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

[fantastic_four]

On 12/15/2022 at 11:47 PM, Cat said:

Mafex Jean... is alright (it's only my second Mafex figure I own, I think, and the first I've opened?). It's a nice enough figure, the joints are all fine, nothing feels like it's going to break. It came with a flight stand, which I didn't know about, so that was a nice surprise. However, the heads pop off VERY easily. Try and adjust the head, and pop, there goes the head. That gets old real fast. Very nice plastic used, it doesn't look platicky at all on the yellow parts.

Mafex Jean is the best Jean released to date, but I agree that she's underwhelming.  Most of that is I just don't like this costume for her.  Everyone's favorite Jean costume is Phoenix or Dark Phoenix, so we're all waiting for that iteration of the character.

Mafex's parts are designed to come off with some force.  That's their trade-off for the more-attractive plastic--to design the parts to come off if too much pressure is applied as opposed to those parts breaking.  You can also easily pop arms, legs, and torsos apart if you exert the right pressure at the right places in the right direction.  Sometimes they design the joints to come apart too easily, and sometimes they design them to NOT come apart easily at all and those joints tend to be the ones that break the most.  If that's a deal-breaker I'd avoid all of the Japanese imports because Figuarts, Mafex, and Amazing Yamaguchi parts all come off fairly easily as compared to the brands geared towards either kids only ($10 basic figures from Hasbro and Mattel) or a mix of kids and adult collectors (Marvel Legends, Star Wars Black Series, McFarlane DC Multiverse, etc).

[Cat]

On 12/20/2022 at 1:12 AM, fantastic_four said:

Mafex Jean is the best Jean released to date, but I agree that she's underwhelming.  Most of that is I just don't like this costume for her.  Everyone's favorite Jean costume is Phoenix or Dark Phoenix, so we're all waiting for that iteration of the character.

Mafex's parts are designed to come off with some force.  That's their trade-off for the more-attractive plastic--to design the parts to come off if too much pressure is applied as opposed to those parts breaking.  You can also easily pop arms, legs, and torsos apart if you exert the right pressure at the right places in the right direction.  Sometimes they design the joints to come apart too easily, and sometimes they design them to NOT come apart easily at all and those joints tend to be the ones that break the most.  If that's a deal-breaker I'd avoid all of the Japanese imports because Figuarts, Mafex, and Amazing Yamaguchi parts all come off fairly easily as compared to the brands geared towards either kids only ($10 basic figures from Hasbro and Mattel) or a mix of kids and adult collectors (Marvel Legends, Star Wars Black Series, McFarlane DC Multiverse, etc).

This is actually my favourite costume of Jean's, so I lucked out here. I would have bought her Phoenix costume though. And yeah I do have Revoltech figures and have handled Figuarts and Figma so I'm used to joints popping out Jean's neck joint is just ridiculously easy, it just needs to be touched, essentially, making it a real pain to work with. It's just a poor fit on mine. 

[fantastic_four]

On 12/19/2022 at 10:36 AM, Cat said:

This is actually my favourite costume of Jean's, so I lucked out here. I would have bought her Phoenix costume though. And yeah I do have Revoltech figures and have handled Figuarts and Figma so I'm used to joints popping out Jean's neck joint is just ridiculously easy, it just needs to be touched, essentially, making it a real pain to work with. It's just a poor fit on mine. 

If all three heads do it sounds like it's the peg.  All Mafex heads come off for me with almost no force, and I don't recall Jean's coming off more or less than any others.

I've learned to handle all Mafex joints the same way, so I suppose even if hers were loose I may not notice.  When I'm working a joint on an import I push it not just in the direction it goes but also in the direction it's connected so that it doesn't pop off.  That particularly helps with figures that have loose joints due to a bad copy or bad design.  The easiest joint I own to come apart is the Mafex tiger stripe Wolverine's biceps; those have a design flaw that causes everyone's to come apart if you twist it and apply ANY force away from where the arm connects to the deltoid.  But mine never come off because I don't just twist the bicep swivel, I twist it and push slightly up towards the deltoid, and applying slight force towards the connection point keeps it connected.

