Tag Archives: comics

Dec 9 2022

Kamen America Maquette and Other Merch by Iconic Comics

Here’s a little something different for this Friday, as I’m going to gas on about some comics and merch! I make it no secret that some time ago, I began turning away from the two mainstream comic publishers, because… well, to put it bluntly, their books turned to shit. It happened first with Marvel and much later when the infection spread to DC, and it was like watching a couple of dear friends that I’ve known since childhood dying from an incurable disease. As a result, I started seeking my comic fix with indies. A lot of my money started going to Zenescope and the rest went to crowd-sourced books on Kickstarter or Indigogo. Unfortunately, the crowd-sourced scene presented its own set of challenges. When the books showed up, they were usually excellent, but in a lot of cases, they didn’t show up. Indeed, I recently had to get refunds on some books that were now two to three years late. Enter Iconic Comics and Kamen America!

One shining beacon of excellence in the indie comic scene has been Iconic Comics, hooking me with their Kamen America series and then getting me into Black Hops and Soulfinder. The Kamen America books tell the tale of fashion designer Carly Vanders, who obtains super powers and becomes Kamen America, an on-the-nose send up to the Henshin genre. Over the course of six books (so far!) and a couple of cross-overs, we follow the adventures of Kamen America and her friends, The Kamen Corps, through thick and thin, friendship and betrayal, and epic battles. It’s hard to put my finger on one thing that makes these books so special, because they’re actually quite the pitch-perfect medley of great art and colors, fantastic quippy dialogue, fun humor, and loads of heart and soul. But, if pressed, I would have to point to the characters. I was invested in these characters from the early pages of Stars and Strife, right up until the last pages of Daughters of Liberty, and with the end of each book, I cannot wait for the next. Luckily the creators, Mike Pellegrini and Timothy Lim have the whole publishing thing down to a tee. The books are done by the time they’re projects go up, and they always ship on time. At this point, it’s almost ironic to see this franchise on a crowd-funding site, because everything works like clockwork and the timely delivery of a quality book is guaranteed. The series started with floppies, which I’m proud to have in my collection, and has since graduated to beautiful hardcover editions, and has even seen its first hardcover omnibus.

Each of the volumes have offered some cool merch, including everything from badges to pins, collector cards to calendars. But most notable has been the series of acrylic standees. These have been a no-brainer ad-on for each of the volumes and they really convey all the colors and art found within the comics.

We even got a plushie of Badger the Capybara, the official mascot of The Kamen Corps. This big, beautiful softie is colorful and adorable and will forever be sitting on the desk of my comic-themed office judging me with his indifferent Capybara peepers. He comes clad in a personalized, blue zippered tracksuit with the Kamen America logo stitched on the back proving that this franchise has become so big that it is even churning out merch for the lucrative and untapped Capybara market.

But the real gem of Kamen America merch is the roughly 8-inch resin maquette that was offered up with the Daughters of Liberty campaign! The figure comes in a heavy duty, enclosed box and nestled in a foam tray cut to her specifications. There’s a minor bit of assembly here, as you have to peg Carly’s feet into the base and then tab the long trail of her yellow sash into her back. Once that’s done, she’s good to go!

Comics is one thing, but creating statues is another, and so I wasn’t quite sure what we were going to get here. Even some of the big boys can’t get statues right. Have you seen some of the stuff that Dynamite has put out? WOOF! But, these guys haven’t disappointed me yet, so I was ready to slap down the not too inconsiderable $250 bones, which got me this maquette, as well as the book, Badger, and all the other goodies. And I probably shouldn’t be surprised that this figure turned out so great. The sculpting is sharp and the colors are vibrant. The composition of the piece features Carly in what I would consider her pretty iconic pose with fists up, feet turned slightly inward, and a smile, which represents the unswerving positivity and charm of the character.

The paint lines are sharp, and there’s not a flub or spot of slop to be found. There are a few specs from the black foam that I should have done a better job of blowing off before taking the pictures, but they were easy to miss. The colors here pop so beautifully with the crimson of her long boots to the bright yellow of her hair and sash. The white is super clean, with no signs of anything bleeding through, but what really wowed me was the metallic blue and gold used for her one-piece. Exquisite! The base is a muddy disk, which if you read the comics, has a certain significance to it, and its scattered with some blue rocks. Fairly simple, but it works!

The portrait is excellent, right down to her sculpted earrings and adorable trademark ahoge. And even when punched in this close with the camera, the paint lines hold up pretty well. There’s a little gap that can be seen around her hair, but it’s barely noticeable when viewing the figure on the shelf and at eye level.

As a toy collector, I’m always going to want some kind of physical representation of the media I love. Whether it be movies, video games, or in this case comics. I have a compulsive need to have characters that I love displayed on a shelf, and so I was really excited when this maquette was revealed. There were only 200 of these available for the campaign, and I’m pretty sure they all wound up selling. I don’t usually make it a habit of spotlighting stuff on FFZ that can’t be found for sale, but this was a case where I wanted an excuse to talk about the comics and this awesome figure. And while the figure may be difficult to get, the comics are all available through Amazon or Iconic Comics directly, and I can’t recommend them enough. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll fall in love with the characters, and when it’s all said and done, you’ll want more!

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May 13 2022

Flash Gordon (The Original Superheroes) by NECA

Growing up, Flash Gordon was a big deal to me. No, not the original serial! I’m old, but not that old. No, I’m partly talking about the 1980 Dino De Laurentiis movie masterpiece, but also the Filmation cartoon. The cartoon was absolutely amazing to me, and I loved how it was separated into Chapters, giving it a serialized flavor like the original. It didn’t hurt that it hit at the peak of Star Wars Mania, giving me a regular dose of fantasy space opera. The cartoon still holds up, and laid a lot of the foundation for Filmation’s subsequent He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon, and I think it’s worth checking out. Of course, all this is pertinent because NECA acquired some rights to the classic King Comics characters, and Flash happens to be one of them.

I’m pretty sure NECA started with figures from the Flash Gordon and the Defenders of the Earth cartoon, and I’ll get to those eventually, but I thought I’d start with what they’re calling The Original Superheroes. There are three numbered figures in this assortment: Flash, Ming the Merciless, and The Phantom. The figures come in attractive and collector friendly window boxes, which have some printed distress to reflect the age of the characters, and a slightly exaggerated half-tone printing to evoke the flavor of the old comic strip. To be clear, this Flash Gordon is not based on the Filmation cartoon, but the look is close enough to work for me.

