Category: Western

Aquaman, Superwoman, Spider-Gwen – Nano Metals Die Cast

And here we have the only other figure-related items I bought during Toys R Us’s closing. 

First up, Aquaman:

Paint on this figure isn’t too bad, though the trident with the green bits between the tines is a bit odd, but can understand they moulded it like that so the tines wouldn’t be too brittle. Not sure if the gaps would have been better as green or black. Green does kind of blend in, with the green base & legs of Aquaman. With these figures, they don’t have painted mouths, but honestly, that’s a better option than a poorly drawn squiggly line that can stand to make the figure look even more “off”. One thing I don’t like is the trident wasn’t painted on the back, but I don’t think I’ll be looking at the back much. What’s more annoying is they didn’t paint his belt – they had gold paint for the trident, so why didn’t the belt get painted, darnit? Hunting down a prototype shot, they painted his belt orange. Sigh. 

Next figure is Superwoman:

Looks like the front of the cape had a bit of a hard live, plus some flesh paint slop on the underside of her leg. Not too bad for a small figure though – logo is passable for this nano size. Back of her looks fine. 

Lastly, Spider-Gwen:

This one has no mouth, so this was a perfect fig for them! Paint is OK, but definitely a little sloppy in places. Amazingly, her back white paint came out well. There is some scratches on the base, but these were present from the moment I bought it – these were all last-on-the-peg figures. 

These figures are honestly fine for their super-cheap price point. Though if you have a selection to look at, I’d recommend leafing through for the best painted you can find, as the paint jobs do vary. 

Bob’s Burgers – Collectable Figure Pack

This figure pack I bought in Toys R Us’s closing down “sale”. When I looked up prices online, it was mildly cheaper buying it there, than to buy online, so yay, win. This pack is optimistically labelled “Series #1″, but who knows if there will be a series 2 of these figures. 

First up, Bob himself:

The sculpt is.. OK. The paint is… OK. It’s mostly within the lines, and it does look like Bob.

Next, Linda:

She seems to have jumbo-sized glasses, but she does seem to be painted well. Sculpting fairly typical of something blind-bag quality. 

Now for Gene:

He has some stray paint issues, plus a couple of marks on his shoes/socks. He stands up OK, and looks like Gene. Yup. 

Tina:

She looks pretty decent, but there could’ve been better delineation between her top and skirt. Would’ve been better to have a joint there, just like the other figures. Also she has a bad stray paint mark on her back. 

Lastly, we have Louise:

This figure has no chance of standing up :|. Not sure what they were thinking when they designed this figure, and didn’t give these figures some kind of stand. Paint app on the front is fine, but a bit lumpy on the back of her hat. I thought Linda was hard to stand up… but then came Louise with her micro-feet. She’ll definitely have to stand in some white tack :/. 

Would’ve been nice if they learned from the Japanese and gave these figures either ball stands or clip stands to help them stay up. It’s not like the backs of these figures have anything remarkable that’d be ruined by a hole for a ball stand… 

I bought these figures for £11.89, and honestly that’s too much for these figures. One site quoted the RRP as £16.99, and that’s just rip-off. These figures are on a par with blind bags that retail at £2 a pop. If it wasn’t the fact they’re Bob’s Burgers, and there’s a lack of good Bob’s Burgers loot, I wouldn’t have bothered buying them tbh. At least they’re better quality than the Regular Show figures. I’d only recommend these if you find them going for super-cheap somewhere, or if you really have to have some Bob’s Burgers loot. 

Swamp Thing – DC Deluxe Action Figure

This one I picked up on a recent trip to Swindon – I missed getting him when he was originally released, so I gave up and forgot about him. Found him for sale for what I think was his original RRP, so decided to buy him this time around :D. And glad I did:

This guy is huge. Or at least his wings are – was fun getting him to fit in shot :P. The sculptwork and painting gives him a very wooden and organic appearance. 

Close-up of his face:

I love the texture on his face, those red eyes and his antlers/horns. A decent amount of sculptwork went into is face, and the paint has been well done to emphasise the correct areas. 

Left side:

He doesn’t have too much depth, if you don’t flap his wings back, but they do flap backwards and up/down if you wish to. However, they only go so far down, before they foul on each other, if they’re spread out like I have them. 

