Hello friends and fellow Toy Hounds. It’s been a while! I’m going to gas on a bit about FigureFanZero and I’ll intersperse my thoughts with some quick snaps of the new Toy Room, which is still a work in progress!
So, it’s been about nine months since my last check in, and a full year as of this week since my last regular review was posted. If you’ve ever uprooted yourself and moved to a different State, then you probably know that it’s a pretty disruptive thing. And to be honest, I wish I could lean more heavily on that as an excuse, but all things considered my move went extremely smooth and it took me very little time to settle in and feel at home. There were many times over the past months where I wanted to get back to some kind of regular posting here. I even shot a whole bunch of pictures for some reviews that may or may not ever get seen. The truth is while I have enjoyed every minute of the decade and a half that I’ve spent working on this toy blog, it’s always kind of been a “tiger by the tail situation.” Or perhaps more like spinning plates and needing to keep them spinning lest the whole thing come crashing down. And I kept that going for about 15 years. But, once the routine was interrupted, I began spending time getting back into reading and playing my backlog of video games, and realized that I didn’t want to be chained to the deadlines anymore. And I’m the kind of person that doesn’t do well without deadlines.
I haven’t lost my love of toy collecting. If you follow me on X then you’ve seen pictures of new stuff I’ve been getting in. I have kicked some lines to the curb and tried to curtail the stuff I’ve been buying with varying degrees of success. With the Toy Room taking shape, I have a planned finite space for the collection right now, but come Spring I’ll be starting to convert my garage into living space so I can expand some display space there.
I do want to be clear that I’m not packing in the site. I’ll continue to keep it up and running and I do intend to contribute to it again, once I get what that will be figured out. I’m still working more than I would like and more than I need to, so that’s one area that may eventually give me some additional time. Ultimately I’d like to commit to a few times a month. Maybe weekly and just showing off some stuff that I got in or I want to talk about and see where things go from there. I don’t think I will ever return to the old format, but you never know. I think I put off this post as long as I did because I had hoped to bring something more definitive to the table. But in the end, I just know that I’m not ready to come back to it yet, but I hope to be in the future.
Lastly, I want to send out my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has stopped by here over the years. I’ve made some great friends and really enjoyed receiving Emails, Comments, an DMs from all over. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to share my passion for toys and collectibles. I’ve loved seeing pictures of people’s collections, and hearing their own stories. This is not Goodbye. I will make a commitment to be back a few weeks into the New Year with something. FFZ is my baby, and I could never abandon it.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and thanks again!
I’ve been in my new home for a little over two weeks now and I’m just managing to start getting some things set up. Originally, I had hoped to be up and running with some reviews by early March, but it looks like I’ll be pushing that to April as I still have a lot on my plate. With that being said, the move went remarkably smooth and even the cats handled it well and took to their new home almost immediately. Meanwhile, I’ve been building bookcases and Detolfs and putting in some time at work.
So far, I have G.I. JOE Classified all set up, which feels really good. I’m going the cheap route for shelving for now, as buying a new house and car, plus all the expenses of moving have left me a little budget conscious. I’m also trying to leave me some growing room for this collection as there’s a lot of great stuff coming on the horizon, not to mention that HasLab Rattler that will need a pretty big hanger.
And at long last I got to open and set up Super7’s Cat’s Lair and I gotta say this thing does not disappoint. I bought a 6-foot banquet table to display it and it’s just barely big enough. I’d like to make this beast the first review for when I get back to doing content. Suffice it to say I’m thrilled to have it, even if it does take up the entire center of Toy Room 2.0.
Other than that I have a couple of Detolfs set up in the living room for some Hot Toys and other Sixth-Scale. I’ll probably get a couple more. Right now I’m trying to just build a few new cases a week to keep myself from getting overwhelmed. And I also have to look to getting started setting up the Gaming Room.
And that’s all I got for now. i’ll be stopping by with some more pictures and updates as I continue to get settled!
Wow, it’s been a while, so I thought I’d stop by with an update and show I haven’t forgotten about this place. Since I was last here I closed on a house in Tennessee and have spent the last few weeks packing up my collection and cleaning out the house here and the time to move into the new homestead is very nearly upon me. A week from today, actually!
