Guest Review #0001: Raiden

Posted by Tim Marron in Guest Reviews and tagged with , , ,

RAIDEN

METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE (SQUARE ENIX PLAY ARTS KAI)

Hey guys! Today, instead of the typical review by yours truly, my friend Tim Marron will be stepping in for a guest review. If you like today’s review and want to read more from Tim, be sure to check out Timsical Thoughts, where Tim posts a daily random thoughts about life, the universe and everything, as well as Tim’s Blarg where he talks about his work as an artist. Raiden1 To start things off, hello. My name is Tim and I will be handling this, the first of many guest reviews. While Ethan appears to have action figures from movies, TV shows and comics pretty much nailed down, basically all of my action figures stem from video games. But enough about me for now, let’s get down to the review. Ninjas and cyborgs. What two things could possibly be a better combo than that?  Such a happy combination falls to today’s review of the main character of the game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Raiden. That’s Raiden as in “riding” minus the “g.” Not to be confused with Raiden (ray-den) from the Mortal Kombat franchise.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

RaidenAccessoriesRaiden was released in February of 2013, right alongside Konami’s release of MGR:R. He stands roughly 11″ tall and features 35 points of articulation, 45 if you include the arm on his sheath. His design is taken from his appearance in the game after the fateful duel against rival “Jetstream” Sam Rodrigues which happens at the end of the first chapter/prologue. Square Enix was the first company to release an MGR:R Raiden figure so all of the sculpting is the first of its kind. The sculpt itself is excellent, combined with a damn-near perfect paint job the figure looks like it was pulled right out of the game itself. Only real gripe I have with the figure is that the little strap thingies that connect to Raiden’s torso can be a bit of a pain if they come untucked from his hip piece, but I can understand the design choice since it allows an accurate character depiction while still maintaining very good posablility. I suppose the face could use a bit of extra color to bring out his features some more, but honestly, I prefer the way he looks with his mask on, so it doesn’t bother me. Raiden comes packaged with his signature High-Frequency Blade, sheath, tanto knife, 3 high-frequency throwing knives with a pouch to hold them, a pair of open hands, a pair of grasping hands, a pair of standing feet, a pair of grasping feet, VR visor/mask, and hair piece. Now, to those of you asking “what the heck are grasping feet?” allow me to explain. In the game’s context, Raiden’s feet make it look like he is wearing heels, when in actuality, that heel works like a big thumb, allowing him to wield his sword with his feet. It is no exaggeration to say he will kick dudes apart. And yes, the figure can do it too.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION When MGR:R was set to come out, I was so excited for it that I pre-ordered it at my local GameStop which, for those who know me is extremely unusual behavior for myself. A) I bought a brand new game at full retail price, and b) I put in the effort to pre-order something at all. As it turned out, the game delivered on all of my expectations and I spent the next couple months ranting about how much I love it like a huge nerd. When I discovered this figure, there was no doubt in my mind I would own it because, again, I’m a huge nerd. I managed to pick it up, brand new, off eBay for a decent price. He now stands proudly atop my printer, pointing his sword menacingly at my roommate’s half of the room. I consider Raiden to be my first real entry into the world of high-end action figures. The big scary world where the good stuff costs you an arm. Something I’m sure Raiden can sympathize with. ZING! Raiden2

#0163: Plastic Man

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

PLASTIC MAN

JLA (KENNER)

Plasticman

If there’s one super power that has a tendency to be underestimated, it’s shape-shifting, particularly of the stretching type. Mister Fantastic, arguably the most famous “stretchy” character out there often has that part of his talents down played to focus on his high-level intellect. I’ve always felt that was a shame. I love stretchy characters because I think they have a lot of potential for creativity on the part of the writer/artist. They’re just a whole lot of fun! In fact, one of my favorite characters of all time is the Elongated Man. He’s not the character I’m looking at today, but he almost would have been, had it not been for the fact that Julie Schwartz, one of the guys behind the creation of Elongated Man (and so many other Silver Age DC characters, but that’s more for a later time), didn’t remember that DC owned the name Plastic Man. Granted, EM would have still be the same character, just with Plastic Man’s name, similar to the Hal Jordan Green Lantern and the Barry Allen Flash. I’m getting a bit off topic, aren’t I?

