Tag Archives: Moon Knight

#4122: Moon Knight – Rivals

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

MOON KNIGHT — RIVALS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Bathed in a luminous aura that pierces the darkness, Moon Knight glides through the night, ready to sear his enemies with his master’s sacred Ankhs.”

Hey, we had an almost two year break between Moon Knight reviews there, but, have no fear, just two weeks later, I’m coming in with another Moon Knight review, because that’s just how I roll.  Also, you know, because I got two new Moon Knights relatively close to each other, and I’m passing that closeness onto you!  …Or something.  Today, though, it’s a little different, because it’s also a video game figure.  Hailing from the 2024 game, Marvel Rivals, it’s, umm, Marvel Rivals Moon Knight?  Yeah, that’s it.  That’s the ticket.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is a standalone deluxe-sized release from Hasbro’s Marvel Rivals subset of Marvel Legends, shown and *sort of* released alongside the Rivals Punisher figure.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Moon Knight sports an all-new sculpt, based on his standard skin from the game.  It’s a look clearly based on the Shalvey-designed armored up design, but filtered through the game’s edges upon edges sort of design aesthetic.  Aside from the faceplate feeling maybe just a touch too Taskmaster, it’s a fairly decent Moon Knight design.  The sculpt certainly does it justice.  The articulation is worked in pretty well, allowing for a good range of motion on most of the joints, while not breaking up the flow too much.  The shoulders are a little limited, and he’s stuck looking sort of downward a bit, but otherwise it works out okay.  While some of the game-based figures have brought the designs more into the general aesthetic of broader Legends set-up, the Rivals figures are more inline with the actual game looks, down to the slightly amplified proportions.  The details on the costume elements are quite sharp, and I quite like the texture work on the under suit in particular.  The standard cape has a sort of dramatic flow to it, mimicking his character screen from the game.  It looks pretty cool, and lends itself to a nice variety of poses.  The line work is sculpted, which helps give it some extra pop.  There’s a second cape included, set in an outstretched crescent shape like when he’s gliding.  Without some sort of flight stand, the posing options are slightly more limited, but it’s an impressive looking piece regardless.  The figure’s color work is actually quite involved.  There’s a number of different finishes to the white sections, which I quite like.  The darker sections are likewise varied, and all of the application is pretty cleanly handled.  Moon Knight is packed with a pair of crescent blades and a pair of Ankh batons, so he’s got some options for attack.  No way to store anything, and I was a little bummed by no extra hands, but the weapons do at least fit nicely into the gripping hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rivals isn’t available on any of the consoles I play the occasional video game on, so I’ve not had the opportunity to experience any of it first hand, but I know a fair bit of it through reputation.  My knowledge of Moon Knight’s inclusion is really that he’s in the game, and that’s it.  A new Moon Knight figure is a new Moon Knight figure, though, so I was onboard for this one from its announcement.  It’s a solid release.  Not my personal favorite of the many Moon Knights, but he does some cool, and more unique stuff, which I definitely appreciate.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#4114: Mr. Knight

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

MR. KNIGHT

TELEVISION MASTERPIECE SERIES (HOT TOYS)

For about a decade now, every time I’ve reviewed a Moon Knight figure, I’ve done this whole bit about “yelling” out the name and all caps and being very overly excited.  But, these days, I’ve matured.  I’ve found myself as a more refined connoisseur of Moon Knights.  It’s all a very classy affair.  Ah, yes.  Moon Knight.  Did you hear?  There’s a new Moon Knight.  Quite exciting, isn’t it?  Yes, quite.  See, classy?  And what could be a classier Moon Knight to review than a Hot Toy?  And not just any Hot Toys Moon Knight.  Oh, no, this is a Hot Toys Mr. Knight.  He gets the honorific because of how refined and respectable he is.  What’s that?  Oh, Mr. Knight is when Steven’s in control, so he’s actually kind of a goober the whole time?  So, I’ve just kept it all in check for, like, nothing?  Cool.  Great.  Well, you know what, let’s review this figure.  Of MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Knight is part of Hot Toys’ Television Masterpiece Series, where he’s figure TMS139, placing him between Vi from League of Legends and the Artisan edition of hooded Moon Knight.  He’s the second entry from the Moon Knight show, following up on the 2023 standard Moon Knight.  This one was shown off way back at the end of 2024, originally with a mid-to-late 2025 release window, but he got dragged out to August of this year due to all manner of distribution issues emanating from the insanity that is the world we live in.  While the first Moon Knight was based on Marc’s more classic incarnation of the avatar, this one is based on the Declan Shalvey-designed suited look sported when Steven is in control.  The figure stands just under 11 1/2 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

