#0773: The Rookie

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

THE ROOKIE

HALO 3 (MCFARLANE TOYS)

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One of the more distinct things about Halo 3’s spin-off, Halo 3: ODST, was the diverse team of ODSTs that make up most of the game’s cast. Because of this, it can be easy to overlook the main player character from the game, simply named The Rookie. Of course, it could also be due to him being totally voiceless (aside from some heavy breathing). That might have had an effect. He was hardly overlooked in terms of toys, though, and he got three separate figures just from McFarlane alone. Today, I’ll be taking a look at the first of those.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

RookieODST2The Rookie was released as part of Series 6 of McFarlane’s Halo 3 line. He’s the second ODST soldier to see release in the line, but the first of the actual ODST characters to show up. The figure stands roughly 4 ½ inches tall and has 26 points of articulation. Unsurprisingly, this figure has more than a few parts in common with ODST Mickey. The base body on the two is pretty much identical, which is fine by me. The sculpt is still very well detailed, and the armor looks to be a pretty spot on recreation of the game armor. There are a few notable differences between the two figures, though. Where Mickey had asymmetrical shoulder pads, the Rookie has two that match. Nothing really special there, just the same shoulder pad used on both sides. He’s also got a more traditional pack on his back in place of the more tech-y thing Mickey was sporting. His right shin does not have the extra rounds seen on Mickey, but he does have a few extra pouches taped there. He’s also got another pair of pouches attached to his left thigh (seriously, what’s with all the pouches? Was Rob Liefeld involved?) and a spare grenade on the left of his belt. The Rookie is generally more balanced and symmetrical than Mickey. The most jarring change between the two figures, at least for me, is the head. The Rookie’s head isn’t simply Mickey’s with the camera removed, it’s a totally different sculpt. It’s a lot thinner, almost like it was squashed or something, and just generally doesn’t look as good. It’s passable, but could be better. The paint on the Rookie is kind of an issue, but not from a quality standpoint. The quality is fine; everything is pretty clean and the metallics look pretty awesome. However, there are a few inaccuracies with the colors chosen. Overall, he feels a little on the green side for the Rookie, who was a more subdued color in the game. In addition, he lacks the Rookie’s white helmet stripe, and the color of the chest plate is a bit too dark. The Rookie was packed with his signature suppressed SMG, as well as a piece of the build-an-insigna thing that McFaralne did.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Rookie was one of the last purchases in my grand Halo action figure splurge over the summer. He was bought from the same eBay seller from whom I got a lot of my other figures, for a surprisingly reasonable price given the aftermarket value on this figure. He’s not quite as strong a figure as Mickey, but I’m still happy to have him, and he looks pretty sweet with the rest of my Halo stuff!

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#0771: Glow in the Dark Alien

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ALIEN – GLOW-IN-THE-DARK

ALIENS MINIMATES

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Long before Minimates, the frightening titular character of ALIEN found its way to toy shelves in the form of the legendary 18-inch Alien figure, courtesy of Kenner Toys. The figure was quickly pulled from shelves, no doubt due to the nightmares it caused for many an unsuspecting child, and has become one of the bigger grails of toy-collecting. Now, 35 years later, DST pays tribute to that figure with this San Diego Comic Con exclusive!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

