Category Archives: toys

October 7, 2026

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Apocalypse

By Joe
Come the Apocalypse.

One of the big bads of X-Men: The Animated Series was none other than Apocalypse. He appeared in the opening clash to start almost every episode and when the show was looking to end on a high note it selected Apocalypse as the villain to center that story on. When X-Men ’97 arrived in 2024, Apocalypse was conspicuously absent apart from a throw-away line by Wolverine in the show’s second episode. That is, until the very end when a post credits stinger featured the immortal one amongst the wreckage of Genosha signaling that he was going to have a part to play in season two. We may have had to wait a bit longer than expected for that second season, but perhaps to tide us over we had Hasbro and its Marvel Legends team which unveiled Apocalypse at last year’s New York Comic Con. The made-to-order item would arrive in 2026 and now as we sit on the eve of New York Comic Con 2026, Apocalypse has indeed arrived.

He’s a big boy, but still in the shadow of the Sentinel.

Even with Apocalypse set to play a large role in X-Men ’97 season two, I was skeptical we would get a Marvel Legends figure of the villain. That’s because in 2022 Hasbro released a retro card version of Apocalypse in his animated colors. Apocalypse was rather famously re-colored to purple and blue for the cartoon as opposed to his black and blue look from the comics. It was a curious decision and as a kid one I probably did not like, but overtime it’s become charming and nostalgic. Still, it’s probably not a popular colorway with the majority of Legends collectors so just getting that one figure was a surprise. And it’s a figure I liked then and still like because they did re-sculpt some of the figure to give it more of an animated look, and since the figure was a re-color of a previously released build-a-figure, he was larger than the standard Legends release.

Eternal enemies.
Good luck, Cable.

Whenever Apocalypse is brought to plastic, there’s always a question of how big should he be? Thanks to the original Toy Biz release, my first understanding of Apocalypse was that his mutant power allowed him to increase in size. And it can, but he also possesses a great deal of other powers to use against his foes. Because of his unique abilities, he’s always changing in size. Some of that is probably due to the inconsistent animation of the old series where there’s even shots of Apocalypse at almost eye level with Archangel. For the most part, he’s quite a bit bigger and the official height chart the animators were supposed to go off of put him at over 7′, which interestingly had him as being shorter than Juggernaut. For this made-to-order figure, Hasbro decided to go big.

He’s big on theming.
This setup for the cables works so much better than past figures.

Apocalypse comes in the same style of box as the previously released Sentinel. It has no window, but instead a render of the figure and the accessories inside against a yellow backdrop. Since it’s not something sold in stores, I don’t really care about the omission of a window box. The packaging inside is easy to get through with an absence of annoying tie-downs. Once removed, Apocalypse will tower over the other X-Men ’97 figures (well, except for the Sentinel) at approximately 12″ in height if not a little taller. And he’s not some bean pole as proportionally he’s pretty massive. I don’t know for sure, but it feels like his height was based on the scene inserted into the opening of some episodes of X-Men ’97 showing Apocalypse confronting Cable beneath his temple. Which itself was a recreation of a scene from the original series. This size also likely puts him in proper scale for the scene depicted at the end of the fourth episode of season two and he even seems to come with an accessory that is a reference to that. There’s a nice mass to all of his limbs and his torso which isn’t something Legends is always good about. Even the old retro card figure when viewed from the side has something of a flat chest. This Apocalypse is round and full and really embodies the look of the character in the show.

It doesn’t show on camera, but the retro card figure is a darker purple and the upper body, boots, etc. is blue where as with this new figure they’re a different shade of purple.

And more than any other Legends release I’ve encountered, this guy looks like he stepped right out of my television. The subtle change in the shades of purple in use are captured exquisitely. The old figure was a purple body with blue accents while this Apocalypse is basically just multiple shades of purple. The only color in use that I’d consider blue is found on the figure’s head. There’s a yellow tint to his exposed flesh which matches the show and his eyes are the inferno-like red and yellow. There’s not a ton of paint on him, but the body has been hit with a clear, matte, finish. It makes photographing him slightly challenging for my very amateurish setup. The difference in colors between this new figure and the retro card one are pretty stark in person, but in pictures it looks far more subtle. All of the details are here though like the piping on his arms and subtle changes in textures throughout. The cables, always the bane of any Apocalypse figure, are a metallic silver and they now connect to the rear of the belt and above the elbow which makes them a lot more manageable. I actually have yet to have one pop out by accident and they do seem more pliable than the old figure. That one has them pop out all the time whenever I pose it. The only visual negative is some of the paint around the lips is a little sloppy on mine. There’s also some hot spots with the finish along the side of the figure which I think is the result of the bubble packaging. Neither are noticeable from shelf range, but is apparent in-hand.

Apocalypse has a lot of foes.

Apocalypse comes loaded with stuff and it’s basically all things seen in the early part of the show’s second season. Hasbro almost certainly was able to look at material from the show to create these which is in contrast to how Marvel has been with a lot of the movies of late. For hands, we get a set of fists and a set of asymmetrical open hands. The right hand is a little looser than I’d like, but at least swapping parts is pretty simple. There is one alternate head and it’s a grimacing one which looks great and has a clean paint application. I do wish we got a third, evil smile portrait from the execution scene at the end of episode four. For attachments, Apocalypse has various weapons and even a defensive item. He has his big, snap-on, shield which is emblazoned with his signature “A” and looks incredibly goofy, but it’s well-represented here. It basically slides up the forearm until snug and works well. He also has a blade hand attachment, a spiked ball, and a drill. All of them are entirely plastic with no paint and Hasbro used its semi-metallic plastic for the “metal” parts. There’s some swirling on the morning star that looks bad, but none on the other two. Apocalypse also has his arm canon which first showed up in the original series and was also an accessor with the retro card figure. It comes with two different blast effects. One is similar to the Sentinel blasts as there’s a rear plume and a cone of energy in the center. The second is just the plume with a clip in the middle to plug another figure into it. This is almost certainly in reference to a specific scene, though you won’t be able to accurately pull that off in plastic as the articulation isn’t quite up to snuff there. It’s a neat idea and you can use it with most Legends figures though I wish the impact was larger and more dramatic. He has multiple muzzles on the arm canon and it can accept the Sentinel blast effects so long as you only use the center piece. That’s the only way to get multiple blasts going. Lastly, there’s a diorama piece that’s a blast hitting a rocky ground and it’s pretty damn cool. I’m going to have to figure out a way to work it into my display as a result because it would be a waste not to.

The Sentinel blast works too.
You can fit more into the canon if you omit the muzzle flash.
The clip-on blast works better with non-caped characters.
This is the face my cat makes when I pick her up.

Apocalypse is a pretty chunky boy so articulation isn’t going to be his strong suit. It’s not a total bummer though as he works reasonably well for a man his size. We get: double-ball head, ball-hinge shoulders, bicep, double elbows, wrist swivel and hinge, ball-jointed diaphragm, ball-jointed waist, ball-socket hips, thigh swivel, double knees, boot swivel, ankle hinge and rocker. Where you’re likely to get the best range is at the head and in the torso. He’s too chunky to crunch forward much, but the ball joints in the torso and waist work really well with rotation, tilt, and just general nuance posing. The arms are a bit too chunky to get the elbows to bend past 90 degrees and no butterfly joint does limit things at the shoulder. The big shoulder pads rotate with the arm so they don’t get in the way, at least. He’s not going to do splits or kick forward as far as 90 degrees, but the gait he gets is adequate and the ankles work very well. I also like the included boot swivel so if you want to rotate the feet you can without breaking up the sculpt in the thighs. He can hit walking poses and sell his effect parts well. What he can’t do is reach across his body or convincingly get down on one knee. Again, there’s a certain scene in episode 4 I’m thinking of here that’s just not possible to pull off, unfortunately, but all things considered the articulation is fine.

These are the weapons he turns to when he wants to get medieval.
“Only a coward feels mighty when stepping on ants.”

Do you want a giant Apocalypse from X-Men ’97? One that looks close enough to his appearance in the original animated series as well? Then you should probably get this one. He’s not cheap at $120, but he’s currently listed as in-stock on Hasbro Pulse as of this post going live. This is an impressive chunk of plastic of season two’s signature villain, and while finding space in one’s collection could be a challenge, he will immediately bring some presence to any display. I’ve always liked Apocalypse so I’m predisposed to like this figure. It’s something I never expected, but am happy is here. I hope Hasbro sold a lot of them and that the X-Men ’97 figures are making them money because I’m counting on more getting announced this weekend at New York Comic Con. Apocalypse was a made-to-order item, but if you want to get one just keep your eyes on hasbropulse.com as there are likely more which will go up for sale in due time.

“Crash upon me and be broken!”

For more Apocalypse and X-Men ’97 goodness, check these out:

Marvel Legends X-Men Retro Card Series Apocalypse

It is Halloween and that means it’s time for costumes, candy, and spooky fun. It’s also Halloween 2022, a pretty important date if you grew up loving those mutants who ran around in colorful spandex fighting for a better tomorrow. That’s because 30 years ago on this very night, the animated series X-Men premiered on…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Sentinel

When X-Men premiered on Halloween 1992 the big bad guy of the day wasn’t Magneto, it wasn’t Apocalypse, it was the Sentinels. The mutant-hunting robots were chosen because they represented the threat from humanity as it pertained to the protagonists of the show. Any show or comic book can put some scary dude in a…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Mephisto

It’s now been a couple of years since Hasbro did a light pivot from the HasLab model of action figure delivery to the made-to-order one. That’s not to say the HasLab is dead, but we haven’t seen a Marvel Legends themed one since Giant Man which was solicited in September of 2023 and delivered about…

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by Joe

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September 30, 2026

Mondo Squads Rocko’s Modern Life

By Joe

One of the big television moments of my young life in the 1990s was the premiere of Nickelodeon’s very own cartoons. Dubbed Nicktoons, these were creator-driven shows intended to entertain first and move merch second. And that second component was a pretty distant second. Launched in 1991, the original Nicktoons consisted of Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. All three are pretty much classics at this point and all three brought something different to the table, but the three show format sure felt kind of funny even in the moment. Since all were designed to occupy a half hour block of television it meant that the inaugural Nicktoons block was an hour and a half beginning at 10 AM on Sunday morning and ending at 11:30. That just felt wrong somehow. Even though radio had designated a block of content as 3 songs, for television it felt like a proper block should be four half hour shows. Well, we wouldn’t have to wait long to get out wish as the following year Nickelodeon launched Rocko’s Modern Life to complete the block. The Joe Murray created show had a tremendous team behind it including soon to be household names (well, in animation circles) as Stephen Hillenburg, Tom Kenny, and Doug Lawrence.

It’s a big box.

Over the years, Rocko has seemed to remain popular, but not as popular as some of the other Nicktoons. For my money, it is the best show Nickelodeon has produced. It had the wacky, gross-out comedy that many associate with The Ren & Stimpy Show, but it combined that with something of a coming of age tale. Rocko is a young adult who only recently left home to make a go at living on his own in the 1990’s. He has problems that maybe the target audience didn’t entirely relate with, but could at least empathize with. Some of them are universal issues like how to deliver bad news to a friend or what to do about a crush, but then there were issues with credit cards and holding down a job. The animation always delivered out of the newly minted Games Studios, an in-house production company owned by Nickelodeon, and the show was able to churn out 52 episodes which was a pretty typical order for Nickelodeon. Only the mega successful shows got more episodes as presumably re-upping with Murray and his staff following the initial 52 would be more costly for Nickelodeon than simply launching a new series. By all accounts, Murray was ready to move on as well, but it wouldn’t be the last we’d hear from Rocko as the gang did return in the short movie Static Cling in 2019 carried exclusively by Netflix.

These might be bigger than you would have expected.

Because Rocko is so awesome, and because Mondo seems to have a good working relationship with Nickelodeon, we now have a set of Mondo Squads featuring Rocko, Heffer, Filbert and some choice little buddies. Mondo’s Squads brand is different from typical action figures. They’re somewhat modeled after maquettes, small statues often commissioned for artists working on animated shows and movies to help them visualize a character in 3D, featuring minimal articulation and occupying a scale that is basically their own making. The characters come housed in a pretty substantial box featuring the same artwork that was used on the Rocko’s Modern Life DVD collection several years ago. Jordan Christianson is credited with the package design which resembles a television one might find in O-Town, though I want to say the actual picture of Rocko and the other characters in the background was done by Joe Murray. The figures in the set are based on a concept by Joe Allard and the sculpts were handled by Brandon Gash. Mara Ancheta is credited with the paint while Hector Arce was in charge of the art direction. The figures are well packaged in a large plastic bubble and pretty much everything is wrapped in a plastic bag to protect the paint. There are no tie-downs and the whole thing is quite pleasent to access.

