Category Archives: toys

May 14, 2024

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Raphael

By Joe

Mattel’s Turtles of Grayskull line rolls on with wave two. This Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Masters of the Universe collaboration is a continuation of the Masters of the Universe Origins toyline. That’s a line of roughly 5.5″ figures designed to capture the aesthetic of the original MOTU toyline, but with some modern articulation engineered into the form. For the first wave, I took a look at both Leonardo and Donatello. As someone who is a TMNT fan, but not a MOTU fan, the turtle boys are the only ones that appeal to me. Despite that, I did end up getting the Mouse-Jaw figure despite that being a MOTU character, but he came with a Mouser so that works, right?

The gang is not quite all here.

Raphael is the turtle of the line’s second wave which also includes Ram Man, Beast Man, and Shredder. I’m not likely to get either MOTU character in this wave, but I’m also not sold on Shredder. I guess I need to see him in person. Raph I knew I wanted so I went ahead and just preordered that one. This should be a pretty easy review since this figure is essentially the same as the prior turtles. That’s the whole idea behind the line which is one base body creates many toys. The new stuff is the armor and accessories and the new head.

I’ll take a picture of the shell shield, but if you display your Turtles of Grayskull like this you’re a monster.

Raphael could basically be described as Raphael x Ram Man. I don’t know anything about Ram Man, my MOTU knowledge is only surface level, but from what I gather he’s a stout fella with a hard head and helmet to go with it. I assume he rams people, and while Raph may be hot-headed, he’s not known for bashing folks with his brain so he’s also equipped with some weapons. Unlike the Donatello-At-Arms figure, the helmet is removable so this figure can strip down to a fairly basic Raph with barbarian underwear.

“I could get used to this.”

Right off the bat, I have to say the green on this Raph pops. It’s hilarious to me that Mattel has done a better job at recreating Raph’s classic shade of green than Playmates has with its reissues. The head gives me 2003 vibes like it did with the previous turtles while this figure has way more of Raph’s red worked into the figure. The bracers and greaves are red, he has red on the helmet, a red belt, red on the chest, and a piece of red armor on his shoulder. The shell is the same piece and is a matte brown and the paint applications overall are a little cleaner with this figure than they were with my wave one offerings. I may not care about Ram Man and I think his design is kind of boring, but this is working for me. I think Raph is my new favorite in the line and it’s mostly because the colors work and he looks great with or without the helmet.

Raph could do some damage with these.

As for weapons, Raph apparently can’t have normal sai he needs something bigger. The first sai is more like a tri-bladed sword. It has a long handle and the weapon is larger than Raph’s leg. It’s done all in silver and he can grip it just fine. It also slots into the holster on the back of the shell pretty well. The other sai is a bit more involved. It’s basically a glove that fits over his right fist which is kind of a Fisto thing, only Raph is taking it a step further (or three) by having giant blades coming off the top of his fist. If the outer blades were as long as the center one he’d look like he’s cosplaying Wolverine. It’s a cool weapon, though it looks more like a Shredder weapon to me and that’s primarily to do with how he armed himself in the 2012 series. Like the other turtles, the shell does come off and can double as a handheld shield. The chest armor, like the helmet and glove sai, are just pressure fitted so no straps to deal with. The shoulder armor can slide off as well so if you want to get this guy pretty close to naked it’s not too difficult. There’s also another mini comic included, but it’s not the advertised continuation of the story from the first wave. It’s just panel art, no dialogue bubbles, and seems to be pretty scattershot. I guess we have to wait until Wave 3 for the rest of the story?

“You don’t scare me, ugly!”

The articulation for Raph is exactly the same as it was with Leo and Donnie. It’s solid as the shoulders, head, elbows, and knees have good range despite the simple approach. The waist twist is just a waist twist, but the ankles feature hinges and rockers. My lingering complaint is still that the hands only have horizontal hinges when vertical would be preferable for melee weapons. It’s fine.

“You better not be cuttin’ in on my territory, bub!”

The bottom line here is if you dig the look of this mash-up and enjoyed Wave One then you’ll be plenty happy with this interpretation of Raphael. The line needed a Raph and it got a pretty good one. Wave Two should be arriving in stores around you as I type this. It’s also available at various online retailers and I got mine from Amazon. MSRP is 20 bucks, which is a little higher than the standard MOTU Origins price, but that’s likely due to Mattel having to pay Viacom for the license. Wave 3 should be coming soon and I’ve seen some people who already have it, plus there’s the deluxe figures and I’ll be checking some of them out. This line has legs, so we’re definitely not close to being done.

The Turtles like playing with other IP, MOTU is just the latest:

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Leonardo and Donatello

These days, there isn’t much the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles haven’t crossed-over with. Back in the day we had Star Trek, trolls, and the Universal Monsters. More modern times have seen cross-overs with the likes of WWE, Ghostbusters, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Throughout all of that, as well as the action figure license seemingly…

Keep reading
by Joe

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Deluxe Mouse-Jaw

Nothing can be simple in this day and age of retail toy sales which is why the new mash-up of Masters of the Universe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toyline features ostensibly 3 SKUs: standard, deluxe, and deluxe with build-a-figure parts. The standard releases are, as you may have expected, released abroad and you can…

Keep reading
by Joe

Hasbro MMPR x TMNT Shredder

We’ve looked at the two-packs from Hasbro’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures based on the comic book crossover, but have we saved the best for last? Coming in on his own is the arch nemesis for the turtles: The Shredder! And since this is a line specializing…

Keep reading
by Joe

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

May 9, 2024

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Ralph Wiggum

By Joe
This is the story about a boy who just wanted to be loved.

Last week, we talked about two out of left field choices by Super7 for its line of action figures based on The Simpsons. This week, we’re discussing a fan favorite character that belongs and his inclusion is only perplexing given that there is no member of the Simpson family in the wave. Ralph Wiggum was featured in the very first episode of The Simpsons, but as a character, he wasn’t really developed until Season Four’s “I Love Lisa.” Up until that point, he was just some kid who was a little heavy-set, but made little impression. “I Love Lisa” made Ralph the character he is today. He’s more than a little slow, but genuine, and very impressionable. Unfortunately, he gets bad advice from his dad, the chief of police, which basically sets him up to have his heart broken by Lisa, but it all turns out well in the end. It’s not my favorite episode of The Simpsons, but it is one I adore and there are few episodes I’ve watched more than that one.

He wants to be loved, but not touched.

As an action figure, Ralph is a bit of a hard sell. The character is certainly beloved and not particularly difficult to translate to 3D, but it’s not one that presents a lot of opportunity for articulation or flashy paints. And since Super7’s Ultimates! line carries a base price of $55, Ralph is especially tough to value as he’s the same price as Homer, Moe, Krusty, and up to this point basically everyone except the massive Kang and Kodos. Super7 is one of those companies that has no problems asking its consumers to pay more for bigger characters, but never do they charge less for the small. And with Ralph, it’s hard to argue that Super7 has done much of anything to alleviate that.

The height of Ralph seems fine when compared with Bartman, but the rest? Eh, no.

Ralph stands at approximately 4.25″, probably a tick under. He’s just a little shorter than Bartman, which is proper for true scale, though his larger proportions make him look odd beside Bart. Ralph’s height is fine, but the rest isn’t really in scale. Unfortunately for Super7, there’s an entire episode about Bart and Ralph being paired up so there’s no shortage of reference images. Ralph’s hands and feet are gargantuan in comparison to Bart’s and the two do not look good side-by-side. I think this is a case of Super7 just not wanting to go smaller on Ralph than they did because then the asking price would look even more foolish. A lot of action figure lines tend to add a little to the smallest characters, and take a little from the largest to try to find a happy medium and I do think that’s true here. How much it bothers collectors is likely to vary from person-to-person, it’s just a shame the line ended up being a brief one because there’s really no one to pair Ralph with on the shelf if not Bartman. I guess he always was a bit of a loner.

Even with the adults his proportions just seem too big. His feet are bigger than Moe’s.

Aside from the scale, the sculpt on Ralph is fine. He has his almost blank expression where he’s smiling and it’s captured. He has his blue shirt and brown pants and basically the only paint is reserved for the eyes, shirt, and belt. His head does not appear to be painted yellow and instead Super7 just went with a matte coat. It’s a step back from the paint jobs we saw in the second wave of the line and I’m curious if these final two waves (which shipped at the same time and only a few weeks after the second) were rushed or had cuts made to them since Disney was pulling the license. The paint on the blue shirt is applied all right, but there are some blemishes. It also chips and flakes around where the arms plug into the shoulders leaving behind ugly, yellow, spots. By far though, my least favorite thing about the presentation of the figure is how Super7 did Ralph’s hair. Ralph has this very thin, wispy, hair in the show and Super7 opted to sculpt it in soft, black, plastic and glue it to his head. The end result is it’s just far too thick and he almost looks like he has dreadlocks. I think the proper way to do the hair would have been to sculpt it into his head and just paint it. Or do it with with something thinner, like the bristles you might find on a brush. This choice doesn’t work very well. You can especially see it in the reference art on the box how the diameter of his hair should be smaller than his pupils, but with the figure it’s the opposite.

At least it covers up the awful hair.

There isn’t much to say about Ralph’s articulation. It’s terrible. He’s barely better than a ReAction figure. The head just rotates and so do the shoulders. His elbows have little range as do the hinges in his hands. He has a waist twist, and everything below that is essentially useless. I don’t know what they were trying to do with the ankles as there’s basically a brown post that goes into his feet. There is a hinge, but it does almost nothing. There’s a gap between the end of his pants and shoes as a result and it looks bad. Ralph was never going to have terrific range at these joints, but it’s like they didn’t even try.

The only accessory you need?

