Figure Spotlight – Confessor Dhalia

This WoW figure I was given as a gift. She’s an undead priest:

image

She’s pretty detailed, and the colour scheme is nice. Undead can have a few flesh tones, and I think the purple works well here. 

Here’s a close-up on her shoulder armour, one of the key features for people who know the set:

image

And a close-up of her face:

image

She’s a detailed and well-painted figure, like most of the WoW DC Direct range. Kinda wish I was able to pick more up at the time! 

Here’s her back:

image

Not too much special to see here, but they did sculpt some butt, so that’s a nice touch. The skirt folds around her well, and there’s a variety of textures on display. 

Now for the figure’s weak point:

image

Yeah. Just… why? Especially being the part that attaches to the stand! Fortunately I’ve only ever had issues picking her up, but others have had issues of her falling over regularly due to this design. I guess they didn’t want to make the packaging quite deep enough to accommodate the foot that sticks out… after all, her back foot is attached. 

Reviewing the figures for WoW DC Direct series makes me sad that it’s not a thing any more. They were decent quality figures, especially for the price. Blizzard seems to be either doing overpriced NECA figures or very expensive statues, that don’t have a paint job to match the price tag. Sigh. 

But I can still enjoy Confessor Dhalia :). 

Jinx – Rock Hard Fairies

This was a random pick-up at the NEC Toy Fair, to go with the other fairy I have of this type. 

This one is apparently called Jinx and is part of the Rock Hard Fairies lineup:

I was attracted to this one as I like her outfit – love the silver butterfly skull motif in the middle. And she can rock the tight outfit :P. I also like her stripey hair. 

Left:

The texture sculpted in her hair is nice. Her narrow stance helps with balancing, along with the very square platform boots, so she’s stable on the shelf.

Right:

Not too much extra to see here. Some creaselines have been sculpted into her outfit, which is nice. Silver paint is a little overenthusiastic on her cuffs. 

Back:

Her wings have yellowed over time, but I don’t feel it ruins the look of the figure. Pretty sure she wasn’t originally like this, but I like having this touch of colour. The backs of these figures don’t look so good, due to the way the wings are attached. The back of the actual figure though is decent. 

Overall, decent if you can pick these up cheaply, but not a high-quality collectable. 

Gekkoukiba no Majo Lilith – Puzzle & Dragons

Along with yesterday’s figure, I bought this small figure of Lilith:

Was surprised by the small details on this figure, and the crown she wears has been nicely done. With the crown, the paint looks neat, and the colours compliment each other. 

Close-up:

The clothes… of what little she has… have been printed well. The small parts on her leg are nice and neat. Love her scythe too – the purple-gold works really well imo. 

Left:

On this side, she sports a dark wing. We can also see a cute heart-shaped earring here too. I like the way her hair flows too.

Right:

On this side, her hair seam is a bit more obvious, but not too bad. This side she has a red and white wing, which we can just about see from this angle. 

Closer look at the sides of her outfit:

More material here, than the clothes on her body! Nicely painted though, with very minimal painting errors. Has a good amount of detail to it too. 

Back:

The strands of her hair are sculpted well, and flow nicely. There isn’t any paint shading on her hair, which is a minor negative, but it still looks nice. 

Overall, I’m pleased with this small figure, and glad to add it to my collection.

Kakusei Minerva – Puzzle & Dragons

Again… finding myself buying Puzzle & Dragons figures, because the company that makes them does such a nice job of them. 

Here’s today’s figure:

And, wow, there’s plenty to look at here. Her wings come as four separate parts to attach, and her sword arm as a couple of pieces. Thankfully this one wasn’t in need of extra stand pieces, so she wasn’t too hard to build – just getting the wings and sword assembled in the right order. 

Face:

Her eyes are nicely printed, and the sculpting is really nice – I love her face, and the hair has been nicely done too. The red and yellow on the crown has been blended smoothly into a nice transition. Love the pale pink metallic armour too. The paint here is also clean. 

Ball:

The ball has an obvious seam, but the texturing on it is nice. The black parts on the edges of her armour contrast well. 

