Monthly Archives: November 2024

Nov 29 2024

DC Comics: Power Girl Premium Format Figure by Sideshow

Happy Day After Thanksgiving! Obviously, there was no review on Wednesday as I put in some extra hours at work and then spent some time getting stuff done around the house. Chances are I may be missing a day or two here and there as I move closer to moving. But, yesterday was a good day of rest and food and now it’s time to get back to it! It’s been a little bit since I last checked out a Premium Format release from Sideshow, and that’s because I really haven’t been picking any up. And as someone who is in the process of packing up his collection to move, the fewer of these I have to schlep 700 miles across two States the better. And because the lovely Kara Zor-El here is going to be getting tucked back into her Styrofoam bed soon, I figured it would be a good idea to check her out before that happens!

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to just how big these boxes are when they show up at my front door! I have wanted a Power Girl PF Figure ever since the last one Sideshow did. I came so close to pulling the trigger on that previous release, but truth be told, I just couldn’t budget it at the time and soon she was only available for stupid money on the secondary market. When this new version was announced, all my sorrows went away, because I liked everything about this version a lot more. But, the timing was bad, because I had my eyes and money on a different PF Figure about to release and so once again, I had to put her on hold. But she eventually wound up on one of Sideshow’s sales and the discount along with some unspent Reward Points got her down to a manageable number and she finally flew to my shelf. Yup, it was quite a roller-coaster getting here! Anyway, the box is colorful, and as big and heavy as you would expect a quarter-scale statue box to be. As usual, there’s some assembly required here, both magnets and pegs, but getting Kara slotted into the stand was a bit of a terrifying chore. I got there eventually, and I have to say the balance and stability on display here is a wonder of applied physics.

Oh, Kara my Kara! So, straightaway I’ll say that my two favorite improvements seen here over the last version is the better proportions and the dynamic hovering flight pose. Don’t get me wrong, I would have been perfectly happy owning that one, but in comparison, she looks a little chunky in the limbs and the regular stance on a rocky diorama base is a little pedestrian compared to what we got here. It may not seem fair to make so many comparisons against a piece I don’t own, but believe me I spent a lot of time pouring over those pictures back then. Here, Power Girl strikes a bold and triumphant pose, levitating in the air with a swirl of comic-art clouds miraculously supporting her not-insignificant polystone weight. Her left hand rests on her hip, while the right flexes. She offers a beautifully understated smile, looking off to the side while her half-cape flutters off in the opposite direction. It’s a comic book cover come to 3D life!

I love the proportions here and the beautiful curves of her pose. I think it would have been cool to have her raised leg kicked back into a tight bend, but I still love what we got. The previous Kara PF had a softgoods cape, at a time when Premium Formats almost always had some form of mixed media. I like that idea, but I can’t complain about the sculpted cape on display here. It flutters beautifully, giving a little more kinetic energy to the composition and you don’t have to worry about the material wearing or getting messed up. I also think they did a wonderful job on the boob window and I’m obviously a big fan! As for the colors, the blues and reds are deep and vibrant while the skin tone is warm and soft. The white one piece has a bit of blue wash to it, which I think looks very nice. Finally, you get the maroon belt and some gold leaf paint for the buckle and the cape braid.

The Exclusive release came with two head sculpts, with the extra one smiling, whereas here you just get the one. It’s always nice to have two options, but I don’t think I would ever swap out this one. Let me say that I have passed on a few female Premium Formats because I thought the portraits were too manly. The last Zatanna they did is a heartbreaking example of that. But what we got here is just beautiful. I’m not sure if it was intentional, but I see more than a bit Robin Wright in this likeness, and I’m digging it a lot. The slight smile is great and the paintwork for the eyes is some of the best I’ve seen in this line. The short hair is nicely detailed and frames the face perfectly. I don’t think the smiling face on the exclusive comes close to this one.

The base is impressive and terrifying at the same time. As I said earlier, it was tough to get her pegged into it and I was afraid to let go because it didn’t seem like the engineering here should work. You also don’t get any kind of satisfying click or thunk to suggest she’s locked into place. But the connection is strong and sturdy. She doesn’t get moved a lot, but I do try to be careful not to lift her from the snaking whisp of cloud even though it makes for an inviting and obvious handle. The limitation is printed on the base, and despite getting mine very late in the game, I wound up with 49 out of 1500. I think that’s my lowest PF number yet and it just goes to show you that the early adopters don’t always get the low numbers. Oh yeah, I always love the artwork they put on the bottom of the base. You will almost never see it, but it’s cool to know it’s there.

And just for some scale reference, here’s Kara’s Premium Format beside her Cover Girls of The DC Universe counterpart. Oh yeah, she’s a big girl!

I can’t express how happy I am to finally get a Power Girl Premium Format, and as it happens it all worked out well since I definitely prefer this one over the last one. I think they absolutely nailed every aspect of this piece and owning her is just something off my collecting bucket list. I think she originally retailed for $576 and yeah, I’m pretty much priced out of the Premium Formats at this point. But, between a sale and some Reward Points, I was able to get her down to a little under $400 so that wasn’t too bad in comparison. And alas, now she has to go back into her Styrofoam stasis pod for a couple of months.

Nov 25 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Iron Grenadier (B.A.T.) Battle Android Trooper by Hasbro

New Classified figures arrived at my doorstep this weekend, and I’m pushing them to the head of the line. I feel terrible about this because so many of these figures have been waiting their turn for a long while. I’ve had a half-finished review of the Cobra STINGER brewing since last month, and the HasLab Dragonfly with its figures is sneering angrily at me from the other room. But, I have to go with what works and what I can budget into the time I have and so I’m rolling out Destro’s Battle Android Troopers!

I’ve mentioned a ton of times how happy I am to have Classified back in window boxes, especially since the character art on those closed boxes was so hit or miss. Plus I was always paranoid that I was tossing accessories with those tissue bags. Here you get to see the gorgeous figure and accessories before you even clip that tape. We’ve had four models of the Classified BATs so far with the regular and crimson flavors being my favorites and the Arctic BAT being a big disappointment, and forget about Python Patrol because I’m not going down that rabbit hole. So how are Destro’s personal BATs going to turn out? Let’s take a look!

