Tag Archives: Kenner

#0372: O’Malley & Queen Face Hugger

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

O’MALLEY & QUEEN FACE HUGGER

ALIENS (KENNER)

Okay, so here’s another Kenner Aliens review. This review plays a bit more into Kenner’s wackier sensibilities with the line, while at the same time not going super overboard. What’s noteworthy about this set is that it’s the only set who’s Alien is not a “Xenomorph.” So, let’s have a look at the last of the 10th Anniversary two-packs, O’Malley vs. The Queen Face Hugger.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

O’Malley and the Queen Face Hugger are the final two-pack from the KB Exclusive Aliens Vs. Marine line. They are both repaints of figures from the previous Aliens line.

O’MALLEY

O’Malley! Hey, remember that guy? They hero of the… The guy who does the… He has the… Okay, okay, yeah, O’Malley is another Marine created by Kenner. He’s not really as goofy as ATAX, but he’s still a bit out there. In case the name and the hair hadn’t clued you in, O’Malley is supposed to be Irish. O’Malley is 5 inches tall and he sports 6 points of articulation. The figure makes use of the sculpt from the O’Malley figure meant to see a wide release in the 3rd Series. This featured a unique head sculpt, which may very well be the best Marine sculpt from the line. For a character that seems so one note and bland on the surface, O’Malley’s head sculpt is full of character. He’s got a smug look of assurance on his face (no way he’s making it out of the movie alive looking like that. Sorry O’Malley, your name might as well be Toast). He’s also got a really nasty scar over his eye. Obviously, he’s had a run in with some nasty beasts before. From the neck down, O’Malley shares his sculpt with Corporal Hicks. Hicks’s body sculpt is probably my favorite of the Marine sculpts, so I’m in favor of the re-use here. It’s a quality sculpt and it matches the head nicely. The paint work on O’Malley is more or less the same as it was on Hicks, with changes for the head and some tweaks to the accents on the torso. Everything is nice and cleanly done. O’Malley included a flamethrower clip-on, similar to Hicks’s claw thing, as well as what has to be one of the goofiest weapons in the Aliens line. It’s some kind of grappling thing on an accordion type arm. It’s kind of a funny weapon, but there it is.

QUEEN FACE HUGGER

Okay, so the name on this one kind of confuses me. So, is this a face hugger that has a queen embryo, or is it like the queen of the face huggers? What’s the deal Kenner? Well, Kenner’s kinda defunct now, so I guess we’ll never know. The Face Hugger is about 3 inches in height, 5 inches wide, and 6 inches long. That, by the way, makes this particular Face Hugger about 20x the size of what the actual Face Huggers should be. So, it’s not really a Face Hugger so much as an everything hugger. The figure doesn’t really have any articulation. There’s some movement, but it’s all tied into the action feature. The sculpt is a re-use of the original Series 3 Face Hugger. It’s a pretty good sculpt, and it’s surprisingly accurate to the Face Hugger design from the movies. There’s quite a bit of texturing, and they’ve added some spiky bits, similar to the changes present on the Scorpion Alien. The Face Hugger has what is probably the most drastic paint scheme change of all of the 10th Anniversary figures. The original figure’s paint scheme was similar to the regular Aliens. For this figure, they went with something more faithful to the actual Face Hugger. It’s an improvement, but it also makes the size of this thing even weirder! The Face Hugger included no accessories, but it does have a few action features. The tail can be pulled and retracted, the legs have a jumping action similar to the Alien Arachnid, and the mouth has a pullback opening feature.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

O’Malley and the Face Hugger were yet another piece of the large lot of Kenner Aliens figures I won on ebay. Neither one of them was super high on my list of desired figures, but they were part of the lot, so I figured why not. In hand, I was pleasantly surprised by this set. The Face Hugger’s kinda odd, but O’Malley is really quite a nice figure. It’s strange that Kenner put this level of effort into a character that no one cares about, but this really is one of their better figures. All in all, this is a pretty winning set.

