Monthly Archives: August 2024

Aug 30 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Cobra Commander (“Once A Man” SDCC Exclusive) by Hasbro

I think it’s safe to say that 2024’s Classified SDCC Exclusive generated a lot of surprise and delight among collectors. The line hasn’t shown a lot of strong ties to the Sunbow cartoon and yet here we are getting a Classified figure that references Cobra Commander’s grim fate in the ’87 GI JOE movie. Having been found guilty of incompetency, the denizens of Cobra-La sentence The Commander to slowly transmute into a snake. I’m not a huge fan of the film, but I will admit that Cobra Commander fate was probably the most disturbing thing I’d seen in a cartoon up to that point. Optimus Prime dying in The Transformers movie was sad, but this was just pure body horror that creeped me the hell out. As popular as this release was, I do think this was a great idea for an Exclusive, as I imagine there’s a good number of Classified collectors who don’t really care about that film and would be happy to pass on this figure. Then again, Hasbro did show off a Classified version of Nemesis Enforcer, so like it or not, Classified Cobra-La is very much a thing.

The set comes in a window box with a flap that has a lenticular front depicting the horrific transformation from man to snake man to snake creature. Alas, the effect baffles my camera, so you’ll have to settle for a shot of the flap open and showing off the goods inside. The set includes Cobra Commander in two stages of his terrible transformation, plus you get some extra hands and accessories, a lot of which are taken from the HISS HasLab Exclusive Commander and the yet to be released Retro-Carded Commander. Everything here is collector friendly, which is great because this is definitely a figure I will be displaying in the package.

The Commander comes out of the box as mid-transformation Snake Man after being exposed to the dreaded Spores! The waist down is borrowed from the previously mentioned Commander figures, although the belt buckle has been repainted from the HasLab figure. He still has his combat knife and sheath strapped to his left leg. The torso and arms are now newly sculpted snake skin with the remnants of his torn tunic worn like a vest. The snake skin is a cool mix of scales and bumpy textured areas and I think the mix of blue uniform and yellow orange snakeskin makes for a very attractive deco.

The mutated snake head is absolute nightmare fuel. It’s like his teeth have migrated to the outside of his face, a heavy brow ridge had formed and he’s got multiple eyes budding out on his cheeks and forehead. There are some sculpted fangs showing, but these aren’t painted so it can be hard to make them out. I think the printing for the blue eyes is a bit miffed, but otherwise, this is a great sculpt that would have make any David Cronenberg film proud.

You also get a fully helmeted head. This appears to be the same sculpt as the previously mentioned Commander figures. It does have the cartoon-style white stripe at the top, which the Retro-Carded release will have, but was lacking from the HasLab version. There is also a detached face mask, which Roadblock picks up in the movie. It has some cracks and the inside of the mask is highly detailed with all sorts of circuitry.

Also repacked is the classic hairdryer-style pistol and backpack to mount it on. This is a bit of an odd inclusion, as I’m pretty sure I remember him being disarmed when they put him in the giant clam and he’s never shown with it after inhaling the spores. But am I complaining? Nope. It’s great that they included it and I can always give this to the regular Classified Cobra Commander if I want to.

Finally, you get the extra hands that came with the other two Cobra Commander figures. These include fists, accessory holding hands, a pointy finger right hand and a open grip left hand.

The more mutated version of the figure is mostly cast in a dense rubbery plastic. The arms have some articulation at the shoulders, but otherwise it’s a static piece. The tail is partially coiled, which works well to have him stand. You can also use it to wrap around another Roadblock like he did in the movie. There’s a cut in the tail, but mine does not want to swivel, so I’m not sure if this is intended as an articulation point or just a seam from where the figure was assembled.

Hasbro did a nice job on the production side of this set, but no so much on the selling end. It was available after the convention as a Pulse Exclusive and it sold out immediately. Later it returned sporadically, selling out and coming back into stock seemingly at random times. And that was probably more frustrating than if it had just sold out quickly and was gone. Some people will argue that back in the day SDCC Exclusives were only available to attendees, so any slim chance to get one afterwards is better than it used to be. That may be true, but I still think Hasbro handled it poorly. And the idea of placing a five per customer limit is just ridiculous and seriously needs to stop. It serves no purpose other than to feed scalpers. In the end, I was happy to get one on Pulse, but I wouldn’t have chased it on the second hand market if I didn’t. Especially with it going for double the price. This is a cool figure to have, but certainly not one I would consider essential to my Classified collection. And I haven’t even decided yet whether I will pursue the Cobra-La Classified figures at all.

Aug 28 2024

Golden Axe: Heninger and Long Moan by Storm Collectibles

In case you missed it, Storm Collectibles has been delivering on a rather robust line of action figures based on SEGA’s fantasy arcade coin-op Golden Axe. Or based on the excellent SEGA Genesis port, if you happen to be a home body or just grew up after arcades have become nearly extinct. Since the line’s debut in 2020, they’ve given us all three playable heroes: Ax Battler, Tyris Flare, and Gilius Thunderhead, along with a bunch skeletons and bosses in the game. And now, here we are, finally getting a two-pack of the Death Adder’s evil grunts that plague you most often: Heninger and Long Moan!

The figures come in a wide window box that shows off the goods. There’s some rather large renders of the figures on the front as well, which is kind of redundant. As always, the tray is placed against a recreation of the Player Select screen, which is both clever and looks great. I’ve been playing the Golden Axe series on my Genesis for decades and I never actually new that these guys had names. Word is that they were both named after booze manufacturers: The Henninger Brewery and Longmoan Distillery. I’m going to start with Heninger, but first, let’s just take a look at this…

What is even going on here? Look at all these hands!!! Six pairs for each figure, that’s twenty-four hands in this package! I’m never going to complain about extra accessories, but I think this was a bit excessive. These aren’t even main characters, they’re just goons you beat up over and over again. They even made slight changes in the skin tone for each figure. Anyway, I’ll try to work each pair into at least one picture, but no promises. And I’m not going to run through all of them, because I don’t even know what to call some of these. Just take a look and see for yourself. Hands!

So, Heninger is probably the least interesting of the two as he’s just a muscular man in some tight grey undies. I was honestly expecting this figure to borrow heavily from Ax Battler, especially when I saw how similar the arm bracers are, but that’s far from the case. The bodies are completely different and Ax Battler is a lot bigger than this lowly henchmen. Heninger has a bit of armor, including silver bracers and shin plates, as well as some silver shoulder armor that is worn by the figure via some soft plastic straps. He’s perfect for a generic thug and would probably even work pretty well for a number of different genres. The silver paint on the armor is nice and shiny, the skin tone is warm and even, and the musculature is extremely detailed.