Well, doesn’t this guy look gorgeous! From the neck down, the IG Bat is basically a repaint of the first model, taking the two best parts of the Arctic BAT while ignoring all the extra crap they added to him. The humanoid killing machine retains the black fatigues of the OG model, while changing the exposed arms to gold and peppering the rest of the deco with red and more gold. The result is so striking and fresh, that I had to do a close side-by-side comparison to confirm nothing had been changed in the sculpt. We finally get a proper clear chest cover, which is cool. The black ones grew on me quite a bit, but I do still like to see the circuitry displayed like on the original RAH models. The gun belt and holster are now red with a gold buckle and the backpack is recycled with a little red paint added to some of the hoses on the side. Finally, you get a nice crisp Iron Grenadiers patch printed on his left shoulder.

The head is borrowed from the Arctic BAT, which is one of the few things I liked about that figure and I’m happy to see it return. The gold and black deco looks great here, as does the shiny red cyclopean eye. You do get the option to go with a standard BAT head with the face plate painted red, and while it does look good, I’ll be sticking with the cyclops head. You also get an optional damaged chest plate, but I don’t think the damage shows up all that well with the clear plastic. I would much rather they had included a translucent red tinted cover as an option.

The other best thing about the Arctic BAT shows up here and that’s the chainsaw arm attachment. Naturally this piece gets the black and gold paint upgrade. And while the Arctic BAT was stingy and just came with the one weapon attachment, the IG BAT also comes with the full assortment from the original.

And that includes the flamethrower, claw, and drill-laser thing. As with the original, there’s room to store three of the four attachments on his backpack and I think the chainsaw looks fantastic hanging from the side. If you read my Arctic BAT review, you may remember that his chainsaw would not stay put when hung from the side of the pack, but this one does just fine.

And finally, you get the same pistol that came with the previous versions in a… you guessed it! Black and gold deco. It’s kind of funny that these guys even need a sidearm with all their weapon attachments, but I’m not going to turn my nose up at an extra gun.

By the time the Iron Grenadiers arrived on the scene in 1988, I was well out of buying toys and I wouldn’t be back into it for another 12 years. As a result, this is my first time owning any figures of Destro’s private faction and I’m glad to be experiencing it through Classified. Because I was disappointed with the Arctic BAT, I only preordered two of these guys, but I’m happy to say he turned out fantastic and I would love some more. Unfortunately, my life is all about packing things to move these days, so I may hold off on that urge for the time being. Plus, I’m really trying to get my army building compulsion under wraps. But that didn’t stop me from buying three of the Iron Grenadier soldiers, and I’ll be having a look at those here in the very near future!

Nov 22 2024

DC Multiverse (Rebirth): Cyborg by McFarlane

Oh dear, will I ever get caught up on my DC Multiverse backlog? Probably not. It doesn’t help that new figures arrive and I keep pushing the new ones to the front of the line. But, I guess these are nice problems to have when you’re a collector. Today I’m checking out Vic Stone as the Rebirth version of Cyborg, a figure that I was pretty excited to get and add to my Titans shelf.

Here he is in the box, and there’s not much new to say, other than his massive arm cannon takes up a lot of real estate on that tray. As usual, the packaging is mostly collector friendly, but you will have to tear the stand and collector card off the back to get them out. Cyborg was previously released in the DC Multiverse as the Collect-To-Build figure from a Flashpoint themed wave. I picked up two of those figures (Flash and Wonder Woman), but could not bring myself to buy the other two (Aquaman and Project Superman) just to complete the CTB, so this is actually my first version of Cyborg in this line.

It’s well known that Todd will take liberties matching comic designs in favor of recycling parts from old figures, and Cyborg here is definitely a case of that. With that having been said, I’ve seen a lot worse and what we got here is close enough for me. The body is largely recycled from the Earth-44 Batman seen in the Dark Knights: Metal Wave, which makes sense, since that was a sort of Batman-Cyborg hybrid. It’s not a figure that I have or had any interest in, but having studied some pictures, I have to say the new paint deco does an amazing job of transforming that figure into Cyborg. The silver armored parts have a bit of a wash to them, making them look pretty convincing as weathered steel. Meanwhile, the black areas have some contour lines and work well as the flexible undersuit. The shoulder pieces are a tad organic looking, but they get the job done. You get a red emblem on the chest, some red points on the sides of his abs, and a couple of red triangles on his lower legs. Almost everything about the body looks great here, except for those wrist and ankle balls, and I’ll come back to those soon.

The head sculpt is quite solid, but punching in close shows the paint to be rather messy. There’s a lot of overspray of his skin tone onto the silver machine parts and even some brown bleeding through from the cyborg part of his face. It’s not a big deal with the figure in hand, but the closer you get the uglier the paint gets. It’s a shame, because I think the sculpt is one of Todd’s stronger efforts.

The articulation is mostly standard stuff for this line, but you do get those older ball-style ankles and wrists, and I sure do hate these. They’re awkward to work with and they don’t look natural. Now, they aren’t quite as jarring here on a cybernetic body, but I still don’t like him. The only other problem I have with this guy is his balance. He seems to have super tiny feet, which can make him difficult to stand in action poses, especially when we get to the next part…

His big honkin’ arm cannon! I’m pretty sure this piece is recycled from one of the animated Green Lantern figures, where it was a translucent green construct. Here it’s painted in the same silver as the rest of the figure and it looks absolutely fantastic. It’s a big and complex sculpt with all sort of detail packed into it’s various mechanical parts. Getting it locked onto his arm can be hit and miss. It doesn’t work at all with his right hand, but I can get a pretty snug fit over the left fist.

Collectors looking for a Rebirth version of Cyborg will no doubt have some issues with the accuracy here, but the figure does represent a very nice modern look for Victor. He also fits my display better than the supersized Collect-To-Build version would have. I’m certainly content now to not have to hunt down the unwanted figures from that wave to build him. There’s still a fair bit to nitpick here what with some sloppy head paint and those ball wrists and ankles, but all in all I dig this one well enough. And he’ll likely be spending time on both my Justice League and Titans shelves as I shuffle things around.

