Action Figure #785: Marvel Legends Shriek

 Shriek buck this, Shriek buck that... about time I got Shriek!

 Like I said on the Hydro Man entry, I'm going to try to get more Spider-Man characters I skipped, and today, it's all about Shriek who just happened to be Carnage's girlfriend. Then they adopted doppleganger. And joined up with the Demogoblin... the 80's and 90's were wild man!

 So, this girl comes with a belt, a bracelet and 3 pairs of hands. I bought her second hand, for less than 10usd, so I got none of that... but I'm not gonna complain. Even if I had gotten the extra goodies... Shriek is a very simple design, so there's not much to her. I think her face looks appropriately almost kinda crazy, so they get points there. But other than that... she's not a particularly inspired design, so they did what the could with the figure.

 Articulation is exactly like the Shriek buck... because this IS the Shriek buck. This was, at the time of her release, the next step in female Marvel legends. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivel on her thighs and biceps, as well as a ball jointed ab crunch. At the time, it was better than pretty much any other female ML before her. By today? It's OK, but we've got a better buck. She is a hair shorter than Bucky Cap.

 She's fine. All her shortcomings are a direct consequence of her being such a simple, forgettable design. But they got her right, and at the time, this new buck was a nice update for Female Marvel Legends.

6.0

Action Figure #784: Valaverse White Dragon

 And now... the main event, Jason David Frank!

 Maybe I should've covered the White Dragon before the Prime Dragon, but here we are. As I said before... I've always been kind of interested kind of not in these two pack, and just the day I got my paycheck and finally decided to make the purchase... it ran out of stock. At least I only paid 20 usd over retail for these figures!

 So, The White Dragon... When it Came to Dragon Prime, there were a few things I could only speculate on, but there are enough photos and materials to be able to tell where they went wrong. The textures pattern across his body is almost perfect, but if you look close enough, there are some differences. The amount of bumps at the side of his body don't match the ones on his costume. And worst of all... The visor should be a pretty, reflective gold, not this pure yellow thing. I got used to it, probably because I love Yellow, but it's not accurate to the movie. The shield, on the front it looks perfect, but behind it looks VERY different. At least the alternate unmasked head looks pretty close to JDF. He comes with a blue base, two fists, two open palms, two grabby hands and an alternate right bracelet with the energy sword. I kinda hate that you can't swap the left bracelet and that he only came with one of these, because in the trailer you can see him using two of these blades.

 Much like Dragon Prime, there are no good shots of his sides, but If I was a betting man, I'd bet the silver highlight didn't just end abruptly there and it was just laziness.

 The articulation is top notch. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his boots, thighs and biceps, with sturdy drop-down hips and a ball jointed ab-crunch and a ball jointed waist, as well as butterfly joints. You can definitely have fun with this guy.

 That said, his arms can't stay straight. In fact, I had his elbow piece come off the joint and I had to super glue it back in. He is taller than your average Lightning collection figure, but, shorter than Bucky Cap.

 I have very mixed feelings when it comes to this guy. I do think that he is a cool looking figure, but he doesn't match the source material. Maybe Valaverse was given concept art? I'm not sure. But them not going the extra mile and paying attention to the details kinda rubs me the wrong way. And that's my issue. It's a good looking figure. It's fun to play with... but why couldn't it match the movie(Or trailer, since that's all we've got at the time of me writing this!) better?

5.5

Action Figure #783: Valaverse Dragon Prime

 Not quite Power Rangers, not quite Sentai.

 I was eyeing this two pack for quite a while, but just the day I managed to get the money.... it sold out. I even asked BigBadToystore if there were any chance it would restock, but they said it was nill... so I bit the bullet and slightly overpaid on Ebay for this Dragon Prime and White Dragon 2-Pack.

