Action Figure #785: Marvel Legends Shriek

 Shriek buck this, Shriek buck that... about time I got Shriek!

 Like I said on the Hydro Man entry, I'm going to try to get more Spider-Man characters I skipped, and today, it's all about Shriek who just happened to be Carnage's girlfriend. Then they adopted doppleganger. And joined up with the Demogoblin... the 80's and 90's were wild man!

 So, this girl comes with a belt, a bracelet and 3 pairs of hands. I bought her second hand, for less than 10usd, so I got none of that... but I'm not gonna complain. Even if I had gotten the extra goodies... Shriek is a very simple design, so there's not much to her. I think her face looks appropriately almost kinda crazy, so they get points there. But other than that... she's not a particularly inspired design, so they did what the could with the figure.

 Articulation is exactly like the Shriek buck... because this IS the Shriek buck. This was, at the time of her release, the next step in female Marvel legends. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivel on her thighs and biceps, as well as a ball jointed ab crunch. At the time, it was better than pretty much any other female ML before her. By today? It's OK, but we've got a better buck. She is a hair shorter than Bucky Cap.

 She's fine. All her shortcomings are a direct consequence of her being such a simple, forgettable design. But they got her right, and at the time, this new buck was a nice update for Female Marvel Legends.

6.0

Action Figure #784: Valaverse White Dragon

 And now... the main event, Jason David Frank!

 Maybe I should've covered the White Dragon before the Prime Dragon, but here we are. As I said before... I've always been kind of interested kind of not in these two pack, and just the day I got my paycheck and finally decided to make the purchase... it ran out of stock. At least I only paid 20 usd over retail for these figures!

 So, The White Dragon... When it Came to Dragon Prime, there were a few things I could only speculate on, but there are enough photos and materials to be able to tell where they went wrong. The textures pattern across his body is almost perfect, but if you look close enough, there are some differences. The amount of bumps at the side of his body don't match the ones on his costume. And worst of all... The visor should be a pretty, reflective gold, not this pure yellow thing. I got used to it, probably because I love Yellow, but it's not accurate to the movie. The shield, on the front it looks perfect, but behind it looks VERY different. At least the alternate unmasked head looks pretty close to JDF. He comes with a blue base, two fists, two open palms, two grabby hands and an alternate right bracelet with the energy sword. I kinda hate that you can't swap the left bracelet and that he only came with one of these, because in the trailer you can see him using two of these blades.

 Much like Dragon Prime, there are no good shots of his sides, but If I was a betting man, I'd bet the silver highlight didn't just end abruptly there and it was just laziness.

 The articulation is top notch. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his boots, thighs and biceps, with sturdy drop-down hips and a ball jointed ab-crunch and a ball jointed waist, as well as butterfly joints. You can definitely have fun with this guy.

 That said, his arms can't stay straight. In fact, I had his elbow piece come off the joint and I had to super glue it back in. He is taller than your average Lightning collection figure, but, shorter than Bucky Cap.

 I have very mixed feelings when it comes to this guy. I do think that he is a cool looking figure, but he doesn't match the source material. Maybe Valaverse was given concept art? I'm not sure. But them not going the extra mile and paying attention to the details kinda rubs me the wrong way. And that's my issue. It's a good looking figure. It's fun to play with... but why couldn't it match the movie(Or trailer, since that's all we've got at the time of me writing this!) better?

5.5

Action Figure #783: Valaverse Dragon Prime

 Not quite Power Rangers, not quite Sentai.

 I was eyeing this two pack for quite a while, but just the day I managed to get the money.... it sold out. I even asked BigBadToystore if there were any chance it would restock, but they said it was nill... so I bit the bullet and slightly overpaid on Ebay for this Dragon Prime and White Dragon 2-Pack.

 I had kind of high hopes for these figures. Sadly, every Millenial's childhood hero, Jason David Frank, took his own life before this film celebrating Power Rangers and his Ranger Legacy got a release... but while we've been waiting for years, the figures have come out, and... Let's start with the villain, Dragon Prime. Admittedly, beyond one behind-the-scenes photo and a few quickshots from the trailer, we haven't seen enough of him... but it was enough to know that this figure isn't very faithful to the source material. For instance, his shield and gauntlets are painted in a light shade of grey... when in the BTS phot we can clearly see that these should be tinted red. Another thing, the bumps on the side of his torso... At leas the White Dragon has a different amount of them than his own figure and this one. Other than that, he is fine. He comes with two fists, two open palm hands, two grabby hands and... an alternate right bracelet with a red energy blade. It has to be said... I'm disappointed that only the right bracelet can be swapped, because in the trailer we can see the White Dragon using TWO blades. He also comes with a red base. Another thing, while we haven't seen Dragon Prime from the back, the are backshots from the White Dragon, and his chest shield, from behind, looks nothing like this.

