fantastic_four

While I enjoy how he bullies him socially because the new guy playing Flash has a great comedic delivery, I can't agree that they glossed over it in previous films. One of my absolute favorite sequences from all of the Spidey films is Flash vs. Peter in the first film, and Joe Manganiello made a GREAT Flash Thompson with the size, mean and angry demeanor, and athleticism they always depicted the character as having. This is an amazing scene, and without Manganiello being so imposing it wouldn't have worked. They can't do things like this with the new guy, but I do like the idea that bullying can be about more than just physical intimidation.

Mysterio looks freaking amazing flying around on the cloud. Since he's fighting the water elemental my immediate thought was that they're an effect he created to defeat in order to get publicity as a hero.

Because Nick Fury isn't a threat to him.

Also got Omega Red and the entire Venom wave in yesterday. Omega Red's cables are REALLY fun to pose with, they're curved in ways that make them really, really easy to wrap around the torso, arms, and legs of other characters in multiple configurations. They port into his wrists VERY securely too. I'll get a shot of what that looks like soon, but I was easily able to wrap a figure in each tentacle and suspend them in the air without falling. Venom, Monster Venom, Carnage, and Scream are AMAZING. I also bought a Venom Deadpool figure to use the symbiote parts to spruce up Venom. The symbiote tendrils coming from Venom's back in the pic below came from Deadpool (they also come with the 2015 Agent Venom figure, but that one's more expensive) Here's a size comparison of the biggest 1:12 scale Legends and Select characters I have so far with a nicely scaled 5' 4" or so Wolverine in the front and Venom in there as the mark for a normal big guy at 6' 3" and 230 pounds. Why'd they make the Thing so tall? Usually he's about 6' in the comics, but Hasbro made him the equivalent of about 6' 10" on the latest iteration.

Got a number of new Legends in this week. First is the tiger stripe X-23 figure. Really love the look of that one; she's down by the sentinel's right leg.

The one from 2015 meets most of your criteria. The reason I haven't bought it is the cape, it's stiff and limits the articulation of the figure. And without the cape he looks incomplete. I'm not sure how they'll solve this without doing a cloth cape which they've rarely done, but they have done it before. I've seen a number of customizers offer custom capes for Legends figures, so this figure with a custom cape is probably a rather perfect Magneto. And maybe this one is just fine. Magneto mostly just hovers around bending metal anyway.

That'd be great. I wanted that figure but just wasn't attached to the costume. The effects are pretty dumb too. Really wish Hasbro would develop some kind of beam effect. Even the ones that come with the Revoltech Magneto are better and seem fun in that they're actual magnets.

I LOVE the Marvel Select Storm, but I've always been bummed that they strayed from the standard 1:12 scale and went with whatever scale it is they use, 1:11 or whatever. She looks like she's 7' 2" next to all of my 1:12 figures. This is the kind of sculpt I'm hoping for with the classic wave, but I'm not sure they're willing to sculpt the ring like Diamond did.

Yeah, we desperately need a Nightcrawler, he's way overdue. The Toybiz version of Nightcrawler isn't at all bad, and if he's not part of the first classic wave I'll probably get him. Hasbro's latest molds are the best ever, but I wish they'd do hand and foot articulation like Toybiz did. Nightcrawler having an articulated back foot on the figure below is impressive. I can't handle mohawk Storm; I'd prefer one with the original suit and hair, that's what I'm hoping for in the classic wave. The problem is that they usually only include sculpts that already exist for those waves and I'm not sure they'd be able to implement the ring on her waist without a new sculpt of some kind. I generally like the 2004 Toybiz Storm aside from the bushy hair, but I can't believe they included protruding nipples in the sculpt! My daughter asked for a Storm for Christmas, and Rachel saw this one and was disgusted by it.

The intro theme didn't jump out at me like the first two seasons did. It was decent, just didn't get me as pumped as the Handsome Family and Leonard Cohen songs did.

Great show so far, my significant other and I watched the first episode last night and were immediately compelled to watch the second. They shouldn't have used wicker dolls, they did something too similar to that in season one with the "devil nets."

Can't wait to hear what the lineup will be. There are a number of characters that I don't like most of the current versions of that I'd like to see new versions for, particularly Nightcrawler, Storm, and Magneto.

Really love the look of the upcoming Kingpin build-a-figure. It's the first one I've ever seen that gets the original comic scale right, although I doubt any human could have a skeletal frame like his and weigh only 450. He's supposed to be 6' 7" and 450 pounds, but Mark Jackson's brother Escalade was 6' 8" and 500 pounds and didn't look anywhere near that wide, and Andre the Giant was 6' 10" and 550 pounds and also didn't have limbs as wide as Kingpin's are often depicted.

Got seven new figures in yesterday, with the Marvel Legends Studios 10th anniversary Iron Man Mark 7 figure as my favorite. The detailing and paint on it are spectacular, and the air flaps on the back are really cool, although I'm sure my son will break them before the month is up. I'm thinking about getting a Hot Toys Iron Man, and this was just a prelude to that. Also got the entire first wave of Legends vintage figures pictured second below. I mostly got it for the Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Black Widow, but since the full set is $60 at BigBadToyStore and I couldn't find the individual figures on eBay for less than $25-$30 apiece, it was cheaper to get them all. Didn't think I'd like the vintage Iron Man, but I grew to like it quite a lot after opening it. The Captain America's face sculpt is horrible, really hate that. Punisher is meh, I hate the vintage suit.

I've decided against more Revoltechs for now. I still want their Venom and Carnage more than those from Marvel Legends, but I hate having to hide Revoltechs from my 3-year old because they're so fragile. If the kid was 7 or 8 I'd probably go Revoltech, but for now the durability of Marvel Legends makes it the best choice for sharing figures with the kid. Probably going to pick up the entire Venom wave that came out last year pictured below since the whole set can be had for only a bit more than just the superb Mac Gargan Venom.

Be warned--I think most fans are disappointed in Revoltech figures. They're too fragile to play with and are designed for the greatest possible range of posing options. You have to be very careful with them, whereas you can yank at or throw a Hasbro toy across the room and it'll be fine. Here's a great review of them that shows a dozen or so high-quality pics of the insane poses you can achieve with the figure: http://kumastyledesigns.com/revoltech-wolverine-review/

Got five Japanese Obitsu stands in over the weekend. One of them is shown in the pic below configured to stand at maximum height holding Silver Surfer up. Also got my Marvel Legends Thing in late last week, really loving the sculpt on him. I ordered ten knockoff Tamashii stands a few weeks ago from China at about $1.50 apiece (authentic price is about $15), but they probably won't be in from overseas for a few more weeks. Tamashii stands are supposed to be the best flight stands, but it's possible the knockoff ones aren't strong enough to support the same types of poses.

Here's a bootleg Revoltech Wolverine review, a video showing the detailed differences between the knockoff Revoltech Spider-Man and an authentic one, and another showing the differences between the knockoff Revoltech Deadpool and an authentic one.

Any of the ones you get from AmiAmi, HobbyLink Japan, or BigBadToyStore are straight from the manufacturer Kaiydo, and mine came from BigBadToyStore. I haven't owned a knockoff, but there are videos comparing the differences between them on YouTube. With any Chinese ripoff the differences are all related to quality; they cut corners big-time to get them out so cheaply. With Revoltech, the paint job sucks in comparison and the joints break more easily is mostly what I've seen in the videos and heard in forums. I'm not touching the cheap knockoffs, but the $75 price point isn't a hurdle for me and I feel like I've already gotten that value back in enjoying the figure. If price were a hurdle I'd probably settle for the knockoffs, and there are dozens of YouTube videos of people reviewing the knockoff Revoltech figures. I don't expect to be able to re-sell it for $75, but maybe I can, I saved my BigBadToyStore invoice as proof of where I got it from, and I'm hoping that makes full-price resale more likely down the line. I'm not willing to go to the $200+ price point of Hot Toys though with all the knockoffs out there watering the market down. Ignoring price, Kaiydo's quality control seems GREAT to me, so the choice between knockoff or genuine boils down to buying a car from Toyota or buying a cheap hack-job from a used car salesman who stuck a Toyota label on their attempt to copy their product. They may look extremely similar, but they certainly won't drive the same. When I said that it's difficult to pose Revoltech figures, the immediate difference you notice between a Hasbro Marvel Legends and a Revoltech is that for the first hour you feel like you're going to break a Revoltech figure just by moving its limbs. At first that makes them feel REALLY cheap, but after a while you notice that what you get in exchange for the fragility is seemingly-infinite articulation. If I take a Marvel Legends figure and try to pose it, there are often only three or four positions where you can articulate them so that they will, for example, stand up without support. With the larger figures like Thing and Juggernaut the weight gives them more balance, but with the female figures you constantly feel like you have to find that one spot where the balance works out and if you stray from that one position the figure will easily tip and fall. With Revoltech, they're so amazingly articulated that you can find a balance spot for just about ANY pose within reason. Running, leaning, jumping, crouching, or whatever, you can move the freaking thing and get it balanced in just about any way you want. You see that picture I posted of Wolverine with his legs wrapped around Juggernaut's arm to support him for the shot? That took me literally 3 to 4 seconds to wrap the legs around the arm. There are so many points of articulation that it was a breeze to get both feet touching each other at the bottom of the arm, whereas with the Marvel Legends Wolverine I would have been working the limited articulation points for a minute or two, the feet probably wouldn't have met at all, and it would probably fall off four of five times before I could get the shot done. I say that as a big fan of the Marvel Legends Wolverine figure; I own the brown classic one and I bought the yellow tiger-stripe one for my son, and I love the articulation on them. Yet they still pale to Revoltech's amazing articulation. In summary, what you're getting for the price is ARTICULATION ARTICULATION that's second to none, a MASTERFUL paint job that just looks more gorgeous than any Legends paint I've ever seen, and an overall attention to detail that's about midway between a Legends and a Hot Toy figure. The con is they're fragile and the articulation points look terrible on some of them with Spider-Man being the worst I've seen. Spider-Man also has really weird-looking hips that made me pass on it. I'm hiding my Wolverine from my 3-year old son because I know if he did ANYTHING with it he'd break it, but I let him borrow my Marvel Legends figures all the time. I mostly bought Wolverine because the visibility of the Revoltech joints is minimal compared to some of the others. I will probably buy Venom and Carnage Revoltechs pictured below when they come back in stock because the details on those look absolutely nuts, best I've seen on those characters, although I'm taking a hard look at the Legends Build-a-Figure Monster Venom pictured last below (he's supposed to be the Mac Gargan aka Scorpion version of the character) as an alternative to the Venom. The recent Legends Carnage pales in comparison to the Revoltech so I've got no internal conflict about that one.

Got my Marvel Select Juggernaut and Revoltech Wolverine in today. My first impression of the Wolverine was to not like it because it really is hard to work those Revoltech joints, but once I figured it out I started having HELLA fun. The paint and details are just SO lovely and it's by far the most posable figure I've ever owned. I feel like you can achieve virtually any pose, although certainly learning to work those joints into the right position can be a challenge. And WOW those claws, those claws! Just the best I've ever seen on a Wolverine 6-inch figure. The Select Juggernaut is by far the best-looking Juggs ever made, but he's REALLY stiff, so the Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure version is more fun to use since his range of posing motion is far better.

Yea I saw those in GPA. The average I gave was for the last 12 month period but you're right, the last three months has seen the average for 9.4s at around $9.5K or so. But 9.6s aren't similarly inflated, so I'm assuming it's an anomaly unless it continues for another 6+ months.

 Well, I was a bit off, so I guess I'm surprised! I forecasted a 9.4 Hulk as a $10K book this year, but it's around $11K in 9.6 and $7500 in 9.4. Not far off though.

It's not new or isolated to toys. Just about any worldwide company who sell items protected by intellectual property laws detests China's absolute indifference to copyright infringement. I'm not sure of it, but my best guess is that the biggest source of lost money is from Microsoft, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a big military contractor like Lockheed-Martin or Boeing. t's just as bad with copyrights, patents, or trademarks with Chinese manufacturers just ripping off any device or creative work they want to with no fear the government will ever do anything about it. Even the government itself will rip off patents for production of state-funded projects across virtually every industry. The Chinese government requires that patented devices have their complete schematics disclosed to them to even be able to sell many types of devices in the country, and in many instances those schematics have been leaked to private companies to explicitly rip off the device for state use and sometimes even openly sell knockoffs. It'll be interesting to see if this ever changes. Their latest "president" since 2012 has paid lip service to it, and I just saw that Lepin won a trademark infringement lawsuit in Chinese courts late last year that supposedly ordered them to cease using the name and Lego trademarks, but as far as I can tell they're still up and open for business ( https://lepinworld.com/ ) using the same name and clear Lego ripoff art, so who knows how much that even matters.

I'm still learning about the extent of the counterfeit market...are they really knocking off the $20 Hasbro figures? Why the heck would they do that? Not a lot of meat on the bones left for them to scavenge with a price point that low.

I hadn't realized it, but actually that Jim Lee Cyclops DID return, but with a Dave Cockrum 1970s/1980s repaint paired with a great-looking Dark Phoenix figure that was a Toys-R-Us exclusive in 2017. I also don't like those straps that constantly fall and move around on the Jim Lee Cyclops, so I'm picking up this set very soon because it's got the best version of Phoenix I've found to date. Add in that it was released right before Toys R Us went under and a HUGE added nostalgia factor kicks in for me.