Tag Archives: Hasbro

#4005: Impulse

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

IMPULSE

JLA (HASBRO)

“Bart Allen, the 30th century grandson of The Flash, Barry Allen, inherited his bloodline’s powers but no ability to control his super-speed. After reaching the age of 14 in only two years, he was brought to the 20th century. Having been raised in an artificial environment, Bart is just learning the ways of the real world as he attends Junior High School in Smalltown Alabama.”

While the Golden Age Flash didn’t have a sidekick in the traditional sense (though he did have a trio of comedic “sidekicks” for a little while, much like Plastic Man, Alan Scott, and Wonder Woman did during the same period), Barry Allen got one relatively quickly in the form of Wally West, aka Kid Flash.  Wally remained in the role until Barry’s death in Crisis, at which point Wally got promoted to just “Flash.”  It was almost a decade before Wally would get his own sidekick, a revamp of the Kid Flash idea, Bart Allen, aka Impulse.  Bart wound up rather successful in his own right, eventually taking on both the Kid Flash and Flash monickers.  But Impulse was always his coolest, and it got him the action figures first.  Let’s take a look at one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Impulse was released in the third series of Hasbro’s JLA line in 1999.  Like Superboy, he was also available in the fourth boxed set, released through comic book stores and the like, along with Robin, the other piece of the “Young Justice” trio from the assortment.  This was Bart’s first figure, albeit only by a slight bit, as DC Direct also released one very close behind.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  As with the rest of the line, he’s heavy on the re-use.  He gets a new head, but his torso is the frequently re-used retool of Superman’s, and he’s also got the arms from Black Lightning and the legs from the Flash.  The head is sort of an attempt at approximating a few different artist’s looks for Bart into one, along with folding him into the general line aesthetic, and it’s not awful, but it does feel a little small.  The Black Lightning arms are a little long for the body, but the gloves at least match pretty well with Impulse’s design.  The legs have a good running sort of pose to them, but the boots are definitely *not* Bart’s from the comics.  To be fair, they really weren’t Wally’s either, so it’s kind of whatever.  In general, like Superboy, the figure is really bulky for Bart, who was always pretty skinny and appropriately teen (in fact even pre-teen) like in the comics at the time.  This appears to be some sort of imaginary older Bart as Impulse sort of figure.  His color work is decent enough, but the biggest issue is definitely that the orange of the outer portions of his lightning bolts is too close to the red, so the distinction is largely lost.  Also, he’s got no pupils for some reason.  Beyond that, the application is pretty clean, so there’s at least that.  Impulse is packed with a display stand, this time in white.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first exposure to Impulse was an issue of his solo series, which got handed to me as a free give-away at an early Baltimore Comic-Con I attended, more than likely *in* 1999.  I loved the issue, and it got me into the whole series (which I had a subscription to until its cancellation years later).  I developed a particular attachment to the character, and ended up getting this figure, I feel almost confident at the same time as Superboy.  He’s never been a perfect figure, but he’s always been one I very much appreciated.

#4003: Luke Skywalker with T-16 Skyhopper Model

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

LUKE SKYWALKER with T-16 SKYHOPPER MODEL

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (HASBRO)

“While tinkering with his model T-16 skyhopper and tending to his uncle’s new droids, Luke unwittingly short circuits R2-D2’s recording system, triggering the holographic appearance of a young Princess Leia. The image implores the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but vanishes soon thereafter.”

