#3665: Peacemaker, Vigilante, & Judomaster

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PEACEMAKER, VIGILANTE, & JUDOMASTER

SUPER POWERS (MCFARLANE)

It’s been a year since I’ve discussed McFarlane’s revival of Super Powers here on the site.  My previous venture into the line was…mixed.  I’m a huge fan of the vintage line, and the idea of revival *should* excite me, but McFarlane’s output was…well, it was McFarlane output.  There might have been some good ideas, but they were saddled with the strangeness that Todd seems intent on injecting into everything he does.  But, Todd just keeps dragging me back in, because even if it’s mixed results, there’s limited options for DC, and it’s not like anyone else is doing a Super Powers continuation.  So, here I am, going back to the well on McFarlane, specifically looking at the Peacemaker multipack!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Peacemaker, Vigilanter, and Judomaster were released late last year as a three-pack in McFarlane’s Super Powers line.  The set is loosely designed to tie-in with the Peacemaker show, though the characters are obviously in their comics attire.

PEACEMAKER

Peacemaker, whose main contribution to the world of comics was inspiring the Comedian in Watchmen, has gotten a real elevation in his recognition in the last few years, thanks largely to John Cena’s turn as the character in The Suicide Squad and its follow-up Peacemaker.  As a result, he got this figure, his very first comics-based figure.  Pretty nifty.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  So, first and foremost, let’s address the number one issue with this line: scaling.  The previous figures were all scaled a bit too large, typically running about half an inch too tall to properly fit with the vintage line.  Peacemaker, however, is, like, pretty much spot on.  Since he’s under 5 inches, and Smith’s always been depicted as a slightly bigger guy, he fits in pretty much perfectly with the actual proper Kenner figures.  He’s got an all-new sculpt, and it’s a marked improvement on prior offerings itself.  His stance definitely feels more proper Super Powers in its nature. The weird pigeon-toed issue’s gone, and the proportions are a solid match for how Kenner tended to handle things.  His head uses a separate assembly for the helmet, which is really sharply detailed.  In general, the sculpt is pretty clean and slick.  I have two minor complaints, the first being the continued presence of visible knee joints (which, honestly, bug me a lot less here than on earlier figures), and the belt assembly being just a touch sloppy on my figure.  Beyond that, though, he’s really great.  He’s even got a gripping hand, should you want to arm him with some sort of weapon.  His color work is appropriately bright and eye catching.  The application is pretty clean, and it again matches well with the style.  I like that he’s not totally painted up, which also feels more authentic.  The only slight oddity is that he’s got no paint on his eyes, so there’s just flesh-tone visible under the helmet.  It’s a very small area, but it looks strange.

VIGILANTE

Vigilante is a fun choice here.  Obviously, he was included thanks to his increased visibility thanks to Peacemaker, but getting further into the Super Powers lore, Vigilante was one of the proposed characters for Kenner’s 1987 line-up, had there been a fourth year of the line.  So, it’s nice to see him finally get his due.  The figure stands 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Scaling wise, Vigilante is just a *touch* too tall for proper fit with the vintage line, but he’s so very close that it works fine in most settings, and it’s certainly better than earlier figures.  His sculpt is decent enough; his toes point inward a little too much, but his proportions are pretty decently handled.  He seems to be at least somewhat inspired by the original Flash figure, which isn’t the worst fit.  Generally, it’s more basic sculpt than Peacemaker’s, but it does pretty well with the source material.  Vigilante’s paint work is decent enough.  Nothing too fancy, but the application’s pretty clean, and the colors are well chosen.

