Tag Archives: x-men

Jun 6 2013

Marvel: Mystique Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

I’ve been dropping my bucket into Koto’s Bishoujo well a lot this past month and now that I have some momentum I’m really starting to aggressively fill out the missing pieces in my collection. Today we look at Koto’s sexy anime take on that blue shape-shifting femme fatale of the X-Men… It’s Mystique!

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Hey, we’ve seen the Bishoujo line’s packaging here plenty of times and apart from being the smallest box in my collection, it’s business as usual. The box is mostly white with generous windows to show off the goods, although the statue is wrapped in plastic and snugly nestled between two plastic trays so you can’t get the full effect until you get Mystique out of there. She comes separate from her display base, so you just need to plug her in and you’re good to go. As usual, the artwork is gorgeous. The first thing I always enjoy doing with these statues is scrutinize the statue and the source art. It’s fun to do and it rarely disappoints. And just to show you that I always read all the copy on the back of the box, I actually learned something here. Mystique first appeared in Ms. Marvel in 1978. I like to assume I know a thing or two about the Marvel Universe, but that little nugget of knowledge was new to me.

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I usually discuss the pose first, but in this case let me start by saying how happy I am that Koto went with the classic look here, as opposed to the more modern black outfit. It’s not that I dislike the newer look, but with X-23, Black Cat, and Black Widow on my Bishoujo shelf, I’m all for adding a little more color and Mystique teams up with the likes of Power Girl and Wonder Woman to brighten things up a lot. Besides, this outfit is far more iconic to me. That having been said, Mystique is posed on her knees, her back arched ever so slightly, Uzi submachine gun in one hand and her other hand running through her wild hair. It’s a fantastic pose, very seductive, and giving off a come hither look… come hither so I can murder you with my submachine gun! Also, since she’s shorter, she fits nicely in the front row of my display beside X-23 without blocking the view of statues in the back.

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I really dig the portrait here, although I do find it borderlines on being a tad creepy. It’s all in the eyes. They’re appropriately yellow and marvelously unsettling. The paintwork on her lips and razor thin eyebrows is excellent and I’m impressed by the way her sculpted hair falls all around her shoulders and her left arm. There may be a little too much of the translucent effect on the hair for me here. I would have liked the hair to be a tad more vibrant, but I’m nitpicking. The adorable little skull on her widow’s peak finishes off the portrait perfectly.

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The body features a gorgeous pearlescent plastic for her dress, gloves, and stiletto boots. The stitching and wrinkles are perfectly reproduced and remind me a bit of the Power Girl statue, although Kara’s outfit looked like heavier latex, whereas Mystiques looks like a lighter, shimmery material. If you look closely enough at the boots, you can see a subtle texturing that contrasts nicely with the smoother texture of her skin. It’s that little attention to detail that I love so much about this line. And speaking of skin, Koto used the perfect shade of blue. Even when displayed on a shelf of a dozen excellent statues, my eye is usually first drawn to the pearl and blue beauty of this piece. The skull belt is a separate piece and it hangs loosely on her hips, and the gun is removable from her right hand.

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About the only let down to this piece is the display base. It’s a simple clear disc. At first, I thought Koto might have included an insert like they have with their Tekken Bishoujos, but alas no. Virtually all the pre-production shots featured this statue without a base at all, and I always wondered why. While there are tabs on the front and back of her dress to hold her in place on the base, you can actually display her without the base at all. I’ve recently come to appreciate the uniqueness and personality that Koto has given many of the statue basis in this line and quite frankly, I wish they had done something similar here.

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Quibbles about the base aside, Mystique is another homerun for Koto and their Bishoujo line. The sculpt and pose really captures the essence of the character while still introducing the quirkiness of the anime stylings that this series is all about. She’s also still readily available at a lot of e-tailers and at pretty good prices too. I picked up mine for under fifty bucks and in a market where quality statues are usually closer to $100 and up, I find her to be a great value.

May 20 2013

Marvel Universe: Scarlet Witch by Hasbro

Holy crap, is it Monday again already? That means it’s time for some Marvel Universe. I finally gave up on finding Scarlet Witch on the pegs. Actually, I gave up on that a while ago, it was just a matter of resigning myself to spending scalper prices on her via The Interwebs. Let’s see if Wanda was worth the extra dollars… her brother Quicksilver says she is… Oh snap! Incest jokes… do they ever get old?

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Speaking of getting old… package shot! We see it every Monday, so let’s not dwell on it. The character art is quite excellent and Scarlet Witch fills out the bubble surprisingly well for a female type. I think it’s partly the pose, partly the cape, and partly the effects part. As usual, the “Comic Shot” offends me.