A little statue like Ralph is relying on accessories to create value. I often get the sense with Super7 that they start at the $55 price and then try to add enough stuff to hit their cost target. With Ralph, I don’t really get that sense and instead this figure feels like a cost-saving one. The most popular character in the line that will probably sell the best so let’s produce it cheaply and maximize profit! Ralph has no extra hands and one extra head. That head is exactly the same as the default one, except it has a melted ice cream cone glued to the forehead. That’s it. The heads are really hard to swap too and I can’t see myself ever wanting to use this reference from a later episode that’s also a dated joke that hasn’t aged well. Why no toothy grin? Or better yet, a grin with red crayon all over the teeth? This is just bad.

“Go banana!”

Ralph’s other accessories include a banana, jar of paste, Valentine, sign, and computer. The banana and jar of paste have hands sculpted to them which I guess is fine. The jar has a removable top with paste at the end of a brush inside it, but Ralph’s range of motion is so terrible he can’t hold it with the top on. The Valentine is what you would expect and features the “I Choo-Choo-Choose You” remark and there’s a picture of a train. It’s great for what it is and if it wasn’t included there would be riots. There is a “WARNING DO NOT HUG” sign that can be hung around Ralph’s neck which, again, is from a much later episode. I would have preferred his Idaho costume instead. The sign is all plastic so it doesn’t even hang properly and looks stupid. The computer is an old, boxy, design and Ralph is practicing spelling “CAT” on it and there’s a picture of a cat. It too is from a post golden age episode, but at least it’s the Super Nintendo Chalmers scene so I’ll allow it, but there isn’t really anything for Ralph to do with it. He can’t hold it and he doesn’t have a desk to put it on. It just sits there.

“Miss Hoover! I’m all out of ice cream!”

For such an iconic character, Ralph’s accessories are severely underwhelming. And considering how small he is and that he has just one alternate head, he should have more. Where is his key to the town? Where’s the leprechaun that tells him to start fires? He could have had soft goods and another head to recreate his George Washington costume. He could have had his TV dinner he needs someone to microwave for him or his box of Star Wars collectibles. What about the cat he likes talking about so much? A box of crayons with a missing red crayon? There’s just so much! Obviously, Super7 could not have given us everything, but it’s like they tried to impress us with deeper cuts from later in the show’s life when they would have been better served to just focus on “I Love Lisa” and deliver as much from that episode as possible like a facial expression from the exact moment his heart rips in two.

If you’re a fan of The Simpsons and collecting this line, should you get Ralph Wiggum? I mean, as a character, of course. He’s probably the most popular character in the wave. As an action figure that costs $55? Absolutely not. Super7 did not earn your money with this release. The paint is mediocre, the sculpt is too large, the articulation is practically non-existent and the accessories uninspired. This is a dud of a release. Yeah, mixed in on your shelf with the rest of the line (provided he’s not next to Bartman) Ralph will look okay, but no one is likely to see it and go “Oh wow! I love that Ralph!” If I wasn’t going all-in on this line as a show of support so it would go on for awhile (oops), I would have passed or at least cancelled my preorder when Super7 figures started routinely hitting the discount rack. I suggest anyone who does have an interest in Ralph to just wait for such an event.

We’ve got more from Super7 and The Simpsons:

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Kang and Kodos

We are onto the third wave of Ultimates! from Super7 based on The Simpsons. Like past waves, plenty of questions abound when it comes to Super7’s character selection and they’re not unfounded. Perhaps the two most questionable inclusions in this third wave are the subject of today’s post: Kang and Kodos. These are two separate…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Krusty the Clown

If you’ve been following along with my reviews on the second wave of Super7’s The Simpsons Ultimates!, then you will have noted that I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this wave. For the most part, the sculpts and deco have been on point, it’s some of the little things that have been…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Hank Scorpio

If you’re going to market action figures to a fanbase as venerable as The Simpsons, you should probably go after what they love most. Simpsons fans love to make references to their favorite episodes and characters and one of the top episodes from the show is “You Only Move Twice” from the show’s seventh season.…

Keep reading
by Joe

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

May 7, 2024

NECA TMNT Toon Samurai Adventure Michelangelo and Space Adventure Donatello

By Joe
It’s time to go on an adventure!

I think most people understand that when it comes to a toy line the most popular figures are of the most popular characters. The problem is, what do you do when everyone has the most popular characters? You make them again, but different! That’s sort of the genesis of the variant action figure of a popular character. When Playmates Toys struck success with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles it didn’t take them long to get the main turtles back onto pegs, but in a different form. There were the gimmicky Wacky Action Turtles which had wind-up features and there was the disguise series of standard action figures of the turtles, but with fun disguises. And we’ve talked about them before because Super7 has already remade three of the four (it would seem they have no desire to make Undercover Don) and I’ve reviewed them all. Now it’s NECA’s turn to try to extend the life of their line of figures based on the classic cartoon series by dipping into the Playmates well with this two-pack of Samurai Adventure Michelangelo and Space Adventure Donatello.

Normally, samurais are the domain of Leonardo.

Recently, Super7 has run into issues with Playmates where the company really doesn’t like them remaking their toys. Is it because they want to re-release them to stores as they have with many old figures? Maybe, or it could just simply be a company protecting its interests and the right to make that call at some point in the future. With NECA, it would seem their way around that same issue is to switch up the characters. Playmates did Sewer Samurai Leonardo so NECA does it with Mikey instead. Raphael the Space Cadet becomes Space Adventure Donatello. Same concept, different character and different design. These aren’t 1:1 recreations and they’re coming from a toy line that is doing very well. That certainly gives NECA a lot of pull with Viacom when proposing these sorts of things and if they want to humor Playmates or not.

And space is typically reserved for Raphael.

These two figures are creations by the fine folks at NECA with the obvious tip of the hat to Playmates. Michelangelo and Donatello never sported these looks in the cartoon, but you could probably fool someone with a poor memory of the show as it’s not far-fetched for that program. They also both follow the Punk Turtles and Pizza Club releases in introducing more facial expressions for collectors to mix into their collection. Though like the Punk set, these heads are better suited for the newer figures and not the older Turtles in Disguise due to the shade of green utilized. In some way, these figures exist on their own. I don’t have the Pizza Club editions since I already have two sets of the Turtles in Disguise release and the original NECA turtles, but I do have the Punk Turtles and the heads are a little different. Where those are dark green and matte, these new ones are the same shade of green, but glossy. The shade of Michelangelo’s bandana is also darker than what came with the Punk Turtles. Does it match the Pizza Club Mikey? I don’t know, but the lack of consistency is irksome.

And rabbits. They’re allowed to go into space too.

That said, these expressions should work okay with at least the Punk and Pizza Club editions and not so well with the older figures. The two expressions that come with Michelangelo, an open mouth and a teeth-gritting one, are brand new while the mouth included with Donatello is an old, closed, expression we’ve seen before. That’s disappointing considering I think even the Pizza Club Donatello comes with this one. The only new head part with Donnie is the top which features a covering and purple goggles similar to the old Raph the Space Cadet figure. You can at least swap out the expression if you wish, but only having angry eyes is a bummer.

Sort of reminds you of the old title card, no?

We’ll talk Mikey first. He very much looks the part of a samurai, but with a lot of color. The helmet is almost exactly like the old Leonardo figure, but done in bright yellow with lots of black linework. The main suit is a pale blue with black and yellow trim. The almost salmon-shaded armor looks good and also gives the figure a toy impression rather than something going for realism. Paint is mostly clean, but there are some parts where the black bleeds into the yellow on the forearms and shins. There is a waviness to the belt which I don’t think is supposed to be present, but otherwise the figure looks good. The helmet plugs into the peg hole where the bandana knot usually goes (no such piece is included so if you want him to go helmet-less you will have to salvage that from another figure) and it’s easy to slot in, but sits rather loose. The helmet will stay on, but don’t be surprised if it falls off a lot while posing the figure.

Old expression, but at least he’s got cool shades now.

Donatello’s space suit is a bit more understated when compared with Mikey’s samurai armor or Raph’s old suit. It’s an off-white color with black linework and some gray and light blue accents. It doesn’t pop like some other looks in this line, but it’s appropriate for an astronaut turtle. The helmet is done with transparent plastic and the back is painted. It’s nice and clear with no odd blemishes anywhere. Paint is very clean on this figure and even the more complex parts of the head are painted well. Donatello’s goggles are done in transparent plastic with purple rims and they look great. They even flip-up if you prefer and removing the helmet is simple enough.

“Whoa dude, mellow out!”
Double-jointed elbows on a turtle? No way!

The articulation for both figures is actually better than most turtles. That’s because the costumes allow for some degree of freedom where shells are concerned. Both figures have the standard setup in the head, neck, shoulders, and hips while also having an easy to access waist twist. Both figures feature double-jointed knees and ankles that pivot and hinge forward and back. Donatello has single-jointed elbows that bend about 90 degrees while Michelangelo gets a NECA first for a turtle in this line: double-jointed elbows. Despite the presence of elbow pads and bulky sleeves, Mikey can bend his elbow past 90 degrees which is pretty cool. All of the hands feature horizontal hinges though, which is a real bummer. A samurai with a bunch of melee weapons and dual-wielding astronaut should have vertically hinged gripping and trigger hands.

This is one well-armed turtle.
What’s the coolest weapon in the set? It’s almost always the one with the chain.

This set comes loaded with accessories. We already covered the heads for Michelangelo which include standard and angry eyes, but he also comes with an assortment of hands: gripping, fists, and style posed. Donatello has fists, gripping, trigger finger, and style posed hands. When it comes to weapons, these turtle boys are stacked! Michelangelo has a set of katana, a spear, a studded club, a circular-handheld blade, and a little sickle with a chain affixed to the handle that’s attached to a weight. They’re all fully painted and done well at that. The chain on the sickle is real chain and it will be hard settling on a display for this guy. Donatello comes with a pair of wacky looking pistols. They’re yellow and green and the muzzle makes me think of corn on the cob. Nonetheless, they’re based on an old roleplay toy for TMNT (thanks Johnny Nostalgia for that info) and are a fun deep cut as a result. Donatello also has this handheld device that looks like it could be something that is designed to propel him through space. It’s actually based on the old Wacky Action Donatello which came with an all gray version and even showed up in the cartoon as an aid for swimming. Donnie can hold it or it can peg into his back. He also has a little backpack device that can plug into the same spot as well.

