July 23, 2024

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Classic Rocker Leonardo

By Joe
It’s a one-turtle show today.

When I was a kid, I had parents with divergent musical tastes. Dad likes oldies from the 50s and 60s while mom was more into modern rock (then 80s). One area where their tastes overlapped was Bruce Springsteen. We had several of his records in my house and I distinctly remember that cover to Born in the USA with the butt of The Boss on proud display clad in denim with a handkerchief sticking out of the pocket. And as a kid, I tended to like whatever my parents liked though I definitely preferred my mother’s taste more so than my father’s and I liked that record. Years later, when I first laid eyes on the Classic Rocker Leonardo action figure from Playmates Toys with its black vest, handkerchief clad head, and denim pants that cover of Born in the USA immediately came to mind.

My vintage figure needs a good cleaning.

Classic Rocker Leonardo was part of the Rock ‘N Rollin’ Turtles subline of figures released by Playmates in 1991. Whenever these variants came about I pretty much always got the Leonardo and seldom the rest because I couldn’t afford to be a completist. Leonardo was the most appealing from the set because he was my favorite turtle, but also because he most fit my image of a rock star. Torn jeans, black vest, and a guitar. It ended up being one of my favorites and it’s one of the few figures that managed to survive all these years and that I still possess. He did lose all of his accessories except the one that matters: his guitar.

I miss the pattern on the bandana and the rhinestone messaging.

Because of my fondness for this iteration of Leonardo, Classic Rocker Leo has been on my want list from Super7 pretty much right from the get-go. When Wave 7 was solicited with Punker Donatello in it I was tickled because it meant Leonardo was on the table. At the same time, I was confused and a little irritated since we all were expecting Undercover Donatello to complete that set. Wave 8 followed with Space Cadet Raph and then Wave 9 was revealed to contain Slam Dunkin’ Don – what?! Was Classic Rocker Leonardo no longer on the table? What was Super7 doing going from the disguise series, to the music one, and then to the sports themed wave?

What’s better than one guitar?

Turns out, my fears were unfounded and I didn’t have to wait much longer to see Classic Rocker Leo revealed as part of Wave10. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at the tenth wave (ignoring the fact that Wave 7 still hasn’t shipped) of Super7’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates! It’s pretty crazy and I’m guessing this line has exceeded Super7’s expectations to go this deep. It’s also arrived at a bit of a crossroads as Playmates has made it a lot harder for Super7 to simply reproduce their work. These Rock N’ Rollin’ Turtles apparently skated by because there’s promotional artwork from the 90s depicting them so these designs weren’t solely confined to the toys. Or maybe Playmates has no intention of re-releasing them so they didn’t make a fuss. I don’t know, I’m just glad it’s here as it’s the only figure in the tenth wave that is based on a vintage figure. The others – Ninja Newscaster April, Casey Jones (Mirage colors), and Karai are new to the line. April did have a similar figure in the old line, but the design of this one is almost completely different. This was also the wave that was supposed to include Rat King, but the design Super7 came up with was so different from the Playmates figure that the collectors basically revolted. It was pulled, replaced with Karai, and moved to the eleventh wave where it will have a more vintage toy-inspired design.

“Boooorn in the sewers, yeah!”

Whatever the politics are behind the scenes, I’m just happy that Leo is here. Classic Rocker Leonardo arrives in the standard Super7 box only now sans a slipcover. He stands around 5.5″ and is basically in-line with the other Leonardo figures from Super7. His design is almost an exact recreation of the Playmates figure and it’s definitely a lot easier to cite the differences than what’s the same. And those differences are limited to the red bandana on top of his head which no longer has any sort of pattern on it. I’m not sure why and I do miss it, but it isn’t something that truly bothers me. The “Turtle Rocks” on the t-shirt is in a different font and the colors have been inverted. The straps on his boots are no longer painted all silver but are black straps with silver studs and the message on the back of the vest has been altered. On the original, it read “Rock N’ Roll” and it was done in silver rhinestones. Now, it says “Rock N’ Out” in a blue font. I don’t mind the change in messaging, but I do kind of miss the tackiness of the rhinestones. His belt buckle has been changed from a peace sign to a shuriken and the harmonica in his vest pocket is now all silver rather brown and silver. It’s kind of odd that this detail seems more simply painted than the original, but it’s fine.

He still has his fretboard swords. Not sure how effective they would be as weapons, but okay.

The differences are few and largely inconsequential and are likely done just to give this figure a slightly different flair than the old, even if there’s no mistaking what’s going on here. And from a sculpt and paint perspective, it’s a pretty nice figure. There’s an ample amount of paint to bring the figure to life and it’s nice to see the rip on his left thigh finally painted when compared with the vintage release. The torso feels like it’s mostly a rubbery overlay, but it’s still painted like it’s hard plastic. The vest is part of the sculpt so you can’t take it off or even look under it at all. The green flesh has a nice matte look though I don’t think it’s painted. If you get in real close you’ll fine some uneven lines in the paint here and there, but it’s nothing that will show at a normal distance. The only paint issue I have is there is a small dot of blue at the top of the right eye. Since it’s blue on white, it stands out more than I like. Overall though I’m happy with the sculpt and paint and this is a nice update over the original.

“You mean they gave you real blades?!”

Where this figure differentiates itself from the vintage the most is with the accessories. The original figure came with a guitar, two guitar fret swords, and some plastic records. This new version has a lot of the same, but different. For hands, we get a set of fists and gripping hands. The gripping hands have vertical hinges for sword and “axe” wielding while the fists have the standard horizontal ones. He also has a right hand that’s pinching a blue guitar pick, a left hand where the fingers are positioned in such a way that it looks like he’s squeezing a fret board, and a pointing gesture left hand for when he needs to point out bootleggers in the crowd.

Feel the music, Leo.

Those guitar playing hands are here to handle Leonardo’s new, double, guitar. It still has a turtle shell pattern, but with silver pickups and white plating which makes it resemble a Fender Stratocaster. There’s a soft, rubbery, strap for it that’s done in blue with silver clasps. It slots onto it just as it would a real guitar and works pretty well. The two fret boards are actually removable and feature blue, katana-like, handles so this version of Classic Rocker Leo still has his unusual swords. The connection is fairly loose, but the frets won’t fall out or anything. I think it’s done this way so as not to disturb the paintjob, which is excellent. The detail work and paint on this accessory looks great. This is one of my all-time favorite accessories I think I’ve ever received with an action figure because it looks so convincing as just a miniature version of a real thing. Some may be disappointed in the change from a more traditional guitar to a double one, but the absurdity of the double guitar (in both real life and toy) works for this line and it’s an easy way to take the old figure and turn it up to 11.

Can’t forget about the pizza!

Also included with Leonardo is a microphone stand. It’s black and gray with a hinge for the mic and blue wrappings on the stand. It doesn’t telescope and the mic is non-removable, but I suppose a guitar player doesn’t need to hold his mic. It’s at the right height and it’s a nice touch if you want your Leo to be the lead singer of his group or prepared to sing backup. There’s also the requisite slice of pizza which appears to include clams this time and Leo gets a pair of round shades. They don’t fit all that well, but they’re slightly transparent and done well enough. They may make more sense to use with Leonardo’s alternate portrait, which is just a regular Leo head, but with his eyes closed like he’s really feeling a guitar solo. It’s a good idea for a second portrait, and if you don’t want him to have closed eyes then the sunglasses hide that detail well enough. Swapping hands with this figure is also pretty easy, but getting the default head off required some heat.

If you don’t want his eyes closed you could always hide them behind the shades.

All of that fun stuff would be no good if Leonardo couldn’t even be posed with his instrument properly, but fear not, this figure should deliver well enough on the articulation front. He’s pretty typical of the line with a double-ball joint at the head, hinged shoulder pegs, biceps swivels, single-jointed elbows, and wrist hinge and swivels. I do like that Super7 hid the biceps swivel behind the rolled up part of the t-shirt so it looks good. The head joint is the same as the other turtles, which is lacking. It’s seated way too deep in the head and since there’s no joint at the base of the neck the range is pretty limited. Nothing in the torso, and the hips are the old hinged peg setup, but this time at least they’re not loose. A thigh twist follows with single-jointed knees that also swivel, hinged ankles, and an ankle rocker. Range at the knee is less than 90 degrees which is, again, typical of a Super7 turtle. The ankles are the best part and at least the elbows can hit a 90 degree bend.

He can play and that’s probably good enough for most.

Leonardo is limited, though obviously more articulated than his vintage counterpart. The range in the arms is enough that he can mime playing his guitar. He can’t really get his pick all the way down to the bottom pickups, but you could still pose him with his right arm raised or something. He can stand on one leg to imitate Angus Young and he can do jump kicks or stomp around like the guys from Iron Maiden. He can’t really be posed on his knees unfortunately and it’s too bad they didn’t take advantage of all the clothing to sneak some articulation into the torso. With a soft enough overlay they could have snuck in an ab crunch or at least a twist. Even without that stuff, the figure should be up to the task of posing, your imagination will just be limited some by it.

Looks like we’ve got a new band leader!

Classic Rocker Leonardo is not the best figure Super7 has made, but it might be my favorite. I am obviously biased because I adored the original so I was going to like this so long as it wasn’t butchered (like Sewer Samurai Leo). The figure looks great, the accessories are a ton of fun, and the new additions to the package are worthy additions indeed. This is basically what I want Super7’s line for this brand to be and I’m glad we know that at least two of the remaining three turtles from this subline are on the way. The only one unconfirmed right now is Heavy Metal Raph, but if he’s not part of Wave 13 (Rappin’ Mike is in Wave 11 while Wave 12 is dedicated to the 2003 Turtles) I’ll personally be surprised (and irritated). The four don’t exactly combine to make a cohesive band, but it’s okay and maybe Super7 will do an original design of Casey the drummer or something. Classic Rocker Leonardo should be available now or very soon from your favorite retailer where he’ll set you back $55. It’s a steep price, it always is with Super7, but at least for me it’s definitely worth it.

“Can I play too? I brought a kazoo!”

Interested in more of Super7’s TMNT offerings?

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Wingnut & Screwloose

Late in 2023, Super7 started shipping the ninth wave of its line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates! action figures. I bought none. It was a wave with no compelling characters for me as it contained Slam Dunkin’ Donatello, Scumbug, Wingnut & Screwloose, Zak the Neutrino, and a flocked Master Splinter variant. Scumbug had been…

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by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Mutagen Ooze Leonardo (now with the rest!)

If you’re into collecting action figures then you’re likely familiar with the concept of a variant. Tooling action figures, the process of cutting steel into molds in which plastic is inserted to create the figure, is the most expensive part of creating an action figure. That’s why it’s in the manufacturer’s best interest to get…

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by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Sewer Samurai Leonardo

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

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by Joe

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July 18, 2024

Marvel Legends Iron Man Retro Card Series War Machine

By Joe
War were declared.

Recently, we took a look at the Marvel Legends retro-carded Iron Man. In that review, I mentioned I was always more of a War Machine guy than an Iron Man one. As a kid, The Avengers and associated characters appeared outdated and were largely off my radar. Then War Machine was introduced and suddenly Iron Man seemed cool again. War Machine was the only figure from the 90s Iron Man toy line I would acquire. The snap-on armor of that line better suited War Machine, who was just Iron Man with a bunch of stuff affixed to him. And that stuff was mostly guns, very large guns.

