Tag Archives: avengers

Mar 16 2013

Avengers: Black Widow Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys

Way back when, the Iron Man 2 version of Black Widow very nearly became my first Hot Toys purchase, but she sold out before I could get the funds together and she was going for ridiculous prices on the second hand market. And so that honor eventually fell to Captain America. But some things happen for a reason, and one look at Widow’s second version from Hot Toys and I found myself actually glad I missed out on the first, because I can’t say as that figure has aged well. Needless to say I pre-ordered The Avengers version as soon as Sideshow put her up. It was a long wait until December and then, as is often the case with Hot Toys releases, she was delayed and delayed again until finally arriving fashionably late here in the middle of March.

htabw23

The packaging is nowhere near as flashy as my previous Hot Toys purchases, but it certainly gets the job done with just enough style to boot. The figure comes in a window box with a cardboard sleeve over it. The sleeve has a newsprint-style photo of Widow on the front with the Avengers logo in foil print. Apart from the fine print on the back, the only other printing on the sleeve are the two hourglass emblems on the sides.

htabw24

The interior window box is silver with the same hourglass emblems on the sides, the Avengers logo on the front and “Black Widow” in big print on the top and bottom. The back panel has the usual Hot Toys credits listing the people who worked on the figure. The window shows off the figure, but until you open her up and clear all the plastic and wrap away, you won’t really get a great look at her. Inside the window box, the figure rests in her tray, flanked on both sides by her accessories and extra hands. Her stand is positioned at the bottom of her tray, between her legs. Sometimes less is more, and in this case I think there’s a certain minimalist grace to Widow’s package. Nonetheless, long time Hot Toys collectors may feel let down by the lack of flashy presentation here. But enough about the packaging, it’s time to get her out and see what we’ve got…

htabw1

htabw2

Let’s deal with the elephant in the room… rooted hair! ROOTED HAIR!!! Widow’s rooted hair was the only thing that made me think twice about ordering her. I am not a fan, because it’s often hard to manage and quite frankly the idea of sitting at my desk and brushing and styling the hair on an action figure comes dangerously close to making me reconsider my hobby. It’s one of those things that when successful, it looks amazing, when unsuccessful it looks terrible. It’s a big risk to take on a $200 figure. But even more so, I have a real problem with inconsistencies, meaning if I have one Hot Toy figure with sculpted hair, I think they all should have sculpted hair. That’s my borderline OCD talking. Either way, I was a little bit terrified to open her up and see what I was going to be up against.

htabw4

Fresh out of the box, it certainly looks rather frazzled, but I don’t think it’s as bad as it could have been. There are inevitably going to be some stray hairs, but even those are usually easy to get under control. Most of the problem comes with when you’re manipulating the figure and her hair gets mussed as you can see in some of the photos. On the other hand, if she’s going to be on the shelf and left alone for a while, spending five minutes to get it under control is worth the pay off. Besides, I always thought Widow’s hair was a little too perfect during the intense battle scenes of the movie, so a few flyaways here and there don’t bother me all that much. I’m not going to say Widow converted me to an advocate of rooted hair, but in this case Hot Toys knew what they were doing and in retrospect, I probably wouldn’t change it. 

htabw7

As for the portrait itself, this is a solid representation of Scar-Jo, but not a perfect one. It’s not one of those instances where I marvel at whether or not I’m looking at a figure or the actual person. The nose and mouth and overall face structure are great, but I think maybe the eyes needed to be a little bigger? I’m not sure. I do know the paintwork is so good that it’s downright eerie. I thought the head sculpt on the Iron Man 2 version was passable, and I think this is an improvement over that release. In the end, it’s still an amazing sculpt and I’m perfectly happy with it. The body is a huge improvement over the train wreck that was the Iron Man 2 release. Some may argue that the proportions still aren’t quite right, but I think she’s pretty spot on.

htabw13

htabw14

I wasn’t expecting to have a lot to say about Widow’s outfit. I mean there’s only so much you can do with a leather body suit, right? Well, in hand I really am impressed. The material has just the right weight and pliability. It fits the figure extremely well and yet it hardly inhibits her articulation. Although, granted there’s only so far I’m willing to go with her hip joints, because I don’t want to pull the stitching. The blue piping looks great and there are even more subtle “panel lines” running throughout, plus the SHIELD patches on the shoulders are superb. The stitching is all neat and clean and sculpted rubber boots blend wonderfully with the legs of the suit.

htabw18

Widow features a regular belt with her hourglass belt buckle and a second weapons rig which rests on her hips and secures her two thigh holsters around her legs. The straps are all tight and look amazing and I absolutely love the minimalist approach to the holsters. They basically just hold the muzzle of the weapons and yet they are totally secure. The weapons rig also has four sculpted pouches with non-removable throwing discs, two front and two back.

htabw5

htabw6

Widow comes with a lot of hands! These are all easily swapped out, and you also get an extra set of posts in case you snap the ones that come on the figure. She comes packaged with a set of fists attached, you also get a set of pistol hands, you get a right hand designed to rest on her hip, and you get a right hand that is designed to hold her throwing discs. I don’t often do a lot of hand swapping with my figures, so the gun hands will spend the most time on my figure. You also get a set of “tazer effect” fists to allow her to show off her “Widow’s Sting.” These come in a separate tray and accompanied by a second set of bracers. These parts have some blue paint to show off the electrified effect of the sting. It looks Ok on the fists, but it’s barely noticeable on the bracers. 

