Tag Archives: Marvel

#2858: Stealth Iron Man

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

STEALTH IRON MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Tony Stark designed the Stealth Armor to maximize on concealment over offensive weaponry.”

First appearing in 1981, a Stealth variant of the standard Iron Man armor has become a rather common place variant for the character going forward.  They don’t tend to have a ton of media appearances, but it’s still a pretty easily banked upon variant, since it’s easily justifiable as a straight repaint.  There have been three updates since (at least, going by the comics), but it’s really hard to do better than the Model 7 armor that originated the concept, and which is really only done proper justice when it’s a repaint of the classic armor.  Hey, doesn’t Hasbro have an updated version of the classic armor mold that they *just* put out in the last two years?  Why yes they do.  Maybe they should do a Stealth variant.  Oh, wait, they did.  Sorry, it just snuck up on me here.  It was hard to see it.  Because it’s so stealthy, you see.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Stealth Iron Man is figure 2 in the Ursa Major Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s our second Iron Man variant, but he won’t be our last.  It’s the first time in a while that we’ve gotten a Stealth Iron Man in Legends, and the first time ever that he’s just been a standard release, rather than a variant or a very hard to find exclusive like the last two.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Surprising no one, Stealth Iron Man is a complete parts re-use of the 80th Iron Man figure.  Given that the two armors are supposed to look the same, and always are drawn as nothing but a color swap, this is a totally justified case of re-use.  It also helps that it’s just a really good sculpt, so seeing it turn up again certainly isn’t hurting my feelings.  This figure’s main selling point is its new color scheme, which is now all monochromatic and dark blue.  Well, sort of monochromatic; there’s actually some slight changing in the exact shades, corresponding to the red and yellow sections of the normal color scheme, which is honestly a nice touch.  Technically, the armor’s supposed to be all black, and the blue was just a coloring technique in the comic, but I think the blue honestly makes for a slightly more interesting design.  The Stealth Armor keeps the two sets of hands from the 80th release (colored to match, of course), as well as the unmasked head (which also gets a slightly tweaked paint scheme), two blast effects (in red this time), and the left leg to the Ursa Major Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been expecting the release of this guy since we got the 80th mold, so it’s not like he was a shock when he was shown off.  That being said, I was still happy to see him finally crop up.  He’s a rather by the numbers release, but he does very well playing by those numbers, and it makes for a strong addition to the line, and a really fun Iron Man variant that certainly earns its place in the line-up.

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.

#2857: Vault Guardsman

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

VAULT GUARDSMAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With armor equipped with repulsor rays, high-carbon steel alloy mesh and radiation shielding, Vault Guardsman turns his sights on the complete destruction of Iron Man.”

Okay, so in today’s entry in “Ethan critiques the bios,” let’s just get the obvious confusion on Hasbro’s part over who the heck this figure is actually supposed to be, and moreover, who the Guardsman is in general.  First appearing in 1970, the Guardsman was Kevin O’Brien, former engineer for Stark Industries, whose faulty armor caused his mind to go haywire, and drove his desire to kill Iron Man.  Kevin was killed in battle, leading his brother Michael to dawn the armor seeking vengeance.  That time, however, Tony was able to convince Michael that the suit was affecting his mind, and talk him down, so that he actually served as Iron Man’s ally.  Eventually, the armor was mass produced for use by the guards at the Vault super prison, which is when they switched over to the name “Vault Guardsman.”  However, the Vault Guardsman isn’t just one guy, nor have they ever been all that invested in destroying Iron Man.  So, you know, there it is.  It’s cool to get a figure, regardless.  Let’s just celebrate that, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Vault Guardsman is figure 1 in the Ursa Major Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s a pretty strong choice for an Iron Man-centric series, and this marks Guardsman’s first time in Legends form, which is pretty cool.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Guardsman is built on the Reaper body, at least at his core.  It’s a sensible enough choice, at least from a build standpoint.  It does mean he’s still got the visible pins on his arms and legs, but otherwise it still looks pretty decent.  He gets a new torso and head, which aid in making him look like the classic Guardsman we all know and love.  I was honestly a little surprised by the new torso piece, since it seems like the sort of thing that Hasbro previously would have done with just paint, but they instead went the extra mile here.  I’m glad they did, because it really does just look better this way.  The Guardsman’s paint work is generally okay, although, much like the Minimate version, I do feel like the two greens maybe aren’t quite divergent enough from each other.  I really feel like the darker sections should be a lot closer to black, at least going by the illustrations.  It turns out a bit better in the photos, but in person the contrast can be a bit easier to miss.  That said, I do like the metallic sheen that they’ve given him.  It gives him a pretty slick look.  Guardsman is packed with two sets of hands, gripping and in fists, a pistol (borrowed from Yon-Rogg), and the left arm to the Ursa Major Build-A-Figure.  Curiously, the gripping hands are the ones from Kraven, so there are still the sculpted wraps.  Seeing as non-wrapped versions of the hands exist for this mold, I feel like this may have been an unintentional thing.  Also, they’re not designed for actually holding the gun, but that’s not really new for this mold.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really like the Guardsman, as a concept and as a design.  I’m such a fan, that I actually bought the Spider-Man Classics Venom back in the day, purely because of that really cool base with the fallen Guardsman in the rubble.  I’ve been waiting a very long time to finally get a proper 6 inch figure of him, so I was very happy to see him turn up here.  He’s a rather basic figure, but that’s not a bad thing.  Sure, I wouldn’t mind the colors being tweaked, and the alternate hands are a little weird, but overall, I’m just happy to have him.  He’s fun.