Right:

This shot has better focus.. here you can see the wooden texture is present throughout, and his head has a good shape to it, with the wooden antlers. The stand I’m using is a Play Arts Kai stand I got as part of a lot of miscellaneous items. Sadly Play Arts Kai do not sell these separately, so your only real chance of getting these is by buying them secondhand. I have NOT bought any of the China fakes, so don’t know what flavour of Chinesium they’re made out of. If they’re made of the brittle plastic that the Bandai fake ones are, I’d be worried the stand would break with this dude. Failing a PAK stand, a doll-style stand of a sufficient size may work well. 

Back:

And here he is… exceeding the size of my backdrop! Love the fact the textures run throughout the figure – there’s no “plain” sides. The mossy effect on his wings is nice, along with the other wooded textures. He also has a flower on his right calf, but this has gotten covered up by the stand in this shot ><. 

But why the stand? His wings make him back-heavy and are not removable. This means, despite his articulated feet, he is prone to overbalancing and falling over – a stand will help prevent this, and from him trying to tear a hole in your collection with his massive size. 

Though he does have some removable accessories:

Initially, he has two bits of twig in these holes (see the first photo in the blog), but you can also equip him with a “sword” and shield:

I think this choice of accessories was a neat addition to the figure, and allows you to customise him to your preference. The holes are different sizes on the two sides, so he can only equip his weapons this way around. 

Close-up of the shield, as the sword was in earlier shots:

Looks a bit like an oversized walnut shell to me, but could easily also be hewn from wood, which is what I think was intended. 

Close-up of a twig:

You can see where these plug into when you look carefully at the figure, but they’re not immediately apparent. Looks like I didn’t have it pushed in all the way in for this shot. 

Overall, I really like this figure, and glad I got him in the end :). If you like what you see, and don’t mind you can’t remove his wings, I’d recommend getting him, if you can find him for a good price. Bear in mind he is a deluxe figure, so his price is higher than that of “regular” Western action figures. Watched a review from around the time of his release, and they quoted $50 for him (I paid £40). You may also want to factor in the price of a stand, unless you’re willing to put the work into making him balance, which may limit posing. 

Skullsplitter, Rider Bust, Pocket Toy Land Fairy

This blog will showcase three smaller figures that I won in the Urban Mine auctions as singular lots.

First up, a Spawn trading figure. The auction picture looked like this:

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So I was hoping for two, but it turned out that he was out of his box, for whatever reason. But for £4.08, it was still good value for money, as these figures usually go for twice that. 

Here he is:

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Turns out he is a rare variant, so that might be why they were showcasing him out of the box – he seems to be a copper-coloured repaint. He’s rich with detail, and nicely painted. 

Side shots:

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Some nice shoulder armour going on there, and some good texturing on his cape.

Back:

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His cape has a nice texture, and I love the bronze edging they’ve given it. A rare, good Western trading fig :P. 

Next up, a Rider bust from Fate/Stay Night:

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I’ve been wanting this since I knew it existed, but it doesn’t come up for sale often, so I jumped on the chance to bid for it… and spend more than I should’ve on it XD. Did find I could’ve probably proxy’d it for cheaper, but not by too much probably, once everything was said and done. This figure has been very well done – the sculpting and paint are all really good imo. And the chain is a chain, which is nice, but may need to ensure it doesn’t rust. Can be an issue if Rider comes with a chain!

Back:

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Here is the tip of her dagger, and the hair that flows around her, plus the metal structure behind her. Everything’s nicely finished off back here. 

Here’s the chain spread out:

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It’s nice they have let you position the chain, but it can be a bit of a pain doing so. I love this little Rider :). 

Lastly, a fairy figure from “Pocket Toy World”:

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Yeah, I didn’t pay a lot for this one… it seems like it may’ve originally been bundled with a related one-shot manga, but nothing Urban Mine ever comes with the books, and the other figures in this series have no relation to each other. The painting is OK, but it’s nothing special. Has an almost garage-kit feel. 

Sides:

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Paint is a little sloppy, but the leaves are painted nicely. 

Back:

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In some ways, this might be the best angle, owing to lack of paint slop. But then there are less opportunities for mistakes here in the paint. I do like her wings. 

For these shots, she wouldn’t stand up on her own (spot the white-tack). but I heated her, and corrected her posture, so now she stands up on her own. An interesting buy, but I don’t think my life would be significantly different without her, lol. 

Predalien – Eaglemoss

This is the third of three figures… and the reason the blogs about these figures got delayed.

