Oct 4 2024

Universal Monsters: Ultimate Bride of Frankenstein by NECA

October is here and the air is rife with spookiness and pumpkin spice! Last year I crammed all my horror related content into the week leading up to The Big Day, but this year I’m going to pepper it about the month, trying to do at least one spooky review each week and then toss some more in as we approach the finish line. I’d like to get through my entire horror backlog and come out of Halloween with a clean slate, but we’ll see how it goes. Back in August, I jumped the gun and checked out NECA’s Ultimate Frankenstein and Chair from The Bride of Frankenstein, but without having looked at The Bride herself because I hadn’t purchased her yet. But, I finally picked her up and so I’m going to kick off this year’s horror show with NECA’s Ultimate Bride!

I’ve had a few opportunities to comment on how weird and wonderful The Bride of Frankenstein is as a film. I touched on it a little in the recent review and a bit more back when I checked out Jada’s figure. I dig it a lot and usually include it in my October rotation rewatch along with some of the other Universal Monster films. You have to hand it to Elsa Lanchester for becoming one of the most iconic classic horror icons while having such a tiny amount of screen time. The packaging here is right in line with past Ultimate Universal Monster releases with a front flap depicting the movie poster, and opening to reveal a window showing the figure inside. Everything is collector friendly, and I have been keeping the boxes for these monsters, because they look really great all lined up and I dig the vintage poster art. You get a few different display options with The Bride, so let’s just start with how she comes out of the box.

The Bride features a white, flowing softgoods gown made of a very soft material allowing it to fall pretty naturally around the figure. It’s sleeveless and has a neck opening that laces up in the back, but comes with the laces untied. It’s a cool mix of hospital gown and wedding dress with a bit of a train trailing behind it. Mine is a little bit rumpled out of the box, but I’m sure that would steam right out. Displayed like this, you aren’t seeing a lot of detail, but the exposed arms are completely covered by sculpted bandages.

The stock head has a neutral expression and I’d say the likeness is decent, but maybe not quite up to NECA’s usual magic. Technically everything looks amazing, especially the work on the slightly parted lips and flash of teeth. But, I don’t think the eyes are quite there, or maybe it’s just a very specific expression they were going for that I’m missing. The eyes are a little too round and she could have used more lashes on upper lids. The iconic coif, on the other hand, is pretty spot on and they did include the scar running around the edge of the jawline, which is something that Jada missed on their figure. I don’t want to come down too hard on it, because it isn’t a case of poor effort or quality, but just not capturing the likeness as much as I would have expected.

There’s a second head that depicts her screaming and I’d say this is marginally better. Again, I think the eyes are too round, but that’s less notable with this expression. The work on the open mouth is really impressive with the glossy tongue and top row of teeth. I’ll also note here that the head swaps are done at the base of the neck, where the exposed skin meets the bandages. Why’d they do that?

Well, they did it to allow for the fully bandaged neck and head, and that’s pretty clever. This head has a piece that fits over the eyes so that the whole head is covered, or you can remove it and expose her eyes. The cover piece does not hold on as well as I’d like, but I really don’t ever plan on displaying it on the figure. Heck, I will probably never use this head either. Nonetheless, there’s some nice texturing on the bandages that make them look like gauze in some parts. You also get some silver painted staples holding the wrap together.

And yes, there is a fully bandaged sculpted body under that gown. The detail here is extremely sharp with crisscrossing lines representing her full body wrap. You also get a couple of coiled pieces of wrap to put dangle off her hands. It’s similar to what NECA did with their Imhotep figure. Articulation consists of a lot of rotating hinges, as is pretty standard with this line, and you get a ball joint under the chest and in the neck. There isn’t a huge range of motion in some of those joints, but I guess she doesn’t need to be an acrobat. She does come with two sets of hands: One pair with the fingers tight together and one pair with them splayed a bit further apart. As for accessories… that’s it. We’ve already seen everything she comes with!

The Bride is a fairly simple figure, and yet the fact that you do have several display options for her gives her a bit more mileage. And she looks outstanding when displayed with The Bride version of The Monster. But I’ll admit that this isn’t the slam dunk over the Jada figure that I thought it would be. Some things are done better, while others feel lacking. The paint on the portraits here are better, but I think Jada did a better job capturing her eyes. Jada’s figure also had a light brown wash over the bandages and had overall better articulation. You also got a few extra pieces with Jada’s figure, like the pylons from the lab. With all that said, NECA’s still edges out as my favorite of the two, but not nearly as much as I would have anticipated. Still, a great effort and I’m happy to add her to my Universal Monsters collection. I’ll be interested to see if NECA releases an accessory set for her that includes the table and lab accoutrements.

Oct 2 2024

Popup Parade (King of Fighters): Mai Shiranui by Max Factory

I just did an SNK figure review last week when I checked out Tunshi Studio’s Fio from Metal Slug 3 and it’s crazy that there’s enough SNK toys and merch on the market that I could be back with another one already. Honestly, I could keep this going for a while with what I’ve got stockpiled, but let’s not get ahead ourselves. Today I’m popping back to Max Factory’s Popup Parade line to have a look at their newest release of the lovely Mai Shiranui from King of Fighters! Of course, Mai is no stranger around here, as I checked out Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo take on her not that long ago, and eventually I’ll get around to her action figure from Storm Collectibles. Popup Parade became a viable alternative for me when Kotobukiya priced me out of the Bishoujo market with the constant price hikes, but I’m not trying to suggest the two lines are in any way comparable, as these figures are basically a budget line, roughly equivalent to higher end prize figures. Either way, Popup Parade has been hitting the fighting games pretty hard lately. They did a couple of Succubi from Capcom’s DarkStalkers and as well as some ladies from Street Fighter and I guess now it’s SNK’s turn.

