Category Archives: toys

July 31, 2026

The TMNT Collector Landscape is About to Change

By Joe
The sign says it all.

Last week brought with it the annual event with massive reverberations throughout the collecting community known as San Diego Comic Con. The once humble convention held in a hotel basement to celebrate comic books has become a pop culture bonanza. Comics still play a pretty central role thanks to their proliferation outside the venerable medium, but it’s also a chance for other forms of “geeky” media to play a big role. And by that I mean action figure collecting. San Diego Comic Con is probably the annual event where more action figures are revealed to the public for the very first time than any other. Even New York Toy Fair seems to pale in comparison these days. And as expected, all of the big names in the toy world were on hand and for many of them the subject of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was impossible to ignore.

Late last year, word came out that Playmates Toys was no longer going to be the master license holder for TMNT toys. The news was huge because up until now that license had never changed hands. Playmates entered into an agreement with co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird way back in the 80s to bring the turtles to plastic. As part of the roll out, an animated series was commissioned which debuted in late 1987 ahead of the big toy roll out in 1988. And from there it’s been a rock solid relationship that has even survived a transfer of ownership from Laird to Nickelodeon via parent company Paramount. Last year, Paramount was sold to Skydance and that relationship was suddenly in jeopardy and come New York Toy Fair this year we knew who the new license holder would be for TMNT: Mattel.

Hey! At least Tempestra is coming! Image taken from Pixel Dan’s walkthrough video with NECA’s Trevor Zammit.

Despite Playmates being the master license holder all these years, it didn’t stop other companies from getting a piece of the action. NECA was among the first to try back in 2008 with its line of figures based on the original Mirage Studios comics. It apparently didn’t go over well with Playmates, but at the time the license was still owned outright by Peter Laird. Perhaps Laird, not wanting to really get into it with Playmates, didn’t put up much of a fight and that line didn’t continue past its first non-turtle with the release of April O’Neil. Post the sale to Paramount, perhaps lawyers were at the ready to pick apart that licensing agreement and carve out new ways to extract value. NECA, again, was among the first to test these waters with quarter scale offerings of the turtles based on their appearance in the 1990 live-action movie. It progressed to SDCC exclusive figures and eventually the turtles made their way into Target stores across the country. More lines would spring up and more companies added with Playmates basically only in control of whatever version of the turtles was presently airing on television or appearing in movies. They also supplemented those releases with the occasional stab at something more collector friendly or reissues of vintage toys and vehicles.

When the license was announced to be changing hands, it meant change was on the way. Not just for Playmates, but everyone involved. You see, when a master license expires in a market such as toys and merchandise, it tends to expire for everyone. To likely make the master license as attractive as possible to new buyers, everyone gets set back to square one. The mere fact that it was announced Mattel had acquired it meant that the current license for Playmates and everyone else was expiring at the end of 2026. Everyone would have to head back to the negotiating table and since Skydance had just paid a lot of money for Paramount it was likely that it would look to get more out of the licenses it now owned. While some in the collecting community were initially elated at the idea of Playmates and its glacial pace when it comes to adapting with the times would no longer be making TMNT toys, those who were content with the output of other companies remained skeptical that this news was good. When Toy Fair arrived early this year with comparatively fewer TMNT reveals than years past, speculation only grew that a lot of companies would be exiting the TMNT space.

These three figures represent the last for NECA’s line of TMNT figures based on the 2012 series. Image taken from Pixel Dan’s walkthrough video with NECA’s Trevor Zammit.

In an interview on preview night at San Diego Comic Con with Pixel Dan, NECA’s Trevor Zammit confirmed what most had feared: the line was over. Initially, it was phrased in regards to NECA’s very popular line of action figures based on the ’87 cartoon series, but it would be clarified over the weekend that the statement applied to all things TMNT. What was on display was essentially all that was left. Perhaps there is a surprise or two waiting in the wings that NECA did not want to disclose just yet, but for now I’m taking the company at its word. Super7’s Brian Flynn in another interview with Pixel Dan basically confirmed the same, though in the case of Super7 there was still some stuff to be revealed at a later date. Basically the only company with plans to offer TMNT product beyond 2026 is Mondo via its line of sixth scale figures. Billed as a spiritual successor to The Secret of the Ooze, Mondo’s offerings are both much bigger than the typical toy and also a whole lot more expensive. In all likelihood, there’s nothing Mattel is prepping that would compete with what Mondo is doing making it fairly safe. Even so, on a recent appearance on the Toy Anxiety YouTube channel, Peter Santa-Maria of Mondo did elaborate on the relationship with Paramount saying they presented a series of figures which was greenlit, but beyond that nothing has been presented to Paramount. He further speculated that Mattel will likely want a lengthy onramp to get its own TMNT product out the door and into consumer hands which may impact Mondo as well should it wish to go beyond the current plans.

It will be interesting to see if Super7 is allowed to continue with its more niche offerings of ReAction TMNT figures. Image taken from Pixel Dan’s walkthrough video with Super7’s Brian Flynn.

If you like one of the toy lines being offered by a company currently working on TMNT then the onramp theory is likely your best reason for optimism. No one was willing to close the door on TMNT completely and Flynn characterized it as saying they’re still waiting for the dust to settle and there’s a lot of dust. With a new movie on the way in 2027, it’s likely that will be Mattel’s focus in the short term, but at some point they will want to unveil a more collector focused line and whatever approach they take will likely influence what other companies are able to do. If Mattel wants to do its own take on TMNT, then companies like NECA and Super7 likely have a path back into TMNT. NECA would certainly love to expand upon its recently started and suddenly aborted line of figures based on the 2012 series, while Super7 is only 3 waves into its own line based on the 2003 cartoon. On the other hand, Mattel could very easily decide that it wants to do a more wholistic approach. Think a TMNT Legends type of line, or TMNT Multiverse where a wave could feature characters from all throughout the history of the franchise. There’s certainly enough material for such a thing and it’s likely the approach Mattel will be taking with its line of DC action figures next year. Even if that isn’t the path they take, they could feel certain designs from other eras are too close to what they’re doing thus preventing other companies from doing something similar. The 1987 edition of the franchise is also probably still the most popular so even if NECA gets its hands back on TMNT I would be very surprised if they’re allowed to play in that sandbox again. It could be we get a situation similar to what we see with Hasbro and import companies like Bandai and Medicom: if you want to do a TMNT figure in a 1:12 or similar scale, it has to come in at around $100 MSRP. Such is probably only good news for a company like Mezco already doing that though it wouldn’t shock me to see Super7 try a $100 turtle that’s not appreciably better than what they currently release for $65.

With Mattel just acquiring the license early this year it means that the company is still a long ways off from actually releasing anything. That means 2027 could be a very dry year for TMNT collectors. While that’s good news for the wallets of many, a full calendar year with limited or no figures in 1:12 or 1:10 scale is certainly disheartening. At the same time, it’s hard to look at the output of a company like NECA where turtles are concerned and not feel appreciative. The popular toon line is ending with the much requested release of Tempestra, a character few casual fans likely even remember from her two appearances in the show. The mere fact that she became some massive outlier is a testament to how deep NECA went with the toy line. They even started releasing characters in the style of the show who never actually made an appearance. Presently, there are still some turtle variants on the way which are hitting Target stores now with Tempestra to follow. The Archie line is receiving the last, main, member of the Mighty Mutanimals in Leatherhead, and the 2012 line is receiving figures of Casey, Splinter, and Metalhead to close it out. And if that’s not enough, NECA recently released a set of turtles based on their appearance in the game Fortnite which, if nothing else, are interesting given some of the articulation choices the company took.

There will be no big boy Krang.

Unfortunately, news of the line’s demise also means there’s a bunch of stuff we’ll never see. Previously shown figures like beach Slash, giant Krang, Slash from the 2012 show, and the Bebop and Rocksteady movie inspired figures are officially cancelled. There will also be no kitchen diorama for those who were into those, but perhaps worst of all is the sudden end of the 2012 line. That one has been hit the hardest as it will be missing characters like April, Karai, Fugitoid, and basically every villain not named Shredder or the Foot Soldier. Personally, I’m most disappointed by the end of the Archie line before it could get to April, Splinter, or even a basic set of turtles. The personality and paint exhibited in that line across the releases it did get to was a real crowd pleaser and it’s such a bummer to see it cut down.

Just at this massive amount of stuff we’ve received over the years. And this isn’t even close to all of it! I had to break my own rule of taking a photo in vertical mode just to fit this much in.

I don’t want to end things on a downer though because we really did get a very comprehensive collection of turtles from NECA. And Super7 did some good things too, though I’ll never forgive them for not getting us a Heavy Metal Raph. When it comes to the license, all of the affected companies didn’t do anything wrong. There’s no way NECA could pay what Mattel paid to get a master license nor do they have the kind of scale that would allow them to match their output even if they had the cash to make a bid. The toon line is about as expansive as it could be and the characters not represented are basically reserved for the D list. I think the focus of many was not on new characters, but on upgrades for some of the older ones and re-releases of stuff that had sold out. There’s a part of me that can’t believe we received figures of characters like Bugman, Scrag, and Rex-1. We even got two versions of Vernon! I don’t know what the future holds for TMNT where toys are concerned. Mattel has done a good job with Masters of the Universe in recent years in serving both the modern collector and the vintage one, but they’re largely untested when it comes to TMNT apart from the Turtles of Grayskull collaboration. I’m also not sure if I really need anymore TMNT lines to collect which is probably the biggest hurdle for Mattel to climb. They could make some good stuff, but it’s possible people just won’t want it because they have already been well served when it comes to TMNT. I plan to keep an open mind though and I’m going to try and enjoy the last few releases companies like NECA have in store for us. It may be a while before we get a chance at anything more.

For more thoughts on the changes in store for TMNT or to see my original wish list for NECA, read on:

The End of an Era – There Will be No More Playmates TMNT

Before 2025 left us, it had one big piece of news to drop when it comes to action figures: Playmates Toys will no longer hold the master toy license for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If you’re into the action figure collecting hobby or have ever been a fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles then you’re…

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by Joe

Mattel x TMNT

Late last year, news broke via Playmates Toys that they would no longer be the master license holder for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys. As far as news in the toy world goes, this was pretty damn big. Up until now, Playmates has been the only company to hold the master toy license for the…

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by Joe

The NECA TMNT Wish List

The early months of the calendar year are generally among my least favorite. They’re cold, dark, and dull where I reside. About the only good thing on the calendar is the annual New York Toy Fair in which vendors roll out previews of the toys to come for the next fiscal year and sometimes beyond.…

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by Joe

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July 27, 2026

Marvel Legends Onslaught

By Joe
Behold! The most divisive villain in X-Men history!

We’re deep into the second season of X-Men ’97 and it might be appropriate that Hasbro chose this time to unleash Onslaught upon the masses. Onslaught goes back to 1996 and is the manifestation of Charles Xavier and Magneto via complicated, comic booky, means. He was the big bad of a whole arc that changed Marvel Comics for a good while afterward ushering in the Heroes Reborn era and X-Men ’97 may be looking to bring him into the animated universe. Or not, if former showrunner Beau DeMayo can be believed. We’ll just have to wait and see, but the mere possibility of his appearance in the show might be why Hasbro chose to re-release the former build-a-figure as a solo retro card. Sold exclusively at Target, this figure went up for preorder a couple of months ago and now it’s here for me to talk about.

He’s technically not as big as he’s supposed to be, but he’s pretty big.

Back in the Toy Biz days, Marvel Legends did a build-a-figure Onslaught, but not like this. That version of the character was its “crab form” that had a skull-like face and digitigrade legs. It was basically not the version most wanted or thought of when thinking of Onslaught, but in the pre-Legends days Toy Biz had done an Onslaught figure in the armored Magneto form so maybe that was why they were reluctant to do that again? Many years later, Hasbro finally did the figure in the more familiar look as a build-a-figure and, like several other build-a-figures before it, it’s now being repackaged as a stand-alone action figure with only minimal tooling changes. I don’t have the prior version so I can’t say for sure what’s different, but some have claimed the head has been retooled. I can’t tell just by looking at pictures. The only thing I know for sure is the paint job is a little different, most notably the hands, and this version omits the Red Skull optional portrait. Otherwise, it’s a big figure on a big card for a bigger price.

He’s not going to do much, so it’s all about presence.

