Tag Archives: Radioactive Man

#3756: Radioactive Man

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

RADIOACTIVE MAN

THE SIMPSONS (JAKKS PACIFIC)

I do not talk about The Simpsons much here on the site.  A large part of that is due to only having a passing familiarity with most of the franchise until I watched the whole run during the pandemic, so I haven’t picked up many of the associated toys.  I do have a few figures here and there, and amongst the reviews I’ve done here on the site, there’s certainly been a focus on Radioactive Man, star of Bart’s favorite comic in-universe.  What can I say?  I like super heroes.  The last figure I looked at came from Super 7’s abruptly ended Ultimates line, this one comes from the next company at bat with the license, JAKKS Pacific, who kicked things off earlier this year with figures at multiple scales and price points, including a deluxe offering for Radioactive Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Radioactive Man is one of the three Deluxe figures kicking off that portion of JAKKS’ The Simpsons line, alongside variants of Mr. Burns and Homer.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 21 points of articulation.  In terms of scaling, they’re not too terribly far off from Playmates’ stuff, but they’re a little different stylistically, so they don’t quite vibe.  The articulation lands somewhere between Playmates and Super 7.  He’s got a better spread then the very barebones Playmates figures, of course, but not the same range as the Super 7 figures.  There are some very definitely limitations when posing this guy, with the elbows and knees not getting past 90 degree bends, and the neck essentially being a cut joint.  That said, he’s not prone to popping apart the way the Super 7 one was, so there’s some give and take.  Unlike the Playmates Radioactive Man, who was based on the “film” version, this one’s clearly the comics guy, but he’s an earlier run look than the Super 7 figure, which definitely stuck to more recent appearances.  I dig the decision to take a different approach here, and I think this one stands out well.  The sculpt translates the design nicely to three dimensions, and they manage to work in the articulation without it being too cumbersome.  It’s pretty clean, which is what you want out of an animation-based figure for sure.  The color work here is mostly done through molded plastics, with minimal paint.  The colors are mostly okay, but there’s some change-ups from piece-to-piece on the exact shade of red, which I don’t love.  Also, there’s a production code printed on the inside of his cape in black, which is super obvious and rather annoying.  The figure’s got a light-up feature, as part of the deluxe set-up; you press his belt buckle, and his emblem pulses.  It’s nifty, but not essential, but it also doesn’t really mess-up his look when it’s off, so I don’t mind it.  He’s packed with a larger display base, which looks like a comic cover, and also features and optional flight stand.  His posablility limits what you can do with it a bit, but it’s still a fun extra.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I honestly didn’t expect JAKKS to tackle this guy quite so quickly in their run, because he’s usually a later down the road sort of character.  Having *just* gotten the Super 7 figure (okay, like 8 months ago, but still), I didn’t know if I needed to get this one.  That said, once I saw him in person, I liked him enough to justify dropping retail to get one.  He’s got a different approach compared to prior variants, but it’s one what works, and that results in a solid toy.  I haven’t picked up any other figures, but this one makes me feel like the line’s off to a pretty good start.

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.

#3623: Radioactive Man

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

RADIOACTIVE MAN

THE SIMPSONS ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Fun FiQ Fact #0102: The Simpsons’ in-universe fictional super hero Radioactive Man shares his name with a Marvel Comics villain, meaning that Disney owns two completely unrelated Radioactive Men!

