Yearly Archives: 2012

Aug 17 2012

Vintage Vault: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Young Male Titan by LJN

We’ve come to the last of the AD&D figures in my collection, or at least those that I can put my hands on at the moment. I know there are some more in one of those scary, unsorted tubs in the back of one of my closets, but until I get the ambition to start digging through it, this may be the last time we see AD&D on VV for a little while. In fact Vintage Vault may be going on hiatus for a bit, but that’s a topic and a decision for next week. Today we’re looking at the last of the three Giants figures in LJN’s AD&D line: The Young Male Titan. I’ve got no in package shot of this guy, so let’s just dig right in.

There’s definitely a Grecco-Roman vibe going on with this guy. He’s wearing a yellow chestplate, yellow skirt, yellow grieves and arm bracers, and sandals. Yellow may seem like an odd choice, but I’m not going to pick on the coloring here, since this line was all about bright coloring and the fact that YMT is pretty color coordinated, I think it works ok. The paint work isn’t too bad either.

I’m not so crazy about the head sculpt on this guy, as it looks like he’s taken a few too many whacks in the head. It’s not so much that he’s ugly (although he kind of is), but it literally looks like part of his head is partially caved in. Let’s just say he looks odd and leave it at that. The sculpting on the figure’s body is passable. He has some well-defined muscles and a little shallow scrollwork sculpted into his armor.

The articulation is the same as the other giants in the line. He has ball jointed shoulders and hips and his head turns. Unfortunately, the hip joints on my figure have really seen better days. Unless he’s standing with his legs perfectly straight, his legs collapse under the weight of the figure and he winds up doing the splits… ouch!

YMT follows the same accessories formula as the other giants, Northlord Barbarian and Ogre King. He has a detachable belt with a loop for one of his weapons, he has a removable helmet, a shield, and two weapons, in this case a spear and a sword. I really dig the helmet’s Greek style complete with red bristle comb and it fits the figure pretty well. The silver on the face guard is a little chipped on mine, but it still looks good. The shield is really ornate with a raised yellow lion head above an eye circled by laurel branches. The sword is leaf bladed with a yellow painted hilt and the spear is pretty straightforward.

Digging out a lot of my AD&D figures was a whole heap of fun. It really caused the nostalgia to come at me in waves, but oddly enough I’m not feeling it so much with this guy. It’s strange because I really loved this figure as a kid, but looking at him now he’s just a little bland and a whole lot of ugly. I still dig all the gear he comes with, but he doesn’t hold up as well as the Northlord Barbarian did when I first got him out of storage. Not to rag on Young Male Titan too badly. He’s still a solid enough figure and a great addition to any AD&D line, but the magic just isn’t here anymore.

Aug 15 2012

Doctor Who: “Bump-N-Go” Cybermat by Character Options

Since the return of Doctor Who in 2005 we’ve seen plenty of the Cybermen, but it wasn’t until last season that we finally got to see a NuWho Cybermat courtesy of the story, “Closing Time.” That was a fun enough episode, but I thought it was a pretty piss poor use of the Cybermen. Nonetheless, I did enjoy seeing the return of the Cybermats and their newest version is pretty damn creepy. Character Options promptly presented us insane collectors with an opportunity to own one of these little beauties in plastic form. I’m a sucker for toys that double as cheap alternatives to prop replicas, so does the B&G Cybermat fit that bill? Let’s find out!

This little fella comes in an impenetrable blister pack similar to the kind used for the 3rd and 4th Doctor’s Sonic Screwdrivers. It’s a pretty straight forward package with an insert that uses the current series logo. There’s some verbiage that describes some of its features, and the back of the package points out that the toy requires two AA batteries which aren’t included. This is a pretty key call out since most of the battery powered Doctor Who toys I’ve purchased in the past came pre-equipped.

After hacking away at the package with a pair of scissors, I was finally able to get the Cybermat out. My first impressions are that he’s a very nicely detailed toy and pretty screen accurate, although he does feel a little undersized. That’s not too big a sticking point, because for all we know the new Cybermats come in different sizes too. The most disappointing thing is that the mouth doesn’t open to reveal its set of creepy organic monster teeth, but this is a toy and I think that would have been a bit much for the young’uns to deal with. It’s also worth noting that the lights on the sides aren’t real lights, just painted on. Let’s get some batteries into him and see what he does.

