#3337: Metalhead

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

METALHEAD

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

“Designed as Krang’s ultimate weapon against the Turtles, Metalhead was re-programmed by Donatello to serve the side of good. The chrome-plated sewer servant’s eyes light up when you hold him up to the light. Always the life of the party, Metalhead can whip up a whipped cream and jelly bean pizza, serve sodas, display video games or rock the sewer with tunes from his jazzed-up juke box. When trouble’s brewing, Metalhead becomes one annoyed android and dishes out trouble with his Robo-chuks and Foot Blaster to all who dare mess with his Turtle masters.”

You know a thing that I like?  I mean, aside from the rather obvious “action figures” answer, which is sort of just all around us here.  No, I was actually thinking of “robots” in this case.  Robots are just pretty cool.  And, they make everything else just a little bit cooler.  Case in point?  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Pretty cool, right?  Robot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  Even better.  Thankfully, the TMNT have one of those on-hand, in the form of Metalhead, who I just so happen to be taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Metalhead is part of Wave 3 of Super 7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates line.  He’s based on Metalhead’s original 1989 Playmates figure, which, since he was one of the few characters to appear on the show first, means that he’s also pretty accurate to his animated counterpart.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme matches up with how the standard Turtles move, which is to say it’s a little more on the restricted side.  Obviously, it’s an improvement on the vintage figure, but it’s not quite as good as, say, the Casey Jones figure.  Metalhead’s sculpt was new to him, albeit it’s already slated for re-use on the upcoming Michelangelo Metalhead, just like in the vintage line.  It’s a pretty impressive offering.  It captures the general feel of the vintage figure, while also scaling it up and adding quite a nice selection of smaller details.  He’s also got a really cool boxy and robotic feel, just like he should.  Metalhead’s color work is generally pretty decently handled.  He skips out on the chromed parts of the original figure, which feels better for the figure’s longevity over time, and is also more consistent with the rest of the line up to this point.  There’s actually quite a bit going on with this one as well, which gives him a lot of visual interest.  Application is generally pretty clean, which is always nice for this line.  Metalhead is packed with an extra head sculpt, which features light-piping instead of painted eyes, as well as seven hands (a pair of fists, a pair of gripping, a pair of open gesture, and a right hand with a tendril extended), his Portable Party Pack, two sets of his Radical Robo-chuks (one for his hand, and one for the Pack), a radar dish for his pack, two grenades, and a vintage-style weapons tree (which, like with Casey and Ace, isn’t actually accurate to anything specific, but is still cool).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My interest in Metalhead is pretty clearly spelled out in the intro.  I mean, he’s a robot turtle; what’s not to like?  I missed out on Wave 3 of this line during its initial run, so I didn’t really expect to get this guy.  That said, in the fall of last year, All Time got an almost complete run of the Ultimates traded in loose, so that gave me another shot at this guy.  Like the rest of the line I’ve picked up, he’s just a lot of fun.  Hard to go wrong with this guy, really.

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.

#3336: Marvel Villains Box Set

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

GREEN GOBLIN, MAGNETO, DR. DOOM, & RED SKULL

MARVEL MINIMATES

After Iron Man hit in 2008, everything Marvel got a bit of a rebirth as Marvel prepared for what would become the MCU.  This included a lot of their licensed products.  Over in the Minimates corner, it was exactly the bump they needed, and in many ways the line effectively started anew, with a focus on circling back around to some of the heaviest hitters, as they aimed to sell to a new audience.  In 2009, to aid with this, they produced a pair of boxed sets, one heroes, and one villains, which served to update the big guns, all in a nice, concise package.  I’m taking a look at the villains today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The Marvel Villains Box Set, subtitled “Bring on the Bad Guys”, was a specialty release boxed set for Marvel Minimates, hitting in the spring of 2009.  It overlapped with the second TRU-exclusive assortment; three of the villains included here were re-packed with a hero from the other pack.  Green Goblin was packed with Spider-Man, Magneto with Wolverine, and Hulk with Dr. Doom (hey, they had to pair them off with *someone*).  Red Skull was exclusive to the release, as was his opposite number Captain America from the heroes pack.

GREEN GOBLIN

“The Green Goblin is perhaps Spider-Man’s most deadly, dangerous and unpredictable foe. Deemed rehabilitated after time in a mental institution, Norman Osborn pretended to leave his life of crime behind him and became head of the Thunderbolts with an army of super-powered villains under his control.”

