Apr 5 2016

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): Han Solo by Hasbro

You’d have to be living under a bantha not to know that today is the day The Force Awakens releases on Blu-Ray and DVD, giving us the home version of the first Star Wars film since Return of the Jedi in 1983. I’m just gonna let that lie there. I picked up my copy as well as going digital too so I could watch it over the weekend. I still adore this movie. The action sequences are awesome without being too over the top, well except for the tentacle monsters I could have done without, and the new characters are so endearing and instantly relate-able to me. But even after multiple viewings, I’m still surprised to find that Han Solo was one of my favorite things about the film. Ford broke out of his shell and gave us a fun and enjoyable performance. It seemed only right to check out his Black Series figure today.

The packaging… It’s black! It’s red! It’s figure #18!!! I do like the blurb on the back, which begins with, “The exploits of Han Solo are legendary…” Goddamn right, they are. From Scoundrel to Captain to General, when we were kids, this was the guy we all wanted to be when we grew up. And now he’s all grown up. And by that, I mean old. But don’t let that fool you, like Han in the film, this figure is pretty damn good!

For starters, I liked Han’s costume in TFA and this figure pulls it off nicely. It reminds me of a more grizzled version of his Bespin ensemble. The leather jacket is intricately detailed with stitch lines, rumples, pockets, and those silver tubes in his breast pocket. What are those? Seriously, if you have one of those books, tell me what those are!

The brown wash on the jacket is very effective in giving it a worn look. Hasbro seldom does a nice job with this type of weathering, but here it’s a home run. Even the high boots have a convincing leather texture and a sharp, high gloss finish. It kind of reminds me of a leather jacket that another character who looks like this used to wear. Hmmm. The whole ensemble is tied together by his trusty smuggler’s belt with the low slung holster on his right hip.

As for the portrait, it may be sad to say it, but I think this is Hasbro’s best 6-inch scale Harrison Ford yet. How crazy is that? They can’t quite get it right on the regular version, but this one is damn good. Don’t get me wrong, it still looks a little misshapen and wonky, but it’s easily identifiable to me and I think it looks a lot more like Ford does now than the original Black Series Han looked like Ford back then. I think this is one of those cases where they had a good sculpt and something in the factory went amiss. The only other thing really off here is the color of his hair. It looked a lot more gray on screen, where as this coif is brown with some gray highlights.

Naturally, Han comes with his trusty blaster and it too is a really nice piece of work. His right hand is clearly designed to hold it, as it has the trigger finger positioned correctly, but he can hold it in the off hand as well. The blaster also fits snugly into his hip holster.

The articulation is exactly what I’ve come to expect from this line. That equates to arms with rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Legs that are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels at the hips. The ankles are hinged and have some generous lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the torso and a hinge and ball joint in the neck.

I remember when I bought this case and thought, “WHERE THE F’CK IS MY AHSOKA TANO FIGURE? WHY DID YOU GIVE ME TWO LUKES??? NOW I KNOW WHY THE WORD “BAD” IS INCLUDED IN THE NAME OF YOUR STORE!!!” Wait, that’s not where I was going with that. Afterwards, I thought,“Oh, great. Old Han Solo is in this case. I’m sure that’ll be a great figure.” You see that was misplaced sarcasm, because it is a really great figure… at least by Black Series standards. Never would have I expected to enjoy this figure as much as I did. Simply put, it feels like a fitting final tribute to the lovable rogue. Because, I’m sure we won’t be getting any more Han Solo figures in the Black Series, right?

Apr 4 2016

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Sharon Carter by Hasbro

It’s yet another Marvel Monday here at FFZ and I am in the midst of running through the Red Onslaught Wave of Marvel Legends. I’ve already featured the Whirlwind and Cottonmouth as the “Forces of Evil” and today I’m going to look at the first of the two ladies that make up the “Agents of SHIELD.” It’s Sharon Carter!

Same deal as last time, the packaging is branded with a Captain America theme that includes a shield on the top flap and his name on the front. As this is one of those “variant slots” and shares it with Mockingbird, Agent Carter’s name doesn’t appear on the front, just the “Agents of SHIELD” moniker. Not to be confused with that TV Show that I just could not get into no matter how hard I tried. Seriously, for all you people who tell me I have a Marvel bias because I can’t stomach the DC Zack Snyder movies, I’m still willing to call the Marvel Cinematic Universe out when it deserves it. Marvel, that show sucks! Just stick with the movies… and the Netflix stuff. What? This has nothing to do with today’s Feature? Well, FINE, I better get back on track, hadn’t I? So, my point is that there isn’t much else new to be said about the package, so let’s jump right on in and look at the figure…

Heeeey, we’ve seen this body before! Yes, as most everyone (including my cat) suspected, Sharon is built off the same female SHIELD agent buck that has been floating around for a couple of years now. And while Hasbro has been doing some little tweaks and kit-bashing on this figure in the past, from the neck down this one is just a straight repaint of Maria Hill from the Agents of SHIELD 3-pack. The biggest change up here is the white suit, which I’ll concede does bring out some elements in the sculpt that weren’t as evident on the darker versions. It’s a good sculpt, with plenty of detail like texturing and piping, but this time around some of the details seem a little softer. Paint mostly consists of the black straps with some silver used on the fixtures, the holstered guns, and the zipper. The SHIELD emblem tampos on her shoulders look particularly nice.