#0371: Hudson & Scorpion Alien

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

HUDSON & SCORPION ALIEN

ALIENS (KENNER)

The problem with doing large theme weeks and the like is that as you near the end, you really run out of interesting things to say to introduce the figures. Then you have to write these weird meta intros talking about how you have nothing to say in the intro. (BEAT)

So, how ’bout them Aliens figures? Yesterday, I looked at one key Marine missing from Kenner’s first series of Aliens; today, I’ll be looking at the other. That Marine is, of course, Private Hudson, everyone’s favorite over-confidant marine turned whimpering mess! I’ll be taking a look at his proper US release from the Aliens Vs. Marine two-packs, along with the Scorpion Alien.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Hudson and the Scorpion Alien were released in a two-pack in the 10th Anniversary Aliens Vs. Marine line. The line was released exclusively at KB Toys, and it was made up of repaints from the previous Kenner Aliens line.

HUDSON

Hudson is easily the selling point of this set. His Series 3 figure never saw a proper US release, leaving a Paxton sized hole in many fans’ Aliens collections. Hudson is about 5 inches tall and he features 6 points of articulation. He sports a new head sculpt, which doesn’t really have much in common with Bill Paxton’s portrayal of the character, but that’s not really news with this line. Hudson has a screaming expression, which fits okay with the character and does make him stand out a bit more from the other, more passive Marines. His sculpted helmet doesn’t match the one on Hicks, which is moderately annoying, but I suppose they wanted each of the Marines to have a unique look. From the neck down, Hudson’s sculpt is the same as Series 1’s Apone figure. Aside from the somewhat odd metal arm thing, it’s a pretty good starting point for a basic Marine, so I guess it works okay. It’s too bad he couldn’t get a unique sculpt like Vasquez, but if only one could get a new sculpt, Kenner made the right choice. Hudson’s paint work is on par with the rest of the Marines; it’s all pretty cleanly applied, and his lower half is molded in the same multi-colored plastic seen on all of the Marines. Hudson has one of the more diverse paint jobs in the series, though it’s not like it’s anything super exciting. Hudson includes a rifle of some sort (not a pulse rifle), and a large backpack thingy with three missiles to launch. Unfortunately, the backpack is a bit on the heavy side, which makes Hudson impossible to stand while wearing it.

SCORPION ALIEN

Believe it or not, against all odds and in spite of the name, the Scorpion Alien is not a Kenner original. It’s actually one of the main line’s closest attempts to capture the standard Xenomorph design. It also happens to be one of the best Aliens in the line, for what it’s worth. The figure is about 5 inches tall and features 5 points of articulation. This figure makes use of the sculpt from the original Scorpion Alien, released in the first series of the original Kenner Aliens line. It’s a decent quality sculpt. There are lots of small details and texture work, and the figure really has some nice dimension. It’s perhaps a tad wider than it should be, but not excessively so. The design of the alien is definitely based on the Xeno’s appearance in Aliens, though there have been a few changes made. The design as a whole is a bit spikier, and a lot of the design has been streamlined, I’d assume to present a more easily animated look. The figure is slightly pre-posed, and it can take a little work to get the figure to stand, but it’s not too difficult to keep the figure vertical. There was definitely a consistent theme to the paint work on the figures in the Aliens Vs. Marine line, and the Scorpion Alien is no exception. He’s molded in semi-metallic black/grey plastic with some silver accents to bring out the details. The silver on this figure is easily the most subtle of this line, which really does this figure some serious favors. The Scorpion Alien included no accessories, but he did feature one of the line’s coolest action features. When the button on the figure’s lower back is pressed, the figure’s upper half pops apart, as if the Scorpion Alien has just been shot by one of the Marines. It’s a fun action feature and it really adds quite a bit of entertainment value to this figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hudson and the Scorpion Alien are another piece of the large lot of Kenner Aliens figures I won recently on ebay. These are two of the figures I was most eager to get ahold of from the line, so I was definitely glad they were amongst the set. Hudson is an essential Marine and the Scorpion Alien is my personal favorite Kenner take on the standard Xeno design. All in all, I really like this set. Sure, Hudson’s slightly goofy, but he’s not a bad figure, and he’s packed with an outstanding Alien.