JUDOMASTER

Judomaster is the most obscure of the three figures included here, though we did at least see a version of him in Peacemaker alongside the other two.  Like Peacemaker, he started out as a Charlton character, before getting folded into DC.  He’s mostly filled in the background of big crossovers since then, which honestly is effectively his role in Peacemaker, too.  Judomaster is new to the world of action figures, and this one is based on his original incarnation.  The figure is a little under 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Scaling wise, Judomaster is probably the most off of the set, since he should really be the shortest of the three, but isn’t.  Of course, he’s still better than the early run figures, so it’s still a win.  Judomaster’s sculpt is totally unique, and it’s honestly pretty impressive how much work they put into this guy.  Like, I mean, it’s Judomaster, and here we are getting a sculpt that details all of his individual costume elements.  It’s a character I wouldn’t be shocked to see phoned in, and yet, it’s absolutely not.  He even gets his own pretty unique pose, which is fun.  The paint work is nice and bright, and pretty cleanly handled too.  The red and yellow feels particularly on-brand for Super Powers.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set was announced after I’d gotten the two prior figures I had from this line, so I was already aware of the ups and downs.  I was interested, but still kind of put off by the scaling thing, so I didn’t jump on it right away.  That said, I’d been hearing really good things about the course of the line since I’d dropped it.  A few weeks back, Matthew really wanted to stop into the Gamestop next to where we were grabbing lunch, so we obliged, and there was one of these sets there.  It looked really good in person, so I went for it.  I’m glad I did, because they’re all quite good.  Peacemaker is the best of the set, for sure.  He hits all of the marks he needs to.  Vigilante was the one I was looking forward to, and I think he’s probably the weakest in terms of execution, but still pretty solid.  Judomaster wasn’t a figure I really needed, but he’s better than I’d expected.  In general, a very fun set.

#3664: Strong Guy

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STRONG GUY

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Last week, I jumped back into Toy Biz Marvel with a discussion of the repaints that kept the line fresh on the pegs of KB Toys, one of the greatest supporters of the brand in the ’90s.  There were a variety of different ways they kept up with things, but at the tail end of the decade, they really dialed in on X-Men specifically.  There was a range of differences in terms of what they did with those figures.  Today’s offering, Strong Guy, was on the minor end of things when it came to change-ups.  Let’s jump into those, I guess?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Strong Guy was released in the first assortment of the KB-exclusive X-Men repaint line, released in 1998.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  His sculpt is re-use of the Series 6 Strong Guy, which was the only other Strong Guy Toy Biz ever did.  It was definitely a little on the small side for Guido, at least as he was usually depicted in the comics at the time, and the articulation was a bit stripped down by the line’s usual standards, but it was a sculpt that certainly looked the part for the character.  While the Magneto from this line had a rather drastically different color scheme from the original AoA release, Strong Guy doesn’t quite go that far, but it’s still a bit beyond the differences between the Morph releases, which you could chalk up to production changes.  The colors are rather desaturated compared to the original release, which is certainly an interesting choice.  Also, the one true application change here is the moving of his X-logo from his left side to centered on his vest.  I guess that works better for branding?  I don’t know.  I don’t think Guido ever had the logo there, but I honestly didn’t keep up with all of his costume changes.  Like the original release, this figure was without accessories, but he does still have his “power punch” feature.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Given how long it took me to even get around to opening my original Strong Guy, I guess it’s not a shock that I didn’t rush out to get this guy.  Honestly, I wasn’t even super sure I was going to do all of the variant hunting for all of these figures, at least initially, but I’ve gotten more invested in that over the years, so, when I found this guy at Factory Antiques, I opted to jump on it.  There’s not much new to this one, and it’s hard to say exactly *why* Toy Biz felt the need to do him, but, you know what?  I won’t knock them for doing another Strong Guy.

#3663: Death Star Escape

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HAN SOLO, CHEWBACCA, & LUKE SKYWALKER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“The Rebel Alliance has infiltrated the Galactic Empire’s most powerful battle station, the Death Star! posing as stormtroopers escorting a prisoner, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca attempt a daring rescue of the captive Princess Leia. Can they escape the dreaded Death Star, or is the Rebellion about to suffer the loss of its newest heroes?”

Hey, Cinema Scenes!  It’s been a hot minute since I’ve looked at one of these!  While Kenner/Hasbro used the later run of Cinema Scenes to fill in more obscure characters from the background of specific scenes, the earliest run of the line was more about recreating distinctive scenes, often with variants of previously released figures from the line.  One of the earliest recreated scenes was the first film’s escape from the Death Star detention center, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The “Death Star Escape” set was the Power of the Force line’s debut Cinema Scenes set, released in 1997 as a Toys “R” Us exclusive.  As with all of the Cinema Scenes sets, in addition to the three figures, this set also included a stand, meant to look like a section of the Death Star’s floor.

