Tag Archives: Hasbro

#0918: Taskmaster

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

TASKMASTER – MERCENARIES OF MAYHEM

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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Superhero comics like foes who mimic the abilities of the heroes. Marvel in particular seems to like this concept, as they have several different characters with this gimmick (including one who’s actually named “Mimic”). Generally, such mimicry comes from some sort of mutant or otherwise built-in power. Not the case with Tony Masters, better known as Taskmaster. His mimicry was all based on him being a really good tactician with a photographic memory, allowing him to duplicate the physical movements of anyone he sees. Sure, he can’t mimic actual super powers, but he comes pretty darn close. He started out as a pretty straight villain, but has become more of an anti-villain, gun-for-hire sort of character over the years. Since his introduction in 1980, he’s gotten seven action figures, the latest of which I’ll be reviewing today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Taskmaster2Taskmaster is part of the third series of the Captain America Marvel Legends Series (the Infinite part’s been dropped on all Hasbro’s Marvel lines; should we be concerned that they’re all finite now?). His official title is “Mercenaries of Mayhem,” which is a name he shares with Demolition Man. The figure stands about 6 ½ inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation. The origin of the costume worn by this figure is somewhat complicated: in the early 2000s, UDON Studios redesigned Taskmaster, taking him out of the more classic superhero-styled costume he’d been wearing and replacing it (and the creepy skull face that went with it) with a much more tactical get-up. That look lasted for a while, but he eventually switched back to the classic costume. On the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, he was given a sort of an amalgam of his two looks, which is what this figure’s primary look is based on. As far as I know, it’s not a look that has appeared in the comics, so this figure is technically cartoon-based. The figure uses the torso, pelvis, and hips of the Bucky Cap body, along with an all-new head, arms, and legs, as well as add-on pieces for his shoulder holster and belt. The new arms and legs feature some cool, almost knight-like armor, and add a nice bit of heft to the figure. It’s nice that Hasbro didn’t just paint the basic Bucky Cap arms and legs silver, and it kind of makes me wonder what other figures they could get out of these parts. I certainly wouldn’t mind these being used as the starting point for a Doctor Doom. Taskmaster actually gets two all-new heads. The one he comes wearing is more classically inspired, with a skull-face and white hood. It’s true to his Ultimate Spider-Man design, but could also make for a nice classic Taskmaster, should someone want to build a full version of his original costume. The second head is based on the UDON design’s masked look, which allows you to sort of have Taskmaster as he appears in Captain America & Iron Man: Heroes United. He doesn’t have the hood there, but this way you can essentially have the UDON costume. I find myself preferring the UDON head, but I’m not 100% sold on the hood; both heads definitely have merit. Taskmaster’s paint is all pretty solid, and he’s probably got the cleanest paint I’ve gotten on a Hasbro figure in a little while. There’s a little slop on the hands, but other than that, everything’s pretty sharp, especially on the two heads. In addition to the second head, Taskmaster includes a shield (with exceptionally clean paint), a laser sword, and the head of Red Onslaught, the Build-A-Figure for this series.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I picked up Mockingbird from Cosmic Comix, they also had this guy. However, I decided to hold out to see if I could find him elsewhere. After two weeks of looking, I didn’t find him, and Cosmic Comix still had him, so I went ahead and got him. I’m glad I did, because this is a pretty darn fun figure, and possibly my favorite from this particular series.

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#0912: Captain Phasma

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

CAPTAIN PHASMA

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

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Hoo boy did people get upset about Captain Phasma. First there was the frenzy when she was revealed to be female. Then there was the frustration of finding either of her (slightly under-packed) figures. Then, when the movie finally got released, people were upset that she had a small part, because, without much prompting, lots of folks decided she was supposed to be the next big thing. She had been touted as the next Boba Fett, and suddenly people backtracked. That amuses me, since Phasma did more in The Force Awakens than Fett did in all three of his onscreen appearances. But I digress…

Phasma has been pretty hard to find in just about every scale. I managed to get a smaller Phasma from the First Order Legion set, but I hadn’t managed to find her larger The Black Series figure. Well, not until now…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

