Monthly Archives: March 2017

Mar 17 2017

Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tales: Mercy Dante Sixth-Scale Figure by Phicen Ltd

I’m bumping DC Friday this week to give some loving to my favorite comic book publisher that isn’t Marvel or DC… Zenescope! It’s easy to get spoiled with the never ending flood of comic based toys and collectibles pouring from the big boys, but it can be slim pickings when I want a nice piece of merch from Zenescope’s books. That’s changed a bit over the last year or so when Zenescope teamed up with Executive Replicas and Phicen Ltd to do high quality collector grade sixth-scale figures of some of their lovely ladies from Grimm Fairy Tales. If you’re not familiar with the comic, I’ll direct you back to my brief look at the GFT Omnibus way back when I used to do my Sunday Funday posts.

As for Phicen… well, you all know Phicen Ltd, right? They make those curvaceous highly pose-able action figures with realistic skin that basically look like sixth-scale sex dolls! Most of Phicen’s releases consist of generic sexy female figure bodies ripe for customization, but they do also produce some original concept fantasy and sci-fi figures. That’s all well and good, but it was their partnership with Zenescope that made me take the plunge and finally buy some of their figures. And if you’re at all familiar with the often over-sexed art of Zenescope’s titles, then I think you’ll agree that this is a match made in heaven.

The first one I pulled the trigger on was Mercy Dante, a really cool and undoubtedly bad-ass character, who was first introduced as another victim-of-the-month in the pages of Grimm Fairy Tales. When she was young, an assassin murdered her parents in front of her and she was forced to raise her orphaned sister, Grace. Unfortunately, Grace wasn’t able to cope with her lot in life and she committed suicide, leaving a bitter Mercy devoting her life to revenge. She ultimately tracked down the assassin, kidnapped him and his young daughter, and then shot the daughter in the head right in front of her. It’s a sobering and hardcore page that stands out even in Zenescope’s delectable sea of T&A fanservice. Sela Mathers, who we’ll over-simplify by calling her the good witch of GFTs, gave Mercy a second chance to change what she had done and Mercy took it by shooting herself in the head instead of executing the little girl! But that wasn’t the end of Mercy’s story, because even in death she got her own excellent mind-bending spin-off in the pages of Grimm Fairy Tales: Inferno. So, enough with the backstory, let’s get to the figure!

Mercy comes in a cardboard mailer box very similar to what Hot Toys uses. It’s got her name printed on the front along with some other details, but otherwise its just a utilitarian carton to keep the package inside safe. As this is my first Phicen figure, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the packaging, but what I got feels really premium…

It’s sort of like a shoebox, only instead of a regular lid, it has a wrap around front, which is secured to the sides with magnets. The back panel features the same comic art that graced the Collected TPB edition of GFT: Inferno. All in all presentation here is much better than what I was expecting and it easily rivals if not outshines some of the glorified window boxes that Hot Toys has been doing these days. Inside the box, Mercy comes nestled in a foam tray, with her head off to the side and her accessories flanking her. Under her, there’s another foam tray with her trench coat and the parts for her stand. Naturally, everything is collector friendly and popping the head onto the figure is super easy.

With her noggin popped on, Mercy is looking mighty fine. Phicen has been producing their seamless female bodies for years now, all the while tweaking them and making improvements, and Mercy here represents the most recent evolution. You get a fully articulated stainless steel skeleton wrapped in a silicone skin, which both looks and feels eerily realistic. The only visible jointing on this figure is in the wrists and neck and even there it just consists of a seam line. And yes, the lack of visible jointing would hold true even if you stripped her down to her booted feet. In the past, we’ve seen something close from Hot Toys, for example their Ada Wong from Resident Evil 5, but even that figure has exposed jointing in the shoulders and a lot more hiding under her clothes.

Mercy comes out of the box wearing her skimpy red sports bra, tight leather pants, and high-heeled black boots, all of which fit the figure beautifully. This is a good look for her, because it really showcases the seamless body, at least from the waist up. Granted, there isn’t a whole lot of sophistication and detail in the outfit, but the stitching is neat, and the only hiccup on the whole ensemble is the flap above her butt where the waist is secured. You can see a little empty space inside the boots where her legs connect to the boot feet, but it still looks fine. The pants are also very pliable and don’t offer any resistance when posing the figure.

Speaking of posing, Mercy is designed to mimic the flexibility of the human body almost perfectly, making her tons of fun to play with. She’s also a remarkably well balanced figure, which can stand on her own pretty well, even in those high heels. I only had to bring out the stand for some of the action shots. And while the movement of the joints in this figure is smooth as silk, you can see that they can hold their position quite well, even when the figure is standing on one foot. I’m not going to run down the points of articulation here, because it’s impossible to see exactly what’s going on in there by just handling the figure. However, if you want to get a better idea of what’s under the hood, so to speak, check out this great review of Phicen’s 5.1 body and scroll down a bit to see the skeleton in all its glory.

Seeing as how the Phicen body is the Cadillac of Sixth-Scale female action figures, the only thing about this figure that gave me pause was how good the likeness turned out. But I needn’t have worried. Granted, we’re talking comic book likeness here, but I’m totally pleased with the resemblance to the artwork. The paint for the eyes and lips is particularly nice, and the skin tone on the head matches the body quite well. She comes close to catching that lifelike look I’m used to seeing in Hot Toys’ efforts, and I think this is one of the best face sculpts that Phicen has put out to date. The hair is rooted, which was a bold move, considering Mercy’s trademark pixie cut. Phicen went with using a lot of product in the hair so it stays fairly flat. Keep in mind, I haven’t messed with the hair at all, so there’s some room for improvement. This is simply how she looks right out of the box.

