Tag Archives: disney

October 30, 2023

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Bishop

By Joe
He comes from the future with a warning.

We’re going to keep this Marvel/Mutant Monday thing going for one more week! After taking a look at a trio of figures from Hasbro’s new X-Men ’97 line of figures in its Marvel Legends catalog I’ve decided to do one more: Bishop. The first three figures I looked at were basically all missing pieces to the VHS line Hasbro did last year for X-Men, the animated series which aired on Fox in the 90s. Bishop wasn’t featured in that line either despite being the most frequent guest star in the series so it would stand to reason that I’d be interested in adding him as well. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your view, Bishop’s character received a redesign for the new show. It’s not incredibly drastic, but it removed his most mighty possession: his fabulous mullet.

Yes, Bishop decided to ditch the 80s haircut he had (despite being a guy from the future – maybe the mullet makes a comeback?) for something a bit more modern. He now sports a closely cropped head of hair, but largely maintains his look outside of that. He’s still sporting the yellow and blue, still has that kerchief about his neck, and also carries a big gun. Well, more on that last part later. Still, for someone like me who just wants to assemble the team from the show I grew up watching, it seemed like this was a figure I could skip. Then I saw him in a store, then I saw him again, and eventually I caved and bought the thing. I just like how it looks! Something about that yellow and blue will always appeal to me, but beyond that the figure looks better than a typical Legends release. It’s more in-line with how I would personally design the line if asked to so let’s dive into this one so I can explain what it is about Bishop that made me want to take him home.

He’s a bit bigger than your “Vulcan” body figures, but smaller than some of the villains presented in an oversized fashion. And yes, that is a custom Morph head.

Bishop stands at right around the 7″ mark making him the tallest figure in his wave. He’s composed mostly of blue and brown plastic with some yellow where it makes sense. His belt and the cuffs around his shoulders are soft, yellow, plastic keyed into the figure and secured with glue. The ends of his sleeves also appear to be yellow strips of plastic glued into place. The only paint needed on this figure was the yellow and black stripe down the body, the red and black X logo on the belt, and the details on his face. And perhaps to no one’s surprise, the painted areas are the weakest part of the figure and it’s mainly just that yellow stripe that runs the length of his body. All of the figures I found on the pegs had some issue with that part of the figure, either messy application or a chipped spot and I settled on the one that bothered me the least. The yellow isn’t as saturated as it needs to be so some blue shows through while the black line running down it gets messy in places. The easiest way for Hasbro to have prevented that would have been to cast the figure in yellow and paint on the blue and black, but Hasbro really doesn’t want to use that much paint so this is what we got.

I really like how the torso has a lot of mass to it.

Aside from that, I really like the presentation on this figure. I don’t have any other Bishop figures (I never even got the Toy Biz Marvel Legends one), but I believe most of what is presented here is new. He has a much sturdier build than most Legends figures I’ve encountered. His shoulders are broad, his chest has a lot of mass, and his proportions look great. I do think the cuffs at the shoulders help to minimize that low shoulder look a lot of Legends have and they also make the shoulders appear bigger. I’m guessing if I cut those off I’d be less impressed, but since they’re present I have to give the figure its do. I also really like the matte finish this thing has. It’s on the blue portions as well as the skin and it’s just really, really nice. There’s a temptation to seek out an older Bishop head that would better match the character I know, but I doubt any head I found, custom or official, would have the same finish. It means I’ll probably just have to get used to short haired Bishop, unless someone wants to sell custom pieces of hair since it appears to be a separate piece that’s glued down.

The gun is small and gummy, but it appears to look like the one from the show. At least the muzzle does.

The accessories for Bishop are like the other figures in the wave – terrible. It’s basically bare minimum type stuff here as Bishop has a set of trigger hands, a right fist, and a left gripping hand. I’m not sure why we need the gripping hand and trigger hand, I’d have preferred two fists, but either way the accessory count is too low. Bishop also has his gun which looks a lot like the one from the original show. It’s pretty small though and I wish it had more size to it. Maybe it’s accurate to the new show – I don’t know. In the 92 series, his gun wasn’t very consistent and there are some shots where it looks puny, but I would say it’s supposed to be on the bigger side. He has a holster behind his left shoulder that it slots into fine and the sculpt is solid on the weapon. It’s cast in gray plastic and unpainted so it’s certainly not flashy. There’s nothing else in the box though – no effect parts, no alternate head, no nothing. It’s Hasbro doing the bare minimum at a not bare minimum price point.

“I’ve still got my eye on your, cajun!”

Assuming much of what’s here is new, Bishop should articulate fairly well. Or at least as well as a burly fellow like him can. The head is on a double ball peg and it’s just okay. He looks down enough and the rotation is obviously fine, but looking up is severely limited. That’s because Hasbro just buries the lower part of the peg in the neck and doesn’t allow for as much range as it could. The shoulders are just hinged ball pegs and they rotate and can go out to the side to a horizontal position. The biceps swivel is fine and the double-jointed elbows bend past 90 without much fuss. The wrists swivel and the trigger hands have vertical hinges, the rest horizontal. In the torso is an ab crunch that’s pretty “clicky.” It basically has three positions: neutral, forward, and back. Going back just makes his belly stick out and he looks pretty silly, going forward is fine, but it’s not a great joint. The waist twist is a peg twist. The hips go out to the side well past 45 degrees though not to full splits. He kicks forward about 90 degrees, but doesn’t kick back very far. There is a thigh cut and a boot cut, though the thigh cut breaks up not just the striping down the left side of the figure, but also the sculpted pouches on the thighs so it’s a pretty useless joint. The knees will go past 90 degrees, and are on the tight side. The ankles hinge forward and back a good amount while also pivoting just fine.

“For the future!”

The articulation for Bishop is probably acceptable given he’s a big dude with a gun, he’s not here to do high kicks and such. My only real complaints are with how they did the joint at the head since he should have more function up there if they just did it right. I’m also kind of tired of these Legends figures with useless thigh cuts that break up the costume in unnatural ways because who is going to pose their figures in such a way? Put the rotation at the ball joint and it will look so much better. The torso also sucks and I’d like to see Hasbro ditch these ugly ab crunches in favor of double ball pegs in the abdomen. That will let the figure bend forward and back, especially if paired with a ball joint at the waist, while also providing tilt and rotation. It’s not something that’s really any more expensive to produce compared with what we have, it’s more a matter of changing over the infrastructure that’s the real cost. They’ve been doing it with pin-less joints for years now, a figure of mostly new tools like Bishop would have been a great place to incorporate more advances.

It’s not the Bishop I want, but he does look pretty nice.

The criticisms I have for this representation of Bishop are basically criticisms directed at Marvel Legends in general. For a Legends release, I think this Bishop is pretty damn good and it largely just comes down to the finish and proportioning. He’s supposed to big a big, burly, man and he is. He has the mass to his chest that so many figures lack. Just look at a figure like the well-received VHS Cyclops or the new Magneto from the side – there’s so little mass they’re almost flat. That’s not the case with Bishop and he looks a lot better than most figures as a result. He looks so good that I bought him when I had no intention of doing so. I probably could have waited for a clearance sale, but didn’t want to chance it. Now watch them re-release the figure with a ’92 inspired head (you know they will) so I can kick myself for giving Hasbro money in the first place.

If you’re interested in X-Men ’97 here are my other reviews on the line:

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Gambit

Everyone can relax – Gambit has returned. Or arrived, since I’ve never reviewed a Gambit action figure in this space, but that’s because I haven’t bought a Gambit figure in about 20 years until now. When X-Men arrived on airwaves in the fall of 1992, hardly anyone on that team could be considered a true…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Rogue

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

Keep reading
by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Magneto

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

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by Joe

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

October 16, 2023

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Rogue

By Joe
Rogue is back with a facelift.

Previously, on X-Men reviews we looked at Magneto from the upcoming series X-Men ’97. The animated series may have been delayed into 2024, but the action figures from Hasbro are already here. And if you were collecting Hasbro’s line of figures based on the animated series from the 90s, this new line offers a chance to fill in some gaps. That’s what drew me to Magneto, and that’s what is drawing me towards Rogue.

Rogue comes at us in the same style of card back as Magneto with artwork from the show on the front and a cross-sell on the back. Rogue is in her animated attire which is very similar to the costume Jim Lee designed for her in the comics, but with some minor differences. Her headband is just a headband with no knot on the back and her jacket is green instead of brown. Otherwise, she still has her two-toned hair and her yellow and green bodysuit. And her costume in the new show is the same as the costume from the old show. There is a style change going from the old show to the new and that’s reflected in the figure, but on the surface, this figure should be a candidate to serve as an animated Rogue in your X-Men animated series collection.

If you were introduced to Rogue via the 90s cartoon then you probably prefer her in the green jacket.

Rogue stands at about 6.25″ to the top of her hair. I was critical of the size of Magneto so I should do so here. Rogue is a bit too tall, not egregiously so, but she’s not perfect if that matters to you. I’m okay with it, personally. Her head sculpt is all new. The hair is done with two pieces: one brown and one white. It looks fine. There’s no shading which would probably help, but the two-toned nature of her design covers up for that. Her face and said hair are the most obvious change for the new show. She doesn’t have the big 80s hair she had before, and while her face looks fine, it just doesn’t look like Rogue to me. I’ve been trying to figure out what it is about her face that differentiates it from say Jean, and I think it’s how her eyes are shaped. Usually stretched a bit and diamond shaped. It looks close enough though to the image on the box so ultimately I’m fine with it, this is more information for those looking to fill in the ’92 collection. Her face does have some shine to it, which I don’t care for, but that’s hardly surprising for a Marvel Legends release.

Rogue stands mostly in-line with the other female figures from X-Men.

The rest of the figure is a mix of old and new. The jacket is a floating piece while the sleeves are sculpted. It looks fine, the X logo on her right arm looks pretty ugly, but I have no issue with the approach. The opening for the arms is pretty large though so it’s something you have to be mindful of when posing if you don’t want her to look like she’s wearing a vest. The upper torso piece is new to better match the new show. She’s still a tremendously busty woman, only now the suit isn’t so skin-tight that she looks like she has cantaloupes on her chest. Some might complain that her breasts have been slightly deemphasized, but I personally think this looks better. This new torso does appear to have a slightly different finish to it though, at least the upper part, as the yellow on top doesn’t match the yellow of her abdomen perfectly. It’s slight, but something I notice with the figure in-hand.

You have probably seen a similar meme before. Cartoonists and figure sculptors just love working on Rogue’s butt.

The other main difference between this Rogue and the previously released retro card figure (which I don’t have), is that the boots are now fully sculpted. That figure had the top of the boot represented by a floating piece, but now that’s just sculpted to the thigh. It looks okay. When fully bending the knee it’s probably not as good looking as the previous solution, but at least there’s no fussing with the extra piece. The majority of the figure is molded in yellow and the green is painted on and the paint application is mediocre. The torso is okay, I have some yellow spots but they’re hidden under the jacket, but the thighs are a bit messy. The green straps on the boots also aren’t cleanly applied. And something sure to irritate some, myself included, the green portion of her thighs doesn’t line up on the front and back of the leg. Meaning if you twist the thigh to line the yellow and green up properly on the front of the figure, it will be mis-aligned on the back and vice versa. That’s just annoying, but also speaks to Hasbro as I often get the impression they just don’t care about the details. There’s also a weird paint detail on the side of each thigh. It’s like an extra application of green, but on the plastic seem of the upper thigh. It’s on both sides and I don’t really know what’s going on with it.

“Momma!”

