Action Figure #775: Marvel Legends Deathbird

 ....so, like a Vulture or a Crow?

 So while I know a bit of Gladiator... I don't know much about Deathbird beyond what X-Men TAS showed me. And, sadly, I never cared too much about the Shi'Ar Empire, despite how much I enjoyed Cosmic Marvel back in the day, so this is a character I'm not much familiar with... which will probably taint my appraisal of her.

 So... I know very little of her, but... Well, she looks like I remember her looking, and that's gotta count for something! There's a lot of neat sculpting  all around her body, so it's not a simple buck recycle. And the metallic purples look great on her. Also, not a gooner, but I think that they did a great job with her cleavage. Wait! Hear me out! Since these are toys meant to be found at toy aisles, characters with cleavages usually get very boring sculpts, like MoonDragon's monobreast. But here, the breasts look natural, and the top is very sultry, fitting for a villainess. I also love the mean look on her face, she looks real nasty. Her cape, full of scales, is also very gorgeous, the metallic purple paint did wonders for it. Sadly, not accessories for her, not even an alternate set of hands. 

 She's, sadly, sculpted on the old female sculpt, so no waist articulation and a pathetic ball jointed ab crunch. She has double jointed elbows and knees, with swivels on her biceps and thighs. Decent, but not the best. Her head tends to pop off when I move it, sadly. Her horns make her taller than Bucky Cap.

 Well, as somebody that doesn't care about this character... she's alright. She has no accessories, but I do like all the metallic purples, and she does look very evil, so I will find some use for her on my displays.

7.5

Action Figure #774: Marvel Legends Gladiator (Deathbird 2-Pack)

 And finally, the third Superman ripoff from Marvel.

 I'm not a super fan of the Shi'Ar saga of X-Men, but know what I'm a fan of? Annihilation Wave. And then, the Annihilators, and our boy Gladiator was part of both. Since he wasn't much of a priority, and he was kinda expensive, I kept putting it off on and on and on... But this two pack was my chance to finally get him!

 From what I can gather, this is an updated figure, and I can believe that, because I've never seen these thick shoulders before. Guess he never skips the military press! I think that due to the way the torso is cut, in a curve, and these shoulders being so wide, he is meant to have extra range, but they are no substitutes for butterfly joints. Still, he looks beefy and I like it. He comes with two fists, a wide open hand and a midway open hand that could work as him parrying an attack. I don't really like the wide-open hand, I don't think it would ever fit him. He also comes with a beautiful angry face that is oozing red energy from his eyes. If he was a villain, I'd stick him with that head forever. It's that good.

 Articulation is pretty good. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his waist, thighs, boots and biceps. His ab crunch, on a hinge, is pretty good too. The cape hangs a bit loose, but I didn't feel as if it made it harder to balance him, I think the figure is so hefty that the cape can't get him out of balance. I feel like the shoulders are a bit too tight. The arms aren't super gummy, and the pegs seem to be sturdy, so I wouldn't worry too much. He is taller than Bucky Cap by a head, and a bit taller than the previous strong-guy buck.

 If this is the new big guy buck going forward... I don't mind it. I hope the smooth out the shoulders, that's for sure, but the rest of the figure feels sturdy, not gummy at all, and he looks great next to smaller figures.

8.5

Action Figure #773: Marvel Legends Uncanny Spider-Man (NightCrawler)

 Either you are an X-Man or a Spider-Man, you have to pick one.

 Worse than the Venom Family. Worse than the Batman Family... it's the Spider-Man family, now we've got dozens of 'em running around. But I'll cut Uncanny Spider-Man (Nightcrawler) some slack, because he looks cool and wields a sword.

 This little guy looks really cool, red and black worked for Miles, it worked for Kaine, so it sure as hell will work for Nightcrawler too! He seems to be using some new limbs, because the details on his arms and boots are sculpted in, and I don't recognize the torso at all, because this isn't the Amazing Fantasy Buck. But still, y'know, he looks really nice, he is a cool looking Spider-Man. And he has a tail too! He comes with a purple teleport effect, two open hands, two fists and... a single gripping hand for his single sword. Doesn't Night Crawler usually wield too? Regardless, two gripping hands would've been nice, and I don't think the grip on the sword is the best, because the curl of the fingers is too short, so there's some gapping between the sword and the fingers. Mind you, it's just a nitpick, the sword stays relatively firmly in place, I just think the grip could've been even better. And another thing... This isn't a gummy figure! It seems most of the gummy issues come from the new Vulcan buck, the biceps not fitting properly on the pegs, but I digress.