Mercy includes three sets of hands. You get a pair of gun holding hands, relaxed hands, and knife holding hands. All of these are super easy to swap, thanks to the exposed nubs from the steel skeleton underneath. Unlike Hot Toys and Sideshow, you don’t ever have to worry about snapping the wrist posts, or having them come off in the hand, forcing you to dig them out.

Her guns can be worn on the included shoulder rig. The rig is very easy to get on, but the holsters themselves were backwards, so I had to unbuckle the rig, slide the holsters out and put them back on the right way. This seems to be an error on more than a few of these figures, but not a critical one. It just causes a little bit of work to fix it. The rig fits the figure pretty well, although technically, the guns on a dual rig like this should hang horizontal for easy access.

As for the guns themselves, Mercy’s twin automatic pistols feature some pretty detailed sculpts and have matte gray finishes. The slide action works and you can remove the magazines to reveal a tiny painted round at the top. This is pretty standard stuff for weaponry in this scale, and while these are fine on their own, they come off as a little bit lacking when compared to what else is out there. The slides are rather loose and have a tendency to slide when handing them. I’ve even had the slides stay in the holsters on occasion when I pulled the guns out. These are perfectly serviceable accessories, they’re just nowhere near the quality of the firearms that Hot Toys and Sideshow are producing with their figures. They’ll be easy to upgrade, as there is no shortage of sixth-scale weapons out there, but I’m not sure I’m bothered enough by them to spend the extra money.

The gun holding hands work OK, but because the fingers are soft and rubbery, the grip on the pistols isn’t as tight as it could be. It hasn’t posed any problems with her holding them, but I tend to like the firmer and more solid grips that the Hot Toys and Sideshow figures have on their accessories.

Mercy also comes with a combat knife and sheath. The knife-holding hands work really well, as it’s a very tightly molded grip. On the downside, I really don’t know where the sheath is supposed to go, but you can always just thrust the knife into her boot as a back-up plan. And that brings us to the last accessory in the box…

The trench coat! Even though it’s an integral piece of her wardrobe, I saved it for last, as it seems a shame to cover up that beautiful body. Nonetheless, this is probably how I’ll be displaying her most of the time. The material matches her “leather” pants perfectly and it really rounds out her signature look. It also keeps the splattered blood and brains off of her while she’s capping demons throughout the Nine Rings of Hell.

Getting the coat on can be a little challenging, since the realistic skin on the arms tends to grab at the material. The easy solution is applying a little bit of baby powder to her skin, STOP LAUGHING AT ME, so the sleeves just slide right on. Some third-party outfits sets have a habit of staining the silicone skin on Phicen figures, especially when dealing with black or darker colors. For the most part, the outfits Phicen includes don’t usually present a problem. Here’s hoping that will be the case with the jacket. Either way, the trench coat is professionally tailored and fits the figure very well, even with the shoulder rig on, which remains nicely concealed inside the coat. There’s even a wire at the bottom so you can pose it all billowed out.

The provided stand is both a strange and interesting piece. It’s a simple black base with four chunky pegs, which are designed to either take the provided post or plug right into the holes on the bottom of Mercy’s boots. Weird, right? Foot pegs are not something I tend to associate with sixth-scale figures. The biggest issue I have with the stand is the post. You get two attachments for the post, one is a standard crotch cradle and the other is a wire, which hugs the waist like a typical Kaiser doll stand. There’s no way I’d use the waist grip on the skin, as its almost guaranteed to mark it. The crotch cradle would be acceptable, but the post is really tall, so even though you can adjust the attachments to go as low as you need, the post is always going to be sticking up really high and doesn’t really work well with Mercy’s trench coat. Oddly enough, the foot pegs are clearly the way to go here.

Mercy originally retailed for $145, which is a mighty reasonable price for a sixth-scale figure these days, not to mention for the quality that you’re getting here. In a sense, I don’t deserve to have this figure, at least not for the regular retail price I got her for, because I blew the pre-order on her… both times! The initial pre-orders at all the usual places sold out very quickly, but when Phicen did another run, I must have missed the memo. By the time I found out the second run was up for pre-order at BBTS, it sold out again. In the end, I was lucky enough to pick her up from what seemed to be the only US-based Ebay seller that wasn’t price gouging her over the $200 mark. Needless to say I’m happy to have her in my collection. The Phicen body is quite a wonder of action figure craftsmanship, and it’s great to be getting high quality figures based off of Zenescope characters. There’s been some speculation as to whether this partnership is still going strong and it’d be a shame if they stopped producing these before releasing Sela and Belinda. In the meantime, I’ll circle back to Phicen in a couple of weeks to take a look at their Zenescope Robyn Hood figure.

Mar 16 2017

Masters of the Universe Classics: Horde Wraith by Mattel

So, two things: First, there’s obviously no Transformers Thursday this week. Next week is looking good, though. Second, I’m crazy pressed for time today, so my apologies if today feels a little abbreviated. Today, I’m going back to the waning days of Matty Collector, with what I’m pretty sure was the last MOTUC figure they released: The Horde Wraith! With so many delays toward the end, I just got a big box of figures all at once, so it’s hard for me to tell what order they were intended. Granted, I still have plenty of older figures and other goodies from Masters Classics to open, but after sitting around since last year, I thought it was time to open this guy up. So let’s do it!

I’m fairly well versed on my Horde lore, but I actually have no memory of this fellow at all. My sources tell me he’s from the 200x reboot and I think it’s long past time I pulled out my DVD’s and gave that series a re-watch, because so much of it has slipped my mind. Here’s one time when I really miss the bios that used to be on the backs of the cards, but his tag-line on the front, “Sorcerer for The Evil Horde,” is all I need (I’d like to believe it says that on his business cards). Besides, do I really need an official backstory to enjoy a figure like this? No, sir. I do not.