Rocko seems a little off to me. Left is a comparison with a Pop! and right is a still from the movie Static Cling.

We’ll talk about Rocko first who Mondo lists at coming in at 5.75″. As I alluded to above, these figures do not occupy any sort of concrete scale. They’re definitely not 1:12 or even 1:10, but the goal seems to be to just make sure they scale with each other. Rocko is depicted in his traditional blue, collared, shirt with pink triangle pattern and brown shoes. By default, he’s sporting what I’d call a contented expression and his arms are at his sides. Rocko could be a tough character to pull off in 3D, but Gash did an amazing job as he looks to be incredibly on-model. The paint application is simple, but clean, as Mondo did not opt to go for a cel-shaded look. Instead we just have flat, saturated, matte colors that do well to mimic an animation cel. Rocko would be perfect if not for one thing that’s been bothering me. The shade of his fur in the original series was a pale yellow. I have a Funko Pop! that pretty well captures that shade, but for this figure we have more of a dull brown. It’s darker in person than in pictures and I can only assume this is because Mondo based their design off of the updated character models for Static Cling where Rocko was a bit darker. In that though, I’d say his fur has a touch of gray as opposed to brown so it’s not a perfect match for that as well. His shoes are also a little off as they’re a dark brown as opposed to more of a red-brown. It’s a thing I’m trying to ignore and just accept, but it does bother me if I’m being honest.

“Umm, you wouldn’t happen to know the Big Heads, would you?”
“Spunky! No!”

Rocko is pretty much a five points of articulation figure as basically all of the Squad designs are, but he does have a lot of extra parts to change how he’s displayed. His secondary portrait is Rocko’s frequently worn concerned look. He is unsure about something or maybe even a bit embarrassed. To complete the look he has a set of arms that feature his hands coming together at the fingertips. If that is a bit understated, he has a terrific “freak out” expression that’s partly based on his scream during the opening title. His mouth is wide open with his brain literally leaping out of his skull. The brain is held up in air with translucent, red, plastic for the brain stem and it’s quite impressive to behold. The eyes are enlarged as well, though not to the degree they are from the show. To help further sell this scream, Rocko has a second tail that sticks straight out from his body (his default tail has a bit of an “S” shape to it) and a set of arms out wide. The brain leaping from the skull bit is something I identify with the show so this was a great pull for an optional display. All of the limbs just peg in so everything is easy to swap on Rocko as well as the rest of the figures in the set.

The gluttonous steer with a heart of gold.

We now move onto Heffer, Rocko’s gluttonous best friend who is a steer raised by wolves. Mondo has Heffer listed at 9.5″ so he’s considerably taller than Rocko, as he should be. He’s also practically a sphere with limbs and has a very light feel, but still has that high quality, Mondo, appearance. Unlike Rocko, his shading is pretty much spot-on and Gash did a tremendous job translating him to 3D. He even has his asymmetrical eyes and cavernous butt crack. The paint is once again clean and I like the addition of some subtle shading in places, most notably that bulbous ass. There’s also some nice, black, linework on the feet and around the hem of his pants. The only blemish, or mistake, is that Mondo left Heffer’s horns the same shade of yellow as his body and head. In the show, and movie, they were always orange as there was an obvious separation between skull and horn It’s a much smaller issue than Rocko’s general fur color, but a surprising omission considering how detail-oriented Mondo typically is.

“Give me a merit badge NOOOOOOOWWW!!!”

By default, Heffer has a happy expression that captures his personality quite well. His default arms are also just at his side. For a second portrait we get Heffer with a mouthful of who knows what? There’s a right arm holding a blue, foil, bag to go with this look and a left arm holding a TV remote. The presence of the remote makes me wish we had Rocko’s couch and TV, but there’s already a lot in this set and that likely would have really pushed the MSRP higher than the already pretty high $160. Heffer’s third expression is a giant belching one with half-lidded eyes. He has outspread arms to go with this and while Heffer likely burped quite a bit in the show, this set really makes me think of his declaration “Give me a merit badge NOW!” from the short “Belch of Destiny.” It’s a good selection for Heffer, though I’m a little disappointed that the snack bag is just plain blue. Why no Pasture Puffies logo? And I think I’d swap the TV remote hand for one clinging to a handful of the green, spongey looking, snack.

“Hello.”
“I’m nauseous…I’m nauseous…”

Rounding out the trio is good old Filbert, the hypochondriac turtle who is probably a little bipolar since he can get aggressive at a moment’s notice. He stands at about 6″ even and looks every bit as good as Rocko and Heffer. If anything, he is the best of the three as there’s nothing obviously off about the design or the paint. I suppose one could quibble with the placement of his arms, but they kind of moved around in the show, but were almost always shown coming out of the side of his shell at about the same level as his belt. His shoes are also too dark, but it’s not really something that bothers me. Overall, he looks great and his default expression is more or less a happy one. He too has arms that just hang at his side for the default ones and like Rocko his secondary portrait is one that looks concerned or worried. His arms that seem intended for this expression are similar to Rocko’s where he’s bringing his hands together in front of him. His third portrait features oversized, bloodshot, eyes and arms with his palms open pointing forward, elbows bent. This is Filbert’s freak out expression and it’s a good one. He’s such an expressive character in the show that it would be especially easy to come up with more (yelling, angry, one with a heating bag on his head), but I think this selection is pretty damn good and appropriate for old Filbert.

“Please take care of my, Turdy!”
Turdy! Behind you!

And that’s not all, as we have two more characters to talk about. First is Spunky, because you can’t have a Rocko without a Spunky. Spunky is a slug figure with no articulation, but he’s sculpted in a bum scoot pose with a delightful expression upon his face. If you’re going to do just one Spunky, this is the way to go. The other included little buddy is Filbert’s bird, Turdy. Featured in the segment “Bye, Bye, Birdie,” Turdy was entrusted to Rocko while Filbert was away only for Heffer to accidentally sit on him and end his short life. To capture this moment, Turdy has two sets of eyes: one for the living, and one for the dead. His dead eyes, in true cartoon fashion, feature big X’s so you wouldn’t confuse him with a living bird. He does have a swivel in his neck, but is otherwise not articulated. Both Spunky and Turdy are on-model and look great featuring the same quality of paint as the larger figures.

“You think Filbert will notice?”

This set of figures based on Rocko’s Modern Life was sold as a limited edition set on Mondo’s shop earlier this year for $160. It’s a steep price for figures that are essentially statues, but if you’re someone in the market for high end collectibles of Rocko’s Modern Life then this is pretty much the only game in town. It’s also sold out so the only option now is to grab one on the secondary market. I have no idea if this one is going to be so desirable that it will command far more than that $160 price tag (which also included an $18 shipping charge) or not, but it’s also the type of thing that is likely to only go up. Mondo on a live stream awhile back also confirmed that this is the only planned set for Rocko’s Modern Life so if you were holding out for a cheaper one with less stuff it sounds like that isn’t happening. Of course, if demand is there they can always revisit it. I’d personally love a second set featuring the Big Heads or a Christmas variant of these three. Such a set could feature Rocko, Heffer, and Filbert in their winter attire and come with a walking Spunky, the little elf character, and Rocko’s tree with a living expression and a dead one. Perhaps I shouldn’t start giving Mondo ideas since this stuff isn’t cheap, but for now I’m pretty happy to have these characters in my collection as it’s been long overdue. The best Nicktoon deserves the best toys and Mondo’s Squads is pretty much the perfect method of delivery, albeit not the most economical.

For more of my thoughts on the greatness that is Rocko’s Modern Life check these out:

Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling

After taking a trip to the past with Rocko’s Modern Life during the spring, it seems only fitting that I also take a look at the Rocko’s Modern Life movie from 2019: Static Cling. To be fair, the term “movie” is definitely used loosely when applied to this piece of media. Static Cling was originally…

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by Joe

Rocko’s Modern Life – Season 3

My rewatch of Rocko’s Modern Life really could not have gone better. I suppose it would be better if it wasn’t during a pandemic, but what can you do? The show has been a delight, and while I felt Season Two was pretty much on par with the first season, I think an argument can…

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by Joe

Dec. 10 – Rocko’s Modern Christmas

Rocko’s Modern Life may be the most 90s cartoon created during that decade. It’s certainly the most 90s of the Nicktoons, Nickelodeon’s very successful foray into original animation after years of airing other studio’s work. Rocko’s Modern Life centered around a wallaby named Rocko, naturally, and his journey into adulthood, which most notably includes self-reliance.…

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by Joe

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September 21, 2026

Mondo X-Men ’97 1/6 Scale Storm

By Joe
Behold! The fury of the Storm!

With the arrival of Storm, Mondo moves one step closet to completing the X-Men team from the original Fox animated series. She follows Jubilee, Gambit, Rogue, Cyclops, Wolverine, and Beast, but since this line got started during the launch of the very successful X-Men ’97, she arrives with that title upon her box. For fans who have been collecting this line, that distinction has been a little irritating at times. No, I can’t say most care about what’s on the box, but some of the figures within have too strongly favored the continuation as opposed to the original series, but with Storm that is not the case.

Storm comes in the usual, large, box with artwork on the front by former storyboard artist Dan Veesenmeyer. Images from those same storyboards are used to fill out the background and it’s tough to tell what episode. It might be “Slave Island” though it could be “Savage Land, Savage Heart.” Regardless, it’s Storm going off with her powers and it looks pretty neat. The figure inside is another sculpt from the renowned Alex Brewer with paint by Tom Rozejowski and Hilary Arce. Hector Arce is credited with the art direction while Jordan Christianson designed the packaging. It is a box like Beast’s and does not include a window like past releases, but that’s fine considering the contents are heavily wrapped to protect the paint.

Out of the box, Storm stands about 11″ to where the top of her head would likely be under that rather large mass of white hair. Factor that in, and she’s over a foot tall making her one of the tallest in the line. As I alluded to in the opening paragraph, this is very much a Storm based on her appearance in the original animated series. The tell-tale mark in this case are her thigh-high boots and heels. In X-Men ’97, she ditches those for a more traditional boot line halfway up her calf. The sculpt is quite nice as Brewer was pretty generous with the curves. The costume, a bit of a point of contention amongst comic fans (Is it white? Silver? A glossy black?), is a cartoon-accurate white with a lot of black shading. There’s some gray-blue shading mixed in as well which helps make Storm look like she leapt off the screen. All of the yellow accents are where you would expect them to be as are her trademarked lightning bolt earrings. By default, she has her big, poofy, hair which will make her a bit tough to stand, but is animation accurate. The only critique I have for the sculpt is her face is still not quite what I picture for Storm from the show. Her chin comes to more of a pronounced point in plastic where her jaw was a bit more square, but with soft lines, in the show.

The plastic cape looks great, but severely limits posing.

One of the challenges of creating Storm for this line rested with her cape. To preserve the look of the show, a painted cape made out of plastic is ideal, but since her cape connects to her wrists that basically kills any articulation in the arms. Mondo’s solution then was to give the collector options. Storm has an all plastic cape that’s well-painted and looks great. It includes her shoulder pads and plugs into her clavicle area with the yellow cuffs fitting over her wrists. It’s in a neutral position so Storm won’t be able to do much with her hands while wearing it, but if you’re the sort of person that just goes for a pretty vanilla pose on your shelf it will look nice. For those looking for something more poseable, there’s a soft goods cape as well. It’s actually two pieces and also includes the yellow cuffs, but it’s all soft goods. The outside portion is white while the inner part of the cape is gray. It’s not going to fool anyone and does look like a soft goods cape, but it does strike a nice compromise. And if you don’t like the look of the soft goods, yellow, wrist cuffs on it Mondo did include two optional yellow, plastic, ones. I think these are mostly intended for slipping over her wrists for those who don’t want to put the cape on at all, but they can be muscled over the soft goods cuffs too for a stronger, more saturated, look. Based on the pictures on Mondo’s website, it also is possible to remove the cape from the shoulder pads, but it doesn’t look easy so I have opted not to try. I’m also not sure which cape that applies to.

For those who prefer their Storm have more of a punk vibe.

Storm may be wearing her ’92 costume, but she does have some ’97 inspired portraits to approximate her look in that series if it’s your preference. The default one features the big hair and her iris present while there’s an alternate one with the eyes whited-out. This is what happens whenever Storm uses her powers so if you’re posing her with lightning effects make sure you have the right eyes unless you want to look like a fool. The sculpts look to be identical with just the eye paint being different. It makes sense, though I wish her non-powered up look featured a smile. If you want her to look a bit more intimidating, there’s a slightly angrier expression where the wind is pushing her hair up. It’s definitely a cool look and one I’ll be hard pressed to ignore when it comes to my own, personal, display. For the X-Men ’97 enthusiasts, she also has a neutral portrait with mohawk and an angry one with that same mohawk hairstyle. The angry one features the added detail of little holes beside her whited-out eyes that can accommodate two lightning effects. I believe this is based on her grand entrance in the first episode of X-Men ’97. Also included in this timed edition of Storm is another neutral portrait with a ponytail hairstyle. I think this hairstyle made an appearance a couple of times in the original series, but I remember it most from the episode “Orphan’s End.” It’s a good spread, though I’m a little disappointed that none of the heads feature a smiling expression. She’s either stoic or angry and while Storm does tend to be quite serious much of the time, she’s not joyless.

