Tag Archives: Christmas

#3761: Purge Stormtrooper – Holiday Edition

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

PURGE STORMTROOPER — HOLIDAY EDITION

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

Happy Chrithmas. Its Chrisman. Merry Crisis. Merry Chrysler.  Do you get it?  Like the Vine thing?  Ah, what a timely reference, right?  I’m hip and with it and I know how to get home with the downies.  No, wait, that’s that right.  Ah, it’s Christmas, so I’m just gonna give into the hokey not coolness.  Let’s be all festive and cheerful.  Anyway, here’s another Star Wars guy, named after the fact that he purges members of a religious sect.  Yay for festive cheer?  Anyway, here’s the Purge Trooper, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Holiday Edition Purge Stormtrooper is figure 5 out of 6 from the 2023 Holiday line-up for Black Series.  He, like the Jawa I looked at last year, was a Fan Channel release.  He was *supposed* to be out before the holiday….but he *just* missed it.  Oh well.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  I haven’t personally messed with the Purge Stormtrooper mold yet, since I didn’t snag any of the earlier runs.  It’s largely just the old style Clone mold again, so it does what it does, but the head’s new, he’s got a pauldron, and the belt’s been tweaked.  He’s also got a cloth kama piece.  In general, he’s got the same pluses and minuses as the Clone I looked at yesterday, so he looks good, but posing can be a bit iffy.  The decos for last year’s run were generally a bit less “just vomit some holiday colors on the figure” so the Purge Trooper is a little more focused in his design, directly referencing the classic Nutcracker design.  Honestly, it works quite well with this particular mold.  I’m not sure it hits quite as well as the Santa Jawa, but it’s solid.  I especially like how they made the jaw work within the helmet design’s mouth piece.  The Purge Trooper gets a blaster rifle in a deco that matches him, as well as a re-decoed Mouse Droid.  It’s a weird deco on the droid, but I think it’s supposed to be a nut?  It doesn’t quite read right.  Also, doing a Nutcracker-themed trooper deco, packing him with a Mouse Droid, and not going for some sort of, oh, I don’t know, mouse themed deco seems like a missed opportunity.  Like, it’s right there, guys.  A mouse is literally the antagonist of the story, guys.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this guy brand new last year, right after the holiday.  Admittedly, it felt a tad silly, but there it was.  I kept him sealed all year, waiting to open him up when it came time to decorate.  While I can’t say the Purge Trooper design and concept is one I really love, I do like the angle they took for this particular release, at least for the main figure.  I do wish they’d picked a better deco for the droid, but at the same time, I’m just kinda glad to get the mold.

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.

#3760: Clone Trooper – Holiday Edition

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

CLONE TROOPER — HOLIDAY EDITION

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

Twas the night—er, day before Christmas, and all through the house, Ethan was realizing he hadn’t actually had a review go live on Christmas Eve in two years.  I didn’t used to do the themed review until the actual day, but last year I had two new Star Wars holiday-themed figures, so I did both days…well, sort of.  Anyway, there aren’t new holiday Black Series figures this year, but I’ve wound up with some old ones to fall back on, so let’s do that!  Here’s another Clone Trooper, because these guys are just everywhere.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Holiday Edition Clone Trooper was part of the debut run of Holiday Star Wars: The Black Series figures in 2020.  He was exclusive to GameStop and was figure 5 in the set of 5.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  This guy is using the older style Clone base body, with the Phase II-style helmet.  These figures were released after the introduction of the newer style of Clone, but presumably the exclusive offerings had to be turned around at a quicker pace, hence the older molds.  The Walgreens Clone Lieutenant did the same thing, and he was from right around the same point.  The mold certainly has its limitations, but at the same time, it was solid for its time, and still looks pretty decent.  As with all of these figures, the deco is what’s really selling him.  It’s appropriately tacky, with sort of an ugly Christmas sweater set-up on the torso armor.  Apart from the fact that he’s a Clone Trooper who inexplicably has TIE Fighters and a Death Star on his sweater, it’s a nifty idea, and honestly pretty solidly executed.  Beyond that, he’s just got a lot of red and green, as well as the striped stockings look that’s been recurrent with this sub-line. The stripes are a bit inconsistent, but everything else is quite sharp.  The first year of holiday figures didn’t do any guns (amusing, since they were all some variation of trooper), but went instead with melee weaponry.  This guy gets the Knight of Ren’s sickle thing painted up like a candy cane.  I don’t know that it quite lands the way it was intended to, but it’s not terrible.  He’s also packed with a porg, who’s got a little tiny scarf painted on, and I just love that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In 2020, I was very definitely not going out and hunting exclusives, so I didn’t get any of these the first year.  This was the one from that batch I wanted the most, but I just never came across it.  Earlier this year, however, a set of them were traded in at All Time and I was able to snag a few of them, this guy included.  They continue to be exceptionally hokey, but I sure do love me some hokey decorations.

