)

“IIIII’m dreeeaaming of a Whiiiite Christmas….”

Heyo, it’s another Christmas morning, and another day of me being a little bit festive here on the site!  My family and I have a whole ton of various holiday films and specials we have like to watch during the season.  The exact order is mostly free form, but the whole thing is always kicked off by the same film, which we always watch during out assembly of our main tree.  That film is the focus of today’s review: White Christmas.  It’s one of my very favorite holiday films (and really one of my favorite films in general), though it’s not necessarily the most toy-etic film in existence.  Despite that, it still managed to get a set of figures courtesy of Exclusive Premiere, who built a whole company on releasing toys based on non-toy-etic properties.  Perhaps surprising no-one, they didn’t go very far with that business plan.  But hey, at least we got these guys, right?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Betty, Phil, and Bob were all released in 1998 by Exclusive Premiere.  It’s sort of an odd line-up.  I mean, yeah, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, and Bing Crosby were all in starring roles, but there’s kind of a major character missing here: Judy Haynes, Betty’s sister, played by Vera-Ellen.  Admittedly, she’s the least known of the four leads, but she’s still a major part of the story, and it’s a little weird she was left out…but like I said, it’s kind of a miracle they got made at all, so, I guess that’s the thing to focus on.

Betty’s the most unique of the three.  She’s built on EP’s standard female body, standing about 8 3/4 inches tall with 11 points of articulation.  The body was alright, I guess.  It doesn’t have elbow movement, which is kind of frustrating, but there’s been worse base bodies.  She’s got a unique head sculpt, which is probably the best of the three here.  It’s got a passable resemblance to Rosemary Clooney.  I’d hardly call it spot-on, but given the quality of the other likenesses put out by EP, it’s borderline amazing how well this one turned out.  The tailoring on her dress is decent enough even the price point, and compared to the others.  It doesn’t look terrible by any stretch of the imagination, and it hits all of the major design points of her on-screen dress.  There are some smaller details that are missing, but the important stuff is all there.

Phil and Bob are both essentially the same figure, separated only by a head sculpt.  It’s not the worst thing ever, I suppose, since it’s not like Kaye and Crosby were horribly different in build.  That being said, the standard base body they’re both using is a little on the buff side for either of these two guys.  They both stand 9 inches tall and have 13 points of articulation.  At least their elbows can move.  The bodies are kind of similar to the Playmates 9-inch Trek figures, which isn’t awful, but these are definitely of a slightly lower quality.  The heads are decent, I suppose.  I think Phil’s the stronger of the two.  It looks kind of like Kaye, but not a ton.  I guess you can figure him out in context, though.  Bob’s…well, Bob looks a bit like a cartoon character.  Like, I guess it’s Bing Crosby, but it’s more like the Genie as Bing Crosby caricature from Aladdin and the King of Thieves, and less like real Bing.  There’s noooooo doubt about it.  But, like Phil, you can kind of piece him together in context.  Neither head is particularly helped by the hat that’s permanently glued to it, but I guess they won’t bet lost that way.  From the neck down, they’re both wearing the same Santa suit.  It’s not great.  It’s really baggy, and lumpy, and sloppy, and not particularly accurate to the suits seen in the movie.  This is probably due to this same exact suit being used on EC’s Miracle on 34th Street Santa Claus, where it was still inaccurate, of course, so I guess they just spilt the difference between the two looks.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the previously reviewed Charlie Brown, these guys aren’t technically mine, but are instead more of a joint family possession that gets pulled out and put on the shelf every holiday season.  They’re goofy as all get out, and even 20 years later, I’m still a little bitter that Judy got left out, but the novelty of just having White Christmas figures forgives a lot of sins.

#1524: Flash

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

FLASH

G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO (HASBRO)

“Flash is highly skilled in many aspects of electronic technology and is capable of equipment repair in the field. Specialized Education: Electronics School; Chemical School; Covert Electronics. Qualified Expert: M-16; M-1911A1; XMLR-1A (Shoulder-Fired Laser Rifle).”

