Tag Archives: flash gordon

Mar 4 2024

Flash Gordon: Ultimate Prince Vultan, Ming and Flash by NECA

NECA has been doing a number of Flash Gordon figures based on the King Comics license as well as his appearances from the old Filmation and later Defenders of the Earth cartoons. Those were some great figures, and I really need to get back to checking out some more of that Defenders line, but the big appeal for me has always been the 1980 Dino De Laurentis feature film. It was a financial and critical flop, but I first discovered it when it hit the VHS rental market. I was probably ten years old and it was love at first sight. I unironically adore this movie. It’s a sweeping, colorful epic that features some amazing sets and costumes and has an overall sense of pageantry that really feels like a comic book come to life. Even now, I like to pull out the Blu-Ray usually once a month and revel in its spectacle. Naturally, I was excited to see NECA finally getting around to the movie figures, and we now have the first three in hand. Indeed, I’m so excited, that I’m just going to tackle all three in one go. This is gonna be a long one…

These are part of NECA’s Ultimate line, not to be confused with Super7’s Ultimates (plural!) line. NECA was here first and they’ve used this moniker ever since they started stepping up their articulation and tossing in as many extras as they could. As usual, the figures come in window boxes with front flaps that secure with velcro giving you the feel of enclosed box with the luxury of a window to look at the goods inside. The deco is a mix of stills from the film and shots of the figure, and these are numbered, which gives me great hope that this line will be an ongoing thing and not just a one-off wave. Let’s start with Prince Vultan!

IT’S BRIAN BLESSED!!! Brian Blessed is a world treasure and an absolute legend in science fiction and British television. Whether it be as King Yrcanos in Doctor Who (long after turning down the role of The Doctor himself), Maya’s Dad in Space 1999, both Robin Hood the BBC series and the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves movie, or how about King Richard in Blackadder! I could go on and on. But perhaps no role has been as iconic as Vultan, Prince of the Hawkmen in Flash Gordon. And oh boy just look at this gorgeous figure! For this release, NECA created a full-on mostly naked Brian Blessed buck and dressed it in leather and gold armor cast in soft plastic. The sculpted detail in the scale armor is superb, creating a kind of feathered motif, which is especially apparent in those shoulder pieces. The arm bracers and sandals are also meticulously detailed with the tiniest buckles on the sandals painted in gold. The love and attention to detail NECA poured into this costume is just fantastic and splendidly brings this epic character design to life in plastic form.

The wings are equally impressive with each and every feather fully detailed in the sculpt and finished off with a gold leaf paint and some wash to bring out those details. The wings are articulated at the shoulders allowing them to swing out for flight. If I’m going to nitpick anything on this figure I guess it would be the way they are attached to the body using a gold bar that looks mechanical rather than organic. Still, it’s only really noticeable when the wings are spread, and while attaching the wings to the figure with hinged pegs might have looked better, I appreciate that these stay put and don’t pop out when I’m posing them. As for the rest of the poseability, if you’ve handled NECA’s Ultimate figures before you’ll know what to expect here, with an emphasis on rotating hinges. It’s solid stuff that makes the figure fun to play with, but doesn’t offer those tight bends that some collectors hope for.

You get a whopping four heads, which can all share either the helmet or the hairpiece for an un-helmeted look. And each one of these portraits is just brimming with Blessed’s boisterous, big-bearded personality. The first is offering a huge smile and displaying a wall of teeth. The likeness is fantastic and my god the helmet is just so glorious. It attaches to the top of the four heads with a thick tab and it is extremely secure. The cheek plates are soft plastic and hug the face closely. The gold paint on the helmet is brighter and deeper than the slightly more bronze color used for the accents on the armor.

Next, we get this wonderfully expressive head showing off Vultan’s O-face. I’m pretty sure this one is supposed to be Vultan pronouncing the word Gordon in his infamous “Gordon’s alive” line delivery. If his eyes were looking up it could also work for the scene in Ming’s Court where he nonchalantly bonks one of Ming’s guards on the head with his club and hopes nobody noticed. I also love this head because it reminds me of King Yrcanos, the character he played in Doctor Who, who would sometimes accentuate his speech with whistles and sound effects.

Third up is most definitely Vultan delivering his “DIIIIIVE!” order for the Hawkmen to attack War Rocket Ajax. I really love how NECA mined the film for some very specific and iconic expressions for this figure.