Left:

The sides are dominated by the wings – there isn’t any shading on the wings, but the deep sculpt does help make up for this. Love the shiny orange of the sword.

Closeup of the sword on this side:

The handle is a very nice sculpt, and the “runes” on the sword look really good. The lines are nice and clean on the sword, plus the gold and orange compliment each other nicely. 

Leg:

Love these orange spikes. Lots of sculpted details here, though the sculpted details don’t have any paint detail to them. However, that probably counts in the figure’s favour, as it’s less chance of a sloppy pant job but still looks good. 

Right:

Here we see mostly wing, but we can see more details of the sword. 

So here’s this side of the sword:

The dragon sculpt is very eye-catching, along with the gold parts on the hilt. Really love this design and the bright colours of it. 

Back:

.. though that sword is bigger than her… strong lass! Here we can see the four wing parts, as she twists to wield the sword. Love the way the wings add to her motion. and that she has four of them. 

Wings from slightly above:

Where the light on the left obliterates the shading, their non-painted nature does rather show up, but doesn’t look bad where there are shadows. 

I think the weakest part of the figure is the ball in her hand – it’s supposed to be a fireball, and could’ve been doing with being more transparent to emphasise that imo, as it does look like she’s holding a crystal or something instead. However, it does look OK in its own right (well, maybe not the seam), so if you’re not bothered about accuracy I don’t think it’s that bad. The wings do look plasticky under stronger light, but not as bad as the guardian’s white wings. These have more depth and motion to them, which does reduce the plasticky look.

Overall, she’s a really nice figure for the price, and I would recommend her if you’re a fan or just like her design. 

Devilman mini-figure 4-Pack

This set I saw on YAJ first (iirc), but then found one of the Mandarake stores had it, so went and ordered it there. 

I’ll start with my favourite, the one similar to his original colours:

The first apparent downside of these figures – they don’t stand up, and no stands are provided. Not sure if Uni-Five intended for these to be unboxed…? Or maybe you’re supposed to carry these as charms? 

The sculpts for these figures are all the same – and thankfully it’s a decent sculpt. The details are somewhat obscured due to the clear plastic, but are there. We can see details of his face, and the small protrusions of his horns. I love the pose chosen – his arms crossed is a fitting pose. 

Back:

The texture on his legs looks good, and I like the way his tail curls around his leg. The wings also work well, and I do like his pose… even if he can’t stand on his own. 

So with the sculpt analysed, here are the other colours included in the set.

Red:

Probably my least favourite of the set. Bit too on the neon side. 

Black:

Looks OK, bit better than the red one.

Glow-in-the-dark:

Whilst his sculpt details are less obvious in the daytime, he does glow, and for that he’s my second favourite. 

Overall, I like this set, but is probably a set a fair few will just display in box as it has fairly eye-catching packaging:

For myself, I’ll likely get out some white-tack to help them stand, and display them amongst my collection. And maybe sneak one into an ita bag…

Gilles de Rais – Fate/Grand Order Duel

This was the Fate/Grand Order Duel figure that I saw and wanted. I’ve always been a fan of Gilles de Rais’s look. Being a less popular character, this figure was also cheap, which was a bonus. 

So let’s have a look at him:

image

From the front, he looks decent, but I don’t like the fact he looks down – it would be nicer if he was looking a bit higher so his face was visible when looking front-on. I wouldn’t mind him looking slightly down, as that fits Gilles, but from this angle you don’t really get to see his face.

So here’s his face:

His face has been sculpted well, and has his angular look. Hair and outfit are both neatly painted, and the pink and blues chosen work well together. His rungs look good too. 

Left:

The paintwork on his arm has been done well, and the shading throughout his cloak looks really good. Definitely doesn’t have the shading issue of the prize figure. The points on his collar are nice and crisp. 

Right:

Here we see him holding his book with a claw-like grip. The book has been done well, especially for a small piece. The cloak has also been well -shaded on this side, and we can see the shading on his upper collar too. 

Back:

Props for the stand not getting in the way on this one – I like the fact they’ve gone for a shorter stand so we can appreciate his cape. The back looks really good to me – with the differing shades of blues from the upper and lower halves, and the shading within each part.

