#3448: Battle Mode Blue Beetle

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

BATTLE MODE BLUE BEETLE

DC MULTIVERSE (McFARLANE TOYS)

Warner Brothers really is trying to figure out how the heck to handle DC movies.  It’s crazy, because it really shouldn’t be this hard to figure out making movies about some of the best known pop culture icons on the planet, but it’s honestly pretty classic DC.  They’re really bad at understanding their own stuff.  If they were better at it, they might have not spent their entire marketing budget for the year on the dumpster fire that was The Flash, and might have saved enough to give poor Blue Beetle something more than one proper trailer.  You know, maybe put some support behind the best DC project since the Nolan trilogy.  Heck, the best DC project since Christopher Reeve’s Superman.  Yeah, I said it.  And I stand by it.  After trying desperately for years to find their Iron Man equivalent, DC finally made one in Blue Beetle…and they missed the mark by not actually getting people to see it.  That’s gotta sting.  Well, at least I got the best love letter to the Blue Beetle mythos a fan could ever hope for.  It’s a decent consolation prize.  Oh yeah, and there’s some toys, too.  Not a ton, you know, because the the flubbed marketing thing.  Also, McFarlane.  Still, Blue Beetle.  Calling it a win where I can.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Battle Mode Blue Beetle is one of two Blue Beetle figures released in the main tie-in assortment of McFarlane’s DC Multiverse.  There’s another Blue Beetle with the arm cannon and sword, as well as a deluxe Carapax MegaFig, but I’m gonna look at “Battle Mode” Blue Beetle.  You know, the one that comes with wings and no weapons of any kind.  Like a Battle Mode.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 37 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is the standard McFarlane set-up, with the addition of two swivels on the wings/horns….allegedly.  The wing/horn swivels aren’t actually good for much, but I’ll get to that in a moment.  There’s layers here.  The bulk of this figure’s sculpt is shared with the other Blue Beetle from the assortment.  It makes sense, since it’s always the same core suit in the movie, and he just cycles through different attachments.  Honestly, it’s even a pretty darn good sculpt.  It looks a lot like the movie suit, it has a lot of sharp detailing, and, apart from the arms being a touch too long, it has pretty solid proportions.  Because it’s shared with the other figure, you can also still remove the left forearm, allowing you to swap in the other figure’s cannon arm, if you so choose.  Heck, it even moves pretty well.  The core body, that is.  It’s McFarlane, though, so you’re all waiting for this to take a turn, right?  Well, here’s where that happens.  You know how this figure has Beetle’s wing attachments?  And they’re removable, even?  Yeah, well the horns, which are always visible on the back of the suit when its powered up, are attached to the wings.  So, you can’t give him the horns without the wings…you know, the way he looks for most of the movie’s runtime.  Also, because of the angle that the horns are attached to the wings, you also can’t have the wings posed in anything but a straight out angle, otherwise the horns get caught on each other and bump into his head.  This figure does at least *have* the horns, which is more than can be said for the other figure, which just lacks them outright.  If they’d just been sculpted onto the actual backpack piece, there’d be no issue.  Heck, I’d have settled for a separate set of horn pieces to swap out for the wings, since they’re easily removed.  But, nope, we just get the ones attached to the wings.  That’s annoying.  Moving back to better things, the paint work on this figure is also pretty good.  The base colors are clean, and I love that metallic blue.  Then there’s a bunch of accenting which gives him a little more wear and tear, while also still not going too overboard.  I can certainly appreciate that.  Beetle is packed with six different hands (a pair of fists, a right open gesture, a right pointing, a left thumbs up, and a left peace sign), a standard display stand, and a card.  The hands are fantastic and I love having them.  The stand is surprising because it’s not a flight stand, which seems odd, but it’s better than nothing.  And the card is infuriating because it shows Jaime with the horns but no wings.  You know, the way this figure can never be displayed.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was quite a bit of a Ted Kord fan back when Jaime was first introduced.  And, despite Jaime’s comics origin requiring Ted being shot in the head, I still really liked Jaime.  I followed his first solo series, I followed his back-ups in Booster Gold, and I even followed Generation Lost.  I drew the line at the New 52 incarnation, but that’s a whole other thing.  I love Jaime just as much as Ted, and I was very excited when this movie was announced.  In case you didn’t gather from the intro, I loved the film when I saw it in the theatre as well.  And even though it’s McFarlane, I still wanted one of the figures.  This figure is so frustrating because he’s *so* insanely close to being the best thing McFarlane’s done with DC.  He’s got a solid sculpt, good paint, the awesome extra hands….they just got the horns wrong.  And, like, doubly wrong, because the way they are, you can’t even use the wings right, either.  We’re so close!  Thankfully, there are some people out there doing kits with just the horns as a separate piece, but I really shouldn’t have to resort to third party pieces to get the standard look for a character.  But, hey, it’s Blue Beetle.  I’ll take what I can get.

