Tag Archives: 90s

#4098: Tarzan of Mars

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

TARZAN OF MARS

TARZAN: EPIC ADVENTURES (TRENDMASTERS)

Way back in February, I took a look at Edgar Rice Burroughs’ first enduring pulp hero, John Carter.  But John’s not really his most famous creation.  That would be Tarzan, occasional lord of the jungle, occasional Disney property, and definitely the one of the two that gets the more prominent merchandise push. The John Carter figure I reviewed back in February was actually part of a line of Tarzan figures, and I’ve apparently not actually reviewed anything Tarzan here on the site, so I guess here’s a Tarzan, but of a more Mars-y variety than usual.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tarzan of Mars was released in Trendmasters’ Tarzan: Epic Adventures line in 1995.  He was, like the John Carter figure, released under the “Conqueror of Mars” subline, first in a two-pack alongside one of the Plantmen, and then in a few other configurations as the line progressed.  The figure stands (or, rather, much like John, crouches) 3 1/2 inches tall and he has 3 points of articulation.  Articulation is just at the neck and shoulders, but he’s at least got slightly better range than John.  His sculpt is mostly unique.  The head is shared with all the smaller Tarzans, but otherwise he’s new.  It’s an interesting design, not based on anything specific that I know of.  It’s certainly got quite a Warlord vibe to it, which isn’t a terrible vibe to give a Mars-themed Tarzan.  The posing is quite intense, and like John, the resulting proportions are certainly a bit odd.  The arms in particular are a lot longer than they should be, and also I don’t think they’re the same length.  Tarzan is screaming, which definitely makes more sense for him than it did for John, so I can dig it.  Tarzan’s color work sports a nice selection of differing colors, to keep him visually interesting, while also staying true to most depictions of the character.  His skin tone is notably a little different from John, which feels appropriate.  Tarzan was packed with a helmet, spear, and knife.  The helmet is by far the coolest piece, but all of them are pretty neat extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this line came out, my Dad was set on getting a full run of the Barsoom related characters, which also included the various alien races.  Since Tarzan was packed with on of those, he bought the whole set, and gave me, a kid far more invested in Tarzan than anyone else in the line, the Tarzan, making this my first Tarzan action figure, albeit a slightly non-standard one.  He’s goofy, but I still really dig him, and he remains my favorite Tarzan figure in my collection.

#4097: Night Hunter Robin

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

NIGHT HUNTER ROBIN

BATMAN & ROBIN (KENNER)

Okay, we’re gonna do this Batman & Robin thing.  One.  More.  Time.  For now, at least, because this effectively wraps up what remains of my childhood collection, such as it is in reviewing condition.  Might change later, I guess, because who knows?  So, let’s cap things off with a Robin figure, since that’s how I started these reviews in the first place, some six years and some change ago.  This time, he’s red, for…reasons.  Anyway, here’s Night Hunter Robin.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Night Hunter Robin was released in 1997 as part of Kenner’s Batman & Robin tie-in line.  He was one-half of one of the two-packs they did early in the run (the other half being Poison Ivy), which largely seemed to exist to pump out some extra variants of the main cast relatively quickly.  In the case of this one, he’s at his core not super removed from the basic Robin design for the movie, albeit colored rather differently.  Exactly why that made him “Night Hunter” is sort of lost on me, but maybe they just though it sounded cool.  It does sound cool.  It sounds like perhaps the coolest descriptor a Batman-themed figure could get.  Sounds like the sort of descriptor that could, I don’t know, pull someone in to a whole lifetime of action figure collecting if they weren’t careful.  It also shows that the rather “grab some common descriptor words out of a hat” approach can lead to some doubling up, even when it’s seemingly unintended.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is…well it’s really, really similar to the Iceboard Robin sculpt, but it’s not the same.  It’s not different in any ways that actually really matter, mind you.  The posing on his right arm is *slightly* less bent, and his pelvis is *slightly* wider, and the placement of the peg holes for his cape are *slightly* different.  If you didn’t have the two figures right next to each other, you could be forgiven for not actually knowing the molds were different.  In that regard, it’s a good sculpt, just like Iceboard was, so that’s pretty nice.  The main change-up here is the coloring.  The two packs really liked having at least one of the included figures be chromed, and that was Robin.  He’s predominantly a chromed red, which, as you can see on my figure, it’s quite prone to flaking over time.  The sections that were red on his main costume are now a very shiny black, which is a good contrast.  The rest of his coloring, like the mold, is different from the standard in very slight, very easily missed ways, but they’re there.  Night Hunter Robin was packed with a sort of missile/batarang/crossbow looking thing, which went over his arm.  It’s missing from mine, but I can’t say I really feel like I *need* it, so that’s okay.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m writing this review on the eve of my 34th birthday, which I suppose is appropriate, because he’s one of the many Batman & Robin figures I got on my 5th birthday, back in ’97.  In contrast to the others, this one I very specifically asked for.  I don’t really know why, but I remember I *really* wanted the two-pack, pretty much exclusively for this Robin figure.  I recall losing all but his cape for a very long while, but if I recall correctly, he turned back up during “The Find,” my big excavation of missing figures and parts at my parents’ house from just before I moved out of state back in 2016.  He’s a bit worse for wear, but I do still quite like him, and I do get something of a giggle out of him sharing a descriptor with my original Batman, a fact that escaped me until I sat down to write this very review. 

#4096: Tigra

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

TIGRA

MARVEL HALL OF FAME (TOY BIZ)

“Blasting out of the Marvel Universe are its most powerful heroines, the She-Force! Joining together to fight evil are mutants Marvel Girl, Wolfsbane and Dazzler along with Avengers Tigra and Ms. Marvel. Challenging the threat of the Brotherhood of evil Mutants, the She-Force has what it takes to get the job done. Using their combined abilities, the She-Force takes down the Brotherhood in one explosive battle!”

We started off this month’s theme of Toy Biz Marvel reviews with a feral heroine (who is *not* Feral, mind you), so why not finish them off that way as well, with this month’s singe non-X related Toy Biz review.  Today’s focus, the Avenger Tigra made her figure debut with today’s review focus, though she wound up with a rather quick follow-up to it, all things considered.  But, that’s later on, and also in the past (since I’ve already reviewed it), so let’s keep the focus on this specific figure.  Oh yeah, here’s Tigra!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tigra was released in Series 6 of the Puzzle Zoo-exclusive Marvel Hall of Fame line, the second of the three “She-Force” branded line-ups.  She’s the last one I’m looking at from this particular set, which is notably in stark contrast to what I said when I reviewed Marvel Girl last week…yeah, I made a bit of a oopsie there.  Sorry about that guys.  I’d say it won’t happen again, but the rigors of a daily review site mean it *probably* will, so we’ll just deal with it as we can.  Anyway, here’s this Tigra figure.  She stands 5 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  She’s an almost complete parts-reuse of the Spider-Man line’s Black Cat figure, albeit it ever so slightly modified to add a tail to the back.  Honestly, it’s a pretty inspired choice.  Apart from the fact that she’s good boots, rather than bare feet, there’s not really any issues getting the details to match up pretty well with Tigra’s usual comics appearances.  The sculpt is a little bit stiff and pre-posed, and there’s admittedly not a lot to be done with the articulation, but at least she can just sort of stand there, I guess?  Well, slight asterisk on the standing, since that’s definitely something this mold was never very good at.  Thankfully, though, she’s got peg holes in the feet, so you can supply your own stand, if need be.  In terms of color work, she’s actually pretty great.  It’s interesting, because Hasbro had a bit of trouble getting her shade of orange right, but Toy Biz pretty much got it right out of the gate.  Otherwise, the color layout and the patterning of the stripes is pretty impressive, and there’s some nice accenting on the darker sections of her fur.  Tigra is packed with a recolored version of Lady Deathstrike’s big claw thing, which is now black.  It was an odd extra for Deathstrike, and it’s even odder for Tigra, but also it’s really not all that out there for the average “She-Force” accessory.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I had the United They Stand Tigra, which at the time fulfilled my Tigre-related figure needs.  That one’s not bad, but she’s admittedly a bit more queued into the show design, making her slightly more limited in her applications.  This one’s been on my radar for a bit, but doesn’t turn up as often as some of the others from the set, I’ve found.  Back in June, I took a trip down to South Carolina for a memorial service for Jess, and I got to swing by our old comic shop in the area, Power Comics, who still had a really nice selection of Toy Biz figures, so I got to snag a few I was missing, including Tigra here.  She’s not much for posing, but she certainly looks the part, which puts her a bit ahead of a number of the Toy Biz repaint figures.  Honestly, not a bad figure.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0084: Batgirl

