Tag Archives: Marvel

#3432: Spider-Man Noir & Spider-Ham

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

SPIDER-MAN NOIR & SPIDER-HAM

MARVEL LEGENDS

“In an alternate universe where it’s still 1933, Peter Parker is a hard-boiled private eye who likes to drink egg creams and fight bad guys…a lot!  Peter Porker was a mild-mannered spider before the bite from a radioactive pig transformed him…into the Spectacular Spider-Ham!”

Tie-ins to the first Spider-Verse movie were at a minimum at the time of its theatrical run, so we had to wait until a fair bit later to finally get proper Legends treatment for any of its characters.*  When we finally did get anything, it was folded into a larger Spidey-assortment of the main line, so we got a very barebones version of the cast, leaving some of the side Spiders out in the cold.  One of the most glaring omissions was Spider-Man Noir, the Nicholas Cage-voiced 1930s detective Spidey.  Sure, we had comics Noir, but that’s hardly the same thing.  But, now we’ve *also* got the movie one.  Oh, and another Spider-Ham, I guess.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Ham are a Target-exclusive Marvel Legends offering from late last year.  They were billed as a two pack, and, well, that’s just wrong.  Like, yes, there are two characters included, but only one of them is a proper figure.  The Spider-Ham is just the same one that was included with Spider-Gwen (albeit with the slightest tweak on the shade of blue), and she wasn’t billed as a two-pack.  I can’t blame them for wanting to get Ham back out there, mind you, especially with Gwen getting an update for the new movie.  I just don’t agree with the billing of it is all.  Anyway, I’m just gonna look at Noir now.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Noir starts with an interesting bit of re-use: T’Challa Star-Lord.  He’s got the torso, pelvis, upper legs, knees, and hands from that figure.  I definitely wasn’t expecting to see them turn back up here, and they weren’t my favorite pieces the first time around, but they actually work out better in the context than I’d expected.  He gets a new head, arms, and lower legs, as well as add-ons for his collar, jacket, and belt.  The whole thing adds up to a figure that’s a pretty good half-step between the first movie’s slightly more dialed into the usual Legends aesthetic set-up and the more animation accurate figures from the second film, which is nice, since it means he fits okay with both.  I actually quite like the dynamic nature of the coat; usually I’m not as big on such things, but the flair works really well for the character, and winds up being more versatile than it seems at first glance.  The one downside to the sculpt, for me, is the hands, which are both gripping.  It’s not the end of the world, but I do wish he had the proper hands for some fisticuffs; they’re just basic black hands, though, so it shouldn’t be impossible to supply my own.  In terms of paint work, he’s actually a lot better than expected.  Rather than go for straight black for the whole figure, there’s actually hightlights, which even have the halftone printing signatue to Noir’s coloring in the movie.  Noir is packed with an alternate head with the hat removed, as well as a small pistol.  And also the Spider-Ham, but he’s not officially classified that way, I guess.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Noir is my favorite of the alternate Spiders from the first movie, so I was definitely more than a little let-down by him being completely left out of all the tie-in stuff.  This one fills me with mixed emotions.  He was a Target-exclusive, and not the easiest to acquire at that, and on top of that, there’s the weird two-pack thing and the upcharge that accompanied it.  But I wanted a Noir, and I was getting a Noir, so I did get a Noir.  And he’s a good Noir.  Slightly too expensive and packed with a Ham I didn’t need, but a good Noir figure just the same.

*There was a shoddy repaint pack of Miles and Gwen at the time, but that hardly counts.

