If you’re reading this the day it went up then you should know April 25, 2025 as Skeleta day! This is the day that Ghost unleashed its latest album upon the masses and there’s a lot of hype surrounding this one. It’s arguably the band’s first release since it saw its popularity explode in recent years. Ghost is a hard band to wrap one’s head around. It’s this satanic, doomy, metal act that has also successfully blended pop elements with its music to create something that’s certainly catchy and unique, but also not typically what one would consider mainstream. For me personally, I’ve gone from seeing Ghost as the oddball band filling the opening slot on a show, to an Iron Maiden support act, to headlining its own tour in small arenas, to selling out large arenas and now playing in some of the largest venues we have. And fronting the band for much of this era has been Papa Emeritus IV.
A gathering of Papas (left to right): Papa I, Papa IV, Papa III
Papa IV took over for Papa III and is the son of Papa Nihil who fronted the band back in the 70s when only three songs were produced: Kiss the Go-Goat, Mary on a Cross, and The Future is a Foreign Land. Like his predecessors, Papa IV tends to take the stage in a somewhat flamboyant suit his face a mask of black and white, but when the situation calls for it he’s known for dawning wings or his full vestments as the leader of the clergy. Super7 has produced figures of the three Papas to come before him (they have not done Papa Nihil) so it was hardly a surprise when this figure went up for preorder last year. I have all of the predecessors, but I only reviewed the first one as they’re fairly similar. This one is perhaps the most different one yet though so I figured, why not? Plus it’s certainly topical.
Papa III: “He keeps asking to be let out of the box? Says he’s sick of smelling his own flatulence.” Papa IV: “Why would I want to smell that? Leave him in the box.”
Papa IV comes in the standard Ultimates! box, though now without a slipcover (because those surely add considerable cost…). He’s clad in his black suit and shiny blue coat. The figure is, as expected, a mixture of old and new parts. This costume required a bit more new this time around due to the cuffs on the sleeves a different style shirt, and the pattern on the pants. I’m guessing that Super7 got to reuse the lower torso, upper arms, calves, hands, and feet. If you’re worried about Super7’s bottom line then maybe it will comfort you to know they saved a little with some repeat accessories.
Papa IV is probably the most flamboyant frontman for Ghost yet.
The most obvious new piece of sculpt work is the head. This Papa has slicked back gray hair and his own distinct pattern of black and white on his face. Super7’s attempt to capture the likeness is satisfactory. I don’t think they nailed it as well as they did with Papa III, but it looks okay. I think it’s just a little narrow in the face and the hair isn’t particularly convincing. The forehead on mine is also a little scratched and I don’t know if that’s intentional or not. I don’t know why it would be. I should also mention he stands at roughly 6.75″ putting him in-line with the other Papa figures.
“Ugh, we cool? Hang loose?”
If you want this figure to looks its best, you will want to take advantage of the optional vestments. For this iteration, Super7 did it in two layers. There’s basically a poncho that goes over the head (or neck, since you’ll have to take the head off) and then a cape that goes around that and it’s fixed with a Velcro clasp. It’s very colorful, and the portrait that goes with this look is a little cleaner looking and seems to work better for me with the pope hat. Unfortunately, this two garment approach makes the look more cumbersome. The material bunches up around the neck making Papa look like he’s wearing a scarf. It’s also quite restricting when it comes to the arms. Both garments are wired so you can do some posing, even if they just typically hang there when he wears this outfit. Also, take care when swapping heads. On mine, the neck piece has a tendency to want to pop off with the head which can be quite annoying.
What we were sold……and what we got.
Papa IV comes with a bunch of hands. He has five sets total plus an extra right hand in a “Hang Loose” gesture. The other sets are basically for his different costumes. For the standard look, we have black hands which come with sets of gripping, open, and fists. The other hands are black with bronze bones painted over the digits. For those, we get a set of gripping hands and relaxed hands plus the lone hang loose hand. The only other accessories are the microphone and stand which has come with all of the Papa Ultimates! releases.
There’s just too much material here.
Articulation for this figure is the same as the rest as well. Double-ball at the head, single ball at the neck, single hinged elbows and knees, standard shoulders and wrists with an ab crunch. The ankles hinge and rock. It’s all decent, but unspectacular. He can hit basic poses, and with all of the vestments on he can basically do nothing but stand there, but the more nuanced mannerisms you may be accustomed to seeing from the stage are a bit out of reach.
Papa: “What’s this?! I want ghouls, not reptiles!” Don: “Hey man, you can get the shell out!”Gasp!Papa: “Now, where are my ghouls?”
And that’s Papa IV. A figure I want to like a lot, but it just has too many problems holding it back. The soft goods not fitting very well is a real bummer because, off of the figure, they look really nice. I was pleased to see the two piece approach. If you compare it to the render Super7 used to sell the figure it’s almost laughable, if not down right deceitful. The base figure underneath is at least decent. Not great, but it’s unmistakably Papa Emeritus IV. It would have been interesting if they could have done the cuffs on the sleeves with soft goods, though I doubt they could have gotten them to hang realistically. That’s the issue with soft goods at this scale” they lack the weight needed to look like the real deal.
This is likely how you’ll want to display this Papa.
Nonetheless, I’m guessing this isn’t last we’ll see of this mold. Papa Emeritus IV wore these vestments mostly just in music videos. On tour, he wore something different. There’s also his previous look as Cardinal Copia which Super7 passed over. This could be easily repurposed into a figure of the cardinal, either as an Ultimate or maybe a Deluxe release (which Papa II has been re-released as and is the version I have). If that does happen I can’t say I’d be interested in buying this one again. Now, if they do a Papa V Perpetua (spoiler: he went up for preorder today) then that will get my attention as I like the new look. Hopefully Super7 can do it justice because this one is pretty lacking.
I may have only reviewed one figure from the band Ghost, but I do have other ghostly reviews you can check out:
I feel like I have a pretty interesting relationship with the band Ghost. They came to my attention in 2010 with their album Opus Eponymous and came at the recommendation of one of my friends. It wasn’t so much a recommendation based on quality, but more of a “You have to hear this,” because it…
For past few years Four Horsemen have been bringing us surprise Christmas figures each holiday season. The first was Krampus and the second Father Christmas. Last year, Four Horsemen surprised us with the Ghost of Jacob Marley. A ghost character, especially one in 19th century clothing, can make for a fun design and figure, but…
I have long maintained that the best episode of the now classic Batman: The Animated Series is the Mr. Freeze story, “Heart of Ice.” It is not, however, my favorite episode of the show as that honor belongs to “Beware the Gray Ghost.” That episode introduced the character Gray Ghost, a superhero from television who…
We’ve got another April, is this one worth getting excited over?
The JoyToy line of 1:18 scale Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been a, well, joy to collect! We’ve talked about the turtles, their chief adversary the Shredder, and his two cronies Bebop and Rocksteady. Now, just in time for the month of April, is their friend and liaison to the human world April O’Neil herself. April has seemingly always had a bit of a rough go of things when it comes to toys. The old Playmates figures were a bad fit, stylistically speaking. Most of those sculpts were detailed and a bit gross where as April was basically a Fujiko style bombshell in the cartoon. Playmates tried a few different things including even taking something of a Barbie or She-Ra approach to the character, but few would cite an April figure as their favorite. To I think everyone’s surprise, even NECA’s entry in its toon line was kind of bad. I felt it was the worst figure in an otherwise stellar line when it dropped back in 2020 and it seemed like April was just a character that was always going to be snakebit.
She’s tiny, but feisty.
When I saw that JoyToy was turning its gaze towards the ravishing reporter I was a little skeptical of how it would turn out. April has been a tough nut to crack and it would seem a smaller scale would only add to the challenge. I’m happy to report my fears were unfounded as JoyToy’s take on the ’87 version of the character just might be the best April figure that’s ever been brought into being.
She seems to be sized okay when compared with the rest.
April is packaged in the same window box as all of the rest with a few product shots around the box. She also comes with the same sewer street scene base that the turtles came with as well as a logo disc stand. The direction of the character is clearly inspired by the 1987 cartoon series. This line, so far, has been an interesting mix of the 87 looks and the 2003 looks and if I had to predict what direction JoyToy was going to go with I would have probably thought 2k3. Or something all its own. This April is instead very much an ’87 version as she features the same haircut, the yellow jumpsuit, white boots, and comes packaged with Channel 6 equipment. The only deviation from the cartoon with this figure is that her jacket is open revealing a black t-shirt underneath which matches some black gloves she’s sporting as well. The ’87 look is probably the most iconic for April so it makes sense to see JoyToy adopt it here.
This April also works for Channel 6.
April also appears to be pretty true to her proportions from the cartoon as well. She’s fairly tall for a woman and the figure checks in at right around the 4″ mark. If you do the math, that would make April a 6′ tall woman. That might be a little overboard, but she is wearing healed boots. What’s more important is how she scales with the rest of the line. With the turtles, she’s about the same height, and if anything she’s just a touch taller. These turtles seem to exist in their own universe where they’re depicted as much taller than is typical for them. Against Shredder, she’s noticeably shorter, but not by a whole lot which basically conforms to the cartoon scaling. What is more noticeable is she’s far more slender than the very chunky turtles and muscular Shredder. She is long of leg and certainly has hips. Her sometimes much celebrated curves from the show have been toned down to a more realistic bust as well, but she’s hardly what I would call petite in that area so put down your pitchforks, fellas. If you consider the ’87 version to be the source material for this one then it’s pretty damn true to the source in terms of her shape and height.
She can handle a camera pretty well.This April is more of the investigative type than an on camera reporter.
The accurate proportions mean a pretty nice sculpt, all in all. The face has a hint of a smirk like she’s fearlessly pursuing a hot story with no regard for the danger it may be putting her in. The jumpsuit is loaded with detail in the form of seams and wrinkles. There’s a pack going around her torso which is a separate piece and the pocket on her right thigh is no longer a pocket, but a pouch held on by straps which could be slipped off if you so desired. Maybe JoyToy felt that yellow would clash too much on the shelf so they covered this one with a black wash. The jumpsuit has a dingy appearance as a result and even the boots are dirty. This is apparently a reporter who prefers to be behind the camera instead of in front of it. There’s also a wash applied to the hair which helps take away that plastic look. My only criticism would be that I think the boots would have popped rather nicely without the wash, but I understand why it’s here and I think it’s part of the character they’re trying to get across. The details on the face are handled well, though the printing for the eyes came out quite glossy. It almost looks like she has tears in her eyes. I found it distracting out of the box, but the longer I have this figure the less I notice it.
Remember 8mm cameras? I do.The Turtlecom looks nice, but it’s a shame it can’t open and close.
I very much like the look of this one and I’m happy to report that it moves perhaps better than any other figure in the line. The head may be the most limited as the collar of her coat plus the sculpt of her hair prevents the figure from looking up, but the range otherwise is solid. She has a butterfly joint at the shoulders which may be a first for the line (I skipped the Foot) and it gives her a little range going forward and back which will come in handy later. She has a bicep swivel plus a swivel at the elbow which can bend a little past 90 degrees. The ball hinges at the wrists work well, though they are more exposed than the wrists on the other figures in the line (but also move better). There’s a ball joint in the diaphragm and at the waist so she can bend forward and back and rotate at both places. Legs go out to the side almost to splits and kick forward just fine and there’s the usual thigh swivel. The double-jointed knees work as expected while the ankles hinge allow the feet to move forward and back a generous amount. The only spot that I’m less than satisfied with is the ankle rocker which barely moves. If you push the foot forward as far as it can go you can eek out a bit more from the rocker, but it definitely could be better.
Look out April!Oh, nice one!
Aside from those ankle rockers, April can basically do what most will probably want her to do. I don’t find myself fighting with this one as I pose her which I had to do to some degree with the other figures in the line. Nothing was stuck or loose and the figure can do cool ninja poses or reporter stuff – it’s your call. Some people may not like how exposed the wrist joints are, but they don’t bother me and since they work fine I’m not going to complain about them. Who would have predicted that an April figure would be the most fun to mess with in a TMNT action figure line?
She don’t need no stinkin’ turtles to save her.
April also comes with a generous selection of accessories. For hands, we have a set of gripping hands, open hands, a right trigger finger hand, a left wide gripping hand, and a left “peace” hand gesture. She also has a set of red boxing gloves if you want your April to mix it up or maybe just be trained by Splinter or the turtles. She has one alternate head, a first for the line, which features a surprised expression. It looks fine, but has the same glossy eyes of the default portrait. For her hands, she has an assortment of reporter equipment. There’s a microphone with a Channel 6 logo on it. The logo is fairly plain, but I suppose it gets the job done. She also has two cameras: a handheld 8mm and a larger camcorder. The camcorder works well with the trigger hand or she can carry it via the handle on top. Lastly, she has her Turtle-Com which is in an open position. Nothing on the accessories articulates so the handle on the camcorder can’t be folded in nor can the Turtle-Com be closed. They are pretty well painted though which is impressive for such a small scale.
These are our smallest Mousers yet (I think, maybe the 2k3 Playmates ones are smaller). Left to right: Mattel Mouse, JoyToy, NECA, JoyToy.
