Tag Archives: White Queen

#3716: The Hellfire Club

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

EMMA FROST, JEAN GREY, SEBASTIAN SHAW, & DONALD PIERCE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

There’s been a slowdown on my Legends buying more recently, largely because there’s been a bit of a slowdown on Legends to buy recently.  There’s a bunch of stuff upcoming, of course, but in the mean time I’m continuing to fall back on some of my older un-reviewed stock.  I’m jumping over to the X-Men side of things, specifically focussing in on their early ’80s run, which is really where it’s at for me when it comes to X-Men.  During “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” Claremont and Byrne introduced a new group of “evil” mutants, the Hellfire Club, inspired by an episode of The Avengers (no, not those ones), which grew into a whole big thing, which is sort of humorous given that the group is really more of a footnote in the actual story that introduced them, as it quickly evolves to more cosmic levels then the Club can really muster.  Still, they’ve been a pretty recurrent bunch of characters, and they got their toy due in the form of a boxed set a few years ago, which I’m reviewing today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The Hellfire Club were a Pulse Con-exclusive Marvel Legends boxed set, offered up in 2020.  They were clearly intended to be that year’s San Diego Comic Con set, but the con got cancelled because of the pandemic, and Hasbro switched it to a fully online model.  They also offered up a Hellfire Club Guard army builder at the same time, but he was a separate item, not officially bundled with the rest of them.

EMMA FROST

Emma Frost, the White Queen, is no stranger to Marvel Legends, though until recently she *was* a stranger to *good* Marvel Legends, with her debut in the line, as part of Hasbro’s very first series of Legends no less, being one of the very worst figures Legends has ever spawned.  Her classic costume, which is admittedly rather on the risque side, has only been done in Minimate form before this, which certainly contributed to her being the biggest pull of thus here set.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Emma got a lot of new parts, for her torso, upper arms, and cape, as well as re-using the alternate head from her Walgreens figure, and filling in the rest with the TRU Storm body.  It does unfortunately mean that she’s got visible pins on the knees, which is sort of a bummer, and also that her legs are a bit prone to warping and generally making it hard to keep her standing.  It was not easy keeping her standing for the photos here, I tell ya.  The new pieces are generally pretty nice, though.  The corset piece certainly does what it’s supposed to, and looks the part, and does so in a way that’s sharply sculpted, and reasonably well proportioned.  I do like that all of the elements of her outfit barring the boots have proper raised edges sculpted, so we’re not just relying on paint for the break.  Even the boots break at a joint line, so it’s still the same general concept.  The Walgreens head, which I hadn’t looked at before, is certainly a solid sculpt, though maybe a more generic than Byrne depicted her.  I’m not crazy about the cape, which is very thick and heavy, and virtually makes her unposeable.  It’s good for standing there and not much else, it seems.  Her paint work is pretty minimal, since the sculpt has so many separate pieces, but what’s there is decent.  My figure’s just a touch wall-eyed, but generally things look good.  Emma is without any accessories.  Not even an extra set of hands.  That’s definitely weak.

JEAN GREY

This is the second time Jean Grey as the Black Queen has gotten the Legends treatment, following the TRU-exclusive that repainted the first Legends Emma, and made her a surprisingly less awful figure.  Like that one, this one is again re-using parts from Emma, namely the Emma I just reviewed.  She gets herself a new head, collar, and cape in order to differentiate her.  The head is really nicely done, and is consistent with the other Jeans in the line in terms of her face, while also giving her that slightly off expression that seems ever-so-not-Jean.  The cape on this one is more dynamic than Emma’s, allowing for more actual posing.  Unfortunately, the legs on mine are even more wobbly then Emma, so he really has a hard time standing.  Since her construction is very similar to Emma, a lot of her coloring works the same way too, with minimal actual paint.  What’s there is generally good, but there’s some slop around her waistline.  While Emma had no accessories, Jean gets three pairs of hands (open gesture, fists, and gripping), a whip (re-used from Black Cat), and an alternate head to allow her to be Selene, her replacement in the role of Black Queen.  Technically, Selene’s outfit was different than Jean’s (and, by extension, Emma’s), but it’s close enough, and it’s just nice to actually get the extras after Emma was totally lacking.

