#4144: Chamber

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

CHAMBER

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“The privileged life of Jonathan Starsmore was shattered forever when his mutant ability emerged for the first time. Most of his chest and lower jaw was blown away because he couldn’t control the powerful psionic-biokinetic energy that exists within him. Chamber is the oldest of Banshee’s new pupils, but he’ll have to emerge from the shell that his injury has forced him into, before he can emerge as a leader of his fellow students.”

What’s an X-Men team without a guy with energy based powers he can’t control manifesting in a way that makes him an outcast, who also has a penchant for leather jackets? Well, like, I guess that’s maybe the New Mutants?  Generation X was having none of it, though, so when they officially made the group of youngsters that had teamed up during “The Phalanx Covenant” a proper team in Generation X #1, Jonathan “Jono” Starsmore joined the line-up, as Chamber, the guy with no lower jaw or upper chest.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Chamber was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Generation X toyline.  He’s fairly pivotal to the comic’s first few issues, especially in regards to both Emplate and Penance, who were also in Series 1, plus there was also just a big push behind the character (and a sensible one at that, since he remained perhaps the book’s most signature character even well after its ending), so it all tracked pretty well.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation.  None of the Generation X figures were very posable, but Chamber gets hit harder than most, due to his design removing the possibility of a neck joint, leaving him with just the shoulders and hips.  Chamber’s sculpt was all-new to him and remained unique.  It shows him in his team suit (which in 1995, he still wasn’t really wearing in the book, but it was showing up on the covers), with his signature leather jacket over it.  Chamber’s original prototype had a rather different sculpt, with a more visible break between the energy of his torso and his head, as well as closed fists and a zipped up jacket.  The final product is…well, it’s fine.  The jacket is a separate piece, and it’s got a nice flow about it.  The torso/head is a bit soft on the detailing, which makes it a little tricky to make out exactly what’s going on.  His hair does at least have a nice dynamic flow to it, even if it does somewhat have the consistency of a tootsie roll. Otherwise, the sculpt’s perfectly fine.  He’s a lot less pre-posed than other figures from the line, opting for a more basic standing pose, albeit one with enough flair to not be too boring.  He had a light-up feature worked into the torso, which was the same as the one used on the Fantastic Four Human Torch; pulling the string on his back would create sparks in the torso.  It has the benefit of not relying on batteries, but since it’s just a friction thing, used copies tend to be too worn down to work, and new copies tend to have seized up.  Mine’s somewhere between those two points, but still isn’t in working order.  The color work on Chamber is decent enough.  He matches up with the other team members in terms of uniform colors, and his base application is all pretty clean.  Mine’s taken a beating over the years as you can see.  Chamber is packed with a team logo display stand, and…well, that’s it.  Just the stand. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have Chamber during the original line’s run proper, but I did have him very shortly thereafter.  Sometime in the summer of 2000, I got an X-Men 2099 Meanstreak, and saw the Generation X line-up on the back of his box, and got it into my head that I wanted Chamber and Skin, and my dad did a bit of hunting and we found these two at a comic shop sort of near by.  Chamber was the one I really wanted, and he’s always stood out to me as my favorite member of the team.  The figure’s honestly kind of mediocre, upon review, but the rather cool design of the character still bleeds through, and I do still quite like him.

And I almost let this review finish without noting it, but over the weekend, the site officially made it into its 14th year.  Man, time sure does fly.  Crazy stuff.  Thanks for reading everybody!

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0095: Ultron

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

ULTRON

THE VAULT (TOY BIZ)

We have arrived, dear readers, at another Friday, so it’s time for another installment of Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Today, we jump back a decade and some change, with a follow up look at Ultron!

Countdown to Avengers: Age of Ultron: 5 days remaining.