To boldly go where no turtle has gone before. Well, except Raph. And those Star Trek turtles. And…

That’s a ton of stuff, but aside from the one peg hole on Donatello’s back the big thing missing here is weapon storage. Michelangelo especially has all of this gear, but no where to put it. No sheath, no hooks, no nothing. It’s a bizarre oversight. Donatello could have easily had holsters for his guns especially considering these designs are uniquely NECA and not based on anything. I can forgive the figure not having a spot for that giant thruster thing, but the sidearms? Bad design.

The only item storage on these figures.

The cool thing is if you want these figures to look more like the vintage ones it’s easy to just swap heads to make the samurai Leo and the space turtle Raph. Since the bodies aren’t really color-coded to Mikey or Donatello, there’s no clash of colors or anything. The necks are barely visible so any prior turtle release should work relatively okay for a full head swap, and with Donnie’s upper head being fully painted, he can use any mouth expression from before as well. It even seems like NECA tried to arm Michelangelo with weapons similar to the other turtles. He just needed a second one of those handheld bladed weapons to have two sai stand-ins. It does lead me to wonder what might follow. Surely NECA has plans for a Leo and Raph set in some sort of non-cartoon look, or maybe they will pull from the show? Leonardo as a musketeer would work as a toy and I’m sure there’s some look for Raph in there that doesn’t immediately come to mind. They can’t do an Undercover Don type of figure since they’ve essentially already done that, but they could do a beach one or something.

How will Raph and Leo respond to these bodacious outfits?

The real question is do I want more turtles in the style of the cartoon, but in looks that didn’t actually appear in the cartoon? I’m thinking it’s going to be a case-by-case thing. I was initially planning on passing on this set as something I didn’t need, but I liked the idea of getting some new expressions and there was the fear that when a Leo and Raph set comes along that I’d be remiss if I skipped this one. I believe that is what the kids refer to as “FOMO” and it sure is an effective marketing strategy. This line has been a big hit for NECA so I’m not shocked to see them try to stretch it beyond the show, just so long as we don’t miss out on the few characters we’re still missing from said show (I’m mainly talking Tempestra), but I have no real worries there. This set is exclusive to Target and will set you back 60 bucks if you’re so inclined. It’s a solid value given all of the stuff in the box and the quality of the figures and I’m having some fun here. If you come across it in your travels and the designs get your attention then I think you’ll find plenty to enjoy here.

We have plenty more TMNT where this came from including more NECA and what served as inspiration for this set:

NECA TMNT Toon Punk Disguise Turtles

Another year, another Haulathon. Haulathon, and the very similar Fall Geek Out, have become basically the only instances each year where NECA releases Target exclusive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles merchandise as well as non-exclusive merchandise. It’s honestly not a lot of fun as it just creates a frenzy of panic where collectors aren’t sure what…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Sewer Samurai Leonardo

Well, after looking at the Wave 6 Slash a couple of weeks ago we can now finally turn our attention to a Wave 5 release from Super7’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates! series of figures: Sewer Samurai Leonardo. The thing with TMNT is, you have the four good guys, a few core allies,…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Space Cadet Raphael

It feels like it’s been awhile since we had a proper Turtle Tuesday around here, but today that streak ends. It also feels like a long time since we had a new wave TMNT Ultimates! from Super7 to talk about – and that’s because it has! Not including the glow-in-the-dark variant of Leonardo I looked…

Keep reading
by Joe

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

May 2, 2024

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Kang and Kodos

By Joe
They do not come in peace.

We are onto the third wave of Ultimates! from Super7 based on The Simpsons. Like past waves, plenty of questions abound when it comes to Super7’s character selection and they’re not unfounded. Perhaps the two most questionable inclusions in this third wave are the subject of today’s post: Kang and Kodos. These are two separate releases, but since the figures are practically the same it makes sense to review the two at the same time. These aliens could be described as fan favorite characters and they owe much of that status to their close ties to the annual Halloween celebration that is Treehouse of Horror. For awhile, these two aliens could be counted on to make at least a cameo appearance, but the show seems to have mostly dropped that. They’ve probably appeared in more than they’ve missed, and their debut occurred in the very first installment of the Halloween tradition. Still, they take up two slots of a wave that includes four figures and not one of them is an actual member of the Simpson family (though one does make it into this wave as an accessory) which is more than a little bizarre. Why not save the pair for a Treehouse-themed wave? Devil Flanders is in the fourth wave, so they’re only one figure short. Oh well, Super7’s poor planning is not the fault of these figures so let’s just see if they can stand on their own merits.

Robot Scratchy has been overthrown.

The aliens of The Simpsons are green, octopus-like creatures with one eye and a massive maw that is constantly overflowing with saliva. The aliens apparently need a very specific type of mix to the air they breath so they are most often seen in a large glass helmet that covers their head, but still allows for their tentacles to be free. I had never paid much attention to how many tentacles each alien has, but if Super7 can be assumed to have done its homework then the answer is five. Kang and Kodos are siblings and in one episode Kang refers to Kodos as his sister, though I think they refer to the character as a “he” in later episodes. Since they are largely from the Treehouse of Horror anthology episodes, their appearances are basically non-canon anyway so their circumstances change to suit the jokes and situations each plot presents. They did have one non-Treehouse appearance, but it’s an episode most consider to be pretty terrible and I have no idea if it’s considered canon or not by the show’s writers. Regardless, as action figures these two present an obvious challenge since there isn’t a whole lot to articulate. They’re also massive and come at an inflated price of $75 each. That was too rich for me initially, though once the line was cancelled I felt better about extending myself to make sure I had a full collection. Plus, I took advantage of an influencer discount at Entertainment Earth (Preternia, if you’re curious, since that guy is always alerting me to great action figure deals) and free shipping was just enough to get me to bite now rather than hold out for a possible discount later. These two arrived in a massive box which was honestly pretty exciting.

“We find your lack of mass amusing.”

The packaging for Kang and Kodos is consistent with the first two waves so slipcovers are included. The cardstock in use for their oversized boxes is thicker than usual and both actually got a little beat up in transit. They’re too big to save anyways so I tossed them, but they’re definitely two of the bigger Ultimates! boxes I’ve encountered. I think both the Power Rangers T-Rex and Dragonzord were wider, but these were deeper and taller. They’re also held in place with lots of tie-downs and twist-ties which is annoying, but they did seem to keep everything in place.

Everything about this pair is big.

Kang and Kodos are exactly the same size. Their “heads” are a little over 7″ alone and once you put the dome on their bodies you’re talking about something that’s over 11″ tall. They are big and impressive to look at, but I stress the “look at” part. In-hand, they feel shockingly cheap. Shockingly because they don’t look how one would expect them to feel. The heads are hollow so they’re very light. Some parts of the heads appear to be painted and some appear to be colored plastic made to fit in place. The mouth area is all painted well, but the green spots on the tops of the heads can be iffy. Kodos, in particular, has some bad paint up there where some of the spots are unfinished. Worse though are these domes. They’re plastic and are manufactured in two halves and then glued together. I think, because they don’t want to separate. Both were pretty scuffed up right out of the box and since they were packaged well I’m assuming they went into the box in this condition. Once again, it’s Kodos that gets the worst of it as their dome has a pretty nice scrape on it near the top and also a random black dot. Unfortunately, both eyesores are on different sides so one is always visible and the seams around the whole thing do limit the display options. Oddly, Kang’s was packaged differently and included a soft, plastic, hose around the tip of the dome though the tip on Kodos’ dome arrived fine without it. Kang also had more plastic wrapped around his head for some reason. Kodos has what appears to be some tape stuck over the left side of the eye that I’m having a hard time getting off too.

It doesn’t photograph well, but the domes are scuffed up on mine. Hopefully it’s an isolated issue.

The domes and badly painted spots are my only gripes about the presentation with these two because they have the size to earn their spot on a shelf. If they can fit, that is. I’ve been displaying my collection on the Arcade 1-Up editions of The Simpsons arcade game and these two aren’t going to fit. If I was determined to pull it off I probably could, but I doubt I’d be able to add any others. Instead, they’re going on a stand beside the cabinet and I’ll probably stick Devil Flanders with them as well.

They basically pose just enough to use their accessories.

For articulation, there’s not a lot to speak of. The heads rotate on the base and the eye is articulated as well. It’s basically a marble that can be moved around which is a nice touch. The two front and one rear tentacle are connected with hinged pegs so they can move a bit, but the range for the hinge is pretty minimal. The two side tentacles function as the arms and are connected to the body in the same manner, but they’re skinnier so the range is better. They’re also segmented and each features an “elbow” and a “wrist” for additional posing. All of the joints are the same hinged peg and they don’t do a ton. I’m not sure if a ball joint would have been better. There would likely be better range, but the sculpt would likely be broken up even more. You’re basically just going to pick your favorite accessories and pose them accordingly.

There are quite a few food-based accessories.

And for accessories, we get a lot of stuff just pulled from the show. Kodos features two tentacle ends that come to a soft point which can be swapped with a tentacle holding a salt shaker, ray gun, serving tray, or the big book on how to cook for forty humans. The ray gun is a really fun design and well painted. The tentacle piece holding onto it is kind of like a “trigger” tentacle and it pegs into the handle of the gun and can be removed. Without the gun, it sort of looks like a thumb’s up gesture. The other items have the tentacle molded to them. The serving tray or dish is a domed one and the dome does come off, though Super7 didn’t provide anything to place in it. I guess they can serve potato chips or a cream pie if you have Homer and Krusty. The other portrait for Kodos is a laughing expression and it’s a nice complement to the more menacing, default, portrait. It’s a bit more visually engaging and I feel drawn to it over the standard look.

Ladies and gentlemen, the only Simpson of wave 3.
At least she scales reasonably well.