The fourth and final head comes packaged with the hairpiece, but again, you can use the plastic coif on any of the heads by swapping out the helmet. Here, Vultan is in full on shouty-shout mode and I can just here his baritone laugh in my head. Wow, these are all great!

Clearly, a lot of the budget here was spent on heads, but you do get a few extra accessories and a pair of hands to hold them. The first accessory is featured in the tribute scene in Ming’s Court. It’s the fabled ice jewel of Frigia, which the Hawkmen claimed to have seized in battle from the royal crypt. But if you believe Prince Barin, it was stolen from his men. I think maybe there’s some truth to that.

Next you get this remote control device, which I think is the trigger for the explosives that were planted on War Rocket Ajax. It’s nicely done with some very sharp detail to the control pad. Still, probably not something I will display with the figure.

And finally, you get his club, which reminds me of an African War Club. It has a polished black finish, a hooked head for thumping enemies and a knuckle guard at the base of the hilt. This will probably never leave the figure’s hand when I display him. He just looks amazing raising it over his head and shouting like a war-crazed maniac.

Wow, I can’t say enough great things about this figure. It feels like NECA poured all kinds of extra love into this Vultan, and maybe that’s because the old bird has never had this kind of figure treatment before. And boy does he come damn close to being a perfect figure. With four heads and some solid accessories, it’s easy to see where all the money went. Let’s move on to Ming the Merciless!

In the annals of perfect film casting, I think Max von Sydow as Ming ranks pretty high. His performance endowed Ming with a delightful mix of charm and menace and he looked like the character from straight out of a comic panel. I tend to consider the robed look for the character more iconic, but NECA chose to go with his Military Suit version for this release. And that’s fine, because it makes me suspect that the other version is sure to follow. Ming sports a red tunic with flared, pointed shoulders and red trousers, tucked into high black boots. There’s gold piping around the edges of the tunic and a large gold decoration on the chest. The black gloves have red and gold rings at the wrists and a black, gold, and red baldric supports his sword and scabbard off his right shoulder. The colors on this figure look great, but I think the paint for the gold piping could have been sharper, still it’s not something that really impacts my enjoyment of the figure. Articulation is similar to what we saw with Vultan, with the torso articulation concealed under the tunic.

You get three heads for Ming, one with his black skullcap helmet, and two without. I think all three of these are homeruns in terms of likeness. The printing for the eyes and facial hair is really on point and I dig the sculpted lines in his brow and the crow’s feet around the edges of his eyes. The skull capped head’s expression is the friendliest of the three and reminds me of when Ming was trying to strike a deal with Flash. The second is the most neutral and the third has a wonderful little sneer to it. All three are great and it’ll be tough to choose which one to display on the figure.

Ming has less extra stuff than Vultan. The one less head does come with the trade off of two extra sets of hands. These include a set of fists, a set of accessory holding hands, and a set of gesturing hands. Although the right gesturing hand looks like it was intended for a gun. A really dig the sculpt and paint on the rather elaborate ring included on the left hands, especially since it featured prominently in a few scenes throughout the film.

The only other accessory here is his sword, which is pretty damn sweet. It fits perfectly into the scabbard and is easy to draw. It’s a very simple design with a straight blade and a short, straight crossguard. There’s a red painted jewel in the pommel and in the center of the guard, while the rest is all painted in gold.

Ming is an excellent figure, even if he does fall a bit short of the greatness that is Vultan. The only real complaint I have about the quality is the gold piping and that’s really just something to nitpick that could have been improved on. He does feel light in the accessories when compared to Vultan, and I wish they had at least included the chalice that he’s holding in the screen grab on the front of the box. I will probably dig into my Hasbro Indiana Jones figures and give him one of the False Grails included in that line. Hopefully, you’re still with me, because we have one more figure to go…

FLASH! AHH-AHHHHH… SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE! Like Ming, this is probably not my favorite look for the character, as I tend to prefer him in the white FLASH T-shirt. Again, I suspect NECA understood this and decided to hold that version back for a second wave. The strategy being that people will buy a figure that may not be their first choice look for the character in fear that it may be the only one released. But that’s not to say I don’t dig this Final Battle Flash, because I most certainly do, and it definitely gave NECA a little more to work with in terms of the costume design, not to mention accessories. Our hero dons a Mongo tank top, half black and half red with a sculpted symbol on the front. He’s got a wide belt with a gold belt buckle, black trousers and high buccaneer-style boots with a glossy finish. I dig that the emblem on the shirt is sculpted rather than just printed on and speaking of which, you even get sculpted chest hair. Wow! The forearms seem like they’re a little undersized, but I think that’s from being cut to allow for a tighter bend in the elbows. I think he turned out great!