 I had kind of high hopes for these figures. Sadly, every Millenial's childhood hero, Jason David Frank, took his own life before this film celebrating Power Rangers and his Ranger Legacy got a release... but while we've been waiting for years, the figures have come out, and... Let's start with the villain, Dragon Prime. Admittedly, beyond one behind-the-scenes photo and a few quickshots from the trailer, we haven't seen enough of him... but it was enough to know that this figure isn't very faithful to the source material. For instance, his shield and gauntlets are painted in a light shade of grey... when in the BTS phot we can clearly see that these should be tinted red. Another thing, the bumps on the side of his torso... At leas the White Dragon has a different amount of them than his own figure and this one. Other than that, he is fine. He comes with two fists, two open palm hands, two grabby hands and... an alternate right bracelet with a red energy blade. It has to be said... I'm disappointed that only the right bracelet can be swapped, because in the trailer we can see the White Dragon using TWO blades. He also comes with a red base. Another thing, while we haven't seen Dragon Prime from the back, the are backshots from the White Dragon, and his chest shield, from behind, looks nothing like this.

 Also, there are not enough photos to be able to check, but this just can't be right. The front part of his side is painted silver, but the half of his back is pure black? I smell laziness.

 The articulation is top notch. Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his boots, thighs and biceps, with sturdy drop-down hips and a ball jointed ab-crunch and a ball jointed waist, as well as butterfly joints. You can definitely have fun with this guy.

 That said, his arms can't stay straight. In fact, the white Dragon figure, which uses the same sculpt, had his elbow piece come off the joint and I had to super glue it back in. He is taller than your average Lightning collection figure, but, shorter than Bucky Cap.

 This figure is... it's fine as an action figure, but sadly, if he really is just a color swap of the White Dragon, the accuracy isn't all there. Maybe these figures were based on concept art? Either way... fine figures, but disappointing merch.

5.5

Action Figure #782: Power Rangers Lightning Collection In Space Pyscho Green Ranger

 Green with envy gone Psycho.

 Well, the In Space Psycho Green Ranger just might be the most I've paid for a Lightning Collection figure. At first I was sure I wasn't going to get him, but then my itch for Psychi Rangers picked up and.. well, here we are.

 Well, what I can I say? It's the same exact mold as the other Psycho Rangers I've written about but green. He looks nice, but I wouldn't say it's my favorite color scheme on the buck. He comes with two grabby hands, a left fist, a right energy-shooting hand, a green effect and a very badass knife. I'm pretty sure the green on his green energy hand is different than the other figures, but I didn't compare them.

 Same articulation as always. Double jointed elbows and knees, hinged waist, ball jointed ab crunch, butterfly joints and swivels on his biceps, thighs and boots. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 So, the Green Psycho Ranger... Is he worth the high price he is going for? Definitely no. But if you can spare the money, he is not a bad addition. Despite how short they are, I do like the Psycho Ranger buck, and I do like how he looks in green... but the Silver Psycho Ranger feels much more special, and is much cheaper than him.

8.0

Action FIgure #781: Jazwares Battle Ready Tyranitar

 So we doin' Pokemon now? Gotta catch 'em all I guess!

 I bought this Battle Ready Tyranitar by accident. Only now I heard about these 6 inch Jazwares Pokemon line, and I thought this was the 6 inch Tyranitar... but he wasn't. Oh well..

 Well... the sculpt is great. It is, this looks like Tyranitar, one of my favorite Pokemon EVER. He looks just like he looks in the games, and his spiky parts are rubbery so as not to hurt.

 The only thing worth mentioning is that the paint apps are spotty. This leg is the worst bit in my copy, but most of the paint apps in his body are kinda... missing the mark by different margins.

 This is most of his articulation. You press a button behind him and his arms move backwards and his mouth opens. Cute. But this turns him into a toy and not a collectible. His arms can't be moved. Well, you can, but they move together and alongside the mouth, and once you let go they reset. This is a toy.

 Also, yeah, the button. You have to deal with having a button behind him.

 The only true articulation in this figure are his legs. This is all the range they have. Pathetic. He is about half the height of Bucky Cap, which... is alright.

