Action Figure #894: Power Rangers Lightning Collection Zeo Blue Ranger

 Who needs weapons anyways!

 And with the Blue Zeo Ranger joining my collection, I'm almost done with this team!

 So, it's the Zeo neckless design but in blue. Well, this design looks really nice in blue, so it gets flying marks by me. I might even like him a smidge more than the Green Zeo Ranger.

 He comes with his pistol, his word, an unmasked head, two fists, two gripping hands, an effect piece and... where are his personal weapons!? If you want those, you have to purchase the generic Zeo mook enemy.... what the hell, Hasbro?

 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. All of his joints were silky smooth. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Good figure, nice articulation, nice looking design... but having to buy another figure to get his personal weapons is insane. As insane as discovering that if I want to finish this team I'll have to pay about 100usd for the flimsy Pink Ranger... Oh, boy.

8.0

Action Figure #893: Star Wars The Black Series Mission Vao

 I've got a mission for you.

 Mission Vao has been on my wanted list as well, because whenever Bastilla is unavailable I put the weirdly named 'Mission' in my party in her stead. So now I can display both of my KOTOR parties!

 Much like Carth, this is a game figure release, so... you'll notice that she is reusing some of Mara's parts. That said, I think there are more new pieces to her, and she came out looking fantastic, outside of her slightly too long arms... which don't look so bad in person. But, yeah, aside from that, she's a faithful representation of her game counterpart.

 He only accessory is her blaster, but it's too large for her tiny hand, so she can't get a good grip on it. The other blaster is definitely Carth's, because this one's grip is more narrow... not that it helps her tiny trigger finger reaching the trigger.

 Articulation is pretty good, with deep cuts on her single jointed elbows and knees, she also has a hinged waist and a ball jointed ab-crunch, coupled with thigh swivels. All in all, it's easy to get her in cool poses, although butterfly joints would've been nice! She's a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 She came out looking a bit better than Carth, that's for sure. I love finally being able to display my KOTOR teams, hopefully we get the rest of the party members, HK has been awaited for too long!

7.0

Action Figure #892: Star Wars The Black Series Carth Onasi

 We've got Han Solo at home.

 While not the most exciting character ever, I am glad to finally get Carth Onasi in action figure form, because now I can finally have my KOTOR party of Bastilla and Carth in plastic form!

 Well... Carth looks kinda odd. He has been given weird lines on his face that makes him look kinda older than he should have. It's not awful, but... yeah. Also, his torso-vest looks very weird. In Black Series' team's defense, he does have a weird jacket design, but I'm pretty sure what is throwing off the design are the huge butterfly joints. Also, since this is a Star Wars game release... once again, they went for cheapness, so everything below the chest is borrowed and repainted from Kanan Jarrus.

 His only accessory is a single blaster, which is kinda sacrilegious since I found out I'm not the only one who likes to deck him with two blasters.

 And here you can see his huge butterfly joints. They are a bit tight so sometimes they get a bit too disconnected from the torso. For some reason, the arms look really long in photos, but in person it ain't so bad.

 Articulation wise, everything from the chest upwards is new, so he gets nice butterfly joints, deep single-jointed elbows and the new ball-jointed wrists, heck, I'm pretty sure he is borrowing Kyle Katarn's forearms. Anyways, he has a ball jointed ab crunch hidden by the soft-plastic vest overlay, and double jointed knees with thigh swivels. He is about as tall as Bucky Cap.

 Considering Hasbro, for some reason, cheaps out on the Star Wars game figures, I think Carth came out pretty well. A better headsculpt and chest sculpt, as well as an extra blaster and the newer engineering on his lower half would've been nice, but... He's fine.

6.0

Action Figure #891: Mattel DC Premier Batman (Mr. Freeze three-pack)

 More Batman, more colors... more money for Mattel, I guess.

 Yet another Batman recolor. Let's get on with it.

 It's the same Batman sculpt as before, only with a utility vest instead of a utility belt. It's not very well thought-out because it has four pegs in front but there's no way it can hold four accessories due to the limited space between them. As for the recolor itself, it's black and white but with a more tactical color scheme. That's it.

 He comes with the same assortment of tools as the basic Batman figure, meaning batarangs, mines, flashbangs, etc, but in a rather neat translucent orange plastic. He also comes with orange armguards and a big blaster gun with four projectiles.

 The orange arm-guard come with spikes, and they don't go over the ones on his gloves, so they don't make sense or look very good on Batman... although they do look better on other figures.

 Articulation is the same as with the other three figures I got: He has single jointed elbows that go slightly beyond 90 degrees, double jointed knees, swivels on his thighs, boots and waist. For the price, it's not even half bad, it's comparable to their old DCUC line, considering how pathetic that diaphragm hinge was. He is a bit taller than Bucky Cap.

 I grew up in the 90's, Batman recolors were my jam. But not only is this recolor rather lame, but you are forced to buy him if you want Mr. Freeze and/or Hal Jordan, making me kinda dislike him even more. So it's not like he is a bad figure, he has the same sculpt as the other Batmen after all, but there's no reason to want to get this one other than being forced to because you want the other two figures.

5.0

Action Figure #890: Mattel DC Premier Mr. Freeze

 Mr. Freeze, not Mr. Water!

 It seems only Batman is getting villains, because Mr. Freeze just came here.... bundled with Green Lantern, for some reason. But hey, might as well start getting more villains!

