Monthly Archives: October 2023

Oct 11 2023

Silverhawks Ultimates: Buzz-Saw by Super7

It’s taken me a bit of time, but I’m closing in on spotlighting the final two Silverhawks figures by Super7! I’ve vowed to finish up this line before moving on to more ThunderCats and GI JOE Ultimates, and here we are at the penultimate review from the second wave (originally intended to be the first). Gosh, that’s still so confusing. Anyway, so far this wave has given us Powered Up Mon-Star and Steelheart, and today I’m checking out the second of Mon-Star’s evil henchmen… Buzz-Saw!

Once again, Super7 is killing it with the packaging. All the evil Limbo Mob come in crimson foil window boxes with a slip cover that lifts off the top. You get a little blurb about the character on the back and the window shows off all the goods. Buzz-Saw is a big boi and his oversized box reflects that! There’s not a lot to say about this guy’s backstory other than he’s a hulking robot with buzzsaws and claws for weapons and not really the huggable type. As a kid, I freaking loved him in the cartoon and was a tad disappointed when one of my friends got his action figure and it looked so different.

As you can probably imagine, this fella a hefty hunk of plastic! Buzz-Saw’s animated design is just so damn cool with his hulking proportions and his mix of hard angles and smooth surfaces. Super7 nails the animated style so well, and I think the figure even gives him a slightly more imposing build. Besides the obvious color difference, going from green to yellow, this cartoon look puts his shoulder-based saw blades coming out of his shoulder armor at a stylish angle, whereas the Kenner toy had them positioned between his torso and the arm connection, and to me this just looks so much better. The coloring looks great, all the joints worked well right out of the box, and I’m happy to report that I had no QC issues on this figure at all. It really seems like The Limbo Mob made out so much better than the Silverhawks when it comes to joint issues in this line.

The buzz saws positioned on his shoulders and arms all spin and it’s fun to give them a flick. His joints all feel great and the legs do a fine job holding up his upper bulk, although if you put those giant buzzsaws out in front of him too far, he’ll want to topple over. The elbows are limited and can’t do 90-degrees, but that’s not a big deal to me here as he is a hulking robot and it’s understandable if his agility probably isn’t that great.

You get three heads, although I think only two were necessary. The only difference between the first two is the sawblade in the head is sculpted to look like it’s spinning on one of them. I think this same effect could have been pulled off just by swapping the sawblade piece. Either way, I prefer the jagged blade look so I doubt I’ll be using that second option at all. Both of these heads look OK, but the facial details could have been a lot sharper. It’s just a really soft sculpt.

The third head is the undoubtedly the winner as it has both the jagged sawblade and an open mouth. The expression is either a battle shout or his mouth is agape with glee over the prospect of sawing up some Silverhawks. You can decide! Sure, the eye sculpt is still pretty soft here, but this is the head that I’ll be displaying on the figure pretty much all the time.

Buzz-Saw has some cool accessories and options. For starters, he has elongated versions of the two pull levers in his chest. These are swapped out to make it look like he’s yanked them to activate his berserker buzzsaw attack. Nah, I won’t be using these much, but it’s nice to have the option I guess.

Just in case having five buzzsaws embedded in your body isn’t enough attack power, Buzz-Saw also comes with a pair of guns. The first is a traditional rifle, which he can hold by swapping out his lobster claws for the set with a slightly larger gap in them. I’ll confess that I don’t remember him using this in the cartoon, but I love still this thing. It looks like a chibi Gatling Gun and has such a lovely toony design to it. I’m also pretty impressed at how well he can hold it with those swap-out claws.

His other load-out option is a blaster cannon that replaces one of his claws, as if he is able to extend it from his arm. It looks cool and he still gets to keep his saw blade on the arm that he’s using it with. The blaster connects with a hinged peg, and I’m not sure why because there’s really no room for articulation in there, but whatever.

Buzz-Saw comes with his own special bird buddy, who happens to have the greatest name ever… Shredator.  He’s absolutely adorable and like his Papa he has a tiny spinning sawblade in his head and a yellow deco to match. This guy has hinged wings and can rotate at the head and tail, giving him a bit more articulation than some of the Super7 bird buddies. He’s definitely up there as one of my favorites.