A small screwdriver (of the non sonic variety) opens the battery door. Pop in the batteries and turn the big switch to “on” and this guy is ready to go. The “bump-n-go” gimmick works pretty well. Luckily I have some hardwood floors and I was able to set him skittering about my entrance hall and kitchen area. He’s an energetic little guy, but it was difficult to watch him for very long, as my cat would not stop pouncing on him. Make a note, Doctor, Cybermats do have one natural predator and it’s a house cat.

The Cybermat ran me $22 including shipping. It’s tough to say whether it was entirely worth it or not. As a display piece, it’s ok, but I would have been willing to pay a little more to get something that looked and felt  more accurate, and perhaps with lights instead of the motorized gimmick. On the other hand, the toy is perfectly fine for what it’s intended to be, and I could certainly see kids having a lot of fun chasing it around. Character Options might have gone the extra mile and released it with a special Sonic Screwdriver so the kids could sonic it to get it to stop, but I probably wouldn’t have gone for something like that. I’m mainly interested in having this guy sit on my shelf, and overall I’m pretty happy with it. It’s not a “must have” item by any means, but cool nonetheless.

Aug 13 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 14: Gold by Mattel

Holy hell… we’re looking at some old skool DC Universe Classics today! Remember Wave 14 of DCUC? Yeah, it was that lovely Walmart Exclusive wave and I had better chance of seeing a Sasquatch commuting to work in the car next to me than actually seeing any of these figures at retail. I was able to pick up Kamandi and Zantanna through trades, and then I wrote the rest of this wave off. That  included Gold, because I never in a million years thought Mattel was ever going to complete The Metal Men and that my Mercury and Iron were destined to stand on the shelf alone. Fast forward a couple of years and now we have confirmation of Platinum, Tin, and Lead all coming this year in the DC Signature Collection, and that sent me scrambling to find me a Gold before every other collector that missed him tried to do the same.

It’s been a while since we saw this packaging. I still dig it, although not as much as the collector friendly boxes that Matty is using for the Signature line. Nonetheless, the big bubble and sturdy card show off the figure wonderfully. Gold comes with his two arm attachments on the figure and the Ultra Humanite BAF piece tucked under the insert. Ooooh, look there’s a collector button too. I remember those! Somewhere I have a cigar box full of those! The back panel shows the publication history of the character and a short bio. The bios have carried over to the Signature Collection, but I wish the publication stats had too.

This time, I’m going to start with coloring, because there isn’t a lot of paintwork on this figure, and yet the coloring is just downright gorgeous. The gold is similar to the shade used for Golden Pharaoh and I absolutely adore the way it looks on this figure. It’s just the right mix of matte and sheen and I’m glad that Mattel didn’t decide to try to give it a wash or anything, as I think it would have really ruined the figure. Granted, the Gold’s finish doesn’t quite have the amazing look of the patina used on Iron, but it is a striking color just the same, and in all fairness it is an entirely different look they were going for.

Of course, the sculpting here is no slouch either. I’m really digging the somber, heroic look of the head sculpt, that really gives Gold some major personality. The muscle sculpting on the figure looks great, as do the strategically placed rivets. His triangle chest plate is cleverly designed so as not to intrude on the articulation. Both hands are sculpted into fists, which allows for the attachable accessories, which we’ll get to right after we talk…

Articulation! If you own any of the other Metal Men from the DCUC line, you’ll know what to expect here. You get a ball jointed neck, the arms have ball joints in the shoulders, there are swivels in the biceps and wrists, and the elbows are hinged. The legs have universal movement at the hips, swivels in the thighs, and there are hinges in the knees and ankles. The torso swivels at the waist and has the usual ab-crunch hinge.

As with the other Metal Men, Gold has the ability to morph his hands into weapons and implements and you get two arm attachments to reflect the skill. Gold comes with a spinning buzz saw and a pick axe, both of which attach in the same way as Iron’s. They have sculpted hollows shaped to fit the figure’s fists. They stay on pretty well, and I really do like this method a lot more than the swappable hands used on Mercury, mainly because I’m constantly worried I’m going to break Mercury’s posts and the fact that I don’t have to keep track of the tiny hands when I have the weapon attached.

So, I’ve done a lot of hemming and hawing over whether to track this figure down since it came out. He commonly sells for over $30 on the Ebays, even when he’s loose and without the Ultra Humanite piece. I was lucky to be able to pick one up off a fellow collector for only $20. Had Club Infinite Earths not promised to deliver on the rest of the Metal Man, I probably never would have picked this figure up. Needless to say, I’m glad everything is working out for the Metal Men, and I’m going to be really happy to have the collection complete (minus Dr. Magnus) by the end of the year.

