Tag Archives: Marvel

#3900: Johnny Storm

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

JOHNNY STORM

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

There’s no shortage of Johnny Storms in the MCU.  Or, at least, there’s no shortage of Johnny Storm *actors* in the MCU.  They’ve absorbed all of them thus far, and the next logical step, of course, is to just have their own Johnny, portrayed by Joseph Quinn in First Steps.  He does a solid job with the part, giving the MCU a Johnny to be proud of, and one that won’t get lost despite the overabundance of Johnny actors around.  And, just to make sure he doesn’t get lost in the sea of MCU-associated product, there are two versions of him available in the Legends assortment for the movie.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Johnny Storm is part of the 6-figure Marvel Legends tie-in assortment for Fantastic Four: First Steps.  As noted above, there are two Johnny figures included, one flamed on and one not.  This one is the not, in case the photos didn’t clue you in.  I do really like getting that option right out of the gate; we don’t really see it much with these figures.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  His construction is very similar to Reed, though the two don’t actually share any parts.  All four members of the team have unique uniforms in the movie, and Johnny’s is the one that deviates the most from the traditional set-up, at least in terms of color break-down.  That said, it’s still a very FF-feeling set-up, so I can certainly dig it.  It’s also neat how they decided to put the whole team in a knit material so that Johnny would have something that looked like his old “heat lines” when flamed-on.  Johnny’s head sculpt has a good likeness of Quinn.  As with Reed, the hair isn’t quite on the mark for his look in the movie; it seems to take its influence from the in-universe promotional images within the movie, which have Johnny with a slightly more swept-back look.  The color work is largely consistent with the other two I’ve looked at; the exact details are slightly tweaked, and he’s definitely cleaner than Sue, but overall very similar.  I do like the accenting on the hair, as well as the very subtle stubble on his face.  Johnny is packed with two sets of hands (in open and fists), as well as two flame effect pieces.  The fists for some reason omit the black palms from the gloves, which is rather glaring in most poses.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

If nothing else, I am a sucker for a fully powered down Johnny figure, given their relative rarity for so long.  So, when the movie figures were confirmed to be giving us both, that made me quite happy.  I was also quite pleased by Joseph Quinn’s casting in the role, and his performance was certainly a highlight in the film.  The figure is fun.  Pretty much exactly on par with the others, and by extension exactly on par with other modern Legends, but it’s hard to complain about consistency when it’s this good.

Shoutout to 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.

#3898: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

SILVER AGE (TOY BIZ)

“Steve Rogers, a frail, sickly orphan, enlisted in the army on the eve of World Ear II but was rejected due to this poor physical condition. Given a second change, Rogers volunteered for a special experiment called Operation Rebirth. He was injected with a “Super Soldier” serum and his body was transformed into a body as perfect as a human can be. He was trained in gymnastics, hand-to-hand combat and military strategy and became Captain America. In addition to speed, strength, agility, endurance and reaction speed far superior to any Olympic athlete, Captain America was given an unbreakable Adamantium shield as his sole weapon. Captain America has since faced all types of threats and has and always will be a true symbol of truth, liberty and justice.”

