Jun 9 2016

Masters of the Universe Classics: Goat Man by Mattel

Masters Classics continues to limp along as I cling to the glory days with my little Collector’s Choice subscription. But since that figure was delayed (again!), today I’m going to open up Goat Man, a figure I picked up during one of the Early Access sales. Goat Man was one of those infuriating exclusives that was available at multiple conventions and eventually put up for sale on Matty’s site with warnings about limited quantities. I don’t recall whether he sold out quickly, but whatever the case, Matty had some more lying around and we got a second chance at him a couple of months back. This was a good thing, because he’s a really obscure character, which must have been like a dream come true for a lot of hardcore fans. For me, seeing him just made me realize that my Eternian shelves lacked a Goat Man and I just couldn’t have it.

Despite being a Con Exclusive, there’s nothing on the package to indicate that. Flipping over the card reveals that he was the days of the line (last year) when Matty still printed bios on the back of the cards. While his tag line, “Horn-Headed Servant of Beast Man” more or less sums him up, reading the bio told me that he also got his ass kicked by Buzz-Off. Jeez. That’s quite the resume.

Goat Man feels like he settled on his name because Ram Man was already taken. There’s nothing terribly goat-ish about him. He doesn’t have hooves for feet. He doesn’t have those creepy horizontal irises, nor does he have a scraggly little chin beard. He does feature a pretty standard MOTUC buck with the usual furry diaper and belt, some blue boots with scalloped tops, and some thigh wraps, that I don’t remember ever seeing before. The torso is covered with a vest that makes him look really puffy, and some criss-crossing black straps sculpted on.

The paint here is mostly good. The combination of blue used for the boots and belt, and the red for the furry diaper, gloves, and vest makes for a colorful deco. There’s even a very subtle difference between the metallic red they used on the flared shoulders and the regular red used for the rest of the vest. I do find it peculiar that his skin is regular flesh tone, while his face is red. The paint on my figure has a few minor flubs, like some chipping on the black straps on the back of his vest, but overall the quality is OK.

The head sculpt here is decent, but nothing much to write home about. It’s actually a pretty scary portrait, with the mouth full of sharp teeth, the black and red eyes, and the curling ram… I mean goat horns. This guy looks like he would be right at home on the cover of an 80’s Heavy Metal album. Again, the fact that his face is red and the rest of the skin isn’t makes it look like he’s supposed to be wearing a mask. If that’s the case, than I have to bring his pedigree as a legitimate Goat Man into further question.

The articulation conforms to the usual standard MOTUC buck. If there’s going to be one positive thing about this line ending is that I won’t have to run down the articulation on these any longer. Right now, I can practically do it in my sleep. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have hinges in the knees and ankles, and swivels up near the hips. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the torso, and a ball joint in the neck.

Goat Man comes with two accessories, but only one is intended for him. His is the huge, bitchin’ hammer and I absolutely love this thing. It’s a simple sculpt, with a steel finish and a sculpted, brown wrapped grip. It looks totally appropriate for him and it’s probably one of my favorite MOTUC weapons in a long while.

The other accessory is the Staff of Avion taken from the Mini Comics. For a little while now, Matty has been trying to get extra accessories out to the fans by randomly bundling them with other figures, and this staff is yet another example of that. I can’t say that I was pining to get this into my collection, but I’ll never say no to another accessory. It’s mostly translucent green plastic with a little gold paint, and it actually looks quite striking. It’s ironic, but Stratos originally came with no accessories and now he has two Staffs of Avion (the other coming with Filmation Icer).

Goat Man doesn’t really impress me all that much, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like him. Hell, it’s hard for me to think of too many figures in this line that I don’t like. He’s certainly a solid figure and a welcome addition to the already colorful menagerie of characters in my MOTUC collection, but I’m glad I didn’t go nuts trying to get him when I missed out on him the first time. And believe me, I almost ended up going the Ebay route on this guy. Hopefully, I’ll be able to look at the Collector’s Choice figure, Darius, within the next week or so as I just got shipping notification on him right here in front of me… TWELVE BUCKS FOR SHIPPING ONE FIGURE… Oh, YOU CAN GO STRAIGHT TO HELL, MATTY, AND I HOPE GOAT MAN IS WAITING THERE FOR YOU WITH HIS GIANT BALL-BUSTING HAMMER!!! I do also have the PowerCon Exclusive Granamyr figure on its way, so it’ll be a race to see which one gets here first. I’m betting it’s Granamyr, because Matty’s twelve dollar shipping takes forever.

