Tag Archives: Ant-Man

#3413: Astonishing Ant-Man

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

ASTONSIHING ANT-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Attempting to save his daughter’s life, ex-criminal Scott Lang steals technology imbued with Pym Particles. Gaining the ability to shrink to the size of an insect, Scott becomes an unexpected Super Hero as Ant-Man”

Alright, I may have wrapped up the Cassie Lang Series of Marvel Legends last week, but that doesn’t mean I’m done with the cool Ant-Man goodness *just* yet!  In 1979, with the Ant-Man identity three names back for Hank Pym, the guise was assumed by Scott Lang, who used it to save his daughter Cassie’s life.  Scott would take on the title officially until his demise during “Avengers Disassembled” in 2004, and would reclaim it following his 2012 resurrection in Avengers: Children’s Crusade, allowing him to again be the main Ant-Man when it came time for the MCU incarnation to make his debut.  Obviously, Scott’s gotten quite a bit of toy love in the last few years, but classic Scott Lang figures are still something of a rarity, which makes today’s offering extra cool!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Astonishing Ant-Man is a Target-exclusive Marvel Legends release.  He hit roughly around the same time as the Cassie Lang Series, which had him timed out to loosely coincide with the home media release of Quantumania.  This is our second classic style Ant-Man under Hasbro, and our third Legends version overall, counting the old Toy Biz release.  Technically, it’s also a one and one for Scott Lang sporting the gear, since the Retro Card Ant-Man Hasbro put out was actually Hank, going by the eye color.  Yes, I brought up the eye color.  Deal with it.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  He’s using the ANAD 2099 body as his base this time around.  It means he’s still got visible pins on the elbows and knees, which is a bit of a bummer, but I do feel like the build is a much better fit for both Scott and Hank than the Pizza Spidey body was.  Ant-Man gets a new head and belt piece to finish off the look.  The head is just a beautiful piece of work, through and through.  The helmet is a separate, non-removable piece, and it’s honestly never looked better in Legends form.  They always get something slightly off, but not this time.  It’s clean, it’s sleek, and it’s sharp.  The only downside is how the antenna are easily bent out of shape, but a little bit of heating, straightening, and cooling does wonders for him.  Under the helmet, we get a new facial sculpt, which can honestly work alright for either of the two Ant-Men, but is ever so slightly leaning towards Scott, as it should be.  His new belt is very similar to the one used on Retro Ant-Man and Black Ant, but it’s sized correctly to the new base body, and is also much more sharply detailed.  Ant-Man’s color work is very bright, very bold, and very clean.  The paint work on this one is especially sharp, and it really sells the overall look.  They’ve also made sure to give Scott his proper blue eyes, so that you know who’s who.  Ant-Man is packed with two sets of hands, one open, one in fists.  It’s light.  I won’t lie.  But, honestly, Ant-Man’s always light when it comes to Legends.  I think maybe an unmasked head, or even yet another release of that same pack-in mini Ant-Man might make me feel better, but the hands aren’t terrible.  At least he’s not just stuck with fists again.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Retro Ant-Man was, at best, always just kind of a placeholder for a better figure.  Black Ant as fine on his own, but he’s not classic Ant-Man, and repainting him in classic Ant-Man colors doesn’t magically fix that.  So, he was fine, but he was never really a star piece for me.  That said, this figure, much like his Toy Biz Walmart-exclusive counterpart, is a figure I didn’t realize I needed as much as I did.  Thankfully, Max was able to hook me up with one without much fuss, allowing me to get him in hand and realize that he is, in fact, the best classic Ant-Man figure out there by a very large margin.

#3408: Cassie Lang Series Wrap-Up

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

KANG THE CONQUEROR, EGGHEAD, CROSSFIRE, FUTURE ANT-MAN, & CASSIE LANG

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Remember the big change-up in reviewing Legends from yesterday? Good, I don’t have to explain it a second time. Well, I’m doing it again, but with the Quantumania assortment. Hooray! Let’s look at the whole lot of the rest of them, shall we?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Kang the Conqueror, Egghead, Crossfire, and Future Ant-Man are figures 2, 4, 5, and 6, respectively, in the Cassie Lang Series of Marvel Legends, and are the final four figures contributing to the Build-A-Figure for this assortment of the line, wrapping up the Quantumania tie-in. Cassie is the titular Build-A-Figure for the series, assembled by collecting the parts from 6 of the 7 figures in the set.

KANG THE CONQUEROR

“Kang, a fearsome warlord with a mysterious past, has conquered the Quantum Realm and rules over all citizens with a brutal totalitarian hand.”

After we got a preview of him at the end of Loki‘s first season, Kang showed up in full for Quantumania, sporting a look that’s honestly a pretty good adaptation of Kang’s original design. The figure stands a little over 6 1/4 inches tall and has 28 points of articulation.  The articulation on the shoulders is very restricted for this figure, and there is likewise little to no forward and back on hips.  Both of these are somewhat due to design cues from the movie, but I do feel like at this point Hasbro’s gotten better at such things, which makes this one a little frustrating. That said, I do like the waist movement, as the ball joint gets a very good range.  Kang has an all-new sculpt.  It’s not awful, and it certainly looks to be accurate to the film design, but it also just feels too small.  Like, just scaled down a bit too much entirely. I also rather dislike the lack of removable cape, as it further hurts the posing potential.  In terms of color work, Kang is decent enough. There’s a good bit of paint detailing, which works well enough. The only real issue is that the base purple lining is a little out of line. Kang is packed with two sets of hands, as well as both heads for the Cassie Build-A-Figure.

