Tag Archives: Marvel

#1409: Tombstone – Sinister Villains

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

TOMBSTONE – SINISTER VILLAINS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

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

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

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

#1408: Spider-Man

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

SPIDER-MAN – HOMECOMING

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

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

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

#1407: Beetle – Sinister Villains

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

BEETLE – SINISTER VILLAINS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

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

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

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

#1406: Spider-Man – Cosmic

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

SPIDER-MAN – COSMIC

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

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

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

#1405: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

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

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!

*ahem*

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

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

#1399: Daredevil

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

DAREDEVIL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

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

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

Guest Review #0042: The Punisher

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

THE PUNISHER

MARVEL LEGENDS

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

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

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

#1395: Vulture & Spider-Man

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

VULTURE & SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Adrian Toomes uses a specialized flying suit to soar through the skies as the Vulture – but when this winged menace threatens justice, it’s up to Spider-Man to swing in and stop him in his flight.”

Didn’t I *just* review a Vulture & Spider-Man two-pack?  It’s like Hasbro has a reason to be releasing multiple Spideys and Vultures all of the sudden.  I mean, I guess it could be the movie, but I’m not sure.  As has become the norm these days, Hasbro’s taking advantage of the hype from this new movie and using it to put out a few comics-based figures in addition to all the movie fare.  Today’s focus set is a pair of those figures.  Let’s check them out!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Vulture and Spider-Man are a Walmart-exclusive two-pack, as part of Hasbro’s 6-inch Marvel Legends.  They started hitting not too long before Homecoming’s release.

VULTURE

It’s been twelve years since we got a comics Vulture.  Seems like a reasonable waiting period to me.  Where the last one was a classic Vulture, this one’s actually based on his Ultimate counterpart (who, if you want to get technical, isn’t Adrian Toomes like the bio says; he’s actually Blackie Drago.  Of course, the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon uses this basic design for Toomes as the Vulture, so I guess it’s not totally inaccurate.  Also, few enough people know Vulture at all, we probably shouldn’t be throwing a whole second, more obscure character at them.  This is a really long parenthetical).  The Ultimate costume isn’t that far removed from the classic design, just a bit more armored and sleek, and the wings are different.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Pizza Spidey body, with a new head, torso, pelvis, and forearms.   The new pieces mesh pretty well with the old, and he replicates Mark Bagely’s artwork for the character very well.  The head in particular really gets that Bagley style down.  I really enjoy the crazy grin he’s got going on.  Sure, he’s a little young for my preferred Vulture, but that’s accurate to the source material, so I’m not going to complain.  One thing I will complain about ever so slightly is the wings.  Moving past the fact that I’m not super into the Ultimate Vulture styled wings (they just look too much like Archangel’s wings), I’m annoyed that they aren’t at all articulated.  They plug into place, and due to the way they attach, they don’t have any sort of movement.  It’s kind of boring.  I mean, they still look cool, but I just wanted a little more out of them.  Vulture’s paint work is pretty solid.  It’s very green, but it’s a few shades of nice, metallic green.  Everything is nice and sharply applied, and the colors all accent each other well.  In addition to the removable wings, this guy also includes an extra, helmeted head, which is based on his appearance from the cartoon.  It’s a fun extra, and makes for a cool alternate look.

SPIDER-MAN

Can’t have a Spider-Man multi-pack without another Spider-Man, I suppose.  This one’s a slight re-deco of the Ultimate Spider-Man from the Space Venom series.  I didn’t get that figure, but I did get Miles, who uses the same sculpt.  Miles was a very good figure, and by extension, this guy’s quite good too.  He has essentially the same paint work as the Space Venom figure, but with two minor changes.  First, the blue has been changed to a bolder, less teal shade.  Second, he lacks the stripes of red running down his arms.  Why make these changes? Because now, instead of being an Ultimate comics version of Peter, he’s Peter from the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon.  Which means this is actually another Spider-Verse figure.  I can get behind that.  The figure lacks the unmasked head, right fist, and left thwip hand of his single-release counterpart, which is a bit of a letdown, but he does at least get both open gesture hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I saw this set a few times and passed on it.  Vulture’s never been super high on my list, and the Ultimate design even less so.  Plus, I hardly needed another essentially standard Spider-Man.  I ended up grabbing this set because while I was out looking for the Homecoming series, I came across this pair on clearance for a 50% mark-down, at which point I was essentially just paying for the Vulture figure.  For that price, it seemed more worth it to me.  Vulture’s a decent enough figure overall.  I have some minor issues, but he’ll do.  Spider-Man’s decent in his own right, but is definitely a “more of the same” sort of deal.  I feel like it would have been nice to get a more unique variant, but at least this one gets us another Spider-Verse entry.

#1394: Iron Man

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

IRON MAN

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“Iron Man is the world’s greatest high-tech hero. Iron Man’s armor is made of space-age alloys and is virtually indestructible. Not only that, but the armor is filled with an awesome arsenal including energy blasting repulsor rays, a navigational computer and rocket-powered boots that can fly him at a top speed of 960 miles an hour! Iron Man is really the millionaire inventor and industrialist, Tony Stark. When he’s not wearing his armor and helping his friends Thor and Captain America save mankind from super-powered enemies, Tony’s in his lab creating a new invention to save lives or clean the environment.”

