Apr 22 2016

Eiyuu Senhime Gold: Hero Princess Tutankhamun PVC Figure by QuesQ

Today I’m checking out my first PVC figure from QuesQ, a company that has done work with some anime properties that interest me, like Attack on Titan (but who hasn’t?) and Arpeggio of Blue Steel (not much out there from that series), as well as some game franchises that are rather obscure here in the States like Eiyuu Senhime Gold. I’m always a bit apprehensive about going in with a new manufacturer without ever having seen their figures in person, but here’s one where I was willing to roll the dice.

The figure comes in a rather compact box with a nice Egyptian themed deco and windows on the front and top to allow for a peek at the goods inside. Alas, my box is a little crunched up on top, but I got such a good deal on this one that I’m not concerned about it. The figure comes sandwiched between two clear plastic sleeves and while she can come apart at the waist and neck, the figure come assembled. You just have to peg her into the base and put her staff in her hand and she’s ready to go. At approximately 1/8 scale she stands exactly 8-inches, including the base.

All set up, this young lady looks gorgeous. If you’re not familiar with the game, Eiyuu Senhime Gold, you’re in good company. I only learned about the first time I saw this figure and I rather fell in love with the game’s character art. It’s billed as a strategy game, but it sounds like it’s equal parts visual novel. You’re out to conquer the world and up against some of the most famous rulers in history… and all of them happen to be adorable chicks, because… reasons… and Japan… and reasons. Obviously, this little lady is Tutankhamun. Just go with it.

I think it was a combination of the bishoujo style, the Egyptian theme, and the rather wonderful composition that made me take notice of this figure. The lingering pose reminds me a lot of my Lineage II Elf, another figure I own based off a Japanese game that I knew nothing about. Lady Tut is clad in a very simple white dress that’s blowing up just enough to give you a hint of a little sumthin-sumthin going on underneath. It’s tied at the waist with a red sash from which dangles a metallic blue ankh on her left hip. I dig the way they did the myriad of bangles on her wrists and ankles, each with three of them sculpted in series and one left loose to dangle. Her left hand is raised to her cheek and her right hand drags behind her holding her blue and gold staff. The skin tone is orange, which adds to her exotic look and suggests that she possibly eats a lot of carrots.

The portrait is fantastic. I love the way her sculpted bangs hang way over her face, but it’s her eyes that really get me. The striking tones of blue and purple paint are quite mesmerizing.

You also get this fabulous headdress that resembles a giant blue eye set in a golden frame with chains of gold medallions draping around her head.

The base is an extremely simple raised disk, cast in a rose colored plastic with the name inscribed across the front. The figure pegs into it quite easily. Oh yeah, and because the figure does come apart, if you’re really keen on seeing what’s going on under that skirt, it happens to come off…

Yup. She’s got a dainty little modesty cloth in the front and a cute little gold bird around back.

Everything about this piece makes me happy I bought it, but that brings us to price. Granted, the sculpt and paintwork on this figure are practically flawless, but the original retail on this little lady was a whopping $150 and as impressed as I am with her, I just can’t see the justification there. And I’m not someone who isn’t adverse to spending some money on a well-crafted anime honey, as evidenced by some of the money I’ve thrown at MegaHouse and Orchid Seed. I’ll leave Kotobukiya out of it, because quite frankly I think a lot of their figures are worth more than the initial asking price. Nonetheless, price was the reason I admired Ms Tut here from afar until I was ultimately able to get a nice deal on her at about $55. I’d like to sit here and say that I feel she’s worth three times that, but the truth I wouldn’t have been as satisfied with her had I gone much higher.

Apr 22 2016

DC Icons: (#06) Blue Beetle by DC Collectibles

It’s DC Friday and I’m back to working my way through the pile of DC Icons figures that currently resides in the corner of my toy closet. Today’s figure? Blue Beetle! Now, I’m a Ted Kord fan and I will be until the day I die. How come everyone else gets to come back to life, but not Ted? Even Booster Gold couldn’t make that happen. My point is, when when DC passed the mantle of Blue Beetle onto some kid named Jaime Reyes, I was pretty skeptical and resistant. But in the end I was won over by a really great character, a super cool new (retconned alien) suit, and what was a truly solid ongoing book.

Here’s the package. We’ve seen this plenty of times, so let’s not dwell on it. It points out that this is the 8th figure in the series and that Blue Beetle is based on “Infinite Crisis,” which was his first appearance back in 2006. As always, the box is collector friendly and gives you a great look at the figure and the accessories inside.

Besides Reyes being a great character, it’s hard not to fall in love with the design of this suit and it’s obviously heavily influenced by the retconned alien tech origins. The Icons figure nails all the crucial details, particularly how almost eerily slender it looks. The two-tone black and blue deco is quite striking and I’ve got to say the blue plastic they used here is absolutely gorgeous. The black portions of the suit feature sculpted segmented lines, while the blue armored portions are beautifully contoured. The beetle sits on his back and the legs protrude around the sides of the torso as well as over the shoulders. You can get a better look at it from behind…

It actually looks like a separate removable piece, although it is permanently attached to the figure. The wings peg into the back of the beetle and are cast mostly in an iridescent clear blue plastic, which offers some spectacular effects when lit up from behind.