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

BATGIRL

BATMAN & ROBIN (KENNER)

Greetings and welcome to the end of the week. We’ve done it once more, and I continue to be proud of us for making it here.  We did it again, guys!  We’re back with following up on some Batman & Robin stuff, because why not, I guess? So, here’s a second look at Batgirl!

“Gotham City becomes a very cold place when Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Bane triple team to plot the icy demise of Batman and Robin. The crimefighters respond immediately by using the Batcomputer deep within the Batcave to develop an array of cutting-edge weapons that can be used in their battle against this multitude of fiendish foes. Discover the Secrets of the Batcave! – secret technology that gives Batman , Robin and Batgirl the ultimate ability to save Gotham City!”

Back in April, I jumped into the Batman & Robin line with a look at the “& Robin” portion of the film.  Today, I look at the central character who doesn’t get named at all.  I mean, seriously, isn’t it a little odd that the film where you explicitly call out Batman and Robin as your title characters is the one where you add in Batgirl as your third protagonist?  Isn’t that a little weird?  I think it’s a little weird.  Look at me, armchair quarterbacking a movie from 1997.  That’s a real good use of my time, right?  Yeah…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batgirl was released in the first wave of Batman & Robin product from Kenner, hitting shelves in 1997 to tie-in with the film.  Unlike the various Batmen and Robins, she didn’t get any sort of adjective in front of her name; she’s simply “Batgirl.”  Man, no goofy Kenner name is just a bummer.  Did they even try with Batgirl in this thing?  Oh, right, I’ve seen the movie: the answer is “no.”  The figure stands 4 3/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  So, right off the bat (heh), let’s address the inaccuracies of the figure.  As I brought up in my Robin review, the whole Batman & Robin process was quite expedited, so the figures were working from early costume designs.  In Robin’s case, that was all well and good, because he kept his design, but in Batgirl’s case, that means she’s a bit off from her film appearance.  The big change is the full cowl in place of the domino mask she was sporting in the final product.  It’s not a particularly attractive design, at least as implemented on the figure.  She’s also got the wrong version of the bat symbol, and is missing a lot of the ribbing and such that ran throughout the body suit, making for a much more basic looking design.  There is also a removable cape, which actually is a pretty decently designed piece. Her paintwork is fairly basic stuff.  She’s rather monochromatic, but that’s honestly a bit more faithful to the film than most of the color schemes to come out of this movie.  Batgirl was packed with a “Battle Blade Blaster” and “Strike Scythe,” which are the weird green and black things.  They don’t correlate to anything in the movie, but they certainly exist, now don’t they?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I mentioned in my Robin review, Batman & Robin was the first Batman movie I saw in theaters, and despite its lackluster quality, five-year-old me really enjoyed it.  Being the big thing of the summer, a whole bunch of the tie-in figures wound up as birthday presents for me that year, including Batgirl here.  She’s not necessarily one of my favorites, and that was the case even as a kid.  She really only served as my Batgirl until the Animated figure found its way into my collection and replaced her.  She’s okay, I guess, and like the rest of the line, honestly better than the movie that spawned her.

