Tag Archives: 90s

#3991: AT-AT Commander & Driver

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

AT-AT COMMANDER & DRIVER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Oh man, I haven’t reviewed any Power of the Force II figures since last year, you guys! …that’s, like, a whole month.  Crazy.  So, let’s jump back into the fray of ‘90s Kenner 3 3/4-inch Star Wars! As I make my way through what remains of the line, I am, of course, running low on standard release figures, but there’s still the oddball and pack-in releases to be considered.  Early in the line, the vehicles were packaged without figures, but as the line progressed, and Kenner was looking to get as many figures out as possible, pack-ins became the standard.  Most just included a single figure, but the line’s largest vehicle, the Electronic AT-AT, featured two figures of its own, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The AT-AT Commander and Driver were packed in with the Star Wars: Power of the Force II AT-AT, released in 1997.  Both figures were exclusive to this set, and remained so for the run of the line.

The Commander is unnamed, but is clearly meant to be General Maximillian Veers, the primary AT-AT Commander seen in the movie’s Hoth battle.  This was his second figure, following up on his vintage counterpart.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  His sculpt is similar to the other Imperial Officer figures the line put out, albeit with the obvious change-up that he’s wearing the armor seen in the AT-AT scenes.  His detailing is definitely on the softer side, and his head seems a touch oversized relative to the body sculpt, but I do really like the detailing on the armored sections of the uniform.  There’s not really much of a Julian Glover likeness, but it doesn’t look *unlike* him, and the uniform is distinct enough that it’s pretty clear who he’s supposed to be.  His color work is basic, but does all the stuff it needs to do.  I do also really appreciate that he’s got the varied grey shades, to help the armor and cloth stand-out from each other.

I’ve actually already looked at *an* AT-AT Driver from Power of the Force, but it wasn’t this one, it was the ever so slightly different single card release that they did so that people could have a second Driver to pilot the AT-AT without needing to buy a whole second big vehicle.  This one’s the original, though.  He’s really not different, in a broad sense (and, in fact, you would’t really want him to be), but he’s the slightest bit taller than the single, and his pose is a bit more rigid.  The details are also somewhat softer on this release than the single, more in line with the Commander’s sculpt.  His paint work is more or less identical, though, and that’s again a good thing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

At one point in time, I considered going the route of buying the vehicles that came with figures for my complete run of Power of the Force, but this was the one that broke me, because it’s so big, and kind of pricey, and I just wasn’t looking for the commitment.  Thankfully, I was able to find both of the pack-in figures loose, so that made that whole bit easier for me.  These figures aren’t great by any stretch, but they’re decent enough, provided you’re not buying a big vehicle to get them.

#3990: Crusading Chameleon

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

COLOR CHANGING CRUSADING CHAMELEON

THE TICK (BANDAI)

“Can’t….do….plaid!”

