Tag Archives: exclusives

Nov 16 2017

Marvel Toybox: Thor by Disney

It’s Day Four of Marvel Week, and I got rather long winded yesterday, so I’m going to tone things down today with a simpler (and mercifully shorter!) review, but one that I’ve been rather excited to get to. You may remember a little thing called Disney Infinity. It was one of those Toys-To-Life things, which allowed you to collect figures and use them in a video game world. I freaking loved Disney Infinity! Seriously… just look at this shit!

This doesn’t even include the ones I bought at the end that I haven’t even opened yet. I collected a ton of the figures, I’ve spent time playing them all, and I’ve lost countless hours in the Toybox designing bullshit levels, and maybe a couple of good ones. Infinity had a good run with three different releases spanning dozens of figures and incorporating both Marvel and Star Wars before Disney finally pulled the plug. And now in a move that I never in a million years could have seen coming, Disney has introduced a series of articulated action figures based on those Infinity designs. HOLY SHIT, I AM SO ON BOARD FOR THIS!!!! Let’s check out the first figure in the Marvel Toybox lone… The Mighty Thor!

The packaging is about as basic as you can get. The figure comes in a large bubble on an unassuming card. It gives you a great look at what you’re getting, but there isn’t much else in the way of artwork of flashy presentation to tempt you. Seriously, Disney, for a company that is basically based on artwork, you kind of dropped the ball on this package design. But that’s OK. It just makes me not feel guilty about shredding it to get to my figure. The back of the package shows off four other figures in the Marvel Toybox series, including Hulk, Iron Man, and Spider-Man. And yes, there’s also a Star Wars Toybox Series, and I’ll be checking one of those figures out next week!

If you compare Toybox Thor to the original Infinity figure, you can see that Hasbro made some tweaks to Thor’s design, but this is still undoubtedly the same style. He’s lost a helmet, gained a beard, and the piping on his armor has changed from yellow to blue. With all that being said, I love what they did with the design and it’s hard to believe that I’m actually holding an articulated Infinity figure. The sculpted detail is kept to a minimum to preserve the simple animated look, but all the important stuff is still there, like the discs on his armor, the wraps on his boots, and all that chiseled Asgardian muscle. I also really dig the head sculpt. The coif of hair is cast in a separate piece of plastic, crowning his rather perturbed expression. He looks like someone just nicked his tankard of ale. The paint applications on the face are pretty clean too!

The rest of the coloring on the figure appears to be achieved mostly through colored plastic, but there are some paint applications as well. Overall, the paint is clean, but I should note that my figure had two rather unsightly paint drips on the right boot, but I was eventually able to get these off with some water and a Qtip. The cape is made of a fairly soft and pliable plastic and lifts easily away from the figure to allow for those wide stances.

Thor comes with one accessory, and yes it is Mjolnir. The mighty hammer is a solid chunk of plastic with a sculpted wrap grip, which can fit securely in The Thunder God’s right hand.

The articulation here is pretty good, but the stylized sculpt does restrict the range of motion on some of the points. Thor features rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, and knees. The hips are ball jointed, the ankles are hinged, there’s a swivel in the waist, and the neck is ball jointed. The elbow and knees are somewhat limited, which can be a little frustrating. Also, the sculpted hair makes it so the head can only turn side to side a bit. Still, there’s plenty of fun to be had here. He’s just so solid and chunky and fun to play around with!

 

Wow, was this a pleasant surprise! These Toybox figures seemed to come out of nowhere, and I just recently discovered them because someone sent me a link. They appear to be Disney Store Exclusives, at least that’s where I found and ordered mine. They run $12.99 each, which feels about right for what you’re getting. I have no frame of reference for how well Disney’s exclusive toys sell, but I can promise you that I’ll be doing everything I can to support this line and keep it going. And as for now, I can see Thor will probably be residing on my desk for a little while, because I’m having a hard time putting him down.

Nov 15 2017

Marvel Legends: Hydra Soldier and Hydra Enforcer by Hasbro

Welcome to Marvel Week: Day 3, also known as Hydra Humpday! I’m super excited because I just got this Hydra two-pack and can’t wait to dig into it. I’ve got to tell ya’s, I was so damn excited when Hasbro revealed this set, because the Hydra Soldier, previously released as part of the Mandroid Wave, never turned up in my area and went for crazy money online. I never ponied up a premium for him, and part of me always regretted not having him in my collection. Same goes for that AIM bastard! Getting another crack at this Hydra hooligan with a ‘roided out buddy and a bunch of extras was almost too good to be true. But here it is! I have a lot of stuff to cover today, so let’s dive right in… HAIL HYDRA!!!

When it comes to packaging, if you’ve seen one Marvel Legends two-pack you’ve seen them all. This one is characterized by a cool Hydra insignia on the front and a shiny Toys R Us Exclusive sticker. Thanks to a Twitter tip, I ordered this set the moment it dropped onto TRU’s website. They then proceeded to sit on the order for three days and then cancelled it because it was “Out of Stock.” Thanks, guys! Have fun with that bankruptcy… you’ve earned it! I hope it buries you! I subsequently put the set on my Amazon Wish List where it sat for a week or so at $65+ before finally dropping to around $50 and I just sucked it up. There’s surprisingly little in this box that we haven’t seen before, and yet so much to look at! While there is certainly room to share between the figures, for organizational purposes, I’m going to treat them as two separate entities. Let’s start with the Hydra Soldier first!