For those of you who don’t know, Plastic Man is Eel O’Brien, a one-time crook who gets doused by a strange chemical and left behind by his gang during a heist. When he awakes, he discovers he has the ability to stretch his body into impossible shapes. He decides to use this power to bring his old partners to justice and creates the identity of Plastic Man. He was big in the 40s, but faded into obscurity until around the 80s, where he saw a bit of a resurgence in popularity, eventually leading to him joining the Justice League of America during Grant Morison’s run on the series in the 90s. But, what of the figure?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Plas was released in the 3rd series of Kenner’s JLA series. JLA was a line of figures exclusive to KB toys in the late 90s. They were made using retooled molds from Kenner’s Total Justice line from a few years previous. Plas’s inclusion in the line makes sense given his place on the titular team at the time. Plas has 5 points of articulation and stands about 7 inches tall with his neck fully extended. The line was in 5 inch scale, so he fits right in. The line used a few common pieces for certain figures, and Plas features the generic male torso, used by a few of the figures. The rest of the figure’s sculpt is unique. It all works together pretty well, though I can’t help but feel that the re-used torso looks a bit too stubby in comparison to the rest of the figure. The head and arms are cast in rubber with wires running through them, allowing you to pose the arms and neck in a variety of ways. The paint is passable. It’s fairly basic, but that fits with the rest of the line. The biggest issue with the paint is that it had some peeling issues on the rubber pieces, particularly the white on his goggles and teeth, which is almost gone on my figure. The hands have also suffered from some noticeable yellowing. Sadly, these are both issues of working with rubbery materials. I don’t know that anything could have been done to prevent them. Plas included a JLA logo stand, in red I believe.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Plas from the KB Toy outlet in the town where my family vacationed. I know I had seen the figure before, and had been interested in getting it, but I never did. My parents bought him and another JLA figure (I believe it was Impulse) for me, which was pretty cool. It’s actually not a bad figure, though it sadly did suffer from a few issues over time. I’d be curious if a Plas who had less playtime might have come out unscathed.

#0162: The Infinity Gauntlet Minimates

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

ADAM WARLOCK, MEPHISTO, DRAX THE DESTROYER, & THANOS

MARVEL MINIMATES

Have you guys had enough of a break from Minimates? No? Well, this is a bit awkward… I’ve already got the review written. I guess we’ll just power through!

Today, I’ll once again be pulling a set from the Marvel Minimates line, the line that keeps going and going. It’s like the Energizer Bunny! This is a boxed set from a few years back, and it’s one of the few ventures into the cosmic side of Marvel. I imagine that might change thanks to August’s Guardians of the Galaxy film.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These four were released back in 2009 as part of boxed set based on the classic cross-over series The Infinity Gauntlet. It features Adam Warlock, Mephisto, Drax, and the main man himself Thanos in their looks from the series.

ADAM WARLOCK

Adam Warlock is an interesting character. He was created back in the 90s by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby while they were working on Fantastic Four, but there he was just known as “Him.” It wasn’t until 1972 that he would acquire his name in a story written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Gil Kane. The character really came into some popularity under the helm of Jim Starlin, who would go on to use him as a prominent character in The Infinity Gauntlet. He’s presented in his third costume, which also happened to be the first time he actually had pants. So, yay for pants, I suppose. He uses the standard Minimate body, so that means he has 14 points of articulation and stands about 2 ½ inches tall. He has 2 sculpted pieces: his hair and his cape. These were both new pieces to this figure. The hair has only been used with this figure, but the cape was actually shared with pack mate Drax. Both pieces look accurate to the source material, and have lots of very cool finer details. The paint work on the figure is passable, but not great. The detail work, especially the face look great, but some of the basic paint apps are sloppy or fuzzy. The collar of his cape gets hit the worst by this, with some pretty bad over bleed from the red of the rest of the cape. Warlock’s one accessory is his Karmic Staff. It’s appropriately detailed, and looks like a staff should.