The portrait isn’t bad, but it’s nothing outrageously special either. It looks familiar, almost like some of the Legends female head sculpts are blending together. I think the eyes are set a little far apart, but otherwise there’s not much to complain about here, other than the waxy plastic that doesn’t look like skin. The paint on the facial features is fairly solid and I do dig her sculpted ponytail.

With Sharon being the fourth version of this buck in my collection, the articulation holds no surprises. As a matter of fact… if Hasbro can keep reusing this buck, then two can play at that game. Let me just jump back to an earlier review and cut and paste and here we go… The arms are ball jointed in the shoulders and at the elbows and wrists. Sadly, there are no bicep swivels, but I’m coming to expect that omission in Hasbro’s female figures these days. The ball joints in the elbows make up for that a little. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double-hinged at the knees, and feature swivels in the thighs. The ankles have both hinges and rockers. There is no waist swivel, but you do get a ball joint in the torso and again for the neck.

Agent Carter comes with her twin pistols, which really aren’t accessories at all because THEY ARE STILL PERMANENTLY SCULPTED INTO HER HOLSTERS. Gah! Hasbro, why do you keep subjecting us to this outrage? I’m guessing that you knew how many times you were going to recycle this figure, the least you could have done was give her some working holsters.

Instead she comes with this really weird looking gun. I really don’t like this gun. It’s weird. It’s also super soft and comes warped right out of the package. Hasbro has plenty of regular automatic pistols in their Legends scale. I would have preferred one of those.

As critical as I’ve been about her, Sharon Carter really isn’t a bad figure, but she definitely feels phoned in to me. I do find it strange, however, that Hasbro can take one of their standard generic bucks and repaint a different costume on it over and over and few people (myself included) think twice about it, but when they do it with a body as distinctive as this one, it’s obvious and becomes tiresome. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite. With that having been said, it is nice to have Agent Carter join my SHIELD shelf and I’ve got no regrets about buying her. I’m aware that there are collectors out there who are none to fond of this particular buck, but it works fine for me and the recycling here was totally logical and expected. I’m always up for more SHIELD agents, not to mention I needed that leg for Red Skull. Next Monday… Mockingbird!

Apr 2 2016

Star Trek: Acrylic Display Stands (Classic Series Phaser and Star Trek III Phaser) by Flux Dimensions LLC

For the longest time, I tossed and turned at night because of a serious and nagging problem in my life. The root of the problem? My collection of Starfleet weapons. I had no place to display them. They sat in a plastic tote waiting for me to take them out and play with them. I would feel them in my hand for a while, aim them, make some pew pew noises, and then they back into the tote they went. I longed for the day someone would come up with a solution so that I could go back to living a normal life free of worry. And now that time is here, thanks to a company on Ebay called Flux Dimensions. They make acrylic display stands for a number of collectibles, including the Star Trek ships and weapons made by Diamond Select Toys. I bought a pair of these stands: One for my Classic Original Series phaser and one for my Star Trek III phaser and I’m going to take a quick look at them today.

The stands are advertised as custom made to order and some assembly is required. These factors worried me a little, because I envisioned slow shipping and potential assembly issues. Especially the later, when the item description advises that if the fit isn’t right you might need to glue it to achieve a tight fit. As it turns out neither were issues. The items arrived in a few days, each stand comprised of three simple pieces wrapped in plastic and with protective adhesive film, and the fit of the pieces was absolutely perfect.

Both stands are fashioned from immaculate pieces of clear acrylic with custom etched bases and supports designed to cradle each specific weapon. The Star Trek III phaser stand includes the title of the movie in the familiar font along with “Type II Phaser” all flanked by two Starfleet insignia. The lettering shows some pixelation around the edges, but only when viewed up close. The tabs for the supports are the identical, so you can have the phaser face left or right and still keep the orientation of the base facing forward. This is kind of a big deal, since the DST phaser looks best when viewed with it facing right, as the screw plugs are on the obverse side.

The stand for the Classic phaser is a little different. For starters it has “Star Trek” printed in the classic series font. But more importantly, instead of two supports suspending the weapon just above the base, this one cradles the butt of the hand grip. It works just as well, save for one little annoyance: You can’t reverse the orientation on this one, so the phaser is always going to be pointing to the left if you want the lettering on the base facing forward. In this case, that means the one screw hole near the beam emitter and the faint copyright information towards the back are both going to be visible. It’s certainly not a deal-breaker for me, but the option to display this one both ways too would have been welcome.

