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

[Venomous72]

Well I just spent $250 on figures to display around my Avengers 1.

I blame everyone in this thread.

[Venomous72]

First one is here! 80th anniversary Hulk two pack and Diamond Select Hulk on the way. 
 

And gamerverse Miles. 

[Cat]

On 12/25/2021 at 12:39 PM, Venomous72 said:

First one is here! 80th anniversary Hulk two pack and Diamond Select Hulk on the way. 
 

And gamerverse Miles. 

Good choice. I have a lot of nostalgia for the Modular Armour. My 2 copies of it are still in my missing BBTS package, which hits 5 months lost in 3 days time. 

[whisp]

On 12/20/2021 at 10:18 PM, followtheleader said:

Looking back at my purchases, a marginal year.   

#3 - Complete Joe Rolling Thunder. 

#2 - SW Boxed Millennium Falcon (mostly because of the backstory, which I won't waste people's time telling again. But that box is really nice and having the Denver store's tags on it from down the street is super fun for me)

#1 - Complete Joe Sears SMS

Pics coming shortly. 

Patrick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day I hope to find the black computer stand for mine so I can complete it. 

[fantastic_four]

On 12/24/2021 at 9:39 PM, Venomous72 said:

First one is here! 80th anniversary Hulk two pack and Diamond Select Hulk on the way. 
 

And gamerverse Miles. 

All excellent choices.  I rated that 80th Hulk figure as the best Legends release of 2019.  They've re-released him in different flavors about 6-7 times since then, but that one you're getting is still the best Hulk around in twelfth scale.  The Select Immortal Hulk you're getting is great too, but it's in tenth scale so it's a bit too large to mix with Legends.  But since Hulk's whole thing is being big it's easy to just fudge that he's a little bit bigger.

If you're looking for more figures to get I'll share my top lists for 2019 and 2020 in the spoiler tags below.  I started buying figures in December 2018, so I don't have as exhaustive an opinion from figures released before then, although I have gone back and bought 100 or so figures from 2018 and earlier from eBay so I have made an effort to identify the best Marvel figures from the past decade or two and have quite a few opinions about the best figures from Hasbro's earlier efforts and Toy Biz.

Best Marvel Legends figures of 2019:

Spoiler

Top 10 objective figures of 2019, in order:

1. 80th Hulk - the best version by FAR of an iconic character. You could probably insert the other two somewhere further down this list, but I excluded them since they're no innovation over this that's the best of the three.
2. Beast - just spectacular in sculpt and articulation. Definitely the most innovative figure of the year, and probably deserves the top spot but I dinged it for a mediocre paint job and only one head that wasn't the best posing choice if you're only going to include that one head.
3. Hercules - terrific new sculpt and articulation to usher in a new era of flexible muscular characters.
4. Supreme Captain America - spectacular sculpt, paint, and solid articulation. This one reminds me of Angela in that a superior figure isn't receiving the acclaim it deserves, and as was the case with Angela I'm guessing this one isn't making lists because the character and set aren't popular. But people are clearly overlooking one of the best figures of the year in this one. I would have ranked him above Hercules except for one problem--the connector to put his shield onto his arm needs to be rotatable because it's difficult to orient it the right way in many poses, which severely limits the poses you can put him in with the shield pointing up as it should.
5. 80th Captain America - minor tweaks to existing molds and awesome new head sculpts add up to near-perfection for an iconic character.
6. Nightcrawler - needed a bendy tail and better leg articulation in the same way all Spider-Man figures need better legs, he's still spectacular and the extra heads put him over the top.
7. 80th Thor - spectacular in almost every way, but one major flaw--you can barely move his head at all due to that hair. Beautiful to look at, but EXTREMELY difficult to pose with other figures because it's hard to get him to look at them. It wouldn't have been hard to solve this, and I hope they do in the next iteration.
8. Kingpin - great sculpt, passable paint. Bad articulation may be a reason to leave him off the list entirely, but the character himself usually isn't terribly flexible due to his weight, so I'm not sure we can hold the bad articulation against him.
9. Mystique - Hasbro has been killing it with head sculpts recently and this is the best of the year. The rest of the body is passable, but the head sculpt hopefully is representative of a new era of heads that match the quality of customizers such as Christina Conan.
10. Professor X - the figure himself is just average at best, but the chair is absolutely great. Together they add up to a figure with one of the highest fun factors of the year.