In most cases, I’ve said the portraits on the DC Icons figures aren’t really up to the DC Universe Classics standards. With Blue Beetle here, that’s definitely not the case. The DCUC figure’s head was too flat in the face, whereas this one is absolutely perfect. The blue chin guard that extends around to frame the face is actually part of the sculpt, as is the down-turned mouth. The painted details here are particularly good as well.

Another area where the DCUC version of this character fell flat was the articulation. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t up to snuff with the incredible agility that the suit gave Reyes. It’s much better executed here in what is essentially the standard articulation for the Icons line, although there are a few opportunities for improvement. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, the elbows and knees are double hinged. There are swivels in the biceps and middle of the forearms. The hips are ball jointed. The ankles feature hinges and lateral rockers. There is a ball joint in the chest and another in the neck. As always, my only real gripe here is the lack of swivels in the thighs.

The wings are articulated only because they peg in and can swivel. I really would have liked to see hinges added similar to what Mattel has done with some figures in the Masters Classics line. It’s not a huge deal and what we got here is still better than the completely static wings of Mattel’s DCUC Blue Beetle.

Of course, Blue Beetle’s suit can create various weapons and tools and this figure conveys that ability with two swap-out arm pieces. You just pop the arms off at the middle of the forearm and pop in the desired weapon. The first of these is some kind of beam emitter, which kind of reminds me of Cyborg’s sonic cannon. I honestly don’t remember what this thing is supposed to do, but it looks pretty cool on the figure.

The other is an alien minigun and I absolutely love this thing. There’s so much detail packed into the sculpt and while it’s clearly some kind of chain gun the alien influences in the design are unmistakable.

Blue Beetle is easily my favorite figure that I’ve featured in the DC Icons line to date. He’s a huge improvement over what we got from the DCUC line and he’s ridiculously fun to play around with. I would expect that this is going to be the definitive action figure version of the character for a long time to come, only because it’s hard to imagine anyone doing it any better. The sculpt and colors are spot on and the addition of the swappable arm parts just add value to what is already a fairly reasonably priced $20 figure.

Apr 21 2016

Transformers Combiner Wars: G2 Stunticons Box Set by Hasbro, Part 2: Dead End and Brake-Neck

It’s Transformers Thursday again and here we are at the second part of my look at Hasbro’s Generation 2 style Stunticons. Last time we checked out Motormaster and today I’m going to take a look at Menasor’s legs: Dead End and Brake-Neck, or Wild Rider, if you prefer. We already saw the packaging last week, so let’s jump right in with the alt modes! These are, of course, straight repaints of the original figures, so we’re mostly going to be talking colors here…

So, straightaway I love the Sideswipe and Sunstreaker vibe that I get off of this pair. In the world of 90’s toy repaints that usually land somewhere between Swatch Watches and a Trapper Keeper, these guys are really not that outlandish. They are, however, blindingly bright. Dead End adopts a sumptuous candy-apple red and Brake-Neck a brilliant yellow. But just in case their colors aren’t crazy enough, they advertise their Generation 2 pedigree with the giant G2 Decepticon emblems on their hoods. Both emblems are in each car’s base color against a black backdrop and I really enjoy that they match each other.

Dead End’s deco does mingle with the outrageous by having a bright blue front bumper. It looks like he needed to replace it and went to Wheeljack’s U-Pull-It and could only find a blue bumper from his make and model and will eventually get around to painting it later, but right now he doesn’t have the money for it. He also sports some totally bitchin flame streaks down the side and teeny tiny G2 Decepticon emblems on what looks like it could be his gas caps, but that doesn’t make sense because there are two of them and he’s not a Jaguar. Still neat, though. The coloring is rounded out by some relatively sedate silver painted windows.

Brake-Neck’s deco is mostly just more yellow. He does have a little gradient orange trim behind the front wheel wells. He also has this crazy pattern on the roof that sort of reminds me of the cover of Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut. The rear window is black, but the side windows and windshield are painted with a very vibrant blue. Alright, let’s transform these guys and check them out, starting with Dead End…

Again, he’s fairly subdued for a G2 coloring. You get more of that lovely bright red with a good mix of gray and black. The bright blue chest really makes the sculpted detail there stand out and the yellow, red, and blue paint on the head is just fantastic. I don’t recall being too smitten with this head sculpt when I looked at the original figure, but here I’m really digging it a lot.

Brake-Neck is a little more surprising in that he sports some of that bright blue from his windows on his upper legs and fists. You also get some beautiful silver and his chest is black. The real treat here is the Wildrider head with the purple face. Man, do I dig that! I’ll also point out here that while Hasbro has been notorious for using some really shitty yellow plastic in the past, this stuff is actually really nice looking.