In 1982, Hasbro was looking to revitalize their G.I. Joe brand.  Two different iterations of the 12-inch line had come and gone, and the market just wasn’t there for the style.  What the market totally *was* there for, however, was 3 3/4 inch figures, which had been super-popularized, courtesy of a little movie called Star Wars.  So, Hasbro partnered with writer Larry Hama and created a brand new iteration of G.I. Joe, dubbed A Real American Hero.  Now the Joes weren’t just your average soldiers, but were instead a group of specialized operatives, each with their own style and code name.  The line began with 13 figures, built from a common pool of parts.  Today, I’ll be looking at one of those 13, the Laser Rifle specialist, code-named “Flash”*

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Flash was released in the original 1982 assortment of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. Unlike many of his compatriots, this wound up being his only figure for 23 years (well, apart from his 1983 re-issue, which I’ll touch on in a second).  Flash stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  That articulation count’s a little lower than usual for a vintage Joe.  Why’s that?  The first year of Joes didn’t sport the swivel arms that became a standard for the line in ’83.  These original releases are known as “Straight-Arm” figures, and are an interesting quirk of the earliest offerings in the line.  All of the straight-arm figures would see swivel-arm re-releases in ’83 to help bring them up to date, so there’s two versions of our boy Flash out there.  The lack of swivels does impact posablility, of course, but I didn’t find it to be quite as restricting as I’d expected; I guess I’m just used to my Micronauts.  Another change in motion is the neck joint.  Later figures got actual ball-jointed necks, but the earlier guys just had swivels.  Not a huge difference, but certainly a noticeable one.  In terms of construction, Flash doesn’t actually have much that’s unique to him.  His head was shared with Hawk, Shortfuse, and Steeler.  It’s a reasonable enough piece, and generic enough that changing the hair color is really all that’s needed to make him look different.  I certainly prefer it to his 25th Anniversary sculpt.  The lower legs were shared with Snake Eyes (they’re just generic boots, so it works fine), and the rest of his sculpt is shared with Grand-Slam.  As Grand-Slam was his fellow laser trooper, it’s a pretty sensible re-use, since they’re presumably both in uniform.  The sculpting on this guy is indicative of the time.  The details are a little soft by modern standards, and proportions are less traditionally heroic.  But, if you know what you’re getting into, it’s all about standard for the vintage line.  In terms of paint, Flash is mostly basic work, but it’s all pretty clean, and surprisingly bold for the line.  A lot of the early figures had very washed out palettes, but Flash gets some bright red to keep things a bit more interesting.  Flash was packed with a removable helmet (with flip-up visor), a back-pack, and his laser rifle, which my figure happily still has all of.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Flash has been on my list for a little while.  He was ranked as #16 on ToyFare magazine’s “Top 20 G.I. Joe Toys,” which is what really got him on my radar.  Since then, I’ve been on the look out for him, albeit at a reasonable price.  I ended up getting him very recently, courtesy of Lost In Time Toys, during one of their December sales.  He was in a case of items marked 50% off, meaning I got him for about $10, which is great for a vintage Joe.  Unfortunately, when I opened him, I discovered the o-ring holding him together had dry-rotted.  As luck would have it, Hasbro used standard parts for these guys, so all I needed to do was run over to Home Depot and pick up a box of #9 plumber’s o-rings, which ran me about $2 and took me less than 20 minutes to swap out with the old one.  It was actually pretty awesome to get to rehabilitate this guy, and now he’s ship-shape, and hands down one of my favorite Joes in my collection.

*DC was a bit less productive of their trademarks at this point, I suppose.  Future figures of this character would all add a rank of Sergeant to his name to denote him from the scarlet speedster.

