Tag Archives: Marvel

#3674: Stealth Venom

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

STEALTH VENOM

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

“In the past, Venom has been both hero and villain, and Spider-Man knows how powerful he can be! With his chameleon-like abilities, Venom can even blend into his surroundings and virtually ‘disappear’ from sight. So, although Venom is unpredictable, one thing is certain; when he does appear, things heat up!”

Ah, yes, Venom’s chameleon like abilities. Of all the Spider-Man villains out there, surely it’s Venom whose abilities could be best classified as “chameleon-like.” …look, guys, I can’t just stand by and let this Chameleon erasure happen! He’s the original Spider-Man villain. Can’t we get him some respect? No? Well, I tried. I guess I’ll just review this “chameleon-like” Venom.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Stealth Venom was released in Series 7 of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man line.  The whole set was dialed into Toy Biz’s tendency to give their lines the occasional repaint-heavy line-up, so there were minimal new parts across the board, all dialed into more recognizable characters.  This was Venom’s third time in the line, and the first of the kind of made-up variants.  It was far from the last of either thing, of course.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Venom lacks elbow joints for reasons I’m not entirely sure of, but there it is.  Otherwise, it’s pretty standard stuff.  His sculpt from the neck down was the same as the unmasked Venom from earlier in the line.  It’s honestly not a bad sculpt, and in particular it captured the animated approach to Venom pretty well.  He got a new head, which removed the removable mask feature…un-removed?  I don’t know.  There’s no unmasked head is my point.  It’s really bulky at the neck, and I’m not entirely sure why.  Also, he’s got this sort of permanently looking up thing going on, which seems odd for someone of his stature.  Venom’s stealth-ness came from the color work, which was translucent.  There were actually two different versions; the one seen here was the one that more closely mimicked Venom’s usual set-up, while the second one inverted the colors.  This one’s not nearly as different at a glance, especially in the photos, but I guess it works out alright.  Venom was packed with two clip-on hand attachments, as well as a web-line that was wrapped around his waist.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was surprisingly short on Venom figures growing up.  I had one of the 10-inchers, and I jumped on the original Spider-Man Classics one pretty quickly, but the 5-inch ones all eluded me until later in life.  This guy was mixed in with a handful of Toy Biz figures that got traded into All Time a month or two ago, and he was surprisingly complete, so hooray for me!  He’s kinda goofy, obviously, but it’s not like I’m collecting the Toy Biz stuff for its serious adherence to the comics lore, am I?  Now, I guess I just have to track down that variant.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3672: Death’s Head

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

DEATH’S HEAD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

In 2014, 27 years after the character’s creation, the toyline tie-in chat that’s not legally a toyline tie-in character Death’s Head finally got an action figure, courtesy of Hasbro’s late stages Marvel Universe scale. Just three years later, we got a Marvel Legends Death’s Head figure. Unfortunately, it was Death’s Head II, who’s emphatically not as cool. That figure sold pretty abysmally, and the name took a bit of a hit, hence the rather long wait to get the real Death’s Head as a proper Legends release. His final release is…well there’s some moving parts to how it all worked out, but here he is, and that’s the most important thing, yes?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Death’s Head is a solo release for Marvel Legends. He was initially promoted as an exclusive for SDCC 2024, with a limited stock for Pulse after the con, but it seems Hasbro made more than expected, so after the scramble to get him, we all found out he’s actually a Fan Channel exclusive later in the fall, so the SDCC one was just kind of a preview? SDCC figures have seen re-releases in the past, but usually with some form of change, even if it’s just to the packaging. Not so this time. Speaking of packaging, this guy’s got a ’90s trading card-inspired box, a lot like Havok & Polaris and the Love Triangle set, which is a vibe I very much dig. The figure stands about 8 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation. This figure’s construction uses the same approach as his smaller counterpart, reworking parts from this line’s version of Colossus. It was a good approach at the smaller scale, and it’s still a good approach here. The upper torso has been modified to cut the original shoulder pads shorter, and the upper legs have the knee joints switched to pinless (though the arms remain visibly pinned). He still gets a lot of new parts, including a new head and lower legs, and new overlay pieces for his cape, torso armor, and belt/skirt. I remain impressed by Hasbro’s ability to translate this look into figure form; the head is once again the spitting image of Death’s Head from the comics, and the textured details on the overlays are nicely implemented. I don’t like how the cape is so free-floating, which is actually my main complaint regarding the smaller one, so hooray for consistency! The color work here is alright. He’s not quite as metallic as the smaller figure, which is a little bit of a bummer. Also, I get just paining over some of the Colossus details for some of it, but I’m not sure why the sides of his tunic aren’t painted right at the ab-crunch. It’s like that on the prototype too, so that’s intentional. Weird. Otherwise, he’s very bright, and the application is pretty clean. Death’s Head is packed with two sets of hands (fists and an open gesture/gripping combo), his shield, and an axe, mace, and missile. The shield can be held or go on his back, and you can mount the weapons to the shield, or swap them out for Death’s Head’s hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I have this fixation on Death’s Head that I can’t fully explain, but it’s just there. As a kid, I remember a CustomCon entry for Bruce Timm-Style Marvel Animated figures, which had a Death’s Head custom featured, and I’ve wanted him as a toy since. I loved the smaller figure, but he’s not my preferred scale, so I’ve been waiting patiently for this one. I wasn’t thrilled that he was going to be exclusive, but Max was kind enough to get me set-up with one as a birthday present. It’s not a perfect figure, but it’s a very, very cool one.

