Tag Archives: Marvel

#3230: Nimrod

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

NIMROD

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“The most dangerous Sentinel of a dark future timeline, the robot known as Nimrod has returned to the present to achieve his prime directive — the eradication of all mutants! With an arsenal of weapons and a virtually indestructible body, there’s little anyone can do to stop him… even the X-Men!”

Where would we be without our dangerous Sentinels from a dark future timeline?  In a much worse place, I assure you.  I mean, without Nimrod, we wouldn’t have Bastion, or all of the Orchis subplots from Hickman’s X-Men.  Could you imagine a world without those things?  Because I can.  And…actually I wouldn’t mind it so much.  But I guess I’d miss Nimrod a little bit.  But, fortunately, he does exist.  So, you know, here we are.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nimrod was released in Series 6 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line.  This marked his very first time as a figure, and would more or less remain his only version for a surprisingly long time.  Unfortunately, due to an issue of timing, they wound up going with a very modern and up to the moment look that Nimrod was sporting in the X-Force comics at the time, which was a rather divergent look that didn’t stick.  But, I guess it’s better than nothing?  Sure, let’s go with that.  The figure stands a little under 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Nimrod wasn’t particularly posable, with no neck or elbow movement, as well as greatly restricted movement on his shoulders and knees.  Not really a ton you can do with it all, but it’s kind of something you have to deal with on any version of Nimrod.  He’s just clunky.  The figure’s also rather on the small side for Nimrod, who’s classically a pretty sizable guy.  He’s chunkier than other figures, but not actually any larger, which does make him seem…less than imposing.  The figure does an alright job of capturing the design from the comics, for better or for worse.  It’s not as sleek a design as the usual, but there’s at least some cool tech detailing.  Nimrod’s colorscheme is largely red, which isn’t the usual, but it’s again accurate.  All of the red is molded, with painted yellow and black accenting.  Nimrod was originally packed with a missile for his wrist cannon, which my figure is missing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Nimrod wasn’t really much on radar as a kid, largely due to him not actually looking like the character in anything I knew him from.  I wound up getting him much later, during one of my 5-inch Marvel sprees in the summer of 2017.  He’s not really the figure anyone wanted.  He’s not bad, though.  Just limited by the source material he came from.  It’s just a shame they didn’t at least do him in the more classic Nimrod colors at some point, just to sort of do that half step.  But, nowadays, we’ve got the Legends release, so I guess it all worked out.

#3228: Peter Parker & Ned Leeds

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

PETER PARKER & NED LEEDS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Civilians in Spider-Man movie tie-ins are always a bit hit or miss.  The first Raimi film actually did kind of crazy good on that front, with not only civilian versions of both Peter and Norman, but also Mary Jane and J Jonah Jameson.  Since then, they’ve been less invested.  For the latest range of films, we started off with no civilians, but did at least get an MJ for the Far From Home tie-ins and a JJJ from No Way Home.  We haven’t actually gotten a basic Tom Holland Peter, though, nor had we gotten Peter’s “guy in the chair” Ned Leeds.  Hasbro’s celebration of Spider-Man’s 60th anniversary amends both of those.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Peter Parker and Ned Leeds are one of the three two-packs in the “Spider-Man 60 Amazing Years” sub-line of Marvel Legends.  It’s the one movie-inspired part of the line-up, which I suppose is alright.

PETER PARKER

“Peter Parker is a high school sophomore with a big secret. Instead of rushing home to do homework, he spends his afternoons fighting crime as the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!”

Civilian Peter Parker figures aren’t a total rarity when it comes to tie-in lines, but thus far the only Tom Holland version of Peter is in Minimate form.  Legends has also been pretty stingy on the unmasked heads for the MCU Spider-Men, with them only being available in a handful of rather tricky to acquire exclusive offerings.  So, I guess this release just generally makes up for all of that.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this figure is actually quite impressively handled for a civilian figure; he’s not quite as posable as the top-end Spider-Men, but it’s still pretty agile, which is certainly appropriate for Peter.  He’s also got the pinless construction for the arms and legs, which makes him a little sleeker looking.  Peter’s sculpt is entirely new.  The standard head sports a rather impressive likeness of Tom Holland, which is definitely amongst Hasbro’s best.  The body sculpt is patterned on one of Peter’s sweater wearing looks from one of Homecoming‘s school sequences.  It’s a suitably character appropriate look, especially for Holland’s take on the character, and the sculpt does a solid job of capturing the outfit, as well as balancing his proportions in a realistic manner.  The color work on the figure is generally pretty basic, with a good chunk of it being molded colors.  The face is nice and lifelike in its paint application, and the plaid pattern on what we can see of his shirt under the sweater is quite nice for the scale.  Peter is packed with an alternate smiling head, two sets of hands (fists and open gesture), a back pack, and a book.  The alternate head is an interesting concept, and I appreciate Hasbro’s attempt at something a little different, but it’s not quite right, especially compared to the standard head.  He looks more like Marty Feldman than Tom Holland.  The book’s lacking any paint details, and neither set of hands can really hold it, but it’s a decent enough extra anyway.  The back pack’s definitely a solid piece, though.

NED LEEDS

“Classmates and best friends, Ned is the only person at school who knows Peter Parker’s secret.”

