Tag Archives: Hasbro

#1910: L3-37

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

L3-37

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“A “self-made droid” built from astromech and protocol parts, L3-37 is an enlightened navigator who cares deeply about droid rights.”

If there’s one thing that Star Wars has been consistently good at, it’s making up robots that viewers feel compelled to go out and own.  Since R2 and 3PO first strutted across the screen, there’s been an un-ending stream of new wacky, zany robots, all vying for our attention.  The new movies have followed suit.  Previous Star Wars Story offering K-2SO is definitely a favorite of mine, but last year’s Solo certainly gave us another fun one in Lando’s co-pilot, L3-37.  She was absent from early product shipments, but has finally started showing up in all of her plastic-y glory.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

L3-37 is figure 73 in the ongoing Black Series line-up.  She’s the third of the four Solo-based figures in this latest assortment, and the final piece of our main heist team from the film.  She stands about 6 inches tall and has 21 points of articulation…I think.  Getting an accurate count is a little difficult due to the nature of her design, which has a number of the joints obscured by various wires and plating.  There’s some definite restriction going on with the movement, especially on the elbows, where you’ll be lucky to get even 90 degrees of motion, and even then, the stress on the joint will slowly reset its position over time.  Obviously, this is largely to do with L3’s design, which at a full-scale wouldn’t be contending with nearly as much resistance from those wires.  On the plus side, mobility throughout the rest of the figure is surprisingly good.  I was happy to find that my figure doesn’t have nearly as much trouble standing as I’d expected.  You’ll still need to place her feet carefully to keep her upright, but she does seem to be pretty well balanced.  I would imagine that L3’s late arrival to the toy line is an attempt on Hasbro’s part to keep her as accurate to her final design as possible.  I’m happy to say it was a worthy effort, as her sculpt is pretty much spot-on to L3’s appearance in the film.  I’m not seeing any of the slight proportional changes like we saw on the BS K2 figure, and she certainly doesn’t skimp on the specific details of the model.  The wires may be a little clunky, but apart from making them smaller and potentially much easier to damage, I don’t know that you can do a whole lot about that at this scale.  L3’s paintwork is decent for the line.  Prior droids have had a tendency to be little lacking in painted detail, but L3 not only gets her base colorwork, but also some simulated wear and tear.  In some spots, the damage is a little heavy handed, especially when compared to the movie.  That being said, at this price point and scale, Hasbro has done an admirable job.  The one area where this figure really lacks are the accessories.  L3 is completely without any sort of extras.  I know that options for her are slightly limited, but some extra hands in different poses, or at the very least the communicator she uses during the raid on the refinery would have been appreciated.  As it stands, she’s yet another very light offering in this assortment.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

L3, like the rest of her assortment mates, is a joint gift from my parents and my Super Awesome Fiancee. As I’ve said many times before, and I’ll no doubt say again, I’m a sucker for cool robots, and L3 definitely falls into that category.  I loved the character in the movie, and I’m happy she’s finally made the transition into action figure.  I wish she had some extras to offer, and the articulation in the arms is somewhat limiting, but on a whole, I’m very happy with this figure, and I’m thrilled to round out my crew from the movie.

#1909: Imperial Patrol Trooper

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

IMPERIAL PATROL TROOPER

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“As the Empire reinforces its hold on worlds across the galaxy, local defense forces are being supplemented – and eventually completely replaced – with Imperial Stormtroopers. To cover distances across sprawling settlements and cities, Patrol Stormtroopers police the streets and alleys aboard swift interceptor speeder bikes.”