Buzz-Saw is just such an awesome figure. He’s big and imposing and yet so bright and beautiful. He really captures everything that is great about the cartoon’s aesthetic and he’s loads of fun to play with as well. And while I’ve sworn off double-dipping on most of the toy-based repaints Super7 is doing, I’m really tempted to get green Buzz-Saw. He’s cool enough to warrant buying again and I’d be happy to throw him into the display and just pretend he’s another character. And that, friends, leaves me with just one more figure to check out and I’ll be all caught with Silverhawks. So, stay tuned for Quicksilver and Tallyhaaaawk!

Oct 9 2023

Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron Imperial Shuttle by Jazwares

I was kind of surprised when I looked back and saw that I hadn’t spotlighted any of Jazware’s Micro Galaxy Squadron vehicles here since the Millennium Falcon back in January. I was even more surprised to find that I’ve only actually reviewed four of these little buggers. I actually like this line quite a bit and I’ve been buying it when I find it, but I feel like a lot of them are getting past me because they’re exclusives or just tough to find. At this point in my life, hunting down toys isn’t an appealing aspect of collecting and I’ve got enough to spend money on without having to do that. Anyway, I hope to catch up on my backlog of these vehicles a bit in the months ahead, but I’m bumping today’s fairly new release to the head of the line, because it’s one of my favorite ships in the Star Wars Universe.

The shuttle comes in a window box with some snappy foil deco and while the box is collector friendly, the toy does indeed require some assembly. Both the top fin and the side wings have to be plugged in and it’s a one-time assembly deal meaning this is one of those toys that isn’t going back into the box once it’s put together. That’s a little disappointing to me as I like to display these in the boxes, but maybe this will be what makes me decide to just pitch all the MGS boxes and save me some space. The figures included are The Emperor and two of his Royal Guards, and I wonder if Jazwares will do a re-release of this ship with the Endor assault team as a store exclusive. I’d love to have Endor Han, Luke, Leia, 3PO and R2 in the cockpit and a bunch of Endor Commandos in the back. OK… Let’s take a quick look at the figure first!

I continue to be pretty impressed with how decent these have been for such tiny 1-inch figures, and that holds true here with The Emperor and his posse. I mean, they aren’t mindblowing, but they’re damn good for the size. They can bend at the hips to sit down and their arms swivel, making them arm chair friendly. The paint is basic, but certainly competent and the guards have their batons sculpted into their right hands. I would have liked to get a couple of pilots too, not only to occupy the seats, but also so I can find out once and for all what the Imperial Shuttle pilots looked like. As a kid, I used to alternate between having TIE Pilots and AT-AT Drivers fly my old Kenner shuttle.

The ship is designed for two display modes: Landed and Flight. When it’s landed the wings fold up and landing gear fold down. Actually, one of the landing gear is really the boarding ramp which drops down from under the cockpit to hold the nose up. Like the Micro Galaxy Falcon, there isn’t enough clearance there to get a figure in and out, so they made it double as a landing support, which is pretty clever. The two rear landing struts simply fold into the ship, while the ramp has a button that needs to be pressed to retract it.

I have to say the detail on this ship is absolutely fantastic, from the sculpted panel lines to the weathering, this is such a great looking toy and definitely one of the better representations of this ship that I’ve seen. The scale really works wonderfully, as it’s a decent sized toy and it allowed Jazwares to do a lot more with it than some of the smaller versions I’ve owned over the years. It’s also a lot easier to inspect the detail in hand than my big Hasbro version. I think the paint wash on this toy is near perfect. It’s just enough to give it a grungy well-used patina, but not too heavy handed.

There are two interior compartments to access, the cockpit hinges open similar to the old Kenner toy, while the back area compartment lifts off entirely. And holy crap, there is a lot of room for figures in this thing. The cockpit alone has room for six figures, and there’s a peg in there which might be intended for an Astromech Droid? I’m not sure. Each of the seats have arm rests that double as clips to hold the figures in place. There’s some excellent sculpted detail in here, although I wish they had left an open hatch leading to the back compartment.