This review is another pandemic shutdown review, written almost two months before it ultimately published.  I originally had it slotted with a different number and a publish date a month earlier, but it got bumped off the schedule to make way for the Siege Ultra Magnus Spoiler pack, which I was eager to get out quickly, I guess.  The mystery of it excited me.  The actual review here is pretty good, I think.  The shut down stuff definitely gave me some time to work on my craft, and I still think these are some of my best reviews.  I was missing her “Strike Scythe” at the time, but it turned up in the six years that have followed, so here’s an updated photo.

#4093: Ice Terror Mr. Freeze

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

ICE TERROR MR. FREEZE

BATMAN & ROBIN (KENNER)

When the first Batman movie came out in 1989, they just had the one villain, but by Returns, they’d decided they needed to up the stakes with two, which was kept for Forever.  By the time of Batman & Robin, it was apparently just not frantic enough, so they upped it to three villains, all of them classically unrelated.  In a movie featuring Bane, a tall, imposing, muscular villain with a notable accent, Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast as Mr Freeze, which is the obvious, undisputed set-up, right?  Arnold as the cryogenics expert?  Well, at least he got to make lots of ice puns.  After “Heart of Ice” revamped the character and gave him a tremendous amount of depth, Batman & Robin definitely did some major back-pedaling.  That said, almost 30 years removed, it’s a pretty amusing Arnold performance.  And, as with everything else about the movie, there were certainly some cool toys.  Let’s look at one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ice Terror Mr. Freeze was one of the two deluxe figures in the initial product drop for Kenner’s Batman & Robin tie-in line.  It’s one of the two Mr. Freezes at launch, neither of them really even approaching movie accurate, but we’ll get to that.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Ice Terror Mr. Freeze was a mostly unique sculpt.  The head’s the same as the Iceblast Mr. Freeze from the standard series, but from the neck down he’s unique.  The first batch of tie-in figures for the movie were especially affected by the rushed production schedule, and I’ve somewhat discussed that with the Batgirl figure, but the early Mr. Freezes were especially inaccurate.  I suppose you could argue that there’s a general silhouette here that’s sort of close to the film, and what’s visible of the face has more than a passing resemblance to Arnold, but beyond that?  It’s totally removed from what we see on the screen.  There’s…well, there’s certainly a lot going on.  He’s got lots of tubes and stuff, which, I guess isn’t a terrible concept for the guy.  He does seem a bit small for an Arnold Mr. Freeze, but that’s more of a line-wide issue, I feel.  The colors aren’t very accurate either, at least in their placement. The actual colors aren’t really too far, and he’s ultimately a bit closer in that regard than Iceblast was.  In general, it’s just a good Mr. Freeze color scheme, so I can’t really knock it.  In order to justify this as a deluxe release, Ice Terror Mr. Freeze gets a rather sizable accessory set-up.  Not in quantity, mind you, just in actual size, as he includes a “Street Chill Dragster” which is a three-wheeled vehicle thing that also transforms? It’s not a terribly involved thing, and the transformation is almost negligible, but I guess it’s not terrible.  Also included is the “Ice Crystal Rocket,” which is a big bazooka thing, which he can either mount on the dragster or hold.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The summer of 1997 brought me a whole selection of figures from this line, and this guy was one of the batch I got as birthday presents.  Even before it had totally sunk in with me that maybe it wasn’t a very good movie, I was a bit more critical of Schwarzenegger as Freeze, because I was such a big fan of Michael Ansara’s animated performance.  So, in that regard, this guy wasn’t really ever my default Freeze the way the original Animated figure was.  He did, however, serve as a pretty fantastic basic sort of villain.  I lost his dragster over the years, but recently got a replacement.  He’s really far removed from the movie design, but it’s undeniably a fun figure.

#4092: Marvel Girl

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

MARVEL GIRL

MARVEL HALL OF FAME (TOY BIZ)

“Blasting out of the Marvel Universe are its most powerful heroines, the She-Force! Joining together to fight evil are mutants Marvel Girl, Wolfsbane and Dazzler along with Avengers Tigra and Ms. Marvel. Challenging the threat of the Brotherhood of evil Mutants, the She-Force has what it takes to get the job done. Using their combined abilities, the She-Force takes down the Brotherhood in one explosive battle!”

