Tag Archives: Hasbro

#1410: Spider-Man – Homemade Costume

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

SPIDER-MAN – HOMEMADE COSTUME

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When Peter Parker discovers spider-like senses and wall-crawling abilities, he develops his own suit to become Spider-Man.”

Hey, it’s Force Friday II!  Of course, it’s not like I’m reviewing anything from today’s event, since I didn’t get anything early (though I certainly tried).  But I am writing this review from the line to get into a midnight opening, so it’s in the spirit of the day, I guess.  Anyway, let’s look at another Hasbro product, based on another Disney-owned property!  It’s Spider-Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This Spider-Man is figure 2 in the Vulture Series of Marvel Legends.  It’s the third Spider-variant in the series, and the second based on Homecoming.  This figure is based on Peter’s homemade costume, which he ends up wearing during the film’s climax, following the more advanced suit’s confiscation by Tony.  As I’ve noted before, the design is loosely based on Ben Reilly’s Scarlet Spider costume, which is nifty.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Spidey’s sporting an all-new sculpt, which is a pretty solid piece of work.  He’s not sporting quite the same build as the Stark Tech Spidey, but he’s close enough that they’re believable as the same person.  This figure’s probably the closer of the two proportions wise, so that’s a plus.  The detail work is pretty solid as well, with some cool work on the folds and everything.  There could maybe be a little more texture work, but it’s acceptable for the line.  It mostly follows the movie design, though the goggles lack some of the technical details.  Still, not bad.  The paintwork on this guy is fairly decent, though not quite as impressive as some more recent releases.  However, the colors are decent and the application is mostly pretty clean.  The figure is packed with two sets of hands in both fists and web-shooting poses, as well as a hood piece (both pulled up and down).  He’s also got the flip side wing piece of the one included with the standard Spidey.  Yay for an almost complete Vulture!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this guy from Amazon, at the same time as Moon Knight, since I’d had no luck finding him at retail.  He’s a decent figure, but I do find him to be slightly less exciting in-hand than I’d expected.  I guess he’s somewhat less climactic after already getting the version from the basic line.  Still, I’m happy to have him, and the figure is a solid addition to the line.

#1409: Tombstone – Sinister Villains

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

TOMBSTONE – SINISTER VILLAINS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When the battle for justice is underway, artificial enhancements make these villains stronger, faster, and even more of a threat.”

I can’t help but feel that this bio worked a bit better for Beetle than it did for Tombstone.  I mean, do filed teeth and access to a gym really qualify as “artificial enhancements?”  Seems a bit questionable to me.

As you’ve no doubt pieced together, today’s focus figure is Tombstone.  He’s a Spider-Man villain.  He’s albino.  He was created in 1988.  I don’t know a whole lot about him.  My knowledge of Spidey foes is generally from very early in his career or very recently in his career.  Late ‘80s additions don’t really fall into that category, leaving old Tombstone here out in the cold.  But he’s got a Marvel Legend, and I bought it, so here he is, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tombstone is figure 5 in the Vulture Series of Marvel Legends.  His official name is “Sinister Villains,” which he shares with the previously reviewed Beetle.  While he doesn’t really have any ties to the classic Beetle, the most recent Beetle is his daughter, so that’s something.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Tombstone is often seen in a suit and tie in the comics, but this particular figure is based instead on his high-collared jumpsuit look he was sporting into the early ‘90s.  It’s not a favorite of mine, but neither is Tombstone.  The choice of costume is most likely due to ease of parts re-use.  The jumpsuit-ed look allows for Tombstone to make use of the Hyperion body.  The body isn’t without its flaws, but most of them were relegated to the torso.  As luck would have it, the upper and lower torso and the pelvis on this figure are new, which really breaths a lot of new life into the mold.  The weird pectoral shelf thingy is gone, and the proportions just seem more balanced in general.  He’s also got a new head sculpt, which is actually a pretty awesome piece.  The detail work is all really sharp, and his evil grin looks really cool.  In addition to the head and torso, Tombstone’s also got add-ons for his arm and leg straps, which work well enough, though they have to be put back into place every so often.  The paint work on Tombstone is pretty decent.  It’s mostly just black plastic, but the work on his head and torso is actually quite impressive.  Tombstone has no accessories of his own, but he does include the all important second turbine for Vulture’s wings.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Really, I only bought this figure for the Vulture wing piece.  Like I said, I’ve never been much of a Tombstone fan.  I saw this figure several times while searching for the rest of the series, but never picked him up, since I figured I’d get him later.  Then I got the rest of the series, and all of the sudden I couldn’t find Tombstone.  Fortunately, Amazon was my friend on this one, and I was able to get him for below retail even!  For a character I don’t have any attachment to, he does at least make a decent enough figure.

