March 29, 2024

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Son Goku – Legendary Super Saiyan

By Joe
At long last, the legendary Super Saiyan has shown itself!

I can remember a time in my life when I was just dying to see Goku, the hero of Dragon Ball Z, become that which was prophesized: a Super Saiyan! The seed for such a transformation wasn’t planted very early in the show and really only started being mentioned as the original version of the English dub was nearing its end, but it only took a cursory search of the internet to find out what a Super Saiyan was. Unfortunately, Dragon Ball Z wasn’t the hit FUNimation hoped it would be and that original direct-to-syndication order of a hacked-up 65 episodes was where it all ended for a long time. Only after interest was rekindled as we approached the new millennium did FUNimation go back to the localization process. Finally, on October 18th 1999, the legendary hero who was prophesized appeared on US airwaves (more than 8 years after doing so in Japan).

Goku’s initial Super Saiyan transformation was captured in plastic years ago by Bandai and Tamashii Nations. Dubbed “Awakening Super Saiyan,” it was one of the first releases in the S.H.Figuarts line to really catch my eye. I didn’t get it though, nor did I get the World Tour re-release of the figure which came out last year (or late 2022, I can’t remember). Unlike many of the convention exclusive releases in the line over the past few years, the World Tour edition of Super Saiyan Goku did not go up for preorder on the Premium Bandai website. It seemed an odd decision, but I think it was done because this particular figure we’re talking about today went up for preorder around the same time.

Not the proper Frieza to pair with this Goku, but give it time.

Super Saiyan Son Goku – Legendary Super Saiyan is a brand new release that features Goku from a bit later on in his fight against Frieza. The upper part of his gi has been obliterated at this point and his pants are in tatters. The more memorable aspect of this Goku though is just how damn big he got as that fight went on. He is positively jacked, similar to when he overdid it on the Kaio-ken against Vegeta, and his hair somehow seemed to get bigger too. I’ve always wondered if this is how series creator and artist Akira Toriyama envisioned the Super Saiyan transformation at first, then once he decided to make this something basically every Saiyan in the manga could do, decided to dial it back. With Goku as massive as he is against Frieza, there really wasn’t any other place to go with the Super Saiyan look when the characters needed to blow past that barrier. Vegeta in his ascended, buffed-out, state when he takes on Cell isn’t any bigger than Goku was against Frieza.

Look at that smug bastard.

Nonetheless, Goku looks pretty cool during the closing moments of his battle against Frieza and it’s high-time the look was captured in plastic. And since the base 2.0 Goku figure was feeling long in the tooth, it’s just plain nice to get a Goku that’s essentially all new parts. Even stuff like the hands and feet appear to be new tools. When Bandai revealed this figure in early 2023 it quickly rose to the top of my most anticipated figures for the year. I’ve had it for awhile now and since I’ve been buried under SHF releases ever since 2023 ended, I decided to let this one simmer. I didn’t want to review it when it was too new because maybe recency bias would play a large role in how I felt about it. It was even a bit of good fortune that I stumbled into that Super Saiyan 3 Goku because I got to go from this new figure, to an older Goku, and then back to this one. And after all of that I now feel pretty comfortable in declaring that this is one of my all-time favorite releases in the S.H.Figuarts line.

He even has optional bangs, more of a flying pose I think. They’re a bit gappy though especially around the sideburns.

Let’s start off with the details. Goku stands at around 5.35″ to the top of his face and roughly 6.75″ to the top of his hair. This puts the figure at about the same height as past Goku figures with the main difference being he seems to have a slightly shorter neck, but taller hair. It’s probably more accurate to say his neck isn’t any shorter, but that his traps are much bigger giving off the appearance that his head sits a tad lower. And bigger is definitely the name of the game with this Goku as every part of his body has been blown up for this release. Arms, chest, back, thighs – they’re all noticeably larger in size. Even his feet are bigger and there’s sculpted-in battle damage all over the figure. It’s in the form of lines, or cuts, but they’re only sculpted in. I’m surprised there’s no paint wash to bring them out as from a distance they’re hardly noticeable. Of course, if you collect this line then it’s not a big surprise as Bandai isn’t known for its paint apps. The paint on this figure is limited to light shading on the hair (my preferred approach to Super Saiyan hair) and shading on the pants which makes them brighten the further down the leg your eye travels. The boots have some yellow trim and red rope and the details of the face are painted. The paint all looks pretty good, the yellow on the boots could have been more saturated, but there’s not much to speak of.

He also has this alternate hair and bangs combo for when he’s really getting mad.

The sculpt is what is going to win people over with this figure. The hair is huge, but it’s appropriate for the character. The torso is rather messy to look at because of all of the articulation cut into it, but it’s not to such a degree that it’s an eyesore for me. Some may feel differently, but I like what I see. The belt is a floating piece and the tattered remains of the upper part of the uniform are part of the sculpt and it looks really nice. I love the gradient of the orange on the pants and how much it lightens near the bottom. It almost creates the illusion of a glow, an obvious necessity for a Super Saiyan Goku. And I mentioned it before, but it bares repeating, that this is my favorite approach to Super Saiyan hair. It’s molded in the same pale yellow we saw the Super Hero Gohan Super Saiyan head come in, but with some light air-brushing of orange on the front to give it depth. There are no metallic or translucent parts. My only complaint is that his sideburns aren’t part of the hair sculpt so you get an ugly seam with certain looks, but at least the standard bangs hide it.

He does look pretty nice with an aura behind him.

That’s not to say that everything is perfect with this version of Goku. You may have already noticed in my pictures that his chest is a different color than his arms and abs. Depending on your lighting, it’s going to be more obvious. I went with warm lighting waiting until the moment I had the maximum amount of sunlight I was going to have with a mix of white and incandescent light sources. It’s a bit more subtle, but if I had gone with pure white light it would have been even more noticeable. The issue is caused by the factory using a harder plastic for the chest, likely ABS vs the PVC we see elsewhere, which is a shame because I don’t think it needed to. It’s basically a hard overlay, so why not just use the same material as the arms, neck, etc.? My guess it’s a standard operating procedure to use harder plastic for this part of the figure, and no one bothered to try to something else. The other eyesore, for me, is that the pants are real busy around the crotch area. I like the torn parts, but they’re very poofy beneath that giving him a diaper look. Other figures of Goku taper in at the waist and the baggy pants don’t start to flow out from the leg until closer to the knee. This is largely caused by how Bandai has been doing its thigh twists recently and we saw the same with Trunks. I’d like them to stop as we’re not gaining better articulation with this setup, just poofy pants.

Here is where an actual blast would have been nice. Note how from a more head-on angle how the alternate hair also is hardly seamless along the hairline.

This figure also comes loaded with extra stuff. We’re used to getting a wide assortment of hands and 3 or four faceplates, but this Goku comes with even more. For hands, we get a set of fists, martial arts posed, open, clenching, Kamehameha pose, and Kamehameha posed with pegs. The hands all appear to be new sculpts. They have a sharper, more defined, appearance with more pronounced fingernails and bone structure which look really good. For expressions, we get four: smirk, stoic, clenched teeth, and yelling. In what is a unique turn of events, we get two hair options and two bangs options. The standard hair is how Goku looks throughout most of the fight with a collection of bangs hovering over his eyes. The secondary bangs piece has most of the bangs angled up except one piece. I could be wrong, but I think this is how he looked when flying or shooting off a blast. The secondary hair piece has all of his hair shooting up like he’s powering-up. It works great with the yelling face and any aura effects you may have, though the seams around his face are more pronounced with this option. The bangs do come off of this one as well, but they aren’t interchangeable with the others.

We now have a lot of charging Kamehameha effects, but few actual blasts. I only have the itty, bitty, one that came with kid Krillin.

Lastly, we get a charging Kamehameha effect. It’s pretty much the same effect part we’ve been getting a lot lately. For me, this is number four following Super Saiyan 4 Goku, Orange Piccolo, and the Super Saiyan 2 Gohan/Super Saiyan Ghost Goku set. This one is done in a very light, translucent, blue plastic with some white airbrushing on it. It has seven, acrylic, posts that clip in and it can be pegged onto either of the hands with the posts sculpted on. This version feels a little sturdier than some of the other ones I’ve received and plugging in the posts was a lot easier. It’s still a cool and appropriate effect, it’s just a little less special after the fourth one. I’m a little surprised we didn’t get an aura with this release, but recently Bandai unveiled a new aura effect that’s going to be sold with some other effect parts. There’s also a “getting punched” faceplate coming with the new Full Power Frieza so this is one of those releases that will get built out a little more in the future.

All of the extra stuff is wonderful to have, but I was really curious how this Goku would articulate. The older, 2.0 Goku has its issues that are getting harder to overlook as time goes on and this figure represents a chance to push the form forward. And in many ways it does, though it’s probably due less to new approaches to engineering than it is to the figure not having certain limitations to work around such as clothing. The head is on a double-ball peg and there’s a nice range of motion there. The hair isn’t as cumbersome as you may expect, and once combined with the ball joint at the base of the neck, you get all the range a Goku could want. The shoulders are ball-hinged and they peg into a ball and socket joint inside. This means you can raise the arms out to the side on just the hinge which will take the arm past 90 degrees, then use the ball peg inside the torso to raise the shoulders even higher. There is a butterfly joint which allows the figure to bring the arms inside the shoulders so the palms of the hands are practically touching, though it doesn’t let the arms go back very far. The biceps swivel, double-jointed elbows, and ball-hinged wrists all work as well as expected.

A gathering of Goku. Comparing the look of the torn pants on this release to the Kaio-ken version is like night and day.

The torso features a diaphragm joint. It may not be the prettiest in the world, but the joint at least works okay. It feels like a ball joint and it’s best at giving the figure a pivot point and some side-to-side motion. Going forward and back in a crunching motion is limited, but the ball joint at the waste at least helps there, but the ab crunch isn’t significant. At the hips, Bandai went with a soft, rubbery, overlay that goes over the crotch and above it. It’s almost too small to refer to it as a “diaper” because it doesn’t cover any of the thigh. This means it’s very flexible so Goku can kick forward past 90 degrees and also kick back and push on his butt cheeks for added range. Out to the side is no problem, though you may have to finagle the leg in such a way that the thigh slides under the overlay for full splits. The belt will sometimes pop off the sculpted indent on top of the pants, but it’s not too hard to get back into place if it’s even something that bothers you. The knot pegs into the belt and is able to rotate. There is a thigh swivel, though it’s more like a pivot as the range is probably in the neighborhood of 45 degrees. The knees will bend past 90 degrees, but not much beyond that due to the way the pants are sculpted. At the ankles, Bandai finally ditched the ball pegs it had been using for Goku figures and instead gave us nice ball hinges. They still attach via ball pegs so you can pop them out a bit to increase the range. They’re a bit more finicky when it comes to getting them in the best position for stances on your shelf, but much more rewarding than the old setup. The toe hinge is also still present and it’s fine.

This figure is just a couple tweaks away from perfection. The unfortunate thing is that such tweaks are not budget-related, just execution, illustrating how it could have been even better with just a little more effort.

I don’t know if there is anything on the older Goku figures that works better than it does here. I suppose kicking back, but that’s probably it. The articulation cuts in the torso are certainly cleaner on the past figures, but the added cuts here serve a purpose and it’s one they do well at achieving. I don’t think it’s on the level of an Amazing Yamaguchi release where the articulation is so plentiful that it’s ugly, but I can totally understand the person who doesn’t love the aesthetic of this one too. Best of all, the joints are nice and smooth. This is another release for Bandai’s Vietnam factory and it’s, by far, the best figure I’ve handled that has come out of there. The Super Saiyan Trunks – The Boy from the Future was plagued with quality control issues. Not the sort that ruined the figure, but the kind we’re not accustomed to seeing out of Bandai. This figure possesses none of those faults and if it wasn’t printed on the box I would have assumed that it came out of China.

After having this figure for about two months now I have to say I like it more now than I did when I first opened it. This is quite possibly my favorite figure in the line at this point. I’m not even sure which figure even comes close to topping it. Prior to getting this one, I hadn’t really given much thought to which release in this line was my favorite. I really like King Piccolo and I tend to enjoy the figures with more mass. Nappa may have been my favorite, though it’s definitely for the aesthetics and not the articulation as the shoulder pads on him are really cumbersome to work with. Super Saiyan 4 Goku and Vegeta were two that surprised me in how good they are, even if I find the look of that transformation to be so bad it’s good. This Goku however, hits it out of the park. It looks great, moves great, and comes with plenty of stuff. I mentioned an aura effect was almost expected, but I don’t mind its exclusion. If there had been a flight stand though that would have been awesome and really helped push it over the top. In the end, my only real gripes concern the fit of some of the hair pieces and the dis-colored chest piece which are both two things I can overlook. They basically bump it down from a 9.9 to a 9.5 if I were grading on a 10 point scale. If you collect Dragon Ball Z action figures, then this is definitely not the one to miss.

Akira Toriyama April 5, 1955 – March 1, 2024

Postscript: In between writing this and it going live we all received the stunning news that Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama had passed away at the age of 68. The entire manga/anime community mourns his loss and his impact can be felt across the globe. What a remarkable legacy. I have no doubt that the characters he created will live on in some capacity, but they’ll never be quite the same again. This must have been what it felt like when Walt Disney died. R.I.P.