htabw21

htabw16

htabw15

Accessories… Assemble! On paper, it looks like Widow comes with a lot of goodies, but in reality once you get through all the hands (so many hands!) there’s not a lot here that I’m interested in. I’ll start with what I considered essential and that’s her guns. She comes with a pair of Glock 26’s. These compact little beauties were great choices for her in the film and Hot Toys really nailed their 1:6 versions. Not only do they look great, but they actually have spring loaded action and removable clips with painted rounds showing at the top. These pistols fit perfectly in her holsters and in her set of gun hands.

htabw12

htabw10

htabw11

Next up is the Chitari rifle. The Chitari were the only thing I didn’t like all that much about The Avengers, so I certainly didn’t consider this piece essential. On the other hand, it is a pretty cool looking alien rifle and I am very glad they included it with the figure. It’s nicely sculpted and beautifully painted, but it doesn’t have any moving or removable parts. Will I ever display it with the figure? Probably not.

htabw8

Lastly, you get a pair of her teeny-tiny throwing discs. I don’t scoff at extra accessories, but it’s hard to justify the point of these little things. She can barely hold them and I can’t imagine many people choosing to display her with them.

htabw19

htabw17

Black Widow set me back $189 and there are no regrets here. She’s a fantastic looking figure and well worth the wait. I know some people have been grousing about the cost. She is, without a doubt, what would be considered among the basic assortment of Hot Toys figures and yet she was $20 more than the last Marvel Hot Toys I bought (First Avenger Cap was $169), but if you take into account the rising costs of everything, I don’t think the increase is all that bad. I mean if Deluxe Transformers can jump a third more in price in a year, the extra Andy Jack it cost me to get Black Widow doesn’t seem so bad.

htabw20

htabw22

I’m not setting out to pick up a full set of Avengers, but rather just cherry picking my favorites. Indeed, the next Hot Toys purchase I make will be doubling back to pick up Red Skull. On the other hand, if Thor hangs around long enough at any e-tailers, I might be tempted enough to pick him up at some point.

Mar 11 2013

Marvel Universe: Kang by Hasbro

I would understand if readers out there assumed that I stopped collecting Marvel Universe figures. The last time I looked at one was way back in November 2012 and I haven’t bought any until now. The truth is, I can’t find any on the pegs around here, and I refuse to pay a premium for them online. Here’s a novel idea, Hasbro, why don’t you sell the current figures on your website instead of listing them as sold out. Don’t you make these goddamn things? Haven’t you now missed profit goals and laid people off for the second fiscal period in a row? Don’t you want to sell them and make money for your shareholders and keep jobs for your employees? I can sort of understand the problem with retailers not having them, what with distribution issues or peg cloggers, but these are YOUR figures and YOUR website. Put enough of the current releases on your web store so people can buy them and you make money. Simple enough? Anyway, at least I’ve found that if I’m patient, Hasbro’s online shop finally gets enough of the older figures I missed out on so that I can rack up enough to get free shipping. I guess I have to be happy with crumbs. Ok, enough rant… today we’ll start with Kang.

DSCN0416

When you drink as much as I do, you get distracted and confused rather easily, hence the empty package picture. At some point when I was heavy into the Jameson, I likely muttered something like, “c’mere Kang, you’re the only one who understands me” and ripped him open, oblivious to the fact that I hadn’t yet taken a packaged shot. Remember kids… booze makes you stupid. But it also silences your demons, lets you fall asleep, and helps you to cope with life. Forget Kang, booze, you’re the only one who understands me.

I’ve got to admit, as much as I sometimes hate to collect this line, it feels great to be holding a new figure, especially one that’s pretty far up on my Want List. The packaging is the same as we saw last time, with the jagged bubble and the “Collectible Comic Shot” which is just a tiny piece of cardboard with a comic cover printed on it. You’ll also note he’s called “Marvel’s Kang” which is Hasbro’s way around copyright issues. I question, why not just go with “Kang the Conqueror?” Surely they could copyright that and it sounds much better than the alternative. Oh well. I don’t think Kang’s character art is among the best the line has offered, but it’s still pretty cool. The back of the card has a little bio and MODOK taunting you to collect them all by reworking the acronym for his name. Fun!

DSCN0409

DSCN0410

Let’s break Kang down into two categories: one good, one bad. If we’re dealing with the sculpt and the paint, he does very well. Check out that head sculpt, it’s fantastic, and I really dig the way they made the cowl and helmet two pieces. Instead of just a standard, painted buck, Kang’s got a loose fitting tunic. It looks like the torso could be from Dr. Strange, but if I’m not positive at a glance, than that’s good enough for me. The bottom of the tunic is part of the new belt and he’s got some bitching thigh-high future despot boots. The coloring on the figure is just as good. His amazing future suit is green with subtle and effective wash. The boots, gauntlets, helmet, and cowl are all metallic purple, and his face is a great shade of blue. No doubt, Kang is a gorgeous little figure. Oh yeah, he comes with a gun too!

DSCN0411

Ok, now the bad stuff… quality control! For starters, the swivel cuts in the thighs have huge caps in them. I could already see them before I took the figure out of the package. It’s bad enough that I probably would have left him on the peg if I were buying him in the store, but since he was a web order, I didn’t know until he was already in hand. Trying to screw them tighter helps a bit, but eventually they return to their natural state, leaving those annoying gaps. Next up, his legs are pretty messed up out of the package. This issue I’ve managed to fix a bit with a blow dryer, but it pisses me off that I have to. He’s not even in any kind of dynamic pose in the package. It’s just god awful cheap plastic. Hasbro, if you’re going to send out figures like this, at least start putting stands in the packages again.