#1408: Spider-Man

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

SPIDER-MAN – HOMECOMING

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When crime hits the big city, Peter Parker suits up as New York’s own web-slinging, wall-crawling hero, Spider-Man”

Yay!  More Spider-Man Marvel Legends!  Specifically of the Homecoming variety.  I haven’t yet taken a look at any of the specifically Homecoming-based Legends yet, but I’m changing that with today’s review.  Today, I’ll be taking a look at the main figure of the film’s titular hero, Spider-Man!  Let’s see how he turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man is figure 1 in the Vulture Series of Marvel Legends.  This is one of two Homecoming-based Spider-Men in this particular series.  This one represents his Stark-designed suit, which is just a slight variation of his classic comics suit.  The figure stands a little under 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  This figure makes use of a lot of pieces from the Spidey released in the Civil War 3-pack from last year.  He does get a new upper torso, upper arms, and two new heads, which help to fix a number of issues present in that figure’s sculpt.  There are still a few issues present with the final product (the small shoulders and the slightly short arms are really the biggest standouts), but the overall figure looks a lot better this time.  On the plus side of things, the details on the costume all match up pretty well with the on-screen counterpart.  The posablity is also really top notch; there are few Spider-related poses that this guy can’t pull off.  The two swappable heads included with this guy help to replicate a feature that most Spider-Man figures overlook: changing expressions on the eyes.  It was one of the cooler features added to the new Spidey suit for the MCU redesign, so it’s nice to see it carried over to the figure.  The first head has the eyes widespread, in a sort of Mark Bagley style, while the second has them closed tighter, looking more like Steve Ditko’s take on the character.  Honestly, I can’t quite pick which of the two I prefer; I definitely foresee these two heads being swapped out rather frequently on my figure.  Another addition to this figure from the prior release are the “web-wings.”  When Spidey debuted, he had these wings on his costume, and the film managed to work them in a nifty little way.  The figure has removable wings that mount under the biceps, similar to how they were handled on Spider-Woman from the Thanos Series.  They don’t stay in place anywhere near as well, though, and they fall out a lot.  So, they aren’t really practical for long-term use.  Fortunately, they’re totally removable, and the figure’s still pretty awesome without them.  The paintwork on this guy is pretty solid; the colors are fairly bold, and the application is mostly pretty sharp.  In addition to the previously mentioned extra head and web wings, Spider-Man includes two pairs of hands in both web-shooting and fist poses, as well as the mid-section of Vulture’s left wing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Patience is definitely a virtue.  When the Civil War 3-pack hit with its exclusive Spidey, I decided to hold off, guessing that we’d be getting another variation of that costume when Homecoming hit theaters.  And look at that, I was right.  I won’t let it go to my head, I swear.  I found this guy after several days of checking the same few Targets, watching as they added one single new figure at a time to the shelves.  He’s not a perfect figure, but he continues Hasbro’s trend of just genuinely fun Spider-Man Legends figures.

#1407: Beetle – Sinister Villains

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

BEETLE – SINISTER VILLAINS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When the battle for justice is underway, artificial enhancements make these villains stronger, faster, and even more of a threat.”

