Tag Archives: pirates

Sep 21 2013

Femme Fatales: Anne Bonny by Diamond Select

If there’s one undeniable thing about Diamond’s Femme Fatales line of statues is that it draws its source material from a deep well. So far I’ve looked at one original design, one comic based figure, and now we’re digging into the pages of history itself with the 18th Century bad girl of the seas, Irish pirate lass Anne Bonny. In my experience thus far, I’ve found this series to dabble between excellence and mediocrity, so let’s see where Anne falls along the spectrum. I should warn you, however, I enjoy me some pirates and sexy ladies, so this piece is starting off with bonus points. Warnings aside, let me also apologize. Cat hair is the bane of my collection, and copious amounts of it have snuck its way into a couple of these pictures. I didn’t see it until editing the shots. Anne’s whip and boobs seemed to be particularly prone to it. I’ll reshoot when I have time.

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Anne comes in a window box that is identical in style to the last two Femme Fatales statues I featured. The front window shows off the statue fairly well and the top window lets some light in. The back panel has a blurb about the character and a shot of the statue itself. The credit for this piece goes to Uriel Caton for the design and the great Jean St. Jean as the sculptor. The box is totally collector friendly and the piece comes nestled between two plastic trays. Let’s get her out and set her up… ARRRRRRRR!

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Anne comes out of the package attached to her base and all ready for display. She is also followed by a pungent aroma of plastic and paint. If you think opening a NECA or McFarlane clamshell is bad, you need to experience this! It’s rather overpowering and not something I experienced when opening Lexi or Ariel. It is, however, historically accurate, as I understand 18th Century pirates didn’t bathe very often. Right off the bat, it’s worth noting that this is a large piece. She’s only about half a head taller than Lexi and the base doesn’t gain her much height, but she just looks a lot more imposing. She is, however, still scaled fairly well, so if you display the two together, Lexi just looks petite.

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Anne strikes a classic Captain Morgan pose with one stiletto-heeled boot on a treasure chest. She’s holding either a whip or a piece of rope in her hands. It’s a very effective pose, albeit rather clichéd. The outfit, on the other hand, does not consist of any of the typical pirate duds that I’ve seen in history books. In addition to the aforementioned boots, Anne is donning the 18th Century equivalent of hot pants, a rather revealing red corset and a long brown naval greatcoat. Her hair is tied in a red bandanna. For obvious reasons, I’m a big fan of this costume’s design. Sure, it shows off a lot of skin, but it isn’t totally off the wall and just a little part of me, the part that doesn’t have a Masters Degree in History, would like to think that pirate chicks actually roamed the seas dressed like this.

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ARRRR… THERE BE CAT HAIR IN THAT THAR PICTURE!!! The sculpt here is quite good, and that’s something I was worried about. Normally, I would have picked up a statue like this without hesitation, but there are very few photos of her at e-tailers that do her justice and I’ve never seen the statue in person at a comic shop or convention. In person, it looks great and the detail work on her outfit is particularly nice. The boots and coat show all the proper creasing and wear, you can make out the little line of sculpted fringe along her shorts, and the scrollwork on her corset are great little touches.

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ARRR… BY NEPTUNE’S BEARD… ENOUGH WITH THE CAT HAIR YE SCURVY DOG! The portrait is very distinctive. Anne is wearing a devilish smirk and glancing out of the corner of her eyes. The nose is surprisingly evocative of J. Scott Campbell’s work, not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned, and the little sculpted dimples are a nice touch. She has one ear exposed and fitted with a gold earring, and her hair is ratty with some of her bangs coming down out of the bandanna to cover her right eye.

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The paintwork here is rather subdued. Apart from a lot of flesh tone, you get the same brown on her boots, her coat, and the rope, and the same red on her shorts, bandanna and top. There is a little gold paint on her belt buckle, corset laces and necklace, as well as the white frilly cuffs on the jacket help to mix things up a little. What’s here is good, but I think there are some missed opportunities. The fringe on the front of her greatcoat could have been painted, and there’s a bangle around her left ankle that also could have used a little brushwork. It just seems like if you’re going to take the trouble to sculpt those little details you should draw attention to them with some paint. I will note that there was a very limited NY Comic Con exclusive version of Anne with a far more colorful deco and one which has the paint apps I feel are missing here.

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The base is just big enough to support the figure and it features a nice patch of sea washed sand with a couple of shells and a starfish, as well as the treasure chest. They put a lot of work into the chest sculpt, which is a nice surprise because it’s one of the last things that draws the eye. It’s also a little ironic that the paintwork on the shells is some of the best on the entire piece.