The first Moon Knight figure only sported a single head sculpt, fully masked.  This one goes back to the Hot Toys tendency towards having options.  The one he comes wearing is the masked one, which, like the prior one, is quite an impressive piece.  All of the texturing present in the show mask is clearly replicated here, and you can clearly make out the face beneath it all.  Like the prior Moon Knight, the masked head has a light-up eye feature, which works more or less the same way…or at least it’s supposed to.  On my figure, a few hours after putting the batteries in, it stopped having an “on/off” switch and instead had a “on/more on” switch that just modulated the brightness, and required taking out the batteries to turn back off.  That’s really not ideal.  The figure’s second head is an unmasked Marc/Steven, sporting Oscar Isaac’s likeness, the first time on a Hot Toy, despite a Poe Dameron figure having been teased a literal decade ago.  It’s quite an amazing sculpt, very clearly capturing Isaac’s likeness, which is something that’s proved rather difficult for Hasbro in all of their many attempts.  This head also gets moving eyes, much like Superman and Spider-Punk.  It’s cool that this has become a more standardized feature, and it gives him a lot more variety for character.  Also, if you position them just right, you can hide the pupils entirely, to get a mid-transformation look like in the show.

Mr. Knight, both in the comics and in the show, is always seen in a three-piece white suit, and the figure replicates that here, with an outfit tailored to the underlying body.  While the standard Moon Knight had some cheats involved to approximate a complicated outfit design, Mr. Knight really doesn’t employ any cheats.  They’re really just gone and done the whole suit, with a full vest, shirt, and tie underneath of it.  Much like the actual construction of the thing, there’s some layers to all of this.  The patterning on the material is nothing short of amazing, as are all of the tiny little details, and the stitching and assembly is all really on point.  He’s even got a little pocket square (though be careful; it’s not attached and will fall out while you aren’t looking), and the jacket has a wire running on the edge, so you can pose it dynamically.  There are, however, some curiosities at play.  As noted, every article of clothing is a full article, no partials or stand-ins.  The vest is fully tailored and detailed, right down to the strap and buckle on the back.  The shirt is likewise full-sleeved, and even has said sleeves rolled up, just like they are when he removes the jacket.  The underlying body uses the muscle forearms, which are the ones meant for showing, rather than the more basic ones for when they won’t be visible.  So, I was a bit surprised that none of the promotional photos showed the jacket off, and the instructions with the figure noted that the outfit wasn’t removable.  Well, I noted the instructions thing *after* taking the jacket off, unfortunately, at which point it was really difficult to get back in place, and I ultimately did some minor damage getting it back on (just some undone fabric glue and a popped seam, both hidden in pretty much any pose), so, you know, don’t take it off, I guess.  Given all of the various extra detailing under the jacket that will never be seen, I’d guess there was at some point a plan for it to be removable, but they couldn’t make it work, so they abandoned it.  Clearly, this was decided after the body was picked, but before it was cast, as the elbow joints are notably black plastic, which is certainly not something you’d do if you intended the arms to be visible.

In addition to the interchangeable heads, Mr. Knight gets a rather basic assortment of parts, including 4 pairs of hands, 1 pair of eskrima sticks, a scarab amulet, a doohickey for moving the eyes on the unmasked head, and a display stand.  The hands come in gripping, fists, relaxed, and open gesture, and make for a decent variety of posing options.  They swap easily enough, and there’s also a spare pair of wrist pegs should you have any breakage issues.  The sticks are nicely detailed, featuring the markings seen in the show, and slide well into the hands.  The scarab isn’t really for this figure, but it’s a neat little extra.  The display stand is one of the basic ones, and as impressive as the more deluxe stand from the last figure was, I’m glad this one’s just basic, if just for the space considerations.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I began my wait for this figure at the end of the review of the last HT Moon Knight.  I knew it was a good likelihood he was coming, it was just a matter of when.  Admittedly, it was a longer gap than I was expecting before he was announced (and I almost caved on getting a third party version in the mean time), and then it was an even longer gap than I was expecting between his announcement and his actual arrival.  I honestly wasn’t even sure he was gonna show up.  But he did, and I’m glad for it.  He’s not perfect.  The last one, though lacking the unmasked head, was a pretty solid figure, without any notable issues I can recall.  This one has some issues.  Not minor.  Not enough to ruin the figure.  But, certainly enough for me to feel like there may have been some concessions made just to get him out the door.  At the end of the day, though, I really am just glad to finally have him.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3725: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“After a near-fatal encounter at an ancient Egyptian temple, mercenary Marc Spector agrees to become the Earthly Avatar for the deity Khonshu”