Hands down my favorite Trooper design in all of Star Wars is Return of the Jedi’s Scout Trooper.  I’m not alone in this, and the designers behind the various movies and cartoons and the like have made a pretty steady go at calling back to that particular design as we’ve trekked on through the franchise.  Oh, wait, wrong “Star” franchise.  As we’ve warred on through the franchise.  There, that’s better.  Anyway, the latest call back to the Scout Trooper is Solo’s Imperial Patrol Trooper, who is essentially the galaxy far, far away’s equivalent of a motorcycle patrol cop.  The design found its way into the Titan Heroes line pretty quickly, but there’s been more of a wait for the two more conventional styles.  I snagged the big trooper boxed set from the smaller line a few months back, and now I’ve got the Black Series release!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Imperial Patrol Trooper is figure 72 in the Black Series line-up, placing him right after Val from yesterday.  He is, unsurprisingly, from the same assortment, and started showing up at retail in the last month or so.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  The articulation on this guy is some of the best we’ve seen in the line, and I’d certainly say it’s the best we’ve seen on any of the troopers.  What’s most impressive about the articulation and its mobility is just how little compromising they’ve done with the integrity of the sculpt.  At first glance, I was really expecting this figure’s posabilty to be another First Order Trooper situation, where he looked quite nice, but struggled with anything but basic poses.  I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.  Like his basic line counterpart, the Patrol Trooper’s sculpt is a very strong offering.  It’s clean, the details are sharply defined, and it matches up very well with the movie design.  The figure really emphasizes how slick this design really looks, just as a whole.  If there’s one slight down tick on this figure, it’s the paintwork.  There are some fuzzy edges on the transitions from white to black, which were giving me some flashbacks to the First Order Trooper.  That being said, those issues are rather minor in the grand scheme of the figure, and it’s hardly the worst we’ve seen in this line.  Just not quite as good as recent offerings.  There are still plenty of touches that really help the figure, such as the very dark, metallic green for the visor.  Like his smaller counterpart, the Patrol Trooper includes a small Biker Scout-esque blaster pistol, as well as a removable police baton on his belt.  Both pieces can be easily held by the figure or safely stowed on his belt, by which I was very impressed.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Of all the upcoming Black Series figures, this one was very near the top of my want list.  I’ve loved this design since the moment I saw it, and I’ve been patiently awaiting his release.  I actually saw him at retail twice before getting him as a Christmas gift (Super Awesome Fiancee played the fact that she was getting him for me very close to the vest), but I managed to hold out.  Yay for me.  While there are some quite minor flaws, I am very, very happy with this figure.  Of course, now I kinda want a Patrol Bike to go with him.  Damn you Hasbro!

#1908: Val

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

VAL — VANDOR 1

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“A no-nonsense and occasionally prickly woman who is a crack shot with a blaster rifle, Val may be the most even-headed and capable member of Tobias Beckett’s ragtag crew of scoundrels.”

One week into my Post Christmas reviews, I’m going to be kicking off a theme week.  There was one large subset of gifts this year, and that subset was Star Wars: The Black Series.  So, for the first of my slew of Black Series reviews is going to be based on last year’s Solo.  I looked at Tobias Beckett back at the beginning of December, and now I’ll be moving onto his crew of bandits.  First up, the Zoe to his Mal, Val!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Val was released in the latest assortment of Black Series figures.  She’s figure 71, thereby making her the first figure in the line-up numerically.  Val is dubbed as being her “Vandor 1” appearance, which is the location of the ill-fated train heist that starts out the movie.  She’s got this look and the Imperial disguise, and this one’s the more character specific, as well as being the one that matches up with the prior Beckett figure.  Val stands 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Val’s sculpt is a unique offering, which is to be expected, seeing this is her only figure, with no prior variants or anything.  It’s a pretty solid offering.  The head’s likeness to Thandie Newton is very close, certainly closer than I’d expected based on early production shots.  The body does a good job of matching her proportions and appearance in the movie.  Unlike Beckett, who had some weird articulation worked awkwardly into the sculpt, Val’s is actually pretty cleanly worked in.  The movement on the arms is somewhat restricted by the tube thingies, but that’s not really the fault of the figure, so much as it is the character’s sort of odd design aesthetic.  That being said, the amount of movement they *do* have actually did surprise me somewhat.  Val’s paintwork is pretty standard for the line at this point.  She’s got the printed face, which continues to impress, and the application on her costume is clean and pretty eye-catching.  The use of clear plastic for the tubes and her goggles adds some nice dimension.  Val is packed with her blaster, which is a unique piece.  It’s a decent enough piece, though I’m a little saddened that she doesn’t have anywhere to keep it when not using it.  It also seems a little on the light side, especially given the slightly smaller stature of the figure. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Val was a combined gift given to me by my parents and my Super Awesome Fiancee.  There was sort of a bit of concern about her and her assortment-mates showing up in time for Christmas morning, but they were there waiting for me, so it worked out for me.  Val is a more minor character in Solo, but one I enjoyed nonetheless, and I’m pretty happy with her turn as a Black Series release, even if she is a little light on the accessory front.