Iron Man is undoubtedly the more famous of the two, but War Machine was always cooler.

War Machine feels like a post-Reagan era antihero. The name is almost grotesque for a superhero – war machine? He makes war? Does he seek it out? It’s quite silly, not that I paid it any mind as a kid because an armored guy with a bunch of guns is cool. And if you have spent any time looking at this blog then you know I’m still very much affected by things I thought were cool when I was a kid. As a result, when Hasbro released its retro-carded War Machine figure a little while back it got my attention. Not enough to get me to buy it right away (and I first encountered the figure at a comic store that wanted more than MSRP), but it was on my radar enough that I kept an eye on it. I was hoping to get it for a discount some day, but after getting Iron Man I felt like I needed this War Machine and had to settle for a discount of only a couple bucks.

Dude has guns everywhere.

War Machine comes on the same retro card as Iron Man, only the art has been swapped to change Iron Man to War Machine. This is consistent with how the Toy Biz line sold the character back in the day so I do like that Hasbro kept that tradition going, even if this is going in the trash eventually. Unlike Iron Man, this War Machine is much more closely aligned to his animated, season one, appearance of the Iron Man cartoon. He’s mostly a mix of white and black plastic with few painted details. The face is painted as are the lenses found on his head and mini gun as well as the center of the chest armor. The armor of the body is a bit more detailed than it was in the cartoon. To make it closer to 100% accurate, the panels that come across his traps should come to a point and the boots should end at the bottom of the knee pad. It’s pretty minor stuff, but the most “off” aspect are the eyes and mouth which should be red rather than black. Personally, I’m not bothered by that as I think the black looks better, but if you wanted a true representation of the character from Iron Man then it is inaccurate..

The effect parts that come with the retro card Apocalypse will fit this gun on the right forearm.

Ignoring the inaccuracy, I do like the look of this figure. It’s what drew me to it in the first place. The white and black complement each other so well and the mixture of finishes works really nice. The black parts have a satin, or matte, appearance while the white is glossy with a slight pearl quality to it. A matte finish would have probably looked nice too for the white (which is true of the face), but I like the juxtaposition. The paint on the mouth is a little messy, in particular the right side. The edge of the face is also imperfect. It’s not something to notice from the shelf, but it is apparent in-hand. As far as I can tell, nothing on this figure is reused from the Iron Man figure I looked at previously. The arms are pin-less, but the legs are not so I am assuming the legs are reused from a previous War Machine or Iron Man release for Legends. The presence of pins doesn’t bother me as they’re colored properly. The arms look fine as well as the joining elbow piece maintains the finish of the rest of the arms. There is some excess plastic on the right elbow that I’ll have to trim away. The sculpt of the character is a touch more slight than Iron Man, which is odd. I’m not really bothered by it when it comes to the upper body, but his thighs could use some beefing-up. Overall though, I find the color combo so appealing that I can overlook my otherwise minor criticisms.

He certainly does look like a machine of war.

War Machine is basically known for two things: looking like Iron Man and having big guns. This War Machine comes with two, shoulder-mounted, guns: a mini gun and a cluster rocket launcher. They snap onto pegs that are affixed to channels on the armor so they can slide back and forth and pivot. Both also come with effect parts. For the mini gun, it’s a fairly simple blast effect done on translucent orange plastic which pops on and off easily. The rocket blast effect is a bit more robust. Also done on translucent orange, it features three “trails” for three, orange, rockets to peg onto. The rockets are way too big to plausibly come out of the weapon, but I’m willing to bet that was true of the illustrated ones as well. There’s a bit of black spray at the base of the plume which is kind of odd, but doesn’t ruin the look. Aside from the guns and effects, the only other items in the box are two sets of hands: fists and open, repulsor, blasting hands. Like Iron Man, we don’t get any effects for the blasting hands and, oddly, they’re unarticulated. I’m a bit surprised we didn’t get an unmasked head, but I’d never use it so I can’t rightly complain. It’s more than we’re probably used to getting these days, so it’s fine.

The mini gun effect is simple, but effective.

The articulation for War Machine is fairly consistent with that of Iron Man. One change that is for the better is his head is on a double ball peg. It works great and the only limitation is the shape of the armor around the base of the neck prevents the figure from having much range looking up, but I’ll take it over the hinge which doesn’t work much better on Iron Man. The shoulder hinges are not impeded by the shoulder pads which move out of the way just fine and we get the standard biceps swivel, double-jointed elbows, and hinged peg for the hands (fists only). Even with the large forearm gauntlets, the elbow still bends past 90 degrees. There is a small canon on the right forearm that unfortunately does not swivel or anything so you have to use the bicep swivel to aim it. A forearm swivel would have been nice to accommodate such.

The missile blast is a bit more elaborate.

The torso features an ab crunch that’s just okay. It has better range going forward, which is preferred to having it going back, but more range would have been nice. There is a waist twist and it’s fine while the hips are affixed via ball sockets. They don’t quite go out to the side for splits, but they kick forward plenty far. There’s almost no range going back while the thigh twist and double-jointed knees work as well as expected. The ankle hinges go back all the way, but not forward very far due to the cut of the boot and the ankle rocker is fine. The articulation in general moves well with the appropriate tolerance. The knees are a touch gummy though and I don’t care for that. It’s fairly standard stuff though and the only aspect of the articulation that bums me out is the lack of forearm articulation for that gun.

Yeah, it’s pretty cool.

If you’re into Marvel Legends then you’ll probably like this War Machine. It looks quite a bit like the character from the cartoon and also works well enough as a comic book version. He has the weaponry one would expect and even some effect parts to go with them. He’s missing effect parts for his hand blasters and the gun on the forearm. And like Iron Man, a flight stand would have been really nice. We got all of that, or nearly all of that, with the Toy Biz Marvel Legends version of the character so it’s a bummer to remind one’s self of that fact. I’m sure it’s also disappointing to some to not have a James Rhodes head as well. Aside from that, the only other negative here is that this figure won’t work for your Marvel vs Capcom display. That’s through no fault of the figure though as the MvC War Machine was just a palette swap of Iron Man when Capcom found out late in the game that Iron Man was off limits for contractual reasons. If you really need that version of War Machine, Hasbro did release such a figure a little while ago so it’s out there. I’m just not interested in it.

90’s characters – assemble!

If you like this War Machine then here are some other figure reviews that will likely be of interest:

Jada Toys Mega Man

We just had 11 consecutive weeks of action figure reviews on Super7’s line of figures based on The Simpsons. Things were getting pretty negative in that sphere as that line went out with a whimper. I don’t like reviewing bad figures and it’s mostly because everything I review here I buy for my own collection.…

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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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Marvel Legends Retro Iron Man and Plasma Canon

90’s nostalgia has taken me on a ride of late. I could blame X-Men ’97, but it could just be me getting older and having more fondness for the decades that have come and gone. It’s not a bad thing, but it can be bad for the wallet. Lately, I started looking at my somewhat…

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by Joe

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July 17, 2024

Star Wars – The Acolyte

By Joe
The Acolyte (2024, Disney)

It’s fine.

Looking to read some more Star Wars reviews?

Star Wars: The Vintage Collection Boba Fett (Vintage Comic Art)

I’ve been collecting action figures in some capacity for my whole life, and it occurred to me now that I’ve never owned the Fett man. That’s Boba Fett, who is one of the most iconic characters from Star Wars and also pretty noteworthy in the world of action figures. I am not the place for…

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by Joe

Star Wars The Black Series Mandalorian Warrior (Holiday Edition)

We’re getting to Christmas coverage at The Nostalgia Spot one day early this year with this look at one of the latest in the Holiday Collection from Hasbro’s Star Wars line of action figures referred to as The Black Series. I have previously looked at a figure from the very popular streaming show The Mandalorian…

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by Joe

Star Wars: The Vintage Collection Dark Trooper

I’m back with another Star Wars action figure review! Actually, I don’t do these very often. This is only the third such review out of me because I usually don’t collect Star Wars. Sure, I think the franchise is fine and I did collect figures as a kid, but it’s not something I’m drawn to…

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by Joe

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

July 16, 2024

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Wingnut & Screwloose

By Joe
The crime fighting duo you were expecting?

Late in 2023, Super7 started shipping the ninth wave of its line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates! action figures. I bought none. It was a wave with no compelling characters for me as it contained Slam Dunkin’ Donatello, Scumbug, Wingnut & Screwloose, Zak the Neutrino, and a flocked Master Splinter variant. Scumbug had been on my list of wants from the line, but when NECA released their version of the character in its TMNT Animated line it scratched that itch since the character model was practically a 1:1 recreation of the vintage action figure. Wingnut was tempting, but Super7 wanted $75 for the figure and that was too rich for my blood. The rest I had little to no interest in. The Slam Dunkin’ Donatello even irritated me by simply existing since it was Super7 starting yet another variant line of turtles without finishing any of the ones they had already started to begin with (the disguise turtles and the music ones). Eventually, I would happen upon these figures in my travels at local comic book stores and I was really impressed with Wingnut, in particular, just not enough to meet the asking price of Super7 (or the comic book store markup on top of that) so I played the waiting game. I was okay if I never got the figure, and if it ever did get marked down then I’d be happy to pounce. That day finally came via Amazon, and while their discounted price only amounted to around 12 dollars, it was enough for me.

I no longer have the vintage version of this duo so this comparison with NECA will have to do.

The ninth wave of TMNT Ultimates! is the last to make use of the traditional slipcover style packaging, if that matters to you. Wingnut gets the green slipcover with his own, custom, manhole decal on the front and the figure is presented in a window box behind it. Thankfully, I’m an opener because my Screwloose was not secured in the plastic bubble and flopping around inside. If you only remember Wingnut from the cartoon, then you’re probably surprised to see he gets the green “Good Guy” slipcover instead of the villainous purple one. According to the lore of the original Playmates figure, Wingnut is indeed a good guy alien who has a vendetta against Krang. The character is best known as a member of Archie’s Mighty Mutanimals comic book series where Wingnut is a hero. He actually first debuted in Ralston-Purina cereal comics where he was indeed a villain and not aligned with Screwloose. His creation is credited to Ryan Brown and in basically every iteration of the character he’s a Batman parody of some kind and the design that would become the Playmates toy very much drives that point home.

Wingnut is pretty big, but in more a chunky sense like the previously released Muckman.

I don’t think anyone outside of Super7 or Viacom knows what the true constraints of this line are, but it’s nice to see that Wingnut is, more or less, a recreation of the vintage toy. Super7 has acknowledged that Playmates has expressed frustrations with the company essentially copying their figures for their Ultimates! line and Viacom has acquiesced to those concerns. As best as we know, Super7 can no longer recreate those old toys if that’s the only way they’ve existed. That’s basically a mandate from Viacom, legally it would appear Playmates doesn’t have a ton of standing, as we saw when the fans roundly rejected the Super7 Rat King concept solicited for Wave 10. Super7 was able to leverage those complaints with Viacom to get permission to more closely design their version of the character to match the vintage toy. And with the music turtles, it would seem those designs were used for some stickers and other ephemera back in the day and that’s enough to give Super7 access to those. With Wingnut, I’m not sure where this design comes from. He looked quite different in both Archie and the Ralston-Purina comic, but given he was a somewhat popular action figure it wouldn’t shock me if he showed up elsewhere. Maybe the cartoon featuring a near spot-on likeness to the figure is enough even if the toon is NECA’s domain.

