Tag Archives: Marvel

#3444: Marvel Boy

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

MARVEL BOY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A Kree warrior from an alternate reality, Noh-Varr aka Marvel Boy is the self-appointed protector of Earth and member of the Young Avengers.”

The third Marvel Boy (following Bob Grayson and Vance Astrovik) and the fifth Captain Marvel (following Mar-Vell, Monica, Genis-Vell, and Khn’nr), Noh-Varr does sure like some borrowed names.  Created in 2000 by Grant Morrison and JG Jones, the character’s one of those ones that Marvel likes to really push every so often.  It’s been a little while since the last push, but with the rumor of actor Park Seo-joon playing the character in The Marvels, perhaps we’re due for another?  Well, in the meantime, he’s got a new Marvel Legend, so let’s look at that.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Marvel Boy is figure 4 in the Totally Awesome Hulk Series of Marvel Legends, and is the first of the assortment’s four comic-based figures.  Of the four, he’s certainly the one with the best ties to The Marvels, even if he doesn’t show up in the movie.  This marks Noh-Varr’s second Legend, though its his first billed as Marvel Boy (the last one was from his Protector days).  He’s depicted here in his garb from the Gillen/McKelvie run on Young Avengers, which is honestly his best look, and probably the character’s best run.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Noh-Varr is based on the 2099 body, which seems a good enough fit for the character, even if still has the visible pins on the elbows and knees.  He gets a new head, hands, and an add-on for his belt piece.  The head is a pretty solid recreation of McKelvie’s take on Noh-Varr, while still keeping him in line with the Legends house style.  I especially dig that they got the one stray strand of hair that was always present in the book.  His hands get new sculpted detailing on the backs, as well as actually having dual trigger fingers, which is a plus, and the belt is a pretty by the numbers addition.  Beyond that, it’s down to paint work to make it all happen.  It’s generally pretty solid.  The application’s pretty clean, and the colors match up well with the printed appearances.  Noh-Varr is packed with a pair of blasters, which are pretty fun and unique pieces, as well the left arm of the Totally Awesome Hulk Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Noh-Varr is a character I had little attachment to prior to his run with the Young Avengers.  I greatly enjoyed his addition to the team, and his interactions there, but honestly, I haven’t really clicked with him beyond that run.  This figure being pretty explicitly based on that version of the character definitely works for me.  While I can’t say this figure was at the top of my list for this set (in fact, he was probably the one I was least looking forward to, if I’m honest), he’s a strong by the numbers offering.  And, hey, it’s another Young Avenger.  We get those so infrequently, that any of them getting made is a real cause for celebration.

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 figure (and the rest of the series) 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.

#3442: Ms. Marvel

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

MS. MARVEL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Kamala Khan has encountered much in her Ms. Marvel adventures, but nothing could prepare her for a cosmic adventure alongside her idol Captain Marvel!”

Following up on her solo Disney+ series from last year, Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan makes the jump to the big screen this November in The Marvels, where she’ll get to interact with both Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau.  Vellani’s performance as Kamala is one of the MCU’s best page-to-screen portrayals, so there’s a lot riding on getting to see her interact with the wider MCU cast.  Like the other two members of the titular group, she’s gotten a brand new look for the movie, and, by extension, that leads to a brand new figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ms. Marvel is figure 3 in the Totally Awesome Hulk Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s the last of the movie-based figures in the set.  This marks the fourth Kamala Khan Legend, and the second time her MCU incarnation’s gotten a figure.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  Compared to her last figure, this one’s definitely a step-up on the articulation front.  Not a tremendous one, mind you, since she’s still rather restricted at the neck and hips, and the shoulders are also rather tight.  The arms are double jointed, though, which is pretty cool, and, though it may still be restricted, the neck is still more mobile than the prior figure.  Ms. Marvel’s sculpt is almost entirely an all-new one.  The scarf is shared with her prior figure, but everything else is new.  Like the articulation, it’s an improvement over her last figure.  The head sports a much better likeness of Iman Vellani; still not 100% spot-on, but it at least actually looks like her this time.  The hair is also a lot less flat, and her body sculpt isn’t nearly as skinny.  In general, it’s just a better sculpt, start to finish.  The paint work continues the trend.  The colors wind up a lot less muddied this time around, just by swapping the blue out for a darker shade.  It gives the whole look a lot of pop, and just makes everything feel really sharp.  The application is pretty clean for the most part, apart from some slight bleed over on some of the gold.  Ms. Marvel is packed with two sets of hands, in open gesture and fist/gripping combo, as well as a Flerken (who doesn’t appear to be Goose, given its coloring), and the torso of Totally Awesome Hulk.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The show Ms. Marvel figure was a pretty big let-down for me.  She really didn’t look the part, and wound up as more a phoned-in comic figure than a proper live action version of the character.  I really dig the new design for her in the movie, and the new figure winds up being a lot better than the last one.  I’m a lot happier with this one, and she feels a lot more unique than the first, which is a definite plus.

