Action Figure #733: Star Wars The Black Series Dash Rendar

 First break of the year. Not starting 2026 with the right foot it seems.

 Star Wars Shadows of the Empire was one of the very first Nintendo 64 games my parents purchased for me, so I spent hours upon hours playing that game, so when Dash Rendar the hero from that game was announced... I knew I needed him.

 Well... the way he was dressed is exactly like he was in the game, so 10 points there, but, the face is a bit off... Well, Dash didn't have bangs, his hair was short, and it was styled back, not like this. He should also be sporting a 5 o'clock shadow, which the figure isn't. And since I'm at it, I don't like the square jaw he was give, it's a bit more Marvel Legends heroic than Star Wars outlaw. But other than his head, I feel like they did an great job with everything else. A jetpack would've been nice, but still. He only comes with a single pistol blaster.

 And while playing with him, I broke the butterfly joint. These are very tight, so it was just bound to happen.

 But I got ahold of my self. He has a ball jointed ab-crunch and no waist articulation. Elbows and knees are single jointed, but with ample range to them, and he laso has boot swivels, for some reason. The biggest issue with the figure are the very tight butterfly joints. Due to the armor, they barely add any range to him, and moving the arms around are a bit of a pain due to how tight they are. The shoulder pads should rotate around the arm, but it's so tight that most of the time they get stuck. Lastly, his wrists use the new ball-peg technology. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Look, the head not being accurate to the art I can take, but the poorly engineered butterfly joints are kind of a killer. I mean, my figure is being fixed with super glue at the time. But, oh well, despite those issues, he is, other than that, fine. I guess.

5.5

Action Figure #732: Marvel Legends Emma Frost (X-Men '97)

 Another mediocre Emma Frost figure? Color me surprised.

 I love Emma Frost and I love Cyclops, and I love them together, so I haven't forgotten the character assassination of her when she cheated on him with Namor. But that aside, I've been needing a classic Emma on my collection, so the moment she was announced I knew I had to get her.

 But they blundered her again! She is yet another figure that uses those unstable heels nobody likes. And much like the previous Emma, her solid plastic cape prevents her from ever moving her arms. At least, in this case, you can take the cape off, and Emma has used costumes similar to this one without the cape, so it works. She seems to be a retooling of the Hellfire fourpack Emma, and made a bit tamer with less skin showing, which is fine with me. She comes with two beautiful head sculpts that fit her very well, I specially like the one with the smirk, as well as two pair of hands.

 Articulation on the figure is serviceable. Double jointed elbows and knees, with swivels on her biceps and thighs. Hidden below the corset is a ball jointed waist, but it has next-to-no range, so it works more like a swivel. A swivel I had to heat up, because the ball was stuck, and thus, the peg was twisting.

 The gummy plastic strikes again, every time you bend her arms, you'll stress the shoulder pegs on the bicep swivel. She is a bit taller than Bucky Cap due to the heels.

 What can I say, they keep making mediocre Emma Frost figures. If they are going to continue with this solid plastic capes that restrict her arms, they should go for their capeless designs, of which there are plenty. And either remove the heels, or make them thicker, I'll take funny looking heels over these stilettos that can barely balance the figure on top.

4.5

Action Figure #731: Marvel Legends Jubilee (X-Men '97)

 To me, she'll always be Jubilation Lee.

 Waiting paid off! I've wanted a Jubilee for the longest time now, but I always hated her 90's look, and the modern Jubilee was a BAF, so she was quite expensive. Well, here comes Jubilee in her second outfit from the show, which happens to be a nice mesh of new and old. My perfect Jubilee is here!

 Well, that bit of new and old extends to the sculpt as well. You see, sadly, she is built on that very outdated female teen buck I dislike so much, the same one as X-23 and the Spider-Girls, but, thankfully, it's on the retooled version they used for Mania which offers a bit more range. That said, her yellow coat and arms seem to be new, and they look very shiny and bright, which fits Jubilee so much. Her face sculpt is beautiful, she looks confident and peppy, like she should, and I love the reflection effect they put on her shades. Her accessories are all bangers. She comes with two open hands, a right fist, a left cup hand, to hold the beverage cup she comes with, and two alternate hands that spew here fireworks. Both hands have different effects, so they aren't just mirrored, which is very cool.

