Tag Archives: 90s

#3825: Mick

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

MICK

XYBER 9: NEW DAWN (BANDAI)

Let’s peer into the world of things that I totally forgot about but then resurfaced in my brain when they landed right in front of me!  Last time, it was NASCAR Racers, Saban’s animated tie-in show that actually had very little to do with the show.  This time, it’s actually another Saban animated project from the same time period.  In fact, it’s the very show that Fox pre-empted to give a better spot to NASCAR Racers when it launched, Xyber 9!  Xyber 9, what a Xyber 9 that was.  Okay, to be honest, I watched it when it was running, but I remember very little of the actual show.  I do remember the toys being everywhere, though, and, after more than two decades, I finally bought one!  Let’s look at Mick!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mick was released in the one and only series of Xyber 9: New Dawn figures.  He’s based on the character’s design from the show, of course, as were the whole line.  The figure stands just shy of 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  Given the era and scale, the articulation’s actually quite well handled.  He’s even got moving wrists!  The sculpt is also not a bad piece of work.  It’s always a bit tricky to move a 2D design into 3D, but Bandai actually did it quite well here.  He’s clean and the angle work is nice and sharp.  In general, he captures the general vibe of the character, and manages to get a bunch of neat details in.  Is paint work is also pretty strong.  He is slightly off-model, though, since his hair is brown here, but was actually blonde on the show.  I’m gonna guess they wanted to differentiate him more from Jack.  I can’t say it’s all that bad, honestly.  Beyond that, the application is clean, and there are no obviously missing details.  Mick was packed with two different guns, a large one and a small one.  The small one is missing, because it wasn’t in the package, but at least I still have the large one!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like I said above, I remember watching Xyber 9, but I don’t remember much actually about the content of the show.  I remember seeing the figures hanging around, but there were always other things I was more interested in.  I finally got my chance again when a bunch of them came into All Time.  Since it wasn’t a complete set and that’s pretty much the only way they sell, Max and I opted to cave into our shared interests in odd forgotten ’90s cartoons, and both grabbed some of the set.  Mick here was the one that most interested me, so I snagged him.  He’s actually quite a fun little figure.

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

#3823: Doctor Doom

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

DOCTOR DOOM

MARVEL FAMOUS COVERS (TOY BIZ)

“Victor Von Doom was a brilliant, if arrogant scientist, studying alongside Reed Richards. But when he was caught in a horrible accident, Doom was driven over the edge. Covering himself in armor, he became Doctor Doom! Ruler of his homeland of Latveria, Doom will not be satisfied until he has taken over the entire planet. Using the vast resources at his command and the incredible technologies he has created, Doom faces off against his old nemesis, Reed Richards, now the leader of the Fantastic Four.”

In the ’90s, Toy Biz’s main scale for Marvel was of course their highly expansive 5-inch line, but they tried out a number of other sizes in tandem to sort of see what stuck.  The 10-inch line certainly had the most longevity of the secondaries, but they also had a pretty solid go at their own sort of Mego follow-up, Famous Covers.  Famous Covers was sort of an odd line sort of at cross purposes, but it’s nothing if not an interesting experiment.  We got a weird, quirky cross-section of the Marvel universe, and that did *not* include a full Fantastic Four, but it *did* at least include a Doctor Doom.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Doctor Doom was released as part of the “First Appearances” Series of Famous Covers, which was the line’s second assortment.  Though branded as “first appearance” and showing the cover to his original appearance on the cover, Doom is not actually his first appearance design, but rather his later, more classic design, which makes sense.  The figure is about 8 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation…in theory.  In practice, he’s got, like, two, because the rubber armor pieces they’ve put on him restricted almost all of his articulation to the point of not really being worth it.  For whatever reason, Toy Biz opted to handle his armor in the same way they did the boots and gloves, so they’re just these thick rubber pieces, that mostly just flop around.  They’re also really clunky, especially when compared to the size of the figure’s head.  The head’s at least a very nice sculpt, even if it’s very small.  Since he’s got a full mask, he lacks the overly intense expression most of the other figures in the line had, which isn’t such a bad thing.  In addition to the rubber armor pieces, Doom gets a cloth tunic and cape; the tunic’s fine enough, and the bulk of the cape works out alright, apart from the hood being quite difficult to get the lay in any fashion that’s not just really silly looking.  The paint on this guy is decent enough.  The head’s particularly good, as expected, but the armor on the body at least gets some panel lining.  Famous Covers figures were always a bit light on accessories, and given the number of sculpted parts, it’s not much of a surprise that Doom was sans-accessories for this release.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember getting Doom when I was a kid.  There was a Toy Liquidators outlet near us, which my Nana had taken me, I wanna say for my birthday?  This guy was there, but still a little pricier, so I didn’t get him at that time.  I instead went back with my dad later that same day, and he bought it for me, I believe as an incentive for finishing the summer reading program.  He’s not the most playable figure, and he’s quite goofy looking, but I also kinda love him?

