Tag Archives: Kenner

#1286: Greedo

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

GREEDO

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Boba Fett may be the go-to bounty hunter of the Star Wars universe, but he and all of his bounty hunting pals owe just about everything to one guy: Greedo Q. Kazoo.  Okay, it’s really just Greedo.  No last name.  Or first name.  It’s just the one name, really.  Like Michelangelo. Or Beyonce.  I’m getting sidetracked.  Anyway, Greedo was instrumental to introducing the whole wider bounty hunter thing to the Star Wars universe.  He’s probably my personal favorite bounty hunter, truth be told, due to having a fun design, serving a clear purpose, and generally not being overhyped (unlike some *other* bounter hunters out there).  Greedo’s had a few figures over the years, including one during the infamous Power of the Force II incarnation from the ‘90s, which I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Greedo was released as part of the second 1996 assortment of Star Wars: Power of the Force II.  Interestingly enough, Greedo’s not one of the figures pictured on the back of the packaging.  This marked Greedo’s second time as an action figure, after his original vintage figure.  He stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation.  The PotF2 sculpts were generally stricken by ‘90s uber-stylization, but as the line moved forward, the stylizing slowly worked its way out.  Coming from the line’s second year, Greedo already shows some of the steps forward, being a lot less pre-posed than some of the earlier figures were; there’s still a slight bit of a mid-step thing going on, but it’s hardly an extreme pose.  He’s still a little on the buff side (which is further accented by the slightly tighter fit of the clothes), but it’s fairly minor.  He’s helped by his more alien design, which helps to mask some of the faults.  From a purely aesthetic standpoint, his sculpt is definitely solid.  The head is a pretty pitch-perfect recreation of the Greedo mask seen in the movie.  It’s perhaps a bit underscaled, but I actually think it looks slightly better that way.  There’s also a ton of really sharp detail work, not only on the head, but also on the rest of the body sculpt.  While he’s certainly not going to be outdoing the Black Series figure or anything, he’s still sporting a very well-crafted sculpt.  The sculpt is topped off with a decent paint job.  Nothing particularly fancy, but all of Greedo’s basic colors are there, and the application is all pretty clean.  Greedo was packed with two blasters; one large, one small.  The smaller blaster is based on Greedo’s sidearm from the movie, and, aside from being a little sized-up, is pretty accurate.  The larger piece is made up for the figure, but hey, at least they gave him something extra, right?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have Greedo growing up (in fact, my first proper Greedo figure was actually the Black Series figure).  This figure was another that I grabbed during this past Farpoint’s charity auction, alongside a handful of other PotF2 guys.  I’ve actually eyed this figure a few times before, and, like Kaylee and Cobra Commander before him, the good cause was enough to finally convince me to pick him up.  I’m glad I did, because he’s definitely one of the better PotF2 figures Kenner put out.

#1277: Pirate Two-Face & Pirate Batman

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

PIRATE TWO-FACE & PIRATE BATMAN

LEGENDS OF BATMAN (KENNER)

Remember when I reviewed Buccaneer Batman, the inexplicable pirate-themed Batman variant from super wacky ‘90s Legends of Batman line?  Well, he wasn’t the only inexplicable pirate-themed variant in the line.  Not by a long shot!  Today, I’m looking at the *other* pirate-themed Batman from the line, dubbed “Pirate Batman” (real original on that one, guys), alongside one of his pirate-themed foes, Pirate Two-Face (again, great job on the name, guys…).  Let’s have a look!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Pirate Two-Face and Pirate Batman were released in 1996 as one of the two two-packs from Kenner’s Legends of Batman.  These two wrapped up the Pirate subset that was started in Series 3 of the main line.