The retro card makes for a nice display option for those who keep these things mint-on-card, but for me I’m ripping this big boy open. Onslaught stands around 8″ tall and he’s most comparable in my collection to the previous build-a-figure turned retro card release Apocalypse. Red and purple dominates the look here and most of it is just colored plastic. There’s a shininess to the purple this time that may be new, but again, I don’t have that old figure. It’s not done via paint but rather Hasbro’s shiny attempt at molded plastic and it looks okay, but there’s no fooling anyone what this thing is. It’s a big hunk of plastic. Most of the paint is reserved for the head which has the purple trim, black “face,” and white eyes. Onslaught never had a face when helmeted so this is definitely the preferred route and it looks fine. There’s also a little paint on the circles of his armor and even a hit of a matte red on the outer part of his thighs. The shoulder pads are massive and, if anything, actually could be bigger but I understand Hasbro’s reluctance to go beyond what’s here. They help dominate the silhouette and even contribute to the torso looking a bit blocky. There is a taper to it, but you almost have to raise the shoulder pads or outstretch the arms to really get a feel for it. Otherwise, this guy presents as pretty chunky head-on. I wish there was actually more bulk front-to-back, but such is often a failing of Marvel Legends. The character was so preposterous in the comics that it’s kind of impossible to properly render him in plastic, but this is mostly fine.

“Daddy..?”
“Charles, I did not sign up for this!” “Come on Magnus, you need to step up!”

Since this mold is a few years old, the construction and articulation is a little dated. If you hate pinned limbs in your figures well then too bad, Onslaught has pins in his knees and that’s that. There’s a ball-hinge at the neck, shoulder hinges, bicep, elbow, wrist, ab crunch, hip, thigh, knee, and ankle articulation. It’s all a bit stiff and somewhat limited because this guy is pretty damn chunky and not conducive to much range really anywhere. The head is pretty well buried in the neck and can only do so much. The shoulder pads do swivel and can kind of get out of the way, but not enough to let the arms come up a full 90 degrees. You can disconnect the shoulder pads in the back rather easily, but it only allows so much extra. Perhaps because this was originally a build-a-figure, the arms pop out of the socket pretty easily and sometimes when you don’t want them to. Despite how blocky the ankles look, there’s enough clearance to get a good ankle rocker. The cuffs on his forearms also rotate which is good for adjustment posing. The bicep swivel is more like a sleeve as the elbows are single hinged. It basically just moves to keep the muscle group lined up. The elbow itself also swivels. He’s a very limited poser as a result, but at least there’s some size here to kind of make up for that. Is it enough though?

“Yay! I want to go to the park!”

Because this guy has no accessories. Just his “cape” which comes in the box unattached and pegs into the figure’s back. Basically, what you see is what you get and it will set you back $40 if you can find one in Target. The register date was July 20th so if you find one at this point there’s no fear of a register lock event. If you want an Onslaught and didn’t get the prior one then this is fine. It’s a lot cheaper than having to buy an entire wave of figures even if it’s still overpriced at $40. I think it’s pretty lame of Hasbro to not slip in some accessories of some kind. How about some fists? Maybe some kind of energy effect? I don’t really care about the Red Skull omission, but there should be something here. When that retro card Apocalypse dropped it had a newly tooled torso, a new portrait, the old portrait, two sets of hands, and a newly tooled arm canon and blast effect parts. That’s a good value! It was also 2022 and it seems like these days you’re getting less with every Legends release, but paying more money. Onslaught certainly captures that. As for me, I always liked the look of the character even if the story kind of sucked. I also know that if this guy does show up in X-Men ’97 then I would have regretted passing on this release. Is that a good reason to spend forty bucks on an action figure? Probably not.

He may be more at home with the Gamerverse.

For related entries on Onslaught, check out the following:

Marvel Legends Professor X with Hoverchair

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

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Magneto

It was two years ago that Hasbro made the announcement that it was wading into the weeds of X-Men, the cartoon series that aired on the Fox Kids Network from 1992-1997. The line was released across eight installments in 2022 (plus a ninth if you include the obviously animated-inspired Apocalypse released on a retro card)…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men Retro Card Series Apocalypse

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

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by Joe

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July 13, 2026

Marvel Legends Mephisto

By Joe
Too Satanic for Walmart.

It’s now been a couple of years since Hasbro did a light pivot from the HasLab model of action figure delivery to the made-to-order one. That’s not to say the HasLab is dead, but we haven’t seen a Marvel Legends themed one since Giant Man which was solicited in September of 2023 and delivered about 2 years ago. Before that was the controversial Engine of Vengeance. The Engine of Vengeance was a proposed vehicle to be made via the HasLab model and is the vehicle of a more modern take on the character of Ghost Rider: Robbie Reyes. There was substantial sticker shock at the $350 ask for what was essentially a 1:12 Dodge Challenger. Being that similar objects exist in the toy aisle already for a substantially lower price it raised a lot of questions about just what Hasbro was doing here? Combine that with the relative obscurity of the Reyes Ghost Rider and it wasn’t too much of a surprise to see the campaign come up short of meeting its funding goal.

Mephisto has some height to him, but he’s not really what I would consider oversized for Marvel Legends.

That wasn’t for lack of trying. Along the way, Hasbro attempted to sweeten the pot with fairly desirable characters as stretch goal action figures most notably the Goblin Queen and Mephisto. Both characters have been cited in the past as being two that Hasbro basically can’t touch because selling them presents an obstacle. For Goblin Queen, it’s the revealing nature of her costume and for Mephisto it’s that he’s essentially Marvel’s version of Satan. Never mind that Diamond Select delivered a Mephisto several years prior. When the two were added to the Engine of Vengeance campaign it was stated that this was the only way Hasbro could make these figures. No retailer would touch them and it’s possible higher-ups at both Hasbro and Disney, Marvel’s parent company, were a bit squeamish when it came to both. That, of course, turned out to be a lie. At least in part. For X-Men ’97’s second wave of action figures, Hasbro delivered a Goblin Queen. She’s not as scantily clad as the comic book version, but then again, neither was the proposed offering via the HasLab. And just last year, Hasbro decided to offer up Mephisto as part of its made-to-order series of figures which is one that bypasses traditional retail. Never mind that Fan Channel figures exist in this day and age and I suspect none of them would bat an eye at carrying Mephisto, but whatever. As far as I can tell, this version is the exact same as what was offered via the HasLab only with one rather large addition. See, it wouldn’t do for Hasbro to just make a Marvel Legends figure this way. Previous offerings have all been oversized, so they decided to add a unique base to the mix and it’s that base that drove me to place an order when the listing went live last summer.

Not only do you have a choice of portraits, but you get a choice of hard vs soft where the cape and loincloth are concerned.

Mephisto arrives in a unique box with photography and artwork on the front and back with a very brief bio. It’s an eye-catching box, but it offers no look at the figure inside so in order to do so you’ll have to break into it. Getting into the box is not painful as it just requires slicing some tape. The figure and all of its accessories are in a two-tiered tray so re-boxing is exceedingly easy. We’ll talk about the figure first before getting to the main event which is the base. Mephisto stands at roughly 7″ with his hair taking him closer to the 8″ mark. He’s a bit taller than your typical Marvel Legends release, but not to the degree Hasbro would likely ask more money for as a standard release. And in terms of bulk, he’s quite slim and slender. As far as I can tell, this sculpt is all new and while some of his height is derived from the torso, the bulk found there is probably less than what one would find via the Vulcan body or even most Spider-Man sculpts. There’s only a slight taper to the torso and most of that comes from how Hasbro did the torso articulation. This new sculpt did allow them to situate the shoulders in a slightly more natural position than the often low shoulders we’re accustomed to though some of that seems to be created by just how low the pectorals go in the sculpt. The shoulders also are not tiny and he has somewhat ropey muscles with long forearms. The legs are quite slender, though pretty shredded as is the style of Marvel Legends. It gives the overall silhouette a mixed feeling. On one hand, the torso and legs give the figure a very tubular quality, but I like where the shoulders sit and how much mass they possess. In short, it’s a mixed bag but certainly better than some of the other Legends figures I have.

The painted details on the portraits are pretty nice.

As for paint, well there is very little to speak of. Even though Mephisto carries a premium price, he does not have a premium look or feel. There’s some shading and paint on the face which does add some life to both portraits while the body features some light highlights. The plastic is a deep red while the color used for said highlights is more of a red-orange. It’s applied to the pecs and abs as well as the front of the thighs and adds a slight hit of gloss to the overall appearance. If the effect is to create the illusion of flames all around him then I can see it. The fingernails are painted black and the loincloth continues onto the thighs and I assume that is painted. It gives them a better, more natural, finish compared with the slightly shiny red-brown plastic found in the crotch. The wrappings on the forearms are separately molded and keyed into the forearm and the boots are separate as well. A wash on the forearms probably would have enhanced them. It looks like the boots were at least hit with a clear, matte, spray as they look a bit better. I can also see a shiny spot where the spray may have failed to reach. It’s a decent looking figure and should fit in stylistically with a Marvel Legends collection, but those expecting something better than normal may feel underwhelmed.

The figure is fine, but the real driver of the $80 MSRP is this throne.

For accessories, Mephisto comes with the typical and the atypical when it comes to Legends. For parts, we get two sets of hands and two portraits which is fairly standard. For hands, there’s a set of gripping hands and a set of open, style-posed hands. For portraits, we get this angry looking one by default with the hair slightly slicked back. The alternate portrait features more of a diabolical grin and the hair is flailing out to the sides like he’s standing in front of a fan. The paint job on both is consistent from one to the other for the face, though I wish they had hit the hair with something as it has a very plastic appearance. Of the two, I definitely prefer the sinister smile so much so that I can’t see myself using the default one at all. Mephisto also comes with a sword that’s almost as long as he is tall. I have it from pommel to tip at 6.625″. The blade is plain, gray, plastic while the crossguard and pommel are painted gold and the hilt brown. I wish they went the extra mile to paint the blade a nice, shiny, silver, but it looks pretty good as-is. Mine did arrive slightly warped as it curves a bit inward. I may try to heat and straighten it at some point. The other accessories are where things get slightly different as Mephisto has two capes and two loincloths. Hasbro is not known for including such optional parts so if you were looking for something a touch more premium than typical then I guess this is where you find it. There’s a sculpted plastic cape which plugs into the figure’s back which is sculpted to be blowing off to the figure’s left slightly. There’s some black paint at the inner bottom and some sculpted details and it looks fine, though since it doesn’t feature a fastener of any kind around the neck it looks a little bizarre. I’m guessing this is consistent with artwork for the character so I don’t consider it a flaw, but it’s not the cape I’ll use. For that, there’s a soft goods one which features a plastic collar and fastener with a soft goods cape attached to it. There’s no wire, but there is a pattern on the inner part. The quality is still more like an old Kenner Batman toy so it also isn’t impressive, but I prefer it to the plastic one. The loincloth setup is the same as we get a hard plastic one and a soft goods one. The soft goods one is of the same material and quality as the cape, just without any hard plastic to anchor it while the plastic one has some bend sculpted into it.

He does look pretty sinister seated upon it.

So why did Hasbro see fit to include two capes and two loincloths? Because Mephisto needs to be able to sit on his included throne. This is the reason why this figure cost a probably still too expensive $80. The throne comes in two pieces: the chair itself and the backing which simply snaps together (and feels like it’s intended to not come apart after). It’s made of a slightly soft plastic which kind of reminds me of a rubber duck, but it’s heavily sculpted and features a fair amount of paint for a Hasbro product. It has an organic design mimicking flesh and sinew with veins painted onto it and other, colored, plastic parts inserted like the four skulls at the base. These skulls are also hit with some shading and there’s a fifth skull that’s actually free of the base for Mephisto to hold or to have placed by his seat. Three more skulls adorn the back with one featuring a red centipede snaking through it. There’s plenty of shading, but the real eye-catcher is the piece that makes up the back. There you will find a large, demonic, skull that should be familiar to fans of the band Danzig. This skull design has been that band’s logo since 1988 and prior to that it was the logo for the band Samhain beginning in 1984. Why is a logo associated with the works of Glenn Danzig worked into this item from Marvel Legends? Because it originally appeared on the cover for Saga of Crystar number 8 and was designed by Michael Golden. I have no idea if Marvel was ever compensated by Danzig or any of the record labels that released his albums featuring this skull, but if not this is one way for Marvel to strike back albeit many years later. As a result, it makes this set desirable to both Marvel fans and Danzig collectors and I know of several Danzig fans who bought this who otherwise would not have. The fact that the character released with it happens to be Marvel’s Satan is also not a bad pairing.

