May 7 2016

Sword Art Online II: Sinon (ALfheim Version) Prize Figure by Taito

To me Taito has always been a company I associate with classic twitchy arcade goodness. I seriously love me some Darius. But, I’ve only recently discovered their line of licensed anime prize figures and I’ve become pretty addicted to scarfing these things up when I can find them. And one of those licenses just happens to be Sword Art Online, a personal favorite of mine. Today, I’m checking out Sinon from Sword Art Online II. This is Sinon as she appeared in ALfheim Online, where she adopted the avatar of the Cait Sith race and traded her Hecate II rifle for one of Lisbeth’s bows. Once a sniper, always a sniper!

The box is fully enclosed with full color shots of the figure on three of the four panels. The language is mostly Japanese, so the package isn’t at all western friendly, but that’s OK. It all adds to the charm of the import. The side panels have perforated areas that can be punched out if you want to create carrying handles. Inside, the figure comes in a plastic bag with some additional scraps of plastic to protect the paint from rubbing. The only assembly required is to peg in her left arm at the elbow and peg the feet into the base.

All set up, Sinon measures about 7-inches from the bottom of the base to the tips of her adorable little cat ears. Her outfit is nicely recreated, complete with her green duster, chest and shoulder armor, shorts, and chunky boots. She even has her blue cat tail. Every detail is part of the sculpt and looks great.

The paint is where the statue betrays it’s cheaper price point. There’s some white paint transfer on her green coat and the yellow piping could be sharper and more evenly applied in some areas. With that having been said, there’s also some great paintwork here as well, like the beautiful silver used for the armor. The plastic used for her skin tones is also excellent. Overall, I’d say this is the kind of paintwork I would expect out of a Western 6-inch action figure in the $20 price range. It’s not particularly bad, but it a reminder that this is a value piece.

The portrait here is solid. Her large eyes are flawlessly printed onto the figure and she sports a determined expression. I love the way her sculpted hair hangs over and frames her face. The hair in general sports great detail from her ears down to the hanging ponytails and the soft blue they used is quite nice.

The bow is soft and flexible, but not so much that it seems in danger of warping. It’s permanently attached to her left hand and the arm pegs in to the socket very securely. Finally, the figure comes on a simple, round black base with pegs to support her feet.

At $25, Sinon is a bit higher than many of the Banpresto Prize figures, but still a far cry from the $80-100 that most of my anime figures average. And that makes me seriously happy to have discovered this line because with my diverse and eclectic collecting habits, I can’t always spare $100+ a pop for statues of all my favorite characters. If this piece is indicative of the rest of Taito’s line, it seems to offer a nice compromise. The figure may be a bit smaller than the usual 1/8 scale anime figures. And sure, the paint may not be as sharp as those expensive premium pieces, but for the value this line can’t be beat and I’m looking forward to featuring many more of these here on FFZ.

May 6 2016

DC Icons: (#09) Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) by DC Collectibles

Today’s Feature is running a little late, because I just got back from seeing Captain America: Civil War. I want to talk about it, I want to review tons of Marvel figures and bask in all the Marvel greatness, but in a bitter turn of irony, it happens to be DC Friday. That means I’m going to do the right thing and open up another DC Icons figure, this time the Wave 2, Deluxe Green Lantern! Hey, Green Lantern had a movie, didn’t he? Oooooh. Riiiight…

While the style of packaging is the same as the previous Icons releases, Green Lantern is a Deluxe, which means he costs a little more and comes in bigger box with a bunch more stuff. The larger tray has the figure to the right and all his construct parts spread out beside him. It’s an impressive set that boasts 26 pieces. The side panel notes that this version of Hal comes from the Dark Days story arc, which I found very adequate, but not as good as as the preceding stint by Geof Johns. Anyway, considering the number of pieces here, I may actually hold on to this box just to have somewhere to keep all this stuff.

