Tag Archives: 00s

#3817: Elite Corps Clone Trooper – Combat on Kashyyk

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

ELITE CORPS CLONE TROOPER — COMBAT ON KASHYYK

STAR WARS: SAGA COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“The specialized troopers in the 41st Elite Corps are deployed on the beach of Kashyyyk to battle droid forces invading from the water. Swarms of droids overrun the beach but the elite troopers hold them back, supporting their Republic leaders… until the Emperor orders the corps’ commander to execute Order 66.”

Ah, whoa, whoops, looks like I dropped my review there yesterday.  Okay, that makes it seem like an accident.  It wasn’t.  At about 9:30 last night, I decided I just didn’t have the energy in me to write a review about Blue Centurion.  So, you know, something to look forward to for next week?  Today, I’m setting my sights back on Star Wars, though.  My favorite troopers have always been the Biker Scouts, so I’m always excited to see some variant of them show up elsewhere.  In Revenge of the Sith, that variant of them was green, which is extra exciting, and an excellent way to get me to buy another figure of a Clone Trooper, which is admittedly not super hard to do in the first place.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Elite Corps Clone Trooper was released as part of Star Wars: The Saga Collection, the franchise-spanning line that immediately followed the Revenge of the Sith tie-in.  He was figure #65, and one of the many that served as an extension of the RotS line’s run.  RotS was surprisingly light on the clone figures up front, so there were a lot of them here.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s a straight re-paint of the Vintage Original Trilogy Collection Biker Scout.  Now, the thing is, it’s not strictly accurate; while the designs are certainly very close, there are a number of changes to the Elite Corps design, that obviously aren’t represented here.  But, on the flip side, it’s a really good mold, and it’s really fun to mess with.  The articulation’s great, and it doesn’t break up the sculpt too much to get there.  On top of that, his inaccuracy kind of makes him feel like he belongs with the similarly inaccurate clones from the RotS line.  So, you know, maybe not that bad?  His paint work also isn’t strictly speaking screen accurate, but it is strictly speaking pretty cool looking.  It gets the general vibe down, I feel, and that feels like the most important thing in light of the sculpt not being accurate to begin with.  There were two versions of the visor color (much like with the original Gree), and mine is the lighter of the two (which matches my Gree!  Hooray for consistency!), which I dig.  The Trooper was packed with a small blaster pistol and a medium sized blaster rifle, as well as a display stand that is not pictured.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I dig the general vibe of this design, but I can’t say I’m in love with the specifics of it, so figures that are more accurate don’t do as much for me.  In that regard, this figure feels strangely perfect for me.  And, in light of there being other, more accurate versions of the same design for those that want a proper one, he can just be a quirky step towards the accurate figure, and also go perfectly with my original Gree, who is also not accurate, but also still very much entertains me.  It’s because of this that, when I got the chance to snag this one, I swapped him with the more accurate 30th Anniversary figure already in my collection.  I don’t regret that swap, and I don’t regret getting this figure at all.

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.

#3809: Daredevil

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

DAREDEVIL

SPIDER-MAN: CLASSICS (TOY BIZ)

