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

[Chip Cataldo]

Welp, I picked this up because I knew it was rare. I took it out of the box this morning because I wanted to inflate it and make sure there were no holes in it, plus to clean it up if it was dirty. Imagine my surprise when I unfolded it to find... 

(@CGC Mike how can the orientation issue on photo uploading get fixed? All these photos are correct on my phone.) 

Edited February 1 by Chip Cataldo

[CGC Mike]

On 2/1/2024 at 10:12 AM, Chip Cataldo said:

Welp, I picked this up because I knew it was rare. I took it out of the box this morning because I wanted to inflate it and make sure there were no holes in it, plus to clean it up if it was dirty. Imagine my surprise when I unfolded it to find... 

(@CGC Mike how can the orientation issue on photo uploading get fixed? All these photos are correct on my phone.) 

I am not sure.  I have never used a phone to view the forum.  We no longer have a Senior Site Reliability Engineer.  You May have to hold tight until we find a replacement for that position.   Meanwhile, maybe a tech savvy forum member might be able to give you advice as to how you can fix this problem.  

[whisp]

Been Plugging away on my Macross YF-29.  3 days so far and making sure each part is prepared and done right.  I bought the water decals as well for this kit.  I have been using the stickers, water decals, acrylic paint, enamel paint, panel lined all the parts/ weathered on the sprues as well and cleaning them as I need the parts and when necessary some clear coat to seal the water decals.  Also been painting parts that have no decals or coloured for that extra detail like the rocket panels.   Depends on the part and some times I use the  water decals and paint it if its one colour or use decal and paint part of it to get the best detail I can.  Anyways this is how far I have done and probably looking at an other week to complete it and making sure I take breaks in between so that I don't wear myself out and get the best job possible.  Been lots of fun building this kit so far.

 

[whisp]

Note of interest.  Super 7 Ultimate Storm Shadow is up on Amazon Canada under buy options for 73.98.  Have to not look at main buy and at other sellers and amazon is doing preorders. 

[Dave2739]

On 2/1/2024 at 4:26 PM, whisp said:

Note of interest.  Super 7 Ultimate Storm Shadow is up on Amazon Canada under buy options for 73.98.  Have to not look at main buy and at other sellers and amazon is doing preorders. 

73.98 Canadian loonies? That's only like $1.73 in real dollars! 

[Buzzetta]

On 1/31/2024 at 10:16 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

Ooh, I'm jealous of this one!

I have had it sitting in a box under one of the city tables in the basement for the last couple of years.  I wound up buying the Sanctum Santorum and that is set up as well as the Avengers Tower which I will probably put together eventually. 

The issue is not so much building them, it's a matter of taking the time to rearrange everything so they "fit" into the city.  I might have to make a separate Lego Marvel city.  I started buying the modular's when the 1st one came out in 2007 which was that corner Grand Cafe and Hotel.  Each year I have picked up every one that has come out including the marvel ones.   The space required is approaching a floorplan where the trains might have to be packed away to make room to a newer configuration to fit the Marvel ones.  This could be... challenging... as I still have not picked up the 2024 Modular Museum and I am expecting the X-Mansion or the Baxter building to be this year's release for the Marvel ones. 

[Jesse-Lee]

Picked up Pimp Daddy Destro:

[BitterOldMan]

To correct the orientation of a photo,

1. Using your phone, take a photo of the photo.

2. Use the editing feature to rotate your photo to the correct orientation.

3. Post.

[Chip Cataldo]

Thanks @BitterOldMan What about from a desktop computer? I wanted to post something last night but encountered the same issue...kept posting sideways.

 

[Buzzetta]

On 2/2/2024 at 10:24 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

Picked up Pimp Daddy Destro:

Cash rules everything around me CREAM, get the money! Dollah Dollah Bill y'all.

[Jesse-Lee]

On 2/3/2024 at 10:29 AM, Buzzetta said:

Cash rules everything around me CREAM, get the money! Dollah Dollah Bill y'all.

[BitterOldMan]

On 2/3/2024 at 8:11 AM, Chip Cataldo said:

Thanks @BitterOldMan What about from a desktop computer? I wanted to post something last night but encountered the same issue...kept posting sideways.

 

Using PC Windows,

View photo

Capture screen using keys simultaneously <Alt> <Prt Scr>

Open Windows app Paint

Paste and rotate.

Been using computers since high school 1972,

[whisp]

So Rumble arrived today.  Hoping they do a Buzzsaw / Lazerbeak next.  As for Rumble my only gripe is the arms and having where it folds have the round pieces.  I am sure they could have engineered that better and just took the lazy route.

 

[whisp]

On 2/1/2024 at 7:47 PM, Dave2739 said:

73.98 Canadian loonies? That's only like $1.73 in real dollars! 

Actually 73.98 converts to 54.97 usd.  If you look around like Big Bad Toystore they asking 54.99usd + shipping and if ya got to Canada have taxes and import fees.  Next if you look around to Canadian retailer prices they are all roughly $75 cdn + tax Plus shipping which is usually $15-$20.  Finally all the scalpers where above $100 cdn plus taxes shipped to you that where on Amazon and why I waited patiently for Amazon to have their own listing for this figure.  So overall that Amazon price is the best price for a CDN due to its just the price plus taxes  with free shipping to get one of these figures and why I brought it to peoples attention for at this point in time.