Even after downsizing, I was shocked to see that my collection filled out a rather sizable moving container and it’s really given me occasion to think about tightening up my collecting habits in the future. The huge box on the right is the Super7 Cat’s Lair, which arrived just as packing was in full swing. And yeah, it was pretty painful to have to check it to make sure it was OK and then pack it right back up, but there didn’t seem to be much point in setting it all up only to have to pack it up a week later. So that’s something to look forward to, and It’ll probably wind up being the centerpiece in my new Toy Room.
This process has been stressful and exhausting, but also pretty exciting, as I’m anxious to get settled in this last adventure and get ready to settle down for retirement. I still have a lot of work ahead of me this week and even more when in the few weeks after getting there, but know that I still have FFZ in the back of my mind and that I’m anxious to get back to snapping pictures and gassing on about toys. At the same time, I’m going to allow myself to take my time getting settled and getting back into the swing of things. It will probably be a bit longer than anticipated until the actual regular content returns, but I do plan on stopping by with pictures updating as I set up new displays.
As always, thanks for visiting, and I hope to be back soon!
I can’t tell you how hard I tried to avoid this, but deep down I think I knew it was inevitable. Between closing on a house, selling this house, mountains of packing and paperwork. I just can’t spare the time to shoot pictures for content here. Not to mention right now about 80% of my collection is packed away waiting to move. When I’m not at work, I’m packing and cleaning and reviewing and signing papers. I take a couple hours before bed to wind down and zone out with a few video games or a little TV. I close on the new house in a little over two weeks, and the plan is to make the move in Mid February when my job transfers me. Yes, it’s a little over a month and a half and while that may seem like a lot of time, there’s so much to do!
I think knowing that I’m missing posts here is just causing me more stress so I’m going to go ahead and shut it down for now. Sometimes toward the end, moving can be a game of hurry up and wait, so I’m not ruling out the possibility of getting back here with something, but at this point, my expectation is that I can get things back up and running sometime in March with at least one or two regular posts a week. FFZ is hitting 15 years in 2025 and I don’t plan on letting it die after keeping it going all that time.
I want to sincerely thank everyone who stops by and sends emails or shoots the shit with me on Twitter/X. I don’t really do this for clicks and hits, so I’m always a little surprised and thrilled to see it get the traffic that it does. Especially since blogging has long since given way to video content. I really enjoy sharing my passion for plastic and I’ll get back to it as soon as I can!
Classified has been dipping into Destro’s private army of Iron Grenadiers, and I started looking at these a few weeks back with the Iron Grenadier BATs. Well, now it’s time to check out the actual Iron Grenadier Troops! Last time I mentioned how this faction came out after I had already moved on from buying GI JOE figures as a kid, so I didn’t own any of the original RAH figures, but part of the fun of collecting Classified is getting to experience some of these characters and designs for the first time. Granted, as Classified strays into the 90’s, I’ll likely start to opt out more and more, but for now these fellas are right up my alley!
Hasbro has hit peak Classified packaging with these window box designs. You still get some character art on the side, but for the most part the box lets the figure do the talking. And with a line as fantastic as Classified, that really is the best way to go about it. I love the concept of the Iron Grenadiers, as it only makes sense that Destro would have his own private forces for when shit hits the fan or when it’s finally time to depose old Bumper Face, Cobra Commander. As a kid playing with my JOEs, I would often have Cobra Civil War break out between Serpentor backed by the Crimson Guard and Cobra Commander backed by the regular Blue Shirts and Vipers. I can only imagine the fun I could have had with a three-way Civil War, adding Destro into the mix. The poor JOEs probably would have stayed in the collector case.
Out of the package, the Iron Grenadier is looking all sorts of regal. Hasbro has been doing some wonderful extrapolations of RAH figures for this line, but this is one example where they just stole the ball and ran with it. I’m a big fan of elaborate military uniforms reminiscent of the 19th Century and this guy has got it going in spades. The black overcoat with red trimmed lapels and liner, along with the gold buttons looks, parting just below the belt to reveal his gray trousers, but continuing down below the knees at the back. The gold accents extend to the tiny skull belt buckle as well as the fixtures on his baldric that holsters one of his weapons across his back. A second holster provides access to his angled pistol at the small of his back and a sword hangs off his right hip in a black and gold scabbard. This uniform design is simply amazing and Hasbro did a wonderful job realizing it in this scale. Oh and I have to compliment the work they did on the collar and necktie peeking out from the top of the jacket. It looks great!
