These days, The Simpsons is as synonymous with Halloween as candy and costumes. Via its annual Treehouse of Horror installment, which returns October 19th this year, The Simpsons has contributed more to Halloween pop culture than any other entity in my lifetime. Other shows have had memorable Halloween offerings, but none have taken over the holiday like The Simpsons. It’s a big part of the brand and Treehouse of Horror is a frequent go-to for license holders of The Simpsons. Jakks Pacific, who currently has the license to produce action figures, went to the Treehouse well last year with a Count Burns figure. It wasn’t very good so I didn’t bother getting it, but this year they’re back with a far better offering in the form of King Homer.
If you like King Homer then you’re eating well this year.
King Homer hails from the segment of the same name as part of Treehouse of Horror III. This is actually the second version of the character from Jakks who earlier this year released a plush doll of King Homer. Last year, they did the evil Krusty doll featured in the first segment of Treehouse III so that installment is apparently a favorite within the walls of Jakks Pacific. King Homer is part of the deluxe line of 5″ figures meaning it features more paint and an action feature. I don’t know how the action feature became associated with “deluxe” as that’s something more associated with children’s toys, but that’s the approach Jakks has taken.
Jakks uses the word “deluxe” fairly loosely.
King Homer comes in a rather attractive all black box with some nice graphics on it. This would look fine for in-box collectors, but for those who take it out you will find one figure, one accessory, and one impressive platform. King Homer may be deluxe in pricing, but he’s conventional in size at about 5″. The platform will take him up to 6″. The sculpt looks to be very on-model and the paint is nice where needed. The segment was in black and white so Jakks only had to account for that sort of gradient and it looks fine. His restraints are gray and permanently part of the sculpt and his face bares an angry roar.
He’s pretty much just meant for this.
As you could probably surmise just by looking at him, this is essentially King Kong, but Homer. The sculpt is tailored for that look with tufted fur around the ankles, wrists, and the back of the neck. He has ape-like feet with four digits, in keeping things consistent with other Simpsons features, and he even has some sculpted nipples. The figure is molded in the dark gray plastic and the lighter gray as well as the whites are painted features. The only accessories are the platform and tiny Marge. The platform is molded in a very light gray with some painted silver parts that add a little splash to the set. Marge is in her white dress and not in any apparent distress. She’s painted rather well given how small she is and appears to be more or less in scale with Homer.
“Oh, Homie…”
The articulation for Homer is exactly the same as standard Homer. The only different is this one has an action feature. Basically, you are supposed to put him on his platform and then press the button on his back which makes his arms wiggle at the shoulders like he’s breaking free. There isn’t a pass-through button on the platform to activate it so you kind of just push Homer into it. The springy feature means Homer’s arms can never be at his sides and it honestly adds nothing to the experience for me personally. I’d have preferred he not have an action feature. Are kids really buying these more expensive offerings? Hell, are they even buying the cheaper ones?
“Come on, Barney, say the line!” “Ugh…I am so Krunchy the Clown…?”
As a Simpsons fan, having this King Homer to throw on a shelf during Halloween is fun. It displays well, but you’re forgiven if you think it shouldn’t be any more expensive than the standard offerings. The action feature stinks, but it doesn’t ruin the sculpt so I can excuse it (or rather ignore it). The figure is $20, but most of the deluxe offerings last year wound up on sale so if you don’t care about getting this guy in time for Halloween this year you may be able to save yourself some money by waiting.
For more Simpsons and Treehouse of Horror check these out:
One thing I wasn’t expecting for 2025 was that the hardest line to collect would be The Simpsons by Jakks Pacific. It’s a mass retail release so, if anything, I thought it would be pretty easy. My assumption has been proven wrong and I think it’s because this is a line that is trying to…
Happy Halloween fellow toy enthusiasts and fans of The Simpsons! Every year since 1990, there has been a Halloween edition of The Simpsons. The annual anthology style episode called Treehouse of Horror is basically appointment viewing each and every year. Sometimes it arrives before Halloween, sometimes on Halloween, and often times after Halloween (as it’s…
We are onto the third wave of Ultimates! from Super7 based on The Simpsons. Like past waves, plenty of questions abound when it comes to Super7’s character selection and they’re not unfounded. Perhaps the two most questionable inclusions in this third wave are the subject of today’s post: Kang and Kodos. These are two separate…
When 2025 is all said and done I think we’ll look back on it in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collector sphere as the year the NECA toon toyline started showing its age. For some, that probably already happened. Jersey Red, Chakahachi, Lotus Blossom – who the heck are these characters? They are pretty deep cuts, but they are unique characters with unique sculpts, at least. This year, there have been new deep cuts like Creepy Eddie and Tattoo, but also a what-if Leonardo and beach variations on the turtles – twice! And now we have maybe the silliest release of all: Granny Bebop and Baby Rocksteady.
NECA tends to scale these guys up. I don’t think Shredder was shorter than them in the show.
Bebop and Rocksteady have been NECA’s go-to characters when they want to do something offbeat. And it’s easy to see why as the pair were comic relief in the cartoon series. They did a lot of dumb stuff and had different looks. We’ve seen them as superheroes, rabbits, vacationers, and robots. Now, we have Bebop in drag and Rocksteady in a giant diaper. It’s ludicrous, but when I look back on the original TMNT cartoon it’s the silly stuff that I recall most easily. The show was dumb, and if I’m being honest, kind of bad, but I loved it! I don’t know how many hours I spent watching it as a kid, but it never felt like enough in the moment. A lot of the silly looks from the show I actually wanted to see in the companion toyline and now NECA is making that a reality.
Light accessory load-out for this pair.
Bebop and Rocksteady, being a mutated warthog and rhinoceros, couldn’t just walk into a public place and not freak people out so they needed disguises. One such disguise was Bebop as a grandmother and Rocksteady as his baby. It obviously made no sense since it’s pretty obvious that they’re still a warthog and rhinoceros, but that was the show. And now it’s immortalized in plastic. These two guys are pretty familiar if you’ve purchased others in the past, but there’s new stuff here. Rocksteady stands about 6.5″ to the top of his head while Bebop is about 6.75″ to about where the top of his head should be under that wig.
“Hey, big boy!”
The pair share a lot of the same parts with only slight modifications. They have the same arms and legs as far as I can tell with Rocksteady just having ruffled socks and Bebop open sleeves by his wrists. The torso on both is done with an overlay, NECA’s modus operandi when it comes to this pair, and I’d suspect whatever is under that is the same. Hands appear to be recycled from the vacation set while both figures have new feet and new heads. There are similarities with the rest of the limbs compared with the vacation set only this time around everything is pin-less. They may have began life as the same digital mold and were just recut for tooling. The box lists three sculptors on this set: Brodie Perkins, Tony Cipriano, and Tomasz Rozejowski. Usually, that seems to happen when pieces from past sets are utilized along with new parts.
“You’ve made me the happiest warthog – I mean, woman alive!”
Regardless of how these two came together, both certainly look the part. The paint is clean and there’s plenty of linework emphasized with the paint job by Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo. It’s very clean on both figures even in tight places like the teeth or Rocksteady’s safety pin. Bebop does utilize some soft goods for his skirt and it looks okay. It’s not the nicest material, but they at least included a purple hem at the bottom. There’s some loose threads on mine right at the waist that are kind of annoying. The skirt is glued into place so I can’t just take it off and either trim them or push them behind the skirt. I’ll have to see if I can snip them. I like how they managed to sneak some lipstick onto Bebop and I like that his ponytail is sticking out as well. Like other recent releases in the line, there’s no cel-shading on the backs of these figures. I guess that’s out with the line, but Panda Khan had it so who can know for sure?
“Hey toitle! Check my diapy!
Accessories for this set are pretty light. Each character gets 3 sets of hands: fists, open, gripping. Rocksteady also has a pacifier which can fit in between his teeth or be held with a gripping hand. Bebop has a green purse which is made from a soft plastic and does open, though he doesn’t have anything to put inside it. The main accessory is the baby carriage which is pretty big for a baby carriage, but still not big enough for Rocksteady. It’s simply painted and does feature real wheels on it. Rocksteady can be placed in it and made to look pretty damn ridiculous which helps sell the comedic angle of the set. The handle is a very rigid ABS plastic that won’t easily slide into Bebop’s gripping hand. It almost certainly be done, but you will want to heat the hand up first or else risk snapping the thing.
“Somebody save my baby!”
Articulation for these guys is super basic and pretty standard for the line and these characters. Both feature a ball jointed head with a hinged jaw. You’ll get some nuance posing and rotation, but not much up and down. The shoulders are ball-hinged with a bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, wrist swivels and hinge. A ball joint at the waist allows for rotation and some tilt, but little in the way of forward and back. Ball-socket hips will basically go as far as the skirt and diaper will allow on each, which is short of splits and 90 degree kicks. You can roll up the skirt for more range on Bebop, if you desire. There is a thigh swivel at the joint as well as double-jointed knees, ankle hinge, and ankle rocker. Bebop, being that he is in heels, will be a bit difficult to stand, but not impossible. There are no loose joints on either while some of the elbows and knees were pretty tight. The bicep swivels can be tricky to get moving as well due to the shoulders moving so freely. It looks like they were lubricated at the shoulder so getting the leverage needed to break the seal on the bicep took some effort.
Things are getting silly.
These two aren’t going to do anything spectacular on your shelf and they’re not really designed to. Rocksteady is meant to go in the stroller and to do that he doesn’t need to do much. Bebop just needs to stand behind it either pushing it or doing very little. They’re capable of doing as much and anyone who sees your collection is probably going to ask about them because they look so stupid. That’s basically the joke and the whole reason to get this one. If you think it’s funny then you’ll probably be happy. If the idea of these two in these outfits just seems too dumb to spend money on then it probably is. It doesn’t help that they’re sold exclusively at Target for $65. That’s a steep price. I was able to knock 10 bucks off with a current promotion going on at Target which may or may not still be active when you’re reading this. I think it’s stupid and funny so I probably would have paid full price, but I’m definitely happy to not have. They don’t appear to be shipping in big numbers, but these variant sets have a tendency to hang around either way so you could always wait for the next deal. My local store also had them in their inventory, which usually doesn’t happen with NECA unless Target is stocking them. I don’t know if that is the case or not, but if it is, then there’s a slim chance they go on sale if Target can’t unload them. With the holiday shopping season upon us, that seems unlikely.