 Jubilee has acceptable articulation. Knees and elbows are double jointed, and she gets swivels on her biceps, thighs and boots. She could've benefited from butterfly joints, but whatever, the real issue comes with the lack of torso articulation. She has no waist articulation, and the ball jointed ab crunch barely has any range, if any at all, plus, the jacket makes it hard to even use it. At least, being on the retooled Mania version of the buck, she has more range on her kicks, and the legs don't come off, so that's a win. Kinda. She is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 She's not an spectacular figure by any means but... she is good enough. The buck needs to be retired, because it simply isn't a good sculpt, but the accessories and the great job they did with the head makes it hard for me to really dislike the figure. So... yeah, she is fine, but she definitely could've been better.

7.0

Action Figure #730: Marvel Legends Morph (X-Men '97)

 Retconned into being the world's first They/Them.

 When Morph was claimed as a nonbinary before the series ever came out, it was the first red flag. Once again, a Woke vehicle skinwalking a beloved franchise. And look, I don't have a problem with woke as long as it's new stuff. Well... it wasn't. X-Men '97 wasn't preachy at all, and, to be honest, a character that morphs into other characters is pretty much genderless, so... it fits. 

 And to match this new non-binary identity, this figure was given a new, very lithe body, which helps making them more androgynous, which once again, fits the character. The classic head also looks more feminine than they did in the original show, but I'll take it. So, yeah, this figure has a 100% new sculpt that works really well for the character. And I love how different it looks, it's always nice when Hasbro introduces new body types, to have a more diverse looking display of characters. His jacket has some nicely sculpted pouches and details, but keeping them very simple, trying to match the show's style. He is a bit gummy, but not too bad, thankfully. He comes with three heads: Comic/'97 featureless Morph face, a more androgynous take on the original head, and the head of the bad guy he morphed into during the show. He comes with two open hands and two fists. One little thing that I'll mention is that the original head has cellshaded features, which somewhat clashes with the rest of the body. And the neck is white, so using the other heads clashes a bit... but I don't mind, I wanted the nostalgia head! 

 Articulation is good enough. Double jointed elbows and knees, with swivels on his biceps, thighs, waist and boots. He has a hinged ab-crunch that goes forward a lot, but not backwards.

 A little issue, is that when bending the legs you might stress the peg on the boot swivel. Just something to keep in mind. Damn Hasbro's gummy plastic! He is pretty much as tall as Bucky Cap, maybe a millimeter shorter.

 He's a fun little figure. I love the new sculpt, I love this new take on Morph, I love the color and, I also love how articulated Marvel Legends is at its best. Fantastic figure.

8.5

Action Figure #729: Marvel Legends Sunspot (X-Men '97)

 And here comes the diversity hire.

 Sunspot was one of the new characters introduced in X-Men '97, and while I don't particularly like him, because I'm pretty sure I haven't read a single comic featuring him... but I'm always happy when more obscure characters get a chance to shine outside the source material, specially when they retain some familiarity to the source material.

 Believe it or not, this was one of the characters I was looking forward to the most from this wave. My comic accurate Sunspot is on the Bucky Cap, so he needed a much needed upgrade, and this one seems to be cast on a new buck, which I though looked pretty sleek. I think his uniform looks great, and even though his head is a tad larger than it should, they did a great job with his wavy hair. He comes with two fists, two open hands, and two effect pieces. One of the effect pieces slots into his arm much better if you remove his hand, mind you. A full-black alternate head, for when he uses his powers, would've been great, but... I already have a transformed Sunspot, might as well keep this one like this! Now then, while he doesn't feel super gummy, his left arm showed stress marks BEFORE I even played with him, but the right arm is perfectly OK.

 The arm in question. Eugh.

 This figure covers all the basics. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his biceps, thighs and boots, a hinged waist and a ball jointed ab crunch, and let's not forget about the butterfly joints! He is as tall as Bucky Cap, but he looks a bit lankier, and his head is larger due to the hair.

 While it doesn't have my favorite proportions ever... I've been having a lot of fun posing him with his fire effects. While the right arm scares me about it breaking, I think he looks dope. The entire color scheme works really well, the pastel yellows and blacks make his tan skin stand out, and couple it with the translucent orange fire effects and you get a very eyecatching piece! So, for the score... I'm going to assume that the arm won't break and score the figure assuming that even if the peg is stressed, it won't break... if it does, well, I'll add an addendum! Because I REALLY like how he came out.

8.5

Action Figure #728: Marvel Legends Scorpion (Molten Man Wave)

 We are going for comic accurate now, baby!

 As I said in my previous Scorpion entry, when I bought the TAS Scorpion I did it on nostalgia for Spider-Man TAS, as I hadn't read much Spider-Man... but by the time I wrote the entry, I had read A TON of Spider-man, and the fleshless-mouth design grew on me... well, about time I did something about it!

 Well, this is the same exact figure as the other Scorpion, but clad in a beautiful metallic green. He has darker green gloves, boots and shorts to add some variety into the design, which I quite like. As for accuracy to the source material... well, Scorpion has gone through various little changes throughout the years, and this one skews towards the more classic 'green pajamas'. Due to him having a nose, instead of slits, and a pointy end on his tail, as well as the nasty scowl on his face... He is based on one of my favorite Spider-Man artist's take on the character: Sal Buscema's! It's pretty much an exact match to how he drew Scorpion in The Spectacular Spider-Man, so... I love him.

 Something neat I found... there are mask endings sculpted on his cheeks, so they knew that they were going to reuse this sculpt piece by piece eventually, because the TAS figure is IDENTICAL, barring the paint apps.

 Articulation is good enough for the character. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his biceps, waist, thighs and boots, as well as a ball jointed ab crunch, with not much range, and a bendy tail that you can play with. The tail can make it a bit hard to get him to stand, but it's not very annoying. He is an older ML, so he isn't gummy at all! He is as tall as Bucky Cap, it might not look like in the photo, but that's because I had to tilt his torso to balance the tail and... yadda yadda.

 Is a different color scheme enough for me to raise the score on the same figure? Yes. Because this figure looks EXACTLY like how one of my favorite Spider-Man artists drew him, so I love this guy, and looks much neater than the garish TAS figure.

9.0

Action Figure #727: Marvel Legends QuickSilver (RetroCarded)

 The first figure of the year came quickly!

 Quicksilver was one of those really basic figures that I've been missing. It's not my fault! The iconic blue Quicksilver was stuck in an out of print three pack, and this classic green one was a Wallmart exclusive, so getting my hands on him wasn't easy at all.

 And the way I got him... well this is a quick and dirty kitbash of sorts. The seller didn't mention it, but this Quicksilver is using the blue one's head, because the green one had two separated wisps of hair, plus, the hair was white too instead of grey. I don't really care because, to be honest, I prefer the wispless head sculpt. That said, I also prefer the blue costume. I remember when I started reading Spider-man starting from Amazing Fantasy #15 and was shocked when he faced off against Quicksilver, maybe in a Marvel Team-Up issue, and Quicksilver was dressed in this garish green costume. I didn't like it. This version of the costume doesn't seem to be the classic-classic green costume either, because that one had olive green accents instead of white, but whatever. With all the color shenanigans out of the way, what do I think about the figure? Well... I find the green to be garish, and before buying the figure I watched some videos that showed how the green on the torso didn't match the green on the limbs, which looks to be the case on my photos too... but trust me, when you look at the figure in hand you can barely tell the different shades of green apart, so it's pretty much an nonissue. What is a bit of an issue, however, is that much like the Blue Quicksilver figure, and even Deimon Strom, Pietro's head is too big for the body, cartoonishly so, which is a bit disappointing. I do appreciate how he looks like Magneto, however, because no crappy retcon will make audiences not take him as Magneto's son. As for the body, I love the Sunfire mold, I've said it countless times, but this one has very gummy arms and shoulder pegs, which is never a good thing. He comes with two fists and two grabby hands, people were mad that he didn't have open-palm running hands, but I think the grabby hands work well.

 Articulation is excellent as with any Sunfire buck. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his biceps, thighs, waist and boots, butterfly joints as well as a hinged ab crunch. So he is very poseable... if only his arms weren't so gummy. I've already seen stress marks on his right shoulder peg. Pathetic. His big head makes him a bit taller than Bucky Cap.

 He is... He is fine, I guess. I mean... Take in mind I don't really like the classic green costume on Pietro, so that already makes me not like him too much, and the big head makes him look a bit iffy. The gummy arms don't help at all. Overall? Just an average ML that doesn't do the buck justice. But at least I've got a comic book Pietro now, I guess.

5.0