Iron Man Marvel Legends "Iron Monger Series" Mark 42, Movie Iron Patriot, Ultron action figure review

 The last three figures in the Iron Man Legends line have finally surfaced and you can complete your Iron Monger Build-a-Figure! These are released three per wave just like the first set, which can still be found on the shelves at the time of this writing. They're under the Marvel Legends line technically but have Iron Man card art in the corner with the packages being your basic bubble card-backed ones. We get the Iron Man III movie mark 42, Movie Iron Patriot, and Ultron. So how do these figures stack up? Let's find out.

Sculpting for the Mark 42 is straight from the movie and looks sharp. All the tech detail is there with a great headsculpt and armor separation lines. The knees look a little odd from the side when bent because of the kneepad cut but that's not noticeable head on. Iron Patriot's sculpt is also dead on to the movie with the nifty separated faceplate sections and redesigned look. The wrist-guards are glued on this time and won't be lost like the ones on IM 2 War Machine which were loosely hinged.

Ultron's sculpt is the Titanium man body with a new head and shoulder
pads. This works for Ultron pretty well and only the feet look a little off with the large treads. You can easily trim them down with a hobby knife however. Ultron's new headsculpt is a perfect classic Ultron and looks really nice with his open mouth and ear antenna. A bit of the detail is lost being that he's almost entirely silver but it's still there.

Articulation for Mark 42 is amazing. Everything twists, turns, and bends. He has the new 45 deg ankles that allow side-step motion and can even get into the ground-pound pose that's almost an Iron Man trademark now. His shoulderpads don't limit the articulation as they're softer plastic. Mark 42's ball jointed torso moves in all directions as well. Only the wrist guards hinder the ability for this palm to face forward but are still soft rubber enough for partial movement. 90 deg angle ball hips are back and allow for perfect leg posing!

Iron Patriot's articulation is a little more hindered as his feet can't move to the side because of the ankle guards and his wrist guards block up against his forearms preventing the repulsor-palm motion. Other than that he has the same style and excellent range of motion of the Mark 42. His shoulder pads are hinged and flexible allowing for any arm movement. Ultron's Articulation is the same as the Titanium Man I reviewed a while back and only lacks side ankle movement and has the 45 deg hips. Other than that he's golden, er, silver.

Paint apps are pretty clean all the way around. Mark 42 has a nice gold/red definition to him with a metallic red plastic used for the base and while there's a little slop around some edges it's nothing a dab of Testors Acrylic Gold paint can't fix. His eyes and chest repulsor are really nicely detailed, the eyes having the black outline. Unfortunately his right hand repulsor isn't painted. Iron patriot's metallic blue plastic base is stunning and the paint was applied neater than the Mark 42. None of the figures have the new plastic layering technique the Bleeding Edge Iron man from the earlier wave had however.

Ultron's paint apps consist of an entirely bright metallic silver plastic as the
base with a tiny bit of blue airbrushing in places and some red on his face/shoulder pads. He may look a little plain at first but Ultron was always a shining silver robot and the swirly metallic plastic will grow on you. Only Iron Patriot comes with an actual accessory, a removable and fully articulated shoulder gun which can aim any direction and fold up against his back. The other figures come with the parts needed to complete your Iron Monger BAF.

And what a BAF he is! Iron Monger is a direct upscale of the 3 3/4" Iron Man II figure of Iron Monger. He looks menacing and the metallic blue plastic is sharp. The eyes, chest, antenna, and hoses are the only thing painted but he still looks great. His articulation is equally amazing with a great neck and ab joint, great shoulders and legs with plenty of rage. Only his wrists are slightly blocked from turning all the way due to the arm guards. Once assembled he's a good inch and half taller than the other figures.

So what's the verdict on the second wave of Iron Man Legends? If you're building Iron Monger you'll need them. Ultron could be a pass if you already have the Marvel Select version but this one is much better to scale and has better articulation. Mark 42 and Iron Patriot are excellent figures especially if you like the movie style figures. I'd recommend picking up all six in the series to complete Iron Monger. You can always sell him or single figures you aren't interested off on Ebay if you want to make some of the money back you spent. Our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store has them here or you can snag them at Amazon with free shipping if you spend more than $25.

Superman Man of Steel Movie Masters Jor-El Action figure review

The new Superman reboot movie simply titled 'Man of Steel' is coming up and the toys are already hitting. Some of the kid-based ones possibly give away spoilers as to the enemies he fights and a possible movie plot. Here we're taking a look at the Movie Masters Jor-El from the collector based line, judging from the addition of  'Adult Collector' printed across the package. He's Superman's biological father that stayed on Krypton and is played by Russel Crowe in the movie.