Top of his cape:

His hair his sculpted well, and his colour is nicely sculpted and painted. The spikes are slightly different, giving it a more clothinglike appearance. 

Overall, I think this is a really nice figure of Gilles, if small. As a character without a lot of figures, it’s nice to have a quality one, even if it isn’t a scale. 

Cú Chulainn – Fate/Grand Order Duel

This figure is part of a tabletop game version of Fate/Grand Order by Aniplex. Not interested in the game, but some of these figures looked nice for the second-hand price so decided to pick a few of them up. 

Today, I’m looking at Cú Chulainn (Berserker):

Was attracted to this one by the colours and the overall design – love the tattooing on his chest, and the purplish colours of his outfit. And him looking half-demon was icing on the cake :). 

Face:

Love the mischievous grin :). The paint and print are all nice and crisp, without much paint bleed. Some is visible in the white parts, if you look close up. His ruff looks decent given the figure’s size and price point. 

Left:

Here we can see he has a tail – love the long, black spikyness of it, and the red lines complement it well. The ruffs around his ankle look odd, but this is part of the character’s design. However, I notice some fanart do miss these out, and he does look better for it imo. 

Right:

He looks nice from this side too, and we get to look at his spear – I love the red, shiny colour and the fact they’ve included some texture on the handle. 

Spear tip close-up:

I love these small details included on the tip, which give it more detail. 

Back:

Not too much to see here – we have a supporting stand which goes up into his collar, which does keep him upright. The stand itself is entirely flat, so this is the only form of peg on the figure (hence him having one foot up in the air in the first photo). He seems stable enough though. I think the base compliments the figure well, and I like the icon included on the front that tells you his class. 

Overall, I’m very happy with this figure and glad I got him. The colours work well, and there’s plenty of detail to see in the paint and the sculpt. Even if you’re uninterested in the game, these seem like decent figures to display. Though some of the popular characters may set you back a bit. 

Figure Spotlight: Shana

This figure was purchased from a seller on MFC. This figure has a cast-off option, but I have not cast her off. 

image

For the cast-off option, you can take her shorts off and her top, but I have no wish to do so, as she’s a character that looks young and looks fine as she is. Japanese stuff can be weird – you have characters that look old with young ages slapped on them or vice versa. Sometimes in translation, ages are changed to be more suitable for non-Japanese audiences, to make it less weird and less awkward for us :P. Due to this, I largely go by what I would guess the age to be. 

Her necklace is a strand of copper wire by the feels of it, which is a nice touch but also awkward to move around/pose. My favourite thing about this figure is her hair – I love the colour and the translucency. 

Here she is from the back:

image

Here you can see where the top disconnects – it’s not particularly hidden. The hair has some dust stuck to it, as it has the plasticizer issue. I did consider cleaning this, but it is leaking some dye, so going to leave it until it’s noticeably dusty, just in case a sizeable amount of dye does decide to leave. She lives in a Detolf though, so not much dust lands on her. 

Here’s a side shot:

image

She leans back quite a bit in her pose. 

She has a quite striking appearance, which is what attracted me to the figure. She’s not in the greatest condition, but I did pay a reduced price for her. There was one visible flaw, where her midriff was a bit loose, but that was fixed with some paper down her pants. 

Kaworu Nagisa – Evangelion

Time to get back to a Japanese figure, and what better than Evangelion?

Here we have Kaworu Nagisa, in prize figure form:

Lookin’ tall as Kaworu does. I like his pose, and feel it suits him well. I also like his plugsuit, as they’ve given it a good amount of depth. With the way this figure has been designed, the parts of the figure have nice, crisp lines. I like the clear base for its neutralness. 

Face:

The hair is well-sculpted and his face is decent. 

Left:

He’s leaning forward slightly, which adds to his pose. I love the slender body shape, and the hair looks decently detailed from this side too.

Right:

There’s some good detailing on his arm – the upper light-blue part has some good sculpting details to it, along with the grey parts. His backside has a nice shape to it from this side too.

