Aug 19 2020

Star Wars Black Series: Boba Fett Helmet by Hasbro

One of my favorite new things out of Hasbro lately has been their stab at bringing out helmets and roleplay items for collectors of their Marvel and Star Wars licenses. These strike a nice balance between being better than what’s usually found on the shelves in the toy aisles, and yet not so pricey as the higher end ones for the serious high rollers. As a kid, I would have killed for some of these, and now instead of commiting homicide, I just have to lay down a Benji. A while back I checked out the Stormtrooper helmet and was very impressed, now it’s time to tackle the Mandalorian helmet of Boba Fett!

These come in big cube-shaped boxes, fully enclosed, and covered with pictures of the item inside as well as some of the features. Inside the helmet comes wrapped in plastic and just about ready for display. Here you do have to attach the range finder, which makes a terrifyingly loud click when it’s attached. And if you want to make use of the electronics, you’ll need a small screwdriver and some batteries. Let’s have a look!

Straightaway, I think this helmet looks really nice. It was a far more challenging piece than the Stormtrooper helmet because it involved a more complex paint job, weathering, as well as some articulation. All of these things are a lot tougher to do on a limited budget, and as such I think Hasbro did a fine job. First, let’s talk about the visor. The initial solicitation pictures made me think the vertical part of the visor was too wide, but after looking at screenshots, I’m thinking it’s not too far off. The visor itself is made of smoked translucent plastic, which I feel should have been a bit darker on that vertical bit. I am displaying mine on a stand and it did tend to allow too much visibility through the visor. I’m sure Hasbro was worried about people being able to see out of it. I mean all they need is one drunken Cosplayer at a convention to go tumble down a flight of stairs in one of these and they’ve got a lawsuit on their hands. But, really you only need to see out of the horizontal part and some reinforced plastic behind the rest would have been welcome. It’s something that I fixed by attaching some black cloth behind it. Problem solved.

The base colors look quite good. It has a satiny matte finish, which doesn’t look too plastic. The QC on my helmet is also excellent. Granted, it’s supposed to look old and beaten up, but there aren’t any blemishes, scratches, or flubs that aren’t supposed to be there. At least I can’t see any. The construction also feels very solid. The helmet has a nice heft to it and while I wouldn’t want to drop it on a hard floor, it does feel quite durable and well put together. I’m sure this thing could take a beating if you are inclined to play rough with it.

Some nice details include the motion and sound sensors that run up the middle of each side, the cooling vents in the back, and the helmet diagnostic port, which is that little button on the right cheek.

 

The weathering was where this helmet was going to succeed or fail in winning me over and for the most part it succeeds. The helmet is littered with areas where the paint is meant to be chipped, worn, or just rubbed off completely. And of course, that iconic dent is present as well. Some of the weathering looks great, other areas look very fabricated. This is especially the case when you get in real close and examine it under studio lights. Again, at the price point we’re dealing with here, I wasn’t expecting a hand-painted masterpiece, but I’m sure that there are people out there with the skills to elevate the paint here into something truly spectacular. I’m not one of those people, but then I’m still pretty satisfied with how it turned out.

The interior of the helmet is also very detailed. The Stormtrooper helmet was basically unfinished inside, but here Hasbro has made an effort to keep the illusion of realism going by recreating what the actual helmet might look like inside. The sides are sculpted with all sorts of devices and instruments and there are padded cubes. There’s are adjustable straps so you can make it fit higher or lower, just like in Hasbro’s other helmets. As for wearing it? This one is actually very snug on me, which was surprising because the Stormtrooper helmet fit fine, as did most of the Marvel helmets I own. I’m not sure if it’s because I have a big head or because it isn’t compatible with my glasses. Either way, I bought this for display, not for wearing, so the fact that it isn’t terribly comfortable isn’t a big drawback for me.

And then there’s the rangefinder. I think that the stalk is probably a bit chunkier than it should be, but clearly Hasbro was looking for stability here, and that was probably a good decision. The arm is spring-loaded, so when you touch the side of the helmet it will cause the rangefinder to deploy and the LED lights on the holographic targeting display to activate and flash. The interior of the rangefinder also lights up, although I have a hard time seeing through it when I’m wearing the helmet. Too deactivate the lights, you just have to manually return the rangefinder to the up position.

With the rangefinder in the down position, you have to slide off the plsatic cover to reveal it. The clear plastic lense is sculpted with some detail and illuminates quite well. On the downside, this thing is positioned way too far to the side for me to comfortably look through it when I’m wearing the helmet. All in all, I think the electronics here are a cool extra, but they’re certainly not a selling point for me, and I would have been just as happy if they had left them out and dropped that price point a little bit.

I think Hasbro has carved out a pretty cool niche here, as I would often see those cheap plastic roleplay masks in the toy aisles and wish there was something better available without having to drop $300-500. If you’re of the same mind as me, these may be something you want to check out. At a little over $100, this helmet straddles the price point between toy and collectible quite nicely and the result is something that’s a whole lot of fun and looks pretty damn cool up on my shelf. Ultimately, my biggest nitpick is the opacity of the visor in the areas not needed for visibility and as I said, that was something that’s pretty easy to fix. I’m hoping that these are successful, although I rarely ever see them in stores, so I think they are still something of a specialty item. It would be cool to see Hasbro produce something like Sabine’s helmet from Rebels. In the meantime, I’ll eventually get around to looking at Luke’s X-Wing Pilot Helmet, as that one is sitting on the shelf just above this one!

Aug 17 2020

Marvel Legends (Crimson Dynamo Wave): Spymaster by Hasbro

What’s this? Marvel Monday again! It feels like the weeks are just flying by. I think I’m a little more than halfway through this Black Widow-themed assortment of Marvel Legends. Today I’m going to let it ride with the comic-book figures and have a look at Blue and Yellow Deadpool! Oh no, wait. It’s Spymaster. My bad!

Yes, fans can now breathe a sigh of relief because Spymaster has hit the modern Legends line. And if you didn’t read that with a sarcastic tone, try it again. Me? Well, I dig deep cuts like this one, and with all the Iron Man figures I have, it’s always nice to toss in another one of his advesaries. Why is he in this wave? I dunno, maybe because Taskmaster trained him? It’s like a six degrees of separation kinda thing. Anyway, Hasbro backed off the artsy red and black color scheme for this package, probably because it wasn’t going to work with the character’s distinctive color scheme.