The Blaster In Question #0038: First Order Stormtrooper Blaster

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

BlasterInQuestion1FIRST ORDER STROMTROOPER BLASTER

STAR WARS

stormpistol1One little word sure can make a big difference, especially when that word is “deluxe.”  Yes, this is in fact a different blaster review from last week, it’s not a typo.  So what does the First Order have to offer when “deluxe” is off the table?  Well… not very much, as it happens, but let’s have a look at it anyway.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

stormpistol2The First Order Stormtrooper Blaster was released in 2015, alongside the deluxe version as a promotion for The Force Awakens.  If you’re not sure what part of the movie it’s from, you can be forgiven for missing it because it doesn’t get a lot of screen-time, but it’s there, I promise.  Now, having just recently The Last Jedi, I can tell you it gets a couple scenes where characters using it are front and center on the screen, so that’s nice.  The blaster itself is almost as basic as you can get.  It is a single shot, muzzle loaded pistol with a little spring loaded priming tab in the back.  While the tab does a good job of maintaining the blaster’s aesthetics even when primed, it does mean the actual size of the plunger tube is severely limited.  You can really get a sense of this by how short and light the priming stroke is.  The outer shell is completely new to resemble the blaster from the film and looks pretty accurate… until you actually hold it.  In the film, the SE-44C blaster, which this is designed after, is built on a Glock 17 pistol.  If you’ve been keeping up with my Star Wars Nerf reviews, you’ll know that in general the Nerf blasters have pretty good ergonomics as they’re modeled after props that used real world firearms.  In the case of the FOSB, the shape is right, but the scale is waaaaayyy off.  It feels tiny in the hand.  As such, the normally quite comfortable grip of the Glock has been shrunk down so it no longer lines up with regular human sized hands.   I understand the reasoning behind it, because otherwise there would be just an unnecessarily large body housing a small internal mechanism.  Sure, they could have scaled up the plunger tube to get more air into the system but that… actually, that’s a good idea.  Why didn’t they just do that?  I guess it’s probably safe to assume that it all comes down to cost cutting measures, as is so often the case.  But hey, at least it comes with a cool attachment piece, right?  I mean, it does come with an attachment piece which clips onto the standard Nerf rail on the top of the blaster, but what even is the piece supposed to be?  As far as I can tell it’s a sight(ish) but it sits in the dead center of the blaster and has no other sight to line up to, so it’s kinda useless.  It’s actually really useless, but its on the blaster in the film, so there it is.  The FOSB’s performance is about what you’d expect for a Stormtrooper’s backup blaster.  Distance and power are lacking pretty heavily from that of a regular N-Strike Elite blaster, but you can usually hit your target if the muzzle is just about 5 or 6 inches away from it, so… yay?  Stormtroopers are meant to be imposing and scary, but a couple shot from this blaster and I doubt you’ll be able to maintain that kind of fear-based dominance over your younger siblings when you bust into their room.  The First Order Stormtrooper Blaster comes packaged with the useless sight/spike thingy and 3 of the red Star Wars branded Elite darts.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got the FOSB at the same time I bought its deluxe bigger brother.  I think having the deluxe blaster there distracted me from how lackluster the pistol was.  I’m not saying I regret buying it or owning it, but for the price, we essentially got a Star Wars logo that came with a free Nerf blaster.

#1523: Princess Leia Organa

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

PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“After many unsuccessful attempts to bring change to the Empire as a senator, Princess Leia Organa became involved in the Rebel Alliance and immediately established herself as one of its most popular and influential leaders. Although it was extremely dangerous for someone of her prominence. Leia often participated in secret missions for the rebellion. It was during one such mission to recruit General Obi-Wan Kenobi that she obtained the technical readouts for the Empire’s new Death Star battle station. Moments before being captured by Darth Vader, Leia hid the plans in the droid R2-D2, who then escaped to the planet Tatooine to find Kenobi.”

Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve looked at both Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in their Stormtrooper disguises, which they use to sneak into the Deathstar detention center.  I haven’t yet looked at the subject of their rescue (who ends up doing a little bit of the rescuing herself), Princess Leia Organa.  So, I’m going to amend that today, by looking at one of the worst Leia figures in existence.  Yay?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Princess Leia was released in the first series of Kenner’s Power of the Force II, where she wound up as the short-packed figure.  She was the first of several Leia figures from the line, and is based on her introductory look, her main appearance from A New Hope.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation.  Despite Carrie Fisher being a good deal shorter than most of her cast mates, Leia isn’t noticeably shorter than the other figures in the line.  This was a trend that wouldn’t really be corrected until the line re-formated after The Phantom Menace.  Leia’s sculpt was unique to her, which is a good thing, because that means Kenner realized the horrible mistake they’d made and never allowed it to occur again.  I’m sorry, was that too harsh?  Yeah, I’m not much of a fan of this sculpt.  She’s preposed, she’s got really goofy proportions, her costume’s kind of strangely inaccurate, and, most importantly, her face looks not unlike a monkey.  Seriously, look at that face and tell me that doesn’t look at all like Zira.  None of the PotF2 figures had particularly great likenesses, but every other Leia in the line was way better than this.  I’m trying to find something positive to say about this sculpt…the hair’s not terrible, I guess?  Her paint’s pretty simple, since she’s mostly just molded in white plastic, which a little bit of paint here and there.  It’s not terrible.  Leia included two different styles of blaster pistol (both of which are missing from my figure), as well as a removable cape and skirt.  The cape is a bit baffling, as it just sort of continues the trend of Kenner clearly having no idea what Leia was actually wearing in the film.  I suppose this was a bit closer than the vintage release? [EDIT–I found all of Leia’s missing parts and brought it all back together for her Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!]

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ah, this one.  This one’s an important one.  Why?  Because this is the figure that introduced me to my arch-nemesis: The Scalper!  Yes, in my quest for this figure, I had an unfortunate run-in with a horrid man-creature, which I detailed a few years ago in the ever so eloquently titled “GAHHHHHHHHH!”  Suffice it to say, I did eventually get the figure through non-scalped means, thanks to some dutiful work on my parents’ part.  This was my first Leia, and I have aa whole story that goes with her, which gives her all this great emotional value.  It’s a shame the actual figure kind of sucks.  I mean, I’m glad I have her, but there’s no denying that she’s just a bad figure.

#1522: Hawkgirl

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

DC BOMBSHELLS HAWKGIRL

DC DESIGNER SERIES: ANT LUCIA (DC COLLECTIBLES)

After taking a brief hiatus last week to turn my focus over to the Galaxy far, far away, I’m going back to my recent trend of DC figures on Fridays.  While I’ve run out of new Icons figures to look at, there’s one pseudo Icons-compatible line I’ve discovered, which I rather like.  That line is DC Designer Series: Ant Lucia, which adapts the DC Bombshells illustrations of Ant Lucia into figure form.  I’ve already looked at Wonder Woman, and today I’m taking a look at Hawkgirl!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hawkgirl is from the second assortment of DC Designer Series: Ant Lucia, where she’s figure 6.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation.  She’s still a tad larger than the average DC Icons figure, but she’ll fit in alright, and she’ll look great with Marvel Legends and the like.  Hawkgirl is sporting an all-new sculpt, patterned after her Bombshells design.  Her look actually hasn’t changed all that drastically from her classic design; the basic elements are certainly very similar.  Instead of the usual spandex, she’s got a green flight suit overtop of a yellow tank top, but it’s the same end look.  The upper half of her flight suit has been pulled down around her waist, a feature that, on the figure, has been replicated using a free-floating piece, thus allowing preservation of the movement on the hip joints.  The biggest departure from her classic look is definitely the wings, which have been reimagined as a sort of Rocketeer-style jetpack.  It’s a very cool look, and it very much helps to sell the figure within the overall style of the line.  The actual piece is very cleanly and sharply rendered.  In terms of paint, Hakwgirl is incredibly clean, and very boldly handled.  The colors all go together very well, and all of the details look top notch.  There’s a ton of character in her face, and the paint does a lot to sell that.  Compared to the first series, the second series of these figures all took a bit of a budgetary hit.  In Hawkgirl’s case, that means her only real extra is her rocket pack.  No extra hands or anything.  It’s a little bit of a letdown after just looking at all of the cool extras that came with Wonder Woman, but at the same time, I don’t feel anything essential is missing.  I’m happy with what I got.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hawkgirl’s actually the figure that got me interested in this line.  Wonder Woman was certainly cool, but this was the one that I knew I wanted.  Cosmic Comix didn’t get these guys in, so I ended up getting her from Fat Jack’s Comiccrypt in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  She’s not a perfect figure, and I’m a little saddened by the lack of extras, but she’s still a ton of fun, and perhaps my favorite Hawkgirl I own, despite her non-standard nature.  It’s a real shame this line doesn’t look to be going forward.