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.

#2856: Modular Iron Man

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

MODULAR IRON MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A dazzling technological achievement, the modular suit allows Tony Stark to reconfigure sub-systems like boots, gloves, helmets and scanners on the fly.”

For the first couple of decades of his existence, Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor was on an upward trend of advancements.  Everything kept getting sleeker and more streamlined.  The Silver Centurion and Neo-Classic armors marked a slight step backwards, or perhaps maybe just a lateral movement, but in 1994, the trend went back to advancement with the introduction of the Model 13 armor, better known as the Modular Armor, which streamlined down the core armor, and focused more on different systems to add-on for specific needs.  The armor only stuck around for about a year and a half in the comics, but it made its mark in popular culture, thanks to its inclusion in both Iron Man: The Animated Series and Marvel Vs Capcom 2, which kept it in the eyes of a whole generation of super hero fans.  Because of that, there’s been some definite call for an update to this design for Marvel Legends, and Hasbro was kind enough to oblige.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Modular Iron Man is part of the Ursa Major Series of Marvel Legends, which has been just starting to hit retail shelves in the last month.  It’s an Iron Man-centric set, which is something we haven’t seen since the Iron Man 3 tie-ins, which means it’s something we haven’t seen at all in this packaging style.  It feels a little bit overdue.  Likewise, Modular Iron Man also feels a little overdue, since this marks his first figure in this style since when Toy Biz was running things, back in 2006.  That’s a while.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 33 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is pretty much the same as that of the 80th Iron Man, which is a reasonable set-up for such a character.  He does get an extra joint at the base of the neck, which adds a little more motion there. The shoulders are a bit limited, at least on mine, but he’s otherwise got a pretty decent range.  He also makes use of the pinless construction for both his elbows and knees, which helps with that sleeker appearance.  Despite his similarities to the 80th base in terms of build and articulation, Modular is a totally new sculpt.  I’m honestly a little surprised, but certainly not upset.  He deserves it, and it was definitely a good call.  The whole thing is very clean and well-rendered, and certainly looks like the armor as it was depicted in the comics.  The various modular hook-ups are all separate pieces, fixed in place on the main figure, which helps sell the depth, and also means there’s room for some later version that swaps out for some of his modular attachments, I suppose.  Other than that, it’s a really good looking sculpt, and a really nice rendition of this armor design.  It’s a good, solid, sculpt.  Modular Iron Man goes for a more real world take on his color scheme, so we’re going for metallic red and gold.  While it’s maybe not as striking as a nice red/yellow set-up, it does match with Hasbro’s usual colors for their Iron Men more recently.  It’s a decent look in its own right, and it’s actually pretty light on any real painting, which keeps it quite clean looking.  Modular Iron Man is packed with two sets of hands (fists and repulser blast), as well as two blast effects.  I’m glad that both sets of hands actually get full wrist movement, but this guy does otherwise feel a little bit on the light side.  An unmasked head and maybe one or two extra effects would have been cool.  As it stands, he’s just pretty basic.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting a truly phenomenal classic Iron Man in 2019, this was my next major want for an Iron Man, driven even more by last year’s also phenomenal War Machine figure.  This guy was my most wanted figure from this set by a good margin, and I was super thrilled to get my hands on him.  While I’d maybe have liked some extra accessories, and I’d also love to see a version with flat colors, there’s still no denying that this figure turned out really, really well.

