May 6 2013

Marvel Universe: Beast by Hasbro

Alrighty then, I’m getting Marvel Mondays back on track with Marvel Universe features as originally intended… at least for the next month or so. Today we’re looking at Beast. I’ll be honest, I was going to pass on this figure, but I found him on clearance at a really good price, so I tossed him in my virtual shopping cart. I don’t have anything against Beast, it’s just that it’s been ages since I’ve read an X-Men book, and I haven’t read any of the current ongoing Astonishing X-Men. I do have the collected TPBs of the Joss Whedon run, so I’ll have to remedy that at some point. It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t one of my favorite designs for the character, so keep that in mind as we press onward!

Yep, we’ve seen this packaging many times before. It’s the current style being used for the Marvel Universe figures, complete with that totally shitty little piece of printed cardboard that Hasbro tries to pass off as a collectible. Remember the days when you bought a Toy Biz Marvel figure and you actually got a full sized collector card? Hell, remember the days when you bought a Marvel Universe figure and you got a figure stand and a Fury File? Ah well. The packaging is nice enough. I guess Beast’s character art is pretty good. I mean, at least he doesn’t look like Kelsey Grammar.

The back of the package has a little blurb about Beast and a shot of the figure doing a crazy handstand. It shows off the other three figures in this wave. I’m passing on that Spider-Man, and we’ll probably be looking at Beta Ray Bill next Monday. Oh yeah, this time the cardback features Rocket Raccoon schilling the figures. OH MY GOD, I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE WE’RE GETTING A “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY” MOVIE AND ROCKET RACCOON IS GOING TO BE IN A BIG BUDGET MOVIE!!! The Age of the Nerd has truly come to pass.

I’m perfectly capable of setting aside my personal design preferences in order to appreciate a great sculpt when I see it. I may not be a big fan of Beast’s angry blue teddy bear look, but Hasbro sure did a nice job sculpting it here. The detail and the expression in that head sculpt are just incredibly well done, and all the exposed fur on the figure looks good. Even the gold piping on the costume is sculpted into place. For all the crap I give Hasbro for using so many painted bucks in this line, when they do decide to tool an entirely new figure, they always go all out. It’s a pleasant surprise, because I can’t see a lot of potential for reusing this guy.

The paintwork is a solid effort. There’s some bleeding between the black and the yellow on the costume, but nowhere near as bad as I’ve seen on some MU figures. The gold used for the piping and the bracers has a nice, bright luster. Again, not a big fan of this costume design, but Hasbro did a nice job putting it on the figure. I do think the blue for Beast’s fur could have been a tad more vibrant, but I’m really reaching for things to pick at here.

Beast is one limber little dude with a ton of articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, wrists, torso, hips, and ankles. You also get swivels in the biceps and thighs. The elbows are hinged and the knees are double hinged. He has an extra hinge in the neck, and… holy crap, he even has hinges in his feet!!! There’s no waist swivel, but that torso ball joint really has a crazy amount of movement to it.

No doubt, Beast is a stand out figure, especially for what is probably a one-off mold. He’s a great combination of amazing sculpt and wonderful articulation. If you’re a fan of this look for the character, you should be extremely happy with this guy. Me? I’m certainly content to have him among my legion of Marvel Universe figures, but I’d also like to see another release based on the older Jim Lee design. Regardless, I give Hasbro a lot of guff for a lot of MU figures not feeling like a great value at $10 a pop, but with all the work that went into Beast, he is well worth the price. I’m actually surprised that he’s so easy to find on clearance.

May 5 2013

Sunday Funday: New 52 Suicide Squad Comics!

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day and while work prevented me from taking advantage of it, at least I made lots of money to buy lots of comics. That’s almost as good. Anyway, the last time I talked comics on Sunday Funday, I got all ranty and kind of mean, and that kind of missed the point of the day, although I can’t deny it was fun. This weekend, a great deal of my downtime was spent reading the first two TPBs of Suicide Squad and then going back and re-reading some of Gail Simone’s run on Secret Six. I recently picked up two of those collected editions, “Unhinged” and “The Darkest House” as my individual issues inexplicably found their way into storage… at least I hope they’re in storage.

There were a lot of reasons to be suspicious and wary of the New 52 reboot, but when I look back to it, there was really only one thing about it that pissed me off: It signaled the end of Simone’s Secret Six. It was like being in a speeding car heading toward a brick wall and I couldn’t get out. Secret Six had grown to become one of my favorite comics of all time. Granted, that’s a long list, as I do love me my funnybooks, but Secret Six is a comic that I thoroughly savored. It hit on all the points that make me still an avid comic book reader, even as I enter that precarious point in my life called Middle Age. I can’t remember ever being so sad and disappointed as when I found out that it was wrapping up in favor of the impending reboot.

As it turns out, I’ve been pretty happy with a number of the New 52 books. Some may call that sacrilege, but that’s where I stand. I can say that I read every first issue, I pursued a little more than half of them past the first issue, and since then I’ve narrowed it down quite a bit. But the ones that I’m still reading are entertaining enough and somewhat refreshing to me. I’ve got 30+ years of the crushing weight of comic continuity running through my head, and I constantly felt as if I was falling behind on the books I cared about and in some cases, getting caught up would be a lost cause. Reading comics started to feel like a frustrating chore, and that’s never what I wanted from one of my favorite pastimes. The New 52 made me feel like I had half a chance again. Maybe on some level the reboot was like killing the patient to cure the disease, but in the end I was glad DC did it.