With Flash, you get three different heads and each one features a really solid likeness to Sam Jones. The first is kind of neutral, the second is smiling a bit, and I’m not quite sure what they were going for in the third. It’s not bad, it’s just not really conveying any emotional expression that I can tell. I’d say that third one is my least favorite with the second one being my favorite, and I will likely stick with that one for display.

Flash features the same articulation as Ming and comes with five hands: One set of fists, one set of gripping hands, and one trigger finger right hand. I would have liked a relaxed or gesturing left hand to make it an even three pairs, but I guess that wasn’t in the budget. It’s worth noting here that I didn’t have any issues with any of these figures joints. Everything worked as it should right out of the packages, with absolutely no heat needed or QC issues to speak of.

As for weapons, you get both a Hawkman rifle and a saber, and both of these showcase some of the really cool and unique weapon designs from the film. The rifle has a distinctive organic sculpt to it’s grip and stock with a fanned feather motif at the back of the breech, gold around the receiver, and a gold ring near the muzzle. The rifle works perfectly with the trigger hand and he can support the barrel with his gripping left hand.

The golden saber is rather iconic, as promotional stills often have Flash wielding this blade. NECA even used the shot for the front of the box. This is a wild looking weapon with a dramatic sweeping hook to the curved edge. The rich gold paint looks awesome, especially when coupled with the bright red on the grip. You also get that weird starred disk about midway through the blade. I always wondered why the heck that was there. Seriously, as a kid I would think about that a lot and what purpose it served. It used to bug me! I really dig that the articulation allows Flash to wield the weapon with both hands and he looks great doing it.

And finally, Flash comes with a Mongo grenade. I love how everything in Mongo is so opulent and ostentatious that even the grenades look like Fabergé Eggs. This is a great little sculpt with a handle on top. It reminds me that we better get the green “football” included with the T-shirt Flash, assuming that figure is forthcoming.

Flash makes this trio three-for-three in my scorebook. This figure is crazy fun to pose and play around with, especially with his two cool weapons. I didn’t feel like there was the same variety in the portraits as there was with Vultan and Ming, but what we got are all still fantastic. I just won’t be as torn over which head to display on the figure as I am with the other two figures. As for accessories, I can’t think of anything else NECA could have given us with this one, or at least it doesn’t feel like anything has been omitted. OK, sure a Hawkman pistol would have been a great bonus.

Phew… that was a long one, but it was well worth it to get all three figures showcased in one go. Now, I will note that these figures are not cheap. At $37 a pop, that puts them above the ceiling that I’m used to paying for NECA’s Ultimate figures. I remember paying under $30 for the Defenders of the Earth figures, and then I remembered that time passes and prices inflate. As it happens, most of NECA’s Ultimate releases are up to the $37 price point these days. I guess it’s not outrageous considering what Super7 is getting for their releases, but it’s definitely a premium, especially for figures that can be found at Big Box retailers. Worth it? For me, that’s a big yes! The closest we’ve had to these guys were the ones from Big Bang Pow, which I reviewed here almost exactly 14 years ago, so I’m happy to be getting these upgrades. Of course, BBP never did a Vultan, nor did they do these versions of Flash and Ming, so really these are all a first for me. Unless you count the Big Chief Studio Sixth-Scale Flash Gordon, which I haven’t gotten around to reviewing yet, so that’s a story for another time. Whatever the case, I hope these sell well, because I want NECA to go deep with this line. I’m all in!

Jun 15 2022

Ming the Merciless (The Original Superheroes) by NECA

When I reviewed Flash Gordon from NECA’s Original Superheroes series, I promised to get to Ming the Merciless the following week. Well, here we are a month later, and what can I say? I’m easily distracted. But as one of my favorite sayings goes, better late than never, so let’s check out the ruthless tyrant of from Mongo!

When NECA secured the King Features license, their main intention seemed to be doing Defenders of the Earth (and I’ll get to those figures eventually!), but they also produced these variants based on Flash Gordon and The Phantom’s standalone adventures and called it The Original Superheroes. Which is why it says that on Ming’s box, despite him being a Super Villain! The packaging here is very nice, with some great pulp artwork, some faux weathering, and a collector friendly box.