For Kang, he has a cheeky grin by default and his alternate portrait is the same as the one included with Kodos except his eye is closed. It’s kind of lame as a result because the moveable eye is the best piece of articulation the two have. If you want the two laughing on your shelf then I guess it’s fine. Kang also comes with his hitchhiking sign that says “Earth Capital.” His default right tentacle ends in a hook shape which can hold it in place if you wish, or it has a peg hole and can be affixed to the gun-holding tentacle end, which Kang also comes with. His other parts are tentacles holding a knife and fork so you can pair the two up for a dinner scene. Kang’s best accessory though is his daughter, Maggie, following the loss of her baby legs. Maggie looks pretty vicious as she has a wide grin with visible sharp tooth. Her pacifier is on one of her tentacles and her head can rotate. She’s painted well and is the only Simpson included in wave three. Since she is in variant form, I guess it makes sense given that was the case for Homer and Bart. If you want to place her with them, she does scale pretty well.

“Go ahead and eat me. At least I’ll be able to die saying I had dinner plans.”

These two look pretty damn good and the accessories included are fine. I would have preferred a better secondary portrait for Kang, perhaps an angry one that pairs with the angry one included with Kodos, but otherwise I’m pretty satisfied with what’s included. I just wish the domes turned out cleaner. They display all right, but look pretty bad up close and for seventy-five bucks it’s inexcusable. That’s the big hindrance with these two as that asking price is crazy. I don’t know what they cost to manufacturer and ship obviously, but when Super7 asks for a premium on these larger figures, but still charges $55 for Bartman and Ralph it definitely makes the consumer feel as if they’re not getting a great value. The cheap in-hand feel of this pair doesn’t help as they don’t feel like $75 figures. I’m left wondering if it would have been better to just do them as soft vinyl figures outside of the Ultimates! line. They would have sacrificed articulation, but that would have been no great loss and looked and felt a whole lot better. They also probably would have been $200 a piece considering Super7’s Super Size vinyl figures are $300 and in some cases are not much bigger. This is what we got though so if you want a Kang and Kodos in this scale better ready that wallet or hope for a clearance event down the road. These two may not have been ordered in the quantities other figures were so it’s hard to know if it will happen, but I’d say it’s more likely than not. Just watch out for a run on them as Halloween approaches.

We have plenty more from the world of Springfield and Super7:

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Krusty the Clown

If you’ve been following along with my reviews on the second wave of Super7’s The Simpsons Ultimates!, then you will have noted that I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this wave. For the most part, the sculpts and deco have been on point, it’s some of the little things that have been…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Bartman

When I concluded my review of wave 1 of The Simpsons Ultimates! from Super7 I was thinking that I’d be back with more reviews later in the year. That was in February of 2023. We are now in April of 2024 and finally wave two has arrived (my original order was place January 5th, 2022).…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Hank Scorpio

If you’re going to market action figures to a fanbase as venerable as The Simpsons, you should probably go after what they love most. Simpsons fans love to make references to their favorite episodes and characters and one of the top episodes from the show is “You Only Move Twice” from the show’s seventh season.…

Keep reading
by Joe

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

April 29, 2024

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Nightcrawler

By Joe
The newest member of the animated team.

Since we don’t have a post this week for Turtle Tuesday I decided we should have a Mutant Monday. X-Men ’97 has returned the mutant superheroes to the spotlight and one of the main beneficiaries has been Hasbro. Their first wave of Marvel Legends based on the new show arrived last fall and, aside from Wolverine, found themselves in the clearance section by Christmas. The second wave arrived in-time with the premiere of the show, and wouldn’t you know, that seems to have helped sales as the wave rarely hangs around on the pegs longer than a day or two. Hasbro’s poor timing with wave one likely wasn’t the fault of the company, but Disney who had originally scheduled the show for a fall 2023 premiere, but opted to move it to the spring. This sort of thing has happened to Hasbro quite frequently with the MCU releases as well, but what are they going to do? The House of Mouse is far too powerful to concern itself with how well action figures are selling.

X-Men ’97 has seen the return of all of the principal cast members of the original X-Men cartoon as well as many of the cameo characters. And one such character is Nightcrawler. He appeared in two episodes of the original series and was an ally to the X-Men, but never a member. That happened a lot in the original series, but X-Men ’97 appears to be more willing to have a fluid team of mutants for the show’s fifth episode saw Nightcrawler reemerge and the sixth episode even added him to the opening title like a full-fledged member of the team. As I write this, the eighth episode has yet to air so it remains to be seen how long the fuzzy, blue, elf plans on hanging around. After all, Bishop received the same elevation early on, but has since left the team.

He looks good beside his new teammates.

Nightcrawler is a pretty classic character at this point having been part of the first expansion of the X-Men way back in the first giant-sized issue of the book. Had the pilot “Pryde of the X-Men” been picked up as a full series, Nightcrawler would have been on television sets every Saturday morning in several households. His absence didn’t seem to harm his popularity as I personally had many friends who referred to Nightcrawler as their favorite. Perhaps that was helped by his inclusion in the first wave of Toy Biz action figures for the property, his inclusion in the arcade and Genesis games, or maybe people just think he’s neat. While he’s never been my absolute favorite, he’s always been near the top and it’s mostly for his design as a blue devil which goes back to creators Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. I like the dichotomy of his appearance being devilish, but his spirit being one of faith, which is a fun juxtaposition and plays on expectations. I suppose it’s a little derivative of Beast, who despite his appearance and name is a gentle soul who relies more on brains than brawn, but I’m fine with both existing.

The two portraits Hasbro went with are just okay.

Nightcrawler’s appearance in X-Men ’97 is identical to his appearance in the first cartoon which was simply an adaptation of his original look. Marvel apparently nailed his look on the first try because he hasn’t changed much since the ’70s. As an action figure, it’s a relatively easy costume to capture since it’s just red, black, and white. Since I’m not a regular Marvel Legends buyer I can’t say with absolute certainty how much of this figure is new sculpt. My understanding is the torso is reused from a past Nightcrawler, but the head and limbs are new. It’s surprising Hasbro would spend money to re-tool Nightcrawler’s unique hands and feet if there was nothing wrong with the old ones, but maybe there was room in the budget and these can be used elsewhere? I’m not sure how such decisions are made, but collectors aren’t likely to complain in this case.

We’re a Creed away from a full family reunion.

Nightcrawler’s head is the most obvious connection to X-Men ’97. Similar to the wave one Gambit, his hair is a bit embellished. Unlike Gambit, I think this is less indicative of the source material though as his hair in the show seemed a bit more tame. The head is molded in blue with black dry-brushing on the hair to create some texture, but not quite the flat, black, shading of the show. That is reserved for the face and it’s applied well as is the yellow for his eyes. His default portrait has the vaguest hint of a smile while his alternate portrait is more of a grimace like he’s going into a fight almost reluctantly. I wish the default portrait featured his big, toothy, grin as that is the enduring image I have of Nightcrawler from the show and it’s even reflected in the artwork for him as well. Neither portrait is bad, it’s just there were better options out there.

This is a figure that would have definitely benefited from an included flight stand.

The body of the figure is mostly black plastic with little need for paint. The red portions on the upper torso are actually a red, plastic, insert which allows the shoulder pads to be soft and obviously reduces the need for paint. The red on the abdomen and crotch is painted and Hasbro actually did a really good job of matching the shades of red here. The painted portions of his wrists and shins is just okay. The red trim on the left arm is poorly applied and it doesn’t come up all the way to the shin cut either on both legs. The left arm is the only spot that’s bad enough to be visible from the shelf. The tail is pre-posed and not bendy and I suppose it’s okay. It would have been nice to have another option since Nightcrawler so often has his tail curl in front of him, or even wield a sword, but accessories were apparently not in the budget. In addition to the second head we just get two sets of hands: fists and style-posed. No gripping hands and no swords for said gripping hands even though his character card in the show features him dual-wielding his sabers.

“What is this?!”

Articulation is where an acrobatic character like Nightcrawler needs to shine and this figure has some good about it and some not so good. The ball-hinge is in play so you’ll get decent up and down range, but little in the way of nuance. The arms are standard for Marvel Legends and he does have butterfly joints in the shoulders, but they’re almost useless because there’s no cut in the chest to let the arms come forward. The torso only features an ab crunch and a waist twist with no diaphragm articulation. Hips are ball and socket joints and the knees and ankles are standard stuff with no boot cut. The tail is just a swivel joint. The lack of a diaphragm joint and proper butterfly joints means he can’t do Nightcrawler-type crouches. His articulation should be on par with Spider-Man, but it’s not. It isn’t terrible and for Marvel Legends it’s fairly typical, but that means it’s also not impressive.

Siblings need to look after one another.

I picked up this Nightcrawler for my animated X-Men shelf and he’ll look fine there, but this is an action figure that definitely could have been better. The almost complete lack of accessories means the aesthetics and the articulation have to carry the $25 asking price and they’re not quite up to task. Hasbro spent some money on new tools here so it’s a shame they didn’t use that money to just make the body work better. And they already have past gripping hands and swords they could have tossed in, but opted not to which is to say nothing of a BAMF! effect. It’s a figure that’s pretty illustrative of Marvel Legends these days, a sort of high floor action figure line without much of a ceiling. This figure makes me want to see what a company like Medicom would do with the character, though I can’t see myself being excited about paying their asking price.

If you want to read more of my thoughts on the action figures from X-Men ’97 then read on:

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Gambit

Everyone can relax – Gambit has returned. Or arrived, since I’ve never reviewed a Gambit action figure in this space, but that’s because I haven’t bought a Gambit figure in about 20 years until now. When X-Men arrived on airwaves in the fall of 1992, hardly anyone on that team could be considered a true…

Keep reading
by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Jean Grey

If you are reading this the day it goes live then Happy X-Men ’97 Day! Today is the day the long-awaited sequel series to X-Men debuts on Disney+. Rather than fast-track a review of the first two episodes to this blog, I decided instead to do what I most often do: review an action figure!…

Keep reading
by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Bishop

We’re going to keep this Marvel/Mutant Monday thing going for one more week! After taking a look at a trio of figures from Hasbro’s new X-Men ’97 line of figures in its Marvel Legends catalog I’ve decided to do one more: Bishop. The first three figures I looked at were basically all missing pieces to…

Keep reading
by Joe

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

April 25, 2024

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Krusty the Clown

By Joe
Hey! Hey!