EGGHEAD

“An egg-slinging scientific genius, Dr. Elihas Starr began as a criminal underdog and rose to become a worthy adversary of Ant-Man and the Avengers.”

Man, who would have expected to see Egghead get a figure?  I mean, I guess at this point, most characters are fair game.  They are sort of running out of new characters to offer up, and this one in particular has some nice, direct ties to Ant-Man.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  The figure is sort of restricted on movement, due to coat and design of head, but Egghead’s never been particularly active either.  Egghead is based on the Happy Hogan body, which is a good, stockier suit body, which fits well for the character.  He gets a new head sculpt, courtesy of Paul Harding, which is a pretty spot-on piece for classic Egghead.  His glasses are separate pieces, molded in transparent plastic, which is a cool idea, but unfortunately, they have mold lines through lenses, which ruins the effect a bit.  The figure’s color work is rather basic.  The paint is generally simple, but for the most part it works well. There’s a stray spot of black on the tie, but beyond that, it’s pretty clean.  Egghead is packed with the blaster pistol from Genis-Vell, as well as the torso to Cassie Lang.

CROSSFIRE

“Ex-CIA agent William Cross uses his espionage training and brainwashing technology to wreak havoc on superhumans with chaos as his goal.”

Crossfire is one of those villains that’s been passed all around the Marvel Universe.  He started in Marvel Two-in-One, facing off against The Thing and Moon Knight, and then sort of did the rounds.  He’s got a loose connection to Ant-Man, by virtue of his cousin Darren Cross, who has had several run-ins with Scott and Cassie Lang.  I guess that’s what gave him is spot here.  The figure is 6 1/2 inches tall with 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on Spider-UK body, un-modified, rather than using the upgraded version we saw on Strucker.  Largely, this means he still has the visible pins, which is a bit of a bummer.  He gets a new head and belt pieces, which suit the base body well.  In terms of coloring, he’s got a lot of red and white.  The white paint is definitely a little thin in some spots, to the point of the torso detailing almost looking pink.  His emblem is also quite sloppy, as are the edges of the red for his cowl.  I do really like the face detailing.  It’s very lifelike, and works well to sell the strengths of the sculpt.  Crossfire is packed with two sets of hands (fists and gripping), as well as the same sniper rifle included with Yelena, the removable strap, a blast effect, and a smoke effect.  He also includes Cassie’s left leg.

FUTURE ANT-MAN

“With a sleek new costume and honed capabilities, the new Ant-Man from the future carries on the heroic legacy of Hank Pym, Scott Lang, and Eric O’Grady.”

The Ant-Man of 2549, aka Zayn Asghar, is a very recent addition in the comics, having been introduced during Ant-Man’s 60th anniversary last year.  He’s not had a *ton* done with him, but he’s a good variant, right?  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches and he has 34 points of articulation.  This guy is using the ANAD 2099 body, which seems a pretty good fit for his build.  It’s still got visible pins, but oh well.  He gets a new head sculpt.  It’s pretty basic, in sort of that whole minimalism way that really is interwoven into everything about the character.  This figure has a slightly bent antenna, which seems like it’s probably gonna be a recurring problem.  He’s got a pretty striking color scheme, which the paint work does it’s best to replicate.  It’s also very basic, but application is pretty clean.  There’s a lot of black plastic.  Future Ant-Man has no accessories of his own, which is a bummer.  He does get the right arm for Cassie, though.

CASSIE LANG

Cassie began her career in both the comics and the movies as an innocent bystander.  In the comics, she was slowly aged up over time, and took up her own super hero mantle, Stature, during a stretch of time when her dad was dead.  In the movies, she survived the Snap, which meant that she got aged up five years, allowing her to be a more active participant in the adventures, even if she hasn’t quite gotten her codename yet.  The figure stands just over 10 inches tall and she has 30 points of articulation, 31 if you’ve got the unmasked head, which gets an extra point for the ponytail.  Cassie is using the most up-to-date of the articulation schemes, so she’s got double joints at elbows and knees, as well as the newer torso joint set-up, similar to Lightning Collection.  Due to her slightly larger size, she’s a touch clunkier in terms of movement, but she’s certainly an improvement on, say, the Civil War Giant-Man.  I particularly like the movement on the neck and the mid-section. Cassie’s sculpt is an all-new affair, and it’s a pretty solid one.  In Quantumania, Cassie is sporting a suit that merges aspects of her two Stature outfits, as well as her later Stinger design, while also bringing things n line with the established looks for Ant-Man and Wasp.  The sculpt captures the design of said suit pretty closely, which is always a plus with the Ant-Man suits.  The texturing is particularly good, and her unmasked head has a spot-on likeness of Kathryn Newton as Cassie.  The masked head’s a little clunkier for me; it’s definitely not my preferred, but I’m certainly glad to have it.  Cassie’s color work is generally pretty good.  All the major color break-ups are present, and what paint work is there is all pretty clean for the most part.  She’s missing a few details, such as the laces to the shoes, but most things are there.  The unmasked head gets the printed look, which looks really good; definitely works well with the sculpt.  Cassie gets two sets of hands, one in fists, the other in open gesture.  Honestly, those, coupled with the alternate head, the totally new sculpt, *and* the height, make her feel like one of the best values we’ve gotten on a Build-A-Figure in a good long while.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This series was actually the first one where I was looking to really take advantage of my new review set-up for Legends.  Cassie’s a character I really like, in both the comics and the movies, and I really wanted her, but I didn’t honestly want most of the rest of the set.  So, the opportunity to build her, and take a look at the whole series without all the up-front investment was definitely one I liked.

