Tag Archives: hasbro

Aug 21 2017

Marvel Legends (Warlock Wave): Cyclops by Hasbro

It’s that time again to start the reviews rolling on a brand new wave of Marvel Legends figures! By my count, I’m now FIVE waves behind in my reviews with the Warlock, Vulture Wings, Sandman, Man-Thing, and Gladiator Hulk Waves all before me. Oh yeah, and another SDCC set arrived in the mail over the weekend with an additional five figures. Hoo boy. I decided that I’m going to hold off on the Vulture Wave until we’re closer to when Homecoming hits Blu-Ray release, and the Gladiator Hulk Wave closer to when Ragnarok hits the theaters. So, let’s do the X-Men Warlock Wave next. And in the interest of getting caught up I’m going to look at one figure now and another one later on tonight.

I’m only going to have packaged shots for two or three of these figures, as I purchased most of this wave loose from a buddy online. I was worried I would have a tough time finding some of them through regular retailers, and I didn’t care much about building the Warlock BAF. As it turns out, the BAF parts were included anyway, and that was at least a nice surprise. Also a nice surprise was actually finding Cyclops at retail, as he’s supposed to be one of the tougher ones to find and is currently still going for $40+ on Amazon. I found him when I ducked into a Walgreens for coffee creamer. Go figure. And I’ll be honest, there was no way I wanted to pay a premium for Cyclops. Scott Summers isn’t one of my favorite characters, and the one thing that this figure really has going for me is that it’s the classic 90’s outfit. Honestly, while I still adore a lot of the characters, the truth is that the further away from the 90’s I get, the less I care about The X-Men as a comic.

But with all that preamble aside, I find this release to be a really solid figure with some annoying problems, and a lot of those problems have to do with all the bands and straps. Ahh, useless straps! They, were staples of 90’s comic art, but they don’t always transfer well to action figure form. So, for starters, Scott is built on a mostly blue buck and it’s a very snappy shade of blue. I like the build that they used for him, but this particular buck has some weird shoulders that show unsightly gaps and almost make it look like the arms weren’t meant for the torso. I’m pretty sure the yellow for his “undies, boots, and gloves is plastic as opposed to paint. Either way, it’s nice and bright and shows none of the bleed through that we sometimes see when lighter paint is applied over darker plastic. Yup, there’s no doubt about it, the coloring is one of this figure’s strongest points. Not only is it gorgeous, but it really takes me back to a time when I was a young adult making my way on my own, and the only things I had to cling on to simpler times of my childhood were comic books.

The belt and shoulder rig is one separate piece, which pegs together at the back. Overall, it looks pretty good on him and it more or less stays put. That’s a hell of a lot more than I can say for the rest of the belts. The two thigh straps have one sweet spot where they will stay put, but when I pose the figure, they tend to drift. They also look too bulky for my taste and I think maybe they would have been better off painted on. The straps at the tops of the boots have a similar problem. The wrist straps aren’t too problematic, but I’m pretty sure those are supposed to be part of his gloves, and that effect is ruined by the fact that the blue can be seen in the gap.

I like the head sculpt well enough. It’s a solid effort, but not extraordinary. The hair sculpt is particularly well done, and I really dig how the visor looks like it’s a separate and removable piece, even though it isn’t. My figure has a fair amount of mold flashing along the jawline, which I’ll have to shave off. I don’t know what it is with Hasbro and mold flashing lately, but I’m seeing more and more of it. Still, as far as QC issues go, that one is the easiest to fix.

The articulation here is quite good and fairly standard for modern Legends. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivel cuts in the thighs and tops of the boots, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers, the torso feature a waist swivel and an ab crunch, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. What’s more, Cyclops’ left hand is sculpted so that he can be made to operate his visor.

While I’ve got a couple versions of Cyclops in my 3 3/4-inch Marvel Universe collection, this is surprisingly his first appearance on my modern Legends shelves and as such he’s most certainly a welcome release. I know it sounds like I had a ton of issues with him, but in the end, I’m still willing to concede that he’s a solid figure, and thanks in particular to the great coloring, he looks fantastic on the she shelf. Come on back later on tonight, and we’ll check out Polaris!