Now to be fair, this is not my first choice for costume. I would have much preferred his silver and black suit. But with that having been said I actually dig the flashy cheese of this look. How you get any spying done dressed like this, I don’t rightly know, but hey… you be you, Spymaster! As I’m sure you can tell, this is one of them budget figures that gets by on a lot of paint and very little fresh sculpting. But the paint lines are clean, there’s really no bleeding, and the vibrant yellow looks great alongside the darker blue. The only other detail is the chest logo, a dagger against a checkered backdrop, which is razor sharp.

From the neck down the only new sculpting we get here is the yellow utility belt, which includes some sculpted pouches, a flash “S” logo as a buckle, and functional holster for Spymaster’s sidearm. The firearm is molded in red plastic, because that’s exactly the color this suit is missing! I feel like I’ve seen this pistol before, but I can’t quite place who had it last. It’s a very futuristic design, but I seem to recall his gun being a little chunkier. But what the hell, I think it suits him pretty well.

The head sculpt is new, with a disnctive arch sculpted into the forehead. There are some vague facial features sculpted into the mask as well as a rather prominent brow. The eyes are without pupils, and as with the rest of the figure the paint here is vibrant and sharp.

Spymaster’s articulation makes for a fun figure and features all the usual points I’m used to seeing in my Legends figures. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double-hinged knees, and swivels at the thighs and tops of the boots. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers to keep him stable even in those wide stances. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, the elbows are double-hinged, and he has swivels in the biceps. The torso swivels at the waist, has an ab-crunch hinge, and the neck has both a ball joint and hinge.

I’ve seen more than a little bit of hate for this figure, but you won’t get any of it from me. Spymaster has a cool history and a look that just screams comic book costume. The only reason I say that I wish Hasbro went for the silver and black costume is because I can’t imagine them ever doing this character again. And that’s it for the comic-based figures in this wave. Just two more to go, and they’re both from the Black Widow movie, and I’ll dig into one of those next week!

Aug 14 2020

GI JOE Classified: Cobra Trooper (Target Exclusive) by Hasbro

If the last couple weeks were any indication, Hasbro may have seriously underestimated the demand for the new GI JOE Classified figures. The first wave seems to have flown off the shelves, at least in my area, and the new wave of Target Exclusive Special Mission: Cobra Island figures sold out instantly online and are selling out in stores even before the issued Street Date of 8/14, which is today! Of course, it doesn’t help when one of those figures is a Cobra troop builder, and that’s who I’m checking out today!

You can never be too sure what you’re going to get with this line’s design, but I’m happy to say that Cobra’s mainstay trooper offers a welcome nod toward the traditional and iconic. The packaging is similar to what we’ve been seeing all along, with some fantastic artwork and the Cobra Island logo added to the front of the box. And look at all the stuff they packed in there! The tray is positively bursting with goodies! The rest of this assortment includes Beachhead, another version of Roadblock, and Baroness with a motorcycle. I’ve been shit out of luck with the rest of them, but I’m thankful for a buddy of mine who found a couple of these and shipped me one at cost.

I’m happy to say that this figure hits all the points that I’m looking for in a traditional Cobra grunt. Indeed, he eschews a lot of the solider-on-parade look of some of the early Cobra Trooper designs and adopts more of a down-and-dirty urban warfare look that I dig a lot. He has a very traditional blue uniform, which is reinforced by sculpted black pads on his upper arms, black bracers on his forearms, black kneepads, and high black boots. His upper chest has a sculpted black panel with a bold and embossed red Cobra emblem, and the rest of his torso is covered by a highly detailed flak jacket. Some nice touches include the additional Cobra emblems embossed on the backs of his gloves… they really branded the hell out of this guy! There’s also an optional red armband to give him a little more color. I really can’t say enough good things about how this overall design turned out. He just looks like a force to be reckoned with.

The head sculpt is that of a determined killer. Just look at those eyes! He looks like a real nasty piece of work. He’s wearing a balaclava to cover everything but his eyes and those rather cross eyebrows, and the usual black Cobra facemask has been upgraded to what looks like some kind of breather unit with some great sculpting. The helmet is removable, but it fits quite well and doesn’t keep popping off when I’m posing him. Without the helmet on, I’m getting a major Mortal Kombat vibe off of him, and I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.

He also has a pair of what I presume are night vision goggles, which can be worn down around his neck when not in use. This eyewear transforms him into pure nightmare fuel. Seriously, I find this bug-eyed look absolutely terrifying.

The Cobra Trooper comes with a lot of weapons, and I’m delighted to say that he can wear his entire arsenal on his person. Let’s start wiht his flak jacket! There’s a sheath attached to the left shoulder strap to hold his rather odd little combat knife. The accessory is molded in black plastic, has a curved grip that fits his hands well, and if you look really close you can possibly make out the serpent head at the base of the blade with its mouth open to make the blade appear to be protruding from his maw. The blade itself is stubby and has no point. It almost looks like one of those ancient flint knives you see in museums. This is not the type of cutlery I would have expected a Cobra Trooper to be carrying, but it is certainly unique.

Next up, the Trooper comes with a set of matched pistols, one of which is stored in the holster to the front, right side of his flakjacket, while the other is attached to the bottom left side of the back of the jacket. The front holster is actually branded with yet another raised Cobra emblem. These pistols follow the decidedly sci-fi designs that we’ve been seeing in most of the Classified weapons, but I think these are pretty cool looking.

Moving on to the bigger guns, the Cobra Trooper features holes on his back that his other guns can peg into. First off, he has this pretty sweet looking carbine. Yeah, once again it’s got a futuristic flavor to it, but in all fairness modern Assault Carbines are getting so crazy looking nowadays, I could probably believe this is a real weapon.

And finally, he has this rather large rifle for when he needs to make a bigger, bolder statement.  Once again, it’s definitely fictional, but not outside of the realm of possibility. This one has a scope, a short magazine, and the peg that holds it into his back can double as a grab bar. The weapons in this line have been a bit of a mixed bag, so I’m happy to say this Trooper’s are excellent. The detail invested into them is top notch and I’m glad their molded in black plastic to give them that sense of realism.

