Dec 5 2012

Watchmen Series 2: Dr. Manhattan by DC Direct

Pardon me for jumping back and forth between the Series 1 and 2 this week, but I’m a little pressed for time today and given his simple character design, Dr. Manhattan seemed like someone that I could get through quicker than the other figures in the line. Manhattan was certainly one of the more challenging elements in bringing Watchmen from comic to film, and I was overall pleased with his on screen portrayal by Billy Crudup, so let’s see how his figure turned out.


Once again, the packaging is awesome. It oozes the presentation direction of the movie, the deco looks amazing and the window displays the figure very well, while also concealing all the extra stuff (i.e. creepy extra set of blue dismembered legs) down at the bottom and out of sight. The downside of Manhattan’s package is that his figure stand is actually secured to the back insert with its own bubble, so you can’t get it off without destroying the cool backdrop. That’s ok, though, figures like Comedian and Rorschach are much more suited to display against the graffiti wall backdrop than Manhattan is, so I don’t count it as a big loss. Remove the tray from the box and you’ll see that you get a second lower half of the figure to provide two different display options. Let’s start with the version of Dr. Manhattan that you get right out of the box…

Yep, he’s a blue guy in his underwear. And the addition of the underwear was a mercy, DCD, because without his modesty garment, this figure would have blinded me for life. But saying he’s just a guy in his underwear really sells the detail in this figure short. He’s incredibly well sculpted right down to all his muscle tone, tendons and veins. Manhattan’s head sculpt is particularly excellent, with the detached, solemn expression that Crudup, or rather the CG model of Crudup, wore most of the time in the film. Granted, there isn’t a ton of paint work on the figure, as he’s molded in his intended blue flesh tone plastic. Still, the pupil-less eyes look great and the emblem on his forehead is crisp and precise.

Rorschach may have been a somewhat articulated statue, but Dr. Manhattan strides the line closer to being a bona fide action figure. He has ball joints in his neck and shoulders, swivel cuts in his hips, and hinges in his elbows and knees. He’s by no means super articulated, but he sports a lot more poseability than poor Rorschach. I’m not one to complain about good articulation, but what’s up with that, DC Direct? It seems like most collectors would have rather articulation cuts be taken in Manhattan rather than Rorschach, but I’m guessing it has a lot to do with the nature of the figure’s design.

Besides better articulation, another nice surprise with Dr. Manhattan is the inclusion of a separate set of legs so you can put him in a levitating pose. To perform the transformation, you simply pull the bottom half of the figure off at the waist and pop in the second set. The replacement legs are completely static, with his toes pointing down. The soles of his feet have slots that work with a clear piece that pegs into the figure stand. He’s a tad wobbly when displayed like this, but otherwise it works well and he looks very cool.


I wasn’t terribly excited about getting Dr. Manhattan, but truth be told, DC Direct went above and beyond on this guy. The sculpt and coloring are great, the articulation is right about what the character needs and the extra set of legs to offer two display options is really cool. With the extra half a figure included, he really feels like he’s in a different assortment from Comedian and Rorschach, but maybe DCD was able to cost it out because Manhattan uses so few paint apps. Either way, he’s a fantastic figure.


Dr. Manhattan was also available as an exclusive variant and once again, I’m going to let the in-package shots suffice because I’m not planning on opening him. There’s no new sculpting here, it’s just the same figure molded in a slightly translucent blue plastic. I know a lot of collectors go nuts over translucent figures, but I’m just not one of them. I see what DC Direct was going for here, and I applaud it, but if this figure hadn’t come to me as part of the collection, I would have been fine without owning it.

I’ll be back tomorrow to check out two generations of Silk Spectres.

Dec 4 2012

Watchmen Series 1: Rorschach by DC Direct

This week, I’m going to do my best to avoid a lot of tangents about the Watchmen movie (and don’t even get me started on my love-hate relationship with Zack Snyder) but since these figures are based off of the movie and not the comic, I’ll have to touch on it now and then. Suffice it to say, I did more than my share of harrumphing about it when it was in production. Like a good stubborn little fanboy, I refused to see it in the theaters, but when I finally sat down with it on Blu-Ray I found myself enjoying it a lot, and my affection for the movie has grown a little more with each subsequent viewing. A big part of my fondness for the film comes from the casting and Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach is a fine example of that. He helped to portray a marvelously ambiguous character that evoked love, hate, sympathy and revulsion all in one complex package. DC Direct put out two versions of Rorschach, so let’s check them out, starting with the regular edition.


