Monthly Archives: September 2024

Sep 30 2024

G. I. JOE Ultimates: Stalker by Super7

It’s a race against time for me to polish off my look at GI JOE Ultimates Wave 4 before Wave 5 ships. To be fair, I have no idea when Wave 5 will be coming, but the sense of urgency will do me good. A little while back, I checked out Gung-Ho from this assortment, so let’s knock out the other JOE before digging into the Cobras. And that means it’s Stalker’s turn! Of course, Stalker is one of the OG, first series releases, from the Real American Hero line. He’s so old, he remembers what it was like to fight when he couldn’t even swivel his arm around!

Here he is in the packaging and looking great despite the gradual cutbacks to the presentation. It’s a window box without the sleeve from the first waves, and the once glossy metallic finish of the box is now matte. There’s some character art and a blurb about Stalker on the back of the box. As a figure, this Infantry Specialist was a favorite of mine for a long while. He showed up in my collection early and he went on EVERY mission, often providing cover when the pretend shit hit the pretend fan. I feel like Stalker got short changed in the episodes of the cartoon, but he did get to shine in the original intro every week.

Super7 has been doing a great job capturing that Sunbow cartoon look in these figures and Stalker here is certainly no exception. He’s a very simple sculpt, with the bulk of his uniform achieved through the paint and colored plastic camo deco. You get a few rumples here and there, a sculpted collar, cuffs, and boots, and a pouch on his right thigh and right bicep. But truth be told, this is all the figure needed. His simple, clean look really lends to the toon style. The belt and Y-back equipment rig is cast in brown plastic and worn by the figure and the canteen on the back of the belt is actually a removable accessory, which is pretty neat.

There are three head sculpts and I dig every one of them. The first is a neutral look. His eyebrows and distinguished mustache are both sculpted as well as painted. The eye paint is very simple, lending the cartoon look to the portrait. The beret is sculpted as part of the head, so it’s permanent, and I really love what they did with the sharp contours of his nose. The second portrait is serious and determined expression that suits the character beautifully. The hint of a smile is gone and his downturned brow shows he’s not one to be trifled with. The final head is a shouty battle cry type expression and it’s pretty epic. His brow is even more severe and his open mouth shows off a row of pearly white teeth and a sculpted tongue!

Articulation holds no surprises. Like it or hate it, it’s what we’ve been seeing all along. The rotating hinges in the knees and elbows don’t give the range of movement I would like, but it’s serviceable. My figure did have a problem with his left hip joint not being able to kick outward and when I checked it out I could see some light stress marks on the dog bone hinge up there. I’m thinking some heat will help to unlock that movement, but I haven’t tried it yet. Stalker comes with three sets of hands, which include fists, gun hands, and a pair of wider grip accessory holding hands. So, let’s move on to accessories!

Stalker comes well armed with no less than three rifles and a pistol, and I we’ve seen almost all of these before. The largest of the rifles is the M16 we’ve seen at least a few times, most recently with Gung-Ho and Scarlett. It’s a very nice sculpt and I think it suits Stalker quite well. Next is the M-32 “Pulverizer” submachine gun, which references the weapon the original RAH figure came with. This same weapon was cast in green plastic and released with Duke. And the final rifle is the standard Sunbow-style laser rifle, that I love so much. This one has been included with most of the Ultimate JOEs, and I’m always happy to see it.

The final weapon is the pistol. I don’t recall seeing this one before and I believe it’s based on the one Stalker uses to shoot the bomb in the original cartoon intro. This is a very sci-fi design with a simple and toony sculpt cast in a blue-grey plastic.

Additional gear includes a walkie talkie and binoculars. We’ve had a few different radio designs in JOE Ultimates, and I’m not sure if we’ve seen this one before or not, but I suspect we have. It’s nice and boxy with a detailed screen, some buttons and an antenna. And we also get the absolutely shitty binoculars, which we have unfortunately seen a few times. This is easily the worst accessory of the line as it just looks like two Pringles cans welded together. The first time I saw it, I wasn’t even sure what it was supposed to be. I would have been embarrassed to release an accessory this bad with one figure, let alone multiple times.

And lastly, you get the jetpack and bomb that we see from the original cartoon intro. The jetpack is the same one we saw with Snake Eyes and I still dig it a lot. The pack is worn by the figure with actual shoulder straps, rather than pegging into the back. It has a bright purple finish with some yellow paint hits. It would have been cool to get some thrust effect pieces included, but alas we did not. I believe the bomb is a brand new accessory, or at least I don’t remember seeing it before. It’s a great classic cartoon design featuring a bunch of sticks of dynamite attached to a detonator.

Stalker looks great and he’s only held back by the hip joint issue that my figure had. It’s not terribly restrictive, and it remains to be seen whether some heat will fix it, but we shouldn’t be having issues like this with $55 collector figures. I’d also argue that with so many recycled accessories, he could have used at least one major new one. I realize that there weren’t a lot of episode specific accessories from the cartoon you could give him, but maybe that would have been a good excuse to make some thrust effects for the recycled jet pack. Still, the portraits are fantastic, and it’ll be tough to choose which one to go with for everyday display. And that gets me completely caught up on all the JOEs released in this line! When I swing back to this JOE Ultimates again, we’ll see the return of The Baroness!

Sep 27 2024

DC Multiverse (McFarlane Digital): Green Arrow and The Atom by McFarlane

Yeah, I don’t know what to call these damn Digital Physical releases, so I just lump them in with DC Multiverse to help sooth my compulsion for order. The figures are indeed done in the DC Multiverse format, but they are branded under McFarlane Digital. It seems like a marketing nightmare just to cater to the handful of collectors who give a crap about getting an NFT digital code with their action figure. This wave consisted of Green Arrow and The Atom, which I’m checking out today, along with Superman from Our Worlds At War and a repaint of Rebirth Batman, both of which I will only pick up if they turn up on deep clearance.

I honestly believe that Todd and the boys have gotten the message that collectors want classic versions of legacy characters, because we have been getting more of them. A lot of them, unfortunately, have been released under the premium priced Collector Edition subset, but when I saw these classic versions of Oliver Queen and Ray Palmer, I was quick to drop those preorders. Of course, the added Digital Code brings the price of these to $25, in line with the figures that have Collect-To-Build parts, but at least it’s still below that $30 Collector Edition range. The boxes are nothing special, but at least they don’t have the ugly code card stuck up against the front of the window like the recent Superman statue. On the downside, the figure stands do have McFarlane Digital printed on them, which is an eyesore. Let’s start with Ollie!