 Also, there are not enough photos to be able to check, but this just can't be right. The front part of his side is painted silver, but the half of his back is pure black? I smell laziness.

 The articulation is top notch. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his boots, thighs and biceps, with sturdy drop-down hips and a ball jointed ab-crunch and a ball jointed waist, as well as butterfly joints. You can definitely have fun with this guy.

 That said, his arms can't stay straight. In fact, the white Dragon figure, which uses the same sculpt, had his elbow piece come off the joint and I had to super glue it back in. He is taller than your average Lightning collection figure, but, shorter than Bucky Cap.

 This figure is... it's fine as an action figure, but sadly, if he really is just a color swap of the White Dragon, the accuracy isn't all there. Maybe these figures were based on concept art? Either way... fine figures, but disappointing merch.

5.5

Action Figure #782: Power Rangers Lightning Collection In Space Pyscho Green Ranger

 Green with envy gone Psycho.

 Well, the In Space Psycho Green Ranger just might be the most I've paid for a Lightning Collection figure. At first I was sure I wasn't going to get him, but then my itch for Psychi Rangers picked up and.. well, here we are.

 Well, what I can I say? It's the same exact mold as the other Psycho Rangers I've written about but green. He looks nice, but I wouldn't say it's my favorite color scheme on the buck. He comes with two grabby hands, a left fist, a right energy-shooting hand, a green effect and a very badass knife. I'm pretty sure the green on his green energy hand is different than the other figures, but I didn't compare them.

 Same articulation as always. Double jointed elbows and knees, hinged waist, ball jointed ab crunch, butterfly joints and swivels on his biceps, thighs and boots. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 So, the Green Psycho Ranger... Is he worth the high price he is going for? Definitely no. But if you can spare the money, he is not a bad addition. Despite how short they are, I do like the Psycho Ranger buck, and I do like how he looks in green... but the Silver Psycho Ranger feels much more special, and is much cheaper than him.

8.0

Action FIgure #781: Jazwares Battle Ready Tyranitar

 So we doin' Pokemon now? Gotta catch 'em all I guess!

 I bought this Battle Ready Tyranitar by accident. Only now I heard about these 6 inch Jazwares Pokemon line, and I thought this was the 6 inch Tyranitar... but he wasn't. Oh well..

 Well... the sculpt is great. It is, this looks like Tyranitar, one of my favorite Pokemon EVER. He looks just like he looks in the games, and his spiky parts are rubbery so as not to hurt.

 The only thing worth mentioning is that the paint apps are spotty. This leg is the worst bit in my copy, but most of the paint apps in his body are kinda... missing the mark by different margins.

 This is most of his articulation. You press a button behind him and his arms move backwards and his mouth opens. Cute. But this turns him into a toy and not a collectible. His arms can't be moved. Well, you can, but they move together and alongside the mouth, and once you let go they reset. This is a toy.

 Also, yeah, the button. You have to deal with having a button behind him.

 The only true articulation in this figure are his legs. This is all the range they have. Pathetic. He is about half the height of Bucky Cap, which... is alright.

 Well... this is a toy. Yeah... I wish I could have him among my figures, but.. no, no can do. The worst part is that the Pokemon Select version is almost 100 usd... so I'll see what I can do about it, but in the mean time, maybe he ain't that bad.

4.0

Action Figure #780: Marvel Legends Iron Man (Model 09)

 Model 9, JR JR version.

 While I'm not a super fan, thanks to the TAS show, I've always liked Iron Man, so it's kind of weird I don't have more Iron men. Trying to fix that, here I've got Iron Man (Model 09) as drawn by John Romita Jr., which you can tell by his super bulky legs.

 Well, he seems to be mostly a new buck. I could be wrong, but his torso and abdomen seem new, the boots and gauntlets as well... So yeah, work went into him. The thing about Model 09 is that there are two looks to it: Before and After Jhon Romita Jr., so depending on which style you like best... you may want to skip this one, or not. Luckily, I like JR JR's art, particularly during the 80's and 90's, so I prefer this version of the model 09... although, the chest reactor should be yellow and not blue. Overall, I quite like how this guy looks. I also like the candy red and mustard yellow they went with. He comes with two alternate blasting hands, these are not hinged so you can't angle them, two blast effects and two smoke effects.

 Do I need to say much? Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his biceps, thigh, boots and waist, as well as a hinged ab crunch. It's a very articulated figure, and you can get good poses out of him. That said, his shoulders ARE quite stiff, so I had to put oil on them. At least, the plastic seems to be good quality, so the shoulder pegs seem to be doing OK.

 That said, due to the shape of his gauntlets, his elbows only reach a 90 degree bend.

 Do be careful with his legs, as the knee's will force themselves into his boots, which are breaking the plastic in my figure. He is a bit taller than Bucky Cap and as tall as your average Iron Man.