Sculpting for Jor-El is startlingly detailed given we had a fairly lackluster Green Lantern Movie Masters offerings before this. The armor is an instant stand-out with all sorts of tencho-organic looking features and a textured under suit. You can make out the 'S' on his chest, the Superman family crest as it's explained, with strands of armor 'growing' around it. Russel Crowe's face is instantly recognizable and done with equally excellent detail that's just a step or two below NECA quality. There's also the addition of flexible hoses that run underneath Jor-El's arms to his back.

Paint application is cleanly applied with no slop anywhere. The armor is a
two-toned metallic that has been highlighted with a brass color and really makes the detail pop. The blue under suit has airbrushed shading as does Jor-El's flesh tones of his face and neck. The eyes, beard, and hair are carefully painted with the beard standing out having some nice shading. While there's not that many different shades of color here they work for the knight-armor style of design.

Jor-El's articulation is standard Mattel style except he's lacking an ab-crunch or tilt-ankles. Every joint has decent range of motion save for raising his arms straight up as the hoses restrict how far they can move. That means no flying poses for Jor-El here. Decent ball jointed neck movement and nearly 90-deg  hips mean you can get him into some interesting poses nonetheless. I would like to someday see tilt ankles return to mattel's offerings especially now that Hasbro has perfected them with their Marvel Legends line. His shoulderpads are permanently attached to his shoulder balls but really don't get in the way of articulation all that much but strike the collar before moving all the way up.

Accessories have always been the bane of Movie Masters figures either
giving us useless ones (Batman crime evidence/mini-masks) simply nothing (lack of any MM Green Lantern constructs) or impossibly hard to complete BAFs (TDKR Bat-Signal-good-luck-building-it parts). Here we only get a stand cast in a steel color with a yellow S painted upon it. The stand is textured but lacking any sculpt to the S which is simply painted on making it look sort of cheap. Jor-El stands just fine without it and the peg is slightly larger than the foot hole meaning you'll really need to twist it on.

So what's the verdict on Superman's Papa here? He's in interesting figure both in appearance and possible customizer fodder. I'm sure people have been wanting a Russel Crowe at some point and this is the first 6" version we've received. However the $16.99 and up price point is going to be a big turn off especially since there's no BAF part or decent accessory. Jor-El is scaled a little under 6" making him work with some figures but look shorter than most DCU/Marvel Legends. He does scale well next to the Batman and Green Lantern Movie Masters which were shorter than 6" to begin with so that may not be a deal-breaker for everyone. You can find the Man of Steel Movie Masters series at your normal mass-market retailers like Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us.

NECA Jungle Patrol Dutch figure review (Predators Movie line)

Woah. I honestly never thought I'd see Arnold Schwarzenegger's character Dutch in action figure form and when I was asked to create one for ToyFare Magazine issue #121 back in 2007 it was because they figured he'd never get the action figure treatment either! But NECA is once again grabbing the wheel and steering the industry standard to another incredible level. Jungle Patrol Dutch can be found in the first wave of 2013 Predator figures that also includes Predator and Dutch wearing his jacket smoking a cigar. You can effectively create different versions of Dutch by buying both and swapping parts. So, let's find out how he stacks up against what's out there shall we?
 
Packaging is your basic card back with bubble blister you've seen all the other Predators on so let's move right to the figure. Dutch's sculpting is out of this world excellent. His skin has texture, his separate rubber vest, separate we gear, seam-stitched pants, veins on his neck and arms, stubble, and and unmistakable Arnold headsculpt that's right at the top with a Hot Toys Dutch head. Yes it's that's good, just smaller. Even his boot laces have a criss-cross texture to them. It's honestly something to behold as NECA has surpassed McFarlane, SOTA, Mezco, possibly every other company currently making toys on the market in terms of detail. Not even the import figures I own have this level of detail on them.

Paint application has been taken to an art form here. Dutch's slightly
translucent plastic skin tone has been given a flesh colored wash and dirtied up to look like honest to god skin. His eyes are spot on, just enough face paint, hair with shadows and highlights, and then you get to the outfit he's wearing. The camo pattern is complete and clean all the way around, even lining up when you position his legs so that you almost can't tell there's joints hidden there. A grimy splatter here, a bit of mud scuffed here, and you have a super realistic combat paint job.

NECA is often hit or miss when it comes to articulation but here's it's a home run. Everything moves and everything is on a ball joint. Dutch's ab crunch, waist, inner hips, and neck range allow you to bend him like a snake. Want Dutch to lean out from behind a corner and look over his shoulder? Done. Lay down prone and aim? Done. The only thing he has trouble doing is a full crouch as he only sports single pin knees but it's still impressive. His ankles turn and are on double rockers. And best of all almost all the joints are cleverly hidden. I use to whine if a figure didn't have the 50-part-joint-count of a Marvel legends. NECA proves you can do the same with half that. His balance is also perfect. The pose you see below of his throwing his knife on one foot requires NO hidden support.