Flash has had a number of difference comic costumes throughout the decades, but this one ranks in as among my favorites. It’s simple, but colorful, and pretty much the perfect look for a swashbuckling space hero. The bright red shirt is painted onto the figure buck, but features the row of sculpted gold discs around the wide collar. The dark blue trousers have gold stripes on the sides, and feature some nice highlights to give it that comic art flavor. And the costume is rounded out with a belt cinched over a padded yellow wrap. The belt has a permanent holster for Flash’s pistol, and a peg hole to attach the scabbard for his sword. Delete all but three of the collar discs, and the weapons, and you have a fine stand in for Filmation Flash.

You get two head sculpts, the first features the blue form fitting headgear, which frames his face, but allows his coif to fly free up top. This look is tied mostly to the comics, as I don’t recall him wearing it in the Filmation series. I like it enough to be torn on whether or not to use it as my default head for display.

The decision becomes more difficult considering how strong the portrait sans headgear is! This one is a direct hit on so many levels. The facial sculpt, dominant jawline, the paint details, the shadowing on the cheeks, and most of all the hair. It’s all superb, and normally I would be 100% for using this as my default display noggin, but I’m still probably going to go with the blue headgear, only for the sake of variety, as I can enjoy this portrait on my Defenders of the Earth Flash.

The package boasts 33 points of articulation, and this figure does indeed have some excellent poseability. It’s all very standard stuff, but most of the points feature an impressive range of motion. The arms ahve rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double-hinged elbows, and hinged pegs for the wrists. The legs have rotating hinges in the hips, double-hinged knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab-crunch hinge in the torso, and double ball joint in the neck. Oh yeah, he even has hinges in the feet! Flash comes with two sets of hands, consisting of one pair of fists, a right gun hand, and a left sword hand.

The sword is a real beauty, and it comes with a plastic scabbard, which offers a good fit for the blade. The sword has a straight silver blade with a gold and aqua blue hilt, and painted red jewels in the crossguard. The scabbard is painted in a brilliant blue with a gold throat and tip. The scabbard pegs onto the belt quite firmly, allowing it to swivel to accommodate different poses, and it stays put without popping off. There’s just something I love about space heroes wielding conventional swords, and I wish we’d see more of it. It makes a lot more sense to me to repel boarders in space with trusty old steel, than to be firing weapons that could damage ship consoles, or rupture the hull.

Flash’s pistol is also a little work of art. It’s not quite retro-chic, but it does have a nice shape and design, and it’s packed with a load of detail. The deco is similar to Flash’s trousers, with a dark blue/black finish and some lighter blue highlights.

You also get two effect parts for the pistol, one is a simple muzzle blast, while the other is a full on beam and a contact explosion at the end. Both are cast in translucent yellow plastic, and fit over the end of the gun. These are both great, but the full beam is just absolutely awesome. Indeed, this is probably one of my favorite effect parts in recent memory.

NECA really knew their audience when it comes to this figure and me, and if I were making a list of favorites for 2022, this figure would be high on that list right now. I was more excited to get this one in hand than almost anything else I can think of in recent memory. We’ve had some decent figures release now and then from the 1980 Film, but not a lot when it comes to the classic comic character or his early cartoon exploits. The figure is versatile enough for me to stand in as the Filmation Flash, but I think he works best leaping from the pages of the timeless funnybook. On that note, NECA did give us an SDCC variant of this figure on a Filmation style card, but I’m getting ahead of myself there. Next week, I’ll revisit this series with a look at Ming the Merciless!

Sep 18 2020

Sinful Suzi Sixth-Scale Figure by Phicen/TBLeague

TBLeague and I have a great relationship. They keep making Sixth-Scale figures based on sexy independent comic characters and I keep buying them! They released quite a bit of characters licensed from the likes of Brian Pulido’s Chaos! (now Coffin) Comics as well as Zenescope, and now they’re turning their attention to the work of Joseph Michael Linsner. He’s probably best known for Dawn, and Yes! TBLeague has released a figure of her as well, but today we’re having a look at Sinful Suzi, who first appeared seven years ago in Image Comics’ Sin Boldly!

TBLeague continues to offer some of the better packaging I’ve seen in the Sixth-Scale market. While even the big boys like Hot Toys tend to cheap out with flimsy window boxes these days, TBL is giving us sturdy shoebox-style packaging with tri-fold covers that secure with magnets and inside the figure is nestled in a foam cutout with the head packaged off of the figure. The front panel of the box has some colorful artwork by Linsner and the side and back panels have pictures of the actual figure. In this case you also get a separate parcel of Styrofoam, bundled inside the shipping box, with the diorama base. TBL usually does this with Deluxe versions of their figures, but I think this was the only version of Suzi available. The figure comes with the body wrapped in plastic, and I had to take her boots and sleeves off to carefully slice it all away and remove it. I do recommend leaving the wrap around her ankle joints, as it fills in the joint and makes it look more natural under the boot.

Obviously, Suzi is built on Phicen’s incredible super-flexible seamless body, consisting of a stainless steel skeleton wrapped in a fleshy rubber coating. The only visible jointing on the body is at the wrists, ankles, and neck, and all but the last are concealed by the outfit. Suzi’s body features a chalky white complexion, very similar to the one they used for Lady Death. Even with well over a dozen of these figures on my shelf, I still marvel at how well these bodies work, and I’ve yet to have one tear or break down on me. Fingers crossed!

Sinful Suzi’s outfit is pretty standard seductress leather demon attire. She’s got thigh high boots, which feature sculpting on the toes to resemble hooves, and I think that’s a great little touch. These are also painted with a bit of electric blue coloring. Her arms have sleeves that run up to her biceps, which have hand extensions. I think these are supposed to hook through one of her fingers on her relaxed hands, but the hole is so small it doesn’t work so well. The rest of her outfit is supposed to be a leather one-piece, and here’s where things disappoint. The top of the outfit is made of cloth, rather than the whole thing made of the faux-leather, although it hooks onto a leather piece that goes around her neck. It looks OK, I guess, but the disparity in material kind of stands out to me. it just feels like corners were cut.

