Tag Archives: Marvel

#0605: The Brood

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

THE BROOD

X-MEN (TOYBIZ)

Brood1

For the X-Men, simple terrestrial foes just weren’t enough. No, they had to kick off the extraterrestrial bit, starting fairly early in the series, before the original team had even left, when they faced off against the dastardly Lucifer! The aliens continued to show up with a fair bit of regularity, and in the mid-80s, we were introduced to the Brood. They were a bug-like race of creatures that gestated inside other beings and when they hatched, they would take on certain characteristics of the hosts. Sound familiar? Yeah, they weren’t too far removed from the Xenomorphs seen in Alien and Aliens. Not that it was a bad thing! The Brood have made their way into a few X-themed toylines over the years, with their first plastic appearance being in ToyBiz’s massive X-Men line from the 90s.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Brood2The Brood was released in the fifth series of the X-Men line. The figure is about 3 ½ inches tall and 4 inches in length. It features 8 points of articulation, as well as an action feature that flaps the wings and opens the jaw when you press the button on the figure’s back. The Brood are all fairly similar in design, and this figure was meant to be just a generic Brood. That said, if I recall correctly, the presence of wings denotes this as a Brood Queen. But, I could be wrong on that (EDIT: nevermind. I double checked and it looks like some of the drones were winged too). Given the non-human nature of the character, it’s not much of a surprise that the Brood had an all-new sculpt. Overall, it’s a pretty decent translation of the comic design, or at least their appearances in the 80s. It’s not quite as “buggy” as later figures would be, and it’s somewhat on the simpler side when it comes to texture, but it’s not bad, and it certainly fits in with the rest of the line. The muscles at the top of the front arms seem weirdly over-defined, but hey, it was the 90s. Everything had muscles then! I’m surprised the figure didn’t have shoulder pads and pouches. The Brood’s paint is pretty decently handled. The colors are on the drab side, but that’s accurate to the comics, and everything is pretty cleanly defined, if a little on the basic side. The Brood included no accessories, but what the heck would it even come with?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Brood is another Balticon acquisition. It came from the same dealer as Shatterstar and Magneto, though, this one was actually dug out of bin of $5 loose figures. So, a little more expensive, but honestly it feels worth it. The figure is a pretty solid piece and it holds up rather well even twenty years later.

#0604: Medusa

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

MEDUSA

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOYBIZ)

Medusa1

The Inhumans. They seem to be Marvel’s new pet project. They served as major players in Agents of SHIELD’s second season, they’ve had a couple of recent events that centered on them, and they’re slated to get their own movie. Rumor has it that Marvel’s hoping to elevate them to a near X-Men-like status. Best of luck to them on that. The Inhumans have been rather obscure for a while, but they’ve shown up a few times in toy form over the years. Let’s have a look at the very first figure of the hair-controlling Medusa, member of the royal family.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Medusa2Medusa was released as part of the fourth series of ToyBiz’s 90s Fantastic Four line. This series was based on the cartoon of the same name, and it was the first (and only) series to be based specifically on the show’s second season. Medusa was a recurring character throughout the season, so her inclusion here is quite sensible. The figure is roughly 5 inches tall and features 10 points of articulation. The articulation is…odd. She has some very nice shoulder movement, but she’s got the v-style hip joints that plagued most of the female figures of the 90s, and she has no neck movement at all. Posing her isn’t the easiest thing. Medusa had a sculpt that was new to her (though it would end up being re-used a few times), and, truth be told, it’s not great. The proportions are all pretty off; the hands and feet are rather large, and the torso feels way too small, especially by comparison. Also, for a character whose whole shtick is hair, hers seems rather lacking in volume. Then there are her legs, which are a) at a weird angle, and b) two different lengths, resulting in a figure that’s rather difficult to stand. At the very least, the figure’s face isn’t terrible, which is a good thing for the time. Paint on the figure, sadly, doesn’t do much to salvage the sculpt. It’s not terrible, but there’s more than one instance of bleed over, the face is kind of sloppy, and the purple paint on the lower arms and legs doesn’t match the molded color of the rest of the body. This particular series’ main gimmick was that each figure included a stand with an action feature of some sort. Medusa included a stand sculpted to resemble her hair. It has a set of wheels on the bottom, and when it’s pushed forward, the “pinwheel” at the top spins. Yay?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Medusa was another Balticon purchase. She was actually packaged when I got her, but still pretty low priced. She’s a figure I’ve seen lots of times before, but never actually gotten around to buying. She’s not exactly the most thrilling figure, which is kind of a shame, since was her only figure for over ten years. Oh well.

