Sep 11 2024

DC Super Powers: Green Lanterns and Sinestro by McFarlane

It’s been more than a few months since I checked in on McFarlane’s Super Powers line, but I have still been collecting them! The truth is, I don’t usually review the individual figures unless I have a vehicle to bring along. As much as I love these guys, there’s only so much I can say about and do with 5-POA figures. But, seeing as how McFarlane dropped a bunch of Green Lanterns on us in the last few waves, I thought I’d just check them all out at once. Especially since I’ve been looking for an excuse to sit down and open them all! Not to mention McFarlane’s weird crowdfunding project for some new Super Powers vehicles and figures just ended and thanks to some shenanigans, we’ll actually be getting those!

The packaging for this line is so damn fine it really makes me sad to open them. And believe me it takes every scrap of my admittedly poor willpower to keep from buying doubles of every figure. And yeah, I do have a couple of extras from the first wave that I kept carded just to have an example of the packaging for display. The original Super Powers package design gives me about as much a nostalgic dopamine hit as the vintage packages for Star Wars, G.I. JOE and Transformers, and that’s saying a lot. That blinding blue and yellow deco with the red trim, the logo nestled in an exploding field of stars, it created a hypnotic state of excitement that triggered kids to beg their parents for them. McFarlane has done a beautiful job paying homage to it here without quite doing a straight up copy and the character art on each card looks fabulous. The assortment I’m looking at today includes Guy Gardner, Hal Jordan, Kilowog, and Sinestro. Hal was produced in the original Kenner line, but I don’t believe we ever got Gardner or Sinestro, and the line closed up shop just before Kilowog was introduced in the comics. And yeah, four figures is more than I usually tackle in one review, but I’ll be quick! Let’s start with Hal!

McFarlane’s Hal Jordan is not all that different from the original Kenner figure. It’s the same costume with just a bit of change to the shade of green. It hits all the same classic costume beats with the green top and undies, shoulders and boots. Add to that the black sleeves and leggings, white gloves, and crisp Lantern Corps emblem on his chest and you’ve got a pretty conservative update. I want to say the original had sculpted lines for the shoulders and edges at the top of the leggings, but this one just has paint lines. You do, however get some sculpted lines at the tops of the boots. There are definitely similarities with the head sculpt, but I think this one is much better. You also get a very prominently sculpted ring on his right hand.

As we’ve seen before, this line keeps the articulation of the vintage figures, so you get the classic five-points, plus hinges in the knees. The original figures usually had an action gimmick, but that’s been nixed from this modern line, and I can’t say as I really miss it. Hal comes with a lantern battery, which he can hold in his left hand. This is such a fantastic homage to that original Kenner figure, it’s almost like having a minty fresh original.

Moving on to Guy Gardner, this is a character I would have loved to see in the Kenner line and I think McFarlane did a great job imagining what that figure might have been like. The black, green, and white deco matches Hal’s pretty closely, but you do get a fair bit of new sculpting here, including unique boots, the collar and lapels of his jacket, along with his belt and gauntlets. He even has sculpted detail on his turtleneck.

The head sculpt is a nice balance between retro and modern-retro. The sculpt is better than we would have seen back in the day, even nailing his bowl cut. But, the eye printing really evokes that old vintage Kenner charm. Like Hal, he has a ring sculpted and painted on his right hand, and his left hand is designed to hold an accessory, but no battery for him.

The last of this assortment of Green Lanterns is Kilowog and this may be my favorite of what is a really strong collection of figures. He’s a beautiful slab of retro-styled plastic with chiseled muscles giving him just an all around magnificent shelf presence. You get sculped edges on the boots, gloves, collar, and shoulders, with just paint lines at the tops of his black leggings. The head sculpt is fantastic, and if I were to nitpick anything here it’s that the portrait looks a little too good to be a genuine retro figure. And yeah, that’s more of a compliment than a gripe. The deep set eyes look superb! Kilowog doesn’t come with any accessories, both hands are balled into giant fists, and he does have his ring sculpted and painted on his right hand.

And finally, we get a lovely classic blue-suited Sinestro, and I’ll confess I was surprised to find, when I poked around in the old Kenner catalogs, that he didn’t get a release in the original line. Here we get sculpted boots, belt, bracers, and high collar, while the pattern on his chest is simply painted on. The black and blue looks great together and there’s some white trim along the top and bottom of the belt. His purple skin color is wonderfully vibrant and really makes the figure pop on the shelf.

Once again, the head sculpt here is probably a little too good to really evoke the vintage Kenner line. His pinched face is just perfect, as is his immaculate hair. But we do get the retro-style eyes which helps keep the Kenner spirit alive. His pointed ears look sharp and even the raised eyebrows are sculpted as well as painted. Sinestro dons a sculpted and painted yellow ring on his left hand and his right hand is sculpted to hold his yellow lantern battery.

This is a great assortment of figures and represents why I love this line so much! Add these to the excellent Jon Stewart that we got in the first wave and we’ve certainly had some love for the Green Lantern Corps! And as much as I dig having a minty Super Powers Hal Jordan, it’s the classic characters we haven’t seen before that really get me excited. I’m not sure I can pick a favorite here, but I’m actually leaning a bit toward Sinestro. McFarlane initially released him in his more modern yellow suit, which may have been an exclusive, because I didn’t see it anywhere until the scalpers got him. And all I can say is I’m so very happy that the classic blue suited release wasn’t the more limited release, because this one is perfect.

Sep 9 2024

Transformers: Optimus Prime AMK Pro Series Model Kit by Yolopark

Back in April, I took my first foray into Yolopark’s line of Transformers Model Kit Action Figures with their G1 styled Megatron. I had no idea what to expect, but I was pretty blown away by him. Naturally, I jumped on the preorder for his rival Optimus Prime and I’ve been sitting on him for quite a while now. These are billed as model kits, probably for licensing purposes, and yes they do require assembly, but there’s no paint or glue or any real modeling skills needed. It’s basically just an action figure that you have to assemble, mostly at the articulation points. It’s pretty easy and fun to do and in the end you get a fully posable action figure to play around with! Let’s check out Optimus!

