Tag Archives: Mistakes were made

#0222: Black Widow

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

BLACK WIDOW

MARVEL LEGENDS INFINITE SERIES

BlackWidow2(Long)

Toy companies have long insisted that female action figures don’t sell as well as male action figures. So, their response to fan demand is usually one of two things: they shortpack the figure, making it impossible to find, or they put no effort into the figure, making it a monstrosity nobody wants. Or they do both (case in point: Marvel Legends Scarlet Witch. Eughhh…). These actions lead to female figures not selling as well, which leads to companies saying they don’t sell well, which leads to shortpacking and poor figures. Which leads to, you guessed it, bad sales. It’s one of those self-fulfilling prophecy things.

Anyway, this mentality lead to Black Widow being the only team member absent from Hasbro’s 6-inch scale Avengers line, meant to tie-in with the 2012 movie. It was really annoying, but Hasbro said they’d make it up to us. When the Captain America: The Winter Soldier figures were announced, they informed us that Widow would be including two heads, so she could be displayed from either movie. How could it go wrong? Well, Hasbro decided to pack Widow one per-case. For a ratio, there are eight figures in a case, and three of them are Captain America. To make matters worse, Widow included the most essential piece to the line’s Mandroid Build-A-Figure. Fortunately, Hasbro seems to be learning, and has announced that they will be sending out revision cases with Cap, Widow, and Winter Soldier all evenly packed. Maybe their starting to get it…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Widow was released in the second series of Captain America: The Winter Soldier Marvel Legends Infinite Series. The figure stands a little under 6 inches tall and has 24 points of articulation. She’s actually a bit too tall, which is the reverse of the problem that most female figures suffer from. It doesn’t ruin the figure, but she’s almost as tall as Cap, and there’s a difference of almost a foot between Scarlet Johansen and Chris Evans in real life. The figure appears to have a brand new sculpt, and it’s a very nice sculpt at that. I’m not sure if I like the body sculpt quite as much as Hasbro’s Spider-Girl sculpt, but it’s a very close second. Like that figure, she has very nice, mostly realistic proportions. Her stance is perhaps a bit too wide, but other than that, everything looks pretty good. The basic TWS head is a great sculpt, and it looks pretty much spot on to what Ms. Johansen looked like in the movie. The long hair is a little bit restricting to the neck articulation, but that’s understandable given the style. It certainly isn’t as bad as it could have been. In the paint department, Black Widow lucks out compared to the previous two figures I’ve looked at. There’s still a bit of bleed over in a few spots, but she seems to have less of the fuzzy lines and slop of the other two. She includes an extra Avengers-styled head, an extra set of trigger finger hands, and the Mandroid torso. The head is a nice touch, given Widow’s absence from the 6-inch Avengers line and the closeness of the costumes. It looks like the same face with new hair, and it looks pretty good, though the hair might be sitting a smidge too high on her forehead.Widow also includes two pistols…sculpted into their holsters. Remember how I said she had trigger fingers? Yeah, she has nothing to hold in them. It’s seriously disappointing and mars an otherwise great figure.

BlackWidow3(Long)  BlackWidow1(Short) BlackWidow(Short)

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Widow was part of my set of Series Two figures from Big Bad Toystore. She is the primary reason I bought the set, as I wasn’t going to fork over almost $60 for just her. She definitely lives up to the hype she’s gotten. It’s a great representation of Widow. She’s a great action figure in general. This is the second Hasbro female I’ve given that assessment is the last week. They’re definitely on to something here! However, the figure is hurt by the lack of firearms. I ended up finding a suitable handgun in my spare parts bin, but not everyone has a spare parts bin.

CapTrio

#0182: Shield Blitz Captain America

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

SHIELD BLITZ CAPTAIN AMERICA

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Did you guys see Captain America: The Winter Soldier? If the answer isn’t yes, go see it. Go see it now. I’ll wait. Actually, I think I may go see it myself. Yep, I’ll be back in 2 hours.

 

 

Oh, hey guys, you still here? Cool. So, yeah, that was a good movie. And you know what good superhero movies mean, right? Action figures! And thanks to Hasbro’s wonderful case pack outs and distribution, I’ve ended up buying both the 6 inch and 3 ¾ inch lines, to ensure I can get my Captain America fix. Yes, I have a problem. Anyway, there are a few versions of the sentinel of liberty himself. I picked up the “Shield Blitz” version.