With that little quibble aside, I have to say I’m totally delighted with these stands and very glad I purchased them. They are very attractive and great quality pieces. Granted, at $20 each (plus shipping) they are a little costly, not so much for what they are, but in relation to the collectible they’re displaying. These phasers only ran me about $35 each, which makes twenty bucks a relatively big investment to display them. That having been said, these really do class up these pieces so much that they’re well worth the price to me. Also, since the DST props are sized fairly accurately, these stands should work fine with the more expensive resin props sold at conventions. Either way, I highly recommend them.

As I mentioned earlier, Flux Dimensions sells a bunch of different stands, including ones to replace the shitty ones that DST includes with their Starships. They also make some for lightsabers, Sonic Screwdrivers, and some of the 3 3/4-inch scale Star Wars ships by Hasbro and Kenner. I do believe my next pick up from these guys will be for my Klingon Disruptor.

Addendum: Tim Sloan from Flux Dimensions was kind enough to drop me a line with a few additional details about their products. For starters, they are capable of customizing the stands to order, allowing the phasers to face left or right, which nicely solves the issue of exposing the side of the phaser with the screw plugs. Also, their products are available for purchase direct from their website tshobbies.com often at reduced cost when compared to their Ebay store. I highly recommend checking them out and browsing their product!

Apr 1 2016

DC Comics: Black Canary Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

I think this is the fifth straight week of DC Fridays focusing on statues. I’ve looked at a Bishoujo, a couple of Femme Fatales, a couple of DC Cover Girls, and now I’m circling back around to Koto’s Bishoujo line for one last DC statue before moving back to some DC action figures next Friday. Black Canary is one of the newer releases in Koto’s DC Bishoujos and one I’ve been anxiously awaiting…

Canary comes in a standard window box, mostly white with some lovely artwork from Shunya Yamashita. As always the packaging is collector friendly and you can get a good peek at the statue inside to see what you’re getting. The back panel has a little blurb about Dinah and teases the Raven Bishoujo, which I already looked at quite a few weeks back. I keep all of these boxes, but thirty-some statues in, that’s getting to be difficult with space being what it is. I fear the day may be coming where I have to toss the inserts and flatten out the boxes for storage. Anyway, Black Canary comes out of the box fully assembled and ready for display…

…and looking mighty fine, I might say. I’ll concede that the composition here is a strange choice. Canary stands with legs apart, her left hip tossed to the left and she appears to be stretching while she glances off to the side. Maybe she’s limbering up for a particularly potent Canary Cry? This line has never been about action poses, so actually having her shouting might have been too off point, but at the same time, I don’t think this pose says anything relative about the character. It’s not a bad pose at all, but it kind of strikes me as the art director not quite knowing what to do with her.

Of course the figure itself is beautifully executed. Canary dons a black one piece with black leather half-jacket, black choker, a pair of high heeled buccaneer boots and short black gloves. And yes… fishnets! Koto has been on a real fishnet kick in this line lately with other recent releases like Zatanna and Anna Williams from the Tekken line donning these types of stockings. They look magnificent from the front or sides, and while they do have the usual seam running up the backs, but they are still relatively tidy. It’s pretty cool the way they seem to disappear into her boots. In terms of sculpting on the costume, you get your usual assortment of rumples and wrinkles and some nice stitching lines.

The portrait is standard Bishoujo fare, in other words great stuff. Canary has her head cocked downward and she’s gazing off to the side with one eye winking. She’s got a rather distinctive, wide closed-lip smile. Her long blonde hair flows off wildly to the left. I don’t think I’ve noted this for a while, but it seems like Koto is done with the transparency effect they used to use at the edges of the hair. Canary doesn’t have it and I don’t recall seeing it done in a while.

The coloring on this piece is as simple as it gets. Her entire outfit is black, save for the silver painted zipper on the jacket and the circular medal on her choker. There’s also no use of high gloss here, so you don’t get the usual impact of the soft skin tones contrasting with the pop of the outfit. That having been said, the paint is all spot on, particularly on the face, which is razor sharp. The hair is bright, but appropriately soft.

The base is a mystery to me. It looks like it’s supposed to be rippling water, blue in the center and gradually radiating out to clear at the edges. I’d argue that it might supposed to show the soundwaves radiating through water from her Canary Cry, but she isn’t doing it. It’s not an unattractive base, but it makes little sense in this context. I think I would have preferred a simple disk.

If it sounds like I’ve been pretty critical of this statue, that shouldn’t be taken as a sign that I don’t like it. Quite the contrary. I’ve yet to be disappointed by this series and that record still stands. Black Canary is a great piece, but she lacks that certain something that makes each and every release in this line so amazing. From a technical standpoint, the paint, the sculpt… everything is spot on perfect and the costume is wonderfully designed. I think the pose and the base are the only stutter steps here, and even those are perfectly serviceable. Ah, but the great thing about this line is when you aim so high, if you miss your mark, you’re still doing pretty great. It’ll be interesting to see which DC lady Koto goes to next. Personally, I’m hoping they decide to revisit Supergirl soon.