The packaging is very nicely done and gives off a classic G1 vibe. There’s a sleeve that features Sunbow styled character art with some comic panels in the background. The box itself has a lovely foil line drawing and advertises the Diecast goodness that lies within. I knew so little about these when I bought Megatron that I wasn’t even sure these were officially licensed products, but they are indeed! Everything is collector friendly, but you’ll have to take the figure apart again if you want to store him in the box.

Inside the parts come laid out in a tray in an intuitive manner to help get a feeling where all the pieces go. It may look intimidating, and I’ll admit that I did have to consult the instructions a few times, but I probably could have figured it out without them. And yes, there’s a second tray nested under it with a few more parts, some weapons, and the base. The parts are a mix of plastic and diecast metal and the distribution feels well thought out to create a pretty well balanced figure, and when he’s all done he measures just a bit under 8-inches tall. There is a light up feature in the head, and you’ll need to provide some button batteries to make it work. OK, Prime, pull yourself together and let’s go!

As with Megatron, I consider this design a more realistic take on the G1 animated style. You get similar proportions, but the detail and paint are dialed up to give him that hyper-realistic look. Since he doesn’t transform, the figure is able to achieve the pinnacle of Optimus’ robot design with the long legs, broad and slightly bowed chest, and compact abs. Although, I’d argue with how well Hasbro’s design team has been doing lately, they’ve been able to come close with their transformable figures. There are no wheels present, and whatever truck kibble is here is all intentional, like the gas cans on the legs, the grill in his abs, and the smokestacks on the shoulders. The cut panels look great and most of it is panel lined to bring out the detail. The colors all really pop thanks to a gorgeous metallic finish in the red and blue and a mix of vibrant silver and matte gray. You get the bright yellow panels on the pelvis too! There’s some excellent weathering here, and while Megatron’s gave him some wonderfully ugly character, I think Prime’s just adds a little depth and credibility to the finish without stepping on his noble charm.

I love this head sculpt and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Prime’s “helmet” is finished in a metallic blue with the headphone antenna extending past the horns on his “helmet” the grill on his forehead is painted in silver as is his mouth plate, which the bridge of his nose disappears into. The beautiful blue eyes have the same light up feature we saw with Megatron. The lights are activated by touching the magnet in his rifle to the top of his head with three modes to choose from: Lit, pulsating, and flashing. The lights are bright enough to be seen even with all the studio lights shining on him!

Just like Megatron, the articulation on this figure is off the charts and because most of the assembly revolves around those points, you get a good feel for it while you build him. Plus, if you accidently stress a joint too much, it’s probably just going to pull out rather than break, which makes the design even better. Probably the most impressive part are all of those shifting panels in the pelvis that allow not only wide stances, but Prime’s ability to go down on one knee and kick in or out really high. I also really like the side to side movement in the chest. The hands are fully articulated with the thumb on a ball joint, the index finger on two independent hinges and the rest of the fingers linked and sharing two hinges. It’s cool, but I can make the hands look a little odd when relaxed or in fists. I do wish we got a set of swap out fists for when you don’t need the articulation. The figure also feels fantastic in hand, with a nice heft while avoiding being so top heavy like the original MP Prime. *Optimus also has a flip up communicator in his arm, which I neglected to take a photo of. Ooops!*

The chest does open up to reveal a removable Matrix, and oh boy is the chest hard to get open. I think it’s because it uses two interlocking tabs to close up. I have had the best luck with inserting a pen or thin utensil in the gap underneath to pop it. Inside, you get a beautifully detailed chest cavity and a great looking Matrix accessory. I am a bit surprised there isn’t a light up feature in here, especially since Megatron got the extra lights in his Fusion Cannon, but for whatever reason, there are no electronics in the chest.

Naturally, Prime comes with his iconic rifle. This piece is all plastic with some nice silver brushed weathering and as mentioned it has a magnet in it to activate Prime’s eyes. There’s a long tab in the grip that slots into the palm of the hand and the fingers wrap around it similar to the Takara Masterpiece figures. It holds in place fairly well.

Prime also has an energy axe, which can be swapped out with either of his fists. This piece is cast in translucent orange plastic and attaches with a ball joint. It looks great and you can use it to recreate his fight with Megatron on Hoover Dam from More Than Meets The Eye.

Also included is Megatron in his gun form. I presume this is a nod to one of the episode of the cartoon where Prime used Megatron as a weapon to stop the Insecticons. If they don’t include the same accessory with Starscream, I’ll likely just wind up giving it to him when he arrives. Little gun Megatron looks fantastic and includes a removable stock. I was able to get Prime to hold him with the stock, but it works better without it.

And finally you get the same stand that we saw with Megatron, only this time with an Autobot insignia. I wasn’t crazy about this stand last time and I’m still not. The design of the hinges in the arm don’t seem all that well thought out, as you can’t angle it properly to support the figure when standing on the base. As a result the armature is useless unless you’re looking to suspend the figure in a leaping action pose. Plus, in the case of Prime, his backpack makes it tougher to get the claw in to grab him. It is, however, a nice sculpt and since Prime can support himself pretty well, I will likely just stand him on the base and keep the arm in the box.

Prime sure looks great displayed next to Megatron. Megs is just a hair taller and beefier, which is how I think he should be. Alas, the batteries are already dying in my Megatron and all the eye lights will do is flicker, so I’ll have to open up his head and replace them.

After how much i loved Megatron, I had high expectations coming into this figure and I’m happy to say I’m very satisfied. I may have had a little bit more wow factor out of Megatron, because there are so few figures that do his G1 design justice, but once Optimus was in hand, I had a big smile on my face and couldn’t put him down. I think it’s unfortunate that the term Model Kit probably scares some people away from these, because it brings up all sorts of visions of clipping sprues, fragile plastic, paint and glue. But in reality, these just feel like high end toy that you have to assemble. Once together it’s a fun and durable action figure that looks outstanding on the shelf, especially when he’s next to Megatron. I’m interested to see how far this line will go. Starscream is up next, and we’ll no doubt get the Seeker repaints, but I’d love to see some of the ’84 Autobot cars get this treatment too. As I’m writing this, Optimus is still available at the usual places and retails for about $60.