Ollie hails from the absolute banger 1987 story arc, The Longbow Hunters. It was dark, gritty, and fifteen year old me found it to be deliciously adult in nature. It also saw some significant changes to Ollie’s costume. Lord knows, Todd has a way of taking liberties with character designs in DC Multiverse, but here’s an instance where they stuck the lading. Mostly. The sculpt is excellent and does a great job reflecting the suit in the comic. The tunic sculpt creates a nice illusion that it’s layered onto the figure and features a pebbled texture reminiscent of a coarse grain leather. There are sculpted laces securing it down the middle and the hood seamlessly glued to the tunic, making it look like all one garment. The belt and lower part of the tunic are separate to allow for the waist jointing, while the shoulder strap is sculpted into the upper tunic. Boots and gauntlets are painted to match the tunic, while the figure’s body is a lighter green to represent a top and leggings worn underneath. Finally, we get an angled brown quiver on his back, which is permanently attached, and there’s a cluster of arrows to stick into it. I think this figure looks great, but I think the colors could have been more muted to better match the comic art. I will note that he looks a lot brighter under the studio lights than he does in hand. Also, I wish they had painted all the lacings down the front of the tunic yellow. As it is, it’s like they did just the top two and said, “OK, that’s enough.”

The head sculpt under the hood is really solid. They did a fine job with Ollie’s beard and mustache and I dig the mix of golden yellow and pale yellow to give it some pizzazz. The domino mask is sculpted as well as painted and if you punch in close you can see a little variance between the sculpt lines and the paint lines, but nothing too bad. As mentioned, the hood is connected to the tunic, so it does not move with the head. I actually like this a lot and you can still get a good amount of range in the neck articulation. The hood features the same pebbled texture as the tunic and has some sculpted cross-stitching along the top.

Longbow Hunters saw Ollie return to traditional archery and that’s reflected in the simple longbow accessory. It looks good and I like the way the handle is sculpted to fit his hand so well. You’ll notice there’s no string and I’m a bit torn on that. On the one hand, I absolutely hate chunky plastic strings on bow accessories. On the other hand, would it have killed you to put an actual string on it, Todd? What’s worse is the bow is extremely soft and bendy and there are no notches on the end, so I’m not sure how well tying a string onto the bow will work. You also get a single arrow, and this is kind of useless. It’s even more soft and bendy than the bow and there’s no string to knock it, so he can pretty much just hold it. The right hand is sculpted so you can get it between his fingers and just pretend there’s a string there, but it’s still all wavy and warped.

I do like this figure quite a bit, but in fairness I was more excited about getting a classic style Green Arrow than I was a figure ripped from the pages of Longbow Hunters. The sculpt is certainly there, so maybe Todd’s evil plan is to re-release it as a Platinum with more muted colors. Either way, this is my favorite look for Ollie, with the costume leaning into the past, but the flippant feather cap traded in for a more menacing hood. The bow will get a pass if I can actually string it, but I wish the arrow were cast in harder plastic so it wasn’t so warped. OK, onward to The Atom!

Unlike Ollie, this Ray Palmer release isn’t tied to any specific story, but rather just advertised as Silver Age. I’m sure The Atom has had some different looks over the years, but this is the basic costume that I know and love best. Also unlike Ollie, this figure is 100% recycled buck from the neck down, using paint and colored plastic to achieve the design of the suit. It’s the same body we saw for Booster Gold and Blue Beetle and surely more than a dozen other figures by now. I don’t have a big problem with body recycling when it makes sense and works for the character and in this case I think it does. The blue and red deco looks absolutely gorgeous and you get a little silver paint for the belt buckle, along with a crisp Atom symbol.

The portrait is pretty good, with some nicely defined facial features. The lines between the cowl and his face are all sculpted as well as painted and his ears are exposed. The eye printing is fairly sharp, there’s a little color to the lips, and you get the Atom symbol printed on the forehead area of the cowl.

Ray comes with two sets of hands, which is nice because the left gun-hand that comes on the figure doesn’t make a lot of sense, while the right fist is a appropriate. The second set includes a right pointy finger and a left splayed-finger hand.

You also get a semi-shrunken version of The Atom as a static figure. This is a roughly half-sized version of Palmer and it’s a damn nice sculpt. They matched the colors perfectly and the only thing it’s really missing are the Atom symbols on the belt and cowl.

I may not get the whole Digital Physical thing, but I’m not going to quibble when I get more classic legacy characters to put on my DC Multiverse shelf. To be fair, I’d rather get these kinds of figures as part of this subset rather than have to pay five dollars more for the Collectors Edition just to get a stand for a collector card that I will never display. A few nitpicks aside, both of these figures turned out really well, although I’d love to see a properly strung longbow for Ollie turn up in an weapons pack down the road.

Sep 25 2024

Hurricane Closing And A Little Vintage Star Wars…

No review today, friends. The eminent arrival of a very unwelcome guest here in Florida has left me a little short for time. Between doing a little prep and logging a bit more hours to make sure work is in a good spot, I really didn’t have a lot of time to finish any content for today. I don’t like missing one of my review deadlines, and I’m proud to say I rarely do these days, but every once and a while you have to make allowances for life.

But just to keep things a little toy related, I did recently finish working on reorganizing my vintage Kenner Star Wars display case, so I thought I’d toss in a shot of that.

Still a few figures I’d like to add to this, but I’ve been taking it slow on hunting the vintage stuff lately. A good portion of these are my originals, which were lost for a long while, but I was happy to discover them in storage some years back. There are a few Hasbro re-issued figures in here, namely that nice clean Boba Fett and that complete Jedi Luke. Wicket’s spear is a repro and so is Leia’s white cape. The background window dressing for Jabba is modern Hasbro and the TIE Fighter is a fairly recent release as well. And there are a couple of Stan Solo’s retro-style additions. I like to stick to original when I can, but I’m not against a little modern assist now and again to complete a figure or a collection. I think the next addition will be a Twin Pod Cloud Car and a couple of pilots.

Anyway, I will be back on Friday, providing nothing catastrophic happens. If you’re in the storm’s path stay safe and if you’re not, have a kind thought for the people that are!