Rorschach comes in a gorgeous, peg-friendly window box, which DC Direct was once rather fond of employing and truth be told, I’m pretty fond of these as well. The deco is wonderfully designed from all angles and there’s a synopsis on the back as well as shots of the other figures in Series 1 and 2. While I’m not sure that space considerations will allow me to keep all these packages, they are 100 percent collector friendly and with the printed insert, providing a graffiti-stricken wall as a backdrop, they certainly make for a great way to display the figures.


When the sculptors at DC Direct are on their game, they do a fantastic job and that’s mostly the case here. It’s only Rorschach’s mask that feels a little subpar. The paintwork on the mask is fine, but some texturing on the hood would have been nice. As it stands, it looks too smooth, especially when compared to the beautiful texturing and detail on the trench coat.

Yes, the trench coat is downright awesome. The sculptors infused it with every possible little wrinkle and rumple, button and stitche. The flaps of the belt are sculpted in soft, pliable plastic and hang free of the rest of the belt. His collar is worn up and one of his epaulettes is buffed up too! The beautiful sculpt on the trench coat is punctuated by an outstanding paint job and wash that makes it look authentic. You can practically smell the old leather off of it. Even the pin striping on his trousers is immaculate.

As far as articulation goes, well you can never be sure what you’re going to get with DC Direct. In this case we got a semi-articulated statue. The torso and legs are totally static, with one foot placed slightly in front of the other, which makes him almost impossible to stand on his own. Rorschach’s head rotates left and right, but it’s slightly cocked to the side. A ball joint in the neck would have gone a long way. Finally, his arms rotate at the shoulders, swivel at the wrists and have hinges in the elbows. You can get a number of variable poses out of Rorschach, but he’s certainly more statue than action figure.

Rorschach comes with a swappable right hand and his trademark grapple gun. DCD might as well have just cast the gun and hand as one piece, but either way this is definitely my preferred way to display the figure. It still leaves his left hand balled in a fist for punching lowlifes. You also get a gantry-style figure stand with two loose pegs that you can position in three different holes. It’s not so much for customization but to allow DC Direct to use the same stand for all the figures. As indicated above, the stand is pretty essential if you want to keep Rorschach vertical.

Rorschach certainly is a great looking piece. DC Direct delivered a great sculpt and managed to capture the character wonderfully. Of course, a little more articulation would have gone a long way. He’s not only totally static outside his arms and neck; he can’t even stand without being plugged into his base. It makes Rorschach a great looking little statue to display, but he’s hardly an action figure, even by DCD’s limited standards.


But wait… there’s more! Rorschach was available in an exclusive variant edition as well. The variant is the same figure with a unique unmasked head, so everything I’ve been gassing on about holds true from the neck down. I have no plans on opening the variant anytime soon, but you can get a good idea what he’s all about from the in-package shots. He comes with the same stand and the same extra hand and grapple gun as the regular release. The head sculpt, sans mask and hat, is a solid enough likeness, but the paint work is rather bright and cartoonish, which doesn’t sit right on the portrait. I don’t think it’s quite on par with the likeness of Haley that NECA did for their pre-torched Freddy Krueger figure. The unmasked noggin looks a little bigger than the masked and hatted version, and in a perfect world, this head would have been swappable and included as an extra in the regular edition box.

Tomorrow, we’ll press on with the two versions of Dr. Manhattan…

 

Dec 3 2012

Watchmen Week!

Alan Moore’s Watchmen has had a little resurgence as of late between the “Before Watchmen” books (which are surprisingly better than they have any right to be) and Matty Collector’s from-outta-nowhere “Club Black Freighter” figures, which are slated for next year. I was pretty close to subbing for those figures, but with the “Club Infinite Earth” sub in question at the time, it meant the possibility of paying $10 shipping per Watchmen figure if CIE didn’t go through. Ultimately I declined and as we all know now, CIE went through anyway. Way to cost yourselves a sub, Matty!

But that’s all fine and dandy because a short while ago I happened to pick up a complete set of DC Direct’s Watchmen line (Series 1 & 2, variants and all) for the mighty appetizing price of about six bucks a figure. As much as I’d like to have DCUC styled Watchmen, the DC Direct figures have a charm all of their own and these sure as hell didn’t set me back $25 each.

So, with The Watchmen suddenly somewhat topical again, I decided to devote a week to checking out the DC Direct figures. Of course, the really great thing about Watchmen Week, is it gives me today off because I’m going to start the week with a re-run. If you haven’t checked out my feature on DC Direct’s Comedian  go have a gander and start your Doomsday Clocks ticking. Meanwhile, I’m going to go pop in my Watchmen Blu-Ray, flip through my trade edition of the funnybook and get myself geared up for a week of Watchmen goodness.

I’ll be back tomorrow to check out Rorschach.