CapPhas2Captain Phasma is figure #06 in the Force Awakens re-branded Star Wars: The Black Series, making her numerically the first figure in the second series. The figure stands a whopping 7 ¼ inches tall and she has 24 points of articulation. Her range of motion is fairly similar to the basic First Order Stormtrooper, though she’s made a bit more limited by the slightly taller thigh armor and the addition of the cape. Granted, she wasn’t super mobile in the movie (apart from that time she got tackled by Chewbacca), so it’s not like there are a lot of scene-specific poses that she can’t pull off. The actual quality of the sculpt is pretty great; she’s pretty similar to the Stormtrooper, but with additional detailing, as well as an all-around sharper look, which makes her a pretty awesome piece. The cape, though restrictive, is very well textured, and shaped very nicely to her shoulders. The paintwork on Phasma is incredibly clean, possibly the cleanest I’ve seen on a recent The Black Series figure. The colors are all clean and distinct, and she really pops when placed with the rest of the line. The elephant in the room here is the finish of the armor: Hasbro opted for flat silver, as opposed to going the vac-metalized route. It’s understandable, as basic paint holds up a little better to play, but she does lose some of the coolness of her on-screen counterpart. Phasma includes her custom blaster rifle, which, like all the Stormtrooper weapons, can be stowed on her right leg.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rest assured, dear readers, I didn’t shell out the big bucks for Phasma. It would appear that Hasbro has started shipping out more cases containing Phasma figures, because I didn’t have to try particularly hard to find this one. My dad actually came across her at Target, just in with the other Black Series figures. I even saw another Phasma a few days later. I’m glad to finally have one of these. Sure, her part was relatively small, but she still has a really awesome design, and it translates really well to action figure form. That being said, I’m really glad I waited for the price to fall; at retail, she’s an entertaining figure, but for much more than that, I can see her being a disappointment.

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#0909: Hyperion

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

HYPERION

AVENGERS INFINITE

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In 1969, the writers of Justice League of America and The Avengers decided to do an unofficial cross-over. The JLA fought a team of villains resembling the Avengers, and the Avengers fought the Squadron Sinister, a parody of the JLA. The Squadron was successful enough to get their own heroic counterparts, the Squadron Supreme, who came from an alternate universe. The leader of both versions of the Squadron was Superman expy Hyperion. While the villainous Hyperion has been dead for a while, the heroic version has made fairly consistent reappearances throughout the years. He’s gotten a pair of figures, both in the last few years. Today, I’ll be looking at his smaller-scale figure from 2014.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hyperion2Hyperion was released in the first series of Avengers Infinite, the line that would eventually be given the more generic Marvel Infinite title, and then just recently re-named Marvel Legends. The figure stands 4 ½ inches tall and has 27 points of articulation. He’s based on the basic Hyperion design, after he ditched the domino mask he sported in his earlier appearances. Structurally, he’s nominally based on the body used by the Marvel Universe Cable figure, but he gets a lot of his own pieces. The figure looks pretty decent overall, but some of the pieces don’t fit together as well as they should. The real offender is the pelvis, which is too skinny for the rest of the body, causing the legs to jut out at the hips, and the upper torso to have an odd gap in the middle. Other than that, the sculpt is actually pretty nice. The head is probably one of Hasbro’s best in this line, and is perfect for the character. Hyperion’s paint is pretty decent overall, but does have a few trouble areas. The neckline is rather sloppy, and doesn’t match the molded color of the rest of the neck. Also, the shorts are gold, despite the boots and cape being yellow, and those three elements being traditionally depicted as the same color. It’s not super far off, but it does look a little weird. On the plus side, the face paint is nice and clean, and his logo is really sharp.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I like Hyperion well enough, I didn’t pick this figure up new, due to wanting his series-mates Wasp and Grim Reaper more. I saw him at the store a few times, but was never really prompted to pick him up. So, why do I have him? I found him, new and in-box, at a Goodwill of all places, for $1.99. At a fraction of retail price, I felt he was worth it. He’s not the most exciting figure of all time, but he’s a solid addition to my 3 ¾ inch Marvel collection.

