Monthly Archives: July 2013

Jul 20 2013

Hellina by Skybolt Toyz

Alrighty, folks, I’m coming off two intense weeks at work and this is my first weekend off in three weeks. I’m anxious to spend most of it unconscious, so I’m going for quick and dirty today. Wait, did someone say dirty? Ah, 90’s Indie Comic Book figures! Leather! Boobs! Whips and Swords! What’s not to like? A while back I did a handful of features on these kinds of figures, so I decided to dig back into that dusty Tote of Shame and open up another one of these chicks. This time, it’s Hellina, a character I know nothing about from a comic book that I know almost nothing about. At this point, I should remind you that this tote is full of figures that I picked out of the inventory of a closing New Jersey comic shop at about $1 a piece. Her comic was produced by Lightning Publishing, and oddly enough this is not the first time I’ve featured a joint effort between Skybolt and Lightning. Nope, that first time was the action figure of Sinthia, Princess of Hell. Sinthia was a train wreck of a figure, so this may be a bumpy ride.

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Hellina comes carded on a landscape-style card. It’s weird and it probably drove any retailer that had to find peg space for it crazy. Not that this is a figure that would have been hanging up in Toys R Us or KBToys. The left side has some nice artwork from what I understand is the cover of Hellina #1 and the bubble is situated to the right against a cheesy backdrop of “Hellina” in a diagonal staggered pattern. The package points out that this is a “Series II” release. As was often the case with these figures, Hellina would have been produced many times over as various repaints. The figure is mounted on the tray with her accessories down near her feet.

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The back of the card does a rather thorough job introducing you to the character as well as the creator. I now know the name of Joe Zyskowski’s wife, when they were married, their son’s name, and when he was born. It’s just possibly a little too much personal information for the back of an action figure card. The cardback also has a couple of pages reprinted from Hellina: Hellborn #1 to help get you into the mood. Farther to the right there are some promotional shots of other figures offered by Skybolt. I never saw the Double Impact figures, but various versions of the other two are in that dreaded tote, and god knows, we already looked at one of the Sinthia figures. I find the overall presentation here to be clumsy, but you can’t deny that it attracts attention. Let’s rip this baby open.

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Out of the package and we’ve got a ginger chick wearing a bondage harness. The portrait is pretty weak if you’re comparing it to the character art, but at least she’s not ugly and creepy looking like Sinthia is. Her hair is sculpted so as to be swept off to the side and the paintwork on her face is certainly competent enough. Overall, I’d say she looks a little too young and innocent to make this figure work, but it’s better than what I would have expected from Skybolt’s usual efforts.

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Moving on to below the neck, Hellina is certainly a busty girl, emphasized by the awkward way she’s standing. She appears to have suffered a spine injury because her back is arched in a way so that her torpedoes are actually pointing upward. Her top  is clad in only a sculpted and glossy-black painted harness. She’s got arm bands, bracers, and thigh-high stiletto boots, with a generous helping of spikes all around. This is not a girl you want to cuddle with unless you want to get impaled. The paintwork on the figure isn’t too bad. There’s a little bit of slop and bleeding, but the skin tones look good, as does the glossy black used for the leather outfit and the metallic silver used for the spikes. Her wings, or cape, or whatever it is, attaches to her back via a peg and holds on pretty well.

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The biggest downside of this figure is the articulation. Hellina sports only five points, but it isn’t the usual five basic points one might expect. Sure, the arms rotate at the shoulders and the head turns, but instead of having the legs rotate at the hips, she has swivel cuts just above her boots in the thighs and that’s it. This coupled with her awkward pose makes the figure almost impossible to stand. I often lament the uselessness of hip cuts on these figures, but here’s a good example of why they’re there. Without them, it’s almost impossible to tweak the figure into a standing position and the thigh swivels are all but useless. She does have peg holes in her feet, but there’s no figure stand supplied. Thankfully,  I have a generous supply of generic figure stands and blue-tack.

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In addition to her huge, tattered cape, Hellina comes with a dagger and a whip. The dagger is a nicely sculpted and painted little piece. The whip is just a length of thin plastic hose with a handle on it. She can hold either accessory in either hand.