TWO-FACE

“After a tragic accident left half his body hideously scarred and half his mind horribly insane, the once promising ship’s captain Pirate Two-Face sailed the seven seas as the most ruthless pirate leader in the annals of history.  Upon boarding captured ships laden with treasures, Pirate Two-Face would decide the fate of the crew and passengers with the flip of a coin.  His unpredictability, unchecked greed, and sword fighting skills could be challenged by just one man, Pirate Batman, who he eluded at every port of call.”

So, in this pirate scenario, Two-Face is more or less unchanged, it seems.  Mostly, they just threw the word “pirate” in there a lot.  Fair enough.  It’s worth noting that this was Two-Face’s only figure in this line; Joker, Catwoman, and Riddler all had standard comic figures, but Harvey was stuck as a pirate all the time.  I mean, at least he got a figure at all, right?  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Pirate Two-Face was a unique sculpt, and it’s actually a pretty solid one.  His design plays up the “good vs evil” dichotomy, but in true pirate style.  Rather than his usual suit, Pirate Two-Face is half naval officer, half dastardly pirate captain.  His naval officer side is clean and pressed while the pirate side is disheveled and wrinkled like crazy.  His collar on the pirate side is even slightly popped, before settling back down on the “good” side.  The pirate side gets the usual facial scarring (which is surprisingly gruesome for a kid’s toyline), and he also seems to have lost an arm and a leg along the way, replacing them with a peg-leg and some sort of swiss army knife-sword-hook combo replacing them.  As a whole, he really sells the pirate angle pretty well, while still sticking close to the Two-Face side of things as well.  For paint, Pirate Two-Face is generally pretty good for the time; his colors are obviously split down the middle, with blue on the right and red on the left.  The changeover works pretty well, though there’s a bit of slop right on the line, where some of the primer coat under the red shows through.  Most annoyingly, the paint for his belt doesn’t continue all the way around, so it’s just flat blue and red back there.  It looks kind of sloppy.  Pirate Two-Face included no accessories, which is slightly odd, since his hand seems to be begging for something to hold.  He does have a “sword-fighting action”; when you turn the wheel in his back, his sword hand spins.  Woooooooooo!

BATMAN

“Taking it upon himself to make the world’s waterways safe from marauding bands and looters, Pirate Batman relentlessly scoured the seas in pursuit of the most villainous of them all—Pirate Two-Face.  Armed with a razor sharp sword and dagger, Pirate Batman was renowned for his extraordinary dueling ability and courage in the face of danger.  He ceaselessly hunted his evil foe with the split-personality, hoping to rid the seas of his maniacal menace once and for all!”

There was already a Buccaneer Batman in Series 3 of Legends of Batman, but I guess Kenner felt a second one was needed to be made.  The bios for the two indicate they actually might be two different people, which is a somewhat interesting idea.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation.  Of course, one of those points is on his right shoulder, which does jack-all in terms of posing, thanks to the outstretched arm.  The figure is actually a complete re-hash of Series 1’s Power Guardian Batman.  Admittedly, the Zorro stylings of that figure lend themselves to a pirate-theme as well, so it’s not a terrible re-use in theory.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of the stronger sculpts when it was new, and two years later, it felt even more out of place with the rest of the line, especially the pirate subset it belonged to.  He’s more pre-posed than even the worst of the Total Justice figures, in this really deep lunge.  Remember when I said Buccaneer Batman had the widest stance I’d seen?  Well, this guy’s topped him on that, which has the added bonus of making him virtually impossible to keep standing.  Also, I’m not really sure what’s going on with the left arm; it’s just at an odd angle, and the hand’s doing…something.  Not really sure what.  And it’s at least half an inch too long and isn’t attached to the shoulder in a natural way at all.  In general, the proportions are just super wacky on this guy.  The cape is a removable piece, and while it looks okay, it never really seems to sit right and it falls off a lot.  Pirate Batman’s paint is decent enough.  His scheme is actually somewhat reminiscent of the “Gotham By Gaslight” design, albeit slightly bluer.  I personally find this design to be a bit more exciting than the Power Guardian look, so I guess that’s a plus.  The figure is packed with the sword and dagger mentioned in the bio (they’re the same pieces included with the PG version).  He’s also got his own sword-fighting action, which works fairly similarly to Pirate Two-Face’s.  Honestly, it’s probably the best thing about the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t actually recall seeing this set when it was new.  It wasn’t until years later that I even knew that it existed.  When I dug out my Buccaneer Batman to write his review, my interest in completing the set was piqued.  A few months back, while picking up Super Awesome Girlfriend’s comics, I noted that the store had this set in stock.  Super Awesome Girlfriend, being who she is, insisted on getting them for me.  Pirate Two-Face is pretty cool.  Goofy, but cool.  Pirate Batman is…well, he’s the other figure in the set.  And that’s about it for him.  He just feels really tacked on, and almost as if he’s from another line entirely.  Still, the set’s more than worth it for Two-Face!