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I picked up Anne on clearance for $20. It seems like very few of these statues hold their value, as I’ve yet to pay more than $25 for any and they all start out closer to $40. I think she’s definitely worth the money. She’s a satisfyingly large piece with a great sculpt and an adequate paint job. I’ll even go so far as to say that I don’t think I would have been disappointed paying full retail for her. In a market that’s flooded with anime statues and comic book characters, it’s kind of refreshing to see something like Anne come along every once and a while, and while the Femme Fatales portion of my shelf is starting to look mighty eclectic, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Sep 7 2011

Playmobil: Pirate Camp (#4292)

Last time we checked out the Skull and Bones Pirate Ship. It was a fantastic set, but let’s face it, there’s some extra room on that ship. And that’s where today’s set comes in. The Pirate Camp is actually meant to be set up on shore, tucked away in some hidden cove, but when you break down this set and figures, it really fills out that pirate ship fantastically. Let’s see what we’ve got…

There’s that iconic Playmobil box. As usual, the box let’s the pictures do the talking. The front panel shows the toys displayed in action and the back panel has a photo catalog of everything you get inside the box. The set is designed to be a makeshift camp where the adorable little Playmobil pirates divy up their loot and probably try to doublecross and murder each other. Inside the box you get three baggies packed with the figures and accessories. Apart from the table top, there’s no real central piece in this set, it’s basically just four figures and a ridiculous amount of accessories.
                              
                             
The four pirate figures are pretty good, albeit a little less elaborate than the ones that came with the ship. I’m perfectly fine with that, because this lot looks more like standard crew and swabbies, and that’s exactly what my pirate ship needs. They’re a scruffy looking bunch and one of them is even a chick! They’re also a well armed bunch, as this set comes loaded with weapons. You get two muskets, six pistols, and a sword. It’s more than enough to arm this motley band and still have some left to hand out to your other Playmobil pirates.
The table consists of a board with sockets to plug the four large barrels into as supports. I love the way this works, since you can just disassemble it and use the barrels on the ship. Honestly, I doubt I’ll ever display the table, although you could set it up on the deck of the pirate ship if you want, and I suppose the board itself would make a decent makeshift raft or loading ramp. You also get a bunch of smaller barrels, two wicker baskets, a couple of candlesticks, a sack, a bottle of booze, and a lamp.
How about treasure? The set comes with two small chests, a bunch of gold nuggets, a bunch of gold coins, and a baggie of precious stones. The gold pieces are all vac-metalized, which makes them look awesome.
The Pirate Camp set retails at just under seventeen bucks. I’m pretty happy with that price, although if you compare it to the Soldiers Boat at twenty, I’ll confess it does seem rather high. You do, however, get a lot of great stuff in here and if you own any of the pirate ships in this line, this set has everything you need (except maybe some extra cannon) to outfit your ship with extra crew, treasure and accessories. Then again, it’s also plenty of fun all by itself or as an addition to one of the pirate island playsets.
Sep 6 2011

Playmobil: Skull And Bones Pirate Ship (#5950)

Today we’re checking out the one set that convinced me to start buying Playmobil again. When I spotted this big box in the aisle at TRU I almost couldn’t put it down. It was only through sheer willpower that I was able to leave the store without buying it. Of course, that willpower faultered a few days later and I wound up ordering it and the rest of the sets we’ve been looking at online. The Skull and Bones Pirate Ship is a great way to see a lot of what makes Playmobil so much fun.

