Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron U-Wing Starfighter by Jazwares

Folks, I have officially stopped collecting Star Wars figures. Between the dismal state of the franchise and the emphasis on releasing figures from the new content rather than The Original Trilogy I just have zero interest in any of it anymore. I only reviewed two Black Series figures since the beginning of LAST year, and that pretty much reflects how little I’ve been buying. I still hope to review some of the Hot Toys I picked up last year, but right now the only Star Wars I’m still actively collecting is Jazware’s wonderful Galaxy Squadron line. And even there I’m being pretty selective. I haven’t been picking up any of the Prequel stuff, and passing on a lot of the ground vehicles. Of course, anything from my beloved Rogue One is still on the table, and today I’m checking out the U-Wing Starfighter! Although, frankly I don’t know why they call this thing a starfighter as it’s more of a gunship and troop transport, but whatever!

The ship comes in the same style window-box as the larger ships we’ve seen in the past. As always I dig the use of the snappy foil on the packaging. The included figures come in a tiny little self-contained tray and the toy itself is displayed against an illustrated backdrop. There’s a bit of assembly required here as you have to clip the wings onto the ship. The packaging is collector friendly and the wings are probably removable again, but I didn’t want to try it for fear of stressing the clips. Let’s start with a quick look at the figures!

The ship comes with three figures, which seems to be the standard for this price point. Included are Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, and K-2SO, so no surprises there. Let’s face it, the figures aren’t the main attraction here, but with that having been said, I’ve been really impressed with the sculpt and paint on the tiny fellas in this line and this trio is no exception. The facial features are solid, and you get some great detail on the costumes like their gun belts and pockets. K2 looks a bit thicker than he should, but that’s fine. There was no way they could have done his spindly limbs in this tiny scale without adding a little bulk. As usual, these figures have four points of articulation, found in the hips and shoulders. I also love the subtle differences in size with Jyn a little shorter than Cassian and K2 towering over both of them.

And here’s the U-Wing with the wings retracted, and let me start by saying that I really love this ship design. It reminds me a bit of the Buck Rogers Thunderfighter only a lot bigger, while the cockpit and rear grill is evocative of the Snowspeeder, and the quad engine mounts recall the X-Wing. And yet, it avoids the trap of looking too kit-bashy as some of these designs can turn out when borrowing from other ships. As always, Jazwares has invested a lot of detail in the sculpt with some deep cut panel lines and tiny grills and access compartments. The bottom of the ship has a transparent panel under the cockpit, reminiscent of those found on Huey Gunships to allow the pilot to see the terrain and landing zone below. You also get two blaster cannons jutting out on the front.

The paintwork includes some blue and yellow trim, which I presume are squadron markings. The rear engines are scorched and blackened from heavy use and there’s dark silver around the engine rings and also behind the cockpit. I think Jazwares is really good at the weathering aspect on these ships too, giving the hull a little bit of that “used future” look that made Star Wars aesthetics so distinctive. It’s definitely not overdone on this ship. If anything maybe it could have used a bit more on the undercarriage, which looks a little too clean.

Each wing folds back manually giving this ship a really impressive presence with a massive wingspan. I’ll confess I don’t fully understand the purpose of the wing articulation on this ship. It makes sense that they would be held in tight when going to hyperspace, so why extend them? I’ve poked around a bit in the lore and the key takeaways were that it uses them extended for atmospheric flight, while having them extended provides better shield coverage. That makes sense, but when the gunship was taking off from Jedha and later deploying troops on Scarif, it still had the wings tucked in, so I don’t know. I’ll just settle for it looks cool with them extended and leave it at that.

The ship opens up in four ways. First, the canopy hinges forward to give access to the cockpit, second the back panel lifts off to expose the passenger cabin, and finally the two side doors slide back to allow troops to deploy as well as allow the mounted laser cannon to be manned and fired. I like how removing the top panel also reveals some inner workings on the top rear of the ship (possibly the reactor?) and that it’s even been painted. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy for me to get shots of the figures in the interior, because everything is so tiny, but there’s room for two figures in the cockpit, one figure clipped behind the laser cannon, and six more seated in the benches. The cockpit is a little crowded, especially with K2 in there, but it’s mostly an issue with elbow room, as the canopy can still close with plenty of room. The attention to detail inside the ship is very impressive, with textures on the seats, tiny control yokes in the cockpit, and even details on the bulk plates and deck plates.

Finally, you do get four flip-down landing gear to, well… support the ship on landing. One set folds down from under the cockpit area and there’s one located below each of the engine clusters.

I was exceedingly pleased to see this ship get released in this line, because the Hasbro 3 3/4-inch scaled release was a pretty piss-poor effort. Yes, even taking into account it had to be scaled down into what was essentially a one-person fighter, the detail and paintwork on it were just too lazy for me to justify buying it. Here we get to see the ship fleshed out pretty well, thanks to the tiny figures and some great work by Jazwares. The U-Wing was released at the same $29.99 price point as the Imperial Shuttle, and the two do indeed seem quite comparable in value and complexity. It’s a great addition to my fleet, and I’m happy to finally have this ship represented in my collection!

DC Super Powers: Blue Beetle & The Bug by McFarlane

McFarlane’s modern throwback to the vintage Kenner Super Powers line has been one of my favorite new toy lines over the last year. The figures are cool enough, but Todd’s continuing commitment to doing vehicles similar in tone to what we might have had in the vintage series has been the icing on the cake. I haven’t quite been all in on this line, as some of the modern characters don’t really work for me in this format, but I have been picking up a lot of the figures and so far all of the vehicles. I last visited with this Super Powers when checking out Batman’s Whirlybat and now it’s time to have a look at Blue Beetle and his ride! I make it no secret that Ted Kord (along with his chum Booster Gold) are among my favorite DC characters. Heck, I can blame the Booster and Beetle two-pack for getting me sucked into collecting DC Multiverse in the first place. Needless to say, I was beyond excited for these new Super Powers toys!

The packaging for this line has been a direct hit into the nostalgia feels right from the start. You get the snappy blue and yellow deco with the Super Powers logo coming at you in an explosion of stars. The Bug comes in a fully enclosed box and requires a little bit of assembly, but once you slap on the legs it’s ready to go. There are some pictures of the toy in action on the back, and OH! Is that Booster Gold I see in the co-pilot seat? Maybe in the next wave, I hope! It still kills me a bit to tear into these packaged figures, because their cards and bubbles are not collector friendly, but I soon get over it when I’m playing around with them like a kid again. Let’s start with Blue Beetle!

Blue Beetle features his classic costume in the two-tone blue with black trim and yellow goggles and belt buckle. The paint detail on the chest beetle on my figure is a little askew, but I really didn’t notice it until punching in close with the camera. I dig the colors and overall the figure looks nice, although the sculpted lower half of the face is rather soft. It’s almost to the point where the mouth is barely noticeable. These two gripes keep Ted from being one of the stronger figures released in the line, but he’s certainly not bad.