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.

#3520: KX Security Droid – Holiday Edition

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

KX SECURITY DROID — HOLIDAY EDITION

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

Okay, so it may not quite be Christmas yet, but you know what? I’m gonna do two Christmas-y reviews this year. Of course, since Christmas Eve falls on a weekend this year, I guess I’ll just observe it today, instead. That seems fair, right?  Yeah, let’s do that!  Last year, I took a brief look into Hasbro’s Black Series holiday offerings, and that feels like a pretty easy road to go back down.  There’s even more of them this year, including today’s offering, the KX Security Droid!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Holiday Edition KX Security Droid is one of the six Holiday Edition Star Wars: The Black Series figures for 2023.  This one in particular is the Walmart-exclusive portion of the line-up.  As with last year’s Protocol Droid, the KX doesn’t get any sort of clever name or anything, which feels like a bit of a bummer, but it’s at least brand-consistent.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and has 31 points of articulation.  The KX is re-using the K-2SO mold, which makes sense, them being the same model of droid and all.  It helps that it remains a really strong mold, even seven years after its original use.  The only draw back to my personal copy is that one of his legs snapped off at the hip joint, which is a real bummer.  The color scheme really mixes things up on this one, going for a predominantly white color scheme, accented with red and green, which is all appropriately festive.  I especially dig the snowflakes swapping in for the Imperial Cog.  The KX is packed with a small blaster pistol, done up in Nerf-style colors, which is fun.  He also gets the requisite smaller companion figure that all of the Holiday Edition figures have gotten.  It’s another BD-1, this time decoed up in white and blue.  Not quite as overtly festive as the one that came with the Protocol Droid, but it’s still pretty nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m a big fan of this mold, and of the Holiday Edition concept.  That said, given how kitschy they are, I’m not hunting any of them down.  With this guy being a Walmart exclusive, I figured I wouldn’t be getting one any time soon and called it a day, but when one turned up as a trade-in at All Time, I jumped on it.  His broken hip is a real bummer, but he’s otherwise a fun, and I’m still very much a fan of this whole concept.

#3255: Protocol Droid – Holiday Edition

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

PROTOCOL DROID — HOLIDAY EDITION

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Protocol droids like C-3PO are vital in smoothing differences encountered by the many farflung cultures interacting on a regular basis throughout the galaxy. Most are humanoid, like the company they keep.”

