#0293: Wonder Woman

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

WONDER WOMAN

JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR (DC COLLECTIBLES)

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Justice League: War is far from one of the greatest pieces of animation DC has produced. That being said, it’s also far from the worst (I’m looking at you Flashpoint Paradox…), and I felt it even managed to improve upon the source material a fair bit. The animation proved to be nice a smooth and the design work wasn’t too bad. If they can manage to get some slightly better stories, then perhaps they might get back to where they used to be in animation. Wouldn’t that be nice?

I felt that one of the better aspects of the movie was its handling of Wonder Woman. She’s a character that DC seems to have a lot of trouble getting. War provided a strong and likeable version of the character, which shows that maybe they might have a chance of getting the character the recognition she deserves some day. When I decided to pick up a few of the figures from DC Collectibles’ tie-in toyline for the movie, I knew I wanted Green Lantern right off the bat, but the film’s take on WW convinced me I should get her too. Let’s find out if that was a good move!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

WonderWomanWarWilsonWonder Woman is part of the first series of Justice League: War by DC Collectibles. She’s based on the character’s design from the movie of the same name. The design draws some interpretation from Wonder Woman’s current costume in the comics, but they’ve taken more liberties on her than they did on Green Lantern. The costume features higher sitting boots, pseudo-sleeves, and actual covering on the collar area. The figure stands about 6 ½ inches tall and features 13 points of articulation. They’ve removed the bicep swivels that were present on GL, which limits the movement, but does look better from an aesthetic standpoint. Wonder Woman’s sculpt is completely unique to her. This is most likely due to her being the only female in the line. Still, I’d be curious to see if DCC would re-use the body for any later females, given her Amazonian stature. The sculpt is pretty good, and does a fair job of translating the movie’s design into three dimensions. The figure is about two-thirds legs, which seems a bit more stylized than she was in the movie. She almost looks as if her legs and the rest of her go to two different figures. Still, she’s better than a lot of female figures, and a lot of it can be written off as keeping with the movie’s style. WonderWomanWar2The paint on Wonder Woman is pretty good. Her paint job is a bit more intricate than GL, so there’s a bit more room for error. She suffers from some fuzzy lines on the edges of her boots and sleeves, but they aren’t too noticeable, and they’re certainly better than Hal. Her eyes have been given a red-ish hue, which almost makes it look like she’s been crying. Not sure what they were going for there, but it doesn’t seem to have worked. Also, her skin tone seems to be a bit light compared to what she had in the movie, which is a shame, because it added some nice diversity to the group. I suspect this was done so that they could use the same skin-tone plastic on all of the figures. Wonder Woman includes her lasso of truth, which is glued to her waist, and a sword, which seems oddly short.

 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up Wonder Woman and GL from Amazon a few weeks ago. My review probably seems a little down on the figure, but in actuality I quite like her, perhaps even more than Green Lantern. I’m a huge Green Lantern fan, so that’s saying something. Justice League: War presented perhaps one of my favorite Wonder Woman designs, so getting a figure of it is a plus. This figure has a few issues, but as a whole, I think it turned out pretty well. If you’re a Wonder Woman fan, I’d certainly recommend it. Heck, I’m only a moderate Wonder Woman fan and I think it’s pretty darn cool!

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#0292: Green Lantern

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

GREEN LANTERN

JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR (DC COLLECTIBLES)

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Every so often, I have to go back to the basics. In my case, the basics tend to be either DC or Marvel figures. Bonus points if they’re animation related!