So, this is pretty much the same figure that we saw released in the Mandroid Wave. Like I said earlier, I don’t own that one, but when I compare it to the tear-stained picture that I carried in my wallet for the past couple years, I can’t see any differences. He features a dark green buck with bright yellow boots and gauntlets. Additional sculpted parts include a belt and a shoulder rig, both of which are cast in bright yellow to match his outfit, and both can be removed fairly easily. The belt and rig each include some sculpted pouches, you get a little silver paint on the belt buckle, and the rig has a shield over the left side of his chest painted black with a silver H. I think I would have preferred a red Hydra emblem there, but the H is fine.

Especially since you get a pair of yellow Hydra emblems printed on his shoulders. And just look at that head sculpt! It looks like Protector’s much angrier brother. This really is the perfect noggin for a comic book henchman. The hood gives him a little bit of stooge anonymity. The red eye globes are a nice touch. He just looks so angry and deranged, and perfectly willing to bring on the pain by charging in to attack Captain America. It’s everything I’m looking for in my Hydra soldiers! But… variety is nice too! And as such, he comes with a couple of other recycled noggins to choose from.

Look familiar? Remember Taskmaster from the Red Onslaught Wave? Well this is indeed his Udon head, and who would have guessed that this would work so well for a Hydra Soldier. Not me, but I sure do dig it. The hood is cast in green plastic to match the uniform and the mask is painted yellow and given some narrow red eyes. Still want more options?

Here’s the masked SHIELD Agent head that came with Nick Fury from the Giant Man Wave. Who says SHIELD and Hydra can’t order their goon helmets from the same catalog? This one gets a fresh coat of black and green paint and a red visor. I think this is my least favorite of the three options, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. And if swapping heads doesn’t scratch that customizing itch, how about an entirely new outfit for your Malibu Hydra Ken?

Well, more like a slightly different outfit? OK, dammit, it’s a vest. But it’s a snazzy yellow vest and it can replace the shoulder rig. Holy shit, they dug all the way back to 2013 for this one, as it’s a recolor of Ultimate Cap’s vest from the Hit Monkey Wave! So, I like the way this looks on the figure, I just wish it was branded for Hydra. It does have a little bit of silver paint on the waist buckle, but that’s it. Not bad at all, but unless I get extras of this set, I think I’ll stick with the shoulder rig and the stock head. I will, however, experiment with different looks while showing off his weapons and articulation.

The first weapon is a tactical shotgun. I’m sure we’ve seen this a few times, but the first time I remember seeing it was back in 2012 with The Punisher. Alas, it was painted a lot nicer back then. This one is just cast in gray swirly plastic. Awww, you could have at least painted the shells on the side, Hasbro! Still, it’s a really nice sculpt with plenty of detail and it suits the figure very well. The right hand has a trigger finger, which is perfect for holding it.

The other weapon is this lovely piece of hardware that I first remember seeing with Chameleon from the Rhino Wave. Once again, it’s cast entirely in swirly gray plastic, but it’s a really cool design, with a ton of detail packed into the sculpt. It also has a detachable drum magazine. Hasbro even painted the Hydra emblem on the front of the drum. Aww, you redeemed yourself, Hasbro. I love it!

OK, so our last stop on this guy is articulation, and his holds no real surprises. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in both the thighs and tops of the boots, double hinges in the 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 the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. For the most part, the joints feel solid, but the right elbow on mine could be a little tighter. I would have been perfectly happy to pick this guy up as a single-packed re-issue, but the extras make him a real treat. Not to mention, his buddy…

Behold… The Hydra Enforcer! I really love the idea Hasbro was going with here. Not only do the different body types add some variety to the Hydra Forces, but his beefier build makes him feel like a heavy weapons specialist to me. On the downside, from the neck down this guy is a 100% recolor of Nuke from the Giant Man Wave. Sure, it would have been great to get an all new sculpt, but that’s not usually what these multi-packs are about. And besides, I think Nuke was a good choice. He was a fantastic figure and I think one that lends itself pretty well to the concept. His buck is painted green and yellow to match his partner, and he also has the same Hydra emblems printed on his shoulders. The vest, belt, and hip pouches have also all been recolored yellow, and he gets a bit of black paint for the sculpted grenades and some red paint for the shotgun shells. The buckles on his two waist belts are painted silver, but not the ones on his other belt or thigh straps.

The stock head is a repaint of Captain Britain’s noggin from the Abomination Wave. Yeah, that was a weird choice! The helmet has been repainted green to match the buck and he’s been given yellow stripes on the top. I’m still not sure whether this works for me or not. It has such a strong RoboCop vibe, that it’s hard to unsee that, even on the Captain Britain figure. I also think the serene expression on what is a hero portrait feels off here. I guess I don’t need all my Hydra troops to be slobbering maniacs, but it’s still my preference.

The other two heads include one recycled from Nuke and one that I can’t place, but given the propensity for re-purposing here, I’m sure we’ve seen it before. If you know, shout it out in the comments! Using the repainted Nuke head on the repainted Nuke body may be going too far. Then again, it is a killer sculpt and the bloody gash running down the side of the face is genuinely disturbing. I’m not a fan of the other head. He has a butt chin, a lot of mold flashing on the jaw line, and what the hell is up with those lips? Anyway, there aren’t any extra wardrobe options with this guy, so let’s just take a look at his weapons.

First off, he comes with the same combat knife we saw included with Nuke, and yes it can still be stored in the sheath that’s sculpted onto the back of the vest. I loved this knife back then, and I still do. It’s big and beefy and a really cool sculpt. He can also hold it just fine in either hand.