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

#2854: Bullseye

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

BULLSEYE

MARVEL UNIVERSE (TOY BIZ)

He’s maybe not Daredevil’s most prominent villain, but Bullseye’s probably his most *consistent* villain.  While DD’s other foes either didn’t start as his, or got passed off to other heroes, Bullseye actually debuted in DD’s book, and stayed with him most of his career.  How kind of him.  Of course, with Daredevil not tending to get his own dedicated toylines, that does mean that there are less reasons for him to get toy treatment.  That being the case, his first figure wasn’t a mainstream release at all, but rather an exclusive.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Bullseye was the mail-away exclusive offer in ToyFare #1, made available to order in September of 1997, and shipping out early the next year.  Bullseye’s costume really hadn’t changed much at this point in his career, apart from some minor adjustments here and there.  This one went for the most adjusted possible appearance, in order to keep him more current.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Structurally, Bullseye was built mostly out of parts from Punisher, with the head of Scorpion, both from the Spider-Man line.  Since they’re the same line and roughly the same time, the parts mesh together pretty decently.  The head maybe looks a bit too small, and it’s sort of tilted downward, but it generally works, and the parts do match up alright with Bullseye’s usual depictions.  The paint work on Bullseye is alright.  It gets the important details and he looks the part, but the application could certainly stand to be a little cleaner.  The stripes on the boots and gloves are a little uneven, and the paint on the face doesn’t quite seem like it knows exactly where it wants to go.  Overall, though, he’s about par for the course on these.  Accessories were a rarity on these figures, but Bullseye does actually get one; he’s got the same small knife that was included with Punisher, presumably so as to not leave him forever with an empty sheath on his leg.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Bullseye is one of the most recent ToyFare exclusives that I acquired.  I picked him up in late 2019, as part of a collection of otherwise ’90s DC stuff that came into All Time.  I wasn’t really expecting him to be there, you know, being Marvel and all, but he was, which saved me the trouble of tracking one down.  He’s not much to write home about, I suppose, but he does an alright job of capturing the character, and he’s a good choice for re-use, because he really doesn’t suffer much from the lack of new parts.  Ultimately, a decent addition.

#2842: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

AVENGERS: ENDGAME (HOT TOYS)

These days, I pretty much exclusively save my Hot Toys reviews for monumental numbers, but I’ve gotten to the point now where anything less than 500 doesn’t seem worth it, so it’s literally less than one a year.  Despite my last one being not even a whole year ago, when I crossed the 2500 mark, I’ve actually picked up a new one that warrants reviewing, and I don’t particularly want to wait seven months to review him, just to get the numbers to line up right.  If he’d actually come out when he was *supposed* to, I would have been golden, but nooooooooo….  So, anyway, I’m breaking the structure.  I know, you’re all so broken up about it, right?  Let’s jump back to 2019, when the world sucked a great deal less, and discuss the culmination of a decade’s worth of movies in Avengers: Endgame, and, more specifically, Captain America!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America was released as part of the Endgame component of Hot Toys’ core Movie Masterpiece Series, where he’s figure 536.  He winds up being the sixth release of the Endgame figures, though he was originally meant to be a little bit earlier.  His initial release date was projected for June of 2020, but he wound up being about a year later than expected, making him so far the most delayed of the Endgame figures.  Presumably, the need to add some more final battle-specific parts contributed to this at least a little bit, but there was also that whole pandemic thing going on, which I’m sure did not help.  He’s finally here, though, and that’s the thing that matters the most of all.  Cap is based on his all-new super suit from the movie, which places him as a specifically third-act version of the character, which is really where he gets his best look, so I’m all about it.  It’s definitely Chris Evans’ Cap at his Cap-iest.  The figure stands about 12 1/2 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

As is the norm for masked characters, Cap is packed with two different heads for this release.  The first is a helmeted look, which is a quite nicely layered sculpt that looks like he’s actually got a separate helmet and everything.  For this head, they’ve given him an extra joint at the base of the jaw, for some extra mobility.  It works pretty well, but does result in a slightly noticeable seam at the back.  It’s certainly an improvement from earlier versions of such designs, though, which is good.  The head has a solid likeness of Chris Evans under the helmet, showcasing an improvement even on the already really good likenesses of the older Caps.  Much like the DX12 Batman, the helmeted head has three different mouth plates that you can swap out for different expressions.  The standard is fairly neutral, and has the most versatility, but he’s also got one with the mouth slightly opened, and one with the teeth firmly gritted and bared, which is perfect for the more intense battle poses.  The plates are attached with magnets, and can take a little bit of doing to place, but stay nicely once set, and swap out without too much trouble.  It certainly works a bit better than the straight up pegs that were on Batman.  The paint work on the head is up to the usual HT standards, with a very lifelike appearance for the face, and some really nice wear and tear detailing on the helmet.  The second head gives us a proper un-helmeted look for Steve.  Originally, the photos showed the same unmasked head that was included with the Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron, and Civil War releases, but prior to release, Hot Toys replaced it with an all-new sculpt that more accurately depicts Evans as seen in Endgame.  It’s a very strong sculpt, with a really impressive likeness, perhaps even better than the one on the helmeted head.  Unlike the helmeted head, this one doesn’t have the extra joint.  It makes for slightly less posability, but looks better aesthetically, and given his more composed appearance, it’s not really meant for crazy poses anyway.  The only real downside to this sculpt is that there’s a rather noticeable seam on the sides of the head.  Fortunately, it’s not too bad when not directly lit, but at this price point, you would hope for it to be just a little bit better.