HAN SOLO

Originally confined to a Froot Loops promotional offer, Stormtrooper disguise Han made a pretty quick reappearance here. The figure is about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has the usual 6 points of articulation. His sculpt is similar to the previous one, but different for the sake of different. His pose is certainly changed up, largely the arms, which are now stretched outwards. The prior version was one of the rare instances of a figure that could conceivably hold his weapon two-handed (though, ironically, he had no weapon to hold), but not so with this one, who is back to the single hand hold.  Han’s paint work is very similar to the mail-away version, but the plastic used is a little different.  The skin-tone on the head is paler, and the torso and pelvis are prone to discoloring over time.  Han is packed with his removable helmet, and a standard blaster rifle.

CHEWBACCA

Chewbacca doesn’t have a drastic shift in looks in the movies, so he didn’t have any drastic shifts in figures during Power of the Force either.  He started off with one figure to cover all of the movies, and this one is a very, very minor tweak on that.  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation, with the caveat of the neck not *really* moving.  He’s almost exactly the same figure as the standard release, with the only notable change being the position of the arms.  It’s Chewy at his most swoll, encapsulating the early line as a whole.  The color work is also pretty much identical, for what it’s worth.  He does get a new accessory, which is directly tied into the new arms: handcuffs!  Perfect for recreating the scene.

LUKE SKYWALKER

Luke’s Stormtrooper Disguised figure was a standard release, so we didn’t *need* a re-release, but, you know, you gotta finish up the scene, I guess.  He takes pretty much the same approach as the Han, replacing the more basic standing pose of the single release Luke with a a wider stance, even wider than Han’s.  He’s got the same basic color work, and he’s got the same issue with the discoloring on the torso and pelvis.  Paint work on the face is honestly a lot nicer, though, so he’s at least got that going for him.  And hey, look at that, same helmet and blaster as well.  Lot of same-ness going on.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is honestly a pretty common Cinema Scenes set, so it’s genuinely surprising it took me this long to get around to picking one up.  I guess the right opportunity never presented itself to me.  Well, you know, until it did, which is why I own it now.  I’d seen a couple of loose ones, but didn’t really want to go that route, but a sealed set came into All Time, and now I’ve got one.  It’s easily the weakest, most forgettable of these sets.  There’s nothing that really makes it worthwhile, and I genuinely only have it for completion’s sake.  I don’t know of any other reason to get one, but, at the same time, it’s not like it’s a *bad* set, or anything.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3662: Spider-Man & Wolverine – Fantastic Four

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SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE — FANTASTIC FOUR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Though the emotional through line of the Fantastic Four is undoubtedly the core family of four, the team itself has been no stranger to line-up changes over the years. Perhaps the most drastic of those changes was “The New Fantastic Four”, a team quickly assembled when the original four were presumed dead.  Rather than leaning into the usual quirky second tier character set-up that FF replacements tended to be, the New FF was all heavy hitters, with a line-up comprised of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and the Hulk.  The concept’s been brought back a few times since, more recently during Dan Slott’s run on FF, where Franklin and Valeria need assistance defending the Earth while the main four are off-planet, and call in Spider-Man and Wolverine, who get snazzy new team uniforms for the set-up.  Super toyetic, right?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Spider-Man and Wolverine are a Fan Channel-exclusive Marvel Legends two-pack, which just started hitting at the tail end of last month.  They seem to be loosely tied into the larger Wolverine anniversary celebration, though they’re slightly removed.  Both figures are based on their team suits as seen in Fantastic Four #21.

SPIDER-MAN

While Spidey’s gotten a few FF-related costumes previously, this marked his first time that got specifically a Fantastic Four design.  This one takes the usual Spidey costume layout, and mixes it with the inverted color scheme suit design the FF had earlier in the Slott run.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 34 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Amazing Fantasy body, which remains my favorite Spider-Man body that Hasbro has put out.  It’s just a really good base body, with balanced proportions and a really good range of motion on all of the articulation.  It’s a solid match for a more svelte Spidey, which is how he was depicted in the books.  The key selling point here is the new color scheme, which is heavy on the blue and black.  It matches with previously released Franklin and Valeria, and the application on the paint is all pretty cleanly handled.  Spidey is packed with four sets of hands, in fists, gripping, thwipping, and open gesture.

