Monthly Archives: January 2012

Jan 11 2012

Doctor Who: “The Chase” Collectors Set by Character Options

Yessir, we’re back with more Classic Who figures, and this time Character Options is taking us all the way back to 1965, when Doctor Who audiences embarked on the extra long serial known as “The Chase.” It was a meandering, exciting and sometimes silly epic in which The Daleks built their own time machine and set about to hunt The TARDIS’ crew through time in an effort to, well what else? EXTERMINATE THEM!!!! This what you might call a cracker of an serial as it not only featured the return of The Doctor’s most popular enemies, but it also introduced The Mechanoids, a race of mechanical killing machines that were created by the writers with the express purpose of giving The Daleks a run for their money. In the end it was more of a stalemate through mutual destruction, but I’m sure it was a ratings draw nonetheless. The serial was also noteworthy for seeing the departure of The Doctor’s first two companions, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. And hey, The Beatles even made a guest appearance… or sorts. It was also actually the first time that we saw Daleks in Manhatten. Suck on that nuWho! But enough with the history lessons. The fact that this set exists is giving me goosebumps so let’s get on it with it.

The set comes in the gorgeous new retro-styled deco with the appropriately classic series logo. As usual it’s a window box, but this time there isn’t a printed backdrop insert, but rather just a colored backdrop that matches the box deco. I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have preferred a backdrop, but that’s fine. The set is a lot bigger than most of the other sets we’ve seen, mainly because The Mechanoid is pretty big by itself and when you toss a couple of Daleks into the mix, you need some serious real estate inside that package. As you can see, the set includes one Mechanoid and two Daleks. Let’s start with the Daleks.
The two Daleks are identical and are extremely close to the Daleks in the introductory episode and released by CO as a figure in the first of the two Dalek 3-packs way back when. In fact, these are practically identical to that figure except for the addition of the mesh wrap around and “shoulder slats” that have become common in pretty much all Daleks since. They even feature the same silver paint job with baby blue spheres that was used in the very first story. Next to the gun metal blue of the late 70’s Daleks, I think this is my favorite color scheme of them all. If you’ve collected your share of CO’s Dalek figures then you know the paintwork can be hit or miss and this pair of figures is a great example of that. One of them is absolutely perfect. The other one has a huge blue smudge right in the front middle of his apron.
Articulation on these guys is what you should expect by now. They roll around on three spinning wheels concealed beneath their aprons. Their sucker arm and gun arm are both secured with ball joints and you can pop them off if you want to create double sucker Daleks or double gun Daleks. Their heads turn 360-degrees and their eye stalks can look upward.
And then there’s The Mechanoid. Designed by humans to tame planets for colonization, these giant balls were more likely outfitted with their gizmos to be able to deforest areas or take care of hostile wildlife. But those gizmos work just as well in dealing out death to Dalek fools. If you were expecting a hollow rotocast blob, think again, as this is a nice hefty toy that outdoes the Daleks by rolling around on not three, but five wheels. Take that Daleks! It has a single stalk arm that houses a flame thrower, two pincer arms that fold out from its hemisphere and a sensor module that can rise and retract from the top of its globe. The flame thrower arm can be swapped out with an arm that doesn’t have the molded flame on it, if you prefer to display your Mechanoid in a more docile posture.
The cost of this battle in a box? Well, it’s right around the same fifty bucks that most of CO’s recent multi-figure packs are running. If you figure The Daleks at about fifteen bucks a piece and The Mechanoid at twenty, well… it still seems like a good chunk of change. On the other hand, this is easily the best army building pack that CO has put out. Even the old Dalek 3-packs each came with a Supreme that would have been redundant. This set gives you two awesome Daleks and the new Mechanoid and I gotta say, I’m really tempted to pick up a second one while I can. Unfortunately, with so many other Doctor Who sets coming up, I think I’d best save my monies. But even so, I can’t help but look at this set as pure loving fanservice. I probably first saw this serial about 25 years ago when I was 15 and I could never have dreamed to own these figures back then. And now I do! Life is awesome!
Jan 10 2012

Marvel Universe: Doc Sampson by Hasbro

I got pretty long winded with the last couple Doctor Who features, and I thought I should try to catch my breath before diving into the Doctor Who pool again tomorrow with the first of two new Classic figure sets. So, let’s collectively take a day off from The Good Doctor while at the same time giving me a quick and easy figure to look at today. Doc Sampson should have been really easy to find, but oddly enough I didn’t come across him until I was scooping a bunch of Marvel Universe figures from one of the more recent assortments from off the pegs.