Dec 2 2012

Duke Nukem: Pig Cop by Resaurus

One of the coolest things I picked up at the Toy Show from a bunch of weeks back was this carded Duke Nukem Pig Cop figure from the now defunct Ohio based company, Resaurus. I ordered the entire lot of these from Resaurus back in the day and alas, only one of them survived the ensuing years, so when I saw this guy sitting there on a dealer table for ten bucks, I couldn’t resist.

I know I’ve waxed nostalgic about Resaurus before, but it’s been a while and seeing this packaging again after 15 years really takes me back. Ok, so their product wasn’t exactly durable. Case in point: Only one of my Duke Nukem figures, the Duke himself, still survives intact. One by one, my Duke figures broke or shattered in some horrible way. But, fragility aside, I really liked what Resaurus did as a company. They grabbed some really solid video game licenses (including Quake, Street Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot) and created a destination website that really brought gamers and collectors together. They had lively forums and involved the consumer in the development and production process. It was all very cool.

Anyway, the figure comes on a huge bubble and a generic card. There’s an insert in the bubble with the figure’s name and some character artwork. The back of the card shows all the figures available in the line, plus screencaps of them in the game. I’ll concede the presentation here is a little dated, but considering we’re talking about toys based on a mid-90’s highly pixelated First Person Shooter, I think the packaging has some charm. Since I’ve already owned this figure and I know what he’s all about, I really hemmed and hawed over whether or not to open this guy or just hang him on my wall. In the end, I decided to tear him open. Probably no big surprise there!

Oh, I get it! It’s a cop and it’s a pig! I’ll take this opportunity to point out that FigureFan Zero supports the efforts and sacrifices of our local police force and in no way condones using the “pig” epithet toward police officers. Only filthy hippies do that! Disclaimer aside, yes, Duke’s main cannon fodder in the game were pig cops and this is one of them in figure form. Let’s bust him open and see what we’ve got…

There’s no doubt about it, Pig Cop features a really nice sculpt. Even after 15 years of advancements in toy design, this figure still exhibits a beautiful array of detail and texture work. Piggy’s head is amazing, with all the hair sculpted onto his face and a great prominent brow to frame his evil red eyes. The portrait is nicely rounded out with his trademark mohawk, drooping ears and big flat nose. And then there’s the mouth. One of my favorite things about this figure, and there’s a lot to love, is his hinged mouth. Open it up and you get a great look at the texturing on his tongue and his big bottom tusks. For a character that is basically a mindless grunt, Resaurus poured a lot of love and attention into Pig Cop’s portrait.

Pig Cop’s hunched half-pig, half-man body is made up of a sculpted uniform with a separate rubbery plastic flak jacket over the body. He’s got little bent pig legs that end in hooves, a set of burly arms with claws and an adorable little piggy tail. The flak jacket is removable, but I’m content to leave it on to avoid any tearing. The jacket is packed with great little touches including lots of texturing and “LARD” (har, har) printed on the front and back. It’s also loaded with battle damage from scrapes to bullet holes and an array of ammo pouches across the front.

For a figure of this vintage, Pig Cop has solid articulation. Out of the package, I had to force just about every one of his joints to get them to move for the first time. I was pretty sure something was going to go wrong, but happily he survived the process. The head features the aforementioned articulated jaw, and will swivel at the neck side to side, and thanks to the break in the Mohawk sculpt, it can move without hindrance. The arms rotate at the shoulders and feature swivel cuts in both the biceps and the wrists. Sure, hinged elbows would have been cool, but what’s here works ok. Lastly, his legs feature “T” jointed hips and the figure can swivel at the waist.


Pig Cop comes with three accessories. You get a gas mask, a riot shotgun, and a PR-24 nightstick with a knife taped to the end of it. The gas mask features the best detail of all the accessories and is a cool piece as it simply fits right over the figure’s snout and stays on remarkably well. The shotgun is pretty generic and features a soft sculpt. The weathered metal paint helps it along a little bit, but it’s nothing special. The figure can hold it in his left hand remarkably well. Last up is the PR-24, which has a little peg in the side so you can peg it into the figure’s left claw. The combat knife taped to the end of it gives it a little more character than the shotgun, but it still feels like just a placeholder.

 


Ultimately, Resaurus took a wonderfully unique approach to this figure. The Pig Cops in Duke Nukem 3D were goofy, cartoony cannon fodder, but what Resaurus produced here is a very cool, sinister looking bastard. In fact, the level of detail here makes him look more akin to modern video game creature designs, including those found in the unbelievably shitty ill-fated sequel so many years later. I can happily display him alongside the original Resaurus Duke, but I honestly think he looks better standing beside NECA’s recent Duke Nukem Forever offering. That says a lot for how the figure’s design has held up over the last decade and a half. I’ll also admit that having him has made me more anxious to hunt down a new Battle Lord and Octabrain. But for the time being, hopefully I can hang on to this guy for a while without him falling to pieces.

