Tag Archives: Moon Knight

#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.

#2516: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A vision in an Egyptian temple leads Marc Spector to don a shroud and become the crime-fighting hero, Moon Knight.”

Well, I gotta admit, this was sooner than I’d expected.  I…uhhh…thought I had more time.  You know, to really prepare, and build up the energy.  Do a whole thing.  Play up the crowd.  But, you know what, here goes:

It’s MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, there’s a new Moon Knight, and I’m right here reviewing it.  Reviewing all those lame Deadpool figures early in the week paid off, didn’t it?  You know it did! ….Okay, maybe I’m being a little mean to the Deadpool figures.  It’s not their fault they aren’t Moon Knight.  Aw, what do I care, I’m reviewing a Moon Knight!  Let’s do it!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is the latest Walgreens-exclusive Marvel Legends release, following up on this year’s first offering of Iron Man 2020, who I’m just now remembering I haven’t actually gotten around to reviewing.  2020’s been a roller coaster of a year, but it’s not so much of a roller coaster of a figure.  It’s also not Moon Knight, which is really a point against any figure that’s not Moon Knight.  Or ’90s Havok, but he’s a whole other thing.  This is our second Moon Knight Legend in the last few years, following up on the Marvel Now!-costumed one that was in the Homecoming tie-in assortment.  He’s sporting his classic attire this time around, which I’m definitely down for.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  While the last Legends Moon Knight made use of his own unique body, this one opts for building off of the 2099 body.  I’m a little iffy on this body, as I find it’s not always well integrated with its new, more character specific pieces.  I could definitely see an argument for it also being a touch on the small side for Marc.  I think a lot of people were kind of expecting him to show up on the Spider-UK body.  That being said, the 2099 body means he gets the butterfly shoulders, which are a definite plus.  In addition to re-using the cape, hands, and underlying head of the 2017 Moon Knight, this guy also gets a healthy helping of new parts, including a new hood, forearms, shins, and belt.  It all amounts to a figure that looks quite different from his mold ‘mates, and in fact quite different from the prior Moon Knight figure.  I was particularly impressed with the new hood sculpt, which adds some extra detailing to what we got on the last figure, blending with the cape even better.  I also really dig the clean sculpting on the arm and leg bracers, which help to break up what could otherwise be a pretty basic costume set-up.  The only slight complaint I have on the construction side is that the cape is actually just a touch too long for the 2099 body.  It’s not terribly off, and is really only an issue when he’s standing straight up, but it is slightly annoying.  Moon Knight’s paint work is surprisingly intricate given how little variation of coloring there is in this design.  The slightly metallic coloring on the bracers and belt definitely does a nice job setting them apart, and I really love the slight shading they’ve done around the eyes and on the bottom of the hood.  I wish there there a little more shading on the cape, but what’s there works, and it’s honestly better that it being too heavy.  Perhaps my favorite thing about the coloring is the all-white mask.  I really dig this look for Moon Knight, and while I was a little iffy about how it worked out on the Mezco figure, it ends up working out really well here.  But, if you don’t care for the all-white set-up, have no fear: Hasbro was kind enough to include a second head with a black mask, giving you the choice.  It’s amazing that the $20 Legend can do this, but the $90 Mezco can’t.  In addition to the second head, this guy gets two large moonerangs, three of the smaller ones, an actual proper staff (the one notable omission from the prior figure), and two spare gripping hands.  As with the previous release, the standard fisted hands on this guy have slots to hold the smaller moonerangs, which is cool.  The only thing I’m not big on here is the alternate hands; for some reason, rather than using the gripping hands from the last Moon Knight, which match the fists in terms of detailing, they just used a basic pair, which aren’t even gloved hands.  They also aren’t quite the right size for his accessories, which can make holding things troublesome for him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After the very lengthy search that surrounded getting the last Legends Moon Knight, and the serious trouble I’ve been having getting the other Walgreens exclusives as of late, I was actually kind of dreading this release a little bit.  I pre-ordered him through Walgreens’ website, which didn’t actually end up helping, because they cancelled my order with no warning.  It’s okay, though, because I’d actually found him about two weeks earlier when I swung by my local Walgreens for a couple of essentials, and found this guy there before even knowing he was actually out.  So, that was pretty easy, I guess.  In sort of a similar fashion to Iron Man, I had picked up Mezco’s One:12 offering because I wanted a more classic Moon Knight, and then Hasbro went ahead and rather quickly gave me one in Legends style.  And, again, I feel like this one kind of ends up doing the job a little bit better.  He’s just about everything I’d want out of a Moon Knight figure.  He’s really good.