As expected, Doc comes on a standard MU card. The artwork is pretty nice, and I like the green striping used around his name on the bubble. Speaking of bubbles, Doc fills his out pretty nicely as he’s packaged in a nice wide stance with arms out. He also comes with the ubiquitous personalized figure stand.
You might expect Doc Sampson to be one of those really simple MU figures that can get by with a standard buck and some paintwork. Well, you’d be a hundred percent right. Besides his head, belt, and his boots, Doc Sampson uses a generic sculpt with black painted trousers, with red stripes, and a red painted shirt, albeit with his lightning emblem emblazoned across his chest. Keep in mind, I’m not complaining as the figure looks great and the paintwork on mine is nice and clean. The head sculpt is solid if unremarkable apart from his long sculpted green hair.
Doc Sampson also gets by with the somewhat older articulation. You get a ball jointed neck. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. The legs feature ball jointed hips, double hinged knees and hinged ankles. He’s also got the usual ball joint in his ab. Conspicuously missing is the swivel cut in the thighs, which I happen to miss a lot when it isn’t included.
And there ya go. It’s a quick in and out kind of day today. I like Doc Sampson a lot. He’s a great 3 3/4″ representation of a character that I was anxious to get into my collection. Is he going to blow anyway away? Probably not, but I doubt anyone was really expecting him to.
Jan 10 2012

Doctor Who: Sontaran Field Major Styre Retro-Style Figure by Biff Bang Pow

As promised, I’m back today with the second half of the Biff Bang Pow Doctor Who figure feature, with a look at the Sontaran, Sytre. Hopefully, I won’t be as long winded this time.

Styre uses the same awesome card that The Doctor came on. I neglected to point out last time that the cardback shows off two additional figures: A Cyberman and The Master. These figures have already been produced and were apparently exclusives at last year’s San Diego Comic Con. And, yes, I will be getting them at some point. All four figures use the same generic card. As with The Doctor, Styre has a backing tray to hold him steady in his bubble and he’s packaged with his helmet off and at the bottom of the bubble. Styre also has the hologram sticker denoting the number of the figure and the limitation to 3000 pieces. All in all, the presentation here is great, and if it weren’t for the terrible packing job, and the fact that a dog apparently chewed on the edges of mine, I would have kept him carded.
Starting with the head sculpt, there’s something definitely off about Styre. Oh, there’s no doubt that he’s a Sontaran, but the likeness to the mask used in the episode is nowhere near as good as the The Doctor’s sculpt is to Tom Baker. Nonetheless, it works just fine for this sort of stylized figure. The head can turn from side to side, which is probably more than could be said about The Sontarans themselves. The helmet snaps on over the head and stays in place very nicely. And yes, even the little vent is sculpted onto the back of Styre’s cowl.
Styre’s uniform is much simpler than The Doctor’s ensemble, as its basically a metallic looking jumpsuit with a silver belt that closes around his waist with velcro. The jumpsuit is enhanced with plastic bits for the cowl around his neck and his boots. The jumpsuit doesn’t give the quilted look that The Sontarans’ armor had on the small screen, but its a passable approximation. My only real complaint is that the legs of the jumpsuit end just above where the boots start. You can tuck them in, but they tend to pull out again. Unfortunately, the right knee armor on my Sontaran is cracked. Its made of very flimsy plastic and while it isn’t a crippling fault, it’s definitely noticeable and very disappointing. Despite the crappy shipping job, the bubble wasn’t damaged at all, so it looks like this figure went right into the package already damaged. Once again my experience with BBP’s quality control is hit and miss.
Styre comes with two little accessories. You get his control box, which clips onto his belt pretty nicely, and you get his ping pong gun, which is very similar to the one CO sculpted to go with their 5″ Styre figure.
As with The Doctor, Styre sells for twenty bucks. It’s steep, but considering this is a niche collectors item and supposedly limited to 3000, I won’t complain. On the other hand, dropping $20 for a figure that was put into the package with noticeable damage is worth complaining about. For items that are obviously designed to be collectibles, BBP really should be more careful about their quality control standards. That having been said, I’m still pleased enough to venture a purchase of the next two figures: The Cyberman and The Master and see how I make out with those. There are two more planned, Leela and Sutekh, but I’ll see how I make out with the next two before I plan to go any further with the line.
Jan 9 2012

