Monthly Archives: November 2020

Nov 30 2020

Marvel Legends: Storm and Thunderbird by Hasbro

After a brief Thanksgiving hiatus, I’m back for another Marvel Monday! I ended last Monday’s review lamenting that I couldn’t find the Storm/Thunderbird set, and wouldn’t you know it, I not only found it, but got a decent Black Friday deal on it too! So as long as we’re still in an X-Men kinda vibe, let’s go ahead and check this one out!

The packaging features the same design as the Rogue/Pyro set from last week, and that’s not a bad thing. The box is pretty compact and gives you a great look at the figures inside, while also providing some sumptuous character art on the back and side panels. There’s a bunch of goodies on the tray, but they are all for Storm! You get nothing, Thunderbird!!!  I’d love to keep these boxes, but I need the space for figures, so as usual I’m just going to tear it up. And once again, it’s ladies first! Actually, scratch that… let me get Thunderbird out of the way…

So, I really wanted to like this figure. He has some good stuff going for him. For starters, I really dig the design of his costume and Hasbro did a nice job bringing it to life in plastic. The red and blue look absolutely gorgeous together, and while the bulk of the costume is achieved through the paint, there is a good amount of newly sculpted bits as well. You get sculpted red fringe pieces for the sleeves and the tops of his boots. The sleeves work fine, however, the boot pieces are held on by friction and we all know how well that works. They are constantly sliding down around his ankles. And the fact that they’re located right on a swivel means that I probably won’t try to glue them. The rest of the sculpted pieces are his belt and wrist cuffs, all of which are cast in gold plastic. These look fine and don’t create any issues.

The head sculpt is certainly solid. Hasbro did a great job with the facial features and I always love when the mask is part of the sculpt and not just painted on. The hair is sculpted to fall over the head band a bit, and his hair has a dynamic look as it blows a bit off to the side. The paintwork on the head, however, is pretty spotty. The flesh tone of the face bleeds through the mask, there’s some black spots on the head band, and the paint lines between the hair and the head band are rough. There’s even a huge splotch of red paint on his hair. I don’t know that any of these paint issues by themselves would ruin the figure for me, but when I add them to the list, things aren’t looking good for Thunderbird.

Unfortunately, the spotty quality of paint application isn’t confined to the head. Of course, the figure uses a blue buck painted red, and while there thankfully isn’t a lot of bleed through showing on the red on the front of the figure, the back has quite a bit. And while I’m griping about the paint, some of those lines could have been neater. And, yes, the inner pins on the knees aren’t painted to match the red areas. Granted, I don’t complain about that on the Spider-Man figures, so I won’t hold it against Thunderbird. But, added to the paint and the boot fringe, is everything about the arms. They look kind of awkward when hanging at his sides, and the elbow hinges on my figure are all sorts of soft and gummy. Ultimately, I plan on getting him into a halfway decent pose and then leaving him on the shelf. He’s just no fun at all. Thankfully, we can now move on to the star of this box!

We’ve had a couple of Storms in modern Legends already, and I’m ashamed to say that I have yet to open or review any of them. Although in fairness, one of those is retro-carded and I may never open her. But here we get the classic, original costume, and a figure that I’m sure a lot of collectors were happy to finally see revealed. I know I was! Storm comes out of the box with her more dynamic look, but for starters, I’ve swapped her out to something more neutral. And oh boy, what a fantastic figure! Every aspect of her costume is sculpted onto the figure, from her thigh-high boots with the oval cut-outs at the tops. to her revealing top with the ring holding the two pieces together in the center of her midriff, and the arm bracers. The distinctive cape is sculpted as a separate piece and fits snugly around her neck. I really dig the high gloss finish on the black costume bits, which contrasts nicely with the more matte finish of her brown skin. And while the yellow paint lines for the border on the cape could have been sharper, it’s not terrible.

You get two portraits with the figure, the first is the more neutral expression and it is quite lovely. The paint on her lips and pupil-less eyes is pretty sharp and the headpiece is sculpted separately from the face giving little gaps and making it look more convincing as something that’s actually being worn by the figure. The copious coif of white hair offers a bit of space around the neck, so as not to impede articulation too much.

The second portrait is part of her more dynamic look, and wow is this a great addition to the box. Her expression has turned from calm to stormy, and I don’t need a meteorologist to tell me that bad weather is coming! In addition to the expression, her hair is now wild all around her head, as the imaginary winds begin whipping up to a frenzy.

In addition to the extra head, you also get a more dynamic cape, depicting her all powered up and raining on The Brotherhood’s parade. And if that’s not enough, you also get three sets of hands, which include fists and the female spell/power hands that we’ve seen many times over. So how about the third pair?

These are the lightning shooting hands that are on the figure in the box and they look great! I can’t overstate how cool it is that Hasbro included the alternate parts to really transform this figure from a normal stance to full-on power wielding poses. It makes me wish that this figure was single-packed so I could get a second one and display her both ways. Who knows? Maybe these sets will turn up on clearance, but I doubt it.

I really wish I liked Thunderbird more, because he’s the only thing holding this release back from being a total homerun of a set. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have him on my shelf, especially when I can display him next to this Rogue and a few more of the Classic X-Men, but he’s just got a few too many annoyances to make him a great figure. On the flipside, Storm is just about perfect. Indeed, if I were to nitpick anything on her, it would be the style of elbow hinges they used, which I’m not all that fond of. But even that can’t hold this back from being an absolutely fantastic release. Who knows? Maybe I will get around to opening that Retro-Carded one someday, but now I’m doubly excited to swing back around and open up the mohawk-version as well.

Nov 26 2020

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone is having a happy, fun, safe, and restful holiday!

