Feb 24 2023

Back to the Future: Doc Emmett Brown Sixth-Scale Figure by Hot Toys

GREAT SCOTT!!! Last week I finally got around to checking out Hot Toys’ new version of Marty Mcfly, thanks to being motivated by the arrival of Hot Toys’ Doc Brown figure! It’s all part of my plan to try to get caught up on reviewing my sizeable sixth-scale figure backlog. So let’s get this DeLorean up to 88mph and see what we got!

Just like Marty, Doc Brown comes in a shoebox style package with a printed insert covering the tray. The cover of the box features some wraparound art of the Time Machine backing out of the truck in the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. It’s a great picture, but I really think the covers to these boxes should have the character on the front, so I think this was a strange choice. Still, the BTTF logo looks great on the front and side panels. I’m checking out the Deluxe version, which adds the case of plutonium as an exclusive accessory.

Doc Brown comes out of the box wearing his radiation suit and requiring a lot of set up, and I mean A LOT! You have to attach his tool bag to his belt, along with a pouch for his hip printer, then you have to fill the tool bag, because each and every tool is a separate accessory! Next up, you have to clip his notebook to his belt, stuff his chest pocket, put on his watches, and sling his stopwatch around his neck. It took me a while to get him all kitted out, but it was well worth it, because Hot Toys went above and beyond recreating every last detail of Doc’s crazy collection of gear. On the other hand, Hot Toys got off kind of easy with the costume itself, as it’s just a baggy white jumpsuit. Still, they did a nice job detailing his shoes, right down to the treads on the soles, and they gave him a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt under the jumpsuit. The suit also features some padding to bulk up the body a bit, and here comes my biggest complaint with this figure… I can’t get his hands to touch his forehead to recreate a GREAT SCOTT!!! pose. This feels kinda deceptive, since that’s the expression they went with and one of the solicitation photos has him posed like that. I’m sure he could be modded to make it happen, but I’m not all about poking around in my expensive figures. It’s disappointing, but I quickly got over it.

Now, I love this head sculpt, but I really wish we got a second head with a more neutral expression. No, Hot Toys doesn’t usually release two heads with a figure, but seeing as this is the exact same head issued with the BTTF2 version of Doc Brown, that preceded this release, I’m going to cry foul. Actually, Hot Toys kind of shot themselves in the foot on that deal, because if we did get two head sculpts for each release, I probably would have bought both, and that’s saying a lot because I am not a big fan of the second BTTF film. But, I doubt they’re crying about my lost sale, because that figure sold out pretty quickly. Anyway… This is still a great portrait, even if it is a little awkward to have the slots over the ears left over for the 2015 sunglasses that came with the BTTF2 release. And yes, I realized a little too late that I left the protective plastic around his neck for these shots. Oopsie!!! Let’s take a tour around all the gear he’s got!

Like any good science nerd, Doc has a pocket protector with a brace of pens, which is all sculpted as one piece. There’s a trio of safety pins clipped onto the pocket, and large silver clip that holds a paper map. Beside that is a digital stopwatch that hangs around his neck with a cable that runs to a pouch on his belt that holds a hip printer. I also love the random wooden clothespin that he has clipped to his belt. I’m sure there’s a reason for that, and only Doc knows what it is!

Besides the printer pouch is a notebook with the cover blurred out, but if you look really close you can perhaps tell that it’s a Gremlin. And if you couldn’t make that out, the text under it recounts the three rules for owning a Mogwai. Yeah, as usual Hot Toys really did their homework, even if they had to blur the image because of licensing. Either way, it’s cool that they did what they could here. Speaking of which, how the heck is it we never got a Hot Toys Billy Peltzer with Gizmo? Get on that Hot Toys, it’s not too late.

And then we get to the tool bag, and oh boy was this a piece of work to get stuffed right. There are a dozen individual accessories and the instruction manual shows you exactly where everything goes. You get screwdrivers, pliers, a file, a compass, a socket wrench and a pipe wrench, a flashlight and a T-square. You also get a roll of duck tape dangling off the end, which is my favorite piece, because Doc probably uses that to reattach bits that fall of the DeLorean. This looks amazing, and it really shows the kind of research that Hot Toys invests in these figures to make them as screen accurate as possible. Now that I’ve done all that gushing, it would have been cool to get a set of hands so that he could hold a couple of these, especially since Doc Brown comes with the least number of hands I may have ever seen for a Hot Toys release. Obviously they didn’t give him fists, but that would have been a good excuse to give him a wrench hand or a screwdriver hand.

Next up, Doc comes with a silver clipboard with some calculators sculpted onto it, plus a manila folder and three sheets of documents. The print on these is too tiny for my old eyes, but I was able to read them after blowing up the pictures. One looks like an invoice for parts and another is a material safety sheet. I really dig how these aren’t just gibberish. The text is small enough that it could have just been random nonsense, but nope! Here’s also a closeup of his silver calculator watch, which I appear to have on backwards for this shot… go me! It’s not my fault, I was drinking quite a bit during this photoshoot! The black watch on his right hand has a loop for his index finger, which I assume is to quickly activate the stopwatch function.

And you also get a stopwatch to hang around Einstein’s neck, which is set to 1:21 AM and precisely in synch with the stopwatch hanging around Doc’s neck. Of course, this accessory doesn’t do you a lot of good if you didn’t get the recent Marty release that came with Einstein. This is the first case I’ve encountered where Hot Toys packed an accessory with one figure that is expressly intended for use with another. Weird!

Possibly the most impressive accessory in this set is the RC unit Doc used to drive the DeLorean. There is so much wonderful detail on this piece, showing all the modifications he made to a stock RC car controller. It’s so cool!

The exclusive accessory is also pretty damn sweet. It’s the chest of plutonium that we first see Marty’s skateboard bump into in Doc Brown’s lab. We later see it in the Twin Pines parking lot. The same case that Emmett got off the Libyans in exchange for a shoddy bomb casing full of pinball machine parts! The yellow chest has a mix of sculpting and printed illustrations to convey the fortified metal frame. The latches on the front work, as do the handles on the top and sides, but the hinges on the back are just printed on. You get a sticker sheet with additional radiation hazard stickers, but I opted not to use them, as it already has some printed on it, and I think they look fine.

The chest opens to reveal the individual plutonium rods, one of which can actually be removed. And the rod itself can be removed from the cooling cylinder. Oddly enough, the set includes a clear plastic piece that can be used to prop open the chest, because the lid will not stay open on its own, so if you want to display it open, you need to use this piece to do it.

What’s our final stop in every Hot Toys review? If you said the figure stand, you are correct! This one is patterned to match Marty’s with the simple black base featuring the colorful BTTF logo printed on it. And I’m happy to say they went with the usual crotch cradle and not the waist-grabber that came with Marty. That would have looked really obvious against the white jumpsuit. I still get a bit nostalgic seeing these old style stands, as Hot Toys has been employing larger rectangular bases. Those are fine, but these always seemed simple and classy, as if to say, the figure speaks for itself and doesn’t need a complex diorama stand.

And that’s Hot Toys Doc Brown! I love this figure, even if I did have a few nitpicks to call out. I think the figure’s biggest problem is the restricted articulation in the arms. It’s vexing, because this particular costume shouldn’t inhibit anything, and yet the padding does. In fairness, it doesn’t affect any of the ways I plan to pose him on the shelf. More than anything, I think this figure shows just how detail orientated these figures can be, and this one goes above and beyond with some of the accessories. Now, is the Deluxe worth the extra $20? To me it is. The plutonium chest probably isn’t essential to the figure looking complete when displayed, but on the other hand… in for a penny, in for a pound. Now, this is not the last we’ll see of Hot Toys Doc and Marty here, as I do have the BTTF3 versions on pre-order. Is there a Hot Toys DeLorean in my future? Well, it’s possible. The BTTF2 version is still up for pre-order, and while it’s true that’s my least favorite of the three films, it’s my favorite version of the DeLorean. To be honest, I’m kind of hoping it sells out before it arrives in stock, because that will make the decision for me. But before all that happens, I’ll revisit this franchise sometime in the next few weeks with a look at the NECA versions of Doc and Marty.

Feb 15 2023

Back to the Future: Marty McFly (and Einstein) Sixth-Scale Figure by Hot Toys

I’m not one for New Years Resolutions, but I am going to try to up my efforts when it comes to Hot Toys and other Sixth-Scale reviews this year. It seems like I’m always behind on these, some of which have been waiting years to get their turn in the spotlight here. Marty hasn’t been sitting around for years, but it has been a while, and now that Doc Brown has come in, I have new incentive to have a look!