WOLVERINE

Wolverine’s ties to the FF are a little on the looser side, but he’s Wolverine, so, you know, he goes where he wants, I guess.  His costume design follows Spidey’s lead, also working in a bit of the classic brown costume, at least in terms of layout of the costume pieces.  The figure stands a little under 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation. Wolverine is largely using the same bank of parts Wolverine has been using since the Juggernaut Series release. It’s not quite as slick as newer molds, but it gets the job done. Since this costume lacks Logan’s usual distinctive boot shape, he’s got the more basic shins from the Retro card black suit release, and he’s also using the slightly more modern claw shape from the X-Force costume. His color scheme matches Spidey, which means it also matches Franklin and Val, which is certainly a plus. The application is generally clean, with no real issues to speak of. Wolverine gets no extras, not even extra hands, which is a bit of a bummer.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set definitely falls into that category of “things you don’t know you want until they exist” for me. I read the issues where these looks appeared, and I enjoyed them, but I didn’t feel like I *needed* them. But, when they got shown off, and I already had Franklin and Val in-hand, I was a pretty easy mark. They’re not much to write home about, I suppose, since they’re just straight repaints of figures we’ve already got, but they’re still solid figures, and they’re sensible variants.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3661: Donatello – Original Sketch

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DONATELLO — ORIGINAL SKETCH

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (PLAYMATES)

“Long ago in Dover, New Hampshire, two upstart comic book artists passed the time making each other laugh. Kevin Eastman sketched an unlikely combination of “Ninja” and “Turtle.” Peter Laird answered back with his own version. Before long, a new sketch emerged of all four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle brothers, ready for action. And the rest, as they say, is history!”

Man, for someone who’s only fleetingly into Ninja Turtles, I’ve had a bunch of Turtles stuff to review recently. Today, we’re jumping waaaaaay back, all the way to the beginning…ish. The creation of the TMNT is a case of serial escalation. Kevin Eastman’s first illustration was a single turtle wielding nunchucks, which co-creator Peter Laird responded to with his own refined illustration, which Eastman in turn responded to with *four* turtles, each with a different weapon. In honor of the franchise’s 40th anniversary, NECA put together a two-pack of Eastman and Laird’s first Turtles, and following the trend of escalation, Playmates has their own set, based on Eastman’s original drawing of all four. I’ve picked up the Donatello, and I’m taking a look at him today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Original Sketch Donatello is part of Playmates’ overarching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line. He and the other three Original Sketch figures are seemingly Target-exclusive, in the sense that it’s the only place they’ve shown up so far.  They started hitting retail shelves in June.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 20 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is more or less the same as the 2012-era Turtles, although with a universal joint on his neck in place of the balljoint.  His range of motion is a little restricted, owing a lot to his short and round build.  That said, he can still get into plenty of poses, including the one seen in the original sketch, which is kind of the main idea.  The sculpt is all-new for this set.  Obviously, a good number of the parts are shared between the four turtles, but Donnie gets a unique head, as well as the harness for his staff.  The whole sculpt is a pretty decent little recreation of the sketch.  There’s some adjustments, of course, to make it work in three dimensions, and they’ve also added a touch of texturing to the skin.  The one thing I’m not super crazy about is the the hollowed out portion of the feet; it’s not visible most of the time, but it’s definitely wonky when you can see it.  While the original sketch was just line work, and therefore black and white, Playmates opted to do colors for this release, matching them each up to their vintage figures.  It’s an interesting mix, seeing a pre-Playmates style Turtle in their later coloring, but it honestly works pretty well.  Donnie is packed with his bo staff, a display stand (which connects with the other three), a cardstock version of the sketch, and a broken ooze canister, which serves to hold the sketch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t religiously follow TMNT news, so I missed the lead up on these guys, only discovering them when I found a couple of them in-store.  Of course, Donnie wasn’t one of the first two I found, so I had to keep looking.  Thankfully, it didn’t take me too long, and, boom, there he was.  He’s very fun.  I didn’t have super high expectations, but he’s just a solid little toy, and he’s very cool for the price point.  I dig him.  I dig him a lot.