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Retro-Style Figure by Bif Bang Pow

[The sheer insanity of Classic Doctor Who figure releases continues, as Character Options has announced two new sets of 5-inch figures this week. Both are two-packs. One is based off of “Attack of the Cyberman” featuring yet another variant of the lovely Ms Perpugillium Brown and what appears to be a rogue Cyberman. The other, based off of “Remembrance of the Daleks” features Davros as the Dalek Emperor and a destroyed Imperial Dalek. Photos have also surfaced of a “Seeds of Doom” set with another 4th Doctor and a Krynoid, but that one has yet to be officially confirmed. But today, we’re actually looking at some Classic Who figures that were not churned out by Character Options. In fact, these guys were licensed and made by an American company! Ok, enough preamble… on with the figure!]

I can’t tell you how many times I waffled back and forth over buying these figures. On the one hand, they’re retro-style figures based on an episode from the 70’s and that’s pretty nifty because this style of toy matches so well with the vintage characters. On the other hand, I don’t collect a lot of the Mego style figures. I like them well enough when the style fits the license. The Real Ghostbusters figures worked well with the style, and I still have a hankering to pick up the ones BBP did of Flash Gordon and The Dude from The Big Lebowski, but generally speaking these guys aren’t really my thing.

I’ve also been iffy on the prototypes BBP showed off from the beginning and I haven’t exactly been impressed with the few Bif Bang Pow toys that I own. I guess I’m still bitter over my Ming the Merciless’ arm falling off right out of the package. Nonetheless, when I saw the in-package shots of the finished products, I simply had to have these. Thus came my second dilemma. I really intended on buying these and not opening them because they looked so good in the packages. On the other hand, I hardly ever buy toys without the intent of opening them. The obvious solution was to buy two sets, but at $20 a pop, I wasn’t about to do that. So I opted to let fate decide. If the figures arrived with the packaging in excellent condition, I would leave them carded. If they arrived with the packages all miffed, I would open them. And the results are…
Holy Hell!!! Well, the shipping gods were pretty definitive in their answer. These figures are without a doubt in the worst condition I’ve ever had toys shipped to me. Not only are the cards warped, the edges look like they’ve been chewed on by a small dog, and they were taped together with the kind of postage tape that takes all the print off the card when you try to remove it. There was clearly maliciousness at work here. They were shipped for free, though, so I guess I can’t complain too much, plus I guess I’ll be saving some money on clamshells from zoloworld. Let’s take a look at the packages and then rip these bitches open.
In the traditional Mego style, The Doctor come in a coffin-shaped bubble and mounted offset on a simple cardback. The usual practice with the Mego-style is to just let the figures rattle around loose in the bubble, but The Doctor is cradled on a partial inner tray with a twisty tie holding his neck in place and another tray holding his Sonic Screwdriver accessory. His hat is off and at the bottom of the bubble, which was a good choice because, as we’ll see in a bit, the hat would have been better left out. There’s a small hologram sticker on the back of the package that identifies the figure number in a series of 3000 produced. Considering how easy these figures are to get, that limitation seems kind of suspicious.