At this point, there’s enough releases in NECA’s TMNT line for it to be a Bebop and Rocksteady line:
Pack your bags and grab the sunscreen because today we’re heading to Florida! It’s vacation time folks, and even the bad guys deserve a little fun in the sun sometimes. Coming from NECA Toys we have another fun variant of the duo Bebop and Rocksteady. Always more comic relief than true threat, the boys come…
2021 introduced a lot of good things for collectors of NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures based on the classic cartoon. The toy maker still kept the line a Target exclusive when it came to brick and mortar, but it also started selling a lot of it online to coincide with each…
We did it! We finally made it to the end of the Haulathon releases from NECA Toys and we may have saved the best for last. Back in early 2020, I made a wish list for what I wanted from NECA and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was only 10 deep, though there were some…
Let’s celebrate 40 years of Dragon Ball with the timeless Cooler!
Bandai sure picked an interesting way to celebrate 40 years of Dragon Ball. Well, in the United States they did. In Japan, to mark the occasion the company released a brand new Goku and Shenlong action figure set based on the cover of Dragon Ball issue #1. Makes sense. For the US market, we get a reissue of Frieza’s brother, Cooler, as he appeared in the movie Cooler’s Revenge. If you’re familiar with Dragon Ball Z movies, then you probably know that they’re all non-canon. They weren’t written by series creator Akira Toriyama and they mostly exist just to have something DBZ related to put in a movie theater. That doesn’t mean they’re all bad or terrible, and Toriyama at least did design characters like Cooler, but if you’re looking to celebrate a milestone such as 40 years of Dragon Ball wouldn’t you want to celebrate, I don’t know, Dragon Ball?
If you already have version 1 of Cooler, this is the only reason to get version 2.
Truthfully, I can’t say I’m disappointed at another chance to add Cooler to my collection. I don’t particularly care for the movie he’s from, but as a character design he looks pretty neat. He’s like a cross between Frieza’s second form, Imperfect Cell, and the architecture of Planet Namek. He’s very alien looking, but there’s enough to him to tie him to his brother that it works really well. Originally, this figure was solicited via Premium Bandai which is a made-to-order service where the figures are meant to be one and done. At the time he went up for preorder I felt like I was all set with characters from the movies. He didn’t feel like something I needed in my collection. Fast forward the 8 months or so it took for delivery and suddenly I had regrets. Not only did Cooler look pretty cool, he turned out really well from an engineering standpoint and just looked like a damn fun action figure to have. Aftermarket prices were crazy though so I just resigned myself to my Cooler-less fate.
Cooler and a pair of Friezas. Not pictured: their sister Fridge.
Over the years, Bandai has seemingly realized that limited runs of products people might actually want down the line is a bad business strategy. For some previously Premium Bandai only releases, we’ve seen them get the convention exclusive treatment with a new deco. With Cooler, it’s not even that. This is exactly the same release as the one from three years ago. Even the packaging is the same. The only difference is now it’s labeled as a 40th anniversary reissue edition and it comes with a base. And the actual base is just the standard Tamashii Nations base that’s an acrylic disc, in this case translucent purple, and it has the 40th anniversary graphic on it. There are four ports for an action stand, but no stand is included. It’s kind of cheap that they didn’t just toss in the armature for the stand, but I’m guessing collectors who already have the first one are glad there isn’t a new portrait or effect part included to give them pause about rebuying the figure. This edition is clearly intended for those who passed on the first release or weren’t actively collecting back then. And at $90 MSRP, it’s more or less the same price as it was then too (I don’t remember what it cost exactly).
Where the big boys play.
Cooler is one of the taller figures in this line coming it at about 7.25″ to the top of his head and well over 8″ to the tips of his spikes. He’s comprised primarily of purple plastic for the base body and white plastic for the carapace like shell over the chest, head, wrists, and shins. There’s some dark purple shading on the body most prominent in the thighs while the dark purple accents on the forearms, forehead, and shins have a very glossy finish which contrasts nicely with the matte white. There are numerous hashmarks carved into the white bits reminiscent of the Full Power Frieza and its battle damage. There’s no shading applied to those parts though which is a bit of a bummer. I’d love to see what a light wash would do for those marks as I think the figure would pop more if they were brought out. There is some paint on the face reserved for the red eyes and some black outline. It’s actually more of a dark gray around the eyes with a very light gray used on the faceguard. The nails on his hands and feet are painted a shiny black and overall this is a nice looking figure. The proportions are terrific and he looks mighty imposing even on a shelf with numerous tough looking characters.
Not a perfect paint job.“I want you for Cooler Corps!”
Apart from the fancy new base, Cooler’s accessories are relegated to extra parts of a pretty conventional nature. He does have a second head which omits the faceguard that kind of just appears when he wants it to in the movie. The alternate head features a sinister smirk and drops the gray shading around the eyes. The sculpt is nice, but the paint is not crisp along the right side on my figure. For hands, we get a set of fists, clenching, open, and pointing gestures. He also has an alternate set of feet like his brother that are closer to a gripping pose. Swapping parts is pretty effortless as the hands and feet come off and go on with little force. The head ornament, if you will, pops off and is shared between both portraits and that has a nice seamless integration on both heads.
They had to get creative with this one.Not loving how the tail turned out.
The articulation for Cooler is rather extensive and creatively applied. The head is a standard double ball peg with a ball joint at the base of the neck as well. The shoulders are butterflied and the big armor pieces that loop over them are pegged just inside the pectorals. This allows them to move out of the way while the pecs also tend to hide the peg. Pull the arms back all the way and it will expose a small gap inside the pectoral area, but I’m impressed with the clearance and lack of part rub. Whoever designed this joint had to be precise and they nailed it. The rest of the arm is the typical hinge and ball peg at the shoulder with a bicep swivel, double-elbow, and ball hinge wrist. There is a ball joint in the torso which gets really good forward and back movement as well some rotation and tilt. You have to work around the shape of the chest to make use of it, but it’s there and it’s smooth. The ball joint at the waist provides another point of rotation and will help in getting the figure to crunch forward and lean back. There is some gapping there and on the back when bending as far as it will go, but it’s not as pronounced as we’ve seen with other figures. Hips will kick forward about 90 degrees and can almost hit splits out to the side. From there, you have a thigh swivel, double-jointed knee, and ball hinge ankles. The knees do produce some gaps, but otherwise range is solid to good at all places. The tail connects via a hinged ball peg and there’s another ball joint about halfway through. Mine is stuck at the first ball joint and won’t swivel, but all in all I don’t like the look of this tail and would prefer something that’s preposed instead.
Can Goku handle Frieza’s brother?! Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z!
This is an overall impressive release from Bandai and Tamashii Nations. He looks great and aside from the tail, the articulation is integrated very well into a fairly complicated design. And even better is how smooth the joints are. They are nice and tight without being too tight. Nothing is even remotely loose. This figure was manufactured in the Vietnam factory and it’s easily their best output that I’ve handled. I think the days where you can tell where a figure was made in this line without looking are over. I was right to feel remorse at not buying him the first time around and I’m glad Bandai made him available again. It’s something they should do more of as I know there are a lot of collectors who hate that they missed out on characters like The Ginyu Force. If they do another run of Cooler’s metal form I may need to reconsider on that one too. And while I’m disappointed that we in the US weren’t given a shot at that special edition kid Goku, at least we weren’t shut out completely. Unfortunately, if you missed this preorder earlier this year then you’re out of luck. Hopefully the presence of this edition will knock down aftermarket prices on the original for those who want him.
The Frieza family is certainly an interesting one, though probably not a healthy one:
Frieza is the villain from Dragon Ball who just refuses to die. His initial battle with the heroes of Dragon Ball Z spans a whopping 30 episodes! Thank goodness that DBZ was a weekday show or else it would have taken more than half a year to see Frieza get taken down. And that’s just…
When you have an action figure line as long in the tooth as the Bandai/Tamashii Nations Dragon Ball Z line from S.H.Figuarts, you tend to find some pretty obscure characters making the jump to plastic. Characters that may have existed for a blink and you miss it kind of moment, but when one’s collection already…
Japanese Title: The Incredible Mightiest vs. Mightiest Original Release Date: July 20, 1991 English Release Date: January 22, 2002 Directed by: Mitsuo Hashimoto Screenplay by: Takao Koyama Running Time: 47 minutes This seems as good a time as any to talk about the titles of these movies. The direct translation from Japanese is right at…
Hi kids, it’s Spider-Man! He has a cold and a bad back so he won’t be saying anything or doing anything.
It took a long time for Mondo’s Spider-Man to get to me. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to even buy it. I passed on the Mondo offering in 2024, debated the symbiote costume variant, but ultimately passed on that as well. The X-Men line from Mondo is my true love and I just don’t have room on my shelf for another line of sixth scale action figures. I did get Venom because I love the character, and when Entertainment Earth had a big anniversary sale I decided to take the plunge on Spider-Man. That was in October of 2024 and at the time the figure was expected to ship in January. Then all of the tariff nonsense struck. The figure kept getting pushed out and eventually EE even had to up the price on me because of said tariffs all but wiping away the discount I was originally expecting. As the months went along I started to debate just cancelling it all together. I loved my Venom figure and I didn’t need a Spider-Man to enjoy it any more than I already did. When I received a notification that the figure was, at long last, in-stock I figured “Well, it’s happening.” Then nothing. Then my order was flipped to backorder. I emailed EE which didn’t offer much other than to say they didn’t get enough to fulfill all of their preorders. At that point, I figured I should just drop it and move on, but before I could my order was changed to “processing.” Now I have a Spider-Man from Mondo and I kind of wish I didn’t let my indecision get the best of me.
Spider-Man comes in a large window box with artwork by Nick Bradshaw and Peter Santa-Maria adorning it. It has an almost dark-deco vibe to the skyline which is evocative of the show’s CG cities when Spidey was seen web-swinging around New York. The figure itself is a sculpt by the renowned Alex Brewer with paint by Mark Bristow. The packaging concept is credited to Jordan Christianson and art direction to Hector Arce.
The ’94 version of Spider-Man could probably be taller, but I like the difference between he and Venom.