DSCN0412

In terms of articulation, Kang doesn’t disappoint. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, and wrists. He has hinged elbows and double hinged knees. There are swivels in his biceps, thighs, and just under his knees. His ankles feature regular hinges as well as lateral rockers, and he has a ball joint in his torso. Not bad!

DSCN0414

DSCN0415

Remember how I said that sometimes I hate collecting this line? Kang is a great example of why. Hasbro delivered an amazing looking treatment of the character, but when you get down to the QC issues, he sure doesn’t feel like a ten dollar figure. Overall, the great paint and sculpt wins the day and makes me happy to have him in my collection, but in the unlikely scenario that I actually see him on the pegs, I’ll likely try to look for an upgrade without the big gaps in the thigh cuts. I shouldn’t have to do that, but it is what it is.

Mar 8 2013

Marvel Super Heroes: Spider-Man’s Spider-Cycle Chase (#76004) by Lego

I seriously set out today to buy another DC Lego set, but before I could decide which Batman set would interest me the most, I saw this “Spider-Cycle Chase” and all bets were off. The name of the set is so misleading. “Spider-Cycle Chase” sounds like something I would never buy because: A) I already have a Spider-Man minifig and I don’t need another, and B) I hate the idea of Spider-Man using gimmicky vehicles. What they should have called this set is “OH MY GOD, IT’S NICK FURY’S FLYING CAR AND OH YEAH, YOU ALSO GET A VENOM MINIFIG SO BUY THIS SET RIGHT NOW!!!” First Deadpool, than J. Jonah Jameson, and now Nick Fury and his flying car. Lego, you know how to push my Marvel buttons.

DSCN0366

The front of the box illustrates everything that is awesome about this set. Venom is standing on the hood of Fury’s flying roadster while Fury shoots a missile at his head. Meanwhile, Spider-Man is coming from the other direction in a FLYING F’ING MOTORCYCLE and shooting webs at him. All the while, Venom looks like he’s about to jump away at the last minute and let the two crash in classic Looney Toons fashion. All this craziness translates into: “buy this set for it contains fun within.” I should point out that like the last Spider-Man set, this one appears to be based on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. It’s a show I’ve never seen, but there’s no reason why this set can’t fit in with my other Marvel Lego.

DSCN0367

The set contains instructions, a comic book, a small sticker sheet, a loose strand of webbing, and three baggies containing a total of 237 pieces. It builds three minifigs, two Venom tendril mines, Spidey’s motorcycle, and Nick Fury’s car. Where should we start? Minifigs, assemble!

DSCN0368

DSCN0369

Spider-Man is no doubt the disappointment in this set, only because I had to get him again. I know this is bound to happen, but it’s still annoying. He’s still a great minifig, but the paint on his eyes is a little rubbed, so I’m glad I have another one. On the other hand, he comes with the same web strand as my other Spidey, so it’s nice to have two of those. Venom is awesome. Lego really nailed the printed face and he has a bunch of tendrils coming off of his back. Nick Fury is an animated style Nick Fury, but there’s no reason he can’t hang with the minifigs in my Avengers themed Lego sets, and since I don’t have a Fury minifig yet, he was a welcome addition to my collection. He comes with a little gun. You also get these two little Venom tendril pieces. I have no real use for them, so I’ll just mention them here with the minifigs.

DSCN0378

DSCN0377

I envisioned Spidey’s motorcycle as being something to toss into a bin and forgot about. Like I said earlier, I don’t like the idea of Spider-Man having gimmicky vehicles. On the other hand, it is an amazingly cool little design and the way it converts from motorcycle to hover cycle really is brilliant. It’s probably one of my favorite little Lego vehicles to date. Lego Deadpool will certainly have to steal it for when his Vesper is in the shop.

DSCN0371

DSCN0372

DSCN0374

DSCN0373

But make no mistake, the reason I bought this set was for Nick Fury’s car and I must say, Lego did a wonderful job on it. It’s a green one-seat, convertible roadster. I love the use of the tan bricks for the interior, because we all know Fury would demand rich Corinthian leather in his ride. The printed instrument panels look great, and I love the hinged spoiler on the back. Obviously, the car has two surprises. Wait… can surprises be obvious? Probably not…

DSCN0375

DSCN0376

First, the wheels fold in Back To The Future style to convert the car into hover mode. Secondly, there’s a concealed missile launcher that folds up out of the back. The only complaint I have is that it’s almost impossible to flick-fire the missile because you can barely get at the back of it. Still cool, though.

DSCN0379

This set was $20, which definitely seems right when you consider the piece count. I will say that the build seemed to go a lot faster than usual, but maybe that’s because I was particularly anxious to get the car completed. The engineering of the build is definitely clever and even with the duplicate Spider-Man, it was still a good value. Keep the Marvel sets coming Lego, and I’ll keep buying them!