When I went into this set, I was only intending to keep two singles and the Build-A-Figure.  At the end of it, I kept three singles and the BAF, but I didn’t even keep both of the singles I was expecting to.  Ultron and Cassie were the two on my original list who remained on the final, and they’re also my two favorites in the set.  Yes, I know Ultron’s not really different.  So sue me.  Cassie’s all-new, though, and just really well put together.  I wasn’t intending to keep Ant-Man or Wasp, but they both wound up being a lot better than I’d anticipated, and they’re honestly the best MCU versions of the characters.  Future Ant-Man I’d already set-up with Max for before the set came in, so I was never attached to him anyway, though he’s a decent by the numbers figure.  Egghead and Crossfire are both better than I’d expected, even if I opted not to keep them.  The one that really broke things was Kang, who I expected to keep, but ultimately was just not wowed by in any sense, which is a bit of a bummer.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with these figures to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3393: Ant-Man

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

ANT-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“While he occasionally dons the Ant-Man suit to promote his new autobiography, Scott Lang has put his super hero days behind him to bond with his daughter, Cassie.”

Remember when people could just, like, enjoy movies for what they are and not have to just tear every little thing apart? Me either. Well, earlier this year, we got our third Ant-Man film, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. It was officially the worst Marvel movie ever, taking the title fromLove & Thunder, which took the title from Eternals, which took it from Captain Marvel, maybe? I don’t know. Look, guys, I’m gonna level with you all on this one: Quantumania is hardly the worst Marvel movie. It’s not even close. Some of you haven’t seen the 1990 Captain America, and it really shows, okay? I promise, if the MCU puts out a worse product than that, I’ll let you all know.  In the mean time, let’s talk about something that’s *not* the 1990 Captain America, and also doesn’t make me want to blow my brains out:  Quantumania!  Or, more specifically, it’s version of Ant-Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ant-Man is the one non-Build-A-Figure-piece-bearing figure in the Cassie Lang Series of Marvel Legends, which is the tie-in assortment for Quantumania.  Due to schedule shifts for the movie, the tie-in assortment wound up trailing the film release by about 2 1/2 months, hitting retail in that April-May window.  Not exactly striking while the iron was hot, but they at least got out before the movie switched over to streaming.  Scott’s gotten some sort of upgrade to his suit for most of his cinematic appearances, and Quantumania keeps that trend going.  It’s another batch of smaller adjustments adding up to a fairly similar looking design, at least at first glance.  This one’s a little more segmented on the red parts, as well as further downplaying the silver a bit more, and is also just generally a bit more streamlined than his prior looks.  I for one am most excited about him finally getting the black circle on his chest, which has been missing from the previous designs.  Ant-Man needs his black circle chest, you guys.  The figure stands a little shy of 6 1/4 inches tall (making him the shortest of the MCU Ant-Man Legends figures) and he has 29 points of articulation.  The last few MCU Ant-Men have had slightly more stilted movement, but this guy actually gets a pretty solid articulation set-up.  There’s still a little bit of restriction on that mid-torso joint, but it’s not bad.  I particularly like the range on the neck joint.  Ant-Man gets an all-new sculpt, and it’s definitely my favorite MCU Ant-Man sculpt to date.  It’s actually pretty spot-on to the film design, in contrast with the concept work for the first film and Civil War figures, and the scaling relative to other figures feels a bit more on point this time around.  I was also very thrilled to see that Scott finally got transparent lenses on a 6-inch figure.  I was really bummed that the AM&TW figure just got the painted ones, and this one winds up looking really good.  It just adds so much to the figure.  The color work on this guy is pretty decently rendered.  His paint drops a few of the smaller silver details, but really only where they’re outlining something else that’s already painted.  The detailing is all sharply handled, and he gets all of the main design elements, with nothing major getting skipped over this time.  He’s packed with two sets of hands, in fists and a pointing/open gesture combo, as well as an unmasked head.  I like the extra hands.  I’m not much of a fan of the unmasked sculpt.  The renders looked okay, but it seems like something happened to the mold during manufacturing, because the face and hair don’t look like they’ve gone together the right way.  It’s also a little large compared to the helmeted head.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t really think much of this guy when the figures were shown off, and was really only interested in this assortment’s Build-A-Figure.  I had the last Ant-Man, and I figured that was good enough.  However, I got the opportunity to mess with the whole set for review purposes, and discovered that I actually really, really liked this guy.  The unmasked head’s kind of a dud, but all of the unmasked Rudd heads kind of have been.  This guy is by far the best MCU Ant-Man release, though, so I’m opting to upgrade to this one for my main collection.