Both Stunticons come with the same exhaust pipe truncheon, which can be held in their hands or pegged onto their vehicle modes. I’m slightly disappointed that they didn’t paint them different colors, but I suppose they were the same colors on the original releases too, so maybe I was expecting too much there.

For two straight repaints, I’m surprised at how excited I am by this pair. The coloring just looks outstanding on every level and a lot of that is owed to the beautiful quality of the plastic and the way it holds the vibrant yellow and red. They really are a couple of beautiful figures and as bright as they are, I’d say the coloring on these could probably even win over those crazy people out there who are adverse to the whole G2 thang. Next time, I’ll wrap up the limbs with a look at Dragstrip and Breakdown!

Apr 20 2016

Star Wars Black: Ahsoka Tano by Hasbro

If you follow me on The Twitters, you may have seen me carrying on like a big baby over the fact that while shopping at a BIG online retailer, I had a BAD experience shopping at that particular TOY STORE vis-a-vis this figure. Of course, I’m not going to mention them by name here (I have too much class for that!) but truth be told I’m still a little bitter over the way they handled it and the fact that I basically got screwed out of something I ordered. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but in this case Ahsoka has been rather difficult to find and prices online have been pretty outrageous. Thankfully a friend was able to hook me up without raking me over the coals too badly.

Here’s Ahsoka in her box and there’s really nothing new to to say about the packaging. Yes, the Star Wars Black Series is now becoming home to characters from what remains of the Expanded Universe. I suppose you could put Ahsoka here in the same category as the realistic version of Kanan that I looked at a week or so ago. Either way, the small corner of the EU that has not been dismantled by the Disney buy-out still includes The Clone Wars and Rebels. I’ve never been a big fan of The Clone Wars series, but OH MY GOD, DID YOU SEE THE SEASON TWO FINALE OF REBELS??? In that context, Ahsoka seems like a perfect companion to the Kanan figure and she also justifies me buying some prequel figures in this line a while back.

Yes, this is Ahsoka done with more realism and less of her more familiar stylized look. It’s not the first time we’ve seen her done this way, I think the first time was in the 4-inch Vintage Collection line, and like Kanan, I think this look suits her. I’m presuming that this is meant to be the older version of the character appearing in Rebels as she does look like an adult. Her outfit isn’t the most complex of designs, but I think they’ve managed to capture it pretty well here from her detached sleeves down to her knee-high boots. The skirt is comprised of soft plastic layered over a soft goods skirt, which is a nice touch and it’s designed to have enough give so as not to inhibit the hip articulation too badly.

Something about that skirt makes Ahsoka look like she’s sporting quite a badonk. Note to self: Immediately commit suicide for using the term badonk. I don’t remember her having such a large caboose in the show, but as the late, great Freddie Mercury sang: “Fat bottomed Togruta girls make the rocking galaxy go round!”

The portrait here is quite good in terms of sculpt. I particularly like the shape of her face in profile. Sadly, the paint is another story. The blue stripes on the tendrils are all over the place, which I suppose give them a little bit of an organic feel. Those are natural, right? Do Togrutas paint those? Is that a racist question? I feel like I should be backing out of this line of questioning. The other issues I have with the paint include her facial markings, which are a little off center and the eyes, which aren’t even. None of these issues really ruin the figure for me. Indeed, they’re not as apparent from the naked eye, and as always mileage may vary from figure to figure.

The articulation here is pretty good. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, and ankles. The legs have ball joints in the hips and double hinges in the knees. There are swivels in the thighs, a ball joint in the chest, and a hinge and ball joint in the neck. On the downside, Ahsoka is sporting some pretty tiny feet, so getting her to remain upright in some of those action poses will require either a lot of patience or a good stand. I recommend NECA’s stands for use with most of these 6-inch Black figures. Obviously the tendrils inhibit her neck articulation quite a lot. I could get some side to side movement, but very little up and down.

Naturally, Ahsoka comes with her two lightsabers and there’s honestly not a lot to say about them. The clear blades are removable and the hilts can be hooked onto her hips.

Ahsoka is a very solid figure. I like her a lot and I continue to be a big fan of these realistic treatments of the animated characters. The sculpt is excellent, the articulation is solid, it’s only in the paint where she disappoints. Granted, what’s here is no worse than what we’ve been seeing in a lot of releases in the Black Series. And let’s face it, this line has been all over the place in terms of paint and sculpt quality. But, I’m making a point of calling it out here because Ahsoka is so hard to find and a lot of people are going to be tempted to pay a lot of money for her. If you want to buy her on Amazon right now she’s going to cost you between $45 and $60, and that’s a lot of money for what you’re getting.