MEPHISTO

Mephisto is the Devil. No, seriously, Mephisto is the Marvel universe version of the Biblical Devil. That’s pretty much his whole deal. He serves as an advisor of sorts to Thanos during The Infinity Gauntlet. Mephisto’s had two looks in the comics and they’ve gone with the original, which was a good move. The other design was from the 90s, and no one wants to see that. Mephisto is on the standard body with 5 sculpted add-on pieces: hair, cape, belt, and clawed hands. The clawed hands originally were released on the X-Men Origins: Wolverine version of Sabretooth. The cape, hair, and belt were new pieces, with the cape later being reused on the classic version of Mandarin. The new pieces really have some expertly handled detail work, which is impressive to see on a Minimate. The paint work is clean and well detailed. The face in particular looks spot on to Starlin’s interpretation of the character. Mephisto includes no accessories.

DRAX THE DESTROYER

Drax the Destroyer is the character in this set that will probably be a bit better known once Guardians of the Galaxy is released. Simply put, he’s a guy who was killed by Thanos and placed in robot body without any of his memories. He’s green, and he seems to like the color purple. Drax is on the typical body, and has 7 sculpted add-ons: cowl, cape, bracelets, pelvis add-on, and boots. The cape is shared with Warlock, the bracelets were originally released on Ocean Master, and the pelvis piece and boots have been used on numerous figures. The cowl is a new piece, though it appears it might be a re-tool of the helmet used on one of the Classic Iron Man releases. So, he’s a bit of a mix-and-match of parts, but it works. The paint work on Drax is pretty good. He’s better than Warlock, though there is still a little bit of slop. He has a butt-load of detail lines, though. I do wish his belt detailing continued down just a bit further, so he didn’t have that small green patch there. Otherwise, he’s a great figure. Drax includes no accessories.

THANOS

Thanos is the most important character in the set, being the wielder of the titular item. He’s also likely to be a pretty big character in the coming years, thanks to his recent play as a main antagonist in the recent mini-series Infinity, and his appearance post credits at the end of 2012’s The Avengers. This guy’s going places! Thanos is on the usual body, with 6 sculpted add-ons: helmet, torso cover, gauntlets, and boots. The boots were originally used on several figures from DC Minimates. Everything else was unique to this figure. Everything has some great detail work. Thanos is one of the few Minimates to actually have 10 defined fingers. I’m still uncertain of this move, but DST wanted to get the gems of the Infinity Gauntlet to line up properly, so this is what they went with. I also feel like the “helmet” is far too bulky. Thanos was usually depicted has having a rather small head compared to the rest of him, and this piece makes him look a bit like a bobble head. The paint on this figure is easily the worst in the set. The muscles on his torso are set too far down, and every instance of gold is sloppy and uneven, which really makes the figure look pretty bad. The face actually turned out nicely, but gets lost amongst the missteps of the rest of the figure. Thanos includes no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like with so many of the Minimates I own, this set was purchased from my local comicbook store upon its release. I really like Drax, and Warlock is still good despite his sloppy paint. Mephisto is great for fans of that character, but I’m not really one of those. Sadly, Thanos, who should have been the star of the set and is worth the big bucks on the aftermarket, is easily the worst in the set. He has some good qualities, but he’s a miss overall. Hopefully his newfound fame with general audiences will get him a re-do sooner rather than later. Overall, this wasn’t a bad set, and I hope Guardians of the Galaxy leads to us getting more sets like it.

#0161: Luke Skywalker – Dagobah

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

LUKE SKYWALKER – DAGOBAH

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II

So, today’s review is actually pretty nifty. I’ve looked at the most recent round of Star Wars toys with The Black Series, and I’ve also taken a look at one of the vintage figures from the original line, but I’ve never really looked at any of the figures released in between.

