Tag Archives: Christmas Reviews

#0440: Brainiac

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

BRAINIAC

DC SUPER FRIENDS (IMAGINEXT)

And now for Christmas Reviews Part Three!

In the current, extremely adult collector driven action figure climate, it can be easy for toy companies to overlook kids, their original target audience. As figures have become more detailed, they have also become more fragile. And that’s to say nothing of the virtually impossible task of getting certain figures. Fortunately, toy companies are starting to catch on, at least a little bit. It’s no secret that I have my issues with Mattel, especially their handling of the DC license, but they aren’t always the worst people on the planet (just most of the time). One of the few places they don’t suck is their Fisher Price division, which handles their Imaginext brand. Imaginext offers a variety of different figures, meant to stand up to younger kids. In recent years, they’ve had a rather nice selection of DC heroes and villains, all offered in the line’s streamlined style. Today, I’ll be looking at the line’s take on Superman foe Brainiac.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Imaginext doesn’t use the usual “Series” structure of most toylines; instead they have a variety of figures of differing price points and sizes, and they add a few new figures at a time as the line progresses.  Figures are usually sold either in two-packs with other figures or packed in with vehicles. However, Brainiac breaks from this tradition, being released by himself, as something of a deluxe figure. He was introduced into the line in 2014. The figure stands about 3 inches tall and he sports 8 points of articulation (the legs move as one, so just one point there). Brainiac is clearly inspired by his appearance in the DC Animated Universe shows, with a couple of small tweaks; they’ve given him bare arms and his skin is a much greener color. While I still have a soft spot for the classic short-shorts and white go-go boots combo of the 60s, I can’t argue with the choice of design. The DCAU look is definitely a strong one, and it’s probably the most prominent of the character’s appearances in recent years. I’m no expert on Imaginext figures, but Brainac appears to be an all-new sculpt. The figure offers a nice translation of the animated design, and the sculpt is definitely some solid work. Certain details, such as the figures face (apart from the nose), have been left blank on the sculpt. The paint has then been used to bridge the gaps. There are a few areas of slop, but the paint work is generally clean. The best work is definitely on the face, which is nice and clean, and very nicely depicts Brainiac’s cold, calculating mug. Accessories are a rarity among the Imaginext figures, but as a deluxe figure, Brainiac gets a set of robot tendrils, which can be clipped onto his back. While they seem a bit more Doctor Octopus than Brainiac, the character has sported such attachments before, and I certainly won’t complain about extra accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Brainiac was another gift from my parents, and he shows how much attention they pay to my never-ceasing ramblings about toys. While walking through Target a few months ago, I saw the figure and off-handedly mentioned that he was rather cool, and boom, here he is. He’s not the first Imaginext figure I’ve owned (I have a few of the Green Lantern-related ones), but, for whatever reason, he’s the first of them to interest me enough to actually open him up and play around with him. Brainiac is a really fun little figure, and he’s the kind of toy that there should be more of.

#0439: Donatello

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

DONATELLO

FUNKO POP!

We continue on with the post-Christmas gift reviews today, with #2. While the vast majority of the gifts I received were either Doctor Who or Alien related, there were a few outliers. Today’s review comes from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that cultural phenomenon that I keep missing but still have an oddly placed affection for.

