Tag Archives: indie comics

Dec 22 2021

CyberFrog and Salamandroid PVC Figures by All Caps Comics

CyberFrog was born in the 90’s, the creation of comic book veteran and human ray of sunshine, Ethan Van Sciver, but he was re-born just a few years back, birthed from the cataclysmic war for the hearts, minds, and spending money of comic book fans. As the big corporate comic producers seemed to delight in antagonizing their established fan base, many creators decided to go it on their own, building a fanbase and support through crowdfunding projects. Like it or begrudge it, it’s been a huge movement in the contemporary American comic industry, and no one has been more successful at it than Mr. Van Sciver. I for one was happy to see CyberFrog return, and I’ve been an eager supporter of each and every one of these projects, which by now has run the gamut from comics to toys! Today we’re going to talk about toys!

For the uninitiated, our cybernetically enhanced amphibian hero came to our planet to befriend the bodacious Heather Swain, eat buckets of fried chicken, and defend humanity from the evil swarm of space hornets, known as The Vyzpzz. Fighting at his side is his giant brother, Salamandroid. Blood Honey saw the return of CyberFrog, shedding a good bit of the original comic’s 90s schlock (meant as a compliment!) and elevating the material by introducing a ton of heart and soul. Not to mention some incredible art and colors! The follow up, Rekt Planet, is still a work in progress, but is due to release next year. There are legit action figures coming, but in the meantime, we have this pair of PVC collectibles to tide us over!

One might expect crowdfunded perks like these to ship in polybags, but nope! Each figure comes in a collector friendly window box, which lets you get a look at the goods inside while still offering some gorgeous art and coloring. This professional packaging would stand out on the shelf of any toy aisle, and I do plan on displaying the figures in the boxes. I got this pair by going All In on the Rekt Planet campaign, a decision which seems to have paid for itself several times over, as there are going to be plenty more goodies coming. But I’ll confess, aside from the actual book, these PVC toys were what I was most excited for! Let me get them open, and we’ll start with a look at CyberFrog!

I suspect that it’s always a challenge to bring 2D characters from comic panels into the tangible 3D world. It’s probably extra challenging when dealing with highly original and stylized designs like these. Nonetheless, All Caps Comics pulled it off brilliantly. CyberFrog oozes personality as he strikes his hero pose, squatting on his haunches, one hand planted firmly on the ground, and the other trailing behind him. The sculpt is relatively simple, preserving the comic book feel, but you still get some nice touches, like the cut lines segmenting his legs, fingers, and feet, and some muscle definition in his amphibian bod.

The portrait is simply splendid, with his bulging yellow eyes and furled froggie brow. CyberFrog is over The Vyzpzz’s shit and his expression shows it!

And as great as the sculpt here turned out, the coloring certainly does its part to impress. The luxurious metallic silver paint is quite striking in person, especially when contrasted with the bright metallic green used for his cybernetic parts. Hasbro should take note, because I’d love to see this kind of paint on some of their figures. You also get a deeper hunter green for his froggie parts, as well as touches of bright blue and yellow. Beautiful! Let’s turn our attention to Salamandroid!

Holy shit, this figure is gorgeous! As in the comic, Salamandroid positively dwarfs his little brother, making this a hefty chunk of PVC. Sal stands majestically on all fours, poised to leap into action and fulfill his sworn duty to protect CyberFrog. He has the same deep cut lines segmenting his artificial limbs with reinforced joints in his back legs, making them look like coiled springs ready to launch him at his foes. He has a pair of hulking shoulders and curved bracers on his fore limbs, each with large blue stones set in the center.

Sal is a gentle, childlike giant, right up until his anger is roused, and that’s certainly reflected in this portrait. His adorable and lovable mug is punctuated by narrow red eyes, two rows of sharp teeth, and a long crimson tongue. His head is framed with dual silver rings, and there are cybernetic cables protruding from them into the skin around his neck. I also love the silver hump that arches back from his neck.