So, obviously Hal sports his New 52 design, which isn’t all that big a break from many of his previous looks. I dig it, but then I didn’t have much of a problem with any of the New 52 costumes. Just about every detail in the costume is actually part of the sculpt from the borders of his green “vest” to the tops of his boots and his Lantern Corps emblem is printed on the raised disk in his chest. And of course, his power ring is sculpted and painted on his finger.

The paint here is overall quite good, with the only exception being an extra dollop of green on his chest to the right of his emblem. I’m not sure if that was added to correct a flaw or just a drip, but it’s worth noting all the same, especially since the paint on this line has been more or less flawless so far. The metallic green looks great and contrasts nicely with the black matte and white gloves.

The portrait is sold enough and probably one of the better ones I’ve seen in this series. If you’ve been reading my Features on this line, you know I’m not overly enamored with the head sculpts. With that having been said, the hair looks good, I like the furled brow, and the mask is part of the sculpt as well as painted. Hal is wearing a rather determined face, which fits the book this figure is pulled from.

Articulation is right in line with what we’ve been seeing in this series. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and wrists. The elbows have double hinges, and there are swivels both in the biceps and in the forearms. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinged knees, and the ankles are hinged and feature lateral rockers. The torso sports a hinge, which is set down by the waist, and there’s a ball joint in the chest. Finally, the neck is ball jointed.

While the base figure is quite good, the real draw here comes from all those extra goodies in the box. For starters, Hal comes with two pairs of hands: One set of fists and one set of grabby hands. He also comes with his Green Lantern battery.

You get one stand-alone construct, which is a giant fist cast in beautiful translucent green plastic. This piece looks fantastic, but is a little problematic. It fits right over Hal’s right hand, but to accommodate his construct armor, his forearms can be un-pegged and the connection is a little weak. If you can’t see where this is going… putting the fist construct on all the way over the fist means that when you pull it off, the arm is going to un-peg and stay stuck in the fist. At this point, it’s frustrating to get it out, so I try not to put it all the way on.

And then you have the full set of construct armor and it is absolutely amazing. It’s all cast in the same translucent green plastic and features boots, upper leg pieces, the arm weapons, shoulder pieces, the torso and helmet harness, and a removable backpack with removable wings. The boots and legs come apart to fully enclose around the legs, the front of the torso is hinged to open, the jetpack is hinged, and the wings on the jetpack are ball jointed.

The fit of the pieces are designed so as not to interfere with the articulation, and that’s quite a clever feat of design. The only thing that’s really lost are the ankle rockers. It’s also impressive how most everything more or less stays put when he’s wearing it. Sometimes I have to re-position the torso piece and sometimes the shoulders will pop off, but otherwise, it fits and stays on really well. The translucent plastic with the figure visible inside creates a beautiful effect and is pretty damn convincing as a ring construct.

Hal is the first Deluxe in the line and as such, he set me back an extra ten bucks, which isn’t a bad deal considering how much is in the box. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that this is my favorite Hal Jordan figure in my collection, and that’s saying something because he’s represented in a fair number of different lines. As a normal release, Hal would have been a perfectly solid and worthwhile figure, but when DC Collectibles threw in that lovely set of armor, they really went above and beyond with this one. I’ve got only one more Icons figure to check out before I’m all up to date and waiting on Wave 3, so next Friday I’ll take a look at Black Adam!

May 5 2016

Transformers Combiner Wars: G2 Stunticons Box Set by Hasbro, Part 4: Menasor!

Here we are at the final installment of my look at Hasbro’s Generation 2 Stunticons. I’ve already checked out Motormaster and the four Deluxe figures, but before we get to Menasor, let’s take a quick look at the runt of the litter: Blackjack!

I was curious to see what they would do with the tiny Stunticon sports car, since Blackjack is the one figure that Hasbro didn’t have a G2 original to reference. They went for a purple and blue deco that matches Motormaster fairly closely and I think it looks fine. He sports a blue G2 Decepticon emblem on his hood and the windows are painted black. You can still plug his axe onto the back of the car to form a spoiler and what I like to think is a roof cannon, because… why not?