If you’ve been following along with my reviews on the second wave of Super7’s The Simpsons Ultimates!, then you will have noted that I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this wave. For the most part, the sculpts and deco have been on point, it’s some of the little things that have been botched by Super7 which just calls into question what kind of fans did they have working on this line? At least with the fourth and final figure we don’t need to have a debate about worthiness. Krusty the Clown is a character that goes all the way back to the original shorts and has been a mainstay ever since. He may not share the name Simpson, but he’s certainly an A-lister worthy of a slot in the line’s second wave.

Super7 wasn’t allowed to provide Krusty with smokes, but if you have a Gremlins figure you should have a ready supply of toy cigarettes.

Still, Krusty is not without some level of controversy. Originally, Super7 solicited a figure that would have a smoking portrait, a cigarette holding hand, and even a smoking monkey in Mr. Teeny. The Simpsons licensing department was okay with all of this, and probably even found it appropriate, but the Disney team disagreed. Smoking is a big no-no with The House of Mouse. The company even discourages characters from smoking in their films and television shows. Apparently, The Simpsons is grandfathered in as characters like Patti and Selma still light-up Sunday nights on Fox, they just can’t do so as action figures. Super7 was forced to course correct, dropping the smoking portrait for a grumpy one. Mr. Teeny is still present, just without a cigarette in his hand, and in place of the extra hand we get a jagged, metal, Krusty-O.

Krusty is another figure that’s basically right in the standard height range.
He wouldn’t be much of a clown if he didn’t come with a pie.

It is what it is, and you’ll see in my pictures that I was able to make do. Krusty isn’t going to live or die on his ability to smoke anyway and this figure is another good sculpt with a pretty good paint job. Krusty stands at around 7.125″ to the top of his head, nearly 7.5″ to the top of the tuft of hair on top. He’s depicted in his traditional attire of a pink shirt, green pants, oversized clown shoes, with a blue bowtie to top it off. His default portrait is a big, open mouth, “Hey-hey!” expression which looks okay. It’s an expression that works well in 2D, but in 3D it looks a bit odd that we can’t see any of his bottom teeth. Something else is off with it though and it took me awhile to narrow it down, but his pupils are too small. They’re tiny. Just compare my images of this figure to the licensing art over his shoulder. The other figures in the line have larger pupils as well. It may sound like a small thing, but it really throws off the look of the character. Like the other figures in the wave, he has a very matte finish, though I’m finding a few hot spots on the portraits here and there. The exposed portions of his arms unfortunately aren’t painted yellow like Duffman’s. Like a lot of Super7 figures, it’s a mix of good and not so good.

They don’t put nobodies on cereal boxes.
This is the wave of little buddy characters.

For accessories, Krusty gets a bunch of white-gloved hands. He has a set of open gripping hands, a set of closed gripping hands where the index figure connects to the thumb, a set of open hands, and a right hand with a glass of something permanently affixed to it. The contents of the glass is a translucent, off-white, substance. I have no idea what this is supposed to be. I guess it could be lemonade? My grandfather used to like rum and lemonade, so I guess we can go with that. The promotional shots had a green substance instead which also isn’t an obvious cocktail, but it’s better than this which looks like coconut oil. Would Disney not allow a brown liquid? That would have made the most sense. Both sets of gripping hands can handle the large, silver, microphone that he comes with which I suppose is needed for hosting an awards show or something. He also has a box of Krusty O’s which advertises the jagged, metal, Krusty-O right on the front. And back, as the image is the same, but it looks pretty good. There’s also a cream pie which is best held with an open hand. As for the “bonus” jagged, metal, Krusty-O, it’s…here. It doesn’t do anything and is just a little piece of silver plastic. Pretty uninspired as a make-up item.

“Don’t you even think about stealing my smokes.”
“Now! Now! Now! Now! Now!”

For optional portraits we have a screaming Krusty (“We want to go to Mount Splashmore!”) and a grumpy Krusty. The screaming head is just that, a screaming head where his mouth is wide open and eyes shut. Krusty can often be found wailing so I’m fine with it. The grumpy head probably has the most personality to it. He looks pissed, or impatient, and even his hair is sagging with displeasure. The narrow eyes work better with the tiny pupils than the standard head. It’s highly likely I use this one for my display. We also get Mr. Teeny, another slug figure to place on the shelf. He’s on roller skates, but they don’t move or anything. His hand is still up like he’s supposed to have a smoke so it’s a bit of an off position. His head can swivel and he has a side-eyed expression that’s a bit mischievous. There were promo images of him holding the cereal box under his right arm, but it doesn’t work in practice. Lastly, Krusty may not be able to smoke, but he still gets to sport a smoking jacket. Or maybe it’s just a bathrobe? Either way, it’s pink with purple trim and there’s a nice K stitched onto it. It looks fine and I’ve been using it for my display, but I might return it to the box.

WARNING: Do not ingest the jagged, metal, Krusty-O.
The jagged, metal, Krusty-O may work better as a Bartman accessory.

Krusty’s articulation is like the rest – pretty basic, but the cuts you would expect to be present are there. We have a double-ball peg at the head, hinged ball pegs at the shoulders, single-jointed elbows, wrists that swivel and hinge horizontally, a ball-joint at the waist, ball-socket hips, single-jointed knees, and ankles that hinge and rock side-to-side. The range is pretty much the same as the other figures. The hinge joints can’t quite hit 90 degrees and the legs don’t kick out very far. The knees are pretty tight while the left ankle on mine is a little loose. Not so loose that he’s falling over, but looser than I’d like. He’s mostly good for pretty basic poses – he won’t be riding a tiny bicycle on your shelf or do backflips. Instead he can stand there with his glass of whatever or scream into a microphone.

“Ugh, what’s this gonna cost me?”

Krusty is, perhaps without much surprise, my favorite of the line’s second wave. I think he’s my favorite overall for The Simpsons Ultimates! as he looks the part, the accessories are fine, and the finish is solid. My only real gripes are that I wish the glass of something had some color to it and his eyes weren’t distracting bad on the smiling portrait. I also would have probably preferred a more neutral, default, portrait to the opened mouth one, but it’s fine. The jagged, metal, Krusty-O is pretty lame, but there isn’t anything truly missing. I would have preferred a tiny bicycle instead, but it’s not like he’d be able to ride it anyway. If you’re all-in on this line, then this figure is an obvious must have and if you’re a cherry-picker then I think this is the one to get from wave two. You can probably still play the waiting game if you don’t want to fork over $55 for the privilege of owning it, but I don’t think you’ll regret much if you do decide to pay full price.

And now it’s time for the updated group shot.

Want to see more from The Simpsons Ultimates! or where I sourced that cigarette from?

NECA Ultimate Flasher Gremlin

I’ve had NECA’s Ultimate Flasher Gremlin on my “want” list for awhile now. I grabbed the Ultimate Gizmo last summer, and while he’s fairly limited as an action figure, he is fun to have on display in my home. He has occupied a little section of my knick-knack shelf in the living room area of…

Joe's avatar by Joe

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Hank Scorpio

If you’re going to market action figures to a fanbase as venerable as The Simpsons, you should probably go after what they love most. Simpsons fans love to make references to their favorite episodes and characters and one of the top episodes from the show is “You Only Move Twice” from the show’s seventh season.…

Joe's avatar by Joe

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Duffman

In writing up my review of Bartman from Super7’s line of Ultimates! based on The Simpsons, I got a little hot. That figure had some errors in its presentation that annoyed me, but what annoyed me more was the refusal to just let the figure exist as Bart Simpson and Bartman. It was clearly designed…

Joe's avatar by Joe

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

April 23, 2024

NECA TMNT Mirage Foot Enforcer

By Joe
He’s got some enforcin’ to do.

When a regular Foot Ninja just won’t cut it, The Shredder has to turn to the Foot Enforcer. This brute of a specimen is bigger, stronger, and comes packed to the gills with an assortment of weapons designed to reduce the turtles into a pile of flesh and shell. And they’re needed, because how often have you seen the turtles turn a practical army of Foot Soldiers into fodder? They need a challenge as much as the Foot need a win, and that’s why we have the Foot Enforcer.

The Foot Enforcer from NECA Toys’ line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures based on their appearance in the pages of Mirage Studios was actually a 2023 release. It was styled after some colorized issues of the books released by IDW, the current license holder/partner for TMNT when it comes to printed media. Those colors put the Foot in a shadowy scheme of black, blue, and purple. It’s a similar combination to what we saw way back with the Loot Crate Shredder. I am personally just collecting the more traditional color scheme of maroon and gray which is what the original NYCC edition of the Shredder and Foot came styled as so I skipped last year’s release. I was betting on this version eventually coming out and my bet paid off as part of this year’s Haulathon is the Mirage Studios version of the Foot Enforcer and he was worth the wait.

He’s a big, chunky, boy with a big weapon.

The Foot Enforcer comes in the standard trapezoidal box with new artwork on the sides from series co-creator Kevin Eastman. The Enforcer stands a tick over 6.5″ and is basically a normal Foot Ninja as far as costuming goes until you get to the head. There he sports a helm with a face covering not unlike the Shredder himself with some fabric draped over the back and side of the head. He also has some spiky gauntlets for added intimidation. What lurks under that helmet is a mystery as what would be the exposed part of his face is painted black with two red slits for eyes. He definitely looks a great deal more intimidating than the usual Foot and not someone I’d personally want to run into in a dark alley.

This is a good example of parts reuse from NECA.

