Nov 13 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Shipwreck by Hasbro

Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do action figure companies. So, with my Star Wars Black Series and Marvel Legends collecting dropping off, GI JOE Classified has stepped up to fill those gaps and help Hasbro to keep sucking out all my monies. There have just been so many quality releases out of this line and they just keep coming! Today I’m checking out Classified Shipwreck, and some may be surprised to find that this is another character where I did not own the vintage RAH figure when I was a kid. Indeed, the first time I added a Shipwreck figure to my collection would have been as an adult collector with the 25th Anniversary release.

Shipwreck comes in the usual plastic free packaging, including a cardboard footlocker to stow his gear. I love these boxes and I’ve been keeping them for now, but I think eventually they will need to go. Maybe I’ll just flatten them all out and tuck them somewhere. Anyway, it’s hard for me to put a finger on why I never owned the vintage version of Shipwreck. He was a 1985 release, so he turned up on shelves just at the cusp of when I was starting to lose interest in toys, but he was so prominently featured in the Sunbow cartoon. Maybe it was because I was never a big fan of the character, and I think I used to just use Cutter as a stand in. Anyway, let’s scrape the barnacles off this box and see what we’ve got!

True to form, Shipwreck hits all the beats of the vintage figure with his blue trousers, lighter blue short sleeved shirt, and black gloves. The trousers here are textured to look more like jeans and less like a uniform, which I guess fits in line with his weird freelancer Sunbow backstory, but not so much with his official filecard. There’s some excellent detail sculpted into his tiny belt buckle, and some sharp naval tatts on his forearms, as well as the insignia on his shoulders. Like the RAH figure, you get a plunging neckline, as his shirt is unbuttoned at the top, but here you actually get to see his hairy chest which is printed on. He has a belt rig with a scabbard for his larger gun and a hook for his boarding hook. There’s also a functional holster strapped to his right leg, which was just a sculpted bit on the RAH figure.

The head sculpt looks great, giving Shipwreck the look of a rough-and-tumble seadog. The beard and mustache sport some nice detail and the paint is pretty well, with only a few bits where the brown paint comes up short of the beard sculpt. He has a strong nose and somewhat sunken cheeks and one eyebrow is raised to give him a little character. This feels more like an update to the RAH character as opposed to the Sunbow one, and I’m all for that! With Super7 doing the Sunbow stuff, I really love when Hasbro does their own thing with these guys. The hat is removable and the hair goes with it, but you get a second hair piece if you want to display him sans hat. The secondary hair looks great, but I’ll likely always display him with the hat on.

Naturally, Shipwreck comes with his parrot Polly, which has no articulation, but is a fantastic little sculpt with some vibrant green and yellow coloring and some sharp paint on his tiny face and beak. They also gave him a peg leg, which is I think is hilarious, in a kind of morbid way. It gives the little figure so much character and poses so many questions as to how and why. It also serves the practical function of allowing him to be pegged into the hole on Shipwreck’s arm. You also get a coil of rope that can be worn over Shipwreck’s shoulder and it has a peg hole if you’d prefer to perch Polly up there. This is some really clever and fun design beats on Hasbro’s part and I love it!

The holster on his leg rig stores an automatic pistol, which is nothing terribly special, but a decent little sculpt nonetheless. The RAH figure didn’t come with a sidearm like this, but there was one sculpted onto the leg, so it’s nice for the Classified version to be able to make use of it.

The anchor is a stand in for the original figure’s boarding hook, which is an interesting update and certainly adds to the naval theme. The ring that allows it to hang off the belt can also be used to attach a string if you want to complete the look. Personally, I’d like to think he just uses this thing as a melee weapon and beats the shit out of Cobras with it while whistling a jaunty maritime tune.

The other weapon lifted from the RAH figure’s inventory is the percussion pistol, which I always thought was meant to be a sawed-off shotgun. I blame the 25th Anniversary figure for that. It is indeed an old-timey design with a double barrel and a vintage style hammer mechanism. Probably not the most reliable and efficient weapon to bring into battle, but it sure is distinctive and adds more to the figure’s naval theme and I dig it a lot. There’s also a sculpted lanyard loop coming off the handle grip.

The designers definitely had some fun with this figure, and for a character that I never warmed up to, I really love this one a lot. He walks that fine line between being a fairly credible military-style figure while infusing just enough distinctive character and not being too goofy. All the accessories gel so wonderfully and he’s tons of fun to pose and play around with. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this one is another direct hit for Classified and another reason why this is my favorite line to collect right now!

Nov 10 2023

Masters of the Universe Origins: Rattlor and Kobra Khan by Mattel

I’m beginning to wind down on my Masters Origins collecting, which some may say is a no-brainer since the line itself is beginning to wind down quite a bit. But in my case, I’m just not really following the releases too closely now that the the line is less of a general retailer thing and more like exclusives all over the place. I love this line to death, but I’m done with stressing over missing a release or going back and paying extra to get one that I did miss. Still, I’ve got more than a few figures left to look at, and I will be dipping my toe into the Filmation-style releases to see how deep I want to go there. Anyway, today I’m checking out two of the Snake Men… Rattlor and Kobra Khan!

The figures come in the usual glorious retro-style card and bubble, but now with the Snake Men branding encroaching on the top and Snake Men stickers on the bubbles. We first saw this new bit of packaging flair when I had a look at Dragon Blaster Skeletor, only the figures are actual Snake Men for reals this time. I have very little experience with this faction, since I never owned the toys as a kid and my only real exposure to MOTU was through the Filmation cartoon. I think the first time I knew anything about the Snake Men faction was watching the MYP 200x series and eventually first owned figures based on them from Mattel’s MOTU Classics line. Let’s start with Rattlor!