Dec 1 2012

Transformers Fall of Cybertron: Onslaught by Hasbro

I think I’m finally cracking under the weight of the Holidays. So, I figured I’d have a couple of Jamesons and check out another one of the Fall of Cybertron Combaticons. If booze and Transformers can’t cheer me up, nothing can. Swindle turned out to be pretty good, so I’m anxious to look at the Combaticon leader, Onslaught.

Yup, love that Generations packaging. Onslaught comes packaged in his robot form on this beautiful card, which points out that he is number one of five Combaticons needed to build Bruticus. He’s not only the first, but also the leader of the pack and according to his little bio on the back of the card, he’s a master strategist and a damn good fighter too. Of course, original Onslaught was a lot bigger than the other Combaticons, whereas the Fall of Cybertron version he’s a Deluxe just like his brothers in arms. That doesn’t bother me; I like a little uniformity in my Transformers sizes these days. Let’s start with Onslaught’s alt mode…

 


Ok, I’ve mellowed on this alt mode a lot since I first transformed him. But let me give you a little taste of my initial impressions… What the hell is this? I know it’s supposed to be an alien war machine and all, but it just doesn’t look like anything. Hasbro calls it a missile carrier, I call it bullshit. I’m trying to be a little forgiving here since as the torso of Bruticus, Onslaught requires the most engineering for his third form, but this jumbled mess on wheels is really pushing it. I don’t even see any goddamn missiles. Even an alien missile carrier should have missiles. I just see two big guns. Now, like I said, I’ve mellowed on him a bit since. He’s still an odd conglomeration, but looking at the way his back is designed, he actually looks like he’s designed to be a cab for a larger military vehicle. And that’s kind of cool. Hey, there’s your cue, Fansproject… build him a trailer! Also, on the plus side, the coloring isn’t as bad as I originally thought it would be. I do wish Hasbro had toned down the neon green a bit, at least to match the more subtle green of his dual cannon.

Moving on to Onslaught’s robot mode… here’s the deal, folks. Onslaught looks really good standing on the shelf. He’s nicely proportioned, he has a slew of cool panel lines in the sculpt, and his head is a beautiful homage to the G1 toy and animated character. I’m not crazy about how the huge cannon looks in his hand, but you can clip it onto his arm and I think it works pretty well that way. I do wish Hasbro had designed the cannon so you could peg it onto his back with the two barrels coming up like the G1 design. Either way, he’s one bad ass looking robot and therein lies the problem…

The problem with Onslaught is I want to pick him up and play around with him, and that’s when I realize how screwy his arm designs are. His upper arms consist of his entire front wheels and when you rotate them at the shoulder, it’s just awkward. His forearms connect to his shoulders with hinges that don’t lock into place, and the swivel and ratchet joints in his elbows don’t help much either. Worst of all, his shoulders have no lateral movement. His legs feature decent hinges in the knees and swivels in the thighs, but his hip joints are ratcheted so tight it feels like I’m breaking him when I try to move his legs. Sadly, he’s definitely a toy that is best enjoyed when admired on the shelf.

In the end, I’m going to have to give Onslaught a pass. Call me a Transformers whore. Call me a Hasbro sycophant. Call me whatever. Maybe it’s the Jameson talking. Sure, Onslaught’s alt mode is pretty questionable, sure his arm designs are terrible, but truth is he still looks damn fine standing there among my Decepticons. And besides, I’m really not in all that forgiving a mood today, so if I can still find some good him, that’s worth something.

Nov 30 2012

DC Universe Signature Collection: John Constantine by Mattel

It’s the last day of November, which means today’s my last chance to get the feature for the second November Club Infinite Earths figure in just under the wire. Ah, John Constantine. I adore this character so much. He’s one of those comic book personas that I can honestly say transcends his books, and that I read them for my love of who and what the character is and not so much the actual stories. And even beyond the panels of the funnybooks, there was so much potential to bring this character to live action and it was all squandered on that terrible movie. Anyway, it was the reveal of figures like Constantine that made me all the happier that I subbed Club Infinite Earths, and that’s saying a lot since this series has yet to really disappoint in character selection or execution.


We just saw the DCUSC packaging earlier in the week with Uncle Sam, so I won’t spend a lot of time on it here. I will say that this box is so far the sole instance where I’m not thrilled with the character art. It’s fine enough on its own, but it doesn’t match the figure’s portrait at all, and quite frankly I like the figure’s head sculpt a lot better, which is ironic because at first I wasn’t sure about it. As always, the figure looks great in the package and the collector friendly nature of the box means mint-in-box collectors can have their cake and eat it too.