I really enjoyed this release, but I also really liked these ones too:

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball GT Super Saiyan 4 Goku

In the world of Dragon Ball, there are varying opinions on which version of the anime is superior. Dragon Ball Z is unquestionably the most popular, but there are people (like me) out there who swear by the original Dragon Ball that came before it. More recently, Dragon Ball Super has entered the fray and…

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by Joe

S.H. Figuarts Piccolo Daimaoh (King Piccolo)

Before there was the noble Piccolo, trainer of Gohan and ally of Goku, there was the evil King Piccolo. Known as Piccolo Daimaoh outside of the US, King Piccolo was the evil purged from the namekian Kame, who would assume the role of guardian of Earth in the world of Dragon Ball. Piccolo was the…

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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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March 27, 2024

X-Men ’97 – “Fire Made Flesh”

By Joe

Well, that was a long wait! After the two episode premiere of X-Men ’97 on March 20th I was ready for that third episode. The week long wait felt both excruciating and exhilarating. It’s been a long time since we’ve had an X-Men show to get excited about, or really an X-Men anything, and it’s been a lot of fun to see the early reception the new show has received over the past week. And it doesn’t hurt that the second episode, like the first, ended on a pretty major cliffhanger.

“Mutant Liberation Begins” was an episode that thrust Magneto into the spotlight. What are his goals now that he’s been handed the keys to the mansion? Turns out, he seems to want to give this whole unity thing a try, but humanity is making it difficult. He orchestrated a trip to Genosha for The Morlocks (and asked in doing so why Xavier and the X-Men never did this to begin with to which I agree) and submitted himself for judgement before the United Nations. There, Magneto’s politics were on full display and the show pulled no punches in highlighting who the enemy is, in both the real world and the fantasy one occupied by the characters of this show. It also proved costly for Storm was wounded by the F.O.H. aligned enemy, X-Cutioner, and rendered powerless. This lead to her departure at the conclusion of the episode in an emotionally charged scene, but the sadness wasn’t allowed to linger long for knocking at the door was a mysterious woman in some distress. Oh, and she looks exactly like Jean Grey.

Episode 2 ended on quite the cliffhanger.

Fans of the comics, or those who have just read up on X-Men lore, know a bit of where this should be going. And the show hasn’t hid the fact that Madelyne Pryor, The Goblin Queen, is to play a role in the show this season. Just how it will unravel remains a mystery. Who is the real Jean? Where did this other one come from? And what of the baby born to Scott and Jean in the previous episode? Many questions, and I’m sure all will be answered eventually, but they can’t all be tidied up in just one episode, though “Fire Made Flesh” is sure going to try.

Seeing what gets swapped into and out of the opening title is going to be fun.

The opening title has been updated to, sadly, remove Storm (aside from the group shots). We are treated to multiple cuts of recreated scenes from The Dark Phoenix Saga, and some were present last week, and I’m guessing this swappable scenes approach is going to come in and out in a way to spotlight what’s to follow. And it’s actually Jean (Jennifer Hale) who gets to deliver the “Previously, on X-Men…” line. Last week it was Magneto, who will get a turn next week?

This episode does find time to address why Bishop is present with the team, though don’t expect any real details on how he ended up here.

The episode begins right where the previous one left off. There are two Jeans, and only of them can be real. To my surprise, that question is answered almost immediately. I try to refrain from spoilers as much as possible, and if you couldn’t tell based on my introductory paragraphs, I’ll use the following week’s episode review to kind of react to the prior episode in a more spoiler fashion. In other words, make sure you’re up-to-date before reading one of these reviews, but you should be okay to read the current week’s before actually watching it, if you so desire. Anyway, I will refrain from outing who the Goblin Queen is, but obviously she has to be one of the two Jeans and she is not going to take kindly to finding out she isn’t the real Jean.

We knew the Goblin Queen was coming and she does not disappoint.

The act structure of the episode is basically as follows. The first part deals with the aftermath of the previous episode while the second act is The Mansion vs the X-Men. The Goblin Queen uses her powers to distort reality and force the X-Men to see their greatest fears, or just demons. For Morph, they’re going to see Mr. Sinister and a returning Roberto gets taunted by images of his mother, who doesn’t know he’s a mutant and he suspects will not take that news well. The rest are treated to their own version of Dante’s Inferno and it’s a visual delight. Rarely do the X-Men get to go full horror, and we get to see more creative team-up maneuvers from characters here as the action continues to be a highlight of the show.

There are some horror elements present in this one which is pretty unique for X-Men.

The third act is all about the X-Men vs the Goblin Queen, and the fun part of that battle is seeing her telekinetic powers fully unleashed in a showdown with Magneto. I had concerns that adding Magneto to the regular roster might throw things off. He is, after all, an extremely powerful mutant and there aren’t a lot of foes who pose a true threat to him. Goblin Queen is one such foe though and the battle is brief, but pretty damn cool. The fourth act is the resolution and we do get some setup for the episode to come. It’s not the cliffhanger either of the first two episodes were, but for comic readers it’s definitely enough.

Poor Morph just can’t escape this guy.

X-Men ’97 is credited to Beau DeMayo as the writer, but it’s pretty clear that this show is going to owe a whole lot to the writers who came before him. In particular, this is Chris Claremont’s story on the screen and he, along with many other writers, gets an acknowledgement in the credits. Does that mean he actually gets paid for the series? I don’t know. All of those guys were under work-for-hire agreements and it’s been a longstanding issue in the comics industry. I know Disney has made it a point to pay these guys something for their stories and characters when it comes to the MCU, but it’s probably not as much as they deserve considering how big some of those movies are. Also of note to me through these first three episodes is how the opening theme is credited to Haim Saban and Shuki Levy. I’m guessing that’s another mostly work-for-hire issue as it’s pretty well known that composer Ron Wasserman (working off a baseline provided by Ron Cannon) came up with the intro theme. It’s chronicled really well in the book “Previously…on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series” by Eric Lewald which I strongly recommend to all fans of the shows, both old and new. I don’t point the writer thing out as a way to diminish DeMayo’s contribution to the show, but merely as an acknowledgement that a lot of great writers have contributed to this show so far.

“Fire Made Flesh” is another good episode of television. I think episode two is still the champion, but that’s no slight on this third episode. I think my only criticisms up to this point concerned some of Rogue’s dialogue, but a new criticism is forming in that the show is moving at a very brisk pace. The plot of this episode could have been stretched across multiple ones. I don’t know if we had enough time with the current status quo of the series before getting to this one. The resolution would have been able to land with more impact if we did. One of the last scenes occurring outside the mansion between Jean and her newborn son should have hit harder, but we’ve been with these characters for too short of a time. We’ll see how the fallout is addressed as there is a lot of emotions to sort out and the lasting image we have of Scott and Jean does at least acknowledge that. I just worry that in adapting something that has so rich a history, DeMayo is trying to hit on too much too fast. Perhaps the next episode will calm my fears somewhat. I do think it’s something we won’t truly have a grasp of until the first season is in the books, but so far, the ride is fun and exhilarating and after the wait for this one I’m kind of glad we get a less suspenseful ending this week to hang onto.

For more reviews of X-Men ’97, or my write-up on the book I recommended, check out the below:

Previously on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series

A lot of cartoons made an impact on me as a child. My first love was The Real Ghostbusters. Its goofy cast of characters and excitement were plenty of fun and there were interesting toys to supplement the series with, which was pretty much the goal of all cartoons in the 80s. The Teenage Mutant…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “To Me, My X-Men”

It used to be that when a show got cancelled that was it. It simply ceased to exist as a new product. If there were enough episodes it could last in syndication on both broadcast and cable for a good while, but rarely was it accessible to the point where a fan could have the…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Mutant Liberation Begins”

The first episode of X-Men ’97 left me grinning from ear to ear and eager to see what would happen next. I’m happy to say, the show’s second episode left me feeling very much the same. “Mutant Liberation Begins” starts off right where the previous episode ended. Magneto, has revealed that it was the wishes…

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by Joe

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

March 26, 2024

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Deluxe Mouse-Jaw

By Joe
Let’s talk about evil robot guy and his mechanical sidekick.

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 find them basically wherever Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Origins line is sold. The deluxe figures are apparently going to be exclusive to Walmart. These are bigger or more involved figures that will cost you an extra five bucks. I’m not sure if it’s been confirmed that they’re exclusive to Walmart, or just first-run. Like a lot of store exclusives, don’t be shocked if they wind-up elsewhere by the end of the year. Lastly, we have the deluxe figures with included build-a-figure parts. These too will run you an extra 5 bucks vs. a standard figure and they can only be found at Target. And up first from that subline is Mouse-Jaw, the amalgamation of MOTU villain Trap-Jaw and the mechanical menace M.O.U.S.E.R. from TMNT.

I was going to just get the turtle boys, but here I am adding a villain. And a MOTU villain at that.

If you read my review of the Leonardo and Donatello figures from this line then you know I’m not much of a MOTU fan. It just never hit for me as a kid though I did watch the old cartoon and the mostly terrible movie. As a result, I only have surface level memories of the characters and toys from the show, but Trap-Jaw was indeed one such character. I also liked the robotic, or cyborg, type of characters and he seemed pretty neat. And, of course, I am well versed when it comes to Baxter Stockman’s mousers and I’ve owned several mouser toys over the years. This particular combination of characters feels quite clever. Mouse-Jaw (I’m assuming Mouse Trap was unavailable for toy marketing, or maybe Mattel just wanted a name it could trademark if it wanted) stood out among the rest when the first round of figures were revealed. He really looks exactly like one would expect of a mash-up of these two entities. All of the robotic parts on Trap-Jaw have basically been replaced with mouser parts. It’s all in the aesthetics of MOTU Origins, plus it comes with parts to eventually build the Metalhead-Roboto combination: Metal-Roboto (clever, huh?).

All right, that’s just a cool toy.

What kept me from getting this figure right away was not its design, but its price. Twenty five bucks for a retro-inspired action figure feels too rich. Granted, if you get all four of these planned releases you will end up with five figures for 20 bucks a piece – i.e. the standard MSRP for the other figures in the line. The issue there is I still think the 20 bucks is pushing it. Origins is typically in the $15 per figure range, but I’m guessing the extra five bucks is essentially Viacom’s cut for including the turtles. Still, being a TMNT fan and not really a MOTU one, I’ve mostly decided to pass on the MOTU characters. Lucky for me, Target stocked a lot of these guys and it soon became the only figure from the first wave warming the pegs at virtually every Target I’ve gone into over the past month. Perhaps for that reason, or just to make room for the next Target exclusive figure in the line, Mouse-Jaw hit the clearance rack recently knocking the barrier for entry down to $15. In other words, right in line with what I want to pay for this line.

“When your powers combine…”
“…I am flamethrower mouse guy!”

Mouse-Jaw, despite carrying that “deluxe” label, is still your typical MOTU Origins figure. The torso, legs, and left arm are pretty standard and molded in blue plastic, for the most part. His legs do feature some unique sculpting, which may be from past Trap-Jaw figures, and the feet seem new as they resemble mouser feet. What is definitely new is the head which looks like the usual Trap-Jaw portrait, only with a mouser head around it like a helmet. The bottom jaw of the mouser is what forms the famous jaw portion of Trap-Jaw. The face, which is green, looks like a separate piece that’s glued in leaving the eyes and inner mouth as the only parts needing paint. The top of the helmet has a mouser eye painted on it, and the other major new part is the right arm. It’s all in molded, white, plastic and it’s designed to match the white portion of his harness to create the illusion of the entire right side of the character’s body being robotic. The shoulder bares some resemblance to a mouser head and the wrist ends in a canon. It looks pretty cool, though in what is typical of the line the absence of paint harms the aesthetics. Some linework, a wash, or just some painted details on the sculpted bits would have really made this figure stand out even more, but I get it, that’s not what this line is going for.

This makes me wish Hasbro had snuck a mouser into its TMNT x Power Rangers line.

Mouse-Jaw’s chief accessory is an actual mouser. It’s a conventional take on the diminutive robot with a working jaw, swivel in the head, swivels at the hips, and hinges at the ankles. The head also slides a bit on the neck piece if you want Mouse-Jaw to cock him like a shotgun. It has the same chicken posture as always and size-wise is probably right in between the recent mousers from Super7 and NECA. It does lack a way to look up and down and the only paint is the red for the “eye.” Inside the mouth, is another canon and on the rear is what could be confused for a stubby tail, but is really an adapter to plug the robot into Mouse-Jaw’s arm canon. This certainly adds some flair to the display, though it makes Mouse-Jaw harder to stand. It’s especially hard to deal with if you also clip in the included flamethrower effect. Sculpted in translucent yellow-orange plastic, the flamethrower can fit in the mouser canon or Mouse-Jaw’s canon. You can also pop the legs off of the mouser and clip them onto the sides of Mouse-Jaw’s belt. It’s a little goofy looking, but presents a more streamlined mouser gun.

While we wait to assemble Metal-Roboto, his parts can be put to use by other figures.
You can also plug the Metal-Roboto weapons into the gun arm of Mouse-Jaw in case you think he needs a double gun arm.