BigChapGiD2As noted in the intro, the Alien was released at this year’s SDCC, as part of the greater Aliens Minimates line.  I don’t often talk packaging, but I will here.  For many figures, the package is just the way to transport the figure from the store to the costumer in a nice, flashy way. However, this figure’s packaging is actually a pretty important piece of the figure. The basic layout of the packaging is more or less the same as the single packaging for the Aliens vs Marines Army Dump case, but it’s been done up with graphics meant to replicate the original 18-inch Alien’s box. It features that bright ‘70s blue, the old Kenner ALIEN logo, and an assortment of screen shots from the film. The Big Chap’s a little crowed in there, but the box does a great job of giving a nod to that which came before.  While most of the Xenomorphs we’ve seen so far have taken inspiration from the second film’s design for the creature, this one, like the 35th Anniversary Boxed Set, takes influence from the creature’s very first appearance in 1979’s ALIEN. It’s not leaps and bounds of differences from the later design, but it’s enough that even moderate fans of the films could probably discern between the two.  Like his second film-based brethren, the Big Chap has sculpted add-ons for his head, hands, tail and feet. All of these parts but the head are the same ones used for all of the other aliens. Those parts were good on all of the others, and they continue to be good here. The only minor nit is that the hand should technically be different to be accurate to the Big Chap design, since these use the Aliens three-fingered design, rather than the ALIEN six-fingered design. However, at this scale, that’s a minor issue. The head was initially used on the 35th Anniversary set Alien, and it does a very nice job of replicating the movie’s domed look. While the 35th Anniversary version had the dome glued in place, this version leaves the part loose, so that you can remove it to better see the cool skull design below. It means that the dome doesn’t always stay in place the best, but that feels like a reasonable enough trade-off.  The figure’s paintwork is where his main draw comes into play. The BigChapGiDPack1main detailing of the body is similar to the previous aliens, but the silver is a bit brighter, which certainly sets him apart. The other main draw is the paint on the skull under the dome, which is glow-in-the-dark, as the name of the figure indicates. It requires a bit of “charging” under a light source, but once that’s done, it makes for a pretty eerie effect. The figure’s only accessory is a clear display stand. However, as with all of the prior aliens, the number of sculpted pieces more than makes up for the lack of extras.

 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Frequent readers of the site will recall that I did not attend SDCC, so I clearly didn’t pick this guy up there.  No, I actually ordered him from Luke’s Toy Store after the event.  I was actually pretty excited for this figure; the Aliens Minimates in general are a pretty exciting thing, but I liked the whole tribute bit.  This figure isn’t exactly new or anything, but it’s a fun variant of an already great figure.

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#0770: Batman

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

BATMAN

BATMAN: CLASSIC TV SERIES (NECA)

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So, can we just have it put down in writing that NECA are just the most successful bunch of miracle workers of all time? Because these dudes continue to do the seemingly impossible. Between Mattel and DC Collectibles, the DC license is pretty well tied up for most conventional scales. The best NECA could do was grab the ¼ scale license. That’s cool and their sculpts were always really well handled, but 18 inch figures can be a bit unwieldy for the average collector. NECA’s usual 7 inch scale works much better. Last year, through some crazy loopholery, they were able to get a Michael Keaton Batman released at the smaller scale, thanks to some help from Warner Brothers. This year, they’ve decided to top even themselves, offering three more DC figures, including today’s focus figure, Adam West as Batman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman66bBatman was released alongside Superman and Joker, but there isn’t really one overarching name for the line. He was produced by NECA and distributed as part of a DVD-based promotion by Warner Brothers. The figure stands just over 7 inches tall and has 28 points of articulation. He is, of course, based on Adam West’s performance as the character in the 1960s Batman show. The other 7-inch figures are all more or less just scaled down versions of the 18 inch figures, but Batman’s been tweaked ever so slightly. It’s really just been done to change the articulation scheme. The 18 inch West had a few extra joints, which may not have translated quite as well to the smaller scale. It’s not a huge loss, though, since he’s still on par with the average NECA release, so he’s plenty posable. As far as the actual sculpt goes,this guy’s just fantastic. The likeness on the head is definitely West, and the cowl piece over top is a near perfect replica of that from the show. The body sculpt captures West’s build really nicely (something I felt the Hot Toys version was unable to do), and the level of detail and texturing on the costume is great. The only real drawback to this figure is the cape, which is just a simple piece of shiny blue fabric. Still, it hangs decently enough and looks alright, so it hardly ruins the figure. It seems impossible to talk about this figure without at least mentioning the Mattel version. I’ve included a comparison shot, because the level of difference between these two Batman66dhas to be seen to be believed. Absolutely night and day. Topping off this fantastic sculpt is a pretty awesome paint job. It’s not perfect, mind you. There’s a little bit of slop here and there, and I had to choose the better of the two available paint jobs. However, the overall look of this guy is just spot on, and there are several bits that sport some really great detail work. The 18 inch version of this guy came pretty well packed with extras. This guy understandably notches that back a bit, but he still has a spare set of hands in gripping/relaxed poses, a batarang, and a bat-radio transmitter. That’s a pretty good selection.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Somewhat unusually for someone my age, I love the 60s Batman show. I was really excited when Mattel announced their line of 6 inch figures, but was ultimately a bit let down by the final product. So, when word broke about NECA’s version hitting Toys R Us, I ran right out to get this guy, and lucked into one on my first stop. Little did I know he’d be such a hot commodity. It’s understandable, because this is easily the best figure of West as Batman available.