#3660: Iron Fist & Luke Cage

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IRON FIST & LUKE CAGE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

In the ’70s, Marvel attempted to jump on a number of different popularity trains, and amongst them were Kung-Fu and Blaxploitation, resulting in the creation of Iron Fist and Luke Cage, two wholly separate and unrelated characters, at least at their start.  However, as the decade moved on, both of the characters struggled on their own.  Marvel’s solution was to roll them both into the same book, creating the “Heroes for Hire” (pluralizing the title already previously granted to Cage on his own).  It was quite a successful move, and the characters have remained linked ever since.  The pairing’s been the source of quite a bit of toy coverage, including, most recently, Marvel Legends‘ celebration of Marvel’s 85th anniversary.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Iron Fist and Luke Cage a two-pack Marvel Legends release, under the “Celebrating 85 Years” banner.  Interestingly, despite the pairing of the characters, this is the first time the two of them have been released together in two-pack form in the whole run of the line.  The closest we’ve gotten before this was the con-exclusive Netflix-based boxed set and the Amazon-exclusive comics boxed set that were both released to tie-in with Defenders, but those obviously through in the other characters as well.  Heck, prior to this, the singles of the characters had never even been in the same assortment!

IRON FIST

The second of Marvel’s Kung-Fu heroes, following Shang-Chi, Danny Rand aka Iron Fist is no stranger to Legends, getting his first and second figures both under Toy Biz’s run.  Under Hasbro, he’s had three figures, all of them in more recent costumes.  This one, however, returns to his original ’70s garb, which we haven’t seen since Toy Biz.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 38 points of articulation.  Iron Fist uses the “Renew Your Vows” Spidey base body as a starting point, with two new heads, and a new upper and lower torso, and belt piece, all courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding.  The base body has a great range of motion, which makes for all sorts of great kung-fu posing.  The new parts vibe really well with the pre-existing pieces.  The new heads give us both calm and screaming options, which are both really strong, and they’ve even both got posable ties on the back of the mask.  The color work on this figure uses a lot of molded coloring, with a bit of paint work.  It’s clean, concise, and bold, and it very definitely works with the mold.  The figure is packed with four pairs of hands (fists, flat, and two different open palm gestures) and two different chi effect pieces.

LUKE CAGE

Luke actually just got the Legends treatment rather recently, with a ’70s based figure in the Mindless Ones assortment from the end of last year.  Of course, with a ’70s figure released that recently, that does sort of mean this one had to be a different look, so they’ve opted for a more modern Luke.  It’s not a terrible choice, but it does mean that the two figures don’t necessarily have the same vibe, since Danny’s very ’70s and Luke is…not.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Luke is sporting an all-new sculpt courtesy of Rene Aldrete.  The body sculpt feels like it’s begging for re-use down the line, since it’s just a pretty basic t-shirt and jeans get-up.  There’s a ton of great texture work present, which really sells the more civilian aspect of Luke’s modern look.  It’s topped off by two new heads, which, much like Iron Fist, have calm and screaming expressions.  It’s a good mix, and seems to have a touch more character than the head we got from the ’70s Luke last year.  Color work for this figure is especially reliant on molded colors, which works surprisingly well.  There’s a little paint, mostly on the face and belt, which is handled very cleanly.  Luke is packed with two sets of hands, one in fists, the other in a gripping/open gesture combo.  The fists have brass knuckles, which read “LUKE” and “CAGE.”  They’re fun, but I’m also a bit surprised there’s not also standard fists without them.  It makes continuity between the poses a little confusing, since they’re not really set up for mix-and-matching the same way.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been wanting an updated classic Iron Fist for quite a while, like even before we got the Luke Cage.  Then we got the Luke Cage, and I only wanted the Iron Fist update even more.  After getting Luke on his own, I wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of having to buy a two pack with yet another Luke to get the matching Iron Fist.  I still find it a little odd that they’d release them so close together, but not just do the full ’70s style two-pack.  But, whatever the case, this set’s a strong one.  The two figures may not quite match up as a pair, but they’re individually really strong figures.  Iron Fist winds up as the star piece for me, but I found myself liking the Luke a lot more than I’d expected to.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3659: Magneto