The transformation here is still as simple and clever as always. The robot mode balances out the color scheme by exposing more of the blue. I still like the way the wheels are angled back on his shoulders and the bulk of the car’s top becomes his backpack. He’s a great looking little Legends figure.

Plenty of ball joints makes for solid articulation and he can hold his axe in either hand. The only thing missing is a Decepticon emblem somewhere on his front. I like my Transformers to wear their faction symbols proudly. Based on the transformation, it’s easy to see why he doesn’t have one, and it was an issue common to the previous Blackjack.

For a mold that’s been around the block three times already, I think this guy still holds up well. I’d put this one tied with the original Blackjack release as my two favorites and Hot Rodimus bringing up a distant third. But enough about Blackjack… let’s form G2 Menasor!

So, some of you may recall that I wasn’t all that keen on Menasor’s combined mode the first time around and I’m sorry to say that this G2 version doesn’t do a lot to improve on that. Of course, my issues with Menasor had nothing to do with his paint job, so I wasn’t expecting a repaint to solve anything. With that having been said, this version feels slightly more stable to me. Just getting the previous release to stand beside him was a chore. Unfortunately, he still suffers from a host of problems, like the shoulders coming un-pegged every time I move his arms, and the fact that Blackjack will not peg into the chest on his own. I used heaping helpings of blue tack to get him to stick for the photos and even then he popped out a few times. This guy is just no fun at all to play with because he keeps falling down or falling apart.

As for the coloring… it’s brilliant! The fact that they matched the coloring between Blackjack and Motormaster makes for a good looking chest piece, at least while he stays in place. My preferred combination here is the same as the other Menasor with Dead End and Wildrider making the legs. It works for this deco pretty well as it gives the upper half a more uniform color and makes the legs really pop. It’s a striking deco to be sure.

In the end, I always knew this series of Features was going to be anti-climactic because Menasor remains my least favorite of the three Combiner Wars teams that I own (the others being Defensor and Superion). But just like the first time around, I bought these guys mainly for the individual modes and as a team, these figures did not disappoint at all. They look incredible on the shelf and owning them has convinced me to grab the G2 Superion set as well because I just really want a Generation 2 shelf in my modern Transformers display. With an MSRP of $99, the value here feels about right, figuring on four Deluxes at $16 a piece, a Voyager at $25, and a Legends at $10. I was able to grab these guys for $85 and that made the deal all the sweeter.

Next week, Transformers Thursday is going to go back into a short hiatus, so that I can work a three-parter into the middle of the week. It should return the following Thursday, but it’ll likely remain spotty throughout the Summer as I wait for Takara’s Unite Warriors teams to be released.

May 4 2016

Star Wars: May the 4th “The Force Awakens” 3 3/4-inch Figure Opening Special!

Strap yourselves in, kiddies, because it’s Star Wars Day and I’m celebrating by opening up the pile of 3 3/4-inch Force Awakens figures that I have slowly amassed and stacked in the corner. All eight of them! You’ve heard of speed dating? Well this is going to be speed reviewing. Quick and dirty. Let’s face it, while these figures are fun and all, they don’t require a lot of time. This will also help me to get caught up on the older figures so I can start hunting for some of the more recent releases that have been rather difficult to find.

Here they are in the packages… God, I still love these packages! If I had to do it over, I might have considered keeping all my TFA figures sealed, because they really do look amazing on the cards. The character art is fantastic and the coloring is bright and catches the eye. If all I collected was Star Wars, I would have definitely picked up a couple of each and hung these things all over my walls. But, I’ve got a lot of figures to cover, so let’s get right to it and start off with…

X-Wing Pilot Ello Asty! Asty was a bit more than a background character, as he actually had a couple of lines in the film, and boy did I hate his voice. He sounded like an obnoxious 80’s cartoon character. Also, this is another X-Wing Pilot to go into the Resistance X-Wings I don’t have. I’ll confess, I wasn’t too excited to get him because I was expecting this to be a recycled X-Wing Poe with a new head, but it’s actually a distinctly different sculpt, so color me surprised. On the other hand, this isn’t a huge improvement over the crappy Poe figure either. The white paint on the vest shows some chips and I still don’t like the painted yellow visors.