She has a pair of “weapons” as well, including this terrific homage to the Toy Biz Storm.

To go with all of those expressions is an assortment of hands. By default, Storm has these style posed hands. The kind of gesture she would make while reaching out and getting ready to direct her powers at a target, be it lightning, wind, or something else. She also has a similar set with little crackles of lightning affixed to them. They’re soft and pliable, but also do make it a little tough when trying to put her hands on (and swapping is not easy – go for heat). She also has two clenching hands with similar lightning effects on them and a set of gripping hands. For those gripping hands, Storm has the staff weapon featured in her battle with Callisto in the episode “Captive Hearts.” It’s the strange, double lightsaber weapon that has a gray handle in the center and translucent blue plastic for each end. It looks fine, but I’m surprised at the lack of paint in the center handle. The other handheld accessory is a large, translucent, yellow, lightning bolt. This feels like a direct callback to Storm’s original Toy Biz figure right down to the little, squared-off, grip on the side of it. It looks pretty neat and I do love it when Mondo slips callbacks into these packages. The hands that are likely to be among the favorites of anyone with this figure are the ones with lightning shooting from the finger tips in a wide arc. It’s more translucent yellow plastic and it’s an effect similar to what Hasbro attempted with their X-Men Storm, but executed far better because the plastic for the hands is not painted over translucent plastic. The last hand option is a unique piece. It’s a small plant with a right hand affixed to the bottom. Above the plant is a rainstorm and a dark cloud and affixed to that cloud is another lightning bolt connected to a left hand. Unfortunately, mine arrived with the hands basically parallel to each other which made it impossible to get onto Storm as the top needed to be facing the opposite direction. By heating it, I reshaped the little lightning bolt and was able to get it onto my figure, though this stressed where the lightning was glued into the cloud and it snapped when I took it off. Mondo is sending me a new one at no cost to me so it’s not a big deal, but something to watch out for if you get the same. The last accessory, is another mutant power suppressor collar like the ones Gambit came with. You should now have enough to reenact the episode “Slave Island” with Storm, Jubilee, and Gambit if you so desire.

Can’t forget the ponytail look.

For articulation, Storm is pretty typical of the line. We get: double-ball head, ball-hinge shoulders, single hinge elbows with a swivel, ball wrists, diaphragm, waist, hips, thigh cut, double-jointed knees, hinge ankles and rockers, wired cape. The thigh cut is a nice addition since it’s hidden by the line of her boots. The torso works really well with its ability to arche back and forth at the diaphragm and a little at the waist. Plus you get the rotation and tilt you likely would want. The single-hinged elbows are a minor shortcoming, but the shoulders are the weakest point. Because her costume bunches up at the shoulders which is captured by the sculpt, she can’t raise her arms out to the side into a classic “T” pose. The range is about 45 degrees, but she can rotate at the shoulders without issue so it’s something that can be worked around to some degree. Even with the heels and big hair, Storm can be made to stand on her own with a little persistence. I don’t know that I’d leave her on a shelf like that, but the good thing is that I don’t have to. Mondo also included their new flight stand. Unlike the one I received with Nightcrawler, this one fit over the articulated post for me without having to disassemble it. The only problem is that she’s so slight of frame finding a place to use the claw on her is tough. It’s pretty much the bust area or nothing. I wish they had a smaller claw for smaller figures, but on the plus side this will work with pretty much all of the other figures in the line if you want to put Wolverine in a leaping pose or allow Magneto to hover.

Before I “fixed” it, this is how the plant hand arrived.
This is how it’s supposed to look.
From Mondo itself. Image by Raúl Barrero.

Like all of the figures in this line, Storm doesn’t come cheap. The MSRP is $245, but it also required a tariff fee and shipping which brought the total for me to north of $300. Is she worth it? If any of the others are then yes and by the standards of the line she not only features a lot of stuff, but looks great and articulates about as well as can be expected. I love all of the options and I appreciate Mondo giving us two kinds of capes for our display. The only downer for me is how Mondo doesn’t allow for us to swap the hair. If Storm could do so it would really open up the display possibilities. I love the eye lightning, but I don’t know if I’ll ever want to display her with her X-Men ’97 hairstyle when I’m mainly going for a ’92 look for my display. If the hair could be moved around it would solve that problem, Plus, that’s a lot of extra plastic to have to include. The issue with the tree accessory is unfortunate, but not a big deal for me. As of right now, I have not received my replacement part, but I have an “order” created for it by Mondo so I’m not concerned at the moment. I might also just try and repair the one I have since it is a clever little item. My criticisms here feel pretty minor though and at the end of the day I think Storm is one of the best figures in the line so far. It’s getting tough to pick favorites, but I’ve been really impressed by Storm, Beast, and Nightcrawler. Next up is Jean which Mondo is billing as the team completer, but we all know there’s still some pretty important characters still waiting for their own chance. Jean won’t be out until next year though so it’s going to be a little while before we have another figure in the line to talk about, but at least it’s not the last.

EDIT: Jean went up for preorder on September 22 with an expected ship date of November 2026 so apparently we are not done with X-Men this year!

UPDATE: I received my replacement “Storm Plant” from Mondo about two weeks after contacting them. The new part did have the hands in a new orientation, but unfortunately it’s still unusable. When the bottom hand is connected to the figure, the fingertips of the top hand are now pointing at her chest. Previously, they were pointed in the same direction as the bottom hand. I can only conclude the issue must be pretty widespread and I wonder if checking which direction the parts are going is even part of the factory review. It’s too bad they glued everything as not only would that have prevented the issue, it would have made it easier to get onto the figure. I think I’ll explore a permanent fix to the one I broke rather than ask for a third one.

We are so close!

For more from Mondo’s X-Men line, see below:

Mondo X-Men ’97 1/6 Scale Beast – Limited Edition

Back in the old Toy Biz line, it felt like we had to wait a long while for an action figure of Beast, or The Beast as the opening title of X-Men: The Animated Series referred to him as. Perhaps that was due to the character spending the bulk of the first season out of…

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by Joe

Mondo X-Men ’97 1/6 Scale Nightcrawler

Yes, I’m afraid this is another toy review that needs to begin with a word about tariffs. It was the talk of 2025 in the toy collecting community because it caused considerable delays, disruptions, and worst of all, increased prices across the board. One line impacted by the introduction of these new costs more than…

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by Joe

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September 10, 2026

Boss Fight Studio Garfield & Odie Halloween Adventure Set

By Joe
Best be prepared to turn over your candy!

Retail loves having something to sell you and one of the easiest themes for retail to go in on is a seasonal one. That’s why (at least in the United States) when the Fourth of July passes us by out come the Halloween items! Which is why it isn’t really out of the ordinary for a Halloween post to show up on this humble little blog at this time of year. Halloween is the only holiday that can rival Christmas in terms of television specials. If I had to guess, I’d assume that Christmas is still ahead, but there are certainly a lot of episodes of popular shows as well as stand-alone specials designed to air during the Halloween season, more so if you just count anything that has a horror motif. I’ve never gone into Halloween as heavy as I do Christmas here, but I do enjoy a good Halloween special and one of my all-time favorites is Garfield’s Halloween Adventure. Also known as Garfield in Disguise, the television special first showed up on CBS in 1985 and was the fourth in a long line of Garfield television specials. This one arrived even before the much loved A Garfield Christmas and I’d love to say it was an instant classic upon it’s arrival, but I was still in diapers at the time and couldn’t really say either way. I don’t remember my first viewing, but I probably liked it as did pretty much everyone in the 1980s. The cat was huge, and I’m not just talking about his belly.

This line is a larger scale compared with NECA’s interpretation.

Here to capitalize on Garfield and Halloween nostalgia is Boss Fight Studio. The Massachusetts toy maker acquired the license to produce Garfield action figures a few years ago and the first wave arrived around a year ago. Coincidentally, it was around that time this set of action figures based on Garfield’s Halloween Adventure went up for preorder. In fact, I received my set exactly one year after placing my order. It’s a set that features both Garfield and Odie dressed up as pirates from the famous special as they embarked on a quest for candy. Well, Garfield wanted candy, Odie was basically along for the ride and so that Garfield could get even more candy. It went up alongside another two-pack based on their appearance in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles magazine, as in, the very same appearance NECA also made a Garfield and Odie set based on. I thought it odd at the time that Nickelodeon, who controls the Garfield license now, would license out the same basic design to two different toy makers, but now that I have this set I can kind of see why.

Garfield can go hat-less if you prefer, but he’s missing the little tufts of hair at his temples. The hat also left behind some purple on my figure’s ears which I’ll have to try and remove.

Garfield stands at roughly 3.375″ to tip of his ears. He also has his pirate hat which makes him a bit taller while the NECA “Garfello” came in at pretty much an inch shorter. If the NECA one is thought to be something close to 1:12 scale (Garfield’s size kind of changes in print and on television to suit the scene) then this interpretation is more like 1:10 scale. There is a difference, albeit a minor one, but hopefully there’s enough enthusiasm for that one-shot to go around. This set though has no such concerns as Boss Fight Studio is the only one making Halloween Garfield. The figure borrows parts from the regular Garfield (which I don’t have) while mixing in some new. He comes out of the box with a mischievous, almost evil, grin of sharp teeth and frowny eyes. The strap across the torso is a separate piece, but is glued down. The shorts are part of the sculpt and I love how they left holes in the ragged ends. Garfield’s right leg is a normal one while the left is a peg leg. He has his little, wooden, sword to wield and there’s a peg hole on his left hip to holster it, though it’s a bit tough to fit in. Garfield also has his sack of candy which can be placed on a surface or slotted into either hand. The paint is clean and matte. Garfield is mostly orange plastic, but it too is matte in appearance. All of his stripes are where you would expect as well as the little freckles on his cheeks. His little, pink, nose has a hit of gloss to it which makes it stand out. The skull and crossbones on the hat is very clean and crisp and, as I alluded to earlier, it is removable. It fits over the ears, though it did leave behind some purple smudges on those ears. I could probably get it off, but honestly I’ll never display him without the hat. My only critique with the presentation is that Boss Fight Studio doesn’t put any stripes on the cheek area of his face. It’s one of those things that’s kind of a cheat with the character as the stripes appear to only be on the back of the body and head, but from the front and side they’re always visible. I’d have liked to see them included here. I also wonder if it would look better with some black outlining on the teeth. NECA outlined everything which really gave their figure a sharp presentation. This one looks good, but also more like a toy. The more orange and overall rounded features do make me think of the CG Nickelodeon show more than the old animation where Garfield was a bit lumpier, but it’s a pretty subtle distinction.

“Stick with me, Odie, and there will be much candy.”

Garfield is not alone in this set as we also have Odie in his pirate garb. For Odie that means a yellow and green polka-dotted bandana, a gold ring in his left ear, and a red and white striped shirt. By default, Odie has his tongue proudly on display and he is about 3.5″ to the top of his head and 4.75″ to the highest point of his ears. The scaling looks great with Garfield and I think Odie might be the overall better looking figure in terms of being on-model. That’s not to say that Garfield looks off-model, just that Odie looks that damn good. Which is funny because he’s such a wild design. His neck is basically his entire lower jaw. No dog looks like Odie, but somehow Jim Davis made this work and Boss Fight Studio was able to reproduce it in 3D. He has his little whiskers on his face and the yellow plastic for his body is matte. The paint on the head is very clean while the shirt has a small blemish or two, but nothing out of the ordinary. Out of the box, Odie has four standard Odie legs, but he also has an optional peg leg to swap out with his front, left, leg. It pops off pretty easy as Boss Fight just utilizes ball joints for all of the connections. They’re tiny, but sturdy, and once I worked up the courage to actually swap them I found there was really nothing to worry about as far as breakage is concerned.

A trick-or-treating we will go!