#0906: Mockingbird

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

MOCKINGBIRD – AGENTS OF SHIELD

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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How many comic book characters can say that the only lasting effect of a mega-crossover event was bringing them back from the dead? Well, a lot, actually, given that death’s a revolving door in comics. That said, it’s usually big name characters who get brought back, and as much as I like Mockingbird, I can’t say that she’s particularly big name. After dying in the early 90s in order to make Hawkeye more “edgy” (because that’s a thing we needed), Bobbi Morse was returned to life at the end of Secret Invasion, after it was revealed that the Bobbi what died was actually a Skrull impersonator. Bringing her back was far from the main purpose of the event, but it was a nice benefit, and, as I said, one of the few things to actually stick after the story wrapped. Bobbi’s found her way into the spotlight as of late, getting her own comic, serving as a supporting character in Spider-Man’s main series, and even serving as a fan-favorite character on Agents of SHIELD (and she was even popular enough to get a spin-off. Go her!). Through all of that, she’s only managed to get two action figures, the latest of which I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mockingbird2Mockingbird is part of the third series of the Captain America Marvel Legends line (counting the two released for Winter Soldier). Her official title is “Agents of SHIELD,” a name she shares with Agent Sharon Carter. For once, the shared name is 100% appropriate for both characters using it, and not super generic like some of the others. Bobbi began her career as the SHIELD agent assigned to Kazar in the Savage Land, and has intermittently worked for SHIELD since then. The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation. She’s based on Mockingbird’s costume immediately following her return in Secret Invasion. It’s not a bad costume design, and it’s one she wore up until fairly recently, so it’s pretty relevant. I personally still prefer her classic design to this one, but this is still a nice design, and it does a good job of balancing the distinctive elements of her classic design with the more superspy nature of the modern incarnation of the character. Plus, it means she fits with the Heroic Age version of Hawkeye released last year! Bobbi appears to be an all-new sculpt. That’s pretty awesome for a character of her stature. Her proportions are all nice and balanced, and the costume specific details are nice and sharp, and a pretty spot-on match for what she looks like in the comics. Her goggles are removable; her hair sculpt has a spot on each side for them to slot into. When removed, you can clearly see where they were, but it’s not super distracting. On the plus side, when in place, they don’t look oversized at all, and they stay where they’re supposed to. Bobbi’s paintwork is a little on the sloppy side. Most of it looks okay, and the change from white to black is nowhere near as bad as it could have been, and the face is actually really clean. However, the area around the collar is really sloppy. On the plus side, a lot of it’s hidden by her hair. Mockingbird includes her battle staves, which are just a re-painted billy-club from Daredevil (though the quality of the plastic is much better this time around). She also comes with the torso of this series’ Build-A-Figure, Red Onslaught.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mockingbird has been one of my favorite Marvel characters for a while, and I’ve always been kind of bummed by the lack of action figures. Her last figure was okay, but not super exciting, so I was happy when she was one of the first three figures announced for this series of Legends. I ended up picking this figure up from Cosmic Comix. She’s not my preferred version of the character, but she’s still a really good version of the character, and a pretty awesome figure to boot!

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#0905: Luke Skywalker

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

LUKE SKYWALKER – X-WING PILOT

POWER OF THE JEDI

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The Phantom Menace was a big deal in a whole lot of ways, mostly due to being the first Star Wars film in almost two decades. One of the things it did was bring the main Star Wars toyline of the time to pretty much a screeching halt, in favor of product centered around the new film. To be fair, it wasn’t unlike what The Force Awakens did last year, with one major caveat: Phantom Menace, while commercially successful, was far from critically successful, and people were far less interested in product based solely on the new film after seeing it. Shortly after the movie, Hasbro did a quick retool of the line, re-branding it Power of the Jedi, and offering figures from throughout the Star Wars saga. Going back to the older films let Hasbro bring out new versions of the Original Trilogy’s main heroes, which included Luke Skywalker.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

LukePOTJ2Luke was released in 2001 as part of the second basic assortment of Power of the Jedi figures. The figure is 3 ¾ inches tall and has 6 points of articulation. He depicts Luke in his X-Wing Fighter gear, presumably from A New Hope. This was the third figure to depict Luke in his pilot gear, but it’s notable for being the first ever to give him a removable helmet (though he’s not the first X-Wing pilot to get a removable helmet. That was Wedge Antilles, just two years prior). The sculpt on this figure is decent enough.  It does a much better job of capturing Hamill’s size and proportions than earlier Lukes did, though he takes the smallness a bit too far; Luke looks just a tad under fed. The likeness on the head is just so-so, but certainly a good attempt. The body has a slight rigidity to it that looks a little unnatural, but the level of detail is pretty fantastic, especially at this scale. The hose on his chest piece was a separate piece, which had a tendency to fall out (hence my figure not having his anymore). Luke’s paintwork is decent enough (though my figure’s a little worse for wear in that respect). It’s fairly basic, but all the important details are there, and they manage to be pretty decently applied (though the white of his teeth makes him look almost buck-toothed). Luke’s lone accessory was his removable helmet, sadly lost some time ago by child-Ethan.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I believe I got this figure from Cosmic Comix, which is weird, because he was new at the time and they never really carried new Star Wars figures. I bought him because he had the removable helmet, which rather fascinated me at the time. He was pretty good at the time, but this figure hasn’t aged particularly well. There’s nothing that stands out as being super off, but he just feels somehow lacking.