Last week, Daredevil: Born Again, the long-awaited continuation of Netflix’s Daredevil show, dropped its first two episodes, and I’m officially in that Daredevil vibe again, so let’s talk a little bit of Daredevil.  Thanks to the show’s success, we’ve gotten a few instances of ol’ Horn-Head horn-headlining his own set of Marvel Legends, but it wasn’t always that way; he used to pretty much only get by on Spider-Man’s coattails.  Today, I’m jumping back even earlier than last week’s Toy Biz Marvel Legends review, to their pre-cursor line, Spider-Man: Classics, which granted us our first 6-inch Daredevil!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Daredevil was released in Series 2 of Spider-Man: Classics.  There were two versions, a standard red, and a variant yellow.  I looked at the yellow one *way* back in 2014, during my first year here on the site, so here’s the standard.  Daredevil actually wasn’t in the original line-up for the series, with Scarlet Spider in his place for the initial announcement.  It seems like maybe they realized that three out of the four figures being a Spider-Man might not quite work, so DD got the nod to fill out the assortment, and Scarlet Spider was moved to a KB Toys exclusive.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation (which was proudly boasted on the package).  He’s the exact same sculpt as the variant, so he’s using Black Spidey as the staring point, with a new head, hands, feet, and holster.  It’s a sculpt that certainly shows its age, and is hampered a bit by the lack of bicep swivels (which were standardized with the First Appearance Spidey in this same assortment), but there’s a neat stylistic element to it.  I’ve always particularly enjoyed the head sculpt.  This figure’s color work isn’t as involved as his variant, since he’s all-red, rather than the mix of the yellow suit.  It’s not bad, though the boots and gloves not getting any difference in shading reduces their ability to stand out.  The belt, symbol, and eyes do, at least, and there’s airbrushing on the body that really helps to break up all the flat red.  The figure is packed with his billy club, a wall-mountable display stand that looks like a stained glass window, and a copy of Daredevil #241.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was so invested in getting this guy’s variant back in the day that I wound up missing out on the standard entirely during its run at retail.  By the time I wanted to go back, he’d dried up and we were onto newer releases.  I eventually did find the variant, and I love that one, but I still didn’t have this guy, and that felt off.  I finally got one via a trade-in at work last year.  He’s not quite as unique as the yellow version, and there’s a lot more options for this costume design, but I do still really dig him for what he is.

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.

#3804: Captain America – Ultimate

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — ULTIMATE

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOY BIZ)

“In 1940, as America prepared for war, young and frail Steve Rogers volunteered for an experiment that transformed him into the ultimate physical specimen: Captain America. Enhanced by the Super-Soldier Serum, Captain America’s agility, strength, endurance and reaction time were superior to those of an Olympic-level athlete. Cap also mastered a number of fighting forms, including American-style boxing and judo. These abilities, combined with his indestructible shield, made him one of the finest human combatants Earth had ever known. Steve Rogers battled the Nazis until a mishap placed him in suspended animation deep within the Himalayan Mountains. Decades later he was discovered by Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. and became a cornerstone of the Ultimates.”

It’s a new month, but I’m still keeping that Toy Biz Marvel train rolling, albeit in a slightly different fashion.  Last month it was all 5-inch figures, but this month, I’m taking it up a notch…and I mean that literally, because the figures are actually gonna be taller, because we’re jumping ahead into the Marvel Legends era for a bit.  Yeah, it’s classic Marvel Legends!  And, I’m still sort of staying in a comfort zone, with a look at one of the line’s Captain Americas…well, two of them, I guess.  And, sure, it’s Ultimate Cap, but I’ll take what I can get.  At least he always makes for a pretty decent toy.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultimate Captain America was released in Series 8 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends, which was the last series before the introduction of Build-A-Figures, which also led to Toy Biz abandoning the actual numbering for the line.  He was one of the three figures in the line-up to get a variant, which I’ll touch on later in the review.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 46 points of articulation.  His articulation’s pretty typical of this era of Toy Biz’s run.  It’s not bad, but it’s definitely a little over complicated relative to the range of motion he gets.  It’s also prone to getting a bit loose over time, especially on the hips.  The sculpt was all-new, and it was…well, it was certainly something.  The articulation definitely took the precedent on this one, so the flow of the sculpt is a little bit odd and disjointed.  His proportions are sort of odd, with the head being a bit small, and the hands and feet being a bit large.  He’s also got a little bit of a hunch.  That said, the work on outfit, especially the texturing, is really good, and conveys the modernized take on his design well.  The variant figure gets a unique head sculpt, which adds the classic head wings.  It’s also just totally different from the standard, with a slightly friendlier expression, which makes more sense for the 616 version of the character.  He’s more modernized to match the body sculpt, so there’s extra stitching, as well as straps on the sides.  It’s an interesting approach, but perhaps not the most truly classic version.  It serves more as a prototype for the more proper classic Cap they built out of this mold the following year.  The paint work on the figure is pretty decent.  There’s a lot of accenting to bring out the sculpted elements, and it works pretty well.  The standard version gets additional grey detailing, as is proper to the Ultimate design, while the standard is straight blue.  However, early versions of the two figures had the details reversed, giving Ultimate Cap the full blue look, and Classic Cap the grey, meaning there are actually a total of four different versions of this figure.  Regardless of the version, Cap is packed with his shield (the same one used with the Series 1 figure), a display stand, and a poster booklet (in place of the usual comic book).  The poster book, interestingly, is actually more classic Cap images than Ultimate, but I’m hardly complaining.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m really not a fan of Ultimate Captain America as a character, so I wasn’t much for this one at the time of his release.  I also had the Series 1 version, and he was pretty much perfect to me.  That said, I’ve gotten more comfortable with having a lot of Captain America figures these days, so I ended up snagging the standard release sealed a couple of years ago, and then the variant loose just last year.  And now I have them both.  They’re kind of a mixed bag, but an intriguing part of the Cap Legends genealogy.

