#0672: Bounty Hunter Chewbacca

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with 90s, Chewbacca, Kenner, Power of the Force II, Shadows of the Empire, Star Wars August 25, 2015

BOUNTY HUNTER CHEWBACCA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II

My first introduction to Star Wars toys was courtesy of Kenner’s Power of the Force II line of figures. The interesting thing is that I came into the line during the second round of figures, so some of my initial versions of the main characters weren’t exactly standard issue. I’ve already discussed how Dagobah training Luke was my first figure in the line, and some of the other main characters followed a similar pattern. Chewbacca was one such character, which seems a little odd, since you wouldn’t think there would be a lot of potential Chewbacca variants. Well, faithful reader, feast your eyes on Bounty Hunter Chewbacca!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Bounty Hunter Chewbacca was part of the second year of Power of the Force II figures. He was released as part of a small subset of figures based on Shadows of the Empire, which is a story set between Empire and Jedi. In the story, Chewbacca has to take on the guise of well-known Wookie bounty hunter Snoova in order to infiltrate Imperial City. So, technically, this figure could pass for either character. This is only the third time that Chewbacca had made it into the 3 ¾ inch line, which is surprisingly low, given his prominence. The figure stands a little over 4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation. As a Chewbacca variant, you might think that this figure would be heavy on reuse. However, that’s not the case, as the only shared part between this and the regular POTF2 Chewie is the left leg. Everything else is new to this guy, though the sculpt maintains more than a few similarities with the regular version. Chewbacca definitely has a slightly exaggerated style about him (as did most of the POTFII figures) but I think this is one of the few figures in the line that really couldn’t work without the slightly cartoony feel. The concept looks pretty nifty here, presented in all its over-complicated 90s glory, but placed on a more realistically proportioned body I dare say it would look downright silly. And being exaggerated certainly doesn’t mean the figure doesn’t have some great texturing. The armor in particular looks sufficiently worn and beaten. Someone had a lot of fun sculpting this guy. This version of Chewbacca also got some of the very best paintwork POTF2 had to offer. All of the base paint is cleanly applied, with minimal bleed over. He’s also got some pretty nice work on his fur, which, in story, has patches died to make him look more like Snoova. They could have just been solid blotches of color, but they’ve actually been worked in rather subtly, making them look like they’re actually died into his fur. Chewbacca was packed with a giant blaster and a sci-fi looking axe, which both just add to the 90s over-complication thing. They can both be held, or the axe can also be plugged into his back for storage.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This guy was my very first Chewbacca figure. If I recall correctly, Chewie was one of the last main characters I got. I remember that my Grandmother took me to the store (Sears, I think) specifically because I had asked to get a Chewbacca figure. I seem to recall that both versions of Chewbacca were there, but I picked this one. Even then I knew what cool was! The one pictured is actually a replacement I picked up a few months ago, as the original got lost some ways back. I have to admit, I was ready to tear into this one for its absurdity when I first sat down to write this, but I’ve come out of the review with a rekindled love for this X-Treme little guy.

#0671: Ant-Man & Ant

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Ant-Man, Hasbro, Marvel, Scott Lang August 24, 2015

ANT-MAN & ANT

MARVEL’S ANT-MAN (HASBRO)

Ant-Man was a pretty fun movie. It really was. Also, seeing as the main character’s whole gimmick is his size changing, toy makers get an excuse to release figures in just about any scale they want. Hasbro’s already pretty big on different scales, so they’ve done a little bit to exploit this, though not as much as you might think. So far, they’ve offered the main character in 3 ¾ inch, 6 inch, and 12 inch sizes. I already took a look at the 6 inch Marvel Legends figure (which was a little inaccurate) and now I’ve gotten the 3 ¾ inch-sized Ant-Man and Ant set, which I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two are packed as a deluxe boxed item. The packaging is similar in style to Hasbro’s Marvel Legends Infinite Series, but the Marvel Legends brand isn’t mentioned on the packaging. He’s just billed under Marvel’s Ant-Man.