Asty comes with a little pistol that fits into the angled holster on his left leg and he can hold it in either hand. I’ve got to try to keep an eye on this one, since I already lost Poe’s. The Build-A-Weapon piece can peg into his back and double as a pretty cool winged jetpack.

Next up is General Hux. I haven’t been able to add him to my 6-inch Black Series collection, so I guess this little guy will have to do for now. He’s a really nice figure. The head sculpt isn’t a bad likeness for this scale, the hat looks good and he comes complete with those epic sideburns and his even more epic space lapels! The silver First Order emblem on his shoulder and striping on his sleeves looks sharp. I also like the way they worked the trench coat into the 5-POA style.

Hux comes with a tiny pistol, which can be held in either hand, but there’s no holster for it. His weapon piece is… surprise! Another jetpack! I actually dig this piece because it looks like it can double as a drone or flying droid. The next figure I opened is the Snowtrooper and it occurs to me that I already reviewed him a little while back. This is a second one I bought so that I could do this…

Yeah! Hux looks bitchin’ when flanked by a couple First Order Snowies. Also, I’d be totally lying if I said I was going to stop at just two of these guys. It’s a really great little figure.

Next is The Guavian Enforcer is one of my favorite new designs in the film. I don’t mind that they had short screen time. That’s all part of the fun of Star Wars and universe building with action figures! This is a fantastic sculpt with a crazy amount of detail all over his outfit. It’s hard to believe the X-Wing pilots and this figure are part of the same series because they vary so much in quality. The coloring here is great too. Not only does the deep red and black deco look great, but the paint is all sharp. He’s definitely one of my favorite figures in this line, and I’ll have to pick up some more to form my own little Death Gang.

The Enforcer comes with a short blaster rifle that he can wield in either hand. His weapon part is a large white and blue sniper rifle. He can hold it just fine on its own, and it can also combine with Hux’s drone.

Next is the Resistance droid PZ-4CO. I was very anxious to pick up this guy because a love collecting droids in this scale. Also, let’s face it. Apart from BB-8, this is the only other 3 3/4-inch droid we got out of the movie. 4CO is a delightfully bizarre design that’s basically a variant 3PO body with a long hunched neck. I love that the body is similar to 3PO’s, but still a brand new sculpt and the head is really cool. There’s some nice detailing all over this guy and the blue plastic with gray and red paint apps look great. 4CO comes with a pair of boosters that can attach to the figure’s legs. I hate them and immediately cast them into The Bottomless Tote of Forgotten Accessories!

And how about Goss Toowers? Like more than a few TFA figures, I had no idea who this guy was until I read the back of the package. Apparently, he’s a mechanic that worked at the Resistance Base. I’ll have to watch my Blu-Ray again and see if I can spot him. I have virtually nothing to say about him. He’s not a bad figure, just kind of a dumpy looking alien with a helmet and overalls. It features a decent sculpt and OK paint. The fact that you can only see his eyes reminds me a bit too much of Constable Zuvio. He comes with a small laser pistol, which may replace the one that belonged to X-Wing Pilot Poe’s, which I lost. Hey, if the Ugnaughts were good enough to get figures and stand on my shelf, than Goss Toowers can too. Oh yeah, his Build-A-Weapon part is a giant component with a tiny handle that looks ridiculous if he holds it. It too is getting banished to TBToFA!

Did someone say Constable Zuvio? Well, here he is! By receiving a figure and not actually being in the movie for more than a frame, he has probably garnered more attention than if he were to have been a co-star. I don’t care about his conspicuous absence. He’s a cool looking alien and I’ve already created an elaborate backstory for him in my head. His 6-inch Black Series release was a solid figure and this little guy is too.