Nov 20 2024

Transformers: The Movie Retro G1 Autobot Hound by Hasbro

As I’m packing up parts of my collection, I’m finding lots of odds and ends that never got their turn at the spotlight here on FFZ. And since these things are going into storage for a while until after my movie I wanted to take the opportunity to have a look at them. Today’s figure is a one-off purchase for me, despite Hasbro releasing a handful of figures in this format. And even then I waited until he was on pretty deep discount to bite. And that surprised even myself, seeing as Hound was one of my favorite Autobots in the early days of the Sunbow cartoon and one of my favorite G1 figures as well! It feels like Hasbro has a number of these G1 reissues on constant rotation, but the parade usually includes Soundwave, Blaster, Rodimus and sometimes Optimus Prime, whereas seeing Hound again was something new! Also, it’s kind of a busy week for me, so today’s going to be a quickie!

I’ll say straightaway that I’m not a fan of this packaging and that’s probably a big reason as to why I waited for him to get clearanced. Don’t get me wrong, it’s colorful, and there’s some great art here showing Hound in both modes. Also, the movie logo on the extended backflap with Unicron in the background is quite nice. But, if I’m buying a G1 reissue, I want it in the old G1 style packaging. Granted, this release happened during Hasbro’s plastic-free packaging phase, which probably precluded them from the old timey window box, so I guess this is a decent substitute. The back of the box shows the figure in both modes and you get a nod back to the old clip-and-save file cards, plus a lot of ugly multi-language print.

Of course, Hound’s vehicle mode is a military jeep and as near as i can tell uses the same molds as the original toy and the package even exclaims the official JEEP license. I always loved this vehicle mode as the open nature made it seem like the toy had to be extra clever to hide it’s engineering. I also really loved that it had actual seats, even if I never had any figures tiny enough to sit in him. You do get some diecast metal in addition to the plastic, which gives the toy a decent heft for it’s tiny size. Sadly all the chromed bits are replaced with off-white plastic, which is done under the guise of this being an animated version of the toy. The body is also a paler shade of green, and I will note that they did a pretty good job matching the color of the plastic with the diecast.

There are no stickers, but you do get a few tampos, including the the yellow triangles on the sides, as well as a yellow star and red Autobot insignia on front fenders. As with the original toy, the windshield is hinged, the gun in the back can pivot as well as raise and lower, and both the spare tire and gas can are removable. This is still a pretty attractive vehicle mode, even though I’ll always prefer the deeper green and chrome from the original toy.

The robot mode tells a lot of the same story. With the chrome gone and the paler green, it loses some of it’s pizzazz, but overall still looks good. The robot design is fantastic and fairly close to the animated counterpart, with the one exception being his tiny T-Rex arms. In this mode you get a rifle and a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, both the same style that came with the original figure. You even get three missiles on a sprue for the launcher. Hound’s little head is so tiny, it was hard to punch in for a look, but it’s nice to see they added some blue for his eyes. The figure does suffer from the same extremely limited articulation that we saw in a lot of the Class of 84 Autobot Cars, although many of those had hinges in the elbows and swivels in the wrists, whereas Hound can only move his arms at the shoulders. And yet somehow I still managed to have tons of fun with him back in the day.

All of this series of movie branded reissues seemed to go to clearance pretty quickly. I believe they started out as Walmart Exclusives, but eventually found their way to just about every toy retailer online. I want to say he retailed for around $35 when first released and while I would have definitely snapped him up if he were in proper G1 packaging, I think I wound up getting him for around $12. It’s nice to have a G1-style Hound in my collection again, as this is probably the first since my original when I was a kid. But, if you’re looking for something to replace your original toy, this probably ain’t it and I think most people would have rather seen a release closer to the chromed beauty that was the original release.

Nov 18 2024

Batman (1989): Batwing and Batman (Batman Returns) by Spinmaster

A little while ago Spinmaster put out a 4-inch Batwing and Batman figure for The Flash movie. I picked it up, but never got around to reviewing it. It was OK, but overall kind of underwhelming. Then again, I also picked up the massive McFarlane one and never looked at that one here either, and it is freaking awesome! Anyway, fast forward to now and Spinmaster is still cranking out some assorted Batman toys in a rather hodge-podge mixed bag of a line. And if you want an example of this kind of craziness, look no further than today’s spotlight..

Yes, folks, this is the Batwing from the 1989 movie bundled with a Batman figure from the 1992 Batman Returns film and WHAT??? Why? What is going on over at Spinmaster? Why would you bundle a vehicle from one film and a figure from the next? Now, if I’m being honest, they probably could have just called the figure 1989 Batman and I wouldn’t have known the difference, but they didn’t and it’s all very, very weird. It’s got to be something to do with licensing rights. Like maybe they can do vehicles from the 89 film but not a 4-inch figure? Whatever the case, the goods come in a fully enclosed box and it’s really pretty ugly, so let’s not dwell on it. We’ll start with the figure.

Yeah, this is nothing special, but I would fall short of calling it terrible. It’s not a figure that would hold up if sold on the pegs by itself, although I believe Spinmaster is selling single carded figures like this right now. You get minimal detail and some yellow paint on the belt and chest emblem. I will say that I can definitely see a little Keaton in that head sculpt, so that’s something. The eyes are pretty well done, but the ears are way too chonky. They went with a softgoods cape, which was smart because he’s got to go in the Batwing, but there’s very little effort here. It’s just a strip of black cloth that’s scalloped at the bottom and has a bewildering giant hole in the back. The whole thing is way too narrow, as it won’t even wrap around his shoulders like it should.

The articulation is decent. There’s a ball joint in the neck, ball joints in the hips, and rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows and knees. Heck, there are even thigh swivels. Still, nothing in the waist, wrists, or ankles. I’ll give Spinmaster props for giving him more articulation than he needed, as a simple 5-POA figure would have been fine to slide into the cockpit. As a kid, I would probably have had a blast carrying a figure like this around in my pocket all day, but as a collector it’s not really noteworthy other than to have him pilot the Batwing. Also, there’s the whole Batman Returns angle. I realize there are differences in the suits used between the two films, but if you handed me this figure out of the blue, I couldn’t tell you which of the two films he came from, so yeah I’m still thinking it was a licensing issue. Let’s move on to the Batwing!