The figure looks fine, it’s just imperfect when some of those imperfections don’t really need to be there. The articulation is also mostly fine. The head is affixed via the usual Marvel Legends hinged-ball peg. For Rogue, it works okay as her hair hides the gap and odd angles when pushing her head all the way down or up, she just doesn’t have a ton of room for nuance posing. The shoulders are hinged pegs and they’re really tight. Perhaps this is the result of creating a new upper torso, but not new arms? They’ve been doing that for years though so one would think they’re experienced at it. The joint is tight though on Rogue and sometimes when rotating it feels like the peg is binding more than rotating. It’s unpleasant, to say the least. The elbows are single-hinged and bend about 90 degrees. There’s also a swivel which works fine. The wrists swivel and hinge horizontally and they’re fine.

“I hate you!”

The diaphragm joint feels like a double ball peg. There’s a little movement to either side and some tilt forward and back, but nothing extreme. It should rotate, but like the shoulders, the joint wants to fight any rotation and is prone to binding. The plastic they’re using is just too gummy. There is no waist articulation and the hips are big ball sockets. She can do better than 45 degrees, but splits are out of the question. She kicks forward pretty well, but she can’t kick back much at all because she’s got herself a pretty ample backside. There is a thigh twist, but the design of her suit means it looks bad when utilized. I would have preferred her hips be designed to swivel on the ball peg. The knees are double-jointed and they’re fine, though there’s some paint transfer from the green to the yellow kneecap on my figure. The ankles are hinged and feature a rocker. The range is fine, but they’re very “clicky” so you basically just have 3 or 4 positions they can get into as there’s no smoothness to the joint.

The glove is off!

The articulation is mostly there, but the quality of the plastic lets the figure down. Those shoulders are problematic as is the diaphragm joint. She should have a joint at the waist, especially considering she has a belt to hide it, but that’s a spot where Hasbro seems to favor aesthetics over articulation with its female figures and I can accept that limitation. She could have double-jointed elbows and it’s mostly Hasbro being cheap in reusing old parts that prevents that from happening. There’s no butterfly joint, but I don’t consider that a terrible loss. Even though she’s a figure that could benefit from being able to rear back in a punching pose. It’s another figure where the quality control, the finer tuning, lets it down so it’s not much fun to pose. She’s also difficult to stand which I think has a lot to do with her body being more slight and her head top-heavy. The lack of nuance with the ankles adds to the frustration.

Sorry Logan, no going back for Morph and Beast.

As was the case with Magneto, Rogue is not going to shine when it comes to accessories. Of those, she has just two: an ungloved right hand and a second left fist that is holding her removed glove. The left hand is reused from the last Rogue release while the right hand is surprisingly different. I’m sure it’s not new, but it’s more of a reaching hand, I suppose? She should have a set of ungloved open hands for grabbing other figures. A second portrait with a more aggressive expression would also be nice. If you want her to look like she’s going to syphon someone’s energy she kind of looks like a creeper with that smile she’s sporting. The cuffs of the gloves are at least separate pieces that slide off of her arm so at least you can make the ungloved hand look convincing, but it feels half-assed still. I feel like a good company would include a ’92 inspired head or something, maybe some effect parts, but that’s not Hasbro.

Rogue comes away feeling a lot like Magneto. This is a fine enough likeness of the new X-Men ’97 design and probably a tolerable stand-in for the ’92 series. Considering the VHS line from Hasbro rarely seemed to feature new tooling, chances are a ’92 Rogue would have just been the previously released retro card with some haphazard cel-shading. At least this figure doesn’t have that blemish. It has problems with the articulation though and the accessories stink. At $26, it’s a harder sell than it should be. I don’t regret buying it, but I can’t give it a full-throated endorsement either. This is the sort of figure one buys out of a sense of obligation: I have an animated X-Men shelf, and it needs a Rogue. It’s not really one that’s bought because it’s a terrific product, but that seems to sum up the Marvel Legends experience.

Interested in more figures based on the animated X-Men?

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Magneto

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

Keep reading
by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Mystique

The penultimate figure in this series is a bit of a curveball. When one thinks of the animated series X-Men, the first villains that come to mind are Magneto, Sinister, Apocalypse, Sabretooth, and then it gets muddled. Graydon Creed made quite the impression in the show’s second season and may even be the most hate-able…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Morph

This is it! This is the big one! Back on Halloween of 1992 Fox premiered X-Men and we were introduced to a character named Morph. For comic readers, it was a bit of a re-introduction as Morph was based on the character Changeling, but for copywrite reasons, had to undergo a name change. Changeling wasn’t…

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by Joe

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

October 9, 2023

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Magneto

By Joe
New show, new toyline, that’s how the world works.

It was two years ago that Hasbro made the announcement that it was wading into the weeds of X-Men, the cartoon series that aired on the Fox Kids Network from 1992-1997. The line was released across eight installments in 2022 (plus a ninth if you include the obviously animated-inspired Apocalypse released on a retro card) and you probably don’t need to be a huge fan of the property to know that eight figures just isn’t enough to properly capture the series in action figure form. Fans can debate on what the biggest omission was and it would certainly be easy to select one of the several X-Men not included, but for me, the one I missed the most was Magneto.

Magneto has long been one of my favorite villains in anything. While he really wasn’t the big baddie he could have been in the show, he still had tremendous presence and was a captivating figure. I was delighted to see Mondo turn to him second for their line of sixth scale figures based on the show and they basically nailed the likeness of the character. In a perfect world, we would all be enjoying X-Men 97 right now, the sequel series to X-Men from the Fox days set to launch on Disney+ in early 2024. It was going to launch this fall which would have coincided with the 31st anniversary of the original show’s premiere, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. The show could be pushed back, but the tie-in merch was basically locked into their release windows so we at least have a new line of Marvel Legends based on the show to talk about.

He’s a bit of a slender boy.

As someone who is a big fan of that original animated series, I saw this X-Men 97 line as a chance to add to what Hasbro gave me in 2022. And I think some of that attitude is present in the character selection as we’re getting four characters right out of the gate not featured in the VHS line: Rogue, Gambit, Bishop, and the subject of this post, Magneto. Hasbro knows people like me will supplement that line with these figures which have a more animated look than a standard Marvel Legend release, even if it’s based on the new series instead of the old one. The characters are all coming on blister cards with artwork from the show on the front and they’re a mix of old and new tools. Unlike the VHS line though, these are definitely designed to resemble the source material where as the VHS line was very inconsistent with its approach. The line was actually pretty bad, if I’m being honest, but I keep buying this stuff anyway because nostalgia is a hell of a thing. If you think Marvel Legends are only getting worse these days then I guess I’m part of the problem as I’m still buying compromised visions of the characters I love.

There’s no cel-shading in this line, but he does have shadowy eyes. I just wish they went a bit heavier on the shading like the source material.

I’m looking at Magneto first because, as I said, he was the one I missed the most from the VHS line. He’s also the figure that best fits the style of the 92 series as not much has changed. I don’t collect enough Marvel Legends to know if the parts here are new or not, but they’re new to me. Out of the box, he stands at approximately 6.25″ to the dome of his helmet. We’ll get the accessories out of the way right now as he just has clenchy hands out of the box and a set of fists. He’s depicted in his classic attire from episode 3 of the original series: helmet, purple cape, red gloves. His costume changed here and there throughout the show. Sometimes he had purple gloves, something the part of his costume covering his neck and upper chest was red, but this is how he looked in Season One (and how he’ll presumably look, at least in the early going, of the new show). The crest on his helmet isn’t painted, but it doesn’t appear to be in the new show either. An outline might have helped though. The helmet has a very glossy appearance, but since it’s supposed to be metal I’m okay with that. The rivets holding his cape on are also shiny and there’s a little pearl quality to the purple portions of the wrists and shins. Those parts are painted, and the application is just okay. There’s some red poking through on the left shin of my figure and the lines aren’t all clean.

“Why is my hand shrunken when opened?”

The red portions of the costume are just colored plastic, but they have a nice, matte, finish. The cape is also colored plastic with a similar finish. I like how they sculpted in some shape into the shoulders which adds a little flair to the look. There is no cel-shading with this line, but Hasbro did paint the face with some black around the eyes as Magneto is often depicted in both the comics and animation. I like it, but I think they could have gone a little heavier with the black. There’s also some missed spots in between the eye and the eyebrow. The helmet is a separate, non-removable, piece and the face is painted underneath it. I don’t like the lipstick and I feel like his eyes are a little too high, but the face is okay enough.

The dainty hands are more pronounced when compared with Cyclops.

What I can’t shake though is the feeling that Magneto is just too small. X-Men 97 is a continuation of the original series so it stands to reason that the characters are the same size as they were back then. In that original series, Magneto was around 6’3″ and was basically eye-to-eye with Cyclops and Gambit if not a touch taller. With this figure, he is shorter than both Cyclops and Gambit. He’s also a touch slighter of build in comparison with the VHS Cyke. Maybe the new show is going for a slimmer profile with its characters and if so, criticism revoked, but the height is still an issue. Also of issue are the clenching hands which are almost comically undersized. Compare his open hand with Cyke’s two-finger hand and it’s like comparing a child to an adult. The fist hands are fine, and actually look like they’re reuse from Cyclops, and it’s even easier to see how small the clenching hands are by comparing them with the fists as there’s no way those two hands could be the same. The only big parts of the figure are his feet, which look terrible. They look like loafers and not boots. Magneto is a character that’s all about presence, so his size feeling off is a bigger deal here than it might be with other characters.

These two will never see eye-to-eye.

Articulation for Magneto is a touch limited for a Marvel Legends release, but that’s not exactly a deal-breaker. The head is on a hinged ball peg so you get range looking up and down, but it lacks the nuance of a double-ball peg. The shoulders are standard ball hinges and they raise out to the side past horizontal and rotate as far as the cape allows. The cape can be moved as it’s glued down to the figure’s chest, but also pegs into the middle of the back which can be popped out easily if you need it to. There are no butterfly joints, but I’m okay with that. There is a biceps swivel and double-jointed elbows that go past 90. They’re not the best looking elbows, and the entire figure has a bit of a gummy feel, but they work. The wrists swivel and both sets of hands feature horizontal hinges.

Lets bring in Gambit for another size comparison.

In the torso is an ab crunch that actually works really well going forward and back. There is a waist twist below the sash that works, but it gets ugly if you go too far. The hips are simple ball socket hips which can almost hit a full split going out to the side. They kick forward 90 degrees and kick back a little bit as well. There is the standard thigh cut which works fine and double-jointed knees that bend past 90 without issue. The ankles hinge forward and back and at least these ugly feet have solid range. The ankle rocker is also there and works fine.

If only he had an effect part of his own.

The articulation isn’t amazing or anything, but at least what is here works about as well as it could, minus the tactile issues. It’s enough for Magneto who basically just raises out his arms and floats around. What is lacking are the accessories since there basically is none. No un-helmeted head, no flight stand, no power effects. Just a figure with mis-matched hands. Is it enough? This figure cost me $26 and it’s a pretty bare bones release, all things considered. Any way you slice it, that isn’t great value. That’s probably why a lot of Marvel Legends are clearance buys for many people out there.

Yeah, he doesn’t look as good or come with as much stuff as the Mondo version, but it is almost a tenth of the price.

I bought this Magneto to go with my VHS set of figures. I know others are buying it for their comic collection. Presumably, there are people out there buying the figure to put on an X-Men 97 shelf, but with the show not out I guess it’s not surprising there isn’t a lot of folks going in that direction. For what I wanted out of this Magneto, it works. It’s undersized and lacking in bells and whistles, but otherwise looks the part. Is that worthy of your twenty-six dollars? That’s for you to decide. As for me, I don’t regret this one and compared to the VHS line he’s honestly among the better of those figures. It’s just a terrible value for what you’re getting, but as long as Hasbro is the only game in town it’s all we got.

Interested in more figures based on the animated X-Men?

Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Wolverine

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

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by Joe

Mondo X-Men TAS 1/6 Scale Magneto

If you showed a random individual this blog and asked them what my favorite cartoon was as a kid I’m guessing they would go with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And they wouldn’t be wrong as that was my favorite for a time, but come 1992 I was starting to drift away from that show. Batman:…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Cyclops

I wasn’t sure he would make it in time, but Hasbro managed to ship Cyclops before the end of the year. Cyclops marks the final figure (for now) in Hasbro’s X-Men animated series subline of Marvel Legends. It has been…a ride. What was once a dream line of mine to see brought to fruition, turned…

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by Joe

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

August 10, 2023

Lego Disney 100 Minifigures Wave

By Joe
More Disney 100 merch has arrived.

Disney and The Lego Company have found a partnership that is mutually beneficial so it was not a surprise to see Lego get in on the Disney 100 celebration. We already looked at one set that falls under that umbrella, and now I’m back to take a look at Lego’s third wave of minifigures based on Disney, this one focusing on the history of the company itself.

The first two waves of minifigures from Lego and Disney seemed to perform rather well. They would thankfully show up in large quantities at retailers, but didn’t linger too long. Collecting an entire set meant one needed to hit the store at the right moment to find either a fresh box or pegs filled with the little foil bags. These are shipped in bags and are intended to be blind buys. For the first two waves, I somewhat degraded myself by painstakingly feeling my way through them in-store until I had a complete set. Lego’s tendency to do custom head portraits for the characters makes finding them surprisingly easy when just feeling-up a bag. It still takes awhile, but my method worked as I was able to get full sets without doubles.

For this third wave, I ran into some troubles. No, not in picking through them, just in finding them! I don’t know if some of the stores around me just didn’t get them when they were supposed to, or if someone cleaned them out before I got there, but these things seemed to sell faster than usual. My wife managed to find four close to their release date, and thankfully it was four unique figures, but we didn’t come across any at a big box retailer for weeks after. Instead, we seemed to only have consistent success by hitting The Lego Store. They got regular shipments often twice per week and our store even did the feeling out for you! I don’t know if that’s a common practice, but it was certainly convenient. Even hitting that store routinely, we still had trouble filling out the ranks. Eventually we got it to where we were missing just one, but The Lego Store was also receiving smaller and smaller shipments indicating the wave may be nearing the end of its lifecycle. Thankfully, not long ago I happened to be walking through my local Target and came upon a fresh box on an endcap. It was highly unusual for my store which normally hangs the bags by the registers. I could have easily missed this, but got lucky. I secured the missing piece, and now I can tell you all about them.

This wave celebrating the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company is a celebration of the company’s animated films. There seems to be a concerted effort to hit on each decade of the company’s existence, though missing representation are the 1980s and present decade beginning in 2020. It’s not that much of a surprise to see the 80s excluded. That wasn’t a great decade for the company as it included the noted bomb The Black Cauldron. The Little Mermaid did make it out just before the 80s concluded, but we already received an Ariel and Ursula in a prior wave. Oliver & Company doesn’t work all that well for minifigures since it’s characters are mostly dogs and a cat, but why not hit on The Great Mouse Detective?

Excepting Lego’s mistreatment of the 1980s, the character selection this time around is pretty solid, so let’s take a look!

Of course we have a Mickey in the set.

We’ll go in 3s, and for this first group we have the original Disney star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, along with Mickey in perhaps his most iconic role and from the year 2002 another version of fan-favorite Stitch. Oswald is a standard Lego body with a unique portrait. It looks fine, but its very round and looks a bit off. For an accessory, he comes with a clapboard that is not articulated. All of the figures come with the standard Lego stand, but this time it has a “Disney 100” printed on it. For Mickey, he’s in his sorcerer’s apprentice costume and it’s printed with sparkles. The hat is non-removable and he has a bucket and broom to complete the look. They had to include a Mickey, and this version is a bit of a no-brainer. And then we have Stitch, the figure who I had to track down. His portrait is the same as the prior one, but his eyes are printed differently to make them more narrow. I would have liked a new mouth, but oh well. He’s in his Experiment 626 form so he has four arms which are done by adding them to the sculpt as opposed to inserting four standard arms into the torso. He also has a pair of laser guns. It’s a fun look, albeit a compromised one due to how they did the arms.

Clues for finding them in bags: Oswald’s ears, Mickey’s head, Stitch’s ears (these three are pretty easy)

Lego knows what many know: Disney collectors love villains.

Next up, we have a trio of villains. First is the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She has a soft goods cape and collar and her lower body is done with a brick like other dress-wearing characters before her. The crown is actually a full skull cap, which is nice, but it means she only has the one expression, not that she really needs another. She comes with her magic mirror and I like that the entity within it has been “Lego-fied” as well. She looks the part, and pairs nicely with the Old Hag version of the character released in the villains set. We also have the Queen of Hearts who has a soft goods collar and a bulbous lower half to simulate her large dress. She gets two heart-shaped wands and two expressions for her face: a grin and an angry scream. I like this one, and she slots into the villains set as well which featured her on a playing card, but it would have been fun to get the little king as a slug figure or something instead of two wands. Last, is Cruella who also features a soft collar. She comes with two purses, which is a little half-circle piece with printing, and one of the many dalmatians from the film: Patch. He’s just a little slug figure, but the printing is well done and he’s pretty adorable. Cruella also has two expressions: a smile and a yell. I wish the angry face had tried to better emulate the animation from just before she crashes her car. Excepting that, she looks fine, but is a bit on her own with no other figures from the movie.

Bag clues: The Queen’s mirror, the lower dress for the Queen of Hearts, and Patch

I love Pinocchio, but I’d be lying if I said either of these two were my favorite in this set.

Our next trio includes the puppet who wanted to be a boy, his conscience, and Pocahontas. Pinocchio uses the articulated kid legs and comes with Cleo, who is a transparent head piece with the character printed on one side, and her castle on the reverse. Pinocchio has a unique portrait so his nose could be captured, but this also means he only gets the one expression. Despite that shortcoming, he looks fine, but I wish they had printed some of the screws in his body onto the arms and legs. Jiminy is on the kid body, but the non-articulated version, which is a bit disappointing. He obviously does not scale at all with Pinocchio, but at least he looks nice. He has a soft goods collar, removable hat, and comes with a pink umbrella. Pocahontas is a traditional minifigure with a stylized hair piece that also hides the back of her head so she gets two expressions, but they’re both smiles. Her accessories include two compasses and some autumn leaves. They’re fine, but I think fans would have preferred a Meeko instead. She’s also on her own from the movie so I guess she just goes with the other princess characters.

Bag clues: Pinocchio’s head, Jiminy’s hat+umbrella, and Pocahontas’s hair

A modern princess and her foil plus a classic one. It’s a winning combination.

Our next group includes another villain and a pair of princesses. Dr. Facilier is another traditional minifigure, but he has a lively design that works for the form. His lack of a hairpiece means he, like Jiminy, gets only one expression and for him it’s a sinister grin. He also has a wand, removable hat, and a Tarot card. He’s not bad, but it feels like he’s just here to pair with Tiana. She is done in the typical princess fashion with a large brick piece for her dress. She’s in her green dress from early in the film, though she comes with a menu from her restaurant from the end of the film. She also gets a frog, the same frog that came with Cinderella’s Castle, because why not? Aurora rounds out this trio, and even though she’s the lone representative from her film in this wave, we have two versions of Maleficient to pair her up with. She has the same form as Tiana and comes with a tiara and owl. I’d have gone with a spinning wheel, personally, but at least the owl is different. She also has a fun second portrait which features her doing what she does best: sleeping.

Bag clues: Dr. Facilier’s hat+stick for his wand (to differentiate him from Jiminy), Tiana’s menu plus her dress, Aurora’s owl and hair

I love this Prince John, but I can’t help but feel Lego missed an opportunity to include a tiny Sir Hiss.

The next group is perhaps the most surprising entrants. From the film Robin Hood, we have Robin himself! He gets a unique headsculpt and the feather in his hat is removable. He also comes with a tail piece and a bow and arrow. He’s not going to be able to hold that bow and arrow in a convincing manner, but it’s hard to think of a better accessory for the famed archer. Joining him is that phony King of England, Prince John. He too has a unique portrait which features a scowl. I love that Lego got his ears right and have his crown sitting on top of them. He also has a sack of money and a coin, both appropriate for the character. The third figure in this grouping is Baymax from Big Hero 6. He’s a standard minifigure, but with new arms that better resemble his from the film. As an inflated, bulbous, character, the minifigure form doesn’t really suit him all that well as it’s basically the opposite of that aesthetic. He has his charging station as an accessory which he can stand in, though it doesn’t look particularly special.

Bag clues: for both Robin and John it’s the head with the bow and money sack providing extra assurance, for Baymax it’s his arms plus all of the little bits that will makeup his charging station

The characters from Coco pretty much steal the show.

Our last grouping features two characters from a Pixar film, Coco, and Mulan from the movie of the same name. Ernesto De la Cruz is our fifth villain, though he has two very happy expressions so you wouldn’t know he’s a bad guy without seeing the film. He has his sombrero and signature guitar which turned out really well. His body is printed with black and silver and he’s one of the stars of the wave. Not to be outdone, is the hero from the film Miguel. He has the most stuff of anyone as he gets two heads, a hairpiece, a hood, guitar, and a slug figure of Dante. If you were going to get multiples of any of the figures in this wave, it would likely be Miguel as he can be skeleton-faced Miguel or standard Miguel and both heads have two expressions! I am partial to the skeleton look with hood and he has the guitar he used when performing in the Land of the Dead. As for our last figure, Mulan, we get a pretty basic minifigure. Her hair means she gets two expressions and Lego actually allowed one of the “princess” characters to look angry. She also has her cricket friend and a pair of swords. She’s certainly a different flavor of princess from the rest.

Bag clues: Ernesto is quite possibly the easiest due to the sombrero and guitar. For Miguel, it’s the guitar plus Dante and with Mulan you want to feel for the swords.

And that does it! Disney Minifigure Wave 3 does a solid job of giving us some new characters and films while also filling out the prior waves and sets. Aurora, the Evil Queen, Queen of Hearts, and I suppose the new Stitch fit well with those. Acknowledging films like Fantasia and Pinocchio are also no-brainers, and if you’re celebrating 100 years of Disney then you basically have to include Oswald. Most of the rest are fun inclusions as well. I love seeing Robin Hood get some love as it was a favorite of mine as a child, and who could argue that Cruella is not worthy? The two figures from Coco might be my favorites from the entire wave and it feels right that Pixar should get some recognition as well. The only ones I’m kind of down on are Baymax and Pocahontas. Baymax just doesn’t make for a fun figure in this format and I don’t feel like Big Hero 6 needs representation in this wave, but I’m guessing they wanted one CG Disney film to showcase. I feel the same about Pocahontas as we already have Mulan to stand-in for the 90s and the figure is a bit uninspired. I’d easily drop one of the two for a Basil, and maybe both so we could double-up on The Great Mouse Detective, an underrated film in the Disney catalog.

If you’re a Disney fan and enjoy Lego, this wave is probably in your possession already or on your radar. It’s still being sold at retail and online, though ordering online means you’re making a truly blind purchase. If you have the time and patience, I suppose you could order an entire box and sell off the doubles. I’d guess you’d probably break even doing so as plenty of people are willing to pay a few bucks more on the secondary market to know what character they’re getting. Definitely hit a Lego Store if you have one nearby if you’re only missing a couple. My difficulty in finding Stitch suggest to me that he’s either quite popular, or some figures are short-packed. Feeling them out is relatively easy though. All of the unique portraits are distinguishable from each other, while many of the rest feature a signature item or accessory for you to home in on. Happy hunting!

Check out our coverage of other Disney and Lego collaborations:

Lego Mini Figures – Disney Series 2

I feel like I need to take credit for the existence of this wave of Disney Mini Figures. It wasn’t that long ago I wondered why the flood gates never opened following the 2016 release of Cinderella’s Castle from Walt Disney World and the wave of mini figures that preceded it. Just days after that…

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by Joe

Disney gets the Lego Treatment

Lego is one of the most popular toy manufacturers on the planet. They’ve become known for their building block style toys that come in various shapes, sizes, and colors and can be combined to form castles, pirate ships, space crafts, and other fantastic designs. They also have struck gold with their mini figures, simplistic action…

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

June 30, 2023

Lego 43227 – Disney Villain Icons for Disney 100 Anniversary

By Joe
Coming to a bookshelf near you.