The only other accessories included are the build-a-figure parts. These include the right arm for Metal-Roboto and a trio of weapon parts: a gun, axe, and claw. There’s also a little, silver, transistor-like accessory that appears to be a hand adapter so Metal-Roboto (or really anyone) can use the extra weapons in place of hands. The arm is done in metallic silver with a light blue forearm. The elbow won’t have much bend to it when the figure comes out, but that’s more of a topic for later. The weapons are molded in a slightly pearl, blue, plastic. There are two ports on the arm, one on the outside of the shoulder and one the top of the forearm, they can plug into and it looks like the third will plug into the figure’s back. It’s a bit of a bummer that Mattel included the right arm instead of the left. That’s because these figures are modular and Mouse-Jaw can use this arm for his own if you wish and it looks kind of cool, but I’m not replacing the mouser arm for it. At any rate, I am interested in completing this version of Metalhead so hopefully the next three figures are of interest to me (and can be had for less than 25 bucks).

At first, I had no idea what purpose this silver piece served.
Then I figured it out and it’s pretty cool.

The articulation for Mouse-Jaw feels like it’s pretty typical of the line. I say this as someone who has only handled the turtle versions previously, but it really is more of the same. Where Mouse-Jaw differentiates itself from those figures is at the head where the jaw is articulated. It doesn’t open that wide, but it’s not nothing. The right shoulder is pretty limited due to the sculpt. You won’t be able to raise the arm out to the side very far, not even 45 degrees, and for some reason the elbow can’t hit a 90 degree bend when it should have been easy to achieve that and then some due to the sculpt. The ankles are also pretty restricted due to the shin sculpt. The ankles are basically useless as a result, which is a shame as that’s the one articulation point I want as much range as possible for assisting with stances. The articulation is worse than the turtles and rather basic. This figure needs to derive its shelf presence via the design more than the posing.

I hope that armor’s fireproof, Donnie.

Despite those limitations, I do like this figure. It’s a fun look, though I do look at it and think to myself it would look a lot better with more painted details. That’s just not this line though and I can’t exactly hold that against it if it’s not what Mattel is striving for. At 25 bucks, it’s definitely overpriced especially if you have no interest in the build-a-figure. At the 15 I paid it’s pretty much right on the money for me. The next figure in the line is a Slash-Faker mash-up called Sla’ker which I’m less interested in. I definitely won’t want to pay full price so hopefully Target ordered a whole bunch of them and I can wait it out. If you get a chance to add this one for the same price I got it at then I think it’s a no-brainer if you’re at all interested in this line.

Like mousers and MOTU? Check these out:

NECA Cartoon TMNT Mousers Pack

It’s been a little while since we had a Turtle Tuesday around here. NECA was keeping me quite busy in March with release after release and really putting a hurting on my wallet. Not only were sets hitting stores, but items were going up on NECA’s website for preorder, all of which require payment upfront.…

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Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Baxter Stockman

I am weak. When Super7 first unveiled its Ultimates! line of figures based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toyline from Playmates I said I was out. I still had those toys so why did I need 7″ versions of them in 2020? I had NECA and all of the TMNT product being released there,…

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MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Leonardo and Donatello

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

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by Joe

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March 22, 2024

X-Men ’97 – “Mutant Liberation Begins”

By Joe

The first episode of X-Men ’97 left me grinning from ear to ear and eager to see what would happen next. I’m happy to say, the show’s second episode left me feeling very much the same. “Mutant Liberation Begins” starts off right where the previous episode ended. Magneto, has revealed that it was the wishes of Charles Xavier that all of his assets be turned over to his longtime friend and often adversary. Magneto now leads the X-Men, and everyone is worried about where his loyalties truly lay.

The episode begins with a familiar refrain: Previously, on X-Men. Before, it was usually delivered by Norm Spencer, the voice of Cyclops. For the second episode it’s delivered by Matthew Waterson, the voice of Magneto. The opening credits are also updated to feature Magneto first reflecting his new status (and new, big M costume) as headmaster of the institute. This was a plot foretold by the official trailer for the show so it comes as no surprise. It’s also a plot from the comics as is another plot from this episode: the trial of Magneto. In addition to his new presence, there are also new shots included in the intro that mostly replace the classic shots we’re used to seeing. These new ones are recreations of scenes from the original series so it would appear that the opening title will be a little different for every episode which is kind of fun.

Magneto has been welcomed to the opening title.

This episode has to confront the issue of how the X-Men will exist with Magneto in charge and how humanity will respond. Magneto is essentially branded a terrorist by most of the world governments, which is why his reveal as being affiliated with the X-Men leads to a confrontation with Valerie Cooper and the federal government. Perhaps to the surprise of everyone present, Magneto surrenders as he views this as the clearest path to gaining the trust of the team. He does make it clear that he does not share Xavier’s world view that peace between mutants and humans can be achieved, but for the sake of his departed friend, it would appear that he’s at least going to try while also doing things his way.

Magneto will be forced to answer for his crimes before the United Nations.

Much of the episode takes place before a United Nations council set to judge Magneto. It also introduces a new villain: X-Cutioner. Pronounced by the character as “Executioner,” the character is voiced by Lawrence Bayne who is known to fans of the original X-Men cartoon as the voice of Cable. Cable will appear at some point in this show, but with a different voice actor. That choice was justified by series creator Beau DeMayo as being a necessity so that they could cast Cable as someone who sounds closer to Cyclops, something the original series likely didn’t take into consideration. Even with that, I was disappointed at the news as Bayne’s Cable was one of my favorite performances in the old show. He’s fine as X-Cutioner who is an enemy allied with the Friends of Humanity packing some serious fire power, but I’m sure I’ll miss him as Cable whenever that character debuts.

X-Cutioner may be just some guy, but he packs a lot of firepower.

The episode does include a B plot which would be unusual for the original show, but may be a sign of things to come. It’s also a humor-based B plot which would also be unusual and concerns Wolverine and Jean. Everyone except them has gone to the UN to watch Magneto’s trial unfold, so naturally this is the time when Jean goes into labor. It’s up to Wolverine to get her to a hospital and he seems far more unnerved doing that than facing down Apocalypse. It’s not something that chews up a ton of screen time and it was kind of nice to see the show willing to embrace a bit more humor. It also leads to some important character moments like what happens when an extremely powerful mutant shows up in labor at a hospital? And how does Wolverine feel about the woman he loves having a baby with another man? It gives us a great moment between Wolverine and Morph too that elaborates on their friendship, something we were told was a thing in the original series, but really didn’t get to see much of.

There is a history between these two and Magneto seems especially interested in rekindling that.

And speaking of everyone’s favorite love triangle from the original show, we’re apparently about to be served up another. When the writers were handed the keys to the mutant kingdom with that first show, it was a group unfamiliar with the X-Men that had existed in print for decades prior. As a result, they seemed to view the show as a new beginning. Some of that would be retconned in later series when it was acknowledged that the team had existed for awhile prior to the events of the show and more of that is being addressed here with Rogue and Magneto. It would appear their prior relationship before Rogue joined the team is now canon and it’s likely going to lead to some uncomfortable moments between they and Gambit. It just wouldn’t be X-Men without a little soap opera drama. I will say, one of my few criticisms of this episode takes place during these Rogue and Magneto scenes, but not because of the character development, but because of Rogue’s forced dialogue. It would seem writer Beau DeMayo could not get her line about looking as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs out his head because Rogue has a lot of cat puns in this one scene. And they’re not very good. Perhaps the show can add an actual southern, female, writer to the staff just for Rogue lines going forward.

I love the little character moments like this one between Morph and Wolverine. I hope for many more.

For a show that stylizes itself as a superhero action drama, an episode about dry court proceedings would have been dreadfully boring. That’s why “Mutant Liberation Begins” includes more wonderful action set pieces and also contains some pretty earth-shattering shakeups to the team. Like the first episode, this is still a show building towards bigger plots and laying the groundwork for how the series will go. It’s at times uncomfortable, but also exciting and I definitely want to see more. The episode also ends on another shocking reveal. Fans of the comics likely have ideas on where this development will lead, but I also wouldn’t expect a 1:1 recreation of any comic book plots. There will likely be some wrinkles thrown in and a change or two or three. As far as plots that could have been sourced from the books, I think it’s one of the top ones and it’s a plot that I’m glad the original series saved for this show because the more lax standards and practices should allow X-Men ’97 to do it justice.

One thing that’s definitely different from the previous show, X-Men ’97 is not afraid to shake-up the active roster.

Episode two of X-Men ’97 is more of the same, which is great. It’s going to be a long wait each week if all of the episodes are structured like the first two. Never mind the wait we’ll be in for when the season ends. I plan to review every episode of this inaugural season, though I don’t know how quickly I’ll be able to post reviews. It could be a Friday thing each week if I can find the time, or maybe it makes more sense to have a Mutant Monday on this blog? I guess we’ll see, but I’m definitely looking forward to taking this journey with all of my fellow X-Men fans around the globe.

Check out the other X-Men coverage we have here:

X-Men ’97 – “To Me, My X-Men”

It used to be that when a show got cancelled that was it. It simply ceased to exist as a new product. If there were enough episodes it could last in syndication on both broadcast and cable for a good while, but rarely was it accessible to the point where a fan could have the…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Jean Grey

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

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by Joe

Wolverine and the X-Men

It might seem amusing to folks younger than me who grew up on Marvel’s Avengers, but back in the first decade of the new millennium there wasn’t a hotter team of superheroes than the X-Men. The X-Men had been around since the 60s, but really took off as a comic book property in the 80s.…

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by Joe

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March 21, 2024

X-Men ’97 – “To Me, My X-Men”

By Joe

It used to be that when a show got cancelled that was it. It simply ceased to exist as a new product. If there were enough episodes it could last in syndication on both broadcast and cable for a good while, but rarely was it accessible to the point where a fan could have the entire series at their disposal. Some shows received VHS releases, but often they were sparse. Then home media became more affordable. DVDs were both cheaper to manufacture than VHS and could store more information. We started to see full season releases for shows, both active and cancelled. In some cases, the home media market was so great that previously dead programs were able to come back. Now we’ve entered the streaming age where massive entertainment companies are seeking to profit off of their libraries. Those profits have been a bit hard to come by though so these archives need to be supplemented with original programming. Some of that original programming is entirely original or at least only touched by an existing intellectual property (think The Mandalorian) and then some is either a reboot or continuation of an older show.

X-Men ’97 is a continuation of the now classic X-Men animated series that aired as part of the Fox Kids Network from 1992-1997. The original X-Men cartoon was a massive success and turned Wolverine and Gambit into household names. It attracted eyeballs in the millions, sold a bunch of toys, and made lifelong comic book fans out of a generation. For me personally it quickly became my favorite show on television and I was hooked for the show’s entire run. It put Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the rearview mirror as this was something mature, something that more respected my intelligence, and gave me more to chew on. I still adored playing with my X-Men toys and sporting X-Men t-shirts so it’s not like it turned me into an adult overnight or anything, but it was something I genuinely loved in the moment and I still have a ton of admiration for. Having that show continue from where it left off in 1997 was something that didn’t even seem worth dreaming about as that’s how unlikely I felt it would be. Perhaps Disney, who has yet to fully introduce Marvel’s mutants into its vast Marvel Cinematic Universe, wanted to give folks a little primer on what the X-Men were all about? Whatever the reasoning, I am positively giddy like a kid once again that my favorite superheroes are back in an all new television series.

The intro is basically a shot-for-shot remake of the original.

X-Men ’97 was announced in November of 2021. At the time, my assumption was the series was being ticketed to launch in the fall of 2022 to mark the original show’s 30th anniversary. That obviously didn’t happen and the show was slated for 2023, but then slipped to March 2024. For the revival, Marvel selected Beau DeMayo (Moon Knight, The Witcher) to be the head writer with Jake Castorena as the supervising director. From the old show, Eric and Julia Lewald were brought in as consultants along with Larry Houston. Much of the original cast was returned including Cal Dodd as Wolverine, Alison-Sealy Smith as Storm, George Buza as Beast, and Lenore Zann as Rogue. Father Time unfortunately necessitated recasts for both Cyclops (now Ray Chase) and Magneto (now Matthew Waterson). Other voice actors, like Chris Potter (original voice of Gambit) and Catherine Disher (original voice of Jean Grey) were brought back for other roles rather than their existing ones. Such a choice is puzzling, unless we’re talking about a unique case such as Alyson Court who no longer wished to voice Jubilee since she felt the role should go to an actual Asian-American.

The action sequences are where this show will really be able to separate itself from its predecessor.

The show did premiere under a bit of a dark cloud. It was announced that credited series creator Beau DeMayo was fired the week of the show’s sneak preview and a little more than a week out from the Disney+ premiere. As the days went by, the head of animation at Marvel Studios, Brad Winderbaum, revealed some snippets of what was going on. It doesn’t sound like anyone was upset with the quality of the work DeMayo was turning in, and we’ve only heard rumors that he was “difficult” to work with. The term difficult in such a situation can be a loaded one. How many women and people of color have heard that excuse because certain individuals don’t respond well to confrontation from minorities? DeMayo, a gay, black, adopted man was someone who really identified with what the X-Men stood for and removing that voice from the show is certainly a risky move if the show is deemed a success. Winderbaum doesn’t get into specifics on the situation, but does try to frame it as a parting of ways between the showrunner and Marvel.