Lastly, April also comes with a pair of buddies. Or rather, a pair of foes. Joining April in what is a bit of a throwback to her Mirage origins are two Mousers. These little guys follow the same basic design as the comic and the cartoon of this almost bird-like posture with a big, chomping, head. The sculpt is on point while paint is kind of minimal. The main body is just white plastic with a few hits of black at the hips, toes, and the jaw hinge. There’s a red stripe where the “eye” is assumed to be as well. Articulation for these little guys is pretty much the same as the Mousers we got from NECA. The head rotates and can look up and down. The jaw opens and closes while there’s another joint at the base of the neck for added nuance. The hips are simple swivel joints while the knees and ankles are hinges. It’s literally the exact same setup as the NECA versions and the only real difference is the scale and the eye appears to be bigger relative to the rest of the body. And these little guys are great, it’s an awesome pack-in accessory and I love that we got two of them.
Now the turtles have someone to document their epic confrontations.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this April figure is my new favorite in this line. And I’ve really enjoyed the other figures to come out. It’s a terrific take on the 87 version of the character, and as much as I enjoy this scale, I do wish I could blow it up into a 1:12 version for my toon collection. The NECA April redo was better, but still hardly what I’d call perfect. This one gets all of the details right and she comes with plenty of stuff and can move pretty well. We in the toy collecting world call that the total package. The only real negative here is the same as the major one with the rest of the line: she’s not for sale in the US. That doesn’t mean she’s unobtainable for those in the west, but your options are limited. And with all of the tariff business going on these days, it may get harder to import this one before it gets easier. I purchased my figure from LT Cave for about 40 bucks. That’s fairly steep for this scale, but compared with a Star Wars Vintage Collection figure which may run you $25 these days it feels like a good deal. I’m also willing to spend a little extra on a toyline that has an endpoint for me. April was released alongside Splinter, but I wasn’t really into the look they came up with for the character. JoyToy has also shown a Slash, Tokka, and Casey, but I’m good. The one I do really want though is Krang and I placed a preorder for that one which may do it for me. I’m sure I’d be happy with the other figures as well, but I don’t need them and this is going to be an awesome little collection when all is said and done. If you do decide to undertake the hassle of importing these then I think you’ll come away impressed just like I have.
There’s plenty of stories out there.
Missed our coverage of the other JoyToy TMNT figures?
No, that is not a typo you see in the title of this entry. This is a review of the JoyToy versions of classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles henchmen Beebop and Rocksteady. I don’t know why it says Beebop on the box, but this is a Chinese company and English is probably not the primary…
Every hero needs a villain, and for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that number one villain is The Shredder. Setup as a foil in his original appearance, Shredder really became the main guy when the cartoon series was put into development. That show needed a villain who was always around and Shredder was the best…
It’s been said before and it will be said again: everyone is making Ninja Turtles. It feels like the list of companies not making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is smaller than the list of those who are. Viacom has not been shy about licensing the brand out to toy makers and it’s reaching a point…
I am back! If you’re a regular reader then you probably didn’t notice much as far as content goes, but I’ve been out of commission for weeks now due to my laptop crashing. I was able to fix it, but it took some time to get around to it and it’s been a really long time (for me) since I’ve talked about toys. I’ve been going a little crazy not being able to do so because it’s a compulsion – I like to voice my opinions on the stuff I buy. I wasn’t sure where to start when it came time to finally making a new entry, but I figured I should make it as topical as possible and talk about a new NECA drop from its mega popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line and that’s Ultimate Shredder.
Original NECA Shredder on the left with the new Archie Shredder on the right.
Shredder was included as part of the inaugural release for this line way back at San Diego Comic Con 2017. That Shredder was a reworked version of the original Mirage Shredder that was cancelled (but eventually released) and then repurposed for a set based on the 1989 arcade game. Because of that, the likeness to the cartoon version of the character wasn’t perfect, but it was still far and away the best representation of the character ever committed to plastic. Not that the competition was stiff. I didn’t go back and re-read my thoughts on the figure (I think I will after I write this), but I’m pretty sure I was pretty happy with it. It’s a very good representation of the character from the show and it was done with a level of quality we hadn’t seen before. In 2025, the figure is certainly showing some age, but it’s still not even close to being a bad figure. The thing that stands out the most to me when I look at it is just the torso. It’s lacking in articulation and the figure doesn’t have the same amount of paint figures in the line are prone to contain so it looks a little cheaper.
He scales pretty well with the good guys.
NECA seemed to think that was enough to warrant a redo. And since Shredder is THE villain from the show, it makes sense. Revealed last year is this “Ultimate” take on the character. It’s a noticeably chunkier Shredder that largely corrects all of the aspects of the original release that were inaccurate to the source material. And as I theorized when I looked at the recent Archie Shredder, it contains some of the parts used to craft that figure (but probably not as many as you would have expected). And by and large, it’s an improvement. If you opened this review wanting to know if this Shredder is better than the old one then the answer is yes, in almost every way. The real question when it concerns this figure is will most want to spend $35 on another Shredder?
And he fits in pretty well with his crew.
Shredder comes in the Ultimate style packaging designed to mimic the old f.h.e. home video releases. Titled “Start Shredding the News!”, this is a figure sculpted by Tomasz Rozejowski with a credit also going to Kushwara Studios. Paint was handled by the frequent duo of Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo and Susan Capone is credited with tailoring. The artwork for the box was done by Aaron Hazouri and it’s a fun image of Shredder in front of several villains from the show all of whom have been captured in plastic by NECA save for Mr. Ogg (and I’m fine if he never gets a figure). There are product shots of the figure and it’s all pretty nice. I will say that Shredder looks off model to me, but I also don’t save the packaging so it’s not something I care about. And if you enjoy reading the little blurbs they put on the boxes, then you’ll probably get a kick out of this one.
Many plots in 80s and 90s cartoons revolved around a very important floppy disc.
Shredder stands at approximately 6.875″ tall to the tip-top of his helmet. If we bring in the old Shredder, we find he’s closer to 6.5″ while Archie Shredder is basically right at 7″. I do like this height differential when we bring in a turtle. More than the height though, this Shredder is chunkier, thicker, and it fits in better with the turtles than the slender old one. The wraps on the forearms are now accurate to the show as are the spikes on the shoulder pauldrons. The sculpt is all new compared with the original so there’s not much else to compare aside from the paint job and overall approach. That original Shredder had some embellishments on it to give it a gritty feel. Maybe it was a holdover from the Mirage take, but he has little scuffs and marks on his armor. The blades are also painted gray where as they’re white on the new Shredder which is more in-line with the show.
“For book club this month, we have this diary by the Kojima brothers. No, Rocksteady, not the guy who created Metal Gear…”
The paint is what stands out the most as a change. The paint on the original Shredder has cel-shading with grays and blues on the armored parts. On this new Shredder it’s all light gray with white blades. There is no cel-shading. There’s black linework throughout, but not shading like we saw with most of the line. I’ve always been kind of torn when it comes to NECA’s cel-shading. I don’t think it’s bad, it’s just not that ambitious and the black outlines and such seem good enough to me. I do wish this new Shredder had some shading on the helmet, at least. Just a little hit of white in places would help to create that illusion of steel the cartoon often utilized. A black line in the center of the faceguard might have worked well too, but that’s something that may have been tried and was nixed because it didn’t look right. Both the old and new have a soft approach to the chest in contrast with the Archie Shredder which is pretty faithful to the show. NECA reused the abs from the Archie Shredder which isn’t accurate, but it doesn’t look bad. I would have preferred total accuracy, and maybe just not doing the black lines for the abs would have done it, but it’s not ruining my enjoyment of the figure or anything.
“Hah, Donatello, I have the device!”“Looks like you’re missing an important part, bucket head!” “Blast!”
What is not different across all three figures is the cape and this cape kind of sucks. It’s a very cheap looking material and it’s an almost shiny purple. The cartoon Shredder had a softer purple color to his cape and the way this one bunches up around the neck also doesn’t look great. We should be able to see his neck, but it’s all swallowed up by the cape. And there’s no wire in it. There’s some tailoring around the neck to keep it in control, but it’s nothing extravagant. Capes are a weak area for this line with only Dark Turtle having a good one. It’s a shame that the big villain of the series couldn’t get a comparable one to the Loot Crate figure.
“Mommy…”“Perhaps mother would enjoy this necklace?”
This Shredder comes with a whole bunch of new stuff as is befitting the Ultimate release model. For hands, we get fists, gripping, open, and a left hand with a tight grip. That hand is designed to hold some of his smaller accessories like a wad of bills which appear to be Shredder bucks and a little blue floppy disk. He also has an amulet which he can hold in that tighter hand or with basically any hand since it’s a necklace. The gripping hands are for use with the Medi-Laser, an item from the first episode of the third season. It’s a gun that heals things, so not exactly a dastardly villain weapon, but Shredder stole it in the episode so that’s why it’s here. And it’s a new sculpt. It’s painted really well and looks pretty nice. The gray piece in the handle is also removable which I think is intentional because it was pulled out in the episode as a way to deactivate the gun. It’s tiny, so don’t lose it, but that’s a cool touch. Shredder also has a yellow book which is the diary of the Kojima brothers. It’s from a season 5 episode and Shredder used the book to summon some dead guys. Shredder also comes with a picture of his mother (aww!) which is in the same style as other pictures in frames we’ve seen before. The image inside is a render of the character and it looks okay, but it’s obviously not a figure and I wouldn’t hold my breath on one coming in the future.
“At last! The power is mine!”Useful for when he has to shave.
Lastly, we’ve got some extra heads to talk about. Shredder’s default portrait is what you would expect, but it has the creative inclusion of being able to remove the crest. This is useful for the other helmeted head which doesn’t have a faceguard. but has the crest with the completed Eye of Sarnath from the season two episode “Curse of the Evil Eye.” The face sculpt and paint looks nice and the crests swap easily so you can power-up Shredder if you want. It unfortunately doesn’t swap with the Baxter Stockman head with Shredder’s helm and I’m surprised the Eye wasn’t on that Baxter head. Removing the crest on either head allows for the use of the included chef’s hat. I think this is from “Pizza by the Shred” and it’s the kind of silly, goofy, inclusion I like. We need a proper delivery boy Michelangelo now. Lastly, there’s a completely unhelmeted head which is very well done. Swapping heads is, unfortunately, just as difficult with this release as it was with the Archie Shredder. Use heat and I guess try to keep the cape dry if using water. If you wanted to, you could also probably use any of these heads with the Archie Shredder, but I can’t get the head off of mine and I don’t want to heat it up and find out. The hands, at least, are pretty painless to work with. One note with my figure is the right gripping hand is really loose. All of the other hands are find, save for that one. A little coating of super glue on the post could possibly remedy that.
“How ’bout some pizza, dudes?”“The only currency that matters! Shredder bucks!”
Shredder looks pretty good and he comes with a lot of stuff, but can the thing move? As is often the case with NECA, the answer is “Ehh, for the most part.” NECA never sells out for articulation and this Shredder is basically the same as the Archie one when it comes to articulation. It’s completely pinless and the elbows and knees were lubricated at the factory so they move pretty freely. Nothing is loose or overly tight. With Archie Shredder, I couldn’t get the waist to do anything, but this one has a waist swivel that is unencumbered and moves fine, but it’s just a swivel. There’s no ball peg so all of your crunch is going to come from the diaphragm joint, and like Archie Shredder, it’s not very effective. It rotates and tilts a bit, but it barely moves forward and back. The posing is very basic. It’s better than the original Shredder from 2017, but not by a lot. It did drop the toe joint though, but since that old Shredder has a bad toe joint I don’t consider it a loss.
He’s a pretty handsome devil.“Get back here with my helmet you imbecile!”
And that’s NECA’s “Ultimate” take on the Shredder. Does it live up to that name? For the most part. It looks like the character from the show which is what the line places the greatest amount of importance on. There’s no real quality control issues and it comes with a lot of stuff for $35. I have seen some people complaining that he doesn’t come with a sword and I suppose that’s valid. If you have been collecting this line for awhile then you probably have no shortage of swords laying around so I don’t personally care, but if you’re going to call a Shredder release the ultimate version then I don’t blame you for thinking it should have a sword. The same could be said of the lack of a communicator, but again, that’s another thing I personally don’t need more of. My only real complaint is just the cape. I don’t like this cape, I’ve never liked it, and I know NECA can do better.
The battle that will never end.
If this release is something that interests you then you can currently find this guy at Target stores. As of this writing, the first online drop has not happened and I don’t know when Shredder is going to be made available there. I found this guy in stores and there were a lot of them. It’s part of yet another Haulathon and this time the figures are being stocked in a cardboard display stand which, from my experience, could be literally anywhere. I nearly missed it in my store because it was in a little opening between sporting equipment and home lighting. Yeah, really odd placement. He was stocked with Dark Leonardo, Hunter Leonardo, and the Mirage Battle Damaged Shredder. This is the only release I personally wanted and I’m not sure how much I’ll be buying from this latest round of releases (a pair of two-packs are expected, Panda Khan, and more Mirage figures), but this is the one I had to have. And since it’s Shredder, I’m guessing it will be the most sought after, but also the most plentiful so don’t panic if you haven’t found it yet and keep looking out. And help each other out, if need be. Good luck!