Jan 12 2013

Avengers: Stark Tech Assault Armor by Hasbro

Yeah, we’re well into January, but I had other overdue business to get to last week and that left me with one last Christmas present to feature. Although technically, TFC F-4 Phantom and the forthcoming F-15 Eagle were both Christmas presents, as my parents have stopped trying to track what I have in my collection and have resorted to giving me monies to buy my own toys. Anyway, today’s item was given to me as part of one of these nefarious Secret Santa exchanges. I hate these things, mostly because I never know what to get the person and in return I have to act delighted while opening something from someone who had the exact same problem. In this case, I did pretty alright toward the forced focus of my compulsory Christmas spirit and in return I wound up with Iron Man’s giant ass mech suit. I have to give my Secret Santa credit not only for trying but for actually getting me something I didn’t already have. I’ll also grant her (yes, it didn’t remain secret for long) the good taste of not getting me the rather silly Captain America one.


The set comes in an attractive window box with the usual Avengers logo and artwork featuring all the Avengers, or at least the ones that got their own movies. Hawkeye and Black Widow clearly need to get new PR agents. The back panel of the box shows a close up of the armor and points out some of the play features. The idea here is that Stark built a bigger, more powerful mech-style armored suit that he can climb inside while wearing his regular suit. Fair enough, I can get behind that. The other Stark Tech toys are pictured on the bottom edge of the box. Let’s open her up and see what we’ve got…

There are no twisty-ties or anything holding the toys in the tray, which is why I was rather surprised when I took the armor out and it fell to pieces. How this thing stayed together in the package, I have no idea. But virtually all the weapon modules and the left leg fell off instantly. No worries, though, as almost everything on the armor is designed to come off and go right back on again.


Let’s start with the Iron Man Mark VI figure. I was expecting a crappy, limited articulation version like we got bundled with the Quinjet, but I was pleasantly surprised.  What we have here is actually a good figure with solid articulation! Granted, the figure actually requires this level of articulation to work with the armor, but that doesn’t make it any less welcome. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders and elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs have ball jointed hips and hinged knees, the torso is ball jointed under the chest, and the head swivels. The lack of ankle articulation is a shame and the paintwork doesn’t have that glorious new-car glossy finish like the Iron Man 2 releases did, but those are the only gripes I can bring against this guy. For a bundled figure, he’s not bad at all. In fact, he’s better than most of the single-carded Avengers figures.


The Assault Armor itself is pure bad ass, as it looks like Hulkbuster Armor meets War Machine. The sculpt is packed with detail making it a lot for the eye to take in all at once and it retains the gold and red deco that Tony Stark loves so much. To load the figure inside, the hatch on the torso hinges up and the upper legs hinge down. Once inside, Iron Man uses the triangle cutout where the Arc Reactor would be to look outside. Ok, that’s the one glaring dumb thing about the design. The two translucent blue pods on either side are control ports for Iron Man’s arms. While I’m not usually a proponent of electronics in toys, this thing is screaming for some LEDs or sound. The price range is right, but sadly Hasbro seemed dedicated to cheaping out on a lot of the Avengers toys.

The armor is decently articulated. The arms feature ball joints at the shoulders and hinges at the elbows. The legs rotate at the hips and have ball joints in the ankles. The head can rotate from side to side. Moving the legs is a little tricky with the figure inside as the hatches want to pop open when manipulated. Thankfully, the design doesn’t have Iron Man’s arms going into the mech’s arms, so you can get a wide range of uninhibited arm movement.

Weapons? You want weapons??? Well, they don’t call this thing the Assault Armor for nothing. The legs each feature a missile pod holding three sculpted, non-firing missiles. The right shoulder has a larger missile pod with seven more points of explosive persuasion. The left shoulder has a giant firing missile launcher sculpted to look like a huge gatling gun. Lastly, there’s an arm-mounted firing missile launcher. That’s a lot of firepower for something that could probably just grab Loki by each arm and tear him apart.

What’s better than a lot of weapons? Interchangeable weapons ala MechWarrior, and that’s where the Assault Armor design stumbles. All the weapons are designed to detach and they all use the same sized socket. The potential here was for a fully customizable payload. I mean, hell, even the ankles have weapon ports! Unfortunately, each weapon is more or less designed to go where it is and nowhere else. For example, you can’t swap the right and left shoulder weapons, because they don’t fit right when changed. You could put the missile pods from the legs on the arms, or the gatling gun on the arm, but they don’t look that great. The only thing really designed to be moved is the arm-mounted missile launcher, and that is just designed to go on one arm or the other.                                            

Purists may scoff at this thing and I’ll admit I initially wrote it off as another goofy cash grab like Hasbro trying to sell a Spider-Man helicopter.  But, in the end, I have to say it totally won me over. While Hasbro may have gone overboard doing a Captain America version, which is essentially just a repaint and slight remold, this one sort of makes sense. It’s fun to play around with, but more importantly it looks absolutely fantastic displayed on my Avengers shelf.

Value? Well, the Secret Santa exchange had a ten dollar limit. I’m pretty sure this thing sold for a lot more than ten dollars originally (subsequent research suggests the original MSRP was around $20), but as I can barely make out from the scratched out price sticker it probably came from Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, or Ross, so I’m guessing it was discounted to within the rules of the reindeer games. It’s also one of the few Avengers toys that aren’t still haunting the shelves of regular toy stores, so I don’t know where else she would have found it but at one of those Toy Graveyards. I generally define a “good gift” as something I wouldn’t have bought for myself, but still enjoy, and the Assault Armor certainly fits that bill. It’s a very cool surprise.