The head is completely covered giving him an intimidating anonymity. The combination of visor and snout over the nose and mouth gives me more than a hint of Star Wars Biker Scout helmet design. The deco for the face mask continues black, red, gold, and gray color scheme from the rest of the figure. The helmet is removable, although there isn’t much going on under it, and I dig the gold mohawk-like crest at the top.
As snazzy as he may look, a troop builder still needs to have a solid weapon layout and this guy comes fully loaded, even if it is all recycled gear. So much so, that he can’t really carry everything, unless he’s going into the fight with big guns akimbo. Normally, I really expect these figures to be able to carry their own gear, but here I think a bulky backpack with guns hanging off of it would have messed up the regal military vibe they were going for, so I guess I’m OK with it. So let’s start with what he can carry, starting with the sword. I loved this weapon on the Crimson Guard and I love seeing it again, albeit this time with a golden blade. It fits perfectly into the scabbard, which plugs into the socket on his right hip.
The holsters on his back carry the same weapon designs wielded by his boss and I think these are a great pairing to include with him. The large scoped laser pistol has a bit of gold plating on the top of the barrel and it’s just a really neat sci-fi inspired design with some excellent detail in the sculpt. This one is stored angled across the back. Meanwhile, he has the smaller pistol down on the back of his belt.
The two bigger weapons include the double-barreled AR design and the SIG 338-style light machine gun. Both of these have been around a bit, but I most recently remember them paired up with Night Force Shockwave. The AR still has the hinged foregrip, but here it’s cast in red plastic, as are the bipod and ammo box on the machine gun. Thematically the red on these weapons should work, but I think it looks kind of cheap.
All nitpicks aside, these guys turned out great. In a perfect world, I think Hasbro should bundle at least one new weapon or accessory with any non-exclusive figures, but I like that he got the Destro stuff and the rest of what he got is pretty good. I actually dig these fellas more than the IG BATs and that’s saying something because I liked them a lot. I’m really trying to curb my temptations to get more of these. I wound up with three, but I really feel like I should pick up a couple more at some point down the road.
Some quick behind-the-scenes talk before today’s review! As you’ve probably noticed the midweek reviews haven’t been happening. As much as I’m trying, the demands on my time right now are too great to keep them as part of the regular rotation. It was even tough for me to get back to do this review today, and the only reason I could is because it’s a quickie. And as I move forward, it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. In addition to fighting for free time, I am also contending with having more and more of my collection getting packed away not not accessible. So, please bear with me and I’ll keep doing my best to continue to get something new here each week, even if it’s just me stopping by to talk about how things are going. At some point in February FFZ will have to go on hiatus, but hopefully it will only be for a few weeks while I get moved and settled.
OK, so a while back I checked out a pretty amazing giant vinyl Sonic The Hedgehog figure by Bellfine and commented how their Pac-Man figure was undoubtedly going to wind up in my collection eventually. Well, it did indeed just a short while later and he’s been chomping at the bit to get his time in the spotlight here. Honestly, the reason it’s taken so long as that there’s only so many ways you can photograph this guy, making for a pretty short review. But, since I’ve been crazy busy this week without a lot of time for taking pictures, he seemed like a quick and easy way to end the week!
Here he is in his massive window box and it is indeed a sight to behold. I’ll definitely be displaying him in the box, as the interior tray creates a really nice environment with the maze pattern and artwork. I’m sure I’ve talked about the early 80’s Pac-Man Phenomenon here before, but it’s worth repeating just how ridiculously invasive Pac-Man merchandising became. Even if you never set foot in an arcade, Pac-Man was everywhere! There were books and stickers and trading cards, novelty candy, ballcaps and shirts, gumball machines and board games and puzzles, plushies and keychains, there were ice cream treats and canned pasta and breakfast cereals. Everywhere you looked, Pac-Man was there, heck he even had a hit record and a Saturday Morning cartoon. I can still remember my Dad taking me to a giant flea market in NJ and one of the sellers having a whole table of bootleg Pac-Merchandise. I walked away with a massive poster-sized die-cut sticker sheet reproducing a lot of the stickers found in the wax packs. Sadly there weren’t any decent toys and that always made me sad. I can even remember making figures based on the cartoon out of Play-Doh as a substitute. Since then we’ve had some companies step up with some toy-like collectibles, particularly SH Figuarts, but I wouldn’t really call today’s figure a toy.
