I open a toy & post it here

[Team Jetfire]

072
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Carnage

Carnage is what I like to call a happy surprise. Back when this wave hit retail they were not on my radar at all as I was not collecting Marvel Legends, but things change and I have started picking up the odd Spider-Man figures. So imagine my surprise when I walk into a Liquidation store to see the whole wave available for the low price of $8 each. At the time I was not interested in the whole wave, but very happy to pick up Carnage. Due to the fact that I am a weak fool I eventually picked up the rest of the wave and the BAF Goblin, but details to follow on those.

Anyways, I really love the look of Carnage; he really encapsulates the overall look of a serial killer trapped in a symbiotic suit. I do wish however that the figure can with some other accessories in the shape of hand axes or knives, but the claw hands work pretty well.

Overall I'm happy to be able to pick up Carnage at a liquidation price, especially considering that he was relatively hard to find in the first place.

Pros: Great Likeness, Solid Marvel Legends Articulation, Nice Price.

Cons: Lack of accessories is a bummer.

[Team Jetfire]

073
DC Collectibles- Justice league Gods and Monsters: Superman

Superman here is the second of the Gods & Monsters based releases and could be my favourite of the 3. It could partly be that he didn't break right out of the package (looking at you Batman...) but the overall look just works so well. Accessory wise he is a bit lacking and only comes with some "questionable" extra hands meant to hold other weapons, but really doesn't make sense with the character. Would have been nice if they could have make a eye laser beam head as that was his main weapon.

Overall the character likeness is solid and the figure is well put together without any signs of breakage.

Pros: great sculpt.

Cons: limited accessories with odd hand choice.

[Team Jetfire]

074
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Superior Spider-Man

Sorry Hasbro, this Spider-Man is anything by superior. Sure the comic character was a compelling new take on Spider-Man's alter ego and it has provided an interesting dynamic, but the toy is basically a repainted generic buck with an extra set of hands. Remember that time in the comic when he developed a super cool spider-leg backpack that gave him additional abilities? Not included. How about when he created a mechanized spider-drone army that could keep watch over the city for him? Also not included. How about that time when he did all the stuff that separated him from the real Peter Parker that was trapped deep with in his psyche to actually make the toy more than a simple repaint of a standard 'Spider' Body that has been used over and over?!? And for the record, I would have been happy to pass on him if it was not for the BAF piece and the fact that it only cost 9 dollars.

I get that Marvel needs to fill the lines and I get that repaints are a cheap way to do it, it's just a super unfortunate waste given how great the character really was.

Overall I'm glad that a unique character like Superior Spider-Man can get some love in this line, I just wish that they would have put a bit more thought into the execution. Perhaps I can eventually craft something compelling, like an additional base or stand, but for the time being I feel that ol' Doc Octopus' time on my shelf is limited.

Pros: Superior Spider-Man!

Cons: basically a repainted normal Spider-Man, limited accessories, waste of a character.

Sorry, these certainly aren't my best pictures.

[Team Jetfire]

075
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Black Cat

I'm a comic guy; be it Marvel, DC or even independent; I'm a fan of comics, superheroes and the stories surrounding both. That said, I do enjoy seeing and exploring the similarities and differences in some of the major characters in the competing worlds. All companies have their unique characters, but but they also have their fair share of duplicates and it's fun to pick them out. Perhaps one of the most glaring is BlackCat and Catwoman. Granted their motivations may differ, but the similarities are unmistakable; both dress in provocative cat outfits, both are burglars, both use whips and both have romantic relationships with their heroic counterparts. In a hypothetical fight between the two (for ahem, reasons?), I put my money on Black Cat as I think she has some actual physical powers granted from the super soldier serum and an odd gift(?) to spread bad luck to the people who cross her.

Like Carnage (and the bulk of the next few reviews) I picked BC up at a liquidation store and am still sure if it is a knock-off or a factory second due to the blue wash on her hair. Truthfully I don't mind it and I see what they were going for but just seems like they had a sale on blue paint.