“Lucifer! We are here!” “Great, and what tribute have you brought for me?”
“I didn’t bring anything, did you?” “No…”
“Snacks! Oh horrible one!” “Idiots…”

If we can take it back to the actual toy now there’s still the matter of articulation to discuss. Mephisto presents like any old Marvel Legend and he mostly moves like one too. Hasbro went with the double ball peg head joint and like most Legends the lower ball is seated far too deep into the neck and chest. This means the range is pretty poor and he basically can’t look up at all. The figure does have butterfly joints, but the slender sculpt left little room for them to do a whole lot. The shoulders go back a decent amount, and forward just a touch. They could have carved out more room in the chest, but that probably would have looked bad. Otherwise, the arms and legs feature the usual Legends articulation. There is a boot swivel, but no forearm swivel and the gripping hands do have a vertical hinge. They unfortunately did a straight cut for the thigh swivel rather than attempt to stick it under the trunks. The torso is where the real mixed bag comes in. At the diaphragm is a ball joint that gets solid range forward and back. It does tilt, but it fights rotation. It’ll go, but the peg may be binding as it tends to want to snap back into a neutral spot. At the waist we have…nothing. The figure is designed to come apart at the waist to accommodate swapping out the loincloth, but Hasbro just made it a keyed joint. It can’t even swivel which is such a shame. This means the only crunch forward or back you can get is via the diaphragm and that’s also the only spot the figure can rotate, which it also seems to want to push back against. A ball joint would have separated pretty easily at the waist and since this is a non-retail figure I don’t know why that wasn’t possible. If internal safety standards meant not doing that for retail I could understand, but this isn’t retail. Nothing is loose and the range of the joints is pretty standard. The elbows and knees are a bit stiff, but that’s also pretty typical of a Legends figure.

“When’s it gonna be our turn?” “Never!”
He finally has what he’s long sought.

Which is what Mephisto is: he’s a standard Marvel Legends release packaged with an elaborate base. I don’t know how the costs break-out for most people here. As an action figure, nothing about Mephisto warrants more than the going rate for a Marvel Legends action figure. Maybe you bump him up to $30 or $35 since it’s new tooling that can’t be sold at retail (if we take Hasbro at their word), but that still leaves $45-50 to get to the MSRP of $80. Is that Crystar/Danzig-inspired base worth that much money? Maybe to a Danzig collector like me who’s accustomed to paying hundreds of dollars for a stupid necklace or trick-or-treat bag, but to a typical Legends collector? That’s a tough sell. I think a fairer price would be to treat the figure and base as the same value which would get you to a $60-70 MSRP. Is the extra $10 a made-to-order tax? I guess. The figure does at least sit the throne well enough and the sword slots into one of those skulls so in terms of what it set out to do it accomplished its goal. It’s also still available at Hasbro Pulse and still for the original price of $80 which stands in contrast to Dragon Man and the Sentinel which both saw a price hike. Those were also solicited pre-tariffs and the extra may simply come from that. Mephisto benefited from being solicited while those tariffs were in effect and arriving after the bulk of them had been struck down by the courts. Or it’s simply a case of Hasbro realizing it’s already asked as much as it can ask of its fanbase for this particular item and going any higher would be foolish. There have been whispers that the made-to-order model has not worked well for Hasbro financially. I haven’t seen any real reporting behind those whispers so take them with a grain of salt. They have not announced a new made-to-order item in 2026 to this point, but then again, they also had this and the X-Men ’97 Apocalypse outstanding and maybe they don’t want to add a third item until one or both deliver. With San Diego Comic Con right around the corner, that could obviously change. As it stands, if you always wanted a Mephisto for your Legends collection and either passed on or grew sick of that old Diamond Select one, then this is fine. It’s just way overpriced. If you care not for the throne then maybe you can flip it to a Danzig fan to lighten the price. And if you’re a Danzig fan who has no interest in the figure, I don’t doubt that you’ll be able to get some of your money back by selling Mephisto to a Legends collector.

The only appropriate image to go out on.

For some related entries, check these out:

Marvel Legends Marvel’s Crystar

Marvel Legends are still sold primarily at major retailers. This includes the likes of Target, Walmart, and even Best Buy which has been adding more toys to its portfolio over the years. And since they’re made by Hasbro, a company that has been selling toys to kids for generations, they still mostly operate on the…

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The Saga of Crystar – Crystal Warrior #8

There’s been a hole in my Danzig collection for quite some time. It was a hole that was easy to fill and actually quite cheap considering most Danzig records fetch well over $100 these days, but an important piece was missing. And that piece is not what one would necessarily expect, but I would assume…

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Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Sentinel

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

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

July 1, 2026

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Archangel

By Joe
“Behold my angel of death!”

On July 1st, 2026, our long wait ends. X-Men ’97 returns to Disney+ with its greatly anticipated second season a little over two years after the conclusion of the first. It’s something I have been looking forward to pretty much ever since credits rolled on the finale and the only thing that stinks about it is that it arrives when I’m on vacation. As a result, I likely won’t have any thoughts up on this blog for a little while where that debut episode is concerned, but to tide things over we do have a toy to look at and it’s of a character that figures to be featured somewhat prominently in the second season of X-Men ’97: Warren Worthington the third, also known as Archangel.

Archangel made his debut in the first season of the original series. He’s ambushed by Cable over his funding for a cure for mutation and winds up being the first victim of said cure when Mystique turns him into a slave of Apocalypse. In the process, Worthington’s feathery, angelic, wings were replaced with cold steel and his skin turned blue. He’d break free of Apocalypse’s control by the next episode, but his quest for revenge consumed him in his next appearance, “Obsession,” before a slightly milder version of the character appeared during the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc. That story was intended to be the show’s finale and at the end of it Archangel was to join the X-Men where he belonged, but a surprise order for new episodes extended the show and such plans were scuttled. During that arc, Archangel had returned to his Angel persona of blue and white, but for some reason when we meet him in X-Men ’97 he’s going to be sporting his original blue and pink Archangel look which is what this figure is based on. Will a reason be given in the show for the switch back? I don’t know. It could be whoever was in charge of the character designs just likes this look better, but I guess we’ll have to watch to find out.

Archangel is a pretty standard height for a superhero.

Archangel is considered a deluxe offering so he comes at an inflated sticker price and in a box as opposed to a blister card. The base figure is the same as the previously released Angel of a couple of years ago which is essentially just a modified version of the Vulcan sculpt. The only difference from that mold is that the torso had to be redone to exclude the butterfly joint in the shoulders in order to fit the ports for the wings. The body even still has the grooves in the forearms intended for characters with long gloves because it’s apparently too much to ask for Hasbro to just sculpt some smooth forearms. The costume is very similar to its appearance in the original series which is also quite similar to the look from the comics. It’s still blue with a pink design painted onto it and the application is pretty clean. The opacity of the pink varies as it transfers to different types of plastic which make up the body. It looks pretty damn good on the torso where the paint has a nice matte appearance. It gets a little thin on the thighs, but it’s not as noticeable as it was with the Gamerverse Venom and its white logo. The only difference between this version of the costume and the one from the 90s series that I can see is that the hands are the same color as the rest of the costume. In the older show, the sleeves ended at the wrist and Archangel’s hands were bare and matched the shade of blue of his face. He also tended to have dark, black, lines under his eyes which are not present here, but that’s probably for the best. They also decided to give him clawed hands which is an interesting choice. I would have preferred that they didn’t, but this (and the color of his hands) all appears to be part of the character design in X-Men ’97 so these aren’t critiques of the figure, but of the design.

The two wing setups available.

Archangel’s distinguishing feature is the pair of big, steel, wings on his back. For the show, Archangel’s wings are fairly simple and are represented by two somewhat triangular pieces of metal. In the comics, he could have all kinds of panels and metallic feathers and there are definitely some designs that are quite busy. This is a simplified look and it’s one I prefer. The wings clip into the figure’s back, but there’s also a joiner piece in the center they port into. The center piece basically just exists to match the look of the show, but it does provide some stability as well. There’s a hinge close to the center for flapping, but otherwise this central piece basically holds the wings in place. If you want to shift them up and down you’ll have to remove that piece, though it leaves behind something ugly. The wings are basically a light gray plastic and there’s no metallic paint applied. It would have been nice to see them fully painted to better reflect their look on television, but that’s not really how Hasbro does things. They do look fine, though I’m torn on how much I like the curve sculpted into them. Maybe something a little less severe would have looked better? If you don’t like them, Hasbro did include Archangel’s retracted wings. Resembling a tuning fork, this just plugs into the back like the standard wings and will take up far less shelf space. It’s a nice option to have, though I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist posing him with his wings out in a flying pose.

He comes with an alternate version of Cables’s gun for some reason.

The other accessories are a bit minimal. Archangel has two portraits: neutral and a teeth gritting one. Both are cowled and it’s a shame we didn’t get an un-cowled look. If Ka-Zar wasn’t so expensive I’d consider buying one and painting the face blue as I always preferred Archangel with his blonde locks showing. By default, Archangel has a trigger finger right hand and a left fist. He also comes with a set of open, clawing, hands which are okay, but I already mentioned how I’m not a fan of his new talons. I’m also irritated we don’t get a right fist, despite one appearing on the back of the box. What would that have added to the budget? A penny’s worth of plastic? If that? The trigger finger hand is unusual, but they did decide to include a gun. Cable’s gun, to be exact as it’s the same one that came with the X-Men ’97 figure. It’s the bigger of the two guns and it has a new deco. The colors are more matte where as the original used a shiny plastic Hasbro loves for metallic objects. This new deco makes it a bit more animated looking, but it’s an odd accessory to include with Archangel. I assume he wields the gun at some point in season two, but getting it over a third head option, extra fist, or some feather blade accessories kind of sucks. A flight stand would have also been nice and, honestly, should be standard issue for a deluxe figure that has big wings on its back.

It’s like they gave him two fists on the back of the box just to call attention to the fact that we’re missing one.

Archangel’s articulation is pretty standard for the line. If you have a figure on this Vulcan body (like Cyclops), then you know what to expect for the most part: hinged neck, ball-hinged shoulders, ab crunch, waist twist, bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, wrist hinge and swivel, ball-socket hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, shin swivel, ankle rocker and hinge. As stated earlier, the only change is the removal of the butterfly joint which does kind of suck for a flying character. Range otherwise is fine at all of the joints though the various swivels break-up the sculpt of the pink linework and musculature in a rather ugly fashion so they have limited utility. If you want Warren to wield the gun, the trigger hand does have a vertical hinge though the open, clawed, left hand is only so-so as as a stabilizing hand for the barrel. The wings have a hinge where they plug into the back and towards the middle so they can “flap,” and they can also wrap around to the front of the figure. As I mentioned earlier, you can take out the central mount to get swivel articulation, if that’s your preference. The joints are the usual tolerance for a Legends release with the exception of the left elbow. Mine is a touch on the loose side, but not so much that it can’t hold a pose or support the weight of the gun. I’ve never seen a loose elbow joint on a Legends release since they moved to the pin-less design so I’m thinking it’s a one-off with mine and likely not something afflicting all copies.

He should mix in fine with other characters from the animated universe.

This X-Men ’97 Archangel is not an unwelcomed addition to the collection. As a reoccurring guest character in the original series, it always made sense to do a figure of Warren. While I don’t think any of the subtle changes to his look are an improvement, it’s not far enough removed from the 90s look for me to care all that much. What I do care about are the lackluster accessories and Hasbro getting cheap on us with the hand assortment while simultaneously upping the price. They’ve been doing that more and more with releases and it’s getting pretty annoying. Most Legends figures pull from the same pool of already sculpted hands so we’re just talking about the cost of plastic in most cases which is pretty damn negligible with something as small as a hand. And at the asking price of $40 it’s not as if this is a basic release. We’re paying an extra charge just because this guy has wings which is honestly kind of ridiculous. Back in the old days, Archangel was the same price as anyone else, but Hasbro likes to take any excuse it can to raise the price which is why they recently solicited a Doc Samson figure for $35 even though he’s really not deluxe sized and only comes with one extra head and one extra set of hands. I shudder to think what the X-Men ’97 Beast is going to cost since he actually has a backpack accessory – they’re practically breaking the bank! As a result, I’m far more excited for the return of X-Men ’97 than I am for this figure of Archangel. It’s not an underwhelming release, nor does it overwhelm the synapses. It merely whelms. He’ll slot into my animated X-Men collection, though I’ll always wish he had an unmasked head or another fist.