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

#3765: Green Lantern

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

GREEN LANTERN

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

“While training in a flight simulator, test pilot Hal ‘Highball’ Jordan was suddenly transported to the crash site of an alien spacecraft. Recognizing Jordan as a man without fear, the injured alien passed to Jordan his green power ring and energy battery or ‘lantern’ which charged the ring. Jordan has since used the ring’s fantastic powers for good, distinguishing himself as one of the finest members of the elite intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps.”

Well, it hasn’t been a *whole* year since my last venture into DC Universe Classics, but it’s still been since April, which is a fair bit.  But, I’m feeling the need to dive back into it for a little bit.  Perhaps it’s some residual nostalgia from Friday’s Super Powers review, perhaps its that I snagged a stack of loose DCUC figures just before the end of the year.  Whatever the case, DCUC is a line that well and truly gripped me for most of its run, so I do have quite a good number of them.  Today, I’m delving into the earlier days of the line, with Earth’s second Green Lantern, Hal Jordan!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern was released in Series 3 of Mattel’s DC Universe Classics, which hit in the fall of 2007.  While this wasn’t Mattel’s first Hal Jordan (the infamous Holiday Hal from JLU hit in 2005), it was the first to go to retail.  He was the assortment’s heavy hitter, and was paired off with Sinestro for the hero/villain dynamic that headlined the first few assortments.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and has 23 points of articulation.  Hal was built on the medium male base body, which was first used by Black Manta in the prior series, along with a new head and right hand, all of them supplied by the Four Horsemen.  The head’s the real star piece, as it has to do the heavy lifting.  It’s a really strong, sort of quintessential Bronze Age Hal.  It’s not *exactly* Jose Garcia-Lopez, but the vibe is certainly quite similar, and it just reads well for the character.  It’s also very sharply defined, and avoids being too reliant on paint to sell it.  That said, the paint does alright selling it, and does do more of the heavy lifting on the rest of the figure.  GL’s one of those character’s where a fully painted suit isn’t too distracting, since it’s supposed to be sleek and one-piece anyway.  Application’s generally pretty clean, and there’s even som slight accenting on the green sections to highlight the sculpt.  At this point, I do have to address the one major oddity of this figure: the residue.  Yes, the first batch of Hals, which my copy hails from, have some sort of issue with the interaction of the plastic and the mold release, and when exposed to air for long periods of time, they develop a white filmy substance over the arms and legs.  Said substance wipes off with a damp cloth, with not notable harm to the figure, but it will re-appear over time, and he’ll have to be wiped again.  So, just remember to wipe your Hals periodically.  It’s not weird.  Don’t make it weird.  Mattel did a later re-release of Hal under the “All-Star” banner, which fixed this issue, as well as tweaking some of the paint/color choices.  Both versions included Hal’s power battery, which seems to be an oddly bright green; I’ve always envisioned it being more on par with the color of his suit, but it’s more of a lime green here.  The Series 3 release also got a piece to the Solomon Grundy Collect-N-Connect, while the “All-Star” version got a stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hal’s the figure that sold me on DCUC as a while.  I’d been a solid DC Direct devotee, and had been buying pretty much every Hal they’d put out, looking for that perfect version.  This one came along and blew them all away.  I was so excited by the prototype shots of this guy, that I bought what I could find of the first two series solely based on the fact that he was coming.  This set hit right around Baltimore Comic Con in 2007, so he was at the very top of my list of things to look out for.  I snagged him almost immediately after making it through the door, and was very happy and content.  Almost 20 years later, I’m still quite happy and content, even if it does involve the periodic wiping of the Hal.  I did manage to snag the later release as well, so I’ve got one without need of wiping, which is well enough.  In general, though, this Hal is a figure that makes me quite happy.