The head sculpt is very good, but definitely contributes to the generic goon thing this figure has got going on. He’s wearing a white headband, has a thin beard and mustache, and is gritting his teeth in anger. Nothing about the portrait really shouts medieval fantasy to me, so you can easily have this guy going up against any of your Storm figures.

If you’ve played around with any of Storm’s male figures, you should know what to expect from the excellent articulation here. Some of the highlights include double hinges in both the knees and elbows, ball joint in both the waist and abs, crunches in the shoulders, and even toe hinges. Storm’s joints have buttery smooth motion and these figures are very tough to put down once you start messing around with them. The balance is also superb!

Heninger comes with a spiked mace with a rather large head and a stout handle. The whole thing is sculpted and painted to look like it’s forged in iron. Among the crazy array of hands are a pair of gripping hands, so he can wield the mace in either hand.

And here’s a quick comparison of Heninger with Ax Battler to show their differences in build and muscle sculpting. Now, let’s move on to Long Moan!

Long Moan sports a much more medieval look with his crude tunic and spiked helmet. The tunic is cast in soft plastic and worn by the figure. It has a really nice rough crosshatch texture that resembles burlap and rough cut edges at the shoulders and bottom edges. It’s cinched at the waist with a black belt that includes a silver buckle and painted belt loops. Yeah, belt loops were probably not a thing back in medieval times, but I appreciate the effort at detail. His light khaki boots lack the armor plates we saw with Heninger and he has white sculpted wrappings on his forearms instead of the silver bracers. The bright turquoise tunic has a little wash to show some soiled spots. As with Heninger, I expected a lot of borrowed parts with this figure, as the tunic looked an awful lot like Gilius’, but once again it wasn’t the case and it’s an all new sculpt.

The spiked helmet is removable and the underlying head is rather generic, but still a solid sculpt. While his buddy looks perpetually angry, Long Moan just looks like he’s board and waiting for the weekend to arrive so he can hit the local tavern for ale and wenches. The helmet is painted to match the tunic and adds some excellent silver trim to the horns and borders. It does sit a little loose on his head, and I find that I’m frequently having to push it back a bit so it’s not covering his eyes. This may have been done on purpose, as I’ve seen some character art showing it down over his eyes and even the render on the box looks like it’s worn low like that.

The articulation is identical to Heninger, but the lower part of the tunic can inhibit his hip articulation a bit. There are slits on the sides to help, but it still makes those exta wide stances a harder to pull off.

Long Moan’s weapon of choice is a spiked club, which is not as refined as Heninger’s mace, but still a perfect weapon for a generic goon. Death Adder probably budgets a fixed amount for each of his minions, so Heninger spent the extra coin for his weapon, while Long Moan spent it at the Ye Olde Clothing and Helmet Shoppe. It’s cast in a very light tan, practically matching his boots, and it has some nasty black spikes jutting out around the top.

And here’s a tunic comparison shot between Long Moan and Gilius. It’s the same style and texture, but still a new sculpt.

It sure took a while to get these common enemies into the line, especially with how many skeletons Storm has been pumping out. I guess, they figured there would be more of a cross-sell market on the skeletons. Either way, I’m glad to finally see these fellas turn up and only buying one set really put my willpower to the test. But, I have no doubt we’ll see recolors of this set, to match the recolored sprites that turn up in different levels, and I will most definitely pick up at least one variant. Indeed, I’m surprised the recolors haven’t turned up for preorder yet. Either way, these guys turned out great, and it’s awesome to finally have them represented on my ever expanding Golden Axe shelf! And I’m just about caught up on this line, although I’ll probably roll out some of the new stand alone dragons in the near future, as I picked up two of the four that Storm released.

Aug 26 2024

DC Multiverse (Mega Figure): Classic Darkseid by McFarlane

Before jumping into today’s review, I have to sadly report that my shitty old Nikon has finally kicked off. And rather than use it as an opportunity to upgrade, I’m just replacing it with the same shitty old model because it’s comfortable and I’m an old man that doesn’t like change. It’ll be about a week until the replacement comes in, so I’m resorting to use my even shittier phone camera for a few reviews. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

While I really do enjoy collecting the DC Multiverse line, it really can be frustrating waiting for those sporadic releases of classic characters. Case in point, this line has been running for nearly five years and there are so many greats still begging to be done. I don’t begrudge Todd his Batman fetish and odd eclectic character choices, but I would like to tip the scales in favor of more traditional legacy releases without always hiding them behind the paywall of the more expensive Collector releases. Well, today I get to cross Darkseid off that list. This Megafig arrived at my door last week, and even with dozens of Multiverse figures waiting for their turn in the spotlight, I immediately bumped him to the head of the line.

As with all the DC Multiverse Megafigs, Darkseid comes in a satisfyingly huge window box, showing off the figure inside. The box is collector friendly, but be prepared to rip and tear the backing of the inside tray to get the collector card and stand off. And that’s fine with me. Even though I’d love to keep these figures boxed, I would run out of room fast even if I only kept the Megafig boxes. Darkseid comes boxed with his peepers charging his Omega Beams, but I’m going to start off by swapping in the regular head.

As a Megafig, Darkseid is obviously a big boi and I absolutely love the powerful and stocky proportions here. Granted, this Lord of Apokolips is not as big as the gigantic New 52 Darkseid that DC Collectibles put out over ten years ago, but he does tower over Mattel’s DC Universe Classics version. The suit is indeed very classic in its inspiration with the sleeveless blue tunic and shorts, bisected by a simple white belt, and matched perfectly with his thigh-high boots and gauntlets. The blue plastic chosen here is absolutely gorgeous and looks great beside the pale gray skin exposed on his upper arms and legs. The upper arms are borrowed from Mongul and yeah, that kind of works if I don’t think too hard about it. Darkseid’s skin should be more granite-like and these are rather veiny, but I can live with it. The ensemble is rounded out by what may seem a curious choice of silver chest medallion and a flowing blue cape, neither of which represent any mainstream comic appearances familiar to me, but rather references Jose Luis Garcia Lopez’s art from the vintage Kenner Super Powers figure. Even the belt is a nod to that design, and I freaking love it!

The regular head is extremely expressive, with his broad, disapprovingly downturned mouth and his heavily purturbed brow ridge. The ashen skin gives way to darkened blackness around his piercing red eyes and the chiseled lines in his face look great. I would have liked to see some ancient crevices in his face, rather than just smooth skin, but I still dig what we got here and I think it pairs well with the simpler Super Powers vibe the body has going on.