 Well... this is a toy. Yeah... I wish I could have him among my figures, but.. no, no can do. The worst part is that the Pokemon Select version is almost 100 usd... so I'll see what I can do about it, but in the mean time, maybe he ain't that bad.

4.0

Action Figure #780: Marvel Legends Iron Man (Model 09)

 Model 9, JR JR version.

 While I'm not a super fan, thanks to the TAS show, I've always liked Iron Man, so it's kind of weird I don't have more Iron men. Trying to fix that, here I've got Iron Man (Model 09) as drawn by John Romita Jr., which you can tell by his super bulky legs.

 Well, he seems to be mostly a new buck. I could be wrong, but his torso and abdomen seem new, the boots and gauntlets as well... So yeah, work went into him. The thing about Model 09 is that there are two looks to it: Before and After Jhon Romita Jr., so depending on which style you like best... you may want to skip this one, or not. Luckily, I like JR JR's art, particularly during the 80's and 90's, so I prefer this version of the model 09... although, the chest reactor should be yellow and not blue. Overall, I quite like how this guy looks. I also like the candy red and mustard yellow they went with. He comes with two alternate blasting hands, these are not hinged so you can't angle them, two blast effects and two smoke effects.

 Do I need to say much? Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his biceps, thigh, boots and waist, as well as a hinged ab crunch. It's a very articulated figure, and you can get good poses out of him. That said, his shoulders ARE quite stiff, so I had to put oil on them. At least, the plastic seems to be good quality, so the shoulder pegs seem to be doing OK.

 That said, due to the shape of his gauntlets, his elbows only reach a 90 degree bend.

 Do be careful with his legs, as the knee's will force themselves into his boots, which are breaking the plastic in my figure. He is a bit taller than Bucky Cap and as tall as your average Iron Man.

 Overall? I liked Model 09. I think how much you like it will probably tied to if you like JR JR's take on the armor's look. The articulation is good for the most part, the sculpt is nice, I like the colors... Yeah, there are a few nitpicks to be had, but overall, I think it's a good figure.

8.0

Action Figure #779: Star Wars The Black Series Echo (The Bad Batch)

 So a faulty figure would be from a bad batch of The Bad Batch?

 I haven't watched The Bad Batch, yet, but, I did finish Clone Wars so I did get to see the episode in which they are introduced, and shilled, as the rescue Echo and invite him to their team. Man, the last season is such a rollercoaster, it has so much filler and unlikeable new characters, like the sisters, but then it has the final story arc in which Rex and Ahsoka have to deal with Order 66 which were some of the best...

 So, Echo. I'm not sure how much pieces are new, and how many were reused, but the armor seems to be based on the arc-trooper design. I think he looks great, since he is clad mostly in grey you can tell that he is one of the good guys but more suited for the dirty work. So, overall, I think he is a good looking figure. He comes with a backpack, and thankfully, unlike most Hasbro figures, it stays on pretty securely. He comes with a pistol... but his single hand doesn't have a trigger finger, I hate it when they do this with dual-wielding clones. He also comes with an accessory for his screw-arm, the accessory looks pretty cool and you can remove the tip. That said... it doesn't stay very well in place, trying to move the arm while the accessory is equipped will make it fall off.

 His helmet is a bit special. Since the unmasked head has a weird mechanical thingie at the back of his skull, you can open up the helmet from behind in order to put it on his head. Not too shabby!

 Articulation is what you'd expect of the Clone troopers. Elbows and knees are single jointed, both go a little beyond 90 degrees, which is good enough. He has butterfly joints, but good luck getting any extra range out of them through the chest armor. He has a ball jointed ab crunch with a bit of range. The skirt pieces at the side of his legs are slightly harder than you'd expect, so side-leg movement is a bit limited. All in all, he is alright, but nothing too special. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 So, Echo... On one hand, I think he looks like a pretty cool clone trooper. But.. the articulation is nothing spectacular, he's missing a trigger finger for his gun, and his tool falls off easily... Yeah, he could've been done better.

6.0