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

MAGNETO

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

For the bulk of the ’90s, KB Toys filled up a good portion of their action figure aisle with Toy Biz Marvel figures.  Earlier in the decade, they got a lot of close-out and liquidation deals on older figures, so they had a pretty steady stock of those, allowing for ease of access to fill-in a collection.  As they sold through that stock, however, they needed more.  The easiest solution was just to ask Toy Biz to reprint some old molds in stripped down packaging, which honestly worked out pretty well.  A lot of the figures wound up being nearly identical to the earlier releases, but every so often they’d mix things up.  Case in point?  Today’s Magneto figure.  Let’s check him out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Magneto was released in the second KB-exclusive repaint assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, released in 1998.  He was an ever so slightly tweaked version of the prior repaint release of Magneto from the Marvel Hall of Fame line the prior year.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Sculpturally, this figure is the same as the AoA Magneto.  It’s a solid mold, through and through.  Definitely a more specifically dialed-in version of the character, of course, but it was Toy Biz’s most recent version of the character at the time, and AoA styling or not, the mold that fit the most with the rest of their output at the time.  The major change-up here is the paint.  Rather than a straight adaptation of the AoA costume, this one’s got more of an amalgamated look.  Definitely still leaning into the main classic color scheme, but he’s also got bare arms and a big white “M” on his chest now, which both call back to his ’80s costume (which finally got its proper figure due this year as part of the Legends ’97 tie-in line-up).  He’s also got a bit of silver thrown into the mix as well, for a little extra accenting.  It’s not a strictly comics-based look, but it’s honestly a pretty solid set-up, and the paint work is definitely very strong.  Like his AoA-counterpart, this guy is packed with his removable helmet and cape, as well as the big hand attachment.  I dig the hand a lot more this time, since it’s gets fully-painted detailing, which sells the whole look a bit better.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually came very close to getting this figure a number of times back in the ’90s, before I’d gotten the proper AoA version.  But, once I got that one, I didn’t feel like I *needed* this one.  Look, I was young; I didn’t know where I was ultimately going with this ’90s Toy Biz thing.  It’s one of those figures I’ve always remembered, and I’ve been hoping to get one for a bit.  As luck would have it, I happened upon a loose one while wandering through Factory Antiques during a day trip back in the spring.  He’s pretty nifty.  Like, yeah, not comics accurate, but it’s just a lot of fun.

#3658: Clone Commander Rex – Bracca Mission

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CLONE COMMANDER REX — BRACCA MISSION

STAR WARS: THE VINTAGE COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“Presumed dead at the dawn of the Empire, Rex operates in the shadows – helping any clone brothers who remain separate from the Imperial ranks.”

