#3960: Cloud Car with Cloud Car Pilot

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

CLOUD CAR with CLOUD CAR PILOT

STAR WARS: EXPANDED UNIVERSE (KENNER)

“Cloud cars are atmospheric vessels that employ both repulsorlifts and ion engines, filling the important gap between airspeeders and starfighters. Functional in many ways, twin-cockpit, patrol cars escorted the Millennium Falcon and her crew onto Cloud City during The Empire Strikes Back. It was here that Darth Vader had Han Solo frozen in carbonite while Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO were held prisoners of the Empire. This single cockpit cloud car was designed and built based on production sketches found in The Art of Star Wars; its brainchild was renown Star Wars artist, Ralph McQuarrie.”

Back in early 2021, I wrapped up the last review of the standard “Expanded Universe” figures from Kenner’s Power of the Force run.  I was, however not *truly* done with the “Expanded Universe” sub-line, because in addition to the nine standard figures, there were also three smaller-scale vehicles, each including their own unique figure.  The slight switch up there is that, rather than go proper Expanded Universe, the vehicles were all early concept designs.  Thus far, I’ve reviewed one of those, a fact I almost forgot because I found the set so “meh” that it continues to leave virtually no mark on my memory.  Perhaps today’s offering will fair a bit better?  I sure hope so.  Here’s the Cloud Car and its associated pilot!

THE TOYS THEMSELVES

The Cloud Car with Cloud Car Pilot was released alongside the rest of the “Expanded Universe” sub-line of Star Wars: Power of the Force II in 1998.  As noted in the bio, this set is based on illustrations by Ralph McQuarrie as part of Empire’s pre-production, making it, I believe, the earliest McQuarrie-based item in the toyline.  This was the largest of the three vehicles, though not by a ton.  It’s about 6 inches long and about 4 inches tall.  While the Cloud Cars seen in the final film are a rather odd twin cockpit design, the initial look was a more conventional single-seater.  It’s actually not a bad little design, with a very fun futuristic vibe that’s very clean.  It doesn’t feel like it’s totally out of place with the final design, either, so perhaps it was still there, just elsewhere?  It certainly feels like more of an older, Clone Wars-era design.  The toy does a nice job translating it, and working in a number of fun playable features, so it can be fully collapsed or deploy the wings.  It’s even got a rather clever missile launcher design, which isn’t too obvious or silly.

The Cloud Car’s pilot is a unique figure, and not really at all like the established Cloud Car pilot from the film, largely because he’s not actually based on a pilot design, but rather a more generalized Bespin citizen, presumably an early version of the Bespin Guards.  The figure stands just shy of 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Like the last pilot I looked at from this line, this guy feels a bit small compared to the rest of the line.  Of course, he also feels like he’s from a different line entirely, just in terms of styling.  He’s more angular and cartoonish, again a bit more like a Clone Wars character, or perhaps Rebels.  In contrast to the Rebel Pilot, I feel like this stylization helps him to keep the original charm of the design, making for a generally more entertaining figure.  His paint work is a bit of a departure from the usual Star Wars shades, making it rather eye-catching and different.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t recall much about this set, or really much about getting it.  I know it was part of a larger purchase, and more than likely I grabbed it at the same time as the other vehicle I was missing.  It’s also been sitting unopened for a good while, continuing the theme of all of my recent Power of the Force reviews.  There was more reason this time, because the speeder bike was so underwhelming, and I just wasn’t sure about this one.  I’m happy to say, this one’s a pleasant departure from the earlier set, and I actually found it to be an immensely enjoyable set.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3959: Mister Spock

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

MISTER SPOCK

STAR TREK (PLAYMATES)