Sep 6 2024

Star Trek (Deep Space Nine) Constable Odo Sixth-Scale Figure by Exo-6

Exo-6 has been killing it with their Sixth-Scale Star Trek figures in general, but it’s the Deep Space Nine series that has me All-In. So far we’ve seen Captain Sisko, Major Kira, and Quark, and now it’s time for the stalwart and ever vigilant Constable Odo to get the treatment. This fella shape-shifted his way into my collection quite a few weeks ago and I’m only now getting to spend some serious time with him!

If it’s an Exo-6 review, I have to start by saying the box shots rarely do the actual figure justice, and this is yet another case of that. The shot on the front of the box just looks awful. The figure looks waxy, the colors are all wrong, and in no way does it represent what you’re actually getting. Why do you do this Exo-6? The overall box design and deco is the same as we’ve been seeing in the past, but this one is extra wide, and I seriously had no idea why it was so big when it arrived. Now, I know that it was to accommodate a rather large surprise accessory, but I’ll save that for the end. Some of these figures have been getting special Deluxe releases with extra stuff, but as far as I know, there was only one standard release of Odo. He comes out of the box all ready to go, so let’s take a look.

Odo arrives in his familiar Bajoran Security uniform. It’s similar in design to what we saw with Kira, but in a beige and brown deco and correctly missing the crosshatch pattern on the shoulders and sleeves. And while on the show, Odo’s uniform is actually part of him, this one is a fully tailored cloth outfit. As usual, the tailoring is immaculate, with pristine stitching, and the fit is pretty good. The legs of the trousers seem to be secured into the boots, as I don’t have any issues with them coming untucked. And yes, just like we saw with Kira, Odo’s boots are sculpted as one piece, so ankle articulation is quite limited. There is some padding in the upper body, but the sleeves are loose enough to not restrict the arms at all. The belt is made entirely of fabric and it isn’t attached, so it does have a habit of floating up and down when posing him, which requires frequent adjustment. Maybe Exo wanted to keep the option to go sans belt, which was a subject of conversation between Odo and Kira in one episode. Appropriately, there is no rank insignia on his collar, but he does have the standard Bajoran com badge on his chest.

The head sculpt is absolutely fantastic and a far cry from what we saw on the box. The wizards at Exo-6 did a beautiful job recreating Odo’s approximation of a human face. The simplified features, the sunken strip of a mouth, and the deep set eyes are all pitch perfect. The hair appears to be sculpted as part of the head, but it still looks really good with a pretty clean hair line. The expression is classic Odo: Stern and suspicious! I would say this one ranks up there as one of their best.

As for articulation, it’s impossible for me to say exactly what’s going on under that uniform, but the body feels as highly posable as the rest of the line. The uniform does offer some restrictions, especially in the hips where you want to be careful not to pop those stitches with extra wide stances. I already mentioned the boots inhibiting the ankles, and the padding in the upper body can hinder some range in the shoulders. Still, I’m happy with what we got here and Odo can do most anything I would want him to. You get three pairs of hands: Fists, relaxed hands, an accessory holding left hand and a flat right hand. I would have much rather had a pointing finger hand than that last one I mentioned.

I’m pretty sure I mentioned last time that Exo-6 likes to get a lot of money out of their accessories and once again we have the repacked Tricorder and PADD. Just like last time, the Tricorder uses a magnet to secure the bottom opening panel. This allows it to be displayed open or closed without the need for a fragile hinge. Everything here is identical to the Tricorder we saw with both Sisko and Kira right down to the stickers. You get a magnetized holster for the Tricorder, but as far as I can tell there’s no magnet on the figure to secure it. The PADD is the same sculpt as Sisko’s and Kira’s, but at least we got a new sticker for the screen. The PADD is a decent accessory for Odo, even if I would have much rather we got one displaying his crime reports. The Tricorder, on the other hand, is a bit of a reach. No doubt he used a Tricorder in some episodes, but it wasn’t something he used often.

Thankfully, we do get his bucket, which he has to regenerate in every sixteen hours. What can I say about it? It’s a very nicely painted space bucket, and it was definitely a must-have accessory to be included. And then there’s the surprise accessory…

You get a static figure of Odo in his gelatinous form. Now, I call this a surprise accessory, but clearly it was pictured on many of the preorder sites and I just missed it. I went back to look and sure enough it was shown off in some solicitation shots, but not seeing it made it a really cool extra. I will nitpick, that it would have been a neat idea to sculpt it so that it can be coming out of the bucket, and you can still sort of do that, but the base is clearly just made to stand on a flat surface.

And finally, you get the stand which includes a hexagonal Transporter Pad base and a crotch-cradle post to support the figure. This is the same style display stand Exo-6 has been using with all their Trek lines and you get clips to connect the stands together if you want to go that route. I don’t really make use of that option, but i will admit that I’m kind of excited to assemble a full transporter pad once I get enough figures together.

Odo retailed for $215, which is what I’ve become accustomed to pay for these figures. Let’s face it, we’re not seeing a lot of licensed figures in this scale for under $200 anymore. And I say retailed in past tense because he sold out pretty fast. The value is there in terms of the quality of the actual figure, but normally the extras on these releases seem really light. In the case of Odo, the shape-shifting version of him helps to tip the scales, and either way I have no complaints. Having Odo on my shelf to keep tabs on Quark makes me super happy and it looks like the next member of DS9’s crew to arrive will be Dr. Julian Bashir. He’s scheduled to beam in before the end of the year. But the next time I revisit Exo-6’s Trek line it will be to check out a figure from Enterprise.

“I’m rich! An entire cargo hold full of contraband, and Odo doesn’t know anything about it!”

Sep 4 2024

Masters of the Universe (Masterverse) ’87 Movie Beast Man by Mattel

The fact that I only selectively collect the MOTU Masterverse series is perhaps one of my greatest demonstrations of willpower. The line has produced some truly amazing looking action figures, but I’ve already collected MOTU Classics, Origins, and now the Origins Cartoon Series, so I really needed to draw a line somewhere. I have, however, been picking up the figures they release based off the designs from the 1986 live-action movie. So far, they’ve given us He-Man, Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, and now Beast Man! Add these to the Classics versions of Saurod, Blade, and Karg and we’ve got pretty much all the baddies now!