Until next time… MEOW!

Sep 23 2024

Metal Slug 3: Fiolina Germi by Tunshi Studio

Holy crap, it was a little more than a year ago when I checked out Marco Rossi from Tunshi Studio’s line of Metal Slug 3 figure series. I’ve been meaning to dip back in and check out the Rebel Soldier, but it’s easy to get sidetracked when toy blogging. In the meantime, a couple new Slug figures arrived a short while back and my, my… what have we here? It’s a couple of ladies! And we all know it’s ladies first, so I’ll stick the Rebel Soldier on the back burner and check out Fio! I gassed on for a while last time about what the Metal Slug series meant to me over the years. Once an unattainable luxury, the first one of these games I ever owned at home was Metal Slug X on the PlayStation and it was good enough for me. Of course, now I can play the series on various consoles and formats, some legit and others not so much. But I never let that rob me of my appreciation, as rarely a week goes by where I don’t fire up one of the Slugs hear MISSION START! and put a huge smile on my face, thinking about what wonderful times we live in. Plus… Metal Slug ACTION FIGURES!!! Who could have ever imagined that!

As we saw last time, the packaging and presentation for these figures is absolutely off the charts. The roughly 6-inch scale figure comes in a heavy-duty cardboard box that resembles the character compartments on the Soldier Select screen of the game. Fio peers through the window and there’s a folded front flap, secured with magnets, that opens to show the figure and gear through a full sized window. Inside, Fio comes in clear plastic tray with a little compartment up top for an instruction booklet that includes a walkthrough of the articulation. And there’s a second nested tray to hold the insane amount of stuff this little lady comes with.

The line makes use of a super articulated body with actual softgoods clothing, which is so unusual for this scale. And yet Tunshi pulled it off quite admirably. The tailored outfit consists of an abbreviated white tank top, a yellow tactical vest, orange shorts with khaki trim, khaki sleeves under her knee guards, and brown socks feeding into her sculpted boots. For the most part the stitching is immaculate, although there is a stray thread here and there, mostly on the shorts. She’s got a brown pleather belt with a fanny pouch, pleather wrist bracers, and the plastic kneepads are held on with elastic straps. I think the costume looks great, although it feels like Tunshi took a few liberties with the coloring. Perhaps, they sourced some art I’m unfamiliar with, but I recall her outfit being mostly khaki. Still, the colors make for some nice variety and I don’t mind.

You get two head sculpts to choose from, although the second one is pretty specific and we’ll check it out later. The stock head is adorable with some really impressive paint work on the eyes, especially for this scale. The glasses come packaged off the figure and you get a pair for each head. Getting them on was a bit scary, but once they’re on they remain in place with no worries. The hair is sculpted separately from the head, giving it a nice depth as it frames her face, and the ball cap is plastic, but has such impressive texturing it actually looks like it could be cloth. Her sculpted hair spills out the back of the cap in a short ponytail.

Tunshi’s system of articulation is excellent, with double-hinges giving tight bends in the elbows and knees, swivels in the biceps and upper thighs, and a ball joint under the chest. The joints are smooth and easy to work with, but the shorts do inhibit the range quite a bit in the hips. The costume does strategically cover a lot of the figure’s jointing, with only the elbows and upper arm joints exposed. On a side note, I believe Tunshi is selling the bodies alone now, which is pretty cool if you’re into customizing. As for Fio, you get four pairs of hands, but these are mostly intended to interact with different accessories, rather than being gestural. I would have liked some relaxed hands and fists, but you’re already getting a lot in this box so I’m not going to complain.

I mean, just look at it all! It’s a mix of useful accessories and window dressing, but there are just so many great little plastic references to the game in here! And as near as I can tell, only the grenades are recycled from Marco’s stuff, and there you only got one, here you get four! Let’s run through the other goodies and we’ll start with the weapons!

First up, Fio has a revolver and this is such an amazing little sculpt, giving off a bit a Wembley Service Revolver vibe to me. It has a black finish with brown checkered grips and there’s even a loop in the handle for a lanyard to be tied to. Fio’s gun hands have a straight, but bendable trigger finger, so she can practice proper trigger discipline! I love that, because these hands can also double as pointing hands.

But, there are truck loads of Rebel Soldiers in Fio’s path, so she needs more firepower than a wheelgun. Thankfully, she comes with a submachine gun! This is cast in black plastic, feature some very nice detail right down to the cocking handle on the receiver. The magazine is removable and if you look close you can see the tiny exposed rounds at that top of the magazine are even painted gold.

As for melee weapons, Fio has a PR-24 style police baton, which can be converted into a combat axe and that is freaking badass! The axe head simply slots and tabs in for quick and easy conversion.

Fio also comes with the special weapon, Iron Lizard and the Power Up that can be collected in the game to grant you the weapon. The Power Up Box is a recolor of the one we saw with Marco with to letter I’s that stick to the box with magnets. The Iron Lizard itself is a fantastic representation of the goofy remote control bomb seen in the game and includes a blue thrust effect part that can plug into its tail pipe.

The rest of the weapons are window dressing for your display. You get a couple of large howitzer rounds, a cannon ball, and a crate with a top to store all those grenades in. But, how about a picnic?

…Fio’s got you covered. She comes with a yellow picnic blanket and a little ziploc baggie containing her lunch: a sandwich and a bunch of bananas. There’s also a red ruby in there! And here’s where that second head comes into play, as it’s intended to depict her eating her lunch. Yes, we got a sandwich-eating head! This one is mostly the same in terms of the hat and hair, bur her eyes are closed and her mouth is open and about to take a bite. Yup, it’s very specific, but I’m sure people will think up other uses for it. Like yawning because she’s tired from the fight… what were you thinking?

And our last stop is the stand. This is identical to the one we saw with Marco and includes a flexible support with a spring-loaded waist-grabber that supports the figure really well for action poses. The base has a sculpted wood paneled surface, which can actually slide out, maybe in case Tunshi decides to offer options on future releases.

You also get a clip so you can secure two display stands together and they look really good connected. There’s plenty of room between each figure and when I find the proper space, I’ll likely be connecting all the displays like this. I think it would have been cool to get an optional Metal Slug name plate, but you do get licensed branding on the bottom of the base.