Aug 11 2012

Vintage Vault: X-Men X-Force Cable (2nd Version) by Toy Biz

It’s been a long week and I am more than a little bit hungover, so I’m afraid today is going to be a quickie… Vintage Vault hasn’t been back to Toy Biz’s early 90’s Marvel figures in quite a while, so I thought we’d remedy that today and start throwing some more of these into the mix in the weeks ahead. Today we’ll check out the second version of Cable where he dons his deep space armor.

There’s the packaged shot of Cable… I mean Grizzly… no, I mean Cable. Yeah, what we’ve got here is an error card with Cable in Grizzly’s packaging. This guy came to me as part of a lot, in which I got double screwed because it was supposed to be the first version of Cable, not the second version on the wrong cardback. Ah, well. I was going to keep this figure carded as a curiosity and eventually said, screw it, I need that wall space to hang other carded figures, so I decided to tear him open and feature him. Error or not, I’m still in love with the early Toy Biz Marvel packaging. I think these are some of the best comic inspired figure cardbacks. They’re colorful, the character art is great, and they kind of look like comic covers.

Out of the package, and we can see that this indeed isn’t the more iconic version of Cable, but it is still pretty damn cool. He’s in his bulky deep space armor, complete with a removable clear dome helmet over his head. You just need to pinch it a bit to undo the clips and take it off. The armor has a lot of sculpted detail, particularly for this fairly simple line. You know he’s from the 90’s because even in space armor, he’s still covered in enough belts and pouches to make Rob Liefeld blush. The head sculpt is classic Cable with a grim, angry visage. All in all, well done.

As always, Toybiz did a great job with the colors on this figure. Cable is bright orange and blue with a great glossy finish that makes him work so well as a comic book character in toy form. Unfortunately, they could have done a better job with the actual execution of the paintwork. Most of it is good, but there are a few spots, particularly on his legs that look like they might have been painted by blind cats.

Cable features six points of articulation. His arms rotate at the shoulders, his legs rotate at the hips, and his knees are hinged. The head doesn’t turn, otherwise it’s about the same level of articulation I expect from these 90’s Toy Biz figures. There’s not a lot of dynamic posing possibilities here, but just enough so that you can still have a little fun with him.

Cable comes with a big gun, but what else would you expect? It’s a big silver rifle and it has some kind of rapid-fire gimmick that completely eludes me. Either mine is broken or it just never worked right. It’s a nice piece of killing hardware, but since he has no elbow articulation, he can just hold it awkwardly with one hand, striaght out.

I’m always a bit unsure of how the current collector community feels about these 90’s Marvel Toy Biz figures. Sure, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since these were hanging on the pegs, and you can’t deny that they’re thoroughly dated, but I still can’t help but love them, and they’re cheap as all hell, which makes them fun and painless to collect. If I had to do over, I might not have opened as many, because I love the packaging so much and they do look great hanging on the wall. At the same time, these figures have such a colorful, toyish charm that really meshes well with their comic book roots. It just makes me want to pick them up and play with them.

[Phew… and that’ll be a wrap for the week. Star Trek Saturday may or may not be back next week. We’ll see how things go. In the meantime, I’ve got a lot of stuff backing up in the toy hopper, so I’ll see y’all Monday with something new. –FF]

Aug 10 2012

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics: Michelangelo by Playmates

In case you missed it during the week, I’m bumping Vintage Vault to tomorrow because I interrupted the regular flow of Turtle Week with some jubilation over DCUC continuing for another year Matty Collector news. It worked out well too since I’m going to be out drinking heavily today to acknowledge the fact that, much to the joy of toy companies everywhere, today was the day I was spawned upon the universe. I say it worked out well because after looking at three of the four turtles already, Michelangelo won’t hold too many surprises, and I can wrap this up pretty quick. So let’s get to it. The last verse is the same as the first… more or less.

Packaging… It’s awesome. Nothing more to say here, except “holy shit, Amazon really bent the crap out of my card!” Seriously, Amazon is a great resource for buying hard-to-find individual figures, especially if you have the Prime free shipping options. They’re rapidly becoming one of my regular go-to sources. But I wouldn’t buy anything from them that I expected to keep in the package. All four turtles were just tossed into a box, slapped on the ass, and sent along their merry way.