Back at the beginning of the year, I had a small string of Star Trek reviews, which was certainly notable, because I don’t do a lot of those.  Did you know that I actually planned to go further but got distracted had other things to drop on the schedule? Of course not, because I literally don’t discuss my review schedules with a single other human being, for they are my burden and my burden alone!  Right, so, umm, where’s my burden taking me? Back….to the beginning.  No, really.  It’s “The Cage,” the first Star Trek pilot, which famously has a mostly different cast than the series proper, and which was re-cut into the series proper with a framing device for “The Menagerie.” There was one very notable crossover character between the two casts, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, who the network didn’t personally like, but was popular enough with audiences to keep, resulting in one of the franchise’s signature characters!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mister Spock (As Seen in the Pilot Episode “The Cage”!) was released as part of Playmates’ Star Trek line in 1996, as one of four figures based on the show’s pilot episode.  While he’s the least plot relevant of the four, he’s also Spock, so you kind of have to expect it, right?  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  Spock’s articulation scheme is the standard layout for the line, so it’s not great, but it’s also not terrible.  Really, it’s just the hips that aren’t ideal.  Spock wasn’t just an excuse to include a recognizable face, he was also a way to include a total parts re-use as well.  His head is the standard Spock, going all the way back to the first classic figure, and it’s been plopped on the head from the “Where No Man Has Gone Before” Kirk packed in with the Shuttlecraft (which was also re-used for Scotty and Sulu from the same episode).  The head’s not exactly a spot-on likeness of Nimoy, but it works fine.  The body’s notably short and squat for Spock, who was otherwise depicted as a bit more lean than Kirk elsewhere in the line.  The color work here more or less matches the rest of the line.  The shades look right, and application’s not too bad.  It’s probably the cleanest paint this face sculpt ever got, so that’s nice.  Spock is packed with a phaser, a communicator, a toolbox, console, and display stand.  The phaser and communicator are the same ones as the standards, which makes them notably incorrect for what Spock would have had in the pilot.  Given new sculpts were created for Pike, it seems odd they weren’t re-used here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had Pike as a kid, but never had the others from this set, at least for myself.  My dad had all of them, and this Spock was always my favorite version of the character, so he got borrowed a lot.  Spock was the earliest I tracked down after Pike, picked up loose in the summer of 2018.  He was sans accessories at the time, but I tracked them down after the fact, so here he is!  He’s pretty basic, and ultimately I think it’s kind of a shame he’s the only representation Pike’s crew ended up getting.  Not even a Number One?  Ultimately, I’m glad to have only him rather than none at all.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3958: Superman – Golden

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

SUPERMAN — GOLDEN

DC HEROES UNITE (SPIN MASTER)

It’s been *over a year* since I last looked at anything from Spin Master’s DC line, despite them still very much holding the license (at least until the end of the year when Mattel takes over as master license holder again), because, like, I had some stuff going on or whatever?  Honestly, as nifty as the figures are, they’re really little more than that, and I’m personally not really their target audience, so I can’t really fault them for not catering to me.  I do still like messing with a nifty figure every now and then, though, so today I’m looking at a Superman that I’ve been putting off reviewing for far too long.  Here he is.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman was released in the third assortment of Spin Master’s DC Heroes Unite line.  He was one of the “super rare” figures, and initially hit at the end of 2020, but started showing up in greater numbers when Spin Master put out additional runs of the figures in ’21 and ’22.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation.  Sculpturally, he’s the same as the line’s first take on the basic Superman mold.  Technically, that means he, like the other releases, is based on Supes’s second Rebirth costume, but in the case of this release, unless you’re looking *really* close at his belt, it’s a bit harder to tell.  Generally speaking, it’s still a decent sculpt.  A bit bulky and rudimentary, but genuinely a nice offering for the style.  Like the standard, he’s got a cloth cape, which is still really cheap, but it’s not awful.  The change-up to this figure, much like was done with Batman and Wonder Woman before him, is that Clark’s all gold.  In his case, that’s actually a bit more cannon than the other two, since it means he can stand-in for his appearance in the future world of DC One Million, which is extra fun. Largely, the color’s just molded plastic, but he does get a little bit of paint for his logo on his chest.  Superman gets the same blast effect, torso armor, and Kryptonite pieces packed with the other two versions, but they, like the figure, are all gold.  In the case of the Kryptonite, that means we get Gold Kryptonite, meaning you can permanently remove his powers…if you’re feeling especially evil or whatever.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Wonder Woman from this set/style pretty quickly, and had help getting a Batman after the fact, but I really wanted a Superman to finish out the trinity.  I completely missed the first run, but during the re-runs, probably in ’22 I think, I lucked into one, who I bought, and then….kind of forgot about?  He’s been unopened since I got him, and I kept meaning to open him and review him, but I kept forgetting.  Not this time!  He’s not really anything new, but I do like him in all his goofy not-new-ness.