Jan 3 2013

FigureFan’s Disappointments of 2012, Part 1

Ok, we’ve seen my favorites, and now it’s time to check out the turds floating in last year’s punchbowl. Again, this was tough, because I try to avoid buying things that look like they will be crap. So maybe the word turd is a little harsh in some cases. Almost nothing on this list is total crap, but everything here definitely disappointed me in some way.

TMNT Classics: Donatello by Playmates… The Classic Turtles are great figures, but they got upstaged on my “Favorites List” by the smaller modern guys in a major way. Nonetheless, Donatello represents here for one reason and one reason only, because of his mad eyes. Ok, I suppose that’s two reasons. The point is that by giving him wonky eyes, Playmates not only ruined the figure, but seriously marred the entire set. How can anyone appreciate their team of turtles on the shelf when Donny is standing there in the back looking like he got kicked in the head one too many times. It’s a crazy example of how one brush stroke can mar an otherwise excellent toy.

DC Universe All Stars: Superboy Prime… Besides turning out as a terrible looking figure, Superboy Prime earns Mattel a Disappointment Award for doing the bait-and-switch. The final product saw major changes from the pre-release images, and while that is bound to happen from time to time, the changes here made a great looking promo figure turn into a terrible release. Even worse, with hardly any brick-and-mortar stores actually carrying the DCU All Stars, I had to buy the figure online, so my disappointment wasn’t realized until I got the thing in hand and it was too late. It’s not often that I can say I regret buying a DCUC figure, but I certainly regret picking up Superboy Prime.

Marvel Legends: Extremis Iron Man… Because I only allowed each toyline to appear once in each list, this slot was a tight race between Extremis Iron Man and Future Foundation Spider-Man. In fairness, on its own this Iron Man is a fairly competent figure, but as soon as you put him up against some of the other figures in Hasbro’s new Marvel Legends line he comes up wanting. He’s too small, not terribly well articulated, and overall underwhelming. I kind of get the feeling that he was just here to fill a slot in a quick and dirty manner (that’s what she said?). And to keep the comparisons rolling, his paint and sculpting don’t even live up to many of the older, smaller and cheaper 3 ¾” Iron Man 2 figures. At least Hasbro released him in two versions, so that the crappy Stealth variant would make the regular one look better.

Duke Nukem by NECA… You’ve got to hand it to NECA, in an effort to be as accurate to the game as possible; they obviously wanted to capture the disappointment of Duke Nukem Forever in action figure form. And they did! NECA’s Duke features a solid enough sculpt, but the articulation is downright weird and the paintwork, particularly on the flesh tones, leaves a lot to be desired. And then there are the accessories. Sure, kudos for the cigar, which I promptly lost, but how can Duke come with just a handgun? Where’s his arsenal? And, no, the fact that he has feet doesn’t count as a “Mighty Boot” accessory. Duke should have come with a cool assortment of weapons, instead all he came with was disappointment.

Avengers: “Sword Spike” Thor… While most of Hasbro’s 3 ¾” Avengers figures were disappointments, this version of Thor earns a place on this list because he represented the ultimate in toy company hubris and laziness. Hasbro took what was essentially the exact same figure from the previous year, cut out most of its articulation, gave him a new shitty weapon and put him on an Avengers card. They even kept the same name, which in the new context made no sense because he now came with a halberd and not a sword. To add insult to injury, a lot of stores had this figure hanging just a few pegs away from the better articulated Thor-branded figure… on clearance! It’s the retail equivalent of Hasbro unzipping their pants, pulling out their Mjolnir and slapping us in the face with it.
Ok, that’s enough disappointment for one day. I’m going to take some Topamax and gin to level out my mood and I’ll be back tomorrow with the final five.

Jan 2 2013

FigureFan’s Favorites 2012, Part 2

Second verse, same as the first. And again in no particular order…

Thundercats: Mega-Scale Mumm-Ra by Mezco… I had such high hopes for the Thundercats in 2011. Some of it paid off. I got some decent figures and the 8-inch Classic Lion-O proved to be my favorite figure from that year. But 2012 saw the prospects of a continued line die a slow death. In the end, I had to live vicariously through Mezco and the hopes they might keep the Classic Thunderkitty goodness going with their Mega-Scale statues. In 2012 we got Mumm-Ra and Panthro. I still haven’t opened my Panthro yet, but Mumm-Ra proved to be another outstanding effort in this line. I love this big guy, and I think he was one of the best values of the year.

Marvel Universe: Cable by Hasbro… I’m sorry to say it, but overall Marvel Universe has been disappointing me lately. Maybe the Marvel Legends figures are just pushing their smaller cousins out of my field of interest. It’s also possible that I’m just evolving beyond the 3 3/4” scale. GI Joe and Star Wars were the only lines that really tied me to it, and I don’t collect a lot of those anymore. Maybe the new 3 ¾” Doctor Who figures will bring me back. Either way, the MU figures this year have been competent enough, but not spectacular. The exception to that, however, was Cable, a figure executed so well that he barely feels like an MU figure at all.

Green Lantern Classics: Collect & Connect Stel by Mattel… I came into 2012 with a lot of Green Lantern fatigue from that shitty movie and the carpet bombing of marketing that followed it. But that didn’t stop the franchise from producing one of my favorite figures this year. Sure, Stel is a C&C figure, but he’s amazing in every way. The sculpt, the coloring, the articulation… he’s got it all. I never had much affinity for the character, but he certainly made for some excellent action figure fodder and Mattel went above and beyond.

