#3578: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

X-MEN ’97 EPIC HEROES (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0057: Cyclops’ Jim Lee re-designed costume has appeared in figure form 19 times, before the arrival of the X-Men ’97 tie-ins.

Do you guys know what day it is?  It’s X-Men ’97 day!  After a 27 year hiatus, X-Men: The Animated Series is back in the form of X-Men ’97, which makes its debut to Disney+ today.  I might be just the slightest bit excited about this.  No biggie.  There’s a whole plethora of tie-in merch hitting for the show, so I figured the launch day might be a good one to review one of those.  And, you know me: I’m a sucker for a Cyclops figure.  So, I’m definitely gonna review one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is part of the first series of Hasbro’s X-Men ’97 Epic Heroes line, which is both a tie-in for the show, and also falls under their new “Epic Heroes” banner, which is what they’re classifying all their basic price-point 1/18 scale lines under.  Cyclops was also re-released alongside the rest of Series 1, plus the vehicle pack-in Storm, and a thus far exclusive Gambit, in a five-pack for Target, which hit towards the end of last year.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 15 points of articulation.  In terms of mobility, he’s about on par with the end of the Universe/Legends run.  It’s not a terrible set-up, and he’s honestly able to pull off most of the poses you’d need to get out of him.  Plus, he doesn’t feel as fiddly as some of the Universe figures, and he’s certainly more stable on his feet than the Universe ’90s Cyclops figure.  The sculpt on this figure is all-new, and it’s not bad.  It does appear that, in spite of him being specifically called out as a ’97 figure, he’s a little more in line with his design from the original show.  This is especially evident in the head, notably the way the hair sits.  Of course, it still works very much as an evergreen take on the character, which is far from a bad thing.  The actual detailing is all pretty sharp, and the proportions are nicely balanced.  Cyclops’ color work is decent enough.  Paint, especially the yellow sections, is a little sloppy.  I’m also not sure why they’ve neglected to paint his shorts yellow, but I assume there’s probably some sort of cost-saving element involved.  It’s a frustrating omission, but not the end of the world.  Cyclops is packed with an optic blast effect piece, which slips over his head.  It’s super goofy, but I unabashedly love it.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Last year, when these started to be sighted at retail, and their listings dropped on Amazon with no real info, I jumped on them, because, well, it’s ’90s X-Men, and how can I not.  Obviously, I’m not the main target audience for the line, which is part of the reason why I haven’t reviewed any of the four figures I’ve picked up until now.  But, like I said above, I can’t resist a good Cyclops, and, basic though he may be, this is a good Cyclops.  And now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna watch a new episode of X-Men: The Animated Series for the first time in two decades.

#3577: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — CLASSIC

ONE:12 COLLECTIVE (MEZCO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0056:  Classic Captain America was the very first Marvel offering in the Mezco One:12 line.

For the second time in less than a week, I’m going back down a path I haven’t gone down in quite a while: Mezco’s One:12 Collective.  It’s okay, though, because I’m keeping it confined to my “core” character set-ups, which is to say the handful of characters that I like to have in most styles.  Of these core characters, perhaps the one glaring omission from my Mezco collection was Captain America.  I love a good Captain America, so it’s the sort of thing I was really hoping to fix.  And so I have!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America was a summer 2016 release for the One:12 Collective line.  He’s the classically-inspired variant to the more Now!-inspired standard release.  This particular version was an SDCC exclusive the year he was release, and he beat the main release to market by four months.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and, per his solicitation, he has over 32 points of articulation.

Perhaps the biggest selling point for this particular release was his main head sculpt.  While the standard version gave him a more modernized design, with his ears covered and the head wings adapted into printing on the sides of his “helmet,” this one goes for something more classically inspired.  It’s clearly a variation on the same core sculpt, and it retains some of the modernization, but the head wings are a three-dimensional element, and his ears are visible.  The helmet also sits a little tighter to the head, and the “A” is a touch larger.  It’s not a ton of changes, but they add-up, and they make for a pretty solid adaptation of Cap’s design from the comics, into the style that Mezco was building for the line early on.  Cap gets a second head, this one unmasked, which is shared with the standard release.  The two sculpts are internally consistent, but I myself am not quite as sold on this particular style of unmasked head as I was on the masked head.  Still, it’s nice to have the option.