Mar 31 2016

Masters of the Universe Classics: Serpentine King Hssss by Mattel

Controversy and Matty Collector seem to go together like PB&J. In this case, the hub-bub centered around word that Matty would be including a newly tooled snake torso for King Hssss in one of the Club Eternia figures for 2015. I try to tune out a lot of this stuff, but I think the plan was to pack it with Buzz Saw Hordak, which admittedly would have made that terrible figure a bit easier to swallow. Whether this was a promise or a loose comment, I don’t remember, but the bottom line was it didn’t happen because it would have been too expensive and despite Matty being fairly transparent on the matter and sending out a letter to the fans, subscribers still went berserk. Matty ultimately offered the piece for sale as its own figure with a bevy of extras at a pretty good price and it arrived at my door last week.

Yup, that’s the same old MOTUC packaging we’ve been seeing for years now. There’s even still a bio on the back, which is missing from the most current figure cards. You get a colorful “Snake Men” sticker on the bubble and Hssss’ tagline is “Evil Disguised Leader of the Snake Men.” To say that he fills out the bubble nicely is a bit of an understatement. It actually looks like Matty just took a pound of snakes and crammed them in there. In fact, it’s such a mess of snakes that I can barely make out most of the accessories.

There’s no doubt that the new torso is the star of this show. It takes the concept of the snake torso that we got with the original Classics King Hsss and cranks everything up. It’s beefier, better proportioned, and it ultimately it makes a pretty goofy idea and makes it look bad ass. Also, someone clearly said, “NEEDS MORE SNAKES!” I actually own two of the first Masters Classics King Hssss, which is convenient to display one human and one half snake. It’s also an odd thing to admit to, since I was never that fond of the original’s snake torso and would probably never display him with it. But this? This I like a lot. If the were coming after me, I would step on old ladies and babies to get away from this guy. Thanks to some bendy plastic and wires, six of the snakes are posable, so while the only two actual articulation points above the waist are the swivels in the waist and the main snake’s “neck” you can still have some fun with him.

The sculpting and paint on display here are both excellent. Hssss is covered in scales quite literally from head(s) to toe and there’s a lovely high gloss finish over the whole figure to give it that illusion of slime that all snakes are burdened with. The bulk of the figure is a sort of ochre color, that feels like a nod to the original snake torso, with green patterns. From the waist down, this seems to be a repaint from the Snake Men two-pack. At least that’s my impression. I never did get my hands on one of those packs. Either way it mates wonderfully with the new torso, although the legs on my figure are somewhat loose.

The main portrait features an open mouth, which offers a grizzly view right down the snake’s gob, and displays a pair of white fangs and a long cascading forked tongue. All the snake heads, right down to the tiniest have solid paintwork for their eyes and mouth and all around this is a great looking figure.

To sweeten the deal, Hssss comes with what is basically a mini-weapons-pack, which includes a shield, a mace, and a sword and spear, both with serpentine blades. These are actually some of my favorite weapons to come out of the line and they go a long way toward building value in this package. The weapons can be held in some of the smaller snakes’ mouths, but it’s tough to make it work and I honestly think these weapons will be better served getting doled out to my Snake Men or just being added to one of my Weapons Racks.

How about a bonus head? Yeah, Matty’s got us covered there too with a mid-transformation snake head for the humanoid King Hssss figure. Now, I presume this was intended for both the original and the 200x versions, but the socket is way too small for my original Classics Hssss. I’m sure I could get it to work if I tried hard enough, but for our purposes here, I’m showcasing it on the 200x figure from the two-pack. Again, it’s a great piece of work and looks fantastic on the figure.

Of course, while Serpent King Hssss is a complete figure onto its own, the torso is also compatible with the legs from either of the previous King Hsss figures, so you can mix-and-match all you want.

Naturally, I’m very glad Matty got this figure out and onto my shelf. It totally blows away the previous snake torso on every level and the fact that they gave him some legs and threw in so many accessories makes the pot all the sweeter. As for the controversy… it doesn’t really interest me. I can see collectors being frustrated when a company can’t follow through on an expectation, but while I am a toy collector, I’m not a child, and I realize these things happen in the grown up world of big business. I can see cause for rage if this individual piece motivated someone to buy in to the sub only to find it wasn’t included, but I can’t imagine that was the case for most. And in the end, the figure went up for sale to subscribers for $20, which quite frankly is a great deal for this densely packed bundle of goodies.

Mar 30 2016

Terminator 2 Judgement Day: Ultimate T-1000 by NECA

It’s time to gush once again all over another of NECA’s Ultimate figures. And what better subject for an Ultimate line of figures than the Ultimate Summer Sci-Fi Action Blockbuster, Terminator 2? This is the third time this series is dipping into the Terminator franchise, and we know it won’t be the last. I’ve already checked out the T-800 and Sarah Connor, so today let’s check out the relentless, liquid metal killing machine that is, the T-1000!