The package design is the same as we saw with Evil-Lyn. You get some really cool original character art against a dynamic backdrop and a rather limited window showing off a bit of the figure. There’s a compartment running down the left side that contains a tissue-paper baggie with his extra pair of hands and his forearm bracers. I thought it a little weird that they didn’t just package the figure with those on, but whatever. I find it interesting that they don’t reference the movie anywhere on the the package. Maybe there’s a licensing loophole and they are basing these figures on artwork that doesn’t require the movie license? Don’t know! But it’s cool, because I’m not saving this box anyway.

Out of the package, Beast Man is looking pretty sharp! The costume features a wonderfully complex sculpt, making the design really stand out a lot more in action figure form than it did in the film. His trousers have a soft quilted look while his arms are sculpted with crude wrappings. The shoulder pieces look like they’re based on some bizarre Eternian horned animal shells and the cuirass has individually sculpted panels and tufts of sculpted orange fur peeking out from behind it. This figure is just replete with layers and textures! But as great as the sculpt is, I think it’s the paint and coloring that really sells this figure. I didn’t get a sense of much color in the on screen costume, but here it’s just gorgeous. The segmented armor plates have a lapis lazuli quality about them, which looks great beside the gold and orange. It’s so much more toyetic than what we saw in the movie, but still faithful to the design.

The head sculpt is a pretty solid likeness for the on screen makeup, although it is tooned up a bit. I think they were going for a stylized look rather than something realistic and it works very well for the figure. Like the costume, the detail here is very well fleshed out, from the great definition in the features of the face to the glorious mane of hair surrounding it. They even spent some extra effort on his horrible teeth! This portrait kind of reminds me of a higher definition 90’s Playmates sculpt and I mean that as a compliment. As we’ll see later, I think the style meshes very well with the movie figures released in the Classics line.

The articulation is solid with all the right points. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows with hinged pegs in the wrists. The legs have what feel like rotating hinges in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double-hinged knees, and the ankles have both hinges and rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab-crunch hidden under the armor, and a ball joint in the neck. I don’t collect this line regularly, so I assume this is the standard for Masterverse. Either way, it makes for a fun figure to play around with and all the joints felt great right out of the box. You get two sets of hands: One relaxed pair and one pair to hold accessories. I found that the wrist pegs are pretty mushy and kind of hard to socket properly.

If you don’t count the removable arm bracers, Beast Man comes with only one accessory and that’s his sword. I don’t remember the sword from the movie, but it’s a cool no-nonsense design with a straight blade and a stout crossguard. The hilt features some nice detail, the sculpted wraps on the grips are orange and the rest is left in bare gray plastic. There’s even a loop on his right hip where he can wear it.

And as I mentioned earlier, I think Beast Man fits in with the Mercenaries we got from Matty’s Classics line very well. Yes, the bodies and articulation are different, but I will have no problem displaying all of these guys together.

Assembling these Mercenaries sure took a long time, but I’m happy to finally be able to do it. And Beast Man is a great addition to finish off on. It’ll be interesting to see if Masterverse goes after the rest of the team or if they just gave us Beast Man as a means of completing them. It sure would be nice to finally get a Teela and Man-At-Arms from the film too, and I’d be perfectly fine if Mattel did it without pursuing the exact likeness rights like they did with He-Man. But until then, I’ll likely be done with this line now unless they start putting out more Princess of Power releases.

By figurefanzero
0
Sep 2 2024

DC Direct: Superman (Jim Lee) Statue by McFarlane

In addition to their extremely prolific action figure line, McFarlane has been spinning the DC Multiverse brand into statues here and there. I haven’t gone very deep on these, but I did check out the 89-style Batman they did from that Flash movie and liked it a lot… the statue, not the movie! And when I saw the first teasers for this Jim Lee style Superman, I knew it had to be an instant preorder. But, I guess this isn’t really DC Multiverse as it’s branded as McFarlane Toys Digital and also bears the DC Direct logo.

This roughly Sixth-Scale statue comes in a wrap-around window box with another light on top to showcase the figure really well, but it doesn’t follow the usual DC Multiverse box design. You also get an ugly Digital Card pressed up against the front window, which is a shame because otherwise this would display in the box very nicely. I think the card is redeemable for the digital version of the figure. Look, I’m an old man and I don’t understand the appeal of any of this NFT shit. If they want to throw a code into the box, that’s fine, but I’m not a fan of it imposing itself on the presentation of the physical collectible. And as we’ll see, this continues to be a problem. Anyway, the box is collector friendly, but I’m definitely tossing it. You do get a standard McFarlane collectible card stuck to the back tray and the only assembly required for the statue is plugging it into the base.

Here he is all set up, and I’m going to do something I never do with statues and talk about the base first. The bit of sculpture that he’s standing on is part of the figure, while the base is just the black disk. Unfortunately, Todd decided to print McFarlane Toys Digital on it along with their logo and it goes a long way to wreck the whole thing. I mean, Why? Why in the blessed name of Ma Kent would they do this? Even Todd has to realize that the majority of the people buying this doesn’t give a crap about the digital aspect, so why plaster it on the base? Grrr… I hate it.

But as for the figure itself, well I love it! He’s appropriately beefy with his barrel chest pushed out presenting the fully sculpted S-Shield. There’s some subtle texture to the beautiful blue suit, along with the underlying musculature on full display. You get crisp red paint for the boots and undies, and a hint of more yellow for the belt. It’s a lovely classic Superman look, which I’m always happy to get represented on my shelf. The pose mimics the Jim Lee art perfectly, with Supes’ left leg up on the bird sculpture, his arms cocked back at the elbows, and both hands balled into fists. Every bit of this pose suggests some evil-doer is about to get a well-deserved ass-whooping. And then there’s the cape, but I’ll come back to that in a second…

The portrait to me is a real homerun. I’ll be the first to point out that human portraits are not usually McFarlane’s strong suit. They have been getting better, and they’ve turned out some decent efforts in their figures as of late. The statues, on the other hand can be hit or miss, but I’d score this one as a direct hit. The chiseled features, the angular jaw, the slight dimple in the jutting chin, the strong cheekbones, and the powerful, furled brow are all just fantastic. The hair is sculpted separately from the head, giving an immaculate hairline, and I dig the spikey bits and cowlick. What’s more, the eyes and eyebrows are painted perfectly. There is a gap between the neck and costume, but that’s to allow the fabric cape to be secured between. It looks a bit jarring up close, but I don’t find it to be a problem under normal viewing.