Here’s the reason why:

Yeah, how did this pass QA?! The figure was pretty recessed in the box, so not convinced this happened during shipping. 

So a grumbly email and another wait… and we have:

This dude, who hasn’t been headbutting stuff lately! However, I think his paint job is slightly dodgier in places – note the unpainted bit on her hand, but that’s far less annoying than a scratch. 

So let’s look at the entire front of him:

They’ve chosen a very dynamic pose, which adds to the figure. There’s a good amount of contrast in the dark and light areas of his body. 

Left side:

He’s quite dark on  this size. Here you can see the dreads that are part of the signs he’s a predalien, along with his feet and colouring. 

Right side:

Here you can see his tail – which is definitely one of the selling points of this figure. Almost looks like he’s holding it from this angle! The painting has been nicely done on his tail, and the leg sculpts look very nice from this angle. Can see a couple of places where the dark overpainting didn’t quite get into the gaps, which is a bit of a shame. Guess the person who painted this one didn’t quite have enough paint on their brush or poke him enough. 

Back:

Some nice details back here, but not so easy to photograph them from this angle. Love the alien backpieces. Horns? Spikes? Protrusions?

Close-up of the base of his tail:

The moulding and paint transition from his back to his tail is very nice. And ridges have been replicated well.

The end of the tail:

Mmm, wouldn’t want to get hit with that! A suitably vicious tail!

Close-up of the base:

The mould of the broken mask is nice, but there is some silver slop at the top of the mask on the base, which can show from some angles and look a little odd if you’re looking close. At this angle though, it looks nice. Base is painted well – love the rust details on the grate. 

This one is my second favourite. If it wasn’t for the dark overpainting paint flaws, he’d be vying for the top spot, but he just isn’t quite up to the swimming alien for me. 

Swimming Alien – Eaglemoss

This is the second of the three Eaglemoss figures I bought. 

Swimming Xeno! I really like this figure, and is probably my favourite of the three. 

Here he is swimming the other way round on his base:

Not sure which display option looks best. His tail is impressively moulded and painted, and I love the way it sticks out. His head is shiny, which is a nice touch. He also looks like he’s swimming, so that’s a definite bonus!

Here is his other side:

Not much in between the two sides. Both look fine.

Here is a close-up on his back end:

Looks nice :).

And the front end:

Here you can see the shiny effect on his head, and his back “spikes” reaching up above him.

From above:

Head so shiny, you can see me! His pose does look kind of flat from the top, but that’s no biggie to me. 

And his belly:

He has a hole for the post that holds him above the base, but the paint shading has been done well on him. With the glossy finish on his legs, he could almost be wet. 

Close-up of the base:

A nice range of props, coloured green to match the film and look underwatery. See? They can blend paint! 

I love this dude – he will take up a decent amount of space, being so long, but with the rod, he can stand above other small figures, so he shouldn’t be too bad to display. 

Deacon Alien – Eaglemoss

This is the first of three figures I recently ordered from the Eaglemoss store, as I noticed them having a sale on. Unfortunately, the Eaglemoss store is still rubbish – no order status, takes ages to dispatch and aren’t quite up to speed with this new-fangled technology called bubblewrap:

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Deacon’s box got crushed, but fortunately they now use HUGE boxes, so the figure survived just fine. Not so nice for more dedicated collectors, getting a crushed box though. 

So here’s the Deacon himself:

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Full-body shot, focused on the body:

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He’s… OK. Bit of a disappointment tbh – the paint job isn’t blended at all, so he looks like he’s had paint slopped on him. Mould is pretty nice though, and I like the scenery they’ve given on his tile:

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Mmm, some ‘lovely’ entrails… 

Left side:

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That dark green paint… it almost works in a couple of spots, but meh. Looks like I painted it! Also a paint slop I didn’t notice until I did this photographs, sigh. Maybe I could repaint this…? 

Right side:

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I love the pose they chose for the mouth – nice to see them showing off his proto-jaw. The detail put into the neck and leg muscles is nice too. Still a shame about that damn paint! The base was painted nicely though. 

Back:

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Lovely mould work on the spine. The green lines almost work on his butt. 

The two things that disappoint me about this figure are the green paint blobs and his size. Due to his pose, he looks really tiny compared to the other figures in this range. I think it would’ve been nicer if they did him at a bit of a bigger scale, but then he wouldn’t be proportionally accurate to the others in this series and his diminutive size. 