#3957: Triton

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

TRITON

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“Cousin of the mighty Black Bolt, Triton is another powerful member of the Royal Family called the Inhumans! Like his relatives before him, Triton was exposed to the mutagenetic qualities of the Terrigen Mists at an early age. He emerged with aquatic mutations that included dorsal fins, and a scaly green skin which covered his body. Super-strong but unable to breath out of water, Triton uses an intricate infiltration system to respirate when his adventures with the Inhumans bring him to the surface land.”

Hey, remember when I was talking about the Inhumans a couple of weeks ago?  Well, I’m talking about them again, as it seems.  Since the group was introduced in the pages of Fantastic Four, Toy Biz used the FF tie-in line as a way to introduce them to the action figure world as well, putting one of them in per series.  Black Bolt led the charge in Series 1, followed by ol’ stompy boy Gorgon in Series 2.  For Series 3, Toy Biz went with the aquatic guy.  No, not Aquaman.  Or Sub-Mariner.  Or Abe Sapien.  It’s the other guy, Triton.  You know, the one what hangs out with the Inhumans?  That’s the one.  Let’s look at Triton.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Triton was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four tie-in line, which contains a whopping *three* underwater guys.  That’s crazy.  He slightly predates the character’s appearance in the show, but not by quite as much as the other two.  It does, however, mean that he’s not *quite* on model for the character’s animated appearances, but he’s not super far off either, so it’s not a big deal.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Generally, it’s the basic set-up, but he’s got an action feature in the shoulders, which doesn’t eliminate their movement, but does make it a little bit…wonky?  His sculpt’s okay.  It was new to him, but got re-used later down the line for an aquatic Spidey variant.  It seems maybe a touch bulky for Triton, especially when compared to the far more reserved builds of Black Bolt and Gorgon, who are traditionally a little bigger than he is.  But, there’s a lot of fun texture detail work, which is always fun.  The webbed hands, though not accurate to the show, and an incredibly neat detail, which I do quite love.  Triton’s color work is basic, but does what it needs to, replicating that purple/green combo that makes you think he might be a villain even though he’s actually not.  Triton was packed with two accessories: a shark and a sea trumpet.  The shark has a spring-loaded jaw, which I do rather love, but it’s also got no real way at all to actually interact with Triton at all.  The trumpet is at least shaped in such a way that you can loop it over his hand so he can hold it.  Both accessories feel a bit more Sub-Mariner than they do Triton, but neither is a bad piece or anything.  He’s also got a “swimming” feature; squeezing his legs makes his arms swing downward at the shoulders.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

During our many runs to Ageless Heroes, a comic store near my parents’ house that closed down in 1999, my dad got most of the Inhumans, which included Triton.  I didn’t get one at the time, but I always liked the figure, so when I found him amongst the piles of other Toy Biz figures at the KB liquidation center in 2003, he was the one I absolutely made sure to grab.  Though I’ve never had much attachment to the character, I nevertheless made a lot of use of the figure, and I still do really think he’s quite a nifty figure.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0052: Domino

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

DOMINO

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

It’s finally Friday, which is great, but also feels like it took more than a week to get here, because that’s just the world we live in these days.  Let’s jump back to when it wasn’t the world we lived in with another funky Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, this time based on Domino!