I’ve decided to take an impromptu vacation from blogging this week. Work has been crazy busy, this is only the second Holiday Season with my parents gone, and I decided I needed to take some time for rest and reflection. And by that I mainly mean sleep, go through countless bottles of Jameson, and maybe watch some old Star Trek and Doctor Who.

I’m not thrilled about missing so many marks on my content schedule lately, but Q4 is always crazy and I need to do what it takes to keep myself rested and grounded.

With that said, I will be back for Marvel Monday, and hopefully a full brace of content for next week. I’ve had lots of cool stuff come in over the past couple of weeks, and some more goodies coming from the various Holiday Sales, and as much as I needed to take a break this week, I’m excited about digging in and getting some more reviews done this weekend.

As always, I’m thankful for every single one of you that visits this blog, drops me comments, or hits me up in email.

Happy Thanksgiving!

By figurefanzero
4
Nov 23 2020

Marvel Legends: Rogue and Pyro by Hasbro

It’s another Marvel Monday and Thanksgiving week to boot! Obviously, I’m thankful to Hasbro for giving us so many amazing Marvel Legends figures, even if this line is becoming almost impossible to keep up with! Today I’m digging into one of the recent two-packs with Rogue and Pyro! So allow me to pour myself a tall glass of Jameson’s patented holiday cheer and let’s get to it!

The packaging here is just lovely, and it makes me sad that I don’t have the room to keep these boxes. You get some wonderful character art on the side panels and the back, and a big window in the front that lets you get a good look at the stuffing inside. It’s a fairly compact box, and that coupled with the number of extras, makes it look like a well-rounded package of goodies! Where to begin? Well as Rogue would say… it’s ladies first, sugah!

Cards on the table, I was really hoping the next Legends Rogue we got was her Savage Lands look, but I think deep down inside, I knew better. Instead we get one of her more modern costumes, which I think is… OK. It’s not my favorite look for her, but she’s done a lot worse over the years. And to be fair, this figure is so well executed, that it’s hard for me not to get behind the choice to go with this look. Particularly clever is the way the belt piece is sculpted to include the short skirt, making it look like it’s all part of the torso, when it’s just a nicely done fake out. With the exception of some sculpted boot tops around the knees, the rest of the costume gets by with white trim painted onto the rather striking green buck. Yeah, the coloring here is just gorgeous and despite the fact that some of those white paint lines could have been sharper, the color combo is what really sells this figure to me. A sculpted white scarf cascades down Rogue’s back to complete the ensemble. Maybe they overdid it a bit with the X-branding on this costume design, but heck, I don’t mind.

Since I’m squeezing two figures in today, I’m not going to run down all the articulation points. Besides, there’s nothing new here. The only thing really worth mentioning is that the skirt does inhibit her range of motion in the hips just a tad. I will also point out that Rogue comes with two pairs of hands: Fists, and those sort of spell-slinging, psychic power type hands.

The portrait is solid enough, but there’s something about it that keeps it from being great, and it’s just hard to put my figure on what exactly that is. The paint is pretty sharp, and she’s got a cute expression going on between her smirk and her eyes, but I vastly prefer the portrait from that classic Jim Lee figure. The hair sculpt here isn’t one of Hasbro’s best either. It looks a little more like putty than hair, and the white is kind of splotchy. I do, however, dig the ponytail. I don’t know, maybe I’m being too hard on this one. She does come with an alternate head, so how’s that one?

Well, I’m not entirely sure what expression they were going for here. At some angles it looks like anger, in others it just looks like she’s showing off her pearly whites. Come to think of it, it’s actually a bit saucy! In terms of the face, I’d say this is a lateral move over the other regular head. It’s not better, not worse, just another option. They did re-sculpt the hair to give it a more dynamic look, but it doesn’t help the complaints I had about it on the previous portrait.

I like this figure well enough. It’s a cool look for Rogue, and I think the fact that I nitpicked her a bit just goes to show you what a great line Legends is, and how expectations run high. I have no doubt that there are collectors out there for whom this is the Rogue they were waiting for, and that’s what makes the prolific nature of this line so great. And make no mistake, I am by no means unhappy about adding this one to my collection.

No offense to Rogue, but they could have bundled anyone with Pyro and I still would have bought this set. Once the onslaught of X-Men (no pun intended) starting hitting Legends, I kept hoping that Pyro would be in the next wave, and then the next, and so on. I’m kind of surprised that he wasn’t a regular release, but either way I ain’t complaining because this is an outstanding figure. Pyro’s flame retardant suit is almost entirely painted onto the bright and beautiful yellow plastic of the buck. We get a deep maroon for the boots, and a muted orange-tan for the upper sleeves and torso. The paint lines are crisp and everything about the coloring here is just gorgeous.

Pyro’s flamethrower rig is molded as part of the shoulders and chest piece, which fits around his neck and rests on his shoulders. It’s all cast in soft maroon plastic to match the color of the boots, and there’s a big yellow diamond painted on the chest. There’s some sculpted detail in the backpack, and the two flexible hoses snake their way down his arms and attach to the cuffs on his wrists with the nozzles positioned under his wrists. The hoses work well and are flexible enough so as not to impede the range of movement in his arms. And speaking of articulation, Pyro’s got it in all the usual places, and even includes those extra swivels down in his lower legs.

The standard head sculpt makes for a great portrait, with his orange mask sculpted as well as painted on. His prominent and expressive brow frames his bug-like red eyes, and the part in the mask advertises his sharp nose, jutting chin, and wide, beaming grin. The shock of blonde hair juts upward, like a flame on a match. This is just another one of those Legends portraits that oozes personality, and really brings the character to life.

