It’s been a little while since I checked out any Sonic the Hedgehog collectibles here. I’ve enjoyed the JAKKS Pacific line, but that has kind of dried up, or at least I haven’t seen any new sets turning up at Target. Nonetheless, The Blue Hog’s 33rd Anniversary is coming up FAST and I’ve been playing some Sonic on the SEGA Genesis this week, so… let’s dig into my backlog to look at something plastic, blue, and hedgehog shaped. And that brings us to the SoftB Sonic Vinyl figure by Bellfine, and I don’t know what most of that means. I thought Bellfine was some kind of trashy E-girl who sells her bathwater to simps, but apparently it’s a company that seems to produce mostly anime-related scaled figures. And SoftB appears to be their line of large vinyl video game figures. Sonic is the only one of these I knew about, but when I was researching it, I found out they did a Pac-Man SoftB vinyl, and I really wish I didn’t know that, because I can’t not buy it, so expect to see that show up here sometime soon.
This is a large figure, measuring in at about 12-inches tall, so it’s only natural that he that comes in an appropriately large box! And what a beautiful box it is! The front has a large window showing off the figure inside with a smaller window on top to let some light in. There’s a piece of diecut character art on the bottom right corner and some beautiful photos of the figure on the back and side panels. It’s an import, so a lot of the lettering is in Japanese, but you do get some smatterings of English here and there. There’s a thin cardboard insert behind the figure with some illustrations of the Green Hills Zone and blue checkering, which makes for an excellent backdrop if you want to display the figure with it on the shelf.
Wow, this figure feels great in hand, with a decent amount of heft for what is largely a hollow vinyl. I also can’t help but appreciate how amazing this character design works as a vinyl sculpt. I’m not always the biggest fan of this type of figure, but pairing it with retro game character designs is clearly a match made in heaven. In a pose ripped directly from the title screen of the first game, Sonic stands triumphantly, a vinyl god among hedgehogs, with his right hand on his non-existent hip, and his other scolding you with his pointy finger. It was an age of ‘Tude, and Sonic had it in spades. He chastised you just for loading up his cartridge and thinking you had the blue balls to challenge his game. This figure captures everything about Sonic perfectly, right down to the bizarre spiky back which still gives me a laugh to this day. It’s like an angle of the character that was never meant to be seen, but eventually the onset of 3D graphics and merchandising demanded it and the artists did their best. As a vinyl figure, this is decidedly a statue, with the only real points of articulation being swivels in his ankles so you can angle his feet. I’m not sure if that was intentional to help him stand, but he does that just fine without any tweaking.
The coloring here is excellent, from the royal blue of his smooth plastic fur to the pop of his giant red sneakers and yellow side buckles. His mouth, arms, and tummy are all flesh toned and you get plenty of clean white on his giant gloved hands, sock cuffs, and the bands on his shoes. The paint lines are overall pretty clean, but there are a few that could have been a bit sharper considering the price of the figure and the rather large canvas they had to work with, but it’s all still pretty good.
The portrait is a total slam dunk of ‘tudy spunk. His green eyes are perfectly printed on those vast fields of white, his black nose juts out between them, and his shallow line of a mouth forms a cocky smirk against his left cheek. The only blemish on the head is the seam that runs across behind the ears separating his face from the spikey back hemisphere. It doesn’t really detract from the figure much and I’m guessing it’s a necessary evil of working with such a big vinyl hedgehog noggin.
And if you’re looking for scale, here is SoftB Sonic towering over one of JAKKS’ 2.5-inch Sonic figures. SoftB Sonic could literally crush him under his foot like a hedgehog kaiju.
He also displays really well with the JAKKS posable Mario plush if you don’t mind putting rivals on the shelf together! Why can’t we all just get along and enjoy great games?
It feels like Sonic’s 10th Anniversary was just a short while ago, which means I’m getting old and the years are just flying by. I’ll likely pose this figure alongside the coin and soundtrack portfolio that I got way back when. These SoftB figures seem to sell at around $100 a pop. Honestly, the only reason I bought this one was because it went up for half-price around Christmas time, and I was in full-on retail-therapy mode to get me through the crushing Holiday depression. And let’s face it, $50 for a full 12-inches of vinyl hedgehog is a lot cheaper than an hour at the therapist. It probably made me a lot happier too. So, yeah, this one has been sitting around here for a while, and I decided it was well past his time in the spotlight. A very nice figure indeed, and even nicer at half the price! Even with a fair bit of plastic Sonic representation on my shelves, this one is the stand out piece in every way.
So, where am I with GI JOEUltimates? Well, I’ve checked out all of Waves 1 and 2 here, and dipped into Wave 3 with Scarlett. I was going to finish Wave 3, but let’s go nuts, jump ahead to Wave 4, and check out everyone’s favorite gumbo-slurping jarhead, Gung-Ho! I was only 11yo when the original RAH version of Gung-Ho came out. I’m pretty sure I got him for Christmas along with the Dragonfly, because I remember constantly having him hanging off the landing skids as Wild Bill flew him into battle. I really liked his figure a lot, and constantly had him casting off his grenade launcher and punching out Cobra’s left and right. I was also a big fan of him in the Sunbow cartoon because he was tough but kind of a goof. Needless to say, I was glad to see him land in Wave 4 and I’m excited to check him out!
Super7’s packaging for this line has been suffering a death by a thousand cost-cuts. Originally, they came in brown cardboard mailers and with illustrated camo sleeves over the window box, but now both of those have been nixed. Also, the boxes themselves are now matte and no longer have that plastic sheen. It’s kind of a shame, but then these running changes convinced me to dump the packages for this line, so at least I have more space as a result. In fairness, the presentation still looks solid, you still get some nice character art and a bio blurb on the back panel, and the window shows off the figure and all the extras really well.
And here he is out of the box and looking like he jumped off a Sunbow animation cell. From the waist down, he’s got his trademark blue and green camo trousers with high laced boots, and a pouch sculpted to his right thigh. From the waist up, he’s bare armed, bare chested and wearing only a blue vest to match his trousers. The vest is cast in soft plastic and actually worn by the figure, which looks great. It looks like it would be not a big problem to get it off, but I’m content to not try. And of course, we get his chest tattoo printed onto his already intimidating physique.
You get three heads to choose from, including a neutral expression and a smiling expression, both with his green Marine cap as part of the sculpt. The first really nails his look in the cartoon wonderfully. The second head is pretty cheesy, but in a charming sort of way. We’re back to the fully painted skin tone and the facial features are sharp.
The third head features a shouting expression and comes without his hat and with a headband in its place, and I can’t for the life of me remember what episode of the cartoon or issue of the comic this look is based on. Hopefully someone will help me out on that. I do tend to watch an episode of the GI JOE cartoon almost every week, but there are a handful of episodes I will watch over and over and obviously, the episode this head appeared in isn’t one of them. Either way, it’s a great sculpt, but I would have rather had the shouty head with his regular hat on.
There are no surprises in the articulation, as it sticks close to what we’ve been seeing for most of the guys, for better and for worse. As usual, all the points are there, but you don’t get those double-hinges in the knees and ankles like you do with Classified. I was curious to see how the ab crunch hinge would look on his bare upper body, and with the vest concealing most of it, it looks just fine. I had no issues with any of the joints on my figure, with nothing stuck or too loose. Naturally, you get a bunch of hands, which include fists, relaxed hands, a right gun-holding hand, and a pair of green gloved hands. Sadly, he does not come with a hand to thumb his nose at Cobra Commander, but even if he did, I’m not sure the articulation would have allowed it.
