Jun 10 2022

ThunderCats Ultimates: Tygra by Super7

If you aren’t up to date on the tortured history of classic ThunderCats figures, Mattel only managed to get us half of the core team, Lion-O and Panthro (plus the ThunderKittens), before abandoning the line. Super7 took it over, and did some reissues with extra accessories, before gearing up to finish the team. Cheetara is shipping soon, but today we’re adding the noble Tygra to the ThunderCat Possee!

The packaging is as awesome as always, with a black sleeve over the window box. The sleeve has a red foil ThunderCats logo, while the box inside gives you a great look at the figure and thee extras inside. You also get some character art on the back of the box, along with a brief bio. I don’t usually save my figure packages, but so far I’ve been keeping these, so you know they’re something special!

If I was pressed to name my favorite of the original ThunderCats, it very well might be Tygra. He seems a little bit more complex than the others, with his shining virtue being that of integrity. He’s an architect, wise council, and fierce fighter, but he also has a pretty down to earth sense of humor. And if I read the subtext of the cartoon correctly, I’m pretty sure he was the one banging Cheetara. But, I also just really dig his character design. His outfit is comprised of various shades of teal and blue, with gold studs on the front of his stirrup boots. His black and orange tiger-stripes are absolutely gorgeous, and they really make this figure pop. I also dig the single shoulder piece, with the gold trim. Naturally, Tygra sports a bold ThunderCat emblem in the middle of his chest. The only thing I don’t like here is the wash they put on his lower front and back. I don’t think it works as intended, and just makes him look dirty, soiling what is an otherwise bright and snappy deco.

Tygra comes with two head sculpts, one standard, and one with his battle face on. I prefer the standard, but the alternative certainly works well for some action poses. Either way, they both really capture the character likeness beautifully. I particularly like the little bemused smirk on the primary head. It’s such a tiny touch, but it’s just perfect. Once again, the orange and black here really pops, and when you combine it with the white ear tuft, and the flesh tone of his face, it makes for a superb color palate. The paint for the eyes, eyebrows, and stripes is all sharp and crisp, but the white for his ears could have been a bit sharper.

As usual, the articulation here is serviceable, but I would certainly not consider these figures super-articulated. All the necessary points are there, but the range of motion in some of those points, particularly the knees and elbows, just isn’t. They are absolutely fun to play around with, but with an agile character like Tygra, I felt myself wanting a little more.

Tygra comes with no less than three versions of his bolo whip, as well as three sets of hands. You get some graspy hands, and two pairs of accessory holding hands, with the hinges orientated both side to side and forward and back. I know some people are really into the option of having the accessory hands with both hinge options. Sometimes I dig it, especially with Lion-O, but here it feels a bit redundant, and I think I would have rather had a pair of fists. Anyway, the first version of his whip is in its collapsed form, which is just the handle and three bolos at the end. This was a must-have accessory for me, so naturally I’m glad they included it.

The second is an actual string version of the whip, with the bolo piece being plastic. I appreciate what they were going for here, but I’m not sure I’ll get a lot of use out of it. The transition from string to plastic tip is rather jarring, and I couldn’t find much to do with it as far as posing goes. Although, I will concede that It’s a lot of fun to lasso Mutants with.

And lastly, we get the full-on plastic bolo whip, which is sculpted in a sort of serpentine pattern, so it can coil around Tygra, which is how he makes himself invisible in the cartoon. And yeah, that’s probably how I’ll display him most of the time. It’s cast in a soft and flexible plastic that returns to its intended form. This piece looks absolutely fantastic, and it works well both for the invisibility trick, or for just wielding it as a conventional whip. I had lots of fun playing around with it.

No offense to Pumyra and Linx-O, but damn, it feels wonderful to have another main ThunderCat join the team. And despite a few nitpicks, Tygra turned out absolutely great! Giving up three versions of the whip was certainly generous, and they absolutely nailed the likeness in his portrait! And for the record, I did buy Super7’s versions of Pymyra and Lion-O, and I will eventually get around to comparing them to the Mattel versions, which I already reviewed. But I definitely want to get through the rest of the new characters released so far. Next time I visit with this line, I’ll turn my attention back to the Evil Mutants!

Jun 8 2022

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark by NECA

It’s hard to remember when and where I was first introduced to Cassandra Peterson’s alter ego, Elvira. I was a full-on horror hound by my early teens, so it’s likely I first met her on her 1980’s Movie Macabre series. She was certainly just the thing to make young, pubescent me sit up and take notice. It’s safe to say at that age, I often found myself watching horror as much for the gratuitous sex and nudity, as for the gore and violence. Either way, I was familiar with her by the time her own feature film came out in 1988, a campy romp which I remember enjoying well enough, but I haven’t revisited it in a while. Anywho…. last year was the 40th Anniversary of the Elvira’s creation, and NECA showed up to celebrate with this release. And naturally, I showed up to pre-order it!

Well, the package looks outstanding! You get a collector friendly window box with some lovely pictures of the super-sexy Elvira on the front and side panels. The top of the box has her signature sign-off catchphrase, “Unpleasant Dreams!” and there’s a 40th Anniversary logo down in the bottom right corner. I guess this figure counts as part of NECA’s clothed retro-line. I like those figures well enough, but I’ve only picked up a couple over the years. Regardless, Elvira here feels like she’s a bit more premium than those retro cloth releases. Let’s get her out and set her up!

This is one of those cases of the actual figure living up to the superb prototype tease that NECA did when they first solicited her release. Elvira sort of strides the fence between realism and a stylized look, and that really works for me. Her signature black dress sports some excellent tailoring and it fits the figure quite well. The bottom edge of the dress is ragged cut, along with both sleeves, and she has a wide pleather-like belt girded around her waist with a loop for her dagger accessory. Everything about the outfit looks great, although while it does show off a satisfying amount of cleavage, even the package photos depict Elvira’s dress showing off even more. Maybe they scaled back a bit for marketing purposes, but either way it still looks fine.

You get two heads to choose from, and both are pretty damn great. The first is a standard look, with Elvira wide-eyed and smiling. Her signature mascara is wonderfully recreated here, and the paint used for her lipstick, blue eyes, and eyebrows is applied nice and sharp. She even has her beauty mark just off to the side of her right eye. Her iconic beehive hairdo towers on top of her head, and the the hair cascades down to her shoulders. The sculpt does a good job of resting on her shoulders for most poses, without hindering the neck articulation too badly.