Marty comes in a standard shoebox, which I like a lot more than the crappy window box with sleeve that Hot Toys has used in the past, particularly for their Marvel MCU figures. Sure, the box could be a little more durable, but it gets the job done. The artwork on the box is very nice and features the iconic logo at the top of the front and again on the spine. The OUTATIME TOUR 85 on the side panel is kind of cheesy, but that’s fine. This one was an unusual release, as it comes only about seven years after Hot Toys’ last release of Marty in this outfit and yet almost everything appears to be brand new. He doesn’t require any set up and comes out of the box all ready for display.

Here’s Marty McFly out of the box and relieved of his plastic wrap, and I’ll tell ya, since most of my Hot Toys are space people or super heroes, it’s fun to get one wearing regular clothes now and again. Or at least regular clothes from almost 40 years ago. Marty is sporting a lot of denim, with both blue jeans and a jean jacket. He’s got a checkered, button down shirt over a red undershirt, suspenders, and his life preserver! Everything about the figure’s costume is beautifully tailored, from the stitching on the jacket, to the pattern on the inside liner. The fit is also quite good, and I’m really impressed at that, considering Marty is wearing so many layers. Making clothing in this scale not look overly puffy is hard enough without doing four layers of it. And if the jacket does look a little bulky on his right side, it’s because his Walkman is tucked into the inside pocket of his jacket. If I had one nitpick about the outfit, it’s the way the suspenders pull up the sides of the pants and make the middle dip. You can adjust it, but it’ll always return to the dip in the middle. Eh, but that’s not a dealbreaker.

Of course, you can take the vest off to appreciate more of what they did with the jacket, and doing so makes it easier to sling his backpack over his shoulder. They recreated the pins on the left side of his chest and he even comes with his calculator watch, which we all wore in the 80’s, unless you were posh enough to wear a Swatch. Yeah, it’s kind of a shame to cover up those pins with the vest, but I’ll still likely be displaying with the vest all the time.

The head sculpt is pretty amazing to me. I passed on the 2015 release because of the portrait, which I thought at best looked like a much older Michael J. Fox, or maybe Alex Keaton on drugs from that one episode of Family Ties. The solicitation photos for this one looked much better and I’m happy to see the production head came out pretty damn close to what we were originally shown. As with many of these portraits, there are a few angles where the likeness loses something and others where it excels, but overall I’m extremely pleased. And comparing the old and the new is like night and day. As usual, the paint is absolutely exquisite, recreating all the little nuances of the skin tone, the lips, and the lifelike eyes. The hair sculpt is also fantastic. Well done, Hot Toys!

Running through the accessories… I’ve already shown off the backpack, which looks bang on for one that I carried in High School, only mine was green. Other than some more beautiful tailoring, the only thing worth noting here is that the straps are positioned on top of each other to make it easier to have it slung over the shoulder or carried in the hand, and they cannot be separated and worn on each shoulder like an actual backpack.

The detail on the Walkman is out of this world for such a tiny accessory. At some point, I’ll have to bust out my Hot Toys Star Lord’s Walkman for a direct comparison. I never had a Sony Walkman as a teenager, but had to make due with an Aiwa, but this looks pretty damn good. Sadly, you cannot pop it open and put in a tiny Huey Lewis tape. Also, the headphones aren’t adjustable, so they’re best suited to hang around his neck. Best I could do to get them on his ears is to have the band across the back of his head. Naturally, they’re also very delicate so I wasn’t about to force the issue.

As long as we’re talking AV equipment, Marty also comes with the JVC Camcorder he used to document Doc Brown’s DeLorean experiment. And oh boy is this an impressive little bit of kit! I’ve never owned one of these babies, so I can’t vouch for its accuracy off-hand, but the detail is outstanding. It has a strap on the side for him to hold it while filming and a carry bar on the top. It does omit the JVC branding, which is surprising because I didn’t know they were still in business.

Next up is Marty’s skateboard, and like the camcorder, I don’t know anything about these things, but it looks pretty good to me. My friend gave me one of his old ones once to try out once and let’s just say that didn’t go well. This little board rolls well and I was even able to get Marty to balance on it fairly well with little cursing involved at all! I really like how they gave him a left hand with splayed fingers that perfectly conveys, “I’m balancing on a skateboard!” There’s some realistic weathering on the wheels and some colorful graphics on the top and bottom. Also like the camcorder, this piece omits some of the lettering, presumably for copyright issues, which surprised me because I believe NECA’s retains them.

Getting down to the nitty gritty, we have the ephemera, (that’s paper goods for you non book collectors!) Yes, Marty comes with the Clock Tower pamphlet! Flip it over and it has Jennifer’s love note along with her Grandmother’s phone number! I don’t know why I think getting paper accessories like this is so cool, especially in light of the other highly detailed goodies, but I think it’s a hoot. The printing on the front is great, so long as you don’t want to read the actual article, and the sheet of paper is folded into four quarters.

Is Einstein an accessory or a figure? Well, I’d say he’s an accessory because he’s small and only has one point of articulation at his neck. I remember seeing a lot of criticism of this piece when the figure was first teased, and I never really understood it. No, you don’t get the same level of realism in the sculpt as you do in the figure’s likeness, but it’s kind of apples and oranges. I’m not sure if they were expecting a fully flocked Einstein with rooted hair, but I’m actually pretty pleased with how he came out.

As usual, our last stop on the Hot Toys review train is the figure stand. This is a standard black oval base and post, but we do get the BTTF logo printed on it, and I love it! What I don’t love is that Hot Toys went with the wire waist ring as opposed to the usual wire crotch cradle, and I can’t really understand why, as they hardly ever go with this style of support. It still does a fine job of securing the figure, and with the jacket it isn’t that visible, but it’s a pain in the ass to get it off the figure, whereas the crotch cradle allows you to just pick the figure up off the stand and place him back without any problems. And just before wrapping up, I wanted to point out two omissions in the accessories department. First off, Marty doesn’t come with his sunglasses, and I think that’s pretty outrageous. All Hot Toys had to do was look at the front of their own box and realize, “whoops, we goofed.” It doesn’t seem like tossing some shades in there would have broken the bank, and it’s a pretty important piece to completing a very iconic pose for the character. Secondly, he doesn’t come with a guitar. This one is easily forgivable. It’s a much more elaborate and expensive accessory to create, and it’s not like Marty walked around the whole movie with one.

As it happens, I was able to pick up a really nice looking sixth-scale guitar off of Amazon for $12. It’s not the one he had in the movie, but he looks good holding it, so why not!

Back to the Future is on a very short list of what I consider to be a perfect film. I don’t say that lightly, and I will die on that hill. The sequels are fun and all, but I really regard the original as damn near flawless. It hits all the beats that it’s shooting for, with wonderful performances and a magical soundtrack. It’s a stone cold classic. There was never any doubt that I wanted Marty McFly and Doc Brown in my Sixth-Scale figure collection. I’m just glad Hot Toys took a second shot at this one. Unlike the movie, this figure isn’t quite perfect, but it’s amazingly good and I’m thrilled to have it up on my shelf. Now, so long as I can make the time, I hope to be checking out Doc Brown in the next week or so!

Dec 15 2021

Avengers Endgame: Captain America (2012) Sixth-Scale Figure by Hot Toys

We’re in the Endgame now! Or, more accurately, I’ve come full circle. My very first Hot Toys figure was Captain America from The First Avenger, which I reviewed ten years ago, give or take a couple of weeks. Woof! Those were some terrible photos! And here I am, reviewing what I planned to be my last Marvel Hot Toys purchase… and it would have been if I hadn’t since pre-ordered a new Black Widow. Well, maybe the second to the last. Unless we get a bunch from the new Spider-Man movie, and then all bets are off. Anyway… It’s fitting to start and (almost) end with Cap. One of my favorite Marvel characters, and one that I feel was translated almost perfectly to the MCU.

The First Avenger Cap was actually a consolation purchase, as I missed out on the Cap figure that I really wanted. Some may scoff, but Cap’s costume from the original Avengers flick is my favorite of them all, and I was hugely disappointed to miss out. But now, it seems like it was for the best, because thanks to the Time Travel elements of Endgame, Hot Toys got us a new version of 2012 Cap, without having to do a blatant do-over, and it looks to be a vast improvement. Let’s take a look!

