This Week In Your Plastic Crack, Action Figures and Toy Collection 26 26

[B2D327]

On 1/9/2023 at 1:56 PM, Brandon Shepherd said:

You win the internet today!

Nice change of pace as my sense of humor normally gets me banned everywhere else 

[comicwiz]

I've slowly been adding stuff to the collection, here are a few pieces from the past few months - I wish the Canadian stuff showed up with more regularity, but I'll take it when it comes. Both MIB TIE and Falcon are complete with inserts, bilingual instructions, pamphlets and sticker sheet:

[Shadow Images]

On 1/9/2023 at 2:49 PM, comicwiz said:

I've slowly been adding stuff to the collection, here are a few pieces from the past few months - I wish the Canadian stuff showed up with more regularity, but I'll take it when it comes. Both MIB TIE and Falcon are complete with inserts, bilingual instructions, pamphlets and sticker sheet:

Very nice!  I miss the chase but not the money black hole.

 

[Myparentsbasement]

Spoiler

 

[Cat]

On 1/12/2023 at 3:15 AM, Myparentsbasement said:

  Hide contents

 

If only you didn't feel like such a sucker when you bought these. Every time I buy one of these the self-hate starts flowing, they're just not a good value, and you'll never convince me otherwise, no matter how nice they look on the card. 

[F For Fake]

On 1/8/2023 at 10:55 AM, ft88 said:

Metal Mauler Tank Driver sealed. 

with microphone
 

Woooow, tight!

[F For Fake]

On 1/11/2023 at 7:15 PM, Cat said:

If only you didn't feel like such a sucker when you bought these. Every time I buy one of these the self-hate starts flowing, they're just not a good value, and you'll never convince me otherwise, no matter how nice they look on the card. 

I really dig them, but at the price I just can't justify it. If they were $10 I'd buy every single one they made. As is, I will look for sale prices and even then cherry pick. I love the idea of them, these are the toys I wanted as a kid. I never cared about Transformers TRANSFORMING, I just wanted the robots to look like the cartoons. So these are right up my alley. But at $18-$20 a pop, I just can't do it. Same with GI Joe. I have bought a few because I LOVE the way they look, but no way I can justify the purchase of all of them. 

[Cat]

On 1/13/2023 at 12:11 AM, F For Fake said:

I really dig them, but at the price I just can't justify it. If they were $10 I'd buy every single one they made. As is, I will look for sale prices and even then cherry pick. I love the idea of them, these are the toys I wanted as a kid. I never cared about Transformers TRANSFORMING, I just wanted the robots to look like the cartoons. So these are right up my alley. But at $18-$20 a pop, I just can't do it. Same with GI Joe. I have bought a few because I LOVE the way they look, but no way I can justify the purchase of all of them. 

I love non-transforming Transformers. I loved Action Masters as a child. If these were more substantial I'd have no problem ponying up $20USD for them, but they don't and they aren't so I won't. I do have a few of these though, I had to get Mirage and Prowl, and I picked up a few others, but it doesn't mean I'm not aware just how badly I got ripped off. 

 

[fantastic_four]

Here are my top Marvel Legends for 2022 in order of quality. I’ve had all of these on my desk for most of the past month to make sure I felt good about how I was ranking them while also double-checking against the 2022 figures at the FigureList web site to make sure I didn't forget any. Doing that led to several figures getting swapped on and off of my list, particularly Kate Bishop who I originally didn't put on the list and eventually decided was a mistake.

As always I make an objective list that ignores my personal preference as much as possible and focuses on the quality of the figures followed by my subjective list of the figures I personally liked the best that is highly driven by my bias towards characters or other design elements I prefer. I started with a list of forty or so figures and narrowed it down to these twenty, so consider numbers 11 through 20 honorable mentions.

