I’ve recently been re-reading my Jonathan Hickman Fantastic Four; particularly the stretch leading up to The Future Foundation and it started bugging me that I still didn’t own Hasbro’s Inhumans set. Actually, “bugging” probably isn’t the right word as I was in a bit of a state, good and lubed up on Jameson, and in fact rather outraged that I didn’t have these figures. After a quick trip to Ebay and throwing down a little more money than I should have, the set was soon on its way to me. Drinking and Ebaying… shouldn’t there be an organization with an acronym devoted to stamping this out?

We’ve looked at a number of these Marvel Universe multi-packs here on FFZ and packaging presentation here poses no surprises. It’s a window box that shows off the three figures in slight action poses, which happily does not seem to warp any of their joints. The character art on the box is quite nice and you get a little blurb about the Inhumans on the back of the box. It is collector friendly and while I was saving these for a while, they’ve all been trashed in my effort to keep downsizing and so this one too will soon be on its way to the landfill. You get three figures in the box: Black Bolt, Medusa, and Karnak, so let’s just go ahead and take them in that order.

Black Bolt is a character that I felt was sorely missing in the MU lineup and easily the best justification for picking up this set. He’s a relatively easy figure to do, but I’m happy to say that Hasbro even went a little above and beyond on this one. Besides the painted costume buck, we also get the sculpted “wings” on his biceps similar to the way they did Spider-Woman’s webbing. The head sculpt is quite well done with the tiny “tuning fork” emblem is actually sculpted onto his mask. The silver paintwork on the costume stripes and wings is neatly applied and really makes this guy pop on the shelf. I think the “wings” will be the sticking point on this guy for a lot of collectors as they can look awkward in some poses. Still, I can’t think of a better way that Hasbro could have done it. Still, I think Black Bolt turned out to be a rather beautiful figure.

Speaking of beautiful… next up is Black Bolt’s wifey, Medusa. I have only one minor gripe with this figure and that’s the head sculpt seems a tad too thin, and even that may just be my own personal hang up, otherwise Hasbro really did a wonderful job here. Her costume, gloves and boots are all just painted on, but the metallic purple on the boots and gloves looks nice and the black lines on her one-piece are sharp and clean. I really get the feeling that Hasbro has gotten their act together on their MU paintwork. I remember back to the days of slop like I saw on my Warbird figure, and I’m happy to say I haven’t seen anything like that lately. Anyway, moving past the paint, it’s obvious to see where all the sculpting on this chick went. Dat hair! Medusa couldn’t have been the easiest figure to design and Hasbro just went with having her copious mane falling down her back and I dare say it works quite well. I think an attempt at having her hair in some kind of action pose would have been disastrous. Either way, there’s practically enough plastic in her hair alone to make another figure.

And then there’s Karnak. You could argue that there were better choices for this slot, but I’m fine with getting Karnak, particularly after seeing how well Hasbro executed this figure. He uses a slimmer buck than Black Bolt, which is appropriate and adds a nice bit of diversity to the set. His painted costume features some beautiful shades of green and is enhanced by the sculpted belt and sash. The head sculpt really drives the figure home with his pencil thin pervy mustache and jiffy pop head. Wonderful!

The fellas feature the excellent modern MU articulation, which consists of ball joints in the heads, shoulders, hips, and torsos. The elbows are hinged and the knees are double hinged. You also get swivels in the biceps, thighs, and wrists. Karnak’s ankles are ball joints, whereas Black Bolt has a hinge with lateral rockers. Lateral ankle rockers in a 3 ¾” figure… always a nice touch! Black Bolt features added swivels in the lower legs and an additional hinge in the neck. Medusa shares her hubby’s articulation, with just one exception: She doesn’t have the bicep swivels, a point of articulation that is sadly often omitted form the female bucks.

Hasbro has a track record of sometimes including a small PVC piece with these sets. With the Fantastic Four we got HERBIE, The X-Men set had baby Cyclops, and Guardians of the Galaxy came with Rocket Raccoon. So I think omitting Lockjaw from this set was a major misstep. I suppose you could argue that he would have to be bigger than the previously included PCV pieces, but I’d rather have been granted a slightly undersized Lockjaw than none at all. Afterall, I doubt there will ever be another opportunity to release that figure.