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.

#3447: Karnak

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

KARNAK

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Through mental discipline, the Inhuman known as Karnak has mastered the ability to perceive the flaws and weak points in any person or object.”

Remember back in 2017, when Marvel was desperately trying to make The Inhumans a thing?  And remember when it really didn’t work out, and they gave up and just waited to get the X-Men back so they could use mutants again and not push the Inhumans anymore, so they dropped all their merch like a sack of wet potatoes?  Pepperidge Farm remembers.  No, wait, they probably don’t.  They’re a snack company, and probably not super into The Inhumans.  Well, enough time has passed that I guess it’s safe to do something more with The Inhumans.  Let’s bring that Legends line-up on up to a whopping three, with Karnak!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Karnak is figure 5 in the Totally Awesome Hulk Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s the second of the four comics figures in the line-up, and the next step down in the relevance of the comic figures to the overall theme.  I mean, the Inhumans were a Kree experiment, and so is Carol Danvers, so I guess that’s something.  As noted above, Karnak is our third Inhuman in Legends format, following Black Bolt, Black Bolt, Black Bolt, and Medusa.  There’s been a lot of Black Bolts.  Oh, sorry: Blackagar Boltagons.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Karnak is using the Pizza Spidey body as his starting point.  It’s not a terrible fit, given Karnak’s usual skinnier build, but it’s still got the visible pins on the elbows and knees, and its generally a little outdated, especially with the AF Spidey in use now.  In particular, the butterfly shoulders really seem to be wearing out on this mold, so I worry about long-term longevity.  Karnak gets a new head, forearm guards, and belt/loincloth.  The new pieces are actually quite nice; the head’s got the proper weird shaping for the character, and the face makes for a good likeness of a more evergreen take on Karnak.  The guards sit well on the arms, and help to break up the base body a bit.  The belt piece is a bit too free floating for me, but otherwise looks alright.  The color work on Karnak is largely handled via molded colors, which keeps it pretty clean.  There’s still some paint to make things work; some of the edges are a little fuzzy, but overall things look quite nice.  Karnak is packed with two sets of hands, one in fists, the other in flat poses, as well as the right arm of Totally Awesome Hulk.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Getting one cohesive set of Inhumans is apparently an impossible feat.  Across four different styles, we’ve had four differently incomplete takes on the team.  Legends has been at the lowest set up until now, but I guess it’s turned itself around by virtue of at least matching up to Marvel Universe, so now there’s only three differently incomplete teams across four styles.  Progress!  Karnak, like Marvel Boy from last week, is a pretty by the numbers figure, really only hampered by the odd choice to put him on such an old body.  Still, he could be worse.  He could be a lot worse.  Now, can we please get the rest of the team before the line ends?

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review. If you’d like to see a video of this figure (and the rest of the series) in action, I helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3446: Stinger

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

STINGER

MARVEL COMICS 2 1ST APPEARANCE (TOY BIZ)

“Cassie Lang, the daughter of the retired miniature Super Hero Ant-Man, followed in her father’s footsteps by becoming a brilliant scientist, as well as a costumed adventurer. She possesses the ability to shrink to the size of an ant, fly on wings that sprout out of her back while in miniature size and shoot powerful stinger blasts from her wrists. She currently uses her vast intellect, courage and battle prowess as a member of the next generation of Avengers, A-Next.”