Hot Toys rebuilt this figure from the ground up, which means new body, new tailored costume, the works! As I understand it, the only reuse here is the collection of hands. The costume recreates everything I loved about this look. It’s clean, relatively simple, and most of all it’s bright and colorful. I like that it uses actual fabric, rather than the thin vinyl material that so many of these characters wore. It looks and feels more durable, and offers a nice, rugged texture. The suit consists of various reinforced panels of cloth, all secured with immaculate stitching. The bright blue really pops, especially next to the red and white striping around his middle, and the red and maroon plastic used for the boots and gauntlets.

The boots consist of two pieces: A ball jointed foot, and a sleeve that makes up the rest. This allows for plenty of articulation in the ankles and a flat-footed stance. There’s still a seam where they meet, but it’s worked into the sculpt pretty well, so as not to be terribly obvious. It is, however, necessary to sometimes make sure the two pieces are lined up correctly. The chest star and epaulets are cast in plastic and attached to the cloth, making them stand out, quite literally. The belt features a brace of bulky pouches, and it rests fairly snug above his hips.

Cap comes with two heads, one masked and one not. The masked is likely the one I will display the figure with most of the time, and it is a beautiful piece of work. The helmet and mask are intricately detailed with some great texturing, sculpted stitch lines, and some immaculate silver paint for the “A” and the wings on the sides. There’s a very nice depth to the sculpt as well, making it look like the helmet and mask were actually sculpted on top of an unmasked head, even if that wasn’t the case. The neck piece is extremely long and sockets deep into the figure’s chest, and when combined with the high collar of the suit, leaves no neck seam at all.

The unmasked head sculpt is also excellent. Considering Hot Toys has been sculpting Chris Evans’ noggin for ten years now, it goes without saying that they’ve gotten pretty damn good at it. Besides the likeness being spot on, the paint is as amazing as usual. The eyes are lifelike, the skin tone is so real it’s eerie, and even the sculpted plastic hair looks totally on point. I also love the appropriately self-righteous expression, with the stern look and slightly furled brow. Despite this being the third MCU Hot Toys Cap in my collection, this is the first time I’ve had an unmasked head sculpt. It’s about time!

Obviously, Cap comes with his iconic shield, and it sure is different than the one that came with my First Avenger Cap! That figure’s shield had a high gloss, metallic finish that looked beautiful… for about a year and then the paint started flaking off of it. I eventually had to buy a third-party replacement. This time around, we get a more sensible, somewhat satin finish to the red, blue, and silver frisbee, and I think it looks great! The flipside is sculpted with reinforced plates and rivets, and has an arm strap and a grabber strap, which work very well with the figure, making it easy to put on and take off. Unfortunately, the straps still have working plastic clasps, which are so fragile I can all but guarantee will eventually break. Cap comes with the appropriate hands that will allow him to hold the shield on the left or right side. Unfortunately, there’s no way to attach it to his back, which seems like a huge oversight.

As I’ve said many times, I don’t expect a lot of range of motion in my MCU Hot Toys, usually because of restrictive costumes, but I was hoping for a little bit more on this one. In this case, I’m not worried about pulling stitching or over-stretching material, it’s just that the muscle padding gets in the way. As a result, he gets about average movement for these figures, but nothing crazy. On the plus side, it doesn’t seem like keeping him in an action pose is likely to damage the costume.

In addition to the shield and extra hands, Cap comes with Loki’s Staff, which is recycled from the Bruce Banner figure, which I believe was recycled from Avengers Loki. If you don’t have it, it’s a great addition and a beautiful piece. On the other hand, if you’ve been collecting for a while, you probably do have it, and in that case, it’s not all that exciting.

What is pretty damn cool is the big aluminum case to put it in! This spiffy piece of luggage has a foam interior with a cutout for the staff and handles on two sides. It’s an impressive accessory, and it kind of needs to be, considering that Cap doesn’t come with a whole lot of anything else. Still, the only other thing that I could have asked for would be a mask for him to hold when using the unmasked head. That would have been cool.

As always, the final thing in the box is the stand. I don’t have a lot to say about this one, other than it looks good and gets the job done. The artwork is quite nice, and the hexagonal base is functional without taking up too much real estate on the shelf.

It’s hard to really express how thrilled I was to see this figure get made. Not getting Hot Toys’ Avengers Cap was probably one of my biggest collecting regrets over the last ten years. I just think this is his most iconic appearance in the franchise. It really straddles that line between realism and cheese. The colors scream comic book to me, and while I will admit this look wouldn’t have worked for the tone of the later movies, I liked Cap’s uniforms less and less with each redesign. The original shot up in price on the second hand market pretty quickly, so my chances of ever getting it were slim to none. And now I have an improved version on my shelf and I just can’t stop smiling!

Nov 12 2021

Star Wars “Rogue One” Shoretrooper Squad Leader Sixth-Scale Figure by Hot Toys

I could go on and on, recounting all the things that I love about Rogue One! But today, let’s go with Reason #1,256: New Troopers! The film gave us some brand spanking new Imperial Troops, all of which were conspicuously absent from The Original Trilogy, but I’m sure they’ll get digitally inserted in an upcoming Extra Special Edition. And while the Deathtroopers were probably my favorite additions, the Shoretroopers that were introduced on Scarif are a close second! And here comes Hot Toys to prey on my weaknesses by releasing both a Shoretrooper and the Squad Leader as well. The regular trooper isn’t due to ship until early next year, but the Squad Leader arrived on my front stoop a couple of days ago! Time to hit the beach and kick over some Rebel sandcastles!

Here’s the part of the review where I lament the bland and boring packaging we always get with the Star Wars Hot Toys, so let’s just say I did and be done with it. You’ll note that nowhere on the package is it branded as a Rogue One figure, and maybe that’s because these fellows made an appearance in The Mandalorian. That’s also probably why they’re now being called Shoretroopers, instead of Scarif Stormtroopers. Eh, it’s all marketing in the end. But, it’s worth noting that the official copy on Sideshow’s website makes the link to Rogue One, so that’s good enough for me. Not that it matters, because I’m more or less all in on both Rogue One and Mandalorian Hot Toys.

The Squad Leader shares a similar suit to his rank-and-file underlings. The big difference is the lack of the ammo pouch and hip armor, and the addition of the black cloth kama that hangs down to about his knees, and covers his butt. The Leader also features some coloring to his upper armor, with light blue on the tops of his shoulders and a light blue bar running across the top of his chest. He’s also got a white band on his left shoulder, and a red bicep guard on his right arm with three yellow bars. Otherwise, his armor is a sandy tan color with some pretty heavy and convincing weathering effects. The paint on this guy is just great, and it’s backed up by some excellent detail, particularly in the shallow backpack unit.

As for the armor itself, the suit falls somewhere in between the full armor of a regular Stormtrooper and the abbreviated armor of the Scout Troopers. The Shoretrooper enjoys the extra protection of lower leg and forearm armor, but the rest offers more or less the same protection as the Scout has. As usual, the figure is comprised of an undersuit with the plastic armor pieces worn on top and held on either by elastic straps or friction. Above the waist, the body suit is black, but the exposed trousers are brown. About the only thing I don’t much like on this fella is are the boots, which strike me as looking more like brown loafers than combat boots. But, they are still accurate to the design, so it’s hard to fault the figure.

The helmet is also an excellent sculpt and the paint is once again on point. Hell, no matter where you look, the paint just sells this figure so well. You get scoring and abrasions, and just general soiling. It looks like this guy has seen more than his share of action. All it’s really missing is some dried seagull poop! The helmet design is obviously influenced by the Scout Trooper helmet, but the angular plates over the cheeks make it look quite distinctive, as does the reinforced blast shield, which rests above the visor on the forehead. It’s a shame that the blast shield isn’t articulated here, as it would have been cool to be able to drop it down over the visor. But to quote a certain farmboy, then they couldn’t even see… so how are they supposed to fight? I do feel like the neck is a little too long and thin, but that’s mostly only noticeable to me when the figure is viewed from the back.

Rank may have its privileges, but unfortunately it doesn’t mean the Squad Leader gets a lot of extra stuff. Indeed, a lack of extras seems to be a continued sticking point for me and these Imperial Troopers. In this case you get three pairs of hands: Relaxed, Fists, and Gun-toting… plus you get the gun for those hands to tote. Oh, but what a magnificent gun it is! Sure, the E-11 Blaster is iconic as all hell, but this E-22 reciprocating double-barrel blaster rifle is one sexy piece of ordinance. It’s a much beefier and far more intimidating weapon than the ones carried by their vanilla Stormtrooper cousins, and this is an absolutely beautiful sculpt. There are no articulated or removable parts on the weapon, but it does come with a shoulder strap, and features some very nice weathering.