Hey, you guys, guess what I’m reviewing today!  That’s right, it’s Moooooooooooooooooooooooooon Kniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!  Gotta do the long, drawn out Moon Knight bit.  It’s one of my signature things.  Of course, it was a more distinctive thing when there weren’t so many fricking Moon Knight figures, but who am I to complain about Moon Knight figures?  Just not the right guy, I tell ya.  And this way, I’m never too far away from another Moon Knight review, and isn’t that just the world we all want to live in?  Well, it’s certainly the world *I* want to live in.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is Figure 1 in the Blackheart Series of Marvel Legends.  As I touched on in my Bloodstorm review, this assortment is Fan Channel, and is themed “Strange Tales.”  Moon Knight’s connection to the theme is still a little loose, but closer than Bloodstorm’s, I feel, and it’s another chance to get a “name” in the set.  We’ve gotten a variety of Moon Knight looks in Legends in the last few years, but this one aims for a different one; he’s based on Moon Knight’s look from the short-lived Fist of Khonshu series from ’85….well, mostly.  I’ll get to that.  It’s only a slight tweak to his classic look, but it’s a design that’s not gotten the Legends treatment yet (though a slight variation of it showed up in Toy Biz’s 10-inch line in the ’90s).  It’s also one of his three skins from Ultimate Alliance (meaning we just need his “Ultimate” costume to wrap that up; your move, Hasbro).  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  He uses the adjusted version of the 2099 body with the pinless elbows and knees, which is a little more sleek and clean.  He’s using the same masked head (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it), and the lower legs from the classic Moon Knight, but gets a new cape, gauntlets, and belt.  The cape’s not drastically different from the original piece, but it sits a little better on the body and no longer drags at the feet, which are both plusses.  The gauntlets and belt are based on the more ornate pieces from the Fist of Khonshu series, and are quite nicely done, and accurate to the source material.  He’s got very minimal paint work, but what’s present really works, and it’s all pretty crisp and clean.  He’s got the traditional moon crescent logo, rather than the Ankh that he initially had with this design, meaning he’s really using the West Coast Avengers variant of the look, which is just fine by me.  Moon Knight is packed with two pairs of hands (the gripping and fists from his 2017 release), a large crescent blade, three smaller ones, Gambit’s staff in white, which are all re-used from prior releases.  He also gets a new Ankh (which is the only of the additional Fist of Khonshu weapons we get), as well as the head to the Blackheart Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It’s a new Moon Knight, so obviously there was no chance of me passing this one up.  Honestly, it’s a look I’m happy to get, since he has it during the his WCA tenure, and that served as my earliest exposure to the character.  It’s a solid figure; it takes what works from prior Moon Knights, and improves and adds the new costume elements, making it a solid update that’s not making the earlier figures redundant.

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.

Hey, do you wanna own a thing from this review?  Well, if it’s the Moon Knight, that’s too bad, because he’s mine and you can’t take him.  But, if you’re in the market for Blackheart’s head, or perhaps some other items from the official Figure in Question collection (TM), check out my eBay page.  Or, you know, don’t, I guess.  It’s your time.  Who am I to account for it?

#3609: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL SELECT (DIAMOND SELECT TOYS)

Fun FiQ Fact #0088:  Moon Knight had three action figures released in 2006, more than doubling his total figure count.