Especially when the figure looks like this guy! The Horde Wraith could easily be Shadow Weaver’s more evil-er granddaddy. He’s a foreboding, cloaked slab of wickedness that floats around thanks to a translucent stand provided in the package. His gray robes don’t sport a lot of sculpted detail, and that gives him something of an animated feel. They do, however have some really nice ragged edges on the bottom and on the sleeves. He also has some arm bands with sculpted sickle-like patterns, cool wrist bracers with diamonds, and blue claw-like hands, which makes me think that Horde Wraith may be an evil Trollan on steroids. Dammit, that should have been the tag-line on the package, “Evil Trollan on Steroids.” Damn, my lack of customizing skills!

The true star of this outfit is the black cape and shoulder piece. The front features a sash that drops down with a sculpted Horde emblem at the top. The shoulders themselves are textured and the whole ensemble has a red border. The lapse in QC that has touched some of these final figures rears its ugly head with a few tiny paint flubs, but nothing too bad. On the back, a tattered cape cascades down, almost to the end of his robes.

The portrait, for lack of a better term, is just a hood with a dark, featureless face buried in it and two yellow eyes peering out. Here the paint work is pretty spot on, right down to the subtle red outline around those eyes. The hood is sculpted as part of the head.

The articulation here is more limited than usual, only because Horde Wraith does not have any legs. Everything else is close to what we normally get in our MOTUC figures. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulder and elbows, and swivels in the wrists and biceps. There’s a swivel in the waist and an ab crunch hinge in the chest. The neck is ball jointed. The stand works really well to support him, but it gave me a hell of a time getting it in there. I had to use so much force, I was afraid I would snap it. I don’t believe that I will risk pulling it out again.

In addition to the stand, Horde Wraith comes with a staff with what looks like a Horde crossbow stuck on the end. I’m not sure whether its intended to be functional or not, but maybe he can shoot some kind of magic missiles from that baby. The staff is a very nice sculpt, but it’s very thin and prone to warping. Also, he has a hell of a time holding it properly. It looks like the cut-outs in the small axe blade are meant to loop his fingers through. That helps a bit, but it doesn’t take much to knock it out of his hands.

The Horde Wraith is a great design and I think he’s an excellent way to end the MOTUC line. I don’t know if a lot of collectors were jonesing after this dude, but if so I’m hoping he lived up to their expectations. As for me? I absolutely love this figure, even though I know nothing about the character. Hell, I don’t even know if he is a single character or if The Horde has a whole army of these spooky spell-slingers. I do know that he’s exactly the sort of thing that I would have doodled on my Trapper Keeper back in school, while dreaming up AD&D campaigns during math class, and that he’s very welcome in my Evil Horde display.

Mar 14 2017

Star Wars Black Series (Knights of the Old Republic): Darth Revan by Hasbro

Ah, Knights of the Old Republic! It was a pivotal experience in my long history of gaming. I don’t think I can properly quantify how many hours I put into it and I loved every second of every play-through. In fact, I remember my knee-jerk reaction to playing Mass Effect for the first time was that it was just KotoR with all the Star Wars elements boiled away. Back in 2003, I would have spent all my disposable income on KotoR toys. If only Hasbro had pushed the marketing of this game like they did with Shadows of the Empire. I wanted a dedicated line. I wanted figures of all the characters, I wanted the Ebon Hawk scaled for the figures. I wanted an electronic HK-47 that I could carry around and complain about people to. And I got nothing… NOTHING!!! Well… almost nothing.

If i recall correctly, we owe this 6-inch Black Series release to a fan poll.  Now, in fairness we did get a few 3 3/4-inch figures from KotoR scattered about over the years and we even got Revan in the 30th Anniversary Collection line. But that was like five years too late and at a time when I was clearing out most of my Star Wars collection because one day I woke up and gazed in horror at all the Prequel crap that I bought. When I think about it, I should be a lot more excited to have this figure in hand than I am, but I’ll swing back to the reasons for that at the end.

Revan’s design always felt just a little too derivative of Vader to me. Granted, the mask was necessary due to complications of his true identity, but the black cape and robes struck me as a wee bit lazy. We need a new villain, just put a mask and black robes on him. So, why do I give Kylo Ren a pass? Because imitating Vader was the whole motivation of that character. Now, with all that having been said, I still think Revan is a cool looking character and this figure does a nice job with the design. The sculpted gold pieces of his armor and that giant ring in the center of his gut contrast nicely with the use of the soft goods. And in the end, I think it’s the mix of sculpted plastic cloth and real cloth that represents this figures greatest strengths and weaknesses.

For starters, the cape looks fantastic. It’s very thin and light material that rests naturally on the figure and works well with the tattered and frayed edges. The use of cloth on the inner robes looks fine too, and I have no problem with the use of the sculpted plastic cloth over it. Maybe the red sash would have looked good as cloth, but I won’t quibble over it. Also, the sculpted cloth on the sleeves is a no brainer. Nope, from the neck down, I’ve got only love for this guy and the decisions Hasbro made when making him.

Above the neck, however, is a different story. My main gripe is with the decision to use a sculpted plastic hood and having it molded as part of the shoulders. It looks fine, but it really hurts the figure’s pose-ability. Yes, his head will turn in there, but it looks odd when turned too far to the left or right because the hood is blocking so much of his face. I think a cloth hood would have looked great on him and it could have been pulled out of the way to accommodate the head turning. But if Hasbro was dead set on going plastic, they should have made the hood a separate piece that could turn with the head. Apart from that, I think the helmet looks great. The mix of red and silver paint really makes the figure pop and the weathering, well it’s a little heavy handed, but it’s not bad. The rest of the articulation is standard stuff for the Black Series, at least on paper, but in practice, Revan just isn’t as fun to play with as he could have been.