THE FIGURE ITSELF
Cap was released in the second assortment of figures in the Captain America: The Winter Soldier line, along with the Falcon. This particular figure depicts Cap in his WW2 uniform seen in the first movie, though they seem to have given it a color scheme a bit more in line with the one he wears in The Winter Soldier. The figure stands about 3 ¾ inches tall and features 19 points of articulation. The figure seems a bit small, especially in comparison to other movie offerings, and he would also really benefit from wrist, ankle and waist joints. As he is currently, he seems a bit stiff. The sculpt on this figure is okay. I think it’s better than the previous movie’s take on the costume, but still not amazing. The head does bear a vague resemblance to Chris Evans, but it’s hard to tell at this scale. One of the things that does bug me a bit is the torso just seeming a bit too short, which gives him this oddly scrunched look. The paintwork is decent, with no real slop, but I do wish they had added a few more paint apps. They left his gun the same color as the holster! Also, there seemed to be quite a bit of variance in the quality of the paint work on the figures I saw, so you might want to check for the best one. The accessories, oh boy, the accessories. Hasbro is and has for quite some time been a fan of the over-sized, useless missile launchers as accessories, but they are typically in addition to one or two more sensible pieces as well. This seems to have changed with The Winter Soldier figures. Cap includes a shield launcher (because we wouldn’t want him to have to actually throw his shield…) and a shield that can be launched. No real issue, right? He still has the shield, right? Yeah, about that… To facilitate the launching feature, they kind of undersized the shield, rounded the edges, and, for some really stupid reason, replaced the usually handles meant for holding it with a single peg. Which he can’t really hold properly, since his hands have been molded in pseudo trigger fingers. Thanks Hasbro…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is kind of another example of my lack of self-control on certain action figure purchases. I pretty much bought this because I wanted a Cap to go with the Winter Soldier and Falcon figures I was buying to hold me over until the Minimates and 6 inch versions are readily available. Of the three Caps available, this one seemed to be the best option. The shield totally sucks, and the proportions are a bit off in some places, but I actually am not all that bummed by my decision. He’s not too bad, and I do feel, appearance-wise anyway, he’s an improvement over the one from The First Avenger.

#0177: XLR8

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

XLR8

BEN 10

Ben 10. Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in quite some time…

Ben 10 was one of those shows I was very interested in at first, but started to drift from after a few episodes. I don’t really know why. It wasn’t a bad show, I just started routinely missing it. Nevertheless, I had the action figures, because those alien designs were pretty cool. Today I’ll be looking at the resident speedster: XLR8. Isn’t that a clever name?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

XLR8 was released as part of the second assortment of Bandai’s Ben 10 line. He has 8 (wow a whole 8!) points of articulation and stands roughly 3 ½ inches tall. He’s a Bandai America figure, so he was in the 3 ½ inch Ben 10 line, meaning every single figure in the line was 3 ½ inches tall, regardless of relative height to each other. Oh the joys of Bandai. The 8 points of articulation allow you to put him in a standing pose and…. Yeah that’s about it. There are no other poses. The figure’s sculpt isn’t terrible, but it’s not quite on model to the animation either. Most noticeably, the upper legs look pretty off, almost like kangaroo legs. The tail has been sculpted in a position that looks good with almost no poses, so there’s that I suppose. The figure’s paint work is okay, but there are a few spots with fuzzy paint masks or bleed over. He also had random black spots various places, even when brand new. The figure includes a removable mask, which actually is pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was acquired using a gift card I got for Christmas one year, I believe. I remember I quite liked XLR8’s design on the show, and IU was very definitely looking forward to the figure. As with almost all Bandai figures I own, I remember liking the figure when I got it, but now I have no idea why. They just aren’t very good toys, truth be told. It’s a shame too, because some of the Ben 10 designs really would make cool toys if handled properly.

#0135: John Stewart – Green Lantern

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

JOHN STEWART – GREEN LANTERN

DC: INFINITE HEROES

So, I’m taking a short break from all the Minimate-y goodness I’ve just gotten and looking at a few other figures in my collection.  This one’s not a new figure, nor is it one of my favorites.  But I own it, and it’s on the list of random figure choices from which I dare not deviate.