Spider-Man stands at about 11.75″ to the top of his head. I’m a little surprised they didn’t make him the full 12″, but I also don’t mind him being that much shorter than Venom. I tried to find some turn-around art from the show’s production for comparison, but the Internet has let me down. I can only compare him to still frames from the show and I have to say I feel like the silhouette is a touch off. Spider-Man in the 1994 cartoon is a pretty big Spider-Man. Pretty much all of the super hero shows back then had one style for all of the male characters. Flash Thompson would pick on Peter Parker for being a nerd, even though Pete was built like a linebacker. Here, the neck is a little slender and sits inside the silhouette of the head, which isn’t really how he was drawn. The shape of the head is also a little narrow which just draws even more attention to it. It was a Saban production and those were notoriously cheap for the time so there’s a lot of inconsistency from episode to episode, scene to scene, and shot to shot. Did Spider-Man look close to this in some shots? Probably, and there’s going to be some subjectivity on the part of the sculptor. For me personally I would have liked a slightly more beefy Spider-Man since that’s what stands out to me about the ’94 design.
Apart from that, the actual design and paint applications for this figure are fantastic. The eyes have that very ’94 shape to them and there’s a lot of empty space around the spider on the chest, as was true of the show. The linework is very clean and the cel-shaded paint job pops as one would expect. It was important to nail the shade of blue and red to make this feel like it’s from the show and Mondo did an excellent job there. There is some light scuffing on the left thigh of my figure which is odd because that area was wrapped in cellophane when packaged. Maybe it was wrapped too soon after painting or it just got too hot during transit? Despite that, the paint is easily the best aspect of the figure and really the entire Mondo sixth scale line and Spidey doesn’t lower the bar at all.
He’s a handsome fella.The mask looks more like a helmet when held this way.
Spider-Man has a host of accessories, though this particular edition has fewer than the limited run solicited by Mondo initially. For an alternate head we just have the unmasked version of Pete. It looks exactly like the character from the show and the paint job is terrific. He does have a bit of a smile to his face which does present an issue for a different accessory, but not one that actually came with this figure so I guess we can’t really ding it for that. There’s also a mask accessory. It’s shaped like Pete should be able to hold it and have it hang from a gripping hand, but I couldn’t get it to work. I thought it might be intended for Venom, but then I remembered Venom came with his own Spider-Man mask accessory and that one is glued into his gripping hand. Maybe other villains will be able to make use of this one down the road?
Go web!Long web.
For hands, Spider-Man comes equipped with a set of gripping hands. What he’s supposed to grip, I don’t know. He also has a set of relaxed hands, fists, and thwip hands. Peter also has his trusty camera which is molded to a web splat like it’s stuck to a wall. It does make it hard for him to hold, but I suppose one could stick it to a wall in their display with some tack or even via a finish nail or clear pushpin. Peter also has two thwip hands with short bursts of webbing coming out of them. The hands do not feature any articulation and are on straight pegs, which is fine for what they’re meant to do. There’s also another set with the long web lines attached just like we saw with Venom. There is a bendy wire in these webs, but I’m not really sure what purpose it would serve since the web lines are non-removable. For the ends of the webs, there are two conical attachments that serve as generic ends to the webs. There are also two web splats if you want the webs to be striking a surface or other figure. And lastly we have the typical Mondo display stand which is of limited utility. I don’t ever use these things, but I actually probably will with this figure. For that reason, it’s a shame it’s a plain black stand without any artwork on the base. It’s also the basic doll style stand and not the more dynamic one they have coming with Nightcrawler. I appreciate Mondo finally addressing the quality of their stands, but if you were going to do a better one wouldn’t Spider-Man be a character deserving of such?
It’s even a challenge to do convincing web firing poses.
That is all well and good, but where this figure has really come up short for me is with the articulation. Mondo’s figures are not super-articulated. They’re fairly basic as this is an aesthetics forward line, first and foremost. I’ve always felt it suits the X-Men line very well as the show that is based on featured pretty stiff, limited, animation. Those characters didn’t do a whole lot. Spider-Man wasn’t much better, but it still featured a character who spends most of his time crouching on landings, crawling on walls, and swinging through the city. Mondo correctly recognized that there was a need for more points of articulation with Spider-Man than they might normally do, but unfortunately the execution is lacking.
This is pretty much the extent of his range in the torso.
Spider-Man has a standard double-ball peg head which all Mondo figures seem to have. Unfortunately, Mondo really buried the lower ball joint in the neck which limits Spidey’s ability to look up. This can sometimes be corrected with a lower neck joint and Mondo opted to do just that. Unfortunately, the ball joint at the base of the neck might as well not be there. It’s way too snug and offers nothing when it comes to articulation. The shoulders are the standard hinged ball peg and there’s no butterfly joint. I’m okay with the absence of a butterfly joint at this scale and with this character design, but what I’m not okay with is how tight the right shoulder on my figure is. I could not get this thing to move much at all out of the box and I’m surprised it didn’t snap at the bicep. Even after heating and lubricating the joint, it still barely functions so it’s not a case of needing to just crack some paint that worked it’s way in there. There are bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, and ball-hinge wrists and they work fine.
If you want your Spidey to crouch, good luck. Here he’s being supported by the stand.
Where things start to take a turn for the worse is with the torso. Mondo typically goes with a ball joint in the diaphragm and one at the waist and that’s what they did here. This combination is ideal for waist articulation even in a character like Spider-Man who is expected to crouch a lot. Unfortunately, Mondo screwed it up. The diaphragm joint does almost nothing. It doesn’t really rotate nor does it really go forward, back, or tilt. It’s just way too snug on the abdomen. As for the waist, it barely moves as well. Even rotating it doesn’t work all that well as the joint feels like it’s fighting me. Did the factory not lubricate any of these joints during the assembly process? It doesn’t feel, or sound, like it and I have noticed zero lubrication residue anywhere apart from what I added. I get it that Mondo would not want articulation that leads to large gaps in the figure or that might cause too much paint rub. They went too far though and basically made the pieces so snug and tight that the articulation is functionally useless.
This is probably the extent of his swinging ability.
At the hips, it only gets mildly better. We have ball-socket hips with built-in thigh swivels. The left hip is okay while the right hip is stubborn. It sometimes snaps back into position when I try to move it. I have popped it off and applied some lubricating oil which has improved it some. It still doesn’t mean Spider-Man can do splits or kick a full 90 degrees. If you try to kick forward, the figure wants to go off to the side. You can rotate at the hip to basically get into a split, but the way the cel-shading is done makes it look kind of dumb as the darker shaded portion of the legs will be forward-facing. The knees are standard double-jointed knees and at the ankles Mondo decided to go with hinged ball pegs like they do at the wrist. This means you can swivel and move those feet all around as much as you want, but it’s not a strong joint which is why I recommend using that display stand with this one. He’s just not going to stand very well. There’s also a toe hinge that’s kind of ugly. It works, but there isn’t enough stability in the figure to utilize the joint without a display stand.
I was not expecting Marvel Legends levels of articulation from this figure, but I was hoping for more. He’s really stuck in vanilla poses which is not befitting a Spider-Man. If the joints just worked he’d be fine. Then you could hunch him forward or having kind of twisting in a swing pose. I was hoping for a basic crouch, not a super low one, but you’re not getting that either. He can kind of do a basic swing pose, but it’s a bummer that he doesn’t have a web line to just grab onto. If they could pop out of the web shooting hands that would have solved that. I’m just really disappointed in what this figure is capable of and it left me feeling that Spider-Man is a poor fit for what Mondo wants to do.
At least this was a pleasant surprise.
There is one other thing to talk about and it’s Venom’s web swing. If you have the Mondo Venom, he comes with a left hand accessory that’s a web swing/harness for Spider-Man. It’s based on a scene straight out of the episode “Venom” where Venom webs up Spider-Man and takes his mask off. He dangles him off a rooftop threatening to expose his secret identity to the world. The accessory is basically a belt and two loops for each hand. I was able to slide it onto my Spider-Man figure starting at his feet. It wasn’t easy and his right leg popped off in the process, but it is doable. The two strands for his hands are simple enough to attach and I plugged the Venom hand portion into my figure to test it out. To my surprise, the thing actually works! I first just had him on a surface and Venom was able to remain standing while holding Peter, but Peter’s feet were on the same surface. I moved the pair to a shelf where I was able to dangle Peter off the edge like in the show. Venom was up to the task and the two remained without issue. I don’t know if I actually have the guts to leave them there permanently like that, but I was sorely tempted. I didn’t think it had a chance of working this well, but credit to Venom’s tight joints and hefty weight. The only disappointment is Peter’s stupid, smiling, face. He really needs an angry expression or a scared one to sell this display. The black costume version of the figure comes with an angry unmasked head which probably would work better for this specific display, but that was a limited edition and has long since been sold out.
The harness accessory working so well was certainly a pleasant surprise, but it doesn’t redeem this figure of Spider-Man for me. This is the first Mondo figure that I regret buying. He looks good enough in a neutral pose, but Spider-Man is not a character for a neutral pose. It’s frustrating to know that Mondo recognized that and incorporated more points of articulation into the figure to address the issue, but nothing they added really worked. Ball-jointed torsos aren’t that complicated even at this scale and if the worry was the figure would topple over well then why hinged ball-joints at the ankles? It’s unfortunate and this is a figure I can’t recommend especially at the price it commands. If you think he looks good and don’t mind that he won’t be doing much of anything on your shelf then have at it. I personally expected more from Mondo and Spider-Man.
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Mondo has had success with its sixth scale line of action figures based on X-Men and X-Men ’97 so it’s no surprise that the company has decided to dip its toe into another 90s animated Marvel series in Spider-Man. And when it comes to Spider-Man, I’m not sure what to call it. I always referred…
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…
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 NECA released their first set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures based on their appearance in issue number 1 of the Mirage Studios comics I was a day one buyer. Even though NECA is riding high with TMNT these days, that initial set wasn’t the catalyst for it. Those figures came and went and came again in black and white, but they didn’t launch a whole new toy line for NECA. Some of that had to do with interference from master license holder Playmates Toys, but also NECA conceded that they weren’t big sellers. At the time, the company concluded that the comic book versions of the characters weren’t that popular and it would take awhile for them to get into that sweet, sweet, cartoon gravy.
In my opinion, what really got things going with NECA and TMNT was the unveiling of the quarter scale action figures based on the 1990 movie. I am not a big quarter scale collector, but those turtles are some of my favorite possessions because they turned out so damn lifelike. Collecting them was pretty fun too as they were pretty much released on a quarterly schedule initially with the first one out the door being Donatello in time for Christmas 2016. I loved it and I made sure to get each of the next offerings to assemble a full squad of turtles. I was going to go deeper initially and had a Shredder preordered at one point, but once NECA revealed the 1:10 toy line based on the movie I decided to go without the villain. They take up a lot of space and aren’t exactly cheap.