As with Rogue, Pyro comes with an alternate head, which simply features a different expression. Here, Pyro’s grin blooms into a full on kinda yellow toothy, psychotic grin. I’m just going to go ahead and characterize these heads as Before He Sets You on Fire, and After He Sets You on Fire. It’s a close call as to which one I’ll use most for display, but right now I’m leaning toward the second one.

Pyro comes with two fire effect parts, and here’s the only part about the figure that leaves me disappointed. These effect parts are meant to fit around the fists, but even if I didn’t recognize them as recycled parts, it’s easy to tell that they were clearly not designed for this figure. They don’t work well with the nozzles and tend to fall off pretty easily. I really wish Hasbro could have given us something that did work with those nozzles, like a jet stream of flame. Yeah, I realize that we got TWO extra portraits in this box, so maybe asking for brand new effect parts is a lot, but even still, these effect parts just don’t work that well.

No doubt, this is a solid set of figures. I like the Rogue well enough, but I didn’t feel like my collection was incomplete without her. She’s a decent figure, but she isn’t going to replace the bomber jacketed Jim Lee version on my main X-Men shelf. And so, she’ll be relegated to that “other versions” shelf, which is constantly in danger of getting taken down to make room for other figures. Pyro on the other hand, was the “must have” in this box, and despite a swing and a miss with the flame effects, the figure itself is a homerun. He’ll be taking up a place of honor on my Brotherhood shelf. Either way, this box was a welcome pick up, and now I can go back to trying to hunt down the Storm/Thunderbird two-pack.

Nov 20 2020

Masters of the Universe Origins: Man-At-Arms and Orko by Mattel

Today I’m continuing my look at a line that I vowed never to collect! Masters of the Universe Origins! After amassing boxes upon boxes of the MOTUC line, there was no way I was going to start from scratch with Masters in a new format. And yet here we are, as I’m nearly caught up on the current offerings of Origins and even pre-ordered the new Castle Greyskull, all because I’m a weak man, and this line is just so good! This time I’m teaming up too new Heroic Warriors (or at least one Heroic Warrior and one Bumbling Idiot), with a look at “The Master of Weapons,” Man-At-Arms and “The Court Magician,” Orko.

I feel sorry for anyone collecting these figures Mint On Card, because the primary source for them seems to be Walmart’s website, and Walmart ain’t got no time for proper packing. Plus, this elongated card design, while looking amazing, is just a big invitation to being bent and crumpled. I did manage to get an extra He-Man and Skeletor to keep carded, but those I found on the pegs. The rest were shipped to me and nearly all were bent up, with the exception of Orko, who arrived in nothing more than a mailer envelope, but somehow managed to remain almost dead mint. Go figure! Let’s start with Duncan!

When I first got Man-At-Arms in hand, I thought I was cheated because he wasn’t wearing his extra armor bits, and there didn’t seem to be any room for them in the package. But quickly after opening him, I found that they were indeed bundled with his weapon, TIGHTLY wrapped together and bundled behind the figure. These pieces are sculpted in extra soft plastic and strap on to his left arm and leg quite easily. The quality of their fit is a little across the board. The shoulder piece fits fine. The lower arm piece isn’t so bad, the leg piece is kind of wobbly. Still, I’m overall pleased with how they came out and I like that they made the arm and shoulder separate pieces to account for the added elbow articulation. I also love that they gave the area near the elbow an accordion style sculpt to make it look like it’s designed to flex with the elbow, even though it really doesn’t. The chest piece is your standard vest, which tabs together in the back and looks great.

The figure itself is your standard He-Man buck cast mostly in green, with brown barbarian diaper and boots, and a blue belt. The wrist bracers are left unpainted just like on the vintage figure. Articulation remains uniform for the line with all the jointed parts being modular. This no doubt makes the manufacturing process easier and less costly, but it also means if you want to customize your own MOTU figures by mixing and matching, you can go right ahead and do it! As he stands, the coloring on this figure looks fantastic, and I’m a big fan of the way the orange armor complements that green buck.

Probably the most interesting thing about the head sculpt is that they decided to go with the Filmation mustache look, rather than that of the original vintage toy. I’m curious to see how the old school MOTU fans will feel about this, but I would have been fine either way. Duncan always was an ugly son of a gun and the addition of his now familiar mustache doesn’t really change that. He’s got the same broad and lumpy face that he had way back when, which is exactly how I will always remember him. The blue helmet actually looks like it’s sculped separately from the head and features some nice details and pretty clean paintwork.

In addition to his armor bits, Man-At-Arms comes with his trusty orange mace. It’s a simple weapon, which he can hold well in his right hand, and it rounds out what is a superb recreation of the vintage toy, lip ferret not withstanding! Let’s move on to Orko!

I was pretty excited to see what Orko would be like, since he’s one of the only Origins figures so far to stray from the standard buck. Not to mention, the original figure was more like a Zip-And-Go toy than an actual figure. I’d say Mattel took a page from the MOTUC line when delivering this toy, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Orko features a hollow, hard plastic body with a ball socket under his robes to plug in his translucent stand. The other end of the stand plugs into the socket in the trippy looking base, allowing for articulation in the stand at both ends. I’m not sure what kind of effect they were going for with the base itself, but it sure looks cool. The purple plastic has sparkles in it and it looks like bubbles. A simpler clear base would have been more versatile, but it’s hard to complain when what they came up with looks this beautiful.

Orko himself looks very Filmation inspired, which makes sense since that’s where he originated from. The “O” on his chest is actually part of the sculpt and not simply painted on, but other than that and a few light rumples, there isn’t a whole lot of detail in his body, which again drives home the animated look. His arms have rotating hinges at the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. He has a wide range of motion at the shoulders, but more limited movement at the elbows and wrists because of the way the sleeves are sculpted. Still, what’s here isn’t at all bad.