Let’s start with Constantine’s portrait. It’s very stylized, especially compared to the character art on the box. I wasn’t sold on it when I first saw it in the promo pics and I still wasn’t when I first got the figure in hand. It has started to grow on me a lot, however. For a character that was originally designed to look like pop singer Sting, this figure does not, and in the end that’s probably for the better because nobody’s ever accused me of being a fan of Sting, at least not since he left The Police. I like the hair sculpt a lot and the prominent brow gives him a stern look, which is nicely counterbalanced by the slight smirk in his mouth. The scar is well implemented too. He does seem to have an extra helping of ears, but all in all, this is a really remarkable head sculpt that oozes personality. At this rate, if it keeps growing on me, it may turn into one of my favorites.


Obviously, Constantine is a dude in a trench coat, so I don’t think there was any doubt where Mattel was going to look to get parts for this figure… yup it was The Question! The Question was a great figure to begin with, so Constantine was in good hands. The trench coat, arms and legs are all straight grabs and they work very well. Constantine’s coat feels like it’s cast in a slightly more pliable plastic, which is a good thing, and it looks really good in the new tan color. Constantine stands a bit taller than The Question, making up the extra height in the torso.

The rest of the figure features some nice unique work, including a rumpled shirt and a necktie, separately sculpted so that it’s hanging down from the collar. It was sticking out quite a bit in the package, but fear not. If you don’t want your Constantine looking like Lou Costello dressed him, it will lay flat if you tuck it into the coat for a little while, or you can just use a tiny dab of blue tack. I’m not a big fan of Constantine’s hands. They look like they might be the same ones used for Uncle Sam, which means he looks like he’s meant to hold accessories that he doesn’t come with. A pack of smokes would have been cool, but I suppose I can understand why Mattel didn’t include something like that, even if this is an “Adult Collector” line. Ok, no I don’t. Mattel, you should have included a pack of smokes.

Constantine’s articulation is identical to what we saw on The Question and is pretty typical for all DCUC style figures. The neck and shoulders are ball jointed. The arms feature hinged elbows and swivels in the biceps and wrists. His legs feature the usual DCUC style hip joints, hinges in the knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. John can also swivel at the waist and still retains the ab crunch hinge under the trench coat.

John Constantine is a fantastic addition to the Club Infinite Earth roster and I’m kind of surprised he didn’t sell out. Even ten days after the sale, he’s still available. I can understand Uncle Sam not flying off the shelf, as he’s far more of a niche character, but even he is listed as “Almost Gone” now while there appears to be plenty Constantines left. Granted to the uninitiated, he’s just a cool looking guy in a trench coat, but I thought John here had more street cred than that, and it saddens me to see him lingering on Matty’s virtual pegs.

Nov 29 2012

Lego Minifigs Series 8 Crapshoot #1

It’s Christmas time and that means a huge stocking stuffer dump bin at Target full of blind bagged minifigs from Lego.


Those of you who have been kicking around my little corner of the web may know that I haven’t exactly been rabid in my pursuit of Lego’s devilish little bagged toy lottery. In fact, I’ve skipped some of the series all together. But when I’m dashing in to buy me a bottle of holiday spirits and cashews, it’s hard not to grab a handful of these things and try my luck. This trip, a handful constitutes three. I actually had more than that, but I bought a particularly good bottle that day and had to put a couple back on account of being short a couple of bobs. It’s the Holidays and monies are tight! The other great thing about these little guys is they give me some quick and easy content for what has been a really busy and tiring week. Ok, let’s see how I made out with blind bag number one…

OH HELLS YES! I hit the pirate on number one! I suppose you could argue that there are a few other figures in this series that are on par with the pirate, but you can’t tell me that the pirate isn’t on the top of everyone’s want list. If you try to tell me that, I’ll have you pegged for a filthy liar. Get it? Pegged? Pirate. ARRRRR!

This little guy is a thousand shades of awesome. The printing on his torso and hat are both very cool and his face is very piratey as well. I think it’s funny that he hit the unfortunate jackpot of having every single cliché pirate deformity. “Hey, I got me a mate who’s a pirate. He be missing a leg, an arm, and an eye.” “Arrr, really? What’s his name?” “His name be Lucky!” “ARRRRR HAR HAR HARRRRRR!” Lucky comes with the ubiquitous minifig stand and a little golden cutlass. Pure win, my friends. Pure win. Let’s see how we make out with blind bag number two…

Umm… DJ Guy? I have very little opinion on DJ Guy, other than I see no reason for him to exist. Unless you happen to actually know a DJ in which case this makes for the best Christmas gift three dollars can buy. The record and album cover are actually kind of cool, and are a nice nod back to a couple of previous minifigs, but I really got nothing else to say about him. So… indifference… baggie number two contained indifference. Let’s try for three…

OH FUCK! It’s the football guy. Of course after opening the first bag, I looked at the checklist to get an idea of who I wanted and who I didn’t. Football Guy was top of my “Don’t Want” list. He’s actually pretty well designed, but a generic Football guy just seems like a waste. Make a set of Minifigs with actual NFL uniforms and you may have my interest there, Lego. But look who I’m talking to. Lego isn’t even an American company so what do they know about Football? Even the trophy he comes with seems kind of out of place. It looks like he just bowled a straight game while wearing Football gear. Blah!