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0009: Power Armor Batman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , ,

Hey guys!  It’s Friday, and you know what that means!  It’s time for another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Today, I set my sites back on DC, specially Power Armor Batman from Kenner’s Batman Beyond tie-in line!

In the 90s, the DC Animated Universe was in its prime. Kenner held the license for the toys, and they were doing some pretty great stuff too. Batman: The Animated Series got a great line, with the majority of the characters seeing release. Sure, it wasn’t all winners, but it was a decent line.  Superman: The Animated Series came along, and while Kenner didn’t quite have the nice selection that B:TAS had gotten, most of the key characters had been released in their basic looks. And then, there was Batman Beyond. Oh, boy was there Batman Beyond. The show was great, but the toyline released along with it was… strange to say the least. For starters, they never actually released a proper normal Batman, and the supporting cast and villains were pretty much non-existent. They weren’t bad toys per say, but they didn’t do the cartoon justice. Case in point, today I’ll be looking at the line’s release of BB’s alter ego, Terry McGuinness, wearing that red and gray power armor he was so known to wear…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Okay, officially, this wasn’t a Terry McGuinness figure. He was actually labeled “Power Armor Batman” on the box. Let’s be real here: people didn’t buy this figure because it was “Power Armor Batman,” they wanted the Terry McGuinness head. Anyway, the figure was released in one of the later assortments of the first series of Kenner’s Batman Beyond line. The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and features 5 points of articulation. Kenner were big fans of the 5 and 5 set-up. From a purely technical standpoint, the sculpted work on the figure is pretty top notch. The circuits in his underlying suit look great, and the head is the spitting image of Terry’s appearance on the show. Stylistically, the figure’s body sculpt is completely wrong for the designs of the show, but it was in keeping with the rest of the line, so at least Kenner was consistent. The paint work is passable, with no real slop or bleed over (though mine has suffered some minor wear). For some reason, they’ve gone with a bright red and gray color scheme. Terry’s Batsuit on the show had red circuitry, so I suppose that’s what they were going for, but the light gray armor is just plain weird. The figure was accessorized with several snap-on armor pieces, a removable helmet, and a robotic bird. It’s red, green and yellow, so maybe they were going for a Robin thing? Yep, according to the package, it’s a strike R.O.B.I.N. Okay then.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Odd variants aside, I was very excited for the Batman Beyond line at the time of its release. I actually recall seeing this figure at the store several months before I actually got one. I saw the figure on a trip to the store with my parents, who told me I’d have to get it some other time. Little did they know that it would end up being one of the harder to find figures in the line. So, months went by, and I just assumed I’d missed my chance at the figure. Then, on another routine trip to the store, I wandered to the toy aisle, where I found this figure, as well as Blight. My parents were more than happy to get them for me this time around. As strange as this line was, I still have a major soft spot for those two figures in particular. Plus, they actually are pretty good toys!