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The back of the package has a really odd shot of the figure that is actually missing one of the swivel cuts in the left leg. Weird. She also has a rather lengthy bio describing her powers. It could have been summed up in just five words: “Chick can f’ck with reality.” I’m stunned to see that I actually have all the figures pictured on the back. Kang, Punisher and She-Hulk… they’re all pretty excellent. MODOK is doing his thing on the bottom of the card, sucking at Hasbro’s corporate teat. I love you MODOK and I long for the day when you will appear in a Marvel major motion picture. Let’s see the “average Joe popcorn munchers” try to wrap their brains around you! Actually, once Rocket Raccoon hits the big screen, your debut will probably be somewhat anti-climactic. Ok, enough with the jibba-jabba… let’s bust this witch out.

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The portrait is easily the best thing about this figure. The head sculpt gives Wanda a pretty face and the way her tiara (or whatever you want to call that thing) is sculpted looks mighty good for a figure in this scale. One of the top corners on my figure’s tiara is bent a little. I almost thought that was part of the sculpt, but it’s not pictured that way on the back. The hair sculpt is fantastic, particularly the way it looks from behind and the way some strands overlap the tiara. I’m also happy that the added hinge in the neck post means she avoids that whole hunched shoulder look that Jean Grey suffered from. It’s obvious Hasbro put some time and effort into the head.

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Unfortunately, the rest of the figure is pretty average. The torso looks too plain. There’s no sculpted muscle tone or anything in her stomach, making it look really basic. I like that the tops of her thigh boots are sculpted, and the high-heeled boots are ok, but she’s got some serious cankles going on. CANKLES!!! Her feet are also kind of stubby and crushed. There’s also something off about her legs. It’s really tough to make them look natural. I like the way her hands are sculpted so you can give her a nice hocus-pocus style pose. The cape is a little longer than it needs to be, but I’m guessing that might be so you can pose her slightly levitating. You can also just pull the cape back a bit so she can stand with both feet on the ground. Unfortunately, Wanda is huge when posed next to my Secret Wars Magneto. On the other hand, the paintwork on my figure is quite good. I absolutely love the shade of red they used. It’s vibrant and shiny and it suits the character very well. The purple is also a nice shade and matches up with the red to produce a very pleasing and accurate deco.

Besides the crappy “comic shot,” Scarlet Witch comes with an energy blast effects part that fits over her hand. I’ve never been a big fan of MU’s effects part. This one will likely go into a baggie and be forgotten.

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Wanda’s articulation includes ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles. She has swivels in her wrists, thighs, and again in her lower legs, just below the knees. The knees are double-hinged, and she has an additional hinge in her neck. There’s no waist swivel, but she is ball jointed in the upper torso. The big things missing are bicep swivels. I would much rather have had bicep swivels than the extra pair of swivel cuts in the lower legs.

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Scarlet Witch and I have a bad relationship when it comes to action figures. I’ve purchased the old Toy Biz Marvel Legends version of her twice now and each time I wound up with paintwork that looked worse than a botched custom job. I’m glad to finally have a decent figure of her, even if it is in the smaller scale. She’s not one of the best figures to come out of this wave, but she is a solid enough effort. I was ultimately able to get her for $15. Call me Mr. Unreasonable, but that’s more than I like to pay for my 3 ¾” figures. Nonetheless, living in one of the dark pockets of the country that gets zero Marvel Universe distribution, sometimes you just got to bite the bullet.

May 6 2013

Marvel Universe: Beast by Hasbro

Alrighty then, I’m getting Marvel Mondays back on track with Marvel Universe features as originally intended… at least for the next month or so. Today we’re looking at Beast. I’ll be honest, I was going to pass on this figure, but I found him on clearance at a really good price, so I tossed him in my virtual shopping cart. I don’t have anything against Beast, it’s just that it’s been ages since I’ve read an X-Men book, and I haven’t read any of the current ongoing Astonishing X-Men. I do have the collected TPBs of the Joss Whedon run, so I’ll have to remedy that at some point. It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t one of my favorite designs for the character, so keep that in mind as we press onward!

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Yep, we’ve seen this packaging many times before. It’s the current style being used for the Marvel Universe figures, complete with that totally shitty little piece of printed cardboard that Hasbro tries to pass off as a collectible. Remember the days when you bought a Toy Biz Marvel figure and you actually got a full sized collector card? Hell, remember the days when you bought a Marvel Universe figure and you got a figure stand and a Fury File? Ah well. The packaging is nice enough. I guess Beast’s character art is pretty good. I mean, at least he doesn’t look like Kelsey Grammar.

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The back of the package has a little blurb about Beast and a shot of the figure doing a crazy handstand. It shows off the other three figures in this wave. I’m passing on that Spider-Man, and we’ll probably be looking at Beta Ray Bill next Monday. Oh yeah, this time the cardback features Rocket Raccoon schilling the figures. OH MY GOD, I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE WE’RE GETTING A “GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY” MOVIE AND ROCKET RACCOON IS GOING TO BE IN A BIG BUDGET MOVIE!!! The Age of the Nerd has truly come to pass.