The group is probably more reflective of the foes to come than the group from the original.

Based on my viewing of the show’s first episode, “To Me, My X-Men,” it would appear that DeMayo’s exit indeed has little to do with the quality of the show. This first episode is the show getting its feet wet. It’s a way to reintroduce these familiar faces in a fun way that does harken back to the original series. It opens with a new version of the classic intro. The song is remixed slightly and all of the character introductions have been recreated and new characters have been added. It still ends with Professor Xavier and Magneto clashing together, though the villains side has been updated with what are probably better, more reflective choices (so long, Gremlin) given who the X-Men typically clash with.

The mutant who will come to be known as Sunspot is basically the Jubilee of this series, only his official joining of the X-Men will have to wait for a later day.

Similar to the premiere episode of the original series, X-Men ’97 includes a plot in its episode about bringing a new mutant into the fold and makes the Sentinels the big threat. Even though the show is longer now (it’s listed at 34 minutes, the actual episode is closer to 28), the episode still moves at a snappy pace. We find the team dealing with the aftermath of the professor’s passing. Cyclops is now the leader and is perhaps a little too forceful with his approach which rubs some members of the team the wrong way (namely, Wolverine). The Friends of Humanity are up to no good and have even repurposed some Sentinel tech into weapons of their own that basically resemble Mega Man’s Mega Buster. Roberto Da Costa (Gui Augustini), a wealthy teen who has been abducted by the FOH, is the one in the Jubilee role this time around, though his trek through the mansion is quite brief. The show appears confident that its audience is going to be pretty familiar with these characters and a more robust introduction was not needed.

The Friends of Humanity are back and they’re packing heat.

Other elements of the premiere include the addition of Valerie Cooper (Catherine Disher, the original voice of Jean Grey) as a government liaison for Cyclops and his team. DeMayo, when he was doing press for the show, described Cooper as the thesis for the show so it will be interesting to see how she’s utilized going forward. There’s also the plotline of Jean being pregnant and what that means for her and Cyclops’ future. The first episode ends with a pretty seismic change to the status quo, though if you saw the trailer it won’t come as a surprise and it’s likely the end you expected. Even so, I’ll save talk of that for episode two.

Wolverine still isn’t allowed to smoke, but looks like he’s now allowed to drink.

The first episode is a great reintroduction for the X-Men and really seems to setup what we’re looking at. It also establishes the look of the series. I’ve been a little wary about that going in, but after one episode I will say my fears were unfounded. This show looks as good as it can in 2024. It’s digitally hand-drawn by Studio MIR which is the right approach given that celluloid animation just isn’t done anymore. Stylistically, there will be folks who prefer the look of the old show, but objectively speaking this one animates much better. That is on full display during the action sequences which are far more fun and inventive. This feels like a show directed by people who as kids wondered just how far the super powers on display here could be pushed. Storm, considered an Omega level mutant in the comics and now show, really gets to show off what she can do to such a scale that I worry if the writers can keep her consistent.

I should have expected this, but I didn’t.

The episode includes closing credits done in the same style as the original show’s first season with a character model spinning in place and a brief descriptor of their powers below. Before it can cycle through all of the characters though, it cuts to a static image of the mansion for the rest of the credits. Was this a nod to how the first season’s ending credits would never get to Jubilee? That always drove me nuts as a kid. If it is in reference to that it’s a bit of clever humor, though I’d rather just see all of the characters get spotlighted. And that’s the one failing, if you will, of this episode is that most of the characters don’t get to do a whole lot. That’s going to happen with such a large cast, one that has even been increased since we last saw this group in action. I would imagine we’ll get spotlight episodes to come while also maintaining a serialized approach. Yes, what network executives hated for their broadcast channels in 1992 is the preferred method of story-telling in 2024. The only other disappointment for me was no in memoriam for the people we’ve lost since the original show went dark. It would have been nice to at least see a tribute to original Cyclops voice actor Norm Spencer and the original voice of Magneto, David Hemblen.

Storm is allowed to cut loose in this one, but will she be allowed to do so in every episode?

X-Men ’97 in its debut episode manages to strike the right balance between new and nostalgic. The fan service hits right and its reserved for parts of the show where fan service is appropriate. It also establishes a tone for the show which is in-line with the serious, dramatic, original series though it’s also apparent that this one will be allowed to be a little more grown-up (Wolverine and Morph are shown enjoying a couple of cold ones). That makes sense since the target audience is the kids of 1992, but it also likely won’t want to alienate the kids of the kids of ’92. It also left me wanting more which was good since this was a two episode premiere. I’ll get to that episode in another post, but the main takeaway for me is our beloved X-Men have been placed in good hands and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Get on the X-Men ’97 hype train with these posts:

X-Men: The Art and Making of the Animated Series

A few years ago, I talked about my love of X-Men, the animated series, via a book review of Previously…on X-Men by Eric Lewald. That book chronicled the development of the 92 animated series that helped propel the Fox Kids Network to the top of the Saturday morning leaderboards through notes from the author and…

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Mondo X-Men TAS 1/6 Scale SDCC Exclusive Logan

Mondo has been absolutely killing it with its sixth scale line of action figures based on the now classic animated series X-Men. The company also really ramped up production in 2023 on the line by soliciting five new figures during the year. At over 200 bucks a pop, it was quite the hit to the…

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Previously on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series

A lot of cartoons made an impact on me as a child. My first love was The Real Ghostbusters. Its goofy cast of characters and excitement were plenty of fun and there were interesting toys to supplement the series with, which was pretty much the goal of all cartoons in the 80s. The Teenage Mutant…

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March 20, 2024

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Jean Grey

By Joe
After getting short-changed by toy manufacturers for decades, Jean finds herself with two animated versions in the span of a few years.

If you are reading this the day it goes live then Happy X-Men ’97 Day! Today is the day the long-awaited sequel series to X-Men debuts on Disney+. Rather than fast-track a review of the first two episodes to this blog, I decided instead to do what I most often do: review an action figure! It was in 2020 that Hasbro announced a subline of Marvel Legends based on the 1992 animated series which were released throughout 2021. Arriving in attractive VHS styled boxes, the X-Men line was more dud than hit. I wanted to love it, but it was hard to shake the feeling that Hasbro was just phoning it in. Despite that, I still bought them all and I continue to buy some of the tie-in figures since Hasbro decided not to deliver the full team. That’s why when the first wave of X-Men ’97 action figures arrived last fall I used it to supplement my existing roster of characters by picking up Magneto, Rogue, and Gambit. The figures had an animated look, though they lacked the cel-shading of the VHS line, but were close enough. Just in time for the debut of the series is wave two. It’s comprised mostly of new characters like Goblin Queen and X-Cutioner as well as some redos in the style of X-Men ’97. As a result, it’s a less attractive wave for me since I don’t want letter of the day Magneto and the VHS Cyclops was one of the few figures I actually liked. However, there was one figure in the line that intrigued me even though I had the VHS version: Jean Grey.

The new figure has a bit of a dead eye going on, but it’s better than the old which looks like a duck-faced Sharon Stone.

I’m not sure which figure was my least favorite in the X-Men VHS line from Hasbro, but the fact that Jean is in the running should probably say enough. The figure is dated and Hasbro couldn’t even be bothered to get the color of her costume right, but more than anything, I just hated the portraits. The figure was a re-release of an existing figure with a new paint job as that’s basically all of the effort Hasbro could muster when it came to the line. She had a ponytailed portrait, but it looked nothing like the version of the character from the show. They also included her down hair portrait, even though she never sported that look in that costume during the entire show’s run, and it was a release that just left me all sorts of grumpy in the end. The only positive I could lay on it was that the cel-shading was actually done pretty well given the standards of the line.

I know there are a lot of people who dislike cel-shading on their figures, but this costume needs something because the design is rather plain.

Jean gets a redo with X-Men ’97, and like most of the characters in the show making a return, she still sports a look that’s very similar to her ’92 counterpart. It’s a costume based on the look Jim Lee gave her and based on some of the promotional artwork I’ve seen it looks like she’ll have the ponytail some days, and let her hair down on others. The figure itself comes in the usual blister and Jean has her hair down look on the card despite the default portrait being the ponytail one. The figure stands approximately 6.25″ to the top of the head. Her costume is basically now a pale orange and dark blue. The figure is mostly orange plastic with a V-shape of blue on the front of the torso and a more rectangular one on the back. The shoulder pads are little cuts of blue plastic pinned into the top of the joint. The belt is still separate from the body, but it fits quite snug to the crotch piece. Paint is largely reserved for the face, X logo, and the blue parts of the arms and hands. The blue on the torso appears to be plastic that’s been plugged into the orange portion. The legs have a lot of sculpted details to the costume, but zero paint which give the figure an unfinished look to it. It’s obviously a limitation to some degree of the character design, but some linework in the grooves cut into the legs would have added a lot.

New Jean seems to scale smaller, but I like that. The smaller head relative to the body is a better fit for the source material as well.

The main draw of this figure for me is simply the default portrait. Jean is sporting a very neutral expression to the point where she looks almost bored. The face and ears are at least painted okay, though it’s a little messy around the right ear. The blue trapezoid shape on her forehead is just painted on and lacks presence since it blends in with the dark blue cowl. The hair is a separate piece of bright, orange, plastic. The sculpt is fine, but Hasbro missed a paint hit as her forehead is visible between the top of the cowl and hair and it’s just left blue. Her part is going in the right direction though and her ponytail isn’t stupid long so I consider it a win. Her eyes are also blue this time, which is consistent with the animated series. The prior release went with the comic green eyes. Most of the colors match with the only one being off the crotch piece which is a darker orange. It’s more noticeable in pictures than in person.

Looks like they missed some paint on her forehead. As far as I know, this is true for all of the figures.

The portrait isn’t a homerun, but it’s a solid double and a vast improvement over the VHS figure. And if you’re like me then I have good news as the size of the ball joint on both figures is the same. If you want, you can put this head on the VHS Jean body and the only blemish is the dark blue cowl which should be shaded black. It’s not enough to bother me and since the cel shading was executed well I do think this will be my preferred Jean going forward. I do think the forearms on the new figure are a better match for the original series as well when it comes to the gauntlets she wears, but they’re the wrong color and I don’t know how easy it would be to swap the arms. The shade of orange wouldn’t be an exact match either, but someone more committed than me could definitely kitbash the hell out of these two figures.

She does seem even smaller when put next to Rogue and Bishop.

As for the actual, new, figure, it does some things better than the old while also creating its own issues. For additional accessories, we get the hair down portrait. Swapping is easy and the hair looks fine, but will lock the head down and cut out almost all articulation at the neck. This portrait has a slight smile to it, but it’s again another lifeless face. She looks like a mannequin. Aside from that, it’s at least painted well and the hair hides the ears. The only other accessories is another set of hands. She comes with a right fist and an open left hand. The second set is a style pose pair that are open and very similar (if not the same) as the open hands that have come with past Jeans.

“Look, mom! Double elbows!”

The articulation is an area where this new Jean differentiates itself from the past ones the most. As far as I know, we’re dealing with all new sculpts here. The head is on a double ball peg instead of the hinged ball peg the other Jean has. It’s an improvement, though once again Hasbro buried the lower ball too deep in the neck needlessly limiting the range. She barely has any range looking down and only a little looking up. Rotation and tilt are fine, but Hasbro needs to figure these joints out. The shoulders are standard hinged pegs and she can raise her arms out to the side a full 90 degrees from the body. There’s a biceps swivel past that, pin-less double-jointed elbows, and a swivel and hinge at the wrist. The elbows will bend well past 90, though it’s not the most attractive joint. This Jean can at least get her hands to her forehead though.

Aside from the cowl being a little off, I think this looks pretty good. Certainly an improvement.

In the torso we have…nothing. It’s almost bizarre to see no articulation cut into a torso even though it’s theoretically a cleaner presentation. Instead, we get a ball joint at the waist. It goes forward and back a bit and offers full rotation and tilt. This is in comparison to the prior Jean which had a ball joint in the diaphragm and nothing at the waist. It should be both! Why can’t we have nice things, Hasbro? The hips will go out to the side past 45 degrees, but shy of full splits. Jean can kick forward about 90 degrees, but not back at all due to the shape of her buttocks. There is a thigh twist and the double-jointed knees are pin-less and work fine. The ankle hinge bends back all the way, but not forward very far. The ankle rocker is pretty steep, but there. Lastly, the ponytail just pegs into the back of the standard head and can rotate.

Yup, this is how she’s going to live on my shelf.

Is this new Jean an improvement on the old? Yes and no. There’s a softness to the sculpt, and when combined with the lack of any articulation cut into the torso as well as no paint, it gives the figure a very plain appearance. The softness does appear to at least resemble the animation, though I’m sure the show will feature shading of some kind. I don’t know why Hasbro didn’t get her a ball joint in the diaphragm as that would have really added to the articulation, but instead it’s just mediocre. It’s nice to see the arms updated with double-jointed elbows and I prefer the sculpted-in forearm gauntlets, but not enough to display this figure in place of the VHS version. Instead, I’m just taking this new head, slapping it on the old body, and calling it “good enough.” I just wish I didn’t have to spend another 25 bucks to get my Jean figure to this current state.