Luke Skywalker has four notable looks over the course of the original Star Wars film, but by far the most definitive is his “farm boy” look, which, understandably, was the first to get a toy back in 1978.  It was also the first to get an update for the relaunched line in 1995, albeit with a notable pectoral upgrade.  It was never truly absent from Power of the Force, but I suppose there was a slight downtick in its frequency.  Then, in the space of about a year and a half, there were *so* many of them.  Farm boy Lukes as far as the eye could see!  And they all had their own minute difference.  Well, here’s the one that wrapped it all up.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke Skywalker with T-16 Skyhopper was part of the 1999 run of Star Wars: Power of the Force, following the shift to Hasbro’s name being on the packaging.  Like last week’s Leia, he was part of an assortment featuring the CommTech gimmick from the Episode I line, and was meant to run alongside that one.  He was the seventh and final figure in the line based on Luke’s main A New Hope look, and fifth variation on the “new” mold version of it.  Each of those Lukes was based on a specific snippet of the movie, and this one is specifically Luke right after the purchase of the droids, when he discovers the message from Leia while cleaning them up.  Yay, another non-action scene!  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  While it’s the same count as the Flashback Photo Luke, it’s a different configuration.  This one lacks the wrist movement, and only gets swivels on the elbows instead of hinges, but gets proper knee movement, which was very rare in this line.  It’s good for getting him kneeling down, like he does in the scene this figure’s meant to be referencing.  His sculpt is using the “updated” Luke head, with a body that’s all new parts, albeit ones that all look very similar to the other four Lukes from this period of time.  The paint is on par with the other offerings, a little cleaner and a little more involved than some of the other variations on the look, rivaling the Flashback figure.  Once again, I do like the accenting on the boots, and it otherwise does what it needs to.  Luke is packed with the T-16 Skyhopper model mentioned in his name, as well as a small hand tool, and his CommTech stands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like I said in my Leia review, the CommTech figures aren’t as common as other figures in the line.  And, with all the similar looking Lukes, this one has a tendency to fly under the radar.  I saw this one once or twice in the early days of jumping into the line, and just never got around to getting him.  Ultimately, he’s one of those figures I just happened to find mixed in with a larger lot of PotF figures that got traded into work.  He’s…fine?  Like, he does some new, but also feels very same-y.  After the Flashback figure, which was kind of the best of these variations, he feels like he’s sort of treading water, which, I guess, in a way, he kind of was.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#4001: Superboy

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

SUPERBOY

JLA (HASBRO)

“Created to replace Superman, Superboy was genetically engineered by scientists at Project Cadmus to have a close approximation of Kryptonian DNA. His power of tactile-telekenesis gives him super-strength, flight, and grants him a number of unique abilities, such as disassembling an object through touch alone.”

One of the tenets of the change-over from the Superman of the Golden Age to the Superman of the Silver Age was the creation of Superboy, who was Earth-1 Clark Kent’s alter-ego as a teenager.  After Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman’s origin was once more re-established, and he was no longer a superhero as a teenager, eliminating Superboy from the timeline.  But, if you don’t want to lose your trademark to such a fancy name, you have to use it, so in the ‘90s they brought the name back, now attached to a separate character, Kon-El, a clone of Superman.  He operated solo for a while, before eventually joining “Young Justice,” a sort of re-imagining of the Teen Titans.  It was during the period that he got his second action figure, which I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superboy was added to Hasbro’s JLA line in its third series in 1999.  He was also available in the line’s fourth boxed set, alongside Impulse and Robin from the third series, and a pair of exclusive “Hologram” figures of Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.  Like his earlier Man of Steel figure, he’s based on Conner’s original look, though this time around he’s without his usual leather jacket.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Since JLA was all about getting as much mileage as possible out of re-used parts, Superboy is a lot of re-use.  His torso is the modified Superman torso that a lot of the line used as a starting point, and he’s got the legs from Black Lighting (albeit with some serious mold degradation, which removes a lot of the sharpness of the details) and the arms from the Legends of Batman Riddler.  It was rare to see them reach outside of the Total Justice molds, but it happened.  The Riddler arms are designed with a narrower gait to the legs in mind, though, so his hands can’t clear his legs when posing.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is decent enough, though it’s a bit on the large side, in order to off-set the sizing on the body.  The face is a little bit goony, but it fits the later ‘90s take on the character alright.  His paint work carries a lot of the work on selling the character design.  Mostly, it’s not bad, but it’s a little odd to see the straps and belts all just as painted elements, rather than with any sort of dimension to them.  The hair is also quite odd; in the comics, he had the back and sides buzzed, which the original figure more or less just ignored.  This one didn’t sculpt them in, but then they were painted black, and then painted back over with a sort of a grey shade, and then there’s sort of stubble effect.  It’s weird looking.  Superboy was packed with a JLA display stand, in bright red.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had the Man of Steel Superboy, which I really loved, but I was always bummed that you couldn’t take off his jacket, since he did that so often in the comics.  I remember this guy getting shown off, and I remember really wanting him, to the point of printing out a prototype shot and turning it into a paper figure.  I don’t recall exactly when I got him.  More than likely it was from the KB Toys near where my family vacationed, but it was also probably during one of our fall trips, rather than summer.  I remember being excited to find him, but perhaps not quite as enthralled by the final product once I’d opened it.  Superboy without the jacket certainly has novelty, but this figure’s more on the goofy side of things for this line, and the Man of Steel figure’s definitely the stronger offering.