Honorable mention: Silver Samurai, Beta Ray Bill, 80th Iron Man (QC issues with swapped parts is too big and universal a problem to ignore), Snowbird, Iron Man Mark 85 (I don't have it yet so I can't comment, but from reviews it looks spectacular), 3-pack Scarlet Witch (entirely due to the head sculpt)

My 10 personal favorites, mostly influenced by the characters I like:

1. Colossus
2. X-Force Wolverine
3. Juggernaut
4. 3-pack Magneto
5. 80th Thor
6. Mr. Sinister
7. X-Force Cyclops
8. Love Triangle Cyclops
9. Binary Captain Marvel
10. Hela

Best Marvel Legends figures of 2020:

Spoiler

First, the objective list that ignores my personal preference as much as possible and focuses on the quality of the figures:

1. Doctor Doom (Super Skrull wave) - Not much to say here--just the best version of Doom we've ever gotten and innovative in so many ways. The only obvious improvement would have been a shorter skirt.
2. Retro Spidey - Looks great everywhere except the neck, and the articulation is some of the best ever seen.
3. Deluxe War Machine - Nearly perfect rendering of the character with perhaps the finest accessories we've ever gotten. Hopefully it's a harbinger of many fantastic deluxe sets to come.
4. Venompool - Superior sculpt, paint, and articulation for a big guy. Didn't think I wanted it when I first saw it, but I eventually realized it's too good to pass up.
5. Sugar Man - Another one I didn't think I wanted but realized it's too good to pass up. One of the best sculpts Hasbro has ever done.
6. Sony Venom - Far better than expected.
7. Fox Wolverine (both versions excluding the con exclusive) - Both retail versions are superior. I flipped back and forth half a dozen times about which is better but decided to punt because they're both equally excellent. The jacket version has less articulation but better paint and sculpt, whereas the t-shirt version has better articulation but isn't as ornate in the torso.
8. First Appearance Storm - suffers from a few issues such as the terrible ankle pivot and weird elbows, but overall one of the best sculpts and paint jobs of the year.
9. Fox Deadpool - Incredible sculpt, paint, and articulation.
10. Armored Daredevil - this isn't one I thought would ever make a top ten list because it LOOKS like it's all re-used parts, but in hand you realize it's all-new with parts that LOOK like older ones but all function much better than its predecessors.

Honorable mention are She-Hulk and Kang. She-Hulk's unique sculpt is SPECTACULAR, and her articulation is surprisingly good. Kang's colors are a bit simple, his articulation is limited, and his proportions are somewhat odd, but the unique sculpt and overall look are great.