Hey, how ‘bout a little more Tick?  Not, you know, actually the Tick himself, of course, but something I think is just as good, if not perhaps a little better.  I may be slightly biased, though.  Last week, I talked about some of the colorful allies added to the cast by the cartoon.  While some of them were short on appearances, a few were recurring players.  In season 1, Die Fledermaus and Sewer Urchin were the most frequent collaborators, but joining them more than a few times was the Crusading Chameleon (though, he was actually dubbed the “Caped Chameleon” in the show’s pilot).  He’s a fun quirky character who gets some decent use, but was ultimately dropped for practical reasons having nothing to do with the character himself at all.  Between the first and second season of the show, the Monkees went back on tour, which meant that Mickey Dolenz was unavailable to continue voicing Arthur.  Rob Paulsen stepped in to replace him for the rest of the show, which meant that Crusading Chameleon, voiced by Paulsen in the first season, was written out to avoid having Paulsen doubling up.  But, his prominent spot in the show’s first season meant he got in on the merch, so hey, action figure coverage!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Color Changing Crusading Chameleon was released in the second series of Bandai’s The Tick tie-in line.  Amusingly, the series hit during the show’s second season, after he’d been written out, but who am I to complain about a Crusading Chameleon figure.  He may have been off the show, but he can have infinite adventures…in my mind!  The figure is about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  He gets the basic 5 POA of the others in the line, but also gets swivels on his forearms and lower legs, as well as a moving tail, which is all pretty fun.  His sculpt was unique to him, and remained so.  The first series sculpts were kind of rudimentary, but Series 2 made some definite strides forward.  As such, Crusading Chameleon has a sculpt that’s actually a fair bit nicer than the last two figures I looked at, with a closer match to his animation model, as well as better scaling relative to the other characters.  He’s got a degree of pre-posing, but it’s a pose that works well for the character, and it’s such that he can get some variety out of the articulation despite the pre-posing.  The cape is a separate piece; it’s rather thin, hard plastic, which remains free-floating.  It’s a little stiff and static, but generally, it works well enough.  His color work is generally simple enough, matching his color scheme on the show pretty well.  It ties into the figure’s action feature, which allows him to change colors, much like on the show (provided it’s not plaid he’s trying to do).  Exposing his eyes and hands to cold changes them from their usual green to a reddish brown, and heating them back up changes them up again.  It’s gimmicky and all, but it’s fun, and it works surprisingly welll, even three decades later.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been a Crusading Chameleon fan since first seeing him in “Tick vs The Idea Men.”  I missed most of the Tick toys when they were new, so it wasn’t until later, towards the end of high school, that I tracked any down.  The internet wasn’t as forgiving on information about the line at the time, which meant I didn’t actually know that this guy existed, so I thought the only Crusading Chameleon was the little figurine, so that was the line I backed.  Years later, I discovered this figure’s existence, and he’s been on my list sort of passively since.  When I got Arthur for Christmas, that reignited my interest, so I finally put in the effort to track one of these down.  I’m really glad I did, because he’s a ton of fun in the best possible way.

#3988: Kane

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

KANE

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Evil Mutants watch out! The long arm of justice now has a name: Kane, the mutant with the “rocket-powered” hand! Few people know his past, and those that do keep quiet about it-if they know what’s good for them! Kane’s an expert tracker, and can master even the most complex weapons system in minutes. But his flying hand with its vise-like grip is his favorite weapon-and the one his enemies fear the most.”

Hey, here we are, back with more X-Force!  It’s a thing that I am most certainly an expert on, just through and through, because I know so very much about all the X-Force stuff.  Take for instance, Kane.  He’s…a guy named “Kane.”  Umm….evil mutants watch out?  Long arm of justice?  Expert tracker?  Kane?

Okay, joking aside, I know a little bit about Kane, who was introduced early in the X-Force run as a guy from Cable’s past back before they’d really nailed down what exactly that past might be.  He’s a member of Cable’s first team, “Six Pack” (yes, really), and he, like all the good mystery men from X-Men characters’ pasts is a cyborg.  He didn’t really take off the same way as others from the early days, but he got two figures before he faded into relative obscurity.  Here’s the first of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kane was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line that they spun out of their X-Men line.  He was subject to no fewer than four paint variations, concerning the color of his hair and the strap on his leg, and exactly how they were combined, but the sculpt remained the same all the way through.  The version seen here is the most common of the four, by virtue of being released on two separate card backs.  The figure stands a little under 5 inches tall (the early X-Force offerings ran a little bit small) and he has 8 points of articulation.  One of those joints is wrist movement on his left arm, which is actually just incidental movement, brought about by his “Snap Back Living Hand!” feature.  His hand is attached to a string that’s on a spring mechanism; you can pull it out, and then pushing the lever on his back snaps it back into place.  It’s an inoffensive gimmick, and it’s not a bad take on his “rocket-powered” hand.  It does mean you and spin his wrist, though, so there’s that.  His sculpt is rather common of these early figures.  It’s not crazy detailed, and, especially compared to Liefeld’s line-heavy illustrations, looks rather basic and simple.  Kane’s face looks almost child-like, and his proportions are thin and stretched out.  His costume details are at least pretty consistent with the ones seen in the book, as ridiculous a costume design as this may be.   His paint work is basic, but fine.  It was the source of the variations, with the one seen here sporting black hair and a red band on his leg.  There were also samples with grey hair, as well as those with blue straps, and corresponding mixes of the hair and strap colors.  Kane was packed with  a blaster/gun thing, which he can hold in his right hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I know a bit more now, I knew very little of Kane as a kid.  He’s in X-Men: The Animated Series, but it’s a different design, and he’s never named, so I didn’t connect it.  Mostly, I just remember that he was on the back of the boxes, and I never knew who he was, and then he didn’t really reappear after that.  So, I never got his figures.  At least, until I decided to get all of the Toy Biz Marvel stuff, so then I needed to.  I got this guy loose, given to me by Jason from All Time when I fished him out of a plastic bag of mostly junk that got traded into All Time back in, gosh, probably 2019?  He didn’t have his gun, but I came across that in one of the bags of spare Toy Biz parts I’ve accumulated over the years.  He’s not the most impressive figure, and he’s not the most impressive character, but there’s a certain bit of novelty to him, for sure.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0059: Ahab