As usual, the figure comes in a collector friendly window box with a front flap. The deco here matches the other T2 figures perfectly and these look amazing all lined up on a shelf. You get some great stills from the film as well as shots of the figure itself. I’ve already gone on and on about how much I love these boxes, so rather than dawdle any longer, let’s look inside…

Yup, there’s a reason this line is called Ultimate. I mean, just look at all that stuff! Naturally, I’ll be looking at everything in turn, but let me just run it all down here: An automatic pistol (missing from the tray because I already put it in his holster), a gun-holding right hand, two pry bar arms, two hands with pointy metal index fingers… and if all that isn’t enough you get an extra head, which is split down the middle, and a head and front torso with bullet damage. Wow! The tray is set against an illustrated backdrop that looks like the interior of The Pescadero State Hospital. Brilliant!

The base figure is quite solid and includes all sorts of detail on the police uniform, from the creases down the front of the trousers, the pen in his pocket, the badge and the individual buttons and rumples across the front of the shirt. Apart from some seams running down the sides of the torso, it’s pretty hard to tell that the top half of this figure is meant to split apart and take a replacement.

The belt rig is quite detailed and includes a functional holster for his pistol and some non-removable items, like a police radio and a pouch for his handcuffs. Despite having the removable front torso, the articulation is not hampered at all. It does look like they probably built the rotating shoulders on exposed front pins to make it work, but you still get a great range of motion there. You also get rotating hinges in the elbows, knees, and ankles. There are ball joints in the hips, wrists, waist, and neck.

The likeness to Robert Patrick is pretty spot on. I really dig the way his eyes are painted to look up so they appear natural when the head is pointing down slightly. It achieves that wonderful stern and creepy look he frequently gave in the film, especially when waggling his finger like a cross teacher. No, he doesn’t come with a waggling finger, but let’s get into some of the stuff he does come with…

The pistol is pretty straightforward and as mentioned it fits in his holster and he comes with a hand made to hold it. It’s the only weapon included with the T-1000 because, let’s face it, he is a weapon unto himself. His liquid metal construction makes him the equivalent of a humanoid swiss army knife.

The pry-bars are achieved by pulling out the forearms and pegging these into their place. The way the paint transitions from the blue uniform to the silver metal is well done. These are, of course, handy whether you’re chasing down a car and need to hitch a ride or prying open the doors of an elevator when they just won’t hold it for you.

The two metal pointy “I know this hurts” fingers are just pop-and-swap hands with one metal finger longer than the other. The metal index fingers are naturally a little bendy so you need to finesse them a bit, but they look great. Next up, let’s swap some noggins…

It’s a testament to the film that they were able to pull off all these Looney Tune injuries and still have it work, oh so well. The first one that the figure lets you recreate is the split head as it’s in the process of being “zipped” back up from the bottom. I love this piece, it looks wonderful right down to the metal paint inside the head. Mine was actually pretty tough to get on the figure, though, and I had to do a little shaving inside the socket to finally get it in.

Next up is the the hole head that comes attached to the swap-out torso front. The front of the torso simply un-pegs and pulls off allowing you to peg on the replacement. Oddly enough, the first time I’ve seen engineering like this was in Character Options’ Doctor Who line. They did something very similar for their Professor Bracewell figure as well as the Time of the Doctor 11th/12th Doctors. It’s a great gimmick that allows a large variation to the figure without having to create a whole new body. The metal impacts from the bullets are very well done.

The head is no slouch either. Again, there’s some wonderful paintwork inside the hole and along where the “flesh” has changed back into metal. It’s also worth noting that since the neck posts are on the torso fronts, you can use any head with either torso, so mix and match until your heart’s content!

When I’m writing up these features on NECA’s Ultimate line, I always feel like I should play it off like one of those infomercials. You get the gun, the gun, hand, the pry bars, and the pointy metal figures. Now how much would you pay? But wait… there’s more… you also get the two extra heads and the replacement torso… all for $21.99! Yes, that’s how much this figure cost me, and I’m continually stunned that NECA can put these figures out there at such great prices. Hey, I love my Marvel Legends as much as the next guy, but there’s so much more craftsmanship that goes into these NECA Ultimate figures and all at the same price, not to mention that they’re based off of a 25-year old film.

Mar 29 2016

Vitruvian HACKS: Medusa and Coral Gorgon by Boss Fight Studios

Last week I tackled half of my initial shipment from Boss Fight Studio’s Vitruvian HACKS Kickstarter with the Spartan and Cursed Spartan. Today, I’m checking out the second half of this first wave. There’s a lot to cover here, so I’m going to dive right in and look at some snake ladies!

Once again, the figures come in collector friendly blister cards that allow you to bend back the edges, slide out the card and get at the goods without damaging anything. You can keep the pristine card all by itself or just return the figure to the bubble and keep the whole shebang. I’m not one for keeping packages, but with presentation this nice, I’ll be hanging on to these. Each of the Gorgons have custom card art and blurbs about them on the back of the card along with shots of all the other figures in the series that you can collect. Let’s start out with Medusa, the Cursed Gorgon Sister!