In keeping with the original Kenner line, these figures have standard 5-POA articulation with the addition of two more points found in the hinged knees. The old gimmick of squeezing the knees to throw punches has not carried over to this line, and I can’t say as I really miss it. Blue Beetle doesn’t come with any accessories, and that’s a shame because I would have liked to get his Flash Gun. Ultimately, Ted Kord is exactly the sort that I’m looking to see turn up in this line: A classic character in his classic costume that never got a release back in the day. Now let’s check out The Bug!

The Bug is definitely one of the larger and more complex vehicles released in the line so far. Cast in blue plastic, this pill-shaped bug ship rests on six mechanical insect legs and features two huge amber-tinted eye windshields looking into the cockpit. The legs will articulate a bit where they meet the body, but they’re real purpose is just to hold up the ship. You get some basic panel lines in the hull and a gray grill on the front about where a bug’s mouth would be. There are also two stubby antennae on the top of the cockpit. There’s even an I Love NY bumper sticker on The Bug’s butt, which is a wonderful little touch.

Speaking of butts, press the lower portion of The Bug’s butt and the wings will spring open revealing the inside of the ship. There’s a staging area in the back with a sticker showing an iris hatch and some controls. At the front of the cabin is the two-seat cockpit with stickers showing the controls and displays. I was pleasantly surprised that The Bug didn’t get simplified into a one-seater and the stickers make for some really nice detail.

The figure fits inside with plenty of room to spare and it’s cool to be able to see him through the windscreen from outside the ship. The back portion serves as a play area for figures as well, although you have to use your imagination a bit back there and keep the wings open for figures to fit.

The iris hatch sticker inside the ship “leads” to the sculpted iris hatch on The Bug’s undercarriage and there’s a winch with a grab bar that secures under the ship. You can pull the winch to have Ted Kord descend into action and then press the iris hatch to pull him back up and out of danger! This is exactly the kind of play feature I would have expected to see on The Bug if it were released in the original line back in the day! It’s so much fun!

As usual, these figures run around $10-12 depending on where you get them and The Bug clocks in at $30, which feels about right as it puts it at the same MSRP as The Batmobile and the two are fairly comparable. Some may argue that the scale of the ship is way too small, but I feel it’s in perfect keeping with the spirit of the vintage toyline and I’m still impressed that they made the cockpit fit two figures instead of just one. Indeed, everything about McFarlane’s Super Powers has been a wonderful celebration of the old toys and reminds me of the old Kenner commercials that used to play on Saturday morning. “Coming from the farthest reaches of the universe to challenge the worst villains on Earth are the most powerful heroes ever!” “Will the Justice League ignore Blue Beetle? Will Max Lord shoot him in the head? You decide!”

Mythic Legions (Poxxus): Thraice Wraithhailer by The Four Horsemen

I was tempted to go all in on GI JOE this week, but then I remembered that I had to throw some love to Mythic Legions, so let’s do that today. If you need to catch up, I’ve already covered two of the figures from the most recent Poxxus Wave, Samir Scrollwarder and Aracagorr, and today we’ll be checking out the first baddie in the assortment… Thraice Wraithhailer.

We’ve seen the packaging many times before, so let’s just jump into a bit about the character. Thraice is an Umangeist, which TFH identify as “A corrupt supernatural mingling of flesh and phantasm,” and damn, that’s some top notch wordsmithing right there. Ms. Wraithhailer ia a summoner with an unquenchable thirst for power and has sided with the evil forces of Poxxus in Mythos’ latest struggle between good and evil.

Thraice comes out of the box with her shoulder armor off, so all you need to do is peg those into her back to get her ready for battle. Pegging these in has been a painful experience on the recent figures, so I was happily surprised to see these go in nice and easy. I’ve been through so many Mythic Legions figures and have so many yet to be opened, that I no longer go crazy trying to identify all the parts reuse, although I do certainly recognize the shoulder pieces, as we’ve seen those many times before. The body consists of the leather-style armor we saw introduced with the Elves, and here it’s done in black and brown with some fine silver paint work around the fixtures and rivets. I’m also blown away by the attention to detail on the laces running up the front of her cuirass. The individually sculpted laces are painted brown and each and every eyelet is painted silver. The boots give way to a dark chocolate brown, matching the belt. The belt has a bronze disk buckle front and center, some sculpted pouches on the side and more of those immaculate tiny silver paint hits to the fixtures. The belt looks great, but it does have a habit of riding up and shifting about when posing the figure.

This wave is big on the softgoods flourishes, and here we see a black skirt utilized along with the sculpted armor, which hangs down from the hips and wraps around the back. We also get wired flap of cloth hanging down the front. I really am impressed at how well the cloth is integrated with the plastic. It looks great! Thraice also comes with three sets of hands: Two sets for accessory holding and one set for spell-slinging!

And there are two portraits included, although the differences are rather subtle. The first is rather neutral and it doesn’t make Thraice look like such a bad gal. The eyes are very nicely painted with white centers to her pupils giving her something of an ethereal look. The facial features are well-rounded and beautiful with an ashen complexion and her pure white hair hangs down over the fronts of her shoulders with some stray strands falling over the extreme left side of her face.

The alternate portrait makes her look a bit more wicked, or at least like she’s concentrating on a spell or incantation. Her brow is a little furled and her eyebrows are downturned, while the hair is identical. There’s definitely a difference of expression between the two heads, but it’s not exactly a huge difference. Either way, they are both gorgeous! And if you aren’t all that wrapped up in the official canon, I think Thraice could certainly pass as one of the heroes if that’s what you want her to be. Or perhaps just a shadowy figure who’s path is uncertain.

You also get a purple softgoods cloak, similar to the one we saw last time with Samir. Once again, it’s beautifully tailored with wire running around the edges for posing and the material falls about the figure quite naturally, which is impressive for this scale. The deep purple both fits the character well and offers a bit more color to make her pop. Naturally, you do have to remove the shoulder armor to fit it on her. On the downside, I did not want to wind up pulling out the stitching on the hood clasp trying to get her hair to fit inside the hood, so I kept the hood down in the pictures. The solicitation shots do have her wearing it up, so I’m sure it’s possible, but I just didn’t want to risk it.

Thraice doesn’t come with a whole heck of a lot in terms of extras. Mythic Legions can be like that. Sometimes you get a ton and sometimes just a small assortment. Indeed, in this case you just get two magic effect parts and a staff. The staff is pretty simple and understated, but I do really dig the translucent blue crystal ball at the top. The black shaft is smooth and you get some bronze fixtures sculpted at the top and bottom. I kind of like the idea that the staff is just a focusing tool for Thraice’s power and it doesn’t need to be all kinds of elaborate and crazy to do that.