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

AHAB

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

It’s Friday, which around here is my own day of personal reflection…well, within the context of the site, at the very least.  You know, in that sort of Flashback Friday Figure Addendum sort of way.  I’m jumping once more back into the world of old Toy Biz Marvel reviews, with Ahab!

“A houndmaster from a future timeline in which mutants are hunted down and destroyed, Ahab has time-traveled to the present to continue his mission of eliminating dangerous mutants. Employing advanced Sentinel technology in his powerful cyborg body, Ahab ruthlessly enslaves those mutants he does not kill, transforming them into telepathic hounds which he uses to track down others of their kind. Only the combined powers of the X-Men, X-Factor, the New Mutants and the Fantastic Four were able to put a stop to Ahab’s murderous rampage through our time in the past. Should he reappear, who knows what havoc he might wreak!”

You know how sometimes there’s bad figures of good characters? Or, on the flip side, good figures of bad characters? Today represents neither of those things. Today, I look at what might be one of the very worst figures ever released in Toy Biz’s 5-inch X-Men line. He’s a little figure by the name of Ahab. Let’s just get straight to it, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ahab was released in Series 5 of X-Men. In a series populated by fan-favorites, he’s…well, he’s not. He’s an odd choice for the set, and the line in general really. I mean, I guess he was involved in some semi-important stories in the comics. But, given that one of the characters completely absent from Toy Biz’s entire run was Rachel Summers, who’s sort of the only reason Ahab matters at all, he feels out of place. Maybe there’s a big Ahab fanbase out there or something. I don’t know. Anyway, the figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation. For reasons I’m not entirely sure of, he lacks neck and elbow movement, which makes for a very stiff figure. Already not the greatest start. Ahab has what has to be one of the clunkiest sculpts of any figure in this line. I genuinely don’t know how they managed to mess him up this bad. I mean, he’s hardly got the greatest design in the comics, but it’s better than this, to be sure. Everything about this figure is blocky, stiff, and inorganic. That’s fine for the blocky, stiff, and inorganic parts, but not so much for the parts that aren’t those things. His head is particularly bad, given it’s incredibly thin, tall look, and complete lack of neck. He’s got this sort of cyborg-zombie-Abraham-Lincoln thing going on, and the sculpt doesn’t seem to be able to decide what’s his hair and what’s his headgear. They just sort of meld together. He’s also got this look on his face like he just crapped his pants. Which, in a gross way, leads me to my next complaint: his legs. Or, more specifically, his hips, which are oddly shaped, not particularly accurate to his comics design, and start a considerable distance after his torso ends. Ahab’s paintwork is decent enough for what it is. It’s pretty basic, and far from the most appealing color scheme. Burnt sienna and lavender isn’t exactly an imposing combo. Also, we get the same issues the sculpt had with the hair/headgear changeover, which just sort of…happens. The figure was originally packed with a missile launcher and three “harpoons,” which I don’t have.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, if I hate this guy so much, why do I own him? Is he another gift from a confused family member? Nope, he’s actually a pretty recent acquisition. In the last few months, I’ve decided to try and complete my ‘90s X-Men collection. That meant I was gonna have to get this guy eventually. I found this one at Yesterday’s Fun for $1, which is really about the cap of how much I’m willing to pay for him. He’s an awful figure. Just awful. But, I like to look at the positives: the collection only improves from here! 