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I’m perfectly capable of setting aside my personal design preferences in order to appreciate a great sculpt when I see it. I may not be a big fan of Beast’s angry blue teddy bear look, but Hasbro sure did a nice job sculpting it here. The detail and the expression in that head sculpt are just incredibly well done, and all the exposed fur on the figure looks good. Even the gold piping on the costume is sculpted into place. For all the crap I give Hasbro for using so many painted bucks in this line, when they do decide to tool an entirely new figure, they always go all out. It’s a pleasant surprise, because I can’t see a lot of potential for reusing this guy.

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The paintwork is a solid effort. There’s some bleeding between the black and the yellow on the costume, but nowhere near as bad as I’ve seen on some MU figures. The gold used for the piping and the bracers has a nice, bright luster. Again, not a big fan of this costume design, but Hasbro did a nice job putting it on the figure. I do think the blue for Beast’s fur could have been a tad more vibrant, but I’m really reaching for things to pick at here.

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Beast is one limber little dude with a ton of articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, wrists, torso, hips, and ankles. You also get swivels in the biceps and thighs. The elbows are hinged and the knees are double hinged. He has an extra hinge in the neck, and… holy crap, he even has hinges in his feet!!! There’s no waist swivel, but that torso ball joint really has a crazy amount of movement to it.

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No doubt, Beast is a stand out figure, especially for what is probably a one-off mold. He’s a great combination of amazing sculpt and wonderful articulation. If you’re a fan of this look for the character, you should be extremely happy with this guy. Me? I’m certainly content to have him among my legion of Marvel Universe figures, but I’d also like to see another release based on the older Jim Lee design. Regardless, I give Hasbro a lot of guff for a lot of MU figures not feeling like a great value at $10 a pop, but with all the work that went into Beast, he is well worth the price. I’m actually surprised that he’s so easy to find on clearance.

Dec 12 2012

Marvel: Bishoujo X-23 Statue by Kotobukiya

Today’s item was one of those rare instances where I heard that Koto was doing the statue before I actually saw the prototype. My first thoughts were that they overreached with this one. There are plenty of Marvel ladies that are well suited to this line, but Laura Kinney’s history features some hardcore shit and her character is built on a foundation of pain, suffering, and tragedy. Could Koto and Shunya Yamashita successfully pull this one off and give X-23 the cutesy bishoujo makeover? Let’s find out…

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If you own any of these Koto statues, then you know what to expect from the packaging. X-23 comes in a white window box adorned only with some examples of the original character art and some shots of the statue on the back. The box is shorter than many of these usual packages to conform to the statue’s crouching posture. You can get a pretty good look at the goods through the window, but as always, parts of the statue are wrapped in protective plastic and nestled between two clear plastic trays, so you can’t really get the full experience until you remove her from the box.

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Before getting to the statue, here’s a word of warning: X-23’s claws are pegged into sockets and they can fall out, probably so that if they are stressed they will detach rather than break. Two of my statue’s claws fell off while taking her out of the package. I didn’t realize it and thought I was dealing with a QC issue of missing claws. Fortunately, a little search of the carpet turned them up before FigureFeline could snatch them and carry them off to his bottomless lair of plunder behind the sofa. Apart from the removable claws, the only other thing you need to do is plug the statue into the base. Doing so required me to stretch out her legs a bit so that each of her feet wound up in the appropriate place on the stand. It was a little more effort than is usually required with these statues, but all worked out fine in the end.

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As mentioned, X-23 is posed down on one knee. She’s the same scale as any of the other recent statues in this line and she has a satisfying heft to her, but her posture makes the statue a lot shorter than most.  I think it’s a great pose for the character as it manages to convey a little poise and action at the same time. She has all four of her knuckle claws extended. Her left claws are touching the ground, while her right hand is cocked at the elbow and ready to strike. Her right foot has its claw extending from her boot. She looks like she might be recovering from a strike and getting ready to pounce back into action again.

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Moving on to the details… let’s start with the head. X-23 is an interesting statue because rather than going for overall cheesecake, most of the cutesy element is confined from her neck up. I think the sculptor did as good a job as possible melding the spirit of the Bishoujo line with X-23’s character, which in itself was no easy task. That having been said, something was definitely lost between the original artwork and the final sculpted effort.  For starters, the artwork featured eyes with more personality and character, whereas the final product’s eyes have more of a generic anime look. The artwork also featured an interesting little smirk on her lips and the final went with more of a cutesy little smile. Ultimately, I see more of X-23’s attitude in Shunya Yamashita’s art than I do in the statue; nonetheless what’s here is still plenty good. X-23’s hair is sculpted in a nice, dynamic wind-blown fashion and features that cool translucent effect at the edges.

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From the neck down, it’s hard to argue with anything this statue offers. X-23 is wearing skin-tight black pants, high, chunky boots, and a black sports bra-looking affair. The black finish on her clothes varies from matte on her boots and kneepads to high gloss for her top, pants, and sleeves, and all of it contrasts beautifully with her light skin tone. She has excellent sculpted detail in her abs, and I love the way her shoulders hunch up suggestively. Other great little touches include the silver skull emblems and individual buckles, along with the intricate treads on her boots, the medallion hanging from her choker, and her gilt chain belt.