When the wings don’t work you make them work.

Whatever the reason, I’m happy to see this approach to Wingnut taken by Super7. I think fans want to see a lot of those Playmates features incorporated into the same characters released in this line, just bigger, more detailed, and more painted. Like most of the old toys, I no longer have my original Wingnut. I suppose I could have purchased the somewhat recent reissue, but those can’t be trusted as Playmates often omits accessories and skimps on paint. From what I remember, this figure embodies a lot of the same features. He has his tongue sticking out, the belly of the shirt is ripped open, his tiny wings are incorporated into the mechanical features, and he has a gaudy, bat-head, belt buckle. The costume is clearly inspired by the classic Batman costume with a gray body suit and blue cowl, gloves, and boots. He’s only different in that he has some armored bits on his shoulders, biceps, and thighs. His fingers and toes are also exposed and then, of course, there’s the wings.

“You better have a good lawyer.”

The base figure isn’t changed much from the Playmates release save for the addition of the cape. That was basically the one missing ingredient from the Batman parody, but perhaps no one felt the cape was necessary back then because he had actual wings. Super7 included a blue cape with “W” logo buckles that connects to the shoulder pads. It’s tattered and torn to match with the aesthetic of the figure as a whole and it is a really nice addition. It provides for display options as you can include it with or without the wings and really lean hard into the Batman parody. There’s also a secondary portrait that’s also more Batman inspired as it features a closed mouth and whited-out eyes rimmed with black paint. It’s a good look for the character and it’s reminiscent of the actual turtle releases in this line which featured vintage-inspired heads as well as new interpretations that work just as well. Options are certainly nice to have, especially at this price point.

Wingnut will look pretty big mixed in with the turtles.

Super7 charges a premium for this figure likely because of its size and paint. In terms of height, Wingnut is around 7″ to the top of his head and around 7.75″ to the tips of his ears. He’s one of those characters that’s always hunched over though so he’s taller than the figure stands. He’s also long-limbed and the wings add considerable depth and width to the display giving him a rather imposing presence on the shelf even beside other larger figures. He’s most similar to Muckman as they both have poor posture, but also feature a ton of paint. There’s a nice Kevlar-like texture to a lot of the armored portions of the costume and all of the straps and panels are well painted. The facial details are also clean and there’s a nice gloss applied to the exposed gums and tongue of the default portrait. The tiny, atrophied, wings are painted brown with a black wash over them to distinguish them from the metallic, armored, portions. The “W” logo in the chest is a painted feature too where as the vintage figure came with stickers. The only disappointing aspect of the paint concerns the belt. Super7 has a bad habit of only partially painting certain features of its toys. Some of the gear that’s part of the belt’s sculpt (dynamite, walkie-talkie, flashlight) have been painted and painted very well and look great. Other items, basically most of the stuff on the rear of the belt, were left bare plastic. They come so close to giving us what we want, but then step back from the edge.

Those details at least aren’t enough to ruin what is otherwise a terrific displaying action figure. And it’s certainly true that Super7 leans more into that display than it does articulation. Wingnut is pretty basic for a modern action figure in that regard and his somewhat unusual shape won’t lend itself well to posing. We do get a ball-jointed neck with a double-ball peg for the heads. This lets him swing his head left and right pretty well with some up and down and then the head joint provides for even more range. I don’t think it works as well as it does with Muckman, the ball joint is situated a little too deep in the neck and is prone to popping off, but it’s solid. The shoulder hinges provide surprisingly good range given the shoulder pads and the single-jointed elbows will provide swivel and a 90 degree bend. There is a ball joint at the waist which allows for a little tilt in all directions and plenty of swivel, but it’s in the legs where sacrifices are made. The Super7 standard hinged-peg hips go out to the side plenty far, but are very limited going forward and back. Because his neutral pose features bended knees, there’s little play there as well. Basically, he can crouch or go into a deeper crouch. The ankles hinge forward, but going back they’ll bump up against the dewclaws. The ankle rocker works fine as do the thigh and knee swivels but this is a figure that’s designed to basically have its legs in only one pose only allowing for minor adjustments. He also has a tail which is on a ball peg that mostly rotates. The wings are on hinged pegs so they move up and down as well as in and out some. The cape is also wired and can be posed fairly well.

Does a winged guy really need a grappling hook?

I don’t think anyone will be surprised by the articulation of Wingnut. He’s not exactly a joy to pose, but it’s also not hard to find a pose that looks good. The various spikes and such can make it a painful exercise though and there is a fiddly nature to the figure. The wings pop off rather easily and can become cumbersome when trying to find a good pose. The inner wing on my figure’s right wing is also prone to popping off the peg it’s on which is really annoying. You can essentially remove the armored parts of the wings if you want to as it’s just that peg and a plastic clasp that holds them on. I’ll never do that though so I’m tempted to glue the inner wing to the armor instead. The cape also pops off way too easily as it just pegs through some clasps on the armor. It’s not a tight fit at all and the cape basically just rests in those ports. The head also comes off too easily when trying to pose it. At the same time, at least nothing is getting stressed and looks like it will break. Most of the joints are tight without being overly so. The only exception are those damn Super7 hips. I wouldn’t call Wingnut loose there, but he’s looser than I’d like. He stands fine though and I credit that to his massive feet.

He’s got a few toys and can store most of them on his person too.

Where this figure improves upon Muckman (and is perhaps where it tries to justify its value) is with its accessories. I already mentioned the two portraits, the optional wings and cape, but he also has weapons and some additional hands. For said hands we get a set of fists, open hands, a trigger finger right hand, and a pointing/gripping left hand. The two gripping hands feature vertical wrist hinges which is certainly appreciated. The trigger right hand works well with Wingnut’s gas gun. If you’re going to be a Batman knock-off, then you need a means of firing a grappling hook (even if you’re a character with wings). The gun itself looks like a stylized revolver with a W logo on one side and a bat head over the muzzle. Wingnut holds it well, or it can be pegged onto one of his wings. There’s an included grappling hook which slots into the muzzle, but no included rope or blast effect to capture it in a mid-firing pose. It’s done up all in a nice, metallic, silver. Wingnut also has his own “Batarang” which looks like an actual bat. As a kid, I never knew if this was supposed to be a metallic weapon or just a dead bat he throws at people. Super7 chromed it up so it’s clearly a weapon as opposed to something morbid. The pointing or trigger hand work okay to hold this one or you can wedge it between the fingers of the open hands. Sadly, there’s no way to peg it to the wings or utility belt. I guess you could stuff it in-between the belt and figure, but it’s pretty big and looks a bit silly.

Also included are more vintage-inspired accessories. There are four grenades that are all silver like the other weapons. Wingnut can palm them or store them on either his belt or wings. The canisters feature peg holes and there’s one peg on each wing. He also has two open loops on his belt for storage. I’m left wishing he just had four loops, but it’s all right. Lastly, he has his trusty radar dish. Does his own inner radar not work very well? It’s silver and looks almost like a repurposed colander. There is a bit of red paint on the tip. It has a long post, or handle, which Wingnut can’t hold very well. Both wings feature shallow holes though and they can accommodate this dish to a point. It will stay, but the slightest breeze will knock it out. I wish they gave us one wing hole that just went all the way through for a more secure attachment as it certainly feels like this is an item meant to go on his wings.

And who could forget dear mosquito boy?

Of course, we can’t end this review without talking about the other figure in the box – Wingnut’s trusty sidekick Screwloose! I think Wingnut was the first figure in the original line that I got that came with a little buddy character. Lots of figures would follow with the little guys always being a slug figure that was one color. Now, through the magic of Super7, we get to see Screwloose all painted up. Which is to say he looks a lot like his cartoon version, only with one obvious distinction. First of all, Screwloose stands a shade under 4″ and like his vintage counterpart he’s molded in yellow. His tank top has been painted orange and his pants green while his shoes are black. It’s, more or less, a Robin color scheme which is driven home by the inclusion of a black domino mask. I wish I had my old figure as I can’t remember if that had a sculpted mask or not on it. I want to say it did and it was something I noticed after I had owned the figure a long time making it a sort of “Eureka!” moment where it finally clicked that he was a Robin parody. The painted details are done well, including the eyes, teeth, and tongue. I think the exposed limbs could have used a wash or something to liven them up, but he looks fine.

Where Screwloose isn’t much of an improvement over the old one is with the articulation. He has some, so by default it’s better, but I think Super7 could have done a little better considering this guy is presumably part of the reason why this figure costs 20 dollars more than most. The head is likely on a big, ball, socket, but it can only rotate a little. Each of the four arms are on hinged pegs which move okay while the tail just swivels. The wings, done with transparent plastic, attach to ball sockets and really only swivel. Try to move them out from the body any and they’re likely to just pop off. There’s no articulation in the body of the figure itself, including the legs. His legs are preposed like the vintage figure and he can at least stand fine, but that’s it. He can’t do any flying poses and since the wrists aren’t articulated you can’t swap hands. This is annoying because his lower, right, arm is in a pointing gesture and I’d love to move that hand to the upper arm. I suppose I could try to pull the arms out at the shoulder socket, but I also don’t want to break it. As an accessory, Screwloose is fine. As a figure, he’s rather poor. If he could at least get into a flying pose I’d have been more than content.

This franchise loves Batman parodies.

In terms of visual quality, Wingnut and Screwloose are among Super7’s best. The paint is exceptional and they nailed the look of both characters. There’s a lot of the vintage toy here and a lot of it has been improved upon through both the sculpt and paint. There’s also a little new and what’s been added is just as good and gives the figure multiple display options. Really, the only true downside with this figure is the price. Asking $75 is just too much, especially with the hit or miss approach Super7 has had of late across its lines. Super7’s business model is heavily dependent on preorders, but they haven’t earned that level of trust to commit to pay sight unseen. If money isn’t a deterrent, then I think you’ll like this figure. There’s very little not to like. If the price is a turn-off, then maybe do what I did and wait for a sale. This wave is already seeing some discounting (especially Scumbug who was down in the 30’s off an inflated MSRP of $65) so keep your eyes peeled. I think if you can get this down closer to the standard price of the line then it’s definitely worth it. I feel fine paying around $62 for it and I’m happy to have it as I liked the vintage toy. Hopefully Super7 is able to continue making vintage-inspired figures because it would be a shame if this guy represents an end of an era for the line.