The head is basically just a black ball with eyes. It’s ball jointed into the scarf that encircles his neck, and the wide brimmed hat has holes for his ears to pass through. The effect works well, and I was surprised at how much expressive motion I could get out of the head. I’ll also note that when I first saw my figure in the package, it had a black spot on the front corner of his hat. I thought this was a defect, but when I opened him up it brushed right off, and boy am I thankful for that!

Orko doesn’t come with any accessories, although I guess the stand does use a lot of plastic. I can’t say he’s really missing anything. Even the wand that came with the Classics version always seemed kind of out of place to me. Maybe a spell book would have been cool, but certainly not essential. To be honest, I’m surprised we got Orko so soon in Origins. It’s clearly a line that is structured around recycled bodies, and Orko had to be individually designed from the ground up, and I don’t see a lot of opportunity for reusing any of these parts.

And there we are… two more great figures from Mattel’s Origins line! Heroic Warrior ranks are growing and I’m looking forward to grabbing some more. My local Walmart stocked the first wave of these, but after that it’s been nothing at all, so I’ve been relying on Walmart’s website to pre-order and so far they’ve been coming through with the goods. My understanding is that Walmart’s exclusivity on these isn’t permanent, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to utilize Amazon to collect this line in the future. I’m not committed to being a completist at this point, so if I miss one or two along the way, I’m not going to go crazy hunting them down. Next time I revisit this line, we’ll take a look at some more of the evil denizens of Snake Mountain!

Nov 18 2020

Transformers Earthrise: Runamuck by Hasbro

Ever since I first laid eyes on The Stunticons in the old Sunbow Transformers cartoon, I have been fascinated with Decepticon cars. I can’t tell you why, maybe it’s just because they went against the grain. Maybe it’s because they were able to take the battle to the roads, and I loved getting my G1 Transformers into demolition derby style skirmishes. And all in all, considering some of the crazy shit I’ve seen on the internet, having a Decepticon car fetish is nothing to be ashamed of.

Enter The Battlechargers, Runabout and Runamuck! These Decpticon twins transformed into black (Runabout) and white (Runamuck) sportscars and looked damn sexy doing it. The original G1 toys actually auto-transformed from car to robot when you pulled them back and let them go. C’mon sing it with me! “Nobody jumps into action faster than Battlechargers!” YEAH!!! This made for fun toys but, as often was the case with the G1 toys, not terribly great action figures. As a result, I’m really excited to see these guys get modern Deluxe Class updates. Runamuck released first, so let’s check him out.

Runamuck’s alt mode is a white sports sedan with some gold trim and smoked translucent windows. It’s got a lot of seams, and sometimes it’s tough to keep them all locked in tight, but I think he still manages to look pretty good. I like the rather sharp angles on this car, and the white plastic Hasbro used isn’t that cheap swirly stuff. It actually looks and feels great in hand. The roof is actually painted over the clear plastic, but it matches fairly well and there’s a bold Decepticon emblem proudly emblazoned on top. Other than that and the gold trim, you don’t get a lot more in the way of paint apps. There are some red taillights, but that’s about it. It would have been nice to see some more painted detail on the front, but I still like what we got.

Runamuck has very low clearance in his undercarriage, so it’s important to get him all buttoned down right if you want him to roll smoothly, but he’s definitely capable of it. There’s a peg hole on the roof so you can plug Runamuck’s gun into it and weaponize his car mode. I’m never a huge fan of doing this, but it’s not so bad here. All in all, I’d say this car does a great job of updating the original toy, while still being fairly true to it. Runamuck has a pretty interesting transformation, and taking him from car to robot goes really quick once you know what you’re doing. Although not as quick as the original spring-loaded figure!

The robot design loosely follows the old toy, with the hood becoming his feet and lower legs, but mostly Hasbro looked to the Sunbow design for inspiration, and that’s a very good thing, although I only remember him appearing in one or two episodes. And I’ve got to say, this Earthrise version is a thing of beauty! He’s got a stocky and rugged appearance for a bot that comes out of a sportscar. The hood on the lower legs, the spoilers on the forearms, and the tail of the car rising up behind his head make him look well armored. And yes, the car roof chest piece is faked out. From an engineering standpoint, I don’t mind this at all, but it would be more impressive if the real car windshield wasn’t peeking out the bottom of his backpack. Yeah, I’m nitpicking… it’s fine!

Runamuck maintains the deco of his alt mode, that is to say he’s still white with a little gold trim and smoked translucent plastic. Some gold around his shoulders to mimic the IDW look would have been cool, but I still dig the uniformity of the white. And once again, this plastic feels great and has a dense, almost chalky look that screams quality. Is he perfect? Not quite. He’s got some serious hollow leg syndrome going on from the back, and the hinges that peg into the lower legs don’t always stay put. But these are minor complaints.

The head sculpt is certainly distinctive with his rather simple “helmet” and his protruding mouth plate. The fact that his entire head is white to match his body makes his narrow blue eyes stand out quite a bit.

We’ve already seen Runamuck weapon plugged into his car mode, but here it is once again. It’s a compact little blaster that he can hold in either hand, mounted on his forearms, or even worn as a shoulder cannon. Runamuck actually has several useful ports if you want to load him up with Weaponizer parts or Targetmasters or whatever you got lying around.