Anyway, one of the books I didn’t follow past the first issue was Suicide Squad. I was still bitter over Secret Six ending and I just thought DC was trying to use the Suicide Squad title as a cheap way to continue the popularity of Simone’s book. Whether that’s the case or not, it’s hard to argue that it’s intended as the spiritual successor. I can remember flipping through that first issue violently and screaming, “YOU’RE NOT SECRET SIX… STOP TRYING TO BE!!!” Then I threw it down and ran out of the room sobbing while slamming the door as loudly as I can. Ok, that didn’t really happen. I did, however, want to stay mad and bitter, but ultimately, my love for King Shark and Deadshot sucked me in, and I picked up the first two TPBs while browsing at the comic shop a week or so back.

A great deal of my resistance was worn down by seeing Adam Glass’ name on the cover. I really enjoyed Deadpool Pulp and Luke Cage Noir is still on my reading list. I can’t say I was instantly familiar with either artists’, Fernando Dagnino or Federico Dallocchio, work, but I can say that I’m a fan now because I really dig the look of these books. Anyway, I devoured both volumes pretty quickly and then I flipped through them a second time to skim the good parts and it dawned on me that there was room to have both books exist in my good graces. Suicide Squad is fun, violent, crazy, and best of all I can get my fix of Deadshot and King Shark. Y’all know I’m not a big Batman fan, so this was one of the first times I really followed a book with Harley Quinn and I warmed up to her a lot more than I thought I would. Oh, and tossing Captain Boomerang in there never hurts either. It’s a far cry from the glory days of Simone and Secret Six, but a good time had at the FigureFan ranch this weekend, and I’m looking forward to October when I will most definitely pick up volume three.

Images used are the copyright of DC Comicsand are reproduced here for review purposes only. If you love comic books, support the artists and writers by BUYING them, either digitally or in print. Better yet, buy them in print and support your local comic shop too!

May 4 2013

Star Trek: Starfleet Phaser (2009 Movie) by Playmates

Today’s feature is going to be a quickie, because I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do. No, I mean actual STUFF, not just drinking. I set about to think up something quick and easy and then I remembered that we’re less than two weeks away from the premier of Star Trek Into Darkness. A quick dig through one of my Toy Closets and… voila… I found this little beauty from the original film. Playmates certainly had their share of stumbles handling the toys for the first Abrams Trek movie, but their hand phaser was not one of them. This thing is definitely a cool little toy. Let’s take a look!

The hand phaser comes sealed in a clamshell with a cool, curvy bubble. It’s not collector friendly by any stretch, as you’ll practically need a phaser to cut it out of there, but it is very nice to look at. There’s also a “Try Me” hole that lets you pull the trigger, but because of the moving parts, you can only try it in vaporize mode. Still… pretty nice. The 2009 Phaser is one of my least favorite of all of Starfleet’s hand phaser designs, but that doesn’t mean I dislike it. It certainly reflects the alternate Abrams timeline in which Kirk’s dad dying prematurely suddenly gave Starfleet engineers a collective chrome fetish. It borrows a bit from past phaser designs, and it does manage to capture at last the profile of a Classic Starfleet phaser while tossing in a whole lot of originality.

In hand, this phaser looks pretty amazing. The chrome finish looks good, and apart from some plastic seaming on the top, it doesn’t look overly toyish. The size is also a pretty comfortable fit in my hand. All too often Role Play toys tend to go too big and chunky or undersized to better fit into kid’s hands. Damn toy companies pandering to kids, with their tiny hands! It’s the extremely light weight that betrays this piece as an inexpensive toy, as there’s virtually no heft to it at all. One side looks totally clean, while the other features some exposed screw heads, the copyright stamp, and the “Hey asshole, don’t throw your old batteries in the garbage” icon.

The thing I like least about this phaser design is the switch-gimmick. Setting aside the toy talk for a moment… The engineering on the design uses two different emitters: A red one for vaporize and a blue one for stun. The emitters sit on opposite sides of a revolving piece, so when the user switches from one setting to the other, the appropriate emitter snaps to the front. They made a point of showing this in the film and when they did, I wanted to stand up and scream, “WTF??? Pause the movie… I need to see that shit again!” The design goes out of its way to be more complex than it needs to be, and much like the old Automatic vs Revolver debate, it seems like it’s just something extra to malfunction on the weapon. There’s nothing worse than when you’re in a shootout with some Klingons and your phaser jams. Now, I’m no 23^rd Century weapons engineer, but I can’t see why it would be necessary to do this over the old elegant phaser design.

Anyway, getting back to the toy… Playmates’ phaser replicates the moving emitters… sort of. If you have the phaser in the stun position, you can press a button on the side of the handle to automatically switch to the vaporize position. You cannot, however, switch back unless you manually re-position it. It seems like it should have been easy to make it work both ways, but whatever.

The rest of the electronics feature an activation wheel on the top. Rotate it toward you and the panel lights up a bright greenish yellow and the phaser makes a nice, loud activation sound. This one is my favorite of the toy’s FX. The trigger activates the emitter light and sounds depending on which setting you have it on. The red light is very bright, and while the sound is loud, it sounds a bit abbreviated. I think that’s because the Abrams phasers shoot pulses and not sustained beams. I hate that, but in fairness to Abrams, I think that shit started during The Next Generation. Pulse phasers are evil, they just don’t feel like Star Trek to me. The stun setting on the toy is all around crap. The light is really dim and it sounds like the phaser is either malfunctioning or farting.