ANT-MAN

Here we have the titular character, who’s kind of responsible for selling the set. The figure is 3 ¾ inches tall with 20 points of articulation. Movement is a little awkward, to be honest. His hip joints are a somewhat limited and he’s definitely held back by the lack of any torso or waist articulation. He has an all-new sculpt, which is based on his movie design. It’s similar in style to the ML figure, just shrunk down a bit. While that figure had a strange open-mouthed mask, this one has a more movie-accurate closed mouth design. It’s still not a perfect match for the movie design, but it’s pretty spot on to a lot of the earlier promotional art from the film, so it’s forgivably off. The sculpt of the body is well proportioned and features a nice bit of texture and detailing. The hands are in the same slightly odd pose as they were on the ML figure. I’m not sure what the deal is there, but they’re well sculpted hands at the very least. The paintwork on Ant-Man is cleanly handled; it’s a bit on the simpler side. It feels a bit lacking, especially when compared to the larger Ant-Man, but it looks decent enough. The red’s too bright, though, and his eyes should be a bit lighter. But, he’s not bad. Ant-Man includes no accessories, but he is packed with…

ANT

…the Ant. One would assume that this is meant to be Ant-Hony, the ant that Scott rides in the movie, but he’s simply referred to as “Ant” in all references to him on the box. The figure is about 5 inches tall and 7 inches long, with 12 points of articulation. He’s a pretty big ant! The articulation is rather rudimentary, and it seems like they could have easily added a bit more movement if they’d wanted to, but it’s serviceable as is. All of the articulation is handled via ball and socket joints, which aren’t the sturdiest things. That means that Ant-Hony has a habit of falling apart on a frequent basis, which is more than a little annoying. From a sculpting standpoint, he’s another all new sculpt. It’s not a super-detailed sculpt or anything, but it does a respectable job of upscaling an ant. The main body has some decent texturing to it and the wings are patterned to match those on Wasp, which is certainly nice for consistency’s sake. The legs are all hollow on one side, which kind of kills a lot of the realism of the sculpt, but you can pose them so that the hollow portions are inward. Ant-Hony’s paintwork is actually pretty decent. There’s not a lot, but there’s more than you might think at first glance. The eyes are, obviously, different, but there’s also some fairly subtle red accents on the front legs and the head, which add a nice bit of variety and pairs him up well with the included Ant-Man. Like Ant-Man, Ant-Hony doesn’t have any accessories of his own.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It’s Super Awesome Girlfriend’s fault again! We were at my local Toys R Us and they had just put out their shipment of this set. I wasn’t sure I was going to get it, but SAGF saw that Ant-Hony was included and told me I needed to get it. I’ve learned that arguing with her on such things is relatively pointless, so I went ahead and got it. The set isn’t anything out of the ordinary for Hasbro, but it’s entertaining enough, especially given that it’s the same cost as a Marvel Legend.

#0670: X-Ray Vision Superman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with 90s, DC, Kenner, Superman, Superman: The Animated Series, Wacky Variants August 23, 2015

X-RAY VISION SUPERMAN

SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

Remeber last week when I looked at one of the wacky Superman variants from Kenner’s tie in line for the 90s cartoon? Well, that one wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg. At least he was somewhat passable as a basic Superman. Today’s figure? Less so. Without further ado, here’s X-Ray Vision Superman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

X-Ray Vision Superman was released as part of the fourth series of Kenner’s Superman: The Animated Series, the story of which I covered in Power Swing Superman’s review. He’s another of the frivolous Superman variants designed to showcase Superman’s less obvious power set. Yay? The figure is 5 inches tall and he features 6 points of articulation. He sports a unique sculpt. It’s not quite show accurate, but it’s in line with the all of the other Animated Series figures, so at least it’s consistent. It’s nowhere near as extreme in pose as Power Swing Superman, but he’s still a bit removed from a standard standing pose. The most out there part is definitely the throwing arm, which is permanently outstretched and at a 90 degree angle. That’s a bit on the awkward side, but it works okay with the accessories. The rest of the sculpt is more standard fare: fairly simple musculature and decent enough proportions. The head sculpt isn’t as good as the PS Superman, but that’s mostly due to the “action feature.” What is this action feature? Well, he’s got light piping, so as to light up his eyes and simulate his…X-Ray vision. I think they may have gotten confused with his heat vision. The paintwork is where the figure really gets wonky. In lieu of the traditional Superman colors, this figure is primarily a red-orange-yellow gradient. It’s a very warm look, which once again makes me think someone at Kenner kept mixing up heat vision and X-Ray vision when designing this guy. That said, it’s a unique look, so I actually can’t complain. The cape has been swapped to blue, I guess to break up the reds a bit. Overall, the paint is pretty decently applied, with no real slop or anything and lots of nice, bold colors. Superman is packed with a bundle of dynamite, as well as a safe to hide it in. The safe is partially translucent, so as to demonstrate Superman’s power.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like his series-mate, I picked this Superman up from Yesterday’s Fun. He was another one of the wacky Supermen that had intrigued me all those years ago. In fact, he has the notoriety of being the very last thing I bought on vacation. He’s not quite as much fun as Power Swing, but he’s not too bad. And, as an added bonus , paired up with Power Swing, you get a pretty decent Silver Age Superman Blue and Red.