Get your X-Men fix right here before you check out the brand new X-Men ’97:

Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Jean Grey

For some reason, Jean Grey has never been treated well by toy makers. Back in the Toy Biz days, Jean had to wait several years to finally show up in the X-Men line of action figures, and once she did, it was in some gimmicky line in a costume that looked made-up. Her first, good,…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Bishop

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

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Rogue

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

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by Joe

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March 18, 2024

Wolverine and the X-Men

By Joe

It might seem amusing to folks younger than me who grew up on Marvel’s Avengers, but back in the first decade of the new millennium there wasn’t a hotter team of superheroes than the X-Men. The X-Men had been around since the 60s, but really took off as a comic book property in the 80s. That popularity helped land the X-Men on TV in 1992 via the hit Fox Kids show simply called X-Men. That show wrapped in 1997, but not too long after that came the film franchise, the first trilogy of which concluded in 2006. Following that, it was known throughout the industry that Fox intended to break-up the X-Men for future films with rumors that Wolverine, Magneto, and I want to say even Gambit were expected to get solo films. Of them, only Wolverine managed to land his own film franchise, but during that same era came a new animated series: Wolverine and the X-Men.

If Wolverine was the franchise’s biggest star and set to lead his own film franchise, then it made sense to have a prominent television tie-in to keep the kids interested, especially if the films were going to aim a little older. The show premiered in January 2009 on the Nicktoons network which means Wolverine, Cyclops, and the rest are now all on equal footing with Tommy Pickles, Arnold, Stimpy, and the rest of the Nicktoons gang. The show was developed by Craig Kyle and Greg Johnson, and while I don’t think either has ever stated it, but the show feels like a spiritual successor to the first animated series. It has a very similar approach in that the world the X-Men inhabit has existed for awhile before we get to jump-in. These characters have a history with one another and we’re going to see some of that, or we’re just expected to already know. It’s a very dramatic series and not your typical Nicktoon as it’s not out to make the audience laugh. The characters are often pretty humorless, the stakes are high, and sometimes things seem rather grim. It’s also serialized and the type of show that rewarded viewers who tuned in each week for a new episode, but may have also alienated the ones who did not.

Back in 2009 I was not comfortable with the idea of Wolverine leading the X-Men. In 2024, I’m still not all that comfortable with it.

For me, I was well into adulthood when this show came about and I was immediately turned off just by hearing the name. Wolverine and the X-Men? First, we’re reducing the team to a bunch of Robins and it’s not just spotlighting Wolverine with the title, but actually making him the leader of this version of the X-Men. I’ve never liked the idea of Wolverine as a leader because a core part of his character is he’s a loner at heart. There always comes a point where he feels like he needs to close himself off to his allies and deal with things by himself. The show does take steps to address that, but it’s not something I ever become comfortable with. The second X-Men film does a solid job of making Wolverine a reluctant leader, but one of the failings of the third is he basically carries himself as a born leader. This show has some of that, it attempts to make him grow as a leader, but there’s a credibility problem throughout.

The portrayal of Wolverine turned me off and kept me away for years. The show also was not picked up for a second season following a debut 26 episodes. It’s said the financing partner had problems as a second season was in pre-production, but I think most attribute the show’s demise to the Marvel acquisition by Disney. That too took place in 2009 and Disney would refocus the brand onto film assets it had control over. That meant X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man would see a reduction in marketing and promotion in favor of The Avengers. If Disney had wanted to step in and finance a second season of Wolverine and the X-Men it absolutely could have done so, but chose not to. Because of that, I felt no compulsion to even check out the show since nothing further was coming. When Disney+ launched I started watching it, but it didn’t hold my attention. Only recently have I decided to really give this one a shot. We’ve been deprived X-Men cartoons for a long time now and there’s a good chance I missed out on something special. And if I didn’t, well at least this would be a decent way to pass time during my workout.

The show begins with an unexplained tragedy and much of the show’s sole season is devoted to uncovering just what happened.

Wolverine and the X-Men begins with the X-Men well established. Wolverine (Steve Blum) and Rogue (Kieren van dan Blink) are in the midst of an argument as it appears Wolverine is blasting off by himself once again. Suddenly, Professor Xavier (Jim Ward) and Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale) experience what looks to be a terrible headache and an explosion results. There’s a massive crater on the grounds of the Xavier Institute and the other X-Men are all in some state of distress, except Professor X and Jean who have vanished without a trace.

Following the traumatic beginning, there’s a time skip of a year and humanity has created the MRD – Mutant Response Division which all mutants view as a threat to their livelihood. This prompts Wolverine and Beast (Fred Tatasciore) to reassemble the X-Men to fight back, but without the aid of a telepath the job is tough. Enter Emma Frost (Kari Wahlgren), a former headmistress herself of a mutant school, who wishes to offer her telepathic abilities in exchange for membership in the team. Wolverine agrees, and Emma is able to locate Xavier in Genosha, a small, island nation controlled by Magneto (Tom Kane). There they find Xavier alive, but in a coma. Magneto allows the X-Men to take Xavier home even though he very much clings to his own ambition to squash humanity with or without the help of the X-Men. Once home, the real plot begins as Xavier is able to telepathically reach Wolverine from 20 years in the future.

Xavier is able to communicate telepathically from the future with his X-Men, of which he’s chosen Wolverine to lead.

The season unfolds both in the present and the future. Xavier has awakened to find himself in a post apocalyptic wasteland. The war between humanity and mutants laid waste to everything and now the sentinels run the show. Yes, this is like a version of the classic “Days of Future Past” plot, but as a whole series. Xavier appoints Wolverine as the leader of the X-Men and charges him with reassembling the team so that they can prevent this future from happening. This will bring them into contact with past members, some join up, and some don’t. Most of them embody their typical archetypes, in particular Iceman (Yuri Lowenthal) and Shadowcat (Danielle Judovits) who are basically the happy-go-luck teens of the team. Then you have Cyclops (Nolan North) who is essentially a shell of his former self following the loss of Jean. Rogue has run-off to join Quicksilver’s (Mark Hildreth) Brotherhood of Mutants essentially defecting to the bad guys while former X-Men like Angel (Liam O’Brien) and Nightcrawler (also O’Brien) feel their talents could be better utilized elsewhere.

The season unfolds with Wolverine working to stop the MRD while Xavier has joined up with some mutants in the future to try and figure out just what happened. Time seems to operate on “Days of Future Past” rules where a day in the present equals a day in the future for Charles, so he can’t simply go back further in time to prevent the initial explosion. We’re basically fed breadcrumbs for the main plot throughout the season and it all pays off in a suitable way in the end. Also along the way are numerous one-shots sprinkled throughout like episodes where the X-Men have to help a fellow mutant avoid capture by the MRD or explore some relationships between team members. There’s naturally some Wolverine solo missions reaching back to his days in the Weapon X program. A lot of this type of stuff borrows liberally from the comics, but there is often some twist introduced. For example, Wolverine did not have a relationship with Silver Fox in his past, but a different woman the identity of which might have annoyed some, but I kind of liked. I wish it had been explored more, but I’m guessing that was being saved for a future season. The show is definitely at its best when it’s sticking to the main plotline, but some of the one-offs are entertaining.

Is anyone surprised to see Bishop among Xavier’s allies in the future?

Toonz Entertainment handled the production on the show which strikes me as a mix of how the characters looked during the Astonishing X-Men era with some stylization likely intended to give the show it’s own vibe while also making it easier to animate. A lot of the male characters are depicted with large upper bodies and tiny wastes with long legs. Even a short guy like Wolverine has pretty long legs, though he’s also not as short as he would have been depicted pre-Hugh Jackman era. The women are presented more straight up and down though their abdomens usually pinch-in dramatically. They’re also almost universally well-endowed. It’s all 2D, and if any 3D effects are in use they’re well hidden. The costumes are largely from the Astonishing era and I guess since this was a cartoon for digital cable they were able to get away with keeping them pretty true to book so Emma Frost looks like she’s about to burst out of her top in basically every scene she occupies. The animation itself is pretty good and there’s no denying that this show animates better than the Fox series. Whether or not you like the style present is certainly more of a subjective decision.

The music is appropriately dramatic. It very much feels like it was intended to evoke the film franchise and I wasn’t sure if I was even hearing compositions taken from the films itself. Film composer Michael Kamen doesn’t receive a credit, so I think this is just a case of the show’s composer Dean Grinsfelder doing a good job of inhabiting that style. The voice cast is basically all new for those of us who grew up on the old cartoon series. Steve Blum is a solid Wolverine. He knows when to add a little growl to his lines and when to play it more straight-up. I like Nolan North as Cyclops and was surprised at how much Tom Kane’s Magneto sounds like Patrick Stewart, which kind of makes me want to see Stewart play the character, but that’s obviously not happening. Nobody on this show makes me forget the cast I grew up on or replaces their voices in my head when I read dialogue in a comic, but I did enjoy what was here.

There’s a whole episode devoted to Marrow playing the role of Hogarth to this sentinel’s Iron Giant. It’s cute.

Wolverine and the X-Men consists of twenty-six episodes and there is a resolution to a lot of the questions the series has at the onset. That doesn’t mean it ends all neat and tidy as there very much was a new threat setup for the following season that never came. It’s a shame, because it could have been interesting to see how this show would handled some pretty familiar comic book plots. It also would have been fun to see how the team’s dynamic worked post finale as there were some changes.

I do think I was initially rather hard on the series and it was probably a mistake for me to dismiss it based on the premise. I did enjoy my time with the show, though it’s not perfect. Like a lot of X-Men media, the show struggles with the large cast. We wind up knowing plenty about some of the A-listers, but the B-team, if you will, gets very little time to shine. Shawdowcat and Iceman basically exist just for their powers and are given almost nothing to do aside from that. Ditto for Beast who serves the role of “smart guy” who can figure out most of their problems. Rogue and Wolverine have a lot of conflict at the beginning that just sort of fades away and gets a very quick, last second, resolution in the end. And part of this issue stems from the mutants in Genosha having their own plots as well as those in the future with Xavier. There’s a lot going on and the show was certainly ambitious with the scope of its plot. Even though it stumbles, I do appreciate how far the show tried to take things as it demonstrates a real faith in its audience to be able to follow along. They weren’t just trying to sell toys to five-year-olds.

With the show long dead, the only remaining question is “Should you bother?” I think if you’re a fan of the X-Men then this show is a fun diversion. Yes, if you end up liking it then you’ll feel some pain when it’s over since the show was cut down so unceremoniously. With X-Men ’97 continuing the adventures of the original show perhaps a revival of Wolverine and the X-Men is possible? I wouldn’t get your hopes up as the show definitely didn’t have the impact of the ’92 series, but I suppose anything can happen. I do think the show is enjoyable for what it is so while it sucks that there wasn’t a second season, watching this definitely doesn’t feel like a waste of time.

We have plenty more coverage of Wolverine and the animated X-Men:

X-Men: The Art and Making of the Animated Series

A few years ago, I talked about my love of X-Men, the animated series, via a book review of Previously…on X-Men by Eric Lewald. That book chronicled the development of the 92 animated series that helped propel the Fox Kids Network to the top of the Saturday morning leaderboards through notes from the author and…

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by Joe

Mondo X-Men TAS 1/6 Scale SDCC Exclusive Logan

Mondo has been absolutely killing it with its sixth scale line of action figures based on the now classic animated series X-Men. The company also really ramped up production in 2023 on the line by soliciting five new figures during the year. At over 200 bucks a pop, it was quite the hit to the…

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by Joe

X-Men: The Animated Series – The Adaptations

Halloween 1992 was when things really changed for the X-Men. A high-selling comic book was about to blow open and enter the mainstream with a hit new Saturday morning cartoon series. Spearheaded by Eric Lewald for Saban Entertainment, X-Men would become the highest rated children’s program on the Fox Network and the overall highest rated…

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March 12, 2024

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Leonardo and Donatello

By Joe
The warriors of the forgotten sewer have just been legitimized.

These days, there isn’t much the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles haven’t crossed-over with. Back in the day we had Star Trek, trolls, and the Universal Monsters. More modern times have seen cross-overs with the likes of WWE, Ghostbusters, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Throughout all of that, as well as the action figure license seemingly opening up, many of the world’s biggest toy producers have laid their hands on TMNT. One of the last remaining holdouts, Mattel, is now joining those ranks which is interesting because Mattel very nearly acquired the license from the beginning. A prototype was even made for a potential Mattel turtle, but it never went farther than that. Well, better late than never (yeah, right, think about all of the money Mattel and others missed out on by passing on TMNT in the 80s) as we now have Mattel versions of the turtles, but with a decidedly different flavor.

It’s Leo like you’ve never seen him before – naked!