Mattel is a company I’ve mentioned a few times before on this site.  They aren’t really my favorite topic, as I have a tendency to go off on rants when I bring them up.  They just recently started up a new 3 ¾ inch scale line of figures.  This is actually their second venture into this scale.  Their first was called DC Infinite Heroes, and was widely seen as a pretty big failure on their part.  It didn’t last as long as some of their other lines, but it went a few years, and did release a fair number of figures.  I’ll be looking at one today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So, it’s John Stewart.  Earth’s 3rd or 4th Green Lantern, depending on how you look at it.  Not the host of The Daily Show.  Sorry if it’s confusing.  John was released as part of a Green Lantern themed 6 pack.  The set was released relatively early on in the life of the Infinite Heroes line.  The figure stands about 3 ¾ inches tall and has 10 points of articulation.  Like most of Mattel’s DC toy lines, DCIH operated on the buck system, meaning every figure was built on one of the few stock bodies.  Unfortunately, the stock bodies for DCIH aren’t anywhere near as nice as those used for DCUC or even Justice League Unlimited.  John was built on the slightly larger male body.  This is okay, since John tends to be depicted a little bigger than Guy and Hal, but the body itself is probably one of the worst of the stocks.  The waist is super tiny, the arms are bulky and stubby, and the hands are GARGANTUAN.  The only new piece here was the head, and it doesn’t do much to improve the figure.  I’m not really sure what look they were going for, but John looks sort of like he was kicked in the crotch while eating a whole pack of Sour Patch Kids.  I’d love to say the paint helps the figure, but it just makes things worse.  For some reason, they gave John brown hair and eyebrows, which makes his whole heal look a bit…mushy.  Plus, his eyebrows kinda give off a weird Vulcan vibe.  The paint is particularly sloppy on the wrists, and for some reason his boots are an entirely different shade of green than the rest of his uniform.  John includes no accessories, which is a shame because they might have added some value to this figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t remember where I got this figure exactly.  I know at one point I had the whole set, but I think I sold most of the others off.  I don’t know why I kept him.  I think I just wanted to have John represented in this scale.  Infinite Heroes wasn’t a very good line, but there were a few figures that didn’t totally suck.  John is not one of those figures.

#0106: Black Hand

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

BLACK HAND

GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH (DC DIRECT)

I’ve mentioned before that I’m quite the Green Lantern fan.  Well, I’ll be frank, that doesn’t really extend to his villains.  Sure, I’m a fan of characters like Sinestro and the original Star Sapphire, and heck I’m even a pretty decent fan of characters like Sonar, Evil Star and Goldface.  But there are some Green Lantern villains I just plain don’t like.  Like, for instance, Hector Hammond, star villain of the 2011 Green Lantern movie.  My opinion of today’s character, Black Hand, is not as simple as the previously mentioned opinions.  No, he’s much more complex, and today’s figure just plays right into those mixed feelings.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Hand was released as part of the first wave of DC Direct’s Green Lantern: Rebirth line, done to coincide with the comic event of the same name.  Hand himself only has a minor appearance in the actual Rebirth series, and he doesn’t look like this.  The figure here is actually based on Hand’s look in the re-launch GL book shortly after Rebirth.  While this is the look that would gain notoriety in Blackest Night and the like, it’s presence here seems to be solely because it was what Hand was wearing at the time, as the character would remain relatively obscure for a few more years.  Anyway, the figure stands a little over 6 inches tall, and features 11 points of articulation.  He looks to be built on a similar under-lying structure to that of the Hal Jordan figure released in this line.  The outer details are different, with Black Hand featuring a lot more details on his costume.  In particular, he’s got lots of wrinkles all over his costume.  What, does this guy not have an iron?  On his left arm, he’s got straps and buckles, I guess to “modernize” the character’s look.  The Right hand is the titular “black hand”, and is exposed in all its veiny goodness.  This guy also has a lot of rivets, which begs the question:  is his cosume actually riveted on to him?  That might explain the figure’s surly facial expression.  Black Hand is topped off by a non-removable rubber cape.  It’s a decent sculpt, but it can make the figure a bit top heavy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I’ve done my (mostly) non-biased review of the figure itself.  Now, onto the nitty-gritty, me part:  I absolutely, without a doubt in my mind, hate the modern Black Hand, and pretty much everything he’s been involved with.  I know, that’s a strong opinion, but I just haven’t liked what he’s been involved with.  Classic Black Hand had a pretty neat design, and while he was hokey as hell, that was a lot of fun.  A decent character.  But, hokey characters can’t be hokey anymore, so we wound up with this redo of the character, where he’s got leather straps, and wrinkles, a random lines all over the place, and looks like a zombie.  And, hey, “Black Hand” makes no sense, unless you spell it out for people by giving him a BLACK HAND!  Hey, MGM, I’ve got an idea for a Goldfinger remake.  Here’s the twist:  Goldfinger loses one of his fingers, and he has to replace it with one MADE OF GOLD!