The MC2 universe was big on legacy characters for its future, and while a lot of those legacy characters existed only for that universe, there were some preexisting characters that got aged up for their roles. One such character was Cassie Lang, who took on the role of Stinger, a sort of merging of Wasp and Ant-Man.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Stinger was released in the PX-exclusive Marvel Comics 2 1st Appearance series, which hit in 1999. This was our first Cassie figure, but not our last. We’ve even gotten Stinger as a Marvel Legend (though, officially she was the mainstream Cassie, but still). This was still the first one, though. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 14 points of articulation.  Stinger, like American Dream, is built on the Vindicator base body.  It’s a decent enough starting point.  Perhaps a little bulky for Cassie, but it’s her MC2 version, so she’s supposed to be a little older.  She gets a new head, forearms, and a modified torso to add attachment points for her wings.  The head seems a little bit small, especially since it’s supposed to be helmeted and all, but it’s decently sculpted beyond that.  The new forearms add her gauntlets, which are pretty nice, and something notably not featured on her later Legends figure.  The new torso and wings are decent enough, though the actual joints on the wings are a little loose.  Stinger’s color work is pretty solid.  The application of the paint is all pretty cleanly handled, and like American Dream, she’s got some pretty cool accenting.  Her skin tone is a little inconsistent, but beyond that it all looks pretty good.  Stinger is packed with a launcher base, re-used from Invisible Woman, but in translucent purple, as well as a trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Stinger is a very recent addition to my collection, which is honestly surprising, because she’s the one figure from the set that I kept meaning to go back for, what with her being the first Cassie Lang figure and all.  I wound up snagging her from an antique store that I hit up on a day trip with the family a few weeks ago.  She’s not a perfect figure, but she’s pretty fun, like the other two I’ve looked at.

#3445: Agent Kallus

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

AGENT KALLUS

STAR WARS: REBELS (HASBR0)

“Agent Kallus is a member of the Imperial Security Bureau, a secret police force that hunts down and crushes any rebellion in the galaxy. Intelligent and ruthless, Kallus is a skilled pilot who makes it his mission to stop throublesome freedom fighters.”

You know what?  I’m gonna keep this Rebels train rolling for another week.  Go ahead.  Try and stop me.  Actually don’t.  It’s my site.  You won’t succeed.  And then you’ll feel all silly, and I’ll feel bad, and it’ll be a whole thing.  So, back to Rebels.  While the Imperials in the Original Trilogy are largely just straight forward evil, Rebels played with that a little bit.  Alexsandr Kallus starts the show as a purely antagonistic force, with some pretty terrible deeds behind him.  Over the course of the show, as he has more run-ins both with the Ghost crew and with Imperial higher ups who are far worse than him, and by the end of the show, he’s a full-fledged hero in his own right.  It’s one of the most satisfying arcs in a show that’s got a lot of satisfying arcs.  Despite all of his journeying, Kallus got one action figure.  Kind of a bummer.  Well, let’s look at it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Agent Kallus was released in the first assortment of the Star Wars: Rebels tie-in line’s single carded component Saga Legends.  He’s figure SL05, the second to last of the first batch of Rebels.  He only got the one release, with no re-issues or updates later in the line.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s got the same basic articulation that this whole line got, and it works as well as you could hope.  For 5POA, it’s not bad.  Kallus got an all-new sculpt, based on his Season 1 design from the show.  For whatever reason, they decided to depict him with his helmet permanently attached, rather than giving him a removable one.  It’s a real bummer, and means we never got to see Kallus’s mutton chops in all their plasticky glory.  Beyond that, the sculpt is actually quite nice.  The proportions match his animated counterpart, and the detailing is all very sharply defined.  The figure’s color work is generally pretty drab, as you might expect from an Imperial.  Lots of grey and black.  It works, though, and the mix of paint and molded colors does alright.  Application is pretty clean for what’s there, too.  Kallus is packed with the Bo-Rifle he stole from one of the Lestat; like Zeb, Kallus’s rifle doesn’t transform, instead being only in its gun form.  It’s too bad there couldn’t be a second one in the staff form, but again, this line was really locked into only one accessory per figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Agent Kallus is a figure I didn’t get when he was new.  I remember seeing him, but I’d not seen the show, and didn’t know the character.  After seeing the show, I grew to really like the character, and since this was the only figure he got, I kind of had no other options.  I was able to snag a loose one from All Time, back in 2019, from the same collection that got me Hera.  He’s better than I’d expected.  I still don’t like that the helmet doesn’t come off, but I guess I can’t let it go.