The alternate head has some permanent effect pieces around his eyes as he prepares to toast you with the awesome power of his dreaded Omega Beams. I really dig the way these translucent red pieces emanate from the depths of his eyes. Here you do get some wrinkles in his forehead, and he grits his teeth as the power builds. I often stick with displaying figures with the more neutral head choices, but here’s a case where I may go with this one. It just looks so cool!

The cape is made of a super soft and silky fabric and it does have wires running along all the edges to give it that added dynamic posability. My guess is that most collectors would have preferred him without the cape, but again I just dig that Super Powers nod so much. I think it adds a sense of regality to his overall appearance and the cape is extremely fun to mess with.

The articulation is pretty typical Megafig fare, meaning you only get single hinges in the elbows but you do get the doubles in the knees. There’s a ball joint hidden behind the belt and everything else follows the Multiverse system. The elbow range is limited because of the single hinge and muscle sculpt, but he can still pull off some nice poses. You get two pairs of hands for display and these include a set of fists, a left pointy finger hand and a right grasping hand.

If I’m being honest, I don’t usually pick up a lot of the Megafigs until they hit clearance, but this was a case where I had to drop that preorder. The figure looked amazing in the solicitation shots and he looks every bit as good now that he’s in hand. Even better, the turnaround on this one from preorder to shipping seemed super quick. Sure, I would have liked to see this one be 100% new sculpt, but the more I play around with him, the less the Mongul arms bother me. Maybe it’s just a bit of the principal of the matter. If a character with the gravitas of Darkseid doesn’t call for 100% new sculpt, than what does? But I’m not going to let that stop me from enjoying what is just an all around awesome figure. And with Darkseid on the shelf, I guess it’s time to open up his son, so I’ll get Kalibak in here for a review sooner rather than later!


Aug 23 2024

Universal Monsters (Bride of Frankenstein): Ultimate Frankenstein’s Monster with Chair by NECA

I’ve been a casual collector of NECA’s Universal Monsters series, picking them up here and there, but not really going out of my way to find them. So far, I’ve checked out Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolfman, and The Mummy. I also picked up The Gillman and Frankenstein’s operating table, but I haven’t gotten around to checking them out here yet. Well, a little while back NECA put up a new version of Frankenstein’s Monster from The Bride of Frankenstein in a Deluxe Set with his dungeon chair and I couldn’t resist, so I preordered it. It came in last week, and while I really should wait a couple of months for Halloween, I’m just too anxious to check it out. Besides, the Pumpkin Spice is already flowing at all the stores and coffee shops by me, and the Spirit Halloweens will be popping up before you know it. So, let’s go!

I have yet to pick up NECA’s Bride of Frankenstein figure, but I touched on my feelings for this film when I looked at Jada’s Bride. It’s a delightfully weird film, with it’s tiny home-grown jar people, Millie playing for goofs, The Monster getting all the screen time, and the titular Bride not showing up until the last five minutes. The set I’m checking out today recreates the scene where The Monster was captured, locked away in a dungeon, and chained to a chair, which held him for about two minutes before he broke out. It comes in a fully enclosed box with some nice shots on the front and back panels, and oddly enough a hang tag. The shots on the front are all in Black & White, which could be confusing, as the toys inside are colored, but the pictures on the back confirm that. Don’t forget, NECA has been doing B&W versions of these figures, but I doubt they’ll do it for something this extravagant. Inside you get the figure and the chair, as well as extra heads and accessories. The package is collector friendly, but you do have to attach the chair to the base, and based on the deafening snap I heard when they locked together, they are definitely not made to come apart again. So it ain’t likely to go back into the box for storage. Let’s start with The Monster!

The Monster was a little worse for wear for the this film and the new figure reflects that by resculpting some parts from the original figure. The body is mostly the same, but the jacket and arms have been replaced with the sleeves torn, the jacket unbuttoned, and the left lapel on the jacket hanging off. The exposed flesh on his arms also looks more emaciated and rotted. Finally, you get some added weathering to the jacket to resemble mud splatter and soiling. I don’t know if it’s correct to call this a variant, as he’s from a completely different movie, but I think the figures are different enough to warrant having both on display, and we haven’t even gotten to the heads yet!

The three heads are completely new sculpts to reflect the considerable changes to the makeup for The Bride. I love this look, because it’s generally a lot creepier. The hair is thinned out to better show the staples along the scalp line that are knitting together his flesh. The facial features are more emaciated and rotten and he has some burn scarring on the right side of his face. The heads depict a somewhat neutral expression, a happy expression, and a slight growly expression. They’re all good, but I think that final one is some of NECA’s best work. Not only did they nail the expression, but the detail in the teeth and the creases to the face are superb.

And here’s a quick comparison shot of Monsters from the original film and this one from The Bride. As you can see, there’s quite a lot of changes here, despite being on the same basic body. To me, the original will always be more iconic, but I like the make up on weathered suit look a tad more.

You get three accessories, all of which being food items, and a couple of extra hands to help him hold them. Included is a half loaf of bread, a bowl of peasant broth, and a mug with some wine dribbling down the side. One of the extra hands is designed perfectly for holding the mug by threading two fingers through the handle, while the other is good for cradling the bowl or bread.

A third hand has a cigar sculpted into it, which is a nice touch, even if the elbow joints can’t really bend enough to bring it close to his face. Now, let’s check out the chair!

The chair was an interesting choice on NECA’s part, since it’s featured so briefly in the film, and yet it makes for an iconic way to display the figure. It’s fashioned to look like a stone seat with a wooden back sitting on a stone pedestal. NECA did a bang up job with the detail, making both the stone blocks and the woodgrain texture look extremely realistic and I was really happy to see that the back of the chair is finished and highly detailed as well, rather than just left as hollow plastic. The shoulder braces have a pair of leather straps, cast in soft plastic with chains coming off of them, there’s a cross chain running between them with a large padlock, and a set of manacles on chains, which plug into the floor with large rings. All the chains are plastic, but they look good and feel pretty sturdy.

The Monster fits perfectly into the chair and the manacles can be placed on his wrists by popping the hands off and then on again. This set up looks absolutely fantastic on display and it makes me nostalgic for those old Aurora model kits that I used to beg my parents for, but never quite had the skills to make them look good when they were finished!

