#0591: Cpl. Dietrich & Colonist Mary

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

DIETRICH & COLONIST

ALIENS MINIMATES

Deitrich&Mary1

There’s just one more review left from the first wave of Aliens Minimates! You might not quite realize at first glance, but this particular set is one of those rare instances of two female characters packed together. Of course, one of them is wearing heavy body armor and the other has that whole chest burster thing going on, so it might be easy to miss. Still, it’s at least a little nifty. So, let’s have a look at the Colonial Marines’ resident field medic, Cpl. Cynthia Dietrich and her pack mate, the ill-fated Mary.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two are another set from the specialty store assortment of the first series of Aliens Minimates. This set is the short-pack of the series, which is pretty understandable, given the more obscure nature of the two figures included.

CPL. DIETRICH

Deitrich&Mary2Dietrich is one of the Marines in the film who’s easy to overlook if you aren’t paying super close attention. She’s got a few scenes of note, but she fades into the background when compared to the more cartoonish personalities of characters like Ferro or Drake. Still, the team would hardly be complete without her, so here she is. The figure stands about 2 ½ inches tall and has 12 points of articulation. Dietrich is pretty much the same as the other Marines when it comes to construction. She features the same helmet, body armor, and boots/shin guards as Weirzbowski, Hicks, and Apone. The sculpts of these pieces are just as well handled here as they were on the other figures, so no complaints there. As an added bonus, the slightly long hair visible at the back of the helmet doesn’t look quite as out of place here, which is good. The paint on Dietrich is pretty much on par with the rest of the Marines we’ve seen so far. Overall, it’s not bad, but there are a few issues here and there. The torso armor is probably the worst, with some sloppy paint on the buckles near the top and an off-center name “tag.” The camo application under the armor is essentially the same as what we saw on Hicks. The lack of camo on the backs of the legs is still a little glaring, but it is what it is. It’s nice to see that they’ve given Dietrich a different set of detail lines on her torso to indicate her gender a bit better. It seems like a given, but it would have been easy for DST to overlook it. Dietrich’s face is rather generic, though, to DST’s credit, actress Cynthia Dale Scott doesn’t have the most distinctive face either, so it’s a reasonable approximation. Cpl. Dietrich includes an alternate hair piece, a pulse rifle, and a clear display stand. The hair piece was originally used for Tomb Raider’s Roth, and it’s not one of my favorites. It seems too short on the top and too bunchy at the sides for Dietrich. I almost feel like she’d look better with something closer to what we saw with Hicks.

COLONIST MARY

Deitrich&Mary3We don’t see much of the colonists in Aliens. Heck, in the theatrical cut of the film, we really don’t see them at all, except for poor Mary here. She only speaks three words and has less than a minute of screen time, but she does an amazing job of reestablishing for the audience just how frightening the life cycle of the Xenomorphs truly is. As a result, she’s pretty darn memorable. Add in that her small part is one of the few times that Dietrich gets any sort of focus in the movie, and you’ve got a pretty great second half to this set. Mary’s construction consists of the basic Minimate body with two sculpted add-ons: a hairpiece, and a chest burster. The hair is one we’ve seen a few times before. To be truly movie accurate, it should probably look a little more wet, but it works well enough as a re-use. We first saw the chest burster piece in the Alien boxed set. It’s pretty well sculpted piece. The collar portion of it is maybe a touch on the bulky side, but it works pretty well, and does an effective job of translating the rather gory design of the film to a more mass market-friendly look. The paint is definitely a big piece of what makes Mary…Mary. She actually exhibits some of the best work from the series. Everything is applied pretty well, with no real issues with bleed over or fuzzy line work. She’s got the appropriate level of grime, and they’ve even gone the extra mile to give her a properly sickly-looking skin tone. Throw in an expression with just the right level of “I so wish I weren’t here” and you’ve got a pretty great summation of Mary from the movie. Mary’s only extra is a clear display stand. It kind of would have been nice to get some sort of bit of hive wall to have her stuck to, but that would undoubtedly have to be an all-new piece, and I imagine the budget was already pretty high on this series.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This pair is the last piece of the full set of Aliens Minimates Series 1 that I picked up from Luke’s Toy Store. Dietrich is an alright figure, but she’s not a terribly interesting one. The Marine armor is still cool, but she’s the Marine in this series with the least character, which doesn’t do her a whole lot of favors. Mary’s actually a surprisingly well put together figure. Still not super exciting, but to an Aliens geek like me, she’s actually pretty cool. To be honest, this is probably the one set in the series that most people can afford to skip. It’s not bad, but nothing here’s going to blow anyone away.