Even with its flaws, this phaser is a pretty cool toy. I think it originally sold for around $15, but chances are you can still find it on clearance at your local Toys R Us. One of the TRU’s here still has an endcap of these and the figures. Hell, even the local Books-A-Million, in their bizarre transformation into part book store and part toy store, still has these. None of this stuff sold well because there probably hasn’t been a kid since the early 70’s that said, “Hey let’s get our phasers and go outside and play Star Trek.” Sad but true. But this phaser is still a wonderful piece for convention cosplay and a nice addition to any Trek arsenal on a budget, particularly if you want to display all the designs. Now, if you’ve got a little extra gold-pressed latinum to spend, Quantum Mechanix made a remarkably nice prop replica of this piece for under $100, which can still be found at various e-tailers around the InterWebs. (If you have a little more money to spend, they also make a $10,000 Enterprise model!) I don’t own their phaser, but I got a chance to hold one at a convention. The static model doesn’t feature any FX or moving parts, but it does look and feel really nice in hand.

May 3 2013

Robocop (Spring-Loaded Holster) by NECA

Last year I picked up NECA’s excellent Robocop figure and not long after they revealed another one at about the same price with a working holster in the leg. CURSES!!!! I usually cry foul when companies make me double-dip, but it’s hard to get mad at NECA or the prospect of having another Robocop figure in my collection. It’s not like Robocop figures are flying at me from all directions. Anyway, I’d say I bought this one more out of curiosity than anything else just to see how the holster gimmick turned out, and whether it could replace the figure I already have as the definitive version. We’ll take a look at the packaging first, and then I’m going to dive right into what will largely be a comparative look at both figures. Robocop vs. Robocop… FIGHT!

While this figure still comes in NECA’s usual sealed clamshell, they did redesign the inserts since the release of my other Robocop. It makes sense to call attention to what is a new release, but honestly, I like the package design on the older release better. It was grittier and more in spirit with the original movies and it even had Murphy’s directives printed on it. This one has a somewhat cheesy top view of Robocop’s head making up the bottom insert, and overall it looks a lot more polished and sterile. Of course, none of this matters because the package will soon be in the trash. I’ll also point out that the new package includes a side panel with instructions on how to work the holster, because there is a trick to getting it closed properly. Also worth mentioning, Robocop is strapped into his tray with a bonafide zip tie, so make sure you have a good pair of cutters handy.

Straight away, Robocop is a great looking figure, but he’s mostly the exact same figure as the previous release. That’s a mighty good thing, because I think this is a pretty amazing sculpt. As near as I can tell, the only thing that’s been changed on the figure is the upper right leg for the new holster gimmick. The pistons on his back legs seem to stay on better than on my original release, but it doesn’t look like they’ve been actually changed. Maybe NECA just used better glue. Suffice it to say, with the holster closed, the only noticeable difference between the two figures, is the little button on the back of the right leg.

I will say that the consistency of the silver paint is slightly better on this newer release, but only slightly. I never really had a problem with the paint on the old one, but it did have some swirly bits on the top of the helmet, which this one lacks. I’m sure it’s probably more an instance of variances in QC than a deliberate change on the figure.

As with the original release, this newer one comes with the same swappable right hand, which has the data spike deployed.

And now we come to the reason we’re here… the spring loaded holster! You all know I love functional holsters on my action figures, but this one is a SPRING-LOADED functional holster. It’s one of the coolest aspects of the Robocop design, and no matter how good a Robocop figure may be, if it doesn’t have this feature, it seems like it’s missing something. Nonetheless, the idea of getting the feature to work in a 7-inch figure hardly seems feasible. Does NECA pull it off with this figure? Yes, they do… mostly. Flipping the switch in the back causes the front of the leg to snap forward and the side portion back, revealing the gun inside, and it all happens in an instant. Closing it up again is a tad more precarious. You only push on the front panel, and you have to use a fairly good amount of force. Once you hit the sweet spot, the side panel will come along and the whole thing will lock together with a satisfying snap.

There is a little room for quibbling here. The gun, which is the same size as the gun included with the original release, sits pretty far inside the leg, so you really need to dig it out, and getting it back in can be a bit of a chore, since it has to sit just right in order for the leg to close up again. The side panel is held on by two pegged hinges and can be very prone to popping out, especially if you try to close it by any other means than ONLY PUSHING IN ON THE FRONT PANEL. It easily pops back into the hinges, but just looking at all the tiny plastic machinations inside makes me really nervous. It doesn’t look like it will take much to break any one of the tiny plastic parts that make this whole thing work. Now, with all that having been said, I really have to applaud NECA for not only getting this to work so well in a figure at this scale, but also for being able to contain the whole shebang inside the one leg piece without effecting the aesthetics of the toy beyond the small button on the back. Which brings me to…

Articulation! Because everything involving the holster mechanism is confined to the one leg piece, this figure pulls off the exact same articulation as the first figure. In case you missed it last time, the arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs have ball jointed hips and hinges in the knees and ankles. The torso has a swivel at the waist and a ball joint in the torso, and the neck is ball jointed as well.

You’d think the extra engineering would come at a price, but I picked up this version for around $17, which is actually a little less than I paid for the original release sans the springy holstery goodness. If you’re in the market for a Robocop and you have neither, I’d definitely recommend going for this one. Apart from the little button in the leg, it’s the same figure. The leg holds together so well, you can hardly notice it’s designed to open, and nothing else on the figure is compromised. The only downside is that I can see the holster mechanism breaking pretty easily, so caution is advised. Still, he’s an amazing figure for a very good price, but hey… it’s NECA… I would expect nothing less.