Ok, so Mikey’s body is the same as Raph’s, including the lack of the baldric-shoulder strap thingy. He has slots on the back of his belt to hold his nunchuks and the usual personalized initial on the belt buckle that is both sculpted and painted. Naturally his eyemask, kneepads, elbowpads, and wrist wraps are all orange. Aside from those differences, this is the same body we’ve seen with the same excellent 34 points of articulation. For the details on articulation, check out the feature on Leonardo.

Mikey’s head is probably the least angry looking of the bunch, most likely because he isn’t showing any teeth. However, he still looks like he’s determined to put his head through a brick wall. And fear not, his eyes are just fine.

Mikey’s nunchuks are my favorite of all the Turtles’ weapons because Playmates went and used real chain links rather than just a length of bendy plastic. It really makes all the difference in the world and they look great as well as fit snugly into their holsters on the back of the figure’s belt. I suppose you can argue that it’s harder to pose them since they just droop in his hands, but I still prefer the actual chain links. And yep, you also get the manhole cover stand with Michelangelo’s name printed on it. Awesome!

 

And that wraps up Playmates Classic Turtles. Leo’s eyes notwithstanding, I am really so amazed and impressed with these guys. I’m amazed that they are actually being sold in some stores and not just as some kind of wonky collector based subscription deal (I’m looking at you, Matty!) and impressed that Playmates could pull themselves together and produce this sort of quality product. I love the fact that they brought back one of their best and brightest properties and gave it the love it deserved, and while I’m not holding my breath, it would be really great to see another case assortment of four Classic figures with April, Splinter, Shredder, and Casey Jones. I can dream. I’m going to take some time to catch up on other stuff over the next couple weeks and then we’ll be swinging back to take a look at some of the Turtles figures based on the new Nick toon!

Aug 9 2012

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics: Raphael by Playmates

It’s Wednesday Thursday and Day Three of Turtles Week and today is all about Raphael. After two turtles we have a good idea what to expect here, so these features are only going to get shorter and quicker… let’s dive right in!

Packaging… seen it… loved it. Still love it. Raph is posed on the card holding a Sai in each hand and he looks awesome. Apart from the name change on the bubble insert, everything is the same as Leo and Don’s packages. It still feels wrong to rip these guys open, but…

This time, let’s start out with his head’s sculpt and paint… oh, thank god, his eyes are ok. Raph’s features another angry grimace, this time showing teeth in both corners of his mouth. Once again, there are more the “I’m going to murder the shit out of you” Turtles, as opposed to “Let’s pal around and have some pizza.” His eye mask is a nice shade of red and, once again, man does he look angry.

As expected, the body is basically the same as Leo and Don, only this time with his wrist bands, kneepads and elbowpads all painted red to match his eyemask. You get the same fantastic 34 points of articulation, which has already been cataloged in the Leonardo feature. There is one other difference in the body, Raph doesn’t have the baldric, just the belt. The belt features a belt buckle with “R” sculpted and painted on, and there’s a slot on each side of the belt buckle for his Sai.

 

Yes, Raph comes with his trademark Sai weapons. They’re pretty well done, cast in silver/grey plastic and the grips are painted red to match his whole ensemble, and he can hold them pretty well. You also get the manhole cover stand with Raph’s name printed on it. Not an abundance of accessories, but you certainly get what you need.

And there ya go… Like Leonardo, Raphael is a stellar figure. He avoids the eye paint issues that plague Don, so as far as I’m concerned, there is no bad here. Raph is incredibly fun to play around with and looks amazing. Tomorrow we’ll see if Playmates can round the team out without dropping the ball… It’s Michaelangelo!

Aug 8 2012

Matty Collector Subs Are A Go…

I interrupt the regular flow of updates this week to celebrate the fact that the DC Club Infinite Earths will be sapping my wallet for one more year. I’m also taking this opportunity to cover the fact that I’m running a little behind this week on updates. Turtle Week will continue on Thursday and Friday, Vintage Vault will get pushed back to Saturday, and Star Trek Saturday will either double up or it may take the week off, seeing as how things go. It is my Birthday this weekend, and I plan on drinking a lot more heavily than usual.

Anyway, as for the Matty Collector news… All of the subs have gone forward. I have never subbed Club Eternia, although I do have a sizeable collection of MOTUC figures purchased day of sale. This current year, I haven’t purchased any, and personally I think Matty criminally mishandled the 30th Anniversary with shitty concept and contest figures, but thankfully the property isn’t so important to me as to fill my with rage over the fact.