You know, I reviewed a Marvel Select figure on Tuesday, and it was an exceptionally positive review.  The kind of review that makes me feel like Marvel Select is all good all the time, and maybe it’s a line I should pay more attention to.  Gotta put myself back on track, though, right?  Remind myself of the full scope of Select.  So, umm, here’s this Moon Knight figure.  This will certainly go well.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight was part of Marvel Select‘s 2006 line-up.  He’s just at the cutoff of figures in the line that where the prep-work was still being done by Toy Biz, before the reins were handed off to Diamond fully.  The figure stands 7 1/4 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  In stark contrast to Cap, who had a quite impressive articulation set-up, this one is…well, not the best.  It marked a step away from the glorified statues of the early Selects, but they hadn’t yet figured out what to actually do with the articulation.  It’s also amusing because there are spots of the sculpt where it clearly looks like a specific type of articulation was intended…and then it isn’t (the knees in particular appear to be meant for double joints, but they’re just singles).  Speaking of the sculpt, this one’s an earlier effort by Paul Harding.  Having seen shots of the original sculpt, I know for a fact it’s a good sculpt, very much inspired by David Finch’s illustrations of the the character from his solo book from right around this figure’s release.  Unfortunately, there’s definitely something lost in translation from original sculpt to final product.  It feels like the separate parts just don’t mesh together quite the right way.  There’s still some strong elements there, but when viewed as a whole, something just isn’t right.  The color work on the figure is passable, if perhaps nothing particularly amazing.  I don’t know how I feel about the grey body suit.  White or black I can dig, but grey feels like it loses some of its punch. It could be worse, and it’s at the very least different from other versions.  There’s at least some fun accenting on the body, which brings out the texturing nicely.  Perhaps the coolest thing about this release is the accessories.  He gets two moonerangs (though he can only hold one at a time), a stone crescent “stand” with no pegs or anything, and, best of all, a statue of Khonshu, which has its own removable staff.  Seriously, the Khonshu statue is just really, really nice.  So nice, you barely notice there’s only half of it there.  It’s, like, the whole selling point.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I wasn’t collecting Selects when this figure came out.  Honestly, I was just in a different collecting space entirely, what with being 14, and all.  It’s been one of those ones I’ve been searching for since, but I can’t say I’ve been searching very hard.  One landed in front of me at All Time a couple of weeks ago, so that made things pretty easy.  He’s…not great.  Part of it’s age, but even amongst his peers, he’s not great.  That statue, though?  Top notch.

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.

#3428: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MOON KNIGHT (HOT TOYS)

“We protect the vulnerable, and deliver justice.” – Marc Spector

Another Hot Toy?  This quickly?  I know, I usually do a much better job of spacing them out.  But alas, I can’t.  You know why?  I’ll tell you why:  MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.  …Ummm, Moon Knight’s why.  There’s a Hot Toys Moon Knight.  That’s essentially what I was getting at there.  It’s…well, it’s pretty cool.  But I’m biased, I guess.  Oh well, biased or not, I’m jumping into this review, right here, right now.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is part of Hot Toys’ Television Masterpiece Series, where he’s numbered TMS075, which places him squarely between Kate Bishop from Hawkeye, and Commander Appo from Clone Wars.  He’s thus far the only entry in the line from the Moon Knight show.  He’s based on the Marc persona’s Moon Knight garb, which is the most classically Moon Knight look of the two we get, so it makes sense to start here.  He’s also a Hot Toy that’s actually managed to stick pretty close to his original release date, and he hit at the beginning of July stateside.  The figure stands just shy of 11 1/2 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

A good number of Hot Toys are noted for their incredibly realistic sculpting on the faces.  Moon Knight gets very realistic sculpting on the head…but there’s not actually a face.  We just get the masked version this time around, so we’re left once again without an Oscar Isaac likeness on a Hot Toy, adding further insult to that Poe Dameron never materializing all those years ago.  The masked head is, admittedly, still a very, very nice sculpt, with plenty of sharp detailing and texturing to keep things realistic, as well as interesting.  His hood is also sculpted, and its permanently affixed to the head.  On one hand, it does look better aesthetically, but on the other, I do sort of wish they’d done it as an actual cloth hood, to better match the cloak, and also add a little bit more variety to its posing.  The paint work gives him a good deal of weathering, which matches the show design well.  He’s also got a built-in light-up feature for the eyes.  It’s quite impressive, but also doesn’t require the figure to look odd when the feature is turned off, which I very much appreciate.

Moon Knight has quite an involved costume construction.  There’s an underlying jumpsuit, designed to look like his mummy wrappings.  A combination of stitching and printed patterns helps them to look like the real deal, and even match up surprisingly well with the sculpted wrappings on the head and hands.  He gets cloth add-ons for the cloak and belt/loincloth.  The cloak has four wires running through it, allowing for all sorts of dynamic posing, and is a very impressively tailored piece.  He also gets sculpted add-ons for his chest, shoulder, and wrist armor, two piece boots, and a mixed-media cloth and plastic combo for his knee pads.  The two parts of the boots are so well matched that I almost didn’t realize they weren’t one solid piece at first.  Once I freed them up, his right foot had a tendency to fall off during posing, but it stays in place once posed.

Moon Knight’s underlying body aims for the best possible posablity, and it succeeds on that front.  Even with all the layers and parts tacked on, he’s capable of pulling off some surprisingly deep poses, especially when it comes to the arms.  The legs, especially at the hips, are more restricted, but they still work pretty decently.