The base body for this figure is a lot more bulked up than others I’ve looked at from the line, barring DKR Batman.  It’s perhaps a touch squat and wide for Cap’s usual depictions, but it’s really not far off, and it’s certainly more posable than I’d expected it to be at first glance.  His outfit is a mix of different mediums, with an underlying body suit, which is actually a few different parts stitched together.  There’s a rubberized scale mail print on the upper section, which works pretty well.  On my copy, the red and white mid-section have bled into each other, so the white’s a bit pink, which is a little frustrating.  For this release, the pants portion of the suit is tighter fitting, in contrast to the standard release.  Cap has sculpted cuffs for his gloves, a sculpted belt, and sculpted boots.  These are all shared with the modern version, and, much like the Cyclops I looked at last week, it’s not strictly accurate to the look they were going with.  However, there’s enough tweaking to the rest of the look that these parts don’t look totally out of place.  The only thing I’m not overly keen on is the knife sheath on the boot, but it’s a minor thing.

Cap is packed with a respectable selection of accessories, which, in addition to the two heads, includes 11 different hands (pairs of fists, gripping, relaxed, and flat grip, plus saluting and point for his right, and a thumbs up for the left), a shoulder harness, his shield, a knife, two grenades, and alternate pouch for his belt, and a display stand with the shield pattern printed on it.  The coolest thing here is definitely the shield, which has a magnet in it, allowing for easy mounting on either forearm (as the gloves have metal in them), or on the shoulder harness.  It makes swapping it around a lot easier than it might be otherwise.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Back in the early days of One:12, I was still kind of intrigued by it all, and trying to find my entry point.  It wound up being Space Ghost, of course, but it was almost Captain America.  I came very close to getting the standard release, but this one’s announcement, and how hard he wound up being to get, meant that I just gave up on the whole venture of getting a Cap from this line at all.  When All Time got in its recent epic collection of 1/6 and 1/12 figures, I was a little bummed that neither Cap appeared to be in the collection.  I was, of course, getting ahead of myself, as Max wound up pulling this one, as he’d found another batch of Mezco buried.  Since he was the version I’d wanted in the first place, I figured, why not?  He’s actually a lot nicer than I’d expected him to be.  I can be a little down on Mezco, but this is just a very fun figure.

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.

#3576: Spider-Man

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

SPIDER-MAN — MULTI-JOINTED ACTION POSES

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0055: Prior to Toy Biz taking the license, no Spider-Man figure had ever been more posable than the rest of his corresponding toy line.

As I was a child when I started collecting action figures (what can I say, I had no choice in this matter), a lot of my earliest entries in my collection were gifts from family members and the like.  My grandparents had a real tendency to bolster the ranks of the collection, and introduce me to characters I didn’t already have.  Since others were buying the figures for me, I didn’t always have a say in *which* version started things.  So, there are some cases where I perhaps *wanted* one version, but got another instead.  But I’m in charge of it all now, and there’s no one to stop me from going back to get the ones I wanted…so that I can discover that the one already had was honestly just as good.  I’m getting ahead of myself.  Anyway, here’s a Spider-Man.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man was released in the third series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line in 1992.  There were two Spider-Men in the assortment, and this one was the “Multi-Jointed Action Poses” version, which is to say he was extra posable.  The same figure was re-released in Series 5 of the line, two years later.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 15 points of articulation.  Up to this point in the line, all of the Spider-Men had used a body that was similar in construction to the rest of the line.  It was bulkier and more pre-posed, and looked more like Toy Biz’s Super Powers-inspired DC figures.  This time around, Spidey is far skinnier, and in fact has a much greater level of articulation.  While the mobility isn’t quite to the heights of later Marvel offerings, it was by far the best this specific line had to offer, and would remain some of the best to come out of Toy Biz’s 5-inch line.  The sculpt is still somewhat dated by modern standards, but showed a real jump forward in terms of how Toy Biz handled things.  There aren’t any major details or anything to worry about, but the proportions were generally much more balanced than others, and he certainly looked the part for the character.  Since the sculpting is on the lighter side, the paint does the heavier lifting here.  It does well enough.  The weblines aren’t terrible, though there are some slight inconsistencies in exact placement on some of the extremities.  This design opts for a smaller eyed version of the mask, which is unique, and also kind of fun.  The biggest issue I have with the coloring on the figure is the near universal issue of the figure’s upper legs discoloring over time.  This figure was packed with no accessories, with the extra posablity being his main selling point.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