As for the effect parts, these are both to demonstrate Thraice’s abilities as a Summoner. The first is a translucent blue skull and it is really damn nice. The projected skull has it’s jaws open and the spiraling tendril of energy wraps around the figure’s arm to make it look like it’s being cast forth. The translucent effect looks great and when combined with the bright blue it practically looks like it’s illuminated.

The second is a serpent’s head with a long spiral tendril that wraps around the staff. This one looks really nice as well with the same gorgeous translucent blue coloring and a lot of detail to the serpent head.

I’ll confess that Thraice underwhelmed me in the accessories department, but she more or less makes up for it as the figure itself is absolutely excellent. I think the choice of armor fits the type of character they were going for quite well and while there aren’t a lot of flourishes of color, the black and brown looks solid and the meticulous touches of silver do impress. And once again the use of softgoods is very welcome here and it I like that you can display the cloak open and still see the body sculpt, giving me the best of both worlds. Yes, I would have liked a few more extras included. I get that she’s probably not a sword-user, but at the very least, that exotic curved dagger and sheath we’ve seen many times before would have given us something to hook onto her belt. And I’ll likely borrow one from another figure.

G. I. JOE Classified: Retro Carded Scarlett by Hasbro

As promised last week, I’m back to check out the second of Hasbro’s Classified Do-Over figures. First came Duke and now it’s Scarlett’s turn. It’s easy to forget that in the early days of Classified, Hasbro was tying the toyline to designs from the video game, Operation Blackout. Probably not a great idea, since the game really was a pile of ass and Classified has since proven that you don’t need a media tie-in to have a successful toy line. Especially when most of the people buying them are probably nostalgia-driven old bastards like me. Well, Duke was an absolute homerun, so let’s see how Scarlett turned out!

Here she is on her super sexy retro-style card with some absolutely bitchin’ character art exploding right in your face. As with Duke, the card stock is nice and thick, perfect for MOC collectors and the extended bubble allows for all of Scarlett’s accessories to be laid out around, with only a couple of the extras nested below. The back of the card has a huge multi-lingual file card and a classic “Collect-Them-All” spread of the three figures in this wave, the other two being Duke and Recondo. Alas, as great as this looks, it is not at all collector friendly, so it’s time to rip it open and get at our new recruit!

And like the new Duke, Scarlett is a complete return to her original RAH ’82 roots with a few modern polishes thrown in for good measure. Her uniform consists of the classic khaki one-piece with matching gloves and boots and a dark green underlying body suit showing through on her legs, arms, and around her neck. She has her shuriken sculpted onto her glove, a canister grenade (I think that was a round grenade on the original) sculpted on her left shoulder, and the red recoil pad on her right. She even has the hidden last-resort pistol sculpted on the inside of her left gauntlet. There are a few reinforced tailoring lines added here and there as well as a gold zipper(?) running up the side of her abs. She has a primary belt that’s sculpted as part of the figure and then a secondary belt worn by the figure with some sculpted and painted cartridges. They even added a peg to this belt to keep it in place! Her quiver is attached to her right leg with a high thigh strap, and this is the most obvious new addition to the design. She also has her knife and sheath on her left leg, something that was sculpted onto the original figure, but is now attached with the knife as a removable accessory. I think Hasbro did such a great job updating this uniform that the only thing I can nitpick are the boots. I would have liked to see the return of her high heels and, yeah, they were ridiculous and totally unpractical, so I’d guess most people will be happy to see her have flats.

I’ve thought long and hard about this portrait. I like it a lot. The original RAH Scarlett was not what I would call a handsome woman, and this one certainly remedies that. It draws a fine line between being pretty and yet still striking me as a serious woman of action. The printing on the eyes and eyebrows are perfect. The lips are painted well, but I think they may be a tad too big. Everything else is great, right down to the light peppering of freckles. The hair is sculpted separately and looks great with no flyaway bangs to get in the way of targeting Cobra. You even get two ponytails, one falling pretty straight and a second to work better with the backpack. The whole shebang is rounded out with a couple of small black earrings. Now, I really liked the first Classified Scarlett’s portrait. It was more youthful and definitely presented a different take on the character, but in the end, I think this one is a big improvement.

The backpack is a wonderfully complex sculpt with a ton of pouches, straps, rumples, and buckles. It would have been great to see some paint apps on here, but instead it’s cast in the same very pale olive plastic as her belts and quiver. The alternate ponytail works perfectly with the backpack as it’s designed to cascade down in a sort of S-pattern. The backpack stays pretty snug in her back and you get a little functionality with the two pegs on the sides to mount her rifles through the trigger guards.

The articulation here is fantastic and offers a well needed update to the arms. Here you get bicep swivels and double-hinged elbows replacing the rotating hinged elbows of the previous figure. Of course, the new Scarlett is also based on a pinless body, but everything else is more or less the same when it comes to posability. You also get one set of fists and a set of accessory holding hands.

Scarlett comes with an automatic pistol and the aforementioned combat knife. The knife is pretty standard fare and fits into the sheath. Despite her having two trigger-finger style hands, she can still hold it quite well. The pistol is an excellent sculpt and cast in the pale olive plastic. It has a hole in the barrel to take a blast effect part, although none are included. The pistol seems a tad big for her, and sadly there’s no holster for her to store it on her person. I found the trigger guard to be a little too small to risk pegging it to the backpack.

There are two rifles included: One Sunbow style XMLR-3A Laser Rifle and an AR-15 style rifle. The Sunbow rifle is always a welcome addition and it’s the same accessory that was included with Duke. I love this sculpt!

The AR-15 is also fantastic with a ton of detail, including a scope mounted on the carry bar and a removable magazine. Granted, this is not a weapon that I associate with Scarlett, but seeing as Super7 also included this type of rifle with their Ultimate Scarlett, I feel like I’m missing a connection here. But hey, I’m not complaining as this is one of the line’s best looking weapons and even if Scarlett won’t be arming herself with it much, it’ll likely get repurposed to another JOE.

Of course, Scarlett is best known for her trademark crossbow and that’s obviously included here, along with some bolts to stock her quiver. The crossbow is cast in black plastic, as are the bolts, and it’s a little more rifle-like than the RAH version, but I dig it a lot. The bolts do notch into the crossbow and you get a few different types to choose from. Sadly, there is no string on the crossbow, but maybe that’s for the best. I’d prefer no string to a chonky plastic one that warps easily and just looks wrong. I would have liked an option to peg the crossbow into her back instead of the backpack, but she’s just going to have to hold it.