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. Sony Venom - He was further down this list at first, but the Weapon V symbiote accessory set out there for him vaulted him to my favorite figure of 2020.
2. First appearance Storm - Love the character and I started reading the comic in the early 1980s, so obviously I love this release.
3. Retro Spidey - no-brainer for any Spidey fan.
4. Leather Jacket Fox Wolverine - This was how he first looked in the movies so I'm biased towards this look.
5. Peter Parker (with split Spidey head only) - I almost didn't even buy this figure, but the half-Spidey head just SCREAMS comic book art to a degree few other figures ever have. Doubly-good if you combine it with one of the Spidey-Sense third-party accessories out there, and it's a shame it didn't come with it out of the package.
6. Stepford Cuckoos - Didn't think I wanted this and there's almost nothing innovative in the execution, but seeing 3 or 5 of them together next to Emma has been a ton of fun with plenty of lasting power in my displays. Sometimes an action figure either introduces you to a character that's new to you or reminds you of a character you've forgotten. I was reading Quitely's New X-Men run when it came out and already knew of the Cuckoos, but this release reminded me they're one of the cooler uses of clones Marvel has done to date.
7. Gamerverse Abomination - Yet another one I didn't think I wanted but realized it was too-well executed to pass up. The head could be better but isn't terrible, and the overall sculpt is pretty much as good as last year's Hulk and a ton of fun to pose him against.
8. Retro Storm (black costume) - I like Storm and I like black, so this one just appeals to me.
9. War Machine - I'm not attached to the character but the accessories are a ton of fun.
10. Mar Vell - My favorite cosmic figure of the year, although there weren't many cosmic figures released so that's not saying a lot. Didn't think I'd like him as much as I do, but the head sculpt is great and he's fun to pose in flight.

Edited December 27, 2021 by fantastic_four

[Venomous72]

On 12/27/2021 at 8:16 AM, fantastic_four said:

All excellent choices.  I rated that 80th Hulk figure as the best Legends release of 2019.  They've re-released him in different flavors about 6-7 times since then, but that one you're getting is still the best Hulk around in twelfth scale.  The Select Immortal Hulk you're getting is great too, but it's in tenth scale so it's a bit too large to mix with Legends.  But since Hulk's whole thing is being big it's easy to just fudge that he's a little bit bigger.

If you're looking for more figures to get I'll share my top lists for 2019 and 2020 in the spoiler tags below.  I started buying figures in December 2018, so I don't have as exhaustive an opinion from figures released before then, although I have gone back and bought 100 or so figures from 2018 and earlier from eBay so I have made an effort to identify the best Marvel figures from the past decade or two and have quite a few opinions about the best figures from Hasbro's earlier efforts and Toy Biz.

Best Marvel Legends figures of 2019:

  Reveal hidden contents

Top 10 objective figures of 2019, in order:

1. 80th Hulk - the best version by FAR of an iconic character. You could probably insert the other two somewhere further down this list, but I excluded them since they're no innovation over this that's the best of the three.
2. Beast - just spectacular in sculpt and articulation. Definitely the most innovative figure of the year, and probably deserves the top spot but I dinged it for a mediocre paint job and only one head that wasn't the best posing choice if you're only going to include that one head.
3. Hercules - terrific new sculpt and articulation to usher in a new era of flexible muscular characters.
4. Supreme Captain America - spectacular sculpt, paint, and solid articulation. This one reminds me of Angela in that a superior figure isn't receiving the acclaim it deserves, and as was the case with Angela I'm guessing this one isn't making lists because the character and set aren't popular. But people are clearly overlooking one of the best figures of the year in this one. I would have ranked him above Hercules except for one problem--the connector to put his shield onto his arm needs to be rotatable because it's difficult to orient it the right way in many poses, which severely limits the poses you can put him in with the shield pointing up as it should.
5. 80th Captain America - minor tweaks to existing molds and awesome new head sculpts add up to near-perfection for an iconic character.
6. Nightcrawler - needed a bendy tail and better leg articulation in the same way all Spider-Man figures need better legs, he's still spectacular and the extra heads put him over the top.
7. 80th Thor - spectacular in almost every way, but one major flaw--you can barely move his head at all due to that hair. Beautiful to look at, but EXTREMELY difficult to pose with other figures because it's hard to get him to look at them. It wouldn't have been hard to solve this, and I hope they do in the next iteration.
8. Kingpin - great sculpt, passable paint. Bad articulation may be a reason to leave him off the list entirely, but the character himself usually isn't terribly flexible due to his weight, so I'm not sure we can hold the bad articulation against him.
9. Mystique - Hasbro has been killing it with head sculpts recently and this is the best of the year. The rest of the body is passable, but the head sculpt hopefully is representative of a new era of heads that match the quality of customizers such as Christina Conan.
10. Professor X - the figure himself is just average at best, but the chair is absolutely great. Together they add up to a figure with one of the highest fun factors of the year.