Four babies and a pizza box.
One item I was tempted by, but never pulled the trigger on, was the Baby Turtle Accessory Set. I don’t remember what it cost originally, but it felt too steep for what it was. As the name implies, the set centered on baby versions of the turtles as seen during the flashback scene pretty early in the film. To make it an accessory set, a pizza box and four additional slices were to be included which, together with the four pizza slices included with the figures, made for a whole pie. There was also a bag of corn chips in the same style as the pork rinds which came with Michelangelo, but the thing that really tempted me was an additional accessory for Mikey: his spinning nunchaku effect.
The scale seems reasonable to me.
One of my favorite scenes in the film as a kid is the “‘Chuk-Off” between Mikey and an unnamed Foot ninja. I originally saw the film on the big screen when it came out, but most of my viewings of the movie were on VHS. There, the dark, grainy, picture always made it look like the scene ended with Michelangelo just spinning his nunchaku like he often did by holding one end and twirling it over his head. It didn’t make sense to me, but I thought it was funny like he was clowning on the guy. Only when I got the movie on DVD many years later could I see the scene for what it was: Mikey balancing the weapon at the center of the ropes and twirling the whole thing like helicopter blades. It makes no sense, which is why the Foot look absolutely stunned by what they’re seeing and it remains a favorite scene of mine. The real question was, did I want to pay $60 or whatever just to get an extra hand and effect part?
At least the big boys have a full pie now.
No. I passed, but I’ve kept my eye on the damn set all these years hoping to score a break. I even tried buying just the accessory I wanted secondhand, but never could find one worth the price. The set finally was discounted recently on Amazon, but only slightly. Ten bucks off making the set $50. For all I know, the set originally was that or even less considering the quarter scale figures used to be around $100 but now cost anywhere from $130 to $150. I was kind of sick of looking though so I just went and did it. Was it stupid? Probably. After all, I’m really only interested in the nunchaku part. The rest of the box isn’t worthless, but not exactly appealing either. Time to see if I’m mistaken.
At rest.Whirling.
The box this thing comes in is pretty nice. It’s a big window with the film’s theatrical poster adapted for the art. Mine did arrive damaged with the window cracked and broken. Could I have complained and got a few bucks refunded? Maybe, but I don’t really care about the box so I can’t in good conscience get worked up about it. The part I wanted was actually flopping around loose in the box, but since it’s just a hand it was fine. It’s a pointing finger hand with a hole drilled into the tip of the index finger. The color seems a little lighter shade of green compared to my quarter scale set. This is likely a production variation as I’m guessing this thing has been in and out of production over the years. Had I bought it when it was originally made available then maybe it would match better. Even so, it’s not really noticeable and the nunchaku part pegs into it effortlessly. It can then spin freely – wee! It does what it’s supposed to do, but I do wonder if it would look better as a sculpted, whirling, effect? We’ve seen NECA do that with the toon line, but this being live action probably made them just go with the real deal and you can spin it if you want. It might have been nice to get both though.
3 bucks off if late!Convincing grease.Old slices on the left.Gotta check those ingredients.
The pizza box and food items are what they are. The box is designed to look like a Domino’s box, but it’s parody. The grease marks inside are convincing and I like that the price is listed as $13. The four slices of pizza are actually different sculpts from what came with the turtles. That’s pretty cool as it gives a more realistic look, but also probably wasn’t necessary. The new slices appear a little darker than what came with the boys, but it will work. The toppings at least match. The corn chips are done just like the pork rinds so it’s a foil bag sealed at both ends. There’s probably a little piece of a spongey material inside to give it some volume, but it probably could have done with a touch more. The turtles can grip it easily and that little scene with Mikey and Don at the table was perhaps the one my sister and I recreated the most as kids, though always with potato chips as we never had pork rinds.
They can just barely hold a slice.
The main attraction here is obviously the baby turtles. These guys are about 4″ tall and are articulated at the head, jaw, and shoulders. They’re all identical and while they look pretty good, I was surprised at the lack of articulation in the legs. They do a solid job of resembling the puppets in the film, though if I am to nitpick I think the beak could be sharper and more yellow. One of them appeared to have a bandage on their face in the movie (I assume Raph since he has a scar on his cheek) and NECA included an optional sticker sheet if you want. It has two Band Ade style bandages and two that look more like wraps. I’m not sure if I’ll bother as stickers have a tendency to curl and come off eventually and my collection is kept in my basement where it can get a little humid. If one is supposed to have a bandaged face then NECA should have just sculpted it.
Well, they’re here to stay.
Did I just pay 50 bucks so my Michelangelo figure could spin a nunchuk on his finger? Yeah, pretty much. The little guys aren’t terrible, but they don’t add much to the display for me. They can at least hold a pizza slice, but the articulation is so minimal that there isn’t much they can do. I think I like the pizza box and corn chips more than the baby turtles. If this set included more food items like soda cans, juice boxes, and Raph’s apple then I’d probably like it a lot more. Or if it just had most of the stuff the 1:10 scale accessory set wound up coming with (a set I passed on, but probably should not have). This one is very light and retails for $60. I don’t feel great about my purchasing decision, but I wanted that stupid effect part and now I have it. In time, I’ll forget about the cost and just enjoy seeing Mikey spinning his weapon on my shelf so I guess that will just have to be good enough.
These reviews are old as hell and I’m reluctant to link to them, but if you want to read my thoughts on the quarter scale line here you go:
The good thing about NECA’s Michelangelo, the final turtle to be released from their quarter-scale line of action figures based on the 1990 film, is that it’s just like the previous three turtles to be released. The bad thing about it is that it’s just like the previous three turtles to be released. Let’s start…
NECA is now 3/4 of the way through the release schedule of their TMNT 1990 movie line with the release of Leonardo – the REAL leader of the group. And like Donatello and Raphael before him, he’s a pretty impressive specimen. The original 1990 movie impossibly never had dedicated action figures. Playmates half-assed a line…
It took awhile, but I finally have my hands on the second turtle from NECA’s 1/4 scale series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles based on the original film. Raphael was released back in February, but I left the preordering of this series to my wife who saw them as gifts for basically the coming year…
A few months ago, we took a look at a pair of Glenn Danzig action figures made by Super7. The figures depicted Glenn in his Samhain era and his early Danzig era. The figures were in the style of old Masters of the Universe action figures with only the smallest of revisions. Now, we’re back with The Misfits era of the same because you can’t have a Samhain and a Danzig Glenn without a Misfits version. And since Super7 has a longstanding working agreement in place with Jerry Only and his brand, we have a Jerry figure and also a bit of a Super7 original in the form of the band’s mascot The Fiend (aka The Crimson Ghost).
If you have the Danzig figures or read my review, then you know what to expect with these ones. The figures come on a blister card designed to mimic the MOTU cards they’re inspired by. The dimensions are even the same as the current MOTU Origins packaging. The cardback depicts an explosion of skulls on a neon green which is very Skeletor-like while the card bubble is in the shape of the Fiend’s visage. The rear features some artwork from the Die, Die My Darling single and a cross-sell that only includes these Misfits figures. It does not include the Danzig ones and I guess that’s because we’re dealing with two copyrights. The Danzig figures were licensed through Glenn’s evilive imprint while these are through the new entity, Misfits AD, referring to The Original Misfits which is shared by Jerry and Glenn. I thought maybe Jerry’s would just be through him, but I guess not. Both of their websites are referenced on the box. There was some weird hang-up with the Danzig figures from Super7 and I don’t know if it had anything to do with the legal stuff or if it was an approval thing. This Danzig, as well as the other two, were cancelled at one point while Jerry and the Fiend were not. Whatever the issue, it was resolved and they’re all here now.
“Let’s all laugh at his lack of accessories!”
We’ll start with the Glenn figure first which features the frontman in his skeleton shirt and sporting his devilock hairstyle. The torso is basically a blank body with the skeleton image printed on the front only with the back left bare. The head is the same head that came on the Samhain figure only now it lacks blood and the eyes are painted. The crotch piece is basically a blank with some slight creases sculpted in and it’s shared with Jerry and the Fiend. The legs are reused from the Samhain figure with the only difference being the boot buckles are painted silver on this one where as they were blank on the Samhain version. Glenn has no accessories, which is pretty weird and also pretty cheap. The other two each came with a microphone, and while it is kind of boring, this figure should have at least come with the same. They already tooled it, how much extra cost could that possibly add to the package? A quarter?
Eat your heart out, Skeletor!They apparently scrapped the painted bones.
The Fiend is an interesting inclusion, but not unwelcomed. He features a unique, hooded, head and his skull face is painted white. It’s quite clean and I like the black and white approach to the figure. The torso is a blank done on black plastic while the legs are the same as Glenn’s only his buckles are left bare like the Samhain figure. Distinguishing him from the others is this wrap-around skeletal armor with the Fiend Club logo stamped on the front. It carries onto the back which is nice and it’s glued in so you can’t remove it without some hassle. Interestingly, all of the promo shots of the figure featured the skeletal-printed arms that Glenn has plus paint on the legs, but the final edition is bare. For accessories, The Fiend has some catcher’s equipment on his right forearm which is something Glenn used to wear as part of his stage getup. It is removable so if you want to swap it with Glenn you can. He also has his own take on Skeletor’s Havok staff only this one is topped with a jack-o-lantern that’s based on the Halloween single artwork. It’s black and white as well as it’s done on white with black, painted, features. The paint isn’t as clean, but in terms of accessories it feels appropriate.
Jerry is the most involved of the group from a sculpt and paint angle. He’s depicted in his current stage outfit which features a black, spiked, vest trimmed with red and The Fiend behind the collar. The paint is just okay on the vest as there’s some red on the back of the collar and some other slop in places. The profile looks pretty good and they got the little hit of red under the eyes mixed in with the black. Super7 was pretty kind to Jerry’s receding hairline and the devilock comes down over the nose and mouth. The arms and legs are both unique to Jerry as he has his big gauntlets and his unique boots which also have a relief of The Fiend sculpted on. Jerry does come with his bass which looks pretty good. The paint on the strings isn’t very clean, but the cyclops skull at the head of the neck looks okay. The strap is covered with spikes which are legitimately pointy. The outside is black while the inside is painted red. Jerry’s left hand is positioned so he can hold the neck while the right hand is flat like he’s slapping his bass. I don’t think he plays like that, but it’s fine. It’s a little tricky getting his hands over the strings so it’s probably easier to pose him with his right hand up like he’s getting ready to smack the hell out of that thing.