Wow, this is a unique and wonderful looking figure. From the waist up, she’s all woman. Below the equator, she’s all snake. The humanoid part of the buck is very nice and includes sculpted muscles in the abs and armor on the chest and shoulder as well as a wrist bracer on her right arm. She also wears a belt rig slung loose on her hips with a loop for her dagger on the right and an armor plate on the left. The sculpting and paint on the armor pieces represents some great work and gives it a realistic, worn patina and pitting. The tiny sculpted leather rigging that holds the shoulder armor is above and beyond for figures in this 4-inch scale.

The snake tail includes six ball jointed segments with overlapping snake skin plates that make for a pretty well articulated tail that can support the figure in a surprising number of poses, whether coiled flat, tail up, or extended out behind her. There’s a lovely bit of sculpt around the back of the torso where the snake scales taper off to become regular flesh. Below that, the scales are individually sculpted on the back of the tail and the painted patterns look amazing. The creepy appendage is topped off with a large rattle.

Insert ex-girlfriend joke here. This gruesome portrait is spectacular. Her mouth is open in mid scream, exposing her forked tongue and pearly whites. She has red, pupil-less eyes and her forehead shows some faint scaling. The head is topped off with a grizzly mop of snakes.

In addition to the segmented tail, the upper half of the figure includes all the articulation we saw in the Spartan male bucks, which suffice it to say is quite good. You also get a pair of extra hands included with both of the Gorgons, as well as the standard Boss Fight Studio figure stands which, in the case of these legless lasses, are totally useless. But hey… free figure stands!

Medusa comes with two weapons, a dagger and a whip. Both accessories look like they are fashioned from bone, or spinal columns to be precise. Actually, the whip looks like it might just be a snake skeleton right down to the tiny skull that makes up the pommel of the grip. Either weapon can be held in either hand and the dagger can be carried through the loop on the figure’s right hip. Quite frankly, I could gush on and on about this figure, but we’ve still got another to look at, so let’s move on to the Coral Gorgon…

While we’re dealing with the same basic buck, there are so many changes here that the Coral Gorgon feels like a fresh figure. And nothing against Medusa, she’s awesome, but this Coral Gorgon is sporting one hot and sexy deco. You get a deep reddish-brown with some lovely black and yellow stripes, not only on the tail, but also on the biceps. Coral is also wearing armor consisting of a full chest and back plate with sculpted muscles and very similar to the style and color worn by the Spartan Warrior, only clearly designed with the female form in mind. She’s also got a pair of matching wrist bracers. The bright luster of the bronze armor is gorgeous when paired with this deco.

The tail has the same great articulation, but the rattler at the tip is replaced with just a standard taper. The coloring here really picks out the detail in the sculpted scales wonderfully.

The head is shrouded in a remarkable animal skull helmet with the spinal cord slinking down the figure’s back. It’s a fantastic piece for this, or any scale and it is easily removed to offer a better look at the head itself.

NOPE!!! Egads, I don’t know why, but I find this portrait to be a thousand times creepier than Medusa’s. Not sure if it’s the bald head, the giant yellow eyes, or the exposed fangs, but this is some serious nightmare fuel. QUICK, PUT THE HELMET BACK ON!

Coral Gorgon comes with a sword and a shield, both of which are made to look like stone. Maybe she snatched them off the bodies of petrified victims? The shield appears to be the same gorgeous piece of kit that came with the Cursed Stone Spartan, whereas the sword is unique in this initial assortment. I have the same difficulty getting the figure’s hand to properly clutch the grip on the shield, but it’s not really necessary here, since the bracers lock into the sleeve a lot better and hold the shield securely without the hand in place.

As great as the Spartans were, these Gorgons are the real showpieces of this initial assortment. And while Medusa is an absolute classic and a figure that I so badly wanted back when I was a young lad playing with my Clash of the Titan figures, I think the Coral Gorgon edges her out a bit with her gorgeous and distinctive deco and downright creepy helmet and face sculpt. Either way, I’m starting to regret not picking up more of the Gorgons. I have six more figures coming to me, and none of them are Gorgons. WHAT HAVE I DONE??? Well, with pre-orders still open, I think I may have to remedy that.

Of course, I will be back to look at more of these figures as soon as they arrive on my doorstep, but I’ll conclude by paying the best compliment I can to a Kickstarter. Boss Fight Studios delivered here on everything they promised. It might have taken longer than anyone could have expected, but in the end, when the figures are in hand and they are this spectacular, it’s hard to come away with anything other than satisfaction. I’m all the more anxious to get the rest of my order, and super excited to see what the Fantasy Series is going to look like, because I’ll be a proud backer of that one as well.