Jun 8 2016

Game of Thrones (Legacy Collection): Brienne of Tarth by Funko

The latest season of Game of Thrones is in full swing and I haven’t watched a second of it. I’ll get to it… eventually. In fact, I’ll probably binge it when it’s done. I can’t explain my apathy toward it right now, as I was pretty fond of the last season. Maybe it’s because I know the series is starting to venture more into the mystical shit that I don’t care about and away from the swords and politics I love the most about it. Anywho… Brienne and Jaime Lannister were the last two figures in the series that I bought, and likely will be the last two I will buy. I’m really only featuring her today because she’s one of those figures piled on the floor of my Toy Closet waiting to be opened and I’m making an effort to get that area cleaned up. Not really a proclamation of excitement, but I’ve enjoyed these figures and I like this character, so let’s see what she’s all about…

The packaging on this line has always been great. You get an attractive window box that shows off the figure beautifully and identifies the character on the side panel. Everything is collector friendly and there’s a J-hook if you want to hang it on the wall.

One of my favorite things about this line has been the detailed sculpts in the armor and costumes. It was popular to shit on a lot of these Legacy Collection figures, and sure we can quibble all day as to whether the likenesses are any good, but I’ve found their recreations of costumes to be totally on point and Brienne here is no exception. Granted, Brienne’s armor isn’t as fancy as the suit we saw last time on Jaime, but the sculptors still did a wonderful job here. From the ribbed lining on the armor plates to the individually sculpted straps that pretend to hold them on, I’d be hard pressed to think of too many companies to do a better job at this price range. The underlying chain mail is sculpted under her arms, the edge of her belt hangs loose, and even the quilting on her “skirt” looks great.

The paintwork here is something special too. I’m particularly pleased with the rich, oiled bronze color used for most of the prominent armor plates, and the wash that makes it look worn in some areas. Individual fixtures on most of the straps are painted too. What’s more, the paint really brings out some of the finer details in the sculpt.

The portrait’s sculpt is decent enough. I’m sure I could recognize who it’s supposed to be if the head was handed to me out of context. I think if anything it’s the lack of depth in the paint that throws it off. It really feels like Funko had totally different teams doing the paint apps for the bodies and heads on these figures. I get that it probably takes more skill to depict the nuanced coloring of a human portrait than it does a suit of armor, but from the neck up, it doesn’t look like they were even trying that hard.

Brienne comes with one accessory, and that’s her sword. This isn’t Oathkeeper, but rather the sword she carried before she was gifted the finer blade. I actually prefer it this way. I’m a fan of trusty utilitarian sword designs over all that fancy stuff. The sword fits into the scabbard that is permanently attached to her belt. Once again, there’s some really nice paintwork and weathering on the scabbard.

Articulation in this line has been good on paper, but sometimes problematic in execution due to stuck joints. My figure doesn’t have any issues with that and features some solid pose-ability for a character wearing armor. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, with both the shoulder and wrist armor made of soft, pliable plastic so as not to inhibit those joints. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles are hinged and have a bit of lateral movement. There’s a ball joint in her lower torso and another in her neck.

I like this figure a lot, and to hell with the haters, because I think this was a great line. No, I probably wouldn’t have felt that way if I got hit with a lot of bad QC and joints breaking, but I find it odd that not a single figure I bought had any of those issues. And yet, considering Funko responded to the problems, I know they were widespread. Either way, this was a fun line for me, with some great sculpts and solid pose-ability and I’m truly sorry to see it go. If Funko had kept it going, I’m sure I would have kept buying them. It particularly sucks that we never got a Bronn, as he’s my favorite character. Sure, there’s always a chance that I’ll grab up some of the ones that I’m missing and we’ll see Game of Thrones Legacy Collection back on FFZ at some point, but once I realized they weren’t making any more, I lost interest.

Jun 7 2016

Vitruvian HACKS: Ultimate Spartan Warrior (NJCC Exclusive) by Boss Fight Studios

It finally happened! My second and final box of joy from Boss Fight Studios arrived with my remaining Vitruvian HACKS figures. I’ll be looking at those soon, but before I get to them, I have one more Exclusive figure to check out. I already Featured the Kokomo Toys Amazon Elite and this time I’m looking at the New Jersey Collectors Con Ultimate Spartan Warrior. Damn, I lived in NJ for the first 21 years of my life and I don’t remember ever seeing any toy or collectors conventions until I moved 1200 miles away. Aw, that’s not fair!!! There’s nothing like that where I live now. NOTHING!!!

The figure comes in the same style box as the other Exclusive with the figure on a tray inside. It features some monochrome line art and blurbs about the character on the back. It’s certainly not as flashy as the regular release packaging, but it gets the job done, I like the artwork, and it’s damn surprising how many goodies this tiny box can hold.

Yeah… seriously. This guy is more like a weapons pack with a figure thrown in! You get four helmets, two shields, five swords (one with a scabbard), two axes, and an extra pair of fists with the hinge on a different axis. This is a huge chunk of a the entire Vitruvian HACKS arsenal all in one neat little box.