There’s no other way to say it, Hasbro absolutely killed it with this figure. The overall design makes him look like a rough and ready combatant to be reckoned with. He’s a foe to be taken seriously, rather than the bumbling oafs that were peppered over most episodes of the Sunbow cartoon. And besides looking great, Hasbro loaded him up with some pretty cool weapons and a place for him to carry every last one of them. What’s not to love? Well, how about the difficulty acquiring one, let alone actually troop building them. I got shut out of the pre-orders immediately, and just got very VERY lucky to have a buddy looking out for me. I figure that I need at least two more of these Troopers, but honestly, if I ever do actually see him on the pegs, I”m pretty sure I’ll buy every one I come across. Hasbro is really missing out if they don’t decide to offer some kind of troop building deal on their Pulse store. Sure, this one is a Target Exclusive, but I’m sure they can work around that pretty easily. So listen up, Hasbro. You bundle four of these guys for $100, and I’ll order me up a set. Unless you don’t want my money.

Aug 12 2020

ReAction ThunderCats (Wave One) by Super7

Why do I love collecting ThunderCats so much? It probably has to do with it being one of the few 80’s toy properties where I watched the cartoon religiously but never had any of the toys. I guess maybe I’m making up for lost time? And here comes Super7 to help me stoke that plastic furnace of thunder kitty love! I should just start a new recurring feature called Mint on Card by Super7, because I have been picking up a lot of their ReAction figures lately, and these remain the only figures I buy with the intent of leaving them carded. I realize that Mint on Card reviews aren’t terribly exciting. And believe me, if they weren’t so expensive, I’d be grabbing doubles of these figures to open, but at $18-20 a pop, that’s not going to happen unless they go on clearance somewhere. Anywho, Super7 has been hard at work keeping the ThunderCats Classics line they acquired from Mattel going, but they’ve also given us this little snack to tide us over in the form of ReAction ThunderCats!

For the uninitiated, the ReAction line takes various properties and converts them into retro-style figures similar to Kenner’s Star Wars line. This practice had varying degrees of success in the hands of Funko, but now that Super7 has taken over, the results have been a lot more even. The first wave of ThunderCats consists of six figures and it’s a satisfying mix of both Cats and Mutants. The assortment includes Panthro, Jackalman, Slithe, Cheetara, Mumm-Ra in his powered up form, and Lion-O. It’s a solid assortment, unless you happen to be a Tygra fanboy, and then you’re shit out of luck until the next wave. As always, these figures feature five points of articulation each and come carded on beautiful retro-style packaging, which is decidedly not collector friendly. The back of the cards all feature the same Collect Them All photo of all the figures in the wave. Let’s start out with a look at the Cats!

You can’t have a first wave of ThunderCats without Lion-O, The Lord of the ThunderCats! Also, I think Cheetara was a fine choice, because she often gets pushed to later releases so it’s nice to see her out front and center. And Panthro is the third to round out this trio. So, assuming we’re going to get single carded releases of the Thunder Kittens, this wave splits the team of heroic kitties right down the middle, leaving WilyKit, WilyKat, and Tygra for the second assortment. What about Snarf? Honestly, I would have expected him to be included with Lion-O as an accessory, but it’s probably not out of the question to get him as a single carded release. We’ve seen ReAction figures as small as Gizmo from Gremlins released in the past. But before getting into the figures, let me take a moment to gush all over these cardbacks, because they are indeed gorgeous.

I think Funko’s biggest misstep with ReAction was saving money by using a single generic card for each series. It was a missed opportunity to exploit the potential of the whole retro-carded formula. Super7 recognized the value in collecting these figures as showpieces, making the card itself almost as important as the figure. As a result, the art for each of the characters is unique, dynamic, and exciting with the characters spilling out over the borders of the cards as if they’re coming right at you. Almost like these ThunderCats are loose! Lion-O strikes his iconic pose, Panthro looks like he’s ready to put the beat down on some dirty Mutants, and Cheetara is just looking sexy as all hell. Meow! All of the cards feature the beautiful ThunderCats logo emblazoned across the top and the Kenner-style ReAction logo in the bottom right hand corner. My only complaint here is that Super7 really should have credited the artist on the back of the card. It just feels like that’s a major part of what makes these so collectible.

The figures are fitted into trays inside the bubbles ensuring they’re accessories stay put and the Cats are always in the optimal position for display, which is a huge win over Super7’s Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles ReAction (I’ll have a look at those here soon!) where they just are just rattling around in their bubbles. Sure, the later is more accurate for the vintage vibe they’re going for, but I’m willing to embrace the anachronism for a better display item. The sculpting on these figures is sharp and the paint is bright and clean. Of the three, I think Lion-O and Cheetara are the best at representing their characters. That’s not to say Panthro is bad, but I think he lost a little too much of his buff physique when being adapted to this format. These look like they’re the result of a lot more love and care than Funko ever injected into their ReAction figures, and the quality seems to be leaps and bounds better too. The accessories are pretty much what I would expect, with the ‘Cats possessing their iconic weapons. Panthro has his nun-chucks, connected with a piece of black string. Lion-O comes with both versions of the Sword of Omens, one retracted and one extended, as well as his Claw Shield. The swords are cast in gray plastic with the Eye of Thundara painted on the hilts. Cheetara’s staff is obviously the least interesting of the arsenal. Let’s move on to Mumm-Ra and the Evil Mutants!

As with the Cats, I think Super7 made some good character choices here as well. Mumm-Ra was a no brainer, but I would have been happier with either this or his decrepit mummy form. Slithe is the Leader of the Evil Mutants, so he was a natural choice. As for Jackalman? Well, honestly they could have gone with him or Monkian and I would have been fine. Poor Vultureman never seems to get any love. Ah well, maybe in the next Wave.

The card art for the baddies is (mostly) every bit as good as what we got for the Cats. I’m not ashamed to admit that Mumm-Ra scared the ever-living shit out of me when I was a kid, and this character art captures that freakish terror perfectly. From his beady red eyes, to his grasping claw and his shredded bandages, I can practically hear his demented blathering. Slithe has that bloated and confused look that he often shows, although they didn’t quite get his one popped eye right for the card. Finally, Jackalman looks good, but his jaw looks like it’s kind of sloffing off. But seriously, I’m nitpicking. This art is just fantastic.