Apr 19 2016

Heroes of the Storm: Tyrael (Diablo) by NECA

I’m continuing to work my way through a rather large receivings pile that dates back at least a month and it includes loads of great stuff by NECA. So, with that in mind let’s check back in with NECA’s Heroes of the Storm line. This time e’re dipping into the Diablo franchise with Tyrael, one of the five Archangels of the Angiris Council and the personification of Justice itself! Damn, those are some impressive credentials!

As we already saw with Terra Nova and Illidan, the figures come in sealed clamshells with the logo on top and an insert customized to the character. These are not collector friendly, but they do look nice and offer a great look at the figure inside. I’ve gone on record before saying that I don’t actually play the Heroes of the Storm game, but rather I’m in this line more for the Blizzard franchises that originally spawned these characters. Today’s figure fits nicely as I recently grabbed Diablo III off my pile of unplayed games and started taking it for a whirl.

And here he is out of the package and looking rather the imposing chap! This version of Tyrael is spawned from Diablo II before he was condemned by The Council and stripped of his angelic status. His full plate armor is absolutely stunning with a silver and dull copper paint scheme and some crisp scrollwork designs scattered throughout. Between many of the plates, the cross-thatched chain mail can be seen, and he wears a cream colored sash that starts at his hood and flows down between his legs. This is a pretty complex design even for a 7-inch scale figure but NECA nails it perfectly.

His armored angelic wings are particularly impressive as the feather motif forged in steel takes on a sharp-edged plumage, rising above his already impressive shoulders. Further spiked feathery motifs are added to the points on his knees and ankles. Damn, this guy looks great!

As far as articulation goes, Tyrael has a lot of serviceable points, but the sculpt does work against them in a few areas. He has rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles, as well as his two wings. His head is ball jointed. The large shoulder plates and the hip plates are made of soft, rubbery plastic to allow for movement. The biggest restrictions are in the elbows. They will swivel, but the sculpted plates don’t offer a lot of room for them to bend. With, that having been said I’d say articulation is overall on par with what you would expect from a heavy suit of armor.

The portrait is… empty! Yes, Tyrael just sports an eerie empty hood, which works rather well on the figure. I’ve always had a fascination with empty-hooded fantasy characters. My notebooks in Middle School were probably littered with sketches of this sort of thing, along with flaming swords and other metal AD&D-fueled references.

Tyrael comes with one accessory, his rather large sword, El’Druin. It’s a magnificent piece of sculpting and paintwork and cast in a stiff plastic, so no worries about warping. The spiked appendages coming off the hilt nicely mirror the steel wings on his armor. The pommel pulls off of the hilt, so you can slide it into his closed grip and then pop it back on and he’s good to go.

While some restrictive articulation means Tyrael isn’t as fun to play around with as Illidan was, he’s still an amazing looking figure which continues to makes me very happy that I’ve decided to collect this line. Oddly enough, he’s also made me all the more anxious to get my hands on T4H’s Mythic Legion figures, because I think this guy will fit right in with them in terms of scale and aesthetics.

Apr 18 2016

Marvel Legends (Red Onslaught Wave): Captain America by Hasbro

I’m finally past the halfway mark in my look at this wave of Marvel Legends figures… only three more to go before I can cobble together a Red Skull! With the wave branded in a Captain America theme, it’s understandable that Cap himself would make an appearance and that’s exactly who I’m checking out today!

There’s really nothing new to say about the packaging, other than Cap and his accessories fill up that tray pretty well. It feels like we’ve been hit with a whole lot of Cap since the Legends line returned, but I’ve been more or less complete with these figures and I was surprised to find only a handful in my Legends drawers, and a couple of those were from the Cinematic Universe. With Rogers being one of my favorite Marvel characters, you won’t hear me complain about getting a fair share of different versions of the man. Oh yeah… see those shoulder straps?

Well forget about them. They literally slid off the figure’s arms the moment I got him out of of the package. I see no way of making them stay on, so I just have to ask, WTF, Hasbro? Costume malfunction aside, I really dig this figure. He’s about as classic a version of comic Cap that we’ve seen in Legends since the line has come back. It’s a very clean look for the costume with no scaling or texturing on the top of the costume at all, just a large white star and pronounced red and white stripes in the mid-section. The classic comic goodness is further enhanced by the very wide belt and large belt buckle, the flared gauntlets and the traditional buccaneer boots. This here is good old-fashioned and unfiltered patriotism, soldier!

The head sculpt is broad and beefy, which makes for a good comic look. The cowl features the extra large “A” as part of the sculpt as well as the protruding wings on the sides. Some of the paint lines could have been a little sharper, but there’s nothing too bad here.

This version of Cap sports more or less the same articulation as most. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, with double hinges in the knees and swivel cuts in the thighs and tops of the boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. Finally, you get a rotating waist, ab crunch hinge, and ball joint in the neck. I will note that the hinge in the neck does very little and I’ve really only been able to get side to side movement out of the head.