Removable armor.Works with Glenn too.They apparently had a higher budget.
There’s not much to say about articulation here. It’s very basic as we have a swivel at the head, shoulders, and waist. The hips are a ball-hinge, but since the legs are preposed they’re not particularly useful. As a trio, it’s a fun mix on the shelf, but sticklers for era may be annoyed. This is basically 80s Glenn and modern day Jerry which might bother some. It might have made more sense to base the figures off of a specific show in the 80s, maybe set during the Walk Among Us era, and then do another set based on the current version of The Misfits. It’s also a little disappointing that Doyle didn’t join in on the fun. He is his own, separate, license and I’m guessing Super7 tried, but he either wasn’t interested or they couldn’t come to an agreement. Maybe he still has regrets over those dolls they used to sell at Hot Topic? And it’s unfortunate that The Misfits never really had a permanent, iconic, drummer. I guess Robo is the most famous? It might have been fun to make The Fiend the drummer, but since we don’t have a guitarist I guess it doesn’t feel like a missing piece. Super7 likely doesn’t want to tool any drums anyway.
Left to right: $26, $30, $35What you’re getting.
If you like these figures based on The Misfits then you should have no trouble finding them in various places. They’re basic, but there aren’t many sets of Misfits figures that include both Jerry and Glenn. The real drawback here is that these will set you back $30. That’s a ridiculous price for what you’re getting, these should be less than $20, but that’s also Super7 for you. There are a lot of Misfits collectors out there who will scoop these up and probably multiples to keep some carded, but even so, I can’t imagine they’ll sell out at $30. You’re probably better off waiting to see if anyone has to discount them. The Glenn one is a particularly bad value since he doesn’t even come with a single accessory. These are for the diehards only and that particular niche of Misfits fans who also like vintage toys. The rest need not apply.
For a guy as tied into comic books and the properties associated with them, Glenn Danzig has had a lot of disinterest when it comes to toys based on his own likeness. It was about 20 years ago that musician and publisher of his own books partnered with Medicom to produce a trio of vinyl…
2020 will be remembered for a lot of things, many of them not good. One non-negative aspect of 2020 that will be memorable for me was that it was the year I really got back into toy collecting. Most of that was courtesy of NECA toys and their various Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lines. Those…
When Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only reached a settlement over who owned the rights to The Misfits in the mid 90s (resolution: they both did), it set off a wave of new merchandise plus a new version of the band. What had once been a logo found mostly at punk and metal shows, the visage…
Last week we had ourselves a look at Dirtbag from JoyToy’s line of 1:18 scale Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. As most probably expected, we’re back this week with a look at his buddy Groundchuck, the mutant bull that could have very easily been named Bull’s Eye, but maybe Playmates felt that was too on the nose. Groundchuck debuted alongside Dirtbag in the vintage toy line back in the early 90s, but wasn’t originally conceived as an affiliated mutant. Dirtbag was going to be a foil for Splinter while Groundchuck was just your standard TMNT enemy. The cartoon made them a pair and it feels like that’s how they’re remembered now. Both also showed up in the video Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III for the Nintendo Entertainment System as boss characters of their own stage and as a proper duo in the more recent Shredder’s Revenge.
He’s pretty big.Even his NECA counterpart doesn’t seem much bigger.
Groundchuck is another stout release from JoyToy standing at approximately 5″ to the top of his head and slightly taller to the highest point of his horns. The only characters in the line who can claim to be taller are Rahzar and Krang while his pal Dirtbag is more full of figure. Groundchuck, being a bull, is appropriately beefy with a barrel chest and meaty biceps and thighs. Like Dirtbag, he’s basically a recreation of the Playmates look which was also featured in the cartoon. He’s colored bright red and I’ve always loved the juxtaposition it creates with the tattered blue shirt and the cybernetic parts featured on his person. A portion of his head appears to be mechanical, including his right eye, as well as the entirety of his right leg and a chunk of his left thigh. The cattle motif is seen in the horned skull belt buckle and a similar one featured on his right pauldron while the bull’s eye appears over his right eye, upon his chest, and as a knee pad on his left leg (plus a brand on his left bicep).
No idea what these dog tags referenceThere’s some storage, but not enough.“Ahh, gives me wings!”
Like Dirtbag, there’s a paint wash applied to the fur which imparts a grimy feeling to the character. A lot of the add-ons like the belts and pauldrons have a distressed element to them via the sculpt and their own respective paint effects. I like the gold bits reflected in the many bull’s eye pieces as well as the more ornate left shoulder pauldron. The painted elements are done very clean including the face where his eyes and nose loop really pop. The only element about the presentation I’m left a little underwhelmed by are those cybernetic parts, namely the right leg. For those, JoyToy went with a pale gray plastic with a black wash over them. There are some bolts sculpted into places and those are hit with a metallic silver. I wish the entirety of the leg was done in that color with those bolts and the anklet done in a gun metal. I think the figure stands out on a shelf as-is, but would really demand attention with a shinier approach to the metal. Even so, Groundchuck has always been one of my favorite designs from the vintage toy line and JoyToy did the design justice here by basically not changing a thing and just upping the sculpt and paint.
Just so much stuff.
We talked about Dirtbag as being especially plentiful when it came to accessories, but Groundchuck may have him beat. The beast comes with four sets of hands: fists, gripping, trigger, and open. He has the same white marble chunk of a base and a City Sewer stand as Dirtbag. From there, we get a whole bunch of weapons and other assorted goodies. In the area of odd, there’s a crushed, red, can. I assume this is a Red Bull pun? It otherwise isn’t of great note, but if you want him to join the likes of Slash, Tokka, and Rahzar in a food-centric display it works. It’s probably the accessory of least interest, but not without purpose. On his belt is also a grenade which is easy to overlook. It’s green and gray and it will happily remain on the belt if you wish, or Groundchuck can hold it. For more ambiance, I suppose, there’s also a loop of rope with a gold grappling hook on the end. It’s molded plastic so it doesn’t do anything, but Groundchuck has a hook on the left side of his belt it can dangle from, just set it when you’re done posing him or else it will drive you nuts with how often it falls off.
NES flashbacks!Per Playmates, this is a cattle prod gun.“C’mere boy!”
Those are the basic items added in by JoyToy while most of the rest are reserved for fire power! Groundchuck comes with a reimagined version of his cattle prod gun the old Playmates toy came with. It’s colored in earthy tones of steel and brown with the twisting prod extending from the end. I’ve seen some shots of the figure with the prod removed leaving behind something that resembles a small bazooka or something, but it doesn’t seem to want to pop out of mine. Groundchuck also has his cross bow from the old figure and this time around it mounts onto a gun that resembles an assault rifle. The rifle works with or without the crossbow affixed to the top, but why not utilize it for double the firepower? Hailing from the cartoon is Groundchuck’s stylish pistol with bull horns at the end of the muzzle. It looks like it should be thought of as a taser rather than an actual pistol, but it’s good to see a nod to the cartoon version of the character. And if you know him primarily from the NES video game, Groundchuck also has a big hunk of pipe which his character wields as a weapon in that game. There’s a C-hook on the back of his belt that seems to be made for this item as well, though the fit is pretty loose. It will stay in place if left alone, but might fall out if you pick the figure up. There’s also what appears to be a matador’s cape or flag. It’s on a gold post and the flag itself is red, naturally. Mine has some black gunk on it that I’ll have to try and wash off. There’s a little hook by the C-hook on his back that the post of the flag can snap into. It’s not the most secure thing, but works to a point.
That’s neat.
Those are just the weapons, but to really make Groundchuck feel special JoyToy threw in a bunch of effect parts. It’s a bit of a surprise as we don’t have many, if any, effect parts included with the other figures and here’s Groundchuck with four of them. They’re all pretty interchangeable, but as best I can tell the gold, lightning, effect is intended for the bull horn taser. The color is a little dingy, I can’t tell if that’s on purpose or not, but it looks okay. Acrylic might have been better though. For the rifle, a simple red blast effect is included that clips into the front. There’s also a second one with a multi-part effect at the base implying muzzle flash that looks a little better, in my opinion. It’s possible that’s the one intended for the assault rifle, and the more simple one is intended for the opening on the heel of his cybernetic foot. I assume that’s intended to be a rocket propulsion system and either effect can slot into it. We also get a small missile effect with a long plume of smoke extended out the back. It’s a mix of red and gray and I think this is intended for his horn. Yes, the cybernetic horn contains missiles. I think this is from the video games, but to take advantage of that there’s an optional right horn that has the tip bent back to reveal a hole for the missile to fly from. You just pop off the standard horn and replace it with this one. As is the case with all of these weapons, the missile can go with any weapon so if you want Groundchuck to blast missiles from his rifle and lightning from his horn – go for it. It’s your figure to do as you please.
“Whoa, dude! Chill out!”
Articulation for Groundchuck is standard for the line and very much the same as Dirtbag. You get head, jaw, shoulder, elbow, wrist, diaphragm, waist, hip, thigh, knee, and ankle articulation. There’s not a ton of room for the jaw to open, but it works to add a little personality. The elbows are single hinges and will swivel as well as bend close to 90 degrees. The wrists use a double ball peg setup like Dirtbag’s, and while the optional hands can be a bitch to get on, they’ll go. Range at the hips remains mediocre and forcing the figure into something close to a split will cause the abdomen to pop off the ball joint there. The double-jointed knees are pretty much only good for a 90 degree bend and do get gappy at the bottom of the joint. For the feet, JoyToy cheated a bit with the hooves and basically added a heel to the sculpt of the right foot which makes the figure easy to stand. The hoof for the left leg is also generously sized even without a heel. He also has a tail which has a swivel joint. I think I see a hinge in there too, but it’s pretty limited as the tail goes through the soft plastic loincloth.
They’re kind of like the upgrade to Bebop and Rocksteady.
Groundchuck is going to move about as well as Dirtbag, Bebop, and Rocksteady. He does have a lot of stuff added to his sculpt that can get in the way as everything is an overlay including the shirt. All of it is removable if you find it too obstructive. It would require some effort to get all of it off and would likely require the removal of the arms. I like all of it so I won’t be trying to do that. The appeal of Groundchuck for me has always been the colors and the design where he’s just fully kitted-out with equipment. I think he was envisioned as something of a merc for hire, a marksman, or bounty hunter type and the look certainly fits that characterization. It’s that over-the-top look to the character that gets me and characters like Groundchuck are the first that come to mind for me when I reflect back on what Playmates did back in the 80s and 90s.