Oddly enough today’s outing demonstrated the three potential reactions to opening a Minifig blind bag: Joy, Indifference, and Disappointment. It was pretty convenient for the purposes of this feature and I swear these were the only three I opened so nothing was rigged. I’d wager that I’ll pick up another handful of these before the Holiday season passes us by. There are a couple of figures on that checklist I’m really eager to get.

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Nov 28 2012

Star Trek Voyager: Lt. Tom Paris & Kes by Playmates

It’s time to throw in my weekly dose of Playmates Star Trek love. I really should just bring back Star Trek Saturday, since I have so many of these damn figures to look at, but for now I’ll just keep tucking them into the week wherever there’s room. I don’t think I’ve looked at any of the Voyager figures here before, but last week I picked up a few more that I needed to fill out my collection of the crew. Ah, Voyager, while I would argue there were about a dozen episodes that were truly excellent, the show usually balanced that fine line between mediocrity and downright horridness. Today we’re checking out the ship’s navigator and Starfleet badboy wannabe, Lt. Tom Paris, and the annoying and useless Ocampa, Kes. I’m looking at these figures together, because that’s how I bought them, but I seem to recall they were an item for a while in the show, so that makes this pairing all the more relevant.

Paris’ packaging was pretty badly shredded, so let’s use Kes’ as an example for the in-package shot. The card styles have evolved a little since the days of the Next Gen and Deep Space Nine figures, but you can still see the lineage. You get the nice big series logo along with an animated looking version of the Voyager herself. The big bubble displays the figure, the Skybox collector card, and a bunch of accessories. The back of the card shows portraits of other figures in the line as well as a file card for the character and a look at the included accessories. The Voyager line really is the pinnacle of Playmates’ 4 ½” Star Trek figure efforts. They’ve cast off almost all the overly stylized and pre-posed bullshit and what’s left is just plain old action figure goodness. It makes me wish they revisited the Next Gen crew in this manner.

One crazy thing about Playmates’ Star Trek figures is they tend to develop a film on the plastic when left in the packages for too long. Paris’ legs were spotted and Kes’ legs and head were all frosted over. It’s good to have a magic eraser or an LCD wipe handy. After a little polishing the stuff doesn’t come back and the figures look new again.


Ugh, let me start with Kes. I hate Kes. She was a pointless character, and I’m sorry but Jennifer Lien was terrible in that role. I’ll refrain from generalizing about her acting skills because I’ve never seen her in anything else. Maybe she was trying to play it all alien and awkward, and if that was the case, well bravo. Playmates’ figure on the other hand is pretty damn good. The likeness is solid for the age and scale of the figure, although the sculpting of the ears makes her look as much like a Vulcan as she does an Ocampa. She’s wearing a typically boring example of 24th Century casual attire, and I’m surprised she doesn’t have a comm badge sculpted on her chest. I just noticed, she doesn’t have one on the Skybox card portrait either, so I guess it’s accurate. Sadly, there’s a major paint flub on the back of her left sleeve, but overall this figure is a solid effort on Playmates’ part.

Kes’ articulation includes a rotating head, arms that rotate at the shoulders, hinges in the knees and ankles, swivels in the biceps and thighs, and a swivel in the waist. Because of the design of her dress, there’s no hip articulation, so Kes is perpetually standing, which ironically conveys Ms. Lien’s stiff performance on the show. See what I did there? Zing!

In addition to her Skybox card, Kes comes with a computer terminal, a biological scanner, a medical tricorder, and a PADD. All her accessories are cast in an inappropriate dark blue plastic. Ah, Playmates! You and your ridiculously colored accessories… always a treat. She also comes with a personalized figure stand configured to look like the Voyager-era comm badge.


Moving over to Lt. Paris, I was excited to get him because he brings me one step closer to completing the Voyager crew. Now, I’m only missing Chakotay and the Doctor. Paris is a great looking figure, and exactly what I’m talking about when I say Playmates Trek figures hit their stride with the Voyager line. The proportions are excellent with no big ham hands or monkey arms. The Starfleet uniform buck looks great, right down to the cinching on the sides of the tunic. The head sculpt, may not be 100% Robert Duncan McNeill, but I can definitely see him in there, and that’s good enough for me.