Zuvio features a removable backpack and his staff-gun-poleaxe thing. His Build-A-Weapon parts are a pair of axes. I like these, mainly because you can shorten the handles into pegs and he can hold them pretty well. I think I have all the parts to build whatever it is they go to, but I’m not motivated enough to find out. How many figures is that so far? Seven?

Well, just to prove I can count to eight, I’ve got one more figure to open up. This is Poe Dameron in his Resistance outfit and also one of the boxed “Armor Up” figures. Unlike the carded figures, these packages are collector friendly. They feature the same great looking style of colorful character art as the carded figures, although they take up an awful lot of space for just a 3 3/4-inch figure and accessory, so I don’t plan on keeping it.

I’m not a big fan of this “Armor Up” gimmick, which explains why Poe is the first one of these I bought. Unfortunately, I believe this is the only way to get Poe in his Resistance outfit in this scale. The head sculpt is laughably goofy at certain angles, but passable at others. Either way, I think this is a better likeness than the 6-inch Black Series figure, and that’s kind of a sad commentary on how hit-or-miss that line is. Poe comes with an impressive blaster rifle.

I think it’s funny that Hasbro used separate sculpts and paints for the Poe and Finn figures, especially when these are supposed to be the exact same jacket. This is one of the few instances where it would have made more sense to reuse the jacket and arms and they blew it.

The Armor Up piece is some kind of space-suit jetpack thing. I’ll confess that I find this appealing in a goofy Expanded Universe kind of way. Not that I’d consider displaying the figure with it, or buying up any more of these.

Phew! And that wraps up my May the 4th Figure Openingpaloosa while happily emptying out a corner of my Toy Closet. When it comes to 3 3/4-inch Star Wars figures, I keep coming back for more. My need to collect these things was imprinted in me at a young age, and I simply have no choice. I genuinely don’t even mind the 5-POA style any more. I think I’ve finally accepted it as charmingly retro. Either way, every time I open a new one of these figures I find myself wanting to hunt down more. There are still plenty of background characters that Hasbro could make, and I’m hoping that we may still see some more releases before things turn over to Rogue One merchandising.

May 3 2016

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (Series 2) by NECA

Fun fact: I saw E.T. a couple of times as a kid when it was originally out in theaters and I don’t think I’ve seen it all the way through since. Why? Because it freaking traumatized the living shit out of me! Even after all this time I still have that image in my head of white, half-dead E.T. lying like garbage on a creek bed with leaves stuck to him. My parents had to practically drag me out of that theater screaming. For some reason, they took me back to see it a little later and things went a little better. Oddly enough, I still loved E.T. and I had all the LJN toys and a whole bunch of stuffed E.T.’s, some of which were probably weird bootlegs. I can even remember one that was fashioned out of a leather-like material that felt like it came from a real skinned alien. Jesus! Anyway, I saw the Series 2 figures from NECA for a good price and they called out to me. I was in the mood for some nostalgia and NECA rarely ever steers me wrong.

These fellas come in sealed clam shells, which aren’t really collector friendly, unless you carefully cut across the back. Either way you’ll need a strong blade to get in and a stronger constitution to withstand the rush of plastic fumes that spray out. Mmmmm… Glorious!!! Series 1 consisted of “Galactic Friend” E.T. and “Transvestite” E.T. (with the second being my un-official name for him) whereas this one includes “Telepathic” E.T. and “Night Flight” E.T. Let’s start with the later…

As the name suggests, this version recreates the moonlit bike flight where E.T. is all bundled up in a towel in the basket of Elliot’s bike. As such, the figure looks absolutely spot on. The towel is flexible plastic with a cloth texture and plenty of realistic wrinkles. It surrounds the entire figure and only allows his adorable face to peek out. It’s a shame there isn’t a bike and basket to go with him. And that leads me to the reason I’ve passed this figure up a few times when I saw it on the pegs. I’m a dope, and I actually thought you were seeing all you were getting. But, nope…

The plastic blanket can be “unwrapped” and there is indeed a fully realized and articulated figure in there. You just unpeg the flap and unfold it. The E.T. that lies within is a fantastic figure with an absolutely spot-on sculpt. The wrinkles and creases in the skin alone are worth the price of admission and the color used here is right on the money. Even with all the E.T. figures and dolls I had as a kid, I would have killed for something this good.