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.

#3444: Marvel Boy

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

MARVEL BOY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A Kree warrior from an alternate reality, Noh-Varr aka Marvel Boy is the self-appointed protector of Earth and member of the Young Avengers.”

The third Marvel Boy (following Bob Grayson and Vance Astrovik) and the fifth Captain Marvel (following Mar-Vell, Monica, Genis-Vell, and Khn’nr), Noh-Varr does sure like some borrowed names.  Created in 2000 by Grant Morrison and JG Jones, the character’s one of those ones that Marvel likes to really push every so often.  It’s been a little while since the last push, but with the rumor of actor Park Seo-joon playing the character in The Marvels, perhaps we’re due for another?  Well, in the meantime, he’s got a new Marvel Legend, so let’s look at that.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Marvel Boy is figure 4 in the Totally Awesome Hulk Series of Marvel Legends, and is the first of the assortment’s four comic-based figures.  Of the four, he’s certainly the one with the best ties to The Marvels, even if he doesn’t show up in the movie.  This marks Noh-Varr’s second Legend, though its his first billed as Marvel Boy (the last one was from his Protector days).  He’s depicted here in his garb from the Gillen/McKelvie run on Young Avengers, which is honestly his best look, and probably the character’s best run.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Noh-Varr is based on the 2099 body, which seems a good enough fit for the character, even if still has the visible pins on the elbows and knees.  He gets a new head, hands, and an add-on for his belt piece.  The head is a pretty solid recreation of McKelvie’s take on Noh-Varr, while still keeping him in line with the Legends house style.  I especially dig that they got the one stray strand of hair that was always present in the book.  His hands get new sculpted detailing on the backs, as well as actually having dual trigger fingers, which is a plus, and the belt is a pretty by the numbers addition.  Beyond that, it’s down to paint work to make it all happen.  It’s generally pretty solid.  The application’s pretty clean, and the colors match up well with the printed appearances.  Noh-Varr is packed with a pair of blasters, which are pretty fun and unique pieces, as well the left arm of the Totally Awesome Hulk Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Noh-Varr is a character I had little attachment to prior to his run with the Young Avengers.  I greatly enjoyed his addition to the team, and his interactions there, but honestly, I haven’t really clicked with him beyond that run.  This figure being pretty explicitly based on that version of the character definitely works for me.  While I can’t say this figure was at the top of my list for this set (in fact, he was probably the one I was least looking forward to, if I’m honest), he’s a strong by the numbers offering.  And, hey, it’s another Young Avenger.  We get those so infrequently, that any of them getting made is a real cause for celebration.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review. If you’d like to see a video of this figure (and the rest of the series) in action, I helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

Mutant X Re-Read #08: The Reign of the Queen

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Mutant X Re-Read

THE REIGN OF THE QUEEN

MUTANT X #8 (MARVEL COMICS)

“In another place–in another life–Alex Summers led a team of mutants in a battle against oppression. His methods were extreme, his tactics questionable, but–in his soul–he knew that he was fighting for the greater good.

Now that soul has been transferred to another world, and Summers, also known as Havok, has found himself living a lie, allied with a team of mutants who are sinister, parallel versions of his friends and family. It is to this dark, new place that Havok has come, where he stands as a man alone… a mutant alone. Alex Summers is Mutant X.

Fear him. Fear for him.”

25 years ago, Marvel Comics launched Mutant X, a Havok led X-spinoff. I recently came into a complete run of the series, and so now I’m going to re-read the series once a week, and you guys get to come along for the ride!

This week, as the Goblin Queen advances her plans for domination, Havok goes back to a place he once called home!

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #6 is cover dated May of 1999, and has Howard Mackie as writer, Cary Nord and Yancey Labat on pencils, and Andrew Pepoy and Scott Elmer on inks.