AliensMarines3

#0590: Pvt. Drake & Battle-Damaged Attacking Alien

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

DRAKE & ALIEN WARRIOR – BATTLE DAMAGED

ALIENS MINIMATES

Drake&Xeno1

Aliens is one of those movies where, even though some characters are much more minor than others, to the hardcore fans every character is just as important as the next. This is particularly true of the Colonial Marines, a group that just looks cooler if you have every member, even the ones with no lines or even particularly distinguishing features. However, some of the Marines are more distinct than others, such as Private Mark Drake, one of the squad’s two smartgun-wielding soldiers. Let’s have a look at him as he faces off against yet another pesky Xenomorph!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two are part of the specialty assortment of Aliens Minimates Series 1.

PVT. DRAKE

Drake&Xeno2When you get right down to it, Drake here is kind of the Boba Fett of Aliens. He’s a character with a limited amount of screen time, who is ultimately inconsequential to the overall plot of the movie. However, he’s a got a certain following, mostly due to the fact that he’s pretty cool looking. Clearly, going by my theory, there’s a whole ton of Expanded Universe stories starring Drake that are just waiting to be written! The figure is roughly 2 ½ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. Drake includes two main sculpted add-on pieces. He’s unique in the fact that he doesn’t use the same armor pieces as the rest of the Marines (though, presumably, Vasquez will also be making use of the armor). He does still have the standard issue shoulder lamp, but it’s plugged into an all-new torso piece, which is a pretty great recreation of Drake’s armor from the film. It features two different ports to plug in the smartgun’s arm, allowing a little extra poseabilty. The other piece on this figure is his hat/headset combo, which is another new piece. It’s pretty well handled; the hat is a little on the simple side, but the headset is fantastically rendered, and even features an articulated eye-piece that can be moved away from his eye for the less battle-ready look he sports a few times in the movie. In terms of paintwork, Drake is very well-handled when viewed from a technical standpoint. Everything is nice and clean. The fact that his boots are painted on means that they go around the back of his legs, which makes the lack of camo in those areas stand out less than on the other Marines. The likeness is a pretty good match for actor Mark Rolston, however it seems a little too smiley for Drake. I mean, he did grin a few times in the movie, but a grimace of some sort feels like more his speed. He’s also missing the scar from under his left eye, which is pretty prominent in several shots of the movie. There are a few bits of graffiti missing from the armor, though they’re Drake&Xeno3pretty small and easy to miss in the film. The biggest issue is what’s under Drake’s body armor. He has the same standard fatigue shirt as Hicks and Apone. It’s well-detailed and it looks good, but in the movie, Drake is actually wearing a flak jacket under his armor (you can see it in the hive scene after he ditches the smartgun harness). It’s a minor thing, but it’s one of the character’s more distinctive uniform deviations, and it would have been nice to see it here. For accessories, the main event is, of course, Drake’s smartgun. It’s a very well sculpted piece that is accurate to the source material. It includes an arm with a ball joint at either end, allowing it to be attached to the figure’s chest piece, and once in place, he can actually hold it pretty well. Drake also includes a spare hat without the headset and a clear display stand. It might have been nice to get a hairpiece and an extra acid-burned head, but the smartgun is plenty.

BATTLE-DAMAGED ATTACKING ALIEN

Drake&Xeno4And the award for longest name for an alien variant goes to this guy! Wow, that’s a lot of lead in words. Ostensibly, this alien is more or less the same figure as the battle-damaged Alien from the single-packs, with one notable change. Like all the other Aliens in the line, the Battle-Damaged Attacking Alien has add-on pieces for the torso, head, hands, feet, and tail. This particular Alien uses the open-mouthed head, and what differentiates him from his single-packed counterpart is the presence of the second mouth/tongue piece used on the Attacking Alien. This offers a little bit of variety among the Aliens, so there’s no complaints there. The paintwork on the Battle-Damaged Attacking Alien is almost identical to that of the first battle-damaged alien, which in turn makes it pretty much the same as the regular warrior alien with the addition of the acid blood splatters. The blood splatters here are exactly the same as the ones from before, which is a little disappointing. It would have been nice for the splatters to be on the opposite limbs or something, just to mix things up. This Alien, like all the Aliens, includes only one accessory: a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked these two up as part of a full set of series one that I got from my favorite Minimate retailer, Luke’s Toy Store. Drake is the star of the set. He’s a surprisingly well done figure. Sure, there’s a couple of inaccuracies, but the figures is fun enough to distract from these issues, and he’s just incredibly well put together. He makes for a great taste of how Vasquez will turn out. Despite the relatively short review, and slightly disparaging remarks about the paint, the Alien is a very well-handled figure. It’s a little disappointing to those who already have the singles, but on its own, it’s a strong figure, and it accents Drake quite well.