Aug 17 2017

Transformers Titans Return: Ominus and Sky Shadow by Hasbro

Well, I said I’d be getting to one of the bigger bots sooner or later, and it looks like it’s finally happening. I stumbled across Sky Shadow last weekend and while I had planned on passing him over for the Overlord redo, I found that he was too cool looking to pass up. Also, he’s an homage to Black Shadow, a certified badass among badasses and I really needed that character in my collection. I’ll call you Sky Shadow for the purposes of this review, big guy, but behind closed doors, you’ll always be Black Shadow to me!

Here’s a quick packaged shot. While I haven’t been dipping into the bigger figures in this line all too often, this is actually my third Titans Return Leader Class, with Powermaster Prime and Blaster being the others. Let’s start out with his alt mode… whoops, I mean alt modes PLURAL. As in TWO INDEPENDENT AND SIMULTANEOUS alt modes. Does that make him a Duocon? Sure, why not! Although, I doubt even Hasbro would repaint a Leader Class as Flywheels unless it was some crazy Con or Club exclusive.

So first off, we’ve got this totally bitchin’ Decepticon tank. It’s a very conventional-looking Earth tank, but it also reminds me of the drone that came with Energon Megatron/Galvatron way back when. Now, as far as toy tanks go, it doesn’t do a hell of a lot. The turret doesn’t rotate, the gun cannot elevate, it’s treads are molded faux treads, but it can roll along on its concealed wheels. You do, however, get some tiny foot pegs on the back and on the turret so you can load him up with a bunch of Titan Masters. OK, maybe not the most exciting of toys.

But, with all that having been said, I still really love this little death machine. There’s a ton of sculpted detail on the body, including all sorts of panel lines and hatches. The black body with red trim is a fantastic color combination for a Decepticon and the silver paint on the gun barrel and the two Decepticon insignia stickers are all gorgeous. In fact, I’d say this is a case where the deco carries the day and totally sells this stubby little tank mode.

The translucent red hatch on the top of the turret can open and fit a Titan Master, which makes now as good a time as ever to introduce Ominus. He’s cast in black and gray plastic, and is just your typical tiny head robot, albeit with a great name. Alas, there’s no paint on him at all, which really peeves me off on these Leader Class toys. Hey, Hasbro, I spent some real monies on this thing, how about a dab of paint on this robot’s wee little face? Ah well. We have another alt mode to look at…

While Sky Shadow’s tank patrols the ground, his other half takes to the skies in what is a superb nod back to Black Shadow’s jet mode. This is the air and ground version of robot surf-and-turf. Eh, forget that, that doesn’t make any sense. That was the Jameson talking. But, this is one sleek and sexy aircraft, featuring the same style of angled wings that we’ve seen a few times in Titans Return, and a pair of chunky blasters under those wings that look like they mean business. The profile alone on this bird makes it one of the fiercest looking jets in the entire Decepticon fleet.

The deco here is mostly the same as the tank mode, and that’s a very good thing! It features all that lovely black plastic with red and silver trim, but here you also get some gold paint on the back rear section and a little dark gray plastic too. The striping and Decepticon emblems on the wings are actually pre-applied stickers and they look straight and sharp. They’re loads better than the ones on my Broadside figure. I only hope they don’t start peeling too badly over time.

Ominus can fit into the cockpit and he can also pilot the drone that’s stored under the nosecone. I actually prefer the look of the jet without the drone attached, but it’s still a cool little bonus. Here’s where I wish Sky Shadow came with more than one Titan Master. I mean, I realize he can only have one head at a time, but Ominus can’t operate both alt modes and a drone at once. Maybe he pilots one alt mode while Sky Shadow focuses on controlling the other. Maybe I still don’t fully understand the dynamics of the whole Headmaster/Titan Master relationship. Maybe I’m overthinking it and should just move on…

Sky Shadow’s jet mode can also pick up his tank mode and carry it with him. There’s a fairly strong tab that locks the two together. Naturally, this looks fairly ridiculous, but it comes in handy. Nothing is more embarrassing than flying a couple hundred miles, wanting to transform, and then realizing you left half of your body back where you were. Also, being able to fly over a battlefield and drop a tank right into the middle of the action sure is quite an attention getter. But wait… did I say Sky Shadow had two alt modes? Well, I lied, because he also has one of those tertiary base modes.