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#0769: Cable & Stryfe

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CABLE VS STRYFE

X-MEN: STEEL MUTANTS

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The X-Men were so popular in the 90s that they not only had two books of their own, but also a whopping three spin-off titles. Two of those, Excalibur and X-Factor, had been launched in the 80s, and the other, X-Force, was a rebranding of the New Mutants in order to make them more “extreme.” This included adding Cable, a dude who’s mutant power was apparently being a big dude with a gun, aka being the personification of 90s comics. Cable had a twin/clone, called Stryfe. Let’s look at some figures of those two today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s X-Men: Steel Mutants line, because apparently the X-Men just weren’t 90s enough.

CABLE

CableStryfe2Oh man, here’s Cable. Why’s he called Cable? God only knows. Maybe he used to work for Comcast. That would certainly explain his surly nature. The figure stands 2 ½ inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation. Cable had quite a few figures in the 5 inch X-Force line, and this one uses Series 2’s Rapid Rocket Firing Cable as sort of a reference point. I don’t know if it’s based on a specific look, but it does present a slightly more subdued look for the character than usual. He doesn’t even have shoulder pads! His sculpt is generally pretty well handled. He’s got a good amount of detail, and his build does set him apart from the other figures in the line. Plus, I do dig that assymetry. His pose is pretty straight forward, with no real outlandish poising or anything, and he’s decently balanced, so there are no issues with getting him to stand. Cable’s paint is pretty much on par with the rest of the Steel Mutants. There’s a fair degree of bleed over around the edges, but he doesn’t look atrocious. The colors are pretty well chosen, and he looks pretty sharp.

STRYFE

CableStryfe3Yes, you read that name right. He’s named Stryfe. And it’s spelled with a “y.” Because 90s. Strule also stands roughly 2 ½ inches tall and has those same 4 points of articulation. Stryfe is presented here in full 90s glory. Check out that head gear. Seriously, that helmet looks like Liefeld deliberately set out to out-Wolverine Wolverine. I suppose they succeeded in that effort. Doesn’t make it look any less stupid, but more power to him. He appears to be inspired by the Stryfe figure in the 5-inch line, though he’s lost most of that figure’s interesting armor detailing, which has the unintended side effect of drawing more attention to just how goofy the main design of the character is. It doesn’t help matters that his sculpt is just markedly inferior to that of his pack mate. Cable is nicely sized, full of detail, and not in a super goofy pose. Stryfe is the opposite of those things. The size is particularly egregious, since he’s a clone of Cable, and should therefore be about the same size. That coupled with the long monkey arms, the strange lunging pose of the legs, and the ill-fitting cape makes for a really rough looking figure. The paint doesn’t really do him any favors either. He’s mostly a somewhat drab silver, which only further highlights the blandness of the sculpt. It is, at the very least, clean, which I suppose is a plus.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This pair was purchased for me from Yesterday’s Fun, alongside the previously reviewed Cyclops and Mr. Sinister set, courtesy of my Super Awesome Girlfriend. Unlike the other set, I never had either of these guys growing up. In fact, this set represents the first, and to date only, Stryfe figure in my collection. So, there’s that. Cable is a pretty solid figure, but Stryfe is easily one of the weakest figures this line had to offer, resulting in an oddly balanced set.

#0768: Captain Cold

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

CAPTAIN COLD

THE FLASH (DC COLLECTIBLES)

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Well, CW’s The Flash successfully made its way all the way through its first season and is now halfway through its second. It’s not a perfect show (few shows are), but it’s been a lot of fun, just all throughout. The series’ cast of regular characters have a lot to do with that, but they don’t do it all on their own; they get by with a little help from their… guest stars, who, more often than not, are playing members of the Flash’s oh so awesome rogues gallery. One of the most prominent, most recurring of those rogues is Captain Cold, who’s proved to be quite the popular character. He’s even getting an expanded role on the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow spin-off. So, what better to celebrate that than an awesome action figure?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