When I was a kid, my cousin Rusty got Spider-Man before me, and this was the one he got.  I wanted one too, but when our Nana went back to get me one, the closest match was the later Spider-Man Animated super-posable figure.  He was fine, but I always kinda wanted this one.  I had the chance to snag one loose from a collection that came into All Time a couple of years ago.  Ultimately, he’s fun, and a cool sign of Toy Biz’s progression with the brand.  I can’t really say it’s *better* than the Animated one, though, so I spent a lot of time chasing an equivalent, if perhaps not a little worse, figure.  It makes you think, I guess.

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.

#3575: Morgan Elsbeth

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

MORGAN ELSBETH

STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0054:  Morgan Elsbeth, a character of witch-y background, shares her name with Morgan Le Fay, witch of Arthurian legend, befitting Star Wars’ long-seated ties to Arthurian legend.

If you ask me to pick the things that stuck out to me about Morgan Elsbeth’s first appearance in The Mandalorian‘s “Chapter 13: The Jedi,” I don’t know that Morgan herself would have really jumped out at me, but she’s one of the parts that stuck around, getting upgraded to one of the main antagonists of Ahsoka.  She’s gotten action figures of all the main variety out of it, and I’ve opted to cover the Retro-style one, because why not?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Morgan Elsbeth is the final figure in the Ahsoka show tie-in assortment of Star Wars: Retro Collection.  The figure stands just shy of 3 3/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  The sculpt is all-new, and it’s not bad.  It’s nothing thrilling, I suppose; Morgan’s outfit is kind of pedestrian as far as Star Wars looks go, but they do their best with it.  Like a proper vintage release, she’s got her skirt from the show sculpted into a pair of awkward legs.  It’s very silly, but it’s very proper to the style, and it helps to sell the idea well.  I do feel like the hands are a little large, and the arms a little skinny, for a proper vintage figure, but it otherwise feels pretty authentic.  Morgan’s color work is kind of bland, but that’s accurate, I suppose.  There’s some red and some off black.  Paint application is kept to a minimum, but what’s there is well applied.  Morgan is packed all on her own, with no accessories of any sort.  That’s unfortunate.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I bought Morgan for one reason and one reason only: I was buying the rest of the set.  It felt silly to just skip her and Ahsoka, so I didn’t.  She’s fine.  Not thrilling.  I get her relevance to the plot, but I do wish we’d gotten someone else instead, since a number of other notable characters didn’t get moved over to this style.

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.

#3574: Mega Man

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

MEGA MAN

MEGA MAN (JADA)

Fun FiQ Fact #0053:  Mega Man is known as “Rockman” in Japan in reference to the musical genre rock & roll, something hammered home by his sister robot being named “Roll.”  His original name gained further relevance given the “Rock, Paper, Scissors” nature of the games.

Mega Man is one of my earliest video game experiences.  As a kid, I didn’t do much with video games, but I did dabble with PC gaming to a minor extent.  Amongst those games was one of the DOS Mega Man games.  Admittedly, the gameplay kind of confused me and I didn’t make it far, but it did instill in me an attachment to the title character.  And for me, you know that’s always gonna lead to action figures.  Just my luck, Jada has continued their surprisingly solid jump into the action figure game with a line of Mega Man figures, and I’m looking at the Blue Bomber himself today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mega Man is part of the first series of Jada’s Mega Man line, alongside Fire Man and Ice Man.  He’s based on the classic Mega Man design, which is really hard to beat, when you get down to it.  The figure stands just shy of 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 28 points of articulation.  Jada continues to impress on the articulation front; there’s a really nice range of motion on most of the figure’s joints, and his poseability is fantastic given his design and scale.  Of particular note, the elbows and knees both get further than 90 degree bends, even with only a single joint, as well as rather sizable gloves and boots.  His sculpt is all-new, and works well around the articulation.  He offers up something of an evergreen version of Mega Man’s classic design.  It translates well to three dimensions, and it’s a rather cleanly rendered sculpt.  There are some spots where it’s a little on the softer side, but it works okay for his design.  There are two different heads, one with a slight grin, the other gritting his teeth.  They’re internally consistent, so it’s clearly the same guy between the two.  Mega Man’s color work is seemingly pretty basic, but actually has a good deal of subtlety to it.  Of note, the darker blue sections get a faint airbrushing to give them a slight accenting.  He’s even got the red detailing on the bottoms of his feet, which is an awesome touch.  Mega Man is packed with two pairs of hands (fists and a open gesture combo), a buster cannon that can be swapped out for either of his forearms, a blast effect, and an articulated display stand for the effect.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been after a solid Mega Man figure for a while.  There’s no shortage of options, but none of them quite hit the spot for me.  After enjoying Jada’s Universal Monsters line so immensely, I was excited to see what they would do.  They did not disappoint.  Now, can I please get a Protoman?