Finally, you get a rectangular black figure stand with the GI JOE shooting star logo sculpted onto it. As I mentioned with Duke, I’m always happy to get these and it’s pretty close to the generic ones I use for my Classified figures, so it fits in pretty well.

To me, Scarlett is a near perfect Classified update to the Real American Hero figure and definitely the one I’ve been waiting for. She is absolutely going to be replacing the first issue Scarlett in my display. With that being said, I think Scarlett falls just slightly below the update we got with Duke. I feel bad for saying that because she is still an extraordinary figure but I think Duke just came out slightly ahead. I haven’t picked up Recondo yet because I have the Tiger Force version but I probably will eventually.

Shantae 20th Anniversary Statue by Limited Run Games

One of the great things about the modern collectibles market is it allows me to talk about video games on my Toy Blog. From Street Fighter to Golden Axe, Mega Man to King of Fighters and even Metal Slug, there’s a lot of crossover from video games to action figures. But, it’s rare that I get to talk about one of my favorite modern video game platformer series here on FFZ, and that’s because the spunky Half-Genie Hero, Shantae, hasn’t had a lot of merch beyond some extras packed into the limited edition releases of the games. Indeed, the closest thing to a toy or collectible of her in my collection is a Pop! Vinyl, and I only buy those things if it’s my only option. There have been some garage kits, which I believe come unpainted and my skills just aren’t up to the task, so I’ve passed on those. It’s kind of a crime that she hasn’t had a Figma or Figuarts or even a Prize Figure, but maybe one day. Anyway, Developer WayForward has produced five games in the series so far, with the first landing on the Gameboy Color about 22 years ago. Since then her adventures have reached a whole host of gaming platforms, all packed with her beaming personality, addictive Metroidvania style gameplay, and a host of colorful characters and dry wit. Suffice it to say, I highly recommend these games, and they can be had digitally on most modern gaming platforms. At some point, maybe I’ll showcase all the physical editions of the games I own, including collectors editions, steelbooks, and the like, but I’ll save all that for another day. Today is all about this 20th Anniversary statue that I’ve been waiting for for what feels like forever!

Now, I’m a physical kind of guy when it comes to my games and Shantae’s games have all been released and/or re-released physically by Limited Run Games, the company which also produced the statue we’re checking out today. The statue went up for pre-order two years ago and finally arrived at my doorstep this past week. And while I am absolutely chuffed to finally have her, I really need to stress that nothing I say today is meant to be an endorsement of LRG as a company. The more I’ve learned about them, the less I’ve wanted to do business with them. Yes, I’ve swallowed my morals in order to get some games physically. I’m happy I did, but at the same time not proud of it. But with this statue in hand, I’m at the point where LRG and I can part ways, as I’m officially done doing business with them. And yes, that includes not getting a physical release of the next Shantae game from them. It’s fine. I’ll support the game digitally. But, it’s not for me to tell anyone what companies they should patronize or shouldn’t, and I’m not going to sully this happy Shantae Statue Day with a lot of negative talk. Do your research and make your own decisions!

OK, enough preamble. Shantae comes in a very nice art box with some photos of the statue and some of its features. One side of the box illustrates the ability to take the acrylic standee figures that came with each of the games’ collectors edition and plug them into the statue base and light them up! Alas, my collectors editions are all sealed with the standees inside and I have no plans on opening them any time soon. Thankfully, the option existed to get a set of game box style acrylics to take their place and we’ll check out how that looks at the end. The back of the box has a heartfelt message from Shantae’s creators, The Bozons. Inside the box, the statue comes fully assembled and enclosed in a clear plastic clamshell and measures about 12-inches, but a decent amount of that is base.

And she looks fantastic! I’ll confess that I was a little concerned over what the quality was going to be like, as even some companies that produce statues regularly can be hit and miss when it comes to delivering the goods. Shantae is cast in PVC so she’s more akin to a scaled anime figure than she is most collectible statues. Most of the colors are achieved through the plastic and that means clean lines and colors that really pop, but not much in the way of complex shading. And that’s OK, because it really accentuates the animated style of the character. The red of her top, shoes, and billowy genie pants looks great alongside the bright yellowish gold of her arm bracers, and there’s a bit of black to keep things grounded. The skin tone is nice and even and not at all waxy, which can be a problem in some of the less premium figures on the market.

And I have to give a shout out to the way they did the pants! Shantae’s puffy genie pants are actually cast in semi-translucent plastic and you can actually see her legs inside of them. That is a really cool touch and something that I can’t ever remember seeing on another PVC figure like this. Bravo!

The pose is sheer perfection, with Shantae caught posing in mid dance with her purple hair swirling around her in a long, tapered whip, and her fingers interlocked behind her. The composition captures her two signature moves: Dancing to morph herself into an animal and her ability to use her copious coif as a whip to strike down enemies. When viewed from the front, the figure really does look like a perfect 2D rendering of the character brought to life in 3D, and that’s about the highest compliment I can pay a statue.

And the portrait is just as on point as the rest of the figure. Her giant blue eyes are perfectly printed and vibrant, her mouth is agape with glee, and she has two golden earrings dangling from her pointed ears. It’s actually kind of fun to watch them jostle when you move the statue. If I had one criticism it would be that the seams where the tufts of hair sprout away are pretty obvious. It would have been nice to see those gaps a little tighter.

Included in the box is a clear plastic support rod for her hair. It’s not required to display the statue, but it might be a good idea in order to keep the hair from drooping over time. It stays in place simply by friction and definitely adds a lot of support. It can also be positioned directly behind the figure so it’s not an eyesore. Totally optional, but I’ll likely use it.

The base isn’t the most stylish thing around, as it’s just a circular black pedastal with nestled in a brown ring. The Shantae logo is sculpted onto the front and there’s a USB power cable that connects to the back for the light up feature.

And here are the acrylic pieces that came with my package, and I honestly can’t remember if these were an optional extra or if they were included with every statue. The set came bundled together in a small plastic bag with each piece having protective plastic overlays that need to be peeled off. Each square piece of acrylic has the box art from the five games printed in some rich colors with a tab to plug them into the ring around the base. Yes, I would have preferred if they didn’t print Limited Run Games on every single one of these and would have much rather had just the box art, but it is what it is. I think the statue looks great displayed without these, but they are a neat extra.

The slots are designed so that one acrylic goes directly above the Shantae plaque with two evenly spaced to the left and right sides. The tabs and slots are interchangeable, so you can place them in whatever order you want. Here I chose with the first game front and center, the next two on either side, and finally the two most recent releases toward the back.

Plug in the power source and you get an ethereal green glow to each of the acrylics. It’s bright enough to be seen in a lit room, but it looks really cool in a dim environment. There’s no On/Off button and there’s no battery to charge. Plug it in and it stays lit. Unplug it and the lights go out. I will say that I think these box art squares look better to me than the pictures I’ve seen of the standees. It just looks more uniform, but that’s just my personal taste. I will likely leave the acrylics in place, but I doubt I will have it lit very often.

