Tag: western figures

Juggernaut – Marvel

Another big heavyweight of a character, Juggernaut:

Here we have him doing his typical thing of charging into something. Or at least I assume that’s what he’s doing. The paint job feels much simpler than that of Colossus (featured in yesterday’s blog). Here they’ve at least used two different shades of red for his outfit, so he doesn’t blend all into one, which can be an issue with some Eaglemoss figures. The paint on his arms, however, feels rather sloppy, thanks to the overspill on his bands and the half-arsed dark wash. I also feel the holes on his mask feel a bit roughly-hewn rather than neatly cut, as per his mask in his comic design. 

Left:

I think his bands are so tight he’s bleeding? He has muscles sculpted on his leg, but honestly it looks more like a piece of cooked meat rather than a leg to me. Almost like they went “fuck it, call it a day” when doing the sculpt. The boot sculpt is nice though. 

Right:

Again, due to the way his bands are painted, looks like they’re potentially cutting into his arm. Arm muscles also suffer a bit from being oddly shaped and feeling half-sculpted. 

Back:

There was an attempt. The middle band of his outfit feels an absolute mess back here. Again, you can see the poor sculpt of the muscles on his left leg. However… they’ve weirdly nailed the sculpt of the bottom of his boot, and that actually looks decent. His right boot is pretty good too – though the sole is a tad uneven. 

Overall, this figure… isn’t great. Feels like it was half-arsed in sculpt and paint. There are some positives, but overall he’s rather “meh”. Why did I buy this again? Oh yeah, bought him with another two Eaglemoss figures and didn’t look at him too closely… Wouldn’t recommend unless you really want a small Juggernaut figure. Or you’re an idiot like me and pick random stuff up for cheap. 

Colossus – Marvel

Today we’ll be looking at Colossus by Eaglemoss:

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Here he is, in his comic book colours. There is some attempts at shading – some more successful as each other. He has some lighter red paint highlighting his muscles, but this looks a bit odd towards the top of his suit. There is some dark-coloured wash too, which works better. The lines on his body are good for the most part, but he does that strange seam on his right leg. 

Looking at him front-on:

Here’s a better look at his front, where you can see the unusual bright red paint in full effect. The sculpt on his pants(? underpants?) is good, and gives a fabric feel. 

I think his face sculpt is done well, and his boots are nicely painted. 

Left:

I like his pose, and the sculpt has a good amount of detail. They’ve certainly gone to town on his muscles. The gold accents add some nice focal points to the figure. 

Right:

Here we can see the creasing on his pants was sculpted all around. And that seam on his leg, which is slightly offputting, as it does disrupt the grooves on his leg. Bit of a difficult one to deal with though tbh. 

Back:

Here we have more of the red highlighting, that I don’t think works too well. The sparing bits on his left work better than the larger blobs on the right – I think the lighter red needed to either be used more sparingly or actually blended. There is some dark wash going on, which does help accentuate the figure though. And them pants be tight… The paint, on average, has been neatly done, which is an achievement for an Eaglemoss figure. 

Overall, I think this is a decent figure, and would recommend if you like it. Personally, I’m happy with him. 

Knuckles – Totaku

And finally, let’s look at Knuckles.

Front:

This one seemed to have the least issues with paint, and I should imagine the crescent moon print on his chest helps with that. Here we have him, in his Lego-shoe glory! 

Knuckles also have an accessory of a Chaos Emerald – I think this works well, as Knuckles has a “thing” for the emeralds, The emerald also has been done well, in transparent plastic. 

Left:

His hand feels a bit elongated, and the seams in his hair are a bit rough. Rest of it looks OK.

Right:

Hair is neater on this side, but his eye seems to have some lumpy paint.

Back:

“Hair” looks good from the back, and the backs of his paint seem to be painted well. And we have his li’l tail :). 

Overall, I think he’s a decent figure, and a good choice for the set. I glad they did the more-original three, rather than some of the later characters. 

And here are all three together:

Feel like I should have probably put Tails in the centre here… But with the bright colours, they do look very nice as a set. Kinda wish Tails had some item in front of him, to complete the set. If you can pick the three up for a reasonable price, I’d recommend them, but with the caveat of seeing what ones you’re buying beforehand, due to the annoying paint issues. Just wish they were a little more consistent for the price. 

Tails – Totaku

Second Sonic-based Totaku… Tails!

Front:

This one… I didn’t pick so good, and there’s actually a small paint chip on his moustache. If you look carefully, it is on the right in this photo. I did almost think about seeing if I could exchange him, but then apathy took over. However, the colours work well on him, and it feels accurate to his in-game appearance. They have included a small detail of his tongue, which is nice to see they have paid some attention to detail. 

The base is very similar to Sonic’s, but this time with nothing to decorate it. 

Left:

His head and body look OK, but not sure what’s going on with the white paint on his shoe there. Seems to have gone a little uneven… maybe they put this one in the box a bit quick? Bit of paint has gone walkies on his tail, but it isn’t too much of a mess. 

Right:

Looks OK from this odd angle I apparently photographed him at. Do like the sculpt on the hair strands. 

Back:

Tails butt! Not too much to see back here, but looks fine imo. 

Overall, I think this one is decent, especially if you can get one without derpy white paint. This one seemed to be the one most prone to paint flaws in the shop I was at though… And if you’re paying £10 for a small figure, you’d expect a little more QC tbh. 

Sonic – Totaku

Now… Sonic, from Sonic! The next three blogs will be the Sonic The Hedgehog Totaku that have been released. 

Front:

Love the base for this one – they’ve emulated Green Hill Zone for these. including the stripey greens. The details are all nice and crisp on the base, and it works really well.

We also have a ring flat to the base – does look a little odd lying down, but at least it isn’t an accessory that’s easily knocked over. I also appreciate it as an extra detail. 

The colours for Sonic are nice and bold, and match his in-game appearance. The pose chosen also works well. However there are a bunch of small paint flaws, some of which I find more annoying than the ones on Crash. Mine has a white dot on his left sneaker, and I don’t like rough paint above his right eye. 

Left:

Here we have quite a bad seam on the lower spike. We can also see a seam in the head, but it’s blended decently enough. 

Right:

Seam on his lower spike is less obnoxious on this side, but still visible. Bottom of his shoe feels a bit square – would be nice if they mad his foot taper a bit more. Not sure if it’s exactly a match for the other one, which doesn’t seem so square. His hand and arm are painted nicely though. 

Back:

The spikes look good from the back, and I like the golden buckle on his shoe. Surprisingly few issues back here. 

Overall, I think he’s decent, but potentially beset by paint issues. I know for a couple of the Sonic ones I did spend some time comparing, and I’m not sure if it is just a general issue or a first run issue, but these ones seemed less consistent with the paint jobs than  the other Totaku I’ve looked at. However, if you’re either able to overlook or find a decently painted one, it’s a pretty nice figure. 

Crash Bandicoot – Totaku

Here’s Crash Bandicoot… from Crash Bandicoot. In Totaku form:

These figures are kind of cheaper collectables, but they are pretty small… which kind of negates the price point imo. So let’s see how this dude stacks up… 

First thing that stands out is his bright orange colour, which is accurate to his in-game appearance. I also like his base – the sandy coloured base works well, and I like the paint effect on it.

Face close-up:

His eyes are neat for the most part, as well as the eyebrows. Brown paint on his muzzle escapes his top lip a bit though. The light orange fur patch is painted neatly on this side, but less so on the other. The gloves are also painted well. So some minor flaws, but nothing too annoying. 

Left:

I like the way the fur texture is throughout his body, and does have some natural-type patterns to the direction of the fur. His shoes look good and the wite seems neat for the most part, and so are his gloves.

His jeans seem to be sculpted OK, but are darker than they should be imo. Doesn’t bother me much as I never played the games, so I don’t really notice the inaccuracy, but looking at other pictures of him, they upper part should really be a lighter colour. 

Right:

Love the nose and the expression. This side looks good for the most part, but we do see where the brown paint escaped his muzzle somewhat. Shading in his ear is nice though. 

Back:

Bit of a plaint fleck on mine, near his left shoulder. However, the texture work is nice, only issue back here imo (other than the fleck) is them pants being too dark blue. 

Overall, it’s decent for a small figure. The paintwork is pretty decent for the most part, but not free of flaws. For the price they retail in the UK, I think they’re slightly overprice, but GAME has often been doing deals on these, so you may be able to pick them up for a more reasonable price. Not entirely sure if he’s worth the £10 I paid, but I think he’s a fairly decent figure. 

Figure Spotlight – Confessor Dhalia

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

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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:

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And a close-up of her face:

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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:

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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:

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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. 

Alien – Predator Thermal Vision ver

One last xeno before we break from the the xenos…

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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

Back:

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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’:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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

Left:

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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:

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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:

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

Base:

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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:

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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:

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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’:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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…

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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:

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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:

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

Back:

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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:

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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. 

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

Now for some alien warriors and their main nemesis…

First up, this dude:

Why, hello there! This one, um, has a normal hair. That’s mine. Sorry. Overall, he looks OK, pretty similar to the ones in the other set. Only this one is waving. 

Top of his head:

I do like the sculpting on the top of these alien warrior’s heads. That part did come out well, though here we can see the arm joint is a bit “eh”. 

Xeno number 2:

This guy… likes to lounge around. This guy I’d say is the weakest of the three warriors in this set – his pose isn’t overly exciting, and he doesn’t stand up on his own either… 

Lastly for the xenos:

With his arms up, this feels more like a xeno pose, crossed with a M.U.S.C.L.E one. He’s also in attack mode, with his inner mouth poking out. He also isn’t super at balancing, but his tail does more to support him, so he doesn’t look like he’s lazing out. 

Now for their natural enemy… the Ripley!

The sculpting feels more detailed than series 1, and she has something that almost passes as an expression. 

Ripley with Newt:

Another iconic “pose”. However, I’m not too much of a fan of the sculpt on this one, no matter how hard I try to not see it. From the front, Newt looks like she’s melting into Ripley a bit, and the faces look odd. From the back, Newt’s leg looks like it has been flattened, which doesn’t look good. The hair sculpts look good, if a little merged. Rifle looks the part though. 

Again, a mixed bag. The sculpts seem to have more detail in this set, but there’s more balance issues with this set, or other moulding weirdnesses.