Apart from whining about Lockjaw and what could have been, I’ll happily admit that Hasbro did a wonderful job with this set. It’s been on my want list ever since I first saw the pre-production photos and now that I have it in hand, it certainly has lived up to my expectations. I ponied up $30 for it, which is more than I usually have to pay for these, but not a bad deal at all when it breaks down to just ten bucks a figure. And these are indeed excellent figures!

It seems like a while since I had a new Marvel Universe figure to look at. There are quite a few out there now that I’m after, but they aren’t on the pegs and I’m trying to let patience prevail over paying premiums for these figures on the Internets. Baron Zemo, however, was a release that I wanted very badly. I was pissed beyond belief when Hasbro first released him in a 3-pack SDCC Exclusive, a set that is still almost impossible to find under $100. I could sort of understand Radioactive Man and Tiger Shark going the exclusive route, but Baron Zemo is too prominent a character to be bundled in a hard-to-get set like that. Fortunately, Hasbro came to their senses and Zemo has finally seen a regular carded retail release, making me a very happy camper.

At a quick glance, the current crop of MU cards doesn’t seem all that different, but upon closer inspection it appears Hasbro has gone the dreaded multi-lingual route. If I were a MOC collector this sort of thing would really chaff my ya-ya’s, but fortunately I’m an opener and I’d be just as happy to get this figure wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper. Having foreign gibberish on my card doesn’t bother me at all, so it could even be a foreign edition of yesterday’s newspaper. Apologies to any foreign readers out there for the gibberish remark. Just know that I balk against your language because I’m not smart enough to read it, and so I always assume you’re writing bad things about me.

Anywho, you’ll also note that Hasbro has abandoned the ridiculous Collectible Comic Shot idea. As much as I found those to be insulting, now I’m even more insulted that Hasbro can’t even be bothered to pack in a tiny piece of printed cardboard as a bonus. Sheesh… and here I thought cutting out the figure stands was a low blow! This wave’s clever quip on the back of the card is brought to us by The Watcher, only it’s not really a clever quip at all. He just says “Collect them all!” WTF, The Watcher? Either you have no sense of humor or Hasbro just couldn’t fit anything clever into the bubble and still have room to reprint it in two more languages. Sorry if I sound extra bitchy today, but I’m on antibiotics and I have to tone down my drinking a couple of notches. It’s not going well.

So, Zemo is a good news and bad news scenario depending on your point of view. If you paid out the ass for the SDCC set, you’ll be happy to know that it’s not quite the same figure and that there is one notable change to the sculpt. If you really paid out the ass for the SDCC set, then you may not think the little change warranted laying out the extra bucks for a figure that eventually appeared on the pegs. On the other hand, at least you still got Tiger Shark and Radioactive Man for your troubles. So what’s that change? It’s the boots. The SDCC version has fur lined boot cuffs to match the ones on his shoulders. This retail release just has huge non-descript boot cuffs. I will concede that this difference makes the SDCC version the superior one, but not enough for me to regret not laying out that much extra cash.

Boots aside, what we have here is a fantastic looking figure that really captures the character for me. His buck uses a pleasing shade of purple and a crisp, shiny gold for the boots, gloves, and belt. The spotted fur fringe on his shoulders looks particularly good and the head sports an awful lot of personality for what is basically a guy in a hood. I’ll concede that the paintwash on the cowl and head are a little heavy handed, but it only starts to break down when you get in really close.

The buck feature all the articulation we’ve been getting out of the modern figures. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, hinges in the elbows, and ball joints in the wrists. The legs feature ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs and at the boots, double hinged knees, and the ankles have hinges and lateral tilts. Lateral tilts in a 3 ¾” figure… Hasbro sometimes I could just kiss you on the mouth! And by you, I mean that hot redhead you have working in accounting. You know who I mean. Zemo was rather pre-posed in the package so I was seriously worried about warped joints, but I’m happy to say that’s not the case. The joints are all solid and not at all bendy as has been the case on some of the more articulated MU figures.

