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

[F For Fake]

On 1/18/2022 at 7:03 PM, Dave2739 said:

@F For Fake how does the Revell model kit VAMP compare to the regular 1982 release? Is it the same, but in model kit form or is there more of a difference?

Hey Dave! It’s quite a bit smaller than the toy, 1:24 scale I believe. You could cram an o-ring guy in there I think, but it wouldn’t look right.

However, from pics I’ve looked at, it really looks like Revell took the toy molds, and just scaled them down. The sprues are very similar if not identical. However, this is a glue kit, not a snap together, so I guess the sprues can’t be exactly the same, as these parts don’t just snap into place.

I kinda hate to open it up since the contents are sealed, but it would be fun to try building one some day. My modeling skills are remedial at best, so I don’t want to ruin a nice kit.

[fantastic_four]

One of the main reasons I ended up passing on that superb Batman Year Two figure is I realized you can achieve similar--and if you're ambitious, the same--sorts of poses with the large, wired cloth capes that come with the two Batman figures I already have, the Mafex Batman Hush blue and black versions.  Both are, by FAR, my favorite figure forms of the character in twelfth scale.  Medicom creates the best-ever version of a character in the scale with virtually EVERY one of their releases.  Both of their Batman Hush figures are just spectacular, and I'd much rather spend an hour or two positioning their capes than buying one that's stuck in the same pose forever.

I posted here about the blue Batman Hush back when I first got it in 2020, but in early 2021 I also bought the black version which I much prefer.  Just utter perfection for a comic Batman.  

Edited January 19, 2022 by fantastic_four

[fantastic_four]

Two more recent pickups from the last few months that are also best-ever versions of their subjects--the Mafex Psylocke and brown suit Wolverine.  Logan in particular is just plastic perfection, like the character jumped right off of the comic page.  

[Buzzetta]

On 1/18/2022 at 9:40 PM, fantastic_four said:

Two more recent pickups from the last few months that are also best-ever versions of their subjects--the Mafex Psylocke and brown suit Wolverine.  Logan in particular is just plastic perfection, like the character jumped right off of the comic page.  

 

Out of everything you have collected over the years, and everything you have picked up, which figure has been a consistent miss that sculptors and the toy companies just don't seem to be able to accurately capture or get right? 

 

[fantastic_four]

On 1/18/2022 at 9:42 PM, Buzzetta said:

Out of everything you have collected over the years, and everything you have picked up, which figure has been a consistent miss that sculptors and the toy companies just don't seem to be able to accurately capture or get right? 

Tough question because for a character to be "consistently" not done right it has to have been released a bunch of times and is therefore an A-list hero or villain, but I'd have to say Spider-Man.  He's too flexible for the current state of action figure art; NONE of them can achieve some of the insane positions artists like McFarlane did that came to define the character for entire generations of fans.

That's not to say some haven't come close.  The Mafex Spider-Man is still the best ever, but the Marvel Legends retro Spider-Man is a close second.  And both can achieve lots of great poses most other figures can't, but neither can do what Spidey has been drawn to do in thousands of panels.  As just one of countless possible examples consider this cover to Spider-Man #1--NO figure can crunch down like this.

[F For Fake]

On 1/18/2022 at 9:40 PM, fantastic_four said:

Two more recent pickups from the last few months that are also best-ever versions of their subjects--the Mafex Psylocke and brown suit Wolverine.  Logan in particular is just plastic perfection, like the character jumped right off of the comic page.  

Great stuff. I've not gone down the Mafex rabbit hole as they're pretty pricey, but they certainly look cool. How do they scale with the Legends stuff?

[fantastic_four]

On 1/19/2022 at 8:10 AM, F For Fake said:

Great stuff. I've not gone down the Mafex rabbit hole as they're pretty pricey, but they certainly look cool. How do they scale with the Legends stuff?

90% of the time they scale perfectly.  Some are a little too short or a little too tall, but not many--and no more or less than the size disparities that Marvel Legends figures from Hasbro also often have.  The only Mafex figures I've seen that are noticeably too small are the Infinity War Thor and the comic Venom figures.  Thor is just slightly small, maybe a quarter-inch, but Venom is more off--about a half-inch too short.  I really, really wanted Venom, but he's barely taller than Spidey, and that's just not right even for the first appearance of Venom when he was just the same size as Eddie Brock at 6' 3" (later versions of Venom slowly began to get bigger and bigger than their host human).  About a quarter of Hasbro's Legends figures are off compared to the comic or film character they're portraying and relative to the other figures Hasbro has already made, so Mafex in general is doing a better job at Hasbro's scale than Hasbro themselves do.  Mafex has two Wolverines that are the same height, and both are probably somewhere between an eighth to a quarter inch too tall, but they're still noticably shorter than all of the other X-Men from Mafex and Hasbro, so they're mostly fine.

SH Figuarts is another Japanese company who makes a ton of Marvel stuff, and their stuff is consistently too short to scale with Legends by about half an inch.  To their credit all they're doing is strictly adhering to a 1:12 scale by making a 6-foot human exactly 6 inches in height, but unfortunately Hasbro's scale crept up to be more of a 1:11 or 1:11.5 scale such that a 6-foot human is about 6.5 inches, so Figuarts is generally too small to fit with Legends. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by fantastic_four

[fantastic_four]

Here's a visual reference for a few Mafex figures and how they scale with Legends.  Left to right is the Legends 90s Cyclops, Mafex Cyclops, Mafex Psylocke, Mafex Wolverine, Legends X-Force Wolverine, Mafex Spider-Man, Legends black suit Spider-Man, and Legends retro Spider-Man.  The Mafex Cyclops is about a quarter-inch smaller than the Legends for a character who's supposed to be 6' 3", Psylocke is 5' 11" so probably should be a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch taller, Mafex Wolverine should probably be a quarter-inch shorter like Legends is, and Mafex Spidey is probably closer to accurate for the 5' 10" Peter Parker than the two Legends figures to his right that are about the same height as Cyclops.