What’s our last stop on every Hot Toys review? You got it! The Stand! In this case it’s the usual rectangle with a silver name plate on the front. You get an illustrated sticker that can be placed onto the base, or you can omit it in favor of what looks more like the deck plate of an Imperial Star Destroyer. There’s also an optional piece to give the base an angled front that is flush with the name plate. As with the packaging, the name plate does not have any Rogue One branding, but rather just says Star Wars and Shoretrooper Squad Leader. The stand consists of your standard adjustable crotch-cradle, which works well with the figure.

I love this figure! He’s a great addition to my Sixth-Scale Imperial Troops, and you bet your beskar that I already have the regular Shoretrooper on pre-order. In addition to the great sculpt, tailoring, and paint, there’s very little in the outfit to hinder his articulation, making him a lot more fun to play with than the more restrictive suited Hot Toys. But I will admit that the price is really catching up with these guys. $230 just seems high for a figure that comes with so little in the way of extras, and doesn’t have an actual portrait. I consider the likeness and portrait to be a huge part of a Hot Toys figure’s budget, and when they’re just doing a helmet, it seems like that should save on the cost a bit. Plus, I think this armor is mostly the same as the Assault Tank Commander, so they’re already getting multiple uses out of it. I seem to recall the last two Hot Toys Stormtroopers I bought were around $200-220, and I think this figure should have shipped around $10 to $15 less than it did. But what the hell, they still got me to buy it, so I guess they know what they’re doing.

Sep 29 2021

Spider-Man “Far From Home:” Upgrade Suit Spider-Man Sixth-Scale Figure by Hot Toys

It’s Marvel Monday on a Wednesday! With a crazy work weekend and me still feeling like shit from whatever Non-Covid sickness I picked up, I just couldn’t get back here on Monday to finish any content. But, I’m here now, and I made good use of the delay, by preparing a look at another Hot Toys figure from the MCU! Yes, my interest in the upcoming MCU flicks is drying up (still excited for No Way Home, though!), I’m eager to get to reviewing the last few MCU-related Hot Toys figures on my pile. Last week, I checked out Mysterio from Spider-Man: Far From Home, and this week I’m here to have a look at Spider-Man in his Upgraded Suit from the final Act of the film. Cue the Led Zeppelin… I mean… AC/DC!

Cards on the table, this was a consolation purchase. I slept on the Hot Toys release from the first film (but I did get the NECA Quarter-Scale version!) and now that figure commands crazy money on the Hot Toys resale market. I wasn’t going to let that happen again, even if I’m not quite as in love with the Upgraded Suit as I was his Homecoming duds. Either way, here’s the box! I like the art style, but it’s still just a big window box with a sleeve around it and it’s doubtful that I’m going to hang on to it. I only keep the Hot Toys boxes that feel special and premium, and those are few and far between these days. Let’s get Old Web Head out and have a look!

So, the black and red deco looks nice, but I don’t like it anywhere near as much as the traditional blue and red suit. With that having been said, it’s the contrasts of texturing where this figure really shines. The black parts of the suit are fashioned from the usual thin vinyl material that Hot Toys uses for many of its super-suits. The red portions of the suit is comprised of a really nice, soft cloth material, which feels a lot more substantial than the black parts. I think the suit looks excellent, but the seams on his backside are a little obvious. In fairness, they have to go somewhere, and I guess that’s the best place for them to land. The spider emblems on his chest and back are both raised to give them a little extra punch.

The texturing can’t really be appreciated until you get in real close. Some of the black black portions have a vertical striped pattern, while other areas have a cross-thatched pattern, and some are just left bare. The white spider on his back has a faint cross-thatch pattern and thick borders. Meanwhile, the soft fabric red parts of the suit feature some bumps. All that black portions are raised, to look like reinforced areas, and the webbing on the red fabric appears to be part of the stitchwork. I often tend to focus more on the sculpted aspect of these figures than the tailoring, but this suit is making me take notice.

The head looks great and features more of that spongy, bumpy goodness. There’s a seam where the head meets the top of the neck, but it’s not visible from the front, just he sides and back. The material used for the head matches the suit perfectly!

You get several sets of eyes, which can be swapped out very easily thanks to magnets. The eye sets are pulled off from the top with a fingernail and the new ones just pop in, with the magnets practically grabbing them right out of my hand. These eye sets run the gamut from wide open eyes to squinty eyes, to completely closed eyes. These are expressive and great options to have, but beyond the regular open eyes and the half-squint, I don’t know how often I’ll be making use of them.

You also get an unmasked Tom Holland head, which is an absolutely fantastic likeness. This is actually my second Hot Toys Holland head, but since I have yet to review the Infinity War Iron-Spider figure, I’ll hold off my judgement on which I prefer. I’m just about at the point where I don’t know what else to say about these portraits, other than they’re extraordinary. The expression here is particularly good and it actually reminds me a bit of that moment of self-reflection after Peter was dubbed an Avenger by Stark in Infinity War. You want me to nitpick something? OK, the strands of hair over his right hair are a little thick, but that’s to be expected with sculpted plastic hair. And that’s it! That’s the worst I got.

You also get a mask for him to hold while using this head. It’s made of cloth and while it comes out of the box with a perfect fold, a little crumpling gives it more of a convincing look, like he just pulled it off his head. This is probably my favorite accessory in the box.

And before leaving the portraits, I’ll note that the EDITH glasses are included and they are wearable. They even work just like real glasses, by slipping on behind his ears. Yes, it’s a delicate operation, as you don’t want to stress those thin plastic arms too much, but I really appreciate that they went this way instead of putting holes in his head for the arms to pass through. The lenses have a bit of a tint and if you look through them at just the right angle, you can see the HUD for calling a drone strike recreated in tiny, tiny printing on the insides. And yes, I made up that last bit. Come on, Hot Toys, up your game!

Articulation here is about as solid as I can expect from a Hot Toys figure, and the suit is remarkably forgiving, even in the crotch and the upper arms. You even get some nice ratchets in the sholders! As always, you get tons of hands, some are more useful than others. You get fists, splayed hands, an accessory holding right hand, a two-fingered peace symbol left hand, and of course thwippy hands, which I’ll come back to in a bit. The hands do a pretty good job of matching the suit, but since they’re plastic, it’s not a perfect match.

You get a cell phone accessory with a printed texting screen. There’s a right hand that’s perfect for holding it, but I wish it was a left hand, so I could do a better selfie-shot with the peace symbol left hand. I love that they included a little crack on the screen. The thwippy hands are designed to be used with the web effects and swap out web-shooters, and to showcase these, I’m going to have to swap out backdrops to better showcase the milky-white webbing, because you can’t see them against the white.

Ah, that’s better! The thwippy hands have removable plates in the palms, which can be switched out with the shooting web plates. These have some web build-up, which the web effect parts can be socketed into. You get two medium sized web strands with globby bits on the ends, and these work very well. They remain in place, they don’t weigh down the arms. They stay straight and they look pretty convincing to me.

You also get a few different lengths of web strand, which can attach to the web funnel piece. The weight of the funnel piece does cause the web stream to droop a bit, but it’s not at all bad.

Next up is a couple of web pieces for Spidey to hold onto, one of which works well for reproducing his web-swing. If you have any other recent Hot Toys Spidey figures, these are all probably familiar, as they’ve been packing these same pieces in with a lot of them. I’m not usually all that big on effect parts, but I dig these a lot. I wish Hasbro would create a bunch of these for their Legends line and sell it as a Deluxe set. What you won’t see in today’s review are the final web effect parts, which are supposed to attach between the legs and under each arm to recreate the flying-squirrel feature of the suit. These plastic pieces are supposed to attach with magnets, but they barely hold on and I just don’t think that they look good at all. Swing and a miss on that one, Hot Toys!

And we’re still not done with the accessories, because you also get one of Mysterio’s Drones. I thought this was going to be a throwaway accessory, but it is an amazingly detailed piece. When I first got it out of the box, I spent a good bit of time just turning it around and marveling at the sculpt. All the little VTOL fans can be seen, as well as vents, tiny screws, and exposed wires. And naturally, it’s brimming with guns! This is designed to attach to the stand, and thankfully it works with Mysterio’s stand too, because that’s where I’ll likely display it! The sheer beauty of this little guy makes me wish I had picked up the Drone accessory set that Hot Toys released.