By now it’s a given that the figure is based closely on the original vintage release with some minor updates to include the added articulation and whatnot. With that being said, this is an absolutely gorgeous figure with a lot more unique sculpting than I’m used to seeing in this line. You get some crazy detail in his scaly chest and some softer scales sculpted elsewhere on his body, and more defined ridges running down his arms and legs. The tail piece is cast in softer plastic and pegs into his back making a nearly seamless extension of the body with more sharp detail. The undercarriage of the tail is still left hollow, which may disappoint some, but it is at least faithful to the original toy.

And in addition to all that lovely sculpting, it’s the coloring on this figure that helps to really makes it shine. Rattlor has sort of a ketchup and mustard motif going on with some vibrant yellow and red with some added electric blue to make the whole toy a feast for the eyes. I especially love the way the edge of the tail has that gradual shift from red to orange. A little additional green for the sculpted snake emblem on the belt is the icing on the top of this gorgeous snake cake.

Rattlor’s head features an open mouth with yellow eyes and stubby white fangs and more of those sculpted scales. The original toy had a gimmick where the neck would extend, and here that same effect is achieved by adding an extended neck piece, which connects to the ball joint in the neck hole and another in the head itself. It’s not as fun as the neck actually extending, but it’s still a decent way to portray one of Rattlor’s unique skills. His other is the rattle itself, which you get when you shake the body. It’s not exactly high end engineering, as there’s just a bit of plastic in there banging around, but it works.

Finally, Rattlor comes with a snake staff, which I think was common with several of the Snake Men. The red accessory features a snake winding its way around a central staff with its mouth agape and it’s rattlor erect. The weapon looks great, but it’s kind of a weird flex, like if humans walked around carrying staffs with little sculpted humans hugging them. OK… on to Kobra Khan!

Kobra Khan is a lot less flashy than his buddy Rattlor, and he doesn’t feature as much new sculpting, but he still makes for a faithful update to the vintage figure. The bulk of the new stuff here is in his torso, which has some rather softly detailed scales and two maroon stripes running like suspenders from his shoulders down to his belt, and three similar set of ridges running down his back. His recycled arms have tufts of fur on the forearms, which… um OK, and he has maroon scaled undies and boots. There’s a some variance between the flat olive green of his limbs and the glossier olive of his torso, which may not have been all that intentional, but it does make for a nice bit of variety in the deco.

Kobra Khan’s head is is a disgusting puckered maw, which slightly resembles a pitted olive with eyes. There’s some nice paint flairs found around the eyes and edges of the mouth, and the whole thing is extremely similar to the vintage figure’s head, which was designed to spit water.

Mattel nixed this gimmick here in favor of an effect part that plugs into his gob. The neon green loogie is cast in semi-transparent plastic and it looks really cool. I was a bit surprised that the water spray gimmick wasn’t included since we just saw something similar in the Dragon Blaster Skeletor, but the effect part looks so good, I think this was the right way to go!

Kobra Khan also comes with an orange pistol, which isn’t one of my favorite designs, but at least it gives him an extra way to attack when the spit dries up.

No doubt about it, the first Snake Men in my Origins collection get my seal of approval. Rattlor is certainly the winner here as he’s just flashy as all hell and so damn unique. I’m actually surprised Mattel didn’t release him as a Deluxe and just spread out the tail and neck on a larger card. But Kobra Khan is no slouch either and I think his spit effect is a great addition to this updated version of the figure. I’ll have some more Snake Men to look at when I next visit with this line, but I guess I already missed out on King Hiss and Snake Armor He-Man. I never saw either at retail and they sold out at most online places I shop. I did get the variant of Snake Armor He-Man in a recent multipack, and maybe I’ll pony up some extra dollars to get Hiss, but that’s a great example of why I’m about ready to put this line to bed.

Nov 8 2023

DC Super Powers: Whirlybat by McFarlane

McFarlane has been dishing out some great stuff with their 3 3/4-inch Super Powers line up. The retro-style figures are pretty cool, but I’ll admit it’s the addition of vehicles that really sold me on this line and made me commit. So far, I’ve checked out The Batwing, The Batmobile, and Wonder Woman’s Invisible Jet. Today I’m having a look at the latest addition to the Batcave’s garage… The Whirlybat!

Like the previous vehicles, The Whirlybat comes in a fully enclosed box with that oh-so-beautiful retro-style deco and the Super Powers logo coming at you in a burst of stars. The front of the box shows some simple artwork while the back shows the toy and some features. This one requires a fair bit of assembly as the skids, stabilizer tail, and rotor blades all have to be put together, but I was happy to see that the toy can easily come apart again if you want to store it in the box.

And here it is all assembled and looking pretty damn cool. I’m fairly certain that this is an original design by McFarlane. It’s sort of a What If the old Kenner line had a batcopter, and I think the end result is pretty convincing. It’s a single seater and a serviceable design that manages to be fun, but not as outlandish as some of the old Super Powers vehicles tended to be. Oh, I’ll get to that Supermobile eventually! The deco shares the same beautiful glossy blue plastic McFarlane used for the other Bat vehicles in the line and with the black trim and yellow-tinted windscreen, it looks right at home parked in the batcave between the Batwing and Batmobile. I love this deco so much and I’m glad they have been sticking with it! And while McFarlane showcases the Whirlybat with their 89-style Batman figure released in the most recent wave, I think the deco fits much better with the previous blue and gray style Batman.

