Tag Archives: Mistakes were made

#4000: Captain America – Captain America: The First Avenger

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER 

MOVIE MASTERPIECE SERIES (HOT TOYS)

Today marks my 4000th review here on the site, if you can believe it.  I can, because, you know, I’m the one that wrote them all, but also it does feel like rather a strange concept.  When I first launched the site, I decided I wanted to mark my “monumental” reviews with looks at some of the higher end figures in my collection, meaning predominantly my Hot Toys figures.  It was initially every 50 (which was only every month and a half, so really not significant), before moving to every hundred after 300, then every 250 after 1500, then every 500 after 2000, and then every 1000 after 3000 (though that one was more because I forgot to write a monumental review at 3500 and just decided to roll with it).  The thousands are especially notable, since it means that the first numeral on the reviews changes, which is rather significant.  The largest sub-set of my Hot Toys figures is my Captain America collection.  I’ve actually reviewed *most* of them here, but the only one I haven’t is actually the very first one.  So, I’m taking this here 4000th review to amend that!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is figure MMS 156 in Hot Toys’ Movie Masterpiece Series.  Numerically, he’s wedged between the updated Batman Begins Batman and Baby Doll from Sucker Punch, which is one eclectic sort of batch of figures, huh?  He’s based on his primary appearance in The First Avenger, and was released domestically in December of 2011, just making it out in the same year as the movie’s release, which was notable for a Hot Toys release at the time.  The figure stands just over 12 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

At this point, it’s pretty much a lock that every Hot Toys Captain America comes with multiple heads, but that wasn’t the case for his debut here, which just gives him the one helmeted look.  It was a respectable offering for the time, but not without some caveats.  The construction, using multiple pieces for the actual head and his helmet, helps add some depth to it, like he’s actually wearing a helmet, which looks very nice.  The underlying head is a rather lifelike offering, with plenty of realistic detailing.  That said, it’s not really a spot-on Chris Evans, especially not when compared to later sculpts they did for him.  I’ve always gotten more of a Tom Cruise vibe, myself.  It’s not so far off that it doesn’t work at all, but it’s definitely not as strong as it could be.  The paint work is *mostly* up to Hot Toys’ usual standard of incredibly detailed and life-like, with one notable issue: the “A” on the helmet isn’t properly centered.  On mine, this is exceedingly minor and pretty much not noticeable in person, but there was a lot of variation across the production, and there are some that were quite a bit worse.

Cap’s outfit is rather involved.  Like in the movie, there’s a lot of small little pieces layering on top of each other to create the final appearance.  For the figure, pretty much the entire upper half is functionally one piece, and it’s all fixed to the figure’s torso using the star at the center of the chest.  Compared to later offerings, the stitching here feels a little bit heavy-handed, but it wasn’t awful for the time.  The biggest issue with it is that it ends up looking a little sloppy around the edges of the shoulders.  We get some issues with QC again here, this time having to do with the material used for his belt and holster.  It’s a simulated leather, and it’s really soft, making parts of it prone to tearing, especially on the clasp for the holster.  Additionally, the glue used to hold the holster straps in place didn’t adhere well to the material, so they pull off with relatively minor posing, and you either have to strategically tuck them, or try to glue them back.  The glue likewise didn’t hold well on the belt, leading to it releasing from both sides of the buckle on mine.  The cuffs of the pants are folded inward, and a little bit too high up, so when you pose his legs, the shins are sometimes visible above the boots, which looks a little silly.  There are a number of sculpted elements present, which do look a bit better, and are far less prone to issues.

The underlying body is hard to get a total read on, since the costume’s rather attached.  The upper portion isn’t incredibly posable, especially when it comes to the arms, so you have to sort of work carefully to do much with it.  The lower half is at least a bit better, though it’s worth noting that they determined his legs were too short later in production, and addressed this by swapping in a longer set of ankle pegs to off-set it (the original length pegs were also included for those who wanted the option), which helps in some ways, but ends up odd in others, and also ties into the issue with the exposed shins mentioned in the costume section.  Overall, though, the build of the body looks pretty close to Evans in the movie, and stands well on the shelf.