What could possibly be the downside to such an awesome figure? Well, the price is steep! At $140, it’s probably not unfair to say that these are priced at more than double the high range for this scale. Indeed, these are without a doubt the most expensive figures I ever purchased in the 6-inch range. Granted, you’re getting a really nicely designed body, fully tailored clothing, and a crazy amount of accessories, so I can definitely see where the money is going. Toss in the fact that these are imports based on a videogame property that is still somewhat niche here in the States and I can’t complain. I couldn’t have even hoped to ever own premium figures like this based on Metal Slug back in the day, so I’m more than happy to invest in the line. I promise not to go so long before revisiting with this line, and next time I’ll jump back to look at the Rebel Soldier and after that it’ll be Eri’s turn!

Sep 20 2024

ThunderCats Ultimates: WilyKat by Super7

I’m finally up to the most recently released wave of ThunderCats Ultimates. Yeah, there are some older ones I haven’t looked at yet and I’ll swing back to them, but right now I’m just excited to be caught up to a current wave! This is also the first wave released in a while where I did not buy all four of the figures. I’m not doing the LJN color versions, so that got me off the hook for Jaga and Grune. But since I didn’t review the original Grune yet, maybe I’ll toss him in after I’m done with the two Wave 9 figures I did buy. And those were WilyKat and the Lunatak, Chilla. I just reviewed a Lunatak last time, and WilyKit is anxious to be reunited with her brother, so let’s go with him!

The packaging still looks great, even with the outer sleeve no longer being included. You get a great look at the figure and accessories through the front window and the back panel has some character art and a little bio about the older ThunderKitten sibling. Everything is collector friendly, but since I don’t feel like renting a storage unit for empty figure boxes, these packages are being recycled. As I mentioned last time with WilyKit, these are brand new versions of the figures that were released as part of Mattel’s ThunderCats line as an SDCC Exclusive! I was very pleased with most of the changes Super7 made to WilyKit, so I have high hopes for her brother.

And a lot of what I said about WilyKit will hold true here. Even without a direct comparison yet, this WilyKat figure looks cleaner and crisper to me. The colors are less drab and more toony, with the orange a lot brighter and the brown closer to the orange in tone. Even the sculpt is smoothed out to give him more of an animated look. Matty’s figure had more gloss to the paint and the matte finish here is also more in line with the cartoon vibe. The boots here have less color to them, so the detail like the sculpted wraps pop less, but again, more screen accurate. Finally, the skin tones on both of Mattel’s kittens were a lot darker than they should have been, and that’s resolved here too. The one big downer for me with Super7’s figure is the clip on lasso, which is essentially the same as his sister’s. The tab is super soft and it does not want to stay pegged in. I also liked the sculpt better on Matty’s version of this accessory as well. Otherwise, I think everything else here is a huge improvement.

You get two head sculpts, and both are excellent. The first is a neutral expression and the second offers a open mouthed grin, which is very charming and I think suits the character perfectly. The facial features are super clean and the eye printing is perfect. I had a some issues with the paint on my Matty WilyKat, and while there’s still a bit of minor gaffs here and there in the hair, this is a big improvement. S7’s portrait looks more youthful and toon accurate, whereas Matty’s had sharper detail in the hair sculpt.

And here’s a quick shot of the Matty and Super7 figures together! Matty’s is taller and a tad beefier. I think the proportions and size on the new one are perfect.

WilyKat’s articulation is identical to Kit’s, which in turn is pretty close to what we saw on Matty’s figures. The elbows can at least do a 90-degree bend and the waist is a ball joint, as opposed to Matty’s which just had a swivel. There are slits up the sides of his tunic’s skirt that allow for a little more range in the hips, but the knees don’t have as much range as I would like. The quality of the joints all feel great, although there’s some paint chipping inside the hinge of my figure’s right shoulder, which needs to be cleaned up. WilyKat comes with four pairs of hands and surprisingly no fists. But you do get pairs of relaxed, splayed finger, accessory holding, smoke bomb throwing, and an extra right hand about to throw one of his little mischief pills. I really dig the effects on the bomb throwing hands.

I already pointed out the coiled version of the lasso that doesn’t like to stay pegged into his belt. You also get the unfurled version and this is just a recolor of the one we saw with his sister. It looks good, but his accessory holding hands are not tight enough to hold it unless you thread it between the fingers. It works and looks fine, but probably not how it was intended. The accessory is cast in a soft and pliable plastic, but unfortunately it isn’t posable. I would have preferred an actual wire.

And finally, you get the Hover Board, which is a recolor of the one that came with WilyKit. This one is fatter and an overall better sculpt than the one included with the Matty figure. My Matty board also had some terrible paint scuffs, whereas this one is super crisp and clean. There’s one foot peg up near the front and while I was worried it was too shallow, it does seem to hold the figure pretty well. The stand is transparent with a sculpted smoke base. It pegs into the bottom of the board and has a ball joint to allow for some tilting of the board. The stand’s sculpt is identical to Wilykit’s but hers looks more yellow while this one is closer to white.

Matty’s WilyKat was by no means a bad figure. I liked it a lot then and I still do, but i do greatly prefer Super7’s offering. I think the choice here will come down to personal preference. If you were more a fan of the LJN toys, maybe Matty’s will be more to your liking. If you lean toward the cartoon, I think Super7’s is the clear winner. Naturally, I had the Matty kittens standing in my Super7 display up until now, but I’ll be retiring them back to their packaging. I may wind up selling them off, but the packaging is quite nice, so maybe I’ll hang on to them so I can have one packaged example of that line in my collection. And with WilyKat in the mix, My core Ultimates ThunderCats team is now complete! Next time, we’ll cool things off and have a look at the second Lunatak in the line, Chilla!

Sep 18 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Big Boa by Hasbro

While I still have lots of old favorites to cover, GI JOE Classified is starting to dip into characters that appeared in the toy shelves after I was done buying toys as a kid, and a long way from me buying them as an adult. Some of these I may skip if I have no interest in them, but there’s a bunch that I am picking up and it’s kind of exciting to be experiencing a figure of a JOE or Cobra that I have never owned before. And that brings me to Big Boa! Released in the original Real American Hero line in 1987, I was 15yo and my limited teenage money was going into SEGA Master System games instead of toys. But, I was still keeping an eye on some of the toy lines I collected, and Big Boa was one that I would have happily picked up if he had just come out a year or two earlier.