Freaking finally!  That took forever didn’t it?  Can we address the insanity that is having to get four Legends-style figures of admittedly lower tier villain the Beetle before we actually got the version of the character that 99% of people who have any clue about the Beetle would be expecting?  Because it’s kind of nuts.  All I can figure is that Hasbro’s just a real big fan of running gags, and consistently delivering the wrong Beetle was just the best one they had going.  But it’s finally over now, and I finally have the Beetle figure I’ve been patiently waiting for.  Yay!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Beetle is figure 7 in the Homecoming-tie-in assortment of Marvel Legends.  He’s officially named “Sinister Villains,” a name he shares with Tombstone.  I guess it works okay for Beetle, though I’m not sure sinister’s at the top of the list of words I’d use to describe Abner.  I got the figure, so I’m not gonna complain about the name.  This Beetle figure is based on Abner Jenkins’ Mark II Beetle armor.  It’s the design he sported throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, and even into the ‘90s.  It’s definitely his most prominent design, as well as his strongest.  This marks only the second time this design’s appeared as a toy, following the one from the ‘90s Spider-Man line.  This figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Beetle is built on the Bucky Cap body, or at least a lot of parts derived from it.  The legs and most of the arms are the standard Bucky Cap pieces.  In addition, he’s got Taskmaster’s shoulders, as well as the lower torso of Darkhawk.  On top of all that, he’s got a new head, upper torso, and pelvis.  The head’s a fantastic piece, even better than the old Toy Biz figure’s.  It’s sharp, clean, and very nicely scaled for the body.  The pelvis piece is really just a slightly tweaked version of the pelvis used on Darkhawk, just with Beetle’s belt added on.  The new torso mimics the slightly squared-off nature of the shoulders (aiding in selling this as armor, rather than a spandex jumpsuit), and has two sets of ports on the back for Beetle’s wings and forewings to plug into.  The basic wings are the same ones used on the last Beetle, who in turn got them from Wasp.  They were good pieces both times before, and that certainly hasn’t changed now.  The forewings (which, fun fact, are also known as “elytra” or wing cases) are new to this figure, and can be used in conjunction with or independently of the larger wings.  Personally, I kind of dig the folded up look.  Beetle’s paintwork is really great.  He’s done up in all metallic shades, which looks super sleek, and all of the application is really sharp.  Beyond the wings, Beetle has no real accessories of his own, but he does include one of the Vulture’s wing-turbines.  That’s pretty nifty, I guess.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This assortment’s line-up was actually leaked a little while before the prototypes were shown off at Toy Fair.  All we had to go on was the names.  When Beetle showed up on the list, I was pretty sure it was this version, but not certain.  I’ve been tricked before.  Maybe Hasbro would drag us along one more time and roll out a first appearance Beetle.  Maybe they’re sadistic like that.  So, when this guy was shown off, it was like a great weight had finally been lifted.  I was pretty pumped. 

Beetle’s actually the very first figure I found from this series.  I didn’t buy that one, due to not having the money on me at the time, but I found this one about a week later, right after seeing Homecoming for the second time, in fact.  After Moon Knight, he was my biggest want from this series.  I’m glad I found him before Moon Knight, because it allowed me to enjoy him on his own, and not just play second fiddle.  This figure’s really great.  Another strong figure in a line-up of very strong figures.  And now I finally have the Beetle figure I’ve been waiting on for twelve years. 

#1406: Spider-Man – Cosmic

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

SPIDER-MAN – COSMIC

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With incredible strength, stamina and cosmic senses, Spider-Man battles tirelessly on the side of universal justice.”