Alright, now we get to the main event! Before, I was looking at figures of the various Avengers members from the upcoming movie, but from here on out, it’s all Ultron all the time! Poor Ultron went quite a while without seeing any action figures. He didn’t even get a figure in Mattel’s Secret Wars line, despite being a part of the comic upon which the toyline had been based (thanks Mattel…). He was finally granted a figure during ToyBiz’s 5-inch Marvel heyday.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultron was released as part of ToyBiz’s The Vault line. The Vault was one of several one series lines that ToyBiz released around the same time, covering lots of different parts of the Marvel universe. The Vault is named after the Marvel universe high-security prison of the same name, and it featured a line-up of three lesser-known Marvel villains. This figure is on the larger side for this scale, at roughly 6 inches in height, and he has 16 points of articulation. The figure features an all-new sculpt, which remained unique to this figure. I’m not 100% certain, but I don’t believe this design is one from the comics. It definitely isn’t the “classic” Ultron, that’s for sure. It plays up the more robotic aspects of the character, which I suppose is a plus, but it lacks the elegant simplicity of the classic design. All that said, it’s a perfectly reasonable sculpt from a purely aesthetic standpoint. There are a nice variety of textures and details, and that helps to liven the figure up a bit. I quite like the clawed hands and two-toed feet. The head is probably the figure’s weakest point(and that’ll be a recurring point for the rest of the week); Ultron’s had loads of different body types over the years, but the one thing to remain fairly consistent is his head. It’s not awful here, but it’s pretty far from the standard Ultron noggin. It’s too thin, and it looks particularly pinched around the antennae. And speaking of those antennae, they represent another pretty big departure from the usual Ultron look. They should be further down on his head, hovering over his cheeks. Instead, they start where his “ears” would be and go upwards, looking a bit like a rabbit’s ears. The figure also suffers from some somewhat wonky paint apps. The actual color of his outer shell is wildly inconsistent, ranging from sliver with very slight blue overtones to a rather deep metallic blue in a few areas. Also, there’s this weird thing on his torso and lower legs where he’s got these strange somewhat transparent dark grey brush strokes. I don’t really know what they’re supposed to be, but they just kind of stick out and they were rather different from figure to figure. Ultron was packed with some sort of containment piece, which went over his head and hands and plugged into his shoulder. It was kind of cool, but ultimately non-essential (and I lost mine anyway). In addition to the restraints, Ultron also has a light-u feature, which made his eyes glow red when a button on his back was pushed.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was actually my very first exposure to the character of Ultron. My dad, who was an avid Avengers fan, purchased one for himself, and when I asked who he was I was presented with several of his comic appearances to read. I pretty much immediately fell in love with the character. Not long after, I received my own Ultron figure as a Christmas gift from my good friend Pat Sponagle. Sure, he’s not the most accurate Ultron figure, but he was the only one in existence at the time. And, as the old saying goes, beggars can’t be choosers. Eventually, I got the more classically inspired United They Stand Ultron, but this one served as one of my favorite figures up to that point, and he still holds some meaning to me. Inaccuracies aside, he’s a good toy.

I’ve encountered a few of these pre-Age of Ultron reviews in my addendums, and its an interesting reflection to see how excited I was for a movie that a lot of people just sort of overlooked.  11 years later, I’ve gone back and forth on my feelings a little bit, but I do think Age of Ultron is still the Avengers movie that feels the most like an actual Avengers comic, so I stand by my excitement.  Part of the countdown was reviewing all of the Ultron figures in my collection at the time, in successive order, which started off with this review.  It’s a review I stand by.  This isn’t a *bad* figure, but it sets a trend for sort of wonky Ultrons, especially from Toy Biz.  Missing from my original review were the figure’s accessories, namely a shoulder-mounted cannon and a set of restraints, which I have subsequent re-discovered.  As noted in the original review, they’re sort of weird and non-essential, but pretty fun.