Reunited with the window boxes and it feels so good! This is possibly my favorite iteration of the Classified packaging right here. The window shows off the goods, you get some great character art on the front and side panel, and all is right with the world. Big Boa was billed as Cobra’s hard-ass Trainer, pushing the Cobra Troops to their limits and beyond. In that sense, I guess I saw him as the Cobra version of Sgt. Slaughter. The character emerged from a plan to bring Sylvester Stallone onto the JOE team, but as I understood it Sly chose another direction and went with Coleco for a line of Rambo figures. And the rest is history.

Trainer or no, Boa doesn’t conform to any kind of Cobra uniform protocol. He agreed to the blue trousers and combat boots, but that was it. He goes shirtless with a red, spiked chest harness, red belt, and red codpiece to protect his snakeling. The red and blue looks quite striking together and I dig all the silver paint hits to the spikes, belt fixtures, and rivets. Despite the minimal costuming, you still get some great flourishes in the sculpt, like the braided pattern on the belt, stitching on the harness, laces in the boots, and some padded panels on the sides of the boots. The detail in the musculature is also nicely done! He also has white tape wrapped around his standard set of hands splattered with blood! I would have liked to see a Cobra insignia snuck in there somewhere, but even so I think this is a great looking figure!

I believe the unmasked head is a first for the character, or at least I know the original RAH figure came wearing a permanent helmet. I dig what we got here, even if it does lean in to the caricature side of things. But hey, that plays to the idea that Boa’s taken quite a few shots to the head and maybe there’s been some reconstructive surgery in his past. He’s got ample jowls, a bulb of a nose, and a strong brow. His ears look a little banged up and he’s got some teeth knocked out of his grill, suggesting Cobra’s dental plan may not be the best. I think his sneer is probably meant to be a nod to Stallone, but I see more John Fiore in that likeness than anything else. Whatever the case, it’s a wonderful portrait.

The helmet is a full on second head, rather than an actual helmet, and it’s a pretty close update to the RAH figure’s. It’s an interesting design with a little Boba Fett (or is that Boa Fett?) and a little Mad Max. It’s mostly off white with a silver grill on the front, narrow red visor, and a red spiked strip running down the center of the head like a mohawk. Obviously it’s going to protect against some of those shots to the melon, but it looks unnecessarily high tech, what with the breathing hose coming out of the side. I’m not sure where the inspirations here came from, but it looks cool.

The articulation is everything I’ve come to love about this line, as Hasbro has really locked in on a great compromise between posability and sculpt. We’ve seen it all before, so I won’t run down every point here. Suffice it to say, you get a great range of motion in the double-hinged elbows and knees, the hips pull down a bit, there are swivels in both the thighs and boots. They did a decent job working the ab hinge into the muscle sculpt so it’s a bit less obvious. The hips on my figure are just a tad loose, but everything else feels great and he is super fun to play around with.

The vintage figure came with a punching bag, whereas Hasbro decided to toss the Classified figure a pair of 90lb weights and I think that was a good choice. I’ll probably pose him wielding these as weapons.

And finally, you get a pair of boxing glove hands, and finally we get to see some Cobra insignia! These gloved hands include bands for the wrists to complete the look. It’s going to be a tough choice to decide whether to display Boa with the Cobra-branded boxing gloves or the bloody taped up hands.

As I said earlier, it’s fun to experience some of these old characters for the first time in Classified. I don’t have any childhood attachment to Big Boa, but I think this figure is great and he’s certainly a fun and colorful addition to my Cobra forces. Maybe Hasbro could have tossed in a few more accessories, as he does feel a tad light compared to some other releases, but he’s certainly got the essentials. I was originally going to pass on the Mad Marauders version of Sgt Slaughter, but seeing as how he comes with boxing gloves, I may need to pick him up so these guys can go mano-a-mano in the ring.

Sep 16 2024

DC Multiverse (Mega Figure) Kalibak by McFarlane

A few weeks back, I checked out McFarlane’s Classic Darkseid MegaFig and I promised to come back with a look at his son soon after, and here I am to do just that! I picked up Kalibak shortly after he was released, but he kind of depressed me because we didn’t have a Darkseid or any of his cronies to go with him. But now that I can pair him off on the shelf with his dear old Dad, I’m a lot more excited about having this figure and I’m ready to bust him out and take a look!

Just like we saw with Darkseid, Kalibak comes in a very large version of the normal DC Multiverse window boxes. These do a great job displaying the figure and if I had the space to display them in package, I probably would. But, I don’t and sadly these boxes all go into recycling. By now you should know the routine: The box is mostly collector friendly, but if you want to get the stand and the Collector Card, you have to rip them off the blue backdrop. So, let’s tear into it and see what we got!

Just like his Dad, Kalibak is an absolute bruiser of a figure! His stacked upper body dwarfs his stubby little troll legs, but he still looks like a power house to be reckoned with. This figure depicts Kalibak from The New 52 Justice League story arc, The Darkseid War, giving him a modern, but still pretty classic look. The green tunic features a pebbled, leather-like texture with deep cut emblem gold on the front and ribbed gold panels under his arms on his sides. There’s a rather complex gold belt with a dark green loin cloth hanging down and lighter green sculpted shorts. His right gauntlet and boots are matched with dark green and gold trim, while the left gauntlet is truncated to just the hand and he’s got a couple of gold bands around the wrist and forearm. There’s a gold sash running across his chest, connecting to a piece of shoulder armor that looks a bit regal. The sash has raised alien symbols giving off a very lovely Kirby-esque vibe. The exposed tan skin on his arms and legs is detailed, leathery, and nasty looking, sculpted with lumpy muscles and some cuts and scrapes throughout.

The head sculpt is truly a work of art, and I’d say it ranks up there with McFarlane’s best. The troll-like face is framed by his gold head gear with his shaggy mane projecting outward. The facial features are deeply chiseled giving him an absolutely frightful visage. He’s got deep set yellow eyes, a silver nose ring, and tusks projecting up from his bottom lip. He’s also got got adorable little pointed ears jutting out of his unruly coif. The sculptors put a lot of dynamic character into his hair, which is blowing about in the back. I just can’t say enough wonderful things about how this portrait turned out!