 Articulation is almost perfect. He has double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on thighs, biceps and waist... and I'm usually OK with that, but due to his weird feet, swivels on the boots would've been amazing to get him into weirder poses. He has butterfly joints and a hinged ab crunch with decent range. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 This figure might just be the standout of the wave. Not only because of the really fun design for a Spider-Man, but because he also has good quality plastic. Nothing feels tight, no peg feels stressed... Why can't every Marvel Legends be like this?

9.0

Action Figure #772: Marvel Legends Hypno-Hustler

 Disco is back, baby!

 Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that the Hypno-Hustler, who's had like 3-4 different appearances, would've gotten a figure. But then again, the Fly had only two wearing the yellow costume, one in which he wrecked Moon Knight, and got a figure himself, so there are still chances for Kangaroo!

 For such an obscure character... they sure had fun! He seems to be sculpted on a retooled Sunfire buck, but he gets a few things on his torso, such as a thick neckpiece, some purple round sleeves on his shoulders and a belt that hangs over his waist. The boots are completely new too! While I don't remember him having these thick boots, must be a modern incarnation I'm not familiar with, the rest of the figure looks exactly like I remembered him. And special mention goes to his head sculpt, he looks menacing and silly at the same time. He comes with two fists, a left hand for cupping the guitar, and a right hand with a pick, for the guitar... and of course, his guitar and a microphone. I've two nitpicks, first, you can put the microphone on either hand, the one with the mic has a better grip but looks odd, and the cupping hand can hold it, but very loosely, and it looks awkward too. A gripping hand instead of a fist would've been much better. The other nitpick is that I think the guitar's strap is too long, so it falls off from him too easily. He also comes with two blast effects, and two smoke effects, for his boots... I don't remember this being an ability of his, so once again, must be some new incarnation of the character. Overall? The went above what one would expect for such an obscure character, and he doesn't feel gummy at all.

 Articulation-wise... It's a Sunfire buck, it's good. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his biceps, thighs, boots and waist, and a hinged ab crunch. His afro makes him taller than Bucky Cap.

 And thus, a weirdo character only four of us remember gets a really great action figure. Plastic quality is great, which is weird for current Hasbro, the team had fun sculpting his head and accessories, being molded on a good buck makes him fun to play with... yeah, he's good, go get him!

8.0 

Action Figure #771: Marvel Legends Owl

 OWL? More like FIY, Fix It Yourself!

 Owl wasn't a character I was super interested in, but it was one I wanted ever since I read through Spider-Man, because he was one of Spidey's early foes, borrowed from Daredevil. He was a silly 70's villain, but he would've been a nice addition. And now he is here!.. and I kinda wish he wasn't.

 Well... I love the layered look. He has a brown underjacket below the green jacket, and he has a maroon scarf on top, so the layered look of the figure is pretty neat. The waist cut, however, isn't, but there's so much stuff on top on him that you'll barely notice. So, that aside... What is this look? The Owl I'm used to wears a red/pink bowtie, not a scarf, and his claws were way longer. I looked up photos of him, and, as hard as it was, I found a couple of him dressed like this, so it seems to be a modern look. Which is a bit weird, because he came in the retro-carded package they tend to use for the more classic designs, but I'll try not to let my preferences taint my view of the figure. And the green jacket is very nicely sculpted, it's all tattered and stuff. He comes with two open hands, without the claws, and an owl.

 So, the figure was kinda whack. His right arm was super stiff, so I had to put oil on it, so I had to remove the jackets, and... This is a Doc Ock reuse. I don't know which one, maybe the MCU Ock? Not sure. Lazy, lazy. But yeah, I had to oil up his arm because that swivel was going to break. Although, in it's the defense, the peg seems to be super sturdy, which is weird with modern Marvel Legends.

 The other issue, the claws came off very easily, so I had to glue them in place. Kinda lame if you ask me.

 So, after fixing the figure... He is kinda lame. The green jacket is very hard, so just turning his ball-jointed waist is kind of a pain in the neck. Moving his legs also feels cumbersome. They have swivels at the thighs and double jointed knees. And then the arms... The elbows are single jointed, but taking a page from Black Series, the cut is very deep, so you get a nice bend of over 90 degrees. But, taking this into account... why does he have swivels on his biceps? Bicep swivels are lovely... whenever Marvel isn't using their awful gummy plastic of their stiff shoulders that sometimes refuse to bend. But even overlooking this poor engineering choice... the green jacket goes over his shoulders, and it being so hard means that he can barely lift his arms. Lame. He is a hair taller than Buck Cap.