The head sculpt, on the other hand? Well, no corners were cut here, as it looks simply (or is that sinfully?) fabulous! The paintwork on her eyes and lips is exceptionally well done. The eyes are almost cat like with narrow pupils, and she has some hot orange coloring between the tops of her eyes and her immaculate eyebrows. The lips are a deep crimson with a glossy wet finish. The features are soft and beautiful, and they gave her a fairly neutral expression, which is fine as it works for a myriad of poses. I wouldn’t have minded something with a smirk. It’s a shame that TBLeague never offers multiple portraits with their figures, although that would really jack up the price, I’m sure. Suzi’s demon horns are sculpted as part of the head and they look pretty natural jutting up from above her forehead. The electric blue hair really makes the whole portrait pop, although it can be a bit of a pill to get under control. I haven’t broken out the gel yet, but I may eventually as there are quite a few misbehaving strands. I do love how it’s parted to partially cover one horn and fully expose the other.

The seamless body boasts something like 28 points of articulation, and thanks to her skimpy and completely non-restrictive outfit, Suzi is a lot of fun to pose. As always, these figures articulate in remarkably realistic ways and I’m always impressed by some of the more subtle movements available, particularly in the torso, shoulders, and neck. The skin is pretty resilient, and while it’s always a good idea to show a modicum of care to prevent tearing, truth be told, both the skin and skeleton can handle some pretty wide ranges of motion. I think the biggest no-no is posing the arms straight up, as it will really stress the skin under the arm, but beyond that, she’s just all sorts of fun! I should also note that her balance is amazing. I will often edit out stands in some of my dramatic poses, but I didn’t have to do that once for this review. Impressive, considering she’s wearing high heels!

Suzi comes up pretty light in the accessories department, but she does come with three sets of hands, and her trademark trident. Honestly, I can’t really think of anything else they could have included with her, so I can’t really complain. Well, one nitpick is that her accessory holding hands are a bit loose with her trident. I’m sure TBLeague just used remolds of existing hands, hence the problem. Truth be told, she can still hold the trident fairly well, but it will slip every now and again. The trident itself isn’t all that exciting. It’s just a thin piece of plastic, but she would certainly be incomplete without it!

And then there’s the base, and it is a very cool piece! This diorama style base features a suburban hellscape with the red brick steps to a front porch and a sculpted doormat that says Sinful Suzi Welcome to HELL! Awesome! There are a couple tiny horns protruding from the back corners and there’s a peg where you can attach a demon skull onto the bottom step. In the past, these diorama bases often came with no way to secure the figure to it, making them awesome showpieces, but a pretty risky way to display your $150 figures. Sadly, as a result, most of my bases are packed away in storage. For the last couple releases I’ve purchased, TBL has been remedying that by adding a support stand that screws into the base, and I couldn’t be happier. In this case, the support is on a bendable rod with a ratcheting clip to gently grab the figure and it works great!

And since the skull is removable, it makes for a cool extra accessory. The sculpting and paint on this piece are both excellent. IT’s got little fangs and demon horns, and it looks like someone bashed in the back of his head when he was alive.

Oh yeah, if you turn the base around you’ve got this nasty bastard peering out at you from behind a sewer grate. This is such a wonderfully ridiculous extra bit of detail on a part of the base that you are probably never going to see. I really appreciate that kind of work!

All in all, I think Suzi turned out pretty well, even if I do wish her outfit had been made out of all of the same material. There’s nothing terribly crazy or new here when it comes to TBLeague’s releases, and I’ll bet this was a pretty quick-and-easy figure for them to produce. But that being said, she looks great and she’s tons of fun to play around with. The bundled base also goes a long way to drive up the figure’s value, as it was included without adding anything to the price point (about $159) of TBL’s regular releases. As a character, she’s probably a deep cut, even for a lot of comic fans, but given Suzi’s pinup qualities, I’m not sure you really need to be familiar with the comics to appreciate this figure. And she sure looks right at home on the shelf and hanging out with the likes of Purgatori, Vampirella, and Lady Death.

Feb 12 2020

Anck Su Namun (Princess of Egypt) Sixth-Scale Figure by Phicen/TBLeague 

I rarely make New Year’s Resolutions, but I am going to do my best to make 2020 the year I (try really hard to) get caught up on my Sixth-Scale figure reviews. Sure I could say that about Mythic Legions or Marvel Legends, but this category actually seems doable. I have a few Hot Toys on my shelf still waiting their turn, a bunch on pre-order, but right now I’m most hopelessly behind on my TBLeague figures. A big part of the problem is that these are more affordable than Hot Toys and the sense of quality and value I get from these releases continues to be through the roof so I’ve been buying quite a few of them. And despite a common concern, I have yet to have any of the silicone bodies tear or break down on me so there’s been nothing to discourage me from keeping at it. At least not yet. And with that preamble out of the way, let’s check out Anck Su Namun, The Princess of Egypt!

TBLeague butters its bread by securing the largely overlooked (and conveniently inexpensive) licenses from a number of indie comic companies as well as the occasional concept figure. I would have guessed this one was a concept figure, if not for the ARH Comix. ARH published the wonderful Arhian The Headhuntress and one of my favorite comics of all time Arkhalla Queen of Vampires. But in this case I’ve never seen or heard about ARH publishing a comic with Anck. Was it her own book? Was she a supporting character in another? Even ARH’s website, which admittedly doesn’t seem to have been updated in over a year, holds no answers. But it doesn’t matter, I’m content calling her a concept version of a historical figure. Whatever the case, I happen to have a thing for Ancient Egypt and scantily clad ladies and this figure covers both of those areas of interest quite nicely. As always, the box is very high quality cardboard with a tri-fold lid that secures to the sides with magnets. The figure and accessories rest in a series of foam trays. The illustrations on the box let photos of the figure do the talking, and overall the presentation here never fails to impress me, especially considering the flimsy window boxes and sleeves that Hot Toys has been using lately. Happily there isn’t a lot of set up required here, so let’s get the Princess out of her sarcophagus and check her out!