I do love a good Lego set. The problem is, I really don’t have much room for them when I’m done building them. For that reason, I have to be really choosey about what sets I invest in. It basically can’t be just for me, at this point, it has to be something my family likes. That basically narrows things down to Disney and occasional one-offs that everyone loves. And even with Disney, there is stuff I’ve passed on because, again, space! I’ll prioritize anything from the parks, or things that I can find a place for. And that’s what made the new villains set appealing because it’s not that big. At just 1,540 pieces, it’s a modest sized set and it’s designed to be a decorative piece when completed. And since it’s celebrating the villains it had instant appeal.

That tape pretty much steals the show.

Lego 43227 is basically a set of Lego books designed to resemble classic movies from the company with a few other pieces. It comes with 4 mini figures: Maleficent, Gaston, Jafar as a genie, and the Evil Queen as the old hag. Of the four, Maleficent is the only repeat from the mini figure waves. A standard Jafar was in wave two and wave three includes the Evil Queen so this does work with some other figures rather well. The films represented by the structures are the films associated with those characters plus Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and The Little Mermaid (animated).

“I sleep in a drawer.”

The premise of this set is essentially this: you have a small assortment of books and they’re on a shelf in a somewhat haphazard manner. There’s Aladdin, which is on its side with Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty beside it on their end. Each one of these books is designed to celebrate its villain in both color and appearance. On the Aladdin book, there’s a Jafar (sorcerer) that you construct out of Lego. It somewhat resembles stained glass to me, but not only is it decorative, but it’s also a door that allows you to store the mini figure inside. For Sleeping Beauty, the same approach is taken on the side of the book as you construct a profile view of the villainess that also opens to reveal a slot of the figure. Gaston doesn’t get the same treatment as there’s no relief of him created in Lego. Instead, he gets a drawer to sleep in. On the top of the book, is a flip-up piece for the enchanted rose from the film. A fun touch, but not as cool as a Gaston relief.

The rose is a hidden feature in the top of the Beauty and the Beast book.

Those are just the books, there are also a couple of other items to construct as well. For the hag, we have her poisoned apple. It’s well-designed as it’s coated in green poison and it’s all done with Lego brick. It opens up to reveal a little compartment for the queen to inhabit and I really get a Star Wars/Emperor Palpatine vibe out of this one. It’s cool though. The apple can connect to the Aladdin book so it’s not just free-floating, unlike the watch. That’s just a free-floating element that’s a quick build, but looks nice when complete. It has silhouettes of Peter Pan, Wendy, and her brothers on it from when they fly past Big Ben in the film. Lego opted to play it straight with the silhouettes too and not do Lego versions of the characters. It is a bit of an odd inclusion for a villains set though. I guess this could be considered Hook’s watch? Then why does it have Peter and the kids on it?!

My favorite part of this set.
Ursula sold separately.

The other two villains represented in this set are Ursula and the Queen of Hearts. For the queen, she gets a playing card constructed out of Lego that’s pretty much the size of an actual playing card, just obviously thicker. It looks nice though as the image on the front is done with prints instead of stickers. It would be nice to get the actual queen mini figure in the set, but I guess that was just too much. The same is true for Ursula who also doesn’t get to see inclusion here, but she does have the coolest representation. For that film, there’s a Lego VHS cassette for you to build. It’s really cool when done and the top flap is articulated to reveal a fake strip of tape underneath it. Lego included some stickers of famous scenes from the film with the characters depicted as Lego figures. Definitely, my favorite part of the set. It clips onto the Aladdin book and is designed to then be tilted, but you could have it on its side if you wanted.

For some characters, this isn’t their first go at a mini figure. New Maleficent is on the right with the old on the left.

The build for this one is rather breezy. It’s 13 bags and a determined person could probably bang it out in an evening, but I spread it out doing 2-3 bags at a time. Some take longer than others, but most of them are pretty similar. There are stickers, which I do hate, but thankfully not a ton of them. Basically, aside from the playing card and the watch, everything you see on this set in pictures that could be a sticker, is. The only exception is the Disney 100 logo which is a printed piece. The movie titles and character images are all stickers though.

The figures included. They’re pretty well done, though I feel like Gaston could be better.

The mini figures are pretty typical of Lego. Jafar is essentially the Genie colored red and he does come with a black version of the magic lamp. Gaston is a standard mini figure with a hair piece and two faces: smug and yelling. I kind of wish they used the Hulk mini figure base to make Gaston impressively large or did something to alter his physique, but alas. The old hag uses a large brick for her lower half instead of legs. It’s the same approach Lego took with Maleficent, Jafar, and other robed characters. She has two portraits as well, angry and smiling, and comes with a little apple. Maleficent is basically the same figure we got before, but with a smiling face and different print job. They also dropped the cape and changed-up the staff a bit. I like the new staff and the smile, but I do miss the cape. At least it’s not a straight re-release though.

If you’ve been collecting the mini figures up until now then you should have a solid assortment afer adding this.

The last important piece to touch on with this release is the price. It’s a Target exclusive (presently sold out online, but maybe in stock at a store near you) and retails for $130. For a 1,500 piece set, that feels a little steep. I’m thinking we’re dealing with a Disney tax here and a set that would normally be 90-100 bucks is getting up-charged. I don’t love the price, I don’t hate it either as I’m used to paying hundreds of dollars for Lego just because of the sets I’m drawn to. I do think they should have just given us at least the two extra mini figures in Ursula and the Queen of Hearts. Plus, Gaston doesn’t get any items? He should at least get a sword or bow and arrow or something. I was definitely disappointed with his execution. Aside from that, I really didn’t have any other issues though. I suppose there’s a debate to be had on if Lego picked the best films for representation, but that’s pretty subjective. All of the films they did choose to represent are very popular and beloved by many so I don’t see much fault there.

If you like Lego and you love Disney then you’ve probably already made up your mind on this one. It’s a solid build experience and boasts some unique characters which is probably enough by itself to get people interested. It displays really well too and I’m left hoping that this isn’t the only set like this we get for the Disney 100 celebration. Why not a heroes version that’s essentially the same concept, but highlights different films? Pinocchio, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Fantasia, Robin Hood – all would make for fun concepts along with several others. As long as it’s not the exact same format in different colors I’d be almost guaranteed to grab it.

If you want to add this one to your collection, keep an eye on Target’s website. I’m guessing there will be a re-stock at some point so set those notifications if you can’t find it local. These Disney celebrations tend to go on for awhile so if you missed it up until now don’t go running to eBay right away. And if a sister set does get released, I guarantee you can come back here and read my thoughts on that one too.

If you like Lego and Disney then you have some options:

Lego 71044 – Disney Train and Station

Earlier this year I did a post wondering what happened to the Lego/Disney relationship that seemed so fruitful just three years prior. It was a post born out of some frustration, but mostly just disappointment. Following the release of an entire line of minifigures devoted to the Disney brand as well as the massive Cinderella’s…

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by Joe

Disney gets the Lego Treatment

Lego is one of the most popular toy manufacturers on the planet. They’ve become known for their building block style toys that come in various shapes, sizes, and colors and can be combined to form castles, pirate ships, space crafts, and other fantastic designs. They also have struck gold with their mini figures, simplistic action…

Keep reading
by Joe

Lego: Disney’s Cinderella Castle

This past spring Lego released its third line of mini figures to be based on an official license. Following two straight years of The Simpsons, Lego turned to Disney and its cast of classic characters. Going with a mix of old school, Pixar, and movie characters not touched by the existing Lego Disney Princess line,…

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by Joe

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

May 31, 2023

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Broadway

By Joe
Broadway’s here and he brought snacks!

We are getting oh so very close to assembling the original Manhattan Clan in action figure form! Disney’s take on gothic beasts originally included the following gargoyles: Goliath, Hudson, Bronx, Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington. The clan would grow from there, but those six are still the first that come to mind for me when I think Gargoyles, and with the release of Broadway we’re just one figure away from having the entire crew in place. Broadway arrives hot on the heels of Brooklyn, or in tandem, depending on where you got your figures. For me, it was basically simultaneous and the arrival of both was very much welcomed by me after only getting one Gargoyles release over the past calendar year. And like virtually all of the rest in this line, Broadway is pretty much as expected. That’s not to say it’s all good, but it is mostly good and I do think that today’s figure will be the favorite in the line for some folks out there.

Broadway arrives just like the others in an oversized NECA Ultimates five-panel box with new artwork by artist and sculptor of the figure Djordje Djokovic with paint by Emiliano Santalucia. I was a little critical of the design of Brooklyn’s box as I felt he didn’t mesh with the background, but for Broadway, it looks terrific and there’s even a little easter egg in the background. As nice as the box is though, I couldn’t care less as I’m interested in what’s inside the box. Broadway, in his neutral stance, is about 6.5″ tall give or take. It’s an inexact science considering the gargoyles always have their knees bent to some degree and that’s true of how I have Broadway. Like the other releases, there’s influences from the cartoon series present in Broadway’s design as well as some added realism. It looks fine in some respects, but maybe not so much in others. His headsculpt is pretty damn close to the show as he has his underbite and there’s a nice roundness to his features. The proportions look great to my eye between the size of his head his fin-like ears and the head is well-painted with some nice shading to help bring out his features.

Broadway is usually pretty cheerful, but he can get angry with the best of them.

Below the head, I have some issues. Broadway is the chubby one of the bunch as seemingly all 90s cartoons needed a fatty who loved food. I don’t recall many jokes at his expense in regards to his weight, and it’s just a feature of his character. NECA did include his rather rotund belly, but they also made Broadway look pretty well-defined when it comes to his muscles. In some ways, it reminds me of 90s Marvel cartoons where seemingly every male character was jacked, even the more portly ones. This wouldn’t bother me if NECA stopped at just the limbs, but it looks like they tried to sculpt some definition to his abs which is weird. And it’s made more weird by the shading along the sides of his belly and a random stripe across his pectorals. It strikes me as a case of just overdoing things. We love our chonky-boy Broadway, just let him be himself, NECA. Not every character needs to be absolutely shredded.

I’m not sure this guy needs weapons to look scary.

Beyond that, the figure does look pretty good. I may disagree with the approach subjectively, but objectively this is a well-sculpted figure. I also think NECA nailed the color of Broadway which is basically a pale teal. There’s more green to him than Demona and I like how his flesh blends with the more saturated blue of his loincloth. The inside of his wings has a lot more yellow applied to create a grassy looking green that’s shaded well. There’s a nice gradient to the membrane with the rear being a dark blue. Unlike Brooklyn, Broadway likely shares some parts with Goliath and Hudson, but it may only be limited to the hands and feet. If they are reused, it’s appropriate reuse and Broadway is going to make up for it with quite a few accessories to pick through.

“What is this?! Vegetables?!”

And those accessories include a bunch of hands, some weapons, food, and a secondary portrait. Broadway has a set of open hands, a set of fists, a tight gripping right hand with vertical hinge, and a loose gripping left hand. His secondary portrait features an aggressive, open-mouthed, pose with the eyes whited-out, which is what we’ve come to expect in a secondary portrait for the line. It looks good, but I always think of Broadway as the most light-hearted of the group so I doubt I’ll make much use of this head. For weapons, we get more Kenner homage stuff with an axe and a morning star. They’re styled and painted in a manner similar to Brooklyn’s lance and they also fit together to form one, long, super weapon. It’s a bit of a bummer that he doesn’t have two, tight, gripping hands to properly wield it with two-hands. Then again, sort of like with the head, I’m unlikely to pose him with random weapons when he comes with food! There’s a turkey leg with a big bite taken out of it that feels right at home with a comic-relief, food, monster. He also has this piece of green sludge, or moss, or algae, or whatever it is which is from the first episode of the show and was consumed by Broadway in the rookery. Best of all though, is the container of popcorn which is well-sculpted and lovingly painted. Yeah, that’s the one going into the display for me.