Masters of the Universe is a toyline I’ve never been into. I was born into a post-MOTU world where the action figure market was massive: C.O.P.S., Transformers, M.A.S.K., The Real Ghostbusters, just to name a few. Sure, I watched He-Man and the Masters of the Universe on television like many boys my age and I had been excited to see the baffling live-action movie as well. I guess it just didn’t stick. For whatever reason, I can never recall asking my parents for the toys. I had friends and cousins who had a bunch of MOTU figures and play sets, but I never did and never really yearned for them either. It’s a bit surprising to me that I didn’t have one figure, but that’s just how it was. The only He-Man toys I can recall owning came from The New Adventures of He-Man. I had one action figure and one role play sword that made cool laser sounds. I don’t recall ever pretending to be He-Man while playing with it, rather I thought of myself as Link from The Legend of Zelda. That lone He-Man figure joined the likes of the Ultimate Warrior, Junkyard, and Sunstreaker as single toys I owned from popular toy lines.

That was an interesting design choice.

I suppose it goes without saying that the new mashup of Masters of the Universe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn’t specifically aimed at me since I don’t consider myself a MOTU fan. I do enjoy the good mashup though when it concerns my boys in green so it was naturally on my radar. And it’s impossible to be an action figure enthusiast in this day and age and not know about Masters of the Universe Origins. This retro-inspired toyline from Mattel is essentially the vintage line with modern improvements. The base look of the characters has changed very little, but they now have things like elbow joints – what a concept! It’s been well received and I constantly hear from TMNT fans how they wish Playmates Toys would do the same. It’s almost shocking that they haven’t tried (the Last Ronin figure they released is sort of in the same style), but maybe the re-releases are making them enough money?

Oh god I hate it. Put that shell back where it belongs!

First of all, I’ve seen the coverage of this line where a lot of the folks presenting it have stressed that this isn’t a mashup. It’s a story about the turtles and He-Man and there’s a companion comic book to emphasize that (it’s nothing special, but each figure comes with one). Bologna. There may be a story, but at least where the turtles are concerned, the character designs are clearly TMNT character crossed with MOTU character. Even the MOTU characters are getting turtle-themed armor so they’re like a mashup as well. Regardless, we have new character designs incorporated into the Origins set of tools and you’re either here for them or you’re not. For me personally, I could not care less about the MOTU characters. I’ll admit, Mouse-Jaw looks kind of cool, but I don’t need it. I’m here for the turtles and after only encountering the MOTU characters in stores, I finally came upon a lone Leonardo and singular Donatello so I decided to give them a whirl.

If you have always wanted to play dress-up with your turtles then these are for you.

This Turtles of Grayskull line of figures comes in a standard blister pack with new card art on the front and rear that’s pretty eye-catching. I confess, I don’t buy many blister-carded figures anymore so slotting these two in my shopping bag brought back the warm fuzzies of doing the same when I was a kid. Leonardo is billed as the heroic ninja turtle leader while Donatello is referred to as the heroic turtle-at-arms. In other words, this is He-Man Leo and Man-At-Arms Donnie. The Origins line is basically designed to be one size fits all – for the most part. This is nothing new to TMNT and it should come as no surprise that both figures are the same. The only sculpted difference are the heads. Origins differentiates releases via the accessories. Both figures have a bunch of removable armor pieces that either slide on or strap on. The only things non-removable are their furry trunks which are part of the sculpt, the wrist bands, and the shin guards. Donatello’s helmet also appears to be non-removable, which is a bummer.

They do have weapon storage, but in the case of Leonardo I don’t recommend it.

Both figures stand at a tick under 6″ – let’s call it 5 7/8″. They’re a little bigger than the vintage MOTU size, but I think that’s entirely due to these figures having articulated knees as opposed to pre-posed ones. As I said, the body is the same across both figures. It has a more pronounced V-shape to the torso and it reminds me a bit of the 2003 cartoon series design or the Super Mutants from even before that. It’s a different, more heroic, look for the turtles and their waists pinch in. The limbs are still plenty beefy and they have the right hands and feet. Leonardo is also in his classic Playmates green and Donatello in his brownish tone. The finish across the board is matte so no shiny, plastic, skin tones here. The shell is where the sculpt gets interesting as they have a sculpted-in shell on the back of the torso, but it’s not painted. Instead, they also have a more traditional shell that can be worn and it also doubles as a shield. It’s mildly unsettling. I don’t know why it bothers me, but it’s weird.

These two are pretty close in size to other modern iterations of the turtles so if you want them to drive the Turtle Van or the Party Wagon they probably can.

The Origins line is a throwback one, so it’s probably not terribly surprising to find out the paint, overall, is limited. The plastron is painted a sunflower yellow and each turtle has colored straps around their shins. The only other paint is reserved for the bracers on the wrists, the bandanas, eyes, and teeth. The paint on the bandana of my Leonardo is pretty sloppy with a lot of the blue continuing onto the face. I would have loved to have come across multiples of this figure in the store to see if some were better than others, but alas there has been only the one. The chest straps on my Leonardo were also stuck to the chest out of the package so the paint is a little marred underneath. There is a belt that goes across the back of the shell which is painted as well and it looks fine. Otherwise, these figures are more relying on the colored plastic of the armor bits to create shelf presence.

The traditional two-sword look for Leo kind of sucks with this release.

And those armor bits are a double-edged sword. Leonardo comes with a skirt piece, shoulder pads, and a chest harness which has this big, furry, mane attached to the back of it. He also has an additional forearm guard that is intended for his left arm. These three armor pieces just slide on and they make the figure more cumbersome to handle as they’re always moving. The Origins line is essentially a modular one so everything is intended to be mixed and matched amongst figures. In that, they’re kind of like the dolls we action figure collectors have been insisting are different from what we like. I don’t love the mane which appears to be glued to the harness which sucks. I was hoping it was removable, and I suppose if I really wanted to I could take it off, but I’m not the type to make permanent alterations to my toys. The chest strap does have some paint to it in the form of a big L in the middle of the chest which looks clean. The blue bits have a pearl quality to the finish, despite just being plastic and mostly look okay. They look better if you can hide the big rings on them that fit around the arms, but that can be a challenge.

Donatello looks fine, I’m just personally not a big fan of the Man-At-Arms aesthetic.

For Donatello, all of his armor comes on him out of the package. He has his own chest armor which features this big face guard right in the middle. I’ve never liked that aspect of the Man-At-Arms design and unfortunately that part doesn’t come off. In addition to that chest piece, he has a ring around his right bicep and a big piece of shoulder armor on the left. There’s a left wrist guard as well and he has shin guards which don’t loop on, but actually have plastic straps that basically function like zip ties. There are some silver bits painted on his chest and wrist as well as a fur trim, which is certainly a choice. The plastic is a lighter shade of purple and it also has that pearl quality that Leonardo’s has.

For some reason, I feel like the Power Rangers Shredder goes better with these guys than a standard one would.

In addition to the armor, both figures come with their own weapons. For Leonardo, he has his own take on He-Man’s sword of power, or whatever it’s called. It has a play feature in that it comes as two swords that can be snapped together into one. It’s cast in a silver plastic, and as one sword looks fine, but as two looks stupid. The handles are too thin for Leonardo to hold reliably and you’re better off just sticking with the one sword. It can slot into the belt on the back of the shell, but it’s tight and it left a weird bubble-looking eyesore on the blade. There must be a coating of some kind on the plastic. Donatello comes with what looks like a big mace. It’s all orange, and the handle is sculpted to resemble wood with tape around it like Donatello’s traditional bo staff. It can connect with Man-At-Arms’ version of the weapon to create one, large, version. There is a turtle shell sculpted into the top of the weapon, but given that it’s not painted it doesn’t really add to the vibe. I don’t particularly care for the look of this weapon, but it’s his only weapon so he’s going to have to make due. It also can slot into the belt loop and does so much easier than Leo’s swords. And as I mentioned before, the shells can come off and function as handheld shields, if you’re a sicko.

When it comes to mashups with other popular toy lines this definitely isn’t TMNT’s first rodeo.

Since this is a throwback line I wasn’t expecting much out of the articulation. Consider me surprised to find out these guys move pretty well. The heads are on double ball pegs so their range of motion is just fine. The shoulders are standard hinged ball pegs, but their range is plenty good as they can be raised up to a horizontal position and rotate just fine. They’re pegged in at a downward angle so rotating them can also raise the arms higher. There is no biceps swivel, but the forearm pegs in at the elbow and features a hinge so it rotates in addition to having the hinged motion. You should get 90 degrees, though this joint was the tightest on my figures. The wrists rotate and feature a horizontal hinge, the only major complaint I have since this is a line of guys wielding melee weapons. Give them vertical hinges!

I should probably toss-in one vintage comparison. This new Leonardo portrait and the shade of blue does give me 2003 vibes.

At the waist is a basic twist and the hips connect via ball and socket joints. They’re probably the most limited, or just tight, but they don’t kick forward as far as I’d like. I suppose this is a line of brawlers and not ninjas so I can’t expect the greatest range. There’s no room for the thigh to pivot on the ball joint, which is unfortunate. The knees are setup just like the elbows so you get a hinge and a rotation point. The hinge is very tight and offers less than 90 degrees of range. There is a shin twist and the ankles hinge forward and back and feature an ankle rocker. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting the ankle rocker so that being there was a pleasant surprise that has colored my thoughts on the articulation in a more positive light. Stepping back from that, the legs kind of suck and there’s no ab crunch to be found. A ball joint at the waist would have been nice to get a little more nuance in there, but perhaps Mattel felt that would break-up the vintage look too much. It would have helped add to the modular nature of the line though as ball joints are usually easy to separate. I haven’t tried disassembling these guys beyond removing the head and the hands. The legs do not look like they’re designed to come off easily so I personally wouldn’t try.

As far as mash-ups go these figures aren’t bad. They’re definitely TMNT figures for MOTU fans first as opposed to vice versa. Some of the stuff I don’t like are just traits of the line and not something I’d expect Mattel to change because it’s attracting a new audience. Incidentally, it’s the modular elements of these figures that don’t go far enough for me that are among my biggest criticisms. I wish Donatello’s helmet was removable and the fur trim of Leo’s harness. I still think the removable shell is bizarre and off-putting, but that could just be me. It never bothered me when Cecil turtle did it in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but I guess I don’t like seeing Leonardo take off his shell.

“To arms, my turtles!”

The mashup nature of the line is probably what will determine how much someone likes it. Leo essentially crossed with He-Man is a no-brainer, though it looks like Michelangelo is going to be as well. Donatello as Man-At-Arms doesn’t do nearly as much for me and I mostly bought him because I know I’m going to at least want all four turtles. That’s just how these things go. They’re fun figures to mess around with though, and it does make we wish Mattel was in charge of a TMNT Origins line of its own since Playmates doesn’t appear interested in doing such. The quality of the construction is good, the figures have a nice feel, and I think they do a good job of balancing modern design with vintage aesthetic. At 20 bucks a pop, they’re not quite the deal I wish they were. At 15 bucks these would be no-brainers, but there isn’t much occupying that price level anymore. If you’re holding out for a clearance sale, it might be hard to come by. These things appear to be flying off the shelves with only the Target exclusive Mouse-Jaw lingering on the pegs near me (which may have something to do with its $25 price tag) so it may not pay off to wait. If you really want them, get them!

There’s not a lot of Masters of the Universe coverage here, but there sure is plenty of Turtle Talk:

Rad Plastic

I think it was during the summer of 2020 while spending one of the many days of that year inside and isolated that I stumbled upon a Twitter post about an upcoming book titled Rad Plastic. I believe the tweet was from the account The Toys That Made Us, which is (was?) a Netflix series…

by Joe

Masters of the Universe: Revelation (Part 2)

Well, I sat on this one for awhile. Last summer saw the return of the Masters of the Universe to television in the form of Revelation. In somewhat typical Netflix fashion, the show arrived in “parts” rather than seasons though unlike many Netflix shows they’re at least not trying to trick us by calling either…

by Joe

Playmates TMNT The Last Ronin PX Previews Exclusive (Chase)

A few years ago, Mattel launched a new subline of action figures based on their most famous IP: Masters of the Universe. The subline was titled Origins and it basically took the vintage toys of the 80s and updated them with more modern articulation while still preserving that vintage aesthetic. And ever since then, collectors…

by Joe

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March 6, 2024

Gargoyles – The Goliath Chronicles

By Joe

Over thirty years ago, ego and the dollar ruled. It was a world with a changing television landscape. It was the golden age for animation! On one side you had the CEO of The Walt Disney Company Michael Eisner who entered the world of television animation with one goal in mind: to make the best animation television has ever seen (and to make a lot of money doing so). As a rival there was Stephen Spielberg. He too wanted to create animation for television that didn’t look like it was created for television. Neither man was so foolish as to suggest that their output would be as good as a feature film, but it was going to be miles ahead of what had come before it. By the late 90s though, all that was coming to an end. The television boom in animation was over as networks were finding it cheaper to import shows already created. Kids would watch whatever was put in front of them and ego gave way to fiscal responsibility. Such can be seen in the transition from Gargoyles to The Goliath Chronicles.