#3670: Superior Spider-Man

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

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Let’s go back to the beginning!  Okay, like, maybe the middle?  Post-intermission?  In 2014, after reviving Marvel Legends from its hiatus brought on by effectively running the line into the ground during their first go at things, Hasbro’s Return of Marvel Legends was losing steam, and they needed another angle.  That angle turned out to be mixing the comic assortments with movie tie-ins, under the Marvel Legends Infinite Series banner.  They launched with two sets, one based on Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the other on Amazing Spider-Man 2.  The Spidey assortment’s comic Spidey was the still relatively recent Superior Spider-Man redesign, which I reviewed here when it was new….ten years ago.  A decade later, Superior Spider-Man got a brief revival in the comics, and is showing back up in Legends form, too!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superior Spider-Man is a single deluxe release Marvel Legends figure, under the “Celebrating 85 Years” banner.  He’s based on the second Superior look, which was his more unique, and ultimately more relevant design.  It wound up outliving the original run, with Otto wearing during the time displacements of “Spider-Verse”, and Peter himself wearing it during the recent Superior revival run.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 38 points of articulation.  SpOck re-uses the arms and legs from the Renew Your Vows body, which updates him to most of the modern articulation scheme.  He’s got a new head, torso, and pelvis, courtesy of sculptor Dennis Chan, which match well with the pre-existing stuff, though, for whatever reason, he’s back to the ab-crunch and cut waist, rather than a more modern articulation scheme.  He’s also got modified forearms, which add the gauntlets that were missing from the original release of this costume.  SpOck’s color work is honestly pretty solid.  The base work is pretty clean, and they’ve even got his rather uneven web-lining down alright.  One of the coolest parts, though, is the lenses on the default head, which simulate the reflective lenses from the comics by doing some printed detailing.  It’s quite dynamic, and makes for a very unique appearance next to the other Spideys.  The only issue I ran into on my figure is the presence of some errant red on one of his right hands.  SpOck’s main accessory is his back-pack, complete with…well, I don’t recall if they were actually called “waldoes” when Ock was using thing, but they’re the additional legs, and another major thing missing from the last figure.  Each of the legs gets 8 points of articulation, for a total of 32 points in addition to the 38 of the core body, bringing him up to a whopping 70 points.  They’re a little tricky to work with in some poses, but they’re strong enough to hold the figure aloft, which is really the most important thing.  SpOck is also packed with an extra head with white lenses (if you’re not into the artsier style), a compact back pack without the legs, and three pairs of hands (in fists, thwipping, and open clawed).  If I’m being extra demanding, I’d say I’d like an unmasked Otto as Peter head, like the Minimate version got, but there’s still plenty here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The prior Superior Spidey was decent for the time, especially with the line still really figuring out its first year in a new direction.  That said, it dried up pretty quickly in terms of distribution, and it also aged pretty quickly.  Add in the missing elements, and the fact that its been a decade since the original, and you’ve got an easy mark for a new offering.  This one’s not perfect, but he’s pretty solid, and definitely brings the look more in line with the more recent standard Spideys.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3669: Halloween Jack