While we’ve had a number of Peter Parker figures over the years, Ned Leeds has been completely absent from the world of action figures.  His comics counterpart was honestly never really notable enough to warrant any coverage (though an extra head with a Hobgoblin at some point might be nifty), but movie Ned is far more prominent.  Still not particularly action oriented, but that hasn’t stopped other figures from being made, so why would it stop Ned?  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Compared to Peter, the articulation scheme is a fair bit more restricted on Ned.  He’s obviously a far less agile character, so there’s a degree of sense to that, but I do wish he at least had a better range on his elbows.  Ah, well, you can still get some decent poses out of him.  His sculpt is another all-new set-up, courtesy of sculptor Dennis Chan.  The head sculpt has a likeness of Jacob Batalon that’s pretty much on par with the Peter figure’s Holland likeness.  I particularly like the small trace of a grin on the face; it feels very on the mark for Ned.  The body sculpt puts Ned in an outfit that matches up with Peter, which is definitely nice, and he gets a set of proportions that matches up well with Batalon’s build in the movies.  The paint work on Ned is a bit more involved than was the case with Peter, with some wear on the pants, and a decent job with the stripes on the shirt.  Ned is packed with an alternate head sporting a Spidey mask (as seen briefly in the movie), and he’s also got his own back pack, unique from Peter’s.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up MJ back when they released her, and she’s kind of just been there on her own since then.  I was definitely hoping we might see at the very least a Ned figure.  Getting him and Peter together was something of a surprise, but a pleasant one.  These two aren’t going to be the most thrilling of the anniversary line-up, but they’re both still a lot of fun, and do a great job of rounding out the cast just a little bit.

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

#3225: Stryfe

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

STRYFE

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Stryfe is the mysterious evil mutant who could be Cable’s brother – or perhaps even Cable himself! No one knows the truth about this fearsome warrior, and anyone who came close to finding out learned never to do it again! Styfe’s armor is not only shatter-proof, it’s packed with amazing weapons systems. But his most dangerous weapon is his energy mace – with just a touch it can destroy a skyscraper.”

Ah, Stryfe.  He’s so ’90s, it’s painful.  Definition of try-hard.  Just way too much going on.  Ooooh, what if he’s Cable?  Or what if he’s a clone?  And what if he looks like Wolverine, but with more Wolverine stuff shoved on his face?  But he’s also in a full suit of armor?  And he’s maybe a telepath?  And there’s a random “y” in his name, in place of the proper vowel?  See what I mean?  Too much going on.  He’s just so hard to follow.  At least he had a short run of action figures, I guess.  Well, here’s the first one of those.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Stryfe was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line.  He was one of two outright villains in the first assortment, the other being the wonderfully named “Forearm.”  Gotta love that one.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation, as well as a flip-up helmet.  The figure’s sculpt was all-new.  Apart from the head, which was re-used for one of the X-Men boxed sets later down the line, it was a sculpt that remained unique.  I looked at the slightly miniaturized version of the sculpt when it was in the Steel Mutants line-up, and I wasn’t particularly enamored by it at the time.  I’m still not really enamored by it here.  He’s scrawny, strangely shaped, and still largely devoid of detailing.  The flip-up helmet is an interesting concept, but it just winds up looking really strange.  It’s just so flat, and the underlying head just winds up looking silly.  The cape piece is removable, and….well, it connects at a very unfortunate spot, right in the middle of the butt.  Yes, this figure has a butthole.  Why connect it there?  Doesn’t it just feel like it’s asking for trouble?  The paint work on this figure is very basic.  Lots of silver.  All very flat.  It’s alright.  Stryfe was packed with his weirdly shaped mace, which is just about as goofy as he is.

 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t like Stryfe.  I’ve never liked Stryfe.  This figure’s always looked lame, and I stand by that.  I bought him because I want all of them, and he was cheap because I bought him loose.  He’s not great.  He’s really not.  He’s a try-hard, and that comes through on the figure, too.  I guess it could be worse.  It could be Ahab.  But that’s not a lot to clear, really.

#3224: Toad

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

TOAD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Mortimer Toynbee was a greedy, pathetic little toady when the genetic evil mutant known as Magneto took him in as a member of his original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But years of hard knocks toughened the Toad’s hide, and the once-sniveling creature grew a spine. Now, a leaner, meaner Mortimer stands poised to exact revenge on all those who mistreated him.”