In 1999, Toy Biz was exploring direct market options for keeping their 5-inch Marvel offerings going, and wound up offering a handful of one-off sets of figures, each with a loose theme.  There was a pair of them based around different eras of the Marvel Universe, one Silver Age, the other Modern.  Today, I’m jumping into the former, with a look back at Marvel’s Silver Age of comics….sort of….not really.  Look, I’ll get to it.  The important thing here is that I’m looking at a Toy Biz Captain America, and that’s always a good time for me.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is the first of the four figures that make up the Silver Age line from Toy Biz.  While Modern Age skewed a bit more obscure with some of its choices, Silver Age was very heavy hitter friendly.  Both line-ups were offered up through Previews, so they were predominantly comic store exclusives.  I know KB got Modern Age, but I don’t recall if Silver Age ever made that jump.  Anyway, let’s talk about Cap!  So, let’s be clear about something right out of the gate: this is emphatically *not* a Silver Age Captain America.  They gave him a card with the cover of Avengers #4, which introduced Cap to the Silver Age, but the actual figure is very much first appearance Cap, which makes him a Golden Age Cap.  But, I suppose a “Golden Age” line of Marvel figures would struggle with a wider audience, so Cap got shuffled. The figure stands 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He made use of the mold from the Marvel vs Capcom Cap from earlier that same year.  It’s my favorite of the Toy Biz Cap molds, for sure, and generally the one that works best with their overall 5-inch line.  The only thing that’s a little off about it in a non-video game application is that the head is definitely a Capcom Cap, not a straight comics one, and this figure is definitely aiming for a more direct Kirby vibe.  There *were* new parts in this line-up, but not a ton, so they may have just figured it was close enough.  I still don’t hate it, even if it’s not crazy accurate.  The primary change-up is the paint, which serves to make him all not-Silver-Age-y.  He’s got his modified mask, without the neck coverage.  It doesn’t really follow the sculpted lines, of course, so you just have to ignore that and hope for the best.  Otherwise, he also changes the colors a bit, so the blue is a lot darker here than on others.  Beyond that, application’s pretty clean, and he gets some okay accent work.  Cap is packed with both of his shields, the circular one and the original badge-shaped one.  The circular one is the same mold as the MvC one, but using a different plastic, so the clip isn’t as prone to breaking, making it a perfect replacement for the MvC one that broke.  The other shield is neat, because you didn’t tend to see it, and this was its first toy coverage.  It’s also got actual cloth straps, which are very fun.  Lastly, there’s a trading card with the Avengers #4 cover that doesn’t have anything to do with this figure, but is still a nice example of a good cover.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

There were three Captain America figures released in 1999, and I got two of them.  I wanted all three, but my parents were still working towards grasping why I needed nearly identical figures of the same guy.  I’d already gotten them to buy me the United They Stand Cap, and I guess I just didn’t want to push my luck with this one?  I looked at it a lot of times, I recall, and I’m sure if I’d really asked, they would have bought it for me.  I recall being a bit frustrated by a clearly Golden Age Cap being in a Silver Age line, even as a seven-year-old, so perhaps I just wasn’t personally ready to own him.  He’s been on my list for a while, though.  He’s not rare, but he’s not super plentiful, so he never landed in front of me.  At the beginning of the year, as I started to get back to my Toy Biz collecting, he was on my short list, and now here he is.  I do sure like him a lot.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0038: Terrax

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

TERRAX

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

When I revived the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums in April, I did so with a crazy, radical idea: a second addendum.  Yes, back when I did my first round of addendums, all the way in distant year of 2017, some of my figures were more complete than their initial reviews, but still not *totally* complete.  That’s just not good enough for me.  I returned to Savage Land Angel for a round three, and now I’m doing the same for another Toy Biz figure, Terrax!

Today’s review is another Fantastic Four figure, this is the last of the wave one reviews: Terrax. There was one other figure in the first wave, Benjamin J Grimm, aka the Thing, but I didn’t have that version. I had the later wave 3 version. And can I just address the fact that I’m reviewing Terrax, but I’ve yet to get to the Human Torch and the Invisible Woman? You know the other HALF of the title team! How exactly did TERRAX get himself a spot in the line before two of the title characters? He’s really not that great a character, nor has he ever really been all that important…ever. Anyway…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So like I said before, this is Terrax, the second herald of Galactus, part of the first wave of Toybiz’s FF line. He’s depicted here in Terrax’s only look ever, which must have made the costume choice pretty easy for the guys at Toybiz. At one point in time, Terrax had a rock stand and his trusty axe (which tears through stuff. Cleaver name….). Mine doesn’t have these items any more. The figure’s actually a very good depiction of Terrax, which is nice because he’s not one of those characters who gets many chances at having an action figure made. His hands are interesting, because they’re both molded to hold his axe, but due to their vertical placement and his limited articulation, he can only hold it in one hand at a time. This leaves the other hand with this thumbs up position. What is this guy, the Fonz? (AAAAAAAAY!) Actually, that might make his character a bit more interesting. You heard it here first Marvel! (Do they even realize that this character exists?)

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Terrax was another of the gift figures. It’s fine because he’s a great, big, bad guy for your heroes to fight. That was always good enough for me!

Well, there’s the original review.  It’s…it’s something.  In these earliest reviews, I was still finding my voice, and I was aiming for witty and perhaps a bit edgy?  I wasn’t aiming for well-proof-read, I’ll tell you that, hence the use of “cleaver” in a sentence clearly meant to use “clever.”  Yikes.