‘Twas two nights before Christmas and all through the house, Ethan was reviewing something festive two days before the actual holiday because both Christmas Eve and Day fall on the weekend this year, and he’s not doing reviews those days anymore.  Okay, maybe that version’s not quite as catchy as Clement Clarke Moore’s.  But I still think it’s got potential.  Look, the point of it all is that I’m gonna do this whole holiday cheer thing.  I’m cheerful, dang it.  So, please look at this overly commercialized cash grab product review as proof.  For the cheer.  And the jolly.  Perhaps even some whimsy.  Since 1978’s “The Star Wars Holiday Special,” the Star Wars franchise has been cashing in on the holiday cheer, though on the toy side of things it’s a more recent development.  Hasbro had a solid run of one-off holiday offerings in the early ’00s, but took a bit of a breather, before returning to it in 2020 with a whole mess of themed figures under their Black Series branding.  They were each exclusive to a different retailer, and were generally a bit of a pain to track down, so I avoided most of them.  This year’s follow-ups, however, included a Fan Channel offering, and so I’m taking a look at a delightfully festive Protocol Droid today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Holiday Edition Protocol Droid is one of the five 2022 Holiday Edition offerings for Black Series.  He’s a Fan Channel exclusive, and started shipping out in early November of this year.  He’s apparently got no official name, which, if I’m honest, feels like a missed opportunity.  Why no fun little in-joke with the naming?  For shame.  Oh well.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and has 21 points of articulation.  In contrast to the most recent Protocol Droids we’ve gotten from The Black Series, the Holiday Protocol is built on the first iteration of the C-3PO mold.  It’s generally not a bad mold, but this older version means that this release lacks the added elbow articulation that all figures post 4-LOM have gotten.  It’s a little bit of a bummer.  Not the end of the world, but a bummer to be sure after getting the improved arms on so many figures.  In order to mix things up and go just a tad more festive with the mold, the Holiday Protocol gets a scarf piece, courtesy of Lando. Beyond that, the change-ups are all paint.  This guy’s been done up in a variety of red, white, and green, which all feels appropriately festive.  On one hand, I’m a little sad we didn’t get any of the ugly sweater patterning that the troopers have been getting, but on the other, I can appreciate this one going with a different angle.  I do really like the striped “socks,” and this printing on the scarf is certainly a lot of fun.  Each of the Holiday Edition figures is packed with a smaller companion, and in the case of the Protocol Droid, it’s a re-decoed BD-1, who’s been done up to match the Protocol Droid.  He’s the same mold as the Fallen Order releases, which is honestly a pretty great mold, and he’s probably my favorite thing about this set.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve passed on the other Holiday figures up to now, since, as I touched on in the intro, I didn’t really feel like hunting them down.  This year was pretty much the same deal, but since this one was going through Fan Channels, I had the opportunity to get one through work.  I don’t know that he’s really my preferred of this year’s offerings, but he was easy to get, and that’s really what matters, right?  The main droid’s okay.  He’s kitschy and goofy, but that’s what I expected.  BD-1 kind of steals the show here, but that’s just kind of the history of that mold, now isn’t it?  And that’s all I got until after the holiday.  Have a good one everybody!

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

 

#2629: C-3PO & R2-D2

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

HOLIDAY EDITION C-3PO & R2-D2

STAR WARS SAGA (HASBRO)

“Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. are delighted to present, for the first time, this Star Wars Holiday Edition commemorative. Inspired by the artwork of renowned artist Ralph McQuarrie, this specially designed set captures the imaginative vision of McQuarrie’s art in collectible 3-3/4″ action figure scale. Our gift to you, this piece is a distinctive addition to any Star Wars collection. May the Force be with you, and happy holidays.”

It’s Christmas once again, which means it’s time for me to churn out another festive review!  After years of purely Christmas-themed items, two years ago I took my first look at a rather popular toy concept: the festive variant.  You’d be surprised how much mileage  you can get out of shoving a Santa hat on a popular character.  From 2002 to 2005, Hasbro made it a point of doing this very thing with the Star Wars characters once every Christmas season.  Their very first offerings were a natural pairing, C-3PO and R2-D2.  I’ll be looking at them today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released in late 2002 as a Walmart-exclusive offering.  Officially, they’re part of the then running Star Wars Saga line which was launched for Attack of the Clones, but the packaging doesn’t bear any sort of notation of that.  This was very much its own standalone release, originally intended to be a Star Wars Fan Club offering, but ultimately re-purposed.

The first of the two figures here is 3PO, clad in a Santa Claus get-up, or at least the hat and jacket of one.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 5 joints, but it’s really hard to classify any of them but the neck as actual articulation.  The arms and legs both end up pretty restricted by the design of the jacket.  He’s a bit pre-posed, in the same way that any 3PO is pre-posed, though, with his arms held slightly aloft and bent.  The fake beard is permanently attached to his right hand, as though he’s about to put it on, I suppose, though how he’s going to get his arm up to his face is anyone’s guess.  The detailing on this figure is rather on the softer side, especially for the era of figures he was a part of.  It’s not like it’s bad, though, and it has a sort of artistic merit to it.  Plus, as a standalone piece, it’s not quite as imperative it matches the rest of the line.  Speaking of matching, let’s discuss the paint, and it’s whole not matching thing.  So, at this point in the line, 3PO figures were always vac metalized.  This figure follows that…for the head and legs.  Unfortunately, vac metalized plastic doesn’t hold large quantities of paint very well, so painting the jacket over it wouldn’t have gone very well.  Their solution was to paint the hands and what we can see of the chest a flat gold…and it’s pretty obvious.  I can’t really fault them, because their hands were tied.  Maybe if they’d done a cloth jacket instead?  It’s not the end of the world, though.