Back:

Hair also looks good from the back, and his backpack looks the part, and the print is well done here. His body feels slender, without being overly so, with some shape to his backside… very form fitting suit :P. Love the finish on the darker parts of the suit. 

Base:

The base features a logo to say it reflects his 3.0 design. The shape of the base is mildly eye-catching, being a bit different than usual. For me, I’d prefer the base to be a little less tall, as he’s a fairly tall figure as-is.  

Overall, I’m happy with this figure, and am happy to add him to my army of Kaworus. Looking up close, you can see some of the hallmarks of a prize figure, but overall I think he’s a decent quality and would recommend. 

Alien – Predator Thermal Vision ver

One last xeno before we break from the the xenos…

image

This very green grid alien. Yes, he does glow in the dark, but no… I didn’t take any photos of the glowing. So for this one, we’re mostly judging it by the sculpt – and I think it looks good. 

As far as the thermal vision goes, the green does match, and I like the way the base is a solid black, to match the lack of thermal signature ti would have. Also makes for a good, strong contrast to the figure. 

Left:

I like the way the tail is posed, going around the alien. Here we also have some super-long back pipes goin’ on too. Head is nicely detailed in the sculpt, and we have the grid pattern of the “grid alien”. 

Right:

Here we see the Alien doing some stalking, unbeknownst it is being watched. Sculpt on this side is also fully-detailed, with sculpting on its limbs, and I like the shape of its body. 

Back:

The body transitions nicely into the tail, and the pose works from the back too. 

Upper shot:

Some of the tail spines probably lack a little definition, but not too bothered about that. Here we can see where the pipes are joined to the body, but I don’t find it overly noticeable. 

Overall, I really like this figure, and was glad to get it for a decent price. Originally he was a bit more than the other figures in the “basic” set, but got him for the same price. He glows decently well, and seems to have some variation in his glow, so looks good at night too. 

‘Alien’ Bobblehead

So this one… I bought this from a local-ish action figure shop, he had no idea where it came from originally…. and neither do I. The figure itself has no markings, is made from resin, and is numbered but not signed, so I assume this some rando-artist item. 

So here is this piece:

image

From the front, we have something that seems to be a xeno crossed with H R Giger’s original art. The base appears to be based on an Alien egg, though this is where the bulk of the damage is on the figure – I plan to paint these in a similar colour at some point (maybe even try and get some putty out and reshape the missing bits…). The centre of its chest deviates from both the original and film designs, as it has two ribs instead of one central one. Also the shoulderblades are longer and larger. We have some strange posing with the arms, but I suspect that was to simplify the moulding process for the resin, giving this alien a stylised look of its own.

Left:

image

Here we see the head is more penisy, which follows Giger’s design more than the films. The shoulders seem to be a less-shaped version of the film version. The mould is nicely detailed though, and the shading on the figure is nice. The red and silver of its lips and teeth has been nicely done. If you look near the neck, you’ll see a little of the resin has been chipped off due to the bobblehead feature. I guess this was made when bobbleheads were in! With the egg part, the veins on it have been highlighted with paint, which I like. Whilst the eggs themselves don’t have veins, they’re usually on the ground below, which I assume where the inspiration for this came from. 

Right:

image

This side has fared better, and isn’t chipped by its neck. Here we can see the alien is a bit tubby – I feel the body needs to be a bit thinner and a bit more shaped to give off a full “Alien” vibe. 

Top of head:

image

The details are nicely rendered, and feel like a simplified version of the Alien Warrior head design. 

Back:

image

Here we don’t have protrusions, which again, was likely to simplify the moulding process… or to make the mould smaller. I suspect the artist didn’t want to cast and glue/pin the extra pieces on, so they’ve come up with their own back design. which works decently well. With Giger’s originals, they did (tend) have protrusions, but from lower down and flatter on the back. Again, the tail is flattened against the body to make it an easier mould to deal with. 

Inside the ‘egg’:

image

I like the way the tail curls around and sits in the bottom of the egg. We have some liquid detail in the egg, which I like. 

Bottom:

image

Apparently there are 1199 others out there… do you own one? Know anything about this? If so, please comment below! Water is from rinsing the dust off this fellah – he was very dusty when I got him and in need of a clean. 