#3753: Jango Fett

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

JANGO FETT — FINAL BATTLE

STAR WARS SAGA (HASBRO)

A week ago, I was writing an intro about The Phantom Menace (for the SECOND time….), and I guess I’ve just decided to make my way on through the Star Wars…es.  So, let’s jump to Attack of the Clones!  Look, I’ve come around on the prequels as a whole in recent years, but Attack is emphatically the worst Star Wars movie, and it’s not even close.  It’s barely even a movie.  It’s a Wikipedia entry that they filmed to bridge the two actual movies in the prequels.  The thing is, I’m nostalgic as hell for it.  And the toys?  Oh, they’re emphatically some of the worst Star Wars toys produced.  But guess what?  I’m nostalgic as hell for those, too.  I’m an enigma, you guys.  Jango Fett was a big deal when Attack hit, and a lot of the toys centered on him.  Here’s the one with the best action feature ever.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jango Fett (Final Battle) is figure 31 in the Star Wars Saga line, which ran alongside Attack‘s release.  He was one of the three Jangos available at launch, and the second of the two “standard” ones.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 13 points of articulation.  His articulation, like so many of the Saga figures, is mostly pointless, thanks to how heavily pre-posed these figures were.  In Jango’s case, that pre-posing is exceedingly awkward, and doesn’t really much allow for…anything.  He’s also super hard to stand, largely because what even are his legs supposed to be doing?  What’s crazy is the’s got actual knee joints, a thing that were still not exceedingly common at this time, and they’re useless, which is just laughable.  On the plus side, I guess the actually quality of the sculpt isn’t bad.  It’s clean and the detailing is sharp, and he’s pretty accurate to the movie.  The biggest drawback (other than the posing) is the advertised action feature, where his gauntlet launches a fire-shaped missile.  It’s not very effective, and it means his left arm is misshapen.  Making up for it, however, is the unadvertised second action feature.  Saga made use of magnets on a number of figures, and a recurring instance was for easily removable body parts, to simulate the damage characters might take.  In Jango’s case, his whole neck joint’s a magnet, so you can behead him, easy-peasy.  It’s so freaking morbid, and I absolutely love it.  Jango’s paint work is a bit murky, which wasn’t uncommon in this era.  He’s got a lot of fake dirt build-up, which is definitely a bit too heavy.  It’s at least all pretty cleanly applied, so there’s that.  Jango is packed with the fire projectile, as well as his twin pistols.  Unfortunately, the holsters are non-functioning on this release, so there’s nowhere to store them.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When these figures came out, both of my cousins around my age who collected Star Wars had this version of Jango, but I didn’t, and I always desperately wanted one.  Something about how morbid that head feature was just greatly amused me.  He’s on the short list of Saga figures I’ve purchased as an adult; he was traded into All Time a couple of years ago, and I just couldn’t resist him.  He’s terrible, but at the same time also wonderful.  He’s the perfect encapsulation of my relationship with the movie and its toyline as a whole.

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.