When Marvel Legends launched 20 years ago under Toy Biz’s lead, it launched with a four figure assortment sporting some of Marvel’s big names….and Toad.  Okay, so, technically, in Toad’s defense, he was actually the only one of the four debut characters to have been in a theatrical film at the time.  But that’s not what got him into the line-up.  In actuality, it was all sheer luck.  Iron Man, Captain America, and Hulk were supposed to debut alongside Dr. Doom, a far more formidable opponent.  However, Doom was delayed, and Toy Biz was in need of a quick replacement.  So, they grabbed the completed mold they had for the comic-style Toad from their cancelled “Evolution of X” line and stuck him in Doom’s place.  To say he was out of place is something of an understatement, and the figure was rather infamous early in the line for how unwanted he was by the fanbase.  While the figure would eventually gain a rather hefty aftermarket value, the poor sales early in the line effectively guaranteed no follow-up release for the character.  And, that’s why, 20 years later, he’s just now getting his second Legends figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Toad is the final figure in Series 1 of the “20th Anniversary” sub-line of Marvel Legends.  He’s a fair bit removed from the other three, both in terms of when he was shown off and when he arrived at retail, which is all rather fitting, I suppose.  The figure stands roughly 6 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  The previous Toad was rather infamously under-articulated, since he was a pre-Legends mold being re-purposed.  This one, on the other hand, is a fair bit better, and is in fact the most posable of the four figures in this subset.  Unlike the prior figure, he can actually crouch and get into generally Toad-like poses.  The figure’s sculpt is largely new, though there’s just a touch of re-use.  I know that the upper arms at the very least are Pizza Spidey; I’m not sure about the lower arms, because they look just a little bit off.  Beyond those pieces, though, the rest of it’s all-new.  It’s….a mixed bag.  The original Legends Toad was very definitely a ’60s Toad in terms of styling.  This one’s something else.  He seems to lean a little bit more on the ’90s vibe overall, but even then, it’s kind of non-committal.  Given how closely Cap and Hulk both stuck to direct updates on their original figures*, it’s certainly an odd choice to change things up on Toad, especially since he’s still got X-Men #4 as his backdrop piece.  Like, he’s not even really in the same costume as the Toy Biz one.  You could be forgiven for thinking they’re different characters entirely.  I will say, I do at the very least like the way the costume is detailed on the body; Toad’s costume was always somewhat in disarray, and I like all the wrinkles and seams on this sculpt.  The part I’m the least fond of, however, is the head, which is the part that really loses the hold on what version of the character they’re going for.  It’s just sort of messy.  Like, the facial features seem to not really jibe with each other, and it’s kind of large for the body, and then there’s the hair, which makes him look a bit like he’s wearing a wig modeled after Leonardo DiCaprio’s ’90s hair.  Just a lot of odd choices.  In terms of paint work, Toad’s alright.  He again removes himself from the first Legends figure by changing up the palette, with the purple in particular being a totally different shade.  He’s not nearly as dirty either, though that’s I suppose a change that’s part of the wider line-wide shift under Hasbro.  I do like the accenting on the main body suit, though, as it really helps to sell the detail work of the sculpt.  Toad is packed with an extra head (with tongue extended), two sets of hands (fists and open gesture), two different toads, and a display stand with a cardboard backdrop.  The extra head still has all the same issues as the main one, which is a little disappointing, but it does at least have some more variety to it.  The toads are a fun reference to the original figure, and I appreciate that a lot.  The stand is the same one included with the other three, and his backdrop has one side with a recreation of the Series 1 figure’s swampy stand, with the other being X-Men #4’s cover.  Compared to the other figures, Toad feels a little light, but he’s also the figure with the most new tooling, so I suppose it evens out.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never bought the original Toad figure.  I don’t really know why, honestly.  It’s not like I dislike the character, and I had a pretty decent X-Men selection going at the time.  But, for whatever reason, I didn’t, and then he was expensive, and he just didn’t feel worth it.  I did sort of hope for an update, and was kind of looking forward to this one.  I had hoped, with him being so far back from the other three, that Hasbro might have been building up to something truly amazing.  Sadly, in hand, he doesn’t quite feel that way.  In a line-up that gives us definitive takes on Cap and Hulk, as well as a really solid new Iron Man variant, Toad, much like his original release, feels like the odd man out.  He feels like a figure we’d have all been very happy with a few years ago, before Hasbro had really gotten to their current level of quality with the line.  But, with the other three being very on-point, it’s hard not to see this figure as a little bit confused in its purpose.  These figures were billed as proper updates on the Series 1 figures, but Toad’s not really an update or an improvement; he’s just a completely different figure that happens to have the same name.  He’s not terrible by any stretch, but he’s not particularly great either.

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.

*Iron Man gets a pass, since the 80 Years release had already updated the Series 1 design, and he was serving to properly adapt the variant figure from Series 1.

#3223: Galactus

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

GALACTUS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A near-omnipotent being who must consume entire planets to survive, Galactus cares not for the lives doomed by his hunger. His is a power beyond mortal understanding…and an appetite without limit.”

Well, it seems “shortly” was pretty short, huh?