#0370: Vasquez & Night Cougar Alien

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VASQUEZ & NIGHT COUGAR ALIEN

ALIENS VS MARINE(KENNER)

The initial offering of Marines in Kenner’s Aliens line is interesting. We got pretty decent Ripley and Hicks figures, but we also got Apone and Drake, two characters who are absent from the last two-thirds of the movie entirely, and a nearly unrecognizable version of Bishop. Key players like Vasquez and Hudson were absent, and when we finally got an additional Marine in the second series, it was ATAX, a character invented exclusively for the toyline. When the third series hit, Kenner tried to amend this, offering both Vasquez and Hudson, but it was too little too late. Retailers in the US were having trouble moving the Marines from the first two series, leading to the cases containing the Series 3 Marines to be returned and, ultimately, destroyed. A fair number saw release outside the US, but not in nearly the same numbers, leaving US Aliens fans out in the cold. Fortunately, the 10th Anniversary Aliens Vs. Marine came to the rescue, offering a proper release of all three of the Marines, albeit in altered colors. Today, I’ll be taking a look at the first of those, Vasquez, along with her foe, the Night Cougar Alien.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Vasquez and the Night Cougar Alien were released as a two-pack in the KB Toys Exclusive Aliens Vs. Marine line, which was done as a celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Aliens. Both figures made use of previous sculpts with all-new paint schemes.

VASQUEZ

Vasquez is definitely a key part of what make Aliens so great. She was a really fun character who added a lot to the group of survivors as they battled the Alien hoards (and Paul Reiser). Unfortunately, her role as smartgunner kinda got taken by Drake in the first series (both are smartgunners in the movie, but Kenner seemed set on each Marine having their own gimmick), so she ended up being a little more generic here. Vasquez stands just shy of 5 inches tall and features 5 points of articulation. I don’t know why she didn’t get waist articulation like the others, but it’s not there. Vasquez is a total re-use of the Series 3 Vasquez, who was actually the only of the Series 3 Marines to get her own body sculpt. While she’s not a pitch perfect Vasquez, she’s probably the most film-accurate Marine Kenner put out. Some of the details are a little on the soft side, but she’s definitely Vasquez, and I’m amazed by the lack of 90s-fication that was so present on the other Marines. The paint on Vasquez only furthers her as the most accurate Marine. In the more traditional colors, she’s pretty much spot on to how Vasquez looked in the movie. My one complaint would be that she’s definitely way too pale to be Vasquez. Other than that, her paint is pretty good for the time. She doesn’t really have any slop or bleed over to speak of. Vasquez’s smartgun gimmick was taken, so she doesn’t have one of those, but she does come with what I believe is the only example of a proper pulse rifle from the Kenner line, as well as some large missile launching thing that she has trouble standing with.

NIGHT COUGAR ALIEN

So, the Night Cougar Alien is another Kenner original. That being said, apart from a terrible name, it’s actually one of the better aliens, and it’s got some precedent. Its quadrupedal design is similar to that of Alien3 ’s Dog Alien. I am by no means a fan of the movie, but the design wasn’t bad. The Night Cougar is about 4 inches tall and 6 inches long, and it features 5 points of articulation (there’s a 6th, but it’s tied to the action feature.) The Night Cougar Alien re-uses the sculpt of the original Series 3 version, which was itself a repaint of the Panther Alien. It’s a pretty good sculpt. Some of the details, particularly on the torso are a little soft and basic, but they aren’t too bad, and the figure does offer a fair job of conveying some depth. The figure features a more conventional Alien design than the previous two, which makes this figure work a lot better aesthetically. The original Night Cougar featured some pretty bold red highlights. This figure opts for the more subdued look that all of these two-pack aliens have. While the King was kind of hurt by such a change, I think the Night Cougar really makes it work. It helps that the Night Cougar has the subtlest work with the silver highlights, which really makes the figure look its best. This marks the first Alien to have an accessory; it includes a missile that can be plugged into the figure’s back. When the figures front legs are pushed forward, the head ducks down and the missile fires. As far as action features go, that’s a good one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Just like Hicks and the King, and Drake and the Arachnid, Vasquez and the Night Cougar Alien were part of a large lot of Kenner Aliens figures I won on ebay. Vasquez is one of my main interests in getting the lot, so there was definitely some pressure for this set to deliver. Fortunately, this set is one of my favorites from this series. Vasquez marks one of Kenner’s best efforts on a Marine, and the Night Cougar Alien is one of their better aliens, which makes this set a real winner!