#3729: Darkseid

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

DARKSEID

JUSTICE LEAGUE (MATTEL)

Oh man, reviewing Justice League figures gives me major flashbacks to the months of pre-prepped reviews I worked on in advance of Aubrey being born.  I sure did write *a lot* of JLU reviews during that time.  And only a single one since.  That being said, the single one since the big batch of them was New Gods-themed, which is a solid theme that I’m jumping back into today.  I’m actually going back to the pre-JLU line, which I’ve not majorly explored here.  No time like the present, I suppose.  So, let’s look at a wacky-colored Darkseid, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Darkseid was released in the “Rise of Apokolips” four-pack from Mattel’s Justice League tie-in line. The set was released exclusively through Toys “R” Us in 2004, and also included metallic-colored variants of Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman.  The figure stands 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  Darkseid uses the same mold as his initial Series 5 “Mission Vision” release from earlier that same year, which was one of Mattel’s internal sculpts, rather than being provided by DCD sculptor Karen Palinko like the core seven.  It’s…well, it’s odd.  It’s a very stiff mold, with articulation not doing much for actually posing it; elbows and knees get less than a 90 degree bend, the shoulders only swivel at an angle, and the hips are greatly restricted by the skirt piece.  The proportions are very strange, and not really all that good a match for the Timm-aesthetic of the show’s design.  He’s broad across the shoulders, but pretty much nowhere else, and his head seems very narrow.  And, while he’s bigger than the other figures, he still feels a bit small for the character.  Just, generally, not one of Mattel’s best.  His color work marks the big change-up for this release.  Rather than his show colors, he’s now sporting a bright metallic blue for most of his outfit, making him a bit more in line with his earlier Kirby and Super Powers depictions.  He also appears to have no pants.  So, there’s that.  His only accessory was a lenticular card, which I no longer have.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back in 2004, my brother Christian got the Mattel Watchtower playset for his birthday, and had wanted figures to go with it.  We decided to split the “Rise” four-pack, with him taking the three Leaguers, and me taking this guy.  I never did get the standard release version, so this remains to this day, my only JLU Darkseid.  He’s not really great, but that’s true of any release on this mold.  I do think the colors, while off-model and goofy, do give him a little more value than other versions, though, so that’s pretty nifty.

#3718: Commander Bly

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

COMMANDER BLY

STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH (HASBRO)

“Equipped for battle on the exotic fungus planet of Felucia, Commander Bly fights alongside Jedi Knight Aayla Secura. When the secret Order 66 is issued, Commander Bly suddenly turns on Secura and the rest of the Jedi.”

We’ve arrived at another Friday review, and I’m once again doing a bit of clearing house on some of the hodge-podge of photographed Star Wars figures I haven’t yet reviewed.  Going into today’s review, I felt like I’d discussed the Revenge of the Sith tie-in line before, but a quick doublecheck showed that I have, in fact, reviewed nothing from this line.  Crazy.  Well, now’s as good a time as any to start, I suppose, so let’s kick things off with Commander Bly.  Everybody loves Bly!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Commander Bly was one of the last run Revenge of the Sith tie-in figures, hitting just before the holiday season in 2005, alongside fellow Clone Commander Gree.  Bly was actually intended to use the red color scheme used for the standard “Clone Commander” figure from the launch assortment for the line, but he was changed prior to the film’s release, so that figure had no direct counterpart on screen, and Hasbro had to follow-up with this update later.  There are also no less than three paint variations for Bly himself, as Hasbro kept tweaking him to be more accurate.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  The clones were the best molds to come out of the RotS line, especially in terms of articulation.  This one’s a little restricted at the legs, largely due to the plastic kama, but he’s still quite posable, and also looks the part.  He’s the same mold as the not-Bly commander, which makes sense, since it was originally supposed to be him and all.  It’s got working holsters and a visor that goes up and down, which are both pretty standard for the character.  His paintwork, which was the subject of much adjustment, is the least adjusted version on mine, so he’s still got the white joints at the shoulders and lacks the brown detailing on the helmet and chest.  Still, it’s generally not bad, and the application’s all pretty clean, even if he does look a bit like mustard.  Bly was packed with the long blaster and two pistols, which the package dubbed “Battle Gear”.  He lost the grappling hook thing that the standard Commander had, which was kind of a bummer, but was also the least essential thing in the armament.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this guy and Gree dropped, I really wanted them.  Unfortunately, they suffered from that last assortment syndrome, which made them both very rare for a while.  By the time I actually found them, they were aftermarket pricing, and I could really only afford one, so I just got Gree.  I didn’t get a Bly for over a decade, since he was always *just* above what I wanted to pay.  I did finally get a loose one courtesy of All Time.  It was a while back, maybe in early 2020?  That’s when I took the photos seen here, right around the same time I got the Black Series version.  He’s cool.  Like I said, the clones are really the best figures from Revenge of the Sith, and Bly’s one of the best clones, so just generally solid.