Cap’s new suit for Endgame‘s final battle was a fairly strong point for the movie.  It’s kind of indicative of the MCU movies as a whole,   taking various elements that worked previously, and rolling them all into one slightly more perfected, more direct comics-directly adapted final product.  It looks really cool, and it just really works.  It’s construction is also a bit more involved than earlier designs, as well, which is reflected in its translation here.  His underlying “body suit” is two distinct pieces, a shirt and pants.  The pants have some molded knee pads glued in place, and the shirt has plastic plating for his chest and shoulders, as well as a sculpted insignia at the center.  Beyond that, the detailing is down to tailoring, which looks pretty solid for this scale.  Some of the stitching is a little bit larger than it should be, but, of course, there’s only so much that can be done about that.  The base suit is topped off by his harness, belt, and boots.  The harness is largely cloth, as you would expect, and is again a well-tailored translation of the design seen in he film.  The belt sits a little bit low, but overall looks alright, and is attached permanently to the suit.  The boots are sculpted, but unlike earlier sculpted boots, which sacrificed articulation for the sake of aesthetics, these ones are jointed at the ankles, allowing for much better options when posing.  It’s definitely a much appreciated improvement for me.

Cap’s underlying body captures Evans’ proportions pretty nicely and is one of the more basic ones, which prioritizes function over form.  After the first few Caps placed him on slightly less articulated muscle bodies, I do appreciate one that’s more cleanly designed for posing.  The nature of his costume design does impede some of the movement ever so slightly.  For the most part, the upper torso fares alright in terms of range, though the shoulders are a little tight for some poses.  The pants are rather restricting, especially at the hips, but with some slight shifting, it’s workable.  He just won’t be getting into any deep lunges or anything.

In addition to getting the previously mentioned extra head and mouth plates, Cap gets a rather extensive selection of other extras for a whole ton of options for display.  Included are:

  • 7 hands
  • 2 shields
  • Mjolnir
  • Compass
  • Empty helmet
  • Display stand

The hands include fists, gripping, pointing (right), open gesture (right), and loose grip (left).  They pretty much cover all of the needed options for posing, and look suitably realistic, including some solid detail work on his gloves.  They also swap out pretty easily, considering my prior experiences with Hot Toys.  The two shields give you both standard (if a bit scuffed), and damaged, which also includes the broken shards, which I certainly wasn’t expecting.  The shields also include a piece that can swap out for one of the straps, which allows you to hang one of them on his back.  Mjolnir is similar in styling to the one included with Thor, but this time around the top is plastic, rather than metal.  While it doesn’t have that same impressive heft, it also won’t leave his wrist joint all floppy and loose after a few months posed holding it aloft.  The compass is properly hinged, and even has the small photo of Peggy in it, as seen in the movie.  The helmet matches the helmeted head, minus the head, of course, and can be held when he’s using the unmasked head.  The stand swaps out the old basic oval design for a hexagonal design featuring a design based on the movie branding.  It does its job well, and has a rather clean design, which works pretty well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Completing the first Avengers line-up was really my last hurrah for Hot Toys collecting, and I’ve not really been keeping up with it since.  However, when I walked out of the theater after seeing Endgame, I pretty much wanted this Cap design in any form I could get.  I placed my order for this guy as soon as he was available.  It’s been quite a long wait for him, given he was supposed to be slated for last year, but I was certainly okay with being patient.  Ultimately, this figure wound up as part of my path to figuring out my new normal, since he finally shipped just a week after Jess’s passing.  It’s weird, I suppose, but maybe sort of fitting, since I had moved past Hot Toys collecting when she and I started dating.  It was definitely weird not getting to experience this one with a companion, but I’m starting to find my footing on what I like purely for me.  I do like this figure.  I took me a little bit of time to get back into enjoying a Hot Toys figure the same way I used to, but he’s a good re-entry into the style.  I’m not jumping back into these full force, but I am going to keep up with my Captain America chronology at the very least.