Moon Knight gets a decent selection of extras, including:

  • 5 pairs of hands
  • 3 small moonarangs
  • 3 medium moonarangs
  • 2 large moonarangs
  • A display base, with flight stand and large crescent attachments

The hands come in fists, large moonarang crescent gripping, smaller grip, wide gesture, and smaller gesture.  The moonarangs are nice and sharp, both in detailing and in actual sharpness.  The base is a little larger than I’d prefer, honestly, but it gets the job done.  The big crescent is cool looking, but it’s made of higher grade styrofoam, so I do worry a bit about its long term durability.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Have I mentioned that I like Moon Knight?  Because I kinda do.  Legitimately, when the show was announced, one of the first thoughts I had was “I’m gonna get a Hot Toys Moon Knight.”  And get a Hot Toys Moon Knight I did indeed.  After the lengthy wait on my last two HT preorders, this guy came surprisingly fast, but I’m hardly complaining about that.  I wish he’d had an unmasked head, but beyond that, I really dig this guy.  He’s a quality piece, and a fantastic addition to my Moon Knight collection.  And I now begin the wait until the inevitable Mr. Knight figure.

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.

#3282: Khonshu

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

KHONSHU

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Did I hear somebody say I should do more Moon Knight-themed reviews?  I’m pretty sure I did.  I mean, it was probably me.  I probably said that.  And it’s my site, so that honestly carries more weight than anything else.  So, more Moon Knight reviews.  It tracks.  I’ve looked at quite a number of Moon Knights, but I’ve never looked at any of his supporting cast.  In my defense, that’s because they’ve never actually made figures of any of his supporting cast.  Can’t blame me for that.  It’s okay, though, because he’s got a TV show under his belt now, which gives an excuse for things around him to get extra focus.  And what good is Moon Knight without the deity he serves?  So, let’s check out Khonshu, you guys!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Khonshu is the Build-A-Figure for the series of Marvel Legends bearing his name.  It’s all Disney+ themed, but it’s curiously an assortment without any Moon Knight figures in its line-up, much like how the last assortment had a What If…? Ultron without any What If…? figures.  It almost feels like maybe the two BaFs should have been swapped, but who knows exactly what was going on behind the scenes there.  Whatever the case, we got him, and I built him, so here he is.  The figure stands 8 3/4 inches tall and he has 28 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is a little bit restricted compared to other recent offerings, making him feel a little more like a figure from a few years ago than one from the line’s current run.  This is generally a design thing, since the layout of his look doesn’t quite allow for full motion on everything.  Khonshu largely just stood around in the show, so it’s certainly not the end of the world.  Khonshu sports an all-new sculpt, which adapts his fully formed deity look from the show, which is itself patterned on Declan Shalvey’s redesign for Khonshu from the 2014 run.  It’s a distinctive look, and a more visually interesting concept that “Moon Knight but with stereotypical Egyptian gear added”, so it’s one that works well both on the screen and in figure form.  The sculpt, which is courtesy of sculptor Rene Aldrete, does a quite nice job of capturing his model from the show.  The detailing is pretty nicely rendered, and the star piece by far is definitely the head, which captures the distinctive shaping of the skull.  Since Khonshu’s head is just floating over his body, with no actual neck, in the show, the sculpt has to get a little bit creative there.  It’s a little bit of a compromise, but it’s what you kind of have to do here.  The sort of wisp-y structure is still visible, but it’s woven into the rest of the sculpt well enough that it doesn’t mess with the overall flow.  Khonshu’s color work is actually quite an impressive set-up.  While the standard Moon Knight just relied on sculpted texture work to carry itself, Khonshu actually gets quite a bit of accenting on his wrappings, giving them a much dirtier, worn-in look, with a similar touch on head, albeit with a slightly different look to more suggest bone.  It’s really nice, and sells the sculpt very well.  Khonshu is packed with his staff, which, like him, has to be assembled, since it comes in two pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was thrilled beyond belief that the Moon Knight show existed, and the further thrilled that we got the two Moon Knights from the show.  And, sure, I wanted more, but I certainly didn’t expect it, because, again, just thrilled about what I’d already gotten.  Since Khonshu wasn’t bundled in with the two Moon Knight figures, I wasn’t really expecting to see him quickly, so this was a pleasant surprise.  He’s a very nice figure, and honestly, he’s probably the best Build-A-Figure this year.