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And that’s Hellina. She is certainly a product of her times, both in character design and action figure execution. Unless you’re a huge fan of the comic or are compiling an extensive collection of action figures in bondage gear, I can’t really recommend her as a worthy pick-up. Sure, I’ve seen far worse, and from this very company, but I she could have turned out so much better if the license had fallen to the likes of CS Moore Studios. Now that she’s open she’s destined to sink to the bottom of one of my miscellany totes, buried forever under a pile of McFarlane and Rendition figures. The sad thing is that there are still more variants of her in that tote of comic shop dollar figures, but I’ll save those for another day…

Jul 19 2013

Transformers Energon: Ironhide by Hasbro

With Marvel Monday going into hiatus for a little while (Spoilers! Next Monday will be the last), I decided to introduce another theme day for the week, and that’s going to be Transformers Thursday (TFT). I know, today is Friday, but the whole Doctor Who trifecta bumped this one day. Planning, kids! It’s not just for breakfast anymore! Next week TFT will launch on time and feature a different Transformer figure plucked fresh out of one of the many totes in the Toy Closet. Today we’re starting with Energon’s Ironhide. Why? Because, why not? While I started getting back into collecting Transformers with Robots in Disguise, Armada was the first series since the G1 days that I was into collecting big time. When news came that it was ending and was to be replaced with a new line, I was sad and somewhat apprehensive about what would replace it. It’s hard to remember what I was so worried about…

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Oh yeah, now I remember! As I recall Ironhide was one of the first of the new Energon toys to be shown. It caused quite a stir and it’s easy to see why. Nonetheless, I was a shameful Transformers whore and I made many a midnight run to Walmarts everywhere until I came home triumphant. The packaging is long gone, so let’s jump right into Ironhide’s alt mode.

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For starters, I should point out that while I’ll stick to his stock name for this feature, I never call this guy Ironhide. I always call him Gears. Yes, it’s mostly because of the red and blue color scheme and the fact that he’s a truck, but partly because it amuses me to think of the little minibot becoming a big guy like this. Ironhide took a lot of people by surprise with his preschool-ish vehicle design, the ridiculous apparatus on top, and the fact that the designers did very little to hide the his head, which is stuck right on top of his roof. At least they made it so you could push down his helmet to hide his face. On the other hand, this is kind of like Ironhide thinking that if he can’t see you, you can’t see him. We’ll just play along.

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I still have no idea what the hell that mess on top of him is supposed to be. I presume it’s some kind of array of lights or sensor equipment? I like to think it’s a giant three lens death ray. I call it the Tri-raticator! Why else would a robot want something that stupid and ungainly mounted on top of them? It’s also the speaker system for some SFX. I’ve long forgotten what they sound like, and I’m sure as hell not about to invest in some new batteries to find out. The array turns and it also has a firing missile launcher. You can easily pop this whole assembly off the top of the vehicle, but it does leave a gaping hole, and considering that his head comes off with it, doing so feels like a cheat.

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The rest of the truck has some decent detail, despite looking very much like a Tonka Toy. The shock absorbers are actually sculpted in the wheel wells, the treads are sculpted on the tires and he has gas tanks sculpted on each side towards the back. The white paint on the running boards and fenders give the toy’s deco a little pop, but I really hate the use of the tan colored plastic. It doesn’t fit the rest of the deco well at all. Also, it’s well known I don’t care for painted windows on my Transformer vehicles, and the gold windshield and side windows aren’t helping Ironhide any.

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Transforming Ironhide is pretty simple, and the engineering is somewhat original. At this point I should note that as part of his gimmick (more on that later) Ironhide’s legs can be configured in two different ways. Pictured above is the official transformation, which gives him stocky legs with some ridiculously huge knees. I prefer to extend the legs out like this…

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Ah, much better! Not only does this mode give him more poseability in the legs, I just think it makes him look better proportioned and have better looking legs. As tepid as I am on Ironhide’s vehicle mode, I really do enjoy this robot mode a lot. It does still have a little of that preschool toy vibe to it, but there’s just something about it that I dig. The apparatus behind his head doesn’t look nearly so bad, although poor Ironhide has absolutely no peripheral vision, because he has a giant gun and missile launcher mounted right next to each of his ears. The chest design is pretty cool with a nice satisfying Autobot emblem sculpted right in, and I love the way the side panels of the cars open up like gullwing doors and form his shoulder armor. Great stuff!

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Ironhide sports a solid amount of articulation and some super satisfying ratchet joints to boot! The entire weapon assembly turns his head. His shoulders will rotate and have lateral movement and his elbows are ball jointed. His legs feature full rotation and lateral movement at the hips and have both swivels and hinges in the knees. The combining gimmick unfortunately robs him of any articulation in the torso, but he’s still loads of fun to play with.

Combining gimmick, you say? All the Voyager and Deluxe Class Autobots could combine with another figure in their size class. It’s not a gimmick that I was overly fond of, as it often had very mixed results and sometimes intruded on the design of the figure. I’ve gone long enough, so I’m going to swing back next Thursday with a look at Energon Cliffjumper and we’ll see how this whole combining thing works out.

