Monthly Archives: April 2024

Apr 5 2024

ThunderCats Ultimates: Willa by Super7

With new waves of both GI JOE and Silverhawks Ultimates arriving, Super7 has been shipping a lot of figures this year and I’m going to have to put in some extra time just to keep my head above water. But since I’ve already started digging into the most recent wave of ThunderCats with Snarf, let’s press on through and try to put this one to bed with a look at Willa, Queen of the Warrior Maidens!

Willa was one of those recurring characters in the cartoon that sadly never got the figure treatment from LJN, so naturally I was really looking forward to her release. These treetop-dwelling battle-vixens were pretty strong allies for the ThunderCats to have in their fight for survival on their new home plasnet. Besides, if I found myself crash landing on Third Earth and my closest neighbors are auto-tuning robot bears or hot warrior maidens, I know where I’d be hanging out the most! Willa comes in the standard style Ultimates packaging with a sleeve over a window box. You get some character art and a little blurb about Willa on the back, and everything is collector friendly!

And Willa does indeed look like she dropped right out of the cartoon and into my hands! She dons her ragged cut dress made out of what I always presumed to be some kind of exotic orange animal skins, a double belt, which suspends a dagger in a scabbard on her waist, and some gold bangles sculpted onto her left wrist and both her ankles. The costume is pretty simple, but that’s in keeping with the character’s appearance on screen and I think Super7 did a beautiful job translating it to figure form. I was happy to see the bangles were sculpted and not worn by the figure, as this way they stay put as intended and the ones on her wrist don’t fall out when I swap hands. What I don’t care for is that the use of skin tone colored bare plastic used for the arms and legs doesn’t quite match the flesh tone that’s painted in the exposed area around her neck and chest. Maybe she just got extra tan up there? Yeah, it’s not ideal, but I can live with it.

You get two head sculpts to choose from: One serious and one smiling. I think both are excellent, but I’m going to go with the first one for regular display. I think it suits the character more, as she is a warrior maiden after all. Also, I get a bit more of a Disney Princess vibe off the second head. Both portraits feature the large flower she wears under her right ear and the ponytail down her left shoulder.

Naturally, you get a lot of hands to choose from, each fitted with hinged pegs. These include fists, grasping hands, accessory holding hands, flat hands, and a right hand for drawing her bow string. The articulation is what I’ve come to expect from this line, which means rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. You get ball joint in the neck and under the chest, as well as ball joints in the hips with some extra lateral movement and slits in the sides of the skirt to allow for greater range of motion there. She also has lateral rockers in the ankles to keep her feet planted flat on the floor in wide stances.

Her curved dagger is removable and can be wielded in her right or left hand. It’s pretty small, but has some silver paint for the blade, guard and pommel and a black and red pattern on the grip.

Of course, Willa’s weapon of choice is the bow, and hers comes with a black string. And thank God for that, because I absolutely hate it when figures in this scale have plastic strings on their bows. The bow is red with sculpted yellow wrapping around the middle and both ends. She also sports a quiver with a number of arrows permanently sculpted inside it. The quiver has a soft plastic strap to allow her to wear it on her shoulder. Yeah, in the cartoon it was often worn around her waist but I prefer it off the shoulder.

There are two loose arrows included: One regular and one which looks like a bomb or unlit fire arrow. I was surprised that even with the limited range in the elbows, I could still get her to draw the bow and knock the arrow pretty well.

And the final accessory is Willa’s pet spider, Bushy, who can serve as a sort of living grappling hook. Bushy is just a static piece with no articulation, but they did a great job on the sculpt and paint for such a little bugger.

If I actually had any ThunderCats toys as a kid, I could say that I’ve been waiting 40 years for a figure like this, but I can say that I still remember going over my friend’s house to play with his ridiculously large collection of Thunder Kitties and realizing there was no Willa or Nayda and that always made me sad. Either way, Super7 is really doing an admirable job of knocking these cartoon styled figures off my wishlist. And boy do I hope to see Nayda turn up in a future wave! Heck, I’ll go one step further… let’s see a wave of Warrior Maidens similar to how they did the Mutant Reptile troop builders, because I would be all over that!