Pairing off with 3PO’s Santa impersonation, we also get R2 doing his best Rudolph.  The figure is 2 1/2 inches tall and has 3 points of articulation.  He’s built not from an R2-D2 figure, but from 2000’s R2-B1…for reasons, I guess.  The mold’s lack of the usual third leg was something of a shame, but not the end of the world.  The figure gets a new head-dome, which has been decorated with a rather hastily applied pair of antlers.  I dig that these are deliberately designed to look kinda tacky; it’s a nice touch, acknowledging the kitschy nature of the set.  R2’s paint is less compromised that 3PO’s.  Mostly, it just keeps to the standard R2 paint scheme of the time.

In addition to the figures, the set also included a little stand and backdrop which replicate the holiday card they’re based on, as well as a copy of the holiday card itself.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never much got into these seasonal figures as a kid, and my parents didn’t shop much at Walmart, so I never really saw this pair.  It wasn’t only years later that I knew of their existence, and felt the need to pursue them (I’ve got holiday reviews to write, after all).  I ended up getting this set when one was traded into All Time earlier in the year.  I then had them sitting there unopened for about eight months, until I finally cracked them open for the purposes of this review.*  Are these figures great?  Nope, but they sure are a bunch of kitschy fun.

*Full disclosure: I wrote this review a year ago before replacing it at the last minute with Crackshot for last year’s Christmas review.  Hope you enjoyed it this time around.

#2258: Crackshot

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

CRACKSHOT

FORTNITE: LEGENDARY SERIES (JAZWARES)

Remember when I was reviewing all of those Fortnite toys…wait, I did this yesterday, didn’t I?  Sorry, I got confused in all of the holiday chaos.  Did I say holiday chaos?  Obviously, I must mean holiday joy, for these holidays are a joyous time, are they not?  Where am I going with this?  Truth be told, I don’t really know.  I’m gonna level with you guys, this is actually the second review I wrote for today, because I just decided that the last one wasn’t good enough…for this year.  Odds are good on it being good enough for next year, because I foresee future Ethan being really down for not having to write another review.  To celebrate Christmas this year, I’m taking a look at something of an old-standing Christmas tradition.  No, not Fortnite; we’re not there quite yet.  No, I’m talking about Nutcrackers, a German symbol of goodluck originating in Germany in the 17th Century, and popularized by ETA Hoffman’s story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” and its subsequent Tchaikovsky-composed ballet adaptation “The Nutcracker.”  They have now become quite the American tradition, but we Americans managed to do our comically missing the point thing, which is why most nutcrackers nowadays don’t actually function as nutcrackers.  Today’s offering really isn’t much different.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Crackshot is his own solo release in the Fortnite: Legendary Series line-up, available exclusively at Walmart.  He started hitting shelves just before Black Friday, which seems pretty timely.  I imagine he won’t stick around for long past December, but time will tell.  The figure is based on the similarly holiday-themed skin from the game, which was available during the Christmas season in 2017.  Like the two prior Legendary Series figures I’ve looked at, Crackshot was also added to the smaller scale line around the same time as his larger figure, however, somewhat amusingly, this figure is actually the cheaper option of the two.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and has 40 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is pretty much the same as the other two, which is a definite plus.  Keeping the positives of the Toy Biz Legends without the laundry list of negatives is alright by me.  Crackshot’s sculpt appears to be a fairly accurate recreation of his game model, for better or for worse.  That means that he ends up sharing a number of parts with this line’s version of Jonesy, upon whom most of the skins are built.  This means that he’s got the plates on his shins, plus some of the wrappings, and the patch on the pants, which do take you out of the nutcracker appearance a little bit.  That said, I was surprised to see that he actually got uniquely sculpted elements for his shoulders, given that they really are just painted on the skin in the game.  It gives him a nice extra bit of pop.  The star piece of this figure, of course, is the head, which manages to get that classic nutcracker design down pretty darn nicely.  Like the others in the line, has has multiple faceplates, three of them in this case, each displaying a different expression.  There’s angry, happy, and neutral.  Neutral’s destined to get the most use, but all three are fun, and I appreciate that they actually sculpted three different expressions for the eyebrows.  I got a lot more fun out of the angry one than I expected to.  The paintwork on Crackshot is pretty respectable.  He’s colorful and eye-catching, and gets those proper holiday colors down right.  Everything is applied cleanly, and he’s even got those signature rosy cheeks airbrushed on, consistently across the three faces, no less.  In addition to those three faces, Crackshot also includes the Hunting Rifle, the Bird Shot back bling, the Candy Axe pick axe, a bundle of dynamite, and a balloon.  It’s a pretty fun selection of extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I fully intended to run a different review today.  I really did.  I took the photos, and wrote it, and everything.  Then I found this guy at Walmart, and he jumped the queue.  I’ve always had something of a soft spot for nutcrackers, so the idea of actually making a proper action figure based on one is right up my alley.  This guy’s a great seasonal piece, and it definitely getting added to my holiday decorations, no doubt.