And there’s that glorious red fabric cape with the wire running throughout the edge. This garment is so much fun to pose, making me so glad they decided to go with mixed media on this piece. In addition to achieving a great approximation of the cape’s behavior in the source art, it can also be customized to your liking. Whether it be billowing out behind him or flapping off to the other side, you can do a lot of different things with it.

As for that base, well I’m going to have to do something to fix it. Whether that be painting over it, taping over it, covering it with a Superman logo sticker, there’s no way I’m going to display that logo and nonsense. Because the pegs are located in the base, it is possible to display Supes without the base at all, so that’s at least an option. Albeit one that increases the chance of him toppling over. At least he’s a solid slab of plastic, so I doubt the Man of Steel would incur any damage taking a shelf dive.

Desecrated base not withstanding, this is an excellent statue and with an MSRP of $50, I’d say it’s definitely one of the best values on the collectible statue market right now. I can think of several times where I’ve spent more than twice as much and didn’t get something as beautiful as this piece. Originally, I was planning on putting him on one of my DC Multiverse shelves, but he wound up landing on the corner of my desk, and I do believe that’s where he’ll stay for a while. The Jim Lee Wonder Woman should be arriving any day now, and I’m excited to get the two side by side!

Aug 30 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Cobra Commander (“Once A Man” SDCC Exclusive) by Hasbro

I think it’s safe to say that 2024’s Classified SDCC Exclusive generated a lot of surprise and delight among collectors. The line hasn’t shown a lot of strong ties to the Sunbow cartoon and yet here we are getting a Classified figure that references Cobra Commander’s grim fate in the ’87 GI JOE movie. Having been found guilty of incompetency, the denizens of Cobra-La sentence The Commander to slowly transmute into a snake. I’m not a huge fan of the film, but I will admit that Cobra Commander fate was probably the most disturbing thing I’d seen in a cartoon up to that point. Optimus Prime dying in The Transformers movie was sad, but this was just pure body horror that creeped me the hell out. As popular as this release was, I do think this was a great idea for an Exclusive, as I imagine there’s a good number of Classified collectors who don’t really care about that film and would be happy to pass on this figure. Then again, Hasbro did show off a Classified version of Nemesis Enforcer, so like it or not, Classified Cobra-La is very much a thing.

The set comes in a window box with a flap that has a lenticular front depicting the horrific transformation from man to snake man to snake creature. Alas, the effect baffles my camera, so you’ll have to settle for a shot of the flap open and showing off the goods inside. The set includes Cobra Commander in two stages of his terrible transformation, plus you get some extra hands and accessories, a lot of which are taken from the HISS HasLab Exclusive Commander and the yet to be released Retro-Carded Commander. Everything here is collector friendly, which is great because this is definitely a figure I will be displaying in the package.

The Commander comes out of the box as mid-transformation Snake Man after being exposed to the dreaded Spores! The waist down is borrowed from the previously mentioned Commander figures, although the belt buckle has been repainted from the HasLab figure. He still has his combat knife and sheath strapped to his left leg. The torso and arms are now newly sculpted snake skin with the remnants of his torn tunic worn like a vest. The snake skin is a cool mix of scales and bumpy textured areas and I think the mix of blue uniform and yellow orange snakeskin makes for a very attractive deco.

The mutated snake head is absolute nightmare fuel. It’s like his teeth have migrated to the outside of his face, a heavy brow ridge had formed and he’s got multiple eyes budding out on his cheeks and forehead. There are some sculpted fangs showing, but these aren’t painted so it can be hard to make them out. I think the printing for the blue eyes is a bit miffed, but otherwise, this is a great sculpt that would have make any David Cronenberg film proud.

You also get a fully helmeted head. This appears to be the same sculpt as the previously mentioned Commander figures. It does have the cartoon-style white stripe at the top, which the Retro-Carded release will have, but was lacking from the HasLab version. There is also a detached face mask, which Roadblock picks up in the movie. It has some cracks and the inside of the mask is highly detailed with all sorts of circuitry.

Also repacked is the classic hairdryer-style pistol and backpack to mount it on. This is a bit of an odd inclusion, as I’m pretty sure I remember him being disarmed when they put him in the giant clam and he’s never shown with it after inhaling the spores. But am I complaining? Nope. It’s great that they included it and I can always give this to the regular Classified Cobra Commander if I want to.

Finally, you get the extra hands that came with the other two Cobra Commander figures. These include fists, accessory holding hands, a pointy finger right hand and a open grip left hand.

The more mutated version of the figure is mostly cast in a dense rubbery plastic. The arms have some articulation at the shoulders, but otherwise it’s a static piece. The tail is partially coiled, which works well to have him stand. You can also use it to wrap around another Roadblock like he did in the movie. There’s a cut in the tail, but mine does not want to swivel, so I’m not sure if this is intended as an articulation point or just a seam from where the figure was assembled.

Hasbro did a nice job on the production side of this set, but no so much on the selling end. It was available after the convention as a Pulse Exclusive and it sold out immediately. Later it returned sporadically, selling out and coming back into stock seemingly at random times. And that was probably more frustrating than if it had just sold out quickly and was gone. Some people will argue that back in the day SDCC Exclusives were only available to attendees, so any slim chance to get one afterwards is better than it used to be. That may be true, but I still think Hasbro handled it poorly. And the idea of placing a five per customer limit is just ridiculous and seriously needs to stop. It serves no purpose other than to feed scalpers. In the end, I was happy to get one on Pulse, but I wouldn’t have chased it on the second hand market if I didn’t. Especially with it going for double the price. This is a cool figure to have, but certainly not one I would consider essential to my Classified collection. And I haven’t even decided yet whether I will pursue the Cobra-La Classified figures at all.

Aug 28 2024

Golden Axe: Heninger and Long Moan by Storm Collectibles

In case you missed it, Storm Collectibles has been delivering on a rather robust line of action figures based on SEGA’s fantasy arcade coin-op Golden Axe. Or based on the excellent SEGA Genesis port, if you happen to be a home body or just grew up after arcades have become nearly extinct. Since the line’s debut in 2020, they’ve given us all three playable heroes: Ax Battler, Tyris Flare, and Gilius Thunderhead, along with a bunch skeletons and bosses in the game. And now, here we are, finally getting a two-pack of the Death Adder’s evil grunts that plague you most often: Heninger and Long Moan!