Now this is a Dynasty that I can get behind, and I sure don’t need any comic book tie-in to sell me on Anck because she’s a real knock out. Her outfit consists of a black cloth skirt, which is made from a light, stretchy material, and totally form fitting. There aren’t any slits up the sides so this skirt does tend to impede the range of motion in her hips. I can still get some fairly wide stances out of her, and she can sit just fine, but anything too extreme isn’t possible. On the upside, it really shows off her nice backside! Above the skirt she has a sculpted plastic belt and sash, all fashioned as one piece and painted gold with some black and silver trim. I’ve got to say the gold and silver paint they used on all of the costume pieces is so sumptuous! The belt itself has a weave pattern sculpted into it, while the sash has some raised hieroglyphs. There’s also a scarab disc in the center of her waist where the belt meets the sash. The sash hangs on her hips and stays put most of the time, but will occasionally ride up when I’m posing her.

Traveling further up to her chest, I have absolutely no idea what to call this bra-rig-thing. It’s basically a black leather strap that goes under her chest with two other straps rising up with the Ancient Egyptian equivalent of pasties. This costume piece ties behind her back and it holds on amazingly well. In reality I can’t see this thing working, but here it’s almost like magic! The cross strap features a sculpted gold bird and scarab motif, while the pasties are sculpted to look like intricately detailed gold coins. Anck is also big on the accessorizing, and these points of flair include  golden anklets and wrist bracers, both sets of which are designed to conceal the seams on her wrists and ankles, two gold armbands with sculpted white birds, and she even has a removable ring on her left hand! Speaking of hands, she comes with a bunch of them, from gesturing hands to grippy ones designed to hold her weapons. She also comes with two pairs of feet, one set is flat for standing and the other with arches for when she’s sitting.

The portrait is very good and shows that TBLeauge is always working on upping their head-sculpts. The eyes are quite stunning with a nice level of realism to the paint and the Egyptian-style mascara is crisp and precise. The paint on the lips is also superb with just enough gloss to give them that slightly wet look. And still, the real showpiece here is her hair. She has a fairly typical coif of straight black hair, but layered on top of that is a cobra-headed headdress, which sports two braids coming down the front and ending in gold rings. Down the back is a full brace of braids all ending in golden rods. This ensemble is actually pegged straight into the top of the head and it looks fabulous! And like the rest of her body, Anck’s pretty neck is adorned with even more finery. She has a wide, segmented black and gold colar with a bird sculpted on the front. Above that she has a necklace of gold and silver beads, and above that she has a wide golden choker.

As always, the articulation on the Phicen Seamless Bodies goes above and beyond in replicating the movements of the human body. The silicone skin has a warm and even tone and feels eerily real, while the stainless steel skeleton beneath it offers up silky smooth movement and plenty of hidden surprises. TBLeague has started including instruction sheets with these figures showing you what the safe and acceptable movements are, and I find that they tend to be a little conservative in limiting what they allow. The truth is that if you’re careful these bodies are capable of a lot of extreme movements. On the flipside, it’s not a good idea to leave these figures in those kinds of poses for too long, so I tend to go with very traditional museum-style displays unless I’m planning on changing them up every couple of weeks or so. At the risk of jinxing myself, I’ve yet to have any of these bodies tear on me or degrade, and that’s with about 20 of them in my collection, the oldest being from several years ago. And with the body and costume covered, let’s move on to her accessories.

For starters, she comes with this wicked sickle-bladed sword. At first I thought it was going to be a repack of one that came with a previous release, but it’s completely new. The blade has a mirror finish and the sculpted grip features a gold painted guard and a scarab sculpted onto the pommel. She can comfortably wield it in either or both hands.

Next up, she has a dagger, which features a simple black grip and also a mirror finish on the blade. She doesn’t come with a sheath or scabbard for these blades, but the dagger looks pretty good tucked into her sash. I just have to remember to be careful tucking it in there because Phicen skin and sharp pointy things don’t usually get along too well.

And finally, Anck comes with a pair of Sai, which is a really weird pair of weapons to include with an Egyptian Princess, but she still looks bad ass when wielding them. Still, I doubt these are going to spend a lot of time out of the box. I’d rather go with the more-Egyptian themed weapons. And while that wraps up Anck’s weapons, we still have a display base and decorative piece to look at.

The display base is a raised circular platform sculpted to look like an ancient pillar. There are hieroglyphs sculpted into the sides and golden discs with raised scarabs encircling the base. It’s a fantastic looking piece and these always makes me wonder how TBLeague can throw in extras like this, while still keeping the costs well under $200. The only downside of these bases is that there’s no way to secure the figure, which makes me unlikely to ever display her standing on it for fear of her taking a shelf dive. I suppose you can use a stand and put it on top of it, but that tends to look unsightly. She does, however, look pretty fine sitting on it.

And finally Anck comes with a golden cat sculpture, which is both beautiful and quite hefty. Again, how do they pack this much stuff in while not approaching the prices of many other Sixth-Scale figures out there? I don’t know, but I’m not about to question it.

Anck Su Namun is yet another fantastic figure from TBLeague. The detail and craftsmanship on the costume and accessories just goes to show how much these guys care about producing visually stunning figures that pair so well with the Phicen bodies. What’s more she’s been so much fun to play around with. When I first started dabbling around with this line, I was so apprehensive about handling them, but the more experience I get, the more I realize that these figures have a lot to offer so long as you show a modicum of care when handling them. The Egyptian Princess set me back about $160 and while she’s still hanging around at some retailers, she’s also starting to creep up in price at places like Ebay. I’m happy to add her to my collection, and I was even happier to see that TBLeague followed her up with a Cleopatra figure. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to show her off here soon.