This review was after I’d passed 200, so  for all intents and purposes it’s effectively a modern review.  It remains the only figure I’ve looked at from this line, a whole 1000 reviews later, which means I’ve yet to get a chance to really touch on how odd this toyline was.  I mean, this guy was actually one of the more faithful figures, and he’s still really off.  Maybe Kenner was wanting to keep these figures consistent with Total Justice and JLA?  It’s odd, because they were still running the TNBA line at this point, so you’d think they’d have wanted the two lines to be compatible, right?  I don’t know.

During The Find, I uncovered that damned R.O.B.I.N. sidekick animal thing.  It makes about as much sense as the rest of the line, I suppose.  I also found one piece of the clip-on armor, but sadly the rest of it’s still missing.  Maybe it’ll turn up one day!  At least it was the other arm piece, so he looks a little more symmetrical now.

Oh, and there’s another piece of the Me Half of the Equation that I left out initially.  I noted that I found Blight at the same time as this figure, after looking for both of them for several months?  Well, I actually found Blight first, and eagerly ran back to my parents with him in tow.  When I showed him to them, they, in their wisdom that is far beyond mine, suggested that this guy might be there too.  So, I went back to the aisle, and, sure enough, someone had cleverly hidden him behind the other, goofier Batman variants.  This figure still makes me pretty happy, truth be told, as goofy as he may be!

#1233: Princess Leia Organa – Bespin Gown

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

PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA — BESPIN GOWN

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (KENNER)

2016 was pretty unrelenting when it came to celebrity deaths (and, sadly, 2017 seems to be continuing the trend).  The one that me the hardest personally was undoubtedly Carrie Fisher, an actress I had come to admire more and more with every passing day.  She was truly awesome.  Truly, there is no better way to celebrate an awesome person than with action figures, and, thanks to Star Wars, Carrie was privy to quite a few of them.  Today’s focus figure is one of the earliest, coming from Kenner’s Empire Strikes Back line of figures.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This Leia figure is one of the two Leias released in Kenner’s Empire Strikes Back line (the other is her Hoth attire, reviewed here).  This one depicts Leia in the gown she was given by Lando when she and the rest of the Millennium Falcon’s passengers arrived on Bespin.  It’s not as prominent a look as the Hoth gear (which she spends most of the movie’s runtime wearing), but it’s certainly unique, and, if nothing else, was an excuse to release a Leia figure in a color other than white.  It’s actually a rather infrequent look for Leia figures, with only a handful of figures over the years.  Still, Han and Luke both got Hoth and Bespin figures, so Leia was due two figures as well.  The figure stands a little over 3 1/2 inches tall and has the usual 5 points of articulation.  Bespin Leia was an all-new sculpt.  Like every other figure in the vintage line, there’s definitely a degree of stylization going on here, especially in how the outfit has been rendered.  With that being said, she’s not as far off from the film design as her first film predecessor.  The basics of the sculpt are pretty good.  She doesn’t really look a whole lot like Carrie Fisher, but she’s at least consistent with the ANH and Hoth versions.  The details on the clothes are rather on the simple side, but all of the important stuff is there, and she fits in with the rest of the line. The skirt has still been cut into a set of legs, but no longer in a way that resembles whatever the first figure was wearing.  Here, the skirt is simply cut with straight lines, as many of the other figures in this line were handled.  Also, while she’s still got the vinyl robe thing that the first figure had, it actually works a bit better with this design, which included a sleeveless cardigan-thing of a similar nature (thanks to Super Awesome Girlfriend for help IDing that piece of clothing.  Side note: she would like it noted that she’s not a fashion expert).  Sure, it wasn’t opaque pink like this one is, but it’s close enough, given the rest of the line.  It’s even got some nice printed detailing, which I believe is a unique feature to this iteration of Leia.  As far as paint, she’s once again pretty simple.  Mostly, she’s just got paint for the hair, the details of her face, and the few spots of flesh tone on the body.  Everything’s pretty clean (apart from the slight wear present on my figure).  The figure was packed with a small blaster pistol, which my figure does not have.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This Leia is a relatively recent acquisition.  I actually picked her up a few days after Carrie Fisher’s passing, from an antique store just outside of the town my family vacations in (in fact, it was the same store where Super Awesome Girlfriend bought me the ANH Leia just the year before).  It’s a figure I’ve been meaning to get, and they had this one there, and she was in pretty nice shape for the price.  I guess it was kind of part of my mourning process.  Anyway, despite this being one of her less essential looks, this was probably the best version of Leia that Kenner released.