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

HALLOWEEN JACK

X-MEN 2099 (TOY BIZ)

“Once a schoolmate of the X-Man Meanstreak, Jordon Boone went on to become a most trusted employee of the monolithic Alchemax corporation, Alchemax installed nano-tech implants into Boone’s central nervous system-implants that render his cellular structure transmutable allowing him to change his shape at will. Calling himself Halloween Jack, this mischief maker causes trouble for friends and enemies alike.”

The 2099 imprint was a notable component of Marvel’s line-up in the ’90s, but these days, people tend to really only remember Spider-Man.  They did try to make some strides towards more unique storytelling, and X-Men 2099 in particular built a cast that wasn’t just re-hashes of prior characters.  The team also had a sizable portion of supporting players and recurring antagonists, such as Halloween Jack, a character who would later be revealed to actually be the future’s incarnation of Loki.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Halloween Jack was released in series 2 of Toy Biz’s X-Men 2099 line, released in 1996.  He was also re-released in 1997 on the Marvel Universe card back.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation, which includes a moving ponytail.  The amount of articulation is honestly astounding.  Like, I’m not sure exactly why Halloween Jack of all characters go this much movement, but here we are.  The only thing missing was some sort of hinge on the elbows.  Jack’s sculpt was all-new at the time, though it would be re-used for Jackal in the Maximum Cloneage boxed set.  As Jack was a shapeshifter, his exact appearance in the comics was rather fluid, but the sculpt actually does a pretty good job capturing the general vibe of the character’s illustrated appearances.  There’s quite a bit of texturing in play, which certainly keeps him visually interesting.  His paint work is decent enough.  The black and bright green is a very striking combo, and the application is all pretty clean, though his face is oddly fuzzy, which is something I’ve seen on multiple copies of the figure.  Jack is packed with monstrous mask and glove pieces to showcase his shapeshifting abilities.  It’s not a perfect set-up, but they’re fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have Halloween Jack himself as a kid, but I did have the Jackal repaint from the boxed set, so I remember the mold pretty well.  I had plenty of opportunities to get a Jack over the years, but never really jumped on it, and then by the time I wanted one, it was tricky to find him complete.  Thankfully, he was one of a small handful of packaged figures that got traded into All Time, so I got a chance to open a sealed one.  He’s a surprisingly good figure.  It’s kind of crazy the amount of effort they put into specifically this guy, but Toy Biz had a tendency to do that every so often.  It’s just one of their quirks, I suppose.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3664: Strong Guy

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

STRONG GUY

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Last week, I jumped back into Toy Biz Marvel with a discussion of the repaints that kept the line fresh on the pegs of KB Toys, one of the greatest supporters of the brand in the ’90s.  There were a variety of different ways they kept up with things, but at the tail end of the decade, they really dialed in on X-Men specifically.  There was a range of differences in terms of what they did with those figures.  Today’s offering, Strong Guy, was on the minor end of things when it came to change-ups.  Let’s jump into those, I guess?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Strong Guy was released in the first assortment of the KB-exclusive X-Men repaint line, released in 1998.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  His sculpt is re-use of the Series 6 Strong Guy, which was the only other Strong Guy Toy Biz ever did.  It was definitely a little on the small side for Guido, at least as he was usually depicted in the comics at the time, and the articulation was a bit stripped down by the line’s usual standards, but it was a sculpt that certainly looked the part for the character.  While the Magneto from this line had a rather drastically different color scheme from the original AoA release, Strong Guy doesn’t quite go that far, but it’s still a bit beyond the differences between the Morph releases, which you could chalk up to production changes.  The colors are rather desaturated compared to the original release, which is certainly an interesting choice.  Also, the one true application change here is the moving of his X-logo from his left side to centered on his vest.  I guess that works better for branding?  I don’t know.  I don’t think Guido ever had the logo there, but I honestly didn’t keep up with all of his costume changes.  Like the original release, this figure was without accessories, but he does still have his “power punch” feature.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Given how long it took me to even get around to opening my original Strong Guy, I guess it’s not a shock that I didn’t rush out to get this guy.  Honestly, I wasn’t even super sure I was going to do all of the variant hunting for all of these figures, at least initially, but I’ve gotten more invested in that over the years, so, when I found this guy at Factory Antiques, I opted to jump on it.  There’s not much new to this one, and it’s hard to say exactly *why* Toy Biz felt the need to do him, but, you know what?  I won’t knock them for doing another Strong Guy.

#3662: Spider-Man & Wolverine – Fantastic Four

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

SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE — FANTASTIC FOUR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Though the emotional through line of the Fantastic Four is undoubtedly the core family of four, the team itself has been no stranger to line-up changes over the years. Perhaps the most drastic of those changes was “The New Fantastic Four”, a team quickly assembled when the original four were presumed dead.  Rather than leaning into the usual quirky second tier character set-up that FF replacements tended to be, the New FF was all heavy hitters, with a line-up comprised of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and the Hulk.  The concept’s been brought back a few times since, more recently during Dan Slott’s run on FF, where Franklin and Valeria need assistance defending the Earth while the main four are off-planet, and call in Spider-Man and Wolverine, who get snazzy new team uniforms for the set-up.  Super toyetic, right?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Spider-Man and Wolverine are a Fan Channel-exclusive Marvel Legends two-pack, which just started hitting at the tail end of last month.  They seem to be loosely tied into the larger Wolverine anniversary celebration, though they’re slightly removed.  Both figures are based on their team suits as seen in Fantastic Four #21.

SPIDER-MAN

While Spidey’s gotten a few FF-related costumes previously, this marked his first time that got specifically a Fantastic Four design.  This one takes the usual Spidey costume layout, and mixes it with the inverted color scheme suit design the FF had earlier in the Slott run.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 34 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Amazing Fantasy body, which remains my favorite Spider-Man body that Hasbro has put out.  It’s just a really good base body, with balanced proportions and a really good range of motion on all of the articulation.  It’s a solid match for a more svelte Spidey, which is how he was depicted in the books.  The key selling point here is the new color scheme, which is heavy on the blue and black.  It matches with previously released Franklin and Valeria, and the application on the paint is all pretty cleanly handled.  Spidey is packed with four sets of hands, in fists, gripping, thwipping, and open gesture.

WOLVERINE

Wolverine’s ties to the FF are a little on the looser side, but he’s Wolverine, so, you know, he goes where he wants, I guess.  His costume design follows Spidey’s lead, also working in a bit of the classic brown costume, at least in terms of layout of the costume pieces.  The figure stands a little under 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation. Wolverine is largely using the same bank of parts Wolverine has been using since the Juggernaut Series release. It’s not quite as slick as newer molds, but it gets the job done. Since this costume lacks Logan’s usual distinctive boot shape, he’s got the more basic shins from the Retro card black suit release, and he’s also using the slightly more modern claw shape from the X-Force costume. His color scheme matches Spidey, which means it also matches Franklin and Val, which is certainly a plus. The application is generally clean, with no real issues to speak of. Wolverine gets no extras, not even extra hands, which is a bit of a bummer.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set definitely falls into that category of “things you don’t know you want until they exist” for me. I read the issues where these looks appeared, and I enjoyed them, but I didn’t feel like I *needed* them. But, when they got shown off, and I already had Franklin and Val in-hand, I was a pretty easy mark. They’re not much to write home about, I suppose, since they’re just straight repaints of figures we’ve already got, but they’re still solid figures, and they’re sensible variants.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3660: Iron Fist & Luke Cage

