Monthly Archives: May 2022

May 6 2022

Star Wars Black Series (The Clone Wars): Cad Bane by Hasbro

I’ve never been a big fan of The Clone Wars. I’ve tried watching it a few times, but it just never clicked. I think a lot of it has to do with the goofy stylized look of the characters and the fact that it builds off the Prequels. Nonetheless, I became familiar with a lot of the new characters through osmosis and toy marketing, and it’s cool to see some of them bleeding over into other Star Wars media.

One of those characters is Cad Bane, although the figure I’m looking at today was released before his live action appearance on The Mandalorian. Cad tickles my fancy, because I’m a fan of Westerns in general and Clint Eastwood and John Wayne films in particular. It’s only natural that a character that marries The Old West and Star Wars would be right up my ally!

And boy did Hasbro do justice to this guy! The figure perfectly captures the essence of the intergalactic high plains drifter, with some excellent layering and wonderful attention to detail in the sculpt. For starters, the form-fitting trench coat is cast in soft plastic and has the sleeves sculpted as part of the arms. It cuts off at the waist in the front, but trails down to his ankles in the back. It’s a great design, as it not only seems practical in the way it gives him easy access to his guns, but it also doesn’t inhibit the figure’s hip movement. The jacket has a little texturing sculpted in, and I really dig the silver corners on the lapels and lower flaps, which look like reinforced steel tips. My only real complaint about the coat is that the arm holes are too large. At certain angles, it can ruin the effect that the arms are supposed to be sleeves.

As for the rest of the figure, Cad has a sculpted vest under his jacket with two rows of what I presume are power cartridges for his pistols, a satchel hanging on a shoulder strap, two low-slung pistol holsters, and some cool electro gauntlets on his forearms, which have assorted controls on them to access his flamethrower and all sorts of other fun gadgets. Finally, he has a pair of jets attached to the sides of his boots for when he has to skedaddle in a hurry, or head someone off at the pass! That’s western talk!!!

One look at the portrait, and there’s no mistaking that Cad is from Duros, with his bright blue skin, large red eyes, and absence of a nose. His squint and snarl are textbook Clint Eastwood, right off the poster for The Outlaw Josey Wales! He also has two breathing tubes attached to his cheeks, which connect to a control box behind his neck. His distinctive mug is topped off with a wide-brimmed hat, which is removable.

Bane comes with his trusty pair of LL-30 blaster pistols. These are great looking little accessories, especially if you like the smooth and simplified design of the older period Star Wars weapons. They fit perfectly in the holsters, and he has gun-toting hands so he can dual wield them. It would have been great to get his carbine too, but I could always find him something.

I tend to limit myself to only buying characters in the Star Wars shows and movies that I enjoy. These days, that’s The Original Trilogy, The Mandalorian, and Rogue One, but every now and then I have to make an exception. In this case, Cad Bane is not only a cool looking character, but Hasbro nailed this figure so well, that I couldn’t resist having him on the shelf. And now that he’s made an appearance in The Mandalorian, I do believe I’ll have him on display with that collection!

May 4 2022

Marvel Legends (Colossus Wave): Shadowcat and Colossus by Hasbro

Well, it took me a little longer than I hoped to swing back and finish up this second Age of Apocalypse themed wave, but there’s an old saying when it comes to timeline-altering narratives: Better late than never! So, let’s wrap things up with a look at the last packaged figure, Shadowcat, and the Colossus Build-A-Figure!

It feels odd to be looking at the Earth-295 Shadowcat before our own version, but that’s more my fault than it is Hasbro’s. They have already released the Earth-616 Shadowcat in a three-figure boxed set with Meggan and Captain Britain, I just haven’t gotten around to opening that set yet. Maybe I’ll push that to the head of the line, and look at some multi-figure packs before diving into the next wave of figures. Either way, Kitty has some cool character art on her box, and they managed to squeeze Colossus’ torso in there with her. Let’s rip this package open and let the cat out of the bag!