I’m not sure how many collectors who have the first Frankenstein Monster release will consider this set a must-have, but you are getting a lot of new stuff here. This set is a NECA store exclusive and retails at $60, so it doesn’t look like this one will be turning up on the Big Box shelves. And while it’s obviously started shipping the status on NECA’s site has gone back to Preorder, so it is still available, but if you buy it now you may be waiting for another batch. It’s great to see NECA finding new ways to keep the Universal Monster line alive and I’m very glad I dropped a preorder on this one. I suppose, I’ll also have to crack down and find me The Bride figure as well so I can display her beside this version of The Monster! Maybe that will be a good one to save for closer to Halloween, along with The Gillman and Frankenstein’s operating table.

Aug 21 2024

DC Multiverse (Gold Label): Metallo by McFarlane

A handful of McFarlane Gold Label releases have trickled in over the past few weeks, so I thought I’d get a jump on opening some of them. Today’s release was an Exclusive to Target and gives us a rather unusual take on the Superman villain, Metallo. I wasn’t sure about this figure when I dropped the preorder, but I really wanted to get a Metallo onto the DC Multiverse shelves, so let’s see what he’s all about!

He comes in the usual DC Multiverse packaging giving you a great look at the figure inside. The foil Gold Label medal is in the upper left corner, signifying this was a retailer exclusive. You also get the usual stand and collector card sealed to the blue backer tray. The back panel of the box recreates the collector card art. If I had the space, I’d keep all these figures boxed, as they look amazing and the bold character name on the side panel makes them easy to spot on the shelf, even if they’re lined up spine-out like books. But, I don’t have that kind of real estate for plastic and I think they look better displayed loose, so out he comes and into the bin goes the packaging.

I haven’t seen any specifics on the source material for this version of Metallo. I can see a few influences in the card art, but it’s not really that close. There’s some bronze age inspiration here, but mostly I think they were going for the Superman: Secret Origin look and even that’s a stretch. A lot of that has to do with him being partly kitbashed from the Blue and Green Power Suit Lex Luthor figures, but it doesn’t explain other bizarre choices, like painting the atom symbol on his chest shield when it would have been just as easy to paint it up like Secret Origin design. Recycling includes the legs, arms, and pelvis from those Luthor figures. I don’t recognize the torso, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they were borrowed too.

The choice of colors works for the source art, but the application is way off. There’s too much red in the legs, leaving just the knees and ankle joints green. What’s more, the lack of paint on the legs makes the figure look kind of cheap and all that great sculpted detail is lost in the bright red plastic. I do, however, really like the metallic green used for the arms and chest armor. I think more of the lighter green here and there would have helped with accuracy and made Metallo here look a little bit less like some kind of weird Christmas-themed exclusive.

The head sculpt is decent enough, and I think it’s the one aspect that works for the figure. There’s a wonderful depth to the sculpt as you can see the teeth and eyes deep inside the slits in the face plate. It’s pretty damn creepy and matches up with Metallo’s appearance on the cover of Superman: Secret Origin #5 quite well.

Articulation holds no surprises, so I won’t run through it here. For the most part, the joints work well and he’s fun to play with. The ankles could have used a little more finesse, but he’s fairly well balanced so that’s not a big issue. Metallo has a fist on his left arm and a grasping hand on his right and doesn’t come with any extra hands.

You do get one accessory, and that’s a cluster of Kryptonite. I’m pretty sure that this is the same accessory that McFarlane packed in with Superman in their Retro 66 Batman line. I haven’t checked out that figure here yet, but I will get to him eventually. It’s a cool accessory, but it just adds more recycling to an already heavily recycled package.

In the end, this Metallo is really just a placeholder for me, as it’s a reach to match it up with any existing appearance of the character. I have no issues with recycling parts, when it makes sense. But Metallo here clearly felt like a case of Todd’s design team rummaging through the parts drawer to see how close they could get. It kind of adds insult to injury when you realize that Todd already got his money’s worth on a lot of these parts with two previous releases. The end result is a somewhat original take on the character, and that’s not what most collectors are here for. Normally, I would have happily waited for discount on Amazon, but being a Gold Label I went for the preorder. In retrospect, I guess I could have gambled and tried to get it cheaper, because I don’t think this one is going to sell very well.

Aug 19 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Night-Creeper and Jinx by Hasbro

It feels like new Classified figures are arriving every other week, burying my large backlog little by little. Indeed, I think I could devote this entire blog to this line and still not be caught up for a long while. But, these are nice problems to have, and it’s rare these days to get an action figure line producing this kind of quality and quantity on a regular basis. I pushed these two recent additions to the front of the line, Night-Creeper and Jinx, but not necessarily because I was super excited to get them, but more because I don’t think I ever owned either of the original figures, so I’m entering unexplored territory!

Classified is back to using the window boxes and they got something of a redesign. They are a lot less colorful than the older boxes, but I like them a lot. There’s a sense of classy uniformity here and I frankly, I think the best marketing this line can do is just show off how good the figures look. I’ve gone on record many times here with how I’m not a big fan of ninjas taking over my GI JOE vs Cobra narrative, but sprinkling them sparingly into the mix ain’t necessarily a bad thing. In this case, my only familiarity with Jinx has been from the original movie and I have very little familiarity with the Night-Creeper at all, so let’s start with him.

Night-Creeper was first released in the Real American Hero line in 1990 and I was well out of GI JOE by then. I was just starting college, what little disposable income I had was spent on video games, and it would be about a decade until I would start collecting toys as an adult. With that having been said, this guy looks like a pretty solid update to that original figure. The maroon, gray, and purple deco is certainly distinctive without being quite as outrageous as the feast of neon decos that was yet to come. The sculpt gets by with some rumples to the suit, prominent shoulder cuffs and a plate armor vest. Finally, there’s a belt worn by the figure that has sheathes for his twin hooked blades to live. The original outfit design is enhanced here by some segmented armor shin guards and tabi.

You get two heads to choose from. The first pays respects to the original figure, and I think this is an awesome update. The face is covered with a featureless mask and the eyes shielded by a silver visor. All that is wrapped up in a hood and topped off with a silver skull cap. The hood is attached to the head so it works well with the neck articulation.

The second head references the next version of Night-Creeper, which was put out about three years later. This one is a fully enclosed helmet and features what I think is a much stronger sci-fi vibe. There’s an interesting mix of organic curves with some harsh angles in the cheeks. The visor strip is painted in red, while the rest of the helmet and mask match the maroon and purple of the suit. I will likely stick with the first helmet for display, but this one is really creepy and I dig it a lot.