Like their Sonic, this is just a giant vinyl statue and he looks great. He stands with one hand on his non-existent hip and the other outstretched with a big dot-eating grin on his face. The Pacster has been depicted a whole bunch of different ways over the years (look it up, because some artistic interpretations are quite surreal!), but this is based on what is easily my favorite official artwork. Apart from the big toony boots and mittens, the detail is all in his giant face. The eyes and eyebrows are sculpted as well as painted and you get a big red tongue inside his wide black void of a mouth. I dig how his eyebrows actually form peaks almost like cat ears and his long Pinocchio-style nose. Considering all the artists had to go on was a yellow pizza missing a slice, this is a delightfully creative and endearing rendition of the famous Dot Gobbler, and tends to be the official style NAMCO tended to use for marketing.
The vinyl holds the colors really well as he is a super bright yellow with orange mittens and red boots. The black facial features offer a nice contrast to the yellow and there’s really nothing to nitpick here when it comes to quality of paint or execution. He does have a large round seam on his back, which I’m sure is necessary for the molding process. I do think it would have been cool to have them put a power pellet or something in his outstretched hand, although I could probably just make something work with a yellow Ping-Pong ball.
And if you want an idea of scale, here’s this big boi holding the SH Figuarts figure!
Pac-Man merch will always tickle my nostalgia bone something fierce and I’m always happy to see companies putting it out there. And I have to say, this Big Daddy Pac is easily the showpiece of my modest collection of yellow chompers. This particular guy has been off the market for a little while, and I really couldn’t find any examples of what he’s selling for these days. I recall paying around $100 for him on Amazon back around June. But, Bellfine is releasing a half-sized version early next year to go a little easier on the wallet and on the space he takes up and who knows, maybe I’ll end up with that one as well!
I started checking out Exo-6’s Sixth-Scale Enterprise line back in March with Captain Jonathan Archer, and I have a couple more on preorder. And while it’s been a long road getting from there to here, there was one figure that shipped in between that has yet to get the spotlight here. And believe me I feel terrible for keeping the great Jeffrey Combs waiting so long, so let’s jump right in and check out Thy’lek Shran! And I will confess that as much of a huge fan I am of Enterprise, this was the first I learned that Shran’s first name is Thy’lek. Of course, the Andorian Imperial Guard Commander was a recurring character on the series and it was fun to see his relationship with Archer turn from enemies to… well, frenemies. I don’t know that they were down for watching any water polo matches together of ice fishing in the Blue Taiga Region on Andoria, but it’s probably accurate to say they learned to respect and rely on each other. I loved seeing the updated look for the Andorians, including the wriggling antenna, and all I have to say about Jeffrey Combs is that the man elevates everything he appears in, and despite playing nearly a dozen different characters on Trek, he always manages to make each one uniquely memorable.
The package is right in line with what we saw with Archer, consisting of a window box with an outer sleeve that lifts off the top or bottom. The figure is nestled in a vac-formed plastic tray with the extra bits around him. It’s nothing terribly flashy, but it gets the job done. I will note that this is one of the few occasions where the photo on the front of the box doesn’t horribly misrepresent the figure by looking terrible, but the finished product is still lots better.
Shran comes out of the box all ready to go and I have to say Exo-6 continues to kill it with this line. Sure, you could argue that the Andorian uniform design in Enterprise isn’t the most flashy thing around, but I do love how it extrapolates the simplicity of The Original Series and just adds some texture for modern high definition screens. Here you get the slightly glossy pleather of the trousers and three-quarters of the tunic, with the other part of the tunic done in a soft, furry material, mixing future style with an almost primitive, tribal feel. Finally, the reinforced belt, shoulder strap, and armband adds that military vibe. And most curious is the complete lack of insignia, reflected in the original design. There may be nothing in this costume to get terribly excited about, but it’s executed wonderfully, with immaculate stitching and a really good fit. The boots are soft plastic and they are sculpted in one solid piece, which means they look seamless, but there isn’t much range in the ankle joint that’s buried inside. You also get a permanent hard case holster on his right hip for his sidearm.