Cap is packed with 9 pairs of hands, his shield, a Thompson 1928a1, a Colt 1911, and a display stand.  The hands give him a variety of posing options, though like earlier HT offerings, they can be a bit tricky to swap.  The guns were packed pretty much standard across all of the TFA Caps, and they’re as good as any HT small-scale weapon.  They’ve got moving and removable parts, and certainly look cool.  The stand is a stand, but it does what it needs to.  The shield?  Well, let’s talk about the shield.  

HT opted for a vac-metalized finish on the shields to start, so they’d be shiny and chrome.  It’s an odd choice, since the shield’s not that at all in the movie, where it’s actually got more of a brushed steel finish, which would be much easier to replicate.  What’s more, because of the vac-metalizing, the red and blue paint on the front of the shield didn’t properly adhere to the surface, meaning that it eventually just started flaking off over time, leaving you with a kind of unpleasant mess of a shield, that just slowly degrades more and more over time.  I’ve included a photo I took in 2014 of this one, so you can see just how far it degraded just sitting on a shelf between then and when I packed it up in 2020, at which point it was packed away, and only pulled out for the photos that ran with this review.  The “clean” shield from the Avengers release was the same, but we already knew about the issues, so I left that one packed away, so it’s the one seen in the accessories shot here.  Even so, it’s surface is completely cracked, so handling it anywhere but the very edges will cause it to flake just like the original.  The Avengers release at least got a spare shield with a different finish.  This one’s not so lucky.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This was my seventh Hot Toys figure, I’m pretty sure?  I got him new, as a (ever so slightly late) Christmas present from my parents, back in 2011.  I really loved The First Avenger, and while I had some initial misgivings about the costume design, it grew on me, and I knew I needed to own the high-end version of this guy.  Little did I know at the time just *how many* high end versions of him I’d end up getting.  When he was new, he had some minor issues that I just sort of had to overlook.  As he’s gotten older, more issues have cropped up, and better Caps have come along, which has made him a rather unfortunate release.  But, I’m still happy I got him.  A year after his release, my brother got me a scale bike for him, and he looks pretty fantastic propped on that, with his shield on his back so you can’t see the flaking.  Ultimately, he’s a rough release for Hot Toys, but without him, we wouldn’t have all the others, and that’s pretty darn cool by me.

Incidentally, way back in 2014, I mapped out all of my “Monumental” reviews, and built Word documents for them, as was my way at the time.  While I’ve moved away from most of those old documents, Cap here was written in his, just for old time’s sake.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0056: Silver Surfer

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

SILVER SURFER

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Hey-oh, it’s the end of the week once more, which means it’s time for another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Oh yeah!  Flashing back to the far away year of 2016, back when things were oh so 2016-y, here’s a revisit on a Silver Surfer!

Though they were best known for their 15 year run with the Marvel license, Toy Biz’s first work of note was actual doing toys based on Marvel’s Distinguished Competition. Toy Biz’s DC action figures were little more than knock-offs of Kenner’s Super Powers line. When Toy Biz was granted the Marvel license, their initial offerings were rather similar to what they had done for DC. They offered a rather broadly ranging line, covering the major corners of the Marvel Universe (barring the X-Men, who got their own line). Today, I’ll be taking a look at one of that line’s versions of the Silver Surfer!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Silver Surfer was released in the third series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation. That’s actually a pretty low articulation count for a Toy Biz figure, and it’s even a bit low for this particular line. This figure is mostly the same sculpt as his Series 1 counterpart. The only difference between the two is the lack of neck articulation. It’s an odd choice, and it definitely limits what can be done with the figure, but I’d guess it had something to do with the vac metalizing. The sculpt isn’t terrible, but it’s not particularly great either. He’s similar in style to the Toy Biz Green Lantern, in that his proportions feel rather off, and the level of detail is very low. Also, his head is just very oddly shaped. It’s definitely too small, and the face (which is very ill-defined) sits too high. In fact, the head in general sits too high on the neck, and the whole construction there just looks weird. As far as paint goes, this particular Surfer doesn’t really have any, he’s just vac metalized. Later Surfer’s would at least get detailing on the eyes, but that’s not the case with this guy. Just the straight up and down silver for him. Silver Surfer originally included his surfboard, done up to match him. Unlike other versions of the board, this one was really thick, and it had wheels on the bottom. So, he’s not actually the Silver Surfer, he’s the Silver Skateboarder. Radical.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Surfer is the eighth of the 15 figures that I picked up from a vendor at this past Balticon. I…I’m not really sure how I feel about him. I mean, the chrome look is certainly cool, but the actual figure’s kind of a bit lame. Toy Biz definitely improved in leaps and bounds over the years, but this guy’s a disappointment even compared to the figures from the same line. I hate to be this down on a figure, but this guy, well, he’s not great.