#0369: Drake & Alien Arachnid

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DRAKE & ALIEN ARACHNID

ALIENS VS MARINE(KENNER)

Drake. Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake, Drake. Drake, in case you’re wondering, is a character that does actually appear in the movie Aliens. He’s a marine with a decent amount of screen time. That being said, he’s nowhere near as prominent as characters like Hudson or Vasquez, so his inclusion in the proposed Operation: Aliens cartoon, as well as his place in the first series of Aliens figures by Kenner is a bit baffling. But, here he was, so I guess that’s that. Let’s have a look at Kenner’s second Drake, released alongside the Alien Arachnid in 1996.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two were released as part of the KB Toys Exclusive Aliens Vs. Marine line, done to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Aliens.

DRAKE

So, I can kinda get Drake’s place in the original line, but his spot here is still weird. There were five sets done for the 10th Anniversary. Of those five, three were used to give a US release to the Marines that were supposed to be in 3rd series of the original line. That left two slots, which were given to Hicks and Drake. Hicks is the most pivotal Marine, so he makes sense. But why Drake was chosen over Ripley, or even Apone, is odd. Anyway, the figure is about 4 ½ inches tall, thanks to his slouch, and he features 6 points of articulation. He makes use of the Series 1 Drake sculpt in its entirety. While it’s not a bad sculpt, it share very few common traits with the Drake of the movie. He’s completely unarmored, wearing a headband, and his hair is quite a bit longer than his movie counterpart’s. At the very least, it’s an expressive sculpt. It looks pretty good, and it certainly stands out from the rest of the marines and their more static sculpts. The paint on Drake is pretty good, probably better than that seen on Hicks. Like Hicks, his lower half has been molded in that swirly green plastic to simulate camo. It works better here, mostly due to Drake’s lack of armor. The rest of the paint is all pretty well applied. There’s a little bit of slop on Drake’s Bandolier, but other than that, everything seems to be nice and clean. Drake included his trademark smartgun, as well as a bayonet to go on the end. Because stabbing the aliens with acid for blood sounds like a wonderful idea. The bayonet doesn’t fit on the gun on my figure, but that’s probably just an issue with mine. Drake also had a feature where turning his waist simulated gunfire.

ALIEN ARACHNID

The Alien Arachnid is yet another of Kenner’s aliens they made up for the line. Some of their designs were great. Some were bad. This falls somewhere in between. The figure is about two inches tall, 4 inches long, and 5 inches wide. The figure really only has 1 point of articulation, at the neck, as the rest of the movement is tied into the action feature. The Alien Arachnid is definitely meant to play up the bug-like nature of the aliens, but “arachnid” isn’t the term they want here, I think. Arachnids have eight legs, and this figure only has six, which would actually make it and “Alien Insect.” I guess that just didn’t have the same ring. They could have just added an extra pair of legs to make it work, though. The Arachnid’s sculpt is passable for the time of release, but it’s not really anything special. The figure has a rubber head, which makes the details there a lot softer. Kenner seemed to take this into account by making the rest of the figure’s details softer to match. The end result is a somewhat cheap looking figure, which is too bad. The Arachnid’s paint is similar to the King Alien’s; the figure is molded in a semi-metallic black plastic, with lots of silver highlights thrown in. The highlights still go a little overboard, but they aren’t terrible. The Alien Arachnid included no accessories, but it featured two action features. The first was a water-spitting feature, done by squeezing the head (after filling it with water), and the second is a lever on the back which pops the back legs up and down and moves the front legs back and forth.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The original Kenner Aliens hit before I was of an age to collect toys, and these anniversary sets hit before I was into Aliens. Like Hicks and the King Alien, this set was part of a lot I won on ebay. I actually had the original Drake at one point, but I lost him at some point, so I can’t really do a direct comparison of the two. Honestly, it’s a bit of a toss-up as to which of the two is “better.” Drake is one of the cooler marine figures, even if he was a bit off-model. The Alien Arachnid is better than the King in my opinion, but still not one of the better ones Kenner offered. All-in-all, this set is okay, but nothing really amazing. But, it’s also one of the cheapest of the 10th Anniversary sets, so if you just want something cheap amd fun, you could do a lot worse than this set.