#0601: Magneto II

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

MAGNETO II

X-MEN (TOYBIZ)

The 90s, as wacky as they may have been, are still a rather important decade to me. Obviously, being born in that decade does it some favors, but many of my formative action figure collecting years occurred during that decade as well. Growing up, my favorite toy company was very definitely ToyBiz, who were just killing it with their huge selection of Marvel toys. The line that pulled me in was X-Men, which also happened to be their biggest line. And what kind of an X-Men line would it be without a few versions of their very first foe, Magneto?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

MagnetoII2Magneto (or Magneto II, as he’s officially known) was part of the third series of ToyBiz’s X-Men line. He was the second version of the character to show up in the line, which, you have to admit, is pretty impressive for someone who wasn’t Wolverine. The figure stands roughly 5 inches tall and features 9 points of articulation. The 90s X-Men definitely had a style to it when it came to the figures’ sculpts. Some of them have aged pretty well, some haven’t. Magneto is one of the latter. He’s not too bad, but he definitely has some odd spots. The arms are rather stubby, and the torso is quite short as well. He also has a strange assortment of muscles on his torso. I think they’re meant to represent muscles that exist on actual people, but they seem to have missed the mark. At the very least, they’ve managed to translate his costume pretty well to three dimensions. The figure has a weird action feature, even for the 90s. He has a (rather obtrusive, I might add) lever on his back, which, when pulled, is supposed to activate a sparking effect in the transparent square on the front of the chest. It’s worn out on my figure, which is actually a rather common occurrence. Magneto originally included a cape, to aid in masking the action feature, but, as you can see, my figure no longer has his. The paintwork on Magneto is fairly straightforward. He’s got some pretty basic color work, which is all pretty clean.  There is some bleed over on some of the edges, but nothing too major. He’s lacking in pupils; I’m not sure if that’s purposefully that way, but it seems a little weird. Magneto originally included a blaster, because…I really don’t know. Mine doesn’t have that either, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

EDIT 12/25/20 – I have located both the cape and the gun for my figure, so now he’s complete.  Yay!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

For as many of these figures as I owned growing up, this Magneto wasn’t one of them. I ended up finding this guy in a bin of loose figures at this past Balticon. Not quite as great a find as Shatterstar, but, for a dollar, I really can’t complain. I still prefer the first version of the character, but this one’s not bad.

#0600: Tony Stark – Mech Test

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

TONY STARK – MECH TEST

IRON MAN (HOT TOYS)

TonyMechTest1

Holy crap, I’ve actually written 600 of these things. Wow. And people are still reading, like, at an increasing rate, even. I think I’m actually not scaring people off! Yay! Anyway, another milestone means another “Deluxe Review.” So, we once again dive into the world of high end collecting, with another figure from renowned toy makers Hot Toys.

HT first got into the Marvel game with the first Iron Man film. Over the last few years, Iron Man’s kind of been HT’s bread and butter. It seems like no matter how many versions of the guy they release, the demand just isn’t dying down. I’ve already looked at one of their more conventional Iron Man variants, but my personal favorite is actually a Tony Stark figure. Let’s check that one out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tony is part of HT’s main Movie Masterpiece Series. He’s number 116 in the line, and he’s numerically the fourth Iron Man figure in the line. He stands roughly 12 inches in height and has…ummm….a bunch of articulation. As with lots of HT figures, the clothing covers the majority of his joints, and since I’m not really in the habit of undressing these guys, I don’t really have an exact count. It’s worth noting that the movement in the arms is somewhat restricted, due to the armature on his arms. The figure’s appearance is based on the sequences of the first Iron Man film where Tony is testing out the mechanics of the armor, specifically the flight systems. Not the lengthiest portion of the film, but certainly an important one.

TonyMechTest2Let’s start things off by checking out the head sculpt. RDJ has one of those likenesses that seems to be difficult to capture, especially for Hot Toys. That being said, even though it was only their second attempt at a full RDJ sculpt, I actually think it holds up as one of HT’s better attempts. There are still a few issues here and there. I think the biggest issue with the likeness is the eyes, which seem maybe a little off. I can’t put my finger on it, but they just don’t seem right. Regardless, the sculpt is certainly of a high quality.  It’s full of some great texture and it really looks like a real person’s head. The paintwork just enhances this, with the expertly handled detailing for which HT is best known.

Typically, an Iron Man figure from HT is going to be a fully-sculpted venture. However, this one’s a little bit different. His costume is made up of a short-sleeve t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a pair of pants, knee pads, a few belts and straps, his boots, and his arm exo-skeletons. The short-sleeve shirt is a little too big to be in proper scale, especially around the collar, but it’s passable. The pants are pretty nice, an feature working pockets and belt loops. The kneepads are a nice hybrid of tailored and sculpted parts, as actual kneepads would be. The big work here is on the armored parts, which feature some tremendously detailed sculpting. You could almost be fooled into believing they’re actually made up of many smaller parts, but they’re just solid pieces. They are also exquisitely painted, which just helps to further the realism.