Both Garfield and Odie have two expressions to take advantage of. Garfield’s secondary expression is more of a scared one. His eyes are wide and his mouth has basically vanished. Swapping between the two expression is very easy and I imagine both work with the regular release of Garfield so if you have that one you’re getting more options for your display. Odie is a little more involved as he basically has a swap-out neck. The top of his head comes off and out of the box mine was pretty snug. If you handed me the figure without telling me it had another display option I would not have suspected it came off. It did with just a little wiggling and elbow grease and then the neck, or jaw, plugs into the body via another ball joint. It too needed a little force and some courage, but it popped out. It’s very sturdy plastic so I don’t think there’s much risk for breakage, but a wiser person than me might have heated him up first (I was worried about warping either the tongue or ears). The secondary expression is all teeth with an opening in it. That opening is for Odie to hold his candy sack which is a different sculpt from Garfield’s. It works, but it’s hard to turn down Odie and his big, happy, tongue expression. The extra piece plugs into the body of the figure pretty effortlessly, but I have a hard time getting the head onto it. It’s extremely snug and required some heating up to get a seamless fit. Even going back to the default, tongue-out expression needed some heat.

“Tough break, kid.”

Both Garfield and Odie are articulated, but don’t expect these to be the most poseable figures in your collection. For Garfield, we have joints at the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, tail, and ankles. The most range is at the head and Garfield has enough range to look up, down, and all around with some tilt. The elbows and knees are a bit tricky since there just isn’t a lot of plastic to work with, but they do work. The ankles are nice, but the hips are pretty limited. He can brandish his sword and be posed walking or running to a point so I think he’ll do enough. I would like a little more out of the tail just to better sell a running pose, but at least the way that it is allows for it to be a suitable tripod. As for Odie, he has a far simpler spread with far less utility. He has articulation where the legs meet his body and at his ankles which includes a hinge and a rocker. The ball joints are very smooth with the front legs bordering on too smooth. Sometimes his legs slide out when I go to stand him, but I can usually adjust it and he stands just fine. And that’s with or without the peg leg in place. He’s not going to really do anything though. He can stand on his hind legs, but since he doesn’t have knees he can’t really do a walk or running pose. I can’t say I mind all that much because he looks great and what do I really want him to do? He’s just going to stand on my shelf looking like the best little pirate boy that he is.

“Hand over the candy, mummy!”
“On second thought, you hang onto that.”

Garfield and Odie as based on their appearance in Garfield’s Halloween Adventure is a layup. This is an easy set to get behind and Boss Fight Studio did a great job of recreating the looks from this infamous Halloween special. If you’re a Garfield fan or just love decorating your house for the season then this is an easy recommend. It’ll set you back $45, which in this day and age is a pretty fair price for a licensed character. You get two figures and some display options for both. About the only thing I wish was included that is not is just a scared expression for Odie to go with Garfield’s. This is pretty great though and it’s been a hit in my house even if it’s still technically summer. It also makes me wonder what else could be on the horizon for Garfield and Boss Fight Studio? The holy trinity of holiday specials is Garfield’s Halloween Adventure, Garfield’s Thanksgiving, and A Garfield Christmas, but those other two don’t have the iconic looks that the Halloween special contains. There’s Jon in his elf attire from the Christmas one and Grandma in her biker gear, but Garfield and Odie pretty much play it straight. I think for Christmas, just Grandma and her rocking chair with a Garfield for her lap would be amazing, but would probably make me cry every time I look at it since that special always makes me think of my own grandmother. And I probably would buy a Thanksgiving grandma because I have too few Thanksgiving toys.

“You know what, Odie? Thanksgiving isn’t so bad, and it’s a lot less scary.”

For more holiday tales from Garfield and toys look no further:

Dec. 5 – A Garfield Christmas

This year, I’m bringing back a feature from last year where I take another look at, what I consider to be, the greatest Christmas specials ever made. I explained my reasoning for doing this in prior posts, but in short, the first time I looked at some of these specials I did just a short…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Garfello

Before they teamed up with the likes of Batman and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had an encounter with an orange cat with a love for Italian food. I am speaking of none other than Garfield, the Jim Davis creation who was everywhere in the 1980s. The two franchises came…

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by Joe

Dec. 20 – The Garfield Show – “Caroling Capers”

Back in the 1980s, Garfield was pretty damn popular. His presence was pervasive in pop culture, so much so that younger people today would probably be surprised. He originated as a comic strip by Jim Davis, but his popularity grew enough to pave the way for some prime time animation specials. These proved popular, and…

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by Joe

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September 8, 2026

NECA TMNT Adventures Leatherhead

By Joe
It’s time to finish a team.

NECA may be done with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the close of 2026, but the company is at least making an effort to close out a few things on the way out. Tempestra, the last member of the group of villains featured in the episode “Night of the Rogues,” will finish off the cartoon collection and should be arriving in stores sometime in October, or shortly thereafter. For the Archie subline, the Mighty Mutanimals has been the primary focus since the line got off the ground. It started with Slash, who while not a founding member, did eventually join up with the Mutanimals. Man Ray followed and was soon joined by Jagwar and Dreadmon and along things went for years slowly, but surely until only one founding member was missing: Leatherhead. Leatherhead had already received four different figures from NECA based on his appearances across the franchise including one already from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures. That particular one was the wrestling Leatherhead from the Stump Wrestling era which is pretty different from his original appearance and later appearances with the Mutanimals. His Mutanimals era is very similar to his depiction in the cartoon so I was curious how eager NECA was to get to this version of Leatherhead. Then when they did Mondo Gecko, who is very similar to his toon version, I figured it was something that would happen for sure and now it has. Our last figures from NECA based on TMNT Adventures is the Mutanimals version of Leatherhead.

This is not the first Archie Leatherhead we’ve received from NECA.

Now, before anyone chimes in with a comment about Ninjara, yes, I know she exists andsome think of her as a member of the Mighty Mutanimals. She’s not a founding member though and I can understand why NECA would be focused on just the original squad which is captured on the box art for Leatherhead. NECA probably knew this was the end for awhile so they brought back Ken Mitchroney to not only create some Leatherhead art, but to create a full squad image that mimics a comic book cover to go on the front. Leatherhead’s box is the same shape as the past releases, but it has that fifth panel on the front which is what allowed for the ability to include such a picture. And it looks great and there’s a headshot of each member on one side of the box and a solo Leatherhead on the other. The inside of the flap is a full squad photo on a beach (too soon) of all of NECA’s figures and they do look pretty great together.

You can swap their heads, if you wish.

Leatherhead is a mostly all new sculpt by Tomasz Rozejowski with a credit also attributed to Kushwara Studios. Paint was handled by Mike Puzzo and Geoff Trapp and the box photography was taken by Matt Kloberdanz. Leatherhead may be the second Archie Leatherhead from NECA, but his design necessitated a lot of new tooling. For one, the torso of Mutanimals Leatherhead looks like that of the cartoon version and basically all versions with the scaling. The wrestling design emulated the heroic wrestlers of the era so that Leatherhead gets some nice, well-defined musculature which wouldn’t really work with traditional alligator anatomy. Still, it’s not all brand new as this figure was able to reuse the arms and tail from that release as well as any hands they share and the crotch piece. The abdomen also looks to be the same underneath the overlay. The head, torso overlay, and legs are all new this time around though it maintains the same proportions as the wrestling version. If not for the different chest, they would look just like the same character in a different outfit. And in an interesting choice, NECA made sure that the heads could be shared between these two. The hat is a removable piece that slots onto the little spikes on Leatherhead’s brow so it fits on the wrestling version as well. The only reason to swap them is that the wrestling head has an articulated jaw while the new one has a permanent grin. When I got that wrestling Leatherhead, I thought NECA messed up by not sculpting the mask he wears in the comics over his eyes, but it’s possible the choice was a deliberate one for this release. Instead, he just has a heavy black outline around his eyes that is a mediocre mask, but subtle enough eyeliner for use here. The only other difference is that the wrestling version has white eyes with black pupils while this new one has yellow eyes with black. That’s a detail that may bother some, but I am personally not bothered by it. The only failing with this approach is the red hat left behind some paint rub on the new Leatherhead so I am not eager to use that one on the wrestling body. I probably wouldn’t have anyway though. The green is ever so slightly more blue on the wrestling figure, but not enough to look out of place to my eye.

One of two big guns.

As a figure, Leatherhead stands at about 6.25″ to the tips of the ridges on his head. He’s clad in his furry, brown, vest and torn purple pants. The animated version went with all blue for his pants and boots and it’s a look I’ve never liked. I’ve heard the pants described as hip waders which may be true, but I think the cartoon was just being cheap and looking for an excuse to keep the whole leg one color. Here he has brown boots which makes for a more attractive presentation. The colors are nice and saturated and there’s a ton of black linework throughout the body and clothes. Another difference he shares with the prior Leatherhead is that the claws are painted white and outlined in black on every hand, including the fists. The paint throughout the teeth is really neat and tidy and there are no obvious blemishes on my figure. He is a bit squat looking which is in contrast to the Mitchroney art on the box showing a slimmer, taller Leatherhead. Several artists worked on the Archie books and there are some who depicted him like this so I don’t think that’s a failing, but a conscious choice. His earliest appearances when he was an adversary seem to reflect these proportions more than some of the later ones. He should be a striking piece for the shelf and pops as well as the other Archie figures. This style really became my favorite as the lines from NECA went on and it’s a shame this is the last one.

I think this is the Ftoom rifle, but I just call it “the bigger one.”

As a last hurrah, Leatherhead comes with a lot of stuff. He has a pretty typical assortment of hands to choose from: fists, open, gripping, a trigger finger right hand and a a loose gripping left hand. That loose gripping hand seems to be here exclusively for the Turnstone, which is just a white sphere. This is the mystical object that turned Jess Harley into Leatherhead in the Archie books. As an accessory, it is literally a white sphere so not the most exciting thing, but it does suit the character to have it included. He also has his pole knife which is a pole with Leatherhead’s knife strapped to the end. It is all white with just a little black linework on the rope and the blade itself. Leatherhead also has two firearms: the Ftoom Rifle and the Thoom Blaster. I don’t know which is which, but they’re both big. The big white one looks more like a rifle to me, but only because it has a scope. There’s some light blue shading in places and some black circuitry sculpted onto the sides. The blaster is a yellow and white design and a little bit smaller, but still a comically large gun for Leatherhead to wield. Both fit well enough into the trigger hand while they can also be finagled into the wide grip by hooking the trigger guard onto the finger. Both may be large, but they’re extremely light and the same is true of the pole knife. It feels like ABS so they’re also very rigid. You do not want these to tumble off your shelf because they will be susceptible to both breaking and paint scratching. That’s also why I’d be careful with the tight gripping hands as you don’t want green paint rubbing off on any of these lightly colored weapons.

My Leatherhead prefers to keep it simple.

The constant shortcoming of NECA’s Archie line of TMNT has been the articulation and Leatherhead is no exception. He’s pretty basic and similar to the wrestling one, only now he has an overlay on the torso which prevents any diaphragm articulation from being usable. He has: head, shoulder, elbow, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. The elbows and knees are single-hinged and they won’t hit a 90 degree bend at either spot. They do swivel and there is a built-in thigh swivel as well. The figure does have those bicep “sleeves” that swivel which makes the elbow swivel more visually appealing. The head doesn’t have much range and the waist is mostly there to rotate as the range on the ball joint doesn’t provide for much else. The tail is plugged into the rear of the figure with a peg and hinge so it can rotate on the peg and hinge up and down. There’s a heavy gauge wire inside it as well that allows for some posing. It’s probably best to bend it into whatever shape you want and then plug the tail into the figure to avoid putting stress on the actual peg because it is a thick, plastic, tail. Leatherhead can basically pose just enough to wield his included weapons. He can do a walking stance as well, but this isn’t a figure you buy for its posing. By the standards of the day, it’s mediocre. By the standards of the line, it’s fairly average.

Mutanimals…assemble!

If you have been collecting this line then you likely know what to expect of Leatherhead from NECA. It looks great, it really captures the spirit of the character, and if you keep things in-box you’ll be really happy with the presentation here. The figure has a slight uptick in price at $38 if you buy it from Target. He may be more money from other retailers. I don’t believe he has shown up elsewhere yet, but I would expect it to unless other retailers are no longer interested in the line. Since it has indeed been confirmed that NECA is losing the license at the end of the year, it’s possible the figure could hit clearance in the future if you’re not crazy about the price tag. It’s also possible that speculators may start snatching a lot of these late releases by NECA up in hope that it will appreciate in value enough to warrant sitting on them for however long that takes. As a send-off for the line, I think it’s fine. The packaging does help to make Leatherhead feel a little special and for those who always wanted a collection of The Mighty Mutanimals it’s nice to finally have them all in plastic. It is a shame that this means we won’t be getting that standard April NECA teased over a year ago by showing off the artwork Chris Allan had done for the packaging. And it’s really a shame we never got standard, Archie, turtles. I figured they were just holding those back for an eventual four-pack, but maybe the last few four-packs did not do well and retailers soured on them. They already had the tools for much of it between the wrestling turtles and the April as the fifth turtle release. The wrestling turtles have in recent months shown up at Ross stores in single packs for the low price of $15 so customizers do have access to cheap fodder provided they have a Ross nearby (I don’t). Those never to happen turtles were the thing I wanted most from NECA going back years now so it’s a real bummer we’re not getting it. I’m basically content with the movie and toon stuff, but not getting those Archie turtles is the one thing that will haunt me when I think about “What might have been.”