If you’re interested in more Shredders and all things turtles, we got you covered:
Conventions are always a great time, even from home, because lots of toy companies use them to show off their latest and greatest. Last year had a number of surprises from NECA where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were concerned. And some of those surprises were pretty damn big. When those conventions end, it’s always fun…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the franchise that won’t go away for me. I’ve been involved with it since the 80s when the cartoon series debuted and the first line of action figures started popping up in retail. I dropped the series when The Next Mutation came around, but picked it right back up when…
We’re well into the cold of winter and spring feels like it’s just around the corner which means it must be time for another NECA Haulathon. Haulathon, if you don’t recall from last year, is basically a tandem promotion between NECA and Target which was just an excuse to get NECA some more visibility in…
It was a little less than two years ago that NECA unveiled not one, but two, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles exclusive items for San Diego Comic Con. One of those, the four pack of turtles from the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, I purchased and reviewed in this space as I often do. The other, the first ever action figure of Ernie Reyes Jr. as Keno from the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, I passed on. Not because I disliked the release or was limiting myself to only one item, but because NECA wanted 100 bucks for it. I have said in this space before that I do not like the second movie in the TMNT film franchise. I found it enjoyable as a kid, but it’s a bad movie. Reyes Jr. gives a fine performance as Keno and he’s not the reason the movie is bad, it’s a lot of things. Still, I was interested in adding a Keno to my figure shelf because he was a part of it and a part of my childhood. And if I was going to add a Keno, a Keno from the beginning of the movie where he’s delivering pizzas is my ideal Keno. I’m just not willing to spend 100 bucks on it.
I guess two Kenos are better than one?
Driving the price of Keno was the inclusion of his scooter, but driving the price even higher was a bunch of swag being tossed in. If you ever purchased one of the NECA themed Loot Crates then you know what I’m talking about. You get an action figure that’s worth maybe half the value of the total package while the rest is made up of a t-shirt, keychain, and other assorted junk. It was all stuff I didn’t want and didn’t want to pay roughly 40 bucks for. The following summer, NECA released a Keno and Foot two-pack that I did end up getting. It depicted Keno from his test with the Foot Clan as he was trying to gain admission. Again, not my preferred Keno, but I figured why not? Maybe a month or so ago we found out that Keno and his scooter were coming back. NECA didn’t say how or when, just that it was happening. Fast forward another couple weeks, and he’s a surprise inclusion at Walmart Collector Con. Best of all, he retails for the now standard two-pack price of $60. Waiting almost two years got me the price I wanted, but it also got me to buy a different Keno set I might have passed on had I just spent the 100 bucks in the first place so I’m actually out $120, but I have two Kenos. And a scooter. And a plus-sized Foot ninja. Win?
“Hey! It’s that kid we’re friends with for one movie!”
The Keno and scooter set is exactly the same as the one sold for Comic Con. As far as I know, there was no stamp or sticker or anything put on the box of that release, it was just the extra stuff that ended up being exclusive. The figure, accessories, and the deco all appear to be identical. This is Keno from his first appearance as a delivery boy for Roy’s Pizza. He’s in his long-sleeved shirt and jeans and has the scooter and other equipment to make sure those pizzas arrive fast and hot. The figure is the exact same height as the training Keno at roughly 6.3″, but by default this one has a unique portrait with a very wide smile. He looks ready to laugh and it’s not a very good likeness. His forehead seems huge and there’s just these deep grooves around the mouth area that really makes it protrude almost like a feline. The sculpt for Keno’s signature mullet looks fine, but the paint around it is sloppy. It looks like they would have been better off doing the head in two pieces so the hair didn’t need to be painted as carefully. It’s not typical NECA quality.
I do not care for this portrait.
The sculpt for the rest of the body is mostly fine. The shirt is done with an overlay for the torso while the sleeves are molded as part of the arms. There is a disconnect between the painted red on the overlay and the rest plastic used for the arms with the sleeves being noticeably darker. Again, an unusual issue for NECA since they tend to just paint over everything anyway, but they apparently opted not to with the arms. The white portions of the shirt are covered in tiny spots to simulate dirt and grim, I suppose. I honestly didn’t notice it in the promo shots and thought my figure might be defective. I then thought that maybe these new splatters were an update to differentiate it from the first release, but nope, both have it and once I saw it on the figure I started noticing it in the photography. The shirt is greasy and gross in the movie, but it looks more authentic for someone handling greasy pizza. Here it looks more like he was riding his bike behind a truck in a rainstorm.
Back to work, kid!
I mentioned my dislike for the default portrait so it’s probably a good thing that Keno comes with an alternate head. This is the same head that’s included with the training Keno set and it’s a more subtle smile. This one looks like Reyes Jr. to me so it’s the one I’ll rock. And it also works out that I had the more intense head on my training Keno so I won’t have to display them with the same head (you can also use that head on this figure, if you were wondering). For hands, we get a set of fists, gripping, and open hands. And since he is a pizza delivery boy, he comes with the warming sleeve or whatever those things are called for the pizza box to go into. And yes, there is a pizza box as well. To my surprise, there’s no actual pizza in the box, but that’s probably because they would have had to sculpt a newer, smaller, pizza because this box is tiny compared to what came with the turtles. I think the thickness of the sleeve forced them to go smaller because the scale looks fine, but maybe it too is a little small. It’s hard to say. It’s also possible the pizza box that came with the turtles isn’t in proper scale.
“All right! Keno with the hook-up!”
Articulation for Keno is fairly basic. We get a double-ball peg at the head which works fine, but the hair will limit posing somewhat. Shoulders are ball-hinged, elbows are single hinges with a swivel, wrists rotate and there is a hinge. NECA gave Keno’s gripping hands a vertical hinge which is normally the preferred way to go, but since he has them to primarily grip handle bars, it’s actually not the best choice. I usually find myself complaining about the lack of vertical hinged gripping hands when it comes to NECA figures, but here we have the opposite. There is a diaphragm joint in this guy, but the overlay makes it functionally useless. Waist does rotate and there are ball-socket hips that swivel. He can kick forward all right and almost hit splits, but again, the overlay causes problems. If one were to cut the slits already present in the side of the shirt it might allow him to hit full splits, if you care. The knees are double-jointed and they’re the kind with the peg and hinge at the top and bottom so you get a little swivel out of the top of the knee as well, if you want. Ankles hinge forward and back and rock side-to-side.
“What the hell is this, man? You think this little thing is going to feed the four of us?! He’s holding out on us!”
Keno can hit some of his martial arts poses from the film, but nothing crazy. He does have one real flaw when it comes to articulation and it concerns the other half of this release: the scooter. The scooter is basically being priced like a stand-alone figure. It’s made up of a fairly hard plastic and has actual rubber tires. The handle bars rotate and rotating them does cause the front wheel to turn with them which is cool. There isn’t much detail on the dash, but the entire body of the scooter looks pretty convincing. The plastic has a little shine to it which works for a motor vehicle. The headlights are non-functioning, but they’re at least cast in translucent plastic. The scooter even has accessories of sorts, or you could just think of it as some assembly required. The carrying case for the pizza goes on the back and the frame for it has to be plugged into the scooter first. After that, it just tabs on and looks good. Best of all, it’s fairly lightweight and the scooter has no issues supporting the weight of the case with or without the pizza pocket inside it. There’s also a kickstand to keep the bike upright, though it’s a little loose and I found it giving out on me a lot when trying to pose Keno with the bike.
Looks good from the side…Looks good from the front…Hmm?Umm…I guess?
And that’s the inherent flaw with this set: Keno cannot sit on this thing convincingly. He just doesn’t have the range of motion in his torso to get hunched over properly. Or, the scale is messed up and he just can’t reach the handlebars in a normal, seated, position. He’s always going to look a little goofy and unnatural on this thing. The best pose is probably to have him in the process of getting on or off the bike or it’s to just have him stand beside it. It’s a real bummer because if you’re going to put out a figure and vehicle combo then you should make sure the two are truly compatible. If it’s the torso range that’s the cause, then NECA should have gone soft goods with the shirt. We see Batman figures come with cloth capes for that very reason when they’re being paired with a Batmobile. Or they should have gone back to the drawing board if it was a matter of scale and figured something out. Either way, it’s a bummer.
Maybe he’s just better suited to do martial arts stuff instead of deliver pizza?
To summarize, we have a figure of Keno with a sloppy paint job and iffy likeness with at least one of the heads. He comes with an out of scale pizza box, but at least it can be hidden in the pizza warmer thing. He also has a scooter that looks great, but doesn’t really work with the figure. And this package will set you back 60 bucks. Is it worth it? On the surface, a 1:10 scale action figure and vehicle combo at 60 bucks is a pretty good deal. There are not a lot of figure and vehicles out there in this scale for cheaper. On the other hand, it’s an imperfect figure that doesn’t work well with said vehicle. And it’s a part of NECA’s movie subline of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which actually has a pretty sterling reputation. These are some of the best figures NECA has ever done, but unfortunately, Keno lowers that bar. He doesn’t lower it as much as Danny did, but he’s not the equal of the turtles or even the other Keno which I enjoyed quite a bit. This is an underwhelming release and I’m glad I didn’t pay 100 bucks for it in 2023 because then I might have been kind of pissed. Now I’m just disappointed. I like that I have a Roy’s Pizza Keno in my collection, but that’s where my enthusiasm ends. If you want to pick this up and sort out your own feelings on the subject, Keno is currently exclusive to Walmart like most of the movie collection. As of this writing it is still in stock on Walmart’s website (fulfilled by NECA) and I assume it will start showing up in stores as well.
Did I mention I blog a lot about TMNT? Here’s a few other relevant reviews you might find interesting:
I’ve been spending parts of the past month or so ducking in and out of any Walmart I come across in search of the Masters of the Universe Origins Turtles of Grayskull Krang. You see, it’s a store exclusive and if you know anything about toy collecting it’s that toy collectors hate store exclusives. Especially…
It’s that time of year when a lot of folks are reflecting on the past year and all of the things that happened. This usually coincides with list-making for favorites and worst of the year in basically every category you can dream of. And for action figure enthusiasts, there’s definitely a lot of list making.…
For the first time in a long time we went a week without a blog entry here. That’s because I took a much needed vacation and didn’t schedule anything. I’ll probably be backing off a little bit as we dig deeper into 2022 since there’s a certain holiday I need to get crackin’ on if…
Marvel’s cheekiest hero gets the premium treatment.
Despite the fact that I own dozens of them, I don’t really consider myself a fan of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends series of action figures. They largely are able to get a purchase out of me thanks to Hasbro’s exclusivity agreement with Marvel/Disney which basically makes them the only game in town. Despite that, I will say perhaps my favorite Legends figure that I own is Deadpool from the movie subline. Specifically, I like the Deadpool that came in the two-pack with Negasonic Teenage Warhead. By Hasbro standards, or really any action figure standards, it’s a damn fine release. It’s well sculpted, it’s painted well, it comes with enough stuff, and it also poses pretty well. I liked it so much that I bought the almost identical re-release from the Deadpool & Wolverine movie.
“Wait! Who the hell are you?!”
I may like that figure, but I have always been interested in something a bit more premium. Legends may be the only game in town when it comes to retail in the US, but for specialty shops and online we have the imports. And in this case, I’m talking the Bandai/Tamashii Nations S.H.Figuarts line. I am very familiar with the brand thanks to all of the Dragon Ball product that’s been released and I’ve had my eye on the Deadpool offerings for awhile. I passed on the first take because Bandai, for some reason, did not include any guns in the package. Deadpool kind of needs those so no guns meant no sale. I don’t know why that was, if it was a Bandai thing or a Disney one. Warner Bros. did ban guns from being included as accessories with DC action figures – did Disney briefly consider the same? I say briefly because it didn’t impact Hasbro or really any other figure release I can think of. The issue was rectified with the Deadpool 2 version of the character, but that featured the much darker and drab color palette from late in that movie which wasn’t really what I wanted. For Deadpool & Wolverine though, I finally found a version of the character I was willing to throw some money at.
Bandai left, Hasbro right.
This version of Deadpool is, I assume, very similar to the past ones in the line. Just like the Legends version, little needed to be re-sculpted to make it work and it’s the sort of release where you really need to look closely to see what’s changed. The most obvious change though is just the color. This Deadpool is a bright red where as the others were noticeably darker. I would say the old costume was the color of dried blood, pretty useful for a character who gets shot and stabbed a whole bunch. The bright red does make the figure look cheaper by comparison. Bandai likes to stick with colored plastics as much as possible over painted parts and Deadpool is no exception. The red parts have that plastic look to them despite being richly textured. The black, both painted and non, has more of a satin finish to it. I’m not sure there’s really anything Bandai could have done to alleviate the issue with the red aside from throwing a wash on it. He does get pretty dirty in the film so it wouldn’t look terrible, but I get why they wouldn’t want to do that. It’s just one of those things that can’t be helped.
“Gasp! It’s Hugh!”
The good news is that’s basically my only complaint when it comes to the look of the figure. Aside from that red, he looks awesome. This figure is well proportioned to resemble actor Ryan Reynolds (and his stunt guys) in suit from the film. I like the head size, the shoulders, the length of the limbs – all of it. If this weren’t such a heavily articulated figure I’d say he looked like he stepped out of the movie. The hits of gold all seem to be in the right place and accounted for on the chest and the back of the hands. The belts, holsters, and straps are all where they should be. There are multiple textures throughout the body that help make the figure come alive along with little folds and creases in certain parts. He looks great, and standing the figure next to the Hasbro offering, you can tell which one cost more money.