Apr 3 2024

Dungeons & Dragons: Ultimate Elkhorn by NECA

The last couple years have seen a flurry of action figures based on the Dungeons & Dragons property, with Hasbro tackling the 80’s cartoon as well as the film Honor Among Thieves, and NECA doing updates to the old LJN figures. The Hasbro stuff has run its course, although Super7 has picked up the license to take their own stab at the cartoon characters. Meanwhile, NECA seems to be chugging along with their line, despite an unsettling drop in new reveals. They are currently doing retro-carded repaints and it’s tough to tell whether they are just trying to drum up revenue for more new releases or if it’s a last cash-grab at the end of the line. Obviously, I’m hoping for the former, because this line has been outstanding! I’ve already checked out two of the baddies: Warduke and Grimsword, as well as the heroic Strongheart. Eventually, I have to double back for a look at Zarak, but for now I’m bumping the newest release to the head of the line, Elkhorn!

The packaging is standard stuff for NECA’s Ultimate line. You get a window box with a front flap that secures with a bit of velcro. There are plenty of pictures of the figure as well as some cool artwork on the front panel. Everything is collector friendly and for now I’ve been keeping these figures displayed in the package because they tend to come with so many extras. Elkhorn is a noble Dwarf Fighter adding some much needed support to the lone hero Strongheart. The original Elkhorn was a tiny figure and I was really curious to see what NECA was going to do to give him some gravitas.

My first impressions after opening the box? Elkhorn is a lot bigger than I expected and he comes with a ton of cool stuff! While he still feels properly scaled as a Dwarf, this guy has a nice heft to him and is absolutely brimming with detail. He still sports the bright green trousers from the original figure, but the orange gauntlets, belt, and trim on the boots has been revised to a deep, chocolate brown, which I think works well for this modern update. The brown tunic features a wide belt with a large circular medallion-like buckle front and center and he’s got some silver chain mail covering his shoulders and arms. There is some fantastic texture work on this figure, both in the chain mail and in the fabric of his trousers. The bits that are supposed to be leather have a paint wash and even the sculpted laces on his boots are immaculately painted. Everything about Elkhorn’s outfit just oozes loving attention to detail.

You get two heads to choose from, although there isn’t a huge difference between the expressions. I think NECA definitely channeled a bit of John Rhys Davies as the inspiration for this portrait and I love it. One has the mouth open and the other closed. The bushy beard is dark blue with a black wash and there’s a gold loop in the center as well as another behind his head to form a ponytail. And the ponytail is pegged into the head so you can swivel it. The horned helmet has been given a major upgrade from the LJN version with a gold painted finish, central spike, upward pointing horns, and some red painted stones in the front.

Elkhorn’s articulation is really good for such a stocky fella. As always, NECA serves up a lot of rotating hinges, but I was surprised to find them doubled up in the elbows to allow for some tighter bends. The ball jointed hips and slits in the sides of his lower tunic allow him to take a wide stance, with lateral rockers in the ankles to keep his feet planted flat on any dungeon floor. The chain mail on his shoulders is soft to allow for some flexibility in those joints, but he’s still not going to go higher than 90-degrees because of it. Still, he has no trouble getting his weapons over his head for a downward swing.

And since Elkhorn is a smaller figure, NECA decided to load him up with all sorts of weapons, equipment and even some treasures. Starting with the weapons, we get updates to the sword and shield included with the LJN figure. The shield is a concave circle with a large central boss and studs around the outer circle. It’s a really close match for the original and you get some lovely forging marks on the outer surface and even some cuts or scratches in the center. The interior of the shield features a grab bar and a sculpted arm strap with painted rivets and buckle. For the sword, NECA just kind of did their own thing, which is understandable as the LJN figure’s sword was yellow, red, and tiny. Here we get a beautiful weapon with a gold pommel and cross guard, brown ribbed two-handed grip, and a straight, silver blade. The sword includes a scabbard, which does not attach to Elkhorn’s belt, but I’ll come back to that in a bit.

There’s a small axe, which I suppose could be as much for making camp as it is for fighting. The blade is painted silver and has some nicks taken out of the edge to show it’s well used. The handle is brown with a sculpted woodgrain texture and it swells at the end.

Want to go bigger? There’s a double-edged great axe, which I’m sure is in no way compensating for size. This gorgeous weapon has a golden blade with silver edges and gold fixtures at the top and bottom of the wood grain shaft. There are Dwarven patterns carved into the face of the blade on both sides and silver spheres at the top and bottom of the handle. Like the smaller axe, you get some random nicks in the edges for added flavor.

The arsenal continues with a spiffy war hammer. The gold head has a spiked back so it can get enemies coming and going, as well as a top spike for poking.