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.

#2841: Beast & Azazel

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

BEAST & AZAZEL

MARVEL MINIMATES

Since no other licensors were really looking to dive their hands into the X-franchise after the financial failures of X3 and Wolverine: Origins, X-Men: First Class‘s entire tie-in output was in the form of Minimates, who had previously been rather light on coverage of the X-films.  But here they were, doing Minimates from the movie, I guess.  And good for them, really.  So, today, I’m taking a look at Beast and Azazel!  What do the two figures in this set have in common?  Well, if we’re going by the comics, nothing.  If we’re going by the movies…still nothing.  But, if you view them through the strange nexus of both of those things, both of them are romantically linked to Mystique.  How about that?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Beast and Azazel were, like the rest of the First Class ‘mates, released in the Toys R Us-exclusive FC-tie-in assortment of Marvel Minimates, which hit in early summer 2011.

BEAST

Hank McCoy had the good fortune of being the only founding X-Man from the comics who was also allowed to be a founding member in the movies, as well as the good fortune to be part of both of the first two X-Men-movie-related Minimate assortments.  What a lucky guy!  This figure details him after his transformation into a blue furry monster guy, which I guess is sensible.  Certainly more exciting than “guy in glasses and a sweater vest.”  The figure is on a standard ‘mate body, so he’s about 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  Beast makes use of the most sculpted parts of any figure in this assortment.  He has add-ons for his hair, torso cap, and belt, as well as non-standard hands and feet.  As with everyone else, all of these pieces are re-used.  The hair was previously Weapon X’s from the Wolverine Through the Ages Boxed Set.  It’s a reasonably well-sculpted piece, but it’s not at all close to Beast’s design from the movie.  Certainly there were other pieces that would have worked better?  The torso cap is the bulked up Hulk piece introduced in Series 22.  It’s not the best powerhouse piece, and it’s especially restrictive to the arms, but it was the standard at the time, so not an unreasonable choice.  His hands and feet are borrowed from the Universal Monsters line’s Wolf Man, and are definitely the best chosen re-use pieces here.  They’re very nicely sculpted parts, and they actually match up pretty decently with Beast’s look in the movie.  The paintwork on Beast is decent enough.  His uniform details more or less match up with the rest of the team, which is certainly a plus, given how great those all were.  There are some slight fur details on the wrists and ankles that help to differentiate him a bit.  If there’s one major flaw, it’s this: he has a nose.  Minimates aren’t supposed to have noses, but Beast does.  It really over-crowds his face, and makes him just look…strange.  Beast included no accessories.  Not a change for this assortment, of course, and Beast is another instance where I’m not sure what you *could* give him anyway.

AZAZEL

I don’t think anybody was particularly happy when Azazel was announced for First Class.  The arc that introduced him in the comics is rather infamously bad, and he’s more than a little convoluted.  Then the movie came along and just used him as “Red Nightcrawler”, and that actually worked a fair bit better.  Azazel is constructed with two add-ons and a pair of non-standard hands.  All of these are re-used from the GSXM-version of his son Nightcrawler, which is at the very least a nice touch.  That being said, it doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the most accurate figure.  The least accurate piece is definitely the hair, which is just flat-out wrong for the character.  I get that they wanted to keep his pointy ears, but couldn’t they have at least used the updated piece from the Excalibur boxed set?  It still wouldn’t be 100% accurate, but it’s a little closer, and it’s at least got some smaller detail work going on.  This one, being from very early in the line’s run, is a lot simpler than more recent offerings, and it looks out of place.  The hands are another point of inaccuracy, though slightly less frustrating.  Azazel’s more or less got normal hands in the movie, rather than Nightcrawler’s three-fingered hands.  That said, they don’t distract too much, and it’s the sort of detail you can more easily overlook.  Plus, it’s not that hard to come by normal ‘mate hands.  His tail is the piece that works best, because how do you screw up something like that?  Azazel’s paintwork is actually pretty decent.  There’s some really great contrast going on between the red and black.  The red in particular is really bright, and very eye catching.  The likeness on the face bears a very strong resemblance to actor Jason Flemyng, and is generally just very sharp looking.  They even included Azazel’s scar over his left eye!  Azazel brakes from the norm for this assortment, and actually gets an accessory.  It’s the “bamf” cloud from the Excalibur set, but done up in red, so as to match Azazel’s effect from the movie.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up my set of these figures while on a family road trip in 2011.  It was before I’d seen the movie, and therefore knew how much I’d liked it, but after it had become clear that the film stood a chance of not totally sucking.  This set’s not the assortment’s strongest.  Beast is definitely the weakest of the main team in this assortment.  While the others were all perfectly do-able using stock parts, it’s ultimately robbed Beast of any real screen accuracy.  He’s fine for rounding out the set, but that’s about it.  Like Beast, Azazel is rather inaccurate, and a bit hampered by the lack of new parts.  However, in his case, he still ends up as a rather entertaining figure despite that, and really carries this set.