Yup, we’re finally doing it. After spending years avoiding the third season of the Disney Afternoon show Gargoyles I finally decided to take a look and see what all the fuss was about. If you’re new to Gargoyles, basically the show aired as part of the syndicated Disney Afternoon in the mid-90s. It was one of the later additions to the programming block which started winding down in the years that followed. With that, came the end of all of the shows that were part of it unless they could find a home elsewhere. Gargoyles was one such show and given a stay of execution as it would be moved to ABC’s One Saturday Morning as Disney recently acquired the network. Going from syndication to a network show is a big change behind the scenes as it introduces a whole new round of standards and practices, those things viewers and television producers tend to hate. For reasons not entirely clear to me, basically all of the creative staff on the show was replaced including showrunner Greg Weisman. Some may have left of their own accord as a the third season was a mere 13 episodes and in animation writers like to seek out full-series orders, whenever possible. Weisman did contribute to the third season’s first episode as a writer and was a consulting producer for the third season, but he’s indicated his only contributions were essentially negations.

The third season came with a new intro featuring CG that has not aged well. Perhaps that’s why the Disney+ episodes feature the Season Two intro.

Nevertheless, the show must go on and it’s not like a giant company like Disney would let anything stop them from doing something they wanted to do with a property they owned. The third season was given the subtitle The Goliath Chronicles and ran for 13 episodes. The voice cast returned and each episode was given an introductory monologue by Goliath (Keith David), a mostly pointless addition, but not one without merit since more Keith David is never a bad thing. Carl Johnson returned to handle the music, but beyond that almost everything was different. Eric Lewald (X-Men, Exo-Squad) was brought in as the new showrunner and joining him in the writer’s room were a lot of folks also associated with Fox’ X-Men. Both shows were still in production with X-Men also receiving its own surprise final season order and it’s possible the writers were spread thin. As an added challenge, the new writers were completely new to the show from what was reported. If any had watched Gargoyles previously I couldn’t find confirmation. Perhaps not surprisingly, the third season of Gargoyles shares a lot in common with X-Men as the main, over-arching, plot concerns a KKK-like group called The Quarrymen introduced in the first episode. Taking the gargoyles to a more grounded world where they have to confront human prejudice doesn’t sound like such a bad idea on the surface, but of course it’s the execution that matters most.

Walt Disney Animation Australia certainly tries hard, I guess that’s all we can ask.

Perhaps the biggest change for an animation lover such as myself is on the production end. As covered in the opening paragraph, by 1996 there was little appetite at Disney to keep raising the bar for what was being shown on television when it came to animation. Gargoyles was taken from Walt Disney Animation of Japan and handed over to Nelvana which in turn outsourced a lot of the episodes to Akom and Hanho Heung-Up Company, neither of which carries the reputation of some of the studios that worked on the first two seasons. The final episode of the season was given to Walt Disney Animation of Japan and it’s a noticeable improvement, though perhaps still not on the level of prior seasons. The penultimate episode, “Seeing Isn’t Believing,” looks over-animated with a lot of exaggerated character movements like someone was trying really hard to impress. That was done by Walt Disney Animation Australia so perhaps it was like an audition of sorts. Most of the episodes use simpler lighting, flatter models, and less demanding staging. The addition of network censors means you’ll rarely see a character throw a punch and instead there’s lots of pouncing and the old animation standby move of a character on their back flipping an adversary off of them.

Given the amount of censorship on this season, it’s a bit surprising they got away with this pseudo gargoyle crucifixion.

Censorship and lesser animation are but a disappointment, but not something that should necessarily doom an animated series. When people cite the third season of Gargoyles as being just plain bad, I have to believe it’s largely due to the approach being quite different. The first two seasons were, more or less, serialized. One plot beget another and during many chapters of the show one episode lead into another. Networks hate that sort of thing because one delayed episode can ruin everything. Many also believe it makes it hard for viewers to jump in and out of a series and if you’re alienating first-time viewers then you’re not growing your audience. Either there was a mandate to end that, or having a bunch of new writers necessitated lore taking a backseat to stand-alone episodes. And it’s not as if the show’s first 65 episodes were all bangers, it’s just that filler episodes tend to get lost easier when a show is airing on week days as opposed to week ends. Much of this third season feels like filler. Some of these episodes could perhaps slide into the first two seasons without much trouble, and some would still stick out as poor.

When it comes to the poor outings, most of them come back to scope. Take “And Justice for All” where Goliath actually gets captured and arrested and put on trial. The recent run of from Dynamite Comics undertook such a plot and it needed the better part of 9 issues to resolve it. The Goliath Chronicles tries to do it in one episode, and while I wouldn’t expect the show to get all of the legal system accurately conveyed in a children’s show, this one still turns out like a mockery of the whole thing. I have my issues with the plot in the comics as well, so in this case neither medium hit it out of the ballpark, but one is clearly inferior and it’s among the least enjoyable episodes of the season. Another episode I strongly disliked was “To Serve Mankind” where Goliath is brainwashed into attempting to murder a peace activist on an international visit to New York. He gets as far as yanking the man from his limo which leads to a rooftop showdown with the non-brainwashed members of the clan and the police. It’s all resolved in the end, but with absolutely no repercussions for the gargoyles and nothing carries over.

Most of the season just feels like it could have been filler, which is how you end up with plots like Broadway goes Hollywood.

There are other episodes that are fine. Lexington (Thom Adcox-Hernandez) taking an interest in the son of Xanatos (Jonathan Frakes), Alexander, leads to a somewhat cute story in the season’s second episode, “Ransom.” We also get to see Hudson (Ed Asner) deal with his own diminishing eye sight by seeking the help of his friend, Jeffrey (Paul Winfield), who also happens to be blind. He’s a returning character and there are other episodes dealing with members of The Pack, the clones, and Demona. Nothing is overly consequential though giving their appearances more of a “Villain of the Week” vibe as opposed to furthering character growth. There seems to be a deemphasis on the magical component of the show in favor of something more grounded. Again, I don’t necessarily find fault with exploring how the gargoyles relate to the humans and their chosen city, but perhaps this was too drastic a change for most.

We also need to talk about Xanatos. The chief rival and villain of the series was basically turned into an ally at the end of the second season. The new writers can hardly be blamed for that turn, but it feels abnormal to see how much of an ally is he is to the gargoyles in this third season. He is often relied upon to save the day and there are moments where I expected a return to the Xanatos of old, but it never comes. He is, as far as I can tell, completely earnest with his reform and consumed with being a father to Alexander and a husband to Fox (Laura San Giacomo), who too is completely reformed. I don’t know that I really wanted to see Xanatos pull another 180 and go full villain once again, but some nuance would have been nice. There’s really no conflict to speak of between he and the clan, though some distrust is still felt. There is a moment where conflict could arise in “Ransom,” but Xanatos squashes it immediately. I don’t love what the later stages of the show’s second season did with Xanatos, but this third season did nothing to rectify that either and instead represents a doubling-down.

The Quarrymen aren’t a bad addition to the show, but are perhaps too on the nose.

There’s a lot that doesn’t work with The Goliath Chronicles, but I suppose there is some time to say what does. I liked the approach of introducing a racist group of gargoyle haters and making that a season-long conflict. I wish there was something done to differentiate The Quarrymen more from the very similar Friends of Humanity as well as real world inspirations. It’s not as if X-Men is the only show that can utilize KKK-adjacent hate groups, but it does feel like there was some obligation on this show to find another way. I did enjoy the episode “The Dying of the Light” and it’s one I felt could have been transported to the second season with relative ease. “Ransom” was enjoyable, though perhaps misplaced as the second episode of the season, and I did like catching up with the clones in a meaningful way in “Genesis Undone.” The season finale does a good job of wrapping-up the season. It even uses a runaway train in much the same manner as the movie Spider-Man 2. Perhaps it was an inspiration? If it was, it’s probably the most meaningful contribution the show made to pop culture.

What drove me to finally watch The Goliath Chronicles after all these years was essentially the fact that there are only so many episodes of this show, of this cast, that it felt silly to dismiss some out of hand. Is the third season bad? In a vacuum, no. It’s a perfectly cromulent season of children’s television. Is it up to the standards of the first two seasons? No. I do think over the years the first two seasons have become deified to a degree because the high points are so high and the show is limited to 65 episodes. I’m not even sure if the show’s worst episode exists in Season 3, but I honestly haven’t given that particular subject much thought. Talented writers worked on this season and, in general, they delivered C-average work. It’s certainly not spectacular, but it’s hardly a trainwreck.

What fans seem to dislike the most is that nothing in this season feels essential. Subplots like Goliath and Elisa’s romance are stuck in neutral with no advancement. Broadway and Angela do get established as a couple though, so there’s that.

Does all this mean that I’m actually giving The Goliath Chronicles a recommend? Well, not exactly. It’s disposable television and there’s an abundance of that out there to the point where it feels like one doesn’t have the time to waste on anything that isn’t wonderful. I do think if you’re a Gargoyles fan who has never watched it and dismisses it as trash then you do owe it to the show to actually watch it and see for yourself. It’s probably hard at this point to not go into it with an objective mind, but for those that do I think most would come away with a half-hearted “It’s all right.” If you just want to know the main story of Gargoyles and are only interested in the aspects of the story considered canon, then you don’t need to watch this. Even if this season were considered canon, really nothing happens that would have made it difficult to jump into a hypothetical fourth season. It’s all pretty disposable. You can safely stick to the first two seasons, the SLG comics, and the current Dynamite run for the core story. If you just want some new adventures with a familiar cast then at least The Goliath Chronicles might have something new to offer if you’ve been ignoring it for almost 30 years.

Interested in more Gargoyles content?

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Goliath

It was nearly 6 months ago that NECA unveiled one of its newest licenses for 2021: Gargoyles! I was incredibly pumped at the time to see that NECA had acquired Gargoyles because the license had so much potential. The show was basically a cult hit in the 90s often characterized as Disney’s answer to Batman:…

by Joe

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Hudson

Happy Boxing Day! It’s been a minute, but we’re back with another figure in NECA’s line of action figures based on the 90s cartoon/property Gargoyles – Hudson! Hudson, who was wonderfully brought to life by the late Ed Asner, was always my favorite character in the show. He’s basically the old veteran of the group.…

by Joe

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Broadway

We are getting oh so very close to assembling the original Manhattan Clan in action figure form! Disney’s take on gothic beasts originally included the following gargoyles: Goliath, Hudson, Bronx, Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington. The clan would grow from there, but those six are still the first that come to mind for me when I…

by Joe

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February 28, 2024

Final Fantasy VII Remake – Intergrade

By Joe

It took a long time for it to be realized, and a long time for me to play it. It’s debatable which Final Fantasy title is best and nostalgia will always play a big role. For many, Final Fantasy VII was the first Final Fantasy game they played. Previously, only three titles had made it to US shores, but it seemed like each new game was more popular than the last. I know for me personally, I had quite a few friends who were into what we then knew as Final Fantasy III so whatever was next in the franchise would be on my radar and the radar of many I knew. When the company then known as Squaresoft pivoted from Nintendo to Sony, it felt like one of the first major “gets” for the new PlayStation console. And when images started circulating in gaming magazines of those initial summons it basically blew everyone away. I’m guessing a lot of people just saw the media and bought into the hype based on that and were pretty damn confused when they actually sat down to play it. No matter, the hype was real as Final Fantasy VII was a big seller for Square and Sony catapulting both the company and franchise into new heights.

Cloud is back, which means so is Sephiroth.

Back in 2005, Squaresoft created a demo for the PlayStation 3 and opted to use familiar characters in order to demonstrate the power of the new console. Bad move. Did they learn nothing from Nintendo and their Gamecube demo? When fans saw Cloud and Sephiroth battling like never before it just created more hunger for a remake. Fans clamored for one for years, but Square Enix was mum on the topic or would flat-out say there are no plans. The call for a remake eventually became too impossible to ignore and it was finally announced that one was on the way in 2015. It would still be another 5 years before the game was released, and it turned out, only one third of the game was made and released. Sort of like how the original had 3 discs, the remake will be 3 separate games. It’s disappointing, more because we are now on the eve of the second game being released and it’s been four years, but that’s the reality of modern game design. It’s expensive and time-consuming and Square Enix knows it has a hit on its hands so it’s going to extract every dollar it can. I guess the story will finally be concluded in 2028 when we’re all wondering when the PlayStation 6 will be released (or apparently already playing it if Sony is to be believed).

To create the remake, Square turned to a lot of the folks responsible for the original game. Tetsuya Nomura, who was a writer and character designer on the original, was given the title of director for the remake. This came as a surprise to him since he was knee deep in the long-delayed Kingdom Hearts 3 at the time, which probably explains why Naoki Hamaguchi and Motomu Toriyama alse receive a direction credit. Kazushige Nojima returns as writer and Toriyama receives credit for that as well. Legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu returned to write the main theme while Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki are primarily responsible for any new compositions.

Get ready to experience the game again, only much flashier this time.

As someone who fell in love with Final Fantasy VII back in 1997, I have been on team re-make for decades now. The original is still very playable and quite good, but the visuals are supremely dated in a mostly not-quaint way. I have far more affection for classic sprite-based game design from the 16 bit era than I do the chunky polygons of the PSX era. Even in ’97, it felt like we were all lying to ourselves when we said these games were a definite visual upgrade to what we had before. They definitely were when looking at the cinematics, but those are essentially just CG movies inserted onto the disc. As video game visuals, they’re kind of fake. The battle engine graphics were fine though. Some quality of life improvements certainly couldn’t hurt either.