Okay, so, for the second time since I started doing these, I find myself honestly not liking a review I wrote.  It’s odd for it to be one so late in the run, after I’d established the style more, but…yeah, I just feel like this one seemed a bit mean spirited.  Looking at the publication date, it went up the day after my birthday in 2017, and, well, I was going through some stuff at the time, which I think may have impacted my writing a little bit.  It’s not to say that I think I was wrong about Ahab being a less than stellar figure.  That he most certainly is.  Worst in the Toy Biz run?  Eh, I don’t know if I can really stand by that.  He’s not super fun, and I think I made a good point that it’s odd they made him and no Rachel Summers to go along, given he mostly exists as a foil to her.  Worst though?  Seems a bit hyperbolic.

In 2017, I was still content to have a bunch of incomplete figures in my collection, and I’m less about that now, so this summer I actually bought a second Ahab (I know, crazy) so that I could get the missile launcher and harpoons.  They, like the figure, aren’t great, and are even worse in the sense of how they interact with him, which is not very well.  But, at least he’s complete.  And, he’s the only Ahab figure out there, so he’s at least got some novelty?  I don’t know, I’m trying to be nice!

#3986: Pose Striking Die Fledermaus

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

POSE STRIKING DIE FLEDERMAUS 

THE TICK (BANDAI)

Okay, so the Tick’s catchphrase is “Spooooooooooon!” and Arthur’s is “Not in the Face! Not in the Face!” but what is Die Fledermaus’s?  Presumably something about leaving town for a week when danger rears its head.  One of the things that Ben Endlund talked about in his discussions of the production of the Tick cartoon was the need to introduce a more colorful cast of supporting players.  A lot of the effort went into creating super villains (who are largely not a thing in the early days of the comics), but there’s a notable cast of recurring heroes as well.  Die Fledermous, who’s name is the German word for “bat,” is a wholly original character with no similarities to any other masked super heroes owned by any other comic companies, in case you were wondering.  He got one single figure during the show’s run, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Pose Striking Die Fledermaus was released in the first series of Bandai’s The Tick tie-in line.  While most of the main cast were present in both the standard 5-inch line and the smaller 2 1/2-inch figurine line, Die Fledermaus was notable for only being in the larger scale line, making this figure his only toy.  The figure stands about 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Die Fledermaus, due to Bandai’s odd approach to scale, winds up as one of the tallest figures in the line, which isn’t quite accurate to the source material.  At least he was taller than Arthur.  The figure’s sculpt was unique to this release.  Die Fledermaus’s design isn’t a super complex one, but this figure notable takes an even more bare bones approach, with a sculpt that’s rather rudimentary.  The head’s quite a nice piece of work, at least, and is ultimately the best thing about it.  The mask is well defined, and there’s a clearly uneasy expression under the mask that feels very true to the character.  His body sculpt is rather lanky and tubular, which doesn’t quite feel right for Die Fledermaus, who, while not as bulky as the Tick, was usually shown as being of a moderate build.  He’s got very basic articulation, and a lot of what’s going on is worked into his “Pose Striking” action feature.  When you push up the lever on his back, his arms raise outward.  This is coupled with a cloth cape (which unfortunately lacks the more distinctive shaping at the top that it had in the show) allows him to “dramatically” flair the cape outward.  Unfortunately, it’s a very basic feature, and has no real way of locking in place, so it’s just sort of unimpressive.  Die Fledermaus’s color work once again falls into that “basic” realm, though this is one area where it’s really appropriate.  The application of paint’s generally good here, and he’s an okay match for the show.  The only downside is that he’s a victim of a line-wide issue, where his torso yellowed over time, and doesn’t quite match his limbs.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed the vast majority of Bandai’s The Tick run when it was new.  My freshman year of college, I decided I wanted to try to fix that, and ultimately bought a bunch of the smaller scale line, only to discover that there was no Die Fledermaus in that run.  Shortly after, I found this figure, and no other Tick figures, still sealed at an antique store, so I bought him.  And then, 15 years later, I got the Arthur figure I reviewed last week, which prompted me to retrieve this figure, still sealed, from my parents’ house, and finally open him.  I think he may hold a record for amount of time I’ve owned a figure without opening them.  And why?  I couldn’t tell you.  I just didn’t do it.  Now I have, and, well, I can’t say he’s an amazingly impressive figure, but also I can’t say I dislike him in the slightest.  He’s silly, but he’s fun, and I’m glad to finally have gotten the chance to recognize that.