So, as you may have pieced together from my review of Moon Knight yesterday, I’ve finally tracked down the entirety of the latest Spider-Man Series of Marvel Legends.  This particular series is about half Spider-Men variants, so I’ll be alternating between Spider-Men and non-Spider-Men.  Today’s Spider-Variant actually has roots in another toyline: Micronauts.  Marvel’s tie-in comic for the line added a whole lot of original concepts, including the Uni-Power, an extra-dimensional force that imbues its host with the great cosmic power, thus transforming them into Captain Universe.  The Uni-Power’s been passed around a lot; that’s kind of part of its gimmick.  One of the hosts was Peter Parker, because that’s what happens when you sell the most comics. That’s where today’s figure comes into play.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man (that’s what the packaging says; just “Spider-Man.”  How is the average consumer to know of is cosmic-ness?) was released in the Homecoming-tie-in series of Marvel Legends. In the main universe, Peter gave up the Uni-Power, but there have been a couple of alternate universe versions of him that didn’t.  This figure appears to take the most influence from the Peter Parker of Earth-13, who played a decent role in the “Spider-Verse” event.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  This guy marks the second use of the Spider-UK body.  It befits the more powerful and experienced nature of the Earth-13 Peter, and it’s still a favorite of mine.  I hope we see it used for more than just Spider-Men moving forward.  The standard masked head is pretty basic; I won’t be surprised to see it turn up on other masked characters.  It’s a decent enough piece, I guess.  I wish the chin were just a little more pronounced, but it’s a minor complaint.  There are two additional heads.  The first is an unmasked Parker, whose beard signifies that is definitely the Earth-13 version.  He’s not directly patterned on the art of Oliver Copiel (who drew most of Earth-13 Peter’s appearances), going instead for a more general look.  It’s a very nice sculpt, and one of Hasbro’s better human heads.  The second head isn’t a Spider-Man head at all; instead, it’s a more generic Captain Universe head, allowing for this figure to pass for a number of the Uni-Power’s other hosts.  So, if you so desire, this guy doesn’t have to be a Spider-Man variant at all, which is very nice of Hasbro.  The paintwork on this guy is generally pretty solid.  Some of the application could be a little cleaner, but I’m really digging both the metallic blue and the pearlescent white.  It looks really sharp.  In addition to the two extra head sculpts mentioned earlier, Cosmic Spidey is also packed with the outer wing of Vulture’s wing-pack, the mirror of the one included with Moon Knight.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Obviously, when this series was shown off, I was a little distracted by the Moon Knight figure, so I didn’t really pay Cosmic Spider-Man much mind.  I actually passed this guy up a few times while I was out on the hunt for the rest of this series, since he wasn’t a priority of mine.  But, after several unsuccessful runs, he was the only figure left at one of the Targets I checked, and I was desperate not to leave totally empty-handed.  I also had a gift card, so that helped.  He’s not a bad figure at all.  Cool concept, cool design, cool execution.  It all adds up to a pretty fun figure.

#1405: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A vision in an Egyptian temple leads Marc Spector to don a silver shroud and become the crime-fighting hero, Moon Knight.”

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!

*ahem*

So, uh, it’s Moon Knight, essentially, is what I’m, uh, what I’m getting at.  Check it out. Yeah.  Right about now.  It’s, uh, it’s Moon Knight.  Comin’ attcha.  Yeah.