Alright guys, I powered through what I feel are the weakest sets in this series. Tomorrow, the good stuff kicks in!

#0368: Corporal Hicks & King Alien

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

CORPORAL HICKS & KING ALIEN

ALIENS VS MARINE(KENNER)

After the failure of the proposed Operation: Aliens cartoon, Kenner was left in a bit of a bind. They had already created much of the merchandise for the show and paid for the rights to the characters. They made the best of what they had and released the figures under the Aliens banner, passing them off as an adaption of the 1986 movie. This left the Marines in an unfortunate position, having no real pull with kids who hadn’t seen the movie, and not really resembling the characters from the movie enough to entice people who had seen it. When the third series of the line hit, US retailers weren’t interested in the marines, leading to their exit from the line. The line ended not too long after that. In 1996, it was the 10th Anniversary of Aliens, so Kenner responded by putting out a series of two packs, each featuring a marine and an Alien. Today, I’ll be looking at that line’s release of Corporal Hicks and the King Alien.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This two pack was released as part of the 10th Anniversary Aliens Vs. Marine line(by the way, “Aliens Vs. Marine”? Like, is there just one Marine at a time?). The sets were released exclusively at KB Toys.

CORPORAL HICKS

Hicks is probably the most important Marine in the movie, so it’s not surprising to see he was a part of the tenth anniversary series. His figure is 5 inches tall and features 6 points of articulation, which is actually 1 point above the standard Kenner articulation of the time. The figure is a head to toe repaint of the original Kenner Hicks. It’s one of the more faithful sculpts of the original line, so that’s pretty good. Some of his armor has been tweaked a bit, but he’s really not too far off. The head actually is a pretty decent likeness of Michael Biehn, which is fairly impressive for a figure from this time period. The sculpt also has some of the best proportions of the line, with nothing looking too out of place. Hick’s paint is passable, though it could be better. His torso, pelvis, and legs are molded in a swirly green plastic that sorta simulates camo. This works pretty well for the legs, which should actually be camo, but the torso ends up looking wrong. Some additional paint really could have helped here. Hicks includes a large missile launcher, two missiles, and a claw/gun attachment. These are the same as the accessories included with the original Hicks, just in slightly different colors.

