Tag Archives: 90s

#0346: The Riddler

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

RIDDLER

DC SUPER HEROES (TOYBIZ)

If there’s one positive to Toybiz’s DC Super Heroes line, it’s that they managed to do a few more figures in the Super Powers style. Most of the figures weren’t up to the same standards, but some mix in alright. One such figure is the Riddler, the well-known Batman foe. What’s interesting about the Riddler is that is seems that everyone but Kenner wanted to add him to the Super Powers line up. When Argentinian toy company Pacipa purchased the old Super Powers molds, they released their own Riddler, dubbed El Acertijo, made from repainted Green Lantern molds. Toybiz followed suit, also releasing their own version of the Riddler, which I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Riddler was released in the first series of Toybiz’s DC Superheroes. The figure is about 4 ½ inches tall and features 7 points of articulation. The first series of DC Superheroes made use of Super Powers molds with some slight retooling, and Riddler follows the trend. He’s a slightly retooled SP Flash figure with a new head. Flash has a pretty great sculpt, so Riddler has a pretty good starting point. They’ve made adjustments to give him his proper gloves and belt, so it makes him different enough from Flash that they don’t look bad on the same shelf. They’ve also tweaked his right hand so that it can hold something, which doesn’t really work. It just makes the fingers look really stubby. The new head is… well it’s a sculpt. It manages to be neither good nor bad. It’s just there. Which is okay, I guess. The paint is fine. Once again, it’s not amazing, but it’s not bad. The question marks are handled pretty well, so that’s good. The figure included no accessories, which is super annoying because they clearly re-sculpted his hand to hold something!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Green Lantern, Riddler was part of the rather sizeable selection of figures I picked up from Yesterday’s Fun over the summer. I mostly picked up Riddler to accent my Super Powers collection. For that purpose he’s not bad. I must admit, while he’s not a particularly good figure, he’s not horrid either, and he looks okay mixed in with other figures. He’s certainly better that the GL figure and he’s probably one of the best figure’s Toybiz released in this line. So there.

#0345: Green Lantern

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

GREEN LANTERN

DC SUPER HEROES (TOYBIZ)

The now defunct toy company Toybiz is a name that is most commonly associated with making Marvel toys. This isn’t surprising, of course. They ended up bailing Marvel out of bankruptcy in the mid-90s, leading to them becoming a part of Marvel proper and thereby passing the name onto Marvel’s in-house toy making branch. However, their first major property was not Marvel. No, it was actually Marvel’s main competition, DC. See, when Super Powers ended, DC was looking to move the DC license elsewhere. They turned to a small upstart company by the name of Toybiz, who launched a line simply titled DC Superheroes. The line was pretty much the same scale as Kenner’s Super Powers, mostly because it was pretty much just a slightly lower budget version of Super Powers. The sculpts were just slightly tweaked and made out of inferior plastic. Needless to say, DC wasn’t thrilled by this offering, and after just two series, the rights reverted back to Kenner. Today, I’ll be taking a look at that line’s version of Green Lantern!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern was released in the second series of Toybiz’s DC Super Heroes line. The figure is just shy of 5 inches tall and he features 7 points of articulation. The second series is a little different from the first in that they actually featured new sculpts, rather than just retooled SP ones. So, for better or for worse, GL got a brand new sculpt, wholly unique from his SP counterpart. I suppose it’s not fair to compare the work of Kenner at their prime to that of Toybiz in their infancy, but the sculpt of the TB Green Lantern is not up to the quality of his predecessor. The sculpt is wide and oddly proportioned. He’s got these bent arms, which are honestly impressive, because I’m surprised he could bend arms that thick. The torso is huge and ill defined, and the legs lack any real detail. The head looks not unlike a papier-mâché head sculpted over a balloon, which is not a compliment. To top it all off, the joints are horrendously obvious, to the point where you have to question if they did that on purpose. I suppose if I were really trying to find something nice to say, I’d say he bears a passing resemblance to the Filmation version of the character, which isn’t a terrible thing. The paint is…well it’s there. It’s mostly cleanly applied, but other than that, there’s not much to be said of it. The figure is incredibly shiny, which really plays up the whole obvious toy angle. The figure came with an array to let him squirt water from his ring or something. I don’t know, I bought mine loose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is another from the haul I picked up during the summer from the super cool Yesterday’s Fun. As an avid Green Lantern collector, it’s a figure I’d been looking to pick up for some time now, I’d just never gotten around to it. They had one for a reasonable price, so I went for it. Now I’m reminded of why I put off buying it. It’s not a terrible figure, it’s just overwhelmingly mediocre. It feels like one of those incredibly obvious toys they’d use on a TV show to more easily convey that it’s a toy. I just don’t quite know what they were thinking with this one, especially since it followed up figures that re-used the far superior Super Powers sculpts.