1. Haslab Galactus – They fixed all of the issues with the Sentinel and cranked out what may be the best action figure ever made.  Everything about this guy screams premium, and the only real issues are the lack of head tilt to look down on your other puny Legends figures and limited torso range to compensate for the lack of range in the neck.
2. Khonshu – Best BAF of the year.  Amazing sculpt, the staff is incredibly well done, excellent paint to make him look aged, the articulation range is exceptional and way better than the character usually needs, and the sculpt on the head is amazing.  The only real flaw is the head is only on a simple ball peg and doesn’t get much range, but everything else about this figure is superb.
3. Mojo – Amazing sculpt and paint, and while the articulation is limited all of the bits that do need to articulate do their job extremely well.  Striking shelf presence, and they really blew the also-excellent Toy Biz version of the figure away.
4. Morg – Probably the best sculpt of the year, and that’s particularly true for the head sculpt.  Probably would have been second-best of the year with more paint and range of motion on the torso, but this is a superbly striking figure.
5. Classic Doctor Strange – Aside from the heads this figure is mostly re-used parts, but wow, they found a mix of parts that work PERFECTLY for a classic Doctor Strange.  Just a stunning figure that articulates in every way you’d want a Strange figure to.
6. Kate Bishop – At first I wasn’t impressed with this figure, but once I got a chance to appreciate the articulation I realized she’s outstanding and may be THE best articulated female Legends figure ever made.  She’s got all of the arm and leg motion of the Shriek mold, but also butterfly joints that work wonderfully.  Often Legends butterfly joints bump into the deltoid peg and can’t get their full range of motion, but that’s not the case with Kate.  The sculpt is nice as most MCU figures are, and the face print is a nice likeness of Hailee Steinfeld.
7. Bonebreaker – It’s all about the sculpt on that tank.  Wonderfully done, and if he had working tank treads he would have easily gone into the top five this year.
8. Infinity Ultron – Wonderful sculpt, paint, and nice articulation.  Innovative cape design that stays on INCREDIBLY well yet is still easy to remove if desired.  Would have been top five if not for the engineering on the lance-holding hand–it’s too wide open to hold the lance well–and if he were depicted to be larger as he mostly was in the What If episode he appeared in.
9. Lizard – I thought for sure this guy would be top three due to the EXCEPTIONAL sculpt, TERRIFIC head sculpts, and INCREDIBLY-well done lab coat and tail, but there’s a fatal engineering design flaw.  He’s back-heavy, and the usual way to compensate for that is to lean figures forward–but this guy won’t lean forward much because they didn’t give his feet much forward swivel.  You can mod the food by cutting into it to give the swivel more room to turn, but that should have been built in.
10. Herald Thor – Great sculpt and paint.  Would have ranked higher, but the articulation is fairly limited in the neck and arms and his Mjolnir-holding hand is a bit too big to hold the hammer well.
11. Animated Cyclops – Surprisingly great figure.  I almost didn’t order this guy, but they improved EVERYTHING that was wrong with the previous Warlock wave figure.  The straps are incredibly well-implemented particularly on the torso and stay firmly in place even while posed, the butterfly joints are nice but somewhat limited due to the usual issue with the deltoid peg getting in the way, the range of motion from the Vulcan mold is fully intact and great, and the overall look is by far the best Cyclops ever in twelfth scale.
12. Amazing Fantasy 15 Spider-Man – I’m still not sure why they created a new mold for Spidey given how good the Renew Your Vows mold has become over multiple iterative improvements, but they did it and it’s really, really good with most of the solid articulation from the previous mold.  This new mold is also smaller, and that’s perfect for Peter who is usually depicted in Legends to be 6’ 2” or more even though the character should only be around 5’ 10”.  The paint in particular is subtly striking and matches the source art extremely well.
13. MCU She-Hulk – Completely new sculpt with great details and decent articulation. With butterflies and more torso range of motion she would have easily been top ten, but even without them she’s their best She-Hulk to date–and that’s no small feat given that the Super Skrull wave comic version was great and a top ten contender when it was released in 2020.
14. Classic Black Panther – By far the best Black Panther ever released.  The Vulcan mold is perfect for him, but he contends for top figure mostly due to the additions–great cape, perfect head sculpt, and nice deco.  He doesn’t have much paint, but he doesn’t need it with the nice matte black appearance of the plastic.
15. MCU Moon Knight – With more articulation would have made the top ten.  His sculpt and paint are exceptional, but he lacks butterflies and needs more range of motion in the torso, legs, and arms.  Still the range he does have is above average so he can still strike a wide range of poses.
16. Quake – Simple and highly effective re-use of the Shriek mold.  The deco is simple, but it works SO well for a SHIELD agent.  The real fun factor on this figure is finding female heads from other figures to put onto multiple copies of the figure for army-building female SHIELD agents.
17. Toad – Neck and neck with Renew Your Vows Spidey for the best articulation on any Legends figure to date.  Oddly the diaphragm joint and lower ab crunch combo doesn’t get even 45 degrees of forward tilt which limits the crouching poses he can get into, but his hip and leg articulation is good enough to compensate and still get him into a nice range of crouches.  Spectacular head sculpt.
18. Shocker – All-new sculpt that is extremely well done.  Minimal paint but nice articulation and a surprisingly well-done figure for a B-list Spidey villain.
19. Namor – Really nice execution with the sculpt, paint, and articulation and a face print that captures the film actor extremely well.
20. Iron Spider – May have been top ten if the legs didn’t have two sculpted joints that don’t articulate, but the legs are still super-fun to experiment with and can still get into a wide array of poses.  One of the few Iron Spider figures whose legs can actually support the figure in a limited number of poses.