A little over a year ago, I took a look at the Sentinel, the first Marvel Legends entry in Hasbro’s HasLab, a crowd-funding platform for larger and otherwise not retail-ready items.  By the time I’d received and reviewed that figure, Hasbro had already launched and successfully completed a campaign for a second figure, an even larger and more daunting offering than the first.  Yes, this time around, it’s the world devourer, Galactus.  First introduced in “The Galactus Trilogy,” a story which spanned Fantastic Four #48-50, Galactus’s presence brought with a whole host of larger cosmic story telling, and he’s remained a constant in the Marvel universe since then.  He’s been many things over the years, including a cloud, but we don’t talk about that anymore.  He’s also been a toy a handful of times, and was in fact Marvel Legends‘ first Build-A-Figure back during the Toy Biz days.  But nothing was ever quite on the level of the figure I’m taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Galactus is the second Marvel Legends HasLab project, launching in mid-July of 2021 and ending on August 30th.  His initial target was 14,000 backers, more than twice that of the Sentinel, and he wound up finishing with over 30,000 backers, which was almost 10,000 more than what the Sentinel got.  It began shipping out just last month to backers.  The figure stands 30 inches tall (even larger than the Sentinel) and he has 70 points of articulation.  Like the Sentinel, about 40 of those points come from the hands, which feature movement at each of the knuckles, which is really impressive.  Beyond that, the scheme is a little less crazy, but generally not bad given the chunkiness of the figure.  That being said, compared to the Sentinel, Galactus’s articulation isn’t quite as easy to use.  In particular, the legs are a lot stiffer.  Since there were complaints about the knee joints on the Sentinel, Galactus winds up getting ratchets on his knees.  While it does lock the knees in place more securely, I found that on my figure it made getting his legs into that sweet spot for standing was a much trickier prospect.  Once he’s there, he stands alright, but it definitely takes a good deal more doing.  Galactus’s design over the years has somewhat evolved, but he’s certainly kept a consistent general feel since his debut 56 years ago.  He’s a mix of purple and blue, and he’s got that very distinctively shaped helmet.  This figure’s design takes his classic elements and modernizes them a bit.  He doesn’t appear to have a direct comics equivalent the way that the Sentinel did, but it makes him a little bit more all-purpose.  I really like this particular design.  There’s no denying who he’s meant to be, but there’s a ton of detail work to help fill the larger canvas.  As with the Sentinel, this figure’s sculpt is an all-new one (courtesy of sculptor Rene Aldrete), and its got quite a lot of engineering.  There’s a ton of smaller pieces, all assembled over a core figure, making him actually look like a properly armored person.  The segmented assembly of the figure’s sculpt aids with his color work, since it allows for a lot more molded coloring.  That said, there’s still no shortage of paint work on this guy, covering the smaller accent work, which really sells the sculpt work for the design.  There’s just a ton going on here.  Galactus gets a light up feature, which is actually quite an involved thing itself.  Two AAA batteries in his head and two more in the torso allow the chest, eyes, and four spots on the helmet to light up.  It stays on for a surprisingly long time, about 7 minutes on mine.  It’s got a sort of a fading in and out feature, which looks a bit like it’s pulsating.  The button on the chest turns the whole lighting set-up on, but thanks to the batteries in the head, it does actually light itself separately, and there’s even a button on the back of the helmet to allow you to turn the upper lights on by themselves, if you so desire.

Galactus is a quite large and impressive figure in his own right, but he also gets a whole host of accessories.  At the start of the campaign, Galactus included three different faceplates for the helmet.  There’s a standard calm expression, an angrier teeth-gritting expression, and a skeletal one based on his Cancerverse counterpart’s remains from “Thanos Imperative.”  The calm expression’s my preferred of the three, but the options are always a plus.  Based on the success of the campaign, there were four tiers for more accessories.  The first three each added one of Galactus’s Heralds, with Tier 1 adding Frankie Raye, Tier 2 adding Silver Surfer, and Tier 4 adding Morg.  The fourth and final tier added one more piece for the core figure, an alternate Dr. Doom head.  Doom has taken on the Power Cosmic, or otherwise been enlarged on numerous occasions in the comics, but this one in particular seems to be most clearly based on the alternate universe Doom from Marvel 2-in-One.  It’s obviously not going to be anyone’s go to for the figure, but it’s a fun extra piece, and I dig its consistency of design with the smaller Doom figures.

Remember those three heralds I was talking about?  Yeah, let’s discuss.  The first one added was Frankie Raye, typically known as Nova, but not billed as such, presumably to avoid confusion with the Richard Rider version of the character.  Frankie’s a rather classic design, but one that has as of yet not gotten any sort of Legends treatment, though she did get a figure from Toy Biz’s Silver Surfer line in the ’90s, as well as a Minimate.  This figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation…or at least he should.  Frankie’s apparently prone to seized joints, and in the case of my copy, that’s on her neck.  I’ve not yet tried to free it up, so right now I’m just relying on the ball-joint portion.  Frankie is making use of the upgraded female base body we saw on Shriek.  It’s a nice, basic body, and with balanced proportions and a decent articulation set-up.  And it’s also got the pinless elbow and knees, so that’s cool.  Frankie gets a new head sculpt, which is alright.  I don’t know, it’s just maybe not my ideal version of Frankie.  I’m partial to the pointed crown look for the forehead, which this one doesn’t do.  To my eyes, it leaves her a little more generic looking than I’d like.  In terms of color work, the paint is confined to the head, largely the hair, but with some minor detailing for the face.  She’s using molded plastic for the gold, which is a change-up from what Hasbro had originally said they’d planned.  Originally, she was supposed to be painted gold, which honestly would have looked just a little better.  That said, this gold plastic is at least not all swirly.  Frankie is packed with three sets of hands (fists, gripping, and open gesture), and a flame base that allows her to clip onto Galactus’s right hand.

For the second tier, we got Galactus’s best known herald, Norrin Radd, aka the Silver Surfer.  Surfer’s not a stranger to Legends, and was released solo as recently as 2018, as part of the Walgreens-exclusive sub-set of FF-themed Legends.  That figure’s gotten pretty pricey on the aftermarket, so rolling him in with Galactus was pretty sensible.  The figure stands a little under 6 1/4 inches tall and has 34 points of articulation.  He’s using the same basic set-up as the last one, so he’s on the 2099 body again.  I felt it was a little small the last time around, but I’ve warmed up to it a bit more in the years since, especially with Johnny moving to the same base, and with Firelord using it too.  Rather than re-use the last Surfer head sculpt, this one gets a brand new sculpt courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding.  I didn’t hate the previous one, but it still wasn’t one of my favorites.  This one, on the other hand, I really, really like.  Surfer head sculpts are always the downfall of the figure, but this one’s really strong, and easily the best Surfer sculpt we’ve seen in toy form.  His paint work is slightly changed up.  He’s still all silver, of course, but it’s a slightly brighter, slightly more matte finish.  I honestly kind of dig the change.  Surer is packed with three sets of hands (fists, flat, and open gesture), an effects piece (in purple now, contrasting the yellow of the last release), his surfboard, and a flight base designed for Galactus’s left hand.