Okay, by this point I was starting to get into the swing of things. Over 300 words and an actual intro. Still doesn’t quite follow my modern structuring, but not terrible at all. And of course, I was still doing full series reviews at this point, which is rather different than how I do things now.

Terrax is a little over 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. Missing from my original review were his rock stand, removable skirt piece and his axe. Of those pieces, the only one I found during The Find was his axe, but that’s okay, since the axe is definitely the most important piece!

Not a whole lot of extra thoughts on this guy, I gotta say. That’s all for cosmic Fonzie here.

One of my briefer addendums, for sure.  I cover the basics and add the note about the axe I found.  Well, that’s all good, I suppose.  This time around, I have his two skirt pieces, as well as his rock stand, bringing him back up to a complete figure.  He’s actually quite a nice little package of a figure, and you could hardly ask for more from a Terrax.

#3896: Mr. Fantastic

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

MR. FANTASTIC

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fantastic Four: First Steps is officially here, and I can officially say it’s the best Fantastic Four movie they’ve made! …what, is that not a high bar to clear?  Well, it’s also the best super hero movie with Pedro Pascal!  Take that, Wonder Woman 1984!  Okay, so, I do seem to be dancing around this one a bit, don’t I?  Well, the truth is that I saw FF over the weekend and I liked it, but I don’t know that I loved it.  It’s not entirely the movie’s fault; I’m still really in that post-Superman high, and it’s not an entirely fair comparison.  The film’s strengths also definitely outweigh its weaknesses, though, so it’s a net positive for sure.  One of the film’s undoubted strengths, however, is the casting on the titular team, headlined by the aforementioned Mr. Pascal as Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Fantastic is part of the First Steps tie-in assortment of Marvel Legends, which hit just before the film’s release, earlier this month.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Like the rest of the team, Reed’s seen here in his main team suit, with the closest ties to their standard suits from the comics.  While the comic suits tend to be uniform across at least three of the four, the movie differentiates them a bit more between the team.  Reed’s is notable in its omission of any white accenting around the collar, making it the most understated of the suits.  His sculpt is unique to him, and generally pretty solid.  The face notably has a very strong likeness of Pascal, even better than the ones we’ve seen for The Mandalorian.  It even got the Matthew seal of approval, for what it’s worth.  The hair’s a bit shorter and closer cropped at the top than it actually is in the film; it looks like it’s based more on the early promo work for the film than the actual film proper.  It’s not too terribly far off, though.  The body sculpt is fairly balanced and does a respectable job of replicating his costume design from the movie.  The articulation’s a bit obvious, especially the mid-torso joint, but I like the texturing work, especially on the piping and stitching.  Reed’s color work is really strong on the face and hair, and notably cleaner on the body than Sue’s.  The blue is a little paler than the color on the screen, again seeming to be patterned closer to the early promo images than the final film.  Reed is packed with two sets of hands (fists and open gesture), as well as a pair of alternate arms stretched out.  The stretched arms are slightly bendable, which is a fun way of showing off his power set.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Pedro Pascal as Reed was pretty inspired casting from the start, so I was certainly down for some toy coverage of that.  Pascal’s come up short on figures in the past, but that’s not the case here.  That likeness is super killer, and this figure is really fun, especially with those extra bendy arms.  Reed got the coolest figures out of the 2005 tie-ins, so it’s nice to see the character still being treated well even now.

Shoutout to 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.

#3894: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“Caught in a bombardment of intense cosmic radiation while on an experimental space flight, Susan Richards found herself endowed with the power to become transparent at will, and the ability to form invisible force-fields of incredible durability. Now, as a member of the Fantastic Four, Sue battles to defend humanity as the elusive Invisible Woman!”

