Monthly Archives: September 2024

Sep 6 2024

Star Trek (Deep Space Nine) Constable Odo Sixth-Scale Figure by Exo-6

Exo-6 has been killing it with their Sixth-Scale Star Trek figures in general, but it’s the Deep Space Nine series that has me All-In. So far we’ve seen Captain Sisko, Major Kira, and Quark, and now it’s time for the stalwart and ever vigilant Constable Odo to get the treatment. This fella shape-shifted his way into my collection quite a few weeks ago and I’m only now getting to spend some serious time with him!

If it’s an Exo-6 review, I have to start by saying the box shots rarely do the actual figure justice, and this is yet another case of that. The shot on the front of the box just looks awful. The figure looks waxy, the colors are all wrong, and in no way does it represent what you’re actually getting. Why do you do this Exo-6? The overall box design and deco is the same as we’ve been seeing in the past, but this one is extra wide, and I seriously had no idea why it was so big when it arrived. Now, I know that it was to accommodate a rather large surprise accessory, but I’ll save that for the end. Some of these figures have been getting special Deluxe releases with extra stuff, but as far as I know, there was only one standard release of Odo. He comes out of the box all ready to go, so let’s take a look.

Odo arrives in his familiar Bajoran Security uniform. It’s similar in design to what we saw with Kira, but in a beige and brown deco and correctly missing the crosshatch pattern on the shoulders and sleeves. And while on the show, Odo’s uniform is actually part of him, this one is a fully tailored cloth outfit. As usual, the tailoring is immaculate, with pristine stitching, and the fit is pretty good. The legs of the trousers seem to be secured into the boots, as I don’t have any issues with them coming untucked. And yes, just like we saw with Kira, Odo’s boots are sculpted as one piece, so ankle articulation is quite limited. There is some padding in the upper body, but the sleeves are loose enough to not restrict the arms at all. The belt is made entirely of fabric and it isn’t attached, so it does have a habit of floating up and down when posing him, which requires frequent adjustment. Maybe Exo wanted to keep the option to go sans belt, which was a subject of conversation between Odo and Kira in one episode. Appropriately, there is no rank insignia on his collar, but he does have the standard Bajoran com badge on his chest.

The head sculpt is absolutely fantastic and a far cry from what we saw on the box. The wizards at Exo-6 did a beautiful job recreating Odo’s approximation of a human face. The simplified features, the sunken strip of a mouth, and the deep set eyes are all pitch perfect. The hair appears to be sculpted as part of the head, but it still looks really good with a pretty clean hair line. The expression is classic Odo: Stern and suspicious! I would say this one ranks up there as one of their best.

As for articulation, it’s impossible for me to say exactly what’s going on under that uniform, but the body feels as highly posable as the rest of the line. The uniform does offer some restrictions, especially in the hips where you want to be careful not to pop those stitches with extra wide stances. I already mentioned the boots inhibiting the ankles, and the padding in the upper body can hinder some range in the shoulders. Still, I’m happy with what we got here and Odo can do most anything I would want him to. You get three pairs of hands: Fists, relaxed hands, an accessory holding left hand and a flat right hand. I would have much rather had a pointing finger hand than that last one I mentioned.

I’m pretty sure I mentioned last time that Exo-6 likes to get a lot of money out of their accessories and once again we have the repacked Tricorder and PADD. Just like last time, the Tricorder uses a magnet to secure the bottom opening panel. This allows it to be displayed open or closed without the need for a fragile hinge. Everything here is identical to the Tricorder we saw with both Sisko and Kira right down to the stickers. You get a magnetized holster for the Tricorder, but as far as I can tell there’s no magnet on the figure to secure it. The PADD is the same sculpt as Sisko’s and Kira’s, but at least we got a new sticker for the screen. The PADD is a decent accessory for Odo, even if I would have much rather we got one displaying his crime reports. The Tricorder, on the other hand, is a bit of a reach. No doubt he used a Tricorder in some episodes, but it wasn’t something he used often.

Thankfully, we do get his bucket, which he has to regenerate in every sixteen hours. What can I say about it? It’s a very nicely painted space bucket, and it was definitely a must-have accessory to be included. And then there’s the surprise accessory…

You get a static figure of Odo in his gelatinous form. Now, I call this a surprise accessory, but clearly it was pictured on many of the preorder sites and I just missed it. I went back to look and sure enough it was shown off in some solicitation shots, but not seeing it made it a really cool extra. I will nitpick, that it would have been a neat idea to sculpt it so that it can be coming out of the bucket, and you can still sort of do that, but the base is clearly just made to stand on a flat surface.