Out of the box, Ming does make use of a buck that he shares with his nemesis, Flash, and that even includes the belt with the padded waist wrap and holster. As such, I won’t run through the articulation here, but just note that this figure has all the right points and plenty of range for some fun posing. The tops of the boots are newly sculpted, with a front crease coming to a point at the front of each. You also get some new sculpting for the shoulder ridges, the color piece, and the band that secures the cape. The body suit is green with gold paint for the gauntlets and the new sculpted bits. You also get a different shade of green for the boots. Finally, you get a very nice green softgoods cape, which is fashioned out of a light cloth and falls about the figure quite naturally.

There are two heads included with the figure, one wearing his helmet, and the other without it. Both are decent sculpts, but it’s crazy how hideous these portraits look when you punch in close with the camera. The paint is pretty rough on the helmeted head, with some green spray on his cheeks and some random spots on the helmet itself. It really doesn’t show too bad to the naked eye, but it sure looks terrible when scrutinized by the camera.

The other portrait has a pretty impressive skin tone going on for his bald head, with some spots here and there. This one also has Ming offering a villainous laugh, and boy do the teeth look like a jumbled mess up close. Again, it’s fine with the figure in hand, but the camera just does not do either of these portraits any favors. With that having been said, I dig the crazy eyebrows on both of the portraits, as well as the pointed ears and the trademark beard. The helmeted head is the more iconic look for me from this period, but I could see myself going either way when it comes to choosing a head to display.

Ming comes with three sets of hands, but only the fists are painted to look like gloved hands. The other two are graspy hands and accessory holding hands, and they are sculpted with his long fingernails and rings. I guess if you’re using either of these pairs, the gold paint on his forearms are supposed to be bracers, rather than the sleeves of his gauntlets. And it’s a worthy compromise, because I really dig the detail on the bare hands.

When it comes to accessories, there’s a lot of stuff here that we saw with Flash Gordon. The pistol is exactly the same, as are the two blast effect parts. One is a long laser stream and the other is just a muzzle flash. I don’t mind the gun being the same, as it’s a given that Flash just acquired a Mongo blaster, so there’s no reason it shouldn’t be the same. It would have been cool to get the blast effects in a different color, but I guess if it’s the same model pistol, the effects would be the same color anyway. Either way, I’ve already covered this stuff with Flash, so I won’t spend any more time on it here.

Like Flash, Ming comes with a sword and scabbard, but these are thankfully different, and pretty damn awesome as well! The scabbard is painted in the darker green with gold fixtures to match his outfit. There’s also a real chain that hangs from the throat and connects to one of the bands, which looks great. As with Flash, the scabbard has a hole to peg into the side of the figure’s belt.

The sword features a knucklebow, fairly reminiscent of a sword design found on 19th century Earth. The blade is thick and yellow near the hilt and turns silver and tapers off to the tip, where there is a red diamond painted on each face of the blade. The hilt guard is painted green to match the scabbard and you get a splash of gold on the pommel. I dig this sword a lot!

This version of Ming is certainly not as flashy as the one I’ll eventually look at from the Defenders of the Earth line, but it is a really cool nod back to the earlier days. It’s a great looking figure, even if the amount of recycling here is really on the nose, as NECA tried to get some serious mileage out of the license with as many variants as possible. Yes, there’s even an exclusive boxed set of these figures redone in the style of the Dino De Laurentiis film as well as packaged on retro-style Filmation cards. I’ll pick a day when I’m pressed for time to show off the Filmation ones, because I plan on leaving them carded. The Original Superheroes line also included The Phantom, but I opted out of that one, since I’m content with owning just the one from the Defenders line.

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!

Feb 12 2021

Hero HACKS: Flash Gordon by Boss Fight Studios

Folks, I freaking love the 1980 Flash Gordon movie. I’m not talking I love to laugh at it, or I dig it in an ironic way. I mean, I adore it in the most honest and unapologetic way imaginable. I was only 8 years old when it hit theaters and I was robbed of that experience. But I made my parents rent the hell out of it when it hit VHS and I’ve probably owned every home release of the movie since. I have the movie poster, I have the soundtrack on vinyl, and I have picked up just about every bit of merchandising I could get. The film is so rich with amazing character and costume designs, my dream has always been that it get an action figure treatment as exhaustive as Star Wars. Like, give me a figure of every character on screen! I would army build the hell out of half the denizens of Ming’s Court. Alas, a definitive toy line continues to elude me. Bif Bang Pow did some decent 7-inch figures (which I reviewed OVER TEN YEARS AGO!) as well as some MEGO style versions, but that’s about it. UNTIL NOW! Boss Fight Studios has been branching out their HACKS line beyond just the Greek Mythology and Swords and Sorcery with a number of different licenses and the 1980 Dino De Laurentiis Opus is one of them. They have revealed a few figures, but Flash himself is heralding the line with a special tin lunchbox release.