Moving on to his gear, Gung-Ho comes with a large backpack, modeled after the one that came with his original figure and it’s even colored in a blue-green finish to match the original accessory, rather than match the more cartoon accurate fatigues. The securing straps and configuration of the side pockets match the original accessory and the folding entrenching tool is present on the lower, back pouch but here it’s actually painted in silver and brown. Like all the previous backpacks we’ve seen in this line, this one is actually worn by the figure with shoulder straps, and I dig that so much more than it just pegging into a hole in the back.
Also referencing the original figure is his grenade launcher, and it is a pretty faithful update to that weapon. It’s cast all in black plastic, has a soft plastic carry strap, and a ribbed fore grip. I don’t recall him ever really having this in the cartoon, but it certainly was his trademark weapon when it came to the figures, and my Gung-Ho blew the piss out of a lot of Cobra troopers with it!
If you want to arm him with something more traditional, he also comes with the M16 style rifle, and yes we’ve seen this same accessory packed in with Scarlett. It’s a great looking weapon, despite being a little warpy in the barrel. At the same time, it feels a little out of place with the cartoon aesthetic, and I would have rather had another one of the laser rifles instead, or in addition to.
Finally, you get a pair of episode specific accessories from the cartoon. The first comes from the original Miniseries, and it’s the little toy Wolverine tank, which Gung Ho picked up and started playing with while the JOEs were trying to fool cobra into thinking they were surrendering by filming a miniature scale diorama. I’m really glad they included this, because that’s just such a fantastic scene! The cartoon definitely had a tendency to go too goofy, but this was a case where I think it was just the perfect level of goofiness.
Next is a big crystal, which I’m thinking is supposed to be one of Cobra’s explosive crystals from Captives of Cobra, where Cobra brainwashed a bunch of the JOEs families and Gung-Ho had to drive the explosive crystals to a safe place without them blowing up. I’m also thinking that the gloved hands were made for handling the crystal, as they seem to be sculpted to cradle it.
And that’s our lovable jarhead from the bayou. I think this figure came out great and he looks amazing displayed with the rest of the Super7 JOEs. My only real nitpick is that I wish the shouting head had his regular hat sculpted on it, because I don’t have much use for the one with the headband. And yeah, I would have liked the standard issue JOE laser rifle, even though the M16 is pretty cool. Honestly, Gung-Ho’s load out felt like it could have used a third weapon anyway. I think this wave was part of Super7’s attempt to push collectors to go all in on the wave in order to get a bonus accessory pack, so maybe that’s part of it. Still, I’m really happy to add Gung-Ho to the Ultimates shelf! And since I jumped ahead to Wave 4 for today’s review, I’ll have to backtrack to Wave 3 next week!
Exo-6 has been making Sixth-Scale Star Trek figures for quite a while now, but oddly enough they went in hard with Voyager. Now, I’ve learned to look a lot more fondly on Voyager when I see what passes for Star Trek these days, but still not enough to pay $200+ a pop on Voyager figures, even though I think they look amazing. But when Exo-6 started tapping into Deep Space Nine, I was all like, Shut up and take my Gold-pressed Latinum! So far I’ve checked out Captain Sisko and Quark, and now it’s time for DS9’s second in command, Major Kira Nerys.
I love Kira as a character and I love Nana Visitor’s portrayal of her. I don’t want to go all political here, but Kira managed to project herself as a strong woman without having to resort to the tired girlboss tropes that are so commonplace today. She was opinionated, independent, sensitive, passionate, impulsive, and nearly all of this was conveyed beautifully in the first handful of episodes. But that’s what you get when you pair great writing with talented actors. Anyway, I was extremely excited to get this figure, so let’s get to it… The packaging is nice, albeit rather straight forward. You get a window box with a sleeve over it, much like what Hot Toys has been doing for a lot of their stuff. I often lament about how expensive figures should come with some higher quality presentation, but as I get older I care about that sort of thing a lot less. One odd quirk about Exo-6 is that their habit of using less-than-stellar pictures of the figure on the box, which seldom live up to the quality of what we actually get and that trend continues here. Everything about the packaging is collector friendly, and Kira arrives all ready for display.
Exo-6’s Captain Sisko, and the rest of the DS9 Starfleet Officers we’ve been shown, reference Season 5 onward by wearing the Starfleet uniforms that debuted in the movie, First Contact. Eventually, Kira would wear one of those uniforms, but I’m glad they didn’t go that route for her figure… at least not yet. What we got is her Bajoran Militia uniform, and I’m pleased with that. It’s changed a bit over the Seasons, I think this is about middle-of-the-series design, and it still works in context with the Starfleet figures. I’ll also note that they resisted the urge to maker her preggers, which she was in Season 5, although if you’re a talented customizer, maybe you can make that work. The uniform is mostly crafted in a very soft and stretchy red cloth, while the shoulders and arms are tailored in a heavier cloth with a printed crisscross pattern. The tailoring is immaculate and the stretchy parts of the uniform fits the figure perfectly. The thicker sleeves can come off as a bit baggy in some poses, but it’s not something that I’m too concerned over. The boots are cast in a reddish-brown soft plastic with high heels and the pants remain tucked in nicely. Both her comm badge and her collar rank are sculpted in plastic and she has a pleather-type belt with a molded holster for her phaser. It doesn’t look like the phaser holster is easily removable, which is something I would have liked to see, as she obviously didn’t wear it most of the time. On the other hand, probably would have always displayed it on her anyway.
I don’t think the portrait here is quite the slam dunk we got with Sisko and Quark, but I do think it’s a solid effort. The biggest issue I have with it is that under certain lighting the lines under her eyes look a lot more prominent than they should, which in turn makes her look older than she should. Maybe it’s because I always found Visitor to be really attractive as Kira and I just think this sculpt could have been a little more flattering to her. It’s not nearly as noticeable to me when I’m not punching in close under bright lights, but it is there, nonetheless. Otherwise, I think the eyes are painted very well and they nailed the mouth, and the nose makeup beautifully. Exo-6 has also shown quite the eye for the subtle art of creating realistic skin tones, and that’s certainly the case here. The hair is also a great sculpt, and while Kira has had a few different styles throughout the series, I think this one suited her best. Of course, her earring is recreated with some lovely detail, complete with the chain that clasps on to the top of her ear. Like I said, I think this portrait is solid work, but falls a little short of what we’ve seen with the first two figures.
As for articulation, I can’t be sure about exactly what’s going on under that uniform, but I know I like it. Kira has a lot more range of motion than Sisko or Quark and I attribute that to the lack of padding under the clothes, as well as the use of a more stretchy cloth. Now, with that having been said, I still tend to be cautious when posing her, because I don’t want to get the material snagged in her joints. Which brings me to have to point out that the thin costume material does betray the jointing going on under them, particular the knees. Because of the high boots, you will not always be able to get her feet flat on the floor in wider stances, but she does balance pretty well, despite the high heels. Hands include: Fists, relaxed hands, splayed finger hands, a right phaser hand and a left hand for holding the PADD.
As for accessories, there’s a lot of “been there, done that” with the inclusion of a Starfleet issue PADD and Tricorder, These are both nice accessories and Exo-6 certainly has them perfected by now. The Tricorder continues to use the clever magnet design so it can be displayed opened or closed, rather than bother with a fragile hinge. But, I think Exo-6 cheaped out here by not giving us a Bajoran Tricorder and a Bajoran PADD. Accessories tend to be limited with these releases, and I think the cost really warranted going the extra mile here. I’ll also add that while the Phaser hand works OK for the Tricorder, I would have liked a more dedicated hand for that piece of equipment.