#0331: Mr. Freeze

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

MR FREEZE

BATMAN: THE NEW ADVENTURES (KENNER)

FreezeNA1

Batman: The Animated Series is easily one of the best interpretations of the Batman mythos ever. The characters that benefited best from the series were the more obscure Bat-villains, and none more so than cold-themed villain Mr. Freeze. When the series returned under the New Adventures label, all of the characters received new designs. Freeze received one of the most radical re-designs, and the design eventually made its way into Kenner’s then-current toyline based on the show.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

FreezeNAWilsonMr. Freeze was released in the first year of figures from Kenner’s Batman: The New Adventures line. The figure is based on the character’s appearance in the episode “Cold Comfort” which premiered his TNA design. The figure stands 5 inches tall and features 4 points of articulation. He lacks the usual neck joint present on the Kenner figure, thanks to his removable head. The figure sports a unique sculpt, which is meant to capture the Bruce Timm design of the character. The head is the best part, nicely capturing the gaunt look of Freeze, as well as nicely replicating his clear domed look. The body is pretty good, though the proportions don’t seem quite right. The biggest issue is that the legs are a little bit warped to one side. I’d be tempted to think it was just limited to mine, but ever other figure I’ve seen suffers from the same issue. The figure also has a flip down compartment in his torso, which has some pretty nice mechanical detailing on the inside. Like with the sculpt, the head features the best paint work. Everything is really clean and sharp. On the rest of the body, it’s not terrible, but it’s a little bit sloppy. Mr. Freeze included a freeze gun and a set of robotic legs that his head can be placed on.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mr. Freeze was always one of my favorite characters on the show, so I got Mr. Freeze when he was originally released. I lost the figure’s head, leaving me with a headless body. Recently, I found the head, but because life hates me, the body had gone missing. So, when my local comicbook store, Cosmic Comix, got Mr. Freeze in with a bunch of other loose figures, I just gave up and bought a replacement. The figure is pretty great, and he’s still one of my favorites from the line. I’m glad to have a complete one again!

FreezeNA2

#0291: Yellow Ranger

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

YELLOW RANGER

SH FIGUARTS

YellowRanger1

The Birthday reviews are officially over, so now it’s more or less business as usual. Still, I may be referencing some related things for a little while, just so you’re all aware. One of my main gifts this year was a near complete set of Rangers from Bandai’s most recent take on the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Being me, I couldn’t let that set be near complete for long. That would be criminal! So, it’s the final piece, the Yellow Ranger! The Yellow Ranger is interesting, because it’s a girl here in the US, but a man in Japan. Through some creative cutting and a few reshoots, they were able to completely change the gender of the character. This does lead to one issue, however: when doing a line of Rangers who are being sold in Japan first but will also be doing a large portion of their sales in America, which version do you release? According to Bandai, both. Yep, the regular release that sees US distribution is the female version, but in Japan they also released an online exclusive male version. How about that? In case you’re wondering, mine’s the girl.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

YellowRangerWilsonThe Yellow Ranger was the seventh, and final, release in Bandai’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers sub-line of their larger S.H. Figuarts line. She was released just last month, not long after the Blue Ranger. The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and features 36 points of articulation. The figure’s sculpt borrows heavily from the Pink Ranger, which isn’t a huge shock. She’s been given a new pelvis piece to accurately represent her uniform’s lack of skirt, as well as a brand new head based on her signature Sabre Tooth Tiger helmet. She probably has one of the sharper helmet designs, and Bandai has managed to translate it pretty much perfectly, so that’s pretty cool. Like with the Pink Ranger, I find that the female body is less plagued by obvious elbow and knee joints than the male, so that’s a plus. The Yellow Ranger’s paint is pretty straight forward, no slop or bleed over. If you’ve seen any of the other Rangers, you’ve seen her. One plus is that the yellows all match better than the pinks on the Pink Ranger, a very definite improvement. The Yellow Ranger has a pretty decent selection of accessories, including a folded up Blade Blaster and a Thunder Slinger, same as the ones included with all the basic Rangers, plus her dual Power Daggers, and four pairs of hands: fists, open gesture, Blade Blaster grip, and Power Dagger grip. The Yellow Ranger also includes an extra Power Axe for use in assembling the Power Blaster, and, most importantly, the instructions for how to assemble the Power Blaster. It goes together without too much trouble, and each of the pieces looks accurate to the individual ones included with the Rangers, plus it’s a pretty key item from the show, so kudos to Bandai for adding in the extra pieces to build it!

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Yellow Ranger was not amongst the gifts I received for my birthday this year. She was only released a day or two before, and you have to draw the line somewhere, so I wasn’t the slightest bit offended. I ended up getting a little bit of money from my Grandmother, so I put that towards completing my Rangers, which makes the Yellow Ranger sort of a pseudo Birthday gift, I suppose. She’s a pretty great figure and she’s in line with the rest of them, which is really great. Plus, she finishes off the team, which just makes the whole set that much cooler!

YellowRanger4

#0284: Green Ranger

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

GREEN RANGER

BANDAI FIGUARTS

GreenRanger1

Let’s just keep those Birthday Reviews coming, shall we? Today marks Part Five, and there;s still a few more to go! I’ll be looking at another figure from the set of Power Rangers I received this year. This time around it’s the Green Ranger, the first guise of frequent Ranger Tommy Oliver, way back when he was the original sixth ranger. The Green Ranger actually died in the original Japanese show, but he proved to be too popular to kill off in the US, so the producers did their best to keep him in the show, before eventually resorting to using footage from a different Sentai show, and having Tommy become the White Ranger. Tommy had actually stopped being the Green Ranger by the time I started watching, but for some reason, I’ve always like him more in that role than as the White Ranger. Go figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GreenRangerWilsonThe Green Ranger was the second release in Bandai’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, a sub line of their main S.H. Figuarts line. He saw release last year, shortly after the Red Ranger. The figure is about 5 ½ inches tall and features 36 pints of articulation. If you want to be nitpicky, he should be a tiny bit taller, because he’s currently the same height as the Red Ranger, who he was definitely taller than in the show, but that’s minor. He actually doesn’t have as many reused parts as one might expect. He has new upper and lower arms, new shins, a sheath in place of the usual holster, an add-on piece over the basic torso for his armor, and an all new head. That’s a fair bit of new stuff. Everything looks pretty great, though the interrupting elbow joints do end up hitting Tommy pretty bad, completely cutting off the trim on the front of his gloves. The armor add on is removable in theory, I suppose, but I doubt it would go back on easily. The helmet is once again a near perfect replica of Tommy’s Dragon themed helmet from the show, which is certainly impressive. The paint work on the Green Ranger is pretty good, though there are a few areas that could be tighter, particularly the gold bands on his arms. Still, there aren’t any really bad screw ups which is always good. Tommy is a bit lighter on the accessories than others, with just a sword and dagger, and five pairs of hands: fists, dagger gripping, sword gripping, open gesture, and dagger playing. You know, so he can use the dagger as a flute, like the show. Don’t question how it worked through the helmet, just don’t!