If you were a child of the 70s or 80s, you no doubt remember it as the Era of Licensed Lunchboxes! Getting ready for the new school year involved my poor parents pouring money into clothes and shoes and books, but all I cared about was who I was going to represent this year on my lunchbox. That was always the question. What would it be this year? Would I be drinking my chocolate milk out of an ALF Thermos? Spectacular! I’ll confess, I never had a Flash Gordon one, but I would have been proud to tote my bologna and cheese to school in a sacred tin tabernacle with the visage of Max Von Sydow and Sam Jones printed on it. And here  it is! The front of this collector’s tin has some artwork inspired by the poster and it is absolutely outstanding. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the box.

Holy Hot Hail, what happened to the rest of it? The disconnect between the art on the front and the other sides is really quite palpable. I suppose you could argue that some of those vintage lunchboxes didn’t always have the best quality art, but this stuff is pretty dreadful. Is it intentionally bad? I just don’t know. Flash and Dale on the back panel are particularly offensive. Prince Barin and Prince Vultan aren’t quite as bad. Klytus is there on the other side panel along with some fellas from Ming’s Court. With the front panel looking so great, this tote is certainly displayable, but I wish they had done a better job on the rest of it. If you’re going to go for special presentation, I’m not sure that this is the way to do it.

Inside, Flash and his extra bits are laid out on a clear plastic tray that fits perfectly inside the tote. I really like the way they did this, especially with the branded figure stand in lieu of any kind of interior packaging art. On the downside there is a hell of a lot of empty space in there, which kind of showcases how light this figure is on the accessories. I’ve been collecting HACKS since the original Kickstarter, and it seemed like most of the figures came with an abundance of extras, so all that open air on the tray is pretty conspicuous here. Well, let’s get Flash out and have a look.

HACKS is billed as a 1:18 scale line, which generally puts Flash here in the 3 3/4 to 4-inch range. However, HACKS figures tend to be a little chunkier and so I find that Flash looks a little oversized when displayed with most Hasbro figures in this scale. I think some of the reason for that is because these figures are designed to be modular to allow for customization. Whatever the case, This figure is based on Flash’s appearance early in the film, and it was a good choice for the debut figure. He dons his self-promoting white T-shirt, a pair of khaki slacks, and some sneakers. In terms of sculpt and paint, I think everything about this figure is excellent. Sure, the outfit doesn’t require anything complex, but it nails the look of the character perfectly. The printing on the shirt is crisp, as is the red borders on the neck and sleeves. I love the way the pants cuffs fall about the sneakers, and the sneakers themselves showcase a ridiculous attention to detail. Flash is even wearing a removable silver watch on his left wrist. The only thing here to mar the look of the figure is the peg hole in the back, which doesn’t serve a purpose on Flash, and the screw in his butt that holds the figure together.

You get three head sculpts, all of which are decent likenesses for Sam Jones in this scale. The figure comes wearing a smiling expression, and that’s my favorite of the bunch. I just think it captures Flash the best. The other two convey more aggression or determination. Quite frankly, I don’t think there’s a big enough difference between the other two heads to warrant including both of them. It’s nice to have options, but I would much rather that plastic had gone into a weapon or other accessory.

HACKS articulation is pretty solid, but I wouldn’t call these guys super articulated. The arms have hinged pegs for the shoulders, elbows, and hands. It’s not bad, but you can only get about a 90-degree bend in those elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double-hinges in the knees, and sadly no swivels in the thighs. The ankles seem to be on rotating hinges, but with the cuffs sculpted the way they are, the best I can get out of them is a swivel. That’s a shame, because the ankles won’t allow the feet to go perpendicular with his legs. As a result, Flash always wants to fall backwards, which is why I’m using a stand in all of the pictures. Why not use the official HACKS stand? I’ll get to that in a bit. Finally, you get a ball joint under the chest and a double ball joint in the neck. The joints on this guy all feel great and he is fun to play around with, but some points could have used a little fine tuning. And that brings us to the rest of the extras! In addition to the two extra heads, Flash comes with a total of five hands. You get a pair of fists, a pair of accessory holding hands, and a left hand that is pegged for the one accessory he comes with. If you want to get any use out of those generic accessory hands, you’ll have to provide your own guns or swords or whatever you want to arm him with.