KING ALIEN

The King Alien! One of the most memorable… oh wait, sorry, that’s not right. What the heck is the King Alien? Near as I can tell, he’s toyline escalation. We’d had the Queen Alien, and an even meaner looking Flying Queen. Where do you go from there? King Alien, apparently. The King Alien is about 6 inches tall and features a whole 4, count ‘em, 4 points of articulation. The King Alien is a complete re-use of the King Alien from Series 3 of the original line. That figure had totally new pieces, which surprised me. I had actually expected there to be re-use between this figure and the queens. The sculpt is alright, but not really anything special. It’s a rather boxy sculpt. It sort of follows the Alien aesthetic, but it seems a little strange, even for them. The figure is also incredibly stiff, thanks to the limited articulation and slightly awkward sculpt. It’s not all bad, though. The sculpt is fairly detailed, and it does have some nice texture work. The figure is molded in a slightly metallic black plastic, with additional silver details painted on to give the figure a bit more dimension. It’s all pretty well applied, though the silver details do get a little heavy in some areas. The King Alien includes no accessories, but he does have a spring-loaded pincer feature, activated by pressing a button his back, as well as a water spraying feature, activated by squeezing his tail (and adding water, of course).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed out on the original release of these sets (I was collecting toys, but I had yet to see Aliens). I recently won an ebay auction which included a full set of the figures. This set is probably the weakest of this series. The first Hicks figure had a more satisfactory color scheme, in my opinion, and the King Alien isn’t one of Kenner’s better made-up aliens. At least the original King Alien had bright neon colors to keep him interesting. This one ends up suffering. It’s not a bad set, but it’s not surprising that this is the cheapest and most easily found of the tenth anniversary figures.

#0363: ATAX

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

ATAX

ALIENS (KENNER)

Since Kenner’s Aliens line was originally based on the cancelled Operation: Aliens cartoon, the line did some experimenting with the property. One of the most famous things was adding more diversity to the designs of the Xenomorphs, but one of the other areas that showed some changes was the characters who made up the group of Colonial Marines that faced off against the aliens. While mainstays like Ripley, Hicks, and Bishop remained, a couple of the marines were replaced by characters such as ATAX (which stood for “Alien Tactical Advantage Explorer”), the figure I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

ATAX was part of the second assortment of Aliens figures. The figure is 5 inches tall and features 5 points of articulation. ATAX is one of the marines without a movie counterpart, so presumably his design is based on something from the cartoon. ATAX’s sculpt was unique to him. It’s a pretty solid sculpt, though he does seem a little large-headed. The details in the sculpt are all very well handled, which is really great. ATAX has a more Xeno-inspired look, which certainly makes him stand out amongst the Marines. The paintwork on ATAX is pretty great. It’s better than what we saw on Apone, and this figure has less of a reliance on the decals and such. ATAX’s figure is largely dependent on his accessories, which sadly my figure is lacking. His deal is that he’s supposed to be some sort of an infiltration specialist, so he included several clip on armor pieces to allow him to disguise himself as a Xeno. It’s certainly a unique idea, but seeing as there is never any evidence in the movies that the Xenos recognize each other by sight, I have to wonder just how successful ATAX will be in his infiltration. Maybe that’s why we didn’t see him in the movie…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I first got into the Aliens line (which was somewhere around the early 2000s, roughly 10 years after it ended), I was mostly focused on just getting characters from the movie. So, ATAX was kind of below my radar. However, when I came across a few Aliens figures while browsing Yesterday’s Fun, ATAX was amongst them and I just couldn’t say no. He’s a goofy figure to be sure, but he’s actually quite well done. I imagine he’d be even better if he had all his pieces…

#0362: Sgt Apone

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SGT APONE

ALIENS (KENNER)

In the 80s and 90s, it wasn’t uncommon for toy companies to get the rights to movies that were a bit outside of the target audience for… toys. Things like Rambo, Robocop, and Terminator 2, all very definitely aimed at adults, were treated to their very own lines of action figures very clearly aimed at kids. Kenner’s Aliens looks like this at first glance, but in actuality they were meant to tie in with Operation: Aliens, a proposed Saturday-morning cartoon based on the 1986 film. When plans for the cartoon were scrapped, Kenner was left with lots of already produced merchandise, leading to them rebranding the line as just Aliens. The Marines offered in the line were based on those that would have been the characters in the cartoon, which means some of them weren’t from the movie. However, a fair number of movie characters made it through, including Sgt. Apone, who I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Apone was released in the first series of Aliens figures. The figure is 5 inches tall and features 6 points of articulation. Unlike the previously reviewed Ripley, Apone’s design doesn’t have much in common with his movie counterpart. Admittedly, the face does look a bit like Al Matthews, which is nice to see. The rest of the figure is very clearly meant to be based on the Apone design from the failed cartoon. At the very least, it’s an interesting design. The sculpt manages to make it look pretty good. There’s a lot of detail work, especially in the armored pieces on his arm and shoulders, but then there are large areas on his lower half with virtually no detail at all. It’s a mixed look. The paint on Apone is decent, if a bit basic. There are a few fuzzy lines, but nothing too bad. With the exception of the “No Bugs” written on his t-shirt, the rest of the little touches are actually decals, not paint. Apone included some sort of rocket launcher accessory, but I bought mine loose, so he never had whatever it was.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Aliens figures were released in 1992.  That’s actually within my lifetime, but just barely. Needless to say, I wasn’t buying action figures at less than one, so I didn’t start getting the Aliens figures until much later. Apone is one of the last additions to that set; I didn’t get him until just this summer. I picked Apone up from Yesterday’s Fun, while on vacation with my family. Apone is one of the characters who changed the much for this line, but he’s not a bad figure.