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.

#3332: Yellowjacket

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

YELLOWJACKET

MARVEL LEGENDS — MARVEL STUDIOS: THE FIRST TEN YEARS (HASBRO)

“The new lead of Pym Industries, Darren Cross, threatens to sell his highly weaponized Yellowjacket suit to the criminal organization Hydra.”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s second phase was, amongst other things, characterized by a slightly lackluster batch of antagonists.  There are a variety of reasons for this, chief amongst them being that most of them weren’t really designed for long-term use, so they were sort of designed as disposable.  Since there wasn’t much investment into them, they were largely left untapped for toy coverage.  Ant-Man was particularly light on coverage, with only a few different versions of Scott in the main suit (and even then, they were all kind of inaccurate), and nothing barring Minimates for the film’s main antagonist, Darren Cross, aka Yellowjacket.  Fortunately, he was on the short list for the the First Ten Years sub-line of Legends from 2018, so he wasn’t *totally* left out.  I’m looking at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Yellowjacket one half of the Ant-Man-themed two-pack that made up entry 8 in the Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years sub-line of Marvel Legends, with the other half being a slightly updated version of Scott Lang in the Ant-Man suit.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation on the main body, plus an additional 14 points of articulation on the backpack and its arms.  The core figure is a little bit restricted, especially by modern standards, but was fairly average for 2018, I suppose.  Given that Yellowjacket’s not a particularly agile character in the film, he’s pretty workable with what he’s been given.  Yellowjacket sports a sculpt that was all-new to him, and which has not been re-used since this figure.  It’s honestly a pretty strong one.  Yellowjacket’s entire character was completely reworked for the film, and that extended to his costume, which only kept trace elements of Hank Pym’s Yellowjacket costume from the comics, instead building something that’s a far more armored up, and a little bit more menacing.  Since this figure was released a few years after the film, he’s got the benefit of being more accurate than the basic Ant-Man had been at the time of the initial film tie-ins.  Some of the exact line-work of the suit’s design isn’t a 100% exact match, but it’s definitely very close, and the detailing is honestly pretty impressive.  They’ve included all of his hexagonal texturing on the yellow sections, and I particularly like how the helmet and its nested visor design have turned out in figure form.  The paint work on Yellowjacket’s not too terribly involved, since it’s really just doing the two-toned thing.  It generally handles it well, though, as the application’s all pretty clean, there’s no notable missing details, and I do dig the metallic yellow.  There’s a slight discrepancy in the exact shade of the yellow between a few spots, but it’s overall rather minor.  While the Ant-Man in this set got an unmasked head, Yellowjacket went without.  He did, however, get a re-used mini Yellowjacket from the 2015 Ant-Man release, so that was nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I passed on this figure when it first hit, largely because I just wasn’t feeling the need to pick up another Ant-Man just to get this one.  Given his minor nature in the overall scheme of things, I felt alright about that decision, but I did still *kinda* want one.  Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on a loose one when he came through All Time.  This figure’s a little bit dated compared to more recent releases, but he’s honestly a bit better than I was expecting him to be, and I’m glad I got the chance to grab him!

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.

#2910: Ant-Man

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

ANT-MAN

AVENGERS: UNITED THEY STAND (TOY BIZ)

“As the leader of the Avengers, Dr. Hank Pym is Ant-Man! Ant-Man blends brilliant battlefield strategies with a guide-by-example bravery to unite Earth’s mightiest heroes against the forces of evil. The symbol on his chest means Ant-Man will always heed the call, ‘Avengers Assemble!'”