Paris features all the articulation I could possibly expect in these figures. The head rotates, the arms rotate at the shoulders and feature swivels in the biceps and hinged elbows. The legs rotate at the hips and feature swivels in the thighs and hinges at the knees. He also has a swivel cut at the waist. Not bad. If I were to change anything it would be a straight “T” for the hips so he can sit without spreading his damn legs.

Along with his Skybox card and figure stand, Tommy boy comes with a portable computer, a PADD, hand phaser, and compression phaser rifle. Amazingly enough all of Paris’ accessories are sculpted in silver, which means they’ll be loaned out to a lot of my other figures who were unfortunate enough to get bright mauve or neon purple ones. I was really excited to get the Phaser Rifle, but it kind of sucks. The sculpting isn’t that great, and Paris can’t hold it for shit. It’s also odd that Playmates left the phaser beam on the hand phaser grey instead of the usual orange, but I’m snipping that off anyway so it really doesn’t matter.


And there we go. I have little love for the Voyager TV series, but being the shameless Star Trek whore that I am, I subscribe to the philosophy that bad Trek is better than no Trek at all. And so I need me my Voyager figures and these are two great additions to the lineup. Like most of Playmates’ Trek figures, these can be had for pretty cheap. I expected to get hit a little harder on Paris, since he’s a bit less common then the rest, but I still managed to snag this pair for $14 shipped, so I’m not complaining!

Nov 27 2012

DC Universe Signature Collection: Uncle Sam with Doll Man by Mattel

I really love it when Mattel digs deep for their DC Universe figures. With so many of the final waves of DCUC populated by topical characters from recent comic events, it’s easy to forget that this line was always intended to draw from the vast corners and deep history of the DC Universe. That should be doubly the case now that the line doesn’t need to rely on casual retail shoppers and can be fueled strictly by the interests of niche collectors willing to seek out and subscribe to the figures online. And that’s why I love the fact that they’re releasing figures like Uncle Sam. He’s not only a pretty obscure piece of DCU history, but a masterful; some might say diabolical, kitbash of a figure. Let’s check him out!


Sam comes in a typical Signature Collection window box. As always, the character art featured on the back and side panel is excellent. Close your eyes and imagine what a character named Uncle Sam would look like, and you’re probably right on the money. Acquired by DC from the buyout of another imprint in the 1950s, Sam is not so much a character but the spiritual embodiment of American patriotism able to possess different corporeal hosts when needed. Wow, that’s awesome. The box is completely collector friendly, which is always a plus in my book.


Uncle Sam is one of the finest examples of Mattel’s deviously clever ability to reuse parts from older figures and have it turn out perfectly. Sam is an unlikely hybrid of Gentlemen Ghost and The Joker. When I look at the figure, it’s so blatantly obvious that he’s a kitbash, and yet the final result looks amazing. He has a sculpted shirt and vest with a separately sculpted jacket layered over it. Toss in the necktie and this figure has a wonderful sense of depth and complexity to the sculpt. The pants are cuffed around his ankles and he’s got spats on his shoes. If spats were socially acceptable, I would wear them every day. The only thing that really mars this figure in any way is the plug used in his back to cover up what I presume is a cape socket. Not a big deal, but just a little unsightly.

The coloring on Uncle Sam’s outfit is deliciously patriotic. There are two shades of blue for his jacket and vest and the white and red striping of his pants really make the figure pop. Alas, there are some paint flubs on his red striping.

Of course, the whole figure is really tied together by the superb head sculpt. He has an iconic and noble looking face that still manages to convey the fact that if you mess with America, he’s going to kick your ass off the hemisphere. The hair and beard sculpting is awesome and his hat really crowns (literally!) the whole piece. Wonderful!


Uncle Sam has pretty typical DCUC style articulation His head is ball jointed, although the sculpted hair restricts the movement of the head to a turning motion. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, hinged at the elbows and feature swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs have the usual universal joints in the hips, hinges in the knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. While there’s no waist swivel, which is disappointing but understandable, Uncle Sam does still have an ab crunch hinge.

While his hands are sculpted to hold accessories, Uncle Sam sadly doesn’t come with any, that is, unless you count Doll Man. He’s similar to the shrunken down version of Rita Farr that we saw last month, only better sculpted and more substantial. He’s actually a pretty solid piece of plastic! I’m not a big fan of Doll Man so he’s kind of lost on me, but it was a nice way for Mattel to deliver a second member of the Freedom Force in this package.