So, I was kind of expecting something similar to their Batwing from The Flash, and there are some similarities, but also some marked improvements. Some of that has to do with differences in the vehicle design, but I also think Spinmaster put a little more effort into this one as well. They are definitely two distinct molds, so that’s good. They are both made of the same lightweight plastic, and that’s not so great. I don’t know how to describe the plastic, other than it feels soft and cheap, but not flimsy or delicate. It does have a matte finish, which is appropriate and despite being soft, it holds the cut panel lines pretty well. The undercarriage is hollow around the wings, but you do get some more panel lines to help it look a bit more finished. Meanwhile, the body has three flip down landing gear.

There’s more in the way of paint apps here than on The Flash Batwing, but they’re still used pretty sparingly. You get some silver and yellow hits on the wings and body. The most notable is the red and silver paint on the missiles peeking out on each side of the cockpit. All in all, I’d say it’s a good looking toy based on a truly cool looking and iconic design and sparse use of paint apps is appropriate to the look of the vehicle.

The clear cockpit is hinged at the back and the figure fits into the cockpit easily and I’d say the scale isn’t too bad for a toy like this. The dashboard detail is achieved with a sticker, but you do get some sculpted controls in the arms of the seat. I also dig the beveling in the cockpit that actually makes it look like it has some silver paint on the edges, when it really doesn’t. A flight stand would have been cool so that I don’t have to balance it on a glass. But considering the price point, I can understand why one wasn’t included.

And here’s a quick couple of shots comparing Spinmasters’ The Flash and ’89 Batwings. The wing design on The Flash toy makes it look a bit bigger and definitely more aggressive, but I still dig the older design a lot more. The cockpit is also better designed in the ’89 version as The Flash version has him kind of laying in there. And obviously the ’89 version is scaled better as The Flash Batwing wasn’t a single-person craft.

The big appeal here is the price, as you can’t really find a lot of cool vehicles bundled with an action figure at $19.99 these days. And this one is still available at places like Amazon. I’ve wanted an 89 Batwing in my collection for a while, and this one fits the bill. There’s certainly stuff to nitpick here, like the wings being hollow underneath and the lightweight plastic, but it’s still a fairly rugged toy and it looks pretty damn nice displayed on the shelf. Your other option would be hunting down a vintage Toy Biz version, and if I’m being honest, I think this one looks better, and it’ll certainly cost you a lot less. I haven’t seen this one at any stores, but definitely worth picking up if you aren’t too particular.

Nov 15 2024

Fire and Ice: Teegra 1:12 Scale Figure by Frazetta Girls

It’s hard to explain what it was like browsing the shelves of the video stores in the early days. Before chains like Blockbuster, we used to rent VHS tapes from the local TV & Appliance Repair Shop. I would often stop there on the way home from school and these guys didn’t give a crap about what they rented to a kid, as long as it wasn’t above an R-Rating. You had only the sleeve art and back of the box to go on, and it was always a gamble. But sometimes those gambles paid off, especially in the case of the gloriously bawdy, rotoscoped feature films like Wizards, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, Heavy Metal, and yes… Fire and Ice. When I first rented Fire and Ice, I was around 14 and going in, I don’t even know if I realized it was was animated. But it kept me gripped to the screen with the excessive gore, some exciting action scenes, and lots of the beautiful Teegra running through the jungles in a bikini.

The figure comes in a window box with a folding front flap, secured by velcro. It’s very similar to what we get with NECA’s figures these days and I really dig it. It displays the figure well and it’s very collector friendly. Not to get ahead of myself, but everything here reminds me a lot of Loose Collectors stuff, so much so that I was surprised not to find their logo on the box. As for the movie, if you haven’t seen it, the film is a sword and sorcery type yarn set against the turmoil of the Evil Lord Necron and his Mama attempting to conquer the world against a holdout king, Jarol. It focuses on Jarol’s daughter, Princess Teegra, who gets kidnapped early on to be used as blackmail toward Jarol’s surrender. Meanwhile outland warriors, Larn and Darkwolf join the fray, meeting up with Teegra. A good chunk of the film is pretty much the main characters escaping one dire and violent situation after another, giving it the flavor of an old-timey serial. There isn’t much here in the way of what I would call good characters, but I always find it to be a captivating watch. Oh, and since the weather’s been really nice here, I decided to take this review outside!

Teegra comes out of the box wearing a plastic top and loin cloth, like she wore in the beginning of the film. But she loses these garments pretty early on in the film and we’re going to lose them right away here too. The top is very slightly transparent to mimic a sheer material and is sculpted to fit the figure very well, but it really nixes her shoulder articulation. The loin cloth is really difficult to get off, because the elastic is pretty tight and she’s got some epic measurements, so you run into problems whether you try to slip it off going north or south. I don’t know how many times you could get away with taking it off and on before the elastic stretches or breaks. The elastic also can get stuck in her hip articulation and it’s annoying to have to dig it out of her crevices. Neither garment really obstructs the beautiful view from behind, which is nice because the sculptors clearly poured some love into that behind. But I don’t know that I’ll display her with these articles very often.

And here she is as she appears through the bulk of the movie in just her skimpy bikini. The top and bottom are sculpted as part of the body and you get a little gold leaf paint on the ornaments. Everything else is just skin! They did a nice job capturing the rather shapely curves of her on screen appearance. The skin tone is tanned and pretty warm and even, although you do get some pinkish coloring in some areas, which I think looks pretty good. The sculpting for her abs is really impressively done, as well as her knees. I think these are some of the best looking knees I’ve seen on any figure of this scale. It’s worth noting that the characters commented at least a few times in the film about how cold it was, so it makes sense that her high beams would be peeking through her bikini top.

