Tag Archives: Ultimates

#3453: The Challenger

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

THE CHALLENGER

BRUCE LEE ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

I haven’t really talked a ton about Bruce Lee here on the site.  I’ve got two prior reviews, and one’s here because there was a Kato involved, while the other’s a Minimate.  He’s someone whose work isn’t a main focus of mine, but whose impact on pop culture I can very much appreciate.  He’s gotten all sorts of toy coverage over the years, and the latest is coming out of Super 7’s Ultimates umbrella.  They have a couple of versions of Lee, and today I’m taking a look at “The Challenger,” which is based on Lee’s character Hai Tien from his unfinished film, Game of Death.  Look, it’s Bruce Lee in the yellow jumpsuit with the stripes; it’s hard to go wrong with that one.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Challenger makes up one half of the first wave of Super 7’s Bruce Lee Ultimates, with the other being “The Warrior,” who is based on his appearance in The Way of the Dragon.  The two of them started hitting back in July.  The figure stands a little over 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Compared to the improved articulation of the second round of G.I. Joe Ultimates, Lee’s articulation is a bit of a step back.  It’s not awful, but you’re not getting more than 90 degrees on the elbows or knees, which can prove limiting when it comes to fighting poses.  There’s enough give on some of the other joints to work around it to some degree, but articulation definitely remains an area where Super 7 struggles on these releases.  At the very least, this guy isn’t plagued by loose joints, so he’ll hold the poses you put him into.  The Challenger sports an all-new sculpt.  This another area where Super 7 sometimes struggles, especially when it comes to likenesses of real people.  The Challenger gets three different head sculpts, and they all sport a surprisingly strong likeness of Lee.  Like, really good, actually.  Of the three, the one with the pursed lips is definitely the strongest, but the other two aren’t bad either.  The level of detailing is also really sharp, which I was happy to see.  The detailing on the body is a lot more basic.  Obviously, it’s just a jumpsuit, so there’s not a ton to be done there, but he doesn’t even really get folds or texture, so it’s a touch bland.  It is at the very least a pretty good match for Lee’s build in the film, so it keeps the likeness going from what the head sculpts started.  The bracelet on his right wrist is a separate piece, so take care when swapping the hands so as to not lose it.  The Challenger’s paint work is really strong on the heads; it’s not quite Hasbro’s face printing, but it’s still quite lifelike, again aiding with the likeness.  The body is again far more basic.  It’s largely just molded in the one color, but it gets painted details for the stripes and the shoes.  The stripes are sharp and cleanly defined, so they at least do what little painting is needed well.  The Challenger gets a solid selection of accessories, with 14 different hands, 4 different styles of nunchucks, a holster for the nunchucks, and the green pointed stick from the poster.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m at best a moderate fan of Bruce Lee, but that’s enough to want at least some toy coverage.  In particular, I’ve always dug the yellow jumpsuit design, which is a very distinctive look.  I’ve wanted a good figure of it for a while, and none of the other versions quite hit the mark for me.  This one looked cool as a proto, but I wasn’t sure how the final product was going to turn out.  He came in during a fairly crowded week of new stuff for me, so I was poised to pass on him…until I took a look at the final product and saw how well those heads turned out.  My dilemma was solved easily enough, as Jason from All Time reminded me that it was my birthday, and passed this one to me for the occasion.  This figure’s not perfect.  The articulation is rather limited, and the body feels a little devoid of detail.  But those head sculpts do a lot of heavy lifting on this one, and I’m ultimately very happy with the final product.

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.