#0589: Sgt. Apone & Warrior Alien

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

APONE & WARRIOR ALIEN

ALIENS MINIMATES

Apone&Xeno1

After a little bit of a wait, the first wave of Aliens Minimates has finally found its way to all the various Minimate retailers. Things started off with a bang with heavy hitters Ripley and Hicks, but the rest of Wave 1 is decidedly a bit more low-key on character selection. Today, let’s look at Apone, the most prominent of the also-rans, as he faces off against one of the movie’s titular creatures.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Apone and the Warrior Alien are part of the specialty release of Aliens Minimates Series 1. Apone seems to be remaining exclusive to this set, but the Alien is sure to turn up elsewhere (and kind of already has…)

SGT. APONE

Apone&Xeno2“Where’s Apone?” Here’s Apone. The ill-fated Marine Sergeant isn’t a stranger to toys (though he hasn’t had quite as many as other Aliens characters), but this is the first, and likely only, appearance of the character as a Minimate. He’s presented here in his standard Colonial Marine armor, which is nice for consistency’s sake, though he’s probably the one Marine in the movie who gets most of his key scenes before suiting up. The figure is roughly 2 ½ inches tall and has 12 points of articulation. Apone features sculpted add-ons for his helmet, chest armor, and boots/shin guards. These pieces are the same ones we saw on both Hicks and Weirzbowski. It’s standard issue armor, so that certainly makes sense. The pieces are still impressively sculpted and quite accurate to the source material. Like Hicks, Apone’s shoulder lamp is removable. He isn’t seen without it, but it’s nice to have the option. The issue with the hair on the back of the helmet is a little more obvious here, given how close cropped Apone’s hair is supposed to be, but it’s relatively easy to overlook. Apone’s paintwork is decent overall, but there are a few glaring issues. I’ve already addressed the shade of the armor, so I won’t get into that again. The armor does have a few other issues, though. The black areas are a little sloppy, and his name on the front of his torso is off-center and a little angled. He also has the same issue with the misaligned helmet camo that Hicks had, so it seems that wasn’t a one-off. Under the Apone&Xeno4armor, the figure is very well detailed. His uniform’s camo extends all around the torso, however, it’s still absent from the under sides of the arms and the backs of the legs. He has an assortment of insignias running down his sleeves. They’re well-defined, however, his Marine patch actually says USMC instead of the proper USCM. It’s a minor thing, especially given the size, but it’s still not right. Apone features a pretty great likeness of actor Al Matthews, and his hair is painted onto the basic headpiece, so as to replicate its close-cropped nature. This does leave him with an exposed peg hole, however, DST has provided a few solutions to that. Sgt. Apone includes a baseball cap, a standard issue pulse rifle, a facehugger, and a clear display stand. Apone sports the hat in most of his early scenes, so it’s good to see it here, and it provides a way to show him sans helmet, without showing off the peg hole on the head. We never actually see Apone with a facehugger, but it’s implied, and I certainly won’t turn down another opportunity to get a facehugger.

WARRIOR ALIEN

Apone&Xeno3It wouldn’t be much of an Aliens toyline without a few of those pesky Xenomorphs, now would it? After being the big focus of the single-packed figures, it looks like the different varieties of aliens are finding their way into the two-packs as well. The Warrior Alien is, in essence, the same figure as the single packed Alien Warrior. It stands about 2 ½ inches tall and has 16 points of articulation. The Warrior Alien has sculpted add-on pieces for the torso, head, hands, tail, and feet. This is the same selection of parts from the Alien Warrior, but that’s hardly an issue. These pieces are quite well sculpted, and the aliens should look the same anyway. The closed mouth is a little more open here than it was on the previous release, which adds some variety, I guess. The paint is about the same as the last release. Lots of details that really sell that whole bio-mechanical thing. It’s worth noting that the lines are bolder on this release, making the details a little easier to see. The Warrior Alien only includes a clear display stand, however, this seems acceptable, given the quantity of sculpted parts present.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got the two of these from my favorite Minimate retailer, Luke’s Toy Store. This isn’t the most exciting set in the bunch, but it’s not bad. Apone is a decent addition to the line. He’s not quite up to the same level as Ripley or Hicks, but he’s a good accent figure. The Warrior Alien isn’t anything new if you’ve already got the single release. However, it’s still on par with the single release, which was a pretty fantastic Minimate. And it’s not like you can’t have another Xenomorph hanging around…