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 figure (and the rest of the series) in action, I helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  And,if you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3441: American Dream

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

AMERICAN DREAM

MARVEL COMICS 2 1ST APPEARANCES (TOY BIZ)

“When Captain America disappeared, Shannon Carter took over the battle to uphold his fight for truth and justice. Calling herself “American Dream”, she uses her fighting skills, acrobatic abilities and keen strategic mind to help defend the world from the forces of evil as a member of A-Next, the next generation of Avengers. American Dream originally threw miniature discs to knock out her opponents, but now proudly uses the indestructible shield passed down to her by her inspiration, Captain America.”

After the success of Spider-Girl led to the launch of the whole Marvel Comics 2 line, they were in need of some characters to fill things in.  What resulted was a mix of old and new, with a definite theme of lineage and legacy in play.  The Avengers’ legacy was carried forward by “A-Next,” which included amongst its members Shannon Carter, niece to Captain America’s old flame Sharon (who was herself the younger sister niece grand-niece to Cap’s old flame Peggy…), who took up the name “American Dream,” and served as the team’s analogue to Cap.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

American Dream is another figure from the four figure Marvel Comics 2 First Appearances line, released in 1999 as a Previews-exclusive.  She’s one of the two characters in the set who hasn’t gotten any sort of update.  Perhaps one day we might see a Legend, but today is not that day.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 12 points of articulation.  American Dream uses the Vindicator body as her starting point.  It’s honestly not a terrible piece of work; proportions are still a little skewed, but that was the norm for this era.  She got a new head and forearms, as well as tweaked shins and feet, which give her the proper change-ups for her design.  Due to the nature of her hair sculpt, her neck articulation is pretty limited, but beyond that, things all mesh together pretty well.  The arms and legs add the small little discs, which served as her main offensive attack in her earlier appearances, which is definitely cool.  The paint work on the figure is appropriately bright and eye-catching, as you would expect a Cap-inspired patriotic scheme to be.  There’s some sloppiness, especially on the red and white striped section in the middle.  There’s some pretty impressive air brushed accenting on the costume, which actually really gives the sculpt a great deal of pop, and is decently consistent from piece to piece.  American Dream is packed with Cap’s shield, which she eventually added to her arsenal alongside the discs, as well as a trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in my Spider-Girl review, I didn’t get any of this set as a kid.  Once I got back into my Toy Biz collecting, this one was the first of them I snagged, partly due to my love of all things Cap, and largely because she was just one of the first two I found in-person.  I don’t know that she’s quite as good as Spider-Girl, but she’s still pretty solid, and certainly a lot of fun.

#3439: Photon

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

PHOTON

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Monica Rambeau’s life changed forever at Westview, where her exposure to reality-altering energy imbued her with the power to perceive and manipulate all energy along the electromagnetic spectrum.”

