fantastic_four

Hasbro is announcing their new Haslab project on Friday, an X-Men Sentinel. Wonder if I'll want to buy five...

At the start of the video he says they had already been shooting for weeks when he started, and the reason for that is they originally had another actor cast as Wolverine. Dougray Scott was supposed to play the role, but he was working on Mission Impossible. He originally thought he could fit both films in, but Tom Cruise refused to change his shooting schedule to accommodate Dougray playing Wolverine, so Dougray had to drop out. He looks good at being pissed in the first pic below, but I've never seen him in a film so I don't know what his acting is like. Like Jackman at 6' 1.5" Scott is far too tall for Wolverine at 5' 11". I like Jackman a lot and still place Logan in the top five superhero films ever, but I'm not terribly nostalgic for him in the role. He's nowhere close to ideal as Logan for two reasons--he's far too big, and he's at best OK at playing someone with feral rage. A young Sonny Landham in the second pic below from Predator is still my ideal look and demeanor for Wolverine, but he, too, was too big at about 6' 2". I fully expect to like the next Wolverine far more than Jackman if they find the right guy, but we'll see.

Harsh, but accurate and mostly funny. Best moment is when the kid asks the guy if his wife plays with toys too.

Hasbro VERY strongly implied back in February that the next Haslab project was a Sentinel. Yesterday they showed one of his legs in the pic below. Given that Jubilee in front of the leg is about six inches and given that the leg was placed VERY close to her on the table, that puts the Sentinel at about three feet tall. I might have to get three to five of these guys!

It's just a simpler task. By FAR the greatest challenge with computer graphics is re-creating the human face since we all spend a lifetime learning what they look like down to the subtlest nuance. Nobody has done it extremely well yet. Just touching up recorded video is easier, sort of like sculpting a new head is far harder to do convincingly well without entering the Uncanny Valley as compared to just putting makeup on a real head.

Bite thy tongue! I wanna see Old Man Rex They can do both. I thought the CGI on Jackson was seamless. I like the result of that 10x better than the entirely-CGI renderings of actors. Both CGI Carrie Fisher and CGI Peter Cushing in Rogue One were noticeably fake, but I could barely tell with Jackson in Captain Marvel.

I can't see people going back to movies this year in anywhere close to HALF of the numbers they were before the shutdown. It's difficult to imagine how Hollywood blockbusters aren't totally screwed until there's an immunization.

They may use CGI to make him look younger like they did with Samuel L. Jackson in Captain Marvel.

It was far more than a warning, it was an explicitly directed message to ALL studios--which is why I have NO respect for all those articles making it sound like AMC was singling out Universal in their clickbait headlines. This is the key bit directed at all of Hollywood:

I haven't heard them say that so I don't know. For the most part they can re-use whatever parts they want as long as they fit within the style of a character or a line, although I've heard them say that the molds break down over time and eventually they have to create new ones because the old ones are no longer usable. But that female mold I showed seven examples of was first created in 2013, so they used it for 5-6 years (but have retired it now because the current designers think it's too sexualized in post-#MeToo culture). There's another mold they've used more than any other that first started with a Bucky Cap figure (I guess Bucky assumed the mantle of Cap at some point, not really sure) back in 2012, and they've used it for 50+ figures. If they've got a great sculpt they always try to re-use it whenever they can. They keep using Bucky Cap because it's one of the best sculpts they've ever done. I think that's a great thing because it's easy to vary the look of the character with paint, a few custom parts, a custom head, and custom accessories. In the case of that Salvo they CLEARLY had a much better sculpt with that Rock body than the one they originally tried to use, so if you've got a known good body always go with that over something that's new and might end up being inferior. With Legends, if they're doing a new character whose body type is VERY different from anything on the shelf they frequently just do an entirely new sculpt. I think they budget a certain number of new sculpts--maybe 30 or 40 per year--but then try to re-use older sculpts for the other 80 to 120 figures (they released around 150 last year). The Legends figures they've done the most new sculpts for in recent years are Marvel Cinematic Universe figures, they're almost ALL completely unique sculpts.

In the meantime just keep searching eBay for display stands. Unfortunately you'll need multiple types to support the different peg hole sizes, but that's what many people were doing before Can of Beams did those hex bases. Legends figures used to come with display bases in the early 2010s, you can often buy lots of those and if Can of Beams hadn't done his bases I would have bought those. I never did, though, so I don't know how many current peg holes are supported by them. I've seen multiple custom peg bases over the last year on eBay as well, but I never pulled the trigger on any because Can of Beams did his right before I was going to. Here's an example of the older Legends peg bases. In the second pic you can see the 2012 Legends Doctor Doom that comes with one of them as all Legends figures around that time did. https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Lot-Stands-Base-For-Marvel-Legends-Spiderman-Hulk-X-man-Figure-Baby-Boy-Toy/333232017411?hash=item4d962d1003:g:X5kAAOSwKDBdNUis

A few examples (click pics for full 4K size). In the first shot below look at Enchantress and Scarlet Witch. Virtually the entire figure is re-used--the heeled feet, the legs, the upper and lower torso, and the arms, but they have vastly different paint jobs. Scarlet Witch has her own cape and head sculpt, and Enchantress has her own separate skirt piece that goes over the lower torso. Look at the seven female figures in the second pic--they all use almost all of the same body parts. Same upper/lower torso (Black Cat has a custom upper torso), same legs (Black Cat has custom lower legs and boot feet), same arms on most (Rogue has custom arms for the jacket sleeves), but custom paint, custom heads, some custom hands, and custom extra pieces on most. You can really tell with the feet due to the boot wrinkles in the sculpt.

Hard to tell. In many cases the feet are re-used from figures that were originally molded years ago, so if you could identify the original mold date of any given pair of feet you may be able to determine a pattern. But that's not something I've ever tried to do or seen anyone else do. I can often tell when torsos, arms, or legs are re-used, but feet are too generic and I usually can't tell when they're new or when they're re-used. At conventions Hasbro doesn't even use peg holes, they glue the feet of figures to little plastic slides. So even their own approach is to not try using those peg holes. But I use them a lot, particularly on female figures which have the thinnest legs that are the hardest to stand.

I don’t know. I have a lot of faith in the new line coming out. With no other super hero movies coming out. I think Joes have a shot at catching on. I don’t really mind the bit of a twist on the characters. Not really a fan of the futuristic weapons for roadblock or the black snake eyes, but the rest are fine. I’m currently clearing out an area for them. I can’t wait to see the next wave. It's going to last for a while just on nostalgic buys from older collectors. Snake Eyes and Destro sold out VERY fast, so they're clearly out there in droves. Not sure how many Millennials will get into them with the military not seeming as cool during times of relative peace like we've had for decades now. That made me lose interest in them over time although I definitely bought everything that was out in the early 1980s. I doubt I'll buy anything beyond the deluxe Snake Eyes, and I mostly bought him for the weapons rack. But the figure is so outstanding I'm using him as a SHIELD agent guest star in my Marvel displays.

Unfortunately there is no single solution that will work because Hasbro hasn't been putting any effort into making sure that the peg holes are all of a standard diameter or depth. I use custom ones from a collector at www.canofbeams.com that have three pegs on them designed to fit most of the sizes out there (you can see the two pegs not in the feet of X-23 in the pic below), but the guy who makes them hasn't done any in about a year, he said the demand was too great and he preferred to work on more creative effects pieces but is hoping to find a company who will help him produce them en masse. If he starts selling them again I'll let you know...I love them, they're pictured below. I bought 100 last year, and that has easily lasted me. Canofbeams is the best creator of third-party effects pieces out there besides the ones Bandai has done. LOVE the metal claws he makes for Legends Wolverine figures. He has a company who makes those for him, but that's metal work, not plastic. He hasn't found a plastic manufacturer to make effects in large quantities yet. He's just a collector like us and makes all of his plastic effects himself, and he developed some kind of repetitive stress disorder in his arm last year from doing too many, so he's dramatically slowed down what he does this year.

Same, and I love Mafex's aesthetic and articulation. My only issue with that figure is he's too small. LOVE the Mafex Spidey though, and I'll be getting the Mafex Cyclops soon. Still on the fence about their Wolverine, I don't like the way his claws look.

Time for drive-in theaters to start up again.

My most anticipated figure of the year was just released this week, the Mafex Cyclops. Reviews are VERY mixed, and I'm not sure what to think so far. Here's a good review that's positive:

I figured this would happen, but not this quickly--that Snake Eyes deluxe edition listed for $40 but is now sold out, and it already goes for $130 to $150 on eBay.

Nice pic! How'd you attach that Iron Man repulsor effect to the end of the Snake Eyes uzi?

Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise might not even be able to afford to fuel up their private jets as much and might even have to sometimes ride COMMERCIALLY!

Wow...was wondering when one would go under. Didn't think it would be them first!

All my usuals--World of Warcraft, NBA 2K, and Overwatch.

Another toxic thread! I sense a common element...

Clicked on thread for the first time today to see if it's the sheet show I assumed it would be, and yep, it's exactly the sheet show I assumed it would be.