[fantastic_four]

One thing to note about Mafex heads is I often take them off for a non-obvious reason, so I'm generally glad they're designed to come off fairly easily--they include a bend in the neck peg that allows additional head tilt either forward or back.  In the first pic below you can see the 075 Spider-Man's bent neck peg, and I have turned it so that the bend faces forward which means the peg angles backward, and in the second pic you can see the maximum tilt backwards that grants.  You can easily turn that peg around so that the bend points forward granting more tilt forward and down.

I own 30 to 40 Mafex figures, and I don't recall ANY not having this same bent neck peg.

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by fantastic_four

[Cat]

On 12/20/2022 at 1:41 AM, fantastic_four said:

If all three heads do it sounds like it's the peg.  All Mafex heads come off for me with almost no force, and I don't recall Jean's coming off more or less than any others.

I've learned to handle all Mafex joints the same way, so I suppose even if hers were loose I may not notice.  When I'm working a joint on an import I push it not just in the direction it goes but also in the direction it's connected so that it doesn't pop off.  That particularly helps with figures that have loose joints due to a bad copy or bad design.  The easiest joint I own to come apart is the Mafex tiger stripe Wolverine's biceps; those have a design flaw that causes everyone's to come apart if you twist it and apply ANY force away from where the arm connects to the deltoid.  But mine never come off because I don't just twist the bicep swivel, I twist it and push slightly up towards the deltoid, and applying slight force towards the connection point keeps it connected.

Yeah it must be the peg the neck connects into. So yours is fine? Oh well, not that big of a deal. Mines just for display anyway. Thanks for the handling tips, this is only about my second or third Mafex figure, and first I believe I've opened. 

[Cat]

[followtheleader]

On 12/19/2022 at 11:22 AM, Cat said:

Man, this is exactly how I justify it.   

If it's on TV, it's true. 

Patrick 

[fantastic_four]

On 12/19/2022 at 10:55 AM, Cat said:

Yeah it must be the peg the neck connects into. So yours is fine?

As I mentioned it's possible it's loose and I hadn't noticed, so I just took it out of my display case.  It's on there much tighter than you're describing yours is.  Took more than a gentle tug to get it off, and I could tell it was on there tightly enough to hold the figure by its head and shake it around trying to see if the body would come off so I did that and couldn't get shaking to cause the body to come off.

I would describe one or two of my Mafex figures as having heads that come off easily as I'm working them, but I barely remember which ones do that since I push down on the neck as I work them as I described earlier.  In general I don't mind loose joints if one thing is true--they're at least tight enough to hold up their own weight and stay posed at any angle I pose it at.  If they can't do that I start looking to do a return, or if it's something too old to return I sometimes look to get a new one.  So if I couldn't pose Jean's head at a specific angle without gravity shifting it I'd definitely return it if possible.

Edited December 19, 2022 by fantastic_four

[fantastic_four]

On 12/19/2022 at 11:22 AM, Cat said:

I've had a shortcut saved to Ikea's Billy product page for years now for exactly this reason.   

[Cat]

On 12/20/2022 at 4:46 AM, fantastic_four said:

As I mentioned it's possible it's loose and I hadn't noticed, so I just took it out of my display case.  It's on there much tighter than you're describing yours is.  Took more than a gentle tug to get it off, and I could tell it was on there tightly enough to hold the figure by its head and shake it around trying to see if the body would come off so I did that and couldn't get shaking to cause the body to come off.

I would describe one or two of my Mafex figures as having heads that come off easily as I'm working them, but I barely remember which ones do that since I push down on the neck as I work them as I described earlier.  In general I don't mind loose joints if one thing is true--they're at least tight enough to hold up their own weight and stay posed at any angle I pose it at.  If they can't do that I start looking to do a return, or if it's something too old to return I sometimes look to get a new one.  So if I couldn't pose Jean's head at a specific angle without gravity shifting it I'd definitely return it if possible.