#3816: Tourist Tick

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

TOURIST TICK

THE TICK (BANDAI)

SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!

Look, I’m just legally required to start Tick reviews that way.  It’s in the contract.  What contract?  It’s not important.  I’ve not had a *ton* of Tick reviews here, but I’ve had a few, and they’re happening with increasing frequency at this point.  Thus far, the only “figure” I’ve looked at from the cartoon tie-in line was one of the small figurines, and not even of the Tick himself.  So, here’s me taking a look at an actual Tick figure from the original Tick line!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tourist Tick was released in the “Tick Talkers” series of Bandai’s The Tick tie-in line, which hit during the line’s second year in 1995.  They were designed to augment the standard line of figures with extra Ticks with electronic talking features.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The sculpt is pretty similar to the rest of the Ticks, which is to say pretty on-model for his design in the show.  He’s got minor pre-posing, but nothing too crazy.  The head’s got his big toothy grin he was prone to doing, which feels very on character.  To sell the touristy thing, he’s got a pair of sunglasses and a pair of swim trunks, which are a minor but fun change-up.  The sculpt works them in pretty well, with the glasses in particular being pretty sharply detailed.  The color work starts with the basic Tick set-up, of course, but he’s also got some fun coloring on the shorts, which make for a nice little pop.  The paint work is cleanly handled for the most part, which is good for this era of figure.  Tick got no accessories, but he did have the talking feature.  The batteries are long dead on mine, but that button’s still there, taunting me.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed most of the Bandai Tick line as a kid.  It was a short run, and I hadn’t quite gotten into the show yet.  I did have the 14-inch talking figure, but that was it.  I later snagged most of a figurine set, but again nothing beyond that.  This particular figure has actually been sitting on my shelf at work for a few years, clutched in the hands of a ’90s Godzilla figure.  We ended up dismantling the employee shelves for more space, so my stuff got boxed up and brought home, and Tick here made the cut on the stuff that actually joined my collection.  He’s a neat little figure, and a reminder that I really should get some more of these guys.

#3803: Dewback & Sandtrooper

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

DEWBACK & SANDTROOPER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Okay, I had a bit of an impromptu break yesterday, because my head just wasn’t in the game and I didn’t have an easy to grab and review item on hand, but have no fear, I’m back at it today, and I’m going back to one of my old faithfuls: Power of the Force!  The line had all manner of price-points and such set-up to cover different things, and one of them was the “Creature” sets, which each paired a standard figure with a larger creature of some sort.  I’ve looked at three of the eight, and today I’m capping things off by arriving thoroughly at the middle, the the Dewback and the Sandtrooper!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The Dewback and Sandtrooper were part of the initial round of “Creature” Sets for Power of the Force, hitting retail in 1997.  It was one of the three A New Hope-based Creature sets in the first batch, and one of four overall in this particular sub-line.

The Dewbacks are seen fairly early on in the franchise, and then really not again until The Mandalorian finally brought them back for an episode.  They were the source of a little extra focus from the Special Edition re-release of A New Hope, though, which was a large piece of the push on these initial creature sets.  The figure is about 8 inches long, and has 4 points of articulation, as well as a feature that opens and closes the figure’s mouth.  The sculpt here is entirely new, not re-used from the vintage version.  While the vehicles got re-used, the creatures were not the same situation.  This one is more patterned on the CGI-recreation from the updates, as was the case with Jabba.  That said, I think the Dewback works out a little bit better.  It’s not a bad sculpt; there’s certainly a flair to it, carrying on the general style of the earlier PotF figures.  The proportions are definitely a little over-hyped, but I do rather like the texture work.  The color work is pretty solid; the eyes are quite realistic, and the accenting of the brown on the top is pretty decent.  The Dewback has a lede that fits in its mouth and can be held (albeit somewhat awkwardly) by the included Sandtrooper.