And finally, you get the stand which includes a hexagonal Transporter Pad base and a crotch-cradle post to support the figure. This is the same style display stand Exo-6 has been using with all their Trek lines and you get clips to connect the stands together if you want to go that route. I don’t really make use of that option, but i will admit that I’m kind of excited to assemble a full transporter pad once I get enough figures together.

Odo retailed for $215, which is what I’ve become accustomed to pay for these figures. Let’s face it, we’re not seeing a lot of licensed figures in this scale for under $200 anymore. And I say retailed in past tense because he sold out pretty fast. The value is there in terms of the quality of the actual figure, but normally the extras on these releases seem really light. In the case of Odo, the shape-shifting version of him helps to tip the scales, and either way I have no complaints. Having Odo on my shelf to keep tabs on Quark makes me super happy and it looks like the next member of DS9’s crew to arrive will be Dr. Julian Bashir. He’s scheduled to beam in before the end of the year. But the next time I revisit Exo-6’s Trek line it will be to check out a figure from Enterprise.

“I’m rich! An entire cargo hold full of contraband, and Odo doesn’t know anything about it!”

Sep 4 2024

Masters of the Universe (Masterverse) ’87 Movie Beast Man by Mattel

The fact that I only selectively collect the MOTU Masterverse series is perhaps one of my greatest demonstrations of willpower. The line has produced some truly amazing looking action figures, but I’ve already collected MOTU Classics, Origins, and now the Origins Cartoon Series, so I really needed to draw a line somewhere. I have, however, been picking up the figures they release based off the designs from the 1986 live-action movie. So far, they’ve given us He-Man, Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, and now Beast Man! Add these to the Classics versions of Saurod, Blade, and Karg and we’ve got pretty much all the baddies now!

The package design is the same as we saw with Evil-Lyn. You get some really cool original character art against a dynamic backdrop and a rather limited window showing off a bit of the figure. There’s a compartment running down the left side that contains a tissue-paper baggie with his extra pair of hands and his forearm bracers. I thought it a little weird that they didn’t just package the figure with those on, but whatever. I find it interesting that they don’t reference the movie anywhere on the the package. Maybe there’s a licensing loophole and they are basing these figures on artwork that doesn’t require the movie license? Don’t know! But it’s cool, because I’m not saving this box anyway.

Out of the package, Beast Man is looking pretty sharp! The costume features a wonderfully complex sculpt, making the design really stand out a lot more in action figure form than it did in the film. His trousers have a soft quilted look while his arms are sculpted with crude wrappings. The shoulder pieces look like they’re based on some bizarre Eternian horned animal shells and the cuirass has individually sculpted panels and tufts of sculpted orange fur peeking out from behind it. This figure is just replete with layers and textures! But as great as the sculpt is, I think it’s the paint and coloring that really sells this figure. I didn’t get a sense of much color in the on screen costume, but here it’s just gorgeous. The segmented armor plates have a lapis lazuli quality about them, which looks great beside the gold and orange. It’s so much more toyetic than what we saw in the movie, but still faithful to the design.

The head sculpt is a pretty solid likeness for the on screen makeup, although it is tooned up a bit. I think they were going for a stylized look rather than something realistic and it works very well for the figure. Like the costume, the detail here is very well fleshed out, from the great definition in the features of the face to the glorious mane of hair surrounding it. They even spent some extra effort on his horrible teeth! This portrait kind of reminds me of a higher definition 90’s Playmates sculpt and I mean that as a compliment. As we’ll see later, I think the style meshes very well with the movie figures released in the Classics line.

The articulation is solid with all the right points. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows with hinged pegs in the wrists. The legs have what feel like rotating hinges in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double-hinged knees, and the ankles have both hinges and rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab-crunch hidden under the armor, and a ball joint in the neck. I don’t collect this line regularly, so I assume this is the standard for Masterverse. Either way, it makes for a fun figure to play around with and all the joints felt great right out of the box. You get two sets of hands: One relaxed pair and one pair to hold accessories. I found that the wrist pegs are pretty mushy and kind of hard to socket properly.

If you don’t count the removable arm bracers, Beast Man comes with only one accessory and that’s his sword. I don’t remember the sword from the movie, but it’s a cool no-nonsense design with a straight blade and a stout crossguard. The hilt features some nice detail, the sculpted wraps on the grips are orange and the rest is left in bare gray plastic. There’s even a loop on his right hip where he can wear it.

And as I mentioned earlier, I think Beast Man fits in with the Mercenaries we got from Matty’s Classics line very well. Yes, the bodies and articulation are different, but I will have no problem displaying all of these guys together.