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

IRON FIST & LUKE CAGE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

In the ’70s, Marvel attempted to jump on a number of different popularity trains, and amongst them were Kung-Fu and Blaxploitation, resulting in the creation of Iron Fist and Luke Cage, two wholly separate and unrelated characters, at least at their start.  However, as the decade moved on, both of the characters struggled on their own.  Marvel’s solution was to roll them both into the same book, creating the “Heroes for Hire” (pluralizing the title already previously granted to Cage on his own).  It was quite a successful move, and the characters have remained linked ever since.  The pairing’s been the source of quite a bit of toy coverage, including, most recently, Marvel Legends‘ celebration of Marvel’s 85th anniversary.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Iron Fist and Luke Cage a two-pack Marvel Legends release, under the “Celebrating 85 Years” banner.  Interestingly, despite the pairing of the characters, this is the first time the two of them have been released together in two-pack form in the whole run of the line.  The closest we’ve gotten before this was the con-exclusive Netflix-based boxed set and the Amazon-exclusive comics boxed set that were both released to tie-in with Defenders, but those obviously through in the other characters as well.  Heck, prior to this, the singles of the characters had never even been in the same assortment!

IRON FIST

The second of Marvel’s Kung-Fu heroes, following Shang-Chi, Danny Rand aka Iron Fist is no stranger to Legends, getting his first and second figures both under Toy Biz’s run.  Under Hasbro, he’s had three figures, all of them in more recent costumes.  This one, however, returns to his original ’70s garb, which we haven’t seen since Toy Biz.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 38 points of articulation.  Iron Fist uses the “Renew Your Vows” Spidey base body as a starting point, with two new heads, and a new upper and lower torso, and belt piece, all courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding.  The base body has a great range of motion, which makes for all sorts of great kung-fu posing.  The new parts vibe really well with the pre-existing pieces.  The new heads give us both calm and screaming options, which are both really strong, and they’ve even both got posable ties on the back of the mask.  The color work on this figure uses a lot of molded coloring, with a bit of paint work.  It’s clean, concise, and bold, and it very definitely works with the mold.  The figure is packed with four pairs of hands (fists, flat, and two different open palm gestures) and two different chi effect pieces.

LUKE CAGE

Luke actually just got the Legends treatment rather recently, with a ’70s based figure in the Mindless Ones assortment from the end of last year.  Of course, with a ’70s figure released that recently, that does sort of mean this one had to be a different look, so they’ve opted for a more modern Luke.  It’s not a terrible choice, but it does mean that the two figures don’t necessarily have the same vibe, since Danny’s very ’70s and Luke is…not.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Luke is sporting an all-new sculpt courtesy of Rene Aldrete.  The body sculpt feels like it’s begging for re-use down the line, since it’s just a pretty basic t-shirt and jeans get-up.  There’s a ton of great texture work present, which really sells the more civilian aspect of Luke’s modern look.  It’s topped off by two new heads, which, much like Iron Fist, have calm and screaming expressions.  It’s a good mix, and seems to have a touch more character than the head we got from the ’70s Luke last year.  Color work for this figure is especially reliant on molded colors, which works surprisingly well.  There’s a little paint, mostly on the face and belt, which is handled very cleanly.  Luke is packed with two sets of hands, one in fists, the other in a gripping/open gesture combo.  The fists have brass knuckles, which read “LUKE” and “CAGE.”  They’re fun, but I’m also a bit surprised there’s not also standard fists without them.  It makes continuity between the poses a little confusing, since they’re not really set up for mix-and-matching the same way.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been wanting an updated classic Iron Fist for quite a while, like even before we got the Luke Cage.  Then we got the Luke Cage, and I only wanted the Iron Fist update even more.  After getting Luke on his own, I wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of having to buy a two pack with yet another Luke to get the matching Iron Fist.  I still find it a little odd that they’d release them so close together, but not just do the full ’70s style two-pack.  But, whatever the case, this set’s a strong one.  The two figures may not quite match up as a pair, but they’re individually really strong figures.  Iron Fist winds up as the star piece for me, but I found myself liking the Luke a lot more than I’d expected to.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3659: Magneto