Absent from the line since its second series, the classic Green Goblin returned with this set.  It marked his third overall ‘mate, but only his second classic one, since the middle one was the Ultimate version.  This figure’s bio is a rather time-specific one, referencing his place with the Thunderbolts, something closely linked to Civil War and Dark Reign, and not really all that important to him being Green Goblin.  Yeah, it was an odd time.  The figure uses the standard Minimate base, so he’s about 2 1/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  Green Goblin makes use of four add-on pieces for his hat/ears, satchel, and gloves.  The hat and satchel were re-used from his original Series 2 figure, while the flared gloves came from the Series 5 Captain America.  The set-up is a little more on the basic side, but it works.  They never really did top the hat, and while the satchel’s a little blocky, it’s certainly not bad.  The gloves were a nice bit of flair, but the one downside was that they meant he didn’t get a pumpkin bomb, which was a shame.  The paint work on this release was far more detailed than the original, with a more intense expression, a more subdued palette, and a downright insane level of detailing on the scales.  They would rein things back in just a little bit for later releases; this one definitely felt just a little bit overdetailed.

MAGNETO

“One of the most powerful mutants to ever live, Magneto’s powers first manifested in the weeks leading up to World War II and allowed him to survive the events that followed. Able to manipulate electromagnetic fields, he vowed to prevent mutantkind from sharing his family’s fate.”

At this point, Magneto was technically getting his third Minimate, but seeing as the Dark Tide release was just a change to the face of the original exclusive one, this Magneto was effectively only the second outing for the character, which does seem a little surprising all things considered.  Structurally, he was the same as the first version.  Not a bad call, really, since his helmet and cape add-ons were rather nice pieces, and not really out of date at this point.  There’s a very definite vibe of not fixing what isn’t broken there.  The new paint was again a lot more detailed.  In Magneto’s case, it doesn’t go quite as overboard, which works more in his favor.  Apart from his stubble being perhaps a little heavy handed, he works pretty well.  Magneto was packed with an alternate hair piece and an energy effect to go on his hand.

DR. DOOM

“Victor Von Doom rules the nation of Latveria with an iron-clad fist as he pursues his goals of ruling the world and finally exacting revenge from the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards. Created using both his scientific and mystical talents, Dr. Doom’s arsenal contains some of the most destructive weapons ever invented.”

Doom was also on his third ‘mate, by virtue of the original release having gotten a variant.  Like Magneto, it feels like that doesn’t really count, though.  This marked the first true update, however, and that’s what’s most important, I feel.  This figure uses the same cloak and skirt pieces as the first release, but adds a pair of gloved hands (which are the FF gloves, amusingly enough) and affixes a holster to his skirt.  Both of the re-used Doom pieces were nice enough on the original, but by the time of this one felt a little bit out of place and stiff.  The gloves at least bulked up the arms a bit, but he’s generally the figure in this set that feels the most outmoded in the sculpting department.  His paint work was alright; admittedly, the paint on the original wasn’t bad, especially when it came to the armored parts.  This one does a bit better on the tunic, so there’s that.  I’m not a huge fan of the face on this one, especially given how oddly slanted the eye holes on the mask wound up being.  Doom was packed with a gun (re-used from the BSG line) and a chalice (borrowed from Loki).

RED SKULL

“Born in the fires of Nazi Germany, Johann Schmidt was personally trained by Hitler and served as the evil tyrant’s right-hand man – instilling fear and hatred as the Red Skull! Kept in suspended animation for decades, a re-awakened Red Skull now fights against Captain America for control of the world’s destiny.”

The real selling point of the set was this guy, since he was not only an exclusive, but also the first version of Red Skull.  Another Skull, this time more modern, followed in the main line later that same year, but this one was definitely first.  He depicts Skull in his classic green jumpsuit, which is my favorite look for the character.  It’s one that’s not really in need of any extra parts, so this guy’s all vanilla.  The paint work carries him well, though.  The face is an absolutely perfect rendition of the Skull, crazed look in his eye and a mad cackle clearly being let out.  It remains to this day my favorite face for a ‘mate version of Red Skull.  The jumpsuit is more basic, but that’s expected.  The important details are there, and it looks decent overall.  Red Skull was packed with a small pistol.  Sadly, the budget for a Cosmic Cube just wouldn’t be there for a few more years.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this pack brand-new, day of release, from Cosmic Comix back in the day.  I recall being pretty excited for this set at the time of its release.  I didn’t have the original Magneto or Doom, so I was excited by the updates, and Green Goblin seemed pretty cool too.  It was really Red Skull that most excited me, since he was all-new.  It’s a set that is very dialed into its specific era of the line, but it’s also still a pretty fun set all these years later.