This one is just a ton of fun.
If that’s not an obvious endorsement for what JoyToy has done then let me say it in plainer terms: Groundchuck is the best release so far in this line. He’s honestly fantastic. The look, the stuff, he’s just perfectly realized for this line. There’s a nice balance of that realism JoyToy aims for with some of its sculpts as well as the toony origins of the character. There are a few shortcomings here and there and I wish the metallic parts were all shiny and chromed out, but I’m also just really happy with this one. Admittedly, I’ve always been a fan of this character so your mileage may vary, but if you’re collecting this JoyToy line and were considering passing on Groundchuck I would strongly advise you reconsider. I got my figure, as well as Rahzar and Dirtbag, from LT Cave. The price and shipping was all very reasonable and I paid around $40 for each figure. Obviously, the situation seems to always be evolving when it comes to tariffs and imports so I don’t know how things are going to be when this goes live, but I do vouch for that e-tailer. There are others that will ship to the US as well so you do have options if you’re based in North America and want to collect this line. It’s definitely in contention for best line of 2025.
In case you’ve been sleeping on one of 2025’s best toy lines, here’s some reviews to get you caught up:
Today for Turtle Tuesday we continue our look at Wave 6 (I think?) of JoyToy’s 1:18 scale Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures with a character who should be familiar to long-time fans of the franchise: Dirtbag. Dirtbag first showed up as part of the Playmates toyline in 1991 before making the leap…
JoyToy is back with their latest wave of 1/18 scale action figures based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and with a character I think we all assumed was on the way. You don’t do a figure of Tokka, the mutated snapping turtle, and not also do a figure of his best buddy, Rahzar. The two…
I have a couple of turtles to look at for #TurtleTuesday and these guys come courtesy of JoyToy. Slash and Tokka don’t usually associate with each other, but JoyToy doesn’t think that should be the case and I tend to agree.
It’s the latest from Hasbro’s Marvel vs Capcom Gamerverse line!
Video game inspired action figures are quite the hot ticket right now. I’m not entirely sure why that is, but maybe some of that is owed to Jada Toys and how well received their line of Ultra Street Fighter 2 action figures have been received. Hasbro, for their part, has had a “Gamerverse” subline of Marvel Legends for quite awhile now, but it has mostly centered on the Spider-Man games released for the PlayStation. This year, Hasbro decided it wanted a piece of the Marvel vs Capcom pie without actually saying that outright. Gamerverse has now pivoted to that beloved franchise, though strictly the Marvel side. Despite having a previous relationship with Capcom via its Power Rangers x Street Fighter line a few years ago, Hasbro has shown no interest in actually engaging the licensor for these figures instead releasing a series of two-packs and one-offs of Marvel characters from that line of games. Most of them have not been of much interest to me, but there was one I could not ignore: Wolverine vs Silver Samurai.
One of these figures is more desirable than the other.
I have enjoyed the Capcom fighters going back to X-Men: Children of the Atom in arcades. The hyper fast fighting games were a sight to behold and it felt awesome to finally be able to take control of the X-Men in a setting that felt worthy of them. The games only became more popular when they were eventually paired with Street Fighter, then eventually it expanded to include all of Marvel and all of Capcom. The designs from those games always came across as rather unique for the Marvel characters and many years ago Toy Biz made a half-hearted attempt at characters in that style with a series of two-packs sold at KB Toy Stores. They weren’t great and I never actually bought any, but I’ve always wanted figures that match the art style presented in those games.
“Let’s go, bub!”
For Hasbro’s collection, we get the usual mixed bag from the company. Some of the figures in the line do a really good job of matching the games, while others very much do not. And considering most of the releases are two-packs, it probably comes as little surprise that one figure in each set appears to get more love than the other. That is certainly the case with this two-pack featuring Wolverine and Silver Samurai. Wolverine practically looks like he was yanked off the side of the arcade cabinet with his bulky frame and elongated claws and mask fins. Silver Samurai…just looks like the previous Legends release, but in a muted color. I’ll say upfront I do not care about Silver Samurai at all. He’s always been a D tier Wolverine adversary for me and his figure doesn’t offer much. I got this for Wolverine, and considering the set comes at the inflated sticker price of $60, there’s a good chance I way overpaid for a Wolverine figure. Now, I’m going to help you decide if you should do the same.
The presence of dark gray lines on the chest appear to be entirely random.
We might as well get the Silver Samurai out of the way. As best as I can tell, this figure is mostly a straight re-release of the prior Legends figure, but with a new torso and expression. The previous figure had a riveted look to the armor where as this one is pretty smooth. Both the arms and legs feature pinned joints owing to their age so if that’s something that bothers you then you may be disappointed here. The color this time around is a very bland gray. The only paint on this guy is reserved for the exposed part of his face, the white of his eyes, and the red on his crest and sun pattern on his chest. The rest of the figure is that lame attempt at metallic plastic Hasbro likes to use. All it does is create random lines or swirls in the plastic while adding zero luster. The chest on my figure almost looks cracked, but it’s just streaks in the plastic. The character in the game was damn near white by default with gray-blue shading. Hasbro didn’t bother to try and match that sprite or the art from the booklet and instead gave us this ugly lump of plastic.
He looks like a kid posing for a Little League picture.It’s fine.Looks cool, but it’s a little heavy for the blade.
For articulation, the Samurai is also not up to snuff. He’s very basic with a ball-hinged head, hinged-ball shoulders, bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, ball-jointed diaphragm, waist cut, ball-socket hips, thigh cuts, double-jointed knees, boot swivel, ankle hinge and rocker. His wrist hinges are at least the proper vertical hinge for sword wielding, but his lack of a butterfly joint means he can’t hold his sword with two hands in a convincing fashion. You can get two hands onto it, but it looks kind of dumb. The shoulder pads are pegged into his traps and are annoying to deal with and tend to pop off a lot. For accessories, he has his katana which is done in a translucent blue plastic. It looks fine, but mine has some black paint on the blade. It’s also very flimsy which stinks because he also has an effect part for the sword that looks pretty cool. It’s bubbly and done with blue translucent plastic with hits of a dark blue or purple. The swords slots through it, but the weight of the part will cause it to droop. He also has his energy shuriken made out of translucent orange plastic and a flimsy plastic stand to peg into it. The weight can be a bit tricky to get it balanced because the stand is so poor, but it can be done. However, Jada this is not.
Bring it on!
Which brings us to the real reason I wanted this set: Wolverine. What attracted me to this figure wasn’t just the stylization on display, but also some engineering choices Hasbro made. They have not, to my knowledge, made an action figure like this Wolverine and some of the choices they made are ones that I’ve been wanting from them for years. We’ll get to that with the articulation portion, but first the elephant in the room must be addressed: this is a big Wolverine.
He’s a pretty big Wolverine.
Wolverine stands at just a touch under 6″. Wolverine runs taller in those games, probably because his sprite is always crouched, but if you wanted to slide him into your comic collection this may pose too big a hurdle to climb. The X-Men animated Wolverine by comparison comes in at 5.75″. Is slightly less than a quarter of an inch a big deal? Kind of, considering that older Wolverine is probably a little on the tall side as well (mostly owing to the really long neck of that sculpt). What really stands out as different though is just how much bigger all around this new Wolverine is. Line up any part of the body and compare it to the prior one and it’s a stark contrast. His biceps, thighs, fists, are all quite a big larger. It’s almost as if this Wolverine is in a different scale from its predecessors. Marvel Legends is thought of as a 1:12 scale line while this Wolverine almost feels like it’s in between 1:12 and 1:10 scale (I guess that would be 1:11). He’s a little big for 1:12, but not quite 1:10.
Even though he has a single hinge at the elbow, the range is pretty much the same as the prior double-jointed version.
As for the sculpt, this thing is entirely brand new. We have the new head with the exaggerated fins, or ears, or whatever those things are on his mask. He has just the one expression which features a gritted teeth look like the cabinet art. The body is also entirely new with the much beefier proportions. The shoulder pads are separate and looped onto the peg going into the torso as opposed to pegged into the shoulder itself. The black on the torso is painted and not sculpted in while the fins are black plastic. The face also appears to be painted onto black plastic and the opacity is not as thick as it needed to be. The left side of my figure’s face has some black showing through, which is a shame. The overall proportions and sculpt are all very nice, but other paint issues include a yellow speck on the left side of my figure’s abdomen and some blue smudging on the left thigh. The middle claw on the left hand (geez, everything is on the left side) has some excess plastic around the tip which I’ll need to trim. Silver Samurai’s left pauldron has a similar issue as well which I failed to note earlier. The knees also suffer from miscolored plastic, a frequent issue with Legends in the pin-less era, as they’re noticeably darker than the yellow used for the thigh and shin. It may also bother some to know that the back of his ankles feature a black rectangle since the figure is using black, plastic, for the ankle hinges. Unlike other Wolverine designs, the black trim on the boots doesn’t continue onto and down the center of the back of the boot so it does create an eyesore, but better it be there than on the front.
The effect part is whatever, but the torso articulation is aces. This twisting crouch wasn’t possible on older figures.
From a quality control standpoint, this Wolverine certainly doesn’t have a premium feel, but even with the minor paint imperfections I still think it looks pretty good overall. I love the sculpt, I really love the elongated claws, and I’m really happy with what we’re about to talk about next: the articulation. Hasbro did some good stuff here while also making some trade-offs. How the overall package is received will be somewhat subjective, but what is present works pretty well. They did keep the hinged-neck joint. Wolverine being a croucher needs a lot of range to look up and down and Hasbro has yet to find a better way to pull that off so it’s hear once again. We lose the nuance of a double ball, but the joint at least does what it set out to do. The joint some will likely miss is the butterfly joint. Instead, Hasbro has gone with a ball peg shoulder which is the sort of joint McFarlane is known for utilizing. Import companies use the same, but they’ll affix it to a hinged apparatus inside the torso to get that butterfly joint, but here we just get the up and down, in and out, that the ball peg affords which isn’t a ton. They either didn’t have room in the chest for the joint, or didn’t want to cut up the sculpt. Considering it means we don’t have those silly low shoulders many Legends figures suffer from, I’ll consider it a worthy trade-off. Wolverine can still cross his claws in front of his face and has some room to rear back with his arm. Would I have made the trade to cut out a little more on the back so he could really reach back? Yeah, probably, but I am otherwise okay with the range.
It’s too bad stands weren’t included with this set.