#2839: Xemnu

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

XEMNU

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Xemnu the Titan is a character with an intriguing back story.  Part of a batch of monsters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby before they birthed the Marvel Universe as we know it with the Fantastic Four, Xemnu first appeared in 1960 under the name of The Living Hulk, since the Hulk we all know and love wasn’t yet a thing and all.  Much like other pre-Silver Age Marvel Monsters Fin Fang Foom and Groot, Xemnu found himself worked into Marvel’s super hero fare after they took off, battling a number of Marvel heroes, most notably the one who took his original name.  Xemnu has yet to quite gain the following of either Foom or Groot, but perhaps his day has just yet to come.  Whatever the case, he’s finally getting a little bit of toy love in the form of Hasbro’s latest Build-A-Figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Xemnu is the Build-A-Figure for the self-titled series of Marvel Legends.  He fits the assortment’s all-villain theme, being, well, a villain and all.  He’s based on the character’s post-Silver Age design, which is sensible, since it’s his most prevalent.  The figure stands 8 1/4 inches tall and he has 28 points of articulation.  A lot of Xemnu’s sculpt is shared with the other big furry guys, Sasquatch and Wendigo, which seems like a pretty reasonable selection of parts re-use, since, I mean, he’s another big furry guy.  How many ways can you really change that up, right?  He gets a new head, mid-torso, hands, and feet, all in the effort of changing him up and making him more true to Xemnu’s comics appearances.  The new pieces do a pretty respectable job of meshing with the old, as well as capturing Xemnu’s truly goofy design elements.  They make it work, and the level of detail is impressive, especially on slightly smaller things, such as the interiors of his palms.  Definitely something that could have been left out, but adds something more to the figure now that it’s there.  Xemnu follows rather closely in the footsteps of the Wendigo in terms of paint work, since he’s got a pretty similar color palette.  The blue hue on the white is maybe a little strong in some spots, but generally looks okay, and the extra boldness doesn’t look quite as weird once you factor in the alien angle of the character.  Again, the interior of the palms actually gets a little bit of paint, which is cool, and those piercing red eyes certainly do add some pop to the design.  Overall, just a pretty decent paint set-up, especially after a lot of the others in the set were a little lighter on the paint apps.  Xemnu isn’t packed with any accessories, but that’s fairly acceptable, since he’s really an accessory himself.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Xemnu is one of those characters I’ve been aware of for a while, but not one I’ve ever had much direct interaction with personally. So, I wasn’t really in the market for any toys of him.  When this guy was shown off for this set, I was initially a little letdown, because I just wasn’t really drawn in by him.  I honestly wasn’t even 100% sure I was going to even try to complete him, though that was a short lived hill for me.  Once I got him in hand, though, I actually found myself really liking him.  He’s goofy and silly, but he works, and he’s more fun than I’d expected.

In general, that’s kind of a good description of this set as a whole.  Going in, the only one I really was invested in was the Red Skull.  He still wound up being my favorite, but I also really enjoyed a lot of the others.  Deathstrike was a definite surprise all-new offering, and Dormammu, the Scientist Supreme, and Arcade may be a little bit by the numbers, but they still turned out really nicely.  Sure, Dr. Doom is a wonky choice of design, and the Hood does nothing for me, but all-in-all, I liked this set a lot more than I’d expected to.

#2838: Dr. Doom

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

DR. DOOM

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“From the wreckage of colliding universes, Dr. Doom emerges as the supreme ruler of a new domain known as Battleworld.”

