Tag Archives: All Time Toys

#2509: Warpath

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

WARPATH

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A powerful mutant with superhuman strength and speed, Warpath is a formidable warrior with a proud and noble heart.”

One thing that seems to accompany the mutant gene in the Marvel universe is a propensity to breed like rabbits.  Everybody and their brother seems to have…a brother.  Okay, poor choice of words.  But, the point still stands, that a whole lot of the merry mutants have siblings, frequently with similar, or even identical, power sets.  I guess it’s a pretty easy way for the writers to “bring back” a character that can’t really be brought back.  Such was the case James Proudstar, brother to John Proudstar, the original Thunderbird and early addition to the X-Men’s casualty list.  James cropped up first under the same title as his brother, before jumping into his own identity as Warpath, whose wound up with a good deal more staying power than his brother.  That’s probably why he’s got so many more figures.  Well, here’s one more.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Warpath is figure 6 in the Strong Guy Series of Marvel Legends.  Unlike a lot of this assortment, this isn’t Warpath’s first time as a Legend; he got two separate figures back during the two-pack days of Hasbro, covering two of his later X-Force costumes.  This one, however, goes back to his start with X-Force, and gives him that proper Liefeldian design.  Shoulder pads and pouches!  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Warpath is built on the body introduced with Omega Red back in 2018.  It’s honestly surprising it took this long for the body to crop back up, because it’s a really solid big guy type of body, with a really good articulation scheme.  It’s certainly a welcome improvement to the Hyperion body, or even that weird Hulkling take-off the prior Warpaths made use of.  Warpath gets a new head, hands, forearms, shins, and add-ons for his shoulder pads, wrist bracers, and belt.  The head seems perhaps a touch on the large side, if I’m honest.  Not terribly so, but in line with Hasbro’s usual difficulties getting the proportions just right on some of the larger characters.  Sizing aside, though, it’s a really nice sculpt, definitely befitting James’s usual depictions.  The forearms clean up the Omega Red-specific elements of the prior mold, paving the way for easier use for other characters, while the shins not only add another point of articulation, but also add in Warpath’s fringed boots.  The shoulder pads do a variation of the Omega Red ones, pegging into place on the shoulders.  It keeps them secure, while still allowing for removal, if that’s your thing.  The bracers and belt wrap things up with some fairly standard issue parts, which work out pretty well.  His paint work is pretty basic, but also pretty appropriate.  They did tone down his colors ever so slightly from how they were initially depicted in the comics, but it definitely still works, and probably even works a bit better, since he ends up a little less garish.  Warpath’s accessory complement is…odd?  He’s got a second pair of hands for gripping, but nothing to grip.  I don’t mind the extra hands at all, but I’m not used to seeing them without accessories to interact with.  Perhaps he was supposed to have some knives or something?  He also gets the left leg of Strong Guy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Warpath’s not a character I’ve ever had any sort of major attachment to, due mostly to never really following any of the stories he was a part of.  Subsequently, I’ve also not really collected many of his figures, apart from having his first Toy Biz offering.  That said, he’s got a pretty distinctive design, so I was down to see his classic look get some Legends love, especially with most of the team already here.  He’s a pretty strong figure.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2507: Maverick

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

MAVERICK

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Maverick absorbs the force of enemy attacks, converting it into hyper-concussive blasts of power.”