Apone&Xeno5

#0588: Ripley & Cpl. Hicks

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

RESCUE MISSION RIPLEY & CPL. HICKS

ALIENS MINIMATES

Ripley&HicksMM1

The Aliens line of Minimates started off a little bit differently than other lines; instead of getting right to the principle characters, things were kicked off with a case of single packed Xenomorphs and a few of the film’s more minor characters (and Burke, but who wants that guy, right?). It was certainly a fun start to the line, but it was a little odd to have all those aliens and not have a Ripley to face off against them. Fortunately, DST has followed up the army builder case with a more conventional set of Aliens Minimates, including a set with everyone’s favorite Warrant Officer turned space-faring action hero, Ellen Ripley. And, to top things off, she’s also brought along Colonial Marine Corporal Dwayne Hicks for the ride!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two are part of the specialty assortment of Aliens Minimates Series 1. Both figures will also be available in the TRU assortment, but they will each be packed with a Xenomorph.

RESCUE MISSION RIPLEY

Ripley&HicksMM2This figure ends up actually being the second Minimate of Ellen Ripley, however, it’s the first one from Aliens. As the name denotes, the figure represents Ripley during her rescue mission to save Newt from the alien hive, towards the end of the film. It’s generally the look most people associate with her character, especially for this movie, as it featured prominently on the film’s poster and was the look she was sporting for many of the film’s definitive Ripley moments. The figure is about 2 ½ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. Ripley has add-on pieces for her hair, watch, and “suspenders.” The hair is a piece we’ve seen a few times before (it first cropped up on El Indigo from Fistful of Dollars). It’s a near perfect match for Ripley’s hair from the movie, and it well-sculpted to boot! The watch is also a piece we’ve seen before, most recently on the Alien set Ripley, this line’s own Carter Burk. It’s a pretty standard watch piece and it does its job well. The suspenders appear to be new to this figure. They have some fantastic texture work, and you can even make out the grenades that are strapped in place. Ripley features some grade A paint work. The colors are all pretty great matches for what we see on screen, and the detail lines do a great job of outlining all movie-Ripley&HicksMM4details. Her pants feature all the proper stitching and pockets, and her shirt even has darker coloring near the top of her chest to simulate sweat stains. I bet that smells lovely. The face isn’t a 100% spot-on likeness of Sigorney Weaver, but it’s not far off, and it even has some red scuff marks to show the beating she takes over the course of the movie. I’m also happy to see she hasn’t been saddled with a vacant expression. Ripley should have an intense look about her, and this figure does. Ripley includes a standard clear display stand, as well as her signature pulse rifle/flamethrower combo. The combo piece is actually reversed from how it’s assembled in the film, but it’s still pretty well-sculpted. Also, the set includes two of them. Ripley only had the one and Hicks never carries such a thing, so I’m not sure which figure the second is meant to go with.