SEBASTIAN SHAW

Sebastian Shaw is the Black King, and the de facto leader of the group.  He was also played by Kevin Bacon in First Class.  How many degrees of separation does that put him at?  Any?  I don’t know exactly how those rules work.  He’s also no relation to the actor who plays old Anakin Skywalker in Return of the Jedi.  While Shaw got a Minimate for First Class, this is the first, and to date only, time his comics counterpart’s gotten figure treatment.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  His mold was largely new, designed to be shared with the other members of the Club.  I looked at it originally for Wyngarde.  It’s a pretty decent sculpt, but it admittedly feels a little skinny for Shaw.  I feel like he should have just a touch more presence.  He gets a unique head sculpt, which is a respectable recreation of his usual look.  This one feels more in line with the Byrne design, so I’m happy about that.  His paint work is a little more involved that the women, with a decent amount of accent work on the vest, which is quite cool.  The buttons are a little sloppy on mine, as are the edges of the cuffs, but he looks okay overall.  He’s packed with two sets of hands (relaxed and fists), the Beast’s book (which still has its scientific formulas), and Magneto’s helmet.  The helmet is the one from the Amazon set, so it’s still got the peg that would have gone into the head, meaning no one else can actually wear it, but it’s cool for holding.

DONALD PIERCE

Donald Pierce, the White Bishop, is noteworthy for being a non-mutant member of the Club.  Instead, he’s just a cyborg.  He was in Logan, but I don’t really wanna talk about it.  In the comics, he left the Club and spent a lot of his time with the Reavers, a larger group of cyborgs.  He’s a cool concept, but I feel like they lost the thread on him a while back.  This is his only time getting a figure.  He’s using the same body as Shaw, just with a new head.  It’s a more modern version of the character, with a face that’s too squared off and full to be John Byrne’s Donald Sutherland-inspired take on the character.  It still works well enough, though, and I think it reads okay as the character.  His color work is more earthy tones than Shaw’s, which differentiates them nicely from each other.  The application’s a little cleaner on Pierce than it was on Shaw as well.  He’s packed with an alternate set of robotic hands (courtesy of Doom), Domino’s blaster style guns, and Wolverine’s mask.  The alternate hands work alright for the cyborg bit, I guess, but I can’t help but wish for a comic-accurate set of torn up arms showing off the cybernetics.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t actually get this set from Pulse Con, for a multitude of reasons.  I wound up getting it loose, and in two different parts, in fact.  I lucked into the two Queens fairly early on, when they were in a short market lull, allowing me to not donate my whole arm and leg to the purchase, and then I got the other two later down the line, when they’d firmly become the “cheap” ones.  The Queens, even with the standing and posing issues, are certainly the stronger half of the set.  The guys aren’t bad, just sort of okay.  Largely, I think they’re probably hampered by me having gotten Wyngarde first, and just generally liking Wyngarde more as a character.  I do hope to some day track down a guard or two, and I’m intrigued to see if they ever get around to making Leland.  I guess we’ll just see.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this set to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3419: Ch’od Series Wrap-Up

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

EMMA FROST, KID OMEGA, & CHO’D

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

I’ve done most of this X-wave as single reviews, but it’s safe to say I’ve taken things as far as I possibly can on that front.  There’s only so much prolonged discussion I can have about X-Men history, especially as we move towards the more recent stuff.  So, let’s get one more assortment out of the way, shall we?  Onto the remainder of the Ch’od Series!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Emma Frost and Kid Omega are figures 1 and 5, respectively, in the Ch’od Series of Marvel Legends, and are the last two figures neccessary to assemble to the set’s Build-A-Figure, wrapping up what appears to be this year’s only BaF assortment for X-Men.  Ch’od is the assortment’s titular Build-A-Figure, assembled by purchasing six of the seven figures in the assortment.