The packaging has its ups and downs. On the good side, these boxes are entirely clear plastic with some inserts to make up the back and part of the front. They are collector friendly and show off the figure well, especially if you remove the plastic wrap from around the figure. On the downside, there’s no real artistic value to the package presentation and even the franchise branding is almost non-existent. I do actually save these boxes to store the figures when they aren’t on display, but the only reason I make the space to be able to do that is because I don’t buy a lot of these. Some of them can be really big, but Mai’s is fairly economical.

NIPPON ICHI! Out of the box, Mai is just about ready for display. You just have to peg her feet into the base and she’s ready to make your shelf look a lot prettier. The composition here is about as conservative as you can get, and that’s not a complaint. It’s not like there are a ton of Mai statues in this price range, so I’m happy to get her in a very iconic and familiar pose. She stands triumphant, with her left hip tossed to the side and her left hand resting on her ample caboose. Her right hand holds up her Kachousen, offering her opponent a taunt. The sculpting here is excellent for a figure in this price range, with great little touches like the detailed wrappings around her wrists and feet. The sculpt can be a little soft in areas, particularly around the shoulder cords and the tails spilling out the back, but I think it suits the theme.

The colors here are beautiful! The red and white of her kunoichi outfit pops brilliantly and her skin tone is warm and soft with some shading to bring out the contours. It’s also completely lacking that awful waxiness that you often see in lower quality prize figures. I’m even going to go so far as to say I like the skin tone on this figure a bit better than what Koto gave us, and that’s not just crazy talk. The paint lines are all very clean and I love that they used a high gloss for the red and white balls at the end of her costume tails.

The portrait is very well done. She offers a little smile and a knowing side glance, all perfectly printed. The hair is particularly nice, hanging over the edges of her face and pulled back into a snaking ponytail that cascades from the back top of her head. For what is largely a passively pose, the hair offers a little bit of dynamic energy.

The base is a raised circular platform cast in a smoked black plastic. It’s got a slight transparency to it, but sitting on the shelf it looks solid black. Simple and serviceable, as is the case with most of these Popup Parade figures. I don’t mind getting a diorama style base, but with lower priced figures like this one, I find that simple is often better. Plus, the figure is certainly nice enough that it doesn’t need any additional window dressing in the base.

Here’s Mai with some of her Popup Parade Capcom peers. I think she scales ever so slightly bigger, but they’re close enough that I will have no problem displaying them together for a little SNK vs Capcom action.

Occasionally, Popup Parade has disappointed me, but that’s certainly not the case here. And at just a little over $40, this lady certainly has nothing to apologize for. She doesn’t have the depth of sculpt as Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo, but then that figure costs three times what this one does, so all things considered I think this Mai can hold her own. Indeed, some may even prefer this one as it’s styled more on the game art and less on the Bishoujo style. And I actually like her more than a few Mai’s that have been produced by lesser known companies in the $100+ range. So, if you want something to brighten up that shelf in your game room, and don’t want to blow a lot of money, this Mai is just the ticket!

Sep 30 2024

G. I. JOE Ultimates: Stalker by Super7

It’s a race against time for me to polish off my look at GI JOE Ultimates Wave 4 before Wave 5 ships. To be fair, I have no idea when Wave 5 will be coming, but the sense of urgency will do me good. A little while back, I checked out Gung-Ho from this assortment, so let’s knock out the other JOE before digging into the Cobras. And that means it’s Stalker’s turn! Of course, Stalker is one of the OG, first series releases, from the Real American Hero line. He’s so old, he remembers what it was like to fight when he couldn’t even swivel his arm around!

Here he is in the packaging and looking great despite the gradual cutbacks to the presentation. It’s a window box without the sleeve from the first waves, and the once glossy metallic finish of the box is now matte. There’s some character art and a blurb about Stalker on the back of the box. As a figure, this Infantry Specialist was a favorite of mine for a long while. He showed up in my collection early and he went on EVERY mission, often providing cover when the pretend shit hit the pretend fan. I feel like Stalker got short changed in the episodes of the cartoon, but he did get to shine in the original intro every week.

Super7 has been doing a great job capturing that Sunbow cartoon look in these figures and Stalker here is certainly no exception. He’s a very simple sculpt, with the bulk of his uniform achieved through the paint and colored plastic camo deco. You get a few rumples here and there, a sculpted collar, cuffs, and boots, and a pouch on his right thigh and right bicep. But truth be told, this is all the figure needed. His simple, clean look really lends to the toon style. The belt and Y-back equipment rig is cast in brown plastic and worn by the figure and the canteen on the back of the belt is actually a removable accessory, which is pretty neat.

There are three head sculpts and I dig every one of them. The first is a neutral look. His eyebrows and distinguished mustache are both sculpted as well as painted. The eye paint is very simple, lending the cartoon look to the portrait. The beret is sculpted as part of the head, so it’s permanent, and I really love what they did with the sharp contours of his nose. The second portrait is serious and determined expression that suits the character beautifully. The hint of a smile is gone and his downturned brow shows he’s not one to be trifled with. The final head is a shouty battle cry type expression and it’s pretty epic. His brow is even more severe and his open mouth shows off a row of pearly white teeth and a sculpted tongue!

Articulation holds no surprises. Like it or hate it, it’s what we’ve been seeing all along. The rotating hinges in the knees and elbows don’t give the range of movement I would like, but it’s serviceable. My figure did have a problem with his left hip joint not being able to kick outward and when I checked it out I could see some light stress marks on the dog bone hinge up there. I’m thinking some heat will help to unlock that movement, but I haven’t tried it yet. Stalker comes with three sets of hands, which include fists, gun hands, and a pair of wider grip accessory holding hands. So, let’s move on to accessories!

Stalker comes well armed with no less than three rifles and a pistol, and I we’ve seen almost all of these before. The largest of the rifles is the M16 we’ve seen at least a few times, most recently with Gung-Ho and Scarlett. It’s a very nice sculpt and I think it suits Stalker quite well. Next is the M-32 “Pulverizer” submachine gun, which references the weapon the original RAH figure came with. This same weapon was cast in green plastic and released with Duke. And the final rifle is the standard Sunbow-style laser rifle, that I love so much. This one has been included with most of the Ultimate JOEs, and I’m always happy to see it.