And if you thought the cockpit was roomy, the rear compartment not only houses a throne for The Emperor, but eight additional seats. The throne is patterned after the one on Death Star II and there’s even a detailed engine compartment behind the chamber that is revealed when you remove the cover and another strip exposing the inner workings of the ship that’s painted as well sculpted

Getting the Shuttle ready for take off means folding up the landing struts and ramp and folding down the wings. The wings are geared and synched so that they will both fold down together at the same time just like the old Kenner toy. The only downside of this is that the gears are visible on the ship and really that’s the only thing I can complain about when it comes to the aesthetics. It also really doesn’t bother me, but my guess it will irk the hell out of some people.

The guns are all represented, including the aft cannon, which I remember becoming intimately familiar with when playing the old X-Wing PC game, as the Lambda Shuttles would love to take pot shots at you when you were trying to run them down. All of the gun barrels are a bit soft, so this is one to be careful with when storing it so they don’t get bent out of shape. The paint on the rear thrusters looks good, but I do kind of wish they had included electronics in this one to light these up and maybe provide some engine sounds.

And I couldn’t resist taking a shot of it parked next to my 3 3/4-inch scale Shuttle. It looks pretty damn good in comparison despite it’s much smaller size. Yeah, I still like the big boi better, but this little one is a lot easier to whoosh around the room.

This is an absolutely beautiful ship and it definitely has loads of shelf presence. The biggest strike against it for me is that there’s no flight stand in there, as it really could have used one. I’d always rather display this ship in flight than resting on a landing bay. I imagine some intrepid sellers on Etsy will make a few bucks selling stands for this ship and maybe I’ll hunt one down. At $29.99 I think this one is a pretty fair value. It feels at least as substantial as the Falcon and every bit as fun to play around with.

Oct 6 2023

Indiana Jones Adventure Series (The Last Crusade): Indy, Henry Jones Sr., and Grail Knight by Hasbro

I don’t think anyone was really surprised that Indiana Jones didn’t get a spot at the PulseCon a couple weeks back. With the Dial of Destiny flopping hard Hasbro seems content to push out the figures already revealed and sweep the rest under the rug. I really have to wonder what liability Disney has when they sell a license to a franchise and then run that franchise into the ground. The Ollies and the Ross stores around here are like a graveyard of Hasbro-Disney product all stacked high and on deep discount. Maybe this stuff will wind up there, but I was willing to support the line with pre-orders. And I for one am glad we got what we got, as this is probably the last time we’ll see Indiana Jones toys in my lifetime.

The last time I checked out the the 6-inch Adventure Series, we looked at three figures from The Last Crusade, and we’re doing it again today. The figures come in the same style of fully enclosed boxes and I like these quite a bit. The character art on the side panels looks great, especially when they’re all lined up on the shelf, and there are little scenes from the film down below. This is another Build-An-Artifact Wave, allowing you to build the table that held the various grails. I won’t be building it, because it requires you to buy two figures from Dial of Destiny and even when they do hit clearance, it’ll be too much to pay for figures I don’t want just to build the table. Thankfully, the three figures I’m looking at today come with some grails, so I’m happy to have those. Elsa Schneider is in this wave too, but she appears to be shipping later. Let’s start with Indy…

I won’t spend a whole lot of time with Indy, as he’s mostly recycled from the Raiders of the Lost Ark figure we got in the first wave, right down to his accessories. But hey, I liked this figure body the first time and I like it now too. The main difference is the re-sculpted collar and the necktie. As near as I can tell any other slight differences in the body and clothing are just variances in the molding process. I will say that the tab on the whip loop actually works this time, so I’m not sure if that’s something they changed or I just got lucky, but it’s a nice surprise. If it weren’t for the necktie, I’d happily take this figure as my all-purpose Indy figure.

The portrait is new and it’s rather perplexing. It has less paint, less sculpted detail, and yet somehow manages to look better to me than Raiders Indy. Now, I wasn’t completely down on the first portrait, but I wasn’t in love with it either. This one is a much better likeness to me, but it lacks some of the detail, like Ford’s ubiquitous chin scar. The hat is also actually removable this time, but I’m not sure why because if you take it off you just get a baldy head with a tab coming out of it. All in all, this is a big improvement if you weren’t keen on the first head.