#2328: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

ONE:12 COLLECTIVE (MEZCO)

I am nothing if not a creature habit, which in this case means not only am I going to steal the joke I used in yesterday’s review, but I’m also going to steal the joke I use in every review of Moon Knight.  Why? Because I’m reviewing MOOOOOOOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT, that’s why.  See, it’s Moon Knight, and, uh, I have to do that.  Only way to be sure.  Moon Knight’s had a bit of a hiatus on the action figure love since he somehow managed to get two separate figures from Hasbro in the same year back in 2017.  With a show on the horizon, I imagine prospects will be changing, but in the mean time we get to hold ourselves over with a little something courtesy of Mezco, who have just added Mr. Spector to their One:12 Collective line.  Is the figure unabashedly awesome?  Let’s find out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is an early 2020 release for the One:12 Collective line.  He was first hinted at during last year’s Toy Fair and was supposed to arrive late last year, but got pushed back a few times.  He’s here now, though, which is all that really matters.  There are two versions of Moon Knight available.  The one in this review is the standard regular retail version, but there was also a con-exclusive “Crescent Edition” released last year, which gave us a slightly more modern version of the costume.  The standard release gives us Mezco’s take on Marc’s classic all-white attire.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he’s got over 30 points of articulation.

Like most One:12 figures, Moon Knight gets two different head sculpts, though unlike a lot of the ones I’ve looked at, they’re actually quite a bit different from each other.  The one he comes wearing is definitely the standard.  It’s sporting his usual full face mask, and rather than the usual comics mask that’s devoid of all detail, this one puts a lot of effort into making it look like a real, fully cloth mask.  There’s some stitching up at the top, and plenty of wrinkles and folds within the brow, to help showcase an intense expression beneath the mask.  Unlike most renditions of Moon Knight in plastic (including the Crescent Edition variant of this very figure), the fully masked head is all white like the rest of the suit, instead of the usual black.  It’s a different look than I’m used to, and I’m not sure if I prefer it to the black mask, but a little variety is far from the worst thing.   In order to prevent the eyes from getting lost in all of that white, they’ve been tinted blue, which actually makes for quite a striking appearance.  The second head gives us a partially unmasked version of Marc, with the mask pulled up off of his face.  It’s certainly a unique appearance, and the unmasked face bears a resemblance to Tobias Menzies, at least to my eye.  Hey, it means he looks like a real person, which I certainly count as a plus.  I also really dig the rough and ragged appearance he’s sporting there.  Very classic Marc.  The two heads included here do offer up a nice variety, but I do sort of wish we’d gotten the basic head in black as well, just for the extra options.  Still these two are nice.

Moon Knight is built on the mid-sized male body, which is a respectable choice for him given his usual depictions in the comics.  As is the usual case for this line, it’s a mixed-media set-up, perhaps even more so than some of the others I’ve looked at.  His construction is really most similar to the Ascending Knight Batman, with the costume primarily being a spandex jumpsuit, but with a bunch of rubberized sections designed to make it look like he’s wearing segmented body armor, but also laid out in such a way that the armor looks like it could be dynamic lighting on a more basic jumpsuit.  Like Batman, the moon crescent symbol is a plastic piece, which plugs into the torso and helps to keep the whole suit in place.  The boots, belt, and gauntlets are also sculpted plastic pieces, which follow the stylings of the suit for a slightly more armored and modernized take on the character’s classic design.  They look pretty solid, but I do wish there were a slightly better range of motion on the figure’s ankles.  The cloak is a two-piece affair, with the hood(s) being hard plastic, and the cape part being cloth.  There are two options on the hood; one up and one down.  They both are tailored more to one of the two heads, but can work with either.  The cape itself is probably my least favorite part of the costume.  I just don’t care for the pleather exterior, and I feel like it’s not going to hold up over time.  Also, I’m not really big on the idea of Moon Knight’s cape being a leather like material.  It makes sense for Batman, but given Moon Knight’s desert based origins, leather doesn’t really jibe with the general aesthetic in my mind.