Hiiiiway through the danger zone!  Oh, sorry, wrong Maverick.  This one’s significantly less Tom Cruise-y.  Though, I bet he still plays a pretty mean game of volley ball.  It’s been quite a while since I reviewed a Maverick figure.  In my defense, that’s because there really aren’t a lot of them out there.  But now there’s one more, so that ups the quantity of Mavericks by about 30% or so.  Aggressive expansion and all that.  He’s very, very ’90s, so that does make him ripe for the picking in regards to the current Legends line-up, and, well, here he is, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Maverick is figure 4 in the Strong Guy Series of Marvel Legends.  While Black Tom eschewed the ’90s trend, Maverick is squarely in the middle of it.  He’s perhaps the central piece of it, really.  He’s Maverick.  Sorry, wrong Maverick again.  This assortment is really a mid-point between Deadpool and X-Force, and Maverick’s connection to both of those things is pretty tangential.  I suppose he and Deadpool are both products of Weapon X, so there’s that.  If it gets me a Maverick, I won’t complain about the circumstances.  The figure is almost 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  The nature of Maverick’s design is that it’s somewhat restricting to movement.  Subsequently, that translates to this figure, especially when it comes to the elbows.  That being said, he still manages to be quite posable, and Hasbro’s definitely done their best with most of the articulation implementation.  He can even move his head mostly unimpeded, which is awesome for a Maverick figure; the ’90s figure didn’t even try on that one.  Maverick is sporting an all-new sculpt, which I was actually a little surprised to find out.  I had just assumed he’d be making use of some of the Deathlok tooling, but that’s not the case at all.  That means his sculpt isn’t playing double duty, or aiming for close enough, resulting in a figure that’s a quite solid recreation of Maverick’s original comics design.  For the most part, I’m a really big fan of how the sculpt works.  The details are clean and sharp, and I love how well they’ve captured his mop of ’90s hair under neath of the helmet.  The only part I’m not much of a fan of is the collar piece, which is a free-floating add-on piece for some reason, rather than being properly attached.  It doesn’t stay in place very well at all on my figure, and ultimately, I just kind of prefer him without it.  It would be nice if it could at least tab in or something to keep it in place.  Maverick’s color work is pretty decent overall.  The gold goes more orange-y than what we saw on the ’90s toys, but I actually think it looks pretty good.  It feels more in line with his comics depiction this way.  The actual paint application is decent overall, though there’s some slight bleed over from the mask to the face.  Due to the layout of the mask, though, it’s not terribly noticeable.  Maverick is packed with two different guns.  The smaller (based on the Nerf Vortex Proton; thanks Tim!) can be stowed in his holster, but he’ll just have to always be holding the other one.  He’s also packed with the left arm of Strong Guy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I have a perhaps somewhat irrational love of Maverick.  There’s never been much to the character, but I always thought he was really cool on X-Men: The Animated Series, and I tended to have him on my team whenever playing X-Men: Under Siege board game as a kid.  His ’90s toy eluded me until I was an adult, but I was super excited when he was announced for this line, and he was definitely my number one want from this line-up.  I’m very happy with this figure, and he turned out even better than I was expecting really.  A very solid offering.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2506: Black Tom Cassidy

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

BLACK TOM CASSIDY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A nefarious criminal with the power of concussive blasts and plant morphology, Black Tom is a true threat.”

I guess I might as well keep this Marvel Legends thing rolling.  Hey, I can even keep this X-Men thing rolling, too…essentially.  It’s sort of tangental, but yeah, it’s rolling.  Rather than handling a stand-alone this time, I’m just going to jump head-long into a proper full assortment of figures.  When it comes to giving us characters from the X-Men side of things, Hasbro likes to diversify slightly with their assortments, so that things aren’t too centralized on the core team and its characters.  So, we’ll typically get one or two “proper” X-Men assortments for Legends in a given year, and the one or two sort of off-shoot assortments.  Last year, they did more of an X-Force thing for their secondary thing, and the year before it was all about Deadpool.  This year, they’re sort of slapping those two together.  Alright, I can get behind it, I guess.  I’m kicking things off with a pretty classic X-Men character who was co-opted by X-Force back in the ’90s, it’s Banshee’s evil cousin, Black Tom Cassidy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Tom Cassidy is figure 2 in the Strong Guy Series of Marvel Legends, and stands out in the assortment as the only figure to be sporting a pre-1990 design.  As someone with a deep appreciation for the Claremont/Cockrum/Byrne days, I can really dig it.  I can also really dig it as someone who prefers his Black Tom to not be a tree.  Thanks for not having him be a tree, guys.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Black Tom Cassidy is built from the same bank of parts as Shatterstar, making him a Bucky Cap adjacent figure.  He gets a new head, upper torso, pelvis, and belt piece to mix things up a bit.  I quite like the head sculpt in particular; it’s a more modern take on Tom, but it really works for the line’s general aesthetic, and it’s got some nice character behind it.  Technically, the re-used gloves and boots aren’t accurate to Tom’s usual depictions, but I like the flair they have to them, and it ultimately makes for a slightly more interesting design, so I can get behind them.  The paint work on Tom is pretty solid for the most part. The face and hair is clean, but there’s some slightly uneven coverage on the chest insignia.  It’s not terrible, but it certainly could be better.  Black Tom is packed with a wooden staff for channeling his powers, as well as the back to the BaF Strong Guy.  The staff’s a well done piece, and looks good in Tom’s hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Though not at the top of my list, Black Tom certainly ranks pretty highly in this line-up for me, again thanks to my enjoyment of the Claremont/Cockrum/Byrne days (and, by extension, the ’90s cartoon’s adaptation of the Phoenix Saga, and Black Tom’s appearance there).  This figure is pretty by the numbers, but it really works for him, and he’s definitely a solid figure.  Now, can we please get a Banshee of matching quality to go with him?