The other portrait has Elvira giving a saucy wink to the camera. She’s still got a beaming smile, although this time her mouth is a little more open. I honestly didn’t think I’d gel too much to this look, but now that it’s in hand, I dig it quite a bit. It’s very much in character, and I could see myself swapping it out from time to time for display. If I were a greedy sort, I’d say a third head with a shocked expression would have been a very welcome bundle. But, if we were only going to get two heads out of the deal, I’d say I’m glad they went with the wink.

The articulation here is pretty good, with a fairly wide range of motion in most of the points. The arms are definitely the best, with rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinged pins in the wrists, and double hinges in the elbows. It can be a bit tricky to get the elbows turned right under the cloth sleeves, but you can always roll them up to see what’s going on under there. I also like that NECA gave her a pair of black wrist bangles to help conceal the wrist joints a little bit. If I were to complain about anything, it’d be the knees. I really wish they had given her double jointed knees. It might have been a little less aesthetically pleasing, but it would have helped with her signature reclining pose, which this figure can’t really do. I will say, that I’m beyond impressed with the figure’s balance, as the only time I resorted to using a stand was to show off the one included in the box. Sure, a couple times I had her leaning on something, but still it’s pretty impressive for a figure wearing high heels!

As for accessories, Elvira comes with three! First, you get the little dagger, which she can wear in the belt loop. It’s kind of silly, because it actually looks like all adorable and super-deformed. with a squat golden hilt and a tiny little silver blade. Neither of her hands are really ideal for holding it, but I was able to make it work OK.

Secondly, you get this chalice, with some mystical green smoke coming out of it. I really dig the sculpt on this piece. Her right hand seems best suited to holding the chalice, but I was able to make it work in either one. Again, the hands provided seem to be more for gesturing, and that’s fine, but a second set of hands wouldn’t have gone unappreciated.

Lastly, Elvira comes with this absolutely amazing skull candle holder. What can I say, other than it’s glorious, and I’ll bet someone at NECA had a blast designing it. It looks like just the sort fo thing you’d find on the set of a cheezy late-night horror movie hostess. The paintwork is also worthy of high praise, from the patches of brown flesh rotting off the skull, to the bloody eye sockets, and the glossy green on the snake slithering in and out of the mouth. There’s even a black spider nesting on the side of the the skull. Quite magnificent!

As I mentioned earlier, you do get a stand for the figure, but it’s just a generic black disk with a peg hole. Still, I’d definitely recommend it for keeping Elvira from taking shelf dives during long term display, but again, I was very impressed that I didn’t really need it for any of the pictures I shot. Well, except for this one leg standing pose. Ultimately, I may just use a Kaiser doll stand to keep her upright on display.

Elvira retailed for $39.99, and she can be found at a few online retailers for a little less. But, this was one of those figures, that I was willing to jump on the pre-order, and not worry about saving a few bucks. She really turned out great, and I had loads of fun playing around with her and snapping pictures for this review. I’d often hoped that TBLeague would secure the rights to give her the sixth-scale seamless body treatment, and maybe that will happen some day, but for the time being, having this figure in my collection will certainly get the job done.

Jun 5 2022

Mythic Legions (Advent of Decay): Freyja of Deadhall by The Four Horsemen

Holy cats! It’s Monday again, time to travel to the mystical land of Mythos and open up another Mythic Legions figure! As promised last time (and the time before that!), there are no Goblins today, but we do have a legendary lady warrior to check out, as I present to you Freyja of Deadhall!

I love Freyja’s bio, which recounts her uncanny ability to somehow resurrect herself and return to fight over the centuries when her skills are needed. She is aligned with Attlus The Conqueror, which has got to be a combined force to be reckoned with! And finally, she is rumored to have the ability to instill her own fighting skills into any army she commands! When all is said and done, Freyja sounds like a lady you do not want to go up against on the battlefield!

Freyja brings a decidedly Norse flavor to the Mythic Legions lineup, as she is clearly patterned after the Valkyries of old. With how many Mythic Legions figures I’ve looked at here (and how few are left) it should come to no surprise that we’ve seen almost all these components before. But, as always, TFH are wizards at grabbing a piece here and a part there and giving birth to a striking new character, like Freyja. Some Elf parts jump out at me as the boots, gauntlets, and mid-riff area, and we’ve seen the bare arms and legs appear on figures like Juno the Crusher and Queen Urkzaa. I was almost convinced the chest armor came from those figures too, but these concentric circled breast guards are a first appearance for me. The belt comes from the original knightly armor, complete with plastic sash hanging down the front, and plated armor on the hips. I like the colors here, as you get a nice mix of leather-like browns with copper and silver. As always, I’m impressed by the little paint flourishes, like the individual rivets and strap fixtures. Just beautiful!

The shoulder armor secures a red cloth cape, and we also get a very cool fur mantle for her to wear around her shoulders. As with a lot of the fur garments in this line, there’s no tried and true way to secure it to the figure. In this case, it seems best to just tuck it in under the shoulders and the back of Freyja’s hair, and it seems to stay put fairly well. Threading a string across her neck, may be a good way to go if I ever get ambitious and crafty. The fur piece is a bit unruly, as you can see in a few of the pictures, and it could probably use a little trim.

I think this portrait is one of their better ones! The shape of her face is well defined, but not too severe, and I like the little jutting chin and her narrow nose. The paint is absolutely impeccable, with razor sharp applications to her lips, eyebrows, and beautiful blue eyes, and there’s even a little color in her cheeks. The expression is rather blank, but I still love it. Her form-fitting helmet is permanently attached, with some nice raised scrollwork on the visor, which sadly cannot be lowered. The headpiece is capped off by a pair of feathered wings, completing the Valkyrie look! I especially love the way they sculpted her hair, with three branded braids separated from the rest of her cascading coif! Let’s check out her accessories!