Let me tell you, I really like me some Moon Knight.  Well, I really like me some Moon Knight when he’s handled by a competent writer.  Or at least one that doesn’t equate a split personality to being able to write him as literally possessing the personalities of Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain America all at once (gee, thanks Bendis).  Current scribe Jeff Lemire is producing one of my favorite runs with the character, and my enjoyment of him is at an all-time high.  Perfect time to release some action figures.  Fortunately for me, Hasbro totally agrees, and has offered Moon Knight in both scales of Marvel Legends.  I already looked at the smaller figure three months ago, and today I’ll finally be following that up with a look at the main event, the new 6-inch scale Moon Knight!  Let’s see how this guy turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight—sorry, “Marvel’s Moon Knight”—is part of Hasbro’s latest Spider-Man-centered series of Marvel Legends, released to coincide with the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming.  No, Moon Knight wasn’t in Homecoming (believe me, I would have made that fact known to everyone I came into contact with), but he’s loosely Spider-Man related, I guess.  I mean, there was that time that Spider-Man was one of his split-personalities (again: thanks, Bendis).  That’s sorta related; demented and sad, but related.  This isn’t Moon Knight’s first time as a 6-inch Legends figure, but it is his first since Series 15 of Toy Biz’s run (a whole 11 years ago). This figure stands just under 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Like the smaller Legends Moon Knight from earlier this year, this Moon Knight is sporting his most recent costume.  I know some fans were hoping for a classic all white Moon Knight, and while that certainly would have been cool, I still really dig this design. When this figure’s prototype was first shown off, there was a lot of discussion about which of the base bodies he was built on.  In hand, he’s an almost entirely new figure.  And oh boy, does that make for a really sharp looking figure, since it’s allowed for most of the body to be specifically tailored to Marc.  Though the body’s new to Moon Knight, it looks to have been built with re-use in mind.  All of the armored pieces are add-ons, but rather than the usual floating pieces and rubber overlays that we tend to see on lines that rely more heavily on bucks, Moon Knight’s add-ons are all hard plastic pieces affixed to the body with pegs and glue.  The end result looks very clean, and I can definitely see this making for more unique looking figures down the line.  The basic build of the body looks to be somewhere between the 2099 and  Spider-UK bodies, kind of taking up the slot that has typically been held by the faithful Bucky Cap body. The only re-used piece is his head, which hails from the Hulkbuster Series’ Blizzard figure.  It’s just a basic masked head, so it’s pretty sensible, and it’s even been given the all-new hood piece, so even placing the two figures side by side, they won’t look identical.  Speaking of that hood, another selling point of this guy is his separate hood and cape, allowing for better posing options.  His all-new cape works well with the head, and is definitely one of the better cape sculpts we’ve gotten from Hasbro.  Great dynamic flow, but not so crazy as to limit his posing options or get too heavy.  Moon Knight’s paint work looks fairly simple on the outside, but it’s actually really well-rendered when you really look at it.  All of the armored bits are done in a pearlescent white, as opposed to the flat white of the cape and hood.  Also, thanks to the separate pieces used for the armor, most of the pieces are molded in the proper colors, keeping things once and clean.  As an added bonus, the few sections that do require paint apps remember the essential rule of dark over light.  I cannot adequately express how happy that makes me.  Remember how disappointed that the smaller Moon Knight included no extras?  This guy makes up for that in spades.  He’s packed with two sets of hands (fists and gripping), one large moonerang, three smaller moonerangs, and Daredevil’s billy club standing in for his usual staff.  Perhaps my favorite part of all these extras is that the fists have slots between the fingers, allowing for the smaller moonerangs to be placed in-between on one hand or the other.  It makes for a pretty awesome look.  Moon Knight also includes the front of Vulture’s right wing, for those that care about such things.  Oh wait, that’s me!  Nice!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Remember how illusive the Warlock Series Cyclops was?  He’s got nothing on Moon Knight.  I’ve been looking for this guy since May.  After three months of searching retail with no luck, I finally gave up and started looking online.  I was fortunate enough to be looking just as Amazon put up a small allotment of him for retail.  Sold.  I’m so happy to finally have this figure, and he’s gonna be giving that 90s Cyclops figure a run for that “favorite Legends to date” spot.  It’s clear that someone at Hasbro’s a very big Moon Knight fan, and its translated into one of the best comic-based Legends that Hasbro’s ever produced.

The Blaster In Question #0021: Hammershot

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

HAMMERSHOT

ZOMBIE STRIKE

Zombies: everyone’s favorite guilt-free shooting target.  In just about every iteration of modern zombie fiction, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before everyone has a gun and is lighting up the undead left and right.  The fine people over at Hasbro certainly took notice of this trend when they started the Zombie Strike series of blasters back in 2013, a product line that persists to this day, which is a feat in and of itself.  So what laid the groundwork for such a line?  That’s what we’ll be looking at today with the Hammershot.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