The paint job is typical NECA with lots of flat colors enhanced by black linework and a touch of shading. The shading is reserved for the top of the helm which has a nice comic look to it as well as the sides of the little spikes on his gauntlets. That’s an impressive little detail that adds a nice touch. Some of the parts of this guy are likely reused from the similarly built four-armed Shredder clone. Basically the arms and the legs which was to be expected. The forearm assembly is the same as the clone Shredder with the forearms plugging onto the meat just past the elbow. I guess that means, if you wanted to, you could swap forearms between the two. The hands wouldn’t match though as the Shredder clone had brown skin, but it’s there if you want it.

It’s easy to forget how big and chunky the turtles are too.

This figure looks awesome, there’s no simpler way to put it. I love the size of him and the heft I feel when I pick it up. This is a solidly built action figure, and after handling so many figures recently made by another company which charges almost 20 bucks more per figure, this is just like a nice treat to behold. And NECA made sure this bad boy was outfitted with all kinds of stuff to properly massacre the turtles on your shelf. For hands, he has a set of fists, gripping, chop, and a set of gripping hands also making a “Devil Horns” gesture. Those hands appear to be included just for the tri-handled nunchaku he has. The thumb is molded to the middle finger so the handles of this weapon can just slide snugly into place and look cool doing so. The other gripping hands are best used with the other weapons: short sword, long sword, and naginata. The short sword has a spiked handguard which looks vicious while the long sword has some nice size to it. The naginata is much longer with a long blade at one end and a pommel with red “ribbon” on the other. From tip to tip it’s nearly 7.25″ so it’s quite big. All of the weapons are well-painted with a little linework on the blades to give them that comic look. The nunchaku-like weapon is not painted, but it’s three, gray, handles all joined by black thread and looks appropriate enough.

This guy can definitely handle more adversity than your typical Foot Ninja, but probably not this much.

For articulation, this guy is pretty standard. He was a bit stiff out of the box in some places, in particular the biceps, but nothing that couldn’t get worked out with a little effort and patience. The head doesn’t get much range looking up because of the cowl, but all of the other directions are adequate. The cowl is soft plastic and it can slide underneath the shoulder pads or over them if you wish. Arms and legs are standard with double joints where you would expect. The meatiness of his forearms means he can’t really bend the elbow past 90 degrees, but I think most will be satisfied. Because the forearms plug onto the arms you do get a swivel point there. All of the hands feature a horizontal hinge, a repeated error by NECA. The way the armor continues onto the backs of the hands likely would have made vertical hinges a little tricky to utilize, but I think NECA is more than capable of figuring that out.

This guy is good for mostly basic poses. The lack of a butterfly joint does limit how much one can do with the weapons. There’s also really nothing in the torso aside from the waist twist which is a bummer. I’d have taken the trade-off of breaking up the sculpt a bit to get a diaphragm cut into this thing. NECA likes to go with overlays for the torso of its figures so it’s not a surprise they did it this way, but it (along with the vertical wrist hinges) is a change I’d advocate for across the board with their figures.

These guys look pretty good together, but these more modern figures from NECA do put the old ones to shame in some respects.

If you’re collecting NECA’s line of TMNT based on the Mirage Studios looks, this guy strikes me as a no-brainer for your shelf. You could probably get by without a Baxter (I know I am) or a Renet, but a big, beefy, Foot Ninja adds some nice shelf presence. The real challenge is stopping at just the one. This figure is currently being shipped to Target stores in the US and has been solicited on costumes.com for international purchase. It is not a Target exclusive though and it’s expected that this figure will eventually be sold through online retailers in the near future. If you want it, it might be a little tricky in the short term (the online drop at Target has come and gone), but not long term so don’t cave for an eBay price unless it’s close to MSRP.

Looking to add more figures to your NECA Mirage TMNT collection:

NECA Mirage Shredder and Foot Clan NYCC Exclusive Set

The Shredder had a rough go at things for awhile when it came to plastic. He was featured rather prominently in the old Playmates line, though perhaps not as prominently as one would expect. Playmates never did do a movie version of him, aside from Super Shredder, and his figure was arguably the worst from…

Keep reading
by Joe

NECA TMNT Mirage Studios Shredder Clones

NECA and Target’s Haulathon event which has seen a vast assortment of product dumped onto shelves recently was not content to limit the products to just the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Far from it, as an assortment of comic book based characters were also released and today we’re going to look at the first…

Keep reading
by Joe

TMNT Loot Crate – First Appearance Shredder

It was back during the winter that Loot Crate announced a series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle crates for 2020. At the time, Loot Crate had done one previous crate that was apparently intended to test the waters to see what the appetite was for this sort of thing among the TMNT fanbase. It didn’t…

Keep reading
by Joe

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

April 18, 2024

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Hank Scorpio

By Joe
“If you want to kill someone on your way out it would really help me a lot!”

If you’re going to market action figures to a fanbase as venerable as The Simpsons, you should probably go after what they love most. Simpsons fans love to make references to their favorite episodes and characters and one of the top episodes from the show is “You Only Move Twice” from the show’s seventh season. In that episode, Homer takes a job in another town forcing the Simpsons to move (again, hence the episode’s title) to another community that just so happens to be run by a Bondsian supervillain known as Hank Scorpio. Played by Albert Brooks, Scorpio is one of the most memorable one-off characters in the long history of the show. It’s probably not a stretch to call him the most memorable one-off character. He should have been brought back for the movie, but instead the writers and producers of The Simpsons decided to create a new villain for Brooks to play.

He’s the world’s best boss – get used to it.

What makes Scorpio so great? In short: everything. He’s exceedingly nice and a quote machine. He’s an ideal boss, but also someone bent on world domination who won’t hesitate to murder in order to get what he wants. That aspect of the character is unveiled slowly, but effectively. If Super7 had polled Simpsons fans on characters they most wanted to see in this toy line I bet Scorpio would have fared well. Maybe not top ten, but certainly pretty high for a character that isn’t regularly seen or heard from. And since Super7’s approach with this line has been so episode-specific, he’s a natural fit, but can they stick the landing?

Hank is pretty average in height for this line.

Scorpio comes in the standard packaging for the line and stands at about 6.75″ to the top of his head. He’s nearly a full 7″ when you factor in the hair. He’s presented in his mint green turtleneck sweater with blue-gray slacks and brown loafers. Out of the box, he’ll be sporting a big canister on his back that is looped onto his arms. Like the other figures from this wave, Scorpio has a pretty matte finish to him. Unlike Duffman, I think it’s all derived from a clear coat applied to colored plastic. Either way, it works and he has a nice appearance, albeit a very simple one. This isn’t a sculpt that demands much and what little paint is needed is basically reserved for the head. There his orange-brown hair and beard are fine and the eyes clean. The turtleneck is part of the head sculpt which is a little unusual, but fine. I think the head is glued into the plastic so there’s no mismatched colors when comparing neck to chest. This figure won’t catch one’s eye when amongst a sea of other figures, but it looks the part.

Someone just stole his lunch.

Where things start to get a little iffy for me concerns the accessories. For hands, we get a set of fists and gripping hands of different sizes. We also get a pointing left hand and a right hand that has a “World’s Best Boss” coffee mug permanently affixed to it. The mug isn’t hollow, but the inside is left as bare, white, plastic. Why not just a little hit of brown paint for coffee? He looks like he’s drinking milk. Either way, it’s a skimpy assortment of hands. For portraits, we get a stoic one, an angry side-eye with teeth showing, and a maniacal yelling portrait. The stoic and side eye look fine, but the maniacal head could have had a better paint job on the visible teeth. There’s a gray swash on them, or maybe the white mixed with the black paint used for the back of the throat. I wish the maniacal one also had more of a smile to it. It’s subtle in the episode, and this head has a very specific use, but I don’t think Super7 quite captured it.

He has a grenade, but I’m guessing most people will display him with his other weapon.

And that head is intended for the flamethrower. He does have a grenade canister which is fine, but the main accessory is the flame thrower. For that, we get the gun, or wand, portion plus a tube that plugs into the back of it and the side of the tank on the figure’s back. The tube is cumbersome, but stays in place all right once you get it i place provided you don’t try and reposition anything. For that reason, insert it last. There’s also a flame effect for the end of the gun which is done in a translucent plastic that is orange at the base and yellow at the tip. It’s large and heavy and isn’t really the shape I think of when I think flamethrower. I’d have preferred something more narrow that streams out. Such a piece would have been lighter which would have been welcomed as this attachment will cause the barrel of the gun to sag.

There’s really no good way for him to hold this thing. Plus that hose will keep constantly popping out on you as you try to get the best position the figure will allow.

There is another issue with this accessory and it’s that the figure isn’t articulated well enough to wield it properly. The gun is intended to be held with both hands, one on the back and one at the front. The right, gripping, hand is sculpted to hold the rear handle while the left is shaped for the grenade, but can rest on the front handle. The hands can sort of get in place, but the figure has only basic articulation. That means a double-ball peg head and neck setup, hinged shoulders, single jointed elbows, wrists that swivel and hinge horizontally, a ball-jointed diaphragm, ball-jointed hips, single-jointed knees, and hinged ankles with ankle rockers. What he needs are butterfly joints at the shoulders so he can bring his left arm across his body to properly aim the flamethrower. As it stands, he basically has to hold the gun across his belly and point his left shoulder at the target. In the episode, he basically fires from the hip. You can kind of fake his shooting pose from the episode, but any further scrutiny reveals it to be pretty ridiculous. In fairness to Super7, the glamour shots did the same thing so this isn’t a bait and switch, but how about some creativity? If butterfly joints are a no-go, why not a swappable left arm that’s preposed the way it needs to be? This is just the half-assed solution and the too heavy flame effect doesn’t help.

This low angle shot of the flame in action illustrates how I think the expression is just off enough to bug me. He almost looks frightened, not deranged.

This brings me to my main critique of Hank Scorpio which is that this is not the “ultimate” expression of the character which is the mantra of the line. This figure sells out for this one scene of Hank Scorpio firing on the government operatives with his flamethrower. He basically can’t do much else aside from hold his coffee cup. Where’s the happy Hank we see all throughout the episode? No smiling portrait is a huge miss. And the back of the box depicts him with his coat on backwards, a memorable moment from the episode that he can’t achieve. Three of the figures in this wave came with soft goods, but Scorpio did not. He should have his coat, via soft goods or swappable arms and an overlay, but he doesn’t. If you’re going to call your product the ultimate expression of a character, then you better damn well do it. This isn’t it.