It’s the classic one-handed sword again, and yup, I still love it. And nope, there’s not much more to say about it. She also comes with a circular wooden-style shield, which we’ve seen a few times before, but not nearly enough! This is a fantastic looking piece, and the design fits Freyja’s Valkyrie look perfectly. The sculpted woodgrain surface is painted brown, with gray paint for the reinforced bands and edging, and finally some very pale copper for the central boss, and the rivets. There’s some beautiful weathering in the sculpt, which includes some nicks and scrapes to show this shield has deflected a few blows in its day. You get the same level of detail on the obverse side, and a grip bar.

And lastly, Freyja comes with the old spear, which was introduced in the original Kickstarter. Like the sword, there’s not much more I can say about this weapon, except we got a two-tone paint job with gold on the shaft and silver on the spear.

Freyja of Deadhall is very cool and distinctive addition to the Mythic Legions lineup, and she looks great standing on the shelf next to her ally, Attlus. The combination of parts and fresh paint are wonderful, and I really dig the added fur mantle to give her that extra Norse oompf. If I had one little nitpick, I would have given her one of the short hand axes in addition to the sword and spear, but maybe that wouldn’t have costed out in the budget. Besides, I can always lend her one from another figure.

Jun 3 2022

Masters of the Universe Origins: Mosquitor by Mattel

Once again, I’ll point out how much I love the MOTU Origins line as a vehicle for finally getting figures that I haven’t owned in any previous format. I didn’t have any MOTU figures when I was a kid, and there were a handful or so that I missed out on when collecting MOTU Classics. Mosquitor was one of those, and now I’m absolutely thrilled to finally have this overgrown parasite land in my collection. Does he suck? You bet he does! And I mean that in every good way possible!

As you can probably tell by the packaging, Mosquitor is a Deluxe figure, which means he comes on a slightly larger card, with a few extra bits and bobs to push him over the $20 price point. These cards are absolutely magic to see on the shelf, with it’s vintage style and bubble glued to the card, it almost looks like an overgrown rack toy of the past. The explosions of exposition proclaim that Mosquito’s chest pumps “Red Fluid” but we all know IT’S BLOOD! Sticky, crimson BLOOD! I don’t understand it. Half the toys on the shelves today are about poop, but we can’t say blood? I’m surprised Mattel hasn’t introduced a new figure called Poop-Or. Anyway, let’s tear this bug man open and check him out.

Straightaway I’m going to say that I love everything about this figure! He feels so fresh and new, and that’s a big deal in a line that is built off of recycling a lot of the same parts. Mosquitor is built on a black buck, with heavy, gray robotic looking boots, smooth gray undies with a purple belt and silver triangular belt buckle, deep crimson gauntlets, red bands around his biceps, and bulbous crimson shoulders, that look like they’re made of some kind of disgusting organic membrane. He’s also got a button on his back to pump that blood!

The window in his chest has a painted silver border and clearly shows off the reservoir of life juice in his blood tank. Pressing that button gets the blood flowing and it looks really good. It’s also surprisingly fun to pump it. Once again, I never owned the original, so I can’t say how it compares to the vintage original, but either way, I’d say Mattel did a fantastic job recreating this gross play gimmick.

Mosquitor comes with two heads, and deciding which one to go with is a win-win scenario, because they’re both so damn good. The figure comes out of the package wearing one which I believe is based on his appearance in the UK comics. This one transforms Mosquitor into more of a reptilian looking creature, with a scaly textured skin, and bit yellow eyes with vertical pupils very reminiscent of alligator peepers. There’s also a hint of a silver tube exposed in the middle of his snout, suggesting his bio-mechanical nature. I do like the look of this head a lot, and because it’s so new and fresh, I used it for a lot of the pictures here. But, you also get this one…

Ah, that’s the Mosquitor I’m a lot more familiar with! Here we get a smoother and more angular head with giant white eyes, and very prominent cybernetic parts on his snout, ending in what looks like a scalpel, perfect for sucking that life-giving blood from the do-gooders of Eternia or Etheria. I figure that if I want to reconcile the two, I can just imagine that this head is a helmet that goes over the other head! But in the end, this is the head I’ll likely be displaying him with.

And since Mosquitor is a Deluxe, the goodies keep on coming! First, he comes with his purple rifle and an extra left hand, to replace the fist with a gun-holding hand. The gun looks great, and it seems to be a pretty good recreation of the vintage figure’s gun. I’m not sure why Mattel included the extra left hand. It certainly wasn’t necessary, but it does give you the option of making Mosquitor ambidextrous.

And lastly you get this absolutely incredible blood-sucking effect part. If you know me, you know that I’m not usually that impressed by effect parts, but this thing is fantastic! I thin kit’s supposed to be an energy field that holds his prey while he’s leeching them dry, but I like to think it’s just gallons of blood leaving his foe’s body. And dang, it looks like Man-at-Arms has a lot of blood! Egads, I love this!

Mosquitor is one of my favorite figures released in Origins to date. Yeah, I probably say that a lot, but it is just such an amazing line of toys! Granted, Mosquitor is a little bit extra special, as it’s the first time I’m owning him, but even if that weren’t the case, I think he’s a fantastic update to the vintage figure, with just enough of that sweet additional articulation to make him even more fun to play around with. It’s also nice to finally get another member of The Evil Horde, since I’ve been buying a lot of Horde Troopers to fill out Hordak’s ranks!

Jun 1 2022

Star Wars Black Series: Boba Fett (Tython) and Fennec Shand by Hasbro

What can I say about The Book of Boba Fett that hasn’t already been said? Aside from the two episodes of The Mandalorian that got shoe-horned into the middle of it, the show was a profound disappointment, and a huge waste of an opportunity. It had a few flourishes of greatness surrounded by a whole lotta nothing. It felt like someone playing a Boba Fett tabletop RPG and not knowing what to do with it. Someone visits Boba at his throne. Boba leaves his throne. He walks somewhere, he gets attacked or something else happens, then he goes back to his throne. Pepper liberally with flashbacks, and there ya go. With that having been said, at least the two figures I’m checking out today had their moments to shine in The Mandalorian, before their own series would sputter out of the gates.

These figures actually come from both series, with Boba billed as from The Mandalorian, and Fennec from The Book of Boba Fett, but they both work well as being from The Mandalorian: Chapter 14, The Tragedy. As usual, you get some nice character art on the angled side of the boxes. Let’s start with Boba.