Let’s let Slash get in on this.

For more TMNT Adventures figures from NECA, check these out:

NECA TMNT Adventures Wingnut and Screwloose

NECA started down the Archie-verse of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2022 with the Mighty Mutanimals-adjacent Slash. For most, The Mighty Mutanimals team of heroes consists of Man-Ray, Jagwar, Leatherhead, Dreadmon, Mondo Gecko, Wingnut, and Screwloose. For those folks, NECA began that team in 2023 releasing the trio of Man-Ray, Jagwar, and Dreadmon all within…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Adventures April – The Fifth Turtle

NECA’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures based on the pages Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures by Archie Comics is like the little engine that could. It’s not a fast-moving line, the releases aren’t always heavy hitters, but when they land they’re usually pretty damn good. And NECA appears to be slow-walking this…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Adventures Stump Wrestling Leatherhead

We are rolling right along with more reviews of NECA’s TMNT Adventures line of action figures and we’re also staying within the realm of Stump Wrestling. When the turtles wound up in the intergalactic wrestling federation, they didn’t just encounter aliens, they also encountered an old foe. I don’t know how Leatherhead wound up as…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, toys

September 2, 2026

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Professor Charles Xavier with Hoverchair

By Joe
I never thought we’d get this in plastic.

The second season of X-Men ’97 may be over, but we still have more on the way to talk about starting with this year’s Marvel Legends San Diego Comic Con exclusive. It was just over a year ago that I reviewed the reissue of the Charles Xavier with Hoverchair based on his appearance in the comic books. At the time, I decided to grab that figure because I wasn’t convinced Hasbro would ever give us a toon accurate version of the character and chair. I figured, at best, they’d just reissue the existing chair again, but maybe in a brighter yellow. How wrong I was. Announced as an exclusive for San Diego Comic Con this year was the Professor Charles Xavier with a screen accurate hoverchair to go with it. I honestly didn’t see that coming even though I know that the X-Men ’97 figures have been pretty successful for Hasbro. Since I had no plans to attend San Diego Comic Con this year (or any year) I was going to be at the mercy of what Hasbro did following the event which leads me into the following tangent.

The comic con exclusive goes back many years. I have no idea when it started, but I can remember reading about them in Wizard back in the 90s. They are to be expected and in this day and age most of them aren’t true exclusives since they’re sold online. Still, last year Hasbro did a Marvel Legends three-pack featuring a reissue of Sauron, Rogue in her Savage Land attire, and a new version of Shanna the She-Devil. Rogue had never been depicted in that look before so there were plenty of collectors interested in the set for that. Sauron was previously a build-a-figure so the chance to get him in a three-pack was also tempting for some. Shanna was a brand new character for Legends and paired very nicely with the recently released (at the time) Ka-Zar and Zabu which made the set really desirable for a lot of fans. Hasbro wasn’t willing to meet demand and few non-attendees were able to get a set when it went up for sale on Hasbro Pulse following the event. I wasn’t personally interested, but I know many collectors still sore about it. The prospect of the same happening with Chuck did not give me much confidence and it leads me to my main criticism when it comes to exclusives: they shouldn’t be essential to a collection. Rogue in a one-off look? Sure. A reissue of Sauron? That’s fine. A somewhat goofy, deep pull like Death’s Head? Bring it on! A main character from a hit show in his most recognizable and iconic look? What?! No!

Chuck sure likes green.

Professor X in his green suit should be an easy figure to acquire. He should have been a regular retail release. Did retailers pass on him? Maybe, but I doubt it. I don’t think any are sitting on much X-Men ’97 stock so the chance to have another character to sell while the second season was in full swing would probably be pretty appealing. That’s not what happened, and when reports surfaced that Xavier sold out at the event I wasn’t feeling too good about getting one myself. Then Hasbro changed how they do things when it comes to Pulse. For their storefront, fans can pay Hasbro an annual sum for the privilege to buy stuff from them. The perk being they get free shipping, but also first crack at exclusive products. In previous years, that meant a one hour headstart on the general public, but this year that one hour was turned into twenty-four. If Premium members were getting a full day all to themselves to buy product what chance did I have? I wasn’t about to hand Hasbro another fifty bucks for Charlie so I let it ride, and to my surprise it all worked out. Xavier was there the next day and remained available for at least an hour. That may sound like a quick sell-out, but when it comes to exclusives that’s a pretty generous amount of time. They also opened up preorders following that which is what should have happened with the Savage Land set the prior year. They did that for basically every other brand exclusive so I don’t know what the issue there was. Hasbro made a silly decision in making Professor X an exclusive, but at least they had the foresight to make enough and keep him available past that for a little while longer.

“Admit it: you’re jealous of my blankie.”

As for the release itself, it’s probably what you expect. The main draw is the chair. In the show, the chair was always blockier, usually very yellow in appearance, and quite sleek. The comic version is more narrow, bulbous, and just all together a different shape. I have no idea why the animated series changed it up, but I’ve always preferred this look to the comic one. And it’s never made it to plastic. Even the old 90s Toy Biz figure featured a chair with the comic design even though that toy line was loosely based on the cartoon. And for this release, Hasbro got it right. It’s the right shape, the right color, has some nice accents on it, and doesn’t feature any unsightly seems anywhere like the older chair. The only assembly required is the seat back has to be inserted and it features a far more understated flight stand that’s just transparent plastic with some concentric circles on it. It’s simple, but it looks the part and that’s all that is needed. The only nitpick I have is it’s a little hard to get a figure into it. If the front panel could pop off it would make it a lot easier, but it’s not like it’s impossible. Plus, Legends figures aren’t covered in paint so it’s not as if you have much to worry about when it comes to paint rub.

The effect part works much better plugged into the chair (left) than into the helmet (right).

I lead with the chair because it’s the star of the show, the actual figure is just fine. Professor X “stands” at about 6.125″ to the top of his bald head. He’s the same height as the older figure and much of the sculpt is also the same. The torso and jacket are reuse while the arms and legs were redone to make them pin-less. The sculpt for both is all new as the wrinkles and seems are different. The arms also dropped the buttons at the ends of the sleeves in favor of just painted on ones which was a bit of an odd choice. The feet are the same while the hands are new. If they’re from another figure I don’t know, but they’re not of the old one. The head is obviously new and this one does resemble the character from the show. It’s a stoic expression and looks good, but it also looks pretty big on the body. This body is very slight. That works for some takes on Xavier, but not really the animated one. He’s built like a house in the show which isn’t captured here. I wish they had gone with one of their bigger suited bodies with broader shoulders, but they probably wanted to reuse this torso with the correct tie on it. They at least did a good job of getting all of the greens to match. There’s not a lot of paint to be found on here, but what’s present is neatly applied.

Watch out: Charlie is packing!

What’s unfortunate is the small frame looks more out of place when Charles is placed in his chair. He could get lost in this thing which is noticeably bigger than his old one. At first I thought maybe it was the chair that’s too big, but then I stuck the Savage Land Xavier in it and he looks great. That’s a bigger sculpt and he fills out the chair quite well. The heads from this set also fit that body which is nice. And speaking of, there are two portraits: stoic and yelling. The yelling one works for a more aggressive Xavier, though I wish we got a third one featuring a smile (this is a $50 set, after all). The other accessories include two sets of hands: open and gripping. The gripping hands are asymmetrical as one is intended to grip the included keypad which pops out of the chair’s right armrest. He can hold that with his right hand and the left gripping hand is a touch more relaxed like he’s punching something in on that keypad. There’s also an extra right hand with a two-finger gesture that stands in as his mental powers gesture for reaching to his temple. The same Cerebro helmet from the Savage Land figure is also featured here and now we can see why there’s a hole on the back of it as there’s an included power effect. It’s a large, transparent, circle with sculpted circles throughout it. I think this was released with a Daredevil in the past and it works as a physical manifestation of his power set. It can not only plug into the helmet, but there’s also a hole in the chair back for it too which works well should you not want to utilize the helmet. When plugged into the helmet, it can be a challenge to get it to balance right as it wants to pull the helmet back. As for the chair, it too has some accessories in the form of swap-out canons on the front. The panels on the left and right slide off and the canons slide in to replace them. The customary translucent, red, blast effects are included as well to further sell the illusion and they’re fine. There’s a little gold paint at the base, though they may arrive a little warped. The canons and key pad were both featured in the season two episode “Danger.exe” so Hasbro clearly had advanced notice on what this chair could do.

Savage Land Charles seems to fit better than the one that came with the chair.

Articulation for Professor X is the same as the old figure. Considering he’s a paraplegic, he doesn’t really need to do much, but it’s nice to have options. This new head gets a bit of tilt on the ball hinge which is appreciated for the character and the knees, elbows, and ankles are what you would expect of the line. There are no butterfly joints and the only thing I actively do not like is the ab crunch. It serves little purpose for Xavier and I’d much prefer a diaphragm swivel. I think that would be far more useful than even the waist swivel he has for a guy in a chair.

“I’m gonna need Jubilee to show me how to use this…”

The figure did come in specialty packaging designed to resemble an old television. It’s neat, but just a slipcover which they annoyingly taped to the box inside. It does, however, provide for some hope of a re-release if you missed out and still want this figure. Make the slipcover the real exclusive and just release the figure in a standard box. Which would be a good thing because I think people will want this. It’s a main character from a popular show that has plenty of collectors. It’s not the sort of thing that should remain locked behind the exclusive label, but maybe everyone who wanted one already got one? This set was $50 which is probably a little too much, but not unexpected. The figure is pretty basic, but comes with more accessories than the typical Legends release these days. The chair is its own thing with its own accessories as well and it’s good. I wish the figure had a more accurate sculpt, but at least I have the Savage Land figure I can turn to should it please me (and I still hate the portrait that came with it so at least I can retire that). This release does leave me wishing that I didn’t bother with the old Xavier, but I doubt it has much resale value at this point. At least I have a body for old Guyrich.

We’ll keep it to the original roster to prevent this from getting even more crowded.

For related figures, check these out:

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Archangel

On July 1st, 2026, our long wait ends. X-Men ’97 returns to Disney+ with its greatly anticipated second season a little over two years after the conclusion of the first. It’s something I have been looking forward to pretty much ever since credits rolled on the finale and the only thing that stinks about it…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Professor X (Savage Land)

It feels like lately I’ve been getting swayed by clearance and discounts when it comes to my action figure purchases. Such is the case for today’s post on Professor X from the Marvel Legends line of action figures. Target had an exclusive version of Xavier featuring the character in his jumpsuit which showed up in…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Professor X with Hoverchair

Most view superheroes as idealized versions of people. Superman has all the power he needs to mete out justice as he sees fit. He’s a man who is super fast, super strong, basically invulnerable, and he even has laser eyes for good measure. Not every character can be Superman though and as the stable of…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Television, toys

August 25, 2026

INART Arkham Origins Batman

By Joe
Best video game action figure ever?

I’ve had the INART Arkham Origins Batman figure for a little while now. I seem to never lack for material when it comes to this blog and it helps that I only make a post or two per week, but still, sitting on a review for over a month is unusual for me. And when it comes to this Batman action figure it’s not as if I’m not pleased with it. Far from it. It’s more that with INART the finished product is so good that I am almost at a loss for words. Even so, this is basically a review blog and I need to do my duty as an action figure enthusiast to talk about this Batman so let’s go!

INART, the 1:12 and 1:10 division of Queen Studios, has really exploded on the scene over the past year with some really incredible takes on characters from The Dark Knight Rises. I’m pretty sure I mentioned in the reviews of the figures I have, but I really didn’t have figures from the Christopher Nolan trilogy on my wish list any longer. I definitely didn’t have Catwoman on such a list. The figures from INART ended up being so good that I just couldn’t say “No.” And unlike a lot of products, action figures or otherwise, the in-hand experience with both was every bit as good as the promotional shots. When INART last year showed off its take on Batman from the video game Batman: Arkham Origins, it was pretty much the same thing all over again. The figure looked gorgeous and it was set to come with a ton of stuff. I have never played the game this suit is based on, but I did play the portable version Blackgate which features the same look, as far as I know. I even reviewed that game right here on this blog and I enjoyed it. The look for Batman in this game and the other Arkham games is not my favorite look for the caped crusader, but it is one I like. It works well with the INART aesthetic as, like the Christian Bale suit, there’s a lot going on. It’s armored, there are lots of panels, straps, and different textures that creates a challenge for anyone looking to reproduce it in plastic and I get a sense that the folks at INART like a challenge.