Next, he comes with the bazooka that we first saw included with Drax The Destroyer from the the Titus Wave. This is a really cool sculpt and now it’s cast in gray plastic to match the other weapons in this set. It is a little difficult to get him to rest it on his shoulder properly because of the vest, but I was able to make it work, more or less. This particular weapon really reinforces his role as a heavy weapons expert in my Hydra army.

As if it wasn’t ballsy enough repainting Nuke’s body and his head, Hasbro also tossed in Nuke’s weird-looking sci-fi gun, which is again cast in that same gray plastic. I actually don’t mind this rifle too much. It seems natural that Hydra would be arming themselves with alien tech. Maybe this is a Chitauri weapon or something they nicked from AIM. Either way, it adds a little flavor to the mix and he looks pretty good holding it. It doesn’t look nearly as flashy as it did with the previous paint job, but the plain gray finish makes it a little less obvious that it’s another thing recycled from Nuke.

As expected, The Enforcer’s articulation is identical to Nuke’s. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps and double hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs and tops of the boots, and the knees are double hinged. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. The torso swivels at the waist and has an ab crunch. And finally, you get both a ball joint and hinge in the neck.

I’ve seen some critical reactions to this set among collectors, including objections to some of the heads, and the vest, but personally I couldn’t be happier. This set not only put a highly sought out figure into my hands, but it gave me lots of cool extras. It may be 100% recycled parts, but this is the kind of creative recycling that I can get behind. Hey, I get that not everyone likes the same thing, so if you bought this set and hate it, feel free to send it to me. No Hydra soldiers will be turned away and I’ll definitely be picking up at least one more of these sets. Now, Hasbro, if you would just throw together an AIM 2-pack that would be most welcome too. You don’t even have to go nuts. Just throw two AIM soldiers in there, repack a few extra weapons, and you can have more of my monies.

Oct 2 2017

Marvel Legends: The Human Torch by Hasbro

I promised I’d be back to Marvel Legends this week, but before jumping into a new wave, I thought I’d take a look at the newest Walgreens Exclusive and the second member of Marvel’s First Family to be released in this Fantastic Four assortment. It’s Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch!

As odd a marriage as Walgreens and Marvel Legends may sound, it’s been a blessing for me. Distribution is generally bad here and store exclusives can be tough for me to come by, but not these. Indeed, my Walgreens currently has six Sue Storms on the shelf, a Black Ant, and just a week or so ago I saw the yellow Daredevil from a while back. I haven’t seen Johnny show up there yet, but Walgreens has also been really good about getting these available online for those of us not willing to take chances on the luck of the hunt. The package is branded for the team, so you get a big “4” emblem on the tray insert and the “Fantastic Four” logo on the front.

Johnny is cast in a translucent red and orange plastic, which does a nice job of reproducing his “Flame On!” effect, allowing the figure to get by without much in the way of paint at all. There is also some original sculpting on the lower legs and forearms to simulate flames. There’s a faint trace of his costume with the belt running across his waist and the darkened collar, and there’s a “4” emblem tampo on his chest.

The figure also comes with a flame effect part that rests on the shoulders and pegs into the back, very similar to the ice piece that came with Iceman in the first X-Men Wave. I haven’t decided whether I’m a fan of this piece yet or not. I wish it was colored to match the rest of the body a bit better. As it is, it’s a lot more yellow, but I’m happy that it’s designed to be removed. The head has the same issue as it’s a lot more yellow than the rest of the body, but it doesn’t bother me quite as much as the shoulder piece. The details on the face can be a little tough to make out given the translucent plastic, but Johnny is wearing a characteristic smirk and the paint used for the eyes and eyebrows is nice and sharp.

The articulation here is pretty standard stuff for a Legends figure. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the elbows, swivels in the thighs and lower legs, and the ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch in the torso, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

In addition to the shoulder flame effect part, Torch comes with two sets of hands and two additional fire effect parts. The stock hands include a right fist with some flame sculpted on it and an open left hand. The extra set are both simple fists, which are designed to interact with the flame parts. These appear to be the same pieces that came with Sunfire, and we’ve seen them a few times before that representing everything from flame to magic.

All in all, I think this figure turned out great and I’m so happy Hasbro and Walgreens are doing these. I’ve been a Marvel Comics reader ever since I was a kid. Books have come and gone out of my life, but The Fantastic Four is one of the few books that I always read. In fact, the only thing that could shake us apart was Marvel cancelling it. Little did I know it was for the better, because I can’t even imagine what a contemporary FF comic would look like given Marvel’s current trend of releasing 99% dogshit. But hey, I’m a True Believer. Things have got to right themselves sooner or later. In the meantime, I’m extra thankful that we’re getting these Fantastic Four figures and for my stack of back issues and trades.  Reed Richards is scheduled for release next, and at that point, I’ll pretty much pay whatever I have to to get a Legends Ben Grimm. You hear that, Hasbro? Make it happen!

 

Aug 5 2017

Marvel Legends A-Force (SDCC 2017 Exclusive): Elsa Bloodstone by Hasbro

If you’re here expecting Anime Saturday, then you’re in good company among the ranks of pissed off DC and Transformers readers that got their content bumped this week because of my marathon review of the Marvel Legends A-Force set. Sorry about that. I’m something like FIVE waves of Legends behind and I didn’t want to get in any deeper. But now, the end is near and so I face the final curtain. Just one more A-Force figure to look at before things can return to normal around these parts. Let’s check out, Elsa Bloodstone!