#3335b: Aubrey Lynn Wilson

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews

AUBREY LYNN WILSON

THE WILSON FAMILY (ETHAN & RACHEL)

Oh yeah, it’s a review more than nine months in the making!  It’s a pretty epic one, you guys!  Not just your everyday review, by any stretch…which is why I’m running it on a Saturday, I guess.  Outside of the regular scope and all.  But it’s important, so it gets its own special day for review.  So, you know what, let’s just jump right into this one, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Aubrey Lynn Wilson was added to the Wilson Family on April 9th, 2023.  She was originally slated for April 15th, but her release date got moved up a couple of weeks.  There were initially reports that she might arrive a couple days earlier, but some production delays meant that the 9th was the day.  Aubrey is seen here in newborn form, circa her earliest appearances.  She’s about 20 1/4 inches tall (if you can get her to stand, which is admittedly a little tricky), and she’s got, like a ton of articulation.  Like, it’s hard to count all of the joints, really.  The range is pretty good on most of them, but she does seem maybe a touch fragile, so I’d recommend being careful when posing.  While there’s a lot of mobility, the joints are a little on the loose side, and can struggle to hold a pose.  The neck joint in particular is a little weak for the weight of the head, so you might want to support it when posing.  Also, she can’t really stand on her own power, and there’s not a stand packed in, so you’ll have to lean her on something, or possibly hold her up.  The figure’s sculpt is honestly just the best.  I mean, just look at those details.  They’re downright adorable.  Whoever handled the sculpt put in some top-notch work.  Obviously, she’s a bit on the softer side, but that’s true to this era of the character design.  I also really dig the internal design consistency on the face, and how it looks so much like both of her parents.  That’s a nice touch.   The amount of hair present is honestly a bit shocking, and could seem excessive at first glance, but it really works well for her. The coloring on Aubrey is overall okay.  The skin tone came out just a touch yellower than initially expected, but not by much, and it’s probably going to sort itself out.  The eyes are blue, but I have to wonder how that’s going to hold up over time.  Aubrey isn’t packed with any accessories by default, but she’s kind of a pack-in herself, so that’s pretty understandable.  There are a plethora of accessory packs available (like the bottle, burping cloth, and pacifier set seen in the picture), and she’s compatible with all sorts of extras from other figures in the same line, so there’s still plenty of customizability.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

You know what would have been great?  If I could have run this on April 1st.  Couldn’t.  Would have been cool, though.  But, in the mean time, I ran a different gag post….and then decided to also run this post, because I still like it.  Anyway, this somewhat tongue-in-cheek post serves as the site’s official announcement of the arrival of my daughter Aubrey last weekend, in the wee hours of Easter morning.  I’ve been prepping for this for some time now, so there shouldn’t be any interruptions in the reviews, but you might see a heavier helping of older items, since my time is a little more split at the moment.  And that’s pretty much it…

#3335: Shining Knight

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

SHINING KNIGHT

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

In the 1940s, DC’s premiere team of super heroes was the Justice Society of America.  They weren’t the only grouping of heroes under DC at the time, however.  Some of their lower-tier heroes were banded together in 1941’s Leading Comics as the “Seven Soldiers of Victory.”  Though they never got far beyond obscurity, Justice League Unlimited‘s “Patriot Act” brought the team into the DCAU, as a deployment of Justice Leaguers handed parade duty.  The episode serves as a particular focus for Sir Justin of Camelot, aka the Shining Knight, who had been a background character throughout the show’s run.  He also got a figure from the tie-in line, because why not?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shining Knight was released in 2006, under the second iteration of Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited line.  He was in the third series following the moving of the line under the larger “DC Universe” banner, and was packed in a three-pack with Zatanna and a repackaged Batman.  He was then re-packed on his own the following year.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Shining Knight is built on the slightly larger mid-size male base body, patterned on the original Batman mold.  While a lot of the figures that used this base were in a weird spot, but it honestly works pretty well for Shining Knight in regards to how his build was portrayed on the show.  Shining Knight gets a new head, as well as an add-on piece for his tunic.  It’s not really the best parts selection the line had to offer.  The head is plain and simply just too small for the base body, in addition to not being a particularly good sculpt, no matter it’s sculpting.  He just looks kind of goony and off-model.  Not helping things is the tunic piece, which is rather bulky.  It just makes the head look even smaller.  Its actual sculpt isn’t bad, though; the folds are nicely rendered, and it hands pretty believably.  The color work on Shining Knight hits this weird spot that all the metallic characters hit, which is which direction do you go with the coloring.  In contrast to most of the other gold-clad characters, Shining Knight gets a flat yellow, which is honestly not a bad call.  There’s even a little bit of detailing on the arms and legs to do the scales, which is pretty cool.  The rest of the paint is pretty basic, but gets the job done.  Shining Knight was packed with no accessories for the three-pack release, while the single-pack added his sword to the mix.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

At the time Shining Knight was added to the line, the figures had gotten pretty hard to find, and I wasn’t actively searching.  Adding to that, I just didn’t really like the figure’s look, so I didn’t go out of my way.  Christian wound up getting one for his collection one way or another, so I ultimately wound up getting his when he got out of action figure collecting.  It’s not a great figure.  It’s not even a particularly good figure.  It’s the only Shining Knight figure, though, so there’s that.