If you want to check out more Ultimates! or TMNT stuff there’s certainly plenty of that around here:

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Muckman & Joe Eyeball

Gross. That’s the word I hear all of the time associated with the vintage Playmates Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures. Back then, articulation was kept pretty simple and this allowed studios like Varner to go nuts with sculpting. They could include all kinds of details in their figures. Sure, much of it…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Cartoon Wingnut & Screwloose

For most fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the 1980s, you reside in two camps when it comes to how certain characters are remembered: either from the cartoon/comics, or from the Playmates toy line. For Wingnut and Screwloose, I suspect most associate them with the action figure, but there are those who think…

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by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Slash

It’s been over 9 months since I last reviewed a figure from Super7’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. That figure was Muckman, and I actually waited on that one a little while because I ordered through Big Bad Toy Store and wanted my pile of loot to fill up a bit. Had…

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by Joe

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July 11, 2024

Marvel Legends Retro Iron Man and Plasma Canon

By Joe
The 90s are here to punch you in the face.

90’s nostalgia has taken me on a ride of late. I could blame X-Men ’97, but it could just be me getting older and having more fondness for the decades that have come and gone. It’s not a bad thing, but it can be bad for the wallet. Lately, I started looking at my somewhat tidy Marvel shelf and the figures from X-Men and Spider-Man which all refer back to their 90s animated counterparts and I felt like I had a hole. And that hole’s name is Iron Man.

This portrait is the only aspect of the figure that is dedicated to recreating the 90s animated series look.

X-Men was my jam when it aired on Fox Kids and Spider-Man was firmly situated in second place. On another channel though was Iron Man. It never sunk its claws into me like the other two shows, but I watched a fair amount of it. I can’t recall a single plot and only remember characters, but I liked it enough to find the accompanying toy line enticing. I never did go deep on it though. While the show was called Iron Man, my favorite character was War Machine. War Machine felt like a more 90s appropriate Iron Man. The name is inelegant and a bit stupid, but kids loved an armored dude covered in guns. I allowed myself to get his action figure and it would be the only figure I would get from that toy line. And he was cool, I just never felt like I needed any other characters.

Well, okay, mullet Tony is also pretty much lifted from the cartoon as well.

Despite that, I do love me some 90s Iron Man. The aesthetic, that is. The modular suit works for me even if it’s kind of stupid. He definitely does not look like a guy in an iron suit. He looks like any other superhero, but with some iron plating in places. No matter, I like what I like and what I like is this look for Iron Man. I did get the Toy Biz Marvel Legends version that came in a two-pack with The Mandarin and it was probably one of my last Toy Biz Legends. I’ve resisted the urge where modern figures are concerned, but obviously I decided to give in.

This guy is definitely more at home in a Marvel vs Capcom display.

In 2022 Hasbro released a retro Iron Man that’s at least an approximation of the animated series look. It’s at least the closest version they’ve felt inclined to release, though it’s mostly a repaint of a more comic accurate modular Iron Man. It’s also less an animated Iron Man and more a Marvel Super Heroes or Marvel vs Capcom 2 version of the character and if that wasn’t obvious by looking at the figure the big gun certainly drives the point home. Like X-Men and Spider-Man, Hasbro has found success releasing Iron Man figures on retro cards that harken back to the 90s. This guy is released on such a card, but also in an oversized box similar to the Pulse Con animated Venom from a few years ago. Only in this case, the box just repeats the art of the retro card with a fake window rather than go with original artwork. Inside the box is the figure on said retro cardback as well as another box for his big, freakin’, gun.

One thing I don’t like about the sculpt is this red hinge.

This Iron Man stands a tick over 6.5″ to the top of his dome. He’s a very glossy yellow and red with almost every part of the figure being colored plastic. It’s an aesthetic that I think works for both the animated series and the video game sprites this deco is based off of. As far as animated Iron Man goes, there’s actually not much to tie it back to that source aside from the default head. It has the full yellow facemask with some yellow piping on top that is consistent for the look of the show’s first season. It’s also really large which is a Marvel Legends trend that has cropped up over the past few years. Comic book characters, if anything, tend to have smaller heads than a real person would since it helps make their usually impressive physiques look even more so. Hasbro apparently sees things differently and whatever they use for their proportions likely wouldn’t agree with an actual Marvel artist.

He has hands for the repulsor blasts, but no blast effects for them.

Aside from that head though, most of this figure matches up with the video game Iron Man. The knock-off Superman logo on the chest is from the game and that’s the clearest tie there. The shoulders should be bigger and scalloped really for both, but the smooth appearance of the figure is certainly closer to that of the video game. The only aspect of the figure that doesn’t really tie back to anything is the angled cut of the “pants.” Some of the artwork from the cutscenes in Marvel Super Heroes makes it look like that angle may be present. Some of those scenes also include the yellow piping on the head so consistency isn’t really its strong point. All that is to say that if you want a true, animated, Iron Man then this is suboptimal. In that, it’s similar to a lot of the animated figures Hasbro has released over the years as rarely are they 100% accurate to the source. If this guy is going on your Marvel vs Capcom shelf though, then it’s pretty damn close if you’re looking to match his first appearance in that franchise. He’s definitely not as beefy as that character sprite. This is very much a Marvel Legends Iron Man with a video game deco and accessories.

It’s light on the Capcom, and that’s the wrong War Machine, but it’s a decent start to an MvC display.

And if you’re screaming at me “Wait! What about the head?” then don’t worry, I’m getting to it. Hasbro included a second head that omits the yellow piping and features a faceshield that matches the shape of the one featured in the game. It basically ends just below the mouth so Iron Man as a red chin. It’s a repaint of the head from the original release of this body and it looks fine. Actually, it looks better than the new head as it doesn’t seem to be as out of scale. Pop this on your figure and you get the true Marvel vs Capcom 2 Iron Man. It’s also the same style of helmet the character wore during his appearance on the Spider-Man cartoon, though the rest of the body was pretty different. We also get a Tony Stark head featuring his mullet hairdo from the cartoon. It’s…fine? He looks like Charles Bronson to me and it too is oversized, but if mullet Tony is your jam then here you go.

Did I mention this figure comes with a very big gun?

The other accessories in the box are hands and effect parts. For hands, we get fists, open, and gripping. The open hands feature pegholes for blast effects, but none are included. They at least painted the rim of the ports yellow so it looks okay. On the gripping hands, the blast holes are filled and painted over. Even though Iron Man doesn’t have blast effects for his traditional, blasting, pose he does have some effect parts. The first is a burst effect that plugs into his chest opening. In the video game he can fire a beam from this spot so I guess this is like a charging effect before that beam emits. The other effect part is for his fist to plug into for his victory pose from Marvel vs Capcom 2. It’s molded for his right fist, but you can squeeze the left one in there if you prefer. Both effects are molded in blue, translucent, plastic with white shading. The burst effect looks pretty nice, while the victory pose effect has the white applied too heavily. It looks more like a sea creature or something and some of the “spikes” are bent and warped.

Iron Man: “To me, proton canon!”

Now, that obviously isn’t everything included with this guy. Oh no, we still need to talk about that gigantic gun of his. The box labels it a “plasma cannon,” but all who have played the video games from where this came know it as the proton canon. It’s Iron Man’s big attack as this giant gun comes out of no where and sends a massive beam across the screen. Hasbro definitely wanted to get the size of this thing right as it’s about 6.5″ long making it roughly the same size as Iron Man himself. It’s around 3″ wide from the widest parts. Since no 6.5″ action figure would stand a chance at holding this thing, Hasbro included a 3″ clear, plastic, stand for it to plug into so that Iron Man can basically fake holding it on his shoulder.

Mega Man: “Oh no! After he hits me with that there won’t be anything left for Dr. Light to repair!”

The canon itself is mostly gray plastic, but with darker gray paint applied in parts. There’s a hit of metallic pink on the front and a few places where red is applied for lights or buttons. The one thing not painted that should have been is the targeting reticle that Iron Man looks through. There’s a sculpted bull’s eye on it, but it’s unpainted. It’s probably mostly a hollow piece, but there is some heft to it. The stand plugs in without effort and works as intended. It’s not particularly challenging getting Iron Man into the proper position to look like he’s firing the weapon and the gripping hands are able to grasp it securely.

Mega Man: “Heh, heh…”

Hasbro also included yet another effect part in the form of a blast effect for this gun. If you’ve played the games this thing comes from, then you know it unleashes a devastating beam effect not unlike something one would see out of an anime character. The blast effect Hasbro included is…less than adequate. They included a blue version of the same effect they included for the retro card Apcalypse’s gun. You know, that gun that’s probably a fifth of the size as this one? This dinky little blue thing looks ridiculous when plugged into the center of the gun. There are peg holes all around the center and if this thing was meant to go in one of them (and there were more of the effects) it might look passable, but as-is it looks stupid. And what sucks is the diameter of the peg on the effect means it’s too big to be used with Iron Man’s hands and feet. I wouldn’t have expected Hasbro to include a gigantic beam here, but how about a charging effect? Or just a half sphere or something? I can’t see anyone displaying this canon with this blast effect. You know that popular Bart Simpson meme with the “At Least You Tried” cake? I’m not even willing to give Hasbro that much credit here.

Iron Man: “Sigh….damnit…”

We should probably talk about the articulation on the actual figure before we wrap this one up. Iron Man articulates like most Marvel Legends figures save for the lack of a butterfly joint. The arms and legs are pinless and the torso uses the old style of ab crunch that’s just a big hinge. I do like that the yellow panels on the sides of his thighs come over the thigh cut so the whole piece rotates with the joint when usually Hasbro would just cut right through it. The waist twist is just a standard twist so it gets ugly real fast when you rotate more than one click. Which is a bit of an issue all around with this guy. Very little would be described as smooth as the shoulders, elbows, knees, ab crunch, and waist almost feel ratcheted. The shoulders especially feel like they’re fighting back when moved which is a touch unsettling. I also don’t like how Hasbro did the shoulders as the red caps are cut into for the shoulder hinge. It looks fine on top as the hinge is red, but that also means the underside is red so anytime his arms are lifted it looks goofy. They could have simply pegged the red parts in to avoid this. I’d consider a big red hinge in the armpit uglier than yellow and red pegs in the arms and legs, but I guess Hasbro disagrees.

Animated friends unite to take on evil!

Retro Iron Man is a flawed Marvel Legends release as most are, but not one that is critically flawed or anything. I think most Legends collectors will likely be satisfied with this take on Iron Man. I personally wish the shoulders were done differently and that the heads were more proportional. I also would have scrapped the fist accessory for some repulsor blast effects, or better yet, a better effect for the proton canon. The effect included for that is laughably bad to the point where it would have almost been better to not include one at all. Yeah, we would have complained about the lack of one and would have been justified in doing so, but that would somehow feel less insulting.

He’s not without his flaws, but I’ll allow him to end this with a victory pose.

If you are a fan of the 2D fighting games from the 90s and want an Iron Man for such a display, this gets the job done. I don’t know if there are any third party beam effects that would pair well with this one, but I’m almost tempted to try and tack-on the fist effect to the end. Even a piece of paper with the beam printed on it would look better than the included one if positioned right. The only other drawback to this release is the price tag of $40. A repainted Iron Man with a big gun warrants a $15 mark-up over the standard Marvel Legends figure? Eh, that’s a hard sell, which is why it took me so long to take the plunge (thank you Amazon gift card) as I don’t know if it’s really worth it. If it had a worthwhile blast effect then sure, but you’re going to need to dedicate additional blast effects you may have laying around or dedicate time and/or money into coming up with something better to really make this guy be all that he can be and that sucks. If you do want him though, Amazon still has this one for MSRP. Maybe the patient will score it on clearance at some point too.