#0904: Major Chip Hazard

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

MAJOR CHIP HAZARD

SMALL SOLDIERS (HASBRO)

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Small Soldiers does a fair bit of subverting people’s expectations. The title, the marketing, and the casting of the typically heroic Tommy Lee Jones as Major Chip Hazard (countering the usually villainous Frank Langella as Archer) all point to the Commando Elite as the assumed heroes of the piece. Heck, they even brought in Hasbro, who made their name with the “Real American Hero” G.I. Joe, to help design the figures seen in the movie. Their foes, the Gorgonites, are all grotesque monsters, clearly designed to make the Commando Elite look extra heroic by comparison. But the movie wastes no time showing the audience how wrong their perceptions were, and the Commando Elite quickly prove themselves a perfect antithesis to the noble Gorgonites; they’re cold, calculating, and with a desire to win their battle at all costs. Tommy Lee Jones’ Hazard is the worst of the bunch, a perverted, twisted version of the classic heroic soldier archetype.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

ChipHazard2Chip Hazard was released in the first assortment of Small Soldiers figures. Hazard would go on to get the most variants of anyone other than Archer, but this one presents him in his actual look from the movie. Well, more or less. The figure is about 6 ½ inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation. Yep, he loses the waist articulation, making him even less articulated than Archer. Wrong direction, guys! I’ve already harped on the articulation issues in my review of Archer, so I won’t get into it again. It should have been better, but that just wasn’t the case. Hazard’s sculpt is a bit more stylized than Archer’s; he still more or less resembles his on-screen counterpart, but his proportions have been made more “90s heroic” (smaller head, larger arms/hands). The likeness on the head is close, but not as close as Archer’s. Hazard still has sculpted, faux joints, but his are a bit less visible than those on Archer, which kind of hurts his representation of the toy in the movie. In addition, there are a few details that are missing or changed from the movie to this figure. He lacks the dog tags sported by his on-screen counterpart, as well as his customized belt buckle, and he has two smaller grenades in place of the single larger grenade he had in the movie.  Lastly, he his left forearm has protrusion (meant to attach to his accessory) which sticks out as being just sort of tacked on. Hazard’s paintwork is generally okay. The colors match up closely enough, which is good. The camo patterns are, understandably, not quite as detailed as the one’s movie Hazard had. The arms and legs make out perfectly alright in this respect, but the vest doesn’t work as well, with the pattern looking more like cheetah’s spots than a standard camo pattern. The grenades end up being the wrong color (they should be roughly the same color as the belt), and his belt buckle remains the same color as the rest of the belt, despite being red and silver in the movie. Hazard included a big missile launcher thing, which attached to his left arm. My figure doesn’t have this piece, but that’s just as well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in my Archer review, I didn’t really have any of the Small Soldiers figures growing up. I think my cousin may have had a Chip Hazard (I know for sure that he had a Brick Bazooka) but I never did. I ended up finding Hazard at 2nd Chance Toyz last October, at the same time I got Archer. Of the two, Hazard’s the weaker figure. He’s less accurate to the source material, has less articulation, and generally just a less entertaining figure. However, being less entertaining than Archer doesn’t mean he’s not entertaining, and having the pair of them does inherently make both a bit more awesome.

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#0903: Archer

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

ARCHER

SMALL SOLDIERS (HASBRO)