#3334: Bumblebee Cassette Pack

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

BUMBLEBEE, FRENZY, BUZZSAW, & HOWLBACK

BUMBLEBEE: GREATEST HITS (HASBRO)

What good is a Soundwave without his cassette buddies?  Well, not so good, I suppose.  Sort of thing you don’t like to see happen, really.  So, whenever Hasbro does a new Soundwave, there’s invariably some sort of cassette component included as well.  Just to really sell the gimmick.  When the Titans Return Soundwave mold was retooled for a Bumblebee tie-in, they could have let people just try to track down the TR cassettes, I suppose, but where’s the fun in that.  And, more importantly, where’s the money in that?  So, instead, we got a whole companions set, just for that guy.  Nice!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The Bumblebee Cassette Pack was part of the Target-exclusive Bumblebee: Greatest Hits line, which was under the umbrella of Hasbro’a larger Bumblebee movie offerings.  It was specifically designed to coincide and go along with Soundwave and Doombox from the same line…for the most part.  The set includes three cassette boys, Frenzy, Buzzsaw, and Howlback, who are clearly meant to go with Soundwave.  However, it also includes a Bumblebee, who is not at all in scale with the other stuff, and really just exists to put a Bumblebee in the set, since it was tying into his movie and all.  It’s still a tad odd, though.

Bumblebee was a re-deco of the Age of Extinction High Octane One-Step Changer Bumblebee.  It’s *a* movie Bumblebee, but it’s not the one seen in the movie at all.  I mean, I guess it *kinda* works for Bee at the very end of the movie.  Ah, I’m overthinking it.  In robot mode, he’s about 4 1/2 inches tall and he’s got workable articulation via universal joints at the shoulders.  He’s not very mobile, but that’s not what he was designed for.  He gets an okay approximation of his later film robot mode, albeit a bit chunkier, and with some notable hollow spots.  Again, given that he’s built for play more than accuracy, it’s not bad.  His transformation is, as advertised, one step.  Essentially, he folds and unfolds much like a butterfly knife, with the top of the car/chest being spring-loaded to flip it into place for each respective mode.  It’s admittedly pretty fun.  His main change-up is the color scheme, which sticks more closely to classic Bee than the initial release, which was predominantly black.

With Bee out of the way, we get to the real meat of the set: the cassettes!  The first of them is Frenzy, in his proper blue color that Frenzy is always supposed to be, because Frenzy is blue.  Always.  Right?  Right.  Rumble, the other humanoid cassette, was released on his own during Titans Return, but poor Frenzy was left out in the cold until this release.  In robot mode, he’s about 3 1/2 inches tall and he has 11 workable points of articulation.  Frenzy’s actually quite posable given the scale and construction, especially when compared to the rest of the set.  His mold began as Titans Return Rewind, before getting a new head for its release as Rumble, and then that version got a full re-use here.  It’s a pretty decent mold, and honestly one of the best when it comes to the cassette bots.  Certainly the most advanced of the TR era molds for the cassettes.  His color scheme is very, very blue.  I like that a lot.  There’s a decent amount of smaller work going on, and I dig the gold accents.  Application’s pretty clean, but the paint is prone to a bit of wear, especially on the face.  His main alt-mode is a “data tablet”, which is largely an excuse for a rectangle shape that works as a stand-in for a tape.  He gets some stickers with actual cassette details on them, which are very cool.  Frenzy gets a second alt-mode, which turns him into a tank.  Both transformation sequences are rather intuitive and generally pretty fun.

Next up is Buzzsaw, the not-Laserbeak bird cassette, who’s largely notable for being included with Soundwave’s original G1 release.  Interestingly, while Frenzy was thus far uncovered in this style, Buzzsaw had already been done during Combiner Wars.  His robot/bird mode can sort of move at his neck and wings, but not a ton at either.  His bird mode is pretty clunky.  It’s always a little clunky, but especially in this instance.  The color scheme is duller than the CW version, with more black and actual gold.  It’s not bad, and honestly a little closer to the vintage version, I suppose.  Buzzsaw’s first alt-mode is the data tablet again; fairly similar to Frenzy, though the actual layout of the pieces is different.  He also gets a sort of tank-looking thing as his third mode, which doesn’t work quite as well as Frenzy’s.