CPL. HICKS

Ripley&HicksMM5Hicks makes his debut into the world of Minimates with this figure, however, actor Michael Biehn has actually had two Minimates before, courtesy of the Terminator2 line. While Ripley has a couple of distinctively different looks over the course of the movie, Hicks’ looks are all more or less just slight variations on his basic Marine armor, so this figure effectively encompasses all of those looks. Hicks features an impressive selection of sculpted add-ons, with pieces for his helmet, chest armor, boots/shin guards, and shotgun holster. We were given a preview of a lot of this figure’s parts with the single-packed Pvt. Wierzbowski figure. The Colonial Marine armor is generally quite well rendered in the Minimate style. The details of the armor are all pretty well defined, and it’s quite accurate to the source material. The chest armor is a little on the bulky side, but it isn’t terrible. The helmet is pretty good, although the little bit of hair we can see towards the back is a little too long flowing to really be accurate for any of the Marines we see in the movie. Hick’s armor load out has a few differences from what we saw on Wierzbowski. The most obvious, of course, is the addition of the holster, which is well sculpted and fits snuggly over the chest armor. Also, while Wierzbowksi’s shoulder lamp was fixed in place, Hicks’ is Ripley&HicksMM6removable. Given that the character doesn’t have the lamp for the whole film, this was a nice choice. The paint on Hicks is generally impressive, however, there are a few minor issues. The color of the armor really feels too light for the source material, which reduces the contrast between armor and uniform. To DST’s credit, the same issue was present on Wierzbowski, so it’s likely that they just want to keep the Marines consistent. Also, the additional details on the torso armor and helmet are a little sloppy, and on the helmet in particular, it seems as though the camo screen was a bit misaligned, causing it to run over the black of the camera strap. The paint isn’t all bad, though. Under the armor is a (mostly) fully detailed set of camo fatigues, which are very nicely detailed, even if the camo pattern doesn’t Ripley&HicksMM7continue to the back of the legs. Hicks’ chest armor also features his signature heart and lock detail, which is nice and sharply defined. The face detailing presents a decent depiction of Michael Biehn, though I’m not sure it’s quite as good a likeness as the second Kyle Reese. As far as accessories go, Hicks makes out pretty well. He gets a clear display stand, a pulse rifle, his signature shotgun, an alternate hair piece for an unhelmeted look, and an extra bandaged head to depict him from towards the end of the movie, after he takes some acid to the face. Generally, these accessories are quite nice. The hair piece seems a little too… Elvis-y? for Hicks, but it works alright.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got these two (after a fair bit of waiting for the cases to make their way to retailers) from my favorite Minimate retailer, Luke’s Toy Store. Ripley’s the figure I was most eagerly awaiting from this wave. There are a few minor nits here and there, but overall, this is a fantastic translation of one of the most distinctive characters in cinema. Hicks is one of my favorite movie characters of all-time, from my favorite movie of all-time. So, the bar was set pretty high on this guy. The final product isn’t without issues, but there’s more than enough good about this figure to make up for it!

Ripley&HicksMM8*This review was originally published at Minimates Central

#0587: Fake Barbarian

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with ,

FAKE BARBARIAN

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

FakeBarbarian1

If a hero is no good without an arch foe, than it follows that said arch foe just isn’t all he could be without a trusty lackey. They just have to have one. Bonus points if they in any way mirror the hero. Just play those parallels waaaaay up. In the case of Weaponeers of Monkaa’s Masters of the Universe homages, we have the Fake Barbarian, the “Evil Doppelganger of The Good Guy.” Fun times.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

FakeBarbarian2Fake Barbarian is the other half of the exclusive Weaponeers of Monkaa figures offered at the 2014 Designer Con. Like Uncle Overlord, he found his way onto the Spy Monkey Creations store following the convention. In his standard, out-of-the-bag layout, the figure stands approximately 4 inches tall and has 19 points of articulation. The Fake Barbarian is yet another head-to-toe re-use of the same set of pieces we’ve seen on all the WoM figures to date. However, given that Faker, the character this guy pays tribute to, was himself just an excuse to repaint a He-Man figure, the complete re-use of parts makes even more sense here than it does on any other figure. As one would expect, given that he is a doppelganger of the Eternal Barbarian, the figure’s go-to head is the Empyreus head. It’s usually a heroic head, but the coloring actually does a pretty convincing job of making it more cold and villainous than usual. He also has all the other FakeBarbarian3heads from the line, should you want to switch things up, and they each have their own separate color scheme. The color scheme of the Fake Barbarian is, of course, based on that of Faker, which in turn means that he shares a lot of his colors with Uncle Overlord. Just like they were with Uncle O, the blues look very nice, and really suit the body well. The Fake Barbarian also throws a bit of silver and orange into the mix, allowing him to more closely mimic the color layout of the Eternal Barbarian. The silver is pretty clean, but the orange ends up suffering from just a little bit of slop around some of the edges. The Fake Barbarian includes the same set of accessories we saw with Uncle Overlord: two each of the short blades, sickles, bent blades, serrated blades, hilts, guns, and handles, all molded in light blue.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Seeing as he’s the other half of the Designer Con set, it follows that, just like Uncle Overlord, the Fake Barbarian’s release slipped past me. No clue how that happened, but it did. However, as soon as I realized I had missed out on these two, I corrected that mistake and ordered them. I’m glad I didn’t miss out on these guys; they’re a whole lot of fun, and their a fantastic addition to the sub-set of tribute figures started by the Eternal Barbarian and the Lord of War.