The portrait is outstanding, both in sculpt and paint. They really nailed the likeness of Combs in the makeup, and I often wonder if that’s more or less challenging to do rather than just the straight likeness. Shran sports a powerful brow, deep set eyes, tight lips, and some rather pronounced creasing. The detail in the hair sculpt is extremely sharp and the antenna are cast in a permanent arc, almost pointing at each other. Yeah, it’s a shame they couldn’t have done them in soft plastic with wires to make them poseable. The pale blue skin tone is pitch perfect and there’s some really nice texturing to the skin itself. With over half a dozen of Exo-6’s Trek figures on my shelf, I haven’t had a lot to nitpick when it comes to the portraits, and that’s not going to change today.
If there’s one place this figure disappoints a bit is how restrictive the uniform turned out, particularly in the groin and shoulders. I expect this from a lot of Sixth-Scale lines, but the uniforms in Trek tend to be a bit more forgiving than the comic heroes and whatnot. Here it’s just a matter of the pleather not giving to allow those wide action stances I would like, at least not without feeling like I’m going to pop some stitches. I can get 90-degrees out of the shoulders, but that’s it, and I’ve already talked about the ankles. At least the knees and elbows are easy to work with! Of course, you get several set of hands, including fists, relaxed hands, trigger-finger hands, and an accessory holding hand.
Exo-6 does tend to be a little stingey and redundant with the accessories in this line, but Shran here made out pretty damn good. Starting with the least interesting piece first, you get this tiny communicator. The design mimics the retro-tech of the series pretty well and what can I say, it is what it is.
Far more interesting are Shran’s two weapons, both of which I believe were first seen in The Andorian Incident. First, he comes with a standard issue Imperial phaser pistol. It’s a super clean looking design with a silver finish, electric blue paint applied to the power coil, and some nice overall nice sculpted detail.
Secondly, he has a plasma carbine. Yes, this is technically called a rifle, but I think it qualifies more as a carbine, as it’s barely bigger than the pistol. It has a very similar design aesthetic to the pistol, right down to the silver finish and blue power coil. This one has a skeletal stock. It would have been cool to get a shoulder strap with it, so he could carry it, but I can’t remember if that was a thing in the show or not.
And finally you get a set of Ushaan-tor, which are basically serrated ice mining tools that the Andorians also used as weapons and to fight duels. These are coupled with a set of gauntlets worn on the non-blade wielding hand. These have ringlets to attach a cable, as was shown in the episode, Unity, when Shran and Archer fought each other and their gauntlets were tethered to each other. I love that these are included, and I’d love to see more one-off, episode specific, accessories like these bundled in with future figures.
And our final stop on these reviews is always the stand, and this is the same type that Exo-6 has been including with pretty much all their Trek figures, regardless of the series. I probably have enough of these now to assemble together into a transporter pad, and I’ll really have to give that a go when all these figures get unpacked again. The figure is held by a standard crotch-cradle post and you get clips to connect multiple bases together.
I was probably as surprised as anyone to see Shran released as the second figure in the Enterprise line up. I was sure that would have been either T’Pol or Tucker. Not that I was unhappy to see him, as I smashed that preorder button the moment he went up. Shran retailed at $215, which isn’t too bad for a Sixth-Scale licensed figure these days and as is the case with most of these Exo-6 Trek figures, he sold out pretty fast. So far both T’Pol and Hoshi Sato have been put up for preorder, and I do believe that T’Pol is scheduled to arrive first. And yup, I’m All-In on this line! Is it too much to dream that we’ll get a Tellarite for Shran to fight with? Probably, but you never know!
I am continuing to make it a bad habit of pushing older DC Multiverse figures out of the way in favor of new arrivals. But after having checked out the Power Girl Premium Format last week, I was hankering to open up and have a look at the new DC Multiverse New 52 Huntress. I really enjoyed World’s Finest around that time and this is a figure I was pretty excited to get my hands on! Also, I’ve begun packing away many of my loose DC Multiverse figures for the move and I’m focusing on opening some of the new ones to take a look at them here and get them packed too!