#3443: Flint

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

FLINT

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Hey, remember last week, when I was talking about Super 7’s G.I. Joe: Ultimates line?  Well, I’m gonna talk about it again.  Because, you know, there’s another one of them to talk about.  Last week, I looked at the line’s take on the Lady Jaye; today, I’m looking at a character almost always paired off with her, Daniel “Flint” Fairborne!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Flint is the second figure in the second series of Super 7’s G.I. Joe Ultimates line, where he’s the second of the two Joes.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Flint’s articulation scheme is, much like Lady Jaye, a bit of an improvement over the Series 1 figures, who were themselves an improvement on other Super 7 Ultimates offerings.  Of note, he can get his elbows deeper than 90 degrees, which is a plus, and unlike Lady Jaye, he’s got a pretty great range of motion on his neck.  I definitely dig that.  In contrast to the trend of Flints post-vintage, this release doesn’t share any of his parts with the line’s standard Duke release, instead opting for an all-new sculpt.  Like the rest of the line’s figures, he’s specifically patterned on his Sunbow animation model.  While Lady Jaye, who like Flint appeared in the cartoon the year prior to her introduction in the toyline, had a notably different design for the show, Flint’s show design actually wound up pretty close to his final toy design, so this figure sticks to a more classically Flint look.  The sculpt does a pretty respectable job of capturing Flint’s animated likeness.  Like Lady Jaye and Duke before him, Flint has 3 different head sculpts.  The one he comes wearing has his beret sculpted to the head, and is a pretty basic sculpt.  There’s a second with the beret attached, which also adds a headset, to match the other two Joes.  The third is sans hat, and is a little more detailed, more in-line with the miniseries or movie animation than the run of the mill episodes.  This head also gets an extra removable beret, and it’s overall my favorite of the three; I wasn’t expecting the removeable beret to look as good as it does.  Flint’s body is pretty solid work, too, with detailing that’s generally just a little sharper than Series 1’s Duke; I especially like the raised collar piece, as it adds a fair bit of depth.  Flint’s color work is decent enough.  He’s got the proper animation colors, so his shirt’s the same olive green as the pants, offset by brown for the camo pattern and his accent pieces.  While the first series gave painted skin to Duke, Flint and Lady Jaye both get molded plastic skin, which has its pluses and minuses.  The paint’s definitely the best on the head with the removable beret; something about the eyebrows on the other two seems off.  Also, the one with the headset has a big spot of red paint on the back of his beret on my copy, which is rather annoying.  Flint is packed with 8 hands (a pair of fists, a pair of loose grip, a pair of tight grip, and pointing and closed grip for the left hand), binoculars, a radio, a flashlight, a shovel, a newspaper, a back pack, a standard laser rifle, a pistol, and Flint’s usual shotgun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I’ve said before here, I’m a big fan of having Flint and Lady Jaye together, so if I get one of them in a given style, I definitely want the other.  Thankfully, the trend has been releasing them together, and Super7 kept that trend going.  Hooray!  After being really impressed by Lady Jaye, I was worried that Flint wouldn’t wow me quite as much, but he’s a pretty solid contender in his own right.  Like Jaye, I expected to like this figure, but I didn’t expect to like him as much as I do.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’d like to see a video of this figure in action, I helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  And, if you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3438: Lady Jaye