#0669: Vision

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Funko, Marvel, Pop!, Super Awesome Wife, Vision August 22, 2015

VISION

MARVEL POP! ICONS

Well, the summer is almost done, and we’ve more or less moved away from the movies that kicked off the summer movie season. It hit early, but Avengers: Age of Ultron remained one of my favorites throughout the summer. It may not have been perfect, but it was enough fun that I really didn’t care. One of my favorite parts of the movie was the live action debut of the Vision, who was a excessively cool. Unfortunately, he was absent from a lot of the early merchandise for a the movie, so there was a bit of a wait for toys. Funko was at the head of the charge, though, offering Vision in the first selection of their Pop! Figures from the movie.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Vision is figure #71 in Funko’s Marvel Pop! Heroes line, which puts him in the same number sequence as the other Age of Ultron figures. Obviously, he’s based on Vision’s film appearance. This is the first time that Vision’s been done in the Pop! style, but here’s hoping a comic version’s not too far behind. The figure stands about 3 ½ inches tall. As a Marvel Pop!, he is legally a bobble head, not an action figure, so he has no actual articulation. You can reposition his head a bit if you really want to, but that’s really it. As far as the sculpt goes, Vision is pretty standard Pop! faire. Squared head, creepy round eyes, pointy nose, and no mouth. It’s a well-established formula, so it’s not surprising to see the figure stick to it. He also keeps the rather standard squatting pose, which is a tad disappointing after getting several Pop! figures that changed the pose up a bit. Of course, it’s far from the worst pose they could have chosen, so it doesn’t hold him back or anything. Moving past the basic Pop! stuff, it’s worth noting that the figure has some very nice texturing and fine detail work, especially on the body suit. He’s definitely one of the more detailed Pop! figures. The paint on Vision is a little off. The colors were clearly based on early designs of the character, as they’re far more washed out than those of the final design. The Hasbro 2 ½ inch figure had a similar issue, so it would seem that Marvel changed Vision’s colors after distributing materials to the licensees. Oh well. It’s not horribly off, just a little. On the plus side, the paint is all pretty cleanly applied, without a lot of the usual bleed over issues of the typical Funko product.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Vision was another figure added to my collection by the insanely awesome Super Awesome Girlfriend. After seeing the movie, I had made mention of really wanting a Vision figure of some sort and lamented the fact that there really weren’t any available to buy. So, the next time she came to visit, she gave me this guy. The Marvel Pop! figures can sometimes be a slight letdown, due to the whole bobble-head thing, but Vision is actually pretty nifty. I’m happy to have him!

#0668: Batgirl

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Batgirl, Batman 66, DC, Mattel August 21, 2015

BATGIRL

BATMAN’66 (MATTEL)

I’m sure that a fair portion of my readership has heard about the passing of Yvonne Craig on Wednesday. For those unaware, she was the actress who played Barbra Gordon/Batgirl on the live action Batman show from the 60s, along with plenty of other roles. In honor of her, I’ll be taking a look at the Batgirl figure from Mattel’s Batman ’66 line, who was just recently released, almost two years after the rest of the line, due to rights issues.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batgirl was released two ways, both through Toys R Us. She was released solo as a SDCC 2015 exclusive and more widely as part of a three pack with Batman and Robin from the 60s show. This particular version is the one from the three pack, though the differences in the actual figure are negligible. The figure is just shy of 6 inches tall and has 23 points of articulation. The articulation on this figure feels a little outmoded and rudimentary, but, in Mattel’s defense, it keeps her stylistically the same as the rest of the Batman ’66 line. Take of that what you will. The Batman ’66 line was mostly without re-use for sculpts, but it’s a Mattel line, so some was bound to show up eventually. Batgirl uses the upper arms and upper legs of the line’s take on Catwoman. They’re basic enough that it’s not immediately evident that they’re re-used, so that’s good. The rest of the sculpt is new to this figure. It’s decent, if not jaw dropping. The head’s the best piece for sure. It’s a pretty great likeness of Yvonne Craig, and it fits in really nicely with the other sculpts in the line. The body sculpt is a little lower quality than the head. It’s not bad, and there are some really great bits of texture on the gloves and the body suit stitching. However, the proportions are a little bit off; the arms and legs are really long and lanky and the torso seems oddly long. Also, the articulation isn’t really worked in very well, so it stands out pretty badly in certain areas. On the plus side, it seems that Mattel has stepped up to the plate on paintwork in the lull between figures. Batgirl’s paint is a fair bit nicer than what we saw on the first round of ’66 figures, and it avoids the gloppy-ness that plagued a lot of them. Batgirl’s accessories are a display stand with “Sock!” written on it and a card with a pretty cool Batgirl illustration. Depending on how you look at it, one could also count Batman and Robin as “accessories” as well, since it’s unlikely that anyone was buying this set purely for them.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Confession time: this isn’t my figure. It’s actually my Dad’s. You know, I’ve reviewed four Batman ’66 figures on this site and three of them have been owned by other people. I swear I have my own Batman ’66 collection! In fact, that’s actually why I don’t have this figure. Since I’ve already got the Batman and Robin included in this set, they add no value for me, and $55 is a bit steep for a single figure. If I’m honest, Batgirl’s probably the best figure to come out of this line. Sadly, she’s still a Mattel figure, which means there’s some definite room for improvement.