As a kid, most of my DC action figures were based on the cartoons of the time, Batman: The Animated Series being chief among them. DC Collectibles (formerly DC Direct) has recently announced that they plan to do a rather extensive line of figures based on B:TAS, which excites me greatly. I’ve been away from DCD/DCC collecting for a while, so I thought I’d see what to expect from the new line by taking a look at a few figures from their line done to tie in with the recent Justice League: War animated feature. Being me, I started with Green Lantern. Just go with it!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GreenLanternWarWilsonGreen Lantern was released in the first series of DC Collectible’s Justice League: War line. He’s based on the character’s design in the film of the same name, which is in turn inspired by the character’s current look in the comics. The most distinctive piece of the GL figure is the streamlined nature of the design. The figure is about 6 ½ inches tall and features 13 points of articulation. The articulation is fine overall, but he could really use some ankle and wrist articulation, the lack of which is becoming a disturbing trend in the action figure industry. Still, the lack of these points isn’t quite as detrimental here as it was on, say, Mattel’s recent General Zod. He’s certainly less stiff looking. A lot of this has to do with the sculpt, which, while it isn’t perfect, does have a decent fluidity to it. The sculpt, aside from a new head, is shared with series-mate Flash. It’s a pretty good starting point. The physique looks to be accurate to the design from the movie, and is basic enough to work for a few different characters. The head is a pretty great likeness to GL’s design in the movie, and has a nice amount of character. The figure mostly relies on paint to depict his costume details. It’s mostly straight forward work, and it’s decent but not perfect. He’s got quite a few fuzzy lines, especially on the edge of his neck. The painted on ring is also a bit sloppy, almost like it hasn’t been completely painted. Piece by piece, GL is sloppy, but he actually looks pretty darn good as a whole. The figure includes no accessories, which seems like a missed opportunity.

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is something of an experimental purchase for me. I had a slight interest in it when it was announced, mostly due to the whole Green Lantern thing. Once the first series was released, I just kind of forgot about it and moved on. A few weeks ago, I was house sitting for a friend. He had told me I was welcome to watch any of the movies on his shelf, and I noticed he had a pretty much complete set of the DC Animated Movies. I’d fallen a bit behind on them, so I decided to catch up. JL: War wasn’t my favorite movie ever, but it was entertaining enough for me to decide to go ahead and pick up a few of the figures. I’m glad I did. Even if GL isn’t perfect, he’s a nice enough figure that I’m happy to add him to my collection.

#0291: Yellow Ranger

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

YELLOW RANGER

SH FIGUARTS

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The Birthday reviews are officially over, so now it’s more or less business as usual. Still, I may be referencing some related things for a little while, just so you’re all aware. One of my main gifts this year was a near complete set of Rangers from Bandai’s most recent take on the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Being me, I couldn’t let that set be near complete for long. That would be criminal! So, it’s the final piece, the Yellow Ranger! The Yellow Ranger is interesting, because it’s a girl here in the US, but a man in Japan. Through some creative cutting and a few reshoots, they were able to completely change the gender of the character. This does lead to one issue, however: when doing a line of Rangers who are being sold in Japan first but will also be doing a large portion of their sales in America, which version do you release? According to Bandai, both. Yep, the regular release that sees US distribution is the female version, but in Japan they also released an online exclusive male version. How about that? In case you’re wondering, mine’s the girl.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

YellowRangerWilsonThe Yellow Ranger was the seventh, and final, release in Bandai’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers sub-line of their larger S.H. Figuarts line. She was released just last month, not long after the Blue Ranger. The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and features 36 points of articulation. The figure’s sculpt borrows heavily from the Pink Ranger, which isn’t a huge shock. She’s been given a new pelvis piece to accurately represent her uniform’s lack of skirt, as well as a brand new head based on her signature Sabre Tooth Tiger helmet. She probably has one of the sharper helmet designs, and Bandai has managed to translate it pretty much perfectly, so that’s pretty cool. Like with the Pink Ranger, I find that the female body is less plagued by obvious elbow and knee joints than the male, so that’s a plus. The Yellow Ranger’s paint is pretty straight forward, no slop or bleed over. If you’ve seen any of the other Rangers, you’ve seen her. One plus is that the yellows all match better than the pinks on the Pink Ranger, a very definite improvement. The Yellow Ranger has a pretty decent selection of accessories, including a folded up Blade Blaster and a Thunder Slinger, same as the ones included with all the basic Rangers, plus her dual Power Daggers, and four pairs of hands: fists, open gesture, Blade Blaster grip, and Power Dagger grip. The Yellow Ranger also includes an extra Power Axe for use in assembling the Power Blaster, and, most importantly, the instructions for how to assemble the Power Blaster. It goes together without too much trouble, and each of the pieces looks accurate to the individual ones included with the Rangers, plus it’s a pretty key item from the show, so kudos to Bandai for adding in the extra pieces to build it!