Mar 29 2019

Grimm Fairy Tales: Sela Mathers (Snow White) Bishoujo Statue by Zenescope

Does anybody love Zenescope more than I do? I dunno, maybe. But the fact is that I love them a whole lot. When Marvel’s comics started seriously disappointing me, I started spreading my comic monies around to some of the indies and Zenescope took a lot of it. The only problem? Zenescope doesn’t have a lot of support in the way of merchandizing and that’s especially the case when it comes to statues and action figures. Well, obviously Zenescope saw the problem and answered it by Kickstarting a Bishoujo-style statue of their former leading lady, Sela Mathers as Snow White. If you’ve seen some of my Kotobukiya reviews, than you probably know what a Bishoujo Statue is. And it’s clear that Zenescope’s Kickstarter set out to imitate Koto’s Bishoujo formula as much as possible. So, how’d they do? Let’s find out…

Well, for starters I really dig the packaging! Sela comes in a colorful window box, and while it lacks the side and top windows that Koto employs on its boxes, this set up still looks nice. The statue itself is held between two clear plastic trays and you can get a pretty good look at her while she’s still boxed. And because everything is collector friendly, you can feel free to display her in or out of the box. As far as set up is concerned, Sela comes already mounted on the base, so all you have to do is put her sword in her hand and her glasses on her nose. Yeah, don’t forget the glasses. Mine were rattling around in the bottom of the tray after I opened her, and they’re probably pretty easy to lose when removing the statue for the first time. They do, however, slide into place pretty easily and stay on fairly well.

And here she is! I think the composition here is really close to perfect. It’s not only iconic for the character, but it succeeds in creating an image ripped from a cover page of the prolific comic. Sela assumes a wide stance with her left hip tossed to the side, her famous book of Grimm Fairy Tales clutched in her left arm and her right arm holding her sword behind her. If I were to nitpick anything here it would be that the book be positioned just a little lower so that it wasn’t obscuring the lower half of her face from certain angles. And that is indeed just a nitpick. Truth be told, I think they did a fantastic job designing this piece.

Equally impressive is the sculpting that not only defines Sela’s lovely form, but recreates her costume as Snow White. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing terribly intricate on display here, but what’s here does a fine job. The high heeled boots include sculpted laces running up the fronts, as well as some creasing here and there. The edges of her stockings are sculpted around her thighs, her short shorts feature some simple stitch lines as well as lacing on both hips of her shorts, the half-top has a sculpted, decorative border running around the top and the whole costume is rounded out by the bracers on her biceps and forearms. As for the coloring, it’s pretty solid, but some of the paintwork could have been sharper. The white paint on the all the lacing is fine, but there’s a little bit of slop along the gold border of her top. I’ll also note here that the skin tone has a bit of a waxy finish to it, which just just happens to be one of my pet peeves when it comes to PVC statues. It’s often one of those things that tends to separate more quality pieces from knock-offs. Does it bother me here? Yeah it kind of does. Is it enough to ruin the statue? Certainly not.

The portrait is every bit as good as the rest of the sculpting. It’s definitely Sela only filtered through the Bishoujo style. It works really well for the character and I think the likeness is close enough that even Grimm fans who aren’t into the Bishoujo aesthetic could overlook it and still enjoy this figure. The paintwork for the eyes and lips are both sharp and the glasses look great, even without any plastic for the lenses. The hair sculpt is extremely ambitious and for the most part I think it succeeds. However, it does break down a bit under close scrutiny, as some of the edges aren’t as sharp as they could have been and there’s a bit of what I presume is mold flashing here and there.

As mentioned, in her right hand, Sela holds her sword, Lysraseri, forged from four of the most powerful swords in all the Realms of Power. And this is indeed a beautiful recreation of the sword from the gold and silver finish, right down to the four gems in the hilt, representing the powers of Excalibur, Chrysaor, Mistilteinn, and Kusanagi. It also fits perfectly in her hand.

The book is also very well done. It has some gold decorations printed on the front as well as the title on both the front cover and the spine, with a bookmark peeking out the bottom of the pages. Unlike the sword, the book is permanently attached to the figure’s hand.

And our final stop on this figure is the base, which is a simple black disc. It’s exactly the kind of thing I’d expect to see on a Prize Figure, and even some of Koto’s own Bishoujo’s have gone with this utilitarian look. It’s functional, it works fine, and it doesn’t detract from the figure. There were also a number of bonuses added to the Kickstarter as Stretch Goals. As I recall, some were included free while others were Add On purchases. Here are some of the goodies that I got with her…

The coolest item was the Kickstarter Exclusive comic featuring the concept art on the cover. She also came with the same comic with a Sketch Cover, which I didn’t photograph because, well… it’s just a blank Sketch Cover.

The other bonuses included a Collector’s Pin with the same artwork on it, two metal Collector Cards, and a sticker.

The Buy In to get the Statue as part of the Kickstarter was $70 if you got in on the Early Bird pricing, which is right about average for a Kotobukiya Bishoujo figure, or at least it was until recently when those prices started jumping up. Is the quality here the same as on a Koto figure? Nope, not even close. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad figure. Indeed, for a first try, I think Sela turned out pretty well and while there were some production pictures during the course of the Kickstarter that made me a little worried, I’m quite pleased with the final product. Maybe I’m being a little extra forgiving because Zenescope figures are such rare occurrences, but what I do know is that if the teaser on the back of the box is true, I’ll be the first in line to pledge for a Robyn Hood Bishoujo.

Feb 1 2019

Predator (Dark Horse Comics): Ultimate Ahab by NECA

It’s been a few weeks since I opened some NECA goodies, so let’s remedy that on this fine Friday by plunging into their Predator pool and pulling out something new! I’ve still got two of the three figures from Series 18 to look at, but I think I’m going to set those aside and instead open up another of their Ultimate Series, and one that’s been sitting around for way too long. Let’s check out Ultimate Ahab!

Pulled from the pages of Dark Horse’s Predator comics, Ahab is an Elder Predator with a bit of an obsession over hunting Engineers (as in Space Jockies not people who drive trains or design bridges!) and oh my, what a great choice he is for the Ultimate Series treatment. As always, the packaging here consists of a window box with a front flap covering the window. It’s got plenty of pictures of the figure as well as some kick-ass artwork, and everything is collector friendly. The fact that these are some of the few action figure packages that I actually keep should speak volumes about how much I dig them, but saving the boxes also comes in handy to keep all those extra goodies! They don’t call these Ultimate for nothing!

After the uniquely crazy look of Broken Tusk, Ahab is kind of a return to basics, or at least a much simpler and streamlined outfit. He’s got the usual net-motif sculpted into his torso and legs, as well as armor on his lower legs, forearms, shoulders, and the upper left part of his chest. The outfit is rounded out with a simple belt, thigh armor, partially covered by sculpted fur, and an alien skull hanging around his neck. He also features a stylish crimson cape, which is made of an exceptionally nice material and hangs down just a bit below his waistline. Obviously, the comics and other associated Predator fiction has given us a wide array of different looking Predator outfits, and while I dig the more distinctive ones, it’s also refreshing to get back to basics.