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2505: Beast

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

BEAST

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“While the Beast is incredibly strong and astonishingly agile, he is also one of the world’s leading experts in biochemistry. When he is not fighting evil alongside the X-Men, he devotes his time to expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.”

It’s been an actual month since I reviewed any Marvel Legends, which does feel like a bit, doesn’t it?  In my defense, there was a touch of a gap between new releases there.  But, we’re jumping into another onslaught of releases here, so in an effort to keep up with them, I suppose I might as well just do a bunch of Marvel Legends reviews.  I’m kicking things off with one of this year’s standalone releases, the Retro Carded Beast figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Beast is, as noted above, a standalone Marvel Legends release, fitting in with the Retro Carded line they’ve been running since 2018, and following the “standalone repaint” pattern established by last year’s Storm re-deco (which I never actually reviewed…that’s on me).  He also follows what’s become an overwhelming trend of Retro Card figures that aren’t actually based on any proper vintage release, since there existed no Grey Beast figure in the Toy Biz days.  However, this way allows Hasbro to duplicate their formula from the 3 3/4 inch lines of Blue Beast being the ’90s version, and Grey Beast covering the ’70s-’80s look, while also giving people another chance at the mold.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  From the neck down, this guy’s the same figure as last year’s Beast from the Caliban Series.  This was pretty much expected as soon as we knew this figure was coming, since it’s a pretty natural re-use.  The body’s still a strong offering; it’s technically a bit on the tall side for Hank, but the detailing is sharp, and the posability is really great.  He gets an all-new head sculpt, based more on the Perez-style Beast of the ’70s and ’80s, with a far more controlled hair style, and a far more jovial expression than the prior piece.  I’m quite a fan of it, and it gives me something slightly more in line with how I prefer the character, as well as offering a bit more versatility than the Caliban Series head.  There’s a fair bit of change-up in the paint department, as you might expect, since he goes from being blue to being grey.  It works pretty well, and he still keeps most of the accent work from the prior figure.  There are a few spots of bleed over on my figure, but for the most part, he looks pretty solid.  While the prior Beast release just got an extra set of hands, this one steps things up a bit, giving him not only the extra hands, but also the Caliban Series head (this time in grey), a book, and a pair of glasses.  It adds a lot of posing options to the plate, and again brings him a bit more in line with how I think of the character, so I’m all about it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I enjoy the Caliban Series Beast for what he is, but I wanted a little more out of him, if I’m honest.  A follow-up felt inevitable.  If I’m entirely honest, I’m a touch disappointed that he ended up being Grey Beast.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s a cool figure, and this does make him slightly more distinctive, but I was really hoping to finally get a proper Perez-style Blue Beast, especially after having to make due with the Grey version in the smaller scale already.  I’d like to hope this guy might get re-popped in blue at some point, but that feels slightly like overkill right now, so I don’t imagine it would be soon.  Still, he’s certainly not a bad figure, and I’m glad they put the mold back out there.

Thanks to my sponsors over at 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.