The box is classic Playmobil. There’s hardly any writing on the box, and it lets the pictures sell the set. The front panel shows the toys in action and the back panel shows a photo catalog of exactly what you get in the box. As one of the larger sets, the box is pretty heavy duty and is designed to be opened and closed so you can store your set in it if you so choose. Keep in mind though that a lot of disassembly is required to get everything back into the box. Once opened, you’re treated to the ship’s big hull, an instruction sheet, and baggies containing the sails and rigging, the figures, and the other accessories. There’s a fair amount of room inside the box, so if you plan on expanding this set with other sets, you can fit a lot more stuff into the box for storage.
Putting together the ship, or more accurately the sails and rigging, takes a little bit of time. There are quite a few clips to put in place and you want to take your time and do it carefully so as not to tear anything. The sails in this set are a bit more cloth and less like the papery sails in the Soldiers Boat set we looked at earlier this month, but they can still be fragile around the edges.
You get three pirate figures, and they’re all fantastic. Two of them look enough like Captains that its hard to tell which one is intended as the master of the ship. I’m going with the guy in the red coat, eye patch and peg leg, just because he’s wearing more gold. The figure in black garb with the skull belt buckle looks like he should be pretty high up the chain of command too. The third figure looks more like a swabby. He doesn’t have shoes or a proper hat, but he does have a bandalier that can hold both a dagger and a sword. The set also comes with weapons to outfit the pirates. You get one flintlock pistol, three unique swords, and one dagger. The best thing I can say about these figures is that I would have been more than happy to buy them in single packs, that’s how good they are.
In addition to the weapons, you get some gear and treasure to load into the ship. There are two red barrels, one of which can be used to store swords or muskets. You get a lantern that can clip onto the mast. There’s the same water bucket we saw with the Soldiers Boat set. And lastly, you get a blue treasure chest, which is different from the last two blue chests we saw. This one actually has a spring loaded lock. You also get a baggie of coins to put inside. Unfortunately, these aren’t vac-metalized like the ones that came with the last set we looked at. They’re more drab and coppery.
And then there’s the ship itself, and it is huge. Unlike the Soldiers Boat, the stickers are all pre-applied on this one and I’m cool with that because they look great and add a lot of character to the ship. It features a total of four sails, each of which are in some way articulated and you can change which side the front and rear sails are tethered to. Each side of the mast features red plastic rigging that the figures can clip on to and the top mast includes a crows nest with the plastic pirate flag. As always, the ship floats in water and there’s a place on the bottom where you can attach a battery powered motor, which can be purchased separately.
The aft section of the ship has a rotating wheel for navigating and a square intent in the deck to place the treasure chest so it won’t slide back and forth in rough seas. The fore section of the ship has two firing cannon, which can be aimed through the cannon holes.

The Skull and Bones Pirate Ship retails at just under thirty-five bucks, and I think that’s a pretty good deal. This set comes with everything you need to start having fun, but as we’ll see next time, there’s plenty of room to expand on it with another set to add more crew, weapons and gear, and I’ve got the perfect set in mind. What’s crazy is that this isn’t even the largest pirate ship in the Playmobil fleet as they offer. In fact, they have at least two pirate ships that dwarf this one.
Aug 27 2011

Playmobil: Treasure Transporter With Row Boat (#4295)

Arrrr! I know I promised ye pirates today, but I might have fibbed a little. Actually, I wanted to feature the two pirates sets I have on consecutive days and I haven’t decided what I’m posting about tomorrow yet, so I opted to look at this Playmobil set instead. Technically, it is part of the Pirates line and we know this because it’s got the adorable little Playmobil pirate face on the box right next to the set number. But these guys look more like Conquestadors to me. I suppose we could get into a whole semantics argument over the meaning of the word pirates, but let’s not and just move on.

This set comes in the standard and very iconic Playmobil box. Have you noticed how I keep capitalizing Playmobil and its never capitalized on the packages? Sorry, just can’t help myself. Once again, the front of the box shows the toys in action and the back of the box shows a picture catalog of everything you get inside. Unlike the larger sets, which open up easily after cutting the tape, you practically have to tear your way into these smaller boxed sets, much like a Lego set. There’s that Lego-Playmobil comparison again. I can’t seem to escape those. I just realized that I didn’t take a picture of the contents after opening the box, which I’m a little peeved at myself over. Suffice it to say the boat comes loose and you get a couple of baggies of figures and accessories, along with an instruciton book and catalog.
The figures are really cool, and as I said, they look more like Conquistadors than Pirates, but either way, they’re obviously hauling a crap load of ill-gotten loot so they’re fair game for either the Playmobil Pirates or the Playmobil Royal Navy. As much as I do like the figures, I do miss the way the vintage Playmobil sets actually had vac-metalized armor and helmets whereas the armor on these guys is just printed on and their helmets are just a matte silver. Not a deal breaker, but just me longing for the way things used to be. Each figure comes with a baldric and a sword to put into it. I haven’t seen a lot of other current Playmobil sets featuring Conquistadors, so I’m not sure if this set is just a one-off fancy for the Pirate line, but I’d love to see more coming, especially a large sized Spanish Galleon.
       