#3431: Cosmo

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

COSMO

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Added to Marvel’s cosmic slate in 2008, Cosmo the Spacedog, a Russian space dog  granted increased intelligence and super powers, who references Laika the Soviet space dog who flew in Sputnik II, got a pretty quick turnaround for film adaptation.  First appearing as one of the Collector’s captives in the first Guardians, and then getting another quick cameo in Vol 2, Cosmo finally got a slightly larger role in the Holiday Special, and even got to be a more involved member of the team in Vol. 3.  Perfect timing for an action figure, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cosmo is the Build-A-Figure for the titular series of Marvel Legends, assembled by purchasing 6 of the 7 figures in the line-up.  The figure is about 2 1/2 inches tall and 4 inches long, with 32 points of articulation.  Cosmo is similar in design, if a bit scaled down from, the Timber figure we got back in 2021.  In that regard, I still find her to be a little bit on the restricted side when it comes to movement.  If anything, she’s actually a bit *more* restricted than Timber was, just based on how the joints are laid out relative to her design.  Of course, a dog in a spacesuit’s only going to be so mobile to begin with, I suppose.  Cosmo is sporting an all-new sculpt, which is generally a pretty strong one.  The texturing on the fur is a touch soft, but not terribly so, and there’s only so much of it visible to begin with.  The head bears a decently close “likeness” of the breed of the dogs that portrayed Cosmo in the films, and the detailing on the suit is all pretty sharply handled.  Her helmet piece (which does not fully close) can be removed…or I guess just left off during assembly…allowing you to do her more dressed down look seen in the Holiday Special and Vol. 3.  It’s honestly easier to leave her that way, since you have to pop the head off to get the helmet in place, and the head/body is one of the few things that’s pre-assembled.  Cosmo’s paint work is a bit more on the basic side.  Honestly, it’s a touch too basic.  The fur in particular seems really devoid of detail, without any accenting to help sell the sculpted elements.  Compared to more recent offerings, especially Timber, it feels a bit lacking.  The suit at least gets a little more work, but it could definitely have done with at least a wash or something, to make it look a little more dirty and lived in, as it is in the films.  Cosmo doesn’t include any accessories, but she’s kind of an accessory herself, so that’s honestly not too bad.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t have a ton of in-comics experience with Cosmo, so the movies have honestly been my main connection to the character, and really my only driving force for any sort of toy needs.  While I wasn’t dying to get the character, I’m also not unhappy to see her show up here.  She’s decent.  Nothing amazing, and definitely more of an accessory than her own figure outright, but that’s really all she was designed to be anyway.

This set’s a pretty good one, start to finish.  There were some misteps on a few figures, but I don’t feel like there’s really any dead weight on it.  I do find it amusing that we’ve gone from a place of needing Iron Man to anchor the first movie assortment, meaning they only just barely fit the smaller line-up, to them getting an entire movie-only assortment, plus a bonus deluxe figure to go along.  That’s one heck of an accomplishment for a team that most people knew nothing about a decade ago.

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.

#3428: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MOON KNIGHT (HOT TOYS)

“We protect the vulnerable, and deliver justice.” – Marc Spector

Another Hot Toy?  This quickly?  I know, I usually do a much better job of spacing them out.  But alas, I can’t.  You know why?  I’ll tell you why:  MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.  …Ummm, Moon Knight’s why.  There’s a Hot Toys Moon Knight.  That’s essentially what I was getting at there.  It’s…well, it’s pretty cool.  But I’m biased, I guess.  Oh well, biased or not, I’m jumping into this review, right here, right now.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is part of Hot Toys’ Television Masterpiece Series, where he’s numbered TMS075, which places him squarely between Kate Bishop from Hawkeye, and Commander Appo from Clone Wars.  He’s thus far the only entry in the line from the Moon Knight show.  He’s based on the Marc persona’s Moon Knight garb, which is the most classically Moon Knight look of the two we get, so it makes sense to start here.  He’s also a Hot Toy that’s actually managed to stick pretty close to his original release date, and he hit at the beginning of July stateside.  The figure stands just shy of 11 1/2 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

A good number of Hot Toys are noted for their incredibly realistic sculpting on the faces.  Moon Knight gets very realistic sculpting on the head…but there’s not actually a face.  We just get the masked version this time around, so we’re left once again without an Oscar Isaac likeness on a Hot Toy, adding further insult to that Poe Dameron never materializing all those years ago.  The masked head is, admittedly, still a very, very nice sculpt, with plenty of sharp detailing and texturing to keep things realistic, as well as interesting.  His hood is also sculpted, and its permanently affixed to the head.  On one hand, it does look better aesthetically, but on the other, I do sort of wish they’d done it as an actual cloth hood, to better match the cloak, and also add a little bit more variety to its posing.  The paint work gives him a good deal of weathering, which matches the show design well.  He’s also got a built-in light-up feature for the eyes.  It’s quite impressive, but also doesn’t require the figure to look odd when the feature is turned off, which I very much appreciate.

Moon Knight has quite an involved costume construction.  There’s an underlying jumpsuit, designed to look like his mummy wrappings.  A combination of stitching and printed patterns helps them to look like the real deal, and even match up surprisingly well with the sculpted wrappings on the head and hands.  He gets cloth add-ons for the cloak and belt/loincloth.  The cloak has four wires running through it, allowing for all sorts of dynamic posing, and is a very impressively tailored piece.  He also gets sculpted add-ons for his chest, shoulder, and wrist armor, two piece boots, and a mixed-media cloth and plastic combo for his knee pads.  The two parts of the boots are so well matched that I almost didn’t realize they weren’t one solid piece at first.  Once I freed them up, his right foot had a tendency to fall off during posing, but it stays in place once posed.

Moon Knight’s underlying body aims for the best possible posablity, and it succeeds on that front.  Even with all the layers and parts tacked on, he’s capable of pulling off some surprisingly deep poses, especially when it comes to the arms.  The legs, especially at the hips, are more restricted, but they still work pretty decently.