#0338: Plastic Man

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

PLASTIC MAN

DC SUPER POWERS

PlasticManSP

I am a fan of superheroes with stretchy powers. I just think they allow for so many really cool possibilities, and they’re always a lot of fun. One of my all-time favorite super heroes is the Elongated Man, one of DC’s resident stretchy heroes. EM tends to be slightly overshadowed by DC’s other stretchy guy, Plastic Man. Plas was not originally even a DC character, but he was owned by one of the many companies DC bought out between the golden and silver ages of comics. DC kind of forgot they owned the character until somewhere around the late 70s/early 80s (part of the reason Elongated Man exists), but when they finally figured it out, they went to work trying to make the character work for a larger audience. He made an appearance on Super Friends, got his own Saturday morning cartoon, and even made an appearance in Kenner’s DC Super Powers line, marking his first venture into the world of action figures. Today, I’ll be looking at that figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

PlasticManSPWilsonPlastic Man was part of the third, and final, series of DC Super Powers figures. The figure is about 5 inches tall (5 ½ with his neck extended) and he features 8 points of articulation. That’s actually one more point of articulation than the usual SP figure, because Plas got a waist joint. Don’t know why he was the only figure to get one, but it is nice to have it. He’s based on the look most associated with the character (though not his original. The sleeves were added later). The sculpt of the figure is really great, easily my favorite Plastic Man sculpt. It’s a fairly simplistic sculpt, but it really works for Plas. He’s taller and leaner than most of the figures in the line, which really give him a great stretched out look. The head is a spot on recreation of the character, and he’s got the perfect goofy smile that Plas is so often seen sporting. Possibly my only complaint about the figure is that they chose to simply paint the ties on the front of his costume rather than sculpting them, but that’s a really minor thing. The paintwork is pretty straight forward. There’s nothing super noteworthy, but everything is pretty cleanly applied, and they got all the colors right. Plas included no accessories, but he did have the requisite SP action feature. When you squeeze Plastic Man’s arms, his neck extends about an inch, replicating his stretching powers.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Plas is a recent ebay purchase. For the last several years, I’ve been slowly piecing together a full set of DC Super Powers figures. Plas marks my 23rd figure from the 33 figure set, putting me in my final 10. Since I got him so late, you might assume that I don’t particularly care for Plas, which is far from the truth. Plas is one of the figures I most wanted from the line. However, being from the final series from the line, and being one of the few characters in that series to be an actual DC Character using an actual DC design, he can be a little difficult to get. He’s not one of the most difficult, but he’s up there. Fortunately, I came across an ebay auction recently that was at a price I was willing to pay. Plas is one of the cooler figures in this line, and I’m very glad to have him. Now I just have 10 more to go!