The paintwork is excellent and the figure exhibits all the usual flourishes I’m used to seeing on these guys. Ahab’s Yautja flesh varies from a sickly pale yellow to orange, and he’s got several natural markings on his skin, particularly at the inner thighs and shoulders. The armor isn’t as heavily weathered on this guy as some of my other Preds, but it has just the right amount to make it look lived in and well used. There’s also a bit of gradient brown on the sculpted fur patches.

The exploits of Ahab’s hunts are written all over his face. His right eye is missing and flesh has grown over the socket. He’s also missing his right upper mandible, and there are some scars interrupting the spotting on the top of his head. But he’s still a handsome devil and I will never stop being impressed by the work NECA puts into the Predator dreadlocks, with each one separately sculpted. And while it’s not actually part of his head, now seems as good a time as any to talk about the hose that connects the shoulder armor to the piece of chest armor. With my past Preds, articulating the arm would cause this to pop out of the hole on the chest armor. That’s fine, because otherwise it would severely limit that limb’s articulation. Unfortunately, this one appears to be glued in, because instead of simply popping out, the tab broke off in the hole. I may glue it, I may leave it out, or I may just snip it off entirely.

Instead of a swappable head, Ahab actually comes with a wearable mask. This is held on mostly by friction, but it fits pretty well and leaves his mandibles exposed. The interior also features some great detail, and I love that NECA bothered to paint the interior of the eyes red.

Ahab’s arm bracers conceal the usual Predator gadgets. The left arm has his flip up computer and his right arm houses his twin extending blades. You can also swap this piece out for one with triple blades, which is a damn cool bonus. And if you don’t want either sets of cutlery getting in the way, you can remove them and attach the bracer piece to have them retracted all the way in.

Ahab also comes with a satisfying number of weapons, the first of which is his shoulder-mounted plasma-caster. If you’re familiar with NECA’s Predator figures, than you’re familiar with this piece. It clips onto the shoulder and features the same level of detail in the sculpt and paint finish as the rest of Ahab’s armor, blending in perfectly. The caster itself is positioned on an articulated arm allowing it to target his pray. I love the look of these as display pieces, but they tend to get in the way of the head articulation, so I tend to use them for regular display, but not when I’m playing around with the figure.

Next up is his spear. It’s got a beautifully sculpted blade with serrated hooks trailing down the top of the shaft. The middle is sculpted with a thick grip and the far end terminates into a sharp point. Ahab comes with a pair of accessory holding hands, which allows him to wield this in one or both hands. Although it should be noted that it’s a delicate piece, and some care should be taken when getting it into his fingers. NECA also included a small clip that can be attached to his back to hold the spear, but I doubt I’ll use it since the cape gets in the way.

The Smart Disc is an accessory we’ve seen before and it’s always a welcome addition. It’s painted gold and features some great sculpted detail, along with finger holes to work with one of the right hands. The only downside here is that he doesn’t have a place to store it when he’s not using it.

And I saved my favorite weapon for last, and that’s the Engineer rifle. The design of this weapon is just so damn cool and it brilliantly reflects the HR Giger techno-organic motif seen in the Engineer’s spaceship. The way it coils around it looks like some kind of worm-like creature is wrapping around Ahab’s arm. I’d love to get another one of these to give to one of my Engineer figures, but I’m sure as hell not going to take this one away from Ahab.

The final accessory is the skull and spinal column of an Engineer. It’s a beautiful, albeit grim, sculpt and features a gray painted finish.

I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of adding new Predators to my collection, and Ahab here is yet another great example of why. The team at NECA clearly loves these alien hunters so much, and that comes out in all the beautiful details and wonderful craftsmanship and bevy of accessories. It’s hard for me to choose favorites here, but Ahab surely takes a place right beside the Jungle and City Hunters as my top Predators. And best of all, since I never owned the original NECA release of Ahab, I didn’t even have to double-dip to get this Ultimate edition.

Nov 30 2018

Predator (Dark Horse Comics): Broken Tusk by NECA

As many of you know, I’m a huge fan and supporter of NECA Toys, but that hasn’t always been easy. Distributors in my neck of the woods have been few and far between, and that’s why I’m absolutely thrilled over a new partnership that has landed NECA’s product in Target Stores. And while I understand that the distribution and merchandising has had a shaky start, my local Target now has more NECA product than I’ve ever seen in one place. I mean, if I didn’t already own them, I could go in there tomorrow and pick up nearly every one of the Ultimate Freddy and Jason figures, and some of those have been off the market for a while. And the new stuff has been showing up right on time, which means that I no longer have to pay crazy prices and shipping online. And so, I walked out of Target last week with two new Ultimate Xenomorphs and a couple of Predators. And today I’m going to open one of the Preds…

For a while, I tried to just stick with the Ultimate releases when it comes to Predators, but my willpower ain’t so great and so I’ve been buying more and more of these regular releases. Of course, Broken Tusk is from the Dark Horse comic Alien Vs Predator and the one who Blooded the human warrior Machiko, who is also in this wave and on my pile to open and review. The packaging here is a simple card and giant bubble, which lets you get a great look at the figure inside, but sadly is not collector friendly. Nonetheless, there’s some colorful artwork, an insert that boasts over 25 points of articulation, and a separate tray behind the figure that houses the accessories. Ah, but shredding the packaging is a small price to pay to get this beauty out.

No matter how many of NECA’s Preds I open, they still always manage to impress me. While Broken Tusk is pulled from the Dark Horse comic, I’m happy to say that the figure is not presented in the comic-paint-style that NECA sometimes releases, but rather one that will fit in with the bulk of my other Preds. This figure also represents what is easily the most unique looking Pred in my collection so far and the amount of detail in this sculpt once again proves just how much passion NECA has for these characters. Broken Tusk sports some unusual heavy armor, much of which looks like it’s been fashioned from crustacean shells. These green, interlocking horned plates cover his upper arms, hips and thighs, while similarly colored sleeves of armor protect his knees and lower legs. Even his familiar wrist bracers are painted green to match. He also sports a carapace of some sort as a backpack.