There were three Sandtroopers available in Power of the Force.  This is the third one, at least as far as my reviews go.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He swaps out the waist articulation of the other two for a pair of hinged knees, granting him an easier time sitting on the Dewback.  Beyond that, he feels very much like the other two, right down to the off-model helmet and the slightly odd proportions.  At least he’s consistent.  The paint work saw two variations.  This figure is the first of the two, which has much heavier dirt accenting, making him look rather orange.  It definitely goes overboard (especially since this guy’s part of the mounted division, and wouldn’t actually be walking around on the sand), but at least they tried something different.  He’s packed with his backpack and longrifle (which can be stowed on the backpack), as well as a prod, which is, like, three times as long as him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have any of the creature sets as a kid, but I did have *just* the Sandtrooper from this set, because I got handed one by a dealer while walking through a comic show when I was a kid.  Don’t know quite what happened to that one, if I’m honest.  I ended up getting this one a few years back, when I was able to get a sealed copy for pretty cheap via a trade-in at All Time.  It’s an okay set.  The Dewback is obviously the star here, and the work really shows.  The trooper is pretty run of the mill, but he can at least bend his knees, so he’s got that going for 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.

#3800: Whirlwind

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

WHIRLWIND

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

“A mutant born with the power to spin at superhuman velocities, Whirlwind delights in using his special talents to terrorize others-first as the neighborhood bully, and now as a powerful costumed Super Villain! Volatile and brutal, Whirlwind doesn’t really care what target the evil Mandarin sends him to destroy-he’ll obliterate it in an instant with maniacal glee!”

We’re back with the Iron Man reviews today, specifically of the Toy Biz variety because that’s what I like to do. I’m keeping things rolling with the antagonists, I suppose. Today’s entry is Whirlwind! It’s worth noting that despite the show’s insistence on sticking purely to Iron Man villains, not filling in with more interesting villains, Whirlwind’s actually not really an Iron Man villain at all, and is instead an Ant-Man and Wasp villain, but I guess Iron Man just sort of takes what he wants. It does seem kind of cruel to steal from Ant-Man, but, you know, that’s just Tony. He’s a bit cruel. This was Whirlwind’s very first action figure, which was pretty cool for him, so let’s take a look at it!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Whirlwind was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s Iron Man toy line. He’s based on his animated incarnation, which was in turn based on his classic costume, more specifically his second costume design after he added the chain mail and also added a shirt. Thank you for that, Whirlwind. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation. The articulation on this one is kind of interesting because it’s a sort of a mix of unique and kind of basic. He loses the knee joints, which had become fairly standard of this point, but has disc and peg shoulders. The shoulders are rather loose in order to facilitate his action feature. He also has a waist swivel, but again it’s restricted to facilitate his action feature and isn’t really much for posing. His sculpt is pretty much on par with what we expected from the line. He is a little on the bulky side, but also not bad for Whirlwind. The chainmail detailing is actually pretty good. The hands and feet seemed rather large, and conversely the helmet feels a little small, like it might be difficult to fit an actual head underneath. The face plate is also definitely giving like more ironron Man vibes than Whirlwind usually did, but it’s not bad. Whirlwind’s paintwork is pretty decent, and pretty basic. It’s really just the silver applications. His hands are a little bit more prone to chipping, which is a little bit of a bummer, but not the end of the world. Whirlwind is packed with two removable wrist sawblades, which are super easy to lose, but also super cool. as well as an ID card like the other non-armored characters in the series. Whirlwind has a spinning feature; turning his waist a number of times and then pressing the button on his back to release it will cause his upper half to spin. It works okay, but it does cause some issues with posability.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually got Whirlwind back close to the original run. I’ve brought up Ageless Heroes a few times on the site. It was a comic store, not too far from where I grew up, that went out of business in ’99/’000. They had a lot of Toy Biz Marvel figures and had they put them on pretty deep discount. So, I picked up a lot of them at the time. This one in particular was sort of consolation prize. The Avengers: United They Stand figures have just been released and were very hard to find at first. After a failed trip trying to find them, my dad took me to Ageless Heroes where I picked out this guy. He’s not perfect, but he’s pretty cool and I do really like him. And, it’s not like there’s a plethora of Whirlwind figures out there.