Remember when the first Captain Marvel came out, and despite Carol Danvers having held the title for the better part of a decade by that point, people were all mad about a female Captain Marvel?  Wanna know what’s even funnier?  She wasn’t even the first one.  Nope, back in the ‘80s, that honor went to Monica Rambeau, the first person to carry the mantle after Mar-Vell’s death.  I know, a black woman was Captain Marvel.  And she was even the leader of the Avengers for a while, too.  Who could imagine such a thing.  Monica unfortunately got herself wrapped up in some seriously bad writing towards the end of her run with the mantle, but she was fortunately enough of a fan favorite that she didn’t totally disappear when the Genis took the title, and she instead got a new codename.  Okay, actually a couple of new codenames.  They definitely bounced her around a bit.  But, the best of them was definitely Photon, and that’s the one that seems to have stuck the best for marketing purposes, including her MCU counterpart, who’s gotten her first figure for The Marvels. 

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Photon is figure 2 in the Totally Awesome Hulk Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s the middle figure of the three film-tie-in figures for The Marvels.  This marks Monica’s second time as a Legend, following her comics counterpart getting a figure in the A-Force boxed set.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  Her articulation is a bit restricted in the middle section of the figure, but the head gets a pretty great range, and she’s got double elbows, which is certainly cool.  Photon is sporting an all-new sculpt, and a pretty good one at that.  In particular, the head’s likeness of Teyonah Parris is certainly the best of the three in this assortment, if not just one of their best MCU likenesses in general.  They even managed to translate the hair pretty decently, which is impressive in its own right.  Her body sculpt sports a very nice, rather realistic set of proportions, matching pretty closely with Parris.  The color work on Photon is pretty solid.  She’s got the usual face printing, which works very well, and there’s some accenting on the hair, that definitely helps to bring out the sculpted details.  Her uniform’s black and white scheme is dynamic and eye-catching, and the application for it is quite clean.  Photon is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture, as well as the right leg to Totally Awesome Hulk.  She feels a little bit light, and it might have been cool to possibly get an extra head with her powered up eyes, but not having seen the movie, I don’t know if that’s still a thing she can do.  The hands are at least a bare minimum.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always been a fan of Monica, no matter what name they saddled her with, and I’ve also liked Parris in everything I’ve seen her in, so seeing her turn up as Monica in the MCU was super cool.  I’ve been waiting to see more of her since the end of WandaVision and also waiting to finally get her in action figure form.  She was certainly high on my list for this series, and, slight lack of accessories aside, she didn’t disappoint.

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 figure (and the rest of the series) in action, I helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  And, if you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3437: Captain Marvel

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

CAPTAIN MARVEL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“No amount of problem punching can repair the broken promises Carol Danvers has made. Captain Marvel is a powerful solo act, but now has a real shot at redemption as team member of The Marvels!”

Since launching as a solo act in 2019’s Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers has actually been in the role of team player for all of her subsequent roles. She’s back to headlining her own film in this fall’s The Marvels, but now with Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau as her co-stars. New movie means new look, which means new toys. And that? Means new review. Let’s jump on into that!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain Marvel is figure 1 in the Totally Awesome Hulk series of Marvel Legends, which serves as the tie-in assortment for The Marvels. While she had reversed her colors and gotten a drastically different hair cut when we saw her in Endgame, by the time of her reappearance in Ms Marvel’s teaser scene, she’d gone back to a look more similar to her solo movie design, and that’s what we see here. It’s a bit more dressed down, with a less armored appearance and rolled up sleeves which suggest a more relaxed fit. In a way, it almost feels like Carol’s equivalent look to Steve’s Nomad design from Infinity War.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  Her articulation scheme is pretty basic, especially for an MCU figure.  The joints are pinless, and the range is fair.  She’s an improvement to the mold they used for the last few versions of Carol, so that’s a plus.  The sculpt itself is all-new, and I actually quite like it.  It’s a bit cleaner than the last one, and the head seems to have a closer likeness of Larson, especially for her longer haired look; I’m still partial to the Endgame version, but this is very close too.  The build on this body also feels a bit more accurate to Larson; the last one was really skinny, which didn’t seem *quite* right.  In terms of color work, Carol is pretty basic for the most part.  She does get the printed face, which looks pretty nice, as does the slight accenting to the hair.  The body work is decent if not the most exciting.  The painted skintone on the forearms doesn’t quite match with the face and neck, but there’s enough distance between them that it doesn’t become a major issue.  Carol is packed with two sets of hands (in fists and gripping/gesture), two effects pieces, and the left leg to Totally Awesome Hulk.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Endgame Captain Marvel is kind of my end-all version of the character, for a good number of reasons, but I was intrigued by this look when it first cropped up in Ms. Marvel, and I liked the look of the figure.  She turned out pretty well, and I definitely dig this secondary design for her.