Zemo comes with two weapons. You get a sword and a pistol that looks like a broom-handled Mauser and by extension an awful lot like Han Solo’s blaster, a point about which I have already had a little fun. You may notice that I used some blue-tack in the photos and that’s because Zemo can’t hold either weapon for shit… and that’s really the only gripe I have against this guy.

And so, Hasbro has fixed a very major grievance of mine with this retail release of Baron Zemo. I’m thrilled to finally have this guy on my shelf and now I can finally have him team up with Cobra Commander against the combined forces of Cap, Bucky, and GI Joe! After all, it’s much better to appreciate what is a pretty solid figure of a very desireable character than get all uppity about the exclusive still being the superior release. The truth is there’s plenty to love about this figure just the way it is. Sure, I stand behind my argument that a character like Zemo should never have been an exclusive, but this way at least the diehards who ponied up the money for the Masters of Evil set can still rest easy knowing that they got something special for their money.

While Hasbro seems to be dropping the ball on their movie properties, they have certainly upped the ante on Marvel Universe. I’m not just talking about the overall quality of the figures, but also the character selection. MU is a line that I was seriously considering abandoning last year, but I’m glad I didn’t because I would have missed out on a lot of cool figures. This Marvel Monday’s entry is a prime example of that. Oh yes, folks… it’s Blastaar!

Oops, my bad… it’s MARVEL’S Blastaar, because somebody at Hasbro was sleeping on the job in the copyright department. In package, Blastaar just warms the cockles of my Fantastic Four Fanboy heart. The character art has him leaping right out at you and he’s a big boy that certainly fills up the bubble. This is one of those MU figures that offers up a satisfying heft when you pull him off the peg. He was the only one I’ve seen so far in the wild, and I probably would have punched anyone in the throat that tried to get to him before I did.

The back of the card shows the figure, as well as the other two figures in this wave, and a little bio blurb of this big boy. Once again, Dazzler decks out the bottom of the card with some collecting advice. Can, I dig it you ask?  Oh yeah, Dazzler. I can dig it.

Blastaar is a fine example of the logical reuse of parts. The legs, torso and forearms are all recycled directly from Juggernaut (and various other MU big boys) and given a fresh coat of paint. He has a simple grey and blue deco, with the grey being very similar to the type used for Apocalypse, while the blue is slightly darker and features less of a sheen. The bracers on his wrists are new to the sculpt, as is the circlet around his neck. It all works quite well and ensures that Blastaar is a beefy enough figure to hang with the likes of Apocalypse and Thanos. Yeah, he’s a little generic, but it suits the character design.

While Blastaar’s body is somewhat generic, the head sculpt makes up for that in spades. This guy’s ugly noggin is packed with detail and personality. He’s got the one buggy eye, a mouthful of carefully sculpted and painted teeth, even something as simple as the ears are worthy of note. I’m also really pleased with the way his wild mane of hair came out. He looks like he’s about to start stroking out with rage. Fantastic!

The articulation here is the same we’ve seen with most of the husky MU figures. There are ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, and torso. The arms have swivels in the biceps and and forearm, and the elbows are hinged. The legs have swivels in the thighs and just above the boots, the knees are double hinged and the ankles have single hinges. The characteristics of the buff sculpt impede some of the points of articulation, but he can still do a lot more than just stand there and look menacing.

No accessories, but Blastaar does come with the super wonderful tiny piece of printed cardboard that Hasbro suggests is a cool collectible. If I cared at all about the Comic Shot, I would at this point say that I would have preferred a Fantastic Four cover over The Avengers one. But either way, these get thrown out with the packaging, so I care not!

Sure, Blastaar is basically a kitbash with a new head, but I have no issues with these when they’re done right and this guy is done right. Yes, Hasbro could have made the costume a little more distinctive, but on the other hand the fact that I can walk into a big box toy aisle and buy a Blastaar figure kind of blows my mind. If this is what they needed to do to make that happen, I’m cool with that. I was already a fan of this buck and the head sculpt drives the whole figure home perfectly.