“Homer, I’m very disappointed you’ve chosen to take a job with the government.”

If you have been waiting decades to add a Hank Scorpio to your shelf then I suppose this figure will have to do. It’s not terrible, it just comes up way short as an expression of Hank Scorpio. I’m not demanding he be able to convert to workout gear so he can toss a shoe, but the lack of a sunny disposition is inexcusable. And since his flamethrower pose is executed poorly, I have a hard time recommending this figure. It’s a shame because this may very well be the only Hank Scorpio action figure we ever get. As has been the case with the first two figures (and most Super7 Ultimates! in general these days) you would be better served by waiting for a discount. The line is already dead so it’s not as if one’s inaction on the line at full MSRP is going to cause any long-lasting harm to it. If you also feel it’s just plain not good enough even at a discount then I wouldn’t really disagree.

Interested in reading more about Super7’s line of Simpsons Ultimates?:

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Bartman

When I concluded my review of wave 1 of The Simpsons Ultimates! from Super7 I was thinking that I’d be back with more reviews later in the year. That was in February of 2023. We are now in April of 2024 and finally wave two has arrived (my original order was place January 5th, 2022).…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Duffman

In writing up my review of Bartman from Super7’s line of Ultimates! based on The Simpsons, I got a little hot. That figure had some errors in its presentation that annoyed me, but what annoyed me more was the refusal to just let the figure exist as Bart Simpson and Bartman. It was clearly designed…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Deep Space Homer

Slowly but surely I am clearing out all of the action figure preorders I placed in the year 2021. Of the ones that had been remaining, the line I was most looking forward to experiencing was the line of Super7 Ultimates! based on The Simpsons. It was August of 2021 when these suckers went up…

Keep reading
by Joe

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

April 16, 2024

NECA TMNT Toon Business Suit Casey Jones and Foot Soldier (Split)

By Joe
He’s got a headache and it’s because of the guy to his right.

As this NECA line of action figures based on the 1987 cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rolls along, I find my list of wants from it dwindling down to nothing. It’s hit on way more characters than I think anyone could have dreamed of back in 2017 when it seemed like just getting these toys to retail was a pipe dream. And now that it’s so deep into the weeds of obscure characters I find myself drawn to the more offbeat releases from the show. The superhero Bebop and Rocksteady, punk disguise turtles, and now Casey Jones in a business suit. I don’t need it, I didn’t ask for it, but you’re damn right I went out and bought it anyway!

To my surprise, this figure has an all new head sculpt and it’s pretty nice.

Casey Jones only appeared in a handful of episodes of the show even though he’s thought of as a pretty significant character. And he is, just not really in the old toon. One episode he did appear in, “Corporate Raiders from Dimension X,” featured the vigilante going out of his element and undercover to check out a sketchy new office in town. The turtles seem to think only he could sneak in, even though they seem to do just fine with their own disguises. Plus, Casey won’t even take his mask off as part of the disguise. It’s a goofy episode and actually one of the better ones to rewatch if you’re curious since it is so silly. Casey Jones is pretty damn funny in the show, even though the character isn’t trying to be (the show expects you to find it funny), to the point where I wonder why they didn’t use him more?

“Hey intern! Lose the hockey mask or you’re OUT!”

It was a few years ago now that NECA’s first pass at a Casey Jones was released to retail. Bundled with a battle-damaged Foot Soldier, it was a notoriously hard set to find. NECA was still working out distribution for this line and was experimenting with how to ship waves to Target stores and how many. It was a circus, and many collectors went years without being able to add Casey to their collection at a reasonable price. It was finally re-released just last year, and now we get a new version that is both familiar and a little different and, dare I say, superior?

“You want to try saying that to me again, punk?!”

Casey Jones and his robot friend come in the usual window box with generic blurb on the back about the show and a cross-sell. This one is part of the current Haulathon promotion going on at Target which is both in-store and online, but only on Fridays for US residents. Casey Jones is, as far as I can tell, an all-new sculpt. He’s in a suit which includes a gray coat, white undershirt, pink tie, and khakis. He has some brown loafers and his customary hockey mask. The body is more obviously new just by looking at it (always possible things like the hands have been used before), but what was surprising is that so is the head. Casey has a more windblown look to his hair. It has more volume and the mask is a bit more sharply defined. The eyes are smaller, but it’s still painted the same. The paint on the straps going around his head is a little iffy in places, but overall I think this is a much nicer portrait than the first release which, up to now, was a face I never had any complaints about. The joint in the neck is exactly the same as the first release so, yes, the heads can transfer from one figure to the other and it’s very possible a lot of people will do just that.

Oh, she’s feeling this new face.

And that’s because this Casey comes with a second portrait – an unmasked one. Casey never took his mask off in the show, so this portrait is entirely made-up for this figure release. Tomasz Rosejowski is the credited sculptor, though I don’t know if he was working off of someone else’s design, but for now he gets the credit for this unique look at Casey. The head features basically the same hair and a goofy grin. He’s got bandages on his face, some stiches, scars, and it would appear he’s missing some teeth as well. I honestly never spent much brain power trying to conjure up what Casey would look like under the mask, but this certainly seems as good a guess as any. The real question is do people want to actually display Casey without his iconic mask? I don’t know, but if you like the look then it makes it easy to display this figure with that portrait and transfer the new, masked, one to the old figure.

“April! I thought you said I could have the interns!”

In addition to the second portrait, Casey comes with a lot of familiar stuff. For hands, we get a set of fists, open, gripping, and a wide-gripping right hand. He has his golf bag of goodies and the bag actually appears to be a new sculpt as well, which is surprising, but maybe the old one didn’t fit right? For it we get the hockey stick, goalie stick, baseball bat, sledgehammer, and whatever that gray, bat-like, pipe thing is. They’re exactly the same as the first Casey release, which is fine as I assume they didn’t change in the show either. In addition to that, Casey also has a little basket with time cards or something in them. It’s one sculpt, or two sculpts, but the cards are glued in place. He also has what looks like a container of seltzer with a spray top on it. It reminds me of maple syrup dispensers at diners. The wide gripping hand seems to be intended for this particular item though and he can hold it just fine.

My Casey had a minor defect, but it was easily remedied though he’s likely to have that permanent warp to the belt.

Lastly, Casey also comes with another set of arms. These ones are identical to the arms on the figure, but the sleeves are painted white. The jacket is an overlay and removable which clasps in the front so you can pop the arms off along with the jacket and swap to these arms for a no-jacket look. It’s one he does feature in the episode, and it’s a good idea for the figure. I like the look of both too, though I’m leaning more towards the jacket. Also helping that call is that by packaging the figure with the coat on in the box there is some paint rub from it onto the white shirt and pink tie. My figure also had an usual defect in that the shirt overlay wasn’t inserted into the crotch piece all the way. A big hunk was hanging out the back and, at first, I thought it was intentional to show he didn’t have his shirt tucked in and play-up the fact that Casey is a fish out of water in these clothes, but the fact that the sides of the white overlay were splitting had me thinking this was just a screw up. Getting the shirt into the proper alignment wasn’t too hard, I just had to twist the figure at the waist and rock it back and forth until I was able to get it in there. The top of the diaper piece on the back is still a little warped, but it’s not something that’s bothering me.

I understand people not wanting another Foot Soldier, but that’s a damn fine sculpt and paint job.

Bundled with Casey is yet another battle-damaged Foot Soldier. This one reuses the arms and legs of past Foot Soldiers, but has an all new torso and head which has been split in half. It’s probably my favorite of the three battle-damaged Foot Soldiers we’ve received so far and I really like the touch of making its eyes look sad. The sculpt and paint work for the interior circuits and such looks great, and overall the finish on this Foot is more saturated when compared with past editions of the figure. It does not feature the bisected toon shading which is a bit odd, but that’s an element of this line that’s been inconsistent of late. The Foot does come with some optional hand sets: gripping, open, trigger, fists, and it also comes with the handgun we’ve seen what feels like a hundred times. It’s the exact same sculpt and paint app as before, only now instead of the main color being white it’s more like a cream or off-white. It’s a gimmick figure that’s just going to be used in conjunction with other characters to sell the split effect, but it looks nice.

Where will NECA go with its next battle-damaged Foot Soldier? They’ve hit the torso a bunch, so maybe the limbs?

Articulation is pretty standard for the line. With Casey you get a double-ball peg for the neck, hinged pegs for the shoulders, biceps swivel, double-elbows, swivel and hinge at the wrist, ball-peg waist, ball and socket hips, thigh twist, double knees, ankle hinges and rockers. The Foot Soldier is the same as past Foot Soldiers just minus neck articulation. It’s also the same as Casey except the Foot also has a shin swivel and toe hinge. It’s okay articulation, and most of it seems to work fine. Casey’s alternate shoulders are pretty damn tight, but I was able to get them working with force rather than heat. There are no vertical hinges for the gripping or trigger hands which is a bummer. These figures are also limited at the shoulders so getting a figure to really swing a weapon overhand to sell that split Foot is harder than it looks. That’s where the vertical wrist is also missed and that’s something I would really like NECA to fix. It seems only Leonardo, Raphael, and deluxe figures get that feature which makes no sense since it would be the preferred setup for 99% of the figures in this line.

And now, a sequence of pictures showing off this split effect.
“It would seem you are made of inferior components.”

Is this a set that’s worth your 60 dollars? That might be a bit contentious. The selling point is the goofy look for Casey Jones, and if you like that stuff then you can probably talk yourself into this one since the gimmick Foot Soldier is pretty fun. I think a lot of people were hoping for an Ultimate Casey and they may be disappointed about having to pay extra for yet another Foot Soldier. I’m personally indifferent. Maybe NECA has just worn me down with the expense that is being a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collector which drops in large quantities every spring now. The fact that we had a bit of a drought when it came to TMNT releases over the past 6 months also likely made me more agreeable to the expense. This is definitely a set no one is likely to feel like they need, but if you do grab it, it’s pretty well done and I don’t think you’ll wind up regretting it.