So, I’m particularly fascinated by the packaging BBP used because it’s identical in design to the new retro style packages adopted by Character Options for their 5″ action figure line. I’ve never seen two different companies produce their own toy lines based off the same license and use an identical style of packaging, and yet here it is. It even uses the same little Timeline of Doctors down on the bottom of the card. It’s weird, but I’m very glad they did it, because I adore this new deco and it works really well with the Mego-style cardback.
Once out of the package, I’ve got to admit that The Doctor looks pretty good. BBP frequently showed off a prototype with a horribly oversized head, and while we shouldn’t expect perfect proportions out of this style of figure, the final result is pretty close. The head is soft and squishy, but the sculpt is a fine likeness to actor Tom Baker. Granted, anything would have been better than the prototype shown at the expos, but I can genuinely say that I’m happy with the final result.
BBP also did a fine job with The Doctor’s iconic outfit. He has a brown jacket, complete with elbow patches, a checkered vest, a necktie and a white shirt, plain kakhi trousers and plastic boots. The clothing fits him very well and everything is nicely stitched. The scarf is without a doubt a big win for this figure. Afterall, the mile long scarf is The 4th Doctor’s most iconic accessory and to be able to do it in real cloth is pretty cool, and it looks great on the figure.
As mentioned, The Doctor comes with a plastic fedora. The sculpt is good, it just doesn’t fit right on his head, thanks to the sculpted mop of curly hair. I’m not going to blame BBP for this snafu, since we’ve seen plenty of problems with toy companies trying to get Indiana Jones’ fedora right on larger scale figures. Either way, the hat isn’t a must, so I’m happy to just have him holding it, or setting it aside all together. The other accessory is the Sonic Screwdriver, which is a nice little sculpt and he can hold it well in either hand.
More than anything else, I bought this figure out of a sense of obligation. Sure, I already have shelves and totes bursting with Doctor Who figures and toys, but here was a Fourth Doctor figure actually licensed and sold by an American toy company. There was never any doubt that I had to have it. In the end, I was a lot more impressed than I thought I would be and I can genuinely say I’m extremely pleased with the way the figure turned out. I should even note that the joints are pretty solid for a Mego style figure and The Good Doctor doesn’t have much difficulty standing up on his own. As for the price, twenty bucks seems like a lot for a Mego style figure, but I’d dare say that the sculpting and clothing on this figure goes above and beyond what we’ve seen on a lot of figures in this style. BBP really hit a homerun on this one.

I was going to look at both The Doctor and Sontaran Field Major Styre together, but I’ve ran kind of long with this one, so I’ll be back tomorrow to check out The Sontaran.
Jan 8 2012

Masters of the Universe Classics: Wind Raider by Mattel

None of the figures offered up by Matty Collector last month really grabbed my interest, but I couldn’t resist the first vehicle released in the MOTUC line. The Wind Raider was pretty much a no-brainer as a choice for the first vehicle since its relatively small and apart from the Sky Sled is probably the most iconic vehicle from the Filmation cartoon and the comics. I was almost positive this thing was going to sell out in under ten minutes, but it actually hung around for at least a couple of days, making grabbing one a pretty painless affair. Of course, as usual shipping was less than painless. $15 to ship and it takes over two fucking weeks to get here. That’s why I’m checking this thing out so late. It actually didn’t arrive until a few days after New Year’s. I realize this is a tough time of year for shipping, but it seemed like everything I ordered from everyone else got to me pretty fast and its not like Matty doesn’t have a track record for slow, expensive shipping.  Matty, you have some of the worst customer service on the planet.