#3799: Tatooine Skiff (with Luke Skywalker)

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

TATOOINE SKIFF (with LUKE SKYWALKER)

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (HASBRO)

“Over the arid Western Dune Sea on Tatooine, Jabba the Hutt sentences his victims to be cast into the maw of the mighty Sarlacc, much to the raucous amusement of his palace minions. In the final attempt to escape from the clutches of the vile crime lord, the Rebel heroes launch a surprise attack. And so…the daring confrontation aboard the Tatooine skiff ignites!”

While I’m very much all-in on the figures for Power of the Force II, I don’t much review the vehicles.  This is partially because I don’t go out of my way to buy the vehicles (they take up a *lot* more space than the figures), and partially because I don’t usually enjoy reviewing the vehicles.  But, I do occasionally jump in with a vehicle, especially the ones on the smaller side, and especially if they had a unique figure.  So, here’s a vehicle that’s on the smaller side that had a unique figure!

THE ITEM ITSELF

The Tatooine Skiff was added to the Star War: Power of the Force line in 1999, at that point officially under the Hasbro brand, following Kenner officially being dissolved.  The set was released exclusively at Target, and paired off the skiff seen in the Sarlacc sequence of Return of the Jedi with a Luke Skywalker variant not available elsewhere.  The Skiff measures about 12 inches long.  It doesn’t really have “articulation,” but it has a number of moving parts and features.  There’s landing gear, which is useful for keeping it not falling over, which you can release using the lever at the top.  The rails on the sides breakaway to simulate damage, and there’s also a button to launch one of the floor panels upward, sending a figure flying.  And that’s all without getting into the plank that Luke is made to walk, which has it’s own flip-down feature, should you choose to murder your Luke Skywalker in such a way.  It’s a lot of features, honestly, and a reminder that this mold wasn’t actually developed by Hasbro (whose vehicles tended to be a bit more collector oriented as we went along), but was in fact a re-use of the vintage Kenner molds, like a lot of this line’s vehicles.  It’s not a bad sculpt at all.  It’s a good match for what we see on the screen, it’s well scaled to the figures, and the gimmicks and features don’t mess with the appearance too much.  There are certainly some parts that are a little flimsier, but it’s generally solid.  There were two colors available; green and tan.  Mine’s the tan one, but the differences were ultimately minor.  The paint work’s not bad; there’s plenty of simulated wear and dirt, which feel right for a thing that’s been out in the desert.

The included Luke is another take on Jedi Luke, which is unsurprising.  He was about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  It’s actually not a bad set-up for movement, since he gets proper knees, and a swivel at the waist and on the right wrist.  His parts consisted of a mix of old and new, with the head shared with all of the later-run Jedi Lukes, and the arms shared with the Complete Galaxy Luke.  The torso, pelvis, and legs were new, and the right had was tweaked to feature the damage to the back of it, which Luke gets during the skiff braw.  Not while he’s on *this* skiff, but still.  It’s a very scene specific Luke, but ultimately a pretty serviceable one.  His paint’s minor, but not bad.  Application’s mostly pretty clean, with only some minor slop on the change-over from his left hand to his sleeve.  He’s packed with his lightsaber, which seems like a solid choice.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Not being much of vehicles guy, I really only had the basics for this line as a kid.  That didn’t include this one.  I got this, I want to say, sometime in late 2018/early 2019?  It came into All Time, and I was just starting my real push to go completist on the line.  I’d already gotten the skiff guard cinema scene set, so I felt like having the actual skiff might not be the silliest thing.  And it’s not.  It’s fun little piece, though it’s really more display than toy.  And, there’s a neat Luke Skywalker variant too!