You get three heads to choose from, along with two hair pieces and all of these are excellent with a very clear Ralph Bakshi influence. The first head is sort of neutral with a hint of a smile, the second does a good job depicting her in one of her many struggles for survival, with furled brow and gritted teeth. The final is a big smile. My only nitpick with the heads are the teeth are just painted over and there’s no sculpted detail, but I guess that lends itself to the animated look. The rest of the paint is very sharp and I love her green eyes. The hair pieces include one with it falling naturally and one with it blown to the side, and it’s cool to be able to mix and match the different hair styles with all three faces. They both look great, but the wind blown look is much more dynamic for action poses.

The articulation here is pretty good, but it’s clear that the designers made compromises so as not to ugly up the sculpt with excessive jointing. And I think they made the right call, because it’s hard to hide joints on a figure that’s nearly naked. As a result, you get rotating hinges in the elbows and knees instead of double hinges. Sure, the range of motion isn’t as good, but the figure looks better for it. There’s some decent range in the ball joint under the chest, the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers, and the hands are on pegged hinges to allow you to swap them out between the three pairs. These include accessory holding, relaxed, and splayed fingers. It would have been nice to get a pair of swap out feet with more of an arch to them, but no such luck. All in all it’s easy to have fun with her and all the joints are smooth and easy to work with.

Teegra comes with three weapons: A spear, a knife, and a stick. Yes, a stick! Don’t laugh, she stuck that thing right into somebody’s heart! The spear is the obviously the most significant of the lot and while it is quite thin, the sculpt and paint are very nice. The knife is a beautiful piece of work for how tiny it is. The detail on the wrapped grip and crossguard is awesome and there are even tiny nicks in the blade. The stick is… well, it’s a good stick. The accessory holding hands allow her to wield any of these in either hand.

Shaitan, Teegra’s Panther is also included as a mostly static piece with two swappable heads. You get a ball joint in the tail and in the neck and the second head has a hinged jaw. The sculpt here is pretty nice, especially the musculature of the beast. It’s a nice bonus to round out the package, but sadly Shaitan is killed off almost instantly in the beginning of the movie. Maybe someday they will release a Director’s Cut with a post credit scene where Dark Wolf barges in on Teegra and Larn’s ending kiss and exclaims, “Doc says Shaitan is gonna be OK!”

I’ll confess, while I have fond memories of Fire and Ice, I wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to get figures based off of it. But I did rewatch it this week for the first time in probably ten years and still enjoyed it very much. And I’m very glad I picked up Teegra, as she’s a beautiful figure and very well executed in nearly all respects. It would be interesting to see TBLeague get a shot at her with their seamless body, either in Sixth-Scale or just One-Twelfth like this one. Frazetta Girls also released a figure of Dark Wolf, but I missed out on him, and that’s fine because at $90 a pop, I think I’ll be perfectly content with Teegra being my only figure from this film. And while Dark Wolf is sold out, Teegra is still available at a lot of the usual online toy retailers.

Nov 13 2024

Star Wars Vintage Collection (Rogue One): Antoc Merrick’s X-Wing Fighter by Hasbro

What’s this? Star Wars content? Yeah, the Star Wars reviews are getting few and far between, with this being only the fourth this year. Indeed, the only reason I’m sneaking this one in is because I’ve been packing away parts of my collection to move next year and I wanted to put this one in the spotlight before it gets sealed away for a few months. And I make it no secret that Rogue One is my favorite Star Wars film, just nudging out Empire Strikes Back by a bit, and I’m always down to showcase some Rogue One toys. So let’s pour one out for the late Antoc Merrick, Hero of Scarif and his brave little droid, which I’ll take a look at here too.

No doubt about it, The Vintage Collection does a nice job with its presentation with a not so subtle nod to the vintage Kenner packaging. Heck, you even get the Kenner logo! Both front and back panels show the toy and some figures in what they like to call a fantasy setting and boy do these always make me want to buy the toys and play with them. Why didn’t R2-SHW make it onto the box photo? Was he not out yet? Not sure, but Antoc is the only figure in the box and I picked up his R2 unit separately, but at the same time I bought the X-Wing. The noble starfighter does require some assembly, but it seems like it’s able to be taken apart again and stored in the box. That’s always a big plus for me!

And here are the carded figures. I was happy to see that Antoc came carded in the box. No, these are not collector friendly, but I opened both figures a while ago and was still able to get them back into the bubbles for this shot, so it is possible to have your cake and eat it too if you are careful. I love the card art for both figures, but Antoc’s is especially great, with his heroic pose, helmet in hand, and the X-Wing in the background, waiting for him to climb on board and fly his final mission. By God the battle over Scarif is so damn great! I think it rivals the Death Star II battle in Return of the Jedi, and that’s saying something! Let’s take a look at the figures first…

I’m guessing Antoc’s body is largely a repaint of an X-Wing Luke or another pilot figure, but the fact that I don’t know for sure shows how few Vintage Collection figures I buy. The blue-green suit is certainly distinctive, along with the tan gauntlets. The white vest, grey flight harness, and boots are all pretty standard. I’m not a fan of the weird jointing in the hips, but they get the job done. Otherwise the articulation consists of a lot of rotating hinges and he’s pretty fun to play with. The head sculpt is excellent, especially for this scale, while the printing on the helmet is absolutely superb, as is the yellow tinted visor. Alas, it does feel a tad too big for his head. Antoc also comes wtih a DH-17 Rebel blaster, which is a nice bonus, although I do wish these flight suits had holsters. Either way, I love this weapon design and it even has some silver paint hits.

R2-SHW is your standard R2 Unit with a red body and black paneling to the dome. You also get some silver paint work on some of his panels, which is OK, but maybe a tad sloppy in a few areas. He’s obviously another repurposed figure, and while I like the sculpt a lot, I think this is a case where the extras almost spoil the figure for me, namely the sensor scope and articulator arm. The sensor scope raises when you push the third leg in, but in order to do it you have to have the dome centered. You can pull it out but then there’s a missing panel up there. The articulator arm is ambitious for a figure this size, but the panel does not stay closed, so I’m not a fan. He also has hole in the top of his dome, which I’m going to guess was for the drink-serving arms on a previous Jabba Palace R2-D2 release. Not a terrible figure, but I think this is a case where less would have been more.