Ok, so as far as bullshit tacked-on base modes go, this one isn’t terrible. It’s got the typical robot leg pylons in the front and robot arm pylons in the back. There’s a central deck area with a big cannon and a jet nosecone that passes for a control tower. It can almost work as some sort of super-tank mode, since the tank treads are on the bottoms of the pylons. There are plenty of Titan Master foot pegs if you want to load it up with occupants. There’s a place for the cannon operator to sit, and also a control room on the right pylon to seat another Titan Master. But enough with the alt modes, let’s check out Sky Shadow’s robot mode.

The tank transforms into Sky Shadows legs and robo-groin…

While the jet transforms into the upper half, and the two connect in the middle.

And once fused together at the waist, he is a shining pillar of Decepticon magnificence. There is nothing that I don’t like about this guy. He sports a ton of sculpted detail, carried over from his alt modes, and I’m in love with the giant cannons that angle up and outward from his shoulders. This guy can shoot Autobots out of the sky while just standing around! He’s also so satisfyingly big and bulky in all the right places. The deco carries over a lot of the black and red from his alt modes, but adds some dark and light gray plastics, as well as a lot more of that beautiful silver paint on his chest and shoulders. He’s also sporting a bold Decepticon sticker on each of those shoulders. This dude is fabulous!

From the back, he looks nice and clean. The backs of his legs are mostly filled out by the two halves of the tank turret. His bent wings angle off his back, Seeker-style, and the nose cone of the jet rises up behind the back of his head to make him look even more imposing. The drone can peg into his back, like I have it in the above shot. I think it looks good back there, even if it does give him a bit of a stubby tail.

Just as we’ve seen with the other Leader Class Titans Return figures, Ominus transforms into Sky Shadow’s head, but actually fits inside a helmet. Overall, this has worked pretty well on these bigger toys and it works great here as well, allowing Ominus to work with the smaller Deluxe Class figures as well as the big boys. I’ll also go ahead and say that this is my favorite Titan Master head of the entire line. The fierce angles, the piercing yellow eyes, and the beautiful silver paint conspire to make it a work of art. Combine it with a very traditional G1 style “helmet” and those pointed blades rising off the sides, and you’ve got Titan Master perfection.

Sky Shadow’s extra bits, the drone from his jet and the cannon from his tank, can be pieced together to form a gun, but I really don’t like the way it looks. I dislike it so much, I didn’t even bother shooting a picture of him holding it. I’m much happier just stowing the drone on his back and giving him the tank cannon as a gun. It isn’t a terribly imposing gun for a robot this size, but it’ll do.

For what is essentially a sloppy seconds figure based on a mold that was designed to be Overlord, Sky Shadow is an absolutely stunning figure. I’ll confess on the ride home from the store, I was having second thoughts about buying him. After just selling off a bunch of old Transformers from the Unicron Trilogy, I’ve been trying to be more picky about the ones I buy, especially when it comes to the larger figures that take up more room. But once I had this fella out of the box and in hand it was pretty much love at first sight, and having him has only whetted my appetite for Overlord.

Aug 14 2017

Marvel Legends (Mantis Wave) Mantis Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

As promised, I’m back to finally kill off this wave of Marvel Legends with a look at the Mantis Build-A-Figure. Consisting of a total of six pieces, spread across a wave of seven figures, Mantis is fairly easy to cobble together, although I did have a little trouble getting her legs into the hips all the way. But wait, you’re saying this petite alien chick is the BAF?

Yes, generally speaking, BAFs were created to sell waves, but also to deliver figures that were often too big or complex to do in the regular price point or packaging. As a result, people may scratch their heads at the diminutive Mantis being a BAF. Well, there has been precedent for smaller BAFs in the past. Both Rocket Raccoon and Hit Monkey were even smaller. Once, someone told me that Jubilee was even a BAF, although I have no physical evidence to support that claim. Yes, I’ve seen pictures, and that last remark was just a bitter dig at Hasbro’s poor distribution. ANYWHO…

Here she is! Mantis! All assembled and looking absolutely fab! Mantis is a fairly simple figure, and as such, this is going to be a pretty quick review. But don’t let that fool you, because one look and it’s clear that Hasbro put some real love into her. The outfit features all the great sculpted detail and texturing that I’ve come to expect in my MCU Guardians outfits. I particularly dig the leaf-like skirt that wraps around her hips and backside. I expected this to be a belt, but its actually attached to the buck around the waist and as such looks more like a natural progression of her top.