The final weapon is the pistol. I don’t recall seeing this one before and I believe it’s based on the one Stalker uses to shoot the bomb in the original cartoon intro. This is a very sci-fi design with a simple and toony sculpt cast in a blue-grey plastic.

Additional gear includes a walkie talkie and binoculars. We’ve had a few different radio designs in JOE Ultimates, and I’m not sure if we’ve seen this one before or not, but I suspect we have. It’s nice and boxy with a detailed screen, some buttons and an antenna. And we also get the absolutely shitty binoculars, which we have unfortunately seen a few times. This is easily the worst accessory of the line as it just looks like two Pringles cans welded together. The first time I saw it, I wasn’t even sure what it was supposed to be. I would have been embarrassed to release an accessory this bad with one figure, let alone multiple times.

And lastly, you get the jetpack and bomb that we see from the original cartoon intro. The jetpack is the same one we saw with Snake Eyes and I still dig it a lot. The pack is worn by the figure with actual shoulder straps, rather than pegging into the back. It has a bright purple finish with some yellow paint hits. It would have been cool to get some thrust effect pieces included, but alas we did not. I believe the bomb is a brand new accessory, or at least I don’t remember seeing it before. It’s a great classic cartoon design featuring a bunch of sticks of dynamite attached to a detonator.

Stalker looks great and he’s only held back by the hip joint issue that my figure had. It’s not terribly restrictive, and it remains to be seen whether some heat will fix it, but we shouldn’t be having issues like this with $55 collector figures. I’d also argue that with so many recycled accessories, he could have used at least one major new one. I realize that there weren’t a lot of episode specific accessories from the cartoon you could give him, but maybe that would have been a good excuse to make some thrust effects for the recycled jet pack. Still, the portraits are fantastic, and it’ll be tough to choose which one to go with for everyday display. And that gets me completely caught up on all the JOEs released in this line! When I swing back to this JOE Ultimates again, we’ll see the return of The Baroness!

Sep 27 2024

DC Multiverse (McFarlane Digital): Green Arrow and The Atom by McFarlane

Yeah, I don’t know what to call these damn Digital Physical releases, so I just lump them in with DC Multiverse to help sooth my compulsion for order. The figures are indeed done in the DC Multiverse format, but they are branded under McFarlane Digital. It seems like a marketing nightmare just to cater to the handful of collectors who give a crap about getting an NFT digital code with their action figure. This wave consisted of Green Arrow and The Atom, which I’m checking out today, along with Superman from Our Worlds At War and a repaint of Rebirth Batman, both of which I will only pick up if they turn up on deep clearance.

I honestly believe that Todd and the boys have gotten the message that collectors want classic versions of legacy characters, because we have been getting more of them. A lot of them, unfortunately, have been released under the premium priced Collector Edition subset, but when I saw these classic versions of Oliver Queen and Ray Palmer, I was quick to drop those preorders. Of course, the added Digital Code brings the price of these to $25, in line with the figures that have Collect-To-Build parts, but at least it’s still below that $30 Collector Edition range. The boxes are nothing special, but at least they don’t have the ugly code card stuck up against the front of the window like the recent Superman statue. On the downside, the figure stands do have McFarlane Digital printed on them, which is an eyesore. Let’s start with Ollie!

Ollie hails from the absolute banger 1987 story arc, The Longbow Hunters. It was dark, gritty, and fifteen year old me found it to be deliciously adult in nature. It also saw some significant changes to Ollie’s costume. Lord knows, Todd has a way of taking liberties with character designs in DC Multiverse, but here’s an instance where they stuck the lading. Mostly. The sculpt is excellent and does a great job reflecting the suit in the comic. The tunic sculpt creates a nice illusion that it’s layered onto the figure and features a pebbled texture reminiscent of a coarse grain leather. There are sculpted laces securing it down the middle and the hood seamlessly glued to the tunic, making it look like all one garment. The belt and lower part of the tunic are separate to allow for the waist jointing, while the shoulder strap is sculpted into the upper tunic. Boots and gauntlets are painted to match the tunic, while the figure’s body is a lighter green to represent a top and leggings worn underneath. Finally, we get an angled brown quiver on his back, which is permanently attached, and there’s a cluster of arrows to stick into it. I think this figure looks great, but I think the colors could have been more muted to better match the comic art. I will note that he looks a lot brighter under the studio lights than he does in hand. Also, I wish they had painted all the lacings down the front of the tunic yellow. As it is, it’s like they did just the top two and said, “OK, that’s enough.”

The head sculpt under the hood is really solid. They did a fine job with Ollie’s beard and mustache and I dig the mix of golden yellow and pale yellow to give it some pizzazz. The domino mask is sculpted as well as painted and if you punch in close you can see a little variance between the sculpt lines and the paint lines, but nothing too bad. As mentioned, the hood is connected to the tunic, so it does not move with the head. I actually like this a lot and you can still get a good amount of range in the neck articulation. The hood features the same pebbled texture as the tunic and has some sculpted cross-stitching along the top.

Longbow Hunters saw Ollie return to traditional archery and that’s reflected in the simple longbow accessory. It looks good and I like the way the handle is sculpted to fit his hand so well. You’ll notice there’s no string and I’m a bit torn on that. On the one hand, I absolutely hate chunky plastic strings on bow accessories. On the other hand, would it have killed you to put an actual string on it, Todd? What’s worse is the bow is extremely soft and bendy and there are no notches on the end, so I’m not sure how well tying a string onto the bow will work. You also get a single arrow, and this is kind of useless. It’s even more soft and bendy than the bow and there’s no string to knock it, so he can pretty much just hold it. The right hand is sculpted so you can get it between his fingers and just pretend there’s a string there, but it’s still all wavy and warped.