I was funning around on Twitter with this figure by asking when Uncle Fester became a Jedi, because straight out of the box, I wasn’t all that impressed. The robe looked puffy, and with Boba’s bald head nestled on top, that was the image that came instantly to mind. But after fiddling with the robes and checking out what’s underneath, I really opened up to this figure quite a bit.

On more than a few occasions, I’ve beaten up on Hasbro for not using softgoods enough in this line, so to criticize them on one of the examples where they do, is probably a little disingenuous of me. With a little futzing, I actually think the robe looks fine. It’s well tailored, I like the rough edges, and the hood is a little tough to control when it’s down behind his head, which is pretty much where I want it to be all the time. I actually would have preferred if Hasbro stitched it down to make it look better, but I guess it’s nice to have the option to be worn up.

I was extremely surprised and delighted to see how much sculpting there is under the cloth. You get a tunic with flared shoulders, and textured with vertical stripes, and sculpted robes hanging down around his legs, with the same rough-cut edges as the cloth robe. He has a wide belt with cartridges for his rifle and a shoulder strap, and finally a working holster for his pistol hanging on his right hip. I think the boots are supposed to be the same ones he wears when he’s kitted out in the Mandalorian armor, or at least they look familiar.

I think the head sculpt is OK, with a solid likeness to Temuera Morrison. It makes use of the modern printing technology for the facial features, which looks fine to the naked eye, but gets a little blurry as you punch in closer. I think my favorite thing about the portrait is the scars, which are sculpted rather than just painted. You also get some whiter skin tone around them.

Boba comes with three weapons, the first of which is a pistol that fits into the holster. The design is pretty distinctive, with what I presume is a scope running along the top of the barrel. The grip is also painted wood.

Next up, you get his Tusken Cycler Rifle. This is a great looking accessory, with some decent detail in the sculpt. I like the gold painted bands that are spaced along the barrel. The stock is painted brown, and the scope is painted gray. The carry strap is a plastic, and does a good job at not being too obtrusive. On the downside, it’s tough to get him to assume an aiming posture by drawing the gun up to his cheek.

And finally, Boba comes with the Gaffi stick that we would later see him craft in The Book of Boba Fett flashbacks. I don’t have a lot to say about the stick, other than it is cast in very soft plastic and it’s prone to bending and warping. There’s a string tied around it at each end to serve as a carry strap. OK… Let’s move on to Fennec!

Overall, I enjoy Fennec Shand as a character. She’s stoic and seemingly bad tempered at first, but she softens up a bit as the series moves on. Unfortunately, she’s mostly written in the same key as Boba, and while she serves to offer him some contrary advice from time to time, I think their relationship could have used a bit more chemistry. With that having been said, I dig her character design, and this figure does a fairly nice job bringing that to life in plastic. Her outfit has a very layered look to it, with a sort of half-tunic over her shoulders and chest, and a skirt hanging off her waist down to about her knees. There’s a lot of great texture work going on here, with some opposing geometric patterns in both the tunic and skirt. She also has a control box sculpted onto her belt, and a smaller, simpler one sculpted on her right chest. The costume is a mix of matte and gloss black, with some orange accents and striping. The deco here reminded me of something, which I couldn’t put my finger on until I sat down to write this and realized it’s similar to the deco used for the evil Programs in TRON: LEGACY.

The portrait isn’t quite spot on, but it’s not terrible. There’s a passing resemblance to Ming-Na Wen, but I don’t think it’s a slam dunk. If you handed me this head out of context, I’d say I would have a pretty good chance of identifying who it’s supposed to be, so I guess that counts for something. They did a decent job with her hair, especially the few strands that are sculpted down the right side of her face, and the ponytail, which snakes from around the back of her neck and down the front of her right shoulder. My biggest gripe here is with the ears. They look weird and unfinished.

She comes with her helmet, which is cast in soft, pliable plastic and easily slides on over her head. It’s a perfect fit, with the eyes lining up with the slit right where they should. It’s painted black and orange, and it’s a simple sculpt that matches the simple design of the screen used prop, and reminds me of a cross between a knight’s helm and a motorcycle helmet. I do think it looks a little funny with the ponytail hanging out from under it, but that’s not the figure’s fault. With all the fighting Fennec must do, it doesn’t seem like a good idea for her to have something that an opponent could grab hold of in a scuffle.

I was a bit worried that the nature of Fennec’s costume would hinder her articulation, but the skirt doesn’t get in the way much at all, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that she’s a fun figure to play around with.

Other than her helmet, Fennec only comes with one other accessory: Her sniper rifle, with a plastic carry strap. I love the design of the gun, but the carry strap is rather awkward. It’s pretty chunky, and it’s hard to get it to sit right on the figure without it getting in the way. Fortunately it’s only pegged into the rifle, so you can take it off. I’ll most likely cast it aside and display Fennec holding her gun most of the time. As for the rifle itself, it’s cast in black plastic, with no additional paint operations, but you get some great detail in that sculpt! The scope is extremely intricate, and you can even see what looks like a fire selector just above the trigger guard area.

All in all, I think both of these figures turned out pretty well. This isn’t really the version of Boba Fett that I was jonesing for the most, even though this was how he looked when he had some real badass moments kicking the shit out of Stormtroopers on Tython. This figure will really just be a placeholder until I get the figure of him wearing his armor. As for Fennec, I don’t think there’s any need for her to get another figure, as this one does a fine job capturing the way she looks through most of the series.

May 30 2022

Mythic Legions (Wasteland): Thumpp by The Four Horsemen

I know what you’re saying. Dave, you lying bastard! You said you were all done with the Goblins, and now you’re back with another. Well, truth be told, after collecting all my Gobbies together and realizing that I was missing the one released in the Wasteland assortment, I just couldn’t let that stand. I friend of mine was willing to trade me his for one of my extra Skeleton Legion Builders, and here we are today… let’s check out Thumpp!

According to his bio, Thumpp is the very nephew of the Goblin King, No’glin, and commander of an elite force fighting under the flag of Gorgo Aetherblade. He’s a war veteran and has the scrapes to prove it! And was part of an early release at the 2019 DesignerCon. He was later made available to a wider market as part of Wasteland. There’s some stuff I like here, and some stuff I don’t, so let’s get cracking!