Figure Spotlight – Durotan Big Fig

Bought this from an Amazon lightning deal in 2016. He was about the same price as the small versions at the time XD. 

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And big he is! Far taller than the board I usually use for photographing figures… Admire my “quality” background! For this kind of figure, I was surprised about the amount of detail in it – most of these large figures look very “meh”. He does suffer from looking like a lump o’ plastic – mostly because of the chest area. 

Though the back suffers more… it looks like he’s had a hunter have good ol’ go at him:

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The large screw holes are a bit of a shame, as the sculpting here is nice too, especially his hair. He does live in a corner currently, so I don’t see the back of him often. 

And the sides of him:

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Not much to say about these angles. He does have some seam marks on his arms that you can see in the pics, but again, not bad for this kind of figure. 

Happy with my purchase, and he does a fine job of guarding the vivarium. 

The Atom – Darkest Night

This is a figure I’ve thought about buying on and off, and found him for a decent price at a local action figure store. I bought the Indigo Lantern figure some time ago, and have since thought about buying The Atom to go with her.

So here he is:

Looking all strong and muscly… and indigo. He does have a nice colour scheme about him, and is mostly nicely painted. 

Close-up of his upper half:

The body paint has been done nicely, can see some stray paint around his belt, but it isn’t anything too noticeable. I like his blue tattoos, which have been nicely rendered in shiny blue paint, though I’d prefer for his nipples to not be trying to escape the shot. Could do with being nearer the middle imo. And a bit of paint to make them into nipples, rather than growths. 

Staff closeup:

Ooh, look, you can see me in it! I do like these shiny jewels in the staves the Indigo Tribe have, along with their rough-hewn look.

Right side:

Some nice woodlike texture going on with the staff. Shoulder armour a bit high, but that’s so the arm can articulate. If this was a more modern figure, this would likely either be made out of a softer material so it could flex, or have a joint to move. 

Left side:

Some concession to creases in his clothing. His boots look mildly unnatural in terms of texture, but that’s not a biggie for me. 

Back:

Here we have his butt. Nicely painted, but it would be good if that upper gold chain connected in with his butt flap. What’s that for anyway? I guess if you see it flapping, not in the wind, you know it’s time to move. 

Overall, I like this figure, especially considering it’s an older figure – from what I can find, he was released in 2011. I love the bases for these series – simple, yet eye-catching and thematic. I wish more modern action figures could come with bases like these, though you’re mostly lucky to get a base at all. Ah well, still got a pile of NECA discs in my drawer. 

Cyborg – Metals Die-Cast

This is the second thing I picked up in the Toys R Us sale. 

Die-cast Cyborg:

I had three to choose from, and the paint job did differ between the three. One of them had quite sloppy painting with the silver on the cyborg part on his left eye, so I’d recommend inspecting these figures prior to buying. 

The sculpt is nice, and gives the figure texture it would otherwise not have. With the lack of shading though, his face looks somewhat flat in places. His eyebrow looks more comic-book-y than the rest of him imo as well. 

Back:

Use of different shades of grey help make him stand out. It’s nice to see this detail here. 

Left:

Looks OK, not much to say about this angle.

Right:

Looking at this photo… his hair does rather look like a brown orange XD. Can see a little bit of silver slop – this is the kind of thing to look out for when buying these figures. His arm looks a bit.. bouldery. 

Overall, I think it’s an OK figure. If you like it, it’s a nice figure, but I think it’s a bit 50-50. It also depends if you like this Cyborg design. I mostly bought it because it was Cyborg and reasonably priced, with the discount. 

Groot Evolution – Marvel Legends

Visited a nearby Toys R Us, and found they were having a closing down sale, so decided to pick up a couple of items – first being Groot:

His face sculpt is really nice, and the body is… mostly nice. It does give a wooden feel, but… it’s also plasticky too. 

Here’s the close-up of his face:

His eyes look really nice, and his face feels woody and detailed. 

Back of his head:

The head is nicely sculpted , and here you can also see the twiggy parts on his arms, which help hide the shoulder joints. They’re not super-effective though. 

Let’s “zoom out” to his back:

Not much hiding that back joint, but the wooded texture is nicely spread throughout. You can see the extra bits in his arm joints, which help to hide the joint when flexed. 

Side shot:

Head looks good from all the angles. This angle does rather show the sculpting off – it’s nicely detailed so it doesn’t feel entirely “action figure”. I could imagine if Mattel made this, it would look much flatter. 