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.

#3573: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

ONE:12 COLLECTIVE (MEZCO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0051:  I have reviewed a total of 43 Cyclops figures here on the site, going back to the very first week of reviews.

My love of Cyclops is, of course, no secret.  It’s honestly only grown over the years, and more and more, he’s becoming one of those characters that I just want to own as many versions of as possible.  This means, in part, going back and picking up certain Cyclops figures I opted to skip the first time around.  When Mezco released their two versions of the character, I was obviously in for the Jim Lee-inspired one, but there was a variant that I passed on…at the time.  But, this isn’t that time, so, well, here we are.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops was released in the fall of 2019, as part of Mezco’s One:12 Collective.  The standard version was the Jim Lee costume, which hit first, followed shortly by the PX-exclusive, which is the one I’m looking at today.  This one is based on Cyclops’ classic ’70s era costume.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

Like the standard version, this Cyclops sported multiple heads.  He’s got the standard calm expression, as well as one with gritted teeth (which is more reserved than the outright scream that the standard release got), both of which are sporting the full cowl.  He’s also got a fully unmasked head, which is also on the calmer side.  They’re all consistent with the “likeness” seen on the standard release, which is a respectable enough look for Scott.  I’m still partial to the Legends heads, but these work.  All three of the heads work with the light-up feature in the neck, which is the same assembly as the regular.  It’s not super bright, but it’s better than nothing, I suppose.

This figure is built on the same base body as the regular release.  It’s pretty standard fare, and still fits well for the character.  He’s using the same wrist bands and boots as the modern style figure, as well as a slightly darker, but otherwise unmodified version of the underlying bodysuit.  He’s also got a unique belt piece, and a pair of shorts over the bodysuit.  The wrist bands and boots aren’t accurate to the design they were going for, but the belt has at least been similarly modernized, so it feels more like a stylistic choice than an actual mess-up.  I really like the fact that they gave him back the shorts, as it was the one major thing missing from the other release.

Cyclops’ accessories set-up was pretty good.  He gets the two extra heads, plus five extra visors to swap out between the two masked ones, which includes two extra standards, two “smoking eye,” and two different extremes of blasts.  There’s a pair of sunglasses meant for the unmasked head as well.  He also gets three pairs of hands, in fists, open gesture, and a flat/visor operating pose combo, as well as a display stand that matches the other release.  He does *not* get the bomber jacket, which is fine, since this design shouldn’t have that anyway.  At least there’s the extra head.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I opted not to get this one new, in part because he was more expensive than the already rather expensive standard version.  I came to regret that choice later, but I didn’t pay it too much mind.  Well, All Time got in a collection of epic proportions last week, and it included a metric ton of 1/6 and 1/12 figures.  This guy didn’t appear to be amongst the Mezcos at first glance, but we dug him out during the second batch, and I just couldn’t say no.  Both Mezco Cyclopses exist in an odd space for me, because I don’t find myself enjoying them as much as the comparatively cheaper Legends versions of the same looks.  But, I do still like them, because they’re Cyclops figures, and I just have a tendency to like those.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  They’re still processing that epically proportioned collection this guy came from, and it will be hitting their their eBay storefront for the next few weeks at the very least, so definitely check that out.

#3572: Rumble

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

CONCEPT ART DECPTICON RUMBLE

TRANSFORMERS: STUDIO SERIES (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0051:  In 2018, there was a blue humanoid cassette bot released to tie-in with the Bumblebee movie, who was named Frenzy.  In 2024, there was a blue humanoid cassette bot based on concept art from the Bumblebee movie…named Rumble.  There has as of yet been no Bumblebee movie red cassette bot.