Thankfully, they did include her Bajoran Phaser, which fits into the holster on her belt. I’ve always liked this design and still have the toy version that Playmates produced back in the day. Exo-6 did a wonderful job recreating it here with some nice sculpted detail and lots of paint hits. The dedicated hand works really well with it too.
And finally, you get the same Transporter Pad style stand we’ve been seeing with all of these releases, but with one difference. Kira gets a waist ring on top of the post instead of a crotch cradle. I’m not entirely sure why they did this, but I would have preferred the crotch cradle, as I worry about the waist loop damaging the uniform over time. Otherwise, I like these stand designs. There’s also a transparent character card that can be clipped onto the stand, but I don’t bother with these.
I hope it didn’t sound like I came down too hard on Kira, because truth be told I do really love this figure. I think it’s probably a testament to how amazing Exo-6’s Star Trek figures tend to be that even a really good figure garners some criticism by comparison. I had precious little to nitpick when it came to Sisko or Quark, but Kira wound up earning a few quibbles, which I think were justified. The good far outweighs the problems, but if I were to lean hard on something it would be the accessories. She really needed more Bajoran equipment. And not offering an Essentials version with a Celestial Orb feels like a colossal misstep. Oh, and for the record, if they redo Kira in the Starfleet Uniform with the super cute hairstyle, I’d be on board for it. In the meantime, Odo should be up for release any time now, my preorder for Dr. Bashir is locked in, and I do believe a certain Trill will be dropping for preorder next!
Where am I at with Marvel Legends these days? Well, still being extremely picky over new releases and buying others as they hit clearance. Case in point, with the new Zabu Wave, I only preordered one figure and as you can tell by the title, it was Cable. I may pick up Black Winter and Wolfsbane, but that’s all I’m really willing to pay full price for out of this assortment. We’ve had three versions of Cable released in the modern Legends line: One in the Sasquatch Wave, One in the Juggernaut Wave, and the MCU Version. One might think I’d be all Cabled out, but there was no way I was passing on him in the iconic blue and yellow jammies.
We’ve been back to the window boxes for at least a few waves now. Maybe more… I haven’t been watching too closely. The package let’s you get a great look of the figure and accessories, as well as part of Zabu’s leg, which kind of looks like fried chicken. There’s some nice character art on the side panels and the back shows you who you need to buy to complete the wave.
And here’s Cable all decked out in The Team’s colors and looking sharp as all hell! Hasbro gets away with using a mostly generic buck, with the obvious exception of the cybernetic left arm. The bulk of the body is cast in blue plastic, with the boots and feet cast in yellow and a little paint above the lower leg swivel to help the boots reach up to the sculpted knee pads. And they did a pretty decent job of matching the yellow paint to the plastic, which couldn’t have been all that easy as it was going over blue. The belt and shoulder straps are all one piece, cast in soft plastic and worn by the figure. This includes some sculpted pouches and the black on red X symbols on the belt buckle and up high near his shoulders. Finally there are a pair of wrist cuffs and thigh straps with more pouches, all cast in soft plastic and worn by the figure as well. The thigh straps stay put pretty well by friction, but you have to be careful of those wrist cuffs when swapping hands. All in all it’s a clean and simple comic look and the blue and yellow deco is positively smashing!
The head sculpt is new and I’d definitely rank it as at the top of my list of Hasbro’s best. The skin tone looks great, especially with the ever so subtle dusting of whiskers. His manly chiseled features include a slab of chin and a strong jawline, some wonderful creasing in his brow, and the distinct folds running from his nose and framing his dour, downturned mouth. The left eye has a techno-organic glow created by a burst of translucent yellow plastic, similar to the figure from the Sasquatch Wave. And boy did they do a great job with the grizzly crisscrossing scars over his right eye. Finally, his white coif is cast as a separate piece of plastic, which gives us that immaculate hair line that I love so much. I can’t say enough great things about this portrait, Hasbro positively nailed it!
This figure holds no surprises when it comes to articulation, as he has all the usual points. One thing that is a tad disappointing is the use of pins in just the right arm. The legs are pinless, as is the cybernetic arm, so at least we’re three out of four, but having one throwback limb is a shame. On the upside, I really love the work they put into the cybernetic arm sculpt with the ribbons of metallic muscle. The finish is really nice too. You get two sets of hands, which include a right fist, a left graspy hand and a pair of gun-toting hands.
And yes, you get guns! These are both interesting sculpts with a futuristic sci-fi flavor, kind of halfway between big pistol and short rifle. One has a double-barrel and the other has what looks like a chaingun barrel. They are each cast in that sort of cheap looking gray plastic Hasbro rolls out now and again, with some black paint hits. I like them both well enough, but I would have liked them more with some silver paint. I also would have liked to see a BFG-style rifle here, but I can always loan him one from a previous Cable.
Cable here is proof positive that Hasbro can still tempt me with full price Marvel Legends, and also impress me when I do decide to buy them. Granted, I was the target audience for this figure, because I’ve been wanting a classic blue-and-yellow suit Cable for a while. Yes, the pins in the one arm are nagging me a bit, and the guns could have been a bit more spectacular, but there’s still a lot to love here. The head sculpt is an absolute homerun and the blue and yellow plastic pops beautifully. Plus, he’s just loads of fun to play with. So much so, that this figure will be probably stay on my desk within arm’s reach for at least a week or so before he finally Body Slides over to the display shelves.
So many great Classified figures have been pouring in and I’m so woefully far behind. I could probably review a different Classified figure every day for the next two weeks and still not be close to current. And with so many awesome figures waiting their turn, I decided to just randomly grab one off the stack of recent arrivals. And the winner is Quick Kick!
And we are officially back to window boxes! Now, I didn’t totally hate the enclosed boxes and the cardboard foot lockers were kind of neat. But, I will not miss having to go through those tissue baggies with a magnifying glass to make sure I’m not throwing out an accessory. Here we get everything laid out in the tray, a great look at the actual figure, and even some fantastic character art too! I’m pretty torn on Quick Kick as a character. Some of that comes from me preferring the shooty side to GI JOE as opposed to the Ninjas and Kung Fu stuff. But with Quick Kick, I was just not a big fan of how the Sunbow cartoon treated his character as a wisecracking actor obsessed with old movies and doing bad impressions. It’s especially unfortunate when you consider how interesting the figure’s File Card was regarding his mixed heritage being the inspiration for his martial arts training. It’s also worth noting that 1985 was an absolute banger year for JOE figures and Quick Kick kind of got pushed down on my want list, buried by a lot of other figures. But I got him eventually and I definitely had fun with him, giving him a very different personality than the cartoon version. So, let’s see how the Classified version turned out…
As has been the trend lately, Quick Kick sticks pretty close to the original RAH figure, which itself wasn’t too far off from what we saw on the cartoon. Quick Kick’s uniform consists entirely of a pair of black martial arts pants with some gray printing on the sides, a gray belt with some sculpted pouches, two gray wrist cuffs, and a shuriken-studded red baldric. He’s showing more skin than any JOE so far with some wonderfully sculpted muscles in the upper body and newly sculpted bare feet. The printed pattern on the gray side panels of his pants is crisp and you get a little silver paint for the belt buckle. The baldric is the biggest departure here, as both the RAH figure and the cartoon design had it running straight down from his left shoulder and into his pants. Here it runs across his chest and back and under his right arm. I think this design makes more sense, especially since it’s actually worn by the figure and not just part of the body sculpt. There’s some stitching sculpted into the sides, and I really love how the shuriken are sculpted to look like they are tucked into pockets, rather than just stuck on magically.
