Action Figure #680: Marvel Legends Crossbones (SuperVillains 2-Pack)

  Talk about an absolute unit!

 Waiting pays off! While not my favorite character, I've been meaning to get Crossbones for a while, but I never did... lo and behold, this incredible two pack got announced... and I finally got my chance.

 The sculpt is brilliant. I know there's reuse here, the arms come from Luke Cage, and while I can't pin-point the legs, they have pins, so they are old. That aside, he has a newly sculpted vest just for him that looks incredible with all the texturing and details they gave it. I love how big of an imposing presence he has. All that said... he looks slightly different from the art piece they chose for the box. That's so lazy. For a change with Marvel Legends, the plastic feels really good. The legs might be a tiny bit gummy, but it's no big since these rarely break. He also comes with a ton of accessories. A knife, and a holster, two guns, but a single holster, and an automatic rifle. He has two fists and two trigger finger hands. He also get two smoke effects and two shooting effects for the guns, but he has to share them with Madame Masque. There's also a rather neat ground explosion effect, as well as a case with money, which he should also share with Masque. Overall, a fantastic looking figure with a ton of accessories.

 Articulation is pretty nice. Double jointed elbows and knees, with swivels on his biceps, thighs, waist and boots. He has a hinged ab-crunch, but with the best you can't use it. He also gets butterfly joints, which work better when you move them behind, as the vest is rather hard. This figure is, honestly a ton of fun. He is about a head taller than Bucky Cap.

 Brilliant action figure, I love pretty much everything about it, to the point that I don't think a character like him deserved such a good figure!

9.0

Action Figure #679: Power Rangers Lightning Collection Dino Charge Pink Ranger

 Gun-tooting dinosaur ranger.

 Pink Rangers are rather cheap, so what better way to fill in my Ranger ranks than with the Dino Charge Pink Ranger ? I'm not even familiar with the Sentai counterpart, so this is gonna be interesting.

 For starters, I kinda don't like her proportions. The neck feels too long, and the helmet looks squished. I looked up a few photos of the show, and I think the helmet shouldn't look so squished. That aside, I dig the look of this costume, the yellow sash is fire, and I like the spiky shoulder pad. She comes with a gun, a cool firing effect, a drill-like weapon, two alternate hands and an unmasked head. While I looked up the helmet I also looked up the actress and the likeness is... it's kinda bad. They've done much better than this.

 The gun is absolutely atrocious. That piss yellow and those slap hazard black painted accents make it look like a bootleg....

 And they didn't even paint both sides. For shame!

 Articulation is up to par with the rest of the line. Swivels on her biceps, thighs and boots, double jointed elbows and knees, a ball jointed ab crunch and a hinged waist that is pretty much unusable due to the skirt. The skirt does offer some resistance to raising her legs, but it's not too bad. She has the dreaded drop down hips. She is also a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 She's OK. I think the proportions on her head and neck could be better, and the paint on her gun is shameful, but I like the design of the figure, and she is fun to pose.

6.0

Action Figure #678: Star Wars The Black Series Turgle & Skoova Stev (Jedi Survivor 3-Pack)

 Special shout out to Amazon for sticking their shipping label on the box itself. Pricks!

 Did anyone ever want a Turgle or Skoova Stev action figure? Well, all those three of you that raised your hands, your prayers have been heard by the plastic gods.

 Well, the sculpt for both of these figures is spot-on. Turgle's paint apps are as good as I think they could've gotten for a budget figure, as there should be a few more yellow fading on his knees and elbows, but other than that, they got him to a tee. For Skoova Stev, you might cry foul, that his metallic parts should be white... but that's only in the concept art, in-game they are grey, a lighter shade of grey, but grey at the end of the day. He is a tiny little figure so I'll forgive them for not paint gray his anklets. Besides, there's a lot of detail on him, he has a starfish on top of his helmet as well as some coral piece around him... he is definitely more than an afterthought. Both figures get an accessory each, kinda. Turgle gets a blaster gun, and Scoova Stev gets his harpoon, I think, and his helmet. But the helmet comes off very easily, so I'll probably glue it down in place.

 Articulation is very limited on both guys. Stev can only rotate his arms up and down, while turtle gets ball jointed hips and shoulders... he has no elbows and knees. His wrists and ankles have hinges, at least, and can be rotated. His limbs are very gummy, but not bendy-gummy, so I wouldn't force them. So... yeah, there's not much you can do with either. Some joint articulation on Turgle would've been nice, but oh well. Both are quite shorter than Bucky Cap.

 I don't care about these characters and their articulation is lame, but, and it's a huge but... I love that they exist. These are alien species we haven't seen represented yet, so I love the fact that they got made, and while it's kinda lame they came bundled with Cal, bumping up his price... I wouldn't have bought them otherwise, so it all works out in the end.

4.0

Action Figure #677: Star Wars The Black Series Cal Kestis (Jedi Survivor 3-Pack)

  Now this... this is what I wanted!

 Ever since getting the Poncho Cal Kestis and playing Fallen Order... I just wished that we'd get alternate costumes, and an accessory pack with multiple sabers, wished for them knowing it'd never happen. It did. I mean, it's still Hasbro so, you know, they took a few shortcuts and recycling, but... dude, this is pretty much what I wished for

 For starters, this is the Scoundrel Outfit, AKA the Han Solo outfit. It's not my favorite unlockable costume in the game, but even worse, this is inaccurate to how it looks in-game. They recycled the previous figure and only changed the vest, while in-game he gets Han's belt, pants, boots and undershirt. So, yeah, lazy all-around. On the other hand, we get an alternate head with a stache and a mullet, which I don't like but I love the fact that it's here, opens up the door for more alternate Cal heads! But even better, they redid the head sculpt, now it looks closer to how it does in-game. And it doesn't stop there, we get FOUR different saber hilts, although, sadly, only two white sabers. I think I would've included a Blue, Green, Yellow, Purple and White sabers and let users play around, but I'm not complaining, this is a step in the right direction. We also get the mandatory BD-1.

 The head looks a bit small, but it's closer to the actor, while still not perfect. For the next photos I'll be using the older head, as I want the better one on the outfit I liked better! This three-pack also includes a gun for Turgle, but you can equip it on Cal anyways, I mean, he can customize his gun too after all!

 As for articulation he is identical to the previous Cal. Single jointed elbows and knees with deep cuts, a ball jointed waist, swivels on his thighs and butterfly joints that don't really give him all that much extra range, but they are welcome anyways. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 If I was just scoring Cal himself... I'd probably score him exactly, or maybe a bit lower, than the previous release, because I don't really care about this design.... but this figure makes the previous Cal even better. Now you can give him any of his hilts, you can customize them with white sabers, and we even get a better headsculpt. So all these extras push him above. I love this figure and what it represents, because now this means we can get more versions of Cal, with more hilts and more colored blades.

9.0

Action Figure #676: Power Rangers Lightning Collection Beast Morphers Blue Ranger

 I'm feeling blue, 'cause this team is now complete!

 And now, with the Beast Morphers Blue Ranger I have the full team... at least as far as Lightning Collection got... I'm actually considering getting the budget line Silver Ranger. We'll see!

 Well, pretty much every thing I said about the other Beast Morphers apply to him. I love the black, silver and blue look, although his boxy helmet gives him, probably, the design I like the least, but it's still a design I like. He comes with his sword, an slightly greener effect for the sword than the one that came with the red ranger, two pair of hands, an unmasked head and a punch effect... if you buy him complete, anyways!

 He does get the silver elbow stripe, so bonus points there!

 If you'll allow me a copy paste...  Articulation is the same as the rest of the line. Double jointed elbows and knees, butterfly joints, swivels on his biceps, thighs and boots, a ball jointed ab crunch and a hinged waist. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Yeah, he is definitely a good figure. Blue Rangers aren't usually among my favorites, but he's fine, I like him.

7.5

Action Figure #675: Marvel Legends Ultron (Ursa Major Wave)

 Might not be the MCU version, but I'd keep my secretary away from him.

 Ultron was probably the last BIG Marvel villain I've been missing. It sure took a while! I'm not particularly fond of this simple, classic look, but they didn't release many modern Ultrons, and those were either undersized or made on the buck that has fragile legs... so I had to settle for his one.

 As much as I dislike this simpler look... they pulled it off really well, and the shiny silver paint makes him very eyecatching. For such a simple design, I feel like he turned out great in plastic form, and his nasty face sculpt is just cheff's kiss. He comes with a right fist and three left hands: A fist, a gripping hand and an open hand... he also comes with an amazing Kirby Crackle accessory that sadly.... I don't have because I was cheap and got him used. The only thing I noticed was that his fingers are bit short and chunky, I think I would've made them longer.

 Articulation on this guy covers all the Marvel Legends basics: Double jointed elbows and knees, hidden swivels on his thighs and ankles as well as swivels on his biceps. The shoulder pads rotate along the arm, so they don't limit his range, and his torso articulation relies on a waist swivel and a ball jointed ab-crunch that hasn't got the most range ever but it good enough. Overall, you can get Ultron on any pose you might want him to. He is slightly taller than Bucky Cap, which works fantastic for him.

 Overall, a fantastic figure. I love how he turned out, and I deeply resent not getting the Kirby crackle. Look, if I'm happy with a figure of a character I don't care for, then I bet fans will love him.

8.5

Action Figure #674: Marvel Legends Black Cat (Spider-man 2)

 Finally a good Black Cat figure!

 I can't believe it took us this long to get a halfway decent figure of one of Spider-man's most well known allies, Felicia Hardy AKA Black Cat but here we are. Toybiz's Black Cat was notoriously bad, then Hasbro's first take looked off and was poorly articulated, the next one had better articulation but a modern and dull costume and the next one... looked only slightly better than the first while retaining poor articulation. 

 Well, this lass got an entirely new sculpt all to herself. I really do like this design, since it feels like a more grounded take on her catsuit. She's got all sorts of nifty techno lines sculpted all over her suit, with a few painted on white lines that make her feel athletic. Her forearms and legs have white fur tacked onto them as a call back to her classic comic book look. Lastly, she has goggles sculpted onto the head, and sure, they look neat, but an alternate head sculpt without them would've been neat. She comes with two clawed hands, a left fist and a gripping right hand... for whatever the hell her wand-accessory thingie is supposed to be. Hey! Miles' was the last game I played in the series! About the only things, sculpt-wise, I've got against her is that her feet are tiny, the little finger on her gripping hand seems to be missing the nail and... that they didn't paint the fingers white on the fist. Aside from those, this is easily the best looking Black Cat figure that Hasbro has sculpted yet.

 Articulation on Felicia is remarkably good even if it isn't as great as the new female buck. She has a ball jointed diaphragm with a hinged waist, she has double jointed elbows and knees as well as swivels on her biceps and thighs. Finally a Black Cat with great articulation befitting of her nimbleness!

 All that said, her arms are very gummy. At least the shoulders are not too tight, so you shouldn't be stressing the shoulder pegs, but still... this gumminess is unseemly and it is a detriment to the figure. She is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Gumminess aside, this is a really good figure and I'm so glad that we finally have a good Black Cat. Not only that, the Marvel Legends team is finally making female figures that match their male counterparts in sculpt quality and articulation.

7.5