#3984: Deadpool

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

DEADPOOL

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Deadpool is a mercenary and one of the world’s most dangerous assassins. What makes Deadpool so dangerous is not his super-silent tracking ability or his assassin’s arsenal of incredible weapons, it’s his ability to paralyze his victims with fear. He enjoys doing that so much that sometimes he lets his victim go. A panic-stricken live victim, he reasons, does wonders for his reputation.”

Can you believe there was a time in the Marvel universe before Deadpool?  That seems crazy, doesn’t it?  Would you also believe that when he *did* finally appear, it was literal years before he was even remotely close to the character that everyone knows him as now? The bio for his very first action figure, shown up top there, really cements that, referring to him as “super-silent” and having the “ability to paralyze his victims with fear.”  Not really the slap-sticky, fourth wall-breaking meme guy we have these days, huh?  Well, let’s just fully commit to this back to the beginning approach for Deadpool and take a look at his very first action figure, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Deadpool was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line, which spun out of their main X-Men line during its second year.  While the book was still relatively new, they had already started to identify its break out characters, hence the early presence of Deadpool, despite him at that time just being a recurring character, not affiliated with the team.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Not a bad set-up in terms of movement.  It’s all basic stuff, but it’s pretty clear in its range, and he’s fairly sturdy on his feet.  He was a unique sculpt, which wound up re-used for a couple of repaints over the years, but only ever for Deadpool.  It’s based on his earliest appearances, although, like Cable, it’s been kind of cleaned up from Liefeld’s usual inconsistencies.  Deadpool was still being shown as very svelte in is early appearances, and this sculpt follows that lead.  He’s generally light on detailing, but gets his pouches and straps, albeit with a slightly softer detailing to them than later offerings.  He’s got a dagger permanently attached to his left hand, which is spring-loaded, so he can more convincingly look like he’s stabbing someone, I guess?  Deadpool’s color work is fairly basic, but generally well in line with his comics look at the time.  Interestingly, while the circles around his eyes are black, the rest of the costume’s accenting is done with a very dark grey, which makes for a neat bit of visual pop.  There was an FAO Schwarz-exclusive variant (pictured at the end) which just made it all black, which is *fine* but feels a bit more lacking, as well as a KB Toys re-release that adds in some silver elements on the pouches.  Whatever the release, Deadpool is packed with a pair of grey swords.  They’re able to be put in the sheaths…in a manner of speaking; they’re actually just going through his shoulders into the hollow portion of the torso, and they still end up being kind of comedically small to make it work.  It does look pretty cool when they’re in place, though.  It’s amusing that they’re both removable, though, since only one of his hands is able to hold one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This was not my first Deadpool (that was the unmasked one from later), but I do recall wanting to track one down rather early on in my collecting.  I found a loose on some time in the very early ‘00s, which I assumed was the original, but would only later find out was actually the rarer FAO version, necessitating that I get a proper Series 1 release many years later when it got traded into All Time.  I’m a real sucker for this mold, no matter which paint scheme it’s sporting.  Something about it just really works for my collecting sensibilities, and it’s all I really want out of a Deadpool.  He’s basic, but he really just works.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0058: Spider-Woman

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

SPIDER-WOMAN

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

Hey, look it’s the first Friday of the new year!  No it isn’t, but it is for the purposes of the site, so there!  Did we really miss out on anything from that actual first Friday, anyway?  I don’t think so, and I was there, so trust me.  It’s a new year and a new start, so it’s a perfect time for me to continue to do exactly the same thing I was doing on Fridays at the end of last year, and look back at my old Toy Biz reviews.  Yaaaaaaaay.  Here’s Spider-Woman….again.

“Once an illegal operative, Jessica Drew left the group called Hydra to fight crime as the original Spider-Woman! With the ability to climb walls and emit bio-electric spider-blasts, Spider-Woman put many super-villains behind bars. Eventually giving up her identity as Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew now fights crime as a private investigator!”

