Tag Archives: ultimate

Apr 3 2024

Dungeons & Dragons: Ultimate Elkhorn by NECA

The last couple years have seen a flurry of action figures based on the Dungeons & Dragons property, with Hasbro tackling the 80’s cartoon as well as the film Honor Among Thieves, and NECA doing updates to the old LJN figures. The Hasbro stuff has run its course, although Super7 has picked up the license to take their own stab at the cartoon characters. Meanwhile, NECA seems to be chugging along with their line, despite an unsettling drop in new reveals. They are currently doing retro-carded repaints and it’s tough to tell whether they are just trying to drum up revenue for more new releases or if it’s a last cash-grab at the end of the line. Obviously, I’m hoping for the former, because this line has been outstanding! I’ve already checked out two of the baddies: Warduke and Grimsword, as well as the heroic Strongheart. Eventually, I have to double back for a look at Zarak, but for now I’m bumping the newest release to the head of the line, Elkhorn!

The packaging is standard stuff for NECA’s Ultimate line. You get a window box with a front flap that secures with a bit of velcro. There are plenty of pictures of the figure as well as some cool artwork on the front panel. Everything is collector friendly and for now I’ve been keeping these figures displayed in the package because they tend to come with so many extras. Elkhorn is a noble Dwarf Fighter adding some much needed support to the lone hero Strongheart. The original Elkhorn was a tiny figure and I was really curious to see what NECA was going to do to give him some gravitas.

My first impressions after opening the box? Elkhorn is a lot bigger than I expected and he comes with a ton of cool stuff! While he still feels properly scaled as a Dwarf, this guy has a nice heft to him and is absolutely brimming with detail. He still sports the bright green trousers from the original figure, but the orange gauntlets, belt, and trim on the boots has been revised to a deep, chocolate brown, which I think works well for this modern update. The brown tunic features a wide belt with a large circular medallion-like buckle front and center and he’s got some silver chain mail covering his shoulders and arms. There is some fantastic texture work on this figure, both in the chain mail and in the fabric of his trousers. The bits that are supposed to be leather have a paint wash and even the sculpted laces on his boots are immaculately painted. Everything about Elkhorn’s outfit just oozes loving attention to detail.

You get two heads to choose from, although there isn’t a huge difference between the expressions. I think NECA definitely channeled a bit of John Rhys Davies as the inspiration for this portrait and I love it. One has the mouth open and the other closed. The bushy beard is dark blue with a black wash and there’s a gold loop in the center as well as another behind his head to form a ponytail. And the ponytail is pegged into the head so you can swivel it. The horned helmet has been given a major upgrade from the LJN version with a gold painted finish, central spike, upward pointing horns, and some red painted stones in the front.

Elkhorn’s articulation is really good for such a stocky fella. As always, NECA serves up a lot of rotating hinges, but I was surprised to find them doubled up in the elbows to allow for some tighter bends. The ball jointed hips and slits in the sides of his lower tunic allow him to take a wide stance, with lateral rockers in the ankles to keep his feet planted flat on any dungeon floor. The chain mail on his shoulders is soft to allow for some flexibility in those joints, but he’s still not going to go higher than 90-degrees because of it. Still, he has no trouble getting his weapons over his head for a downward swing.

And since Elkhorn is a smaller figure, NECA decided to load him up with all sorts of weapons, equipment and even some treasures. Starting with the weapons, we get updates to the sword and shield included with the LJN figure. The shield is a concave circle with a large central boss and studs around the outer circle. It’s a really close match for the original and you get some lovely forging marks on the outer surface and even some cuts or scratches in the center. The interior of the shield features a grab bar and a sculpted arm strap with painted rivets and buckle. For the sword, NECA just kind of did their own thing, which is understandable as the LJN figure’s sword was yellow, red, and tiny. Here we get a beautiful weapon with a gold pommel and cross guard, brown ribbed two-handed grip, and a straight, silver blade. The sword includes a scabbard, which does not attach to Elkhorn’s belt, but I’ll come back to that in a bit.