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But before calling it quits for today, I should point out that Ironhide was repainted and re-released as “Powerlinx Ironhide.” Just like I call regular Ironhide Gears, I always call Powerlinx Ironhide Hound and consider him another character. It’s pretty obvious that this repaint was intended to be Hound and I think the homage works quite well with this toy. I’ll even go so far as to say I like this figure better because the tan plastic fits better with the military style deco.

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I like both of these figures a lot more than I probably should. The Tonka Toy vibe of their alt modes make them stand out like sore thumbs on my display shelves. On the other hand, I find a lot to love about their distinctive robot modes and they are undeniably fun to play with. It’s true the design on these guys doesn’t mesh well with a lot of other Transformers in my collection, but taken on their own, or at least with most of their Energon peers, they certainly have their merits.

Jul 18 2013

Doctor Who: Cybermen (3 ¾” Scale) by Character Options

Alrighty, time to wrap up the look at the new 3 ¾” Doctor Who figures with the Cybermen! The Series 7 episode, “Nightmare in Silver” gave these guys their first real upgrade since their return to the show in 2006. It’s a much sleeker and more agile look than the Cybermen have had in a while. In fact, they now look like Tony Stark may have had a hand in their redesign. Let’s see how they turned out in the new 3 ¾” format.

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There’s the packaging and it’s the same as we saw yesterday with the Ice Warriors. There’s a personalized insert in the bubble and the Cybermen come with the generic “DWARTIS” figure stand. Once again, I am unable to resist troop building these guys.

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The sculpting on these guys is definitely well done, albeit it does strike me as a bit soft in some areas, particularly the head. Although, it may be because the new heads are more rounded and I’m still not used to seeing that. I’m not a big fan of the disc in the center of the chest. The discs were only ever on the last design and when it’s carried over to this new body, it really does look way too derivative of some of the Arc Reactor in the Iron Man armors. Of course, that’s a gripe with the creature design and not the figure. The figure is excellent, with all the various plates and panel lines of the new design wonderfully recreated. I love the sculpted spine in the back and the figure even achieves a look of convincing layering between the armor plates and the softer joint segments.

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Obviously, there isn’t a lot of dynamic coloring on this figure. The cybermen are black and silver and that’s it. The figure is cast in grey plastic and painted entirely in a metallic silver, which overall looks pretty nice, although some figures have inconsistencies in the paint. The deco makes them look a bit weathered, which I’m pretty happy with, but if you’re looking for your Cybie to be super shiny and fresh, it may disappoint a bit. Coincidently, this is the kind of paint I would have liked to see on the Ultron figure that I looked at on Monday. So in that instance, Character Options 1, Hasbro nil.

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The Cybermen have the same basic style of articulation as the Ice Warriors. The head is ball jointed. It can turn fine, but the rest of the head movement is a little shallow. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders and hinges in the knees. Again, the lateral shoulder movement is a little restrictive because of the shoulder plates. The legs feature ball joints in the hips and hinged knees. You can get some Ok poses out of these guys, but I would have really liked a swivel in the waist or a ball joint in the torso. Still, considering how crappy the articulation has become with other lines in this scale, I’m not going to harp on it too badly. This is actually better articulation than most of Hasbro or Mattel’s current film-related efforts in 3 3/4 inches.

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And there you go, we get the new Cybies exclusively in the 3 ¾” format. I absolutely love these figures, but only getting these in the new scale format… I gotta be honest, folks, it really stings! I’ve got every incarnation of the Cybermen in my five-inch collection (well, except for the “Revenge” versions, which have yet to come Stateside), so not being able to add the latest versions to that display really sucks. This is the first time the scale change has really pissed me off, but I’m sure it will not be the last. But hey, at least the figure is really good.

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And that wraps up this initial wave of Doctor Who figures. Fan response to this new line has not been very favorable, although my dealer has now sold out on all but The Doctor on two or three occasions. It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for the line, and whether we’ll be getting a new wave from the 50th Anniversary special and the Christmas special. I suppose it’s possible we could get a 10th Doctor in the scale, since Tennant is reprising his for the 50th. The Zygons are also appearing and I could easily see myself buying three or four of those. I will say that the biggest opportunity for going small scale was more playsets and vehicles, and I’m not real keen on those cardboard environments. If we don’t at the very least get a TARDIS console room, I’m going to be pissed.