The final herald in this set, added when the campaign met its third stretch goal, is Morg.  After Galactus relieved Frankie Raye of her duties after deeming her too kindhearted for the role of herald, he found Morg, who was very much *not* too kindhearted.  In fact, he kind of went too far the other direction, leading him to ultimately turn on Galactus and all of the former heralds.  So, Galactus took away the Power Cosmic, and Morg died.  And then he came back.  And then he died again.  And now he’s kind of a minor player, often forgotten.  He’s previously had a Minimate, but that’s the extent of his figure coverage up to this point.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Despite his bulkier stature, Morg is actually pretty well articulated, with double elbows and knees, which don’t even wind up breaking up the sculpt too badly either.  He’s also making use of the pinless construction, which looks a heck of a lot cleaner.  Morg is sporting an all-new sculpt.  It’s a pretty respectable match for his comics counterpart, and it’s certainly got a lot going on.  I like how the proportions work, and he’s certainly as hideous as he’s supposed to be.  The figure’s color work is generally pretty decent.  Not a ton of painting, mostly just molded colors, but it works.  Interestingly, the pants are black, while initial renders from Hasbro showed them as brown.  Both are accurate, and I personally prefer the black, so I’m not upset about it.  Morg is packed with his axe.  It’s not the bevy of extras that the other two got, and he’s also the only one without a way to directly interact with the main figure, but he’s also a completely new sculpt, rather than a new head on an old body.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I don’t *quite* have the same level of personal love for Galactus that I do for the Sentinel, I do still have quite an attachment, stemming back to my original Toy Biz figure, who I got back in the day from KB Toys (he was actually defective and had to have his electronics repaired by my dad and granddad).  My brother Christian was a huge fan, though, and I fondly remember him carrying his Marvel Universe figure everywhere with him back in the day.  That Galactus was, of course, bigger than my Galactus, so it goes without saying that I needed to one-up him.  Right?  Right.  This figure still took just a touch more convincing than the Sentinel, but honestly not by much.  I backed him pretty early into the campaign, before we even knew about the extra figures.  He’s a lot of fun, and so are all the extras.  This one’s certainly going to be hard to top.

As with the Sentinel, I got this guy directly through Hasbro.  However, I’d still like to give a shout out to my sponsors at All Time Toys, who again allowed me use of the back room photo tent so that I could actually get proper pictures of this guy for the review.  It definitely wouldn’t have gone nearly as smoothly without that.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#3222: Firelord

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

FIRELORD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Galactus transforms Xandarian naval officer Pryreus Kril into his newest Herald, the unwavering Firelord!”

How about a little fire!?!  No?  No on the fire?  Yeah, that’s probably fair.  Hear me out, though: what if it’s not *just* fire?  What if there’s inexplicably a “lord” attached to that?  Does that change things up enough?  I mean, it does for me.  And it’s my site.  So, I make the rules.  And I’m looking at Firelord.  It’s been a shockingly short span of time since my last Firelord review, which was just back in May of this year.  Two Firelords in one year.  I don’t know if that’s, strictly speaking, legal.  But, I’m willing to give it a try.  I actually did a respectable job of giving that character’s background in that review’s intro, allowing me to go all meta on this one, and then just sort of jump right into the review.  Onto the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Firelord is a Fan Channel-exclusive standalone offering for the Retro sub-set of Marvel Legends.  He’s a continuation of the retro FF-style packaging from last year, and also clearly meant to tie-in with the arrival of the Galactus HasLab figure (which I’m hoping to review shortly). This marks Firelord’s third time in figure form, following the original Toy Biz and the Minimate.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Firelord is built on the 2099 body, which seems a pretty suitable base for the character.  It’s the same one that was used for the last Silver Surfer, and while I had my reservations about that choice at the time, I’ve warmed up to it over the years since its release.  With a second Herald on the base, it feels more unifying, and it’s honestly a solid match for how he tends to be portrayed.  He gets a brand-new head sculpt (courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding), which is quite an impressive piece; it’s an impressive update of the stylings of the original Toy Biz figure, while also serving to capture his appearance in the comics.  It’s got an appropriately ’70s vibe, and I’m impressed by the flow of his fiery hair.  The color work on this figure is largely on the basic side, at least as far as the “costume” is concerned.  The head gets some slightly more involved work, with transparent plastic for the hair (so it looks really cool when backlit), as well as just a little bit of printing to give the eyes just a little more life.  Firelord is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and gripping, as well as his flaming staff.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The old ’90s figure, coupled with his appearance in Uncanny Origins, which I got not long after, gave me a serious soft-spot for Firelord.  When he wasn’t amongst the Heralds revealed alongside Galactus, I was hopeful that meant he might be getting a standard release.  This guy’s pretty much exactly what I was expecting, and I’m honestly very happy about that!

