Tag Archives: 90s

#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.

#3909: Ponda Baba

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

PONDA BABA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

What better way to demonstrate the destructive power of a weapon you just introduced than by having it used by one of your heroes to maim some poor schmoe?  That’s how George Lucas does it!  Honestly, in light of the whole “Greedo shot first” thing, it’s shocking that Lucas didn’t, like, digitally insert another guy in the scene for Ponda Baba to slice the arm off of, just to show he really got what he deserved.  Missed opportunity if you ask me.  Anyway, here’s a figure of the not slicing-off-arms-first Ponda Baba! 

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ponda Baba was released as part of the 1997 line-up for Kenner’s Power of the Force II line.  He was Ponda’s second figure, after the original vintage one, and would be joined by a third that same year, thanks to the Cinema Scenes release.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  He was sporting an all-new sculpt at the time, but the head and torso wound up shared with the three-pack version.  Of the two, this one goes for more basic and standing in its pose.  It does fine.  It’s certainly more accurate to the source than the prior “Walrus Man” figure, though he’s certainly got a bit of that early Power of the Force bulkiness.  The biggest downside of the figure remains the lack of ability to remove his arm as in the scene, but it is what it is.  His color work is more or less the same as the multi-pack version, which means it’s passable stuff.  Colors match what they’re supposed to, and he’s even got a bit of subtle accent work on the jumpsuit.  Ponda Baba is packed with two different blasters, one in pistol form, the other a rifle.  You’ve got some options, I guess.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Sometimes, the decision to go completist on this line is awesome, because you get to see all the neat subtle differences between two similar versions of a character.  Sometimes, you end up buying a figure that’s different for the sake of different.  This one is the second thing.  I bought him to have him, and for no other reason.  I got several years ago, and he remained unopened, because I just didn’t have much draw.  I opened him purely for the purposes of this review.  He’s…fine.  You really don’t need him, but he’s fine.

#3907: Superboy

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

SUPERBOY

MAFEX (MEDICOM)

I’ve touched on Medicom’s MAFEX line a few times here on the site.  While my most recent review kind of broke the mold a bit, my reviews have otherwise been DC-based, all of them hailing from the running sub-line of figures based on Batman: Hush.  Hush is a pretty solid way of doing a large swath of Batman-related characters in one cohesive style, but it does limit you mostly to just Batman.  For a focus on DC’s original super hero, Medicom also started up a based around the “Death” and “Return of Superman” storylines from the ‘90s.  Their primary focus has been the Superman replacements from “Reign of the Superman,” who each took over one of Supes’ four books running at the time. Taking over Adventures of Superman was “the Metropolis Kid,” Superboy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superboy is figure 232 in the MAFEX line-up.  He’s the fifth figure in the Return of Superman set-up, and the last of the four replacement Supermen to join the line.  The figure stands a hair over 6 inches tall and he has 42 points of articulation.  In terms of scaling, Superboy feels a touch too large for the other MAFEX figures I’ve picked up.  Not crazy levels of out of scale, but he definitely feels like he should maybe be a little shorter.  His articulation scheme is pretty much the same as the others I’ve looked at, which is to say it’s quite good, and allows for a lot of solid posing.  Nothing’s too overly loose or anything, and he can hold a pose quite well.  The figure’s sculpt is based on Tom Grummett’s initial design for the character, which is by far his best, and really his most enduring design.  It’s also the one that matches all the other figures, so it’s got that going for it too.  It translates quite nicely into figure form, and the little raised and recessed elements of the costume design all make it stand out quite well.  There are three included heads, all based on Grummett’s depictions of Kon-El.  There’s a neutral expression, an angry expression, and one with sunglasses affixed.  Of the three, I think I lean towards the sunglasses head the most, but I really like all three, and it’s great how consistent his look is between all of them.  Rather than being a sculpted element, like Hush’s trench coat was, Superboy’s distinctive leather jacket is a softgoods piece.  It’s good.  It’s well-tailored, not too limiting on the posability, and there’s a wire running through the belt for extra dynamic posing options.  I do worry about how well it will hold up in the long run, but I guess I’ll just enjoy it for what it is now.  The color work here is really bright and colorful, and feels very true to his early appearances.  The paint is all really clean, and there’s some especially strong work on the heads.  Superboy is packed with five different pairs of hands (fists, flat, thumbs up, open gesture, and relaxed), and a display stand.  It’s a little light, but he’s also got the three heads and the jacket, so it makes up for it, I feel.  The hands swap easily, but I’d be careful with them, because the glove cuffs have a real tendency to go flying during the swaps.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got in relatively close to the ground floor with this incarnation of Superboy, getting the Man of Steel figure when it was new, and following his comic from an early point until it was cancelled.  I’ve always liked the character, and I’ve never been much of a fan of the jeans and t-shirt direction they took him under the Johns era.  It feels like something of how he was supposed to work kind of got lost there.  Thus far, I’ve just stuck to the Hush figures, and I even missed the standard Superman from that line, so I avoided the Return figures.  Superboy made that a lot harder to stick to, especially in light of my seriously renewed investment in Superman as a whole, post movie release.  This guy wound up being a birthday gift from my parents this year, and he’s super, super cool, and a great reminder that, no matter how far I progress from the decade that birthed me, I’ll never really be able to kick the need to own characters wearing leather jackets over their spandex.