Jul 17 2013

Doctor Who: Ice Warriors (3 ¾” Scale) by Character Options

In the interest of trying to be topical, I’ve decided to just push through with a Doctor Who 3 ¾” scale figure trifecta. Yesterday we checked out the Daleks, today we’ll look at the Ice Warriors and we’ll wrap it up with the Cybermen tomorrow. The move to the new scale has been rocky so far with some good and some bad. Let’s see which side of the fence the Warriors from Mars fall on…

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There’s the packaging and it is virtually identical to what we’ve already seen with The Doctor and Clara. You also get the same generic “DWARTIS” style figure stand, which was understandably missing from the Daleks. This figure is based on the new Ice Warrior design introduced in the episode “Cold War” although only one Ice Warrior was shown in the episode, so I’m surprised that CO didn’t release the figure as Grand Marshall Skaldak. I’m guessing they went the generic route to encourage kids and collectors to troop build these, but what sad fool would bother doing that?

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Yeah… Getting multiple Daleks was a given, but even surprised even myself when I picked up more than one Ice Warrior. The problem with this new line is that they don’t take up a lot of room and they are relatively cheap, so my restraint has been failing me. Besides, I do love the Ice Warriors. Like the Daleks, the NuWho design of the Ice Warriors is pretty faithful to the classic one. I always assumed the armor was their natural shell, but “Cold War” dispelled a lot of things we thought we knew about these Martians. Anyway, let’s get him out and see what we’ve got…

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The figure is pretty good. It features a lot of detail in the sculpt, showing all the little segmentation and craggy lines in the armor. The likeness of the head is particularly nice for the smaller scale. I can’t help but wonder that if he was in the old five-inch scale, whether we might have been given a swappable head, sans helmet, but I guess we’ll never know. The torso is a bit bulkier and more barrel-chested then I think it should be, but I haven’t re-watched the episode since I got the figure, so I could just be remembering wrong. Another quibble is the lack of a gun in his wrist. I know it was sort of built into his sleeve in the episode, but a little sculpted knob or painted bit would have helped. I may wind up robbing some big-ass gun from my POTF2 figures for these guys. Either way, I’m still totally happy with the way the sculpt came out. As for the coloring, the only paint apps on the figure are the red for the eye shields, and that’s really all it needed. Otherwise, the figure is cast in a very cool, slightly metallic green.

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Articulation on this new line has been all over the place, so let’s see what we’ve got here. His arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and hinged at the elbows. There are sadly no swivels in the biceps or wrists, but since he isn’t really sculpted with a gun, I guess that’s not such a big deal. The legs are also ball jointed at the hips and have swivels in the waist. There is no articulation in the torso at all, but he can turn his head. All in all, I’m fairly pleased with the articulation here. Even Skaldak was a lumbering dude when he was in his armor, so I didn’t need thee guys to be super-poseable.

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The Ice Warriors are definitely a solid effort and one that was desperately needed for this inaugural wave of the new line. They don’t quite equal the pure win of the new scale Daleks, but they’re definitely executed much better than The Doctor or Clara. I’m also not terribly heartbroken that the NuWho Ice Warriors are exclusive to the smaller scale. Sure, given my druthers, I would have liked at least one of these in my five-inch collection, but the design is close enough to the Classic versions and I have four of those standing on my shelf, so I’m good.

I opted not to buy any of the new scale Weeping Angels, so tomorrow we’re going to wrap up this wave with a look at the Cybermen!

Jul 16 2013

Doctor Who: Daleks (3 ¾” Scale) by Character Options

Like it or not, the NuWho scale change is upon us. A couple of weeks back  I checked out The Doctor and Clara, last week it was the TARDIS, and today we’re looking at Daleks. While we Who collectors can wring our hands and gnash our teeth over the fact that we will never get a five-inch scale Clara, or Series 7 Ice Warriors or Cybermen, the Daleks released in CO’s new 3 ¾” line are undeniably a welcome treat. These guys have already been released in the old scale and I have plenty on my shelf to go with my five-inch collection, so there’s no heartbreaking exclusivity issue. Not to mention, I’ve wanted proper 3 ¾” scale Daleks for my other non-Who figures to fight for as long as I can remember. This is win-win, folks, so long as they turned out better than the last two figures we looked at. Here’s a spoiler… they did!

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This is the same packaging as we saw last week. The only real difference is that there is no figure stand included.

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That’s right, Mr. Dalek! As much as I like the New Paradigm Daleks as toys (not so much on the screen), I’m glad CO went with the regular NuWho Dalek for this scale, or RTD Dalek if you prefer. This is the now familiar coppery colored Dalek first introduced in the Series 1, Ninth Doctor story, “Dalek.” I’m also happy to report that these little guys are like shrunken down versions of their larger scale predecessors with fantastic sculpts and nice clean paintwork. Seriously, if you own the larger scale versions, you should know exactly what to expect from these little little beauties.