When does a spin-off character have nothing to do with the original? When they’re Spider-Woman, of course. The first Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, was introduced in 1977 as little more than a way of preventing Filmation from putting out a cartoon with their own Spider-Woman. She had a similar power set to everyone’s favorite wall-crawler, but there the similarities ended. The two characters wouldn’t even meet for quite a long time after her creation. Which makes the fact that her very first figure came from a Spider-Man toyline all the more amusing.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Woman was released in Series 7 of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in toyline. She wasn’t based on a cartoon appearance (likely to avoid viewer confusion; her successor, Julia Carpenter, was a regular on the Iron Man cartoon at the same time). In fact, Series 7 was right about the time that the series stopped focussing on following the cartoon, so Spider-Woman was not the only non-show figure in the series. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 8 points of articulation. Jessica’s sculpt is a reworking of the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman from Series 1 of the Iron Man line. This would be the first time they’d share a sculpt, but far from the last. Given the similarities in design, it’s a rather practical way of getting an extra use out of the molds, I suppose. She’s been tweaked to add in elbow joints and also to remove Spider-Woman II’s action feature. Sadly, they didn’t go as far as to add back in the neck movement lost due to the action feature, but that would have been a more hefty re-working, I suppose. The sculpt is a pretty decent one overall. The proportions are fairly balanced, and pretty decent for the time. The hair has a pretty nice sculpt, and sits nicely, and the face isn’t too terrible. The one main drag with this sculpt is just how stiff it is. She doesn’t really look natural in any pose. It’s largely to do with the arms, or more specifically, the hands. She’s got this karate chop thing going on, and it just looks rather out of place. The paint is really the key part of this figure, and it’s pretty decent. The colors match well with her comics counterpart, and the work is generally on the clean side. Some of the black lines are a little fuzzy, but it’s not terrible. In terms of accessories, Jessica was about on par with most of the other figures of this time, which means she has a bunch of random stuff that doesn’t amount to much of anything. There was like a shield and a weird gun-thing I think? Mine has neither piece, and that’s just fine.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spider-Woman wasn’t one of my childhood figures. My dad had one, but I didn’t, largely due to not being overly familiar with Jessica Drew. I’ve since picked up some knowledge and appreciation for the character, so I’ve been on the look out for this figure. I found her at Yesterday’s Fun last week, but ultimately put her (and a few others) back in favor a few other things. My Dad apparently took note of this, and presented me with the whole lot the next day. He’s nice like that. She’s a decent enough figure, I suppose. Nothing amazing, but certainly entertaining. 

That’s a summer 2017 review, so things are pretty much the shape they’ve been for a while in terms of my approach.  I wrote what I wrote, and I think it’s pretty on point.  2017 was, in retrospect, a pretty good year for me in terms of Toy Biz pulls, so that was pretty nice, given it was otherwise a kind of rough one for me.  What I was missing when I wrote the original review *nine* years ago, were Spider-Woman’s accessories, which I did note at the time were “a bunch of random stuff.”  Well, I got the random stuff.  She’s got a big gun and a shield.  Can’t actually hold either of them on account of her karate chop hands, but they, like, slide on them?  They’re very silly, and she’s better without them, but they do at least make me laugh.

#3983: Wedge Antilles

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

WEDGE ANTILLES

STAR WARS: ACTION COLLECTION (KENNER)