Grrrrr! 90s! Everything had to be soooooo X-Treme! And no one was more X-Treme than the X-Men! Well, okay, actually, that’s not true. There was one team than was more X-Treme, by design. They were the X-Force and they were super hardcore 90s. So hard. One of their more prominent members was Domino, who had luck based powers. You know, like a domino!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Domino was released in Series 6 of ToyBiz’s X-Force line. It’s surprising to see one of the team’s higher tier members not being released until one of the last few series of the line, but, hey, it was the 90s, and we were in the worst dregs of boys thinking girl toys were icky, so…..yeah. The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. While she was fortunate enough not to be saddled with the dreaded v-style hip joints that plagued many female figures of the time, she’s completely lacking in neck articulation, and for some strange reason her elbow joints are just simple cut joints. This ends up severely limiting what can be done with the figure, which is quite a bummer. Domino featured an all-new sculpt (though it would see a couple of re-paints later on down the line). It’s…passable. They’ve done a fairly decent job of capturing the design from the comics, which, it should be noted, is her second, non-Liefeld-designed costume. It’s got all the requisite buckles, pouches, shoulder pads, and even a weird head thing! The proportions aren’t the worst thing ever and she has one of the better female faces of the time. That said, she’s rather boxy, especially in her lower half, and I’m really not sure what’s going on with the straps on her torso. They certainly can’t be comfortable configured that way. Also, she seems to have lost a row of abdominal muscles, which ends up making the legs look way too long. The paintwork on the figure is alright. Nothing amazing, but the colors are pretty good matches for the look in the comics, and there isn’t any substantial slop or bleed over. Domino originally included a set of gun attachments, which hooked into her legs. Yeah. Not really sure why they did that, since she just held the guns in her hands in the comics, but hey, whatever. Mine didn’t have them anyway.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Domino was another figure that I fished out of a box of loose figures at one of the dealer’s tables at this past Balticon. I was never really into X-Force growing up, and Domino never played a prominent role in the X-Men cartoon, so I didn’t really have a reason to get this figure while it was still new. But, it was a dollar. It’s not ToyBiz’s best work, but it isn’t atrocious. 

First and foremost, before getting into a discussion of the actual written review, I feel the need to bring up that I’ve somehow reviewed *four* Domino figures here?  I know that because this was the first one, and I had to scroll back through the other three to get to it.  I don’t even really like Domino, so that just really feels absurd.  For comparison, that’s one more Domino review than I have Longshot reviews, and she’s literally just him plus guns.  Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked.

Generally, I think I did alright with the review.  My points still more or less stand, so I can dig it.  It does include a slight factual gaffe on my part, which is linked to the main thing I’m addressing here anyway, which is the accessories.  Domino included two guns which, contrary to what my original review stated, she *could* hold in her hands.  Not very well, but still.  She also got two weird spring-loaded missiles, which sort of kind of sit in the guns and can “launch” but not very well either.  They also have pegs to be stored on her legs, which is where my confusion about the guns attaching to her legs came from.  In my defense, I was working from just the image on the back of the box at the time.  But, now I’ve fixed it, and that’s the most important part!

#3956: Wampa & Luke Skywalker

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

WAMPA & LUKE SKYWALKER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Sometimes, your sci-fi adventure series needs cool, original monsters, and sometimes, it really just needs a pretty standard issue sort of monster that everyone understands.  The latter is well represented in Star Wars’s Wampas, a race of Yeti/Abominable Snowman types that are a pretty natural fit if you’re confined to an ice planet.  Hey, what’s the antagonistic force here? Oh, yeah, it’s exactly what you’d expect it to be!  Solid.  No notes.  The Wampa’s a good choice for toy coverage, since it’s a good basic design, from a memorable and punchy sort of scene from the movie, and also pairs well with a Luke Skywalker variant, as is the case today! 

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The Wampa and Luke Skywalker were one of the 1998 Creature Sets in Kenner’s Star Wars: Power of the Force II line.  It followed up on the Empire-inspired Luke and Tauntaun set from the prior year, and also paired off with the similarly Empire-inspired Han and Tauntaun set from the same year.

WAMPA

Making his debut in the revived line was the Wampa.  He’d shown up in the vintage line as his own stand-alone creature release, but this one started the trend of packing him with a Luke figure, which would become the standard approach going forward.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has a rather minuscule 3 points of articulation.  There’s the shoulders and the waist, and that’s it.  And even the shoulders are kind of spotty, since the right one is just a cut joint, to allow for removal like at the end of his scene in Empire, and the left has a spring-loaded swiping feature that’s a bit limiting.  So, not a lot of posing is what I’m really getting at here.  The sculpt here is rather big and imposing, but also rather on the soft side in terms of detailing.  Though rather cartoony, the original Kenner figure had some pretty sharp detailing, especially on the fur.  This one, less so.  He’s at least a bit more accurate to the Wampa prop from the movie, or at least what we can see of it.  His paint work does the usual Wampa thing of being inexplicably heavy on the accenting, making him look like he’s got splotches of something brown in his fur.  Not the best look.  The rest of the work is fine, though, so it’s not all bad.