EMMA FROST

“The former Hellfire Club White Queen must grapple with her teammates’ misgivings about her joining the X-Men, as well as her own.”

During Grant Morrison’s run on X-Men, Cyclops and Emma Frost, formerly the White Queen, began a…slightly more than platonic relationship, born out of her assisting him with overcoming being possessed by Apocalypse and then dying and coming back…look, early ’00s X-Men isn’t a great time, guys.  When Jean Grey died at the end of Morrison’s run, Marvel tried real hard to push Scott and Emma as a proper couple, which included placing them both in central spots for the Astonishing X-Men line-up.  Yep, we’re going back to that time that Marvel really wanted up to make proper heroic Emma a thing.  Oh goody.  This is our fifth Emma in Legends form, all of them under Hasbro’s tenure.  This one’s notable for being a proper update to Hasbro’s very first version of the character.  Boy, was that a bad figure.  This one doesn’t have a hard bar to clear to be better.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Her articulation scheme is very restricted, both by the long hair and the cape, which render the shoulder articulation largely useless.  It’s part of the trick of working with this particular design, I suppose.  The sculpt does at least look pretty decent, especially in contrast to other attempts at the character, even just limiting to this look.  She looks quite a bit like Cassidy’s artwork from the book, while still fitting the overall aesthetic of the line as well.  Emma’s color work is basic, but honestly better than I’d expected.  The hair and face get some really strong accent work, which brings a nice degree of life to the figure.  Emma is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture, as well as the right leg of Ch’od.

KID OMEGA

“Omega-level telepath Quentin Quire, inspired by the attempt of Professor Xavier’s life, joins the mutant nation Krakoa’s new secret defense team, X-Force, as Kid Omega.”

Quentin Quire hails from Morrison and Quitely’s New X-Men run, and, if I’m honest, he’s not a character that’s ever really clicked with me.  He’s just so emphatically symbolic of the sort of self-assured, really insufferable sorts of characters that Morrison really likes to write.  Later writers haven’t really done much to change my opinion.  But, who am I to stop other people from getting a Quentin Quire figure if they want one?  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Quire is built on the Amazing Fantasy Spidey base, which is a fantastic starting point for any figure, really.  It’s a more modern Quire, so he’s in a jumpsuit, which works with the base body set-up.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is fine.  It’s not amazing or terribly unique or thrilling, but it looks enough like the character to get the idea across.  The “glasses” are a soft plastic, and prone to warping, which does wind up looking a little bit silly, but that comes with the territory.  The paint work on Kid Omega is decent enough; the pink detailing is sharp and pretty eye-catching, which is cool.  The fingers are painted for the fingerless gloves, and that’s a little sloppy on the edges.  Kid Omega is packed with two sets of hands in fists and gripping poses, as well as a recolor of the Doomlands Vagabond-patterned gun that came with Cable.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t have trigger fingers on either gripping hand, so he can’t really hold the gun properly.  He’s also packed with the torso of Ch’od.

CH’OD

“An alien from the Shi’ar galaxy, Ch’od’s monstrous, reptillian form belittles his keen intellect and heroic heart. Once a slave, he has regained his freedom, and now travels the spaceways in the company of the Starjammers, always on the lookout for other victims of tyranny in need of his aid!”