This figure was another part of a batch of loose Toy Biz figures I snagged for super cheap at a con literally the weekend after I graduated from college.  I was all nostalgic and stuff, and I sort of bled a lot of that into my reviews of the associated figures, I think.  I had the option to get both MSH Surfers at the time, but opted only for the chromed one, because I guess I like shiny things?  My review’s generally not bad, though, not having both figures in my possession, I did kind of go with “they’re the same sculpt” when they’re not.  The chrome version is much more simplified, and the face in particular is a lot more oddly shaped.  Missing from this figure the last time around was his surfboard, which is honestly the one area where he’s truly better than his predecessor.  This one’s more streamlined, lacking the motorized bit on the back, and just generally looking more the part, provided you can get past the rather obvious wheels on the bottom.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0043: Princess Leia Organa

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

PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Yesterday’s proper review revisited an old Leia design for Power of the Force, but to keep things neat and tidy, today’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum jumps back to an old review of an old figure of an old design, because I think it’s earned it…or something to that effect.  Here’s Leia!

“After many unsuccessful attempts to bring change to the Empire as a senator, Princess Leia Organa became involved in the Rebel Alliance and immediately established herself as one of its most popular and influential leaders. Although it was extremely dangerous for someone of her prominence. Leia often participated in secret missions for the rebellion. It was during one such mission to recruit General Obi-Wan Kenobi that she obtained the technical readouts for the Empire’s new Death Star battle station. Moments before being captured by Darth Vader, Leia hid the plans in the droid R2-D2, who then escaped to the planet Tatooine to find Kenobi.”

Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve looked at both Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in their Stormtrooper disguises, which they use to sneak into the Deathstar detention center. I haven’t yet looked at the subject of their rescue (who ends up doing a little bit of the rescuing herself), Princess Leia Organa. So, I’m going to amend that today, by looking at one of the worst Leia figures in existence. Yay?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Princess Leia was released in the first series of Kenner’s Power of the Force II, where she wound up as the short-packed figure. She was the first of several Leia figures from the line, and is based on her introductory look, her main appearance from A New Hope. The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation. Despite Carrie Fisher being a good deal shorter than most of her cast mates, Leia isn’t noticeably shorter than the other figures in the line. This was a trend that wouldn’t really be corrected until the line re-formated after The Phantom Menace. Leia’s sculpt was unique to her, which is a good thing, because that means Kenner realized the horrible mistake they’d made and never allowed it to occur again. I’m sorry, was that too harsh? Yeah, I’m not much of a fan of this sculpt. She’s preposed, she’s got really goofy proportions, her costume’s kind of strangely inaccurate, and, most importantly, her face looks not unlike a monkey. Seriously, look at that face and tell me that doesn’t look at all like Zira. None of the PotF2 figures had particularly great likenesses, but every other Leia in the line was way better than this. I’m trying to find something positive to say about this sculpt…the hair’s not terrible, I guess? Her paint’s pretty simple, since she’s mostly just molded in white plastic, which a little bit of paint here and there. It’s not terrible. Leia included two different styles of blaster pistol (both of which are missing from my figure), as well as a removable cape and skirt. The cape is a bit baffling, as it just sort of continues the trend of Kenner clearly having no idea what Leia was actually wearing in the film. I suppose this was a bit closer than the vintage release?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ah, this one. This one’s an important one. Why? Because this is the figure that introduced me to my arch-nemesis: The Scalper! Yes, in my quest for this figure, I had an unfortunate run-in with a horrid man-creature, which I detailed a few years ago in the ever so eloquently titled “GAHHHHHHHHH!” Suffice it to say, I did eventually get the figure through non-scalped means, thanks to some dutiful work on my parents’ part. This was my first Leia, and I have aa whole story that goes with her, which gives her all this great emotional value. It’s a shame the actual figure kind of sucks. I mean, I’m glad I have her, but there’s no denying that she’s just a bad figure. 