Star Wars is looked at as one of the permanent fixtures of the action figure aisle nowadays, but that wasn’t always the case. Following Return of the Jedi, the line shifted to Power of the Force for a little while, but that line only ran until 1985, at which point Star Wars toys effectively ended. Ten years later, Kenner relaunched the line under the branding Power of the Force II. In 1995, I was 3 and just getting into action figures. So, POTF II came at just the perfect time and provided me with my very first Star Wars figure, which I’ll be looking at in this review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke was released as part of the 1996 assortment of Power of The Force II. He’s based on Luke’s look while he’s training on Dagobah in Empire Strikes Back. The figure stands about 3 ¾ inches tall, and features 6 points of articulation. That waist articulation was revolutionary, let me tell you. The sculpts for POTF II, in general, have not aged well. For some reason, everybody got really buff. Luke follows that trend, and looks more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than Mark Hamill. From a purely aesthetic stand point, it’s actually not a bad sculpt. There’s some nice texture on his clothing, and the proportions are about right, even if they don’t belong to Mark Hamill. One negative point: the feet are sculpted at a bit of an angle, which can make getting him to stand up a chore. The paint is actually very good for the time. There’s no bleed over or slop and the smaller details are all clean and sharp, and the shading on the shirt to show it’s wet and stained gives the figure a nice level of depth rarely seen on figures of this era. Luke was packed with a lightsaber and a blaster.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The trip on which I acquired this figure is actually one of my earlier memories of going to the store and buying something. I don’t remember what store it was (for some reason my gut says Target, but that doesn’t seem right). What I very vividly remember was being walked over to the toy aisle by my parents, seeing the display of figures and running to them. I saw Luke hanging there and immediately grabbed him. In particular, I remember my mind being completely blown by the idea that he actually included a lightsaber. I guess I just assumed that would have to be a separate purchase. I had yet to pick up on how action figures worked, I guess. Regardless, I was thrilled to have this figure. As the years have gone by, the figure has started to show its age, but I still feel pretty damned nostalgic for him. All in all, he’s not a bad figure, and the sentimental value pushes him up to 11.

#0160: Captain America & Absorbing Man

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA & ABSORBING MAN

MARVEL MINIMATES

After another short break, I’m once again going back to my favorite toyline: Minimates.  Once again, I’m pulling a set from the Marvel Minimates line.  This set is one of the earlier sets in the line, and features the first releases of one very prominent character and one moderately well-known character.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This set was released in the 5th series of the Marvel Minimates line.  That was quite a while ago.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

This here is Captain America’s very first Minimate release.  It’s very funny to think that he wasn’t released until 5 waves in, and he was the first Avenger to see a release, but the characters had yet to see their big resurgence at this point.  Cap is of course based on his classic look.  He’s built on the typical Minimate body, though it’s important to note that he sports the original style feet, which were longer and lacked the peg holes in the soles.  Cap features 3 sculpted pieces: mask and a pair of gloves.  These pieces would see quite a few reuses later, but this is the first appearance of them.  They look pretty spot on, and fit great with the more simplistic style of the line at the time.  The paint is quite good.  Minimalistic, of course, but very well handled.  The face has a great look of friendly assurance, which looks perfect for Cap, and I really love how well the eyes match up to the mask.  Cap includes his mighty shield, and a clip to put it on his arm.  Unlike later releases, he doesn’t have a spare non-gloved hand, which makes putting the shield on a pain, but it’s easily remedied with a spare hand.

ABSORBING MAN

I just recently looked at the most recent re-release of Absorbing Man, so it’s cool to get to look at how far the line has come.  Absorbing Man is based on the same basic look as the newer figure, just done a bit more simply.  Like Cap, he’s on the usual body, with the earlier style feet.  He’s a “vanilla ‘mate”, so not add-ons.  The paintwork isn’t bad.  Quite a bit of detailing for the time, but I’m not sure it works.  They’ve given him a screaming face, which doesn’t really suit Absorbing Man, in my opinion.  The details are all pretty well done, but he’s missing some details, such as ears.  Absorbing Man includes one accessory: his ball and chain.  It might be the same piece included with the new one, but I honestly can’t tell.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This was the 5th set of Minimates I ever got.  I acquired it from a nearby comic book store.  I know I had heard that the set was being released, but I didn’t know they were out until I came across them in that store.  I remember being very excited to buy them.  Cap was my default version of the character until about wave 45, and to this day still remains one of my very favorite Minimates.

