Tag Archives: Wacky Variants

#0104: Aliens: Genocide

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

XENOMORPH WARRIOR (RED) vs XENOMORPH WARRIOR (BLACK)

ALIENS (NECA)

Today, I’ll be continuing my reviews of the most recent toyline to the greatest movie ever, NECA’s Aliens.

In anticipation of the second series in the line, I’ll be reviewing the figures so far.  With yesterday’s review of the basic Xenomorph Warrior, I wrapped up my reviews of the first series.  Today, I’ll start looking at the two-packs, released to hold us over until the second wave hits.

First up, it’s the “Genocide” two-pack, based not on the movie, but on one of the comics, wherein two different hives of Xenomorphs duke it out.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two figures were released as part of the first of three two packs released to bridge the gap between the first and second series.  They each depict a warrior from one of the two hives.

RED

First up, the more unique of the two figures, the Red Xenomorph.  Red here is meant to represent a Xeno from the second hive in the series.  Red is very similar in styling to a red ant.  Red is the exact same sculpt as the previous Xeno Warrior, so he stands about 8 inches tall and has 38 points of articulation.  I won’t discuss the sculpt again, since it hasn’t changed.  Unlike the previous Xenomorph, this one is molded in red with black accents.  The paint work is well done, and the details in the sculpt are really made to pop.  It’s cool to see this sculpt in a lighter color, because it means that you can really appreciate the work that went into it all the more.  Like the previous Xeno, Red’s only real accessory is the removable back-fin-thing that allows you to put the head back a bit.

BLACK

Second, it’s a figure that looks a lot like the one we’ve seen before.  And that’s because it practically is.  Like the first Xeno, this one depicts the creature as it was seen in Aliens.  The last figure attempted to go for the blown accenting present on the actual prop suits worn by the stunt actors in the film.  This time around, NECA went for something more in line with how the creature in the first film is shown.  The accenting here is done in silver and bronze.  This could have turned out basdly, but it’s been done with the necessary subtlety to pull it off very well.  The only difference between this figure and the series 1 version of the Xeno is the accent paint, but it’s the difference between a okay figure and an amazing one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I hadn’t planned on getting this set, preferring to just get the Xenos as they came along in the regular series.  However, I was walking through my local Toys R Us, and there they sat.  One lone set of them.  So, I decided, what the heck and picked them up.  I’m really glad I did.  I know I didn’t have much to say in this review, having just looked at essentially the same figure yesterday.  But these two were definitely worth the purchase.  The Red Xeno is a lot of fun, and adds some nice diversity to the shelf, and the Black Xeno is a much needed improvement to the basic Xeno Warrior.  If you’re just looking to get the basic Xeno, this set’s probably worth the plunge.  Just, whatever you do, do no, I repeat, DO NOT  try to read the comic book that this two pack was based on.  You’ll never get that time back.

#0048: Iron Man Mark VI – Hologram

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

IRON MAN MARK VI – HOLOGRAM

IRON MAN 2 (HASBRO)

So, wacky variants.  They tend to be a staple of action figure lines, particularly those that are based on films and such where the main character might only have one or two looks.  And that’s nowhere near enough for toy makers.  They have to make the kids buy them all!  They reached their heyday back in the 90sm most prevalently with Batman, but they still appear from time to time.

Case in point with today’s figure in question: The Holographic version of Iron Man’s Mark VI armor.  He hails from Hasbro’s tie-in line to 2010’s Iron Man 2.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Holographic Mark VI, or HMVI as I’ll be referring to him, was released as part of a K-Mart exclusive three pack of armors.  It featured a War Machine in camo, and an Iron Monger painted to look like the Hulkbuster armor, but I don’t have either of them.  HMVI is not based on a look from the Movie, instead being totally made up so that the toymakers could make another figure out of the same Mark VI mold.  He stands just shy of 4 inches tall and has 18 points of articulation.  The sculpt is exactly the same as that of the basic Mark VI.  The difference is that he was molded in clear blue.  He features some minor paint to give him some kind of a crosshatching detail, which is actually pretty cool.  He features no accessories, which is a bit of a bummer, but since Hasbro has a tendency to just throw in a dumb missile launcher, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I bought this figure for one and only one reason:  it looked really cool.  And it still does.  Sometimes, you just have to buy a toy because of how awesome it looks.  Perhaps the toy companies are on to something…

#0036: Green Lantern – Armored

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

GREEN LANTERN – ARMORED

JUSTICE (DC DIRECT)

Today’s review is a piece of my quite large Green Lantern collection.  I’m a huge Green Lantern fan, so I have a tendency to buy figures based solely on the fact that they’re Green Lantern.  That’s kinda the case with today’s figure, based on Green Lantern’s armored appearance in Justice.  For those of you who don’t know, Justice was a 12 issue Maxi-Series released by DC Comics a few years ago.  It featured art by Alex Ross and was effectively a more modern day take on Challenge of the Superfriends.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Armored GL was released in the sixth series of DC Direct’s Justice line.  He stands just shy of 7 inches tall, and has 15 points of articulation.  Like I said above, he’s based on Green Lantern’s armored appearance from towards the end of the series, when the Justice League has their final showdown with the Legion of Doom.  It’s a neat design, and also very unique, which helps to break up some of the monotony of some of the other Green Lanterns.  The figure is an all new sculpt, which isn’t surprising given there was little room for reuse.  The body is pretty well done, though like many other DC Direct figures of the same time period, he has a slight pre-posed nature to him that doesn’t really work too well with the articulation given.  Granted, it’s nowhere near as bad here as it was on some others, so it doesn’t bother me too much.  There aren’t really any facial features to depict, but the faceplate looks cool.  Also, a really cool touch on the head is the face on the back of it.  In the comic, GL’s suit was actually Metal Men member Iron wrapping himself around GL for protection, so Iron’s face is shown in the back.  It’s a cool feature and adds a lot to the figure, almost making it a two-in-one figure!  The paint on the figure is solid, with little slop or bleed over.  GL’s only accessory was a stand, which is somewhere in a large box of stands from other DC Direct figures.  It was identical to the stand that was included with every other figure in the line.  It looked fine if you only had one figure on display, but any more and it just becomes overly large and cumbersome.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Armored GL from my local comic store Cosmic Comix during the store’s annual year end sale.  He was one of about 15 DC direct figures that I bought for 45% off of their original price (which brought his price to about $8.50).  I had held off on the figure before, but for that price it was definitely worth it.  He’s a fairly fun figure and I was glad to add him to my collection!

#0003: Sonar Sensor Batman

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

SONAR SENSOR BATMAN

BATMAN FOREVER (1995)

0003a

Continuing the trend of my last two posts, I’m looking at another figure from 1995’s Batman Forever Line.  This guy isn’t quite as significant as the last two, so he’ll be a bit more brief.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

0003bSo, like I said above, Sonar Sensor Batman is another Batman Variant from the Batman Forever line.  This one’s a slightly more conventional Batman, though, like Robin, not THE conventional Batman of the line.  This one’s still got the cape because it’s permanently affixed, which was a good move on Kenner’s part.  And he’s got what appears to be a….nipple gun?  I mean, that’s what it looks like(And this is Scumacher we’re talking about here).  It’s right on his right pectoral, and it’s even got those red dots on it.  When you push the yellow button on his belt, the gun flips down, only emphasizing the nipple gun-ness of it.  And I have no idea what any of this has to do with sonar, or sensing for that matter.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Not a whole lot on this one.  I remember having it.  I remember thinking he had a nipple gun as a child.  I actually don’t know where I got this one, so I’m going to assume it was a gift.  Regardless, it didn’t really get much play-time as my go to Batman.

Read the Flashback Friday Figure Addendum here!

#0001: Night Hunter Batman

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

NIGHT HUNTER BATMAN

BATMAN FOREVER (KENNER)

0001a

The first post in my humble little blog is a review of the very first (well, technically second, but I’ll get to that in a minute) action figure in my not-so-small collection.  Yep, this is the one that started it all, and 2400 figures later, he does seem to be a bit of an odd choice.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

0001bNight Hunter Batman is a Batman variant from the tie-in line to 1995’s Batman Forever.  He’s black with some bright yellow accents, the obvious choice for creatures of the night.  He once had a cape with a pretty nifty windswept look to it, but I’ve long since lost it.  He also used to have an actual bat symbol on his chest, but if I recall correctly, he lost that fairly shortly after I acquired him.  I feel the true highlight (aside from the actual yellow HIGHLIGHTS) of the figure is the pop-up goggle feature.  There’s a button on his back that, when pushed, extends and rotates the goggles in front of old Bruce’s eyes.  You know, for detective-stuff.  Or going by the name of the figure, hunting stuff.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Why, of all the action figures out there, was this my very first action figure?  I honestly can’t say.  I know I liked Batman, though I watched the TV series and in fact didn’t see Batman Forever until I was almost 20.  Maybe I liked the colors.  Most likely, it was the goggles.  I like goggles, and the whole focus of this little guy was those really neat goggles he had.

Remember when I pointed out above that this was technically my second action figure?  Yeah, funny story:  this particular Night Hunter Batman is a replacement for the first Night Hunter Batman, that by all accounts I gave to a girl at a restaurant.  Yes, even at 3, I was quite the charmer.  So, my parents drove me over to Toys R Us (Side-Note: Remember when Toys R Us didn’t suck?  I miss those days…) and purchased me this lovely replacement (EDIT: I stand corrected.  It wasn’t Toys R Us, it was Service Merchandise.  Man, there’s a blast from the past!) .  While there, my dad happened to wander down the aisle and find the Iron Man animated series toys, leading him to a) start his own collection up again b)introduce me to the wonders of Marvel Comics and c) even more directly lead me to my current state of being.  And it’s all because I was trying to impress a girl!  Silly girls!

Read the Flashback Friday Figure Addendum here!