Honorable mention: Silver Samurai, Beta Ray Bill, 80th Iron Man (QC issues with swapped parts is too big and universal a problem to ignore), Snowbird, Iron Man Mark 85 (I don't have it yet so I can't comment, but from reviews it looks spectacular), 3-pack Scarlet Witch (entirely due to the head sculpt)

My 10 personal favorites, mostly influenced by the characters I like:

1. Colossus
2. X-Force Wolverine
3. Juggernaut
4. 3-pack Magneto
5. 80th Thor
6. Mr. Sinister
7. X-Force Cyclops
8. Love Triangle Cyclops
9. Binary Captain Marvel
10. Hela

Best Marvel Legends figures of 2020:

  Hide contents

First, the objective list that ignores my personal preference as much as possible and focuses on the quality of the figures:

1. Doctor Doom (Super Skrull wave) - Not much to say here--just the best version of Doom we've ever gotten and innovative in so many ways. The only obvious improvement would have been a shorter skirt.
2. Retro Spidey - Looks great everywhere except the neck, and the articulation is some of the best ever seen.
3. Deluxe War Machine - Nearly perfect rendering of the character with perhaps the finest accessories we've ever gotten. Hopefully it's a harbinger of many fantastic deluxe sets to come.
4. Venompool - Superior sculpt, paint, and articulation for a big guy. Didn't think I wanted it when I first saw it, but I eventually realized it's too good to pass up.
5. Sugar Man - Another one I didn't think I wanted but realized it's too good to pass up. One of the best sculpts Hasbro has ever done.
6. Sony Venom - Far better than expected.
7. Fox Wolverine (both versions excluding the con exclusive) - Both retail versions are superior. I flipped back and forth half a dozen times about which is better but decided to punt because they're both equally excellent. The jacket version has less articulation but better paint and sculpt, whereas the t-shirt version has better articulation but isn't as ornate in the torso.
8. First Appearance Storm - suffers from a few issues such as the terrible ankle pivot and weird elbows, but overall one of the best sculpts and paint jobs of the year.
9. Fox Deadpool - Incredible sculpt, paint, and articulation.
10. Armored Daredevil - this isn't one I thought would ever make a top ten list because it LOOKS like it's all re-used parts, but in hand you realize it's all-new with parts that LOOK like older ones but all function much better than its predecessors.

Honorable mention are She-Hulk and Kang. She-Hulk's unique sculpt is SPECTACULAR, and her articulation is surprisingly good. Kang's colors are a bit simple, his articulation is limited, and his proportions are somewhat odd, but the unique sculpt and overall look are great.

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. Sony Venom - He was further down this list at first, but the Weapon V symbiote accessory set out there for him vaulted him to my favorite figure of 2020.
2. First appearance Storm - Love the character and I started reading the comic in the early 1980s, so obviously I love this release.
3. Retro Spidey - no-brainer for any Spidey fan.
4. Leather Jacket Fox Wolverine - This was how he first looked in the movies so I'm biased towards this look.
5. Peter Parker (with split Spidey head only) - I almost didn't even buy this figure, but the half-Spidey head just SCREAMS comic book art to a degree few other figures ever have. Doubly-good if you combine it with one of the Spidey-Sense third-party accessories out there, and it's a shame it didn't come with it out of the package.
6. Stepford Cuckoos - Didn't think I wanted this and there's almost nothing innovative in the execution, but seeing 3 or 5 of them together next to Emma has been a ton of fun with plenty of lasting power in my displays. Sometimes an action figure either introduces you to a character that's new to you or reminds you of a character you've forgotten. I was reading Quitely's New X-Men run when it came out and already knew of the Cuckoos, but this release reminded me they're one of the cooler uses of clones Marvel has done to date.
7. Gamerverse Abomination - Yet another one I didn't think I wanted but realized it was too-well executed to pass up. The head could be better but isn't terrible, and the overall sculpt is pretty much as good as last year's Hulk and a ton of fun to pose him against.
8. Retro Storm (black costume) - I like Storm and I like black, so this one just appeals to me.
9. War Machine - I'm not attached to the character but the accessories are a ton of fun.
10. Mar Vell - My favorite cosmic figure of the year, although there weren't many cosmic figures released so that's not saying a lot. Didn't think I'd like him as much as I do, but the head sculpt is great and he's fun to pose in flight.