Moon Knight has one of the best accessory compliments of the One:12 line-up.  In addition to the previously mentioned extra head and hood, he also includes four sets of hands (fists, gripping, open, and holding moon discs), a staff, nunchucks, a bladed nunchuck, a large moon blade, a display stand, and a contraption for displaying his cape dynamically.  I do have to laugh a little to myself that Hasbro gave us the smaller moon discs as separate pieces, but Mezco had to mold them to a set of hands.  Otherwise, it’s quite a nice selection of extras, and really sells the more deluxe nature of this particular figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Unlike a lot of the One:12 items I’ve picked up, I did no waffling on this particular figure.  I knew I wanted him from the start, and I stuck right to it, from the time he was shown off to the time he arrived in hand.  I gotta say, Moon Knight’s the sort of figure that really benefits from this style of figure, because there’s a lot of room to mess with the core of the design and have fun with it.  And someone definitely had fun on this figure.  I’d be hard pressed to say this figure would do much for someone who’s only a moderate fan of the character, but if you love Moon Knight, this guy’s worth your time.

I got this guy from my friends All Time Toys, where he is currently in stock here.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#1903: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL UNIVERSE (HASBRO)

“No one, not even Moon Knight himself is really sure whether he’s actually the avatar of the ancient god Khonshu, or if he’s just crazy.  It is without a doubt that he is stronger than the average man, and a far superior fighter to all but the best.  He has devoted himself to Khonshu, acting out the Egyptian god’s agenda of revenge against criminals from one end of the world to the other.”

For Day 2 of the Post-Christmas reviews, I’m returning to one of my very favorite review subjects.  Yes, it’s none other than MOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!  Sorry, I can’t help but do that at least once per Moon Knight review.  Contractual obligation.  So, yeah, Moon Knight’s a personal favorite character of mine, and one of those characters that I make a concerted effort to track down whenever he shows up in action figure form.  He’s got one of those designs that just usually makes for good toy.  And today, I’m looking at another!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight was released in the fourth assortment of Marvel Universe in 2009, during the line’s inaugural year.  He was the 27th figure numerically in the line.  As seems to be frequently the case for the character, the assortment that spawned Moon Knight was sort of an odd-ball selection of characters.  Fun fact, though, the assortment also included Blade, a character that was essentially Moon Knight’s equivalent in the Tomb of Dracula books.  Anyway, Moon Knight’s seen here in his classic all-white attire, which we actually haven’t gotten in proper figure form since.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  Moon Knight is built on the body that initially belonged to Daredevil.  It was one of two mid-sized male bodies introduced during the first year of the line, and, to be fair, it’s definitely the better of the two.  Of course, given that the other one is one of the worst bodies from the line, that’s perhaps faint praise.  As I mentioned when I first reviewed this body (when it was Vision), it’s an okay body overall, but the biggest flaw is that it looks like he’s missing a row of abs.  His torso’s just too short.  On the plus side, it poses well, and it’s certainly very playable.  He has a unique head, cape, and belt to help complete that Moon Knight look.  The belt is a little soft and ill-defined, but the head and cape are really nice pieces, and I find them to be stronger than even the more recent version of Marc.  As with the Vision parts, I can’t help but wish we could have seen these parts on a stronger base body.  Moon Knight’s paint is, as you might expect, quite monochromatic, but kept from being too drab with a nice selection of grey and silver accenting on the white portions of the costume.  Moon Knight was packed with his staff and a single crescent dart.  Both are pretty cool, but the staff’s definitely going to get more playtime from me, since he can’t really hold the dart.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back when this figure was first released, I held off, in part because I was less of a Moon Knight fan than I am now, and in part because he was supposedly going to be re-packed later down the line in a two-pack with an Ant-Man figure.  When that pack never materialized, I found myself with no Moon Knight, and eventually settled for the more recent small-scale Legends release.  I ended up getting this guy this year as a Christmas present from my friends at All Time Toys, because that’s just how they do.  There are certainly some dated aspects of this figure, but I’m overall quite impressed by how well-crafted he is.  If nothing else, he’s certainly a lot of fun to play with!