The figures come in a wide window box that shows off the goods. There’s some rather large renders of the figures on the front as well, which is kind of redundant. As always, the tray is placed against a recreation of the Player Select screen, which is both clever and looks great. I’ve been playing the Golden Axe series on my Genesis for decades and I never actually new that these guys had names. Word is that they were both named after booze manufacturers: The Henninger Brewery and Longmoan Distillery. I’m going to start with Heninger, but first, let’s just take a look at this…

What is even going on here? Look at all these hands!!! Six pairs for each figure, that’s twenty-four hands in this package! I’m never going to complain about extra accessories, but I think this was a bit excessive. These aren’t even main characters, they’re just goons you beat up over and over again. They even made slight changes in the skin tone for each figure. Anyway, I’ll try to work each pair into at least one picture, but no promises. And I’m not going to run through all of them, because I don’t even know what to call some of these. Just take a look and see for yourself. Hands!

So, Heninger is probably the least interesting of the two as he’s just a muscular man in some tight grey undies. I was honestly expecting this figure to borrow heavily from Ax Battler, especially when I saw how similar the arm bracers are, but that’s far from the case. The bodies are completely different and Ax Battler is a lot bigger than this lowly henchmen. Heninger has a bit of armor, including silver bracers and shin plates, as well as some silver shoulder armor that is worn by the figure via some soft plastic straps. He’s perfect for a generic thug and would probably even work pretty well for a number of different genres. The silver paint on the armor is nice and shiny, the skin tone is warm and even, and the musculature is extremely detailed.

The head sculpt is very good, but definitely contributes to the generic goon thing this figure has got going on. He’s wearing a white headband, has a thin beard and mustache, and is gritting his teeth in anger. Nothing about the portrait really shouts medieval fantasy to me, so you can easily have this guy going up against any of your Storm figures.

If you’ve played around with any of Storm’s male figures, you should know what to expect from the excellent articulation here. Some of the highlights include double hinges in both the knees and elbows, ball joint in both the waist and abs, crunches in the shoulders, and even toe hinges. Storm’s joints have buttery smooth motion and these figures are very tough to put down once you start messing around with them. The balance is also superb!

Heninger comes with a spiked mace with a rather large head and a stout handle. The whole thing is sculpted and painted to look like it’s forged in iron. Among the crazy array of hands are a pair of gripping hands, so he can wield the mace in either hand.

And here’s a quick comparison of Heninger with Ax Battler to show their differences in build and muscle sculpting. Now, let’s move on to Long Moan!

Long Moan sports a much more medieval look with his crude tunic and spiked helmet. The tunic is cast in soft plastic and worn by the figure. It has a really nice rough crosshatch texture that resembles burlap and rough cut edges at the shoulders and bottom edges. It’s cinched at the waist with a black belt that includes a silver buckle and painted belt loops. Yeah, belt loops were probably not a thing back in medieval times, but I appreciate the effort at detail. His light khaki boots lack the armor plates we saw with Heninger and he has white sculpted wrappings on his forearms instead of the silver bracers. The bright turquoise tunic has a little wash to show some soiled spots. As with Heninger, I expected a lot of borrowed parts with this figure, as the tunic looked an awful lot like Gilius’, but once again it wasn’t the case and it’s an all new sculpt.

The spiked helmet is removable and the underlying head is rather generic, but still a solid sculpt. While his buddy looks perpetually angry, Long Moan just looks like he’s board and waiting for the weekend to arrive so he can hit the local tavern for ale and wenches. The helmet is painted to match the tunic and adds some excellent silver trim to the horns and borders. It does sit a little loose on his head, and I find that I’m frequently having to push it back a bit so it’s not covering his eyes. This may have been done on purpose, as I’ve seen some character art showing it down over his eyes and even the render on the box looks like it’s worn low like that.

The articulation is identical to Heninger, but the lower part of the tunic can inhibit his hip articulation a bit. There are slits on the sides to help, but it still makes those exta wide stances a harder to pull off.

Long Moan’s weapon of choice is a spiked club, which is not as refined as Heninger’s mace, but still a perfect weapon for a generic goon. Death Adder probably budgets a fixed amount for each of his minions, so Heninger spent the extra coin for his weapon, while Long Moan spent it at the Ye Olde Clothing and Helmet Shoppe. It’s cast in a very light tan, practically matching his boots, and it has some nasty black spikes jutting out around the top.

And here’s a tunic comparison shot between Long Moan and Gilius. It’s the same style and texture, but still a new sculpt.

It sure took a while to get these common enemies into the line, especially with how many skeletons Storm has been pumping out. I guess, they figured there would be more of a cross-sell market on the skeletons. Either way, I’m glad to finally see these fellas turn up and only buying one set really put my willpower to the test. But, I have no doubt we’ll see recolors of this set, to match the recolored sprites that turn up in different levels, and I will most definitely pick up at least one variant. Indeed, I’m surprised the recolors haven’t turned up for preorder yet. Either way, these guys turned out great, and it’s awesome to finally have them represented on my ever expanding Golden Axe shelf! And I’m just about caught up on this line, although I’ll probably roll out some of the new stand alone dragons in the near future, as I picked up two of the four that Storm released.

Aug 26 2024

DC Multiverse (Mega Figure): Classic Darkseid by McFarlane

Before jumping into today’s review, I have to sadly report that my shitty old Nikon has finally kicked off. And rather than use it as an opportunity to upgrade, I’m just replacing it with the same shitty old model because it’s comfortable and I’m an old man that doesn’t like change. It’ll be about a week until the replacement comes in, so I’m resorting to use my even shittier phone camera for a few reviews. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

While I really do enjoy collecting the DC Multiverse line, it really can be frustrating waiting for those sporadic releases of classic characters. Case in point, this line has been running for nearly five years and there are so many greats still begging to be done. I don’t begrudge Todd his Batman fetish and odd eclectic character choices, but I would like to tip the scales in favor of more traditional legacy releases without always hiding them behind the paywall of the more expensive Collector releases. Well, today I get to cross Darkseid off that list. This Megafig arrived at my door last week, and even with dozens of Multiverse figures waiting for their turn in the spotlight, I immediately bumped him to the head of the line.