Still, as impressive as the sculpting here is, it’s the paint that makes this a stand out figure. The gorgeous emerald green paint has a striking metallic sheen to it and its used not only on her top and gloves, but also the ribbed panels running down the sides of her trousers and outlining the panels in her skirt. Under some nice lighting, it contrasts beautifully with the black.

This head sculpt is no slouch either. This time around, all the MCU Guardians likenesses have been winners, and I’d say that Mantis ranks pretty high among them. Her distinctive eyes and bendy antenna have been recreated beautifully here, as has her sculpted hair, which even curls up at her chin. Whatever you’ve been doing with these portraits, Hasbro, please keep doing it!

The articulation is fairly close to what I’m used to seeing in the Legends female bucks, which means she’s fairly limber.

With no accessories, and not exactly weighing in as an action star in the movie, Mantis may not be the most exciting figure around, but I sure am glad we got her in figure form. Why Hasbro opted to make her the BAF is still a bit of a poser. Maybe they thought she wouldn’t sell on her own? But with Gamora and Nebula in the wave, I’m not convinced that was it. It would have been cool if she got her own boxed release and Hasbro could have just given us Ego as the BAF, at least then I wouldn’t have to buy a second Star-Lord to get him in that two-pack. But that’s just me griping. You do whatever you have to do, Hasbro to keep these figures coming! Next week, I’ll be starting to look at a new wave of Legends, but I haven’t decided which yet and there’s so many to choose from. Warlock? Sandman? Vulture? Ragnarok? Man-Thing? Well, I’m going to rule out Ragnarok, because I’d like to look at those figures closer to the film’s release. Right now I’m leaning toward going with the either the Warlock or Sandman waves next.

Aug 14 2017

Marvel Legends (Mantis Wave): Death’s Head II by Hasbro

It’s been a long road, with a lengthy detour, but I’m finally wrapping up my look at the Mantis Wave of Marvel Legends today. Death’s Head II is the last packaged figure I have to open and then I’ll be back later on this evening with a look at the Build-A-Figure, Mantis.

At this point, I don’t have anything new to say about the packaging, except that you’ll note Death’s Head II does not include a BAF part. Maybe Hasbro realized a lot of people wouldn’t be familiar with the character and thus chose to not make him a mandatory purchase to build Mantis. However, looking at the package, I think it’s more likely that they just couldn’t squeeze anything else in there. Also… “Marvel’s Death’s Head II?” As opposed to all those other Death’s Head II’s? I’d be interested to see what potential copyright infringement made them feel it necessary to do that. That’s just weird. Anyway, I’m anxious to get this guy open, but before I do that. first I’m going to take a moment to ruminate over what a cool time it is to be a comic lover and toy collector, because Hasbro made this delightfully obscure character into a figure and distributed it as a regular retail release to boot! OK, maybe obscure isn’t the right word. After all, his first issue, X-Treme Prejudice hit something like 500,000 copies and was one of UK Marvel’s most exported issues of all time! Hey, Marvel, how many copies of Mighty Captain Marvel did you sell in June? About 20,000? Oooooh. Lemmie, guess, it’s really popular in digital format? Yeah, whatever.

And holy hell is he all kinds of awesome! It’s like someone synthesized all that was great and ridiculous about 90’s comics into one action figure. Death’s Head II (hereafter DHII, because I’m getting damned tired of typing that!) is a super fun character for a few reasons. Sure, he’s an AIM cyborg who absorbed Death Head’s personality to become DHII. Sure, he’s his own sequel! But he also owes much of his extended fictional existence to copyright issues between Marvel and Hasbro. Plus, he can make the amazing claim of being canonical in not only the Marvel Universe, but also the The Transformers and Doctor Who Universes, as well. Did I mention he’s a f’cking cyborg badass?