FakeBarbarian4

#0586: Uncle Overlord

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with ,

UNCLE OVERLORD

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

UncOverlord1

What is a hero without an arch foe? Sure, they’re still a hero, but life’s probably at least a little on the boring side, right? Besides, all the best heroes have their own arch enemies. And He-Ma—sorry, The Eternal Barbarian—has his own arch enemy in the form of the evil Skeleto—I mean … Uncle Overlord. Which is just a fantastic name, by the way. I mean that in the sincerest way possible.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

UncOverlord2Uncle Overlord was one of two exclusive Weaponeers of Monkaa figures offered at the 2014 Designer Con. It seems that Spy Monkey Creations learned from the shortage of stock of the Eternal Barbarian figure, as this one showed up on their online store following the convention, without the need for a second run. Uncle Overlord’s sub-heading is “Evil Uncle Overlord of The Good Guy,” which, I gotta be honest, is a descriptor on par with the figure’s name in the level of amusement it brings me. If you’ve read any of my previous WoM reviews, you pretty much know the drill on construction. In his basic set-up, he’s about 4 inches tall and has 19 points of articulation. He’s assembled from the same set of pieces as every other figure in the line. No surprises there. He uses the Umberus head as his standard piece, which is fitting, given that Umberus looks something like the love child of Skeletor and Megatron. It’s actually my favorite of the basic UncOverlord3heads, so I’m always happy to see it as the primary piece. The head is, of course, decked out in purple and yellow, and evokes Skeletor very nicely. The rest of the body follows suit. It’s actually pretty nice to see the blue here, as there’s kind of a shortage of blue Weaponeers. The paint work here isn’t quite as complicated as what we saw with The Eternal Barbarian, but it does manage to be a fair bit cleaner in application. That seems like a fair enough tradeoff to me. Uncle Overlord is packed with all of the extra heads we’ve seen before. None of them have particularly exciting color schemes, but they match the rest of the body quite nicely. Uncle O also includes the basic blade and sickle, as well as the more expansive weapons pack, featuring guns, handles, hilts, sickles, and three types of blades. And, thanks to the interchangeability of the line, you can even approximate Skeletor’s signature staff!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Somehow, in some way that is beyond my own personal comprehension, I managed to miss this guy being put up on the SMC store. He completely slipped by me, until I happened to check in on the store before their Granite Warriors drop. Fortunately for me, he didn’t sell out very quickly, so I was able to pick him up a little bit after the fact. Truth be told, I think I may actually enjoy this guy even more than the Barbarian. Something about him really just speaks to me. The paint is sharp, the colors are great, and the names and sub-titles make it clear that the folks at SMC had a fun time putting this guy together.

UncOverlord7

#0585: The Eternal Barbarian

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

ETERNAL BARBARIAN

WEAPONEERS OF MONKAA

EtBarbarian1

“I have the Powe—er, the, umm, the… Weaponeers of Monkaa?” That’s how it goes, right? That’s the catchphrase of that He-Guy dude, isn’t it? Sounds right.

There’s no denying that Weaponeers of Monkaa pays tribute to several popular toylines of the 80s. One such line is Mattel’s Masters of the Universe. In fact, WoM made its debut at Power Con, a convention devoted to MotU, and the whole line spawned out of Spy Monkey’s weapon sets that were designed to be compatible with Masters of the Universe Classics. This time around, SMC has taken the tribute one step further, creating the Eternal Barbarian, a figure with some striking similarities to a certain Master of the Universe.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

EtBarbarian2The Eternal Barbarian was initially available exclusively at Power Con 2013. Excess stock was supposed to go up on the Spy Monkey online store a little while after, but he sold out at Power Con. Due to the popularity of the figure, Spy Monkey decided to do another run of the figure to be released alongside the Granite Warriors assortment. The Barbarian is touted as the “Strongest Gearo in the Universe,” so the guy is meant to be one of the heroic Gearo faction, but other than that, I don’t know exactly how he fits into WoM-lore. Like just about every other WoM figure, the Barbarian is about 4 inches tall and sports 19 points of articulation in his default set-up. The Barbarian is constructed from the same selection of parts that we’ve seen many times before in this line. It’s good set of pieces, and the figure has a nice retro toy feel to it. His default head is the Empyreus head, which is a good, generic hero guy head, so it works quite nicely here. Of course, the figure still includes the other four possibly heads, should you want to change things up. EtBarbarian4WoM figures are defined by their color-schemes, and oh boy, is this one well-defined. SMC was clearly going for a He-Man homage with this guy, and he ends up with a fair bit more paint than the average Weaponeer. The body exhibits mostly clean work, and does a very nice job of applying the He-Man style to the WoM body. In place of the usual heroic gear symbol, he’s been given He-Man’s classic Iron Cross symbol, which really sells the homage. The heads are a little sloppier with the paint application (though certainly nothing too bad), but what’s cool about them is that they each have a completely unique paint scheme, and two of them even throw an additional two MotU characters into the mix, which just adds to the fun! The Barbarian is packed with the usual short blade and sickle, but he also includes an additional weapon pack, with two guns, hilts, short blades, serrated blades, angled blades, and sickles. Quite an impressive assortment.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Seeing as I’ve never attended a Power Con (being only a moderate MotU fan at best), I missed out on the first run of Eternal Barbarians. So, I was quite happy to find out that SMC was doing a second run. I placed my order for this guy alongside my Granite series order. He’s definitely a fun figure, even to those not a fan of MotU, and he shows some of the versatility of the Weaponeer body.