As with CyberFrog, Sal features a premium paint job. You get a lot more of that snappy silver on his limbs that we saw on his little brother. His skin is a soft powder blue with some greenish-gold speckling on his back, meanwhile his silver cybernetics are reinforced with metallic blue accents. Sal also features some charcoal gray paint on his arm bracers, and the cut-outs in his shoulders.

And I sure can’t fail to mention Salamandroid’s impressive tail! This long and fearsome whip is painted with more of that deep metallic blue with the segmented lines painted in black. The tail is softer plastic than the rest of the figure, and features a wire running through it that allows it to be posed a bit, which will sure come in handy when trying to find shelf space for this big boi!

Never in a million years did I expect to ever see CyberFrog toys, let alone toys produced at this level of quality. The sculpts capture all the fun and personality of these characters, while the paint makes these figures sing. I’m not sure what the availability of these are right now, but I do know that you can pick up limited gold or silver versions on the official CyberFrog Ebay Store. As I mentioned earlier, All Caps Comics has a wave of fully articulated action figures in production, which will include CyberFrog, Heather Swain, and a Vyzpzz. A Salamandroid figure for that line hasn’t been shown off yet, but I have every confidence we will see one released eventually.

Sep 16 2012

Chaos! Comics: Lady Demon by Moore Action Collectibles

While we’ve spent the last two entries hobnobbing with obscurity, that’s certainly not the case today with the team up of Brian Pulido and Clayburn Moore. Whether you’re a fan or not, it’s hard to argue with Pulido’s prolific bibliography that ranges from the kind of indie stuff we’re looking at this weekend to his efforts with more mainstream pop culture horror franchises. Not to mention his works have graced the pages of Marvel and Dark Horse comics. He may not be the heaviest of hitters in the comic market, but he’s been pretty darn successful at something I, and lots of other comic book nerds, would love to do.

Today’s figure ushers from the pages of Chaos! Comics, an indie press with a sad little history that carried it for a mere six years before going belly up over legal and financial problems. I’ve thumbed through a few issues of Lady Death, one of the characters that survived the demise of Chaos!, but can’t confess to ever having been a big fan of anything other than the artwork. I am, however, a pretty big fan of Clayburn Moore of Moore Action Collectibles and CS Moore Studios fame, and his efforts at sculpting various action figures, statues and other icons of nerdom. And that brings us to the last, and my favorite, of this weekend’s indie comic figure trifecta… Lady Demon.

Lady Demon’s package doesn’t have the “in your face” comic art that the last two figures had. In fact, it’s the same kind of downplayed and serviceable cardback that we saw the last time we looked at a Moore figure. It may not be as exciting, but then there’s something to be said for letting the figure speak for itself, and Lady Death here certainly does that. She’s displayed very nicely under the bubble with here figure stand and accessories beside her. The Chaos! Emblem, engulfed in tendrils of lightning, is printed on the card to serve as a backdrop for the figure and bubble. The back of the package features a nice piece of character art, a little bio blurb on Lady Demon, and photos of some of the other figures available in the line. Again, the package here isn’t as flash as what we’ve seen this weekend, but it feels more polished and professional.

Lady Demon stands about 6-inches tall and she’s in perfect scale with Moore’s other figures, including the Ariel Darkchylde figure that I have standing on one of my shelves. She stands in a pretty neutral pose and she looks fantastic. Her outfit is a mix of sculpting and paintwork, which really accentuates her killer body. The giant demon skull that sits atop her tiny loin cloth is pretty outrageous and her skin tone has a very cool brownish, slightly ethereal tone. Her skin has a glossy plastic finish, and while some may prefer a more flesh painted finish, this look works fine for me.