DHII is built on a generously large blue buck with a hint of metallic sheen to it. While electric blue might not instantly shout out the idea of cyborg killing machine, it did back in the 90’s and to be honest it really looks nice here. He has gold bands wrapped around his lower legs, which produce jagged, curved spikes, and some more of those gold bands encircling his left forearm.  You get those very Colossus-like segmented cyborg biceps with some lovely tarnished steel paint and while his feet are still the same blue as the rest of the body, he also has some sculpted segmented lines there as well. Finally, his belt looks like a bunch of twisted brown organic tendrils that have reached around from his back in order to hold a giant armor plate to protect his cyborg goody sack.

And then you’ve got his beautifully sculpted metamorphic arm! As the name suggests, this monstrosity serves multiple purposes. Besides being a weapon, it is also the interface for DHII’s Cranial Siphon, which enables him to suck out and absorb the personalities and abilities of his victims. Hasbro did a fabulous job on not only the sculpt here, but also the coloring that gradually matches the color of his arm. Otherwise, it’s just an awesome twisted blend of blades, gun barrels, and segmented cables.

The portrait is also excellent and pretty damn grizzly. He’s got a a skull cap and downward pointing horns as well as some disgusting strands of “hair” snaking its way over his shoulders and down his back. The gold mask looks like it’s half melted to his face and his exposed jaws and teeth can be seen underneath. One eye is exposed, while the other is just a blue lens. I’m often very impressed by the head sculpts that Hasbro turns out for their Legends line, but even with that being said, few have given them the opportunity to shine like this guy and they really knocked it out of the park.

The articulation is everything I expect in these bigger Legends bucks. The legs feature ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, hinges in the ankles, and lateral rockers too. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, and hinges in the elbows. The left wrist is a rotating hinge. The torso has a swivel in the waist and an ab crunch hinge in the chest. The neck is both ball jointed and hinged. Oh yeah, DHII also has an extra left hand with an extended finger. I’m not sure whether this is meant to be pointing, or maybe it’s a “come here so I can suck out your identity,” finger. Whatever the case it’s a nice bonus.

When you consider how many well-known Marvel characters still haven’t seen the light of day as a Legends figure, I don’t know whether to be amazed or pissed off that I’m holding Death’s Head II. Nah, just kidding. I could never be pissed off about something like this. He’s awesome! Other characters will get their turns, but it clearly took just the right alignment of the planets, and just the right mix of alcohol and cocaine, for some magnificent bastard at Hasbro to green-light this release. Even if I had no idea who Death’s Head II was, I’d still love this figure. He’s imaginative, fun, and creative, and basically encompasses everything that I loved about comics from his decade. And so, that’s the last of the packaged figures, come on back later tonight, and we’ll wrap up this wave with a quick look at Mantis from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2! 

Aug 10 2017

Transformers Titans Return: Aimless and Misfire by Hasbro

Folks, I have a sad. Hasbro showed off their new convertorobot line at SDCC and it’s called Power of the Primes and I hate it so much because it means that Titans Return is ending. Now, I still have plenty of Titans Return figures to pick up, and I’ll concede that I passed on some of the Voyagers (Like Optimus Prime and Megatron), but the Deluxe Class figures in this line can do no wrong in my book, and today I’m opening one that I am particularly excited about. The sadness is lifting, as I try to live in the moment.

Misfire! He’s one of the handful G1 Targetmasters that I actually owned in the past, and I was so happy to see the character get a slot in one of the Titans Return Deluxe assortments. Yup, this is another example of a Targetmaster changed into a Headmaster and I don’t care… FIGHT ME!!! I have nothing to really say about the packaging, so let’s jump right in to his alt mode.

I’ve been a huge fan of the Cybertronian jets that have been turning up in this line, so it should come as no surprise that I really dig Misfire’s alt mode. The designers basically took the look of the original toy, sucked out all the boxiness, and streamlined it into a sleek fighter craft. The back isn’t as hunched as it is in the original design, but the jet still sports that distinctive forked nose with the little fin stabilizers, and the angled, bent wings. This is a phenomenal update, with my only real gripe being that it looks a little unfinished from the back. It doesn’t really bother me, but hmm… who does that remind me of?