 Mr. Freeze has a completely new sculpt made just for him, and much like with other figures in the line, he isn't a faithful recreation of any particular look, but rather, a very generic design that is unmistakably Mr. Freeze, albeit I think you can tell that there was quite a bit of inspiration from the Timmverse. Regardless, it is a good sculpt, with blasters sculpted onto his gauntlets, and armored details on his body and legs.

 He has a bunch of accessories, including a set of frozen overlays that are compatible with other six-inch figures as well as his Ice Gun. The overlays are fantastic, but the Ice gun...

 Or rather, the water gun. Another gimmick, this thing is super flimsy, because you can squish it under water in order to fill it with water, and then squish it to shoot water. Lame, because due to this gimmick, the blaster feels pathetic, it has no paint, no sturdiness, no thing. And the other Batmobile-compatible weapons had a handle AS WELL as a peg to connect it with the vehicle, this one only gets that tiny peg, which makes it look even sillier in Freeze's hands. No wonder they sculpted blasters on his gauntlets!

 And it being the kid's line, Freeze has no paint on his back. Lame!

 Articulation is same old, same old. Single jointed elbows with an over 90 degree bend, double jointed knees and swivels on his waist, thighs and boots. The head can only be articulated if you remove the helmet... but due to the shape of both his head AND the helmet, it will always push down his head when you put it on, which is kinda bleh. It's a competent choice that allows him to be played with just fine.

 Here he is compared to the DCUC figure. The new one is an upgrade in every way BUT the weapons and the paint apps. Still, looking at them side by side... look at how much more threatening the new one and his proportions are! Mr. Freeze is a tall figure, being closer to seven inches, which makes him taller than Bucky Cap and this line's other heroes!

 Mr. Freeze is almost a great figure. It's just that his accessory is so lame, the helmet-head is not well thought out and the paintless back is just embarrassing!

6.0

Action Figure #889: Mattel DC Premier Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)

 Doesn't matter what a scrappy TV show says, Hal ain't racist!

 Well, Lanterns has come out and... it's exactly what one could've expected, another show in which the minority replacement is actually better and more deserving than the original. Yeah, they could've easily made John and Hal equals, but nah. But alas, we are here to talk about the action figure Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) that just came out.

 Well, he is just a John Stewart head-swap. I don't think this costume is as good as John's, but it's a decent modern Hal. I dig the metallic green! The worst bit about him is... well, that his skin looks kinda pasty or greenish, and that's because he turns pale when cold. I dislike gimmicks like that. A weird thing I noticed, this figure has a sculpted ring, while John didn't. Maybe mine has excess paint blurring the sculpt? Heck if I know!

 His one accessory is a chainsaw construct that is pretty neat...

 ...whuch can extend itself into a sort of vice! Pretty cool. The handle is articulated too.

 And before you ask, since he shares the same body as John, their accessories are compatible, you can even slot the chainsaw into John's giant fist.

 Articulation is same old, same old. Single jointed elbows with an over 90 degree bend, double jointed knees and swivels on his waist, thighs and boots. It's a competent choice that allows him to be played with just fine.

 And here he is compared to the DCUC figure. The metallic green on the old one was much nicer, but... it's one of the more brittle DCUC figures, I had TWO break on me, and that one's legs are held on together with super glue, so am I glad to finally be rid of it! Sans the metallic sheen and the skin tone, this one is better on every other front. He is slightly taller than Bucky Cap.

 Hal's a good replacement for my old DCUC figure, but... He only comes with a single accessory, not even his Lantern, and his skin doesn't look quite right due to the temperature gimmick, so it's still not quite a perfect Hal figure.

6.5

Action Figure #888: Dragon Stars Cell Final Form

 Would modern day Cell carry a cellphone?

 While most of us refer to this design as Perfect Cell, for some reason Dragon Stars went with Cell Final Form instead, which isn't even accurate considering this isn't even Super Perfect Cell.

 If Bandai's budget lines have proved anything is that they are really good when it comes to non-human looking characters, so I've been meaning to get my hands on some of Dragon Balls' villains. Cell's sculpt is actually rather excellent, although as with most anime budget lines, the face is rather derpy. While some of the colors are a bit too vibrant for Cell, he's got this almost matte finish that looks really nice, and all the paint apps look very sharp. All in all, ignoring the face, it's a fantastic looking figure. 

 He comes with two fists and two energy shooting open palms.

 But for as good as the figure looks, articulation is where Cell takes a hit. Everything above the waist is pretty good. He has double jointed elbows and some exceedingly tight bicep swivels. His ab crunch and waist are ball jointed, but the range is negligible, so they might as well just be swivels. The shoulders are on double ball joints, so while doesn't have butterfly joints, he can hit decent Kamehame Ha poses.

 Below the waist is where his equipment fails. His double jointed knees barely reach 90 degrees when bent, double joints! And even though he has drop down hips, that is how much he can lift his legs to the sides, a martial artist! This severely hampers his posing, sadly.

 His wings are on tiny hinges that love to come off. Pictured above is how far he can move them. His head is a bit taller than Bucky Cap, and since Cell is supposed to be tall you can finagle him around Figuarts.

 Well, no wonder he wasn't called 'Perfect' Cell, for, as good as the sculpt is, as fantastic as the paint apps are... The articulation is far from perfect. Serviceable, sure, but with a few tweaks to the legs, thigh swivels, deeper cuts on the knees for better bends... it could've been truly great. But, for a budget Cell? He gets the job more than done.

7.0