Tag Archives: 90s

#3925: Princess Leia Organa in Hoth Gear

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

PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA in HOTH GEAR

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Imperial snowtroopers have been spotted inside Hoth’s Rebel base. Little time remains for Princess Leia and Han Solo to make it to the Millennium Falcon and escape with their lives.”

Kenner’s Power of the Force II hit its high-points for production in 1997 and 1998, as demand steadily rose through the line’s run.  However, as they started jumping deeper into the weird cuts of characters, and production was not scaled back, things started to become stagnant.  The line was subsequently reined in, and refocused, as they prepared for the incoming push for Episode I.  With a great many of the “Freeze Frame” era figures still lingering at retail, the final four figures for the sub-set were released not at main retail, but rather through a Fan Club-exclusive assortment in 1998.  Of the characters featured, by far the most noteworthy was Princess Leia in her Hoth attire.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Princess Leia Organa in Hoth Gear was released as part of the aforementioned Fan Club assortment of Star Wars: Power of the Force II in 1998.  She in particular had an interesting journey to release, first intended for release in the “Complete Galaxy” sub-line, which was cancelled, then intended to go with a Hoth 3D display, which was also canceled, before being moved to single release for an assortment that was also almost cancelled.  At least she made it out.  The figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  Her sculpt was unique, and not shared with the Cinema Scenes release of the same design, though admittedly, they’re pretty close in terms of styling.  This one gets a stiffer, more generic standing pose, instead of the more scene-specific one from the multi-pack.  Neither is really better than the other, they’re just different enough to be different.  Sculpting is pretty sharp, and the detailing on the outfit is particularly impressive.  Her color work is also a bit different than the other version, but not better or worse.  The hair’s a little darker, and the face is a little sharper.  The weathering on the outfit is also a cooler shade, and more focussed on her legs.  It still seems a little heavy handed, but it’s not awful.  Leia is packed with a blaster, which is a re-use of the Han-style one that they loved so much.  It’s fine.  It’s not remotely accurate, but it’s fine.  She also gets a freeze frame showing a scene from the Hoth evacuation.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had none of the Fan Club figures as a kid because I honestly didn’t know that was a thing the Fan Club did.  Kinda wish I could have gotten in on such a thing.  Seems right up my alley.  Instead, I’ve been slowly tracking them down.  They’re not expensive, mind you, just a lot less likely to show up than the others in the line.  Leia here was found mixed in with a batch of otherwise not noteworthy figures from the earlier run.  She’s perfectly fine.  It’s crazy how many steps there were to getting her release, but she’s a decent figure of one of the character’s main looks.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3922: Gambit & Rogue

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

GAMBIT & ROGUE

MARVEL’S FAMOUS COUPLES (TOY BIZ)

“Even though they’ve only kissed once, Gambit and Rogue are one of the X-Men’s greatest couples. Kept apart by Rogues mutant ability to absorb the memories and powers of whoever she touches, this couple still finds themselves inevitably drawn together. Whether they’re battling the Sentinels or walking side-by-side in the part, Gambit and Rogue know that there is nowhere they’d rather be than together.”

Hey, that’s not a bad bio…for the mainstream Gambit and Rogue…who these aren’t.  Confused?  Allow me to explain.  In 1996, Toy Biz dedicated a single series of their X-Men line to the “Age of Apocalypse” storyline.  It wasn’t really much coverage, but did its best to hit some of the heavy hitters.  It was originally a six figure line-up, but was cut down to five prior to release (something faced by the Iron Man and Fantastic Four lines at the same time, which led to US Agent and Adam Warlock getting cut), with the alternate universe version of Gambit winding up on the chopping block.  Not wanting to let a wholly new sculpt go to waste, Gambit was ultimately salvaged for use in a Famous Couples two-pack, alongside a similarly themed Rogue figure.  All well and good, apart from the two not *actually* being a proper couple in the alternate universe, and certainly not a “famous” one.  Ah, we’ll give them a pass on this one.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Gambit and Rogue are another of the three two-packs from the Toys “R” Us-exclusive Marvel’s Famous Couples line.  Each pair was released separately, with this pair hitting in 1997, during the run’s second year.  The set includes the two figures, their relevant accessories, and a metal pin depicting the two of them.  At least it’s got more direct purpose than the weird metal thing from the Cyclops and Jean set.