Kalibak features most of the usual standard MegaFig articulation, but the knees and elbows are both rotating hinges, so no doubles here. And because of his muscle sculpt, there’s not a whole lot of range in these points. He can almost do 90-degrees in the elbows. The knee restriction isn’t as important to me, because he does have really stumpy legs, and I’ll mostly just have him in a wide stance with those two-toed feet flat on the ground. He comes with only the one set of hands, with the right hand balled into a fist and the left hand sculpted to hold his accessory.

And of course, that accessory is his Beta Club. This one reminds me a lot of the version included with the Kenner Super Powers figure and I dig that! It’s got a spiked knuckle guard and is cast in gold plastic. Very, very soft gold plastic. Also, the grip on that left hand is like stone, so getting this accessory into his hand is a frustrating effort. I’m pretty sure I’ll keep it in his hand for all eternity.

I’d rank Kalibak up there with some of McFarlane’s best work, and he’s definitely among my tippy-top favorite Mega Figures. Sure the look is modern, but it’s close enough to his classic roots that I would have no problem displaying him beside my DC Collectibles New 52 Darkseid, or McFarlane’s recent classic Darkseid. I’d even go so far as to say I dig him a bit more than my DC Universe Classics Kalibak, and boy that’s saying something! Hopefully we’ll see some more New Gods in DC Multiverse!

Sep 13 2024

ThunderCats Ultimates: Alluro by Super7

It’s been a couple of months since I checked in with Super7’s ThunderCats Ultimates. Where does the time go? If you’re keeping score, I’ve been looking at Wave 8 and so far I’ve covered WilyKit, Captain Shiner, and Hachiman. So let’s wrap up the wave today with the first of the Lunataks, Alluro! The Lunataks showed up in Season Two, to give the ThunderCats all kinds of grief and they were pretty prominent characters going forward. Nonetheless, LJN never cashed in on them by putting any Lunatak action figures in stores. It’s a pretty crazy omission, but to be fair the line only lasted three years. As a result, I was really excited to see that Super7 was digging into this particular team next. Sure, if given the choice I may have gone with the Berserkers, but this was still a major win.

I don’t have much new to say about the packaging. It looks great despite Super7 nixing the slipcovers. The window shows off the goods and you get some character art and a brief character blurb on the back panel. Everything is collector friendly, but I’ve begun purging these boxes because I have to make space for a giant Cat’s Lair before the end of the year. Alluro was the Lunatak’s super creepy master of psy-ops. He could control people’s minds, making him a pretty powerful force to be reckoned with. And, I have to just say how much I loved Doug Preis’ voice work for the character. The voice work in ThunderCats often annoys me because there are so few actors voicing so many characters, and to be brutally honest, a lot of them don’t do a great job distinguishing between the multiple characters they do. I believe Alluro was the only character voiced by Preis in the series, which made him stand out. He did a great job giving Alluro a smug and creepy affect with a bit of Peter Lorre thrown in. Superb!

Alluro manages to stand out, even among a group of freaks like the Lunataks. He’s tall, with a broad and muscular chest, and arms that seem a bit too long for his frame. He goes topless, exposing his lavender skin. There’s a wide belt with a sculpted eye motif in the middle, and a loin cloth hanging below it. This rig is held up by a pair of brown suspenders and a couple of thin crossed belts underneath. Despite the modesty skirt, he actually has a pair of sculpted brown slacks, which give way to orange boots with some sculpted decorations and a pinched toe at the tips. For a pretty simple outfit, the layering here works well. The colors look great and this guy looks like he just stepped off of one of Rankin-Bass’ animation cells!

You get two heads to choose from: One is offering an evil smile and the other an even more evil-er laugh. I don’t know where the inspiration came from for Alluro’s features, but it’s really imaginative. He’s got a bald pate with a crescent moon symbol on his forehead. There’s a gray, mask-like coloring around his eyes and brow ridge. He’s got prominent cheek bones, a set of balls for a chin and big pointed ears. Meanwhile a mop of gray straggly hair cascades down his front and back. The whole portrait is rounded out by his yellow eyes with some mesmerizing rings for pupils. Both heads suit the character beautifully, and while I usually go for the more neutral expression for every day display, I may go for the laughing one here, because it just looks amazing.

If you’ve been on board with any of Super7’s Ultimates lines, you should know what to expect from the articulation here. The rotating hinges in the elbows and knees aren’t going to win any awards for extreme posability, but I’m OK with it. I will say that Alluro’s elbows feel like they have slightly less range than some of the other figures, as he can’t quite even do a 90-degree bend. Otherwise, the joints all feel great and he’s still plenty of fun to play with. You get four sets of hands: Fists, two sets of accessory holding hands, one pointing right hand, and one wide open right hand.

Alluro’s primary accessory is his Psych Club, which he uses to bend the minds of his adversaries. The club has a hooked end, which can be used to hang off his belt and the head is shaped like a crescent moon. There are two crystal orbs that can be plugged into the top, either blue or yellow, and these are ridiculously hard to install. There’s no give in the moon emblem and the sockets on the orbs feel like they are a little too far apart. I was able to get each one in after a lot of cursing and frustration, and now I’ll be leaving the blue one in there for all of time. Some heat would have probably helped. The rest of the included accessories are all from the Season Two episode Psych-Out.

First up is this scroll that Mumm-Ra gave Alluro to find the Egora Talisman, an artifact that gives whomever possesses it so much confidence that it makes them nearly invincible. Personally, I always thought over confidence was a weakness to be exploited, but whatever. The scroll is just a piece of plastic with a map printed on it. Which is odd, because in the episode, the scroll just seemed to have hints written in rhyme that directed him where to find it. As luck would have it, it was in a cave near Cat’s Lair, which alerted Lion-O and the team that something was up.

And then you get the Egora Talisman itself, which includes the cool little chest it was stored in. The chest has a skull motif sculpted into it, along with gold painted reinforced bands and corners. It opens and the Talisman can be stored inside. For such a tiny accessory, the Talisman is nicely sculpted and painted. In the episode, Snarf was the only one not crippled by Alluro’s mind control so he stole the chest out of the glovebox in Alluro’s ride and used the Talisman’s power to defeat him. Of course, we later learn that the Talisman inside was smashed and powerless and that Old Snarf beat him all on his own. Never underestimate a Snarf! Here endeth the lesson!