CapCold2Captain Cold was released earlier this year as figure 02 in DC Collectibles’ The Flash line. He follows the Flash, and precedes his frequent partner in crime, Heatwave. The figures stands about 6 ¾ inches tall (he’s just a little taller than Flash) and has 30 points of articulation. The range of motion on the joints is a little restricted, but I found Cold to be easier to pose than Flash, so that’s good. Captain Cold is based on his most frequent appearance from the show, which is his fur-lined blue parka look. It’s a pretty nice callback to his comics design, while still being reasonably practical in a real world setting. This figure’s sculpt is all-new, and it’s pretty reasonably handled, though it isn’t without its drawbacks. The articulation is mostly worked in well, but the ankle joints are a little rough, and his feet almost look like they belong on another figure. Also, there’s no way that this guy can get his arms close enough to his chest for a two-handed hold on his gun, so you’ll just have to pick one side or another. The hood is probably my least favorite aspect of the figure. It’s permanently up, for one thing. You can sort of pull it back behind his head, but it’ll want to go back into place. I feel the figure might have been helped by a separate hood piece that could be swapped for one that was folded down. Plus, the fur lining looks more like a poor CGI rendering of a fur lining than the real thing. The rest of the sculpt is actually pretty good. The texturing on the clothing is very nicely handled, and there’s a fully detailed shirt under the coat. The head gives us a pretty spot-on likeness of Cold’s actor, Wentworth Miller. He doesn’t quite have Miller’s intense stare, but I think that’s more a result of the goggles. Cold’s paintwork isn’t the most exciting paint ever, but it’s quite nicely done. Everything’s pretty clean, and there’s lots of nice accent work for the sculpt’s finer details. Captain Cold is packed with his trusty cold gun, as well as two pairs of hands (gripping and fists).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually wasn’t sure I was going to get Captain Cold when he was announced, and even less sure after not being wowed by The Flash figure DCC put out, but I really found myself liking the character on the show a whole lot. So, when he showed up at my local comic book store, I happily picked him up. I’m glad I stuck with the line. Cold still isn’t a perfect figure, but he’s a definite step up from Flash, and shows that the line is definitely going in the right direction. I can’t wait to see who else we get!

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#0767: Batman Beyond

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BATMAN BEYOND

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

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Uh oh. It’s a Mattel figure. This can’t be good. Okay, that’s not entirely true or fair. Mattel figures have the potential to be good, or even on the rare occasion great. In fact, most are at least passable, but some aren’t. And also, I don’t like Mattel as a company, for a whole slew of reasons, chief among them being that a whole lot of their products just feel so lazy. In fact, in the last year, I believe I’ve bought a whole four Mattel figures, mostly due to the vast majority of their output being rather dull. One of those four figures is today’s entry, Batman Beyond. Let’s see how he turned out.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

BatBeyondDCM2Batman Beyond is part of Mattel’s DC Comics Multiverse line. The line doesn’t really have traditional series to speak of, but BB was released in the last year of the line. He’s part of the Arkham City sub-set, and is based on one of the alt looks for Batman from the game, rather than being an actual Terry McGuinness Batman Beyond. The figure stands 3 ¾ inches tall and has 18 points of articulation. The layout of the articulation is the same as both the Christopher Reeve Superman and Arkham Knight Robin figures. It’s not the worst articulation ever, but it could really, really use some sort of upper arm swivel and a mid-torso joint. The current layout leaves him a little stiff looking. In general, the sculpt of this figure feels pretty stiff and somewhat oddly proportioned. Some of that, such as the small head and larger hands, are at least partly present in the game design, but some of it’s just weird sculpting. Like Robin and Superman before him, the figure’s waist just sits too low, which looks really odd. Also, it looks like BB’s got at least a few parts in common with several of the previous Batmen. Because of this, he still has the usual Batman boots, which aren’t accurate to the design, as well as a weird shoulder piece that looks like it should have a cape or something attached, but it doesn’t, which is reasonable, since BB’s not supposed to have a cape anyway. Since one of the draws of Batman Beyond is his sleek design, these issues with the re-used pieces jump out a lot more than they would otherwise. BB does get his own head, belt, and forearms, which all do a pretty great job of capturing those parts of his design, and blend pretty decently with the rest of the sculpt. BB’s paint is one of his stronger suits. Everything is pretty cleanly handled, and his emblem in particular is nice and crisp, and really stands out well from the rest of the figure. BB has no accessories, which isn’t out of the ordinary for a Multiverse figure, but remains annoying given the price of the figure and the fact that he re-uses quite a few pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Remember how I was done with DC Comics Multiverse? Yeah, that seems increasingly incorrect. When I was down in North Carolina visiting family, I ended up finding this guy on a grocery run. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Batman Beyond design, and Super Awesome Girlfriend was there with me, so there really wasn’t a chance I was saying no to this one. He’s a flawed figure to be sure, and definitely reminds me of why I don’t really do Mattel figures anymore, but he’s Batman Beyond, which does a lot to outweigh some of the cons.