Ah, 2015’s Secret Wars, a Marvel cross-over event which had Dr. Doom as the main antagonist.  Not to be confused with 1984’s Secret Wars, a Marvel cross-over event which had Dr. Doom as the main antagonist.  Or 2003’s Secret War, which did *not* have Dr. Doom as the main antagonist.  Or 1985’s Secret Wars II, which also didn’t have Dr. Doom as the main antagonist, but did at least have Dr. Doom in it, so that was a step in the right direction.  No, we’re talking 2015, the source of God Emperor Doom, from when Doom gets a major power up and decides to ditch his shirt, apparently.  As you do.  Shirts cannot contain his power.  But then he loses the power, so he has to go back to his old shirt-wearing ways, like some sort of pleb.  But, at least he gets a toy to commemorate his time amongst the shirtless, right?  Right.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Doom is the final figure in the Xemnu Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s not officially numbered like the others, as he doesn’t feature a Build-A-Figure part like they do.  He is also the double pack, presumably because he’s really the only villain who’s justifiable in doubling up on.  It’s a good thought in theory, but less so in practice, since last year saw two variations on standard Doom released, which meant that this one had to be a variant look in order to justify his existence.  Hasbro went with the aforementioned God Emperor look from Secret Wars, which is not really a standard Doom look, nor is it an amazingly memorable one, really.  Also, it’s just kind of a weird concept.  Like, the white is all fine and good, but why ditch the shirt?  And also, if you’re ditching the shirt, why swap out the cool metal gauntlets for just regular cloth gloves?  That seems weird, right?  And really, why not just be Doom 2099?  Because you know what’s a cool Doom variant?  Doom 2099.  This should just be Doom 2099.  And now I’ve made myself upset that this isn’t Doom 2099.  Great, now I’m gonna have to deal with this.  I was already luke warm on the whole idea behind this guy to begin with.  Well, might as well just get this disappointingly non-2099 Doom review out of the way, then.  I’m sure I’ll be quite balanced and fair with the figure now.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s very similar to the last two Dooms, sharing the entire lower half, as well as the upper arms, and the modern head from the first figure.  He gets a new torso, lower arms, and cape in order to facilitate his conversion into God Emperor.  They’re fine from a technical stand point, I suppose.  They mesh alright with the older parts, and he looks like the design from the comics, so it checks all of those boxes.  The sculpting on the gloves is pretty nice, with the various wrinkles and stitching being well-defined.  In terms of paint, he’s pretty basic, since most of his coloring is just molded plastic colors.  It does what it needs to.  What paint is there is well applied, so that’s at least fairly nice.  Doom is okay on the accessories front, with 5 different hands (a pair of open gesture, a right wide grip, a right pistol grip, and a left fist), the gun from the last two (in silver this time), and the skull and spinal column of Thanos, which is a direct reference to a sequence from the comics.  The Thanos skull is certainly a more fun and unique piece, so kudos to them on that one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was happy with my Super Skrull Series Doom, and felt no need for a replacement.  Then the retro Doom came along and replaced him, which was a good move on Hasbro’s part, but it did leave this guy kind of in the lurch, because I really didn’t need him.  And then I got him in hand, and I still felt like I didn’t need him.  And then I got to thinking about other Doom variants we could have gotten, which took me down the Doom 2099 rabbit hole, and that just made matters a lot worse.  Admittedly, none of that is this figure’s fault, but at the same time, if they were going to kind of do a phoned in Doom variant anyway, why not just go with the Future Foundation look, which is also an all-white Doom, but one that at least doesn’t need any new tooling.  Because, if I’m honest, the new tooling doesn’t really do this guy many favors.  Maybe it’s just not for me, and there’s a market for God Emperor Doom out there, but for me, this guy’s just a testament to how there *could* have been something cooler in this set.  Which, again, isn’t really his fault.  But I’m gonna be all unreasonable and cranky until I get my Doom 2099, I suppose.

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

#2837: A.I.M. Scientist Supreme

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

A.I.M. SCIENTIST SUPREME

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Brilliant and diabolical, the Scientist Supreme helms a massive criminal cabal known as Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M).”