The Hammershot was one of the very first Zombie Strike blasters, released in 2013 alongside the Sledgefire.  The Hammershot is a 5-round revolver style blaster, which, itself is nothing new.  What sets the Hammershot apart from other blasters like the Spectre REV-5 or even the Strongarm is its priming mechanism.  Instead of a traditional priming slide which would require a second hand to operate, the Hammershot uses, unsurprisingly, a hammer style of prime that can be operated entirely one-handed.  If you read my previous review, you’ll know that the premise of effective dual-wieldable blasters is quite alluring to me, so it should come as no surprise that I own a couple of these, thanks in part to my boy Ethan.  The outer shell of the blaster is entirely original work and has a lot of really nice layering of plastic which gives it some visual depth.  This is also helped by the use of this super cool, very subtle swirly metallic orange plastic which I believe is completely unique to this blaster.  There’s some interesting texture work going on too with the faux wood grain and faux cloth wrap on the handle.  I was skeptical of the cloth wrap at first because I thought it looked goofy and sort of out of place, but ergonomically it works just fine with no harsh lines or edges.  The handle itself is rather long, extending well past the bottom of my hand, but the extra length does provide a nice amount of surface to grip while working the priming hammer with your thumb.  As something of a side note, the distribution of weight around the trigger as well as the larger grip make it very easy and entertaining to spin the blaster around your index finger like a gunslinger.  In doing so, I’ve managed to fling mine into the floor several times without so much as a scratch, which speaks to the build quality of the blaster.  This is probably largely due to the relative simplicity of the internal mechanisms and outer construction.  Unlike blasters such as the Spectre, the Hammershot has no barrel or stock attachment points though it does have a single attachment rail along the top of the blaster.  The blaster performs admirably with shots flying far and hitting with substantial force.  I would recommend it more for outdoor play and advise caution before using it to light up your younger siblings unannounced.  The Hammershot comes packaged with 5 Zombie Strike green Elite darts.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When the Zombie Strike line was first announced, for me, the Hammershot took the back seat as far as my attention goes.  There had been more than a handful of revolver blasters over the years and the premise of the shotgun style Sledgefire overshadowed the Hammershot.  While it’s true the Sledgefire may be the more mechanically interesting of the two, it’s hard to deny the sheer utility of the Hammershot.

 

#1399: Daredevil

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

DAREDEVIL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Blinded as a young boy and imbued with extraordinary senses, Matt Murdock fights injustice by day as a lawyer and by night as the Super Hero ‘Daredevil’”

This past Friday saw the release of The Defenders, Marvel’s big team-up series formed out of their four Netflix TV series.  It’s an event several years in the making, so it’s pretty cool to see it finally hit.  No doubt in an effort to tie-in with the show’s release, Hasbro has just put out their first series of Marvel Legends based around the four shows.  Earlier today, Super Awesome Girlfriend took a look at Punisher from that line, and I’ll be having a look at my personal favorite of the Defenders, Daredevil!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Daredevil is figure 1 in the “Man-Thing Series” of Marvel Legends. The series takes its cues from the “Marvel Knights” banner which has served as the basis of the shows so far.  The set’s made up of four show-based figures and two comic-based, with a comic-based Build-A-Figure.  Obviously, DD is one of the four show-based.  The figure stands a little over 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s got an all-new sculpt, based on Matt’s costume from the end of Daredevil Season 1/very beginning of Season 2 (the mask is the giveaway; it’s the original, more angular design).  The sculpt is 100% new to this figure, though I wouldn’t be shocked to see a lot of it turn up again in some capacity, should Hasbro decide to do a Season 2 version.  The sculpt is, surprisingly, a little bit of a mixed bag for me.  Given Hasbro’s recent track record, I was expecting them to knock this one out of the park, but they haven’t quite managed that.  As a whole, I’m happy with the work that’s been done.  The surface details are all great. The detail work on the costume is awesome; the texturing is top notch, and the details look to have been lifted right from the on-screen costume.  It’s the proportions of the figure that throw things off.  My biggest issue is with the shoulders, which just seem too far set out from the rest of the body, giving him this odd sort of tortilla chip thing.  They just always seem to be sitting slightly the wrong way.  The torso’s also a little flat, but my other main issue is with the head.  As with the rest of the body, the surface details are great, and he even has a decent resemblance to Charlie Cox…if Charlie Cox were a bit wider than he is in real life.  Not heftier, or fatter; just wider.  It honestly looks like the head got slightly squished.  Which is a shame, because if it were just a little slimmer, it’d be a spot-on sculpt.  As far as the paint work goes, DD is pretty decent overall.  The Netflix figures have the same printed faces seen with Ragnarok Loki.  For Matt, this is really just limited to the lower half of his face.  The printing on mine is actually slightly skewed to the left of his face, which makes him look just a tiny bit off.  It’s not terrible, but I did notice it upon close examination.  On a figure with more proper placement, I’m sure the details look great, though.  The rest of the figure is the traditional paint methods, which are fairly cleanly applied.  They did miss applying the black details to the front of his mask, around his eyes.  It’s not super awful looking (since the design of the cowl means that part of the mask catches shade naturally), but it does make me wonder if they were maybe working from the Season 2 design for the colors?  [EDIT: after looking through some images of the costume, it looks like the front of the mask was left unshaded in Season 1, and the black was added at the start of Season 2, making this figure definitively a Season 1 DD]  Matt is packed with his signature billy clubs (which are finally a new mold; thank you show accuracy!), as well as a pair of fists, and the head of the BAF Man-Thing.  I’m a little surprised by the lack of an extra head, either unmasked or Season 2, but I guess that might have been a bit much for a figure that was 100% new sculpt.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been anxiously waiting for this figure pretty much since I finished Daredevil Season 1 back in 2015.  When he was finally announced, I was ecstatic.  While still on the look out for the freaking Homecoming Series (which I finally finished finding just yesterday), I ended up finding this guy and Punisher at Power Comics in Myrtle Beach.  He’s not perfect.  I was a little bummed about that, truth be told.  But, over the course of writing this review, I messed around with him some more, and I’m content with him.  Of course, now I’m tempted by the DST version coming later this year, to see if that one’s better…