For someone who isn’t a Marvel Legends collector, I sure have reviewed quite a few at this point:

Marvel Legends X-Men Retro Card Series Apocalypse

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

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Spider-Man ’94 Spider-Man vs Carnage

Last year, Hasbro celebrated the 30th anniversary of X-Men, the animated series that premiered on Halloween 1992 and would become a ratings hit shortly thereafter for the Fox Kids Network. It was responsible for getting a lot of kids into the X-Men and Marvel comics in general and the first, prime, benefactor of that rise…

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by Joe

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July 8, 2024

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Vegeta 24,000 Power Level

By Joe
Way over 9,000

When a toy line is as long in the tooth as Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z line, producers tend to start looking in all of the various crevices of the property for new material. We recently looked at a figure that did just that in Mecha Frieza, a version of the chief villain of the series that appears briefly in the series and gets summarily dispatched with relative ease. Today’s figure appeared in more episodes of the show, but is still a fairly nuanced look at a popular character.

Assemble The Vegeta Squad!

Depending on who you ask, Vegeta is either the most popular character from Dragon Ball Z or just one of them. Everyone likes the bad boy and Vegeta fits the bill as he started off as a brutal antagonist of Goku before becoming more like a rival with a conscience. When Vegeta first showed up, he was a little guy with outrageous hair and big shoulder pads. He also sported a tail and what was basically a skirt of armor. Following his defeat by the Earthlings, Vegeta winds up on Planet Namek in search of the Dragon Balls so he can have his wish for eternal life granted. And when he showed up on that planet, he was basically in the same attire as he featured on Earth minus the tail and also minus the skirt. And that’s what we have here in Vegeta 24,000 Power Level, the latest delivery from Premium Bandai.

He’s a little guy.

First of all, before we get into the figure do we really think this Vegeta needed to be a Premium Bandai release? Vegeta is immensely popular and this version has never seen release before. The Scouter Vegeta is old at this point and it’s the most similar to this release. I think this should have been a general release. There’s enough new stuff here that I get why it wasn’t one of the $35 Target releases, but if the recent Super Saiyan Gohan (Cell Saga) can be a general release then surely this could have been as well. It being released as part of the web store means it was $65 and required a shipping charge of $10.

I’m not sure how I feel about the off-white armor, but at least the hands will match to past releases.

That out of the way, let’s talk about the figure. This Vegeta is mostly new and it takes some old problems and attempts to rectify them. In some ways, Bandai and Tamashii Nations are successful, but in others not so much. Let’s start with the good and it’s that this Vegeta is short. To the top of the exposed flesh of his famous widow’s peak, Vegeta is just a tick over 5″. To the tip of the hair he’s more like 6.25″, but either way it’s shorter than Goku and noticeably so and that’s the way I like my Vegeta. When he became a good guy he basically had height creep as the show and manga went on. He never got as tall as Goku, but he definitely got much closer. And since he is shorter in stature it means he’s mostly new parts. The engineering is the same, but the muscle definition when compared to the Super Saiyan Vegeta release is a touch softer which is a nice detail. It’s very true to the look of the series at this point as this is before the characters became more defined and Toriyama incorporated more straight lines into his art.

You may opt to use this hand with other Vegeta figures.

And speaking of, the thing that will likely stand out most are the included portraits. Bandai took care to make sure Vegeta’s facial features reflect the artwork of this era, something I don’t think the old Scouter Vegeta attempted. It’s ultimately a subtle thing, but likely anyone who has spent a lot of time with DBZ can spot a face from this era vs a later one. The lines around the eyes are rounded off and the chin is less angular. He has more pronounced cheeks and overall the faces look terrific. The rest of the body is true to the show with the broad chest, yellow shoulder pads, and all-white boots. As is often the case with this line, paint is minimal. The white portions are more off-white and it almost looks like there’s a wash, but I don’t see any difference between the exterior whites and the interior so I’m guessing there’s nothing here. The yellow paint for the armor looks fine and the faces look great, but more shading would have helped.

“How is his power level so high?!”

One thing that has plagued characters from this era of the show when making the move to plastic has been these damn shoulder pads. Bandai’s solution over the years has been to make them hinged which allows access to the full range of shoulder articulation, but the trade-off is the shoulder pads look bad when the arms aren’t in a neutral spot. For this figure, Bandai opted to ditch the center hinge and instead use a hinge and peg system located at the base of the rear of the shoulder pad. This allows the shoulder pad to rotate back in addition to hinge up. It’s better, I suppose, but still not ideal and the most annoying aspect of the figure is that the shoulder pads just won’t sit flush against the chest no matter what position the arms are in. It’s worse on the figure’s right side, but it drives me nuts. I don’t like the old hinges, but they at least didn’t have this problem. Really, we should have multiple shoulder pads that peg in so we have a neutral one and one for when the arms are raised. They did this with Jeice of the Ginyu Force, but I don’t know why they’ve never done it again.

“This time, Kakarot, I shall be the victor!”

The accessory loadout with this Vegeta isn’t great, but it’s not terrible either. We get four different portraits: neutral, smirk, teeth-showing, and really angry. The really angry expression is nicely stretched and looks really expressive. It’s very much of the era. For hands, we get fists, clenching, splayed open, and chop with the thumb in front, otherwise known as Big Bang Attack posed hands. Even though this era of the character didn’t feature that move, he still held his hand up in such a pose to fire energy blasts. And since the Super Saiyan Vegeta and Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta lacked this hand, it’s nice to get it here and the whites match well enough. We also get a scouter and a left ear for when he’s not wearing the scouter. It looks great, though going without means there will be a seem in front of the ear. It doesn’t really bother me, but I also plan to always go with the scouter anyway.

With the arms sitting high, you will need to rotate the shoulder pads back which also exposes gaps between the shoulders and body.

Lastly, we get a new crossed-arms piece. Previous figures have had this feature and it’s always been done as one piece that connects at the bicep swivel. With this figure, Bandai made the piece the entire arms so they plug into the shoulder, ball, joint. It’s a little harder to work with, and there’s a floating shoulder cap that might go flying when you first pull the arm out, but it does work. The left arm and right arm also separate where the blue sleeve meets the glove of the left arm. This makes it a lot easier to focus on getting the shoulders in place before moving onto adjustment. At first, I couldn’t get the arms to fit on the figure in a way that would allow the shoulder pads to sit in a neutral pose. Even the image on the back of the box couldn’t pull it off and the shoulder pads are up. After more fiddling, I did get it to work better. If you want the arms towards the bottom of the chest, it’s do-able. If you want them higher, you’ll have to rotate the shoulder pads back or up. Either way, while I don’t know if I’m sold on this piece attaching at the shoulder vs the bicep, I do like how it’s two pieces instead of one and it works well enough. Much better than the same for Raditz, anyway.

Pulled back for a more “shelf look,” which honestly doesn’t look terrible.

Articulation for this release is both familiar and yet not. Some of it is pretty good, and some not so good. We already talked about the shoulder pads so we’ll start at the head where Bandai is, once again, using a hinged ball peg. It’s not great, especially if you lose track of what direction the hinge is facing. It’s also tight, which means the much looser lower neck joint will do the heavy lifting when moving the head. The problem there is that the piece sits really high and gets very gappy. It’s ugly, and I can’t think of a figure in this line with a neck joint this unpleasant. The shoulders are on ball pegs with a hinge in the shoulder itself so you get a butterfly joint, but it doesn’t work that great. You basically pull the arm out first to bring it around the front, but the chest is so broad that it would need to move out much farther. Biceps swivel, double-jointed elbows, and wrist ball-hinges are all fine.

The torso features a joint in the diaphragm that feels like a single ball peg. It does very little. The upper torso will rotate and shift side to side, but it gets almost nothing forward and back. The waist joint is just a ball and socket that only swivels so you don’t get to leverage the joint for more forward and back. The legs kick forward and back nicely, but splits aren’t possible as the legs only go out to the side about 45 degrees. The thigh twist is fine and the double-jointed knees as well. The ankles are back to the old ball pegs which are very limited in all facets aside from rotation. There is a toe hinge, but it doesn’t have much range.

With the arms lower, the shoulder pads won’t need to be rotated back, but damn those persistent gaps!

For an S.H.Figuarts release, the articulation is pretty mediocre. We’re used to that when it comes to figures with this style of armor, but there’s no excuse for the lower half being as poor as it is. I’m surprised they didn’t go with a hinged peg in the diaphragm to get more crunch as his articulation there is worse than older figures in armor. This type of thing should be getting better, not worse.

When it comes to this edition of Vegeta, I’m a bit torn. Visually, it works for me as a representation of the character. The shoulder pads drive me nuts and the neck is pretty ugly, though I can at least pose around that to some degree. And the new crossed-arms piece works well enough. As for the rest, the articulation is lackluster and the paint is minimal. We get a nice array of faces and hands, but no effect part. He breaks one shoulder pad pretty quickly in the show so why not a swap-able piece for that? It also would have been nice if they made this figure convertible to a Saiyan Saga one with an included skirt and tail, but oh well. With a little more love, this could have been exceptional, but instead it’s merely passable.

We have plenty more Saiyans to look at:

S.H.Figuarts Nappa – Event Exclusive Color Edition

When it comes to my S.H.Figuarts collection, I’ve been able to largely keep to just Dragon Ball. And by Dragon Ball, I mean the original anime and manga that centered on a young boy named Goku. Even though that’s my favorite edition of the venerable series, it doesn’t mean my favorite is the one shared…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Event Exclusive Raditz and Son Gohan

I’ve been getting a little taste of July of late in the dead of winter as not one, not two, but three action figure exclusives from San Diego Comic Con have arrived at my door. That’s because the nature of the exclusive has changed over the years. Why make a limited number of something and…

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by Joe

Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta – S.H.Figuarts 15th Anniversary Ver.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Bandai/Tamashii Nations action figure line, S.H.Figuarts, Bandai turned to the fans. There was a large roster of releases eligible for re-release to mark the occasion, and anyone who wanted to could cast a vote for their five favorites. The winner was, not surprisingly, Vegeta. And in particular, it…

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by Joe

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July 2, 2024

NECA TMNT Secret of the Ooze Keno and Foot Soldier

By Joe
Coming this fall to FOX, it’s Keno and the Fat Man!

I’ve been spending parts of the past month or so ducking in and out of any Walmart I come across in search of the Masters of the Universe Origins Turtles of Grayskull Krang. You see, it’s a store exclusive and if you know anything about toy collecting it’s that toy collectors hate store exclusives. Especially Walmart exclusives. I don’t particularly care for Walmart in general and will go out of my way to not shop there, but sometimes they use their capital advantage to make that a challenge. When you keep going into and out of stores leaving empty-handed each time it gets old which can sometimes lead to bad purchasing decisions. Or perhaps “bad” is the wrong word in this case, let’s instead say that it can lead to making unplanned purchases. And that is how I ended up with the NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II – The Secret of the Ooze Keno (Foot Training) and Foot Soldier set.