If you can draw your eyes away from her other assets, Lady Demon’s head sculpt is worth scrutinizing, because it really is excellent. The full, smirking lips, the large pupil-less eyes are great and the unexpected giant devil horns that protrude from her forehead really make for a distinctive looking figure. The whole ensemble is capped off with a cascade of sculpted white hair and two large detailed earrings, because even hellspawn chicks need to accessorize. When you compare her to the other indie comic figures we looked at this weekend, Lady Demon’s head sculpt really separates her from the passable efforts of the Rendition figure and the downright hack performance of the sculptors at Skybolt, and that’s all thanks to the talents of Moore.

If you’re familiar with Moore Action Figures, you know not to expect a lot of articulation. Lady Demon features the old standard five points, with arms that rotate at the shoulders and legs that rotate at the hips. The head actually does have a ball joint, which surprised me a little and allows the joint to work better with the sculpted hair. There’s not a lot you can do with her articulation, and I’m fine with that because elbow and knee joints would have detracted from her sculpt. It is, however, a shame the figure doesn’t at least have wrist cuts.
Lady Demon comes with three accessories. You get a very nice figure stand with the Chaos! Emblem sculpted into it. You also get a sword and some kind of little skull scepter. I absolutely love the sword. Not only does it have a cool sculpt and actually look like the kind of sword that a hell-bitch might wield (unlike the swords of Sinthia or Ravyn), but I really dig the metallic red paint job. The scepter is a nice little sculpt, and while it isn’t as cool as the sword, the lack of articulation in the figure means that I’ll probably display her with the scepter. As good as the sword looks, she just can’t be posed so that she’s holding it that convincingly.

So, guilty pleasure or not, I love this figure and I’ll be anxious to pull some of the other Moore Action Figures out of the tote and check them out. Perhaps I’ll save some of those for when we get closer to Halloween. It’s good to end this weekend on a high note, but make no mistake, I’ve got a ton more of these figures and I plan on photographing a bunch of them before consigning this tote back to the dark reaches of storage, from whence it came. In the meantime, tomorrow starts a new week and I really need to start chiseling away at my pile of new arrivals.
Transformers… Thundercats… World of Warcraft… Marvel… DC… it’s going to be a crazy week!

Sep 15 2012

The Ravening: Ravyn by Rendition Figures

Are we ready to look at more obscure figures based even more obscurererer comic books? Of course we are, because these are figures of scantily clad chicks with big boobs, swords, and demon bits mixed in. I’m a bit liquored up and good to go, so let’s get to it. Today it’s a figure from the 1996 comic The Ravening (The Ravening?) from Avatar Press. We all remember and love that one, right? No? Little bit? Avatar actually collected some worthwhile licenses back in the day, most of which were horror themed. I have no doubt that I’ve picked up one of their books at one time or another, but I sure can’t remember the experience, and I don’t remember anything about this particular comic other than the fact that it centered around Vampires. Yep, you wouldn’t know it by looking at her, but our star figure today, Ravyn, is indeed a bloodthirsty creature of the night.

Much like Sinthia, Ravyn comes on a big card plastered with some nice looking comic art. I’ve never seen an issue of The Ravening, so I’m not sure if this is a recreation of one of the covers or not. Either way, you get a big picture of the main character, Ravyn, showing off a lot of skin. The figure is mounted under a big bubble alongside her bevy of accessories and animal friends. The back of the card shows off other figures produced by Rendition Figures, including another lovely vamp lady from The Ravening comic. Rendition shows off figure’s based on eight characters all together and I don’t know a single one of them, although most of them are probably sitting in this blasted tote.

After excising Ravyn from her package, I have to say I’m a lot more pleased with her over what I had to deal with yesterday. Ravyn is a bit bigger than Sinthia, measuring in at closer to 7-inches. She’s a fairly hefty figure too. Last time, I started with the head sculpt so let’s get that out of the way. Ravyn’s head sculpt is much better than Sinthia’s, although she looks nothing like her character art. In fact, it almost looks like this figure’s head was repurposed from a Vampirella or Bettie Page figure. It’s an ok sculpt for a 15 year old figure, that honestly looks better in person. The paint apps are ok and the hair is sculpted blowing off to the side to give the figure a dynamic look, although I would have preferred something a little more neutral.