Huntress is part of the Collector Edition subline, which means she’s more expensive than the regular figures and comes in a box with some spiffy silver foil. I sort of say that in jest, but to be fair this packaging looks really nice. I am especially fond of the artwork chosen for the collector card and it is reproduced much larger for the back panel of the box. You may notice that Todd has abandoned including a collector card holder, which nobody seemed to really want, in favor of some more accessories. In this case, that includes two extra face plates (Oh yes… I said face plates, not heads!), and extra hands. I still think these figures are priced too high, but at least we’re moving in the right direction to bring the feeling of value up.
And here’s Helena out of the box and looking pretty damn fine. This costume shows a lot less skin than some, but the overall design is certainly familiar. You get the black body suit with purple boots, gauntlets, belt, and shoulder pads, along with the white cross over the upper body and white stripes on the outside of her leggings. I believe the body recycles legs from Arkham City Catwoman, and to be fair it works really well here with the purple boots making it look rather distinctive. It probably helps that I don’t actually own that figure so my eyes aren’t making that comparison on the shelf. The cape is softgoods, which helps to add to the Collector Edition sense of value. It’s a fairly light black material, light enough to be somewhat sheer. The white border is a little chunky, but it does have a rather sturdy wire running through it, which makes it lots of fun to pose.
Swappable face plates is a new thing for this line, or at least it’s the first time I’ve encountered it. It works simply enough with the face pegging into the front of the head and the transition is fairly seamless thanks to the way the hair is sculpted. The first two plates give her the extended wings on the mask, which also extends down across her chin. One of these sports a serious expression and the other a smile. I think the head sculpts are really solid and while the paint on the mask doesn’t quite line up with the sculpt lines, I think these are both pretty good.
The third option features a more abbreviated mask without the extended wings and lacking the chin piece. This one has a somewhat concerned expression and I like this one a lot too. The hair is sculpted to be blown off the shoulders and that helps to free up the neck articulation. I will say that she could have used a little more neck as the jawline feels like it’s too close to her upper body. Still, I’m pretty happy with it.
If you’ve been kicking around Todd’s DC Multiverse, you know what to expect from the articulation and yes, it’s really quite good. Huntress faces some balance problems because her feet are rather small and in high heels. Combine that with the cape and she’s probably a figure that you’ll want to use the included stand with. Still, I was able to get her to stay upright most of the time. The three pairs of swappable hands include fists, gesturing hands, and gun-holding hands.
The gun hands work with her crossbow, and this is easily the biggest disappointment here as it’s so chunky and uninteresting. The sculpt is bland and satisfies the bare minimum of what it needs to in order to look like a crossbow. I’d wager I could do better with ten minutes and a lump of Playdoh.
I’m still trying to be selective on what Collector Edition figures I buy, but Huntress was one I was never going to pass up and I preordered her right out of the gate. It would have been more prudent to wait, because she’s now turning up on sale at retailers, and I’ve seen her for as low as $17.99 since her release. But I’m not mad, because she’s a really nice figure and definitely an improvement over my oldDC Signature Series Huntress, which is looking mighty dated these days. But, maybe I could snatch that crossbow and see how it works on this release. Either way, she’s a great addition to my Multiverse shelf, or at least she would be if I weren’t dismantling them as we speak. Now bring on Power Girl!
As I continue to pack things away prior to my move early next year, access to my collection will be shrinking, thus limiting what I’ll be able to pull out for review here. I am trying to spotlight some things before they get packed away, but it won’t be possible to get everything. Classified, however, will be the last part of my collection that I box up, so you’ll likely see an increase in Classified reviews over the next couple of months. And hey, that ain’t a bad thing! And it’s likely that I’ll be missing a midweek review here and there as demands on my time increase. Anyway, the last batch of Classified that I got in was pretty Cobra focused, so let’s switch back to the good guys and take a look at Alpine today!
Once again, I find this current window box design to be peak Classified packaging. It’s pretty compact, looks great, and mostly lets the figure do the talking. I loved Alpine on the Sunbow cartoon and the original RAH figure was released at least a year before I started getting out of toys, so I couldn’t tell you why I never owned this figure as a kid. Honestly, I don’t remember ever even seeing him on the pegs, but chances are there was probably just that one figure competing with him that I wanted more. After all, 85-86 had some really heavy hitters contending for my allowance. But still, considering the living room sofa doubled as a mountain to stage many of my JOE battles, it’s bewildering to me that I never opted to get their Mountain Trooper.