LUKE SKYWALKER

This was the third time Luke showed up in his Hoth gear in this line.  There was the single and the one with the Tauntaun, both of which are his pre-attack look.  This one’s the only post attack one, which makes it a bit more unique, as he was the first of his kind.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation, which may seem normal, but it’s slightly skewed.  See, he doesn’t get waist movement, but he *does* get an articulated face covering, so that it can swivel to look like he’s hanging upside down.  It might be more practical if you actually had something to hang him from, but it’s a cool touch nevertheless.  Otherwise, his sculpt is rather similar to the other two Hoth Lukes, as you might expect.  He’s a little sharper on the detailing, though, and also has the expected changes, with the removal of the goggles, and the addition of the scarring to his face.  In general, I’m a fan of the new set-up.  The paint is again very similar to the others, which makes sense from a consistency standpoint.  He’s packed with his lightsaber, which is the same standard one used multiple times throughout the line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember the Tauntaun set at retail, but this one kind of slipped under my radar as a kid, displaced by the Saga era release.  It wound up being the second to last of the Creature sets I located (I still haven’t actually gotten the last one), pulled out of a much larger collection of Power of the Force figures.  As with so many of these things I’ve been reviewing lately, it’s been sitting unopened for a lengthy amount of time, but I finally did it in preparation for this review.  Hooray for me!  The Wampa’s fine.  He works as a display, but I can’t say he’s thrilling.  The Luke’s actually really nice, and the best of the three Hoth Lukes, so that’s a quiet victory there.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this set for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3955: Fantastic Four

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

MISTER FANTASTIC, INVISIBLE WOMAN, THE THING, & HUMAN TORCH

WORLD’S GREATEST SUPER HEROES (MEGO)

Hey, remember last week when I was talking about Mego, specifically how they finally got a chance to bring back Marvel?  Cool, well, there’s more of that going on today.  Yaaaaaaaaay.  In light of the insanity that was the drop for the Spider-Man-themed set, Mego partnered again with Disney for a follow-up, this time based on Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four, in a lead up to their 2025 film release over the summer.  Sure, I didn’t have them before the movie’s theatrical run, but I have a nice tie-in with it dropping on Disney+, so how ‘bout that synergy?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Thing, and Human Torch are the second set in the Marvel sub-set of the revived World’s Greatest Super Heroes.  As with the first set, they went up for pre-order through Disney’s online store, and then started showing up intermittently at the actual parks locations after that.  The set includes the four, each in their own replica box, as well as a coin, much like the Spidey one, based on the ones available in the Marvel in-house ads in the ‘70s, this time showing off the whole team.  Notably, unlike the last set, this set is all reproductions, with no new characters.

MISTER FANTASTIC

Leader of the team and best signifier of the “standard” uniform, it’s Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic.  Or, Mr. Fantastic if you’re more for brevity.  I’m not often for brevity, but this is apparently one of the places I am, so there’s that.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  As with all of the more recent figures, he’s using the revamped bandless body, which is a generally good piece, apart from some slightly reduced range on the elbows and knees.  It does mean you can’t “stretch” him like the old one, but you really shouldn’t have been doing that in the first place, right?  He gets a recreation of the original Mego Reed head, which is honestly one of their nicest standard person heads.  It’s very dignified and scientistly, as a Reed Richards head should be.  His outfit is a multi-piece assembly, with a jumpsuit that has an attached collar and belt, and plastic boots and gloves.  These guys were notable in their use of plastic gloves, rather than the vinyl mittens of the earlier figures.  They look better, but also mean the hands can’t be used practically.  The jumpsuit has a sort of rubberized logo on the front, which looks really nice and also holds up well, and just generally has a pretty nice presence. 

INVISIBLE WOMAN

Also doing the whole standard uniform thing is Sue Storm/Richards, the Invisible Girl/Woman.  At the time of the original figure’s release, she was already Sue Richards, but was still operating as Invisible Girl, which her original packaging reflected.  She changed it to Invisible Woman during Byrne’s run on the book a decade after the original figure’s release, and that’s a change that’s stuck, so for the purposes of some synergy, her box has been adjusted with the appropriate name.  She stands 8 inches tall and she has 16 points of articulation.  Unlike the men, who get the new and improved bandless body, Sue’s still on an older version of the female body.  This one’s slightly modified from the original, in that the neck is attached to the torso.  Also, like every replica of the original female body, the hips are really square and wide, which looks kinda odd.  She’s got her original head, complete with its rooted hair, which manages to not look too crazy or weird.  Her outfit is a close mirror of the one on Reed, albeit tailored to the different body.