If you were after this set because you’re a fan of the A-Force book, then you’ll no doubt know who Elsa is, but either way I highly recommend checking out her 2001 debut book, Bloodstone. She was a fun, sassy, and rough-and-tumble monster hunter, before the lunatics and wet blankets running Marvel these days got a hold of her. I seem to remember her in the short-lived run of Fearless Defenders a few years back as well, which was not terrible, but not one that I would go out of my way to recommend, aside from some solid art and pretty good action. Where was I? Oh, right… the figure….

Elsa Bloodstone is a bad ass and this figure does a nice job of capturing that. Her costume is mostly painted onto the buck, with orange pants, an orange top, and an exposed mid-riff. Her black painted boots do feature sculpting on her feet and have additional pieces over her knees to make them more stylish, and to give her additional padding for when she knees wolfmen in the nards. She has a belt and holster with a thigh strap, which is lifted from the Misty Knight figure, this time cast in a darker plastic, and with silver painted buckles. Hmm… there’s something else here that seems awfully familiar.

Her arms feature sculpted sleeves to go with her jacket, which is… Oh, Hasbro, you didn’t? It was one thing to use the same cape in the same box for Loki and Sif, but now you’ve recycled Monica’s jacket? You’ve gone too far this time! Actually, it’s a pretty sensible move and truth be told it looks fine. This time around, it’s cast in a muddy green-gray plastic, with black painted lapels, and a brown liner. I still really dig all the texturing on this plastic garment and I’m not terribly displeased about seeing it again. It suits the character.

The head sculpt is very solid. Elsa sports a pretty face, with a serious, although not too severe, expression. Her eyebrows, eyes, and lips are all perfectly painted, and she even has her Bloodstone choker painted on around her neck. But the real showpiece of this portrait is her bitchin’ red hair and ridiculously awesome ponytail. I’d say that’s about the most epic hair we’re going to see in the Legends line, at least until Medusa makes her appearance.

The articulation here is very close to what we got with Monica Rambeau, which makes sense, because Elsa shares her arms. What is unfortunately missing are lateral rockers in the ankles. Now, I’m not a hundred percent sure that they aren’t in there, but if they are, they won’t budge on mine at all. It’s not a deal breaker for me, but it does make it a little harder to balance her on those wide stance poses.

Accessories! Four out of the six A-Force ladies came with nothing. Sif came with a sword. Elsa, on the other hand, hit the jackpot, with not one, not two, but three accessories… and they’re all guns. For starters, she has a cool revolver that fits into her holster. I’m pretty sure that this is the same one that came with Misty Knight a while back, only this time painted a lot more sensibly.

She also comes with a pair of identical shotguns, and these aren’t the usual sawed off boomsticks I’m used to seeing people in movies and comics dual wielding. Nope, these are full-on over-and-under shotguns, which look pretty ridiculous when she’s holding them both, because they’re just so goddamn long. Otherwise, they are extremely cool accessories and one of them may wind up getting re-purposed to another figure, I just haven’t decided to whom yet.

Unlike Monica and She-Hulk, I’d classify Elsa Bloodstone, along with Singularity, as the most Exclusive-friendly figure in this batch. By that I mean that I can’t imagine she’s a “must-have” for anybody, but she is a cool character, I’m damn glad she got a figure, and this set was a great way to get her out there. She just isn’t someone that I could see getting a slot in one of the regular retail waves. She also turned out to rank surprisingly high as one of my favorites in this box, and another reason I’m so very glad I was able to pick up this set.

Yup, this is a solid box of figures, through and through. About the only one in the batch I couldn’t see myself buying separately would have been Singularity, and that’s just because I don’t care about the character, not because she’s a bad figure. She-Hulk could have been tweaked a bit to be a better release, but apart from that I’d say the other four figures in the set are all fantastic, even with there being parts sharing within the set itself. I was able to get this set off of Toys R Us when it first went up at around $120 and that puts it right at twenty bucks a figure, which is regular retail for Legends these days. Sure, I wind up finding a lot of them for less, but I’m not going to quibble where an exclusive is concerned.

Aug 4 2017

Marvel Legends A-Force (SDCC 2017 Exclusive): Lady Sif by Hasbro

What’s this? Marvel content on a DC Friday? I know, blasphemous! But it’s Day Five of my Marvel Legends SDCC Exclusive A-Force reviews, and I can’t stop now. I’ve already checked out Monica Rambeau, She-Hulk, Singularity, and Loki and today I’m turning my attention to one of the fiercest fighters of Asgard and occasional love interest of everyone’s favorite Thunder God. It’s Lady Sif! There are only two figures left in the box, so let’s go…

Yes, with both Sif and Loki included in the A-Force set, the Asgardians are well represented. I’ll confess, Sif’s inclusion in certainly buoyed my determination to pick up this set. To my knowledge, this is her first appearance as a Legends scale figure, although we did get a 3 3/4-inch release of the MCU version from Hasbro a while back. I never picked up any of those figures, so this is the first time she’s gracing my collection of little plastic Marvel peoples. Remember how Agents of SHIELD paraded Sif out when they needed to get a ratings boost? That was adorable. It still didn’t make me want to watch it.