The arms also contain another surprise: single-hinged joints at the elbow. Ordinarily, this is something to be frowned upon, but given that it’s Wolverine it’s honestly a nonissue. The arms are always so bulky that even the old, double-jointed, Wolverine can barely bend his elbow past 90 degrees. This one can’t either, but the single joint is cut in such a way that it’s far more pleasing to look at so I consider it an improvement. There’s also a bicep swivel which is more like an import figure in that the piece is floating independent of the elbow. It’s basically just a cover over a straight peg. The elbow also swivels since it pegs into whatever is under the bicep and the wrists feature the standard swivel and hinge.
I wouldn’t come in high, if I were you, Samurai.
The torso is where I was most eager to get my hands on this guy. Most of the old Wolverine figures go with an ab crunch, a big old hinge right in the middle of the figure and a standard waist cut below it. Some of the newer ones use a ball-joint in the diaphragm and retain the ab crunch below it, but at the expense of waist articulation. The thinking from Hasbro is you get rotation in the diaphragm and bend at the waist, but why settle for that if you don’t have to? For this Wolverine, Hasbro went with the ball-jointed diaphragm and paired it with a ball-jointed waist. You know, like all of those import companies making figures that articulate better than the rest. The result is you get forward and back tilt at both spots plus rotation. He crunches forward very well, arches back a decent amount, and can twist and turn with the best of them. And somewhat to my surprise, there’s very little gapping on display at both the waist and diaphragm. They did a really good job with this torso and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t become the default approach going forward. And since it’s a big large and doesn’t feature any sculpted costume details, I suspect we’ll see it reused for other characters in the future.
Tag!
The rest of the articulation below the waist is your standard ball-socket hips, thigh cut, double-jointed knees, and ankles with hinges and rockers. There’s no boot swivel which is a bit of a surprise. It looks like the boot is a separate piece so I can’t fathom why it doesn’t just peg-on. Like the gloves, it’s possible the boot is just a sleeve glued into place. It’s not a huge omission, but if it could be there with no impact to the budget then why not go for it? For accessories, Wolverine comes with a set of fists and two slash effects. The slash is done on transparent plastic with some blue shading in the center. One can peg onto an included stand, the same, cheap, style one as Silver Samurai’s, and the other slash can then slot over that one to form an X. Wolverine has multiple attacks that make such a pattern with his claws in the game, plus his super move which just makes a big X on the screen that he jumps in front of. It’s a decent accessory, but I wish we got more for the price. Wolverine could really use a stand of his own to sell that effect part and I would have loved a second portrait. A yelling head would have been great or an unmasked one.
Wolverine (and Ken) most definitely wins.
This is a hard set to rate. Subjectively, I love this Wolverine. I love the proportions, I love the new articulation, and I just love messing around with him. He’s not one of those overly gummy Hasbro releases and I like that they went for it in making this sculpt really evoke the game. On the other hand, I can’t ignore the minor problems with the paint and I’ve heard of others having similar issues. Those knees are also an eyesore and the accessories are just okay. If we’re to split the price of the set between the two figures, he’s a little iffy at $30. I’d still recommend him at that price, but I wouldn’t feel like I’m getting a real steal or anthing.
Unfortunately, Wolverine is not a $30 figure. He’s sold in a $60 set with a thoroughly mediocre Silver Samurai. By Legends standards, there is nothing special about this Silver Samurai. Nothing interesting about the presentation, the articulation, and the accessories do not overcome that. I like the sword effect part, but I don’t know if I can use it since it’s so heavy. The shuriken is fine and at least it’s from the game. He has no extra parts and I find he looks dumb with two gripping hands at all times. Couldn’t we get one extra set of hands? His articulation isn’t good enough for a sword wielder and he doesn’t look like the character art or sprite. He’s a total dud for me.
One thing is for sure, Marvel vs Capcom fans are eating good!
Is this set worth $60? Absolutely not. This Wolverine is good, ignoring the scale issues it’s easily Hasbro’s best Wolverine. Considering I don’t really care for the proportions on the MAFEX Wolverine it might even be my favorite Wolverine of all time. It’s still not worth $60 or even $40. And if he’s not worth that then what’s Silver Samurai worth? I honestly wouldn’t pay $20 for him, or even $10. I just plain don’t like the figure so it’s worthless. Despite that, I think this set will sell well because Wolverine is, in case you haven’t heard, very popular and toy collectors get pretty geeked up about new articulation schemes. Even though nothing this Wolverine does is truly new, just new for Hasbro and Marvel Legends. And I’m having fun with it, so while I think it’s stupid to pay $60 for this Wolverine, I don’t hate myself for doing exactly that.
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The toyline of my dreams was announced last October. In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the television series X-Men, Hasbro is doing a dedicated line of Marvel Legends with figures based on the look of the show. The show was obviously inspired by the designs of Jim Lee, but there are differences in the…
One of my most anticipated releases of 2025 came out of no where. I was a kid during the early 90s and into video games so I know a thing or two about Street Fighter. Street Fighter II was everywhere and is pretty much the reason why the one-on-one fighting game became a huge genre…
We just had 11 consecutive weeks of action figure reviews on Super7’s line of figures based on The Simpsons. Things were getting pretty negative in that sphere as that line went out with a whimper. I don’t like reviewing bad figures and it’s mostly because everything I review here I buy for my own collection.…
Today for Turtle Tuesday we continue our look at Wave 6 (I think?) of JoyToy’s 1:18 scale Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures with a character who should be familiar to long-time fans of the franchise: Dirtbag. Dirtbag first showed up as part of the Playmates toyline in 1991 before making the leap to cartoon and video games like many before him. The mutant mole was billed as an adversary of Splinter on the cardback, but as far as I know that character trait never manifested outside of that blurb. He would instead be featured in the Planet of the Turtleloids story arc as yet another minion of the Shredder, albeit a reluctant one. He was paired up with Groundchuck, the mutant bull who also had an action figure released around the same time, and the two have felt interconnected ever since despite being largely confined to that ’87 edition of the franchise.
I don’t have the vintage figure for a comparison, but I do have the NECA one!
Even though his appearances have been kept to a relative minimum, Dirtbag is still pretty well remembered because probably millions of kids were exposed to him at the height of Turtle-mania. The fact that he’s being featured in JoyToy’s line comes as no surprise and his status as a miner means there’s a lot of accessories one can pull from such a background. JoyToy loves nothing more than cramming their packages full of bits and bobs to make their characters feel complete and Dirtbag really ups the ante here in unexpected ways.
Standing at pretty much exactly 5″, Dirtbag has got some size to him.
Dirtbag’s appearance is kept pretty faithful to his original design. He’s a gray-ish colored mole with a stocky build. To achieve the color, JoyToy molded the figure in white plastic and applied some gray dry-brushing over his exposed fur. The fur is a great deal more defined than it was on the old toy or in the cartoon and the dry-brush approach does give him a more grimy appearance befitting a miner. His outfit is more or less the same with a green shirt and dark, gray, shorts to go along with a fetching red hard hat. He keeps the asymmetrical feet which Playmates loved to utilize as one is bare and the one is booted, but his toes are poking through given his pretty sharp looking claws. He has picked up some chromed-out kneepads and spiked shoulder pauldrons and he still retains his useful backpack and elegant, red, ascot. I like that JoyToy retained his beady, little, yellow, eyes and the way his ears poke out from under his helmet is, dare I say, adorable. There’s a grittiness to the character design brought on by the paint and numerous spiked surfaces, but he is almost cute in appearance so you would be forgiven if you assumed he were an ally as opposed to an enemy of the turtles.
He is the king of removable stuff.
As is the case with many JoyToy products, a lot of the embellishments on the figure are removable. The pauldrons, backpack, ascot, belt, and knife holster could all be removed if you so desired. The figure comes apart relatively easily at the waist (some would argue too easily, which we’ll get to) making removal of the belt a synch. The other parts take a bit more effort if you want to go that route, but since the limbs attach via either a ball socket or a peg it probably isn’t as hard as you might think. The backpack is, sadly, not functional, but it does have two straps on the bottom that can hold some of his items in place. He also has a tail which needs to be inserted out of the box, but it goes onto the ball peg with minimal effort. The figure looks quite nice with clean paint applications. If there’s one thing about the aesthetics some might not enjoy it’s the very mechanical appearance of the knees, but only when viewed from the back. The actual joint is basically silver and dark gray, a pretty unnatural color combination for the back of one’s knees even if that one is a mutated mole.
So many choices…
Dirtbag’s accessories start before you take a single item out of the box. The backpack is already in place and on it is a red monkey wrench in a slot on the side. It can come out and become a weapon with ease, or remain on the pack. On his left thigh is a knife sheath with a white-handled knife inside. There’s a nice, metallic, finish to the blade and the white handle almost gives off the impression of bone which is pretty cool. On his belt is some dynamite, but these sticks are non-removable. To make up for that, Dirtbag does come with a bundle of dynamite as well.
Rail guns and dynamite – what more could you want?
For hands, Dirtbag has sets of gripping, relaxed, wide gripping, and trigger finger hands. The wide gripping hands work well with the bundle of dynamite while the trigger finger hands are intended for his rail gun. This thing has some nice detail and paint work and my only critique is I wish it had an optional hose to run to his backpack so we could assume an air compressor was in there. Technically speaking, I don’t think this weapon could actually fire as presented. If that bothers you then you can just hand Dirtbag some of the melee weapons which could also double as just tools if you don’t think he’s such a bad guy. There’s an axe, pick axe, and a shovel and all of them have a nice, distressed, look to the sculpt like they’ve been used over and over. The axe looks especially nice as it has some big gouges in the metal portion and tape wrapped around the handle.
“Hey dude, we don’t really have to fight, do we?”“Far out!”
By far the craziest accessory though is Dirtbag’s wheel barrow. I don’t recall any past versions of the mole featuring one, but this gave me a chuckle. As far as toy, 1:18 scale wheel barrows go this thing looks pretty great. It has two handles and a nice, deep, “barrow” with a working wheel. It’s such a large and specific accessory to include with a figure that I am left to conclude that the designers over at JoyToy are a bunch of maniacs. It’s great though and it’s another way to store all of Dirtbag’s stuff. In addition to the tools, Dirtbag also comes with another piece of the white base and a disc stand featuring the City Sewer design. I’m a little surprised he didn’t come with a Foot logo stand, but it’s also not something he needs.
Dirtbag being easy to separate at the waist means he can use this digging effect part from the NECA release if you so choose.
Dirtbag, being a chunky and cumbersome design, likely won’t wow anyone with his articulation. For a JoyToy release, he’s pretty much par for the course. We have a double-ball at the head, hinged jaw, ball-hinged shoulders, single hinged elbows, double ball wrists, diaphragm ball joint, waist ball joint, ball-socket hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, hinge and rocker ankles. The tail is also on a double-ball peg and has a bendy wire in it as well, though the bend is fairly limited. Range at his joints is acceptable. The single-hinged elbows also swivel so that is essentially your bicep swivel. The diaphragm joint is pretty nice when it comes to tilt and swivel, but it and the waist offer little in the way of crunch. He’ll also pop apart at the waist easily like Bebop and Rocksteady when kicking the legs out to the side. There just isn’t much room in the crotch area and what happens is the thighs literally force the abdomen off of the ball joint there. It’s not a hard piece to put back together or anything, but it can get annoying. I wish they would lengthen the peg that the ball is molded onto so that it would prevent that from happening as easily in the future. The knees are also gappy, which is a trend with JoyToy and their double-knees. The gap is usually at the very bottom of the joint and there aren’t many poses where this will be visible, but it’s still avoidable with a little more thoughtful engineering.
I don’t think he looks like such a bad guy.
Those critiques are fairly minor as this miner is going to pose probably as well as most would ask of him. He can handle all of his weapons just fine and also the wheel barrow. Dirtbag was the figure in this bundle of three that makes up Wave 6 I was least excited for, but now that he’s in-hand I’ve really come to appreciate him. He has so much stuff, but it all feels useful and purposeful. Well, maybe not the wheel barrow, but it’s so damn wild that they gave him one that I can’t help but love it. Will I actually display it is the real question as that’s quite a bit of shelf real estate, but I think I’m going to have to bring it into the display from time-to-time. In an age where we as tool collectors often obsess over things like mold reuse, it’s awesome seeing a company say “screw that,” and deliver some very specific parts. Dirtbag is a pretty cool release. If you have fond memories of the old toy or the character from the show or video games then you’ll probably enjoy what JoyToy has done with him. He along with his buddy Groundchuck have almost muscled their way into essential territory for me when it comes to TMNT collections to the point where I’m surprised they really haven’t shown up more often. And speaking of, you can probably guess who will be featured here next week so be sure to come back if you want to hear about the cybernetic bull with lethal accuracy!
The surprise line of the past year has unleashed perhaps its very best with Krang. Krang dates back to the 1987 cartoon series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Because that show became such a household name, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of just how insane a character design Krang is. Krang was created by David…
I have a couple of turtles to look at for #TurtleTuesday and these guys come courtesy of JoyToy. Slash and Tokka don’t usually associate with each other, but JoyToy doesn’t think that should be the case and I tend to agree.
JoyToy is back with their latest wave of 1/18 scale action figures based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and with a character I think we all assumed was on the way. You don’t do a figure of Tokka, the mutated snapping turtle, and not also do a figure of his best buddy, Rahzar. The two…
Dragon Ball Daima has come and gone, but we’re still getting action figures based on the limited series. When it comes to the Bandai/Tamashii Nations action figure line, that’s usually par for the course. It’s not like the classic movie tie-in toy line where product shows up in stores weeks before the movie hits theaters. That’s probably for the best as that’s how you end up with massive spoilers like the infamous Phantasm action figure released ahead of the Batman movie Mask of the Phantasm. For the Premium Bandai figure line, the spoilery figures were at least held off until the episode premiered (the Japanese dub, anyway) while a fairly generic figure of someone like Vegeta went up for preorder last year. And likely owing to the ever changing tariff situation in the U.S., it’s actually taken a little longer than initially expected for the figures to arrive in the U.S.
If you like your Vegeta short then this may be the figure for you.
Vegeta – Daima is just that, Vegeta from Dragon Ball Daima. He is still Vegeta, still in his blue and white Saiyan armor, only now he’s styled to reflect the artwork from the show. Dragon Ball Daima has its own distinct look. It’s not far removed from what we have seen out of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super, but it might be just enough to give some collectors pause if they’re not interested in Daima figures specifically. Bandai has yet to give us a base Vegeta from the Cell Saga or from Dragon Ball Super so this Vegeta might catch the attention of some. It’s also an entirely new sculpt with some new approaches to engineering and it comes at the more budget friendly price of $35. That alone might get enough collectors to take the figure for a spin.
Narrow face, fewer lines, softened features, and a paler complexion kind of sums it up for the Daima style.
Vegeta from Daima is essentially a stream-lined take on the character. Compared to the 2.0 Vegeta sculpt we’ve been receiving variations on for the past 6-7 years it’s more slender and the proportions are overall just a little smaller this time around. Compare one body part on the new figure to one on the old and they’re almost all a little smaller save for maybe the feet. This Vegeta has got some big feet and ears. The face is a little softer compared to the more recent Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta, but perhaps more defined than the original Super Saiyan Vegeta on the 2.0 body. He’s also a touch shorter at approximately 4.875″ to the top of his widow’s peek compared with 5″ on the Super Saiyan Blue version, which as the most recent edition on that body is the one I’ve decided to compare directly to.
The new engineering lets him kick quite high. You can even push it higher than this.
The engineering is almost all together different with this Vegeta. Like we’ve seen with other more recent figures in the line, Bandai is experimenting with soft, plastic, overlays instead of just sculpting everything in hard plastic. The upper part of the armor is made of the more rubbery material, though it doesn’t really impact anything as it’s glued down to a plastic chest. Doing it this way basically just allows Bandai to skip out on painting the blue portion of the chest. The crotch piece is also rubbery which should allow for better posing. This does mean there is less paint overall with this figure as it’s limited to the yellow parts of the armor and boots as well as the face and neck. The paint on the neck isn’t perfect, nor is it on the boots, but it’s not so bad that I’d consider either sloppy. The overall look of the figure is solid and there are no mismatched colors at least. Some may not like how the crotch looks with the new articulation, but I can’t honestly say it’s worse than before. The one eyesore is at least reserved for the rear of the figure where Vegeta has been gifted a long, flat, ass. Watching the show, it’s fairly accurate. Old Vegeta has never been blessed with buns, but the figure draws attention to it with a sculpted butt crack where as the show usually omits that detail. The figure probably should have just done the same.
These two are always up for some sparring.
The accessory load-out for this Vegeta is pretty damn good for a $35 action figure. We get a pretty typical spread of hand options including sets of fists, open, clenching, flat palm (i.e. Big Bang Attack), and his two-finger martial arts posed hands. He also has a crossed-arms piece, as many Vegeta figures have featured, which connects at the bicep. It doesn’t separate in the middle like some of the new versions of this piece, but it has some flex and isn’t as annoying to apply as past versions. For expressions, Vegeta has stoic, smirk, yelling, and an angry expression with his eyes looking down and to his right. There’s also a second hair piece. The first is a neutral pose and the second one has some bend to it like it’s being blown by the wind. The faces this time around also do not have any bangs attached to them, they just plug into the hair, and they all look pretty good. The only thing this figure is missing is a stand and an effect part. Bandai usually doesn’t provide either of those even in its more expensive offerings so it’s not a surprise, but Storm and Jada are out here making everyone look bad these days.
Vegeta is having a long ass day.There’s more range this time around, but it gets gappy.
Whenever we do get a new sculpt from Bandai articulation is the prime driver of curiosity. With Vegeta, Bandai did a lot of what we’re used to while also doing some different things as well. The head is a double ball and the neck is on a ball as well so that all works as expected. He still doesn’t look up well, and for that you’ll need to engage the diaphragm joint. In there, he has some sort of ball hinge setup, but not like the old hinge that allowed the chest to literally rise. This one lets Vegeta bend back a solid amount, but it exposes a pretty large gap in the chest. Going forward is almost nil. There’s another ball joint set into a hinged joint at the waist and it does provide for solid range going forward and back, but like the diaphragm it leads to significant gaps when bent all the way. Rotation and tilt at both is good, but it’s a shame they didn’t extend some of these pieces to fill those gaps.
He’s got the expressions you would expect.
The shoulders are your typical ball-hinge set into a ball peg inside the chest. This allows the shoulder to move up and down and out for a butterfly joint. The butterfly isn’t significant, but it’s enough for Vegeta’s signature maneuvers. The rest of the arm is standard stuff: bicep swivel, double-jointed elbow, ball hinge wrists. The hips are likely standard ball sockets and can go out to the sides for full splits, something past Vegeta figures could not do. He does have those weird fillers Bandai inserts onto the inside of the thigh and I don’t get why they do that. It looks weird. Going forward and back is not a problem either as Vegeta can do those splits as well and even kick past 90 degrees. The crotch flexes plenty and gets out of the way. There are thigh swivels and they look fine, double-jointed knees, and hinged ankles. The ankles do rock side-to-side and there are toe hinges which aren’t great, but you can ignore them if you don’t like them.
“Step aside, worm, I’ll take it from here.”
The articulation is good and bad. That torso falls into the bad and it’s a shame Bandai didn’t do something better with it. On the other hand, comparing this Vegeta to the prior ones I would say the range in the shoulders is better, the hips are way better, and the ankles are superior as well. The head and neck area is basically the same as well as the elbows and knees. I’ll even give the waist to the new figure even if it gets gappy.
Classic Vegeta.
Removing aesthetics from the argument, I would say this Vegeta is an upgrade over the prior one, it just could have been even more of one with a little more tinkering. And if you want to get into aesthetics, I’d say that’s entirely subjective and based on what you think of the Daima art style. I personally like it. I don’t prefer this look to Z or Super Vegeta, but it’s fine. I no longer feel like I need a base Vegeta on the 2.0 body, this will fill that hole well enough. In fact, I would prefer to never buy another Vegeta on that old body. It’s a figure that looks nice, but the articulation shortcomings in the hips and ankles are something I don’t need. And I’ve bought that figure enough already. I suspect we’ll see more from Vegeta and Daima and I’m curious what Bandai will do for the body. I don’t think it would make sense to reuse this body on a powered-up Vegeta, we’ll have to wait and see. I’m also a little surprised we haven’t seen another adult Vegeta solicited yet, but maybe they want to deliver on some of the Premium Bandai offerings first. At $35, this is a good figure and I think most SHF collectors will be happy. It’s really fun to just mess around with and pose and I hope we continue to see more improvements with future figures in the line. I’m left feeling excited for that upcoming Cell Saga Goku due later this year which can’t get here soon enough!
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