I don’t talk too much about The Simpsons here on the site, largely because I’ve never been incredibly invested in The Simpsons, and therefore don’t have a ton of the associated merch.  It’s worth noting, however, that one of the things I did during the pandemic was watching through the show’s whole run, at least up to what was current at the time, which gave me a slightly different perspective, I guess.  I still can’t say I have *that* much of an attachment to the franchise, but I’ve certainly narrowed in on the things I like.  Unfortunately, there’s a shortage of Sideshow Bob merch, and they never did anything for Cecil, so my Simpsons-based Frasier set-up is a no-go.  Guess I’ll just have to settle for something else.  Well, I do like super heroes, so I could do worse than Radioactive Man, I suppose.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Radioactive Man is part of Series 3 of Super 7’s The Simpsons Ultimates.  This set wound up being the final assortment of the line, as the Simpsons license has transferred over to Jakks Pacific.  It’s…well, it’s an interesting send-off, I guess.  While Playmates’ old World of Springfield Radioactive Man was based on Rainier Wolfcastle’s interpretation of the role from the episode “Radioactive Man,” Super 7’s version is based directly on the in-universe comic character, which is a nifty switch-up.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  His articulation is…something.  The elbows are restricted, as per usual for Super 7, and the tolerances on the joints are definitely a mixed bag.  On my figure, the shoulders are really tight, while the hips are quite loose, especially the right one, which pops off a lot.  Also, one of his two heads never truly clicks into place on the ball-joint.  QC was definitely very lax on this assortment.  His sculpt is, admittedly, pretty decent.  It translates the design into three dimensions pretty well, and actually manages to look good from multiple angles.  There are two different heads included, one calm, the other with his teeth bared.  The calm one doesn’t click in place quite right, but they’re both at least pretty nice sculpts.  The figure does a bit of mixed media, with a cloth cape piece, which has a wire running through it for posing options.  It sits a little weird on the neck joint, but it’s otherwise decent to look at.  The color work on Radioactive Man is basic, but bright an eye-catching.  There’s minimal paint work, and what’s there is a little on the sloppier side, again because of the clearly lax QC for this round of figures.  There’s a lot of small scratches, fuzziness, and even errant marks that shouldn’t be there, especially given the retail on this thing.  Radioactive Man includes the aforementioned swappable heads, plus six hands (fists, two different right gripping hands, a thumbs up left hand, and a pointing left hand), a Radioactive Man comic, and an American flag (which has 43 stars, for some reason).  Personally, I’d have loved to see some goggles that do nothing, but that wouldn’t actually be right for this one, with him not actually being the Wolfcastle version.  As it stands, though, he does feel a little light.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

While I’ve never been crazy into the Simpsons stuff, the Playmates line was always very tempting to me.  I particularly liked the Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy set, though I never actually owned one.  The Ultimates line has also been tempting me, but the higher price point kept me from jumping in on most of the figures.  I was honestly holding out for a “Cape Fear” Sideshow Bob to be my entry into the line, but with that off the table, I was back to being tempted by this guy.  With the line ending, and uncertainty about availability, I bit the bullet and bought one.  He’s…well, he’s a bit of a mess, honestly.  The general set-up is great, but the QC is *rough*.  I was rather unhappy when I pulled him out of the box.  That said, I’ve had some time to mess with him and let my opinions form more fully, and I do find myself liking him a lot more than I did initially.  There’s still issues, but he’s at least fun to pose and stick on the shelf.

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.

#1809: Radioactive Man & Fallout Boy

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

RADIOACTIVE MAN & FALLOUT BOY (w/ LUNAR BASE)

WORLD OF SPRINGFIELD (PLAYMATES)

Though their main claims to fame may be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek, I think Playmates’ most impressive success story comes in the form of their Simpsons toys.  Sure, the show was at the top of pretty much everyone’s lists back in the mid-90s, but it’s a series about “normal” people, and it runs on like 90% pop culture references, which can be a real licensing nightmare.  Nevertheless, Playmates made a real impression on the toy market, producing over 200 figures and more than 20 playsets to go with them.  Today, I look at one of the playsets, though certainly one on the smaller side, with Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy, packed with the Lunar Base!

THE SET ITSELF

The Lunar Base with Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy was released in October of 2001, as an Electronics Boutique-exclusive offering from Playmates’ World of Springfield line. 

Where most such sets had the primary focus on the actual playset part of the thing, the Lunar Base is far more low key.  It’s really just a small chunk of Moon, with a transparent green banner that says “RADIOACTIVE MAN.”  Unlike other sets, which were designed to interact with other figures, this one’s really just designed for its two included figures, and subsequently it only has two spots, as opposed to the usual three.  The sculpted details on the set are actually pretty great, as are the painted accents; they really make it look like a chunk of rock.  The set included a flag, a script, and a bottle of acid (though only the flag is seen here).  Compared to other playsets, the talking feature is much less of a selling point for this one.  It’s only got seven available lines of dialogue between the two included figures, and isn’t compatible with the rest of the line.

RADIOACTIVE MAN

Not to be confused with the Marvel supervillain, this guy’s the real selling point of the set.  Radioactive Man is a fairly recurrent fixture in The Simpsons, and is seen here as portrayed by Rainier Wolfcastle in the eponymous “Radioactive Man” episode.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has the same 4 points of articulation that every other figure in the line had.  His rigid stature means he’s not really built for much outside of a standing pose, though that was kind of true for most of the line.  The sculpt is reasonably close to his animated counterpart, though I think Wolfcastle is one of those characters who has a little bit of trouble making the jump to three dimensions.  Radioactive Man’s paintwork is bright and clean, which are definitely the two most important things for the character.  His eyes are just the slightest bit off-center, though.  Don’t know if that’s just limited to this figure, or if it was a line-wide thing.  Overall, a pretty solid offering, though.

FALLOUT BOY

Not to be confused with the musical group,  Fallout Boy is the Robin to Radioactive Man’s Batman.  And, like in the episode “Radioactive Man,” he’s portrayed here by series regular Millhouse.  He stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 4 points of articulation.  Like Bart before him, Fallout Boy isn’t really properly scaled to the adults in the line, due to the need to work in the talking feature, resulting in a slight upscaling.  The original Millhouse release was the same way, so its not really a surprise he was done in this same fashion for this figure.  Like Radioactive Man, he’s really only good for a basic standing pose.  Perhaps something more action oriented might have been cool to mix up this set a little bit, but the basic standing thing was definitely the line’s style, and you wouldn’t want to break from it too much.  Millhouse seems to be more accurate to the source material than Radioactive Man.  He may be helped slightly by the larger size, but I’d guess he’s also helped by Millhouse’s comparatively more cartoony design.  Like the standard Millhouse, this figure’s glasses are a separate piece, glued in place; you can even make out his eyes squinting beneath the lenses, which is a cool touch.  Fallout Boy’s paintwork is bright and clean, just like Radioactive Man’s.  The blue and green is a nice combo, and contrasts well with the red of Radioactive Man.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted back when I reviewed Bart’s Treehouse, despite its heavy presence at retail around me back when it was new, I never really got into the World of Springfield line, due mostly to me not being super into The Simpsons.  I vividly remember seeing every assortment pop-up in ToyFare, however, and I remember eyeing this set up.  What can I say, I’m an easy mark when it comes to super heroes.  Though it doesn’t have the surprise wow factor of the Treehouse, I do think this set makes for a pretty nifty display piece, if that’s the sort of thing you’re looking for.

This set was loaned to me for review by All Time Toys, and is available for purchase via their eBay store.  If you’re looking for other cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#0414: Ms. Marvel, Captain America, & Radioactive Man

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

MS. MARVEL, CAPTAIN AMERICA, & RADIOACTIVE MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS INFINITE SERIES

Okay, last day of Marvel Legends reviews this round. But, we’re going out with a bang. Not one, not two, but THREE (count ‘em THREE!) figures this time. Target is doing something of a push for more business in their action figure department, so they’ve just started carrying exclusive sets from Hasbro’s Marvel Legends Infinite Series and Star Wars: the Black Series lines, as well as Playmates’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line. I just got the Marvel set, so let’s see how that turned out.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Ms. Marvel, Captain America, and Radioactive Man are part of the exclusive Marvel Legends Infinite Series three-pack currently for sale at Target. Radioactive Man was previously slated for a regular release in the Marvel Legends line before the move to the Infinite Series branding, but he ended up getting cancelled. It’s nice to see him find a place here.

MS. MARVEL

“When her human DNA fused with that of the mighty Kree warrior Mar-Vell, Carol Danvers became the superhuman Ms. Marvel.” This is the star attraction of the set for a lot of people. It’s understandable, given that the character hasn’t seen a figure in this scale since way back in the Toybiz days. That’s a pretty dated figure, and near impossible to find, at that, so a new figure is a great move. The figure is about 6 inches tall and she features 29 points of articulation. She’s depicted here in her second costume, designed by the late Dave Cockrum. It’s generally the design she’s most associated with, and it’s probably one of the better ones. Ms. Marvel’s sculpt is head-to-toe identical to that of the Moonstone figure from the Thunderbolts boxed set. Generally, a complete re-use for a separate character doesn’t work out for the best, but Ms. Marvel and Moonstone have generally been rather similar in looks, so a little bit of paint is enough to make it work. It’s a pretty solid sculpt, with good proportions and movement. In addition to the Moonstone pieces, Ms. Marvel’s also been given a sash add-on, which actually does a nice job hiding the flatness of the lower torso. That was the only real issue with the original sculpt, so it makes the figure even better. The paintwork is, obviously, key on this figure, and for once Hasbro really made it work. Everything is really clean, and all the details are nice and sharp. The gold on the logo in particular looks really nice. About the only issue with the paint is the decision to have the exposed skin go up quite so high on the hips. If the costume came down a bit further, the articulation would be pretty well hidden, but as it is they look a bit unsightly. Ms. Marvel included no accessories, but apart from maybe an energy blast or something, there’s not much that would make sense.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

“Science made Steve Rogers a super-soldier with extraordinary speed, agility, strength, and durability, but it’s his heart that makes him Captain America.” Cap here is kind of the requisite heavy hitter of the set. It’s highly unlikely he’ll have much pull for the set’s intended audience, but he’s kind of unavoidable. The figure is about 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation. He’s something of an amalgam of Cap’s various looks over the years. The strongest influence seems to be from the Ultimate universe version of the character, but the color palate is more classically inspired, and the painted on head wings are from the most recent incarnations of the costume. The end result is actually not bad. Like the design, the figure’s pieces are also something of an amalgam of previous figures. Most of the figure is re-used from the most recent Ultimate Cap (Which it should be noted took a lot of its parts from the ML Face-Off version of Punisher). The only pieces not from that figure are the right thigh, which is from the X-Men Marvel Legends Infinite Series Magneto, and the shoulder strap, which is from the ML Commander Rogers figure. The body is a little dated in comparison to some of the more recent stuff, but it’s not terrible. The add-on shoulder strap and belt pieces do a lot to mask some of the flaws, allowing it to serve as a decent mid-way point between the body like we saw on Carnage and the one used for Radioactive Man. I’m still not 100% sold on the head, but it could be worse. It’s just a bit too mean looking. The figure’s paint is pretty solid. Everything is pretty clean. I dig the boldness of the blue. The stars on the shoulders present a bit of an issue with posing, as moving the shoulders causes them to be a bit misaligned. Cap includes his mighty shield and an extra unmasked head. The shield is the same one we’ve seen a few times. It’s a good piece, plus it can be placed on his back, which is cool. The head is a re-use from Commander Rogers. It has a lot of the same issues as the regular head, but at least it matches.

RADIOACTIVE MAN

“A nuclear physicist with his eye on taking over the world, Dr. Chen Lu transformed himself into the walking atomic meltdown known as Radioactive Man.” Not to be confused with the Simpsons character of the same name. Radioactive Man is probably one of the primary reasons for this set’s existence, since I imagine Hasbro didn’t want the sculpt going to waste. The figure is about 6 ½ inches tall and he features 32 points of articulation. He’s based on Radioactive Man’s classic appearance, which is one of my favorites, as goofy as it is. Radioactive Man’s a big guy, and as such he’s built on Hasbro’s new bulky body, which I believe was first used for Hyperion. It’s a pretty good body, especially for larger characters, although the neck might be just a tad too far back. Still, it’s well-proportioned and poses well. Not much else you can ask for. Radioactive Man’s also got a brand new head and an add-on piece for his, uh, skirt. The head is pretty decent, though Hasbro’s male heads are starting to look a bit repetitive. Too many similar features, I guess. The skirt piece is nice, though it can end up being a bit restricting in some poses. Radioactive Man’s paint is pretty decent, if a bit sparse. For the most part he’s molded in translucent green, which is definitely cool. The skirt and boots are molded in s darker, solid green, and the torso’s painted to match. The logo on the chest is clean, which is good. I would have liked it to be more of a yellow, but it looks fine. The only other details are his eyes, which are just simple white. Unfortunately, the left eye on mine is out of place, but it’s not too noticeable. Radioactive Man includes no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Unsurprising for a set that is exclusive to the store, I picked these three up from Target. My brother and I had gone to pick up Lego Batman 3 (which is awesome by the way), and I happened to find this set as well. As luck would have it, I had exactly the right amount of cash on hand to get both. Sure, I don’t really need another Captain America, but this one’s inoffensive and the other two more than make the purchase worth it. Plus, Radioactive Man. How can you say no to Radioactive Man? You just can’t!