But forget about the MCU for now, because this figure is ripped straight from the comic panels, and I love it! She sports her crimson and white battle gear, which consists of a surprising amount of sculpting. It actually took me a bit to recognize that those segmented armor thigh-high boots are borrowed from Angela. It’s pretty obvious when the two figures are together, but the red and white deco really makes them look distinctive on this figure. The segmented armor on the fore arms are also borrowed from Angela, this time painted white, and they include wrist and elbow pieces to add a little bit more individuality to Sif’s outfit, and make them look like full fledged gauntlets.

The belt and “skirt” are brand new and hang on the figure’s hips, much like Lady Loki’s. Sif’s belt features a loop so she can wear her sword on her hip. The torso features more of that lovely crimson plastic with some razor sharp white patterns running across her abs and chest. For a figure that borrows so heavily from another, I think Hasbro did an amazing job making Sif feel unique and the colors just look fantastic. But wait, Sif isn’t done raiding other figures’ wardrobes yet…

What’s this? Using the same cape on two different figures in the same boxed set? Yup, it’s a repaint of Lady Loki’s cape! Hasbro, you cheeky bastards! But I’m going to let it slide, because it happens to look great on both ladies. I think it fits Sif a little better, but I’m going to chalk that up to the styling of Loki’s hair. The cape and hair combined, made her look a little hunched, and I’m only really seeing that when I have these two side by side. Of course, the cape is also easily removable, for when Sif needs to be unencumbered for swordplay. Speaking of which, her articulation is right no par with Loki’s, including the always welcome thigh and bicep swivels.

Most of the head sculpts in this box have been great, and Lady Sif does nothing to buck that trend. The paint on the eyebrows and lips is sharp, and while the eyes aren’t quite perfect, they’re still pretty damn good. Her long hair has more of a windblown look to it than Loki’s, which gives her a little more range of motion in her neck articulation. Lastly, her head piece is sculpted independently of her face, which certainly makes it look better than if the whole head were one piece. Yeah, there is a little bit of mold flashing along her jawline, but I can always clean that up.

Up until now, there haven’t really been any accessories accompanying the ladies in this set, but Lady Sif would be naked without her trusty sword. It’s a very simple and utilitarian design with a straight crossguard and round pommel. The blade and hilt are painted silver and the grip is painted red. I actually expected this piece to be a repaint of Valkyrie’s sword, but it’s a totally different sculpt. Sif’s grips are designed so that she can wield it in her left or right hands, and if you try hard enough, she can even wield it dual handed.

By the Gods, I love this figure. Sure, she uses a fair bit of recycled parts, but its sensibly done and the red and white coloring makes her pop on the shelf, even among the throngs of costumed heroes. What’s more, with a sword in her hand, she’s incredibly fun to play with and she looks great battling it out with Thor by her side, or in the company of her fellow femme fatales, Valkyrie and Angela. It’s nice to see my Asgardian ranks growing, even before the Ragnarok figures start to hit. The only thing here to make me sad is that I’m now down to my very last A-Force figure, and so tomorrow I’ll be wrapping things up with a look at Elsa Bloodstone!

Aug 3 2017

Marvel Legends A-Force (SDCC 2017 Exclusive): Loki by Hasbro

Sorry, change-o-bot fans, if you didn’t know it already, I’m bumping all regular content this week so that I can get through a review of all six figures in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends A-Force set, which was released through Toys R Us during San Diego Comic Con. It’s Day Four, I’m over the hump, and I can’t think of a better way to introduce today’s figure then with a couple of licks from The Kinks… Well, I’m not dumb but I can’t understand, Why she walks like a woman and talks like a man, Oh my Loki, lo lo lo lo Loki….

…Well, we drank horns of mead and danced all night, Under Mjolnir’s electric light… Ok, enough with The Kinks, I made my point. Yes, this figure represents Loki’s return in female form after the events of Ragnarok and also as she appeared in the A-Force book. It’s also a bit of foreshadowing to the present landscape, where half of Marvel’s main characters have been turned into women… but don’t get me started. Anywho… It’s kind of crazy that in the five years since Marvel Legends returned, this is the first comic version of Loki we get. Well, at least there will be an MCU version in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok wave. In the meantime, I ain’t complaining, so let’s check her out.

Hello, God of Mischief! Lady Loki looks absolutely stunning, thanks to a deft mix of paint and a bit of original sculpting. She’s built on one of the better female bucks and includes those extra touches like bicep and thigh swivels, missing from the standard Legends femme bodies. Alas, she’s still got those rotating hinges in the hips, but I guess you can’t have everything. The boots are painted in a pale brown, while the rest of the outfit is metallic green with a striking fish-scale armor pattern printed on the thighs, biceps and torso.

Original sculpted bits include the belt and sash, which hangs on her hips and sculpted boot tops, which simply hang around the knees. The boot tops are kind of clever in that they add a unique look to what was otherwise just paint, but they can get a bit floppy when posing her. They’re kind of similar to the ones on the recent Rogue figure. Lastly, we get a cape with sculpted fur shoulders, which is easily removable. The paintwork on the belt and sash is especially nice and includes some gold discs placed over the brown belt, and a brown border on the sash. What a great looking costume!

And that brings us to the portrait, and it is simply fabulous. She’s beautiful, the paint applications for her eyes and lips are perfect and her hair looks amazing, complete with gold adornments throughout. Her horned crest is sculpted as a separate piece and really looks like it could be removed, even though it’s permanently attached. The hair does inhibit her neck articulation quite a bit, but that’s pretty unavoidable with sculpted hair like this.