As with all the DC Multiverse Megafigs, Darkseid comes in a satisfyingly huge window box, showing off the figure inside. The box is collector friendly, but be prepared to rip and tear the backing of the inside tray to get the collector card and stand off. And that’s fine with me. Even though I’d love to keep these figures boxed, I would run out of room fast even if I only kept the Megafig boxes. Darkseid comes boxed with his peepers charging his Omega Beams, but I’m going to start off by swapping in the regular head.

As a Megafig, Darkseid is obviously a big boi and I absolutely love the powerful and stocky proportions here. Granted, this Lord of Apokolips is not as big as the gigantic New 52 Darkseid that DC Collectibles put out over ten years ago, but he does tower over Mattel’s DC Universe Classics version. The suit is indeed very classic in its inspiration with the sleeveless blue tunic and shorts, bisected by a simple white belt, and matched perfectly with his thigh-high boots and gauntlets. The blue plastic chosen here is absolutely gorgeous and looks great beside the pale gray skin exposed on his upper arms and legs. The upper arms are borrowed from Mongul and yeah, that kind of works if I don’t think too hard about it. Darkseid’s skin should be more granite-like and these are rather veiny, but I can live with it. The ensemble is rounded out by what may seem a curious choice of silver chest medallion and a flowing blue cape, neither of which represent any mainstream comic appearances familiar to me, but rather references Jose Luis Garcia Lopez’s art from the vintage Kenner Super Powers figure. Even the belt is a nod to that design, and I freaking love it!

The regular head is extremely expressive, with his broad, disapprovingly downturned mouth and his heavily purturbed brow ridge. The ashen skin gives way to darkened blackness around his piercing red eyes and the chiseled lines in his face look great. I would have liked to see some ancient crevices in his face, rather than just smooth skin, but I still dig what we got here and I think it pairs well with the simpler Super Powers vibe the body has going on.

The alternate head has some permanent effect pieces around his eyes as he prepares to toast you with the awesome power of his dreaded Omega Beams. I really dig the way these translucent red pieces emanate from the depths of his eyes. Here you do get some wrinkles in his forehead, and he grits his teeth as the power builds. I often stick with displaying figures with the more neutral head choices, but here’s a case where I may go with this one. It just looks so cool!

The cape is made of a super soft and silky fabric and it does have wires running along all the edges to give it that added dynamic posability. My guess is that most collectors would have preferred him without the cape, but again I just dig that Super Powers nod so much. I think it adds a sense of regality to his overall appearance and the cape is extremely fun to mess with.

The articulation is pretty typical Megafig fare, meaning you only get single hinges in the elbows but you do get the doubles in the knees. There’s a ball joint hidden behind the belt and everything else follows the Multiverse system. The elbow range is limited because of the single hinge and muscle sculpt, but he can still pull off some nice poses. You get two pairs of hands for display and these include a set of fists, a left pointy finger hand and a right grasping hand.

If I’m being honest, I don’t usually pick up a lot of the Megafigs until they hit clearance, but this was a case where I had to drop that preorder. The figure looked amazing in the solicitation shots and he looks every bit as good now that he’s in hand. Even better, the turnaround on this one from preorder to shipping seemed super quick. Sure, I would have liked to see this one be 100% new sculpt, but the more I play around with him, the less the Mongul arms bother me. Maybe it’s just a bit of the principal of the matter. If a character with the gravitas of Darkseid doesn’t call for 100% new sculpt, than what does? But I’m not going to let that stop me from enjoying what is just an all around awesome figure. And with Darkseid on the shelf, I guess it’s time to open up his son, so I’ll get Kalibak in here for a review sooner rather than later!


Aug 23 2024

Universal Monsters (Bride of Frankenstein): Ultimate Frankenstein’s Monster with Chair by NECA

I’ve been a casual collector of NECA’s Universal Monsters series, picking them up here and there, but not really going out of my way to find them. So far, I’ve checked out Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Wolfman, and The Mummy. I also picked up The Gillman and Frankenstein’s operating table, but I haven’t gotten around to checking them out here yet. Well, a little while back NECA put up a new version of Frankenstein’s Monster from The Bride of Frankenstein in a Deluxe Set with his dungeon chair and I couldn’t resist, so I preordered it. It came in last week, and while I really should wait a couple of months for Halloween, I’m just too anxious to check it out. Besides, the Pumpkin Spice is already flowing at all the stores and coffee shops by me, and the Spirit Halloweens will be popping up before you know it. So, let’s go!

I have yet to pick up NECA’s Bride of Frankenstein figure, but I touched on my feelings for this film when I looked at Jada’s Bride. It’s a delightfully weird film, with it’s tiny home-grown jar people, Millie playing for goofs, The Monster getting all the screen time, and the titular Bride not showing up until the last five minutes. The set I’m checking out today recreates the scene where The Monster was captured, locked away in a dungeon, and chained to a chair, which held him for about two minutes before he broke out. It comes in a fully enclosed box with some nice shots on the front and back panels, and oddly enough a hang tag. The shots on the front are all in Black & White, which could be confusing, as the toys inside are colored, but the pictures on the back confirm that. Don’t forget, NECA has been doing B&W versions of these figures, but I doubt they’ll do it for something this extravagant. Inside you get the figure and the chair, as well as extra heads and accessories. The package is collector friendly, but you do have to attach the chair to the base, and based on the deafening snap I heard when they locked together, they are definitely not made to come apart again. So it ain’t likely to go back into the box for storage. Let’s start with The Monster!

The Monster was a little worse for wear for the this film and the new figure reflects that by resculpting some parts from the original figure. The body is mostly the same, but the jacket and arms have been replaced with the sleeves torn, the jacket unbuttoned, and the left lapel on the jacket hanging off. The exposed flesh on his arms also looks more emaciated and rotted. Finally, you get some added weathering to the jacket to resemble mud splatter and soiling. I don’t know if it’s correct to call this a variant, as he’s from a completely different movie, but I think the figures are different enough to warrant having both on display, and we haven’t even gotten to the heads yet!