Square also seemed to feel that Sephiroth was going to need to have more presence this time around. It’s not a bad thing.

Square Enix apparently felt that a straight remake wouldn’t work. Gamers today don’t want traditional, turn-based, role-playing experiences according to whatever market data they have. I disagree, and it sure seems like the Persona series is doing quite well for itself with a more traditional battle system, but it is what it is. FFVII Remake takes a more action-oriented approach to its gameplay. Before release, there was some talk of the game being able to be played in both ways, but it was over-stated. In battle, which still restricts the player to a team of 3 party members max, you’re free to move around the field, attack, block, and dodge. The only relic of the original game is there is still an Active Time Battle system in place. Basically, you can do basic actions all of the time, but in order to perform other functions you need to wait on that ATB meter. Each character has two reserves of ATB and most abilities, spells, or items need just one store, but a few require two. Summons still exist, but they can only be used in certain fights and are basically restricted to boss battles. You know you can use one because a Summon Meter will just appear on screen. Once filled, any member of the party can initiate a summon provided they have the materia equipped (each character is limited to one summon and said summon can only be equipped to one character). Once summoned, the creature stomps around the battle field and any character can use one of their ATB stores to make the beast attack. Once it’s timer runs out, it then unleashes the ultimate attack we know and love from the original game and takes off.

Get ready for a new action-oriented experience.

Speaking of materia, that system is back and works mostly in the same fashion as before. Each character can equip a weapon and one piece of armor which may have one or more slots for materia. Materia is how characters equip spells and abilities and successfully defeating enemies in battle will earn players both experience and AP. AP is what materia uses to “level up,” and doing so will allow the Fire materia to learn Fira and ultimately Firaga, the best version of the fire spell. Once mastered, materia no longer spawns another version of itself which is a disappointment so players will have to scour the region for freebies or purchase additional sets if they want multiple characters to equip the same set.

The weapon system has been overhauled to add its own level-up component. Each weapon a character uncovers has a special ability tied to it and using that ability allows the character to eventually learn that ability. Once learned, the character can use that ability with or without the weapon. It’s a bit like the old Job System in that learning the abilities associated with a certain job would allow the base version of the character to make use of them, only now you don’t have to pick and choose which abilities to equip, but instead have access to all. The weapons also earn their own ability points which can be spent to unlock features for the weapon like Attack +3 or critical hit modifiers and such. This helps keep even the earliest weapons viable throughout the game as their attack, defense, and other stat modifiers can continually improve. And every weapon earns “experience” even when not in use. It’s not the Sphere Grid though, so each weapon still has a specialty and basically every character will have a weapon that’s more conducive to defense or magic use, though nothing radical enough to change a character’s obvious archetype (i.e. Aerith will always be more suited to magic and healing than physical combat).

One aspect of the remake most are likely to appreciate is the expanded role of characters like Biggs and Wedge.

The story of the game is essentially an expanded version of the Midgar portion of the original. You’ll be exposed to more regions of the city and there will be lots of little quests (yes, many of the “fetch” variety) for the player to take part in for one of the dwellers below the plate above. You’re still Cloud (Cody Christian), ex-Soldier and merc for hire by the eco-terrorist group Avalanche. Its Midgar chapter is spearheaded by Barret (John Eric Bentley), a fiery single father willing to go to great lengths to topple the Shinra Corporation which he blames for killing the planet. Tifa (Britt Baron), Cloud’s childhood friend, is part of the group as are non-player characters Jessie, Wedge, and Biggs. During their journey they’ll meet Aerith (Briana White), a flower sales person who belongs to an ancient race known as, appropriately enough, the Ancients and of course there’s the villain, Sephiroth (Tyler Hoechlin).

Sephiroth didn’t play a huge role in the original game’s Midgar portion, but he does here. I suppose from a practically standpoint, Square Enix didn’t want to force players to wait a dozen years to tangle with the legendary swordsman so inserting more encounters into the early part of the game isn’t as crazy as it sounds. What is a bit more crazy is that this FFVII Remake is not a direct remake of the original game. If you haven’t played it and don’t want any sort of spoilers then STOP READING! I intend this review to be both a review of the game and a reaction piece, so you have been warned.

This is a remake of the Midgar portion of the original so all of the familiar faces you would expect to find will be found, but oddly the game doesn’t make them all playable like Red XIII here.

The game is more like a remake of assets, but it exists in conjunction with the original game. For those completely new to Final Fantasy VII, it might be more confusing, but also possibly less. That’s because it takes awhile for the game to more explicitly tell you that the original story (game) already happened, and this story is Sephiroth trying to change the outcome. Throughout the game these shadowy ghosts will keep appearing and it’s unclear what it is they’re doing, but is later explained that they’re the shadows of destiny and they’re fighting to maintain the proper timeline. Sephiroth is trying to destroy them since he, and I guess it’s another spoiler for a 27 year old game, is defeated in the end of that game. Approaching the remake this way does have a practical element at play in that players who did play the original will have something new to look forward to. Whether this is the approach those players wanted is a matter of debate, or more like discourse.

The debate used to be Aerith or Tifa, but after Remake Jessie has inserted herself into the conversation!

Aside from those new plot elements, the game is quite linear in nature. That was true of the original, especially the Midgar portion, so I suppose it’s not a surprise here. It still doesn’t change the fact that it feels restrictive and there are definitely portions of the game that feel like padding. Square Enix was trying to turn what was 7-10 hours max into a full, gaming, experience so some padding was bound to happen. When I finished the game I was at the 42 hour mark and I felt like I had squeezed everything out of the game that I could in one playthrough. As an experience, there were times I was quite invested, and times when I was not. The fact that I had a 7 month gap between sessions at one point probably doesn’t bode well, but in the game’s defense, that gap was primarily due to Tears of the Kingdom so it’s not a massive insult to be sidelined because of that game.

Yuffie is the star of the Intergrade portion and I think I might like playing as her more than Cloud.

Since I am reviewing the Intergrade version, I should say a few words on that. This version primarily adds a new intermission starring Yuffie (Suzie Yeung) which sees her journey to Midgar in order to hook-up with Avalanche to steal some materia from Shinra. She is still her young, plucky, self and is a pretty true to her origins portrayal. It’s referred to as an intermission, but it’s set pretty early in the events of the main story so the title is a bit misleading. It’s essentially more of the same though and provides players an early glimpse at a character they otherwise would not have encountered until the sequel. The game does add a new mini game via a sort of board game Yuffie can challenge folks to called Fort Condor. It’s more like a real-time-strategy/tower defense game in practice with the “board” just affecting how many units the player can have and what magic is available. The game uses an ATB system and the units available have their own cost. They’re not finite though as you have 4 available units at any one time and using one just sends it to the back of the line. There’s a triangle strategy element applied to the units, and the first player to destroy the other’s main base is the victor. There’s also a timer for each game and if it hits zero then the first player to take out an outpost (each player has a base and two outposts) wins. It’s fine, and the games are pretty quick, but it’s also frustrating because once you place a unit that’s it. It does what it wants and sometimes you just want your units to concentrate on the base or an outpost, but they’ll get distracted by enemy units.

Intergrade also introduce this tower defense/RTS mini game that’s not too bad.

The actual sequence with Yuffie adds a little something to the story. Mostly, it brings in some elements from Final Fantasy VII‘s expanded universe and I’m not sure how well that will be received since most of those games were bad. It’s also a vehicle for the villainous Scarlet (Erin Cottrell) as she gets more facetime. Playing as Yuffie is a bit different, and she has one party member who works in tandem with her. I found playing as Yuffie to be mostly entertaining. There are things to figure out about how she attacks and how her abilities play a role in her actions. It’s probably a 5-6 hour experience and is, once again, pretty linear. Actually, it starts off more open than it finishes which is a bit odd. Completing it will unlock an additional epilogue to the main game so it’s worth experiencing, though the epilogue doesn’t contain anything essential so no worries about feeling lost if you don’t play it. There are undoubtedly going to be references to Intergrade going forward, but probably not anything that can’t be explained quickly in the games to come.

There’s no doubt the game improves upon the scope of the original, but some changes (like summons being the domain of boss battles only) feel restrictive and lacking in creativity.

I feel like I’ve told you a lot about how this game operates, but I don’t think I’ve really told you how I feel about it. It’s taken me a long time to figure that out. The initial demo left me feeling almost more perplexed than before, and after spending over 40 hours with this one I still can’t say if I even like this battle system or not. I like RPGs of all varieties and I like action games, but I like my Final Fantasy to be traditional. And I really like my Final Fantasy VII to feature a traditional, turn-based, battle system. I fell off of the series with Final Fantasy XII and that game’s battle system made it a chore. I finished it, but I never wanted to play it again. Since then, they’ve become more action focused and thus more vapid. Yes, you can take a less action approach with this game, but it’s essentially just putting the game on auto-pilot while you interrupt it here and there to cast a spell or something. It does not make the game a turn-based experience and it will likely drive you to just interact with it more because the AI is mediocre. More than anything, I just find it frustrating how non-committed Square Enix has been to just giving fans the remake they wanted. They resisted for years to even consider it, but then when they finally did, decided to do something else. It’s not as bad as a bait and switch just using the name Final Fantasy VII to sell a brand new game, but it sure is annoying.

Barret is still a foul-mouthed bad ass, as he should be.

There are things that I like about the game that have been improved upon. We get to see a lot more of Avalanche and the characters are given time to show nuance. That aspect of the remake has been well-served by the expanded approach. The visuals are obviously terrific and I think these redesigns for the main cast are superior to what we got in every other piece of Final Fantasy VII media. The score is still catchy and there’s an epic feel to a lot of the major moments of the story and it’s the music that really helps sell that. The voice acting is great and overall I feel like I have a much larger attachment to these characters than I did back in ’97. That might make a certain moment to come more impactful, if it happens at all. The odd approach to the narrative means we don’t know what’s next. We have an idea, but we don’t know for certain. I don’t know how I feel about that. I’m not someone totally resistant to change and mixing up the story a bit is okay, but basically doing it like a multiverse story feels almost played out at this point. I know this one was in development for a long time so it might just be bad luck that we’ve been inundated with multi-verse angles in media, but it is what it is. I just hope the story doesn’t turn out like Kingdom Hearts where it becomes so convoluted and up its own ass that I end up ceasing to care. And if a certain death gets undone it will feel cheap.

One piece of legitimate criticism of the game would be that if it wants to be an action game it could be a lot better in the action department.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is a hard game to assess. It should be able to stand on its own merits, but Square Enix chose not to allow it to by tying it to the original game in the way that it did. It’s one part remake, and in a way one part sequel, or parallel story. Complete newcomers to Final Fantasy VII won’t have the same experience as those who played the original. They can read about it on a wiki or something, but it’s not exactly the same. Their enjoyment will hinge more on the battle system and other mechanics – and you either like them or you don’t. There’s definitely an element of style over substance here. My major critique of this era of Final Fantasy is that these action-oriented battles aren’t on par with actual action games. They just feel like mediocre action titles with some RPG window dressing. Some of that is due to the RPG nature of the game where enemies, bosses especially, can unleash attacks for which there’s no real defense. They’re just going to happen. The best moments of the game’s battle system, for me, was when these were kept to a minimum and I felt like I had more agency over what was going on. There’s a boss battle late in the game which does a good job of incorporating the environment and provides for cover. More of that, please.

Where will the story take our hero? Normally with a remake we’d know, but not this time.

If you’re a big fan of Final Fantasy VII, you’re probably going to play this. You actually probably already have since it’s four years old. I waited for the PS5, and when the original came out in 2020, I was also hopeful the sequels would come faster and that I could just hold out for the complete experience. When it became obvious that was going to take somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 years, I abandoned that notion. At least I waited long enough to get the Yuffie story. I do plan on playing the next game, Rebirth, and unless I absolutely hate it I can’t see myself skipping the finale whenever it arrives. Hopefully the chances Square Enix is taking with the story at least pay off, but I know there’s no way to shake the feeling that every time I play this I’ll just be lamenting what could have been?

I did a lot more video game posts, and Final Fantasy especially, in the early days of this blog. Here’s a few, hopefully they haven’t aged horribly:

Final Fantasy VII Remake – Demo Impressions

It’s been a long time since I discussed the possibility of a Final Fantasy VII remake. After mentioning it here and there in other posts, I made a dedicated post on the subject six years ago. And six years ago isn’t even the start of all of this hype, so it’s safe to say this…

Keep reading
by Joe

Final Fantasy VII – To Remake, or Not to Remake?

In the gaming community, a popular topic of conversation seems to always stem around remakes.  They’re fairly popular and have become more so due in large part to the rising price of game development and the profitable business known as nostalgia.  Games cost a ton of money these days to develop, and with little change…

Keep reading
by Joe

Final Fantasy X HD Remaster

Over the years I’ve talked a lot about Final Fantasy but I’ve never posted a game review for any of the numeric titles in the long-running series. Well that ends today as I post my thoughts on the somewhat recently released Final Fantasy X HD Remaster. One opinion I have stated on more than one…

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by Joe

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