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X-23’s base isn’t one of the more intricate designs we’ve seen in the line. It’s a simple grey circle designed to look and feel like concrete. It’s a wonderfully rough and realistic texture that balances out the soft leather and skin of the figure itself.

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While it may sound like I had issues with this statue, I still think X-23 is another solid effort by Koto and I’m very satisfied to have her in my collection. Keep in mind, I’m not a hardcore fan of the character, but rather a casual fan by way of my love of all things X-Men. My guess is that this statue will be better received by Bishoujo collectors rather than diehard fans of the character, finding themselves considering a place for it in their X-23 collection. But then I could be completely off base on that. She’s been available for a little while now, and set me back about $50 shipped. It wouldn’t feel like a Bishoujo feature without me mentioning how I think these are some of the best valued statues on the market… and hey, I just did!

Oct 1 2012

Marvel Legends: Mystique by Hasbro

I still haven’t found any more of Wave 3 of the Marvel Legends re-launch, but we looked at Iron Man a little while ago, so let’s knock out the other one that I do have… It’s Mystique! This release represents her more modern comic appearances, which is cool because I actually still have my old Toy Biz Marvel Legends Mystique kicking around.

Again, awesome packaging! Hasbro is up to their old tricks with using one card and one release slot to produce multiple characters. I’m fine with that, so long as I can keep finding the variants. In this case, Mystique is packaged under the moniker, “X-Mutants” and you get character art of both her and Moonstone up top and on the back panel of the card. These releases have to be one of the few examples of an action figure being released with the character’s name appearing nowhere on the package! That, my friends, is some ballsy marketing. Anyway, the figure looks great on the card and the huge bubble is filled out by her stand and crazy arsenal of weaponry.

Ok, so let’s deal with the elephant in the room first. Wave 2’s Madam Hydra did not feature one of Hasbro’s better head sculpts in this line, and yet they chose to recycle it for this Mystique figure. I’ll freely admit that I was quick to call Hasbro a bunch of crack smokers. Sure, the early promo pictures looked good, but I was worried that there was some fakery going on. Now that I have Mystique in hand, my worries are no more. I’m not sure if they did some tweaking or fixed the pinched look of the original mold, but I really dig the way it turned out for Mystique. The only place where the reuse is readily noticeable to me is the hair, and it still looks fine on this figure.

The rest of the sculpt is certainly up to par, albeit a bit minimalist on the limbs. Her pants and gloves are simply painted on, leaving the only really original sculpting on the figure at her torso with an unzipped top and clearly a lot of long hours spent lovingly sculpting her bosom. Hasbro, you dirty birdies… I loves ya. The also did some nice, subtle work on her taut little tummy. The only other thing on the body is her belt, which hangs loose around her waist.
God, I love the coloring on this figure! The shade of blue used for Mystique’s flesh tone is gorgeous and vibrant. Her pants and top are simple black, but there’s a lot of nice silver paintwork for the details. The zipper on her top is particularly well painted as are some of the little clasps and buttons on her belt. The paintwork on the face is precisely applied, including razor sharp lipstick, eyebrows, outlines to her eyes and her yellow pupil-less eyes. The face is capped off by a painted skull just under her widow’s peak. Gorgeous!

Mystique’s articulation is in line with what we’ve been seeing on the other Marvel Legends ladies. That means that unfortunately it ain’t up to par with the fellas. You get a ball jointed head, that is slightly marred by the hair sculpt. The arms have ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels and hinges in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed with swivels at the hips, double hinged knees and hinges at the ankles. You get a ball joint in the torso that allows a little swivel. The articulation on the chicks is starting to upset me, especially since all of them so far have come with rifles and without at least a bicep swivel; it’s hard to get them to hold the weapons in a convincing firing position.

As you already saw from the in-package shot, Mystique comes loaded for bear with no less than four weapons. You get a sniper rifle, an assault rifle, a sub machine gun, and a pistol. The pistol is recycled from Madam Masque/Hydra, but this seems to be the first time I’ve had any of these other weapons in my collection. The figure stand is the same on that came with Iron Man, and prior to that it was used for the Walmart Exclusive 6-inch Avengers movie figures.

I was a little lukewarm on Iron Man, but I am totally in love with this version of Mystique. Hasbro knew exactly where to lay in the new sculpting and where they could get away with keeping it simple. News of reusing the Hydra head sculpt had me punching my desk in rage, but all for naught as it looks outstanding on the final figure. But best of all, the colors on this figure, as limited as they are, just blow me away. Toss in a little arsenal of weapons and I’m somewhat able to overlook the lack of a couple important points of articulation. You’re still nailing this line, Hasbro, and I’m looking forward to scarfing up the rest of this wave as soon as I find them.