Archer1

When it comes to 90s movies about toys that are actually alive, most people remember Toy Story. Or, on the more horrific side, Child’s Play. I’m not knocking either of those (well, maybe Child’s Play; not really my thing) but my go-to movie of this odd sub-genre is hands down Small Soldiers. The movie was, at best, a modest success, but it had some pretty awesome people involved. It was directed by Joe Dante (of Gremlins fame), featured the vocal talents of Tommy Lee Jones and Frank Langella (to say nothing of featuring the likes of Kirsten Dunst, David Cross, and Phil Hartman in live action roles), had visual effects by industry legend Stan Winston, a score by Jerry Goldsmith, and is one of the earliest examples of a film making use of a Led Zeppelin song. It’s an awesome movie. Toy makers Hasbro were brought on as consultants for the designs of the film’s lively action figures, and in return were given the rights to produce the film’s tie-in toys. Sadly, they weren’t quite as successful as they were in the film. Today, I’ll be looking at Archer, emissary of the Gorgonites, the heroic faction of action figures.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Archer2Archer was released in the initial 1998 assortment of Small Soldiers figures from Hasbro. The figure stands 6 ¾ inches tall and has 6 points of articulation. Here’s where we encounter the primary issue with these figures: articulation. The toys seen in the movie had a lot of articulation (they had to be able to move around in a fairly humanistic manner). The real life toys had 6 points, all cut joints. Letdown doesn’t begin to describe the articulation here. It’s made worse by the fact that the sculpt clearly emulates the articulation seen in the movie, but leaves it motionless. Clearly, they wanted the figures to be cost-effective, and that didn’t allow for the proper articulation. I’m not sure what the best fix would have been (short of charging more per figure), but there’s no denying that this is a major failing of these figures. With that out of the way, how does the rest of the figure fair? Not badly, actually. The sculpt does a pretty good job of capturing the toy design from the movie, especially the upper half. The proportions have been tweaked ever so slightly, making him a bit more squat than his movie counterpart, but it’s not that far off. One thing that is a bit off is the pose, which has Archer’s back totally straight, despite the character in the movie always having a slight hunch. It definitely throws off the appearance of the figure, which is a shame. On the plus side, the detail work on the sculpt is pretty great, and captures a lot of the smaller details seen in the movie. The paint on Archer is definitely a step down from what was seen in the movie, but that’s fair, since the one in the movie was a professionally painted prop, and this is a mass-produced figure. Given the circumstances, he’s not bad. The best work is on the head, which exhibits some surprisingly subtle work in a few spots. The rest of the figure is reasonable enough, especially for the time. There are a few details that go unpainted, but the general application is pretty solid. Archer was packed with a crossbow (with launch-able missile) and a knife. Mine, however, does not have those pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

By the time I saw Small Soldiers (on VHS; I didn’t see it in theatres) the first assortment of figures had pretty much totally sold through. So, I had to settle for a weird variant version of Archer, which was the only Small Soldiers figure I owned for a good long while. When I finally had the resources to go pack and find some of the others, most of the figures had rather high after-market prices. Last October, at the suggestion of my friend Cindy Woods, I checked out 2nd Chance Toyz, a cool nearby shop that carry all sorts of older toys. They had Archer for an exceptionally reasonable price, so I picked him up. Sure, he’s not as cool as the figure in the movie, but he’s still a pretty fun toy in his own right. And that’s the important part!

#0902: Yondu

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

YONDU

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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Before the title passed to the likes of Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot, the Guardians of the Galaxy were rather a different.  They first appeared in January 1969, created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.  The team was hailed from the 30th Century, and each of its four members (Vance Astro, Martinex, Charlie-27, and Yondu) was the “last of their kind.”  Now, those of you that only know the team from more modern appearances will probably only recognize one of those four names: Yondu.  Yondu was fortunate enough to turn up as a (sort-of) ally of the movie Guardians, albeit with a bit of a personality change.  Still, he’s become the original team’s most recognizable member, and became the first of them to get a proper figure (though Vance ended up hitting right around the same time in a two-pack).  I’ll be looking at Yondu today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Yondu2Yondu is one of the six single-packed figures in the first series of Hasbro’s 3 ¾-scale Marvel Legends Series.  He actually manages to not be the most obscure character in the set (he can thank Ulik and Triton for that).  The figure stands almost 5 inches tall (counting the Mohawk; he’s 4 ¼ without it) and he has 19 points of articulation.  He still lacks some of the articulation we came to expect during MU (waist and wrists are the standouts), but thanks to some parts re-use he ends up more articulated than several of the more recent small-scale figures.  Yondu is built on the new mid-sized body, which is the same one we saw used for Machine Man.  He also uses the lower legs and quiver of the MU Hawkeye figure, with unique pieces for his head, belt, and right forearm.  The pieces do a pretty nice job of capturing Yondu’s design from the comics.  The head seems to work in a little bit of the film version’s surliness into his expression, but it doesn’t feel too far removed from his comics look.  I will note that it’s a little jarring that his wrist band on his right arm is sculpted, but the armband further up is not, but that’s what happens when you have a specific budget for the number of new parts allowed.  Yondu’s paintwork is pretty solid all around.  The colors are pretty nicely handled (though I wouldn’t mind them being a little brighter), and all of the application is pretty clean.  Yondu is packed with a bow and a single arrow.  Both are re-used from the MU Hawkeye, but cast in a bright yellow/orange.  Seeing as Yondu is a fellow archer, the re-use is warranted, and it helps that the pieces were pretty good to begin with.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve mostly moved away from the 3 ¾ inch Marvel figures, so I wasn’t really sure I was going to pick up Yondu.  I found one at Toys R Us, but that one went to my dad, who’s more of a classic GOTG fan than I.  He decided to return the favor, however, when he came across the whole first assortment of figures at Target.  They had apparently not put the figures into their system yet, so the store manager ended up selling Yondu here to my dad for $3, which is a pretty great deal.  Yondu’s not an outstanding figure or anything, but he’s solidly done.