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.

#3709: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

X-MEN: MOVIE SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“Scott Summers, Professor X’s first student and the X-Men’s field leader, possesses the uncanny mutant ability to fire beams of devastating energy from his eyes. He must wear a special visor made of ruby quartz to control these powerful otpic blasts or he would destroy everyone and everything around him with just a glance. The disciplined, serious minded student code-named Cyclops is often at odds with Logan because of his maverick attitude and their mutual attraction to Jean Grey.”

It’s been almost 25 years since the release of the first X-Men movie. It was a pretty big deal for comic book movies, being the first time we ever truly got to see the scope they could achieve, even if there were some growing pains along the way. It was, of course, Hugh Jackman’s first turn as Wolverine, a role he’s so defined in the two and a half decades since. Jackman got the opportunity to reprise his role earlier this year, in Deadpool & Wolverine, but the other main cast members weren’t quite as lucky. As much as I loved the film, I myself was a little bummed we didn’t get to see more of James Marsden’s Cyclops, especially since I’ve always felt that Marsden was woefully underserved by the writing for his character in the first three movies. I guess he’ll just have to make his grand return…in my mind! Or, you know, in a review of an old figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s X-Men: The Movie tie-in line from 2000 (which, I always like to point out, was released simultaneously with series 2, so that the whole main cast could be on shelves at the same time).  The figure is about 6 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  The X-Men: Movie line wasn’t Toy Biz’s first jump to the 6-inch scale for Marvel figures, but it was the first major move towards making it their standard scale.  It’s closer to a proper 1/12 scale than where they would go with Legends, for what it’s worth.  He’s still closer to the 5-inchers in terms of posing, and is in fact a little stiffer than some of the smaller guys.  He’s in sort of s mid-step kind of pose, which does result in some of the articulation being a little on the ineffective side, especially on the legs.  The ankles in particular are kind of pointless.  It is worth noting, however, that this was the first Cyclops to have both a light-up feature *and* neck articulation.  It doesn’t get a full rotation, but it’s still cool.  The actual sculpt proper’s actually pretty nice.  The larger size allows for more depth of detailing, which works especially well for the suit design, and its variety of textures.  His head’s got pretty passable likeness of Marsden as Cyclops.  The visor is designed to be removable, which is a cool feature, but makes the visor itself really fragile, and very prone to breaking.  But, it does look really cool when its properly in place, and it stays there pretty well.  Cyclops’s paint work is decent enough.  It’s pretty cleanly handled, and the color scheme is a solid match for the film.  The skin tone’s a little pasty, and perhaps a little thick, but it works reasonably well.  There were a few different takes on the exact details of the suit and its different piping, which got brighter and more obvious applications as the different production runs hit.  Cyclops was packed with both his visor and an alternate pair of sunglasses (which are even *more* fragile than the standard visor), as well as a figurine of Jean, clearly meant to be based on the scene in the movie where she gets hit by Toad’s slime and Scott has to blast it off her.  Of course, she’s not completely encased by the slime the way she is here; it’s actually just on her face in the movie, which is, amusingly, the one piece that mine’s missing.  She’s also based on the first Jean mold, so she’s got the wrong hair style, but beyond that, I guess it’s an okay extra, weird though it may be.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Cyclops was, unsurprisingly, the first of the X-Men: Movie figures that I got.  I got him as soon as they were released, before the film even came out.  I was very excited for the movie, and Cyclops was my favorite of the characters, so it was kind of a natural move for me.  He went everywhere with me for probably about 6 months or so, and his visor snapped in half probably about a month in, which was always a bummer.  I’ve been looking for a replacement for a little while and finally snagged one while on vacation two summers ago, which very much exited me.  The figure’s not perfect, but I really do love him, and still have very fond memories associated with him, which, honestly, is not unlike my feelings about the movie proper.