For more X-Men ’97 and ’97 adjacent releases from Hasbro, check these out:

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Cable

Today we finish our look at wave 3 of X-Men ’97 Marvel Legends action figures and I think I saved the best for last. Cable was one of the non-members of the X-Men to play a pretty substantial role in the original animated series. He showed up in multiple episodes in both the first and…

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Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Rogue

Previously, on X-Men reviews we looked at Magneto from the upcoming series X-Men ’97. The animated series may have been delayed into 2024, but the action figures from Hasbro are already here. And if you were collecting Hasbro’s line of figures based on the animated series from the 90s, this new line offers a chance…

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Marvel Legends X-Men Retro Card Series Apocalypse

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

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by Joe

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

June 24, 2026

Jada Toys Ultra Street Fighter II Blanka (Player 2 Version)

By Joe
Player 2 has entered the game.

I have been admiring Jada Toys and their action figure line based on the video game Ultra Street Fighter II from afar. As I mentioned in my reviews of the Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3 figures, I am just a casual Street Fighter fan. I never owned Street Fighter 2, but I still managed to play it a lot because it was ubiquitous. I did own the first Street Fighter Alpha so I have more nostalgia tied into that series, but going back to the original sequel my favorite character was one that didn’t appear in Alpha: Blanka. Blanka was just cool to me. He was this monstrous creature in a roster of characters that looked far more conventional. I also wasn’t that great at the game so when I learned that he had a super move that just required me to hit one button repeatedly (his electric attack) that made me like him even more. Much of my Street Fighter 2 playtime came at the home of my nana and grandpa as my cousin would bring his Super Nintendo and a copy of the game over. Since I was one of the younger cousins, I was almost always player two which meant I would play as a blue Blanka often. That would come to be my preferred colorway for the character over his standard green (never mind that Blanka translates to white in Spanish, though he’s from Brazil where most speak Portuguese. It’s all so confusing,) and that’s true to this day. As a result, I opted to pass on the Jada figures even while they received glowing reviews from fellow collectors, but I promised myself that if Jada ever did a version of its Blanka in blue and yellow then I’d get it. Promise kept.

Different lines, but the sizing seems to work all right.

Big Bad Toy Store was given this exclusive player two variant of Blanka to sell on its store for $35. Blanka, classified as a deluxe release by Jada, does run a little more expensive than their other Street Fighter figures, but $35 is still a pretty good price in today’s market (this figure is a lot better than one we’re looking at next week which set me back $40). The packaging is big and flashy as it resembles an arcade cabinet with game artwork on the sides and photography on the back featuring the character. There’s also an expansive cross-sell featuring the character select artwork from the game which really captures how big the line is at this point. As nice as it is, I do have to say that getting into this box is a bit of a pain in the ass. There’s different layers of plastic inside and they’re held in place by those god-awful translucent tie-downs that NECA loves so much. This isn’t the sort of packaging that will easily go back together if you want to re-box the figure, though that really shouldn’t be a concern for Jada. There is a backdrop inside the box that refers to Blanka’s stage in the game, but it’s probably too small to be of much use outside of the box. Still, if you are one of those weirdos that doesn’t like to play with their toys, (I kid, I love you too) this will display nicely and there’s a window on top of the box which helps light to filter in and really show off the figure inside.

There isn’t a ton of paint on this guy, but what is there is pretty clean.

For those who do bust Blanka out of the box, they’ll find a big, blue, boy who stands at about 6.75″ to where I assume his head would end. To the top of his blazing yellow hair he’s about 7.25″. Some of that is irrelevant since Blanka, like last week’s fellow blue boy Beast, is almost always crouched to some degree when moving about in the game and I assume most will pose him as such. I don’t have any other figures from this line, but comparing him to the Storm Arena figures and he looks to be well sized. The sculpts for this line run soft compared with Storm Arena which is partly why I’ve preferred the look of their figures to what Jada was doing, but I do think this does a solid job of capturing the artwork associated with Ultra Street Fighter II. Not the sprites, but the artwork. The default portrait, for example, is definitely modeled on his portrait in the character select screen with the frowny grin that’s wider on his right side. It’s captured well and I like the cleanliness of the edges and the paint. Where the softness comes in is with the musculature. He’s ripped compared to a normal human, but not to the same degree as other figure lines. The biceps show this best as they just wrap around the base of the shoulder without really separating from them. It’s better than the Marvel Legends tiny shoulder syndrome, but I’d have liked to see more definition in that particular area.

“So, what made you blue?”

What obviously jumps out about this figure is the deco. This powder blue skin with bright yellow hair and trunks just pops. I love the blue and yellow combo, maybe it’s why I’ve always liked a lot of the X-Men costumes from the same era, and this looks great to my eye. The blue body is mostly colored plastic, but it has this tendency to eat light. It’s not shiny and it doesn’t have that “plastic” look some figures possess. There does appear to be some shading on the muscle groups in places which helps give it a nicer texture. The painted portions include the yellow patches of fur on the torso, forearms, and shins. It’s applied cleanly and the yellow is applied heavy enough to overcome the blue underneath. I have a tiny bit of chipping on the shins, but I think that’s from the bronze shackles around his ankles which are floating. I probably need to be more careful when posing his feet. The hair and trunks are molded yellow plastic with the trunks having white trim at the top and bottoms which is nicely applied. We do have some slight color mismatching though as the painted yellow is noticeably darker than the hair and trunks. The upper torso is also a stronger plastic and is a slightly different shade of blue from the arms and abs. It’s not egregious and I’ve seen worse on more expensive figures than this, but it is noticeable under certain lighting conditions. The previously mentioned shackles also appear to be painted which is probably why they have a nice metallic finish.

I think this was his fierce strike? It does draw attention to the fact that his arms probably aren’t as long as the sprite’s.

The figure looks good and my only nitpicks with it really are more stylistic than anything. If you dig the source artwork then you’ll probably dig this interpretation of Blanka. I will say, the in-hand feel of this figure is not as premium as Storm Arena. I don’t know how interested people are in hearing comparisons between the two, but since they are my only reference point for Street Fighter figures (unless you want to count the 90s Hasbro offerings) it’s a comparison that’s begging to be made. Blanka has a very similar feel to the Jada Frosty the Snowman I reviewed back in December of 2025. There’s a heft and a chunk factor, but not really that smoothness I often find with more premium offerings. Of course, he’s $35 so it’s not like we’re talking about MAFEX or Mezco here, but those Storm figures are in the same price range and come with about the same amount of stuff. Blanka feels more like a toy to me which is good in some respects as he definitely feels durable. The plastic is very hard in most places and offers little give. There’s not a smoothness to the joints and even compared to a Marvel Legends it still possesses some of that toy feel. It feels similar to a McFarlane figure, which again is not a bad thing on its own, but it’s just my impression. I’m not sure how I expected the figure to feel in-hand, but it took me a little by surprise.

Simple, but effective.

The accessories in the box are pretty typical from what I’ve see of this line. We get an alternate head, an alternate set of hands, and an effect apart from the game. The alternate head features Blanka with a yelling expression. The hair is slightly different and a bit more wild befitting the expression. It’s a good look and I honestly don’t know which I prefer. He comes with a pair of fists by default, but also has a set of clawing hands which is appropriate for the character. For an effect part, we actually get two lightning effects designed to be placed on a surface around a crouching Blanka to mimic his lightning attack from the game. They’re not the same sculpt with one being a little taller than the other, but both are done with soft, translucent, plastic that starts off yellow and finishes clear. It looks great and makes the most sense as an effect part for Blanka though if you wanted a stand in the box I wouldn’t blame you.

The lightning move was the easiest to pull-off in the game, but the head bite was my favorite.

What I was most looking forward to with this figure was just having this colorway in my hands, but not far behind that was checking out the articulation. For a company that has only been in the action figure business a short while, Jada really knows what it’s doing where articulation is concerned. They seem unafraid to take risks and I get the sense that their figures are designed by people who like handling action figures. Take the head, for instance. I haven’t even mentioned it up until now, but the plastic used for Blanka’s hair is very soft and very pliable. It’s basically in two parts: the front which frames the face, and then a center part that’s basically hollow. It looks good, but best of all, it doesn’t impede the figure’s ability to look up nor does it add substantial weight. I don’t know how this would work with something like Dragon Ball Z, but with this figure it works very well. As for joints, just get a load of this roll-out: double ball peg head, neck joint, butterfly, shoulder hinge, bicep, double elbows, wrist hinge and swivel, ball-jointed diaphrahm, ball-jointed waist, ball-socket hips, thigh swivel, double knees, shin swivel, ankle hinge and rocker. And it’s not just what is articulated, but the manner in which Jada does it. The diaphragm has great range weather it’s tilting or rotating. There’s plenty of clearance between it and the abdomen so there’s no paint rub on Blanka’s patch of stomach fur. The waist ball has a little cut-out in the front to help it rock forward that you would only know is there if you popped the figure apart. The thigh swivel is under the shorts so it’s not visible and the shin swivel is hidden by the ankle shackles. The fur on the front of the shin even starts above the cut but hangs over the joint and thus isn’t split when the joint is utilized. It’s a small attention to detail, but how often do we see Hasbro say “Screw it,” and just put a cut through some part of a figure’s sculpt? Doing so renders the joint almost unusable for many because it looks so bad, but Jada took care not to create such issues.

He can kind of do the rolling attack though finding a stand that can support him was a bit of a challenge.

That’s not to say there isn’t any room for improvement. The neck joint on mine doesn’t seem to want to do anything. I checked out some videos to see what it’s supposed to do and it looks like it should click forward and back, but mine is binding. There’s also a lot of plastic cut out of the inside of the elbow joint so it’s not the prettiest double elbow you’re likely to see. The range is great as this big-armed monster can bend past 90 degrees, but some might not like the trade-off. Apart from that though, it largely works really well. The figure, even with a semi-functional neck joint, can look up well enough to get into a crouch and it’s even capable of a decent rolling attack look. The range in the torso and hips is terrific and about the only joint that’s semi-compromised when it comes to range is the butterfly joint. I assume that was an aesthetic choice to not cut more into the pectorals and it’s one I’m personally fine with. It also means his shoulders sit where they should which preserves the silhouette. I hope Jada gave its designers a nice bonus last year and that other companies are buying these things with the intent to copy them because more companies should make figures that articulate like this.

I’d say set it and forget it, but he’s too fun to pose to leave on the shelf for too long.

That’s a lot of praise to end the last paragraph on and it’s justified praise. Everything I’ve heard about this line is captured well in this Blanka figure. The figure looks good, the construction is solid, and the articulation is fantastic. And it all comes at a pretty decent price especially considering that this is an exclusive variant. If you’re just interested in picking up a good action figure you’re unlikely to find one that’s appreciably better than this Blanka. While I prefer the aesthetic Storm Arena has settled on for its Street Fighter line, that doesn’t diminish what Jada is doing. If I was a bigger fan of Ultra Street Fighter II then I’d be more than happy to collect this line. As it stands, I may still cave and grab Vega if I ever see him in the wild and I look forward to seeing where Jada goes from here. It may only be June, but I’m pretty sure this Blanka will be part of my own personal top ten when all is said and done this year.

We have a few other Street Fighter figure reviews if you’re interested, and also more blue:

Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3 Sagat

As my collection grows, I try to be more regimented in my purchasing decisions. I have toy lines that I’m more or less all-in on and I rarely question myself with those. They have the most room budgeted in my house and in my actual budget. And then there’s the stuff I’m less invested in.…

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by Joe

Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3 Ken

One of my most anticipated releases of 2025 came out of no where. I was a kid during the early 90s and into video games so I know a thing or two about Street Fighter. Street Fighter II was everywhere and is pretty much the reason why the one-on-one fighting game became a huge genre…

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Marvel Legends Gamerverse Captain America vs Venom

We’re going to be doing a lot of 2025 catch-up here as Christmas always slows things down. Toy producers also like to push product for the holidays so I seem to always end up with a backlog at the end of the year. Especially when stores are doing generous sales and convincing me to buy…

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by Joe

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

June 17, 2026

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

By Joe
I don’t normally do this, but for once I figured why not try to emulate the box art with the pose?

Back in the old Toy Biz line, it felt like we had to wait a long while for an action figure of Beast, or The Beast as the opening title of X-Men: The Animated Series referred to him as. Perhaps that was due to the character spending the bulk of the first season out of sight and out of mind thanks to being incarcerated. And I say it was a long wait, but what is a long wait to a child? It may have been about two years, but Beast eventually arrived with flipping action and an accessory that let him hang off of a smooth surface via a suction cup. I believe I got my figure for Christmas in 1994 and it felt like a big deal as he arrived alongside Morph and nearly filled out the roster from the cartoon. All that was missing was a proper Jean (we’d have to settle for her as Phoenix) and Jubilee (who eventually received a figure in the Generation X subline) while Rogue would arrive shortly after, if memory serves (action figure producers in the 90s were quite reluctant to make women). When Hasbro returned to X-Men for its Marvel Legends line based on the show, they made sure to get to Jubilee and Jean pretty early, but never did release a Beast. For the X-Men ’97 line, once again Jean and Jubilee made it out along with Rogue, but Beast got the shaft yet again. Finally, Hasbro unveiled a ’97 version of Beast on June 8th which is set to go up for preorder in August and will presumably release at some point in 2026. And that very same week I got a shipping notification from Mondo for its take on Beast who will get us ever closer to completing the main roster from the original series.