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Yellow Ranger was not amongst the gifts I received for my birthday this year. She was only released a day or two before, and you have to draw the line somewhere, so I wasn’t the slightest bit offended. I ended up getting a little bit of money from my Grandmother, so I put that towards completing my Rangers, which makes the Yellow Ranger sort of a pseudo Birthday gift, I suppose. She’s a pretty great figure and she’s in line with the rest of them, which is really great. Plus, she finishes off the team, which just makes the whole set that much cooler!

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#0290: GM Sniper K9

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

GM SNIPER K9

HG BUILD FIGHTERS

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Hey, remember that time I reviewed a model kit? Yep, I’m doing it again. It also happens to wrap up the official entries in the Birthday Stuff Reviews, so how ‘bout that? Yep, I’ve gotten another of Bandai’s Gundam snap-kits, and I’ve finally got it all put together. Let’s see how this one went, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GMSniperWilsonToday’s figure is the GM Sniper K9, who is apparently “Build Fighter Renato Brothers Custom Made Mobile Suit.” He seems to be something of a basic suit, with a sniper flair to him. He’s figure #010 in Bandai’s HG Build Fighters model line, at least I think. I’m not incredibly well versed in Gundam, and the package is mostly in Japanese. The figure is in 1/144 scale, so he stands roughly 5 inches tall and he features 36 points of articulation. Going by the front of the package and a few of the images I’ve been able to find online, the figure seems to be pretty much accurate to the design of the suit from the various media. The sculpt is definitely clean and sharp, and the parts of the model all snap together really nicely, which is a huge plus, without doubt. The kit wouldn’t be worth much if it didn’t fit together. The figure doesn’t feature any paint. Instead, the details are conveyed through clever placement of a few different colors of plastic paired with the application of a small handful of decals. I did notice that the decals were a bit more tricky to apply here than on Nemo, but that might be more the nature of the design. The figure includes a nice selection of accessories, including several sets of interchangeable hands, two beam swords, a machine gun, a rifle, two pistols, a knife, a shield and a sniper K9, which the figure gets its name from. The K9 could almost be a figure in its own right, with roughly 16 points of articulation. That’s pretty darn cool!

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Sniper here was a birthday gift from my best friend Tim. I showed him Nemo, and how impressive a figure it was, so he decided to get me another one to go with him. I believe his exact words on why he chose this one were “It’s got a freaking sniper dog!” (okay, I might be paraphrasing the slightest). The Sniper has a pretty sweet design in his own right, and he offered a pretty fun building experience, so I’d call that a win-win.

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#0289: General Zod

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

GENERAL ZOD

DC COMICS MULTIVERSE (MATTEL)