This assortment kind of feels like the MCU equivalent of the Bonebreaker series, given how oddball and kind of off the wall the character choices are.  Khonshu was my primary reason for getting the set, of course, and is ultimately my favorite piece.  That said, the singles are all pretty decent themselves.  Red Skull is the best of the singles, though he’s just a minor tweak on a prior figure.  Howard and Classic Loki are both figures with flaws, but they wind up being a lot of fun regardless.  Zombie Scarlet Witch is pretty by the numbers, but still solid, and He-Who-Remains isn’t thrilling or anything, but he does what he needs to. Jimmy Woo winds up as the kind of underdog success for this round.  He doesn’t look like much, he doesn’t seem like much, but he’s quite fun.  All-in-all, this is a very balanced series.  No one really jumps ahead of the pack, but no one’s really a bad offering, either.

#3234: Mr. Knight

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

MR. KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“An expert on ancient Egypt, Steven Grant is thrust into action as Khonshu’s avatar, Mr. Knight, relying on his keen mind to enact his master’s will.”

Ohhhh! Every day I wake up, then I start to break up, lonely is a man without love!  Every day I start out, then I cry my heart out, lonely is a man without love! ….Are you guys tired of this yet?  Because, I can keep going.  Maybe I’ll just start every review with that.  You know, kick off every day with a with a little bit of Englebert?  No?  Yeah, okay, that’s fair.  Hey, how about just a little bit more Moon Knight?  There sure is a lot of Moon Knight stuff these days, and I’m on board for pretty much all of it, which translates to plenty for me to review here.  So, for the second day in a row, let’s have a look at a Moon Knight!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Knight is figure 1 in the the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends, which is, as noted yesterday, a Disney+ themed series.  He’s the second of the two Moon Knights in the set, and is, as mentioned in the bio, based on Steven’s powered up version, which is itself based on Declan Shalvey’s fancy-suited design for the character from the 2014 re-launch.  It marks the first time that the look has actually been translated into Legends form, though it’s supposedly been on the books since before we got the armored version in the Vulture Series.  Obviously, the figure’s patterned specifically on the show interpretation of the look, but there’s enough wiggle room for it to work either way.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation.  He’s structurally built pretty heavily on re-used parts from the Coulson suit body.  I’m gonna be honest, it’s a body that was decent for its time, but it’s kind of starting to show its age.  To try an update it at least a little bit, Hasbro’s fitted it with a new head, neck, tie, coat overlay, and legs.  The new head gives us his distinctive mask; it seems a little bit on the small side, but there’s at least a decent set-up with the texture work.  The new neck piece is similarly a little bit small, but the texturing matches well with the mask.  The new tie piece is likewise far more textured, capturing the unique patterning of his neck wear from the show.  The jacket piece features both the jacket and its underlying vest, with a lot more going on from a detailing standpoint than on prior pieces.  His new leg pieces aren’t drastically different than the previous ones, but now feature the pinless joints at the knees.  The feet, in contrast to the head, do seem a touch on the large side.  Not like clown shoes large or anything, but noticeably on the larger side.  Paint is rather sparse on this guy, as he’s almost entirely molded in white.  He does get just a little bit of accenting for his eyes and the buttons on his vest and jacket.  It’s enough for a visual pop, but he keeps the clean white look from the show.  Mr. Knight is packed with two sets of hands in fists and gripping poses, as well as his pair of eskrima sticks, which, it should be noted, are two distinctly different pieces, as they were in the show.  That’s impressive.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Obviously, there’s no way I could get one Moon Knight and not get the other.  The Mr. Knight look has been curiously absent from the toy world, and I’ve been waiting to see it show up somewhere.  This one…well, I overall like him.  That’s the most important thing.  That said, some of the specifics I’m not so keen on.  The arms on the old mold are kind of rough, and the new parts do wind up looking a touch piecemeal when placed together.  Ultimately, I was expecting to like him just a *touch* more than I ultimately do, but I still like him a lot.  And it’s another Moon Knight.  Gotta have another Moon Knight.

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.

#3233: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Clad in the ceremonial armor of Khonshu’s chosen warriors throughout the centuries, Marc Spector is Moon Knight, sworn to obey Khonshu and deliver his vengeance accordingly.”