#3697: Alpha Ranger

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

ALPHA RANGER

XEVOZ (HASBRO)

Do you ever have one of those moments where you see something and, like, a whole branch of memories you’ve largely forgotten just all click into place?  I mean, I guess I sort of do that a bit.  Sort of a theme of this site, isn’t it?  Am I being weird?  Probably.  But, you know, like the good sort of quirky weird, right?  Right.  So, the aforementioned “core memory unlocker” in this case is Xevoz.  If you’re not familiar (by which I mean if you weren’t a ten-to-twelve-year-old in the early ’00s who caught their two year run), Xevoz was a line of constructible action figures made by Hasbro, who licensed out the general style from Stikfas, another early ’00s line, albeit one aimed at a slightly older audience.  They were rather customizable, and each built around a core concept or idea, with a “standard” look open to variations.  They launched with minimal fanfare in early 2004, and ran four waves up through mid-2005, at which point the line ended with less fanfare than it started.  They never really had the same cultural impact of other lines, and they exist now only in my memory.  Like Leonardo DiCaprio.  Or Torengos.  Anyway, here’s a review of a Xevoz guy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Alpha Ranger was one of the three “Basics” in Wave 1 of Xevoz.  They were the lowest price-point figures, and generally kept the parts count a little lower and the designs a little less involved.  In addition to dividing the figures into different price points, there were also different factions within the fictitious world of Xevoz.  Alpha Ranger is one of the “Neo-Sapiens”, which is what happens when you mix Keanu Reeves with Doug Jones.  Okay, not really.  Abe did wear a lot of black, though.  I’m getting sidetracked.  In actuality, they were the standard sci-fi humans of the set-up.  The Alpha Ranger’s main body set-up is made up of 15 parts, and results in a figure that stands about 6 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  The core, stripped-down body has him in a rather basic jump-suit, with minimal additional detailing.  In general, the line was pretty stylized and blocky, which aided with the customizing approach.  This represents a pretty standard “human” in the style, which is a neat view.  The standard build as shown in the instructions that accompany the figure uses the helmeted head, and puts on his shoulder and knee pads, as well as his chest plate and back pack.  It results in a design that’s not terribly far-removed from a Colonial Marine, which is cool by me.  Certainly fits my vibe in collecting.  I also quite enjoy the visor on the helmet, because it’s got this sort of Cyclops meets Deadshot feel, which also works for me.  There’s a handful of additional parts (though less than others, since he’s a “Basic”), including two different heads (one a basic unhelmeted look, the other one that looks a bit like a shrunken head; the second one is supposed to be this set’s “gag” piece, which was one sort of humorous piece included with each set), a smart-gun-style Pulse Cannon (complete with arm attachment), a rifle, a knife, and a pistol.  You can reconfigure stuff and swap out parts to get a number of different looks, which is especially cool if you’re looking to get an army of these guys set-up.  The paint on Xevoz was generally minimal, but what’s there works out alight.  Any additional detailing was addressed by stickers, which there were a good number of, in case you wanted extra customization.  Personally, I’m not much of a stickers guy, but it’s still cool.  There was also, like, a game that they tried with them?  You assembled this little hex-thingy, and there were stats based on the different pieces included.  I never got much into it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had a small handful of these as a kid.  I remember the KB Toys my grandmother frequently took me and my brother to had a bunch of them, and they were on clearance, so this was probably at the tail end of the run?  The Alpha Ranger was one of the ones I had.  I lost parts to most of them, and so they kind of just faded out of my memory.  It’s okay, though, because All Time came through with the save.  A collection of Xevoz got traded in, and did the previously mentioned core-memory-unlocking.  There was an Alpha Ranger, missing exactly one piece, and after a quick dig, I found that piece from my original.  It was destiny!  I’m quite happy to have him back, but now I just need to avoid jumping back in.