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.

#3795: Blizzard

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

BLIZZARD

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

“A once-brilliant scientist driven insane when he tested his portable cold generator on himself, the man now known as the Blizzard has become the twisted enemy of all that is decent. Possessing the ability to create untold amounts of ice and snow with a single thought, the Blizzard always has a chilly reception ready for those who would oppose him-particularly his arch-enemy, Iron Man!”

Okay, let’s jump back into the Iron Man villain well, I suppose!  Last week was Whiplash Blacklash, who’s always been sort of forgettable.  Today it’s Blizzard, who’s not as forgettable in general, but is minorly forgettable in the sense that most people don’t know there’s actually two of them.  The full face mask and generally similar designs don’t really help matters there.  Nor does the fact the cartoon the Iron Man line was based on identified Blizzard as one guy, while the toy identified him as another.  Hooray for confusion!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blizzard was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, as one of the three “antagonist” figures.  He’s an adaptation of Blizzard’s animated design, which was a pretty good, solid “classic” Blizzard design.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  His movement is pretty decent for the era, though it’s not revolutionary or anything.  The sculpt was new at the time (though it saw re-use later down the line for Dormammu of all characters), and it’s generally okay, apart from one odd quirk.  The general build and layout of the costume elements certainly works, but, for some reason, he kinda looks like he has two left feet?  Guess he’s not much of a dancer.  His paint work is limited to a bunch of white on blue plastic.  It honestly works pretty well, though, so it’s pretty striking.  Blizzard is packed with an ice glove attachment for his right hand, an ice cane, and an identification card.  Generally, it’s a nice selection of extras.  He also gets an action feature; much like a number of the earlier Wolverine figures, he has a little thumb-hold on his back, so you can move him at the waist, which will swing his arms up and down.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always liked Blizzard pretty well, and I especially liked him in the cartoon.  I didn’t get this one new, but I got him *relatively* close to new.  I found him loose at a toy show, in the early ’00s.  He didn’t have any of his accessories, but he worked for my purposes at the time.  I just got the chance to complete him a few weeks ago, when a complete one came in through work.  Aside from the slightly odd foot sculpt, he’s a really nice, pretty basic figure.

#3794: Weequay Skiff Guard

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

WEEQUAY SKIFF GUARD

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Oooooooooh, every party has a pooper, that’s why we invited Wequay!  …sorry, do we not all just spontaneously break into quotes from Robot Chicken?  Is it just me?  Yeah, actually, that tracks.  Well, in my effort to get through more of the many, many unreviewed Star Wars figures in my collection, we’re jumping into another one, specifically of the Power of the Force variety.  So, here’s the aforementioned party pooper, Weequay (Skiff Guard)!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Weequay Skiff Guard was added to Kenner’s Star Wars: Power of the Force line-up in 1997.  He initially predated the Freeze Frames, but was one of the figures to be rereleased with one later.  However, Weequay is by far the rarest of the Freeze Frame releases, so it doesn’t really turn up much.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Weequay got an all-new sculpt, which is honestly a pretty good one.  He’s got a fair a bit of pre-posing going on, largely to aid in holding his force pike.  It’s actually pretty dynamic, but doesn’t make him any trickier to stand or anything.  The detailing’s pretty solid; the costume elements are pretty sharp, and the face manages to get that “idealized” version of the mask from the movie, so it’s accurate, but also a little less goofy.  Weequay’s color work is sort of subtle, in that it’s got a bit more going on than you might expect.  It’s a lot of brown, but there’s also some slight blue, and a fair bit of accent work.  The paint work’s all fairly clean, and the sculpted details stand out nicely.  Weequay is packed with his force pike, as well as a brown blaster, for, like, options, I guess?  He can’t actually really hold the blaster, what with the pre-posing for the pike, but you know, I guess there’s the extra?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My most notable exposure to Weequay is in the Robot Chicken Star Wars Specials, where he serves as Boba Fett’s sidekick for a set of running skits (and where the sing-song-y bit from the intro originated).  Beyond that, I don’t know a ton about him, because, well, what’s to know?  I got this guy back in 2018, I think?  I used some Christmas money from my Grandmother to buy a bunch of PotF figures, because I was feeling a touch nostalgic.  He’s actually quite a nice figure, and my favorite of the whole skiff sub-set.