#0896: Machine Man & Iron Man

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

MACHINE MAN & SUPERIOR IRON MAN – MECHANICAL MASTERS

MARVEL LEGENDS (3.75)

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As much as I love what Hasbro’s been doing with the Marvel and Star Wars lines, I do have to admit to being baffled by their recurring choice to give multiple lines of figures the exact same title. When they first started doing Marvel figures in both 6 inch and 3 ¾ inch scales, the larger figures were Marvel Legends and the smaller were Marvel Universe. They also offered some 12 inch figures, under the heading Icons. Well, by the end of this year, all three of those scales will be titled Marvel Legends. I’m sure that won’t be at all confusing. The 3 ¾ inch line has officially switched its title over, and the first product to hit is a series of two-packs. Today, I’ll be looking Machine Man and Iron Man from that particular series.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released in the first series of two-packs in the new 3 ¾ inch Marvel Legends line, under the name “Mechanical Masters.” When these figures were shown off at last year, the assumption was that they would be single figures with a shared name, since that’s a pretty common practice for Hasbro. Then they just kind of showed up in two packs, which certainly caught me off guard. In addition to the figures, the set is also packed with a reprint of Superior Iron Man #1, which makes sense for one of the two figures, but not the other.

MACHINE MAN

MechanicalMasters2If you had told me five years ago that I would own two figures of Machine Man, I would have had a long hard laugh. Seems pretty out there to think that such a minor, low-tier character would warrant multiple figures, within a year of each other, but hey, here we are. The figure stands roughly 4 inches tall and has 19 points of articulation. This Machine Man is decidedly more modern take on the character than the larger figure. He’s based on his Tron-styled post-Nextwave design, which I believe is still his current look. More specifically, the character-unique parts (his head and forearms) are directly based on Daniel Acuna’s Avengers 50th Anniversary poster. The real tell here is the forearm configuration; he’s got a buzzsaw and a Sci-fi blaster sort of thing, which are lifted right from the poster. The sculpts are all pretty solid work; the technical stuff on the arms is particularly sharp. The head’s details are a little soft, but they stand out well enough for the scale. All in all, the parts look good, and match up with the mid-sized body that the figure is built on. Machine Man’s paintwork is passable; the general application is pretty clean, though the face is a bit sloppy. The metallic purple is pretty cool, but it probably would have looked a bit better if it were a little brighter, so as to stand out more from the black base color. Machine Man includes no accessories, not even an extra set of normal forearms, which ends up being a little bit limiting.