The shield appears to be the same one that came with the Marvel NOW! version of Cap that was part of the Mandroid Wave. It’s the type that clips onto the arm and also offers a peg so it can be worn on the back. The paint on the surface is pretty crisp and clean.

You also get an extra pair of hands, which include a saluting right hand and a pointing left hand. It’s the sort of thing we’ve seen before in Legends scale Caps and while I’m not a big extra hand kind of guy, I do appreciate getting these with my Caps. Almost as much as getting a spare werewolf head.

Because of course, no Captain America figure is complete without an werewolf head. Wait, what? Yeah, this extra head in the package no doubt has had the more casual collectors scratching their heads. Wolf Cap was one of the more bizarre twists Captain America took a while (in the 90’s, I think?) back. I’ve never actually read that run, but it’s very possible I may be displaying this figure with the wolf head because, why the hell not?

I can certainly understand some collectors getting Cap fatigue from Legends. Those people are obviously filthy communists. Me? I’m a patriot, and so I’m happy to get another stand out version of Captain America for my shelf. Indeed, this one fits right in between the version that came in the Target Exclusive 3-Pack (with Radioactive Man and Ms Marvel) and the aforementioned modern look from the Mandroid Wave. The bonus werewolf head is just a gravy. Very silly gravy.

Apr 15 2016

DC Icons: (#08) Lex Luthor by DC Collectibles

It’s been a while since I checked out the first wave of DC Collectibles’ new DC Icons line, but after a long detour into some statues and a few other things, I’m ready to bring DC Friday back around to look at what Wave 2 has to offer. Today I’m kicking things off with a look at Lex Luthor, because for some reason (I can’t imagine why), I have a powerful need to look at a traditional and faithful treatment of the character. Yeah, I know, this is the New 52 version, but compared to what we’ve seen on the big screen recently, this is still pretty damn traditional.

The packaging has not changed from what we saw in the first wave. You get a collector friendly window box with a snazzy angle on the window indicating the figure’s name and number in the series. Lex is actually #8, so while I am going to cover all of Wave 2 over the next month or so, I’m not going in order. The side panel also has the name and number of the figure, along with the story he’s pulled from, in this case the “Forever Evil” mini-series by Geoff Johns. If you like to keep your packages, you couldn’t ask for more than this. It displays all the accessories in the tray and they look great lined up on the shelf. If I had the space, I’d be keeping these, but as you all probably know, I don’t.

I like this look for Lex a lot. It’s vaguely reminiscent of his armored costumes from Super Powers and even the DC Universe Classics figure, only a lot less bulky. The sculpting of the costume conveys the idea that he’s wearing armor pieces over a bodysuit and overall it’s fairly faithful to the David Finch art. The armor itself has some rather nice contours, particularly in the chest and shoulders.

The coloring on this figure is stellar. The green and purple not only scream Lex Luthor to me, but the vibrant shade of the purple suit matched with the super slick, glossy green paint on the armor is pure eye candy. The extra white hits do a good job mimicking the light up features from the panel art. Based on the costume alone, this is without a doubt a great looking figure.

The head sculpt is solid, but not exceptional. It’s a very simple sculpt without a lot of depth to it. The eyes seem off to me and the jawline is way too severe. I’m also unsure of what expression they were going for, other than passive and bland. I would have liked something with more energy and emotion. In general, I don’t think the portraits in the DC Icons line have been up there with some of T4H’s work on DCUC and this figure continues that trend.

Articulation, on the other hand, is really wear this line is at and Lex brings it. You get double hinges in both the elbows and knees. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and the ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists and swivels in the biceps. The torso features both an ab crunch hinge and a ball joint under the chest. Finally, the neck is ball jointed, although the high collar does inhibit the head movement a bit.

Accessories are also a big focus in this line, although I have to admit I find Lex’s collection of extras a little bland. If you’ve been reading FFZ for a while then you know I don’t often go ga-ga over a lot of swap out hands, and that’s mostly what Lex’s extras have to offer. Besides the standard pair of fists and relaxed hands, you also get a hand holding his lighting rod and another projecting an energy screen. These are decent enough display options, but nothing that gets me too excited.

You also get this little wrist blade that clips on over the wrist. It’s probably my favorite accessory in the box, but that’s not saying a lot.

If I sound a little underwhelmed by Mr. Luthor, that’s not really the case. He is a solid figure through and through and he’s got a lot of great qualities, including the fun articulation and rather beautiful paint job. Not to mention, I think this is a look for the character that even a lot of those rabid New 52-haters could get behind. In the end, I just felt the extras left a little to be desired, but that’s coming from someone who can rarely be bothered to swap out hands all that often. But in the end, this is another accomplished entry in what has proven to be an extremely fun line of figures. And if anything, having Lex on my shelf is making me very excited to pick up the Wave 3 Superman figure.