EtBarbarian3

#0584: Nexus

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

NEXUS

ASSEMBLE BORG (REVOLTECH)

Nexus1

A lot of the entries on this site are reviews of licensed properties. Quite frankly, a lot of action figures in general are licensed. It’s easier to sell something that people already know, and, as a buyer, it’s far easier to be swayed on a purchase when it’s something you’re familiar with already. However, action figures didn’t begin their life as a licensing thing, they began with GI Joe (which, ironically enough, has become a property that is licensed). As someone who appreciates action figures as action figures first, I get an immense enjoyment out of figures that are something all their own. Things like Micronauts, Weaponeers of Monkaa, or even I Am Elemental, offer a totally different experience than something that’s just licensed, and, when done right, they’re pretty much pure fun. I’ve recently stumbled across another such line, from the toymakers Revoltech, called Assemble Borg. Today, I’ll be looking at my first figure from the line, Nexus.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nexus3Nexus is entry 020 in the Assemble Borg line. Technically, that makes him the 20th item in the overarching line, but it should be noted that the original Assemble Borg line actually went on hiatus a couple of years ago, and Nexus is in fact the first figure in the re-launched version of the line, which now bears the sub-heading of Nexus. So, if you want to really get technical here, this is actually an Assemble Borg Nexus Nexus. That’s not confusing or anything! Initially, Assemble Borg focused on a set of characters, divided into heroes and villains, who were sold as established figures whose parts could be interchanged. The focus was very much on collecting each specific character, much like a traditional action figure line. For Nexus, things have changed ever so slightly. Instead of many figures, there are two figures. One is Nexus, who is the base figure from which many other figures can be built. The idea here is that, in theory, you can have as many Nexuses as you want, and they can all be different, through use of either the extra pieces FANG Versionpacked in with this figure or with complimentary pieces included in various add-on sets that are available (more on those later). The line is built around the collector’s creativity, which makes each collection completely unique. In his most basic set-up, Nexus stands 6 inches tall and features 42 points of articulation. As a Revoltech figure, Nexus’s body is built out of a large number of pieces, each connected by a Revoltech revolver joint.  Many Revoltech figures will have sculpts that are made to mask these joints, however, the Assemble Borg figures leave them pretty much fully exposed to allow the fullest possible range of motion. That being said, the sculpt still does quite a bit to make the joints “meld” with the overall flow of the sculpt, so the figure doesn’t look flimsy or hastily put together. Each piece of the figure has a nice mixture of textured mechanical sculpting and smoother housing components, which ends up being really cool looking. ToGaliber Version aid in customizability, many portions of the body feature ports that will fit any basic Revoltech, meaning you can pretty much plug anything into anything else. You want Nexus to have hands on his calves? I mean, that’s kind of weird, but you have the ability to do it. If I had one complaint, it would be that there aren’t quite enough of these ports. For instance, there aren’t any on the arms, which can be a little limiting. More ports = more fun! Now, the cool thing about this figure is all the extra parts he comes with. In his basic, out-of-the-box load-out, Nexus has a faceplate, a set of shoulder pads, a center piece for the torso, and a pair of fists. According to the back of the box, this is the “Fang” setup. The faceplate is the most “face-like” of those included, with eyes and such outlined, and he’s got quite a bit of orange going on.  This is probably the slimmest combination of parts and it seems the most “conventional” of the bunch. On the opposite end is the “Galiber” set-up, Edge Versionwhich features a much blockier selection of parts, with lots of squared edges. I liked the look of this one on the box, but the face plate ends up sitting at a weird angle, which I was not a fan of. Also, the bulkier shoulders are cool, but you need revolver joints to hold them in place, so they do sit out just a bit far. On the plus side, these can be used in place of the hands, for a metal fighting fists type of set-up, which is sweet. The final set-up is called “Edge,” and it’s a sharp one. No, literally, it’s sharp. Everything is blades on this one, except for the face, which is simple and smooth. In addition to the three sets of faceplates, chest armor, and shoulder pads, Nexus also includes a pair of gripping hands, a pair of splayed hands, a gun, a sword, two holster pieces, and two double port pieces, as well a wide selection of various Revoltech joints and connectors so that you can configure the figure (say that ten times fast!) however you like.