#0159: Maggie Greene

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

MAGGIE GREENE

THE WALKING DEAD

I contemplated pushing today’s review back to next Sunday, just to keep the theme running with my Walking Dead reviews, but I decided that Maggie and Glenn are kind of a set, so I’m going forward with the review today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Maggie is part of the 5th wave of McFarlane’s The Walking Dead TV Series line.  She’s based on Maggie’s look in general, but seems to be drawn from the first few episodes of Season 3 specifically.  Maggie stands just shy of 5 inches tall and has 22 points of articulation.  Maggie’s articulation is okay, but not the greatest.  Her hair sculpt means that her neck doesn’t have much movement, and she lacks the ankle joints that the other two figures have, which makes the figure really hard to stand up.  Seriously, I just barely got her to stand long enough for the pictures.  There are several pictures of the figure mid-fall!  Aside from those issues, the rest of the articulation works pretty well, and allows for some decent poses.  Maggie’s sculpt is well done, with lots of great little details here and there.  I like that the jeans have an actual denim texture, and the folds in her shirt look pretty great.  The likeness isn’t quite as good as Glenn’s in my opinion, but that may be more to do with the paint than the sculpt.  She still has more than a passing resemblance to Lauren Cohan, who plays Maggie on the show, so it’s not a terrible sculpt.  The paint is passable, but the face can look weird from certain angles, particularly the eyes.  Maggie’s got some blood splatter going on, which doesn’t look too bad, but I kinda wish they hadn’t made her quite so scene specific.  Maggie includes a handgun, a rifle, and a knife.  She has a bit of difficulty holding the rifle, and the knife doesn’t seem to want to go in the sheath on my figure, but that may not be a widespread issue.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I came across Maggie twice at my local TRU, but I wanted to purchase her and Glenn together, so I held off until I found both.  I finally broke down and got them both from Amazon.  Maggie’s not quite as good as Glenn, in my opinion, but she’s still a pretty well done figure of an important character on the show.

#0158: Glenn Rhee

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

GLENN RHEE

THE WALKING DEAD

Hey, would you look at that?  It’s Sunday again!  Which means it’s time for another The Walking Dead review.  I’d love to say that this was carefully planned, but it was totally a coincidence.  So, yeah…

I looked at the Tyreese figure from this line three weeks ago and really liked him.  I mentioned that I hadn’t gotten anyone else in the line, but I had been pulled in.  Well, now it’s official; I’ve been pulled in.  This time around, I’ll be looking at Glenn, my favorite character from the comics, and one of my favorites on the show.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Glenn was released as part of the 5th series of McFarlane’s The Walking Dead TV Series line.  He looks to be based on Glenn’s appearance in the 3rd season of the show, but could easily work for a 4th season version as well.  He’s about 5 inches tall and features 24 points of articulation.  The shoulder articulation is a bit better here than it was on Tyreese.  He can lift his arms as far as a real person could, so that’s nice.  He still has the same mostly useless hip articulation, but it’s not the worst thing in the world.  The sculpt on this figure is really great.  The head looks pretty spot on to actor Stephen Yuen, who portrays Glenn on the show.  I really like that they’ve captured Glenn’s worrisome but determined look that is such a signature trait of his character.  The rest of the figure is well proportioned and has some great detail work on the clothed areas.  The paint is also a bit better here than it was on Tyreese, especially the eyes, which don’t seem to have any spacing issues.  The five-o-clock shadow on mine turned out alright, but it looks like it varies from figure to figure, so if you have a chance, you might want to examine the figure before you buy it.  Glenn is very well accessorized, including a section of pipe, a rifle, a handgun, a knife, a swat vest, and an alternate beaten-up head.  The vest and extra head are really what make this 3rd season Glenn, since he got the vest at the prison, and the head looks to be based on what poor Glenn looked like after he was taken prisoner by the Governor and Merle.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After looking at a few local TRUs with no luck, I finally broke down and bought Glenn and Maggie from Amazon.  I’m glad I picked this figure up, as he improves upon a few of my issues with Tyreese, and is just a really great figure in general.