#1895: Spider-Man & Mary Jane

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

SPIDER-MAN & MARY JANE

SPIDER-MAN: HOLIDAY SPECIAL (TOY BIZ)

“Peter Parker spends a lot of the tome swinging from building to building, patrolling the streets as Spider-Man.  But when the holidays come around, Spidey makes sure he’s home in time to spend them with his wife, Mary Jane.  Spider-Man and Mary Jane celebrate the holidays like any normal couple, except that Spidey delivers the holiday gifts by swinging in through their apartment window!”

It’s once more that time of year; another Christmas day, a therefore another Christmas-y review!  I’ve covered all sorts of different topics over the course of the last five Christmas reviews, from basic Christmas concepts (Santa and a Gingerbread Man), to classic holiday specials (Hermie from Rudolph and Charlie Brown from…well, A Charlie Brown Christmas), to one of my favorite Christmas movies (White Christmas).  This year, I’m actually playing it a lot closer to the sorts of things I review on this site from day to day, and taking a look at Spider-Man and Mary Jane…albeit a slightly more festive take on the characters.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Spidey and MJ were released in 1999 as part of a seasonal “Holiday Special” pack, which was an extension of the Spider-Man: Animated Series line that was still running at the time, as well as a more festive take on the Famous Couple’s pairing of these two from the same year.  It included the two figures, as well as a Christmas-themed magnet featuring the two of them.

SPIDER-MAN

Headlining the pack is our main man Spider-Man.  Spider-Man takes his usual look, and adds a Santa hat, belt, and boots.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 11 points of articulation.  He uses the Spidey-sculpt first introduced with Octo-Spider-Man, which would be one of Toy Biz’s favorite sculpts to re-use during their 5-inch days.  It’s not the most posable take on the character, but it worked well enough.  The new parts, with the exception of his belt buckle, are all cloth parts.  It works best for the hat (which, it should be noted, is glued in place), and the belt is decent enough.  The boots, however, are kind of odd, and make keeping him standing a little tricky.  They’re removable if you so choose, though, so you have your options there.  The paintwork is mostly standard, though it’s worth noting that he gets a metallic blue in place of the classic blue.  Not entirely sure why the change was made; perhaps metallic blue is more festive?  Spidey actually does get an accessory; it’s a cloth bag, with a little printed cardboard insert with some presents on it.  It’s a little finicky to get him holding it, but it’s a decent addition.

MARY JANE

Both of Mary Jane’s figures during the Toy Biz run came in 1999, and they were built from the same base figure.  I mean, I guess that’s pretty sensible, right?  She stands 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation (though the neck is, as always with this mold, very restricted).  Like her Famous Couples release, this Mary Jane is a repainted Invisible Woman from the Fantastic Four line.  It’s  decent sculpt in its own right, though it’s slightly hindered for this release, by virtue of all the cloth and such she’s got glued to her.  The hat’s okay, and the skirt’s workable, but the fake fur on the arms, legs, and especially the torso end up looking really goofy.  She’s just not particularly playable as a figure, nor is she particularly appealing to look at.  She’s definitely the weak link of the set.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember seeing this set a good number of times at various stores back when it was new, but I never got around to actually buying one.  As regular readers will have no doubt noticed, I’ve actually had to outsource a couple of my Christmas review items in recent years, but last year, right before the holiday, I actually came across this set at Gidget’s Gadgets, and while I couldn’t get it done last year, I was able to ear-mark it for this round.  It’s goofy, and hokey, and totally without use outside of the holiday season, but the pair does have something of its own charm.

#1525: White Christmas

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

BETTY HAYNES, PHIL DAVIS, & BOB WALLACE

IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS (EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE)

“IIIII’m dreeeaaming of a Whiiiite Christmas….”