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.

#3220: Warpath

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

WARPATH

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“He’s super-strong and super loyal! He’s the Native American known as Warpath! The X-Force team loves him for his rock-steady calm in even the most dangerous situations. Because he’s so big and so strong, Evil Mutants often attack him first, thinking that “the bigger they are, the harder they fall”. But in Warpath’s case, it’s the Evil Mutants who fall!”

The X-Men were really big in the ’90s, and the best way to capitalize on that is spin-offs!  Previous X-book The New Mutants was made more x-friendly with its own x-themed title, X-Force, and, with X-Force itself becoming a pretty big deal, it got its own spin-off of Toy Biz’s own X-Men toyline.  They got right to work filling in the team’s roster, in an assortment that, in a form of dramatic irony, didn’t actually feature any of the New Mutants members who had transferred over.  It did, however, feature Warpath, brother to X-Man proper Thunderbird, getting a figure years before his brother did.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Warpath was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s X-Force toyline.  He was one of three actual team members in the set.  The X-Force line was a bit slower on getting out actual team members than the X-Men line, but then again, the actual book was far more focused on side characters most of the time too.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Warpath lacks elbows and knees, which were still kind of phasing in and out at this point.  Presumably, the lack of them here was somehow linked to his slightly larger stature.  Not much larger, mind you; he’s actually surprisingly small for Warpath, who is classically a quite large and imposing guy, especially in the ’90s.  The sculpt is also kind of soft in terms of detailing, and sort of pre-posed, but also really stiff?  It’s an odd mix.  His muscles are also just kind of odd lumps.  I mean, aside from the very definite presence of feet, he’s not a bad match for a Liefeld drawing.  Perhaps not in terms of actual look, but certainly in terms of vibe.  The paint work on the figure is honestly not bad.  It’s bright and colorful, and the application is pretty sharp and clean.  Warpath is packed with…a red bazooka?  Not really sure why.  Not exactly true to the character, but, well, there it is.  He also featured a “Thunder Punch Action,” which just means his arms swing opposite directions when he’s twisted at the waist.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is another one of those figures that I looked at a lot growing up, but never actually wound up buying until I was an adult.  I snagged him sealed in the summer of 2017, alongside a bunch of other ’90s Toy Biz stuff.  He’s…not a terribly impressive figure.  I mean, he’s not awful either, I guess, but that’s not exactly a lot to write home about.

#3211: Iron Man Mark 47 & Happy Hogan

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

IRON MAN MARK 47 & HAPPY HOGAN

MARVEL MINIMATES

Tying the movie more closely into the universe that spawned it, Spider-Man: Homecoming leans a fair bit on Iron Man and one notable member of his supporting cast.  Not only does Peter work directly with Tony Stark on a number of occasions, but long-term Iron Man supporting cast member Harold “Happy” Hogan also gets his largest roles in the MCU as part of its Spider-Man trilogy.  As a Happy Hogan fan since way back when nobody knew who Happy Hogan was, I’m all about that.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Iron Man Mark 47 and Happy Hogan were the TRU-exclusive set for the Spider-Man: Homecoming tie-in assortment of Marvel Minimates.  Due to weird licensing, the Spidey and non-Spidey characters supposedly couldn’t actually cross over in the tie-ins, so these two are isolated off on their own.  It’s not the worst thing, though, since, you know, the two of them do kind of tie together…even if Happy and Tony don’t actually interact while Tony’s in Iron Man mode.  Still, it’s really not that weird.  I’m making it weird.  I’ll stop.

IRON MAN MARK 47

Iron Man’s no stranger to Minimates, especially not when it comes to the MCU.  This was his 72nd Minimate overall and his 31st MCU-based released.  This one’s based on his briefly used suit from Homecoming, which was itself inspired, at least in terms of coloring, by the Ultimate version of the character from the comics.  The figure is based on the standard post-c3 base body, and as such is about 2 1/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He features an add-on for his chest plate, as well as unique pieces for his upper arms and hands.  All of the non-standard pieces were new to this figure, which is mostly surprising because this armor was really just a quick recolor of the Mark 46 in the movie, and the Mark 46 minimates all just used the Mark 42 tooling again.  These parts are a lot less clunky, though, and generally follow the sleeker design of the armor, so I generally appreciate them.  Additionally, this figure has the interesting change of not getting a helmet piece, and instead just using the standard head.  I’m not entirely sure why that was the way they went, but it’s not a terrible look.  The paint work on this guy is pretty decent.  The metallic red is super slick, and all of the line-work is nice and sharp.  The figure is packed with a flight stand and a clear display stand.

HAPPY HOGAN

Believe it or not, this isn’t the first Happy Hogan Minimate.  Heck, it’s not even the first one I’ve reviewed on the site.  In fact, with this release, I’ll have a review of every Happy Hogan figure there is.  That’s commitment.  Or crazy.  Or there’s only three of them, and it’s ultimately nothing.  Happy has add-on pieces for his hair, jacket, and tie.  The hair piece is re-used I’m pretty sure, but it’s a solid match for Favreau’s hair style in the movie.  The jacket and tie are the World of the Psychic Venkman jacket and Spirit tie combo that they rocked for a while there, which is a pretty good set-up.  The paint work includes an improved likeness from the IM2 release, as well as actual detailing for the belt, which is pretty nifty.  Happy is packed with a clear display stand, which isn’t a lot, but it’s something.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had to get kind of picky with what I was buying when these were first released, so I had to skip them, on the basis that I didn’t really need another Iron Man variant, and I already had one Happy Hogan.  But, then TRU was going under, and things were marked down, and I didn’t have this specific Happy Hogan, so, you know, I went for it.  Mark 47 is an improvement on the over designed nature of MCU Iron Men at the time, and I do really like that.  Happy is an improvement on the prior version, and I can definitely dig it.