Albert leans into the original figure design pretty strong. He’s got the green jacket with all sorts of reinforced patches. And instead of being all sculpted on the body like the original, we get the usual soft-vest with jacket sleeves sculpted on the arms and the illusion works fairly well here. I want to say the original figure had brown pants, whereas here we get gray. The boots are black with a green reinforced framework. The larger scale let Hasbro go all out with his gear, including a separate belt with two sculpted clusters of silver climbing hooks hanging off the sides. He’s got a chalk bag positioned in the back middle of the belt and there are various loops to attach gear to. We’ll come back to those in a bit. Finally, he has a coil of rope that rests on his shoulder and can be removed and fingerless black gloves.
Oh yeah, he’s also representing his home, Idaho with this cheesy, touristy T-shirt. It’s a wonderful little touch and I love it!
The head sculpt is OK. Again, since I didn’t own the RAH figure, I think I associate Alpine more with the cartoon than anything else so maybe that’s why this portrait isn’t a direct hit for me. It’s certainly not bad though. The ballcap is removable and the goggles can be worn up on his forehead or down over his eyes. It didn’t seem like they could comfortably fit over the cap though. The goggles have nice clear lenses and they look really good over the eyes.
Alpine’s climbing gear is mostly recreated from the RAH accessories, except you get two climbing axes instead of just one, while instead of two grappling hooks on one string you get a bigger, single hook. I’m pretty sure the climbing axes are new, or at least I haven’t seen them included with any of the figures I own. These are very nicely done with orange handles and silver painted blades. I especially love that they aren’t the same sculpt, as one has sculpted green tape near the handle. On the one hand, that’s an impressive little touch, on the other hand, it kind of makes up for the fact that they are the only new accessories included with him. Although I will toss it out there, that these look more like ice axes, but seeing as how I have lived in Florida for the last 30 years, I am in no way an expert on mountain climbing or ice, as we have none of those things here, so I may be far off base on that.
There are loops on the back of the belt that look like they are designed to hold the climbing axes, but they seem really awkward in those, so I opted to tuck them through the belts around his thighs. This method looks much more natural to me and makes Alpine a lot less likely to impale himself through the backs of his knees. That frees up any of the loops you want to hold the grappling hook, which is the same accessory that came with Arctic Storm Shadow.
His final piece of climbing gear is the rifle-style launch line, and this is the same one we saw included with the Alley Viper. I wasn’t a huge fan of this accessory with the Alley Viper, but it makes a lot more sense here. The grapple harpoon is painted orange to match the grips on the climbing axes, while the rifle is a nicely detailed sculpt and includes a scope. There’s also a loop on the gun and on the grapple to connect a piece of string, but it’s not included, so bring your own string. Now is as good a time as any to bring up the conspicuous absence of a backpack. The RAH figure came with one and it was integral to him carrying all his gear, but we don’t get one here and that seems like a really big oversight. Let’s move on to Alpine’s single weapon.
Like the grapple rifle, this assault rifle is also borrowed from the Alley Viper, which makes for a rather big departure from the submachine gun issued with the RAH figure. That weapon made more sense as it’s more compact and probably easier to handle when climbing. This one isn’t terribly large or unwieldly, but still maybe not ideal. On the other hand it’s one of my favorite weapon sculpts in the line. The detail is amazing, it’s got a drop out magazine and optics up on top. This one also has the magazine and stock painted green to give it a little character.
I like Alpine a lot, but I’m falling just short of loving him. The figure itself is fine, but I’m always a little disappointed when these guys can’t carry all their gear, and that goes double for a guy who should be able to pack all his gear while he’s climbing a mountain. The belt design doesn’t seem to really gel with the gear he has and the lack of a backpack to attach his grapple gun and rifle to is really unforgivable. I know I can’t be alone on that one, because it looks like a number of third-party talents have been 3D printing backpacks for this guy. Still, if this is what a disappointing Classified figure looks like, I’d say Hasbro is still doing pretty well. And it’s good to get Bazooka and Quick Kick reunited with their best bud.
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.
FigureFan Zero 