Action Figure #857: Savage Crucible Naraka The Undying

 Every Who-Man needs his Skelletor.

 Late last year I gave Savage Crucible a chance, and I was so impressed that I mentioned I'd try to get more of that line this year, hence why Naraka the Undying is sitting here with me today! A blue-skinned, skull-headed villain was just what my Who-Man needed.

 The sculpt is spectacular. He uses the same base body as Who-Man, albeit painted light blue, but his armor is completely different and oozing with detail. From the darker blue wash on his skin, to the different metallic silver and purples on his armor, this guy looks incredible. This extends to his very ornate weapons as well!

 His accessories include a half mask to hide his face, alternate helmeted head... which I'm so sad is an alternate head, because it looks so good and I'd love the ability to quickly put it on or remove it, two beautifully sculpted swords, one red and one blue that look like sculpted crystals, two sets of gripping hands, each with a different swivel(Up/Down or Left/Right), two open hands, a very nice ornate ax and a bunch of jewels and coins. My one complaint is that the weapons are hard plastic, so if too much pressure is applied they will snap in two.

 Just wanted to call attention to how beautiful the headsculpt is. He even has a red jewel embedded in his eye socket!

 A minor gripe I have is that the belt holster for wither of his blades is a bit unwieldy. The hilts are so long that they get in the way of his arms when posing him. Plus, the swords are so long that they will inevitably touch the floor.

 The pauldrons are slotted on those weird looking prongs that come out of his back sockets. They look a bit silly, but you won't notice them from he front, and they help keep his arms unrestricted.

 Articulation is identical to Who-Man, with double jointed elbows and knees... although the arms barely bend over 90 degrees. He has swivels on his biceps, although it's more appropriate to say that the biceps are separate pieces that can be turned. Although he has no thigh swivels, the legs slot to the hips on some deep holes that allow for some leg turning. The waist and the ab crunch are ball jointed, and he also has reverse butterfly joints for some dynamic poses. He is about half a head taller than Bucky Cap.

 To be honest, I bought this guy mostly just to get another Savage Crucible figure, but I wasn't too fond of the design... But now, having him on hand, he is incredible, every bit as good as Who-Man, and in some ways... I'd say more work went into making this guy, from his hideous skull face to his incredible looking weapons. I'm honestly loving these figures.

10

Action Figure #856: Marvel Legends Constrictor (Secret Wars wave)

 Snakes and cables.

 Another guy I've been wanting to add to my collection for a while, problem being that the old Constrictor figure was very, very outdated. I'm not one to look at a gift horse in the mouth, so I made my purchase!

 First of all... I can't say I much like this color scheme. The older figure is black and yellow, like most modern interpretations. While classic Constrictor is usually painted black with deep blue highlights. So a blue Constrictor is not technically wrong, I mean the vintage figure this one is paying tribute to was blue, it is a shade or two too light for the character. On the other hand, the tendrils, or cables, start off painted silver but then turn translucent yellow, which is a very nice look for them. As for the rest of the figure, this is a Vulcan sculpt, which looks really good for Constrictor.

 His only accessory is the silly lenticular shield. He has the same pre-posed cables as Omega Red.

 Being a Vulcann buck you get all the usual doodads. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his biceps, thighs and waist, butterfly joints and a hinged waist. While the figure is a bit gummy, it's not the worst I've seen from Hasbro, and the joints are soft enough so as not to stress the pegs.

 The figure has no wrist articulation, being replaced with forearms swivels. They are fine, I guess, although the tendril-openings shouldn't shift like that on his arms I guess! He is about as tall as Bucky Cap.

 He's a good little figure. I personally would've gone with a darker blue, but they used a good buck, the cables came out looking great, it's not horribly gummy or stiff... He's a decent upgrade for the old figure, I think.

7.0

Action Figure #855: Marvel Legends Absorbing Man

 They made a Man figure!

 As soon as my Spider-Man reading adventure took me to Secret Wars I discovered I needed to add Absorbing Man into my collection. Sadly, he only had old figures available, with those clunky ball hips, so I had to wait. And wait.... until 2026.