#0766: Hybrid

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

HYBRID

SPIDER-MAN

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Remember all that stuff I said yesterday about Marvel and symbiotes? Well, it pretty much all still applies today. Yep, I’ll be taking a look at another of those wacky symbiotes. But this one’s special. See, Lasher was just one single symbiote. Today’s figure? Well, if the name hadn’t clued you in already, he’s a combination of multiple symbiotes. Specifically, all of the symbiotes from the whole Planet of the Symbiotes thing. So, let’s have a looksee at Hybrid, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hybrid2Hybrid is another figure from the “Venom: Planet of the Symbiotes” series of the 90s Spider-Man line. Like all the other figures in the series, Hybrid was available in two different color schemes. The main color scheme was mostly variations of red, and pretty closely mimicked the look of the character from the comic. The second version, which I’ll be looking at today, was made up purely for the figure, and is grey and indigo, which is pretty wildly different from the original. The base figure is about 6 ¼ inches tall and has 5 points of articulation, but the wing/pincer thing mounted on his back brings him up to 8 inches and 16 points of articulation (though 6 of those points are tied into the spring-loaded feature). Hybrid was another all-new sculpt. He’s still got a lot of the items on the 90s checklist, but what’s interesting is that his sculpt is almost an entirely different style of 90s than Lasher. Lasher kind of stuck with more or less the Toy Biz style, but Hybrid’s more pre-posed, less articulation look makes him feel like he’d be more at home with Kenner’s Total Justice/JLA line from the 90s. It’s not a bad sculpt, mind you. There’s still plenty of texturing and muscular detail, which looks pretty great. In particular, the areas where the different styles of symbiote merge together are pretty cool looking, especially the gooeier bits running fluidly up the legs and arms, and down the top of the torso. It gives him a distinctively alien look. The proportions are definitely still exaggerated, but Hybrid is definitely a lot leaner than Lasher, and his proportions generally look a bit more conventionally heroic. Hybrid’s action feature is all worked into his back thingy. Each of the “fingers” on the end is spring-loaded, and they all move as one. There’s no activation for the feature, though, which is a little odd, but whatever. Hybrid’s paintwork isn’t quite as impressive as Lasher’s, but it’s solid work nonetheless. There’s a little bit of bleed over on the changes from indigo to grey, but the application is generally pretty good. I do wish the main body had more going on than the plain grey. The indigo of the upper torso has a light speckling of red, which keeps things somewhat interesting. Hybrid is packed with a “symbiotic wall-crawler”…thing, and a clear yellow Venom head with a small red symbiote inside it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I picked up Hybrid from the same vendor at Baltimore Comic-Con from whom I got US Agent and Lasher. They didn’t have him in his standard colors, so I had to settle for the variant. I can’t really complain about that, though, because the variant colors do look pretty sharp. Hybrid is a pretty fun figure, though maybe not quite as cool as Lasher.