 Overall? I liked Model 09. I think how much you like it will probably tied to if you like JR JR's take on the armor's look. The articulation is good for the most part, the sculpt is nice, I like the colors... Yeah, there are a few nitpicks to be had, but overall, I think it's a good figure.

8.0

Action Figure #779: Star Wars The Black Series Echo (The Bad Batch)

 So a faulty figure would be from a bad batch of The Bad Batch?

 I haven't watched The Bad Batch, yet, but, I did finish Clone Wars so I did get to see the episode in which they are introduced, and shilled, as the rescue Echo and invite him to their team. Man, the last season is such a rollercoaster, it has so much filler and unlikeable new characters, like the sisters, but then it has the final story arc in which Rex and Ahsoka have to deal with Order 66 which were some of the best...

 So, Echo. I'm not sure how much pieces are new, and how many were reused, but the armor seems to be based on the arc-trooper design. I think he looks great, since he is clad mostly in grey you can tell that he is one of the good guys but more suited for the dirty work. So, overall, I think he is a good looking figure. He comes with a backpack, and thankfully, unlike most Hasbro figures, it stays on pretty securely. He comes with a pistol... but his single hand doesn't have a trigger finger, I hate it when they do this with dual-wielding clones. He also comes with an accessory for his screw-arm, the accessory looks pretty cool and you can remove the tip. That said... it doesn't stay very well in place, trying to move the arm while the accessory is equipped will make it fall off.

 His helmet is a bit special. Since the unmasked head has a weird mechanical thingie at the back of his skull, you can open up the helmet from behind in order to put it on his head. Not too shabby!

 Articulation is what you'd expect of the Clone troopers. Elbows and knees are single jointed, both go a little beyond 90 degrees, which is good enough. He has butterfly joints, but good luck getting any extra range out of them through the chest armor. He has a ball jointed ab crunch with a bit of range. The skirt pieces at the side of his legs are slightly harder than you'd expect, so side-leg movement is a bit limited. All in all, he is alright, but nothing too special. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 So, Echo... On one hand, I think he looks like a pretty cool clone trooper. But.. the articulation is nothing spectacular, he's missing a trigger finger for his gun, and his tool falls off easily... Yeah, he could've been done better.

6.0

Action Figure #778: Power Rangers Lightning Collection S.P.D. Omega Ranger

 The low budget Ranger is now the thick wallet Ranger.

 In what is an ironic twist of fate... when it came to adapting Dekaranger, they didn't have enough budget for the S.P.D Omega Rangar AKA DekaBreak, so instead of hiring an actor, they turned him into a wisp of light. Now, the Omega Ranger is one of the most expensive rangers to get. Irony sucks.

 So, first things first... I got him loose, so no Unicycle or alternate hands. For what it's worth, I think the Unicycle looks kinda silly, and I wouldn't have equipped him with his Open Hand nor his Energy blasting open hand, and really, I only cared about getting the character. He gets no alternate head because, of course, he had no actor, but maybe a floating light wisp could've been a nice accessory. He also gets no weapon because, well, he had no weapon! So, moving aside from that, I do like this design. His helmet is a bit longer than the other SPD Rangers, which I don't like as much, but no biggie. I do love the metallic blue and shiny gold accents of the white ranger, however, and I think he has one of the coolest color schemes in the series, and he's also asymmetrical like the other SPD Rangers. All that said, I don't think he meshes quite as well with the other rangers as other Sixth Rangers do, because his "6" is in roman numerals, a "VI", and he has no black, so he looks a bit out of place. The one bit of Hasbro's trademark laziness... is that while the sculpted the ball-knuckles of his left hand, they didn'd paint them silver.

 I don't know if this is true for every Omega Ranger, but in mine's case, it's impossible to line up the VI from the chest to the abdomen. I didn't have this issue with any other SPD Ranger, which is a bit of a shame, but not a deal breaker. Also, while the right butterfly had gold paint on it, to stretch the V, the right butterfly joint has no gold paint to stretch the I, which just looks weird.

 Articulation is what you'd expect, so time for another copy paste! Articulation follows everything this line has, with double jointed elbows and knees, butterfly joints, swivels on his biceps, thighs and boots, with a hinged waist a ball jointed diaphragm. Luckily, no drop-down hips. The Omega Ranger has one extra thingie, the morpher on his left arm has a black lever that can be moved. It doesn't add much to the figure, but it's a neat little detail. He is almost as tall as Bucky Cap.

 I'm a bit torn. Like most Lightning Collection figures, the sculpt is good and the articulation is good too. I also think that this guy's color scheme is gorgeous... but by the same token, I don't think he fits the rest of the team very well. The one thing I'm sure of is that he is not worth the excessively high price he is going for right now, but then again, not only is he expensive, he is also hard to find for sale at all, so you might just buy him on impulse if you find him. I got him for about 85 usd loose, and while I don't really regret him... I've gotten better Ranger figures for less.