You get two head sculpts to choose from, the first being a neutral expression, and I really like what they did with it. There’s a lot of personality in this portrait. It leans into the cartoon likeness a bit, but still manages to be its own thing. The hair is sculpted separately from the head with his head band included as part of it. There’s a little slop between the hair strands and the white band, but you have to get in pretty close to see it.
The second head is good too, but I would have much rather had something close to the artwork on the box over this one. He’s got one eye brow arched a bit more than the other and his lips are kind of pursed like he’s about to whistle. “You know how to whistle, don’t you Quick Kick? You just put your lips together and blow.” Yeah, I’m not sure they were going for the Humphrey Bogart reference. It kind of looks like he’s out shopping for a car and the dealer just told him the price and it’s a lot more than he was hoping for. Or maybe he just hit his pinkie toe on the coffee table and he’s waiting to feel it.
The articulation in this line has been consistently great and that’s certainly the case with Quick Kick. He features the usual double hinges in the elbows and knees, swivels in the biceps and thighs, hinged pegs for the wrists, along with hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. You get a swivel in the waist and the ab crunch hinge isn’t terribly jarring to look at despite his bare upper body. The neck is ball jointed both top and bottom and you get the lateral crunches in the shoulders, along with the regular rotating hinges, and the hips are ball jointed. He is super fun to play with and even has a very nice balance. Quick Kick comes with three sets of hands: Fists, karate chop hands, and accessory holding hands.
The RAH figure came with a black backpack that you could stick his sword through, but here it’s been recolored to red to match the baldric, and it comes with two slots for swords, because Classified Quick Kick has double the sword count! The swords are twins and have some great sculpted detail on the pommels and grips. The blades are painted silver and have slightly curved blades and narrow fullers.
He also has four loops on the back of his belt to hold two sets of nunchucks. It works well and reminds me of a Michelangelo figure from Playmates TMNT line. The chucks themselves have pommels and grips that match the swords, and I thought that was a cool little touch. The chains are plastic, and while that’s not usually ideal, the plastic is very pliable and doesn’t look like it’ll suffer from stress marks are breakage. They pose well and I’m happy with the way these turned out.
Two final accessories include a thrown shuriken effect piece and a Fudgie Bar. The first is cast in translucent blue plastic with the shuriken itself painted silver. I like what they were going for here, but I don’t think the effect works all that well. At least, to me it doesn’t really look like he’s throwing it, but your mileage may vary. The partially unwrapped Fudgie Bar is really well done and they even sculpted the little breakaway cubes that make up the candy bar. It’s interesting that Hasbro is now throwing cartoon specific accessories in with Classified, as that’s been Super7’s wheelhouse, but it’s fun that they did.
Yes, Quick Kick was pretty far down my list of anticipated figures, but I think it’s a credit to how great the line is that I was always going to buy him anyway. And I am sure glad he did, because he turned out great. The minor changes made to his design work really well and the fact that he has places to store both sets of weapons is a big plus in my book. And he’s already got his buddy Bazooka here, plus Hasbro just dropped a preorder for Alpine, so he’s going to be in great company on my shelf!
After a little segue last time to check out the Dark Templar Legion Builder, today I’m headed back into the Poxxus Wave to open another figure from Mythic Legions most recent assortment. This time we’re going big with the Demon King Azahazzar! And just to show you that The Four Horsemen aren’t making up all the canon as they go along, Azahazzar and Poxxus were both name dropped all the way back in the original Kickstarter. When Poxxus summoned the Demon King, Azahazzar to the realm of Mythoss he was split into two twin demons, Azhar and Zazhar. But, when Poxxus returned to Mythoss, he used his power to join them together once again as Azahazzar! I only own one of the two twins, Zazhar, and I reviewed him back in 2021. He actually didn’t make the cut when I was budgeting my original preorder, but I grabbed him when he came back in one of the All-Star Waves. Meanwhile, Azhar still eludes me, and I’m OK with that, since he’s mostly just a repaint and my action figure dollars can only stretch so far. Anyway, let’s check out this big boy!
As a bigger figure, Azahazzar comes in a box, rather than the usual card and bubble. But, we’ve seen these larger boxes many times here, so there’s nothing really new. It is collector friendly and there’s a little bio on the side panel recounting most of what I already talked about. Azahazzar is part of the Ogre Class, which makes him considerably taller than the regular releases, but still not as big as the infamous Trolls.
And Azahazzar is indeed a gloriously evil looking and imposing beastie. From the waist up, he’s mostly in the buff, but he does have some beautifully sculpted shoulder armor and some purple bracers worn on his forearms. His chiseled demon physique is pretty impressive and I absolutely love what they did with the paintwork for his skin. It’s a chalky black with some green highlights suggesting that he is positively oozing demonic power. He also has jagged green fissures painted on his upper arms, neck and upper chest, depicting pulsing veins of power. Down below he has a chonky belt with plated hip armor and a softgoods purple sash and skirt. His lower legs are clad in plate armor and terminate in large hooves, also painted with an ethereal green glow!
The belt is dominated by a large visage of Poxxus himself, and this is a beautiful sculpt, painted over in bronze with red bulging eyes. The belt has all the little rivets and fixtures painted, along with the brown straps. As we’ve seen, TFH are really pushing the softgoods on these newer figures, and here the purple skirt and front sash are beautifully stitched and have some wire for posing or just giving them some weight to help fall more naturally.
And that brings us to the head sculpt, and this is just a superb piece of work! I can definitely see the design lineage trace back to the twins, only with a lot more detail, as it is a larger noggin. Some of the painted green veins are actually sculpted into deep fissures in his skin, particularly above the eyes and around the mouth. His deep set eyes are also painted in the same green and without pupils, giving him a piercing gaze. The top of the head tapers outward to accommodate the four ram-like horns that curve upward and outward majestically. These too are painted with more of that ethereal green. The neck and head are framed by those sweeping and organic shoulder armor pieces and if you look close you can even see some small runes sculpted into them and painted with more green.
Azahazzar comes with two translucent green magic effect parts, which can be attached to his wrists by popping off the hands and bracers. These can be fitted on with the flames pointing inward or outward for different effects.
And finally, he comes with a staff. The shaft of this is made up of two pieces that fit together, and these appear to be the same ones used for several of the past Ogre Class figure weapons. The top piece of the staff is made up of two large translucent spheres, one yellow and one blue, signifying the colors of the twin demons he was split into. I do have a bit of a problem with the top piece not fitting onto the staff all that securely. It will stay on, but it could get jostled off pretty easily. I will likely wind up gluing it to the staff.
And with Azahazzar, The Poxxus Wave has given us two very impressive Ogre Class figures, the first being the Dragon Man, Aracagorr. I do enjoy that this figure’s backstory ties all the way back to figures released in the very first Kickstarter, but even without that callback, he’s a magnificent piece of work. I actually couldn’t budget this big fella when I locked in my preorders for this wave, but luckily he was available after the fact and I was able to pick him up without getting beat up too badly on the price. I’m definitely glad I went back for him, because he’s going to be an imposing presence on my Mythic Legions demon shelf!