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The Birthday Reviews continue. We’re at Part 9, and we’re drawing quite close to the end. Today, I’m looking at a figure from one of Mattel’s recent DC lines, DC Multiverse. Frequent readers of the blog will have just cringed, cuz yeah, it’s a Mattel review. Be prepared. Anyway, Multiverse is Mattel’s new line of 3 ¾ inch DC figures, based on various movies and video games over the years. The most recent assortments have been focusing on the 70s-80s incarnations of Batman and Superman, and I’ll be taking a look at one of Superman’s nemeses, General Zod. KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!!! …..Sorry, the figure makes me do that sometimes…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Zod2General Zod was released as part of the second assortment of Mattel’s DC Comics Multiverse line. He’s based on the version of the character as portrayed by Terrance Stamp in the first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies. He stands about 3 ¾ inches tall and features 17 points of articulation. It might seem like a decent count, but he’s lacking basics, such as thigh and waist swivels, or any kind of ankle articulation. This results I n the figure being rather stiff looking. The slightly odd posture and proportions of the sculpt don’t really help the stiff-ness. The legs are a bit too long, and definitely too thin, and his waist seems like it seems too high up. The head isn’t terrible. It does bear a passing resemblance to Terrance Stamp, though he’s kind of a bit generic. His face seems to be a little chubbier than Stamp, but it’s not bad for the scale. The paint on Zod is okay, but not amazing. The uniform is fine, and they’ve done a nice job differentiating between the sheen on the materials, so there’s that. The face paint isn’t the greatest. The beard is the worst; it looks a bit like it’s been drawn on his face. The eyes and eyebrows are pretty good work, and the hair is cleanly painted at the very least. He would certainly benefit from a few streaks of gray in his hair, though. Zod includes one accessory: the machine gun he destroys shortly after arriving on earth in Superman II.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Zod was one of the gifts I received for my birthday this year, given to me by my parents. It was actually a slightly late addition to the Birthday haul, as my dad forgot he had gotten it for me. It’s not a terrible figure, and I feel certain I’ll like it a bit more once I have the accompanying Superman. That being said, he is a slightly disappointing figure, especially for the price and compared to what others have done with this scale. Most wounding is the fact that Mattel seems determined to stay behind the industry standards, moving to the 3 ¾ inch scale just as it’s been largely abandoned, even by Hasbro, king of 3 ¾ inch. Still, I guess if you’re a fan of this version of Zod (and who isn’t?) you could do worse than this figure.

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#0288: Iron Golem

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

IRON GOLEM

MINECRAFT

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What’s this? Two video game reviews in a row? Is Ethan feeling okay? Will the sentences stop being questions? Yeah, it’s time for another Birthday review, Part 8, in fact. Once again, this figure comes from a video game, but this time it’s a game I’ve actually played quite a bit: Minecraft! This particular figure is based on the Iron Golem, one of the game’s NPCs, which can be built by a player in-game.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

IronGolemWilsonThe Iron Golem was released as part of the second series of Jazwares’ Minecraft line. The figure stands about 4 inches tall and features 6 points of articulation. As far as I can tell, the figure sports a brand-new sculpt, though it’s possible that the legs may be re-used from one of the line’s other figures. I don’t have any of them to compare, so I can’t be sure. The sculpt looks pretty good. It’s not a complex design, but they’ve done an admirable job translating to three dimensions and adding points of articulation. The paint is really great in that it looks simple, but it’s actually very calculated so as to capture the pixelated detailing of the character really well. It gives the figure a nice, unique look, and makes it instantly recognizable to fans of the game. The Iron Golem includes a rose and an iron block. These are pretty clever, as roses are one of the Iron Golem’s favorite things, in-game, and the iron block is a pivotal piece to building the character.

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Iron Golem is another of the gifts I received for my birthday. My brother had originally wanted to get me this figure instead of the Heavy, but he couldn’t find the Golem in time. However, on the way home from dinner on my actual birthday, my family agreed to stop by the nearby Toys R Us with me. I found the Iron Golem, and my parents went ahead and bought it for me. How cool are they? The Iron Golem is my favorite of the designs from Minecraft and I was decently excited to see the figure turn up in series two. I can’t really see myself getting into the rest of the line, but the Iron Golem makes for a pretty decent standalone piece.

#0287: The Heavy

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

THE HEAVY

TEAM FORTRESS 2

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Birthday Reviews chug along, now working into Part 7. We’re nearing the end, but we aren’t there just yet! Today, I’ll be looking at a video game figure, a first for me, but not for the site. Most interestingly, while I have played a few video games, and I do have some figures from them, this one doesn’t come from a game I’ve personally played. But toy, so…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Heavy3The Heavy was released as part of the first series of NECA’s Team Fortress 2 line. This particular version is the Blue Release, which was put out a little while after the initial Red Release. The figure stands just shy of 8 inches tall and features 32 points of articulation. He’s based, shockingly enough, on the design of the Heavy from Team Fortress 2. The figure has an all new sculpt, which isn’t too surprising, given the unique nature of the character designs in the game. The sculpt seems to be pretty spot on to the design from the game. Some changes have been made here and there to facilitate the articulation and make the figure a bit more stable, but they’re minor changes. The blocky nature of the design really translates nicely to figure form, which is a definite plus. The paint work marks the distinguishing feature between the two versions of the character. I have the Blue Version, which means I have the one painted blue, which is what the Heavy looks like when a player is playing on the Blue team. The default looks tend to be Red, but Blue was a little easier to find, so it works for me. Otherwise, the paint all seems to be done pretty well. There aren’t any noticeable occurrences of slop or bleed over.  The Heavy comes armed with his big gun and a shotgun, as well as a pair of hands to properly hold both.