In a nice bit of segue from last week’s Dazzler review, let’s talk about what has thus far been the quiet uniting theme of this month’s Marvel reviews, X-Factor.  X-Factor was, from the start, a plan to re-unite the original five X-Men in a new book, with the notable caveat that one of those five, Jean Grey, was very much dead at the time. The original plan was for Dazzler to join as the group’s fifth member, which actually made it far enough along that her joining a team with Beast was referenced at the end of their shared miniseries.  But, when Kurt Busiek pitched a compelling way to bring back Jean while still preserving the end of the “Dark Phoenix Saga,” plans changed, and Jean returned, briefly going back to her Marvel Girl monicker, albeit with a new costume to match the rest of the team.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Marvel Girl is the last figure from Series 6 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Hall of Fame, a Puzzle Zoo Exclusive line.  She likewise wraps up this assortment’s second go at the “She-Force” banner for the line.  This was the second Jean Grey in the line, both of them under the “She-Force” banner.  I guess they were trying to make up for how generally absent she was from the X-Men line?  She’s seen here in her green and yellow X-Factor costume, specifically the tweaked version of it where she’d switched from the full cowl to just the face mask part (likely a choice dictated by parts available, but it’s ultimately the better look).  Interestingly, this makes her the wrong costume to match the X-Factor Cyclops from X-Men Series 1, since he was in his white and blue from the second batch of costumes. Given she’s also taller than he is, it’s probably not the end of the world, though.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and she has 8 points of articulation.  She’s making use of the Spider-Woman mold, specifically the modified Jessica Drew version, which removed the action feature and added in elbow joints. Honestly, it’s not a bad set-up.  Apart from the lack of neck articulation (which was usually pretty spotty on the long-haired figures anyways), it’s a solid sculpt, with a good, basic set-up for details.  It lacks any extraneous details to throw it off, and it’s just generally a pretty okay match for Jean’s look of the era.  Her paint work is generally not too bad.  The yellow on green is a little bit wobbly around the edges, but the face is quite clean, and the accenting on the hair is quite nice.  Marvel Girl is packed with a rather odd back-pack weapon thing, originally packed with Ninja Psylocke.  It’s…well it’s odd, but that was true of most of the Hall of Fame accessories.  They were mostly just trying to fill up the box to justify the price.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I didn’t personally own this figure as a kid, my dad did, on the basis of it being one of the few easily available Jean figures at the time, so I do remember it being around the house.  I can’t say I have much memory of her beyond that.  I got mine a few years ago, at the same time as the Dazzler figure from last week.  While not top-tier in terms of costumes, it’s not a terrible design at all, and it makes for a solid all around figure.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0083: Iceboard Robin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , ,

ICEBOARD ROBIN

BATMAN & ROBIN (KENNER)

G’day and welcome to Friday.  Here at the end of the week, it’s always important to note that the week is, in fact, ending, and we’ve all made it through another one.  Yay us!  Rather than just looking back on the week, of course, I like to be a bit more retrospective than that, and today, I’m returning to Robin!

“Gotham City becomes a very cold place when Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Bane triple team to plot the icy demise of Batman and Robin. The crimefighters respond immediately by using the Batcomputer deep within the Batcave to develop an array of cutting-edge weapons that can be used in their battle against this multitude of fiendish foes. Discover the Secrets of the Batcave! – secret technology that gives Batman , Robin and Batgirl the ultimate ability to save Gotham City!”