If you stand him up as tall as he’ll go then he’ll look down on the likes of Wolverine, but I think this is about right for his posture.

Beast has the distinction of arriving before Storm despite going up for preorder after her. And in this case it was well after as Storm went up around Halloween while Beast went up in February, but for some reason the blue guy beat her out of the factory. Maybe it’s the soft goods needed for Storm’s cape? I’m not sure, but I’d be lying if I said I was disappointed for while I do look forward to getting Storm, Beast was a pretty sizable want for me (literally). He’s just a fun design and we really have never received a proper animated Beast. Even that old Toy Biz figure featured more of a comic look as Beast had his whited-out eyes while the animated version had normal, blue, human eyes. Most of the Legends versions have followed a similar pattern with perhaps the only deviation being the very first Marvel Legends Beast which, apart from the eyes, didn’t bare much resemblance to the cartoon version (not that it was aiming for that). This Beast unquestionably is and like most Mondo releases in this line it arrives first as a limited edition with a bunch of extra goodies thrown in the box. It is yet another wonderful sculpt by Alex Brewer with paint by Mara Ancheta and packaging artwork Dan Veesenmeyer. The packaging does follow the same design as Mr. Sinister with no flap on the front and a write-up by Eric and Julia Lewald on the back detailing their affection for Hank. It would seem this is the standard going forward which is honestly fine as the front flap on the old boxes revealed little since these figures ship wrapped in plastic to protect the paint.

“Eureka!”
“Let me tell you about this wonderful resource.”

Beast is a big hunk of plastic coming in it at about 11.75″ per Mondo. Since he is a character often depicted standing with a bit of a hunch, exactly how much vertical space he’ll occupy on your shelf is certainly variable. He does pack some heft though as he’s solid. He doesn’t look out of place among the other figures and I do like that Mondo appears to have a mostly no compromises approach to size and scale with these releases. He’s also very much a ’92 design. While there isn’t much separating Beast from the original series and its sequel series, there are some subtle differences most notably in the shape of the face and the linework of the body. This Beast has the wide face of the original series with tufted bits of fur along the jaw line. His stark, black, eyebrows also sit more in-line with the eye as opposed to stretching well beyond them and his hair is a bit more unrestrained. It’s also reflected in the paint job as the original series was more likely to paint the inner lines of Beast’s musculature in a rougher manner. Instead of one, curved, line it was more like several shorter lines arranged in a curve shape to create a subtle illusion of fur. The ’97 art mostly goes with an all blue body with the fur only appearing as a means of breaking the silhouette in key places, something the original series also did. For this figure, Mondo did not sculpt any fur inside the body, but painted it withing the muscles such as in the base of the pectorals and basically along all muscle groupings. It means Beast has a slightly furrier appearance in plastic than he does on celluloid, but given the scale I think it’s a necessary touch to give him a bit more depth and the paint job is subtle enough that it doesn’t detract from the source material. Instead, it feels like this is how Beast is represented in the show on episode’s with the biggest budget or in close-ups as opposed to when he’s just lost in the background.

Beast is known for being well-read.
He’s not really known for being well-dressed. This is as formal as he gets.

Apart from the paint job, this is just a really great looking take on the character. Initially, I thought the shoulders looked a little bulbous in the promotional shots, but in-hand I don’t see the same. Beast always had quite large shoulders on the show and sculpt reflects that rather accurately. My favorite X-Men character designs are the ones that bely the personality of the individual underneath. A great example is Nightcrawler, the character who looks like a demon but is actually a devout Christian. In the case of Beast, it’s a monstrous individual who is actually a scholar and medical doctor. What makes me prefer the animated design over all others rests with his face. Beast has this very gentle, human-like, visage as opposed to the more primal one he is often given by comic book artists. And for this one, Brewer really nailed the different expressions contained in this set. We get a neutral face by default that has a faint hint of a smile which feels like the perfect default Beast. There’s also an angry one, and a yelling one if you want more of a battle setup. We also get this humorous toothy grin which is the only face that might be from X-Men ’97 though it still reads as a ’92 look to me. Lastly, there’s sad Beast and this is likely pulled from his spotlight episode, “Beauty and the Beast,” though he does have moments of sadness in other episodes that it could work for. I really like that Beast is the chosen character to wear his emotions on his sleeve as he’s basically the first to cry in X-Men ’97 when things get heavy.

It’s not easy being a beast.
A Howard the Duck shirt will be a smile on even the saddest face.

Those are just the expressions available, for hands we get a solid spread that includes sets of fists and gripping hands. There’s also another set of gripping hands that are asymmetrical, a very wide or style posed right hand, a pointing right hand, and an open left hand. He also has two books, one that is open and one that is closed. The closed book contains a shoutout to showrunner Erik Lewald and writer Julia Lewald as it’s titled Lewald’s Book of Words. The open book is The Genus of Genius, a bit smug for someone like Beast. For seeing that small print, Beast has his glasses which slot over his ears well enough without the need for any ugly cut-outs. They’re just black, plastic, frames without a lens and I think it serves the prupose here. He also has his tactical backpack which has a few different accessories all pulled from the original series. There’s a set of goggles that come up and over the head as well as a little blaster that pops out. These just plug into the backpack if you wish to use them or you could have the backpack appear closed. The goggles don’t slot into anything on the face, so you basically have to position his head and the pack itself to get it to sit right. Even so, you’ll probably have a hard time getting him to look in any direction other than straight ahead with these on. Beast also has a little handheld device that served as a communicator in “The Phalanx Covenant – Part One” in conjunction with a radio inside the pack, but that would have been a little too ambitious to include the whole thing. If you don’t want him out in the field though, there’s also an included lab coat accessory which he actually comes packaged wearing. This necessitates the swapping of arms as it’s setup just like the coats that came with Logan and Cyclops. It looks nice when in place and there’s even a little pocket with optional tongue depressor on the left breast, something that showed up in both shows. Because the coat adds a little more bulk to the shoulder area, I’d say it actually casts the slightly better silhouette as a result which was also true of the Cyclops figure. Lastly, Beast also comes with his Howard the Duck shirt as seen during The Phoenix Saga episodes. Unfortunately, it’s just a lump of painted plastic meant to represent the shirt folded up and it’s not something he can actually wear. An actual soft goods one he could wear would have been the icing on the cake. Beast also has the typical Mondo display stand. Unfortunately, they didn’t deem him worthy of the flight stand which is what I’d prefer to see become the standard for the line as these doll stands are pretty poor. If you think it’s a matter of heft my counter to that would be the recently solicited Goliath from Gargoyles comes with a flight stand so if it can support him then it could likely support Beast.

Beast is ready to head out into the field.

Beast has a pretty standard array of articulation for Mondo, but to my surprise, it’s among the most well-executed. For joints, we get a double ball head, hinged shoulder pegs, bicep, single elbow, ball-jointed wrist, diaphragm, ball-jointed waist, ball socket hips with swivel, double-jointed knees, ankle hinge and rocker, and a toe hinge. The head is perhaps the most limited as his sloped posture and large head means his range is a bit subtle and it’s easy to pop the head off by mistake when posing him. The shoulders have terrific range for what they are and the elbow hinge is pretty deep so Beast has no issues bending his arm 90 degrees, be it sleeved or not. The diaphragm joint actually works and he can arch back and crunch forward a bit and the waist enhances both directions. Both spots swivel and provide for a little rock. Nothing outrageous, but better than other figures in the line. All of the joints are also firm, but smooth, out of the box so I’ve had more fun messing around with Beast than a lot of figures from Mondo. The heads and hands are pliable enough to easily swap and all of the pegs are nice and thick so there’s no durability concerns here. Still, without a neck or butterfly joint, Beast will be confined to mostly simple poses. He can’t quite get down into a three-point stance nor can he look up well enough to emulate his pose on the cover of X-Men #1. He can crouch down and I was able to do so without the aid of a stand. I probably wouldn’t trust him on a shelf without one in such a pose (and I did have him take a dive already), but it is doable.

“Open your mouth and say, ‘Ahh,'”
Like Nightcrawler, Beast can get into a crouch.

As a result, Beast is probably the most fun character to handle since Nightcrawler, with Nightcrawler being the only one that’s obviously superior to him in the articulation department. He fits in really well among his teammates and I do love the big splash of blue it adds to the shelf. Or rather I will when I find a way to fit him in. The Mondo shelf is getting extremely crowded and it only gets worse when figures are released. I’ll have to find a home for Storm as well at some point this summer and eventually there’s Jean. That’s all that’s been shown so far and with the release of Jean that essentially completes the default team from the ’92 show with the exception of Professor X. And honestly, I don’t know if I want a Professor X for this line given the likely size and cost of such a thing since he has to come with the hoverchair. I do absolutely feel that we need a Morph since he was in the first episode and is a full-time member in X-Men ’97. After that, there’s Bishop, Cable, and Archangel which would all be nice to have, but aren’t necessities for me. If Mondo thinks it can do Apocalypse justice without a massive price hike, then I’d certainly be interested in him as well. He is really the only villain I feel like I need. Juggernaut would be cool as well, but he really didn’t show up much in the original series and has yet to make an appearance in X-Men ’97.

That’s a lot of plastic.

All that is to say there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for this line, but also not. I just listed out probably a couple grand in “maybe” figures not to mention shelf real estate so I guess we may not be as close as I would like to think. With San Diego Comic Con on the horizon, I am sure we’ll see a new figure or two in this line, though it would not shock me if Mondo prioritizes Spider-Man a bit more since that line has only put out three characters so far. Then again, X-Men ’97 returns to Disney+ in just two weeks so they’ll want to strike while the iron is hot with some new reveals. For now, Beast is a clear enhancement to the collection and one of Mondo’s best. I feel like I say that a lot with new releases in the line, but Beast really does vault up to the top or near top of my personal rankings for the line. He’s definitely one to get whether you’re cherry-picking the line or looking to assemble a full squad. And best of all, this limited edition version is still available on Mondo’s website. He is not cheap coming in at $255 and Mondo charges a lot for shipping these days. He is also still listed as coming with a tariff surcharge even though they’ve been reduced dramatically. That’s probably to not enrage the customers who preordered and paid that upfront. With the limited edition of 1,500 units not selling out, it’s possible that a standard version is not inbound either and there’s no indication on the listing what is part of the limited version and what would not be in a hypothetical standard edition. I’m not sure if any of these figures are truly worth what they cost, but if any are then Beast is among them as he’s very well executed. I am certainly happy to have him in my collection.

For more Mondo X-Men figures, check out the below:

Mondo X-Men ’97 1/6 Scale Nightcrawler

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

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by Joe

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

Back in 2021, Mondo unveiled for San Diego Comic Con a sixth scale Wolverine action figure based on the X-Men animated series from the 90s. It was a presale to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the show’s premiere and product went out in 2022 closer to that actual anniversary. At the time, Mondo wasn’t…

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by Joe

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

June 10, 2026

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

By Joe
“Hi! I’m Goku!”

It was last year that Bandai and Tamashii Nations announced a selection of special releases in the S.H.Figuarts line of action figures celebrating the 40th anniversary of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball. Among those announced was a brand new version of kid Goku and Shenron from the cover of the very first volume of manga for Dragon Ball depicting Goku in a pale orange gi riding atop a rather adorable version of the mighty eternal dragon. At the time, it was a Japan-only exclusive and I patiently waited for it to show up on Premium Bandai like other 40th anniversary figures, but it never came. The figure would be added to the pop-up shop circuit, but those never came anywhere near my geographic location and I’m not about to make a five hour drive in order to secure a figure, no matter how much I might want it. Thankfully, this spring Bandai partnered with Big Bad Toy Store to make this exclusive figure available to customers unable to attend one of these events. Ordinarily, when exclusives from this line show up at BBTS it’s because the store purchased them like an actual customer from Bandai making the price for anyone buying it off of them MSRP+. For this release, it looks like BBTS was able to get a bunch of these at wholesale as the price is $100 which is certainly steep for an action figure, but as far as I know it’s the price of the figure at the pop-up shops.