I’ve mentioned more than once around here the strange occurrence of my favorite Star Wars character being Wedge Antilles, a rather minor player from the Original Trilogy, who’s most notable for being named on screen, actually appearing in all three films, and being the only person to participate in both Death Star runs.  He’s got a fair bit going on in the expanded universe, so you might think that’s why I’m attached, but no, I just like him from the short bits he’s in the movies. I know.  Weird.  He’s one of those characters that has a decent number of figures, but not so many so as to make it impossible to own them all, which is always fun as a collector.  So, here’s one I haven’t looked at before!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wedge Antilles was released in 1998 as part of Kenner’s Star Wars: Action Collection, which served as the 12-inch scale component of the Power of the Force run.  He was sold in a two-pack with fellow X-Wing pilot Biggs Darklighter, which was exclusive to FAO Schwarz.  He’s based on his look from A New Hope, hence the inclusion alongside Biggs.  The figure stands about 12 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation, as well as those kind of pointless ratchet joints on his knees.  He’s got sort of a combination of a couple of the bodies Kenner used for Action Collection.  He has the improved upper torso with the waist and elbow joints, but lacks the proper articulated legs that some of the later single release figures got.  It means he can sort of pose, but not a lot.  He got a new head sculpt, which looks as much like Dennis Lawson as any of the ‘90s 12-inch figures looked like their respective actors, so it’s at least consistent with the other stuff.  You can generally tell who it’s meant to be, even if it is perhaps a bit soft.  His outfit, which was entirely shared with Biggs, consists of a jumpsuit, vest, web gear, boots, and gloves.  The boots, gloves, and web gear are sculpted elements, and generally look alright, though the gloves are quite bulky around the wrists.  The rest of it’s fabric, and it does alright.  It’s very loose and thick, and kind of shapeless, but that’s what these figures looked like.  Mine’s got some light staining on the back.  At one point, he had a helmet, which was another sculpted piece, but mine lacks that.  Paint is minor, and pretty much confined to the head.  His hair’s light for Wedge, but that’s about it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been slowly accumulating Wedges for a while, and this was one I didn’t have, largely because I’ve never wanted to shell out for the whole two-pack, because I don’t need a Biggs.  This one in particular made his way into my stocking this Christmas, with an assist by my wife Rachel, who had been informed it was a Wedge I didn’t own (by me).  These figures are far from the high-end collectibles we’ve come to expect of sixth scale figures, but they have their charm in a way.  I remember the line rather fondly, and I’m happy to have Wedge, because it means I don’t really need to dive back into the line further than just him.  Still, a Wedge I don’t have is always a cool thing to me.

#3982: Fluttering Arthur

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

FLUTTERING ARTHUR

THE TICK (BANDAI)

“Not in the face!  Not in the face!”

A super hero with a solid sidekick is always a great thing.  Obviously, there’s the classic dynamic duo of Batman and Robin, but one of my very favorites has always been the Tick and his sidekick Arthur.  Arthur debuted fairly early in the Tick comics, and is one of the few characters to follow Tick through all of his adaptations, which included every episode of the ‘90s cartoon, which netted him a handful of figures, one of which I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Fluttering Arthur was released in Series 1 of Bandai’s The Tick toyline.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  As this is Bandai’s American division’s work, scale’s not exactly their main forte.  As such, Arthur’s rather large relative to the Ticks in the same line.  He’s still physically shorter, of course, but not by nearly as much as he should be, and his general scaling is also just a lot larger than it should be.  But, it is what it is, and 30 years after the fact, it’s kind of quaint.  The actual sculpt is honestly not bad.  He’s very preposed, which is a little odd, but otherwise pretty faithful to the show’s animation models for the character.  He’s a slightly more reserved Arthur than we frequently saw in the show, where he was dealing with the Tick’s many antics, but this look is ultimately a bit better for a more general figure look.  In terms of color work, Arthur’s always pretty easy, since he’s just a lot of white.  The figure actually goes mostly for an off-white, which is all molded plastic.  It works out better in the long-run, since he’s not all yellowed now.  It also means his goggles can be an actual proper white, which helps them stand out a bit better, even if they are a little fuzzy around the edges.  He’s also got paint on his face and hands, which likewise has some fuzz on the edges, but is at least pretty clean and consistent in its application.  Arthur gets no accessories, but does get an action feature that draws on the “Fluttering” part of his name.  Pushing the button on his back makes his wings “flap,” which is amusing enough, and also pretty non-intrusive.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The saga of me getting this figure goes back to the early ‘90s, when he was still new.  At the time, Tick was on the air, but I didn’t watch it religiously or anything.  But, it was super hero fare, and I liked that, so I’d seen a few episodes, which was enough to know that I liked Arthur quite a bit.  Shortly before my birthday, my Nana took me to the store to get some ideas for gifts, and I saw this guy, and said I wanted him, specifically him, and not any of the others.  Here’s the thing about my Nana and gifts: she had a tendency to decide to buy me a more extravagant gift than I’d asked for, which was nice and generous, but also meant she got me something that simply wasn’t what I wanted.  So, instead of getting the standard Arthur figure, I unwrapped….the 14-inch deluxe talking Tick figure.  Which was cool, but it wasn’t an Arthur, nor was there an Arthur to go with it (I later made my own Arthur by wrapping a 12-inch Robin figure in masking tape).  So, I was without an Arthur for a while.  And, while these figures aren’t rare by any means, they don’t land in front of me nearly as often as other things, so I never did get one.  That is, until I unwrapped this guy on Christmas morning, courtesy of my son Matthew (with an assist from my wife Rachel).  I saw him at a comic con a few weeks ago, and they circled back around to get him for me, which was very nice.  He’s basic and goofy, but very much my vibe, and I’m happy to finally have one after all these years.  But, I fear I now must track down so many more of these figures…