Thumpp is built on the standard armored Goblin body, with the addition of some segmented hip and groin armor, and the spiked collar, which we’ve seen a lot of the Goblins wearing. The paint here is standard dark iron, with some excessive rust showing in all the little nooks and crannies of the suit. Other than the orange rust, the only bright spot here is the silver paint used on the chain mail that peeks through at the joints. As always, the finish looks great, making the armor look like it’s been through more than a few campaigns!

On the downside, Thumpp makes use of the big shoulders we last saw on Gonxx. They worked fine on him, but he was built off the burlier Dwarf body, and here they are kind of big and bothersome. Don’t get me wrong, I think they look good on him, but they restrict his movement in the arms, and don’t work well with the collar. They were also crazy difficult to get pegged in, and yet still seem to pop out quite easily… that’s a bad combination! In the end, I will likely use these for displaying him on the shelf, but whenever I’m playing around with him, they’re coming off.

Thumpp gets one head, and it’s pretty fantastic. The portrait certainly fits the role of a seasoned warrior who’s sick of everyone’s shit. The skull cap is painted silver, which is one of the few times, TFH didn’t accessorize the deco to match the rest of the figure, but I don’t mind it. I love his bulbous chin, which looks like a giant air-filled dewlap, with various wart-like bumps. He’s got piercing yellow eyes, and a pair of big tusks rising from his lower jaw. This is definitely one of my favorite Goblin portraits of the bunch!

Thumpp comes with three weapons, one of which, his war hammer, is mentioned in his bio. This isn’t the one that was prevalent in the earlier releases, but rather the Dwarf hammer that was introduced in Advent of Decay. I think it’s a pretty good fit for him, even though it is really long and towers above him. The slender shaft and spiked counterweight makes me think he could reasonably wield this with some effect, despite his small size.

Next up, he has the one-handed axe, which we saw last time carried by the Goblin Legion Builders, so I won’t spend a lot of time on it. This one is fully painted out with a brown handle to go with the woodgrain sculpt. The axe head and pommel are both painted as steel, and they really did a nice job even putting some forging lines in it. I think it looks great slung on his belt.

And finally, you get the sickle sword, which we’ve seen quite a few times, but I tend to associate it with the Vampire Legion Builder the most. It also usually comes in pairs, with one socketed at the pommel and one pegged, so they can be joined together to form a crazy looking double-bladed slicer-dicer. The peg on the bottom of the pommel is a little obvious, and it would have been cool if they had crafted a pommel piece to put on it for when they only hand out one to a figure. I like this sword a lot, and it works OK for the Goblins, but I think the red painted hilt feels off. I wish they had went with dark gray.

And that’s Thumpp! There were a few choices with this figure that didn’t entirely work for me, but all in all I still dig him quite a bit. The shoulders are fine for display, but I take them right off when I’m going to be handling him to save on frustration. Either way, I think he makes a great addition to the Gobbie shelf, as the very last (for reals this time!) Goblin entry to my collection. At least until TFH released the Deluxe Goblin Legion Builder! No Goblins next time! I swear!

May 27 2022

Saintess Knight (Silver Version) Sixth-Scale Figure by Phicen/TBLeague

My backlog of TBLeague’s figures is pretty big right now. It’s so big, that I’m cutting myself off of buying any more until I can get caught up. There’s another reason for me to slow down with these too, but I’ll come back to that at the end, when we talk price. The last time I checked out one of TBLeague’s seamless sixth-scale figures was back in December of last year with the Knight of Fire, so I’m long overdue!

Saintess Knight is another one of TBLeague’s original concept figures, and they seem to be doing fewer and fewer licensed releases. And that makes sense, because they’re quite good at designing some compelling characters, and it also saves them having to pay out licensing fees for someone else’s intellectual property. As was the case with the Knight of Fire, The Saintess Knight is available in three different versions: Silver, Black, or Gold. Once again, I went with the silver one, which may or may not have been a good idea. I don’t have anything new to say about the packaging. She comes in a very durable box with a tri-fold top that secures to the sides with magnets. There’s some artwork on the front, and a shot of the figure on the back, and as always the interior of the box smells like tea. No, really. It smells like tea!

You never really know how involved the setup with these figures is going to be. Sometimes it’s a frustrating and time-consuming affair, but here it wasn’t so bad. She comes out of the box headless, with the body wearing her white, long-sleeved arming doublet, white trousers, a leather-like outer skirt, and a faux chain-mail inner skirt, and finally her cuirass and armored boot-feet. That leaves her shoulders, leg armor pieces, and forearm armor to put on. In the past, TBLeague has relied on elastic straps with TINY clasps to secure the shoulders, but here they used sculpted plastic for the straps on all the armor pieces, and boy was that a great improvement. Not only is it easier to get these pieces on, but I’m not worried about snapping or stretching the elastic in the process. Hopefully, they will never EVER go back to the elastic straps.

If you are familiar with TBLeague’s figures, one of the things you may notice first about the Saintess Knight is that she shows virtually no skin. And yes, these figures usually show a lot of skin, so you can appreciate and marvel at the seamless body. This may turn some people off, because truth be told, this figure could have been executed with a regular jointed body, and you wouldn’t know the difference. It does, however, still benefit from the uncanny articulation provided by the stainless steel skeleton underneath. Either way, the figure does look very good. The armor pieces are cast in a soft, pliable plastic, but the paint is pretty convincing as forged steel. Indeed, the paint on these pieces is quite exceptional, and even the fabric “chainmail” looks quite good. I do, however, have a couple of nitpicks. Firstly, the strings that secure the front and back pieces of the cuirass is a little messy. It can be knotted and the excess cut off, but I haven’t made that decision yet. Secondly, the white arming doublet tends to pick up some soiling from the armor pieces. It’s not a devastating flaw to me, but had I known that I probably would have chosen the Gold or Black Versions, as they have darker undersuits.

The helmet is quite a thing of beauty, and is based off of what I believe to be a 15th Century Armet. It’s silver with reinforced golden bands, which matches the beautiful raised scrollwork you can see on the cuirass and shoulders. There are narrow slits for the eyes, and some additional vertical slits to provide ventilation. What I really dig about this helmet is the way it opens up.