And… once again, I’m caught up on my Marvel Universe Collection features, so for the next four weeks, Marvel Monday will be changing over to features for the Legends scale figures. Unless, of course, I happen to stumble upon a boon of MU figures that I need. After that… well, we’ll see!

Argh… it’s Monday and that means I’ve only got one more day of vacation left. It’s been a relaxing week, and I’m going to pick up a special bottle tonight and get properly legless in a final act of vacation-ending defiance. But getting back on track… if it’s Monday, it must be time for a Marvel Universe feature. Let’s check out my man, Hercules!

Herc is from one of the more recent waves. Not that recent, mind you, but the fact that I’m excited to have him should tell you what MU distribution is like around here. I really dig the character art on the card and as you might expect, Hercules fills out his bubble impressively with his bulky, manliness… er, godliness.  And let’s not forget the magnificent “Comic Shot” which is surely worth the ten bucks all by itself. I joke, but 20 years from now the irony will be that MU figures with the Comic Shots will be worth hundreds of dollars, just because most people, like me, just throw them away. The back of the card has a bio blurb and shows the other figures in the wave. I’m rather anxious to pick up Nova and Angel, but I can take or leave Puck. Oh yeah, Sasquatch takes over from the likes of Deadpool, MODOK, and Rocket Raccoon, to offer the humorous collecting quip.

Hasbro could have easily crapped out on this guy, but check him out! I think they did a fine job, considering he’s just a nearly naked dude. This is definitely one of the coolest muscled bucks I’ve seen in the 3 ¾” scale. The muscle definition is meticulously sculpted throughout and it does indeed look impressive. Herc’s “outfit” consists of a metallic green harness, which is a separate piece, brown leather bracers on his arms, sandals, and a green pair of briefs with his trademark giant “H” on his belt. Begin you’re 3 3/4″ He-Man customs now! It all looks great and the paintwork is excellent. Thankfully, Hasbro resisted the urge to use a paint wash and went with just a clean, bright flesh tone of the plastic. The sculpt stands out fine on its own without the help of the wash and Hasbro isn’t very good at doing them anyway. Yes, Hasbro, sometimes less is more!

Equally impressive is the head sculpt. The hair, beard and headgear is all reproduced wonderfully and there’s a lot of personality in this tiny, little head sculpt. Herc is sporting a great, mischievous smile betraying how much he revels in action. Yup, when he kicks your ass, he’s going to enjoy it. Again, the paintwork is nice and sharp, particularly the eyes.

Hercules comes with his trusty mace. It’s a nice looking piece with a shiny gold finish and a sculpted lanyard at the handle. And of course… The Comic Shot!

You get all the articulation we’ve come to expect from the current crop of MU figures. Herc’s arms have ball joints at the shoulders, swivels at the biceps, hinges in the knees, and hinges and swivels at the wrists. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, hinges at the ankles, and swivels at the thighs and the tops of his sandals. There are also ball joints at the torso and neck. The plastic for the joints all feels really nice and strong and there’s no warping to speak of.

I’ll confess, as much as I love Hercules’ character in Marvel’s funnybooks, his figure wasn’t high on my list. I guess I just didn’t think Hasbro could produce a stand-out figure of such a simple character design. In this case, it’s nice to be wrong. As soon as I had him in hand, I was thrilled with the way he turned out. And with Hercules, I am now completely caught up with features on my current Marvel Universe collection. I’ve been saving a Marvel Legends figure for next week’s Marvel Monday and I should have some new MU figures to look at in a couple of weeks.

Welcome to Marvel Monday, my continuing journey to get through all my Marvel Universe figures… and today is all about Beta-Ray Bill. I’ve always found Bill to be a very cool character, even though I’ve only occasionally encountered him in my funnybook readings. That having been said, he wasn’t really on my “must have” list for action figures, but he’s still a welcome addition to my collection. Hey, if you’re one of the few worthy enough to wield Mjolnir, then you’ve got the chops to hang out on my Marvel shelf. Let’s take a look!