The toys on the other hand….
Just like the figures, the Wind Raider comes in a white mailer box. Sliding it off reveals the actual toy’s box underneith, which is all kinds of cool since it really recreates that vintage boxed toy feel of the 80’s, complete with exciting illustrations and not a single photo of the actual toy on the box anywhere. The last time I can remember getting this nostalgic feeling from a boxed toy was when I got Bandai’s new Thundertank earlier this year. The box art is indeed nice, and I especially like the antiquated looking schematics sketched onto the back. Its also kind of exciting to see those spinning hover vehicles pictured on the front illustration. I know Mattel said there would be no vehicles in 2012, but if another one is coming, that one looks like it would be pretty easy and cost effective to produce. Plus, it seems only fair that the next vehicle go to the bad guys. Anyway, the box is a little bigger than the boxes for Hasbro’s $20-30 Star Wars vehicles. The vehicle requires a little bit of assembly. You need to pop on the rear tailfin and the wings.
Before I get to the toy itself, I just want to say: Holy crap, it comes with that display stand!!! I genuinely had no idea this was coming in the box. I saw it sitting on the stand at the various conventions and expos, but I always assumed it was just something Mattel was using to show it off. Getting the stand with the toy was an amazing surprise and just impressed the hell out of me. It’s a nice big disc with the Masters of the Universe logo etched into it, front and back. It has a curved stand with a ratcheting sphere that pegs into the bottom of the Wind Raider. The result is you can position the ship at all sorts of angles. It’s an amazing bonus for what is already an amazing toy.
My first thought as I was taking the Wind Raider out of the box and snapping it together was about how big this thing is. It’s a nice, hefty toy with a huge wingspan and when  you put a figure in it, it looks wonderfully scaled to the figure, whereas the vintage one always seemed too small. I was expecting a lot of stickers, particularly in the cockpit, but that wasn’t the case. The striping and artwork on the body and rear wing are actually expertly applied decals, but apart from them every little detail, and there’s a ton of detail, is sculpted and beautifully painted. The detail work on this thing is just breathtaking. The panel lines, the little wires and cables, the cushions on the pilot seat, and most incredibly all the controls on the console… it’s all sculpted and painted and absolutely gorgeous. It may be a toy, but it really does look more like a highend display piece when perched on its stand. I’ll note here that the decals on the sides scare me a bit, as they will be prone to chip over time, so if I ever put this baby into storage, I’ll probably have to wrap really well in something.
The Wind Raider actually does have a few play features. there are two opening compartments that reveal sculpted and painted missiles inside, the wings pivot and lock into various position, like flaps on an airplane, and the front harpoon fires, albeit not very far. You can lift the large dragon disc on the Wind Raider’s hood and crank it to retract the harpoon and cable.
The Wind Raider is priced at $45, which feels like a pretty great value for what you get. Unfortunately, with the only way to get this thing being online and through Matty, you really need to factor the shipping into the retail price, and that brings it up to $60. Nonetheless, even at sixty bucks, I think this thing was well worth it, maybe not a great value, but definitely worth it. It really is just an amazing looking piece and extremely well constructed. I haven’t decided where I’m going to display it yet, so right now, I just have it sitting on my coffee table with He-Man at the controls. I’ll probably leave it there a while because every time I walk past it, it puts a huge smile on my face.
Jan 7 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 19: Lord Naga by Mattel

I should be trying to space out some of these posts so I don’t spend all my material at the beginning of the month, but truth be told, I have a shit ton of figures coming in over the next week or so. As a result, I’m back to look at the last of the Wave 19 DC Universe Classics figures I currently have and that’s Lord Naga the head of Kobra. He’s another one of the figures in this assortment that I was pretty excited to get and he’s definitely one of the more unique looking additions to the DCUC collection.

And… there we go again, the standard DCUC packaging. I’ve got to say Naga looks amazing inside that bubble. He really fills the card out well and the artwork on the cardback really frames this figure beautifully. I’m not sure about his icon on the bottom insert, though. It’s supposed to be the emblem on his hood, but what’s that supposed to be? A snake scale? Either way, this was one figure that made me a little sad to rip open because he looks so good packaged. Lord Naga comes with the torso for the C&C STRIPE figure, which is barely contained under the insert on the bottom of the bubble.
So, to the uninitiated Lord Naga kind of looks like Zartan cosplaying Serpentor at a Comic Con. But anyone familiar with the character should be pleased at how well the figure nails the character’s design. He may reuse some parts here and there, but the figure is so well put together that he looks one hundred percent new. The scaled green buck really meshes beautifully with the gold sash, gauntlets, boots and shoulder plates. The sculpted hood is a separate piece, which allows the head to take full advantage of the ball jointed neck.
Articulation roll call. Neck? Ball joint. Arms? Ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. Legs? Universal hip movement, swivels in the thighs, hinges in the ankles and knees. Torso? Standard funky DCUC ab crunch. Yep, even with all that awesome sculpting, Lord Naga doesn’t miss a beat of the standard DCUC poseability.