Alluro is another fantastic addition to the ThunderCats villains line up and I really love the accessories included from Psych-Out. It’s so exciting to see the Lunataks show up in Ultimates and embark on assembling a team that have never had figures before. Especially when we’re talking about characters that became regulars in the second season of the cartoon. I’ll admit I had my doubts as to whether we would see these guys in Ultimates, because are they really going to ever do Luna and Amok? But we got the answer to that right quick, as they are already in production. Of course, Chilla turned up in the next wave, but before I get to her, I’m going to round out the Thunderkittens with Wilykat… hopefully next week!

Sep 11 2024

DC Super Powers: Green Lanterns and Sinestro by McFarlane

It’s been more than a few months since I checked in on McFarlane’s Super Powers line, but I have still been collecting them! The truth is, I don’t usually review the individual figures unless I have a vehicle to bring along. As much as I love these guys, there’s only so much I can say about and do with 5-POA figures. But, seeing as how McFarlane dropped a bunch of Green Lanterns on us in the last few waves, I thought I’d just check them all out at once. Especially since I’ve been looking for an excuse to sit down and open them all! Not to mention McFarlane’s weird crowdfunding project for some new Super Powers vehicles and figures just ended and thanks to some shenanigans, we’ll actually be getting those!

The packaging for this line is so damn fine it really makes me sad to open them. And believe me it takes every scrap of my admittedly poor willpower to keep from buying doubles of every figure. And yeah, I do have a couple of extras from the first wave that I kept carded just to have an example of the packaging for display. The original Super Powers package design gives me about as much a nostalgic dopamine hit as the vintage packages for Star Wars, G.I. JOE and Transformers, and that’s saying a lot. That blinding blue and yellow deco with the red trim, the logo nestled in an exploding field of stars, it created a hypnotic state of excitement that triggered kids to beg their parents for them. McFarlane has done a beautiful job paying homage to it here without quite doing a straight up copy and the character art on each card looks fabulous. The assortment I’m looking at today includes Guy Gardner, Hal Jordan, Kilowog, and Sinestro. Hal was produced in the original Kenner line, but I don’t believe we ever got Gardner or Sinestro, and the line closed up shop just before Kilowog was introduced in the comics. And yeah, four figures is more than I usually tackle in one review, but I’ll be quick! Let’s start with Hal!

McFarlane’s Hal Jordan is not all that different from the original Kenner figure. It’s the same costume with just a bit of change to the shade of green. It hits all the same classic costume beats with the green top and undies, shoulders and boots. Add to that the black sleeves and leggings, white gloves, and crisp Lantern Corps emblem on his chest and you’ve got a pretty conservative update. I want to say the original had sculpted lines for the shoulders and edges at the top of the leggings, but this one just has paint lines. You do, however get some sculpted lines at the tops of the boots. There are definitely similarities with the head sculpt, but I think this one is much better. You also get a very prominently sculpted ring on his right hand.

As we’ve seen before, this line keeps the articulation of the vintage figures, so you get the classic five-points, plus hinges in the knees. The original figures usually had an action gimmick, but that’s been nixed from this modern line, and I can’t say as I really miss it. Hal comes with a lantern battery, which he can hold in his left hand. This is such a fantastic homage to that original Kenner figure, it’s almost like having a minty fresh original.

Moving on to Guy Gardner, this is a character I would have loved to see in the Kenner line and I think McFarlane did a great job imagining what that figure might have been like. The black, green, and white deco matches Hal’s pretty closely, but you do get a fair bit of new sculpting here, including unique boots, the collar and lapels of his jacket, along with his belt and gauntlets. He even has sculpted detail on his turtleneck.

The head sculpt is a nice balance between retro and modern-retro. The sculpt is better than we would have seen back in the day, even nailing his bowl cut. But, the eye printing really evokes that old vintage Kenner charm. Like Hal, he has a ring sculpted and painted on his right hand, and his left hand is designed to hold an accessory, but no battery for him.

The last of this assortment of Green Lanterns is Kilowog and this may be my favorite of what is a really strong collection of figures. He’s a beautiful slab of retro-styled plastic with chiseled muscles giving him just an all around magnificent shelf presence. You get sculped edges on the boots, gloves, collar, and shoulders, with just paint lines at the tops of his black leggings. The head sculpt is fantastic, and if I were to nitpick anything here it’s that the portrait looks a little too good to be a genuine retro figure. And yeah, that’s more of a compliment than a gripe. The deep set eyes look superb! Kilowog doesn’t come with any accessories, both hands are balled into giant fists, and he does have his ring sculpted and painted on his right hand.

And finally, we get a lovely classic blue-suited Sinestro, and I’ll confess I was surprised to find, when I poked around in the old Kenner catalogs, that he didn’t get a release in the original line. Here we get sculpted boots, belt, bracers, and high collar, while the pattern on his chest is simply painted on. The black and blue looks great together and there’s some white trim along the top and bottom of the belt. His purple skin color is wonderfully vibrant and really makes the figure pop on the shelf.

Once again, the head sculpt here is probably a little too good to really evoke the vintage Kenner line. His pinched face is just perfect, as is his immaculate hair. But we do get the retro-style eyes which helps keep the Kenner spirit alive. His pointed ears look sharp and even the raised eyebrows are sculpted as well as painted. Sinestro dons a sculpted and painted yellow ring on his left hand and his right hand is sculpted to hold his yellow lantern battery.

This is a great assortment of figures and represents why I love this line so much! Add these to the excellent Jon Stewart that we got in the first wave and we’ve certainly had some love for the Green Lantern Corps! And as much as I dig having a minty Super Powers Hal Jordan, it’s the classic characters we haven’t seen before that really get me excited. I’m not sure I can pick a favorite here, but I’m actually leaning a bit toward Sinestro. McFarlane initially released him in his more modern yellow suit, which may have been an exclusive, because I didn’t see it anywhere until the scalpers got him. And all I can say is I’m so very happy that the classic blue suited release wasn’t the more limited release, because this one is perfect.

Sep 9 2024

Transformers: Optimus Prime AMK Pro Series Model Kit by Yolopark

Back in April, I took my first foray into Yolopark’s line of Transformers Model Kit Action Figures with their G1 styled Megatron. I had no idea what to expect, but I was pretty blown away by him. Naturally, I jumped on the preorder for his rival Optimus Prime and I’ve been sitting on him for quite a while now. These are billed as model kits, probably for licensing purposes, and yes they do require assembly, but there’s no paint or glue or any real modeling skills needed. It’s basically just an action figure that you have to assemble, mostly at the articulation points. It’s pretty easy and fun to do and in the end you get a fully posable action figure to play around with! Let’s check out Optimus!