It’s good to have the guns back.“Time to make the chimichangas”
Deadpool also comes pretty well stocked with accessories and extra parts. For starters, we get a whopping ten sets of hands. That makes sense since Deadpool is a pretty expressive character and since he wears a full mask he tends to use his hands a lot. For those hands, we get sets of fists, fists with blades poking out, gripping, c-grip, finger-bang, thumbs up, trigger finger, relaxed, chop, and splayed open. Some of these hands have clear multiple uses. The “finger bang” hands are also pointing hands while the c-grip hands can be used to make a heart gesture. There’s basically nothing missing here aside from a middle finger gesture, but maybe Disney wasn’t okay with that? Deadpool also comes with 3 sets of interchangeable eye plates along with the set he’s wearing in the box. There’s a little tool included to help pry them out, though it’s still a little tricky even with it. For eyes, we have what I’d call neutral, happy, angry, and surprised. On their own, the differences are subtle, but it makes a difference when you get them into the head. Again, Deadpool is a very expressive character so these inclusions are much appreciated and I assume a lot cheaper for Bandai than doing three extra heads.
“What do we have down here?”“Look! A baby knife!”“Eat your heart out, Van Damme.”
Deadpool also comes with his usual assortment of weapons. For melee attacks, he has two katana. Like they are in the film, the katana are a little small and thin. I don’t know if they’re technically katana as a result, though I also don’t know if they’re technically small enough to be considered wakizashi. They look nice though with some gold inlaid in the hilt. For storage, he has the scabbards that go on his back and that part plugs in. These swords don’t actually slot into them though, I’m guessing to prevent paint rub, and instead the figure has two dummy sword hilts to plug into them instead. Similarly, we get a sheathed knife that plugs into his right calf. If you want Deadpool to actually brandish his little knife, there’s an empty sheath to swap it with and a little knife all by itself. Lastly, we have the two desert eagles (I think) and their holsters. Unlike the bladed weapons, these do go into the holsters when not in use. They are the black versions of the weapon and not the gold ones he acquires during the film. It would have been nice to get the gold ones, but maybe that’s for a future re-release. The guns look fine otherwise, though I find his trigger hands are quite snug with them. Posing them convincingly is more challenging than I’d like.
“Who invited you?”
That’s not everything though, as Deadpool has one other accessory of note: Headpool. Headpool is the decapitated and decrepit remains of a Deadpool from an alternate universe. He has this old school leather pilot’s helmet with a propeller on top that allows him to basically float around. What’s left of his mask just dangles in tatters while his exposed skull is free to yammer away, despite no longer having a voice box. He’s basically a visual joke in the movie that Bandai brought to life. The head is well sculpted and painted and the little propeller does rotate, but that’s it for articulation. I’m surprised the jaw doesn’t move. Also included is a clear, acrylic, post that plugs into the head at one end and features a c-clamp on the other. It’s designed to clip onto Deadpool’s forearm, which works well enough, but I wish it had an optional platform to just stick him on the shelf beside Deadpool or a way to plug into Deadpool’s back so that he’s hovering over his shoulder. With the setup provided, he’s really only useful in one pose and I don’t know how many collectors will want to clip this guy onto Deadpool’s arm? I definitely don’t so it feels like a wasted accessory.
“Ohh that’s pretty cool…”
That’s a pretty good spread, all things considered, but there are some obvious omissions. The last Deadpool Bandai released came with some gun effect parts that I would have liked to have seen included. I guess we’re getting Headpool instead, but I would honestly trade him for the gun parts. Also not included is an unmasked head. For me, this isn’t a big omission as I’d never display him unmasked, but I understand people who think one should be included. Obviously, releasing the figure without one means that Bandai didn’t have to pay Reynolds for his likeness. If that keeps the figure’s price down a bit, then that’s a worthwhile trade-off as far as I’m concerned. Hasbro did the same, and as far as I know, the only figures with the Reynolds likeness are coming from Hot Toys. Maybe Bandai will come back to this with an unmasked head? It’s possible, but none of their other Deadpool figures featured such so I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Deadpool: “Snikt!” Wolverine: “What the fuck are you doing?”
This Deadpool figure comes with a lot more parts than its Hasbro counterpart, but it also features more articulation. Or at least it should. The Hasbro one is pretty well articulated on its own with only a few areas of weakness (basically the waist). This figure should remedy that, though I have to say upfront that posing this guys can be quite annoying. He is what I’d call a “fiddly” figure. He has so much extra stuff keyed into his body that will constantly pop off on you when posing him. The knife especially. It’s best to just take that off and pose him then replace it when you’re done. I already mentioned that the eyes are not the easiest things to swap, but they pale in comparison to the hands. For most, I needed to heat them up in order to get them onto the wrist pegs. This is unusual in my experience with a SHF release and it definitely does knock the fun-factor down since this figure has so many damn hands and so many possible expressions and poses to take advantage of. I basically did a lot of these pictures with a bowl of hot water at the ready that also eventually needed to be reheated. I tried to plan out my pictures as much as possible to get through as many as possible while the water was still warm enough to do its job. It makes me wish Bandai did the Medicom thing of putting the extra hands on acrylic posts to keep the entry hole as wide as necessary. I don’t know if that practice actually works or if it’s just confirmation bias at play, but I didn’t have any issues with my Medicom figures in the past.
“All right kid, hand over the pizza!”
With that out of the way, lets rundown this articulation. We have a double-ball at the head, ball at the base of the neck, butterfly joints, shoulder ball hinges, bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, ball hinge wrists, ball-jointed torso, ball-jointed waist, ball-jointed hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, ball-hinged ankles with ankle rocker, and a toe joint. That’s basically the standard SHF setup and most of it works as intended. You will get great personality out of the head and the elbows and knees bend well past 90 degrees. At the hips, the holsters pose issues when trying to bring the legs out for full splits. Going forward and back isn’t an issue, but out to the side is as he can’t even really get to 45 degrees. The butterfly joints work well, but he has these shoulder pads that really make getting much use out of the bicep swivel more trouble than it’s worth. The figure is going to fight you at times in the shoulder region as a result. There is rotation in the diaphragm, but that waist seems to mostly offer forward and back. He can at least get a decent crunch going forward and arch his back enough until the scabbards get in the way, but the figure is more limited than I expected.
“Ow! Fuck! I wasn’t really gonna shoot him!” “No one messes with our pizza, dude!”
This is a figure where the articulation is there, but you have to work for it. I wish Bandai had done the shoulders differently when it comes to the padding up there and I also wish they had come up with a more creative solution for the belt and the impediments there. Maybe just make those holsters peg into the belt so they can swing out of the way? That would probably make the suit less accurate to the source, but if the actual holster itself still pegged into the thigh maybe it wouldn’t matter? The old hinged ball in the diaphragm may have helped too. That setup can lead to gapping issues, but if it’s on the back of the figure (and amongst a lot of black) it may have been worth the sacrifice. This is an expensive figure, most US retailers have it at $90, so a little extra engineering should be expected. Especially when so much of what’s in the box is likely reused from past Deadpool figures.
Wolverine: “I gotta get the fuck outta here.”
I bought this version of Deadpool because I wanted a premium version of the character for my shelf. Did I get what I paid for? For the most part, yes. It looks better, it’s more expressive, and even though it can be a chore to pose it does ultimately pose a little better than the cheaper Hasbro offering. Is it just worth more than 3x what that Hasbro figure costs? Honestly, probably not. If you’re comparing the two as apples to apples then, yes, this Deadpool figure is the superior action figure. It’s just going to be a more subjective exercise when value is added to the equation. I’ve been pretty happy all these years with that first movie Deadpool I bought. Hell, I still enjoy the old Toy Biz Marvel Legends Deadpool. I really didn’t need the updated Legends figure for the new movie, but I wanted more Deadpool. I certainly did not need this one, but I’m happy to have it. A more rational and cost-conscious person could probably buy one of the Legends offerings and be perfectly content with that as well. If you have the money and want the best Deadpool on the market, then yeah, go for it. If you’re content with the Hasbro figure then I don’t blame you if you come to the conclusion that you don’t need this.
Bandai did also release a Wolverine to pair with this Deadpool. Unfortunately, it’s just not good enough for me to buy. Priced at $85, the figure is not much different from the Hasbro offering in terms of what’s in the box except for the fact that it doesn’t have an unmasked head. I don’t place much value in that when it comes to Deadpool, but I absolutely do when it comes to Wolverine. And what I couldn’t get past is the lack of sleeveless arms. The Bandai Wolverine is basically a look we never saw in the movie. When Wolverine had the sleeves on he went unmasked. He only masks up at the end when his suit is pretty beaten up and dirty. The proportions look way better than the Legends figure which is quietly kind of terrible in that area. The saving grace of that figure is the fantastic Hugh Jackman portrait. And with that figure, I can compromise at $25, but not at $85. If Bandai comes back with the Wolverine I want I’ll get it, but for now, Deadpool is going to fly solo on my shelf. Well, not exactly, since he has plenty of Deadpools to keep him company. And Headpool, how could I forget about Headpool?
If you’re looking for more Deadpool figure reviews we have more Deadpool figure reviews:
Despite the amount of reviews presents on this blog, I still do not consider myself a Marvel Legends collector. That’s because my interests are somewhat narrow when it comes to the Marvel brand. Over the years I’ve developed a fondness for Deadpool as depicted on film by Ryan Reynolds. I think the comic book character…
It might be hard for the young folk to believe, but once upon a time movies based on comic book characters were treated like box office poison. Unless you were Superman or Batman, you just didn’t belong in cinema. Even those characters weren’t bulletproof. Superman had a nice run, but fizzled out with the fourth…
Look through my various toy reviews and you’ll probably notice that I’m not much of a Marvel guy. That wasn’t always the case for me though as I was huge into Marvel Legends once upon a time. I basically stopped around the time Hasbro was awarded the Marvel license. I felt there was a dip…
In some ways, Secret Wars was bad for comics. Commercially, the 80’s event was hugely successful for Marvel even though it seems to have just a lukewarm reception by fans in some circles. It helped to establish the belief that events sell and Marvel seemed hellbent on taking that approach in 90s. One of Spider-Man’s big plotlines was Maximum Carnage. It was a multi-issue arc with a bunch of heroes and villains teaming up to form super teams, and like Secret Wars, it didn’t seem like fans thought much of the finished product, but it sure seemed to sell well. And if it had not we wouldn’t have the extremely derivative Maximum Clonage (sic) to follow. Also referred to as The Clone Saga, Peter Parker was suddenly confronted with multiple versions of himself thanks to The Jackal and no one knew who the real Peter was. It’s the storyline that brought us the Scarlet Spider and it’s also the storyline that gave us Kaine.
“Don’t look at me!”
Kaine was yet another clone of Peter. He was the like the goth Peter before Sam Raimi came up with the idea for Spider-Man 3. Clad all in black with this weird, blue, membrane running throughout and a tattered cape, he caused some trouble for both Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider before eventually being outed as yet another clone. Kaine was actually the point where I fell off the story as a kid. It just got way too soap opera-like for my taste and I got enough of that at home from a mother who would monopolize the television on Saturday to watch all of the episodes of All My Children she had recorded during the week.
That’s more sculpt and paint than we’re used to with Hasbro.
Kaine may have been a lame addition to the story, but if I’m being honest, he did look kind of cool. When Hasbro unveiled a Kaine figure last year, I took one look at it and said to myself, “Why not?” As a Marvel Legends figure, it looked interesting and the crazy pricing we’re seeing from the world of action figures makes these $25 ones feel more susceptible to impulse buying now. Kaine comes in the retro Spider-Man packaging which makes sense given his era. He never did get a single card release in that line, so I guess this is like making up for lost time. There was a Maximum Clonage box set that contained a Kaine figure that was probably exclusive to some store. It was a classic Toy Biz repaint and I think they used an Archangel body for the base and just slapped a cape on it. Maybe if he had made the jump to the actual show he would have been given a more prominent release, but honestly it’s all Kaine really deserved.
The cape looks nice and dramatic, but it will get in the way.
Hasbro apparently felt like he deserved better, because this Kaine figure goes harder than I would have predicted. This figure is basically all new sculpt. The blue veins are all sculpted and painted as are the fins, or blades, on his forearms and shins. Even the crotch piece has sculpted veins. The hair, head, and cape are all new as well and the only reuse this figure can take advantage of rests with the hands and feet, which I’m sure are recycled from tons of figures. This does come at a cost for the consumer as Kaine only comes with one set of alternate hands, but that’s how it goes. He has fists and open, style posed, hands. The cape is sort of an accessory because you can remove it, but the straps for it on the torso are much harder to get off so it’s really not designed to be removed, but you may want to and we’ll get to why in a bit.
Krillin: “I don’t think even the Dragon Balls could get us a mane like that!”
What I find really striking about this figure is that wonderful head of hair. Kaine looks like he walked out of a shampoo commercial or something. Fabio would be jealous as his hair never looked this good while hawking imitation butter. It, as well as the cape, are just one shade though. There’s no paint added which is a bit of a bummer as I think a wash would really help liven this figure up and also reduce that plastic look. I find this figure looks a lot better on my desk when the lighting is getting dim because it takes away that plastic sheen. Still, by the standards of the line, Kaine is an impressive looking figure and if you’re a customizer of some talent you can probably get this to look even better with minimal effort.
The articulation is basic by Legends standards. He should be able to pose well enough, even with the cape.