Yes, Misfire and Triggerhappy share the same hind quarters in their alt modes, which means they have the same legs in their robot modes. Hey, if you’re going to borrow parts, might as well be from Triggerhappy, because he was one fine looking toy.

The coloring gets by with mostly a pinkish-mauve plastic that fits the character fairly well. I swear I’ve seen the original toy in red as well, but I’m pretty sure my old one was closer to this color. There’s a little pale gray showing here and there, but not much, and you get the blue tinted canopy over the cockpit. There are some beautiful tampos on this toy, which include red and silver wing stripes, some little silver panels to the front sides of the cockpit, and some more panels between the two rear fins. All of this is accompanied by some lovely sculpted panel lines. For a toy that makes due with a very stagnant deco, Misfire look amazing.

Misfire’s handguns mount under his wings to give him some much needed firepower.

Aimless is Misfire’s head robot partner and… Holy shit, is that paint on his little face that I see? It is! Primus knows, these Titan Masters look so much better with a few microscopic licks of paint. I can’t figure out why Hasbro decided to start painting faces again, but I’m not complaining. Oh, and obviously, Aimless can sit inside Misfire’s cockpit and serve as a pilot.

And here’s the robot mode! Misfire features a pretty simple transformation. The coolest thing is the way the front of the jet folds down to become his back. This figure hits so many great design points for me, it’s hard to know where to begin. I suppose my favorite thing is the way the wings protrude out from his back, Seeker style. Even from the back, this dude looks very polished, and I dig the way the dual points of the front of the jet, along with the fins, peek up from behind his back. Very cool! As already mentioned, those are Triggerhappy’s legs and they look good on him, with the fins protruding out below the knees. The deco remains largely unchanged, although it does add more of that pale gray to the mix, as well as some red paint on his chest. I think we have a new contender here for my favorite Decepticon Deluxe robot mode in this line.

Aimless forms a great looking noggin.  I dig the blue visor and the lavender paint they used for his face is pretty distinctive. My figure has a few smidges of blue transferred onto the face, but nothing too bad.

The articulation here is very standard for the Titans Return Deluxes. Sometimes I forget to even cover it, since it’s pretty much the same throughout most of the Deluxes in this line. The shoulders swivel and are hinged, elbows are hinged and there are swivels in the biceps. The hips are ball jointed, the knees are hinged, and there are hinges in both the foot and the heel spur. Misfire can swivel at the waist, and his head can rotate.

The wing guns that we saw earlier unpeg and can be used as Misfire’s hand guns. As usual, they’re mirror images of each other and can combine to form a double-barreled gun with a seat for a Titan Master. There’s really no good way to use the combined gun on Misfire’s alt mode, but there are plenty of other figures you can add it to.

As you can no doubt tell, I can’t stop gushing about this line’s Deluxe Class figures! Misfire is everything I’m looking for in a Transformer. He’s a solid update to a G1 character, his transformation features simple but effective engineering, and he looks absolutely bitchin’ in both his alt and robot modes. He’s also loads of fun to play with, shoulders not withstanding. I’m currently on the hunt for Twintwist and Windblade, and I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on Slugslinger. In the meantime, I’m hoping to have one of the bigger bots to look at next week, but I can’t make any promises yet.

Aug 7 2017

Marvel Legends (Mantis Wave): Nebula by Hasbro

Welcome back, folks! I am super excited to start a new week, especially since I got bogged down all last week checking out that Marvel Legends A-Force set. And now I’ve had a couple days to recoup, and I’m ready to move on to some new content. And it’s Monday! Oh, right. Marvel Monday. That means more Marvel Legends. Oy Vey! Well, I did say I was getting back to business as usual this week. And to be honest, I doubt I could ever get tired of checking out new Legends figures. So allow me to pick up where I left off a couple weeks back and continue looking at the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 Mantis Wave. The last figure I looked at was Gamora, one half of the “Daughters of Thanos,” so this time let’s check out her sister Nebula!