Sep 2 2012

Marvel Universe: Masterworks Sentinel Figure by Hasbro

I couldn’t tell you why it took me so long to pick up this mammoth Marvel figure. Maybe it was concern over the space needed to display another big figure, or having so much else on my want list. I just don’t know. It’s not like I still have my old Marvel Legends Sentinel anymore. Plus, I procrastinated like hell on buying the Masterwork Galactus figure and when I finally got him I was thrilled with him, so there was no reason to expect buyer’s remorse here. Nonetheless, I had the Sentinel in my hands more than a few times at TRU but it wasn’t until last week that I finally pulled the trigger and got him off of Amazon. Love that free Prime shipping!

Even knowing how big the Sentinel figure is, I was still a bit taken back when I saw the box leaning up against my front door. Amazon doesn’t exactly go nuts with the packing, so I knew that was all figure in there and not much else. I was a little concerned about the box getting banged up, since I do plan on saving this magnificent packaging and I was happy to see it arrived with minimal distress. The box is the same style used for Galactus. You get a beautifully illustrated front panel, oddly enough with Nightcrawler depicted a lot more prominently than Wolverine, who is actually in the box. There’s a flap that lifts up to reveal a window and the figure inside as well as the 3 ¾” Wolverine mounted beside the Sentinel’s head.

There’s a “Try Me” hole that lets you rattle off the Sentinel’s bewildering number of phrases and sounds. The back of the box shows a great photo of the toy (two of them actually) attacking the shit out of some X-Men figures. Note that my Sentinel is the dark repaint as opposed to the silver and blue depicted on the box art. Yes, I would have preferred to get the lighter one, but the price on this guy was right and it’s my own fault for not getting the lighter one when I had him in my hand in the toy aisle.

Opening the box, pulling out the Sentinel and two things immediately come to mind. The first is, “Wow, this is one heavy chunk of plastic” and second, “Holy hell, this thing smells.” It may be a result of sitting in a hot Florida USPS truck for a couple of days, but it took a full day for the burning rubber smell to wear off of this thing. Noxious odors aside, much like Galactus, the Sentinel is really heavy figure that practically justifies the purchase by sheer heft alone.

Hasbro boasts Sentinel at 16 inches, which makes him pretty nicely in scale with the Marvel Universe 3 ¾” figures. He’s built off some of the Galactus body, although there is so much re-sculpting and new parts that there’s really only a glimmer of similarities here and there. Galactus still measures up as a being a little taller, thanks to his bucket head, but for all intents and purposes, the two Masterworks figures are scaled the same. The sculpting is pretty solid and while some parts of the figure don’t feature an overload of detail, there are just enough nice touches here and there to carry the day. I particularly love the sections of exposed wires. The head sculpt is also pretty great, even if he does look like he’s wearing a ski cap. The only part of this figure’s aesthetics I’m not crazy about is the sticker used for his chest. It just looks a little cheap in context of the rest of the figure. A clear amber piece of plastic and another light would have been cool.

Of course, the Sentinel features electronic lights and sounds right out of the box. Or even in the box if you use the “Try Me” hole. Press the somewhat stubborn button on his chest and the eyes light up and you get one of the following 18 phrases…

“X-Men must be detained.”

“Mutant life form detected.”

“Halt!”

[Scanner sounds] “Fugitive mutant detected.”

“Destroy!” [Explosion]

“Stop!”

“Sentinel under attack.”

[Unrecognizable electronics sound]

“Halt, fugitive mutant!”

“System breach!”

“Alpha level mutant detected.”

“Halt, mutant!”

“Sentinel power core breached.”

“Purge power core.”

“Beta level mutant detected.” [wooshing sound]

“System meltdown.”

“Power core failure in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1.”

“Ejecting power core.”

Holy crap, this thing says a lot of stuff!

Being based off the Galactus body, you would expect the Sentinel figure to feature the same basic articulation, and you’d be right. You get a ball jointed head; the arms have ball jointed shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps, forearms and wrists. The legs feature ball joints and swivels in the hips, double hinged knees, hinged ankles, and swivels in the lower legs. The torso also swivels at the waist. The joints are all nice and strong and despite being ridiculously heavy, the Sentinel can stand just fine.

In addition to the Sentinel figure, you also get a 3 ¾” Wolverine. This is a repaint of the exact same sculpt we’ve all seen before. Where? Hell if I can remember, but it’s standing there on my shelf and most likely came from a Comic Pack or possibly Wolverine Origins. Either way, the figure has somehow escaped the scruitny of a feature here on FigureFan, so someone feel free to help out my alcohol addled mind. I’ll admit that I wasn’t dying with anticipation to own another one of these figures, but it is a solid figure and a nice bonus if you don’t already own it. I’ll also say that I like the brighter paintjob on this one better than my original.

What’s the best thing about this figure? It only set me back $35. Obviously it was worth every penny, even if it isn’t the color scheme I would have preferred. It’s just a solid hunk of satisfying action figure goodness, and it’s so cool to display him taking on a load of X-Men figures all at once. Hasbro’s Masterworks Sentinel goes on that list of toys that I would have died to own as a kid, and honestly, as an adult that collects toys, I don’t think I can pay this guy any greater compliment than that. To quote Dr. Channard from Hellraiser, “…and to think, I hesitated!” 