Vice President Robert Kelly works late at the White House when it is attacked by an unseen force. Madelyn Pryor enters his office and informs him that she has killed the President, and that Kelly is in charge, and the Six will now be his cabinet. Meanwhile, Alex, Scotty, and Elektra arrive at the X-Mansion, which is vacant apart from Cerebro, a Technarchy-based living version of the X-Men’s mutant finding super computer, who has been left in charge of the grounds while the X-Men aid the Shi’ar in space. Alex asks Cerebro for assistance finding Maddie and the others, and locates them attacking Larry Trask in his secret Sentinel base. Alex realizes Maddie is raising an army, and he’ll need to rally his own forces. He asks Elektra to keep Scotty safe. The Six and their Sentinels lay siege on New York, and Alex returns in search of Maddie. He’s found by The Fallen, who brings Alex to her. She wants Scotty back, but Alex refuses, so she flings him from a tall building.

This issue is a lot of set-up, but it’s got some nice little touches that really work in its favor. As the Six make grand sweeping plans and changes, she get some nice smaller moments with Havok’s story. The Warlock-esque Cerebro is a really fun twist, like a more benign precursor to Danger. Elektra also gets some decent focus, solidifying her own odd relationship with Alex, as she starts to realize that there’s something different about him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Though it may be largely filler, this issue is honestly one of my favorites thus far. I loved the Cerebro angle, and I’m actually enjoying the sequences with Elektra, which is a rarity for me.

I snagged this whole run from my usual comics stop, Cosmic Comix, so I want to give them a shout out here, because it was a pretty great find.

#3443: Flint

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

FLINT

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Hey, remember last week, when I was talking about Super 7’s G.I. Joe: Ultimates line?  Well, I’m gonna talk about it again.  Because, you know, there’s another one of them to talk about.  Last week, I looked at the line’s take on the Lady Jaye; today, I’m looking at a character almost always paired off with her, Daniel “Flint” Fairborne!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Flint is the second figure in the second series of Super 7’s G.I. Joe Ultimates line, where he’s the second of the two Joes.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Flint’s articulation scheme is, much like Lady Jaye, a bit of an improvement over the Series 1 figures, who were themselves an improvement on other Super 7 Ultimates offerings.  Of note, he can get his elbows deeper than 90 degrees, which is a plus, and unlike Lady Jaye, he’s got a pretty great range of motion on his neck.  I definitely dig that.  In contrast to the trend of Flints post-vintage, this release doesn’t share any of his parts with the line’s standard Duke release, instead opting for an all-new sculpt.  Like the rest of the line’s figures, he’s specifically patterned on his Sunbow animation model.  While Lady Jaye, who like Flint appeared in the cartoon the year prior to her introduction in the toyline, had a notably different design for the show, Flint’s show design actually wound up pretty close to his final toy design, so this figure sticks to a more classically Flint look.  The sculpt does a pretty respectable job of capturing Flint’s animated likeness.  Like Lady Jaye and Duke before him, Flint has 3 different head sculpts.  The one he comes wearing has his beret sculpted to the head, and is a pretty basic sculpt.  There’s a second with the beret attached, which also adds a headset, to match the other two Joes.  The third is sans hat, and is a little more detailed, more in-line with the miniseries or movie animation than the run of the mill episodes.  This head also gets an extra removable beret, and it’s overall my favorite of the three; I wasn’t expecting the removeable beret to look as good as it does.  Flint’s body is pretty solid work, too, with detailing that’s generally just a little sharper than Series 1’s Duke; I especially like the raised collar piece, as it adds a fair bit of depth.  Flint’s color work is decent enough.  He’s got the proper animation colors, so his shirt’s the same olive green as the pants, offset by brown for the camo pattern and his accent pieces.  While the first series gave painted skin to Duke, Flint and Lady Jaye both get molded plastic skin, which has its pluses and minuses.  The paint’s definitely the best on the head with the removable beret; something about the eyebrows on the other two seems off.  Also, the one with the headset has a big spot of red paint on the back of his beret on my copy, which is rather annoying.  Flint is packed with 8 hands (a pair of fists, a pair of loose grip, a pair of tight grip, and pointing and closed grip for the left hand), binoculars, a radio, a flashlight, a shovel, a newspaper, a back pack, a standard laser rifle, a pistol, and Flint’s usual shotgun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I’ve said before here, I’m a big fan of having Flint and Lady Jaye together, so if I get one of them in a given style, I definitely want the other.  Thankfully, the trend has been releasing them together, and Super7 kept that trend going.  Hooray!  After being really impressed by Lady Jaye, I was worried that Flint wouldn’t wow me quite as much, but he’s a pretty solid contender in his own right.  Like Jaye, I expected to like this figure, but I didn’t expect to like him as much as I do.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’d like to see a video of this figure in action, I helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  And, if you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3442: Ms. Marvel