He is also decently poseable:

He’s reaching out for you! Groot! Maybe if I watched the film I could come up with a decent tagline here… Or maybe just more “groot”. 

Upper shot of the above pose:

Being the evolution set, it also came with kid Groot:

I used a macro lens here – you can see the print dots in a couple of places, but these aren’t really visible when you’re looking at him.

And baby Groot:

D’aww. Ditto for the print dots. 

The pot Groot stands up nicely, and is a good display piece. The kid Groot is somewhat harder to stand up, and is annoying, which is a bit of a shame. It would’ve been nice if they provided a clip base for him to stand in. When I decide where to display him, I’ll likely stick him down with a glue dot. 

Overall, I am happy with this figure. Due to the fact his legs come as separate pieces, he can lose his lower legs when you’re trying to pose him, but it’s not a massive issue. I don’t think I would’ve paid full price for him, but he’s definitely good if you pick him up for a discount. He certainly has the height compared to other similar figures, due to the aforementioned separated legs – it allowed Marvel to make him tower above figures in the same line, yet keep the same box format. 

McFarlane Assassin One – Red version

Can’t stay away from the Mandarake Urban Mines. This was one of two figures I was bidding on, but the other went for more than I wanted to pay, so stuck with this one:

He is called Assassin One, and is part of the Wetworks series of figures by McFarlane. The “default” colour of this figure is blue, then this is the red variant. From looking at the pictures, I actually prefer the red variant. 

The sculpt on this dude is nice, and here’s transparent sculpting working :). The silver spray on his weapons is a nice touch. 

Here he is holding his crossbow aloft:

And me trying to make him hold his scythe thing:

Not sure why they chose to make a hole in the scythe, instead of a peg, like the crossbow. He has holes in both hands, so he can hold the crossbow. 

Here he is from the side, with his crossbow loaded:

You can pull back on the end of the projectile, and it will fire across the room. 

Here’s some of his left side, focused on his arm armour:

The black parts are nicely detailed in the moulding too. 

And his back:

Looks OK from this angle, does look like he’s got a fire in his belly! Not much to speak about in the trunk department. 

He’s a striking figure, well-moulded, and his colours (what he has of them!) work well. He’s also decently poseable, which is good for an action figure ;). Certainly think I got my money’s worth from him, seeing as I paid about as much for him as a trading figure :). 

Rick Sanchez

So this is the Rick I ordered way back when…. So was the wait worth it? No. No it was not. So let’s see what I got:

After clearing off the ridiculous amount of warehouse dirt, here he is. A bit less crap than the Morty figure, but still definitely not in award-winning territory. These figures do feel a lot more like kid’s toys, but I suspect they’d be too fragile, and not priced as such. First thing: paint issues. The unibrow goes onto his face, and his lab coat didn’t know when to stop around his wrist. The paint on the belt buckle is also too thin. You can also  see a bit of a scratch on his left eyeball, oth the outer side – thought this was more warehouse dirt, but appears not. He comes with a portal gun and a flask (not shown), and these accessories aren’t actually too bad. 

¾ shot:

Mmm, dat eye scratch.

Back:

His hair is actually pretty good from the back, and I love the bald spot. The portal gun… has the basic parts. Most simplifications of the portal gun have the recessed square painted red, and that would have been nice here. Another plus side is his feet don’t fall off… Yeah, it has that over the Morty figure. 

Honestly, I won’t be surprised to see these in B&M for £3-5 some months into the future. They’re pretty bad, so unless Funko can stop farting these out at the right point, where all the die-hard fans all have them, I can see them going unwanted. Especially for £12 (I paid a bit less than this, but RRP is around that). 

Die-cast Black Widow & Schleich Cyborg

Found the large Black Widow die-cast figure at TK Maxx for only £3, so decided to pick her up:

Still being impressed with these Jada Toys Metals figures. There isn’t any shading, and her face could almost do with some, but the paint is accurately placed, and she has a nice finish. 

Here is her left side:

Bit of a blob here, and an unfortunate seam. 

Right side:

The seam is better done on this side, but still visible. 

Back:

Revenge of the CE logo! Screw on her back is a bit of a disappointment. 

Overall, I’m happy with this figure. I don’t think I’d pay the full RRP for it, but was a steal at £3. 