There’s a small axe, which I suppose could be as much for making camp as it is for fighting. The blade is painted silver and has some nicks taken out of the edge to show it’s well used. The handle is brown with a sculpted woodgrain texture and it swells at the end.

Want to go bigger? There’s a double-edged great axe, which I’m sure is in no way compensating for size. This gorgeous weapon has a golden blade with silver edges and gold fixtures at the top and bottom of the wood grain shaft. There are Dwarven patterns carved into the face of the blade on both sides and silver spheres at the top and bottom of the handle. Like the smaller axe, you get some random nicks in the edges for added flavor.

The arsenal continues with a spiffy war hammer. The gold head has a spiked back so it can get enemies coming and going, as well as a top spike for poking.

And since two hammers are better than one, you also get this double-headed head pounder. This one has more gold and some black grips with silver bands. Both hammers are taller than Elkhorn, but they still look like they’d be manageable for him to wield, especially since Dwarves are practically built for swinging pickaxes.

And finally, Elkhorn has a beautiful little dagger that fits in the sheath on his belt. It has a gold hilt and a utilitarian-style cutting blade. It’s probably good for dispatching Goblins as well as cutting up joints of meat at the campfire.

One of the most impressive pieces of Elkhorn’s gear is this absolute banger of an adventurer’s backpack. It’s got a sculpted bedroll at the bottom, extra pouches, a spot to peg the sword scabbard in on one side and some loops to hold the small axe on the other. The top even opens and you can store stuff in there! The backpack has a wide hook that latches onto one of the cross-straps on Elkhorn’s back and it holds pretty securely. The sculpting on the pack is pretty convincing for real leather, there’s some great texture on the bedroll and all the little buckles and snaps are painted.

Elkhorn comes with a lit torch, which is a must for all dungeon delvers. Well, maybe not for Dwarves, since I’m pretty sure they can see in the dark, making this accessory an odd pairing for Elkhorn. Still, I’m glad we got a torch and I may wind up handing it off to Strongheart. We’ve seen this sort of accessory from NECA in the past and it’s done very well. The flame is cast in a yellow-orange translucent plastic and the torch itself is painted deep brown and has a sculpted woodgrain finish.

And no Dwarf can go adventuring without a jug of hooch to warm him up on those cold dungeon nights! This makes me think about how cool it would be to get an Accessory Set for this line with some stuff to make camp with. NECA’s done some similar sets for their other lines, and I’d definitely pick one up for these figures.

And finally, Elkhorn comes with a couple pieces of treasure to toss in the backpack. These include a translucent red heart stone, perhaps taken off a dead night hag, and some purple crystals embedded in a rock base. I really dig that we’re finally getting some loot thrown in as accessories, as the LJN line sometimes included treasure with their PVC figures.

NECA went crazy with this figure, not only delivering an outstanding modern update to Elkhorn, but also loading him up with all sorts of weapons and other cool stuff. There’s just so much love and passion poured into this release that it’s quite an amazing evolution to see him alongside his original LJN figure. My only concern now is that we haven’t seen any new reveals, so I’m really hoping that NECA isn’t winding down on this line. There are so many more great LJN characters that I’d love to see get this treatment, especially some more of the heroes like Melf, Mercion, and Bowmarc. Not to mention the good and evil wizards, Ringlerun and Kelek. I think these figures have been selling well, so all that’s left is to hope and pray. In the meantime, I’ll swing back with a look at Zarak in the weeks ahead.