Just right out of the gate declaring it one of the worst Leia figures ever.  You know, sometimes I find past me to be a little harsh to older figures, but I can’t really deviate too much on this one.  The original Power of the Force Leia is just simply not a good figure, and no amount of time or distance or nostalgia can really change that.  I think the best I can give her is that she sort of fits in well with the others from the early run? It’s not ideal.  When I first reviewed her, I was dealing with my original, which lacked either blaster, as well as the cape.  She’s still my original, but a good chunk of time dealing with loose Star Wars parts lots let me fish out all of her missing parts over the years, so eight years later, she’s actually complete.  At least she’s got that going for her, right?

#3912: Roboto

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

ROBOTO

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

It’s been a year and a half since I’ve talked at all about Masters of the Universe Classics.  There’s….reasons?  I mean, the big one is that the line’s been dead for the better part of a decade, so it’s not like there’s a lot of updates.  Also, I’m only a moderate MOTU fan at best, so it’s not like I’ve even got a huge backlog of them.  And discussion of how the line was run is tricky at best, and I’ll just leave it at that.  But, I do have some parts of the franchise that I enjoy no matter the surrounding situation, and one of the core characters for that is Roboto.  He’s just so neat and nifty and retro, and that’s very fun.  So, let’s look at another one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Roboto was the October release for Masters of the Universe Classics 2010 run of figures, making him the tenth standard figure of the line’s third year.  By 2010, the line was pretty much in full-swing, and they’d gotten the subscriptions set up, so Roboto was around for a leisurely 2 hours and some change before selling out, which I guess was pretty nice.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  While he loses the mid-torso joint that most figures in the line sported, he does gain an articulated jaw, so it winds up as an even trade.  Roboto’s sculpt was a mix of new and re-used, which was pretty par for the course.  Like his vintage counterpart, he shares his legs with Trap-Jaw (who also shared his legs with Optikk, all three the same year), but his upper half is all-new.  Roboto was very definitely based directly on his vintage counterpart, rather than his 200x version.  At the time, it was the most sensible choice.  There was an alternate head made available later, but that wasn’t present with the initial release.  The sculpt does a pretty respectable job of capturing that vintage look.  The head and torso are very cleanly detailed, and I love the working jaw and turning gears inside the torso.  I also really dig the little heart sculpted around the central gear, in reference to his mini comic appearance.  The arms are fine, but the elbows are notably rather restricted in their motion, which was a recurring issue for the line.  QC was unfortunately a notable issue for this guy.  Thankfully, mine isn’t plagued by the torso cracking, but there was no avoiding the reversed shoulders.  They aren’t the end of the world, but it’s pretty obvious they’re not the way they’re supposed to be.  The color work was actually pretty nice for this guy; he’s really bright and bold, so it makes him very eye-catching.  He’s also got a wash on the silver sections, to help bring out the sculpted details a little better.  Roboto was packed with his classic claw, axe, and blaster attachments, as well as a standard hand.  The weapons are a bit soft and prone to warping, but generally they look okay, and the standard hand is a nice addition.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had only *just* picked up my first MOTUC figure when Roboto dropped, and I wasn’t up on keeping current, so I missed his day-of.  I contemplated getting him a number of times early in the run, but he was always just a little over what I wanted to pay, and then I ended up sort of falling out of it all.  I’ve been keeping an eye out for a bit, though, since he was the only of my regular line-up of characters I didn’t have for Classics.  While on family vacation, Matty wanted to go to the toy store, and they just so happened to have one of this guy for for a price I was willing to pay, so, huzzah, I have one!  Admittedly, in light of the Origins and Masterverse figures, he feels kind of quaint and a little outmatched, but I’m glad to have him nevertheless, and I’ll never complain abut more Roboto figures.