The three heads are completely new sculpts to reflect the considerable changes to the makeup for The Bride. I love this look, because it’s generally a lot creepier. The hair is thinned out to better show the staples along the scalp line that are knitting together his flesh. The facial features are more emaciated and rotten and he has some burn scarring on the right side of his face. The heads depict a somewhat neutral expression, a happy expression, and a slight growly expression. They’re all good, but I think that final one is some of NECA’s best work. Not only did they nail the expression, but the detail in the teeth and the creases to the face are superb.

And here’s a quick comparison shot of Monsters from the original film and this one from The Bride. As you can see, there’s quite a lot of changes here, despite being on the same basic body. To me, the original will always be more iconic, but I like the make up on weathered suit look a tad more.

You get three accessories, all of which being food items, and a couple of extra hands to help him hold them. Included is a half loaf of bread, a bowl of peasant broth, and a mug with some wine dribbling down the side. One of the extra hands is designed perfectly for holding the mug by threading two fingers through the handle, while the other is good for cradling the bowl or bread.

A third hand has a cigar sculpted into it, which is a nice touch, even if the elbow joints can’t really bend enough to bring it close to his face. Now, let’s check out the chair!

The chair was an interesting choice on NECA’s part, since it’s featured so briefly in the film, and yet it makes for an iconic way to display the figure. It’s fashioned to look like a stone seat with a wooden back sitting on a stone pedestal. NECA did a bang up job with the detail, making both the stone blocks and the woodgrain texture look extremely realistic and I was really happy to see that the back of the chair is finished and highly detailed as well, rather than just left as hollow plastic. The shoulder braces have a pair of leather straps, cast in soft plastic with chains coming off of them, there’s a cross chain running between them with a large padlock, and a set of manacles on chains, which plug into the floor with large rings. All the chains are plastic, but they look good and feel pretty sturdy.

The Monster fits perfectly into the chair and the manacles can be placed on his wrists by popping the hands off and then on again. This set up looks absolutely fantastic on display and it makes me nostalgic for those old Aurora model kits that I used to beg my parents for, but never quite had the skills to make them look good when they were finished!

I’m not sure how many collectors who have the first Frankenstein Monster release will consider this set a must-have, but you are getting a lot of new stuff here. This set is a NECA store exclusive and retails at $60, so it doesn’t look like this one will be turning up on the Big Box shelves. And while it’s obviously started shipping the status on NECA’s site has gone back to Preorder, so it is still available, but if you buy it now you may be waiting for another batch. It’s great to see NECA finding new ways to keep the Universal Monster line alive and I’m very glad I dropped a preorder on this one. I suppose, I’ll also have to crack down and find me The Bride figure as well so I can display her beside this version of The Monster! Maybe that will be a good one to save for closer to Halloween, along with The Gillman and Frankenstein’s operating table.

Aug 21 2024

DC Multiverse (Gold Label): Metallo by McFarlane

A handful of McFarlane Gold Label releases have trickled in over the past few weeks, so I thought I’d get a jump on opening some of them. Today’s release was an Exclusive to Target and gives us a rather unusual take on the Superman villain, Metallo. I wasn’t sure about this figure when I dropped the preorder, but I really wanted to get a Metallo onto the DC Multiverse shelves, so let’s see what he’s all about!

He comes in the usual DC Multiverse packaging giving you a great look at the figure inside. The foil Gold Label medal is in the upper left corner, signifying this was a retailer exclusive. You also get the usual stand and collector card sealed to the blue backer tray. The back panel of the box recreates the collector card art. If I had the space, I’d keep all these figures boxed, as they look amazing and the bold character name on the side panel makes them easy to spot on the shelf, even if they’re lined up spine-out like books. But, I don’t have that kind of real estate for plastic and I think they look better displayed loose, so out he comes and into the bin goes the packaging.

I haven’t seen any specifics on the source material for this version of Metallo. I can see a few influences in the card art, but it’s not really that close. There’s some bronze age inspiration here, but mostly I think they were going for the Superman: Secret Origin look and even that’s a stretch. A lot of that has to do with him being partly kitbashed from the Blue and Green Power Suit Lex Luthor figures, but it doesn’t explain other bizarre choices, like painting the atom symbol on his chest shield when it would have been just as easy to paint it up like Secret Origin design. Recycling includes the legs, arms, and pelvis from those Luthor figures. I don’t recognize the torso, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they were borrowed too.

The choice of colors works for the source art, but the application is way off. There’s too much red in the legs, leaving just the knees and ankle joints green. What’s more, the lack of paint on the legs makes the figure look kind of cheap and all that great sculpted detail is lost in the bright red plastic. I do, however, really like the metallic green used for the arms and chest armor. I think more of the lighter green here and there would have helped with accuracy and made Metallo here look a little bit less like some kind of weird Christmas-themed exclusive.

The head sculpt is decent enough, and I think it’s the one aspect that works for the figure. There’s a wonderful depth to the sculpt as you can see the teeth and eyes deep inside the slits in the face plate. It’s pretty damn creepy and matches up with Metallo’s appearance on the cover of Superman: Secret Origin #5 quite well.

Articulation holds no surprises, so I won’t run through it here. For the most part, the joints work well and he’s fun to play with. The ankles could have used a little more finesse, but he’s fairly well balanced so that’s not a big issue. Metallo has a fist on his left arm and a grasping hand on his right and doesn’t come with any extra hands.

You do get one accessory, and that’s a cluster of Kryptonite. I’m pretty sure that this is the same accessory that McFarlane packed in with Superman in their Retro 66 Batman line. I haven’t checked out that figure here yet, but I will get to him eventually. It’s a cool accessory, but it just adds more recycling to an already heavily recycled package.

In the end, this Metallo is really just a placeholder for me, as it’s a reach to match it up with any existing appearance of the character. I have no issues with recycling parts, when it makes sense. But Metallo here clearly felt like a case of Todd’s design team rummaging through the parts drawer to see how close they could get. It kind of adds insult to injury when you realize that Todd already got his money’s worth on a lot of these parts with two previous releases. The end result is a somewhat original take on the character, and that’s not what most collectors are here for. Normally, I would have happily waited for discount on Amazon, but being a Gold Label I went for the preorder. In retrospect, I guess I could have gambled and tried to get it cheaper, because I don’t think this one is going to sell very well.