Assembling these Mercenaries sure took a long time, but I’m happy to finally be able to do it. And Beast Man is a great addition to finish off on. It’ll be interesting to see if Masterverse goes after the rest of the team or if they just gave us Beast Man as a means of completing them. It sure would be nice to finally get a Teela and Man-At-Arms from the film too, and I’d be perfectly fine if Mattel did it without pursuing the exact likeness rights like they did with He-Man. But until then, I’ll likely be done with this line now unless they start putting out more Princess of Power releases.

By figurefanzero
0
Sep 2 2024

DC Direct: Superman (Jim Lee) Statue by McFarlane

In addition to their extremely prolific action figure line, McFarlane has been spinning the DC Multiverse brand into statues here and there. I haven’t gone very deep on these, but I did check out the 89-style Batman they did from that Flash movie and liked it a lot… the statue, not the movie! And when I saw the first teasers for this Jim Lee style Superman, I knew it had to be an instant preorder. But, I guess this isn’t really DC Multiverse as it’s branded as McFarlane Toys Digital and also bears the DC Direct logo.

This roughly Sixth-Scale statue comes in a wrap-around window box with another light on top to showcase the figure really well, but it doesn’t follow the usual DC Multiverse box design. You also get an ugly Digital Card pressed up against the front window, which is a shame because otherwise this would display in the box very nicely. I think the card is redeemable for the digital version of the figure. Look, I’m an old man and I don’t understand the appeal of any of this NFT shit. If they want to throw a code into the box, that’s fine, but I’m not a fan of it imposing itself on the presentation of the physical collectible. And as we’ll see, this continues to be a problem. Anyway, the box is collector friendly, but I’m definitely tossing it. You do get a standard McFarlane collectible card stuck to the back tray and the only assembly required for the statue is plugging it into the base.

Here he is all set up, and I’m going to do something I never do with statues and talk about the base first. The bit of sculpture that he’s standing on is part of the figure, while the base is just the black disk. Unfortunately, Todd decided to print McFarlane Toys Digital on it along with their logo and it goes a long way to wreck the whole thing. I mean, Why? Why in the blessed name of Ma Kent would they do this? Even Todd has to realize that the majority of the people buying this doesn’t give a crap about the digital aspect, so why plaster it on the base? Grrr… I hate it.

But as for the figure itself, well I love it! He’s appropriately beefy with his barrel chest pushed out presenting the fully sculpted S-Shield. There’s some subtle texture to the beautiful blue suit, along with the underlying musculature on full display. You get crisp red paint for the boots and undies, and a hint of more yellow for the belt. It’s a lovely classic Superman look, which I’m always happy to get represented on my shelf. The pose mimics the Jim Lee art perfectly, with Supes’ left leg up on the bird sculpture, his arms cocked back at the elbows, and both hands balled into fists. Every bit of this pose suggests some evil-doer is about to get a well-deserved ass-whooping. And then there’s the cape, but I’ll come back to that in a second…

The portrait to me is a real homerun. I’ll be the first to point out that human portraits are not usually McFarlane’s strong suit. They have been getting better, and they’ve turned out some decent efforts in their figures as of late. The statues, on the other hand can be hit or miss, but I’d score this one as a direct hit. The chiseled features, the angular jaw, the slight dimple in the jutting chin, the strong cheekbones, and the powerful, furled brow are all just fantastic. The hair is sculpted separately from the head, giving an immaculate hairline, and I dig the spikey bits and cowlick. What’s more, the eyes and eyebrows are painted perfectly. There is a gap between the neck and costume, but that’s to allow the fabric cape to be secured between. It looks a bit jarring up close, but I don’t find it to be a problem under normal viewing.

And there’s that glorious red fabric cape with the wire running throughout the edge. This garment is so much fun to pose, making me so glad they decided to go with mixed media on this piece. In addition to achieving a great approximation of the cape’s behavior in the source art, it can also be customized to your liking. Whether it be billowing out behind him or flapping off to the other side, you can do a lot of different things with it.

As for that base, well I’m going to have to do something to fix it. Whether that be painting over it, taping over it, covering it with a Superman logo sticker, there’s no way I’m going to display that logo and nonsense. Because the pegs are located in the base, it is possible to display Supes without the base at all, so that’s at least an option. Albeit one that increases the chance of him toppling over. At least he’s a solid slab of plastic, so I doubt the Man of Steel would incur any damage taking a shelf dive.

Desecrated base not withstanding, this is an excellent statue and with an MSRP of $50, I’d say it’s definitely one of the best values on the collectible statue market right now. I can think of several times where I’ve spent more than twice as much and didn’t get something as beautiful as this piece. Originally, I was planning on putting him on one of my DC Multiverse shelves, but he wound up landing on the corner of my desk, and I do believe that’s where he’ll stay for a while. The Jim Lee Wonder Woman should be arriving any day now, and I’m excited to get the two side by side!