Mar 4 2024

Flash Gordon: Ultimate Prince Vultan, Ming and Flash by NECA

NECA has been doing a number of Flash Gordon figures based on the King Comics license as well as his appearances from the old Filmation and later Defenders of the Earth cartoons. Those were some great figures, and I really need to get back to checking out some more of that Defenders line, but the big appeal for me has always been the 1980 Dino De Laurentis feature film. It was a financial and critical flop, but I first discovered it when it hit the VHS rental market. I was probably ten years old and it was love at first sight. I unironically adore this movie. It’s a sweeping, colorful epic that features some amazing sets and costumes and has an overall sense of pageantry that really feels like a comic book come to life. Even now, I like to pull out the Blu-Ray usually once a month and revel in its spectacle. Naturally, I was excited to see NECA finally getting around to the movie figures, and we now have the first three in hand. Indeed, I’m so excited, that I’m just going to tackle all three in one go. This is gonna be a long one…

These are part of NECA’s Ultimate line, not to be confused with Super7’s Ultimates (plural!) line. NECA was here first and they’ve used this moniker ever since they started stepping up their articulation and tossing in as many extras as they could. As usual, the figures come in window boxes with front flaps that secure with velcro giving you the feel of enclosed box with the luxury of a window to look at the goods inside. The deco is a mix of stills from the film and shots of the figure, and these are numbered, which gives me great hope that this line will be an ongoing thing and not just a one-off wave. Let’s start with Prince Vultan!

IT’S BRIAN BLESSED!!! Brian Blessed is a world treasure and an absolute legend in science fiction and British television. Whether it be as King Yrcanos in Doctor Who (long after turning down the role of The Doctor himself), Maya’s Dad in Space 1999, both Robin Hood the BBC series and the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves movie, or how about King Richard in Blackadder! I could go on and on. But perhaps no role has been as iconic as Vultan, Prince of the Hawkmen in Flash Gordon. And oh boy just look at this gorgeous figure! For this release, NECA created a full-on mostly naked Brian Blessed buck and dressed it in leather and gold armor cast in soft plastic. The sculpted detail in the scale armor is superb, creating a kind of feathered motif, which is especially apparent in those shoulder pieces. The arm bracers and sandals are also meticulously detailed with the tiniest buckles on the sandals painted in gold. The love and attention to detail NECA poured into this costume is just fantastic and splendidly brings this epic character design to life in plastic form.

The wings are equally impressive with each and every feather fully detailed in the sculpt and finished off with a gold leaf paint and some wash to bring out those details. The wings are articulated at the shoulders allowing them to swing out for flight. If I’m going to nitpick anything on this figure I guess it would be the way they are attached to the body using a gold bar that looks mechanical rather than organic. Still, it’s only really noticeable when the wings are spread, and while attaching the wings to the figure with hinged pegs might have looked better, I appreciate that these stay put and don’t pop out when I’m posing them. As for the rest of the poseability, if you’ve handled NECA’s Ultimate figures before you’ll know what to expect here, with an emphasis on rotating hinges. It’s solid stuff that makes the figure fun to play with, but doesn’t offer those tight bends that some collectors hope for.

You get a whopping four heads, which can all share either the helmet or the hairpiece for an un-helmeted look. And each one of these portraits is just brimming with Blessed’s boisterous, big-bearded personality. The first is offering a huge smile and displaying a wall of teeth. The likeness is fantastic and my god the helmet is just so glorious. It attaches to the top of the four heads with a thick tab and it is extremely secure. The cheek plates are soft plastic and hug the face closely. The gold paint on the helmet is brighter and deeper than the slightly more bronze color used for the accents on the armor.

Next, we get this wonderfully expressive head showing off Vultan’s O-face. I’m pretty sure this one is supposed to be Vultan pronouncing the word Gordon in his infamous “Gordon’s alive” line delivery. If his eyes were looking up it could also work for the scene in Ming’s Court where he nonchalantly bonks one of Ming’s guards on the head with his club and hopes nobody noticed. I also love this head because it reminds me of King Yrcanos, the character he played in Doctor Who, who would sometimes accentuate his speech with whistles and sound effects.

Third up is most definitely Vultan delivering his “DIIIIIVE!” order for the Hawkmen to attack War Rocket Ajax. I really love how NECA mined the film for some very specific and iconic expressions for this figure.

The fourth and final head comes packaged with the hairpiece, but again, you can use the plastic coif on any of the heads by swapping out the helmet. Here, Vultan is in full on shouty-shout mode and I can just here his baritone laugh in my head. Wow, these are all great!

