Cable and Domino

Cable and Domino

Marvel Legends Deadpool Wave

Hasbro

More Deadpool goodness in celebration of the "Merc with the Mouth's" big-screen sequel.  Marvel Legends brought out some comic versions of two character featured in the new movie:  Cable and Domino.  The X-Force roster is growing more and more as time passes!    Now, I'm not the biggest fan of Rob Liefeld designs, but their ridiculousness translates into some fun toys! Viva la 1990's!

I have a more modern Cable from a few waves back, but I just couldn't pass up this first-appearance take.  The oversized shoulder things, the over-used utility pouches, the giant guns, the gross color scheme...so cheesy-good!  The detail is great here, like he leapt from the pages of the comics.

"Your pouches...give them to me."

I like what they did here with the plastic, cybernetic eye thing.  Even that thing on the side of his head looks great.  What is that?  A giant  Bluetooth device from a future that has never come to pass?  Ah, time travel inconsistencies...maybe he's kicking butt while listening to the Cubs win the 2015 World Series?



 The Domino figure fairs a bit better in the style department with her modern look.  Like my previous review of the Deadpool/Venom figure, its hard to beat a clean black-and white paint job.  Unlike Cable's eye-thingy and his plated-arms, you have to use your imagination in play to show off Domino's mutant power of luck.  It sounds ridiculous, but "Deadpool 2" made sense of it in some pretty great sequences.

She does have some nice, metallic armor here an there for variety.  There are some good, battle-damage nicks and scratches in the detail.  I'm not sure if that's a comic-accurate thing, but the purple guns?  Whatever...a bit cartoony, but some variety at least.
























All in all, I am happy to add these figures to my growing Marvel Legends X-Family.  *SPOILER* - If you are a die-hard Shatterstar fan, you might skip DP2.  Wait...what am I saying?  Shatterstar "fans?" Does. Not. Compute. Go see DP2 now!

Deadpool: Back in Black

Deadpool: Back in Black

Hasbro Marvel Legends





Hey, you got your Deadpool on my Venom!  You got your Venom on my Deadpool!  Another needless crossover, but I do like the clean black and white paint job.  I picked this one up as a cheap Amazon Warehouse deal (damaged package...MIB/MOC collectors are lame).  Did I need it?  No, but "Deadpool 2" is hitting theaters now and I'm feeling the hype, baby!




















"Are you lookin' at my bum? Cheeky Monkey!"

It's got the same body build as previous Deadpools. Accessory-wise, he has some funky, translucent purple katanas and some symbiote arms.  The arms come together in the back, and port into a hole in the figure.  Both this and the swords are repaints/repacks from other figures.  The same goes for the hands.  You get a set of claw-like hands, but only one web-slinging hand?  Not sure who made sense of that...probably saved a fraction of a cent in production or shipping costs.  And just because you have alien powers means you don't need guns anymore?!  Pffft! Oh well, at least we got an alternate head.

Again, cheap (in price and concept) but fun, and...why the hell not...I've already bought my share of symbiote crap from the 90's onward.  What's one more on the pile?
 

"Ooo, scary! Now say "We are Venom" in the Bane voice!"



"Squad Goal: Color-coordinated costumes!"

"Because I needed to look more like Freddy Kruger..."

"GO, WEB, GO!"

 



Bill and Ted Trading Cards

Bill and Ted's Most Atypical Movie Cards

Pro Set - 1991

Action figures by Kenner

This was a most excellent flea market find:  a sealed box of Bill and Ted trading cards for ten bucks!  I've had these for a couple of month's now, but with the recent, official announcement that B&T 3 (Bill and Ted Face the Music) is actually happening, "the best time to be review these cards...is now!"
So with a little help from my most outstanding Kenner Bill and Ted action figures, let's take a look!

That's 36 packs with 10 cards each.  360 cards in a box with a 100 card set meant I ended up with 3 complete sets and some leftovers...not bad, dude!

You get some nice, full color shots from both "Excellent Adventure" and "Bogus Journey", production shots, promotional pictures, and even some scenes that didn't make the cut.  Station!