#3906: Spider-Man

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

SPIDER-MAN

SILVER AGE (TOY BIZ)

“Peter Parker, a mild mannered honor student in high school was fascinated with all things scientific. While attending a science exhibition on the manipulation of wavelength radiations, Peter was bitten by a spider that was exposed to radiations. Peter was bitten by a spider that was exposed to radiation. As a result, he was given superhuman, spider-like abilities. Peter could now climb walls, leap incredible distances, and life more than 10 tons, prompting him to adopt the identity of Spider-Man. He made a costume and with his knowledge of science created “web-shooters.” Attached to each wrist, his web-shooters allow Spider-Man to shoot super strong, sticky webs to swing from and use as various weapons. Spider-Man also has a “spider-sense” that warns him of impending danger making him one of the most legendary crime fighters ever known.”

While he spent the first two decades of his existence with only a handful of action figures, but the end of the ‘90s, there was absolutely no shortage of Spider-Man action figures.  Toy Biz released a metric ton of them in the 5-inch line, mostly under his own self-branded line, launched to tie-in with his ‘90s Animated Series.  The more obscure offshoot lines weren’t as likely to include him, since he was better suited in other, more big-box-retail-friendly set-ups.  He did get the occasional less mainstream release, as was the case with today’s offering, which goes back to the character’s earliest days.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man is the third of the four figures in Toy Biz’s PX-exclusive Silver Age line from 1999.  By far, he is the assortment’s heaviest hitter, making him this line-up’s correspondent to the Wolverine in the Modern Age line-up.  Unlike the Cap figure, which was emphatically *not* Silver Age, and the Gwen figure, which was a loose connection, Spidey is emphatically well within the timeline for Silver Age…for the most part.  I’ll get to all that.  The figure stands right under 5 inches tall and he has 15 points of articulation.  Spidey was entirely parts re-use, using the body of the Marvel Super Heroes “Multi-Jointed Action Poses” Spidey, with the head from the Animated Super-Posable Spidey.  It’s actually kind of a neat combo.  The MSH body is smaller and skinnier than most of the other Spideys that Toy Biz put out, and the head being originally meant for a more bulked up Spidey means it’s a touch too large…which is a pretty good match for Ditko’s portrayal of a teenage Peter Parker in the costume.  The base body is very posable, as well, which makes for a better general Spidey set-up.  To really sell the earlier Spidey look, they’ve also pinned a pair of vinyl “web-wings” to the backs of his arms, much like the first Fantastic Four line’s Black Bolt.  I limits the posing on the arms a little bit, but it’s not terrible, and it’s a good change-up for the look.  The figure’s paint work is more or less what you would expect from this era of Spider-Man.  I might have perhaps liked a slightly more Ditko-like pattern and eyes on the face, but it’s not incredibly far off, and it wouldn’t shock me to find out there may have been some branding involved in the look here.  The blue is a darker shade, but not the straight on black of his original appearance, meaning this isn’t a First Appearance figure, but rather a broader Silver Age figure.  While I always love a good First Appearance Spidey, the blue with the web-wings is the look less often done, so can dig it.  Spidey was packed with the web-shooters, belt, and ankle pouches from Scarlet Spider, all done in the same silver with darker accenting, as well as an actual rolled paper copy of the Daily Bugle, and a card with the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 (which makes this line 3 for 3 on the figures not wearing the costumes depicted on the covers for their cards).  Not entirely sure why he gets all the Scarlet Spider gear, but it’s a neat extra nevertheless.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had *plenty* of Spider-Men by the time this figure hit, so he’s the one member of the line-up that didn’t tempt me in the slightest…you know, until I had the other three and he was all I needed to finish the set.  So, off to eBay I went.  In light of figures that are more obviously new and different, he sort of gets lost, but at the same time, he’s actually a pretty neat figure with a solid take on a more specific design.  And, he does at least actually stick to the theme.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0040: Luke Skywalker – Dagobah

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

LUKE SKYWALKER — DAGOBAH

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

We are officially taking the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums back to Star Wars!  Oh yeah!  Let’s jump back to some of the earliest Star Wars coverage here on the site, and indeed the very earliest Star Wars in my entire collection, with Dagobah Luke!