Getting Uncle Sam in my DCUC collection is a real treat. He’s a wonderfully obscure character and while Mattel went the Frankenstein route in creating him, I certainly can’t quarrel with the results. Sam looks amazing and I am thrilled to have him represented on my DC shelf. Of course, November was a double figure month for Club Infinite Earths, and we’ll double back at the end of the week to check out John Constantine.

Nov 26 2012

Transformers Fall of Cybertron: Swindle by Hasbro

Why yes, my Xbox is still out of commission! Thanks for asking! As a result, I still haven’t made it through Fall of Cybertron. I have a replacement drive for it and I keep telling myself I’m going to fix it and I never do. But then, I also told myself I wasn’t going to buy the trade editions of the Combaticons, because I didn’t like the colors, and today we can see how that turned out. It seems like I enjoy lying to myself… a lot. Yesterday, I found three of the five Combaticons hanging on the pegs, and here’s how that went: “Well, I’ve got to buy Swindle. Swindle is the man,” says I. “But, hey, Blast Off looks really cool too!” And then I just said “Screw it!” and tossed Onslaught into the cart as well. But I’ll get to the others in good time. Today is about Swindle, and yes, Swindle is indeed the man.

Oh, God, what glorious packaging! When I saw this on the peg, I never had a chance. I’ve already pontificated on my love for the new Generations cards, so I’ll try to keep it quick here. The old G1-style grid pattern is awesome. And check out Swindle’s character art. I love the smarmy look on his face and the way he’s pointing to his weapon. I can’t tell whether he’s going to shoot me with it or try to sell it to me. Swindle was always one of my favorites from the old Sunbow cartoon and I think this artwork does him justice. Well played, Hasbro. Swindle is carded in his robot form, which seems to be par for the course with the Fall of Cybertron figures.

The only real differences in the packaging here over the other Fall of Cybertron figures I’ve looked at is the fact that Swindle is a combiner and the package goes out of its way to tell you that. First off, there’s a big sticker on the bubble that says “BUILD GIANT ROBOT!” That’s the kind of glorious Japanenglish that I expect to see on Hong Kong bootlegs, not on a genuine Hasbro release. The top corner of the card also proclaims that Swindle is “Part 4 out of 5” for Decepticon Bruticus. The back of the card has an excellent little bio of Swindle and a diagram showing where he falls into the Bruticus build.


Let’s start with Swindle’s alt mode, which is a Cybertronian transport. It’s nothing terribly special, but aesthetically, it fits in pretty well with the other Cybertron vehicles we’ve seen in the Generations series. I like the fact that it has no windows (because Cybertron alt forms shouldn’t!) and the way the gun plugs into the top. There’s a lot less panel line detail to the sculpt than we last saw in Jazz or Shockwave. I’m guessing Hasbro had to cut back on the sculpting a bit since Swindle is sort of a triple changer. Then again, he forms Bruticus’ leg by standing upright in vehicle mode, so there isn’t really any added engineering for that function. Overall, I’m ok with the coloring. For me, Swindle had to be yellow, which is why I can’t commit to the exclusive G2 version of Bruticus. The purple is a traditional Decepticon color too, so I can’t complain about that and he’s rounded out with a little black and grey. I just wish the yellow wasn’t so bright, because it clashes with the purple to give off a blinding neon vibe. Still, I can deal with it.

Transforming Swindle is as easy as it gets. The fact that he’s designated as a Level 2 Intermediate makes me wonder what Hasbro would consider a Level 1. Still, I don’t need my Transformers over engineered just for the sake of it. Swindle’s transformation has a clean and simple G1 feel to it and the figure works well with everything pegging in to make a solid vehicle and a solid robot.


In robot mode, Swindle looks damn good… from the front. From the back he looks rather hollow and unfinished, reminding me a lot of the Energon Rodimus figure. Nevertheless, he has nice, clean proportions and a lot of good detail on his legs and arms, and the way his shoulder armor can pivot front and back is nice. I really like his head sculpt, although a grey paint app on the face would have been welcome to really bring the figure together. I should also point out that Swindle is a nice sized Deluxe. I’ve taken great umbrage with the shrinking size of the Deluxe Class figures as of late, but Swindle is on par with the War for Cybertron versions of Megatron and Soundwave, and considerably bigger than poor little Shockwave.

 


Like I said, once I saw Swindle on the peg, I never had a chance. I love the character and that Generations packaging practically hypnotizes me into forking over my money. But while I’m happy with how he turned out, $15 is still way too much for this figure, Hasbro, and I didn’t truly realize how absurd it is until I picked up three Deluxes at once for $45. Holy shit… $45!!!  But price notwithstanding, Swindle is a cool addition to the Generations line of Cybertron figures, and while I’m not exactly jonesing to build Bruticus, that’s ok because he works great as a stand-alone figure.