Hey!  It’s Ch’od!  This guy’s awesome!  A creation of Dave Cockrum and one of the most consistent members of the space pirate team the Starjammers, Ch’od’s the big lizard guy at Marvel who’s *not* Abomination.  I swear, he’s much nicer.  This marks Ch’od’s second figure ever, with his only other release being the one from the Toy Biz 5-inch line.  It’s been quite a while.  The figure stands about 7 3/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Remember what I said above about Ch’od *not* being Abomination.  Well, let’s take that and admit there’s some similarity of design elements between the two.  Hasbro’s taken advantage of said similarities for this figure, as he re-using all but the head, forearms, and hands of the Abomination Build-A-Figure from 2016.  It’s not a pitch-perfect match for Ch’od’s design, but it’s very close, and certainly as close as we can expect for a Ch’od figure in this day and age, honestly.  He gets a new head, forearms, hands, and belt.  The head is absolutely fantastic; it’s a good likeness of Ch’od, and is clearly unique from Abomination.  I especially like the articulated jaw; it adds a lot of character to the figure.  The arms and hands are fairly basic, with only minor changes to the prior pieces for just a touch more accuracy.  His color work is basic, with largely molded plastics, but that works well for the character, and the colors are nice and bright.  What paint work is present is pretty clean, so that’s definitely nice.  Ch’od actually gets an accessory: his furry companion Cr’eee!  It’s an all-new sculpt, with an articulated head and everything.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set is admittedly one that I was more actively invested in than the other two I’ve done these wrap-ups on.  In fact, I think this one is a pretty strong line-up, all things considered.  There’s a pretty solid flow of character choices, and it’s got a pretty killer Build-A-Figure.  Ultimately, it’s Ch’od that’s really the star piece.  He’s just one of those figures I honestly wasn’t expecting to see, and he does well with the parts re-use.  Corsair’s a pretty strong solo contender, being just a very clean and well-implemented release.  Cyclops is a solid figure in his own right, even if he’s ultimately in a slightly less definitive costume.  Fang and Chamber are both a lot of fun, and hampered only ever so slightly by some iffy parts re-use choices.  Monet’s not much to write home about on her own, but serves as a decent set-up for other characters.  Emma is honestly the best version of this costume out there and is only held back by the same design issues that hold back literally every version of this costume.  And Quire’s not really exciting either, but he’s not a character I was invested in in the first place, so that’s hardly surprising.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with these figures to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3195: White Queen

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

WHITE QUEEN

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“The former White Queen of the sinister Inner Circle, the telepathic Emma Frost, recently re-evaluated her philosophy and alliances. As a result, she has accepted Professor Charles Xavier’s offer to join Banshee in training Generation X, the next class of young mutants enrolled at his school. Shrewd, manipulative, and hardened by her villainous past, Emma Frost will provide the tough guidance necessary for her new students to make it through the turbulent times ahead.”

During the events of the X-Men crossover “Phalanx Covenant”, Marvel formed a new X-team, Generation X.  It was a bunch of younger mutants (essentially the ’90s answer to the New Mutants, who by this point had all been folded into X-Force and X-Factor), under the tutelage of two reformed X-foes: Banshee, who’d been on the main team for years, and the very recently reformed Emma Frost, aka the White Queen.  The reformed White Queen angle wound up sticking, and she’s pretty much been there since.  Her Generation X run wound up getting Emma her first action figure, which is pretty cool, all things considered.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

White Queen was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s Generation X line.  After years with more or less the same look, Generation X had placed her in a more toned down outfit.  It’s not classic White Queen, but a solid argument can be made that it’s far more appropriate for a toyline that’s selling at mass retail.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall (the Generation X line as a whole was just a touch scaled up), and she has 5 points of articulation.  The articulation on this figure is more or less pointless.  She’s kind of just a statue that you can slightly move the head and arms on.  The hip joints in particular are rather pointless.  Any real change means she can’t stand at all.  So, she just really stands there.  Which, I guess, is what Emma tends to do in the comics.  You know what, I guess it’s the perfect set-up, isn’t it?  The sculpt is a rather stylized one.  Her hands are notably quite large, and the body’s got some definite pre-posed-ness to it.  The proportions are generally just all over the place, and she winds up looking a little bit odd.  I do like how the detailing on the outfit worked out, though.  The paint work on White Queen was the source of a variant for the figure.  The main release has a flesh tone painted on the upper legs, suggesting she’s wearing short shorts, while a rarer version of the release drops the extra paint app, and effectively gives her pants.  Not  huge change, but there it is.  There was also a later variation of the figure in the Marvel Hall of Fame line, dubbed “Black Queen,” which, predictably, swaps black in for all of the white parts, as well as the hair.  Presumably, it’s supposed to be Selene, but it really just winds up looking like Emma’s going through a goth phase.  White Queen’s orignal release was packed with a Psychic Energy Spear, whatever that is, as well as the Generation X display stand.  Black Queen gets the same Spear, but in silver.  Again, no clue what it is, but, you know, there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