But that’s not to devalue the figure, because the Elite Spartan (shown on the left) is a mighty damn cool. From the neck down, this guy features the same sculpt and articulation as the regular Spartan Warrior, so I’ll refer you back to that original Feature for more details. The big difference here is that the Exclusive is all muddied up with some paint spray that overall looks pretty good. I think the stuff on the white strips around his “skirt” ventures into Hasbro’s unfortunate POTF2-era weathering territory, but the stuff on his skin and armor looks fine. The head sculpt is also new, as this guy has a bushier beard. The vanilla Spartan Warrior was a solid release minus some mushy knees, this one feels a little better in hand. Let’s talk helmets…

Four helmets is above and beyond, Boss Fight! We start off with a variant of the one that came with the Spartan Warrior. It’s not as shiny and it’s splattered with mud.

Next up we get a fully painted and non-petrified version of the helmet that came with the Cursed Stone Spartan. I’m really happy to have a regular version of this one as it has a little more flourish to the design than the regular.

Third is this one, which is my least favorite in terms of design, but easily the most impressive in terms of sculpt. This one is a new piece to me, as it was not included in any of the original assortment of four figures, but I’m pretty sure I have it coming in one of the figures I’ve yet to open.

And lastly, there’s the good old fashioned Barbute, for when you’re less worried about fancy plumage and just want to keep your noggin from getting bashed in or your ears and nose cut off. This looks like it’s the same mold used for the silver helmet that came with the Amazon Elite.

Moving on to the shields, we’ve seen these before. The first is the same one that came with the regular Spartan, whereas the other is the beautifully sculpted Medusa head shield that came with the Cursed Stone Spartan. Once again, this is another piece I’m really happy to have in a non-petrified version. It looks fantastic with the bronze finish. The shields use the same soft plastic sleeve with grab bar to attach to the figure’s arm. It can be tricky to get the grab bar to work, but it can be done. On the other hand, it’s not necessary, the shield can be warn perfectly fine with just the arm passed through the sleeve. It all depends on how accurate you want it to look from the other side.

Weapons! Some of these weapons were included with the regular Spartan Warrior, so we get the same spear. as well as the matched long and short swords. These are fantastic little accessories with some phenomenal paint.

You also get the scabbard and shoulder strap that we saw with the Spartan Warrior and a new sword to put into it. This one has more of an Etruscan type hilt. The scabbard fits the figure quite well an the red paint on the tassels and the silver paint on the buckles is all very sharp.

The fourth and fifth swords include a repaint of the broadsword that came with the Amazon Elite and a Falcata, which was not in any of my initial four figures, but it may very well be included in one of the figures I’ve yet to open. The Falcata has a bronze colored blade and a brown grip. No doubt about it, if you love swords, this box has plenty of blades to make you happy!

Let me axe you a question… do you like axes? Good, because you also get the pair of axes that came with the Amazon Elite. Phew! That’s a lot of accessories. Oh yeah, you also get the stock Boss Fight Studios figure stand that comes with all of the HACKS figures.

Like the Exclusive Amazon Elite, this figure was really easy for me to get on Ebay and at $30, I really don’t feel like I had to pay that much of a premium. They were sold directly by the NJCC, so there wasn’t any scalping padding the price. Considering the regular HACKS are about $20, I’m happy to pay the extra $10 to get what is basically a beefy accessory pack. I suspect that all of these weapons can be found scattered across the other HACKS releases, so technically what’s new in this Exclusive? It’s the dirtied up deco on the figure and some of the equipment. But HACKS is a line that gets better with sharing and the bigger the pile of arms and armor the more fun these get. The Ultimate Spartan looks distinct enough to stand beside the regular Spartan and bolster my ranks and I’m sure glad I got him.

Next week, I can start digging into the rest of the regular release figures!

Jun 6 2016

Marvel Legends (Absorbing Man Wave): Morbius by Hasbro

Well, it’s been about three weeks and now it’s time to bring Marvel Monday back to being a seemingly unending parade of Legends figures. Hasbro is showing no mercy with wave after wave of these things crashing onto the pegs like a mighty ocean of plastic. I’ve got two full waves waiting to go, one wave still to get, and now Hasbro has just unleashed images of the three new ones coming soon, including an X-Men wave that looks almost too good to be true. I’ve got it pre-ordered, so no take-backsies, Hasbro! Yes, this is a wonderful time to be alive if you love 6-inch Marvel figures and hate having money. Today I’m embarking on the Absorbing Man Wave and we’ll kick things off with one of my most anticipated figures in the assortment… Morbius!

Yup, it’s another Spider-Man branded wave and there’s still another one coming right around the corner! Got a problem with that? I don’t! Morbius comes packaged as one of the “Villains of the Night,” sharing his slot with Jack O’Lantern. I don’t know that blanket labeling him as a villain is a fair assessment of the character, but I guess he’s certainly had his moments. Either way, I’m a big fan and was happy to see an update to the old Spider-Man Classics figure. That was a figure I let go from my collection some time ago and regretted not having Dr. Morbius on my shelf anymore. Needless to say, I’m happy that isn’t a problem any more.