GAMBIT

Gambit is really the whole reason this set exists in the first place, as a means to release the unused AoA Gambit from the main X-Men line.  The AoA Gambit design is…well, it’s something.  Of all the designs, his feels the most like it delves into different for different, and it ultimately suffers from not being nearly as striking as the mainstream equivalent.  But, it’s certainly *different* so I’ll give it that.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation. The left shoulder is spring-loaded, so he’s got sort of a flinging action.  It also robs him of his elbow movement.  The sculpt is decent enough.  Rather on the pre-posed side, but pretty much on par with the other AoA figures.  He does wind up rather contorted, especially when it comes to the neck, which looks pretty strange in most poses.  He’s also a little tricky to keep standing.  His cape is a separate piece, and it’s kind of floaty and never seems to quite sit right.  His color work does alright.  This design is a bit slapdash in its color choices, kind of like they just picked at random, but they replicate them well here.  The application’s generally okay, though the skin tone on his face is quite thick, obscuring the sculpted details quite a bit.  Gambit is packed with his staff piece, as well as an energy piece for him to throw, which is, for some reason, cast in opaque blue.

ROGUE

Rogue’s a pretty notable character in AoA, and honestly more noteworthy than Gambit, so the fact that she wasn’t even planned at all for the line-up does seem kind of odd.  There are, notably, no women in the AoA series from ’96, so it might have been a retailer thing.  At least she didn’t ultimately have to wait too long.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  Since Rogue didn’t have a pre-existing mold sitting around to use, Toy Biz had to sort of improvise a bit.  They opted to re-use the mold from the Generation X White Queen figure, which isn’t a bad sculpt, but also isn’t exceedingly much like Rogue’s design from the cross-over.  I guess the head’s not too far off, and they decided to just make the rest of it work as best they could?  Honestly, it does work out a bit better than I’d expected, so I’ll give them some credit on their inventiveness there.  There’s a cloth robe/vest piece, which replaces the jacket of the original mold, and largely serves to hide a little bit more of what’s going on, which it’s ultimately okay at.  Otherwise, it’s paint work doing the heavy lifting.  It’s very much takes Toy Biz’s patented “just completely ignore the sculpted elements” approach, which is what it is.  I do like the colors, though, especially with the metallic sheen the whole thing gets.  Rogue gets a stand, which is the Generation X stand, but in gold instead of red.  Since she’s a bit iffy on her feet, the stand is certainly nice.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back in the early days of collecting for me, it was less immediately clear what figures actually got released.  As such, it was a little while before I learned that there was never *actually* a single release for the AoA Gambit on the back of all the boxes.  I made do at the time with the light-up release, and didn’t know of this one’s release for a few more years.  I ended up getting this one at the same time as last week’s Cyclops and Jean.  It’s nice that they were able to get the Gambit figure out in some way, and also that they found a means to release a Rogue from the story, resulting in a pretty nice selection of the AoA cast in the longer run.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased these figures for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0043: Princess Leia Organa

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

PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Yesterday’s proper review revisited an old Leia design for Power of the Force, but to keep things neat and tidy, today’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum jumps back to an old review of an old figure of an old design, because I think it’s earned it…or something to that effect.  Here’s Leia!

“After many unsuccessful attempts to bring change to the Empire as a senator, Princess Leia Organa became involved in the Rebel Alliance and immediately established herself as one of its most popular and influential leaders. Although it was extremely dangerous for someone of her prominence. Leia often participated in secret missions for the rebellion. It was during one such mission to recruit General Obi-Wan Kenobi that she obtained the technical readouts for the Empire’s new Death Star battle station. Moments before being captured by Darth Vader, Leia hid the plans in the droid R2-D2, who then escaped to the planet Tatooine to find Kenobi.”

Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve looked at both Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in their Stormtrooper disguises, which they use to sneak into the Deathstar detention center. I haven’t yet looked at the subject of their rescue (who ends up doing a little bit of the rescuing herself), Princess Leia Organa. So, I’m going to amend that today, by looking at one of the worst Leia figures in existence. Yay?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Princess Leia was released in the first series of Kenner’s Power of the Force II, where she wound up as the short-packed figure. She was the first of several Leia figures from the line, and is based on her introductory look, her main appearance from A New Hope. The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation. Despite Carrie Fisher being a good deal shorter than most of her cast mates, Leia isn’t noticeably shorter than the other figures in the line. This was a trend that wouldn’t really be corrected until the line re-formated after The Phantom Menace. Leia’s sculpt was unique to her, which is a good thing, because that means Kenner realized the horrible mistake they’d made and never allowed it to occur again. I’m sorry, was that too harsh? Yeah, I’m not much of a fan of this sculpt. She’s preposed, she’s got really goofy proportions, her costume’s kind of strangely inaccurate, and, most importantly, her face looks not unlike a monkey. Seriously, look at that face and tell me that doesn’t look at all like Zira. None of the PotF2 figures had particularly great likenesses, but every other Leia in the line was way better than this. I’m trying to find something positive to say about this sculpt…the hair’s not terrible, I guess? Her paint’s pretty simple, since she’s mostly just molded in white plastic, which a little bit of paint here and there. It’s not terrible. Leia included two different styles of blaster pistol (both of which are missing from my figure), as well as a removable cape and skirt. The cape is a bit baffling, as it just sort of continues the trend of Kenner clearly having no idea what Leia was actually wearing in the film. I suppose this was a bit closer than the vintage release?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ah, this one. This one’s an important one. Why? Because this is the figure that introduced me to my arch-nemesis: The Scalper! Yes, in my quest for this figure, I had an unfortunate run-in with a horrid man-creature, which I detailed a few years ago in the ever so eloquently titled “GAHHHHHHHHH!” Suffice it to say, I did eventually get the figure through non-scalped means, thanks to some dutiful work on my parents’ part. This was my first Leia, and I have aa whole story that goes with her, which gives her all this great emotional value. It’s a shame the actual figure kind of sucks. I mean, I’m glad I have her, but there’s no denying that she’s just a bad figure. 

Just right out of the gate declaring it one of the worst Leia figures ever.  You know, sometimes I find past me to be a little harsh to older figures, but I can’t really deviate too much on this one.  The original Power of the Force Leia is just simply not a good figure, and no amount of time or distance or nostalgia can really change that.  I think the best I can give her is that she sort of fits in well with the others from the early run? It’s not ideal.  When I first reviewed her, I was dealing with my original, which lacked either blaster, as well as the cape.  She’s still my original, but a good chunk of time dealing with loose Star Wars parts lots let me fish out all of her missing parts over the years, so eight years later, she’s actually complete.  At least she’s got that going for her, right?

#3921: Princess Leia Organa

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

PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Held captive in the Death Star, the princess is interrogated by Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin. Leia was ordered to reveal the location of the secret Rebel base or see her home planet of Alderaan destroyed.”

The Power of the Force line with major looks for almost all of the major players in the Original Trilogy.  The main trio, in particular, were all presented in their main looks from A New Hope, with figures that were…let’s be diplomatic here and say “very stylized.”  All of those looks would be revisited later in the line, as it evolved, including Princess Leia’s hair-bun-sporting debut look, which I’m taking another look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Princess Leia Organa was released as part of Kenner’s Power of the Force II line in 1998.  With four separate single figures released that year, Leia was the most prominent of the main players.  Like the “Princess Leia Collection” release before it, this one returns to her main look from A New Hope, now bearing an “All New Likeness!” as advertised by a sticker on the front of the box.  The figure stands just under 3 3/4 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation…in technicality.  The legs are, of course, not much use under the rubber dress piece, so they mostly just offer the ability to do some slight tweaking for keeping her standing.  Her sculpt was all-new, and as far as I know, it remained that way.  It’s not bad.  Certainly an improvement over the original release, especially when it comes to the head sculpt.  The body has a lot of pre-posing to it, as she’s sculpted to hold a blaster rifle.  It does alright, but she’s slightly hard to keep stable.  The details are a little sharper than the “Princess Leia Collection” figure, but I think it’s ultimately not *quite* as nice looking.  Still certainly not a bad sculpt.  The paint’s basic, and pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a figure from this line.  It does what it needs to, and it does it just fine.  She’s packed with a Stormtrooper blaster, her blaster pistol, and a Freeze Frame showing her during the destruction of Alderan.  It’s interesting, because she’s clearly supposed to be a Leia from her rescue, but then they gave her the Alderan destruction Frame.  The rifle is modified so that she can more easily hold it, and it was also designed with giving it to the otherwise unarmed mail-away Han Solo figure from Kellogg’s in mind, if you’re so inclined.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As has been something of a recurring theme with my more recent Power of the Force reviews, Leia is a figure that I bought a few years ago in a batch with a bunch of others from the line, who has been sitting unopened in my office for the entire time I’ve owned her, until about two days before I sat down to write this review.  She kind of gets lost in the sea of Leia figures, I suppose.  She’s not bad, but she doesn’t do a ton to stand out on her own, ultimately.  Still, she’s a marked improvement on the original, and a solid figure in her own right.