 So, the good first: He has the new Gladiator's upper body, so he gets those nice, meaty shoulders, as well as Luke Cage's lower body. It's a good recipe, Cocaine Man(Look it up! It happened!) looks very beefy and rough like this. His two heads look very nice too, I almost had him with the smile, but nah, this guy's got to look mean and unfriendly.

 Besides the two heads, he also comes with two fists, a gripping hand, an open hand, and that silly lenticular shield. His iconic chained wrecking ball is... pre-posed in plastic. That's so lame! While it would've been harder to pose, a proper plastic linked chain would've looked much ever. He can't even get a good grip on the thing! As for his iconic Absorption powers... hopefully you have the old BAF's arms, cause you get nothing. This guy is just Man.

 This is a Marvel Legends, so as per usual, the articulation is good enough. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his thighs, biceps and waist, as well as a hinged ab. He has no butterfly joints, but the shoulders have a nice, wide range to them.

 The biggest issue is Hasbro's usual gumminess. I know I shouldn't expect better, but still. He is about half a head taller than Bucky Cap.

 Hasbro did the bare minimum for this figure. Yeah, it looks good, the articulation is decent, but... where are his powers, something done better by previous figures, yes, plural, he got? What with the lame wrecking ball? How are we still getting this low quality plastic?

5.5

Action Figure #854: Mattel DC Premier Robin

 Batman has the right idea: Can't ever have to many Robins!

 I wasn't going to be content just owning the black Robin and not the basic one! This makes Robin my very first true figure, no vehicles no gimmicks, from Mattel's new line, so let's get on with it.

 So, as far as the sculpt goes, I have nothing else to add since this figure is identical to the one that came with the cycle. While this one is painted in the traditional green and blue, this is still a kid-friendly generic Robin that could be either Dick, Jason or Tim. For all intents and purposes, it's a fantastic kid-friendly Robin figure. And much like the other one, I feel like the paint apps could've used more layers of paint to make them last more.

 This guy actually comes with accessories... that make no sense for Robin! A knife? Double bladed staves? Shurikens but no batarangs? I guess the handcuffs do fit, kinda, somewhat. They also come in this cheap looking runner that you have to pry out from. You can showcase them in that arsenal wall... but if you slot every weapon on it... it just falls down from the weight. I guess it's better than nothing.

 Considering this is the kid's line, the articulation is very impressive. Ball-jointed shoulders, with single jointed elbows that reach slightly over 90 degrees and can turn. Wrists are hinged, and connect to the forearms with a swivel, which was unexpected but very welcome. Legs have double jointed knees, with swivels on the ankles and thighs, although, sadly, the ankles have no articulation whatsoever. While there's no ab-crunch, there's a waist swivel. So while it's not the most articulated figure ever, it's REALLY impressive for the low cost and, well, the target audience. He is almost as tall as Bucky Cap, but shorter than Mattel's Multiverse Tim.

 So... I think the other Robin's color scheme is much cooler, and the Cycle is much better than this guy's accessories... But, man, you NEED a classic Robin, and this one does well enough.

7.5

Action Figure #853: Blokees Aries Mu

 You could say that he is the... GOAT.

 And back to Saint Seiya Blokees with Aries Mu we go! The first Gold Saint that Seiya and his buddies meet is also the only one who is truly, honestly good and on their side... and yet, even while I was a kid, I found him kinda dull! But, oh well, he is easily accessible in my country so might as well get on with it.

 And now that I've built both older Marvel kits and this one I can confidently say that, wow, has the quality gone up. This was a much faster build than the new kits I bought, better organized too, and feels like a much more complete figure, including 3 sets of hands, 2 heads and an accessory. Sadly, the accessory is the Athena Exclamation's Shaka's rosary and not an effect for his Dimensional Wall.

 As for the figure itself, much like Aiolia, I don't think the figure quite captures either the style of the manga or the anime, but it's still a good looking figure, while the paint apps are minimal, the armor is pretty detailed. Much like I did with Aiolia, I glued down some pieces so that they would stay firmly in place.

Articulation is alright. The butterfly-joints barely add any range, he has bicep swivels, a ball jointed ab crunch, a swiveled waist and double jointed knees. The wrists and ankles are on ball joints, so you have some articulation there too, plus, drop down hips. The joints are very tight, but they don't feel dangerously tight, as if anything could break. The horns that lie on top of the pauldrons lie on ball sockets on his back, so you can move them around a bit when posing him. I'd say the biggest issue with him is that the long-hair on the unhelmeted head restricts his head articulation to the point of rendering it null. The helmeted head has a hinged ponytail that remedies this. He is a head and a half shorter than Bucky Cap.