Overall, I like this unusual piece – I feel it’s a more “inspired by” piece, as it doesn’t follow one particular Alien design, as far as I can tell. There are shortcuts the artist has taken to make it easier to cast, but overall, these mostly work, and make it its own piece. Don’t think I’ll get much use of the bobblehead functionality though, lol. 

(Also what’s it with amateur artists not signing their stuff?)

Panther Alien – Aliens Retro Collection

And, finally, the panther alien:

I’mma gonna headbutt you… The body colours look really nice together, the orange head would look better if the paint app was thicker… seems a bit thin and uneven in places… 

Left:

I like the pose, has a feeling that he’s slinking. The colours also work really well, and I think they’ve chosen the right places to paint gold/silver, though some place are a bit sloppy. I think the tail adds to the impression he’s slinking. 

Right:

More of the same on the other side. I love the shape of his feet. 

Back:

Not too much to see here. Looks like the moulding got sloppy at the back of his legs though, unfortunately. Tail looks fine.

Closer look at the tail:

I like the shape of the end of his tail, and feel it is well sculpted overall.

Top:

They’ve added some orange down his back, not sure this worked too well. At his upper back, I think they should’ve stuck with just the dot-spine bits. The blend ion his spine could’ve worked, but I feel the paint app is too uneven for it to work, and was probably too ambitious with Eaglemoss’s usual final quality – their painters don’t seem to blend too well, so I think this would’ve been fine as just gold, or maybe a darker shade of orange. 

Overall, he’s pretty decent. He’s certainly an eye-catching piece, but does have some flaws in the paintwork. 

Scorpion Alien – Aliens Retro Collection

Today’s xeno is an alien crossed with a scorpion:

This one shares a similar colour scheme to the Revoltech Big Chap I got some time ago. I do like the contrast of the copper against the black. With him having a slight profile, not too much of the detail is visible front-on.

Left:

Here we can see much more of his pose, and I think he’s posed well. What I’m less fond of is how the gold highlights have been used – I think it would’ve looked better if the highlighting on the head was more like the silver on the Mantis. Again, the arms are half-copper, half black in a way that isn’t hugely appealing. 

Right:

I like the way the tail curls, but again, the odd colouration. Only place the half-colouring is working for me is the “pipes”, which are more like spikes on this one, to fit in more with the scorpion theme. 

Head close-up:

Sculpting is nice here, The copper almost fades away here, making it look less sudden than the other side. He’s also got his teeth painted in silver. Spine painting is mediocre close up. 

Back:

Back looks better as it has better copper coverage. For the tail, I’d like it more if the gold was over the top side and not on the bottom – I think that contrast works well. 

Back close-up:

I like the distribution of the copper paint on his back, though the sculpt feels “muddy” and confused. I feel the details got a bit lost here. Back spines are still cool though :P.

Overall, I think the sculpt is strong enough, and the colours work. Just would prefer the colours to be better distributed so it doesn’t look so odd. 

Snake Alien – Retro Aliens Collection

This one came with the mantis alien, and was the other figure to break in transit:

image

Yeah, it has a really thin body, so getting this one through the postal service is a risky business. It also has a LOT of spines, so these may also snap off. Even on my replacement, I had one of the tiny bits snap off near the base of its tail, but fortunately it isn’t really visible unless you know it is supposed to be there. 

So let’s get onto the less broken one:

image

HISS! He’s posed well, and the design is pretty decent. What’s there is sculpted and painted well. 

Left:

image

He arches up nicely, and I like the spines on his head. The colour contrast between the green and the brown is nice. If you see the triangular bits sticking out of its lower back, one of those is missing, but can’t remember exactly where. 

Right:

image

From the back, I’m not sure if the spines are painted as the sculptor intended, suspect they were going for a blend, but is a bit messy here. Head is nicely done though.

Back:

image

I like the detailing on the back of webbing. Not too much to say about the back. 

Base:

image

I like the way he’s curled up, to support his body. The base looks decent too. 