The sculpting here is pretty basic, maintaining the simplistic retro feel. You get a little bit of detail in the engine and in the seat cushions. Otherwise, it’s just smooth and pretty plastic. On the other hand, there are some very nicely done stickers for the dashboard controls.

Batman fits in the pilot seat with or without his cape, but I prefer to take it off, because having a flapping cape nearby a helicopter rotor seems like a really bad life choice. There are wedges to represent foot pedals where his feet can rest and while his fists can’t actually grip the control yoke, it looks close enough. Pumping the black piece of the engine in the back will make the main rotor over batman’s head spin so you can whoosh it around the room on the hunt for The Joker.

My gosh, these are some pretty toys! It would have been cool to see the Batcopter from the Adam West Batman movie released in McFarlane’s 66 Retro line, but this Super Powers release makes for a decent consolation prize. With an MSRP of $20, it’s a very simple and yet surprisingly fun toy that fits perfectly in this reimagined line and I have to say I would have played with this like crazy if I had it back in 1984. And here we are 40 years later and I’ll still probably play with it like crazy! Now we really need a vehicle for the Joker to try to escape in!

Nov 6 2023

King of Fighters ’98: Mai Shiranui Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

I already talked about the cornucopia of King of Fighters merch that’s been hitting the shelves, back when I looked at Storm’s Blue Mary figure and a lot of that merch mostly seems to be centered around KOF 98, which works for me, because it’s definitely the game in the series I played the most when it was released as KOF Dream Match 99 on the SEGA Dreamcast. Of course, since then I’ve collected a ton of KOF releases for just about every platform imaginable and have access to the actual arcade games on my Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro so it’s a pretty great time to be a fan of the franchise. And even Kotobukiya is getting in on the action with 1:7 scale statues in their Bishoujo series.

Here she is in the box, which features some colorful artwork and some generously sized windows to let in plenty of light. Indeed, once you remove the plastic wrap, she displays really well in the package! The box also feels a lot more durable than the super thin cardboard they were using for a while. Some of you may know that I have a pretty sizeable collection of Koto’s Bishoujo statues, most of which have been reviewed here on FFZ, and I was fond of ending most of those reviews by stating that these statues were the best value to be had on the statue market. Well, those days are long gone as the retail price of most of Koto’s releases have doubled in the last ten years or so. I can remember getting most of mine back in the day for around $59-69.99 and nowadays most release at over $120. Yikes! The quality is still there, but because of the price hike, I’ve pulled back on collecting them and even let some of my Street Fighter Bishoujos go. Heck, the last Bishoujo I reviewed was Ibuki from Street Fighter and that was six years ago! But, here we are today and Mai turned up at a pretty deep discount a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t resist.

Sporting what I would consider her most iconic pose, I can practically see her going through the fluid motions of her idle animation and hear her exclaim.. NIPPON ICHI! Her pose places her left hand upon her jutting backside while her right hand clutches her butterfly fan. She sports her red and white kunoichi regalia, which is sculpted separately from the body to really give the figure some wonderful depth. She has has heavy braided cords that cross her back and loop under her arms, while the split running down the middle front of her top can barely contain her great assets. It’s belted in white around her slender waist and spills down between her legs, stopping at her knees in the front, but bisecting into two flowing forms out the back, each girded with a giant ball. The outfit is rounded out with a pair of red and black tabi on her feet. Koto did a wonderful job capturing the flow of the outfit as well as the sensual curves of her amazing body.

As is always the case with Koto’s work, the colors are gorgeous. The whites feature a clean matte finish while and the red pops with a vibrant glossy sheen. The plastic they use for the skin holds a beautiful warm tone with some added shading to bring it to life, with none of that waxy finish you get on lesser quality statues.

The portrait is spot-on with the Bishoujo style matching the KOF artwork quite nicely. Mai looks up and off to the side with a thin smile on her lips. Her hair features a top knot that cascades down in a ponytail while her bangs part to perfectly frame each side of her face on the front. So beautiful!

For the base, Koto went for more of a diorama style than usual. I’ve been used to seeing either stylized logo bases or just plain generic black or clear disks for a while. This one is just a section of a street with a manhole cover. It looks OK, but it’s nothing special.

There’s no doubt about it, Kotobukiya still knows how to put out quality figures, and unfortunately they know it, so those prices keep going up. Mai retails for around $120, but I nabbed her for $80. It was still a bit more than I felt comfortable spending, but she went up right before I was going into a spending moratorium for a while, so I decided to splurge. Ultimately, I’m glad I picked her up as she looks gorgeous, but I really wish Max Factory would give us some KOF PopUp Parade figures so Koto’s wouldn’t tempt me so much. Koto also did a Bishoujo of Athena from KOF 98, but I’m not a big enough fan of hers to get her unless she went on a serious clearance sell-out price. And, of course they did a female version of Terry Bogard, and I swear the first release pre-dated the SNK Heroines game that gender-swapped Terry. I wasn’t interested in it back then, but now it’s actually branded under the game and I kind of want her, but it’s not a $130 kind of want.

Nov 3 2023

Dungeons & Dragons: Ultimate Strongheart by NECA

There’s been no shortage of Dungeons & Dragons love in the toy aisles lately! While Hasbro has been delivering toys based on the 80’s cartoon and the recent movie, NECA has been showing lots of love to the old LJN toy line by giving us modern updates to those characters. And while Hasbro seems to have wrapped up their run at D&D toys, but it feels like NECA is just getting started. They came out swinging with two amazing figures, Warduke and Grimsword, and now they’re finally adding a hero to the lineup with Strongheart!