#1679: Moon Knight & Punisher

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

MOON KNIGHT & PUNISHER

MARVEL MINIMATES

2018 marks the fifteenth year of Marvel Minimates, if you can believe it, and DST’s celebrating that with Series 75 (which, of course, all long-term fans know, is actually only the 74th Series in actual count, thanks to Series 15, the only series of Marvel Minimates ever to be outright cancelled).  75 is Marvel Knights/Defenders themed, offering up some of Marvel’s lower level characters.  Today, I’m looking at the one set in the series not to actually feature any of the current Defenders members (but don’t hold that against them), Moon Knight & Punisher!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

As noted above, Moon Knight and Punisher are part of Series 75 of Marvel Minimates, which takes loose inspiration from the Netflix slate of Marvel shows.  Moon Knight’s kind of out of the odd man out in this respect, but maybe he’ll show up in the next slate of them?  Please?

Also included in this set are two pieces of the very first Minimate Build-A-Figure, Quake!  In this set, we get both the legs.  They’re just standard legs, done up in colors to match the SHIELD agents from Series 43 and 51.

MARVEL NOW MOON KNIGHT

This is only Moon Knight’s sophomore figure in the Minimates line.  His last was all the way back in Series 29, 46 series and 9 years ago.  I think that’s a decent enough wait time for a re-do, don’t you?  This one’s not actually a straight re-do; it’s based on his armored look from Warren Ellis’s re-boot of the character.  It wasn’t his main look during Ellis’s run, but it was picked up by others, and has shown up in a few games and one of the cartoons.  I think it’s a solid re-imagining of his usual look.  Of course, as luck would have it, he went back to his all-white look a few months before this guy hit shelves.  Oh, darn, I guess we’ll just need another Moon Knight.  The figure stands 2 1/2 inches tall and has the usual 14 points of articulation.  Moon Knight’s sculpted elements are limited to his signature cloak.  Like his last Minimate, the hood and cape are two separate pieces, in order to help maximize posability.  These have been the source of some contention in the fanbase, with lots of debating over which cloak is the superior one.  While the old one always looked nice, it was never much for posing, and made keeping him standing nearly impossible.  This new one dials things back a bit, and gives us a more simplified design.  It’s still not perfect.  The hood in particular bugs me; something about its shape is slightly off.  Still, it’s an improvement in terms of playabilty, which makes for a better figure. Moon Knight’s paintwork is nice and bold.  It’s coming at the character from an entirely different angle than the last ‘mate, being very sleek and clean.  There’s a little bit of bleed over on some of the black-to-white changes, but for the most part, he looks pretty sharp.  In particular, the wider eyes seen on this version’s mask feel more in tune with the character than the tiny squinting eyes from the last one, and I also really like the grey highlights, which keep the black sections from getting too monotonous. Included with Moon Knight are his staff and a clear display stand.  The staff is re-used from the animated Proxima Midnight, but it a decent match for the staff Moon Knight is usually seen carrying about.