We started this week with the DC Multiverse Plastic Man Wave, so we might as well finish with it too. If you’re just joining me, feel free to click on back to Monday to get caught up, otherwise we have two more figures to check out and then we can cobble together the Collect-To-Build Plastic Man and put this whole wave to bed. Let’s go…
As I mentioned last time, this assortment is supposed to be JLA inspired, but it’s pretty inconsistent on that front. Aquaman was a perfect fit, but John Stewart didn’t belong here, and we’re kind of going to have a similar issue today, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The figures come in the usual big window boxes and while I love these packages, I don’t have the room to keep them, so they get recycled. And that’s just as well since you have to rip apart that beautiful blue backing to get at the figure stand and collector card anyway. As for the Collect-To-Build figure, we got the regular arms and legs with the last two figures, and this time we’re getting Plastic Man’s torso, two heads, and some extra arms. Let’s start with Superman!
I can’t say I was the biggest fan of the stories involving Superman divided into his Red and Blue suits, but I do think these make for some beautiful action figures, and that is certainly the case here. Supes’ blue energy suit is achieved entirely through paint and colored plastic, as this is just a generic figure buck, but boy does the deco really sell this one! The electric blue plastic is so vibrant and when you mix it with the super bright white paint and jagged S-shields, both front and back, you get a figure that can really demand attention on the shelf, even without any unique sculpting on the body. The paint lines are nice and sharp and you get the outer pins painted as they should be, which may sound like a strange thing to point out, but it’s something Hasbro often doesn’t get right in Marvel Legends.
The head sculpt is superb. I thought this one might be re-sculpted from Firestorm, but I haven’t opened him yet to really check. His skin is painted a paler blue than the suit with a shock of electric blue hair up top. The face has some wonderfully defined features, with the white cowl shaping the edges and accentuating his cheek bones, and a slight wrinkle to the brow. The white, pupil-less eyes give him an otherworldly visage. The eyebrows are neatly painted and there’s a slightly darker shade of blue for the lips. So far, this wave is definitely three out of three when it comes to the portraits.
There’s no surprises in the articulation and you only get the single pair of hands, both balled up into fists as they should be. You do, however, get four electric effect parts which are designed to attach to the figure’s limbs. I’m pretty sure these are recycled, perhaps from one of The Flash figures, only recast in translucent white plastic. I wouldn’t say these were necessary, but I think they’re a good inclusion and look very nice on the figure. So many of my effect parts wind up in a bin, but I may actually display these on the figure.
I missed out on Mattel’s DC Universe Classics version of this Superman, and while that’s bugged me for a while, I’m OK with it now. I just like the look of this one so much better. A flight stand would have been a nice inclusion but I don’t think we tend to get those in Collect-To-Build Waves. I’ll also point out how odd it is that the collector card doesn’t reflect this version of Superman in any way, but hey… McFarlane gonna McFarlane. And speaking of which, Todd decided to make the Red Suit counterpart a Platinum Exclusive and it’s going for crazy money on the secondary market, so thanks so much for that! Moving on to Batman…
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one disappointed to see that the JLA version of Batman included in this wave was just a straight repaint of The Three Jokers Batman. With early teased images hitting, I was hoping that we’d at least get some retooling and a new head, but nope… this is a straight repaint and that’s just crazy lazy on McFarlane’s part. And with that being said, it pains me to admit how much I dig this release. Don’t get me wrong, this really doesn’t work for me as the intended version, but I just love the way the black and brighter yellow looks on this figure. I have yet to review the previous release of this mold, but I will drop in a comparison shot at the end.
A new head sculpt would have helped, as the little bat nub ears don’t work at all and it could have used a lot less texturing on the cowl. I’m sure there’s another Bats head out there that would have worked better. But you would have to re-sculpt the arms and lower legs too, and I doubt any of that was ever on the table. I dig the sculpt on the lower half of the face, offering a very pouty and super serious caped crusader.
And to add recycled insult to repacked injury, you get the bat grapple gun that we’ve seen a bunch of times already bundled in with the figure. I feel like I have a dozen of these, but in reality probably only two or three.
I don’t hate this figure at all. I actually kind of love it, but I also don’t like the business practice behind it. It’s just a lazy way to toss a figure into the assortment with some new paint and pretend it fits the theme you’re going for. Plus, it probably means we won’t be seeing a proper JLA styled Batman in this line for a while. When you consider how this line butters its bread with Batman variants, it’s a shame McFarlane couldn’t have put some effort into this one. OK, onward to the real reason this wave had me all excited… Plastic Man!
My original love for Plastic Man didn’t come from his comic book appearances, but rather from the Ruby/Spears Plastic Man Comedy Adventure Show. Granted, Plastic Man, and his smoking hot wife Penny, was only part of the show, as it also featured segments of Mighty Man and Yukk, Fangface and Fangpuss, and Rickety Rocket. And the real treat came when it hit syndication and you got surreal intros and outros featuring a live action Plastic Man. Like Blue Energy Superman, I missed out on getting Mattel’s DC Universe Classics version of Plastic Man back in the day, so grabbing this one was a big deal for me. And for the most part, this figure definitely scratches that itch. The edges between the suit and his skin is sculpted, as are the laces, and that’s the case both on the upper body and the abs. The feet are probably new too. I’m not sure how I feel about the break in the torso for the ball joint. It definitely improves articulation, but it messes with the flow of the chest sculpt. I might have been fine with him just having a ball joint in the waist to clean that up, but either way it’s a compromise. The flesh tone looks good, as does the bright red for the suit. He’s got some yellow striping on the black belt and the black laces over his chest are pretty sharp.
You get two heads to choose from and both are full of that patented Plastic Man charm. The first one offers a big toothy grin with his trademark white rimmed goggles. The black lenses have some stylized reflections painted onto them, which looks good. The hair is sculpted separately from the rest of the head, giving him a clean hairline. I love what we got here, but I don’t love the huge gap where the neck fits into the body. What happened here? Why is the neck hole so big? It just looks weird.
The second head has a crazy curvy neck and a pretty comical scowl on Plastic Man’s plastic puss. One of his goggled eyes is popped while the other is narrowed. It’s a wonderful caricature while also showing off his plasticky skills. And lest you thought the neck hole was big to accommodate this head… nope. The base of the neck is no thicker here and that gap is still there and as distracting as ever. I honestly can’t imagine what happened there.
Plastic Man features all the usual DC Multiverse articulation. The arms and legs assemble to the body easily and they stay put just fine. You get just the one set of hands to work with his regular arms, with the right being a fist and the left a grippy hand, despite him not coming with any accessories to hold.
But you do get a pair of swap out stretch effect arms. These are pretty cool and are really what justifies him being a Collect-To-Build figure. The right arm is formed into a makeshift lasso, while the left arm is stretched out and the hand is enlarged. These are fun to mess around with, although I can’t help but wonder if we’ll see this figure released with even more limbs as a stand alone somewhere down the road.
Obviously I’m a big fan of DC Multiverse, as I have a ton of these figures, but this wave is a great example of why McFarlane gets a lot of justifiable hate. Tossing a JLA Wave out there with a mismatched Green Lantern and a straight repaint of a Batman figure that doesn’t work as the version you’re portraying just reeks of lazy cash grab. It’s even more heinous when you make them part of a Collect-To-Build wave that everyone is going to want to complete. And sure, in my case it worked, partly because I absolutely needed this Plastic Man, and partly because I still genuinely like all the figures in this wave. Call me part of the problem if you must, I wanted better, but I’m still pretty happy with what we got here.