I was very tempted to sub the Watchman line just because I would have really enjoyed having a set of Watchman figures in the scale and style of DCUC. The $25 a pop seemed rather high, especially for figures like Dr. Manhattan, which is nothing more than a new head sculpt and a painted buck, but I was still willing to go for it. What stopped me? The uncertainty of Club Infinite Earth going through meant that I could wind up paying shipping on just the Watchman figures, which would bump them up to about $35 a piece with tax. No thanks. Ironically, CIE went through, and Matty screwed themselves out of my Watchmen sub money by playing these ridiculous games.

Obviously, the CIE going through was the big news for me, and obviously I subbed again. I’ve been happy with every single figure that I’ve received from this year so far. Yes, even Rocket Red is cool as a stand alone figure. And next year’s are looking good too. I could take this opportunity to suggest that Matty played games with the thermometer, as I really doubt it jumped that high on the last day, but I’m not going to piss in the punchbowl. I’m just happy its going through and I’m going to keep getting my DCUC fix for another year and a half. Unfortunately, it means I’m going to have to do some re-arranging, because I’m just about out of room on my current display and I have about a dozen figures that aren’t even up yet…

On a related note, I dropped Matty a line via their Forums to inquire about the Young Justice 2-pack. I was actually willing to drop $50 on Superboy and Miss Martian to complete my set, but I found it odd that Matty wasn’t revealing any ship date on the figures. Turns out the reason why is because they won’t be shipping until 3rd Quarter of 2013. I realize the lead time required between concept and mass production for action figures, but there’s no way I’m buying two figures at a premium this week and not getting them for another year. Not where Matty and Digital River are concerned.
Ok, enough about toy politics… I’ll be back tomorrow to check out Raphael.

Aug 7 2012

Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles Classics: Donatello by Playmates

It’s day two of classic Turtles craziness and today we’ll be checking out Donatello. Like I said yesterday, this’ll be a lot shorter to prevent me from getting redundant while also allowing me to go off and hit the liquors early, because it’s been a peach of a day. Just make sure you checked out the feature on Leonardo to get the full picture.

There’s the packaging. Yep, it’s packed with retro awesome. It’s also identical to the Leonardo package only with a different insert in the bubble bearing Donatello’s name. It pains me to do it, but let’s rip this guy open and check him out.

Ok, so as noted, we’re dealing with the exact same body as Leo, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The only difference is the “D” belt buckle and instead of scabbards he’s got a loop to hold his bowstaff. And yes, he has the same awesome 34 points of articulation.
Don’s headsculpt is entirely new, although it’s mostly a mirror image of Leo’s. He’s got the same angry scowl, but Don’s showing teeth on the right side instead of the left. Everything else looks good… except… except… Holy Jesus, what’s wrong with his eyes???

Yeah, poor Don has a bad case of the Wall Eyes, Mad Eyes, or Wonky Peepers… whichever politically incorrect term you prefer. He’s got a little Marty Feldman thing going on there. It’s not the sculpt, just the paint on the pupil, and at this point in time it seems to be effecting most, if not all, of the figures. Maybe Playmates can do a running fix somewhere down the line. Otherwise, the only real difference is the purple paint used for Don’s wrist bands, knee and elbow pads, and his eye mask.

 

Don comes with his signature weapon, his bowstaff. It’s a simple accessory, but nicely sculpted with a wood grain texture and a wrapped grip. As mentioned it can be tucked away in the loop on his back, and he can grasp it nicely in either or both hands. You also get the super cool manhole cover display stand.

 

And… yup… I took the picture with the wrong manhole cover… <face palm>  Rest assured, Donatello’s stand has the proper name on it… I’ll fix it later… [All done, nothing to see here… move along. -FF]

 

And that my friends, is Donatello. Yes, his eyes are unfortunate. It’s a shame that Playmates put out a figure that mingles with perfection in every way and then slips up by misaligning a simple black dot for his pupil. Honestly, it kind of fits the figure in a goofy kind of way… ah, nope, that’s just a lie, it looks awful and it sucks. If he didn’t look so angry, I’d say he was pulling a face, but instead it just looks like he’s got the mad, crazy eyes of a killer.