In 1999, after the massive success of their Spider-Man and X-Men animated series (and in light of the at least moderate success of Iron Man, Fantastic Four, and The Incredible Hulk), Marvel tried to bank on a few more cartoons.  From the “big team of colorful heroes” angle, we got Avengers: United They Stand, an ill-fated attempt at getting Earth’s Mightiest Heroes out to a wider audience before the MCU would do so far more successfully.  I’m an unashamed fan of the show, but it didn’t really hit with most people, and has generally been seen as a black mark on the team’s reputation in larger media terms.  Something notable about the show was its shift away from the big names in favor of focusing on the lower tier mainstays of the team.  In accordance with that, for the purposes of the show, the team’s leader wasn’t Captain America or Iron Man, but rather Ant-Man, specifically of the Hank Pym variety.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ant-Man was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s tie-in line for Avengers: United They Stand, not that it was anything other than a clerical numbering, since all of the figures from both assortments shipped at the same time.  The figure stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 16 points of articulation.  He’s remarkably posable for this era of figures, which certainly makes him a very playable figure.  Ant-Man had an all-new sculpt, based on his design from the show.  The show gave a good portion of the cast some rather radically different designs, Ant-Man included.  He got a whole armored appearance within the show, removing him quite a bit from his classic attire.  In retrospect, it’s not quite as crazy different, though, since elements of it would make their way into Scott Lang’s early ’00s re-design, and likewise would become part of the character’s MCU design.  He’s actually closer to the MCU Ant-Man than the classic is in many ways, making him a fair bit more recognizable.  I guess that’s an unintended bonus.  The sculpt does a respectable job of capturing the style of the show’s animation and translating into a working figure.  It honestly ends up looking pretty darn good, and may even be the best of the sculpts this line produced.  Heck, it’s just one of Toy Biz’s best 5-inch Marvel sculpts.  He’s even got a fully removable helmet, which was pretty great at the time.  The only slight oddity to the sculpt is his “action feature”; in order to simulate his ability to grow into Giant-Man in the show, they gave him extending limbs.  It’s not the worst concept in theory, but it doesn’t really give the intended effect; he just looks like he’s really stretchy.  Fortunately, it doesn’t at all impede the figure’s function at normal scale.  His paint work’s not bad for the era.  It’s a lot of base work, and it’s pretty cleanly applied.  There’s a little bit of wear on the hair on mine, but it’s otherwise held up pretty well in the two decades I’ve owned it, so I’ll consider that a win.  Ant-Man was packed with his removable helmet, a miniature version of himself, and the mini-ship he would ride around in on the show.  The ship could be placed on his back, like on the show, and could be fully deployed by using the magnet on his forearm to unlock it.  I’ve lost half of mini Ant-Man, because he was literally an inch tall and I was 7, as well as the hatch for the vehicle, because, again, 7, so, you know, that’s how it works.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I absolutely love this figure.  He’s probably my favorite figure from this line.  He just really works.  Despite that, he’s one of the very last figures I actually got from the line.  The line was rather scarce at launch, so finding multiples of figures wasn’t super likely.  Because of this, my dad and I wound up sharing most of the line, at least at first.  He wound up getting the first Ant-Man.  However, as the line began to become more plentiful, I started getting more of them, and Ant-Man was one of the last three I had left to get.  I mentioned this to my Grandmother, and she asked for a list of the three I was missing.  The next week, when I went over to their house, she pulled this guy out for me, having bought him in the mean time, and he very quickly became one of my favorites.  He holds up remarkably well, and I still really like him.

#2345: Goliath

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

GOLIATH (w/ ANT-MAN & WASP)

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOY BIZ)

“Hank Pym started small. After shrinking his way to worldwide renown as the super-heroic Ant-Man, founding member of the mighty Avengers, he ascended to even greater glory in the guise of Giant-Man. Now, as Goliath, he continues to prove that size matters: His greatest asset is his big brain and knack for invention! Due to years of exposure to the size-altering properties of Pym Particles, Goliath can increase in stature at will and to a maximum height of 100 feet of shrink to the size of an ant. He grows by drawing additional mass froman extra-dimensional source, to which it returns when he reverts to normal. Goliath can shrink an entire laboratory or an array of firearms to the size of a microchip when not in use. The various compartments of his uniform straps contain a wide variety of miniaturized equipment.”

Toy Biz’s run on Marvel Legends was full of a lot of rather frustrating choices on their part, all in the name of trying to foster some sort of after market value for their figures.  It was…well, it wasn’t the best time to be a collector, but it was a really good time for scalpers.  Yay?  One of their ideas was chase figures, figures that were not advertised on the back of the package and were shipped in very low numbers, and were just short of including a note on the front that said “scalp me.”  The concept only ended up lasting for two assortments, Series 4 and Series 5.  I’ve looked at Red Skull, the chase for Series 5, but now I’m looking at the figure that officially launched it, Goliath!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

As noted in the intro, Goliath was the chase figure for Series 4 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends, and was subsequently the one figure in the assortment not listed on the back of the packaging.  He’s officially supposed to be based on Hank’s first Goliath costume, but, well, there’s some caveats to that, which I’ll touch on in a bit. The figure stands 8 1/4 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  That’s a pretty low count for a Legends release, and there’s a good reason for that: he’s not a Legends sculpt.  Instead, he was a wholesale repaint of the Giant-Man figure from their classic Avengers boxed set from the ’90s.  Now, you may recall from my (astoundingly short) review of that figure, that I was pretty fond of the sculpt.  It’s honestly one of he nicest sculpts to come out of their 5-inch days.  That being said, it didn’t really fit all that well stylistically with the Legends Toy Biz was putting out at this time.  I mean, he’ll look okay with the Iron Man and Cap, but beyond that he’s gonna be out of place.  Additionally, the sculpted details of the costume are pretty specific to Giant-Man’s costume, but those don’t line-up with the Goliath costume they opted to go for.  He shouldn’t have the antenna or the circle, and he should have goggles, and a completely different belt.  We wound up getting a couple of more accurate renditions of this costume once Hasbro took over, but for this one, Toy Biz was clearly wanting a cheap extra figure to produce and went with the “close enough” philosophy.  The paint work kind of rolls with the differences of the sculpt, and pretty much makes no attempt to hide them, because, honestly, it’s not like there’s much that can be done.  It’s a pretty nifty color scheme, and I certainly dig the metallic blue used on the body suit.  In order to distract a bit from the re-used mold and the lack of a base sculpt, Goliath was packed with repaints of the Ant-Man and Wasp figures from the same boxed set as Giant-Man.  They work a little better with the Legends aesthetic, though they’re not super-poseable or anything.  The new coat of paint does look nice, though.