Storm Collectibles is without a doubt my premier go-to for video game figures these days. From Golden Axe to Mortal Kombat to King of Fighters, they are crushing it with their releases. And a short while ago they started digging into one of my favorite fighting franchises, Soul Calibur! I was first introduced to this series in the lobby of the local AMC movie theater, but I truly fell in love with it as a launch game for the SEGA Dreamcast. It was probably the first time I ever played a home port of a game that was actually significantly better than a current arcade release. The franchise has remained pretty consistent over the years with Soul Calibur VI hitting my PlayStation 4 in 2018. Wow, has it really been so long? Storm started this line with Taki and Mitsurugi, and today we’re checking out Taki!
Taki, the beautiful and heroic ninja warrior, has been with the series all the way back to Soul Edge, making her a good pick for one of the premier figures. Sure, I would have preferred Sophita, but that’s just because I really dig Sophitia. Taki comes in a collector friendly window box, which is pretty standard stuff for Storm’s game figures. The character art does obscure nearly a quarter of the window, but you can still get a pretty good look at what’s inside. It’s a little more compact than some of their other packages, and I appreciate that because I’ll likely be keeping this box!
Out of the box, Taki dons her modern look from the 6th installment, which definitely shares design beats from her earlier appearances, but also reflects the better detail in the costume that improvements in graphics allowed. So, let’s get the obvious out of the way first, Taki is sporting some fully erect nipples on her rather profound chest, and all I’ll say is that it was an interesting choice to go with. Yes, they are sort of there in the game’s character model, but I don’t remember it being quite to this extent. I’ll have to do some research this weekend and play some of the game to see. With that aside, she has her trademark skin tight crimson body suit with a brown leather half-jacket complete with boob window. She also sports some demon hunting armor bits on her shoulders, knees, lower legs, and left arm. On her back she carries her swords, Rekki-Maru and Mekki-Maru in their scabbards.
There is some absolutely gorgeous detail work in the armor pieces, as well as the ornamental work on the scabbards. The armor is mixed between silver and more tarnished finishes, all of which are dry brushed to give them some weathering. I really love the demon head shoulder pieces, as well as the one that clasps her jacket together under her neck. The jacket is a rich chocolate brown with some soft stitching in the sculpt, you also get some braided detail in the straps for her sandals. Other wonderful little touches include the gold band around her left bicep and the little studded bangles around her right wrist.
There are two heads included, one with a neutral expression and one with a shouty expression. Both of these are well done with immaculate paint for the eyes and lips. The hair is a separate sculpt and it falls beautifully down each side of her face, with some strands over her forehead and eyes. The back is tied into a ponytail, jutting out rather high off the back of her head, and secured with an adorable little devil horns fixture.
You also get the demon mask, which is cast in soft plastic and painted with a bit of silver dry brushing to show wear. This piece fits over the lower half of the face and is held on with friction. It works OK, but I find that it does slip a bit now and then. Because the mouth area is open you can still get the benefits of using it with either head and see the difference in the mouth. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to display her with or without the mask yet.
As for posability, well Storm delivers that in spades. Their bodies continue to feature one of my favorite systems of articulation in this scale. The jointing works smoothly and the double joints in the shoulders and elbows offer a great range of motion, as do the ball joints in the waist and under the chest. The ball joints in the ankles help to keep the feet flat on the ground, or you can use the articulated toe hinges for a more dynamic footing. The balance is definitely there too, as I had little trouble keeping Taki upright in any number of poses. She’s just an absolute pleasure to play aroune with.
Of course, Storm is big on hands. Lots and lots of hands! There are six pairs here total, which include fists, relaxed hands, gripping hands, and three different types of gesture hands. Getting some of these on for the first time can be a little fiddly as the wrist peg is super small, but ultimately it works fine. The bangles on her right wrist are separate pieces, so you do have to be careful not to lose them when changing that hand.
Finally, Taki comes with her two swords, Rekki-Maru and Mekki-Maru, which we’ve seen fit easily into the scabbards on her back and work with the two gripping hands. The differences in the two weapons is pretty subtle, but they have great paintwork and sculpts on the hilts and the short blades are painted silver.
As one of Storm’s debut Soul Calibur figures, Taki really delivers on the whole package. You get a fantastic sculpt, great paintwork, and superb articulation. Even nipples! These figures feel so great in hand with smooth joints and that are easy to work with and make for a fun figure that’s hard to put down. She retails at $100 and is still available at the time I’m posting this review. I believe she’s still a Big Bad Toystore Exclusive in the US, as BBTS continues to be the only licensed distributor for their figures in America. We’ve yet to see any forthcoming releases, but I’m looking forward to digging into Mitsurugi in the next week or so. Hopefully Storm will be going deep on this line!
Talk about a fast turnaround! It feels like the Plastic Man Wave went from reveal to preorder to arriving pretty damn quick. I went with Amazon on this one and while they did wind up sending each figure individually, they all arrived within a week of each other no fuss, no muss. Which is more than I can say for the Superman and Krypto that I preordered the moment it dropped back in February. Every week I get another delay notice on that one, until it will likely eventually get cancelled. They even had the nerve to put up another preorder for him since then. What’s that? Oh yeah… The Plastic Man Wave is here! Let’s check it out.
I’ll do this wave in two parts and we’re starting with Aquaman and Green Lantern. The package is standard stuff, and as always I love these boxes with the blue backdrops behind the trays. The windows are large and show off the goods and you get some top and side window to let in more light. These packages are mostly collector friendly, but you know the drill, if you want the character card and stand, you gotta get to ripping! In addition to the Collect-To-Build parts, this wave is has been solicited as a 1990’s JLA themed assortment, which begs the question, why is John Stewart in there? Well, in fairness we did just get a Kyle Rayner with Kilowog, but that’s not really an answer. I guess the only answer is because… McFarlane! So, let’s start with John…
Both of today’s characters were last seen as different versions in the Endless Winter Wave. And while I have not yet reviewed either of those, I will include some comparison shots at the end. This release of Green Lantern features a pretty classic looking suit and I sure dig that. It is interesting seeing it with the modern texturing, but that’s also kind of cool. I also like that the boots and gloves are sculpted separately from the suit and these are not textured. The McFarlane diaper vibe is a bit strong here, and that’s not usually something that bothers me, but it’s just hitting me hard with this figure. Not ideal, but not enough to ruin the figure for me. Obviously, you get the power ring sculpted and painted on his right fist. His left hand can grip, but surprisingly there is no lantern battery for him to hold, which is kind of weird.
The head sculpt is exceptionally good. John has a strong jawline, a noble brow with a little furl to it, and a slightly concerned expression, as if he’s about to go into a serious fight. This is definitely one of McFarlane’s better portraits. The lantern symbol printed on his chest is a little odd. I’d love to know what the reference art for that was.
Articulation is standard McFarlane fare, and that’s mostly a good thing. I’ll always be salty about not having thigh swivels, but everything else is great. One of the great things about McFarlane is that I don’t think I ever had issues with any of their figures’ joints, and that’s something I can’t say about Hasbro. These guys handle great right out of the box and Stewart is fun to pose and play with.
You get two effect parts, and they’re strangely not constructs, but just energy effects. One fits over the fist and I like the way it looks a lot. The other is just a weird energy swoosh, that I think is meant to go on the bicep, but it really doesn’t fit well. I’m all but sure that at least that one is recycled from another figure and it doesn’t do much for me here. Both are cast in a nice translucent emerald green plastic.
This John Stewart is a decent figure, but if it weren’t for the Plastic Man parts, I probably would have waited until he hit discount. It’s just such a strange choice to take up one of the four slots in this assortment. Still, I like the suit design here better than what we got from Endless Winter, so he may wind up bumping that figure off my Green Lantern shelf, but I’m sure both will be represented somewhere. Let’s head under the sea and check out Aquaman.