And that brings me to the stand, which is a colorful hexagon with the front corner cut out for the nameplate. The Far From Home logo is on top surface of the base, and the nameplate reads Spider-Man Upgrade Suit. The support is the standard bendy flight post with a waist-grabber, so you can get him into those epic poses that you shouldn’t keep him in for fear of creasing the suit! And yes, this is a different style base than they gave to Mysterio, and the lack of coordination there just irks me.

I’ll confess that if Hot Toys had reissued the blue and red suit from Homecoming, I would have definitely gone for that one over this one. But, with that having been said, this is still a very nice figure, and I’m happy to have it in my collection and displayed next to Mysterio. The black looks good against the red, and I’ve already gushed enough about the textures. This figure also feels like they packed a lot into the box for a $250 figure. And so, while he’s not my first choice, he’ll still do a fine job representing the MCU Web Head on my Hot Toys shelf. Well, he’ll have to share that role with Infinity War Iron Spider. I’d be reviewing him for the next Marvel Monday, but…

Friday starts FFZ’s very first Halloween Horror Month! Throughout October I’ll be confining myself to reviewing only spooky figures, so break out a white board, set up an office pool, and place your bets to see how long I can keep that shit going! Can I go three weeks with no Marvel Mondays? Do I even have enough horror themed figures to carry me through the whole month? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT!!!

Sep 20 2021

Spider-Man “Far From Home:” Mysterio Sixth-Scale Figure by Hot Toys

It’s taken me a while to dip back into some of the Marvel Hot Toys I have left to review here. Most of the ones I still have on deck are Spider-Man related, and while I can’t promise a straight shot through all of them, I am going to try to look at both of the figures I have from Far From Home over the next couple of weeks. Let’s start out with Mysterio!

Once again, The MCU did a little bait-and-switch by giving us a very familiar villain with a very different twist. The Mandarin from Iron Man 3 sure pissed a lot of people off, although I don’t think Mysterio ruffled quite as many feathers. Or maybe he did… I can’t keep track of what new thing fans are pissed off about these days. I honestly didn’t mind either character treatment, but of the two, Mysterio was my favorite. I was happy to see him get to be a villain, even if it wasn’t the kind of villain I expected. I had no intentions of picking up this figure until I re-watched the movie a little while back and then decided that the suit looked so damn good, that I had to add it to my collection to keep Spider-Man company. The packaging is pretty standard stuff. The art design is slick, but it’s still just a flimsy window box with a sleeve on it, so let’s get him out and dive right in.

Quentin Beck comes out of the box more or less ready to go. You just have to clip off some plastic wrap that protects his cape and extremities. He comes wearing his fishbowl helmet And looking all sorts of awesome. This suit is something like The Vision meets Doctor Strange. The figure is clad in a fairly tight fitting textured green bodysuit, which feels like the same thin vinyl that Hot Toys uses on most of these super-suits. There’s a little bit more give in the crotch and upper-body than we usually see, and there’s plenty of room to move in the elbows and knees. I found him to be a bit more fun to play with than a lot of these figures are, but there’s still some restrictions here.

The golden armored pieces of the costume include a cuirass, which is intricately sculpted with various overlapping plates, ornate scrollwork, and even some reflective panels that will illuminate under black light. His forearm bracers aren’t quite as chunky as the comic version of the suit, but they still make for a nice homage. I actually like the designs on these a lot! They look like they’re comprised of tightly wrapped coils held and compressed together by four rods, as if they are for conducting his powers to his gauntlets. He has a pair of mismatched cuffs around his thighs, and finally a pair of high boots with knee pads. The feet are made of regular plastic, while the rest of the boots are soft, pliable material, which offers decent mobility.

The cape is an absolute work of art! It’s comprised of a fairly thick purple cloth and pleated into several segments. There’s some green embroidered trim around the edges, and gold diamonds scattered about, both inside and out. Like the panels on the cuirass, these diamonds are reflective under black light. The cape attaches to the front of the cuirass with a pair of triangular fixtures with occult eye carvings and it does that cool levitating effect off the shoulders as it plunges down the back. The garment is removable, and you even get an extra set of those eye-pieces to clip back on if you happen to display him with the cape off. The helmet is a thing of majesty. The dome is painted to give it a swirly blue and purple effect, while there’s also a sculpted cloud inside to give it that extra mysterious look! The dome can only turn left and right a little bit, but I suppose Beck just turned his head inside it. It can, however, angle up and back a bit. The only downside here is that there’s a seam running up the sides.

There’s a light up feature inside the dome, which is activated by pulling the dome up to expose a switch in the neck. It looks cool, but I think maybe they went a little too bright with it, as it does tend to drown out some of that beautiful painted detail on the globe itself. Still, when combined with the black light effects on the suit, it does look quite striking! It’s difficult to capture the effect on camera, but I really love that they added this feature.

You also get the unmasked portrait, which swaps out with a completely different neck. I remember seeing some criticisms of the likeness early on, but I think it’s a pretty solid Jake Gyllenhaal. As usual, the realism on display here is pretty eerie. The paintwork from the skintone to the lifelike eyes is Hot Toys at its best. I’m especially impressed by the paint and sculpt that went into creating his beard. Facial hair is not something that’s easy to get right, but somehow Hot Toys manages to nail it. When I get to reviewing Spider-Man, I’ll have to see if the EDITH glasses fit him. I doubt I’ll display him with this head a lot, but it’s great to have that option, and swapping the heads is fairly quick and easy.

As for extras… there are two swirly illusion effect parts, which can be placed at Beck’s feet for some added mystery. These are semi-translucent green plastic with some frosting to give them the look of mystical smoke. They aren’t mind-blowing, but they do make for a nice addition to the display.

You also get two energy effect parts, which fit onto a special pair of Beck’s hands. These are translucent green energy triangles with occult eye emblems sculpted into them. They can be a little tricky to get attached to his fingers, but once I got everything to line up, I found that they held fast and look great. In addition to the spell casting hands, Mysterio comes with a pair of relaxed hands and a pair of fists. That’s not a lot of hands by Hot Toys standards, but still more than I’ll ever need.

As always, our last stop is the figure stand. Mysterio comes with a hexagonal base with a heavy bendable post that holds the figure with a gripper. This configuration allows the figure to be posed in flight, which is always a nice option. These have got to cost a lot more to produce than the regular crotch-cradle stands, so they definitely add some value to the box. The base itself is illustrated, and while I like it, it’s kind of annoying that it doesn’t match the Spider-Man figure’s base, but that’s a nitpick for my next review.

Mysterio took a little waffling back and forth before finally deciding to pick him up, and I am most definitely glad I did. The suit design looked great on screen and it looks great here as well. The sculpt, paint, and tailoring are all top notch, but the high points for me have to be the cape, the cuirass, and the paintwork on the globe. The smoke effect parts were probably not necessary, but when you’re paying $260 for a figure, every extra bit in the box is a welcome addition to justify that price point. Oddly enough, Mysterio is back to Pre-Order status on Sideshow’s site, so I’m not sure if they decided to produce more to meet demand, or maybe they’re still taking delivery on the original production run. Either way, he looks great next to the Advanced Suit Spider-Man, and I hope to have a review of that figure for the next Marvel Monday or the week after.

Jul 28 2021

Star Wars “The Mandalorian” Scout Trooper Sixth-Scale Figure by Hot Toys

The Mandalorian sure has been getting a lot of my Hot Toys money these days, and as long as they keep the figures coming, I don’t see myself stopping. In addition to some of the main characters, we’ve been seeing plenty of Imperial troops, which should appeal to the wider Star Wars collecting audience as well. Most notably, we’ve seen some Rogue One troops resurface, and now the Scout Trooper! These guys distinguished themselves in a stand out scene of self-depricating and banter, which definitely helped to push this release to the top of my list.

The Scout Trooper comes in the usual boring and minimalist shoebox with a printed wraparound band. Yeah, I pick on the Hot Toys Star Wars presentation a lot, but it’s fine. Inside, the figure is laid out on a vac-formed plastic tray. The Scout was available in this single release or as a wallet-busting Deluxe set with the Speeder Bike and some extras. I went with the single release to see how he turned out, and that’s the one I’m checking out today!

If you’ve had any experience with Hot Toys Stormtroopers, then a lot about the Scout should feel familiar to you. Of course, these guys feature much less armor, allowing them increased mobility, not to mention being lighter and more suited to piloting the Speeder Bikes. This figure makes use of a black body suit with all the armor and gear worn on top of it. The suit is more loose than the traditional Stormtrooper suits, but it’s immaculately tailored and fits well. It even includes some stitched pockets in the legs.