Mar 28 2016

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Whirlwind by Hasbro

Last time on Marvel Monday, I started in on the Red Skull/Onslaught Wave with a look at Cottonmouth. Today I’m pressing on with the figure that shares that figure’s slot, or at least would be sharing it if they were actually variants and Hasbro was still making running changes in these cases. And thank God they stopped that shit, eh? Anyway, the other half of the “Forces of Evil” is the mutant Whirlwind, and I was pretty happy to see this guy make an appearance in Legends.

The box is literally identical to the one we saw last time, with the character name absent from the front. This wave is branded under “Captain America,” complete with a shield emblem on the top flap and blue-filtered images of Whirlwind on the right panel and Cottonmouth on the left. It’s collector friendly, but thankfully I convinced myself not to try saving all my Legends packages because if I did, I’d have an entire wall of my living room covered in them. Wait… Actually, that sounds pretty cool.

I’ve always loved Whirlwind’s design. He’s that right mix of screwball goofy, but still realistic enough to take serious. You don’t snicker at a guy in a costume if he’s coming at you with buzz saws. I think he would fit right in guest starring as some kind of crazy Super Saiyan villain in a live action Japanese series or just duking it out with the Power Rangers. The costume is basically a metallic gray body suit with reinforced green armor bands around the torso and those buccaneer boots that comic characters are so keen on wearing. Oh yeah, he also has those spinning saw blades on his wrists! I’ll bet it took all of Hasbro’s collective resolve not to put a spinning torso gimmick into this guy. Oh, you know they wanted to!

Damn, Whirlwind’s packing a tight little bottom! Yup! Anyway, the two-tone coloring is very simple, but extremely well done. Yeah, there’s some of that annoying swirly pattern in the gray plastic, but it’s not so bad that it bothers me like it did with the comic version of Ultron from several waves back. It’s just really nice to get a figure with some actual sculpting in the body, rather than just a painted on costume.

The head features Whirlwind’s bucket helmet, and while this no doubt required a lot less effort than a full on face sculpt, I’m happy to say Hasbro didn’t cut any corners. The eyes and lips visible through the holes in the helmet are good enough to convince me there’s a fully sculpted head under there, even though I know better. The metallic green finish matches the armor bits on the body and really makes for an attractive finish.

The saw blades on the wrists are removable, as they simply peg into place. It’s a cool feature and one that I didn’t even notice until one of them popped off as I was playing around with him. It would have been neat if he came with an extra pair.

The articulation here is quite good. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs have ball joints at the hips, double hinges at the knees, hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, and swivel cuts in the thighs. It seems like there are swivels at the tops of the boots, but mine won’t give and I’m afraid I’m going to twist them off. The torso features an ab crunch hinge and a swivel in the waist. Finally, the neck has a ball joint, but because of the helmet, it really only allows for rotational movement of the head.

No doubt about it, this figure is as solid as they come. He’s loads of fun to play around with and he and Cottonmouth make for a wonderful looking pair of costumed bastards. The paint is fantastic, the coloring is great, the joints are sound, and he has more original sculpting than most of the figures we’re getting in Legends these days. Sure, some may quibble about why are we getting characters like “A” when we still haven’t got a good version of “B,” but I say keep the villains coming, Hasbro. Figures like Whirlwind are exactly the type that I want to populate my shelves so the more the merrier is my motto. Also, I’ve now got both of Red Skull’s meat hooks!

Mar 27 2016

Alien Eggs by NECA

It’s Easter and what better day is there to check out some Xenomorph eggs? This pack was released by NECA last year and it works as a wonderful novelty piece as well as accessories for your 7-inch scale Aliens figures. And best of all, you don’t have to color them for Easter because they look amazing right out of the carton!

Yes, carton! These half-dozen cage-free Xenomorph eggs come fresh from LV-426 and straight to your grocer’s refrigerator. The presentation here is absolutely killer. The eggs come in an authentic looking cardboard egg carton with a colorful label on the front that includes “Nutrition Facts” and a hazard image that shows the life cycle of the Xenomorph. This is some fantastic stuff!

Open up the carton and the eggs come in a staggered layout, three closed and three opened. There are also “Safe Handling Instructions” printed on the inside of the top flap.

The closed eggs are just that, eggs, which have not yet popped to eject the facehuggers within. The fact that NECA can take a simple solid plastic egg and make it something so fantastic is a real testament to their workmanship. The sculpts on these are unbelievable and the quality of the paintwork is there to match it. They look slimy and they’ve even managed to replicate the interior glow effect of the facehugger inside with simple paint applications. They also have a really nice heft.

The open eggs each contain an individually wrapped facehugger. These eggs are even more disgusting than the closed ones. The membranes are folded back to show the pink and squishy interior. There’s sculpted mucus stretched between the flaps, and once again the whole thing looks slimy to the touch, thanks to some gorgeous high gloss paintwork.

The three facehuggers are identical, static pieces. They’re tiny, but that didn’t stop NECA from packing them with sculpted detail both top and bottom. Nothing has been spared on these little huggers, and I find the undercarriage to be particularly unsettling. Ewwww!