#3999: Princess Leia with Sporting Blaster

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

PRINCESS LEIA with SPORTING BLASTER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Her ship under attack from Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer, Princess Leia downloads the secret Death Star plans into R2-D2 for safe-keeping . After being stunned by a stormtrooper blast, Leia became a prisoner of Darth Vader. R2-D2 avoids capture by fleeing with the valuable data in an escape pod.”

When The Phantom Menace hit in 1999, its tie-in toyline took over the main focus of the toys, but, while Power of the Force was winding down, it didn’t go away right away, and in fact ran concurrently with the Episode I line the whole time.  It was, however, a far more scaled back approach, and almost a different line, revamping the heavy hitters from the Original Trilogy to fit better into the slightly updated style of the new movie line.  A New Hope was really the focus of this last run, so we got all of the major players in updated versions of those looks.  For the fourth time, Princess Leia showed back up in the all-white get-up with the hair-buns, albeit with a slightly different approach than earlier.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Princess Leia with Sporting Blaster was added to the Star Wars: Power of the Force II line in 1999, as part of the first portion of the CommTech offerings, concurrent with the early Episode I line.  This was the fourth white dress Leia in the line.  While the original and Princess Leia Collection figures were more all-encompassing, and the Freeze Frame figure was post Detention Block, this one is specifically based on her appearance at the start of the movie, which was a unique approach at the time.  The figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  She followed the trend of scaling Leia down a bit.  She was still a little too tall for proper accuracy, but was certainly better scaled than the rest of her figures in this line.  Movement wise, she’s okay, but you can’t really move the neck joint, due to how the sculpt is set-up.  Her sculpt was all-new to her, and remained unique to this release.  It’s not bad.  The hood is sculpted up, which is a nice change of pace, and means it meshes better with the torso sculpt.  The skirt is cloth, which doesn’t look as consistent, but it means that she has less limitations on her hip movement, meaning she has an easier time sitting than most Leias.  Her paint work is fine, with quite a bit going on with the head, since it’s all molded in white.  The application’s a bit thick, but overall pretty clean.  Leia is packed with a blaster pistol (accurate to the scene she’s based on), as well as a CommTech stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The CommTech figures in general aren’t as common as most of the earlier run of the line.  I only got one of them actually new, and the rest I’ve been slowly piecing together since.  This one was ultimately the last of the set that I tracked down; after finding Wuher on a dealer’s table, I dug through some of the other PotF figures there, and this one was there, letting me knock two figures off my list at once, which is always fun.  She’s more limited in her application than other versions of Leia, but she’s not a bad figure, and an interesting exploration of the direction the line was going before its end.

#3995: Wuher

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

WUHER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (HASBRO)

“The surly human Wuher saw a lot of action while working at the seedy Mos Eisley cantina. His policy not to allow droids in the establishment was facilitated by a droid detector unit. Upon entering the cantina with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, R2-D2 and C-3PO were promptly ousted.”