Guest Review #0042: The Punisher

Posted by hodgeppodge42 in Guest Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

THE PUNISHER

MARVEL LEGENDS

Heyo! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Last time, I was trying to review Mass Effect minimates (which I still need to finish, oops…) but I’m going to completely switch gears this time. Today, I’m going to introduce you guys to my gun-toting cinnamon roll Frankie (aka The Punisher)! Warning, throughout this review I will mostly call him Frankie, I know unprofessional –sue me .

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This figure is specifically designed after the character portrayed in the second season of Daredevil on Netflix. He comes in the same series of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and the build-a-figure Man Thing (who came up with that name???).

Frankie, here, stands at about 6 ½ inches tall with 30 points of articulation. According to Ethan, Frankie’s body is not reused from another figure; in fact, he is completely his own with all new pieces. What’s cool about this figure, and a lot of the newer Marvel Legends, is that some of his features are printed on. In this case, Frankie’s face and the skull on his chest have been printed, not painted, on. This allows for more precise detailing to be made on the figures, for Frankie it means that you can see a nice five-o-clock shadow going on there and a couple of small scars on his nose. I actually really like how Frankie’s face turned out, the detailing is fantastic and they were able to capture his serious, broody, and adorable face really well.  The detailing on his chest is pretty cool as well. You can see all the straps and buckles on his bullet-proof vest, they’re not painted on but are part of the chest’s sculpt. The print job on the vest is well done as well; it really does look like paint on a vest, and even includes implied rough texture of the vest’s material and a few drips of running paint. Frankie’s legs have a lot of subtle detail, with wrinkles, pockets, and rough texturing for the pants. I find his boots to be really interesting, while just normal plain combat boots, they were able to make it look like his pants were stuffed into his boots and not look like all one entity. His jacket appears to be removable, but suggest leaving it on because he would look weird without it, especially since his arms are sculpted to be wrinkly like coat sleeves. I also have to say a quick thing about his hands; if you look closely you can see the suggestions of veins and tendons, which is a neat little detailing. The paint on the figure is okay, it’s just black and skin tones. There are a few spots where his hair (mostly at the edge of his bangs is peach instead of black, and at the corners of his jaw his five-o-clock shadow doesn’t completely cover it.

For accessories, Frankie comes with two guns. The first is just your average pistol, painted silver with a textured handle and other small detailing related to that style of gun. The second is some kind of rifle…I’m not gonna lie, I don’t know guns and our gun guy isn’t here to tell me all the cool things about the larger of Frankie’s guns, including what the hell to call it. It’s a cool looking gun that I’m sure is supposed to fire rather rapidly, with a scope, a long, slightly curved magazine clip, and other gun do-hickeys. I’m sorry, I don’t know guns, you’ll have to forgive me or wait for this to be updated later with more (accurate) details on the gun. All I know is that Frankie’s larger gun is black and pretty badass looking.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Frankie came to me while we were packing up our apartment to move elsewhere. I was having a pretty stressful time, and my super sweet boyfriend decided to get me this figure when he saw it to try to help me out some. I fell in love with my gun-toting cinnamon roll after watching his part in Daredevil season two. My (over) enthusiastic love for the Punisher surprised Ethan a lot, especially since I normally don’t care for morally gray characters, but Frankie was just different and stole my heart with his sad brooding and love for lots of bullets. So when Ethan saw that they were making this figure he showed me and I’m sure our neighbors could hear my fangirl-screaming three-floors up, and I wanted one ever since. I love this design of the Punisher and I’m so happy he’s a part of my growing collection of figures! I’m also super excited for his Netflix show, and you can bet your bum I’m gonna watch it with this figure in hand!