After the box office success of Batman Forever (I know, I’m surprised, too), Warner Brothers decided to fast track its follow-up, Batman & Robin, with its entire production process coming in at under two years, which, when you’re dealing with a block-buster of this caliber, isn’t a lot of time.  The end result was less than stellar.  Batman & Robin holds the lowest earnings of any Batman film to date, and is still regarded as one of the worst comic book films ever made.  With all that said, it did succeed on one front: it was a pretty excellent toy commercial.  The toyline that accompanied the film was easily the best part of the whole thing.  Amazingly, though I dove into the Batman Forever line, I have as of yet not looked at any Batman & Robin figures.  I’ll be changing that today, with Iceboard Robin!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iceboard Robin was released in the first basic series of Kenner’s Batman & Robin line, which hit shelves in 1997, alongside the film.  The first series had two Robins included, with this one being the “standard” movie Robin.  The figure stands 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Robin sported an all-new sculpt.  Robin is actually the most fortunate of the film’s main characters, as he was the only one whose design didn’t change during the production process, meaning his was the only standard figure that was actually film accurate.  Additionally, Robin’s design, which was a pretty nifty merging of more classic Robin characteristics with the then current Nightwing costume from the comics, is really one of the nicest of the film’s designs in general, if you can get past the general Chris O’Donnel-ness of the head.  The sculpt does a nice job of capturing the look from the movie, and is generally a lot sturdier and more sharply detailed than the Forever figures were.  Pre-posing on this figure is at a minimum, but he’s a little better than the straight standing poses of prior figures.  There’s a more natural stance here, and it’s actually pretty darn nice.  The cape is a plastic piece, as were most of the capes on this round of figures, and it plugs into his back fairly securely.  Robin’s paintwork is pretty basic, which the majority of stuff being molded plastic.  However, the red detailing of the uniform is pretty cool, and has a slick metallic finish to it.  Iceboard Robin was, stay with me on this, packed with an iceboard, which is really just a big, goofy stand.  He also included a missile launcher, but mine is missing that piece.  Oh no, whatever will I do?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was too young to see Batman Forever in theaters (though I sure got in on those toys), but Batman & Robin hit at the perfect time for me to be all about it.  I was very excited prior to the film’s release (and even after, if I’m honest, because I loved it.  In my defense, I was 5), and this guy was part of the hype.  At the time, Toys R Us was running a promotion where you got reprints of Robin, Batgirl, and Mr. Freeze’s first appearances if you bought one of the toys from the tie-in line, and my mom was awesome enough to take me over one day after work.  Unsurprisingly, given my more recent collecting habits, I opted for Robin to be my qualifying figure purchase.  Quality of the film and of the actor playing Robin aside, this figure holds up well, and is just a genuinely fun offering.

Behold, a shutdown review!  Yep, this was from the middle of April in 2020, as I was starting to worry about how to keep the daily reviews going without a consistent source of new stuff.  Which is, honestly, kind of funny in my current spot, when I’m working from a lot more back catalog offerings than I really ever have been before.  If anything, it’s reviews like this one that got me more comfortable with going back to the stuff already in my collection more frequently.  While my figure had his iceboard at the time of his review, he was missing all his weaponry.  I actually found his missile launcher while going through boxes of parts, and got a second figure for the staff, so he’s all complete again.  I actually quite like the staff; it’s silly, but i like it.

#4089: First Mate Robin

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

FIRST MATE ROBIN

LEGENDS OF BATMAN (KENNER)

“An orphaned street urchin rescued years before by Buccaneer Batman, First Mate Robin now stands shoulder to shoulder with his captain the put down the terrifying pirate threat.  Facing down entire pirate bands with his customized blasting cannon, swift cutlass sword and unbridled temper, First Mate Robin is relentless in his desire to wipe out the ruthless evildoers he holds responsible for sending his parents to their watery graves.”