And since two hammers are better than one, you also get this double-headed head pounder. This one has more gold and some black grips with silver bands. Both hammers are taller than Elkhorn, but they still look like they’d be manageable for him to wield, especially since Dwarves are practically built for swinging pickaxes.

And finally, Elkhorn has a beautiful little dagger that fits in the sheath on his belt. It has a gold hilt and a utilitarian-style cutting blade. It’s probably good for dispatching Goblins as well as cutting up joints of meat at the campfire.

One of the most impressive pieces of Elkhorn’s gear is this absolute banger of an adventurer’s backpack. It’s got a sculpted bedroll at the bottom, extra pouches, a spot to peg the sword scabbard in on one side and some loops to hold the small axe on the other. The top even opens and you can store stuff in there! The backpack has a wide hook that latches onto one of the cross-straps on Elkhorn’s back and it holds pretty securely. The sculpting on the pack is pretty convincing for real leather, there’s some great texture on the bedroll and all the little buckles and snaps are painted.

Elkhorn comes with a lit torch, which is a must for all dungeon delvers. Well, maybe not for Dwarves, since I’m pretty sure they can see in the dark, making this accessory an odd pairing for Elkhorn. Still, I’m glad we got a torch and I may wind up handing it off to Strongheart. We’ve seen this sort of accessory from NECA in the past and it’s done very well. The flame is cast in a yellow-orange translucent plastic and the torch itself is painted deep brown and has a sculpted woodgrain finish.

And no Dwarf can go adventuring without a jug of hooch to warm him up on those cold dungeon nights! This makes me think about how cool it would be to get an Accessory Set for this line with some stuff to make camp with. NECA’s done some similar sets for their other lines, and I’d definitely pick one up for these figures.

And finally, Elkhorn comes with a couple pieces of treasure to toss in the backpack. These include a translucent red heart stone, perhaps taken off a dead night hag, and some purple crystals embedded in a rock base. I really dig that we’re finally getting some loot thrown in as accessories, as the LJN line sometimes included treasure with their PVC figures.

NECA went crazy with this figure, not only delivering an outstanding modern update to Elkhorn, but also loading him up with all sorts of weapons and other cool stuff. There’s just so much love and passion poured into this release that it’s quite an amazing evolution to see him alongside his original LJN figure. My only concern now is that we haven’t seen any new reveals, so I’m really hoping that NECA isn’t winding down on this line. There are so many more great LJN characters that I’d love to see get this treatment, especially some more of the heroes like Melf, Mercion, and Bowmarc. Not to mention the good and evil wizards, Ringlerun and Kelek. I think these figures have been selling well, so all that’s left is to hope and pray. In the meantime, I’ll swing back with a look at Zarak in the weeks ahead.

Apr 1 2024

Transformers: Megatron AMK Pro Series Model Kit by Yolopark

I don’t usually let social media influence what I buy, because I have more than enough lines to collect as it is, but today I’m looking at something I picked up because I simply could not escape it. Everywhere I went online Yolopark’s Megatron was getting shoved in my face and I finally broke down and bought him to see what he’s all about. It’s my first experience with anything from Yolopark, and to be honest I didn’t even know this was a licensed item when I bought it, but sure enough it’s legit. It’s branded a model kit, but that’s probably just for licensing purposes, as Megatron is really just an action figure that you have to assemble and there’s no paint, glue, or tools (well, just a screwdriver for the batteries) required. He’s also a non-transforming figure.

Megs comes in a great looking box with an outer sleeve that features really nice G1 animated art on the front. It has both the Hasbro and Transformers branding on the bottom and advertises the use of some diecast in the figure. I didn’t even notice at first, but the background is made up of very subtle comic panels. Nice touch! Lift off the sleeve and you get this gorgeous piece of foil line art on the inner box with Megatron holding the Earth in his grubby mitt. No doubt about it, they did a bang up job on the presentation here.

And here’s what you get when you open the box with a second tray underneath that houses his accessories. The pieces are all laid out to make assembly easy and putting him together just requires pegging the different parts into each other. The connections are all at articulation points, with the exception of the elbows and knees, which are already assembled. A few of these pegs took a bit of force to get in, but I wasn’t really worried about breaking anything. It’s also possible to strip him back down pretty easily if you want to store him in the box. As mentioned, there is some diecast here, and while most of the kit is plastic, it’s not the kind of flimsy plastic I usually associate with models. This is a sturdy and rugged figure and not at all fragile. There are two light up features that require two types of button batteries that are not provided. One goes in the head to light up the eyes and three go into the fusion cannon to light it up and both require a screwdriver to install.