 In a word: Underwhelming. I wasn't expecting much, he was just another character I wanted because I loved early Spider-Man comics, but the execution left a lot to be desired. Most things could've been fixed by giving him a soft-plastic jacket, like the one Jubilee uses, and it probably would've made him easier to produce too. Meh.

5.0

Action Figure #770: Star Wars The Black Series Super Battle Droid (Super Battle Droid 2-Pack)

 These aren't the ones that say funny things.

 For a prequel defender, except Attack of the Clones the only movie worse than The Last Jedi, I am missing a ton of droids. Let's fix that! Here's the Super Battle Droid for starters, and, spoilers, maybe someone else will be coming home this March!

 Well, the Super Battle Droid has an awkward design, but I don't think it's quite a perfect likeness. For starters, I'm more partial to the exaggerated proportions of the Clone Wars show, because in that show they looked like hulking chunks of Metal ready to rain down pain on their enemies. A lot of the detail from the movies is here, it's just that it doesn't look as sharp as he does in the show, and I think the grey they chose to cast him in doesn't make him look as metallic as he did in the movies, so he ends up looking like a toy and not like a droid. Since he has so little paint already, maybe a black wash could've helped highlight all the edges in his design? Maybe. He comes with a single blaster accessory for his right arm. It's pretty cool.

 I accidentally realized that you can take off his head, and I didn't notice at the time, but you can also take away the front of his chest, like in the Republic Commando game! Pretty cool feature. I feel like once I removed it for the first time, the chest piece never stayed in place very firmly, but once you put the head back in it locks it in place, so no worries there. And for such a little gimmick... his insides are very nicely sculpted, and he has some added paint apps in there too... so I can't be too hard on the guy. The Black Series team did try.

 He has a small ball jointed ab-crunch, but he doesn't get much range beyond turning around. His elbow joints are a circular joint that can be rotated, and the forearms can be rotated too for extra articulation. The knee joins have similar engineering, but due to the way the legs are sculpted you can't turn them, so don't try. The pegs on the elbow joints are TINY, so be careful! His right elbow is a bit tight, so I can tell the forearm peg is getting stressed, but since the thing swivels, I don't think I'll loose much beyond the arm bend if I have to superglue it back on. While the articulation isn't spectacular, it's not like this android was very nimble anyways, so I can't fault it for that.

 In my figure's case, his hip joint is slightly off centered. I've managed to push the right hip back in, but it eventually goes out again. Bummer, I know it's not a big deal, but I just can't ignore the off-centered legs! He is a bit taller than Bucky Cap.

 He is alright, y'know? I honestly don't think much else could've been done with him. Maybe cast it in a more appropriate grey, make the pegs a bit thicker? I think they did the most that they could with him, and even added the extra innards for battle damage. So while it's not the most exciting action figure ever, he gets the job done.

6.5

Action Figure #769: Star Wars The Black Series Phase 1 Clone Trooper (Super Battle Droid 2-Pack)

 Audiences liked Boba Fett so much we got an entire army of him!

 Alright, alright, I admit it... I kinda like clones now, so I had to get a Phase 1 Clone Trooper sometime, and what better than this little 2-Pack with a Droid I was sorely lacking? And I gotta say, for a budget army-builder release, I love the little cardboard box these two guys came in.

 Well... It's a Phase 1 clone trooper. The one thing that caught my eye is that the figure feels a little gummier than your average Black Series figure, but since the engineering is simpler, and better, than Marvel Legends, nothing feels as if it would break. What's more, the softness of the figure kinda feels nice, everything is very smooth. Unlike the Storm Troopers, this guy has a matte finish, so no glossy looking armor. The paint apps are very simple, this is a generic Clone Trooper after all, and he has no weathering. I like it that way, but I know some people like their clones dirtier. His helmet can be removed, and he comes with two different fire-arms. I kinda love the longer rifle, makes him stand out among my other troopers.

 He has single jointed elbows and knees, the cuts allow for bends slightly beyond 90 degrees. Thanks to the butterfly joints and the ball jointed ab crunch you can get some nice poses out of this guy. He has swivels on his thighs, which you must use to lift his legs due to the shape of his armor. Pauldrons can be rotated, so his arms don't lose any range. The one thing that caught my eye is that unlike other clones I own, his kneepads hang loose instead of being glued to the leg armor, not my favorite design choice, but it's not too bad. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 So... I kinda love this guy. He is super simple, but Clone Wars has made me love Clones, and I think they pulled off the figure very nicely. I kinda felt the same way about the Storm Troopers. They are very simple designs, and maybe that's a strength when turning them into toys, but I think he looks fantastic, and has been a pleasure to pose around with his rifle.

7.5