After two years it’s so cool to finally have this in hand and I will confess that it was worth the wait. My little Shantae shrine has been mostly a display of the various boxed copies and collectors editions with the exception of the Pop! Vinyl and a mini arcade cab that LRG released that plays the video and music from the intro of one of the games. Needless to say this statue will make for an excellent centerpiece to tie it all together. The statue was offered for $160 and I think it was well worth it. And naturally it’s already going on Ebay for nearly twice that much in some cases. Who knows how many were actually produced, as it was an open pre-order item, but either way I’m just glad to have a great representation of the character on my shelf!

ThunderCats Ultimates: Ratar-O by Super7

I’ve got a pile of Super7’s GI JOE and Silverhawks Ultimates to get to, but I decided I’d at least wrap up the latest wave of ThunderCats Ultimates before moving on. And I’ll probably be doubling up on a few of those JOEs in order to get caught up. If you’re just joining me for Wave 7, this assortment has included Snarf, Willa, and Mongor, and now lastly the Evil Mutant Ratar-O. Let’s check him out!

Our latest Mutant figure arrives in the same style packaging as we’ve been seeing all along, so I won’t dwell on it, but in the cartoon he arrived in his signature ship, The Ratstar! Ratar-O was a latecomer to the series, not arriving to join the fight until almost thirty episodes in, and his appearance really smacked of a need for LJN to help market and expand the action figure line. Not that he wasn’t a cool new character, but it was weird to see this fat rat show up to supplant Ssslithe and start dominating the more familiar Mutants. But, with monkeys, vultures, jackals and lizards already spoken for, I think a rat was a good choice.

And this rat is a force to be reckoned with! While the previous Evil Mutants all have a primitive and savage appearance about them, Ratar-O is clearly a rodent with some class and sophistication. He dons a full set of clothes that strike me as being somewhere between an emperor’s robes and a spaceship captain’s uniform. The blue tunic has gold edging, a large decoration on the front, and wide shoulders giving way to long red sleeves. He has blue and gold bracers on his wrists and grieves on his lower legs. Both his clawed hands and ratty feet are left bare and his tail snakes out from the bottom of the back of the tunic. It’s a colorful costume that makes him stand out and I really dig what Super7 did with it. The paint is sharp, the colors pop, and there are slits in the skirt part of the tunic to allow for better movement in the hips.

You get two head sculpts to choose from, which are pretty much the same but with one having a closed mouth and the other open. Both of these look great and convey all the personality of the animated design. He has two rodent teeth jutting down from under his nose, as well as a pair of reverse fangs reaching up out of the sides of his mouth. I also love the long tendril-like mustache that snakes down each side of his snout. The pointed ears jut upward from his almost samurai-like helmet and there’s a gold crest with a red gem in the center of his forehead. My one complaint with both heads is that there are a few molding seams running along the sides of the snout. These are not terribly apparent with the figure in hand, but kind of ugly when you punch in close with the camera.

The open mouth head displays Ratar-O’s full set of teeth and you get some nice variance in his eyes, where the left one is narrowed and the right is popping a bit. It mimics a recurring style in the Mutant’s animation models and gives the character a lot more personality. This may be the head that I display on the figure the most.

Despite having a rather rotund body, Ratar-O’s articulation works mostly the same as other figures in the line. He is missing the ab crunch that the skinnier Mutants have, but maintains a waist swivel. The range of motion in the arms are great thanks to rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows. The legs have a decent range in the hips thanks to the slits in the sides of the tunic, plus you get rotating hinges in the knees and hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The neck is ball jointed and you get pegged hinges in the wrists to allow for hand swapping. There are two sets of hands, which include a right relaxed hand, a left pointing finger, and one pair for his daggers.

The daggers, were known as The Rat’s Eye, which always kind of intrigued me that the pair of daggers had a single name, and yet each dagger kind of had their own rat’s eye. These beautiful twin accessories have a sort of Egyptian theme to their ornate gold hilts, with the eyes painted white with green pupils. The blades have a serpentine kris-style to them and lovely satin silver finishes to the paint.

You get two sets of effect parts to work with the daggers, all of which are cast in translucent, pale blue plastic. One set are to energize the blades and the other are projectile blasts that plug into the sockets in the eyes. Both designs work really well and they look great!

Finally, the Evil Mutants are complete and Ratar-O is a great figure to end them on. He was the last of them to join the show and there was just something different about him that made him stand out. And the Ultimates line definitely did him justice with this figure. Sure, you could argue that he comes with a lot less stuff than say Vultureman, but his added bulk kind of makes up for it. Also, there’s really not much else I could think of tossing in there, except maybe an episode-specific accessory or two. And while Ratar-O gets us the last of the Evil Mutants in the line, I’d still like to circle back and check out Monkian and Vultureman at some point, because both of those figures are yet to have their time in the spotlight here.

Marvel Legends (The Avengers): Giant-Man and Wasp by Hasbro

It seems like most of my Marvel Legends buying these days is stuff on deep discount, but every now and then Hasbro tosses something out there that gets me a bit excited. This time it was a new two-pack featuring Hank Pym as Giant-Man and Janet Van Dyne as The Wasp. It was an interesting reveal, coming shortly after the Giant-Man HasLab project just squeaked by, begging the question why wasn’t this pair of figures part of that project? If these were included, it would have given me the push I needed to back it, but since it wasn’t, I was able to pick up the figures off of Pulse and saved myself about $200 and the bother of finding somewhere to stand that huge figure. What was even more surprising is, this pack went up with a lot of people, myself including, believing it was a pre-order, but it actually shipped right away!

And here’s the snazzy packaging! Hank and Jan come in a colorful window box with a white front and lots of artwork on the side panels and the back. The figures are set against a blue background and when combined with the red and blue Avengers logo, this presentation really pops beautifully! The window is absolutely cluttered with accessories and extra hands and heads, making this feel like a decent value at the $50 price tag. I’m going to start with Hank, but let’s check him out as Giant-Man first…

We last saw Hank Pym as Giant-Man in Marvel Legends ten years ago as part of the Ultron Wave, and HOLY SHIT… TEN YEARS??? That was an OK figure, but it was definitely not my preferred version of the costume. Here, we finally get the good stuff, as Hank dons the bright red and blue suit, and the coloring here is absolutely gorgeous. Sure, the red paint above the zig-zag patterns on his boots doesn’t quite match the red plastic on the legs, but it’s a minor discrepancy on a tiny area. The black V-decoration on the torso is pretty sharp and you get a segmented silver belt worn around the waist, which does have a habit of riding up and needing adjusting.