And since we’re on the subject of repurposing, yes the X-Wing is a repaint of the Luke Skywalker X-Wing, which I have, but have never gotten around to opening. It’s also already been packed away, so I can’t do a comparison. Reusing the toy is a no-brainer, and I sure don’t fault Hasbro for doing it, but it does result in some quibbles that are carried over from that first release. But there’s plenty of great stuff here too! Most notable is the size, as this is actually the first 3 3/4-inch scale X-Wing that I’ve held that wasn’t based on the original Kenner release. How crazy is that? And as wonderful a toy as that and the Power of the Force 2 releases were, it’s really cool to finally hold an X-Wing toy that approaches the correct size for this scale. It’s so satisfyingly big, and yet not too big to stop me from having fun whooshing it around the room and making attack runs on my Imperial Coffee Table.

The detail here is very nice, both in the sculpt and in the paint. The body is an off-white with lots of grime and carbon scoring to give it that wonderful used-future look. I particularly love the weathering applied to the blue squadron colors and the darkened scorched around the engines. Weathering can be tricky and can often come across as heavy handed, but I think they did a great job with it here. This ship looks like it’s been through some stuff, which makes it all the more sad that it didn’t survive the Battle of Scarif.

The X-Wing can rest on its three retractable landing gear. The front one is concealed behind a flip down hatch, while the two rear simply fold down from open compartments. Alas, the rear skids have a habit of folding back up at the drop of a hat, so stability is a big issue, at least it is on mine. You can sort of feel them trying to lock into place, but it’s very soft and just doesn’t work. Still, if you rest it on a surface carefully and don’t jostle it, it should be fine.

You also get a concealed proton torpedo launcher under the boom. The launcher is painted metallic grey and includes a white missile. I’ll also mention here how much I appreciate that all the screw holes are located on the fighter’s undercarriage. It would have been better if they were plugged, but at least they aren’t conspicuous.

The cockpit is very detailed and the console can be removed to make it easier to fit the figure in place. It even has an articulated targeting computer! I really dig the smoked clear plastic on the canopy, which lets you still catch a glimpse of the figure inside and looks better than if it were just transparent. Meanwhile, the droid slot fits the R2 unit perfectly. They really should have ejection units on these things, so at least the Astromech can escape before the fighter blows up. That would have actually made for a pretty fun play feature. Oh, and I do wish that Hasbro could have tossed in the boarding ladder. I know they released one in a previous set and it’s not like it would have broken the bank to bundle it in here.

Of course, the wings do articulate, and there’s a lever on the back of the X-Wing to lock the S-Foils into attack position. You push it down to open the wings and slide it to the right to lock them in place. And here’s where another flaw from the original release carries over, as the mechanism that holds them apart isn’t the strongest and they can be a little floppy. I’ve found that holding the ship by the main fuselage gives them the widest spread and it looks decent, but I would have liked to see them separate just a little farther. But it’s still a beautiful sight for the last thing a TIE Pilot will ever see!

I want to say the retail on Antoc and his X-Wing was around $100 back when it was released. I picked it up off of Amazon with a coupon and I think that brought it down to around $80. It’s a big, satisfying toy that looks absolutely fantastic and is a lot of fun to play with. Of course, Hasbro could have been a pal and threw in R2-SHW as well, but he cost me another $16. Normally, I would have had no intention on double-dipping on a toy like this, what with already owning Luke’s X-Wing, but I adore this movie and I adore the battle at the end, so this was pretty much a must-have for my collection. Plus, it gives my TIE Striker a Rebel ship to chase around. And I’ll admit, it’s cool to actually get excited and enthusiastic over a Star Wars toy again.

Nov 11 2024

Transformers X Knight Rider: Autobot Knight by Hasbro

Hasbro has been doing some super fun crossovers with their Transformers brand, and apart from some of the GI JOE offerings, I’ve been staying out of it, at least up until now. We’ve seen Transformers Ghostbusters, Back To The Future, TMNT, and Stranger Things, and to be honest, none of the robot modes have really spoken to me enough to get me to bite. But then they tossed Knight Rider into the mmix and everything gelled perfectly. KITT is already a super-smart car with a personality, so giving him the ability to transform just makes sense. Plus, at one point Peter Cullen actually voiced KITT’s nemesis, KARR so it all kind of fits together. Anyway, I preordered this one and it just arrived this past weekend, so let’s check it out!

In all my 50+ years of enjoying toys, I doubt that I will ever love a package design more than I do the G1 Transformers boxes. I’m sure part of it is nostalgia, but there’s something about that grid pattern, the logo, and the red or purple deco, depending on whether it’s an Autobot or Decepticon. Hasbro has brought it back for modern releases before, with mixed results, but what we got here is damn near perfect. The character art is fantastic and I can’t even put into words the feels I get when I see the battle art on the back. I got my first Transformers toys before seeing the Sunbow cartoon so that art will always have a special place in my heart. Yeah, there’s an unfortunate Anniversary logo and multi-lingual scrawl on the back, but it’s as close as they can get. On the downside, I’ll go ahead and say that this figure should have just been named KITT and I really do not like the Autobot Knight moniker they gave him instead. But hey, I can call him whatever i want, so KITT it is! Anyway, the packaging is so good, I was super careful taking him out, because he’ll forever be displayed in the box. I’ll also note that you will need a screwdriver and three LR44 batteries to work the electronics and Hasbro didn’t feel like hooking us up by including them. Let’s start with the auto mode!

I don’t know what size class you’d call this, but he’s definitely bigger than your average Deluxe. In the original TV show, KITT was a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am and Hasbro did indeed partner with Pontiac for the licensing on this toy. The end result is a really nice looking car mode with a higher degree of accuracy than I’m used to seeing on these toys. The body is done in all glossy black and while there are seams from the transformation, they really aren’t that bad at all. That’s probably helped along by the fact that this toy features a very simple and old-school conversion design. The rims on the wheels are silver, the front signal lights are orange, the tail lights are red, and you get white fog lamps on each side of the grill. The windows are tinted blue, which is an interesting choice. Not sure why they went with that, but it adds a little color and I’m not against it. I especially like the Knight Industries logo on the back where the license plate would be. It’s a great looking car that holds together really well too.