In preparation of the whole Fantastic Four movie release, I decided at the beginning of the month I was going to review Toy Biz figures of the whole FF.  The trouble is, that while I hadn’t reviewed the three men of the team in their Marvel Super Heroes releases, I’ve gone so far as to review *both* of the MSH Invisible Woman figures.  I’ve also already reviewed her hasty repaint release from Fantastic Four, so I’m actually wrapping things up for Sue in the Toy Biz 5-inch range today.  Let’s get to this!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four line.  Like her brother Johnny, the intent was for the Series 2 figure to be Sue’s first figure in the line, but retailers balked at the idea of not having the complete team at launch, resulting in a repainted Spider-Woman that served as a stand in, until the real thing arrived later.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation…sort of.  The neck joint is especially restricted to the point of effectively not being there.  Still, she at least gets elbow joints, making her more posable than her predecessor.  The sculpt here was all-new to this figure, but would later become a favorite of Toy Biz’s during their heavier repaint days.  It’s not a bad sculpt.  Perhaps a touch skinny on the limbs, but generally good, and in keeping with her animation model from the show.  The initial prototype for this figure was in standard colors, but when they did the stand-in figure for Series 1, so was that one.  In an effort to be more unique, this figure was molded entirely in clear plastic, simulating her abilities.  The irony of it all is that this sculpt never ended up being released in actual color as Sue, not even for all the repaints.  It works alright, and apart from some minor yellowing, it’s still pretty good.  She was packed with a wheeled stand and a small shield, which are similar to the ones used on the Series 1 figure, but ultimately totally unique.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I recall getting this figure relatively early on in my collecting, but I don’t recall the exact circumstances of exactly *how* I got her.  The Marvel Super Heroes figure was my first Sue, so this one would have been a back-up at best.  I recall my original’s arm broke at the elbow, and I ended up replacing her with a spare that came in a lot with my Black Bolt figure.  She’s a decent figure, if perhaps limited in her application.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0037: Iron Man & The Thing

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , , ,

IRON MAN & THE THING

MARVEL MINIMATES (DIAMOND SELECT TOYS)

Hey, it’s time for another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, with even more Minimates, I suppose.  I’m going a little bit more themed this week, so at least half of this revisitation of a review is Fantastic Four-themed.  So, let’s look back and Iron Man and The Thing!

Look! It’s more Minimates! Yes, I’ll be looking at even more Minimates, once again from the Marvel line. This time I’ll be looking at a set from the “Best Of” sub series. The idea behind this sub set was keeping the definitive versions of the main Marvel Heroes and villains on the market, while trying to produce the best possible minimates of those looks. I’ll be taking a look at Iron Man and the Thing from that line.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These guys were released as part of the first “Best Of” series of Marvel Minimates.

IRON MAN

First up is Iron Man. He’s depicted in his classic red and yellow armor he wore for most of the 60s and 70s. Unlike previous minimates of this particular look, the yellow is actually yellow on this one, instead of Gold. Iron Man is built on the basic minimate body, so he’s about 2 ½ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. He features a sculpted helmet and belt, as well as sculpted boot and glove cuffs. Paint-wise, the details are all well done, though some of the red paint is a little thin in places, and seems a bit fuzzy on the edges of the boots and gloves. But since those are meant to be covered by the cuff pieces, it’s not really an issue. Iron Man also features an extra left hand in a repulsor pose, a flying stand, and a hairpiece to display him sans helmet. These are all reused pieces, but they work well here.

THE THING

Next is Benjamin J Grimm, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing. Ben’s look is a bit more difficult to nail down than IM’s. I think it’s meant to be Ben in his look from the mid 2000s, after he switched back to shorts from pants, but I can’t be certain. The “4” on the belt buckle is throwing me off. Anyway, he’s built on the basic minimate body, but with sculpted hands and feet instead of the regular ones. As such, he stands a bit taller than IM and has 12 points of articulation. In addition to the sculpted hands and feet, Ben’s other sculpted pieces are: Headpiece, upper arms, torso, waist and upper legs. These are all slip over pieces, and have been used on previous Thing figures. With that many sculpted pieces, the paint work on Ben is minimal. He’s got detailing on his face, and on his belt and that’s about it. They’re both clean and well done. Ben also includes a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t buy this set when it was initially released, as I already had a few classic Iron Men, and my default version of the Thing is the look John Byrne gave him in the 80s. However, my comic book store was having a sale on minimates, and had these guys for about 40% off, so I decided to pick them up. While the Thing is still not my go to, I think the Iron Man may very well become my new default Iron Man.

Well, it’s certainly review-shaped, now isn’t it?  I feel like I didn’t much commit to much in the way of actual opinion on the figures, and the order of operations is a bit all over the place, but it’s generally okay.  I don’t know.  It’s odd, because this was an early Minimate review, and it was also an Item I’d *just* gotten, but I just wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about these guys.  I’m still not especially enthusiastic about them.  They certainly existed in an era of “buying Minimates because I buy Minimates.”