“Hey bro, let me have some of that popcorn.”

Articulation hasn’t really been a homerun for this line of figures and Broadway is basically more of the same. His more rounded proportions make him feel rather similar to Hudson in some ways, but since he lacks clothing he has a bit more freedom of movement. The head is on the customary double-ball peg which will allow for plenty of rotation and nuance posing. He can look down pretty well, but lacks much range going up as all of these figures seem to have their necks at a bit of an angle coming forward, and without any independent neck articulation they can’t really look up. Which is a shame considering the wings, which peg into the back and are hinged. They’re ratcheted, so you get a handful of positions and they do swivel, but are so damn big and cumbersome. They’re essentially flight wings, but the gargoyles always have to look at the ground since they can’t look forward when flying. Yeah, I’m as sick of complaining about the wings as you probably are reading said complaints, but it’s going to be out there until NECA comes up with a better solution.

“BACK OFF MAN I’M STARVING!”

At the shoulders, we have the usual ball-hinge setup that allows for full rotation while limiting Broadway to a less than horizontal position when trying to raise his arms out to the side. The biceps swivel works fine and the double-elbows will go past 90. At the wrists, we get swivels and hinges with at least one gripping hand having the preferred vertical hinge. In the torso, there’s what feels like a double-ball peg in the diaphragm. It really doesn’t offer much in the way of forward and back, but the figure can rotate there pretty easily and there’s some side-to-side tilt as well. At the waist, we get another twist. For the hips, good old ball and socket joints which allow Broadway to kick out to the side to a position quite close to a full split. Kicking forward works better than it did with Brooklyn, though like the rest in this line, his leg tends to want to go out to the side the further forward you push it, but it can get up to waist level and a little beyond. Kicking back works pretty well too, if you value that. The single-hinged knees bend about 90 degrees, though these monster types are intended to stand with knees bent, though it can go straight if you would rather that. They do swivel, and below that we get ankle and toe articulation where both feature a hinge and rocker. The ankle rocker works pretty nice, while the toe rocker forces you to fight it a bit due to the shape of the sculpt, but it works. At the tail, the usual hinged peg plus bendy wire provides for some freedom of movement. It’s nice and tight on my figure, better than it’s been with most of the rest, so it works like a third leg if needed. Funny enough, Broadway is probably the easiest for me to stand so far and I haven’t really needed to rely on the tail for much help.

Broadway is basically as expected for those who have been collecting the line. I think he’s a little better than average though as I like his sculpt, for the most part, and I think both portraits turned out well. He probably articulates the best out of all of the male gargoyles, understanding he still has his limitations. I do kind of wish he had an articulated jaw since he has lots of food accessories, but I do like how the neutral head turned out. Maybe they could have scrapped the extra weapons most will never use in favor of a third, eating, head. Where he could have been improved is with a softer approach to the torso and more focused shading. The sculpt preference is more subjective on my part, but the shading is a bit weird. And, of course, the wings remain an issue. Especially for Broadway who many are likely to pose snacking on their shelf. He doesn’t need his wings spread out in an aggressive posture when chowing down on popcorn. He, more than perhaps the rest, would have been better served with something more casual.

They look pretty good together, but damn these wings.

If you want to add Broadway to your Gargoyles collection he can be found in various places online and at local comic shops. He is likely to head to the big box retailers in the near future as well so if you primarily get your figures in those places just keep an eye out. He may also run a few dollars cheaper when that happens. MSRP appears to be about $37 or $38 with some retailers charging over $40. He’s a solid enough value at that price considering he does feature plenty of unique tooling and a solid assortment of accessories. I think this one is likely to be a favorite among those who collect this line, and if you are collecting it, well you have to have Broadway in your display.

Looking for more Gargoyles reviews? Check these out:

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Brooklyn

For the first time in a long time, we did not have a Turtle Tuesday post this week. We do, however, have a Warriors by Night Wednesday for you! It feels like NECA’s Gargoyles line is the most stop-and-start action figure line I’m into of late. The line has seen large gaps between releases and…

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by Joe

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Thailog

One of last year’s biggest announcements in the world of action figures was NECA’s acquisition of the Gargoyles license. It had been decades since Gargoyles figures occupied real estate at the toy and hobby shops of America and fans of the series were eager to see what NECA had cooking. It being 2021 though, collectors…

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by Joe

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Bronx

Well, here’s something different. Bronx, the good gargoyle dog, is NECA’s fourth entry in its relatively young line of action figures based on the beloved Disney Afternoon series Gargoyles. And not only is Bronx here all on his own, he’s also got something for his buddy Goliath that collectors of this line have been begging…

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by Joe

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

May 30, 2023

The Little Mermaid (2023)

By Joe
The Little Mermaid (2023)

This past weekend, my daughter and I found ourselves with an afternoon together. This happens from time-to-time since kids often have their own social commitments necessitating one parent go with them and in this case it was my son and my wife going over to the home of one of his friends for a Memorial Day gathering. My daughter probably could have gone along, but she knew it meant that her and I would do something together. Last time this happened, we saw The Super Mario Bros. Movie (I didn’t review it, despite intending to, but it’s fine) so she wanted to go to the movies again. Despite having no interest after seeing the trailer, my daughter settled on the new version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid for a matinee viewing. I, personally, have not enjoyed any of the live-action remakes that Disney has made that I’ve seen so I wasn’t excited to see the film, but it wasn’t my choice to make. I went online, bought tickets, and…wait…this movie is two and half hours long?!?

I reviewed The Little Mermaid (1989) almost 10 years ago and it was a pretty positive review. Since then, I feel like my affection for that movie has only grown. It’s a tight story that’s wonderfully animated and has some really catchy musical numbers to put it over the top. It’s a delight and ranks rather high for me among the all-time Disney greats. Lately, Disney has found a lot of financial success with their live-action remakes of classic films. Critically, it seems few have been embraced, but movie-goers are apparently excited by them. I saw the first couple and found little to enjoy. These are almost all stories older than any of the folks working on them or seeing them, so retellings I am not against. It’s the act that they’re just remaking their movies, not reimagining them in any significant way. And since they are so similar to what came earlier, the only creative difference seems to be a desire to just add more. More backstory, more songs, more filler, which just makes them longer and more of a slog, so you can imagine my excitement when I saw how long this new remake was.

The new Flounder isn’t much to look at. With all of the wondrous creatures that exist under the sea, why not just make him something else entirely?

Disney choosing to remake these movies also has another unintended consequence in that they feel like replacements. 2D animation has been rapidly disappearing from the world over the past two decades and only recently has it started to make a comeback. And those comebacks are mostly relegated to television or streaming and are not done with ink and paint on celluloid. That’s never coming back, but at least we’re getting some variety today, though still not really when we go to the cinema. Those who love 2D animation done in a classical style feel threatened by these remakes, and it’s easy to see why. If the film is damn near perfect already, why do we need a remake? In truth, it’s not about erasure of any kind and it’s just capitalism. These movies are basically already scripted, there’s a screenplay to go off of, and they’re cheaper to make and seem to have a fantastic return on investment.

All of that being said, I watched the latest version of The Little Mermaid from Disney and it’s okay. To make this short, it’s not as good as the 1989 version and even if it was animated it still wouldn’t be nearly as good. The added length comes largely from the movie wanting to remove all subtlety from the original (and I use the term “original” loosely since the original Hans Christian Anderson tale is far older, but when I use the word I’m explicitly talking about the 1989 version). We now have to know that, yes, Ariel’s voice possesses a siren like charm, her mother was killed by humans, and Eric is essentially just like her. He’s basically imprisoned in his own castle and gets his own “I want” song so that we can see that they’re two sides of the same coin, young people yearning to find their place in the world.

The rock scene is just one example of how some things just don’t work as well in live-action.

Ariel is played by Halle Bailey, and maybe because someone noticed that The Little Mermaid features only a fraction of its running time with the main character a mermaid, there’s definitely more of that this time. This film is considered live-action, but much of the action under the sea is computer generated on a green screen. Bailey was motion-caped for these, but almost her entire body is computer generated. The same is true of her sisters with some looking more “CG’d” than others. Bailey has also been blessed with some natural curves to her physique and it looks like Disney may have even toned them down on her and her sisters. Perhaps someone got a little shy when they realized their lead would be mostly naked for large portions of the film. Other sources of criticism at the character design relies in the supporting cast with Sebastian (Daveed Diggs), Flounder (Jacob Tremblay), and Scuttle (Awkwafina) all boasting a more realistic appearance that lacks in charm. Sebastian seems to be getting the most backlash from what I’ve seen since it’s hard to make a crab look cute, though I found Flounder’s expressionless visage even less appealing.

The underwater segments mostly look fine, though they lack the color of the original. The appearance of the characters and the setting is inconsistent. The hair of mermaids all flows like its under water, while objects casually discarded by Ariel fly through the scene without any impediment. Ariel thumbs through a book that appears to be perfectly dry, which in fairness happened in the original film, but why repeat the same mistake? The mermaids also all seem to be designed as nude with their bodies only covered by scales where as King Triton (Javier Bardem) wears full armor now that just looks cold and impersonal. Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) is wearing this lacy dress for her top that looks out of place since it always looks dry. Aside from that critique, I think McCarthy’s Ursula looks the part well enough and she even got an upgrade to 8 tentacles over the 6 she had in the prior film.

The “Kiss the Girl” scene works very well and the chemistry between the leads is there, but strangely vanishes once Ariel gets her voice back.

The other half of the film takes place on land and is the domain of our prince, Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), who wants to restore the port of his island kingdom to its former glory. He’s the adopted son of the queen (Noma Dumezweni) and he came to be adopted as the result of a shipwreck. This gives the queen a distrust of the denizens of the sea while Ariel’s father conveniently hates humans. The kingdom they inhabit isn’t given a name (or I missed it), but it appears to be located somewhere in the Caribbean. It’s not particularly well-developed, but there is some effort to inject more culture into the scenery.

The plot follows the same general beats as the 1989 version. There are no vast changes to the story, and the only thing subtracted is the comical scene in the kitchen between Sebastian and the French chef. Maybe they felt it just wouldn’t work in live-action? Director Rob Marshall apparently didn’t see the wisdom in altering things further as some moments from the animated version just don’t play as well in live-action. In particular, Ariel’s iconic pose atop the rock when she declares her intentions to inhabit Eric’s world. It’s tremendously dramatic in animation, but in live-action looks about as convincing as your sister jumping out of the pool declaring the same. For me, musicals in general are harder for me to take-in when filmed in live-action. Eric’s song, in particular, was just too much for me and I would have cut the whole thing.

Which brings me to the songs. All of the classics are here, well excepting the kitchen scene, and they’re redone in a mostly faithful way. Some of the words to “Kiss the Girl” were altered for consent reasons, but the melody is still there and it’s a nothing sort of change. Ariel sings along to “Under the Sea” now, which doesn’t make a ton of sense narratively, but Bailey sounds nice alongside Daveed so I suppose that’s reason enough for it. There’s some additional songs added as well, such as Ariel singing inside her head when on land (they just couldn’t have their star say nothing for 45 minutes) and a song Scuttle gets to sing that felt forced. None of the new songs are going to hold a candle to the big four from the original, but the only one that tries is Eric’s song. Bailey is a very gifted singer, and while I still prefer Jodi Benson’s “Part of Your World” (and Benson is in this one, keep your eyes open), that’s not because Bailey’s is really inferior.

This one didn’t do much for me, but for a new generation this is the Ariel that’s going to bring them tremendous joy and pride and that’s okay.

I feel like I’m mostly complaining so let’s wrap this up. If you find yourself with a kid looking to see a movie this summer should you go see The Little Mermaid? Eh, you could do worse. The original is almost perfect, so this one was never going to be as good. The story is still there, and the actors perform well with what they’re given. The final battle has been criticized for being too dark, but I found it easy to follow. Maybe if I had never seen the original though I would have felt different. The songs will delight the young and old alike and at least the one benefit of the long running time is we get to spend more time getting to know these characters. Ariel is very likeable, and the rest of the cast performs well enough. Oddly, I felt Bailey and Hauer-King had great chemistry together when Ariel was stricken without a voice, but it all crumbled after it returned making the payoff of the film feel flat. At any rate, my daughter enjoyed it and I didn’t hate it. I’ll probably never watch it again as long as I have access to the 1989 version, but I’m not a young girl with brown skin. And considering all of the response I’ve seen from young girls (and older ones) fitting that description to Bailey’s Ariel then I think it’s safe to say that this live-action remake, more than most, has certainly justified its existence. That’s something that shouldn’t be ignored or taken away.

Care to read more of my Disney opinions?

Disney’s The Little Mermaid

Come 1989, Disney was back on top both critically and financially as a movie studio.  Oliver & Company, while not wowing many movie buffs, was a commercial success and one of Disney’s biggest in years while Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was able to secure near universal praise for its combination of animation and live-action.  Even…

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by Joe

Disney’s Best Five Film Run

The Walt Disney Company has been producing animated features for 80 years now. In that time, the company has released 55 films with a 56th on the way later this year and others in development. I’m only talking about the animated ones, because if you add in live-action and all of the films released by…

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by Joe

Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This past December, Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs turned 80. On December 21, 1937 the world was introduced to feature-length animation. Well, maybe not the world since that date was just the premiere. It wasn’t until February 4, 1938 that the rest of the United States was introduced to the picture. The…

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by Joe

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

May 24, 2023

Mattel Disney 100 Minnie Mouse & Mickey Mouse

By Joe
The true “it” couple.

When it was announced that Mattel had wrested control of the Disney license from rival Hasbro, I felt it would be a good thing for my daughter who loves Barbie and also loves the Disney princess dolls. Now they’d be able to swap clothes easily and fit in all of the Barbie vehicles and playsets without issue. I did not stop to consider what it meant for my personal toy buying habits. If the new Disney 100 Minnie and Mickey set is an indication of what’s to come, then maybe I should be a little more excited for the Mattel era than previously thought.

I have made many posts on this blog under the “Toys” subcategory and almost all of them have been action figure related. None of them have been a Mattel product. As someone who just missed the He-Man hype in the 80s, Mattel was rarely on my radar. I can’t, off of the top of my head, even recall if I ever owned a Mattel action figure. I know I had the He-Man power sword from The New Adventures of He-Ma when I was a kid and I think I had at least one figure from that toy line too, though it never sunk its claws in me. In fact, when I role-played with that sword as a kid I would often pretend I was Link from The Legend of Zelda, not He-Man. The other big license Mattel has these days is WWE, but I don’t buy WWE action figures and thus I don’t have any experience there. Rumor has it, there may be a Masters of the Universe x TMNT on the horizon so maybe that will get me to purchase more from Mattel, but for now, this unexpected set is my first experience with a Mattel figure in a long time.

So these two ended up being quite a big bigger than expected. Here with two other Disney stars.

When Disney has some milestone coming up, the company always finds a way to flood the market with new merchandise. There was Disneyland’s 60th a few years back and the company just concluded a 50th anniversary celebration at Walt Disney World that lasted over a year (I managed to catch the start of that and the tail end despite my trips to Disney World being spread over 3 calendar years). The latest money-maker for the company is Disney 100 celebrating 100 years of the Walt Disney Company, or some variation on it. I honestly haven’t dug too deep into the company’s claim so I don’t know how fast and loose they’re playing here, but I always have some degree of skepticism with it considering they don’t even acknowledge the first Mickey Mouse cartoon as being the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. I thought this Disney 100 thing would only lead to new Lego minifigures for me, though that hunt has not gone very well thus far (I only have four), so imagine my surprise when this two figure set popped up on Amazon on a random Thursday. I had no idea it was coming, and it took me all of two seconds to hit “Check Out” on an order for myself. Less than 24 hours later it was in my possession. Say what you will about the practices Amazon engages in (and many are unpleasant), but it always blows my mind when I can order something online and have it on my doorstep just a day later.

These two aren’t going to scale well with your Super7 figures.

Minnie and Mickey come packaged in a nice window box adorned with sketch artwork of the pair and plenty of reminders that this is a Disney 100 tie-in. The first thing that jumped out at me was how big these two are. Minnie and Mickey stand at around 5.5″ to the top of their head stretching to 6.25″ to the tips of their ears. And it’s not just height, they’re just proportionately pretty big. They’re not going to fit in with your Super7 Disney Ultimates or the ReAction figures, but they may look all right mixed with Hero Cross and Beast Kingdom. The height is similar, but even still, the proportions are all together different with Minnie and Mickey having pretty large heads compared with the figures I have. They’re also modeled after their early appearances in the 1920s and 30s, but depicted in color. Mickey has his trademarked red shorts and yellow shoes while Minnie is sporting a light blue, polka-dotted, skirt with red hat and yellow heels. Both feature an all white face with large, black, ovals for their eyes which was the style at the time. My preferred Mickey has always been with a white face and black eyes so this style was right in my wheelhouse for the pair.

They can hang with the offerings from Hero Cross and Beast Kingdom though.

The figures themselves are mostly colored plastic. We have black for the bodies with the clothing being these soft, rubbery, overlays. The shoes and gloves are also a soft material and the paint is basically just reserved for the heads. There, Mattel had to paint on the black around the face as well as the details of the face itself. Their portraits are almost the same save for Minnie’s sculpted eyelashes. She has a dash of purple eyeliner as well. Even with just a little paint, it’s not super clean. The eyes look fine, but the black for Mickey’s widow’s peek doesn’t fill in the entire area it’s supposed to. The painted portion also has a slightly matte appearance compared with the shinier plastic, but it’s not particularly noticeable. The rest of the appearance is solid with the only oddity being there’s a different visual quality to the materials in use. The soft plastic bits have a muted look and it’s easy to tell from a distance that they’re made of a different material from the bodies. Minnie looks fine, but I would have liked a little more saturation out of Mickey’s shorts and shoes. Their proportions also strike me as just a bit off-model. The heads, as previously mentioned, are huge and they also have pretty long arms which is not uncommon for cartoon characters. Shrinking the heads maybe 5% and making them just a little less round might have turned out better, but as is, these fit the part well enough.

They definitely have more stuff than I expected.

A Minnie and Mickey figure set was a surprise, but so was the approach to the accessories. I wouldn’t have expected optional parts, but Mattel surprised me again. Mickey and Minnie can share hands and between the two of them they have a set of gripping hands, a set of gripping hands with the thumbs up, a set of wide open hands, another right gripping hand, and a relaxed left hand. I’m not sure why we got essentially three, right, gripping hands instead of a set of the relaxed hands, but so be it. They also don’t have anything to grip, unless you count Minnie’s hat which slots between her ears. We also get one extra portrait for each featuring the duo in a kissing pose. It’s cute, but I feel like it needs some paint around the mouth. If viewing it from the side, which I think is how it was intended, it’s not as noticeable. Lastly, we also have two display stands with multiple pegs on them to help you pose your figures in case you don’t just want them flat-footed. The stands are all black and say Disney 100. They’re nothing fancy, but can at least provide some piece of mind if you’re worried about shelf dives. There’s also a little card with a sketch of the pair on it that says Disney 100 on the reverse. The packaging also implies the insert (featured as a backdrop in my images) is an accessory, albeit a pretty lame one.

They even come with alternate heads for maximum adorableness.

Where I didn’t expect these two to impress is with articulation, and unlike the additional parts, my expectations were basically met. These two aren’t terrible when it comes to articulation, but they’re also not exactly robust. The heads just sit on a ball peg so they rotate and get a little play on that ball. The ears feel like they’re pegged in and there’s some play, but I’m not sure how much of that is intentional. It’s not enough to position the ears for a side profile pose that mimics the impossible ears of these two in animation. The shoulders rotate and there’s a single hinge for each elbow which also rotates. It can be hard to tell which way the elbow is supposed to bend, but since they have rubber hose arms it doesn’t really matter as the hinge will bend in either direction. It’s not going to give you a full 90 degrees though, and the shoulder hinge won’t raise the arms out all the way to the side either. There is a hinge at the wrist, but it sits pretty deep inside the gloves so it doesn’t do a whole lot. The hands can also rotate on the peg. There’s a waist twist at the shorts and skirt of Minnie and at the hips it’s basically another hinged ball peg so you can swivel the leg and then line the hinge up the way you want it to go. Mickey’s shorts get in the way a bit, though Minnie is less restricted. They’re a bit tight and I didn’t really test it too much. There’s no joint for the knee and instead we get another hinged peg at the ankle. Once again, Minnie gets more range here because of her shoe design while Mickey’s can’t do much. There’s no dedicated ankle rocker, though you can manipulate the hinge so it’s going off to the side if you wish. Lastly, we get another hinged ball-peg at the tail which works well enough.

They don’t do a ton, but it’s hard to argue with the price.

It’s not a ton of stuff, and one can see why some of the more premium imports skip some of these joints in favor of static arms that can be swapped in and out. For what this set is, I think it’s okay. I would have preferred something better at the hips, especially since the joints can be hidden relatively easily with the clothes, but the rest I’m fine with. I also wonder if Mattel would have been better off scrapping the wrist hinge and just doing another ball peg like they did for the head. You will be able to find some poses that look cute for this couple though, be they holding hands, waving, or smooching. The joints are all nice and tight, which is good since these two are a bit top heavy. It does mean there is some degree of trepidation that comes with posing them since the limbs are pretty thin. These figures don’t look or feel like premium items, so there is a cheapness to them in-hand, though I’d hesitate to say they look cheap.

“Ugh, get a room!”

The best thing this set has going for it is affordability. This pair only set me back $42. Basically, getting Mickey and Minnie from Mattel is about the same price as getting two ReAction Minnie and Mickey figures from Super7 and noticeably less than a single Super7 Ultimates release. It’s also less than half of what the Beast Kingdom Donald Duck set me back and I think I like these two more than that figure. There are better figures out there of Mickey, and maybe Minnie, but definitely not ones in this price range. While I think the amount of hands these two came with was probably unnecessary, there are still enough optional parts that make settling on a display quite enjoyable. And swapping parts is easy and I didn’t feel like I was at risk of breaking anything. If you’re interested in an affordable set of Minnie and Mickey figures, I think this will do nicely. Now I’m left hoping Mattel does Donald and Daisy.

Interested in more Disney collectibles? I’ve got you covered:

Hero Cross HMF Donald Duck #006R

I have coveted the Donald Duck figure from Hero Cross for a few years now. If you’re not familiar with the company, Hero Cross is a toy manufacturer based in Hong Kong that specializes in hybrid figures that utilize both plastic and metal. Their main line is called the Hybrid Metal Figuration series, or HMF…

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by Joe

Lego 21317 – Steamboat Willie

It was just over a week ago I made a post wondering what happened to the Lego/Disney relationship. Sure, there have been some Duplo sets and the Lego Friends brand has featured some princess characters, but nothing major followed the 2016 release of mini figures and Cinderella’s Castle (based on the structure in Walt Disney…

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by Joe

Beast Kingdom Disney Dynamic 8ction Heroes Classic Donald Duck

Few brands are as immensely popular as Disney, which is why it’s a bit surprising that the company’s presence in the world of action figures has always felt a little lacking. It’s thought (and maybe even confirmed by the company) that Disney’s interest in properties like Marvel and Star Wars stemmed from them being unable…

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by Joe

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

May 17, 2023

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Brooklyn

By Joe
There’s a part of me that wants to just call him “Firebrand” whenever I see him.

For the first time in a long time, we did not have a Turtle Tuesday post this week. We do, however, have a Warriors by Night Wednesday for you! It feels like NECA’s Gargoyles line is the most stop-and-start action figure line I’m into of late. The line has seen large gaps between releases and we’re basically on a 2-1-2 release schedule with gaps of 6+ months in between. Today’s figure I think went up for preorder with an estimated ship date of last September or October, but here we are in May and it’s just now arrived, but with another figure! Are these supply chain delayed figures or is it merely NECA having to prioritize other releases to either hit a certain window with them or are events like Haulathon mucking things up for our beloved warriors of the night? I’m not sure, but the release calendar for Gargoyles is looking uncharacteristically crowded for 2023 and I’m curious to see how much product eventually sees release this year. As for today, we’re taking a look at the latest member of the Manhattan Clan and his name is Brooklyn.

Scream for me, Brooklyn!

Brooklyn arrives in the same Ultimates styled box as the rest of the figures in the line boasting original artwork by Djordje Djokovic and Emiliano Santalucia. It seems to appropriately place Brooklyn at the bridge from which he took his name, though it almost looks like that was a thought that came after the image of Brooklyn himself was conceived since he’s hovering in a crouched pose which is a bit odd. Djokovic is the sculptor as well for this release with paint by Geoffrey Trapp and Jon Wardell. Brooklyn is unmistakably based on the character from the animated series, but like the other figures in the line, the realism is dialed up a notch with him. He’s very lean and very cut, and unlike the other humanoid gargoyles we’ve seen so far, he has a visage that’s very much animalistic in form as opposed to the more human features of a Goliath or Hudson. That’s Brooklyn’s defining trait for me, his rather large beak, as well as the red hue his skin features. It’s a muted crimson and he boasts simplified wings that are more like large kites than bat wings. He also has the claw like tips on his wings similar to Demona. And despite being another male character, he does feel a bit like Demona due to his more slight appearance.

He comes with a lance, like the old Kenner toy, in case you feel like he needs one.

Brooklyn in his neutral stance, which does involve some bent legs, stands at around 6.25″ to the top of his head and a great deal taller if you factor in his horns. He seems to scale well with Goliath and the others and he certainly fits in stylistically. His default portrait is pretty similar to his animated appearance, but with an added paint wash over the flesh that makes his eyes stand out a bit more. He translates rather well and so far I think Goliath has been the one to look the least like his animated counterpart. Of course, the added detail of the muscles here really sets this version of Brooklyn apart from the show. He does not look bad by any means, but the musculature does feel a bit overdone. He must have less than 1% body fat as he is absurdly cut. His entire body is cast in the same red plastic, which reminds me of a red crayon that’s melted in the sun, but also hit with a topcoat of paint for some added definition. The claws look like they’ve been hit with a red-brown shade of paint, though it’s not evenly applied. The toes look great, but the right, open, hand he comes packaged with on my figure almost has no paint on the claws. The interior of the wings look like they’ve been hit with a wash in a similar shade that oh so slightly darkens that area from the bone structure of the outer wings while the backside is far darker. They’re almost purple, and the light shines off of them and creates a more vibrant range of colors like a soap bubble might do. The hair appears to be sculpted in white, but with a pearl coating and some light blue to give it a nice luster. He’s also sporting the typical loincloth the gargoyles all seem to be fond of and it’s a pale blue which contrasts nicely with all of the red. This is an overall strong looking figure that compares favorably to the others released so far. He’s not knocking Hudson off the top of my personal list of best in the line, but I think he’s ahead of Goliath.

The clan so far. Yes, obviously, there is a fifth on the way that may already be here, just off to the side.

Brooklyn has a fairly typical arsenal of accessories for this line, but with some surprises. For hands, he comes with two open hands in the box plus a set of fist hands and a set of gripping hands. The width of the grip on each hand is different so one is a bit tighter than the other. The tighter of the two works best with his included lance weapon. I don’t recall a lance in the show which makes me think it’s a tribute to the old Kenner figure which all featured weapons. It looks pretty cool though and is painted with a gun metal finish and I suspect many will display Brooklyn utilizing it. He also has some show accessories in the form of a pair of sunglasses that can fit over his eyes reasonably well and a page torn from Demona’s grimoire, something the sorceress would like to get her claws on in the future. It’s not an amazing accessory by itself, but it’s a fun inclusion since Demona’s grimoire was sculpted with the page torn out so it pairs well. It’s also very well done for what it is boasting more paint than your typical Marvel Legends action figure. Lastly, we have a second portrait which features the jaw permanently open and the eyes whited-out. The hair sculpt looks to be exactly the same, but it looks nice and it will work if you want your Brooklyn ready for battle on your shelf, or hanging from your ceiling, or wherever you ultimately place him.

“Looking for something, Demona?”

Brooklyn’s articulation should also feel familiar as he basically follows in the same footsteps as the other figures in the line. He’s very similar to Goliath, but with a little extra range by virtue of his more slender build. His head is on a double ball peg, but his movement is pretty well restricted by his hair. He can only look so far in either direction and has basically no range looking up. He does have some tilt and can look down. I should add, I’m rating the articulation with his wings on. They do come off, but he’s a gargoyle and they’re a part of his body that he can’t actually remove. If you were to take them off, you’d get a little more range out his head, but why would you display a gargoyle with no wings? He does have an articulated jaw on his standard portrait and that works just fine. He does have a joint at the base of the neck, but it doesn’t really do anything. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to, or if it just exists as a way to connect a neck there and allow for some future reuse down the road. It seems like a missed opportunity though since the cut is already there. The shoulders are the standard ball-hinges and Brooklyn can raise his arms out to the side to a horizontal position. They will rotate as far as the wings will allow, though they do rub a bit on his pectorals which stick out a bit. They’re the same color, so there’s not a lot of danger here, but it’s something to be considerate of. He has a biceps swivel which works fine and double-jointed elbows that will bend past 90 degrees. The wrists swivel and hinge and the tight, gripping, hand has a vertical hinge which is much appreciated.

In case you wanted to try reading it for yourself.

In the torso, we have a ball joint at the diaphragm that mostly exists to allow the character to rotate there. There’s some forward and back and a little tilt to either side, but it also feels a little on the loose side which worries me a bit going forward. So far, it seems fine. There is a waist twist below that which feels like it’s just a twist instead of a ball joint which would have added some more forward and back, but oh well. The thighs are connected via ball and socket joints and Brooklyn can rotate there. His loincloth rides up and over his left thigh, but covers more of his right thigh, so the left has more rotation than the right. The left one also has some paint rub on the thigh which is unfortunate, and the loincloth restricts Brooklyn’s ability to kick forward to about 45 degrees, which is disappointing. He can kick back pretty far though, if that’s something you value. The knees are single-hinged and can bend to about 90 degrees. They also swivel. The ankles are hinged and have okay range and they also feature an ankle rocker. The toes hinge and rock as well as these creatures are designed to essentially stand on their toes. They’re nice and tight which is needed for their normal stance. The tail is affixed via a hinged peg and it’s also bendy. It works fine and the hinge is tight enough that it can act as a support limb for stances, though it could be tighter. The wings connect via the same mechanism and can be adjusted up and down as well as in and out. The hinges are very tight and like the other figures in the line make horrible clicking noises that will have you thinking you’re about to break the figure. So far, I have had no such breakage from any of the Gargoyles figures and Brooklyn’s are nice and stable, unlike Demona’s which were way too loose.

“Check out the shades, bro.”

Brooklyn’s articulation is basically in-line with the rest: good, but not great. The range at the head is an issue for him as NECA declined to include any articulation in the hair. This means you have these big, open, wings for flight, but Brooklyn can’t look forward in a flying pose, something that was an issue for Goliath as well (and really, all of them so far). The range in the torso and hips is also not suitable for crouched poses which is a bummer since these are gargoyles, after all, which typically are crouched when in stone form. I wish we could get these guys into a three-point stance, but it’s just not possible with or without the wings. And then there’s those wings, those gigantic, rigid, wings. You would think we’d be used to them by now, but it seems they just become more of a nuisance with each successive release. They’re really only good for very dramatic posing which doesn’t lend itself well to the more neutral portraits each figure comes with. Brooklyn’s wings are also just plain huge as his wingspan is about 22.5″. I always thought of him as one of the smaller gargoyles, but evidently I was wrong. He’s the first release in the line that I just can’t fit onto my shelf, which already includes Goliath with the caped wings. It’s a problem for this line and NECA’s solution of packing caped wings with the non-winged characters isn’t the best solution. What we really need are relaxed wings, and at this point I think NECA just needs to suck it up and offer a wing set on their website or something. And just package future figures with options. If it raises the price, then so be it, because it’s a consistent complaint I see online about this line.

Brooklyn must be the “cool” one.

In short, Brooklyn is very much as expected. If you’ve been happy with the releases in this line so far then you’ll be happy with him. If you have been displeased, or annoyed by the wing options, then expect the same. I want to love this line, and the paint and sculpt work have been very good. It’s clear that NECA has done its homework given the episode specific accessories we’ve seen so far, but something has to be done about those wings. Then again, it’s an issue that hasn’t stopped me from buying these so maybe that’s all that matters to NECA, but I’m actually seeing people sharing images of their collection and they’ve just taken the wings off which is insane to me. They just aren’t gargoyles without wings, so I’m continuing to try and find a way to work these things into my collection, which now will require a second, dedicated, shelf. If you’re interested in adding Brooklyn to your collection, he’s currently available online and can be found at specialty shops. He should also arrive at Target any day now where you’re likely to find the lowest price available (around $36, if I’m not mistaken). If you’re in on this line, then you probably need him. If you’re out because of the wings, well he’s not going to change your mind. Hopefully, relief is on the way.

Interested in more Gargoyles content?:

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Goliath

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

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by Joe

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Hudson

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

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by Joe

NECA Gargoyles – Ultimate Demona

When NECA launched it’s line of action figures based on Disney’s Gargoyles, it seemed to imply that Demona would be figure number 2. She was not. That honor went to Thailog, the Goliath clone, and that might have had something to do with the many factory delays and shipping woes that were impacting the entire…

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by Joe

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December 28, 2022

Super7 Disney Ultimates! Robin Hood

By Joe
Robin Hood is after you and he’s not in a joking mood!

When Super7 announced it was taking Disney into its world of Ultimates! line of action figures, they really seemed to confuse the Disney fans unfamiliar with their business model when the first wave consisted of Sorcerer Mickey, Pinocchio, and Prince John from Robin Hood. Where was Robin Hood?! Well, he was coming, just in Wave 2. The company was apparently going to slow burn the movies in Disney’s very famous film library, but persistent confusion and outcry (which Super7 felt was coming from the Disney collector, and not necessarily the Super7 collector) caused them to change lanes. Wave 4 of Disney Ultimates! was solicited a couple of months ago and all three figures are based on The Nightmare Before Christmas. That will apparently be the model going forward, but given that there’s a significant lag between solicitation and delivery, we’re still talking about Wave 2 which just dropped in the past month and included that much sought after Robin Hood.

Robin and PJ together at last!

Robin Hood is the lone figure from the film of the same name in Super7’s Wave Two. He comes in the standard window box with slipcover and I got mine direct from Super7 for the not so lovely price of $55. Back when the figure first went up, I really wanted to support Super7 in their journey into Disney so I placed my order direct with them. I also thought that meant I’d get it before other retailers, but Big Bad Toy Store has been shipping these for about a month now so that obviously didn’t work. And after being all-in on Wave One largely on principle, I just couldn’t do it for Wave Two which also featured Alice from Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter from the same, and Hyacinth Hippo from Fantasia. I just could not muster up any appetite for those three figures as I don’t really like either movie. The hippo looked the most impressive out of all four figures in the wave, but since I had Prince John I did want to pair him with someone. And Robin Hood was a film I liked a lot as a kid and it holds up pretty well today.

So what do we think? Accurate enough for you?

When the solicitation did go up, I wasn’t that impressed, but I also wasn’t for Wave One and those were refined along the way and turned out better than the render. Unfortunately, the same isn’t true of Wave Two. Robin Hood looks as solicited which is to say he’s a bit off-model. The head shape seems all wrong to me, the proportions are off, and there’s nothing in the paint or sculpt that attempts to capture that scratchy look of the lines from the film. It’s like they had someone sculpt the character from memory, or maybe there’s some modern, licensing, art out there designed to make the character look cuter? There could also be another factor contributing to the aesthetic that we’ll get to. First glance though is that he doesn’t look right. There’s clearly no commitment to make the character look like he just jumped out of the film which is the approach I want to see, but maybe that’s not what Super7 wants?

Who has two thumbs and an arrow through the head?

It doesn’t get much better with the figure in hand. Robin Hood is very plain looking. There’s almost no paint on this figure past the neck. It’s a very “plastic” looking release similar to Prince John. Unlike Prince John, there are no soft goods present on the base figure. And I should talk about this like it’s two figures. I’m fine with that though as a soft goods tunic would probably look terrible. Unfortunately, the figure just looks cheap and it feels just as cheap. The tail in particular looks too soft and feels worse because it’s hollow. I don’t disagree with making it hollow as a heavier tail affects balance (and he already balances poorly), but there’s nothing really on it. No attempt to make it appear furry. It’s just not good.

This pose is easy enough to pull off, once you heat the hand to fit the bow anyway.

Accessories can help liven up a dull experience, but with this figure, your mileage may vary. Robin Hood has gipping hands in the box and a second set of hands with a tighter grip and a thumb up. They appear to be intended for use with the bow and arrow. The bow looks fine and has a real string, but it doesn’t fit either hand well. The standard gripping hand is too loose and the secondary one is too tight. At least with the too tight option some heat can make it pliable to get the bow in there. The included arrow fits fine into the other tighter hand as it slides between the index and middle finger so he can string it. There’s also a quiver and to get that onto the figure you will want to remove the head because there’s almost no give in the strap. The quiver is also solid plastic and the arrows don’t come out which is a bit of a bummer, but not the end of the world as long as you don’t lose the one, lone, arrow. His other accessory is a second head which features a startled expression and an arrow through his hat. The arrow is warped and looks ridiculous and I doubt I ever would use this head anyway. There’s also an unsightly seem line on the lower jaw that takes away from the presentation. All of the other accessories are for the stork disguise, which we’ll discuss separately, which really makes the base offering feel light. The default gripping hands are essentially useless as they don’t work with the bow and arrow and he has nothing else to hold. No sword, really? And how about a legitimate second head that maybe has a cocky grin or a more determined face instead of this gag head? You basically can pose with the bow and arrow or with nothing which is pretty poor for options.

This is not, though it’s hardly convincing anyway. If I let this figure rest like this either the bow or the arrow would eventually give out and go flinging off somewhere. The arrow should be able to peg into the bow, or knock, for added stability.

Which brings us to articulation. Never the strong suit for Super7, I’m afraid it’s worse than usual here. Super7 went with a ball-hinge for the head, which is different from the usual big ball peg for this line and also different from the double-ball I see in the TMNT line. The only thing the hinge does is let the figure look down, but not really any more than the previous setup. There’s no up rotation and no nuance posing. He can rotate, but that’s basically it. The hinge just gets in the way when swapping heads making for a frustrating experience. The shoulders can raise out to the side and rotate all around while the elbows are single-hinged with a swivel. The biceps also swivel at the sleeve. The arms are very thin and gummy feeling, but at least the elbows bend past 90 degrees. The wrists also swivel and hinge and all of the hinges are horizontal hinges which is not optimal for the bow and arrow. There’s a diaphragm joint that does almost nothing. No forward, no back, just a little rotation. The waist also can rotate. At the hips, we just go forward and back. There’s no out to the side and the knees are a single hinge and swivel point. The swivel does more harm than good as it’s hard to figure out what the neutral position is supposed to be. The hinge does very little and I think his knees are supposed to always be pointing out from his body, but it’s frustrating to pose. Worse are the ankles which, like the knees, just swivel and hinge. There’s no ankle rocker. And what’s more annoying is trying to get the hinge pointed where you want it is a pain because it swivels above and below the hinge so if you grip the foot to rotate that piece it will just spin with the shoe. It’s maddening. Thankfully, he does have that ugly tail because it makes getting him to stand much easier than it would be without and that thing swivels and has a hinge. No ankle rocker is an awful choice. It’s usually the one joint Super7 does well and here they declined to try it for some reason (probably for the disguise). The only saving grace for this figure, articulation wise, is he can do a bow stringing pose, but that’s pretty much it.

Hey! It’s some stork guy!

And now that takes us to basically the other figure: Stork Robin Hood. During the film, Robin Hood disguises himself as a stork to enter an archery contest and Super7 decided to make that a focus for this release. I don’t know that I agree with the call, but it’s what they decided. Personally, I consider his beggar persona more iconic, but admit the stork has a fun look in the film. To do that, the figure separates at the waist and Super7 included a second lower half. It’s just the legs in a squat pose and the only articulation is found at the ankles which is the same hinge piece the other lower half possesses. Basically, we’re just cutting out the knee joints. For the that, there are new “feet” which are Robin’s feet on stilts that peg into the ankle joints. They feature no additional articulation, not even a swivel at the boot. I’m guessing this is why they abandoned the ankle rocker to make the connection point simpler, but why not just make the stilts peg into the standard feet? Were the knees that much of a problem? And if they were, just make the stilts already attached to the second torso – why separate them? The left leg also isn’t straight and I don’t know if that is by design or not. There are three sets of winged hands that peg into the arms where the hands go plus there’s a quiver, bow, and arrow to match the ones he used in the film plus the golden arrow trophy on a pillow. Lastly, we have a new head to complete the ensemble.

Robin is considerably taller in this getup. Note how I picked he wrong bow and failed to secure the quiver before putting on the head.

Assembling the figure isn’t what I would describe as a fun experience. The hands are tight, but they came off without damage and the winged ones go on fine. Before doing that though, you will want to slip the soft goods tunic over the torso. The head is a bit of a pain to get off and on, but doable. The torso pegs together easy enough as do the feet and once assembled Robin stands over 8″ tall. It’s once the whole thing is together that the frustration sets in. The hinges where the feet peg in are way too loose. It makes his legs want to go all over the place when trying to stand him. And since there’s no articulation at the boots on the stilts, you have few tools to work with when trying to balance the guy. I watched it fall over and over before finally getting him to stand still in a semi decent arrow-knocking pose. And once I did, I realized I forgot to put the quiver on. That thing has no give in the strap so getting it on is way harder than it should be. And then once it’s on, trying to get the head without disturbing it is even harder. My quiver now has purple paint on it from it riding up under the hat while trying to get the head on. Plus at some point he fell and one of the false arrows in the quiver snapped off. And if you need to do anything to this guy once posed, expect it to all fall apart. The waist isn’t held on by much, though I suppose it’s better that it separate easily than not. Having him actually draw the bow is pretty tough too as the arrow doesn’t have a notch in it. I hooked the string onto a finger and then just tried to balance the arrow in a convincing manner, but it doesn’t work too well.

He can at least handle the bow in a slightly more convincing fashion than the base figure.

Once standing it’s the type of figure that you don’t dare mess with. Or at least, I wouldn’t if I intended for him to stay this way. I will say, the stork head looks great. It’s easily the best sculpted part of the set and also the best painted. One of the legs features some chipped paint which stinks though. The whole costume really looks much better than the base figure, provided you can stand him. I just don’t know why so much of the budget was put into making this costume the way it is. He has a set of open hands, a set of gripping hands, and a set of bow and arrow hands. Why so many when the regular Robin Hood gets just two? What purpose do the regular gripping hands serve that the arrow hands can’t do? The direction and decision making on this one is just baffling and to top it off there are no peg holes in the feet. For a figure that struggles to stand, why not at least put some holes in there? He really should just come with a stand, or a second torso. Or the damn legs should just be static so he stays standing. It’s not like they can do anything. They could have included a second, unarticulated, torso then at least you would get a second display piece out of this. The money spent to tool more hands would have been better served on that. They wouldn’t even have to paint it or anything since it’s hidden by the soft goods. Instead, it feels like an inordinate amount of the budget went towards this disguise that most people will never use. I’m slightly tempted to display it by virtue of the fact that it looks better than the standard Robin Hood, but I have zero confidence in it staying upright on my shelf and I’m not sinking more money into this thing to add a stand. I think the proportions and articulation of the base figure were compromised to make this stork version look more on-model and that makes no sense. Someone just fell in love with the concept of making Robin Hood “transform” into this stork persona and never stopped to question if it was really a good idea to move forward with.

PJ seems to think he smells. He’s not wrong.

The final verdict is that Super7 delivered an off-model and compromised figure of Robin Hood that can pull off a convincing stork disguise in theory, though in practice the results are far more mixed. Is that what people wanted? I know I didn’t. To make matters worse, the figure looks and feels cheap, the articulation is poor, and the display options boil down to two, three if you’re in love with the arrow through the hat expression. And it costs 55 bucks! This thing is way overpriced relative to what you’re getting. At this price point, this thing needs to “wow.” It needs to feel like a premium collector item, but it looks like a toy from the 90s. The look of it really reminds me of the Lion King action figures from when that film came out. The plastic look of the figure makes me think of Happy Meal toys. That’s not a good thing for a $55 action figure. This is the worst Super7 figure I own and I’m out. No way am I paying upfront for any of the figures in this line again. Had I ordered this from another retailer I would have cancelled it. It’s that bad. If it were 25 bucks and didn’t feature the stork I still don’t think I’d buy it because it just doesn’t look that good. Why spend money on something that doesn’t look good whether its 10, 20, or 50 bucks? And I didn’t even mention the shipping so I’m actually in for closer to $70 on this thing. That’s pretty bad. I’m also really second guessing the preorder I have for Wave 3’s Big Bad Wolf. I want to see Super7 go into the classic shorts for this line so I preordered that partly as a show of support for that move, but after getting this and looking at the anatomy of the character in the solicitations I’m left feeling the experience will be similar. Unlike with Robin Hood, there’s still time for me to cancel that one and I’m thinking that’s probably a good idea.

We’ll end on a shelf shot, since that’s probably what matters most for many would-be buyers.

It probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, that I do not recommend this figure at all. If you love the stork version or are not bothered by how Robin Hood looks then maybe take a swing when it inevitably hits clearance. This thing will not stay at $55 and I bet it’s around $38 before long. Hold out even longer and you may do better. Seriously, Entertainment Earth has had some wild sales on Super7 stuff of late so at this time next year it wouldn’t shock me to see this sold for less than $30. I still wouldn’t buy it at that price, but it’s a lot better than $55.

Looking for more from Disney and Super7?

Super7 Disney Ultimates! Prince John

Our third and final figure of the inaugural wave of Disney Ultimates! from Super7 is the most surprising of the bunch: Prince John, the phony King of England! Super7 often surprises with its deep cuts, and Prince John certainly fits the bill. While it’s hard to argue much from Disney could be considered a true…

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Super7 Disney Ultimates! Mickey Mouse as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

The first figure from this line of Super7 action figures based on characters from Disney’s treasure trove of animated characters was Pinocchio. In that review, I mentioned how Disney wanted to outdo itself with Pinocchio and sunk a lot of money into that film’s production. Well, the only other film from that era that might…

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Super7 Disney Ultimates! Pinocchio

It seems I keep setting personal records this year for longest duration of a preorder and the new champion is Super7’s first wave of Disney Ultimates! These figures went up for preorder in August of 2020 likely closing sometime in September. At the time, the expected release was somewhere around June 2021, but a lot…

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by Joe

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Film, toys