Here he is all together, measuring roughly 8-inches tall and looking really good! The mix of G1 Sunbow design with the realistic metal finish and weathering makes for a great combination. The silver bits look like brushed steel and the darker black bits have some excellent dry brushing to make edges look worn down to the bare metal. You also get some brown spray here and there to denote rust, making Megatron look properly ancient. Despite not transforming, you still get all the key bits of gun kibble like the textured pistol grips on his outer legs and the gun barrel that rises up behind his right shoulder. There are some yellow and blue paint apps to the components in his abs and you get some bright red in the upper biceps and again in the abs. Finally, there’s a bold purple Decepticon emblem printed in the center of his chest.

There are three interchangeable face plates to choose from. The first is pretty straightforward, the second gives Megatron a manically open-mouthed smile, while the final adds some more detail, maybe going for a toy or comic look. I’m not sure about that one, but I doubt I’ll use it much. All three heads have lenses in the eyes to share the light up feature in the head. The lights are activated by a magnet switch and there’s a magnet in the bottom of the gun barrel on his back. You just touch it to the top of his head: Once for permanent eye illumination, again for flashing eyes, and one more time for a pulsing effect. Tap it again and the lights will go out.

The balance and articulation on the figure are both excellent, with most of the joints being on hinged swivel pegs, but you also get double hinges in the knees, rockers in the ankles, a wide range of movement in the hips and shoulders, and even some side to side rocking in the chest. The hands have individually articulated index fingers with hinges at the base and knuckle, the remaining three fingers articulate together, and there are single hinges in the thumbs. All the joints feel fine and he’s just a lot of fun to pose and play around with.

The fusion cannon has a simple button to light it, and while I’d rather it lit up purple instead of red, I still think it’s a cool effect like it’s powering up and about to fire. The arm cannon is part of the assembly, so it is easily removable.

In addition to the three swap out face plates, Megatron also comes with an optional damaged chest plate. The regular chest plate is diecast, while this one is plastic. It makes sense, as I can’t imagine sculpting the crumpling effect here would be possible otherwise. The damage is very well done, but the figure could have used a few more pieces like this to make it more convincing.

Megatron also comes with a number of weapons and accessories. First up you get a pistol, because when you turn into a gun and you have a cannon on your arm, you need a pistol too, right? Actually, I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be the pistol he used to deliver the killing blow to Optimus Prime in the animated film. The sculpt looks pretty close but here it’s black instead of purple. Still, a cool accessory and he can hold it really well with his articulated fingers.

Next up is an energy sword. The hilt is cast in dark translucent purple, while the blade is done in more of a pinkish purple. Again, he holds it great and I really dig how it turned out.

You want more energy weapons? How about the mace he used to fight Prime on the Dam in More Than Meets The Eye? This one simply swaps out with either one of the hands. It’s also cast in translucent purple plastic and you get multiple hinges in the chain to give it some added poseability.

The final accessory is The Key to Vector Sigma from titular episode of the cartoon. This piece is diecast and has a premium satin gold finish. I found it a bit tricky to get him to hold this, as it’s fairly heavy and it isn’t easy to find a place for him to grip it, but with a little patience I was able to make it work.

Megatron also comes with a stand, which includes a detailed base and a multi-hinged support arm with a grabbing claw. The only problem here is there’s no way to get the claw positioned to support Megatron while he’s standing on the base. The hinges in the arm just won’t allow the claw to be positioned down that low. To be fair, this is not a figure that requires any support to stand, but it does seem like a short-sighted design. It can, however, be used as a flight stand or for dynamic posing. There’s a little Decepticon emblem that plugs into the base of the support and there are clips on the outside of the hexagonal base so that it can be connected to others. I presume the other Yolopark Transformers come with the same stand.

The kit is readily available at a number of online toy retailers, but I got mine on Amazon for about $60 and I’m overall really happy with the purchase. Indeed, Megatron impressed me enough to make me pre-ordered their G1-style Optimus Prime to go with him. I definitely have a thing for cartoon accurate Megatron figures, which is no doubt the result of being a kid and having to play with a Megatron figure that looked nothing like the one on the cartoon. For a while Hasbro’s own RED version scratched that itch, but this one is a huge step up, granted with a significant price hike. The mix of cartoon design and realistic finish gels perfectly to me and despite him not transforming, this may be my favorite Megatron figure yet.