Apr 14 2016

Transformers Combiner Wars: G2 Stunticons Box Set by Hasbro, Part 1: Motormaster

Well, looks like I was able to get Transformers Thursdays kick-started a little early thanks to this big box of garishly colored plastic that arrived on my stoop earlier in the week. Lest you think Hasbro isn’t willing to take risks these days, I present to you the Combiner Wars Stunticons in those glorious Generation 2 colors that never actually saw official release here in the US. That is, until someone recently dropped an obscene amount of money on an un-circulated set via Ebay. It’s worth noting that this is actually the second G2-inspired Combiner Wars set Hasbro has sent to retail, the first being the Aerialbots, which I will probably get to eventually. Now, I was already out of buying Transformers and in college by the time G2 hit the shelves around 1991, but it’s impossible for me not to fall in love with the vivid coloring that the line used. Today I’m going to start with a look at the packaging and Motormaster…

The box is somewhat reminiscent to the packaging Takara uses for their Unite Warriors giftsets, although this one is a completely enclosed box with no window or front flap. Still, it’s impressively large and features very nice artwork on the front and the back shows the combined Menasor mode. It doesn’t actually make the connection to the G2 homage anywhere on the box, so anyone buying this set sight unseen and expecting to get the regular Stunticons will be in for a delightful or horrific surprise, depending on their personal tastes.

Inside the box, the six figures come packaged in their vehicle modes, just like the old G1 giftsets and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The weapons and combiner parts are laid out beside each figure. The box also contains an instruction sheet and a collectible character card for Menasor. Just look at these lovelies! They look like they would be right at home cruising the streets in GTA: Vice City. This is so damn cool!

A far cry from his drab black and gray G1-style deco, Motormaster’s cab now sports snazzy purple and two-tone blue coloring with stylish red stripes running down the sides. You also still get some of that great silver paint on the front grill and the smokestacks and the wheels are still black. I’ll also point out that they did a fairly good job matching the purple plastic on the corners with the purple paint on the rest of the cab. Although, I still wish they could have painted in the rest of the windows to match, even if it meant bumping up the price of the set a little bit. I don’t have anything new to say about the cab mode itself. It holds together pretty well and I’m surprised the Third Parties haven’t come out with trailers for Motormaster yet. Right now, they could get two versions out of whatever mold they cooked up. Four, if you count the two Optimus Primes. GET ON IT, DUDE’S!!!

Wow… he’s breathtaking! I mean, holy hell does he just pop! In robot mode, the new deco carries over from the cab with few surprises. You do get more blue showing than purple and the extra red paint hits really makes for a striking touch. It’s fascinating to see the profound differences that a drastic new color scheme makes, especially over a figure that was essentially just monochrome black and gray with a little purple. And the fact that there’s still a fair amount of purple and black means that this deco still works quite well for me as a Decepticon. Also, it feels like this figure was built off the updated mold with the more forgiving hip ratchets.

The vibrant silver paint used on the face is as eye catching as ever and there’s that epic G2 Decepticon emblem stamped right in the middle of his chest. I’ve got to admit, I never thought I’d see it on a modern toy that wasn’t some kind of Con Exclusive. It’s so damn cool to see that this is a regular retail release.

Motormaster includes the same two weapons that came with his original Combiner Wars release: His gun and sword. There’s really nothing new to be said about these. They feature the same brilliant silver paintwork and can combine with each other to form the larger Menasor sword.

What can I say, other than I am smitten with this guy. Granted, this mold has had its ups and downs with me. I didn’t care for it as Optimus Prime, mostly because of the big arms and the unpainted corners of the cab. But when it was released as Motormaster, I was totally on board and it still holds up for me just fine with this new release. The larger arms suit Motormaster’s brutish nature and both of the color schemes work perfectly for me. Sure, the first release will still be representing on my Combiner Wars shelves, but I’m already planning a second shelf for these G2 re-releases. This is simply a gorgeous figure and a wonderful homage to that quirky span of Transformers that held the franchise together until something new came along. I really can’t thank Hasbro enough for bringing this out, and you know what’s great? I still have five more figures to look at! Next Thursday, I’ll be back to check out a pair of limbs!

Apr 13 2016

God of War III: Ultimate Kratos “Ghost of Sparta” by NECA

NECA’s Ultimate Series continues to blow me away with each new figure I pick up. In fact, it’s doing such a great job, that I even find myself buying figures from properties that I otherwise wouldn’t think of. Now, God of War is a decent series of video games, I will not deny that. I’ve played most of them, even one of the PSP releases, and while I wouldn’t rank it at the top of my list of personal favorites, I’d consider these games a guilty pleasure. I certainly never played any of them for the story or even that much for Kratos himself. What I’m getting at here is that, apart from being a cool badass, Kratos doesn’t mean that much to me as a character, but that doesn’t matter so much when NECA is working their magic on the figure.