Here's my list of subjective favorites. Several of these aren't at all innovative, but I just love them more for whatever reason.

1. Haslab Galactus
2. 3-pack Venom – Not much innovation here aside from the head sculpts, but Venom is one of my favorite villains and in many ways this is the best version of him to date, so I love it.
3. 3-pack Daredevil – I love Daredevil, and this is by far the best Daredevil ever, so aside from the minor deco issues what’s not to love?
4. Khonshu
5. MCU She-Hulk
6. Animated Cyclops
7. Infinity Ultron
8. Quake
9. MCU Moon Knight
10. King in Black Venom – I thought for sure this guy would be an objective top 10 this year, but the engineering on the wings has too many issues to compete for the top 10.  It’s still a great-looking figure, and I love the ambition of tackling those wings.  I just wish they pegged into the back better and that he could stand better with the wings on.

Here's some posing I did of most of the figures from these lists while deciding which were the best.

Edited January 12, 2023 by fantastic_four

[Buzzetta]

@fantastic_four

I need your advice on something.  I am in the process of redoing my spare bedroom in the house as an office.  Actually sanded the floor and will be pre-staining them it tonight.  I am not big on "stuff" everywhere but I did one a Spider-man Legends figure.  I had picked up the AF15 Spider-man and a Hasbro stand to pose him with and he is the only Marvel Legends figure I own.

However... 

I see what you mean by the attraction to the Renew Your Vows Spider-man and I like that he has a Peter Parker head.   Is there a cheap Peter Parker head from another figure that I could pick up that would pop onto the AF15 Spider-man or should I spend the money and get the Renew Your Vows set... OR is there another Marvel Legends figure that comes with a Peter Parker head that would be worth picking up in the 6" scale.

I really do not see myself ever buying another Marvel 6" figure unless I decide to pull the trigger on a black suited Spider-man as well. 

So basically, what do you recommend?  Sorry I am rambling. 

[fantastic_four]

I only know of two figures released within the past five years with a Peter Parker head besides the Renew Your Vows set--the Toys R Us exclusive Mary Jane and Spider-Man 2-pack from 2018 in the first pic below that's rather pricey and likely to cost multiples of the Renew Your Vows set, and the retro Peter Parker figure from 2020 in the second pic below that's more moderately priced.  But the retro Peter head doesn't have a fully unmasked head, just the one with the Coke bottle glasses and the half-Spidey head.  LOVE that half-Spidey head so much.

The Renew Your Vows head is a re-paint of the one from the 2-pack below.  They're almost identical, but the Renew Your Vows paint job is very slightly better.

  

Edited January 12, 2023 by fantastic_four

[fantastic_four]

Also, if I were going to have just one or two Marvel figures I'd definitely go with Mafex versions.  They just released two Spider-Mans within the past few months--one with classic colors and one in the black suit--both of which are the best versions of those suits ever made.  Unfortunately the classic version doesn't have a Peter head like the original Mafex Spidey did, but the black suit one does have an unmasked head.  The black suit unmasked head has symbiote goop on his neck though so you probably wouldn't want to use it with the other Mafex Spidey figures.

 

[gadzukes]

Any identification help on these 4 Gobots/transformers figures would be greatly appreciated.

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 1/12/2023 at 5:00 PM, fantastic_four said:

Also, if I were going to have just one or two Marvel figures I'd definitely go with Mafex versions.  They just released two Spider-Mans within the past few months--one with classic colors and one in the black suit--both of which are the best versions of those suits ever made.  Unfortunately the classic version doesn't have a Peter head like the original Mafex Spidey did, but the black suit one does have an unmasked head.  The black suit unmasked head has symbiote goop on his neck though so you probably wouldn't want to use it with the other Mafex Spidey figures.

 

I want that Black Costume figure.  What’s the price tag?

[B2D327]

On 1/14/2023 at 4:05 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

I want that Black Costume figure.  What’s the price tag?

[Jesse-Lee]

On 1/12/2023 at 2:54 PM, fantastic_four said:

Here are my top Marvel Legends for 2022 in order of quality. I’ve had all of these on my desk for most of the past month to make sure I felt good about how I was ranking them while also double-checking against the 2022 figures at the FigureList web site to make sure I didn't forget any. Doing that led to several figures getting swapped on and off of my list, particularly Kate Bishop who I originally didn't put on the list and eventually decided was a mistake.

As always I make an objective list that ignores my personal preference as much as possible and focuses on the quality of the figures followed by my subjective list of the figures I personally liked the best that is highly driven by my bias towards characters or other design elements I prefer. I started with a list of forty or so figures and narrowed it down to these twenty, so consider numbers 11 through 20 honorable mentions.

1. Haslab Galactus – They fixed all of the issues with the Sentinel and cranked out what may be the best action figure ever made.  Everything about this guy screams premium, and the only real issues are the lack of head tilt to look down on your other puny Legends figures and limited torso range to compensate for the lack of range in the neck.
2. Khonshu – Best BAF of the year.  Amazing sculpt, the staff is incredibly well done, excellent paint to make him look aged, the articulation range is exceptional and way better than the character usually needs, and the sculpt on the head is amazing.  The only real flaw is the head is only on a simple ball peg and doesn’t get much range, but everything else about this figure is superb.
3. Mojo – Amazing sculpt and paint, and while the articulation is limited all of the bits that do need to articulate do their job extremely well.  Striking shelf presence, and they really blew the also-excellent Toy Biz version of the figure away.
4. Morg – Probably the best sculpt of the year, and that’s particularly true for the head sculpt.  Probably would have been second-best of the year with more paint and range of motion on the torso, but this is a superbly striking figure.
5. Classic Doctor Strange – Aside from the heads this figure is mostly re-used parts, but wow, they found a mix of parts that work PERFECTLY for a classic Doctor Strange.  Just a stunning figure that articulates in every way you’d want a Strange figure to.
6. Kate Bishop – At first I wasn’t impressed with this figure, but once I got a chance to appreciate the articulation I realized she’s outstanding and may be THE best articulated female Legends figure ever made.  She’s got all of the arm and leg motion of the Shriek mold, but also butterfly joints that work wonderfully.  Often Legends butterfly joints bump into the deltoid peg and can’t get their full range of motion, but that’s not the case with Kate.  The sculpt is nice as most MCU figures are, and the face print is a nice likeness of Hailee Steinfeld.
7. Bonebreaker – It’s all about the sculpt on that tank.  Wonderfully done, and if he had working tank treads he would have easily gone into the top five this year.
8. Infinity Ultron – Wonderful sculpt, paint, and nice articulation.  Innovative cape design that stays on INCREDIBLY well yet is still easy to remove if desired.  Would have been top five if not for the engineering on the lance-holding hand–it’s too wide open to hold the lance well–and if he were depicted to be larger as he mostly was in the What If episode he appeared in.
9. Lizard – I thought for sure this guy would be top three due to the EXCEPTIONAL sculpt, TERRIFIC head sculpts, and INCREDIBLY-well done lab coat and tail, but there’s a fatal engineering design flaw.  He’s back-heavy, and the usual way to compensate for that is to lean figures forward–but this guy won’t lean forward much because they didn’t give his feet much forward swivel.  You can mod the food by cutting into it to give the swivel more room to turn, but that should have been built in.
10. Herald Thor – Great sculpt and paint.  Would have ranked higher, but the articulation is fairly limited in the neck and arms and his Mjolnir-holding hand is a bit too big to hold the hammer well.
11. Animated Cyclops – Surprisingly great figure.  I almost didn’t order this guy, but they improved EVERYTHING that was wrong with the previous Warlock wave figure.  The straps are incredibly well-implemented particularly on the torso and stay firmly in place even while posed, the butterfly joints are nice but somewhat limited due to the usual issue with the deltoid peg getting in the way, the range of motion from the Vulcan mold is fully intact and great, and the overall look is by far the best Cyclops ever in twelfth scale.
12. Amazing Fantasy 15 Spider-Man – I’m still not sure why they created a new mold for Spidey given how good the Renew Your Vows mold has become over multiple iterative improvements, but they did it and it’s really, really good with most of the solid articulation from the previous mold.  This new mold is also smaller, and that’s perfect for Peter who is usually depicted in Legends to be 6’ 2” or more even though the character should only be around 5’ 10”.  The paint in particular is subtly striking and matches the source art extremely well.
13. MCU She-Hulk – Completely new sculpt with great details and decent articulation. With butterflies and more torso range of motion she would have easily been top ten, but even without them she’s their best She-Hulk to date–and that’s no small feat given that the Super Skrull wave comic version was great and a top ten contender when it was released in 2020.
14. Classic Black Panther – By far the best Black Panther ever released.  The Vulcan mold is perfect for him, but he contends for top figure mostly due to the additions–great cape, perfect head sculpt, and nice deco.  He doesn’t have much paint, but he doesn’t need it with the nice matte black appearance of the plastic.
15. MCU Moon Knight – With more articulation would have made the top ten.  His sculpt and paint are exceptional, but he lacks butterflies and needs more range of motion in the torso, legs, and arms.  Still the range he does have is above average so he can still strike a wide range of poses.
16. Quake – Simple and highly effective re-use of the Shriek mold.  The deco is simple, but it works SO well for a SHIELD agent.  The real fun factor on this figure is finding female heads from other figures to put onto multiple copies of the figure for army-building female SHIELD agents.
17. Toad – Neck and neck with Renew Your Vows Spidey for the best articulation on any Legends figure to date.  Oddly the diaphragm joint and lower ab crunch combo doesn’t get even 45 degrees of forward tilt which limits the crouching poses he can get into, but his hip and leg articulation is good enough to compensate and still get him into a nice range of crouches.  Spectacular head sculpt.
18. Shocker – All-new sculpt that is extremely well done.  Minimal paint but nice articulation and a surprisingly well-done figure for a B-list Spidey villain.
19. Namor – Really nice execution with the sculpt, paint, and articulation and a face print that captures the film actor extremely well.
20. Iron Spider – May have been top ten if the legs didn’t have two sculpted joints that don’t articulate, but the legs are still super-fun to experiment with and can still get into a wide array of poses.  One of the few Iron Spider figures whose legs can actually support the figure in a limited number of poses.

Here's my list of subjective favorites. Several of these aren't at all innovative, but I just love them more for whatever reason.

1. Haslab Galactus
2. 3-pack Venom – Not much innovation here aside from the head sculpts, but Venom is one of my favorite villains and in many ways this is the best version of him to date, so I love it.
3. 3-pack Daredevil – I love Daredevil, and this is by far the best Daredevil ever, so aside from the minor deco issues what’s not to love?
4. Khonshu
5. MCU She-Hulk
6. Animated Cyclops
7. Infinity Ultron
8. Quake
9. MCU Moon Knight
10. King in Black Venom – I thought for sure this guy would be an objective top 10 this year, but the engineering on the wings has too many issues to compete for the top 10.  It’s still a great-looking figure, and I love the ambition of tackling those wings.  I just wish they pegged into the back better and that he could stand better with the wings on.

Here's some posing I did of most of the figures from these lists while deciding which were the best.

The Galactus "Spidey yo-yo" is outstanding!

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 1/14/2023 at 9:34 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

The Galactus "Spidey yo-yo" is outstanding!

If I had to pick, I'm not sure what order, but MOJO, moon knight, Thor with a beard statue, and she hulk doing calisthenics and kicking a guy in the jaw!

 

[Jesse-Lee]

On 1/14/2023 at 9:39 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

If I had to pick, I'm not sure what order, but MOJO, moon knight, Thor with a beard statue, and she hulk doing calisthenics and kicking a guy in the jaw!

 

Ha, there's so much to take in, I love it!

[Myparentsbasement]

[fantastic_four]

On 1/14/2023 at 4:05 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

On 1/12/2023 at 5:00 PM, fantastic_four said:

Also, if I were going to have just one or two Marvel figures I'd definitely go with Mafex versions.  They just released two Spider-Mans within the past few months--one with classic colors and one in the black suit--both of which are the best versions of those suits ever made.  Unfortunately the classic version doesn't have a Peter head like the original Mafex Spidey did, but the black suit one does have an unmasked head.  The black suit unmasked head has symbiote goop on his neck though so you probably wouldn't want to use it with the other Mafex Spidey figures.

I want that Black Costume figure.  What’s the price tag?

Mafex figures usually cost about $80 to $100 retail and shipped from Japan where they're made.  Well, they're made in China, but everything is, right?  Medicom is the company that makes them, and they're in Japan.  If you buy them from a US company like BigBadToyStore that imports and sell them they're usually $100, but if you buy them from a Japanese retailer and find decent shipping prices--which isn't hard to do as compared to American retail pricing which is why I buy almost all of mine from Japan, and that's particularly true over the last year or so when the Japanese Yen has dropped in price relative to the US dollar--then it's closer to $80, or even $70 now while the Yen is weak.

But Mafex figures are red hot, and anything semi-popular sells out fast.  They've really gained acceptance as the best action figures in twelfth scale among hardcore collectors, and it seems to have somewhat caught Medicom by surprise who seems to always under-produce figures of popular characters.  Anything Spidey-related is usually red hot so I'm guessing this guy is sold out, which means if you can't find anyone with it then you'll have to go the eBay/Mercari route.  Just looked at prices there and they appear to be between $100 and $150 right now, but I fully expect those to rise to $200 to $300 within a few months.

Edited January 16, 2023 by fantastic_four