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

MS. MARVEL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Kamala Khan has encountered much in her Ms. Marvel adventures, but nothing could prepare her for a cosmic adventure alongside her idol Captain Marvel!”

Following up on her solo Disney+ series from last year, Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan makes the jump to the big screen this November in The Marvels, where she’ll get to interact with both Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau.  Vellani’s performance as Kamala is one of the MCU’s best page-to-screen portrayals, so there’s a lot riding on getting to see her interact with the wider MCU cast.  Like the other two members of the titular group, she’s gotten a brand new look for the movie, and, by extension, that leads to a brand new figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ms. Marvel is figure 3 in the Totally Awesome Hulk Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s the last of the movie-based figures in the set.  This marks the fourth Kamala Khan Legend, and the second time her MCU incarnation’s gotten a figure.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  Compared to her last figure, this one’s definitely a step-up on the articulation front.  Not a tremendous one, mind you, since she’s still rather restricted at the neck and hips, and the shoulders are also rather tight.  The arms are double jointed, though, which is pretty cool, and, though it may still be restricted, the neck is still more mobile than the prior figure.  Ms. Marvel’s sculpt is almost entirely an all-new one.  The scarf is shared with her prior figure, but everything else is new.  Like the articulation, it’s an improvement over her last figure.  The head sports a much better likeness of Iman Vellani; still not 100% spot-on, but it at least actually looks like her this time.  The hair is also a lot less flat, and her body sculpt isn’t nearly as skinny.  In general, it’s just a better sculpt, start to finish.  The paint work continues the trend.  The colors wind up a lot less muddied this time around, just by swapping the blue out for a darker shade.  It gives the whole look a lot of pop, and just makes everything feel really sharp.  The application is pretty clean for the most part, apart from some slight bleed over on some of the gold.  Ms. Marvel is packed with two sets of hands, in open gesture and fist/gripping combo, as well as a Flerken (who doesn’t appear to be Goose, given its coloring), and the torso of Totally Awesome Hulk.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The show Ms. Marvel figure was a pretty big let-down for me.  She really didn’t look the part, and wound up as more a phoned-in comic figure than a proper live action version of the character.  I really dig the new design for her in the movie, and the new figure winds up being a lot better than the last one.  I’m a lot happier with this one, and she feels a lot more unique than the first, which is a definite plus.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’d like to see a video of this figure (and the rest of the series) in action, I helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  And,if you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3441: American Dream

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

AMERICAN DREAM

MARVEL COMICS 2 1ST APPEARANCES (TOY BIZ)

“When Captain America disappeared, Shannon Carter took over the battle to uphold his fight for truth and justice. Calling herself “American Dream”, she uses her fighting skills, acrobatic abilities and keen strategic mind to help defend the world from the forces of evil as a member of A-Next, the next generation of Avengers. American Dream originally threw miniature discs to knock out her opponents, but now proudly uses the indestructible shield passed down to her by her inspiration, Captain America.”