In regards to the actual review metrics, I should note that in both my original review and the revised version I wrote for Minimates Central, I neglected to mention the shoulder add-ons that Iron Man got, created at the same time as the helmet, belt, glove, and boot cuffs for the Series 25 Classic Iron Man.  They’re rather important to the whole look, and are certainly cool, even if they do sometimes make the arms fall off a little too easily.  Beyond that, things seemed to be pretty much where they were supposed to be.  Otherwise, enjoy the updated photos!

#3892: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

We’re just two days away from the release of July’s *other* super hero movie, Fantastic Four: First Steps.  How am I feeling about it?  Hopeful.  Admittedly, I’m also feeling like it has the difficult task of having to top Superman, and boy was Superman very, very good.  Can FF also be that good?  Well, I sure do hope so.  If the trailers are anything to go by, it’s set to at the very least be an improvement over the previous cinematic outings for Marvel’s first family.  While the *last* live action FF was a total ghost on the marketing front, Marvel’s putting a bit more behind this one, which includes a full complement of Marvel Legends.  Today, I’m kicking off my look at those with Venessa Kirby as Susan Richards, aka the Invisible Woman!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman is part of the six-figure Fantastic Four: First Steps tie-in assortment of Marvel Legends.  We get the full team, plus an extra variant of Johnny, and the Silver Surfer, all in rather fun retro-inspired packaging.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 30 points of articulation.  There were some concerns when prototype shots surfaced that there would be issues with the neck articulation on this figure.  While the hair certainly impedes the range, the final production figure still makes out a bit better, and can get at least a little bit of upwards motion, so she won’t forever be staring at the floor in action poses.  Otherwise, her articulation is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from the more recent movie figures, which is to say, it’s pretty good.  The sculpt is all-new for Sue, and it’s quite nice. The head sports a solid likeness of Kirby, especially on the face.  The hair’s a bit thick, but the general shaping is in like with what we’ve seen so mar from the movie.  The body is tasked with replicating her costume design, which is an intriguing mix of the classic and Byrne designs, as well as throwing in a bit of ‘60s space suit flair.  It’s a good look, and it’s a solid recreation of the design, at least as far as I can tell.  The smaller elements seem to be worked out pretty well, and the underlying body has a nicely balanced set of proportions.  Sue’s paint work is a bit of a mixed bag.  The face, which is using the printing, is exceptionally good.  It’s very lifelike and helps to sell the already strong likeness of the sculpt.  The hair is notably without any accenting, which kind of flat, but at leas it’s not messy.  The body on the other hand has some notable slop on the collar and symbol, which are unfortunately very obvious places to have such issues.  There are also a few other errant spots of incorrect colors, but generally, things look okay.  Sue is packed with four hands (open right, fist right, relaxed left, and gripping left), and a shield piece to attach to the open right hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been waiting on a good FF movie for a good long while, and good toys to go with it for most of that time too.  I did have an attachment to the ’05 line, which, even though the movie was just “meh” was at least a fun line of toys.  But, with a real gap in any sort of FF coverage, I’m certainly excited to see more this time around.  Sue is undoubtedly a fun figure, living up to the current Legends standards, and doing all the things you’d hope for her to.

Shoutout to 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.

#3890: Mr. Fantastic

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

MR. FANTASTIC

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“Mr. Fantastic is the awe-inspiring leader of the Fantastic Four. Now only is he able to stretch and twist his elastic body into almost any shape, he is also a brilliant scientist! When he’s not fighting super-villians, he can be found either in his laboratory or workshop, creating new compounds or inventing new machines to benefit mankind!”