The little boat in this set, is definitely not a Galleon, but just a row boat that’s just big enough for both figures and their treasure chest. You assemble it just by putting in the boards that form the seats, snapping on the flag and putting in the oars. The treasure chest is the same one that came with the Deluxe Soldier 2-pack we looked at earlier this week and there’s a baggie of gold coins to fill it with. Surprisingly, the coins are vac-metalized. Cool!
So, this little set may seem all that impressive after the Soldiers Boat from the last Playmobil feature, and the figures in it don’t necessarily fit in perfectly with the pirates and the royal navy figures in the series, but I still like them a lot and the boat and treasure certainly make a nice addition to the whole line up and can be used to expand any of the Pirates sets. Plus, the set retails at just under fifteen bucks, and it’s hard for me to argue with that!
Aug 23 2011

Playmobil: Soldiers Deluxe 2-Pack (#5946)

So, last time we looked at the Soldiers’ Boat and what better way to compliment that set than with a pack of more soldiers and a little more gear to buff it out? Are these bilge rats up to the task of taking on the Playmobil pirates? Let’s find out…

Traditionally speaking, most Playmobil sets come in boxes and if I recall correctly even the single figure sets used to come boxed. I only first noticed these more modern looking carded packs within the last couple of years or so, but I’m certainly no expert so they could have been around for a while. The card still maintains that iconic minimalist blue Playmobil deco with the front declaring that the set contains 21 pieces and the back showing off photos of exactly what you get. The photo catalog of pieces seems to make more sense on the boxes, as the toys are laid out inside the bubble so that you can easily see exactly what you’re getting. It’s kind of redundnat here, and that space might have been better spent showing what other toys were available. But, hey, that’s just my two cents. I do like the way you can preserve the bubble and tray to store the figures and gear and keep them organized.
The two figures include one soldier and one commander type. I’m not sure if he’s supposed to be an Admiral or a Captain, as I’m not up on the uniforms and rank insignia of the Playmobil Royal Navy, but for my purposes, he’s a Captain. He’s a great pick-up for me because the one thing I bemoaned about the Soldiers’ Boat is that it didn’t come with a Captain. Problem solved. He’s actually got the same printed shirt as the Soldier, but that’s the beauty of versatility of Playmobil figures. Add some white pants, gold epulettes, cuffs and a sword sash, and a majestic hat and he becomes very officer-like. He’s also sporting a printed mustache and white hair, painted buckles on his shoes and he comes with a sword. Nice! The other figure is one of the exact same figures that we saw in the Soldiers’ Boat set. But that’s cool because he’s definitely an army builder and by god we need cannon fodder for our horrifically bloody Playmobil battles against the bastardly pirates. [bastardly? really?? -FF] He comes with the same musket and bayonette from the previous set too. You also get a map and a flag.
The treasure chest is a very nice piece as well, which is great to stow on the boat from the last set. It’s actually two pieces and not just hinged with bendy plastic, so you don’t have to worry about it stressing and breaking from opening it too many times. If you have any of the smaller vintage Playmobil chests from the pirates or knights series, you know where I’m coming from. The treasure included in these Playmobil sets is usually pretty spectacular, but in this case all you get is a couple of giant gold nuggets. They’re pretty drab and make me long for the day when Playmobil used the shiny vac-metalized finish on the booty. The cannon is very similar to the one included in the previous set, only the carriage for this one is molded in red plastic. It still fires, and you get two cannonball missiles with it.
This little set retails for just under seven bucks, and when you look at the prices of single carded 4-inch figures these days, I’m not complaining. I can buy stuff like this for seven bucks all day and with a smile on my face, because it really feels like I’m getting a lot of bang for my buck. It’s a great little set all on its own, but combine it with the previous Soldiers’ Boat set and you’ve really got a little force ready to go out scouring the seas for those filthy pirates. Tomorrow, we be takin a little break from Playmobil, but when I comes backs on T’ursday, We be meeting them some of them pirates! Arrr!
Aug 22 2011

Playmobil: Soldiers Boat (#5948)

Arrr, Matey’s. If ye going to be having pirates, you be needing people to chase em. Ahem. And that’s where the Soldier portion of Playmobil’s pirates come in. I thought I’d kick off the Playmobil festivities with a look at this awesome medium range set that gives you a good start to building some advesaries for your pirates to fight.