TonyMechTest3Under the costume is a fairly standard narrow-shouldered True-Type body, with a few main changes (that I know of, anyway). The biggest is the upper torso, which has be reworked to feature Tony’s signature Arc reactor. In addition, the arms (and torso) have been slightly re-worked in order to facilitate a light-up feature. The arms are wired up and can be plugged into the battery pack cleverly hidden in one of Tony’s pouches, and the torso features its own battery pack. The light-up feature works decently enough, however the batteries don’t last very long.

Tony was a little on the light side as far as extra pieces went, though he included one fairly large accessory that made up for it a bit. He included:

  • 2 pairs of interchangeable hands
  • A pair of shoes
  • Dummy
  • Display stand

The hands come in “repulsor” and relaxed varieties. Both pairs are gloved and allow for use of the light-up feature. It’s certainly nice to have the option of relaxed hands, but they really aren’t that different from the repulsor hands, making choosing between them somewhat pointless.

The shoes are a fairly standard pair of HT dress shoes. They’re molded in matte black. Truth be told, I didn’t keep track of the ones included with my figure, hence them not being pictured. I guess they’re meant to allow you to display a more casual Tony, though, it’s somewhat pointless, since the arm pieces can’t really be removed.

TonyMechTest4Dummy is definitely the coolest of the accessories. He’s integral to the mech test scene, so his presence here is much appreciated. He’s very nicely sculpted and painted, and matches up pretty much perfectly to the machine from the film. He isn’t perfect, though. A lot of his pistons and joints are just mock pieces, and don’t actually move the way they’re supposed to, which is somewhat frustrating. Also, he’s rather fragile. The bottom piece of mine just snapped one day, sending the poor bot tumbling. Hence the carefully cropped photo. Still, he’s a fun enough piece.

The display stand is actually different from the normal HT stand. It’s a flight stand, which is nice, considering the scene this figure is replicating hinges on Tony flying. The base is designed to look like a section of Tony’s workroom floor, which it replicates quite nicely, and there’s also a nice little engraved name tag at the front. I do wish it were just a little bit more compact, as it’s quite a shelf-hog as it is, but it’s not the worst thing ever. He also included a tri-fold cardboard background depicting the rest of the workroom. It’s rather simple; just a screen shot of the room, which can be stood behind the figure. Not the most exciting thing, but it’s there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Tony here was a combination birthday/graduation present from my parents. Some kids get a car or something big to take off to college. Me? I got an action figure. Not that it’s really that surprising, right? Tony was only the third HT figure to be added to my collection, and he was the first Marvel HT I got, which makes him pretty special. Truth be told, he’s still one of my favorites, and I find him to be far more interesting than just a basic Iron Man.

TonyMechTest5

#0597: Iron Legion

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

IRON LEGION

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

IronLegion1

It seems that not everyone agrees, but I thought that Avengers: Age of Ultron was a pretty fantastic movie. I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish, and after having seen it five times, I feel it really holds up to repeat viewings. For me, perhaps the most disappointing piece of the movie experience has been the rather light offering of movie-based action figures. Hasbro’s offerings in particular seem to be missing several key pieces of what made me love the movie just as much as I did. Interestingly enough, more than one line of figures is placing a decent-sized focus on the Iron Legion, who ultimately have a minor role in the film. But, hey, new toys is new toys, so I got one.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

IronLegion2The Iron Legion figure is part of the second series of Hasbro’s 3 ¾ inch line of Avengers: Age of Ultron figures. The figure stands roughly 3 ¾ inches tall (not a huge shocker there) and has 5 points of articulation. It’s disappointing that Hasbro’s decided to switch to the lower articulation count, but I guess it’s, at the very least, consistent. The Iron Legion figure appears to be an all-new sculpt. It does a nice enough job of translating the movie’s design to the smaller format. The proportions are all pretty good, and the details seem to be well-placed. The sculpt is a little on the soft side in terms of details, but it’s about on par with the rest of the line. Overall, not a bad sculpt. Paint? That’s a different story. Hasbro desperately needs to work on the paint on their figures. It’s consistently their downfall. First of all, this guy is missing more than a few details. The blue is only applied to about half of the places it should be. Also, while they’ve chosen the red accent color (which I think belonged to either 03 or 05, depending on which one of those was Ultron Mk 1), they haven’t actually put in a number or done any of the detailing outside of a small section of the torso. The worst thing is that, with the exception of the small bit of red, all of the paint is very sloppily applied, with fuzzy edges, bleed over, inconsistent coverage, and splats of paint where there shouldn’t be. It’s an incredibly messy figure. The Iron Legion’s one accessory is some sort of an energy blade clip-on. Not really sure what it’s supposed to be, but I don’t think it was in the movie. At least it’s not a missile launcher…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Getting the Iron Legion was sort of bittersweet. I found him along with an entire case of Series 2 figures, which is really great. However, the figure I wanted most, Scarlet Witch, is only packed one per case (which is super dumb). My Dad really wanted one (he’s a long-time Scarlet Witch fan) so the single Witch I found went to him. So, I got this guy and an Ultron to hold myself over until I can get a Scarlet Witch for myself. The trouble is, he’s not particularly well done, nor is he a figure I was desperate to own, so my opinion of him is rather “meh.”