#4143: Biker Scout

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

BIKER SCOUT

STAR WARS: THE LEGACY COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Oh, we are just rolling through different Star Wars lines around here, aren’t we?  Well, next week I’m settling into a theme that should run for a bit, but before I do that, let’s take another stab into the proverbial dark with a one-off from a line I didn’t really collect, The Legacy Collection.  But, it had a Biker Scout, and I sure do like a Biker Scout action figure, so I sure did get one of those.  So, let’s look at that Biker Scout figure, which I sure am reviewing today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Biker Scout was released in Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Legacy Collection in 2009, as figure 12 in the Build-A-Droid run, contributing a part to L8-L9.  The figure was first released as the 2006 Vintage Saga Collection Biker Scout, then again as part of the “Battle For Endor” set that same year, then in the “Shadow of the Darkside” set also in 2006, again as part of the 30th Anniversary Collection in 2007, and then finally here in 2009, with a number of re-decos and slight tweaks interspersed.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  At this point in the line, the only things that really separate him from a modern figure in terms of movement are the t-hips, something that George Lucas himself was apparently a stickler on in regards to how the joints broke up the sculpt.  I’ve actually looked at the sculpt once before through one of its repaints, the Elite Corps release from 2006.  It’s honestly really solid for its era.  It’s accurate to the source material (and in fact a but more so than some of the later Biker Scout molds) and it moves pretty well.  The structure of the wrist and elbow joints makes his hands prone to popping off from time to time when posing the elbows, but it’s not terrible, and they go right back on.  There were some minor tweaks over the years to the exact paint work on this figure, but they all kind of added up to the same general look.  This release was generally cleaner across most of the armor, confining the dirt more to the feet.  The Biker Scout was packed with his small blaster pistol, which he can hold or holster, as well as one of the legs to L8-L9.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t buy this new, but I did buy it new-ish.  2009 was the start of my senior year of high school, so my spending was a bit more restrained at times, so a lot of stuff I might have casually picked up got overlooked.  My Star Wars focus was almost entirely on Clone Wars, so the old stuff got overlooked.  By college, I was more comfortable in my collecting again, and picking up oddball stuff when I saw it.  This guy was picked up at a mall pop-up toy shop called “Toy Zam” I wanna say?  I visiting some friends in the late fall of 2011, and found this spot in the mall.  They had a bunch of close-out Hasbro stuff from ’09, mostly junk I didn’t need, but this guy was there, and I of like a good Biker Scout.  And he is that.  He’s a good Biker Scout.  Probably my favorite Biker Scout mold, honestly (though I do remain partial to the Power of the Jedi one).

#4142: Megatron

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

MEGATRON

TRANSFORMERS: MACHINE WARS (KENNER)

The success that was Transformers in the ‘80s sort of waned as they moved into the next decade, with the Generation 2 rebrand never really finding its footing in the market.  The franchise was given new life, however, in 1996 with Beast Wars, which shifted the focus to creature-based alt-modes, and found a solid fanbase, which was a mix of old and new fans.  Some of the old fans were still longing for vehicle-based Transformers, and Hasbro/Kenner gave it another try in 1997, with the KB Toys-exclusive Machine Wars line.  It wasn’t really a smash success, running only 12 figures across different sizes, all of them re-using molds from earlier runs.  It did, however, serve to get some unused and rare molds out, so I guess that was pretty nice.  And, in a weird turn of events, it got me a Megatron.  Let’s look at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Megatron was released as part of the “Basics” assortment of Transformers: Machine Wars, which was the smaller scale line of figures.  He was one of four basic Decepticons, all of them jets.  Megatron shared his mold with his “clone” Megaplex (and indeed the art of the two characters is swapped between their packaging, with the Megaplex art appearing on Megatron’s card and vice-versa), and they both served to finally release the cancelled G2 Skystriker mold.  In his robot mode, the figure stands 4 inches tall and he has 9 workable points of articulation.  The articulation on these smaller guys was pretty solid, offering a good basic assortment of joints, with a good range of motion.  The arms and legs are all balljoints, so there’s a lot to be done with them, keeping him on par with the typical Legends/Core class figure of the modern line.  His mold is a good precursor of things to come.  It feels stylistically a lot like a G1 animation based figure, with a lot of good classic robot elements at play.  Though not sculpted to *be* Megatron, the head has a certain degree of a Megatron vibe to it, especially with the helmet shape.  Megatron’s alt-mode is an F-22 Raptor fighter jet, which he transforms into with some spring assistance under the back of the figure.  The arms and legs fold up decently enough, but definitely do just hang there a bit.  He’s got some landing gear, which folds out of the legs and the nose of the cockpit.  The color scheme here is a sort of turquoise/sky blue and white set-up, which doesn’t feel very Megatron-y, and in fact feels a bit more heroic, if I’m honest.  This, coupled with his lack of any sort of faction symbol, does kind of muddy a bit who he’s meant to be.  Megatron is packed with a blaster with a removable muzzle.  It can be disassembled and stored in the backs of his legs for when he’s in jet mode, or just doesn’t feel like carrying around a gun, I guess.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Megatron was more than likely my first ever Transformer, but I didn’t know it at the time.  My grandparents on my dad’s side got the four grandchildren each one of the jets for Christmas in 1997, and Megatron was the one I got.  I tore him open at our Christmas gathering, and the packaging certainly didn’t make it home, so I didn’t know his name or the line he came from.  When I actually got into Transformers later on, this guy’s total lack of any markings led me to believe he was a knock off of some sort.  He did get a lot of use, more often than not with my Star Wars figures, where he served as a droid companion.  Over the years, he fell to pieces and I honestly don’t know where any of my original figure ended up.  A few years ago, one of the later re-decos of this mold came through All Time, which led to me realizing it was an official Transformer mold and doing a little digging, resulting in my discovery of who exactly this guy was.  And then, not terribly long after, a full run of Machine Wars came through, giving me a chance to snag this guy to replace my original.  I really quite like this one.  He still doesn’t feel like Megatron, but perhaps that’s why I like him so much.  He can just be what he was to my much younger self, which was just a cool transforming robot toy I knew very little about.