Marvel Legends: Punisher by Hasbro… It may be because Frank Castle has been absent from my collection for so long, but this figure really hit the spot for me. It captures all there is about the character, he comes with all sorts of great weapons, and I just can’t stop playing around with him. One of the greatest compliments I can pay an action figure is to keep it standing on my desk, rather than regulate it to the shelves in the other room, and Punisher has been on my desk ever since I opened him up. It seems like I can’t go more than an hour without reaching over and picking him up.

Hot Toys’ Captain America: The First Avenger… 2012 was the year I finally broke down and bought some Hot Toys figures and Cap was my first. I was really apprehensive about blowing the money as I am generally not a 1:6 scale collector and I was a little afraid that the figure would be lost on me. Nonetheless, from the moment I had the package in hand, I knew there were no regrets. Cap’s outfit in this movie is my favorite design and I just had to have it in this epic format. While I doubt I will ever go all out into collecting Hot Toys in a hardcore manner, I can certainly see myself grabbing two or three a year.

And that’s all the good stuff… tomorrow we’ll start the one-two punch to the gonads that make up my biggest disappointments of 2012… Hang tight, ya’ll are already halfway through this wonderful week of shitty filler articles!

Nov 25 2012

Marvel: Bishoujo Black Widow (“Covert Ops Version”) Statue by Kotobukiya

While I haven’t featured many of Koto’s line of Bishoujo statues, I really do dig them a lot. At any given time, I usually have three or four of these beauties on my want list. But because I’m not really a statue collector, these gals often get pushed down the line in favor of action figures. I’m going to try to remedy that neglect in the months ahead by finally featuring some more of the Koto statues in my collection and by throwing a little more of my collecting budget toward some of these awesome pieces. Today we’re checking out the regular trade edition of Black Widow, and she’s one of the few instances in which I actually prefer a regular edition collectible over an exclusive. I should note that this is the second time Koto has graced Black Widow with the Bishoujo treatment. This statue, dubbed the “Covert Ops Version” to distinguish from the original, features an all new original sculpt and conforms to the slightly larger scale of Koto’s recent releases.

bishbw10

bishbw11

Black Widow comes in a window box, safely nestled betwixt two plastic trays. Yes, I said betwixt! But as is often the case with these statues, she’s cocooned in a lot of protective plastic wrap and comes partially disassembled, so it’s impossible to get the full effect without getting her out. The box design is fairly simple with a plain white deco and Shunya Yamashita’s original artwork. The box isn’t as flashy as the ones used for my Ghostbusters or Tekken statues, but it gets the job done and should you need to use it again for storage, it’s totally collector friendly.

bishbw1

Unwrapped and out of the package, you get the figure itself, the base, a swappable sniper gun hand, and Daredevil’s mask. Here’s where two of the differences between this trade edition and the San Diego Comic Con exclusive come into play. The exclusive version featured Hawkeye’s mask instead of Daredevil’s, and the swap out hand in the exclusive version features a combat knife instead of a sniper rifle. I could have gone either way on the mask, as either one is a nice little accessory, but I vastly prefer the sniper rifle over the combat knife.

bishbw2

bishbw3

Black Widow plugs into the base via a robust peg on the bottom of her left foot and poses seductively with one hand resting on a brick wall and her right leg drawn up at the knee as she looks back over her shoulder. It’s a great, dynamic pose, which manages to convey action while also allowing the figure to show off her lovely assets. The anime styled face is beautifully sculpted and features excellent, precise paint work. I love those big green eyes! The hair is convincingly sculpted to be blowing in the wind. I could argue that the hair could have used a wee bit more red in the coloring, but she still looks damn fine the way she is.

bishbw4

bishbw5

Her outfit is the other point in which this trade edition is distinguished from the exclusive. The SDCC version features a matte grey bodysuit, whereas this one is a high gloss black suit. No contest here. Not only do I prefer the more traditional black outfit, but the glossy finish on this statue is truly stunning, particularly the way it shines off of her ample booty. There, I said it. The detail work on the costume includes her wrist bangles and trademark belt, along with a partially unzipped zipper offering a token shot of cleavage. The sculpting on the outfit is capped off by some strategically placed wrinkles and even the seam lines where a suit this tight would presumably have been sewn onto her. Because Widow’s outfit is mostly black, there aren’t a lot of other paint apps here, but the silver on her zipper and belt is precisely applied, as is the little dabs of red polish on her fingernails.

bishbw6

bishbw7

As already mentioned you can choose whether you want to pose Widow with her right hand free or holding her sniper rifle. The hands pull out and plug in easily and the rifle is permanently attached to the one hand. I suppose the advantage of posing her without the rifle is a better look at the figure itself, but I still prefer her with weapon at the ready.

bishbw9

The base itself is simple enough. It’s a black octagon with a grey floor plate and a portion of a brick wall. The paint and sculpting on the wall is certainly convincing and as a whole the base accentuates the figure quite nicely. I am definitely partial to this sort of diorama setting over the clear base used on my Christie Montiero statue. The Daredevil mask is completely optional and is designed to be placed so as it is leaning against the base of the brick wall.

bishbw8

From the moment I got Black Widow out of the package I was instantly smitten with her. She’s a gorgeous piece of work and a lot heftier than I expected. I got her for only $45 and I still consider the Bishoujos to be among the best values in collectible statues around. If you shop around, you can even splurge for the SDCC version and still probably come in at under $75. Either way, I can’t recommend her enough, whether you’re an age old fan of the character or have recently been introduced to her through The Avengers, this statue represents a great take on her and a beautiful piece of work.