Not the worst set to keep in-box, though since he wasn’t packaged riding the dragon the temptation may be too great.

Previously, the only 40th anniversary figure I had purchased was the reissue of Cooler. He’s a bit of an odd one to release for such an occasion since he didn’t even appear in the manga or anime and is instead a movie character. In this case, the occasion just seemed like an excuse for Bandai to reissue one of its more popular and well-received exclusives for those who had previously missed out and to tie him into the event they just stuck a special base in the box. With Goku, the homage to the first cover is a much more worthwhile way to celebrate such an historic occasion and should make for a wonderful display piece whether it’s kept in-box or taken out. The box is oversized and more of a cube shape than typical with a generous window showcasing the figure riding atop the dragon. It’s presented so well that it did almost pain me to remove it, but I really wanted to get my hands on this all new Goku figure so it basically had to happen. I’ve repeated many times that my favorite era of Dragon Ball is the kid Goku era. There’s a charm to it not present in the later iterations and the cast is pretty tight. The original SHF Goku figure was fine at the time i purchased it, but he’s not even remotely in-scale with other figures in the line. He’s much too big plus he doesn’t really embody the proportions of the character from either the manga or anime. In both, Goku is kind of chubby looking with an egg-shaped body with stubby little arms and legs. He’s designed to look cute, not powerful, while the figure was more stream-lined and quite tall. More than the height though, it’s just that the overall proportions don’t look right. Place him beside a Dragon Ball era Bulma and the two don’t even look like they’re from the same toy line. Roshi was a bit on the large side too so the scale there is a bit better, but overall it’s not the best representation.

We keep getting closer and closer to my ideal kid Goku.

Since then, we’ve received smaller versions of Goku, but none based on his look from Dragon Ball. There’s a Dragon Ball GT Kid Goku release as well as the Daima Mini Goku and both are quite small by comparison. This new version takes after them and likely utilizes some of the same parts. Or at least that was my thinking going in, but in the case of this figure vs the Mini Goku there’s virtually nothing shared. Even the hands and Power Pole accessory are different. I can’t attest to the GT figure since I don’t have it, but if Bandai went to the trouble of making so many new parts for this figure then it bodes well for those hoping to get a blue version or a red one. This little guy stands a tick under 3″ putting him in similar territory to the Daima figure. What’s different though is the approach to the sculpt. Daima Goku is slimmer and more like a shrunken down adult Goku. This new Goku has those rounded proportions of the manga character with tubular arms and a round tummy. His legs are a bit long for the design, but since he had to match the pose from the manga his legs needed to be a bit long. When Goku is just standing still in the manga his legs definitely “shrink” as Toriyama was able to take some liberties with the character, but for a 3D representation some adjustments are needed. The gi is orange and a more saturated shade when compared with the Daima figure, but not as red as what appears in the anime. This is in keeping with the look from that cover which also has small, slipper-like shoes and red wrist bands and trim at the end of the pants. It’s basically just a different color of his traditional blue gi and he has an off-white sash and a turquoise pouch hanging from it where his Dragon Ball is stored, a nice little attention to detail.

He’s got some cheeky little expressions.

For heads, we get two with four total expressions. The default head features Goku’s trademarked spikey hairdo with a big open mouthed expression to match the cover image. The eyes have a rounded look which is consistent with Dragon Ball and the inner mouth is just painted pink which is very similar to an expression the original Kid Goku figure came with in both appearance and execution. His other expressions feature a cocky little smirk and a mischievous side-eye grin. The side-eye expression is pretty cute, though it looks a bit off-model to me. It could also be the pink outline around the mouth that’s throwing it off for me as that’s not usually present in the art or the figures. The alternate head is an even spikier version of Goku’s hair with an open-mouth expression. It’s pretty goofy looking, but it’s a direct pull from the cover of volume 10 (and the anime’s ending credits) where Goku is just sort of floating in the air with his Power Pole across his forehead while Bulma mugs for the camera. I do enjoy this rougher looking version of Goku’s hair, but it seems the only portrait that works with it is the one that’s on it by default. That makes it very scene specific and I don’t know if I really see myself using it, even though I do like it. In addition to that, there is an assortment of hands in the box: waving, gripping, fists, peace sign, relaxed (a cupping Kamehameha-like pose), open, and a pair of gestured hands that seem specific to how Goku often placed one hand at the top of his Power Pole. There’s an alternate set of bangs for the default head that’s barely different from what’s on him to start with. I guess one is slightly askew and maybe it’s just to match the cover while the other represents how he’s typically drawn? There’s a secondary bow for his sash which is more of an action pose as well as some weapons. For one, we get the Power Pole and included sling. There’s a version for Goku to hold and a little stub to plug into the sling when the weapon is holstered. He also has a pair of tonfa which are tiny and cute. These are taken (along with the mischievous side-eyes grin) from the cover of chapter one of the manga. They’re brown with some red trim and provide for some more display options. To insert them into Goku’s gripping hands, the red banding needs to be removed from the handle first. It’s a tiny piece so don’t drop it or the carpet monster will eat.

There’s tonfa for when Goku tires of using his Power Pole. The “O” mouth head certainly makes for an interesting display.

That is, if you aren’t planning on displaying this Goku atop the dragon. The little Shenron included is a cuter depiction of the character meant to match the artwork and he’s basically a glorified display stand for Goku. Shenron is well-painted and his whiskers are the only parts that need to be attached out of the box. In addition to the head itself, they’re also the only articulation points and he’s meant to sit atop three, translucent, clouds which are atop transparent, acrylic, posts. They plug into the included base which has a 40th anniversary graphic printed onto it and Shenron affixes to these clouds via magnets, which is a nice touch. Just in front of his forelegs is a section of his spiny fin that can be removed and replaced with an acrylic seat for Goku. It’s meant to allow the small piece between his legs to get a secure enough grip on the back of the dragon for his riding pose and there’s also a slot for his tail. If you don’t want him atop the dragon, then you simply leave the fin in place. The clouds do have to be inserted by the user and in order to do so the little pegs in the base have to be popped out which can be done from the underside. There’s also an included, orange, piece of plastic that’s basically a pry bar. This is used for swapping the bow on Goku’s belt since the instructions flag it as a potential damage point, but you probably won’t need it since both bows are rather pliable. With everything assembled, Goku sits atop the dragon with relative ease. He can be posed to resemble the manga cover, or he can be doing something else. The dragon sits a little over 2″ above the base and its silhouette doesn’t extend much beyond the base so the shelf space needed for this one is surprisingly minimal. It might have been fun to get three additional posts for the clouds to sit the figures even higher above the base, but as is it displays very well.

Let’s not forget about the dragon.

For articulation, Tamashii Nations made some alterations to this one when compared with other smaller Goku figures from the past. I’m guessing some of these are similar to the Pan figure they did, but that isn’t one I actually bought. The neck is a standard double ball peg which has solid range that’s aided by a single ball at the base of the neck. The shoulders are hinged ball pegs with a butterfly joint, but not the kind that gets a whole lot of range. There’s a ball joint in the waist, and the legs affix via straight ball pegs and have suitable range out to the side and forward. The knees and elbows are single hinged and they do swivel. A 90 degree bend is possible, but no further. Interestingly, there is a visible peg on the inner knee and elbow which is something I can’t recall seeing in a Tamashii Nations release prior to this one. It’s not ghastly or anything, just something I noticed. The wrists and ankles are the most unique and the most basic as they are like the hips in that they’re just straight pegs with a ball at the end. On one hand (no pun intended), I don’t mind it since it makes swapping hands easier than having to fiddle with a tiny hinged ball joint like the Goku Mini. At the ankles though, it’s a bit limited and I don’t know why the Daima Goku can have a more traditional hinge and rocker setup and this Goku can’t. I can only assume it was an aesthetic choice more than anything as the slipper look does present better this way, but it does come at a cost. The tail also swivels on a ball peg as does the bow on the sash.

With this set you can reference multiple pieces of Toriyama’s artwork beyond just Goku riding the dragon.

The articulation is certainly functional, but is more limited than other kid versions of Goku. He can do a decent Kamehameha charging pose, but a firing one is a little less convincing. The ball joint at the waist mostly provides rotation and a little pivot without much crunch. That’s pretty much expected though given the size and shape of Goku. The original had that hinged diaphragm joint to extend and bend, but that just doesn’t really work with these rounder dimensions. This is a more scene specific figure and as far as that goes he can do it, but it’s a little less fun to play with in hand. Does that mean I actually wouldn’t want to see this repurposed for other Dragon Ball looks? I certainly would not go that far. The articulation may have limits, but the trade-off is worth it to me so if Bandai wants to come back with this figure in blue I’d probably be all over it. Especially with some more scene specific expressions. That’s where most of the charm lies in this figure for me and it’s a great base for others. Goku has plenty of looks in the series, but Bandai hasn’t done a brand new Dragon Ball figure since Launch back in 2022. It seems like a dead line, but I hope this leads to more. This body could be repurposed for Krillin and we never did get a training uniform version of him. There are numerous looks for Bulma and the main antagonists of early Dragon Ball, the Pilaf gang, have yet to be made and this body could probably work for Shu. Not to mention all of the characters that come later like Tienshinhan, Kami, Chi Chi, and Piccolo Jr. If we could only get one figure though I’d have to go to bat for Yamcha in his first appearance look. That one seemed like a given, but we’re still waiting.

A wonderful way to celebrate Dragon Ball’s 40th. Here’s to 40 more!

I’m getting ahead of myself. What’s important here is we did get a new Dragon Ball figure of Goku and it’s a special one because it celebrates one of the earliest depictions of the character. As a very specific release, this works pretty well. Sure, it’s a bit tough to perfectly nail the pose, but it definitely can get close enough. A more determined individual may even be able to get something more accurate with persistence. The Goku and dragon turned out well and it’s a pretty attractive piece for anyone’s collection. It does come at a cost, but for what’s in the box I think the value is decent. Not great, but not the worst thing in the world. If you love Dragon Ball and wanted something to celebrate this milestone then you’d be hard-pressed to do better here. There is an adult Goku on the way with his turban and tiger pelt, but I have no attachment to that particular artwork. This, on the other hand, is one I’ve always adored so it’s the best release for me. And if it leads to more Dragon Ball figures then all the better.

For plenty more Dragon Ball, take a look at these:

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

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

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Lunch

It’s no secret my preferred take on the world of Dragon Ball created by author/artist Akira Toriyama is the original one: Dragon Ball. Of course, in the manga it’s just all Dragon Ball up until the more recent Dragon Ball Super, but for anime viewers there’s Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and…

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by Joe

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June 3, 2026

INART The Dark Knight Rises Catwoman

By Joe
“The cat came back the very next day…”

Queen Studios is back with another installment of its INART The Dark Knight Rises action figures and this time we’re talking about Catwoman. Portrayed on the screen by actress Anne Hathaway, Catwoman was something of an anti-hero in the film. In a post Occupy Wall Street world, her anger and frustration with the ruling class was meant to humanize her and make her sympathetic, but when she set her sights on one Bruce Wayne she did unknowingly risk her reputation with the unseen audience watching all. Still, this was an action film based on a comic book so Catwoman did get a chance to demonstrate her ability to kick ass and rock a skin tight suit and while she didn’t have the kind of tech Batman possessed, she did have some toys of her own. The portrayal was fine, but perhaps a bit too conventional for movies. It certainly lacked the camp of Julie Newmar and proved less memorable than the Michelle Pfeiffer portrayal which makes this Catwoman feel a bit like a lesser Catwoman. The character didn’t stay with me once the credits rolled and not helping things is that The Dark Knight Rises was the weakest film in the Christopher Nolan trilogy. Not a bad film, just not as good as what came before. As a result, I’ve never felt the pull to add Catwoman to my action figure collection, but then along came INART with its take on Batman last year and now this Catwoman. The look of the figure blew me away in promotional shots and the early reviews that showed up last summer were able to sway me. Now, the figure is in-hand and I have to figure out if this was really something I needed, or if my impulse control got the better of me.

This looks pretty good to me.