Batman with actual 1:12 INART figures on the left, and a 1:12 MAFEX Superman on the right and probably not quite 1:12 Mezco ’89 Batman.

As good as this figure is, it’s not without some controversy. Originally billed as a 1:12 scale action figure, Batman comes in at around 7.375″ to the tips of his ears. Converting inches to feet for a 1:12 scale figure is pretty easy even for those not gifted at math and I think most can conclude that this is way too big for 1:12 scale. INART corrected the listing later and put him at 1:10 scale which is more reasonable. They went on to clarify that their movie scaled line will remain 1:12 while the video games (and maybe the comics?) will be 1:10. And that’s fine as I don’t personally care all that much if my video game Batman scales with my movie Batman. As long as it scales to other characters from the same source then I’m fine with it, though I do agree that collectors are justified in being irritated since the listing did originally refer to it as 1:12. INART wouldn’t be the only company to have issues with scale. Lots of them list their figures as 1:12 that aren’t even close and it is a pet peeve of mine.

They do such a good job with face sculpts and paint.

Batman arrived in the usual INART shipper with the actual product box within. Artwork from the game is used to decorate the box and it looks fine, but there’s no window or photography so in-box collectors might not get much out of it. At least I think they’re images from the game, but I suppose it could be product shots. Anyway, The figure is housed in a simple two-tiered tray within that’s well packed and includes detailed instructions. Seriously, I love these included instructions as they remove all ambiguity for what the intended purpose is for each and every little thing. In hand, Batman looks every bit as good as the promotional shots suggest. He’s basically all black of varying shades with some close to a gray like the chest. There are numerous textures in use simulating leather, Kevlar, and steel. There’s lots of subtle shading like black at the edges of the shoulder pads and each little rivet is hit with some silver. The gauntlets and greaves have a metallic finish, but it’s a dingy metallic like the suit has been well worn and the steel beat. The utility belt is more of a graphite and it’s adorned with square boxes and canisters that probably would provide some utility, but definitely wouldn’t house any of the more elaborate gadgets we see him utilize. The flesh of his head is a warm tone with some stubble painted on. The eyes are these barely perceptible slits in the cowl that look so realistic. I don’t know how they get their eyes to look so good. The cape is soft goods and it feels like a spandex type of material. It hangs nice and doesn’t seem to wrinkle much and overall is a nice, quality, material.

He’s bulky, but range is pretty good.

This is a very busy suit, but INART seems to have handled it well. The shoulder pads have these straps on them, but they don’t actually connect to the body so they don’t really interfere with anything. He has these big thigh guards, but those actually play into the action figure aesthetic since it works as a place to insert a thigh swivel. The crotch area is a bit odd as there’s the floating belt and then a floating piece underneath that. It almost looks like a back brace, but it’s basically a piece of soft plastic the abdomen sits in. Mine came out of the box a bit screwed up like it got twisted somewhere along the way. I didn’t even notice it for awhile, but once I did I had to look up promotional images to figure out how it was supposed to look. Since most of the figure is connected via ball pegs, it wasn’t difficult to pull it apart at the waist and reset it. And thankfully, it wasn’t misshapen as a result and it took on the proper form which is basically to hug the sides of the abs. It’s such a complicated design though that it didn’t surprise me that it took a bit for me to notice this little piece being out of place.

He has gadgets and the necessary hands to hold them.

We may as well go right into the articulation since that plays into the construction of the figure. Like the other figures from INART, this thing articulates much better than it has any right to. The head is a simple double ball setup with a neck joint at the base and he looks up very well. The rest of the range is all there too and it’s such a perfect example of how to do this joint properly (admittedly, it helps that he doesn’t have any hair to get in the way). There are joints at the shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, diaphragm, waist, hips, thighs, knees, ankles, and toes. The shoulder ball peg does provide some butterfly type motion going back and forward, but the chest armor prevents much range in that direction. It’s one of the few weak spots as the rest is pretty damn good. The double elbows will bend past 90 degrees as do the knees. There’s a slight boot swivel that provides for some adjustment posing and the covers over the boots are soft and don’t really interfere with the ankle articulation. The hips do drop down and it’s a pretty sturdy joint. Even without using it, Batman can kick forward 90 degrees and can almost do splits out to the sides if you can get the thigh armor to slip under the hip. The diaphragm at first appears very limited, but give it a firm push and it will move forward quite a bit. Combine that with the ball waist and Batman can crunch more than this suit probably would allow if it were real. And every where the figure moves the sculpt is continued throughout so there’s really no gaps or smooth spots. There are a few spots, like the shoulders, where if you push it too much you may pop the joint out of place, but nothing that’s painful to reassemble. I do worry that using that diaphragm joint too much to crunch him forward might start to scuff the abdomen, but otherwise there really aren’t any complaints here. The cape is also wired, though only on the outside and not all throughout. It will offer some posing, though nothing incredible.

No guns, but explosives are okay.

Batman comes with a lot of stuff. For alternate portraits we get one which has a teeth gritting, aggressive, expression that looks just as good as the neutral default one. For hands, we get ten and the instructions list them as such: fists, Batarang hands, Cryptographic Sequencer Holding left and right, Gun holding left and right, right hand with smoke pellet, right hand explosive gel holding hand. They’re not all symmetrical as the Cryptograph Sequencer hands are like a grip and a pointing hand. The Batarang hands are basically fists with little slits in them to slot in the included Batarang, which looks nice as it’s all black with a silver edge. The smoke pellet is a bit of a deceiving name as it’s more like a soft ball and Batman palms it to throw. It’s permanently affixed to the hand. The gun holding hands are also not symmetrical as the right hand is a trigger hand and the left is closer to a more natural gripping hand for supporting the barrel.

The action stand isn’t flashy, but it works well.

As you would likely expect, all of the gadgets listed amongs the hands are also included. The Cryptograph Sequencer is basically a handle with a screen at a right angle. This is used in the game for infiltration puzzles and it looks fine, but the screen is just sprayed with silver paint making it look like there was a sticker there that got ripped off. The explosive gel applicator is basically like a gun handle with no barrel. It looks fine, but could have used a gel effect. The Disruptor is also included which is more of a traditional looking gun. Batman holds a rear handle and a front grip and it reminds me of the explosive gel gun from The Dark Knight. It’s a little awkward for Batman to hold as the rear handle is very thick, but it’s doable. The Batclaw is also included which is basically his grapple gun in the game. It too is really thick and a bit awkward looking in Batman’s hand. That’s not a fault of INART, but the design from the game. It’s certainly not as tidy as the same from the animated series. Included with it is a claw part which looks nice, but doesn’t articulate which is a bit of a bummer. There are two pieces of metal “cable” for it, one that is short and one that is long. The short one basically makes it appear to be locked and loaded while the long one can be used for firing poses, though the inability to have the claw open hurts the illusion a bit. Also included is a stand with a rather large, round, base of clear plastic with sculpted circles radiating from the middle like a bull’s eye. There’s an articulated arm to plug into it and it’s pretty sturdy though you may have to tighten the screws initially. Lastly, there’s also a branded INART plastic bag if you want to store all of the parts within it, though I tend to just keep everything in the tray.

Gotham needs me.

The load out is impressive and there’s not much of anything that’s missing. I would have liked an open claw for the Batclaw and I’m guessing some would like a Bruce Wayne portrait, though I’m fine without. The box refers to this figure as the standard version and as of right now there is no other version available or planned, from what I hear. If there were a deluxe version I’m not sure what else would be included apart from the few things I mentioned. The bottom line is this figure looks incredible and it poses very well. I don’t love the design of some of the accessories, but there’s enough here that there’s no shortage of display options. I’ve been messing with this guy often and changing him up on my desk frequently sometimes bringing in the stand, sometimes not. Similar to the Bale Batman, I find he does look pretty damn awesome in vanilla poses which is a testament to how good the sculpt and paint are. He looks great in a crouch, throwing punches, or firing off cables. I don’t even need another character from the game to pair him with as he’s just fine being a one-off for me. Getting him, of course, is a bit tricky if you live in the United States. INART doesn’t have a license to distribute here so the figure has to be imported. He should run somewhere in the $70 range, but at this point a lot of retailers that have stock have probably raised the price. And shipping isn’t going to be cheap so expect to pay close to $100. With where prices are these days within the hobby, that doesn’t seem as outrageous a price as it once were. I don’t know if any figure at this scale is truly worth a hundred bucks, but I don’t think anyone is going to be upset once they get this guy in hand. It’s probably the best Batman figure I’ve had the pleasure of placing my hands on and I can’t wait to see what this company does next.

For more INART figures reviews and a look at the source for this Batman, check these out:

INART The Dark Knight Rises Catwoman

Queen Studios is back with another installment of its INART The Dark Knight Rises action figures and this time we’re talking about Catwoman. Portrayed on the screen by actress Anne Hathaway, Catwoman was something of an anti-hero in the film. In a post Occupy Wall Street world, her anger and frustration with the ruling class…

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by Joe

INART The Dark Knight Rises Batman – Deluxe Version

Is this a review I really need to do? Probably not, but I’m doing it anyway. Queen Studios wasn’t a shop that was on my radar going into 2025. I’m guessing that’s true for a lot of folks and that’s probably why they had a media blitz when it came time to promote their brand…

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by Joe

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate

When Batman: Arkham Asylum was released in 2009 it ushered in a new era for the caped crusader where video games were concerned. Prior to that, Batman had not had a good video game in a long, long, time. Depending on your opinion of his efforts, you may have gone all the way back to…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in toys, Video Games

August 18, 2026

NECA TMNT Toon Neighborhood Dudes Incognito Mikey

By Joe
Pizza and video tapes – looks like a good time.

As I sit here and look upon the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure from NECA I can’t help but wonder if this is the last? Not the last figure from the line for me, but the last actual turtle. NECA has, like everyone not named Mattel, lost the license which allows them to produce 1:12 and 1:10 scale action figures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It runs out at the end of the year or shortly there after and NECA is on record as saying what they’ve shown is all that’s left. And when it comes to turtles based on the 1987 animated series, NECA has four releases on tap for us dedicated to each turtle. Dubbed the Neighborhood Dudes subline, each turtle is in some sort of disguise or unique look with Donatello as a construction worker, Leonardo as a butler, and Raphael in a sailor suit. Those three I’m not really that interested in, maybe I’ll cave on one eventually, but not all three. The only one I wanted was Michelangelo who is featured in his puffy coat look. Not only is it the most memorable disguise apart from the fedora and trench coat look for me, I also associate it with winter and the Michelangelo one-shot comic which takes place at Christmas. And if you know me then you know I like Christmas.

This line has had no shortage of Mikeys.

Incognito Mikey comes in a new box styled after the spotlight VHS tapes of the past. The artwork is by Aaron Hazouri and the packaging is credited to Travis Hastbeck with interior photography by Matt Kloberdanz. The sculpt is credited to Tomasz Rozejowski and Kushwara Studios with paint by the usual duo of Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. Mikey doesn’t appear to share many parts with previously released turtles. The arms, legs, feet, and mittened hands are all new with the smiling, alternate, portrait perhaps a retooled head from the Punk Turtles set. The default head with scowl and phoney nose is all new from what I can tell. Some parts will likely show up in other figures in this wave, but basically what is here should feel new. Not that it feels much different from other NECA turtles as Mikey is pretty much as expected. The main portion of the coat is an overlay and the sweater underneath is part of the same overlay. He has that rounded, turtle anatomy and stands at about 5.875″ to the top of the head putting him right in line with the turtles who came before him.

Where are you off to, Michelangelo? You look like you’ve got something to hide.

The design of this one is fairly simple, but the sculpt and paint are executed to near perfection. The coat is a pale blue with black linework to accentuate that puffy look. The interior sweater is orange with more linework and the paint is mostly clean. There is a blob of blue on the back of the collar, but at least it’s on the back and not the front. The mittens and hat are a pale orange and I like the contrast with the rest of the body while the slacks are a soft blue-gray with brown loafers. There will be the usual paint flaking at the joints because this figure is painted all over. The back of the knees are where it’s likely to show the most, but the plastic beneath matches the paint well so it’s not really an issue. I did have the right knee cap pop off of mine when I first articulated it as it looks like the factory missed it with the glue or applied too little. It pops on easy enough, but it was interesting to see and helps explain how NECA is able to get its knees to color-match to the rest of the leg, something other companies struggle with because they don’t produce a separate knee cap in PVC. The cut-out for the knee does stand out a bit almost looking like a knee pad, but it doesn’t bother me. I can see the argument though for a single-hinge here since it would hide articulation a bit better and probably not sacrifice much when it comes to movement. That’s the approach NECA took with the elbows. As for the heads, I do very much like the alternate, smiling, portrait that foregoes the ear muffs and goofy glasses of the default portrait. That one has more of a scowl and while it looks good, I prefer the happy approach with this one.