Oh good, an action figure of a racist.  That sure sounds fun.  Like, here’s a guy so racist that it’s, like, his second most defining trait.  It’s Wuher! Who’s Wuher?  Well, he’s a bartender and he’s racist.  How do we know that?  Because his one bit of dialogue is delivered from behind the bar, and it’s about how he’s a racist.  So, you know, that’s who the guy is.  Anyway, here’s an action figure of the aforementioned racist.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wuher was offered in February of 2000 as a Fan Club-exclusive figure in the Star Wars: Power of the Force II line (which was now under the Hasbro brand, following the release of the Episode I tie-in product).  He was originally meant to be an early Fan Club-exclusive, before a wider retail release, but retailers weren’t interested, so that plan was scrapped.  However, like some of the other Fun Club figures, quantities of him ended up at Toys “R” Us later down the line, at discount prices.  Wuher’s packaging shows off the last handful of figures from the line, all from the last assortment, which kept up the CommTech gimmick from the Episode I line.  Curiously, it also shows off a Chewbacca figure that would ultimately be released under Power of the Jedi, sans CommTech.  But what of Wuher himself?  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation.  While others in the last assortment got improved movement, Wuher maintained the basic approach from the bulk of the line.  His sculpt was all-new at the time, but would be mostly repurposed for a two-pack release in different colors in 2004.  It regards to capturing the schlubby and dirty racist guy, it does it pretty well.  His face has a more than passing resemblance to actor Ted Burnett, who played Wuher in the film, and he’s got that appropriate slack jawed sort of sneering look he had during his one bit of dialogue.  The body sculpt is on par with earlier offerings from the line, so it’s basic, but it works.  Perhaps the oddest quirk about it is that the glass in his right hand is permanently molded there, which is an odd choice to say the least.  The 2004 release would alter the mold to him a more normal hand.  The color work here is, much like the sculpt, rather basic, but there’s some more intricate work on the face, which makes him appropriately scruffy.  The glass is once again an issue, with some rather obscenely sloppy paint around the edges on that one.  Wuher is packed with his droid detector unit (for all of his racist needs), which is a neat enough piece, albeit hollow on the back side, as well as a CommTech stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I make my way closer and closer to completing my Power of the Force collection, I’ve started encountering some of the slightly odder releases.  Wuher’s one of those, because he’s not particularly pricey, but he’s also not all that common (admittedly, none of the 2000 figures really are).  So, I was pleasantly surprised to find him sitting on a dealer’s table at Ocean City Comic Con last year, mixed in with a bunch of others more common offerings, for a good price.  He’s….fine.  I mean, it’s not like Wuher’s a great character with a great look.  So, this figure really does the best it can, and it honestly looks pretty great behind the bar in the Cantina playset, and that in and of itself is pretty cool.

#3994: Soundwave with Ravage, Laserbeak, & Buzzsaw

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

SOUNDWAVE with RAVAGE, LASERBEAK, & BUZZSAW

TRANSFORMERS: STUDIO SERIES (HASBRO)

I went through a lengthy stretch of Transformers being a regular fixture here, but these days….well, not so much.  I reviewed a single Transformer last year, and that was all the way back in February.  Only a few months before that, I took a look at the at the time most recent update to the G1 Soundwave, an updated version sold at the Leader Class tier so that he could be packed with his cassettes.  Great, I don’t need more of those, right?  Well, you know, until today, when I’m looking at an updated G1 Soundwave, sold at the Leader Class tier to that could be packed with his cassettes.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Soundwave (with Ravage, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw) is part of the first Leader Class assortment of Transformers: Studio Series.  At this point, the “86” sub-line has been fully folded into the main line, so they’re just fully inter-mingled.  Like the Legacy Soundwave, he uses the Leader Class price-point to release what is really a Voyager Class Soundwave, alongside three of his cassettes.  They’re all equally billed on the package, but obviously Soundwave is the main star here, so let’s review him as such.  In his robot mode, Soundwave stands about 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 32 practical points of articulation.  This figure’s sculpt is specifically focused on recreating Soundwave’s animation model from Transformers: The Movie (which was of course the same model used in the show, albeit with a bit more polish in the movie), rather than the slightly more generalized approach of the War For Cybertron molds.  They’ve moved away from not only the “greebles” of those molds, but also more of the panel lining, so this figure’s sculpt is a much cleaner look on the surface  Also, he’s scaled more directly to the other Studio Decepticons, which is why he’s about 1/2 inch taller than the earlier figure.  There are parts I still prefer on the older figure, but also parts I certainly prefer on this one.  The forearms in particular are nice because they lack the leftover elements from first Siege mold, as well as leaving him without the gaps on the interior for where the hands fold up.  I also generally like the proportions better on this mold than the Netflix one.  I do miss some of the detailing on the upper arms, though, as they look kind of bland this way.  I’m also not a fan of how the “knees” collapse into the legs without much resistance, because it’s a pain to get them back out again in robot mode.  As is the usual for Soundwaves, he gets a spring-loaded chest cavity, which is slightly more complex on the interior than the WFC molds.  It’s still compatible with the same size cassettes, though, so he remains compatible with the earlier releases.  Since he’s directly based on the ’86 movie, his alt-mode is once more a cassette player.  The transformation scheme isn’t too terribly different than the Netflix mold, nor is the size of the final product.  There are a few more panels that fold out to cover things up, resulting in a look that’s a little bit cleaner.  It’s still kind of off when viewed from any angle but the front, but it’s not as bad as the earlier look. Soundwave’s color work is another change-up, as this one favors flatter finishes than the metallic look of earlier releases.  I do generally like it, and it’s still a little bit more metallic than, say, the RED or Super 7 releases, but it’s certainly closer to the animation.  Mine has a notable spot on his mouth guard, which is annoying, but otherwise the coverage isn’t bad.  Soundwave is packed with his usual shoulder cannon and handblaster.  The blaster can collapse, again like the usual.  He is also packed with new versions of Ravage, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw.  They’re all-new molds, though, obviously, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw share the same mold.  The bird mold is decent, but perhaps a bit underposable in bird mode.  I actually quite like the Ravage mold, which surprised me, because I’m usual not very impressed by Ravages.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t really *need* the last Soundwave, but I bought and I liked it, and I kind of figured that would be all I’d really need at this scale.  He kind of seemed to fill the ’86 spot well enough and all.  But, as I saw with Magnus, doing a proper ’86 release is bound to drag me back in, and that’s what this one’s done.  He’s fun.  I don’t know that he’s my favorite Soundwave I own, but I certainly like aspects of him, and he’s an interesting, if somewhat different, approach to this style of figure.  The new cassettes are very nice, and feel like a genuine step-up from the prior ones, bringing them up to the level of the improved Frenzy/Rumble mold.  So, here I am with another Soundwave.  Oh, darn.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3987: Ahsoka Clone Trooper