#0157: Nightwing & Starfire

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

NIGHTWING & STARFIRE

DC MINIMATES

Hey, let’s take another look at some Minimates, shall we?

For a fourth time, I’m taking a look at the far too shortly lived DC Minimates.  This time around, it’s a set from closer towards the end of the line.  This set comes from the Teen Titans side of the DCU, which was sadly never completed.  But, let’s not get stuck on what we didn’t get, let’s look at what we did: Nightwing and Starfire.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This two pack was released in the 7th wave of DC Minimates, just one wave before the end of the line.

NIGHTWING

Dick Grayson actually lucked out quite a bit with DC Minimates, receiving a whole two figures.  This one depicts him in his most recent Nightwing costume at the time.  Nightwing is built on the basic Minimate body, which means he has the standard 14 points of articulation and stands about 2 ½ inches tall.  He features one sculpted piece: his hair.  It’s a very nice piece, and has been reused a few times in the Marvel line, like on the recent Winter Soldier.  The rest of the figure’s detail is done with paint work.  All of the paint is excellent, with lots of sharp lines, and pretty much no slop of any kind.  Nightwing included two silver fighting sticks, though I misplaced mine at the time I took the photo.

STARFIRE

Starfire was not quite as blessed as Mr. Grayson, but she still was lucky enough to make it into the line, which is better than many prominent DC characters.  Star is based on her original Perez design, which is the look she’s sported for most of her career.  Like Nightwing, she’s built on the typical body, so she has all the usual stats.  She also only features a single sculpted piece: her hair.  It’s a bit more of a substantial piece than Nightwing’s, though also a bit more character specific.  It’s a nice piece, with plenty of nice details, and it’s pretty spot on to what Star’s hair looked like in the comics.  Star’s paint is more impressive than Nightwing’s, with lots of great little details, particularly on her torso an boots, which have some really great texture work.  Star included no accessories, but I can’t think of many they could have given her.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the rest of the DC Minimates line, I picked up this two pack as soon as it was available at my local comic book store.  I recall being fairly excited for this set, as I was a fan of both characters at the time.  Looking at this set in comparison to the two second series sets I’ve looked at previously is quite neat, as it really shows how far the line advanced in its short run.  This set wouldn’t look the slightest bit out of place with the most recent wave of Marvel Minimates, and that’s quite astonishing.

#0156: Hive Wars Predator

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

HIVE WARS PREDATOR

PREDATORS (NECA)

I’ve looked at NECA figures before.  Most notably, they’re responsible for the current Aliens line, which I love!  I’ve yet to look at the line that really put them on the map, which was their very impressive Predator line.

HiveWarsBoxed2HiveWarsBoxed1Initially, the line started as a tie-in to the 2010 Predators, and was just the characters from that movie.  However, NECA ultimately transitioned the line into one based on all the movies in the Predator series.  This led to quite a bit of success, but there are only so many Predators in the movies, so as the line continues, NECA has to go to some different sources for figures.  Most recently, they’ve turned to taking designs from the Kenner Predator toyline from the 90s, which proves for some … different designs.  I’ll be looking at one of those figures today.