I'm guessing that this is the same Spider Woman mold with some added fur details. The amount of cleavage that she pulls off makes me feel very tingly in the bathing suit region, but also makes me question how such a reviling toy could be sold as a children's toy. Granted, it's a action figure geared to a more adult collector, but it's funny to think of a 6 year old boy getting a leather bound, dominatrix looking superhero toy, compete with cleavage and whip from his Grandma for a gift; Happy Birthday indeed. The articulation is what is expected with these figures but some of the neck movement is hindered by her hair. As mentioned she comes with whip made from hard plastic, but can't really hold it properly due to poorly fitted hands. Nothing a few elastics can't fix, but just short sighted.
Overall I'm happy with BC: imposing, strong and sexy; who could ask for anything more.

Pros: great likeness, great articulation and substantial cleavage.

Cons: Blue hair & can't hold accessory.

[Team Jetfire]

076
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Amazing Spiderman

Was The Amazing Spiderman 2 a good movie? I recall seeing it once and recalled the basic beats, but nothing really stuck out as being remarkable, especially compared to the other Marvel movies that were really hitting it out of the park, but I thought I should give it another chance.

After seeing it again I will say this: there was an effort to make a good movie and build a "spider" universe. The leads are all well cast and the action sequences are fun to watch, but looks like they didn't learn anything from the Rami's spider films: too much going on. I also really hate the character designs for The Rhino and The Green Goblin. Similar the Lizard in the first movie they made some very polarizing choices and it did not pay off at all in my opinion.

Soapbox time! I have this theory that while comic based movies have artistic licence to make changes to characters to make them work in a cinematic universe, a large deviation to the source material is largely frowned upon by the fan base and can lead to a backlash thereby tanking a franchise.

Monthly Comic books can act as type of litmus test to what changes will be acceptable over time. For example, The recent Fantastic Four movie failed horribly. Now, I have not seen the movie, but I will tell you that when changes, like Johnny Storm being played by the excellent Michael B. Jordan (who is not... white), where not vetted through the fandom there was rather large backlash. Personally I couldn't care less about the character and saw some potential in the change, but the hardcore Fantastic Four fandom saw it as a slight to their favourite super hero team at the hands of a Director and Studio that just didn't get it.

Consequently, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sam Jackson (also not... white) plays Nike Fury, (usually white) and has been (more or less) embraced. The difference, as I see it, is that in the Ultimate universe comics Nick Fury has been a black guy (a black guy who suspiciously looked like Sam Jackson) for years. The paradigm of a white Nick Fury has had time to evolve and comic fans have come to embrace it over each issue released. Another example of this would be Jamie Fox playing Electro, but I'll share my thoughts when I review him.

The other issues with this movie can likely be chalked up to this being the 5th Spider-Man movie and 2nd new franchise in 13 years; there is only so much juice you can squeeze from one orange. For that reason I have mixed emotions about Spiderman appearing in the New Civil War movie. On one hand I am happy to see one of my favourite superheroes included in the Marvel Cinimatic Universe films, but on the other I wish that they would have gone a different direction with him. This "re-boot" could have been the perfect opportunity to introduce Miles Morales, the new Ultimate Spiderman, to the movie going public. Would there have been a backlash? Perhaps from bigots or caucasian British actors who would loose out on the part, but just think of the positive impact. Besides, we have seen Peter Parker's story twice and no one cares anymore. Take a page out of the comic and try something different; if it doesn't work, they'll just re-boot it again in 3 years.

Anyways, I never wanted this Spiderman figure, but for $9 bucks I felt it was worth it to complete the BAF Green Goblin. I actually like the figure more that I though I would due to the modified hip joints not found on the various other Spider-People of this wave. This basically allows for more dynamic poses which Spider-Man known for. The trade off is when standing, the t-joint is more noticeable, but it doesn't bother me. Not sure if there is much deviation from to the source material on the costume, but the red and blue looks decent to me. Accessory wise he is limited to some hands and of course the aforementioned BAF piece. I actually made the webbing with some wire and silver paint to give this figure something to do.

Overall, for nine bucks I dig this figure. Yes, it's just another Spiderman in a wave of other Spider-men, but this one just kinda works. Articulation is decent and the costume looks nice, but accessories could use some work. Given that this was the official Spiderman 2 figure you would thing a bit more effort would have gone in to it.

Pros: Nice costume, good articulation

Cons: lack of accessories, tied to failed franchise.

[Team Jetfire]

077
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Electro

Next in line for the wave is Electro from the Amazing Spiderman 2 movie. I provided my thoughts in the movie in the last review, but didn't really speak about Electro. For the most part I enjoyed Jamie Fox's portrayal of the character and liked the new character design. Part of the reason could be that the original electro looks pretty silly; yellow lightning bolt mask anyone? Not sure I bought into his motivation to kill Spider-Man as his "turn to evil" was pretty quick, but it's certainly not out of the realm for comics I suppose. One odd thing that I did notice was that they made a point to show the gap In the characters teeth close up while he was getting his electric powers. I wonder if they had the basic computer animation done for the electro before they decided how Fox would look before the accident?

I had no intention of picking Electro up, but I'm glad I did as it seems that Hasbro put some effort into making a decent toy out of a unique mold. I do appreciate how the head and hands are made from translucent blue plastic that captures the look from the movie. The articulation is noting spectacular but has all the joints you would expect.
They have included an alternate 'powered up' head and hands with lightning effects that work surprisingly well.

Overall I like this figure, but really had very low expectation. If you can get one on sale, need it for the BAF piece and can get past the fact it's from the Amazing Spiderman 2 movie, then it's not a bad figure it have in your collection.

Pros: great look, decent articulation, nice accessories.

Cons: Tied to a failed movie franchise

[Team Jetfire]

078
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Ultimate Beetle

Well, if I was looking for lesser known, deep off the bench, Marvel character, I just may have found it. Not a bad thing as given the amount of Spider Characters I have, something new can't hurt. From what I can gather the Ultimate Beetle acts as an agent for the Latverian government and is a foe of The Ultimate Spiderman. On the package he is listed as one of "Spiderman's Greatest Foes" but I'm not so sure that is really the case. That said, I'm not sure labelling him as one of "Spiderman's Most Average Foe" would see a whole lot of units. UB reminds me of my childhood a bit; as a kid I received my fair share of toys from all the great cartoon series from the 80's. G.I. Joe, Transformers, and even MASK but never the main characters; No Duke and Cobra Commander, always Gung Ho and Major Bludd. Never Optimus Prime and Megatron, always Jetfire and Soundwave, never Matt Tracker and... you get the idea; I had a great collection of background characters. And truthfully, there is nothing wrong with background character, it's just nice to sometimes see the toys you played with in the Foreground with dialogue, rather than just a painted cell in the background. So when it comes to a cool looking figure (and UB IS pretty cool looking), I'm sure a few kids got him for a birthday or Christmas gift from an unknowing relative; Hell, I'm willing to bet that somewhere out there a kid has an entire backstory and considers UB the centre of their personal comic/toy universe. You know how I know this? Because I did the same thing with all my obscure characters...

The figure itself is nice with some unique parts including two toed feet and blasters on his forearms. The helmet sculpt looks pretty great too.

Articulation is decent with decent range of motion that is not hindered by the armour.

Accessory wise he's a bit light, but there are 'wings' included to complete the beetle look. I always appreciated 'Flyers' so the younger version of me certainly would have loved it.

Overall UB is a nice unique butterfly in a sea of Spider-people, Iron Men and American Captains. Kudos to Hasbro for producing such a character, but in all honestly, if there was no BAF piece included or if it was regular price I would certainly have passed him over.

Pros: Unique, deep bench character, nice overall look and articulation.

Cons: relatively unknown with limited accessories.

[Team Jetfire]

079
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: The Green Goblin

Am I a fan of the Ultimate green goblin character? No, I'd much prefer the standard guy in a suit, flying around, throwing pumpkin bombs like a mynaical psychopath. But, I can see why a fire breathing monster may work better in some ways in in all truth, I wish they took that approach with the character in Amazing Spiderman 2; it would have been much better than the ridiculous excuse for the Goblin that we got; Seriously- he worst part of the whole movie. Maybe they were concerned that it looks too much like the Hulk mixed with Doomsday, either way, it couldn't have been much worse.

