Tag: western figures

Daenerys Targaryen – Eaglemoss

Two collectables that don’t have much to do with each other, but are both going to be quick entries I think… 

First up, this small Daenerys Targaryen:

Unfortunately she was broken across the feet when she came – you can see the lines across her boots where I’ve reglued her. As to why I didn’t return her: I won her for 99p + postage, so it wasn’t worth the hassle of returning it. It’s not very well painted, and is probably about the level I hope to achieve with a garage kit :P. Thinking of repainting her boots as practice, and cover up the break lines. The die-cast material she’s made out of isn’t very strong, so not sure if she was already broken (image for the auction was poor), or it happened in her journey to me. 

Sometimes Eaglemoss does an OK paint job. Sometimes they… do this. I guess the GoT line is one of the ones that’s going to/has binned hard. 

Here she is from the right:

Admire the… thing she is holding and blue paint in her hair. Base is also a bit naffed. Her This is probably the best angle for the moulding on Daenerys goes. The gold part is supposed to be one item, with a tassel coming off the end, but the tassel isn’t aligned to the base of the item. The tassel moulding looks OK irl. 

Left:

Apologies for the out-of-focus shot. Her face paint is actually pretty good close up, but the quality of her hair really mars it. It looks like they overpainted blue on the hair that’s on her shoulders, and it’s way too fat to look right. And that hand paint is damn awful, as well as a total lack of definition for her fingers on this hand. Part of the hair is the same colour as her cloak – the side of the hair that’s facing us, plus a bit on her back is the same way. I don’t think cloaks come up to meet your hair… 

Back:

Paint overruns everywhere. If you look at the hair dangling down her back, you can see the blue side on the left that I mentioned in the last paragraph. The bottom tip of her coat is also missing dark blue paint. 

This could’ve been a good figure, if more care was paid to the painting. This feels like a figure that shouldn’t have passed QA – there’s some nice bits like the clasps painted in silver in her hair, and the bead on the tassel of the… thing. The face weirdly was done well, considering the rest of it. The blue detailing on her front though, comes off very much like “cheap blind bag figure”, which is a shame. 

I don’t think I’ll pick up any of these GoT figures unless I can see them in person, and can verify the paint job isn’t turd. The LotR figures were marred with the same issues, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this line is similarly affected. 

Borg Cube – Playmates

What do we have here?

Hm, looks cube-y. 

Yep, those look like some Borg cube patterns… 

Hm, this side doesn’t seem very Borg-y…

Let’s see what’s in here:

Lots of Borg out to play! The Picard and blue Borg came with the set, the others are a Borg Assimilation Team I bought many moons ago. Have been wanting this mini play set for some time, but finally decided to commit to getting one. Ended up getting this shipped over from America, along with 2 other sets which I may sell. 

Top-down view:

The inner parts pull out, and the bed folds down. You can partially extend the arm on the bio-bed, so it’s sticking up. Yeah, Playmates called the bed that. 

Glad I bought this – it’s nice having the Borg to have a home :). It’s nothing hugely fancy, but it does provide a good backdrop & stand to my assimilation team. There’s enough here to give the “feel” of a Borg cube, but I think it’s only good as a diorama, rather than a toy – there’s only so much room to pose the small figures… and it’s small. Very much more a backdrop than anything else. This playset doesn’t have the playability of a Polly Pocket, but it’s nicely executed for what it is. 

Blue Beetle – DC Icons

Here we have a bit of a random buy – Blue Beetle:

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Am a sucker for winged things and blue. Found him in a discount pile, priced at £5 for the mildly damaged box. What was even better, when I brought him to the checkout, I found out the store was doing a half-price on all damaged & discounted goods…. can’t argue with £2.50!

Here he is with his wings pointed upwards:

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The wings freely rotate, so can be positioned freely, on the axis given. However, they are not hinged so you can’t ‘flap’ the wings backward, but not sure this is entirely necessary for a beetle.

Close-up of his wings (the pegs do shove further in to mostly hide the unpainted section):

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They are attached to a beetle, who clings onto his back. I think this is a pretty neat design,as someone unfamiliar with the character. It also gives him some cool ‘spikes’ either side of his head, by virtue of its antennae.

Back shot:

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I love the shininess of the wings, and the details upon them. The dark blue areas are also metallic paint, which shines nicely. I’d say he isn’t a super-detailed figure, but what’s there is well done. The contrasting textures on his suit are nice, and the grooved lines neat. 

Side shot:

For some reason, I only took a pic of his right side in this configuration, but this will do for demoing what he’s like. The joints are nicely done and largely blend well. I love the way the beetle’s legs hang onto him, and you can see the beetle’s antennae, which make cool ‘spikes’ over his shoulders. The white areas on his legs help break up the large amount of blueness. 

One thing that annoys me slightly is that his forearm seems a little big for his upper arm, and seems to show at any angle. I suppose I could pretend it’s a gauntlet, but it doesn’t look distinct enough for that. 

However, if you don’t like his forearms, he can be ‘armed’: 

He comes with two blasters that you can equip on his forearms, hence the forearm split. These guns are pretty neat, but do look a bit like “lump of plastic” from certain angles imo. There really isn’t much paint detail on these – mostly what you can see here. 

Here he is from the left:

The gun on his left arm has a decent amount of detail and some other paint details. It’s also sculpted to fit properly around his arm, making it the clear candidate for the left arm. 

From the right:

The moulding is nice on the right gun, but it just seems too… solid? Would’ve been nice to see some kind of painting/shading on it. Same with bits of the right gun – maybe the banding on the barrels could’ve been painted a darker blue or something. But hey, I bought him for £2.50 so I’m not that fussed! I’ll likely display him with the left gun and with his right hand. 

Overall, I’m pleased with this figure, definitely think he’s worth the price I paid! Not sure I would’ve paid full price for him personally, but he seems to be a solid figure in the DC Icons range. 

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. 

Sonia Blanche – Shining Beach Heroines – FREEing S-Style

Lastly, we have Sonia Blanche:

Originally I didn’t order this one, as I wasn’t aiming to collect the set. Then I decided I wanted all the S-Style figures, so I waited until she was near release for pre-orders to re-open. She came up on Nippon Yasan, pay immediately. So I did. Then a few days later she got delayed a month. D’oh. Out of the three, I think this one is the least visually interesting. She does seem very happy to see the beach though! I think she has a nice bikini top, and the bows on her shoes are very nice. 

Left side:

Plenty of side-boob going on there. And she has some nicely sculpted bows on the side of her bikini bottoms. Her hairs have strands to them, making it a lot less plain than just one moulded section. The ponytail towards the front of her hair is a nice touch. 

Right side:

She isn’t hiding too much ;). Her hair looks good from this angle imo. 

Back:

I think the hair works well on this figure. The back of this figure is sculpted well, and painted well. Not too much to say really!

Overall, I’ve warmed up to this figure since owning her, but I still think she’s the visually least interesting of the three, so I’d only recommend her to anyone who wants a Sonia Blanche figure, or people who are nutters like me who are collecting the set. She’s definitely not the worst of the set – there isn’t anything wrong with her imo, unlike some of the others, she’s just a happy beach figure. 

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. 

Atlas – Portal 2 – Figma

It was my birthday recently, and my husband bought me the Portal 2 Figmas… well… erm, I ordered them, he paid for them XD. So thanks!

First up, Atlas:

Aaand this is all the accessories he comes with, other than some extra hands. Not even a companion cube… though I do have one of those. He his very nicely done though, and the mechanical parts have come out very nicely, and give him a very complex look. 

For posing though, he has some features that make up for it. He can look at you with suspicion: 

Or after a night of heavy drinking:

The top panel goes up and down, and can be twisted, as shown above. His eye can fully open and close, plus the eyelids are independent, which partly make up for a lack of accessories. 

Here he is having a nap:

Left side:

I like his fingers-spread hand. The electronics lool good from this side too.

Right side:

The portal gun looks good, and is kinda shiny on the beam part, which shows in the front shots.

Back:

The logo on his butt is crisp and clean, and they didn’t skimp out on the details on the back of his ball. 

Overall, he’s a very nice looking Figma, and decently well-articulated. With the Japanese price, he’s kind of on the pricey side, but worth it if you’re a Portal 2 fan. UK price… yeah, um about that. Juuust a little crazy! The retailers here are selling him at the “maybe if it was DX GLaDoS”  price. If you want this guy, I’d suggest importing him, as even paying the import charges would be cheaper!

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 – Kotobukiya Raven

This was a figure that I had to have, once I saw it. Not sure what time elapsed between the wanting and the actual buying – think I did have to wait for funds – but this is a figure I really like. 

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And here she is, casting a spell at you :D. The paintwork is really nice on this, and the sculpting has nice, bold lines without being overly fussy. Also move the smile on her face. 

Here’s a shot showing how she stands:

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The cape is also her stand – this was one of the things that drew me to this figure – the fact she doesn’t need a plastic disc to stand. And she stands up sturdily too. 

Here’s the cape from the back:

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Imo the cape looks nice from every angle, and doesn’t look ‘tortured’ into being the stand. I can see people not liking her shiny, blue look, but I love the colour, so it doesn’t detract for me. 

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.