Darth Revan comes with his two lightsabers, and I’ve got to be honest, as much as I played this game, I didn’t even remember him having two until I went back and looked at some of the art from the game. The designs on these hilts are really cool, particularly the one with the purple blade. And yes, both blades can be removed easily by simply un-pegging them. Sadly, there’s nowhere on his person that you can hang the hilts.

Even with my issues over the hood, I like this figure a lot and I’m happy to have him, even if probably doesn’t sound like it from this review. The problem is that getting Revan is dredging up all the same disappointment I had long ago when we didn’t get a dedicated KotoR line. Don’t get me wrong, with entire forests of printed Star Wars canon being wiped away with the stroke of a Mickey Mouse pen, I’m happy to see that KotoR is being acknowledged and therefore is presumably still canon. But the proper way to do this would have been an entire wave. Six figures… Revan, Malak, Bastila, Mission, HK-47, and whoever the hell you want for the last slot. I’d take T3-M4, just because I dig that design, but I suppose you could throw Carth or Zaalbar in there instead. I mean, if Hasbro can stack their waves of Legends with Comic Book designs, surely they could spit out a wave of KotoR figures. Now would have been the perfect time too, because Hasbro is drumming up support for The Last Jedi and needs peg fillers. Man, just thinking about that assortment of figures is killing me.

Mar 13 2017

Marvel Legends (Space Venom Wave): Miles Morales Spider-Man by Hasbro

Alrighty folks, after a brief detour to Bishoujo Town last week, Marvel Monday is back to Legends and it’s time to kick off a brand new Wave! Well, a brand new, um… old wave. It’s the Space Knight Venom Wave and these figures can only be considered new because I haven’t opened them yet. In case you ever wondered, nine times out of ten I do actually wait to open figures until I’m ready to review them. As you can imagine, there’s quite a stack of unopened Legends boxes in the corner, not to mention a bunch of other things. I am soooooo far behind! Anywho, I’m kicking off this wave with Miles Morales, because I was particularly excited to get this figure, and because he’s long overdue.

I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging, other then that Hasbro could have wrapped this figure in an old newspaper and I still would have forked over the cash for him. This is yet another Spider-Man themed wave, and I hope you’re not tired of them, because we’ve already had another one hit the pegs since and there’s no end in sight! On the subject of Miles Morales, it’s staggering to me that someone out there in Hollywood didn’t realize that they could have avoided the whole issue of reboot fatigue by putting Miles up on the big screen instead of another Peter Parker. It would have been perfect timing and it would have spared us those terrible Amazing Spider-Man films. But it all seemed to work out because Homecoming looks like it’s going to be excellent and it’s certainly paying respects to Ultimate Spider-Man in the way they Ganke’d Miles’ best friend for the movie. Eh? See what I did there. Spider-Puns! Ok, let’s look at the figure!

I wouldn’t have put it past Hasbro to deliver us Miles on the usual Spidey buck, but instead we got a smaller, more age appropriate build and I love it. I also love this costume design. It’s a more minimalist approach to Spidey 616’s duds, consisting of a nearly all black suit with the crimson deco only appearing on the arms, chest, back, and head. It’s clean, it’s simple, and the red looks striking against the black. I also really dig the way the Spider’s front legs on his back seem to morph into those shoulder stripes. This is one slick Spidey suit! The paint on my figure is overall quite good, with just a few minor stray red marks on what is otherwise pretty neat and sharp.

You get two heads with the figure: Masked and unmasked and both are excellent. The masked head features sculpting around the large white eyes and the web pattern just painted on. The unmasked head is just an all around great sculpt. They did a nice job capturing the comic art and I really like the little grin Miles is showing.

The articulation here is certainly solid enough, although it is missing the shoulder crunches that we have been getting with most Spider-Man Legends figures. Yes, I would have liked if those points were included, but I think it’s a worthy trade off for getting Miles on the smaller teenage buck. Why couldn’t we have both? I dunno. Budget? Either way, the articulation here is pretty standard stuff for Legends. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels at the thighs and lower legs, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the chest, and ab crunch hinge in the torso, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The joints are solid and feel great, making it damn hard for me to put this figure down.

In terms of accessories, Miles comes with the usual passel of hands that we’ve been seeing in a lot of Legends Spidey releases. You get a pair of fists, a pair of thwippy hands, and a pair of hands with splayed fingers. It’s still amazing to me that Hasbro hasn’t cooked up some web accessories for these figures yet. I’d happily take an accessory pack priced at $20 with a crap load of different webs, but from what I hear accessory packs are usually death on the shelves. Then again, NECA has been releasing them for their Alien and Predator lines, and DC Collectibles for their DC Icons line. I know, those are both more collector-orientated companies, whereas Hasbro has to make the retailers happy in order to get space on the planograms. A con exclusive, on the other hand, would be cool. Just repack one of the million recent Spider-Man figures with a bunch of web accessories and slap forty bucks on it. If the webs are good, I’d buy it.

To those of you who are getting all Spidey’d out, all I can say is I’m sorry. I get it. But with the lasting popularity of Spider-Verse, a new Spider-Man flick on the horizon, and Hasbro’s natural inclination for variants, you pretty much have to expect that they’re going to milk that spider for everything its worth. I certainly don’t mind, especially when it gives us a character like Miles, who I’ve been hoping for almost all the way back to when the Legends rebooted. And that’s probably why I resisted the urge to review both Ultimate Spider-Man figures together. Yeah, I’m trying to get caught up, and doubling up figures helps me get there, but I just thought this dude deserved his own day in the spotlight. I’ll probably wind up pairing up Ultimate Peter Parker with the Build-A-Figure when I get to the end of the wave.