#3918: Cyclops & Jean Grey

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

CYCLOPS & JEAN GREY

MARVEL’S FAMOUS COUPLES (TOY BIZ)

“As founding members of the mutant team of super heroes called the X-Men, Scott Summers and Jean Grey began a friendship that quickly blossomed into love. Adventuring around the globe and even into outer space, Scott and Jean have faced the most terrifying of threats. But even when hardships struck this duo, they’ve struggled to overcome the danger and emerge together even stronger than before. Now married, Cyclops and Phoenix are the foundation of the X-Men team!”

During their expansive ‘90s run with Marvel, Toy Biz really experimented with all sorts of ways to get as many figures as possible out on the market.  While the bulk of their figures were single-carded assortments, they also had all manner of multi-packs, of all manner of themes.  In the latter half of the decade, they put out a decent chunk of themed two-packs, usually exclusive to specific retailers.  One of the larger sets of these was Famous Couples, which paired off some of the best known couples in the Marvel Universe.  And, you can hardly do such a set without touching on really the central couple of the X-universe, Cyclops and whatever code name Jean Grey is using this week!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cyclops and Jean Grey are one of the three two-packs that made up the Marvel’s Famous Couples line.  It was a Toys “R” Us-exclusive run, with each pair getting a 24,000 piece production.  The sets were released individually, with Scott and Jean coming from the line’s second year.  In addition to character-specific accessories (which I’ll address in the relevant sections), the set included a weird pressed metal sort of thing depicting the two embracing in a way that the figure’s could only dream of.

CYCLOPS

Cyclops had no shortage of figures under Toy Biz.  They covered most of his major looks, and this one was rather unique.  It’s his late-run X-Factor attire, which lasted all of 7 issues, but had a lot of influence on the later Jim Lee re-design.  This is the only time it’s gotten a figure, which is pretty neat.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He’s a total kit bash figure, with the head from the Monster Armor release and the body of Archangel II.  Boy, did Toy Biz sure love that Archangel II body.  It’s an…interesting combo.  The head has that whole screaming thing going on, which is odd enough on the original release, where it’s worked into the whole body.  It’s extra odd on this very stiffly posed body.  Presumably, it was chosen as a reference to the cover of Uncanny X-Men #280, but given that the sculpt for the X-Men vs Street Fighter Cyclops was in production at the same time, it does feel like a bit of a shame that one wasn’t re-used.  The body’s fine, but still has the sculpted wrist cuffs that don’t line up with Scott’s costume, and also still the visible spots on the back where the wings would have connected.  Scott’s paint work is rather sloppy around the edges, but I do like the colors, especially the metallic blue.  Scott is packed with a recolored version of the Cerebro blaster from the Generation X Banshee, which is…fine?  I don’t know.  It’s a weird accessory, and it doesn’t really fit him, and he can’t hold it.

JEAN GREY

Jean was a little rarer under Toy Biz, but still on her third separate mold here, so that’s not so bad.  Like Scott, she’s in her short-lived X-Factor costume, which she had for the exact same span of time, and which has likewise not received any other figures.  The figure is 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation, though the neck is very restricted.  Jean is also totally parts re-use, but curiously, none of the parts were previously Jean Grey figures.  Instead, she gets Black Cat’s head on Invisible Woman’s body.  Admittedly not a bad combo, and I’m honestly a little surprised it never got re-used for a more proper ‘90s Jean.  It’s a little stiff, and you can still see the costume elements for Sue on the body, but it does feel less clunky than Scott.  The paint is also a little cleaner here.  The colors remain the same, and she still gets that really cool metallic blue, which I still really dig.  Jean gets Blizzard’s ice fist and cane, but now in translucent red.  Not totally sure why, but they’re cool enough.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I vividly recall looking at this set multiple times when it was new, but for whatever reason, I never actually bought it.  Seems sort of silly, because it’s a Cyclops, and I do love an excuse to buy those.  This one got traded into All Time Toys a couple of years ago in a much larger Toy Biz collection that I bought way too much of.  A good cross section of the two-packs was present, so that made that part easier.  They’ve been sitting in my office waiting to be opened for a bit, but I finally cracked open a bunch of them in the spring, as I’ve been trying to get more of my Toy Biz stuff out on display.  This set’s kinda weird and quirky.  But also, I kinda dig it.  Like, it’s not great, and it’s not Toy Biz’s best take on either character, but they’re a fun and unique pair.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased these figures for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0042: Eric the Red

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

ERIC THE RED

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

It’s Friday, and that means we’re flashing back into another figure addendum!  I get to dive back into the world of Toy Biz Marvel, which is of course one of my very favorite things.  Specifically, I’m going back to my own personal earliest days, and revisiting the one and only ever action figure of X-Men antagonist Eric the Red!