 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Despite the somewhat lazy creation, I always wanted this guy when he was new.  Perhaps because I was giving into the very forces that Toy Biz was counting on, or perhaps because I just always liked this Goliath costume.  Whatever the case, I didn’t get one, because the after market for him was stupid expensive for a good long while.  Then the people paying the stupid money for him actually took a closer looked at him, realized how lazy a creation he was, and two much better versions of the costume were released, and now this guy can be had for a much more reasonable sum.  He ended up traded into All Time about a year and a half ago, allowing me to finally add him to my collection.  He’s not anything to write home about, but I can love him for what he is.

#2139: Luis & Ghost

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

X-CON LUIS & GHOST

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

After the monumental undertaking and twists and turns and misfortune of getting the first Ant-Man film to the screen, its sequel Ant-Man & The Wasp had a comparatively much easier time.  Perhaps because of that, the film seems to have faded into the background a little quicker than its predecessor.  Of course, there’s also a good chance that it was due to it being right in the middle of a run of six films in two years, and the fact that it was honestly the least overarching-MCU-plot relevant of those six.  I will admit that while I enjoyed it in theaters, I honestly haven’t given it a whole lot of thought since then.  So, I guess it’s Marvel Legends‘ job to come along and remind me, with today’s pairing of Luis and Ghost!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Luis and Ghost make up the final movie-based pairing from the basic two-pack assortment of the 80 Years of Marvel sub-line of Marvel Legends.  As noted above, they are based on Ant-Man & The Wasp, and round out the versions of the title characters released alongside the movie last year.

GHOST

“Ava Starr gained the ability to become intangible after a quantum accident.  She began working for SHIELD at a young age, under the codename Ghost.  Years later, she realizes she is slowly dying and makes plans to harness the energy of the Quantum Realm, putting her into direct conflict with Hank Pym, Hope Van Dyne, and Scott Lang.”

In the comics, Ghost is a mysterious enigma wrapped in a question, and is more or less agreed to be male.  For the film, Ghost was made definitively female and given an actual backstory, which works far better for an antagonist you’re hinging the movie on.  It also made her a far more interesting character than the first film’s primary antagonist, which was certainly a plus.  She was really the main thing I was sad to miss when the initial product for the film hit, so she was a very strong choice for this pairing.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation.  Ghost is an all-new sculpt, based on her design from the movie.  Though her backstory may have changed, the movie’s costume design for Ghost is actually not a bad adaptation, merging the two main designs from the comics into one fairly pleasing design.  The figure translates that design pretty well, with reasonable proportions and some really solid texture work.  She’s not quite as posable as I might like, but she’s certainly not bad.  Ghost’s paintwork is fairly monochromatic, but it works for the character, and it’s overall fairly well-rendered.  The figure also includes a spare unmasked head and a pulled-down hood, for the look she sports for most of the film’s back-half.

X-CON LUIS

“The best friend of Scott Lang, also known as Ant-Man, Luis is a fast-talking, wise-cracking former thief.  After he, Scott, and two of their other friends are hired to help Hank Pym steal his own technology, the group bands together to form their own company, X-Con Security Consultants.”

Created for the first film, Luis’s inclusion was met with near unanimous praise, and led to introduction in the comics just a few months later.  Unsurprisingly, he was given an even larger role for the sequel, which has him participating in Scott’s security consultancy firm that the film had adapted from the comics.  Given how popular the character is, it’s not a huge shock that he found a spot here, even if he’s not super toyetic.  The figure stands a little over 6 1/4 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation.  Luis is built on the Coulson body, with a new head, right hand, feet, and jacket.  The head’s a decent likeness of Michael Peña; it’s not spot-on, but it definitely captures the spirit of the character.  The new jacket is interesting, because it’s actually the first closed up suit jacket we’ve gotten, and despite being new to the figure, his X-Con tag isn’t scultped in place.  The new feet give Luis a pair of slightly less formal shoes, which I guess is a nice touch, though it’s definitely something I wouldn’t have missed if they’d skipped it.  The new parts are all well and good, but end up suffering a bit due to the Coulson body, which is too skinny and a bit too tall for Luis, which makes the head in particular stand out, since it was clearly meant for a more properly proportioned body.  Luis’ paintwork is fairly decent, but I think the face print doesn’t quite work as well for him as it does for others.  Luis is packed with some fun accessories, even if they aren’t necessarily just for him.  He’s got the shrunken down Pym building (complete with handle and wheels), and the ant that Hope and Hank swap for Scott.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Kind of like the film it’s based on, this set definitely took a bit of a back seat to the rest of the 80 Years offerings.  I was certainly excited to see Ghost get a figure, and the idea of getting Luis certainly has a degree of novelty to it.  That being said, the execution of Luis doesn’t really work out as well as you might hope.  He’s not bad, but he’s certainly one of the weaker Legends of late.  Ghost is a pretty solid figure in her own right, but it’s tough to say if it’s really worth buying the set just for her.  If you like the film and you like the characters, this isn’t a bad set, but I don’t see it grabbing a lot of casual fans.