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Interestingly enough there appear to be some variant Daleks in the line. Some variations are as subtle as the different length eye stalks. So far, I’ve picked up four of these little guys and only one of those has the smaller eye stalk, so it’s clearly a chase figure. But apparently some black Daleks have also turned up in circulation in the UK and are fetching high prices on the secondary market.

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Articulation is identical to CO’s five-incher Daleks. The head turns, the eye stalk can raise and lower, and the arms are on ball joints. If you turn him over, he even has the same locomotion as the other Dalek figures, with two wheels in the back and a rotating wheel up front.

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If you can’t tell, I’m thrilled with these little Daleks. They take everything that is great about the larger versions and reduce them to the 3 3/4″ scale. Honestly, even if CO hadn’t rebranded NuWho into this scale and just produced these Daleks, I still would have bought a ton of them for the sheer crossover potential alone.

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The only downside. Even with four in my collection now, I have another on the way to me. Will I stop there? Who knows!

 

Jul 15 2013

Marvel (Iron Man) Legends: Ultron by Hasbro

If you’re keeping score at home, Marvel Monday is usually reserved for Marvel Universe figures, but I’m using July to catch up on some of my Legends figures, specifically the second half of Hasbro’s Iron Man themed wave. Today’s figure is Ultron… wait, Ultron? In an Iron Man themed wave?  Well, I guess he’s an Avengers villain and considering that Marvel recently had a little something called Age of Ultron going on, I can forgive them for squeezing Ultron into here. Truth be told, I was really looking forward to getting a Legends scale Ultron in my collection. And then I got him… aaaand… ok, lovely Jameson… help me through this one with your alcoholy goodness.

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There’s the packaging for this isolated little stand-alone wave of Iron Man Legends. It is also the “Iron Monger Series,” which means we get another Build-A-Figure part for Monger. This time it’s the head. I’ve said all there is to say about this packaging in the past four looks at this wave, so let’s move on.

Ok, where to begin? Let’s get my biggest (and really only major) issue with this figure out of the way first. It’s the plastic. I don’t like it. The bulk of this figure is cast from this awful-looking swirly silver plastic that just screams “cheap” to me. It’s also inconsistent in that some parts have a subtle blue hue to them while others have a slightly gold or tan hue, and still others are dead silver. Ultron is a figure that uses hardly any paint apps whatsoever, so it’s kind of important that they get the quality and look of the plastic right and I’m sorry to say, this stuff just doesn’t cut it for me. I can understand not wanting to paint the entire figure in metallic silver, paint is expensive, but if you’re not going to paint him, Hasbro, use better looking plastic.

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And that’s a shame, because the sculpting on this figure is pretty incredible. Ok, the boots put me off a tad, as they seem rather chunky, but everything else is impressive. I like the segmented sections of his arms and legs, as well as the slight bulk to his chest and shoulder armor. Turn the figure around and he’s got a really cool spine sculpted into his back. The head, however, is what really ties the figure together for me. They really nailed the ant-like homage in Pym’s design, the red paint apps on the eyes and mouth really make the head pop. There’s a lot right with this figure, and that’s what ultimately makes him rather disappointing.

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Ultron sports a ton of useful articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips. The arms feature swivels in the biceps, double hinges in the elbows, and hinges and swivels in the wrists. The legs swivel at the hips, have double hinged knees, and swivels and hinges in the ankles. He can also swivel at the waist and he has an ab crunch hinge in the torso. Poseability is not one of this figure’s problems.

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It could be that I’m making the look of the bare plastic on this figure into too big of an issue and I’m rather interested to see what other collectors thing of him. It could also be that I was so excited to get this Ultron in hand that my expectations were set pretty high. But in fairness, those expectations were based on Hasbro’s own preliminary photos where it looked like Ultron had a much nicer silver sheen rather than swirly cheap-looking plastic. I don’t mind so much when they use this stuff sparingly, but when it’s used on practically the whole figure it just doesn’t look right to me. Next Monday, we’ll take a look at the last figure in this wave… Iron Man’s Mark 42 armor!

Jul 13 2013

Femme Fatales: Steampunk Lexi by Diamond Select

Yesterday I made the long trek to my “neighborhood” comic shop. It’s about a forty-five minute drive, so I usually make an afternoon out of it by taking a few years off my life and getting a burger and sack of fries at Five Guys before heading into the “shop-o-nerd-bliss” to see what kind of trouble I could get into. Besides picking up a Deadpool hardcover and the third TPB of Brubaker’s Winter Soldier, I also came home with this little honey. I don’t collect Diamond’s Femme Fatales line, but poor Lexi has been languishing there for a long while and discounted deeply enough that I was persuaded to put her on my shelf.