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Green Ranger is the final figure in the selection of Power Rangers my really stupendous parents bought me for my birthday. I know what you’re thinking: “where’s yellow?” Yellow ended up being a gift to myself. She’s all here and ready to be reviewed in a few days, after all the birthday stuff. Anyway, the Green Ranger is a pretty great figure, and offers a nice bit of individuality to the Rangers display. Plus, he’s green, so…

GreenRanger5

#0283: Pink Ranger

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

PINK RANGER

BANDAI FIGUARTS

PinkRanger1

Well, the Birthday reviews continue at a steady pace. Today marks Part Four, and believe me, we still have a ways to go! One of my big gifts this year was a near complete set of the Rangers from Bandai’s latest take on the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. I’ve looked at three of them so far, and I’ll be looking at another one today. This time around, it’s one of the show’s two female characters (and the show’s ONLY female character in Japan), The Pink Ranger!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

PinkRangerWilsonThe Pink Ranger was the fourth release in Bandai’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers subline of the larger S.H. Figuarts line, released at the tail end of last year. The figure is just over 5 inches tall in height and features 36 points of articulation, the same as her male compatriots. Unsurprisingly, the Pink Ranger features a completely new sculpt, given the lack of potential re-use from the male figures. The body is decently proportioned, probably more accurately than the male body, in fact. Also, the elbow and knee joints seem less intrusive this time, which is funny, what with the arms and legs being smaller. She features an add-on skirt piece, which has been split at the sides to allow leg movement, although it still impedes it a bit. At first glance the helmet seems a tad oversized, but looking at some reference, it actually seems pretty accurate to the size on the show. The paint work on the Pink Ranger is just as straight forward as the rest of the rangers. It looks pretty good, although the plastic used for the elbow and knee joints is a slightly different hue of pink than the paint used on the arms and legs. It isn’t too noticeable in person, but it’s fairly apparent in the pictures. She’s got a pretty impressive selection of accessories, including a Blade Blaster in folded up form and a Thunder slinger, which are the same two pieces included with all the basic rangers, as well as her Power Bow, and eight hands: a pair of fists, a karate chop, a loose hand, a pair for gripping the Slinger, one for holding the bow, and a hand with an arrow molded to it. Pink Ranger has one of the better hand selections of the group, and they really add a lot to her display potential.

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Pink Ranger was part of the selection of Rangers I received from my totally cool parents for my birthday this year. She offers a nice bit of diversity to the set, which is certainly cool, and it’s nice to see a female figure without super weird proportions. She also lucked out with some of the cooler accessories the line has to offer, which just gives her more points. All in all a pretty great figure!

PinkRanger5

#0281: Black Ranger

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

BLACK RANGER

BANDAI FIGUARTS

BlackRanger1

It’s that great time of year that is the days that follow my birthday, where I have a wealth of brand new toys to play with. Lucky for all of you, I also get to review them right here on the site. So, here’s Birthday Reviews Part Deux! Continuing on yesterday’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers theme, it’s the Black Ranger!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

BlackRangerWilsonThe Black Ranger was the fifth release in Bandai’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers off-shoot of their S.h. Figuarts line, and he was released earlier this year. The figure is about 5 ½ inches in height and sports 36 points of articulation. Good or bad (mostly good), the Black Ranger’s sculpt is identical to the Red Ranger’s from the neck down. That being the case, he has the same strengths and faults as that figure. I still find the elbow and knee joints to be a bit distracting, but they aren’t terrible. The Black Ranger does have an all new head sculpt, depicting his mastodon themed helmet. It looks really good, and is easily the best part of the figure. The paint on the Black Ranger is pretty straight forward, with no slop or bleed over. The Ranger body looks especially sharp in black and white, so that’s a definite plus. The Black Ranger includes a pretty hefty selection of accessories, including a thunder slinger and a blade blaster, both of which are the same as the ones included with Red, plus he has his trademark power axe/blaster, and nine different hands: fists, three styles of gripping, and a loose fist right hand. He also includes the Blue and Red Ranger pieces for the power blaster, which I’ll look at when I have the whole team put together.