The headlamps actually flip up, which is a very cool touch. I would have liked stickers showing some detail in the headlamps instead of them being all white. The same goes for the red tail lights, which are just simple paint. I do like the placement of the Autobot insignia down on the apron, as it hides it a bit. There’s a button off center on the hood that activates the electronics. Press it once and KITT comes online along with the pulsing red Cylon-esque scanner light, travelling left and right. Pressing it activates not only the lights and sensor sound, but also some dialogue from KITT. If you leave the button alone for a while, KITT will announce that he’s going off line.

Transformation is about as simple as you can get for a toy of this size and price range. It follows the classic G1 Datsun engineering pretty closely, both in the conversion and in the robot design. That’s not a complaint, mind you. Having the front of the car as the chest, complete with the door wings behind the shoulder is as iconic and beautiful as it gets for me. The proportions are good and I like the placement of the wheels on the outside of the lower legs and behind the shoulders. The robot mode adds quite a bit of color, mostly in the form of pale grey and an electric blue, along with some red paint hits on the lower legs. Meanwhile, the back fills out pretty nicely as well. I believe the official transformation angles the door wings up, but I prefer them swept straight back. On the downside, I cannot get his chest to lock into place very well at all, so it tends to shift a bit when playing around with him.

The portrait design is OK. I like the traditional silver face and the translucent red visor is pretty cool. I don’t dig how big the eyes are, though and I feel like the “helmet” could have been a little bigger. Aside from giving him a William Daniels-style mustache, I don’t know what else I was expecting. It’s fine.

And yes, the electronics still function when he’s in robot mode, exactly the same way as when he is in car mode. I dig the look of the swooshing sensor on his chest!


As for weapons, you get a pair of pistols and a rifle, and these can be combined by tabbing the pistols into the side of the rifle if you like. Both weapons are cast in black plastic and I do like the designs a lot. As for articulation, he’s got everything you would expect from a modern Transformer and a pretty nice balance too. He’s just plain fun to play with.

And here’s a quick size comparison with Earthrise Optimus Prime and Studio Series Brawn. Yeah, he’s really big and I don’t think he displays well with the recent G1-style releases. I could make it work with Brawn, but he shouldn’t be as big as Optimus. He also towers over the Deluxe Autobot cars. So, he’s definitely going to be displayed on his own, which is fine because he’s basically just a one-off in my collection.

I got Autobot Knight from Amazon for $49 and he’s still available and In Stock at the time I’m writing this. It’s a nice toy and a cool idea, but the price feels pretty steep on this one. He’s big and the electronics are well done, but some may be put off by the extremely simple engineering for a toy at this price range. But then the prices on the Ghostbusters and Back to the Future releases were pretty pricey too and kept me away. In this case, I have no regrets about picking him up, but then I will buy just about anything Knight Rider that I come across, so your mileage may vary.

Nov 8 2024

Cover Girls of the DC Universe (J. Scott Campbell) Zatanna by McFarlane/DC Direct

The DC Cover Girls line of statues has been around a long time now with different series showcasing different artist interpretation of some of comic’s greatest female heroes and villains. Hell, I reviewed my first purchase from this series here almost 12 years ago! The line went from DC Collectibles to DC Direct and now McFarlane has taken up the torch, although they still seem to be using the DC Direct name for whatever reasons. Also, the current series is showcasing one of my favorite comic artists of all time, J. Scott Campbell, and boy is ever about damn time! DC’s Mistress of Mysticism, Zatanna, is the third release in this series, with Catwoman and Wonder Woman preceding her, and Supergirl now up for preorder.

The packaging is pretty standard stuff, featuring a fully enclosed box with some shots of the statue and some artwork ghosted behind it. The box does state the limitation and you also get your piece’s individual number on the box as well. The statue comes nestled between two Styrofoam bricks for protection and there’s a little assembly required. Just peg Zatanna’s foot into the base and tab her wand into her hands and she is ready for her curtain call!

Of the three JSC statues so far, Zatanna comes the closest to a classic museum pose, but it suits her so perfectly. Catwoman was playfully readying her whip, Wonder Woman was deflecting a bullet, but Zatanna stands with her hands folded and resting on her cane/wand as if waiting for the magic show to begin. Feet apart, back arched, and head cocked, it’s a pose that conveys a sense of high confidence and professional showmanship.

Zatanna’s costume represents my favorite look for the character. She’s got her black one piece with yellow and white corset over it and black tuxedo coat and tails over that. There’s a little sculpted ruffling to the middle of the corset while the low cut top shows ample cleavage, no doubt to distract from any slight of hand. The shoulders flare up stylishly, the lapels are painted blue, and she had a red carnation on the right lapel. The snappy tails of the coat hang down to the backs of her knees. She has a pair of shiny black heels and while her legs aren’t clad in actual fishnets, the skin is painted in a darker color to denote that she is wearing stockings. The paint lines on this piece are very sharp and the yellow, blue, red, and white all add some nice contrast to the black.

The head sculpt is very nice, even if I do think she got an unnecessary extra helping of eyebrows. The expression in the eyes is absolutely priceless. They’ve got a slightly sleepy quality to them, which also works as confidence bordering on boredom. It’s as if she’s sizing up an adversary and thinking,
“You’ve got to be kidding. You have no chance against my mystical arts.” I think there’s a tad less of Campbell’s style in this one, although it’s definitely there in the distinctive nose. The paint is immaculate, especially in the eyes and mascara and her bold lipstick. They seem to have toned down the shading around the eyes as seen on the box, and I think that was a great idea. The hair is beautifully sculpted and frames her face perfectly and it’s all capped off with the regal black top hat with blue band to match her coat’s lapels.

The base is designed to match the previous statues. It’s a circular raised platform in black with a gray stripe around the beveled edges. It’s simple and distinguished but the addition of the Zatanna logo gives it a kick of personality. These pieces are limited and hand numbered on the bottom of the base, and I have no idea where they are drawing the limitations for each. Catwoman started at 920, Wonder Woman went to 945, and now Zatanna shoots up to 1580. Back in the day, most Cover Girls were at a limitation of 5200, whereas these seem more random. Either way, mine is #509, which is lower than my Wonder Woman but higher than my Catwoman.