That one accessory is the football-shaped tribute to Ming that Flash uses to run his Quarterback moves during the fight in the Court.  The piece is very well done, with an excellent sculpt and great looking paint. I also appreciate the way they designed it to peg into the open hand. But as good as it is, it really doesn’t feel like enough to round out this package. I realize that Flash was wearing a different costume when he brandished the sword and went full on freedom fighter, but I still feel like they should have given him a gun or something. How about that gold gauntlet that one of the guards shot at him. It could have been sculpted to go around his neck with an effect part. That would have been cool.

And finally you get the branded figure stand, which doesn’t work because the pegs are way too thick for the holes in his feet. This is weird, because all my HACKS figures have come with similar stands, and I’ve never had a problem with them before. With four different pegs on the stand, you’d think at least one of them would work with the figure. Bundling a stand with a figure that doesn’t fit the figure seems like a pretty big mess up to me. It’s especially vexing when the figure won’t stand up by itself.

Obviously, I had some issues with Flash, but truth be told, there’s a lot to like about this figure. He looks great, he’s fun to play with, and I’m always going to be happy to have a new figure from this film. But here’s the thing, this little guy cost $45 and that’s just crazy. The overall lack of quality found in the artwork on the lunchbox doesn’t make it worth the extra cost. I would have much rather had this figure carded and given him a few more extras. Or round it up to $50 and make it a two-pack with the red and black tank top version of Flash they’re releasing. Heck, even with the regular carded releases coming in at $28 a pop, I’m still going to support this line because I’d like to see it go the distance. Alas, my fear is that we’re just going to get a handful of figures before this line fizzles. I certainly don’t expect to get any of the cool guards or soldiers, that kind of depth would be something better suited to Super7’s ReAction line. Still, it would be nice to see pre-orders up for Vultan, Dale, Zarkov, or Princess Aura. Right now the only other figures up for pre-order are Flash v2 and Prince Barin. Come on, guys, at least get Ming and Klytus in there. Ah well. I guess time will tell.

Mar 3 2010

Flash Gordon Figures by Biff Bang Pow!, Part 2

Ok, cue up the Queen CD, because I’m ready for some more Flash Gordon action figure goodness. Last time we looked at Flash, Dale and Barin, so this time we’ll wrap things up with the two principle assholes of the picture: General Klytus and Ming the Merciless.

General Klytus was an awesome character in the film. He was Ming’s right hand man and all around sleezeball and wonderfully portrayed by Peter Wyngarde. He’s been compared to Boba Fett, based on the claim that all of his appeal comes from his cool looking mask, but I disagree. He had a lot of dialogue and was far from just a bit character that stood around as set dressing. But, sure, I’ll certainly grant that he has a great character design that really lends itself well to an action figure and that makes him my favorite looking figure of the bunch. Because he’s wearing a mask, BBP didn’t have to contend as much with getting the facial features of an actor right, and that probably goes a long way to help this character’s sculpt as well.
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The mask is not only really well done, but I love the fact that BBP sculpted the eyes in the eyesockets. That nice work combined with some excellent paint apps make the mask look like its a separate and removable piece when it really isn’t. All the folds and ruffles in Klytus’ cloak are nicely executed as is the texture work on his tunic, which also makes use of the same sparkly flakes that we saw applied to Dale’s wedding dress.
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The articulation on this figure takes quite a few steps back from what we saw on Flash and Barin, but it isn’t terrible. Klytus’ neck appears to be jointed, but because of the sculpted hood, it doesn’t really turn. He does have rotating shoulders and a hinge in his right, gold arm. Lastly, his legs rotate at the pelvis. The fact that he doesn’t have any knee articulation doesn’t bother me, since his robes would really make them useless. I am disappointed that BBP didn’t add a hinge to his left elbow. They may have felt it would have interfered with the sleeve sculpt, but I would have preferred it. A ball joint to the right shoulder would have been welcome too. Ok, so I take it back… his articulation is pretty terrible.