It’s fair to question if these gripping hands are different enough to justify existing. Maybe fists would have been better?

Articulation is what you would expect and I already touched on it a bit. We get a double ball head, shoulders, single elbows, wrist swivel and hinge, waist twist, ball-socket hips, thigh pivot, double-jointed knees, and ankles that hinge and rock. The knees are pinless and the single hinge elbows allow for a swivel at the joint. As is often the case with a NECA turtle, there is likely a diaphragm joint of some kind, but it’s basically inaccessible due to the turtle anatomy. Since the jacket covers the waist, the twist there is more usable than it is on a turtle with a visible shell so that’s a plus. There is a crotch overlay which severely restricts articulation at the hips. This is not a turtle for doing splits or sitting down. It’s not a turtle for doing much really, but if you’ve been collecting this line for awhile then you probably expected as much.

It’s also a Donatello!

For accessories, Mikey has the aforementioned two heads as well as two sets of hands: tight gripping and loose gripping. There’s the customary pizza and yet another grocery bag accessory. This one comes loaded with a bunch of VHS tapes. Those are Mikey’s accessories, the other accessories belong to Donatello. NECA apparently has designs on fans buying multiples because Mikey comes with another set of heads and hands which are color-coded to match Donatello. That means all of the orange parts have been replaced with purple. Considering all of the turtles wore this disguise in the show, it makes sense to offer the others in some fashion to not only build out the collection, but for NECA to make more money. I’m guessing retailers may have soured a bit on the four-packs of the past and doing these solo releases was a more economically viable path forward. The only problem is that in the show it wasn’t just the hats and mittens that changed color between each turtle, but the sweater underneath as well. Donatello wore a light blue sweater, Leonardo yellow, and Raphael purple. Now, one could buy four of these and paint the sweaters if they wanted to achieve something close to screen accuracy. I’m not sure how easy that would. One could pop the arms off with some heat and slip the jacket off, and then once done, it probably wouldn’t be that hard to cut the sweater off to make it easier to paint. Or one could simply paint it as-is, but that’s obviously a lot trickier. The real hardest part would be painting around the glasses of the disguise portrait, but maybe most don’t care about that part? I can’t see myself going through the trouble unless this release gets heavily discounted, but for those that want to, at least you’re halfway there with the heads for two turtles already painted. Of course, you’ll end up with a bunch of extra heads if you buy four of these.

“I don’t think you’re foolin’ anyone, dude.”
If you want to assemble a squad of four, you’ll need to get out your paint brush.

I mentioned it earlier, but one of the draws of this figure for me was its resemblance to Michelangelo in the Mirage Studios Michelangelo one-shot. In that comic, Mikey sports a look pretty similar to this one as he seeks to break up a crime ring focused on stealing Christmas toys. It’s also the issue where he befriends a little, stray, kitten. The episode of the 2003 cartoon, “The Christmas Aliens,” is based on the same issue. I wish NECA had included a kitten that Michelangelo could hold easily. We have the cat which came with the Channel 6 set, but it’s in a standing position and a little awkward, but it will have to do. It helps give this figure a second life though as a Christmas decoration, and you know I’m all about that.

I think this is going to be how I display him.

Is that it? The end of turtles from NECA for me? Quite possibly. It’s not exactly a high point for the company to go out on, but it’s also not a low point or anything. It’s an alternate look for Michelangelo from the cartoon which makes it somewhat of a deep cut, but that’s part of NECA’s legacy with TMNT. They did hit on a lot of those deep cuts no one ever tried to do. In this line we had all manner of Bebop and Rocksteady, their gang of forgotten mutants, Lotus Blossom, the toon versions of Tokka and Rahzar, Chakahachi, Zach, Dirk Savage, and so many more. We even got characters I passed on because I had just never thought to myself that I need someone like Creepy Eddie in my collection, but I appreciate that I could have him. This is one of those action figure lines that’s going to be held in high regard for years to come. Those who missed out will lament doing so and some figures will probably command stupid prices on the after market for those with a wicked case of FOMO. As for me, I’m not quite done with NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles quite yet as I have another review to write and at least one more figure on the way. Will there be more? Who can say? For now, I’m feeling pretty content.

For more NECA TMNT and thoughts on the license changing hands, check these out:

NECA TMNT Toon Robo Tokka and Robo Rahzar

The vintage Playmates toy line for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had no shortage of variants. There were beach turtles, police turtles, hockey turtles, and so on. We even had something akin to Operation: Desert Storm turtles. In looking back, it seems like few stones were left unturned unless you want to get into the weeds…

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by Joe

The TMNT Collector Landscape is About to Change

Last week brought with it the annual event with massive reverberations throughout the collecting community known as San Diego Comic Con. The once humble convention held in a hotel basement to celebrate comic books has become a pop culture bonanza. Comics still play a pretty central role thanks to their proliferation outside the venerable medium,…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Television, toys

August 11, 2026

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Son Goku – Fighter of Rage

By Joe
He’s a ragin’ saiya-jin.

When you’ve been making figures of a specific property for a long time, there comes a point where there just isn’t much left to turn into plastic. That’s why companies like Bandai, and they have been with Dragon Ball for a very long time, end up resorting to playing the hits with incremental upgrades. And it’s magnified with a property like Dragon Ball Z which stopped producing episodes and manga 30 years ago. When Bandai brought in Tamashii Nations now more than 10 years ago to liven up the DBZ brand, it made a lot of the main cast, but those designs grew long in the tooth. That’s what lead to the 2.0 body for several characters, but even that’s old now so we’re onto 3.0. The 3.0 Goku body debuted last year and the response has been a little tepid. It’s clearly superior to the old one in some obvious ways, but perhaps inferior in others. My experience with that figure, Let the Games Begin Super Saiyan Goku, also were plagued with some minor quality control issues. The kind that are more annoying than deal-breaking (well, the alternate hair piece is basically unusable), but still not up to par with the majority of releases in the line. It gave me pause on future figures on that body and I did end up cancelling a preorder I had for Super Saiyan Blue Goku. One I could not entertain canceling was Super Saiyan Son Goku – Fighter of Rage. That’s because this one was through Premium Bandai, the pay-up-front storefront that doesn’t allow cancellations. Here’s hoping I didn’t get burned again because this one is nearly double the price.

Left to right: Games Begin Goku (3.0 body), Fighter of Rage, and Lowest Born Saiyan (2.0 body)

This version of Super Saiyan Goku is essentially a redo of the Awakening Super Saiyan Goku Bandai released years ago. It depicts Goku right after his initial transformation into a Super Saiyan during his fight with Frieza. His gi is in tatters, the blue undershirt is all that’s left from the upper body portion, and his flesh is marked with battle damage. He’s ripped, but not nearly as bulky as he’ll get during the later stages of the fight which is captured in the Legendary Super Saiyan Goku figure from a couple of years ago. In other words, this is a pretty hyper specific look for Goku and the only reason to get it is if you think that older figure needs an upgrade or you never got it. I never got that one. It was reissued a couple of years ago as a Tamashii Nations pop-up event exclusive and I was surprised it never made it to the website. Had it, I probably would have bought it as it still looked pretty good and I think Bandai upgraded the face-printing on it like it has for other reissues. I think it had translucent hair which I don’t love, but it’s also not a dealbreaker for me. With this one going up, I no longer need that one and my primary motivation for ordering it was just that I didn’t have the old one. It’s a cool look and an iconic moment from both the show and manga. It did cost $65 and Bandai made it more enticing with a free shipping promotion, but $65 for a good figure these days is becoming the norm. And by Premium Bandai standards, it’s on the cheaper side. When it arrived it looked good in the standard window box packaging, but on the lower left corner of the box read a warning: Made in Vietnam.

He should pose well and comes with the usual assortment of hands and expressions.

During COVID, Bandai seemed to shift a lot of their manufacturing from China to Vietnam. I think it started before that because as time goes on labor gets more expensive in China where factory jobs probably aren’t as enticing as they used to be for the general population. Plus, they’re good at it and can charge more. Vietnam is the upstart in this scenario and is thus attractive to companies like Bandai because they do have lower prices. They also have less experience with action figures as intricate as what Bandai puts out. Some releases, like Cooler, have come out of the Vietnam factories and have been stellar. Others, like Trunks, not so much. That 3.0 Goku was out of Vietnam and it felt like a real step back for the factory there. With this figure using some of the same parts, I assume it’s out of the same building. Does the Premium Bandai distinction mean it gets a little more TLC? Maybe. Hopefully. Thankfully, my fears in this instance are largely unfounded. This figure is what I expect of not just a Premium Bandai release (and let’s face it, the “premium” tag isn’t implying better quality), but a Tamashii Nations figure in general. The parts fit as intended, there’s no weird, chewed, up edges on the plastic, and the paint is where it’s supposed to be.

Some effect parts would be nice to have right about now…

Goku stands at approximately 5.25″ to where his face ends. Factoring in the hair, and we’re up to 6.625″ to the tip. He’s pretty much eye-to-eye with the Games Begin Goku. The look and finish is much more premium. That Goku is $35-$40 and looks like a cheaper toy. This one has more elaborate shading on the pants to mimic that Super Saiyan aura. The material also has a softer feel in-hand possibly because the material needed to be thicker to accommodate the additional sculpting. There’s less shine as a result from the plastic even though when it comes to paint there really isn’t a ton here. In terms of parts sharing there’s basically none. I would guess the innards share some parts, but the visible portions of the sculpt are all different. Mind you, they’re the same base mold, but everything here has sculpted battle damage. Even the hands. I’m not sure if that saves them any money, though they’ll likely find other uses for these tools down the road. The shirt is an overlay that’s been glued down and the body beneath has sculpted damage as does the shirt. One of my few complaints is that the top of the shirt was not glued down and it sticks up like a tank top. That may be purposeful to accommodate the articulation, but it is a bit annoying. The belt is a floating piece and the pants are the most elaborate part of the sculpt. There’s lots of little strands of material sticking off and torn parts where flesh is exposed underneath. They also fixed the look of the hips to some degree making that cut-out for the thigh swivel less obvious. I still feel they’re overthinking this part of the sculpt and articulation, but at least it’s better than before.

The alternate hair seems to work best for charging poses, though I think his hair was drawn this way while in flight.

The bigger price point is essentially all tied into the sculpt because Goku doesn’t come with a ton of stuff. He has five portraits he can utilize: neutral, teeth gritting, yelling, a smirk, and an alternate teeth gritting expression where he’s looking down and the shape of his mouth is different from the other one. He also has two hair pieces one of which I’d call neutral and the other is a powering up option. The powering up one is harder to get onto the neck peg, especially because this utilizes that double peg with the hinge in the middle that likes to flop around, but it’s not impossible to get on. The faces fit snug and are less prone to leaving gaps when compared with The Games Begin Goku. Some take more effort than others, but it’s definitely an improvement. They do take more elbow grease with the alternate hair, but I was able to get all fairly snug with some effort. For hands, Goku has fists, his martial arts posed hands, a more relaxed take on the style posed hands, Kamehameha hands, and open hands. There is no effect part included which is a bummer and something that really should be customary with these Premium Bandai offerings. There’s also no flight stand and no extra parts for another figure (something they love doing with their store exclusives) so pretty light by the company’s standards. We’re over due for a new Kamehameha blast effect, though I’m almost relieved that he does not come with yet another charging effect.

Time to throw down.

The articulation is basically the same as The Games Begin Goku. There’s less stuff on the torso so the arms are a bit easier to work with. He has that goofy neck joint, but it doesn’t really let him look up much. Down is fine, and don’t be surprised if the faces work their way off slightly when positioning the head around. Especially with the alternate hair. The arms can get into various charging poses and I like that the battle damage is continued throughout the articulation such as in the butterfly joint caps and in the knee bends. The knee is that single hinge, but it goes beyond 90 degrees. The right knee is a little funky because it’s exposed due to the torn fabric. When you bend it all the way it will leave a gap below the exposed knee cap, but that knee cape is on a hinge itself and can be adjusted to your liking eliminating the gap entirely. The forward and back ab crunch is also a little better and less gappy than before. We also still have that odd pivot point above the boot. I found with the previous Goku it was a touch loose and made standing him more of a chore than it should be, but here it’s not as loose. I still question it’s usefulness. Everything is pretty smooth, but there are places where the figure will pop apart if you push things too far or if it gets hung up on something. Since it’s basically all ball joints, there’s no real risk of breakage, just be mindful if you pop the arm off by mistake that inner pieces may go flying. I do find the shoulder can get hung up at times on the cap pieces meant to close gaps. It might even be a good idea if you run into the same to just pop the arm off and adjust it (or not, I did this and the arm disconnected at the cup-hinge inside the torso and was a pain to get back in, but it did fix the floating piece so your mileage may vary). The cap on my figure’s left shoulder was really jammed in there and wasn’t hiding things as well as the right shoulder. I also popped the figure apart at the waist by mistake and the blue piece covering the abs flew out. I couldn’t tell which was supposed to be the front and back, but thankfully there’s a promo image where it’s very exposed so I was able to figure that out. If you find yourself in a similar situation, the front has a crease that goes all the way across while the back has two creases towards the sides.