#0578: Banshee & Pyro

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

BANSHEE & PYRO

MARVEL MINIMATES

Banshee&Pyro1

In the 90s, the X-Men were just the very biggest thing at Marvel. They were in everything, they had everything. They even had two rather extensive lines of toys running, offering pretty much everyone who showed up even for just a little while. After the 90s ended, that cooled down a bit, and they haven’t had nearly as extensive a hold on the market since. However, Diamond Select Toys, with their extensive Marvel Minimates line, is doing their very best to live up to the 90s X-Men toylines. The most recent round of ‘mates is once again centered around the team, and does its fair share to fill a few X-shaped holes. Let’s kick things off with my favorite set, Banshee vs. Pyro!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This two pack is part of Marvel Minimates Series 60. The series is an even split between the X-Men and their foes the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Each set includes one X-Man and one Brotherhood member, and, as an added bonus, three of the four sets feature parts to turn the X-Man into another member of the team.

BANSHEE

Banshee&Pyro3Banshee is a figure we’ve been waiting quite some time for. He started popping up on wishlists just a few series into the line, mostly due to his absence from the Giant-Size X-Men #1 boxed set. Then he showed up as one of the choices in the Series 50 poll, but was ultimately not one of the finalists. Now we’ve finally gotten him. Of course, he’s in his 90s Strike Force uniform instead of his traditional green and yellow, but let’s not split hairs here. We got Banshee! Focus on the positive! The figure stands 2 ½ inches tall and features the usual 14 points of articulation. As I noted above, this is Banshee’s Jim Lee design from the 90s. It’s not his longest lasting look, but he did wear it in a few noteworthy appearances. He uses the standard Minimate body, with the addition of a hairpiece, cape, gloves, leg straps, and boot straps. I believe that the gloves are new to this series, though they are used on all of the X-Men in this series. The rest of the pieces are some rather clever re-use. The hair is from the Infinity Gauntlet set’s Adam Warlock, the cape is from the Secret Wars set’s Photon, and the straps are all from Series 34’s 90s Cyclops. All of the pieces are well-sculpted and well-chosen for Banshee’s look. Banshee’s paintwork is generally pretty good. The colors are nice and bold, and the detail lines are all very well Banshee&Pyro2applied. There is a little bit of bleed over here and there on the changes from blue to yellow, and the belt buckle isn’t fully red like it should be. All minor things, but things that it would be nice to see handled just a bit better. Banshee is packed with a piece replicating his sonic scream ability, a flight stand, and a clear display stand. In addition to the Banshee parts, he also includes parts to transform the figure into Gambit. He has a head, hairpiece, set of card throwing hands, and a satchel. All of these pieces are very nice, and they translate the figure to Gambit quite expertly.

PYRO

Banshee&Pyro5Now, the wait for Pyro alone hasn’t quite been as extensive as it was for Banshee, but he and his fellow Brotherhood members have been waiting in the wings for a little while. Like Banshee, Pyro is about 2 ½ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. The collar piece is a little bit restricting of the head movement, but it’s still there, so that’s good. Pyro makes use of add-on pieces for his mask, collar, and gloves. All of these pieces are new to Pyro, and they’re all pretty good adaptations of his comic design. The mask is a little soft on the details, but it’s not too bad. The paintwork on Pyro isn’t quite as good as Banshee, but it’s still not horrid. The biggest issues seem to occur on the mask, where the paint is only in the same general area of where it should be, which is rather distressing. Aside from that, the colors are nicely chosen and the linework is all pretty clean. In particular, I really like the fully detailed face under the mask. It has a lot of personality. Pyro includes two flame constructs and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked this set up all by itself from my local comicbook store. They had three of the four other sets, but this was the only one I felt like I had to get right away. These are two of my favorite X-Men characters, and they turned out quite nicely. I can’t wait to get the rest of the series now!