#1521: Ego & Ayesha

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

EGO & AYESHA

MARVEL MINIMATES

Every good movie needs a good villain.  Sometimes a bad movie tries to compensate for its badness by adding extra villains in the hopes of that making the badness less noticeable, like in the Joel Schumacher Batman movies.  Fortunately, that wasn’t at all the case with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which deftly handled having two antagonists by having one be the primary (Ego), and the other just a secondary (Ayesha).  It allowed both to have their own moments to shine, without the film feeling too cluttered.  As luck would have it, those two are the two figures I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Ego and Ayesha, like yesterday’s set, are exclusive to Marvel Minimates Series 71.  Also like yesterday’s set, the pairing is a little bit off.  I mean, it’s not quite as bad, since these two at least share one scene (not that they actually interact during it), but I can’t help but feel the pairings would have made more sense if it had been Ego/Mantis and Ayesha/Taserface.  But I bought the whole assortment anyway, so I guess it doesn’t ultimately matter.

EGO

As noted in my last Ego review, the film changed a few things about the character in order to translate him to film, but I thought it worked out pretty well.  Like that figure, he’s based on Ego’s modern-day “human” appearance.  The figure stands about 2 1/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He’s based on the standard ‘mate body, with add-ons for his hair and his shirt/cape/belt.  Both of these pieces are new for Ego, and they’re both fairly decent.  I wouldn’t mind if the details of the sculpt were a little bit sharper, but they could be worse.  I’m not 100% sure why they’ve gone with a sculpted torso rather than just painting the details on, but it looks alright in the end.  Ego’s paintwork is decent enough, though like his movie counterpart, he’s a tad on the bland side.  Still, that’s accurate, so one can hardly hold that against him.  The face is a passable rendition of Kurt Russel as Ego, though it’s not quite as spot-on as some ‘mate likenesses.  Ego’s only accessory is a clear display stand.  What, no extra head with only the most minor cosmetic changes?  For shame!

AYESHA

Like Ego, Ayesha got some changes in her journey from the page to the screen.  In the comics, she’s an artificial human like Adam Warlock (who she looks to be the creator of in the movie-verse), and only actually an antagonist in the loosest sense of the word.  Neither version of her is super prominent.  She has a number of different designs over the course of the film, but this ‘mate goes for her more active pilot’s gear from when she’s flying the remote ship at the end of the movie.  I personally liked this design the best, so no complaints there.  She’s also constructed on the standard body, with a new hairpiece.  It’s an okay piece, but it’s very restrictive of the head movement (a common issue with the females in this series), and it looks a bit more inorganic than I’d expected.  Ayesha’s paint is clean and bold, and does a reasonable job of recreating the on-screen design.  All of the gold stands out really well against the darker blue, and gives her a lot of pop.  Like Ego, her only extra is a clear display stand.  I guess a piloting console was a bit much to ask for…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t know much what to expect from this set.  I liked both of the characters in the movie, so I’m certainly glad to have them in figure form, and they do a nice job of rounding out my overall set.  Neither one of them stands out quite as much as any of the others in the set, but they’re still solid additions.