Since this is an all new body you may wonder if it has some articulation surprises. And the answer there would be, “Not really.” They had to make new molds to produce this figure, but I bet they just took an existing digital sculpt and then added the details to it before cutting steel. As a result, Kaine feels like a lot of Marvel Legends. He has the hinged ball neck, ball hinged shoulders, butterfly joints, bicep, double-elbows, swivel and hinge wrists, ab crunch, waist twist, ball hips, thigh cuts, double knees, and ankles that hinge and rock. Range at these joints is also all typical Marvel Legends stuff. He can almost do splits, kick forward 90 degrees, and the ab crunch works well enough. Where this figure is limited is the head and that left shoulder. The combination of the big hair and the plastic cape really lockdown the head. He can turn to the side a bit, look down, and barely look up. The left shoulder is also restricted by that cape, but really only in a sense that it can’t rotate all the way around. It does a decent enough job of getting out of the way with most movement and once you’ve settled on a position you can just reposition the cape. It’s not nearly as bad as it looks like it would be, though I’m sure there will be people getting custom soft goods capes for this guy.
Which one is the real Peter Parker?!
How do we feel about having a Marvel Legends Kaine? Fine. He’s a solid entrant for the line and it feels like real effort was put into making an accurate representation of the character in plastic form. Now I understand there’s some debate over just what color the blue vein things should be. He often was drawn to have gray instead of blue. Not being a massive fan of the character, I don’t care. I like the light blue on black so I’m happy. I’m not happy about the lack of accessories, but I expect that of Legends now. I have a weird soft spot for the trash of the 90s, so that’s primarily why I have Kaine. He’ll go with my Scarlet Spider and look like his goth cousin and that’s cool. And if you too think he looks cool then by all means drop $25 and grab him. I don’t know if he’ll be anyone’s favorite release in the line come the end of the year, but he certainly won’t be the worst.
We have more Spider-Man and Maximum Clonage stuff here if that’s your thing:
It was in this space last year that I shared my fondness for the Scarlet Spider costume when I reviewed the Medicom MAFEX Scarlet Spider action figure. I don’t buy much from Medicom because their figures are really expensive for what they are, but I sometimes break my own rule when I think they’ve made…
Last year, Hasbro celebrated the 30th anniversary of X-Men, the animated series that premiered on Halloween 1992 and would become a ratings hit shortly thereafter for the Fox Kids Network. It was responsible for getting a lot of kids into the X-Men and Marvel comics in general and the first, prime, benefactor of that rise…
When I was a kid, one of my favorite past times was drawing. Like most, I started really young with a box of crayons and coloring books. I’d eventually start keeping markers, colored pencils, and other instruments in a plastic McDonald’s case that came from a Happy Meal. It was blue and had a map…
The villain who can be anyone he chooses to be and this is what he chose.
I had a bit of an impulse buy a few weeks back with the Marvel Legends Spider-Man Unlimited action figure from the show of the same name. What I didn’t mention was that he was not alone for hanging on the pegs that day with him was The Chameleon. Like Spider-Man Unlimited, The Chameleon is based on his appearance in a Fox Kids animated series, it’s just that this one is based on the more popular, more celebrated, Spider-Man which debuted in 1994. I can’t say that I was ever particularly fond of The Chameleon. He literally doesn’t talk so he doesn’t have much personality in the show. He’s just a shape-shifter in a purple outfit who received a featured slot in his own episode before becoming more of an ensemble type of villain. And for a villain that isn’t going to banter with Spider-Man, he’s probably best suited for that type of role.
Chameleon with animated Venom and the Walmart exclusive animated Spider-Man.
I have not been collecting figures based on Spider-Man like I did X-Men. That largely had to due with Hasbro’s release model. I would have loved to have added Doc Ock to my display, but I had zero interest in paying for a cruddy looking Aunt May figure just to get him. The two-pack approach really killed my enthusiasm for that line. I was never going to be as into it was I was X-Men, but I definitely would have bought more if I could have just picked up the characters I actually wanted. Chameleon was at least released as a retro card all by himself. He’s in his animated duds and mostly looks the part. My affection for the show, and boredom at not having bought anything recently at the time (damn, that changed fast) is what motivated me to pick up this release. Was that a smart move? Ehh…
And now with the rest of the animated figures I own.
Chameleon stands at approximately 6.5″ making him look a great deal larger than the animated Spider-Man released on a retro card. That’s more of a problem with that Spider-Man than Chameleon, but he does seem really big. Everyone was kind of big in that show, ordinary people on the streets seemed to all be jacked, so I guess it’s not that big of a deal, but I did expect him to be all together smaller. I have no idea how much of this figure is reused, but I’d wager it’s some and maybe that’s how he ended up tall and pretty thickly built. Even though he’s from the cartoon there’s no cel-shading or anything like that on him. He’s played straight up. The head is really well done with a lot of deep grooves in his lethal expression. There’s a little bit of what looks to be an almost silver paint around the eyes and in the creases of his brow. That combined with the really well applied eyes gives him an eerie look. Almost lifelike. It’s striking and it really gives Chameleon the appearance of a cold-blooded killer.
This belt is a pain in the ass to get straight.
The rest of the body is essentially bare plastic. I don’t think there’s another hit of paint on this guy. The only painted part is the belt. Since it has a shoulder strap, Hasbro did it all in one piece. It’s an orange plastic which matches the cuffs on his sleeves. The actual belt portion is painted red and the device on his belt buckle is painted gold and green. It’s somewhat soft, but the choice to make it all one piece means you’ll likely have to mess with it to get it on straight. The harness is pretty tight with no real room for play so it tends to want to pull up on the belt. It’s really challenging to get that belt buckle centered, if not impossible, so it may drive some folks a little nuts if they hate stuff like that. I wish they had just done it in two pieces similar to what they did with the strap on Cyclops. His shoulder pads are also a softer plastic that are keyed into the shoulder joint. I’m guessing the peg for the arm goes through a loop to sort of hold it in place. It moves with the arm, but getting them to mirror each other is a chore. The shoulder pad on the right shoulder of mine is seated nicely into the body while the left one is not so more of it is visible. In trying to jam it back in I actually damaged it slightly with my thumbnail so I guess I should learn to live with it.
At least he has fists?
Chameleon has the usual accessories for a Legends release which is to say he doesn’t come with much. Though, he does come with more than usual. Out of the package, he’s equipped with two trigger finger hands and he also has a set of fists he can turn to. For those trigger hands we get a pair of guns: a pistol and a much larger gun. They’re both a dull silver and they are the exact same two guns that came with the VHS Mystique. And if you’re buying more of this wave, they’re the exact same two guns that come with Agent Venom. I think the pistol also came with movie Deadpool so Hasbro has certainly got a bunch of mileage out of these two. Lastly, we also get a “mask” of one J. Jonah Jameson. It’s designed to resemble a rubber mask that’s been pulled off of someone’s head and is just hanging from something – like a hand. It’s both creepy and kind of funny looking. I like it, but I hate that they sculpted finger holes for it in the back. If you want Chameleon to hold his arm out and have the mask just hang from his fingers it will look stupid. If he holds it as his side it looks passable, but a little odd. I wish they had just sculpted it with the mask coming to a point in the center of the head like it’s going through his fist. Hell, since it’s an all new sculpt, just make it an extra hand like Mondo did for the Venom hand holding Spider-Man’s mask or the Spider-Man hand holding the mask of the Green Goblin. That would have been the way to go.
He also has a bigger gun.
You can probably take one look at this figure and conclude that it’s not going to articulate all that well, and you would be right. The head is on the old ball-hinge, but the oversized collar renders the hinge nearly useless. He can basically just turn his head to the side. Arms feature the usual hinged ball at the shoulder, bicep swivel, double-jointed elbow, swivel and hinge at the wrist. The trigger hands have the superior vertical hinge while the fists go with an appropriate horizontal one. The torso feature an ab crunch that has crappy range going forward, decent range going back. There’s a waist twist, ball-socket hips that can almost hit splits out to the side, kick forward a decent, and a thigh twist in each leg. The double-jointed knees are tight, but otherwise fine. There is a boot swivel that’s pretty ugly, but there if you want it, and the ankles hinge forward and back and there is an ankle rocker. Range at the ankle is mediocre. This figure is pin-less so that’s nice, but it also means that knees and elbows are a slightly lighter shade of purple than the rest of the body so you’re swapping one eyesore for another. I will say, on this figure the miscolored parts aren’t as bad as I’ve seen it on some others.
Sure to be everyone’s favorite accessory is this JJ mask. It doesn’t make sense for this version of Chameleon, but who cares?
Chameleon is pretty mediocre when it comes to articulation. He’s going to just stand there on your shelf. I don’t know why they’d go with the ball-hinged neck given the big collar. The collar is a floating piece so I guess if you want Chameleon to have more range looking up and down you could remove it, but I’d have preferred a double-ball peg so he could have more tilt for nuance posing. I don’t need him to look up at the sky or down at his toes. No butterfly joint when he comes with guns is a bit of a bummer, but I do like the unbroken appearance of the chest. He’s actually pretty broad-chested compared with a lot of Legends and the proportions are pretty damn good. Chameleon is an example for how a character doesn’t need a complicated design to look good in plastic if you just get the proportions right.
Standing tall. Standing proud.
And that’s what it all comes down to for me with Chameleon. Yeah, he doesn’t impress with the articulation and there are some design flaws that bug me, but he looks like the character from the show. He’s a big dude and he’s sculpted as such. The matte finish across the board just makes him look nice and they really nailed the face. He comes with an extra set of hands, two guns, and the mask accessory which is practically a motherload for a Marvel Legends figure being sold at the standard price. For that reason, I can’t really be down on this guy. He’s fine. If you like Chameleon as he appeared in the Spider-Man cartoon from the 90s then I think you’ll be happy with this one. He’s not going to be one you fiddle with much, but when you look to your shelf and see him standing there staring a hole through your soul you’ll probably think “Man, Hasbro kind of nailed that one.”
We have plenty more action figure reviews from the Spider-Man cartoon of the 90s:
Last year, Hasbro celebrated the 30th anniversary of X-Men, the animated series that premiered on Halloween 1992 and would become a ratings hit shortly thereafter for the Fox Kids Network. It was responsible for getting a lot of kids into the X-Men and Marvel comics in general and the first, prime, benefactor of that rise…
When I was a kid, my dad took me to some local convention or trade show. I have no idea why because my dad wasn’t the type who would go to such an event. He liked car shows, but from what I can remember this was more of a hobby show. It was early in…
It was in 2021 that Hasbro released a PulseCon exclusive Venom figure on a Spider-Man retro card. The retro card series is meant to stir-up nostalgia for all of the adults who were buying toys and watching cartoons in the 90s as the retro card is a facsimile of the old cards Toy Biz used…
When it comes to Mezco and its action figure offerings I have a very specific taste. To me, the majority of their super hero figures look little better than Mego. Some people like that aesthetic, but not me personally, and I’m certainly not into paying 100 bucks for the honor of owning such. Some frequent readers here may be surprised that I never reviewed either of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles four-packs the company released last year and that’s because, to me, they looked like dried-out turds left out in the hot sun to bake. I saw plenty of folks singing the praises of that set and I think it’s great that they enjoyed it, it just wasn’t for me.
With Mezco, the stuff I typically am drawn to are their creations based on live-action properties. I love the look of their Batman ’89 and their Michael Keaton likeness under the cowl is spot on. I don’t love the approach they took with the silicon body, but if you want to read more about that there’s a link at the bottom of this one. I really liked their take on The Crow based on the 90s film. I didn’t get it, but I certainly gave strong consideration to doing so. And my favorite figure I picked up in 2023 was the Mezco Green Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It was a perfect character for Mezco to tackle because it was based on a live-action series where martial artists in spandex suits and helmets wield goofy weapons. The fact that the character is helmeted made it even more perfect because even though I said I prefer Mezco’s take on live-action properties, they don’t always nail the likeness. The Crow works because he’s covered in paint. The unmasked Tommy Oliver head they included with the Green Ranger is just okay. And that’s fine because I’d never display him unmasked.
It’s impossible to convey how huge this show was in 1993.
When I got that figure the plan was just to get the one. I’m strictly a casual MMPR fan who feels drawn to the toys of today because the toys of yesterday were so hard to come by when I was a kid and actively watching the show. The Green Ranger is the best of the rangers so it made sense as my lone representative for the series from Mezco. It turned out so well though that my attention turned towards the rest. There was a White Ranger released in 2024, but I don’t need two versions of the same character. Plus, I fell off the series right around that character’s debut. I have a full squad of rangers from the Hasbro Lightning Collection, but it’s merely adequate. Over time, as often happens, the flaws with those figures become harder to ignore. They’ve stood untouched on my shelf for years. I don’t intend to go down any extensive MMPR rabbit hole at this point, so why not splurge a little and get a set of Power Rangers that I’m really going to enjoy? Couple that with a milestone birthday in 2024 and I decided to say “screw it,” and gift myself an expensive set of Power Rangers.
Time went by. I scored a great deal on Entertainment Earth because of a promotion that applied even to preorders. Month after month would come and go with the product getting pushed out. Eventually, I got irritated by the whole thing and began questioning if I really wanted it. We had some expenses come up, the holiday season also came and went, and I just hated the idea of this expensive item coming due at any moment so I cancelled. Not a week later, product starts hitting. God damnit, Mezco. I lost the deal I had on the set and figured that was that. Then Big Bad Toy Store actually got the product and showed it as in-stock and ready to ship. And to my surprise, there was no additional markup. Usually with Mezco, BBTS will put up preorders at MSRP, but once the item actually hits, they jack up the price to capitalize on the FOMO purchases. Maybe they had a high number of cancellations on this one since it was sitting out there for so long (years, I want to say) and needed to just make sure they sell the product they have at the price quoted before they try to extract a little more. I don’t know. I ruminated on the subject a little then obviously gave in since we’re here today talking about this set.