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#0765: Lasher

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

LASHER

SPIDER-MAN

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In the early 1990s, Venom was a pretty big deal for Marvel. Everybody loved the guy and his wacky symbiote. Marvel did their best to cash in on this, creating another symbiote wearing villain, Carnage. And, what do you know, Carnage ended up pretty darn popular himself. So, Marvel decided to try catching lightning in a bottle for the third time, but this time, they created a couple of different symbiotes, presumably hoping that one of them would have an easier time of sticking. It didn’t really work out so well for them (though one of the symbiotes, Scream, did end up getting to be a part of Universal Studios’ 3D animated Spider-Man ride, so that’s cool), but seeing as it was 90s Marvel, they still got action figures. Granted, those figures ended up being on the rare side, so they aren’t very cheap on the aftermarket. Who’d have thought the unsuccessful symbiotes would be the ones going for the big bucks? I managed to get a couple of the figures, so today I’ll be looking at my personal favorite of the symbiotes, Lasher!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Lasher2Lasher was released as part of the “Venom: Planet of the Symbiotes” sub-set of Toy Biz’s 90s Spider-Man line. He was available in two different color schemes. The green/grey combo I’m looking at today is the more common of the two schemes, and is also the one closer to Lasher’s in-comic appearance. The Planet of the Symbiotes figures were pretty sizeable for Toy Biz figures from the day (when their figures were based around a 5” scale), and Lasher’s no exception. He stands 6 ½ inches tall and has 12 points of articulation. Lasher has a sculpt that was unique to him. It’s admittedly heavy on the late ‘90s stylization. His muscles are all bulging and ripped, and presumably all mid-flex. His hands and feet are huge, and his head is tiny. To be fair, this all makes perfect sense for Lasher. He’s supposed to be super 90s. That’s part of what the character is. With the exception of the hands, which seem a bit too cartoony and devoid of texturing, Lasher’s sculpt is actually pretty well handled. Everything is nice and sharp, and there’s plenty of detail work. The breaks between the colors are actually all etched into the sculpt, which adds a nice bit of pop to the figure. The tendrils on his back and forearms are made from a softer plastic, so they flop around a bit, as tendrils do. The ones on the back are removable, if you so choose, but they stay in place well if you want them to. Lasher has an action feature of sorts: when his legs are squeezed together, the top half of the figure spins, flailing his arms and tendrils about. To facilitate this, his shoulders are a little on the loose side. That can be a bit frustrating when trying to pose him, but the action feature is overall not too invasive. Lasher’s paintwork is pretty well handled. The base grey is actually this cool speckled plastic, which adds a more alien touch. The mint green color off the accents is a nice, unique look in superhero figures, and it’s got a bit of paint sprayed over it to help it match up with the grey plastic. Lasher is packed with a weird wrist-mounted shield thing, which looks like an extension of the symbiote, as well as a clear yellow Venom head which houses a small symbiote. The symbiote is cool, because it’s made from this tacky gooey substance, which sells the idea of what it is pretty well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never had any of the Planet of the Symbiotes figures growing up. I don’t recall ever seeing them in the stores or anything. I do remember them from the backs of various Marvel toy packaging, and I definitely thought they looked pretty cool, but I never saw them. When I was filling some holes in my 90s Marvel collection a few years ago, I was always on the lookout for them, but they were prohibitively costly. But, it seems luck was on my side at this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con. The booth where I acquired US Agent (another personal grail) also had about a dozen bins just full of 90s Marvel figures. After digging through them for a few minutes, I managed to find a bunch of the Planet of the Symbiotes figures. Lasher was the one I knew I wanted the most, so I was thrilled to pull him from the bin, and even more thrilled to find out he wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg. He’s definitely a goofy figure, but I’m really happy to have found one, and I really love this figure.

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#0764: First Order Flame Trooper

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

FIRST ORDER FLAME TROOPER

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

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Basic Stormtroopers are the bread and butter of Star Wars collecting, but if all you have are the basics, things can get a little bit boring. No, you’ve got to have some specialization, right? The original trilogy threw special troopers for piloting, scouting, cold climate, and even desert…stuff into the mix. The new trilogy of films looks to be following suit with all of those, as well as adding an all new brand of trooper, the Flame Trooper, into the mix. I’ll be looking at one of the figures of that design today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Flametrooper2“Specialized Stormtroopers of the First Order, Flametroopers carry incendiary weapons that can transform any battlefield into an infernal blaze.” So, yeah, specialized troopers. Says it right there. The Flame Trooper is part of the first round of the basic 3 ¾ inch The Force Awakens line of figures.  He’s part of the first trio of the “Lava” sub-set of figures. The figure stands roughly 3 ¾ inches tall and has 5 points of articulation. The Flame Trooper gets an all-new sculpt, based, of course, on the upcoming film’s design. The design is a variation of the First Order Stormtrooper design, which makes sense. His armor has been tweaked in a few areas, most notably the helmet, which has a much thinner visor, no doubt to keep the Trooper from being blinded by his own blaze. He’s also got what appears to be a rebreather built into the bottom portion of the helmet, which makes sense. The rest of the armor has also all been tweaked in its own way, mostly to afford the wearer more protection. As far as the actual sculpt goes, the figure does a Flametrooper4pretty good job of capturing the design, at least from what I’ve seen. The figure is just a bit more pre-posed than most of the others from this line; his legs are in a slight step positioning, presumably to help balance the weight of his flame thrower’s fuel tank. The Flame Trooper’s paint is pretty straight forward. He’s molded in white plastic, with paint for the black and silver details. The application is generally pretty clean, so that’s good. The Trooper includes his flame thrower which, while well-sculpted, can’t actually be properly held. He also incudes another build-a-thing piece, for those who care (which doesn’t include me).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I ended up finding the Flame Trooper during the same trip that got me PZ and Goss. I had actually seen the figure once before, while visiting Super Awesome Girlfriend, but ended up passing him up at the time. Of course I wasn’t able to find him anywhere else, which certainly bummed me out. So, I was glad to come across him again. I really like this particular design, and the figure does a good job translating it.