Ravyn’s got a killer bod and she isn’t afraid to show it off. Her outfit, what there is of it, is actually almost the exact same color as Synthia’s, all red and yellow, but it’s a bit more revealing, and I dare say a lot better sculpted and arm guards and all sorts of thigh belts. She’s sculpted in a fairly neutral pose, but the bottoms of her feet are designed to be in a pretty specific position to let her stand, with one knee drawn up a bit. It’s a little tricky to get her to stay up, especially since she doesn’t come with a figure stand or have any peg holes in her feet.

Unlike yesterday’s selection, you actually get a lot of stuff with this figure. There’s a sword, a knife, and a little spikey weapon thing. The sword is has a pretty unique design to the hilt, and she can hold it in either hand. I’m not too big on the other two weapons, as they’re really tiny and don’t really match the figure as well as the sword does. You also get a bat, which is pegged to pose rather awkwardly on Ravyn’s right arm, and a static wolf figure, which is actually rather nicely sculpted and painted and looks good standing next to her.

Ravyn sports a decent amount of articulation. You get a swivel cut in the neck. The arms rotate at the shoulders, have hinged elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees. There’s a lot more points of articulation here than I would ever expect in this kind of figure. The wrist cuts are particularly welcome as they allow you to pose her with the sword held across her body.

Honestly, when I set out to do this weekend’s three features, I planned on panning the hell out of two figures and then looking at one genuinely good one. I had no problems panning yesterday’s figure, but I actually wound up liking Ravyn a lot. Putting her in the context of 90’s indie comic figures, Rendition delivered a solid enough figure. If I was a fan of the comic, I doubt I would be happy with the likeness, but taken on her own, this figure works fine for me. It’s a competent sculpt with good articulation and decent paintwork. The coloring on her outfit wouldn’t have been my first choice, and unfortunately this figure is one of the few in the tote that doesn’t have an insane number of repainted variants. Ravyn was a pretty nice surprise. She might actually find her way onto one of my display shelves when the rest of the tote goes back to the FigureFan remote storage enclave.

Sep 14 2012

Sinthia: Princess of Hell by Skybolt Toyz

“WHO IS SINTHIA?”

It’s never reassuring when an action figure package needs to ask and answer a question about the identity of the main character. And yet, Skybolt Toyz was so confident you’d have no idea who the hell this character is that they ask the question for you right on the upper corner of the cardback. In fact, not only does the card explain that Sinthia is the 18 year old (hot and bratty) daughter of Lucifer himself, but tosses in a couple of pages from the 1997 premier issue, published by Indie Comic Press, Lighting. Yep, Lightning knew how to lure horny teens to the world of comics with panel after panel of a half-naked buxom blonde demon on a quest to find true love on Earth. How is it the CW hasn’t optioned this series yet?

I’ve only ever seen two issues of Sinthia. In fact, I’ve seen more variant covers then actual installment, and trying to research just how much staying power this comic had beyond Issue #2 suggests that Skybolt may have produced more action figures of Sinthia than Lightning produced actual comics. But enough preamble, let’s look at the package…

Sinthia comes on a massive, colorful card that recreates the standard cover of Issue #1. The front features full panel art of Sinthia and her self-proclaimed guardian demon, Mhor-Duke. I wholeheartedly approve of this idea of using cover art of the premier issue as the cardback for the figure. It’s cool. The figure itself comes on a tray with her sword and scabbard each mounted separately beside her. I do like the way the card art just serves as a backdrop for the figure inside the bubble. However, the bubble is unnecessarily large and only serves to make it look like she should have come with more accessories. The back panel of the card also shows some of the other figures available from other forgotten comics. Let’s go ahead and get Sinthia out of the package, because I think this is going to be a rough ride.