#0667: Captain America TTA Part B

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Captain America, Diamond Select Toys, Marvel, Minimates, Steve Rogers, TRU Exclusive August 20, 2015

WORLD WAR II CAPTAIN AMERICA & ARMORED CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL MINIMATES

“One of these days, I’ll get the other half of the set. I mean, everybody’s gotta have a crazy 90s armored Captain America in their collection, right? How could you not? “
–Ethan Wilson
The Figure In Question #0020: Captain America Through The Ages Part A

Hey guys! Guess what! I got the other half of that set! It totally happened! Aren’t you so excited? I sure am! Without further delay, let’s have a look at the second half of the Captain America Through the Ages boxed set!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

World War II Cap and Armored Cap make up the second half of the Toys R Us exclusive Marvel Minimates Captain America Through the Ages boxed set, which was released to coincide with Cap’s return to life a few years back. The other two figures in the set were Reborn Cap and Suspended Animation Cap, who I reviewed here.

WORLD WAR II CAPTAIN AMERICA

This set took a few cues from the Captain America: Reborn series that returned Cap to the land of the living. The default Cap was based on his appearance at the end of the series, and this Cap is based on his appearance early on in the series when he’s reliving his WWII days. It’s not incredibly far removed from his earliest comics appearances, but it has been given a few updates to make it just a touch more “real-world.” The figure is roughly 2 ½ inches tall and has 12 points of articulation (due to the sculpt of the boots). Cap has sculpted add-ons for his helmet, upper torso, glove cuffs, belt, and boots. He shares the boots and glove cuffs with the Reborn Cap in this same set, but other than that all of his pieces are new to him, and as far as I can tell they’ve remained unique. The helmet is a nice update on his original mask design, merged with just a touch of Ultimates styling. It ended up being the inspiration for the film take on the costume, so it looks pretty familiar nowadays. The upper torso is an interesting piece; it applies the more recent change of giving Cap three-dimensional scales on his upper torso and also serves to bulk him up a bit. I’m not typically a fan of the really obvious scales, but in this case it doesn’t look too bad; in fact, it kind of makes him stand out nicely from the crowd. Cap’s paintwork is noticeably more subdued here than on most versions of the character, but it’s definitely true to the design DST’s aiming to capture. It actually looks pretty cool, almost like a faded photo from the 40s. The paint is pretty great overall, with no issues of slop or bleed over to speak of. The underlying face has a nice Jack Kirby feel to it, which is perfect for a WWII era Cap. This version of Cap is packed with his original mighty shield, a spare, more classically inspired mask, and a spare hairpiece to display him unmasked.

ARMORED CAPTAIN AMERICA

From one extreme to the other. Behold, the 90s. Oh joy. In the 90s, Cap’s powers stopped working correctly, leaving him with brittle bones and stuff. So, like all good 90s heroes, he got powered armor. Yay. Here it is, in all its glory. He’s got 6 all new sculpted pieces, which, to date, still remain unique to him. Because no one else would ever touch something this ugly. To their credit, the pieces all do a pretty good job of capturing the design from the comics and translating it to fit on a Minimate body. Truth be told, the blocky nature of the line actually does the design some favors, and he manages to get some pretty great mobility, in spite of the bulky armor. The paintwork on this figure isn’t quite as great as WWII Cap, but it’s not bad. The metallic red works pretty well, and the stretched out A on the head captures the 90s styling pretty decently. And he’s even got a proper grimace under the helmet! There’s a bit of slop around the edges of the torso stripes and the head wings, but neither is horribly distracting. Armored Cap includes his trusty shield, done up to match the armor, as well as a hair piece (which has some pretty bad flashing on the sides. Yikes!)

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t break down and buy these two for their inflated eBay prices. I actually had some restraint. I did, however, end up finding a sealed Cap TTA set while at Yesterday’s Fun. And the best part is that it wasn’t much more than retail! So, I got these two guys, along with spares of the other two, which is pretty awesome. This pair is an interesting combination. I fully admit to way underestimating WWII Cap. He might well be the best figure in the set. Armored Cap, though? Well, he’s better than I expected, but he’s still my least favorite. Honestly, I’m just glad to finally have the whole set!

#0666: Book of The Vishanti Boxed Set

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Brother Voodoo, Convention Exclusive, Doctor Strange, Dormammu, Hasbro, Hela, Infinite Series, Magik, Marvel, Marvel Legends August 19, 2015

DOCTOR STRANGE, MAGIK, BROTHER VOODOO, DORMAMMU, & HELA

MARVEL LEGENDS INFINITE SERIES

Oh no! It’s review number 666! Number of the beast! Sign of the Devil! Other superstitious things as well! I really don’t know. In honor of the reviews number, I thought I might take a look at something a little more supernaturally-based today. Yes, I’m well aware it’s still a Marvel Legends review. That shouldn’t shock anyone at this point. It’s also a review of quite a few figures, so I’d best dive into the actual review part!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These five figures (along with a life size version of the Amulet of Agamotto) make up Hasbro’s San Diego Comicon exclusive Book of the Vishanti boxed set, released this year at SDCC 2015. The set was also made available on Hasbro’s website following the con, which is how I got mine. More on that later. The set is packaged in a mock-up of the titular book, which features a few sample pages that give some backstory on the included figures. Sadly, the packaging doesn’t photograph very well, but you can sort of make out some of its details pretty well.

DOCTOR STRANGE

Hey look! It’s Benedict Cumberbatch! Wait, sorry, not quite yet. He’s still just a relatively unknown comic book character. Ah well. Dr. Strange is presented here in his “Astral Projection” state, which is what he looks like when his mind leaves his body…and stuff. It’s kind of a standard variant for the character, though this is the first time the look has appeared in the Legends scale. The figure is just over 6 inches tall and he features 32 points of articulation. Structurally, Doctor Strange is a “pre-paint” of the upcoming Avengers Marvel Legends Infinite Series version of the character, which will release him in his non-Astral form. The figure uses the Bucky Cap body as a starting point, with a new head, torso, forearms, and hands, as well as an add-on piece for the belt and “skirt.” Most of the new parts are character-specific. The head does a nice job of capturing the somewhat aloof Doctor, and the hands have a nice spell-casting pose. The skirt is sculpted with a pit of flow to it, which helps to preserve the articulation. The torso pieces aren’t quite as character-specific; they tone down the musculature of the Bucky Cap body, which adds some nice variety. I’m sure there’s already some re-use planned on these particular parts. The good Doctor is fairly easy on the paint. For the most part, he’s molded in a translucent light blue plastic, which conveys the whole Astral Projection thing pretty well. Some of the costume details are outlined in silver, as are the eyes, and the eyebrows and mustache are done in a dark blue, but not the hair, which seems a little odd. Dr. Strange is packed with a pair of magic effects, which are the same as the ones we saw with the most recent comic Scarlet Witch.

MAGIK

Just because the set is supernaturally themed doesn’t mean Marvel’s Merry Mutants get left out! Yes, it’s Colossus’s little sister, Magik, formerly of the New Mutants, formerly dead. Very exciting. I have only a passing familiarity with the character, so I’m not sure exactly which of her looks this figure represents. I think it’s fair to say it’s one of her more recent looks. It seems to sum up the character pretty well, so I’ll give it that. The figure is just shy of 6 inches tall and features 26 points of articulation. She uses the Spider-Girl body as a starting point, and adds in a new head, upper torso, and left arm, as well as an add-on for her belt. The Spider-Girl body is still one of my favorite Hasbro bodies, so it’s a good starting point, but I’m not sure this figure quite makes the best use of it. Something about the costume looks a little unsettling on this body. Maybe that’s just me though. The new parts are all very nicely handled; the head sculpt captures the character very nicely and the armored arm in particular exhibits some fantastic sculpting work. Magik’s paintwork is fairly decent overall. Most of the line work is nice and clean. The lack of pupils is a little odd looking, but that’s probably a design thing, so I can’t fault Hasbro. The red X on her right arm is a little uneven, but not terribly, and the hair and left arm have some great washes to help bring out the texture of the sculpts. Magik is packed with two differently sized swords. The smaller one is fairly basic, but the larger one is actually pretty awesome, and it’s even molded in iridescent plastic!

BROTHER VOODOO

Hey, it’s another character I don’t know a ton about! I mean, I know the character’s basic schtic and I could pick him out of a line-up, I’ve just never followed any of his adventures very closely. I know he took over as the Sorcerer Supreme a few years back, but I don’t really know what’s happened with him since then. I do know that the figure is based on one of his more recent looks, following his promotion, and it was relatively short-lived. I guess it ties in with the set, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. Oh well. The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and features 32 points of articulation. Like so many male figures these days, he uses the Bucky Cap body as his base, with a new head and right hand, plus the left hand of Spider-Man 2099 and add-ons for the cape, hood, belt, and gauntlets. The head does a fairly decent job of capturing the character. Once again, it’s not my preferred look, but it’s well-sculpted to say the least. The sash piece is well textured and is once again sculpted with a bit of wind flow to it. The cape is the same one we saw on Grim Reaper; it’s not my favorite, but I guess it works okay. The hood piece is sculpted to match and even includes the Eye of Agamotto. The pieces all fit well together and do a good job of translating the comic design to three-dimensions. Voodoo’s paintwork is pretty decently handled. Some of the skeleton outlines are a little fuzzy around the edges and the cape and sash could use a bit of a wash or something to dirty them up a bit, but everything is generally pretty good. Brother Voodoo is packed with a staff, which is a bit difficult for him to hold, but a nice extra overall.

DORMAMMU

You can’t really have a Dr. Strange-themed set without including one of him main foes, Dormammu. So, here he is, making his debut appearance in Marvel Legends. When he first appeared, he just had a Human Torch head and a pair of purple long johns, which isn’t the most imposing look of all time. In the last few years, he’s gotten a bit of an upgrade, which has definitely made him just a touch more threatening. This figure goes with the newer look. I can’t blame them on that one, but I do sort of hope we see good ol’ purple long john-ed Human Torch at some point. He has a sort of a goofy charm to him. Now, how about the actual figure? Well, he stands almost 8 inches in height and has 31 points of articulation. He makes use of Hasbro’s under-used Terrax body, from way back in the first series of the Return of Marvel Legends. It’s a good, solid, large body, and it’s an excellent starting point for a big guy like Dormammu. It also matches up pretty well stylistically with the rest of the based bodies, which is always good. The figure gets a new head and hands, as well as add-ons for his shoulder armor, belt/loincloth, and boot covers. All of these pieces are nicely-sculpted. The shoulder piece is a little on the loose side, but it looks nice. The head in particular captures the character’s look really well, and has a lot of nice, clean line-work. Dormammu’s paintwork is probably the spottiest of the set. It’s not bad, per say, but a lot of the edge work is fuzzy and he’s got a bit of slop on one of his shoulders. Also, the red is kinda thin, but that might be on purpose. I do like how the plastic on the arms is slightly translucent. Dormammu is packed with a pair of flaming skulls (re-used from one of Hasbro’s Ghost Riders) which are actually pretty nifty.

HELA

If the mutants get a slot, I guess the Norse Gods are owed a spot too. So, we got a stand-in for the devil (in Dormammu), why not a version of Death? The last version of Death I looked at was Nekron, who’s super boring. Hela’s definitely a lot cooler! Well, cooler looking to say the least. Hela appears to be based on her original design, which seems to have re-surfaced more recently, allowing her to fit in with both classic and modern figures. That’s always a plus! The figure stands roughly 7 inches tall and has 30 points of articulation. Hela makes use of the body Hasbro developed for Red She-Hulk during the RoML line. Some have said it’s too big for Hela, but her listed height is 6’6”, which makes this body about right. The body itself is pretty well sculpted, and it avoids any odd proportions for the most part. The hip articulation is a little out of date, but it’s not the worst thing ever. Hela gets a new head sculpt, which is quite nicely sculpted, and quite attractive. The weird head gear is made up of two separate pieces that plug into the back of the head. Be careful not to lose those! I almost did! Hela also has an add-on for her shoulder pads, which are attached to a cloth cape. I’m usually not big on cloth capes, but this one’s alright, and certainly preferable to the one on Brother Voodoo. Hela has a fairly complex paint job, but she actually manages to get one of the cleaner paint jobs in the set. The basic dark green is nice and shiny and the lighter green is a nice, flatter complement. All of the details are nice and clean, which is great to see on a Hasbro figure. She’s packed with a pretty nifty broadsword, which I believe is a new piece. Her grip on it is a little loose, but it looks cool enough.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I wasn’t going to SDCC this year, I had to resort to getting this on Hasbro’s online store or risk having to pay twice its original value on Ebay. So, I found out what day the SDCC stuff was going on, opened the site on my computer, and sat there and refreshed the page for several hours. Eventually, the stuff got listed and I got this set put in my cart (actually, I put 3 in my cart by accident and had to spend a decent chunk of time trying to remove the two extras). Hasbro’s servers were overloaded of course, so there was a lot of wait time from page to page, which definitely made things pretty stressful for 20 minutes or so. What’s funny is I hadn’t planned on grabbing this set initially, since I only have a passing knowledge of most of the characters included. But, for some reason, as the con got closer, this set became more and more appealing. I’m really glad I picked it up. Astral Strange is a fun variant, Voodoo and Magik are passable, and I’ve always liked Dormammu. Hela steals the show for me, though. The paint is superb and she’s just a solid figure all around!