#4141: Black Adam

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

BLACK ADAM

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“One of the world’s foremost wielders of magic, Black Adam has been both hero and villain over a life that’s spanned thousands of years.”

The hierarchy of Super Powers in the DC Universe has changed?  No, wait, that’s not quite right.  I mean, you know, I guess it was never right, in the context of the whole Black Adam thing, but it’s especially not right here.  Right?  Right.  What am I getting at here?  Well, mostly that I don’t really have much to say about Black Adam.  Much like Deathstroke before him, he’s one of those villains that I liked well enough before they got really popular, went through an anti-hero phase, and then got really over-used.  He’s had a handful of figures from McFarlane, both movie and comic based, but despite Shazam’s presence in the original Kenner line, there’s been no Super Powers Black Adam up to this point.  But, the hierarchy of the line-up has changed.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Adam is part of Series 14 of McFarlane’s Super Powers line, and is figure 70 in the line-up.  He’s the first of three JSA-themed figures in the line-up, as well as having the tie to the vintage line’s Shazam figure.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Black Adam is built on the line’s first Superman base body.  Not exactly one of my favorites, but its larger stature does make more sense for Black Adam than it did for Superman or some of the others it’s been used for.  He makes use of a pair of lower legs with cuffed boots, which I think might be new here, but I’m not certain about that.  He’s also got a basic belt piece, as well as a brand-new head sculpt.  The head’s definitely the star work here, and very much feels like a good translation of Black Adam’s rather arch features from the comics.  The figure’s color work is decent, but does have a slight caveat.  While all the paint work is clean, and I do like the slightly darker skin tone, which is appropriate to the character, the decision to use gold to accent the black, rather than yellow, makes him stand out as not really feeling quite vintage.  It’s an issue that’s bugged me with a few of these end of the line offerings, in that it just gets them so close, only to miss that one small detail, and it’s especially egregious on Black Adam, who only has the vintage Shazam to pair off against, which makes the change-up more obvious.  Black Adam has no accessories, which, given he also lacks any sort of cape or other notable attachment, and is also one of the heaviest “old tooling” figures in the set, makes him feel rather light.  That said, I don’t know what exactly you’d give him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I can’t say that I’ve ever had much of an attachment to this guy, but more recent years have definitely strained that for me.  That being said, given Shazam’s presence in the original line, I don’t feel like this guy is exactly out of place in the line-up here.  I think he misses a bit on the color scheme, which results in a sort of muddy looking figure, but beyond that, he’s perfectly serviceable, and he slots alright into the original run.