Clearly, a lot of the budget here was spent on heads, but you do get a few extra accessories and a pair of hands to hold them. The first accessory is featured in the tribute scene in Ming’s Court. It’s the fabled ice jewel of Frigia, which the Hawkmen claimed to have seized in battle from the royal crypt. But if you believe Prince Barin, it was stolen from his men. I think maybe there’s some truth to that.

Next you get this remote control device, which I think is the trigger for the explosives that were planted on War Rocket Ajax. It’s nicely done with some very sharp detail to the control pad. Still, probably not something I will display with the figure.

And finally, you get his club, which reminds me of an African War Club. It has a polished black finish, a hooked head for thumping enemies and a knuckle guard at the base of the hilt. This will probably never leave the figure’s hand when I display him. He just looks amazing raising it over his head and shouting like a war-crazed maniac.

Wow, I can’t say enough great things about this figure. It feels like NECA poured all kinds of extra love into this Vultan, and maybe that’s because the old bird has never had this kind of figure treatment before. And boy does he come damn close to being a perfect figure. With four heads and some solid accessories, it’s easy to see where all the money went. Let’s move on to Ming the Merciless!

In the annals of perfect film casting, I think Max von Sydow as Ming ranks pretty high. His performance endowed Ming with a delightful mix of charm and menace and he looked like the character from straight out of a comic panel. I tend to consider the robed look for the character more iconic, but NECA chose to go with his Military Suit version for this release. And that’s fine, because it makes me suspect that the other version is sure to follow. Ming sports a red tunic with flared, pointed shoulders and red trousers, tucked into high black boots. There’s gold piping around the edges of the tunic and a large gold decoration on the chest. The black gloves have red and gold rings at the wrists and a black, gold, and red baldric supports his sword and scabbard off his right shoulder. The colors on this figure look great, but I think the paint for the gold piping could have been sharper, still it’s not something that really impacts my enjoyment of the figure. Articulation is similar to what we saw with Vultan, with the torso articulation concealed under the tunic.

You get three heads for Ming, one with his black skullcap helmet, and two without. I think all three of these are homeruns in terms of likeness. The printing for the eyes and facial hair is really on point and I dig the sculpted lines in his brow and the crow’s feet around the edges of his eyes. The skull capped head’s expression is the friendliest of the three and reminds me of when Ming was trying to strike a deal with Flash. The second is the most neutral and the third has a wonderful little sneer to it. All three are great and it’ll be tough to choose which one to display on the figure.

Ming has less extra stuff than Vultan. The one less head does come with the trade off of two extra sets of hands. These include a set of fists, a set of accessory holding hands, and a set of gesturing hands. Although the right gesturing hand looks like it was intended for a gun. A really dig the sculpt and paint on the rather elaborate ring included on the left hands, especially since it featured prominently in a few scenes throughout the film.

The only other accessory here is his sword, which is pretty damn sweet. It fits perfectly into the scabbard and is easy to draw. It’s a very simple design with a straight blade and a short, straight crossguard. There’s a red painted jewel in the pommel and in the center of the guard, while the rest is all painted in gold.

Ming is an excellent figure, even if he does fall a bit short of the greatness that is Vultan. The only real complaint I have about the quality is the gold piping and that’s really just something to nitpick that could have been improved on. He does feel light in the accessories when compared to Vultan, and I wish they had at least included the chalice that he’s holding in the screen grab on the front of the box. I will probably dig into my Hasbro Indiana Jones figures and give him one of the False Grails included in that line. Hopefully, you’re still with me, because we have one more figure to go…

FLASH! AHH-AHHHHH… SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE! Like Ming, this is probably not my favorite look for the character, as I tend to prefer him in the white FLASH T-shirt. Again, I suspect NECA understood this and decided to hold that version back for a second wave. The strategy being that people will buy a figure that may not be their first choice look for the character in fear that it may be the only one released. But that’s not to say I don’t dig this Final Battle Flash, because I most certainly do, and it definitely gave NECA a little more to work with in terms of the costume design, not to mention accessories. Our hero dons a Mongo tank top, half black and half red with a sculpted symbol on the front. He’s got a wide belt with a gold belt buckle, black trousers and high buccaneer-style boots with a glossy finish. I dig that the emblem on the shirt is sculpted rather than just printed on and speaking of which, you even get sculpted chest hair. Wow! The forearms seem like they’re a little undersized, but I think that’s from being cut to allow for a tighter bend in the elbows. I think he turned out great!