As for the figures, they’re pretty great too. I was particularly interested to see how they would do Mumm-Ra’s cape and bandages, and they went with sculpted bandages and a vinyl cape, and I wholeheartedly approve. Slithe is particularly cool because they gave him his short and squat body type and his tail can be seen tucked between his legs too. As for Jackalman, well his little noggin is a work of art. As with the Cats, the coloring on these figures is superb. They’re bright and beautiful with some sharp lines and careful applications. As for accessories, Mumm-Ra comes with his sword and a dagger, Slithe comes with his axe, which is mostly hidden behind his back, and Jackalman comes with his spiked club.

By now the ThunderCats have been released in just about every scale and style I can imagine. From the more animated faithful figures made by Ban Dai and Mattel to the vintage Masters of the Universe style of Funko’s Savage World, and now we have the old Kenner style. I like these a lot, and I think the characters translated pretty well, but I can imagine that they aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. The biggest advantage to these little fellows would be allowing vehicles to be smaller and less costly, but I’m not sure if that’s part of Super7’s plans. Still, a 3 3/4-inch scale ReAaction Thundertank would be damn cool, not to mention a little playset based around Mumm-Ra’s tomb. Anything like that would certainly get me to spring for a second set of these to open and play with. In the meantime, I’ll just be anxiously awaiting a second wave. How about Tygra, WilyKIt, WilyKat, Shriveled Mumm-Ra, Monkian, and Vulture Man. Yeah, that would do nicely!

Aug 10 2020

Marvel Legends (Crimson Dynamo Wave): Winter Soldier by Hasbro

It’s Marvel Monday and I’m pressing on with my look at the Crimson Dynamo Wave! After checking out a couple of figures from the Black Widow movie, I thought I’d turn back to another one of the comic book figures in this assortment. Strangely, Bucky hasn’t had much comic book love in the modern Legends line, despite his heavy influences on the MCU. And while I’ll confess I would much rather have had a Bucky Barnes figure by now to hang out with one of my many MANY Caps, I won’t turn my nose up at this new Winter Soldier figure.

And here he is in the package along with a noggin for the Crimson Dynamo BAF! This is probably a pretty modern look for Winter Soldier, as the lines between comic and MCU designs are pretty blurred here. As many of you know I’ve given up on current Marvel comics, but I think I last encountered Bucky in the pages of The Thunderbolts. Indeed, when I found this figure on the pegs, it  actually took me a second to realize this wasn’t MCU Bucky with a bad Sebastian Stan likeness. Nope, he’s straight from the pages of the funny books!

Oh YEAH! Hasbro went off the charts with some of the sculpted detail on this guy, especially where his equipment is concerned. The costume itself is pretty standard stuff, particularly his familiar tunic with the horizontal strips running across his chest. The combat pants have nice texturing and some sculpted pockets, and are tucked into his high-laced military boots. Overall, the colors are pretty dark, but there’s a lighter blue wash to bring out some of the details in his tunic.

The cybernetic arm is sculpted with a ribbed texture and lots of musculature. It’s also got a nice silver-gray sheen to it and a star printed on the shoulder. The hands have sculpted, finger-less gloves, and I dig that they actually sculpted the cybernetic jointing into the fingers on his left hand. You gotta really look to see it, which makes it all the more welcome. Holy crap, he’s even even wearing a watch on his left wrist.

And then we come to tall the extra gear they strapped to him! For starters he’s got a harness with ammo pouches running across his chest. Below that he has a tactical belt with grenades, magazines, and a combat knife and pistol, alas neither of which are removable. Finally, he has two more magazines strapped to his left thigh. Hasbro even popped for some paint operations on the grenades, gun, and magazines. Nice!

The head sculpt is quite good, giving us something of a generic Sebastian Stan, which is pretty much how I remembered him the last time I saw him in a comic panel. He has a domino mask, which is part of the sculpt and neatly painted, and a coif of long hair with strands hanging down on either side of his face.

 

By now y’all should know what to expect from modern Legends articulation, but what the hell, let’s run through it. It pads out my word count. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double-hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double-hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab-crunch hinge under the chest, and both a hinge and ball joint in the neck. The thick knee joints can look a little strange when flexed all the way, the elbow joints are a tad spongy, but otherwise, he’s a fun figure to play with.

Bucky comes with two weapons, and these are great examples of how to do Marvel Legends weapons the proper way. They’re wonderfully detailed and look like the equivalent of real world weapons and not weird sci-fi shooters, like the red abomination we got with the MCU version of Winter Soldier. The pistol looks like a M1911 with a textured grip and detailed slide. The rifle looks like an AR-15 carbine with (non) telescoping stock, scope, and a grenade launcher slung under the barrel. These are exactly the kinds of weapons I wish Hasbro would have included with their GI JOE Classified figures!

A lot of the comic-based Legends I’ve looked at lately have been of the quick-and-easy painted costume variety. And yeah, that honestly does work fine for a lot of characters, but it also makes me appreciate a figure like this Winter Soldier all the more. Hasbro just poured on the love in every possible way, from the detailed sculpt to the excellent weapons, and the result is a comic-based figure that stands out even among the MCU releases. He’s quite simply fantastic.

Aug 7 2020

Court of the Dead: Kier (First Sword of Death) Sixth-Scale Figure by Phicen/TBLeague

If you were poking around here yesterday, you may have caught an unfinished preview of today’s review, because I had it scheduled for the wrong day and it published before I completed it. So, here’s the real deal with the rest of the pictures and a nice edit to fix all my drunken typos. Enjoy!  

TBLeague has made a nice niche for themselves creating sixth-scale figures based on indie comic characters, as well as some really cool original concept figures. But never did I expect them to ink a deal with Sideshow Collectibles to create sixth-scale figures based on The Court of the Dead. I mean, that’s crazy. Sideshow makes sixth-scale figures. Why wouldn’t they make these themselves? Well, to be honest, I’m glad it went down this way. The designs work well with the Phicen Seamless Body and the retail cost is most certainly a good bit cheaper than if Sideshow had done them. Today I’m checking out the first release in this line. It’s the Bane of Heaven… Kier!