The last of the cassettes is Howlback, who’s like Ravage, but…not Ravage?  So, you know, there’s that, I guess.  Howlback’s robot mode has movement on the legs, but like Buzzsaw, her motion is generally pretty restricted.  You can get her standing, but that’s really about it.  It’s another rather clunky mold, but I’ve honestly felt that almost every Ravage mold was rather on the clunky side.  So, you know, this one just fits with that, I suppose.  Howlback gets the data tablet alt-mode, which is again chopped up a little differently than the others, but results in the same general end.  Howlback also gets a third mode, which is not a tank, but is instead a plane.  The bird doesn’t turn into a plane, but the jaguar does.  It’s again pretty clunky, but it’s at least unique and different.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting a really good deal on the Greatest Hits Soundwave, I found myself in the market for some cassettes to go with him, and this was the most economical option at the time, provided you were able to find it at retail.  Which I did.  Hahaha.  Bumblebee is sort of unneeded, but fun enough.  Buzzsaw and Howlback are limited by the format a bit, but okay.  Frenzy is the real star, like, far and away.  He’s just really good, and holds up even after going through several Cassette boi style changes.

#3333: Duke

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

DUKE

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Though he wouldn’t join the line until 1983 (and even that was just as a mail-in; he wasn’t in the line proper until ’84), Conrad “Duke” Hauser has nevertheless become the face of A Real American Hero (granted, that’s largely because Snake Eyes and Cobra Commander are, you know, faceless and all), and by extension, he’s gotten a lot of focus in the toys.  He was also especially prominent in Sunbow’s tie-in cartoon, and since that’s the main basis for Super 7’s new Ultimates line, Duke’s right there in the starting line-up.  I’ll be taking a look at him today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Duke is the second figure in the four-figure line-up that makes up Series 1 of G.I. Joe: Ultimates.  After Snake Eyes, he’s the second of two Joes included in this assortment.  Much like Snake Eyes, Duke is based on his animation model, though Duke only actually had the one main design in the Sunbow era, in contrast to Snake Eyes’ two.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Duke’s articulation is a touch more restricted than what we saw on Snake Eyes.  Thankfully, the elbows and knees remain about the same; it’s really just the neck and waist that are reduced.  The waist is a design thing, so I get it, but the neck’s just a bit of a bummer.  Duke is another all-new sculpt, going straight for that animated look. Duke’s cartoon is particularly sold by his head, and this figure has three of them to work with.  There’s a standard neutral expression, a shouting one, and one that’s somewhere between the two, which also features a headset.  All three are sporting an impressive likeness of the Sunbow Duke, so you can pretty much instantly tell who he’s supposed to be.  The one with the headset is my personal favorite of the three, but they’re all of equal quality.  The body sculpt doesn’t *need* to be as strong as the heads, so the fact that it’s not quite isn’t all bad.  It’s still pretty good, but the articulation’s a little obvious, especially the ab-crunch, and to my eyes, his feet look far longer than they should.  Other than that, it’s a solid sculpt, which matches up decently both with the show and the V1 figure.  The color work on Duke is a good match for his cartoon counterpart; the color scheme for Duke was pretty similar to the figure, so it’s pretty compatible.  His paint work is all pretty sharp and clean, especially on the faces of the three alternate heads.  Duke is packed with the aforementioned 3 heads, as well as four pairs of hands (in fists, trigger-finger grip, loose grip, and a flat/pointer combo), an animation style rifle (shared with Snake Eyes), a walkie talkie (also shared with Snake Eyes), a watch, and a helmet, binoculars, rifle, and back-pack all based directly on his V1 figure’s parts.  He doesn’t get any of the more episode-specific parts like Snake Eyes did, but I do feel like the V1-style parts are a decent trade-off.  I wish the binoculars were a bit more natural sitting, and he can’t really hold the walkie talkie, but otherwise everything is pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m not, classically, a Duke fan.  He falls into that grouping of main characters that I tend to find rather insufferable most of the time.  So, why buy the $50 deluxe figure of him?  Well, he’s grown on me over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the animated version in particular, and this figure that just honestly looked really, really cool.  Is he as good as Snake Eyes?  No.  But I also didn’t expect him to be.  Snake Eyes is Snake Eyes.  There are different standards.  Duke’s still a really good figure, though, and I’m still quite hype about this line.

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.