Like NECA TMNT? There’s plenty more where this came from:

NECA TMNT Toon Punk Disguise Turtles

Another year, another Haulathon. Haulathon, and the very similar Fall Geek Out, have become basically the only instances each year where NECA releases Target exclusive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles merchandise as well as non-exclusive merchandise. It’s honestly not a lot of fun as it just creates a frenzy of panic where collectors aren’t sure what…

Keep reading
by Joe

NECA TMNT Cartoon Casey Jones and Slashed Foot Soldier

Something that is likely common to most of humanity is a desire to be successful. We all measure success differently, be it professional, financial, or something else, but we all strive for it. And sometimes success can feel like a burden. Take NECA’s line of action figures based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property.…

Keep reading
by Joe

NECA Cartoon TMNT From the Files of Pizza Squad (Deluxe Rex-1)

When you’re doing a syndicated cartoon expected to air basically every day, you need to pull story ideas from anywhere you can. I think that’s why parodies are so popular in the cartoons of the 80s to the point where it didn’t matter if the show was parodying something kids would actually know. Take REX-1,…

Keep reading
by Joe

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

April 11, 2024

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Duffman

By Joe
Duffman! Is here! To liven up this party!

In writing up my review of Bartman from Super7’s line of Ultimates! based on The Simpsons, I got a little hot. That figure had some errors in its presentation that annoyed me, but what annoyed me more was the refusal to just let the figure exist as Bart Simpson and Bartman. It was clearly designed so the body could be reused to do so, but that will never happen because the line has been cancelled. How do I know the body was designed to be a regular Bart eventually? Because the cape was entirely removable. It just slipped over the ball joint for the neck. If they wanted that body to just be Bartman, it would have been embedded in the sculpt. That’s what would have matched the show, and that’s what they did with today’s figure of Duffman.

It’s a muscle dude in a cape wit a belt full of beer – what’s there to be mad about?

Duffman should be a nice cool down review for me because what’s there to get upset about when it comes to Duffman? Aside from him existing all together (and we’ll get to that), this is a goofy character that has reappeared a few times throughout the show’s run. For a franchise that usually just tries to sell to a hardcore fanbase that worships the show’s “Golden Era,” Duffman represents a pretty late addition having first appeared in Season Nine’s “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson.” Most fans of The Simpsons consider the eighth season to be the last of the supposed golden age and I tend to agree. Though it’s worth pointing out that this episode Duffman hails from is technically a production Season Eight episode.

Duffman seems to scale fine, but man, Simpsons head sizes are kind of crazy.

No matter, it’s Duffman, a silly parody of beer mascots from the real world the most obvious being Budman. These sorts of characters don’t really happen too often anymore because they’re kind of scummy. Who likes super heroes more than anyone? Children, and marketing alcohol to children is a shitty thing to do. It’s why we no longer have Budman, Spuds MacKenzie (more on him to follow), and Joe Camel. These are all things that I was exposed to as a kid and I think Budweiser is gross and don’t smoke, so maybe the hysteria over them was all for nothing? Duffman, as a parody of those types of characters, is fairly one note, but not without merit. He shows up with his own soundtrack (“Ohh yeah”) and is fond of thrusting towards things he wants to draw attention to. He’s usually accompanied by a bunch of party women and lots of Duff beer. Someone at Super7 must have felt he was too hilarious not to make a figure out of, or maybe they just liked his threads? It’s also possible one of the prime motivators for doing a Duffman this early in the line was because Playmates never did with their World of Springfield line. That one had to tiptoe around the alcohol associated with the show because they were sold at toy stores and Walmart. Super7 doesn’t have to do that and Disney has been surprisingly okay with alcohol in this line, though I do wonder if some restrictions were put in place.

Duffman may be tall, but Scratchy still has him beat.

Duffman comes in the standard Ultimates! style of packaging. Out of the box, he stands approximately 7.5″ making him among the tallest in the short-lived line. He strikes a more heroic figure than Bartman with broad shoulders, a puffed out chest, and slim waist. Seriously, Hasbro could stand to take some cues from this guy. Like Bartman, he has a nice, matte, finish whether we’re talking the yellow skin, red hat, or blue costume. Every surface has been coated with paint even when the underlying plastic is cast in the same color. This does mean you’ll get some paint flaking at the joints where the paint can’t adhere properly to the harder plastic, but it’s a small price to pay. The cape is done with soft goods and it’s embedded in the torso. This means it isn’t removable, but why would it need to be? The sunglasses are also part of the sculpt, but there are painted eyes behind them. The belt, which is lovingly adorned with cans of Duff beer, appears to clasp in the back, but it may be reenforced with glue which is fine by me. The cans, unfortunately, are not removable.

Duffman is number 1!

Duffman comes with a smattering of accessories. He has a whole bunch of hands, but surprisingly not a lot of pairs. For actual pairs of hands there’s a set of relaxed/narrow gripping hands and a set of style pose hands that I think are supposed to work with an accessory, but don’t. There’s a pointing right hand, a left fist, a right chop, a left “Devil Horns” gesture, and a right, wide, gripping hand. There’s also a “foam” finger hand since Duffman does make appearances at the stadium for the Springfield Isotopes. I believe the style pose hands are supposed to work with the included Duff beer 7-pack accessory, but the fingers won’t fit through the openings. They can grab the rings from the side, so maybe that was the intention? Perhaps with some heat and force the finger could sneak through the slots, but the accessory is fully painted and Duffman’s hands are white. Plus, the wide gripping hand can grab that 7th can just fine. The cans are painted just as well as the ones on his belt, but can’t come out of the rings. Did Disney allow the use of Duff cans so long as they couldn’t be removed from the belt or this ring setup? It would be kind of odd, but maybe they have a line in the sand when it comes to toy beer.

My open mouth head has an awful black mark on the teeth I may try to touch up.
If you’re a big fan of Santa’s Little Helper then Wave Two of Simpsons Ultimates! has probably made you happy.

Duffman also comes with a couple of alternate portraits. His default one is his big smile, the expression he wears more often than not in the show. He also has a yelling head for when he needs to get the party going. The last head is covered with an oversized Duff beer sticker from the episode “Pygmoelian.” It’s a bit of a stupid, gag, head that likely no one will use especially since it was slapped on his face in the episode by a post plastic surgery Moe. The sticker is removable as it just pegs into his mouth, but the expression without it isn’t of much use as a display piece. It’s not an egregious inclusion because what else is truly needed for Duffman? A keg would have been cool, I suppose, or some Duff beer in bottles. His final accessory is Santa’s Little Helper as Suds McDuff. Yes, another parody of a dead beer mascot and our second SLH of the wave. This one is less articulated than the first as he’s in a seated position. The head rotates, but that’s it. The figure is well-painted, but once again, fans may be left wishing it could be converted into a generic version of the family dog and not forced to live as this gimmick version.

The sticker face is an okay gag, but probably not something many are likely to make use of.
The sticker is removable if you want a…sucking face?

Articulation for Duffman is going to be pretty basic and typical of the line: double-ball-peg head, hinged shoulder pegs, single jointed elbows, hinged wrists that swivel, ball-jointed hips, single-jointed knees, and ankles that hinge and rock. What he lacks is torso articulation of any kind that I can tell. If there’s a waist twist here it doesn’t want to go and I don’t want to push it. The cape is also wired and can be posed reasonably well, but everything else is pretty limited. Elbows and knees can’t bend 90 degrees and the ankle hinge is pretty limited. The belt prevents him from kicking forward much and he can’t kick back at all. This is a set it and forget it kind of figure. The joints are also pretty tight, but the hips have some looseness to them. Not enough to make it a problem now, but something to keep an eye on.

At the end of the day, it’s Duffman. He’s fine.

Duffman is an easy figure to review as I could have simply said if you like what you see, then you’ll like this figure. It would have saved me a lot of time too. This figure isn’t going to pose very well, but it’s at least well-executed when it comes to the presentation. I wish the elbows were a little better and that he had a proper waist twist. I think he’s supposed to, but mine is tight or the belt is holding it in place. As for the rest, the accessories are fine. One of the heads is pretty useless and I would trade it for something else, but it’s not a huge problem for me. When it comes to any lingering feelings towards Duffman, it’s just a question of was it too soon for this character? Considering the second wave consisted of a Simpson, an A-list secondary character, a fan-favorite one-off, and Duffman I think it’s fine. Would I have picked him for this wave? No, but I’m not angered by his inclusion. Now, if I had known the line would only last four waves from the start well then, yeah, I’d be pretty irritated, but that’s not Duffman’s fault. I do think it’s bizarre that two waves into the line and no female characters are present, but not egregious. That’s more a critique for wave three. As was the case with Bartman, if you think $55 is a proper price for this figure and you want a Duffman then I say go for it. If you’d rather not spend that much then hold off because this figure has clearance written all over it given he’s not an in-demand character and the line is already cancelled.

We’ve got plenty more reviews of The Simpsons by Super7:

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Bartman

When I concluded my review of wave 1 of The Simpsons Ultimates! from Super7 I was thinking that I’d be back with more reviews later in the year. That was in February of 2023. We are now in April of 2024 and finally wave two has arrived (my original order was place January 5th, 2022).…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Moe

Our first two looks at the inaugural wave of Ultimates! from Super7 based on The Simpsons have been two very episode specific takes. One was Deep Space Homer from the episode of the same name where Homer went to space and the figure presents the character in his space suit. The second figure was Poochie,…

Keep reading
by Joe

Super7 The Simpsons Ultimates! Deep Space Homer

Slowly but surely I am clearing out all of the action figure preorders I placed in the year 2021. Of the ones that had been remaining, the line I was most looking forward to experiencing was the line of Super7 Ultimates! based on The Simpsons. It was August of 2021 when these suckers went up…

Keep reading
by Joe

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