I know what you’re thinking: If you hate the design so much, why do you have the figure?  Because I got him for a dollar.  And for a dollar I guess he’s alright.

#0091: Hal Jordan

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

HAL JORDAN

GREEN LANTERN (MOVIE)

Having rounded up all of my Christmas gift reviews (barring any late gifts, I suppose), I’ll be moving back to my regularly scheduled programming of random figures from my vast collection.  A large subset of my collection is solely Green Lantern items, due to me being a really big fan of the character.  Being such a fan, sometimes I buy stuff solely because it’s Green Lantern.  That was the case with today’s figure, which hails from Mattel’s toy line to tie in with 2011’s Green Lantern movie.  It’s the basic version of the main character, Hal Jordan.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hal was released in the first wave of figures from Mattel’s Green Lantern line, which came out a few short weeks before the movie’s release.    He stands about 4 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation.    He’s based on Hal’s fully GL’ed up look from the movie.  The sculpt is passable, though the details are a bit on the soft side. The likeness on the head is pretty good, with a decent representation of Ryan Reynolds from the movie.  The paint is fine, nothing spectacular, but there’s no slop of smudges which is nice, but details like Green Lantern’s power ring are left completely unpainted.  This gives the figure a cheap look, but it’s wasn’t a “cheap” figure to buy.  Hal includes a clear green construct.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Yeah, so this figure is, well he’s not very good.  If he’d been released 10 years earlier, perhaps it’d be okay, but not for a modern day figure.  It’s cheaply made, the paint is as simplistic as possible, and he has practically no articulation, which means he’s not a very entertaining figure.  I have this figure because and only because it’s a Green Lantern action figure.

#0077: Batzarro

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

BATZARRO

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS

Happy New Year everyone!

This isn’t the first time I’ve looked at DC Universe Classics, and I’ve gone into my frustrations with the line and those running it.  The final figure in the second and final year of the subscription’s run was just released this month, and he fits in perfectly with the overall mixed feelings of the line.  Anyway, I’ll save my thoughts for the last section. In the meantime, I’ll take a look at Batzarro.

Real quick sum up of the character for those who aren’t familiar:  In the 60s, the character Bizzarro was created as an Anti-Superman.  He spoke in backwards sentences, used reverse logic, and had the opposite powers of the Superman.  40 some years later, writer Jeff Loeb and artist Ed McGuinness created Batzarro, the Batman to Bizzarro’s Superman.  His name is Wayne Bruce, and he turned to a life of crime when his parents were born in crime alley.  Yes, that’s really his origin.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batzarro was the 12th figure in Mattel’s 2013 DC Universe Classics: Signature Series subscription.  He stands a little over 6 inches tall, and has 23 points of articulation.  Batzarro has had exactly one look… ever.  So, that’s the look depicted here, which is far from shocking.  Batzarro is made from a fair deal of reused pieces, with a new head, cape and belt.  The rest of the figure is built on a basic DCUC body, specifically the Batman body.  It’s a sensible reuse, given the nature of the character, so no issues there.  The new pieces are all very well done.  In particular, the head looks spot on to the character, with his eyeless cowl and evil grin.  The paint on the figure isn’t perfect, as I did notice a few fuzzy lines and some missed marks, particularly on his belt buckle, which is a noticeable distance from the edge.  But it’s also far from terrible, so, it doesn’t ruin the figure.  It’s just mildly annoying.  Batzarro includes a single accessory, his batarang.  Given his place as the anti-Batman, Batzarro was frequently depicted toting around dual pistols, and the lack of inclusion here is unfortunate, especially given the pricepoint of the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, yeah… this figure.  Hands down, one of the most mixed-feelings-y figures of all time.  You see, I didn’t want to like this figure.  At only 12 figures a year, he’s an absolutely terrible choice.  The character had one storyline, a few years ago.  It wasn’t a monumental story, and he’s not even really a major player in it.  The character’s design is perfectly fine, but not revolutionary.  Of all the characters in the DC Universe, he’s far from the top of anyone’s list of “necessary characters.”  And his placement at the end of the year means two things. 1) He wasn’t amongst the characters subscribers were shown when they signed up, meaning we had to accept him whether we liked it or not, and 2) he was one of the figures that had a direct impact on if the next year of the line went through or not.  Unsurprisingly, next year’s subscription didn’t go through.