Heyo, it’s another Christmas morning, and another day of me being a little bit festive here on the site!  My family and I have a whole ton of various holiday films and specials we have like to watch during the season.  The exact order is mostly free form, but the whole thing is always kicked off by the same film, which we always watch during out assembly of our main tree.  That film is the focus of today’s review: White Christmas.  It’s one of my very favorite holiday films (and really one of my favorite films in general), though it’s not necessarily the most toy-etic film in existence.  Despite that, it still managed to get a set of figures courtesy of Exclusive Premiere, who built a whole company on releasing toys based on non-toy-etic properties.  Perhaps surprising no-one, they didn’t go very far with that business plan.  But hey, at least we got these guys, right?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Betty, Phil, and Bob were all released in 1998 by Exclusive Premiere.  It’s sort of an odd line-up.  I mean, yeah, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, and Bing Crosby were all in starring roles, but there’s kind of a major character missing here: Judy Haynes, Betty’s sister, played by Vera-Ellen.  Admittedly, she’s the least known of the four leads, but she’s still a major part of the story, and it’s a little weird she was left out…but like I said, it’s kind of a miracle they got made at all, so, I guess that’s the thing to focus on.

Betty’s the most unique of the three.  She’s built on EP’s standard female body, standing about 8 3/4 inches tall with 11 points of articulation.  The body was alright, I guess.  It doesn’t have elbow movement, which is kind of frustrating, but there’s been worse base bodies.  She’s got a unique head sculpt, which is probably the best of the three here.  It’s got a passable resemblance to Rosemary Clooney.  I’d hardly call it spot-on, but given the quality of the other likenesses put out by EP, it’s borderline amazing how well this one turned out.  The tailoring on her dress is decent enough even the price point, and compared to the others.  It doesn’t look terrible by any stretch of the imagination, and it hits all of the major design points of her on-screen dress.  There are some smaller details that are missing, but the important stuff is all there.

Phil and Bob are both essentially the same figure, separated only by a head sculpt.  It’s not the worst thing ever, I suppose, since it’s not like Kaye and Crosby were horribly different in build.  That being said, the standard base body they’re both using is a little on the buff side for either of these two guys.  They both stand 9 inches tall and have 13 points of articulation.  At least their elbows can move.  The bodies are kind of similar to the Playmates 9-inch Trek figures, which isn’t awful, but these are definitely of a slightly lower quality.  The heads are decent, I suppose.  I think Phil’s the stronger of the two.  It looks kind of like Kaye, but not a ton.  I guess you can figure him out in context, though.  Bob’s…well, Bob looks a bit like a cartoon character.  Like, I guess it’s Bing Crosby, but it’s more like the Genie as Bing Crosby caricature from Aladdin and the King of Thieves, and less like real Bing.  There’s noooooo doubt about it.  But, like Phil, you can kind of piece him together in context.  Neither head is particularly helped by the hat that’s permanently glued to it, but I guess they won’t bet lost that way.  From the neck down, they’re both wearing the same Santa suit.  It’s not great.  It’s really baggy, and lumpy, and sloppy, and not particularly accurate to the suits seen in the movie.  This is probably due to this same exact suit being used on EC’s Miracle on 34th Street Santa Claus, where it was still inaccurate, of course, so I guess they just spilt the difference between the two looks.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the previously reviewed Charlie Brown, these guys aren’t technically mine, but are instead more of a joint family possession that gets pulled out and put on the shelf every holiday season.  They’re goofy as all get out, and even 20 years later, I’m still a little bitter that Judy got left out, but the novelty of just having White Christmas figures forgives a lot of sins.

#1160: Hermey

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

HERMEY

RUDOLPH AND THE ISLAND OF MISFIT TOYS (PLAYING MANTIS)

hermie1

Christmastime is here.  Happiness and cheer.  Wait, wait, sorry, that was last year.  Yes, it’s Christmas once again.  So, to those of you that celebrate, Merry Christmas.  And to those of you that don’t Happy Holidays! Last year was A Charlie Brown Christmas. This year, it’s the other big Christmas special, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Of course, I’m not looking at Rudolph himself.  No no, that would be too obvious.  Instead, I’m looking at his best pal Hermey, the elf who dreams of dentistry.  Because why not?  You do you, Hermey.  You do you.  Let’s get onto the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