#4140: Jubilee

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

JUBILEE

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“Jubilation Lee spent lots of time in the malls of Southern California before she first displayed her mutant powers. It was her time spent as an X-Man, however, that may have spoiled Jubilee – now that she’s just another student at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. But considering her studies will include how to fully develop her ability to create explosive plasma ‘fireworks’, there’s bound to be plenty of excitement.”

The cast of Generation X, which spun out of the “Phalanx Covenant” crossover, were a lot of new faces for the franchise, but in addition to the team’s two veteran advisors of Banshee and Emma Frost, the main team also had Jubilee, a fairly notable junior member of the main team in the years prior, who was, much like Kitty Pryde before her, graduating to her own team.  While the main X-Men line under Toy Biz rather dragged its feet on adding Jubilee to the line-up, her more prominent placement on Generation X would prove a quicker path to the action figure treatment.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jubilee was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Generation X line.  She was one of four team members in the opening line-up, and was the only returning character in the batch.  As touched on in the intro, this was the first of the three Jubilees under Toy Biz’s tenure, and also just the first Jubilee figure in general.  The figure stands 4 7/8 inches tall (with a slight crouch) and she has 6 points of articulation.  I’ve mentioned before that Generation X was a less articulated line than its compatriots from Toy Biz, for whatever reason.  Jubilee continues this trend, with no elbow or knee joints.  Her scaling is also off relative to the X-Men line (and, honestly, even relative to the other Generation X figures), since she’d be over 5 inches tall if standing straight, and that’s not really right for a character usually depicted as being on the shorter side.  I guess she fit in fine with those later run Wolverines that were always so large.  Jubilee’s sculpt was new to her and would remain mostly unique; only the head saw re-use, for another Jubilee figure.  She’s seen here sporting her Gen X team suit; it’s still got the signature yellow raincoat and gloves, but gives her a little bit more of a super heroic look than more civilian gear that she tended to sport.  It’s not a bad sculpt.  There’s a lot of pre-posing to it, though, and she definitely feels rather bulky for Jubilee.  Look at the size of those hands and feet!  I do quite like the head sculpt, though.  It feels pretty on the mark for the character, especially within the usual Toy Biz style.  Jubilee’s color work is rather basic, but generally does what it needs to.  There’s a lot of yellow, as there should be, and the paint (which has taken a rather notable beating on mine) is applied fairly cleanly.  Jubilee is packed with a blast effect (which her spring loaded left arm can “throw”…sort of) that was shared with the X-Force line’s Exodus, released the same year, a pair of roller blades, and a display stand.  Honestly, not a bad little set-up. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Jubilee is quite an early one for me.  I know she pre-dates my family’s move to the house I spent most of my childhood in, which puts her probably in my first ten?  Wow, that’s crazy early.  Anyway, since I was into X-Men: The Animated Series, and she was a core cast member, she was definitely high on my list, and my dad made a note of that and she was a surprise for me one day when he came home from work.  She’s been kind of an unsung part of my collection since that day.  I can’t say she was ever my favorite or top of my list, but she’s just always been a part of my collection, which is kind of nuts.  She’s far from perfect, and kind of awkward to fit in with the rest of my X-Men from the time, but still very much in the category of nifty.  And I do like that.  I like a figure that’s nifty.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0094: Space Glider

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , ,

SPACE GLIDER

MICRONAUTS (MEGO)

Hey, ho, it’s Friday, you guys!  That means it’s time for another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  This week, we’re taking a jump back to a line I haven’t jumped back to before, Micronauts, with the guy what glides through space, Space Glider!