The backpack is designed to hold all the rest of his gear and it has its ups and downs. There are clips on the sides for his two swords. There are some sculpted crossbow bolts across the back along with one free slot to store a loose bolt, and there are two triangular tabs to secure his crossbow. In theory it’s great, but I find that the sword clips are the only thing that really work very well. The loose bolt will stay notched as long as you don’t put the crossbow over it, meanwhile, the tabs to hold the crossbow are warped and don’t align properly. As a result, the crossbow pops out very easily as does the bolt. This rig also makes the figure very back-heavy. Normally, I love when figures can carry all their stuff, but in this case, it’s kind of a disaster.

Night-Creeper comes with two sets of hands. The first pair are both gun-hands with trigger fingers, but these work fine as all-purpose accessory holding hands. The other set includes a right chopping hand and a left hand with a black shuriken sculpted into it. I’m a big fan of the sculpted shuriken, rather than trying to have to get him to hold a tiny loose one. A left chopping hand or fist would have been nice, but I’m still happy with the variety here.

The hooked knives are cast in all black and at least these secure quite well in the sheaths and work fine with the gun-hands. These knives also have rings in the pommels so you can attach a chain or a piece of string.

The swords are very cool updates to the ones included with the original figure, with each having a unique and wicked looking blades. One has a wavy kris-style blade in silver and the other has barbed hooks and is finished in a metallic green. Both weapons have black hilts with excellent sculpted detail.

And finally, Night-Creeper comes with his crossbow and a single loose bolt. I dig the crossbow a lot, even if it is rather bulky. It’s rifle configuration has a stock and a foregrip and it’s sculpted with reserve hours stored underneath. You can load the loose arrow into the weapon and it stays put there a lot better than it does in the backpack. A few design issues aside, Night-Creeper is a very cool looking figure with a great array of accessories. Let’s move on to Jinx!

As I mentioned at the beginning, my only exposure to Jinx was from the original animated movie. I may have still been picked up a few JOEs when Jinx’s figure released in 1987, but she wasn’t one of them. Couple that with my relative indifference toward mixing ninjas in my GI JOEs, and this Classified release wasn’t super high on my list, but in hand I’m pretty pleased with her. She comes in a sculpted red ninja suit with a black sash tied around her waist and a black dragon emblem printed over her left breast. The suit has some purple accents on the sides, her arms are exposed and there’s a tattoo printed down the length of her right arm. The costume is rounded out by black wrappings over her forearms, wrists and palms and red and black slippers. Jinx’s certainly isn’t one of the more elaborate body sculpts we’ve had in Classified, but it does a fine job paying respect to the source material. I think she strikes a nice balance between the RAH and Sunbow designs.

You get two heads to choose from: One masked and one unmasked. Both of these are excellent, but I think Hasbro did a particularly nice job on the unmasked face. It’s a very pretty sculpt with extremely clean printing for the lips and eyes and the hair looks great. There’s a removable choker neckless, and she has a black headband, which can be lowered to work as a blindfold, referencing her uncanny abilities at fighting blind as demonstrated in the film. The masked head doesn’t allow for as much flare in the sculpt, but you do still get to see her pretty eyes. It’s nice to have these options, but I’ll likely be displaying her unmasked most of the time.

Jinx comes with two sets of hands, which include an accessory holding pair and a pair of fists. I know asking for three pairs of hands in a regular Classified release may sound greedy, but the lack of chopping hands feels like a really big omission. Indeed, I would have rather had chopping hands than fists. I’ll also toss out here that I could have done without the arm tattoo. The Classified design team seems to have a real tattoo fetish. In a lot of cases I think it enhances the figure, but not here. It’s especially annoying since they probably redesigned her without the long sleeves just to tatt her up.

The original RAH figure came with two swords and a backpack to hold them, whereas this Classified version comes with one sword and a scabbard that pegs into her back. I’m fine with this, as I think the scabbard looks better than the backpack The sword is a simple sculpt with some detailed wrappings on the grip but nothing on the tsuba. Alas, the blade and tsuba are left bare gray plastic, and these would have looked much better painted silver.

Jinx also comes with a double-bladed pole weapon based on the one included with the RAH figure. The blades have ornate designs and are painted silver, while the pole is black and there’s some maroon paint on the sculpted wraps near each blade.

Even as a tepid I am on ninjas in my GI JOE, I like these figures quite a bit. Night-Creeper could have used some quality control on his backpack’s crossbow tabs, but overall, he’s a really cool figure that comes with a lot of neat stuff. My only real issue with Jinx is she seems light on accessories when compared with Night-Creeper, so that extra pair of chopping hands doesn’t seem like that big an ask. And these will probably do it for me and Classified ninjas for a while. I skipped Kamakura because I just had no interest in him, but I do still have a few Cobra ninjas in my collection to check out, but I’ll likely save those for if I ever get caught up.

Aug 16 2024

Dungeons & Dragons Ultimates: Sheila the Thief (Cloak of Invisibility) by Super7

Yes, folks, I’m buried in Super7 GI JOE, ThunderCats, and Silverhawks Ultimates, so why not start collecting a new Ultimates line? Even better, why not collect a line of figures that I already bought when Hasbro did them? Sounds like a good plan to me! The truth is I was very happy with Hasbro’s D&D cartoon figures, but because I’ve been waiting for someone to do these for so long, I’m willing to double dip. Plus, it looks like Super7 is going deeper than Hasbro did with more of the minor characters, and yes a giant Tiamat, which God help me I did pre-order. The first wave includes two members of the adventuring party, Hank and Sheila plus Dekkion the Skeleton Warrior, and a pair of Shadow Demons. These are supposed to ship sometime in October, but we got a bit of a sneak peek with the release of the SDCC Exclusive invisible Sheila. This figure was available for purchase online after the convention and since she was easy to get, I decided to pick her up.

Oh wow, I really dig this packaging! The box is an homage to the entrance to the Dungeons & Dragons ride. There’s no slip cover, which I kind of figured since they’ve been deleting them from their longer running lines. The window shows off the goods nicely, which is impressive because she’s supposed to be invisible. The back of the packages have an actual character sheet for each character, and as an avid D&D player back in High School, I got a real kick out of this. Seriously, I had a big stupid grin on my face as I perused Sheila’s stats. Of course, this figure variant is based on Sheila’s special ability, using her magic cloak to render her invisible. A pretty useful skill for a thief, even if she didn’t do much thieving in the cartoon. I’m not gonna lie, this was a tough figure to photograph, so I’m not going to go too long today.