And what an update he is! Granted, your mileage may vary based on personal taste. This is a much more humanized look for the character. The previous release featured monstrously disproportionate arms and the much wilder and creepier head sculpt. It had it’s charms, but I don’t think the sculpt has held up very well, whereas this one is some damn fine work. Yes, even if the majority of the body is just a black painted buck.

Dammit, Hasbro… why do you have to make those numbers on the leg so apparent? Anyway… the figure’s original sculpting comes in the hands, which are your standard malevolent looking “Imma gonna getchya” monster hands. They work really well on the figure and the skin is comprised of a creepy chalky-ash paint. You also get the plunging V-neck high collar that all the fashionable “vampires” are wearing these days, even ones cooked up in a lab. The inside of the collar is painted red and the bare chest shares that same great dead flesh paint as the hands and forearms.

The portrait here is just outstanding. I’ll admit that there was something generally creepy and off-putting about the old Toy Biz version, but this one just looks wonderfully polished. This is undoubtedly Dr. Morbius in a full out vamp-rampage (a vampage!) The mouth is open showing all his teeth, the wrinkles and lines in the face are perfect and he sports his long hair with pointed ears jutting out, beady red eyes, and beard. If I kept a list of favorite Marvel Legends head sculpts each year, this one would pretty close to the top. It’s just dripping with personality… and possibly blood.

Morbius comes with two different capes, which peg right into his back. You have a small one that just hangs down behind him and another that is fanned out in the shape of a bat, which is perfectly suited for displaying him with his arms up. Both capes are painted red on the interior and black on the outsides.

The articulation here is superb. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels at the thighs and lower legs. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the chest, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. All the joints on this guy feel tight and solid!

This wave is off to a fantastic start! Morbius is everything I had hoped for, and that’s saying a lot considering how much I was looking forward to getting him. He’s a relatively simple figure, but Hasbro put all the effort into all the right places and the two capes are a nice treat. I’ve got to say he’s going to be a tough one to beat as my favorite in this assortment. Next Monday I’ll open up the other half of the “Villains of the Night” and check out Jack O’Lantern!

Jun 4 2016

KanColle: Light Cruiser Yahagi (Preparation Figure) by Taito

If it’s Saturday then it must be time to open another anime figure and I’m sticking with Kantai Collection for just one more week before turning my attention elsewhere. Today I’m checking out another one of Taito’s Prize Figures, this time, however, I’m looking at a character from the game and not the anime series. It’s Yahagi!

I love the packaging for Taito’s Prize Figures. They’re colorful, fairly compact, and fully enclosed boxes. You get pictures of the figure on front, back, and side panels and the text is even somewhat Western friendly with the name of the character appearing in English, in this case “Light Cruiser Agano Class No. 3, Yahagi.” That’s extra helpful in this case since I’m a lot less familiar with the game then I am with the anime series. The figure inside comes wrapped in plastic and requires some minor assembly. Just peg the Yahagi into her base, along with the two pieces of equipment, and you’re good to go.

Yahagi measures about 7 1/2-inches tall, which puts her in scale with the other Taito figures I have. She features a simple but sexy pose, as she kicks her left foot back and rests it on her gun mount and has her arms up, tying a ribbon into her long hair. She’s sporting an adorable two piece outfit, which looks like it pays a little homage to the school uniform, what with the sailor-style collar, anchor tie, and short pleated skirt. The term “preparation figure” points to the fact that she’s in the process of getting ready for battle, which was one of the things that drew me to this figure. She has her rudder boots on, but the rest of her gear is lying on the ground waiting to be equipped.

While her pose is fairly passive, there’s a lot of energy in this sculpt, particularly in the way her long hair snakes around her. It’s one of my favorite things about the composition and a complexity I don’t usually expect to see in these “lower end” Prize Figures. Plus, she pulls it off beautifully. You also get a bit of wind whipping up that skirt for a little helping of ubiquitous fan service.

Both the quality of paint and coloring on this figure are superb. You do get a fair amount of gray and black, but it’s perfectly balanced out by the bright white top and that sumptuous deep crimson paint used for her skirt and the rudders on her feet. There’s also a little bit of metallic orange on the inlays of her belt and the purple on her hair ribbon. The skin tones are absolutely perfect and they contrast nicely with the cold gray of her munitions.

The portrait is simple but lovely. Her large hazel eyes are perfectly printed. Her mouth conveys surprise to me. Maybe she just received some troubling orders pertaining to her mission. I’ve already commented on how impressive her hair is. In addition to the long snaking strands, she has more of it spilling over her shoulders.

The base is a simple clear disc, and I’m happy with that. Her gear includes her twin gun mount, what I assume is her backpack, and a pair of white gloves draped over it. These are simple sculpts, but look fine. They were a little difficult to get pegged in properly, due to a tight fit, but I’d rather have them fit securely than be all loose and falling out.

I’m tempted to say that this is one impressive looking piece for a Prize Figure, but I don’t even feel I have to qualify that. She’s just plain impressive and that’s been par for the course with the majority of my Taito figures. The pose, sculpt, and coloring all come together to make for a beautiful display piece. I had originally promised myself that I would stick to figures from the anime series, but when I saw Yahagi I fell in love, and for under $25 shipped, that was a promise that was easily broken. Next week, I’m going to change things up, possibly with some One Piece, but I’ll likely be coming back to Kantai Collection before too long, because I just can’t get enough of it.

Jun 3 2016

Blackest Night (Series 2): Indigo by DC Direct

It’s another DC Friday and today I’m digging all the way back to DC Direct’s Blackest Night series with a look at Indigo. I bought this one a few months back when I was re-reading the collected trades of Green Lantern to get all caught up for ReBirth and realized that Inroque was a character that I didn’t have in my collection. Like a lot of Lanterns, she didn’t get a DC Universe Classics release and so I had to make do with DC Direct. These DC Direct figures tend to be hit or miss for me, so let’s see what we’ve got…

Ahh, the bad old days of the sealed clamshell. They’re OK if you want to cover your walls in MOC figures, but they don’t do me any favors. In this case, the packaging is also pretty wasteful, but I think they did that to accommodate some of the larger characters. Anyway, it’s attractive enough and shows the other figures on the back of the insert. Using a sticker on the outside of the bubble wasn’t a great call, as it tends to peel at the edges. Try to drum up a little empathy for me as I go find my razor and hack my way into this package.

Generally speaking, I felt the sculpts were the high points of most of the later DC Direct figures and Indigo here reflects that. This figure captures her unnaturally lithe alien form quite nicely. Every part of her costume is part of the sculpt, from her soft plastic loin cloth to her short top. The arm wrappings even have some loose strands coming off to make them a little more convincing. It’s all very nice and very faithful to the character.

If there’s one place that DC Direct has often let me down, it’s the paint, but that’s not really the case with Indigo. The whites and flesh tones, which have a habit of looking dirty and rubbed actually look quite good here. Her skin looks nice and even and the white paint used on the wrappings is clean and evenly applied. The metallic blue and silver used for her outfit makes for a striking contrast against the matte of her skin. Lastly, her blue tattoos are crisp and straight. I really don’t have a lot of complaints here.

And yes, I’m even very fond of the portrait. The alien shape of the face looks spot on, and I dig the way they did her tendril-like hair cascading neatly down the back and spilling onto her shoulders. Her narrow black eyes look characteristically creepy under those sweeping eyebrows, the little touch of makeup over the eyes is a great touch, and the small pursed mouth is perfect.

Articulation has never been DC Direct’s strong point and so I don’t expect much in that area. What we get here includes ball joints in the shoulders and neck, hinges in the knees and ankles, and a “V” crotch in the hips, which allows for limited forward movement, but a fair deal of backward movement. At this late point in DC Direct’s game, I can’t imagine anyone was buying these figures and expecting a great deal of pose-ability. You can do some different things with her arms, but the legs are pretty limited.

Indigo comes with two accessories: Her staff and a figure stand. The staff is nicely done and includes a transparent blue crystal in the head. She can hold it very firmly in her left hand.

The stand is a blue transparent disk with the Indigo Tribe emblem outlined in white. And that brings me to one weird thing about Indigo and that’s the fact that her left leg is so notably shorter than her right. You may have noticed that all my pictures have her standing with one leg in front of the other. That’s because if I peg her into the base with her feet together, her left foot just levitates above the stand. I’m not sure if that’s just an issue with my figure or all of them, but it’s an odd oversight.

DC Direct’s Indigo turned out to be a pleasant surprise. And that’s a good thing because the character hasn’t been made available in any of the other DC lines. While these are generally not intended to scale with Mattel’s DC Universe Classics figures, I find that the alien Lanterns will display well enough with the DCUC figures. I was able to pick her up for $20 shipped, which was about what the original MSRP would have been. The Blackest Night series tends to be all over the place, with some selling well below the original retail, and others quite a lot more, so I’ll consider myself lucky.

Jun 2 2016

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): Snowtrooper by Hasbro

I’m winding down the last few days at work until vacation and that means I’ve got a lot of shit to do and not a lot of time for bloggery. So today I’m coming at you with a quick-and-dirty Feature of a figure that I’ve basically already looked at. The First Order Snowtrooper Officer was released late last year as a Toys R Us Exclusive and was followed more recently by the regular rank-and-file version, which I’m checking out today. This also enables me to open these guys and get two more figures off of the pile on the floor of the closet. And eureka… the pile is almost gone… I can see carpet!

Packaged shot! You don’t need to talk about the packaged shot. I don’t need to talk about the packaged shot. There’s nothing new to report. There’s nothing new to report. You can move on. Moving on…

Last time, I commented about how I like the Original Trilogy Snowtroopers design better than these First Order guys, and I’m sticking to that. of course, that’s also like me saying, I like prime rib better than cheeseburgers. It’s all good, and this new design is still plenty cool. Plus, these are now among my favorite 6-inch Black Series figures, or at least my favorites from The Force Awakens assortment. The quality of paint and plastic is excellent. What should be glossy is glossy, what should be matte is matte, and while there aren’t a ton of paint apps, what’s here is all pretty nice and sharp. The consistency between these two figures is also a lot better than the handful of regular First Order (or Imperial) Stormtroopers I have. Don’t even get me started on the drop in quality between these guys and my Flametrooper. There’s a good reason I only own one of them.

As expected, these guys are identical to the Snowtrooper Officer in both sculpt and paint. The only difference is their lack of paldron. The backpacks simply peg into the back and alas, there’s still nowhere to clip the guns, but maybe that was the case with the costumes as well. And speaking of guns, the guns are the same too. I really dig the sculpt and paint on these rifles.

Obviously, articulation is the same as we saw on the Officer as well. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, but still no bicep swivels. The legs have ball jointed hips, and yes that pesky kama still restricts the movement a bit. The knees are double hinged, there are swivels in the thighs and the ankles feature rotating hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the torso and the neck is also is ball jointed. The articulation isn’t totally ideal, but it’s plenty good for what we’ve been seeing out of the 6-inch Black Series.

Suffice it to say, I love these figures and getting them open and playing around with them has made me realize how badly I want the 6-inch Black Imperial Snowtroopers. It’s worth noting that Hasbro seems to have recognized the demand for troop builders as these guys were double packed in their case and they are readily available at several retailers for under the usual $20 retail. And yes, that means I’ll probably be picking up at least a couple more.

“The Lieutenant’s been hit!”
“Pfft. Officers… AmIright?”

Jun 1 2016

Street Fighter: Poison Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

It’s Bishoujo time again and today I’m revisiting the Street Fighter line with a look at Poison. Poison is a character that I associate more with the Final Fight games than I do, Street Fighter, and that’s probably because of two reasons. First, all the controversy around her gender identity seemed to start with Final Fight, and two the fact that she wasn’t a playable fighter in Street Fighter until either Street Fighter X Tekken or Ultra Street Fighter IV. I honestly can’t remember, which came out first, but I think it was the former. As for the first point, it’s not really an issue here, as the Bishoujo line only includes chicks, even when the original subject matter is male (i.e. Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and the upcoming Edward Scissorhands). The second point isn’t an issue either, as I’m just happy to be getting this gorgeous statue of her.

Poison comes in the typical Bishoujo Statue box with windows all around to let you see the statue inside, plenty of sultry art by Shunya Yamashita, and the black deco that Koto uses for the Street Fighter and Tekken themed statues. This one is particularly tall and thin, just like Poison! Everything is collector friendly. Alas, ever since I filled up an entire closet with empty statue boxes, I’m at the point where I have to pitch the plastic trays and flatten out the box for storage. Poison comes attached to her base and all ready for display, although there are a few options, which I’ll get to in a bit.

Um, wow! Yeah, I’m tempted to end it there, because I’m struggling to find other words. Poison is posed with her left leg kicking out a bit behind her, her left hand pulled up near her face, and her right arm extending outward and holding one of her accessories. In the case of most of these pictures I went with the handcuffs because it’s easier to get close with the camera and still get in the entire statue. The skimpy outfit consists of a very abbreviated tank top, a pair of cut-off jeans, red high heels, a leather collar, and a biker hat. There isn’t a lot to say about the costume, because there isn’t a lot of it. I dig the way they sculpted one of her tank top straps off her shoulder and over her arm. You also get some real chain used on her shorts and on her hat. Since Poison is wearing very little in the way of clothes, the quality of the skin tone is crucial here, but that’s never been an issue with Koto’s Bishoujo line and it certainly isn’t here. You even get some nice shading to pick out the detail in the muscle definition in her mid riff. Damn, this is one sexy figure!

Poison’s purple hair cascades down her back all the way down to her butt, effectively covering a lot more of her than her actual clothes do. Some other nice touches on her outfit include the gorgeous red paint on her shoes, the wrist bracer on her right arm, which serves the double purpose of concealing the swappable hand, and the bangle on her left wrist. The paint apps on the buckle and rivets in her collar are particularly well done.

And that brings us to the portrait, which is simply amazing. No, I said the portrait… it’s the thing right above what you’re looking at now. This may be one of my favorite head sculpts of all my Bishoujos and that’s saying quite a lot. You do have to get down a little low to take it all in, because it’s partially covered by the visor on the cap and you also have some strands of hair blowing in front of it. The paintwork on the deep blue eyes and pink lips is as sharp and clean as ever.

As mentioned earlier, you get a couple display choices for her right arm. You can go with the handcuffs or the riding crop. Either of which carry on the overt bondage theme here. The riding crop is permanently attached to an extra hand, so it’s just a matter of popping out one and pegging int he other. The handcuffs, are not attached to the other hand, so you can tuck those into the chain on her shorts, which is where she often wears them in character art. I like the idea of being able to display both accessories on the figure at once, although the riding crop takes up a lot more display space.

The Street Fighter line continues to use these clear plastic disks as stands. Like the Tekken statues, you can pop off the bottoms and put in either of two included inserts. One has the Street Fighter logo and the other some character art. I tend to go with the logo on these and the character art on my Tekken pieces. My only gripe about the stand is that the wedges that support her feet are white plastic instead of clear. Not a big deal, but hey, I figured I had to nitpick something because otherwise this statue would be perfect.

Another Bishoujo and another win for both Kotobukiya and my display shelves. I actually had Poison pre-ordered, so I spent the full retail of around $60 on her and I’m perfectly fine with that. But, Bishoujos haven’t been selling out like they used to, so chances are she’s available for a good $5 to $10 less if you hunt around for her. She’s only the fifth release in the Street Fighter line, but I’ve been all-in for this line so far and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

May 31 2016

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Tygra by Mezco

It’s been almost five years since Mezco embarked on bringing out the beloved Classic Thundercats in a giant 14-inch Mega-Scale figure format. There were times along the way that it felt like the team might never see completion. And while it seems unlikely that we’ll ever see a Wily Kit and Wily Kat, we finally have a core team of cats with the release of Tygra! I’ve made no bones about being a huge fan of this line. At a time when Ban Dai couldn’t decide what to do with the Classics line, these releases came as a bright ray of shining hope in the unfortunately short-lived Thundercats revival of 2011. Needless to say, I’m pretty damn excited to finally have this figure in hand.

The boxes have been fairly consistent throughout the five year stretch. Tygra comes in a very colorful window box with the glorious Thundercats logo emblazoned across the front and side panel. You get some damned beautiful character art of Tygra on the front and the rest of the cats on the other side panel. There are some minor changes for each of the different cats’ boxes, and Mumm-Ra came in a black box because he’s so damn evil, but these are collector friendly and look mighty nice when all lined up on the shelf. Provided you have a shelf big enough to contain them all. With a little patience required to untwist some twist-ties, Tygra comes out of the box and all set to go!

And looking damned good! The sculpt walks the fine line between being sparse enough to maintain the animated style, while offering enough detail to make for an interesting and appealing figure. The bulk of the sculpting here is in Tygra’s impressive muscle tone. His cat feet are fully realized, and all of the details that make up the costume are part of the sculpt as well as the deco, including the Thundercat emblem on his chest. While these are billed as “action figures” it should be noted that articulation is fairly limited and Tygra is sculpted in an action-ready stance. The bulk of useful articulation is in the head and arms. There are ball joints in the neck and shoulders, a swivel in the middle of the left arm and another at the right wrist. The legs swivel at the hips and again at the tops of the boots, but these are mainly there to help shift the balance and achieve a good footing. In the end, I found I could get some good variations out of him, but like the other figures in the line, it’s best to temper expectations on posing.

The paint here is solid, but does show some rough patches under close scrutiny. The tiger stripes look particularly nice and the muted shades of blue and green that make up his costume all look right on point and are fairly clean. Some of the lines could be crisper and the paint more even, especially around the border of his left sleeve. Nonetheless, Tygra is still an attractive looking figure and I’m only going to expect so much from the quality of paintwork on a piece this big with a price this reasonable.

The portrait is where this figure really shines. I think the sculpt does a wonderful job capturing the character’s likeness and I really like how the rather fierce expression matches the action-orientated stance of the figure. These are definitely cats that are prepared to do battle with some mutants. The teeth and the eyes are just amazing.

Tygra comes with his bolo whip, which fits comfortably in his right hand and has a wire running throughout so that it can be put in a variety of positions depending on the look you’re going for. It’s here where I really have my only gripes with the figure. I feel like a collapsed bolo would have been a nice extra. I also wish the whip itself was a little longer so that I could get it snake around him a few times while holding his hand over his head. Of course, then I remember the price point here, and I feel bad about asking for more.

I brought up price a few times throughout this Feature and that’s because Mezco has been able to keep this line at a $35 price point (give or take a little, depending on where you buy it). And while I may nitpick an imprecise paint line here and point out some missed opportunities with the accessories, the truth is that I think what we’re getting here is an amazing deal. While jumbo figures have become something of a trend nowadays, the sculpt, paint, and overall quality on these cats is leaps and bounds better than what I’m seeing in the slightly larger 18-inch Star Wars figures on the shelves. Indeed, these feel a bit more like collectibles and not like mass produced toys. In the end, I’m truly grateful that Mezco saw this line through to at least give us the four major cats and Mumm-Ra. These make for an absolutely epic display. I’m still considering buying the second release of Lion-O just so that I can get Snarf. And hey, if they do decide to get us a Thunderkitten two-pack, I’d be totally down with that.