You can’t go anywhere these days without tripping over like 50 Iron Man figures, but that wasn’t always the case.  When Toy Biz took over the Marvel license back in the early ‘90s, there were only two prior Iron Man figures.  They eventually released a whole line of Iron Men, but their first figure of the character was released as part of their early Marvel Super Heroes line.  He’s kinda goofy and I’m looking at him today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iron Man was released in the second series of Marvel Super Heroes.  Along with that series’ Thor figure, he completes the “Avengers” set started in Series 1 with Cap and Hulk.  He’s based on the Neo-Classic armor, which is more rare amongst action figures.  This was actually its first time in plastic form, and would remain its only appearance until the Marvel Legends Showdown line more than a decade later.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  These earlier figures kind of mimicked the Super Powers aesthetic, albeit in a slightly lower quality way.  This figure’s sculpt is…interesting.  It’s not the worst thing ever, but it’s not as nice as, say, the Captain America figure.  A lot of the figure’s issues come from the rather primitive snap-on armor.  While later Iron Men would place the focus on getting a decent starting figure and then enhancing them with extra armored bits, this figure goes for a combo Iron Man/Tony Stark.  The problem is that the end result is an Iron Man and a Tony Stark that are both off.  The armor is really bulky and has obvious clips (which are rather difficult to work with), and the underlying Tony Stark is just…odd.  Really, really odd.  I mean, just look at him.  That ain’t right.  The paint work on this guy is okay overall, but his armor is lacking a few of the yellow details.  Maybe they were working from a classic Iron Man image?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure slightly pre-dates me getting into collecting…and me existing…so I didn’t get it new.  I did eye it up a few times over the years, but it’s not the most common figure, and it was never high enough priority for me to actually go and track him down.  I ended up finding this guy at the most recent Dave Hart Toy Show back in July, for a pretty decent price.  He’s…strange?  I guess that’s the word.  I find him intriguing as sort of a pre-formed version of the later Toy Biz Iron Men, but as his own figure, he’s not Toy Biz’s strongest offering.

#1393: Buzzing Beetle

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

BUZZING BEETLE

SPIDER-MAN: CLASSICS (TOY BIZ)

When is a figure you want not a figure you want?  That’s a confusing question.  What I’m getting at is that sometimes, there’s a character you really want, and when they arrive, they just aren’t what you wanted at all.  That’s the perpetual story of Beetle.  He’s a B-list Spider-Man foe, so his appearance in numerous Spider-Man lines over the years is no surprise.  What’s continued to be a surprise is the versions of the character we’ve gotten.  Back when Toy Biz was still pioneering the Marvel Legends style, they gave us our first 6-inch Beetle as part of their complimentary Spider-Man: Classics line.  It was…not exactly what was expected.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Buzzing Beetle was released in Series 14 of Spider-Man: Classics as one of the two Spider-foes in the set.  The figure stands a whopping 7 3/4 inches tall and has 39 points of articulation.  This Beetle figure is based on one of the much later Beetle designs.  It’s not exactly one of the more memorable designs that the character’s had.  In fact, Abner Jenkins, the original Beetle, never even wore this armor.  He instead controlled it by remote.  It was eventually worn by Leila Davis, after Abner had given up the Beetle identity, but even that was rather short-lived.  It’s at the very least a visually interesting design.  The complexity of the design means it also requires a completely unique sculpt.  It’s pretty decent work all-in-all.  The various pieces of armor have differing textures, which adds a lot of additional cool factor to this figure.  The design also really lends itself to toy form, so the articulation can be worked in pretty well.  The hip joints are kind of obvious, as were all of these types of joints at the time.  Beyond that, it’s really pretty solid.  The “buzzing” feature was linked to the wings (which my figure is lacking) and the mechanics are placed within the torso.  Due to the sheer size of the figure, though, the mechanics really don’t impede the sculpt or articulation all that much.  There’s also a light-up feature on the visor, which turns it…red?  Yeah, okay.  The paintwork on Beetle is actually pretty great.  The metallic shades are really cool to look at, and the purple and green go really well together.  There’s also some really fun weathering on the purple bits, which helps further accentuate their already more worn-in sculpt.  In addition to the (missing) wings, Beetle also included a pair of missiles (also missing) to go in the missile launchers affixed to the figure’s forearms.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I saw this figure a few times when it was new, and I never bought it.  I was a little bit resentful that they went with this design over the classic look.  Of course, once it was officially gone from all the regular places, I kind of regretted never picking it up.  I ended up fishing this figure out of the $1 bin at 2nd Chance Toyz, which was pretty exciting.  Sure, it’s missing a few parts, but the base figure is still cool.  Really, at the end of the day, I’m actually kind of happy this figure was made when it was.  It’s actually a pretty fun design, and it’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t really be financially feasible in this day and age.  A good toy’s a good toy.