Not only does the visor lift up, but the lower guard hinges open as well, both of which is necessary to place it onto the figure’s head. Underneath, you get a pretty standard, but beautiful, head sculpt with a very neutral expression. The paintwork for the eyes and lips is both precise and clean, and looks absolutely fantastic. The only sticking point here is getting as much of the hair into the helmet as possible. She has a fairly short blonde coif, but I think they could have made it even a bit shorter to help keep it under control while the helmet goes over it. Like the armor, the helmet is cast in pliable plastic, which makes it a bit easier to get onto the head without fear of breaking it. Let’s check out some accessories!

First off, she comes with a gorgeous single-handed sword and scabbard. And they even addressed one of my previous nitpicks on another figure, by giving her a belt loop to secure the scabbard to her. Yes, that seemed like a pretty big oversight on some previous figures, but it goes to show that TBLeague is always looking for improvements. The white loop fits snugly around the scabbard near the throat and holds it in place perfectly. She also comes with hands designed to hold the sword, in addition to her fists and relaxed hands. I’m also happy to report that swapping the hands on this figure was easy, which is not always the case.

The sword is made entirely of plastic, which is fine. I think the days of getting die-cast blades out of TBLeague are gone. Nonetheless, this is a beautiful piece, with raised decorations on the blade, a gold crossguard, and a gold scent-stopper pommel. The turned grip is silver, and while I called it a single-handed sword earlier, I suppose this could count as a hand-and-a-half, adding a little more versatility to its handling.

Next up, you get a round shield, done up in the same silver and gold deco as the armor. This is a pretty simple concave disk with an elastic strap and a grab bar on the inside. The outer surface is etched with a woodgrain pattern, a reinforced gold decoration, and a rather large boss in the center. All in all it’s a nice piece, and worth noting that the shield design changes depending on which version of the figure you bought.

Finally, the Saintess Knight comes with a gigantic Great Sword., which is just a hair shorter than the figure itself. It’s a pretty generic style sword with a wide crossguard and a ridiculously long grip. It’s hard to imagine her wielding this with any success in battle, but it’s a cool looking piece nonetheless, and it makes for a nice bonus accessory.

As a figure that doesn’t show a lot of skin, the Saintess Knight may not be every Phicen fan’s cup of tea. As I mentioned earlier, there’s nothing here that couldn’t have been done with a regular jointed figure. With that having been said, I think she turned out great, and I really dig the armored female warriors that TBLeague has been putting out. The only real sticking point with me here is the price. One of the appealing thing about TBL’s releases has been the value, as most of the figures have been releasing around the $159 price point. Saintess Knight, however jumped to $209, and that seems like a big jump, considering she doesn’t even come with a base or figure stand. Indeed, I’m racking my brain as to what made me pre-order this figure at that price point. It’s quite possible booze was involved, and I could have certainly done worse, but if this is a sign of things to come, I’m going to be a lot more selective about which TBLeague figures I pick up.

May 25 2022

Golden Axe: Tyris Flare and Blue Dragon Mount by Storm Collectibles

If you’ve been hanging around here the last year or so, then you know how much I’ve been digging Storm Collectibles’ line of figures based on the SEGA Golden Axe arcade brawler. I’ll refer you back my look at the first release, Axe Battler, but there have also been an assortment of Skeletons, as well as Death Adder and his clones. Yessir, I love me some Golden Axe, even if it is singularly responsible for me still misspelling the word Ax just about every damn time. When Axe Battler was first revealed, I remember crying about how I would happily shell out the money to buy a repaint of the Red Dragon Mount if it meant getting us Tyris Flare, and happily Storm Collectibles has obliged!

Of course, Tyris Flare being one of the three playable characters in Golden Axe. She has stronger magical abilities, seems to move and attack a bit faster, but lacks the tank-like constitution of the burly Axe Battler. The packaging here is quite similar to that previous release, although the art and quality of the box feel slightly more polished. This box didn’t immediately tear when I opened it! You still get the cool artwork from the character select screen on an insert in the back of the box. Tyris comes on a tray with all her extras spread out around her, while the her Dragon Mount is secured in a tray under that one, and requiring his tail to be popped on before display. Let’s start with a look at Tyris!

Definitely one of the hottest pixelated babes to grace my SEGA Genesis, Tyris shows up to the fight wearing a skimpy bikini, white with red borders, as well as a pair of matching arm bracers, and high buccaneer-style boots. The bikini is sculpted as part of the figure, and Storm did some clever stuff, like using the straps on the back to help conceal the seams in the rather copious amount of jointing found here. I say “help conceal”, because it really doesn’t succeed completely. For a figure that shows this much skin, the jointing here can be pretty noticeable. It’s nothing worse than we saw with Axe Battler, and this is definitely a case where the added articulation is worth the sacrifice. Still, I wouldn’t mind seeing TBLeague take a crack at this line with their Phicen Seamless bodies. With all that having been said, I think she looks great, and they did an especially nice job sculpting the musculature in her abs.

As with Axe Battler, you get two different heads: One with a fairly neutral expression, and one showing her battle face. I think both are excellent and reflect the beauty of the character. I can’t decide on a favorite so I’ll likely switch off depending on what kind of poses I use for displaying her. The hair is sculpted separately from the head, and that adds a lot of nice depth to it, especially the way her bangs fall over her forehead. This piece can actually be removed, similar to a Figma or Figuart, but I’m not sure why, since we aren’t swapping faces here, but rather the entire head.

I do like how her fierce expression head has more going on with her hair. It’s splayed out down near her shoulders, as if her coif is whipping around from the action of the battle.

In addition to the two heads, Tyris comes with a whole passel of different hands. You get Fists, sword-holding hands, relaxed hands, grapple hands, and finger-pointing hands. Some of these really add some nice options while posing her.

And posing her sure is fun. Her articulation consists of a lot of rotating joints, double-hinges, and double-sided ball joints. It’s also worth mentioning that, like Axe Battler, the balance on this figure is quite impressive. She’s even capable of standing on her tip-toes without the assist of a stand! Axe Battler spent a long time on my desk so that I could grab him and fiddle about with him on my downtime, and I imagine that will be the case with Ms. Flare as well. She’s just lots of fun to play around with and damn hard to put down!