But quite frankly, the most damning thing about this figure is that he’s actually a pretty well done figure.  Not the best in the line, but actually good.  Better than a lot of the other figures offered this year.  So, this figure that nobody wanted ended up much better than several of the figures that people have been wanting for years.  It all just leaves a bad taste in the mouth and further punctuates the mismanagement of the line.  So, here I am with a figure I quite like of a character I’m just indifferent about.  I suppose that’s not all bad…

#0043: Princess Leia

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

PRINCESS LEIA – SLAVE OUTFIT

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!  Today, I’ll be doing my first review from what is quickly becoming my favorite toy line on the market:  Star Wars: The Black Series.  I’m going to assume that everyone reading knows what Star Wars is.  However, here’s a little backstory on “The Black Series.”   For 35 years, Star Wars toys have been made in the very successful 3 ¾ inch scale.  I don’t mind the scale, and Star Wars made it a standard for quite a while.  However, the figures being as small as they are leads to limitations on the level of detail and articulation each figure gets.  Since the introduction of lines like DC Universe Classics and Marvel Legends, which helped popularize the 6-inch scale, Star Wars fans have been requesting a similar line for the Star Wars characters.  And this year, Hasbro obliged with Star Wars: The Black Series.  The figures are 6 inch scale, feature lots of articulation, and generally feature better paint and a few extra accessories.  I just got the second series of the line, so I’ll be taking a look at those in the next couple of days.  I’ll start with Princess Leia.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Like I mentioned above, Leia is from the second series of Star Wars: The Black Series.  Hasbro’s decided to give each figure a number, and Leia is #005.  Leia is based on her look from early in Return of the Jedi, when she’s is taken captive by Jabba the Hutt.  It’s not her most definitive look, but I suppose it has a fairly sizeable fan base, for what would seem to be obvious reasons.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and features 18 points of articulation.  At first glance she seems a bit too small, especially next to the other figures in the line, but Carrie Fisher’s listed height is 5’1”(a full FOOT shorter than costar Harrison Ford), so she’s in proper scale for a 1:12 scale figure.   Leia’s a totally new sculpt, and it’s fairly good, apart from one glaring issue:  The articulation.  The joints on the figure are incredibly obvious.  Now, I’m not saying that I dislike visible articulation, but I don’t like when it gets to glaring, because that hurts the aesthetic of the figure.  Anyway, aside from the articulation issue, the sculpt is well done.  The likeness on the head is really good, and may very well be the best likeness in the line so far.  Unfortunately, the sculpt is hidden under some pretty sloppy paint.  Mine isn’t as bad as some others I’ve seen, but the paint has a tendency to be places it shouldn’t on the head.  The rest of the body is painted perfectly fine, and they even matched the painted flesh tone on the head with the molded flesh tone on the body, which can be tricky.  In addition to sculpted pieces, Leia features a cloth skirt.  I don’t hate it in theory, but I’m not a fan in practice.  It’s a piece of cheap, un-hemmed fabric, so it’s going to fray like crazy.  In fact, it was already fraying in the package.  I really wish they’d gone with something with a bit more durability.  Leia is rounded out with an axe thing, and a pole thing (technical terms!) that she uses in the film.  They’re sculpted well, and fit into Leia’s hands with ease.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I like this figure, but I have my issues with it.  Chief among them is the fact that the fact that the first version of Princess Leia, a central character, released in this line is a fairly non-essential version of her.  Coupled with the fact that it’s probably the one look of hers that really doesn’t translate well to figure form, the figure’s a bit of a mixed bag.  I really hope that this one was just a practice round for one of her more definitive looks.