Sep 20 2012

Marvel Legends: Iron Man (Neo-Classic Armor) by Hasbro

Holy hell, the new Marvel Legends figures are beginning to trickle out both in retail and across the Cyberwebs. I honestly didn’t think we were going to start seeing these until November. I knocked out the first two waves by buying them by the case, but when I saw two lone Wave 3 figures, Iron Man and Mystique, hanging on the pegs, I couldn’t resist getting them individually. We’ll check out the first one this week, then I’ve got to take care of some unfinished DCUC business over the weekend, and I’ve got a themed week planned for next week, so who the hell knows when I’ll get to Mystique.

Yes, it’s Iron Man in his second Legends appearance in only three waves. Ok, it’s technically the third if you count that blue repaint in Wave 1. And there’s the glorious, eye-catching Marvel Legends packaging. God, I love it! You get comic book style and action figure goodness married together in a perfect package. The only way this could be better is if ML figures actually had a reprint comic book as the backing for the figure. Oh wait, they did until Hasbro got hold of the line!

The first thing you may notice is that there’s no Build-A-Figure part, instead you get a big figure stand, recycled from the 6-inch Avengers movie figures. The stand is sculpted to look like a number of hexagonal tiles strung together. There are several pegs so you can position the figure in different stances, and the stand will hook together with other similar stands in various ways so you can create a big display. I like these a lot, and if Hasbro would sell them in packs at their web store, I would probably buy a bunch. Since the previous two waves were named after their BAF, Hasbro has just called this wave “Epic Heroes.” Fair enough!

When I heard Iron Man was going to be in another wave of Legends, I wasn’t thrilled. Sure, it makes sense, as he’s a huge personality in the Marvel Universe right now and with Iron Man 3 soon to be released, the character will continue to make bucket loads of money for Disney and Hasbro for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, I was a lot happier when I saw the choice for the armor. The Neo-Classic armor is a nice break from the modern stuff we’ve been getting so much of lately.

First off, I want to thank Hasbro for finally bulking up Iron Man a bit. My main complaint with the Extremis Armor release was that he was so small compared to the other 6-inch Avengers on my shelf. Stand him next to Steve Rogers from the same wave and, well, there’s clearly a problem. The added bulk to this figure comes closer to looking like he’s scaled about right for a guy wearing armor. He is, however, notably shorter than the Extremis Armor Iron Man from the first wave, so in some way Hasbro took a slight step forward and a slight step back. Proportionally, he looks good with two exceptions… his hands. Those hands look awfully tiny to me. I do, however, dig those clunky Mega Man style boots.

Since this is the older style of armor, the figure is built off a standard muscled buck with separate sculpted armor pieces on the chest, shoulders, arms and legs. I’m really keen on the head sculpt, which offers a bit of depth around the eyes and mouth slots, although not as much as the production photos suggested. After being exposed to so much of the sleek new armor suits both in the comics and on the big screen, looking at this style is like looking at a vintage automobile. It has a retro charm and sexiness all of its own.

The figure’s sculpting is solid, but I think it’s the color that really makes this figure stand out. Hasbro used just the right shade of gilded gold paint for the body and a beautiful deep, metallic red for the armor plating. They may be the only two colors on the entire figure, but man do they look great together.

Iron Man’s articulation includes a ball joint in the neck, arms with ball jointed shoulders, double hinged elbows, hinged wrists, and swivels in the biceps, forearms, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs and lower legs. It looks like there are hinges in the ankles, but they are useless because of the way the boots are sculpted. The torso features a swivel at the waist and an ab crunge hinge in the chest. It certainly isn’t the best articulation we’ve seen in the line, but some of the restrictions come from the style of the sculpt and I think Hasbro did their best to work around this where they could. One notable point is the hinged shoulder flaps to allow for greater arm movement. I really would have liked an extra neck hinge so he could look up if I pose him on a flight stand. It’s also worth noting that the peg holes in Iron Man’s feet don’t go deep enough to work with the figure stand! Come on, Hasbro!

I’ll confess Iron Man was the one figure in Wave 3 that I was looking forward to the least. He certainly isn’t one of the shining beacons of the line, but he’s certainly not terrible either. A number of little issues cause him to land right in the middle of the average range on my patented Marvel Legends figure Cool-O-Meter. Still, it’s nice to see this armor in this scale and I’m definitely content to put him up on my shelf where he looks damn good. That all having been said, I’m still pretty sure he’ll wind up the peg-warmer of this wave, although with how well these figures have been selling in my area, there may not be any peg-warmers at all.

Sep 4 2012

Marvel Legends: Yellowjacket by Hasbro

I’ll be frank: The wait for the next wave of Marvel Legends is killing me. To remedy that, I’ve been trawling some of my old haunts and picking up some of the older Marvel Legends figures that I wanted back into my collection. Yeah, selling these things off was not one of my better moves. As a result, I’ll be looking at a lot of these in the coming months leading up to the release of the next Wave. Today we’re checking out one of my favorite Marvel characters, the deliciously flawed and deeply complex Hank Pym as his Yellowjacket persona.