The armor consists of a cuirass, backplate, shoulders, arm plates, knee and elbow guards, and hip pieces, all of which are cast in a pretty sturdy plastic with some decent weathering effects. Additional gear includes a quilted cloth cumberbund and codpiece, with a pair of large utility pouches. The utility belt is plastic, with clasps holding the hip pieces on, and the gauntlets are cast in plastic to simulate leather. The boots feature hard plastic feet with a soft plastic material for the tops, which close up along the backs with velcro. They look good, and serve to obscure the split-cut in the boots that improves ankle articulation for those wider stances. As you can no doubt tell from the pictures, the armor and boots feature significant weathering. The grunge is pretty convincing, and while I don’t think they over did it, if you’re looking for a clean and prestine Scout Trooper, this one is certainly not going to fit that bill.

The thermal detonator pack is the only part of the Trooper’s gear that needs to be attached when you get him out of the box. It clips ontot he belt rather simply, but it took me a while to get it on, because the belt curves and the clip doesn’t. Still, once it’s on it stays put. There’s some nice detail on this piece, and I do like that it’s removable even if I doubt I ever will, since I don’t want to bother with getting it clipped back on again.

The helmet sculpt looks pretty similar to what we saw in the good old days on Endor. I’m sure there have got to be some differences, but there’s nothing that really stands out to me. It has been pointed out that this helmet is sculpted with a noticeable gap where the faceplate meets the head piece. Apparently that was done intentionally to mimic the fact that the Scout Troopers’ helmets in the series didn’t close up all the way either. Yeah, I had to re-watch that scene to catch it, so I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have picked up on that if it wasn’t brought to my attention. The helmet has more of that weathered dusting, and while it looks good, I think this helmet is dirtier than the on screen counterpart. The visor has a nice sheen to it.

If you’re looking for a dirth of accessories, prepare to be disappointed, because this guy comes with the bare minimum. You get several sets of hands, most of which felt so inconsequential that I barely changed any out for the pictures in this review. But trust me, you do get extra hands! You also get the standard EC-17 pistol, which fits into the holster on his lower right leg. The pistol features an excellent sculpt, but it doesn’t feature any articulation or removable parts like we sometimes get with Hot Toys weapons. It stays put in the holster very well, and the right gun-hand is a perfect fit without causing any stress when placing it in or removing it from his grip. Sadly, it does not rattle like a spray paint can when you shake it!

One of the coolest things about this figure is how well articulated he is. Sure, technically all Hot Toys are well articulated, but their costumes usually inhibit a lot of that range of motion. That’s not the case here, and that makes this fellow a lot of fun to play around with. That’s not something I can often say about my Hot Toys. There isn’t much need to worry about stressing the costume, so you can even keep him in action poses indefinitely without fear of damage to the suit. And because of the lighter armor, he has a much better range of movement than the traditional Stormtroopers.

And what’s our last stop on any Hot Toys review? Yup, the stand! You get the typical crotch-cradle stand with a rectangular base. The top of the base has a textured terrain covering with footprints to position his feet. The nameplate is in silver and simply states Star Wars: Scout Trooper without mentioning The Mandalorian.

It’s awesome that The Mandalorian is giving Hot Toys a reason to revisit some traditional Imperial troop designs, especially since I think this release improves on the Sideshow Scout Trooper from a little while ago. Indeed, the only thing I can really find to complain about here is the price. The regular Imperial Stormtrooper from a couple years ago released at under $200. The Remnant Stormtrooper was $205. The Scout Trooper here was $220. I wouldn’t be so picky about the price if they had thrown in a sniper rifle, but they didn’t have them in the series, so I guess it wasn’t considered essential. Still, if you want this fellow with a Speeder Bike, it’ll set you back another $220, and you’d have to be crazy to do that, right? Yeah… I did that too. So, we’ll be able to have a look at the bike when that set ships in a month or so.

Jul 7 2021

Star Wars “The Mandalorian:” IG-11 Sixth-Scale Figures by Hot Toys

I dominated most of last week with a two-part Star Wars Hot Toys review, so let’s go again… but only one part this time! Everyone’s favorite Nanny Kill-Bot, IG-11, arrived early this week, and I decided to bump him to the head of the line. How cool was it to not only see an IG droid in The Mandalorian, but also see him in full-on ass-kicking action, eh? And hell, he even had a better character arc in the series than half the stars of The Sequel Trilogy. I kid, I kid! But not really… Let’s check him out!

Do you want super premium packaging and fine presentation to go with your expensive action figures? Then look elsewhere, because you won’t get it here. Hot Toys serves up their Star Wars figures in minimalist shoeboxes with an illustrated insert and a vac-formed tray to protect the figure and all its bits and bobs. It’s efficient, it’s serviceable, but just not very flashy.

IG-11 is a tall boi! And he comes out of the box just about ready for display. The only thing required is to put on his bandoleer straps, which easily slips over his head and through his right arm and than velcros closed in the back. There are also some included batteries that need to be installed if you want to take advantage of his two light up features. The design of the IG assassin droid has long been a favorite of mine, and I think it perfectly captures that used future vision so distinctive about the Star Wars universe. Made from junk and a recycled prop, all IG-88 needed to do was stand in the background to ignite my childhood imagination and beg my parents for his action figure. Hot Toys captured every bit of that utilitarian, hunk of junk design here in this figure. And I mean that in the best possible way.

I should start by noting that there is indeed some die-cast metal in here, which is most welcome because he’s kind of a beanpole, and the metal in his thigh pieces gives this bot some well-needed weight right below his center of gravity. And then there’s the overall sculpt. There’s so much going on here! Hot Toys did a great job recreating all the exposed wires, pistons, canisters, and servos that make up the IG Droid’s body. And despite being mostly plastic, the beautiful paint job gives the figure a very convincing metal finish, complete with blemishes and rust patterns. I also really dig the flourishes of copper paint around the shoulders and upper arms. The bandoleer straps are made of a leather-like material and feature some kind of power packs or ammo canisters, each with more of that great faux-metal finish.

The head sculpt features lots of personality, as well as lots of posing potential, as each of those rings can rotate independently of each other. His main two eyes can therefore be rotated to just about any configuration along with the mess of eyes in the upper ring. Popping off the tip of IG-11’s crown allows you to turn on the eye lights, which have a pretty intense burn. I was surprised how visible they are even under the bright studio lights.

I’m also very impressed by his claws. These feature a total of four pincers, each with three hinges. Yes, these are plastic and rather delicate, but they are capable of grabbing and holding things quite well. I’ll come back to these in a bit when I talk about his guns.

As a rule, I don’t talk about articulation much in my Hot Toys reviews, because it isn’t terribly important to me. I tend to assume they will have very little, not because they don’t have the points, but because the suits are either too restrictive or too prone too damage from extreme poses. So, I was surprised and delighted to find how much fun this figure is to play around with. Since IG-11 is bare-ass-metal naked, you can not only see all of his points of articulation, but make good use of them too. And he has just about everything you can want. He’s also very well balanced. My only fear here would be that working those joints too much may make them loose, so as always a modicum of care is recommended.

IG-11 comes with two weapons, the first is your standard Stormtrooper-issue E-11 Blaster. Hot Toys probably has a warehouse full of these things to toss in with all the Stormtroopers they release, so it was a cheap and easy accessory to include. Not that it’s any less welcome. As always, this is a wonderfully detailed little blaster and includes an articulated folding stock. One of the things I love the most about this figure is the way his claws work with the weapons. Other than a little nub on his wrist to support the back, there isn’t any cheat here. The claws just grab the gun by the grip and one claw passes through to the trigger. It works surprisingly well and looks great.

IG-11’s other weapon is a DLT-20A Blaster Rifle. I’m pretty sure this is the same combo that IG-88 was meant to have, so he looks as iconic as ever holding these. The rifle features an excellent sculpt, but it doesn’t have any articulation like the E-11 Blaster. It’s just cast in one solid piece of plastic. Because the claws grasp the weapons as they should, you can have him wield either one in either claw. I do wish there was a way to store them on his back or something, though.

In addition to his guns, IG-11 includes his last line of defense… the one that he seems all too eager to use: His Self Destruct Core. Instead of a simple opening compartment, this is a swap-out block that secures into his chest cavity with magnets. The open core piece has a light up effect, which flashes red when activated and it looks great.

Our last stop in every Hot Toys review is the figure stand, and here we get an exact repack of the one that came with the Deluxe Beskar Armor Mando, complete with sand covered base and even Mando’s footprints. Wait, what? Yeah, that’s really disappointing. It’s not a huge deal, as IG-11’s feet cover up the human footprints, but it feels like a real kick in the teeth when you’re blowing $250 on an action figure and they can’t re-sculpt the base to give you robot footprints in the sand. I mean, holy shit, Hot Toys! At least you switched the name plate, I guess. On the plus side, using the same base means that you can join the Baby Yoda pram base with it and display IG-11 watching over Grogu. I gotta admit, I like that a lot!

Getting to see an old school Star Wars robot, that was designed to stand in the background of a scene, go on an action-packed killing spree was one of the high points of the first season of The Mandalorian. So, naturally I was pleased when Hot Toys revealed they were going to be doing him. And what a nice job they did! I have yet to decide if I’m going all in on the Hot Toys Mandalorian releases, but getting IG-11 was never in question. He may not come with a lot of stuff, and recycling that figure stand base was really cheap, but I’m still thrilled to have him.

Jul 2 2021

Star Wars “The Mandalorian:” Deluxe Mandalorian and Child Sixth-Scale Figures by Hot Toys, Part 2

Last time, I embarked on a review of Hot Toys’ excellent Deluxe Beskar Mandalorian figure, and as promised I’m back now to look at the other half of the set. Say it with me in your best Herzog voice… “I would like to see The Baby!” And fear not, this second part of the review will not run nearly as long as the first part did.

We saw the packaging last time, but here’s a quick refresher. It’s a Deluxe set, which means bigger and beefier package to hold in all that Star Wars goodness. The standard release came with most everything we saw last time (except the Whistling Bird effect part, I think), but about half of what I’m checking out today was exclusive to the Deluxe release. Now, make no mistake, despite containing two versions, Grogu is still just a small portion of this set’s contents, but that doesn’t make him any less welcome. Let’s start with the standing figure first!

And here he is looking as adorable as ever. Even at One-Sixth Scale, Grogu is pretty damn tiny, and yet Hot Toys packed a lot of detail into him. From the neck down, this is a static figure with his right arm down at his side, and the left arm reaching up. His little feets are sculpted under the robe, and he stands very well thanks to his plastic frock. The garment has sculpted stitching and a textured pattern and the collar and sleeve cuffs are sculpted to look like some kind of fluffy wool. The bottom of the frock also has some uneven threads, giving it a somewhat worn or crude appearance. Was it too much to hope for articulation in the shoulders? Honestly, I don’t think it would be worth it to mess up this perfect little sculpt.

The head is ball jointed, and while I can’t get much of an up or down movement out of it, he can turn his head easily. The portrait is admirable considering the size, with the ears and mouth slightly downturned. You can make out his tiny teeth peeking out of the part in his mouth, and those huge eyes look remarkably lifelike. I suppose you could argue that he’s missing his little tufts of hair, but I can’t find a lot else to nitpick here.

Grogu comes with one accessory and that’s the Mythosaur necklace, which consists of the tiny pendant on a string. To put it on him, you have to pop off his little head, which isn’t as scary as I thought it might be. What no shifter knob? Honestly, I don’t know what I would do with it since it would be so small. Maybe a tasty frog would have been cool. Of course, Hot Toys had to save something for Grogu’s solo release, which is up for pre-order at the time I’m writing this.

The set also comes with Grogu in his Hover Pram, and this is probably the one I will display with the figure. This Grogu is an entirely different figure, or more accurately half of one, since the bottom half is shaped specifically to magnetize to the inside front of the Pram. Everything I had to say about the other Grogu’s sculpt rings true here. It’s just a marvelous little piece with some fantastic paint. The inside of the Pram is fully detailed, and you even get a little blanket to put in there to keep Grogu warm and snuggly.

The Pram hovers on a clear plastic rod that plugs into the rocky base. The figure is able to be displayed alone like this if you want, but it’s also made to mate with Mando’s base for a joined presentation. And if you’re some kind of monster and want to display the base without the Pram, there’s even a rock designed to plug in the hole for the Pram’s pole. Why the hell Hot Toys thought it was necessary to include that, I have no idea. But hey, they got you covered.

And if you’re sick of looking at Baby Yoda, but you still want to display him with Mando, there’s a cover to display the Pram in it’s closed up configuration. Why? Well, to add value to the set, of course!

And there you go! As promised Part 2 didn’t take nearly as long as Part 1. This Deluxe set retailed for $315, which for Hot Toys these days is not bad at all. I was expecting it to be more like $350, but I think they are saving some money by recycling parts for the different Mando releases. Not to mention Grogu, who will be available again with the third Mando release, again with the Scout Trooper and Speeder Bike, again with Ahsoka Tano, and yet again as a solo release. I will have a review of the Scout Trooper coming up soon, and I am fighting a powerful urge to pick up the Scout Trooper with Speeder Bike as well, so this may not be the last time we see a Hot Toys Grogu reviewed around these parts!

Jun 30 2021

Star Wars “The Mandalorian:” Deluxe Mandalorian and Child Sixth-Scale Figures by Hot Toys, Part 1

I am quite seriously backlogged in my Sixth-Scale figure reviews, but what better motivation to get my ass in gear than the recent reveal of Hot Toys’ third figure based on the titular Mandalorian, this time appearing in his Second Season armor. The first release was how he appeared at the beginning of the series, and the one I’m looking at today is his later appearance, after securing some of that scrummy Beskar armor. I skipped the first figure, opting for what I hoped would be his final form, and I’m still pretty content with that decision. The second season saw him replacing the final pieces of his crappier armor, so as I see it this version is a nice compromise between his ramshackle beginnings and the spiffy complete suit. That’s also my way of convincing myself that I’m good with owning just the one release. Also note, this is a Deluxe figure and I’ve got to make it a two-parter, because there’s so much to look at here!

As I’ve said many times before, the packaging on these figures is nothing special. You get minimalist art design, and a pretty simple shoebox with an illustrated band around it. There’s also an illustrated inside cover over the trays, all showing pictures of the toy inside. Since this is a Deluxe set, the box is wider than your average Hot Toys release, and the three levels of nested trays are absolutely packed with stuff. So much stuff! I was genuinely overwhelmed when I first opened it. This may be the most accessories I’ve seen included with any of my Hot Toys purchases. Some of these goodies I’ll look at as part of the outfit, while other’s we’ll take a closer look at. I’ve kitted Mando out with most of his gear from the start, so let’s have a look!

Straightaway, I’ll say that Mando’s outfit presented Hot Toys with plenty of opportunities to go wild, and they certainly stepped up to the challenge. He comes out of the box mostly ready to go, with a few bits and bobs that need to be added to his person, and in this case I already slung his rifle across his back. The costume is built around a simple gray jumpsuit with the armor pieces attached. Wait, what? Gray? Yeah, I’m not sure what happened there. The solicitation photos showed the correct brown suit, but that’s not what we got. For a company that is so meticulous about correct detail, I’m not sure why they changed it to wrong. Personally, I think the gray looks better with the shiny Beskar, but that doesn’t make it right. Anywho, the armor includes his chest piece, pelvic piece, shoulders, arm bracers, two thigh guards, a right knee guard, and a couple of hip plates. All of these pieces are fashioned to look like shiny new Beskar, with the exception of his holdover right thigh plate and knee guard. The weathering on the older pieces is very well done, retaining the ugly brown of his old armor. There’s scuffing and even some splattering of silver on the thigh plate. The finish on all the Beskar pieces is beautiful and pretty convincing as metal even though they are all simple plastic. I just love seeing the light reflect off of it!

His cape is made of a fine material, which falls about the figure quite naturally. I dig the way it wraps around his front, and the color of the fabric matches his jumpsuit pretty closely. There’s a hole in the back of the cape where you can pass the retaining strap through, to help hold his rifle in place, whereas another strap goes over Mando’s left shoulder and pegs into his bandoleer to secure it. This makes it pretty easy to take off and put back on, which is always a good thing! I love that the cape doesn’t interfere with having the rifle on his back, but things will get a little trickier later when we equip his jetpack.

The right shoulder armor is actually removable so the figure can be displayed with or without his newly earned signet. It’s attached by velcro, so swapping them out requires no fuss at all. The embossed Mudhorn is the only difference between the two pieces, and I’ve chosen to go with the signet piece for photos throughout the review.