I do like this figure quite a bit, but in fairness I was more excited about getting a classic style Green Arrow than I was a figure ripped from the pages of Longbow Hunters. The sculpt is certainly there, so maybe Todd’s evil plan is to re-release it as a Platinum with more muted colors. Either way, this is my favorite look for Ollie, with the costume leaning into the past, but the flippant feather cap traded in for a more menacing hood. The bow will get a pass if I can actually string it, but I wish the arrow were cast in harder plastic so it wasn’t so warped. OK, onward to The Atom!

Unlike Ollie, this Ray Palmer release isn’t tied to any specific story, but rather just advertised as Silver Age. I’m sure The Atom has had some different looks over the years, but this is the basic costume that I know and love best. Also unlike Ollie, this figure is 100% recycled buck from the neck down, using paint and colored plastic to achieve the design of the suit. It’s the same body we saw for Booster Gold and Blue Beetle and surely more than a dozen other figures by now. I don’t have a big problem with body recycling when it makes sense and works for the character and in this case I think it does. The blue and red deco looks absolutely gorgeous and you get a little silver paint for the belt buckle, along with a crisp Atom symbol.

The portrait is pretty good, with some nicely defined facial features. The lines between the cowl and his face are all sculpted as well as painted and his ears are exposed. The eye printing is fairly sharp, there’s a little color to the lips, and you get the Atom symbol printed on the forehead area of the cowl.

Ray comes with two sets of hands, which is nice because the left gun-hand that comes on the figure doesn’t make a lot of sense, while the right fist is a appropriate. The second set includes a right pointy finger and a left splayed-finger hand.

You also get a semi-shrunken version of The Atom as a static figure. This is a roughly half-sized version of Palmer and it’s a damn nice sculpt. They matched the colors perfectly and the only thing it’s really missing are the Atom symbols on the belt and cowl.

I may not get the whole Digital Physical thing, but I’m not going to quibble when I get more classic legacy characters to put on my DC Multiverse shelf. To be fair, I’d rather get these kinds of figures as part of this subset rather than have to pay five dollars more for the Collectors Edition just to get a stand for a collector card that I will never display. A few nitpicks aside, both of these figures turned out really well, although I’d love to see a properly strung longbow for Ollie turn up in an weapons pack down the road.

Sep 25 2024

Hurricane Closing And A Little Vintage Star Wars…

No review today, friends. The eminent arrival of a very unwelcome guest here in Florida has left me a little short for time. Between doing a little prep and logging a bit more hours to make sure work is in a good spot, I really didn’t have a lot of time to finish any content for today. I don’t like missing one of my review deadlines, and I’m proud to say I rarely do these days, but every once and a while you have to make allowances for life.

But just to keep things a little toy related, I did recently finish working on reorganizing my vintage Kenner Star Wars display case, so I thought I’d toss in a shot of that.

Still a few figures I’d like to add to this, but I’ve been taking it slow on hunting the vintage stuff lately. A good portion of these are my originals, which were lost for a long while, but I was happy to discover them in storage some years back. There are a few Hasbro re-issued figures in here, namely that nice clean Boba Fett and that complete Jedi Luke. Wicket’s spear is a repro and so is Leia’s white cape. The background window dressing for Jabba is modern Hasbro and the TIE Fighter is a fairly recent release as well. And there are a couple of Stan Solo’s retro-style additions. I like to stick to original when I can, but I’m not against a little modern assist now and again to complete a figure or a collection. I think the next addition will be a Twin Pod Cloud Car and a couple of pilots.

Anyway, I will be back on Friday, providing nothing catastrophic happens. If you’re in the storm’s path stay safe and if you’re not, have a kind thought for the people that are!

Until next time… MEOW!

Sep 23 2024

Metal Slug 3: Fiolina Germi by Tunshi Studio

Holy crap, it was a little more than a year ago when I checked out Marco Rossi from Tunshi Studio’s line of Metal Slug 3 figure series. I’ve been meaning to dip back in and check out the Rebel Soldier, but it’s easy to get sidetracked when toy blogging. In the meantime, a couple new Slug figures arrived a short while back and my, my… what have we here? It’s a couple of ladies! And we all know it’s ladies first, so I’ll stick the Rebel Soldier on the back burner and check out Fio! I gassed on for a while last time about what the Metal Slug series meant to me over the years. Once an unattainable luxury, the first one of these games I ever owned at home was Metal Slug X on the PlayStation and it was good enough for me. Of course, now I can play the series on various consoles and formats, some legit and others not so much. But I never let that rob me of my appreciation, as rarely a week goes by where I don’t fire up one of the Slugs hear MISSION START! and put a huge smile on my face, thinking about what wonderful times we live in. Plus… Metal Slug ACTION FIGURES!!! Who could have ever imagined that!

As we saw last time, the packaging and presentation for these figures is absolutely off the charts. The roughly 6-inch scale figure comes in a heavy-duty cardboard box that resembles the character compartments on the Soldier Select screen of the game. Fio peers through the window and there’s a folded front flap, secured with magnets, that opens to show the figure and gear through a full sized window. Inside, Fio comes in clear plastic tray with a little compartment up top for an instruction booklet that includes a walkthrough of the articulation. And there’s a second nested tray to hold the insane amount of stuff this little lady comes with.

The line makes use of a super articulated body with actual softgoods clothing, which is so unusual for this scale. And yet Tunshi pulled it off quite admirably. The tailored outfit consists of an abbreviated white tank top, a yellow tactical vest, orange shorts with khaki trim, khaki sleeves under her knee guards, and brown socks feeding into her sculpted boots. For the most part the stitching is immaculate, although there is a stray thread here and there, mostly on the shorts. She’s got a brown pleather belt with a fanny pouch, pleather wrist bracers, and the plastic kneepads are held on with elastic straps. I think the costume looks great, although it feels like Tunshi took a few liberties with the coloring. Perhaps, they sourced some art I’m unfamiliar with, but I recall her outfit being mostly khaki. Still, the colors make for some nice variety and I don’t mind.