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Klytus doesn’t come with any accessories, but I still love him. This figure captures the character perfectly and its obvious that BBP tried to work with his sculpt to add a decent amount of articulation. The variant of this figure featured his eyes and tongue protruding from his mask during his death scene when he was tossed onto a platform of spikes. Its a cool variant, but I’ll stick with this one, thank you very much.

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And that brings us to the big baddy himself, Ming the Merciless. Now Ming was issued in both red and black robes, and I have to admit it was a real trying decision on which one to go with in order to complete my collection. Ultimately, I will probably hunt down the red one, but for now I went with his black garb, just because I really liked how the black and gold looked and I thought he matched Klytus better. This figure is also considerably easier to find than the red one.

The first thing you should know about this guy is that he is a statue, not a figure. His head will turn from side to side, and he does actually have the ability to rotate his arms at the shoulders, but that poses two problems. The first is in the design, where the sculpt has the long sleeves hanging down so that if you move his arms, it looks like his robe is defying gravity. The second problem is, granted, unique to my figure, as his right arm broke clean off as I was removing him from the package and had to be glued back on. Normally I would be furious with BBP at what is clearly some shitty quality control, but honestly, if it had to happen to any of these figures, I’m glad it happened with Ming as his arm articulation was useless to begin with. I’m not going to be all that critical about the articulation on this figure, because any time you have to fashion a figure with sculpted plastic robes, you have an uphill battle when it comes to articulation.

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With all that out of the way, this is one fantastic looking figure… er, statue. Not only did BBG capture the likeness of Max Von Sadow perfectly, the combination of sculpting and gold paint apps on the robes is just awesome. The pre-pose is really effective as he has his right arm held up with his hand forming a powerful fist. His left arm is held close to his chest and shows off his ring, which was showcased so prominantly in the final scene of the film. Once again, BBP makes use of the sparkly flakes on a few appropriate parts of Ming’s costume. The fact that I am raving about this guy even with his crap articulation and the fact that he actually broke coming out the package should tell you a lot. Its a downright amazing sculpt.

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And that wraps up my look at Biff Bang Pow’s Flash Gordon figures. I’m really glad to own this set, even if they aren’t what I hoped they would be. I think the biggest problem with this little series is the inconsistancy. They are mostly great sculpts, with the one albeit big exception being Dale Arden’s face. But they really run the gamut on articulation from great to practically non-existant. They look damn nice on the shelf, though, and they gave me an opportunity to try out the products from a toy company that was previously completely unknown to me. For a company that seems to mainly makes bobbleheads and novelties, this was a good early effort into the realm of licensed action figures.

Mar 3 2010

Flash Gordon Figures by Biff Bang Pow!, Part 1

Folks, I love the 1980 Flash Gordon movie. I really don’t want to turn this into a movie review, but I feel that to really communicate how much I was looking forward to these figures I needed to tell you that. I first saw it when I was a wee lad and was almost immediately smitten. It has an unabashed cheesy charm that makes it one of my all time favorite comic book to film adaptations. It doesn’t take itself seriously, and it doesn’t waste a lot of time on origins bullshit or anything like that, nor does it make any apologies for what it is. It has some pretty good special effects for the time, some amazing sets and costumes, and from a purely artistic standpoint (as opposed to technical) it looks exactly one thousand times more interesting and visually appealing than any one of the original Star Wars trilogy. So, yeah, I love the movie. When the Special Edition DVD came out, I snapped it up only to be crushed by some of the commentary of the crew ragging on it. Boo!

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I’ve really wanted figures from this movie for a long, long time. As a kid, I would have killed for an extensive line of 3 3/4″ figures, like Star Wars, where every character that had a second of screen time got a figure. I would have bought all those crazy palace guards and soldiers, and hawkmen and rocket sleds and ships and playsets. Alas, the movie didn’t garner nearly enough interest to solicit a lot of merchandising, which sucks because even friggin Buck Rogers got a toyline. Instead, I had to wait until last year for an upstart toy company called Biff Bang Pow! to put out a small series of figures based on the film. This series consisted of five unique sculpts, spread out into two full waves by way of variants, repaints and slight remolds. I’ve had four of these figures for a little while now, but only recently was I able to complete my set of one of each character. Now, the figures we got were not exactly what I had in mind. They consist of only a handful of the principle characters, and in keeping with the traditions of companies like NECA and McFarlane, some of these pieces barely qualify as figures, rather than semi-articulated statues. Nonetheless, this is what we got, so today we’ll take a look at the good guys (and gal): Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, and Prince Barin.
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Sorry, I don’t have any in-package shots, but I’ll note that the packaging on these figures was all over the place. Two of them were packaged in full blister packs with printed inserts, while the others came on crappy and horribly bent cardbacks with enormous bubbles. I know some of these figures were exclusives, so maybe the ones in blisters were the exclusives. I just don’t know. The only point worth stressing here is that if you are a MOC collector, you may be hard pressed to find good cards, because the figures are so heavy.