[Miketimus_Prime]

Does anyone have an update on Transformers Studio Series 86 Leader Swoop.  Last I heard was April 2024, but I cannot even find a leaked picture. 

[whisp]

Battroid mode is done.  I am going to save Fighter and Gerwalk mode for a rainy day.  I do know if I ever build an other one of these kits I need a magnify glass attachment for my helping hands lol.  Some of these stickers where so small I had to use an old eye loop from when I did coins/stamps to make sure they where lined up.  Still a couple touchups I want to do but overall I am pretty happy with it.  Added a pic for comparison to 6" figures which is about how tall it stands without the stand.  Think next time if I grab an other kit I will go a larger scale.

 

[fantastic_four]

Here are my top Marvel Legends for 2023 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 2023 figures at the LegendsVerse web site to make sure I didn't forget any.

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. Black Widow – the best-articulated female Legends figure ever, and one of the best-articulated female figures across all lines.  Superior sculpt and accessories, particularly the three great head sculpts.

2. Andrew Garfield Spider-Man – superior articulation, sculpt, and paint.  One of Hasbro’s best Spider-Man sculpts ever.

3. Green Goblin (No Way Home) – terrific glider and awesome sculpt and paint details on the figure.  The Willem Dafoe head sculpt is spectacular, and the way the hood and goggles work with the head is perfect.  Including the masked head sculpt brings him over the top as an awesome release.

4. Spiral – great sculpt for a difficult-to-design character.  A near-perfect rendering aside from some engineering issues with gummy plastic on the arms that held it back from Figure of the Year contention.

5. Final Swing Spider-Man – would have virtually tied with the Andrew Garfield figure since it has the same superior sculpt and articulation, but most or all copies of this figure suffer from overly-stiff joints that are a slight challenge to bend without breaking the plastic.  If you’re mindful of that he’s completely workable though.

6. Cassie Lang BAF – surprisingly great sculpt with surprisingly great articulation–very surprised this figure had both a diaphragm joint and lower ab crunch, plus the range of motion on the legs is spectacular.  Including a masked and unmasked head sculpt with articulated pony tail sends her over the top as a great BAF.

7. Blob – awesome sculpt and decent articulation for such a bulky figure.  The screaming head sculpt is pure fire in dynamic displays.

8. Spider-Punk - has some gummy engineering issues due to the thin arms and legs, but the sculpt, paint, and overall aesthetic of this figure are amazing.

9. Ultimate Cap – best Cap figure made to date due to the intricate sculpted details on the costume.

10. Destroyer – I didn’t think Hasbro could improve on the Diamond Select Destroyer, but they managed to do it.  Looks just as good as the Diamond figure but with MUCH better articulation.  Amazing figure.

11. Tobey Maguire Spider-Man – not quite as good as Andrew Garfield Spidey or Final Swing Spidey due to sculpt and paint issues, but still an exceptional rendering of the character with all of the same great articulation of the other No Way Home Spidey figures.

12. '97 Bishop – surprisingly great update to the previous Bishop figure.  Great body sculpt with a terrific head sculpt.

13. '97 Wolverine – in a vacuum this is the figure of the year, but it’s really just an incremental update over previous Wolverine figures that were already great so I can’t give it full credit.  Just the fact that they found upgrades to an already-fantastic figure is worthy of note, and the head sculpts, pin-less joints, and overall engineering is impeccable.

14. Pretty Boy – nice all-new sculpt that will likely be used in cyborg and android bodies for years.

15. Clea – extremely attractive figure with one of Hasbro’s best female head sculpts.

16. Iron Man Mark I  – simple design implemented extremely well.

17. MCU Wasp  – massive sculpt upgrade from the previous MCU Wasp figure with two absolutely great head sculpts.

18. Elektra Daredevil  – fun figure with a great sculpt and articulation.

19. Mania  – great pin-less upgrade to the Legends teenage female body sculpt with nice symbiote details.

20. Astonishing Cyclops – surprisingly good tweak to the Vulcan mold with terrific sculpted line details.

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. Andrew Garfield Spider-Man
2. Blob
3. Destroyer
4. Clea
5. Black Widow
6. ‘97 Wolverine
7. Tarantula – not an objectively great figure, but the first comic book I collected to completion was Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man, and I vividly recall this guy gracing the first issue cover of that title.  A completely sentimental favorite of mine simply due to when I started collecting Marvel comics.
8. Elektra Daredevil
9. Spiral
10. MCU Green Goblin

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

[F For Fake]

BBTS's daily sales have been very nice lately, especially since they're now letting you add sale items to your Pile of Loot. I try to remember to check these every day, last week I guess I missed out on some MAFEX X-Men. At any rate, today they have the MAFEX Cyborg Superman and Steel figures at $62, which is a nice deal. That Cyborg Supes is a gorgeous figure.