While it’s only been since 2024 that I discussed Legends of Batman, Kenner’s Elseworlds-inspired Batman comics line from the ‘90s, I haven’t talked about my personal favorite subset of the line since way back in 2017.  Remember when the cast were all just sort of pirates?  Well, we’re back with the pirates, with the sidekick to….well, one of the Batmen.  Not Pirate Batman, but specifically Buccaneer Batman, who is specifically called out in the bio and was released in the same series.  Let’s take a look at First Mate Robin!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

First Mate Robin was released in the third series of Legends of Batman, which also included the pirate versions of Batman and Joker, for a nice little subset.  This was the second of the two Robins in the line, neither of them standard.  Like Crusader Robin, he was later recolored for a WB Store exclusive, but the one seen here is the original release.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s got a bit of pre-posing going on, with sort of a mid-run kind of thing.  That said, he’s far more stable on his feet than most of the line, so I can’t really knock it.  His sculpt was totally unique, and like the other pirate figures, not based directly on any comics design that I know of.  Like Buccaneer Batman, he takes the broad-strokes of Robin’s classic design, and sort of rebuilds them as a Pirate design.  It’s got a lot of neat elements in place, and is a bit more “plain clothes” than the Batman design, which I think works a bit better for Robin.  Like Batman, he gets a belt running across his chest, bearing his logo.  In his case, it’s not as off-placed as Batman, so it feels less like it was afflicted by marketing.  His cape is a separate removable piece, with a rather notable split at the collar than has trouble staying in place.  Robin’s color work leaves some spots of his rather detailed sculpt notably unpainted, opting for more of the prominent details.  Things like buckles and bandanas get left unpainted.  Also, I’m pretty sure his torso is supposed to show part of his chest exposed (if the art on his card is anything to go by), but it’s painted white like his undershirt instead.  As with Crusader Robin, First Mate Robin’s hair is a lighter brown, rather than black, presumably a vestigial element of Chris O’Donnell’s casting in the role.  First Mate Robin is packed with the blasting cannon and cutlass mentioned in his bio, as well as a Skybox trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While my memory of specific marketing for a lot of the figures I own is rather vague, the Pirate figures are not one of those cases, as I vividly remember the TV commercial for them, and the corresponding excitement I had for getting them.  Robin was a gift for my fourth birthday, alongside the corresponding Batman, and the two of them spent a lot of time sailing around in my Fisher Price pirate ship.  While both Batmen from this theme have action features to contend with, First Mate Robin is just a pretty solid basic figure, with a fun design and a rather impressive sculpt.  He could perhaps stand to have a slightly better paint job, but for the era, it’s not terrible.

#4088: Dazzler

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

DAZZLER

MARVEL HALL OF FAME (TOY BIZ)

“Blasting out of the Marvel Universe are its most powerful heroines, the She-Force! Joining together to fight evil are mutants Marvel Girl, Wolfsbane and Dazzler along with Avengers Tigra and Ms. Marvel. Challenging the threat of the Brotherhood of evil Mutants, the She-Force has what it takes to get the job done. Using their combined abilities, the She-Force takes down the Brotherhood in one explosive battle!”