Moon Knight gets a decent selection of extras, including:

  • 5 pairs of hands
  • 3 small moonarangs
  • 3 medium moonarangs
  • 2 large moonarangs
  • A display base, with flight stand and large crescent attachments

The hands come in fists, large moonarang crescent gripping, smaller grip, wide gesture, and smaller gesture.  The moonarangs are nice and sharp, both in detailing and in actual sharpness.  The base is a little larger than I’d prefer, honestly, but it gets the job done.  The big crescent is cool looking, but it’s made of higher grade styrofoam, so I do worry a bit about its long term durability.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Have I mentioned that I like Moon Knight?  Because I kinda do.  Legitimately, when the show was announced, one of the first thoughts I had was “I’m gonna get a Hot Toys Moon Knight.”  And get a Hot Toys Moon Knight I did indeed.  After the lengthy wait on my last two HT preorders, this guy came surprisingly fast, but I’m hardly complaining about that.  I wish he’d had an unmasked head, but beyond that, I really dig this guy.  He’s a quality piece, and a fantastic addition to my Moon Knight collection.  And I now begin the wait until the inevitable Mr. Knight figure.

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.

#3427: Baron Zemo

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

BARON ZEMO

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Born into greatness and great darkness, Helmut Zemo is a man of terrific and terrible genius. The 13th Baron Zemo has sworn everlasting vengeance against his family’s nemesis: Captain America!”

When Captain America returned to the present day (well, the ’60s, but it was the present day back then), he brought with him a new old foe, Baron Heinrich Zemo.  Heinrich was added retroactively to Cap’s WW2 adventures, and was revealed to be the cause of the incident that killed Bucky and left Cap in suspended animation.  Heinrich rattled around in “modern” times for a bit, before dying in an avalanche caused by himself.  In 1973, his son Helmut appeared (using the alias “Phoenix” three years before Jean Grey would lay claim to it), believing Cap to be his father’s murderer, and swearing vengeance.  Helmut would embrace the Baron Zemo title about a decade later, at which point he went about becoming by far the more memorable of the two Zemos.  And that’s why he gets more of the action figure coverage.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Baron Zemo was originally a Walgreens-exclusive Marvel Legends offering, released as the first in their 2022 Villains theme.  He was offered up for a wider fan channel release at the end of the year, which has been the trend on a good number of the Walgreens-exclusives.  The figure stands just over 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  The last comic Helmut went for more of a modernized appearance, but this one goes for his classic look from the ’80s.  It’s a bit on the hokey side, but it’s still very much his most distinctive appearance, and I very much dig it.  Structurally, he makes use of Dormammu’s arms and feet, the legs of the Bucky Cap mold, and a new head, torso, belt, and boot cuffs.  The head is distinct from the previous version; there are some similarities, as expected, but this one is a bit crisper and sharper in terms of detailing.  The new torso set-up has a really impressive ball-jointed neck, and even the fancy moving shoulder sections like we’ve seen on some of the Black Series and Classified set-ups.  The color work on this guy is pretty solid stuff.  There’s a lot of molded coloring, as per the usual, but there’s also some decent little accenting on the mask, which works so well in conjunction with the sculpted elements.  Zemo is packed with four different hands, as well as the same sword included with the last one.  The hilt on the sword is prone to chipping, which is a little frustrating.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve honestly been pretty happy with the Mandroid Series Zemo since I got him, so when this one was announced, I didn’t feel like I *needed* him or anything, especially not to the level of tracking down and exclusive.  When he moved to wider release, however, and I got to see him in person, I had a much easier time justifying him.  I’m glad I did, because he’s an immense improvement on the last one, and it’s great to finally have his classic design in this scale.

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.

#3426: Kraglin

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

KRAGLIN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Former first mate of Yondu and Ravager who fought alongside the Avengers against Thanos, Kraglin sets off with the Guardians to protect the galaxy.”