May 2 2013

Transformers Cybertron: Vector Prime by Hasbro

I had fun looking at Cybertron Metroplex last week, so I thought I’d pull out another one of my favorite Cybertron figures that has hitherto escaped being featured on FigureFan Zero. He’s Vector Prime and holy shit was I excited when I saw the pre-production photos of this guy. I thought he was one of the most gorgeous Transformers ever made. This guy reminds me a lot of the movie style designs that were appearing in the later episodes of the Sunbow cartoon. There’s no in-package shot, so let’s just go right to his alt mode.

Hells yeah! Vector Prime is a bitchin space cruiser. One of the things I love most about this design is that his transformation is bewilderingly simple, and yet the alt mode works incredibly well. The ship rests nicely on the bulky backside, complete with wheels, and he’s got some cool guns slung under there as well. There’s also a firing missile concealed in the nose of the ship.

There’s so much sculpted detail on this ship that it’s easy to get lost in the clutter. The surface of the ship’s hull is littered, and I mean LITTERED, with exposed gears and while Hasbro did paint some panels of these with a nice gold application, I really wish I had the customizing skills to have at the rest. A little paint and a lot of time and patience would make Vector Prime’s alt mode even more amazing. But even as he stands now, it’s hard to think of another Transformer that got this much attention to detail in the sculpt. One day, I may at least have a go at panel lining him. Damn, do I love the design of this toy!

In addition to the crazy detail in the sculpt and the snazzy paint apps, Vector Prime makes good use of translucent blue plastic for the windshield, tiny wings, and some sensor devices on his undercarriage. And then there are the solar panel wings on the sides. They look great in the clear blue, but the plastic is very soft and these things are ridiculously prone to warping. I made the mistake of putting mine lose in a storage tote a couple of years back and when I took him out they looked like they were beyond hope. A lot of effort with a hair dryer brought them back close to their original state, but these things are not to be trifled with!

Another cool feature of Vector Prime is the way he incorporates his minicon, Safeguard. Most minicons just do their own thing and you can stick them onto the larger robots for power ups, but I always thought there was missed potential to better incorporate them into the designs of the bigger robot’s alt modes. Hasbro did a pretty good job with figures like Cyclonus and Thrust, but then didn’t seem to bother with others. With Vector Prime, there’s an actual indentation where Safeguard plugs in to give Vector Prime a huge cannon. Nice!

As already mentioned, Vector Prime’s transformation is as easy as it gets. You just fold his legs out, position his arms, fold the front half of the ship into a backpack, and turn the head to face forward. It’s ridiculously simple, and yet the robot mode is a thing of beauty. He has one of my favorite headsculpts of any Transformer from the period and all that great sculpted detail from his alt mode carries over beautifully into his robot mode. The angled shoulder armor looks great, and the backpack isn’t too bulky. The solar panels fold neatly to his sides, and I even dig the way the hull plates slide ever so slightly back to better reveal his fists. I also really love that huge round compartment in his chest. The whole figure hits that sweet spot of late Sunbow aesthetic when there was more of an outer space orientation to the show and we got to see a lot of older Cybertronians that we didn’t see earlier.

Did I forget to mention that Vector Prime has a translucent blue sword that stores conveniently in his backpack? He does!

Let’s not depart without saying something about Safeguard, because he’s on my A-list of cool minicons. His alt mode is a little spaceship with a very large gun. As already mentioned, he incorporates nicely into Vector’s alt mode and can quickly detach to fly off on his own. Because most of his alt mode is one big cannon, he can conveniently attach to either of Vector’s arms to give some added fire power. I kind of wish, Hasbro had given him a post to fit in Vector’s hand because then he would have been a proper Target Master. He can also store away by attaching to Vector’s backpack.

Safeguard sort of mimics Vector’s transformation. He’s definitely one of the better looking minicons in robot mode. He could use a few more paint apps on his torso, but otherwise he looks great and has nice articulation for a minicon. His arms rotate at the shoulders and have ball joints in the elbows. His legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees.

Vector Prime is pure Transformer love. Hasbro went crazy with him and it shows. I’m always happy to get another space-faring alt mode, and the robot mode’s design is both beautiful and bad ass. There’s a ton of clever elements to the design of this figure, and yet the transformation isn’t one of them. But he’s a great example of how you don’t necessarily need an over engineered transformation to make an amazing figure. He’s one of my all-time favorites, and he can usually be found standing on display with my Classics collection. The mold has been brought out a few more times since his original 2005 release. At the ’07 Botcon he was repainted into the glorious Alpha Trion. It was a great use for the mold and it is a strikingly beautiful figure. I’d love to add him to my collection someday, but not enough to blow $450-500 on him. He was rolled out again in 2009 in a rather unfortunately f’ugly repaint as part of the Universe 2.0 collection. If he’s missing from your shelves and you don’t want to splurge on the Botcon exclusive, I recommend going with the original release. You can still pick him up for at or below his original MSRP of about $20-25, and he’s worth every damn penny.