If you collect NECA then you already know what to expect from the packaging. It’s a window box with a front flap fastened by velcro. The character art on the front of the box is… OK, but really nothing special. Thankfully, you can open the flap, peep into the window and let the figure sell itself. As a kid, Strongheart was the only hero I had in this line for a while so he was kind of just generic adventurer exploring dungeons and getting constantly set upon by Warduke and the rubber monsters like the Grell. Seriously, the poor dude had to fight that Grell a lot.

Like his rivals, Warduke and Grimsword, this new Strongheart figure takes the original LJN design and juices it with a dose of realism and boy is the end result glorious. NECA grabbed enough of the LJN design beats from the armor to make this unmistakable as the noble Strongheart. The silver and blue armor is absolutely gorgeous! The wide gorget has the two circular points and the shield crest in the middle, his ab muscles are sculpted into the armor, and the winged knee guards are all straight off the vintage figure. NECA extrapolated the blue striping on the original figure’s forearms into belted bracers with each tiny buckle sculpted and painted. They also added some beautiful chainmail sculpt to the upper arms and legs, as well as an armored skirt. The only major change here is going from black boots on the original to blue here, and I do indeed love it!

The bright blue and shimmery cape is tailored from a thick and premium feeling cloth and is anchored to the gorget near the neck. Pull it to the side and you can see all the little details that NECA put into Strongheart’s back, even though you’ll rarely ever see it. This includes sculpted chains connecting the gorget to the back of his belt.

Strongheart is the first figure so far to actually have a face, and I think NECA did a wonderful job depicting the character with this more realistic portrait. The epic mustache is present, along with some rather dominant eyebrows and a prominent, manly chin. The face just exudes nobility, courage and heroism!

With the figure in hand, I was surprised and delighted to see that the visor is articulated and can be closed. The wings on the helmet have been streamlined and swept back, whereas they jutted out to the sides on the original figure. I think this manages to keep the overall design while giving him a much cooler looking profile. The white plume is still present, here spouting from the top and cascading back like a feathery ponytail

The original figure lacked a scabbard, but here we get one that not only holds the sword but also has an integral sheath for a dagger. The scabbard hangs from the belt on a loop and while I was skeptical as to whether this would work, it actually works very well. Indeed, it’s a much better design than pegging the scabbard into the figure and less delicate than the chain that hung one of Warduke’s sheathes from his belt.

The sword is pretty much an original design, since there wasn’t a lot to go on with the old LJN figure’s very generic weapon. It has a serviceable yet still attractive design that suits the figure quite well. It features a simple crossguard and pommel and a black ribbed grip. The sword has a broad blade that tapers quickly to a point near the tip. The blade is painted silver hand has some nice weathering.

The dagger design matches the sword, making them en suite. It’s pretty small and it doesn’t look like it would be much of a threat to Grimsword’s armor, but a well placed thrust would probably ruin Warduke’s day. Again, I really love the way the dagger’s sheath is incorporated into the scabbard.

Strongheart also comes with a shield, and I’m pretty sure this is an entirely newly designed piece as well. My old LJN Strongheart didn’t come with a shield, but I’m not sure if he was re-released later as part of the Battlematic figures with shields that fired missiles. Either way, it’s a very simple and knightly heater-type shield with silver paint around the edges intended to be reinforced steel with sculpted bolts. The reverse side of the shield has two straps, which work well with either the grippy or relaxed left hand. I think this was a great addition to the accessories as the shield really suits him well.

The final accessory here is the magic golden hammer, which is a wonderful nod to Strongheart’s appearance in the D&D cartoon, as that was his weapon of choice. Off hand, I don’t remember what it looked like and it didn’t have a lot of screen time as I recall, but this is a great looking piece and even includes a wrist strap hanging off the pommel.

I continue to love what NECA is doing with this line and to be honest it worries me that we’ve only seen one more reveal in the form of Elkhorn the Dwarf. Obviously, I want to see this line go deep and there are at least a half dozen more characters I’d like to see get this modernized treatment. I know that the reception for these figures has been extremely positive, so it’s just a question of whether that is translating to sales and I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I still have Zarak to check out and I’ll give him the spotlight in the next week or so.

Nov 1 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Low-Light by Hasbro

I’m going to be digging into G.I. JOE Classified hot and heavy over the next few weeks as I try desparately to get caught up with the pile of figures that have been coming in. I’m glad I cut way back on Marvel Legends and have pretty much dipped out on Star Wars Black Series entirely, because keeping up with Classified has become quite an endeavor and I’m sure I couldn’t have done it if I was still collecting Hasbro’s other 6-inch lines. Today I literally just grabbed a random figure off the stack and it happens to be Low-Light, so let’s do it!

Low-Light had one of the most bad ass backstories of all the RAH JOEs: Getting lost as a child in North Dakota while hunting with his father and surviving on his own for weeks with just a .22 rifle and a flashlight. Dayuuuum! Low-Light is also distinguished as being one of my first Classified figure reviews where I did not own the vintage original when I was a kid. That figure was released in 1986 and by that time I had moved on from toys… at least until I started collecting Playmates Star Trek figures over five years later. Suffice it to say, I’m excited to get this guy open and check him out!