#2504: Admiral Motti

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

ADMIRAL MOTTI

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (HASBRO)

“The senior Imperial commander in charge of operations on the original Death Star, Admiral Motti often disagreed with the decisions of Darth Vader. His outspokenness almost cost him his life when Vader used the Force to strangle the Admiral into silence.”

In 1999, when prepping for the tie-in to The Phantom Menace‘s release and the big marketing push that accompanied, Hasbro decided to actually take over full ownership of the line, officially bringing an end to the facade of Kenner still running the line.  This extended to the Power of the Force line, which would run concurrently with The Phantom Menace, albeit in a far more limited capacity.  They offered up a lot more redoes of previous designs during these two years, but also still gave us some brand new characters never before seen in toy form.  This included today’s focus, Admiral Conan Antonio Motti, aka the guy who Vader force chokes in the first movie.  Yay.  That guy really needed a toy, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Admiral Motti was one of the final two Power of the Force II figures released (the other being a Princess Leia variant), hitting shelves just before the transition to Power of the Jedi in 2000.  He was the third Imperial Officer to grace the line, following Tarkin and Piett.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Oh boy, is that one extra joint I see there?  Yep, Motti gets an honest to god elbow hinge on his left arm.  Why is that?  Well, so that he can more properly recreate the force choking scene, of course!  Yep, he actually gets the ability to do that very specific pose.  I mean, there’s not really many other poses he can pull off, of course, but really it feels worth it.  It’s a pretty distinctive pose, and it’s the one pose that any one is really going to remember him in.  Honestly, I wouldn’t be able to pick Motti out of a line-up if not for the pose.  Otherwise, his stance is fairly neutral, so if you want to throw that arm back behind his back, I guess you can have him look rather British and upper-class and pompous.  In terms of paint work, he’s overall pretty basic in how he works.  Lots of greys, but that’s accurate, so it’s hard to really knock it.  Motti is admittedly a character that doesn’t really have any obvious accessories, but Hasbro did their best.  He gets the same smaller blaster as Tarkin did, as well as a CommTech chip, since those were still a thing at this point.  Amusingly, the back of the chip lists Motti as “Commander of Opperations Aboard the Origional Death Star” which features not one, but two separate typos that are really bad and really noticeable, and were really never corrected, since the line was already on its way out.  I guess we really shouldn’t have been all that surprised by “Skywalkwer”.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Motti’s one of those figure’s I’ve wanted for a while, not really because I care in the slightest about the character, but because he’s sort of one of those morbidly distinctive figures.  I mean, how often do you see the force choke in plastic form?  He’s not an exceedingly common figure, being at the very end of the line and all, so I had to wait through quite a few PotF collections coming in through All Time before finally getting my hands on him.  He’s not the most thrilling figure or anything, but he amuses me, and I’ll admit to doing a little bit of a happy dance when he came through.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy.  They’ve got a decent back stock of Power of the Force, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2503: Battle-Action Mega Armor Wolverine