#0763: Jungle Disguise Dutch

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

JUNGLE DISGUISE DUTCH

PREDATOR (NECA)

DutchJD1

I love Aliens. It’s my favorite movie. NECA Toys has been making some pretty awesome toys from that movie recently. But, before starting on their awesome Aliens line, NECA took their first stab at total awesome-ness with the other big alien franchise from the 80s, Predator. They actually started things off with the franchise’s third film, Predators, before eventually making their way to the first two films. Since the Predator films came before a time when things like actor’s likeness rights for merchandise were included standard in actor’s contracts, NECA had to stick with the titular Predators. They did manage to get Arnold Schwarzenegger’s likeness rights, and promptly put out a whole bundle of figures of his character Alan “Dutch” Schaefer, based on his various appearances in Predator. I’ll be taking a look at his smelly, gross, oh-god-I-hope-that’s-mud covered “Jungle Disguise” figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

DutchJD2Jungle Disguise Dutch was released in the tenth series of Predators figures from NECA. Series 10 was the second series following the addition of Dutch to the line, and was one of two versions of the character from this particular assortment. The figure stands 7 ¼ inches tall and has 29 points of articulation. Dutch is based on his appearance during his final, one-on-one battle with the Jungle Hunter. At that point, he’s covered himself in mud in order to mask his body heat, to get the upper hand. It’s kind of a distinctive look for the guy, so it’s not a shock to see it turn up here. The figure uses the forearms, and lower half of Series 9’s Jungle Patrol Dutch. Those pieces were pretty good there, and the re-use makes sense, seeing as he is the same guy in the same basic gear. The head, upper arms, and upper and lower torso are new to this particular figure, and they are, simply put, fantastic. The torso and arms are very nicely textured, with all sorts of cracks and leaves and such. The strap hanging on the torso is a separate add-on piece, which fits well in place, and can be removed, if one were so inclined. The head is an area where NECA could have cheaped out and used the Patrol Dutch head, but they didn’t. The face has texturing of the mud, to match the torso and arms, and the hair is even properly plastered down at the sides. And, on top of that, the Schwarzenegger likeness is dead-on. The paintwork on Dutch is pretty awesome too. It’s got some great subtleties to it; there’s a whole level of detailing, below the brown of the mud. This is most evident on the pants, which have full camo detailing, with matches up with all of the other Dutch figures, below a thin layer of brown. And, he’s even got a bit of red on his lip, from where the Predator hit him. Seriously, the level of detail on this paint is super great.  Dutch is armed to the teeth, as is befitting of him from this sequence of the movie. He’s got his assortment of hand-made weapons, including a spear, a bow, three arrows, and a torch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I started picking up NECA figures, the Predators line pulled me in pretty quickly. That being said, I totally planned on limiting myself to just two figures: Jungle Hunter and Dutch. I ended up picking up the Jungle Extraction Dutch first (and he’s a fantastic figure in his own right), so I figured that would keep me covered. Then I got City Hunter and the Hive Wars Predator, and…my resolve kind of broke. But, this guy was expensive by that point, so I didn’t get him. I ended up finding him for a reasonable price at this past Shoreleave, and my Super Awesome Girlfriend insisted on buying him for me. So, now I have him, and he’s really, really cool. Easily one of NECA’s best.

DutchJD3