May 1 2013

Marvel: The Invisible Woman Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Ok, we’re on the final leg of this Marvel Trifecta. After today, I promise no more Marvel until next Monday. Hey, speaking of Marvel… people who know me know that I am driven by my undying love for The Fantastic Four. If you put a gun to my head and told me to pick only one comic that I could read for the rest of my life, I would instantly say FF. Well, that’s not entirely true. I would beg and plead a lot to not make me choose between my many children, but I’m pretty sure Fantastic Four would win the day. It’s the one comic that I’ve followed most consistently throughout my life and in the end, it’s the one that I can always get the most enjoyment out of, no matter who’s at the helm. That having been said, today’s Bishoujo statue has been on my want list for a very, very long time. Coincidently Koto’s treatment of the lovely Sue Storm has also been sitting at my local comic shop for a very long time. And so, I decided the time was right, and I went down there to pick her up about a week ago AND THE FILTHY BASTARDS HAD SOLD HER!!! So I tossed her in my Pile of Loot at Big Bad Toy Store before shipping it out.

If you’ve seen one boxed Bishoujo statue, you know what to expect from most of them. Sue comes in a white window box that lets you get a little peak at the goods, but because she’s wrapped in plastic and trapped between two plastic trays, you don’t get that good a look. The panels feature the wonderful character art by designer Shunya Yamashita and the back of the box has a little blurb about the character and statue along with a photo of the actual piece. Sue Storm is a great character. She’s strong, smart, beautiful, a wife and mother, and she does it all without sacrificing her independence. Oh yeah, the box also trolls me by reminding me about the Jean Gray statue, which I don’t own and which is slowly making its way into the three digit price range on the collector market. Bastards!

Starting out with the portrait, Sue’s face is extremely angular and the sculpt is quite soft, even for a Bishoujo. She’s got her head cocked a bit, she’s looking off to the side, and she’s twirling her windblown hair with one hand. It’s ok, but I think Sue deserved better. I’m tempted to tell myself it’s an older statue and Koto has come a long way, but there are plenty of older Bishoujo’s that can hold their own with the current crop. I guess what I’m saying is Sue’s face is a little disappointing. It’s not a deal breaker, but it could have been better. Maybe it’s me… maybe I just hold the character up to higher standards.

The body on the other hand is fantastic. Her pose is pure cheesecake with one hand on her hip and leg bent in front of the other. It looks like she just pwned the enemy and is striking a pose while Reed takes a shot for their scrapbook. Just the silhouette on this piece alone is dead sexy. Her costume is pretty simple, as it’s just the traditional long sleeved version of the Fantastic Four outfit, complete with the “4” painted on her chest, but it’s the coloring on the costume that blows me away. Koto used a gorgeous, deep iridescent blue that I can’t possibly duplicate with my shite camera and non-existent photography skills. Suffice it to say, you really need to see this piece in person to appreciate the coloring. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before.

Of course, one of my favorite things about this piece is the way Koto utilized the clear plastic to depict Sue phasing into invisibility. The effect is most apparent on her feet and hands, but there’s also a tiny bit on the tips of her hair. It’s an amazingly successful effect, particularly the way the clear parts blend with the opaque.

Every time I look at this statue, it reminds me of Botticelli’s famous “Birth of Venus” and I think it’s partly the pose, but mostly the base. Of course Botticelli’s Venus was painted emerging from a clamshell and Sue is standing on the dying, broken hand of the Mole Man’s giant monster, from the cover of Fantastic Four #1, with the shell of her forcefield dissipating at her feet. It’s almost too close not to be intentional, but either way it gives me a chuckle. The giant sculpted hand for the base is very cool and nicely detailed. I’m not entirely sold on the forcefield shell, the plastic is a little too heavy and opaque to drive home the effect one hundred percent. It was a nice try though.

If it’s fair to judge the popularity of retired Bishoujo statues on their aftermarket value, than The Invisible Woman is probably one of the least popular. She was released back in 2011, where a number of her peers have increased in value, while she still lingers at around $45-50. It could be that The Fantastic Four isn’t as popular these days, but I’m also tempted to think it’s because this statue is rather tame by Bishoujo standards. Let’s face it, for a lot of collectors, the appeal of this line is in the titillating skin and cleavage, and Sue is fully clad from head to toe. But I think this piece shows that you don’t have to dress like a slut to be sexy. Sue pulls it off. And maybe that’s why she remains my favorite MILF of the comic world.

Apr 30 2013

Avengers: Captain America Quarter-Scale Figure by NECA

Yeah, I know, yesterday was Marvel Monday, but I’ve decided to keep the week going with a trifecta of Marvel stuff, because that’s just how I roll. The availability of space has always been at odds with my collecting habit. So, what do I go and do? I buy a goddamn quarter-scale Captain America figure, that’s what! It’s the first purchase that I’ve made in a while that had me starting to wonder if I have a serious problem. The saner voices in my head told me that buying this thing was against all reason, because I have nowhere to put him and he’s probably destined to hang out in his box by my Mezco Thundercats Mega-Scale figures. On the other hand, everything about this guy is EPIC, and I have a lack of willpower, and that combination is the unholy formula that brings us to today’s feature.

Cap here is my first quarter-scale figure. Yes, I knew how tall he was when I ordered him, but it wasn’t until I got him in hand that I really comprehended it. The box is massive and it doesn’t waste a lot of space. I’ve included my 3 3/4” Hasbro Cap for comparison. I love the deco on the box; it’s colorful and really captures everything that Cap is all about. Given how huge the box is, I expected mine to be pretty messed up in shipping, but it’s pretty heavy duty and apart from a ding on the top and some scratching on the large window, it’s not bad at all.

The back has a list of people who worked on the figure, not unlike you might find on a Hot Toys box, which is pretty cool because if something’s messed up you know who to blame. The box is totally collector friendly as Cap is just tied to the tray, which slides right out. A fair word of warning, the plastic fumes from a regular NECA figure are bad enough, now magnify that by about six times. When I pulled the tray out and the fumes hit me, I was afraid I was going to pass out and wake up 50 years later. Because… like Cap got frozen… and he slept a long time… the fumes… they were… ok, moving on.

