Marvel Legends Icons - Hulk and Iron Man

Hulk and Iron Man

Marvel Legends Icons

12-inch figures - Hasbro

I recently picked up a couple of 12-inch scale Marvel Icons on clearance.  Iron Man came from TJ Maxx at $16 and Hulk came from Amazon at $34.  Super deals considering the original prices ($50/$75) and all the detail and extras you get.  Hulk stands in at about 14-15 inches and is quite the lunk of plastic!  I thought I would showcase these figures in an epic battle, instead of yammering on like usual. Enjoy!

 





 


Both heads are nice, but I'm always going to go "classic."



The ripped jeans are separate, pliable pieces as to not hinder joints.  Nice texturing!



The Last Jedi - Wave 2

The Last Jedi - Wave 2

Hasbro basic 3.75" figures

The Last Jedi is here and boy is it...disappointing.  Just my opinion.  Well, despite being a critical darling, it's not just my opinion...looks like lots of long-time, professed Star Wars fans are uneasy about some of the choices made with this sequel.  But, we aren't here to analyze movies, just the toys they spawn.  I will try to be as spoiler free as possible.  With this second wave of figures we get new "old" Luke and Leia, Rey in Jedi garb, some red guy, and Benicio Del Toro.

 

Remember when a Rey figure from the end of Force Awakens came out before the movie and it included Luke's lightsaber and all the fans that cried "spoilers" at the top of their lungs despite the fact that a battery commercial had been airing all month featuring a little girl dressed as Rey waving a lightsaber around?  Ah, memories.  If you considered Rey being Force-sensitive and getting trained by Luke Skywalker a spoiler, bless your heart.  And if you haven't yet seen Force Awaken, don't look at this figure, whatever you do!  *SPOILERS!*  JEDI TRAINING REY!  LIGHTSABER ACCESSORY!  Sort-of Spoiler:  Rey may or may not have a receding hairline in the new movie...or I got a figure with a bad paint job.

Also, she is packed with a Praetorian Guard who is kind of like the Emperor's red guards (you know, like poetry) but his armor could also be compared to Vlad the Impaler's in the opening prologue to Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula." *SPOILER*  REY FIGHTS DRACULA IN NEW STAR WARS MOVIE!  GARY OLDMAN SET TO REPRISE ROLE!  Wait a minute...he has a double-bladed weapon...DARTH MAUL RETURNS IN THE LAST JEDI!  Sort-of spoiler: the weapon splits in two halves.  Until I saw the movie, couldn't tell if that was supposed to happen or just a design flaw.

 It's the first (recognizable) Benicio Del Toro action figure!  Sure, there were a couple of Wolfman remake figures, but that movie was trash.  You would be better off repurposing those as "Dog-faced Boy/Big Top Pee-wee" customs...offensive, but slightly less offensive.  Anyway, the figure looks enough like the actor, but the eyes and eye baggage are lacking something.  Maybe if I soaked the figure in some malt liquor and left if it to dry in an ashtray overnight...*SPOILERS* Benicio plays an untrustworthy criminal in this movie.  Is typecasting really a spoiler?

I'm not really sure why Luke wears his white Jedi robes in exile at all, when he spends most of his time in the movie *SPOILERS* in his hermit rags.  And why a glove on the robot hand at all?  Oh, I know why...the alien butler from the "Find the Fish" sketch in Monty Python's "Meaning of Life" doesn't want you *SPOILERS* touching it's nips with that cold thing when you come to milk it.   That would be some San Diego Comic-Con exclusive 2-pack: Milking Alien with Milk-stache Luke variant.

This Leia figure is a great improvement over the "Mommy Dearest" eyebrows on the Force Awakens Black Series figure.  She has a blaster that *SPOILERS* is neither seen or used in the film. 

Spot on as far as likeness goes, I could see this one being repainted for a *SPOILER* "Deep-Space Leia/Frozen Fish Stick" 2-pack down the line.

 

Nah, I'm just kidding.  I mean, there's no way we'll see that 2-pack before we get the "Carrie/Gary Fisher Convention Circuit" 2-pack:

$40 for a photo-op with Princess Leia's dog?!  Sign me up!

 

 

 

 



 

 

 



The Last Jedi Figures

Star Wars:  The Last Jedi

basic 3.75" figures - Hasbro

 

Well, it's that time again...another Star Wars movie!  While mostly a beat-for-beat remake of A New Hope, the Force Awakens was okay.  It's final judgment hinges on where they go with the next chapter, The Last Jedi.  No worries though.  It's gonna be great because of Porgs!  PORGS! Penguin-pugs!  Close in cuteness to Ewoks, but slightly less annoying than Gungans! You say you've been waiting 34 years for the next adventure of Luke Skywalker?  Who cares?!  PORGS!

 



These new figures are pretty good in the sculpt department, no matter how much whining toy collectors do about the lack of articulation.  Looks like old Mark Hamill to me...does he really need to be posed in Darth Maul-style combat?  The plastic cape is soft enough not to hinder the arms and legs, and definitely drapes better than the cloth mess on the super-articulated figure.  It is Luke's only accessory.  Sorry, I guess he lost his green lightsaber, too.  "That is a story for another time." Shut up, Maz Kanata.

Weird, middle-aged, non-canon Luke, meet sad, senior citizen, canon Luke.  Oh, what might have been...what could have been.  Nah.  Star Wars in the early 90's would have looked as terribly dated today as the dinosaur establishing shot in Jurassic Park does. 

Chewie's forehead seems a bit tall, but who cares?  He's just an accessory to this Porg! 

Say, what has Luke been eating all those years on the island?

 

They don't make Bowcasters like they used to...

Well the gang is finally all together again, if only on our toy shelves and in our dreams...and in the boxes of Expanded Universe novels and comics locked away and forgotten in my garage.  Rogue One deserves worse.  It sucked...but this new one is gonna be great! 

 

American Made Hulk Hogan and Classic WWF Championship Belt

American Made Hulk Hogan

Mattel - Ringside Collectibles

Another Hulk Hogan variant made before the scandal that did more damage to Hulkamania than No Holds Barred and McCinsey's Island combined.  While the mass-released Mattel figures disappeared from shelves within months, this one survives as an internet exclusive to Ringside Collectibles.  It's still available at around $22-24, and its a must-have variant for any wrestling collection.  

 

While the body, pads, necklace and shirt are reused from the Defining Moments figure, you get an all-new paint scheme, bandana, and head sculpt.  The American Made paint up is great, but it may not have been enough to get me to buy into this figure.  It's the head that really sold it. 

It's a really wide-mouthed, crazy-eyed Hogan.  You know, the look you'd get after a couple of failed punches into a "Hulking Out" drive.  Yeah... right before the finger waggling and point but before winding up to the big boot.  It also reminds me of some mugging to the camera moment's in "Suburban Commando." I wonder if Mattel had plans to reuse this head before everything went south?

This figure has no accessories other than the 24-inch pythons.  C'mon, Mattel... pretty close to the Defining Moments mold, but you couldn't throw use a spare championship belt?  Not even a flag?  It's just a plastic stick with a big sticker!  How many fractions of a cent could that have cost?  Oh well, still a great figure.  Maybe the bonus is him being that close to a Rip custom?

 

As a bonus, I'm throwing in this kid-sized, classic winged-eagle championship belt replica.  I believe it was a Target exclusive.  A set of gold panels have been left off on the sides due to it's size, but it still looks decent enough on the shelf next to the classic figures.  This is one example where the vac-metal finish looks good.  If only it were era-accurate with the logo...damn panda bears.

Mega Man X

Mega Man X

Marvel vs. Capcom Target exclusive

Mega Man X is one of the greatest Super Nintendo games ever.  Set a century after the original Blue Bomber, X is the more grown up, grittier Mega Man no one asked for.  Don't get me wrong, he's still awesome, but now he's fighting animal-themed robots instead of industry-appropriate robot men? 

In this Target exclusive 2-pack, he's fighting Iron Man.  Just 'cause.   I don't collect Marvel's 3.75 inch line, so old Shell Head got kicked to the curb right out of the box.  I bought X hoping he would size well with the World of Nintendo 4-inch line. 

 

He's a little short, sadly.  But I can live with it considering Worlds of Nintendo's scale is fudged a bit with the more human characters (Samus, Link).  I was hoping he was at least head to head with his old-school counterpart, represented by this nice Ban Dai figure from a few years back. 

No dice.  X should be taller and lankier.  Oh well.  He's pretty close in size to an old Rockman model character that is almost two decades old.  While his height is disappointing, I don't regret that I bought him other than having to have a generic, repacked Iron Man figure to get him.  His articulation is decent, and he comes with a blaster effect that plugs into my original Mega Man as well.  Also, there isn't a lot of Mega merchandise states side this inexpensive.  Like many fans, we're still holding our breath for a company to pick up an expansive, yet inexpensive Mega Man line.