The brown bandoleer strap runs from his left shoulder down to his gun belt. There are loops on the strap and the belt to hold some of his ammo cartridges. Here you can also see a few pouches on the belt and a place where he tucks his bounty tracking fob for safe keeping. Or at least where I chose to tuck it! Below that he has a holster with retaining strap to keep his pistol and some additional cartridges on the belt behind it. He also has a place for three detonators on his left hip, the first of which is removable. As expected the belts and holster are meticulously stitched and look great on the figure. The holster is very easy to work with too, which was a welcome treat. Having passed on the first release, I can’t say for sure, but my guess is that a lot of this stuff is recycled from that figure. Boy was I happy to see all this rigging already on the figure straight out of the box!

Moving down to his high boots, he has a belt with more ammo cartridges around his lower right leg and a dagger thrust into the top of his boot. The boots are fairly convincing as being all one piece, but there is a ball joint hidden up in the ankle for those wide stances or flight poses.

The helmet hasn’t changed much between the outfits, although this one looks cleaner than the previous release. This set does not include an unmasked portrait, and that’s fine with me. Obviously the unmasked portrait would add a lot ot the value, but I honestly can’t imagine displaying the figure without his helmet, especially since we’ve only seen Mando’s face like three times during the run of two seasons. Sorry, Pedro, if it were up to me you would have kept your helmet on the whole time.

The helmet does include a swap-out flashlight for the right side. It’s easy enough to pull off the retracted plate and pop on the one with the device deployed. I may actually leave the light out when I display him, as it adds a little something to the helmet.

The vibro blade dagger and the tracking fob, which I already mentioned, are cool little accessories, but probably best displayed as part of his outfit. Both feature great sculpts with a lot of attention to detail. The figure comes with a hand specifically made for holding the dagger, but it’s a real tight fit. The fob can be coaxed into it as well, but I think this hand needed to be reworked in order to be up to the task. I might as well point out here that Mando comes with all the usual extra hands, including pairs of relaxed, pistol-holding, rifle-holding, and the so-called dagger-holding right hand. All of these are extremely stiff with next to no flexibility in the fingers, so be careful with those fragile accessories!

Each of Mando’s arm bracers contains a weapon, and there are accessories to show them off. On the left gauntlet, you get two different pieces for the Whistling Bird, one with the tiny missiles retracted and one with them deployed and ready to fire. I gotta say, the inclusion of two different pieces here just feels like Hot Toys flexing their ridiculous attention to detail. Even with the two different pieces side by side the difference isn’t all that noticeable to me. This is one of those tiny accessories that I would never have missed if it wasn’t included, but I can appreciate that they did it anyway.

The Whistling Bird also has a firing effect part, which I believe is exclusive to the Deluxe release. It doesn’t quite convey the sheer number of independently directional micro-missiles as seen in the show, but it’s certainly not a bad effort. I also appreciate that the effect part is super easy to put on and take off. My only real gripe here is that the range in Mando’s shoulders isn’t quite enough to have him hold his arm fully perpendicular to his body, which is really how they should be positioned when firing this weapon. Official pictures do show the figure in that pose, but I can only get about 70-degrees before it feels like I’m forcing it, and I’m not about to do that. It’s a little frustrating, since there’s nothing about the costume that should be restricting his movement like that. It feels like all the resistance is coming from the padding between the body and the costume.

The right bracer features his flame thrower, and this is a plastic effect part that clips onto the edge of the bracer and lines up with the tiny nozzle. Again, range of motion in the shoulder doesn’t make for optimal posing, but I absolutely love the way this effect looks. They did a beautiful job recreating the flame jet with translucent plastic. It’s substantial, but not too heavy, and to continue one of the running themes of this figure, it’s easy to attach and remove.

The final attachment for the right arm bracer is the grapple hook. The hook is attached to a piece of stiff wire which plugs right into the gauntlet. This was a cool surprise, as I hadn’t even realized it was going to be included. And now that we’re through all these hidden gizmos, let’s take a look at his regular weapons.

Being a firearms enthusiast, one of my favorite things about the guns of the Star Wars Universe is that they’re nearly all based on real world counterparts. Modifying these functional weapon designs gives these fantasy guns a great degree of credibility and realism. Mando’s pistol design comes from the Swiss made Bergmann M1894 7.5mm pistol. It was a distinctive design even before the sci-fi mods were added, and Hot Toys did a wonderful job recreating it in plastic. The sculpt is intricately detailed, features a nice weathered finish, and some additional silver and copper paint hits. It’s a good fit in the intended trigger-finger hand, and this piece is easy to remove and replace from the holster.

The Amban Phase-Pulse Blaster rifle looks every bit as cool as its name sounds. This design was famously inspired by Boba Fett’s rifle in the animated short of the Star Wars Holiday Special, and with the exception of the tuning forks at the muzzle, it reminds me of an old Moroccan firing piece. Once again, the sculpting on this accessory is absolutely off the charts. From the intricate mechanisms in the breech to the copper bands holding on the scope, it seems like not a detail has been missed and every one of those little details looks like it serves a purpose. Not only does this weapon look great, but it can even open and be loaded with one of the many cartridges on Mando’s person. Sadly, I’m not able to get him into a decent firing position with it, but he does look great holding it, or displaying it slung across his back. Hey… You still with me? We’re not done yet… Who wants some ice cream?

Fans of Willrow Hood, will be happy to see this rather detailed recreation of the camtono personal vault included in this set. It’s the vessel used to safehouse the Beskar paid to Mando for retrieving The Baby. This protector of valuables and crafter of cold dairy treats has some nice weathering on it, as well as a hidden battery compartment to power it’s LED feature.

When opened, it lights up to showcase the precious Beskar inside. Each of the container’s three hatches can be opened and the switch for the lights is hidden under a removable cap on the top. A cap that I did not do a good job of closing up in the previous photo. The Beskar can be removed and separated into a larger and smaller pile. The set also contains a single separate Beskar bar as well. These have a nice finish, but I think they could have done a better job on the Imperial insignia stamp. Hey, nitpickers gonna pick.

Mando also comes with this little armor hologram, cast in translucent blue plastic with a silver disk base for the emitter. He can hold this pretty well in one of his left hands. Phew… are we done yet? Almost!

Last, but certainly not least, is Mando’s jet pack. This beauty appears to be sculpted in mostly one piece and features a beautiful silver finish that matches the armor. The details are sharp, and the paintwork features a few areas of pitting, as well as some scorch marks from the heat.

The jetpack is covered on the reverse side with felt and there are magnets inside to attach it to the figure’s back quick and easy. And if you’ve spent any time attaching jetpacks to either Hot Toys or Sideshow’s Boba Fett figures, you know what a relief this is! No tiny clasps to deal with! You do have to push the cape all the way to one side to attach it, which gets me to thinking about how it’s probably not a good idea to wear a cape with a jetpack. Speaking of flaming exhaust… The jetpack also includes some effect parts that plug into the thruster cones, which look great, but are a little understated and difficult to see from the front. All in all I dig the jetpack a lot and it was an essential inclusion, but I’ll be displaying my figure with the rifle on his back instead.

Whoops, not quite done yet, because you also get the figure stand. The rectangular base with angled silver nameplate is pretty standard stuff for Hot Toys Star Wars these days. The sculpted sand base is a nice flourish, though. It actually has foot imprints to position Mando’s feet, although I would have preferred had they left those out. Instead of the typical crotch cradle, the stand features one of those thick semi-posable cables with a spring-loaded waist clasp. I can appreciate the thought behind this giving the ability to display Mando in a flight pose, but I would have much preferred a standard support. The bulky clasp tends to be at odds with the cape and rifle, and that’s how I plan on displaying him.

There’s no doubt that this set is worthy of the Deluxe moniker, and we still have more stuff to look at, so I’m going to call it quits here for today and reconvene on Friday, because I’m sure people “Would like to see The Baby!” As curious as I am as to why they went with the gray colored jumpsuit, the reality is it doesn’t bother me at all. I may not have even noticed if it weren’t for the brown suit depicted on the box. Yes, the limitations in the shoulder are more than a bit disappointing. It’s not that I usually expect crazy articulation out of my Hot Toys, but the costume didn’t seem like it would be restrictive, and in this case I was expecting more. I guess I hadn’t counted on the interior padding. Still, all in all, none of these downsides have really hurt my appreciation of this figure. It looks absolutely gorgeous, and there is a crazy amount of stuff here to mess around with. And I’ll bring even more to the table on Friday when I wrap up this review with part two!

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: hot toys

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