The Blaster In Question #0074: Demolisher 2-in-1

Posted by Tim Marron in Nerf Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

 

BlasterInQuestion1

DEMOLISHER 2-IN-1

N-STRIKE ELITE

demolish1Without question, everyone who has ever owned more than one Nerf blaster has thought “I wish I could stick these together and make one super blaster.”  There’s a whole branch of the modding community dedicated to this exact goal. The fine folks at Hasbro certainly took note of this when they designed this week’s blaster, the Demolisher 2-in-1. So what madness did they concoct in the Nerf labs?  Let’s have a look

THE BLASTER ITSELF

demolish2The Demolisher was released in 2014 under the N-Strike Elite line in their bizarre switch from the standard phthalocyanine blue and titanium white color scheme to a sort of burnt sienna and ivory (blue and white became orange and white). It features 2 separate firing mechanisms that allow it to fire both Elite darts and the same big rockets that the Thunderblast uses. It sounds interesting and complicated at first until you realize they stuck the Thunderblast on the underside of a scaled up Stryfe and painted it orange.  The shell is completely original at least, and I actually think it looks really aggressive and cool. I’m not sure why but I really love that tubey bit that loops under the barrel. I also, for some reason really felt like I wanted to call it the Bullshark instead of the Demolisher.  Again, not really sure why other than it just felt right.  Both systems work well, the missiles fly out with a satisfying *thunk* and the darts fly far and hit decently hard. I really cannot stress enough that this is just a Stryfe and a Thunderblast. Ergonomics are good once you get used to how front-heavy the blaster is. My only gripe in this category is the design of the stock which has space to hold an extra missile. The problem is it holds the missile in the top of the stock, meaning you basically can’t aim when there’s a spare missile in there, and even when it’s out, the strange bulge makes putting your face against it kind of uncomfortable. As far as functionality, obviously the blaster has a stock attachment lug but it also has a barrel lug and 2 rails for other accessories. One thing that stuck out to me and probably only me because that’s the kind of guy I am, is the feel of the trigger. It’s very smooth first of all, but it also has a really nice pressure curve when you pull it. On my Demolisher at least, it starts rather stiff, but past a certain point, the amount of force to pull it the remaining distance goes way down which makes it feel really snappy and responsive. Maybe I’m just imagining it, but it makes me happy, and it may make you happy too.  On a different note, one of the more immediately noticeable appeals of the Demolisher over other blasters is its appearance, which really sets the tone well when you bust into your younger siblings’ room and they see a Nerf blaster with a missile launcher pointing at them. It’s a ton of fun. The original Demolisher came packaged with a 10 round curved magazine, 10 Elite darts, 2 missiles, and a stock, but there’s just recently been a new Modulus version that comes with a bunch of other stuff. I don’t have one of those yet, though, so I’m just telling you about the original. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION 

I do seem to have a tendency of using a joke in one review and then reviewing something else which would also work with the joke not long after. You have no idea how badly I wanted to make the knife-wrench reference again, but alas I had already used it. Nevertheless, the Demolisher is one of those blasters that I wasn’t super excited for and I could see it being easily overlooked given its similarities to other existing blasters, but it’s actually quite a nicely refined setup with just a few extra bells and whistles, so I definitely recommend grabbing one if you can. 