In addition to the Collect & Connect piece, Lord Naga comes with a golden cobra staff that would make Cobra Commander proud. Yep, the Joe references practically write themselves with this guy. Hell, he even feels everything his former conjoined twin brother feels. Crimson Guard Commander twins, anyone? His hands are sculpted so that he can hold it in either hand or wield it in both.
Lord Naga was an awesome surprise for this wave, as at this point I really didn’t expect him to show up in the line at all. Well, at least not until the early production shots started leaking out. Once again, I think he was a great choice for a figure and another reason why Wave 19 has been one of my favorites in a while. As far as villains go, Lord Naga didn’t really play favorites with any one hero, so he’s a great compliment to any number figures in your DCUC collection, and he just looks damn great on the shelf.

I’m going to take a little break from DCUC for a bit, but I have just put in an order for the last two figures I need in Wave 19: Hawkman and Magog. I’ll move on to some other goodies and probably be back to cover those figures and the C&C figure, STRIPE, toward the end of next week. Afterall, Wave 20 is now hitting retail, and I’m pretty anxious to get my hands on those figures too.
Jan 6 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 19: Sandman by Mattel

Pushing forward on Wave 19 of DC Universe Classics, today I’m checking out another member of the Justice Society, Sandman. He’s a great character, but I’ve heard my share of grumblings about the way the figure turned out. Personally, I’m extremely happy with him. Once again, I’m a bit short on time, so this one is going to be another quickie. Let’s see what we got…

Yuppers. DCUC packaging. I dont’t have a lot left to say here, although I do really dig the gasmask logo they cooked up for him on the bottom insert. It looks cool and gives a nice personalized quality to the packaged figure. Sandman comes with one of C&C STRIPE’s legs, mostly concealed behind the insert.
                             
So, right out of the gate, its pretty easy to tell that Sandman features a fair amount of reused sculpting from The Question. The legs and arms are identical, as is the hat. The shirt and tie appear to be the same too, and while at first glance I thought the suit jacket was the same, there are significant differences. At the very least there’s been some resculpting, although I’m thinking it might be entirely new. Sandman’s costume includes a purple cape that clashes with the green suit enough to make The Joker envious. He also has a clever little hook on his jacket that you can use to hang his gas gun. It was pretty tough for me to get a good look at Sandman’s head sculpt, since most of the production pictures were smaller and his face just looked like a yellow blob. As it turns out I’m really happy with the way the gasmask came out. It’s just a little bit creepy.
Sandman shares the same articulation as The Question, which is pretty common with most DCUC figures. The neck is ball jointed; The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the wrists and biceps, and hinged elbows. The legs feature universal movement at the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinged knees and ankles. The only common articulation missing is the ab crunch in the chest. It may be there, but its buried under all that sculpted clothing. Unfortunately, I’ve got a pretty loose joint on Sandman’s right bicep swivel.
                               
Sandman turned out to be one of my favorites of Wave 19. He’s a simple figure, and yes he borrows a lot from The Question, but both figures have a great pulp style to them and both are more than a little bit creepy, especially for heroes. Again, some collectors might argue whether he deserved a slot with only two waves left in the line, but I for one am glad Mattel produced him.
Jan 6 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 19: The Atom by Mattel

There’s more Doctor Who stuff to come next week, so I’m going to try to run through as much as I can of the 19th Wave of DC Universe Classics before then. We kicked off the Wave last week with a look at Stargirl. Today we’ll check out The Atom. He’s a pretty straight forward figure, so I’m going to go through this one real quick.

Same trusty old DCUC packaging, consisting of a huge bubble on a slab-o-cardback. Atom comes packaged in a fairly simple pose with a wide stance and arms up. He fills out the bubble nicely. It’s hard to tell from the package shot, but he does come with pieces for the C&C figure STRIPE. The head and pelvis are snugly concealed uner the insert at the bottom. Amazingly enough, even though The Atom is packaged in a fairly neutral position from the waist down, my figure still came out of the package with some joint issues. In this case the hinge on his left hip joint is all loosey-goosey. It’s the first time I’ve had that problem with a DCUC figure, but sadly not the last time I will have joint issues with figures in this wave.
                                                                        