Mar 10 2017

DC Comics: Lex Luthor ArtFX+ Statue by Kotobukiya

I started this week with a Kotobukiya Marvel statue, so I might as well end it with a Kotobukiya DC statue. Yes, despite telling myself that I was done with Koto’s amazing line of 1:10 Scale DC ArtFX+ statues, it seems I got pulled back in. I originally got into this line to pick up the Justice League and get out. Later, I wound up grabbing Catwoman and Batgirl, but I still never intended to be “all in” with these. That having been said, when I came across a sale on some of the ones I didn’t have, I found my resolve weakening. And so after almost three years since I opened my last one of these beauties, Lex Luthor is joining the display!

A lot of people seem to be smitten with this packaging, but I’m not a big fan. It looks great, but it’s delicate so it doesn’t store well, and it’s really susceptible to scratches and rubbing. I prefer the colorful and sturdier enclosed boxes that Koto used for their Marvel ArtFX+ series. Those boxes were keepers, these just get pitched. They seldom survived the trip to me in good condition anyhow. As with the rest of this line, Lex is based off his New 52 appearance. Sure, there were a few things about The New 52 that didn’t work for me, and only a handful of books kept me engaged until the end, but Justice League was a solid book, and I absolutely loved what they did with Luthor during this run.

Similarly, I absolutely love what Koto did with this statue. While they have mixed things up with some recent DC ArtFX+ releases, the poses generally favor museum-style composition over action. Here Lex stands with both hands balled into fists in a pose that just oozes power. If I were to nitpick one thing here, it’s that I wish they had orientated him so that his head was turning to his right and not his left, but only because I think he would display better with the ArtFX+ Superman that way. Then again, when I do put them together the right way, it looks like Supes is staring at Lex suspiciously, as if to say, “So you want to join the Justice League, eh? Pfft… over my dead body.” To which I say, “Pssst, Superman, I hate to break it to you, but you don’t survive The New 52. Oh, and Lex becomes a kind of Apokolips God-being.” Either way, as a stand alone piece, I think the pose here is flawless.

This line has been big on using beautiful high gloss paint and that certainly is the case here as well and it makes for an absolutely striking figure. In fact, the only matte finish on this statue comes from Lex’s bald head. The armor itself is painted in an exquisite combination of metallic purple and green and the sculpted lines and contours of the armor is exactly what I would like to see from a modern DCEU version of Lex’s Power Armor. And yes I said, “like to see” not “expect to see.” I mean, Christ the DCEU can’t even get Flash’s suit right… that shit is a lost cause. Not to mention, just look at who their Lex Luthor is. Sorry. The DCEU triggers me every damn time. I’m going to take a deep breath, count to three and press on…

The portrait is a little on the soft side, for example there isn’t a lot of detail in his gritting teeth, but I chalk that up to a stylistic choice for this line. The rage-filled expression isn’t so much the “I want to join the Justice League. I can make a difference” Lex as it is the “I’m going to annihilate the shit out of The Crime Syndicate” Lex. Either way, I love it.

As usual, the statue comes with a black metal square base that attracts the magnets in the feet to help him stay upright. It’s not really necessary as he stands just fine on his own, but I still dig that they toss that feature in for some added stability.

I seem to recall the original retail on these statues to be around $50-55, but the actual market prices run the gamut from the low thirties to the high fifties. Granted, there are a few exceptions, like Catwoman or Supergirl which often reaches the low $70’s. The magic number for Lex was $30 and for that I simply could not resist. From a quality perspective, they’re certainly worth it up to the higher end of that spectrum. This is Kotobukiya we’re talking about, a company that is always dedicated to delivering quality and craftsmanship. Originally, I wanted to stick with just the Justice League, because that group of seven makes for a perfect display on my shelf. Each and every one of those statues was designed to work as stand alone pieces, but also display as a set. But with Catwoman, Batgirl, and now Lex off in the background, I may have opened myself up to collecting this line again. Even now, I find myself eyeing up Lex’s New 52 bodyguard, Captain Cold.

Mar 9 2017

Ash Vs. Evil Dead: Bloody Ash FacesThe Demon Spawn by NECA

I’m still in a Transformers dry spell, so no quickchangebots today. I promise, Transformers Thursday will be back soon. I’m really pushing for one next week. In the meantime, let’s turn our attention to NECA and Ash Vs. Evil Dead. I’ve already looked at the rest of the initial figures from this masterpiece of a TV series. If you need to get caught up, check out my reviews of Hero Ash and Eligos as well as the Value Stop Ash. The Hero Ash review is recommended reading, since most of it is applicable to the figure in this box and I’m not going to rehash it all here. Ready? Groovy! Let’s go…

This set is one of those “you gotta buy a variant of a figure you probably already have, so you can get something new” deals. I’m not being snotty about it. It’s just a reality that toy companies, especially smaller ones like NECA, need to get their money’s worth out of molds so they can cost out new ones. As a result, this three-pack includes a repainted bloody version of Hero Ash and two of Lucy’s hell-spawn children. The set comes in a window box, it’s collector friendly, and features a deco that matches the previous releases in this line. Let’s start with Ash…

And yes, as already mentioned, Ash is a straight up repaint of the Hero Ash figure only all bloodied up with a delicious new paint job. This was already a great sculpt and I’ve said all I have to say about it in the original review. I’ll just add that the blood is done really well and it totally sells the figure. I mean, with how much time Ash spends splattered with blood, this figure becomes less a variant and more an essential for any Evil Dead collection.

The figure only comes with the one head sculpt, but NECA tossed in the rest of the accessories included in the original release. So, you not only get his trusty Boomstick, but you also get his mechanical hand that swaps out with the chainsaw. And if you want to give either your regular Hero Ash or your Value Stop Ash a bloodied up face, the heads are interchangeable between all three of the figures. Moving on to the new stuff!

Lucy’s horrible kids! These demon spawn share the same disgusting diapered bodies, but feature individual paint washes to make them look like they’re covered in filth. Articulation includes rotating hinges in the shoulders, hips, and wrists. Double hinges in the elbows, single hinges in the knees and ankles, swivels in the waists, and ball joints in the necks. A word of warning, the paint wash on my figures meant that every joint had to be carefully worked loose and each one made a scary snap when it did. That having been said, nothing broke, but the ordeal was just a little scary.

You know what else is scary? These god damned kids. Look at the soul-less voids they have in place of eyes. One has an open mouth and the other is gritting its teeth. These demons creeped me the hell out in the show, and NECA has succeeded in translating that same sensation into the figures quite splendidly. Thanks for the goddamn nightmares, NECA! I’m not sure I can sleep in the same house with these two. I may have to bury these two in the back yard.

NECA put this set out there for just under forty bucks, but it’s been kicking around Amazon for considerably less. It’s a really nice deal for three figures, but it’s an even better deal if you missed out on the first Hero Ash release, which is now selling for double the original MSRP. Either way, I’m on board and All-In on anything and everything that NECA puts out for this series. And yes, that even includes the Ashey-Slashey puppet! Hey, it’s the least I can do to make sure this line succeeds and keeps on producing figures. And just to spread the love around, NECA also has a Ash and Deadite Ed two-pack coming from Evil Dead II. Ah, it’s a great time to be an action figure collector!

Mar 7 2017

ThunderCats Classics: Panthro by Mattel

Well folks, I’ve put this off long enough. It’s time to open my very last figure in Matty’s ill-fated ThunderCats series. I was saving this review for after Toy Fair because I was really hoping that Super7 would have some good news for us, but obviously that wasn’t the case. I didn’t hear anybody ask them about the license, and they sure weren’t volunteering any information. I’m going to be an eternal optimist and take that as a sign of hope. If negotiations were still underway, they may have been limited in what they could discuss, whereas if all bets were off, I’m hoping they just would have come out and told us that, rather than keep us hanging in a state of misplaced hope. Anyway, let’s look at Panthro…

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As always, the figure comes in an illustrated black mailer box. Inside that is this fantastic window box, which shows the figure off beautifully. There’s a trap door on the bottom so you can easily pull out the tray. The back panel has colorful character art and a bio. This package is a little less collector friendly than the others, because one of Panthro’s accessories is behind a bubble on the tray backing, but with a little patience and a blade, you can still get it off without hurting anything. I’m holding onto these packages for now, but who knows if Super7 will keep this package design if they ever do secure the rights.

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Out of the package, we can quickly see that Panthro sucks and is yet another example of why I’m glad this line died. Well, that’s what I want to say, but I can’t, because in all honesty he’s excellent and quite possibly the best figure in this little collection. Granted, from the neck down there’s not a lot of original sculpted detail, but what’s here is totally faithful to the character design. Plus, they did make the effort to put in little touches like the ring just above his left elbow, the cuff on his right wrist, and the ties on the back of his lower leggings. I also love the proportions on this figure, the buck is just perfect.

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Panthro’s harness tabs together at the back and looks great on him. One of the spikes behind the left shoulder is a little bent from being in the package, but it’s nothing that I’m going to get worked up about. There’s some nice texturing on the belt and the Eye of Thunderra is crisp. The rest of the coloring here is also spot on! If I had to gripe about something it would be that the plastic looks a little rough in some areas. There’s some mold flashing here and there and some visible seams.

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I’ve got absolutely no quibbles with the head sculpt. While I could argue that the portraits on some of these figures have been just a smidge off here and there, Panthro’s hits the mark perfectly. From his broad nose and pointy ears, this is the Panthro I grew up with and really admired. He was strong, an agile fighter, and a wiz with technology and mechanics. A veritable Cat of all Trades.

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Panthro comes with a bevy of accessories, the least interesting of which is an extra right hand with a tighter grip, which seems unnecessary, but why argue over an extra accessory, eh? His nun-chucks are fantastic and connect with a real chain. They feature the adorable little cat claws sculpted into the ends and he can hold them really well.

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He also comes with a pair of nun-chucks that recreates a spinning effect. You plug the blue spinney effect part into the extra red chuk and it looks pretty good. I’m tempted to say I’d rather have had a pair that he could clip on the back of his belt, but this is still pretty damn neat. And we’re not done yet, because he comes with two more little goodies.

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The Key of Thunderra! It was an artifact so important that they named an episode after it. It was a thoughtful item to include with Panthro, since he was the one that found it in that episode. No, it doesn’t do much, but he can hold it in his hand and say, “Look what I found! Let’s use it to get Lion-O out of that damn book!”

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Panthro also comes with the Thundrometer, which he used to locate Thundrillium, the fuel for his precious Thundertank. I like this accessory a lot and he looks great holding it.

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Panthro is about as perfect a figure as I can imagine. He looks great, he has all the right accessories, and he is loads of fun to play with. And of course, he represents the final installment in this line unless it gets a stay of execution from Super7. I really like what they’re doing with the new Masters of the Universe Classics figures, but I’m not a big fan of their “you can pre-order every figure in the wave or none at all” business model. On the other hand, I’m jonesing for more ThunderCats so badly, that I’d probably be perfectly fine with that strategy should the licensing ever work out. In fact, there’s really no characters that I can think of that I wouldn’t happily buy in figure form. In the meantime, I guess I’ll just have to be content with these my complete set of 2011 ThunderCats from Bandai.

Mar 6 2017

Marvel Comics: Spider-Gwen Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

I know, riiiiight? It’s been forever and a day since I last looked at one of Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo statues and I have no excuses other than I’ve been prioritizing Marvel Legends so as not to fall too far behind. But it’s crazy to think that I haven’t visited with this line since the Summer of last year, and the last Marvel Bishoujo I showcased here was Ms. Van Dyne all the way back in October of 2015. Holy hell, that’s way too long. So today I’m opening up a brand new Marvel gal for this collection and it is indeed, Gwen Stacey, aka Spider-Gwen!

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The box is pretty typical for the comic book based Bishoujos. It’s mostly white with some great artwork from Shunya Yamashita. You get plenty of windows to let the light in and the statue comes between two clear plastic trays. Spider-Gwen is one of the very few Marvel books that I’m current with (at least in collected trade format), and I enjoy it a fair bit. But if I’m honest, Marvel’s comics have been going through some really weird phases these days and I find it pushing me to spend more time reading DC’s ReBirth. But that’s an entirely different discussion for a different time and place. Gwen’s set up only requires you to peg her left foot into the base. She comes with her unmasked portrait, but I’m actually going to start with her masked.

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And here she is, and she is fantastic! There’s a lot to love here, but straightaway, it’s the balance of this statue that really impresses me. With just her left heel touching the base, Gwen pulls off a fantastic gravity-defying pose, as she pulls back her right hand to throw a punch and her left hand reaches out to thwip out another web. Not only does the composition of this piece just exude energy, but it also allows you to get a great look at the figure from every angle. Koto has done some amazing poses for their Marvel and DC ladies over the years, but this is without a doubt one of my favorites and it suits the character perfectly.

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Gwen is somewhat unique among the Bishoujos in that she requires very little detailed sculpting and features a nearly entirely matte painted finish. Now, I don’t want to undercut the fantastic job they did with all her curves and contours, but apart from her lovely shape, the only real detail here from the neck down can be found on the cut web patterns on her arms and underarms, cut lines just below her knees, and on her shoes. You also get cut lines to reinforce the paint lines. Keep in mind, none of this is a criticism at all, quite the contrary, it’s totally appropriate for the character design and also serves to make Spider-Gwen a refreshingly simple figure.

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The other distinctive thing here that I mentioned was the completely matte finish, except for her shoes. Koto does indeed love their high gloss paints and in truth it does seem to go so well with so many of the super hero costumes. In this case, they were right to avoid it. The white here looks so bright and clean and the black is smooth and consistent. The plastic Koto uses for these takes white and black so well, which has sometimes been a problem with lines like Diamond’s Marvel and DC Galleries, which often show rubbing. The red webbing and blue shoes serve to break up the black and white costume beautifully. If I were to nitpick just a bit, the red in the webbing inserts doesn’t quite line up with the cut lines, but it’s not something that bothers me.

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One thing that does, however, bother me is how I’m going to choose which head to display her with. The hooded and masked head is superb. It goes on all as one piece and there are tabs on the hood to make it connect with the body. The sculpted and painted web patterns inside the hood look great and the mauve spray that defines her eyes is spot on. It’s amazing how quickly this costume has become iconic for me and that’s a strong argument to go with this this option. On the other hand…

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The unmasked portrait really conveys what the Bishoujo line is all about. This option is achieved with two pieces. The lowered hood tabs in first and then the head after that, and the combo is splendid. Gwen is one of those characters that fits right in with the Bishoujo style without a lot of tweaking at all. Her eyes and hair are perfect and that sly little smile is one of the best expressions Koto has done for this line. In the end, I’m probably going to go unmasked. The last time this decision was such a dilemma was with Koto’s Batwoman.

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The base is a raised disc with an incline, very similar to the kind used for Wonder Woman v2. This one is painted with a black and white city skyline and a mauve sky to match her costume deco. It really matches the art styling of the comic very well.

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Spider-Gwen is quite simply Bishoujo perfection. What’s more, even if you aren’t a fan of Koto’s Bishoujo line (WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU??), and you’re just looking for a really nice Spider-Gwen statue, you could display this statue with the masked portrait and no one would be any the wiser. And I should toss in here how great it is, after such a long absence, to be opening one of Koto’s lovely Bishoujo statues again. It goes without saying that it’s particularly nice to come back to such a very strong entry in the series. It’s true there have been a couple of Marvel gals that I skipped. I wasn’t really keen on their She-Hulk and I haven’t gotten around to picking up Lady Deadpool yet. Fortunately, there are a lot of Bishoujo ladies hitting the shelves either right now or very soon, so it’s safe to say I’ll have some more Bishoujos featured here again in the coming months, particularly Squirrel Girl, Harley Quinn v2, Wonder Girl, Lady Thor, Lady Loki, and Street Fighter’s Ibuki. So sit tight, Bishoujo fans. Things are going to start heating up again real soon.

Mar 4 2017

Arpeggio of the Blue Steel Ars Nova DC: Iona by SEGA

Who’s ready for another Anime Saturday, eh? I’ve got quite a backlog of anime gals I want to get around to opening up and today I’m just pulling one at random off the pile. It’s Iona, the Mental Model of the renegade Fleet of Fog submarine I-401 from Arpeggio of the Blue Steel! If you haven’t seen this series yet, I highly recommend it and at only twelve episodes plus Cadenza, it’s a pretty quick ride. A while back I looked at Max Factory’s Figma of Iona and today I’m checking out Taito’s prize figure.

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The figure comes in a fully enclosed box with perforations on the side to make handles. It’s pretty standard stuff for a prize figure, but it’s colorful, collector friendly, and features a shot of the figure on the front and some artwork from the anime on the side panel. There’s precious little in the way of English on the package, so you really need to know what you’re looking at here. Like Figma’s Iona, this one is also based off of her look from the post-series film and not from the series itself. That’s fine, but one of these days, I’d like to get a figure of Iona in her darker blue sailor uniform.