Once again, Classified draws heavy on the original RAH design for the character, and all I can say is, keep it up guys because that’s what I’m here for! Low-Light has a set of gray-blue fatigues with reinforced patches, zippers, pouches and sculpted detail pretty much everywhere. The boots and gloves changed from black on the original figure to blue here, and it looks fine. You get some snappy silver paint on the buttons and clasps, green on the pineapple grenades hanging on his left front, and red paint on the quilted recoil pad on his right shoulder. His right leg has a sheath rig for his knife while his left leg has a pouch for his wind meter. The tactical backpack pegs into his back and has a peg on the side to hold one of his guns. What a great looking update to the original figure!

The portrait features solid face sculpt with his familiar blonde hair and knitted cap and his red goggles, which can sit up on his forehead or be worn down over his eyes. Since I don’t have a huge attachment to the original figure, I’m perfectly fine with the likeness they gave him. Honestly, I don’t really even remember Low-Light appearing in a whole lot of episodes of the Sunbow cartoon, except for when Cobra kidnapped his sister in Glamour Girls.

The visor fits over the eyes really well, with the top rim lining up with the lower edge of the cap almost perfectly. The paint on my figure’s visor is a bit sloppy with the red spilling over onto the lower frame a bit. It’s unfortunate, but not overly noticeable unless I’m punching in close with the camera. It doesn’t feel like positioning the goggles up and down is stretching the strap out too much, but I’ll probably wind up keeping them down over the eyes most of the time.

As for accessories, the wind meter is a really nice touch. Sure, it’s just a plain black piece of plastic and it looks like a cell phone with a fan attached to the top, but I think it’s really cool that Hasbro included this little piece of gear and gave him a spot for him to store it.

The survival knife is a nice little accessory as well. The grip is painted to match Low-Light’s fatigues and the blade is silver. He can hold it very well in either hand.

His regular shooter is, eh… well one of these weirdo modern European looking sub machine guns. The original figure came with an Uzi and I would have much preferred that, but I guess this is fine. I’m not up on these modern designs, but it’s a nice sculpt featuring a well-defined rail on the top, a foregrip, and a detachable magazine. God, how I love that Hasbro has made detachable mags a normal thing for this line and the gun sculpts have been absolutely fantastic, even if I do prefer the more traditional designs.

And then there’s this beauty! You get a fully functional case for Low-Light’s sniper rifle. The sculpt on this is beautiful from the nylon straps to the seams to the zipper running along the edge where it opens. It has a carry handle and a peg to attach to his back. There’s also a socket on it so you can peg the backpack on top of it, but I think that looks kind of silly, so it’s an “either, or” situation for me.

Open the case and you have compartments inside to hold the sniper rifle, scope, suppressor, and bipod. This is so damn cool and so incredibly well done! It’s also exactly the sort of thing that I hoped we would see with the increase in scale. Everything fits into the case perfectly and can be attached to the rifle once Low-Light has scouted his perch.

The rifle itself is a pretty big departure from the simple one that came with the original figure. Like his other weapon, it’s a little too modern for me to decipher what it’s based on, but the sculpt is fantastic and it too has a detachable magazine.

It’s pretty damn cool to finally get a Classified release of a figure that I didn’t have as a kid, and I suspect that’s going to be happening more frequently as Hasbro digs deeper into the line and releases updates to those post 1985 figures. I’ve already seen a few coming down the pipe that are going to be new to me and that’s pretty exciting. Low-Light is a fantastic addition to my JOE forces, which were getting pretty outnumbered by Cobra up to this point, but in the coming weeks I think the two sides will soon be more evenly matched!

Oct 30 2023

Universal Monsters: Ultimate Dracula by NECA

Happy Halloween Eve! It sucks that Halloween falls between two of my regular update days, so let’s just call this my Halloween Day review and you can even save it to read tomorrow if that makes you happier. Anyway… I’m rounding out the weekend of spookiness with a look at a figure I’ve been dying to finally open! Now I’ll confess, I’m a Hammer Dracula kinda guy, so Christopher Lee Drac will always be my ideal version of the character. But I’ll happily give props to the original 1931 Universal release. The Transylvania bits are some of the most atmospheric sequences I’ve ever seen in a horror film. The sets look massive and all the more impressive for when it was shot. And finally, the casting and performances are sublime. It’s easy to see why Bela Lugosi is still considered the only Dracula for some. Dwight Frye plays the hell out of Renfield, with such a gulf of range between his early appearance as his “normal self” and later after he is in Dracula’s thrall. And while Peter Cushing will always be my Van Helsing, Edward Van Sloan is so damn good in this film. With all that having been said, the film tends to fizzle out for me BIG TIME and the best stuff is definitely in the first half. But before we get into it, if you need to get caught up, I’ve already had a look at NECA’s Universal Frankenstein’s Monster and The Mummy, and I just checked out The Wolfman a few days ago. Don’t worry, Gillman, your day will come!

NECA does a wonderful job with their Universal Monster packaging. It’s the usual window box with a front flap secured with velcro that offers the best of both worlds. The front flap has a recreation of the Dracula movie poster and the window gives you a great look at all the goodies inside. Everything is collector friendly, and I do actually keep the boxes to all of these Universal Monster releases.

The Count comes out of the box wearing his elegantly sculpted black tuxedo and looking every bit of undead daper chic. Everything about the outfit is so well done from the wrinkles on the lapels to the slight pull sculpted into the buttons on the vest. His iconic gold medallion (even though it has little actual screen time) is sculpted around his neck with red ribbon, and you get a nice bit of ruffled finery around the collar.

The cape is an absolutely genius design, as it is cloth but with a plastic collar that cinches around the neck to hold it in place. This makes it go on easy, but it stays on really well too. The garment is made of extremely light cloth, which means it falls about the figure naturally. Yes, the inside lining should be a different color, but I’m willing to sacrifice that for a cape that fits and flows this naturally.