May 30 2016

Marvel Universe Legends: Captain Marvel and Spider-Man Noir by Hasbro

Marvel Monday continues to take a short sabbatical from the 6-inch Legends line so that I can check out some figures from other corners of the Marvel Universe. I spent a couple weeks with some Sixth-Scale Hot Toys, now it’s time to turn to the other end of the spectrum with the 3 3/4-inch figures. I have to be honest, I’ve been re-evaluating my need to keep collecting this line, but it’s not like there are a lot of releases, so I keep on hanging in there. Let’s see if today’s acquisitions get me any more excited about it…

Oh, look! It’s been re-branded… AGAIN! Gone are the terrible bland and boring black cards of the Universe Infinite Series and in its place we get something a bit better. The cards are still black and bland, but at least we’re back to some original character art on each card. Meh. Nothing beats the colorful old Universe packaging. And wait, these are called Legends now too? But… the 6-inch line… that’s called… OMG, WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE WATCHER ARE THEY SMOKING OVER AT HASBRO THESE DAYS??? Sod it, I’m just going to call them Marvel Universe Legends. I’m going to open up Spider-Man Noir first.

While it’s been quite a few years since his debut, I was first introduced to Spider-Man Noir in the pages of Edge of Spider-Verse and rather enjoyed seeing the exploits of the darker Depression-Era Peter Parker. Hopefully, Hasbro is going to start mining Spider-Verse more for figures and I’ll confess I was very glad to see Spidey-Noir get a release, even if I would have preferred it in the 6-inch line. It’s also a bit of a bummer to not have any enemies from Earth 90214 for him to fight.

Obviously, there isn’t a lot of paint here. He’s black and gray and has silver eyes. Everything on the figure is textured, his boots feature buttons up the sides, the pants are rumpled and include pouches on the thighs. The shirt has sculpted button down flap and a high collar. The hood has sculpted stitching, silver goggles, and a sculpted wrap around the mouth area. He looks like he’s wearing a really creepy gimp mask, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the head sculpt strikes me as a little too soft.

There’s a ton of articulation here, so let’s run through it. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and hinges in the elbows. The legs have rotating hinges and swivels in the hips, double hinges in the knees, swivels at the tops of the boots, and the ankles are hinged and feature lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint just below the chest and both a hinge and ball joint in the neck. In theory, that’s all great, but I’m not a big fan of these hips and the way the shoulders are designed, you can’t really get his arms all the way down to his sides. He seems like he should be a lot more fun to play with than he actually is. Moving on to Ms. Danvers…

Captain Marvel has become one of my favorite characters in the Marvel Now! era, so it’s nice to see her 6-inch Legends figure getting a 3 3/4-inch companion release. This is a much simpler figure than Spidey-Noir, and I’m rather surprised that Hasbro didn’t just go back to the buck used for the Modern/Classic Ms. Marvels. The costume is almost entirely painted, but the paint looks great and the lines are sharp and clean. Compared to the really rough paint on the past Ms. Marvels, this one is a huge improvement. She wears her scarf tied around her waist, which appears to be the same piece used for the Modern Ms. Marvel figure from several years back. The head sculpt is quite good and looks a lot like the one used for the 6-inch Legends Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel features a serviceable level of articulation, although it’s limited compared to recent female bucks in the line. In fact, it doesn’t even have the waist swivel from the Modern/Classic Ms. Marvel figures. You do get rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows, but no bicep swivels, and oddly enough no wrist articulation at all. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and the ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. Despite the reduction in articulation, I actually like this buck a lot. It’s a lot less wobbly than some of the more super articulated MU figures and yet still plenty of fun to play with.

Both Captain Marvel and Spider-Man Noir are solid additions to my Marvel 3 3/4-inch collection, although Carol is my definite favorite here. I expected to like Spidey-Noir a lot more, but in the end he’s just OK. Really, my big gripe with this line continues to be the price. These are going for anywhere from $12.99 to $14.99 on the pegs these days and that’s really steep. Add to that the distribution in my area is atrocious. I was lucky enough to pick these up at the lower end of that spectrum from a really great online retailer, but right now Spidey-Noir is going for upward of $18-20 on Amazon, which is crazy for what you’re getting. Even at the regular price, it’s shocking that Hasbro couldn’t have thrown in a gun for Spidey and an alternate masked head for Carol. I feel sorry for 3 3/4-inch Marvel completists. Lately I’ve just been adopting an attitude of buy what I can get at a good price and just let the rest go.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Category Uncategorized

Masters of the Universe Classics: Goat Man by Mattel

Game of Thrones (Legacy Collection): Brienne of Tarth by Funko

Vitruvian HACKS: Ultimate Spartan Warrior (NJCC Exclusive) by Boss Fight Studios

Marvel Legends (Absorbing Man Wave): Morbius by Hasbro

KanColle: Light Cruiser Yahagi (Preparation Figure) by Taito

Blackest Night (Series 2): Indigo by DC Direct

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): Snowtrooper by Hasbro

Street Fighter: Poison Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Tygra by Mezco

Marvel Universe Legends: Captain Marvel and Spider-Man Noir by Hasbro

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