#1226: Wonder Woman

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

WONDER WOMAN

DC SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

wonderwomansp1

No matter how great they may be, pretty much every DC Comics toyline from now until the end of time will always be measured to the standard set by one of the earliest DC lines out there, Kenner’s DC Super Powers.  There’s something about the line that just made for the perfect mix of fun, character, and faithfulness to the comics.  Sure, not every figure in the line was top-grade, but it gave us some of the greatest plastic versions of all of the mainstay members of the Justice League of America.  Perhaps the one major drawback of the line was its notable lack of female characters.  In a line of 34, only one of them was female (though, designs discovered in 2004 show that there were another two planned, had the line continued).  That figure was Wonder Woman, and it’s the figure I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

wonderwomansp2Wonder Woman was released in Series 1 of DC Super Powers.  She was based on Wonder Woman’s then-current Bronze Age era look, as seen in the 1982 DC Style Guide.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation (although her hair restricts most of the movement on the neck joint).  Super Powers is notable in that every figure in the line had their own unique sculpt (which wouldn’t have been the case had the line continued).  Wonder Woman’s sculpt is pretty good, especially for the time.  She’s not as rail-thin as she tended to be portrayed in the comics and Super Friends, but that’s actually not totally out of place for the line, which gave more realistic proportions to most of the figures.  She’s definitely a good depiction of what someone with Diana’s powers should look like, all things considered.   Her costume captures all of the important elements from the comics and while she’s still sporting heels, they look to be a slightly more sensible design than those seen on a lot of female action figures (and she can actually stand!  Hooray!).  There are some slight issues that crop up due to assembly, with the lines on her thighs being one of the more standout issues.  That being said, they actually don’t look quite as bad in person as they do in the photos; you won’t really notice them.  Diana’s paint work is nice, clean, and bright, all the things it should be.  There’s a bit of slop here and there, particularly around the edges of the white parts of the boots.  That being said, the stars on her shorts are impeccably detailed, and done with an amazing consistency, which you likely wouldn’t see these days.  Wonder Woman was originally packed with her lasso of truth, which was really just a bit of golden thread, and easy to lose, so mine didn’t have it when I got her.  Like every Super Powers figure, Wonder Woman has a special “power” of her own.  Her’s is actually one of the more cleaver ones: when you squeeze her legs, both arms raise and cross in front of her face, replicating her oft used maneuver of deflecting bullets with her bracelets.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Wonder Woman comes from right around the mid-point of my Super Powers collecting.  At that point,  it was pretty much an assumed thing that I’d get a pair of Super Powers figures every year for Christmas from my parents.  I’d gotten Green Lantern the year before, so I knew I wanted a Green Arrow to go with him.  As it turns out, the most economical way of getting me GA was to buy me a big lot of figures, which ended up giving my collection quite the jumpstart.  Wonder Woman was amongst those figures, and I have to say, she’s one of those figures that you have to see in person to truly appreciate.  She’s the figure that set the standard for female action figures, and rightfully so.  As someone who started collecting in the ‘90s, a female figure like this was a serious breath of fresh air as a kid, and she remains my favorite Wonder Woman figure to date.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0004: Night Flight Batman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , ,

0004a

It’s another Friday, which means it’s time for another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  This week, I continue the trend of the last three FFFAs, and wrap up my Batman Forever-based addendum, with another look at Night Flight Batman!