You get three different heads to display on the figure and all of them are excellent. The figure comes boxed with the somewhat neutral head, and it is a fantastic likeness for Lugosi. The texture of the skin is so realistic, the deep set eyes are rather mesmerizing, and the prominent, arched eyebrows are perfect. Even better, each head has its own neck piece that connects deep in the neck socket. This not only allows for two ball joints of articulation, but also makes removing the heads and swapping them out a lot easier than with some of NECA’s past figures.

The other two heads feature a smiling expression and a fierce expression that suggests it’s bloodsucking time! And yes, it accurately depicts him without fangs. Both of these heads have the same excellent likenesses. I would have liked to have a top hat included, but that would have probably required a fourth head with it sculpted on, but that’s just me being greedy.

The articulation is standard stuff for NECA’s modern figures and that means lots of rotating hinges. Dracula doesn’t really need to be super agile, but I would have liked a little more bend in those elbows. You get two sets of hands: Relaxed and graspy as well as an accessory-specific right hand. It’s not a lot of hands, but the essentials are here. I mean, it’s not like I needed my Lugosi Dracula to have fists.

Most of the accessories are confined to the Transylvania part of the movie, which makes sense since the figure is wearing the medallion. First up is the candlestick, which has a hand specifically designed to hold it. It’s a really nice sculpt, especially with the wax dripping down the sides and overlapping the candle holder.

Next up is a tray, two goblets and a bottle of “very old wine.” These were on the table in Renfield’s room when Dracula offered him some refreshment. These are nice pieces, but maybe an odd choice to include. I can’t recall whether there were actually two goblets of wine poured on the table, but it’s odd to have two because Dracula specifically comments that he doesn’t drink… wine.

The final accessory is Dracula in his bat form and this comes with a base and a clear plastic post with a ball joint to connect the bat to. It’s an excellent addition, but that ball joint is a tight fit and the post is so frail, it’s just a breakage waiting to happen. The sculpt is great, and if you want it to be even more movie accurate, you can tie stings to it!

NECA’s Universal Monsters have been absolutely outstanding and Dracula keeps that trend rolling along. The sculpting is absolutely superb, the cape is a brilliant design, and the Lugosi likeness on each of the heads is a homerun. The accessories are fine, but I might have exchanged that tray of wine for something like Van Helsing’s mirrored cigarette box or an additional head with a top hat. Still, I’m really thrilled to have a Drac figure this nice in my collection. And I’m even more excited to be getting the Christopher Lee Dracula from the Hammer films!

Oct 29 2023

An American Werewolf in London: Ultimate Nightmare Demon by NECA

I’m in the middle of a bonus NECA horror weekend trifecta, just to squeeze a few extra spooky bits of plastic in before Halloween. Yesterday I had a look at The Wolfman from NECA’s Universal Monsters series and today we’re going to fast forward exactly forty years ahead to 1981 and John Landis’ amazing comedy-horror An American Werewolf in London. I hesitate to give it the comedy-horror moniker, because despite the more flippant and whimsical elements, I found this movie to be absolutely terrifying when I first saw it. And if I’m being honest, I still find parts of it to be shockingly effective when it comes to the horror. Certainly more so than many films that have come and gone since. Sadly, I don’t have the Werewolf figure, as I’ve yet to actually see it on the shelves, so I’ll probably have to break down and get it online. In the meantime, let’s look at the Ultimate Nightmare Demon!

Here’s the package, and y’all know what to expect by now. A window box with a front flap that secures with velcro. But what’s unexpected is the lovely lenticular effect on the front panel, which is the very definition of chef’s kiss! You didn’t have to do it, NECA, but you threw in a little extra panache. The film’s Nightmare Demon sequence involves a squad of military demons bursting into the Kessler home and massacring the whole family. It’s absolutely balls-out mental, brutal, and one of the most disturbingly memorable scenes in a flick that is already full of hard to forget imagery. How crazy is it that we actually have action figures from this scene now? And who else, but NECA would deliver them?

So, the figure is designed to be displayable as any one of the cracked out demon hit squad that pisses all over the Kessler’s peaceful family night. That’s thanks mostly to the inclusion of four heads. The figure itself sports what looks like WW2 era military fatigues, including a pocketed tunic, high boots, gloves, and a belt and shoulder strap. It all looks great with plenty of sculpted stitching and rumples. There’s some immaculate silver paint for the buttons and buckles, and matte black used for the boots and gloves. Standard Ultimates series articulation applies, with some decent range of motion in those elbows.

The figure comes with the helmeted head with what looks like a half-werewolf face all rotted away. So, I think this sequence was supposed to represent the struggle David was having as the werewolf curse was overtaking him. As a result, I’ve always thought these demons were supposed to represent different phases of lycanthropy, ranging from sort of human to full on werewolf. I’m not sure if that’s really the case, but this one looks like a werewolf with his face melting off. It’s my favorite of the masks used in this sequence, but surprisingly my least favorite of these heads. It’s not bad, but there’s a lot going on here in a fairly small lump of plastic, and I don’t think it quite does the prosthetic justice. Still, it’s plenty cool nonetheless.

The next one up is a bit more human, but kind of looks like Michael Berryman on a really bad day. The bulging eyes and pronounced teeth look great and he has points to the ears. Again, I kind of always saw this as a dude in the very first stage of changing to werewolf, but it may just be intended as a scary monster head. Either way, this is a fabulous sculpt with so much detail in the facial creases and some excellent texture to the skin.