 

#3332: Yellowjacket

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

YELLOWJACKET

MARVEL LEGENDS — MARVEL STUDIOS: THE FIRST TEN YEARS (HASBRO)

“The new lead of Pym Industries, Darren Cross, threatens to sell his highly weaponized Yellowjacket suit to the criminal organization Hydra.”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s second phase was, amongst other things, characterized by a slightly lackluster batch of antagonists.  There are a variety of reasons for this, chief amongst them being that most of them weren’t really designed for long-term use, so they were sort of designed as disposable.  Since there wasn’t much investment into them, they were largely left untapped for toy coverage.  Ant-Man was particularly light on coverage, with only a few different versions of Scott in the main suit (and even then, they were all kind of inaccurate), and nothing barring Minimates for the film’s main antagonist, Darren Cross, aka Yellowjacket.  Fortunately, he was on the short list for the the First Ten Years sub-line of Legends from 2018, so he wasn’t *totally* left out.  I’m looking at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Yellowjacket one half of the Ant-Man-themed two-pack that made up entry 8 in the Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years sub-line of Marvel Legends, with the other half being a slightly updated version of Scott Lang in the Ant-Man suit.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation on the main body, plus an additional 14 points of articulation on the backpack and its arms.  The core figure is a little bit restricted, especially by modern standards, but was fairly average for 2018, I suppose.  Given that Yellowjacket’s not a particularly agile character in the film, he’s pretty workable with what he’s been given.  Yellowjacket sports a sculpt that was all-new to him, and which has not been re-used since this figure.  It’s honestly a pretty strong one.  Yellowjacket’s entire character was completely reworked for the film, and that extended to his costume, which only kept trace elements of Hank Pym’s Yellowjacket costume from the comics, instead building something that’s a far more armored up, and a little bit more menacing.  Since this figure was released a few years after the film, he’s got the benefit of being more accurate than the basic Ant-Man had been at the time of the initial film tie-ins.  Some of the exact line-work of the suit’s design isn’t a 100% exact match, but it’s definitely very close, and the detailing is honestly pretty impressive.  They’ve included all of his hexagonal texturing on the yellow sections, and I particularly like how the helmet and its nested visor design have turned out in figure form.  The paint work on Yellowjacket’s not too terribly involved, since it’s really just doing the two-toned thing.  It generally handles it well, though, as the application’s all pretty clean, there’s no notable missing details, and I do dig the metallic yellow.  There’s a slight discrepancy in the exact shade of the yellow between a few spots, but it’s overall rather minor.  While the Ant-Man in this set got an unmasked head, Yellowjacket went without.  He did, however, get a re-used mini Yellowjacket from the 2015 Ant-Man release, so that was nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I passed on this figure when it first hit, largely because I just wasn’t feeling the need to pick up another Ant-Man just to get this one.  Given his minor nature in the overall scheme of things, I felt alright about that decision, but I did still *kinda* want one.  Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on a loose one when he came through All Time.  This figure’s a little bit dated compared to more recent releases, but he’s honestly a bit better than I was expecting him to be, and I’m glad I got the chance to grab him!

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.

#3331: Captain America’s Hulkbuster & Baron Zemo

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA’S HULKBUSTER & BARON ZEMO

MARVEL MINIMATES

“You get a Hulkbuster!  You get a Hulkbuster!  Everybody gets a Hulkbuster!” — Tony Stark, Avengers Assemble Season 3, paraphrased.

Look, it’s not super crazy for cartoons to be direct lead-ins to toys and stuff.  Heck, the Avengers cartoons have technically been doing it since the very beginning, since that’s United They Stand‘s whole reason for existence.  After Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was completely without toys to sell, we got Avengers Assemble, which flipped that there script.  In particular, there were a lot of Minimates, thanks to Walgreens having a whole exclusive sub-line for the animated shows.  It gave them a spot for those goofy toy-driven variants, like the aforementioned Season 3 plot of everyone getting a Hulkbuster.  And there sat DST, with all that Hulkbuster tooling, so they jumped on a few of them.  Today, I’m looking at Captain America’s Hulkbuster, alongside a non-Hulkbuster-y Baron Zemo!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Captain America’s Hulkbuster and Baron Zemo were released in the seventh Walgreens-exclusive assortment of Marvel Minimates.  They were one of the two sets in the line-up based on Avengers Assemble, with the other two being based on the relaunched Spider-Man cartoon.

CAPTAIN AMERICA’S HULKBUSTER

“The Hulkbuster Armor is designed to take on the Hulk if he loses control. Captain America’s Hulkbuster features a larger version of his shield.”