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

AHSOKA’S CLONE TROOPER

STAR WARS: GALAXY OF ADVENTURES (HASBRO)

My last Galaxy of Adventures review was published in January of 2020.  Good thing nothing major has happened since then, huh?  Oh, wait, sorry, I’m getting word that *everything* major has happened since then.  My mistake.  When I wrote my last GoA review, the line was still quite new, and most of what had been shown off was already released.  We had two items, both from the then upcoming final season of Clone Wars, that we knew were coming, but we didn’t know when.  In the chaos that was 2020 and its effects on the retail landscape, more GoA figures were released, but not in any way that was consistent or easily located, and it was a good couple of figures before we got the two we were expecting, and even then, they were kind of an understated release.  But, umm, I got one?  So, without further ado, here’s Ashoka’s Clone Trooper, about six years overdue.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper was, at least initially, meant to be released in the third series of Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventures, which would have, presumably, hit in the spring of 2020, to coincide with the release of the final episodes of Clone Wars, which are the episodes wherein this design appeared.  Distribution chain issues made that troublesome, so he and his assortment mates just sort of quietly showed up at the end of 2020, in pretty much no notable numbers much of anywhere, with no fanfare to speak of, and then kind of disappeared just as quickly and quietly.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is much the same as the other figures in the line.  I always found it to be quite an effective set-up, hitting all of the major spots and offering up a good range of motion, while still keeping him at that basic price point level.  His sculpt was unique, though given its just the standard Phase II Clone armor, I’d imagine the plan wasn’t for it to stay that way, had the line gotten the chance to progress more naturally.  More than a few times in my old reviews, I referenced the line as having something of a Clone Wars aesthetic to it, and that’s none more evident than here, on a character from Clone Wars.  In fact, this winds up being the closest we’ve gotten to an Ahsoka Trooper that actually looks like they did on the screen, since all the other figures have been “real world” versions.   I really like this sculpt, and think it’s very clean and striking, and really works well.  The color work is what sells it specifically as an Ahsoka Trooper, with the distinctive markings on the helmet and all.  The paint’s a little bit spotty around some of the edges, but generally, it works well.  The Trooper is packed with a simple blaster rifle, which he can hold easily in his hands.  He sports an “action feature” in the form of spring-loaded shoulder joints, allowing for a “blaster fire” effect.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a huge fan of this line early on, as can no doubt be seen in all those early run reviews.  Unfortunately, the pandemic changed a lot of things in my life, which included how I shopped for toys, meaning I wasn’t going out of my way at retail to find things.  I ended up snagging a few of the later figures that came in through All Time second hand, but this one eluded me, which was a shame, because I was genuinely very excited for him.  It wound up kind of dampening my desire to get any others, and the line went away not long after that anyway, so that was that.  At least until I took Matty to Yesterday’s Fun while we were in the area back in December, and after buying him a few things, noticed this guy sitting near the counter.  I quite like this figure, and he’s pretty much exactly what I’d been hoping for six years ago when he was shown off.  It’s not often something takes me back to where I was six years ago, but this one did it, and that was honestly a nice experience. 