The third head is also sort of human, but showing some more pronounced wolf features. You get a lot of the same creasing to the face, a sort of mohawk on his coif and patches of hair forming mutton chops on his cheeks. The ears are atrophied but more pointed and it looks like there are chunks bitten out of his cheek. His mouth is a mess of teeth and he has jaundiced bulging eyes.

And finally we have full on wolf head, which was such a beautiful mask in the film and I think it’s reproduced here quite well. The bloody bulging eyes are super creepy and his pronounced jowls and teeth still have a bit of that rubbery look like they did with the actual mask in the film. There’s a great use of high gloss for the bloody mouth too.

There are a bevy of accessories to use with the figures including some hands that are intended for specific accessories. For starters, you get three guns and a right trigger finger hand to wield them. The first is a British Sterling and this is an absolutely gorgeous little sculpt of this iconic weapon. There’s some especially nice attention spent on the checkered texturing of the grip.

The second gun is a classic Uzi, easily one of the most iconic movie weapons of the 80s and again beautifully recreated here. We’ve definitely seen some Uzis from NECA before and I’m not sure if this is a recycled sculpt or not, but it’s got to be one of the best renditions of this weapon in this scale I’ve ever owned.

And finally, the Mac-11, another pretty iconic go-to gun for 80s films and a design that I’ve never been a big fan of. Nonetheless, it’s another great sculpt and a welcome addition to my 1:7 scale arsenal.

In addition to the guns, you get a pair of bowie knives, which I think are supposed to be the same but one just has blood on it. It’s the blade that was used by one of the demons to hold David in check while he watched his family killed and then it was used to slit his throat. It’s easy for figure companies to phone in knives at this scale, but NECA always gives it their all, and these are really nice pieces with painted rivets running through the grip and clipped point blades. There’s a right hand made specifically to hold the knife, but the left hand works fine as well.

And lastly, you get a burning torch with a very nice flame effect. And once again, you get a wider grip right hand made specifically for this accessory.

I picked this figure up when it went on sale for about $22 a little while ago and while I’m really cracking down on buying multiple figures, I kind of regret not picking up two or three more to recreate the squad. Yeah, I nitpicked one of the heads, but you have to realize that I was obsessed with monster effects when I was a teenager and I remember drooling over pictures of Rick Bakers’ work in magazines and I really wanted to own one like it. But, apart from that, the sculpting here is outrageously good and the accessories are on point. And just to think that the demons from this sequence actually now exist as action figures makes me so grateful that NECA is around and throwing their love at this sort of thing. And likewise that there’s enough weirdos like me willing to throw their money at it. I’d still love to see Jack Goodman get the Ultimates treatment, but I’m not holding my breath.

And I’ll be back tomorrow for the final spooky figure review before Halloween!

Oct 28 2023

Universal Monsters: The Wolfman by NECA

Updates on a weekend? Yup, there wasn’t enough time for me to get all the spooky reviews in before Halloween on Tuesday, so I’m squeezing in a couple extra today and tomorrow. And it seems only fitting that my next three reviews will be brought to you from those masters of spooky plastic: NECA! Let’s have a look at The Wolfman from the 1941 classic… um, THE WOLFMAN!

Of all the Universal Monster movies, I probably have the least history with this one. Indeed, when I sat down to watch it again this week, I realized that it had been quite a few years since I last checked it out, whereas I probably watch most of the others at least once every October. I don’t dislike the film, but apart from a few brief sequences, it just isn’t all that atmospheric or spooky to me. Larry Talbot is a fine character and I genuinely feel for him throughout the movie, but the script feels so contrived that it’s hard to take it too seriously. And while the makeup is impressive for the time, I just don’t find it nearly as creepy as any of the other Universal Monsters. Anyway… the figure comes in the same style window box with front flap that we usually see out of NECA. The front features the movie poster and everything is collector friendly. Time to paw this thing open…

You get a couple ways to display Larry, either in his human form or his wolfified form. Starting with regular Larry, there’s nothing terribly exciting here, but everything is still extremely well done. He has a green button down shirt with a nice wash and lots of sculpted stitching and wrinkles. Below the waist he has a thin belt and brown slacks, which are rolled up to his calves revealing his bare feet. Yes, you can only display regular Larry sans shoes and it’s designed that way to make make the transformation work. NECA is one of the few companies out there who can make a compelling figure out of a guy in regular street clothes.

I really dig the head sculpt here. NECA not only nailed the Lon Chaney Jr. likeness, but also the gee-whiz, befuddled look he has on his face for most of the film. It’s a demeanor that definitely helps make him more sympathetic, providing he isn’t peeping into your bedroom window with a telescope and then telling you about it to get you to go on a date with him, because then he’s just a creep.

You get one accessory that’s meant for Larry in his human form and that’s the wolfhead cane he buys from the antique store while creeping on Gwen. This is a superb recreation of the prop used in the film. It’s perfect for stepping out on the town or beating the piss out of goddamn werewolf gypsies. You also get a human right hand designed expressly for holding the cane.

Larry can be transformed to the titular Wolfman by replacing his hands and feet, and obviously the head. The feet peg out where the legs connect with the pants, which works really well. The sculpted fur on the hands and feet looks great and the feet are even sculpted so that he is standing on his toes, giving them a slight hint of that doggie hind-leg anatomy. As a result you get a small disk stand to help out. I was able to get him to pose pretty well without resorting to the stand, but I will definitely use it when I put him on my shelf for extended periods of time.