#1903: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL UNIVERSE (HASBRO)

“No one, not even Moon Knight himself is really sure whether he’s actually the avatar of the ancient god Khonshu, or if he’s just crazy.  It is without a doubt that he is stronger than the average man, and a far superior fighter to all but the best.  He has devoted himself to Khonshu, acting out the Egyptian god’s agenda of revenge against criminals from one end of the world to the other.”

For Day 2 of the Post-Christmas reviews, I’m returning to one of my very favorite review subjects.  Yes, it’s none other than MOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!  Sorry, I can’t help but do that at least once per Moon Knight review.  Contractual obligation.  So, yeah, Moon Knight’s a personal favorite character of mine, and one of those characters that I make a concerted effort to track down whenever he shows up in action figure form.  He’s got one of those designs that just usually makes for good toy.  And today, I’m looking at another!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight was released in the fourth assortment of Marvel Universe in 2009, during the line’s inaugural year.  He was the 27th figure numerically in the line.  As seems to be frequently the case for the character, the assortment that spawned Moon Knight was sort of an odd-ball selection of characters.  Fun fact, though, the assortment also included Blade, a character that was essentially Moon Knight’s equivalent in the Tomb of Dracula books.  Anyway, Moon Knight’s seen here in his classic all-white attire, which we actually haven’t gotten in proper figure form since.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  Moon Knight is built on the body that initially belonged to Daredevil.  It was one of two mid-sized male bodies introduced during the first year of the line, and, to be fair, it’s definitely the better of the two.  Of course, given that the other one is one of the worst bodies from the line, that’s perhaps faint praise.  As I mentioned when I first reviewed this body (when it was Vision), it’s an okay body overall, but the biggest flaw is that it looks like he’s missing a row of abs.  His torso’s just too short.  On the plus side, it poses well, and it’s certainly very playable.  He has a unique head, cape, and belt to help complete that Moon Knight look.  The belt is a little soft and ill-defined, but the head and cape are really nice pieces, and I find them to be stronger than even the more recent version of Marc.  As with the Vision parts, I can’t help but wish we could have seen these parts on a stronger base body.  Moon Knight’s paint is, as you might expect, quite monochromatic, but kept from being too drab with a nice selection of grey and silver accenting on the white portions of the costume.  Moon Knight was packed with his staff and a single crescent dart.  Both are pretty cool, but the staff’s definitely going to get more playtime from me, since he can’t really hold the dart.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back when this figure was first released, I held off, in part because I was less of a Moon Knight fan than I am now, and in part because he was supposedly going to be re-packed later down the line in a two-pack with an Ant-Man figure.  When that pack never materialized, I found myself with no Moon Knight, and eventually settled for the more recent small-scale Legends release.  I ended up getting this guy this year as a Christmas present from my friends at All Time Toys, because that’s just how they do.  There are certainly some dated aspects of this figure, but I’m overall quite impressed by how well-crafted he is.  If nothing else, he’s certainly a lot of fun to play with!

#1898: Hulk

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

HULK

THE AVENGERS (HASBRO)

“The world seen through the eyes of the Hulk is distorted with rage, a haze of violence like a bad dream. Trapped within the mighty frame of the Hulk, Bruce Banner is barely able to maintain control. And yet, the Hulk is a hero. His immense strength is always turned to the protection of the weak, and the defense of justice. For while the Hulk may be rage incarnate, it is rage that is always properly directed against those hoping to cause harm.”