The head sculpt shows some excellent definition in the facial features and it looks like the lower face is sculpted separately from the rest of the mask allowing for razor sharp lines. The red hood is broken up a bit by the white shingles on the sides of the head, the eyes are printed very well, and his antennae sweep up prominently from his brow.

The proportions on this figure are certainly a lot better than what we got last time and it features the wonders of pinless technology. The articulation follows the usual Legends formula with the bonus of butterfly shoulder crunches. You get two sets of hands, which include two graspy hands, as well as a right trigger finger hand and a left fist. The trigger finger hand is a strange choice, but it does actually work well with some of his accessories.

And I do enjoy that one of his accessories is a Quinjet. Is it supposed to be something that Hank shrunk down or is it a normal sized jet for Giant-Man to play with? I like to imagine it’s the later and he flies it around making whooshing noises, while The Avengers trapped inside scream in terror.

Swap the head and toss on his white coat and you have a Hank Pym to putter around in his Lab. The coat is surprisingly well tailored, considering this is kind of a first for modern Legends. It fits the figure nicely, the stitching is pretty tidy and while it lacks a ubiquitous pocket of pencils, I like it a lot. Had I picked up that West Coast Avengers boxed set, I would probably use the jacket on that Hank Pym figure, but with how much that set is being discounted these days, I may wind up with it eventually.

The head sculpt looks to be the same as the one included on Hank in that set and I dig it a lot. Pym is sporting his best serious scientist expression and the hair is sculpted as a separate piece and attached to the head.

Pym comes with a number of science accessories including including two pieces of glassware, which if my High School Science Class serves me well, I believe are a Florence Flask and an Erlenmeyer Flask. These are both frosted with some blue plastic inside ot look like liquid. You also get what looks like a data pad or perhaps a circuit pulled out of Pym’s latest invention. I guess it could be whatever you want it to be. Whatever the case, it’s a nice assortment of science lab stuff for Pym to work with. Now, let’s move on to Janet…

We’ve had plenty of Wasps in Marvel Legends, but I do believe that this is the first time we’ve got Janet in her classic (and IMHO best!) costume. The red dress with the flared shoulders, the high boots, the black undersuit, and the plunging neckline exposing her blue W, and the canisters on her belt… I just love this costume! If you have any of the previous Wasp figures from Legends, the wings should be familiar to you. Hasbro has certainly got their mileage out of these. The two sets plug into her back on hinges with the lower wings pegging into those, offering a good deal of posability.

Like Hank, you get two heads for Janet: One in costume and one out and both are gorgeous! The costumed head features her pointed cowl, complete with headset and antennae. The antennae are actually jointed inside where they connect to the head and can be articulated a little bit, which is really cool. The microphone on her headset can also be raised or lowered. The face is sculpted separately from the hood, offering a clean line between the two. And boy is the face beautiful! The printing on the eyes is just about perfect, there’s some nice color to her cheeks and her lips are fantastic!

And the other head is quite spectacular too! It’s a different face sculpt with notable differences to the eyebrows, but otherwise pretty close. The vintage style coif is sculpted separately from the head in an almost chocolate brown plastic with some adorable curls at the ends. I’d definitely say Janet here ranks up there among Hasbro’s best female portraits.

Like Hank, Janet’s body is pinless and if I still reviewed Legends figures as much as I used to, I’d probably stop pointing that out by now, but it’s still kind of new to me. It’s really nice to see the gals getting double hinged elbows and bicep swivels as opposed to just the rotating hinges in the elbows. The joints here all feel really nice and you get two sets of hands: One pair of fists and one pair of gesturing hands.

With Legends going for about $25 these days, the $50 price tag on this set seems about right. Actually if you include all the extras, it’s probably even a bit better. Given how much I love these characters, this set was a must-have for me and with it being a Pulse Exclusive, I wasn’t willing to risk not getting it to see if it would eventually be clearanced at the Pulse Outlet. I buy so few new Legends these days, I don’t feel bad about splurging on a set like this. Both figures are excellent, but for me it was getting the classic costume Wasp that really made my day!

Mythic Legions (Poxxus): Samir Scrollwarder by The Four Horsemen

Last month I started checking out the newest assortment of Mythic Legions figures, centered around the return of the evil scourge, Poxxus. My first figure was the large and impressive Dragon Man Aracagorr, which was a mighty fine debut for the wave. And, yes, it’s taken me a few weeks to get back to it, but I really do have so much cool stuff to cover and three reviews a week can only take me so far. I’d love to do more, but it’s often a crunch just to keep up this pace. Anyway, today’s offering from the Realm of Mythoss is the powerful wizard, Samir Scrollwarder!

Unlike our giant dragon friend, who came in a window box, Samir comes in the usual bubble on card that we’ve been seeing with Mythic Legions from the beginning. The card art is generic to the wave, but you do get some character specific text on the side of the bubble insert, telling us that Samir is one of the good guys and Keeper of The Great Library of Agbendo. This presentation is both attractive and serviceable, as well as collector friendly, but I don’t tend to keep these packages. I will note that Samir came packaged with his blue robe off and in a baggie behind the bubble, but I’ve had him out long before I took this shot and opted to leave it on. But, let’s start out without the robe and see what we’ve got!

Straightaway, I love Samir’s classic wizard look. Long gray beard? Check! Bald Pate? Check! Robes? Check! And speaking or robes, let’s start there. Mythic Legions is a line known for its exquisite sculpting and paintwork, so the heavy use of softgoods is kind of a new thing for the line, and Samir is definitely the first of these figures in my collection to be fully dressed in cloth and showing very little sculpt on the body. For the record, the underlying body is fully armored, but I won’t be disrobing him. I’ll never display him without the robe, so you’ll have to take my word for it. His wizardly garment is immaculately tailored, fits the figure well, and falls about him quite naturally. There are wires sewn into the bottom edge as well as the sleeves to allow them to be shaped the way you want them and it serves the purpose very well, especially in those sleeves, which gives them a little added weight. How do wizards cope with those long dangling sleeves? It seems like they would constantly be knocking over dangerous potions or catching them on fire, while reaching over a candle to grab another book.

The head sculpt is very nicely done, giving Samir an ancient and wizened countenance. The long gray beard is intricately sculpted with strands of hair weaving around and crisscrossing each other. His skin has a rich brown pigment and I dig the creases in his brown and the crow’s feet radiating from the sides of his eyes, which suggest he’s been around a while and seen a lot. The painted eyes are a little flat when compared to some of TFH’s other efforts, making them serviceable but not exceptional.

You also get a second head depicting the mystical arts welling up in Samir. This is mostly the same head sculpt, but here we get some green paint depicting arcane markings on his face and his eyes are painted entirely in green, showing the power within him.

The robe is cinched at his waist with a brown plastic belt that tabs together in the back behind a sculpted pouch. The connection there isn’t terribly secure, so I do find it popping open now and again.. I may wind up using some poster putty to secure it, or just outright glue it, since I don’t really ever plan on removing the belt. You get some accessories for the belt, including a cluster of pouches and potion containers that clips on. There are also a pair of loops to allow him to keep a pair of scrolls at the ready. The scrolls are plastic and sculpted in rolls. The belt has some fine gold paintwork on the buckle as well as the fixtures on the pouch.

Articulation is standard Mythic Legions stuff. I believe the figure is built on the Elf-style body so despite being armored, it’s more lithe and feels a bit more agile than the bulkier knights. You get four sets of bare hands with Samir. These include fists, two sets of casting-gesture hands, and a pair to hold accessories.

Samir also comes with an mystical text from the Great Library of Agbendo The powerful tome has a sculpted belt around it, holding it permanently closed. There are some loose pages sculpted into the fore edge and a real chain so he can wear it around his neck and keep tabs on it. The covers have a realistic leather texture to them and there’s a golden sun emblem sculpted on the front as well as reinforced corners.

And finally, you get his magical staff and a magical effect part. The staff features a winged cobra at the top, encircled in a ring. The staff has several rows of rings and a spiral grip running down to the end. The entire staff is finished in a deep copper color. The swirling green effect part is meant to snake around the staff, but it also works really well to depict Samir launching a mystical attack from his hand. Snaking it around his arm inside the robe holds it in place really well and the figure is capable of supporting the weight of the piece without any help of a stand!

And here is Samir wearing his blue cloak. I had originally planned on shooting more of the review with the cloak on, but I was pretty impressed with the figure in just the brown robes and so I saved it for last. The cloak looks great on him and certainly adds some color. You get wires running throughout the edges of the cloak as well as around the opening of the hood and these make it easy to work with when posing the figure. It’s quite impressive that even with both the robes and the cloak on, the softgoods don’t look puffy or oversized on the figure and I think that’s a testament to how great the tailoring is. Ultimately, I will likely keep the blue cloak on him for regular display, but I’ll be open to switching it up now and again.

Samir feels like quite a landmark figure for the line. It not only introduces a very classic and traditional wizard design, but it also shows us how well softgoods can be utilized for these figures. Now, I’m not saying I want a lot of my Mythic Legions figures dressed from head to toe in cloth, but it’s nice to see how well TFH can do it when it’s appropriate. They also did a great job with his accessories and the magic effect piece turned out a lot more versatile than I had expected. We did get another wizard in this assortment… an EVIL wizard, but I’m going to hold off on him and try to mix things up for the next time I visit with this amazing line!

G. I. JOE Classified: Retro Carded Duke by Hasbro

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost four years since Classified began with Duke arriving as one of those first figures. Classified’s first take on Duke wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, but I was still pretty happy with him and even now I still think it’s a pretty cool and fun figure. But as the line continued and began to stick more closely with the traditional Real American Hero designs, I think we were all hoping and waiting for Duke (and Scarlett) to get more conservative do-overs. And rather than just produce regular new versions, Hasbro upped the ante and shipped them on some snazzy retro card backs!

Naturally, Duke isn’t the first figure to get this treatment. We’ve seen several Classified figures released on jumbo retro cards. It’s an undeniably beautiful presentation. The colorful character art is extraordinary, the figure comes in an elongated tray and bubble to show off all his extras, and the card stock is extremely sturdy, which will no doubt please MOC collectors. I got mine from Amazon and even they couldn’t damage the card! The back of the card has a giant multilingual File Card as well as a Collect-Them-All style spread showing Duke with Scarlett and Recondo, the other figures this wave. Alas, it’s not collector friendly and while I may grab a second to keep carded if they turn up on sale, this one is getting sliced open to get Hauser into action! I hope you wore your poncho, because I’m about to start gushing!

Because what we have here is one of the finest examples of Classified’s ability to take a classic RAH design, nudge it into modernity, and use the larger scale to pack in some lovely added detail. Retro Duke dons the same green trousers, high brown boots, and khaki button-down shirt as the vintage figure and it all looks superb! The sleeves are rolled up a little higher here, practically up to the elbows, there’s some more color to his belt, but all the familiar beats are present and accounted for. Naturally, some aspects of the original figure that were merely sculpted on are now fully fleshed out accessories, like the bandoleer strap, the holstered pistol on his right thigh, and the knife and sheath on his left boot. And we even get butterfly crunches in the shoulders in addition to the all the usual Classified articulation. In terms of the uniform and body sculpt, I honestly couldn’t have asked for anything more.

The portrait is another direct hit, as this is the epitome of Duke perfection. I really liked the head sculpt Hasbro did for the first Classified Duke, but this one is just leaps and bounds better. The chiseled jaw, the bold nose, the concrete brow, it all looks so damn good. Even the hair is surprisingly sharp and clean considering that it’s part of the head and not separately sculpted. If I were to do a Venn Diagram of RAH Duke, Sunbow Duke, and an ideal Modern Duke, I think this portrait would fall right in the middle of those connecting circles. Now, would I have liked a second smiling head or shouty head? Yes, absolutely. But considering how good this is, I’m not going to get greedy.

Like the RAH figure, this Duke also comes with a removable helmet. And while we’ve certainly seen some pretty detailed helmets in this line, Hasbro went with a pretty simple design as a nod back to the original figure. They did, however, add a clear visor that can be worn up or down and I probably could have done without this, as it strikes me more as a Flash helmet rather than a Duke helmet, but that’s OK. Maybe it was just Hasbro’s way of saying that Gambello is coming. Duke also comes with a pair of binoculars which he can wear around his neck, and these are very similar to the accessory included with the original RAH figure. They fit pretty well, but I prefer to tuck them under the bandoleer to keep them more flush with his chest.

The backpack is certainly a strong nod to the original, but with plenty of modern flourishes, like the twin canteens behind his shoulders and the extra pouches and straps. And yes, it’s a repaint of the same backpack issued with the first Classified Duke. The entrenching tool is still front and center, but this time it’s painted green to help it stand out better. The blade also has the GI JOE motto on printed on it, which really makes me smile. The pack plugs into the hole on the back of the figure and it stays put very well, which has not always been the case with Classified backpacks.

Duke comes with two sets of hands: Fists and a pair to hold his weapons and accessories. The lack of a flat, saluting hand is kind of conspicuously absent. Hey, I’m really trying to come up with some criticisms here!

The knife on his left boot can be removed from the sheath and it’s a beautiful little representation of a military KA-BAR style knife. The pommel is rather distinctive, as it’s a gold disk more reminiscent of a medieval dagger than the flattened butt cap of a military fighting knife, but pretty cool nonetheless. The segmented grip is brown and the dark gray blade has a small fuller near the back and a clipped point. The straps holding the sheath to the boot can ride up and down a bit and occasionally need adjusting.

The sidearm holstered on his right thigh is a modern style automatic pistol. It’s cast all in black with some excellent detail in the sculpt. There’s also a hole in the center of the barrel so it can make use of blast effect parts included with other Classified figures. Like the boot sheath, this holster is held on by two straps and it seems to stay in place really well.

As for bigger weapons, Duke comes with his traditional M-32 Pulverizer Submachine gun, and wow is this a great sculpt. The weapon is cast in green plastic, has an effect part hole in the barrel and a removable magazine.

And you get the Sunbow style XMLR-3A laser rifle, which is another absolute banger of a sculpt. The detail is so sharp and crisp, especially on the top rail and foregrip. The stick is black while the rest of the weapon is green. If Hasbro ever released a weapons pack with a bunch of these, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

And finally, you get a figure stand! This is a black rectangle with two foot pegs and the GI JOE shooting star logo sculpted into it. This stand is extremely similar to the generic ones I buy for my Classified figures, only mine are missing the star emblem and have an extra footpeg.

If you can’t tell, I’m rather smitten with this figure and it probably goes without saying that I’ll be retiring my original Classified Duke. You served the shelf well for four years, and now you stand relieved, sir. Go buy a fishing boat and enjoy your retirement. Yes, Hasbro absolutely hit it out of the park with this figure and it really shows how far this line has come both in style and execution since the first days. What’s also great is Hasbro seems to have made this figure easy to get, as it’s been available through most major online toy retailers, and even now it’s still available on Amazon for the MSRP of $24.99. Can Retro Scarlett also be this good? Well, we’ll find out next week!

ThunderCats Ultimates: Mongor by Super7

With new waves of both GI JOE and Silverhawks Ultimates arriving at my door last week, the Super7 figures continue to pile up here, so it’s likely you’ll be seeing them turn up a little more often in my review rotation. Add to that the fact that I’m currently working my way through the most recently shipped wave of Super7’s ThunderCats Ultimates, and well… there’s a lot of plastic to cover! I already checked out Willa and Snarf and now it’s time to let the baddies of the assortment have their turn. So let’s have a look at Mongor, a one-off, demonic goat villain from the first season of the cartoon!

I have nothing new to say about the packaging. It’s the same window box with a foil black sleeve over the top. There’s some character art on the back panel of the box, along with a little bio. Oh, and mine came with a nasty rip in the front of the sleeve. I guess those brown mailer boxes we don’t get anymore were good for something. Anyway, Mongor is just one of those hazards you have to accept when living on Third Earth. You’re a Thunder Kitten and one day you go out to explore and screw around and the next thing you know, you’ve unleashed a hell-spawned goat creature from his tomb. Mongor was pretty terrifying as far as cartoon villains go, probably second only to Mumm-Ra himself. Surprisingly, he also actually got his own figure back in the LJN line, which was odd since he only appeared in one episode and there more than a few regulars that didn’t get figures.

And here he is, freed from his cardboard and plastic tomb and ready to haunt your dreams. I don’t know what it is about goat creatures, but they give me the willies, and this guy is no exception. To make things even creepier, Mongor comes at you with nothing but his sculpted lavender fur-pants for modesty. And what a great job they did on the fur sculpting! The detail is sharp and it has a really nice shaggy depth to it. He does have bald spots on the backs of his calves and the lavender shag also runs up his back. Otherwise you just get bare grey skin with some subtle texturing to it and a pretty impressive six-pack of abs. He has sharp claw-like fingernails and big brown talons on his clodhoppers. As far as the body is concerned, this is a fairly minimalist design made extra memorable by the sculpt and paint. As much as I love the lavender, it would be interesting to see him repainted with those parts in black and gray.

You get two heads to choose from, and both are pretty unsettling. The lavender face is framed by more of that shaggy hair in a darker shade. It forms a beard that cascades down over his chest and a mane that spills over his shoulders. Slightly curved goaty ears protrude from the sides of his head and he has a pair of majestic horns sprouting up and outward, each doing a little curl. The yellow eyes are practically reptilian with their vertical slits for irises and he has an open mouth advertising a wall of teeth. I’ll confess, the work on the teeth is a tad sloppy and does let this otherwise majestic portrait down just a tad. On the other hand Mongor’s piercing yellow gaze is totally on point. I’ll also note here that swapping the heads on this figure is a painful experience. There is no place to grab either head so as not to have sharp plastic points digging into your flesh. And the more force you have to apply, the deeper those points dig. It really, really hurts.

The alternate head might as well be that of a sleep paralysis demon. The pupils are gone from the eyes and the mouth is fully open revealing a much better detailed set of choppers. You also get some electric effect parts for his horns, which work on either head, but they look best with this one. The yellowish tint on the effect parts made me think they might be Glow In The Dark, but sadly they don’t seem to be. They still look pretty rad though!

Mongor’s articulation falls right in with the standards we’ve seen in this line. That is to say you get a lot of useful points, but maybe not the range you were hoping for, particularly in the elbows, where Mongor can’t quite do a 90-degree bend. I won’t run through all the points, since we’ve seen it before, but everything else is pretty damn good and his big feet make for a stable platform for what is a pretty well balanced figure. Also, I didn’t have any issues with stuck or loose joints. Naturally, you get a good sized helping of hands. These include a pair of relaxed hands, fists, pointy fingers, and accessory holding hands.

Mongor comes with one weapon and that’s the big, terrifying scythe he wielded in the cartoon. There’s a slight S-curve to the shaft and it has a simple wood grain texture sculpted in. The blade is black with a jagged line that transitions to a silver edge.

And if a giant goat demon with a scythe isn’t intimidating enough, there’s a flame effect that you can attach onto the blade. Normally, flame effects aren’t terribly impressive to me, but this one is quite a banger. The sculpt looks great, especially the way the individual flames lick around the blade and shaft. The transition from the inner yellow to the outer orange plastic looks especially nice too. I guess it’s nice to have the option to go with or without the flame piece, but I can’t imagine ever displaying the figure without it. It just looks too good!

In a wave that delivered on Snarf, Willa, and another Evil Mutant, Mongor was probably considered to be the black sheep (or in this case lavender goat) of this wave by many. Maybe doubly so, since he only had the one appearance in the cartoon. But, it’s a credit to how well this figure is executed that he stands tall among the assortment of heavier hitters. It’s still crazy to think that LJN produced a figure of Mongor over a regular like Willa, but then I’m guessing the thought process was that kids were probably more likely to want the purple goat monster than an icky girl. Either way, I’m thrilled to add this one to my ThunderCats shelf and that leaves just one more figure in the wave to go. And I smell a big rat on the horizon!