Ohhhh! Every day I wake up, then I start to break up, lonely is a man without love!  Every day I start out, then I cry my heart out, lonely is a man without love!  …Wait a minute…this all seems very familiar.  Have I been here before?  Yes, yes I have.  Because I totally did this bit at the start of the last Moon Knight review.  But it was also pretty funny, and I was kinda proud of it, so I decided to do it again.  So, you know, there you go.  When last I was discussing Moon Knight, I brought up how thrilled I am about the character going mainstream.  There’s just so much more Moon Knight love going around, and I really am all for that.  It’s, of course, very much centered around the show, and I loved that too.  We’re just now starting to see the main push of actual show tie-in stuff.  I already got all the Pops (yes, Moon Knight got me to buy a whole set of Pops), but they’re not all that thrilling to review.  Marvel Legends, on the other hand, are an entirely different story!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is part of the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends, which is another Disney+ inspired round of figures.  Moon Knight is the unnumbered, no Build-a-Figure, double-pack figure for this assortment, which, given his newfound popularity, feels appropriate.  He’s actually one of two Moon Knights in the set, with this one being based specifically on the Marc personality’s powered-up look.  It’s a design that’s obviously looking to update Marc’s classic all-white costume, albeit with a few other elements mixed in.  He gains some of the armoring from the Now design, as well as some wrappings that give him a bit of a mummy vibe, certainly embracing some of that Egyptian angle for the character.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/2 inches tall and has 28 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this guy is alright, but perhaps not the top of the line.  The hips and the shoulders are a little restricted, but beyond that, he gets overall pretty decent range.  He’s also using the pinless knees and elbows, which are always a treat.  Moon Knight’s sculpt is an all-new one (courtesy of sculptor Rene Aldrete), and it’s quite a good one at that.  There’s one small inaccuracy on the figure, namely the one extra band of wrapping running over his nose; clearly this figure was based on some late stage concept designs.  It’s honestly a pretty minor thing, and I don’t mind it so much myself.  Beyond that, the sculpt tracks well with the show design, and sports an impressive selection of detail work, especially on the texturing for the wrappings.  The figure’s paint work is fairly decent; largely, he’s just molded in the appropriate color of off-white, but the accenting for the gold sections is pretty decently applied, as is the slight grey accent work.  He does strike me as a figure that could possibly use a wash to bring out some more of the texturing in the sculpt, but as it is, the sculpt’s still strong enough to do the heavy lifting.  Moon Knight is packed with two sets of hands in gripping in fists, and a pair of crescent blades, which can be combined into one.  It’s a little on the lighter side, but given the all-new sculpt, it’s not terribly surprising.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Have I mentioned that I’m a Moon Knight fan?  Because I am.  Just a touch.  I absolutely loved the show start to finish, and I’m down for anything that means more figures.  When images of the show costume first surfaced, I wasn’t sure how much I liked it, but I really enjoyed how it looked in the show, and I think that it translated really nicely to action figure form.

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.

Since there are two of this guy in a case, I was also able to snag a second one for my son Matthew, of this site’s Matty’s Corner feature.  He’s gotten quite into Moon Knight himself (though the show was just a little too intense for him), so he wants his own collection.  He insisted on sharing his thoughts on his own figure as well, so here’s what I transcribed for him!

It’s me, Matth-ew!  I like this Moon Knight figure!  My opinion of this figure is really good.  I like it.  There’s one kind of detail on the moon thing that’s kind of off.  I don’t like that they kind of put all the bandages around parts of him.  There’s a lot of gold over all of it, so the moon thing on the chest looks like a whole circle.  But other than that, I do like him, as I mentioned in the first part.  No other thoughts.  I think we’re good.  Now we can end.

#3199: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS RETRO (HASBRO)

“A mercenary bound to the ancient spirit, Khonshu, Moon Knight fights to win the spirit its due!”