Aug 11 2012

Vintage Vault: X-Men X-Force Cable (2nd Version) by Toy Biz

It’s been a long week and I am more than a little bit hungover, so I’m afraid today is going to be a quickie… Vintage Vault hasn’t been back to Toy Biz’s early 90’s Marvel figures in quite a while, so I thought we’d remedy that today and start throwing some more of these into the mix in the weeks ahead. Today we’ll check out the second version of Cable where he dons his deep space armor.

There’s the packaged shot of Cable… I mean Grizzly… no, I mean Cable. Yeah, what we’ve got here is an error card with Cable in Grizzly’s packaging. This guy came to me as part of a lot, in which I got double screwed because it was supposed to be the first version of Cable, not the second version on the wrong cardback. Ah, well. I was going to keep this figure carded as a curiosity and eventually said, screw it, I need that wall space to hang other carded figures, so I decided to tear him open and feature him. Error or not, I’m still in love with the early Toy Biz Marvel packaging. I think these are some of the best comic inspired figure cardbacks. They’re colorful, the character art is great, and they kind of look like comic covers.

Out of the package, and we can see that this indeed isn’t the more iconic version of Cable, but it is still pretty damn cool. He’s in his bulky deep space armor, complete with a removable clear dome helmet over his head. You just need to pinch it a bit to undo the clips and take it off. The armor has a lot of sculpted detail, particularly for this fairly simple line. You know he’s from the 90’s because even in space armor, he’s still covered in enough belts and pouches to make Rob Liefeld blush. The head sculpt is classic Cable with a grim, angry visage. All in all, well done.

As always, Toybiz did a great job with the colors on this figure. Cable is bright orange and blue with a great glossy finish that makes him work so well as a comic book character in toy form. Unfortunately, they could have done a better job with the actual execution of the paintwork. Most of it is good, but there are a few spots, particularly on his legs that look like they might have been painted by blind cats.

Cable features six points of articulation. His arms rotate at the shoulders, his legs rotate at the hips, and his knees are hinged. The head doesn’t turn, otherwise it’s about the same level of articulation I expect from these 90’s Toy Biz figures. There’s not a lot of dynamic posing possibilities here, but just enough so that you can still have a little fun with him.

Cable comes with a big gun, but what else would you expect? It’s a big silver rifle and it has some kind of rapid-fire gimmick that completely eludes me. Either mine is broken or it just never worked right. It’s a nice piece of killing hardware, but since he has no elbow articulation, he can just hold it awkwardly with one hand, striaght out.

I’m always a bit unsure of how the current collector community feels about these 90’s Marvel Toy Biz figures. Sure, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since these were hanging on the pegs, and you can’t deny that they’re thoroughly dated, but I still can’t help but love them, and they’re cheap as all hell, which makes them fun and painless to collect. If I had to do over, I might not have opened as many, because I love the packaging so much and they do look great hanging on the wall. At the same time, these figures have such a colorful, toyish charm that really meshes well with their comic book roots. It just makes me want to pick them up and play with them.

[Phew… and that’ll be a wrap for the week. Star Trek Saturday may or may not be back next week. We’ll see how things go. In the meantime, I’ve got a lot of stuff backing up in the toy hopper, so I’ll see y’all Monday with something new. –FF]

May 24 2012

Marvel Universe: Greatest Battles Comic Pack: Gambit & Mister Sinister by Hasbro

Yesterday, there was a little ray of sunshine beaming through the clouds, as I actually found something new and noteworthy while picking up cat supplies at Walmart. Not only is it another awesome Marvel Comic Pack from Hasbro, but its the last of the three that I needed from this 2011/2012 assortment. This time around, its an X-Men themed pack featureing that epitome of douchebaggery itself, Gambit along with one of my personal favorite geneticist shapeshifters, Mr. Sinister.

I’ve certainly droned on enough in the past about how much I love this packaging, so let me just once again remark about how I think this is just perfect presentation. Two figures, mounted on a card with a comic book reprint as the backdrop. Superb! Sure, the comics are sometimes hit and miss, but in this case it has an awesome cover, and the comic itself is pretty great too, not the least of all because it features Sinister doing some rather painful experimental surgeries on a certain cajun mutant prick. Some may take issue that Sinister isn’t on the cover, but he does play prominantly inside. I’m also stoked that I now have every figure on the cover of this issue, with the one exception of Rogue.
So first off, let’s talk Gambit. Boy, do I hate Gambit, and yet I’ve wanted him in my 3 3/4″ Marvel collection ever since I passed on the one issued in that X-Men Origins: Wolverine line. So, it may seem odd to some that I really wanted a figure of a character I hate so much. Maybe I love to hate him, but more likely its just because he is such a top-tier character that not having him in my collection feels like a very conspicuous hole. Besides, which, I’ve always liked his design and the figure turned out splendidly, even if it is mostly a repaint.
Yes, a repaint! For all intents and purposes, this is a slightly repainted re-release of the aforementioned Wolverine: Origins figure. Not that that’s a bad thing. Wolverine might have been a shite movie, but it did produce some very nice figures. Indeed, I have Wolverine to thank for my Deadpool. I’m pretty sure this figure was originally released as part of the Animated Series of the movie figures, which explains why the head sculpt is a tad stylized, but its barely noticeable to me, and he fits in just fine with my other Marvel Universe X-Men. The only difference in sculpt that I can see is the addition of the kerchief around his neck.
The sculpting on the figure is especially nice, even if it is old. The jacket is just about perfect, with a slight bellowing to the bottom to give it a dynamic look, while also allowing for his leg articulation to work. There are a lot of nice loving details in the wrinkles and buttons, especially for a figure in this scale. The body sculpt is also executed with care, and extra detail is paid to his boots and his chest piece.