#3813: Poe Dameron – Gold

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

POE DAMERON – GOLD

STAR WARS: THE SKYWALKER SAGA COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Let’s jump back to 2019, a year that was rather rough for 3 3/4-inch Star Wars, at least as far I was concerned.  Under Disney, we’d gotten pretty solid product pushes for each of the movies, but Rise of Skywalker got dropped hardcore because of the poor performance of The Last Jedi‘s tie-ins.  In particular, the basic 3 3/4-inch figures were completely dropped.  Instead, we got a few Vintage Collection figures and a really odd commemorative set that seemed to exist for exactly no one.  Well, anyway, here’s a Poe.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Poe Dameron was released as part of the Star Wars The Skywalker Saga Collection, a Walmart-exclusive line of nine two-packs, each based on one of the Skywalker Saga films.  Poe was packed with Finn, in a set based on The Force Awakens, in theory at least.  The figure stands a little over 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s using the Last Jedi pilot body mold, which is a bit humorous, what with him supposed to be from TFA and all.  At least Poe doesn’t change too much when in his pilot gear.  It’s a decent enough sculpt.  The likeness isn’t amazing, but it’s okay enough, and the details on the uniform are all pretty sharp.  In general, the best of the pilot Poe sculpts, so the re-use is sensible.  The gimmick behind this whole line was that they were painted all gold, which is exactly what Poe is.  It’s…I mean, it sure is gold.  And it’s better than molded plastic, so that’s a plus?  He gets a helmet and blaster, also gold, which are the same as the original release.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hoooo boy did these figures disappoint me at the time they were released.  They were announced but not shown, and there was this tiny glimmer of hope that they might be *something* and then they were more solid color repaints of stuff we already had.  So, I certainly didn’t pay proper retail for any of them.  Few people did, honestly.  Not even now.  But, they do occasionally surface, and these days they’re kinda cheap, so when this one showed up at All Time, I opted to get another Poe, even if he’s kinda stupid.  He’s fine.  Stupid.  Gimmicky.  But, he’s also a Poe, and he’s at least a decent mold.

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.

#3753: Jango Fett

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

JANGO FETT — FINAL BATTLE

STAR WARS SAGA (HASBRO)

A week ago, I was writing an intro about The Phantom Menace (for the SECOND time….), and I guess I’ve just decided to make my way on through the Star Wars…es.  So, let’s jump to Attack of the Clones!  Look, I’ve come around on the prequels as a whole in recent years, but Attack is emphatically the worst Star Wars movie, and it’s not even close.  It’s barely even a movie.  It’s a Wikipedia entry that they filmed to bridge the two actual movies in the prequels.  The thing is, I’m nostalgic as hell for it.  And the toys?  Oh, they’re emphatically some of the worst Star Wars toys produced.  But guess what?  I’m nostalgic as hell for those, too.  I’m an enigma, you guys.  Jango Fett was a big deal when Attack hit, and a lot of the toys centered on him.  Here’s the one with the best action feature ever.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jango Fett (Final Battle) is figure 31 in the Star Wars Saga line, which ran alongside Attack‘s release.  He was one of the three Jangos available at launch, and the second of the two “standard” ones.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 13 points of articulation.  His articulation, like so many of the Saga figures, is mostly pointless, thanks to how heavily pre-posed these figures were.  In Jango’s case, that pre-posing is exceedingly awkward, and doesn’t really much allow for…anything.  He’s also super hard to stand, largely because what even are his legs supposed to be doing?  What’s crazy is the’s got actual knee joints, a thing that were still not exceedingly common at this time, and they’re useless, which is just laughable.  On the plus side, I guess the actually quality of the sculpt isn’t bad.  It’s clean and the detailing is sharp, and he’s pretty accurate to the movie.  The biggest drawback (other than the posing) is the advertised action feature, where his gauntlet launches a fire-shaped missile.  It’s not very effective, and it means his left arm is misshapen.  Making up for it, however, is the unadvertised second action feature.  Saga made use of magnets on a number of figures, and a recurring instance was for easily removable body parts, to simulate the damage characters might take.  In Jango’s case, his whole neck joint’s a magnet, so you can behead him, easy-peasy.  It’s so freaking morbid, and I absolutely love it.  Jango’s paint work is a bit murky, which wasn’t uncommon in this era.  He’s got a lot of fake dirt build-up, which is definitely a bit too heavy.  It’s at least all pretty cleanly applied, so there’s that.  Jango is packed with the fire projectile, as well as his twin pistols.  Unfortunately, the holsters are non-functioning on this release, so there’s nowhere to store them.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When these figures came out, both of my cousins around my age who collected Star Wars had this version of Jango, but I didn’t, and I always desperately wanted one.  Something about how morbid that head feature was just greatly amused me.  He’s on the short list of Saga figures I’ve purchased as an adult; he was traded into All Time a couple of years ago, and I just couldn’t resist him.  He’s terrible, but at the same time also wonderful.  He’s the perfect encapsulation of my relationship with the movie and its toyline as a whole.

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.