THE THING

Hey, it’s the guy what knows when it’s time to clobber stuff!  Our first deviation from the standard get-up is Benjamin J Grimm in his little blue shorts.  The figure stands 7 3/4 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  As with his original release, Ben is the shortest of the four, by virtue of the “bulked up” body he was using (which the original shared with the Hulk).  This one’s upgraded to the bandless construction, which means that, where the original lost a fair bit of the articulation on the standard male body, this one actually keeps the same general set-up as the regular.  The only change-up is the elbows, which, due to the flipped nature of the construction, don’t actually get the side to side movement.  He gets his original head sculpt.  It gets kind of a bad rap, I think, with all the “it’s napping time” comments and the like, but I’ve personally always loved it, in all its hokey glory.  He also gets unique hands and forearms, which feature the rocky detailing, much like the original, but now with wrist articulation.  Ben’s outfit is just a jumpsuit, which gets the attached belt to match the other two.  Most of it is depicting his rocky texture, which us silk screened onto the suit.  It’s a surprisingly effective pattern, very evocative Kirby’s illustrations of the character.

HUMAN TORCH

Also deviating from the standard gear, it’s Johnny Storm, depicted here in all his fully flamed-on glory.  He matches Reed in terms of height and articulation, since he too is built on the basic updated body.  He gets a replica of the original’s head.  The original sculpt does its best to replicate the flamed-on look, which is tricky to get into three dimensions.  Ultimately, the success is, I think, at best, spotty.  But, that’s been the case for almost 50 years, so it is what it is.  Johnny’s outfit is the simplest of the four, just a jumpsuit, not even a belt like the other three.  Like Ben, Johnny’s outfit has a silk screened pattern to try to get his flame effects down, but I don’t think it works as well.  It just sort of looks like shapes, not really fire.  At the very least, the tried something different, which is better than not.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had none of the FF for myself as a kid, but my dad had a full set that got a lot of playtime from me when I’d stay at my grandparents house, usually while watching my *totally legal* VHS copy of the ‘90s Fantastic Four movie.  I tried to get my own equivalent via Toy Biz’s Famous Covers, but they stopped with just Reed and Sue, as Toy Biz loved to do.  I tried to get these when they went live on the site, but they sold out in, like, five minutes, so that was a no.  But, during the Disney trip where my dad was able to order the Spidey set, he was also able to find these in person, so he snagged an extra for me.  My opinions on these pretty much just replicate my feelings on the originals.  Ben’s definitely my favorite, and I love the new base body.  Reed and Sue are both very nice.  Johnny is kind of the weak link, but that’s always been the case, really.

#3954: Superman – Zero Hour

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

SUPERMAN — ZERO HOUR

DC MULTIVERSE (McFARLANE)