In the last few years, we’ve finally gotten some proper appreciation for AIM and their weird beekeeper looking mooks, which I have very definitely been all about.  But, you always have to be wondering “is this the best I can do in terms of weird beekeeper looking mooks?”  Couldn’t there be better, more advanced weird beekeeper looking mooks?  I say there could!  What if we added sour cream and tomatoes!  What’s that?  I’ve already used the “sour cream and tomatoes = supreme” joke?  But I’m just so darn proud of it, you guys!  Well, fine, maybe this new AIM Scientist doesn’t have sour cream and tomatoes, but he’s certainly “supreme” now isn’t he?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The AIM Scientist Supreme is figure 6 in the Xemnu Series of Marvel Legends, placing him just after the Red Skull figure that I totally reviewed out of order because I felt like it.  Unlike the others in this set, he’s not so much a specific character, as he is sort of a role that needs to be filled.  There have been a number of Scientists Supreme over the years, and while they tend to just look more or less the same as the regular AIM guys, but this one seems to be more specifically based on the Andrew Forson version.  He’s a little more beefed up and advanced, which is fine by me.  I can definitely dig this look, and it works for pretty much anyone else who’s held the role as well.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 and he has 31 points of articulation.  Structurally, the Scientist Supreme is largely borrowing from the modern style Taskmaster figure (who also served as a basis for a lot of Hydra Supreme, so he’s just a supreme sort of mold, I guess), using that figure’s arms and legs, along with an all-new head, torso, and pelvis.  The armored parts from Taskmaster are really well implemented parts, and they match up with the more modern Scientist Supreme design quite well, so they’re certainly well chosen.  The new pieces line up pretty well with the old parts, and present a very clean and sleek look for the character.  I also really appreciate the new articulation styles on the mid-torso and neck joints, which give him an improved range of motion.  The Scientist Supreme’s paint work is another pretty straight forward offering.  It’s pretty clean, and the gold is a nice color scheme for him.  It’s different from the straight yellow of the standard guys, but it still meshes pretty well with them.  The Scientist Supreme is packed with a sort of a data pad sort of thing, which is a fun piece, as well as the right arm of the Xemnu Build-A-Figure.  It’s a little lighter than some of the others, but at least the data pad is unique.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this line-up was initially hinted at, and all we had to go on was “AIM Supreme,” I didn’t know exactly what to expect on this guy.  I haven’t been super up to date with the various designs, but when this one was shown off, I definitely liked the general look of him.  He’s another fun design, and that translates to another fun figure.  He does what he does pretty well, and that ranks him pretty high on my list.

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.

#2836: Arcade

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

ARCADE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A brilliant assassin with shadowy origins, Arcade makes up for his lack of physical strength with a keen intellect and a vast personal fortune.”

Okay, for our latest round of “Ethan critiques the bios,” let’s address the fact that they wrote an Arcade bio without even alluding to Murderworld.  I mean, I can get not actually mentioning it by name, since putting something with “murder” in its title on the back of the box for a toy does seem like a not so great move, but not even a mention of him running a deadly amusement park or something along those lines?  I mean, it’s kind of his main gimmick, guys!  …Okay, enough of ripping these poor bio writers to shreds.  It’s probably not their fault.  Right, so Arcade.  He’s got some solid pedigree, having been created by Claremont and Byrne in 1978.  He first faced off against Spider-Man and Captain Britain, but he’s since faced off against most of the Marvel Universe, and is a really great all-purpose villain, always good for a fun story…well, most of the time, anyway.  His oddball persona and lack of tie to one particular group or hero does make him hard to nail down for merchandising, though, which is why he’s never had a figure.  Well, not until now, that is!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Arcade is figure 4 in the Xemnu Series of Marvel Legends.  Arcade is the perfect choice for a purely villains assortment, since he’s a classic character of decent prominence, who otherwise doesn’t fit into any other assortment breakdowns.  This way, he’s just one of a whole group of villains.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Arcade is built on the Coulson body, which is honestly a pretty good choice for him.  The Fury body has slightly better movement, but it’s also larger, and there’s that shoulder holster that they’ve yet to get rid of.  He swaps out the standard jacket piece for the jacket/vest combo that showed up on the Movie Xavier figure last year, as well as adding a new tie piece, and a new head and feet.  The new tie is a rather absurdly large bow tie, which certainly jibes well with the character.  The standard head fits the general classic appearance for him, with a smarmy grin, and a slightly evil eye behind his gaze.  The new feet trade in the classic dress shoes for a far goofier set of platform shoes.  They more than anything else about this figure feel like an area where Hasbro probably could have gotten away with phoning it in, but they didn’t, and it makes the figure that much better, because they just give the character that extra bit of flair that Arcade absolutely needs.  Paint work on this guy is once again pretty basic, but he gets all the details he needs and generally looks pretty slick.  The polka dots on the tie and the piping on the shoes really work and are very cleanly applied, which is certainly a plus.   Arcade is packed with an alternate head with a longer hair style and a slightly crazier expression, for variety’s sake, I suppose, as well as his cane, and the leg to Xemnu.  Not a ton, but not nothing, so generally it’s a decent set-up.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Arcade is definitely one of those characters that I wanted in figure form, but that was always more in the back of my mind.  Like, I don’t think anyone’s really campaigning for an Arcade figure, but you keep remembering he’s never gotten one, and that doesn’t seem right.  I was glad to see him finally get his due, and the final figure is one that is fairly by the numbers, but in the right way.  He does what he needs to do, and that makes him a fun figure of a fun character.  I can certainly get behind 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 and their eBay storefront.