The Blaster In Question #0020: Voidcaster

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

VOIDCASTER

ALIEN MENACE

If I had to attribute my love for toy blasters to one thing, it’s wanting to recreate my favorite video games in real life, one of the most notable examples being the Halo franchise.  These two were brought together a couple years ago when Mattel gained the Halo license for its BoomCo line of blasters.  The thing is, while trying to create accurate replicas of the in-game weapons while also fitting them around recycled, but mostly functional mechanics, they ended up being pretty disappointing, not really doing a good job on either front.  Cue Hasbro who launched the Alien Menace Nerf line, seemingly as a direct counter to Boomco’s Halo branded products.  I’ve already reviewed the Ravager from the series, but today I’ll be taking a look at one of the line’s brand new additions, the Voidcaster.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

The Voidcaster was released in 2017 as part of the TRU exclusive Alien Menace line.  If you’ve read my review of the Ravager from the same line, you’ll know that one of the blaster’s highlights were the amount of fine detail and texture work put into the shell.  The same is true for the Voidcaster which sports faux ray skin, bone, and even crystalline elements throughout it’s uniquely molded shell.  Internally, the Voidcaster borrows its primary mechanism from the Snapfire 8 of the Dart Tag line.  Unlike most other blasters, the Voidcaster does not require batteries nor does it need to be manually cycled between shots.  The large trigger —which takes up almost the entire length of the grip— uses its long pull to push the plunger back, releasing it once the trigger has been compressed fully.  Aside from using stored air pressure in a tank, this is the only way I am aware of to achieve a semi-automatic blaster without the need for batteries.  The blaster has 4 barrels linked via smart AR.  The overall shape of the blaster is reminiscent of the iconic plasma rifle from the Halo series and the 8 dart holders on the bottom portion of the blaster, when fully loaded, resemble design features of the needler from the same games.  The blaster feels solid in the hand but it does suffer from a lack of secondary grip points, making one-handed firing practically the only option, however, the semi-auto nature of the blaster means that dual wielding is not a problem.  Accuracy is a bit of a weak point for the blaster.  By extending the trigger down the front of the grip, compressing the spring is much easier than with a single finger trigger, but it also means the blaster jostles around a fair bit when firing, more so if firing in rapid succession.  Because priming the blaster relies on the grip strength of the user, and because it is a toy for children, the spring driving the plunger is not especially strong and as such, power and distance are noticeably sub-par compared to more conventional blasters.  This is definitely an indoor blaster and if you can manage to get your hands on two of them, I highly recommend dual wielding for busting into your younger siblings’ rooms and blasting away.  The included darts are a little frustrating for someone like me who has to keep blasters with the darts they are meant to use.  In this case, given the 4 barrels and 8 dart holders on the blaster, I would have like it to include enough to completely fill all available spaces, but sadly it only comes packaged with 8.  Additionally, the previous 2 Alien Menace blasters came with darts that had grey bodies and purple tips.  The Voidcaster’s included darts are grey with blue tips and, as of me writing this, are the only ones with this color scheme.  Available Alien Menace dart packs only feature purple tips.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was very excited for this blaster since it was announced in Nerf’s pre-Toy Fair press release.  Between then and now, though, there had been basically no word on it.  I was caught quite off guard when I found it at a TRU in South Carolina, so much so that I bought it then and there without a second thought.  It’s a really fun snappy little blaster with some really cool aesthetics, and it’s only enhance by the addition of a second for your other hand.