When he appeared in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Kraglin was really just an extended cameo for director James Gunn’s brother Sean.  He had a few memorable lines, and got a spot standing next to Yondu, but that was really it.  By the time of the sequel, he became a full-fledged character on his own, and by Vol. 3 he’s actually worked his way into the team’s family dynamic.  Not so bad for a throwaway character.  Given his ever growing role, he’s also been fortunate to make his way to the world of toys. That’s not so bad either!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kraglin is the final single-release figure from the Cosmo Series of Marvel Legends, wrapping up the Guardians 3 tie-in stuff.  This is his first proper figure, though he also got a Pop around the same time.  Are we really gonna count that, though?  No, we’re not.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Kraglin is seen here in his full Ravagers gear, which he wears during the film’s climactic battle.  It’s also the same basic thing he wore during the last two films, so he can also work as a mid-credits Kraglin from Vol. 2 if you’re so inclined.  Since he’s wearing Ravagers garb, Hasbro’s taken the opportunity to do a little re-use on this figure.  He’s got the arms and legs of the movie Yondu from the last movie’s tie-ins, coupled with a new head, torso, and hands.  Unfortunately, the Yondu parts were engineered to match up with pieces from the first film’s Star-Lord figure, which was one of the first film’s weakest figures to begin with, and was already a little outdated by Vol. 2, making the parts feel even more out of whack all this time later.  The new head and torso certainly do their best to elevate the general quality of the figure, especially with the fairly respectable likeness of Gunn on the head, he still feels a little bit out of place.  Those limbs are just rather unforgiving.  Kraglin’s paint work isn’t too bad; there’s a decent amount of smaller detailing present, which goes above and beyond what Yondu got.  He also gets the usual face printing, which is as strong here as ever.  He’s packed with Yondu’s arrow piece, a small knife, and a leg for Cosmo.  The arrow piece is still a bit stubborn, and I don’t like that it’s got that permanently attached trail, but it’s better than nothing, I suppose.  I’d have liked to see maybe an extra head, without the fin, so that he could be a Vol 1/Vol 2 Kraglin, but I guess that would have just been too much Sean Gunn for one package.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Thanks to how large just the main cast was on the first two Guardians, I knew there was no way we’d be getting a Kraglin, but I still really liked the character, and was always hopeful.  I was glad to see him get a larger role this time around, and even more glad that it translated into him finally getting a figure.  It’s not a perfect figure.  In fact, it’s a bit rough.  But, on the flipside, it also matches up pretty well with that Yondu figure, so I guess there’s that.  And, quite frankly, it could have been a lot worse.

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.

#3423: Captain America – Sam Wilson

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — SAM WILSON

THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER (HOT TOYS)

“Teaming up with Bucky Barnes against the Flag Smashers rebel group, Sam Wilson a.k.a The Falcon suits up again but in a new outfit with his signature wings, reclaims the symbolic shield once wielded by Steve Rogers and the complicated legacy that comes with being the new Captain America in the conclusion of Marvel Studios’ The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series.”

You know what shouldn’t be a controversial thing?  Sam Wilson, the most logical choice for a successor to Steve Rogers for the role of Captain America, being the successor to Steve Rogers in the role of Captain America.  You know what is a controversial thing, apparently?  Sam Wilson, the most logical choice for a successor to Steve Rogers for the role of Captain America, being the successor to Steve Rogers in the role of Captain America.  I know.  I was baffled by it myself.  Like, I saw Endgame.  I saw the shield.  I said to myself “that’s clearly not Steve’s shield.”  I thought “Steve’s gonna give him that shield.”  And then Steve did give him that shield.  And I was all like, hey, that’s pretty cool.  Now Sam is Cap.  But then he wasn’t *quite* Cap, and we got a great six-episode miniseries, where they really got Sam to that place where he personally felt right about being Cap.  And I was like, now Sam is Cap.  But there was apparently dissent from people, who, like, didn’t understand the entire point of the show, or something.  But, the point is:  Sam is Cap.  Here’s a figure of Sam as Cap.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America – Sam Wilson is the second The Falcon and the Winter Soldier inspired figure from Hot Toys’ Television Masterpiece Series, which serves as the small-screen counterpart to the longer-running Movie Masterpiece Series.  He’s figure TMS040, which places him between Bucky and a Stormtrooper Commander from The Mandalorian.  He hit a fair bit of time after both of those figures, towards the beginning of this summer, some 10 months after the Bucky that pairs off with him hit.  Hey, that’s Hot Toys releases, right?  The figure stands about 12 inches tall and he has, just, like, so many points of articulation.  Look, they’re all there, but, like, hiding, so I’m not gonna count them.  Rest assured they’re there.

A lot of the Steve Caps got multiple heads, but Sam just gets the one masked one.  Of course, even masked, there’s still quite a bit of his face to show off, and Hot Toys does very well with that.  The head’s sporting a very strong likeness of Anthony Mackie, and the detailing on his mask and goggles is also definitely up to snuff.  As per the usual HT standards, the head is incredibly lifelike, both in terms of sculpting and paint. There’s a full facial likeness present, with the goggles being a separate piece laid in place, which makes for a very realistic look.

Sam’s outfit is at its base level a single jumpsuit set-up. It’s a rather complex piece, with a lot of different materials and patterns stitched together, as well as some harder material armor plating glued in place over top. The tailoring is pretty well handled. It sits well on the body, and is overall quite accurate to the suit as seen on screen. It’s accented by sculpted arm and shin guards, custom sculpted feet, and a compact version of his wing pack mounted on the back. The pack pops apart, and you can swap out the two side pieces for a single piece with ball joints on either side, allowing you to actually mount his properly scaled, fully articulated wings. When fully extended, the wings boast an over 30 inch wingspan, and they can also be folded inwards for all sorts of cool flying poses. They’re a little unnerving to pose, especially at first, and you have to be careful not to let the section overlap incorrectly, but they hold up well and he’s surprisingly stable with them in place.