Here’s a quick look at the packaging, which includes a sturdy box with a tri-fold magnet lid. There is some work to be done before Kier is ready for display. It mostly involves putting on her armor pieces, so let me get her set up and we’ll have a look! But before getting to the goodies, how about some of that backstory? The Court of the Dead is the brainchild of artist Tom Gilliland and initially presented by Sideshow as a series of Premium Format statues. I have to respect the confidence it takes to do a wholly original line of PF Statues. These statues are expensive and they take up a lot of display space. I feel like a lot of people who invest in these pieces do so because of their fondness for a specific character. But Sidshow went in guns blazing by creating a universe and character backstories, and it must have paid off because they’ve released a lot of product in this line. Personally, I loved the designs, but couldn’t commit to the flagship statues. Nonetheless, when TBLeague announced the figures, I was immediately on board.

Outcast from the Heavens and raised by Death, Kier is the Valkyrie of the Dead and also known as Death’s First Sword. Oh yeah… and she is absolutely stunning. Built on one of the large busted Phicen Seamless Bodies, Kier features a rather distinctive blue-gray colored skin with blood stains on her forearms and lower legs. These stains start out with ragged red streaks and get darker until becoming black on her saturated hands and feet. Her armor pieces consist of grieves for her lower legs, a sleeve for her right forearm, pauldrons on her shoulders, and a breastplate. Meanwhile her lower modesty is covered by a sash that hangs down from a belt. Each of the armor pieces are intricately sculpted with some cool Giger-esque patterns and painted to look like ancient bronze. I particularly dig the curved blade protruding from her armor sleeve. The shoulder pieces are attached by clear rubber bands, which make them a pain in the ass to get on, but once they are they seem to stay attached by magic. She also has rather ornate wrist and bicep cuffs on her left arm.

Also part of her armor is the gorget she wears around her neck. It’s a cool piece, but it doesn’t fit as flush against her skin as I would like. Some of this is caused by the cape that ties around her neck and runs out under the gorget. Her cape is made from a heavy fabric with a brown exterior that looks to be spattered with mud. The interior has some sewn patterns that invoke themes of blood and bone. There’s a wire running through the bottom edge of the cape so that it can be shaped into different positions.

Her head sculpt is rather attractive for a Valkyrie of the Dead. The facial features are soft and smooth, but still very well defined. She bares a rather stern and determined expression, which I suppose fits an undead harvester of souls. The paint used for the eyes is much simpler than we usually get, but that’s probably because they weren’t going for that traditional spark of life that we usually get. These are just little gray pools. The eyebrows are sharp and crisp as are the gray lines that spill from her bottom lip and follow down her chin. I’m particularly impressed by the sculpting of the hairline as it looks extraordinarily realistic. This is the first TBLeague figure I’ve seen with sculpted hair, instead of their traditionally rooted coifs, and I have to say they did a damn fine job on it. The texture of the hair is very sharp as are the braids that protrude down her back, each one sculpted with ornamental hair ties painted silver.

And while it’s a shame to cover up that pretty face, Kier comes with a mask, which is perhaps best characterized in her own words, “I have two faces, that which I was given and that which I made. My true face is the one I carved with my own two hands… And if you see it, chances are you’re on your last rattle.” And it does indeed cut a fearsome visage. The mask is brilliantly held on by magnets, which make it so easy to put on and take off without fear of rubbing paint or scratching the plastic of Kier’s pretty face. The mask itself features a realistic bone finish with the Spirit Faction symbol carved into the forehead, two gnarled horns rising from the top… well, make that one and a half, and the jaw bones hanging down from the sides like a pair of grizzly earrings. The mask is formed to fit Kier’s face, perfectly lining up with her eyes and nose.

In addition to a number of different sets of hands, and an extra set of feet, Kier comes with a skull partially engulfed in translucent mystical energy. Maybe one of the souls she is harvesting? This is a horrifically realistic sculpt, all brown and gnarled and with the jawbone missing. The translucent blue plastic swirls off of it to the side and has a beautiful glow when presented in the right lighting. The top of the skull is sculpted with five finger holes, which can be used in conjunction with one of Kier’s graspy hands to make it look like she’s poked her fingers directly into the bone.

Next up, Kier has her impressive two-handed sword. I’ll confess I was a little surprised to find the blade was made of plastic, since a lot of TBLeague’s figures come with metal bladed weapons, but given the extreme length of it, they probably made the right choice from a standpoint of weight and balance. Regardless, the hilt is intricately sculpted with a bird carving as the pommel and a gnarled tangle for a crossguard. The hilt is finished with the same rich patina as Kier’s armor.

Finally, this figure comes with a diorama style base, which is akin to the ones that come with TBLeague’s Deluxe figures. It consists of a circular pedestal with jagged slate pouring up from it. The pedestal is adorned with skulls and skull medallions, and there are more skulls and bones strewn around the rocky terrain, giving you a little slice of the dark dimension on which to display the figure. And if you’ve read any of my Deluxe TBLeague reviews, you probably know what’s coming next. Yeah, there is unfortunately no way to secure the figure to the stand. No pegs or peg holes in her feet, no magnets, and no post to secure her to. Now, I had absolutely no problem getting her to stand on the display in a variety of different poses, but there’s just no way I’m going to display her like that all the time and run the risk of an inevitable shelf dive. As a result, the stand makes for some good photo ops, but it’s not something I’m going to use to display her regularly, and that’s a shame because they did put some nice work into this piece.

Kier set me back about $170, which is right in line with TBLeague’s Deluxe figures, and I have to say that’s a hell of a value. Doubly so when you can rarely ever touch a Hot Toys or Sideshow figure for under $225 these days. And most of those don’t come with big diorama-style display bases. TBLeague did an amazing job owning this design and she is going to look fantastic displayed alongside some of my other TBLeague horror gals, like Vampirella, Purgatori, and Lady Death. Not to mention I’ve already had the second of TBLeague’s Court of the Dead figures arrive, so I hope to be checking her out in a few weeks.

Aug 5 2020

Transformers Siege: Mirage by Hasbro

As you may be aware, I’ve been bouncing my Transformers reviews between the new Earthrise releases and my backlog of Siege figures. Up until now, I’ve felt hopelessly dated going back to the previous line, but seeing as how the new Netflix series premiered, it now seems a lot more topical to be checking these out. I’ve only seen a few episodes of the series so far, but I like it well enough. I’m pretty impressed at how close the animation models stick to the toy designs. I think it tries a little too hard to be edgy and gritty, but overall it’s pretty good stuff. So, let’s check out my favorite Autobot Infiltrator, Mirage! I’m delighted to see Hasbro taking another crack at Mirage. The Classics one was a cool figure, but it was pretty different than the G1 robot design. Combiner Wars gave us another, but that one was just a repaint of the Stunticon, Dragstrip.

And this one looks like it’s going to be a pretty sweet update! The box contains the usual kick-ass character art and showcases the figure in his robot mode. I should note that this Mirage has been re-released in a Decepticon deco, as part of the Netflix sub-line of Siege repaints. That didn’t make any sense to me until seeing the series. It’s a cool way to introduce and justify a repaint, but I’ve opted to skip the Netflix repaints. Let’s start with his race car mode!

It’s a reach, but to appreciate Siege, you have to accept that there are a lot of native Autobot alt-modes that look conveniently similar to Earth cars. And yeah, I’m OK with that. This Cybertron racer reminds me a bit of Prowl’s alt-mode from the Energon series, and that toy hasn’t aged too well. Mirage has a distinctive Formula-1 configuration, but the canopy and surrounding area are cast in translucent blue to give it the feel of a futuristic alien machine. The front is fairly faithful to its Earth cousin, but the back looks all sorts of stubby and weird, especially since the back of the vehicle is the faked out chest for the robot mode, which is supposed to be the front of the car. The end result is something that has a bit of a super-deformed Tonka-toy feel about it.

The color palate consists of white, gray, and blue, in other words, G1 Mirage colors. You also get some silver paint on the top of the wheels and the top of the spoiler. There’s some Cybertonian script printed on the sides of the car and a bold Autobot emblem printed on the front. All in all, I’m not really digging this alt mode very much. The best thing I can say about it is the translucent plastic looks really cool.

Mirage comes with two weapons and they can both plug into the holes in his spoiler. Yeah, it doesn’t do a whole lot to add to the vehicles aesthetic. Let’s move on to the robot mode.

Now we’re talking! Clearly, Hasbro made all the sacrifices in the alt mode to give us a great looking Mirage in robot mode, and given how good it looks, I’m fine with that! The transformation is totally different, and yet everything falls into place more or less. The armor panels on his arms are now made up from the spoiler, rather than the sides of the car. Those wind up down in his lower legs. And I already mentioned that the chest is faked out to look like the front of the car, when it’s actually the back. The clear plastic looks cool down in his legs, and I like how the Cybertron script winds up down their too.

From the back, he isn’t exactly pretty, but there’s still some neat stuff going on here. I dig how the back wheels fold into his back and are totally obscured from view in the front. The front wheels and stabilizers fold behind his lower legs at an angle, which also puts them out of view from the front. I do wish these locked into place better, but it’s a creative way to stow them.

The head sculpt is comprised of pure G1 goodness. He features the familiar rounded “helmet” with the vents on each side of his face. The face itself is painted in a flashy silver and his eyes are neatly painted blue. I also like that they gave him a kind of good natured smile. That’s the old Mirage that I know and love. The cut-out on his chest, a vestige of where his face was hidden in the original toy, has some great texturing and the blue and red paint really pop. I also dig that huge Autobot insignia on his chest. It matches the one on the real front of the car pretty closely.

One of Mirage’s weapons can work as a shoulder-mounted missile launcher, similar to what the original toy had. It looks OK, but I think it projects out a little too much, and that extra peg on the missile is distracting. The launcher can also double as a hand-held weapon too.

And Mirage also comes with a more conventional rifle, which is not only a very cool design, but clearly based on the rifle that came with the original figure. Before wrapping up, since this guy is replacing the Combiner Wars Mirage in my collection, let’s take a quick look at how they stack up.

Some may say it’s unfair to compare their vehicle modes, since this new Mirage is supposed to be a Cybertron racer and the other is an Earth racer, but still.. Combiner Wars Mirage wins by a mile. It’s sleek and sexy, has some nice curves, and the simpler deco is beautiful.

Of course, going to robot mode is a whole different story. Combiner Wars Mirage never really came close to looking like the real deal, and that’s understandable since he’s a repaint of a Stunticon with a Mirage head on it. And with a robot mode this good, I’ll take the Siege Mirage with his boxy alt mode any day.

Unless you’re totally dead set on getting an Earth Formula-1 Racer, I can’t recommend this figure enough. I’ve taken a lot of jabs at the alt mode, but in all fairness it isn’t that bad. And it’s even easier to swallow it when it delivers such a great looking figure. Surprisingly, I wasn’t all that excited about getting this guy in hand, but now that I have him, I find that he’s really scratching an itch that’s been bothering me for a long time. That old Classics Mirage was a cool figure, but it was more of a re-imagining of the character, where is this is exactly what I was looking for!

Aug 3 2020

Marvel Legends (Crimson Dynamo Wave): Red Guardian by Hasbro

Welcome back to another Marvel Monday! As promised, this week I’m pushing through with my look at the Crimson Dynamo Wave, which is comprised of about half comic-related figures and half dedicated to the yet to be released Black Widow movie. Let’s keep going with the MCU figures for now and have a look at Red Guardian!

From the trailers, it seems like poor Alexei may wind up being the comic relief of this movie. It looks like he comes out of retirement to team up with the titular Black Widow, but trailers can be deceiving, so who knows what we’ll get in the end. I really think Disney should have just put the movie on their streaming service by now, because unless there are drastic changes with The Coof, it seems like they’re going to probably wind up doing that in the end. Anyway, I dig the black, white, and red art they went with for the packaging. It’s very stylish. The front of the package features the movie logo and naturally, the window shows off the figure you’re getting as well as a look at that big juicy BAF part.