Ohhhh! Every day I wake up, then I start to break up, lonely is a man without love!  Every day I start out, then I cry my heart out, lonely is a man without love!  …you see, it’s clever, because that’s the song that Stephen wakes up to in Moon Knight, and…umm, I’m using it to start my review.  Fun, right?  Look, I’m just thrilled to be here, really.  Moon Knight’s mainstream, you guys.  I got Moon Knight socks the other day!  Moon Knight socks, you guys!  And there’s so many Moon Knight toys. We had this small selection, and now, it’s just so much more, and I’m all about it.  Moon Knight’s been shown on the card art for Hasbro’s Marvel Legends Retro line since the line began, but he’s just now finally made it into the line.  And I’m pretty excited about that too.  Let’s check him out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is part of series 7 of Marvel Legends Retro, alongside Amazing Fantasy Spider-Man, Nova, Firestar, and repacks of Cap and Iron Man.  He’s one of two figures double-packed, the other being Spider-Man.  Moon Knight’s on Spider-Man’s level.  That’s crazy.  I’m so here for it.  As with the rest of the line, Moon Knight comes packaged in a beautiful retro throwback package, with lovely unique card art and graphics, all of which you must utterly destroy to open the figure.  That’s right, I destroyed this art, just for you guys.  I sure hope you appreciate that!  After being aggressively torn from his packaging, the figure stands just a hair over 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is the same as the Cap I already looked at from this line, which is the classic 5 POA set-up with the addition of swivels on the forearms.  The boots are still separate pieces, but they’re also still glued in place, so there’s no extra movement there.  Moon Knight’s construction uses the same core body as the Cap figure, so he adheres pretty closely to the line’s own established style.  He gets his own unique head and cloak pieces.  The head’s a very basic full-face mask, which I feel like we’ll see more use of as the line continues.  The cloak is quite an impressive piece.  Still more on the basic side, but that perfect classic Moon Knight look.  The paint work on this figure is generally pretty basic, but I appreciate the slight change-up in tones of white for the belt and symbol, as well as the rarely used red eyes in reference to the original Moon Knight #1 cover.  The only thing I don’t really care for is the rather obnoxious brown production code printed on his inner right thigh; the odd color makes it kind of stand out, but it’s at least in a spot you won’t see most of the time.  Moon Knight doesn’t get any accessories.  I’d have liked maybe a staff or moonerangs, but accessories are at a minimum for this line in general, so it’s not majorly surprising, especially since he’s got the cloak.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like I said in the intro, Moon Knight’s been on the card backs for this line since the beginning, and I’ve been eagerly waiting for his proper announcement since.  I was very excited when he was finally shown off.  Obviously, he’s just a basic figure.  I’m not expecting him to break the mold or do anything crazy.  And I still have my slight reservations with this line as a whole, as I did when I reviewed Cap.  But I’ve also kind of mellowed on things a bit there, and I’m honestly just super thrilled at another Moon Knight.  Perhaps the luster will start to wear off once there’s a ton of Moon Knight stuff everywhere for a prolonged period of time, but for now, I’m just really happy about it all.

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.

#3063: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL UNIVERSE 10-INCH (TOY BIZ)

 

“Returning from a journey to his Kree homeworld, Captain Marvel arrives on Earth to find New York in a panic. Fighting a division of shape-changing Skrull soldiers, the local military are retreating and only the Super Heroes have managed to hold the invaders back. Joining together with the mysterious Moon Knight and the X-Men’s Wolverine, Captain Marvel is able to use his powerful nega-bands to blast the Skrull cannons to dust, and send them retreating back to space.”

Hey, do you know what’s coming out today?  I mean, it’s not anything big, I suppose.  Just a little show with some nobody launching today.  What’s it called?  Oh yeah, MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!  Yes, that’s right, today marks the first episode of the Oscar Isaac-led Moon Knight dropping on Disney+.  I’m beyond stoked, in case you couldn’t tell, and in honor of such an awesome occasion, I’m going to be taking a look at one of my back catalogue Moon Knight figures, whilst I wait for the inevitable Legends treatment from his newest design.  This time, we jump back to the very humble beginnings for Moon Knight when it comes to action figure coverage.  Time to see how far we’ve come!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight was released in 1997 as part of Toy Biz’s Marvel Universe 10-Inch line, in a precariously themed assortment that also featured Captain Marvel and Cosmic Wolverine (aka Wolverine in a space suit), both of whom are mentioned in the above wacky packaging text scenario.  The figure stands 10 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  He’s based on the 10-inch Silver Surfer body, itself a larger scaled version of the 5-inch release.  By this point in the line, the right arm had been retooled to remove the odd turntable-spinning hand, so that it now had a more standard elbow joint and a hand for gripping.  The head is the standard Spidey head.  It’s perhaps a little skinny for Moon Knight, but given the general look and feel of the figures in the line, he works to be what he needs to be.  It’s also nice, because it gives him the extra ankle joints, which are certainly helpful for the character.  It’s all topped off with a cloth goods cape, which is sort of goofy looking, but it also looks the part given the rest of the line.  Moon Knight’s paint work is pretty solid.  In order to mix things up a little more, he’s using the white and gold color scheme from Moon Knight’s tenure with the West Coast Avengers.  It’s not his usual go-to, but it’s notably unique in the toy world, since it’s not been used on any figures since.  The application is pretty clean and sharp, and it looks the part.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It was this figure that served as my very first introduction to Moon Knight as a character, though, despite that, I didn’t have that one as a kid.  I remember seeing him at retail, and be intrigued by the character, but by the time I had any idea who he was, the figure was long gone.  The 10-inch figures aren’t the most frequently found figures these days, but I found quite a selection of them at a comic book store, called Collector’s World, near where my family spends their vacation, just a few years ago.  They have sadly closed down in the last few years, but I was at least able to get this Moon Knight that way.  He’s super goofy, but he’s exactly what I’d want out of this type of figure, and I’m never one to shrug away another Moon Knight figure.