July, 2017:

Review – Marvel Legends – Absorbing Man Wave – Spider Gwen

Jul 17th, 2017

In an alternate universe on another Earth, instead of Peter Parker, Spider-man, being bitten by that radioactive spider granting him super human spider powers, Peter’s classmate and sometimes girlfriend Gwen Stacy instead took the hit. In that world was born, Spider Gwen. It’s kind of a plot born from a What-If? idea, expanded into it’s own full comic series. It’s a pretty good comic series too, and an interesting take on the Spider-man concept. As a popular character, it was inevitable that there would be a Spider Gwen figure released for Marvel Legends.

The basic execution here is decent. The look and design of the character is captured well here, the swapable head and hood bits are nice. She’s a decent alright Basic Spider Gwen. The sculpt and paint are good, including on the Gwen Stacy head.

Most of problems I have with this figure stem from my more common complains with the Marvel Legends line as a whole. I’ve seen this body used on several other spider girls and figures, the legs always feel off on it no matter how they are positioned and the lack of double jointed elbows hurts. I also hate the lack of hand options. She has a fist and a thwip hand, that’s it, some relaxed hands, two fists, you know, all of the things the regular Spider-man mold gets these days, would be great. In the comic Gwen Stacy is part of a rock band, but it’s not like she is constantly throwing out the horns. Also, a cellphone accessory would be great. Spider Gwen is always using her cell phone, and having it as an accessory would be a lot of fun.

She does match the style of other Marvel Legends at least, she is just limited in a lot of funky ways by this mediocre base figure that she’s using, which is a shame. If you just want a cheap Spider Gwen to go in a Spidery display, she serves that purpose, but personally, I’m considering replacing her with the recently released Revoltech, which is considerably more dynamic of a figure (at a higher price tag).

Review – Transformers – RiD – Quillfire

Jul 13th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

1 comment

Broken Record time again, I just love the unique style and designs of the Robots in Disguise Decepticon line up. Quillfire is no exception, with his porcupine themed robot mode. He also has a very unique squat shape to his design, which just helps give him more character.

Quillfire, unlike Steeljaw, has the benefit of being a late line figure. That is, he came out in wave 3 or 4, and the designers of the figures have had a chance to work out the new kinks that pop up every new Transformers line. The neatest part of his design is probably in his head, which Which despite having a hunched look, has an extra joint added that allows for side to side movement. Given that a lot of recent Transformers have kind of felt like they were cheapening out in places, the neck joint here really feels like a bonus. It’s something that could easily have been removed.

He also has a functioning jaw on his large head, which helps add to the ascetics in a good way. Additionally, despite his stocky design, the pose ability is pretty good. He does unfortunately have a pretty large ugly backpack just sort of hanging off of him, which is kind of meh and though the neck is cool, it is limited compared to your more traditional robot designs.

He is also incredibly brown, which admittedly makes him kind of bland to look at. He has a repaint named Scatterspike which has a very similar color scheme, which doesn’t help matters on his color scheme. Like most of RiD, the Transformation is pretty straight forward without too many steps or flippy panels. He includes two weapons, a hand held gun and a quill knife, both are able to be stored in Vehicle mode.

Despite his boring brown appearance, Quillfire, is a neat and fun little toy. His repaint Scatterspike probably has a slightly more interesting color scheme since it’s a dark shade of Red, if you are only interested in getting the mold once. Then again, the browns are a bit more military looking if that’s your thing. He’s a decent toy, just not much to look at.

Classic Ghostbusters (Mattel) (Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, Peter Venkman, Winston Zeddemore)

Jul 12th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Mattel has released these same Ghostbusters molds a few times over the years. this particular release was from the sequel/reboot/remake Ghostbusters movie that came out recently, though for the most part these 4 figures are all the same. The most interesting contrast is how much better these 4 figures are compared to the 4 “new” ghostbusters they were released along side. This isn’t a knock against the whole “all female cast”, this is a knock against the sloppy looking paint and sculpts that the new Ghostbusters figures received.

There are 4 figures here but they are essentially all exactly the same aside from their heads. Some height variance might have been a nice touch but they all use the exact same body, with one minor variance, Peter Venkman has his pant legs untucked from his boots. It’s not a bad body or sculpt though, which is nice. There is enough articulation to recreate most poses you might want from 4 scientists in overalls. The hands are pretty basic but have some surprising bonus features due to the sculp. The right hand is sculpted to hold the Proton Pack gun, which it does well, it also looks fine for a neutral, free hand, at the sides poses, due to the trigger placement on the guns, the figures can also make a nice thumbs up (or down if you prefer) pose as well.

The articulation is also functional enough that the proton packs can easily be removed from each figure. The packs themselves are all identical to each other. There are no other accessories, which is kind of a bummer because they could have easily made a bit of variation by adding obvious accessories like a Ghost Trap, PKE Meter, and maybe one of those little slime grabber dealies they used a few times.

The main variation comes from the head sculpts, which are all nicely done and certainly resemble each of the 4 Ghostbusters. It is the source of my main gripe with these figures, the head sculpts are all nice individually, but there is an odd inconsistency in style. Ray looks considerably more “realistic” than Peter, who looks more like a Bill Murray cartoon.

Head sculpt style inconsistency aside, these are good figures. The body reuse and lack of accessories can certainly be a turn off at the full $20+ price however. Especially considering I believe the previous releases were considerably cheaper. It’s not related to these figures directly, but the apparently lack of quality int he new lady Ghostbusters line up is also disappointing.