Out of the box and Cap is one remarkably solid hunk of plastic. There’s a lot of heft here. I could seriously wield this thing like a weapon and do a lot of damage with it. Just to further put his size in perspective, your average Sixth-Scale figure comes up to his belt! It’s amazing to me that the durability on this piece matches its size. If he weren’t so expensive I’d be tempted to grab him by the leg and drag him around the neighborhood and have adventures with him. But I wouldn’t want to wreck him by doing that. And also, I’m 40.

Ok, so he’s big and he’s heavy… how’s he look? Fantastic! Let’s start with the portrait. NECA did a great job with the likeness to Chris Evans and the way the mask is sculpted there’s a lot of convincing depth to it, even though the whole head is molded in one piece of plastic. The flesh paint on the face looks solid and while there’s a little slop under his chin, the rest of the paintwork on the head is just about flawless. The wings and the “A” are all part of the sculpt and they’re meticulously painted in a high gloss silver.

The rest of the costume is faithfully recreated with all the little loving details. Every tiny square millimeter of the costume is textured, giving it a seriously realistic look. In fact, I’ll go one better. The Cap costume in the movie looked a little too puffy, like soft padding to me. The texturing on this figure makes it look more rugged and credible, like there’s a body-armor quality to it and it would have a chance of surviving an engagement with an enemy. But besides the texturing all the little seams and stitches are present, and oddly enough, I think I’m most impressed by the sculpted teeth on the zippers. The gloves look great and even the treads on the soles of his boots are sculpted as if they’re a prominently visible part of the figure. I have zero complaints about the sculpt on this guy… it’s every bit as epic as the size of the figure.

The paint is vibrant and gorgeous. The combination of deep blue, bright white, and the crimson captures everything that is Captain America. The extra little touches of silver on the star and epaulets and zippers and fasteners all really make the figure pop. However, the paint is not perfect. There’s a tiny bit of bleed around the red and white vertical striping on his torso. There’s also a little rubbing on the white vertical panel on his left side, thankfully behind the shield. There’s a few tiny marks of red spray on his belt. All these imperfections are minor to say the least, and pretty understandable when you consider the amount of surface space being painted here. I’m also reminding myself that this guy clocks in at under $100, and honestly, I’ve seen similar little paint issues on far more expensive pieces, so I’m not complaining.

Cap comes with his shield (well, duh!) and two interchangeable hands. The figure is boxed with his fists on, while the extra hands include a right hand designed to hold the shield as if he’s about to throw it, and a left hand that’s just splayed out. The hands are attached with pegs and just pop in and out. The first time I did it a bunch of red paint flakes appeared and I freaked out, but they were just from the inner post. Phew!

The shield itself is an impressive piece. The paint on the front surface is metallic, and while it’s not as vibrant as the Hot Toys shields, it is very attractive. I was worried whether NECA was going to be able to pull off an acceptable metallic paint job across a surface as large as this shield, but they certainly did. If you look really closely, you can see some scratches on the inner red circle above the star, but you really need to get in close to see those imperfections.

The back of the shield is fully sculpted and features two permanently attached soft plastic belts. To get Cap to hold the shield, you just need to pop off the hand and slide the loops through the arm. Some may take issue that the hand isn’t actually holding the inner strap, but I think it looks fine the way it is, and the shield stays in place quite well.

Cap has a ton of good articulation, but he is by no means what I would call “super” articulated. Make no mistake, this is an action figure and not a statue. You can get him into a lot of great poses, but some of his joints don’t have the same range of motion as you would find on a smaller figure with similar joints. Here’s what you get… There are ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles. The legs feature hip joints not unlike Mattel’s DCUC style, which allows for a wide stance. You also get swivel cuts in the thighs. The torso features a swivel in the waist and a ball joint in the torso. About the only joint here that isn’t terribly useful is the torso ball joint. It offers very slight movement, which is why I’m particularly glad that the waist swivel is there. Swivels in the biceps would have went a long way, but the ball joints in the elbows help a bit in their absence. Overall, what’s here is really good and serves to make Cap as fun to play around with as he is impressive to look at.

And there you have it… am I at all sorry I bought this figure? Nope. Do I have any idea where I’m going to put it? Nope. In the end, my guts told me he was too spectacular to pass up, and now that I have him, I can say it was a great decision because I absolutely adore this figure. NECA supposedly limited this guy to a production run of 7500, but he’s still readily available at a number of e-tailers and his price hasn’t even begun creeping up yet. Quite the contrary, the MSRP was $99, but I got him from BBTS for $85. You get a lot of figure for that price, and while I was a little late at getting my Pre-Order in for the Quarter-Scale Iron Man, I’m hoping I can still get it fulfilled. If I do get Iron Man, I’ll likely pull a shelf out of one of my bookcases so the pair can be displayed as they deserve to be.

Apr 29 2013

Marvel Universe: The Punisher by Hasbro

I started Marvel Mondays many weeks ago to force me to get through the huge stack of Marvel Universe figures that I had building up in my receivings pile. I eventually got through them all and started padding it out with some Marvel Legends. But last week my BBTS Pile of Loot arrived bearing enough Marvel Universe figures to keep this going for another month or so. Today we’re looking at The Punisher. Much like Steve Rogers from a few weeks back, Punisher is an MU figure that has been released in the new Legends format as well. Also like that Steve Rogers, I found the ML version of Punisher to be an absolutely fantastic figure. Does this little guy have the chops to stand up to his bigger version? Let’s find out!