Overall, I like the look of this figure. However, I would’ve liked to see more meat on the body of it – not just for stability reasons. Whilst snakes don’t have too much to them, this snake seems to not exist in the middle, and is only bone and webbing in the middle. I think it would’ve helped the stability and design if this figure was given a snake’s body all  the way down. 

Mantis Alien – Aliens Retro Collection

Next up, the mantis alien:

This was the one I was most excited about… so let’s see how he fares. From the front he looks good – we have a couple of shades of green going on, and some silver. I’m glad they’ve used a couple of shades of green to paint him, as it does add a lot to the figure. I like the pose of the figure too. 

Left:

I like the pose of the arms and the body. The circular parts are nicely highlighted in the lighter green, and the sculpt o the head is lovely. What I like less is the webbing on his arm. The paint looks very sloppy on it, and it looks more like metal sheeting than skin. 

Close-up of the side of his head:

Couple of sloppy paint bits – the green on his shoulder and a little on the ribbing on the lower part of his head, but I do love this head design. The silver highlights on it work well too. 

Right:

And the webbing on this side… ergh. Awful. Looks like he’s got some metal in the crook of his arm. It’s like the sculptor didn’t even try to get the webbed effect the original had. If they did something similar to the shoulder sculpt, that may’ve worked. Anything but this… weird attempt. Nothing would’ve been better, but could’ve made the figure dangerously fragile. I’ll just stare at his lower arm instead… yes, that looks better. 

Back:

Weirdly, he has no tail. With the webbing and the lack of tail, I do wonder if the sculptor was trying to do this from memory instead of with source material… The back is OK, but not a strong point of the figure. 

Top of the head:

Pattern looks good on the top of his head :). 

Overall, he looks decent enough from the front, but the “webbing” on his arms really brings this figure down. I still like him, but there’s definitely some weird design decisions going on here, which I don’t fully understand. Yes, the arms probably needed more support material, but why no extra raised bits to look like webbing? Is this actually some kind of statue of the mantis alien, instead of a specimen? Yeah. Gonna go with that. 

Gorilla Alien – Aliens Retro Collection

With the bull alien came the gorilla alien:

This is one burly dude of an alien! I do love the “growling” pose, and we also get to see his inner mouth due to it. The blue dry brushing effect does help to accentuate parts of the figure, and I think this mostly works. 

Left:

That’s some big claws he has there on his legs! Love the colour scheme. What I love less is some of the line painting at the top of his head is a bit messy. The sculpting is nice, with plenty of details to look at. 

Right:

Here the lines are neater, but one pesky bit at the front of his head there. We have a lot fo the same details as the left side, and I do like how he’s posed. He also seems he’s got his hands curled, ready to pound the floor. 

Back:

Big butt! I think his body looks a bit awkward from this angle, and maybe needed a little more shape to it to make it less square. However, it is detailed nicely, and I do like the design of his tail, which has an interestingly sculpted end part that I like. 

Top:

He has a nice, shiny head, a little bit marred by stray paint. I like the way they’ve gone for a different finish here, and the effect it gives it. 

Overall, I’m a fan of this one. The colours are nice, and the posing is good. Feel they’ve done a good job of capturing the gorilla alien’s appearance.

Bull Alien – Aliens Retro Collection

This is the first of six blogs for the three Aliens Retro twin-packs. Bought all three packs when they were on sale on the Eaglemoss shop. Partly glad I got them there, as I was able to get replacements, as two arrived broken. However, they could’ve done a better packing job… 

These alien designs are based on the never-aired Alien cartoon designs. 

Anyways, enough ramble, let’s have a look at the Bull alien:

image

Starting off with a side pic, as front-on doesn’t have as much to see. The head design is really nice, but I’m not too fond of the body – the stripes feel too flat, making the body feel too flat in general. The front arm and feet look good, but his back leg feels a little awkwardly shaped. Not a fan of the tail – feel as if this should be beefed up, and look more like the original Kenner version. Another advantage of doing this would be to make it less fragile – my first one the tail was snapped off in the box, and getting him out, I can see why. I don’t think they had to go this thin to achieve a bull tail effect. 