He’s a Hulk.  Smash.  Uhhhh…..that’s all I got.  So, here’s this Hulk figure?  Yeah, here’s this Hulk figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hulk is the third Walmart-exclusive 6-inch-scale Avengers figure I’ve looked at on the site.  He is, of course, based on Hulk’s somewhat updated, Ruffl-ized design of the Hulk from The Avengers.  It’s not like it’s far removed from the standard classic Hulk design, but he was decidedly more human looking for this appearance, and it shows through on this figure.  The figure stands 7 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Hulk’s sculpt was brand new to him at the time.  It has subsequently seen re-use for both the Ultimate Green Goblin Build-A-Figure (which I have not reviewed), and the Age of Ultron Hulk (which I have reviewed). Unlike Cap and Thor, this figure is widely divergent from Hulk’s smaller-scale counterpart, which, honestly, is for the best, because the basic Avengers Hulk kind of sucked.  This figure’s sculpt, on the other hand, really doesn’t suck.  The proportions are more exaggerated than the movie’s were, but it makes for a good visual for the figure.  In addition, his skin has this really nice texture work to it that I like a lot more than the much more basic, much less interesting replacement pieces we saw for Age of Ultron.  I also really like the two different hand poses this guy is sporting; I’m always down for more than just the two-fisted combo.  Hulk’s paintwork is fairly subdued, especially when compared to the other two figures I’ve looked at, but it’s accurate enough, and it looks pretty hecking decent.  Hulk included no character specific accessories, but he did have the re-purposed Heroscape-styled display stand that was packed with all of these guys.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Remember how I got Thor and Cap?  Yeah, same deal for Hulk.  I think of all three, he has always been the one I’ve been most interested in finding, just due to how underwhelmed I was by his Age of Ultron variant.  This one’s a lot better than that one, and, like the other two, ends up being a surprisingly good figure for his time.

Hulk came from my friends over at All Time Toys.  He’s one of many 6-inch Marvel figures in their back catalog of figures, which can be viewed at both their website and their eBay store.

#1897: Thor

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

THOR

THE AVENGERS (HASBRO)

“It is occasionally intolerable to be forced to live and work alongside humans with their short lifespan and petty troubles — but Thor has grown to have a deep affection for the people of Earth.  In the Avengers, he is gratified to have found a group of peers.  These are warriors with whom a man can be proud to serve. Thor is glad to fight alongside mighty creatures like the Hulk and noble men such as Captain America.”

Happy Thor’s Day everyone!  Despite some pretty intense audience support, Thor frequently seems to be the hardest sell of the main Avengers when it comes to toys.  Neither of his headlined toyline’s have done particularly well at retail.  But, by virtue of being a rather important member of the team, he does still warrant his token spot, which is a good thing for all of those fans, myself included, who would hate to see him left off the roster.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Thor is another figure from the six-figure Walmart-exclusive larger-scale line of Avengers figures, which hit shelves not too long after the movie in 2012.  For the line based on Thor’s own solo film, Walmart had also offered up a 6-inch figure, which featured a brand-new sculpt, but also featured Thor’s helmet, which he wore for less that five minutes of the first film’s screen time, permanently attached to the head.  Not exactly the most indicative of the MCU take on the character.  This figure is really just a quick fix to that one; he’s exactly the same, but with a new head.  He stands 7 inches tall (this is the figure that would start the trend of MCU Thors being rather on the tall side) and he has 27 points of articulation.  The sculpt is a decent enough piece of work, though it shows its age a bit more than the Cap figure from yesterday, likely because the majority of it is a year older, and Hasbro was improving rapidly at this point.  It’s mostly the articulation that shows the age, especially the hips, which are difficult enough to pose that he’ll essentially just be standing.  The detail work on the sculpt is all pretty sharp, and mostly pretty accurate to the films.  His proportions are idealized slightly, but not terribly unbalanced.  The head, as the new piece, was the main focus. The head and hair are separate pieces, and the head is sporting one of Hasbro’s best Hemsworth likenesses.  The hair, which is decidedly based on the first Thor, rather than Avengers, isn’t quite up to the same snuff as the face.  It’s decent, but feels just a bit…full?  I’m not 100% sure how to describe it, but it’s certainly a bit off.  Thor’s paintwork is pretty solid work.  Application is clean, the palette is a good match for the movie, and he isn’t missing any notable details.  Accent work is minimal, but the sculpt does the heavy lifting here.  Thor is packed with Mjolnir, as well as a stackable display base patterned on the Heroscape tiles.  My figure only has the hammer, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I grabbed Thor at the same time as Cap.  It was actually Cap that I’d noticed first, with Thor being the follow up.  This really wasn’t a figure I had much want for at the time of his release, and I’ve tended to prefer some of Thor’s later looks in the movies.  But, with the Mark VII already in my collection, and Cap soon to be, I was hardly going to just pass this guy up.  He’s not perfect, and he certainly shows the learning process Hasbro was going through at the time, but he still sports the best Hemsworth likeness Hasbro’s produced to date.