One line that I am surprised I haven’t talked about more on this site is Micronauts. Before I was firmly on the Minimates train, there were few lines that filled me with as much joy as Micronauts. For those of you that don’t know, Micronauts began its life as a Japanese toyline called Henshin Cyborg, which were actually the Japanese equivalent of the original GI Joes. Toymaker Takara decided to make a line of smaller scale figures, called Microman. In 1976, US toymaker Mego decided to import the line under the title Micronauts. The figures are some of the earliest 3 ¾ inch figures, and they ended up having quite a few lasting contributions to toys in general, even if the Micronauts themselves may not be as widely remembered. Today, I’ll be taking a look at one of the line’s heroic characters, the Space Glider!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Space Glider was released in the first series of Mego’s Micronauts line. He was available in three different colors: Blue, Green, and Yellow. In case you couldn’t tell from the pictures, the one being reviewed is blue. The Space Glider is about 3 ¾ inches tall and he has 16 points of articulation. It’s also worth noting that, aside from the head and hands, the whole figure is made from die cast metal. It means the figure is pretty darn sturdy, and he has quite a bit of heft to him. Space Glider was an import of the Super Steel Microman M21X, from the Microman line. His sculpt is essentially the same. While the sculpt does show its age a bit, it’s certainly well done for the time. The torso and arms have lots of hard angles, which look really good. His head is a great, generic “70s space hero” look, although the vac-metalizing has made some of the details a little soft. This figure has some definite style to it, which really makes it stand out. The paint work on the Space Glider is fairly basic, but well done. All of the blue areas are done with a very nice metallic sheen, and the color is nice and evenly applied. Everything else is pretty much just molded in the proper color, but it looks good. The Space Glider included a helmet and a wingpack, both of which are sadly missing from mine.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got the Space Glider from the Antique Depot, an antique store not far from where I live. I saw him while walking through during Ellicott City’s annual Midnight Madness event. The Space Glider has long been my favorite of Micronauts figure, but I had never had one of the originals. With some light prodding from my friends Tim and Jill, I purchased the figure. The Space Glider really holds up. He’s a really strong figure, and he’s just a lot of fun!

I ran this review the day after Christmas in 2014, and in fact wrote it a few days before.  I used to go out of town with my family for the holidays, which meant not having ready access to my photo tent set-up, so no new photos could be taken until after we got back, so I’d have a small handful of figures that would sort of fill-in.  This guy, and the Time Traveller bought at the same time, were sort of the perfect set-up, having been bought at the beginning of the month.  In terms of the actual review, well, I think it does hold up alright.  He’s got sort of a kitschy quality about him that’s always fun.  Since I bought him loose at an antique store, he didn’t have his helmet or wing pack at the time, and in fact spent a good while with some Palisades pieces standing in on the shelf, but I finally broke down and bought proper replacements a few months back.  I really do love this figure, and he holds up really well for a figure that’s 50 years old this year.

#4139: Fenn Rau

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

FENN RAU

STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE (HASBRO)

“Fenn Rau was a former fighter pilot instructor who fought for the Republic during the Clone Wars. Once the Empire cam to power, Ray became leader of the Protectors of Concord Dawn, an elite Mandalorian warrior group patrolling the Concord Dawn system.”

Would you believe I’ve already gone through all of my 2D Clone Wars figures?  Well, I have.  So, I guess it’s time to move onto the next thing, which, in this case is actually a jump forward about a decade, to an animation tie-in right around the release of *another* live action movie.  While Rebels had its own dedicated toyline for its first year, by the second season, they were kind of locked into slipping the figures in with movie tie-ins, which is why we got Rex and Ahsoka in the Force Awakens tie-in.  Rogue One’s toyline took things even further, adding new versions of the main cast, as well as a couple of the recurring players.  Fenn Rau was introduced in Rebels as an ally to the main team, and a positive representation of the Mandalorians to contrast the Imperial-backed Gar Saxon.  Rau got a single action figure, which I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Fenn Rau was released in the fourth assortment of the basic Star Wars: Rogue One line from Hasbro.  His release was…tricky.  Only the first three assortments made it to proper retail domestically.  The fourth assortment saw a limited release overseas in early 2017, but wouldn’t see a US release until later in the year, when Entertainment Earth stepped in to facilitate distribution.  Fenn had an even trickier time than the other three (specifically Rogue One-based) figures, who got a release together.  Fenn wound up further delayed, but he did at least make it out eventually.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Rau’s sculpt was all-new and would remain unique to him.  He’s based on his design in the show, angling for that animated appearance, rather than real-world-izing it.  There was a notable progression in the Rebels figures as they filtered into the various lines, with far more basic figures at the start, but by the time Rau came along, they’d gotten better at keeping the animation model design, while also working in some finer detail work, most notable in the folds and ribbing on his jumpsuit.  He also includes details like a removable helmet and fully functioning holsters, which weren’t as often present on some of the earlier figures.  Fenn Rau’s color work is a fairly good match for his show design.  It’s a cool mix of different blues, and the application is all fairly clean, apart from some slight bleed over on the belt.  Rau is packed with his removable helmet, a pair of blaster pistols, and an oversized rocket/wing pack.  The rocket pack makes him tricky to stand, but it’s less intrusive than a lot of the Rogue One gimmick accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I was certainly collecting the Rogue One line when it was hitting, and I’d even started watching Rebels and picked up most of those tie-in figures from the line, the strange distribution of the last assortment, and of this guy in particular, meant I missed the whole set at “retail” or whatever close approximation they had.  This guy was on my list for a while, and just ended up being one of those “he happened to land in front of me” purchases, back a few years ago when I had a chance to grab a loose complete one.  There was a rather fun simplicity to these lines that I do kind of miss in more recent stuff.  Rau’s a nice combo of fun gimmick and solid core figure, and it’s too bad he wound up being so rare.