In more modern super hero storytelling narratives, super intelligence is often seen as a marker for, if not outright villainy, than at least being a real jerk all the time.  This was less the case earlier on.  Sure, there were mad scientists and all, but characters such as Reed Richards existed to make the world a better place, and look out for people.  Reed’s teetered on the edge of the good versus jerk thing over the years, but he almost always bounces back to good, because that’s really who he is at the end of the day…at least in the mainstream universe.  But that’s the one that counts, right?  Right.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Fantastic was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line.  This was Reed’s second figure, following his Mego from the ‘70s, and the first of only two figures under Toy Biz’s 5-inch run.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Like both Ben and Johnny, he’s got a rather reduced articulation scheme for the line, especially notable in light of Sue getting the full load out.  In Reed’s case, however, this is actually linked to his “action feature.”  Dubbed “5-way” stretch, Reed can extend at the neck, waist, biceps, forearms, thighs, and shins to replicate his stretching.  It’s a sort of off look, of course, and also results in the figure being extremely fragile, but it’s an intriguing idea.  The sculpt is in line with the rest of the team, so he’s a bit more basic and rudimentary than later figures.  The nature of the stretching feature also makes him a rather stiff looking figure.  That being said, I think it’s a more Reed Richards-y sculpt than the later cartoon one, especially in terms of build.  Color work is very dependent on molded colors on this guy, and there’s a tendency in certain samples for the blues to be rather mis-matched.  On mine, they’ve held up okay, though.  The actual paint work proper’s alright; Toy Biz did always know how to do a solid job with a “4” logo.  Reed is packed with a blaster thing of some sort.  I don’t recognize it as a story specific element, nor do I know why Reed would need a gun (unless it were wooden and for the intended purpose of breaking Magneto’s mind), but there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My initial Fantastic Four line-up was comprised of whichever version of each character was most easily accessible when I started collecting.  In the case of Reed, that was this guy.  Well, okay, it was another copy of this release.  Remember how I mentioned he was fragile?  Yeah, my original gradually broke at just about every stretch point.  I always liked this version, so that was a bummer.  But, I was able to find a replacement a few years back, and I’m a lot more careful with my toys these days.  He’s stiff, fragile, and gimmicky, but this really is my favorite of the two Toy Biz Reeds.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0036: Wolverine – Prisoner & Kenuichio Harada

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , ,

WOLVERINE — PRISONER & KENUICHIO HARADA

MARVEL MINIMATES (DIAMOND SELECT TOYS)

Last week’s Marvel Minimates Flashback Friday Figure Addendum went so well, I’ve decided to keep it going.  Honestly, I’ve got things mapped out far enough ahead that I would have kept it going anyway.  It’s my site, and all.  So, I’m going back to the very early days of the site, with a set that’s noteworthy for being the first set of Minimates I reviewed new for the site.  That’s pretty nifty!  Of course, it’s stuff from The Wolverine, so maybe let’s not let “nifty” take us too far.  Anyway, here’s Prisoner Wolverine & Kenuichio Harada!

The Wolverine was released this summer.  It was a sequel to X-Men 3, and it was one of those few times that a movie actually manages to make its predecessor better, not by making it look better by comparison, but by retroactively adding some emotion to a lackluster film.  The Wolverine was not a perfect movie, but it wasn’t bad either.

Like most of the recent Marvel movies, Diamond Select Toys did a selection of figures from their Minimates line in order to tie-in with the movie.  Like previous movies, this one was given a comic book store assortment, and a Toys R Us assortment.  I’ll be taking a look at one of the sets from the Toys R Us assortment today.

The characters featured are, of course, Wolverine himself, and somewhat antagonist, Kenuichio Harada.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Like I said above, these guys were released as part of the Toys R Us tie-in series for The Wolverine.

WOLVERINE (PRISONER)

First up is the titular character.  Wolverine is depicted here in his “prisoner” look, which is what he’s wearing during the WWII era flash-backs in the film when he is a POW in Japan.  There’re some important scenes that feature him with this look, so it’s not surprising to see it pop up here.  It’s a bit odd to see it packed with Harada, but it’s not a huge deal.  The figure is once again built on the basic Minimate body, standing about 2 ½ inches tall and featuring 14 points of articulation.  He features sculpted hair and claws and a sculpted belt.  I’m not 100%, but I’m fairly certain that the claws are a reuse from a previous Wolverine.  The other pieces are new, although the hair piece was also used on two of the three other Wolverines in the wave.  Wolvie is mostly molded in the appropriate colors, but the paint still makes up most of the detailing.  It’s well done and fairly intricate.  The face on this version is fairly calm, which is okay, since Wolverine kept pretty calm during the captivity scenes.  The Hugh Jackman likeness is better than some of the one’s we’ve seen in the past, but not quite dead on.  Wolverine includes the sword he was presented by Yashida, a display stand, and three sets of hands:  one regular, one clawed, and one bone clawed.  The Adamantium claws aren’t scene accurate, but I appreciate that they give people the option to choose.