Excellent list, thank you!  I actually have the Super Skrull wave Doom and it is my current fave figure.  I also have the 80th Thor and he looks great but agree with the hair issue.  I think I need that war machine as well.  And Mar Vell.

[B2D327]

These bad boys were just delivered today

[B2D327]

…and these guys just showed up for the party. Gosh, I have the best ex-girlfriends on the planet

[Cat]

Love the MS Colossus. Such a nice sculpt. Still my favourite after all these years. Grats on all the scores, and all the friendly exes! 

[B2D327]

Another beauty arrived today and probably my favorite so far. Only 10 more to go 

I like the expression on the robotic head even though I probably won’t use it. I may try my hand at sculpting one with the same expression without the missing flesh one day

[fantastic_four]

I have the Select Colossus and modern Thanos and both are awesome.  I slightly prefer the Legends Colossus that came in a 2-pack with Juggernaut, but not by much--it's picking nits to choose one over the other.  That Select Thanos is still my favorite comic Thanos, although my favorite Thanos overall is the armored version that just came out in a 2-pack with Endgame Iron Man.

[B2D327]

On 12/28/2021 at 11:35 AM, fantastic_four said:

I have the Select Colossus and modern Thanos and both are awesome.  I slightly prefer the Legends Colossus that came in a 2-pack with Juggernaut, but not by much--it's picking nits to choose one over the other.  That Select Thanos is still my favorite comic Thanos, although my favorite Thanos overall is the armored version that just came out in a 2-pack with Endgame Iron Man.

I’d seen the colossus/juggernaut pack but something about the sculpt for the jug’s boots put’s me off on every version. I can’t shake the thought of the sound boots make when people drag their feet and that figure reminds me of all the kids that wore their timberlands loose when I was younger. It’s what nightmares are made of 

[Venomous72]

Hulk came in today. The Marvel Select Hulk gets here tomorrow. Also just bought an Iron Man 55 so naturally ordered Thanos…

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 12/29/2021 at 8:22 PM, Venomous72 said:

Hulk came in today. The Marvel Select Hulk gets here tomorrow. Also just bought an Iron Man 55 so naturally ordered Thanos…

Sweet! Having Deadpool as the only Marvel Select I have, it's nice to see the other figures posed! 

 

[followtheleader]

On 12/29/2021 at 7:22 PM, Venomous72 said:

Hulk came in today. The Marvel Select Hulk gets here tomorrow. Also just bought an Iron Man 55 so naturally ordered Thanos…

Iron Man's throwing down the Van Damme. 

Patrick

[Poekaymon]

On 12/29/2021 at 11:18 PM, followtheleader said:

Iron Man's throwing down the Van Damme. 

Patrick

More like the Dennis Reynolds.  

[B2D327]

These arrived today

Now excuse me while I go (spoiler alert) cut the Darth Maul figure in half

[Venomous72]

Was a Hulk week!

[B2D327]

My first NECA

[fantastic_four]

NECA's stuff is almost always exceptional.  Unfortunately I'm a Marvel guy so I don't have anything of theirs myself, but I've bought some of the TMNT stuff for my kids.  Unfortunately their plastic is a bit brittle compared to Hasbro's and they've broken a lot of it, particularly the accessories.