Today's sales

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Search?Theme=37043&o=1

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/171506?o=1

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/202534?o=1

[F For Fake]

On 2/5/2024 at 2:59 PM, fantastic_four said:

Here are my top Marvel Legends for 2023 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 2023 figures at the LegendsVerse web site to make sure I didn't forget any.

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. Black Widow – the best-articulated female Legends figure ever, and one of the best-articulated female figures across all lines.  Superior sculpt and accessories, particularly the three great head sculpts.

2. Andrew Garfield Spider-Man – superior articulation, sculpt, and paint.  One of Hasbro’s best Spider-Man sculpts ever.

3. Green Goblin (No Way Home) – terrific glider and awesome sculpt and paint details on the figure.  The Willem Dafoe head sculpt is spectacular, and the way the hood and goggles work with the head is perfect.  Including the masked head sculpt brings him over the top as an awesome release.

4. Spiral – great sculpt for a difficult-to-design character.  A near-perfect rendering aside from some engineering issues with gummy plastic on the arms that held it back from Figure of the Year contention.

5. Final Swing Spider-Man – would have virtually tied with the Andrew Garfield figure since it has the same superior sculpt and articulation, but most or all copies of this figure suffer from overly-stiff joints that are a slight challenge to bend without breaking the plastic.  If you’re mindful of that he’s completely workable though.

6. Cassie Lang BAF – surprisingly great sculpt with surprisingly great articulation–very surprised this figure had both a diaphragm joint and lower ab crunch, plus the range of motion on the legs is spectacular.  Including a masked and unmasked head sculpt with articulated pony tail sends her over the top as a great BAF.

7. Blob – awesome sculpt and decent articulation for such a bulky figure.  The screaming head sculpt is pure fire in dynamic displays.

8. Spider-Punk - has some gummy engineering issues due to the thin arms and legs, but the sculpt, paint, and overall aesthetic of this figure are amazing.

9. Ultimate Cap – best Cap figure made to date due to the intricate sculpted details on the costume.

10. Destroyer – I didn’t think Hasbro could improve on the Diamond Select Destroyer, but they managed to do it.  Looks just as good as the Diamond figure but with MUCH better articulation.  Amazing figure.

11. Tobey Maguire Spider-Man – not quite as good as Andrew Garfield Spidey or Final Swing Spidey due to sculpt and paint issues, but still an exceptional rendering of the character with all of the same great articulation of the other No Way Home Spidey figures.

12. '97 Bishop – surprisingly great update to the previous Bishop figure.  Great body sculpt with a terrific head sculpt.

13. '97 Wolverine – in a vacuum this is the figure of the year, but it’s really just an incremental update over previous Wolverine figures that were already great so I can’t give it full credit.  Just the fact that they found upgrades to an already-fantastic figure is worthy of note, and the head sculpts, pin-less joints, and overall engineering is impeccable.

14. Pretty Boy – nice all-new sculpt that will likely be used in cyborg and android bodies for years.

15. Clea – extremely attractive figure with one of Hasbro’s best female head sculpts.

16. Iron Man Mark I  – simple design implemented extremely well.

17. MCU Wasp  – massive sculpt upgrade from the previous MCU Wasp figure with two absolutely great head sculpts.

18. Elektra Daredevil  – fun figure with a great sculpt and articulation.

19. Mania  – great pin-less upgrade to the Legends teenage female body sculpt with nice symbiote details.

20. Astonishing Cyclops – surprisingly good tweak to the Vulcan mold with terrific sculpted line details.

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. Andrew Garfield Spider-Man
2. Blob
3. Destroyer
4. Clea
5. Black Widow
6. ‘97 Wolverine
7. Tarantula – not an objectively great figure, but the first comic book I collected to completion was Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man, and I vividly recall this guy gracing the first issue cover of that title.  A completely sentimental favorite of mine simply due to when I started collecting Marvel comics.
8. Elektra Daredevil
9. Spiral
10. MCU Green Goblin

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

Nice list! Always enjoy your thoughtful and in-depth posts.

I think it was a good year for Legends! I don't do MCU/live-action figures, and I am X-Men and Avengers biased, so my list would be a bit different, but definitely has many similarities-

Black Widow - Target Excl: Just a great action figure with exceptional poseability, sculpt, and accessories.

Blob: Perfect update.

Pretty Boy: One that I never thought we'd see, so close to having all of the Reavers now!

'97 Wolverine : Another simply update done well.

Hawkeye w/ Sky Cycle: Classic looking figure with an accessory I'll actually use!

Spiral: Another perfect revisit.

Corsair: Bring on the rest of the Starjammers! This is such a great costume which translates so nicely to toy form.

Rogue Outback: We're getting closer and closer to my favorite look (green tanktop, punk belts, boots) so she will have to suffice for the time being.

Wonder Man (leather jacket version) - my favorite design for this character.

West Coast Avengers Box Set - it's cheating to include a set, but I don't care. So wild that we've lived to see this sort of thing released for sale!

[SpineTic]

Pre-order if anyone's interested.  https://mcfarlanetoysstore.com/transformers-gi-joe-page-punchers-w1-bundle/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_campaign=Hasbro Page Punchers Pre-Order Feb 5th