Tag Archives: Bruce Willis

#1440: The Expendables

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

BARNEY ROSS, TRENCH, BOOKER, & MR. CHURCH

THE EXPENDABLES 2 MINIMATES

“Barney Ross is the leader of the Expendables, and elite team of mercenaries hired to handle difficult international situations. When a job for the enigmatic Mr. Church goes off the rails, Ross must partner with his rival Trench and fellow operative Booker to make things right.”

You know, I haven’t reviewed any Minimates in what feels like forever.  And I haven’t reviewed anything Expendables related in actually forever.  Mostly because I just have the one set, but that does not negate the point. My Stallone quota is way down.  Gotta fix that.  So, without further ado, here are some Expendables Minimates.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This set was released as part of the greater Expendables Minimates line, which was comprised of four boxed-sets, two released at specialty, and two at Toys R Us.  This is one of the TRU sets, and it’s also one of the two sets based on Expendables 2.  It covers the film’s “heavy hitters,” albeit it’s mostly covering the glorified cameos from the film’s big climactic battle.  Still, it was enough to reel me in, so that’s a plus.

BARNEY ROSS

Barney Ross, aka Sylvester Stallone, is the central character of the Expendables films.  As such, he was one of three characters to get two ‘mates, one from each of the first two films.  This one’s shirtless.  …Okay.  That’s different, I guess.  This was actually Stallone’s seventh Minimate, counting all the Rocky ‘mates.  The figure stands about 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  Barney uses the standard ‘mate body, with four different add-on pieces for his hair, belt, and thigh holsters.  All of the add-ons were re-used (the Expendables Minimates were entirely re-use, in fact).  The hair is from Marvel Series 21’s Tony Stark, the belt is from DC Series 4’s Jay Garrick, and the holsters are from Marvel Series 27’s Nick Fury.  The pieces make for a decent enough recreation of Barney’s look from the movies.  The paintwork on this ‘mate is pretty awesome, truth be told.  The Stallone likeness is pretty spot-on, and the tattoos on the torso and shoulders are really fantastically detailed.  Definitely adds some extra pop to what could have been a slightly bland ‘mate.  Barney is packed with a knife, two HK USPs, and an M4 with a grenade launcher and a suppressor.

TRENCH

Joining his buddy Stallone is Arnold Schwarzenegger, or as he’s known in the film “Trench.”  Like Barney, Trench was one of the characters to get a second ‘mate in the Expendables Minimates line, which was a little weirder, given his more minor role in the first film.  But hey, Schwarzenegger’s Schwarzenegger; dude sells toys. This was Arnold’s eighth time as a ‘mate, though unlike Stallone, this wouldn’t be his last.  This ‘mate, like Barney, is built on the standard base body, with add-ons for his hair, jacket, and bandolier.  Both the hair and bandolier come from a prior Schwarzenegger ‘mate, namely the TRU exclusive Assault Gear T-800.  I actually like the hair piece better on the older Schwarzenegger than the one from T2, so that’s a plus.  The jacket comes from Marvel Series 46’s Peter Parker.  It works perfectly fine, but it does still have the peg hole meant for Peter’s backpack, which is a minor annoyance.  In terms of paint, this guy’s pretty solid.  The Schwarzenegger likeness is fairly decent, and better than some earlier ‘mates.  Under the jacket, there’s actually a fully detailed Hawaiian shirt, which is pretty cool.  It’s too bad he didn’t have any extra arms or anything to help show it off, but it’s a fun little detail nonetheless.  Trench is packed with a Remington 870 shotgun, an AA12 shotgun (in theory), and a Colt 1911.