#3979: Mandalorian Warrior – Holiday Edition

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

MANDALORIAN WARRIOR — HOLIDAY EDITION

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

Twas the night day before Christmas…for the people reading this.  It’s sometime the week before Christmas my time, because I wrote this in advance so as to go easy on myself in preparation for the holiday.  I’m trying to be nice to me like that. And I appreciate it, I assure me.  The last few years, my festively-themed reviews have centered on Hasbro’s admittedly kind of hokey Holiday Star Wars: The Black Series figures, which they skipped doing last year.  There are new ones this year, but I didn’t end up snagging them, so I’m falling back on an older one again this year.  Let’s get festive and look at the Mandalorian Warrior…Holiday style!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Holiday Edition Mandalorian Warrior is one of the 2022 Holiday Star Wars: The Black Series figures.  He was number 4 out of the 6 released and was available exclusively at Target.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation.  All of the Holiday figures are repaints, and this guy in particular is a reuse of the Clone Wars era Mandalorian Loyalist from 2020, who was of course himself a re-use of a lot of parts from Jango Fett.  By 2022, this was a rather dated mold, so it was kind of crazy to see them trot it out again, but I guess a repaint’s a repaint.  While more recent years have gotten more inventive with their color schemes and holiday themes, the first two years pretty much just decked everyone out in garish holiday colors, and threw a tacky Christmas sweater detail on the front of the chest.  This guy specifically gets the Manalorian sigil, as well as a pair of helmets.  Honestly, the whole thing doesn’t look too awful, and I do quite like the chest pattern.  The Mando is packed with a long rifle in Nerf-style colors, and a recolor of the Bogling creature mold, which I don’t think got much use.  Bafflingly, despite the mold’s sculpted holsters, he doesn’t include any blasters that can fit in said holsters, which is annoying, but also not the first time it’s happened with these figures, so I guess it’s just a quirk that you have to accept.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve never gone out of my way to find any of these guys, and in 2022, I was able to get the Protocol Droid through work, so I just figured that was good enough for the season.  That said, a bunch of these got traded in loose throughout the years that followed, and I picked them up as they caught my eye.  I’m a sucker for the hokey, gimmicky nature, and love having something silly to drag out with the decorations every year.  This one’s not really noteworthy within the whole set-up, but he’s still fun.

#3978: Superman

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

SUPERMAN

JLA (HASBRO)

“Though genetically an alien conceived on the planet Krypton, Superman is an American by birth, born in a Kansas cornfield. Through his deeds, Superman has become earth’s preeminent super hero. Time and again, he has proven himself a true hero, capable of whatever bravery and self-sacrifice is necessary to right a wrong or save a life. The guiding force behind the Justice League and the example of metahumans across the globe, Superman’s existence has changed the world forever.”

It shouldn’t seem odd to read a Superman bio, but this one’s notable for directly referencing the ship actually “birthing” Clark on Earth, which was introduced during John Byrne’s Man of Steel reboot.  Like a great many things introduced during that reboot, it’s the sort of thing that got quietly dropped, but it was still the official cannon when this figure was released.  Even a regular, normal, classic Superman still gets a little bit of weirdness in the ‘90s, huh?  Well, let’s jump into another JLA review!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman was released in the second series of Hasbro’s JLA line, which, if I’m recalling correctly, is the first one actually branded from Hasbro, rather than Kenner.  He was also in the line’s third boxed set.  This was the fourth Superman in the line, making him the most numerous character in the line at that point (Batman would catch up with him by the end of it).  It’s also the first “normal” comic Superman, in, like, a decade, since Man of Steel and Total Justice were both while he was still sporting the mullet, and JLA launched while he was still in the midst of the the Blue/Red storyline.  It was a big deal, for sure.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Like the last three Supermen from this line, this figure was re-using the body of his Total Justice counterpart.  Unlike the last three, however, he also re-uses that figure’s cape.  His head is…well, it’s hard to tell if its new here, or elsewhere.  It was used both here and on the battle-damaged version of the character released alongside Metallo in a Hasbro Toy Shop-exclusive two-pack under the DC Super Heroes banner, in rather close proximity.  It would also be used on the armored Superman from this line’s last assortment.  In all three cases, it replaced a mulleted Superman head.  It’s not a bad sculpt, but ultimately feels a little bit off model for Superman as he was typically depicted at the time.  The shaping of the face seems a bit more rounded, and the hair lacks the typical s-curl, favoring a more general swoop in the front.  I remember it was used by a number of customizers at the time as an Elongated Man head, and I can very definitely see that.  Superman’s color work is pretty basic, modern era classic Superman coloring stuff.  The blue is on the darker side, which isn’t my preferred, but is accurate to how he was depicted at the time.  The paint on all of the JLA figures felt really prone to damage, but Superman was especially so.  The paint tends to chip, and the flesh tones are almost gummy, to the point that his cape is actually fused at the neck on my figure.  Superman included a JLA display stand in blue, same as Martian Manhunter from the same assortment.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was a big deal back in the day, because it really had been forever since we’d gotten a short-haired comic Superman, and it was certainly never in this style.  I recall him not being especially easy to find for this very reason.  I ended up getting him, probably in ’99 or ’00, from the Balticon dealer’s room, which typically had *nothing* in the way of toys, but that particular year had Superman and a Toy Biz Robin on a dealer’s table, both of which came home with me.  I liked this one a lot, and he got a lot of playtime, which only contributed to the wear and tear to his paint (which I’ve since done a little bit of restoring to).  In retrospect, that head doesn’t feel very Superman-y, but I was just so happy to have a classic Superman at all, that it didn’t bug me all that much.