If you had asked me how badly I wanted a Lady Loki in my Marvel Legends collection, I’d say it was pretty far down on my list. Hell, I still haven’t gotten around to picking up the Kotobukiya Bishoujo statue of her, but that’s mostly down to how damn expensive it’s been. Nonetheless, having this figure in hand and seeing how fantastic she turned out, I’ve become an easy convert. Indeed, I’d say so far this is my favorite figure in the A-Force box. Yeah, I still love Monica finally getting a figure, but in terms of sheer wow factor, Hasbro really outdid themselves with this busty Asgardian trickster. It’s also a version of the character that feels appropriate for a Con Exclusive box. By no means essential, but she sure is nice to have. After all, It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, Except for Loki. Lo lo lo lo Loki. Verily!

Aug 2 2017

Marvel Legends A-Force (SDCC 2017 Exclusive): Singularity by Hasbro

Welcome back to the first theme week I’ve done in a long while. It’s day three of my look at Hasbro’s SDCC 2017 Marvel Legends A-Force set. It’s also Wednesday and this is usually my day off from bloggery. So, let’s compromise with a look at the one figure in the box that I decided warranted the least attention: Singularity!

For starters, I should qualify that I have no affinity for this character. I encountered her in my early readings of A-Force before I dropped the book and I can’t recall running across her since. In fairness, she appeared right about the time the “Powers That Be” running Marvel Comics went insane and I decided to channel more of my comic dollars into publishers like DC and Zenescope, as well as going back to older Marvel books I’d missed.

That having been said, this is a pretty cool looking, albeit simple, figure. As her name suggests, this character is literally a sentient singularity and she kind of looks like a nebula pressed into human form. The figure uses a beautiful mix of translucent blue and purple plastic with sparkly glitter mixed throughout and the effect is damn near spectacular, especially given some bright lighting. Given her size, I’m tempted to say she’s built off of the Nico Minoru buck, but that figure had so much unique sculpting, I’m not sure how much of it they could have reused, other than maybe the upper legs, arms, and lower torso. Either way, she’s a smaller figure that is evocative of a teenage girl.

I’ve had my share of translucent figures, but none have looked quite this good, and I’d say that’s because of the gradations of blue and purple in the plastic. Also, while translucent plastic isn’t the best at holding sculpted detail, the portrait is still pretty damn good. They even did some halftone printing on her face and the eyes are painted in white.

The articulation is standard female buck stuff. I’m not running through it on each of the figures this week, unless there’s something vastly different, so I’ll refer you back to Monday’s Monica Rambeau review. The only real difference here is that she has swivel cuts in her lower legs. I will say that my Singularity has a few issues. The ankle hinges are stuck, which is odd because there’s no paint on the figure, and that’s usually the cause. I’m sure I can boil them free, but I haven’t gotten around to it. Also, the swivel cut on my figure’s lower left leg is a little loose. This is normally the kind of thing you get when you try to force a stuck swivel that won’t twist. In this case, however, it came out of the box like that. It’s not a big deal, just a bit of a gap between the two parts of the leg.

As I’ve said many times over the years, I don’t need to be in love with a character to enjoy an action figure, and Singularity here is a great example of that. I also think that she’s the first figure I’ve looked at in this set that truly feels right as an exclusive. Monica and She-Hulk are characters that should be available in normal waves, not through some difficult to get Comic Con set. Whereas I’d argue that Singularity here isn’t as essential to a collection. Although, if you happen to love the character, I guess you would be inclined to feel different. Either way, Singularity is a cool figure. She’s not one that I would consider a “must have,” but I wouldn’t have minded picking up to get a BAF part, and I certainly don’t mind getting her in this set.

Aug 1 2017

Marvel Legends A-Force (SDCC 2017 Exclusive): She-Hulk by Hasbro

That’s right, folks, it’s all Marvel Legends, all week as I break down the San Diego Comic Con Exclusive A-Force box set figure by figure. Yesterday, I kicked things off with a look at the packaging and a review of Monica Rambeau, today I’m checking out Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk.

If you’re trying to figure out the order I’m going in, I’m started with the two figures that I think were most overdue. Before this set Monica Rambeau had yet to have a Marvel Legends figure, and as for Shulkie here, this is her first appearance in the modern Legends reboot. But…

We were teased with her all the way back in the 2013 Hit Monkey Wave on the Red She-Hulk package, which was supposed to be part of a shared slot. Even the name on the package is “Hulkettes.” These days, the shared-slot figures are both included in the assortment case, but back then they were running variants, and it wasn’t uncommon for one of those variants to never come out. Such was the fate of Jennifer Walters. But here we are, four years later, and we finally got her. Is this a case where it was worth the wait? Did we get an entirely new figure? Mmm… Yes and no.

Shulkie borrows quite a bit from Red, which really comes as no surprise as this is a very specific, taller female buck. The legs, lower torso, and most of the arms are pulled from the older figure, with the chest, hands, and obviously the head being different and/or new sculpts. As a result, from the neck down, this figure actually uses less original sculpting than Red She-Hulk, as a matter of fact, there’s absolutely none at all. The costume is achieved entirely by paint, and that’s fine because it actually looks quite good. The white paint over green plastic should have been problematic, but instead it’s bright and clean with absolutely no bleed through. The metallic purple used for her one-piece is quite vibrant as well. There are a few little chips and scratches on the white paint of her belt, but nothing worth getting upset over.