BOOKER

This guy’s Chuck Norris.  That’s all you really need to know about him.  Booker was unique to this set, which is sensible, given he’s essentially just a cameo in the second film, and that’s it.  Still, good excuse for a Norris ‘mate, right?  To date, this is his only ‘mate, so make it count.  He has five add-on pieces for his hair, vest, sleeves, and belt/holster.  The hair is from Terminator 2‘s Kyle Reese, and it’s the biggest point of contention with this figure.  It’s perfectly reasonable for Norris, but Booker is never seen in the film without his baseball cap.  Since these were all based on re-use, they couldn’t create a new piece for him, but it’s still a bit of a let-down.  The vest comes from another T2 ‘mate, Miles Dyson, who was himself taking the piece from the cancelled BSG New Caprica Col. Tigh.  The sleeves come from The Spirit line, and the holster is courtesy of Blondie.  All in all, not a terrible assemblage of parts, moving past the issue of the hat.  The paint on this guy is on par with the others, presenting a solid likeness of Norris, and doing a nice job detailing his outfit from the film.  He lacks some of the more interesting little details of the other two, but that’s more to do with the character’s design in the film than anything else.  Booker is packed with an HK94A3, an M4, and a Colt 1911.

MR. CHURCH

And here’s Mr. Church, better known as Bruce Willis. Because he’s just Bruce Willis playing Bruce Willis.  Because that’s just what he does.  Church joins Barney and Trench, getting his second ‘mate in this set.  His first one was wearing a suit.  This one’s wearing…a safari suit? Or something.  I don’t know.  It’s a little goofy.  Church only gets one add-on piece, which his jacket.  It’s re-used from the Punisher: Warzone’s Frank Castle, and it’s a fairly nice piece.  Decent choice of re-use.  The rest of the details are paint, and it’s pretty top-notch.  The Willis likeness is certainly spot-on, and the details on the costume, specifically the scarf, are pretty sharply handled.  It’s a lot of tan, which isn’t the most exciting scheme ever, but it’s accurate.  Church is packed with an M4, and two silver Colt 1911s.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked this set up from TRU when it was first released.  It was actually before I’d seen any of the movies; I was mostly grabbing it for the Willis and Norris ‘mates.  It’s a solid set, no doubt.  The Expendables Minimates were some of DST’s more inspired work, offering highly detailed ‘mates, with a ton of awesome accessories.  Honestly, I sort of wish I’d grabbed more of them when they were new.  This was a set that was more fun than it deserved to be, and that’s coming from someone who sort of enjoyed Expendables 2.

#0700: Joe Colton

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

JOE COLTON

G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (HOT TOYS)

Colton1

Hey! I made it to 700 reviews! Cool! Alright, it’s another milestone, so, faithful readers know it’s time for another Deluxe Review! Let’s take another dip into the world of high-end collecting, courtesy of Hot Toys.

Now, G.I. Joe is the very first action figure, and it’s also completely owned by toymakers Hasbro. It’s very rare that one toy company allows another to make toys from an in house property, especially Hasbro, who are notorious for not even letting other companies anywhere near licenses that they merely hold, not own outright. So it was a bit of a shock when they allowed Sideshow to make 12-inch versions of their A Real American Hero characters, and even more of a shock when they let Hot Toys have the license for 2013’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation. They only made a small handful of figures, one of them being Bruce Willis’ Joe Colton, namesake of the G.I. Joe team.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Colton3Joe Colton is another figure from HT’s main Movie Masterpiece Series. He was technically an exclusive to San Diego Comic Con 2013, though he wasn’t actually available at the con; he just went up on the Sideshow site shortly after. So, he really wasn’t much different from a normal release. He’s figure number 206, putting him right between fellow exclusives “Star Spangled Man” Captain America and Evil Superman. The figure stands roughly 12 inches tall and has “over 30 points of articulation” according to Sideshow’s website. I’ll trust them on that. Joe is, obviously, based on his appearance from G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Specifically, he’s presented as he looks during the film’s big climactic fight scene (more or less).

Let’s start things off by taking a look at the head sculpt. It’s another fantastic piece of work from Hot Toys. The likeness is absolutely spot-on to Willis, right down to his slight, sarcastic sneering, grin. The lack of any sort of hair adds actually adds to the realism of the figure, and it helps that HT’s managed to get Willis’ head shape down pretty much exactly. The paint on the head lives up to the sculpt, further enhancing the likeness, and adding even more to the realism.