#3734: The Riddler

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

THE RIDDLER

BATMAN: THE CLASSIC TV SERIES (MATTEL)

Okay, so let’s play a little game called “this makes Ethan feel old.”  In prep for writing today’s review of a Mattel Batman ’66 figure, I went back through the archives to see what other Mattel Batman ’66 figures I’d already reviewed, and discovered I’ve reviewed three.  The only one from the standard releases was the Catwoman figure I reviewed just over a month into the site, when she was a brand-new figure…over a decade ago.  My retro throwback reviews are now of items released the same year I started the site.  For reference, if I were reviewing a figure at the start of this site that were as old then as this figure is now, I’d have been looking at a figure from 2002.  That would be a figure that predates Mattel having the DC license.  Oh boy am I getting side tracked here.  Okay, so, yeah, let’s embrace the throwback and look at the 1966 Batman, which, amongst other things, really invigorated Batman’s rogues gallery.  Frank Gorshin’s turn as The Riddler in particular took the character from just one of the pack to one of the heavy hitters, and remains one of the show’s stand out villains.  Here’s an action figure of him!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Riddler was released in Series 1 of Mattel’s Batman: Classic TV Series line, alongside a standard Batman and the Penguin.  They hit in the late-summer/early-fall of 2013, right as all the ’66 licensing started hitting in full force.  The figure stands right at 6 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  The line as a whole was a bit under-sized compared to other offerings, with it being closer to a true 1/12 scale than anything else Mattel offered, which made these guys all at least a half-inch shorter than all of the DCUC figures, and also so very much scrawnier.  Like, I know Gorshin was a skinny guy, but I feel this is excessive, to almost cartoonish levels, especially around the legs and hips.  The head sculpt doesn’t look *unlike* Gorshin, but neither is it a spot on likeness.  It’s certainly on the weaker end for this line, and I honestly get Matthew Lillard vibes off of it.  I think part of it’s the expression seeming too reserved for Gorshin; he brought a manic energy to the character that doesn’t really feel like it’s captured here.  It’s also kind of soft on the detailing.  The body, aside from it’s odd proportions, does at least get a little more detailing, especially with the wrinkles on the suit, which do at least set him apart from the painted on suits of the main DC line at the time.  His paint work was largely pretty basic, with the only notable shift being the accenting on his suit, which keeps it from being too much of a stretch of the same colors.  He was packed with a display stand with “Ka-Pow” written on it, as well as a card with part of the batcave on one side, and an illustration of the Riddler on the other.  Unfortunately, the Riddler illustration is landscape orientation, and the spot in the stand that holds the card only works for portrait orientation, so…not so much working for that set-up.  And, that’s all he got for extras.  No hat, or cane, or alternate unmasked head.  Not even some sound effects.  It’s exceedingly light.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was very, very excited for this line, and Gorshin’s Riddler in particular was very high on my list.  I went to the trouble of pre-ordering him and everything, and got him when he was brand new.  He’s actually in one of the last batches of figures I bought before new stuff was getting reviewed on the site as “new stuff.”  This line always so very greatly disappointed me.  I wanted to love it, but I couldn’t, and Riddler is kind of one of the worst offenders.  Ultimately, looking back on him, he’s fine, but not really any better than I’d remembered him being.

#3700: Cpl Dwayne Hicks

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

CPL DWAYNE HICKS

ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES (HIYA TOYS)