#4138: Call

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

CALL

ALIEN: RESURRECTION (KENNER)

The Alien movies are neat on a number of different levels, and one of the more interesting aspects of the franchise is that it didn’t really have much in the way of a cohesive vision.  Each subsequent entry in the story being helmed by a different crew of creators made something patchwork, with each entry unique to itself, for better or for worse.  There are, however, through lines on the movies, some obvious ones, having to do with narratives, timelines, and even returning characters, and others less so.  One of my favorite running gags has to do with each entry’s resident synthetic, and the advancing alphabet of their names, starting with Ash, progressing to Bishop, skipping a movie, and then getting to Call.  Heck, they even kept it going with Prometheus, which had David, but then Covenant gave us Walter, and it kind of ruined it.  I don’t wanna talk about that, though, because it just upsets me.  So, we’re jumping back to Call, the focus of today’s entry!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Call is another of the six standard figures released by Kenner in 1997 to tie-in with Alien: Resurrection.  She’s one of two “humans,” though that’s sort of a relative term for both her and Ripley, so I guess maybe there’s actually no humans in the line-up at all?  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  She’s structurally very similar to the previously reviewed Ripley figure, which makes a degree of sense, them being in the same line and all.  The height of the figure is due to her rather extreme posing; were she standing straight up, she’d be closer to 7 inches, so, I guess if you were so inclined, you could try to slip her in with your NECA figures, what with them not doing a Call and all.  Of course, stylistically, I don’t know that she’d really fit.  She’s got that aforementioned pre-posing, which comes with it a sort of lack of use for the articulation, which mostly is just there for some minor tweaks to help her stand.  And that’s good, because standing can be a bit iffy for her.  Finding that center of balance takes some doing, for sure.  Her pose is I guess sort of similar to Ripley, but just slightly tweaked for variety’s sake.  She’s only got one gripping hand, instead of two, but hers is at least meant to actually hold something, so that’s an improvement.  The head sculpt doesn’t look *unlike* Wynona Ryder.  Certainly there’s some of her in there.  A better paint job might help, for sure, but she’s aided by having hair that actually looks about right, unlike Ripley.  She’s wearing the one jumpsuit she wears for the whole movie, which I suppose does make sense.  She wears a vest over it in the movie, which isn’t here, but it’s close enough, I suppose, and its got some nice sculpted detailing. The paint’s perfectly fine, if not anything to write home about.  Very basic on the head, with some nice accent work on the uniform.  Call is packed with two guns (which she can only hold one at a time), a pair of arm blades (because maybe she’s also a Predator?), a crawling face hugger (which actually makes a lot of sense, since she gets attacked by one in the water sequence), and a chest burster.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The story of how I got Call is, if you can believe it, the exact story of how I got the Ripley figure I reviewed two weeks ago.  I never really sought any of them out, but a few years ago, this pair was donated to the Farpoint Charity Auction, and my dad got them for me.  Both of them have been sitting unopened for a while, but I finally did the thing and opened them.  Of the two, Call actually works a bit better, I think.  Apart from only being able to hold one gun at a time, she does interact with her accessories a bit better, and she’s generally more in line with her movie appearance.  With no other Call out there, this one’s really the only option, if you *really* need a Call, and also, she’s not terrible.