Now for Cyborg:

This is a plastic figure by Schliech that I got from Home Bargains for £2. This was the only one they had, and fortunately it doesn’t appear to have the “last figure in the shop” look. Schliech figures can have very variable paintjobs, though this one is probably largely assisted by being mostly grey. 

His left side:

Not super-detailed, but enough details to be distinctly Cyborg. Blaster seems to have the major details, and it also has this one:

Nice to have the red lens there. Though you can also see the messy paintjob on his head. Had to be at least one paint mess 😛

His back:

Again, enough detail to be distinctly Cyborgh, but not overly detailed. The use of shades of grey paint is nice, and helps it stand out. 

I wouldn’t have paid a lot for this figure, but it’s nice to have a little Cyborg to add to my collection :). 

Metals Die Cast figures – 2.5″

Went into a local comic book shop recently, and came across these Metals Die Cast figures. I had seen some of them online recently, but this was my first time in the wild. He was doing a discount if you bought 3, so I chose four, then deliberated over another two. 

So here are my picks! Plus the first time I was using a different lens on the camera, so enjoy the higher res photography for these smaller figures

First up, Harley. Because, yes Harley :P:

There were three, and apparently I went for this one. They all had their paint flaws, but I ended up with Miss Melty Top. The fact she has eyeshadow is nice though, and the writing came out clean. 

Back:

The texture ended up a bit rough on the hair for Harley – should imagine it’s the complex shapes that didn’t quite work for it. The gold text on her back is nice though. 

Variant Harley:

I do like these colours – does give her a bit more of a sinister vibe. Didn’t notice when I was buying it, but in this photo you can see where they tried to hide an error when painting the upper half of her top. Oops. 

Next up, Poison Ivy. Here she is in her traditional colours:

I think these ones ended up with a better paint job than the Suicide Squad ones. Lovely contrast of colours.

Her back:

Ah, erm… but apparently come with the downside where the CE logo has been put prominently on the back of their heads. Her hair is a nice vibrant colour though. 

¾ view:

Short and slightly stocky. Bit of interesting green coming out of her armpit there.

New 52 Poison Ivy:

Can’t say I’m a fan of the New 52 design, but this figure turned out well. The colours complement each other well for me, and is more striking than the other pictures I’ve seen of her. Better than the DC figure I saw… 

¾ view:

Her tattoos on her face came out well. Some slop on the green paint, but these are dinky figures on a budget. 

Back:

Lovely bright, vivid orange… just.. logo. 

And thirdly, Catwoman:

I think the Catwoman figures have been painted the best, and were two of the easiest picks. The paints are lovely and shiny, and she feels very much “Catwoman”.

¾ view:

Shiny!

Back:

Is Catwoman now selling out? Nope, just being safe! The paint on her buckle is crisp and clean. 

Lastly, purple Catwoman:

This was one I was considering importing, because, hey, purple AND Catwoman! She’s mostly well-painted, but they’ve added a mould for her zipper pull, but didn’t paint it. Same on the one above, but I find int more noticeable. 

Back:

Same ol’ CE logo, but less shiny on her head. Silver also missed a bit on the buckle, sadly. Ah well, I’ll just admire her butt instead…

Overall, I’m impressed with these figures. They’re not super-well painted, so if you have the option to go to the shops to buy these, I’d strongly recommend it, so you can pick out the one with the best paint job. Store I went to had one case of each, so mostly I was stuck with the choice of one figure of each type, but I don’t think I did too badly. The Metals ranges seem to be decently priced, which is a surprise for a UK collector. Once they’re in more shops, I’ll probably end up getting more of the range (I think they’re only just coming into UK shops). 

And as a bonus Harley Quin LED Lite:

I got this at Christmas, but forgot to include it in the Christmas blogs. Love the bright, vibrant colours, and the quality of Lego’s printing. I’ll probably end up just displaying her instead of using her as a keyring. 

Powerloader & Alien

So this was a figure that came with a game… OK, it was Colonial Marines: Collector’s Edition. I decided to look up how much the game itself is worth out of morbid curiosity – you can buy it for £2.49, and get it posted to your door. Yeah.. 

(For those who are not in the know, Colonial Marines is notoriously terrible). 

So here’s the figure:

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Maybe they should have produced this figure, and just shelved the whole game idea. I bought this for £19.50, though most of the auctions tend to run at £25-30 at time of writing. 

The paintwork on the powerloader is especially impressive – the alien is mostly done with a blue wash type of thing, which looks a little odd in places, but works from a distance. 