A half-dozen of these Alien eggs ran me about $20, which is a damn good deal for the amount of craftsmanship that went into these. Most of the marketing I’ve seen has treated these as a novelty item, but make no mistake, these are made to be displayed and interact with NECA’s Aliens figures and they do that splendidly. So, grab yourself a carton of these babies, this Easter, hide them for the kiddies, and make sure to have your phone ready to snap those priceless pictures of little Jimmy or Suzie coming out from behind the sofa with a facehugger attached to their head. HAPPY EASTER!

Mar 25 2016

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Batgirl by DC Collectibles

It’s DC Friday again, and for the past few weeks I’ve been working my way through some DC Statues: Bishoujos, Femme Fatales, and yes, some Cover Girls too! I’m still way behind on the DC Cover Girls line, something that is concerning me because there’s quite a few I’d like to pick up before they hit the secondary market and the prices start to escalate. Today, let’s check out Barbara Gordon in her New 52 look, before she got the Babs Tarr makeover and moved to Burnside.

As always, the statue comes in a fully enclosed box with photos of the piece all around. Inside, the collectible is nestled inside a brick of styrofoam. The only assembly required is pegging the feet into the base and the pegs fit very easy. Oddly, some of the statues in this line come attached to the base and others peg in, so I always have to be careful to support the base when I’m picking them up. Porcelain statues seldom survive drops, so better safe than sorry! At about 9-inches tall, Ms. Gordon scales perfectly with her fellow Cover Girls and continues to skew this line in favor of Bat-flavored characters.

And damn what a beauty she is! Batgirl’s (former) New 52 costume is a favorite of mine because it doesn’t stray too far from the traditional. Fans old and new should be able to get behind this design. Of course, it is New 52, so you do get the sculpted panel lines in the body suit that suggests it’s more armor than mere latex. I like the ribbing inside the thighs, under the arms, and in all the places where a lot of flexing would take place. The yellowish-gold boots and gauntlets have scalloped edges and match the belt, bat symbol, and the interior lining of the cape. All of the yellow has a slight hint of glossy sheen to it, which contrasts nicely with the more matte finish of the black suit. The paint on this piece is very clean, but I’ve come to expect that. Truth be told, even with eight of these ladies on my shelf, I haven’t had any notable paint issues with this line, so when I say the paint is especially good on Batgirl, it’s intended as high praise.

Batgirl stands with feet apart and her right arm drawn up and ready to fling a batarang at an unseen adversary. There’s some lovely subtle bits about her pose, like the way she’s arching her back and twisting in the middle. This is a piece that shows off the art of the female body in all its splendor. As often the case with this line, the composition here is a nice blending of action and a bit of museum-style mugging for the beholder. The invisible wind that bellows out her cape and tosses her hair adds a little more kineticism to the piece. It’s a statue that has a couple of “sweet spots” depending on how you want to position it on the shelf. If I had to come up with something critical to say, I’m not particularly fond of how slender the middle of the cape looks from behind, but when it comes to complaints, that’s really reaching.

The portrait is absolutely fantastic and certainly a high point for this series. The emerald colored eyes are beautiful as is the subtle pink used for her lips. The nose is softly defined and the edges of the mask are clean. Even going back to the 70’s, one of the most fetching things about Batgirl for me has always been the way her red hair spills out from behind her cowl and this statue conveys that quite well.

Batgirl features the now standard oval base. In this case, the coloring doesn’t actually match anything on Ms. Gordon’s costume, instead it’s a bright purple. While unusual for the line, I do dig the color as it calls back to the days when the lovely Yvonne Craig wore donned a different Batgirl suit. As with the Batwoman statue, you get bat emblems on the front, back, and sides. The limitation here is, as usual, 5200 with the individual number of the piece written on the bottom of the base.

Batgirl is another great addition to my Cover Girls shelf, and she displays beautifully with Huntress and Batwoman. I’ve yet to be disappointed with the quality and composition of this line. The 9-inch scale is perfect for a statue collector tight on space and while the MSRP’s on these are usually right at the $100 mark, they can often be had for twenty or so dollars less, which makes them a great value for the money. Now, I just have to pick up Mera, Vixen, Wonder Woman v2, Catwoman v2, Katana, Starfire, Black Canary, and Bleez before Power Girl and Raven are released and I’ll be all current! Yeeeesh!

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Yearly Archives: 2016

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): Han Solo by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Sharon Carter by Hasbro

Star Trek: Acrylic Display Stands (Classic Series Phaser and Star Trek III Phaser) by Flux Dimensions LLC

DC Comics: Black Canary Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Masters of the Universe Classics: Serpentine King Hssss by Mattel

Terminator 2 Judgement Day: Ultimate T-1000 by NECA

Vitruvian HACKS: Medusa and Coral Gorgon by Boss Fight Studios

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Whirlwind by Hasbro

Alien Eggs by NECA

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Batgirl by DC Collectibles

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