You get two wolf heads and both are excellent. The sharpness and detail in the sculpted fur is top notch, as are the teeth jutting from behind his lower lip. I actually think the makeup design works a bit better for me on the figure than in the movie. I would have loved a bit of high gloss on that nose, but otherwise everything here is just fantastic.

The alternate head is a growly one, which is the one I will choose for everyday display. Here you get the mouth open and the upper row of teeth showing as well. He’s got a side eye going on here, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Again, I can’t say enough about how sharp and well sculpted the fur is on these heads. NECA really knocked it out of the park!

The articulation here is everything you would expect from NECA, which means lots of rotating hinges. I will say the elbow hinges give a lot more range of motion than I’m used to seeing in their figures, which is certainly nice. You get an additional pair of swivels where the feet connect tot he pants. You only get one pair of wolf hands, which seems a little lacking, but they work well for most poses, so it’s no big deal.

There’s one accessory included for the wolf form and that’s a pretty cool bear trap. This thing has a rusty patina to it and it’s fully articulated with a locking arm and hinged jaws. It always impresses me to no end how much attention NECA will spend on one-off accessories like this one.

I’ll admit, I almost skipped this figure, because I’m rather indifferent toward the film, but after getting him in hand, I’m glad I didn’t. He’s another fine example of how this license is in the best hands out there. NECA practically exists for just this thing, and it never ceases to amaze me that you can go to your local Big Box retailer in 2023 and buy a figure from a 1940s movie right off the shelf. He does feel a tad light on the accessories when compared to the other releases, but I can’t really think of anything critical that’s missing. It’s just another great addition to the classic monsters lineup.

Oct 27 2023

DC Essentials: DCeased Supergirl and Batgirl by DC Direct

Well I said I might work in another comic based Halloween review before we hit the big day and here we are. This one is really out of left field, because I stopped collecting DC Direct figures back when the DC Icons line went out. But… I saw these pop up on sale a while back and I tossed them into my cart with some other stuff. They arrived, I cursed myself for buying stuff just because its cheap, and they got put in a closet at which point I promptly forgot about them. Until now! Suffice it to say, these are the only two figures from this line in my collection.

Wow is this a blast from the past! I was always a fan of the DC Direct packaging and the way it showed off the figures. In this case you got a partially white window box with top and bottom bands color coded to the character, so purple for Batgirl and blue for Supergirl. Sure, there’s a lot of wasted space in that packaging and there are no accessories or extras for either figure. But I think this presentation had such a clean and premium feel about. The photos on the side panels also made these look really nice on the shelf. I never read the DCeased comic, but then again I never read all of Marvel’s Zombies either. The whole concept appeals to me a lot more as action figures than it does as a story line for a comic. Let’s start with Supergirl!

This is a nice looking figure, but in case you can’t tell, this is just the regular Supergirl figure with a bit of bloody paint added to the body and a new head sculpt. It’s a little more interesting for me, since I never owned the regular release, but I think this would be a hard sell at full retail if I had owned the original. The costume is mostly painted on, with the only unique sculpting found in the skirt, cape, and feet. The colors are nice and vibrant, but the red paint on the upper thighs doesn’t match the red plastic used for the lower legs. The pleated skirt looks good and doesn’t hinder the hip movement too badly. In addition to some splotches of bloody paint there’s some dirt added to the back of the cape.

But hey, that new head sculpt sure is nice! Kara has a really vicious expression with exposed teeth and milky dead eyes. There are some deep gashes on her face which look appropriately gnarly and blood everywhere. It’s a really unsettling look on the character, since I attribute her to being so pure and kindhearted. Very well done.

Articulation on the figure is pretty good. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double hinges in the elbows, and ball joints in the wrists. The hips are ball jointed, the knees are double hinged, there are swivels in the thighs, and you get hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s a ball joint under the chest and another in the neck. I’d say the lack of extra hands is really conspicuous, but I guess the graspy hands are good enough for Zombie posing. On to Batgirl!

Obviously this is the Burnside Batgirl, which is a design I’m rather fond of, even if I didn’t care much for the comic. Unlike Supergirl, this figure has a lot of unique sculpting all over. I dig the way the tunic ends just above her hips, and the way the cape folds over the front of her shoulders and has sculpted gold buttons holding it in place. The bat symbol is sculpted, the wrist bracers are sculpted, and the boots have some great detail in the laces. She also has a belt sculpted from a separate piece that’s worn by the figure. The black and purple looks nice with all the yellow tossed in. I love this costume and the figure pulls it off well. Like Supergirl, all the zombification in the body is just done with bloody paint splatters, but man I do really love the bloody fingers!

Once again, the new head sculpt is quality stuff and possibly even more disturbing than Kara’s. Here we get an open bloody mouth with some nice use of gloss to make it extra gross. There are some deep cuts on her face, her hair is sprouting through a hole in the top of the cowl, and her eyes have yellowed irises giving Babs a perfect cracked-out undead look. The paint on the cowl could have been a little cleaner as there’s quite a bit of black slop on here ear, but there’s so much going on with this portrait, it isn’t overtly obvious to me.

Articulation here is identical to what we saw with Kara and that’s a good thing because both figures are loads of fun to play with.

These are both very nice figures on their own, but DCD definitely took the cheap way out here. The new head sculpts are excellent and the blood splatter is well done, but it would have been nice to see some re-sculpting done to the costumes. Even if I had been collecting this line at the time, there’s no way I would have paid retail to get these undead variants. And to be perfectly honest, the only reason I bought these on clearance at $11 each was because I thought they would scale better with McFarlane’s DC Multiverse line, but they are way too small for that. As it is, these will be relegated to a DC-related figure Tote… dead and buried.