You get the same three accessories that came with the Raiders release, which includes his revolver, a coiled whip and an uncoiled whip. They’re all identical and overall pretty good. The uncoiled whip doesn’t seem long enough at all, but that was a problem with the first release too. Pity they didn’t fix that.

The one new accessory here is the MP-40. It’s not up to GI JOE Classified weapons quality, but it’s a decent sculpt and looks great in his hands. So, overall I’m really happy with this figure and it’s a solid representation of Indy in the third film. It was definitely worth it to me to double-dip on the character. Moving on to the the senior Jones…

I didn’t have a lot of expectations for this Henry Sr, but boy there’s a lot to like here. The suited body is has some nice detail, but they could have done a better job matching up the sculpted sleeves with the vest part of the jacket. It can be finessed to look better, but it’s also going to have gaps which just seem extra obvious on this figure. For some reason I really love how prominently the bowtie pops. The vest also looks really good with the sculpted cinching around the buttons. I realize that a suited figure isn’t the most exciting thing around, but it feels like Hasbro poured some extra love into this body and I can appreciate that.

The portrait is excellent and I can’t believe that Hasbro pulled off removable glasses that look this good in this scale. Not only do they hook behind the ears and stay put, with the hat helping to keep them secured. On top of that I really dig this likeness a lot. I think it’s a tad stronger with the hat and glasses off, but it works for me either way. I think this is probably my first Sean Connery figure, so it’s nice to see they did him justice. Just a wonderful job all around!

Henry Sr. comes with three accessories: His suitcase, his umbrella, and his diary all of which are very well done. The only thing I’m going to gripe about here is that i wish they made it so you could pass the umbrella through the straps of the suitcase like he did in the movie. Big deal? Nah. I’m just looking for things to nitpick. Once again, the sculpts on all of these make it look like Hasbro put some love into them and the weathering on the briefcase is especially nice. Let’s wrap things up with The Grail Knight…

I was particularly excited for this figure, not just for the character from the film, but because I love collecting figures of knights in general. So, I would have bought this guy even if I wasn’t collecting this line and as it turns out he may be my favorite figure in the Adventure Series so far. Hasbro did a really nice job sculpting his quilted tunic, making it look sufficiently puffy to hide the chain mail hauberk that no doubt lies underneath. Even the symbol of The Knights of the Cruciform Sword on his chest is sculpted as well as painted. The exposed chainmail on the hands and lower legs looks amazing and has a nice silver finish. The belt is sculpted as part of the lower half of the tunic and has a peg hole to attach the sword scabbard to.

The cape both hangs off the neck and pegs into the back and it fits the figure well, hugging the shoulders tightly. Of course, that means that it also curtails the range of motion in those shoulders, or at least the right one in particular. Fortunately, if you want to go with some action poses, you can just take the cape off. The plastic has a cool texture that makes it look very cottony and you get another sculpted Cruciform Sword symbol on the left shoulder of the cape and also painted red.

The likeness to actor Robert Eddison is really spot on. This may be the strongest head sculpt Hasbro has produced in this line. The chainmail hood is sculpted as part of the head and frames his face perfectly, and they nailed the rather distinctive contours of his cheek bones. Even the printing and sculpt of the beard is terrific.

The sword fits easily into the scabbard, which pegs into the figure securely. The hilt is silver and looks to be strongly influenced by one of the hilt patterns attributed to Richard the Lionheart. It’s a nicely detailed sculpt, I just wish the blade was painted as well instead of left as gray plastic. Unfortunately, the hilt is rather loose in his gripping hand and that’s weird since it’s the only accessory he comes with that’s meant specifically for him to hold, but you can still make it work.

As I mentioned earlier, I won’t be building the table for this wave because I don’t want to pick up the Dial of Destiny figures, but the various Grails are a nice bonus.