#0665: Casey Jones

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Casey Jones, Diamond Select Toys, Minimates, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles August 18, 2015

CASEY JONES

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MINMATES

So, my love of almost all things Minimates and my moderate interest in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles insured that I found myself a full set of the line’s first series. After the first series, my interest kind of waned a bit. Not the fault of the line or anything, I just got distracted by other stuff. I did manage to track down one of the Series 2’s figures, Karai, which I liked well enough. One of the more glaring omissions from Series 1 was long-time Turtle ally Casey Jones, who found his way into the second set.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Casey Jones was released blind-bagged, as a part of the specialty assortment of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Series 2. He’s also available packed with Michelangelo in the Toys R Us assortment, for those wanting to go the non-blind-bagged option. The figure stands about 2 ½ inches in height and has the usual 14 points of articulation. Like all the others in this line, he’s based on Casey’s appearance in the current cartoon. Casey features a fair number of sculpted add-ons for his mask/hood, straps/shoulder pad, elbow pads, belt, and his padded gloves. The elbow pads are re-used from the Ghostbusters Minimates line, but aside from that everything’s all-new to Casey. Everything is exquisitely sculpted, with tons of detail work, but not so much as to make him look out of place amongst the other Turtles Minimates. The padded gloves in particular look pretty amazing, with some great texture work on the stitching and padding. Paintwork is the downfall of most of the Turtles Minimates, but it seems to have turned out a fair bit better for good ol’ Casey here. For the most part, the base color work is pretty cleanly handled. There’s a little bit of bleed over here and there, but nothing too bad. There are even a few areas with purposeful slop, which are very nicely handled and add a nice extra bit of character to the figure. The detail lines are all carefully placed, so as to capture the animated style in as few lines as possible. Under the mask, there’s a full Casey face, which is a little bit goofy looking for my taste, but captures the show look pretty well. Casey, like a lot of the Turtles Minimates, is no slouch in the accessories department, featuring an extra head, hairpiece, hands, a pulled down hood, two different hockey sticks, a baseball bat, and a clear display stand. The hair and hood allow for unmasked displays of the character, and the extra head gives us the skull-ish face paint he’s sported on the show. The various sports equipment is kinda key to the character, so it’s cool to see here, and well-sculpted to boot.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After playing the blind-bag game with Series 1 and then trying again with Series 2 and getting Karai, I decided to give up and just get an opened Casey from my favorite Minimates retailer, Luke’s Toy Store. Casey’s long been one of my favorite parts of the Turtles mythos, so I was happy to see him turn up in the Minimates line. The final figure is a little different from my preferred interpretation of the character, but he’s one of the better figures this line’s had to offer.

#0664: Silver Ranger

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with 90s, Bandai, In Space, Power Rangers, Silver Ranger August 17, 2015