Unfortunately, the new head sculpt isn’t the hit I was hoping for. It almost looks like they went back to the forbidden well that is the old Madam Hydra head and did some reworking on it. I’m not saying that’s the case, but this one does indeed remind me of that figure, and that’s not a good thing. It’s facial structure is too severe to really work as Jennifer Walters, and the eye paint is uneven making her left eye look smaller or like it’s about to slide off her face. Granted, the paint thing might just be an issue with my particular figure. Keep in mind, none of this is terribly noticeable at casual glance, but it all rears its head under scrutiny. The hair also looks off, like it’s way too high in the front. I’m not going to say this portrait is terrible, but after coming off the wonderful Monica head, this one feels like a drop.

I’m not going to run down all the points of articulation, since it’s almost all identical to Monica. Suffice it to say, the older, ball jointed hips are a bummer. These are a pain in the ass to work with and they feel a little dated. Jennifer may be a powerhouse, but she’s also a pretty limber gal, and her figure just feels a little too stiff.

Waiting so long for She-Hulk turns out to be one of those good and bad scenarios. An all new body would have been most welcome, especially since the hip articulation on this one hasn’t aged well. On the other hand, the 2013 She-Hulk would have been a very different look, and I’m much happier to get Jennifer in this more traditional costume. You could argue that we could have had both, but who knows whether Hasbro would have released this figure if they had also released the previous one. For all my pissing and moaning, the truth is that I still like this figure well enough, but I think Hasbro could have done a much better job on the head sculpt and paint. A-Force Shulkie is not the homerun that Monica Rambeau is, but I’m still happy to have her.

Jul 31 2017

Marvel Legends A-Force (SDCC 2017 Exclusive): Monica Rambeau by Hasbro

It’s Marvel Monday, and I was supposed to be checking out Nebula from the Mantis Wave of Marvel Legends today, but I’m preempting that AND THE WHOLE DAMN WEEK so I can check out the Marvel Legends San Diego Comic Con Exclusive A-Force set. Yes, that means Transformers Thursday and DC Friday will return next week. I’m pretty excited, because this is the first Marvel Legends SDCC Exclusive that I’ve been able to pick up since the Thunderbolts set way back when. Although, in fairness I haven’t tried very hard. There are six figures in the set, so I’ll be looking at these ladies every day this week up through Saturday and starting today with Monica Rambeau. But first, let’s take a look at the packaging!

Big! Colorful! Beautiful! Those three words sum up the presentation here. The figures come in an impressive box, which is big enough that it requires me to embiggen my little staging area to accommodate it. You get some lovely artwork on the front, along with the character portraits running down the side panels. There are some great expressions on the ladies. I’m particularly digging Elsa’s snarl. RAWR!! There is a foil sticker in the upper right hand corner showing this to be a Toys R Us Exclusive, where it was available online for a short while during the Convention. It does not, however, state anywhere on the box that it is an SDCC Exclusive. I’m just glad it wasn’t a Hasbro Toy Shop exclusive, because I doubt I would have been able to snag one. My luck there in past years hasn’t been so hot.

The back shows a collective photo of all the figures posed together on a cool rocky landscape. This shot reminds me of some of the great ads Hasbro used to run in their Marvel comic reprints. Of course, if you want to have a peep at the actual figures themselves, there’s a front flap that opens to reveal the inside tray, and the interior of the flap has character art and little blurbs about each character. The box itself is collector friendly and can be opened by slitting the tape on the top or bottom flaps, so you don’t have to feel bad about opening this baby up.

I’ll fess up now and proclaim that I purchased this set for the individual characters and not because I was a fan of the A-Force comic. Without getting bogged down in a rant about how much I hate the hot trash that Marvel is publishing these days, I tend to look at A-Force as an early symptom of what was to come. It only lasted a year before being discontinued due to dismal sales, and that’s saying a lot, because if you happen to look at what Marvel’s books are averaging in sales these days, you’ll see that it’s pretty dire. Anyway, if nothing else, I am grateful that the comic motivated Hasbro to release these figures, a few of which were sorely missing from the Legends line up. Plus, if you are going for an A-Force team, you can conveniently add the recently released Dazzler and Nico Minoru to this lineup. I’m starting today with Monica Rambeau, only because she is so overdue for a Legends figure, I didn’t think she should wait another day.

Whether you best know her as Pulsar, Spectrum, Captain Marvel, or just Monica, this is a character that is indeed well overdue for the Marvel Legends treatment. I’m pretty sure even Toy Biz never got around to immortalizing her in plastic. Maybe she had a HeroClix figure? Whatever the case she’s out now and I must say Hasbro did a great job with her. She’s built off the standard female buck, with sculpted sleeves on her arms to work with her jacket. Her starburst pattern is perfectly printed on her chest with the snappy inverse black and white coloring. And let me take a moment to say that the white plastic Hasbro used for the torso and gloves is absolutely gorgeous. It has a slight pearlescent sheen to it, but mostly it just looks so bright and snappy. I hope we see more of this stuff in future figures.

The sculpted jacket fits the figure well, cinching in at the waist and fanning out below until it reaches her knees. It’s fairly light and features a slit running up the back, so it doesn’t really impede her articulation much at all. There is some great looking texturing on it that makes it look even better than a regular comic figure. Indeed, there’s enough detail on it that it would look right at home on an MCU figure.

The portrait is excellent, and despite her hair band and hair style being similar to Misty Knight’s, this isn’t a recycled head sculpt. She’s pretty, she has a great, determined expression, and the paint applications for her eyes and lips are spot on perfect. The sculpting on the back of her hair is also especially well done. This is exactly the kind of effort you want to put into a premium exclusive set.