Even from the back you can see his creepy back ribs and more of the effort that went into making the skin look super realistic. The articulation here is no slouch either, at least not considering E.T.’s rather limited nature. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The feet are also attached on rotating hinges. “I don’t like his feet!” SHUT UP, GERTIE!!! The collapsed neck is attached to the body with a ball joint and to the head with another. Remember that… two ball joints. It’ll be important later.

The portrait is superb. I don’t want to overdo it with my adoration of the skin texturing on this figure, but damn, there it is again in the face. The eyes feature a bit of a cartoony look to them, but I think it rather suits the figure. He’s also sporting his lovable, almost noble, expression. This is how I like to remember him most, rather than being dressed up like a crazy Aunt or dying on the bathroom floor. E.T. is just one of those timeless designs that walks the fine line between adorable and terrifying. I think that’s a big part of what made him work so well on the screen.

And so what we have here is a fantastic little all-purpose E.T figure for your shelf. The only way you can possibly follow up a figure this perfect is with E.T. in his bathrobe drunk out of his mind on Coors… so let’s do that!

While I would have voted for “Drunk E.T.” to appear on the package, NECA went with “Telepathic E.T.” and I can appreciate why. Obviously, this guy shares some parts with the vanilla E.T. we just looked at, but there’s plenty new here too. The body and feet are the same and that’s about it. The bathrobe uses that old trick we’ve seen out of Hasbro plenty of times, where the sculpted robe is basically a vest and the sleeves are part of the arm sculpts. It works well here and allows for full articulation in those shoulder joints. The baggy sleeves, on the other hand, do limit the range of those rotating hinges in the elbows a bit. It would have been interesting to see this figure attempted with a soft goods robe, but I still dig what we got here a lot.

The new head sculpt is absolutely hysterical. E.T. has had a few too many Coors and he’s starting to feel it. Ugh, I know exactly how he feels. Just looking at him makes me want to re-evaluate some of my life choices. His slack jaw and slightly exposed teeth are perfect.

This figure comes with a couple of neat accessories and one that I found too much to bother with. First up, we have the flowers that he brought back from the dead and then somehow went on to act as a barometer to his own health status. These look really good, both in terms of paint and sculpt, even if I didn’t fully comprehend the mumbo-jumbo surrounding their role in the movie.

Next up, you get the Speak n’Spell that he used to learn how to communicate with. Only he didn’t. That’s always how I remembered it, but he really just cannibalized it for parts and seemed to learn his communication skills from the television and Gertie. This is a decent accessory and I appreciate that they actually sculpted the damn thing, rather than just slap a sticker on a piece of plastic. Now, there is also an extended neck piece included in the box, but it is a nightmare to get the short neck to detach from the head. I did it once, but for a moment, I thought I had snapped off the ball joint. I wasn’t about to try it again. Sorry! In theory, though, it will work with either figure.

If I seem a little familiar with some particulars of a movie that I haven’t watched since I was a kid. That’s because I specifically cued it up before sitting down to write this and watched it all the way through for the first time in ages. My initial appraisal holds. This is a really weird film that drives home just how messed up a lot of kids movies were back in the day. I can see why it terrified and disturbed me so much, but I can also see why I fell in love with the character the way I did. In any event, these are fantastic figures and while I’ll probably never watch this damn movie again, I’m happy to have E.T. represented on my shelf. For good or for ill, he was a very influential character in my formative years and just maybe helped to plant the seeds that turned me into a hardcore horror movie junkie by the time I was in my teens.

May 2 2016

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Taskmaster by Hasbro

It took well over a month of Marvel Mondays, but I’m finally at the last packaged figure in the Red Skull/Onslaught Wave! And yes, I saved my most anticipated figure for last. Although with how great Demolition Man/Scourge turned out he’s going to be a tough act to follow. Let’s look at Taskmaster!