Hasbro’s earlier package design for the Marvel Legends wasn’t that bad, but it isn’t as delightfully obnoxious as the current style. Nonetheless, the principal is the same with the character art on the upper left corner and various comic panel shots running down the right of the bubble. Yellowjacket was part of the series of figures needed to build The Blob. By the time Hasbro took the line over from Toy Biz, I was cherry picking the figures so I never did get to build The Blob, and in fairness it wasn’t really a BAF that would have made me buy figures I didn’t want.

Out of the package and we have Yellowjacket in all his glory. The majority of the figure is a simple painted buck, although the torso has his trademark shoulder pieces sculpted in and they look pretty darn good. I’m very pleased with the head sculpt here, particularly the antenna and the yellowed out eyes as opposed to Pym’s eyes peeking through the mask. Don’t ask me why, I just like this look better.

The paint on my figure is pretty solid, and I really like the shade of yellow plastic used here, far better than the gold-yellow used on the Marvel Universe figure. The paint on his belt looks a bit like a sloppy afterthought, but the emblem on his chest is pretty crisp. From sculpt to paint deco, this version really captures the character for me.

As a Hasbro figure, Yellowjacket doesn’t have the insane amount of articulation as the Toy Biz line, but there’s still a very good effort here. He has a ball jointed neck. His arms feature shoulder hinges built into the torso, in addition to ball jointed shoulders. He has double hinges in the elbows, hinged wrists, and swivels in both the biceps and the forearms. His legs feature ball joints at the hips, double hinges at the knees, hinges at the ankles and the middle of the feet, and swivels in the hips and lower legs. He also has rocker joints in the ankles for those wide stances.  His torso swivels at the waist and has an ab crunch hinge. No, not too shabby.

Usually when I think back to Hasbro’s first attempt at Marvel Legends I don’t have fond memories of the experience. But I guess it’s easy to forget that for every shitty movie Jean Grey you got a solid figure like Yellowjacket. Ok, maybe the ratio wasn’t exactly one-to-one, but I’m interested to see how many of these earlier Hasbro efforts impress or disappoint me, as it’s been quite a few years since I’ve owned any. Either way, Yellowjacket really hits all the right points. What’s more, he looks perfect standing alongside the newer figures and contemplating why no one called him to be in the Avengers movie.

Aug 31 2012

Avengers: “Shield Launcher” Captain America by Hasbro

It took a while, but I think I’m at the end of my 3 ¾” Avengers run. I may still pick up a variant Thor, but otherwise I’ve got what I wanted to get out of this line and I can move on, although I’d still love to get a Maria Hill without having to buy that ho-hum Helicarrier. Obviously, Cap was a “must have” figure for me, since he’s the one that really changed his look the most between his own movie and the Avengers flick. Amazingly, I never did find this guy on the pegs and had to pay a little extra for him via the Interwebs. Let’s see if it was worth it…

Could this be the last time we see the Avengers packaging here on FigureFan? Could be, rabbit, could be. You’ll note the package heralds this figure as the “Shield Launcher” Cap, which means the figure is saddled with a ridiculous bazooka that fires Cap’s shield. I can only imagine this contraption is designed in case Cap can’t show up one day, but left his shield behind and some regular grunt needs to shoot it at a Chitauri. Once again, I beg the question to you, Hasbro, is it really cheaper to make these shitty weapons than it is to put a goddamn swivel cut in the figure’s waist? Moving on…

As mentioned earlier, this is the first time we’re seeing 3 ¾” Cap in his Avengers outfit and I think it translates pretty well. At first, I thought the figure a bit too bulky, particularly in the chest and belt area, but having viewed Avengers again since buying the figure, I think it’s pretty close to screen accurate. In fact, I really dig the way the sculpting makes the suit look more like armor than cheesy superhero spandex. There’s some especially nice detail worked into the gloves, boots and the belt, and I love the fact that the star on his chest is sculpted rather than just painted on. Cap also has a functional holster sculpted into his thigh. I’m certainly more a fan of his WWII-era costume from his original film, but this one has grown on me a lot. The paint apps are all nice and clean and the figure is bright and colorful, just like a comic book figure should be.

By now we all should have lowered our expectations over articulation in this line. If you’ve managed to do that, you won’t be disappointed. Cap’s got ball joints all around, in his neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, and that’s it. The stymied articulation didn’t bother me as much in the other Avengers, because they all had similar figures with better articulation released previously. Sadly, this is the best we’ve got for Avengers Cap. The compromise is that the figure feels a lot more solid than some of the more articulated versions and stands on his own very well.

Besides the aforementioned stupid gimmick weapon, Cap also comes with his trusty shield and an automatic pistol. The shield has an awesome vac metal look to it and is sculpted with straps to slide on to his arm just like the real thing did. I give Hasbro major props for doing this in the 3 ¾” scale, rather than using a clip as they have in the past. The downside is that it doesn’t attach to his back. There is, however, still a peg back there, in case you want to rob a shield from one of your other 3 ¾” Caps and stick it on. Another bummer about this shield is that it’s sculpted from really soft plastic and mine came out of the tray a little warped, making one side look flat. The automatic pistol is a pretty standard little item, sculpted in silver plastic and it fits nicely into his holster.

I’ve heard a lot of bad things about this figure before finally getting my hands on it, but I have to say I’m digging it a lot. Sure, like all the Avengers 3 ¾” figures, this one could have had better articulation, but laying that aside, I think he looks great on the shelf and I’m very glad to be able to hunt him down. Was it worth paying a little extra for him? Hells, yeah. I can’t have my Avengers team without Cap.