Banshee&Pyro4

#0570: Age of Ultron Minimates Single Packs

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

BARON STRUCKER, ULTRON MK 1, SUB-ULTON – BLUE, SUB-ULTRON – RED, IRON LEGION 02, & 04

MARVEL MINIMATES

AoUSingles1

Okay, today wraps up my reviews of the first “assortment” of Avengers: Age of Ultron-themed Marvel Minimates. For a while now, Diamond Select Toys has been doing “army dump” cases, where you have the chance to buy a few army builder figures in single packs, as well as one or two single-packed non-army builders. Just a few months ago, I looked at the army dump case for the Aliens line. They’ve also shown up a few times in the Marvel Minimates line, to tie-in with several of the movies. They’ve done it once more for Age of Ultron, albeit with a few differences. Technically, these are each single releases, but I received them all as one, and they sort of work as one entity. Also, there are some minor spoilers for Age of Ultron below. Nothing that would ruin your movie-going experience, but if you haven’t seen it yet, you might want to hold off.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These figures are all part of the first series of Marvel Minimates Age of Ultron blind-bagged figures. They ship in a case of 18 blind bagged figures. Previous army dump cases have not been blind-bagged and they have generally been cases of 12, so these are both changes. The ratio of the figures is 1x Strucker, 1x Ultron Mk 1, 3x Sub-Ultron – Blue, 3x Sub-Ultron – Red, 5x Iron Legion 02, 5x Iron Legion 04.

BARON STRUCKER

AoUSingles2Strucker, Strucker, Strucker. This guy was pushed pretty hard as being really important in AoU, and, truth-be-told, his part in the film is rather small. I mean, the guy still has an impact on the story, but I was sort of expecting more, given all the lead-up. His figure is roughly 2 ½ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. While the line is based upon Age of Ultron, Strucker’s design here is actually the one he had in the post-credits scene of The Winter Soldier. Of the two, the chosen look is definitely the more distinctive, and it means he also goes pretty well with the various Hydra soldiers we’ve gotten. As far as structure, Strucker’s actually almost identical to Black Widow. Obviously, he doesn’t have the hair piece, but he has the same belt and holster. Seeing as they’re both pretty standard paramilitary pieces, they work just as well here as on Widow. The figure’s paint is generally pretty good. His uniform is done with two different tones of green, which adds some fairly nice depth to the design. The line work is also all pretty clean, and rather detailed. The uniform has some great detailing and texturing, and it looks like the one from the movie. I can’t say that the face looks a whole lot like the actor, but it’s not like it doesn’t look like the actor. Also, it seems like the hair may be a)too low set, and b) too dark. Strucker is packed with a handgun and a clear display stand.

ULTRON MK 1

AoUSingles3Hey, another Ultron Mk 1! Cool! It seems more than one toy company was influenced by that distinctive appearance. The fact that it played such a central role in the first trailer probably helped up the popularity of the design. Ultimately, it ended up with a little less screen time than I expected, but what screen time it did have was well-used. The figure is the same height as Strucker, but it only has 13 points of articulation, due to being down a hand. He’s built on the standard Minimate body with the damaged lower arm of the Battle-Damaged T-800 in place of his own lower left arm. The arm’s a good piece. It’s nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. The paint is this figure’s real shining point. The torso and waist are molded in clear plastic, with the actually body painted on. This allows for a more proper robotic appearance for the figure, and it works quite well. The detail lines are superbly handled, and this thing is just covered in texture. The only real drawback is that my figure has some paint rub on the back of the torso, presumable from being packed in with the stand. The stand, for the record, is this figure’s only accessory. That’s pretty much on par with the rest of the assortment, but I wouldn’t have minded getting an extra drone head or something to simulate the partial drone he crushes.

SUB-ULTRON – BLUE

AoUSingles6If you feel like you’ve seen this figure before, it’s because you have…essentially. This figure is effectively the same as the Sub-Ultron included with Winter Ops Hawkeye. If you really want my feelings about the figure, I’d recommend reading the review here. There is one notable difference between this version and that one: the blues of the single release are much paler than the two pack version. Oddly, I actually find myself liking this look a little bit more, for whatever reason. My only real fault with this figure is that there aren’t more of him! Seriously, there are like hundreds of these guys in the final battle, and all we get is three? That’s a little weak.

SUB-ULTRON – RED

AoUSingles7Remember all the stuff I just said about the Blue Sub-Ultron? Well, this is the exact same figure, aside from the blue accents being swapped out for red. Same head, same body, same basic detailing, same display stand. The red, of course, means that Ultron is directly controlling the drone. Thing is, we only see him control them one at a time, so having three seems excessive. Still, I like the red detailing, and this works as pretty decent classic Ultron.

IRON LEGION 02

AoUSingles4Oh boy, the Iron Legion. These guys. Look, I don’t hate them, but I do sort of resent them. See, it’s really their fault that I don’t have more Sub-Ultrons. Because, instead of more Ultron figures, we were subjected to five each (ten total) of these guys. There are a few issues with that. First off, the Iron Legion play kind of a small role in the movie. Secondly, there are only actually 5 Iron Legion drones in the film. How might I know this, you ask? Because, thirdly, the Iron Legion are NUMBERED! As in there is one 01, one 02, one 03, one 04, and one 05. You’ll notice that the figures here are labeled as “02” and “04.” That’s because they represent those numbers of the Iron Legion. So, not only do I have TEN of these guys, but they’re also evenly split between 02 and 04, so they actually aren’t army builders. So, I just have a bunch of extras of two rather specific figures. All that aside, how are the actual figures? Well, 02 is built on the standard body, with no add-ons. Just a vanilla ‘mate. This isn’t bad, because the Iron Legion are depicted as being rather sleek, and since they aren’t actual armor, they aren’t sized to fit a person. Now, being a plain Minimate, 02 relies on paint to convey the design. The paintwork isn’t perfect, but it’s still pretty good. The colors are nicely chosen, and the detail lines are clean and plentiful. The real issue here is that the colors tend to stray outside of the lines.  The 02 has a lighter blue as its accent color, which offers a little more brightness to the design. Iron Legion 02 includes a clear display stand as its only accessory.