In the ‘50s, DC rebooted its super hero line, starting with the introduction of the second Flash, Barry Allen.  In the ‘60s, they brought back the original Flash, Jay Garrick, establishing the existence of a Multiverse. Through the ‘60s and ‘70s, that Multiverse grew, and in the ‘80s, DC decided it had grown too much, and consolidated everything down to one single universe in Crisis on Infinite Earths.  For all of their plans to simplify, Crisis brought with it all manner of complications and odd loose ends. In the ‘90s, DC made one of a number of attempts at rectifying those issues with Zero Hour, another crossover to end all crossovers.  DC’s two top heroes, Superman and Batman, were both rather fresh off of some upsets to their status quos.  Superman had died and returned, with the major lasting remnant at that point being his ‘90s-tastic mullet.  It’s a great way of getting an extra variant out of the Man of Steel, and that’s the case today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman — Zero Hour is part of the latest round of “Page Punchers” from McFarlane’s DC Multiverse line (officially under the DC Direct banner).  He’s paired off with a Crisis Joker, and he’s the standard release, with Zero Hour’s secondary antagonist Extant as the unadvertised Red Platinum chase.  This is the second time we’ve gotten mullet Superman, following up on the Collector’s Edition one that got stupid expensive a while back.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 37 points of articulation.  As has become the formula for most Supermen from McFarlane in the last year, this figure is built on the Earth-2 Superman base body.  It’s by far the best take McFarlane’s had, and it’s a good, solid classic Superman body, so I can’t really fault it’s continued use.  He gets a new head sculpt, sporting that oh-so-important mullet.  It’s a strong sculpt, feeling consistently the same guy as the Silver Age Superman, but looks a bit older and more defined.  The hair’s got a good, dynamic flow to it.  Something with less of a dynamic flow, however, is the figure’s cape.  It’s a cloth one, like the others on this body, but for whatever reason, they’ve omitted the wire in the lining this one, meaning it just sort of hangs their flat.  It’s especially odd because the stitch on the cape clearly is designed with a wire in mind; it’s just not there.  The cape also sits back too far at the shoulders, which is especially notable given how his cape was usually pretty flared at the shoulders during this era.  His color work is a bit darker than the Silver Age version, which is accurate to the comics from the time, and looks pretty good and unique from the others.  Superman is packed with two pairs of hands, one in fists, the other in open gesture, and basic display stand, a collector card, and a copy of Zero Hour #4, which is, oddly, the first issue of the crossover.  It’s really prone to damage, because the paper’s really thin, but it’s an entertaining enough read.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I came into collecting in the ‘90s, my first Superman line was Man of Steel, so the mullet is kind of etched into my brain as a signature look for the character.  I missed the last mullet Superman at retail, and the only time I saw him he was crazy expensive.  Since I’m just sort of keeping up with the new Supermen as they hit now, I was on board for this guy when he was shown off.  He sold out super quick, but GameStop came through for me again.  I don’t love the cape, but otherwise, he’s a fun little variant on a tried and true formula for a Superman figure.

#3953: Super-Skrull

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

SUPER-SKRULL

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“By the order of his Emperor, a select Skrull warrior was bionically re-engineered to become the living weapon in a plot of revenge against the world’s greatest super-hero team. Through advanced technological means, the Super-Skrull was granted the ability to perfectly mimic each of the powers of the Fantastic Four! Sworn to bestow a crushing defeat upon Mister Fantastic, The Thing, The Invisible Woman, and the Human Torch, Super-Skrull seizes the combined force of their awesome powers, and throws it back at them with a bitter vengeance.”

The shape-shifting aliens the Skrulls are one of Lee and Kirby’s earliest additions to the Marvel Universe after launching the Fantastic Four, appearing in the second issue of the series.  Just over a year later, in issue #18, they would get an upgrade in the form of Kl’rt, the Super-Skrull, a Skrull warrior imbued with the powers of all four members of the titular team.  He’s been perhaps the most notable and prominent recurring Skrull since his introduction, facing down not only the FF, but a fair number of other Marvel heroes along the way, and even becoming less antagonistic from time to time.  He’s had a handful of figures over the years, the first of which came from Toy Biz in the ‘90s.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Super Skrull was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four line, designed to tie-in with the show of the same era.  Super-Skrull appeared in the show’s first season, sporting his classic design, and this figure serves as a pretty close adaptation of that set-up.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He’s largely got the standard set-up for movement, but the right arm just gets a swivel at the elbow, rather than a hinge, due to how his action feature works.  His sculpt was unique to him.  It’s very…wide.  Admittedly, that’s true to his Season 1 design, which was itself true to his ‘80s/early ‘90s depictions.  It’s certainly not a bad sculpt, and feels pretty in line with the character. The head’s suitably angry and sporting that signature wrinkly chin, and the arms do an okay job of selling the combined powers of Reed, Ben, and Johnny.  His right arm sports an action feature that extends the fist outward when the button on his shoulder is pressed.  It’s the same basic gimmick used by Doom, but it makes a bit more sense here.  Honestly, it’s a bit odd it never got used for Reed, since it’s his power it’s meant to replicate, but that’s a whole other thing.  His color work is basic.  It’s bright, and again matches the Season 1 look.  I’ve never been crazy about the blue used on the cowl and mid-section of the torso; I definitely prefer the usual black there, and I don’t feel it’s a great contrast here.  Otherwise, though, things work pretty well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Super-Skrull is another purchase courtesy of the one single trip I got to take to the KB liquidation center with my Grandmother, back in the early ‘00s.  I recall this one being one I was particularly excited to find, because he wasn’t one you saw nearly as often as the rest of the figures.  He’s definitely based on a very specific incarnation of the character, but it works, and I think he results in a pretty clean, pretty fun little figure.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0051: Firelord