Eric the Red was a famous Viking, known for being the father of—wait, sorry. That’s not the right Eric the Red. Right. Umm… Eric the Red was an alias used by X-Man Cyclops in order to infiltrate a group of villains so he could rescue the rest of the X-Men. What? Still not right? Hang on….

Here it is: Eric the Red was a member of the Shi’ar Empire, the alien race most notable for really hating the Phoenix. He actually stole the identity from Cyclops, for reasons unknown, and used Shi’ar tech to mind control Havok and Polaris into battling the current team of X-Men. Mostly, he’s known for his appearances in the 90s X-Men cartoon during the show’s version of The Phoenix Saga, which is what earned him this figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Eric the Red was released in the “Invasion Series” of ToyBiz’s X-Men line. In all honesty, I’m a bit surprised he wasn’t part of the wave meant to tie-in to The Phoenix Saga, but I guess ToyBiz was just making everything X-Men related at the time. The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation. That’s a bit less than the norm, mostly due to his lack of knee joints. I’m not really sure why he’s missing them, but they do cause him to be a little difficult to get to stand properly. From a sculpting standpoint, the figure’s amazing. The 90s X-Men line could be a bit odd or overly simplistic at times (doesn’t mean I don’t still love them), but this one is genuinely great. He pretty much looks dead on to Dave Cockrum’s interpretation of the character, which is really cool to see. There’s an amazing amount of sculpted detail, and I especially love how well the head’s been handled. It just looks perfect. The paint work isn’t quite as astounding as the sculpting, but it’s all well applied, and I do really like that all the red parts have been molded in metallic red. Eric included a crazy space blaster, which fit very nicely in his hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Eric was a Christmas gift from my parents. I received him, along with Havok, I believe. He was a very early addition to my action figure collection, and as such, I have a lot of nostalgia for this guy. It also helps that he was in The Phoenix Saga, which I owned on VHS, and that he is also just a pretty great figure. He also made for a really great bad guy for just about anyone to fight, which is always cool. 

This review came from roughly the middle of the first year, and was a very early review for Toy Biz X-Men.  He’s only the second mainline figure I looked at here on the site, which is honestly a pretty deep pull, but also feels very appropriate for me.  I think my review’s generally not bad.  It helps that he’s a figure I genuinely like a lot, and I think that comes through pretty well.  I do still have a few notes.  Firstly, my figure was missing his “crazy space blaster” as I dubbed in my review, which I have subsequently replaced.  It’s a pretty basic piece, and he does hold it well.  Something I glossed over in Eric’s review, but talked more about in my year-end wrap-up review for Havok, is that Eric and Havok are my first two X-Men figures, purchased for me by my father for Christmas the year they came out.  Allegedly, my mother raised some concern that I wouldn’t know the characters, but that was pretty well squashed when I opened them Christmas morning.  Eric doesn’t maintain quite the same significance for me that Havok does, but he’s still pretty up there, and I do still really love this figure.

#3917: Princess Leia & Wicket

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

PRINCESS LEIA & WICKET

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“The Ewok named Wicket was the first of his clan to find Princess Leia after she crashed a speeder bike in the dense woods of Endor. Their friendship allied the Ewoks and Rebels so that together they could help defeat the evil Empire!”

Remember last week, when I revisited the “Princess Leia Collection” for the first time in almost an entire decade?  Great, well, that’ll serve as a good refresher for today’s entry, which is another one of those.  Look, sometimes I remember something, and I just can’t shake it until it’s wrapped up.  This is one of those times.  I jumped back in, and I feel an undying need to wrap this set up.  So, let’s jump into the only of the original trilogy I haven’t looked at from this particular sub-set, Return of the Jedi, with its Leia and Wicket-centered presence!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Princess Leia and Wicket are the fourth and final two-pack in Kenner’s “Princess Leia Collection” sub-line of Star Wars: Power of the Force II.  As touched on in the intro, they’re the only set based on Return of the Jedi.  Like last week’s Leia and R2, this set consists of a new Leia, packed with a re-pack of the standard Wicket from the main line.

Leia is once again the main selling point of the set, which makes sense, what with the collection being named after her and all.  She’s seen here in her Ewok dress from Jedi, which is interesting for two notes.  Firstly, the packaging shows an image of Leia in her Endor assault gear, from her first (and most prominent) scene with Wicket, rather than the dress.  Secondly, the dress got a standard line release shortly after this one, making it a bit of a crowded market for the look.  I think it might have been cool to do the Endor gear, since it would have been neat to get the cloth poncho, like the vintage line, and it might have been a more fun design.  But, I’m also just kind of partial to that look.  This one does fit the vibe of the line and its more girl-oriented angles a bit better.  The figure is about 3 1/2 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  She does the same mixed media approach as the other Leis from this line.  It works well enough.  The cloth used for the dress is heavy, and hangs well, and the actual braids in the hair are admittedly kind of neat.  Her coloring is a bit of a departure; rather than the brown shades of the actual dress in the movie, she’s got more of a pink hue, again seemingly to make her fit the general aesthetic they were going for a bit more.  It honestly works in her favor, because it’s s slightly more endearing color scheme.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve never been much for this particular design for Leia, and I wasn’t relishing having to get it *twice* for a Power of the Force collection, but I did it, because that’s what I do, I guess.  Ultimately, it was more that this set was very cheap and easy to snag, so that got me on board.  I like it more than I expected to.  This design especially lends itself more to this style of line, and that does it a lot of favors the standard line didn’t have.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3914: Captain America & Bucky

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA & BUCKY

AMERICAN HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“Taking Part in the U.S. Army’s Super-Soldier program during the World War II, Steve Rogers was transformed into red-white-and-blue shield-throwing Captain America! Fighting against the enemies of freedom, Cap inspired millions of people around the world with his bravery–and one of these people was teenager, Bucky Barnes. Learning the secret of Captain America’s true identity, Bucky became Cap’s friend and sidekick–joining him to fight evil on their many adventures as they became two great American Heroes!”

Fighting Nazis: it never goes out of style!

Captain America and his sidekick Bucky Barnes debuted alongside each other in Captain America Comics #1 in 1941, and remained a pretty fixed pair for their first seven years of existence.  However, when Cap was revived in the “modern” age in the ‘60s, it was revealed that the accident that froze Cap also killed Bucky.  For 40 years, Bucky was on the list of exceptions to the “nobody stays dead in comics” rule, alongside the likes of Jason Todd, Uncle Ben, and Gwen Stacy.  Boy, that’s a shorter list these days, huh?  During his 40 years being dead, Bucky was kind of rare on the toy front.  Cap and his related characters were generally on the rarer side in general during the early Toy Biz days, but Bucky did get one figure during the run, alongside another figure of Cap himself.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Captain America and Bucky make up the “American Heroes” two-pack, released as a one-off two-pack as part of Toy Biz’s wider 5-inch Marvel range in 1998.  They had an edition size of 20,000, at least according to the package.  The pack includes the two figures, as well as a magnetic address book with an illustration of the two on the front.  Why do they come with an address book?  Great question.  No clue.  But there it is, and Toy Biz isn’t taking my calls.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

There were seven Captain Americas in Toy Biz’s 5-inch line, and four of them were variations on the same figure.  This is one of those four.  The figure stands about 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  His mold is a re-use of the Electro Spark release from the Spider-Man line in 1996.  The mold has its ups and its downs.  It was certainly one of Toy Biz’s favorites for the character, but it’s rather big and bulky, and he’s quite angry looking.  All that said, it’s got a sort of quaintness to it, and I find myself always enjoying it whenever I mess with it.  The sculpt remains unchanged here, so this figure has two notable change-ups.  Firstly, there’s the paint work.  The actual paint masks remain the same as the Electro Spark version, but the colors themselves have changed.  The blue is notably a much brighter shade, his skin isn’t quite as pale, and the white sections have a more pearlescent sheen.  On my copy, the general application also seems to be a little cleaner than his earlier release.  It’s just a much better set-up than the prior figure, and really the best this mold got to look.  The other change-up is on the accessories, or rather accessory.  He drops the weird transforming armor bit, and instead of the really thick light-up shield, he gets a more proper version, which is similar to the one with the Marvel vs Capcom figure, but less fragile.