IRON LEGION 04

Iron Legion 04 is essentially the same figure as Iron Legion 02. It too uses just the basic Minimate body, has the usual articulation, and includes a clear display stand as its sole accessory. The difference between the two is paint. Now, obviously, this one has a “04” in place of the “02” of the last one, but it also swaps out the light blue accents for black. It doesn’t look bad, but it does result in a slightly duller figure, color-wise.

AoUSingles5

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I purchased these figures as a full case from my favorite Minimate retailer, Luke’s Toy Store. Ultimately, I’m torn on these guys. Strucker is technically well handled, but isn’t the most exciting Minimate. I do like Ultron Mk 1 quite a bit, and he was certainly a well-chosen figure for this assortment. The additional Sub-Ultrons are certainly appreciated, but I really wish there were more of them, specifically the blue ones. The Iron Legion? Well, I like the figures well enough, but I really have a difficult time getting past how many of them were included in the case. They aren’t army builders, and even if they were, I really don’t see how anyone could see them being in greater demand than the Sub-Ultrons. It just feels like very poor planning.

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#0569: Hawkeye – Winter Ops & Sub-Ultron

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

HAWKEYE – WINTER OPS & SUB-ULTRON

MARVEL MINIMATES

HawkeyeWO&SubUltron1Alright, yesterday’s review did turn out quite as up-beat as I’d hoped. Not every set of Minimates can be a total winner, I suppose. Today’s review isn’t too far removed from yesterday’s. the same two characters are covered here, but I think this one might turn out a bit better. Let’s see if I’m right!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two are part of Marvel Minimates Series 61. This set is the last piece of the first assortment of Age of Ultron-themed Minimates.  It’s one of the two specialty exclusive sets, and it’s the short-pack of the two.

HAWKEYE – WINTER OPS

HawkeyeWO&SubUltron2It’s Hawkeye again! Yay Hawkeye! The figure is roughly 2 ½ inches tall and features 14 points of articulation, although the hip articulation is a little restricted by the waist piece. Hawkeye is depicted here in his coated look from the film, which he wears during the opening and closing battles of the film. Since both of those battles take place in the more frigid Sokovia, I guess “Winter Ops” is a reasonable enough name. It’s actually a pretty nice design, and it works in a few more of the classic Hawkeye elements that were absent from the first movie’s design. While the majority of the figures in this series are complete re-use, this Hawkeye’s only re-used part is his hair, which is the same as the regular Hawkeye’s hair. The figure also has new add-ons for his collar/quiver and his belt/lower jacket. Both pieces are well sculpted and match up nicely to the design of the costume from the movie. The only real issue I ran into is that the quiver on my figure wasn’t very well affixed to the collar, so it fell out almost as soon as I took the figure out of the packaging. It was a quick fix, but it was still a little annoying. Hawkeyes’s paintwork is quite well handled.  From the waist down, it’s the same as the regular Hawkeye, which, given that the jacket of this version is just supposed to go over the regular version, adds a nice bit of consistency. The upper half of the figure is sharply and cleanly detailed, and it does a great job of capturing the jacket’s look. The face on this figure has a more intense expression than the regular, and I think it actually results in a stronger likeness of Jeremy Renner. Guess I just associate the guy with looking pissed off. Hawkeye features the same selection of accessories as his regular counterpart: a bow, three arrows, and a clear display stand.