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

BATTLE-ACTION MEGA ARMOR WOLVERINE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Toy Biz’s ’90s Iron Man, though far from a failure, was also not quite the success of some of their other Marvel-based toy lines from the same period.  Following the slow sales of its fourth assortment, the line was brought to a close, cancelling not only its fifth set of figures, but also some off-shoot products, which included a line of items dubbed “Mega Armor,” which would effectively take off from the Hulkbuster armor and give both Iron Man and War Machine larger mecha suits to pilot.  It was a cool concept, but not one that Toy Biz could get retailers to support under the Iron Man name.  However, with the molds ready to go, they had to do *something* with them, so they were quick to repurpose them under two of their more successful brands, X-Men and Spider-Man.  Why Spider-Man and the X-Men were running around in big mechs is anyone’s guess, but I try not to complain too much about such things.  Whatever the case, it gives me a Wolverine variant I haven’t yet looked at, so I might as well jump in on that, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Battle Action Mega Armor Wolverine hit shelves in 1997, under the main X-Men line branding.  To start with, they did Wolverine and Storm with the armor, but others would eventually follow down the line.  The Mech suit is about 9 inches tall and has movement at the shoulders and wrists, as well as a cockpit that opens in two spots to let the standard figure inside out.  Said standard figure is about 5 inches tall and has 10 points of articulation.  Wolverine’s mech suit is the one that was originally intended for Iron Man, and as such it’s definitely got a lot of details that really match up with both the modular armor and with the Hulkbuster armor’s depiction on the Iron Man cartoon in the ’90s.  It’s certainly a cool looking piece, though the very stiff nature of it does make it a little more difficult to really play with.  It’s more of a set piece than anything, and that becomes really even more apparent when you stick Wolverine in it instead of its original intended occupant.  The included Wolverine figure is interesting in that, when you really get down to it, he’s not *technically* a Wolverine at all.  He’s actually a re-use of the main line’s Morph figure, just with that figure’s alternate Wolverine head in place instead of the standard.  While the Wolverine head works fine on that figure as a more quick gimmicky set-up, the two character’s really don’t share the same build, resulting in a very anemic looking Wolverine.  He’s still very posable, however, so he’s at least a pretty playable figure.  When it comes to paint, the mech suit gets a pretty notable overhaul on the color scheme, moving away from the intended Iron Man scheme into something more in line with Wolverine’s usual palette.  It’s not a terrible look, but it’s definitely a departure, and I don’t know that it suits the mold as well as the original set-up would have.  For his part, the included Wolverine also gets a pretty major overhaul as well, with a totally blue number, some silver accenting and a whole bunch of weird gold techno lines thrown in to top it all off.  Really weird set-up, and I’m really not sure exactly what they were going for.  It’s certainly….different?  Oh, and he’s of course wall-eyed, because that’s just how you do, I suppose.  In addition to the Wolverine figure being included, the mech suit also gets a claw weapon thing to hold in one hand, and has a spinning hand feature on his right side and an extending punch feature on the left.  He’s certainly got his fighting options all laid out for him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have the whole mech suit thing as a kid, but I did have just the Wolverine from it, as it had been found at my Dad’s work, and he ended up bringing it home for me.  I always wanted the whole suit, in any of its many released forms, but I just never did get one.  But lucky me, one came into All Time in a collection, and also lucky me, Christian had just happened upon some really good trade fodder for me at Goodwill, sort of kind of as a birthday thing, meaning I was able to get this guy essentially free of charge.  That worked out pretty darn well.  This thing is so majorly goofy, and I so majorly love it.