Nexus4 Nexus2 Nexus9 Nexus8

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is Tim’s fault. No, really, it’s all Tim’s fault, start to finish. He told me he found this cool line of figures (always a bad thing to say to me) and followed up by saying that people were comparing them to Micronauts (an even worse thing to say to me). He then tells me he’s already ordered himself two of the figures and shows the pictures to me. Well, great, now I have to buy myself a few of these. But then, Tim texts me a few days later and tells me that Amazon accidentally sent him two of Nexus, and they’re letting him keep the second. He then asks if I might, possibly, just maybe, be interested in the spare. Seeing as I just reviewed the figure, you can probably guess what my answer was. Now, the prototype shots of Nexus were cool, but I wasn’t super sold on any of the set-ups. Then I got him in hand and discovered the whole “plug anything into anything” bit, and the figure became oh so much better. So, I bulked him way up, gave him fighting fists and a handle face, and now he’s one of coolest figures I own. This line is just way too cool.

Nexus10

Exciting News!

Posted by Ethan Wilson in General

MMCHi guys!  Breaking from the reviews for just a second to share some pretty awesome news.  Today, over at Minimates Central, is a brand-new Minimate review written by yours truly.  This is my first post as an official member of the MMC Staff, which I’m really excited about!  From here on out, I’ll be posting a few reviews there every month.  Some of them will be re-fitted versions of reviews you’ve already seen here, while some will be all-new (though, have no fear, they’ll find their way here a little later).  So, please check out the site, check out my review of Captain America & Scarlet Witch, and check out my fellow reviewers’ work as well.  That’s all for now!

-Ethan

#0583: Nightwing

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

NIGHTWING

DC COMICS DESIGNER SERIES (DC COLLECTIBLES)

NightwingCapullo1

Ah, yes the New 52. I didn’t really care for it. But, that’s okay, because it’s gone now! And it’s been replaced by something….more or less identical. Well, fair enough. One of the things that will not be carrying forward into the Non-52, however, is Nightwing. Of course, that’s actually not changing any of the continuity, since Dick Grayson ditched the identity following his unmasking in Forever Evil. So, the figure I’m reviewing today is essentially irrelevant. Oh well. Hardly the first time I’ve looked at such a figure here!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

NightwingCapullo2Nightwing was released as part of the first series of the DC Comics Designer Series. Like Tuesday’s Zero Year Batman, this figure is based on the work of Greg Capullo, who has been the primary artist on the main Batman series since the New 52 began. The figure is roughly 6 ½ inches tall and has 31 points of articulation. The figure features an all-new sculpt, though, as far as the body construction goes, he’s rather similar to Batman. The musculature is similar, as is the overall articulation scheme (Nightwing does manage to get some additional movement in the wrist area). The detailing on the body is simpler than Batman, which is befitting of Nightwing. Also, his uniform features more folds and wrinkles, effectively conveying that it is a spandex leotard, and not a carefully tailored suit of body armor. The head sculpt is a little on the mixed side. From some angles, it looks great. From others, not so much. The technical details of the piece are all very nice. He’s got some great texture work on his hair, and his facial features are cleanly defined. But, he’s also got these huge ears, which can look rather out of place, and they aren’t helped by the fact that the hair slopes inward as it goes down, emphasizing the issue. Nightwing’s paintwork is quite well-handled. The colors are nice and bold and everything is where it should be. I’m not the biggest fan of the red, but it’s true to the design, so I can’t really fault the figure there. The black of the body and of the armored parts are broken up through use of matte and glossy finishes, which look really great. Nightwing is not amazingly accessorized, but he does include his signature escrima sticks, which fit nicely in his hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Nightwing was the other half of the Amazon purchase that got me Zero Year Batman. I saw this figure several times in a few different stores and passed on him every time. So, what changed? Two things: I had a gift card and the figure got marked down about $10. That was enough for me to finally get the figure. Is he the greatest version of the character ever? That’s hard to say. It really depends on what you think of the New 52 Nightwing costume. Like I said in the paint section, I don’t care for the red accents and would much prefer blue. Still, even with that I do think the figure is a pretty decent take on the character.