Today’s review is the last of the Batman Forever reviews.  It’s a third variant of Batman.  This is another brief review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This is another Batman from the Batman Forever line.  He’s yet another fairly-typical-but-not-THE-typical-version(let’s go with FTBNTTV for short).  Night Flight Batman probably has the most descriptive name of the many batmen in the line, as his big feature was a giant set of wings(Lost long ago by silly child-Ethan).  There was certainly a fanbase for the pre-face “Night” amongst the Kenner think tank.  I get that he’s Batman and all, but seriously, Night’s a bit unoriginal.  The actual figure is pretty basic.  Note that I didn’t lose the cape on this one,  he never had one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I do actually recall getting this one.  I liked the “basicness” of this one, so my grandmother bought it for me.   He actually didn’t get much playtime as Batman himself.  Instead, he had his face and torso covered in black tape so that I could use him as Black Panther with my Avengers.  Yeah, I was that kid…

Less than 200 words on that review.  Couldn’t replicate that if I tried.  I spent more time talking about his name than the actual figure!

For those keeping track, this was another 5 and 5 figure; 5 inches tall and five points of articulation.  Some closer looking into this figure and the movie that spawned him has made it clear that he’s actually the closest recreation of the Sonar Suit that the line had to offer, with the exception of the missing cape, of course.  I located his giant wings during The Find last summer.  They’re certainly goofy, and I can’t say they’re the most thrilling thing ever.  This figure was also supposed to have some sort of handheld piece, which was not part of The Find.

I mentioned in the review that this guy spent a lot of his time as Black Panther.  In prep for the photo retakes, I cleaned him as best I could, but there’s pretty much no way to remove the white patches.  This is why you shouldn’t apply duct tape to your action figures, kids!

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0003: Sonar Sensor Batman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , , ,

0003aDid you guys notice I missed a Flashback Friday Figure Addendum?  Because I did, but not until last Saturday afternoon.  Lotta good that did me.  Well, I’m just gonna pretend like I didn’t miss a week.  Today, I’m continuing my chronological look at my earliest reviews with Sonar Sensor Batman!

Continuing the trend of my last two posts, I’m looking at another figure from 1995’s Batman Forever Line.  This guy isn’t quite as significant as the last two, so he’ll be a bit more brief.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So, like I said above, Sonar Sensor Batman is another Batman Variant from the Batman Forever line.  This one’s a slightly more conventional Batman, though, like Robin, not THE conventional Batman of the line.  This one’s still got the cape because it’s permanently affixed, which was a good move on Kenner’s part.  And he’s got what appears to be a….nipple gun?  I mean, that’s what it looks like(And this is Scumacher we’re talking about here).  It’s right on his right pectoral, and it’s even got those red dots on it.  When you push the yellow button on his belt, the gun flips down, only emphasizing the nipple gun-ness of it.  And I have no idea what any of this has to do with sonar, or sensing for that matter.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Not a whole lot on this one.  I remember having it.  I remember thinking he had a nipple gun as a child.  I actually don’t know where I got this one, so I’m going to assume it was a gift.  Regardless, it didn’t really get much play-time as my go to Batman.

Nipple gun.  Heh!

So, this is yet another very brief review.  I really can’t even conceive of talking about a figure in so little words nowadays.

No articulation or height noted either; he’s another 5 and 5 for those that are curious.  Missing from my original review was his super sick neon orange shield.  Still have no clue where the “sonar” part of his name comes in, but he’s certainly well defended.  The center of the shield is a removable disc, which served as ammo for the disc launcher he also included (mine is, sadly, still missing).  It definitely ups the goof factor.  He can’t really stand very well while holding it, either; I had to do some very strategic posing for the photo.

I mentioned in the original review how this guy didn’t get much playtime as my go-to Batman, which is true, but a re-watch of the Batman: The Animated Series episode “His Silicon Soul” reminded me what he did get a lot of use as: Batman’s robotic duplicate.  …Who has a nipple gun.