SILVER RANGER

POWER RANGERS IN SPACE

When I was a fair bit younger, I was pretty into Power Rangers. That shouldn’t be a shock, seeing as I was a boy under 10 in the 90s. It was sort of a rite of passage. Once I hit 10 or so, I moved away from the series, though, unlike a lot of other people, it wasn’t because I suddenly found the series lame, but rather because none of the new seasons could live up to Power Rangers In Space, which had been by far my favorite iteration of the series. I recently sat down and watched a few episodes from the show and I was actually pleasantly surprised to find out that the show was actually as good as I remembered it to be. Like just about every Power Rangers incarnation, In Space had a “Sixth Ranger” added to the team as the show progressed, called the Silver Ranger because he was…well, silver. He was super cool. Let’s look at a toy of him!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Silver Ranger was an interesting case as far as figures go. None of his figures were in the initial offerings of toys, as his character had not yet appeared. When he did finally appear, Bandai had to do a handful of special offerings to ensure that he got a few figures that would fit with the other Rangers. This particular version was released in a set with a Galaxy Cycle in silver. The figure stands roughly 4 ½ inches tall and has 13 points of articulation. Silver is built on the exact same body used for all of the Galaxy Cycle Pack-in cycles (yes, even the girls). It’s an interesting body because, unlike all of the other Power Rangers In Space figures released in the US, the figures on this body aren’t overly musclebound. That’s actually kind of nice to see. That said, the body ends up being exceptionally simplistic in general, which doesn’t win it a lot of points. Aside from the slight detailing on the mouth of the helmet, and some decent work on the belt buckle, the figure is more or less devoid of any real detail. It looks somewhat like a crash test dummy. Also, the hands are ginormous, to almost insane levels, which looks rather silly on an otherwise skinny figure. It’s not a bad sculpt overall, but it was out of date even when it was brand new. The paintwork on the figure is just about as simple as the sculpt. He’s mostly just molded in the appropriate colors, which leads to some oddness, especially where the gloves go up past the elbows. The head gets the best detailing, with several different colors and no real issues with bleed over and slop. The details on the torso aren’t actually painted. Instead, they’re just decals, which definitely didn’t hold up in the long term. The Silver Ranger originally included a blaster, as well as the previously mentioned Galaxy Cycle. However, my figure has neither of these, so no review for them. Sorry guys!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Silver Ranger was purchased at Yesterday’s Fun while I was on vacation this year. I never managed to find any of the basic Silver Ranger figures growing up, and they’ve since shot up in price, so I was actually pretty excited to find him. Yeah, the figure is definitely dated, and not in the greatest condition, but it’s the Silver Ranger. He’s just cool! And that kind of outweighs the negatives.

#0663: Power Swing Superman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with 90s, DC, Kenner, Superman, Superman: The Animated Series, Wacky Variants August 16, 2015

POWER SWING SUPERMAN

SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

When you are creating an entire line of action figures based on a property with one defined look for your main character, the only way to keep the main character at the forefront, logically, is to release a bunch of variants of that character. Sometimes, they’ll be authentic designs from the source material (such as many of Hasbro’s recent ML Spider-Men) or a practical extension of their basic look (like Iron Man). Other times, they’ll just be completely made up. Enter Power Swing Superman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Power Swing Superman was part of the fourth series of Kenner’s Superman: The Animated Series line. This series is significant because it wasn’t carried by conventional US retailers. Instead, it hit in Europe first. The series didn’t make it to the States until it was offered by Diamond Distributers a few months later. So, there’s that story. The figure stands 5 inches in height and has 6 points of articulation (though his waist swivel is limited by the action feature). Now, where, you might ask, did this figure’s costume originate? Some one episode look, or perhaps an obscure Elseworlds story? Nope, it came straight from the minds of the toy designers. Yes, this costume is totally made up for the figure, though it is notable that this figure removed the signature red shorts over a decade before the New 52 redesign made it canon. The line never really stuck to the show’s style when it came to sculpts, but this figure actually takes it even further, with more defined musculature and an exaggerated pose that wouldn’t look out of place on the dance floor of a disco. While many of the wacky Supermen were sculpted in his traditional garb and painted funky after the fact, this figure’s sculpt actually has details that correspond specifically to this design, which is kinda neat. The best part of the figure is easily the head sculpt, which actually manages to be the most show-accurate sculpt the line ever produced. It’s spot on! The paintwork on the figure is alright, but not great. It sticks to his traditional colors, though placed a bit differently. The colors are nice and vibrant, but the application is spotty. The costume has a lot of bleed over, and the red areas in particular feel like they could use another coat of paint. The head manages to be the best piece once again, avoiding the bleed over and actually doing a very nice job on the eyes. The figure included a large piece of pipe for him to hold, as well as a miniaturized version of Luthor’s exo-suit from the pilot episode. Also, his waist is spring-loaded, allowing him to “swing” the pipe at the exo-suit and “demolish” it. It’s not high-end or anything, but it’s amusing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Power Swing Superman was one of my many purchases from Yesterday’s Fun whilst on vacation this year. I had actually always been intrigued by this guy, but I’d never seen him in person. So, when I came across him, I snatched him up quickly. He’s definitely goofy, but I really enjoy him.