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Of the five figures, Flash Gordon is without a doubt the best action figure as he has both a fantastic sculpt and fairly good articulation. This figure was released three times with three different t-shirts and three different weapons. Of the three, this one is my favorite because of his signature “Flash” shirt and he’s holding the conveniently football-shaped alien artifact that he used to brain a bunch of Ming’s incompetant soldiers with before taking one on the noggin himself. The “football” is pegged to fit securely into a hole in Flash’s right hand. Sure, when you get down to it, this is just a dude in khaki pants and a t-shirt, but it really captures actor Sam Jones’ likeness very well. The paint apps on the sneakers are nice, and the “Flash” logo is applied to his shirt with crisp precision. I like this figure’s sculpt enough that somewhere down the road I may pick up at least one of the other two variants.

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As for articulation… Flash has a ball jointed neck and shoulders, hinged elbows, swivel cuts in the biceps, swivels at the waist, his legs rotate at the pelvis and he has hinged knees. Lateral movement in the hips and a few extra swivel cuts in his thighs would have been nice, but all in all the articulation works fine for me.

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Prince Barin comes up second in terms of sculpt vs articulation. Truth be told, this figure’s overall design doesn’t do a lot for me, but he is a good likeness of Timothy Dalton and he is the only other figure in this set that BBP actually tried to make a bonafide action figure and not just a statue. Barin’s outfit is nicely detailed, especially the weave patterns in his tunic and the ornamentation on his belt. Without his laser cannon, he looks like he belongs in a Robin Hood film, which is fitting, since he was the Prince of a moon of forests and swamps.

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Barin has the same basic articulation as Flash, with just a few differences. His ball jointed shoulders are inhibited by the sculpted flares on his tunic, so they can pretty much just rotate and not really move laterally. He’s missing the swivel in the waist, but he does have additional hinges in his ankles.

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Prince Barin comes with a laser cannon that he grabbed off a tripod before going all Rambo on Ming’s forces. This figure’s variant was a battle damaged version with a whip depicting his fight with Flash at the Hawkmen’s city. The cannon is a nice accessory, although it does feel a bit delicate, like the ornamentation on the back might snap off at any moment.

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Dale Arden comes up bottom of the barrel. This figure depicts her in the wedding gown for her pending and non-concentual marriage to Ming. BBP did a fine job sculpting her costume and body, but they really flubbed it on the face, which looks nothing like actress Melody Anderson, and isn’t even remotely attractive either. To be brutally honest, it’s a man face with make-up on. On the other hand, the detailing on her headpiece and her shoulders is really nice as is the sparkling flakes applied to her gown. I was pleasently surprised to see that these sparklies don’t come off on my hands either. Crappy face sculpt aside, at least the rest of this figure is really nice looking. The variant of this figure features a white wedding gown.

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Unfortunately, Dale is also the worst articulated of all the figures. Part of the problem is that her tight fitting gown acts like a teepee and inhibits whatever leg articulation she might have had. It appears as if her shoulders have rotating joints, but the joints on my figure won’t move at all and I’m not willing to force them. Her right arm has an elbow hinge, which allows only a small amount of movement. Her left arm is preposed to place her hand on her hip, and despite the elbow hinge, it just doesn’t move at all. This, folks, is a statue.

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All three of these figures retailed for around $16.99 but eventually made it to the clearance bins at many E-tailers. I know that Toys R Us carried these figures and has recently began unloading them for around half of that. I picked up Flash and Barin back when they were full price and based on their scale, articulation and sculpts I was pretty happy with my purchases. Fortunately, I waited on Dale until she hit the bargain bins. Truth be told, she probably wasn’t worth it other than just to complete my set.

Next time, we’ll look at Ming the Merciless and General Klytus.