There was a long trek to getting all of the variants of this particular figure.  I got the standard release version first, courtesy of Jess, who bought it for me from Power Comics, the comic shop near our apartment when we first moved in together in 2016.  A few years later, I picked up Black Queen loose at a toy show in 2018.  And, I finally wrapped it up with the variant of White Queen, which I snagged from a collection that came into All Time in 2021.  They’re all kind of goofy, and not particularly unique, but there’s a novelty behind how I got them all, which is pretty nice.

#2890: Havok & Emma Frost

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

HAVOK & EMMA FROST

MARVEL MINIMATES

Summers and Frost are usually two things that don’t mix.  That is, unless we’re talking X-Men, in which case, those two things seem to mix a lot.  Unless, of course, we’re talking about X-Men: First Class, where it’s Alex Summers, not Scott, and therefore no real reason for the two to interact, so they actually never do, and therefore they again don’t mix.  Well, that is, unless you’re talking about the tie-in Minimates.  Which I am.  Yay?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Havok and Emma Frost were part of the TRU-exclusive First Class tie-in assortment of Marvel Minimates, and are by far the most oddball pairing of the line-up, since, as noted, the two characters never actually meet.  Still, here we are.

HAVOK

Since Scott Summers had been used for the first three X-Men flicks, and was therefore unavailable to be a founding member of the team for the prequel, his brother Alex, better known as Havok, was chosen in his stead, netting himself his second Minimate in the process.  The figure is built on the standard post-C3 ‘mate body, so he’s about 2 1/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  Alex uses add-on pieces for his hair and belt.  The belt is the same piece used for Xavier and Magneto, as well as countless other figures.  It’s basic and it gets the job done.  The hair’s another story.  It’s re-used from Ultimate Iron Man, and it’s not really much of a match for Havok, who was sporting a much more high-and-tight hair style in the film. That said, if you look at some of the concept art from the film, Havok is seen with something much closer to this style. Ultimately, you can swap it out with one of the many MCU Captain America hair pieces, which results in a more accurate appearance.  Havok’s paintwork is about on par with the previously reviewed Xavier figure.  It’s still quite strong, though I’m not sure his likeness is quite as spot-on.  On the plus side, the control-thingy on his chest is still pretty darn cool.  Havok included no accessories.  An effects piece might have been nice, but it was a re-use wave, so no luck there.

EMMA FROST

Since Emma Frost had been used for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and was therefore unavailable for a prequel, Fox decided to say “ah, screw it” and just use her again, but played by a totally different actress and written as an almost entirely different character, with absolutely no explanations.  Sure, let’s go with it.  Emma’s one lone add-on piece is her hair.  It was *technically* new, by virtue of Emma hitting shelves shortly before Peggy Carter, the character it was sculpted for.  It’s still a re-use in essence, though.  It works reasonably well for Emma, and matches up decently with how she looked on-screen.  The paintwork on Emma is reasonably well handled.  Like Havok, I’m not sure the likeness is really there, but it’s not like it looks un-like her.  They’ve opted for Emma’s leather jumpsuited look from early scenes on Shaw’s submarine.  While perhaps not her most distinctive look from the film, I suppose it’s not the most awful choice ever.  On the plus side, this choice of costume also makes it very easy to convert her into a comics-accurate version of Agent 13.  So she’s got that going for her.  Just like Havok, Emma’s got no accessories.  Given how little exposed skin she has, it might have been nice to at the very least get a diamond-form head and hands for her, since there’s no new tooling needed.  As it stands, quite light.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As mentioned previously, I snagged this whole assortment on a family road trip, just before seeing the movie.  I’m a big Havok fan, so I certainly wanted at least him.  While this Havok isn’t quite as strong a ‘mate as either Xavier or Magneto, with one quick fix, he actually turns out pretty alright.  Not a bad addition to the line-up.  Emma’s a perfectly serviceable Minimate, but suffers from not being terribly distinctive.  Overall, an okay set, that’s really the most middle of the pack.