I don’t tend to mention packaging in my reviews, but I feel this one deserves a mention.  NECA’s gone to great lengths to recreate the original Kenner packaging, down to doing their own logo in a more Kenner style.  It’s really cool and almost made me think twice about opening the figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Hive Wars Predator was released in the 10th series of the Predators line.  He’s actually based on the sole predator released in the Aliens: Hive Wars line released in ’98 by Kenner.  There he was just called “Warrior Predator”, but seeing as that’s not the most distinctive name, NECA’s gone for more of a tribute to where he originally appeared.  H.W. Predator here stands about 8 inches tall and features 24 points of articulation.  Part of the idea behind the Kenner waves was that NECA could do some part reuse, but H.W. still has a new head, forearms, and calves, at the very least, possibly new hands as well, but I’m not versed enough in the Predator line to know for sure.  The figure seems to share he reused parts with the most recent release of the Jungle Hunter (Predator from the first movie for those of you not in the know), which works pretty well.  The new pieces are all very well handled, with lots of really great details.  I particularly like the arm blades and how much larger they are than any of the movie Predator’s.  The paint is perhaps the most essential piece here.  The unique color schemes are what really set the Kenner figures apart.  In H.W.’s case, that means a whole lot of blue.  It certainly makes him stand out from the rest of the line, as blue is a rare color amongst Predators.  The paint is pretty clean overall, with a decent amount of washes to bring out the sculpted details.  H.W. is armed with a shoulder cannon, which is a reuse from the Jungle Hunter and a brand new spear thing, which is very well done.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I got into NECA’s Predator line, I picked up Dutch and the basic Jungle Hunter. And that was all I was going to get.  Then, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get the City Hunter from Predator 2, so I got that one, but that was definitely it!  No way was I getting any more Predators.  I just didn’t need them.  I wasn’t going to falter on this one.

So, then I picked up this guy.  Yeah, it was a moment of weakness, but in my defense, he’s not technically a Predator figure.  He’s actually an Aliens figure.  And so far, I’ve been a completist of NECA’s Aliens stuff, so I certainly couldn’t pass this figure up in good conscience.  Yeah, that’s what I’m going with….

#0155: Havok & Polaris

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

HAVOK & POLARIS

MARVEL MINIMATES

Continuing the X-Men theme from yesterday, and Minimates theme from… all the time, today I’ll be looking at some X-Men Minimates.  Yay!

The two Minimates in question today happen to be two of my favorite X-Men, Havok and Polaris.  Havok is Cyclops’s younger brother who has a similar power set.  Polaris is sometimes Magneto’s daughter, and sometimes not, but she has the same powers regardless.  The two are frequently portrayed as a couple, and have been X-Men from time to time.  They’re biggest break, however, is probably Peter David’s run on X-Factor which featured both of them as prominent characters.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two were released as a set in Marvel Minimates wave 20.

HAVOK

Havok is shown here in his classic costume from the 60s, designed by the great Neal Adams.  It’s essentially the look that the character sported for about 30 years, and is also the look that most of his subsequent designs were derived from, so it’s a good choice.  Havok is built on the basic Minimate body, so he stands about 2 ½ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  He has two sculpted pieces: his headgear that channels the solar energy to his powers and a specially designed version of the Minimate head to accommodate this.  The rest of the detail work is handled through paint.  The face has a lot of detail, and does look kinda like a Neal Adams drawing, but I’m not really sure how well that works.  He’s permanently screaming, and since the mask is painted on, you can’t even sub in another head, which means he has to be displayed in attack mode.  What really sucks about this is that Diamond actually did a neat thing so that his torso is detailed on both sides, allowing you to depict him fully charged up or more controlled.  However, with the facial expression, it’s a bit difficult to utilize.

POLARIS

Polaris, like Havok, is depicted in her classic 60s costume, designed by Werner Roth.  She went back and forth between costumes depending on the artist, but this was the costume that most people remember.  It’s a really cool look, so no complaints there!  She’s got two separately sculpted add-ons: hair/headband, and cape.  The cape was a reuse from the C3 version of Superman, but the hair is a new piece, and is beautifully done at that.  The hair is sculpted with a bit of a wind flow to it, but not too much to make it quite as pose specific as Havok’s face.  The paint on this figure is rather nice, with a great set of details on her torso and legs.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I said above, these are two of my favorite X-Men, so I was pretty thrilled when they were announced, and I bought them as soon as I could.  While Havok isn’t perfect, he was a pretty good hold over until I got one I was a little happier with more recently.  This is Polaris’s only Minimate, but given the quality of this Minimate, that’s not the worst thing ever.  She really makes this set worth having for sure.