The articulation is exactly what I’ve come to expect from my Marvel Legends ladies. The legs feature ball jointed hips, double hinges in the knees, and swivel cuts in the thighs. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. There’s a ball joint under the chest, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. As usual, it isn’t quite up to par with what we get from the dudes, but she’s still plenty fun and posable.

It would have been a shame to wait this long for a Monica Rambeau figure and have it come up lacking. Thankfully, that’s far from the case here. Everything about this figure is beautifully crafted, from the crisp paint lines and beautiful white plastic, to the first rate head sculpt. If I were pressed to suggest an improvement, I’d say toss in an extra set of hands, so she could have two fists and two energy casting hands. Actually, I will throw out one more gripe: Monica shouldn’t have been an exclusive release. A lot of the figures in here feel right for this set, but I’m hoping that Hasbro intends to release this character in a future wave, as they did with so many of the figures from last year’s SDCC Raft set, even if it is with a repainted costume.

Jun 13 2017

Star Wars Black (Rogue One): Sergeant Jyn Erso (Eadu) by Hasbro

Most of my backlog of stuff right now is Marvel related, which means I’m finally getting caught up on the other lines I collect. That also means I’m hitting the bottom of the piles and finding the stuff that I’ve been pushing off to the side for a number of weeks. Today, I decided to finally open up the Exclusive version of Jyn Erso in her Eadu outfit.

This figure is part of a series of Deluxe Exclusives from Kmart and as such it comes in a larger box to accommodate the base, but otherwise it’s the same branded Black Series packaging. There’s some terrible monochrome character art on the front that doesn’t look much like Felicity Jones to me, but I’m convinced that Hasbro is doing that so the figure’s portraits look better by comparison. Anyway, this presentation is very similar to the Exclusive Kylo Ren and Rey that Kmart had for The Force Awakens, hell it may even just be a repainted base. I don’t know, as I passed on those. In fact, the only reason I picked this one up was because it was so damn cheap, but I’ll come back to that at the end.

Eadu Jyn uses a lot of Jedha Jyn, but there’s also a fair bit of brand new sculpting here too. From the waist down, she’s the same, and I’m going to assume the torso is the same too, but it’s buried under her new rain parka, so it doesn’t matter. The arms have newly sculpted sleeves to match the parka and she has a breather mask that hangs around her neck and connects to a tank behind her left hip. The new sculpting for the outfit looks great, and seeing as how we got this version of Jyn in the 3 3/4-inch line, it’s cool to finally have it in the 6-inch line as well.

There’s some pretty good paint wash on the parka to give it a grungy, well-worn look and even a few holes here and there. We also get some silver paint on some of her gear. The sculpt and paint on the bodies are generally pretty solid on these figures and this version of Jyn is no different.

The head sculpt is very similar to the Jedha Jyn, but it’s definitely new, or at least reworked. Here she has her ears exposed through her hair. The quality of the sculpt is about the same, with very soft features and I think the likeness is only there if you know what you’re looking at, and even then that might be a reach. As usual, the paint is extremely basic giving Jyn that wonderful dead-inside look to her eyes and uneven paint on her lips. Hasbro has obviously shrugged off any credibility for making this a true “Collector’s” line when it comes to the paintwork on the heads.

She does come with a removable helmet, which is definitely a welcome feature. It fits really well and looks good on the figure. The paint on the helmet is a little rougher than the rest of the figure, but it kind of works because it makes it look worn and chipped. Jyn can also wear her breather mask, with the head strap designed to fit around the helmet. I sometimes question whether these 6-inch figures really use the scale to their advantage, and here’s probably one of the few good examples of that. The breather mask just looks and works a lot better here than it did on the 3 3/4-inch figure. Then again, that was a 5-POA figure and not something premium like the Vintage Collection. Maybe it’s not a fair comparison here.

As for other accessories, Jyn includes the same pistol that came with the Jedha version and she still has a functional holster to store it in. She also comes with an E-11 Blaster. You can never have too many of those! And finally, she has a little cylindrical device and I have absolutely no idea what the hell it’s supposed to be. It’s almost bizarre how prominently featured this thing is in the box. If I were to make a guess, it looks like it’s supposed to be a rope coiled tightly around something. I seem to recall there was a zip-line scene that was cut from the film. Maybe this has to do with it.

I saved articulation for last, because it happens to be the thing that comes damn close to breaking this figure for me. The points are all identical to Jedha Jyn, so that’s not the issue, but the legs are so loose and gummy on this figure, it makes her really hard to pose and stand up. I don’t know if it’s shoddy plastic, or because she was packaged in an action pose on the base, but this is the worst I’ve seen in a 6-inch Hasbro figure in a long time. It literally feels like the kind of cheap Chinese knock-off you might get loose off of Ebay for a couple of dollars.

Oh yeah, and how could I forget the base. It’s a decent sculpt and it has peg holes for her to stand on. This sort of thing isn’t a big draw for me, but I can imagine that some collectors will enjoy it and she does look pretty good posed on it.

There are no Kmarts in my area any longer, and even when there were, I rarely ventured into them as they tended to be like the Beirut version of Walmart. No offense to Beirut. The only reason I wound up with this figure was because Amazon was blowing them out at $11 a pop and I said, “well shit… why not?” If it weren’t for the wobbly legs, Jyn would be a decent figure, but I think she’s also an easy pass. Meanwhile, the Black Series continues to be such a roller coaster for me. There are still figures that I pick up that delight me and justify why I collect this line, and then there’s figures like this one, which are just so damn average that they make me wonder why do I still bother.