Anyways, Green Goblin is my first completed BAF and I'm pretty happy with it. I do appreciate that Hasbro (and others) have found a way to include larger scale figures in the limited scale run, but I don't really love that a completed figure requires a rather large investment of 5-6 figures, some of which are...questionable. There is also the issue of having a random selection of appendages from non-completed BAF that every collector is sure to have. I had a few up for sale, but given the cost of shipping it didn't make much sense for anyone to actually purchase them. I also feel that from an figures accessory standpoint we are getting screwed in favour of a right leg. Sure it's cool if I get the entire Goblin, but it's pretty clear that Superior Spiderman could have seriously used some better accessories.

Once assembled Goblin look very imposing. I also appreciate all the fire ball details that were included; it does well to differentiate him from another character like the Hulk. Articulation is standard and certainly enough for a figure this size.

Overall the Green Goblin is an imposing figure, but not worth paying more that $9 per figure IMO. It is a fairly ingenuous sales tactic and allows for the release of larger figures, but at a much greater cost.

Pros: Large imposing figure, nice fire accessories.

Cons: This Green Goblin is meh, BAF requires multiple purchases of lame characters.

[Team Jetfire]

080
DC Collectibles: Mr Freeze

Mr Freeze is the 3rd character in the first wave of TBAS/TNBA series and is another great example of why I jumped into this line with both feet; it is a nice figure of a fan favourite character.

I feel lucky to have grown up in the two decades that really popularized and legitimized the things that I thought were fun and interesting. As I get older i'm starting to become nostalgic to the things I enjoyed back then. Not everything holds up as well, but Batman TAS really has almost become timeless in my opinion and I feel that it was way ahead of its time in terms of story and character development. Freeze (Mr or Dr) is one of those great characters that was taken and legitimized over the course of the series. Gone was the campy '66 version of the character who was only motivated by money (or diamonds) in favor of a love struck husband who is motivated by finding a cure for his dying wife. Granted, he eventually became a super villain with the sole intent of freezing Gotham effectively killing everyone in it, but love makes you do crazy things... I guess?

As with many of The TNBA figures, Freeze looks like he was taken right out of the cartoon. A nice touch is that they made the head removable and included some spider legs like in the cartoon. As this figure is part of Wave 1, I did not want to try my luck "playing around" with him, but is still a neat idea to include. He includes a number of episode accessories, which I have come to appreciate with this series , as well as the adjustable stand. There is a decent range of motion for any pose that you would be brave enough to do without breaking him.

Overall Freeze is another amazing BTAS/TNBA figure that really sold me on the line. I do with that I had more faith in the QC of the figure, but the multiple reports of breakage has really made me gun shy to put it through it's paces. That sad, he does look great on my shelf so that is a plus.

Pros: Great likeness, Great Character, Great Accessories.

Cons: Fragile.

[Team Jetfire]

081
DC Collectibles- Batman the Animated Series: Catwoman
I think that it is safe to say that Batman the Animated Series has had a lasting direct impact on many of the the characters in the DC batman universe, and for the most part, the impact has been positive. With that in mind, if you are a fan of the current iteration of Catwoman, I feel that you have this version to thank for it. Sure Michelle Pfeiffer palyer her part as Catwoman in Batman Returns, but the BDSM costume and Crazed Cat-Lady character was easily forgettable in favor of an animal loving philanthropist who merely skirted the law to get what she wanted. As with other characters in the BTAS universe, there is some real substance to this character as she struggles with right and wrong that has really made its way into the modern comics. In fact I think she is more widely known as a anti-hero love interest than a straight up villain in Batman’s rogues gallery.


Oddly enough Catwoman is the only figure to actually be from BTAS, with the others are from TNBA, and I have to wonder why she is numbered 4th of the wave. Maybe the BTAS design of Catwoman is more iconic that those of Batman, Two-Face and Freeze, but it's just a strange decision; wasn’t the original Batman Animated Series more popular that the new animated series? The toy itself is modeled after her first appearance in BTAS and comes complete with accessories directly from the episode which is always a plus. I also like how they included her, now unfortunately named, Pet Isis, as she plays a big part in the story.

I must be extremely fortunate as my Catwoman has not broken yet, but I’m sure that it is just a matter of time. I probably will pick a new spare, just in care.

Overall, aside from the breakage issues, this figure is an almost perfect version of the character rom right out of the cartoon and I am very happy that they decided to release her early. I you can get your hands on a fixed one, I highly recommend it.

Pros: Great likeness, Great Accessories,

Cons: Fragile.