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The package is what I’ve come to expect from PVC statues. It’s nothing special, just a window box that shows you the goods. There’s a photo of the statue on the back along with a blurb about Lexi and what inspired her creation. It’s also pretty badly shelf-worn, which is probably why they were clearancing her out. Inside the statue is cradled between two clear plastic trays. There’s no tape or anything, so she’s easy to get out and the package is totally collector friendly. Out of the package, Lexi stands about nine inches tall, putting her roughly in scale with a lot of other PVC statues on the market. She was designed by Art Asylum and sculpted by Sam Greenwell,

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Straightaway, I really like the styling on this piece. As much as it’s advertised as steampunk, the sculpt reminds me a lot of a retro 40’s or 50’s style. I think I’m getting most of that from the portrait and the fact that Lexi is slightly chunkier than a lot of the anorexic female statues we see. I don’t know if it’s intentional, but that’s what I come away with. She’s also pretty conservatively dressed compared to a lot of the half-naked chick statues on the market (and on my shelf). If you’ve seen any of DC Collectibles new Bombshells of the DC Universe, it gives me that same kind of vibe. The pose is excellent. Lexi is standing with one leg back and one hip thrown seductively to the side. She’s holding up a weapon in her right hand, which is cocked at the elbow and she has a smaller gun concealed behind her back. She’s looking off to the side with a sly expression and smiling knowingly.

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The outfit is cool and looks like something you might see on a cosplayer at a convention, and we’ll come back to the cosplay concept in a tick. She’s got high-heeled boots, thigh-high stockings, a skirt and corset, and a leather half jacket. Of course, she’s also wearing goggles up on the top of her head, because you can’t be steampunk without goggles! The detail in the outfit is quite good, although the skirt is a tad thick. The texturing and paintwork both add a nice level of credibility to the sculpt. Indeed, the paintwork on my piece is just about flawless, right down to all the tiny little silver buttons and the laces on her boots. I really dig the base, which is comprised of three giant, weathered looking gears.

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The weapons are cool, so long as you can get past the fact that her primary sidearm looks uncannily similar to a repainted nerf gun. Seriously, it’s the N-Strike Maverick! I like the design, but it seems like they could have come up with something more original. On the other hand, it brings us back to the whole cosplay vibe, which I think gives this piece a lot of unique charm. I do find the lack of a holster rather conspicuous. Where you going to put that thing when you’re trying to eat a hot dog at the concessions stand, hon?

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In the end, I’m glad I took Lexi home with me, but it has to be considered that at $25 she was pretty far from the original retail, which I understand was closer to forty bucks. I’m not saying that she isn’t worth that from a quality standpoint. She’s certainly an exceptionally nice looking statue and doesn’t have a lot to apologize for. I keep coming back to the 40’s vibe this piece throws off and I find myself liking it even more. On the other hand, I don’t think I would have paid out that much for a non-licensed statue. I will say that now that I have some experience with this line, I am tempted to hunt down the Dawn or Darkchylde statues.

Jul 12 2013

Doctor Who: “Spin and Fly” TARDIS (3 ¾” Scale) by Character Options

So far CO’s new 3 ¾” action figures aren’t exactly lighting my fire. In fact the first two we looked at, The Doctor and Clara, were barely passable and that’s even with me grading on a really generous curve on the count of I love all things Doctor Who. Well, today we’re cranking things up a notch with a look at the new 3 ¾” scale TARDIS. I am fortified with Jameson and ready to go…

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The TARDIS comes in a window box that reminds me a lot of the packaging for the last five-inch scale TARDIS I purchased. I believe that was the “Christmas Adventure Set.” In any event, the point is that the package still retains a lot of the same look as the older figures, right down to the now (thankfully) obsolete “DWARTIS” logo. Ok, BBC, enough with that shit already. Get rid of it! The window gives you a pretty good look at the TARDIS inside and the back and side panels point out some of the various features. There’s no “Try Me” feature, as the TARDIS does not come equipped with the three AAA batteries that you’ll need for the FX. The box is collector friendly and unlike the last TARDIS I bought, this one is pretty easy to get out.

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While I think I shall always prefer the super weathered and decrepit look of the 70’s TARDIS, I’ve become pretty fond of the one currently used in the series, particularly the return of the “St. John’s Ambulance” crest. CO’s new version is more or less just a scaled down version of the last 11th Doctor TARDIS, albeit there is a brand new illustration inside depicting the current console room interior. Seeing as how the Classic TARDIS toys haven’t had any inserts, I wasn’t expecting this, and it is a very welcome inclusion. The front doors are still independently spring-loaded and they will each lock in an open position. The door for the phone cubby doesn’t open, but that’s fine with me. The “Police Box” and “Pull to Open” signs are all stickers, which seem pretty strongly affixed. The coloring is nice and the wood texture is all sculpted in, making this a great looking toy with little detail sacrificed for the drop to the smaller scale.