Alison Blair, aka the Dazzler, was originally dreamed up as a collaboration between Marvel Comics and Casablanca Records, first as “Disco Queen,” then “Disco Dazzler,” then simply “Dazzler,” as an attempt at a multimedia character, existing not just in the comics, but also as a “real” performer, much like the Archies, with albums, animated appearances, and possibly even real life performances as well.  The multimedia element proved difficult to make work on a reasonable schedule, and ideas kept shifting, and ultimately Marvel opted to just make her a proper Marvel character, introducing her in the pages of X-Men, before allowing her to move out into the wider universe.  Though never exactly A-list, she’s gotten quite a following over the years.  Despite debuting in 1980, she would get her first action figure until well into the ‘90s, with a figure I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dazzler was released in Series 6 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Hall of Fame line, a Puzzle Zoo-exclusive line of repaints and re-issues.  Series 6 was the second batch of “She-Force” figures for the line.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation.  As with the rest of the line, Dazzler is a total parts re-use.  In her case, it’s Black Cat’s head on Invisible Woman’s body.  Interestingly, this exact same combo was used for Jean Grey in the Famous Couples two-pack.  Honestly, it might work a bit better for Dazzler, since the hair in particular feels like a pretty good match for her disco-era look.  The body is decent enough, though it’s a more conventional super her suit than Dazzler’s bell-bottomed disco jumpsuit.  There are some adjustments to her overall look, so as to better match up with the sculpted costume elements of the body, which is a little surprising, since Toy Biz tended to just ignore such things outright.  The paint work does an okay job of capturing her look.  It’s largely basic, but the eye details are pretty sharp, and the hair gets some nice accent work.  The paint on the hair is a little tacky, though, and prone to catching a lot of dust.  Dazzler is packed with a recolored pair of Jubilee’s roller blades, as well as her effect piece.  While the skates aren’t quite the right vintage for Dazzler’s, it’s an inspired re-use to say the least, and the effect piece is also nice, even if it’s a little awkward in her hand.  Also included is a Fleer trading card, which for my figure was a Cyclops.  That’s pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember seeing this figure when she was relatively new. However, my only exposure to the character at the time was “Pryde of the X-Men” and her brief appearance in X-Men: The Animated Series, both of which use her ‘80s flashdance look, so I didn’t really connect with this design.  In more recent years, I’ve gained a better appreciation for the older look (though I do still sort of prefer the later design), so I finally tracked her down, when she was part of a collection that Cosmic Comix bought about five years or so ago.  She’s a good example of the parts re-use approach being a solid way to expand the line-up when used well.  There are some minor oddities, but mostly she’s a good approximation of the character, and it’s clear who she’s supposed to be when on the shelf.

#4087: Qui-Gon Jinn — Jedi Duel

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

QUI-GON JINN — JEDI DUEL

STAR WARS: EPISODE I (HASBRO)

“A wise and powerful Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn discovers young Anakin Skywalker, proving to be a pivotal event to the future of the Jedi and to the entire galaxy for generations to come.”

Hey, remember last week when I said my Episode I collection was just Obi-Wans and Qui-Gons?  Well, I wasn’t lying. I wouldn’t do that to you, dear reader.  No, I believe in always telling the truth.  Unless a lie is funnier.  Then I might lie.  But is only having a collection of Obi-Wans and Qui-Gons from Episode I all that funny?  I don’t think so, so it’s probably not worth lying about.  Are you all keeping up with me on this?  If I’m honest, I’m mostly just monologuing a bit here so that I don’t have to come up with anything else to say in this intro.  Here’s Qui-Gon!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Qui-Gon Jinn — Jedi Duel was released in the big initial product launch for Star Wars: Episode I from Hasbro in 1999.  He was the standard Qui-Gon, meant to pair off with the “Jedi Duel” Obi-Wan for the purposes of facing off against the “Jedi Duel” Darth Maul.  It’s all nice and tidy that way.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  Like the Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon had additional movement at the elbows and wrists, allowing for better holding of his lightsaber, thereby better fitting the whole “Jedi Duel” thing.  His sculpt was unique, though similar in style to the Obi-Wan figure.  He’s maybe a bit stiff in terms of posing and how the outfit hangs, but it’s not awful.  His head looks like Qui-Gon the character, I guess, but not very much like Liam Neeson the actor; he just seems to lack Neeson’s more unique features, resulting in a far more generic sculpt that seems to rely more on the hair and beard to sell the character.  The hair hangs slightly over the shoulders, which restricts the neck movement a bit, and the lower portion of his tunic likewise restricts the hips, but he’s otherwise decently posable, which is nice for a figure of this era.  His paint work is very similar to the deluxe version I looked at two weeks ago, at least in terms of colors and general layout.  Once more, the hair and beard get a bit of grey accenting, which makes things just the slightest bit more realistic.  Qui-Gon is packed with his lightsaber and a CommTech display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in my last Qui-Gon review, the deluxe was my original Qui-Gon, and this one followed shortly after, but I’d already gotten attached to the first one, and so this one was never as much of an interest for me.  I suppose he’s a better figure from a technical standpoint, but I can’t say he really does much for me that the other one doesn’t, and I still feel like the sculpt on the other one looks more like Qui-Gon.  But, as far as basic figures go, this one checks all the boxes and is far from a bad figure.