Perhaps the coolest element of his armor is the chest piece, which is sculpted out of softer plastic and actually worn by the figure. This includes the addition of a more mechanical element, with various boxes, pouches and vents interconnected with wires and tubing. And in the middle of it is a true showpiece of a trophy: A Xenomorph’s face! The paint here includes some silver spray on the tubes and the black and blue coloring of the Alien with it’s silver teeth and the rather distinctive (and I think just a bit ludicrous) lightning bolt emblem painted onto the Xeno’s forehead. Of course, under all that armor, you get the usual yellow skinned Yautja anatomy with some natural brown and orange coloring and the sculpted body net, which in this case is green!

Broken Tusk features a masked head sculpt, and sadly the mask is not removable, nor do you get an unmasked head. Maybe NECA is saving that for the Ultimate treatment later on. Either way, he features the usual dreadlocks, which are individually sculpted, and the smooth contoured mask with a nice gold painted finish. There’s a wash on the mask to give it a bit of a weathered look, and he has his lightning symbol outlined on his forehead.

As you might expect, Broken Tusk has a few tricks up his sleeves, or rather up his arm bracers. The right arm features the usual nasty-looking jagged twin blades, which can extend and retract, while the left bracer contains the flip-up computer. I’ve found that a few of my Preds have rather fragile hinges on their arm computers, but the ones on this one are rock solid.

Broken Tusk comes with a couple of weapons, the first of which is the Yautja Burner, which he wields in place of a standard shoulder-mounted plasmacaster. It’s a somewhat compact hand-held weapon with a green and silver deco to match the armor. It also features a soft plastic carry-strap so he can sling it over his shoulder. The figure’s left hand is sculpted to work with the gun and he can hold it quite well.

The other weapon is this amazing pole-arm, which features a spear-head on one end and something more akin to a glaive blade on the other. Both are painted silver and have orange blood splattered on them. Broken Tusk’s right hand is sculpted in a tight grip to let him hold the spear without it slipping, although the right hand can be used so he can wield it with both hands.

It can also be pulled apart to make up two weapons. I’m not sure if this was done just so that it could comfortably fit in the packaging, or so it could intentionally be separated to form two weapons, but I prefer to think it’s the later.

Just one look at this magnificent bastard hanging on the peg, and I knew that I had to have him, not to mention the other figures in this wave. Broken Tusk is a fine addition to my humble but growing collection of Predators and every time I open one of these beauties I find myself anxious to get more. The attention to detail in the sculpt is mind-blowing, and Broken Tusk makes for a formidable presence on any display shelf. Alas, I was only able to pick up him and Machiko on my last trip, so I’m still hunting Hornhead. Although a subsequent trip netted me the Ultimate version of Ahab, so you can expect to see a lot of Predator loving here in the week’s ahead.

Sep 26 2018

Predator (Dark Horse Comics) by NECA

The Predator hit the theaters a couple of weeks back like a wet splat. I saw it on opening night and I really enjoyed it, but I could easily see why a lot of people didn’t. Even if the newest film in the franchise didn’t feel like it was edited in a blender, let’s face it, the original Predator is damn near a perfect film and I hold the second in very high regards, but everything after that has sucked hard. Maybe my expectations were low, but at least I had fun seeing this one. But forget about the movie, today I’m talking comics. Sure, I will be reviewing some Predator figures from the new movie, but in the meantime, I picked up today’s figure from a Twitter buddy and thought I’d have a look at him before the new ones start rolling in.

The box has seen better days, but it’s still a thing of beauty. Like a forerunner to NECA’s Ultimate Series, this Predator comes in a colorful and collector friendly box with the front panel recreating the brilliant cover art from The Concrete Jungle, Issue #1. On cold dark nights, I still have nightmares about the day I was moving out of state and I gave a huge box of comics to my brother’s girlfriend’s brother and this issue was in it. I spring awake and then scream because only then do I realize it really happened and wasn’t just a horrific dream. Oh well… live and learn. In addition to the cover art, the box also has some comic panels from the Dark Horse comic series.

NECA has created quite a little niche by creatively repainting their figures to reproduce their look in both comics and video games, and that’s exactly what we’re looking at here. I don’t own all of NECA’s Predators (far from it!), but I think I’d be safe in saying that the majority of the parts and sculpting on figure has been used before. The figure’s deco makes brilliant use of some blues and reds to simulate the coloring of the cover, along with some silver paint hits to further simulate the art. It not only works well as a recreation, but I think the colors look particularly striking on the figure alongside the Yautja’s yellow skin. Additional black paint is used to pick out some of the details in the leg and arm armor.

The back of the figure is bathed in a deep crimson shadow with black wash, save for that one blot of blue paint that landed on my figure’s left leg. The back is intended to soak up the shadows from the comic cover’s mostly red field, which makes this a figure that is best viewed from the front or a front-focused angle, in order to make the comic inspired paint effect really work.

That’s not to say that this figure is all about the paint job, because the sculpt is quite spectacular too. What can I say? NECA knows their away around Predators and their gear and here it really shows. The attention to detail on the arm bracers is particularly well done, although the left arm computer doesn’t actually open on this figure like it does on a lot of their regular Preds. The right arm bracer also has a bunch of sculpted detail and the blades will extend and retract. He has a sculpted leather belt, complete with detailed stitching and he also has a pair of bone trophies on strings that crisscross his chest. The plasma-caster on his shoulder is mounted on an articulated arm and the whole assembly is removable. Add to that the sculpted body net and the great texturing on his skin and you’ve got a figure that is clearly a labor of love.

Articulation here is standard NECA, which means a whole lot of of rotating hinges. With that being said, this particular Predator isn’t the most fun figure to pose. Most of the articulation points don’t offer a whole lot of range and he has tiny hoses in his shoulder and left arm that will pull out of their sockets at the hint of re-posing. Plus, as always, the plasma-caster is a tight fit on that shoulder and moving the head will frequently knock it off. Nonetheless, I was still able to get some cool poses out of him for the shelf.