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On the down side, CO chose to put the battery compartment on the back of the TARDIS instead of on the bottom, or perhaps inside. That means that while the toy looks great when viewed from three of the four sides, the back looks ugly, with a big seam running through the doors and an exposed screw head. In fairness, this was a problem on the some of the other TARDIS toys they’ve released. It’s not a critical flaw to me, as my TARDIS inevitably wind up standing in display cases with the back to the wall and out of sight.

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What’s that? You say you want gimmickry? Well, they don’t call this the “spin and fly” TARDIS for nothing. It comes with a clear plastic base that you can plug into the bottom so you can spin it! It does not, however, fly, and CO made the effort to point that out on the package! The spinning gimmick does nothing for me, but this is a line designed for kids, so it gives me no small delight to know that kids somewhere will be running through their houses spinning their little toy TARDIS with glee!

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The lights and sound are confined to the flashing lamp on the top and the demat and remat sounds. As with past TARDIS toys, the sounds are activated when you pick up the TARDIS or put it down. The SFX on this one are on par with the very first Flight Control TARDIS, which is a very good thing. Some of the recent SFX TARDIS releases have had a truncated sequence, but here it’s nice and long and I love it. The lamp flashes during the demat and remat sequences and then stays lit for a short while after and eventually goes into sleep mode.

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This new 3 ¾” scale TARDIS costs around $20 to $25 depending on your importer. I always recommend the amazing folks at Who North America for all you Doctor Who merchandising needs, but they are currently sold out. As for the value, I’m probably the wrong person to ask, because I’m willing to pay almost anything for Doctor Who toys and merchandise, so when you offer me a TARDIS that’s scaled with so many of my other collections, I’m happy to plunk down the Andy Jackson and not think twice. In the end, this is an excellent toy, possibly proving that there’s hope for the 3 ¾” line yet.

Ok… now let the crossovers begin!

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Jul 11 2013

Mordles by Toyfinity!

I often lament that I don’t spend more time and money on the vintage portion of my collection. It tends to be a fallback for when current releases are slow, but with a list of pre-orders longer than my arm I’m having enough trouble keeping up with new stuff. That having been said, a huge part of what makes me a toy collector today is still fueled by nostalgia so it’s fun for me to look back whenever I get a chance.

In 1985 Ideal invited unsuspecting children to “enter a world of unspeakable horror” with Rocks & Bugs & Things. R&B&T were toys that I never had as a kid, but one of my best friends did. He had a lot of oddball stuff that I loved playing with whenever I went over to his house. Bloodstone scared the shit out of me because he reminded me of that freaky claymation thing from Troma’s Basket Case. Seriously, I was terrified of that toy! But any toy line that had characters named Gravel Guts, Blooderfly and Wicked Cricket instantly won my undying love, even if they didn’t get any of my parents’ money. R&B&T also featured the creepy little Mordles, which were basically food for all the horrible critters. Anyway, fast forward to now and intrepid toy collector and all around jewel of the community, John Kent, secured the rights to some very cool, but mostly forgotten, toy licenses. R&B&T is one of those licenses and he has seen fit to once again unleash Mordles upon the world!

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These brand new Mordles come in a pack of 10 and they are baggied with a printed, folded and stapled card. The artwork is cool and the back of the card has a little blurb about the origins of these extraterrestrial critters and a nod to the original toy line. While the packaging may seem simple, it harkens back to the kind of cool little collectible toys that I used to toss away my allowance on at the corner Rite Aid. I almost didn’t want to take them out of the bag, because they all look so adorably angry at being all jammed in there together. Nevertheless… let’s bust them out!

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Looking like an unholy mash-up between angry gummi bears and marshmallow peeps, each of these ten little guys are unique and brimming with personality and attitude. I’m betting the group I have here could strip the flesh off a man’s arm in about sixty seconds. Seriously, they’re all looking at me like they hate me! They’re each molded in bright yellow plastic with blue paint apps for their eyes, teeth and toenails, but they are also available in a reverse color scheme. I half expected these to be super bendy and squishy, but they’re actually made out of very nice, high quality plastic. I thought I’d be able to choose a favorite, but each one has his own charms, and it’s just impossible to choose one over the others. These things are loads of fun and I’ve already used them as a plague of creatures sent by Skeletor, a gaggle of imps summoned by the evil wizard, Kelek, and extraterrestrial pests that have infested the TARDIS.