Catwoman comes in a plain shipper box with a nicer black box lurking within in a style very similar to what Batman came in. The packaging is accessible without destroying it and the trays inside contain the figure and all of the accessories free from any sort of aggravating tie-downs. It’s a nice setup, though I do find it odd that Queen Studios literally puts a request (more like a demand) that you record your own unboxing in case there are any defects or damages to be found. I guess if you don’t have proof that you didn’t cause the damage or lose the part then they’re less likely to help you in the event something went wrong between the factory and your hands. I guess this would have made for an opportune time for me to pivot to video, but a bunch of toy reviewers got this thing last year so what would be the point? INART has an interesting production schedule where they send reviewers final copies of the figure just as preorders are going up for the rest of us scum. It seems weird to produce just a handful of figures upfront for the purpose of reviewing, but I guess it works for them. And if it’s costing them a lot it’s not reflected in the price compared with other premium collectibles as Catwoman is somewhere in the $65 – $75 range. She is only available overseas for folks living in North America so there will likely be a not insignificant shipping charge attached to that, but even after all is said and done I think I’m in the hole about $80 and given what Medicom and Bandai are charging these days that ain’t bad.

Goggles down.
You’ll have to trust me when I say this portrait looks better in person.

Out of the box, Catwoman stands at just a tick under 6″ in height. INART is a 1:12 scale brand and since Anne Hathaway is a real person that sent me to the Internet to see if I could get a height on her. And if said Internet can be trusted then Miss Hathaway stands at 5’8″ or 68″ tall. At 1:12 scale that would place her at about 5.67″ – but wait! Cawoman sports some rather large heels. It’s a little tricky to measure them, but I have them at about 5/16ths of an inch. Convert that to 1:12 scale and add it to the figure and we come out to 5.98″ which is almost right on the money. Impressive. She is a figure comprised mostly of black plastic, but it’s plastic with different textures and finishes like Batman. The long boots and gloves have a sheen to them like leather, while the body suit is more matte and textured like Kevlar. There is some shiny black piping along the inner shoulder and the zipper down the front with a little hit of silver on the zipper grasp itself. The end of which is coated black which is an impressive attention to detail. There are also some faint hits of silver along the pouches of her belt with some of them looking quite faded. Is this to simulate use or an imperfect paint app? In looking at stills from the movie, I don’t think these are meant to be silver, but instead supposed to just give it some gloss. The same is true of the mask over her eyes. It’s a gray or silver paint, but it seems to exist to just provide some gloss and break-up the otherwise all black look. The other paint hits are reserved for the red of her lips and the brown of her hair which leads me to the faces in the box.

Back off, rich boy!

Just like we saw with Christian Bale, the likeness here is almost so good that it’s eerie. The likeness is really all in the shape of the face as Hathaway isn’t someone with obvious creases or hallmarks on her face. It’s the size of her eyes, the shape of her lips, and the angle of the jaw and cheekbones and whoever sculpted these portraits did a fantastic job. There are two portraits in the box: one with the mask sculpted on and one without. The one with the mask has two ports on the temples for the included goggles, of which you get two. One is designed for when she doesn’t have them in use and they sit atop her head like cat ears. The other piece is for when she actually needs to wear them. They have translucent red lenses and are well sculpted. The expression for both portraits is a fairly neutral one. There may be a tiny hint of a smile, or maybe that’s my imagination. If there’s one failing with both portraits it’s that the hair is a bit flat and unconvincing. It’s obviously plastic and I don’t typically dock points from an action figure for not being able to create the illusion that it’s actually a tiny person, but so much of this figure does accomplish that for me so it sticks out a touch. It’s especially true with the unmasked portrait as her hair is just as taut as it is on the masked version, and as a result, I’ll probably never use it. Hair is tough to make look real so it’s easily forgiven. Some probably wish she had more expressions though and I do agree. Something a bit more cheeky or angry would have added some nice variety.

“What?! You’re not my Selena!”

Even though she doesn’t have a host of expressions to choose from, Catwoman is hardly lacking in the accessory department. For hands, we get six sets: relaxed, fists, a wide grip, trigger finger, pinching, and a two finger gesture. I assume these are pulled from the movie. The two finger gesture looks like a good adjusting goggles kind of hand while the wide gripping hand is probably for putting her hands on her hips (INART actually lists their intended use in the instructions which is pretty cool). The trigger finger hands are for use with her included gun which is a very small handgun cast in black plastic. The more pinching gesture is for her to hold the included smashed Batman mask. The relaxed hands can also hold it just fine and the trigger finger hands could too, but the instructions in the box specifically call out these hands as being intended for that. The wide grip can be used to cradle it as well. Also included is a swappable hair piece that has a swoosh effect to it if you want to add a dynamic element to your display. There’s also the same stand with an articulated arm that came with Batman only this one is labeled Catwoman on the underside so you don’t get them mixed up. It’s a nice stand as the base has some heft and the armature is nice and tight. The film’s logo is stamped on the front in a shiny plastic that’s cool, but also hard to read.

Catwoman’s articulation is fairly robust. There are joints at the head, hair, neck, shoulders, bicep, elbows, wrists, diaphragm, waist, hips, thighs, knees, ankles and toes. The head is a little limited in looking up because of the hair, though swapping to the swoosh hair alleviates some of this. That joint is mostly a pivot point and exists mainly to facilitate swapping the parts, but it has some utility when posing the head. The shoulders feel like they’re just on ball pegs to get a little butterfly action forward and back. There are no cuts into the torso for a full-on butterfly joint which I think was the right call for this sculpt. Since she’s fairly slight, the range is solid for such a joint. The bicep swivel is a little lower than usual as they put it at the part above her elbow where her glove meets the arm – a logical spot given the design of the suit. The same is true for the thigh swivel as that’s where her thigh-high boots meet her leg. Knees and elbows bend way past 90 degrees as both spots are double-jointed. The wrists utilize ball joints so they’ll move in any direction you need them to. The diaphragm joint has solid range forward, but is a little more limited going back. It will rotate and tilt and the waist does the same as it feels like a ball joint. The hips are these nice, big, hinges which allow Catwoman to hit splits and kick forward quite far. There is a diaper piece at the hips, but it’s quite small so it doesn’t hinder articulation much. If anything, it’s so small that you’ll risk grinding it up as the hip joint slips over it so do be mindful if you’re attempting something more extreme. The ankles do feature a hinge and rocker, though her stiletto type boots limit the ankle rocker’s range. They swivel as well. Despite the rather extreme heels, this figure is fully capable of standing without the aid of a stand. You may not get her into the most dynamic of poses without utilizing her stand, but you also don’t need it if you would rather not display her with it.

She poses well, but it’s the more casual poses that seem to work best.

The abundance of joints combined with Catwoman’s lithe frame makes her relatively easy to pose. There’s a lot of room for nuance adjustments which is great for a subject sourced from a live-action film. Splashy comic book poses are great for figures based on actual comic book characters, but are less useful for a character like Catwoman. Though given how robust the articulation is, if you wanted to do such with her then have at it. The combination of accuracy, accessories, and articulation (the three A’s of figure making) really makes this Catwoman from INART a true home run. I’m lukewarm on the character, but this figure blew me away in promotional shots and it blew me away in person. It’s almost too perfect – where do we go from here? I expect this level of detail from everyone going forward even though I’m sure to be letdown. I’m also not sure how Queen Studios is able to keep the cost on these figures down as much as they do – is that simply because they’re not paying for a North American distribution license? Maybe, though there’s still little reuse potential in a figure like this and yet that didn’t stop them from going all out. I had some nitpicks in here, but they’re just that – nitpicks. I really couldn’t be any happier with this one and she looks awesome beside my Batman. Does this mean I’m going to get Bane too? I don’t know. He’s less interesting, but they did show a Joker prototype last year (or very early this year) and that could certainly get me. If you’re interested in this one, but reside in the United States, your options are limited as far as where you can purchase this. INART can’t sell directly to folks in North America, but other non-US retailers certainly can. I got mine from Bombusbee (no affiliation or anything, just sharing where I got it) and I was content with both the price and customer service. This one may have gone up since, and I assume she will in general just like Batman did, so it’s probably best not to wait. You may not feel you need a Catwoman from The Dark Knight Rises, but you’ll probably be happy to have her should you change your mind.

For more Batman releases including the previous INART release, check these out:

INART The Dark Knight Rises Batman – Deluxe Version

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

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by Joe

The Dark Knight Rises

I mentioned in my look at Batman’s best films that I had gone into total lockdown mode for The Dark Knight Rises.  I got off of social media, stayed away from review sites, and just basically blocked the world out where Batman was concerned.  I wanted to walk into this film with an unformed opinion.…

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by Joe

Mezco One:12 Collective Batman (1989)

When it comes to the world of more high end action figure collectibles, I’ve been able to get my hands on a few. Some rather prominent companies have yet to cross my path though, and it’s not really for any reason other than they either don’t make what I like or I don’t really like…

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by Joe

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

May 27, 2026

Lone Coconut PlunderFrog Tinker Makoh

By Joe
Plunderlings are back with a frog attitude.

It’s been a little while since I got in the Lone Coconut PlunderFrog Tinker Makoh, but the dreary spring we have been having in New England made talking about a cute, frog, creature feel out of place. It certainly wasn’t my enthusiasm for the action figure that has kept me away from talking about it because this little guy is charming as hell. If you’re new to Lone Coconut, they launched their Plunderlings line a few years ago via Kickstarter and it’s lead to even more characters in a similar style. The latest is the PlunderFrog which finds a way to leverage a lot of the tools from the prior figures to create something all new. The characters are so cute and charming that it’s hard not to just buy them all, but I was able to narrow it down to the Tinker Makoh and now I’ll tell you what I think of it.

Lone Coconut always makes sure you get bang for your buck.

The PlunderFrogs comes in a package similar to the Plunderlings only without any extra bits to tab in. It’s an attractive box designed to look like a crate with the window in a giant smile reflecting the look of the character in the box. They also add a clear top so light can filter in so if you like keeping things in box this will work pretty well. Out of the box, the figure feels and looks so unique that it’s almost easy to overlook that it’s a lot of reused parts. The body is that of a Plunderling so he’s a little fella. The webbed feet come from the drench variant while the hands are just standard Plunderling hands. The unique aspect of this design is the new head as well as the very obvious four-armed setup. The upper arms are taken from the Plunderlong while the lower arms are from the Plunderling. The only difference between the two is the upper arm features a bicep swivel while the lower arms do not. The head is brand new and has a frog/tadpole look to it. It’s much rounder when compared with other characters in the line, but retains the shiny, black, eyes. The rear of the head extends into a tail making this almost look like a tadpole that somehow sprouted a body. This particular character is done in a soft purple with a leopard frog-like pattern to the limbs where they end in green with a touch of yellow in the transition. There are patches of black to break things up and the shorts and belt are also painted. It’s a simple paint application, but the cleanliness at which it’s executed works really well and it’s on par with past efforts from Lone Coconut.

The tongue accessories are pretty cool.

For accessories, Makoh comes with a mix of old and new. I’ve only dabbled in the Plunder Planet world so I’m not sure if the accessories are all reused or not, but most of them are new to me. For heads, we get three: smile, open mouth, and an angry face. Even when he’s frowning, this little guy is still cute. Swapping heads can be a little tough out of the box, but some hot water should cure that just fine. For hands, there are gripping, open, and fists and what I really like is that you get four of each so if you want four punchy hands you can do that, or if you want each arm to hold something you can do that as well. And he has plenty to hold. For weapons, Makoh comes with a pair of hand crossbows which are weapons we’ve seen before. He also has a trio of viles that all are of a unique shape with a unique stopper that is removable. They also have a translucent, colored, filling that are all molded to look like they’re sloshing around in the bottle. For stoppers, there’s a skull, mushroom, and what looks like a piece of coral. They’re pretty tiny so do your best not to lose them, but I love how toyetic these accessories are. There’s also an included hood which can fit any head and this steampunk looking mask. It can fit on any portrait, but it appears to be molded to fit the angry head and it does fit better on that one. It has this nice, bronze, finish and the goggles on it are painted teal with a little reflective lens effect that works really well. There are two little hooks included for weapon storage and one unique application. One slots onto his scarf, which is removable, and it’s intended to holster a crossbow though it could carry a potion bottle, if you wanted. The other though has a much more interesting purpose. For the open mouth head, there’s a swappable tongue. There’s just a plug piece to give him a tongue and add to the smile, but there’s another one where the tongue is extended and it’s this one that can use the other hook. It plugs into the tip and basically gives Makoh a way to hold items with his tongue which is really cool. And since the peg hole is on the back of the tongue, if you don’t want him to hold anything it won’t be an eyesore. The only real challenge is trying to decide between the masked look or the tongue out look.

He likes to party.
But don’t steal his booze. It makes him angry.