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.

#3694: Elongated Man

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

ELONGATED MAN

IDENTITY CRISIS (DC DIRECT)

“Ralph Dibny was the original stretching sleuth of the JLA. His loss became the focal point of the events that unraveled in Identity Crisis.”

If we’re having a discussion about “worst comic stories ever,” you know I gotta bring up “Identity Crisis.”  Look, I’m a die-hard Elongated Man fanboy.  On the outside, a Justice League event with Ralph at the center is something I should love, right?  Except it’s actually something I loathe, and I legitimately think it broke DC.  I know, bold words.  But they did some really awful stuff there, and it meant that two of my favorite DC characters got broken and sidelined for well over a decade.  As a consolation prize, I suppose it did at least give me another Elongated Man figure.  So, there’s that.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Elongated Man was released in Series 2 of DC Direct’s Identity Crisis tie-in line, which was released in March of 2006, almost two years after the story was published.  As a central piece of the story, it’s sort of odd that Ralph wasn’t released until Series 2, but of course, he’s not really a heavy hitter, I guess, and he’s ultimately pretty well side-lined within the story proper.  He’d also just recently gotten his first figure from DC Direct’s JLA line not too long before.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation, as well as an extending neck feature.  Elongated Man’s articulation scheme was tricky.  DCD was still really experimenting with things, and there’s a fair number of joints, but range of motion remains rather restricted.  All of the Identity Crisis figures were based on Michael Turner’s cover illustrations for the series (as opposed to Raggs Morales’ interiors).  Turner’s work had a rather distinctive flair, and works well in two dimensions, but it three dimensions…well, it was a real mess.  Just, across the board.  None of the sculpts were fantastic for this line.  There were a lot of really odd proportions and dimensions to everything, and everybody wound up looking kind of misshapen.  That said, Ralph turned out generally alright.  Still weird, but he’s a stretchy guy, so it’s a little more forgivable.  His expression’s rather dour, but I guess that makes a degree of sense given the subject matter.  I do kind of feel he looks a touch young and pretty for Ralph, but Turner’s art treated Ralph that way, so it’s accurate.  Ralph’s paint work is decent enough.  I like that they kept the shiny black for the gloves and boots.  The application on the yellow is a little messy, though.  Ralph was packed with a display stand (not pictured) as well as a pair of alternate stretched arms.  The stretched arms are unique to this guy (technically, the Mattel Ralph had the outstretched hand, but it’s not quite the same sort of thing), but they’re kind of weird.  They’re technically meant to be bendy, but they’re very stiff, so they don’t really bend.  They’re also oddly flat.  Still, it’s a nice option.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t like Identity Crisis, and I didn’t like how Turner’s art translated to figures, so I largely avoided this line.  I already had the JLA figure, and we weren’t deep enough on Elongated Man figures for me to even contemplate owning all of them, so I didn’t jump on this one.  I wound up getting him from KB Toys of all places, which was odd since they didn’t tend to carry DCD figures, which were typically a comics shop exclusive thing.  But, I was on a weekend beach trip with my family, and this guy was there at the KB outlet, marked way down, so I bought it.  It was pretty early on in my appreciation of the character, and kind of helped turn the tide in a way.  Honestly, he’s not terrible.  I hate the story, but I don’t hate the figure, even if he does sort of have a weird quality about him.