The post-Aliens video game Aliens: Colonial Marines had, amongst other things, a long path to its release, taking six years to finally make it to players. It was not well-received at all upon its release, which isn’t the sort of thing you generally want out of a game that took six years to make. It does, at the very least, undo one of Alien 3‘s more disliked elements, the death of Corporal Dwayne Hicks, albeit in a rather convoluted and awkward sort of way. Still, they got Michael Biehn to reprise his role, which was pretty cool, and there were also some cool figures, courtesy of Hiya Toys. I’m looking at their take on Hicks today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cpl Dwayne Hicks was released in the initial run of Hiya Toys’ Aliens: Colonial Marines tie-in line, at the same time as game marine Quintero and fellow film marine Hudson.  They hit in 2016, three years after the game’s release, which seems like a bit of time to wait, but it’s only half as much time as it took for the game to make it out, so, you know, perspective and all that.  All of these figures, even the “movie” ones, were technically game-based, with the non-game characters being based on their multiplayer skins.  Hicks technically exists in both capacities, but this figure, which lacks the scarring he received at the end of Aliens, seems to be the multiplayer/movie version.  The figure stands 4 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation.  The articulation set-up is ultimately something of a mix between the 25th/30th era G.I. Joes and Hasbro’s Marvel Universe.  Generally, not bad, but the hip pops off a lot, and one of the knees is a little gummy.  Hicks’s sculpt had a lot of overlap with Quintero and Hudson, with them each just getting a unique head sculpt.  The head’s…not great.  It’s rather soft on the details, and the likeness just really isn’t there.  You’d be forgiven for just not realizing this was meant to be Hicks at all.  Below the neck, things are a little better.  The proportions aren’t bad, and the armor detailing is all pretty solid stuff, with the torso armor in particular honestly being pretty strong.  Because of the parts sharing with Quintero and Hudson, his sleeves come down way too far on the arms; Hicks’s sleeves aren’t visible under the armor in the film.  He’s also missing his watch and wrist band, and the lack of wrist coverage also highlights how oddly misshapen the hands are at the base of the wrist.  The color work on this figure leans into the game colors, so his uniform is bluer than the film, and his armor is browner, which makes for rather an odd contrast.  Like, it’s not terribly off, but it’s enough to throw you at first.  The application’s a little thick, but otherwise not too bad.  Hicks is packed with his helmet, shoulder lamp, shotgun, pulse rifle, a pistol, a motion tracker, and a display stand.  The helmet is wildly inaccurate, missing the back neck cover, the ear covers, and the comm, removing the distinctive Colonial Marine silhouette when he’s wearing it, and generally throwing off his look.  It’s a real shame, given how weak the likeness on the underlying head is.  The gun sculpts aren’t bad, but the hands don’t hold any of them particularly well.  Also, the pulse rifle gets no sling, and the shotgun and pistol have no holsters, so he just kind of has to throw them off to the side when not using them, I guess?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I honestly did my best to avoid everything to do with Colonial Marines after it dropped and was so mediocre, and that included the tie-in stuff.  I didn’t even know about these figures until after they’d dropped, and Hicks jumped in price rather quickly, so I never snagged him.  He got traded into All Time a month or two back, missing the shotgun, so I was able to get him for a slightly better deal.  Then the shotgun surfaced, and he was all complete again, which was pretty cool.  Ultimately, he’s not great.  I’m glad I didn’t pay the mark-up on him, because that really would have put me off.  As it stands, he’s a Hicks I didn’t have, and it was very easy for me to snag him, so it was hard to say no.  Sometimes, that’s just how it is.

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.

#3694: Elongated Man

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

ELONGATED MAN

IDENTITY CRISIS (DC DIRECT)

“Ralph Dibny was the original stretching sleuth of the JLA. His loss became the focal point of the events that unraveled in Identity Crisis.”

If we’re having a discussion about “worst comic stories ever,” you know I gotta bring up “Identity Crisis.”  Look, I’m a die-hard Elongated Man fanboy.  On the outside, a Justice League event with Ralph at the center is something I should love, right?  Except it’s actually something I loathe, and I legitimately think it broke DC.  I know, bold words.  But they did some really awful stuff there, and it meant that two of my favorite DC characters got broken and sidelined for well over a decade.  As a consolation prize, I suppose it did at least give me another Elongated Man figure.  So, there’s that.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Elongated Man was released in Series 2 of DC Direct’s Identity Crisis tie-in line, which was released in March of 2006, almost two years after the story was published.  As a central piece of the story, it’s sort of odd that Ralph wasn’t released until Series 2, but of course, he’s not really a heavy hitter, I guess, and he’s ultimately pretty well side-lined within the story proper.  He’d also just recently gotten his first figure from DC Direct’s JLA line not too long before.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation, as well as an extending neck feature.  Elongated Man’s articulation scheme was tricky.  DCD was still really experimenting with things, and there’s a fair number of joints, but range of motion remains rather restricted.  All of the Identity Crisis figures were based on Michael Turner’s cover illustrations for the series (as opposed to Raggs Morales’ interiors).  Turner’s work had a rather distinctive flair, and works well in two dimensions, but it three dimensions…well, it was a real mess.  Just, across the board.  None of the sculpts were fantastic for this line.  There were a lot of really odd proportions and dimensions to everything, and everybody wound up looking kind of misshapen.  That said, Ralph turned out generally alright.  Still weird, but he’s a stretchy guy, so it’s a little more forgivable.  His expression’s rather dour, but I guess that makes a degree of sense given the subject matter.  I do kind of feel he looks a touch young and pretty for Ralph, but Turner’s art treated Ralph that way, so it’s accurate.  Ralph’s paint work is decent enough.  I like that they kept the shiny black for the gloves and boots.  The application on the yellow is a little messy, though.  Ralph was packed with a display stand (not pictured) as well as a pair of alternate stretched arms.  The stretched arms are unique to this guy (technically, the Mattel Ralph had the outstretched hand, but it’s not quite the same sort of thing), but they’re kind of weird.  They’re technically meant to be bendy, but they’re very stiff, so they don’t really bend.  They’re also oddly flat.  Still, it’s a nice option.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t like Identity Crisis, and I didn’t like how Turner’s art translated to figures, so I largely avoided this line.  I already had the JLA figure, and we weren’t deep enough on Elongated Man figures for me to even contemplate owning all of them, so I didn’t jump on this one.  I wound up getting him from KB Toys of all places, which was odd since they didn’t tend to carry DCD figures, which were typically a comics shop exclusive thing.  But, I was on a weekend beach trip with my family, and this guy was there at the KB outlet, marked way down, so I bought it.  It was pretty early on in my appreciation of the character, and kind of helped turn the tide in a way.  Honestly, he’s not terrible.  I hate the story, but I don’t hate the figure, even if he does sort of have a weird quality about him.

#3692: Nightwing

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

NIGHTWING — KNIGHTFALL

SUPER POWERS (MCFARLANE)

“Dick Grayson began his crime-fighting career as the original Robin—Batman’s protégé and crime-fighting partner. An expert acrobat and skilled fighter, Dick eventually left the nest and ventured out on his own as a new hero called Nightwing. His childhood experiences as a circus acrobat and trapeze artist make him extremely agile. He is a superior fighter and a highly skilled martial artist who has been personally trained by Batman. Nightwing is a keen detective, a natural leader, and a strategist with advanced knowledge of a variety of technologies.”

My first McFarlane Super Powers figure, which I reviewed over a year ago now, was Nightwing.  He was a figure I remarked wasn’t terrible, but which missed the mark of “Super Powers” by, amongst other things, putting Dick into a modern costume, rather than something more era appropriate.  Well, it’s okay, because they did another Nightwing, and he’s in an older costume.  Surely there will be no problems with this one, right?  Riiiiiight?  Look, let’s just get into the review, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightwing (Knightfall) was released in Series 5 of the McFarlane Super Powers line under the DC Direct banner.  He was accompanied in the line-up by a similarly Knightfall-themed repaint of the Tim Drake Robin figure from just a series prior.  So, here’s where we encounter our first problem: costume choice.  The last figure was in his modern costume, which didn’t exactly fit with the vintage line.  This one goes earlier, but it’s only a little bit earlier, since this one made its first appearance in 1992.  That would place the vintage of this design not with Kenner’s run, but honestly closer to, say, the Toy Biz run, continuing to add to my theory that Todd’s actually trying to homage the TB line, not the Kenner one.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation.  We’re back again to the figure’s being too large, but that’s really because of the parts re-use, since he’s just a repaint of the Series 3 figure.  And here we are again with the problems.  See, if we’re throwing in the towel on an accurate costume choice for the line, can’t we at least get an accurate depiction of the costume we’re getting? Well, it would seem no.  The most glaring thing here is that there are two distinctive hairstyles associated with this costume: the mullet and the ponytail.  This sculpt is neither of those, and it robs the design of some of it’s punch.  I can forgive the body sculpt re-use, but couldn’t we at least get a new head?  His new paint is at least alright.  I dig the metallic color choices, which give him a rather nifty appearance.  Nightwing is packed with his eskrima sticks, now in black.  They’re also not really accurate to this costume, since he was pretty exclusively using the discs at the time, but this one I’ll let slide, because you could have just as well left him with no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure frustrates me immensely.  I got the first Nightwing, and I accepted him for what he was, but getting a second Nightwing who’s still in the wrong costume, and said wrong costume not even being done the right way seems downright insulting.  So, why’d I buy it?  It landed in front of me, it’s a Nightwing, and I’m week.  Honestly, I don’t hate him.  The choices are weird, but I still kinda find him 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.