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

FIRELORD

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

I started the week with som Toy Biz Fantastic Four, why not wrap the week with a revisit to the line?  That’s what a good Flashback Friday Figure Addendum is all about!  So, let’s return to a guy who’s probably not cracking top three on Galactus’ Heralds, Firelord!

“Once a herald of the world-devouring Galactus, Firelord was granted absolute control over all flames by his former master. Now freed from servitude, he wanders the spaceways, using his cosmic power to take what he desires! Unprincipled and mercenary, Firelord conceals his true demeanor beneath a facade of nobility and culture, but always displays his blazing abilities for all to marvel at…and fear!”

After Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the concept of Galactus, and in turn his herald Silver Surfer, and then almost immediately dismantling it by having the Surfer removed from the role of herald at the end of that very story, it seemed Galactus was in need of a new herald to keep things running. The first replacement for Surfer was Air-Walker, a Xandarian who’s first appearance was not even the man himself, but a robotic duplicate, created by Galactus after the original died. The next herald after Air-Walker was another Xandarian (who was actually a friend of Air-Walker pre-herald transformation), Firelord. Firelord would follow in the path set by Silver Surfer, eventually asking to be released from his duties as herald, and forging out on his own. He’s remained a minor recurring character on the cosmic side of things at Marvel. As a herald of Galactus, he got himself a spot in Toy Biz’s FF line in the ’90s. I’m taking a look at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Firelord was released in Series 2 of the Fantastic Four line. Unlike Thanos, who was notably never in the cartoon that the line was tying into, Firelord actually got a brief appearance on the show. Not that it really amounted to much, since it was little more than a cameo, but hey, there it was. Of note, he was actually voiced by Alan Oppenheimer, better known as the voice of Skeletor. Fun times. Until his Minimate release, this was Firelord’s only action figure. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation. He sports a sculpt that remained unique to this release. It’s a pretty decent one. Nothing overly showy or anything. Generally it just sticks to the basics, but it’s good at that. He’s got some minor detailing for the flame effects, which are a little on the soft side, but get the point across. The strongest portion of the sculpt is definitely the head, which sticks closer to the comics interpretation of the character, with his rather other-worldly cheek bones and all. Firelord’s paint work is alright. It’s not quite as bold and differentiated as some of his colors tended to be in the comics, but the general look again works pretty well, apart from some slight muddying of the colors without any real clear outlines. That said, it’s not terrible. Not terrible at all. Firelord was packed with his flaming staff, dubbed “Cosmic Flame Launcher” on the package. It’s in two parts, and one part launched like a missile out of the other. I’ve only actually got the missile part anymore, which is the half that looks more convincingly like his staff anyway.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve mentioned before on the site about Ageless Heroes, a comic store nearby that had a rather huge going out of business sale when I was between six and seven. It served as a pretty sizable boon to my 5 inch Marvel collection as a kid. Firelord here was one of the figures from that boon. He wasn’t actually bought as Firelord, since I didn’t really know the character, but instead got initial use as a Jim Hammond Human Torch. I did eventually learn who Firelord was, courtesy of a copy of his appearance in Uncanny Origins, which I got from Ageless Heroes’ back-issues, in fact. He’s not a perfect figure, or anything, but he’s certainly one I got a lot of use out of as a kid.

That review was from 2022, making it an astoundingly new review for a revisit.  Curiously, it managed to only *just* beat the Legends Firelord’s release, so I still reviewed them chronologically.  We won’t bring up that the Minimate should be between the two of them, though, because it makes me look bad, and I don’t do that around here.  Never.  It hasn’t been enough time for me to really change my opinion on the figure, so I shan’t.  I will, however, show off the newly replaced other half of his staff, because there it is!  It’s real bulky, and pretty much impossible for him to hold and seems needlessly complicated, but there it is.