Dutch comes with three accessories, his trusty assault rifle, pistol that sheaths on the right and combat
knife that can be sheathed on the left. His vest and belt are separate pieces but will only come off if you heat him up with a hair dryer and pop his head/arms/waist apart. It's not hard to do once you get the plastic soft and won't harm the figure as long as you pull straight out and twist slightly. His joint pegs are thick and incredibly durable too. I don't see any QC issues here and let's hope this continues in with their Aliens/Colonial Marines figures coming next month.

So what's the verdict here on Dutch? Buy him now, don't wait. At every Toys R Us I've been to there's only been one left on the shelf. I'm going to pick up at least two extra of each one for customizing parts. He's a perfect standard military action figure with crazy articulation. Chris from Resident Evil, Bionic Commando (or just Commando, heh) GI Joe characters, this body is perfect. Dutch is somewhere between 6" and 7" scale so you can fudge him into both Marvel Legends and Player Select lines. Our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store will be getting them in any day so you're guaranteed one through preorder. Your local comic shops should get them in too. In the end NECA is blowing away all other companies in terms of bang for your buck and we're going to see some amazing things with the upcoming Aliens line...I cannot wait!

Ultimate Spiderman 'Ultra Strike Spiderman' action figure review

There's a new Spiderman series out called Ultimate Spiderman which has different scales of figures including a 6" one. Be warned however that this is a kid-targeted line which features incorporated gimmicks and far less articulation than even past children's lines had. I was however surprised to find a "super poseable" Spiderman in this assortment and decided to see if he was worth the $12.99 price tag. However I needed to find one with a head first....

Whoops, someone on Hasbro's packaging design team is getting fired. Open-packaging may get kids to interact with the figure in stores leading towards a higher pitched scream and product-clutching-fingers when mom says no, but it's a nightmare for retailers. Sticky fingers, scratched paint, and in this case missing heads. Yes the ball jointed heads of these figures pop right off and you'll be seeing quite a few looking like this in Walmarts or other low security retail giants. That is except for Target which sends a shock troop of employees down the aisle if a child sneezes on a product. With only one paper twisty to hold them in I've seen two packages sans figures entirely.

Sculpting on Spiderman is simple, nostalgically classic which isn't to say it's without detail. The web lines are sharply defined and there's plenty of muscle detail. Spidey's eyes are perfect and there's no soft sculpts like we've seen in the line before this one. It's not a Marvel Legends style sculpt but rather looking like the cartoon character on which it's based and surprisingly like the old Animated Spiderman series which is why I picked up the figure in the first place.

Articulation isn't truly as 'super-poseable' as the package states but it does have more joints than the other figures in the assortment which have T-crotches and no elbows. This particular Spiderman has ball shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and those great 45 deg ball ankles. The lack of waist or ab crunch hurts the figure's posability and you'll have to carve away some of the crotch plastic to get him into a full 90 deg sitting position. The same can be done to the back of his legs to improve the range of motion there as the ball-in-cup joints don't have the greatest of range. Still he has better movement than the last Spiderman Classics series which you can still find in stores. He also has surprisingly good balance and can be posed on one foot like in the picture to the left. No wires or stand here folks.

Most of the paint work is done using the new plastic-layering technique. The red on his body, forearms, and legs is actually bonded to the blue plastic instead of being painted. The only part painted is the blue of his biceps, black lines, and eyes. While this doesn't give you any washes or highlights (this is a kid's line remember) the plastic layering is super precise and there's 0 bleed with the colors touching. I could get use to this technique if it was refined enough to do minute detail like a figure's eyes or symbols. Here it's used well but overall the figure is basically cast in color.

Accessories include a dart shooter that clips on to his arm but will instantly find itself in the fodder bin. Pull back on the dart and it weakly leaps from the shooter. Eh, at least it wasn't built into his arm right? The dart has a hole in it which I suppose was suppose to have a web-string tied on there but was ditched at the last moment. Most 'super-poseable' figures lack weapons to budget in the extra joints. Perhaps we could have gotten a waist cut or hinges if that dart shooter had been left on the design table.

So what's the verdict with Ultimate super-poseable Spidey here? He's not a terrible Spiderman but he's not Amazing Spiderman either. The $12.99 price tag is lower than the $20 we're used to paying. For the price cut you get cut paint apps and so-so articulation. He's scaled just fine to fit in with your Marvel legends and a customizer could get his joints working much better, maybe even give him that waist he's sorely lacking. He has a solid heasculpt as does the Nova in the series but you'll have to find one that hasn't been pilfered. You can find this Spiderman line everywhere and fiddle with his limbs to see if he's a fitting Animated Spiderman stand-in for your collection.