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.

#3790: Blacklash

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

BLACKLASH

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

Alright, we’ll be back with the Toy Biz Marvel!  Look, it’s kind of my comfort zone right now, so I’m sticking with it.  I’m back with the Iron Man line, patterned on the cartoon from the ’90s.  The show’s first season built a classic cartoon roster of recurring villains out of Iron Man’s existing rogues gallery.  Admittedly, Iron Man’s villains aren’t the most notable for the most part, but they did their best.  Whiplash, who was at the time going by Blacklash, was part of the Mandarin’s squad of lackeys, and ultimately was never more than a minor player (though he was still a better adaptation than Iron Man 2).  He did at least get a figure out of it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blacklash is part of Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, as part of the small batch of villains at launch.  He’s based on Blacklash’s design from the show, which is in turn based on his Justin Hammer-designed gear from the comics.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  His construction is on the simplistic side, and he’s notably missing any elbow articulation.  I guess maybe it’s to aid in the action feature?  It makes him quite stiff, as does the cape piece, which is large, heavy, and also doesn’t stay on so well.  The head’s actually pretty good, so good, in fact, that Toy Biz re-used it a bunch, minus the weird ponytail.  It’s definitely the best part of the figure.  His paint work is reasonably well done.  It’s a little sloppy, but certainly not the worst I’ve seen from this line.  Blacklash is packed with a whip and nunchucks, which work with his arm swinging feature.  He also gets the ID badge that all of the non-armored figures got.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Blacklash was the last figures I got from the Series 1 line-up.  For whatever reason, I never got him back in the ’90s, and he just never showed up in front of me.  I had picked up a sealed one a while back, but he had weird paint issues, so I never ended up opening him.  One with far better paint got traded into All Time a couple of months ago, so I opted to do the swap out.  He’s not the most impressive figure.  He’s not the most impressive character, either.  But, he’s decent, and good with the rest of the line-up, so there it 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.

#3789: Greedo

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

GREEDO

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE (HASBRO)

Okay, here we are at the end of the week.  We made it, you guys!  Good for us!  As a reward to myself, you know what I gonna do?  I’m gonna review a Power of the Force figure.  You know, as a little treat.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.  Waaaaaaaaaay back, nearer the beginning of this site, I took a look at the first Greedo from Power of the Force (and pissed off one of my trolls along the way), but today, I’m setting my sights on the second Greedo, from the tail end of the line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Greedo was part of the 1999 run of Star Wars: Power of the Force, in the first of the two Commtech-sporting sets that ended the line.  By this point, the figures were officially branded as “Hasbro” products, as Kenner had been disbanded and absorbed.  This figure was designed to pair off with the Han Solo form the same line-up, both of them specifically being based on the cross-table conversation from the cantina.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  Like Han, he gets a better articulation set-up than earlier figures, with actual bending knee joints, which let him sit properly in the Cantina booth.  His sculpt was all-new, and was a far less stylized one than the prior version.  His proportions land closer to the actual film look, so he’s a lot skinnier, and his head is a bit bigger.  There’s also a bit more work into the texturing and such, and his vest is now a removable rubber piece.  Under the vest, there’s even a blaster mark on the chest, from where Han shoots him, which is particularly gruesome, but also kinda cool.  Greedo’s color work is rather on the basic side, but it does what it needs to, and is generally pretty solid.  There’s even some slight “scorching” where the blaster wound is sculpted, which is a neat touch.  Greedo is packed with a blaster pistol and the Commtech stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually bought this figure several years ago, back during one of my initial pushes to round out my collection, but he’s sat unopened, hanging from a thumbtack on the wall in my upstairs hallway for most of that time, because I had the other Greedo actually out on display with the rest of the collection.  A couple of months ago, I picked up the cardboard Cantina set, and it’s got the little booth for him, so I finally opened him to put him there.  He’s actually quite a nice little figure.  The first one’s not *bad*, but this guy’s better, and holds up incredibly well for a figure that’s more than a quarter of a century old.

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.