It may seem odd, but I’m not kidding when I say that Runamuck is contender for one of my Transformers of the Year. And that sure is saying something, because we got a ton of fantastic convertorobots from Hasbro this year. My only gripe is that I would have preferred Hasbro released Runamuck in a two-pack with Runabout so that I wouldn’t have to suffer having one without the other. Then again, that would have probably made it an exclusive, and I’ve had enough with chasing exclusives this year. Hopefully the wait for Runabout won’t be too long!

Nov 16 2020

Marvel Legends (Deluxe Riders): The Punisher and Motorcycle by Hasbro

Hasbro is continuing to pepper us with releases in their Marvel Legends Deluxe Riders series. These pair Legends figures with modest-sized vehicles (in most cases motorcycles or scooters) and they’ve even used this price point to get us Professor X in his wheelchair. With display space always at a premium, I haven’t been all in on these, but there have been some that I simply cannot resist. And yup, Frank Castle and his Hog was one of those cases. The Punisher first debuted in the modern Legends line way back in 2012, sharing a “Marvel Knights” slot with a Blade figure, which I don’t believe was ever released. We later got the Netflix version of Castle, and a retro-carded release, the later of which I never got around to reviewing. Oh yeah, last year we got Frank Castle in The War Machine Armor as well! So, it’s not like he hasn’t had his share of releases, but I still feel like it was time for a new one.

I don’t have much to say about the packaging, other than it consists of an elongated window box that gives you a great look at the contents. There’s just some minor assembly required, as you have to pop on the handlebars. You get The Punisher logo on the front and a shot of the toy in action on the back. It is collector friendly, which is always nice if you want to keep it, but as for me… this baby is about to get shredded. Let’s start with the figure!

If you’re looking for a nice, basic, no-frills Punisher, you’ve come to the right place. Frank sports a pair of textured black pants, and a black T-shirt with his iconic emblem emblazoned on the front. There’s a shoulder rig and a thigh strap with magazines, both sculpted separately in soft black plastic. The vigilante ensemble is rounded out by the sculpted finger-less gloves on his hands and a a pair of black shit-kicker boots. There’s nothing outrageous about the sculpting here, but sometimes simplicity gets the job done, and I think that’s certainly the case here. Articulation holds no surprises, and since I have a motorcycle to look at, I’ll skip running through all the points.

You get two portraits with the figure, and they’re both excellent. He comes out of the box with the beat-up head. Gritting his teeth with vengeful rage, this Castle has seen better days. He’s got several cuts being held together by bandages, each featuring some wonderful detail. The sheer will and determination on this particular portrait is absolutely fantastic and it suits the character so well. It’s just another example of Hasbro killing it with their Legends head sculpts, and while it uses paint instead of the half-tone printing for the facial details, everything is still nice and sharp.

The alternate head is decidedly less beat-up, but still as determined as ever to kick ass. Hasbro really made it tough this time to decide which head to display on the figure, as they are both so damn good. As much as I dig the extra work on the beat-up head, there’s something about the way they did his mouth here that is amazingly expressive. Both heads also have a touch of pink around the eyes, and with the bandage missing, I can really appreciate the structure of the nose here, which clearly looks like it’s been broken countless times.

And finally, you also get Frank’s Viking-style helmet from the recent Punisher Kill Krew. I’ll confess that I haven’t read this series because, well it’s a Marvel Comic in 2019, how good could it be? But I’ll tell ya the cover art of #1, which I believe was the work of Tony Moore, made me stop and take notice. It looks so unbelievably out of place for a modern Marvel Comic, and by that it means it looks pretty damn fantastic. Like a throwback to better days. I can’t imagine how Frank Castle is depicted in this age of touchy-feely Marvel garbage, but I’m tempted to subject myself to it just out of morbid curiosity. In any event, the helmet looks great and can be worn over either head. Personally, I think it could have used some weathering, but I like the finish a lot.

Frank also comes with a bunch of tools of his trade, and I’ll just knock these out in no particular order. When it comes to making a statement, there’s nothing like tuning someone up Sammy Sosa style with some ballpark lumber. This bat is pretty simple and cast in a very pale cream-colored plastic. Like the helmet, this accessory looks way too fresh and new for my tastes. I would have loved to see it worn and splintered. Maybe some gaffer tape around the grip. A little crimson staining, and hell while you’re at it sculpt a tooth embedded into it. OK, that last suggestion is probably a bit much for an action figure sold at Target, but it would have been damn cool to see.

What’s that? You say you want to hit and cut people at the same time? Well, son, then you need a machete! Like the bat, this is accessory is nothing special, but I’m not going to say no to a machete. It’s got a brown grip and a silver blade and it looks way too clean to have been in Frank’s possession for too long. Maybe he just bought it after his old one broke.

Sometimes people run, and you don’t want to have to chase after them with a melee weapon. And that brings us to the pew-pews. First up we have this awesome pistol-gripped double-barreled shotgun. A holster on his back for this thing would have been cool, but I’ll surely take it anyway.

And Frank’s arsenal is rounded out with a pair of sub-machine guns. The first is an absolutely beautiful example of the iconic Israeli Uzi from Uziel Gal. I think this is the best example I have of this weapon in this scale, and Frank may have to give this one up to my GI JOE Classified Snake Eyes.  The sculpted detail on this piece is exquisite and it’s definitely a great reason for picking up this figure. I believe the other gun is a TEC-9, which I can recognize, but I’m less familiar with. Not that it diminishes the fact that it’s a great looking weapon. Because he’s The Punisher, both left and right hands are sculpted with trigger fingers so he can dual wield with ease.

And that brings us to the motorcycle! Now, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve skipped a few of the previous motorcycle releases, particularly the one with Wolverine, so I’m not sure if this is new or a repack, but either way it’s a great looking bike! If you’re looking for flashy colors and lots of paint applications, look elsewhere, because this thing is blacker than the dark pit where the last vestiges of Frank Castle’s mercy hides. There are, however, a few minor flourishes of red, as well as a customized license plate, which reads PNSH-616. It makes me laugh to think Castle actually went into the New York City DMV and applied for that plate. The clear plastic headlamp on the front looks great and there’s a small Punisher emblem in the speedometer, personalizing the middle of the handlebars. There’s plenty of detail in the engine, the wheels roll well, and thanks to the flip down kickstand, Castle can be displayed riding it without worrying about it toppling over. What’s more he fits on it perfectly and his gun hands grip the handlebars and stay put. I think my only nitpick here is I would have liked a bracket or scabbard for him to be able to store some of his weapons.

I’m happy to see that Hasbro is keeping this Deluxe Riders assortment around. I’ll admit that the line is in danger of causing motorcycle fatigue, but it’s hard to deny that are extremely fun packs. This figure happens to be my favorite release of Castle in the modern line so far, and when you throw him on this bitchin’ chopper, it just sweetens the pot all the more. Not to mention the bevy of weapons, an extra head and a helmet too! I want to say I paid around $35 for all these goodies, and it was well worth the price of admission. Not to mention that this bike can probably be repurposed for any number of other 6-inch figure lines, even with the personal flourishes.

Nov 13 2020

Marvel Legends (Strong Guy Wave): Pirate Deadpool by Hasbro

Hey folks, sorry that this week got off track. I’ve made it no secret that Q4 is my crazy season for work, and on Sunday I found out that I had to head to a remote location and help them sort their shit out. Actually, it wasn’t that remote, but far enough that they offered to put me up in a hotel for a few days rather than do the commute. So the work has been grueling, but the room service and mini-bar has made up for it. I wish I could tell you that this was going to be the exception to the rule, but as we head further into Q4, it’s possible that my posting schedule will become more erratic. So today, I’m going ahead with the Marvel Monday review that I had almost ready for earlier in the week, and I’ll just hope things fall back in line for next week’s schedule! I was supposed to be sticking to exclusives and multi-packs for the next month or so, but then Pirate Deadpool here hit my doorstep and all bets were off. Because Pirate. And Deadpool. So, we’ll put a pin in all that other stuff and get back to it next week. I was just too excited to tear open this figure that I had to bump him to the front of the line.

If you need some sense of reference, this figure is based off of Daniel Way’s issue of Deadpool Vol 2 #14 from 2009. This one was published back when I was still reading Marvel, before they began their downward spiral into terrible stories for the sake of virtue signaling, but I have no recollection of actually reading it. To be fair, I was half a drunk back in those days, so it’s likely that’s why I have no memory of it. That’s OK. I don’t need a reason to have a Pirate Deadpool figure. So avast ya bilge-sucking land lubbers. Let’s free this scurvy dog from his packaging and see if he be shipshape.

To be fair, I was already in love with this figure before I even opened the package. Deadpool cuts a regal jib with his red pirating great coat, the top of which is part of the buck, while the bottom half is cast in soft plastic and worn like a skirt. The illusion works well, making it look like one plastic garment. There’s some white frilly finery encircling his midsection and gold painted fringe and buttons as well as a golden DP crest to the right of his chest. His arms have black paint up on the shoulders and biceps, and he has one sculpted gauntlet on his left hand, no doubt made of rich Corinthian leather for those lonely nights when he can’t get out to crack Jenny’s teacup and he needs to keelhaul his hornswaggle. If ya know what I mean.

In addition to his majestic naval coat, he’s got a black baldric worn over his right shoulder, and a tattered black cape with a white cravat in the center. The only thing that disappoints me with this costume is the way they did the two flintlocks that are stuffed into his belt. These are just sculpted as part of the belt, and while the grips are convincing, the barrels lack any real depth to make them look like actual accessories. Still, it isn’t a deal breaker for me.

The portrait features Deadpool’s normal mask with a white scarf tied around his head and a tattered black tri-cornered pirate hat, with the Jolly Roger printed on it. And of course, there’s one eye popped in the traditional Deadpool fashion. Sadly the hat is not removable, as I would have loved to have used one of the earlier unmasked Deadpool heads on this figure with the hat on top. Everything looks great, and it’s cool that Hasbro broke out some pearlescent paint just to do his eyeballs.

Deadpool comes with three weapons, the first of which is a proper flintlock pistol painted brown and silver. He can hold it in either hand, although the right hand’s trigger finger doesn’t work all that well with it, so ‘Pool has to practice proper trigger discipline, which is probably somewhat uncharacteristic for him. The flintlock is a great little piece, but it only drives home how fake the two on his belt look.

Captain Wade also comes with a pair of swords, one of which is a traditional pirate cutlass with a gold hilt and a silver blade. The other is his trademark katana sword. Both of these can be slid through loops in the belt to be worn under his coat. Or you can use one of the loops to hold his pistol. Most likely I’ll have him wearing his pistol and cutlass.

I have no frame of reference as to whether or not the general collecting populace is sick of Deadpool, but if I’m speaking for myself, that would be a negative. I’m always up for another Wade Wilson figure, especially when it’s something creative and fun like this one. It also makes me wish somebody out there would kickstart a line of 6-inch pirate figures, because I’d be all over that shit. Either way, this is another great addition to my Deadpool shelf and a super fun figure as well!

“ARRRR. When it comes to booty, X marks the spot!”

Nov 9 2020

OUT OF TOWN!!!

Hey hey, Toyhounds. I am unfortunately Out of Town for work for the first half of the week. It was unexpected and I couldn’t pre-load any content, so I’m going to have to push Marvel Monday until Thursday or Friday and see what happens then!

In the meantime. Here are my cats to brighten your day!

 

Nov 6 2020

Transformers Earthrise: Smokescreen and Bluestreak by Hasbro

When Hasbro transitioned from the Cybertron modes of Siege to the Earth modes of Earthrise, I didn’t expect we’d be getting redos of a lot of the same characters. And yet, here we are! It was just back in May that I reviewed the Siege versions of these fellas, and here we are checking out their Earth modes. Am I complaining? Nah. Let’s check out some Datsuns!

The Siege versions of Smokescreen and Bluestreak released as exclusives and each in special packaging. This pair features the normal packages, but Bluestreak was a Walgreens Exclusive, whereas I picked up Smokescreen off of Amazon. They come in the always fantastic Earthrise Deluxe window boxes, with the usual bitchin’ character art. They are packaged in their robot modes, but I’ll start with the alt modes.

Here’s Bluestreak and no, these guys aren’t really Datsuns, but close enough for me. Indeed, this is a great looking little sportscar with a decidedly vintage vibe. Bluestreak retains the same gray and black deco as his previous alt mode, with the black portions having more of a matte finish this time around, and a much bolder Autobot insignia stamped on his hood. He’s got translucent windows and head lamps, a raised hood, a low spoiler, quad exhaust, and silver mag wheels. The panels on mine don’t lock together quite as seamlessly as I would like, but that might be user error. Although, I did give him a good once over to make sure everything looked like it was where it belonged.

Here’s a quick look at the Cybertron and Earth modes together, and I really dig the evolution at work here. The Earthrise version has basically grown a cabin for its human driver and passenger and the wheels have gotten a bit smaller. The Cybertron version actually looks like a concept car that grew out of the 80’s Datsun design and I can dig that!

Just like Siege Streak, the Earthrise version comes with three weapons: A rifle and two shoulder cannons. The shoulder cannons can mount into the hood and the rifle can mount on the roof. These are all fresh sculpts with the shoulder cannons being a lot smaller than what we saw for Siege, while the rifle is a lot closer to Bluestreak’s original G1 weapon. The tabs used for the shoulder cannon are the same for both figures, so you can mix and match if you like.

Transforming these guys is very similar, but there are some key differences in the robot modes. I liked Siege Bluestreak’s bot mode well enough, but the Earthrise version tweaks it to near perfection. Obviously the chest is completely different, as it’s formed from the front of the car. But to me the biggest improvement is in the legs. Earthrise Streak’s legs look better filled out and the lower legs and feet are better defined. Besides the more familiar aesthetics of the Earth mode, I just think this robot looks much more polished and proportioned. I absolutely love it! From the deco standpoint, there isn’t a huge difference. You still get the black and gray from the car mode with some red added in the lower legs and elbows. Earthrise Streak’s lower legs are now all gray, as are his shoulders, and there’s more black in his chest.

I was surprised to see a brand new head sculpt here, and while it’s excellent, I think any question of which one is better will come down to a matter of personal preference. Siege Streak’s “helmet” is more detailed and his “wings” are more pronounced. If I had to pick one, I think I’d side with the Earthrise head, just because it’s more stylized. But either way, they’re both fantastic. If you can’t tell, I really dig this figure a lot. My only real gripe centers around the inner panels on his lower legs. These flip down to fill in the legs a bit, and one of these refuses to stay on when I’m transforming him. Maybe not a big deal, and to be fair I could remove both and not really effect the figure much, but worth mentioning nonetheless. Let’s move on to Smokescreen!

As expected, Smokescreen is mostly a repaint with the major difference of the car mode being the apron on the front. While I’m fine with Bluestreak’s colors, Smokescreen’s red, white and blue deco really brings this excellent auto mode to life. The colors are vibrant, and while I would have preferred more of a glossy finish on both of these vehicles, I have to admit there’s something about the rich, satin finish on Smokescreen that really works for me. The wheels are less flashy here, as they are all black with just the blue clips showing, but otherwise I just love everything about this sportscar. The paint lines are clean, he’s got a bold Autobot emblem stamped on his hood and the racing numbers “80” on either door. The windows are now tinted, as are his head lamps.

And here are some comparison shots of the Siege and Earthrise modes. The deco is pretty damn close, with the Earthrise version adding some red to the roof, the white side stripes straightening out, and the small panel of Cybertronian lettering on the Siege mode giving way to the larger Earth digits on the doors.

Smokescreen comes with the same rifle and shoulder cannons as Bluestreak, only this time they are molded in blue plastic, and once again these can be attached to the car mode to weaponize it. They can also be swapped out with the Siege weapons if you like.

Smokescreen’s transformation is identical to Bluestreak’s, although I don’t have the same problem with the leg panel popping off. The flashy deco really serves to make Smokescreen stand out over his Datsun Bro, as does the addition of the apron on the chest. I can’t stress enough how impressed I am with the way these robot modes turned out. And yet the transformations are so simple and intuitive. It makes me wonder why Hasbro wasn’t able to do this back when they did the Datsuns in the Classics line. The improvement is like night and day.

And here’s a look at Smokescreen’s new noggin, which is a huge departure from what we got with Siege. The face is now white and all smoothed over, with the “helmet” also going for a simpler look. The new portrait really embraces Smokescreen’s look in the old Sunbow cartoon. I also dig the green eyes!

At first I wasn’t all that keen on re-buying these Autobots again so soon, but now that I have them in hand, I’m glad I did because it’s hard to imagine we’ll ever get better versions of Smokescreen and Bluestreak in a Deluxe Class figure. What’s more, I’m actually happy to have them represented in both the Siege and Earthrise lines. How often do we get to display the Cybertron and Earth modes of a Transformer beside each other in what is more or less the same line and the sane continuity! So where’s Prowl? Well, he just hit my doorstep yesterday as part of an Amazon Exclusive two-pack with Ironhide. And I should get around to checking that out next week!

Nov 4 2020

Star Wars Black Series: Endor Luke and Leia by Hasbro

If you’ve been reading my Black Series reviews for a while, you may know that I’ve been back and forth on whether to keep collecting this line. Some of the figures are great, but a lot of them have felt somewhat flat and average. Well, based on the figures that have been showing up this week, I think Hasbro may be turning things around. That’s good news for the line, bad news for my wallet. Just as I was about to quit… they pull me back in! Let’s check out Luke and Leia in their Endor fatigues! Both of these figures were offered recently in a Pulse Exclusive boxed set, but I sat that one out and went for picking them up individually. These figures follow an Endor trend with Han Solo, Teebo, and Admiral Ackbar also released in similar packages.

And here’s the new packaging! Goodbye boring black and red boxes and hello new hotness! OK, so they’re still mostly black with monochrome character art, but the splash of color makes all the difference. Also, it looks like they abandoned the numbering on the package. The boxes adopt an angled side panel to showcase the new character art and if you put these two together, the art actually connects, which I have to admit is cool, even though I’m still not keeping the boxes. So let me shred these open and check out the figures. Ladies first!

Princess Leia comes out of the package wearing her camouflage poncho and looking fabulous! One of my ongoing gripes with the SWBS is how infrequently it makes use of softgoods, so it’s nice to see this figure get a cloth costume. Although it would have been embarrassing if they didn’t since even the original Kenner figure gave Leia a cloth poncho. The tailoring is absolutely superb and I really dig the cloth they used. It just looks and feels like quality. The front of the poncho is belted with a black plastic utility belt, which includes a working holster and a sculpted pouch, as well as a little silver paint on the buckle. The back of the poncho is left to hang free like a cape. It also has a hood, which is stitched in the down position. It looks like you could probably pull the stitch so she can wear it up, but I’m not going to mess with it.

The likeness here is excellent! Not perfect, but pretty on point. Boy, we’ve come a long way in a short time, since that first release of Leia from A New Hope! The sculptors have often not been kind to Carrie’s likeness, but this one is pretty damn solid. The printed facial features look great and they did a wonderful job on her hair. The removable helmet fits great and features a chin strap, which pegs into the side.

The belt pegs together behind the pouch, so it’s pretty easy to take the poncho off the figure without too much fuss. You can then re-attach the belt once the poncho is off. Under the cloth, Leia has a sculpted tunic with the sleeves rolled up and a lot of detail, including pockets on the sleeves and what I presume is a rank or ID badge on her chest. She’s got high boots and yellow stripes running up the sides of her blue-gray trousers. The included pistol features the rather distinctive long barrel, a design that The Princess seems to favor. Her right hand is sculpted with a trigger finger, but she can hold the gun in either hand.

Articulation holds a few surprises. The princess has rotating hinges in her shoulders, elbows, knees, and wrists. Ball joints in her hips, swivels in her thighs, and both hinges and lateral rockers in her ankles. There’s a ball joint in her waist, and most interesting is the two ball joints in her neck, one at the base and one at the top. I’d like to think the added neck articulation is there if you want her to mount a speeder bike, but I might be giving Hasbro too much credit there. Let’s move on to Luke!

Everything I said about Leia’s poncho remains true for Luke’s. The camo is a bit more brown and the green is a lot less vibrant than his sister’s, but the tailoring is still top notch and it fits well. It too is belted in the front and the back is left to hang like a cape, and the hood is stitched in the down position. The quality and texture of the fabric is the same as Leia’s and absolutely top notch. Once again, Hasbro did a fine job here.

The portrait here is not bad. Maybe not a home run, but pretty solid. It’s definitely a whole lot better than what we got with the last Return of the Jedi Luke. The helmet sculpt is almost identical to Leia’s, just a bit bigger and it has a little more weathering brushed on it. Once again, it has a chin strap that pegs into the side.

Luke’s sculpted black belt is simpler than Leia’s as it has no pouch or holster, but then Luke doesn’t come with a blaster anyway. He does come with his lightsaber, which is the standard hilt with translucent blade that pegs into it. The sculpt and paintwork on the hilt look great, but there’s no hook to hang it on the belt. , You can kind of thrust it up through the bottom of the belt and it stays put.

Remove the belt and you can take off the poncho to reveal Luke wearing his black Jedi outfit. It’s not as impressive as what’s under Leia’s softgoods, but it looks fine and is an easy favorite to replace that last Return of the Jedi Luke. Indeed, I may pick up a second one of these for that purpose. I’m also curious to see if the head will swap with that figure, but I haven’t dug it out to give it a go yet.

The figures fit great on the Black Series speeder bike. Hasbro even had the forethought to put the peg holes at the front of Leia’s feet to better work with the pegs on the bike’s foot pedals. I’m glad that I picked up a couple of these, but I think it’s well past time that they reissued the Scout Trooper/Speeder Bike pack. Yeah, I know we’re getting one from The Mandalorian, but I’d like a couple more of the Return of the Jedi versions now. Maybe I should have just bought that PulseCon set because it included one.

It’s nice to see Endor finally getting some love beyond the Scout Troopers and speeder bikes, and that goes double for how great these figures turned out. These are easily some of my favorite Black Series releases in a while. Or at least my favorites from The Original Trilogy. I’ll be checking out Endor Han and Teebo soon, and hopefully we’ll see some more Ewoks, because this Leia really needs a Wicket to go with her. And some Rebel Commandos? That would be nice.