Behold! Just when I thought the Ultimate Series packaging couldn’t get any better, they go and do this. While the previous packages have been unifrom in size and shape, this one is most definitely a stand-alone piece. It’s still a window box with a front flap, but this one is much wider across when compared to the regular releases and it’s designed to look like a mock up of a PS2 game. Or in this case, a large PS2 accessory of some sort. I love it.

Open it up and you get some lovely artwork on the inside of the front flap and a good look at the figure and all the accessories within. One side panel has the franchise name on it and the other has three shots of Kratos in action. This is some killer presentation and it feels more like a limited edition or exclusive than an off-the-shelf release. The Gods would indeed be pleased.

Even at NECA’s regular 7-inch scale, Kratos feels like a big figure in hand and he’s a beautifully crafted piece. NECA has reproduced his ashen skin perfectly, thanks to gray plastic and a white wash, and coupled it with some splendid detail on all the components of his costume. You have the Boots of Hermes, which are really more like sandals, but they still feature the sculpted wraps, bronzed fixtures and crimson wings on the sides. His belt is engraved with a decorative pattern and his loin cloth blows off to the side. The detail on the chains around his bracers is impressive, as is the bronzed armor plates on his right arm, all of which feature a nice, shiny gold finish with some bright red splatter on the upper pieces.

On his back, Kratos wears the twin Blades of Chaos, secured in place with chains and ready to be drawn at the hint of danger. From behind, you can also get a better look at the individual straps that make up his “skirt.” I can’t think of too many companies, outside of NECA, putting this kind of effort in sculpt and paintwork in their figures.

You get two portraits for Kratos. The regular, slightly perturbed, visage and the angry one he flashes right before he starts tearing shit up. Both of these head sculpts are little works of art and both manage to capture the character perfectly. Whether you’re going for a standard “museum style” pose or something with a little action, these two noggins have you covered.

The articulation on this fella includes just about everything I could ask for in my video game action figures. The legs have rotating hinges at the hips, double hinges in the knees, and rotating hinges in the ankles. The torso can swivel at the waist and has an ab crunch hinge. The arms have rotating hinges at the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The head is ball jointed. Some lateral rockers in the ankles would have been nice for those wide stances, but he can get by without them.

The Blades of Chaos are beautifully recreated here as if they flew right out of the game. They feature blazing orange blades fashioned in translucent plastic at the edges. The hilts are intricately sculpted, gnarled and ancient-looking and Kratos can comfortably grasp them in his hands.

You also get the Nemean Cestus, the massive pair of gauntlets, which fit over Kratos’ hands. As far as accessories go, these things are absolutely stunning. Not only are the enormous, but they represent a hell of a lot more sculpted detail than I’m used to seeing in some companies’ entire figures. They are, however, extremely heavy, so getting Kratos’ joints to support all that weight in certain poses can be problematic.

I’m going to pay Kratos the highest compliment I can: He ranks up there with my treasured Raziel as my favorite video game action figures of all time. Now, Raziel, also one of NECA’s Player Select figures, still holds the top spot, but that’s mostly because I’m far more vested in that character and series. But in terms of craftsmanship, these figures are leagues above anything other companies are putting out in this scale. The real kick in the jumblies is the price. If you handed this box to me and let me play around with Kratos for a while, I would probably guess an MSRP of around $40-50. Nope, try $25. TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS. Even laying aside all the sculpt work and paint that went into this guy, the amount of plastic alone makes that seem like a great value. Add to that the fact that when compared to the stuff Hasbro and Mattel are putting out, these are really niche figures aimed at a much smaller market. I seriously don’t know how they do it, but I’m glad they can!

Apr 12 2016

One:12 Collective: Judge Dredd by Mezco

Mezco is poised to take the action figure world by storm this year with the widespread expansion of their One:12 Collective line to include Marvel, DC, and Star Trek. But it all started with Batman and Judge Dredd here. As a teenager, I got my first Dredd comics at a used book store downtown. It was just a random sampling of what they had on hand. Later I found that my friend from school had a whole collection and I was able to delve deeper than what I had. The comics had a flavor about them… adult and gritty and reading them felt like I was getting away with something. Just seeing one of those black and white pages still brings me back. To be honest, I hadn’t given the character a lot of thought until the amazing Karl Urban flick hit. Of course, today’s figure is based off the comic version, and that’s an important distinction to make when realizing what an amazing thing Mezco has achieved here.

This packaging is class, through and through and I wish I could do it justice, but it’s so damn shiny that it’s really hard to take a picture of it without it just winding up a reflection of me taking a picture of it. In some ways it outshines (har har) what we’ve been getting from Hot Toys these days. The figure comes in a mostly black box with a clear plastic sleeve around it and decked out in color printing. You get a lovely emblem on the front and some shots of the figure and accessories on the back.