You get two head sculpts to choose from, although the second one is pretty specific and we’ll check it out later. The stock head is adorable with some really impressive paint work on the eyes, especially for this scale. The glasses come packaged off the figure and you get a pair for each head. Getting them on was a bit scary, but once they’re on they remain in place with no worries. The hair is sculpted separately from the head, giving it a nice depth as it frames her face, and the ball cap is plastic, but has such impressive texturing it actually looks like it could be cloth. Her sculpted hair spills out the back of the cap in a short ponytail.

Tunshi’s system of articulation is excellent, with double-hinges giving tight bends in the elbows and knees, swivels in the biceps and upper thighs, and a ball joint under the chest. The joints are smooth and easy to work with, but the shorts do inhibit the range quite a bit in the hips. The costume does strategically cover a lot of the figure’s jointing, with only the elbows and upper arm joints exposed. On a side note, I believe Tunshi is selling the bodies alone now, which is pretty cool if you’re into customizing. As for Fio, you get four pairs of hands, but these are mostly intended to interact with different accessories, rather than being gestural. I would have liked some relaxed hands and fists, but you’re already getting a lot in this box so I’m not going to complain.

I mean, just look at it all! It’s a mix of useful accessories and window dressing, but there are just so many great little plastic references to the game in here! And as near as I can tell, only the grenades are recycled from Marco’s stuff, and there you only got one, here you get four! Let’s run through the other goodies and we’ll start with the weapons!

First up, Fio has a revolver and this is such an amazing little sculpt, giving off a bit a Wembley Service Revolver vibe to me. It has a black finish with brown checkered grips and there’s even a loop in the handle for a lanyard to be tied to. Fio’s gun hands have a straight, but bendable trigger finger, so she can practice proper trigger discipline! I love that, because these hands can also double as pointing hands.

But, there are truck loads of Rebel Soldiers in Fio’s path, so she needs more firepower than a wheelgun. Thankfully, she comes with a submachine gun! This is cast in black plastic, feature some very nice detail right down to the cocking handle on the receiver. The magazine is removable and if you look close you can see the tiny exposed rounds at that top of the magazine are even painted gold.

As for melee weapons, Fio has a PR-24 style police baton, which can be converted into a combat axe and that is freaking badass! The axe head simply slots and tabs in for quick and easy conversion.

Fio also comes with the special weapon, Iron Lizard and the Power Up that can be collected in the game to grant you the weapon. The Power Up Box is a recolor of the one we saw with Marco with to letter I’s that stick to the box with magnets. The Iron Lizard itself is a fantastic representation of the goofy remote control bomb seen in the game and includes a blue thrust effect part that can plug into its tail pipe.

The rest of the weapons are window dressing for your display. You get a couple of large howitzer rounds, a cannon ball, and a crate with a top to store all those grenades in. But, how about a picnic?

…Fio’s got you covered. She comes with a yellow picnic blanket and a little ziploc baggie containing her lunch: a sandwich and a bunch of bananas. There’s also a red ruby in there! And here’s where that second head comes into play, as it’s intended to depict her eating her lunch. Yes, we got a sandwich-eating head! This one is mostly the same in terms of the hat and hair, bur her eyes are closed and her mouth is open and about to take a bite. Yup, it’s very specific, but I’m sure people will think up other uses for it. Like yawning because she’s tired from the fight… what were you thinking?

And our last stop is the stand. This is identical to the one we saw with Marco and includes a flexible support with a spring-loaded waist-grabber that supports the figure really well for action poses. The base has a sculpted wood paneled surface, which can actually slide out, maybe in case Tunshi decides to offer options on future releases.

You also get a clip so you can secure two display stands together and they look really good connected. There’s plenty of room between each figure and when I find the proper space, I’ll likely be connecting all the displays like this. I think it would have been cool to get an optional Metal Slug name plate, but you do get licensed branding on the bottom of the base.

What could possibly be the downside to such an awesome figure? Well, the price is steep! At $140, it’s probably not unfair to say that these are priced at more than double the high range for this scale. Indeed, these are without a doubt the most expensive figures I ever purchased in the 6-inch range. Granted, you’re getting a really nicely designed body, fully tailored clothing, and a crazy amount of accessories, so I can definitely see where the money is going. Toss in the fact that these are imports based on a videogame property that is still somewhat niche here in the States and I can’t complain. I couldn’t have even hoped to ever own premium figures like this based on Metal Slug back in the day, so I’m more than happy to invest in the line. I promise not to go so long before revisiting with this line, and next time I’ll jump back to look at the Rebel Soldier and after that it’ll be Eri’s turn!

Sep 20 2024

ThunderCats Ultimates: WilyKat by Super7

I’m finally up to the most recently released wave of ThunderCats Ultimates. Yeah, there are some older ones I haven’t looked at yet and I’ll swing back to them, but right now I’m just excited to be caught up to a current wave! This is also the first wave released in a while where I did not buy all four of the figures. I’m not doing the LJN color versions, so that got me off the hook for Jaga and Grune. But since I didn’t review the original Grune yet, maybe I’ll toss him in after I’m done with the two Wave 9 figures I did buy. And those were WilyKat and the Lunatak, Chilla. I just reviewed a Lunatak last time, and WilyKit is anxious to be reunited with her brother, so let’s go with him!

The packaging still looks great, even with the outer sleeve no longer being included. You get a great look at the figure and accessories through the front window and the back panel has some character art and a little bio about the older ThunderKitten sibling. Everything is collector friendly, but since I don’t feel like renting a storage unit for empty figure boxes, these packages are being recycled. As I mentioned last time with WilyKit, these are brand new versions of the figures that were released as part of Mattel’s ThunderCats line as an SDCC Exclusive! I was very pleased with most of the changes Super7 made to WilyKit, so I have high hopes for her brother.