Some nice new artwork for the box.Lots of plastic baggies to keep things as protected as can be.
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Box Set from Mezco checks in at a whopping $400. That’s a number more commonly associated with a video game console and not a set of action figures. Considering that most Mezco figures retail for $100 or more (I think the Green Ranger was $110) this set actually feels like a pretty good deal. That’s five figures each with a vast assortment of accessories at $80 a piece. I won’t call it a bargain because $400 is $400. Maybe a week long stay in a hotel for that kind of cash could be considered a bargain, but not action figures. The big question then is do these figures justify their cost? With the Green Ranger, my conclusion was a somewhat tepid “Yes.” The figure’s great, I just wasn’t convinced it absolutely had to cost what it did. And that was at a significantly higher price point. These figures are off to a better start by virtue of that fact, but an $80 action figure is still a pricey thing. I’m not sure if I spent that much on a single action figure in this scale in 2024. I did spend $75 on a figure so it’s not as if I’m far off the mark, but there is certainly something to prove with this set and expectations are and should be high for that price.
The accessory tray is pretty comprehensive.
The figures come in a pretty large box with multiple trays within. The box has what I assume is new artwork commissioned for the release and it’s all fine, but it’s not a window box so if you want to not only hold the figures, but just see them, then you’re going to have to open it. Once removed you have your five figures. It’s actually more like two figures as the male rangers share a body and the two female rangers share a body. And that’s fine as the characters were fairly similar in the show when suited and I wouldn’t expect a sculpt tailor made for each figure. Especially because the helmets and soft goods are unique enough.
And there they are.
Just standing them all in a row and taking it in the look is impressive. From a normal distance, they look like miniature versions of the characters from the show. The helmets are the right shape. The details are all in place when it comes to the sculpt work on the helmets or the stitching in the gloves and boots which are sculpted in. The colors are bright and vibrant and the white vinyl or decals for the diamonds on the chest is nice and opaque, even, and straight. As is the case with Mezco, we have a mix of soft goods and plastic. The heads, gloves, and boots are all plastic while the body is covered by the soft goods. If you get up close, you can see the threading in the suits which I suppose isn’t screen accurate, but I’ve also never been that up close and personal with a real Power Rangers suit. They obviously take on the look of the characters when using the American actors since the Yellow Ranger was played by a male in all of the Japanese footage. And that’s fine. For an American audience, Trini is the Yellow Ranger and it would look out of place if the figure had a male body, even if that’s what we typically saw on TV. I think it would be cool if Mezco did a one-off Yellow Ranger release on the male body for those who want a Super Sentai display, but I don’t know if such a thing is likely.
There should be a lot more black around that morpher.
The presentation is strong, but not perfect. Nothing is, and when a figure costs 80 bucks we’re going to scrutinize the Hell out of it. The helmets on the males look fine, but the females do stand out a bit as oversized. I do think some of that is other toys and media playing tricks on us. The Lightning Collection, and most action figure lines, scale down the helmet heads slightly. Some of the older lines scale them down a lot to the point where one would question if a human head could actually fit in them. They’re pretty big on the show, but if you’ve spent years looking at figures where they’re a little smaller then it’s going to have an effect. Similarly, the Yellow Ranger being a male in the show more often than not means the figures usually look out of whack. However, in this case, I do think the helmet size is too big. For the Pink Ranger, it’s mostly fine. That helmet always looked bigger on the show, probably because of the size of the actress, so it’s not standing out. The other drawback I notice right away is that the diamonds on the chest, in particular the ones on the sides, have a wavy quality to them. They should be sharp, but it must have something to do with the vinyl coating in use here. What may bug the hardcore fan the most though is that the morphers are not the right color. They’re all silver here when in the show only the front is supposed to silver. The sides should be black, which is an odd detail for Mezco to screw up since they went through the trouble of making the coins in the morphers look so damn good.
We may have a slightly different body than Green, though Billy somehow seems to be a bit taller than Jason and Zack.
We’ll talk first about the male rangers: black, red, and blue. To my surprise, these do not appear to be identical to the Green Ranger I already have. I think much of them are shared, but there are some differences. Or at least one noticeable one. Under the suit, it feels like there’s just a basic action figure body. The Green Ranger I have at a little over 6.5″ while these new ones are right around 6.375″ which surprised me a bit. It looks like the Green Ranger is getting a bit more length out of the torso so perhaps it’s not the same body underneath. I don’t know if either figure is truly 1:12 scale, but it looks fine to me. The suit is stitched in the back so it’s not removable and the belts are an imitation leather. They’re painted with black striping and the Power Morpher is nicely detailed and personalized for each character. The blade blaster holsters are removable and they just tab on and off.
Posing is going to be pretty solid with some limitations thanks to the soft goods.
Running your fingers over these figures will allow you to feel out the articulation. It’s impossible to know exactly what’s underneath without taking one apart, but I’ll do my best. It sure feels like we have a ball joint in the base of the neck and I know we have a double ball at the head. The shoulders appear to be simple ball hinges and there is a bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, a glove swivel, and ball hinge wrists. The diaphragm seems to feature a double ball and there is a slight waist twist. Hips are a mystery, but they got to the side a little better than 45 degrees and kick forward about 90 degrees. There is a dedicated thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, boot swivel, and a hinged ankle and rocker. Because these guys have different gloves and boots than the Green Ranger, those had to be re-sculpted and Mezco made at least one notable improvement and it’s with the ankle rocker. The Green Ranger’s ankles are pretty poor, but these new ones should have little trouble keeping their feet flat on a shelf. The actual boots do have an odd shape to them. In some poses it looks like they’re curving out. I’m not sure if it’s the connection to the leg that’s causing that. It can be posed away, for the most part, but out of the box I was wondering if the left and right shins had been swapped at the factory.
I like that the hands are nice and soft so swapping is easy and getting weapons into hands is as well.
The articulation is all basically there, save for a butterfly joint. It’s just limited by the soft goods and your own courage. If you try to put these guys into splits you’re going to have to stretch the material. I’m not saying the figures can’t do it, but I’m not willing to try. I wish I was some semi-famous YouTube guy who gets review samples so that I could really go the distance with these, but I’m not and I’m out a considerable amount of money should I break something. The joints that feel the most limited to me are the waist, shoulders, and those hips and it’s all because of the soft goods. The waist, for example, doesn’t feel like it wants to turn much. The shoulders don’t like being raised out to the side a full 90 degrees. The material is stretchy and it can probably take more abuse than I’m willing to dish out, but it’s also form-fitted to each figure. They’re not frumpy, which means if you leave these guys in a position that’s stressing the material it could stretch out permanently and lead to a poorer fit. That’s always going to be the limitation with this setup and it’s the same with other scales too. Have some fun with them in hand, but maybe don’t leave them on your shelf in anything too crazy.
As expected, the females share the same body.
The female rangers are pretty much the same, only smaller, and with another detail I wasn’t anticipating. The pink and yellow rangers stand at just a tick under 6″ and I like the height separation between them and the boys. They have a more feminine shape with slender limbs compared to the males and a more defined hourglass shape to the torso without being unrealistically curvy. Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, has her skirt piece as well which seems to be just a separate piece that’s not sewn into place. The articulation feels to be the same, but the body underneath feels like it’s a silicon one. It’s my understanding Mezco tried this with a Spider Gwen figure and it’s being utilized here. The silicon body covers the torso, waist, and thighs and gives the figures a squishy feeling. These types of bodies are known for eventually cracking and tearing, but if it’s hidden underneath soft goods then who cares? I would think it’s an added expense so I’m surprised to see it in use here, but maybe this is a technique Mezco is going to utilize more going forward?
I find these two pose a little better than the boys. The torso and hips have a bit more range.
For whatever reason, this approach makes the women the more articulated of the pair. The actual articulation points are all the same, but they can really crunch forward and back in a way the males cannot. The legs seem to kick forward better as well and they also kick back all the way so they can theoretically do splits in both directions, though I still wouldn’t really advise it. The joints are stiff, but smooth, and if you have handled a figure like this in the past then you know what I mean. It’s a metal armature, basically, that’s inside the body so you do need to be somewhat mindful of that. Sometimes a joint can get pointed in a direction you weren’t expecting. As a result, the limb won’t move the way you want it to, but it’s just a matter of figuring out which swivel point got turned around and going from there. The one downside is it seems like joints can either separate or just aren’t tight enough. The right leg on my Pink Ranger doesn’t want to go out to the side and stay there. I don’t know if the hip is disconnected or if it’s just weak. It’s not floppy, but it sucks that the range isn’t there with her.
The boys.And the girls.The unmasked portraits are pretty hit and miss.
All of the characters come with an array of hands as well as an alternate, unmasked, portrait. The quality of the unmasked heads varies from character to character. I would say the Billy and Jason heads look really good, Zack and Kimberly okay, and Trini looks nothing like the actor. Billy doesn’t have his glasses which is technically accurate to the show, but for this era, I think most fans picture actor David Yost with his spectacles on. For hands, every Ranger comes with fists and gripping hands and then after that it varies. Red Ranger has a set of flat palms with his thumb to the side and a set of flats with his thumbs towards the palm. He also has martial arts posed hands (kind of his signature pose) and loose gripping hands. Black Ranger has the same, minus the martial arts posed hands, while Blue Ranger loses the flat palms with the thumb off to the side and the loose gripping hands, but picks up palm-striking hands. Yellow Ranger has the same spread as Black Ranger, plus a set of “Tiger Claw” hands. Pink Ranger has the most as she has the same spread as Yellow, but swaps the flat hands with thumbs turned inward in favor of splayed open hands like she just loosed an arrow. She also has an additional right hand specifically shaped for nocking an arrow. All of the male hands can be shared with each other and the same is true of the female hands, you just wouldn’t want to put a male hand on a female body and vice versa.
I’m guessing most will pose the Rangers with their signature weapons, but I’ve also liked the Blade Blasters.Remember the combined Blade Blaster attack?
Each Power Ranger comes with their trusty blade blaster. These little gun to knives accessories are identical to the one that came with the Green Ranger meaning they’re capable of going from knife mode to handgun mode just as they did in the show. They’re hard plastic and well painted but Mezco did not include the “Power Rangers” writing on them. Some require a little extra oomph to push the dinosaur head forward when converting to the gun mode which can feel a little scary, but I haven’t had any issues. The actual blade doesn’t fold out and is instead a separate piece that pegs in. Mezco included five so you can have all five Rangers wielding their blade blasters in knife mode if you please or firing with the included blast effects. They’re a thin, translucent, red and likely made of an acrylic so do be careful when handling them. If you don’t want your Rangers to brandish these arms, they can be stored in the included holsters which is probably where most are likely to end up. Upon doing so though, it becomes clear that the blasters are a tad oversized compared to the ones in the show. They look big in their holsters and even the promo shots for this set seem to show a smaller weapon. This wasn’t something I really noticed with the Green Ranger since he doesn’t traditionally carry one of these things, but it’s plain to see here.
These are the weapons most associate with the Power Rangers.
Each Ranger also has their signature weapon. For the Red Ranger, it’s the power sword which is lovingly painted and looks terrific. If you think it lacks a little something though there’s also the charged version which is basically the same sculpt but molded in translucent red. I honestly don’t remember the sword doing that in the show, but it probably happened. I doubt it looked like this though given the show had very cheap and simple special effects. It looks a little jarring in Jason’s hands and it’s not something I see myself using, but maybe I’ll come around on it. It does have the opposite problem of the Blade Blaster which is that it’s definitely too small. Mezco clearly played fast and loose with the scale on this stuff. For Billy the Blue Ranger, he has his lance which is sort of like a blue trident with a topper on both ends. In the show, he could separate it and brandish two, smaller, weapons so Mezco included a set of small, handheld, tridents. They also included two bigger ones and an adapter piece to facilitate connecting either set to form the actual lance. I’m not sure which is more screen accurate. One looks too big and one looks too small and I don’t think it had a silver center handle in the show. It’s at least made of a sturdy plastic. My Lightning Collection Blue Ranger’s lance always curved when held because the plastic was so soft. There are also some lightning effects for the lance included, which is always appreciated.
That foam gun is certainly something.
For Trini the Yellow Ranger, she has her daggers which also resemble sai. Again, they’re well painted and do what they’re supposed to, and unlike the other weapons so far, the size seems fine. Zack’s power axe also looks great and has a sliding handle so it can be wielded like a pump shotgun. Sizing for it seems fine and it can make use of the blast effects included. Kimberly has her bow (I guess power bow?) which also has a real string affixed to it which is stretchy. She has three arrows as well to wield and the weapon works well enough, though it’s always a challenge to get an action figure to pull off a bow look and she’s no exception. Also included are some optional weapons. For Billy, we get the Anti-Sonic Foam Gun which looks like an old Nerf double ball blaster, but painted blue. There’s a non zero chance that’s what the actual prop was. It has an optional effect part if you want Billy spraying foam on your shelf. I’m not sure that I do. There’s also three Thunder Slingers which are basically handheld slingshots, but made to look like something a Power Ranger would handle. They look great, but this is more stuff I’m likely to just look at once and then put away forever. And if you’re curious, yes, there were five of these in the show, but Mezco only provided three. I think they could also combine with the Blade Blaster, but no such functionality exists here.