So are there little possible inaccuracies?  Yes, but not much, and in general fewer size mistakes than Hasbro makes.  So I think they blend PERFECTLY with Legends in terms of both lines having plenty of little inaccuracies to complain about.  

[F For Fake]

On 1/19/2022 at 9:31 AM, fantastic_four said:

Here's a visual reference for a few Mafex figures and how they scale with Legends.  Left to right is the Legends 90s Cyclops, Mafex Cyclops, Mafex Psylocke, Mafex Wolverine, Legends X-Force Wolverine, Mafex Spider-Man, Legends black suit Spider-Man, and Legends retro Spider-Man.  The Mafex Cyclops is about a quarter-inch smaller than the Legends for a character who's supposed to be 6' 3", Psylocke is 5' 11" so probably should be a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch taller, Mafex Wolverine should probably be a quarter-inch shorter like Legends is, and Mafex Spidey is probably closer to accurate for the 5' 10" Peter Parker than the two Legends figures to his right that are about the same height as Cyclops.

So are there little possible inaccuracies?  Yes, but not much, and in general fewer size mistakes than Hasbro makes.  So I think they blend PERFECTLY with Legends in terms of both lines having plenty of little inaccuracies to complain about.  

Yeah, they look great! And I think you're right, I'm not concerned about them being 100% accurate re: scale, as that is pretty much impossible. As long as they don't look out of place, that's all that would matter to me. Looks like they fit very well!

[MetalPSI]

On 1/18/2022 at 5:54 PM, fantastic_four said:

That flowing cape though...wow.  I'm sure I wouldn't regret having bought it had I pulled the trigger; it looks amazing however it's colored.  Never seen anything like it, particularly with an action figure.  I watched several reviews of it just to see how that cape works, and it looks VERY well-designed.

 

Watching this guy reminds me of watching a 2 year old with the Teach Me Shapes toy.

Ham fisted cringe right there

 

 

[F For Fake]

On 1/19/2022 at 10:10 AM, The Meta said:

Watching this guy reminds me of watching a 2 year old with the Teach Me Shapes toy.

Ham fisted cringe right there

 

 

I'll watch his vids sometimes when I want to see previews of a specific figure, but I always do so with the sound off. Which, honestly, is the best way to watch most toy bros on Youtube. 

[MetalPSI]

On 1/19/2022 at 8:20 AM, F For Fake said:

I'll watch his vids sometimes when I want to see previews of a specific figure, but I always do so with the sound off. Which, honestly, is the best way to watch most toy bros on Youtube. 

Practically all videos I watch with no sound

 

[Buzzetta]

[profholt82]

I saw this at Target, and thought what the heck. It's a Jurassic Park RC car. Orco's taking it for a spin. The baby and the dog are equally parts fascinated and terrified at the moment. Haha

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 1/23/2022 at 6:37 PM, profholt82 said:

I saw this at Target, and thought what the heck. It's a Jurassic Park RC car. Orco's taking it for a spin. The baby and the dog are equally parts fascinated and terrified at the moment. Haha

Man that is imagination. Give him the power!   This needs nothing more!

Edited January 24, 2022 by ADAMANTIUM

[Buzzetta]

Someone is smoking crack for these 5POA figures to be $20 each.  I fully understand that Super7/Reaction needs to pay for the Hasbro license on these but still.

[Cat]

On 1/24/2022 at 12:06 PM, Buzzetta said:

Someone is smoking crack for these 5POA figures to be $20 each.  I fully understand that Super7/Reaction needs to pay for the Hasbro license on these but still.

I bought some of the Transformers ones. Stupid of me. They're the sort of thing you'd never open, the appeal lies in them as a packaged product. So that card had better be perfect. But yeah, their price is ridiculous, and I'm a fool for buying them. I have one displayed downstairs in my lounge, and I tell myself how foolish I am everytime I see it. 

[whisp]

On 1/23/2022 at 9:06 PM, Buzzetta said:

Someone is smoking crack for these 5POA figures to be $20 each.  I fully understand that Super7/Reaction needs to pay for the Hasbro license on these but still.

They are like $26 cdn up here in Canada and I agree they smoking something.  For $20 you can buy the latest 3 3/4 for that price.  I will wait till my local comic shop has those on discount  since wouldn't mind the Storm Shadow but at that price I could pick up a vintage piece like one of the smaller playsets or something at that price.   I have also noticed others talking about this and said they way overpriced.  At best these are $10 figures.

[profholt82]

That Snake Eyes is a true horror. Sheesh. You can get those GI Joe Classified 6" figures for about the same price. I don't know why anyone would drop 20 bucks on those ReActions. The cards look great though. 

[Buzzetta]

With New York Toy Fair cancelled, it seems that Hasbro has pulled out of all other Toy Fairs and are NOT going to London.   

This was something that Hasbro has probably been toying with for awhile.  (I assure you, no pun intended.)

Hasbro has been killing it with their live streaming events and reveals across all toy lines.  It is getting to the point that the Toy Fairs and Comic Cons need Hasbro more than Hasbro needs them.   If Mattel and Lego decide to scale back their appearances as well, then Toy Fair could be a showcase for the indies for lack of a better word. 

Interesting times.