hermie2Hermey was released in the first series of Playing Mantis’s Rudolf and the Island of Misfit Toys line from 2000.  As with many of Playing Mantis’s lines, Hermey was available as a single packed figure, as well as in a multi-pack with Sam the Snowman and Yukon Cornelius.  My figure was the single release.  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  Not the most posable figure ever, but he was actually pretty innovative for the time.  The hip articulation in particular is very clever, and pretty much entirely hidden.  Hermey’s sculpt is all-new to this particular figure.  It’s not a 100% accurate recreation of the stop-motion model from the special.  The head’s a little more rounded, especially around the chin, and his neck is a bit shorter.  That being said, he’s a pretty darn close recreation, and it seems the changes that were made were mostly in an effort to make the figure a little sturdier, which I can certainly appreciate.  The level of detailing on the sculpt is quite impressive.  The hair in particular is very well rendered.  The figure originally sported a removable hat, which mine is sadly missing.  It was actually pretty cool and it was secured on his head via a rather discrete set of raised ridges on the back of his hair.  Hermey’s paintwork is pretty solid work.  Most of it’s just pretty straightforward color work, but the face and hair sport some quite effective accent work, which offers the sculpt some “pop.”  Hermey included two large teeth (removed from Bumble), a pair of extracting tongs, a book on Dentistry, and a small hammer, which is a very nice assortment of extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up Hermey when he was new.  I believe my Dad and I were running an errand to Target just prior to setting up the usual Christmas decorations, and I was allowed to pick something out for said decorating.  What a shock, I went for the action figure.  Yeah, I know.  Who’d have guessed?  Hermey’s always been my favorite character from Rudolph, and this figure’s a pretty darn good representation of him.  Playing Mantis had a tendency to take outside of the box properties and turn them into some pretty awesome toys, so it’s a shame that they aren’t still around.

#0794: Charlie Brown

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

CHARLIE BROWN

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS

CharlieBrown1

Hey! It’s Christmas! So, to those of you who celebrate the holiday, Merry Christmas! To those of you who don’t, I offer a more generic, but still fully sincere Happy Holidays! Coming up with Christmas-themed figures to review is sometimes a little difficult, since I tend to go for more year-round applicable stuff in my collecting. But, I do have a small little pool of various holiday-themed stuff. One of the classic Christmas specials is A Charlie Brown Christmas, which marked the second time the popular comic strip characters made their way into animation. Generally speaking, a bunch of normally dressed kids don’t make for the most toy-etic property, but there have been a few tries at translating the characters into plastic form. In 2003, toy company Playing Mantis (who are sadly no longer in business) did a rather expansive line of honest to god action figures based on the characters, which included a whole set devoted to the Christmas special. Today, I’ll be looking at their version of the titular character!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

CharlieBrown2Charlie Brown was part of the A Charlie Brown Christmas line of figures from Playing Mantis. He was available as both a single release figure and as part of a three-pack with Linus and Sally. Mine is the single release. In addition, he was available with two different facial expressions: a fairly basic smile, and a singing expression, as seen at the end of the special. This figure is the latter. The figure stands 4 ½ inches tall and has 10 points of articulation, which was actually quite a step up from the movement on the non-Christmas figures. The Peanuts characters have a pretty distinct look about them, which is pretty largely linked to them only being seen in two-dimensions. That being said, this figure’s sculpt actually a pretty great translation of the mid-60s look of the character. The head shape in particular is pretty spot-on, and looks great from just about every angle. The one real inaccuracy of the figure is the hands, which forego the usual shaping of the hands in place of more functional hand meant for holding accessories (though none of Charlie Brown’s accessories…). For the most part, Charlie Brown’s molded in the proper colors instead of using paint, but he does have a few painted details. His face is a good match for the look from the cartoon, and the work on his hair and shoelaces is pretty solid. CharlieBrown4Charlie Brown includes his signature hat from the special, as well as two versions of the classic tree, both spindly and fully decorated, as well as snowy display stand. The trees are pretty cool, because the fully decorated version can be cracked open, so that the smaller tree can be placed inside it, and its one ornament shows through the outer tree, just like in the actual special.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, Charlie Brown isn’t actually mine. He’s kind of a joint possession of my entire family, along with the rest of the A Charlie Brown Christmas figures. We pull them out and set them up every Christmas season. For a Christmas decoration, he’s actually not bad. As an action figure? Eh, he’s reasonable. The articulation’s not exactly the most extensive, but it’s good for a few basic standing poses. Plus the actual look of the guy is pretty great, and he has a cool selection of accessories.