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 figure (and the rest of the series) 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.

#3436: Spider-Girl

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

SPIDER-GIRL

MARVEL COMICS 2 1ST APPEARANCES (TOY BIZ)

“May ‘Mayday’ Parker is the daughter of Peter Parker, the one true Spider-Man. Like her famous father, she has the proportionate strength, speed, agility, and early warning danger sense of a spider and she can crawl up walls. May first became a costumed crime fighter in order to save her parents from an attack by the Green Goblin and now uses her powers to continue her retired father’s battle against the forces of evil, while still trying to maintain a normal life as a teenager.”

During the continuity dumpster fire that was “The Clone Saga,” one of the story elements introduced to give the “real” Peter Parker a reason to pass the role to Ben Reilly involved Peter and Mary Jane having a child. By the end of the story, the child seemingly died, leaving Peter and MJ childless and carefree(ish) once more. The whole angle was rather quickly revisited in the pages of What If…?, and proved popular enough to launch a whole line of alternate universe stories, dubbed “MC2.” Central to the whole thing was Peter and MJ’s daughter, now a teenager, going by Spider-Girl. While the rest of the universe did well enough, Spider-Girl was a break away hit. Her series ran 100 issues, and she’s even made return appearances in crossovers such as “Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Geddon”. She’s had a few figures over the years, including he debut figure during Toy Biz’s 5-inch days, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Girl was part of the four figure Marvel Comics 2 First Appearances line, offered up in 1999 as a Previews-exclusive.  She’s by far the star piece of the set, and is one of two Spider-Girl figures offered that year (and one of three Mayday Parker figures, if you count the Earth X Venom), with the other being the similarly PX-exclusive Famous Covers figure.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 13 points of articulation.  She represents Toy Biz experimenting a bit with articulation, before going totally crazy with Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends, so she’s a bit more mobile than the average 5-incher, albeit with the v-hips that I don’t generally dig.  At least everything else distracts from them, I suppose.  Spider-Girl was a mix of old, new, and shared parts.  The beginnings of her sculpt come from the Alpha Flight line’s Snowbird, from whom she borrows her arms and most of her legs.  She gets a tweaked torso piece, which she shared with the Greatest Moments Dark Phoenix figure from the same year.  She also gets her own head and feet, as well as add-ons for the web-shooters.  The head is basic, but different from the Spidey heads, which is cool, and the feet are flat-footed, rather than high-heeled, making her a far more stable figure than the others built from similar parts.  It’s all a pretty solid recreation of her comics design, and a pretty balanced looking figure overall.  Her paint work is actually rather decently handled; the webline detailing is all sharply applied, and the base colors don’t have any notable issues with slop or bleed over.  There’s a little bit of wonkiness on how her spider-emblem is placed, but it generally works.  In terms of coloring, there were two different color set-ups for the Ben Reilly costume at this point, so this figure sort of splits the difference between the two, which is honestly the best of the three choices, really.  Spider-Girl was packed with a large web piece, as well as a trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I very much recall when these figures were released, but I didn’t read any of the comics at the time, so I didn’t know any of the characters, and as such I passed on the whole lot.  I’ve come to regret that a bit over the years.  Thankfully, I’ve been able to slowly piece together a full set.  Spider-Girl was the second of them I got, grabbed from a comic store that was doing a clearance on a bunch of 5-inch Marvel figures, in fact.  She’s honestly a pretty great figure, especially for the time.  Also, fun fact: I shot these photos with the assistance of my daughter Aubrey, who was absolutely fascinated with her the whole time!

#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.