Aug 6 2012

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classics: Leonardo by Playmates

[Welcome to Turtles Week! Today through Thursday, I’ll be checking out Playmates new Classic series of TMNT figures and then Friday we’ll return to Vintage Vault as normal. I considered doing a TMNT edition of VV to round out the week, but after looking at these beauties it was hard to go back to the old stuff. And yeah, I’ll be getting to some of the figures based off the new Nick Toon. Look for that later on in the month, so there’s almost certainly another Turtles Week coming up. – FF]

Oh yeah… I’ve been waiting for these figures since, well since before Playmates even showed them off. Actually, it was probably around the time I got my first Masters of the Universe Classics figure and started wishing that we would get the same sort of collector-grade upgrade for a lot of 80’s toy lines. It seemed like the Turtles would be particularly well suited to such an upgrade, but I never wanted Playmates to be the one to do them. Sure NECA produced an amazing comic inspired set, but I held out for something a little closer to the 80’s design. Well, here we are, Playmates did them, and honest to god, they blew me away with the results. I give Playmates a lot of shit (and some loving) here, so it’s nice to be able to really tip my hat to them on something. Let’s start today with the leader of the pack, and my personal favorite hero in a halfshell… Leonardo.

I’m going to say my piece about the packaging today and then not much else for the rest of the week. The packages for these figures are fantastic, but apart from the bubble insert with each turtle’s name, they are essentially the same across the board. That having been said, when I first picked up one of these packaged figures I was in love. It’s a hefty semi-cylindrical bubble on a fairly heavy cardback. The front card art is deliciously cartoony and vintage and exactly what I wanted in a classic TMNT figure package. There are two stickers on the bubble, one pointing out that the figures are based on the 1988 cartoon classic and the other points out that the figure has 34 points of articulation. Leonardo is (almost) holding his swords in each hand and looks ready for battle, with his stand mounted behind his legs.

The back panel has some blurbs about the turtles, pictures of all four figures and again, some great vintage inspired artwork. There are only two gripes I can level against this package… one, it isn’t collector friendly and that saddens me because I almost shed a tear when I ripped this figure open. Secondly, a personalized file-card style section on the back of the card for each character would have been cool. Nonetheless, Playmates, you really hit a grand-slam on this package. It looks great, and displays the figure wonderfully.

Folks, this is how you update a classic action figure! Playmates was able to make use of the same body for each figure, and it doesn’t at all feel like a copout. They even went so far as to vary the green used for their skin tones. The sculpted detail on Leonardo is fairly minimal, but that works for a retro figure based on an animated character. The most detail is vested in the shell, front and back, the knee and elbow pads, and the wrist bands. The arms and legs are mostly just smooth like they looked in the cartoon. Leonardo’s head sculpt has him ready for action. This is definitely not “kick back and eat some pizza” Leonardo, this is “I’m gonna go fuck up some Foot Clan Ninjas” Leonardo. He’s sneering with the left side of his mouth to expose his teeth. His eye mask is sculpted as a separate piece, but permanently attached, and trails off the back of his head.

Leonardo features a belt and baldric, all sculpted separately from the figure, but permanently attached. The belt has a disc with the letter “L” in the center. The whole ensemble wraps around the back of his shell and holds his criss-crossed scabbards, both of which are functional and can be removed, as they just peg in through the belt and into the shell.

The coloring on this figure is just about perfect. A lot of the figure’s details are color coded to Leonardo’s eye mask, including the grips on his sword hilts. I’m also pretty fond of the somewhat matte finish given to the figure. It’s not super glossy, it’s not painted over and completely dull. You get a nice subtle shine on the arms and legs and on the shell.

Playmates boasts this figure has 34 points of articulation, so let’s just count them down. Ball jointed neck… check! The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, have swivels at the biceps and wrists, double hinged elbows, and each of the three fingers are hinged. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, hinged ankles, the ankles also swivel, and each of the four toes are hinged. He also has a ball joint in the torso. Yep, that’s 34 points and that’s mighty damn impressive, giving this figure  an amazing amount of poseability. The only thing I would have changed would be to add rockers to the ankles, but not at the expense of any of the joints in the figure now, so I’m perfectly happy if that just didn’t cost out.