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

MAGNETO

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

For the bulk of the ’90s, KB Toys filled up a good portion of their action figure aisle with Toy Biz Marvel figures.  Earlier in the decade, they got a lot of close-out and liquidation deals on older figures, so they had a pretty steady stock of those, allowing for ease of access to fill-in a collection.  As they sold through that stock, however, they needed more.  The easiest solution was just to ask Toy Biz to reprint some old molds in stripped down packaging, which honestly worked out pretty well.  A lot of the figures wound up being nearly identical to the earlier releases, but every so often they’d mix things up.  Case in point?  Today’s Magneto figure.  Let’s check him out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Magneto was released in the second KB-exclusive repaint assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, released in 1998.  He was an ever so slightly tweaked version of the prior repaint release of Magneto from the Marvel Hall of Fame line the prior year.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Sculpturally, this figure is the same as the AoA Magneto.  It’s a solid mold, through and through.  Definitely a more specifically dialed-in version of the character, of course, but it was Toy Biz’s most recent version of the character at the time, and AoA styling or not, the mold that fit the most with the rest of their output at the time.  The major change-up here is the paint.  Rather than a straight adaptation of the AoA costume, this one’s got more of an amalgamated look.  Definitely still leaning into the main classic color scheme, but he’s also got bare arms and a big white “M” on his chest now, which both call back to his ’80s costume (which finally got its proper figure due this year as part of the Legends ’97 tie-in line-up).  He’s also got a bit of silver thrown into the mix as well, for a little extra accenting.  It’s not a strictly comics-based look, but it’s honestly a pretty solid set-up, and the paint work is definitely very strong.  Like his AoA-counterpart, this guy is packed with his removable helmet and cape, as well as the big hand attachment.  I dig the hand a lot more this time, since it’s gets fully-painted detailing, which sells the whole look a bit better.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually came very close to getting this figure a number of times back in the ’90s, before I’d gotten the proper AoA version.  But, once I got that one, I didn’t feel like I *needed* this one.  Look, I was young; I didn’t know where I was ultimately going with this ’90s Toy Biz thing.  It’s one of those figures I’ve always remembered, and I’ve been hoping to get one for a bit.  As luck would have it, I happened upon a loose one while wandering through Factory Antiques during a day trip back in the spring.  He’s pretty nifty.  Like, yeah, not comics accurate, but it’s just a lot of fun.

#3657: Ghost Rider

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

GHOST RIDER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When Danny Ketch crosses paths with a cursed motorcycle, he is transformed into a Spirit of Vengeance, wielding supernatural powers as Ghost Rider.”

I’ve only gotten 7 Ghost Rider reviews here on the site, and three of those are multipacks.  While there’s been a split between Ghost Rider’s various hosts, Johnny Blaze has definitely been the breakaway lead.  That said, I ended my last Ghost Rider review, way back in December of 2022, by asking if we could get a proper figure of Danny Ketch, the third main Ghost Rider, introduced in the ’90s.  I guess someone out there was listening.  Or, you know, in a less me-centric-view, they had to get around to him eventually, right?  He wasn’t part of the sadly rather small selection of 50th anniversary offerings for the character, but he *does* get to be part of another anniversary set-up, albeit a more overarching Marvel celebration.  You know what? Good for him.  So, let’s just go ahead and give ol’ Danny his due!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ghost Rider is a deluxe offering from Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, released under the “Celebrating 85 Years” banner.  He’s effectively an “Ultimate Riders” level offering, but they’ve discontinued that wider set-up, so he’s more of an on his own sort of thing.  This is *technically* Danny’s third time in Legends form, and *technically* his second in his classic attire.  Why “technically”?  Because his first Legends release, back in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s run, was identified as Johnny Blaze on the back of the box, despite clearly being Danny.  Still, it was clearly Danny, so we’re giving him the number on that technicality.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  The figure’s sculpt is largely new; the head and neck are the same ones that have been in use since the Rhino Series figure.  It’s honestly fair; what exactly are you going to do to reinvent a flaming skull sculpt?  It’s got that cool moving jaw too, which I definitely dig.  From the neck down, he’s all-new.  The articulation scheme is a lot of the same style of layout we saw on the prior mold, but it’s more refined, and a lot cleaner looking.  He also gets drop hips, which are super beneficial for riding poses.  In terms of the look, we’re finally moving away from the re-used AIM parts and their built-in ’70s stunt guy vibe.  This one’s got the proper ’90s bike update, as Ketch well should.  There’s a lot of small detail work, especially in terms of texturing.  His jacket and boots have the stippled leather detailing, and the pants even get all of the right stitching and seams.  All of the real edgelord-y stuff (the spikes and chains) is separately sculpted, which grants the whole set-up a lot more depth and sharpness.  The color work relies on this construction, with a lot more molded coloring than prior releases.  That’s not to say there’s not paint work; the head gets a fair bit of accenting, so that the skull looks like an actual skull.  He’s also got detailing for his eyes, which seem a touch low, but they still work.  Ghost Rider is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and an open gesture/fist combo) and the flaming chain piece from the last few Riders.