7.5

Action Figure #777: Marvel Legends Hydro Man

 And number 777 is.... Hydro Man? Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame

 I have strayed far from my roots. Originally I only wanted Spider-man Variants. Then Spider-Man villains. Then characters I saw Spidey interact with. Eventually it evolved into the whole Marvel universe, so I forgot about some key players, particularly from the 70's and 80's Spider-man, some of my favorite Spider-man content, characters such as Hydro Man.

 He looks nasty! No, really, the cocky grim they gave him suits him so much. He reuses the same buck as Sandman, which is very fitting considering that one time they fused together. What is completely new on him are his water-arms, which look phenomenal. Molded in a beautiful translucent blue plastic, the sculptors managed to give the illusion of torrential water with the texture they gave his arms and hands, which I think is nothing short of amazing. It's a bit of a shame you can't take the water off, so he will always have to be posed with his watery arms, but I'll take it. Originally he came with two watery platforms for his feet, which would've been welcome since he is very top-heavy, but I got him loose and very cheap, so I can't really complain.

 Alright, so the articulation is were things go a bit downhill for him. The basic body is fine, he has a very limited hinged ab crunch, swivels on his waist and thighs, and double jointed knees. But what you really want to know about are his arms. Well, they are single jointed mid-way through the biceps, and since these are single joints, you can turn them 360 degrees around. While these are joints, the range on them is pathetic, so you might as well forget about bending his arms. At least both of his hands are hinged, so you can turn them around, and bend them forward and backwards, which should allow some leeway in how you pose his arms. It's not perfect, but you can work with it.

 This is the extent of the arm bend. Since you can't probably tell, his right arm is bent, but the left arm is straight. Pretty pathetic, but I guess it's better than nothing. Maybe. he is slightly taller than Bucky Cap.

 Despite his very glaring limitations... I think he is a fine figure. They did a fantastic job with his watery arms, although I'm sure that they could've found a way to give him some way to bend his arms. Still, I appreciate the work on the sculpt, and you can get some good poses using all his other joints. It's not the best, but it's good enough.

7.0

Action Figure #776: Marvel Legends Knull

 Knull is a curse word in Swedish. What the knull!?

 Knull the King in Black is more than just a character. It's the culmination of Marvel's efforts to divorce Venom and the symbiotes from Spider-Man. A few years before the event, Marvel had been trying to make the Symbiotes their own thing, with events such as Venomverse in which multiple heroes got their own symbiote forms, and even Poison forms. They probably realized that Venom is as strong a character and Spider-Man and they could separate them both. Ah, well, it all led to the King in Black event which kinda sucked. The five main event issues were fine, but all the tie ins were a bore, particularly the Captain America and Valkyrie ones. It also doesn't help that the Omnibus places the main five issues first, so you are reading the tie-ins after everything is resolved, which kinda sucks. Ah well.

 The thing about Knull is that he is a relatively new character and has had few appearances outside the King in Black event. That said, between all tie-ins, Knull didn't have the most consistent design out there, some versions even gave him some hair ornaments which I though were kinda neat, but this figure is missing. All that said, I think this figure captures the most recognizable elements of Knull: A chest plate with big pauldrons and a red dragon spider-logo, which doesn't reach all the way to his back but I don't remember seeing his back in the comics so it might be accurate, white hair and red eyes, bandage straps on his arms... and clad in black. So any inconsistence you might find with the sculpt, well, you'll probably find an artist's version of Knull that has it too. I do love how he came out, he is a very badass looking villain, and he comes with two heads, one with a lipless mouth and spiky teeth, and a more neutral looking face. While he only used the former sporadically, I much prefer that more demonic look on him. Worth mentioning, considering Hasbro's current output, the plastic quality is great.

 His weapon, the All-Black which he reclaimed from Gorr, is lovely sculpted with all those veiny things on top of it... but not all of them were painted in red. I don't know if this was a stylistic choice or just cheapness, because in a few panels his All-Black had more red than black. It still looks pretty cool. It is a bit gummy, however.

 He gets double jointed elbows and knees, with swivels on his biceps, thighs and waist. He has an unimpressive hinged ab crunch, with not a whole lot of range forward, but worked better when bending him backward. The pauldrons rotate alongside the arm, so no loss on articulation there, but, his skirt is a bit harder than you'd expect, so he can't kick very high. He is... he is a surprisingly tall figure. Nothing in the comics made me imagine him this tall, but then again, his height wasn't very consistent either so I guess it's fine.

 Knull is a good figure. He is not a character I particularly like, but I think they did good work with him. The sculpting is good, the plastic quality is good... yeah, he is good.

8.5