And a lot of what I said about WilyKit will hold true here. Even without a direct comparison yet, this WilyKat figure looks cleaner and crisper to me. The colors are less drab and more toony, with the orange a lot brighter and the brown closer to the orange in tone. Even the sculpt is smoothed out to give him more of an animated look. Matty’s figure had more gloss to the paint and the matte finish here is also more in line with the cartoon vibe. The boots here have less color to them, so the detail like the sculpted wraps pop less, but again, more screen accurate. Finally, the skin tones on both of Mattel’s kittens were a lot darker than they should have been, and that’s resolved here too. The one big downer for me with Super7’s figure is the clip on lasso, which is essentially the same as his sister’s. The tab is super soft and it does not want to stay pegged in. I also liked the sculpt better on Matty’s version of this accessory as well. Otherwise, I think everything else here is a huge improvement.

You get two head sculpts, and both are excellent. The first is a neutral expression and the second offers a open mouthed grin, which is very charming and I think suits the character perfectly. The facial features are super clean and the eye printing is perfect. I had a some issues with the paint on my Matty WilyKat, and while there’s still a bit of minor gaffs here and there in the hair, this is a big improvement. S7’s portrait looks more youthful and toon accurate, whereas Matty’s had sharper detail in the hair sculpt.

And here’s a quick shot of the Matty and Super7 figures together! Matty’s is taller and a tad beefier. I think the proportions and size on the new one are perfect.

WilyKat’s articulation is identical to Kit’s, which in turn is pretty close to what we saw on Matty’s figures. The elbows can at least do a 90-degree bend and the waist is a ball joint, as opposed to Matty’s which just had a swivel. There are slits up the sides of his tunic’s skirt that allow for a little more range in the hips, but the knees don’t have as much range as I would like. The quality of the joints all feel great, although there’s some paint chipping inside the hinge of my figure’s right shoulder, which needs to be cleaned up. WilyKat comes with four pairs of hands and surprisingly no fists. But you do get pairs of relaxed, splayed finger, accessory holding, smoke bomb throwing, and an extra right hand about to throw one of his little mischief pills. I really dig the effects on the bomb throwing hands.

I already pointed out the coiled version of the lasso that doesn’t like to stay pegged into his belt. You also get the unfurled version and this is just a recolor of the one we saw with his sister. It looks good, but his accessory holding hands are not tight enough to hold it unless you thread it between the fingers. It works and looks fine, but probably not how it was intended. The accessory is cast in a soft and pliable plastic, but unfortunately it isn’t posable. I would have preferred an actual wire.

And finally, you get the Hover Board, which is a recolor of the one that came with WilyKit. This one is fatter and an overall better sculpt than the one included with the Matty figure. My Matty board also had some terrible paint scuffs, whereas this one is super crisp and clean. There’s one foot peg up near the front and while I was worried it was too shallow, it does seem to hold the figure pretty well. The stand is transparent with a sculpted smoke base. It pegs into the bottom of the board and has a ball joint to allow for some tilting of the board. The stand’s sculpt is identical to Wilykit’s but hers looks more yellow while this one is closer to white.

Matty’s WilyKat was by no means a bad figure. I liked it a lot then and I still do, but i do greatly prefer Super7’s offering. I think the choice here will come down to personal preference. If you were more a fan of the LJN toys, maybe Matty’s will be more to your liking. If you lean toward the cartoon, I think Super7’s is the clear winner. Naturally, I had the Matty kittens standing in my Super7 display up until now, but I’ll be retiring them back to their packaging. I may wind up selling them off, but the packaging is quite nice, so maybe I’ll hang on to them so I can have one packaged example of that line in my collection. And with WilyKat in the mix, My core Ultimates ThunderCats team is now complete! Next time, we’ll cool things off and have a look at the second Lunatak in the line, Chilla!

Sep 18 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Big Boa by Hasbro

While I still have lots of old favorites to cover, GI JOE Classified is starting to dip into characters that appeared in the toy shelves after I was done buying toys as a kid, and a long way from me buying them as an adult. Some of these I may skip if I have no interest in them, but there’s a bunch that I am picking up and it’s kind of exciting to be experiencing a figure of a JOE or Cobra that I have never owned before. And that brings me to Big Boa! Released in the original Real American Hero line in 1987, I was 15yo and my limited teenage money was going into SEGA Master System games instead of toys. But, I was still keeping an eye on some of the toy lines I collected, and Big Boa was one that I would have happily picked up if he had just come out a year or two earlier.

Reunited with the window boxes and it feels so good! This is possibly my favorite iteration of the Classified packaging right here. The window shows off the goods, you get some great character art on the front and side panel, and all is right with the world. Big Boa was billed as Cobra’s hard-ass Trainer, pushing the Cobra Troops to their limits and beyond. In that sense, I guess I saw him as the Cobra version of Sgt. Slaughter. The character emerged from a plan to bring Sylvester Stallone onto the JOE team, but as I understood it Sly chose another direction and went with Coleco for a line of Rambo figures. And the rest is history.

Trainer or no, Boa doesn’t conform to any kind of Cobra uniform protocol. He agreed to the blue trousers and combat boots, but that was it. He goes shirtless with a red, spiked chest harness, red belt, and red codpiece to protect his snakeling. The red and blue looks quite striking together and I dig all the silver paint hits to the spikes, belt fixtures, and rivets. Despite the minimal costuming, you still get some great flourishes in the sculpt, like the braided pattern on the belt, stitching on the harness, laces in the boots, and some padded panels on the sides of the boots. The detail in the musculature is also nicely done! He also has white tape wrapped around his standard set of hands splattered with blood! I would have liked to see a Cobra insignia snuck in there somewhere, but even so I think this is a great looking figure!