Of all the figures in Wave 19, The Atom features the least amount of unique sculpting. He’s basically a standard buck with most of his detail achieved through paintwork. He does, however, sport some sculpted arm bracers and a simple blue cape, which is permanently anchored to his back between the shoulder blades. The paint apps are pretty good, with a little bit of grunge here and there. This version of The Atom’s design has an admittedly strange color ensemble with brown, yellow, red and blue, but it is certainly faithful to the comic art. Them JSA members had some odd ideas of fashion.                                                       
The Atom features standard DCUC articulation which includes: A ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. His legs feature universal movement in the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. He has the standard ab crunch in the torso. Even with the bum hip hinge, my Atom can stand ok, but it doesn’t take much to send him toppling. Hopefully this is an isolated issue and not one that’s going to plague the entire run of Atomseses.
If your an old school Justice Society fan than you are probably already sold on picking up Atom here. I am not so much, but I certainly didn’t mind having to buy him in order to get the C&C parts for STRIPE. He’s a solid treatment of the character and a nice addition to my DC shelves. I’ll keep the DCUC train rolling along tomorrow with a looksy at The Sandman.
Jan 5 2012

Doctor Who: “The Keeper of Traken” Collectors Set by Character Options

The rain of Classic Who figure sets from CO continues and this time we’re checking out a decent sized set of three figures, plus some cool accessories, all based on the 4th Doctor story, “The Keeper of Traken.” Overall, I’ve always found this one to be a fairly mediocre episode, albeit heightened by the fact that it introduces companion Nyssa to the series and also sees the return of The Master as a major player and in his new incarnation as played by the late, great Anthony Ainley.

The set comes in an oblong window box with the new Classics retro-style deco and logo. Once again, let me say that I’m loving this new deco and the fact that we don’t have to see the 2005 logo on the Classics packaging anymore. The back of the box has a little synopsis of the story and features various stills featuring the characters. The set includes another variant of The 4th Doctor, another variant of the decayed Master, The Melkur, which is actually The Master’s TARDIS, and a grandfather clock, which is also actually The Master’s TARDIS. As usual, we get the figures mounted beside each other against a backdrop photo from the episode, in this case a shot of The Grove where both The Doctor’s and The Master’s TARDIS landed on Traken. Off to the side you can even see The Source chamber where The Keeper manifests, although it’s hidden behind the grandfather clock.
Let’s kick things off with The Doctor. Yes, it’s yet another 4th Doctor variant. I’ve already got three 4th Doctors in my collection and I’ve been pretty nitpicky about buying them so chances are a lot of people have more like five or six. Granted, this one is one of the better variants out there, as it features The Doctor in his vest and shirtsleeves and not his coat and scarf. The figure also features the new ball jointed shoulders so that’s a big bonus. I’m a lot more pleased with this figure than I thought I would be. He looks really good, except the paintwork on his eyes gives him a bit of a zombie-like expression. Since he uses the same head sculpt as the figures designed to wear the scarf, he also suffers from a bit of giraffe neck, but all in all not a bad figure at all. The Doctor comes with a scaled version of The Source manipulator as seen in the episode and a Sonic Screwdriver.
Next up is The Master in his second emaciated incarnation. A long while back I looked at the figure of the decaying Master from the episode“The Deadly Assassin” but his appearance (not to mention the actor) changed a bit to this appearance in “The Keeper of Traken.” The figure reuses just about everything from the last release (minus the Sash of Rassilon), but does feature a new head sculpt that really nails the way The Master looked in this episode. The robes are also darker this time around, being more of a proper black whereas the last release was a charcoal color. I probably could have gotten by without this version of The Master in my collection, but he’s still an excellent figure, so I’m not complaining.
The last figure we have is the Melkur, which is actually The Master’s TARDIS. I really had no idea what to expect from this one and was preparing myself for the likelihood that it would just be another static rotocast piece. As it turns out I was only partly right. The torso is rotocast, but the rest of the figure is regular molded plastic and Melkur has a nice amount of articulation for what was essentially a statue in the episode. The head swivels and the arms swivel at the shoulders. The legs actually have lateral movement at the hips too. This may not be the most exciting figure out there, but once again, CO really turned out a great sculpt of this very distinctive looking design.
Finally, you have the grandfather clock, which is as expected just a rotocast piece with stickers used for the detail in the clockface and front glass. This was the form The Master’s TARDIS took when he used it to trap Tremas and take over his body at the end of the story. I always thought it was kind of silly to have such an ordinary Earth clock be a part of the decor on a totally alien planet, but I try not to read too much into this stuff. In any event, it’s a good little replica of the on screen counterpart and its kind of cool that we now have three different versions of The Master’s TARDIS. Can a rotocast “Planet of Fire” column be far behind? At this point anything is possible.
As with most of the recent Collector Sets, this one retails for right around fifty bucks, and I’ll admit this one really is for the more hardcore collectors with deep pockets. Yes, this Doctor figure is a lot different than previous ones and has the extra articulation, but even the more casual collectors may be getting weary of 4th Doctor variants by now. The Master is also a variant of a previous release, and the grandfather clock and the Melkur, while very cool, probably aren’t considered “must haves” by a lot of people who are budgeting for the influx of so many new Doctor Who figures and toys. If you are on a budget, you may want to save your pennies for the sets that released this week. But if you have no problem pouring money into the deludge of awesome Doctor Who figures, you should like this set just fine.
Jan 3 2012