The paintwork is clean and sharp, and for a repaint not all that much different from the original figure. His coat is about the same, the chestpiece looks like it might be a bit more muted, and his boots look more grey than blue.
Gambit’s articulation isn’t quite up to what we’ve seen on the other two 2011/12 comic packs, but that’s because he’s an older sculpt. You do get a ball jointed neck. Arms with ball jointed shoulders and elbows, but no wrist articulation. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and double-hinged at the knees, but no ankle articulation. He has a swivel in the torso. Its ironic, but this is exactly the level of articulation that Hasbro is coming back to in order to cut costs for the new GI JOE and Avengers figures. Either way, you can still get some decent poses out of Gambit.

Gambit comes with his staff, and yes its the same staff that he came with the first time around. He is missing his cards, which I thought odd, but considering the amount of plastic and tooling that had to go into Mr. Sinister, Hasbro was probably anxious to save production costs on this set wherever possible.
Next up is Mr. Sinister, and holy hell am I happy to have this guy in my collection. He’s another one of those figures that makes me wonder why the single-carded MU series is full of so many repainted bucks for nine dollars, when we get a figure this amazing and impressive in a $15 two-pack. But then I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s look at the figure.

Yes, Sinister is a pretty sizeable figure and when you toss in his cape, he’s all the more impressive. Sure, its pretty obvious that he’s built on a slightly resculpted Colossus body, but here’s another example of Hasbro knowing how to resuse parts, because it really does work quite well for the character. Besides the obvious paint change, Hasbro extended the boots up over his knees, added shoulder armor, and swapped out the belt buckle, and obviously gave him a brand new head. And what a great head sculpt it is! The facial structure is really well executed and the paint apps are perfectly applied. And speaking of paintwork, I really dig what Hasbro used for his armor. Its a dark blue with a slight metallic twinge to it.
The cape is a separate piece and hangs off his shoulders, mostly around his neck. It does sit a tad awkwardly, giving him a bit of a hunched expression. Also, I would have liked it if it pegged in the back to make it stay a little better, but that’s nothing a little spot of bluetack won’t fix. The individual streams coming off of it really make for a unique piece, but in the end, and while I’ll probably display him on my MU shelf with the cape on, I think I prefer the figure without it.
Sinister fares better than Gambit in the articulation department. He’s got a ball jointed neck, with that extra hinge in there that I love so much. His arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swives in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs and ankles, double hinges in the knees, and hinges in the ankles. Not bad!
I really can’t say enough good things about the three Greatest Battles packs that Hasbro put out in this assortment, and this set is yet another grand slam! It has important characters which are executed brilliantly and should make a great addition to any Marvel Universe collection. If you already own the Origins Gambit, I suppose you could beef about having to buy him again to get Sinister, but then again, if Sinister was a single carded release I probably wouldn’t have been able to find him on the pegs anyway. On the other hand to get two great figures for $15 really feels like a fantastic deal, as opposed to buying individually carded MU figures at about $9 a pop. This set has really got me excited over MU again, and I can’t wait until the new figures start turning up.
Apr 7 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Fantomex by Hasbro

Marvel Legends week is in the home home stretch, so hang in there. Just two more packaged figures and the BAF to go. Today we’re looking at Fantomex, child of the Weapon Plus program and someone that I have not encountered a lot in my frequent travels through Marvels funnybooks.  I used to read a lot of X-Men comics, but most of that was in the 90’s and I’ve only read a few issues of New X-Men, so Fantomex here is the one character in this wave that I was least familiar with. Nonetheless, the figure looks badass and seeing as he’s the brainchild of Grant Morrison, I was still pretty anxious to add him to my collection. Let’s take a look…

I thought it odd for Hasbro to include two such monochromatic figures in the same wave, but in fairness Future Foundation Spidey was a variant and Fantomex is one of the few figures in this assortment without a variant so what you see is what you get. Did any part of that sentence make sense? I need more coffee. Anywho, Fantomex fills out the bubble very nicely with his flowing trenchcoat and brace of automatic pistols. Mounted beside him is the included BAF piece, Arnim Zola’s right arm. The character art is pretty cool. Its a nice action shot!
Here’s one of the few examples of the new Marvel Legends where I don’t have a lot to say about the figure’s head sculpt. Fantomex is wearing a mask so its not a big venue for detail. The eyes and bridge of the nose are exposed and nicely painted. The black deco paintwork on the mask isn’t quite as sharp as I would have liked and is mostly fuzzy around the top. Its perfectly passable, but not up to what we’ve been seeing on a lot of these other figures.
Mediocre head sculpt aside, Fantomex is a really great looking figure. Its like he comes from some bizarre alternate dimension where GI JOE’s Storm Shadow and Firefly merged together and joined the  X-Men. The black and white deco looks really nice here, particularly with the black gloves, boots and the red X belt buckle. Apart from the boots and gloves, there isn’t a hell of a lot of original tooling for this figure’s body. You do get some sculpted straps on his legs.
Fantomex features a sculpted, sleeveless high collared trench coat that looks absolutely smashing in the figure. The ripples are wonderfully sculpted and it fans out beautifully on the back. You get the same black deco on the back and much like The Dude’s rug, it really ties the room action figure together. He also has a separate belt that hangs around his waist and features two functional holsters for his pistols.

Speaking of pistols, Fantomex’s brace of automatics are amazing little sculpts. They’re cast in grey with no paint apps, but tons of little details for such small accessories. I do find it a bit odd that both have their magazines partially ejected, but it doesn’t change the fact that they look great. He can hold the one in his right hand really well, but unfortunately his left hand doesn’t hold the pistol very well at all.
Fantomex features the same articulation that we’ve been seeing in most of the male figures in the line. You get a ball jointed neck with the extra hinge. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, double hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs have ball joints in the hips, double hinged knees, swivels in the thighs and swivels and hinges in the ankles. The torso swivels at the waist and features the ab crunch hinge.

Even with all the Marvel comics I read, I still can’t be familiar with every character. Nonetheless, I don’t need to know a lot about Fantomex to appreciate that this is one really cool figure. The deco is really cool, I love the trench coat and he’s an all around fun figure to pose and play around with. I don’t know what’s up with the sculpt on his left hand not being able to hold his gun straight, but that’s really the only stand out issue I can take with this guy.
Apr 6 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Dark Wolverine by Hasbro

With four figures behind us, we’re over the hump of this Marvel Legends week, but we still have three more packaged figures to go, plus the BAF, so let’s keep pressing on. Today’s figure is none other than Logan’s son, Daken, who served under the guise of Dark Wolverine as part of Norman Osborne’s Avengers. Daken is yet another one of the variants in this wave, with the figure being available in masked and unmasked versions. I was hoping for the unmasked, and that’s exactly what I got… cool!

The figure is packaged as “Dark Wolverine” and features a nice piece of character art in the upper left hand corner. This is among my favorite card art used for this line so far. Daken fills out the bubble fairly nicely along with the help of his BAF piece, in this case Arnim’s left arm.
The head sculpt is the only thing really different between the variants of this figure. One has the Wolverine Mask on and the other has it off allowing Daken to let his mohawky freak flag fly. I think its possible they could have tuned down the mohawk just a little bit, but apart from that this is an excellent head sculpt. I’m particularly happy with the way Hasbro included a separate sculpted mask to hang around his neck. Its something I totally didn’t expect and just the kind of nice extra touch I love and expect when paying $18 for an action figure.
Besides the mask, there isn’t a lot of original tooling on this figure outside of a standard buck. His vest is sculpted around the shoulders, and I like the way his boots flare out at his calves. Naturally, his bone claws are sculpted in the deployed position and look great. Daken does have a separately sculpted belt that hangs around his waist. The rest of the costume is executed with paintwork and looks good and the painted tattoo on his left arm is sharp.
Dark Wolverine features the same articulation we’ve been seeing in the male figures, with a couple of nice surprises that we haven’t seen yet. The neck is ball jointed with the additional hinge. His arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the wrists and biceps, and double hinged elbows. His legs feature ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs and calves, and double hinged knees. His ankles are hinged and also have an additional rocker hinge to keep his feet flat in wide stances. He also has hinges in the middle of his feet! Those of you collecting Marvel Legends back in the Toy Biz days will no doubt remember these. I’m still on the fence over whether I like them or not. I never really saw them as crucial and they do require the feet to be larger than usual. Daken’s torso swivels at the waist and he has the usual ab crunch hinge.
Overall, I’m very happy with the way this figure turned out, and doubly happy that I was able to get the unmasked version in my case. I probably won’t be hunting down the masked version, although I’d say its a pretty good bet Hasbro will be reusing a repainted version the masked version as a regular Wolverine release down the road, so I’ll be happy to pick it up when they do that. I think its awesome that Hasbro is going for some of the Dark Avengers so soon in the line, as it allows collectors who have been buying these figures since the Toy Biz days a break from having to see the same characters over and over again.

Tomorrow, we’ll keep the X-Men ball rolling with Fantomex!