Luis and Ghost came from my sponsors at All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#1893: Ant-Man

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

ANT-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS VINTAGE (HASBRO)

“What matters most is not the size of the man in the fight, but the size of the fight in the man — and the bad guys take big hits from Ant-Man!”

A few weeks ago, I looked at *most* of the latest Vintage sub-series of Marvel Legends, but didn’t quite cover them all.  The two missing were Ant-Man and Hawkeye, and, while I still haven’t found a Hawkeye, I did manage to snag an Ant-Man.  So here he is!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ant-Man is another piece of the second series of the Marvel Legends Vintage line, and is the natural pairing to the Wasp figure from this same assortment.  The set hit stores right around the time of Ant-Man and the Wasp’s home media release, so I guess they were pretty sensibly timed.  In terms of the character he’s representing (that being a Hank Pym version of Ant-Man), he’s actually a first for Legends, though in terms of the actual figure, he follows the rest of the assortment’s trend of being a lot of revisited ground.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Sculpturally, this Ant-Man is identical to the Walgreens-exclusive Black Ant from 2015.  Technically, it’s not a pitch-perfect translation, since the two designs hive some slight discrepancies, but it’s close enough that we’ve all pretty much been expecting this exact figure since Black Ant was first shown off.  That it took Hasbro so long to deliver it is the reals surprise.  His paintwork is the main difference, of course, as it returns Ant-Man to his classic red and blue.  It’s a striking combo, and the hues chosen are bold and eye-catching.  The silver for the helmet is just the raw color of the plastic, so it’s got that slight swirly effect going on, but it works alright for this particular design.  There are some slight flaws, most notably a spot of missing paint on the figure’s nose, but he overall looks pretty decent.  I was going to rag on this figure’s boots for being straight across the top and not jagged like his gloves, but a quick review of classic Ant-Man appearances shows that the boots were just as often depicted this way, so hey, Hasbro’s not wrong.  Since Ant-Man is designed to pair off with Wasp, he comes with the natural counterpoint to her mini Ant-Man accessory: a mini Wasp.  It’s the same one used twice before in the Marvel Universe line, but this time painted up to match the Wasp figure from this assortment.  I really do wish she had included a flight stand of some sort, but oh well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ant-Man’s a figure I’ve been waiting for, and I certainly didn’t want to miss out on him.  That said, I was willing to be patient, even when he wasn’t among the first round of these figures I found.  Fortunately, the same connection that got me Vision and Wasp was also able to snag Hank for me, so now I’m one step closer to a complete set.  Though there’s not a lot of new going on with this figure, the starting point was already a pretty good figure in the first place, and the new colors definitely make him pop.

#1777: Ant-Man & Stinger

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

ANT-MAN & STINGER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Both powered by Pym Particles and able to shrink to the size of an ant, Scott and Cassie Lang have more in common than a family name.”

Though still not quite one of Marvel’s top-tier heroes, there’s no denying that Ant-Man’s gotten a bit more prominent in recent years.  Having two movies under your belt will do that sort of thing for you.  It also translates to a greater action figure presence, but it’s only just recently translated to a better presence for the character’s comics incarnation.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Ant-Man and Stinger were *supposed* to be a TRU-exclusive two-pack, but…well, we all know what happened there.  Had all gone according to plan, it would have been released to coincide with the release of Ant-Man & The Wasp, but, again, we know what happened there.  Ultimately, it was handed off to Entertainment Earth, who took most of the planned TRU-exclusives.

ANT-MAN

It sure has been a while since we got a comics-styled Scott Lang.  The last one was back during the Toy Biz days (and was, in fact, the first Legends Ant-Man).  This one gives us Scott in his most recent costume, from Astonishing Ant-Man.  It’s a nice melding of his prior costumes, and also has a number of elements in common with the movie designs, so I’m definitely a fan.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  He’s built on the 2099 body, which is really shaping up to be a favorite of mine.  It’s definitely a good match for how Scott’s classically been depicted.  He actually gets a sizable selection of new parts, which includes his head, torso, pelvis, and knees.  The head is a good match for recent depictions of Scott, and includes one of the least silly-looking takes on his helmet in action figure form.  The other pieces add in the armored elements of the costume, which is an improvement over the painted work from prior figures in the line.  Most impressively, his lower torso is also a new piece, just to give him some slight wrinkles at the base of his belt.  Very true to the way this suit is usually depicted, and a really fun little character detail that could have easily been overlooked.  Scott’s paintwork is pretty standard fair for the line.  The colors have a nice contrast and the red in particular is bright and eye-catching.  There’s a little bit of slop on my figure’s shoulders, but nothing super major.  Ant-Man includes no accessories, which is a slight let-down.  An unmasked head would have really been nice.