With Flash, you get three different heads and each one features a really solid likeness to Sam Jones. The first is kind of neutral, the second is smiling a bit, and I’m not quite sure what they were going for in the third. It’s not bad, it’s just not really conveying any emotional expression that I can tell. I’d say that third one is my least favorite with the second one being my favorite, and I will likely stick with that one for display.

Flash features the same articulation as Ming and comes with five hands: One set of fists, one set of gripping hands, and one trigger finger right hand. I would have liked a relaxed or gesturing left hand to make it an even three pairs, but I guess that wasn’t in the budget. It’s worth noting here that I didn’t have any issues with any of these figures joints. Everything worked as it should right out of the packages, with absolutely no heat needed or QC issues to speak of.

As for weapons, you get both a Hawkman rifle and a saber, and both of these showcase some of the really cool and unique weapon designs from the film. The rifle has a distinctive organic sculpt to it’s grip and stock with a fanned feather motif at the back of the breech, gold around the receiver, and a gold ring near the muzzle. The rifle works perfectly with the trigger hand and he can support the barrel with his gripping left hand.

The golden saber is rather iconic, as promotional stills often have Flash wielding this blade. NECA even used the shot for the front of the box. This is a wild looking weapon with a dramatic sweeping hook to the curved edge. The rich gold paint looks awesome, especially when coupled with the bright red on the grip. You also get that weird starred disk about midway through the blade. I always wondered why the heck that was there. Seriously, as a kid I would think about that a lot and what purpose it served. It used to bug me! I really dig that the articulation allows Flash to wield the weapon with both hands and he looks great doing it.

And finally, Flash comes with a Mongo grenade. I love how everything in Mongo is so opulent and ostentatious that even the grenades look like Fabergé Eggs. This is a great little sculpt with a handle on top. It reminds me that we better get the green “football” included with the T-shirt Flash, assuming that figure is forthcoming.

Flash makes this trio three-for-three in my scorebook. This figure is crazy fun to pose and play around with, especially with his two cool weapons. I didn’t feel like there was the same variety in the portraits as there was with Vultan and Ming, but what we got are all still fantastic. I just won’t be as torn over which head to display on the figure as I am with the other two figures. As for accessories, I can’t think of anything else NECA could have given us with this one, or at least it doesn’t feel like anything has been omitted. OK, sure a Hawkman pistol would have been a great bonus.

Phew… that was a long one, but it was well worth it to get all three figures showcased in one go. Now, I will note that these figures are not cheap. At $37 a pop, that puts them above the ceiling that I’m used to paying for NECA’s Ultimate figures. I remember paying under $30 for the Defenders of the Earth figures, and then I remembered that time passes and prices inflate. As it happens, most of NECA’s Ultimate releases are up to the $37 price point these days. I guess it’s not outrageous considering what Super7 is getting for their releases, but it’s definitely a premium, especially for figures that can be found at Big Box retailers. Worth it? For me, that’s a big yes! The closest we’ve had to these guys were the ones from Big Bang Pow, which I reviewed here almost exactly 14 years ago, so I’m happy to be getting these upgrades. Of course, BBP never did a Vultan, nor did they do these versions of Flash and Ming, so really these are all a first for me. Unless you count the Big Chief Studio Sixth-Scale Flash Gordon, which I haven’t gotten around to reviewing yet, so that’s a story for another time. Whatever the case, I hope these sell well, because I want NECA to go deep with this line. I’m all in!