Apart from a whole bunch of hands, Tyris comes with her trusty sword, and it’s an absolutely gorgeous little weapon. The blade has a bright silver finish, with raised gold decorations running nearly half the length of the blade. The hilt has a dark iron finish, with a down-turned crossguard, and an extended grip so the sword can be wielded single or double-handed. It’s easy to get the grip into either or both of her hands, and she holds it just firmly enough to keep it from slipping. Let’s move on to the Dragon Mount!

I won’t spend a whole lot of time on this glorious blue beast, because he really is a straight repaint of Axe Battler’s Red Mount. It was a strikingly beautiful toy then, and it’s every bit as beautiful with its new coat of paint. The blue looks really nice, although the pea-soup green used for the claws, belly, reins, and saddle makes the figure not as flashy as it could have been. The pixel art in the game utilized a bit brighter shade for these parts, but I can’t say I dislike what we got.

The head is an amazing sculp, featuring some exceptional detail in the fins, horns, and the texturing of the skin. You get a little gradient to the shade of blue at the tips of the horns and fins, as well as the beak. The individual teeth are painted white, and the tongue a very bright red.

As with Axe Battler and his Mount, Tyris fits perfectly on the Blue Dragon, and looks damn good riding him. Her feet pass through the stirrups, and her sword-hands can be used to grip the reins and lead the dragon into battle! As I mentioned in the Red Dragon review, I would have liked to have a little more lateral movement in the legs to give him a wider stance, but they really just rotate where they meet the body. Nonetheless, the figure stands well, even with a rider on his back.

One nice surprise here is the change of dragon breath effect parts. In the game, the Red Dragon shot fireballs and the Blue Dragon had more of a flamethrower attack. That is conveyed here with this gigantic flame effect part. It simply rests on the ground with the other end fitting into the dragon’s mouth.

Wow… it’s so cool to finally have Tyris on my shelf! When Axe Battler first released, I could only hope that he wasn’t going to be a one-off release, but now it’s clear that Storm is continuing to play with extra credits! Yes, they have been milking some of the molds by giving us lots of two dragon mounts, skeleton variants and Death Adder clones, but if that’s what they have to do to make this line work, I’m still All-In! I’m still hoping we get some more rank-and-file enemies, like Heninger, Longmoan, and the Amazons. So far, the only brand new figure teased are The Bad Brothers, and I’m patiently waiting for that pre-order to drop!

May 23 2022

Mythic Legions (Advent of Decay): Goblin Legion Builder by The Four Horsemen

I haven’t done a count recently, but I know that I’m close to being all caught up on reviews of my current Mythic Legions figures. Today, for example, I’m having a look at the very last Goblin in my collection, but don’t worry… there will be more! This time, we aren’t looking at a specific Goblin character, but rather the Legion Builders, which are meant to be generic troops to strengthen your army. I bought a pair of these, and opened them a while ago, so I don’t have an in-package shot to share, so let’s just jump right in and check out these little green bastards!

Unlike last week’s figure, Gonxx, these Goblins return to the slighter build, which has been the norm. Gobbie is decked out in full armor, colored in a deep, dark shade of iron gray, with all the pitting and scrapes that make these sculpts look so damn convincing. This is armor that’s seen its share of battles, and probably saved the wearer’s life on many occasions. Either that, or another Gobbie got killed and this one just claimed his suit. As is often the case with these Legion Builders, there are no additional paint operations on the body, so you won’t see any painted rivets or belts, but I don’t mind. I love the slight upturn at the toes of the long boots, and the angular shoulders are the perfect marrying of style and practical crudeness. He also dons a collar with upward spikes, no doubt protecting the neck from a lucky decapitating swipe of some do-gooder’s blade. The collar, is the only nitpick I have here. It looks great, but it pegs in in the back and that pushes it forward. It doesn’t take much to push the tab out of the back when handling him.

You get two heads to help customize the Legion Builder into multiple troopers. The default comes sans helmet, and lets all his ugly hang out in the open. But generic soldier or no, the portrait is still outstanding. His bulbous wrinkled nose, deep set yellow eyes, bald pate, and pointy Yoda-ears all look great. And yet it’s the mouth that really makes this portrait shine. The wide mouth is packed with a brace of nasty teeth, framed by two upward jutting fangs, likening him to be a lesser cousin to the Orcs of Mythos. I could easily imagine these fiendish chompers biting chunks out of heroes in battle.

The other head may look familiar, as it’s the same sculpt we saw with Gonxx, and it’s still every bit as glorious a noggin. The paint here lacks the detail and rusty patina that came on the named figure, and in its place is just more of that deep iron finish to match the rest of his armor. You do, however, get some great paintwork visible inside the eye holes, showing off those beady eyes. The sculpt and paint are so good, that if I didn’t know better I’d swear the mask could be removed to show a full face sculpt beneath it. It’s worth noting, that this head works best with the spiked collar removed. OK… Let’s check out his weapons!

For starters, he comes with the Orc scimitar that we’ve seen on a few occasions in the past. As with each of these weapons, the entire piece is painted over in silver, with no flourishes of color on the hilt. It still works well, and the finish does manage to bring out all the scrapes and nicks in the blade. Previous paint work on this sword make it look like the hilt is made of bones or even teeth, but here it just looks like it’s all metal but designed to mimic actual bone, which I suppose is pretty cool too. The blade is a bit long for the slighter Goblin frame, but I think it still works for him, and he can wear it on his belt without much trouble.

Next up is the silver one-handed axe, which accidently made it into a few shots last week with Gonxx. And while there are once again, no additional paint operations on the weapon, it does come with a great looking skull, which can be skewered through the tip of the axe handle, adding a ton of personality to the weapon. It’s great that this adornment got added to a lowly Legion Builder!

And finally, you get a standard silver spear, which is the same type we’ve seen over and over (and over!) again since the original Kickstarter figures. These spears are pretty long even for the human-sized figures, so it might be a bit of a reach for these half-pints to wield it. It wouldn’t have been my first choice for these little guys, but it’ll do in a pinch!