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Black Ranger was another of my birthday gifts, given to me by my really awesome parents. The Black Ranger actually holds a bit more nostalgia for me than the others. Back in the 90s, I had one of the smaller scale Black Ranger action figures, given to me by one of my Dad’s co-workers. I wish I knew what happened to that figure, but I remember I really liked it. Anyway, this figure is certainly a worthy replacement to that one, and it looks great with the rest of the Rangers.

BlackRangerWilson

#0280: Red Ranger

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

RED RANGER

BANDAI SH FIGUARTS

RedRanger1

So, it was my birthday yesterday. And you all missed it. Way to go. Just kidding! Anyway, birthday means opportunity for people to give me gifts, which, unsurprisingly, means that I get a nice assortment of toys. Which means I have new stuff to review! Commence Birthday Reviews Part 1!

Today’s figure hails from the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, a show that most children of the 90s will probably have a bit of familiarity with. Bandai, (Japan, not America, because Bandai America SUCKS!) has recently begun offering an assortment of figures based on Super Sentai, which is what Power Rangers was in Japan, and for the most recent round of Mighty Morphin’ inspired figures, North American distributers Bluefin have stepped in to offer some officially Power Rangers branded versions for those of us in the US. Let’s get things kicked off with the line’s Red Ranger!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

RedRangerWilsonThe Red Ranger was the first release in Bandai’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers off-shoot of their main S.H. Figuarts line. Similarly to Bandai’s Ultra-Act line, Figuarts doesn’t have a typical series lay out, instead opting for individual figure releases. The Red Ranger saw release in 2013. The figure stands about 5 ½ inches tall (a little bit smaller than an Ultra-Act figure) and features 36 points of articulation. He’s based on the basic Red Ranger design from Mighty Morphin’, which is also the same design as the Red Zyuranger in Japan. The Red Ranger got a new sculpt, which seems to be a pretty good approximation of the look on the show. The body is a little bit slimmer than the actual actor, but that’s probably more a stylistic choice than anything. The elbow and knee joints also interrupt the sculpt quite a bit, even cutting off the gloves a bit early in the front. It’s not too bad, but it is slightly annoying, especially since it isn’t an issue that the Ultra-Act figures suffer from. The helmet is by far the figure’s most distinctive part, and Jason’s T-Rex themed helmet looks really great here! The Red Ranger’s paint is fairly straight forward. Nothing too complex, but pretty good. There’s a few very minor issues of some bleed over, especially around the edges of the boots and gloves, but other than that everything looks ship-shape. The Red Ranger is impressively accessorized, with his Power Sword, his Blade Blaster and Thunder Slinger in varying configurations, and five pairs of hands: fists, two figure gesture, and three varieties of gripping.

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THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Red Ranger was one of several gifts from my always awesome parents, given to me for my birthday this year. Back in the 90s, I was a pretty big Power Rangers fan, though I never really had any of the toys. Having these figures offers a nice bit of nostalgia, as well as a pretty cool set of action figures in their own right!

#0260: Black Lightning

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

BLACK LIGHTNING

TOTAL JUSTICE

BlackLightning1

In the 90s, any DC toyline whose title didn’t include “Batman” was a rarity. In fact they were almost non-existent. Even today’s focus line Total Justice was originally called Batman: Total Justice. And this was a line that didn’t even really focus on Batman! I guess Kenner must have come to their sense by the time the line actually saw release, because the packaging dropped Batman’s name from the title.