With the sleeve off the box is mysteriously devoid of almost all feature. There is, however, a front flap that opens to reveal a window granting a look at what’s inside: A molded black plastic tray with the figure set atop the stand and flanked by accessories. There’s a secondary tray underneath with the arm for the stand and a branded ziploc bag for parts similar to what we get from Figma. Everything about this package is suggestive of a true high end collectible. It makes me feel like I’m handling something special and it’s a credit to the collectible figure inside.

First thing I’m going to do is straight out tell y’all what impresses me the most about this figure. Dredd’s costume design is a work of art in the comic panels, but translate it to real life and it’s about the most impractical thing I can possibly imagine. So much so, it seems like it should be nearly impossible to credibly pull it off well on an action figure. But Mezco did it here. For starters, the figure comes clad in a full-body, highly flexible, leather-like suit with a zipper running down the front. The body has a decidedly stylized design with a slim waist and broad chest. Now add on the beautifully chunky plastic boots and knee pads, gloves, and elbow pads. Next, a highly detailed plastic belt to hand around that rather slim waist, and finally, the gargantuan plastic shoulder pads, each held on by magnets. These are absolutely brilliant in the way they’re designed and in the way they look. The eagle guard, in particular is just perfect. This figure is like the comic character come to life.

Another clever use of a magnet can be found securing the badge to the front of the outfit, which in turn is chained to the zipper. The head sculpt features Dredd’s iconic helmet, complete with the lightning bolts on the visor and the snappy red trim and yellow shield. The lower half of the face is exposed in the classic extreme scowl like only Dredd can produce. The plastic used for the skin is a little waxy, which is something that I hope Mezco addresses before going full guns on their upcoming figures in this line. It’s not a deal-breaker by any stretch, I don’t even think it really detracts from the figure. It’s just something that I think can be improved upon.

The belt hangs loose on the figure, and it is occasionally necessary to re-position it as it can ride up or shift when posing Dredd. It’s lined with sculpted pouches and the back features two loops to hold his canister grenades and a pouch to hold his spare magazine of ammo. There’s also a loop, which I thought might be for his truncheon, but it really doesn’t fit in there. The detailing on the belt is carried over in the gloves and knee pads. Everything is textured beautifully and even the tiniest rivets and fixtures are neatly painted silver.

The boots feature places to store the Lawgiver as well as Dredd’s combat knife and again, there’s some beautiful detailing on these plastic ares of the costume. The boots include scrapes and scuffs and all the fixtures on the straps are painted.

I have no idea what specifically is going on under that bodysuit in terms of articulation, but I know it’s good. Dredd seems to sport all the posability I expect out of my 6-inch scale action figures. His joints are fluid and there aren’t a lot of times when I couldn’t get it to do what I wanted. The magnetic shoulder pads are never an issue when playing with him. They stay on securely while not getting in the way of the fun. The only exposed articulation points are in the ankles and wrists. The ankles are hinged and the wrists feature ball joints to allow for popping-and-swapping the extra hands. The figure includes a pair of fists, two item-holding hands, a pointing right hand, and a relaxed left hand.

I’ve already gone over most of the accessories in describing where they fit on the costume. The Lawgiver is obviously the most essential piece and it’s beautifully done both in sculpt and paint hits. The magazine is removable and the weapon fits perfectly in either the boot holster or the gun-holding hand.

The combat knife is small and simple, but has a nice finish on the blade. There isn’t a hand designed expressly for holding it, but the gun hand works surprisingly well.

When bullets and steel fail you, you can always rely on a good truncheon to beat back crime. There’s not much to say about it. It’s a stick for beating people. Like the knife, this piece fits perfectly into the regular gun hand.

The grenades can be held securely in either of Dredd’s grabby hands.

And lastly we have this beautiful set of handcuffs. They not only open and close, but they’re hinged in the middle too. They’re delightfully huge and really make me wish I had some lowlifes for Dredd to cuff.

If all these goodies weren’t enough, Dredd also comes with this amazing figure stand. It’s a gorgeous gold disc with Dredd’s badge printed on it and a single foot peg to secure him to it. What’s that? You want something a little more dynamic. Well, pop out the foot peg from the bottom and just plug in this baby…

…and you’ve got a stand that can support whatever action poses you can dream up. The grabby arm is similar to what we’ve seen from Figuarts only it’s a lot more robust with hinges strong enough to hold a hefty figure like this one in the air.

To say that I’m absolutely delighted with this figure seems like a serious understatement. From the moment I opened the box and started unwrapping the figure and accessories, I could feel myself grinning from ear to ear. It felt like something genuinely new and special. Getting him set up and on my desk, I found it impossible to keep from playing around with him. And that’s what makes this guy so cool. This figure represents a fascinating hybrid of high collector grade quality wrapped around a figure that begs to be played with and most importantly one that I didn’t feel afraid to play with even with that $60 price tag. I’m so in love with this guy, I’m seriously thinking about picking up the Cursed Earth variant and yes, I’m even considering picking him up soon to be released Lawmaster because the dude needs his ride.

FigureFan Zero

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Category Uncategorized

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