Over the years, some of my Cover Girls have left my collection, but I maintain a solid dozen or so on display at any one time. Needless to say I’m happy to see the line continue and it really seems to be in good hands with McFarlane. And naturally, I’m doubly happy to see my main man, J. Scott Campbell, finally get his turn at these ladies. I’ll confess that Catwoman was not a rock-solid start for this run, but she was still pretty good and both Wonder Woman and Zatanna more than make up for that somewhat shaky start. These retail at around $139.99, which feels right in line with what they’ve been going for in the past. Supergirl is next up on the roster, and as you can imagine, I already have her preordered.

Nov 6 2024

Masters of the Universe Origins (Cartoon Series) Spikor and Clawful by Mattel

The good guys have been taking a shellacking in the recent waves of The Origins Cartoon Series. Instead of one hero and one villain, this is the second time in a row we got Oops All Bad Guys! I’m not sure what’s going on, as there are certainly plenty of those blasted Do-Gooders that still need figures, but I’m not complaining, because it’s always fun to get more of Skeletor’s goofy minions. And with the core team of Snake Mountain done, Mattel is reaching out to some of the later additions. I was honestly surprised to see that Clawful appeared as early as the first season, while Spikor didn’t turn up until the second. Although to be fair, I didn’t remember a whole lot of episodes with either fo these fellas at all.

How many times can I say it? This is some gorgeous packaging. The Filmation style artwork on the cards compliments the colorful figures in the bubbles, making for such an amazing presentation. It brings a tear to my eye to rip into it, but we gotta do what we gotta do. I’ll go on record now as saying that I really dig all the Filmation figures I’ve got so far, but this pair is the first real case of me not liking what the cartoon did to the original figure designs. It doesn’t mean that these aren’t excellent versions of their cartoon counterparts, but I think these designs lost a lot in translation from vintage to cartoon. Let’s start with Spikor!

Poor Spikor lost a lot of spikes and gained a really garish deco. He looks like he has at least 60% less spikiness and my guess is it’s because the animator didn’t want to draw all that shit. He’s supposed to be the Untouchable Master of Evil, but I can see plenty of places I can touch him without getting stuck. Otherwise, you get the usual smoothing of details, like the studs removed from his belt and wrist cuffs, and the the studs running down the middle of the vintage figures chest are now replaced by a smooth strip that descends from a collar around his neck. And then there’s the colors! The muted two-tone purple of the vintage figure is now replaced with dark purple, bright blue, and iridescent mauve! I don’t know, it just comes off looking like a kit-bashed figure with mismatched limbs to me.

I don’t have a huge problem with the head, as it fits the Filmation aesthetic pretty well. A lot of these guys were made to look a little more human and relatable. Vintage Spikor had much more of a monster face with a bizarre nose and folds of skin. At least Toony Spikor still has the yellow eyes and fangs. But once again, he lost a lot of spikes off his noggin.

Cartoon Spikor also has the option of switching out one of his hands for his trident weapon. I’m not sure how that works, putting a real hand back on after you rip it off, but I guess that wouldn’t be the strangest thing going on on Eternia. I always just assumed Vintage Spikor lost the hand in battle and got the weapon as a replacement. Either way, it gives you options, but I’m always going to opt for the trident hand.

As for our episode-specific accessory, Spikor comes with two of the game pieces from the episode The Games. And in a show with no shortage of bat-shit crazy scripts, this one was pretty out there. Aliens come to Eternia and decide they want to watch the most Evil and the most Heroic beings compete with each other. Adam doesn’t change into He-Man on time, so the Aliens pick Fisto to champion good. Really? Fisto? Meanwhile, Skeletor throws Spikor into a cabinet, called the Evilgizer (Yes, you read that correct), that is designed to exponentially increase the amount of Evil in someone, so it makes Spikor Uber-Evil. As near as I can tell, all that does is get him picked to be the champion of Evil. Anyway, the game requires the contestants to find these game pieces and push a button to get points. It’s a pretty piss-poor episode, if I’m being honest, and these accessories aren’t very interesting. Let’s move on to Clawful…

Spikor got some unfortunate changes for the Filmation cartoon, but his buddy Clawful got absolutely massacred. They turned him from a pretty cool looking Crab-Man to a goofy lizard-looking dude. Like, I don’t understand how you get a crab vibe off this design at all. Did the people at Filmation even comprehend his crabbiness? The crabby shell armor on his chest has been replaced with an actual armor vest, which seems like a downgrade to me. They even shrunk his awesome big claw and gave him two little crappy ones, plus his body is just all smooth and generic now. At least he still has his monster feet. The colors are all different too, but I really don’t mind this deco at all.

This head is just baffling to me. Again, it’s a cartoon lizard not a crab. I think the head sculpt is great for what it is and it sure sells the Filmation aesthetic. His yellow eyes are rather similar to Spikor. I really dig the slightly open mouth and the exposed fangs. It’s a fine portrait, but it doesn’t pay any respects to the original vintage design, and that’s a shame.

But it’s the fact that they neutered his big claw that really bugs me the most here. It was his freaking play gimmick and his most defining characteristic. No sir, I don’t like it!

Clawful also got robbed of any regular accessories, which is ridiculous. The Vintage-Style figure came with the big claw and a weapon, while Filmation Clawful only comes with his episode specific accessory, The Horn of Evil. Now, I’m mixed on this one. This creepy looking accessory is awesome and so much better than Spikor’s, but it comes from the episode, Dree Elle’s Return, which features a bunch of Orko’s people and I just can’t stomach these guys. Dree Elle is just Orko in a blonde wig and don’t get me started on Yukkers. I don’t think I’ve ever made it through this entire episode.

I’ve got to emphasize that I don’t hate these figures at all. They’re great representations of their Filmation counterparts and Mattel did a fine job with the designs they had to work with. I just think that this is the first time we’re seeing characters designs that got major downgrades for the cartoon. Still, I’m happy to have them for my Filmation display. And I do believe this is the last of the All-Villain Waves for a bit, so when I next visit with this line, we’ll get some Eternian Heroes again!