The underlying body is pretty much the norm for more recent HT Caps. It’s definitely designed more for posability, since it’s totally covered, but the outfit still winds up being pretty restrictive. The shoulders in particular don’t have a lot of give. He does, however, do better on leg movement than the typical Steve figure, so that’s a plus.

Sam is already pretty well stacked for value just with the core figure and the wings, but he also gets a selection of other extras, including:

  • 4 sets of hands
  • His shield
  • A piece for mounting his shield on his back
  • Redwing
  • A display stand branded with the show logo

The hands come in fists, gripping, open gesture, and flat. There’s an extra set of wrist pegs to go with them, and they swap out about as easily as any other HT hands. The shield is very similar to Steve’s, but with the expected changes to the front. The straps are a touch more fragile, at least on mine, as I popped one of the glue seals while taking the photos for this review. The mount for the shield is a little troublesome to work out, but it’s not too bad once you get it on there. Redwing is based on his upgraded design from the finale, and is very nicely detailed. The stand is a flexible flight stand, with spots for both Sam and Redwing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been impressed by Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson since Winter Soldier, and I came *very* close to ordering his first HT figure before breaking my habit. After Endgame Cap got me back in again, I decided I’d just stick to my Cap chronology. Hey, look, Sam was Cap. That was certainly convenient. It’s been a lengthy wait, but he’s a very impressive piece to be sure.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review. If you’d like to see a video of this guy in action, I helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out. If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3422: The Lizard

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

THE LIZARD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Desperate to be whole again, geneticist Curt Connors injects himself with a regenerative serum derived from reptile DNA, only to find himself transformed into the monstrous Lizard!”

Since Spider-Man was a animal-themed character who got his powers through a science experiment gone awry, it made for a nice narrative parallel that most of his early antagonists were, likewise, animal-themed and gained their powers through science experiments gone awry.  Four of his first six villains were animal themed, including The Lizard, who first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #6, published in 1963, almost a whole 60 years ago.  That’s a good run for a guy with a name as indistinct as “The Lizard.”

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Lizard is a Walmart-exclusive Marvel Legends release, which hit in the fall of 2022.  He’s sort of an odd release, honestly.  He’s a retro-carded figure, but those have generally been wider release, except for a few Spidey variants.  Also, he was released alongside a cel-shaded Spider-Man from the cartoon, but he himself has no such shading, nor is he at all cartoon-inspired.  Thematically, he seems like he would make more sense as part of the “60 Amazing Years” sub-line, and not retro-carded at all, and he’s also a weird choice for an exclusive…but, who knows exactly what’s going on there?  I certainly won’t pretend to have that knowledge.  The figure is about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Compared to the last figure, he’s definitely got more of a range to his articulation.  He’s not stuck in any sort of permanent hunch (which is good, because he didn’t really have that much of one in the early days), and he gets a better selection of deeper poses.  His tail is no longer segmented like the last one, instead being soft plastic with a wire running through it.  While I’m always iffy on that sort of set-up, it’s a better look than the segmented, especially if you don’t have the budget to do more than three segments.  At least this way, the tail doesn’t have any hard angles.  This guy also gets the pinless construction for his elbows and knees, as well as using the newer torso set-up we’ve seen on some of the Spideys.  And, since he’s no longer a Build-A-Figure, he doesn’t fall apart during posing, which is a definite plus.  Lizard’s sculpt is an all-new one (courtesy of sculptor Rene Aldrete), and I’m quite a fan.  Over the course of his 60 year career, The Lizard has been on something of a sliding scale of humanoid vs monstrous.  The last Legends release was more on the monstrous side, while this one goes back to his earliest days, when he was far more humanoid. He’s not *quite* a Steve Ditko Lizard, instead arriving more at something resembling John Romita, Sr.’s slightly more refined depiction from around issue 44-45 of the original book.  It’s a version of the character we don’t see often in toy form, but it’s made the jump quite nicely here.  The main head is definitely that earlier version of the character, with his goofy facial expression and all.  You know, the best version of the Lizard.  If you’re not a huge fan of that, though, there’s a slightly later run version to swap out, which has the more distinctive serpent-style face, as well as the ever present tongue.  The body sculpt showcases his far less beastial build in the earlier days, being closer to an average build, and without the insane amounts of tattering to the clothes.  This one keeps it pretty low key on the tearing, with just a little on the edges of the sleeves and the legs of the pants.  It works well, and means that there’s a good chance some of these parts might see a bit of re-use.  The color work on this guy is generally pretty basic.  The best of it’s definitely on the lizard skin, which gets a wash to help bring out all of the scaly detailing.  The rest of it’s just base coloring, and the application is all generally pretty cleanly handled.  The Lizard includes the previously mentioned alternate head, two sets of hands (open gesture, and a fist/grip combo), and a pair of beakers.  The beakers are the same molds included with the Retro card Beast figure, but now in different colors.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve reached the point where I don’t hunt down Walmart exclusives because I just don’t need that kind of stress in my life.  So, when this guy was announced, I wrote him off as something I wasn’t going to get and decided I’d be content with my Build-A-Figure.  But, my decision to not hunt keeps paying off, because we got a loose one traded in at All Time, and boom, that means I got one.  I’m glad I did, because he’s exactly what I wanted out of a Lizard figure.  The monstrous ones never quite spoke to me, and this one just hits right where he needs to.