Sometimes when a cartoon depicts an invisible character, they just draw them as line art in white, but if I recall correctly when Sheila used her cloak in the cartoon, you couldn’t see her at all. So, S7 had to take some artistic liberties here. And what we get is the same figure we will be getting in October, only cast in translucent plastic and with a white cape. Does it work? Sorta? Kinda? The cape is made of a nice material, but the fact that it isn’t sheer really ruins the invisibility effect. Sure, you can take the cloak off, but that would break the rules, as she’s only supposed to be invisible with the cape on and the hood up. Also, the body does have a bit of a yellow tint to it, which I’m not sure was intentional, but I suppose it will save me the anxiety of waiting for it to turn yellow over time. One thing that I think is really cool here is how they even used thin translucent plastic for her skirt. I don’t recall ever seeing that sort of thing before.

You get all three heads that will be included with the regular release: A smiling expression, a surprised expression, and a mischievous expression. I do like that they painted the facial features in white to help pick them out a little more, but as you can probably see, it’s still kind of tough to discern what’s going on with the sculpts. I do, however, think these are going to look great when they’re all painted up.

The articulation is still in line with what we’ve been seeing in the other Ultimates lines, and that means lots of rotating hinges with limited range. One of the big issues with this sort of transparent figure is that you can see how the sausage is made, meaning all the joints and even the wrist pegs are clearly visible. It gives the figure a very mechanical look. The joints on the figure all feel good, but translucent plastic can sometimes have a habit of becoming brittle, so I probably won’t spend a lot of time playing around with her. With that having been said, I didn’t have any issues swapping out the heads or hands.

You get three sets of hands: Fists, a set intended to grip her hood for when she’s pulling it up or taking it off, a right hand with splayed fingers and a left gripping hand. But aside from the cloak there are no other accessories, which means they omitted the net accessory that will come with the regular release. That’s disappointing, especially since they didn’t replace it with some new accessory, maybe referencing a specific episode of the cartoon.

I don’t want to come down too hard on this figure, as it’s pretty tough to make the whole translucent thing work. You’re always going to see all the joints and inner workings of the figure and that kind of ruins the illusion. This kind of thing would most definitely work better as a statue. I’d love to see someone on Etsy with some sewing skillz make a sheer cloak for her that would make the illusion work better. With that being said, it’s a pretty good concept for an SDCC Exclusive, as I wouldn’t consider it essential to complete the collection and I would have been OK if I got shut out on it. As I write this, it’s still available on Super7’s website at $55, which is the going rate for all their regular-sized Ultimates. Still, I would only really recommend it if you’re going to be a completist. I’m not sorry I bought her, but I probably would have been better off putting that $55 towards the $300 price tag on Tiamat.

Aug 14 2024

G. I. JOE Ultimates: Doc by Super7

As I continue to chip away at Super7’s GI JOE Ultimates line, I’m here today to finally put Wave 3 in the bag! I’ve already looked at three of the four figures in this assortment: Scarlett, Storm Shadow, and The Cobra Trooper so it’s well past time to give the JOE’s Combat Medic, Doc, his turn! Dr. Carl Greer showed up early in the original Real American Hero line as part of the second series in 1983. I remember getting him along with a handful of other new figures for Christmas, and he tagged along on just about every mission after that. For some reason I also always had him drive the APC, but I don’t know what that was all about. Also a fun piece of trivia: Two of my favorite fictional medical doctors, Greer and Gregory House, both graduated from Johns Hopkins!

I won’t spend a lot of time on the packaging, since we’ve seen it so many times now. This third wave was the last to include the slipcover over the window box, but it also downgraded the glossy finish on the cardboard to a matte version of the green camo. The presentation still looks good, but Super7 progressively cost-cutting the packaging has convinced me to let these boxes go, except for the few exclusives I have. But enough about the package, there’s wounded JOE’s out there and Doc’s gotta get into the action!

The Sunbow cartoon design for Doc didn’t stray too far from the original RAH figure, and that’s reflected here. The fatigues are a darker, almost orange, khaki giving the deco some shelf presence. The sculpted details in the uniform are soft and fleeting, but that’s been the case with these toon-style figures. I don’t think they got the chest pockets quite right, as the cartoon uniform had what looked like vertical double pockets. There’s a slight hint of that here, but it’s not very well defined. I also don’t remember him ever having a holster in the cartoon, but I’m not going to complain about S7 adding a place to stow his pistol. The red crosses on his left chest and shoulders are actually sculpted as well as painted, and he has the red wrist cuffs and red belt seen in the cartoon, along with his white undershirt peeking out from inside his collar. I can nitpick some accuracy stuff here, but the figure still looks outstanding.

You get three heads to choose from: One smiling, one serious, and one shouting. All of these are great, but there isn’t a hugely noticeable difference to me between the first two, especially with the helmet on and obscuring the more severe eyebrows on the serious head. Each head shares the same helmet and I definitely recommend care when removing it, because those glasses look crazy fragile! Even popping the heads out of the tray made me nervous about breaking them. Now, with that said, I think the glasses look great. Yes, up close there’s a some white spray on the edges of the lenses, but it’s not that noticeable with the naked eye. The green tinting on the lenses looks great too. Should the frames be white? Nope! Not unless they’re referencing something I’m not familiar with. I don’t recall them ever being white in the cartoon. I’ve had some difficulty with tight heads on some S7 figures, but Doc’s noggins pop on and off really easy, which is comforting because again… those glasses can be worrisome! He must go through a lot of pairs on the battlefield.

The shouty head is well done and very expressive. They even sculpted some detail on his tongue inside his mouth. I don’t know that I’ll use this one that much, but I do really like it. It kind of looks like he’s shouting “MEDIC!” before realizing, “Oh, wait that’s me.”

You get the usual assortment of hands, including fists and some accessory-holding hands. You also get a set of white-gloved surgeon hands, which work well with the red arm bands to complete the glove effect.

Doc comes with both a medical case and shoulder bag. The bag is designed to hang on his right shoulder and has a printed caduceus on the flap. There’s also some paint on the buckle that is intended to hold the flap down. The medical case is white with a red cross printed on the outside. It opens up to reveal a bunch of supplies like scissors and bandages. I originally expected this to be just a sticker, but the contents are all sculpted and picked out with some paint. I like that the case has actual hinges, rather than just bendy plastic which stresses over time.

Greer also comes with two ways to launch signal flares. The first is based on the flare launcher that came with the original RAH figure. As a kid, I always assumed this was a mortar and when playing, Doc used to use it to lay cover fire while he was waiting for support to evac his wounded. You also get a projectile that loads into the launch tube and… yeah, this looks like some kind of rocket-propelled weapon as opposed to a flare, so I don’t know. The launcher has a shoulder strap, but no bipod to support it, and because of limitations in those rotating knee hinges, Doc can’t really get down on the ground well enough to use it convincingly. I’m not a huge critic of the more limited range of articulation on these figures, but here’s a case where it’s definitely not ideal.