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The yellow set also comes with a very cool bonus… a Manglor Egg! I may not have had any Rocks & Bugs & Things, but I sure as hell had me a Manglor and it was awesome. Truly a stroke of toy design genius, a Manglor was a rubbery figure that you could rip apart and stick back together. They were tons of fun to play with, but sadly, once you ripped that sucker apart, it was never going to be quite the same again. Why a Manglor Egg with a set of Mordles? I’m guessing it harkens back to Toyfinity’s philsophy that all toy lines are beholden in some way to their predecessors and that toys are the most fun when you mix them up with other toy lines. In this case, it certainly rings true, since the Manglor Egg makes a great storage vessel to contain my unruly Mordles and keep them from infesting all my other toys.

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The regular pack with egg is $16 and the “Crawler” set is only $12 and you can buy both over at Toyfinity’s website. Nostalgia was the main drive to get me to purchase these, although I’ll confess I also felt obligated to buy a set because I really respect the initiative and what these little guys represent. It’s sad to think how many toy licenses that mean something special to us collectors are just wasting away and it’s pretty damn cool that someone is able to breathe new life into some of them again. I really dig these little guys and I’ll definitely be picking up a batch of the blue ones as well. But above all, these little guys make me excited to see what Toyfinity has in store for their up and coming Robo Force figures.

Jul 10 2013

The First Avenger: Red Skull Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys, Part 2

Alrighty, I’m back to finish up my look at Hot Toys’ Red Skull figure. Yesterday we covered the figure as he comes out of the box, but as we all know about Hydra, “cut off one head and two more will take its place!” so it’s only natural that this figure comes with a spare head. Wait, doesn’t that mean he should have two spare heads? Well, I was never very good at the maths. Let’s pop his noggin and take a look.

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I’m still relatively new to Hot Toys figures and I’ve never swapped a head on one before, so I got to pop my cherry on this one. Boy, was I nervous! It took a lot more force than I thought it would, but thankfully everything went Ok. I gushed enough about the Hugo Weaving sculpt sculpt yesterday, but I gotta say the actual Red Skull portrait is every bit as amazing. The wizards at HT have done their usual magic, in this case reproducing the make-up used for the film. Christ, this guy is creepy looking, with the same great spark of life in his eyes and a grim visage. As impressed as I am with the Weaving likeness, I have to confess that this is the head I’m going to be using for display. It seems a crime to keep the other head, as nice it is, tucked away in a box, but truth be told, I doubt I’ll be swapping them out much.

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Of course, besides the head switch you also get the full length leather trench coat, which is f’cking glorious! I was not looking forward to the ordeal of getting this thing onto the figure, as I’ve heard some horror stories online. In practice, it wasn’t nearly as tough as I thought it would be. The coat is cleverly designed with a series of interior snaps that help the coat fit snugly and stay in place. The interior snaps were a little tough, but once those were on, everything else went plenty smooth. There’s also a redundant Velcro belt that cinches the waist tightly so that you can put the regular belt on top of it and it won’t pop off.

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Once the coat is on, and a little futzing later, it looks incredible. The material is pliable and feels great. The silver buttons coupled with the embossed Hydra belt buckle, the red piping and Hydra emblems on the shoulders, all contrast nicely with the rich black faux leather. The coat also fits quite well. I was afraid it was going to look puffy and awkward when worn over the uniform, but it’s an impressive piece of tailoring. I can’t see myself ever wanting to display the figure with the coat off again.

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And then there are the accessories. First off, you get the basic Hot Toys figure stand. This one is identical to the one that came with my Captain America figure, only with the Red Skull nameplate. You also get the Cosmic Cube and a pistol. The Cube is just a clear blue plastic cube. It’s a simple piece, but since it played such a big role again in Avengers, I’m happy to have one. He can hold it well enough in either of the open hands, but for best results there’s a hand specifically made for clutching it. The pistol is a very cool piece and is one of the custom Hydra weapons designed to be powered by the Cube’s energy. It’s a fairly well detailed piece, right down to the visible wiring.

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The frustrating thing about Red Skull is that he’s two figures in one, and unless you have an extra body and pair of boots lying around, you can’t enjoy both at once. So who to display? Johann Schmidt or Red Skull? Fortunately, it’s an easy decision for me. I love the Weaving head sculpt, and he looks great in his uniform, but once I popped on the Red Skull head and the amazing trench coat, I knew that was the way he was going to reside on my shelf. At $200, he’s a bit pricey for a figure with very little accessories, but with two amazing head sculpts and that great coat, I think it’s easy to see where the money went. Besides, I think the days of Hot Toys offering figures for under $200 are soon coming to an end. It took me a while to getting around to buying him, but he’s a gorgeous figure, and I’m thrilled to finally have him standing next to my First Avenger Captain America.