The packaging is very nicely done and gives off a classic G1 vibe. There’s a sleeve that features Sunbow styled character art with some comic panels in the background. The box itself has a lovely foil line drawing and advertises the Diecast goodness that lies within. I knew so little about these when I bought Megatron that I wasn’t even sure these were officially licensed products, but they are indeed! Everything is collector friendly, but you’ll have to take the figure apart again if you want to store him in the box.

Inside the parts come laid out in a tray in an intuitive manner to help get a feeling where all the pieces go. It may look intimidating, and I’ll admit that I did have to consult the instructions a few times, but I probably could have figured it out without them. And yes, there’s a second tray nested under it with a few more parts, some weapons, and the base. The parts are a mix of plastic and diecast metal and the distribution feels well thought out to create a pretty well balanced figure, and when he’s all done he measures just a bit under 8-inches tall. There is a light up feature in the head, and you’ll need to provide some button batteries to make it work. OK, Prime, pull yourself together and let’s go!

As with Megatron, I consider this design a more realistic take on the G1 animated style. You get similar proportions, but the detail and paint are dialed up to give him that hyper-realistic look. Since he doesn’t transform, the figure is able to achieve the pinnacle of Optimus’ robot design with the long legs, broad and slightly bowed chest, and compact abs. Although, I’d argue with how well Hasbro’s design team has been doing lately, they’ve been able to come close with their transformable figures. There are no wheels present, and whatever truck kibble is here is all intentional, like the gas cans on the legs, the grill in his abs, and the smokestacks on the shoulders. The cut panels look great and most of it is panel lined to bring out the detail. The colors all really pop thanks to a gorgeous metallic finish in the red and blue and a mix of vibrant silver and matte gray. You get the bright yellow panels on the pelvis too! There’s some excellent weathering here, and while Megatron’s gave him some wonderfully ugly character, I think Prime’s just adds a little depth and credibility to the finish without stepping on his noble charm.

I love this head sculpt and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Prime’s “helmet” is finished in a metallic blue with the headphone antenna extending past the horns on his “helmet” the grill on his forehead is painted in silver as is his mouth plate, which the bridge of his nose disappears into. The beautiful blue eyes have the same light up feature we saw with Megatron. The lights are activated by touching the magnet in his rifle to the top of his head with three modes to choose from: Lit, pulsating, and flashing. The lights are bright enough to be seen even with all the studio lights shining on him!

Just like Megatron, the articulation on this figure is off the charts and because most of the assembly revolves around those points, you get a good feel for it while you build him. Plus, if you accidently stress a joint too much, it’s probably just going to pull out rather than break, which makes the design even better. Probably the most impressive part are all of those shifting panels in the pelvis that allow not only wide stances, but Prime’s ability to go down on one knee and kick in or out really high. I also really like the side to side movement in the chest. The hands are fully articulated with the thumb on a ball joint, the index finger on two independent hinges and the rest of the fingers linked and sharing two hinges. It’s cool, but I can make the hands look a little odd when relaxed or in fists. I do wish we got a set of swap out fists for when you don’t need the articulation. The figure also feels fantastic in hand, with a nice heft while avoiding being so top heavy like the original MP Prime. *Optimus also has a flip up communicator in his arm, which I neglected to take a photo of. Ooops!*

The chest does open up to reveal a removable Matrix, and oh boy is the chest hard to get open. I think it’s because it uses two interlocking tabs to close up. I have had the best luck with inserting a pen or thin utensil in the gap underneath to pop it. Inside, you get a beautifully detailed chest cavity and a great looking Matrix accessory. I am a bit surprised there isn’t a light up feature in here, especially since Megatron got the extra lights in his Fusion Cannon, but for whatever reason, there are no electronics in the chest.

Naturally, Prime comes with his iconic rifle. This piece is all plastic with some nice silver brushed weathering and as mentioned it has a magnet in it to activate Prime’s eyes. There’s a long tab in the grip that slots into the palm of the hand and the fingers wrap around it similar to the Takara Masterpiece figures. It holds in place fairly well.

Prime also has an energy axe, which can be swapped out with either of his fists. This piece is cast in translucent orange plastic and attaches with a ball joint. It looks great and you can use it to recreate his fight with Megatron on Hoover Dam from More Than Meets The Eye.

Also included is Megatron in his gun form. I presume this is a nod to one of the episode of the cartoon where Prime used Megatron as a weapon to stop the Insecticons. If they don’t include the same accessory with Starscream, I’ll likely just wind up giving it to him when he arrives. Little gun Megatron looks fantastic and includes a removable stock. I was able to get Prime to hold him with the stock, but it works better without it.

And finally you get the same stand that we saw with Megatron, only this time with an Autobot insignia. I wasn’t crazy about this stand last time and I’m still not. The design of the hinges in the arm don’t seem all that well thought out, as you can’t angle it properly to support the figure when standing on the base. As a result the armature is useless unless you’re looking to suspend the figure in a leaping action pose. Plus, in the case of Prime, his backpack makes it tougher to get the claw in to grab him. It is, however, a nice sculpt and since Prime can support himself pretty well, I will likely just stand him on the base and keep the arm in the box.

Prime sure looks great displayed next to Megatron. Megs is just a hair taller and beefier, which is how I think he should be. Alas, the batteries are already dying in my Megatron and all the eye lights will do is flicker, so I’ll have to open up his head and replace them.

After how much i loved Megatron, I had high expectations coming into this figure and I’m happy to say I’m very satisfied. I may have had a little bit more wow factor out of Megatron, because there are so few figures that do his G1 design justice, but once Optimus was in hand, I had a big smile on my face and couldn’t put him down. I think it’s unfortunate that the term Model Kit probably scares some people away from these, because it brings up all sorts of visions of clipping sprues, fragile plastic, paint and glue. But in reality, these just feel like high end toy that you have to assemble. Once together it’s a fun and durable action figure that looks outstanding on the shelf, especially when he’s next to Megatron. I’m interested to see how far this line will go. Starscream is up next, and we’ll no doubt get the Seeker repaints, but I’d love to see some of the ’84 Autobot cars get this treatment too. As I’m writing this, Optimus is still available at the usual places and retails for about $60.