#3974: Martian Manhunter

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

MARTIAN MANHUNTER

JLA (HASBRO)

“As is common among telepaths, the Martian Manhunter is an intensely silent figure. Even in his darkest moments, his mood is often reflected only the expression in his eyes. When he speaks, others listen. His accent is deep and indescribable. Possibly the most highly regarded by his JLA peers, he is a founding member of every incarnation of the team, an alien whose loyalty to his adopted world is beyond words. J’onn prefers to use his shape-changing powers to maintain several identities so he can move among the humans he admires so much. J’onn is the only Leaguer to whom Batman defers. Green Lantern is his favorite of the group.”

Before I jump into today’s review proper, I feel it’s important to note the date, which also informs a bit of my headspace.  December 16 is my late wife’s birthday, and this one would have been her 30th, a pretty significant one.  It’s also the fifth one I’ve spent without her, another bit of significance.  As I’ve discussed many times before here on the site, Jess was an incredible influence on the site and an immense support of my hobby and me in general.  I reviewed a great many things she got for me during the site’s run. Almost five years after losing her, of course, there’s not much she bought me that I haven’t yet reviewed, so I instead am going with something I hope might have amused her.

Martian Manhunter, known to some late wives of the Super Awesome variety as “Martin Spartan,” is a founding member of the Justice League, and has, for much of the team’s run, been one of the quintessential members of the line-up.  He had some times away, but when the team was being rebuilt at it most distinctive in the mid-90s, J’onn was placed back in the line-up, as your do.  He *just* missed inclusion in Kenner’s Total Justice, but would find his way back to action figures in Hasbro’s follow-up JLA line, with a figure that I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Martian Manhunter was released in the second series of Hasbro’s JLA line, and also in the third boxed set, which repackaged the Manhunter, Zauriel, and Superman from the assortment with an exclusive Lex Luthor and Joker.  He’s based on his then-current design, which is largely his classic look, with the only real caveat being the inclusion of his red eyes.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Manhunter was actually a lot of new parts, notable in a line that tried to be pretty heavy on re-use.  His arms are shared with Superman, but he’s otherwise unique (or at least unique to Martian Manhunter figures; there was also a hologram re-color of him later) with a sculpt that’s very true to the general styling of this line, as well as the Total Justice ones.  He’s a bit pre-posed, and also feels maybe a bit skinny for J’onn, but generally, it’s not bad, and I love that they’ve sculpted all of his costume details in.  He’s got a removable cape, which fits the figure well, and is quite dynamically rendered.  His color work is generally basic, but hits all the main notes.  The green is a bit on the bright side for a Manhunter of this era, feeling a bit more like his classic incarnation, and also making him feel a bit more at home with the Total Justice figures than the usually more subdued palettes of the JLA line.  Martian Manhunter is packed with one of the standard display stands, this time in blue.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Martian Manhunter was the first of the single release figures from this line that I got.  In fact, my dad and I bought him together, because of the novelty of a Martian Manhunter, and there was some plan to “share” but he ultimately wound up really just being mine.  He’s quite a nice figure, showing some of the line’s strengths for sure.