Head:

image

The purple stripe is nicely painted, and faithful to the original design. The horns look good too, and I think they did a really good job here.

‘Face’:

image

Nice set of grinning, silver teeth here. Got a seam line going on, which isn’t too much of a big deal, as you don’t usually see this angle – here I’m holding the figure to get this shot. The bottom of his body doesn’t look particularly well-sculpted from here, however, again, it’s not particularly visible on display. The ‘arm’ poses do work well at this angle though, and does make him look menacing. 

Left:

image

Man… if only they gave the exoskeleton parts a bit more shape… The limbs look a lot nicer on this side imo, and the back leg doesn’t look oddly stretched. 

Back:

image

I feel his back pipes are a bit short and stumpy. I think it’d be more aesthetically pleasing if they were bigger/more dominating on his back. I like the way the exoskeleton ribs end with spine parts, but still feel they could do with more shape in general. 

Back:

image

His back looks OK, nothing special. I know bull tails are thin, but I feel as if they could add more weight to the tail, possibly remove the spine parts (maybe do ridges like the body?) to make the figure more robust. If you’re moving this figure around, be careful not to clip the tail on anything, as it will easily snap. 

Top:

image

The plates at the top of his limb joints work well, and the body shape is nice and bulky. 

Overall, I think he’s a decent figure, but does have a fragility problem in the tail. Thankfully Eaglemoss is happy to provide replacements if they have them, though resin is fairly easy to fix with superglue if you break it yourself or can’t get a replacement. If I were to change anything, it’d either be the tail or to add a more rounded shape to the flat surface of the back parts. though I feel these complaints are relatively minor. 

Chestburster Victim & Facehugger Keyring – Aliens

Now for a bit of an interesting figure… one that’s part of the scenery…

image

This wasn’t a figure I was planning on getting, but saw it for a reasonable price, and decided to go for it. Thinking of posing this with one the xenomorphs in the same Eaglemoss series. 

The sculpt is surprisingly detailed, and the paint is mostly good, which is a surprise for an Eaglemoss figure. There are some parts where the clothing paint does go onto the fines, but most strands are OK. The clothes are well done, and are shaded well, and the blood isn’t half-bad. My biggest complaint with the figure is the skin colour feels a little too ashen, and could’ve possibly done with a splash of skin-coloured paint. 

Chestburster close-up:

image

A chestburster’s head… in full, gruesome detail. I think this has been done well, and we have the t-shirt pushing back from the wound. I feel there’s some inaccuracy in how this would look irl, but I think the artistic liberty does help the chestburster stand out. I feel a little more detail in texture could’ve gone into the hair, but I don’t think this is a big thing, and the paint is nice on the hair, with the strands on the victim’s forehead. 

Sides:

image
image

The sides of the figure look nice, with the alien wall texture continuing around the figure. 

Back:

image

Was quite impressed with this – they’ve actually textured the back, so if you have this at an angle where the back shows, it will still look “the part”. The paint here is also nicely and subtly shaded. 

Due to the subject, I don’t think this figure will be especially popular, but it is nicely done, and would look nice in a diorama. 

As a small added bonus, here’s a keyring by Tsudaka Hobby that I picked up in a Suruga-ya order:

image
image

It did come with the key loop, but I removed this to more easily place it in an ita bag (featuring all my favourite things). The legs and tail are very flexible, so they’ll bend if caught on anything. The black wash is OK, but I wish they left a little more on to soften the effect. The bottom of the facehugger is also sculpted decently well. I like this keyring, and glad I got it. 

Captain Alexi – Virus

This figure I was going to write a blog for about a week ago… but then I decided to watch the film before writing about this figure. This blog will include spoilers for the movie (beyond the figure itself…), so skip this if you want to watch Virus first. 

So, uh, here we are and here’s Captain Alexi:

The turncoat himself :P. Part of me wonders if this figure should’ve come in obscured packaging, because it’s kind of spoilery in of itself. Though, to be fair, it’s fairly obvious this is gonna happen to him, one way or another. 

This is based on his final appearance, so loses some of the iconic features of the original Captain Alexi. Would’ve been nice to keep some evidence of his tattoo or something. 

Left:

Here we can see the gun that’s just been grafted to what’s left of his arm. The gun is nicely sculpted and painted. 

Right:

Here he is… face almost holding on. His arm is nicely sculpted though, and here he is holding his pistol, which also looks the part. Legs are definitely reminiscent of the Strogg figures I have, which are by the same manufacturer. 

Back:

Gruesome! Infection waiting to happen, if you ask me. However, there’s a lot of detail here, and decent paintwork. I think the fleshy parts back here do a good job of looking organic. 

*peel*:

Here we have some very regular-shaped lungs The skull’s decent, as is the electronics, but the lungs look really odd in colour and shape. Also the heart could do with being a shade or two darker to fit in more. 

Skin innard:

This is a thin, almost rubbery bit of plastic. Here we have the inverse of his organs, which helps hold this piece to him… but as you can see from the above shots, the head part doesn’t really stay on properly. I think this is a cool idea, but poorly executed. I don’t think the material it is made out of did much for his looks either. 

Wat?:

Hey! Where did his head go?!

Ah, here:

He does escape and run off as a head in the film, which they’ve replicated here. His spine is flexible, but doesn’t really hold position. Probably so it doesn’t get so deformed as to not fit into his back properly… So it’s not particularly poseable if you want him running around, but you could probably flex it to be able to cling to something. Blood effects lower down look a bit eh, but the rest is OK. 

Mini-virus:

You can use this to terrorise other figures in your collection :P. This thing looks cool, but not like anything much. It’s OK, but with no articulation, there’s not much you can really do with it. 

He also came with a torch, like the ones in the film, but I forgot to photograph it. It looks decent, and has a weathered effect, so it’s a nice accessory…. but I want him to hold his gun. 

Overall, he’s a decent enough figure for a mediocre film. It definitely wasn’t a great film, but I liked it more than the 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes would suggest. Though I do have a soft spot for this kind of film, and it did look older than its 1999 release date. So overall, the toy line is OK, and you can safely skip the film, unless you want to watch a predictable romp involving cyborgs. 

Aliens x M.U.S.C.L.E – Series 2 – Part 3

Now for the rest of the figures in this wave.

First up, Burke:

I like the texture on the guy’s shirt – how to do a plaid shirt when you don’t have colours to use. I like the sculpting on this one – detail has been put into the clothes, with the wrinkles, pattern and his shoes. Another hairline to report on the back though. He does have a watch sculpted too, which is nice to see. Overall, I think this is a decent figure.

Hicks:

Hicks, giving off a strong Duke Nukem vibe. I think they’ve gone overly Nukem with the hair, which is what does it. Still, not a bad little sculpt, but probably not going to please someone who needs their figures character-accurate. 

Hudson:

Erm… and now I’m getting Frakenstein’s Monster vibes from this one. For me, this doesn’t really feel like Hudson, and looking at pics on Google Image Search… I’m still feeling that. The hair doesn’t look right, and his face looks derp. If we ignore it’s supposed to be Hudson, he looks OK for a generic army dude… though I think his face needs changing so it doesn’t look like he’s going “uhhhhhh”. 

Lastly, Vasquez

(she better not get my blog flagged again!):

That. Face. That…. face. They went for annoyed Vasquez, but ended up with pissed off granny. The mouth is too long, and I think the facial features are too squat, leading her to look older and angrier. They did give her dog tags though…. Her gun looks OK as far as sculpt goes – can’t blame the for filling in the smaller holes, for structural integrity. Also mine is a bit bent, but I could ix this, so I don’t regard this as a negative of the figure. 

If it wasn’t for the weapon and the headband though, I think it’d be a bit confusing who this is supposed to be… Again, OK for generic army dude, but kinda fails at being Vasquez.

Again, a mixed bag as regards figures. I think they’ve tried to add more to these figures, which has mostly worked, but have ended up with some odd faces, which doesn’t help with recognising them. This set has some highlights and some lowlights, so I’d recommend just getting the set(s) with figures in that appeal to you. And maybe not look too closely at the faces.