Colton2Joe’s costume is a pretty cool little nod to the history of G.I. Joe, actually. It’s based on the uniform of the Adventure Team Commander from the G.I. Joe: Adventure Team line from the 70s, who, by extension of appearing to be the same guy as the original Joe, is the guy Colton is supposed to represent. The outfit is made up of three main pieces, a t-shirt, a pair of combat pants, and jacket, as well as an assortment of additional parts, including two different belts, hip and shoulder holsters, and a pair of boots. The boots are sculpted pieces; they’re pretty nicely detailed, though they seem harder and less movable than previous boots. The holsters are also sculpted, and they fit their corresponding guns pretty well. The rest of the outfit is made up of tailored parts.  Everything fits pretty well on the body, though maybe not quite as perfectly as I’d like. The jacket in particular feels just a bit bulky when placed on the figure. That said, most of outfit sits very nicely with a minor amount of futzing. In an odd move for a HT figure, the pants of Joe’s uniform are just a bit inaccurate to the film; the right leg is permanently tucked into the boot, which is odd, and the left leg sports a kneepad not seen in the film, which cannot be removed. I’m not sure why HT decided to do these things; one would assume the more accurate straight green pants would have been easier to produce.

Joe makes use of one of HT’s more posable bodies. It also happens to be the body that balances look and posability the best of HT’s standard bodies, which makes it a good choice. The only real drawback is that the body uses a rather obvious set of double joints at the elbows, which is a bit of a bummer if you want to display him without the jacket. That said, the movement allowed by these joints is essential to him properly holding his weapons, making it a worthy trade-off.

Colton5Joe includes a decent selection of extra pieces, though he was lighter than some others. He included:

  • 6 different hands
  • Machine gun
  • Spare Magazine
  • Shot gun
  • 3 pistols
  • 5 ammo clips
  • Display stand

The hands come in a nice variety of poses, with basic relaxed (R and L), trigger finger (R and L), gun holding (R), and fist (L). The hands are very realistically sculpted and painted, and each fulfill their intended purpose quite well. Willis is left-handed, so I was happy to see the gun grip hand was his right, allowing him to hold the guns as he actually would. That seems like it should be a given, but the poor T-1000 didn’t even get a proper left-handed trigger finger, so you never know.

The machine gun is very nicely handled. It’s exact model is a SCAR-L*. It has a removable clip and a folding stock, as well as a strap, allowing it to be slung over his arm. It’s impressively detailed, with tons sculpt and paintwork, all of which do a good job of passing this off as a miniaturized version of the real thing.

The shot gun is my personal favorite of the weapons, mostly due to it being his most used weapon from the film, and it just working very well visually with the figure. It’s the Benelli M4*. It’s admittedly not quite as exciting as the machine gun, since it’s a more simplistic design to begin with. Still, it’s got a moving stock and a spring-loaded breach and it looks pretty cool in his hands.

The three pistols are mostly just there to fill the three corresponding holsters. Two of the three are identical, and the third isn’t far off. All three are Colt 1911s*. They’re well sculpted, and they have moving slides and removable clips, which is always cool. Unfortunately, the included trigger fingers aren’t really optimized for a smaller weapon, so he really can’t hold them all that well.

The ammo clips are the same as the ones in the three pistols, placed into nice little sculpted holders. They can be hung on is belts, or removed if you so choose.

The display stand is fairly run of the mill. It’s just the basic black oval stand, with a little tag for his name and the film’s logo printed on the base.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like so many of my Hot Toys figures, Joe was pre-ordered from the online store of Sideshow Toys, the North American distributor for HT’s stuff. He ended up being the last thing I ordered from their site, and in fact, I almost cancelled the pre-order. Not because I didn’t want him or anything, but because I had gradually been moving away from HT. I’m glad I never got around to cancelling it, since he’s actually a pretty cool figure.

*Thanks to Tim Marron, of Timsical Thoughts, for helping me ID the specific models of the guns.

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