The pose most Goku figures are judged on.

This is ultimately a better figure than the previously released The Games Begin Goku. It has a more premium look and feel and everything seems to work as intended. The articulation is good, not the best I’ve ever seen, but a wide variety of Goku poses are available. At $65, it’s an okay value, but since it was a limited Premium Bandai run that means virtually no one will pay $65 from here on out to acquire this one. Had I missed out, I may have been willing to extend myself a little further to add it to my collection, but with how often Bandai re-releases exclusives as variants I’d probably wait. They just announced a new full power Frieza that’s a re-release of the previous exclusive only now they actually painted the battle damage which is arguably better (no, I’m not rebuying it just for that). I don’t know why they don’t paint the battle damage to begin with and it really should have been painted here. Just fill in those sculpted-in lines with black and it would better match the source. There should be a little blood too. The accessories are a tad light, but not egregiously so. I would have loved an energy part, or a portrait of him actually transforming with the whited-out eyes. As is, it’s a good release and I feel much better about it than I did the last SHF Goku I purchased. I have a few more on preorder bought and paid for so hopefully they turn out just as well.

If you like Goku, I have no shortage of Goku figure reviews:

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Goku – The Games Begin

It was around 8 years ago that Bandai released an update to their Goku body. Dubbed the 2.0 mold, the company has since created many action figures of the legendary hero since then. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the sculpt, but some aspects of it have become dated. When Bandai wanted to do an update…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Daima Super Saiyan 4 Son Goku (Mini)

It’s no great secret that the black sheep of the Dragon Ball universe is the anime Dragon Ball GT. Created in-house by Toei animation, Dragon Ball GT was a continuation of Dragon Ball Z without creator Akira Toriyama. While Toriyama had to grant approval to many aspects of the series, he wasn’t directly involved with…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Son Goku & Dragon 40th Anniversary Edition

It was last year that Bandai and Tamashii Nations announced a selection of special releases in the S.H.Figuarts line of action figures celebrating the 40th anniversary of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball. Among those announced was a brand new version of kid Goku and Shenron from the cover of the very first volume of manga for…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in toys

August 7, 2026

Longbox Heroes Prestige – The Tick and Vacation Tick

By Joe
Justice has a new name and it’s The Tick!

Coming at you from the mind of Ben Edlund and the folks at Big Bad Work Shop, it’s the pride of Pembroke, Massachusetts – The Tick! When I think back on the 90s properties that unjustly faded away, The Tick is always near the top of the list. Created in the 80s, The Tick was one of the many characters from indie comics to get a shot at stardom thanks to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (for a terrific overview, check out the Secret Galaxy video on the subject). Further inroads into pop culture by Batman and the X-Men also contributed to The Tick getting an animated series on Fox Kids, an accompanying toy line, and other tie-in merch. And while it seems like The Tick did all right for Fox and produced 36 episodes, it’s been left behind a bit in the ensuing years. Disney came to own it and only released the first two seasons on DVD in the US, a fate that befell many shows in the DVD era (in other regions, the entire series did see release). And while it was streaming for a time on Hulu, it has since been dropped and is only available to rent in some places, though you can find the show on YouTube for free without much issue.

He should fit in fine with any 1:12 scale line.

That animated series was my main touchpoint with The Tick. A pair of live-action shows followed in the wake of the cartoon’s cancellation and I need to give them another chance as my initial viewings didn’t land. There’s also the comic that I should revisit as well for that is what the new Longbox Heroes line is based on. This new toyline is a combination of a trio of companies: Fresh Monkey Fiction, Toy Otter, and Big Bad Toy Store. Through them comes Big Bad Work Shop which has sought to acquire a license for a number of independent comic book characters as well as other public domain characters, original creations, and more. The Longbox Heroes Prestige line is an offshoot of the previous Longbox Heroes line which was a series of 3.75″ action figures with limited articulation. The Tick was featured in that line, but I never went for it as I just don’t have a ton of interest in that particular style of toy. The Prestige line though, that’s a modern, 1:12 scale line and when this Tick went up for preorder back in March of 2025 it was an instant purchase. The Tick, for me, is something I didn’t appreciate enough in the moment. It came on after X-Men and I think it needed a buffer going from the very dramatic, soap opera, show to this goofy, satirical, one. I still watched it, but I wasn’t always engaged. As an adult, I’ve gone back to the show and absolutely loved it. It holds up as well as anything from the 90s and probably better than most would expect. The Tick was ahead of its time as I think the show would land even better in our current era where superheroes are as mainstream as they’ve ever been.

Duty calls.

For the launch of the Prestige line, we get not one, but two versions of The Tick. There’s the standard version and the vacation variant which went up for preorder in time with San Diego Comic Con 2025. At first, it looked like that version would deliver earlier than the standard one, but both didn’t make it out until July 2026. Both figures are essentially the same with different accessories (and some shared ones), though the vacation variant runs ten dollars more expensive. The packaging for both is a pretty standard window box adorned with artwork from the comics. There’s a brief bio on the back which is the same for both figures and they are numbered on the spine 1 and 2 with 1 being the standard Tick. It’s an attractive box for in-package collectors and it’s also friendly for those who wish to use them as storage for either the figures or the accessories. There’s also no tie-downs which is fantastic and the figure and accessories are just held in place by a clamshell – the way it should be.

“Gee, and I thought the turtles had a bad disguise.”

Out of the box, The Tick stands at approximately 6.875″ to the top of his head with the antennae bringing him to just under 7.5″. He has a lot of heft to him as well with broad shoulders and a barrel chest. The torso tapers inward nicely and conforms to the Tick design. His arms are well-muscled and so are his legs, but perhaps less so than one would think of a man with an upper body like The Tick’s. He has his massive chin intact as well as the asymmetrical eye shapes. While they probably could have exaggerated his upper body proportions even more than they did, this definitely looks quite good as-is and almost better fits the animated look than the comic one which is fine by me. The body is cast in blue plastic, as one would expect, but’s also painted over in blue to give it a nice, matte, finish. The eyes and the visible skin of the face are the only other areas requiring paint and it’s applied reasonably well. Not perfect, but nothing I’d classify as an eyesore. It’s an overall great looking take on The Tick and everyone involved made a good call where it comes to making the sculpt work with the articulation.

“Come, Arthur! Justice never takes a day off!” “I keep telling you I’m not Arthur!”
“That’s my name, don’t ware it out.”

And since both figures feature the same articulation, I’ll jump right to that. This action figure is a great blueprint (no pun intended) for how I want most action figures to be engineered. I don’t love every choice, like the ball-hinged neck joint, but for the most part it’s pretty great. The neck joint does let Tick look up, but his head is so oddly shaped that he looks pretty weird when looking up so I question the usefulness here. His chin is so big that he can’t look down so you will mostly just use this spot for rotation. A double-ball would have allowed for some tilt. The shoulders are connected via ball pegs so it gets some play in all directions which is done at the expense of a true butterfly joint. Given the simple design, I think this is the right call as cutting further into the sculpt might be too busy. Rotation at the shoulder is fine and we get a bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, and wrist articulation. The torso has a double ball peg diaphragm joint plus a ball-jointed waist. There may be a hinge hidden in that waist, but I’m too afraid to pull the figure apart to find out. He’ll rotate and tilt at both spots and there’s a solid amount of crunch. The hips are ball-sockets and splits are achievable. He kicks forward, not back due to his sculpted butt cheeks, and there’s a thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, ankles that hinge and rock, and a toe hinge. Everything is pretty smooth and nothing is bordering on loose. Tick can stand on one foot or be posed in walking and running stances. Apart from that neck, I wouldn’t change a thing here. Some characters need a butterfly joint to hit certain poses, but not all of them. The ball peg setup here lets The Tick rear back with his punches and that’s good enough.

“Remember kids, don’t forget to bring a towel!”
“Even heroes need to recharge sometime!”

The accessories for the standard Tick are perhaps a touch light, but not too bad for a $40 figure. For portraits, we get three: grinning, angry, and an open mouth smile. Swapping is pretty easy and the heads are a touch softer probably to help keep the antennae from breaking. And all three expressions are worth displaying. For hands, there’s just two sets: fists and gripping. The gripping hands make use of a vertical hinge which works well with Tick’s Secret Crime Viewfinder. He can hold it with one or both hands and has no problem bringing it to his eyes. The sculpt is nice and clean and the paint is as well. It’s even stamped with “Crime Finder” on the front. His other accessory is his red necktie, aka his secret identity disguise of limited effectiveness. There’s also a stand which features The Tick logo on it and it’s fine for what it is

“This is what it’s all about, fellas. Heroes enjoying some waves and catching some rays!”
“Spoon!”

Vacation Tick comes with some of the same stuff as well as new ones to fit his theme. He shares the open mouth head, fists, and gripping hands with standard Tick while also adding one new portrait and one new hand. The new portrait is his default one which is a grinning head with sunglasses and his antennae standing up straight. The sunglasses are black and pinned into the side of Tick’s head. He does have eyes underneath it, but I don’t think the sunglasses are intended to be removed. He has an additional right hand in a “hang loose” gesture and it also features the superior vertical hinge. He comes sporting soft goods swim trunks with a pink and purple floral pattern on it that is pulled from the episode “The Tick vs Pineapple Pokopo.” Since this is a comic line, I’m guessing he had this look elsewhere, but I only know it from the show. To also fit the beach theme is a beach ball which is a squishy, multi-colored, ball which is more fun than a plastic one. There’s also a soft goods towel that’s yellow with a blue spoon pattern referencing The Tick’s famous battle cry. Completing the theme is a yellow surfboard with a large blue spoon decal on it. The decal is a little cheap compared with a printed image, but it looks fine. There are two pegs on the board to make it easy to place Tick on it and it looks like the board is yellow plastic that’s been painted over which helps to make it “pop.” The decal did lead to a little blue mixing in with the paint along the edge, but it’s only noticeable in-hand. There’s no fin on the board, but I don’t think there was in the episode either where he had a yellow board, but no spoon decal. Vacation Tick also has the same stand as the standard version.

“Do I know you from somewhere, dude? You sound kind of familiar.”

Regular Tick retails for $40 while the vacation variant will set you back $50. Both are only sold at Big Bad Toy Store since this is their in-house brand. Considering the figures are the same, one could just get the vacation version and probably feel content if you’re not married to the extra portraits and accessories unique to the standard version. Then you can dress Tick up as you see fit if it feels like a beach day. Or you could be like me and get both because you feel starved of Tick merch. I suspect the standard version will also please most. I obviously like both, but I do wish we got more hand options. Tick is crying out for a finger-pointing gesture and a thumb’s up. Apart from that though, I don’t think he needs to come with anything else. Little Wooden Boy would have been awesome, but I bet he’s exclusive to the cartoon which unfortunately means that he’s off-limits. A lot of the secondary characters and villains from the cartoon are their own license which is why they’ve never shown up anywhere else. There is also a new version of The Tick for this year’s comic con season and it’s a translucent green version of this same sculpt. He’s referred to as radioactive Tick, but I think that’s just a way around some copywrite issues as it seems to really be a mucus Tick from the cartoon. I don’t know if I’ll get that one, but I’m interested in the characters to come. We’ve seen Arthur, Chairface, The Terror, and even Multiple Santa (which utilizes the Fresh Monky Fiction Naught or Nice Santa buck) which are all begging for my dollar. If you’ve been waiting years for a Tick figure then this one from Big Bad Work Shop is worth the wait.

For more Tick or toy-related fun, check these out:

Dec. 2 – The Tick Loves Santa!

The Tick arrived on the Fox Network’s Saturday morning programming block in 1994 after a wave of successful super hero cartoons. With the success of Batman, X-Men, and Spider-Man it meant the timing was right for a parody hero like The Tick to get a shot at finding an audience. Often the last cartoon aired…

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by Joe

Naughty or Nice Classic Santa and Cyborg Santa

It was looking like we were in for a photo finish this year. Last year, toymaker Fresh Monkey Fiction partnered with online retailer Big Bad Toy Store to launch the Naughty or Nice collection. Structured similar to a Kickstarter campaign, FMF posted several action figures for preorder with a minimum order quantity needed for the…

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by Joe

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, toys