If you’ve handled a Plunderling then you know what to expect of Makoh where articulation is concerned. He has joints at the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, diaphragm, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles. The knees are double jointed and bend past 90 while the elbows are single-hinged and can only hit a 90 degree bend. As mentioned before, the upper arms do have a bicep swivel while the lower arms swivel at the elbow. The gripping hands have vertical hinges and the feet do have hinges and rockers. The diaphragm is a little tough to get much out of with the extra arms in the way. It mostly swivels, but there’s a little pivot too. The thigh swivels are just straight cuts and one thing Lone Coconut does that I wish they had rethought is they put the cut through the shorts. If they could have hidden it under them that would have been better, but it’s not bad. Some of the joints are a bit tight, but nothing is loose. I did have to heat the knees and some of the elbows, though some of that was out of an abundance of caution. This is a durable feeling figure and it’s fun to pose. It’s a little cumbersome with the mask and something in each hand, but that’s a good problem to have.

I love his cute face, but this mask is just too cool to not use.

I don’t know if I expected Lone Coconut to come back with a four-armed frog Plunderling, but I am certainly happy they did. This is a nice addition to the building Plunder Planet toy line and this little frog might be my favorite so far. I am a sucker for any figure with extra limbs, but I love the mask and the vials he comes with as they just exude so much personality in an otherwise tiny package. Those accessories are what motivated me to select Makoh, but I was sorely tempted by Koqui for his red and blue color pattern. I could always go back for more, and maybe I will. I got mine direct from Lone Coconut, but if you would like to get a PlunderFrog of your own they’re currently being carried by Big Bad Toy Store and will set you back $35 a piece. I think the price is fair for the amount of stuff in the box and the quality. This company also takes care of its customers and you never know what could be coming next (they gave everyone a free, unannounced, figure who backed the Plunderstrong and Plunderlong Kickstarter), but there’s some hints if you check out their YouTube channel which is home to some awesome stop-motion animation. I am definitely looking forward to what’s on the horizon with Lone Coconut and their Plunder Planet line of toys.

It’s a pretty fun looking group, and this isn’t even all of them!

For some more Lone Coconut, check these out:

Lone Coconut Plunderbeak Berserker Quervo

Lone Coconut is back with more characters for its line of little, pirate, monsters. It started with a Kickstarter for Plunderlings, little imp like creatures that came with weapons and armor pieces to form various factions. The line continued with new iterations including the Plunderstrong and Plunderlong and now we have Plunderbeaks. As you can…

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by Joe

Plunderlings Raider Fwush

When I first came across the Kickstarter drive for a series of action figures called Plunderlings I was almost instantly smitten. The little impish creatures reminded me of some characters I used to doodle as a kid. In my mind, they look a lot like what I used to draw, but given I was much…

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by Joe

Plunderlong Feral 8-Ball

When Lone Coconut came back last year with a new Kickstarter to build out its Plunderlings universe, I was immediately smitten with the brutish new Plunderstrong. The big, chunky, boy looked like a fun character type to pair with the diminutive Plunderlings. The Plunderlong, on the other hand, took a bit for me to get…

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by Joe

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

May 20, 2026

Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3 Sagat

By Joe

As my collection grows, I try to be more regimented in my purchasing decisions. I have toy lines that I’m more or less all-in on and I rarely question myself with those. They have the most room budgeted in my house and in my actual budget. And then there’s the stuff I’m less invested in. As a kid, I spread my wings from time to time and was lured in by a flashy commercial or maybe I just liked what someone else had and as an adult I’ve gone through similar periods when it comes to toy collecting. I try to avoid that now, but every so often a toy comes along that looks so damn good that I just give in. Sometimes I end up regretting it, and other times I do not. It can be hard to tell in the moment which I’ll truly regret as I might like the product well enough when I open it up and mess around with it, but over time I might see the space it occupies on a shelf as something better spent elsewhere. In the case of today’s post, I don’t think I’ll have such qualms in the future.

Whether you place him with other Storm Arena figures or characters from other lines, Sagat is going to have some size to him.

I liked Street Fighter well enough as a kid. Street Fighter 2 was impossible to ignore and gave rise to an explosion of one on one fighting games in the 90s. That particular game saw the player select one of eight fighters and progress through a series of opponents culminating in a battle against the big bad guy M. Bison. For me though, he was a reprieve as the one character I always seemed to struggle against most was Sagat. Sagat was the villain of the original game, the one barely anyone played, and was demoted to the penultimate fight in Street Fighter 2. Not only was he difficult to topple, he was supremely annoying as he constantly called out his attacks by name. Being an ignorant kid at the time, I didn’t know precisely how to pronounce his name and I’m almost sure I used a slur to rhyme with it that was quite in fashion in the 90s. We’ve since become better educated about such things, but the fact remains that this guy gave me more trouble than any. When Street Fighter Alpha debuted on home consoles, it came with a bit of a glow-up for the returning fighters including Sagat. When rendered for 16 bit consoles, he was a bit slender and always stood hunched forward slightly with his hands up. In Alpha, he was a hulking brute and just as much of a pain to defeat as he always was. Now, he just more looked the part. He was also quite fun to play as with a very balanced move set and terrific reach. Picking Sagat wasn’t quite like using a cheat code, but I don’t think I had an easier time to plowing through the game with any other character – Akuma included.

There’s a lot of personality in this sculpt.

When it comes to media outside the video games, Street Fighter and I don’t have much of a relationship. And yet, when Storm Collectibles unveiled its Storm Arena line of 1:12 scale action figures I felt that pull. It helped that both Ken and Ryu came in at around $25 which feels like a steal in this day and age. And with both, I was able to talk myself into adding them to the small, but growing, Marvel vs Capcom display in my home as it’s the Alpha looks of the characters that were adopted for those legendary brawlers. When Storm showed off their Sagat, my immediate reaction was, “I want that!” The problem is, he’s actually never appeared in any of those Marvel crossover titles. It’s a bit of a surprise in hindsight since he is one of the titans of the franchise, but it’s true. I guess it’s because his play style is very similar to Ryu and Ken as it is and Capcom likely wanted to highlight some different fighters. And then once the roster went beyond Street Fighter to include all of Capcom well then it made no sense to add anyone else from those games. If I were to remain disciplined in my spending habits, I would have passed on Sagat for that reason, but I just couldn’t do it. The look of the figure combined with the still pretty low price point of $30 was too much to ignore.

Suck knee, Ryu!

Sagat is a big boy compared with Ryu and Ken checking in at around 7.5″ tall. As this line is based on Street Fighter Alpha 3 his proportions reflect the bulkier version of Sagat from those games with broad shoulders, a wide chest, exaggerated muscles, and long limbs. He’s a brick and he looks damn near perfect. His neck is massive and the size of his head is slightly undersized conforming to popular artistic design when creating what are essentially super humans. I love how Storm is able to integrate a butterfly joint into the figure without lowering the shoulders to comical levels. His shoulders are big and sit above the midpoint of his pectoral muscles. When viewed from the side, there’s real mass to the chest which is something expensive brands like Tamashii Nations sometimes struggle with. Paint is a bit sparse, but this isn’t a design calling for much. He’s mostly flesh tone and the soft overlay of the chest Storm likes to utilize is perfectly matched in shade to the other, harder, plastic parts. There’s some subtle shading on the muscles that works really well and the wraps at the forearms and shins have a nice wash applied. His scars and facial details are painted well and if there is one area that’s a touch imperfect it would be the yellow stripe on the side of his trunks. The blue plastic underneath pokes through ever so slightly which is a frequent issue with yellow paint. There is a variant figure in white trunks with red stripes and I would guess that one is slightly cleaner as a result. Still, I prefer the blue look and this guy is absolutely gorgeous and everything I want out of an action figure sculpt.

It’s supposed to go on his right leg, but I can’t get the damn thing to stay.

Accessories for Sagat are a touch sparse. For heads we have a neutral portrait and one where he’s showing some gritted teeth and looking pretty pissed off. For hands, we have a set of fists and and a set of clenching hands. I love the expressiveness of the clenching hands while the fists are obviously needed. Like other figures in the line, the hands are fairly soft and flexible which makes them very easy to remove and swap. Other companies need to start doing this. For an effect part, we get a flaming, lower leg attachment to simulate Sagat’s Tiger Raid super move. It splits into two pieces and it’s designed to be fit over the lower leg and snapped together. It’s not intuitive and I’ve struggled with it. I even looked up videos on YouTube and found one by D-Amazing who does it on camera and seems to have no issues. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong. The effect looks fine, it’s translucent plastic and is a mix of red, yellow, and orange, to simulate flames, but it’s definitely not the first effect I think of with Sagat. I’d have much preferred his “Tiger” fireball, but I think that comes with the variant. He also has the same stand as the other figures with both a clear plastic insert and a black, metal, one. He’s a big boy so balancing him on this stand is not as easy as it is with Ken and Ryu. He probably would benefit from a wider base, especially when posing him for the Tiger Raid attack. The stand really can’t support him in airborne poses and, at best, it can help add a little stability with one-footed stances.

He’s got some great range in the shoulders thanks to good engineering and a soft torso overlay.

When it comes to articulation, Storm really has this thing on lockdown. I don’t know if they’re the best in the game (Jada and its own Sagat are damn fine), but they’re in the discussion. Sagat is pretty well loaded when it comes to joints: double ball peg head, neck, butterfly, shoulder ball peg, shoulder hinge, bicep, double elbows, wrist ball hinge, diaphragm ball joint, waist ball with a hinge, drop-down ball socket hips, thigh swivel, double knees, shin swivel, ankle hinge, ankle rocker, toe hinge. See anything missing? I don’t. And what’s great is there doesn’t seem to be any one joint where the engineering is lacking. You get tremendous range and nuance at the head and neck to get Sagat looking in all directions. The butterfly joint is terrific and Sagat can hit all of his most “Sagaty” poses. The aesthetics on all of the joints are great and I commend Storm for reacting to fan response of the initial product images which had the ab crunch visible on the prototype like it is with Ken and Ryu. Those figures have a gi to hide the joint behind, but Sagat did not, so they shortened it and it now sits behind the trunks. I’ve said before in other reviews that I’m not a fan of drop-down hips, but the way Storm does them works as well as can be. It’s a thick, heavy, hinge that’s not loose or flimsy and using it doesn’t create huge gaps between the thigh and hip. The one thing this figure can’t do as well as others is crunch forward. That’s not to say that it can’t, there’s just figures that can go a little further. I think this one goes plenty far enough, but I’ve seen enough people point it out that it felt like something that was worth mentioning.

The only downside is he’s so damn big that finding a good stand is tough.

Simply put, this Sagat from Storm Collectibles is hand candy. Even with him not appearing in the games, I have no problem putting this with my Marvel vs Capcom collection, but I don’t know if I want this figure to leave my desk. It is so fun to mess around with and pose which is something true of both Ken and Ryu from this line, but Sagat manages to do it even better. I love big, chunky, figures in this scale so I am predisposed to liking Sagat. He just looks so damn good in almost any pose that it’s almost not fair. This release puts other companies to shame. Look what Storm is doing for 30 bucks (BBTS has since raised the price to $35, but the point still stands) – there’s no reason other companies can’t be doing something similar. This is a marvel of engineering, sculpt, and design. My only criticism is with the effect part and the stand. The effect part just doesn’t work well. It obviously can since I linked to a very video that shows it in action, but I can’t get the damn thing to work. The stand is also too light to support the figure and suggests to me that Storm should revisit the one-size-fits-all approach it has with action figure display stands. I also would have loved a gripping hand so he could grab foes by the neck. The clenching hands can kind of pull this off, but a dedicated hand for such would have been welcomed. As I said though, these are nitpicks. For $30 you’re not going to get a better figure on the market. I’m not sure if you can even get one this good for $80. If you’re a Street Fighter collector then absolutely go out and get this one. If you’re more of a casual one like me, go out and get this one. If you don’t care one bit about Street Fighter but love good, quality, action figures, go out and get this one. It will blow you away.

For more Capcom related figures, take a look at these:

Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3 Ken

One of my most anticipated releases of 2025 came out of no where. I was a kid during the early 90s and into video games so I know a thing or two about Street Fighter. Street Fighter II was everywhere and is pretty much the reason why the one-on-one fighting game became a huge genre…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Marvel Gamerverse Cyclops

A funny thing happened in 2025 where two companies revealed they were going to be making action figures based on the hit video game series Marvel vs Capcom only for neither company to actually mention the words Marvel vs Capcom. It would seem that neither Hasbro nor Bandai wanted to compensate the Capcom portion of…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Gamerverse Captain America vs Venom

We’re going to be doing a lot of 2025 catch-up here as Christmas always slows things down. Toy producers also like to push product for the holidays so I seem to always end up with a backlog at the end of the year. Especially when stores are doing generous sales and convincing me to buy…

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by Joe

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