A lot more practical is the flare pistol he keeps holstered on his right hip. It’s a decent, albeit simple sculpt and the frame is painted silver and the grips are left as gray plastic. The holster design, however, does tend to drop the pistol out of the back.

Doc’s filecard listed him as a pacifist, but I don’t remember them playing that up with him in the cartoon, not like they did with Lifeline, who was a constant whiney bitch about it. Thankfully, S7 included the standard Sunbow rifle with him. And hey, if you want your Doc to be a pacifist, just give it to someone else! Personally, I can never have enough of these rifles!

For the last piece of equipment, there’s a walkie, which looks to be a recolor of the one included with Flint. Oddly enough it’s lavender! I’m not sure if that’s a cartoon reference or just a color they decided to go with for some variety.

And the last accessory is a comic book, which references the episode Countdown to Zartan, where Doc was relaxing on the base and reading a comic. I thought that was a nice little character moment for him.

There are a few minor inaccuracies here, but I still think Doc turned out great, and I’m thrilled to finally have this one in my toon-style collection. While he got short-changed as the cartoon went on, Doc had some great moments in the first two miniseries, not to mention There’s No Place Like Springfield, and to be honest, those are all my favorite episodes from the entire cartoon series. Not to mention, he was also portrayed as quite the scientist beyond just medicine. He was the one that came up with the energy absorbing mirrors in Revenge of Cobra, which lead to my favorite Doc line, “Don’t worry, I’m wearing my asbestos underwear.” While there’s some question now over what the future is going to look like for this line, I’m damn glad Doc made it out when he did. And that brings me to Wave 4 and three more figures to get me all caught up… But Wave 5’s shipping is imminent, so I’ll try to hurry!

Aug 12 2024

Mythic Legions: Skeleton Legion Builder 2 by The Four Horsemen

I was doing pretty well keeping up on my Mythic Legions backlog, but the wheels fell off the wagon in July. And while I really should be getting back to the figures from The Poxxus Wave, I was able to grab a couple of the new Skeleton Legion Builders from The Four Horsemen’s in-stock sale, and I’m going to have to bump them to the head of the line. The first boney builders were released as part of the original assortment back in 2016 and were armored, whereas these new ones come buck nekkid, with bones and all showing. Let’s dig right in!

It’s been nearly a decade, but the standard Mythic Legions packaging hasn’t changed much. The figures still come on a card and bubble, which is totally collector friendly as the bubble extends to cover the entirety of the card. The cardback art is generic to each assortment, but otherwise pretty forgettable, but you do get a bubble insert that has a little blurb about the character on the side. I tend to clip and save these and toss the packages.

These new skellies are about as generic as you can get, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. They are basic articulated skeletons, but executed brilliantly, and since they have no armored body parts like the originals, you can use these for a wide variety of play and display genres from fantasy to horror. They are a bit on the chonky side, which fits with the overall Mythic Legions aesthetic, but no so much that they won’t work with a variety of other 6-inch scale lines. The sculpt work here is excellent and there is a ton of detail in these frightening fellows. I dig that there are actual gaps in the lower legs between the tibia and fibula. There’s also some crazy sharp detail in the feet and hands as well as the coccyx and spine. There’s some filler behind the ribcage to give him heft and durability, but you can still stick something between those ribs! There are two big holes in the back of the shoulders, which you find in pretty much all Mythic Legions figures, and I’ll get back to these near the end. I do wish we got some filler pieces for these, as they are rather unsightly when not in use.

We’ve known for a long time now that T4H are really good at sculpting skulls, so as expected, the head looks great. They did a nice job painting in those eye holes and making them look like vacuous, soulless pits of despair. The teeth are especially well done, as are the fissures running around the sides of the head. The jaw is also hinged to give him some added emotive abilities.

Articulation here holds no surprises, as these ghoulish guys make use of the standard Mythic Legions system of modular rotating hinges. The joints on my skellies are excellent, being just tight enough to support poses and they don’t seem like they would be getting loose over time. You do get a bunch of extra hands, including fists, two types of accessory holding hands, and some pointing finger hands for when they have a bone to pick with someone.

The skeleton comes with a spear, a sword and shield, and a sword belt. The belt is much nicer than the ones we used to get back in the day. It’s actually textured and has a sculpted buckle, and swells out at one point in the loop. It hangs pretty loose off the hips, so I think it works best here as a shoulder strap, allowing him to carry the sword through the loop on his back. The sword dates back to the original Kickstarter and I still love this classic, no nonsense design. I was happy to see that it’s painted, as Legion Builder weapons sometimes don’t get that treatment. Here the blade is silver and the hilt is gold. The round shield has been used before a bunch, but it’s also a welcome addition. This one is also painted a mix of copper and bronze and uses the grab bar on the back for him to hold it.

The spear is also from the original Kickstarter design and some day I really need to count up how many of these things I own, because it’s certainly a lot! This weapon is also painted with a gray tip and black shaft.

As for the back holes, these are traditionally used as slots for shoulder armor, and here’s the Skeleton LB2 wearing one of Skeleton LB1’s armor pieces. It looks kind of big on him, but I guess that’s to be expected. I don’t think I’ll really use any armor on these guys for regular display.

The holes can also be used for some of the wing accessories T4H have put out over the years. Here he is with a set of bone wings and I really dig the way this looks. The color isn’t a perfect match, as these new skellies are whiter than previous releases, so you get a little more rotten tan color to the wings, but I think it works.

And here’s a comparison of Skeleton Legion Builder 1 and 2. I think I like the skull on the first one a little better, but then the new one gives you that articulation in the jaw, so it’s kind of a toss up. These guys look great mixed together for a skeleton army and T4H have given us quite a few Skeletal villains to lead them into battle.

More comparisons? Well, as you can see that this guy is a lot chonkier than Storm Collectibles’ Golden Axe skeletons, although I was surprised that he’s shorter as well. Storm’s skeleton is lankier and a bit more stylized, so displaying them together is a bit of a reach for me. As for NECA’s AD&D figures, I think they work really well together. They are a little shorter than Warduke and Strongheart, but not jarringly so, especially if you just count the heroes and villains being really tall. They’re also going to scale really well with Super7’s upcoming Dungeons & Dragons cartoon line.