This is a great assortment of figures and it really feels like The Last Crusade is getting most of the love in this series. I’m glad I double-dipped on Indy, because he has some improvements over the Raiders version. As for Henry Sr and The Grail Knight, well they’re both excellent figures in their own right with some superb head sculpts. It’s a shame that Dr. Schneider will be arriving late for the party, but I’ll be sure to check her out here when she arrives. In the meantime, I also have a Raiders of the Lost Ark based two-pack waiting to be opened, and I’ll check that out when I return to this line in a week or so.

Oct 4 2023

Cosmic Legions (Hvalkatar Book One): Sphexxian Prison Guard and Sphexxian Block Commander by The Four Horsemen

It’s been quite the trek getting through the first wave of eleven Cosmic Legions figures, but we’re finally here looking at the last two figures in this assortment. And they’re a couple of disgusting bugs! The Sphexxians hail from the planet, V’zapir and serve as a security force throughout the Cell Blocks of the Hvalkatar Prison. I was especially excited to get these because they remind me a bit of the Veloxi race from the old StarFlight game. If you get that deep cut, then congratulations, you’re probably old like me. Anyway, let’s jump in and see what we’ve got!

This is our last look at the packaging for this assortment and overall I still like it a lot. The window boxes feel more professional than what we’ve been seeing in Mythic Legions and while I still think the side tray of accessories is awkward, these are overall nicer to look at. You get blurbs on each of the side panels spotlighting the story of this first wave along with the specific character. These bugs require a bit more assembly than the previous figures we’ve seen with a lot of their bug parts having to be plugged into their bodies, which creates some bumpy times along the way. I’ll start with the Prison Guard…

This guy looks amazing, and it wasn’t until I got him in hand that I realized a lot of what we’re seeing on him is intended as armor. I initially thought they were going for an iridescent bug shell, but basically only the brown bits are supposed to be the actual bug. The metallic turquoise finish for the armor suit is gorgeous and has some purple and blue accents painted on the textured screen plates. The colors in most of this assortment have been off the charts, and I love that! The detail in the armor is pretty mind blowing and I had a great time just turning the figure over and over again in my hands to take it all in. The sculpted gear on the utility belt alone is way more than we get on most figures these days. The extra set of smaller arms are fully articulated, but these are unfortunately a huge pain in the ass. They were very tough to get pegged into the body and they tend to fall out a lot, so I try to position them out of the way and leave them alone. There’s yet another set of vestigial legs higher up in the chest, but these are static.

The semi-translucent wings plug into the back with pegged hinges, exactly how the wing pieces in Mythic Legions have worked, with all the advantages and disadvantages of that system. The attachment gives you the ability to swivel them and angle them, but the friction from the peg isn’t always enough to keep them in position so they drop quite a bit. And I suspect this will get worse the more they’re handled. There’s also no joint between each of the wings, so you can’t spread them. Apart from that these look really good. I love the serrated backs and the brown tint to the clear textured plastic, making them both beautiful and gross at the same time. I really love how you can see more of the bug anatomy through the back of the armor including the back of the thorax and the abdomen hanging down with a stinger attached.

The helmeted head is a work of art. The multi-faceted eyes are actually supposed to be part of the helmet and not the actual bug eyes, which was surprising to me. You do, however, get more bug parts like the antennae and pincers sticking out. The pincers stay in pretty well, but the antennae have a habit of dropping out, especially the one on the right. Since there’s no articulation on these, I may wind up gluing them in place.

The Prison Guard comes with one brand new weapon, a Sphexxian Blaster Rifle, which is an extremely cool design and it’s painted to look like scrimshaw, which I dig a lot. Unfortunately, the articulation and overall design of the figure doesn’t make really make him all that adept at wielding such a large weapon. I really couldn’t get him into a pose where he’s supporting the front of the weapon with his off-hand and when I tried I usually wound up knocking out the smaller arms leading to endless frustration. He can, however, hold it pretty well in his trigger finger hands, but it looks like too large a weapon to be fired one-handed. And while on the subject, this guy comes with five sets of hands, which seems really excessive, as I only wound up using two different sets for all the pictures in this review.

Next up is his Electrostaff, which we saw last time included with the TU5CC Engineer. I really like the look of this piece and I’d like to imagine it’s capable of shooting projectiles as well as for melee combat. The worn silver paint on the blades looks fantastic here and there’s a hint of purple to give it something of an eerie energy glow. All in all a great looking weapon to give to a guard.

And finally, he comes with a set of the arm blasters, which we’ve seen several times in this assortment. At first I thought these were an odd inclusion for the bugs, but now I can picture them flying around blasting the shit out of things with these and I wholeheartedly approve. OK, let’s move on to the Block Commander…

I won’t have to be as long winded here, because the Block Commander is basically a repaint of the Guard with a new head and all the same accessories. The armor is repainted a metallic orange with some metallic pink and silver hits on some of the plates. It looks good, but not as flashy as the Guard. It’s also a bit closer to the brown bug parts, so the contrast between the two isn’t as dramatic. Everything I said about the jointing pitfalls on the first figure apply here, although the smaller arms on this figure drop out even more frequently to the point of being irritating when I am posing him. The green tint given to the translucent parts iof the wings looks really nice.

The head is the only new bit of sculpting here, and it’s cool that we get to see what these guys look like without the mask. The fact that the compound eyes are part of the helmet and the bugs themselves only have tiny beady blue eyes is a cool subversion of my expectation. The rest of the sculpt is excellent with with some deep cuts between the carapace and even some little jutting horns. The antennae fit into this head better than on the Guard’s and I haven’t had any issues with them popping out.

The Blaster Rifle here is repainted in purple and while I think it looks good, I like the Guard’s version better. It brings out the detail in the sculpt a bit more and looks more exotic to me, as if the weapon is actually crafted from bone. Once again, it’s a cool design that the figure just cannot hold all that convincingly.

And you also get the arm blasters and the Electrostaff. The Sphexxians are gorgeous figures and extremely cool alien designs, but they do have more problems than any of the other figures in this assortment. Some of those problems may vary from figure to figure based on the varying tolerances, but some of them are just less than stellar design choices. For example, I would have happily sacrificed articulation in the smaller arms to have them not drop out whenever I mess around with the figure. None of these issues are catastrophic, but I’m going to call them out nonetheless. As for this line in general… For me, Cosmic Legions really has succeeded in taking the wonder and imagination of the Mythic Legions formula and moving it into outer space. I was pretty dubious about the prison backstory for the first assortment, but I can’t deny it served to deliver some great looking figures and imaginative characters. I’m looking forward to the next assortment, but now that I’m finished with this one maybe I can get back to some unfinished business I have with Mythic Legions!

Oct 2 2023

Clint Eastwood Legacy Collection (Pale Rider): The Preacher Sixth-Scale Figure by Sideshow

Sideshow hammering out an action figure deal with Clint Eastwood has been like a dream come true for me. I’ve been a fan ever since I was a teenager and whether he’s fighting bikers with an Orangutan in tow, drifting on the high plains, running down criminal scum, or sitting in the Director’s Chair, I’ve been there for all of it. He’s been responsible for some of my favorite movies of all time and I’m glad we’re getting these figures to honor him while he’s still around to see it. Indeed, Sideshow published a video of Eastwood touring the studio and inspecting the figures and the sense of joy and wonderment on his face just melted my heart. The first release, Dirty Harry, is indeed a masterpiece, and while I haven’t given the second release, The Man With No Name, a writeup yet, I’m going to jump straight to this third release just because he’s on my desk and ready to go.

The figure comes in a shoebox style package with some excellent artwork from the film. Released in 1985, nearly a decade after the masterful Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider was Eastwood’s only genuine Western released in the 80s and it’s a fantastic film full of strong performances and excellent cinematography. The mysterious Preacher arrives at the mining town, Lahood, and helps to defend a community of miners against a corrupt land grabber, only to reveal that he has a dark past with the mercenaries hired to drive them out. It’s a simple tale told with style and heart and some truly satisfying gunplay and dynamite chucking. It’s probably not one of Eastwood’s most noteworthy westerns, but I think the look of The Preacher himself has surpassed the notoriety of the film to be quite iconic. Needless to say I’m quite excited to see what Sideshow did with him!

The Preacher comes out of the box all ready for display. I was happy to find that I didn’t even have to attach his gun belt, which can be a deceptively daunting task with these figures. Starting with the outfit, there’s nothing too crazy or complex here, but the tailors at Sideshow really knocked this one out of the park. The Preacher has black trousers, a light blue collared shirt under a darker blue button-down vest, rounded out by a reddish-brown duster with some rather prominent lapels. He has a charcoal neckerchief tied around his neck, a gun belt with holster on the right, and a pair of boots with spurs. All of the clothing is beautifully tailored with just a touch of rustic 19th century flavor to it. I’m particularly in love with the coat, which has a really high quality feel to it and it’s stiff enough to get a little poseability without actually having wires in the edges.

The gun belt features a row of of cartridges between the buckle and the holster, each individually painted and on the other side you get two replacement cylinders to act as speed loaders. The belt hangs loose enough to tuck his spare gun behind the buckle, just the way he wore it in the film. I really dig the detail on the golden spurs fixed to the backs of his boots and even the buckle and snaps on the boots are immaculately painted.

If you read my review of Harry Callahan, then you know I was thrilled with how that portrait came out, and I’m equally pleased with this one as well. The hat is plastic and part of the head sculpt, which is really the only way to go here. I’m not sure a soft goods hat could have looked as good as this one turned out. As for the likeness, it’s another absolute banger. More than a decade separates Eastwood as The Preacher and Callahan and the age is well reflected in the portrait. The squint in the eyes is pitch perfect as is the sneer on his lips. If I’m going to toss out any criticism here, I think Hot Toys could have done a better job with the realism on the sculpt and paint on the beard and hair, but that’s not to say what we got here is in any way bad. I think everything here just turned out fantastic from pretty much any angle.

The articulation feels identical to the Callahan figure, and this one shares the same tightness in the shoulders, which I presume is being caused by padding to the figure. It’s not overly restrictive, but it can work against some poses. In the past, Sideshow’s figures have been plagued with loose joints, but that hasn’t been a problem with this series. Preacher comes with four sets of hands, which include a set of fists, gesturing hands, relaxed hands, and trigger finger hands. Each of these have their own posts which makes swapping them out a breeze.

As for accessories, well… here’s where things take a hit because The Preacher doesn’t come with anything besides his two pistols. Dirty Harry was also very light on the accessories, but that was excusable to me because I couldn’t think of anything really missing, but that’s not the case here. How do you release a Preacher figure without giving him a hickory axe handle? It’s the subject of one of the best scenes and best lines in the whole movie and it’s not like sculpting a piece of wood is going to break the bank. Also, how about a couple of sticks of dynamite? Again, that would hardly be a complex and costly accessory to add. If a figure is light on accessories and nothing is missing, that’s fine, but when it’s light on accessories and there are obvious omissions, that’s a problem.

At least what we do get is great. Preacher comes with his two Remington revolvers: A New Army converted for .45 Long Colt which he used as his main weapon, and a M1858 Pocket, which he kept tucked in his belt as a back up. Both are beautiful reproductions of the respective pistols with excellent finishes and even tiny screws sculpted in. The cylinders on both do spin, but the hammers do not cock.

And what’s our last stop on any Sixth-Scale figure review? You got it… the stand! And we get the standard plain black hexagonal base with a crotch-cradle post, which is identical to the one that came with Dirty Harry. It’s serviceable but part of me would have liked something with some art on the base or at least a name plate. If you flip the base over it does have the Eastwood Legacy Collection logo sculpted into it.

Sideshow is absolutely killing it with this line. From the tailoring to the portraits to the accuracy to the films, and The Preacher follows through on that in every way. Indeed, the only complaint I can have is what wasn’t included. At $275, this is very high end price tag for what could be considered to be a simple figure by many Sixth-Scale standards, but I have no doubt that a lot of the money went to Eastwood signing off on his likeness. It’s just something that he has never been willing to do. But with the price being what it is, it’s just a shame to find that there are what I would consider essential accessories omitted. Sure, it just took me a quick hop on Ebay to get a 1:6 scale crate full of dynamite and an ax on the way, but I shouldn’t have had to buy them separately. Nonetheless, I’m thrilled to have this figure in my collection and when I revisit this line in the near future, we’ll be checking out Blondie from The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly!