Tag Archives: video games

May 8 2023

Popup Parade (Street Fighter) Chun-Li and Cammy by Max Factory

It’s been a while since I hung up my hat on collecting prize figures. I don’t really watch a lot of anime anymore and I had to start trimming out some areas to keep my collection from getting even more out of hand. With that having been said, the not-so-local comic shop did a “buy one and get one at half-off” deal on their Pop-Up Parade figures, and much to my surprise it included some new releases, so I fell off the wagon. Today I’m going to check out a couple of ladies from Street Fighter, Chun-Li and Cammy.

I think Popup Parade is meant to bridge the gap between prize figures and scaled figures, at least in terms of quality. But despite the high pedigree of Max Factory, to me these will always just be middle of the road prize figures. I owned Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo versions of both Cammy and Chun-Li, but the last time I moved, I was keen on culling a lot of my collection and I wound up selling off my entire Koto Street Fighter Collection. I can’t say as I regret it, as I got decent money for them, but when I saw these I decided I wanted some of these gals on a shelf in my Game Cave again, so here we are! The figures are roughly 7-inch scale and come in plastic packaging that really lets the figures do all the talking. There’s absolutely no character art anywhere to be found and even the character names are pretty low key. The figures display really well in their packages, although Cammy comes with her braids detached. Let’s start with her!

Sure, I love playing Cammy in the Street Fighter series, but she’s also star of one of my all-time favorite Dreamcast games, Cannon Spike, so not having her represented in my collection was criminal. The pose they chose for her here is pretty subdued, but I think it captures some of her best um, assets. The statue is best displayed with her body facing about two o’clock, her head partially turned and gazing over her right shoulder, and those ass cheeks on full display. It’s good to see her in her OG Street Fighter II costume, sans camo on the legs and with the additional tactical web gear and a leg pouch.

The colors on this piece look great, with bright matte green for her one-piece, glossy red for her gauntlets and matte black for her kicks and gear. You can even see a bit of her red socks peeping out the tops of her boots and a touch of silver paint on the buckle for her cross-strap. The skin tone is where a lot of these prize figures tend to falter, with it being waxy, but it’s nice and smooth here and not bad at all. The base is a simple black disk, which the foot pegs insert into.

The portrait is excellent, looking like it’s been grabbed straight from a character select screen. The eyes are printed perfectly and the I particularly love the way they blended the hair sculpt with the rest of the head. She has a scar on her left cheek and her long braids snake down past each of her shoulders. Her beret is a separate sculpt and worn on top of the head.

I love pretty much everything here. The sculpt is solid and the colors are beautiful. The paint lines could have been a little sharper, especially around the edges of the fingerless gloves, but overall I’m pretty happy with the way this one came out. Let’s move on to Chun-Li!

Chun-Li has a much more kinetic pose with her left leg drawn up and her hands at the ready, she’s definitely preparing to go a round or two. This figure sports a far more complex sculpt than Cammy, but that’s down to the costume design. There’s just a lot more going on here, which gave the sculptors a lot more to work with, and I think they did a beautiful job! I particularly love the way the tail end of her qipao kicks up in the wind. Some of the fringe on her dress is sculpted and while the sculpt on her boots is a little soft, it’s still got a lot of detail. You also get some nice muscle work, particularly in her famous thighs. I also really dig the sculpt on her poufed out shoulders.

Once again, the coloring here his superb. The electric blue of her qipao contrasts nicely with the gold leaf paint on the trim. There’s some shading in her stockings and some sharp silver paint on her spiked wrist cuffs. As for the quality, most of the paint here is sharp and clean, so I’ve got no complaints.

As with Cammy, the portrait here is very well done, and quite complex when you include the hair and the hair ties. The eyes are printed perfectly and she has an ever so slight smirk to her simple line of a mouth. She even has a pair of pearl earrings.

Chun-Li is easily the more interesting figure to look at, just because there’s more to take in, and as such it feels like maybe you’re getting a little more bang for your buck here. A such, I think she edges out Cammy as my favorite of the two, which surprised even me, because I tend to like Cammy more overall.

The figures retail at about $35, which puts them at the upper range of most prize figures. The quality is certainly there, so long as you aren’t expecting anything approaching a proper scaled figure. However, I think there are definitely better values out there when it comes to these types of figures, and I’d argue that companies like Banpresto are delivering a bit more for the money. I’m reminded of some of their recent One Piece figures that are slightly bigger have possibly more complex sculpts, and retail for about $10 less. Still, if you want a nice version of Cammy or Chun-Li for your shelf, these will certainly fit the bill nicely.

May 3 2023

Super Mario Bros Movie: Peach, Toad, and Bowser by Jakks Pacific

As I mentioned on Monday, this week is all about wrapping up loose ends, so today I’m having a look at the rest of Jakks’ Super Mario Bros Movie figures. And how about that movie, eh? It sure has been taking in a few bucks here and there. Last time, I had a look at those Super Mario Bros themselves, and today we’ll round out this assortment with Peach, Toad and Bowser!

The figures come in window boxes that let you see the figures themselves, which isn’t something to be taken for granted these days. The boxes are black and not terribly flashy, although you do get some nice color in the movie logo. These are all collector friendly, but I probably won’t be saving these boxes as I have a spot to display these figures in my Game Cave. Let’s start with Toad.

Toad is just as adorable as you might imagine and Jakks really did a nice job on this figure! He’s the smallest of the bunch with his mushroom capped noggin being just a smidge bigger than his entire body, but he still feels quite substantial. Toad sports his blue and orange vest, which is part of the body sculpt, and some big and puffy pants with a sculpted waist tie in the front and brown shoes peeking out at the bottom. His face is a simple design of two oblong black eyes and a rather softly sculpted smiley slit for a mouth. All that’s great, but the sculpt and paint really shine around back with his stocked backpack full of gear. It includes a coiled rope, drinking cup, and lantern. All of these are part of the sculpt and look great. There’s also a big slot in the middle for his frying pan. So, sad story here. When I went to bed last night the cats were playing floor hockey with his frying pan. I didn’t think anything of it, but today when I went to retrieve it, the damn thing had disappeared. It’s too big for them to eat, so it’s got to be somewhere, but if you want to see it, you’ll have to just look at the packaged shot. My guess is that the Universe could not bear me showing off two frying pan accessories in one week. If it turns up, I’ll add some pictures later on.

As small as Toad is, I’m amazed that Jakks actually gave him leg articulation. Not only do his feet swivel left and right, but he can actually sit down! Of course, that backpack makes him pretty back heavy, but I have been able to tweak him to stand with it, it’s just not easy. Toad also sports a ball joint in his neck, which allows for a little up and down movement. His arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders but just single hinges in the elbows. I just love how great this little guy came out. He’s so colorful and fun to play around with. Let’s move on to Peach!

I was expecting Peach to be a teepee of a figure and that’s sure what we got! From the waist down she’s just a plastic cone with tiny feet sculpted under it. But she does make for a really pretty sculpt. Her outfit is cast in two-tone pink with big ruffles on her shoulders, a blue and gold broach on her chest, and a red jeweled crown nested atop her head. The blonde hair is sculpted perfectly, and her face features those cool “realistic eyes” that we saw on the Mario Bros themselves, which feature clear plastic lenses over painted eyes.

With bubkis articulation in the legs, Peach does get a ball joint in the waist and neck, rotating hinges in her shoulders, and single hinges in her elbows. Unfortunately those balloon shoulders really inhibit much lateral movement to the point where they might as well just be rotating. All these hits to Peach’s articulation don’t really bother me too much, but in light of how agile she was in the movie, it’s fair to say this figure doesn’t really reflect that. I would have liked to see Jakks release her in her jumpsuit with better articulation, but I have a feeling this line will be one assortment and done. Oh yeah… Peach also comes with an umbrella accessory, which the cats were not at all interested in. Anyway, as limited as her play potential is, I still like her a lot.

And that brings us to the big brute, Bowser. Bowser really stole the movie for me. Sure, I was pretty liquored up, but a couple of his scenes almost had me pissing myself laughing. Anyway, this is a big and beautiful figure with some really nice texturing on most of the skin, and some cartoony bulbous aspects to the design that reflect both the movie and video games very well. He has a lot of useful articulation too, with rotating hinges all over the place, swivels in his ankles, and even two swivels in his stubby tail. Granted, he’s best displayed in his sumo-squat position, but there’s still a ton of play value here when it comes to poseability.

The coloring on this guy is also fantastic with the yellow and green blending together in certain places. The green is most pronounced on his shell, along with some brown rings around his spikes. The shock of red hair and eyebrows adds even more pop to the deco. The only thing here that grounds him are the black bands around his wrists and biceps, and even those have some silver studs to make them shine.

There’s no articulation in the mouth, but Jakks makes up for that with his electronic feature. His shell comes off to reveal a battery compartment. Pop in three AAA batteries, add a few drops of water to the concealed hole in the back of his head, and press the button hidden under one of his spikes and his mouth glows red and he blows smoke! It looks awesome, but you have to keep pressing the spike to keep the smoke flowing. Still, this is an amazing little feature and a nice surprise, as I had absolutely no idea about when I bought the figure.

Peach and Toad retail at $20, which is the same as Mario and Luigi. It’s a lot of pretty plastic, but with less articulation, it feels like these should have sold for about $15 each. Luckily, I picked them up when Target had them on sale for about that. They are both great looking figures, but they don’t have the same fun factor as the Mario Bros do. It’s even crazier when you consider that I got Bowser for only $30. He’s much bigger, has much more complicated articulation and has the electronic feature too, easily making him the best buy out of the bunch. But aside from quibbling over a few bucks, I think this assortment turned out fantastic, and I’m still hoping to get back to the theater to see this movie one more time! It would be great to see another wave out of the movie, with a different version of Peach and some of the Kongs, and with how well it’s doing, I suppose that’s possible.

Apr 19 2023

Super Mario Bros Movie: Mario and Luigi by Jakks Pacific

People who know me know I’m a SEGA guy. I had a Master System before an NES and a Genesis before an SNES. And despite some epic schoolyard brawls over which was better, I eventually learned that it’s only a rivalry if you’re a shareholder in one of the companies. Oh yeah… also, SEGA obviously lost the battle anyway. Suffice it to say that I’m still a big fan of many Mario games, and I was excited to see the movie, which turned out to be absolutely delightful. I laughed a lot and had fun picking out all the little hidden nods. Jakks Pacific gave us some toys from the movie, which had a big presence at Target, and I eventually snapped up Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, and Bowser. Today I’m having a look at the Mario Bros themselves!

Obviously, this is not Jakks first outing for Mario. They’ve had an extensive run of toys based on the games for a while now, and I even reviewed their 4-inch Mario and Luigi figures all the way back in 2015. These new offerings weigh in at 5-inches, making them not only bigger than the regular line, but the Figma release as well. The figures come in window boxes to show off the goods and you get a big picture of Mario on front, regardless of what character is inside. With the black backdrops, these aren’t the most striking package designs out there, but they do let the figure do the talking, and in this case that ain’t a bad thing. Let’s start with Mario!

So, first off, I love that the movie did not mess with the look of the characters at all. These aren’t updated or modernized or any of that nonsense. These could have been based on one of the recent games and I wouldn’t know any difference. The proportions are really nice, with Mario having a short and chunky build and a gloriously big head. A lot of the coloring on this figure is in the plastic, which makes for some bright and shiny colors that really pop and not a lot of room for paint flubs. And what paint is here is pretty sharp and clean. I especially like the shiny gold paint used on the clips for his overalls. Sculpted detail is kept to a minimum to convey the cartoony look, but you do get some stitching around the overalls and laces in the shoes.

Oddly enough, one of the call out features on the boxes are the “realistic eyes” which leads me to believe the person who wrote that has never seen real human eyeballs. I’m kidding, and clearly its referring to the way the eyes are designed with actual clear plastic lenses and the eyeball painted behind it. It gives a bit of an illusion that the figure’s eyes are moving to always look at you. It’s not really that spectacular an effect, but the eyes do look great and I think it’s cool that they tried something creative like that. The rest of the head sculpt is spot-on Mario with a bulbous nose and big broom of a mustache. The hat actually looks like it’s a separate sculpt and attached to the head. Que Bella!

When you get down to it, the articulation here really isn’t all that different than the older 4-inch figures, and that’s not a bad thing. The knees are still single hinges, the hips are ball jointed and you get rotating hinges in the shoulders. The big difference here is the rotating hinges in the elbows, which offers a bit more display options. Mario is still a chunky little dude, so the range of motion is limited, but he can still run, jump, and do the usual Mario things. All the joints feel great, and overall the figure has a great in-hand feel that begs to be played with.

Mario comes with one accessory and that’s his plunger. It’s simple, his right hand is sculpted to hold it, and here’s where my only nitpick with the figure lies. I usually talk about price at the end, but let’s do it here. These figures debuted at $20 and that’s a spicy meatball! They really needed some more extras to justify that price. A simple power-up block, a super star, a little static Goomba… anything would have helped. Heck, even Jakks’ smaller and cheaper 4-inch line each came with a cardboard power up box with a little mystery bonus accessory in there. OK, let’s move on to Luigi!

I don’t want to snub Green-Mario, but pretty much everything I said for Mario holds true here and I don’t have much else to say other than the figure looks fantastic. Luigi is taller and a little less chunky, and his overalls are darker blue, but that just makes the bright green pop all the more. Because of his longer legs and arms, it’s a little easier to get Luigi into those running poses, but the points of articulation are all the same.

Luigi’s accessory is a flashlight, which he carries in the movie and while it’s not the same style as in the games, it’s still appropriate if you’re a fan of his Haunted Mansion series. I really liked that a number of his solo scenes in the movie paid homage to those games. The flashlight is a bit more substantial than Mario’s plunger, but again, just getting the one accessory hurts the value a lot. In the movie he carried a tool bag for a while and maybe they could have given one figure the bag and the other the stuff to put in it.

I picked up Mario as soon as I saw him and while I loved the figure, the price point seemed too high to go in on the rest of the lot. But shortly after these got released, Target put them on sale for $13.99 each and that’s when I grabbed the remaining three figures. I guess they started to sell really well, because shortly after they went back to $20 and they seem to be holding there at most retailers now. I think $15 would have been the magic number. But quibbling about pricing aside, these really are excellent figures. The simple sculpts capture the character’s perfectly, the colors look great, and they are fun to play around with. Next week, I’ll finish up this assortment with a look at Toad, Peach, and Bowser!

Oct 24 2022

Marvel Legends (Armadillo Wave): Miles Morales and Armadillo Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

It’s another Marvel Monday and I am at the tail end of opening the Spider-Man themed Armadillo Wave! So, let’s put this wave to bed today with a look at the last packaged figure, Miles Morales, and then we’ll cobble together the Armadillo BAF and check him out!

Miles is a GamerVerse figure, and we’ve seen this style of packaging deco before. It has a spiffy white top to set it apart from the regular comic and MCU releases. I believe Miles here is from the follow-up or pseudo-sequel or something to do with the PS4 Spider-Man game. God, I sound so freaking old when talking about video games now. That’s probably because I’ve been spending more time on my Atari consoles than my PS4. And I STILL have not played the PS4 Spider-Man game, but it’s over there on the shelf, waiting to be unwrapped, installed, update my system, update the game, than download the patch, and by then I realize my controller isn’t charged and I go back to playing Dreamcast or NES or anything else that’s more plug-and-play and doesn’t require a 30 hour investment in time. But hey… let’s look open Miles!

Well, this is without a doubt, the best Spidey suit we got in this wave. That may seem like a back-handed compliment, but I really do like this design a lot and Hasbro did a nice job giving it the figure treatment. There’s some very cool texturing on the suit, as well as some sculpted panel lining which makes it feel like it would be right at home as an MCU version. Even the detail on the gloves is excellent! The crimson deco on the chest, back, and shoulders really pops against the black suit and all of it is incorporated into the sculpt. The texturing is bound to mess with the paint application a bit, but here we didn’t do too badly.

You get two head sculpts here, one masked and one unmasked. The masked head is very good with some fairly sharp webbing. There’s a little slop around the white eye lenses of the mask, but you have to punch in pretty close to see it.

The unmasked head is also solid, with just a few things holding it back. I really dig the facial features and I’d say this could work just as well as a comic figure as a video game figure. On the downside, I could have done without the mold line running across the top of the hair. I definitely prefer when Hasbro casts the hair separately and attaches it to the head as opposed to the head and hair being all one piece. Also, the head sits really weird on the neck, like it’s jutting forward too much. It looks a lot better when viewed from dead on and neither of these things are enough to really ruin the figure for me.

The articulation is identical to the previous two Spider-Man figures in this wave, so I won’t go through it all. But, are we going to talk hands again? You betcha! If you’ve checked out my other reviews of this assortment, you know it’s all been about the hands. And Miles FINALLY gives us the crawling hands with the splayed fingers that should have been included with the Integrated Suit Spidey. He also comes with fists and thwippy hands, as well as one more set…

Translucent glowy electro hands! I’m guessing these are supposed to convey his Venom Strike ability in the game? Again, I haven’t played the it, but it sure looks like these are representing a bio-electrical discharge of some sort. I freaking love these! They look really cool on the figure and make for a nice contrast against the black suit.

I didn’t have a lot of interest in Miles going in to this review, but he’s definitely one of the better figures in this assortment. The suit looks great and he’s fun to mess around with. He also gives me the last BAF part I need, so let’s move on to Armadillo.

Armadillo is built from a total of six pieces, scattered across the wave. Technically seven, if you count his removable back piece, but that came attached to the back and not separately. With seven figures in the assortment, you could have skipped the Integrated Suit Spidey and still got all the pieces. Personally, I would have rather skipped Black & Gold Suit Spidey, but I imagine Hasbro was well aware of that. Putting him together is the standard formula of popping the arms, legs, and head into the torso and everything was a pretty easy fit.

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Armadillo is a character. His back story and motivations are about as cliche as you can get. BUT, I sure do love the way he looks and I absolutely love this figure! He really is a perfect candidate for BAF treatment, as he’s big and burly, and his armored shell pieces look fantastic. The way his armor plates are sculpted give the figure a lot of depth, and these are are textred very nicely. He’s also sporting some vicious looking claws on his fingers and toes. You get all the usual articulation with these beefy BAFs, and while he may not have a great range of motion in those elbows, everything else is pretty good. Speaking of elbows, the right elbow on my figure is seized, which means this big boi is going to have to take a boil bath in a big pot!

And how about that head sculpt! Clearly, this is not the kind of Armadillo that gets bounced off your front bumper at 2am. I love the way the armadillo plates form a helmet leaving only his face exposed. The expression is pure nightmare fuel, with those soulless white eyes and the wall of gritting teeth. Every line and crease in his anger-stricken face is chiseled to perfection. And herein is one of the things that makes Marvel Legends so much fun. Hasbro can take a character I’m not even really vested in and still make me excited to own that character as an action figure.

Ultimately, I’m a bit lukewarm on this wave. I didn’t like any of the two Spidey Suits from No Way Home, and while the Black & Gold figure is pure garbage, the Integrated Suit figure isn’t that bad. Morlun was kind of OK and MCU Doctor Strange is probably the best version of MCU Strange we’ve had yet. Shriek is a great figure, but not the version I wanted, and while I would have rather had younger J. Jonah from the Raimi Spider-Man films, I’ll happily take this one instead. And in the end, I will say that collecting this wave was well worth it to get the Armadillo BAF, because he’s great and I got most of these figures on deep discount anyway. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but there we are! On the next few Marvel Mondays I’m going to be checking out some boxed sets and stand alones, before jumping into another Wave.

Oct 19 2022

Golden Axe: Gilius Thunderhead and Chickenleg Mount by Storm Collectibles

I can still remember how blown away I was when I got Storm Collectibles’ Ax Battler and the Red Dragon Mount figures in my hands. Never in a million years did I think I’d ever get action figures based on one of my favorite SEGA games, let alone anything so nice. And I sure as hell didn’t dare hope that they would spin it into an entire line of figures that just keeps on going. Not long ago pre-orders dropped for the Bad Brothers, and today for Heninger and Long Moan. So, it’s long overdue that I wrap up my look at the three playable characters of Golden Axe with the mighty Dwarf Gilius and his Chickenleg Mount!

Gilius has been with me for a little while now, but it’s been a struggle to find enough time to sit down and do him proper justice. To be fair, I rarely ever play as Gilius in the game. Instead I tend to alternate between the brute force of Ax Battler or the nimble magic of Tyris Flare. But I was still super excited to get his figure in hand. The packaging is the same style window box we saw with the other two characters, but the quality of the cardboard doesn’t seem as flimsy as that initial Ax Battler release. The window allows you a good look at Gilius, with Chickenleg on a plastic tray behind him. I removed Chickenleg’s back tray for the packaged shot to better show the character select graphic printed behind the tray. Let’s drop in a quarter and get started!

Here’s Gilius out of the box and ready for action! He may be a Dwarf, but he is still a very substantial figure. He’s also wearing more clothes than either of his peers, and that’s probably a good thing. The green tunic is cast in soft plastic and features a coarse texture and ragged cut edges along the arm holes and the skirt. It’s cinched around his waist with a black sculpted belt and a gold belt buckle. And if I squint a little bit, I can imagine the belt buckle is a “G” for Gilius… but not really. The outfit is rounded out by a pair of brown boots and white wrist wrappings. And while Gilius doesn’t show as much skin as Ax Battler or Tyris, you still get plenty of burly muscles on display in his bare arms and legs. This guy looks like a powerhouse!

Once again, you get two head sculpts to choose from, although I hope you like your Dwarves pissed off , because that’s the expression you get with both of them! Both are excellent sculpts, with the first one conveying an “I’m determined to kick every ass in this game with just one credit” expression and boy is it bone chilling! This is by far the best portrait of the three warriors and it just oozes character and personality. The contours of the face are wonderfully realized and the detail in the sculpted beard is just phenomenal. Gilius’ horned skull cap features some nice silver dry brushing to give the green paint a weathered look, and the horns are given a metallic silver sheen.

The second portrait really is more of the same, only this time his teeth are bared a little, which I think makes this the head to go for when posing him in the heat of battle. There is, unfortunately, a little dribble of silver paint on this head’s helmet, just above his right eyebrow. It’s not cataclysmic, but I will try to remove it.

The articulation shares most of the same points as the other two heroes. You get a wonderful range of motion in those double-hinged knees and elbows, swivels in the biceps, and the hinges in his feet. I’m not sure what’s buried under the soft plastic of the tunic, but most of the articulation in his torso seems to come from a ball joint in the waist. Despite his stout stature, Gilius is just as much fun to play around with as the other figures. You get a total of three sets of hands with the figure: A pair of fists, a pair of clutching hands, and a pair of weapon-holding hands.

Gilius comes with one accessory, and that’s his trusty Battleax! It’s a no-nonsense chopper and yet it still makes for a beautiful double-bladed weapon with a satin-silver finish, and some scrapes and nicks to the blade. The holding-hands do a great job of clutching it tightly, so he can wield it one-handed or with both and cut a swath through the legions of Skeleton Warriors that I have been amassing! OK, now let’s have a look at Chickenleg!

Of course, only his friends call him that! Technically this weirdo is a pink-purplish Cockatrice, or Biblical chicken-dragon if you prefer, and if you know your way around SEGA coin-ops you may have first met him in Altered Beast. While I love the Dragon Mounts, Chickenleg is the one I tend to associate with the game the most. That’s probably because back when I was a noob, I got to ride him the most as he appears early on in the first level. I also quickly learned the fine art of tail-slap-spamming to juggle The Bad Brothers to defeat.

And Storm surely did Chickenleg proud with this figure! The sculpt is just beautiful from the poultry-like bumps of his skin to the feathered flame-like tip of his tail. His beautiful beaked maw is stuck in a permanent open position, flashing his tongue, but he has plenty of articulation in his legs, starting at the body and working down to the single talons he has for toes. His tail swivels so it can be made to drag on the floor, or rear up for a downward slap. It helps to balance him, although he is capable of standing up on his feet without the tail support.

Naturally, Chickenleg comes with a saddle for Gilius, or any of the other players, to ride him. Chickenleg doesn’t have stirrups or reins like the Dragons, but he does have horns coming off his saddle, which can be held by the hero riding him. I didn’t have any problems with him falling off, and he looks great in the saddle!

And here are some shots of Ax Battler and Tyris riding Chickenleg too!

And Gilius can also mount either of the Dragons perfectly fine, so long as you don’t want his legs to reach the stirrups!

It’s funny, but while Gilius is the character I select the least often in the game, I think his figure may be my favorite of this trio. Sure, it’s tough to choose as they are all great, but I had a hell of a lot of fun playing around with Gilius and I think Storm outdid themselves with this sculpt! And even now that I’ve given each the spotlight and put them on the shelf along with all the skeletons and Death Adder and Death Adder Jr, it’s still hard for me to believe that these are real. Even if Storm stops the line now, I’d be more than content with this marvelous plastic pixel bounty, but as long as they keep going, I’ll continue to be All In!

Sep 5 2022

Marvel Gallery: GamerVerse Spider-Man by Diamond Select

Since I’m between waves of Marvel Legends, I thought I’d take this week’s Marvel Monday as an opportunity to check out another Marvel Gallery statue by Diamond Select. I’ve cut down on my buying of these statues quite a bit, not because I don’t like them, but rather they just take up a lot of space that I don’t have. And while I don’t mind storing action figures in boxes, it seems silly to buy statues and not have them on display. Still, every now and then one shows up at a price I can’t resist, and that was the case with this one!

As the name suggests, this statue is inspired by the Spider-Man PlayStation game, which I own but still have not gotten around to playing. Although, I do have a vacation coming up with nothing planned, so I may remedy that soon. As always, the packaging for this line is superb, with windows on the front, top, and both side panels, and the statue itself encased between two transparent trays. The box lets in plenty of light, and I do actually display most of these in the box, almost like it’s its own display case. On the back you get a picture of the statue and a little write-up about Spider-Man, just in case you’re considering purchasing the statue, but don’t know who he is. Let’s open up the box and see what we got!

Diamond’s Gallery statues tend to waffle between subdued museum-style poses, and those with a hint of action. Both have their merits, but I think the composition of this piece really shows the excitement that a good action pose can deliver. Spidey looks like he just landed on the roof of the cab and is instantly ready to fire off his web at an unseen foe. It could easily pass for cover art, and that’s a great compliment. Yes sir, I like this pose a lot!

One of the big features of the game is the ability to unlock a bunch of different suits, and pictured here is Spider-Man’s Advanced Suit, probably best distinguished by the large, white spider emblems on the front and back. This seems to be one of the most prominent suits featured in the game, as I see it merchandised a lot, and I like it enough to have plunked down the scratch for the Hot Toys release some time ago. I think it’s the colors that make it so appealing to me, as the white really compliments the bright blue and red of the rest of the suit. I especially like the return of this particular shade of blue dominating this costume. It’s far more appealing to me than the darker blue or black of some of Spidey’s MCU outings. Regardless, the colors are beautifully represented on this statue, and when mixed with the bright yellow of the cab roof, this statue is a feast for the eye!

Just about every detail of the suit is part of the sculpt, from the deep cuts in the web pattern to the puffed out reinforced seams. There’s a nice wash to bring out the webbing on the red portion of the suit, as well as add a little definition to the muscles, while the blue portions are left clean and slick. The figure does a splendid job of capturing Spider-Man’s physique, with the suit fitting him like a second skin. Overall, the paint lines are solid, but there is definitely some slop around the longer white spider legs on the front of the suit. The closer you get in, the more apparent it is, but it’s not something that is going to bother me while I’m admiring this piece on the shelf. It ain’t bad for a budget statue, and truth be told, I’ve seen worse on more expensive pieces.

The portrait is great, albeit not at all expressive. You don’t get any variance in the apertures of his eyes, nor do you get any hint of the contours of Peter’s face under the mask. Still, the portrait exudes a confidence, which I like. After all, isn’t that why Peter wears the mask? So his foes can’t see his fear! Either way, it came out really nice and I particular love the texture they gave to the eye pieces. Very nice!

Diamond often refers to these Gallery Statues as PVC Dioramas, but I think that has more to do with their licensing scope, as a lot of them have simple bases and are anything but dioramas. Here, it’s nice to see the phrase being applicable, as the top portion of the cab makes for a wonderful base, which not only tells a story, but frames Spider-Man in his home environment. The base incorporates just enough of the cab roof to sell it, and the Daily Bugle advertisement is just icing on the cake! It’s just absolutely perfect.

Diamond rarely disappoints me with their Gallery line, so when I say that I think this is one of the better ones, that’s meant as high praise. Sure, you have to keep in mind that these are budget statues, with MSRPs of about fifty bucks, but even taking that into consideration, I think these are a great value. Go back and read some of my old Kotobukiya reviews, and you’ll see that I rarely wrote one where I didn’t say they were some of the best values in statues out there. Well, now Koto’s statues retail for about twice what they used to, forcing me to pass that trophy along to Diamond Select and these Gallery Statues. This one just really captures the character perfectly, and the colors are just phenomenal. It also doesn’t hurt that I grabbed this one on sale for only thirty bucks!

Aug 5 2022

Doom Eternal: Classic Doom Slayer by McFarlane Toys

It’s hard for me to think of a video game franchise that has stayed as consistently fantastic as Doom. It’s one of those games that I can vividly remember playing for the first time when it was released, and it’s crazy to look back at how unnerved playing it made me. Little did I know what was to come! The series spawned some amazing sequels and map packs, before going away for a while. It came back as Doom 3, and while this wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I thought it was a pretty great game, albeit a very new direction for the series. The modern updates, Doom and Doom Eternal, would eventually deliver that one-two punch of pure visceral action that most fans were looking for, and these two remain among my favorite video game updates of all time. I’d go so far to consider the 2016 release of Doom about as perfect a game as I have ever played. Crazy to think that until now I didn’t have any Doom toys, right?

Well, in fairness there haven’t been a whole bunch. Heck even Quake II did a lot better on that front. McFarlane eventually scooped up the license, and it took me until their release of the Classic Doom Slayer to get me to bite. Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of McFarlane’s figures, but I thought The Witcher releases turned out pretty good, and so I’ve been picking up a few of their other figures here and there. Doom Slayer comes in a window box with a giant gold sticker, proclaiming this as part of their Gold Label Collection. I honestly have no idea what that means. I’ll also point out that this is released under the Doom Eternal license, because the Classic Doom look was available as an unlockable skin. Let’s check out Mr. Doom Guy!

Out of the package, I think this guy looks pretty sweet, even with one glaringly non-authentic element. McFarlane built him like a tank, which he would have to be to face the unending onslaught of hell demons. I am not at all a fan of the Predator-style shoulder cannon, as it’s just a little too much on the nose and looks really out of place with the Classic gear, but the rest is just fine. This cleaner and simpler look really scratches my itch when compared to the hyper-detailed look of the modern Doom Slayer armor. Hell, I love how OG Doom Guy is barely even wearing much armor. Hell, he’s got short sleeves, and a little exposed window in his gut that basically says, “Dear Hellspawn, Please Slash Here! Go On… Try It!” His upper body is kitted out with shoulders and protective hear not unlike that of a Football player. And even this setup is bulkier than what we saw him wearing in the original art, but it still looks great to me, complete with the wear and tear sculpted into the armor. The military-style trousers have some very nice detail in the stitching and the various rumples and wrinkles. He’s got some heavy duty knee pads, and some big chonky boots. The belt is nice too, with sculpted pouches and some ammo across the front of his waist.

If the sculpt takes a few liberties, I think the colors really nail the original look quite brilliantly. The bright green on the upper body really pops and contrasts with the darker greens used for the rest of the fatigues. The flesh tone for the exposed skin looks nice, and you get some additional silver paint hits for the fixtures and snaps on his gear. I really dig this deco!

And the helmet! Oh, boy do I love this helmet! You get the grill on top, the chonky cheeks, and the snout-like breathing unit on the front. It’s a nice mix of functional design and possibly intentional intimidation factor. The silver-gray paint looks sharp without looking shiny and new, and the sculpt has plenty of battle wear, including scrapes and some pock marks. The visor is exceptionally well done, in that it has a bit of a clouded look to it, and while it’s completely opaque matte paint, it almost looks like if you get in close enough you could catch a glimpse through it.

If there’s one place this figure stumbles it’s in the accessories. Doom Guy should have an arsenal at his disposal, and the figure only includes a gun and an arm blade attachment. And yes, the arm blade is the same one that came with McFarlane’s regular Doom Slayer, and it doesn’t really belong on this Doom Guy. Oh what I wouldn’t give for a chainsaw! Still, it looks really cool, and it’s a beautifully sculpted piece, so it’s hard to get mad at it. Plus, it’s entirely removable if you’d rather not display the figure with it. When all is said and done, I believe I will leave it on him.

And that brings us to the Doom Eternal Super Shotgun with the meat hook attachment. Once again, it’s a beautiful accessory and a very nice representation of the weapon from the game. And yet this one pisses me off, because the least McFarlane could have done was sculpt us a Classic Super Shotgun for this figure. I’ll also toss it out there that with the limited range in the elbow articulation, he can’t really pose with it all that well, nor could I get his off-hand to cradle the foregrip.

And finally, you do get a standard McFarlane figure stand, and these things are just the bare minimum worst. It’s a black disc with a peg and the Doom logo stamped on it. These always seem too small for the figures, and I’m not even bothering to take it off the packaging.

Yeah, I’m kind of missing the point of this figure, since it is emphatically not supposed to be the Doom Guy from the original game. But I knew that going in, and tried keeping that in mind while taking a look at him. I would have liked a legit release of the original Doom Guy, and this is simply my consolation prize, and it’s a damn nice figure at that. I’d definitely be down to pick up some of the Demons from the game if McFarlane committed to making a bunch of them, but for now I think this figure will be a one-off for me to place in my Gaming Room.

Jun 24 2022

Sonic The Hedgehog 2: The Tornado by Jakks Pacific

If you hadn’t noticed, I skipped Wednesday this week. It was partly because I went really long on my Monday review, and partly because I was being lazy and opted for floating in the pool all afternoon and playing video games all night. But, I’m back to wrap up the week today with a look at some Sonic the Hedgehog toys! I have a lot of Sonic toys, but the zippy hedgehog has only graced FFZ once before when I looked at Jakks’ Greenhill Zone playset. Eventually I hope to get to all the Sonic toys, but this time I’m having a look at some toys from the second Sonic movie!

When the first Sonic movie went streaming, I originally put it on to hate watch it, but I fell in love about twenty minutes in. It was unbearably charming and I felt that it did my blue boi proud. The second film doubled down and while there were some decidedly odd choices for sub-plots, I still loved it. When I first saw this set with the Tornado biplane scaled for the 2.5-inch figures, I was really excited to get it. And then I couldn’t find it outside of scalpers on Ebay and Mecari. And wouldn’t you know it, just when I stopped looking it turned up on a Walmart clearance endcap! Plus, that Walmart was right across the street from a Sonic restaurant, allowing me to celebrate my good fortune with a chili and cheese dog! The Tornado requires a bit of assembly, but nothing too crazy, but let’s check out the figures first!

As already mentioned, these figures are part of the 2.5-inch line, which means they’re pretty small, but they do scale with the above mentioned Green Zone Playset (which I used as a backdrop!) and the other accessories. The articulation is pretty decent for figures this size, with rotating hinges in the hips and shoulders, ball jointed heads, and Tails has his tails on a ball joint as well.

As much as I loved Sonic’s look in the movie, I don’t think it translated all that well to this figure. It’s not bad, but there’s just something off about it. There’s a bit of a furry texture to him, which is at odds with the familiar smooth and cartoony look of the game figures. I do like the head sculpt, so in the end I’ll chalk it up to the proportions. The paint may look a bit sloppy in some areas, but keep in mind just how small these little guys are.

While, I may be a bit iffy on Sonic, the Tails figure is a home run! He still has the furry texturing, but I think this little guy still works just fine as a game-based figure. Plus, he has the flight helmet and goggles, which ties him directly to The Tornado. The only downside to this little fella is that he cannot stand on his own unless you turn his tails down and use them as a tripod to support him being upright.

And then there’s The Tornado, which was obviously inspired by The Sky Chase Zone in the Sonic 2 game, and the big reason why I was after this toy in the first place. Sure, the colors and markings aren’t a perfect match for the game version, but it’s close enough for me! It’s a pretty simple toy, but like the movie, it’s just oozing charm and it’s a lot of fun. The plastic used for the wing supports is pretty soft, but once its assembled it’s a solid enough toy. There’s even a play gimmick where you can pump the back wheel like a trigger to make the propeller spin.

The cockpit is designed with a shelf behind the seat, so Tails can sit in it and still have room to rest his large, bushy tails, and he looks absolutely fantastic in it! When I first saw the solicitation pictures of the toy, I kind of assumed that Tails would be permanently attached to the plane, so it was a pleasant surprise to later find out he was an actual figure that could sit in it.

The Tornado also has a bunch of pegs and grab bars so that Sonic can interact with it, making for a lot of fun display options.

If Walmart’s original listing can be believed, this thing sold for $60 originally. Now, I’m not saying I wouldn’t have paid that if I found it, but I’m crazy, and that price tag seems ridiculously high for what you’re getting. Thirty bucks would have seemed like a reasonable price, and I was happy to find it for $20 on clearance. Considering I’ve wanted a toy of The Sky Chase biplane since the 90’s, this release scratches a very old itch, and I’m thrilled to have it to display in my Game Room on the shelf above my Genesis and Master System games, but I imagine it’s a pretty cool toy for any kids who were just a big fan of the film, providing such a demographic actually exists!

May 25 2022

Golden Axe: Tyris Flare and Blue Dragon Mount by Storm Collectibles

If you’ve been hanging around here the last year or so, then you know how much I’ve been digging Storm Collectibles’ line of figures based on the SEGA Golden Axe arcade brawler. I’ll refer you back my look at the first release, Axe Battler, but there have also been an assortment of Skeletons, as well as Death Adder and his clones. Yessir, I love me some Golden Axe, even if it is singularly responsible for me still misspelling the word Ax just about every damn time. When Axe Battler was first revealed, I remember crying about how I would happily shell out the money to buy a repaint of the Red Dragon Mount if it meant getting us Tyris Flare, and happily Storm Collectibles has obliged!

Of course, Tyris Flare being one of the three playable characters in Golden Axe. She has stronger magical abilities, seems to move and attack a bit faster, but lacks the tank-like constitution of the burly Axe Battler. The packaging here is quite similar to that previous release, although the art and quality of the box feel slightly more polished. This box didn’t immediately tear when I opened it! You still get the cool artwork from the character select screen on an insert in the back of the box. Tyris comes on a tray with all her extras spread out around her, while the her Dragon Mount is secured in a tray under that one, and requiring his tail to be popped on before display. Let’s start with a look at Tyris!

Definitely one of the hottest pixelated babes to grace my SEGA Genesis, Tyris shows up to the fight wearing a skimpy bikini, white with red borders, as well as a pair of matching arm bracers, and high buccaneer-style boots. The bikini is sculpted as part of the figure, and Storm did some clever stuff, like using the straps on the back to help conceal the seams in the rather copious amount of jointing found here. I say “help conceal”, because it really doesn’t succeed completely. For a figure that shows this much skin, the jointing here can be pretty noticeable. It’s nothing worse than we saw with Axe Battler, and this is definitely a case where the added articulation is worth the sacrifice. Still, I wouldn’t mind seeing TBLeague take a crack at this line with their Phicen Seamless bodies. With all that having been said, I think she looks great, and they did an especially nice job sculpting the musculature in her abs.

As with Axe Battler, you get two different heads: One with a fairly neutral expression, and one showing her battle face. I think both are excellent and reflect the beauty of the character. I can’t decide on a favorite so I’ll likely switch off depending on what kind of poses I use for displaying her. The hair is sculpted separately from the head, and that adds a lot of nice depth to it, especially the way her bangs fall over her forehead. This piece can actually be removed, similar to a Figma or Figuart, but I’m not sure why, since we aren’t swapping faces here, but rather the entire head.

I do like how her fierce expression head has more going on with her hair. It’s splayed out down near her shoulders, as if her coif is whipping around from the action of the battle.

In addition to the two heads, Tyris comes with a whole passel of different hands. You get Fists, sword-holding hands, relaxed hands, grapple hands, and finger-pointing hands. Some of these really add some nice options while posing her.

And posing her sure is fun. Her articulation consists of a lot of rotating joints, double-hinges, and double-sided ball joints. It’s also worth mentioning that, like Axe Battler, the balance on this figure is quite impressive. She’s even capable of standing on her tip-toes without the assist of a stand! Axe Battler spent a long time on my desk so that I could grab him and fiddle about with him on my downtime, and I imagine that will be the case with Ms. Flare as well. She’s just lots of fun to play around with and damn hard to put down!

Apart from a whole bunch of hands, Tyris comes with her trusty sword, and it’s an absolutely gorgeous little weapon. The blade has a bright silver finish, with raised gold decorations running nearly half the length of the blade. The hilt has a dark iron finish, with a down-turned crossguard, and an extended grip so the sword can be wielded single or double-handed. It’s easy to get the grip into either or both of her hands, and she holds it just firmly enough to keep it from slipping. Let’s move on to the Dragon Mount!

I won’t spend a whole lot of time on this glorious blue beast, because he really is a straight repaint of Axe Battler’s Red Mount. It was a strikingly beautiful toy then, and it’s every bit as beautiful with its new coat of paint. The blue looks really nice, although the pea-soup green used for the claws, belly, reins, and saddle makes the figure not as flashy as it could have been. The pixel art in the game utilized a bit brighter shade for these parts, but I can’t say I dislike what we got.

The head is an amazing sculp, featuring some exceptional detail in the fins, horns, and the texturing of the skin. You get a little gradient to the shade of blue at the tips of the horns and fins, as well as the beak. The individual teeth are painted white, and the tongue a very bright red.

As with Axe Battler and his Mount, Tyris fits perfectly on the Blue Dragon, and looks damn good riding him. Her feet pass through the stirrups, and her sword-hands can be used to grip the reins and lead the dragon into battle! As I mentioned in the Red Dragon review, I would have liked to have a little more lateral movement in the legs to give him a wider stance, but they really just rotate where they meet the body. Nonetheless, the figure stands well, even with a rider on his back.

One nice surprise here is the change of dragon breath effect parts. In the game, the Red Dragon shot fireballs and the Blue Dragon had more of a flamethrower attack. That is conveyed here with this gigantic flame effect part. It simply rests on the ground with the other end fitting into the dragon’s mouth.

Wow… it’s so cool to finally have Tyris on my shelf! When Axe Battler first released, I could only hope that he wasn’t going to be a one-off release, but now it’s clear that Storm is continuing to play with extra credits! Yes, they have been milking some of the molds by giving us lots of two dragon mounts, skeleton variants and Death Adder clones, but if that’s what they have to do to make this line work, I’m still All-In! I’m still hoping we get some more rank-and-file enemies, like Heninger, Longmoan, and the Amazons. So far, the only brand new figure teased are The Bad Brothers, and I’m patiently waiting for that pre-order to drop!

Jan 26 2022

Golden Axe: Death Adder by Storm Collectibles

YES! I love SEGA! And YES! I love Golden Axe! I won’t start verbally fapping about the franchise again here, but feel free to check out my reviews of Ax Battler and The Skeleton Soldiers, if you need a reminder! In fairness, most of my experience with the games isn’t in the coin-op form, but rather at home on my SEGA Genesis. I even recently picked up a custom cart of Golden Axe 3, which never released for the US Genesis, but now I can play it anyway! Suffice it to say, I’m very nearly all in on Storm Collectibles’ Golden Axe figures. There are a few Skeleton variants that I haven’t dropped money on yet… YET!!! But I’m just so happy to see these figures getting made.

And so, BEHOLD! DEATH ADDER!!! After Golden Axe is done wiping the floor with you with common enemies, you are rewarded with fighting Death Adder as the final boss! Or is he??? I have a feeling that he might have been taking orders… ah, but that’s just me being paranoid. The figure comes in a window box in the same style as the previous releases, with a lot of extra plastic wrap to make it had to really see the figure inside all that clearly. The illustrated backing for the tray also recreates the character select screen, just like the previous packages did.

And out of the box, Death Adder is quite the bruiser, standing more than head and shoulders above Ax Battler and the Skeletons. He’s also a relatively simple figure, albeit one that does a fabulous job bringing the sprite-based 16-bit villain into a more realistic action figure form! One of the things you may first notice about him is that he’s built with seamless elbow and knee joints, using flexible rubber plastic to cover the internal skeleton. It makes for a great effect, especially since the shoulder and hip joints are somewhat obscured by his armor. On the downside, he doesn’t have anywhere near the range of motion that we got in the Ax Battler body, so it’s a compromise. I dig it, and for a lumbering brute, I’m not sure I need Death Adder to be as nimble as our hero. But while we’re on the subject of articulation, my figure has a loose right ankle hinge. It isn’t broken, but the two halves of the hinged ball separate from time to time. It’s more annoying than a critical fault, but worth mentioning nonetheless!

Death Adder’s buff bod features some wonderfully sculpted muscles, something that Storm has gotten quite adept at delivering. His bulging arms are positively ripped with veins and tendons, making him look like he can tear The Player apart without any need of weapons. His armor is cast in soft plastic with a shiny red finish. The segmented plates look great and there’s a bit of a hammered finish to the shoulder armor. You also get a healthy assortment of different hands, including fists, relaxed, palm-smash, clutching, and weapon holding hands!

As far as the portrait goes, Death Adder comes with two heads, which can be swapped out under his rather epic helmet. Both are human-appearing head sculpts, painted black with yellow piercing eyes. I tend to like the regular one, because my imagination always suggested that Death Adder didn’t have a regular face under that helmet. I don’t know what I thought he had, but I guess I just expected it was something mysterious, similar to an Orko or Warduke. That having been said, I think the gritted teeth expression looks quite good!

Death Adder comes with one accessory, and that’s his giant golden axe! It’s big an imposing, but fairly light and easy for him to wield in either one hand, or both. I really like the gold finish on this weapon. It’s just so lush and satiny, with some silver for the edges.

I pre-ordered this big guy way back when and he’s been waiting for his time in the spotlight for a while now! I seem to recall dropping $115 on him, which isn’t so bad considering how big and chonky he is. And it looks like Storm is re-releasing all of their Golden Axe figures for people who missed out, as pre-orders have gone up again around all the usual places. I think he’s an excellent figure, although the seamless jointing may end up being a polarizing point among some collectors.