The old TMNT figures used to come with a bevy of gear, but Leonardo just comes with his swords and a stand. From a cost standpoint, I’m ok with that, since Playmates obviously poured so much attention into the figure itself. The swords are pretty cool. They’re sculpted in plastic that is bendy enough for safety regulations, but not enough to easily warp. They’re appropriately molded in silver/grey plastic and as previously mentioned the wraps on the hilts are blue. The swords fit snugly into the scabbards on Leo’s back, and he can hold them pretty well. I’m wondering if it would have been a good idea to put pegs on the handles and have them peg into Leo’s palms to help him hold them, but I don’t know if it would have been worth the unsightly pegs and holes. Probably not.

As for the stand, I’ve read a number of less than favorable opinions about the stands online and I really can’t understand why. You get a big disc stand sculpted to look like a manhole cover with the TMNT logo sculpted in and Leonardo’s name printed on it. There are two meaty pegs to really hold the figure nicely. I think it’s a fantastic bonus and probably one of the best stands I’ve got with an action figure in a long time!

I haven’t seen Leonardo, or any of the Classic TMNT figures at retail yet, so I have no idea what the going price at brick-and-mortar stores is going to be. The Targets here already set their TMNT section, but it’s all just the new Nick stuff. I got my set for $17 each from Amazon along with my free Prime shipping, so I’m guessing they might be around $15 MSRP? Either way, the fact that these figures are significantly under $20 each is a great deal. Leonardo is beautifully made, has a nice quality and hefty feel to him, and is hard to put down. Sure, he’s a little light in the accessories, but he’s got his trademark weapons and a great stand, and for the price, I’m not complaining. So long as the other figures turn out this good, I’m beside myself with joy.

Tomorrow, we’ll move on to Donatello. The rest of the features will be a lot less long winded to avoid getting redundant, as the figures do share the same body.

Aug 4 2012

Star Trek Innerspace: Klingon Bird of Prey by Playmates

I promise, this will be the last time we look at Innerspace on Star Trek Saturday for a little while. By now I’ve probably devoted more attention to these little ships then they deserve, but when I went fishing into one of my Star Trek Totes, I pulled out three of these and I wanted to open all of them, so we might as well finish up the three. This time we’re looking at the Klingon Bird of Prey. If you’re keeping score, the Shuttlecraft Goddard was a pretty cool little toy all around, the Romulan Warbird looked pretty good as a ship and was kind of iffy as a playset, so let’s see how the Bird of Prey turns out…

It’s the same packaging we’ve seen for the last two weeks. The toy comes on a simple card and bubble with one flap open so you can peek inside and see what’s going on, and the two minifigures are beside it. The back panel shows photos of all the toys little features and has some trivia about the ship’s fictional specifications as well as its appearances in the various Star Trek media.

The minifigures are Worf and Gowron and both are pretty impressive for such ridiculously tiny little guys. The paint and sculpts are good enough so you know exactly who they’re supposed to be. Gowron has a little disruptor sculpted into his hand and both figures are articulated at the hips so they can sit down or stand up.

Unfortunately, as a little toy ship, the Bird of Prey doesn’t fare so well. Its proportions are seriously askew, so the body is too big for the wings and the bridge. Obviously, Playmates had to do this to create enough space for the playset compartment, but knowing that doesn’t make the ship look any less like it could be Playskool’s “My First Bird of Prey.” It’s a real shame too, because a lot of care went into the sculpt, particularly all the panel lines on the wings and the details in the engines. If this thing was properly proportioned it would have looked really bad ass. The coloring is pretty good too, with the hull being properly screen accurate green, the wings painted in, and the engines silver. There’s a lot better paintwork on this ship than the Warbird. The Bird of Prey also has a flip down stand to keep it from toppling over. It serves its purpose, but it only adds to the toy’s aesthetic problems.

Opening up the playset compartment and the Bird of Prey does a little better. Once again, it’s tough to cram a whole bridge into this little space, but I think the Bird of Prey pulls it off better than the Romulan Warbird’s two-seater roadster configuration. The open flaps turn into crew stations and there’s a central captain’s chair and a little viewscreen that you can rotate to show different views. Yeah, it still kind of looks like the captain is driving a car, but these toys really do require a lot of imagination and forgiveness to work. There’s a sticker on the back wall to create the illusion that the bridge is bigger and there are more Klingons on it.

I’d probably rank the Bird of Prey just a little higher than the Warbird, but mainly because of the minifigures. I like to use Worf in the Shuttlecraft and the Gowron figure makes a nice standard Klingon flunky. The ship itself is goofy looking and the playset isn’t going to impress anyone. Still, for the five bucks I paid for this toy, it’s an interesting little curiosity for my Star Trek collection.