BUCKY

The still very much dead at this time Bucky had never gotten a figure prior to this, making him very definitely the selling point of this set.  He’s seen here in his classic attire, because what else are you going to put Bucky into, I guess?  The figure stands right at 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  Bucky is a total parts re-use like Cap, but since this was the first Bucky figure ever, he’s re-using parts from other characters.  He’s mostly re-using parts from the Incredible Hulk line’s Doc Samson figure, topped off with the head of Peter Parker.  Samson’s kind of bulky and muscle-bound for what I’d usually think of for Bucky, but at the same time, when paired off with that really quite large Captain America sculpt, he doesn’t feel too crazy out of place.  If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say Samson was largely chosen because he has the cuffed boots already.  He doesn’t have Bucky’s cuffed gloves or collar, though.  In the case of the gloves, he gets extra wrist cuff pieces made from cloth, while the collar is just ignored by the sculpt all together.  The paint does what it can to transform the re-used parts into something more Bucky-like.  The head’s mask does an okay job of differentiating him from Peter, and most of the costume elements are fine.  As is so often the case, you have to ignore some sculpted details that just get painted over, in this case Samson’s etched-in collar to his shirt.  They do at least use the front of that detail as the top of Bucky’s jacket flap, so it could be worse.  The red collar being painted is probably the weakest element here but ultimately, it all works a bit better than expected.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I spent a lot of time watching my VHS copies of the Ruby-Spears Captain America cartoons, which Bucky figures quite prominently into.  As such, I was always eager to add a Bucky to my collection, and I recall being very excited when this set was announced.  Unfortunately, it never really showed up in stores near me, so I never got one.  Bucky had my animated Nightwing figure as his stand-in, with a story that he had actually been woken up years before Cap and that was why he was older and his hair was longer…did I come up with the Winter Soldier idea in 2000?  Maybe, but also is it really *that* original an idea?  I assure you that 8-year-old me certainly didn’t have a Russian sleeper agent angle…mostly because I didn’t really know what that was.  I’m getting sidetracked.  I’ve had my eye out for this set for a while, and I finally found one for a price I liked over the summer, so here it is.  I like it a lot.  Cap is the best version of this mold they did, and that’s pretty cool.  Bucky feels like he *shouldn’t* work being cobbled together the way he is, and yet, in “whole is better than the sum of the parts” situation, he really just does.

#3913: Princess Leia & R2-D2

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

PRINCESS LEIA & R2-D2

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Moments before being captured by the evil Darth Vader, Princess Leia inserts secret plans for a new Imperial battle station into her loyal astromech droid, R2-D2”

Waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 2016 (which was almost a decade ago, and also falls into my view of the site being in the full swing of things; that doesn’t make me feel old *at all*), I did a couple of reviews of “The Princess Leia Collection,” an off-shoot of Power of the Force from 1997.  I didn’t talk much about what it actually was, though, so I guess I’ll do that now.  In 1997, Kenner brought in the “girls division” for some fresh Star Wars products with a slightly different approach than what they’d been doing.  One of the two notable projects was the Princess Leia Collection, which was a series of two-packs, centering on Leia, and bringing some more doll-like sensibilities to figures that could otherwise interact with the main line.  Here’s Leia and R2 from that line.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Princess Leia & R2-D2 were one of the four two-packs that made up 1997’s “Princess Leia Collection” assortment of Star Wars: Power of the Force.  They were from A New Hope, which was granted two different sets, in contrast to the single set for each of the other movies.  While both the Luke and Han sets were made up of totally new figures, this set features a straight re-pack of the standard R2-D2, reviewed here.

Leia is the main selling point here, which is sensible.  This was one of four figures based on her standard A New Hope design.  It’s certainly better than the first one, but most things are.  The figure stands 3 1/2 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  All of the Leia figures in this line were heavy on their use of soft-goods, with minimal sculpting visible.  The head is a unique piece, and it’s much better than the prior one; it looks distinctly not monkey-ish in its depiction, so that’s a win.  She also gets a sculpted belt piece, which is good for keeping the general shaping of the design down.  The underlying body is basic and rudimentary, but it does what it needs to, and it’s not meant to be seen.  Covering it up is a cloth robe piece.  It’s nothing crazy, but it’s pretty decently implemented.  My biggest complaint is that the hood it tailored more like a cape, so she can’t actually put it up, which is a bummer.  But, she looks good when it’s all just left the way it is.  Leia’s paint is largely limited to the head.  Again, pretty good work.  Application is clean, and the sculpt is well-served by how the paint accents it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Luke and Han sets are the flashier pairings from this line, and also the most frequent to show up.  I had them back in 2015, but took my time finding the other half of the line.  This one wound up being the scarcest of the bunch, but all things said, that doesn’t make it especially rare or anything.  I ended up snagging a sealed one that got traded in through work a couple of years ago.  As with so many things Power of the Force related, I opened it just prior to writing this.  R2 is the same figure from before, which is fine, but not new.  Leia’s actually quite a nice figure, and probably the best standard Leia the line had to offer.