SUB-ULTRON

HawkeyeWO&SubUltron3So, when you need Ultron, but the regular one calls in sick, you get a Sub-Ultron, right? Nah, not really. The Sub-Ultron is really just the name of the generic Ultron Drones from the movie. Interestingly enough, while Hawkeye never has much interaction with Ultron Prime, he does have a ton of interaction with the Sub-Ultrons, so this packing makes a lot more sense than the last one did. The figure has the same basic height as Hawkeye and he has 14 points of articulation, unimpeded this time. Design-wise, there was really only one real Ultron drone design in the film. I kind of like this one a little bit more, because it’s a more classically styled take on the character. Like Ultron Prime, the Sub-Ultron features a newly sculpted head on the basic Minimate body. It works better here, though, since the Sub-Ultrons aren’t meant to be big and imposing. The head is a fairly straight forward piece. It’s well-sculpted and it looks like the heads from the movie. Paint is really where the strong suit lies on this figure. All of the many pieces of the Ultron body are clearly outlined, and there’s plenty of great texture work. The lines are also all crisp and dark, which hasn’t really been the case with the AoU-mates I’ve looked at so far. The figure also has a few spots of nice, bright blue, which works as a great accent and (in-movie) indicates that Ultron is not in direct control of this drone body. The Sub-Ultron’s only accessory is a clear display stand, but I can’t really think of anything else that could have been included.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like yesterday’s set, I got this one as part of a complete set of Series 61, which I ordered through Big Bad Toy Store. This was actually the set I was looking forward to the most in this series, and I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint. This Hawkeye design is a little stronger than the last one, and the figure translates it very well. I also like the more intense expression, and it was nice to get a few new parts for this one. The Sub-Ultron is a much more solid figure compared to Ultron Prime. It maintains the same level of paint detail, but without the issues with size. This set is a great addition to the line.

#0568: Hawkeye & Ultron Prime

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

HAWKEYE & ULTRON PRIME

MARVEL MINIMATES

Hawkeye&UltronPr1

Alright, now we get into the good stuff. I mean, sure, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were fun , and Iron Man, Widow, Thor, and Cap weren’t bad, but the movie was called Age of ULTRON. Dude’s in the title. That makes him a little important. Add in Hawkeye who got short changed by the first Avengers movie, both in Minimate form and in the film itself, and you’ve got what makes for quite a winning combination. So, let’s look at the basic Hawkeye and Ultron Prime.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Hawkeye and Ultron are part of Marvel Minimates Series 61, which is the specialty store portion of the first assortment of Age of Ultron Minimates. This set is one of two specialty-exclusive sets from the first assortment, and it is the heavier packed of the two.

HAWKEYE

Hawkeye&UltronPr3Hawkeye’s the requisite Avenger here, though I guess he’s the least “heavy-hitter” of the main six. The figure is about 2 ½ inches tall and he has the usual 14 points of articulation. This figure is based on Hawkeye’s no-sleeve appearance, which is pretty much the same as his main appearance in the first Avengers film. The figure shares his collar and quiver with the Hawkeye from the last movie, but this time around he’s got the Series 27 Ultimate Cap hair, which had been popping up with increasing frequency. It’s actually a better fit for Jeremy Renner’s hair than the previous piece, and a better sculpt in general. At first glance, Hawkeye’s paint isn’t much different than the last Avengers film version. However, a closer look shows that his paint is actually a fair bit more detailed, cleaner, and better aligned to the body. Hawkeye’s face is probably the biggest departure from the last one. I’m not sure that they’ve necessarily captured the Renner likeness any better, but I personally like this face a little more than the last. To be fair, the hair also plays a large part in how the face looks. Hawkeye is armed with his bow and three arrows, and he’s also packed with a clear display stand.

ULTRON PRIME

Hawkeye&UltronPr2And now we finally get to the titular villain, Ultron. It’s taken a little time, but here we are. The figure has 14 points of articulation and stands about 2 ½ inches tall. That last bit is sort of an issue. Like the Hasbro figure before him, this Ultron Prime is simply too small. Now, it’s not unheard of for a Minimate to be slightly out of scale (just ask the Sentinels) but for a character like Ultron, who only needs to be a little bigger than the rest of the line, Diamond usually uses a few add-ons to bulk the character up just a tad. Characters like Groot have received a few pieces here and there to bring them to a more proper height. Ultron’s only additional sculpted piece is his head. Aside from that, he just uses the basic body. This makes him feel rather… unintimidating, especially when supposedly compact designs like the Mark 43 are so much bulkier than he is. The figure really would have benefited from at the very least a waist extender and a bulker torso piece. As is, he feels far too puny for the film’s version of the character. Now, moving past the issues with scale and sculpt, it should be noted that the paintwork on this particular figure is tremendously handled. All of his detail lines are nice and crisp, and his many textural details extend around almost the entirety of the figure. At the very least, on his own, he looks like Ultron. Ultron Prime’s only accessory is a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I got the last two sets from my local comicbook store, they sadly had already sold out of both of the Hawkeye and Ultron sets by the time I got there. To make matters worse, my other go-to retailer for Minimates purchases, Luke’s Toy Store, ended up not getting adequate supplies of Series 61 due to a mix-up with Diamond. So, I ended up having to order a complete set of Series 61 (extras of Iron Man, Black Widow, Cap, and Thor included) from Big Bad Toy Store. I don’t dislike this set. I can’t say it wowed me as much as I’d hoped it would, though. Hawkeye is a great update on the original Avenegrs design. From top to bottom, he is a superior figure to his predecessor. Sadly, Ultron ends up being the disappointing piece here. He isn’t terrible, but he’s been horribly undercut by the lack of any sort of add-ons. His head piece is the first new part we’ve seen so far in this assortment, which leads me to believe that DST were trying to get as much as they could out of re-used parts. Perhaps Ultron’s additional pieces just didn’t cost out. Or it could even be possible that DST was unaware of Ultron’s final scale until it was too late to change. I don’t really know, but the end result is a somewhat lackluster take on the movie’s primary villain. That’s unfortunate.