I believe the unmasked head is a first for the character, or at least I know the original RAH figure came wearing a permanent helmet. I dig what we got here, even if it does lean in to the caricature side of things. But hey, that plays to the idea that Boa’s taken quite a few shots to the head and maybe there’s been some reconstructive surgery in his past. He’s got ample jowls, a bulb of a nose, and a strong brow. His ears look a little banged up and he’s got some teeth knocked out of his grill, suggesting Cobra’s dental plan may not be the best. I think his sneer is probably meant to be a nod to Stallone, but I see more John Fiore in that likeness than anything else. Whatever the case, it’s a wonderful portrait.

The helmet is a full on second head, rather than an actual helmet, and it’s a pretty close update to the RAH figure’s. It’s an interesting design with a little Boba Fett (or is that Boa Fett?) and a little Mad Max. It’s mostly off white with a silver grill on the front, narrow red visor, and a red spiked strip running down the center of the head like a mohawk. Obviously it’s going to protect against some of those shots to the melon, but it looks unnecessarily high tech, what with the breathing hose coming out of the side. I’m not sure where the inspirations here came from, but it looks cool.

The articulation is everything I’ve come to love about this line, as Hasbro has really locked in on a great compromise between posability and sculpt. We’ve seen it all before, so I won’t run down every point here. Suffice it to say, you get a great range of motion in the double-hinged elbows and knees, the hips pull down a bit, there are swivels in both the thighs and boots. They did a decent job working the ab hinge into the muscle sculpt so it’s a bit less obvious. The hips on my figure are just a tad loose, but everything else feels great and he is super fun to play around with.

The vintage figure came with a punching bag, whereas Hasbro decided to toss the Classified figure a pair of 90lb weights and I think that was a good choice. I’ll probably pose him wielding these as weapons.

And finally, you get a pair of boxing glove hands, and finally we get to see some Cobra insignia! These gloved hands include bands for the wrists to complete the look. It’s going to be a tough choice to decide whether to display Boa with the Cobra-branded boxing gloves or the bloody taped up hands.

As I said earlier, it’s fun to experience some of these old characters for the first time in Classified. I don’t have any childhood attachment to Big Boa, but I think this figure is great and he’s certainly a fun and colorful addition to my Cobra forces. Maybe Hasbro could have tossed in a few more accessories, as he does feel a tad light compared to some other releases, but he’s certainly got the essentials. I was originally going to pass on the Mad Marauders version of Sgt Slaughter, but seeing as how he comes with boxing gloves, I may need to pick him up so these guys can go mano-a-mano in the ring.

Sep 16 2024

DC Multiverse (Mega Figure) Kalibak by McFarlane

A few weeks back, I checked out McFarlane’s Classic Darkseid MegaFig and I promised to come back with a look at his son soon after, and here I am to do just that! I picked up Kalibak shortly after he was released, but he kind of depressed me because we didn’t have a Darkseid or any of his cronies to go with him. But now that I can pair him off on the shelf with his dear old Dad, I’m a lot more excited about having this figure and I’m ready to bust him out and take a look!

Just like we saw with Darkseid, Kalibak comes in a very large version of the normal DC Multiverse window boxes. These do a great job displaying the figure and if I had the space to display them in package, I probably would. But, I don’t and sadly these boxes all go into recycling. By now you should know the routine: The box is mostly collector friendly, but if you want to get the stand and the Collector Card, you have to rip them off the blue backdrop. So, let’s tear into it and see what we got!

Just like his Dad, Kalibak is an absolute bruiser of a figure! His stacked upper body dwarfs his stubby little troll legs, but he still looks like a power house to be reckoned with. This figure depicts Kalibak from The New 52 Justice League story arc, The Darkseid War, giving him a modern, but still pretty classic look. The green tunic features a pebbled, leather-like texture with deep cut emblem gold on the front and ribbed gold panels under his arms on his sides. There’s a rather complex gold belt with a dark green loin cloth hanging down and lighter green sculpted shorts. His right gauntlet and boots are matched with dark green and gold trim, while the left gauntlet is truncated to just the hand and he’s got a couple of gold bands around the wrist and forearm. There’s a gold sash running across his chest, connecting to a piece of shoulder armor that looks a bit regal. The sash has raised alien symbols giving off a very lovely Kirby-esque vibe. The exposed tan skin on his arms and legs is detailed, leathery, and nasty looking, sculpted with lumpy muscles and some cuts and scrapes throughout.

The head sculpt is truly a work of art, and I’d say it ranks up there with McFarlane’s best. The troll-like face is framed by his gold head gear with his shaggy mane projecting outward. The facial features are deeply chiseled giving him an absolutely frightful visage. He’s got deep set yellow eyes, a silver nose ring, and tusks projecting up from his bottom lip. He’s also got got adorable little pointed ears jutting out of his unruly coif. The sculptors put a lot of dynamic character into his hair, which is blowing about in the back. I just can’t say enough wonderful things about how this portrait turned out!

Kalibak features most of the usual standard MegaFig articulation, but the knees and elbows are both rotating hinges, so no doubles here. And because of his muscle sculpt, there’s not a whole lot of range in these points. He can almost do 90-degrees in the elbows. The knee restriction isn’t as important to me, because he does have really stumpy legs, and I’ll mostly just have him in a wide stance with those two-toed feet flat on the ground. He comes with only the one set of hands, with the right hand balled into a fist and the left hand sculpted to hold his accessory.

And of course, that accessory is his Beta Club. This one reminds me a lot of the version included with the Kenner Super Powers figure and I dig that! It’s got a spiked knuckle guard and is cast in gold plastic. Very, very soft gold plastic. Also, the grip on that left hand is like stone, so getting this accessory into his hand is a frustrating effort. I’m pretty sure I’ll keep it in his hand for all eternity.