Ever since NECA received permission from Viacom to sell its TMNT products at brick and mortar it has separated the cartoon and movie toy lines giving one to Target and one to Walmart. I have been fortunate in that most of the movie figures I have wanted have been made available by other means, usually via NECA direct in the form of a comic con exclusive or just a direct sale. I haven’t had to stake out Walmarts in search of product really since the Casey Jones and Raphael in Disguise two-pack from 2020. I did purchase the Shadow Warriors two-pack from Walmart, but that was a fairly low demand set. I could have bought the Casey Jones and April Farm two-pack on numerous occasions, but I didn’t see that one as being particularly essential.

I don’t know if that height is correct. Keno is 6.3″ which is fine, while the turtles are 6.5″ which maybe is a touch short?

Last summer, right around this time, NECA put up for pre-sale not one, but two TMNT movie sets as San Diego Comic Con exclusives. One of those sets, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III four-pack, I purchased. The other, Keno (Pizza Delivery) and moped I did not. NECA wanted $100 for Keno and his scooter and that just felt like too much for me. I liked the second Turtles movie well enough as a kid, but as an adult I can see it for what it is -a cash grab with bland, slapstick, humor that barely qualifies as entertainment. Still, I do have a soft spot for Keno, played by Ernie Reyes Jr. in the movie, and wouldn’t mind having him in my collection. And his pizza boy attire is how I picture him so it was my preference, but again, not at a hundred bucks.

They just like him because he always brings pizza.

When NECA unveiled the Keno and Foot two-pack a month later at Comic Con, it wasn’t really on my radar. Like I said, I picture Keno in his pizza boy attire first and foremost and not as he is depicted in this set. And even though the Foot Soldier he was bundled with was different from the ones I had, it didn’t feel like a necessity. That is, until it had been staring me in the face one too many times. Missing out on that $25 Krang motivated me to spend $60 on this set and it’s honestly a solid set of figures. Is this the Keno I wanted? No, but maybe it’s the Keno that will make me happy.

In this house, we worship Teezus.

This set depicts Keno from the scene where he and Raph decide to infiltrate the Foot Clan by getting him admitted. He basically puts on his kickboxing gear and beats a bunch of other trainees up before having to submit to a final test which Raph helps him pass. It’s probably one of the better plotted elements of the movie and I suppose it’s better than Keno’s all-denim look from a bit later in the movie. For this release, Keno is sporting a tank top, black sweats, kickboxing gloves and shoes. Everything is well-sculpted and detailed. The shirt has a nice design to it and the likeness is on point. Keno is sporting an aggressive expression like he just spin-kicked some jerk in the face and it’s done well. He comes with another portrait and it features a toothy grin. I may have preferred a more neutral expression as a secondary option, but both look pretty good so I’m not exactly upset about it. He also has a set of non-gloved gripping hands, but I don’t see the point in them. This is kickboxing Keno, baby! Plus, I watched a review of this set and the reviewer had the wrist peg break when swapping hands and I don’t want to chance it. For what it’s worth, the stability of my figure seems fine. The heads are very snug and I had to use hot water to get the other portrait on, but nothing felt fragile or too stiff with this guy.

This bag rocks.

The one thing that does stand out with Keno vs a lot of other NECA figures is the lack of paint. NECA opted to leave his flesh basically bare plastic when normally NECA paints basically everything. There is a slight sheen to the skin as a result, but it almost imparts an illusion of sweat which works for the look. Is that by design? I don’t know, but it looks fine. There is a little paint slop around the ears of both portraits. For some reason, the right ear was apparently problematic and maybe it was whatever the factory used to hold the piece in place while it was painted as there’s a line of “flesh” connecting the ear to the hair which sucks. The hands and feet are nicely painted and you can even see the bottoms of his feet when turning him over which is pretty neat. If you like this look for Keno then you should be pleased with what NECA has done.

“Ahh hah!”

As for the Foot Soldier, he’s a mix of old and new. For the sequel, Golden Harvest and New Line Cinema wanted to get it out fast and cheap as basically everyone viewed TMNT as a fad destined to blow up unexpectedly and without warning. They also wanted to tone down the violence which meant they no longer needed a bunch of stunt guys and martial artists to play-fight the good guys. They mostly just wanted them to do pratfalls and get hit with sausages. As a result, the background extras were just random people which lead to some, how should we say, unathletic looking Foot ninja. This guy is reflective of that as he’s basically the plus-sized version of a Foot ninja. He has a new, bigger, head and a new, wider, torso. Both look fine, but the figure is reusing the old arms, hips, and legs from the standard Foot which makes him look pretty goofy. He really needs some meatier thighs, at least, because as-is he looks like a kit-bash of mismatched parts. He does have a gritty, dirty, brown, wash applied to him as the Foot were kind of dirty in that movie. Maybe it was because they were residing in a dusty junkyard? Or maybe it was just old, well-worn, costumes no one wanted to replace or wash.

What does he expect to do with those dinky little things?

The Foot doesn’t come with much, just extra hands and a set of weapons. The hands are fists, gripping, and these style posed hands. The fists and gripping hands are the same as what has been included with other Foot releases. The style posed hands are new to me. My Foot ninja came from the SDCC set from way back so I’m not sure if these were added for the two-pack releases, but I think they’re new. For “weapons,” he has two, black, sticks. The movie was looking to tone-down the violence so swords and axes were out. Instead, guys would have sticks be they long ones or these little, stubby, ones. Even Leonardo uses something similar at one point. It’s bizarre, but a fun inclusion. Like past Foot Soldiers, he has a soft goods, elastic, belt over the sculpted one which serves as weapon storage. There’s also another canister of ooze, maybe because it was a chubby Foot ninja who caught it during the showdown at the TGRI building? It’s the same canister most are likely used to at this point.

Looks like he passed.

As for Keno, in addition to the extra head and hands he has some pretty neat accessories. Well, one is neat. The one that isn’t is the handful of various bells that Raph helped him remove from a training dummy during his final test. It’s just a lump of painted, sculpted, plastic and it’s possible to get him to cradle them as he did in the movie even though his gloved hands are fisted. I kind of wish he had his “Is this enough?” expression to pair with it, but I doubt I’d use it anyway. The other, more impressive, accessory is the punching bag. It’s a big hunk of red plastic with a fake brand name stamped on it. It’s connected to real chain which can hang on the included stand, which is a metal hook with a plastic base. It works well, and the sculpt of the bag is very convincing both up close and from a distance to the point where it feels surreal to touch it and find it’s not a miniature punching bag.

They can handle the basics, but don’t go too crazy with the posing.

The articulation is usually secondary for NECA, and that’s mostly true here. We’ll do Keno first. He has a double-ball peg for a head which works pretty well. His mullet will get in the way a bit, but not as much as you may have thought. The shoulders are simple hinged pegs while the elbows are the same. There’s no biceps swivel, and instead the elbow pivots. Wrists rotate and hinge horizontally for all hands in the set. There is a diaphragm joint of some kind, but the overlay for the shirt makes it hard to utilize. You can force some posing out of it, and I suppose a really determined person could heat the shirt if they don’t care about warping it, but I wouldn’t advise doing so. The waist has a ball joint as well and the hips are ball and socket joints that can facilitate splits and kick forward a full 90 degrees. There is a thigh twist and the knees are double-jointed. The ankles hinge forward and back and possess a solid ankle rocker. He’ll be able to do some decent kicks and he can stand on one foot if you’re patient. I just wish the diaphragm joint worked better to get some really nice looking kicking poses. This is where I personally would prefer to see the torso sculpted with a joint in the middle rather than an overlay, but I get why NECA does what it does.

Shredder may need to start paying his guys better if he wants to attract better ninja.

The Foot ninja is basically the same as the other Foot. Even the hips still use the old peg and hinge engineering. There’s no added articulation, nor is any lost, with the new head and torso. I will say, while Keno’s joints are all nice and tight, the Foot ninja has some pretty loose ankles. Not terribly, at least not yet, but some simple stances were more troublesome than they should be as he’d just fall forward. Hopefully he doesn’t worsen over time.

The Secret of the Ooze section of my Detolf is pretty jam-packed. Thank goodness I passed on the third Super Shredder.

On an individual basis, this Keno figure and his included stuff is pretty damn nice. Yeah, I’d like a little more articulation out of him and it’s not my preferred look for the character, but the execution is plenty good and the punching bag is awesome. As a two-pack, it’s a little less spectacular because the Foot ninja is nothing special. NECA didn’t go all-in on making this guy look great by reusing too many old parts. It’s a bit of a bummer because people may have wanted a couple of stocky looking Foot Soldiers in their display if the figure were better. These parts have been used and reused so much that NECA surely has made plenty of money off of the tools that it’s a shame it didn’t spend to update them. They probably could have kept the arms, it’s the hips and thighs mainly. And since the figure essentially costs $30, it’s a tough sell. Basically, if you’re like me and skipped the SDCC Keno, then this is your only option to add the character to your TMNT II display. It’s not the Keno I wanted, but at least he’s damn good for what he is so I don’t regret my purchase and it’s still better than paying $100 for the character. Now, if say a $70 or $80 version of the Keno and bike two-pack shows up I may feel differently.

If it’s TMNT movies you like then we got you covered:

NECA TMNT Secret of the Ooze 4-Pack and Accessory Set

It’s that time of year when a lot of folks are reflecting on the past year and all of the things that happened. This usually coincides with list-making for favorites and worst of the year in basically every category you can dream of. And for action figure enthusiasts, there’s definitely a lot of list making.…

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by Joe

NECA TMNT Secret of the Ooze Ultimate Shredder

For the first time in a long time we went a week without a blog entry here. That’s because I took a much needed vacation and didn’t schedule anything. I’ll probably be backing off a little bit as we dig deeper into 2022 since there’s a certain holiday I need to get crackin’ on if…

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by Joe

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June 27, 2024

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z – Mecha Frieza

By Joe
Talk about your makeovers.

When you have an action figure line as long in the tooth as the Bandai/Tamashii Nations Dragon Ball Z line from S.H.Figuarts, you tend to find some pretty obscure characters making the jump to plastic. Characters that may have existed for a blink and you miss it kind of moment, but when one’s collection already has most of the heavy hitters, the company needs to find ways to keep things fresh. That should be how we think of today’s figure, Mecha Frieza, a version of the villain that basically showed up for an episode and got murdered by Trunks, but since this is a variation on the long-running manga/anime’s chief villain, it doesn’t exactly feel like a deep cut.

I’m surprised that he didn’t view this as an opportunity to get taller.

Mecha Frieza is the end result of Frieza’s battle with Goku on the doomed planet Namek. After getting walloped by his own buzz saw-like attack, Frieza takes an energy blast from Goku right in the face and seems to be left for dead. Missing an arm, a chunk of his face, and all of his lower half, Frieza seemed like a goner, but apparently his race is able to survive even when blown apart. His father, King Cold (snicker), and the various minions at his disposal are able to fashion new, mechanical, parts to rebuild the villain and once completed he immediately sets course for Earth to exact revenge upon Goku. Only, Goku is no where to be found and instead he comes face to face with the Saiyan from the future – Trunks. From there, Frieza is dispatched effortlessly as he was just there to show how powerful a Super Saiyan really is. In other words, Mecha Frieza is a chump.

Frieza! Number one!