#2498: Captain America – Final Battle Edition

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — FINAL BATTLE EDITION

S.H. FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

Bandai Japan’s S.H. Figuarts is a toyline that I’ve looked at a handful of times previously on the site, but the very vast majority of the items I’ve looked at from the line have been, rather predictably, I suppose, based on Japanese properties (well, excepting of course Freddie and K-2, but they were sort of stand outs).  They’ve been dabbling in plenty of American properties over the years, but up until now, I’ve been totally content to stick with the domestic options on those.  As of late, they’ve been really getting into the MCU side of things, with Infinity War and Endgame both getting a noticeable focus.  Today, I’m taking a look at their latest take on Captain America, specifically in his Endgame attire.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Final Battle Edition Captain America started showing most places in the last month or so, right alongside the similarly Final Battle-themed Iron Man from the movie.  This marks our second Endgame Cap in the Figuarts line; the first one hit closer to the film’s theatrical release, and featured a much more paired down accessory selection, largely to avoid spoilers and the like.  Even as a basic release, it sold out pretty quickly, so Bandai was fairly quick to get another version out there.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  He’s on the taller side of the Figuarts spectrum (due to Chris Evans being generally a pretty tall guy), but he’s still going to be a little small to scale with Legends.  Obviously, that’s kind of expected.  This release of Endgame Cap appears to be using the same core sculpt as the prior release.  The articulation is a little bit on the obvious side, falling back in line with what I’m used to from Figurarts.  There’s a pretty amazing range of motion, though some of the joints on mine, particularly his left elbow, are a little looser than I’d like.  I do wish the tolerance were just a touch better there.  As with any Figuarts sculpt, it’s definitely got a little bit of a stylization to it, to bring him in line with the rest of the figures.  It works pretty well for Cap, though, and gives him even more heroic proportions than usual. It also looks astoundingly svelte when compared to the Hasbro version, which was itself a bit beefy, I suppose.  It’s not a bad match for Evans’ build in the film, though, albeit in a slightly caricaturized way.  It does manage to get the costume details down a bit more accurately, I think, than the Legends release.  There are three separate heads included with this figure: masked with calm expression, masked with battle expression, and fully unmasked (which also gets its own separate neck post, since there’s a little bit of the helmet visible on the standard neck).  Of the three, I the neutral masked is probably the weakest.  The likeness just isn’t quite there, and he looks a little void of personality.  I really like the other two heads, though.  The intense expression is great for battle poses, and the unmasked head has a pretty fantastic Evans likeness on it.  The paint work on this figure marks a difference from the original release, which gave us a slightly more pristine Cap.  This one takes the “Final Battle” title and runs with it a bit, so he’s got a bit of grime and dirt.  It’s not enough to make him look “damaged”, but it gives him a little extra flavor.  All three heads have printed faces, which look a little wonky from up close, but great at a distance.  The gold color used on the hair of the unmasked head looks a little weird, but after having him in hand for a bit, I don’t actually hate it.  The major selling point of this guy is his accessory complement.  In addition to the three heads mentioned above, Cap also includes five pairs of hands (fists, relaxed, hammer gripping, flat, and with the shield strap in hand), his shield in both regular and broken forms, with interchangeable straps to go along, and Mjolnir with interchangeable energy effects.  The hands offer up some fun posing variety, and the flat palmed ones even have a tab to allow the corresponding strap with hanger on it to be attached, letting Cap actually hold his shield by its edge.  The shield’s straps also allow for use on either arm, one-handed hold, or mounting on his back, again really giving posing options.  Both shields are great pieces, and it’s awesome to finally have the destroyed one in toy form.  Mjolnir practically steals the show here, though, as the swap out panels with the energy effects are pretty amazingly dynamic for posing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t typically jump into the Figuarts realm for stuff that has other 6-inch lines, but I’ve been kicking myself for passing up the chance to grab the AoU Cap at a good price, and I was a little bummed when I missed the first release on Endgame Cap.  Fortunately, the updated version came along, and he’s even better, so it works out well.  When All Time got these figures in stock, I came very close to grabbing this guy right away, but ultimately held off.  However, Super Awesome Wife was nice enough to work with Jason to get me one for my birthday, and I really couldn’t be happier.  He’s a really fun figure, and goes great with the rest of my ever-growing Captain America collection.

If you’d like a Cap of your own (or the Iron Man that goes with him, perhaps), he’s still in-stock at AllTimeToys.com. And, if you’re looking for other cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2496: EV-9D9

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

EV-9D9

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“EV-9D9 is ideally suited to its job as cyborg taskmaster in Jabba the Hutt’s palace. It was one of many droids in service to the crimelord.”

Hey, remember how I was reviewing Star Wars stuff all week?  Well, get settled in with that, because we’re just gonna keep that rolling one day further.  Of course, it’s no fancy Black Series offering today.  Nope, we’re instead going back to my old mainstay, Power of the Force.  I mean, hey, at least it’s somebody who hasn’t gotten any Black Series love, just to keep things different and interesting.  And it’s someone with a speaking role, even!  Let’s look at EV-9D9, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

EV-9D9 was added to the Power of the Force line-up in 1997.  He was one of a handful of Jabba’s Palace denizens added to the line-up that year, so he was quite at home (although he wouldn’t get an 8D8 to boss around until the next year).  This marked his second time getting a figure, following the vintage release, as well as his final time in figure form.  Poor EV, getting no modern day figure love.  That feels downright criminal.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The design doesn’t quite as easily lend itself to a waist swivel, so he doesn’t get that.  Sadly, he also lacks the moving mouth of the original release, which is definitely a sad omission.  On the plus side, the figure’s nice and stable when it comes to standing, so he won’t be faceplanting nearly as often as some of the figures from this line.  He also avoids the pre-posing of earlier entries, making him a nice basic figure.  The sculpt is quite nice, doing a respectable job of capturing the design of the prop from the film, while also being sharp and clean on the details. It’s just a really nifty little sculpt.  The paint work is also pretty decent for this era of figure.  All of the important details are there, and there’s even some pretty nice accenting on the bronze sections of his body.  EV-9D9’s only got one accessory, but it’s a pretty good one: it’s the podium he stands behind when administering R2 and 3PO’s jobs. Pretty central to the character, and rather sizable to boot,  so it’s a winner in my book.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