#0567: Captain America & Thor

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THOR

MARVEL MINIMATES

ThorCapAvAoU1

Alright, we’re starting to get into full swing here with the Age of Ultron Minimates reviews. I looked at two of the new comers and two of the mainstays of the main team. Today, I’ll be taking a look at another set of the returning team members. Interestingly enough, it’s my favorite member of the main team and my least favorite member of the main team, packed together, Captain America and Thor. Now, hopefully the Hemsworth fans won’t kill me before I finish the review.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two are part of the first assortment of Age of Ultron Minimates. Cap and Thor were one of the two sets of Age of Ultron-themed Marvel Minimates available in both the TRU assortment and Series 61 of the main Marvel Minimates line. Mine are the specialty release, and there are a few differences between Thor in the two releases, which I’ll get to shortly.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

ThorCapAvAoU2Chris Evans as Captain America may very well be one of my favorite things about the Marvel movies. His take on Cap is on par with Christopher Reeve’s Superman in terms of definitiveness. This figure is the 7th Minimate of his take on the character. He stands approximately 2 ½ inches tall and features the normal 14 points of articulation. Cap is based on his primary look from the film, which, as I noted in my review of the Marvel Legends version of the costume, is a tweak of his STRIKE team suit from The Winter Soldier. As such, it shares many of the same pieces with Series 55’s version of that suit. The helmet, harness, and belt are all the same, and they are just as good here as they were there. The gloves are a reuse of the ones seen on the AoU boxed set’s Nick Fury figure, and they represent a closer match to the gloves from the film than the WS pieces. The paintwork on Cap is generally not bad. There’s a bit of slop in a few areas, and, like the rest of the series, the detail lines could stand too be a little darker, but he looks pretty good overall. The face has a passing resemblance to Evans, which is certainly more than Hasbro’s managed. At first, I didn’t care for the facial expression, but it’s grown on me a little. I still feel that it should commit to either a calm expression or an aggressive one. This one is somewhere in between and ends up looking a little goofy. Cap includes his mighty shield (which is the same as all the previous movie shields), a hand for it to plug onto, a spare hairpiece (which is the same as last year’s Star-Lord, among others), and a clear display stand. These are mostly good pieces, but I don’t think the hair-piece works very well for Cap. It seems he was given this one so that he, Iron Man, and the two Hawkeyes didn’t all have the same hair, but it doesn’t work.

THOR

ThorCapAvAoU3So, hey, remember in the intro when I said Thor was my least favorite cinematic Avenger? Please don’t hurt me, I can explain. See, Thor’s never been one of my favorite Avengers. Yes, he’s a founding member, but he just doesn’t fit well with the whole team thing. Now, I do love Chris Hemsworth’s portrayal of the character in the movies, and I enjoy his interaction with the others, but I can’t say I’m hurt by him having reduced screen time in AoU. Anyway, Hemsworth’s Thor has shown up a little less frequently as a Minimate, with this only being his 5th appearance in the line. Thor is just a slight bit taller than Cap, though he’s only got 12 points of articulation, thanks to the boots. Thor is based on his sans-sleeves look from the film. Seeing as it’s the look he has for both the opening and closing battles, it’s certainly well chosen. It’s also more or less the same design he had in The Dark World, and the figure uses the same selection of parts as the Series 53 Thor from that movie. I don’t actually have that figure (cuz Malekith sucks), but these pieces are all pretty decent parts, and they result in a Thor that looks like Thor. Yay. Now, for paint, it’s important to note that I have the specialty release of Thor, which, simply put, means the paint is better. The TRU Thor was missing a fair portion of the silver detailing on the torso and prevalent instances of the detail lines of the face not lining up with the colors. These issues aren’t present here. However, the figure still has a fair bit of bleed over on the major color changes, and the whites of the eyes and mouth are still the slightest bit misalligned. Also, the face on this figure doesn’t particularly capture Hemsworth’s likeness, though it is DST’s best attempt to date. Perhaps his likeness is just hard to translate. Thor includes his hammer Mjolnir, a flying base, and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Iron Man & Black Widow, I picked up this set from my local comicbook store. This set is a little bit more exciting than yesterday’s, I think in part due to the strength of the two figures that these two are based upon. I’m glad to have another movie Cap in a more conventional set of colors, and this is the best movie Thor that I own (and I didn’t even have to buy a Malekith to get him!). All in all, this is a pretty decent set, and a worthy update on two rather important characters.