This is a well put together piece of plastic.This is a contender for shelf pose.The blast effects probably need some tweaking.The more I look at it, the more I think they should have made this blast one piece.
When the Power Rangers combine their weapons they form the Mega Blaster. Rather than put tabs and holes into the weapons, Mezco just gives you an assembled Mega Blaster. Every component looks every bit as good as the individual weapons because I’m pretty sure its the exact same stuff just stuck together. There are even five effect parts so you can have the gun blasting the bad guys, which are going to have to come from another toy line for now. It’s cool and it at least makes things a little easier and lessens the risk of paint rub and such if we were expected to physically attach the weapons to each other. If I’m being honest with myself though, I kind of miss the fun of assembling the weapon. That’s part of the appeal of Power Rangers for me: combining weapons, combining robots. The blast effects are seemingly colored correctly, but tough to get straight and flimsy. I wonder if it would have worked better as one, big, piece?
For when they want to cosplay as Tommy.“Hey guys, what gives?”
We’re not quite done yet though as we have a few more accessories in the box. Both the Red Ranger and the Black Ranger wore the Dragon Shield at points during the show so Mezco included two Dragon Shields and the armbands that go with them. They’re the same parts as the ones included with the Green Ranger so if you want a trio of armored up Power Rangers on your shelf you can do so. The arm bands are loose enough that you can slide them on without having to pop the gloves off. That also means they won’t fit the smaller female arms, but the shield itself is also way too big for them. Lastly, we have a stand for each figure which features a circular base with their respective Power Coin image printed on it and an articulating, transparent, plastic, armature. This is the standard Mezco stand, and while the base does take up a lot of real estate on a shelf, they do work well. A good stand is something every premium collectible should come with.
And who could forget about the individual stands?
That is a lot of stuff and a lot of words. What have we learned after reading all of this? That these Mezco Power Rangers are as advertised. They capture the look of the American version of the show quite well. The Mezco approach is perfect for this property and this is basically a match made in Heaven. The articulation is pretty good, though the format will always breed some apprehension when it comes to extreme posing, but I think most will be satisfied with what these figures can do. There’s basically nothing left out when it comes to extra stuff. We get the unmasked portraits, 54 individual hands, weapons, blasters, extra weapons, the Mega Blaster, stands, and even some extra Dragon Shields. Oh, and those little baggies Mezco always includes for storing accessories if you decide to ditch the box. There’s nothing missing, as far as I’m concerned. I guess some folks may want individual morphers, but that’s an accessory for plain clothes Power Rangers, if you ask me. There are all kinds of other one-off weapons in the show, but none made an impact with me to the point where I want them included. I guess the Power Crystals might have been cool? Again, I’m reaching here as I would be unlikely to ever do anything with such in my display.
That’s not to say everything is perfect. While I think the proportions for the male rangers are pretty damn spot-on with the American show, there’s no denying that the Yellow Ranger looks off. The shape of the white diamonds on the torso of all of the figures are also off. It might be something where if you play with the suit enough you could smooth those lines out, but it’s certainly a hassle. The scale with the weapons is all over the place and the morphers on the belts are the wrong colors. Depending on your point of view, that’s either a bunch of nitpicking or a bunch of problems for figures that cost $80 a piece.
Blue Ranger helps illustrate the difference in proportions between the two brands.Hasbro Black is definitely better equipped to wield the Power Axe in blaster mode.One has a big head and one has a small head. Too bad we can’t split the difference.If you like the laser arrow, then the Hasbro one has a leg up, but look at those mismatched pinks.The Hasbro Red Ranger is horrible proportioned and the colors are all over the place, but the Mezco Jason definitely has sword envy.What you’ve been waiting for, direct comparisons to the Lightning Collection. These are the originals, not the Remastered editions.
That means the real question is are these figures worth it? There is a part of me that looks at the price tag for this thing and can’t fathom how it could possibly be worth such an investment. Even big time Lego sets are usually in the $300-$350 range. This is beyond even that and when this thing was first announced I don’t think I could have envisioned me picking it up. On the other hand, if these Power Rangers were released individually over a couple of years at $80 a piece would I feel differently? Yes. My brain looks at an $80 Mezco figure of this quality and is able to both realize it’s still a lot to pay for a toy, but it’s not outrageous in this market. Mondo is doing The Real Ghostbusters at $101 a piece spread across probably 2 years, when all is said and done, and I’m in on them. And a Mondo sixth scale X-Men figure sets me back over $200 by itself and I’ll probably buy anywhere between 4 and 6 of those this year alone (if Mondo hits its goals).
No matter how you pose them or what you place in their hands, these are going to look good on your shelf.
This is an expensive hobby. Action figures are not thought of as luxury goods because the term luxury makes people think of limousines and monocles, but that’s what they are because they’re just baubles. Things no one needs that don’t perform a function; they just exist to be admired and fiddled with. They’re not even proper children’s toys which have some nurturing capabilities. Accepting all of that, I can definitively say that, for me, these figures are worth every penny. They’re fantastic for what they are. These are the only Power Rangers I will ever need. I have no use for my Lightning Collection set any longer and I cannot fathom buying another Power Ranger for myself for the rest of my life. These are exactly what I want as they look and feel like 1:12 scale Hot Toys figures. It’s the perfect format for me and for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
There’s no denying how awesome this looks.
And I’m apparently not alone as this set now appears to be sold out everywhere. That doesn’t mean it’s gone, the very popular TMNT set has been reissued already and had a variant set released as well. Maybe Mezco wants to do a variant with the other actor likenesses? Maybe they want to do the movie suits? I don’t know, but Hasbro is more than willing to license the brand out so I wouldn’t rule anything out. And like most companies, Mezco likes money and if they feel the demand is out there then they’ll make more. You just never know with them because their communication is so terrible. If you’re a big fan of the property then I think you should get these and it might even be worth paying over MSRP. If you value each figure at $100 then $500 isn’t much of an overpay, or you can wait it out. And if you get it and completely disagree with what I’ve said here then I bet you’ll have no trouble unloading it at cost. It makes the set almost a risk free proposition. I don’t think that’s going to happen though. Most people who get this, aside from those who may run into quality control issues, are going to be thrilled with what they have.
If you want to check out more Power Ranger and Mezo talk then look no further:
Remember San Diego Comic Con? That event back in July? Well, it turns out people are still waiting on product tied to that event. It’s become such a huge event in the world of collecting that most companies that attend have some sort of event exclusive to either sell or give-away. The action figure producers…
We continue to bang out action figure reviews here in 2023 just in case there’s one that needs to sneak onto a year-end best of 2023 list. Is today’s figure such a contender? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth talking about. Super7 has managed to crank out three waves of Mighty Morphin…
When it comes to the world of more high end action figure collectibles, I’ve been able to get my hands on a few. Some rather prominent companies have yet to cross my path though, and it’s not really for any reason other than they either don’t make what I like or I don’t really like…
For all of the success the cast of Looney Tunes have had on the silver screen, it’s rather surprising that they have never been given the chance to helm a feature in their native medium. Sure, we had Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action, but both were live-action/animation hybrid films with one of those centering on a real life wanna-be baseball player. The Looney Tunes are cartoons, first and foremost. They make the most of their medium with wacky, screwball, antics and while those traits are able to show up in a live-action hybrid, they’re still limited and hamstrung by the technology available at the time. And yes, there was a Bugs Bunny/Road Runner movie, but that was not a true feature. It was basically a package film where some shorts were grouped together to pad out a feature sitting – hardly an honest to goodness attempt at a Looney Tunes movie.
That has all changed with The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, but it almost didn’t happen. The Peter Browngardt-helmed picture was conceived as an HBO Max exclusive back when Warner Bros. was going all-in on making the streaming platform a real Netflix competitor. The announcement came in 2021 and the first look at San Diego Comic Con in 2022, but following that things got murky. If you have been paying attention to the Looney Tunes franchise over the past few years, then you know how the franchise has been jerked around by Warner. A new set of cartoons were commissioned for theaters, but plans were quickly dashed and they were put on Max and Cartoon Network instead. Another live-action hybrid film was announced, Coyote vs ACME, and was allowed to go into production before ultimately getting cancelled. That film, which is finished or nearly finished, sits in limbo as a likely tax write-off for the horribly mismanaged corporation that is more than comfortable with turning its back on the stars that made it a household name.
The Day the Earth Blew Up was possibly heading for a similar fate, but was eventually allowed to be shopped around to find another distributor. In other words, Warner Bros. wasn’t going to distribute it on its own. Oh no, it felt better about taking someone else’s money for the privilege of doing so. The film’s budget is estimated to be at a mere 15 million, peanuts for a company of Warner’s size, but perhaps that’s what saved it. The Coyote vs ACME budget is estimated at somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 million making it a far more enticing tax write-off to the villains running the show. The fact that this little 2D animated film was so cheap is likely what saved it. And riding in to save it is Ketchup Entertainment. I don’t like pumping up corporations as heroes, but I’ll make an exception here. Ketchup acquired the North American distribution rights to the film and is the reason why the Looney Tunes property is getting a shot. I don’t know if it will pay off for them, but I’m doing my part to make sure that it does.
Porky and Daffy are your starts with not a rabbit in sight.
Now, most folks would have probably assumed that if a Looney Tunes movies was to happen it would be either helmed by Bugs Bunny or presented as an ensemble. It’s not. The Day the Earth Blew Up is a Porky Pig (Eric Bauza) and Daffy Duck (Bauza) vehicle that also brings Petunia Pig (Candi Milo) along for the ride. And it’s a smart premise to start from. Out of all the characters in Looney Tunes, the best, most logical, duo to center a film on is Porky and Daffy. Sure, they started out as adversaries with Porky in a hunter role and Daffy his would-be prey, but they would evolve over the years into unlikely partners. Often, Porky was the everyman of the group while Daffy was the instrument of chaos. His unpredictable nature would get Porky into trouble and foul things up. Later, Daffy would transition away from his looney roots to a schemer and Porky would be his sap. Sometimes, Porky got to be more of the comedic relief with Daffy a hapless protagonist as seen in the Duck Dodgers cartoons. For a sequence of cartoons that exist in increments of about 8 minutes, it’s pretty incredible how the relationship between these two has been presented over the years.
For this film though, we’re going back to basics. The Looney Tunes Cartoons which Browngardt oversaw were not shy about their affinity for Bob Clampett’s style. And it makes sense because the guys who outlived everyone (namely Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng) got to see their interpretations of the characters become the more recognized. Now, with everyone long gone, the animators of today are able to shine a spotlight on the guys who were left behind like Clampett and Tex Avery. Porky and Daffy are very much their Clampett interpretations with Porky a bit of a worry wart and Daffy his more looney self (and they get a lot of use out of that word in the movie). They’re given a backstory where they were found by a man named Farmer Jim (Fred Tatasciore) who raised them and eventually left his house and property to them with the advice to always stick together and take care of their home. In the modern day, they have stuck together, but have mostly let that house fall into a state of disrepair. A wayward asteroid puts a hole in their roof which proves a major problem for the pair as the local HOA rep (Laraine Newman) was due that day to come by and inspect the property.
We have ourselves an alien invasion plot, which gives the film a 50s vibe despite its modern setting.
Things do not go Porky and Daffy’s way and they’re given ten days to repair the roof or see their home condemned. The problem there is not only do they not have enough money for repairs, they don’t have jobs! This leads to a series of job failures by the duo until they eventually happen upon Petunia Pig who, as a flavor inventor for a local gum company, is able to get them factory jobs. Unfortunately, the hole in their roof was caused by an interstellar being (played by Peter MacNicol) who plans to use the factory’s gum and its much celebrated rollout of a new flavor as a way to seize control of the population! Daffy, Porky, and Petunia are the only beings on Earth capable of saving it, a prospect likely not to give anyone much confidence.
It’s an honest to goodness plot for the film rooted in 1950’s sci-fi movie tropes. If you were expecting something more scatter-brained and suited for their usual format, this isn’t it. This is a real feature that has real conflict, character growth, and a proper resolution. At 90 minutes, there are times when the film starts to feel a little long, but smart use of musical bits help break things up. No, this isn’t an actual musical, but it’s not afraid to use some licensed music to help speed things up and it’s usually done in a humorous way.
The movie does a great job of inventing characters that take advantage of the medium.
And humor is the film’s main goal as it never forgets its roots. The Day the Earth Blew Up is a very funny movie and it’s able to pull it off without an overreliance of recycled gags from the shorts. If you’re expecting a classic misdirection bit to occur between two characters then you may be surprised to hear there isn’t one. Less than 24 hours removed from seeing the film for myself, I’m having a hard time coming up with a bit lifted directly from an old short. There’s a reoccurring spit-take joke, but the spit-take is not a uniquely Looney Tunes gag so I’m not sure I’d count that. You’re going to get stutters from Porky and Daffy’s “hoot hoot” routine, but that’s expected. Instead, the film just relies on good timing and creative gags to induce laughter. It’s about as fresh as one could expect Looney Tunes humor to appear in 2025.