Shoutout to 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.

#3910: Grey Hulk

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

GREY HULK

SILVER AGE (TOY BIZ)

“Meet Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, a nuclear physicist working for the United States Defense Department. Dr. Banner designed a Gamma Bomb, a weapon that emitted a high output of gamma radiation. During the testing of the bomb, Dr. Banner attempted to rescue a civilian who had wandered onto the test site. Banner was caught in the blast and thanks to an unknown genetic factor, was transformed into a grey-skinned behemoth known as the Hulk. The meek and timid Banner, when enraged, changes into the unstoppable Hulk. Possessing unearthly strength, the Hulk can easily lift 70 tons. While in Hulk form, he is nearly impervious to harm as well. Make no mistake, the Hulk more than lives up to his name and has yet to meet his equal in sheer brute force.”

Hey, look it’s a Grey Hulk.  Or perhaps a Gray Hulk.  You know, depending on your take on spellings.  This one’s emphatically a “Grey” Hulk, and I’m gonna go so far as to say that it’s ultimately this figure’s fault that I default to the “e” spelling over the “a” spelling.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  I’ve thoroughly exhausted the one real bit of trivia I have for Grey Hulk, so I won’t bring it up again.  I’ll just assume you know why he shifted from grey to green in the comics.  Because of that shift, however (and Marvel’s recoloring of reprints of his original appearance), Hulk merchandise always stuck to his emerald pallor.  It was a pretty big deal to get any sort of Grey Hulk at all, and an especially big deal for it to not be a Joe Fixit variant.  So, hey, let’s check out the big deal.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Grey Hulk is the fourth and final figure in Toy Biz’s Silver Age line, a PX-exclusive assortment from 1999.  He, like last week’s Spidey, is actually true to the line’s name, and perhaps one of the very best uses of such an idea.  As noted above, this was the first proper Grey Hulk figure released, which was very cool.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He wasn’t especially big, but I guess Grey Hulk was kind of on the smaller side.  The articulation is notably limited, with no elbows or knees, which happened a lot with the Hulks.  Most of his sculpt is a re-use of the “Crash-Out Action” Hulk from the main Hulk line’s “Smash & Crash” assortment.  It was that line’s take on the standard look for the character from the UPN series at the time.  Issues of size and articulation aside, it’s a decent basic Hulk sculpt, and it fits in well with the rest of the Toy Biz figures of the time.  Since that figure’s head sculpt was very much a later style Hulk, this guy gets a new head, a rare new piece for the line.  It gives Hulk his shorter hair and more pronounced brow, and while it’s a touch soft, it’s generally a pretty nice sculpt.  He also gets a soft-goods shirt and shoes, so as to give him more of the tattered remains of Bruce Banner’s clothing, in line with the look on the original cover.  They’re admittedly a little dopey looking, but they’re also completely removable if they’re not your vibe.  The color work here’s not bad.  The grey is all painted, and there’s pretty extensive accenting, which works quite well.  Hulk is packed with a couple of pieces of wall, which are re-purposed from the Cyclops Laser Arena, a seven year old set that had no re-use up to this point.  Pretty impressive resourcefulness, honestly.  The new paint work makes them look a bit more natural than the original use as well, which is certainly a plus.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is the only Silver Age figure I had as a kid.  He was, if I’m recalling correctly, left for me by my dad the Tooth Fairy after I lost my first front tooth.  Sneaking an entire sealed figure under my pillow was a neat trick, I’ll tell you that.  I was always reading old Marvel comics, and the early Hulk look fascinated me, so he was right up my alley.  Despite not technically being a standard Hulk, he rivaled my Avengers boxed set Hulk for being my go-to Hulk at play time.  I lost the shirt, shoes, and wall shortly after getting him, I recall, but was able to get replacements more recently.  He holds up pretty well, and I think he’s probably the best figure in this particular set.