Captain America’s Hulbuster marked our third Hulkbuster in the Walgreens sub-line, after the standard Iron Man and the Hulk-Hulkbuster.  It was also the sixth overall Hulkbuster, counting the two comics releases and the one movie variant.  It was the third animated Cap as well, though this one was decidedly more variant-y than the other two.  The figure starts with the standard ‘mate body, but with all the bulking up, he’s closer to 3 inches tall than the usual 2 1/4 and he has a little bit more restricting when it comes to the standard 14 points of articulation.  In order to sustain his bulked-up look, Cap’s Hulkbuster gets 10 add-on pieces, for the torso/helmet, bicep covers, hands, thigh covers, boots, and a torso extender.  All of these parts are re-used from the Series 63 AoU Hulkbuster, who served as the basis for all of the animated ‘busters.  It’s a decent selection of parts, with quite a bit of detailing.  Not incredibly posable, but still pretty cool.  The paint work translates this figure into something more Captain America-themed, so he’s the usual red, white, and blue.  The application is notably on the sloppier side, but it’s not *awful*, and the colors are at least pretty nice.  Under the helmet, we get a Captain America head, printed straight onto the head block, rather than using a separate sculpted helmet piece.  It’s more compact, but still looks pretty decent.  Cap’s Hulkbuster is packed with an upgraded shield for him to hold, as well as a clear display stand.

BARON ZEMO

“The son of the Hydra founder Heinrich Zemo, the elderly Helmut Zemo is rejuvenated when he takes his father’s super-soldier serum.”

Helmut Zemo has been a little bit on the scarce side as far as Minimates go.  He didn’t join the line until Series 50, and since that, he’s only gotten two more releases.  This one was his second ‘mate, released 5 years after his first.  He’s based on the animation design, which is itself very closely patterned on his re-design circa the Brubaker era of the comics.  He’s light on the add-ons, with one for his “crown” and one for his belt.  Both were re-used, the crown from the Series 50 release, and the belt from countless others, since it’s just a basic piece.  His paint work is carrying most of the weight here, and it does pretty well.  He does somewhat exhibit that more washed out palette that the animation designs tended to lean towards for their ‘mates.  It works out alright for Zemo, specifically, though, and the line work in particular is pretty sharp on this one.  Zemo is packed with a sword and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I honestly don’t recall exactly when I grabbed these two.  They’d been out for a while, I know that much.  I think I probably grabbed them after a bunch of times of not finding anything new at my local Walgreens.  I like a good Cap variant, and this one’s not a bad one.  The Hulkbuster mold got a little overplayed, but the color scheme is at least pretty unique.  Zemo is a solid release for the character, and not quite as animation-specific, allowing him to do a little bit more.  Both of them are pretty fun, though perhaps easily overlooked.

#3330: Sand

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

SAND

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

After Robin made kid sidekicks all the range, a lot of other heroes dabbled in the concept.  In house at DC, they even reworked their pulp/mystery hero Sandman into a more conventional hero (complete with a yellow and purple spandex costume) and gave him his own sidekick, Sandy Hawkins, aka Sandy the Golden Boy.  Sandy stuck with Sandman until the end of his original Golden Age run, but was curiously absent when Sandman returned in the ’60s.  To explain what happened to Sandy, writer Len Wein crafted “The Creature in the Velvet Cage”, which revealed that Sandy had been turned into a silicon monster when one of Westley Dodds’ experiments went awry.  He would eventually be returned to his human form, and years later was added to the relaunched JSA book in the early ’00s, where he manifested sand-based powers, and took on the identity of “Sand.”  Sand wound up being one of the background filler characters in Justice League Unlimited, which netted him an action figure for all his trouble.  Silver lining, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Sand was released in 2007 under the third iteration of Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited tie-in line, after they’d moved it under the larger DC Universe banner.  He was part of the seventh series of products under the set-up, which was also the first one to sport the purple packaging.  He was packed in a three-pack, alongside Star Sapphire and a re-pack of the more posable Superman figure.  Sand was based on his show design, of course, which was itself patterned on his first proper costume under the “Sand” name, which he’d gotten early into the ’00s JSA run.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Sand was built on the slightly larger mid-sized base body, which was patterned on the original Batman body.  It’s honestly the weakest on the male base bodies, due to how oddly posed it is, but it’s not terrible, and it does slightly break up the monotony of putting every one on the Amazo body.  He got a new head sculpt, as well as re-using the shoulder harness from the Injustice Gang Luthor and the legs from Mirror Master, both of which had been added to the line the prior year.  The new head is actually a really nice recreation of his animation model, and the other parts make for a respectable match as well, translating to a figure that’s really one of the more accurate JLU figures sculpturally.  His paint work does alright, too, covering all of the important details that aren’t sculpted, as well as adding the proper coloring to the parts that are sculpted.  His paint is a little thick, and definitely on the shiny side, but overall not bad.  Sand was packed with no accessories, unless you count the other two figures, I suppose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Sand’s one of those characters I have this weird affinity for.  I was starting to get more into comics reading on my own when JSA was really hitting its stride, and Sand had this really cool look and was also getting a lot of focus.  I was honestly pretty thrilled when he was added to this line.  I got this set, as well as the one with Obsidian from the same assortment, on my way back from my family vacation, at a Walmart that served as the mid-way stop on most of our return trips.  He’s a pretty nifty little figure, and he’s the only version of Sand out there, so he’s also the best version of Sand out there.  He wins on a technicality!