Packaged shot! Yes, Nebula shares a slot with her sister, Gamora as the “Daughters of Thanos” although each figure still includes a different BAF part to build Mantis, and I’m almost there. Just one more figure after this one! One of my biggest gripes about the merchandising of the first GotG film was that we never got a Yondu or a Nebula figure. That doesn’t just go for Hasbro either. I have a whole team of Hot Toys Guardians and still no Yondu or Nebula (Hot Toys Yondu was revealed at SDCC, but still no Nebula). Thankfully, Hasbro remedied that this time around by giving us both, and it’s only fair since both characters had expanded roles in the second flick and they were both a lot of fun in the new flick!

But maybe it’s not a bad thing that we didn’t get Nebula until now, because just look at this figure, it’s amazing! There’s no way, Hasbro could have pulled this off a few years back with that first GotG wave. Indeed, there’s just no comparison between what Hasbro is doing with this line and what they’re doing with their other 6-inch figures. At this point, I get the mental image of the Marvel Legends people at Hasbro working in this luxurious, hi-tech facility and the Star Wars Black Series people working in a barn out back with hammers and chisels. Word out of SDCC is that the Star Wars Black Series will finally catch up to this higher standard when the figures for the new film come out. We’ll see. Ah, but I digress… back to the figure!

I’ll concede that I don’t find anything outrageously special about Nebula’s outfit design. A lot of the MCU Guardians costumes kind of blur together for me at this point. It’s a lot of complex textures and panel lines, with lots of belts and straps. Not bad, but it gets redundant. It does, however, give the sculptors something interesting to work with and Nebula’s duds are expertly recreated here. Every tiny area on the outfit has some kind of sculpted detail and the paint to back it up. Even the tiniest fixtures on the belts and straps are neatly touched up with silver paint. What’s more, the different shades of purple, both darker matte and lighter, shimmery metallic, really elevates the figure to a whole new level. Combine that with the beautiful blue skin tone and this figure is a feast for the eyes. I think the color scheme on this figure looks even better than what we saw on screen.

And check out the likeness of this portrait. It’s my understanding that Hasbro has used some new 3D scanning techniques on the MCU figures in these waves, and boy does it show. Gamora’s likeness to Zoe Saldana was fantastic and this likeness to Karen Gillan, albeit in heavy alien-cyborg makeup, is equally great. But as we’ve seen time and time again with fan re-paints of Star Wars Black figures, sculpting will only take you so far and it’s the lack of quality paint that really trips Hasbro up sometimes. But look at the paintwork on this noggin! It’s outrageously good.

As for articulation, Nebula features the same triumphs and pitfalls of most female Legends figures. From the waist down, it’s all good with ball joints in the hips, double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The torso is fine too, with both a swivel in the waist and a ball joint under the chest. The arms, are where I’d like to see a change. The figure uses rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, and omits the bicep swivel. Not terrible, but not ideal either. Granted, in this case, the ball joint in the elbow is kind of necessary, because…

Nebula features a swap out lower left arm. You just pull the arm out at the elbow and pop in the damaged one. I really dig the worn metal finish on the arm, and the various panel lines sculpted into both the lower arm and the bicep. This is a great bonus accessory, especially since she didn’t come with that damn root that she wanted to eat so badly. Crap, now I wish that was an accessory.

Nebula also comes with a little pistol. I like it, it’s cool, but there’s not a whole lot to say about it. It has a sleek and simple design and a nice, dirty metal finish.

Hasbro continues to knock it out of the park with this Mantis Wave, and Nebula here ranks pretty high on my list of favorites. She carries on a very strong showing for the MCU Guardians figures in terms of likeness, sculpt, and overall paint quality. And while I’m willing to give Hasbro a lot of guff when they deserve it, I really need to applaud them for Marvel Legends lately. They’re churning out these figures like crazy. There are so many coming out, that it’s impossible for me to keep up. And yet, they’re obviously striving for improvements in quality while still delivering quantity. Of course, not all Legends figures are as fantastic as Nebula here, but it shows Hasbro is continuing to steer this line in the right direction, while still managing to flood the pegs with releases. Next Monday, I’ll wrap up this wave with a look at the last packaged figure, Death’s Head II, and the Build-A-Figure, Mantis.

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 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.