#1207: Lando Calrissian as Skiff Guard

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

LANDO CALRISSIAN AS SKIFF GUARD

STAR WARS: THE POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

landoskiff1

Man, the Star Wars characters sure do like disguising themselves, don’t they?  At some point in the franchise, just about every main character has gone incognito (even Chewbacca).  And, of course, toy companies love this, since it’s a pretty easy way of milking another variation of the main characters to make into an action figure.  Lando Calrissian was actually the very first character to get such a figure (well, technically.  He and Leia as Boush were released at the same time, but Lando’s date stamp is from ’82, while hers is from ’83).  That’s not actually the figure I’m looking at today, though.  It seems Lando’s disguised look is more enduring than some of the others, seeing as it makes up roughly a third of all of his figures.  Today, I’m looking at Kenner’s second stab at this particular look.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

landoskiff2Lando was released in the first assortment of the 1997 series of Kenner’s Staw Wars: Power of the Force II.  It was the second version of Lando in the line and his fifth figure overall.  As touched on in the intro, this figure is based on Lando’s Skiff Guard disguise from the opening of Return of the Jedi.  Honestly, even as a disguised look, this is the most action-oriented design we saw Lando in, and I think that’s where a lot of its appeal comes from.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Lando comes from later in the POTF2 line, which was after the sculpts has calmed down a bit and worked out some of the ‘90s over-stylization.  He’s still a fair bit more jacked than Billy Dee Williams ever was, but that was on par with the rest of the line.  His head sculpt was the same one used for the Bespin version of Lando (and later the General version as well).  It’s not a spot-on Billy Dee Williams, but it’s still closer than most of the likenesses at the time.  And at least it was consistent, right?  The body sculpt was all-new to this figure.  Apart from the aforementioned “jacked” nature of the build, it’s a decent enough translation of the onscreen design.  He also ditches a lot of the pre-posing from earlier in the line, instead getting a more natural pose, and thereby offering a bit more versatility.  Lando’s paintwork is generally pretty solid.  Nothing spectacular, or particularly noteworthy, but it’s certainly well-done.  The colors are all well matched to the costume from the movie, and all the application is pretty clean.  There are some slight mismatches between some of the paint and molded elements, but nothing super awful.  Lando originally included a removable mask and vibro-axe, but my figure hasn’t had either in well over a decade.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is my very first Lando action figure, though he didn’t technically start out as mine.  He was one of a handful of Star Wars figures that I helped my Grandmother pick out at KB Toys back in the day so that my cousin Patrick and I would both have some figures at her house to play with (since we spent at least one day of the week there).  Eventually, Patrick grew out of his Star Wars phase and neither of us was spending as much time there, so Lando and the others eventually came home with me.  He’s the only one that made it through all of my various collection purges, mostly due to being the only Lando figure I owned for a good long while.  He’s actually not a bad figure, and he’s probably aged better than most of the others in this line.

#1201: Gorilla Alien

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

GORILLA ALIEN

ALIENS (KENNER)

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Due to some adverse reactions to the small quantity of merchandise put out for Alien, its sequel Aliens got no merchandise at all at the time of its release.  Instead, fans of the film would have to wait six years, when a failed pitch for a cartoon based on the property resulted in a line of action figures from legendary action figure makers Kenner.  Sure, they were super goofy, and ‘90s out the wazoo, but they were certainly better than nothing.  And you can hardly debate that the line was entertaining.  One of the more intriguing aspects of the line was that handling of the titular creatures.  Rather than simply release a bunch of generic Alien Warriors, Kenner followed the example of the Dog Alien from Alien3 and created some other, non-human-host-based Aliens.  One of the earliest examples is the figure I’m looking at today, the Gorilla Alien!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