#3980: Cable

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

CABLE

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Cable is the touch, no-nonsense leader of X-Force. A half-man, half-machine cyborg, Cable uses his bio-mechanical eye, arm and leg to see and do things impossible for anyone else-including other mutants. When the fighting gets tough, Cable knows from bitter experience, only two things can save X-Force-teamwork, and his own high-tech weaponry!”

Welcome everyone to a brand new year here at The Figure in Question!  I’m back and refreshed from my Christmas break…well, I’m back from my Christmas break, at the very least.

Waaaaaaaaaay back last year (or, you know, like, three weeks ago), a faithful reader brought up to me that, for all my Toy Biz Marvel reviews, somehow I hadn’t reviewed a single Cable figure from their run.  Which is, quite frankly, insane, because they made, like, a lot of  Cable figures.  So, the first thing I’m doing in my return to Toy Biz for the new year is fix this glaring Cable-shaped hole in my Toy Biz reviewing, and take a look at their first go at the guy.  Here he is!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cable was released in the very first series of Toy Biz’s X-Force line, which spun out of their X-Men line during its second year.  As the central character in the comics, obviously Cable needed a spot in the debut line-up.  This would also wind up as his very first action figure, and a pretty quick turn around for a guy who’d only shown in the comics two years prior.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is…well, they were sort of working out the basics here, and he hits *fairly* close, but for whatever reason, his left shoulder is a hinge that just goes outward, rather than offering any forward and back.  It’s an odd set-up, but there it is.  He was an all-new sculpt, based on his more solidified look from X-Force proper, albeit as solidified as any of Liefeld’s designs ever really got.  The X-Force line wound up advancing in technical sculpting at a quicker pace than X-Man, but this first round was still definitely more like the Marvel Super Heroes and earlier X-Men than anything Toy Biz did later.  This Cable is definitely a little thinner, stretched out, and softer on the details than later figures would be.  Given Liefeld’s love of crosshatching, he feels downright squeaky clean.  His color work is kind of the same vibe as the sculpt, being quite clean, and broad, and sort of going soft on a lot of the details.  It does what it needs to generally, though.  There were two variations to the paint.  Originally, the boots and leg straps were a lighter grey, and his yellow eye glowed in the dark, but later versions darkened the boots and leg straps, and dropped the gimmick on the eye.  Neither is all that notable on its own, but rather is more evident if you happen to have the both right in front of you.  Both versions included the same very large gun, which can be held in the left hand, and has a rotating barrel that makes a clicking sound when you spin it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

By the time I got into collecting, this version of Cable was long gone from shelves, so I didn’t have this one as a kid.  The initial release somehow found its way into my collection over the years…twice.  Like, I don’t even know how.  I don’t remember buying him either time, but I wound up with two of them, so, you know, that’s fun, I guess.  I wound up getting the color variant through some good old fashioned bartering.  My granddad hoarded all sorts of old tech in his basement, and a guy wanted to take some of it for cosplay and set building, so he traded me, amongst other things, two Toy Biz figures, which happened to include the Cable variant, which I didn’t already have.  This figure’s goofy for sure.  Definitely not Toy Biz’s strongest take on the guy, which is kind of a shame, since it’s sort of his most distinctive look.  He does have a certain charm to him, so I’ll give him that.