I’d rank Kalibak up there with some of McFarlane’s best work, and he’s definitely among my tippy-top favorite Mega Figures. Sure the look is modern, but it’s close enough to his classic roots that I would have no problem displaying him beside my DC Collectibles New 52 Darkseid, or McFarlane’s recent classic Darkseid. I’d even go so far as to say I dig him a bit more than my DC Universe Classics Kalibak, and boy that’s saying something! Hopefully we’ll see some more New Gods in DC Multiverse!

Sep 13 2024

ThunderCats Ultimates: Alluro by Super7

It’s been a couple of months since I checked in with Super7’s ThunderCats Ultimates. Where does the time go? If you’re keeping score, I’ve been looking at Wave 8 and so far I’ve covered WilyKit, Captain Shiner, and Hachiman. So let’s wrap up the wave today with the first of the Lunataks, Alluro! The Lunataks showed up in Season Two, to give the ThunderCats all kinds of grief and they were pretty prominent characters going forward. Nonetheless, LJN never cashed in on them by putting any Lunatak action figures in stores. It’s a pretty crazy omission, but to be fair the line only lasted three years. As a result, I was really excited to see that Super7 was digging into this particular team next. Sure, if given the choice I may have gone with the Berserkers, but this was still a major win.

I don’t have much new to say about the packaging. It looks great despite Super7 nixing the slipcovers. The window shows off the goods and you get some character art and a brief character blurb on the back panel. Everything is collector friendly, but I’ve begun purging these boxes because I have to make space for a giant Cat’s Lair before the end of the year. Alluro was the Lunatak’s super creepy master of psy-ops. He could control people’s minds, making him a pretty powerful force to be reckoned with. And, I have to just say how much I loved Doug Preis’ voice work for the character. The voice work in ThunderCats often annoys me because there are so few actors voicing so many characters, and to be brutally honest, a lot of them don’t do a great job distinguishing between the multiple characters they do. I believe Alluro was the only character voiced by Preis in the series, which made him stand out. He did a great job giving Alluro a smug and creepy affect with a bit of Peter Lorre thrown in. Superb!

Alluro manages to stand out, even among a group of freaks like the Lunataks. He’s tall, with a broad and muscular chest, and arms that seem a bit too long for his frame. He goes topless, exposing his lavender skin. There’s a wide belt with a sculpted eye motif in the middle, and a loin cloth hanging below it. This rig is held up by a pair of brown suspenders and a couple of thin crossed belts underneath. Despite the modesty skirt, he actually has a pair of sculpted brown slacks, which give way to orange boots with some sculpted decorations and a pinched toe at the tips. For a pretty simple outfit, the layering here works well. The colors look great and this guy looks like he just stepped off of one of Rankin-Bass’ animation cells!

You get two heads to choose from: One is offering an evil smile and the other an even more evil-er laugh. I don’t know where the inspiration came from for Alluro’s features, but it’s really imaginative. He’s got a bald pate with a crescent moon symbol on his forehead. There’s a gray, mask-like coloring around his eyes and brow ridge. He’s got prominent cheek bones, a set of balls for a chin and big pointed ears. Meanwhile a mop of gray straggly hair cascades down his front and back. The whole portrait is rounded out by his yellow eyes with some mesmerizing rings for pupils. Both heads suit the character beautifully, and while I usually go for the more neutral expression for every day display, I may go for the laughing one here, because it just looks amazing.

If you’ve been on board with any of Super7’s Ultimates lines, you should know what to expect from the articulation here. The rotating hinges in the elbows and knees aren’t going to win any awards for extreme posability, but I’m OK with it. I will say that Alluro’s elbows feel like they have slightly less range than some of the other figures, as he can’t quite even do a 90-degree bend. Otherwise, the joints all feel great and he’s still plenty of fun to play with. You get four sets of hands: Fists, two sets of accessory holding hands, one pointing right hand, and one wide open right hand.

Alluro’s primary accessory is his Psych Club, which he uses to bend the minds of his adversaries. The club has a hooked end, which can be used to hang off his belt and the head is shaped like a crescent moon. There are two crystal orbs that can be plugged into the top, either blue or yellow, and these are ridiculously hard to install. There’s no give in the moon emblem and the sockets on the orbs feel like they are a little too far apart. I was able to get each one in after a lot of cursing and frustration, and now I’ll be leaving the blue one in there for all of time. Some heat would have probably helped. The rest of the included accessories are all from the Season Two episode Psych-Out.

First up is this scroll that Mumm-Ra gave Alluro to find the Egora Talisman, an artifact that gives whomever possesses it so much confidence that it makes them nearly invincible. Personally, I always thought over confidence was a weakness to be exploited, but whatever. The scroll is just a piece of plastic with a map printed on it. Which is odd, because in the episode, the scroll just seemed to have hints written in rhyme that directed him where to find it. As luck would have it, it was in a cave near Cat’s Lair, which alerted Lion-O and the team that something was up.

And then you get the Egora Talisman itself, which includes the cool little chest it was stored in. The chest has a skull motif sculpted into it, along with gold painted reinforced bands and corners. It opens and the Talisman can be stored inside. For such a tiny accessory, the Talisman is nicely sculpted and painted. In the episode, Snarf was the only one not crippled by Alluro’s mind control so he stole the chest out of the glovebox in Alluro’s ride and used the Talisman’s power to defeat him. Of course, we later learn that the Talisman inside was smashed and powerless and that Old Snarf beat him all on his own. Never underestimate a Snarf! Here endeth the lesson!

Alluro is another fantastic addition to the ThunderCats villains line up and I really love the accessories included from Psych-Out. It’s so exciting to see the Lunataks show up in Ultimates and embark on assembling a team that have never had figures before. Especially when we’re talking about characters that became regulars in the second season of the cartoon. I’ll admit I had my doubts as to whether we would see these guys in Ultimates, because are they really going to ever do Luna and Amok? But we got the answer to that right quick, as they are already in production. Of course, Chilla turned up in the next wave, but before I get to her, I’m going to round out the Thunderkittens with Wilykat… hopefully next week!