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Heavy was given to me by my really cool brother this year for my birthday. I’ve never actually played TF2, but I know of it, and I’ve always found the designs, particularly the Heavy’s, to be pretty cool. This is definitely a neat figure, and probably even more so to someone who’s actually played the game!

#0286: Tenth Doctor’s Companions

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

ROSE TYLER, SARAH JANE, MARTHA JONES, DONNA NOBLE, ASTRID & K-9

DOCTOR WHO

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After yesterday’s brief break, we return to the Birthday Reviews with Part 6! I’ve wrapped up my Power Rangers (well, the ones I received as gifts, anyway…) so I’ll be moving on to some of the other gifts I got this year. This time around it’s Doctor Who themed, which is something I’ve looked at only once before on this blog. This time I’m not looking at the Doctor himself, but rather several of his companions.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These six were released as a boxed set, based on the companions of the Tenth incarnation of the Doctor. All of them were previously released on their own, but this is the first time I’ve seen any of them, so I’ll be treating them as new.

ROSE TYLER

10Companions6Rose is the new Doctor’s first companion, a hold-over from the Ninth Doctor’s time. The figure is about 5 inches tall and features 11 points of articulation. She’s based on Rose from the Tenth Doctor’s first season, specifically from the episode where he fights Satan in space. Yeah. The sculpt is all new, as far as I can tell, and it’s pretty good. The body seems well proportioned, and the face is a pretty great likeness of Billie Piper, so that’s cool. The hair is a bit chunky, but it’s not terrible. The arms lack elbow articulation, I assume to prevent the sculpt of the bare arms from being interrupted. It looks nice, but it does mean the arms are very limited in what you can do with them. The paint work is nice and clean, no bleed over or slop, which is all pretty good.

SARAH JANE

10Companions2Sarah Jane is only one of Ten’s companions in the loosest sense of the term. She appeared in a few episodes of his tenure, but she was never his sole companion. She was, however, a long-time companion to the Fourth incarnation of the Doctor. She stands about 5 inches tall and features 13 points of articulation. She’s based on her appearance on the show during Ten’s first season, which seems sensible for the set. The figure’s sculpt is pretty good overall, though she may actually be a little too young looking for the actress at the time of her appearance with Ten. That seems preferable to the opposite, so I can’t complain too much. The body sculpt looks pretty reasonably proportioned and detailed, and her hair looks more accurate than Rose, so that’s good. The paint work on Sarah is pretty clean, nothing amazingly impressive, but not bad by any means.

MARTHA JONES

10Companions7Martha was Ten’s first major companion following Rose (Donna showed up first, but she was only in the one episode). She only lasted a season, but she continued to appear for the following season, and also made a few appearances in spin-off series Torchwood. The figure sports 13 points of articulation and stands 5 inches tall. Martha’s sculpt is really quite good, probably the most accurate in this set. The likeness is definitely there, the proportions look great, the detail work is nice, and the articulation doesn’t interrupt too much. That makes for a really good figure. The paint is nice and clean, and accents the sculpt very well, and I like the differences in the finishes on different materials.

DONNA NOBLE

10Companions5Donna first appeared in the episode following Rose’s departure, originally meant as a one episode character before Martha appeared. However, the producers liked Catherine Tate’s performance, and decided to bring her in following Martha leaving as full-time companion at the end of the season. The figure is about 5 inches tall and features 13 points of articulation. She’s based on Donna’s appearance in her first episode as full time companion, which may not have been the best idea. Purely viewed through the window of show accuracy, it’s not a bad sculpt. She looks quite a bit like Tate, and the outfit she wore has been transferred pretty well. The issue at hand is that it’s not very flattering. Under the coat, they’ve accurately conveyed her build, but you can’t tell thanks to the bulky coat. It’s really a shame. The paint work on the figure is pretty good. Everything is cleanly applied, and there aren’t any issues of slop or bleed over.

ASTRID

10Companions8Astrid is the companion in this set with the shortest tenure on the show. Her only appearance is in the Christmas special following Martha’s departure. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and has 16 points of articulation. She’s in the only outfit that Astrid ever wore, so I suppose that’s fair. Her sculpt is okay, though not phenomenal. She looks a tad too old to be Astrid, and the proportions seem slightly off. In contrast to Rose, she has elbow joints. Functionally, it’s better, but aesthetically, I’m uncertain. I wonder if there might be some middle ground. The paint work on Astrid is pretty good overall, but the legs do show a little bit of slop.

K-9

10Companions3K-9 is kind of a joint-companion with Sarah Jane. He has pretty much the same amount of interaction with the Tenth Doctor, and was also a long-time companion to the Fourth Doctor. K-9 is about 3 inches tall and 2 inches long, with no articulation. It would have been nice to get some neck articulation, but otherwise, the lack thereof is understandable. The figure is based on K-9’s more beaten up appearance in the first season of Ten’s run. The sculpt is pretty good, and looks to be about spot-on to the prop from the show, so that’s cool. K-9 10Companions4features a removable plate on his right side, allowing a glimpse of his inner workings. The plate can be popped off by pressing the button at the top of his body. The paint work on K-9 is okay. I do wish that some of the scuffs and rust spots were a bit more subtle, but the rest of the paint seems to pretty cleanly applied, which is pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Companions set was a super awesome gift from my super awesome girlfriend, given to me for my birthday. She got them for me to compliment the set she gave me for Christmas, and she couldn’t have done a better job picking them out. She was very excited to give them to me, and I was absolutely thrilled to get them! Like the Doctor figure, a lot of these figures have little minor flaws, but as a whole they’re pretty great, and I’m glad my Doctor’s not lonely anymore!

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#0285: Biker Scout & Speeder Bike

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

BIKER SCOUT & SPEEDER BIKE

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

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We interrupt the regularly scheduled “Birthday Stuff” reviews for a quick little venture into a galaxy far, far away. You might notice that there are two reviews today. Yeah, they’re both by me, I just screwed up the scheduling. See, I originally intended to publish the Green Ranger review today, just like I did, but I decided I wanted to take a break from the birthday things to review something I was very excited about. Sadly, the day got away from me, so I didn’t get a chance to stop the Green Ranger from auto posting. My bad! Anyway, that means there will be two reviews today, just cuz.

The subject of this review comes from Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Black Series, their very popular 6-inch scaled line of Star Wars figures. So far, they’ve put out three series of figures with another three planned. In addition to that, they’ve also started offering a line of Deluxe figures and vehicles, starting with Jabba the Hutt and today’s focus, the Biker Scout and Speeder bike!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

BikerScout2The Biker Scout stands about 6 inches tall and features 31 points of articulation. He’s based on the basic scout design from the final battle on the forest moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi. The Biker Scout features an all new sculpt. No re-use from any of the previous figures, and not even any upscaling of pieces from the 3 ¾ inch Biker Scouts. The sculpt is probably the most accurate take on the design over the years. All of the proportions look just right, especially on the helmet, which is a really key area of the design. Do be mindful if you pick one up in person: the helmet is made of softer plastic and it gets pressed up against the packaging in such a way that might warp it a bit. The arms might be just a tad too long, mostly due to the elbow joints, and the hands might be slightly too small, but it doesn’t look too bad with the right pose. The uniform features some pretty great texture work to differentiate the armor from the cloth parts of the costume, which gives the figure a nice bit of dimension. The paint work on the Biker Scout is pretty good, by Hasbro standards at least. The basic paint work is pretty clean, though the visor is a bit fuzzy on the edges. He has a wash over a few of the white areas. It brings out some of the details well, but it might be better if it were just a little bit more subtle. The Scout includes a blaster pistol, which is nice, but mine broke putting it in his hand, so be careful.