Marvel Universe: X-23 by Hasbro

It’s sad but true, every now and then a figure you really hotly anticipated turns out to be a disappointment. As is the case with my latest acquisition from Marvel Universe. There’s no doubt that I was really anxious to get X-23 into my collection. Besides just wanting the figure of the character, I was excited to see the much hyped brand new female body for the MU. Now that I have her in my hand, I’m content, but not enthralled, with the final product. Let’s see what happened…

Typical Marvel Universe card, but the character art is just weird. Its kind of a similar artsy-fartsy direction Hasbro took with Doctor Strange, but I don’t think it works as well here. As for the rest of the presentation, little X-23 doesn’t fill up the bubble all that well, even with her arms and claws held outward. She does, however, come with the standard personalized MU figure stand.
On to the figure itself. Now, to be fair, there’s some solid sculpting here. In fact, it starts out pretty great at the top and gets worse the further down you get. But before I get to the sculpt, I want to point out how disappointed I am with the plastic used on this figure. It feels soft and rubbery and a lot more like the subpar materials used for some of the Secret Wars comic pack figures. This is particularly the case with her legs, which required some gentle heating in order to get them straight.
So, from the waist up, I’m pretty happy. The head sculpt is simple but well done. It’s attractive, which is something that tends to be hit-or-miss with Hasbro and their 3 3/4″ ladies. The straight sculpted hair looks great and the paintwork on the mask, red eyes and lips is all expertly applied. I like the way her ab joint separates her painted top and her exposed mid-riff and the way the shoulders of her top are painted on works well. Her arm bracer belts are actually separately sculpted pieces, which is cool and her claws are understandably sculpted in bendy soft plastic so that kids don’t claw their eyes out with them. Ok, so far so good.
Besides the soft plastic, the legs just have preportional issues, and the fault lies in her huge boots. Here’s what happened: Instead of sculpting new legs, Hasbro sculpted a pair of faux, rubbery leg warmers for her made to look like boots and fitted them around her lower legs. The effect just doesn’t work for me and it really interferes with X-23’s otherwise lovely womanly form. Even though her upper legs are matched pretty well with her torso, taking in the whole figure creates the illusion that her top half is way too small for her bottom half. There is some slop in the silver paintwork on her legs, but its nothing worse than we’ve seen on past MU figures, so I’m not going to make a huge issue of it here.

Now in terms of poseability, there’s some great articulation on this figure. You get a ball jointed neck, arms with ball joints in the shoulders and elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs feature ball joints at the hips, double hinged knees, swivel cuts in both the thighs and above the boots, and ball joints in the ankles. The torso is lacking the usual waist swivel, but you do get the ab ball joint, which suits me pretty well.
I do not hate this figure. I don’t even dislike her. In fact, the more I fiddle about with her the more I’m digging her. She’s grown on me enough that I even considered going back and rewriting this whole feature in a more positive light. But in the end, the gripes I had when I tore the package open are still there. The proportions combined with the rubbery plastic was a shock when I got her out of the package and the fact that she was pretty highly hyped among collectors didn’t help to soften the blow. She’s without a doubt a decent pick up and a great addition to my Marvel Universe collection, but I’m very glad I didn’t wind up paying a premium for her.