The voice cast and music do a great job of uplifting the movie. Eric Bauza has basically made himself a modern day Mel Blanc with how many characters he’s able to voice. I’ve seen some criticism of his Porky voice on the internet that I mostly don’t agree with. His Porky is not going to be mistaken for any other cartoon character. The stuttering has been toned down slightly, but I think that’s for the best since we’re talking 90 minutes vs 8. And his Daffy is just plain terrific. Do these characters sound exactly like they did in 1950? No, of course not, how could they? Mel Blanc is dead and has been for over 30 years. It’s my personal pet peeve when people criticize a film or show when the characters sound different either because a new actor took over or an existing one is aging. It’s what happens, folks. These characters get to outlive us all and it’s part of their appeal. The alternative is stitching things together with old tapes or A.I. which strikes me soulless. Or there’s recasting in the case of someone who is just getting old, but that’s taking away someone’s job. In short, yes, these characters sound different. Get over it!
The movie may star Porky and Daffy, but Petunia makes a mark as well.
In addition to Bauza we have Candi Milo as Petunia Pig. She does a fantastic job with the character, and unlike Porky and Daffy, she practically gets to start with a blank slate. Petunia was seldom used in the golden era, and when she was, she didn’t have much personality of her own. This film rectifies that making her a very ambitious scientist with a bit of a quirky side to her. The chemistry between she and Porky feels genuine and not tacked on and she’s allowed to be funny, just like the boys. MacNicol’s invader character, who is never given a name, is an interesting antagonist in that it’s allowed to remain somewhat mysterious while also getting to join in on the comic relief. Often with things happening to it as opposed to a result of something the invader does. Joshua Moshier’s score lives up to the reputation of the brand. He was able to record with a live orchestra and the film is all the better for it.
The star of the show is not really the characters or the voices, but the animation. Glorious 2D animation! If you have seen the more recent Looney Tunes Cartoons or the Animaniacs reboot on Hulu then you have a pretty good frame of reference for how The Day the Earth Blew Up looks. In my reviews of some cartoons from those respective shows, I’ve often come to the conclusion that they look as good as they possibly can for a modern production. Everything is digital, but with a hand-drawn flourish. This isn’t the puppet-like animation you find with adult animated sitcoms like Bob’s Burgers and The Simpsons. There’s actual squash and stretch animation here with exaggerated movements and excellent effects animation. Since this is a feature, it does look better than the TV counterparts, but not dramatically so. It’s a very interesting movie to look at and in some of the faster paced sequences it made picking out the visual gags and little touches more fun. I look forward to being able to watch this at home some day so I have the benefit of being able to linger on a scene a little longer than I could in a theater.
Hopefully, this won’t be all.
We had to wait a long time for a proper Looney Tunes movie, but The Day the Earth Blew Up was worth the wait. It’s another feather in the cap of this venerable franchise and it does nothing to harm its legacy, it only adds to it. It’s a funny, engaging, film that’s a treat for the eyes and should find little trouble in appealing to both kids and adults, provided both have at least some affection for Looney Tunes styled animation and humor. My two kids loved it, but I’ve also raised them on Looney Tunes (the Looney Tunes Golden Collection is one of the best purchases I ever made) and my daughter brought her well worn, much loved, Bugs Bunny plush to the theater with her so he could see his buddies in action. Unfortunately, the franchise is in the hands of Warner Bros. who can hardly be trusted as proper caretakers. For that reason, I’m skeptical we’ll get a sequel or another Looney Tunes movie in this style, but at least we have The Day the Earth Blew Up. If you’ve ever loved the Looney Tunes or 2D animation, then I urge you to check it out while it’s playing in theaters because who knows if we’ll ever get this chance again?
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When it comes to classic cartoons, few would argue against the merits of Warner Bros Studios’ Looney Tunes. Pretty much all of the major studios were invested in cartoon shorts in the 1930s into the 1960s and Warner was a gold mine for hilarious content. The Leon Schlesinger produced Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes churned…
Let’s try this one more time for 2023 – can we find a good Looney Tunes Christmas special? And more importantly, a good Bugs Bunny one? We’ve looked at two already that were merely okay. Nothing terrible, but hardly holiday classics. For our final go at this, I’m feeling a little more optimistic and that’s…
It feels like, at this point in time, we have hit peek 90s nostalgia. I can recall when it felt like 70s nostalgia hit pretty hard and then the 80s arrived not too far after. It’s inevitable whenever a generation that spent much of their adolescence in a given decade hits adulthood. And by adulthood…
Whether you’re a Jiren fan or not, it’s hard to deny that this figure looks pretty cool.
It would seem that FOMO, the fear of missing out, is my primary motivation for purchases in Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts line of Dragon Ball action figures. The last one we looked at was a big one for me in Future Trunks from Dragon Ball Super. That dreaded FOMO was strong enough that it got me to buy a figure I knew was compromised and had no chance of truly satisfying me, but buy it I did. Today’s FOMO purchase was done almost for the opposite reason. Really, it happened only because I initially decided not to get that Trunks figure and put my money towards this one instead. And I am talking about Jiren.
This dude must live in the gym.
Jiren is the big bad guy from the so far final arc of the Dragon Ball Super anime. The series has continued in manga form, but as of right now there’s no real concrete proof the anime will resume. In terms of Dragon Ball bad guys, Jiren isn’t very interesting. The plot of that final arc is that the Gods of the many universes have decided to pit each universe against each other in a battle royale. For the victor, a wish from the Super Dragon Balls which are capable of granting any wish one can think of. For the losers, total annihilation in the form of getting wiped out of existence. It’s not even death, it’s just deletion. As a result, all of the warriors competing against our favorite heroes are just fighting for self preservation. While some are certainly bad guys, most are just like Goku, Gohan, and all the rest in that they just don’t want to be ended.
He’s more bulk than height.
Jiren, for his part, is not a bad guy. He is supremely confident bordering on arrogance, but he’s not the taunting type like Vegeta. Instead, when he determines that no one is worth his time he chooses to sit in a meditative state. It comes off as arrogance from the outside, but whenever he’s challenged he backs it up so it’s not like his arrogance is unearned. Furthermore, as a character design he’s a little boring for an Akira Toriyama character. His defining feature would be that he has a massive upper body and comparatively small legs. His head is almost like that of your garden variety alien just without the massive cranium. He also has those Frieza-like ear holes which show up in many character designs. As a result, he’s really just like a random video game boss from a plot-less arcade brawler. Our hero Goku just needs to get to him and then find a way to overcome him. Jiren isn’t evil, he’s also not exactly heroic, he’s just a guy.
“Don’t make me throw this at you!”
Because of my attitude towards Jiren I’ve never felt much of a pull to add him to my collection. I saw the figures before I ever saw him in the anime and was feeling incredibly underwhelmed by the design. The figures came and went though and they actually seemed to receive high marks from those who bought them. The sculpts, the way the articulation was implemented, and the overall size made them seem like really good action figures. Ordinarily, that’s not enough to get me to buy a figure of a character I’m not attached to, but then I went and got Ultra Instinct Goku and the desire to add a Jiren to pair with the figure manifested. When I felt similarly underwhelmed by Bandai’s 2024 convention exclusives, it was Jiren that I decided to preorder and Jiren alone.
He probably would need a bigger aura than the standard one. Maybe that’s why one wasn’t included?
Jiren comes in the standard event exclusive packaging with a black and red color scheme. This is Jiren as he appeared at the very end of Dragon Ball Super his body hulked up to gargantuan proportions and his uniform in tatters. Like Trunks, this event exclusive version has a new paint job and it’s trying to replicate Jiren’s red aura. His ordinarily pale purple flesh has a blush of pink to it while his black pants also have a shiny, red, hue applied that almost makes him look like he’s candy-coated. His flesh has a matte finish so this high gloss approach is far less distracting on Jiren than it is with Trunks. The only thing I don’t really care for is that his white gloves, once the pearlescent red overcoat is applied, makes them blend in a little too much with his arms. There’s not much contrast there aside from the gloss. The same is true for the boots, but since he’s still wearing pants it doesn’t look as noticeable. All that is to say that I don’t hate this approach and it’s executed well enough, but if I could have the standard paint job I’d probably choose that over it.
He’s destined to battle Goku for as long as both are on my shelf.
The selling point with Jiren is not the paint, but the sculpt. This is a big, beefy, boy. He’s really not extremely tall by SHF standards. He comes in at roughly 6.75″ making him noticeably taller than Goku, but he’s still shorter than a figure like Nappa or Orange Piccolo. What really stands out is just the bulk. Jiren has this huge, puffed-out, chest that really captures the look of the show’s art. If I have one consistent criticism with this line it’s that the chests on most figures aren’t big enough. They’re usually plenty broad, but view the figure from the side and it’s like their pectorals are nonexistent. It’s almost like they just drew their muscles on with a sharpie. Jiren does not suffer from that which makes him an interesting figure to look at and handle. I love chunky figures, and Jiren certainly fits the bill. His arms are massive as well and while his legs look small by comparison, they’re still thicker than Goku’s. I may not love the character design, but it would be hard to argue that Bandai didn’t nail what was presented to them.
Tag! You’re It!
I was pretty disappointed with how the Trunks figure had a bunch of accessories cut. With Jiren, that’s not a problem. He seems to have retained everything from the standard release including all four portraits: neutral, teeth-gritting, yelling, and a closed eyes with teeth gritting. The closed eyes head captures his frustrations when he finds he’s being overpowered late in the fight and also works as an expression for when he’s taking a blow on your shelf. They look good and the only aspect of them I don’t really care for is the thin, white, outline around the eyes. It makes it look like Jiren just has massive pupils, but when I look at stills from the anime it sure looks to me like he’s supposed to just have big, black, eyes. Any other colors are just shading and trying to create the illusion of a somewhat reflective surface.
I was surprised by the double-ball peg wrist joints.
For hands, Jiren has four sets to choose from: fists, clenching, chops, and splayed open. For his left, clenching hand, he also has an effect part. It’s basically a little handheld fireball and it’s made out of translucent orange plastic. There’s an indent for that specific hand which allows his thumb to slot into it so he gets a good grip on it. You don’t need the indentations if you just want to stand him with his palm pointed up holding it, but if you want to pose him like he’s going to throw it then you’ll want to stick it in his left hand. It’s always good to get an effect part, but it is pretty small and not something likely to stand out on your shelf. As was the case with Trunks, what we’re really missing is just an aura effect to pair with this exclusive paint job. A red aura makes too much sense here, but Bandai didn’t want to throw one in. He already cost $75 so I guess I can’t be too upset about the omission as I doubt I would have been willing to pay much more than that for a character I’m lukewarm on.
Looks like you missed, Jiren!
A bulky body presents challenges for anyone looking to cut it up and apply articulation, but it’s something the folks at Tamashii Nations are pretty adept at. Jiren’s torso is certainly cut-up for articulation, but not distressingly so. There’s no gapping at the base of the neck and he gets decent range there. The heads pop off very easily, but at least they go on just as easil, as they use that drum setup we’ve seen with figures like Krillin and Nappa. His shoulders are on big, butterfly, joints and they get okay range come across the chest, but that chest is so big that it can only do so much. It doesn’t go back really at all which is more disappointing than the range going forward. Range at the shoulder otherwise is fine and you get a bicep swivel, double-jointed elbow, and ball peg wrists. The double-ball peg wrist was a surprise as normally they use a ball hinge. It functions well enough, but if you want to get the most range you’ll have to accept a gap between the wrist and hand.
And now Jiren must pay the price for failing to land a blow.
The torso features what I assume is a double ball peg in the diaphragm. It’s mostly for tilt forward and back as there’s really no rotation. You get a little of that at the ball-jointed waist. Between the two, the crunching forward and back is nice and you get just enough rotation to make it work. This hips go out to the side almost to a full split and kick forward 90 degrees. He does have a sculpted ass so there’s nothing going back unless you kick the leg out to the side. The figure has thigh swivels, but mine won’t budge. I don’t know if that’s a common issue or not. It could be caused by the new paint job since it seems like a thick coat which may have required some tiny adjustments to the tooling that weren’t made. Or I just need to hit it with a hair dryer. Double-jointed knees are fine and the ankles are hinged. They didn’t leave enough space for the ankle rocker though so it’s pretty limited. There’s also the customary toe hinge if you want it.
Oh the agony of defeat – better luck next time, bud!
Jiren’s articulation is probably going to be good enough. He’s meant for strong, powerful, poses and he has the capability of pulling off such feats. I wish the diaphragm joint allowed for some rotation. I think their old hinged-ball joint would have made that possible. More so, I’m disappointed in the ankle rockers as he has some pretty small feet relative to his size and not being able to get them flat on a surface in some stances can make keeping the figure upright a challenge. It’s enough though and the combination of sculpt, paint, and articulation makes this a worthwhile release. It wasn’t the re-release I was hoping for, but it’s not one I regret buying. He fits in nicely on my shelf opposite Goku and now I kind of want a proper Dragon Ball Super Frieza to add to the confrontation. It looks like Bandai has taken this listing off of their website as he was available in February as an in-stock item, but that doesn’t mean he sold out. They may be holding back stock for in-person sales at conventions and pop-ups. For that reason, it may not be terribly expensive on the secondary market. If it’s a figure you feel like you need, then I do recommend tracking it down. If it only retails for a small markup then I’d consider it worth it as I don’t think we’re ever going to get another Jiren. What is out there is likely all that ever will be.
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