#0331: Mr. Freeze

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

MR FREEZE

BATMAN: THE NEW ADVENTURES (KENNER)

FreezeNA1

Batman: The Animated Series is easily one of the best interpretations of the Batman mythos ever. The characters that benefited best from the series were the more obscure Bat-villains, and none more so than cold-themed villain Mr. Freeze. When the series returned under the New Adventures label, all of the characters received new designs. Freeze received one of the most radical re-designs, and the design eventually made its way into Kenner’s then-current toyline based on the show.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

FreezeNAWilsonMr. Freeze was released in the first year of figures from Kenner’s Batman: The New Adventures line. The figure is based on the character’s appearance in the episode “Cold Comfort” which premiered his TNA design. The figure stands 5 inches tall and features 4 points of articulation. He lacks the usual neck joint present on the Kenner figure, thanks to his removable head. The figure sports a unique sculpt, which is meant to capture the Bruce Timm design of the character. The head is the best part, nicely capturing the gaunt look of Freeze, as well as nicely replicating his clear domed look. The body is pretty good, though the proportions don’t seem quite right. The biggest issue is that the legs are a little bit warped to one side. I’d be tempted to think it was just limited to mine, but ever other figure I’ve seen suffers from the same issue. The figure also has a flip down compartment in his torso, which has some pretty nice mechanical detailing on the inside. Like with the sculpt, the head features the best paint work. Everything is really clean and sharp. On the rest of the body, it’s not terrible, but it’s a little bit sloppy. Mr. Freeze included a freeze gun and a set of robotic legs that his head can be placed on.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mr. Freeze was always one of my favorite characters on the show, so I got Mr. Freeze when he was originally released. I lost the figure’s head, leaving me with a headless body. Recently, I found the head, but because life hates me, the body had gone missing. So, when my local comicbook store, Cosmic Comix, got Mr. Freeze in with a bunch of other loose figures, I just gave up and bought a replacement. The figure is pretty great, and he’s still one of my favorites from the line. I’m glad to have a complete one again!

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#0260: Black Lightning

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

BLACK LIGHTNING

TOTAL JUSTICE

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In the 90s, any DC toyline whose title didn’t include “Batman” was a rarity. In fact they were almost non-existent. Even today’s focus line Total Justice was originally called Batman: Total Justice. And this was a line that didn’t even really focus on Batman! I guess Kenner must have come to their sense by the time the line actually saw release, because the packaging dropped Batman’s name from the title.

Anyway, Total Justice was essentially a line based on the Justice League. Years later, the line would even be continued under the name JLA. The line offered many collectors the first chance since Super Powers to actually have a decent line up of DC characters, but it was plagued by silly “Tactical Armor,” a lack of decent articulation, and, most famously, X-Treme! poses. However, it was the only chance at getting those characters for quite some time, so collectors had to grin and bear it. Let’s have a look at one of the line’s more obscure additions, Black Lightning!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

BlackLightning2Black Lightning was released in the third and final series of Total Justice. This series was easily the most daring series of the line, as it lacked any heavy hitters. Black Lightning stands about 5 inches tall and features 5 points of articulation. The figure depicts Lightning in his costume from the time, which deviated a fair bit from his other costumes. It’s not a terrible design, but it’s easily my least favorite look of his, which hurts the figure a bit. Black Lightning featured an all new sculpt, though the arms and legs would be slightly retooled to be used for JLA’s Impulse and Superboy, respectively. The sculpt is actually rather reserved by Total Justice standards. The legs are in a slightly wonky pose, but the arms are actually in a pretty natural stance, and the face is surprisingly calm for this series. The paint work is rather simple, but it’s mostly evenly applied, with no real issues present. Black Lightning included torso and leg armor, as well as a big missile launcher thing. While this series was the first of Total Justice to give figures more sensible accessories, Lightning was not as lucky as his peers, and got stuck with the same usual wacky stuff.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Black Lightning was the Total Justice figure I was always missing. There are other figures from the line I still don’t have, but this one was the only one from the final series, and he was also one of two heroes not to see a re-release in the JLA line (the other was Hawkman. I think it mostly had to do with the dated designs the figures sported.) So, when I finally found him at my local comicbook store a few weeks ago, I was happy to get one. Not thrilled or anything, but content. Sometimes, being content is enough.