Woof! Ok, so props to the sculptor for delivering a figure that from the neck down personifies your average comic reading nerdling’s wet dream. But before we get to that let’s just check out the head. I can almost see what they were going for here before it all derailed. The eyes are kind of angled right, I suppose the hair is ok, but everything else went horribly wrong. I think it’s the nose and eyebrows… or maybe everything else.

Sinthia stands roughly 6-inches tall and her costume strikes me more as a heroine from Dungeons & Dragons than she does a Princess of Hell. She’s got a red and gold one piece that’s slit in the front all the way down to below her naval, where it terminates into an asstacular thong. She’s certainly not shy about showing off the goods, but then she is some kind of half-demon princess. She’s got shoulder armor, arm bracers with blades on her left arm, knee high boots, and a dagger sculpted to her left thigh. I really have no problems with the body sculpt and paintwork at all. For what she is they did a fairly good job.

Sinthia has a huge rubbery plastic belt that hangs around her waist and features a peg so you can attach her red and yellow checked scabbard. Unfortunately, the way the belt is sculpted it looks like the weight is drawing it down on the side without the scabbard attached. It hangs from the belt just fine, but it looks rather awkward. A little coaxing can get the belt off entirely, or you can try to reposition it so it fits a little better. In addition to the functional scabbard, you get her sword. I’m sorry, her Hell Sword! It’s a fairly simple piece with a silver blade and yellow hilt, which fits into her left hand. I have to throw in some kudos any time a figure in this scale has a functional scabbard.

Sinthia features all of five points of articulation. She has rotating cuts at her neck, shoulders and hips. The neck and shoulder cuts are fairly useful, but there’s not much point to the hip cuts. If you try to sit her down, her legs spread way apart (har har!) and they pretty much have to be in one specific position if she’s going to stand. Speaking of standing, Sinthia has pegs holes in the bottoms of her feet, but no stand.

Are there still fans of this comic? Were there enough fans of this comic to warrant not only one action figure, but tons of repainted variants? Who can tell? She’s more of a slightly poseable statue than an action figure, and if it weren’t for her unfortunate head sculpt, she wouldn’t be all bad. If nothing else, I can definitely see a lot of potential here for customizers and the landscape of Ebay is certainly littered with Sinthia in all her many versions, but that’s probably where she’s best off remaining. If you’re looking for a sexy vixen figure for your desktop, you can do

Sep 14 2012

Indie Comic Figure Weekend!

So, I took a little ride this week to FigureFan’s remote storage enclave and took home a couple of dusty totes. One of these totes was the result of me picking through the basement of a comic shop that was closing down near my old hometown back in New Jersey. The other tote… well, there were some cool surprises in there, but I’ll save that for another time.

A lot of this stuff hasn’t seen the light of day in quite a few years, but I had a pretty good recollection of the kind of figures that I culled out of that place. I picked up most of these for $2 a pop, and the guy liquidating the place was offering me even better deals if I bought five or more of each. We’re talking the kind of figures that only the 90’s indie comic book culture could produce. The kind of figures that you could find hanging and collecting dust in the back reaches of any little comic shop. It was an unending parade of scantily clad chicks with big boobs, thongs, leather gear, swords, and sometimes the occasional demon parts. Figures based on art designs that seemed to be inspired by Meat Loaf album covers.  And all produced over and over again in every possible color variant you can imagine.

I was originally planning to do a whole week of this stuff, because God knows there are enough figures in this tote to sustain it, and then some. But with my acquisitions pile continuing to grow, I thought I’d confine this detour to just a weekend and come back to more later on. So, I randomly picked out something from each of the three major offenders companies putting these things out. Rendition? Check! Skybolt?Check! Moore Collectibles? Check!

Stay tuned… I’ll be back later to kick this thing off with a look at everybody’s favorite Princess of Hell… Sinthia.

Um, who???