#4137: Raven

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

RAVEN

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“A founding member of the New Teen Titans, Raven, the Daughter of Darkness, fights for a world to which she fears she can never truly belong.”

One of the three original creations added to the line-up when Teen Titans became New Teen Titans, Raven was actually the whole impetus of the team forming in the first place.  When the JLA turned down her request for help dealing with her demonic father’s arrival, she found a team of younger heroes to help her, and that’s how we got the New Teen Titans.  She’s been sort of a revolving door of good and bad over the years, as she’s dealt with her demonic parentage and its affects on her general well-being.  She had neither a figure nor a planned figure during the Kenner Super Powers days, and would eventually show up with the rest of the team during the early DC Direct days, with more figures following after the Teen Titans cartoon raised her profile.  These days, Raven figures aren’t quite a rarity, but it’s still cool when she gets one.  And now she’s got a Super Powers one, though not from Kenner.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Raven is part of Series 14 of McFarlane’s Super Powers line, where she’s figure 69, the third of the six figures included numerically.  As with the rest of the assortment, she’s an Entertainment Earth exclusive, sold only as part of the full set of six.  While Starfire and Cyborg stuck to their original costume designs, Raven breaks from that.  She’s using her design from the 2008 Titans re-launch, which was more or less just a tweak on the 2003 Teen Titans re-launch design, itself a tweak on her original Perez look.  The main change-up on this particular design is the presence of a belt, something the character hadn’t really had until her cartoon design added it, and the comics followed suit with her “One Year Later” design after Infinite Crisis.  I’d wager a guess that this design was chosen for its closeness to the classic look, but also its inclusion of a belt, allowing for a point to attach her “skirt” piece.  I can’t say it’s a favorite look of mine, but I think piecing together the “why” of it at least makes me feel a little better about the choice.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation.  She’s predominantly using the standard female body introduced with the last round of figures, which makes sense.  It’s a good all purpose sort of sculpt, so I can’t fault it.  She gets a new head sculpt and…I don’t love it  The permanently attached hood is always a tricky shot, but I think it’s really the face beneath it that doesn’t work.  It just doesn’t look much like Raven, who’s typically been depicted as rather thin-faced, with more pronounced cheek bones.  This one’s very round faced, which doesn’t seem right for Raven, and really doesn’t work with the sculpted hood.  It just throws the whole thing off, and makes the hood seem really small by comparison.  Raven also gets a sculpted belt piece, and there’s a skirt attached to it.  Okay, so there’s a really thin piece of fabric hanging from the front of it.  Only the front, not the back, which is odd.  And, because it’s so thin, it’s already curling, which looks a bit silly.  There’s also a cloth cape piece, which is pretty much in line with the other cloth capes, so generally not terrible.  Her color work is fine but also has a fairly notable issue in that she’s just simply the wrong color.  In the comics, Raven’s usually a dark blue, and that’s true of this design as well.  But, for whatever reason (I’m assuming related to the cartoon, honestly), they made her purple, and I just don’t think it works as well, especially because the cape, the paint, and the molded plastic are all distinctly different shades, so nothing really matches.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

With Starfire’s inclusion, Raven’s a natural choice.  I’d be lying if I said I was excited for Raven, because I’m honestly not a huge Raven fan in the first place, but I can appreciate her importance.  I didn’t love the figure’s look when the prototypes were shown, but I was holding judgement until I had her in hand.  I honestly like her even less in hand.  She’s not awful, but she definitely feels a lot more like the earlier offerings in the line.  Odd costume choice, a head sculpt that feels out of place both for the character and line’s style in general, and poor decisions on the color palette make this one a weaker offering than the others around her.  I don’t hate her, and I’ll stick her on the shelf with the rest of the team without issue, but she definitely could have been better.