I haven’t reviewed a Vintage Collection figure since February of 2022, which is quite a while ago. To be fair, I haven’t bought any VC in that time either. I found myself experiencing diminishing returns as the price increased and the figures got more complex, but not so much more fun. But, well, there’s a new Rex, and he’s on my short list of characters that could get me to buy a VC figure. So, you know, that’s what happened. Thrilling, right? Well, let’s review this guy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Clone Commander Rex (Bracca Mission) is part of the latest assortment of Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Vintage Collection, which is a mid-summer release. He’s figure VC317, and officially hails from the Bad Batch sub-set of the line. I was intrigued by his “commander” rank, which he was granted during the Battle of Mandalore in Clone Wars, but which I’m also pretty sure Jesse stripped him of when Order 66 kicked in. I suppose with the whole Republic Army dismantled and the whole dying thing, Jesse may not have officially filed the necessary paperwork, so I guess Rex gets to keep the higher rank? It does at least help to further differentiate from the other two VC Rex figures (though one of those is *also* from Bad Batch, which just further confuses whether he kept the promotion or not).  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  Rex’s largely built from the most recent revamp of the Clone Trooper body, introduced last year.  It’s a good starting point.  The articulation scheme here is more in line with where the larger scale was a few years ago, which is good for range and stability, especially at this scale.  I found it much easier to get him into poses and also keep him standing than typically is the case with Vintage Collection figures.  That’s a very welcome improvement.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is just the helmet.  It’s a good recreation of Rex’s modified helmet from later in the show, improving even on the earlier small-scale Black Series sculpt.  He also gets a new pauldron and belt.  The pauldron’s a little floaty for my taste, but the helmet at least helps keep in place in a lot of poses.  The belt also gets a fabric skirt piece, which is much better for posing than the sculpted one from the earlier Rex.  It sits a little odd on the front, but generally looks okay.  Rex’s color work isn’t too bad.  It’s more on the basic side, going for a cleaner Rex than we’ve seen previously.  We do still get his tally marks, since it’s a Phase II model, and they’re nice and clean.  I counted 161 this time, which is down by two from the smaller Black Series…I think.  I may have miscounted on one of them, though, so don’t quote me on it.  Rex is packed with an alternate unmasked head, as well as his twin blaster pistols.  The head does get his slight scar on the temple, indicating it’s a post-Order 66 Rex, as it’s meant to be.  It still looks a little weird to me to have him with the Morrison likeness, but it is what it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Every time I’m tempted by a Vintage Collection figure, I try to remember that it’s generally not a line I’m super into, and that I don’t tend to enjoy the figures once I get them in hand.  As such, I wasn’t initially planning to grab this one.  I am, however, weak.  Once I saw him in person, I had a hard time saying no.  I felt like I was gonna regret it…but I actually don’t?  I don’t like the pauldron.  It’s floaty and the exact sort of thing that bugs me on this line.  That said, it’s a small thing, and the rest of the figure’s enough to offset it.  He’s actually a lot of fun, and a lot more sturdy than I expected.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3657: Ghost Rider

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

GHOST RIDER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When Danny Ketch crosses paths with a cursed motorcycle, he is transformed into a Spirit of Vengeance, wielding supernatural powers as Ghost Rider.”

I’ve only gotten 7 Ghost Rider reviews here on the site, and three of those are multipacks.  While there’s been a split between Ghost Rider’s various hosts, Johnny Blaze has definitely been the breakaway lead.  That said, I ended my last Ghost Rider review, way back in December of 2022, by asking if we could get a proper figure of Danny Ketch, the third main Ghost Rider, introduced in the ’90s.  I guess someone out there was listening.  Or, you know, in a less me-centric-view, they had to get around to him eventually, right?  He wasn’t part of the sadly rather small selection of 50th anniversary offerings for the character, but he *does* get to be part of another anniversary set-up, albeit a more overarching Marvel celebration.  You know what? Good for him.  So, let’s just go ahead and give ol’ Danny his due!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ghost Rider is a deluxe offering from Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, released under the “Celebrating 85 Years” banner.  He’s effectively an “Ultimate Riders” level offering, but they’ve discontinued that wider set-up, so he’s more of an on his own sort of thing.  This is *technically* Danny’s third time in Legends form, and *technically* his second in his classic attire.  Why “technically”?  Because his first Legends release, back in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s run, was identified as Johnny Blaze on the back of the box, despite clearly being Danny.  Still, it was clearly Danny, so we’re giving him the number on that technicality.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  The figure’s sculpt is largely new; the head and neck are the same ones that have been in use since the Rhino Series figure.  It’s honestly fair; what exactly are you going to do to reinvent a flaming skull sculpt?  It’s got that cool moving jaw too, which I definitely dig.  From the neck down, he’s all-new.  The articulation scheme is a lot of the same style of layout we saw on the prior mold, but it’s more refined, and a lot cleaner looking.  He also gets drop hips, which are super beneficial for riding poses.  In terms of the look, we’re finally moving away from the re-used AIM parts and their built-in ’70s stunt guy vibe.  This one’s got the proper ’90s bike update, as Ketch well should.  There’s a lot of small detail work, especially in terms of texturing.  His jacket and boots have the stippled leather detailing, and the pants even get all of the right stitching and seams.  All of the real edgelord-y stuff (the spikes and chains) is separately sculpted, which grants the whole set-up a lot more depth and sharpness.  The color work relies on this construction, with a lot more molded coloring than prior releases.  That’s not to say there’s not paint work; the head gets a fair bit of accenting, so that the skull looks like an actual skull.  He’s also got detailing for his eyes, which seem a touch low, but they still work.  Ghost Rider is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and an open gesture/fist combo) and the flaming chain piece from the last few Riders.

In addition to that, of course, he’s got the biggest extra: his cycle.  Danny’s version of the bike is drastically different from Johnny’s stuntcycle-inspired ride, opting for a far more “tough” design, at least as far as the ’90s were concerned.  It was particularly angular and boxy, something that this version captures well.  The old Toy Biz release was noted for having a somewhat diminutive bike, but this one is quite well scaled to the figure it’s packed with.  The bike also gets its own selection of extras. There are flaming effects for each of the wheels, allowing the bike to stand better on its own, and adapting the flaming wheels effect from the comics pretty nicely.  There’s also an attachment for keeping the bike up with one wheel in the air, which adds a lot of dynamic posing options to the set.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve got a bunch of Johnny Blaze Ghost Riders, which is cool, because I sure do love Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider.  But I also love Danny Ketch Ghost Rider.  And I have significantly less of those.  I want more, but I rarely get the opportunity.  I have very fond memories of getting that first Legends Ghost Rider, and I was hoping for a good update.  This is a good update.  For variety’s sake, I might have liked a new head, but seeing how literally everything else is new, I can’t really complain, especially when everything else about the figure works so very well.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3656: Casey Jones

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

CASEY JONES

TMNT (PLAYMATES)

I sort of started month (well, sort of, anyway; it was like a preview to the month) with a review of a Chris Evans figure, and you know what? I’m gonna end it that way too. However, in a shocking turn of events, it’s *not* a Captain America. Heck, it’s not even a Human Torch. No, it’s from one of the two comic-adaptation roles he played in between, when he voiced Casey Jones for 2007’s TMNT. Oh yeah, let’s look at some more Ninja Turtles, with a guy who’s neither a ninja nor a turtle!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Casey Jones was released in the main product launch for Playmates’ TMNT tie-in line, shortly before the film’s release in early 2007. He fell into the line’s “The Good” subset, along with April and Splinter.  The figure stands just over 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  Movement is pretty basic, and kind of restricted, especially when compared to the Turtles from the same line.  There’s a distinct lack of movement for the elbows, and the knees are jointed oddly high up on the leg, so there’s not a *ton* of posing to be done with him.  It was pretty typical of non-Turtles figures at this point, so it’s not a shock.  Still a bit of a bummer, though.  The sculpt aims to adapt Casey’s animation model from the film, specifically he’s fully geared up look from the movie’s climax, which is definitely his best look of the options available.  The sculpt does a solid job of recreating the look.  In particular, the head really gets his “likeness” down.   The body’s a little more basic and soft in some spots, but it gets all the main layout down as it should.  The gashes on the shoulder plates are a nice tough, though.  Casey’s color work is basic, but hits all the main marks for the design.  The paint application is pretty clean, and all the basic colors are there.  I do especially like that they remembered to give him the slight bit of visible red from his shirt under the armor.  Casey is packed with a removable mask, two baseball bats, a cricket bat, a golfclub, his bag, and a separate harness for just the bats.  The mask is surprisingly on model, and sits well on the face.  The only slight drag on it is that it’s an off-white, indicating it’s just a standard mask, rather than the metal one April gives him just before the final battle.  It’s a small thing, and this makes him more generally on-brand for the character, I suppose, but it’s such a nice plot point in the movie that I’m admittedly a little bummed it’s off.  The sports equipment is fun, though, and I appreciate the options for the bag or the harness.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

TMNT is the first piece of Turtles media that *really* clicked with me.  I’d enjoyed other elements of the franchise, but this one actually excited me.  It was also the film that really cemented my love of not only Donatello, but also Casey.  I liked Evans’ performance a lot, and the new design just really worked.  I wanted this figure when they were new, but I was never able to snag one.  Over the years, I’ve seen a few, but he was always incomplete.  I was actually talking with Max about it being one of my grails, and then, like, a week later, I came across a sealed one at a toy show, sitting on a table for 50% off.  He’s a product of his time, and certainly lacks in the articulation department, but he looks really cool, and I’m very glad to have finally gotten one.