EV is another of the large batch of figures I picked up in late 2018 when I really started trying to fill in my collection for the line.  It’s definitely a figure I didn’t think much of when I grabbed it, but he’s a pretty solid figure, especially given the lack of further coverage of the character.

Thanks to my friends at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy.  They’ve got a decent back stock of Power of the Force, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2495: Battle Droid – Geonosis

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

BATTLE DROID — GEONOSIS

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Rather than use flesh-and-blood warriors, the Separatists prefer mindlessly loyal soldiers that are easily controlled. Battle droids are dim-witted and no match for clone troopers or Jedi, but they weren’t designed to be smart – they were designed to overwhelm Republic civilians through sheer numbers, something they do very effectively.”

Since the Stormtroopers were off limits due to timelines and continuity and all that jazz, the Prequel Trilogy had to come up with its own form of armies of troops for the bad guys to throw our heroes’ way.  Taking advantage of being able to do designs and concepts not as easily allowed by the technology of filmmaking in the early ’80s, Lucas and company introduced the Trade Federation’s Battle Droid army, who became the backbone of the separatist forces for the next three films (and Clone Wars, of course), all while some how becoming more comically slapstick in their mannerisms with each subsequent appearance.  At this point, it really wouldn’t be that far-fetched for them to come out with a rendition of “who’s on first?”  Whatever the case, they were absent from The Black Series for a good bit, but finally joined the line early last year.  Of course, the assortment they were a part of was kind of unbalanced in its distribution, so Hasbro opted to give us another chance at the mold, this time with a tweaked color scheme.  Yay for me!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Battle Droid (Geonosis) is figure 108 in the Black Series line-up.  He’s the third Battle Droid we’ve gotten, following the tan Episode 1 version and the Gaming Greats heavy gunner.  All three of them are the same mold, which is sensible, since the core droid design didn’t change throughout the three prequel films.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation.  Battle Droid figures historically have a lot of trouble matching the movement of the droids in the films.  Given that the joints are right there in the design, it’s a shame that they almost never articulate them.  However, this figure addresses that, and actually manages to articulate most of the built-in joints, making this by far the most Battle Droid put out by Hasbro.  The hip joints are slightly limited, and a few of the smaller joints were stuck on mine right out of the box, but he’s overall really posable, and a lot more steady on his feet than prior Battle Droids I’ve messed with.  Most impressively, he can actually properly fold up like the droids do in the movie, which is pretty cool.  The sculpt is also a pretty spot-on recreation of the designs seen in the movie, with all of the detail work being nice and crisp, sharp, and clean.  He’s quite a sleek-looking figure.  The colors are where this figure differentiates himself from the prior releases.  This one uses the Geonosis coloring, so he’s all red to match the rather amber terrain of the planet.  I’ve always been kind of partial to this coloring, so I’m happy to see it represented here.  The paint work gives him some wear and tear, so that he looks like a proper “battle” Droid.  He’s armed with the standard E-5 blaster, and also includes both a backpack, and the streamlined antenna pack, to allow for some distinction of ranks within the set-up.  It would have been cool to also get a C-3PO head to swap out, but perhaps they’ll just make the heads swappable when they make the inevitable AotC 3PO.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was tempted by the tan release of this figure last year, but never saw him in person, and didn’t feel majorly inclined to track him down after the fact.  Once I knew this one was coming, I officially switched over to just wanting him, because I like this color set better.  Now that I’ve finally gotten to mess with this mold, I can definitely see why people like it so much.  I’m sure Hasbro’s already planning to do a few more rank variants with it, and I can see myself picking some of those up to be sure.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Black Series, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2494: Anakin Skywalker – Padawan

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

ANAKIN SKYWALKER — PADAWAN

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“A hero of the Clone Wars, Anakin was caring and compassionate, but also had a fear of loss that would prove to be his downfall”

Okay, so we were looking at some figures from Empire, the second installment in the Original Trilogy, which everyone loves.  Now, let’s jump forward (or is it backward?) to Attack of the Clones, the second installment of the Prequel Trilogy that most people don’t love.  I’m with most people on this one.  Delving back into my archive of old reviews tells me that the only other Anakin Skywalker figure I’ve reviewed here was back in May of 2014, and was another version of him from Attack of the Clones.  So, let’s do more of that, I guess?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Anakin Skywalker (Padawan) is figure 110 in the Black Series line-up.  He’s from the latest assortment of the main line, which is an entirely AotC-based line-up.  It’s also the last line-up before the line ditches the overall numbering scheme and goes to more themed subsets starting in the fall.  Gotta say, ending the longest running incarnation of this line with an all Attack of the Clones assortment is a pretty baller move.  Go for it, Hasbro.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  A lot of this figure’s parts are shared with the Revenge of the Sith version of the character, released way back in Series 4 of the original Black Series incarnation.  Remember in my Luke review on Tuesday, when I mentioned how nice it was to get an all-new sculpt for the Snowspeeder gear, even though they might have been able to try for some re-use?  Well, that feels somewhat relevant here.  Anakin’s look in the two films isn’t terribly different, so on one hand, some re-use is sensible.  However, it has the side effect of putting this guy on a base body that’s from 2014, which, from both a sculpting and an articulation stand point, puts him rather behind the times.  The torso in particular is rather boxy, and the movement on the elbows, waist, and knees is quite limited, especially when compared to more recent offerings.  He does at least get a new head, right forearm, and belt, which help to change him up a bit from the prior release.  The head is probably the strongest piece, and manages to give us a solid rendition of Hayden Christiansen.  It’s certainly an amazing improvement over any of the prior versions of him we’ve gotten, especially when it comes to his AotC appearance.  They definitely got that broody facial expression down.  The only slight issue with mine is that he’s got a bit of flashing on the right side of his jaw.  The new forearm is really just meant to mirror the left side, since this is a pre-robo arm Anakin.  It’s a real shame they didn’t take the opportunity to make it more easily removed at the elbow, to simulate some battle damage.  Of course, they also left Bespin Luke without an easily removed hand, so maybe they’re just really banking for potential variants down the line.  In terms of paint, this figure tries, but has one major issue, which is that his neck and face just don’t match.  Sadly, this is the potential problem you face when you’re painting one and molding the other in the appropriate color.  More recent figures have been using the double ball joint set up so that the neck is separate from the torso, allowing it to also be molded in the appropriate color, but no such luck here with this older mold.  At least the face printing looks pretty good.  In terms of extras, Anakin’s pretty light.  He gets his lightsaber…and that’s it.  It’s not even a really great mold, since the hilt feels somewhat oversized.  I’d really liked to have seen an alternate arm with his robot hand, or a robe, or even his green loaner saber from the end of the movie, so that we could properly set up the duel with Dooku (I had to steal one from Grievous to set up the shot at the end of the review).  Given that the figure whose mold he’s using most of included an extra head in addition to the lightsaber, this feels like a real missed opportunity.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I feel the need at this point to say that not only has my “no prequels” rule with this line been broken, it’s been poisoned, shot, stabbed, clubbed and finally drowned.  Very Rasputinian, if I do say so myself.  I’m really just all in at this point, honestly.  It helps a little that I already had Dooku, and also that I’m becoming increasingly in touch with the nostalgic twinge I have for Attack of the Clones, especially when it comes to toys.  This guy’s got his flaws, and in some ways feels a touch phoned in, but as a whole, he’s still a very enjoyable figure, and I’m hoping I can manage to snag Obi-Wan to go with him soon.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Black Series, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.