My love of Soundwave extends, at least somewhat, to his cassettes.  They’re his little buddies, and you always have to have at least a few of them, right?  What I’ve settled into is a desire to have certain ones in every style, and those certain ones are Laserbeak and Frenzy.  The trouble is, there’s some confusion about who’re Frenzy and who’s Rumble.  Now, I’m a firm supported of the blue guy being Frenzy, and I’m not about to let a label on a package tell me otherwise.  Okay, I might let it tell me otherwise, but I’ll still go to great lengths to file a formal complaint…in my mind.  The point is, sometimes, if I want a Frenzy, I have to convince myself a Rumble’s not really a Rumble.  Case in point.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Concept Art Decepticon Rumble was released in the ninth Core Class assortment of Transformers: Studio Series, which serves as the first Core Class assortment of 2024 for the line as well.  He’s alongside Mohawk and (humorously) a re-pack of the 86 Frenzy, who’s red, so as to be animation accurate.  In his robot mode, Rumble stands a little over 2 inches tall and he has 18 workable points of articulation.  He’s actually surprisingly mobile; the articulation scheme here does a lot in its small space.  The mold is all-new, and it’s a fun one.  I really dig this design; it grabs all the classic cassette boi vibes, but also modernizes a bit.  I love working the thumper weapons directly into the arms, even if it’s at the cost of him not actually having hands.  He gets two guns, which he can’t hold, but you can mount them on his back, I guess, so there’s that.  Like Ravage before him, Rumble turns into a prism thing, which can be fitted into the Voyager Soundwave’s torso.  I found the transformation on Rumble a lot simpler, and a lot less fiddly than Ravage, so I far preferred it.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Since there were no cassettes beyond Ravage in the movie, I didn’t expect to get anyone else to go with my Bumblebee Soundwave.  This was a pleasant surprise.  He sort of fell into a different batch of figures I was buying when he came in, so I forgot about him, and wound up opening him while in the car for a long road trip, which was another pleasant surprise when I realized just how much fun he was.  Sure, his name may be wrong, but he’s still an awesome figure.

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.

#3571: Silver Surfer

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

SILVER SURFER

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0050:  Though first introduced all the way back in 1966, the Silver Surfer wouldn’t join the world of action figures until 1990, with the very figure I’m looking at today!

I have a lot of gaps in my knowledge of how *exactly* I encountered a number of classic Marvel characters for the first time, and Silver Surfer is part of that.  I feel like something to do with the FF would be how I knew him, but I don’t recall seeing any of his appearances on the ’90s cartoon until after the fact, which means that, like last week’s Daredevil, I’m leaning more on comics appearances, I guess?  Exactly which ones, I don’t know, but there certainly had to be something.  I mean, obviously, there were figures, too, right?  Right.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Silver Surfer was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line in 1990.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s rather typical of the earliest figures in the line, in terms of articulation and design.  There’s a slightly tweaked version of this figure from Series 3, which I looked at a few years back.  That one was vac-metalized, a process that also removed the neck joint from the figure.  The vac-metalizing removed a ton of the sculpt’s sharpness (and it’s not an exceptionally sharp sculpt in the first place), so this one does wind up looking a little bit better.  He’s still a little odd looking on the proportions front, and I don’t care for the face, but it’s not *awful*.  In contrast to the chromed finish of the Series 3 release, this one gets a flat silver finish.  It’s not as immediately stunning, but it works fine.  He also gets paint for the eyes on this one, which is a minor change-up, but enough to be somewhat notable.  Surfer is packed with his board, which for this release is really thick and bulky, and also more of a skateboard than a surfboard.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

My first Silver Surfer was actually the 10-inch release, followed closely by the CD-Rom pack-in 5-inch figure.  The Super Heroes ones wouldn’t cross my radar for quite some time.  I got the chrome version back in 2016, when I snagged a bunch of loose Toy Biz figures at a con.  It wasn’t until a few years ago that I was able to track down the standard version, when one came into All Time.  I expected to like the chrome one more, but honestly, the sculpt works better this way.  He’s nothing to write home about, but he’s okay in context of the rest of the line.

#3570: HK-87 Assassin Droid

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

HK-87 ASSASSIN DROID

STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0049: The HK-87 Assassin Droid’s design is based in part on an unused concept drawing by Ralph McQuarrie for the character that would eventually become IG-88.