There’s the packaging. If you’re buying Marvel Universe Punisher from a reseller, make sure the package looks like that. You don’t want to get Hasbro’s first attempt at this guy because it was total ass. Seriously, he had a big slab of pinched ham for a head and looked like Masters of the Universe reject, Punish-Or. On the downside, this new release has no figure stand or Fury File, just a crappy little piece of cardboard with a comic cover printed on it. Hasbro, you’re not fooling anyone by trying to pass off little “comic shots” as anything that adds value to the figure. It really crosses the line, Hasbro, and Frank Castle shows no mercy to anyone who crosses the line. It says so right on your own package.

I’ll confess that I enjoy the running gag through each wave that has a Marvel character imploring you to collect all the figures. In this case it’s MODOK demanding that you turn them all into AIM soldiers. There’s something so strangely appropriate about MODOK schilling Hasbro products.

Kicking it off with a look at the portrait, The MU version of Frank Castle is very close to the Legends version. It’s the same great “I’m determined to make you dead” expression and it works quite well. This is a man that is inviting you to a bullet buffet and it’s all you can eat. This 3 ¾” version is clean shaven, and I think it’s a good thing Hasbro didn’t attempt the five-o-clock shadow on the smaller figure. I’m really quite happy with the head sculpt the way it is. I don’t think I’d change a thing.

Punisher makes use of a standard, painted buck with some extra parts for his gear. Alas, I’ve never big a big fan of Hasbro’s heavy use of blue wash on the white parts of the costume. I get what Hasbro is trying to do here, but it never really looks right and it gives me fevered flashbacks to the Stormtroopers in those initial Star Wars comic packs. I can live with it on the boots and gloves and belt, but it really works against the skull emblem on his chest. On the up side, I love the belt and holster rig. It fits the figure well and the FUNCTIONAL holsters have thigh straps. Hey, MODOK, you know what I always say about functional holsters?

Damn straight, dude! You also get a working sheath on his boot for his combat knife. All of this is so cool that I’m willing to overlook the unfortunate paint wash.

Speaking of holsters and sheaths, Frank comes with a decent assortment of artillery. You get his two automatic pistols, a combat knife, and a machine gun. The pistols seem kind of small for Frank’s overstated tastes, but I do enjoy the fact that Hasbro bothered to paint the receivers silver. I believe the machine gun is an MP-5, which is a nice addition. The combat knife has a serrated blade, for when Frank wants to get up close and personal, or possibly just sign his work. One thing worth noting is that Frank’s hands do not have the trigger fingers sculpted separately. That makes it very difficult for him to hold his weapons properly. It’s an easy fix. Just take a razor blade and cut between the trigger finger and the rest of the hand. It makes a huge difference!

Punisher is based on one of the better bucks, so he features excellent articulation. The neck is ball jointed and also has the extra hinge for a wider range of up and down movement. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs feature ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs and again at the top of the boots, double hinges in the knees, and hinges in the elbows. There’s a ball joint in the torso and he can swivel at the waist. I’ll also happily note that my figure is free of any warping or QC issues in the joints.

The MU Punisher doesn’t quite capture all the amazing qualities of his Legends cousin, at least not as well as the Steve Rogers figures do. Nonetheless, I’m still very happy with the way this guy turned out. The paint wash is certainly disappointing and mars what could have been a perfect figure, but there’s always hope for a repaint or tweak later on down the road. In the interim, I’m certainly happy to have this guy in the 3 ¾” scale. He’s lots of fun to play around with and a worthy addition to any Marvel Universe collection.

Apr 28 2013

Sunday Funday: My Ten Favorite Things About Last Night’s Doctor Who!

Wow, yesterday’s “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS” was a cracker of an episode. I loved it to death and since I’ll probably spend today watching it again, I thought I’d run off a quick list of the things I loved most about it… If you haven’t seen it yet… SPOILERS!!!

The Doctor tricking the salvage team into thinking they had only 30 minutes to rescue Clara before he blew up the TARDIS was brilliant… The set up was even more so… “Behind those doors is the salvage of a lifetime!”
“We’re in trouble, Clara… proper trouble!” LOL.
Matt Smith is unbelievably brilliant even in the mediocre episodes, but give him something like this one and there’s no stopping him!
Validium!!! The “living metal” invented by the Time Lords and featured prominently in the 7^th Doctor story “Silver Nemesis.” Ok, it wasn’t mentioned by name, but we saw where it’s used by the TARDIS as part of her ability to alter her own internal geography. So cool!
Even trashed, the new console room looked absolutely gorgeous in this episode.
The Eye of Harmony… ‘nuff said.
The bit where you hear all the voices that the TARDIS remembers hearing inside her console room. In addition to various incarnation of The Doctor, you get to hear Susan and Ian Chesterton. That put a huge smile on my face.
Clara’s skirt!!! 😉
There’s an Encyclopedia Gallifrey and it’s in liquid form and stored in bottles! Which brings me to…
Holy Christ, there’s a leather-bound History of the Time War in the TARDIS library!!!!! I love this on so many levels. First, I love and collect antique books. I spent eight years of my life buying and selling them for a living. I would LOVE to have that prop! Secondly, I think it’s hilarious that there’s a “history” of something that has been Time Locked and therefore effectively removed from time itself. It’s almost like having a history of something that was erased from history.