There’s no doubt the 90’s gave Aquaman a badass makeover. I’ll confess the more classic look will always be my preferred design for the character, but that’s because it’s the one I grew up with. But nothing escaped the 90’s without being EXTREME, so Arthur grew a beard, donned some half-armor, and got his hand gnawed off by insane piranhas so he could replace it with a goddamned hook. And I’ll say that McFarlane’s figure does this version proud. Things are pretty classic from the waist down with the black and metallic green leggings and gold belt. There are some crisp scale patterns printed on the sides of the legs, and fins jutting out the back of his calves. And from the waist up we go all extreme with three quarters showing skin and the shoulder and sleeve of silver armor on the right side. The straps over and under the left shoulder are part of the body sculpt. I think these would have looked better painted brown or black for a little variety, otherwise it all looks good. There’s some great muscle definition sculpted into his abs, cut segments in the armor sleeve, and various dings and pitting sculpted into the armor itself.
As for the head sculpt, well we’re two for two in this review, because Arthur’s is another absolute banger of a portrait. The beard is sculpted and painted so well and they’ve even allowed for his hair to float a bit above the shoulders to allow for neck articulation. Normally, this might look a bit weird, but I can write it off to those strands just floating while he’s under water. This may be my favorite Aquaman portrait of any figure in my collection right now.
Aquaman is the only figure in this assortment that doesn’t come with any accessories or effect parts, but he does have his harpoon hand, so that’s pretty cool. This is also the only point of difference when it comes to the figure’s articulation, since there’s no wrist on that arm. The elbow is the usual double hinge and you get the bicep swivel, but you also get an added swivel where the harpoon socket meets the arm.
These are both solid figures, but Aquaman takes the prize as my favorite out of this pair. I honestly didn’t think I needed to pick up any more Aquaman figures since the Endless Winter version is such a solid and iconic look, but this version has grown on me a lot over the years, so having both represented on the shelves ain’t a bad thing. Indeed, even if the Plastic Man parts weren’t included, I probably would have preordered this figure. He looked amazing in the solicitation shots, and the actual figure absolutely delivers.
And with a set of arms and legs, that gets us halfway to building Plastic Man! Overall, I’m very pleased with both of these figures, and I’ll come back to this wave at the end of the week to check out Superman, Batman, and put together Plastic Man. Sure, John Stewart is the odd man out here, but he’s still a welcome addition to my Multiverse shelf, and I can’t recommend Aquaman enough, especially if you grew up with this version. These guys retail at the regular $24.99 and for the moment they seem to still be widely available at most McFarlane online retailers. They each also have Platinum chase variants, but I’m not getting into all that, but I will be bitching about it in the next review!
I am doubling down my commitment to get current on Super7 GI JOEUltimates, because I am seriously behind! And yes, doubling down means I’ll be doubling up on some of these figures to get caught up a little faster. Today I’ll be trekking back to the second wave, and since I’ve already looked at Flint and Lady Jaye, let’s have a look at the other half: Destro and The Baroness! Buckle up and try to pace yourself, this will be a long ride with over 70 pictures!
We’ve seen the packaging before and know exactly what to expect. The figures come in window boxes with sleeves over the top and these look fantastic. There’s a high gloss blue camo deco with a bold crimson Cobra emblem emblazoned on the fronts and everything is finished off with a deco that looks like the metal with paint that has been scraped off in areas down to the bare metal. Lift off the top and you get a good look at the figure and accessories through the window, and there are bio blurbs on the back panel with some character art from the Sunbow cartoon! Everything is collector friendly, but as good as these boxes look, I don’t have the space to keep them, so they are getting recycled. Let’s start with The Baroness!
This figure is designed to work based on the Marvel comic book or Sunbow cartoon. Obviously, The Baroness has had different costumes over the years, but in this case the blue and yellow suit references the original Sunbow Miniseries or her early comic appearances. Now, it’s probably been ten years since I read any of those comics, but I will say I liked this look for her in the cartoon even though it was short lived. The coloring here is really gorgeous with the blue and bright yellow playing off each other beautifully, plus the black of the boots and gauntlets and the pale blue stripes running down the legs. Other than a seam running down the center of the body suit and some rumples on the boots and gloves, the only other real sculpted detail is the quilting on the belt, collar, and shoulder straps. Yes, it’s a very simple look but it’s faithful to the toon appearance. The holster was worn by Baroness in the comic and it can be removed for more of a Sunbow look, but doing so leaves a hole in the leg. Fortunately, I dig the holster, so I’ll be leaving it on.
You get a whopping four heads to choose from. The first two have the green tinted glasses, with one being a neutral expression and the other with furled eyebrows and a smirk. I really like both of these and it’s a toss up as to which one I’ll go with the most. I think the neutral face looks slightly better, but the smirk gives her more personality. Yeah, this figure makes use of the flesh toned plastic as opposed to painted face. Personally, I think it looks fine on its own, but there’s definitely a disparity when displayed next to Duke from the first wave. The hair sculpt is good, but sadly it renders the neck articulation all but null and void.
The third head is a comic based portrait and I don’t like it as much as either of the previous two. It’s the glasses that are a mixed bag. The lenses just look too big. Not terrible, but not the look I’d be going for with display. The hair here has the same hindering effect on the neck articulation, but it does add some blue highlights, perhaps to evoke the comic book coloring. Either way, this one is not for me.
And finally, we get the gasmask head, which Super 7 states is a comic book reference, but damn it looks like it would fit right in with the Sunbow aesthetic too. This creepy pale gray mask has a pair of blue painted eye lenses, a filter off to one side, and a tube that runs down to an O2 tank that she can wear on the back, secured by a shoulder strap. It’s all sculpted as one piece and it looks awesome!
I’ve looked at enough Ultimates figures so I won’t run through all the articulation. As usual, what we get follows the formula of emphasizing clean cartoon aesthetics at the expense of posability. At this point you either accept it or move on. I’ve gone on record saying I mostly don’t mind what we get here, although I would have liked more range in the elbows. The joints on my figure all feel smooth and solid, and I’m surprised at how reasonably balanced she is despite having those high heels. The ab crunch hinge we get on most of the men is replaced here with a ball joint under her chest. Of course, you get a ton of hands, which include fists and plenty to work with the accessories. With that having been said, I would have liked a pair of relaxed hands or karate chop hands, but neither are included.
As with most GI JOE Ultimates, you get a lot of accessories, and it’s a pretty varied mix of extras inspired by the cartoon, comic book, and original toy. Starting off with the weapons, you get a dagger and a pistol. The pistol can be stored in the holster as well as wielded in either left or right hand. It’s a simple cartoony looking sculpt cast in dark gray plastic. The dagger is a stout straight blade and a grooved grip all painted in silver.
Next up is a laser rifle, which is supposedly inspired by the weapon released with the original RAH version of The Baroness. There are some similarities, but it’s not a great likeness. It does have the skeletal stock and a magazine, but the top just has a rail and is missing the scope from the RAH weapon. I’m not saying this is a bad looking rifle, I like it a lot, but it’s a pretty loose take on the original. It may have been better if S7 had not noted it’s inspiration in the solicitation info. There is a soft rubber carry strap included, which pegs in at the stock and base of the foregrip, but I can’t get it to peg in to the front properly so I just cast it aside.
The final weapon is based on the cartoon and I love this one. It has that lovely laser sub-machine gun design that was all over the Sunbow aesthetic. It’s cast in the same dark gray plastic as the pistol, has a very simple toony sculpt, and this one does have a scope mounted on top.
The final two accessories are comic based, so offhand I’m not really familiar with their context. The first is called a cameragun and I dig this one a lot. It looks like something that could have easily shown up in the cartoon. What does it do? Don’t know! But I’ll concoct some crazy Cobra scheme for it in my head. The other accessory is a tiny white syringe and I can’t show it to you since it’s disappeared… because, well it’s tiny. Crazy enough one of the hands is specifically made to hold the syringe, so I’m not sure why they didn’t just sculpt it as part of the hand. But I’ll claim responsibility for losing it and we’ll move on.
I really like how Super7 cast a wide net over this one to appeal to cartoon and comics fans, especially since this look was short-lived in the cartoon so there weren’t nearly enough cartoon-inspired extras that could be included. I’m sure a lot of collectors would have rather S7 went straight to the more iconic black-suited Baroness, but I’m really happy that we got this one as well. I watched the hell out of that first Miniseries, so for a long time this was my Baroness and I remember desperately wanting a figure of this design. OK, let’s move on to Destro!
Unlike The Baroness, Destro has had the same iconic look through the cartoon’s run and he didn’t look that much different from the RAH figure, either. And boy does he have a unique fashion sense! He has his black jumpsuit with ostentatious, red lapel-collar thing that plunges all the way down to his belt buckle, leaving his manly muffiny McCullen chest exposed. The amulet is sculpted as part of the body so it does stay put. His boots and belt are matte gray and he has a rather stylized M on the buckle. His gauntlets and arm bracers are painted in a beautifully premium metallic silver finish, as is his masked head. Two red straps encircle his right thigh, presumably to attach a non-existent holster. I gotta say all the sculpted muscles on his back are well done as well. This is a great looking Sunbow-styled figure!
Destro does come with weapons options for both of his gauntlets. You can go with rockets on both, or follow the RAH figure and place rockets on his right arm and a brace of grenades on his left. These are cast on soft plastic frames that clip onto the arm bracers. I don’t recall him having these all that often in the cartoon, so it’s nice to have the option to go without. But, I do remember him firing them off in the episode Skeletons in the Closet. We’ll see a few accessories from that episode, which explored Destro’s family heritage and was also remarkable for having Lady Jaye running around in a torn nightgown for at least half of it. Oh, and also nearly getting sacrificed to a Lovecraftian Eldar God. YO JOE!!!
There are no less than four heads to choose from, but only three are really practical. You get neutral expression, angry expression, and laughing expression. All of these are great, and if you’re wondering how a metal mask can make all these expressions, just remember that it’s a cartoon with a lot more inexplicable stuff going on in it than Destro’s mask. I really dig the black eyes with green pupils, which was so distinctive in the cartoon and like the gauntlets, the silver paint used on these heads is beautiful. I’ll likely go with either of the first two for regular display.
The fourth head is from covered in molten lava, recreating a scene from the second episode of The Pyramids of Darkness Miniseries. It’s more of a joke reference than a useful extra, because who is going to display the figure with this? And while we’re touching on this reference, they also included the hand sander that he used to get rid of the lava in the same scene. Yeah, I kind of get what they were going for here, but I feel like it’s just tossing in accessories as a reference, rather than something most collectors are ever going to display. It’s fun to have a laugh and say, “I remember that!” as you take it out of the tray, try it out and then forget about it forever. I would much rather have had a black briefcase as a reference to the RAH figure than this head and sander.
Destro’s articulation is smooth and works well with the usual points in the arms and legs. While most of the guys in this line get ab crunch hinges, Destro gets just a ball joint in the waist so as not to break up the sculpting on his chest, and I believe that was a good idea. He’s extremely well balanced, thanks to his big chonky boots, and of course you get a lot of hands to work with his accessories, as well as a pair of fists.
Destro is a weapons dealer so he definitely needs to come with some weapons! Let’s start with a couple of pistols. The first is a fairly realistic looking automatic pistol, which is absolutely huge, almost to a point of looking silly. I don’t know where S7 pulled this design from, but it’s too oversized and generic to be much use to me. The second has more of a sci-fi element to it. It’s very simple and while I don’t recognize it, it looks like it could be based on a Sunbow design. Both are cast in dark gray plastic and neither of these are all that impressive.
He comes with a third pistol, which is taken directly from the previously mentioned episode, Skeletons in the Closet. He uses this to fire at Lady Jaye and Flint while they’re escaping. I dig the design on this one, it’s very much in line with the cartoon aesthetic, and this is the one I will likely display him with.
Moving on to the heavier artillery, you get a missile launcher and missile. The launcher is just a big black tube, which looks like it’s designed to telescope for easier carry. There’s a fin on the top and a handle and trigger on the bottom. The missile is dark purple with a black warhead and it will slide all the way inside the launcher tube, but I like to have it peeking out the front a bit so you know it’s there.
The final weapon is the Molecular Reducer and Enlarger, which isn’t really a weapon, it’s just a gun that fires a beam that, well… does exactly what the name says. Cobra used it to shrink down its forces and sneak them into GI JOE HQ inside toys that were meant to be Christmas presents for a Toys For Tots program and yes, that’s all something that really happened in the episode Cobra CLAWS Are Coming To Town.
Moving away from the weapons, Destro comes with a pair of binoculars, which are pretty lame. It’s just a blue box with lighter blue paint on the front and back lenses. Totally forgettable. On the plus side, he also has the joystick controller he used to make the gladiators fight in The Arena of Sport, seen in the very first Miniseries. I love this thing! It’s clearly designed to look like an Atari 2600 joystick and it has some nice paint apps on the red button and top ball of the stick, as well as some paint to reflect the glowing panels on the sides. The hands provided work really well with it.
The final accessory is again drawn from Skeletons in the Closet and it’s the iron mask that they made Destro’s ancestor wear after he was found guilty of witchcraft. It’s a really nice recreation of the cartoon version, and while he never actually wore it in the cartoon, you can put it on the figure. I think this would look great mounted on the wall of a diorama of Destro’s office or even just sitting on a desk.
As a figure, I think Destro turned out great. As for the selection of accessories? Well, there’s a few real bangers in here, but then some of it feels rather useless. The joystick is fun, the mask is great, and I love how they did his arm weapons. I dig the one Sunbow gun and the Molecular Reducer too. But stuff like the lava head and hand sander are just joke references that don’t really add much value to the package. Also, two of the pistols and the binoculars are just kind of lame and forgettable. I feel like his briefcase and maybe a rifle would have been better. Or how about three canisters of rare elements for The MASS Device or a component from The Weather Dominator?
It’s a pretty good gauge of how much I liked figures when I can’t stop taking pictures of them, and that was certainly the case here. These are tons of fun to play with, and finally getting Sunbow stylized GI JOE figures like these is like a dream come true. And while this review definitely went long, I think it was worth it, because now that I’m completely through Waves 1 and 2, I can work on knocking out the rest of Wave 3, and get myself current to 4, all hopefully before Wave 5 comes out. Obviously, Destro and Baroness were heavy hitters to add to this collection, although Baroness has since been updated to her black outfit in the most recent wave. And while I had issues with some of the accessory choices included with Destro, I think both of these figures turned out great! As for moving forward, I may tackle some of the next figures solo, or double up some from different waves. But, I also need to keep chipping away at GI JOE Classified. So many great GI JOE toys to enjoy and so little time! Either way, I expect to get back to this line at some point next week!
FigureFan Zero 