After the success of Spider-Girl led to the launch of the whole Marvel Comics 2 line, they were in need of some characters to fill things in.  What resulted was a mix of old and new, with a definite theme of lineage and legacy in play.  The Avengers’ legacy was carried forward by “A-Next,” which included amongst its members Shannon Carter, niece to Captain America’s old flame Sharon (who was herself the younger sister niece grand-niece to Cap’s old flame Peggy…), who took up the name “American Dream,” and served as the team’s analogue to Cap.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

American Dream is another figure from the four figure Marvel Comics 2 First Appearances line, released in 1999 as a Previews-exclusive.  She’s one of the two characters in the set who hasn’t gotten any sort of update.  Perhaps one day we might see a Legend, but today is not that day.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 12 points of articulation.  American Dream uses the Vindicator body as her starting point.  It’s honestly not a terrible piece of work; proportions are still a little skewed, but that was the norm for this era.  She got a new head and forearms, as well as tweaked shins and feet, which give her the proper change-ups for her design.  Due to the nature of her hair sculpt, her neck articulation is pretty limited, but beyond that, things all mesh together pretty well.  The arms and legs add the small little discs, which served as her main offensive attack in her earlier appearances, which is definitely cool.  The paint work on the figure is appropriately bright and eye-catching, as you would expect a Cap-inspired patriotic scheme to be.  There’s some sloppiness, especially on the red and white striped section in the middle.  There’s some pretty impressive air brushed accenting on the costume, which actually really gives the sculpt a great deal of pop, and is decently consistent from piece to piece.  American Dream is packed with Cap’s shield, which she eventually added to her arsenal alongside the discs, as well as a trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in my Spider-Girl review, I didn’t get any of this set as a kid.  Once I got back into my Toy Biz collecting, this one was the first of them I snagged, partly due to my love of all things Cap, and largely because she was just one of the first two I found in-person.  I don’t know that she’s quite as good as Spider-Girl, but she’s still pretty solid, and certainly a lot of fun.

#3440: Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios

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

GARAZEB “ZEB” ORRELIOS

STAR WARS: REBELS (HASBRO)

The cast of Rebels was designed to be new and unique, while still fulfilling the franchise’s classic archetypes. Since A New Hope, there’s pretty much always been a “big guy,” and for Rebels, that was Garazeb Orrelios, better known as Zeb. While Zeb is more talkative (in English, anyway) than Chewbacca, he shares a bit of common ancestry, being based on Chewy’s original Ralph McQuarrie-drawn concept design.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios was released in the first assortment of the Mission Series two-packs from the Star Wars: Rebels tie-in line in 2013, alongside a standard Stormtrooper from the show. He then received an almost identical re-release in a two-pack with Chopper in 2015, as part of the Force Awakens push. This is one of the two, but I got him loose, so I can’t say for certain which of them. The figure stands about 4 1/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation. His height is definitely cool, as it helps to really break up the silhouettes of the team a bit. The articulation is basic, but that’s what’s to be expected, especially with this particular era of the line. Zeb’s sculpt is probably the strongest of the original Ghost crew sculpts. His alien nature translates pretty well, and I think his design just goes really well with the style of the line. He feels a bit less rudimentary than the others, and the general shaping of him is a lot more organic.  Zeb’s paint work is fairly basic stuff.  It matches pretty closely with the color scheme he had on the show.  The application on the paint is a little sloppy, and there’s a little bit of wear on my copy, but it gets the job done for the most part.  Zeb is packed with his Lasan Honor Guard AB-75 Bo-Rifle.  It’s purely a rifle-mode version of the weapon, with no transformation feature like the Black Series.  It’s alright, but he has a little difficulty holding it, and obviously can’t two-hand it, due to the articulation.  It’s a shame they didn’t also give him an alternate version in the other configuration, but they were pretty locked-in on only one accessory per figure at this point.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Longtime readers with an absolute perfect recall of the nitty-gritty details of all of my reviews might recall that when I picked up the Rebels Stormtrooper back in the day, I remarked not caring enough for “Garazeb” (yes, I used the full name, not the derivative; I didn’t know any better) to buy the two-pack.  By the time I actually got into Rebels in 2016, I very much regretted that move, as both versions of Zeb had gotten trickier to acquire, and he didn’t get an update like the others.  This was the second-to-last of the Ghost crew I got in this scale.  I salvaged him from a pretty beaten up bin of loose Star Wars figures that came into All Time back in 2020.  He’s basic, but honestly not bad.

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.