Like yesterday’s Captain America, Thor came from my friends over at All Time Toys.  He’s one of many 6-inch Marvel figures in their back catalog of figures, which can be viewed at both their website and their eBay store.

#1896: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

THE AVENGERS (HASBRO)

“As a soldier in World War II, Captain America fought for the safety and honor of his entire nation.  Now, as the leader of the Avengers, he fights to protect the entire world.  Villains great and small wield earth-shattering power without hesitation.  Only the original super-soldier and his team of awesome heroes stand between those ruthless individuals and the devastation of the planet.”

2012’s The Avengers was a big success for the MCU, but came at an odd time for Hasbro’s Marvel toys.  The 6-inch scale had all but died out, mostly replaced by their 3 3/4 inch offerings.  However, the poor sales of the Captain America and Thor toys the preceding year meant even those offerings were decidedly modest.  For both prior films, as well as Iron Man 2, Walmart had offered up a smaller assortment of Legends-styled figures, and continued this trend at an even larger scale offering five of the team’s six members*.  Today, I’m looking at the team’s leader, Captain America!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is one of the six figure line-up from the Walmart-exclusive Avengers 6-inch Movie Series.  He is, of course, based on his somewhat derided costume from the first Avengers movie. The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall (the tallest of the MCU Caps in this scale) and he has 29 points of articulation.  The articulation is handled slightly differently than more modern releases; Hasbro was still figuring some of these things out.  The hips are definitely the weakest part and make him a little difficult to pose.  He also could do with some actual wrist joints, but given what we were getting not long before, this is pretty good.  Cap’s sculpt is unique at this scale, though it shares a rather similar construction with the smaller line’s version of the same costume.  They’re definitely divergent sculpts, though; the articulation is cut differently, and this figure, as a later offering, catches some of the design changes that appeared between the concept art and the final costume.  It’s still not a pitch-perfect match for the on-screen counterpart, but it’s very close.  The texture work on Cap’s uniform is definitely top-notch.  It’s sharply defined and nicely contrasts the various different materials that make up his costume.  Hasbro definitely took advantage of the larger scale of this figure to really go all out with the detailing.  It doesn’t so much extend to the likeness on the face, though.  It’s rather on the generic side, so it’s not like it looks un-like Evans, but it’s definitely not on the same level as the two Evans likenesses we got this year.  Cap’s paintwork is pretty straight forward and clean.  He’s got the slightly brighter colors of this particular costume down pretty well, though the reds may perhaps be a touch brighter than they should be.  The application is all clean and consistent.  Technically, that last stripe of white on his back should be blue to match the rest of the costume, but it’s an easily missed detail, and far from holds the figure back.  Cap was packed with his mighty shield, as per usual.  It’s actually a unique mold, not used since for the MCU Caps.  It’s a little bit on the small side, but it does have advantage of having extending straps, allowing for placement on his back.  It’s that one detail that I miss most from the later releases, and I was happy to see it here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was still very much on the fence about the whole 6-inch Marvel endeavor when these figures arrived in stores.  This, coupled with their relative scarcity, meant that I skipped this set in its entirety.  After getting the Tenth Anniversary Mark VII Iron Man, I was a little bummed not to have any other figures to go with him.  Fortunately, as luck would have it, All Time Toys got in a collection with several of them in it, so I was able to assemble the team pretty quickly.  Cap’s a surprisingly nice figure, and really showcases a turning point for Hasbro’s Marvel offerings.  He’s a precursor for all of the amazing MCU figures we’ve gotten in the years since, and even 6 years after his release, he holds up pretty darn well.