#3421: Adam Warlock

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

ADAM WARLOCK

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With his cosmic powers and super-human strength, Adam Warlock is sent by the Sovereign to seek revenge on the Guardians of the Galaxy who have humiliated them.”

First teased in one of the many stingers that dropped during Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2‘s credits, Adam Warlock is one of the very first characters we see during Vol 3, already in the midst of his mission to take the Guardians down.  With Nebula firmly on the side of the heroes this time around, it’s Adam who begins this story as an antagonistic force, as he stumbles his way into being a better person.  And, it’s honestly a pretty good take on the character.  And hey, he gets a new Marvel Legend out of it!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Adam Warlock is figure 5 in the Cosmo Series of Marvel Legends, which serves as the tie-in assortment for Guardians Vol 3.  While Adam has had the Legends treatment two times prior (including one figure in the second tie-in assortment for the *last* Guardians film), this is his first MCU figure. The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation. His articulation scheme is a pretty basic set-up for the line at this point. It’s not bad, bust it doesn’t really push the envelope or anything.  Adam is sporting an all-new sculpt, based on his look early-on in the film, prior to losing the cape.  It’s admittedly when he’s at his most Adam-Warlock-y in terms of look, so I get the choice.  The sculpt’s certainly got the height for the character, but he does seem a touch scrawny for the character as portrayed in the movie.  Like, not terribly far off, but just kinda small feeling, especially when placed next to the likes of Star-Lord and Drax.  His head has an okay likeness of Will Poulter, hindered only ever so slightly by the hair, which is a bit short and too composed for how Adam looked in the movie.  He’s definitely based more on the concept art for the character than the actual film look, though admittedly, it’s much closer to the final product than most concept work, so that’s a definite plus.  The one major downside to the sculpt is that the cape is totally non-removable, which does somewhat limit his applicability to the other figures, since he spends so much of the movie without the cape.  But, honestly, it’s not the end of the world.  The color work on this guy is generally pretty basic.  Lot of molded colors.  The distinction between the armor and skin tone could maybe be a touch more pronounced, but it’s also pretty minor in the movie.  Adam doesn’t get any accessories of his own, but does include the helmet and tail to the Cosmo Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I have a soft spot for Adam Warlock, so I’ve been looking forward to his official introduction into the MCU since he was teased in Vol. 2.  Will Poulter was definitely an out of left field casting choice, but he turned in a really solid performance, and I was glad to get him in figure form.  The figure’s not without its issues, but I still dig the overall vibe of it.  And, I’m sure we’ll see more of him down the line.

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.

#3419: Ch’od Series Wrap-Up

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

EMMA FROST, KID OMEGA, & CHO’D

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

I’ve done most of this X-wave as single reviews, but it’s safe to say I’ve taken things as far as I possibly can on that front.  There’s only so much prolonged discussion I can have about X-Men history, especially as we move towards the more recent stuff.  So, let’s get one more assortment out of the way, shall we?  Onto the remainder of the Ch’od Series!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Emma Frost and Kid Omega are figures 1 and 5, respectively, in the Ch’od Series of Marvel Legends, and are the last two figures neccessary to assemble to the set’s Build-A-Figure, wrapping up what appears to be this year’s only BaF assortment for X-Men.  Ch’od is the assortment’s titular Build-A-Figure, assembled by purchasing six of the seven figures in the assortment.

EMMA FROST

“The former Hellfire Club White Queen must grapple with her teammates’ misgivings about her joining the X-Men, as well as her own.”