KENUICHIO HARADA

Next is Japanese Hawkeye  Kenuichio Harada, technically an antagonist, but an unwilling one, making him more of an anti-villain.  He’s shown here in his ninja gear from the film, which is what he spends most of his screen time in, so it makes sense.  Like Wolverine, he’s built on the basic Minimate body, meaning he stands about 2 ½ inches tall and has the standard 14 points of articulation, although his hair restricts the neck joint a bit.  Harada has a sculpted jacket and hair, as well as wrist pieces to simulate the ends of his gloves.  The hair and jacket are new pieces, although the jacket is shared with the Black Clan ninjas also in this wave.  The hair seems a bit off for the character, whose hair was far less bulky in the film.  It looks right in the control art on the box, but something seems to have been lost in translation.  Paint wise, he’s really only got the detailing on his face, which is passable.  The likeness isn’t as good as Wolverine’s, but it isn’t too bad.  Harada is rounded out with his trusty bow, two arrows, an alternate masked head, and a clear display stand.  The Bow and arrows appear to be reused from one of the Haweyes from last year, and the head is identical to the head on the Black Clan ninja.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Oh boy.  Hold on tight guys, it’s another tru.com story.  Yeah, so I’m always uncertain as to whether my local TRU will get their exclusive wave, so I tend to order online.  I’ve mentioned before that tru.com has a tendency not to put up pictures or label their sets correctly, making online ordering difficult.  But it’s okay, as long as you have the proper sku code, which allows you to go directly to the corret product page.  And that’s how I ordered this set and the other exclusive set from this wave.  Unfortunately, I seem to be smarter than tru’s online store, as they still sent me Wolverine and Shingen in place of this set.  And that’s not cool because Shingen kinda sucks.  Anyway, I ended up having to drive to my local TRU and exchange it.  Which is what I was trying to avoid.

Oh well, I have them now.  Which is good, because Harada was my favorite character in the film and I’d be bummed to have missed out on him.

Well, I was somewhat complimentary of The Wolverine.  It was still new and fresh in my mind, and Days of Future Past hadn’t come out to reset my expectations of the X-Men movies, so I was rather positive.  I don’t know I’d be as positive now, but admittedly, I haven’t watched the movie since 2013, so it’s hard to truly gauge.  My review’s honestly pretty much spot-on beyond that.  I got the Minimates reviews down pretty quickly, as you can see.  I had personally forgotten a lot of my TRU.com-centered diatribe.  Seven years without them has let me forget how frustrating dealing with them could be.

#3886: Human Torch

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

HUMAN TORCH

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

While three members of the Fantastic Four were entirely new identities and concepts for Marvel, Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, had a repurposed name and power set from one of Marvel’s first super heroes.  Unlike Jim Hammond, however, Johnny was actually *human* so perhaps the title fits better?  Of course, because of the repurposed name, this meant that Johnny got tied up in rights issues that didn’t plague the rest of the team, leading to his absence from the ‘70s cartoon, and the eventual creation of HERBIE.  But, it’s never seemed to be an issue in the area of toys!  

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Human Torch was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line, which, as I noted in last week’s Thing review, was an entire FF-dedicated set of figures.  This was Johnny’s second figure, following his Mego from the ‘70s.  The figure is a little under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Like Ben, he’s rather under articulated compared to most Toy Biz figures of the era.  His general posing is also rather similar to that figure, so I guess they’re at least kind of thematic?  Torch is slightly on the smaller side, which honestly makes a degree of sense, with him being a younger member of the team and all.  He’s fully flamed-on, as was the standard approach at the time.  It’s a slightly different take on it.  It’s got elements of the costume details beneath, notably the belt, visible, as well as sculpted etching for the “heat lines” he usually sported in the comics.  Honestly, the whole thing works better than you might expect.  Fire’s hard to sculpt, but it’s not bad.  Johnny’s paint work is sort of basic; it’s mostly just molded red, but there’s some basic yellow paint as well.  It’s applied decently enough, with no major slop.  Johnny is packed with two fireball pieces, which can be held or rather awkwardly mounted on his back.  His right arm’s got a spring-loaded feature, so you can pull it back and it “throws” one of the fireballs.  It’s very much on the basic side, but it works okay.

THE ME HALF OF EQUATION

Like Ben, this Johnny had largely dried up at retail by the time I got into collecting, so my first Johnny was the Series 4 version.  This one I got slightly later, probably in the early ‘00s, purchased loose from a comic book store that I’m rather certain isn’t around anymore.  I got the fireball pieces later, in the last few years, and now he’s all complete.  He’s an interesting figure, sort of basic and all, but he works better than most other fully flamed-on Johnny figures we’d end up getting.