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

LADY JAYE

G.I. JOE ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

While I’ve been largely left cold by Hasbro’s in-house G.I. Joe: Classified Series releases in the last year or so, I’ve not managed to kick my Joe habits in their entirety.  Super 7’s had their hands on the license for ReAction purposes for a little while, but earlier this year, they officially launched a line under their Ultimates banner.  The follow-up to that initial four figure assortment has just hit recently, featuring amongst its line-up one of the cartoon’s most featured characters, Lady Jaye.  I’m taking a look at her figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Lady Jaye is the first figure in the second series of Super 7’s G.I. Joe Ultimates line.  She’s one of the the two Joes this time around.  The figure stands about 6 3/4 inches tall and she has 31 points of articulation.  The first series if the line showcased a pretty solid upgrade on the articulation front, and Series 2 appears to be stepping that up even further.  While the neck is still a bit restricted, her knees and elbows both get deeper than 90 degree bends, which is always a win when it comes to Super 7.  Lady Jaye sports an all-new sculpt. As with the rest of the line, Jaye is based specifically on her Sunbow animation model.  In Lady Jaye’s case, since she showed up in the cartoon prior to the toyline, there were actually some notable differences in terms of design work, making her an even more specifically cartoon-figure than the others.  The sculpt does a very nice job of capturing the model from the show in three-dimensions, as well as fitting in nicely with the rest of the line thus far.  Like Duke, Lady Jaye’s sporting three different head sculpts, and they’re honestly pretty similar in their layout, too.  She comes wearing a fairly standard one, and then there’s one with a headset (my personal favorite), and one that’s nearly identical to the first, only with the mouth slightly open.  The last one’s not quite as cool as the shouting head that came with Duke, but I really like the other two.  Where I felt the body sculpt on Duke wasn’t *quite* on the same level as the heads, on Lady Jaye, I think it all matches up much more closely.  The detailing is just a little sharper, and there’s just a little bit more going on.  Lady Jaye’s color work is pretty solid.  It matches pretty closely to the colors from the show, albeit in a more consistent sense, since they tended to fluctuate a little on-screen.  Things are largely molded colors, including the skin tone on the heads, in contrast with the first series.  It’s a slight change-up, but it looks okay, and it means the sculpted details aren’t at risk of getting lost.  The rouge is a little heavy on the cheeks, and the eyebrows don’t look *quite* right on the two heads without the headset, but that head with the headset still looks really good.  Lady Jaye is packed with the three heads, as well as four sets of hands (in fists, open, tight grip, and loose grip), three different styles of javelin (standard, with deployed hooks, and with removable head), nine different javelin heads, a standard issue blaster rifle (re-used from series 1), a canteen the mounts on her belt, and a small knife for the sheath on her chest strap.  She also gets some toy-based extras, which includes a toy-style javelin launcher and camera.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Due to her prominence on the cartoons, and the fact that they were in such constant re-run into the early ’00s, I have a fondness for Lady Jaye, especially her cartoon-style look.  Until now, however, I haven’t been able to get any of the figures based specifically on that look.  While Series 1 of the line definitely had me excited from the start, it was her confirmation in Series 2 that really, truly sold me on the line.  This figure really turned out nicely.  Her Classified figure being so good set a high bar, but this one still manages to top it, at least for me.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’d like to see a video of this figure in action, I helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out. If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3338: Cobra B.A.T.

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

COBRA B.A.T.

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

When G.I. Joe was adapted to animation in 1983, the standards for cartoons wouldn’t allow for any actual on-screen injuries.  This made for a rather difficult time on a show that was depicting warfare, as it meant that the Joes could never do much to Cobra’s human forces.  There was a lot of bad aim and parachuting to safety.  Thankfully, by the show’s second season, Cobra’s forces had gained the Battle Android Troopers, whose robotic nature made them exempt from the censors.  As such, they got a fair bit of play in the show following their introduction, and that makes them a pretty natural choice for Super 7’s first Ultimates army builder.

THE FIGRUE ITSELF

The Cobra B.A.T. is the third of the four figures that make up the first assortment of G.I. Joe: Ultimates (the fourth being Cobra Commander, who I opted not to pick up).  Thus far, all of the assortments are a 50/50 split between Joes and Cobras, and this guy is obviously from the latter grouping.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  The B.A.T.’s articulation is honestly better than I’d expected.  His elbows in particular are the best of the three figures I’ve looked at so far, and and the neck joint is on par with Snake Eyes.  He lacks the mid-torso joint, for design reasons, but he does alright even without it.  We got a preview of most of the B.A.T. sculpt on the exclusive comic version late last year.  It’s a really clean offering, which just really, really works.  It’s true to the animation models, while also sticking to the V1 figure’s look.  The head sculpt is unique to this release, and it’s appropriately sleek and polished.  The whole sculpt is just really well put together, which is honestly impressive given how cobbled together the B.A.T. design actually is, when you really get down to it.  The only drawback to my figure is that the glue on the softer rubber parts on the bandolier and holster doesn’t quite hold the way it’s supposed to.  Thankfully, those are both very easily fixed.  The B.A.T.’s paint work is quite striking.  The mix of bright red and yellow with black and silver really gives hims some serious pop.  The application is largely pretty clean; there are some messier spots on the shoulders and belt, and one spot of black on his right forearm, but he’s otherwise solid.  The B.A.T. is quite well accessorized, featuring three sets of standard hands (in fists, trigger grip, and open gesture), drill, claw, and gun hand attachments, a back pack for the hand attachments, a pistol, a rifle, an alternate damaged head, a decapitated neck stump, a damaged left arm piece, and an effect piece for his chest.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When these figures were announced, the Classified B.A.T. still hadn’t been confirmed, so I was totally in for this one.  Then the Classified figure was announced and released before this guy finally came along.  At that point, I was planning to pass on this one, and focus purely on the Joes, but…well, as you can see, I caved.  I could blame Max, who got one first and let me mess with it, but I was honestly always a lost cause on this one.  Snake Eyes remains my favorite of the three, but this guy’s still really, really nice.  I continue to really enjoy this line.

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.

#3333: Duke

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

DUKE

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Though he wouldn’t join the line until 1983 (and even that was just as a mail-in; he wasn’t in the line proper until ’84), Conrad “Duke” Hauser has nevertheless become the face of A Real American Hero (granted, that’s largely because Snake Eyes and Cobra Commander are, you know, faceless and all), and by extension, he’s gotten a lot of focus in the toys.  He was also especially prominent in Sunbow’s tie-in cartoon, and since that’s the main basis for Super 7’s new Ultimates line, Duke’s right there in the starting line-up.  I’ll be taking a look at him today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Duke is the second figure in the four-figure line-up that makes up Series 1 of G.I. Joe: Ultimates.  After Snake Eyes, he’s the second of two Joes included in this assortment.  Much like Snake Eyes, Duke is based on his animation model, though Duke only actually had the one main design in the Sunbow era, in contrast to Snake Eyes’ two.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Duke’s articulation is a touch more restricted than what we saw on Snake Eyes.  Thankfully, the elbows and knees remain about the same; it’s really just the neck and waist that are reduced.  The waist is a design thing, so I get it, but the neck’s just a bit of a bummer.  Duke is another all-new sculpt, going straight for that animated look. Duke’s cartoon is particularly sold by his head, and this figure has three of them to work with.  There’s a standard neutral expression, a shouting one, and one that’s somewhere between the two, which also features a headset.  All three are sporting an impressive likeness of the Sunbow Duke, so you can pretty much instantly tell who he’s supposed to be.  The one with the headset is my personal favorite of the three, but they’re all of equal quality.  The body sculpt doesn’t *need* to be as strong as the heads, so the fact that it’s not quite isn’t all bad.  It’s still pretty good, but the articulation’s a little obvious, especially the ab-crunch, and to my eyes, his feet look far longer than they should.  Other than that, it’s a solid sculpt, which matches up decently both with the show and the V1 figure.  The color work on Duke is a good match for his cartoon counterpart; the color scheme for Duke was pretty similar to the figure, so it’s pretty compatible.  His paint work is all pretty sharp and clean, especially on the faces of the three alternate heads.  Duke is packed with the aforementioned 3 heads, as well as four pairs of hands (in fists, trigger-finger grip, loose grip, and a flat/pointer combo), an animation style rifle (shared with Snake Eyes), a walkie talkie (also shared with Snake Eyes), a watch, and a helmet, binoculars, rifle, and back-pack all based directly on his V1 figure’s parts.  He doesn’t get any of the more episode-specific parts like Snake Eyes did, but I do feel like the V1-style parts are a decent trade-off.  I wish the binoculars were a bit more natural sitting, and he can’t really hold the walkie talkie, but otherwise everything is pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m not, classically, a Duke fan.  He falls into that grouping of main characters that I tend to find rather insufferable most of the time.  So, why buy the $50 deluxe figure of him?  Well, he’s grown on me over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the animated version in particular, and this figure that just honestly looked really, really cool.  Is he as good as Snake Eyes?  No.  But I also didn’t expect him to be.  Snake Eyes is Snake Eyes.  There are different standards.  Duke’s still a really good figure, though, and I’m still quite hype about this line.

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.

 

#3328: Snake Eyes

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

SNAKE EYES

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

When Super 7 first launched their Ultimates branding, they used it to continue Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Classics line, revisiting some of the core characters, but with more extras, at a slightly higher price point.  When Mattel decided to bring Masters back in-house, Super 7 decided to keep the brand going, and has been filling in with other ’80s and ’90s properties.  Up til now, perhaps one of the bigger omissions from that era has been G.I. Joe, which Hasbro has classically kept rather under wraps.  Super 7 first picked up the license for a run of ReAction figures, and now they’re adding a line of Ultimates to that as well.  It’s taken a little while for them to get out, but the first wave is finally hitting, with the second and third slated for a close follow-up.  I’m kicking things off with a look at the Joe who’s certainly the most numerous of the franchise’s leads, and who is just always the best way to kick off a new line, really, Snake Eyes!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Snake Eyes is part of the launch wave for Super 7’s G.I. Joe: Ultimates line, alongside Duke, Cobra Commander, and the B.A.T.  It’s a pretty heavy-hitter laden wave, and Snake Eyes is perhaps the heaviest hitter of the bunch.  The whole line is specifically animation based, drawing from Sunbow’s animation models for the show.  Snake Eyes notably had two models on the show, following his two main toy looks during the era.  This figure goes with his V1-inspired commando look, which was used during the first two miniseries for the show.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Articulation can be a tricky spot for Super 7, and I’ll admit I was a little concerned here.  The elbows and knees are still a little bit restricted, but they’re certainly serviceable.  On top of that, the movement on his neck and waist in particular is really impressive, and adds a lot of personality to his posing.  Snake Eyes’ sculpt is an all-new one, and, for the first time, it’s a truly animation-based Snake Eyes.  Others have at best homaged with paint, but not fully committed at a sculpt level.  It’s quite a clean look, and it matches up with the animation design really nicely.  I especially like how the mask has translated; other figures go a lot heavier on the detailing, but the simpler approach feels truer to his V1 figure.  The cartoon’s colors for Snake Eyes were one of the most distinctive parts of his look.  Interestingly, where most animation models of the era stripped down the colors for simplicity, that wasn’t the case for Snake Eyes.  His V1 figure was designed as a cost-saver for the first year, and thusly he was all black plastic with no painted details.  However, black is trick to work with in animation, so he got switched to a navy blue.  He also got some funky purple accenting, and he looses the gloves, so as to make all of his movements more visible.  The figure does a great job replicating it, and the paint application is all pretty cleanly handled.  Snake Eyes gets a decent stock of accessories.  He, of course, lacks any of his ninja stuff, since he was still just a commando at this point.  However, he does get his pet wolf Timber, who’s his own fully articulated figure.  Timber’s movement is a bit more restricted, but he’s still a lot of fun, and it’s great that he’s included at all.  Snake Eyes is also packed with four sets of hands (in fists, trigger finger, tight grip, and loose grip), a rifle, a pistol, a jetpack, and the canister from the Weather Dominator, which is perfect for pairing with Timber.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m a fan of the whole G.I. Joe franchise, in all of its aspects.  Hokey as it may be, I really do love the Sunbow cartoon, especially the first two miniseries.  Due to his lack of a speaking role, Snake Eyes was largely a minor player in the cartoon, but “Revenge of Cobra” gives him a decent little focus, which has always been one of my favorite bits.  I was quite excited when this line was announced, and this figure in particular was the one I was most looking forward to getting.  I was hoping to like him, to be sure, but exactly how much, I didn’t know.  This guy honestly blew away my expectations.  He’s just so much fun, and a really good start to the line.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’d like to see a video of this guy in action, I actually helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  And, as always, if you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3327: April O’Neil

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

APRIL O’NEIL

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Over the years, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have gathered quite an entourage of allies and other associates, but the very first was April O’Neil.  Originally a computer programmer working for Baxter Stockman, April would later be re-worked into a news reporter for the first cartoon, with the live-action movies following suit.  She’s been a number of things in the various re-works over the years, but she’s always been a fixture of the franchise, no matter the form (unless it’s The Next Mutation, but I don’t wanna talk about that).  Unsurprisingly, she’s part of most of the toy coverage as well, including Super 7’s Ultimates.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

April O’Neil is part of Wave 3 of Super 7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates line.  The line-up also included the standard Mikey, Metalhead, and Rocksteady.  April is seen here in her classic yellow jumpsuit, patterned after her vintage Playmates counterpart (who was in turn pretty consistent with April’s original animated incarnation).  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 28 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme for this line is pretty consistent across the board, so April’s movement is generally pretty similar to both Casey and Ace.  The neck movement’s kind of restricted by the hair, and the elbows aren’t able to do a full 90 degrees due to the construction of the sleeves.  April’s sculpt is unique to her thus far (though repaints probably wouldn’t be the craziest concept, especially if they want to follow the vintage line’s lead), and it, like the rest of the figures I’ve looked at up to now, is taking the Playmates figure and up-scaling and adding a little more detail to it.  It’s a pretty decent sculpt; she definitely looks a fair bit like the old toy, albeit with some slightly tweaked proportions.  There are actually two different styles of head included, one based on April’s original 1988 figure, and the other based on the 1990 release, which was a little more glammed up and in-line with the original cartoon look.  They’re internally consistent enough to look like the same person, with just tweaks to the hair for the most part.  I can definitely dig the option, and I like aspects of both sculpts.  April’s color scheme is more closely patterned after the 1988 figure, since she lacks the extra orange accents of the 1990 release.  She’s got the blue striping on the jumpsuit, as well as the Turtles logo on her back, which is pretty cool.  The two heads get two slightly different color schemes for the hair, but more or less the same detailing for the face.  The cheeks are a little bit heavy on the red accenting, but otherwise the paint work’s pretty solid.  April gets a rather impressive selection of accessories, including four pairs of hands (fists, open gesture, grip, and trigger finger), a hand gun, three throwing stars, a flashlight, a microphone, two versions of the shell phone,  an opening brief case, a camera (with articulated legs and a spot for hiding her gun, just like the vintage one), a third head (patterned on the ’88 style sculpt) with a headset, and a weapons tree like her original release included.  The extra head actually winds up being my favorite of the three included; I just really dig how the headset looks.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been desperately trying to get an April and a Casey in one consistent style since this whole collector-oriented Turtles lines thing started.  I struck out with NECA in both styles, and by the time I’d finally settled on the Super 7 version of Casey, April had kind of come and gone from most places.  Fortunately, back in the fall of last year, All Time got an almost complete run of the Super 7 Turtles, loose, which gave me easy access to an April to go along with Casey.  She’s not quite as much fun as Casey, but I like her more than I’d expected.

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.

#3322 Pinky & The Brain

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

PINKY & THE BRAIN

ANIMANIACS ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

“They’re Pinky and The Brain

Yes, Pinky and The Brain

One is a genius

The other’s insane!”

First debuting as a recurring skit in Animaniacs, the wacky gene-spliced lab mice Pinky and The Brain proved to be quite a breakout pairing, and, in 1995, the duo gained their own spin-off series, with a rather impressive 65 episode run, brought to an end largely by the network’s insistence at adding a third cast member, Elmyra Duff from Tiny Toons, which kinda broke the show’s format.  Whatever the case, Pinky and The Brain is, like its parent show, quite a classic.  There was some merchandise available at the time of the show’s run, but nothing of note on the action figure front.  Last year, Super 7 picked up the larger Animaniacs license, and has launched a line under their Ultimates umbrella.  The first assortment gives us all three of the Warner siblings, as well as the titular duo from Pinky and The Brain.  I’ll be looking at the later pairing today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Pinky and The Brain are part of the first series of Super 7’s Animaniacs Ultimates line, which started arriving in February of this year.  The two are sold individually, rather than as a pair, but I’m reviewing them as one, because, you know, how could you not?

First up is Pinky, voiced in both shows by Rob Paulsen (who also voiced Yakko Warner in Animaniacs).  You might believe he’s the “insane” one, but if you actually follow the formatting of the lyrics and pay attention to Brain’s characterization on the show, might just be the genius.  Really makes you think, right?  Or, he’s just really dumb.  Could be that too.  What ever the case, he’s the taller of the two figures, standing about 6 1/2 inches tall and sporting 27 points of articulation.  Clearly, given the sizing, these two are in a different scale than the Warner siblings, since proper scaling would make it hard to justify that Ultimates pricing.  Articulation is an area where Super 7 can struggle a little bit, but Pinky’s a bit on the better end of things.  He’s not crazy posable, but most of the joints at least have a passable range of motion.  The elbows are a bit restricted, but not as terribly as some of the Ultimates have been.  His sculpt does a solid job of recreating the design from the show, which isn’t an easy feat.  There are three different heads included, and they all three nail the look of the character pretty much spot-on, and are also good at covering the basics on what you might need for Pinky’s expressions on the show.  Of the three, I think my go-to is going to be the laughing one, but I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for the one with the goofy eyes.  The body sculpt is a bit more basic and rudimentary, but it gets the basic shaping down right, and it manages to work in the articulation in a way that doesn’t look totally awful and obvious.  As far as color work goes, things are pretty basic, following the set-up of the design from the show.  The actual paint is really confined to the heads, which get a decent enough application.  As is usual with Super 7, there’s a little bit of slop and unevenness, but nothing too crazy or glaring.  In addition to the extra heads mentioned earlier, Pinky is packed with five pairs of hands (three styles of open gesture, a pair of flat grip, and a combo of round grip and pencil-holding), a photo of Pinky’s “girlfriend” Pharfignewton, a notepad, a grapple hook, some sort of scientific device with a light on the top, a beaker with a bunsen burner beneath it, and a pair of connected beakers.  He has trouble holding any of the beakers in any of his hands, but the other accessories work well with him, and provide a nice selection of posing options.

Now we’re onto The Brain, voiced on both shows by Maurice LaMarche, who described his voice for the character as somewhere between Orson Wells and Vincent Price.  The Brain is certainly the more obviously intelligent of the two, but he’s also definitely unhinged, so those descriptors in the theme song are still up for debate.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  The Brain is overall much shorter than Pinky, and his head makes up so much of his stature.  He’s appropriately smaller in scale, making him pretty decently scaled to Pinky, even if he’s not really scaled to anything else.  In terms of movement, he’s less mobile than Pinky, on a few fronts.  Most notably, the smaller size of his body means he lacks the knee joints (Brain honestly wasn’t seen moving at the knees that much on the show, again due to the shortness of his legs), and the different proportions, especially that larger head, mean that what articulation he has doesn’t quite have the same range.  Also, on my figure, one of the ankles joints is a bit loose, which makes balancing him a bit tricky.  That said, it was my only issue with any looseness on either of the figures, which is pretty good for Super 7.  Brain’s sculpt is pretty much on par with Pinky’s in terms of quality and ability to capture the show design in three dimensions.  He only gets two heads, rather than three, but they’re both pretty spot-on.  I’ll probably be sticking with the calmer one for display, but I really like the angry one.  The only thing I’m not crazy about on the heads is the rather noticeable seam where the face joins with the rest of the head.  The body sculpt is very similar to Pinky’s, but with the changed up proportions.  The tail on my Brain figure is rather loose in its socket, causing it to pop out a lot, so be mindful of that.  Brain’s paint work again matches closely to that of Pinky; it’s a bit sloppier on the faces, though.  In addition to the previously mentioned second head, Brain is packed with nine different hands (a pair of fists, a pair of relaxed, a pair of loose grip, a pair of tight grip, and a gesturing right hand), a paper clip, a pointer, a set of blueprints for a plan to take over the world, three different beakers, a globe on a keychain, and his large magnet device.  The magnet is the star piece here, with the ability to rotate, as well as a moving lever.  It’s also just really big, so it gives him this extra feeling of value.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I watched Animaniacs in passing when I was a kid, but I was a pretty religious viewer of Pinky & The Brain, which I frequently watched with my mom in particular (though she really never could get into those Elmyra episodes).  So, I’ve got a pretty deep-seated nostalgia for the pair.  While I was able to steer myself clear of getting the whole set from Super 7, there was no way I could turn down these two.  I know Super 7’s been coming under some fire as of late about the quality of their figures, but they’ve really turned things around with some of these more recent releases, and Pinky and The Brain are figures that very much play to their strengths with the Ultimates stuff.  They’re not perfect, but they’re a lot of fun, and certainly the best merch we’ve gotten based on the characters.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with these figures to review. If you’d like to see a video of these two in action, I helped out with one for All Time’s YouTube channel, so please check that out.  And, as always, if you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.