During Grant Morrison’s run on X-Men, Cyclops and Emma Frost, formerly the White Queen, began a…slightly more than platonic relationship, born out of her assisting him with overcoming being possessed by Apocalypse and then dying and coming back…look, early ’00s X-Men isn’t a great time, guys.  When Jean Grey died at the end of Morrison’s run, Marvel tried real hard to push Scott and Emma as a proper couple, which included placing them both in central spots for the Astonishing X-Men line-up.  Yep, we’re going back to that time that Marvel really wanted up to make proper heroic Emma a thing.  Oh goody.  This is our fifth Emma in Legends form, all of them under Hasbro’s tenure.  This one’s notable for being a proper update to Hasbro’s very first version of the character.  Boy, was that a bad figure.  This one doesn’t have a hard bar to clear to be better.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Her articulation scheme is very restricted, both by the long hair and the cape, which render the shoulder articulation largely useless.  It’s part of the trick of working with this particular design, I suppose.  The sculpt does at least look pretty decent, especially in contrast to other attempts at the character, even just limiting to this look.  She looks quite a bit like Cassidy’s artwork from the book, while still fitting the overall aesthetic of the line as well.  Emma’s color work is basic, but honestly better than I’d expected.  The hair and face get some really strong accent work, which brings a nice degree of life to the figure.  Emma is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture, as well as the right leg of Ch’od.

KID OMEGA

“Omega-level telepath Quentin Quire, inspired by the attempt of Professor Xavier’s life, joins the mutant nation Krakoa’s new secret defense team, X-Force, as Kid Omega.”

Quentin Quire hails from Morrison and Quitely’s New X-Men run, and, if I’m honest, he’s not a character that’s ever really clicked with me.  He’s just so emphatically symbolic of the sort of self-assured, really insufferable sorts of characters that Morrison really likes to write.  Later writers haven’t really done much to change my opinion.  But, who am I to stop other people from getting a Quentin Quire figure if they want one?  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Quire is built on the Amazing Fantasy Spidey base, which is a fantastic starting point for any figure, really.  It’s a more modern Quire, so he’s in a jumpsuit, which works with the base body set-up.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is fine.  It’s not amazing or terribly unique or thrilling, but it looks enough like the character to get the idea across.  The “glasses” are a soft plastic, and prone to warping, which does wind up looking a little bit silly, but that comes with the territory.  The paint work on Kid Omega is decent enough; the pink detailing is sharp and pretty eye-catching, which is cool.  The fingers are painted for the fingerless gloves, and that’s a little sloppy on the edges.  Kid Omega is packed with two sets of hands in fists and gripping poses, as well as a recolor of the Doomlands Vagabond-patterned gun that came with Cable.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t have trigger fingers on either gripping hand, so he can’t really hold the gun properly.  He’s also packed with the torso of Ch’od.

CH’OD

“An alien from the Shi’ar galaxy, Ch’od’s monstrous, reptillian form belittles his keen intellect and heroic heart. Once a slave, he has regained his freedom, and now travels the spaceways in the company of the Starjammers, always on the lookout for other victims of tyranny in need of his aid!”

Hey!  It’s Ch’od!  This guy’s awesome!  A creation of Dave Cockrum and one of the most consistent members of the space pirate team the Starjammers, Ch’od’s the big lizard guy at Marvel who’s *not* Abomination.  I swear, he’s much nicer.  This marks Ch’od’s second figure ever, with his only other release being the one from the Toy Biz 5-inch line.  It’s been quite a while.  The figure stands about 7 3/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Remember what I said above about Ch’od *not* being Abomination.  Well, let’s take that and admit there’s some similarity of design elements between the two.  Hasbro’s taken advantage of said similarities for this figure, as he re-using all but the head, forearms, and hands of the Abomination Build-A-Figure from 2016.  It’s not a pitch-perfect match for Ch’od’s design, but it’s very close, and certainly as close as we can expect for a Ch’od figure in this day and age, honestly.  He gets a new head, forearms, hands, and belt.  The head is absolutely fantastic; it’s a good likeness of Ch’od, and is clearly unique from Abomination.  I especially like the articulated jaw; it adds a lot of character to the figure.  The arms and hands are fairly basic, with only minor changes to the prior pieces for just a touch more accuracy.  His color work is basic, with largely molded plastics, but that works well for the character, and the colors are nice and bright.  What paint work is present is pretty clean, so that’s definitely nice.  Ch’od actually gets an accessory: his furry companion Cr’eee!  It’s an all-new sculpt, with an articulated head and everything.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set is admittedly one that I was more actively invested in than the other two I’ve done these wrap-ups on.  In fact, I think this one is a pretty strong line-up, all things considered.  There’s a pretty solid flow of character choices, and it’s got a pretty killer Build-A-Figure.  Ultimately, it’s Ch’od that’s really the star piece.  He’s just one of those figures I honestly wasn’t expecting to see, and he does well with the parts re-use.  Corsair’s a pretty strong solo contender, being just a very clean and well-implemented release.  Cyclops is a solid figure in his own right, even if he’s ultimately in a slightly less definitive costume.  Fang and Chamber are both a lot of fun, and hampered only ever so slightly by some iffy parts re-use choices.  Monet’s not much to write home about on her own, but serves as a decent set-up for other characters.  Emma is honestly the best version of this costume out there and is only held back by the same design issues that hold back literally every version of this costume.  And Quire’s not really exciting either, but he’s not a character I was invested in in the first place, so that’s hardly surprising.