Let’s get a little closer to the action:

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That’s one desperate xeno trying to get in there! The alien has nicely wedged itself up there, without clipping or anything. 

Let’s see how the marine feels about this:

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He doesn’t look too happy about it, and also his teeth have turned to flesh! Bit sad they missed his mouth, when it looks like everything else was painted. 

Let’s see how the alien is getting along:

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Bit hard to get a shot of his face, but it is nicely sculpted. Still looking hungry, I see. 

Back of the diorama:

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Amazingly, they’ve even textured the back of the diorama stand! Also a lot of attention to detail in the paintwork on this side of the powerloader. Love the dirty weathering effects.

Back of the powerloader:

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All the wiring and gubbins you’d expect. Plus the cute little light on the top, and the aerials. 

Now for the alien’s backside… is it as pretty?

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I would say… not quite. From this angle, the blue wash looks a little blobby in places. You can see him prepairing to grab onto the powerloader’s arm for more stability, though. 

From the top:

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Bit of a random shot, but came out better than expected. The detail on the alien’s head looks good, and it emphasises the alien’s pose. 

All in all, I really like this figure, and can see why it has held its value, more so than some of the other game collectables I’ve picked up over the years. The game also came with some iron-on patches and a map of the ship on tracing paper. The other touchy-feely bits were crap. I do feel I got a good figure for my money, and hey, I also have a joke present for anyone with a PS3… 

Marvel’s Vision

This figure I picked up at Home Bargains. This is a very small figure that comes with a ‘spirit tank’, Sub-Ultron 011:

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Was attracted by the colours,. and the fact it came with the tank accessory, to make it more interesting than the 2-figure packs. 

Here is a close-up of Vision:

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For a small figure, he’s well painted, but the purple on his chest looks kind of our of place, as it appears it hasn’t been designed with the mould in mind. Looking at pictures of Vision on the internet, it’s supposed to follow some contours on his suit, which has been lost in this rendition. 

Here he is from the back:

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The moulding is nice on this cape, but it’s only really kind of a bit bendy at the top. 

Which leads to his articulation being pointless:

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He really doesn’t have much articulation, but he is very small. Would’ve been nice to do something with the cape so he can sit, or give him knees so you could potentially do some poses, despite the cape. 

Sub-Ultron 011:

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The silver effect is nice, but the tank tracks are kinda wonky to the body, and the arms can easily fall off the body halves. Can imagine that’s kinda handy as a kid, emulating battle damage… but I don’t think they’re supposed to fall off. 

Other views of Sub-Ultron 011:

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It mostly looks OK as its own thing, but researching Sub-Ultrons, I don’t think this is accurate to what it is supposed to be. Sub-Ultrons are robots, and this appears to be more of an ethereal entity, due to the large use of unpainted translucent plastic. From what I can see, they should only glow blue in places, not be mostly blue. It looks OK in its own right, but doesn’t seem very faithful for what I believe it’s supposed to be. 

Despite it being a vs set, I decided to do this:

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Well, at least he can now sit, despite the cape!

Not entirely convinced by this purchase – I wouldn’t suggest spending much on this set, and this might be one of the smaller items I may pack away at some point. Still love the colours, but I’m not super-attached to it. 

Medieval Witchblade

This was a random buy in a comic book shop I visited on the way back from Salisbury. It turned out to be located in a shopping village I had visited before, and didn’t think much of. In Wandering Shop style, the shop is scheduled to move soon to a larger premises, so maybe it’ll move every time I go to visit…

Anyway, onto the figure!

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Her shiny green armour is what attracted me to her. Moore collectibles tend to have their good points, but just don’t quite get there in terms of quality, so it’s always a bit should-I-shouldn’t-I when I buy them. This one was a should. Not entirely sure why they bothered to give her leg articulation, with her legs in the pose that they are. 

Here she is from the front, with some weapons equipped:

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Her right hand really needs something in, due to that hole. Can’t really pose it so it won’t show, and it’s just too regular of a shape to look natural. It does hold a weapon well though. 

Here’s her shiny green arm:

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I do rather like the armour on this side. Well=painted, and a good amount of detail.

Left side:

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This side is a lot more mediocre, especially with the large seam line down it. Probably wouldn’t want this side visible when displaying it. 

Her back:

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Some sculpted muscles in her back, not sure if they’re very lifelike. And some distinct copyright notices on her thighs. Not entirely sure why they gave her boots a seam line up the back… I do like her hair though. 