And that’s the Goblin Legion Builder! It took restraint (and a tight budget) to limit myself to just a pair of these guys, but in a perfect world, I’d have a half-dozen. I dream of some day TFH actually stocking their store with Legion Builders all the time, but that could be dangerous to my finances, so maybe it’s better if they don’t! I should note that there is a Deluxe Goblin Legion Builder coming soon and I’m really looking forward to adding him to my army of little green meanies!

May 20 2022

GI JOE Classified: Alley Viper by Hasbro

GI JOE Classified has been a dangerously expensive line for me to collect, because it’s full of so many darn troop builders! And troop building is one of those ultimate expressions of excess that I wished I could do as a kid. I can remember asking for another Cobra Trooper or Stormtrooper and being told, “No! You already have that one!” But, now I’m an adult with disposable income, and it’s only natural that I went kind of crazy with the Cobra Infantry and Battle Android Troopers, so I tried to restrain myself when it came to the Alley Viper. Three seemed like a good number, and that’s how many I wound up with… for now!

Truth be told, the original Alley Viper was first released during that Dark Age between when I was no longer getting toys to play with as a kid, and had not yet discovered buying toys to collect them as an adult. This guy first appeared on the shelves in 1989, which would have been the year before I went to college. As a result, I wasn’t even really aware that Cobra had an Urban Assault Trooper until I got back into collecting GI JOE around 1999 or so. And I’m all for getting to experience some Classified figures that I didn’t have as a kid! As always, the box is nice and colorful, his large array of weapons is laid out around him, and the character art even pictures a couple Alley Vipers to subliminally tell you to buy more than one!

Out of the package, it’s hard to first notice anything but the colors… Oh, the colors! The Alley Viper fatigues consists of an retina-sizzling orange and blue camo, with some black and brown thrown in just to keep things somewhat grounded. Love it or hate it, GI JOE Series Eight was knocking on the 1990’s door, ushering in an age of obnoxious toy colors. The Alley Vipers were billed as being brave, and let’s face it, you’d have to be to go into battle wearing this! Once we’re past the deco, I have to admire the attention to detail that went into the fatigues and gear. His vest is a veritable slab of pouches, which extends to his right shoulder. He’s got more pouches on his belt, sheathes for his knives on his right forearm and left shoulder, and a holster for his pistol on his right thigh. And then there’s that gorgeous blue shoulder pouch with the orange Cobra insignia! It’s a lot to take in all at once, and before you can process it all, he’s probably already killed you.

The Alley Viper’s head is encased in a form-fitting, open-faced helmet. with snake fangs emerging from the chin guard, and a textured blue mask beneath it, showing only his determined and hate-filled eyes. There’s a hinged visor, which can be lowered to shield his face, and has only a circular screen in the center for detail. I presume this is some type of imaging sensor that allows him to see, but it sure makes him look creepy and inhuman. The black embossed Cobra emblem at the forehead is a nice touch as well!

The black backpack pegs into the back of the figure and is a superb nod back to the original figure’s backpack. Like the Viper’s fatigues, there’s a crazy amount of detail in the sculpt. In addition to the Cobra emblem at the top, there are magazines sculpted into the sides, a cluster of grenades down at the bottom, more pouches, and what looks like a landmine in the center. The grapple gun, which I believe was sculpted into the original figure’s backpack, is even removable here.

I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a dedicated grapple gun, or just a rifle that also has the ability to fire the hook, but I’m leaning toward the later, because it seems like a pretty big piece of kit to haul around just for those times when you need to grapple somewhere. Regardless, the rifle has a scope, as well as a ring at the muzzle to attach a string (not included). The hook is removable, and it also has a ring to attach the other end of the string (still not included). Let’s check out what else this guy’s got!

Well, any good Urban Commando needs some blades, and the Alley Viper comes with two identical knives that fit in the aforementioned sheathes. I’m a big fan of the one on his shoulder, as it’s well placed and stays put, because it’s secured to the vest. The one on his right forearm is a lot more floaty. It tends to swivel on his wrist, and slide as well. It is removable, and while it hasn’t annoyed me enough to do that yet, it’s nice to have it as an option. Knife accessories in this scale are seldom all that interesting, but I still enjoy getting them.

Next up is his pistol, which fits very well in his thigh holster, as well as in either hand. I really dig this design, as it’s not too sci-fi-y, but rather looks like a fairly credible real-world design. I’ve got nothing much else to say about it, other than it gets my stamp of approval.

Now we’re moving into the heavier hardware with this compact bullpup-style carbine. This is a nice update to the weapon that came with the original Alley Viper, complete with a scope, foregrip, and a crazy positioning of the magazine, which juts out the back at an angle. The weapon is cast entirely in black plastic, the sculpt is great, and while I personally am not a fan of the design, it’s still a great-looking weapon. I was thrilled to see that the magazine was removable too!

And finally, the Alley Viper comes with a more traditional rifle featuring a detachable magazine in front of the grip, just the way I like them. Like the previous carbine, this rifle is cast all in black plastic and has some wonderful detail in the sculpt. This is probably the gun I’ll have these guys carrying most of the time for display purposes. My only nitpick with the Alley Viper and his arsenal is there’s no way for him to carry everything, or even anywhere to attach any of his rifles, except for the grapple gun.

I’ve saved the Alley Viper’s most iconic piece of kit for last, and that’s his riot shield, and boy is it a beauty. This defensive shield shares the same orange and blue deco as the Viper’s fatigues, and has a bold and beautiful Cobra emblem sculpted into the top center. It attaches to the figure’s arm with a pair of straps, and even has a pivot, so it can be positioned in a variety of ways independent of how the figure is posed. It also has a sticker on the interior side, which I presume is a viewscreen, so the Viper can still see what’s happening when taking cover behind it. A lot more safe and secure than the slits in conventional riot shields!

As I mentioned at the start, the Alley Viper is my first Cobra troop builder in the Classified line based off a figure I did not own as a kid, and that makes him a real treat. I wasn’t sure how I would take to the crazy colors, but now that he’s in hand I have to admit that he’s got an unabashed beauty about him that I wouldn’t dare change. There’s a sublime variety of weaponry packed in with him, that makes it possible to kit out multiple figures with some variety, and that’s always a plus. But whatever weapons I give him, that beautiful shield will always be a must! Hasbro hit an absolute home run with this figure, and it’ll take some serious restraint to keep me from getting a few more!