I’ve been trying to cut back on my Mythic Legions purchases, just because I have so many of these figures in my backlog. Indeed, it was a total stroke of luck that I was at home and on my computer when I was reminded that these were dropping as an in-stock sale. Had they been anything else, I probably would have resisted, but these fellas are just so versatile that I had to pick up a couple. There was a limit of four, so at least I did manage to show some self-control. At $26 a pop, I think these are some of the best value the Mythic Legions line has produced, especially with the painted weapons. They sold out pretty quickly, and I’ll be interested to see if any of the usual e-tailers get them in and what the pricing will be like.

Aug 9 2024

Defenders of the Earth: Mandrake the Magician and Lothar by NECA

A few weeks back, I started checking out NECA’s Defenders of the Earth action figure line with Flash Gordon and The Phantom. I promised I’d be back for more in a couple weeks, and well… better late than never! Today I’m going to finish up the team of heroes with the mysterious Mandrake the Magician and the mighty Lothar! Of course, The Defenders of the Earth was an 80’s cartoon that assembled four of King Comics biggest heroes into a super-team to fight the forces of Ming the Merciless and protect the Earth!

As we saw last time, the figures come in beautiful and colorful window boxes designed to pay homage to the cardbacks that Galoob used for the original toyline. NECA even redesigned their logo to match the one Galoob was using at the time, and I really dig that! The boxes show off the figures very well and feature some bitchin character art cut around the window. The boxes are collector friendly, but alas, I’m being really strict on myself about keeping action figure boxes, so they gotta go! Let’s start with Lothar!

His strength is a legend, his skills conquer all. Armed with his power, we never will fall! Lothar has received the biggest update for the cartoon out of all these characters. The Strongest Man on Earth and Prince of the Seven Nations started out in the comics as a bit of a goofy sidekick to Mandrake, but eventually became his partner in crime fighting. This modern update recreates Lothar as a fierce fighter, who’s trademark weapon is a grappling hook. And Oh boy did NECA go all out on this one! While Phantom and Flash shared a lot of the same sculpt, Lothar is packed with the hot newness and his adventuring gear has so many wonderful little details. The base body consists of black trousers and a black short sleeve t-shirt, and I absolutely love that the chest symbol is sculpted instead of just printed on. The grey vest is cast in soft plastic and worn by the figure, with the backpack as part of the sculpt. He’s got pouches everywhere, each one showing sculpted stitching, straps, or just painted snaps. His rope is sculpted in a coil around his left shoulder, he’s got a holster strapped to his right leg, and even his big chonky boots show amazing detail. The balance of colors here is superb with the base black and grey contrasting with the olive green, bright green, and yellow for a lovely pop. It feels like NECA’s designers said, “Well we got away without needing much for Flash and Phantom, so let’s just pour the love into Lothar!” And pour the love they did!

The head sculpt is bold and fierce! Like Flash, NECA went for a realistic take on the cartoon character, which may work for some people and not others. I dig it. The portrait exudes strength and general bad-assery. He looks like he’s ready to put Ming’s head through a wall. With that having been said, I wouldn’t have minded something a bit less severe, especially if these figures were coming with second heads. Lothar also comes with two sets of hands, including one pair of fists, and a pair designed to grip his accessories. Articulation is in line with what we’ve seen so far, including a decent range of motion in those double-hinged elbows and knees.

Of course, Lothar comes with his trademark grapple hook. This handy tool has three hinged prongs and it can extend or telescope down. There’s a yellow string tied to it with the other end left loose for him to grip. I tied it into a slip knot. There’s no apparent way for him to store it, but I found that wrapping the string around the backpack and letting it dangle off the side works pretty well. One of Lothar’s right hands is designed to work with the grapple hook, but he can also hold it in the left gripping hand as well.

You also get a couple of weapons, including a small knife that stores in the sheath on his vest and a pistol that he can carry in the holster. The pistol is the same one that we got with both Flash and Phantom and it comes with the same two blast effect pieces, a muzzle flash and a full laser beam, both cast in translucent blue plastic. And with Lothar covered, that’s the might, now let’s check out the magic!

Master of magic, spells and illusion, Enemies crumble in fear and confusion! Mandrake was top of my list for this team because he could often use his mystical arts to thwart enemies without breaking a sweat. I mean, the intro song says it all. Plus, he shows up for a fight in a top hat, cape and tails. His shoes aren’t even sensible! Mandrake gives no shits as he makes you piss yourself and run away. Like Lothar, this Master of Magic gets a lot more original sculpting than Flash or Phantom, with his black tuxedo, red vest and white collard shirt. There’s a slight texture and a bit of sparkles on the black parts of his outfit, which looks cool. He’s got a white handkerchief poking out of his chest pocket, white shirt cuffs peeking out from the jacket sleeves, and some white trim on those beautifully detailed shoes. And best of all, he has a softgoods cape with a red interior liner and a wire running around the edges to allow it to be posed in all sorts of sweeping and majestic ways.

The head sculpt is closer to what we got for Flash, in that I think it’s a good compromise between cartoon likeness and realism. The perfectly trimmed mustache and one ever-so-slightly cocked eyebrow give him the classic mysterious magician look, while the vibrant blue eyes give him a bit of an ethereal presence. The top hat is permanently attached and has a similar texture and sparkly finish as the coat. I love how this portrait turned out! Like Lothar, Mandrake comes with two sets of hands, which include a pair of fists, a wand holding right hand and an abracadabra left hand with fingers splayed.

The wand is pretty big so maybe he’s compensating for something. Or maybe it’s just because it’s full of a lot of magics. The black shaft narrows at the bottom, has a silver band around the top along with a gold ring and a translucent crystal. His right hand is designed to hold it perfectly.

Mandrake also comes with the pistol that we saw packed with every figure so far. I’m not going to quibble about getting an extra pistol accessory, but I don’t really associate it with the character and I doubt I’ll ever display him with it. At least the gun hand is his left, so you could pose him with both gun and wand, the fighting equivalent of surf-and-turf. Actually, I don’t know what that means. Sorry. Yes, you also get the same blast effect parts that we just saw with Lothar. I would have much rather he came with some magic effect parts for the wand.

And with that, the Defenders of the Earth are complete! Will we ever get the kids? Not likely. There hasn’t been any movement on this front since the third assortment came out and I get the feeling they’re done with it and have moved on to the feature film Flash Gordon. I don’t think the kids would have sold all that well anyway, although I definitely would have picked them up. While I was excited to get these, I think I had even more fun with them than I expected and they look amazing all lined up on the shelf. But, we aren’t done yet because we still have a couple of baddies to look at with Ming and Garax! And I’ll try to swing back to look at those in the next week or so.