Oh my, Yes! I do have a thing for many of the redesigns that the ladies got for Age of Apocalypse, and that goes doubly so for Shadowcat! She comes sporting a metallic blue bodysuit, segmented with cut lines to make it look like some kind of flexible armor, and ending at her chest. The sleeves are separate, with more segmented cuts, and terminate at her biceps, giving her a dystopian-chic bare shoulder look. Her hands are sculpted with fingerless gloves, and she has a pair of silver wrist bracers, which are meant to contain her retracted kitty claws. Her ensemble is finished off with a silver utility belt, complete with pouches and branded X-Men logo on the belt buckle! The belt and bracers are all separate pieces.

I think the portrait turned out great. Kitty looks a bit displeased, and while I’ll admit the expression falls short as you punch in close with the camera, it looks fine with the naked eye. The face printing is crisp and clear, They did an especially nice job painting the glimpse of teeth through her lips. The hair sculpt is also fantastic. It’s sculpted separately from the head to give it a clean hairline, and I love the way it hangs down over her right eye and sweeps back behind her left ear. She has a sculpted choker with a single red oval stone. The choker is painted to match her bodysuit, although this is one area where the paint could have been sharper.

Shadowcat’s articulation is standard stuff for the Legends ladies. The legs feature ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs and lower legs, double-hinged knees, and hinges with lateral rockers in the ankles. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows, with hinged pegs in the wrists. There’s no waist swivel, instead you get a ball joint under the chest, and a hinged ball joint in the neck. Kitty comes with two pairs of hands: One pair of fists, one right hand with splayed fingers, and one left accessory holding hand.

She also comes with a second set of wrist bracers that have her kitty claws extended. These are a bit thick, and look more like tendrils than claws, but overall, they’re a decent accessory and make for some nice poses. Let’s move on to the Build-A-Figure, Colossus!

Colossus is comprised of the standard six pieces: Four limbs, torso, and head. I suppose you can say it’s seven pieces if you count the ties for his mask, which connect to the head with a ball joint for some added articulation. Colossus’ AoA redesign represents some of the best and worst aspects of the character redesigns. Colossus has exchanged his one-piece for a pair of shorts and yellow suspenders, which means he’s showing a lot more of his metallic body. And boy the sculpting for all those metal sinews that make up his torso is absolutely fantastic! He’s also sporting a bunch of additional armored pieces, including guards for his knees and lower legs, elbows and forearms, and a giant piece of armor over his left shoulder. Why does Colossus need added armor? Because… Shut up it looks cool!

The colors on this figure are stellar. The mix of bright red armor, bright yellow suspenders, and the gorgeous silver finish of his skin all blend together as a feast for the eyes. You even get some pale red metallic paint hits on the studs of his shoulder armor. I think a lot about this design is just plain dumb, but I can’t hate on it, because it just looks so damn good!

The portrait is probably my favorite thing about the redesign. Piotr looks absolutely savage and just a little bit terrifying here. He’s got a pirate-style mask covering the upper half of his head. As mentioned

Colossus is sporting some excellent articulation for such a big, bulky guy! His arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps, and hinged pegs in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double-hinged in the knees, have hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, and swivels in the thighs and lower legs. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab-crunch hinge in the torso, and a ball joint in the neck. You get two sets of hands here: One pair of fists and one pair of grapple hands.

I think Hasbro did a superb job bringing these two from comic page to plastic, and boy do they look great together. The detail on Colossus’ body is some of Hasbro’s best work, and Kitty is just all around gorgeous. But the colors are what really make these figures stand out to me. Even on a shelf full of colorful superheroes and mutants, this pair still manages to grab my eyes! Simply beautiful!

And that’s a wrap for the second Age of Apocalypse Wave. I’ve made it no secret that my enthusiasm for Marvel Legends has been wavering lately. I think most of Marvel’s current books are garbage, and I think I’ll be tapping out of the MCU movies after the next Doctor Strange. That leaves just cherry-picking the line for whatever classic characters they haven’t done yet. But when you add the price increase into the fold, well that’s just another nail in the coffin. With all that having been said, this Colossus Wave had me super excited, so there’s still hope. Not to mention, I have a huge backlog of figures still waiting to be opened and given the spotlight here!

May 2 2022

Mythic Legions (Advent of Decay): Azza Spirtbender by The Four Horsemen

I did a little investigating this week and found that I’m down to about less than a dozen Mythic Legions figures left to spotlight here before I’m all caught up! And since it’s less than likely any new figures will ship before I get through those, I’ll likely be swapping Monday’s back to Marvel for a time. But, we’re still a couple of months away from that, so let’s press on with this week’s figure!

Azza Spiritbender came to us as part of the Advent of Decay assortment, and up until now I thought she was an Elf, but having a read through her bio suggests otherwise. Indeed, even The Four Horsemen don’t know which Mythoss race she belongs to, making her quite a mysterious young lady! What is known, is that she is a member of The Convocation of Bassylia, and a practiced Necromancer!

I can be forgiven for mistaking her for an Elf, as her body uses a mix of the Elf and female tooling that was introduced in Advent of Decay. But before getting into all that, I have to say that my first impression of this figure are the gorgeous colors! Azza shows a lot of skin under that purple cloak, and it’s such an intriguing shade of blue. It looks suitably dark and mysterious in the shadow, but give it some light, and it becomes so bright and vibrant! Her armor consists of a breast plate, shoulders, and knight’s belt with side armor, and these pieces are all painted in some of that gorgeous metallic purple, which we’ve seen recently, as well as lots of rich gold leaf. Her boots and gauntlets are the only things that aren’t flashy about Azza. They are both painted to look like brown leather. The boots do have some reinforced purple and gold armor bits. She probably spends a lot of time stalking muddy graveyards and digging up bones, so she doesn’t want to get her good boots and gauntlets dirty.

To further cement her mysterious nature, Azza’s head is permanently shrouded in a hood. The hood is plastic with a flat purple finish, which matches her plastic sash, and some gold leaf around the edge of the opening. The hood is not a perfect match for the softgoods cape, but it’s close enough. Nestled in the hood is a pretty face, with blank white eyes, and some printed black and white tattoos, which continue down around her arms and exposed midriff, and bare legs.

The only downside here? Well, unlike some Mythic Legions figures, Azza is not a figure that offers a lot of display options. Of course, the cape and shoulders are removable, but with the permanent hood, I think she looks funny without the cape, so what we see is what we get. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, because Azza is an absolutely stunning figure! Let’s move on to her gear!

Front and center is her ornate dagger and sheath. This little weapon was introduced in Advent of Decay and handed out to quite a few characters. Still, it feels right at home on Azza’s belt. The scabbard is equipped with a clip to attach it to the belt, but mine snapped off almost instantly, so I have to pass it through the loop on the belt. It’s worth noting that after handling dozens upon dozens of these figures, Azza’s dagger clip is only the second QC issue I’ve had, with the first being the peg snapping off a shield. I’m not excusing it, but that’s still not a bad track record.

Next up, she comes with a very nice repaint of the Khopesh Sword. This one has a lush gold blade and a metallic purple hilt. It’s the perfect exotic blade for this mysterious lady, and I really dig the color scheme. I’m tempted to take a fine black marker and add some runes to the blade, but I’d probably just mess it up!

Finally, Azza comes with a very tall gold staff, because every Necromancer needs some kind of staff to do their necromancing. This one isn’t terribly mystical looking, as it features a flanged mace head for a topper, which I imagine comes in handy for beating her enemies with if her spells fail. She looks great holding it, but I don’t know. I may wind up giving this to someone else, and trying to find a more appropriate staff for her to command the dead with.

And here she is with a couple other members of The Convocation of Bassylia, namely Jorund Runeshaper and Herra Serpenspire! They’re a bit of an eclectic crew. I can see Azza and Herra hanging out, but Jorund seems like the odd dwarf out here. All awesome figures, nonetheless.

Azza is an absolutely gorgeous figure on her own right, and an intriguing character as well. Part of me wants to nitpick the fact that she didn’t come with an un-hooded head, but I suppose if she did it would give away some of the mystery surrounding her race. Either way, she’s a perfect example of The Four Horsemen bringing their A-game when it comes to selection of parts and paint. I think one missed opportunity for Advent of Decay would have been to see Azza repainted into a female version of the excellent Elf Ranger, but then again, AoD was a huge assortment as it was. I suppose that’s always possible for a future assortment.