FRONTAL ASSAULT PUNISHER

I’m not sure of how comfortable I am with the “Frontal Assault” descriptor.  Wouldn’t such a name would be more appropriate for one of the trench-coated variants?  To DST’s credit, there are only so many buzzwords you can throw in front of the name “Punisher.”  Just plain “assault” was already taken and yet another character with the “Marvel Now” moniker might tear open a rift in the space time continuum.  But, I digress. Frank Castle is no stranger to Minimates, this being his eighth entry in the line.  This one’s his first comics-based ‘mate since 2013 (barring the 2016 re-release of the Best Of ‘mate), and it’s based on his pre-Secret Wars look from around 2014 or so.  It’s a nice sort of tactical look for the character, and also offers something in keeping with how the character looks in the Netflix shows. Punisher has add-on pieces for his hair and tactical vest.  I believe both of these are new to this particular figure.  The vest definitely is, but the hair is throwing me.  Regardless, both pieces are incredibly well-sculpted, and very nicely suited to the character.  The vest in particular just really encapsulates how I feel the Punisher should look. Punisher’s paint work is really a collection of pleasant surprises.  Let’s start from the weakest point and move upwards: his vest and sleeves show a little bit of slop.  Nothing too terrible, but notable given the quality of the rest of the paint.  The face is pretty classic Frank Castle, all grizzled and angry.  The application’s quite clean, and I like that they’ve even given him his stubble (not that stubble’s exactly a new thing on Minimates).  Under the vest, there’s a skull-emblazened t-shirt, which is a very nice touch.  He’s also got some incredible small detail work on his arms and legs, with the legs in particular standing out with all the stitching and line work associated with the tactical pants.  Really great attention to detail there. Punisher includes an HK94A3 Rifle (first included with the T2 SWAT officer), as well as a skull-faced mask piece (based on a mask he was frequently seen wearing during the 2014 run), and a clear display stand.  I’d have liked to get some additional guns.  Just the rifle seems a little light.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this set from my LCS, Cosmic Comix (okay, technically I got it from Tim, who bought it from CCX; he was paying me back for grabbing him an Obsidian Fury).  Moon Knight’s been due another Minimate for a while now.  This one takes a decidedly different approach to the character than the last one, so a direct comparison is a bit difficult, but this offering walks the line of look vs playability better than the last one.  I’m hopeful an all-white variant might show up in the near future.  In the mean time, this one’s a solid addition.  In a set where the clear selling point was Moon Knight, Punisher serves as sort of a sleeper figure.  As only a moderate fan of the character, I wasn’t anticipating much from him, but he’s a high quality, truly exceptional ‘mate.

#1443: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL’S GOLD (TOY BIZ)

“Moon Knight possesses superhuman strength. His strength varies with the phases of the moon, being the strongest at full moon.  Moon Knight is an experienced fighter (used to be a boxer, marine and mercenary). He’s also skilled in the use of a great variety of weapons.”

Another Moon Knight for you, Konshu!!!

Hey, look at that, it’s another Moon Knight figure.  It’s been just over a month since the last Moon Knight figure, so why not have another one, right?  Three years of reviews without a single Moon Knight, and I’ve gotten three of them in the last four months.  What are the odds?  Ah, who cares?  Let’s just move onto the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight was part of Toy Biz’s 11 figure Marvel’s Gold line, which was a sub-set of their 5-inch Marvel line available exclusively through specialty retailers.  The line made use of entirely re-used parts, and was notable for giving figure debuts to several cult favorite Marvel characters, including the esteemed Mr. Knight here.  This figure stands about 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Moon Knight was built on one of Toy Biz’s Hercules figures from their Legendary Journeys tie-in line, which was itself a slight re-tooling of X-Men’s Gladiator.  It’s a slightly odd choice for Moon Knight, truth be told, and makes him a fair bit bigger than he’s usually depicted.  I personally would have preferred the Daredevil or Archangel bodies, both of which were frequently used pieces in this line, and I feel would have better summed up Moon Knight’s usual look.  Not helping matters on the oversized body front is the head, which is just a standard Spider-Man head.  There’s really nothing wrong with the head itself, but it’s really small when compared to the body, which only emphasizes the puffiness of the base.  To aid in fully transforming this figure into Moon Knight, there are also two cloth add-on pieces, for the cloak and the belt.  The pieces are slightly goofy looking, but the cloak does at the very least help to sort of mask the size differences between the head and the body.  It takes a little bit of work, but you can actually get the cloak to look pretty nice if you try.  In terms of paint, Moon Knight is actually pretty solid.  He’s largely done up in this great pearlescent white, which looks super slick, and then there’s black line work for his costume details.  It’s all pretty sharp and looks pretty polished for a straight re-paint.  Moon Knight included no accessories, which is a slight bummer.  At the very least, his staff would have been nice.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I always wanted this figure growing up, but the Gold Series’s distribution was rather spotty, resulting in lots and lots of certain figures, and next to none of others.  Moon Knight was one of the ones I never saw.  I’ve kept an eye out over the years and ended up finding him at the Factory Antique Mall (America’s Largest Antique Mall!…in case you didn’t know) just this past summer.  Amusingly, I found him while I was still desperately searching for the new Legends figure.  In light of more recent Moon Knight figures, this one maybe hasn’t aged so great, but the 5-inch scale is kind of my jam and I’m super pumped to finally have this guy in my collection.  You can never have too many Moon Knights, right?