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THE VEHICLE ITSELF

BikerScout4The Speeder Bike is effectively the title half of this set, even if the Biker Scout may have gotten more of the tooling put towards him. The bike is about 10 inches long, and about 2 inches tall at its tallest, with articulated back flaps and a rotating gun on the underside. The sculpt is really quite intricate, with lots of really cool details hidden in the various nooks of the sculpt. It looks to be really accurate to the movie, which is cool, and I’m glad to see a speeder bike that is mucked up by an exploding feature. The paint work is pretty good overall, but it is a bit varied. The metal under-workings have some really nice dry-brushed silver details, which is pretty cool, but the silver details on the main body are a bit more solid, which makes them look a bit too placed. Otherwise, the paint is nice, with no slop or bleed over. The Speeder Bike includes a clear(ish) stand that plugs in via ball joint, allowing the bike to be posed in mid-flight.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I found this set at my local Target yesterday. I actually found it completely by accident, since I wasn’t expecting it to be released just yet. I was there looking for a couple of other things, and came across this bad boy, which was very exciting! The Biker Scout is my favorite Trooper design from Star Wars, so I’ve been patiently awaiting his release since the beginning of the Black Series. I am thrilled to finally have this set, and it’s hands down my favorite item from the line!

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#0284: Green Ranger

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

GREEN RANGER

BANDAI FIGUARTS

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Let’s just keep those Birthday Reviews coming, shall we? Today marks Part Five, and there;s still a few more to go! I’ll be looking at another figure from the set of Power Rangers I received this year. This time around it’s the Green Ranger, the first guise of frequent Ranger Tommy Oliver, way back when he was the original sixth ranger. The Green Ranger actually died in the original Japanese show, but he proved to be too popular to kill off in the US, so the producers did their best to keep him in the show, before eventually resorting to using footage from a different Sentai show, and having Tommy become the White Ranger. Tommy had actually stopped being the Green Ranger by the time I started watching, but for some reason, I’ve always like him more in that role than as the White Ranger. Go figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GreenRangerWilsonThe Green Ranger was the second release in Bandai’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, a sub line of their main S.H. Figuarts line. He saw release last year, shortly after the Red Ranger. The figure is about 5 ½ inches tall and features 36 pints of articulation. If you want to be nitpicky, he should be a tiny bit taller, because he’s currently the same height as the Red Ranger, who he was definitely taller than in the show, but that’s minor. He actually doesn’t have as many reused parts as one might expect. He has new upper and lower arms, new shins, a sheath in place of the usual holster, an add-on piece over the basic torso for his armor, and an all new head. That’s a fair bit of new stuff. Everything looks pretty great, though the interrupting elbow joints do end up hitting Tommy pretty bad, completely cutting off the trim on the front of his gloves. The armor add on is removable in theory, I suppose, but I doubt it would go back on easily. The helmet is once again a near perfect replica of Tommy’s Dragon themed helmet from the show, which is certainly impressive. The paint work on the Green Ranger is pretty good, though there are a few areas that could be tighter, particularly the gold bands on his arms. Still, there aren’t any really bad screw ups which is always good. Tommy is a bit lighter on the accessories than others, with just a sword and dagger, and five pairs of hands: fists, dagger gripping, sword gripping, open gesture, and dagger playing. You know, so he can use the dagger as a flute, like the show. Don’t question how it worked through the helmet, just don’t!

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Green Ranger is the final figure in the selection of Power Rangers my really stupendous parents bought me for my birthday. I know what you’re thinking: “where’s yellow?” Yellow ended up being a gift to myself. She’s all here and ready to be reviewed in a few days, after all the birthday stuff. Anyway, the Green Ranger is a pretty great figure, and offers a nice bit of individuality to the Rangers display. Plus, he’s green, so…

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