This review is also the first time that I’ll be delving into the Funko Pop! line. Pop! is a line of stylized vinyl figures based on a wide gamut of properties (Funko has the rights to virtually every property in existence). There are well over a hundred figures in the line and there are a few different sub-headings (31 to be exact). Today’s figure, Donatello, hails from the Pop! Television line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Donatello is figure #60 in the Funko Pop! Television line. Numerically, he’s the first of the four turtle brothers. The figure is roughly 3 inches tall and features a whole one point of articulation. The articulation is limited, but it’s par for the line, and vinyl figures in general. Donatello is based on the character’s appearance in the 1987 cartoon, with the usual Pop! style applied. This means he has the solid circle eyes, the squared-off head, and the exaggerated, smaller lower body all native to the Pop! line. The figure features a completely unique sculpt. It’s pretty good for what we’ve come to expect from the line. The proportions are decent, from an internal stand-point, and it has cleanly sculpted details. It isn’t completely without issue, though. The biggest issue is very definitely the Bo Staff, which has been sculpted as part of the body. It seems the hands weren’t quite sculpted in the right positioning for the staff to fit them, and rather than fix them, the sculptor just sorta bent the staff a bit. It’s really obvious and it makes the figure look rather sloppy. Funko may be really good at getting every license under the sun, but they have yet to figure out the secret to a consistent paint job. Donatello’s isn’t horribly off the mark, to be fair. The colors are nice and vibrant, and they really reflect the color palette of the cartoon version of the character well. That said, they seem to be placed only in the general vicinity of where they should be, leading to a lot of bleed over. There is also a lot of fuzzy line work around the edges. Donatello includes no accessories, which is fairly standard for a Pop! figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Donatello here was a Christmas gift from my brother Christian. I’ve mentioned before that my fandom of TMNT is shared with Christian, so this gift has much more meaning coming from him than it would anyone else. Plus, it’s my favorite turtle to boot! Funko Pop! isn’t a line I follow religiously, but the style works pretty well for certain characters. The Turtles definitely fit the style well. Donatello is a fun little figure, even with his small assortment of issues.

#0438: The Alien Queen

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

ALIEN QUEEN

ALIENS (NECA)

After a bit of a pseudo start yesterday, the Christmas Reviews officially begin today! There was something of a theme to a lot of my Christmas gifts this year, and that them was Aliens. Let’s be honest, though, what better theme could there be? Aliens is, after all, the greatest movie ever made. Today, I’ll be looking at the center piece to all the wonderful Aliens stuff I got this year, the Alien Queen.

The Alien Queen is probably the most distinctive thing from Aliens. Ripley’s Power Loader-aided battle with the beast is one of the best parts of the film, and it’s the kind of thing that a toy collector like me might want to immortalize in plastic. However, the Queen hasn’t been the easiest thing to toy-ify. She’s a pretty massive creature, and she has lots of intricate little details. She’s had a few figures over the years that didn’t totally suck (I even reviewed one of them recently), but none of them quite lived up to the creature seen in the movie. Enter NECA.

NECA has already been killing it with their regular Aliens series based on the normal sized people and creatures from the movie. But if there’s one thing that NECA does well, it’s large scale figures. So, it’s not exactly a shock to see this figure pop up. Still, it took some time. You don’t just start with the Queen; you work your way there. After some waiting, the Queen is finally here! Let’s see how she turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Alien Queen was released as a supplement to NECA’s main Aliens line. She found herself bridging the rather lengthy gap between Series 2 and 3 of the line (Although, as chance would have it, Series 3 is right behind her). Officially, the Queen is billed as a “Deluxe Set,” which is not surprising, given the size. Speaking of size, this sucker is big. She’s roughly 12 inches tall and a whopping 27 inches long (though about 15 inches of that is tail). The figure truly towers over the rest of the line, as she well should. The Queen has the sort of design that can be difficult to articulate, but NECA’s done a pretty amazing job. The figure has 57 points of articulation, as well as a wire armature tail that can bend all along its length. There’s quite a lot of posability, though most of the joints require some very particular positioning if you want the figure to have any sort of balance. The Alien Queen has appeared in three films, all of them based on the same basic design, but this one is very definitely based on the original Aliens design. The figure features an all new sculpt to replicate the design. It’s a little hard to tell, because the creature was generally shot in the shadows, but the sculpt appears to be incredibly faithful to the movie. All of the basics are definitely there, and the figure is definitely the Queen. In addition, the sculpt is loaded with lots of fine details and texturing, all done in a way that perfectly conveys the creature’s meld of biology and mechanics. The details continue on every side of the figure. I was particularly impressed by the volume of detail on the underside of the figure’s head, an area that could have easily been overlooked. Perhaps the only downside to the sculpt (which isn’t so much an issue with the sculpt as it is an issue with implementation) is that the Queen’s back spikes are separate pieces that have to be attached when the figure is taken out of the package. It’s a bit difficult to get them in place, and they have a tendency to pop out of place while the figure is being posed. That said, they’re just as well sculpted as the rest of the figure, and the match nicely when in place. Just like it’s difficult to get a 100% accurate view of the figure’s sculpt due to the film’s lighting, it’s also hard to get an accurate comparison of the paint. At first glance it seems like the figure may be too bright, but upon reviewing the film, it seems accurate to what she looks like when we see her properly lit in the airlock. Generally speaking, the paint is very well handled. The figure was originally black, with a fair share of blue highlights added. There are also a few touches of bronze, so that this figure should match okay with both colored varieties of Xeno Warriors. Perhaps my favorite touch, coloring-wise, is the transparent teeth, which are just plain cool! The Queen is a pretty massive figure, so little to no accessories is fairly acceptable. That said, the figure includes a few items. Since the design doesn’t allow for the sliding version of the inner mouth seen on the Warriors, the Queen includes two of them, of differing lengths, which can be swapped out for the desired look. They’re both very nicely sculpted, and help spruce up the figure well. The figure also includes a much needed display stand. It’s done in three parts, and the actually support piece comes in both short and long varieties, which allows for a nice selection of poses.

   

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Queen was my main Christmas present from my truly amazing parents, given to me this past year. I have anxiously been waiting for this figure for quite some time. I was absolutely thrilled to open her on Christmas morning. This is a figure that could have turned out badly if it weren’t well handled, but I’m happy to say NECA truly hit it out of the park on this one. It makes for a wonderful centerpiece to my collection. Now I just need to figure out where to put it….

#0437: The Other Doctor

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

THE OTHER DOCTOR

DOCTOR WHO

And let the gift reviews begin! Today’s review is the first of my “Christmas Reviews” so to speak, but it’s not exactly a Christmas gift, for reasons I’ll get into at the end. So, let’s consider this Christmas Review #0.

A year ago, I owned no Doctor Who action figures. In fact, just a few months before that, I’d never seen an episode of Doctor Who. Two things changed that: a) My girlfriend got into it and encouraged me to start watching it, and b) virtually everyone was talking about how cool the 50th anniversary special was. One of the things that intrigued me the most was John Hurt in the role of the “War Doctor;” I’m a fan of John Hurt, largely due to Alien. So, I caught up to the show, and I am now a very definite Whovian. So, in honor of the thing that pulled me into the show, and by extension the toyline, let’s have a look at the War Doctor in toy form!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The War Doctor, or the “Other Doctor” as he is referred to on the package, was an individual release in the Doctor Who line, meant to capitalize on the 50th Anniversary special. He is notable in that, while he was released after the line’s move to the smaller 3 ¾ inch scale, he was done in the previous 5 inch scale, so he could fit in with the older figures. As such, he is a little under 5 inches tall (Hurt’s not a particularly tall guy), and he features 20 points of articulation. Near as I can tell, the sculpt is all new to this particular figure. It’s really a great sculpt. His jacket is perhaps a little too bulky, but not overly so, and the rest of his body is well-proportioned and has some nice detail work in the folds and textures. The head is pretty much a spitting image of Hurt, which is great. Hurt is notoriously strict about his face being used on merchandise, so this is, I believe, the only official Hurt sculpt to date. They did well on this one. War Doctor’s paint work has its goods and it’s bads. The overall paint work is pretty good,; everything is pretty much clean, and there’s no slop or bleed over to speak of. There some truly tremendous work on the pants and boots, and some exceptional work on the funky pattern on his ascot. It seriously looks like they shrank the real thing down. However, the figure has some seriously goofy looking eyes. They aren’t too bad from a little distance, but up close they look weird. The jacket’s paint is definitely a case of good in theory, but less so in practice. They’ve tried to give it a weathered, broken in look, but the lighter brown is inconsistently applied. It’s really thick some places, but totally absent elsewhere. It’s not terrible, but it’s obviously not the effect they were trying to get. The War Doctor includes his version of the Sonic Screwdriver, the “Moment” accessory from the 50th Anniversary special, and an extra Paul McGann Eighth Doctor head, depicting him from the “Night of the Doctor” short done to lead into “Day of the Doctor.” The head’s a neat enough idea, though Eight never actually wore this getup (though War Doctor did grab the bandolier right after his regeneration).  It’s still a cool idea, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The War Doctor was a gift from Super Awesome Girlfriend, given to me as an anniversary gift (yep, I got the Anniversary Doctor for our anniversary. She’s a clever one.) “But, wait, Ethan, didn’t you say this was sort of a Christmas Review?” Yes, I did random imaginary reader! See, we’re the crazy sort of people who started dating on Christmas Eve, so, extra present I guess. The War Doctor has a small fault or two, but, overall, he’s a phenomenal figure. They really hit it out of the park with this one.

#0430: Santa Claus

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

SANTA CLAUS

LEGO MINIFIGURES

Hey, it’s Christmas, which happens to be my winter holiday of choice. But, let’s be all inclusive with the holiday wishes: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Happy Yule, Happy Festivus, and in general Happy Holidays! Hopefully I didn’t leave anyone out, but feel free to leave snarky (or even non-snarky) comments if I did. So, how about something festive to review?

I’ll be digging into my LEGO Minifigures collection again, looking at another Christmas-themed minifigure. This time, it’s the big man himself, Santa Claus!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Old Saint Nick is the 10th figure in the 8th series of LEGO Minifigures. Santa is about 2 inches tall and he features 7 points of articulation. The figure is, of course, based on the classic Santa Claus look (which was actually created by Coca Cola, by the way). Santa’s built on the usual LEGO body, with additional pieces for the hat and beard. The LEGO body is a standard, so no problems there. The beard is piece that’s seen use a few times, and a couple of them have even been for previous Santas. The hat looks to be a new piece, and a well done one at that. It’s a pretty straight forward Santa hat, and it works really well. Santa is molded mostly in red, with white for the hands and yellow for the head. There is paint on the front of the head and the torso. Some of the more recent LEGO Minifigures have detailing that goes around the torso, but that’s not the case here. It’s worth noting that there is a full face under the beard, which is a nice touch. Santa has a big grin that pretty much no one’s gonna see, unless you’re one of those weird people that prefers him clean shaven, which is just a bit strange. Santa includes a bag of toys and a display stand. The bag is a new piece and it fits nicely in his hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I honestly don’t remember where I got this one. Going by my records, it’s the only Minfigure I have from Series 8. I know I didn’t pick him up on purpose, so I must have just grabbed a single blind bag at random. He’s not a bad Minifigure, though he’s not the most thrilling figure the line has offered. Man, I can’t believe I don’t remember where I got this figure….

#0097: Doctor Who – Doomsday Set

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THE TENTH DOCTOR, CYBERMAN & DALEK SEC

DOCTOR WHO

So, apparently, there’s a part 13 to my “post-Christmas review.”  It came as a surprise to me as well.  Good surprise, though.

So yeah, this time around it’s a first for me.  I’ll be reviewing a set of Doctor Who figures, which are my very first set of Doctor Who figures ever.  So, on to the review!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The figures in this set were released as part of the Doomsday set.  It’s a three-pack based on the second series finale, “Doomsday,” and I believe it was released in 2012.

THE DOCTOR

First up, it’s the titular Doctor.  This is the Tenth Doctor, which means he’s based on David Tennant’s version of the character.  He’s shown here in his usual pinstriped suit, and he’s also wearing his 3-D glasses which are important to the plot of the episode.  The Doctor stands about 5 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  The articulation is actually pretty decent over all, though I di kind of wish he had more than simple cut joints on his shoulders.  However, the rest of the articulation works really well, which makes up for the somewhat limited shoulders.  The sculpt is pretty decent over all, but the head is where this figure really shines.  I’ve seen pictures of some of the earlier Tens and the likeness to Tennant is only passable at best, but this figure seems to have really improved in that area.  The 3D glasses are a separate piece, which is really well scaled to the figure, which is super cool.  The body sculpt is pretty good too, if not quite as good as the head sculpt.  The separate piece used for the suit jacket is a little bit too bulky, but not too terrible.  The paint is all really sharp, with no noticeable slop or bleed.  Of note is just how well handled the pinstripes on the suit, which are all very small and evenly spaced.  The Doctor includes one accessory, his trusty sonic screwdriver.  It’s a decently done piece, and matches the quality of the figure, and fits perfectly into his hand.

CYBERMAN

Next up is one of the Doctor’s recurring foes, the Cybermen.  This is just one of the basic Cyberman drones, based on the revamped design from the Russell T Davis era.  The Cyberman stands a little over 5 inches tall and features 16 points of articulation.  The articulation is actually a bit better here than on the Doctor, as he’s got a ball jointed neck and shoulders, which really adds to the posing options.  The sculpt looks fairly spot on to the design of the character on the show.  The detailing of the wires under the armor plating looks particularly interesting and gives the figure some nice dimension.  The paint is decent, though, due to the nature of the design, it is a bit simpler than the Doctor’s.  It’s all very cleanly done and nothing is out of line or sloppy.  There’s also a bit of airbrushing to help bring out the details of the sculpt.

DALEK SEC

Last up is one the Doctor’s greatest enemies, the Daleks.   In particular, it’s Dalek Sec, the leader of a group of individual-ized Daleks created to better fight the Doctor.  The group was introduced in the two-part second series finale where they proved quite pivotal to its plot, so the inclusion of Sec in the set makes a lot of sense.  Sec stands about 4 ½ inches tall and features 4 points of articulation (9 if you count the wheels on the bottom, I suppose).  Obviously, he’s nowhere near as articulated as the other two figures in the set, but that’s totally understandable, since the real Dalek props only had a few moving parts.  The sculpt is pretty much just one of the Daleks shrunk down, with pretty much all of the details handled exactly the way they should be.  The paint is really cool.  It replicates Sec’s unique color scheme, which is super awesome.  He’s all black, but the figure has paint of various different finishes, which really adds some neat detail to the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was kinda late to the whole Doctor Who thing.  I’ve only in the last 3-4 months really started watching the show, but I’ve gotten pretty well hooked.  I’m most of the way caught up, and Tennant was definitely my favorite, so I wanted to track down one of the many figures released based on his interpretation of the character.

While I was visiting her this weekend, my super awesome girlfriend presented me with a wrapped package containing these guys and informed me it was a slightly late Christmas gift. I was super excited to get these, and they’re one of the best gifts I received in an already pretty awesome selection of gifts.  The Doctor is my favorite in the set, even with his minor flaws, just because of how much fun he is to mess around with.  However, the other two are pretty awesome too, and really neat additions to the Doctor figure.  My Doctor Who collection just went from 0 to 3 super fast, which is really nifty.

#0090: Mother of Ultra

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MOTHER OF ULTRA

ULTRA-ACT

 

It’s the 12th and final day of my post-Christmas Review.  Which is kind of cool because I totally didn’t plan for it to be a 12 days of Christmas thing, but it kinda turned out that way.  Neat.

Today, I’m looking at the Ultra-Act line for a 6th time.  This time, it’s not an actually an Ultraman, it’s Mother of Ultra.  I feel I should point out that the name is a bit misleading.  She’s only the mother of one of the Ultramen, and it’s not even the one just named Ultraman, it’s Taro.  Mother of Taro would be more accurate.  Oh well, on to the review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mother of Ultra was released as one of the 2013 online exclusives for the Ultra-Act line.  It’s not too different from a normal release, just a bit more difficult to get a hold of one.  She’s a little over 6 inches tall, and has 38 points of articulation.  From what I’ve seen, her sculpt appears to be pretty spot on to how she looked in her various appearances throughout the years.  Her look has remained pretty constant, but she’s had two different face designs in her appearances, so Bandai has included two different heads so you can pick your favorite.  One has softer angles and more flatly set eyes, while the other has harsher angles, a stronger jawline, and eyes on more of a slant, in a similar fashion to most of the Ultraman designs.  I personally prefer the softer of the two sculpts, but I appreciate being given the choice between the two.  The paint work is up to the usual standard of the line, which is very good.  Everything is applied very cleanly, and she looks to have no slop or missed lines.  The paint work is pretty much in par with the original Ultraman, whose paint was pretty much flawless.   Keeping up with the rest of the line, Mother of Ultra is quite well accessorized.  She’s got the extra head, an energy effect that plugs onto her wrist, a bucket of water with two handles, and 3 pairs of hands: karate chop, fists, and open gesture.  I’ve already touched on the extra head, so I won’t go into it again.  The blast effect is pretty cool, and swaps on with ease.  The bucket of water is actually an accessory for Taro, and it has one handle with his hand already attached and one without.  The hands are pretty standard for the line, and all swap out easily, and look nicely detailed.  Mother of Ultra’s the first Ultra-Act figure without an extra color timer (well, Seven didn’t have one, but he doesn’t have any color timer at all!) which is different.  I suppose Mother of Ultra’s never really needed one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mother of Ultra was purchased by me with an amazon gift card given to me by my wonderful Aunt Susan.  She’s a really fun figure, perhaps one of the most fun in the line.  I was looking forward to the figure, but I didn’t realize how great she’d be in person.  She’s one of the more pricy figures in the line due to her exclusive status, but if you can find one for a decent deal, it’s a superb figure!

BONUS MINI REVIEW!

While I was on vacation over the holiday, I stopped by a nice little store by the beach that sells lots of older toys.  They were selling a few of the old vinyl Ultraman figures, and they had a Mother of Ultra.  I picked her up for the heck of it and thought I might do a little comparison.

It’s kind of a testament to how far the figures have come over the years.  This version of Mother of Ultra appears to have been released in 1988.  She stands roughly the same height as the Ultra-Act version, and she has a whopping 3 points of articulation.  You can see that the paint has worn off, and having owned some of the vinyl figures before, I can say that was a common problem.  The sculpt isn’t terrible on this figure, though.  Sure, the proportions aren’t the greatest, but compared to stuff of the time it’s about average.  Overall, it’s a fun little figure, and I’m willing to give it a break, given that it cost me less than a tenth of what the Ultra-Act version did!

#0089: Evil Tiga

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

EVIL TIGA

ULTRA-ACT

It’s Day 11 of my post-Christmas Review, and I’ll be continuing the jump back to the Ultra-Act line that I started yesterday.  Yesterday, I looked at Ultraseven, the second Ultraman.   Today, I’ll be jumping forward to a figure from Ultraman Tiga, the first series of Ultraman after it was revived in the 90s.  I won’t be looking at Tiga himself, however, but rather his doppelganger Evil Tiga.

It’s a long standing tradition in the Ultraman universe for there to be an evil variant of the main character, and Evil Tiga continues the trend.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Evil Tiga was released as part of the Ultra-Act line in 2011.  I think.  I’m not sure, because all the copyright info is in Japanese, but near as I can tell from looking around, this guy was released in 2011.  He’s based on the character’s appearance in the Ultraman Tiga series in the 90s.  Evil Tiga stands a little over 6 inches tall and has 40 points of articulation.  The articulation here isn’t quite as good as it is on the others.  In particular it can be difficult to get his legs to line up properly.  However, given that this figure was released a while before the others I’ve looked at, I’m willing to give him a bit of a pass.  The sculpt on Evil Tiga is pretty much on par with the rest of the line, though he seems to be a little bit rougher than some of the others.  I’m once again going to give him a pass, given when he was released.  The paint on the figure isn’t bad.  There’s a little bit of slop here and there, but nothing so bad as to ruin the figure.  I did notice a few scuffs around the abdomen, but I think that might have to do with the tightness of the articulation in that area.  Like with the other figures in the Ultra-Act line, Evil Tiga has a decent selection of accessories, although it seems a bit lighter than some of the others.  He includes an alternate color timer, his “Evil Barrier”, his “Evil Shot”, and 8 hands: Fists, Karate chop, open gesture, and open wide.  The color timer is pretty much just like the others, a neat throw in with little practical use.  The Evil barrier is a cool piece, and can be swapped with the color timer with relative ease.  The Evil Shot is similar to the ultra-beam included with others, but this one slips over the wrist as opposed to being attached to a hand.  The hands are mostly the same as hands used on other Ultramen, with the exception of the “wide-open” hands, which allow for some cool “evil” poses.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Evil Tiga was purchased by me using a gift card I received from my Grandmother for Christmas.  Thanks Grandmother!  I mostly picked him up given his low price compared to other figures I was looking at, and the fact that I think he’s just got a really cool design.  At the lower price, I’m willing to forgive a lot of the smaller flaws the figure has and just enjoy him for the cool toy he is.  And he’s definitely a pretty cool toy!

#0088: Ultraseven

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

ULTRASEVEN

ULTRA-ACT

For Day 10 of my post-Christmas Review, I’ll be jumping back over to the Ultra-Act line.  This time around, I’ll be looking at the recent release of the second Ultraman to have his own show, Ultraseven.

Ultraseven has the distinction of being possible the most popular of the Ultramen in Japan itself, which means he’s had multiple series and has a tendency to show up in the later ultra-series.  Most recently, Ultraseven made an appearance as the father of Ultraman Zero, one of the more recent Ultramen.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultraseven was released as part of the Ultra-Act line in late 2013.  Like the others in the line, he was a single release, not part of a wave or assortment. This is the second release of Ultraseven in the line.   He received an update for pretty much the same reasons as the original Ultraman.  Ultraseven stands just over 6 inches tall and has 40 points of articulation.  Like with Taro, the joints on Seven are a bit tighter than those on the original Ultraman, which makes the figure a little bit sturdier.  Seven’s sculpt lives up to the rest of the line.  He has a lot of similarities to Taro, as he is one of the more detailed Ultraman designs.  Everything looks accurate to the character’s design on the show.  Seven’s been given a slightly more heroic build on the figure, but I kind of like it.  It makes him stand out a bit more.  The paint on Seven is probably the best I’ve seen so far in the line, but Seven also has one of the more simplistic paint schemes, so I suppose it wasn’t too hard to pull off.  Keeping in line with the other Ultra-Act figures, Seven has a nice selection of accessories.  He includes a plug to hook him onto one of the FigArts stands, two boomerangs, a slash effect for the boomerang, a spare shoulder piece and 13 hands: fists (L and R), grasping (L and R), open gesture (L and R), saluting (L and R), karate chop (L and R), a right hand for holding the boomerang by its point, a peace sign, and a right hand with a blast attached.  The plug is really only useful if you buy one of Bandai’s separately sold stands, but I suppose it’s a nice touch.  The boomerangs are slightly different; one has a slightly longer front to allow it to be plugged into Seven’s head and the other is a bit shorter to be hooked into the slash effect.  The shoulder piece is similar to the piece included with Taro and Dyna, being partially bent to allow for deeper poses at the shoulders.  The hands are all well sculpted, and swap out relatively easily, adding a lot of options for various poses.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Seven was purchased by me using a gift card I received from my Grandmother for Christmas.  Thanks Grandmother!  Seven was one of the Ultras I’d wanted for a while, but not as much as some of the others.  I was really glad to get him, and he’s a lot of fun in hand.  Bandai obviously put a lot of effort into making him one of the better figures in the line.

#0087: The Alien

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

ALIEN

ALIEN REACTION

It’s Day 9 of my post-Christmas Review, and it’s my final review of the Alien ReAction line by Funko.  If you haven’t read my previous reviews of the line and you want a little bit of backstory, go here to my review of Ripley.

I’ve saved the best for last, with this one.  Today, I’ll be looking at the title character, the Big Chap, The Alien himself.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Alien is, of course, part of the first wave of the Alien ReAction line.  The Alien only really has the one look once it’s fully grown, and that’s the look depicted here.  The Alien stands closer to 4 inches, making him a bit taller than the rest of the figures in the line, and he’s got 6 points of articulation.   While it’s fairly obviously still a sculpt from the late 70s, it’s a pretty good one.  I’d say that the alien is probably on par with Kane sculpt-wise.  The details look to correspond pretty well to the design of the creature from the movie.  The clear head dome is removable, which allows you to see the head underneath and also allows you to operate the Alien’s inner mouth.  The inner mouth works nice and smoothly, when you push down the lever-thing.  There’s not much paint to speak of on the Alien.  His teeth are painted silver, and there’s a bit of paint denoting a few of the ridges underneath of the dome.   All of the paintwork is clean, with no real slop.  The alien has no accessories, but given that it’s a larger and more complex figure than the others, that’s perfectly alright.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like all the others in the first wave, this bad boy was a gift from my superbly amazingly supportive parents.  He’s probably the best figure in the series, which is good, because he’s probably the most important.

All in all, this was a really cool line of figures.  I’d really like to see Funko tackle another series.  It’d be really cool to get Parker, Lambert and Brett so we can finally have the whole crew.  And would it be too much to ask for a set of ALIENS figures to go with them?