Most of my Predators from NECA are of the Ultimate variety, so I’m used to getting a fair number of accessories with them. This Dark Horse Pred only comes with a couple. In addition to the plasma-caster, you get his staff, which is a grizzly piece of work. The top of the staff is capped off with a rotting skull and the attached spine snaking down around the shaft. There are some additional bones and finery attached as well. His left hand is capable of holding it, but the grip is a little loose.

In the past, I haven’t been an avid collector of NECA’s comic and video game repaints, but I mainly picked up this Predator because I have the Dutch and Linn two-pack from the Alien Vs Predator arcade game on pre-order and wanted a similarly painted Predator to go with them. With that having been said, I think I’m enough in love with this ugly motherf’er to motivate me to hunt down some more. And unlike a lot of NECA’s regular figures, the video game and comic releases don’t seem to get too pricey on the aftermarket. Hopefully, the next time a NECA Predator crosses my desk, it’ll be the fugitive from the new film.

Jan 30 2018

Star Wars Black (Legends): Jaina Solo by Hasbro

Folks, I’m kind of at a crossroads with the 6-inch Star Wars Black Series and today’s review is a great example of why. For the most part, this line hasn’t been living up to my expectations, at least not consistently, and I’m constantly considering whether I really need to keep collecting it. At the same time, there are enough genuinely good figures tossed in at regular intervals to make me want to stick around. Either way, I was genuinely excited to hear that Jaina Solo was getting a release, especially since she’s been wiped clean by Disney’s purge of most of the Expanded Universe. I’m actually quite surprised she would get a release at all, since the current Trilogy has replaced Han and Leia’s Expanded Universe kids with Ben Solo, and acknowledging her existence is somewhat problematic and potentially confusing to some of the younger fans out there.

And yet here she is! Because in the end it’s all about finding new ways to bring in more Republic Credits, right? And I guess if that means merchandising those characters that now never were, so be it. Case in point, by slapping the name “Legends” in parenthesis on the package characters like Jaina Solo can live again, even if she is no longer canon. Of course, Jaina’s appearance is mostly thanks to the results of a Fan Poll a while back. Prior to that one, a previous Poll gave us Darth Revan, which granted is also an Expanded Universe character, but seeing as how he’s from The Old Republic, there’s no reason to presume he can’t still have existed in the current Star Wars canon. Sheesh, this is all so complicated, let’s just look at the figure.

OK, so first off, is this really supposed to be her Stealth-X suit? If that’s the case it’s pretty far off the mark, at least going on what I remember from the Dark Horse comic. Then again, I suppose there’s no definitive design for Hasbro to work off of. Maybe I’m just a little bitter because I wish she was wearing just a regular orange X-Wing pilot suit. With all that having been said, the suit is nicely detailed with the ribbed vest, control box on the chest, leg straps, and all the trappings of your typical Star Wars Universe flight suit. She also has a smuggler-style belt with a low slung holster, just the kind that dear old Dad used to wear. There’s some copper paint on the straps for the chest box, but the underlying black suit is devoid of almost all other color. It only has some orange piping, which we’ll be able to see more clearly in a bit, and  you get a little extra gloss in the black boots and gloves.

Other than choice of suit, my biggest issue with this figure is the proportions, specifically in those arms. Why are the elbow joints placed so low? Why are her biceps so long? At first, I thought it was an optical illusion from the suit sculpt, but the more I look at it, the more I realize that someone at Hasbro doesn’t fully understand human anatomy, because the ratio of forearm to bicep on this figure is seriously askew and it really looks strange to me.

The portrait is also a sticking point for me. I don’t think the sculpt is bad. It’s a little soft, but they did get a little personality in there with her smirk, a little something else she picked up from Dad. I also can see a little of her Mom in her cheeks. The hair is sculpted pretty well too, with a hair band forming a pony tail at the back. I think it’s the paint here that really musses things up. Besides being the usual bare-minimum-basic paint job that Hasbro has been giving us with the human portraits, the eyes on mine just look terrible. They’re uneven, and they’re perpetually looking up. I’ve seen a lot of those pictures around the Net of people who do some amazing paint work on these portraits, but Jaina here doesn’t need amazing to be an improvement, just competent would do.

Luckily, Jaina comes with a helmet to help cover up the amateur hour paint-job. Again, the paint on this seems way off from what I remember in the comics. That one was sleeker and had little in the way of colored markings or detail. This one looks more like a Resistance helmet from the current Trilogy. But with that having been said, the paintwork on it is pretty good and I like how worn and weathered it looks. The visor could have been a little cleaner, but hey, all the better to hide her eyes.

What’s cool about this figure is that the flight gear is easily removable and under it you get an outfit that could pass as just her regular space-adventure garb. Here’s where you can see more of the orange piping on her top, as well as a thin belt with silver belt buckle hiding behind her gunbelt. The gunbelt features some nice detail on the pouches and even some silver paint for the button snaps. The holster fits her blaster quite well, and she also has a hook to hang her lightsaber from.

I’m not sure if the blaster is new or not, but it looks a lot like the standard DL-44 we’ve seen a few times in this series. It features good sculpted detail and Jaina’s right hand is sculpted with a trigger finger and holds it really well.

Her lightsaber hilt is quite unique and comes with a detachable purple blade. It even has a little purple paint on the side of the hilt, making it all the more distinctive. She can hold it either hand or wield it two-handed if you prefer.

The articulation here is pretty typical for Hasbro’s SWB ladies, with just one big surprise. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, but there are no bicep swivels. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, hinges and rockers, in the ankles, and swivels in the thighs. The torso features a ball joint under the chest, and here’s the big surprise… an additional ab crunch hinge just above the waist. Finally, the neck is both ball jointed and hinged.

Make no mistake, there’s some great stuff to be found in this figure, and I was pleasantly surprised at how versatile she is with the removable flight gear. But the portraits in this line continue to disappoint me, and let’s face it, this one wasn’t even based on any specific likeness, but rather a comic character at best, or a description in a book. Toss in the bizarre arm proportions and we’ve got some serious problems for a $20 figure in a line for collectors. And yes, I still wish they released Jaina in her regular orange flight suit, but that last bit is just my personal preference. I probably have five or six SWB figures that I still have to review, and as I get around to reviewing them, I’m going to really be weighing the merits of staying in this line, or maybe just being a hell of a lot pickier about the figures that I buy from it.