gorillaalien2The Gorilla Alien was released in the first series of Kenner’s Aliens line, as one of the three initial Aliens.  The figure stands roughly 5 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation (7 if you count the extra shoulder movement granted by his action feature).  In terms of design, the Gorilla Alien really doesn’t stray from the classic Xeno look all that much.  Really, it just takes the Aliens design and bulks it up a little bit more, to showcase the slightly larger frame of a Gorilla.  The sculpt on the figure is pretty decent; the proportions are rather exaggerated, but it’s a ‘90s figure, so that’s somewhat expected.  He features a ton of really great detail work on the body, with each little bit of the Xeno being carefully outlined.  They even managed to work in the levers for his arm-swinging action feature by The head is a little less impressive, due to being made out of hollow rubber in order to facilitate the “acid spraying” feature (you dunk the figure under water and squeeze the head to fill it.  Then you take it out and squeeze it again to shoot “acid”).  It’s still a perfectly acceptable sculpt, but it just is a noticeable step down from the rest of the figure.  The paint on the Gorilla Alien is actually pretty neat.  The figure’s molded in black plastic, with a nice metallic blue brushed on to help accent all the sculpted details.  Each of the three aliens in the first series had their own color scheme (the Scorpion was brown, and the Bull was red), and I think the blue was the best by far.  The Xenos just look best in blue.  The Gorilla Alien was packed with a metallic blue facehugger, which my figure is sadly missing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I first got into the Kenner Aliens line, I was really only focused on the Marines, but over time I’ve really wanted some more Xenos for them to fight.  I got a good helping of the Xenos through the 10th anniversary Aliens Vs. Marine two-packs, but the Gorilla Alien was sadly not one of the chosen aliens for that set.  I ended up finding him at Yesterday’s Fun this past summer, and was quite happy to finally be able to add him to the collection.  He’s not anything revolutionary, but he’s a solid figure, and he fits well with the rest of the line.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0002: Hydro Claw Robin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , ,

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For my second Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, I’ll be following the lead of my actual reviews, and taking another look at my very first figure of the other half of the Dynamic Duo.  Let’s look back at Hydro Claw Robin!

So, yesterday’s post was about my very first action figure, Batman.  And, because a hero’s no good without his sidekick, here’s my very first figure of his old chum: Robin.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hydro Claw Robin is a Robin variant from the Batman Forever line.  He’s actually a fairly standard looking Robin, though he’s not THE standard looking Robin of the line.  His main feature, now lost to me, was a jetpack with wings, a rebreather, and the eponymous “Hydro Claw.”  It’s really unfortunate that I’ve lost this piece, as I recall that it was really quite cool, but alas, 4 year old me was not very good at keeping track of such things!  Even without the accessory, this is still a pretty stand up version of Robin, even if it is based on the utterly terrible Chris O’Donnell.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is a good deal less of a mystery than the Night Hunter Batman.  This guy was a gift from my dear Aunt Susan for Christmas 1995.  I had asked for a Robin figure to prevent my caped crusader from being too lonely, and she was more than happy to oblige.  Christmas morning I opened this guy up and joyfully danced around the room for a good 5 minutes, humming the Batman theme song.  I know, that story is so sweet it almost hurts, doesn’t it?

Man, I always forget how brief I used to be with these reviews.  I don’t know if my wordiness is a good thing or a bad thing.

Once again, I’ve left out a number of things I would now consider standard, namely that the figure is about 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation. The main thing missing the first time I reviewed the figure was his wingpack, which has a rebreather and the titular Hydro Claw attached.  It’s actually one of my favorite parts of the figure, and I was quite bummed that it was missing, so discovering it was one of my biggest bits of excitement during “the Great Find.”  What’s pretty neat about this piece is how it sort of completes the classic Robin color scheme, with its large presence of yellow.

I love this figure no matter what, but he really feels so much more awesome now that he’s complete again!  Now he and Night Hunter Batman are proudly adorning one of the bookshelves in my living room, and I really couldn’t be happier about that.  Even if he’s still based on Chris O’Donnell….