He’s a cool looking chump though! Mecha Frieza is a fun design as it takes the villain and covers him in odd junk. It’s a very Akira Toriyama-like design and seems rather out of place in this era of Dragon Ball. It’s a fun juxtaposition with the otherwise sleek and clean look of Frieza’s fourth form and the different textures and finishes just cry out to be captured in plastic. Years ago when Irwin Toys had the license to make Dragon Ball figures, Mecha Frieza was basically their crowning achievement. I should dig it out some day to see how it’s aged, but in my mind’s eye it was basically perfect from a sculpt presentation. Because of that, this version of Frieza has long been on my short list as a want when it comes to the S.H.Figuarts line. It just seemed like a character design that would display well. It would require more paint, more texture, than the average character in this line allowing it to occupy a prominent spot in any display. Last year, Bandai decided to make it happen and put Mecha Frieza up for preorder through the Premium Bandai website. Premium Bandai is essentially a made-to-order model for action figure production and since this figure is a bit more involved than most, it didn’t feel misplaced (where as, releasing any Vegeta through this model seems absurd, but whatever). I’ve had this figure for a little while now, but I finally have found the time to let you know how I think it turned out.

All of these new components did nothing for his bedside manner.

Mecha Frieza comes in the standard SHF packaging with product shots all around and a window on the front. The figure itself stands approximately 4.75″ to the highest point of its head. As expected, there’s a lot going on here and in some respects this may be the best work of Tamashii Nations. There’s a lot of white plastic for the remaining fleshy bits of Frieza with a slight blueish tone that looks rather nice. The black portions are mostly painted and they have this satin finish that looks really good in person and in photographs while the metallic bits are nice and shiny. The brown panels are painted cleanly as are the facial details. There’s some great sculpt work, especially in the robotic hand, and there’s a clever mix of parts that are either fitted together tightly or glued. It looks like the silver portion of the head and chest is separately molded and it’s a very involved sculpt that actually earns the “premium” designation.

These shoulder “caps” are unnecessary and feel like a case of over-engineering.

It’s not all perfect though. Bandai did do a couple of things with this figure that I don’t care for. One is the shoulders. I guess it’s for articulation purposes, but the outer shoulders are basically plastic caps connected via a hinge. It seems completely unnecessary to me and it’s not something done on the standard fourth form Frieza and I don’t think they’re doing this with the upcoming full power edition. It’s a harder, thinner, plastic too which looks cheap. The left shoulder which is painted black and brown looks fine, but the white shoulder with the purple cap does not look good as the white isn’t the same shade of white as the rest of the arm.

I’m also not a fan of the articulated tail. Just make it one, continuous, piece, please.

Another visual aspect I don’t care for is the tail. It’s well-sculpted and appropriately shiny, but Bandai decided it needed an articulation point in the middle that does next to nothing and looks bad. It’s also hard to attach to the figure and is cumbersome to deal with. Lastly, and the issue that bugs me the most, is the head on this figure is just too big. I’m guessing they enlarged it to better capture the detail, but he’s a real egghead. It’s really apparent when placing him beside the previous version of Frieza, and while I do think the head should be bigger than it is with that figure, not to this degree. They took it too far. And while the painted details they did add look great, there are still some slashes and such on the figure left unpainted which is a shame. I think a little color, or even just a wash, over those would have helped enhance this figure even further.

Flight stands aren’t a bad idea with this guy as the tail can make him difficult to stand.

Mecha Frieza comes with a fair amount of accessories. For hands, we get four sets: fists, open, clenching, and pointing. The figure also comes with four portraits: smiling, toothy smile, teeth-clenching, and yelling. The choice of expressions is done pretty well, but the quality control is a bit iffy. The heads are basically two sculpts fitted together where the white parts are out of one mold and the cybernetic parts out of another. On two of my heads, the parts aren’t seated properly. The angry, teeth-gritting head looks the worst as there’s a gap near the chin. The brown panel and the blue, transistor, things on the right side of the head are removable and intended to swap between the heads. I guess this was done to cut down on the paint hits?

This head isn’t quite assembled properly. It may seem like a small detail, but for the price point this shouldn’t happen.

The most attention-grabbing accessory though is definitely the sliced-in-half body. Mecha Frieza is best known for dying, so it makes sense that his figure should capture that. And since he got anime-sliced down the middle, it presented a real challenge for Bandai if they wanted to capture that in figure form. In order to do that, Bandai supplied a whole, separate, torso. It’s of Frieza with a horrified expression on his face. It’s basically cut in half, but glued together askew like his body is sliding apart. It is completely unarticulated, but there are no arms, legs, or tail. Instead, you’re supposed to disconnect the arms and legs from the main figure and affix them here. Same goes for the tail. There’s a circular, acrylic, base with a question mark-shaped post that plugs into it and then into the back of this bust. Because Frieza is hunched over, it’s a little more challenging to display than I’d like has he’s listing forward. It basically has to go as far back as the tail will allow to look its best. It’s also kind of annoying because it means you have to disconnect parts from the actual figure. Would it have cost that much more to just go all the way and put sculpted arms and legs onto this thing? It looks cool, but I don’t want to sacrifice the main figure to this thing.

“Hmm, it’s a bit grotesque, but what can I say? I do like it.”

Since this is an SHF release it’s obviously going to have quite a bit of articulation. Mecha Frieza does some good, and some not so good, when it comes to posing. The head is on the very annoying hinged ball peg. It means if you want to use the hinge you need to be mindful of which direction it’s facing since it rotates at the base. The neck is also on a ball peg and it has a habit of raising up a bit and creating a gap, but it can be reseated. I mentioned the hinged shoulder caps and they don’t do a whole lot, but if they pop off on you (one of mine arrived disconnected) they’ll be a bear to get back on. The biceps swivel is fine and the double-jointed elbows will go a bit past 90. I find the top joint in the elbow to be pretty tight and hard to work with. Hinged ball pegs at the wrist are fine.

“Looks like you will be the first of Goku’s friends to die, boy!”
“WHAT?! I thought I destroyed all of those monkeys and their offspring!”

The torso is a bit of another trouble spot because Frieza has this purple shield-like plate right in the middle of his body. It’s a separate piece of plastic that can pop off, but it will restrict Frieza from crunching forward much. Going back is okay, and there’s a ball peg at the waist that will add more range going in both directions, but it’s nothing crazy. The hips are the annoying drop-down style which have a tendency to be loose. Frieza’s are right at the edge of being too loose. He can’t do splits even with them, but at least he can kick fairly high. The thigh swivel works and looks pretty nice since it works with the sculpt. The double-jointed knees are fine and the ball-hinged ankles are okay. The ankle rocker is pretty steep. The tail articulation is pretty bad though. Hinged pegs at the rear and the midpoint function more like swivels. The midpoint joint is especially useless.

“No! I am still Frieza! The mightiest in all the known universe! I will not be felled by a blond-haired swordsman!”
“Gah!”

Mecha Frieza is an interesting release and in some ways a frustrating one. It’s not frustrating in the sense that it drives me nuts when in-hand like Super Saiyan Trunks, but frustrating in that it’s so close to being one of the best figures in the line. The sculpt and paint are terrific and well-executed. The oversized head is my main critique and I absolutely hate the tail. If the sliced accessory could display on its own without having to sacrifice the figure proper then it would be all the better. I think this figure was $85 plus shipping and at that price point it shouldn’t feel incomplete. Even with the imperfections, this is a figure I do think is worth having for your DBZ collection. Frieza is arguably the best villain the series has produced and he’s certainly become the most enduring and this form is perhaps the most interesting from a visual perspective. Sure, he showed up to die, but at least it was memorable. Certainly far more memorable than King Cold, and a great deal cheaper too.

“No…how could this…be..?!”

If you liked reading about this one then maybe you’ll enjoy one of these other Dragon Ball figure reviews:

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June 25, 2024

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Skeletor

By Joe
Prepare for havoc!

When it’s come to the Turtles of Grayskull line by Mattel, I have mostly stayed in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles side of the pool. I have all four turtle boys plus Sla’ker, who is more Slash than Faker if you ask me. The one exception has been Mouse-Jaw, but the classic Masters of the Universe villain has been mashed-up with a Mouser so there’s a gray area there. Plus, if I want to build this line’s version of Metalhead I needed to get him. Today, there is really no way to color it, I just bought a MOTU character and his name is Skeletor.

I couldn’t expect these two to operate without a proven leader.

As someone who has been buying and enjoying action figures since the 1980s, it’s kind of shocking to me that I have never owned a Skeletor action figure. As the chief villain of one of the most famous action figure lines to exist, it seems like the sort of thing I would have picked up somewhere along my travels. I have owned a He-Man, but just never got a Skeletor even though I’ve always enjoyed his design. I’m pretty sure I considered getting the 2000 Skeletor, but probably correctly realized that I had my fingers in too many figure lines and passed. With this Turtles of Grayskull line, I actually have yet to come across Shredder. The online images didn’t sell me on the figure, but it would be nice to have a big baddie for the display and if that can’t be Shredder, why not Skeletor?

“I’m the real bad guy here, Shredder!”

Skeletor isn’t a whole lot different from his classic portrayal. He’s still a purple-gray body with a greenish skull face, only now he has a stylish samurai helmet. I don’t know why he’s grabbed this helmet, but it looks pretty cool on him. What really caught my eye with this figure though is the presence of the neon green. It adorns his helm, weapon, and the trim of the armor. It’s garish, but it’s the kind of thing I love because a lot of toy lines were doing this back in the day. I’m surprised Mattel didn’t take it one step further and just make the plastic glow-in-the-dark because it almost looks like it should, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. He has some snap-on armor for his forearms and a tattered black cape that’s well textured. Basically, this is a Skeletor that took one look at Shredder and said “That looks pretty cool.” He just stopped short at copying the blades and such.

The biggest influence TMNT apparently had on Skeletor was turning his staff into a proper ninja weapon.

The paint work is fairly sparse, but not out of line with the other figures we’ve taken a look at. It would have been nice to get a wash applied to the face to bring out the teeth, but this line doesn’t do that sort of thing. What’s present is fairly clean. The straps on the armor look solid and the silver ram skull that’s a logo of sorts for the character was applied very cleanly to the center of the helm. The shin armor is molded, silver, plastic which is an interesting choice. There is a little metallic silver in places, but the majority of the armor add-ons are black and green so it’s a little odd the shin guards didn’t go with a similar scheme. Black with green trim would have looked pretty nice.

The quality of the links on the plastic chain may vary from figure to figure.

For accessories, (not including the cape) Skeletor has two, which is one more than a lot of figures. His havoc staff has been turned into havoc nunchaku. The weapon is cast in neon green and basically the head of the staff adorns both ends. They’re connected via molded, plastic, chain links just like the nunchaku we saw with Michelangelo. The chain did not come out of the molds as cleanly with Skeletor as they did Mikey and some don’t really move at all. Some careful trimming with a blade might fix that, but it’s too bad that they couldn’t do better. The figure also doesn’t really have any weapon storage for this item. I suppose you could fake it by shoving it through the straps of his harness, but it would look rather stupid. The other accessory is a vile of mutagen, or ooze, if you prefer. It looks like a classic mutagen canister with silver ends, only much slimmer to fit into the standard MOTU Origins gripping hands. The center is transparent plastic with a blueish fill and it looks nice.