#3204: Spider-Man & Spinneret

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

SPIDER-MAN & SPINNERET

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Peter and Mary-Jane Parker are partners in marriage and crime-fighting as Spider-Man and Spinneret!”

With the character’s 60th anniversary upon us, now’s as good a time as any to really look into the history of Spidey and his supporting cast.  In 1987, Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson officially tied the knot in not one, not two, but three different venues, which included the mainstream Marvel universe in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, the Spider-Man newspaper strip, and even a live performance of the marriage held at Shea Stadium and officiated by Stan Lee himself.  Within the main universe, the marriage lasted 20 years, before Joe Quesada, during his absolutely wonderful and not at all the worst thing ever run as Editor-in-Chief at Marvel, decided he didn’t think people could relate to a Spider-Man who was married.  Because, apparently people had been not relating to Spidey for the last two decades at that point.  Obviously, the solution to this issue of relatability was to have Peter and Mary-Jane sell their marriage to the literal Devil in what has got to be the most convoluted sequence of events ever crafted in order to end a marriage.  Very relatable.  “One More Day” went over about as well as a lead balloon at the time of its publication, so there have been plenty of attempts at circumventing its effects.  During 2015’s Secret Wars crossover, Dan Slott and Adam Kubert helmed a limited series exploring a world where Peter and MJ had never sold their marriage to the literal Devil, called “Renew Your Vows.”  The story was generally seen as a good thing, and has spawned itself its own two-pack, Spidey and Spinneret, which I’ll be taking a look at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Spider-Man and Spinneret are one of the pair of two-packs in the “Spider-Man 60th Anniversary” sub-line of Marvel Legends.  The pack is officially branded “Renew Your Vows” after the story that spawned it.

SPIDER-MAN

There has been no shortage of standard Spider-Man variants in Legends, but Hasbro is intent on continuing to improve their standard issue Spider-Man wherever they can.  Just under the current run of Legends, we got Pizza Spidey in 2015, and the Retro Spidey in 2020, and now, there’s a whole new one.  Well, I say “whole new,” but that’s not entirely accurate.  I’ll get to that.  The figure stands just over 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 38 points of articulation.  Yesterday, I spend a good portion of my review of discussing how impressive the Amazing Fantasy Spidey’s articulation is.  Today’s Spidey is…well, he’s different.  A lot of it comes down to how this guy is built.  While AF Spidey is an all-new sculpt from the ground up, Renew Spidey is sort of retrofitting older parts into a modern set-up.  He’s taking a lot from the Retro Spidey from 2020, a figure that was himself slightly hindered by his reliance on pieces from the ANAD 2099 figure.  In order to make up for that figure’s older pieces, this one replaces or at the very least alters a few more pieces to modernize things just a bit.  The arms and legs are now adjusted to feature the pinless construction on the elbows and knees, which was a major issue with the last release, since he literally *just* missed the implementation of that feature.  This figure also gets a new set of feet, which see the return of toe articulation, something that was once a staple, but has been absent from Legends since shortly after Hasbro took over the license.  Admittedly, I tended to find the toe articulation overused, but on Spidey it does make a degree more sense.  It’s all topped off with a head that looks like it might be a re-use of the Pizza Spidey head, but there’s enough slight change-up of the width of the jaw that I’m not sure if it’s actually new or if that’s just a slight variation in the mold over time.  Whatever the case, it’s a more current looking Spidey head than the one that was on the retro release.  The whole set-up on the mold is a little bit piecemeal, but it’s greater than the sum of its parts.  The articulation gets the job done, and he ultimately gets a similar range of motion to the AF Spidey.  There are definitely some areas where one articulation set-up is compensating for another, so it’s not as fluid in its motion as the other figure.  Still, it’s not a bad set-up.  The figure’s paint work is generally pretty good.  The palette is a little darker than the Retro Spidey, which fits well with the particular storyline the figure’s adapting.  Spidey is packed with an unmasked head and three sets of hands (in fists, thwipping, and open gesture).  The unmasked head is the same one we’ve seen a few times, though this time with the face printing, which is honestly a notable improvement.