Well, I didn’t *intend* to miss a review yesterday, but the day just wasn’t having any of it.  Have no fear, I’m back and on track once more, and jumping headlong back into the Star Wars side of things.  I’m going back to the Retro Figures well again, this time having just a little bit more Droid-related fun with the HK-87 Assassin Droid!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The HK-87 Assassin Droid is the sixth figure in the Ahsoka tie-in assortment of Star Wars: Retro Collection.  This one is specifically meant to be one of the rank and file HKs, seen in both Mandalorian and Ahsoka.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The sculpt is all-new and unique to this release.  It’s a pretty good breakdown of the design seen in the show, filtered through that vintage lens.  The design is the totally stripped down version of the droid, without any of the belts or cloaks they tend to wear in the shows.  It allows for extra customization, I suppose, if you were so inclined.  Beyond that, the details are generally hitting the broader design pieces, and they’re pretty cleanly handled.  His color work again goes for one of the rank and file droids, so he’s got the mix of grey, tan, and red.  It’s again a little broader and stripped down than the show design, but it works, and it sells the idea pretty well.  The HK is packed with a vintage styled-version of the battle droid blaster.  It’s surprising that no cloak or anything is included, but this does match with the more paired down approach of the vintage line.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

The HK design’s a fun one, and it’s one I’ve been wanting in some format, but I was’t sure I wanted to spring for the Black Series version.  This one hit just as I was trying to make the decision, which made the whole thing a lot easier for me.  It’s a basic figure, much like the rest of the line, but he’s fun.

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.

#3569: Mekaneck

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

MEKANECK

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE MASTERVERSE (MATTEL)

Fun FiQ Fact #0048:  I’ve reviewed all of the Mekanecks in my collection, which means at this point, all I have to do is review each new one as I add it!

I’ve touched on it here on the site before, but Mekaneck has been my favorite focus in Masters of the Universe since my earliest days with the franchise.  As such, he’s my top want in any given incarnation of the franchise, and I always get excited to see him crop back up.  Classics was perhaps the longest wait for the character to join a given style, but Masterverse took a little while itself.  But he’s finally here, and I’m checking him out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mekaneck was released in Series 11 of Masters of the Universe Masterverse.  He’s under the “New Eternia” banner, alongside Tri-Klops.  As with the others in that sub-brand, he’s taking the classic look and putting a few upgrades into place.  In his most basic mode, the figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 33 points of articulation.  The extended neck grants him extra height and movement, of course.  Mekaneck is actually largely new, at least to me, sculpturally.  The old “barbarian” body has been worked out with the Revolution re-launch, and this is an upgraded version.  It’s got harder angles, it’s generally smoother, and the articulation works a touch better.  He’s got an assortment of character-specific parts, which include the head, chest armor, and his left arm bracer.  The head does a nice job of capturing the vintage look, while also giving it just the slightest bit of an updated flair.  The new shaping sits a bit better with the general aesthetic of the line, and it sits much nicer on the head than the Classics version.  The new chest piece is surprising, given that they had already sculpted one for Stinkor, and the two usually share.  I do like the shaping on this one more than the Stinkor version, even if they’re ultimately very similar.  The new bracer piece gives Mekaneck an asymmetrical set-up, mirroring his vintage figure.  It’s got a peg-hole in it, for the purposes of mounting a shield, if you so choose.  Mekaneck’s color work is pretty nicely handled; it leans into metallic shades, which I really dig.  He also gets mirrored lenses for the goggles, fixing one of my biggest issues with the Classics release.  Mekaneck is packed with five segments to his extended neck, his club, two sets of hands, and a shield.  The neck segments can be swapped in and out, allowing both additional posability, and much more modulation to the length of the neck.  Further, the top of the club is now removable, and it’s on the same joint system as the neck, so you can give him an extended club as well.  Or, mount his club in place of his head, I guess.  Dealer’s choice, really.  The hands come in gripping and fists; the back of the box shows a relaxed left hand, but it’s not present in the box.  The shield is a fun piece; the front shows a graphic inspired by the Road Ripper, which Mattel seems to have decided to link to Mekaneck now, if this and the Origins figure are anything to go by.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I can’t help but love a good Mekaneck figure.  The Classics Mekaneck was just okay, never really strong.  But, between Origins and this guy, I feel like I’ve gotten some very good Mekanecks.  Honestly, this figure is everything I wanted the Classics figure to be.  He’s just so immensely fun.

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.