 He was a nice, breezy build, but I do think he is a bit less impressive than Aiolia due to his hair hampering his articulation.

6.5

Action Figure #852: Star Wars The Black Series Mandalorian Nite Owl

 Wait until she learns about Owl Man.

 Well, originally I had not plan on getting the Mandalorian Nite Owl but... it seems I'm on a Mando phase right now, so... expect more of this guys(Spoilers!) in the coming months.

 This is gonna be an easy one, because she is Bo-Katan with a different deco. Actually, there are three differences: She can't remove her helmet, she only has one gun and her belt only has one holster. That's it. As far as the color scheme goes... I think I might like this one a bit better. The deep blue her armor is painted in gives her a much nicer look that Bo's plastic-y looking sky blue, although I like being able to unmask Bo.

 She comes with a single pistol and a jetpack.

 Since her buck is identical to Bo's... time for a little copy and pasting: Articulation wise, she has single jointed elbows and knees that reach slightly over 90 degrees each. She has swivels on her thighs, for whatever reason, and a small ball jointed waist. She does have butterfly joints, but they seem to add little to no extra range. She is quite shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Well... she's a simpler Bo figure but with a nice color scheme. If you are collecting main characters, then you can easily skip this one, since she is more of an army builder fig, but I think she'll look quite nice in my display's backgrounds.

7.0

Action Figure #851: Marvel Legends Punisher (HulkBuster Armor)

 He took Cap's mantle, the stole a Warmachine... might as well steal a Hulkbuster too!

 Well, I never thought I'd want Punisher in a Hulkbuster Armor but the moment it was first revealed something about it just caught my eye. I think Frank's tiny head at the top of the huge exo-skeleton reminded me of Cyberpunk Edgerunner... or somethin'.

 The sculpt is... a mixed bag. First of all, it's a retooling of an MCU Hulkbuster, that's right, this is a MCU figure disguised as a comic book figure. The upper chest, heads and shoulder pads are the only new bits. The funniest bit, is that Frank only wore this suit for like 4 pages before Red Hulk tore it apart, but I can tell you one thing fore sure: It barely resembles how it looked in the comic book, in it he had five fingers and two toes, here he has no toes and 3 fingers, not to mention how in the comic book it had a pretty chunky torso. So it'd be more accurate to say that this figure is inspired by that on comic. All that said, I will say that this figure looks... kinda great. Something about how it all comes together is just... kino.

 Accessories is where you get your money's worth. He comes with two heads: An unasked, hurt, Frank head that he NEVER had while wearing this armor, and the actual helmeted head that he had when he did. I'm using the bandaged head because it looks so badass. He also comes with two rocket-launchers that slot on his back, a mini-gun that can slot either on one of those two pegs OR on one of the two rocket packs, two fired missile effects, which look kinda funny since the missiles are yellow and look like tiny bath duckies, four shooting effects that can slot on either hand or the minigun as well as two smoke effects. Not too shabby!

 The missile launchers are kinda bleh, they don't snap into the back pegs very well, so get used to having them come off as you play with them. These two can slide up and down his back. The Minigun slots on ANOTHER ball-peg at the side of one of the launchers, so you can aim these anywhere, pretty fun!

 This used to be a very old MCU Hulkbuster so the articulation is kinda bleh. The single-jointed elbow doesn't even reach a 45 degree bend, but he does have bicep and thigh swivels. The shoulder-pads do restrict some of the movement of the shoulders, but if you can angle them the right way, they'll slide over his torso. He has a ball-jointed ab-crunch as well as double jointed knees. It's all fairly... rudimentary. Believe it or not, he is about a hair taller than Juggernaut(Gamerverse), somehow!

 I'm kind of conflicted about this one. I've been playing a lot with him, but there's no denying that he is pretty lazy since he resembles his comic book counterpart so little, and being a retooled old buck means the articulation is kind of lackluster... But I can't deny that the new tooling and the fun accessories make it kinda fun to pose around, as much as its articulation allows.

7.5