I do enjoy seeing the design transformation of comic characters into their MCU counterparts. The MCU usually pulls it off pretty well, and this is a case where I am yet again pleased with the results. Alexei’s suit is given a more realistic and tactical look, while still endowing it with a bit of a vintage flavor, as if this suit were a 50’s or 60’s design. It feels like this suit is the USSR’s rough equivalent to Captain America’s earlier costume. Every bit of the red suit is nicely textured, and there are gray straps sculpted on the inside of his thighs, and on his shoulders and chest, converging to the raised star in the center. He also has sculpted arm bracers and boots. The belt is a molded as a separate piece of plastic and fits snug on the figure’s waist. There are some pouches sculpted on the sides, and a painted belt buckle. Finally, you get some black paint hits throughout.

The head sculpt is solid, but I think it lacks a bit of the realism that we’ve seen in the better MCU portraits. David Harbour is playing the role in the film, an actor who I’m not terribly familiar with. I guess he was in Stranger Things, but I never made it through more than a few episodes of that. I can definitely see the likeness there, and they did an especially nice job sculpting his hair and beard. I am, however, disappointed that Hasbro didn’t include a second masked head. Hell, the dude is even masked in all of the box art! To be honest, if we were only going to get one head, I would have preferred a masked one.

Articulation is standard stuff. The arms have rotating hinges in the wrists and shoulders, double-hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double-hinges in the knees, swivels at the thighs and above the boots, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s an ab-crunch hinge in the torso, a swivel in the waist, and the neck is ball jointed and hinged.

Red Guardian comes with his shield, which is a great looking piece. The gray and red deco looks quite striking and thanks to the peg/clip combo, Alexei can wear it on either of his wrists or peg it into his back for easy carry.

Lack of masked head notwithstanding, I dig this figure a lot. The MCU design looks fantastic, and the figure captures it quite splendidly. I’m excited to see how the character fares in the film, and I hope he at least gets a few moments of glory rather than be relegated totally toward comic relief. In the meantime, next week I’ll switch over and take a look at another of the comic based figures in the assortment.

By figurefanzero
1
Jul 31 2020

Dungeons & Dragons: Beholder Boxed Set by Jada

I’ve been desperately trying to streamline my collecting these days, which is why my reviews have been pretty focused lately and rarely hold many surprises. It’s Hasbro, it’s Mythic Legions, it’s Phicen or Hot Toys, etc. etc. It’s mainly a question of the very finite amount of precious space I have remaining and what I am willing to spend it on. A far cry from the days when I would scour the clearance racks at Toys R Us and buy whatever was cheap and tickled my fancy. Still, every now and then something turns up out of left field and I just have to go for it. It also helps when that thing is a an assortment of tiny miniatures.

Dungeons & Dragons! When I was young I enjoyed the franchise through a Saturday morning cartoon and the LJN figure line. Later, it was a defining element of my early teenage years, right about the time I was getting out of playing with toys. I had a few friends that played and we would get together every other week to play. But for me D&D transcended the act of playing the game. I was obsessed with the books, the stats, the monsters, making maps, and yes collecting and painting the tiny miniatures. There was a store dedicated to paper and pencil RPGs and board games called The Compleat Strategist in the neighborhood mall that was like nirvana to me. Anywho, fast forward to my last trip to my Walmart’s dismal toy section, and I would have come away empty handed if it weren’t for finding this curious box of D&D miniatures from Jada Toys.

As far as I know, Jada is known for their diecast cars and miniature figures, so the D&D license seems like a no-brainer. And we all know Hasbro wasn’t doing a god damn thing with the license, right? This set of five painted miniatures comes in a window box, which pretty much lets the miniatures do all the talking. The D&D logo is downplayed, the bottom denotes who you’re getting, and the back has a pretty cool fantasy painting. The set gives you all you need to set up a little battle between your party of four adventurers and a vile beholder. Let’s open it up and have a look.

Oh yeah, did I mention that one of the party members IS FREAKING MINSC FROM BALDUR’S GATE??? He’s the only actual named member of the party on the package and yes, it includes his miniature giant space hamster, Boo! Well, sort of. Boo is just a purple glob on his shoulder. You really have to keep in mind that these are only a little over an inch and a half tall. With that having been said, the sculpt is OK, albeit pretty soft. It’s far from on par with some of the better D&D miniatures I used to have. MINSC is wearing a scale armor hauberk, a cape, and has a broadsword. He stands heroically with hands on hips.

I think the sculpt could have been helped out a lot more by better paint. MINSC is done up in a four color palate, which consists of brown for the hauberk, metallic purple for the cape and face tatts, flesh for his skin tone, and gray for the base, arm bracers, pants and boots. None of the finer details are distinguished, and I don’t mind that for the some stuff like the belt and boots, but it’s a shame they couldn’t paint the sword a different color than his cape. On my worst day I could have painted this figure better, and I was never good at painting these things.

Next up we have the Elf Bard, which I think is overall a lot better than Minsc. The sculpt is still pretty soft, but it conveys the outfit fairly well and he is posed playing his lute. The color palate here is also a bit more varied. The outfit is lavender, the cape is purple, the boots and base are brown, the instrument is black, plus you get his flesh tone and white hair. Sure, he’s probably the least exciting figure in the bunch, but I guess it’s nice to have music while you’re fighting a beholder to the death.

The third member of the party is the Tiefling Paladin and this is probably my favorite of the adventurers. The sculpt here is a lot more impressive than the previous two. You get some good detail in her armor and I really dig the crazy array of cutlery she has hanging off her belt. Her right hand is outstretched and about to strike with her flail, while her right hand is drawn into a fist. I also love her tail, which is sculpted as part of the cape interior between her legs. The paint on this one is limited to four colors: Metallic purple for the bulk of the figure and base, blue for the cape, black for her hair and belt, and red for her skin. This is a damn cool little figure.

The final adventurer is the Orc Paladin and I’m really torn on this one. The sculpt is very soft, but I can make out some details like the belt and satchel. The armored pieces are a little better, but his face is just a mushy lump. I do like the pose a lot. The coloring here isn’t the best. You get a beige for the bulk of his body and cape. Silver for the armor, shield, sword, and base. His face is a grayish green with some black for his eyes and beard and hair.