This is the last time we’ll be seeing the packaging from this wave, but I’ll bet you the next wave I look at won’t be much different. I know because I’m looking at them all stacked in the corner. Taskmaster comes in a standard window box and it is totally collector friendly. There’s a good deal of stuff packed in there, including the Red Skull head for the Onslaught Build-A-Figure. It’s also the last part I need to cobble that big boy together.

So, this isn’t my Taskmaster, but I knew that coming in. I do, however, think it’s a great looking figure. I had to do a little digging to find out that this design is based off of his appearance in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, a show that I have never seen. Obviously, I would have preferred something a little more classic in design, but there are enough common elements here to make this work for me. The buck feels a little slight to me for the character, but that might be because I’m used to seeing him with a large billowy cape. The figure includes a nice mix of painted buck and original sculpting. The legs are heavily armored and feature a silver plastic. There is a little of that swirly effect in the plastic, which I’m not overly fond of, but here it just looks like brushed steel, so I don’t mind it. Similar armor appears on the forearms, and you get sculpted elbow and knee pads, and some kick-ass boots. Literally. I mean, I think he kicks people in the ass with these boots.

Taskmaster features both a waist belt and a shoulder rig, each of which are separate pieces. The belt has sculpted pouches and a sweet little belt buckle. The shoulder straps have sculpted guns in the holsters. Usually guns sculpted in the holsters piss me off, but in this case, it would have been tough to do removable guns in the shoulder rigs without it looking too big and awkward. The paint here shares a similar deco with Scourge of black, silver, and white only here it’s more evenly balanced out. Everything is pretty sharp and clean, and I especially like the silver painted fingers.

You get two portraits for the figure. The stock head is closer to the classic Taskmaster with only with the skull silver with a little gold mixed in, instead of white. The skull mask is a brilliant piece of sculpting and the hood is sculpted separately from soft plastic and permanently attached to the head.

The other option is the Udon designed head. This is also a really nice looking piece, and while I prefer the workmanship and look of the classic head on it’s own, I have to sadly admit that to me, the Udon head’s style fits this body much better.

The articulation here is top notch. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the biceps. The ankles are on rotating hinges, but also feature lateral rocking movement. The torso has a swivel at the waist and an ab crunch hinge in the chest. Lastly, the head is ball jointed and hinged.

In addition to his extra head, Taskmaster comes with his shield and an energy sword. I assumed the shield would be a repaint Cap shield, but it’s totally smooth on the back, so I think it’s new. The paintwork on the front is damn near perfect and you get the familiar hinged clip and peg on the back so he can wear it on his back or equip it on his wrist.

The sword has a sculpted black hilt, and while the orange blade is rather soft and gummy, it does catch the light quite nicely.

Like his fellow “Mercenary of Mayhem,” Scourge, Taskmaster is a figure that really makes me stop and realize what a great time it is to be collecting Marvel 6-inch. As solid as many of the Legends figures are, it’s easy to take them for granted, especially when the pegs seem to be getting flooded with new ones every couple of months. But Scourge and Taskmaster are figures that just come together so beautifully, and are so damn fun to play with, that I need to just smile and say, “Thanks, Hasbro. You guys make a lot of stumbles, but you’re really kicking ass when it comes to Marvel Legends. Please, don’t ever stop.” Next Monday, I’ll finally put this wave to bed with a look at the Red Skull/Onslaught Build-A-Figure!

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Monthly Archives: May 2016

Sword Art Online II: Sinon (ALfheim Version) Prize Figure by Taito

DC Icons: (#09) Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) by DC Collectibles

Transformers Combiner Wars: G2 Stunticons Box Set by Hasbro, Part 4: Menasor!

Star Wars: May the 4th “The Force Awakens” 3 3/4-inch Figure Opening Special!

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (Series 2) by NECA

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Taskmaster by Hasbro

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