Anyway, Total Justice was essentially a line based on the Justice League. Years later, the line would even be continued under the name JLA. The line offered many collectors the first chance since Super Powers to actually have a decent line up of DC characters, but it was plagued by silly “Tactical Armor,” a lack of decent articulation, and, most famously, X-Treme! poses. However, it was the only chance at getting those characters for quite some time, so collectors had to grin and bear it. Let’s have a look at one of the line’s more obscure additions, Black Lightning!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

BlackLightning2Black Lightning was released in the third and final series of Total Justice. This series was easily the most daring series of the line, as it lacked any heavy hitters. Black Lightning stands about 5 inches tall and features 5 points of articulation. The figure depicts Lightning in his costume from the time, which deviated a fair bit from his other costumes. It’s not a terrible design, but it’s easily my least favorite look of his, which hurts the figure a bit. Black Lightning featured an all new sculpt, though the arms and legs would be slightly retooled to be used for JLA’s Impulse and Superboy, respectively. The sculpt is actually rather reserved by Total Justice standards. The legs are in a slightly wonky pose, but the arms are actually in a pretty natural stance, and the face is surprisingly calm for this series. The paint work is rather simple, but it’s mostly evenly applied, with no real issues present. Black Lightning included torso and leg armor, as well as a big missile launcher thing. While this series was the first of Total Justice to give figures more sensible accessories, Lightning was not as lucky as his peers, and got stuck with the same usual wacky stuff.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Black Lightning was the Total Justice figure I was always missing. There are other figures from the line I still don’t have, but this one was the only one from the final series, and he was also one of two heroes not to see a re-release in the JLA line (the other was Hawkman. I think it mostly had to do with the dated designs the figures sported.) So, when I finally found him at my local comicbook store a few weeks ago, I was happy to get one. Not thrilled or anything, but content. Sometimes, being content is enough.

#0259: Professor X – Space Rider

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

PROFESSOR X

X-MEN SPACE RIDERS

SpaceX1

X-Men. In Space! Yeah, I know, it’s a really highbrow concept. It was the late 90s, what do you want? Besides, the X-Men have actually spent a fair bit of time in space, so outfitting them with Space gear isn’t the worst possible idea, now is it? Plus, it totally gives the toymakers another excuse to re-release all the main X-Men that people just love buying. How could it go wrong? It couldn’t, it just couldn’t. Fool proof plan here. So, let’s just take a look at the Professor X from this line up, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SpaceX2Professor X was released as part of the first, and only, series of X-Men Space Riders. The line was an off-shoot of the main X-Men line, much the same way the Savage Land line was. The figures were released as boxed items, along with some sizeable accessories. Space Riser Professor X stands about 5 inches tall and features 7 points of articulation. As far as I can tell, the Professor got a whole new sculpt for this line. They didn’t even reuse the same head like they did on the last one! The sculpt is a bit strange in a few areas, most notably the strange way his legs connect to his torso. One thing I do really like is the hydraulics on his legs, as they make for a good explanation to how exactly Charles is up and walking around. The right hand is sculpted around a bit of metal to aid in the figure’s interface with his vehicle, so it ends up looking a little bit on the odd side. The paint work is basic, but for the most part it’s cleanly applied, with very few issues of slop or bleed over. Professor X features a removable helmet, which fits nicely and looks super cool, and a “Space Sled,” which includes two missiles and at one point had a light up feature. The sled is an interesting piece, and interlocks with the sleds included with the rest of the series to form one big space ship. Thrilling!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Professor X was purchased from my local comic book store just a few weeks ago. The owner had just gotten in a selection of older action figures, and had them all sitting on a table for $5.99 a piece. I had never gotten any of the Space Riders back in the day, apart from a Cyclops I got loose, but I was always fascinated by the figures. So, for $6, I figured it was worth the purchase. Professor X is a little dated compared to more recent figures, but I can’t help but look at this figure and think “Man, that looks cool!”