 

There is a promotional game piece in every pack that has a spot you can scratch to see if you win a grand prize trip to San Dimas, CA...which is kind of bogus considering most of the first movie is shot in Arizona.  I would rather have the non-heinous first prize of a phone booth! 

 

The scratcher part didn't hold up well, so the few I did scratch were either hard to read or rubbed straight through the card.  Oh well...while it was tempting to see if there was a winning ticket buried on a dusty shelf of a flea market in Springfield, MO, it probably would have been heartbreaking as you couldn't turn back the clock to redeem it.  Unless, of course, you're a master of the time game...

Alternate ending?!  Righteous!

Deleted scene...catch you later, nightmare bunny!

Finding cheap sets like this is always a bodacious trip back in time.  While I wish there were some fun chase cards like holograms, I definitely got my money's worth in nostalgia.  Like phone booths, trading cards are a rare breed these days here in the non-movie, actual future. ("Heavy!)  Will the third movie get a set?  Here's hoping!  Until then, be excellent to each other.  And...

PARTY ON, DUDES!

Rampage

Rampage

Big City Brawl - Lanard Toys

The Rampage movie is big, dumb fun, as are these large-scale figures from Lanard Toys.  While you should know exactly what you're getting from a Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson vehicle with giant monsters, the real surprise comes from seeing a big license go to a low-tier, budget-line company like Lanard...and blow us away!  While they do come packed with some cheap looking Corps figures as destruction fodder, the monsters are far from it.  That's not to say that their aren't some shortcomings, but for a figure that size at $14.99 its hard to complain.

George, the albino gorilla is the weakest figure of the three.  Sculpt-wise, he looks great, and could stand in well with my Planet of the Apes figures or Gorilla Grodd.  However, he takes major hits in the articulation department.  He's got a hinged jaw and an arm that rotates out or smashes down as an action feature...that's it.  It's frustrating that there should be at least joint cuts where its obvious the figure was put together.  If any of these figures needed articulation, it was the ape!  He comes with a weird, tiny helicopter, soldier, and fence accessory.  If I didnt know these were reused Corps pieces, it would be even more frustrating.  Save that plastic and put more into the monkey, dammit!

Ralph, the wolf, fairs a bit better with articulation.  He's got a few added points in the front legs, back legs, and tail.  You can press up and down on his neck to make his jaw open and close.  He comes with a doofy Corps figure and an awesome little diorama piece:  half of a city bus with a removable damaged panel.  I look forward to using it with the Jurassic World T-Rex figure to recreate the climax to Jurassic Park 2...wait...that movie sucks!  Nevermind!

Saving the best for last, Lizzie is the biggest and best of the line.  The money saved and corners cut on George and Ralph must have gone into Lizzie because this figure definitely has some weight to it.  The detail and paint on the scales, spines, and tusks are excellent.  She has a tail swinging feature and a chomping jaw, which also causes her head fins to frill out.  The legs move a little, but this figure doesn't need all that much articulation to begin with.  It succeeds with scales and teeth alone!

I had a lot of fun with my Readysets Urban Playset and a gob of generic World Heroes soldiers I've amassed over time.  Again, these figures are great for the price point and if you are a fan of the movie or video game they are totally worth it. 
 

Thanos

Thanos

Marvel Legends Wal-Mart Exclusive

Hasbro

  

It's a big year for the Mad Titan, which means more Thanos figures than could choke a camel!  This one is a repaint of a previous Marvel Legends Build-a-Figure, but with a more classic paint job and a few extra accessories.  He comes with an alternate, non-smiling head and an alternate, Infinity Gauntlet hand...all for the low price of $18.97 at Wal-Mart, if you can find him.  Im really glad I didn't buy all those figures to assemble him in his first run...that would have been, what, $120 for completion? 

The purple on this one is a bit darker and it makes the eyes pop that much more.  The sculpt suffers from the same problems as the first one, like the shoulder movement being hindered by his armor.  But does Thanos really need to move that much anyway?  He's big, imposing, and has an array of cosmic powers at his dispense!

Here's a shot of Thanos with the movie gauntlet...looks pretty good right? Now the only thing he's lacking is his sweet helicopter.  C'mon, Legendary Riders line...make mine Marvel!