So, today’s review is actually pretty nifty. I’ve looked at the most recent round of Star Wars toys with The Black Series, and I’ve also taken a look at one of the vintage figures from the original line, but I’ve never really looked at any of the figures released in between.

Star Wars is looked at as one of the permanent fixtures of the action figure aisle nowadays, but that wasn’t always the case. Following Return of the Jedi, the line shifted to Power of the Force for a little while, but that line only ran until 1985, at which point Star Wars toys effectively ended. Ten years later, Kenner relaunched the line under the branding Power of the Force II. In 1995, I was 3 and just getting into action figures. So, POTF II came at just the perfect time and provided me with my very first Star Wars figure, which I’ll be looking at in this review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke was released as part of the 1996 assortment of Power of The Force II. He’s based on Luke’s look while he’s training on Dagobah in Empire Strikes Back. The figure stands about 3 ¾ inches tall, and features 6 points of articulation. That waist articulation was revolutionary, let me tell you. The sculpts for POTF II, in general, have not aged well. For some reason, everybody got really buff. Luke follows that trend, and looks more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than Mark Hamill. From a purely aesthetic stand point, it’s actually not a bad sculpt. There’s some nice texture on his clothing, and the proportions are about right, even if they don’t belong to Mark Hamill. One negative point: the feet are sculpted at a bit of an angle, which can make getting him to stand up a chore. The paint is actually very good for the time. There’s no bleed over or slop and the smaller details are all clean and sharp, and the shading on the shirt to show it’s wet and stained gives the figure a nice level of depth rarely seen on figures of this era. Luke was packed with a lightsaber and a blaster.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The trip on which I acquired this figure is actually one of my earlier memories of going to the store and buying something. I don’t remember what store it was (for some reason my gut says Target, but that doesn’t seem right). What I very vividly remember was being walked over to the toy aisle by my parents, seeing the display of figures and running to them. I saw Luke hanging there and immediately grabbed him. In particular, I remember my mind being completely blown by the idea that he actually included a lightsaber. I guess I just assumed that would have to be a separate purchase. I had yet to pick up on how action figures worked, I guess. Regardless, I was thrilled to have this figure. As the years have gone by, the figure has started to show its age, but I still feel pretty damned nostalgic for him. All in all, he’s not a bad figure, and the sentimental value pushes him up to 11.

Well, I can generally stand by this review pretty well, I feel.  Nicely formed, and generally on point.  Covers all the bases.  Kind of funny.  Good hook at the end. Go me.  A few notes to follow up on, though.  I addressed the angle of the feet, which mean he has to stand at an intense angle to remain upright, which is actually to do with him being designed to work with the Yoda released at the same time.  It actually works well in that regard, but I didn’t own Yoda until *after* this review was written, so I didn’t really know.  When I reviewed him, he didn’t have his lightsaber and blaster, but I’ve found both of those, so now he’s all complete!  And lastly, my wife an I watched all of Righteous Gemstones a few months back, and after watching it, I can’t help but see this take on Luke as looking unmistakably like Keef.  So there’s that.

#3905: Saelt-Marea – Yak Face

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

SAELT-MAREA — YAK FACE

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“One of Jabba the Hutt’s top agents, very little is known about the mysterious Saelt-Marae or his specific connection to the crime lord. He could often be found hanging out in Jabba’s desert palace.”