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And here she out of the box, plugged into her base, and ready to go. At just under 8 1/2-inches, Inoa is closer to a fully scaled figure than your average prize figure. She actually scales perfectly with SEGA’s “Super Premium” releases. I like the pose well enough. Iona is balancing on her right foot with her left foot kicked up behind her a bit. Her arms are out away from her sides and her hair is kicking up around them. There’s a nice sense of kinetism to the composition and it shows off the figure splendidly.

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As mentioned, the costume is the two-tone paler blue version, which most of the Iona merch tends to gravitate towards. She has a white sailor’s collar with blue striping, a pink neckerchief, white knee-high socks, and tall white boots with blue lacing. She also has her fleet insignia on the lower back of her blouse.

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The portrait is pretty basic. I like the printing on her pale blue eyes and she offers a hint of a smile. The paint is overall fairly solid on this figure, although there are a few little blemishes here and there and the lines could be a little crisper. Still, I’ve got no complaints. afterall, these are the little things that set a twenty dollar figure apart from a hundred and twenty dollar figure.

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I like the base a lot. It consists of a raised black disc with white printing, which includes the fleet insignia, some hexagons and the title of the anime with “Ars Nova DC” in English.

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Now here’s the kicker: I paid less than $13 for Iona shipped from Amazon, where she’s still available at the time this review goes to press. THIRTEEN BUCKS! I’m still gobsmacked by what a great deal she is. Sure, there are better versions of Iona out there, if you’re looking to spend five to ten times that, and those figures are most definitely worth it. But, I get a kick out of hunting these less expensive prize figures, mainly because they still look great and I can put a lot more characters on my shelf and still stay within budget. Also SEGA does have a version of her in her darker outfit, and yes it happens to be on the way to me!

Mar 3 2017

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Power Girl by DC Collectibles

Apologies to DC fans who have missed DC Friday for the last two weeks, but truth be told, I’m almost caught up with opening my DC figures and statues, so I’ve been rotating DC Fridays out in favor of other areas. It’s going to continue to be a little hit-or-miss in the weeks ahead. But I’m bringing it back home today with a look at another DC Cover Girls statue. This time, it’s one of my all time favorites… Power Girl!

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If you’re unfamiliar with this line, these are approximately 9-inch scale, cold cast porcelain statues released in numbered editions. The box she comes in is mostly white with, in this case, a blue swipe running down the the front. You get some photos of the statue and credits to the designer, Stanley Lau, and the sculptor, Jack Matthews. The box is fully enclosed and collector friendly. The collectible comes wrapped in plastic and sandwiched between two hearty styrofoam bricks. The only assembly required is to plug Kara’s feet into the base via the metal posts. It’s a comfortable fit, they go in easy and despite just balancing on one foot, she’s very sturdy.

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Power Girl stands confidently with one knee bent and palming her fist as she prepares for a fight (someone’s about to get the most enjoyable beat-down they’ll ever get in their life!), while a breeze blows her half-cape and short coif of hair off to the side. This is a great pose that not only characterizes the nobility and courage of Power Girl beautifully, but also fits in right at home with her fellow Cover Girl statues. It’s cover-worthy composition with the promise of a little action to come.

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The sculpt does a fantastic job of recreating Power Girl’s timeless outfit. The white one-piece features sculpted seam lines and some slight wrinkles to suggest it’s properly snug in all the right places. Of course, you also get the high collar and her iconic boob window. Hey! Her eyes are up there, mister! Her cape is perfectly sculpted to billow in the breeze and is secured by a sculpted gold painted disc and braided cord. The rest of her costume is rounded out by her blue buccaneer boots and gloves and a blue belt with gold buckle. About the only downside is that her cape obstructs the view of her caboose. Just saying.

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The coloring and quality of paint on this statue are both exceptional. The white is clean with a subtle glossy sheen, the blue is deep and rich, the red is vibrant, and the gold adds that perfect little pop to the whole ensemble. What’s more the flesh tones on her legs and chest are warm, even and clean. When it comes to the figure itself, I have to say I’ve seen far more expensive statues painted with a lot less care than this one.

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The portrait is spot on and absolutely lovely. The shape of her face and the contours of her perfect nose make her a sight to behold. The paint on the eyes, eyebrows, and lips is all crisp, and the sculpting on the wind blown hair is perfect. If I wasn’t already in love with Power Girl, admiring that face would surely push me over the edge.

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The base is the standard oval that we’ve been seeing throughout most of this line. It’s painted white with blue edges and you get her trademark “P” at the cardinal points. The base is also the only place on this piece where the quality of paint application stumbles a bit. It’s not terrible, but the lines are certainly not as straight and even as they could have been. Nonetheless, if the paint has to take a hit somewhere, I’d much rather it be down on the base than on the figure itself. As always, the limitation is hand numbered on the bottom of the base. Mine is 2,722 of 5,200.

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The suggested retail here is around $99, but a little patience and hunting netted me this one for $66 shipped and it’s hard to beat that! Most people who know me are surprised that I didn’t jump on this one the moment it was released. The truth is that most of the official photos gave me pause. Even the shots on the box don’t do the finished product justice at all. When she arrived and I opened her, I was practically bracing myself for disappointment. And in fairness, my love of Power Girl means that I often hold her merch up to especially high standards. But, as it turned out, I couldn’t possibly have been more delighted with the way this statue turned out. I have just a few more DC Cover Girls to get caught up on and then there’s three more yet to be released this year before DC Collectibles reboots this line again with a new artist. Will I still be on board after the reboot? Most likely.