#3329: Soundwave & Doombox

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

SOUNDWAVE & DOOMBOX

BUMBLEBEE: GREATEST HITS (HASBRO)

Let’s jump back to the faraway year of 2018.  There was a new Transformers movie, Bumblebee, and after five prior live-action offerings of diminishing success, this one was a slightly different approach.  The scale was largely brought back, and focused almost entirely on the title character in his own smaller-scale adventure.  However, the initial cut of the film had a brief appearance from Optimus Prime, who now sported a more G1-inspired design than in previous installments, and when word of this design got out, fans wanted more G1-inspired elements.  This led to the film’s prologue on Cybertron, which sported a whole ton of G1-ish looks.  They were largely absent from tie-in toys, since they were all pretty last minute, but there were a few things thrown together to not leave them totally out in the cold.  Given the film’s ’80s setting and emphasis on music, it’s not terribly surprising that Soundwave made his way into the tie-in stuff, even if he didn’t have a musically-based alt-mode in the movie.  And I’m a sucker for Soundwave stuff, so, you know…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Soundwave and Doombox are a Leader Class release from the Target-exclusive Bumblebee: Greatest Hits line, which was part of their larger Bumblebee movie offerings.  He was the only of the three offerings from the subline not to include a Bumblebee of some sort, and was presumably chosen because of his thematically appropriate alt-mode.  Also, because he’s Soundwave.  Always have Soundwave.  And Magnus.  Him too.  Always have both.  I’m getting side tracked.  Just talking about the Soundwave today.  Calm yourself down, Ethan.  In his robot mode, Soundwave stands about 10 inches tall and he has 19 points of workable articulation.  This release is a retool of the Titans Return/Legends Soundwave mold (itself a retool of Titans Return Blaster).  The only change-up for actual sculpting between the releases are the leg panels, which mostly serve to change up how he looks in his alt-mode.  The mold is definitely a very G1-esque Soundwave, albeit one that’s perhaps a little more rudimentary and boxy when compared to more recent updates to the look.  He gets a bit more kibble on his back, keeping a rather noticeable handle protruding from his shoulders.  He’s also got a fair bit of hollow construction, which was more prevalent at the time of the mold’s original release.  He’s certainly a nice, chunky figure, though.  His color scheme was adjusted to fit a bit more with how he ended up looking in the movie, or at least an approximation of it.  It’s a little darker and greyer than typical G1 figures, which is of course more on par with the usual movie stylings.  Soundwave was packed with a blaster rifle, his usual shoulder mounted cannon, and a sort of a stand-in piece for his usual tape-deck-inspired associates.

Soundwave’s primary alt-mode isn’t his original tape recorder, but it’s closer than other updated modes, since it’s a boom box (a mode he inherited from the Blaster that used the mold first).  It’s honestly a pretty good alt-mode.  The transformation’s not too complicated, and everything folds up and into place pretty convincingly.  The updated leg panels change the detailing of this mode’s speakers, going from the mesh-style to the slit style.  Not crazy important or anything, but it does at least add some variety to him.  Since this mold began as a Titans Return release, his head is a Head Master, so it’s removed during transformation and can turn into “Doombox”, who’s a little mini version of the classic Soundwave look.  He’s obviously a lot less detailed, but it’s a fun gimmick.  It also works really well with Soundwave’s third mode, which turns him into a base, which can be used with any of the Head Masters.  The stand-in for the tape deck can be used as a vehicle for Doombox, which is honestly a lot of fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve had this figure since he was still at retail, and I just never got around to reviewing him.  I know, bad Ethan.  I had gotten a gift card from someone at work, and happened upon him at Target, which was enough of a justification to grab this guy.  He’s never been my go-to Soundwave or anything, but he’s surprisingly fun, and he’s a good showcase of the gimmicks from this era of the line.  And, most importantly, he’s another Soundwave.  Hard to beat that.  Unless you’re a Magnus.