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

#3418: Hyperion & Doctor Spectrum

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

HYPERION & DOCTOR SPECTRUM

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Hyperion convinces Doctor Spectrum and the Squadron Supreme to use their vast superpowers to solve Other-Earth’s problems by remaking it into a utopia by any means necessary”

I’ve spoken a few times before about the Squadron Supreme, Marvel’s in-house stand-in for the Justice League.  They’ve managed to have a surprisingly enduring popularity over the years, but admittedly, not a ton of merchandising, since they exist just outside the mainstream.  We’ve gotten a few Hyperions, and a few Nighthawks, but it’s rare we get past those two.  Hasbro’s decided to give a proper line-up an actual go, it would seem, and are kicking things off, unsurprisingly, with another Hyperion, but also resident Green Lantern stand-in Doctor Spectrum!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Hyperion and Doctor Spectrum are a Fan Channel-exclusive Marvel Legends two-pack, the first of a set based on the Squadron.  Later sets indicate that this line-up is meant to be based on the “Squadron Supreme of America” version of the team from Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness’s Avengers run, but in the case of these two particular figures, that means they also double as classic versions of the characters.  This set hit right around the same time as yesterday’s Franklin and Valeria pack, right at the end of June/beginning of July.

HYPERION

Hyperion has had one Legend before, way back in the Hit Monkey Series.  While that’s *technically* within the modern Legends classification, he was a weak figure even when he was new, and the base body that he introduced to the line is more or less retired, so a new version’s certainly not un-called for.  The figure stands 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  He’s largely working with a fairly basic articulation set-up, but he does get a ball-jointed mid-torso set-up, which is quite nice for posing and aesthetics.  Hyperion is built from absolutely no parts from the Hyperion mold, if you can believe it.  He’s got the arms and legs of two different Hercules figures, plus a new head, torso, and cape.  The head, handle by sculptor Paul Harding, is based on Hyperion’s earliest appearances, when he was still sporting the short hair and the domino mask.  I appreciate how it’s got just a touch of a Superman vibe, without being just straight up Superman.  He’s still his own character.  The color work on this figure is very bright and eye catching. There’s a slight mismatch on the exact shades of red, which seems to happen a lot, but otherwise things work out okay.  His actual paint is all pretty clean, and I like how the hair gets the darker accenting to help bring out the sculpted details.  Hyperion is packed with an extra pair of gripping hands.  Not really sure why, but I guess he might want to hold some stuff occasionally?

DOCTOR SPECTRUM

Doctor Spectrum’s only prior figure is a Minimate, which wasn’t a super plentiful one at that.  Despite being one of the team’s higher profile members, he’s just never gotten the spotlight.  But hey, here he is now.  Yay!  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Spectrum is based on the supposedly retired Bucky Cap base body, which just sort of keeps showing back up.  It’s like a Baby Boomer that just won’t stay home, or something.  This time around, it’s got a new set of arms, with pinless construction on the elbows.  They don’t quite sit flesh with the body, which is a touch awkward.  Why they didn’t just use the newly developed Vulcan body is anybody’s guess.  I assume there’s some sort of logic behind it, and I’m not gonna try to figure it out.  He also re-uses the Blizzard head, which honestly is pretty hard to go wrong with.  It’s a basic full face mask.  Not like there’s a lot of different ways to do that, right?  Doctor Spectrum’s distinctive color scheme is largely handled via molded colors, but there’s a fair bit of actual painting on the torso.  Some of the edges are a touch sloppy, but they’re not awful.  The only thing I’m really not big on is way the blue continues around the shoulders; it just doesn’t look right when posing.  The Doc is packed with two sets of hands, one open gesture, the other gripping, two effects pieces, and his Power Prism.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Squadron Supreme are a fun concept, and it feels like all we ever get are Hyperion figures.  Well, and Nighthawk too, I suppose, but his are usually his Defenders costume, so it doesn’t really count.  I have a particular affinity for Doctor Spectrum, what with him being the GL equivalent and all, so I’ve long wanted some proper toy version of him.  This one’s admittedly a little phoned in.  But, at the same time, it’s not a *bad* figure, and certainly preferable to no Doctor Spectrum at all.  Hyperion, despite being yet another Hyperion, is actually a pretty cool figure, so I can get behind that, I guess.

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