SUPERIOR IRON MAN

MechanicalMasters3This figure is the required heavy hitter of the set, and…yeah, that’s really all I got. I can’t really figure why this guy got packed with Aaron, since the two don’t really have any history. Retailers just like Iron Man, I guess. The figure is a little over 4 inches tall and has 24 points of articulation. This figure is based on the “Superior Iron Man” design, from the comic of the same name, after Tony became more of a jerk than usual. This figure gets a new head sculpt and uni-beam and re-uses the body of the Marvel Universe line’s Extremis Iron Man (which was also used for Iron Patriot). That was a decent Iron Man, but it wasn’t even the strongest of Hasbro’s Iron Man sculpt when it was new, and it feels really dated now, especially in terms of poseability. It was also pretty under-sized, and that’s made even worse by the fact that the new head is larger than the original. What’s more, the Extremis armor had a number of major deviations in design from the Superior armor, so it’s not even a particularly clever re-use. The paint is really what the figure hinges on to sell it as Superior Iron Man. Unfortunately, even that’s not really great. In the comics, the suit is bright white and sleek (it’s kind of similar to something produced by Apple), but here it’s mostly a dull silver. Also, while the design in the comics has the black sections, they seem to stand out way more here. With the base colors being darker, the light blue details also tend to be easily lost, which is a shame, because they could have helped to sell the differences in the armor a bit more.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was obviously planning on getting this set as soon as they showed it, though I didn’t initially realize I’d be getting both figures. I got the set from my Dad, who found them while running an errand at Target. Machine Man is definitely the selling point; he’s got some really cool new parts and he’s a really fun version of the character. I do still hold out hope that we might see a Nextwave version down the road, but this one is definitely a welcome addition. Iron Man is kind of a waste of space, if I’m honest. His body is inaccurate and out of date, and I wasn’t much of a fan of the concept to begin with. But who cares? I got another Machine Man!

#0889: Absorbing Man

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

ABSORBING MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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Marvel has something of a tradition of passing foes between their heroes. Kingpin, now Daredevil’s arch enemy, began as Spider-Man foe. Similarly, Sabretooth first appeared in an issue of Iron Fist. Today’s focus character, Crusher Creel, aka the Absorbing Man, made his debut as a foe for Thor, but has spent a pretty sizeable portion of his career menacing the Hulk. He’s also faced off against a few other Marvel heroes, including Spider-Man, which I guess was Hasbro’s justification for having him be part of a Spider-Man themed series of Marvel Legends.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Absorbingman2Absorbing Man is the Build-A-Figure for the fourth series of the Spider-Man Marvel Legends Series line. Absorbing Man has had a few different looks over the years, but for the most part, they’ve all just been slight variations on the same basic theme: a bald, shirtless guy, wearing a pair of pants from a prison. Here, the pants are purple; not the most common color for prison garb, but certainly common for a Marvel character. The figure is just shy of 8 inches tall and has 29 points of articulation. As with most of the Thor-related characters that Hasbro has released, he’s much larger than he’s usually depicted. Creel’s still supposed to be a roughly normal-sized dude, and this figure’s a giant. However, his size is comparable to that of the equally over-sized Wrecking Crew, so he isn’t horribly out of place. Creel is built on the Terrax body, making its second appearance in the last year (it was also used for the SDCC set’s Dormammu). In his “clean” look, the figure uses the Terrax torso, pelvis, hips, and arms. He gets a new head and legs, as well as an add-on piece for his belt. The legs are suitably detailed, and the belt is a very nicely handled piece. The basic head is okay, but I will admit, it’s not my favorite of the two. To simulate his absorbing abilities, Creel has an extra head and arms. The head is similar to the basic one, but the left half now has a rocky texture, and his expression is an open-mouthed scream, which looks a bit better than the regular head’s slack-jawed sneer. The new arms are wooden and stone, respectively, and have some pretty awesome texture work to help sell that. Prior BAFs had some difficulty being taken apart after being assembled, but Absorbing Man goes together and comes apart without too much trouble. The paintwork on the basic parts is pretty straight forward. He’s molded in the appropriate colors where possible, but he’s still got a bit of detailing on the face, pants, and lower right arm. The pants are nice and clean, and the metal detailing on the arm is pretty cool. The face is alright, but the eyes are a bit wonky, which throws the whole head off. The extra pieces make out the best in terms of paint; the texture work of the sculpts for the arms is accented really nicely, and the face is way cleaner and more detailed on the second head. If I had one complaint, it would be that the torso has no marks of any absorbed substances, which makes the extra head a bit jarring. That said, it’s understandable, since the extra pieces necessitated going one way or another. Creel includes his ball and chain. It’s a re-use of Thunderball’s wrecking ball, which isn’t technically accurate (in-universe, it’s actually the ball and chain that Creel had attached to him when he got the powers), but it works reasonably enough that complaining about it seems petty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

If you’re a faithful reader, then you already know where this guy came from: he’s constructed from the pieces included with this series of figures, which my parents picked up for me a few weeks ago. I’m not the world’s biggest Absorbing Man fan or anything, but I do have enough of an appreciation for the character that I wanted to complete him. His size is a bit of an issue, and the normal head looks a bit off, but this figure is actually a pretty great one.

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