In addition to that, of course, he’s got the biggest extra: his cycle.  Danny’s version of the bike is drastically different from Johnny’s stuntcycle-inspired ride, opting for a far more “tough” design, at least as far as the ’90s were concerned.  It was particularly angular and boxy, something that this version captures well.  The old Toy Biz release was noted for having a somewhat diminutive bike, but this one is quite well scaled to the figure it’s packed with.  The bike also gets its own selection of extras. There are flaming effects for each of the wheels, allowing the bike to stand better on its own, and adapting the flaming wheels effect from the comics pretty nicely.  There’s also an attachment for keeping the bike up with one wheel in the air, which adds a lot of dynamic posing options to the set.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve got a bunch of Johnny Blaze Ghost Riders, which is cool, because I sure do love Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider.  But I also love Danny Ketch Ghost Rider.  And I have significantly less of those.  I want more, but I rarely get the opportunity.  I have very fond memories of getting that first Legends Ghost Rider, and I was hoping for a good update.  This is a good update.  For variety’s sake, I might have liked a new head, but seeing how literally everything else is new, I can’t really complain, especially when everything else about the figure works so very well.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3655: Lilandra Neramani

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

LILANDRA NERAMANI

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Just three issues into Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum’s run on X-Men, readers were introduced to the Sh’iar via its first member, and eventual empress, Lilandra Neramani.  Lilandra would become a major recurring character through the Phoenix Saga, and in fact a notable recurring character for the X-universe as a whole.  She got a good focus on X-Men: The Animated Series, and even got a returning role in X-Men ’97 earlier this year.  Despite her prominent placement in the mythos, she’s not been exceedingly lucky with toy coverage.  She had a Minimate, but that’s effectively nothing these days.  Beyond that, she was relegated to just an extra head included with Mystique.  But no more!  No, now she’s getting real coverage!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Lilandra Neramani was part of a Marvel Legends two-pack released earlier in the year.  The pack is inexplicably part of the Wolverine anniversary celebration, made slightly less weird by the inclusion of a Brood-Infected Wolverine as the other half of the set.  It’s still a little odd to pack Lilandra and Wolverine together, given they don’t exactly have much of a history, but then neither do Lilandra and Mystique, so maybe it’s just her thing?  She’s seen here in her armored attire, which is very Empress-y.  Doesn’t quite have the same nostalgic twinge for me as her original design, but that one’s also a little harder to sell as a toy, I feel.  The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  Her sculpt uses some of the more standardized female buck parts, but she gets her fair share of new ones.  The most surprising new piece is the head, which isn’t a re-use of the Mystique piece as I’d expected it to be.  The detailing on this one is a little sharper and the shaping on the helmet is more in-line with her usual depictions.  The body sculpt gets a lot of character specific elements, rather than leaning into the painted detail side.  This is especially notable on the chest; those lines are actually etched in.  Her color work uses a lot of molded colors, but there’s a little bit of paint mixed in there as well.  The work on the face is particularly crisp.  Lilandra is packed with two sets of hands, in gripping and flat/fist pairs.  She’s also got her staff, which is a brand new sculpt.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since ’70s X-Men is my favorite era of X-Men, I’m always down for figures of the characters that originated there.  This set, however, presented me with a conundrum, since it paired Lilandra off with a decidedly ’80s Wolverine variant.  I thought about sticking with my Mystique head on Silver Sable body, but I did really like the more character-specific elements, and I thought I might be able to suffer through the Wolverine to get her.  I didn’t actually have to, though, because somebody who bought the set from All Time only wanted the Wolverine, so there was a spare Lilandra.  Well, not really, because it really meant there was a Lilandra for me.  She’s a solid figure.  I’d still love a first appearance version, but this one’s a good one to start with.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.