Here’s a side view, showing more of the spear:

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I do like the weapons – the colours work well together, they’re nicely sculpted and look the part to me. 

She does come with a third weapon option:

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So if that spear takes up too much room, you can go for the two shorter weapons. She doesn’t have anywhere to stow the third weapon, so you’ll end up with one in the figure parts drawer. 

Overall, I like the figure, but it’s not a favourite or anything. Her looks do appeal, but she has some meh-ness about her. If I was in the position where I had to downsize, she’d probably be a candidate, but I don’t think there’s much of a market for Witchblade figures out there, at least in the UK. 

And finally, I also bought this nether portal Minecraft hanger when I bought the medieval witchblade:

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This will eventually go onto a new hanging rail, once I get one added :). 

Triton & Minecraft Minis

I went into Toys R Us, and they were having a sale, so I picked up the following items, plus a bunch of DC Domez, which I probably won’t blog about, as it was sadly mostly dupes. 

First up, Triton:

I’m not familiar with this character, but I liked the colours and the fact he had a fin on his head. The articulation is pretty nice for these figures – you get all the articulation points of a larger figure, though some of the joints can be a bit stiff/bendy due to the figure’s size. 

Left side:

Yep, he has a head fin :). The paint job, what there is of it, is mostly competent. Bit of slop around his boots, but isn’t particularly noticeable unless you’re looking for it. 

Right side:

Yep, is a ditto of the other side. 

Back:

He’s been sculpted back here, but some the joints look very joint-y. Head looks somewhat on the odd side. For a small figure, it’s not much of a biggie tbh. 

As a figure, he works well. Just find the RRP for these figures to be too high for something so small, despite the quality. They also don’t come with any accessories, but at least one hand posed for one, which is mildly annoying. May have to go hunt the accessory pots for stuff.

Now onto the Minecraft Minis:

Had to pick up the pack with the slime in it 😛 The slime doesn’t disappoint, and I do rather like the mooshroom too. The on-fire zombie rounds out the set – he looks fine, but isn’t a figure I’m particularly interested in. 

The sides:

The zombie is nicely asymmetric, mooshroom has the most interesting profile imo. And the slime is nicely done with its solid cube centred in translucent gunk. 

The backs:

Not much junk in these trunks, but no horror stories either. It’s a nice little set, but not one I’d pay RRP for. These fellows will find themselves nestled somewhere in one of my display shelves. Or replacing some of the blind bag rubbish that isn’t very good. 

Harley Quinn – Mattel ver

In all the B&Ms I’ve visited thus far, I’ve only ever seen the true peg-warmer figures of this set. Recently they were reduced to £5, but I still wasn’t interested in picking up the “meh” characters.

Then I visited Salisbury, and they happened to have just the one Harley! Whilst I didn’t like the Suicide Squad movie, I do love Harley’s look in it. 

For me, all the figures  look a little on the tubby side, but she is a bit in the movies. The figures just seem to emphasise it. This figure does have some paint flaws, but I had a choice of… this one or this one. Her left leg is also a bit gappy – not sure if I can fix that. 

Shot so you can see the bat:

To me, the bat feels too long, and looking at pics, it is too long. Though it is probably painted better than the figure, lol. I’m guessing the bat was recycled from some other figure, as it should only be as long as the writing on it. 

The sculpt isn’t super-detailed, but seems to have the important bits represented. If it wasn’t for the bits of stray paint, it’s not a bad paint job. Don’t think the figure would have been worth full price, but I have got my fiver’s worth. 

Left of Harley:

Looks OK, nothing particularly out of place, red circles on her arm give her a bit of a cheap feel. 

Right of Harley:

To me, this side seems a bit better, but there’s not a lot in it.

Her back:

Hair ends a bit flat, but she’s complete from this side. Having the clasp on her choker is a nice touch, and the straps for her holsters are nicely detailed. Is some very noticeable slop on her left boot though, from the leg paint. 

Overall, it’s not a bad figure, but it definitely has a “toy” feel to it. Kind of surprised that some of the less peg-warm-y figures didn’t hit the cheapo stores, but that’s probably due to a lack of other figures in the cheaper end being available. Maybe if the MAFEX/Figurarts ones were more available here, there may have been more that made it to the cheapo aisles. She’s an OK figure, but I wouldn’t recommend paying over the odds for her.