SPINNERET

Within the original run of Renew Your Vows, MJ is still doing the civilian thing, but when it was continued as an ongoing book under veteran Spidey scribe Gerry Conway, he gave MJ her own super hero identity as Spinneret.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and it has 29 points of articulation.  MJ winds up as about as much of a patchwork job as her husband, which is appropriate, I suppose.  She starts with the AoA Rogue-modified version of the Polaris-modified version of the Phoenix torso, which translates to her having two separate ports on her back that don’t actually do anything for this release.  She’s then got the upgraded pinless-style arms and legs from Shriek, an all-new head, and a pair of add-ons for the cuffs on her ankles.  I’m not super thrilled by the extra ports on the back, but otherwise it’s a body with a decent set of proportions and a really nice range of motion.  The new head does a solid job of recreating her masked look from the comics, and manages to do a not so terrible job of a teeth baring grin that doesn’t look frightening or goofy.  Spinneret’s paint work is pretty decent.  I dig the rather unique color scheme, and the paint on the face in particular, which is using the face printing.  The figure’s packed with an unmasked head (the same one included with the Retro Gwen Stacy figure) and three sets of hands (fists, thwipping, and open gesture).  As with the Peter head, MJ gets the face printing, which is again a marked improvement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was on the fence with this set.  I enjoy the storyline and all, but it’s a pricey set, and I’d not really been wowed by the Retro Spider-Man in his first release.  That said, once this set was in front of me, it was harder to turn down, especially when I suddenly found myself getting another item for a lot cheaper than I’d expected, so I had some extra cash to justify it.  Spidey is definitely a bit of a Frankenstein, but it ultimately works out better than I’d expected.  He’s the slightest bit undercut by how well the AF Spidey turned out, but they serve different purposes and they serve them well.  Spinneret isn’t the main draw of the set, but she’s still a really solid figure, and rounds out the pack really nicely.

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.

#3203: Amazing Fantasy Spider-Man

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

AMAZING FANTASY SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“In Spider-Man’s first-ever adventure, tragedy teaches a young Peter Parker that with great power comes great responsibility.”

On August 10, 1962, the world of Marvel changed forever, with the publication of Amazing Fantasy #15.  With the anthology series officially ending, writer Stan Lee was given free rein to do whatever he wanted for the final issue.  So, Stan dusted off an old concept he’d been trying to get published for a little while and Spider-Man found his way to print.  60 years later, he’s effectively the face of Marvel, and one of the biggest super heroes out there.  In honor of the character’s 60th anniversary, Hasbro’s running all sorts of figures from all throughout his history.  I’m kicking things off today with Peter as he appeared in the very beginning.  Let’s take a look at Amazing Fantasy Spider-Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Amazing Fantasy Spider-Man is a single release figure in the “Spider-Man 60th Anniversary” sub-line of Marvel Legends.  He’s based specifically on Spidey’s first appearance, the second Legends release to do so, following up on Toy Biz’s own stab at it back in 2005.  Things have certainly changed a bit since then, so a re-do feels like it was overdue.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 34 points of articulation.  Amazing Fantasy Spider-Man is built on a brand-new base body which, more so than the retro Spidey base from 2020, feels designed as a direct replacement for the Pizza Spidey base.  It’s key strength is how its articulation works; not only is it sporting those fancy pinless elbows and knees that Spidey has been deprived of up to this point, he’s also sporting an impressive range of motion on just about all of his joints.  Okay, so let’s talk about this figure’s articulation, because oh boy is that worth focusing on for a bit.  Perhaps the best area of range is on the figure’s ankles, which have enough forward motion that the figure can stand in a crouching pose while still keeping both of his feet flat on the ground.  Like, *I* don’t even have that kind of range.  He’s also got enough crunch range on the mid-torso and waist, and enough forward mobility on his butterfly shoulders that he can get his hands resting on the ground in front of him while crouching.  The coolest thing about all of this mobility, however, is that it doesn’t require the joints to horribly break up the aesthetics of the mold.  It’s the best of both worlds. The sculpt gives us a slightly more balanced set of skinny proportions than the Pizza Spidey body did, which I think will help it work a little bit better for other characters than that release did.  He also gets an all-new head; it’s not specifically Ditko-based, but it’s got the thinner eyes, which certainly suit the earlier days look a bit better.  The figure’s paint work is a decent set-up.  Thanks to the way the articulation and part break down works, he’s get less need for paint than earlier figures, since a lot of him can just be molded in the proper colors.  The work that’s there is generally pretty solid.  I did have one issue of slop on my figure’s left arm, and there’s a slight mismatch of the reds between the upper torso and the rest of the figure, but beyond that, it’s all reasonable work.  They’ve made sure to give him the slightly modified logo on the front and back, which I love.  I’m also just really overjoyed about the pinless elbows meaning we finally have a Legends Spidey without bright red dots on the interior of his arm.  Spidey is packed with four sets of hands (in thwipping, gripping, fists, and open gesture), a webline, and swappable web wings in both compact and stretched out set-ups.  I love the inclusion of all of the extra hands, since there’s a tendency to drop them these days.  These ones give him a great range of expression.  The webline’s the same one they’ve been using; it works out alright.  The web wings are always tricky in figure form; the swapable pieces feel like the best way of handling them.  They work well on mine, but I know that for some people they’ve been really loose fitting.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve got a soft-spot for the AF Spidey, especially when it comes to Legends.  The Series 10 version from Toy Biz was my standard 6-inch Spidey for a very long while, only being retired by the Pizza Spidey.  Pizza Spidey himself has been a favorite of mine, and, while the retro figure was okay, he wasn’t really an upgrade to me, just a lateral move that I personally didn’t like as much.  With this release, I feel like Hasbro has a suitable replacement for Pizza Spidey.  I mean, sure, he’s still not in standard colors, but in case you hadn’t been clued in by how attached I was the Toy Biz AF Spidey, I’m clearly not too shaken up about that.  This guy’s really, really great.  Honestly, he’s my favorite Legends Spidey to date.

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.