Yep, that’s the current incarnation of the Marvel Universe packaging. Bill really fills out the card nicely and I totally dig his character art. Also present is the wonderful “Comic Shot,” and by “wonderful” I mean, I’m about to flick it at my cat so at least he might get some use out of it. Wait for it… nope. He’s not interested in it either. Anyway, I was in the middle of tearing Beta-Ray Bill open when I screamed out the revelation, “Oh shit, I didn’t take the package shot yet!” and that’s why it looks a little worse for wear. Usually when that happens, there’s alcohol involved. In this case, I was just really excited to get the figure out.

The back of the card has one of the more lengthy bios I’ve seen on an MU package. I’m guessing Hasbro thought a lot of people might not know who poor Bill is and thus his background needed an explanation. Hey, he got an episode in “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” so the kids should at least recognize him. You also get another little quip from Rocket Raccoon… Ha ha… “free of clowns” Ahh…Wait… I don’t get it. Getting Bill out the package is a project and a half. Between all the invisible rubber bands and his cape passing through a slit in the tray, I almost had to chew him out.

Since he wears what is essentially a set of Thor’s Asgardian armor, one might expect Bill to be a quick kitbash from previous Thor figures. In the early days of MU, I would have expected Secret Wars Comic Pack Thor with a horse head thrown on him. But no. I’ll hand it to Hasbro. They didn’t take the low road here. In the tradition of most of the recent MU figures, they stepped up and went all out on this guy. Beginning with the portrait, the head sculpt is excellent. The Asgardian helmet looks amazing and while the wings are a little soft, they aren’t warped at all. I totally dig the eyes, and the head has a special treat which we’ll touch on when we get to talking articulation… aw, hell, I’ll just ruin it now… HE HAS AN ARTICULATED JAW!!!

If the torso is recycled from a previous Thor figure, I sure can’t tell. In truth, it looks too lean, so I’m guessing it’s new. Either way, the discs on the armor are all actually part of the sculpt and he has a belt that hangs loose around on his waist. The legs appear to be new sculpts as well, with armor plates on the thighs and knees. The cape is a brand new piece and it has two pegs to secure it to the pair of sockets in Bill’s back. This is easily one of the better executions of the Thor style cape as it fits snugly on the figure, but it can easily be removed for when Bill needs that extra room to take care of business. I’ll also note here that the quality of Bill’s plastic is really excellent. There’s no warping or sense of soft joints.

As great as the sculpt is, it’s the coloring on this figure that impresses me the most. Bill is sporting one of the better paint jobs I’ve seen in this line, and that’s not intended as a loaded compliment. He’s gorgeous! The black and light metallic blue used for his torso looks amazing and when combined with the metallic gold of his belt and boots, the figure really pops. Toss in the darker metallic blue for the leg and shoulder armor and the bright white of his gauntlets, and this figure’s color palate screams comic book beauty! Even better, the quality of the paint is immaculate.

Naturally, Bill comes with his trusty hammer, Stormbreaker. It’s a relatively simple accessory stamped out in gold plastic, but it really completes his ensemble nicely. He can wield it in his right hand and his left hand is left clenched in a fist for punching fools.

Bill features all the articulation we’ve come to expect from the current crop of Marvel Universe figures. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, have swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and ankles, have swivels in the thighs, and double hinges in the knees. He has a ball joint in the torso and can swivel at the waist. Technically, Bill has a ball jointed neck, but he can really only turn his head from side to side. The reason? Because he has a goddamn hinged jaw, that’s why! A hinged jaw!!!! Well played, Hasbro.

Even if you have zero interest in Beta-Ray Bill as a character, you should buy this figure. Why? Because every bit of him is gorgeous! Hasbro really has been delivering the goods with the latest waves of Marvel Universe and Bill here is a perfect example of the added quality that Hasbro has been investing into the line. A year or so back I was wondering why I was paying $10 a pop for these figures, but in Bill’s case he’s worth every penny. It does my heart good to see Hasbro turning this line around over the course of the last year, but it also thrills me to no end when they invest this kind of effort into a character that is, well… let’s just say not an A-lister. In fact, I’ll go one better, Bill is probably in my Top 10 MU figures so far. He really is that good!