And the real showpiece of this collection is the Beholder, which comes floating on a translucent plastic stand. I’m not sure how much of this guy is actually diecast because he’s rather light. I know the eye stalks are all a bendable rubbery plastic. I can’t say enough good things about the sculpt here. It’s absolutely fantastic. They worked in a lot of his scales, some stubby little horns, and the teeth are absolutely terrifying. The only thing I will nitpick her is the choice of coloring. Metallic blue seems like an odd direction to go for his skin, as does the gold for his eyes. I can’t deny that it’s a striking color scheme, but it comes off looking a bit like those cheap novelty Christmas tree ornament you might find in a bin at Target. That sounds harsh, and I do really like this figure a lot, but I think it could have been so much better with a different deco. Indeed, the general choice to go with metallic paint in this set is a bit of a poser to me.

So what’s my overall feeling here? Eh, I don’t know. It’s really cool to find a set of D&D miniatures in the toy aisle of a major retailer and it makes a lot of sense for a company like Jada to do them. The sculpts are OK, but I think if these were painted with more care and detail this set could have gone from a mere curiosity to something really cool. Also keep in mind, this set was less than $10, which had a lot to do with me deciding to pick it up. It makes me a little more forgiving, but I would have happily paid another five or even ten bucks for decent paint. Ultimately, I think these are fun, and a little research turned up that they have another similar set of a adventurers facing off against a dragon. I might just have to check that one out too.

Jul 29 2020

GI JOE Classified: Snake Eyes by Hasbro

Well, it took a little longer than I thought, but the final figure from the first assortment of GI JOE Classified arrived a few days back. Snake Eyes was the first figure revealed and the hardest one for me to get. I think I still have the Deluxe version on pre-order on Hasbro Pulse, but since I haven’t had a lot of luck with those pre-orders, I was happy to pick up this vanilla release just in case.

How many times can I say it? I love this packaging! You get a very attractive and colorful window box that shows off the figure and is totally collector friendly. The side panel displays the character’s abilities with a fun system of iconography and there’s a beautiful mural of characters and vehicles on the back. I don’t have the same obsession with Snake Eyes that a lot of JOE fans seem to have. It’s probably blasphemy to say it, but I was never a big fan of them forcing him into the whole Ninja slot. When I was a kid playing with my JOEs he was just a kick ass Commando with an Uzi and not a Ninja at all.

It doesn’t take a second look for me to realize why they chose Snake Eyes as the initial reveal. Even setting aside how popular he is as a character, this is an amazing looking figure. Sure he’s mostly black, but the figure makes great use of both matte and high gloss finishes for different parts of his outfit, as well as some sparing hits of silver and red paint. Plus, there’s some fine texture work in the sculpt as well. And that sculpt! Holy crap there is a lot going on here! The base body has features sculpted pants with knee pads, a lot of chiseled musculature in the torso, and armor plates on the arms and shoulders, There’s also several pieces sculpted out of softer plastic and worn by the figure, like the bicep straps with pouches, doubled up belts on the waist, a shoulder strap with pouches and sculpted grenades, and a holster and sheath attached with straps around his thighs. This guy is clearly ready for anything.

And that mask! Part of me was a little worried we’d get some big goofy rubber lips like we did with Rise of Cobra, but nope. This mask is as classic as it gets. He has the iconic segmented visor and the breathing holes over the lower half of his face. I also really dig the sculpted stitching up the neck. Beautiful!

Snake Eyes has a hole in his back and through the shoulder strap that can be used for a few accessories, but primarily his backpack. It’s cast in matte black plastic and like the figure it’s loaded with detail. It also features some silver paint operations on the buckles and snaps. Unlike Duke’s backpack, this one stays on extremely well. It also has a peg hole on the side so you can attach the sword scabbard.

If you want Snake Eyes to travel more lightly, the peg hole in the back can be used to secure his sword alone, or even his larger gun. And since we’re now talking about accessories… Let’s check out those accessories!

This retail version of Snake Eyes comes with a collection of weapons that pales in comparison to the Deluxe version, but you still get some cool stuff. For starters, he has a combat knife that’s very similar in design to what we saw with Scarlett. It has a saw back and the blade swells near the tip. It’s a little small for the figure’s hand, but he can hold it fairly well. Unfortunately, this thing will not fit into the sheath. It goes in about three-quarters of the way and then just stops. I could take something and try to clean it out in there, but for now it’s just not going in.

Next up, he has a pistol with a detachable suppressor, both of which can fit into his holster separately and I really dig that! I’m a little less enamored with the gun itself, mainly because of the big hole in the center. This looks like it’s designed for storage on a peg, but other than being able to attach it to the bigger gun (and why would I want to do that?), I don’t see the reason for it and it just looks goofy. I’ll likely be raiding my Marvel Legends figures for some better weapons for this guy.

Next up is his bigger gun and again, I’m just not liking the design here. I think it’s supposed to be a sci-fi take on an assault carbine, but like the smaller one it has that big hole in the center which is so off-putting. He really does need a proper Uzi.

And finally, Snake Eyes comes with his sword and scabbard. The scabbard has a wonderful texture to it and features the Arashikage symbol printed in red near the throat. The sword is a lot more stylized than I’m used to seeing him carry, but I don’t mind. The elongated grip works with one or two hands, and there’s a tiny finger loop in the guard for his trigger finger. There’s a saw-back area of the blade near the hilt, which is a little weird, and the the blade terminates into a clipped point.

Snake Eyes turned out to be an excellent figure, but I really never doubted that. And remember my blasphemous Commando/Ninja comment? Well, one thing I really dig about this figure is how it strides the line between the two. I can load him up with his backpack and guns if I want him to be a Commando, or I can strap a sword on his back and make him a Ninja. Which brings me to my only real gripe here is that I wish he came with his old school explosives pack, because when I was a kid playing with him, he was constantly using that to blow up Cobra installations and vehicles. I used to stick it to HISS tanks with a little dab of silly putty!

And that’s the first assortment of GI JOE Classified. This line is not perfect. There were some design choices I’m not 100% on board with, but what i can’t deny is that each and every one of them are very fun figures. I think the one thing that’s been hard to get used to is the way the line seems to pick and choose between old and iconic and fresh and new. Part of me wishes all the figures had toed that Real American Hero line a little closer, but then even the new designs have been growing on me. All I can say is BRING ON THE NEXT ASSORTMENT AND YO JOE!!!