STINGER

Cassie Lang has never gotten a Legends release before.  She’s gotten one prior figure, which was also in her Stinger identity, although that one was her MC2-incarnation, whereas this figure’s clearly meant to be her more recent turn as Stinger from the main universe.  While I’m happy to finally add Cassie to my Legends collection, and I understand Stinger is her current incarnation, there’s definitely a frustration on my part that after waiting a decade to round out my Young Avengers display, I finally get a Cassie figure, and she’s not in her Stature costume.  Alas, I’ll just have to live with it.  Stinger stands 5 3/4 inches tall and she has 33 points of articulation.  The figure is built on the teen female body, which is not only a pretty decent body, but also a good fit for how Cassie tends to be depicted.  She gets a new head and a slightly tweaked upper torso, and also makes use of the Wasp’s wings.  The head is a solid piece of work, and we get a nice, crisp sculpt on the helmet.  The torso is pretty much just the basic piece, but with the appropriate ports for the wings.  Stinger only has two wings, rather than Wasp’s usual four, so these ones are just the main ones, with the secondary wing pieces removed.  Obviously, it’s an accuracy thing, but it does mean she’s just got empty peg holes where the secondary wings would have plugged in.  That’s sort of frustrating.  Cassie’s paintwork is overall pretty decent, but there’s a slight issue with the purple on the thighs not really matching the rest of the suit.  Don’t do light over dark, guys! Like her father, Cassie doesn’t include any accessories.  Given that she has far less unique pieces, this is even more frustrating.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was definitely interested in this set when it was shown off, since I quite like Cassie, and I’ve been hoping for a decent update to Scott for a little while.  Scott’s definitely the star here, being a fun costume choice, and a solid set of new pieces on one of Hasbro’s strongest base bodies.  I would have definitely preferred if Cassie had been Stature instead, but I suppose that would be better served to a BaF release at some point down the road.  As is this figure is a decent, if slightly flawed stand-in.

Since Toys R Us obviously wasn’t a viable option, I instead grabbed this set from my friends over at All Time Toys.  If you’d like one of your own, it’s still in-stock here.  And, if you’re looking for other toys, both old and new, please also check out All Time’s full eBay store front, and take a look at their webstore at alltimetoys.com.

#1669: Ant-Man

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

ANT-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Scott Lang suits up as Ant-Man with a specialized suit engineered by Pym Technologies that lets him blast into any battle, big or small.”

Ant-Man was a film that sure took its sweet time making its way to the big screen, but its sequel, Ant-Man & Wasp seems to have had a much easier time of it, being released just three years after its predecessor, and without any notable production issues.  Like the first film, it would appear this sequel will be serving as a little bit of a breather, following the much heavier Avengers: Infinity War.  The first time around, Ant-Man got its own series of Legends, which hung around for a bit.  This time, Hasbro’s rolled the Infinity War and Ant-Man & Wasp figures into one more generically “Avengers” themed assortment, which seems like a pretty smart move.  Up first, the guy who’s name is first in the title, Ant-Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ant-Man is part of the Cull Obsidian Series of Marvel Legends.  Though the theme is more Infinity War, the first Ant-Man assortment had Ultron as the Build-A-Figure, so Ant-Man being part of an assortment that builds an Avengers foe isn’t without precedent.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  This Ant-Man gets an all-new sculpt, based on his design from the upcoming film.  It appears that Ant-Man’s suit has been tweaked yet again, giving us something that’s sort of a midway point between his solo and Civil War designs.  It’s definitely my favorite of the the three we’ve gotten so far, and seems to preserve even more of the classic comics design than we’ve seen in previous costumes.  Unlike both Ant-Man and Giant-Man, this figure appears to actually be pretty darn close to the final film design, at least from what we’ve seen in the trailers.  At the very least, the helmet’s quite accurate, which is a tremendous improvement over the first figure.  His body also lacks the overall scrawniness of the Giant-Man figure, which is another plus.  Even without comparing it to the prior figures, the texturing, the layering, and the overall proportions of the sculpt are just really strong, and make it a definite standout.  If I have one complaint, it’s that I miss the visible eyes from the Giant-Man figure.  That would have added an extra kick to this already strong sculpt.  The paint work on this guy is also pretty strong.  The costume has a lot more red this time around, which I certainly prefer to all that black from the first design.  The application is all pretty solid, with only minimal bleed over.  I’m not super crazy about the swirly molded silver plastic on the helmet, but fortunately, all the other silvers are painted.  Ant-Man is packed with an extra, unmasked Scott Lang head.  It has a decent likeness of Paul Rudd, but that grin is definitely more caricature than realism.  I mean, I prefer it to another bland expression, and I’m glad Hasbro tried something different, but I’m going to be keeping this one helmeted.  Also included is the leg of the Build-A-Figure Cull Obsidian.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I made the most of it at the time, I was always a little let-down by the first film’s figure of its main character.  Sure, it’s not a terrible figure by any stretch, but there are more than a few inaccuracies.  Hasbro was just in a very different place when that figure was released, and this guy definitely shows that.  I didn’t know quite what to expect from this guy, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I got him in-hand.  A stand-out figure in an already very strong line-up.  If not for Black Knight’s presence in this series, I think Ant-Man could have been top-dog.

Ant-Man was purchased from my sponsors over at All Time Toys.  You can visit them in person on Main Street in Ellicott City, MD, or you can view their sizable online catalogue via their online store or their eBay store front!