What would happen if Skeletor drank the mutagen?

Even though Skeletor is not a turtle, his articulation is essentially the same. All of the same joints are present with the same range. The only aspect of the articulation I feel merits pointing out is the head and neck. Skeletor still uses the same double ball peg setup, but it’s fairly loose. With the cape on, which just slots over the neck, it’s not noticeable. If removed, the head becomes borderline floppy. This may be purposeful engineering to increase the range with the rather thick, plastic, cape on, but if you dislike that look then this aspect of the figure may let you down.

“And you thought you had it bad before, turtle!”

In the world of action figures, Skeletor is a legendary character and was obviously going to be included in this toy line. The TMNT influence on the character is fairly light though, and if the mutagen canister was taken away there really wouldn’t be anything obvious about this figure linking it to the TMNT franchise. That might bother some, or it might not. I think this is a fun, cool, look for Skeletor which is why I decided to grab it. None of the other MOTU specific characters in the standard line have tempted me at all, but this works for me. It’s odd it ended up being my very first Skeletor, but better late than never. I don’t think this is going to open the floodgates or anything. As far as other characters in this line are concerned, my wants list is pretty small and concerns only TMNT characters. That could change, and it’s possible I’ll feel compelled to add He-Man eventually just because, but that’s fine too. For MOTU fans collecting this line, Skeletor should make for a solid addition. And if you’re more of a TMNT fan like me, you may still enjoy seeing him in your collection.

By the power of pizza…here’s more Turtles of Grayskull coverage:

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Michelangelo

Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Origins subline, Turtles of Grayskull, has given us three of the iconic four reptilian brothers with a MOTU theme. Now, we have the fourth. The heroic captain of cowabunga Michelangelo is in the house and he’s got a new look, and a new ‘do, to show off. Like his brothers…

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by Joe

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Deluxe Sla’ker

It’s a Tuesday, and I have a new Turtles product to talk about, so let’s make it another Turtle Tuesday! And today brings us the second in the line of deluxe Masters of the Universe Origins – Turtles of Grayskull line exclusive to Target – Sla’ker: The evil cybernetic snapping turtle! This is Slash, the…

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by Joe

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Deluxe Mouse-Jaw

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

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by Joe

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June 20, 2024

Jada Toys Mega Man

By Joe
The Blue Bomber is back!..in figure form.

We just had 11 consecutive weeks of action figure reviews on Super7’s line of figures based on The Simpsons. Things were getting pretty negative in that sphere as that line went out with a whimper. I don’t like reviewing bad figures and it’s mostly because everything I review here I buy for my own collection. Why would I want to buy a bad figure? That line let me down and I need a pick-me-up to run this Thursday. Enter Jada Toys and their shiny, new, Mega Man figure!

Jada is a company I have had little interaction with. I bought my kid a remote controlled car years ago that was made by Jada. It was a great toy, fairly inexpensive, and it worked really well for what it was. I have a good impression of Jada as a result, but it’s not like that product should lend itself well towards action figures. That’s a whole different ballgame. Less complicated in some respects, but also more so in other ways. Jada, possibly because the action figure market has expanded over the years, decided to get into that sphere and it has targeted licenses that have been underserved of late – mainly video games and food mascots. It’s an odd combo, but people like both things and there’s a ton of much beloved food mascots out there that have interested folks. None have really appealed to me, but they look so good that I’ve been tempted. Jada’s partnership with video game developer Capcom is where the most popular figures appear to be coming from. Street Fighter II has been the focus and again, not something that appeals to me, but still tempting because they look so good and have received a lot of positive buzz. Finally, and most recently, Jada has released figures for a license I do have interest in and that is Mega Man.

Two heads, an extra set of hands, weapon, and effect part – see! It doesn’t have to be difficult!

When it comes to the video games, I am a casual Mega Man fan at best. If I had to pick a favorite game in the series, it would probably be Mega Man X for Super Nintendo. Is that sacrilege to choose a game from the X franchise over the classic one? I have no idea, but it is what it is. In the 80s, Mega Man games were popular, but also hard. I had friends who owned them, but I never owned one myself because I sucked at them. Even so, television shows like Captain N: The Game Master had me convinced Mega Man was a Nintendo mascot. I’m not sure at what point I realized that wasn’t the case. Even though I’m not a huge fan of the games, I always really liked the character designs from the series, both the classic series and the X one. I watched the DiC animated show and considered getting into that toyline long ago, but never did. I’ve often been tempted by the many model kits and such out there, but I’ve never taken the plunge.

The box art definitely goes with a more late 90s vibe to the artwork, but the figure is pretty much classic Mega Man.

Jada made it easy to finally buy my first Mega Man action figure. Not only have their figures been well received so far, they’re also cheap. The figures in the Mega Man line will only set you back 20 bucks a piece. I think they’re considered 1:12 scale with the characters running small, but $20 for such a scale is almost unheard of now. And it’s not like Jada is scaling back on quality. These things are fully articulated, well-painted, and come with a suitable amount of accessories. And it’s all for a licensed toy line! Is this just entry level pricing and we’re being setup for increases to follow? I don’t know, and I almost hate praising a company for their low prices as that could signal to them they have some room to raise them, but it’s a pretty stark contrast between what Jada is selling for $20 and what a company like Hasbro is selling for $25 and up.

He can run!

Mega Man comes in a box that’s adorned with game art. The actual artwork for Mega Man on the front seems to come from the Mega Man 7 or 8 era as he has a very anime look to him. It’s not the little, chubby, guy from the 8-bit era nor is it the hideous artwork from the US releases. It’s an attractive, tidy, box so if you like to keep things in-box it should serve you well as it’s also quite sturdy. Mega Man stands approximately 4 5/8″ to the tip top of his helmet. He’s a little guy, but if you’re buying this figure for your Marvel vs Capcom display then it will serve you well when it comes to scale. As he is known as the blue bomber, Mega Man is composed of different shades of blue. His torso, legs, and sleeves are a light blue while the boots, helmet, and forearms are a dark blue. The dark blue parts are also glossy which meshes well with the artwork. The light blue portions of the helmet as well as the facial features are painted and look nice. There’s a hint of blue shading on the light blue parts and the light just plays on it very well. It’s a nice looking figure with a good in-hand feel.

He can kick!

Mega Man’s accessories are perhaps not substantial, but better than adequate. We get two heads: a smile and an angry expression. Both are suitable for the character and I have a hard time choosing between the two. I suppose the smiling one when not in use can double as an extra life power-up. Mega Man also has four hands: a set of fists, a right curled gesture and a left wide open hand. I’m surprised the non fist hands are different, but the curled hand is intended to pair with the Mega Buster while the splayed hand is probably meant to harken back to some classic poses. And speaking of, we have a Mega Buster! Both of Mega Man’s forearms are connected to the bicep via a hinged peg and can be removed and swapped with the Mega Buster. The Mega Buster is a nice, glossy, blue with the yellow power indicator on it. You can rotate it any which way so it looks fine on either the left or right arm, though I always picture Mega Man with buster on the left arm. Lastly, to round things out we get an effect part. It’s a translucent, yellow, fireball with an acrylic stand. The stand has two joints in it and you’re supposed to basically put almost two right angles into it in order to get it to the right height. It works well though giving us a spread of two heads, four hands, a weapon, and a power effect. Who knew it was so hard to get that kind of spread with an action figure?

He can slide!

As you may recall, when I pointed out the affordable price for this figure I also mentioned there was no cut to the articulation budget as a result. Mega Man can do just about anything you need him to. The head is on a double ball peg so Mega Man can rotate, look down, and tilt. His range looking up isn’t great, but he does have a ball-jointed diaphragm. That joint will allow him to bend forward and back which should provide for the up range you need at the head. That joint also rotates and tilts a bit to the side with a waist swivel below. Shoulders are simple ball-hinges. Elbows are single hinges and that’s where you’ll get your bicep swivel. Hands rotate and hinge horizontally. Hips are simple ball sockets and Mega Man can do splits and kick better than 90 degrees forward. There is a thigh twist there while the knees are single-hinged and bend about 90 degrees. Ankles hinge back quite far, but not much forward and the ankle rockers work surprisingly well given the unique shape of the boots.

And he can go “pew pew!”

Mega Man moves very well. Even without butterfly joints, he gets solid range at the shoulders for Mega Buster poses. He can rest the curled hand on top of the buster or under it when firing straight out in front of his body, he just can’t achieve that when aiming out to the side. He can do running poses and he’s really good at standing on one leg thanks to the oversized feet so if you want to recreate some Mega Man Soccer you should have no problem. All of the joints are nice and tight too. The only joints that felt a little too tight were the knees as those hinged-peg style knees can be a little scary to move when tight. I didn’t need to heat anything up though to get things moving. I’ve had this guy living on my desk for over a month now and I’m constantly having fun fiddling with him and finding different poses.

If you want this figure for your Marvel vs Capcom display then it should fit in nicely.

This Mega Man figure from Jada Toys is a delight. It is a really fun toy to handle and behold and it comes with just about everything you need. There is very little to critique with it as a result. A neck joint might have helped with the head range and if they could have included mirror image versions of the two style pose hands that would have also been great. Otherwise, what else is there? An action stand? Maybe they could have worked a peg hole somewhere into the figure so it could use the effect part stand? I also have one fist that’s glossy while the other hands appear to have a matte coating on them. I’m guessing it’s an error, but not a particularly impactful one.

All that is to say whatever issues I have with this figure are nitpicks at best. For 20 bucks, I dare you to find a better value in the current action figure market. There are unlicensed figures of similar quality to this figure that cost considerably more. This isn’t from some huge company either. I don’t know how Jada is doing it, but I hope it continues. This Mega Man line is not one I’m going to go all-in on or anything as I’m not a big enough fan of the franchise. I’ll cherry pick my favorites, and at 20 bucks I won’t be waiting for a discount or anything. I’m tempted by Ice Man, but I’ll definitely get Cut Man and I’m very interested in seeing what they do with Guts Man. And if they do an X I’ll definitely grab him. This is a great line and if you have even a passing interest in Mega Man I urge you to give it a try. This toyline is going to be on a lot of “Best of” lists at the end of 2024.

Not a lot of video game inspired toys on this blog, but there’s still plenty of fun here:

Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Wolverine

The toyline of my dreams was announced last October. In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the television series X-Men, Hasbro is doing a dedicated line of Marvel Legends with figures based on the look of the show. The show was obviously inspired by the designs of Jim Lee, but there are differences in the…

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by Joe

NECA Turtles in Time…Turtles!

Longtime readers of this blog might have noticed something in my review of the Turtles in Time Bebop and Rocksteady – they were paired up with the Turtles in Time Leonardo and Raphael. I’ve never reviewed those figures and they’ve been out for a long time. Well, I held off. Initially, I just wasn’t convinced…

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by Joe

Arcade 1Up Marvel Super Heroes Counter-Cade

Arcade 1Up has been around for a few years now selling arcade cabinets at a reduced size and also a reduced price. The cabinets are significantly smaller than an actual arcade cabinet, but still plenty large enough to take up a lot of floor space in your home. And while they’re cheaper than the “real…

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by Joe

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