Saelt-Marea, known as “Yak Face” during the production of Return of the Jedi and keeping that name until he got a proper one in the ‘90s, has the distinction of being the only vintage Kenner Star Wars figure never released in the United States, which has given his debut figure quite a bit of notoriety over the years.  That notoriety has gotten him a handful of additional figures over the years, which isn’t bad for a guy who just stands around in the background of Jabba’s Sail Barge.  His second figure, which is ever so more easily acquired than the first, was released in the ‘90s revival of Power of the Force, which is really where my main jam is, so here I am!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Saelt-Marea — Yak Face was added to the Power of the Force II line-up in 1997, which was a Jabba-heavy year.  He represents the first time the character would get his proper name, something that was pretty common for this line and its approach to the background aliens.  The figure stands just under 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  His neck joint is rather restricted, due to its implementation at an angle, as opposed to being flat.  His sculpt was all-new, and honestly not badly handled.  The original figure had made some guesses at his full design, so this one aimed to be a bit more accurate, most notably giving him his longer robe piece, which is a softer overlay piece on this figure.  The head seems to do an alright job of capturing the prop from the movie, and it looks the part pretty well.  There are definitely some elements here that are a little softer than other figures in the line, and he definitely comes across as a bit more basic compared to more modern takes on the character, but it certainly gets the job done.  Likewise, the figure’s color work is kind of in the same vein; it’s basic and kind of rudimentary compared to more recent stuff, but it does what it needs to and it works.  That said, it’s actually a little bit of a change-up from how things usually worked from vintage to PotF2, as Yak Face is actually a fair bit more colorful and eye-catching than his vintage counterpart, who was really rather drab.  Yak Face is packed with what the package dubs a “Battle Staff.”  Sure, I guess let’s go with that.  It’s a stick with some stuff on one end, and he holds it pretty well in his right hand, and not as well in his left.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

According to my database, I got this figure in September of 2019, intermingled with a batch of eight other Power of the Force figures.  He’s the eighth of them I’ve reviewed, though not because I dislike him or anything.  Mostly just luck of the draw.  Looking at the batch of figures he came home with, he was almost certainly part of a collection that got traded gnat All Time, which I plucked the figures I still needed from.  He’s nifty.  Nothing crazy, but a unique design, and a solid figure.

#3902: Gwen Stacy

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

GWEN STACY

SILVER AGE (TOY BIZ)

“Former student and model, Gwen Stacy was also Peter Parker’s girlfriend. Both Peter and Gwen were Biochemistry majors at Empire State University where they met and fell in love. Unbeknownst to Gwen, Peter Parker was secretly Spider-Man and Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin knew so. The Green Goblin kidnaped Gwen Stacy and used her as a hostage to exact revenge on his nemesis, Spider-Man. During their battle, the Goblin knocked Gwen Stacy off the Brooklyn Bridge. Spider-Man caught her with his webbing. Tragically, Gwen died from the shock of the fall, thus ending a major chapter in the personal life of Peter Parker.”

Last week, I took a jump into one of Toy Biz’s one-off specialty assortments released in 1999 to fill out their 5-inch Marvel run.  Titled “Silver Age”, it was designed to highlight characters from Marvel’s heyday of the ‘60s.  While largely heavy hitter driven, it did give them an opportunity for one slightly more off the beaten path sort of character.  By the end of the ‘90s, Spider-Man’s then-current love interest Mary Jane Watson had gotten two figures from Toy Biz, both via multipacks with Spidey variants.  His previous love interest, Gwen Stacy, was as of yet without any sort of toy coverage, but that was fixed by Silver Age, where she made her figure debut.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gwen Stacy was one of the four figures in Toy Biz’s Silver Age line.  She was the only non-heavy hitter in the bunch, but paired off well with the included Spider-Man figure.  Gwen’s an interesting choice for a Silver Age line; she was created during the Silver Age, but her death, which is a major piece of her bio for this figure, is one of the defining events of the Bronze Age, and as such she’s frequently attached to that era.  The figure stands right about 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation.  Her posability is odd.  She’s got no neck or elbow movement, but she’s got one wrist and ankles.  She’s not particularly agirl.  Gwen’s using what appears to be a variation of Aurora’s body from the Alpha Flight line, but smoothed out for a better base starting point.  It’s decent enough, but the torso’s a little too tightly sculpted to believably be a shirt.  She gets a cloth skirt piece as well, and a unique head/hair.  Interestingly, Gwen’s *not* wearing her attire from “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” despite that being the usual go-to.  It’s a design that still feels rather Gwen-y, though, so it works out well enough. The paint work on this figure is okay.  The skin tone’s nice and clean, as are the stripes on her shirt.  The eyes are a touch wonky, though.  Gwen is packed with a camera (presumably borrowed from Peter?  It’s a unique piece, though), and a pair of clip-on fur pieces for her boots, for fashion purposes, no doubt.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember seeing this figure a fair bit in ’99, but I didn’t know who she was at the time.  It was actually this figure that kind of got me interested in finding out, so I guess that’s kind of cool.  I didn’t get her at the time, though.  She’s a far more recent addition, from the last few years, grabbed during one of my family vacations from Gidget’s Gadgets, a neat shop in the area.  She actually got me invested in getting the rest of the Silver Age line-up, which I’d up to then been putting off.  She’s okay.  Not super playable or distinctive, but at the same time, she’s pretty solid for a civilian character who’d never gotten a figure before.