 

Infinity War

Infinity War

Marvel Legends - Hasbro

It's here!  10 years in the making!  The Marvel Cinematic Universe is delivering the Infinity Gauntlet!  Except without Silver Surfer,(possibly) Adam Warlock, Dr. Doom...but that leaves more screen time for Bland Panther, Hawkeye, and Black Widow!  Hooray?  Anyway here's the strange lineup of figures Hasbro delivered as a tie-in.  I should have skipped half of this wave and just focused on the comic figures... but I do love me some Thanos, and the lure of that gauntlet was too powerful to resist.

 

 

 

Captain Sadsack (no mask, blacked out star) was the figure I would most liked to have left on the pegs, but they just had to package him with the Mad Titan's head, didn't they?  The costume sculpt is great, but the head doesn't look that much like Chris Evans.  Looks like he is wearing a fake beard.  I really don't remember what happened to his classic shield.  Was the last time we saw him Civil War?  Did Iron Man crush it or something?  See how memorable and timeless these movies are?

Spider-man or Iron Spidey was the other hold out for me, but is a pretty decent figure.  The only real problem here is the lack of accessories.  No extra hands means he's stuck in constant web-slinging mode.  Also, the comic Iron Spidey has pincer things that come out of his back.  I think this is shown on other products and promotional images, so what gives here?  Lame.  No Tom Holland unmasked head? Double lame.

 

Proxima Midnight I was 50/50 on.  On one hand, she's a movie figure.  On the other, she's a Thanos henchman and you can never go wrong with army builders.  Heroes gots ta have baddies to punch, right?  Anyway, whoever this is, she is extremely tall and imposing.  This is a strange sculpt as a result, as I don't see Hasbro getting much mileage out of it.  A new She-Hulk, perhaps?  But that would be a heavy retool.

 

Now on to the comic figures!  King Cobra is leader of the Serpent Society, which Marvel Legends is taking its sweet time in building its line-up.  He shares some scale armor from previous Hobgoblin/Green Goblin offerings.  I like him allright, but the figure I got had some sloppy paint around the hood and needed to be soaked in hot water to free up stuck shoulder joints.

 

Classic Taskmaster might be the best of the bunch.  Mostly because "classic" interpretations are hard to come by.  I skipped the modern take a few waves back, and while I have the older Toy Biz version, his funky attached hood/cloak warranted an upgrade.  He doesn't come with as many accessories as the TB version, which is a shame from a weapons master.  Even worse, the weapons he does get are borrowed from Baron Zemo.  Ah well... he's got a cool skull face and a color scheme that makes movie writers cringe so he still great in my book!

 

Last, but not least is Songbird.  Another reformed villain from the Thunderbolts line-up.  Move faster Hasbro!  I want Citizen V!   Anyway, another great comic figure here.  The flying power effect pegs into the back nicely, but does affect balance.  Too bad they don't include flight stands for flight-based figures.

 

Build-a-Figure time!  And its the big baddie!  The underused but somehow overhyped Thanos! He's big, he's purple, he looks like a California Raisin... but he's got that glove thing!  No-armor Thanos was met with scrutiny from fans.  The studio/writers tried to bullshit some point about someone with the power of God not needing the flashy clothes. To that I say, comic Thanos had the power, the armor, and a cool helicopter with his name on it!  Why does a cosmic-powered being need a helicopter?  Because his ego demanded it!  Seriously though, I don't mind the costume variance as far as my figures go.  I liken this one to the civilian-clothes Thanos at the end of the Infinity War book.  Sure I would have preferred the green tunic, but this will do.  I only wish the Gauntlet were made to be removable and he had an alternate, regular hand.

 

 

The gauntlet can be removed with a lil work (hot water treatment, prying, and dremeling), but do so at your own risk.  I broke the hand peg just trying to move it when it was on the figure!  Bad quality control on recent Legends waves... too many stuck joints.  As I intended to use it on other figures, I probably would have had to glue the fist on the base anyway.

 

In summary, this wave is a mixed bag.  Kind of underwhelming and doesn't live up to the hype surrounding the movie.  Will the movie live up the the hype?  Only time will tell... but the answer is "no."