Tag Archives: Sentinel Toys

#3701: Peter B. Parker

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

PETER B. PARKER

SV-ACTION (SENTINEL)

When Into the Spider-Verse first came out, it had very minimal toy coverage.  There were some basic figures from Hasbro and a few Funko Pops, but that was really it.  Then the movie was a big hit, and the proper licensing went out, and it was just a field day.  Everyone and their mother was making something.  The 1/12 scale in particular got flocked to, with a bunch of Miles and Peter offerings.  One of the companies in the mix is Sentinel, a company I’ve only recently looked into.  I’m taking a look at their version of Peter B Parker today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Peter B. Parker was released in Sentinel’s SV-Action line in 2021 as a single release.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  As I touched on in my first Sentinel review, their articulation set-up is somewhat unique, being a little more straight forward than a Figuarts release, but still a little more complex than, say, a Legends release.  There’s more nuance to the posing on this one than even the Armored Cap figure I looked at previously.  Generally, the tolerancing on the joints is pretty good, with no real floppiness, and a lack of things being too tight as well.  Peter B has a unique sculpt based on his fully suited-up look from Into the Spider-Verse, which has been a surprising rarity for his figures.  It’s very accurate to the animation model for the character, capturing his more unique build from the movie (right down to the slight paunch he has around his stomach), and working in the articulation without breaking things up too much.  It also handles all of the smaller detailing via sculpted texture work, which covers the whole figure.  It works very well, and again gives him a unique feel.  Peter B’s color work is pretty straight forward, but well handled.  There’s a lot of molded colors, with just enough paint to fill in the change-overs, and the painted vs molded actually match up quite well.  He’s got smaller work for the weblines, which are pretty decent, as well as the eyes, which are bright, clean, and sharp.  Peter B is packed with a whole plethora of extra parts, including four different heads (two masked, two unmasked, with differing expressions), 15 different hands (pairs of relaxed, open gesture, wall crawling, fists, webline gripping, thwipping with attached webs, ungloved, and right hand holding a coffee mug), a pair of glasses, four different webline pieces, and a display stand.  The glasses I feel are destined to get lost, but that’s what it is, I guess.  It’s too bad that we didn’t get an optional jacket and sweatpants, but there are other options for those, so I suppose this one is just more focused on the full suited look.  What he *does* get in addition to the Peter B parts is an extra unmasked head, lower torso, and pelvis, so that he can double as the Peter of Miles’s universe, making him a two-in-one figure, which is very fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Much as I love the Spider-Verse films, I’ve thus-far stuck exclusively to Legends style figures for the characters from it, in part because the Legends have honestly just been pretty solid themselves.  That said, I’ve certainly become more connected to Peter B as a character, especially his journey into fatherhood in Across, which paralleled with my own personal journey, so when this figure landed in front of me, I felt urged to pick him up, especially because I was able to get a good deal on a used one through All Time.  I had initially used the Miles-verse Peter as my true justification for getting, but with the Legends one officially announced, I guess it’s back to really being the Peter B himself that sold me on it.  And, honestly, he’s just a very, very cool figure.  Now I just need to find him a pink bath robe.

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.

#3646: Captain America – Fighting Armor

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL FIGHTING ARMOR (SENTINEL)

Isn’t it funny that so very many of the import figures I look at here on the site are Captain Americas?  I mean, a notable swath of the Figuarts here on the site are Cap, but I didn’t want to just leave it all to Bandai.  There’s plenty of other companies out there, looking to get in on the action, right?  A company  I haven’t yet looked into here on the site is Sentinel, who have gotten into the Marvel license with a couple of lines in the last few years.  Their more wide-reaching line is their Fighting Armor one, which asks that oh so rarely asked question of “what if the Marvel heroes had armor?”  That never comes up, right?  Okay, it does, but on the plus side, the answer is usually something along the lines of “it would be very awesome”.  I’ve explored this question twice before on Captain America, but I certainly won’t let that stop me from giving it yet another shot!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is figure 3 in the Marvel Fighting Armor line from Sentinel.  The figure stands 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 42 points of articulation.  Compared to, say, a Figuart, the articulation is certainly a lot more straight forward.  It’s not quite as simple as a Legends figure, though; it sort of falls in between.  There’s a degree of moving panels around for proper range of motion, but it feels like it has a good flow about it.  Cap’s sculpt appears to be unique, at least for the most part.  I don’t have any of the others, of course, so I can’t say for certain.  It’s a solid set-up.  He’s got a new design, made to fit in with the rest of Sentinel’s in-house looks for the Fighting Armor figures.  It takes the classic Cap design, with a bit of the Marvel Now design thrown in, and armorizes it, but notably in a different fashion than, say, the Tech-On Cap.  The whole thing is very sleek and clean, which I love.  It also just feels very intrinsically Captain America, which I also love.  His construction uses a little bit of die-cast metal.  It appears to be largely confined to the core of the figure, and mostly serves to give him a reasonable heft when you pick him up.  I don’t mind that so much.  Cap’s color work is dialed into the traditional Cap fare, being very heavy on the red, white, and blue, albeit mostly metallic.  He’s got a flat shade in place of the white, though, which breaks things up pretty well.  Cap is packed with three sets of hands, in fists, gripping, and open gesture, as well as an armorized version of his Shield, and a standard display stand.  The shield’s got a kind of interesting way of attaching; there’s like this whole arm on it, which swings in and out relative to how you want it to be attached, be it his back, or either of his hands.  It’s an interesting idea, but the joints are a little loose on mine, so it flaps down a lot.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was aware of the Fighting Armor figures, but I hadn’t jumped in just because the figures are all pretty pricey, and I just wasn’t sure.  But, when a bunch of them landed in front of me, and there was a Cap in the mix, it felt like the best time to jump in.  And also I was weak.  Look, cool Captain America, okay?  I’m just a man!  I’m glad I got the chance to snag him, because he’s an immensely fun figure, and a neat alternate take on the armored Cap idea!

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.