Ray Arnold

Ray Arnold

Jurassic Park - Amber Collection

Mattel

Like the Star Wars Black Series, did Jurassic Park really need to be in a larger, more costly scale?  It may limit the variety of dinosaurs (or starships) we can get, but what we do get sure does look purdy.  Take this figure, for instance...Sam Jackson is back for the third or fourth time in this scale (Pulp Fiction, several Marvel Legends) and he has never looked better.

Mattel has really outdone themselves for a company that got by with the same suited body over and over again in the past (DC, Ghostbusters).  Ray Arnold appears to be totally unique, and sports a surprising amount of articulation for a character that is just seated at a computer for most of his screen time.    Double hinge elbows and knees, upper arm and leg swivels, torso ball joint, head ball joint, waist swivel...he can take service calls and leap into action to switch service breakers on a dime!

The head sculpt is great (particularly nice is the fade from hair to bald spot on top), really only hurt a bit by the execution of the glasses.  Glasses have always been hit and miss on action figures, but this one fares a bit better than others.  A lab coat and gray pants don’t make for an exciting toy, but the details sure make up for them.  Just check out that JP patch!  Pens in the pocket, tie design, striping on the shirt...nice attention to detail!

This figure doesn’t come with a stand like the others in the line...at least I don’t think he does.  I had to double check the packaging/trash just to be sure.  I assume they had to save plastic for his huge hunk of an accessory:  a 90s desktop PC tower/monitor!  It’s big, but hollow, and it’s made of a flexible, rubbery plastic.  It has a JP grid system map sticker on the monitor and, I’ll have to verify with Lex, an interactive CD-ROM!  Mr. Arnold also comes with a removable headset and a change of hands.  Sadly, he does not come with cigarettes or a hand to simulate smoking.  Yes, it is a harmful habit, but this is yet another one of those characters that it would just enhance that much more.  Delivery of “Hold on to your butts” and “PLEASE!  God dammit, I hate this hacker crap!” just wouldn’t be the same without them.  C’mon, they even get their own close-ups:

It is a bit strange that Mr. Arnold gets a figure in this scale before Hammond, or even Sattler and Grant.  It’s a testament to all Sam Jackson brings to this smaller part.  Let’s give him a hand or...oh...I forgot a key accessory:

Let’s review:  Dismembered, bloody limbs good, cigarettes bad...got it.

Take a look back at smaller scale Jurassic Park/World offerings from Mattel:

https://terribletoyman.blogspot.com/2018/06/jurassic-world-dinosaurs.html

https://terribletoyman.blogspot.com/2018/06/more-jurassic-world-dinosaurs.html

https://terribletoyman.blogspot.com/2018/06/dinobots.html

https://terribletoyman.blogspot.com/2019/05/jurassic-world-iii-primal-clash.html

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel

Marvel Legends - Hasbro

Don't care for the character.  My feelings about Carol Danvers aligns closely with this article.  Didn't see the movie, and Endgame used her about as well as I thought the would: ham-fisted and unnecessary.  They should have saved her introduction for MCU phase IV.  Anyway, the less energy spent on her the better, because her Marvel Legends themed wave did produce a few decent figures worth discussing.  And before you get too riled up and label me a card-carrying member of the He-man Woman Haters, I DO have a comic-based Carol in my collection...she was hard to pass up on clearance for $9 at Walmart.

Despite the handling of the characters (Skrulls are misunderstood "good guys?"), Talos and Yon-Rogg look great and have army building potential.  More Kree and Skrull, please!  Rogg's helmeted head is pretty generic, so they don't necessarily scream "clones" at first glance if you have a batch of them, and you can mod Talos' soft plastic jacket with some heat and an exacto knife to add some variety to your Skrull multiples.  I'm not sure why Rogg has a gun but no holster (or even needs a gun for that matter, since he has some sort of built-in wrist weapons), and why the Skrulls get bupkis.  Even if you wanted to give them guns, the don't include extra hands to be able to hold anything.  Oh well, at least you should be able to interchange their heads on other figures to simulate their shape-shifting ability.

Crazy hero-turned-villain Genis-Vell looks great with the rest of the Star Force gang in this lineup.  Like Mar-Vell (where the hell is his re-do in this wave?!) in the Toy Biz Modok wave, I missed out on his Legends debut figure.  His head sits a bit high on the peg imo, and his gun is a straight-up repaint from one of Hasbro's earlier attempts at a Kree soldier.

Grey Gargoyle is a puzzling space filler where theme is concerned.  I think he would have been better off in a future Thor or Iron Man wave, but either of those could be a long time coming.  The sculpt is good, but the "concrete" look of the plastic can look a little "cosmic" translucent around the edges and thinner pieces.

I sold the Carol figure just to have the BAF part, but I kept the Young Fury.  I figure I can always use suit bodies for generic goons and other customs.  Plus, his inside jacket holster is neat!  I also kept the Chewie Goose the cat figures from both.  I had to buy two Carol figures to get what I wanted this time around:  I also picked up the Target exclusive Star Force Marvel who had interchangeable parts to make Minerva.  More Kree helped me to bite the bullet.  Miverva is great and has some extra accessories like her scarf, ammo belt, and hardware. 

I'm late in reviewing this MCU 10th Anniversary Ronin the Accuser figure, but since this is a Kree fest...

The BAF (along with Skrull multiples) was the drive to complete this wave for me.  The Kree Sentry is full-on Jack Kirby here!  Dig the lines and angles...hail to the King!  Lots of fans online have been complaining about his blockiness, inconsistent appearance compared to the comics, and range of motion.  Get over it.  He looks great and moves as a big, lumbering robot should.

Since this wave does come up a bit short, I thought I would showcase the ones I did pick up with the parallel universe equivalent of Star Force:  the Green Lantern Corps.  The ReadySetz Space Base playset was born to make cosmic adventures in either word a reality!