Great stuff! I can’t wait until next week’s!

Apr 27 2013

Transformers Cybertron: Metroplex by Hasbro

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m pretty damned psyched to get my hands on the new Metroplex that Hasbro showed off at Toy Fair this year. It’s a brand new size called a Titan Class and it will supposedly stand about two feet tall and feature both city and battle station modes, and yes it’ll be just a smidge taller than that certain huge combining robot that Mattel offered up last year. But talk about bad timing. Hey Hasbro, why do you want to go and take the piss out of Takara’s Encore Fort Max by upstaging what was the largest official Transformer of all time by a couple of inches? Anyway, I’m not here to debate the politics of the decision, nor am I suggesting that G1 Fort Max is any less amazing for it. Instead we’re here to take a look at the last big Metroplex figure that Hasbro delivered back in 2006 as part of their Cybertron line. While he’s got some issues, I like this figure a lot. He’s one of those select favorites that rarely ever gets rotated out of my active display. I don’t have an in-package shot, so let’s just go ahead and start with his alt mode.

Metroplex is a… ahh… hmm. Well, he’s supposed to be a giant alien excavator, which sort of flies in the face of the fact that Metroplex, by his very name, should at least have some kind of city mode. Sure, it’s big and powerful looking, but it also feels like the alt mode is a second thought and if you look at it long enough, it’s easy to see that it’s more or less just a robot on all fours. Obviously, this was the biggest sticking point for fans accepting this version of Metroplex into their hearts. I don’t have a problem with a Transformer excavator, but I’m not sure it needed to be named Metroplex. I try to remind myself that the Cybertron toys were heavily tied into the cartoon series, but no matter how much alcohol is involved, my attempts to consume that particular fiction have all failed. Apparently, this Metroplex comes from the Giant Planet where Transformers grow to be really big and everyone seems overly obsessed with the unending task of building massive cities on top of old ones. Hey, at least there’s a city tie-in somewhere, right?

With all that having been said, Metroplex’s alt mode is still kind of fun and fairly impressive looking, even if some of it doesn’t make sense. Based on the position of the digging wheel, the cockpit seems to be facing the wrong way. Of course, it works to slightly modify it into a crawling death machine with a giant chomping claw. Eat your heart out Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors… this is f’cking armed force on steroids! Yeah, well… it’s Metroplex’s robot modes that make me keep him on the shelf and out of the storage totes. Wait, did you say robot modes, plural? I did indeed. Metroplex has two robot modes, which I believe were referred to as work mode and combat mode. They’re fairly similar, but one is significantly taller than the other. Let’s start with the smaller of the two.

Metroplex’s work mode is one big and chunky bot, supported by a marvelous system of heavy ratcheting joints. The joints are so ridiculously strong and noisy, that he practically makes that iconic G1 transforming noise just from the ratcheting joints alone. I’ve long forgotten what the official modes for Metroplex look like, but I do like using his cockpit head for his work mode. It’s a little nod to Omega Supreme and it also makes him look like one of the old Starriors figures from Tomy (Note to self: Do some Vintage Vault features with Starriors!). Sure, he’s got huge feet, but apart from that I really dig this guy’s proportions and overall aesthetic. There isn’t much of a G1 Metroplex homage at work here, but that’s ok with me, because not everything needs to be a nod back to something else for me to like it. The coloring is great, and the quality and finish of the white plastic used here is really nice. His deco is rounded out by a pair of sharp little Autobot insignia on his shoulders.

Changing Metroplex into his battle mode involves some nifty engineering that unfolds the legs and the torso. In fact, it’s far more clever than what’s involved changing him from his alt mode. You do indeed get a much taller robot, and while the arms are more or less the same, there are enough changes here to make him stand out from his previous mode. Here’s where I like to roll out the true head, and therein lies the biggest G1 homage on the figure. I just love this dude’s head sculpt. He’s got the antenna on each side, similar to G1 Plexy and some cool light piping in the eyes. He also looks like he just stepped on a Decepticon and now needs to scrape it off the bottom of his foot.

You may have noticed that a big part of Metroplex’s alt mode is conspicuously missing from from both his robot modes. Yes, the excavating arm detaches and actually turns into his weapon: A weapon that is gloriously named, Sparkdrinker. I think Sparkdrinker is supposed to be an axe, but it looks more like a mace to me. Inserting the Cyber Key causes the digger wheel to expand a bit. It’s not a terribly dramatic conversion, but I don’t care because as a weapon Sparkdrinker is both ridiculous and beautiful. It’s not terribly graceful or easy for him to wield, but if he hits you with it, you will most certainly die.

The last thing worth mentioning here is Metroplex’s minicon, Drillbit. I love minicons, and I really do miss them. Drillbit is one of my all-time favorite minicons, probably right behind Leader-1. He has a great looking robot mode, and a pretty cool little drill tank mode. He can also clip on to Metroplex’s arms and make a convincing looking gun, or a drill weapon that basically drills into your face as he punches you. Awesome!

And that, my friends, is 2006 Metroplex. I’m not terribly in tune with the ebb and flow of the Transformers community, but I get the sense that this guy isn’t terribly well revered and I think that’s ridiculous. He’s a huge, fun toy with great poseability and I never get tired of playing around with him or having my Classics Decepticons try to attack him en masse and fail miserably. I love his sculpt and deco and he just looks so majestic sitting there on my shelf. Granted, if you’re looking for a G1 homage, this isn’t it, but he’s a fantastic toy all on his own.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: