Action Figure #683: Star Wars The Black Series Night Trooper

 And now we've got zombies in space.

 Since Alien proved that horror and Sci-Fi go together, here have the zombie Night Trooper , because, indeed, now Star Wars has zombies. I knew I had to have this guy as soon as he was announced.

 First of all... entirely new sculpt. He looks fantastic, he is clad entirely in black, with the golden cracks and red straps of Thrawn's troops. He's got a ton of details sculpted onto him, and the gold, red and black color scheme is always a winner. But... Hasbro had to Hasbro. His backside is as detailed and full of cracks as the front... but there's no gold pain on his back. At all. At least the straps are painted red, but you'll notice that his body has a ton of sculpted cracks on his backs that are unpainted. Boo! The bit of head you see under the cracked masked looks good too, but... his teeth are the same color of his skin, which also feels sorta lazy. His only accessory is his rifle... which has silver paint at the tip. So that one gets a dash of pain but his back doesn't?

 Articulation is fine, it hits all the basics: Single jointed elbows and knees, both reaching slightly over 90 degrees when bent, a ball jointed ab crunch and swivel on his thighs that you'll need to you if you want him to split his legs, due to the armor on his legs. Surprisingly no butterfly joints. This big boy is taller than Bucky Cap!

 Despite Hasbro cutting corners with the paint, I still think that this is a really good figure. It's a really good all new sculpt, the paint work is good and eye catching and the articulation is good enough. It's just missing a little extra.

7.5

Action Figure #682: Star Wars The Black Series Ezra Bridger (Ahsoka)

  Our boy's all grown up!

 Full disclosure... while I finished Clone Wars a few weeks ago, it's October now, time for horror movies, so I haven't started Rebels, much less Ahsoka, yet, so I know very little about Ezra Bridger (Ahsoka) besides the few clips I've seen of him fighting... but he looks like Jedi Jesus, I had to get him.

 Fantastic sculpt all around, he looks just like the actor, who happens to look JUST like Ezra. And it's not just that, his clothes have been beautifully sculpted with all sorts of belts, pouches and straps... he is a very interesting figure to look at. The one thing I'll give them some slack for is that he has a trigger finger gun. This was a weaponless Ezra, he was using the force to fight... so he should've gotten Force hands, heck, a single Force hand would've been perfect. His only accessory is his light saber.

 He has single jointed elbows and knees, with very deep cuts, and swivels on his thighs and boots. His waits is on a ball joint, and he has pretty nice butterfly joints, although my left butterfly joints seems a bit loose and his should a bit stiff.. let's hope he doesn't break! His skirt is made out of soft plastic, so it doesn't limit his legs. Sadly, for a newer figure, he is still using the old hinged hands. He is about half a head shorter than Bucky Cap.

 This guy came out fantastic. Definite recommendation.

8.5

Action Figure #681: Marvel Legends Madame Masque (SuperVillains 2-Pack)

  Forgive the mask, she is a bit shy!

 Now that I'm done glazing Crossbones, comes the actual reason I wanted to buy this pack, Madame Masque as I've been waiting for a long, LONG time for get to get a figure. I first discovered her through the animated Iron Man TV Show, I've since come across her a few times through my Spider-Man adventures. So, yea, she was a necessity in my collection.

 She is built on a slightly retooled Shriek mold, as she has the zipper on her upper torso actually sculpted onto the figure. I don't mind the reuse, it works for her. She share the case, the smoke effects, the blaster effects and the ground explosion accessory with Crossbones, but she gets to open hands, two trigger finger hands, two golden guns(One with a silencer) and an alternate head. First of all... why the open hands? Those don't suit her at all, they should've been fists. That aside, I think she looks really nice, and while I'm more familiar with the classic look of the character... this is close enough. That said... much as it happened with Crossbones, the art the chose for the box doesn't match the figure, although she is much closer than Crossbones, for you see... the fingers should be black, not white. It's a nitpick, sure, but still. 

 I'm also not familiar with this more modern mask of hers, but in the figure it looks like a domino mask... but if you look at the very same art the chose for the box, this is supposed to be a transparent mask of sorts with a golden domino mask. The effect is completely lost on the figure, in fact, they didn't even try. I mean... come on, Hasbro, when you try to can make the most amazing figures!

 One thing to keep in mind, while I put the blaster effect on the silenced gun... I broke it, it bent hard ans stressed the plastic, so be careful.

 Another bit that disappointed me with her is that her arms are rather gummy. I hate it when the shoulder pegs get stressed like this.

 While she is not built on the newer female buck, the Shriek buck is good enough. Double jointed elbows and knees, bicep and thigh swivels, with a ball jointed ab crunch. It's not the best ever, but it's good enough. She is about as tall as Bucky Cap.

 She was my biggest determination factor in getting the two pack, and, mind you, she is a decent figure, but... Crossbones was the real star here.

7.0

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