*Widow was left out of the line-up to free up a slot for Loki.  There was much frustration with this choice at the time.  However, she would finally get a figure two years later as part of the Mandroid Series, and has been granted a Legends release for both of the Avengers sequels.

#1894: Princess Leia – Bespin Escape

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

PRINCESS LEIA — BESPIN ESCAPE

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Princess Leia Organa was one of the Rebel Alliance’s greatest leaders, fearless on the battlefield and dedicated to ending the tyranny of the Empire. With her quick-thinking and inspired leadership, Leia ranks among the the galaxy’s great heroes.”

For a number of reasons, December has a tendency to put me in a rather Star Wars-y sort of mood.  Be it the fact that three of the last four films have hit this month, or how I tend to make watching the Original Trilogy an annual occurrence, or perhaps just the fact that I have a tendency to get a lot of Star Wars stuff around the holiday season, whatever the case, I’m certainly in a Star Wars-y mood today.  So, in a vaguely holiday spirit, I’m taking a look at this Leia figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Princess Leia — Bespin Escape is a Target-exclusive entry in The Black Series.  She first started showing up intermittently in the early fall, but seems to have been arriving in full force in the last couple of weeks.  This version of Leia is an oft-overlooked variant from the climax of Empire, during her, Lando, and Chewie’s chase to re-claim the frozen Han Solo.  It’s really just a dressing down of her main Hoth gear that she wears for the majority of the film.  It’s the similarity between those two that generally causes this one to be overlooked.  Nevertheless, its presence during a fairly important section of the film makes it a reasonable choice for a figure, especially an exclusive one.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Her scaling matches perfectly with the ANH figure, which is a nice bit of internal consistency that we don’t always see in this line.  Her sculpt is totally new, but hasn’t remained unique to her, thanks to the almost concurrent release of the proper Hoth Leia.  Regardless of origin and uniqueness, it’s a strong sculpt.  The head sculpt has the strongest Carrie Fisher likeness we’ve seen to date for this line (or any of the smaller ones, for that matter), and they’ve even nicely translated her hair braids.  I imagine this head will be seeing a re-use at some point for a Bespin Gown variant, or at least I sure hope it will.  Mine has an unfortunate error on her left ear, with a small chunk missing out of the lobe, but it’s fortunately not super noticeable.  The jumpsuit’s sculpt is nice and crisply detailed, and looks appropriately like a garment she’s been running around in for a substantial amount of time.  The paintwork on Leia is largely pretty basic; the jumpsuit’s just molded white plastic, and they’ve let the sculpt do all the lifting.  This is one of those times I don’t mind the lack of accenting, as accenting on white can go very badly very quickly.  She does get the printed face; she’s the first Leia to get this treatment, and it works very well for her.  I especially like how they handled the hairline, which is a frequent slip-up on such figures.  Leia is somewhat sparsely packed, with just a stolen Stormtrooper blaster alongside her.  It’s scene-accurate, of course, but something else would have maybe added some extra excitement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Leia sort of just started showing up, without too much fanfare.  I wasn’t initially sure I was going to grab her, what with the Hoth Leia on the horizon.  However, I was at Target looking for something else, which I was unable to find, and when I came across Leia.  Determined not to let the trip be a waste and impressed by how the figure looked in person, I was swayed into getting her.  She’s a decent enough figure, but I will curious to see how she performs once the Hoth Leia is more readily available.  She’s really the sort of figure that is really aimed at the more hardcore collector.  Which, of course, is me.  So, hey, how about that.

#1893: Ant-Man

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

ANT-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS VINTAGE (HASBRO)

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

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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