The set comes in the standard Playmobil blue box, which has become pretty iconic by now. You’ll note that there isn’t a lot of writing on the box, and that’s largely an effort to keep it multi-lingual. I think it’s cool because these toys pretty much speak for themselves. You get a picture of the toys in action on the front and on the back you get photos of everything that comes in the set. In this case the set contains 55 pieces, which may not sound like a lot, but it does include a nicely sized ship, two figures, and a good number of accessories. The medium to larger Playmobil sets have boxes that open up like a cake box, and are sturdy enough so that you can use it to store the toys. Inside, you get the boat’s body, a number of deck boards all rubber banded together, a couple of baggies containing the figures and accessories, a baggie containing the sails, mast, and rigging, an instruction booklet, and a sticker sheet. Phew. If you like putting things together, here’s where the fun begins!
In my introduction a few days back I noted that despite being lumped in a lot with Legos, Playmobil are not building sets. But that’s not to say you won’t have to put these sets together, and the ships especially require some time to set up because of the sails and rigging. This one isn’t so bad, though. All you do is snap in the decks and fasten the sail to the crossbeam. The sail in this set is more of a soft paper than actual cloth and it’s rather delicate. The punched holes for the plastic fixtures are also close to the edges, so you need to be extra careful not to tear it. Part of me would have preferred a molded plastic sail for durability, but there’s definitely something cool about the way this simulates a real cloth sail. There are some big colorful stickers that need to be applied. Larger Playmobil sets tend to have any stickers already in place. As with all the Playmobil ships, this one floats and has a spot under the hull where you can attach a battery powered motor (sold separately for about seven bucks), which is such an awesome idea it nearly blows my mind. The boat also features a section of the deck that opens to store extra accessories.
The two figures are typical Royal Navy types with some excellent printed decos to make them unique. I would have liked if one of them looked more like the Captain of the ship, but they’re still great figures. I should point out that the figures in this  set is strangely deficient on weapons, as you only get a musket and bayonette. A sword or pistol would have been cool. You do, however, get a firing cannon with two projectiles, which is perfect for positioning on the ship or using ashore if you have any of the land based playsets. Other accessories include a small barrel, a water bucket with ladel, a telescope, and the 18th century equivalent of a bullhorn.
Playmobil toys sometimes get a reputation for being expensive, but as we’ll see this week that’s something of a misconception. True, the vintage and retired sets and pieces can go for crazy money, as can some of the special limited releases. But the price tags on the modern sets that you can buy off the shelf at your local TRU are pretty darned reasonable. Case in point, today’s set was just under twenty bucks. For that price you get a good sized boat, two figures, and a fair amount of extra stuff. And as we’ll see tomorrow, these sets are delightfully expandable thanks to Playmobil’s many figure and accessory packs.
Aug 21 2011

Playmobil Pirates and Soldiers!

Starting Tuesday, I’m kicking off a look at a new toyline here on FigureFan, and by new I mean it’s something I haven’t featured here before, as the line itself is certainly not new. Playmobil and I go way back to when I was a wee lad and my father had to move to Northern France for a few months for business and took the family with him. Naturally, there was plenty of exciting stuff to see, but it also meant being cooped up in a hotel room some of the time and so my parents took me to the store to buy me some toys to keep me busy while he was working. Playmobil was HUGE over there at the time and I came home with a couple of sets, which included some of the toys from the Pirates and Space themes. Back then, the space series was called PlaymoSpace, and it was an amazingly fun collection of toys.

I knew Playmobil was still around, but it wasn’t until I was in a Toy R Us one day perusing the Legos that I really stopped to take a look at these new sets and my Nostalgia Meter went off the charts. They had a ton of these toys, ranging from tiny figure packs to huge elaborate boxed sets. I probably spent a good half hour just picking all of them up and checking them out. I didn’t buy any, but I was thinking about them the whole ride home, and before I knew it, that night I was online ordering a bunch of them. When the box arrived it was like Christmas morning around here.

If you aren’t familiar with Playmobil, it’s a toy line that is often tossed in with Lego, which is odd because it isn’t a line of construction toys in any sense of the word. They do have similar themes, like pirates, knights, and even a line of everyday people and places like Lego’s City line. I think they tend to get compared a lot because, like the Lego Minifigs, the Playmobil figures are more or less all the same base figure, but with different parts and accessories clipped on and some different facial illustrations to make them unique. In many cases, with the right accessories you can turn a versatile Playmobil figure from a businessman to a pirate to an astronaut. Playmobil figures are smaller than most figures, but still about twice as big as Lego’s Minifigs. The sets are also all about accessories, so like Lego, the sets are often ranked by the number of pieces included. Also like Lego, Playmobil sets are usually most often identified by their number.

Everything I picked up fits into the Pirates and Soldiers theme, as that was one of my favorites as a kid. I really wish they had a current version of the PlaymoSpace line out, but all I could find were the vintage sets on Ebay and they are way too expensive for me to collect, so we’ll have to settle for Pirates and Soldiers for now. Next week isn’t going to be exclusively Playmobil, so if this isn’t your thing, I’ll try to get some features on more traditional figures and stuff, but I will be spending a lot of time on this stuff next week.