There's no way you could hold this figure by the head. That only ends in a beheading. But she's for display, so it's ultimately okay, just mildly annoying I got a bad one. Thanks for checking yours, I appreciate that. 

Edited December 19, 2022 by Cat

[F For Fake]

Galaxy Shuttle arrived from Walmart this weekend. They put this thing in a box big enough to hold four of five of them, so it bashed around in there for a while, and came out with a big gash down the side, and the accessories completely wriggled free from their ties. Bummer. Doesn't look to be damaged otherwise. I would return it for a replacement, but it's long sold out now, so I guess it is what it is.

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 12/20/2022 at 8:08 AM, F For Fake said:

Galaxy Shuttle arrived from Walmart this weekend. They put this thing in a box big enough to hold four of five of them, so it bashed around in there for a while, and came out with a big gash down the side, and the accessories completely wriggled free from their ties. Bummer. Doesn't look to be damaged otherwise. I would return it for a replacement, but it's long sold out now, so I guess it is what it is.

yikes! Looks like one to open and play with, hopefully still complete and working, but hard to imagine that the splits on cardboard can occur in shipping!

[F For Fake]

On 12/20/2022 at 9:24 AM, ADAMANTIUM said:

yikes! Looks like one to open and play with, hopefully still complete and working, but hard to imagine that the splits on cardboard can occur in shipping!

yeah, at first I thought maybe someone had slit it open to steal the contents, but everything appears to be present, and also I don't think these ever hit store shelves, as they sold out in pre-order, so I guess it's just a freak thing. Oh well. Luckily I am primarily an opener with new toys, so it's not the end of the world, but suffice to say I wasn't impressed, Wal-Mart!

[followtheleader]

On 12/20/2022 at 9:08 AM, F For Fake said:

Galaxy Shuttle arrived from Walmart this weekend. They put this thing in a box big enough to hold four of five of them, so it bashed around in there for a while, and came out with a big gash down the side, and the accessories completely wriggled free from their ties. Bummer. Doesn't look to be damaged otherwise. I would return it for a replacement, but it's long sold out now, so I guess it is what it is.

Is the toy essentially Astotrain with a pad?

Patrick

[F For Fake]

On 12/20/2022 at 12:32 PM, followtheleader said:

Is the toy essentially Astotrain with a pad?

Patrick

Yes, he's a straight re-deco of Siege Astrotrain, who also included the launch pad. The only real difference (aside from paint) is the new head sculpt.

[Namtak]

Ok,so technically not a toy but close was fun.

My parent gave this box from national geographic with 3 original fossilized shark tooth to dig out of à cool shark sand-ish  Block.2 of them are extinct!really nice gift my parents gave me,was real fun digging them out!

Edited December 21, 2022 by Namtak

[B2D327]

On 12/21/2022 at 4:53 PM, Namtak said:

Ok,so technically not a toy but close wss fun.

My parent gave this box from national geographic with 3 original fossilized shark tooth to dig out of à cool shark sand-ish  Block.2 of them are extinct!really nice gift my parents gave me,wss real fun digging them out!

I find stuff like this so cool. Great way to introduce kids (and grown ups) to some really interesting and educational subject matter…sometimes becoming a life long passion

[BuscemasAvengers]

And lo beginneth the Sanctum Sanctorum

[B2D327]

On 12/23/2022 at 11:23 AM, BuscemasAvengers said:

And lo beginneth the Sanctum Sanctorum

 

 

At a quick glance, your pic scared me for a second. I got an optical illusion that your ceiling collapsed from the pattern of the countertop. 

[BuscemasAvengers]

On 12/23/2022 at 12:39 PM, B2D327 said:

At a quick glance, your pic scared me for a second. I got an optical illusion that your ceiling collapsed from the pattern of the countertop. 

I hear ya! You should see how well it hides crumbs!