#2708: Emma Frost & New Cyclops

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

EMMA FROST & NEW CYCLOPS

MARVEL MINIMATES

Marvel Minimates‘ third year was headlined by the proper arrival of the Fantastic Four, but coupled with the assortment centered on them was a slightly more mixed bag assortment, combining the X-Men with some Marvel Knights branded characters.  The X-Men were of course no strangers to the line by this point, but they’re proper mainstream counterparts were just starting to dip their toes in the water, especially for the main two-packs.  Heading off the assortment were two X-Men mainstays, one new to the line, and one not, Emma Frost and Cyclops, who I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Emma Frost and New Cyclops were released in Series 9 of Marvel Minimates, which hit specialty stores the week after Series 8, in January of 2005.  This particular set was the variant, which featured Emma in her diamond form, as introduced in New X-Men.  Cyclops was shared between the two versions of the set, and would later be slightly tweaked for inclusion in the Darktide set in 2006.

EMMA FROST

Emma made her debut in the line with this release, but got two whole figures right off the bat, which I suppose is good for her.  There were both diamond form and regular form releases, denoted by the diamond form being called “Emma Frost”, and the regular being called “White Queen”…which is kinda backwards feeling, really, especially compared to how they handled the naming on the Sue Richards/Invisible Woman split.  Whatever, it’s just the name on the box, I suppose.  Emma is constructed from the new and improved C3 parts, with a peg hole on her head and everything.  She also gets new add-on pieces for her hair and cape, both of which were shared with her standard counterpart.  They’re basic, but get the job done.  Emma’s main thing is her paint work.  It’s nice from the technical side; the white sections are largely painted on, and look pretty crisp and clean.  Her face is also painted on, and is a respectable translation of smug classic Emma.  All of her exposed skin is clear plastic, showcasing her diamond form.  It looks pretty cool, but does lead to the somewhat lingering issue of this being Emma’s classic costume, which was before she had the diamond powers.  I get wanting to do her most distinctive look first (though it didn’t stop them from having weird starting looks for other characters), and also wanting a solid variant, but the two don’t quite reconcile here.  At least she looks pretty nice.

NEW CYCLOPS

Ah, yes, New Cyclops.  So much better than Old Cyclops.  This one’s New, you see.  Yes, this Cyclops is based on his leather uniformed design from New X-Men, joining the two other NXM figures, Jean and Logan, from the prior year.  And also joining no others, because they literally only did three members of this incarnation of the team.  As I mentioned in the Jean/Logan review, it was somewhat bad timing, since the looks had been abandoned in early 2004, with the launch of Astonishing X-Men, which put Scott back in a classic-inspired costume.  But, I guess it would have been weird to leave him out?  Scott notably gets the C3 feet, but *not* the head with the peg-hole.  Correspondingly, his new hairpiece/visor combo was also missing a peg, making it seem like this guy may have been designed at the same time as the other two, and just held back a bit.  He also gets a new jacket piece, as well as the belt piece from the other two.  It’s not a bad look overall, and the pieces hit that nice middle-ground of detail vs simplicity.  The paint work also treads this middle-ground, though perhaps not quite as well.  The face on this guy is really, really detailed.  Too detailed, if I’m honest; Scott ends up looking like he’s 80.  On the costume, rather than match Cyclops to the other two’s dark grey attire, Scott’s got black.  Not sure why they changed, and it means he doesn’t match anyone else.  I generally like this look a little more personally, but I’d probably still prefer consistency over anything else.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back when these were new, I picked up the standard release of this set, mostly due to just wanting the Cyclops, because I like Cyclops.  I know, you’re all really shocked by this development.  I managed to hang onto all of his parts over the years, but lost most of the standard White Queen pieces, so I snagged the variant version when All Time got that big collection in 2019.  They’re not bad, but do sort of feel like an odd middle ground for the line.