Action Figure #383: S.H. Figuarts Reno Ichikawa

  Who you gonna call? Kaiju busters!

 I could've sworn that Reno Ichikawa was called Leno, ah well! This is my Nerd Gatekeeper moment... I read Kaiju no.8 before it became popular!

 The sculpt looks fantastic, I love how the uniform came out. The color palette is a bit subdued, but this is how the manga has always been colored, and I'm guessing the anime follows suit, so it looks the part. While the uniform isn't the most complicated thing ever, it has a lot of various details everywhere that have been kept for the figure, including the pouches, gun, shoulder pads and all the details on his back. He'll fit right along any military-esque display. He comes with a nice amount of alternate face plates, an alternate set of more dynamic bangs, two extra pair of hands and a DLC face plate for Kafka.

 It may not look like it, but this guy has a lot of moving pieces. The pouches and the gun holster are all connected through double-ended ball-joints, so you can move them around to pose Reno. The green-chest thingies are also connected on a moving joint, so you can move those as well, and the shoulder pads are connected via a very soft plastic, so they don't limit much of the range on his arms. The articulation is pretty good, double jointed knees and arms, bicep and tight swivels, and he even has butterfly joints for his arms! Drop-down hips complete the ensemble, and both his waist and abs are on ball joints.. which have barely any range at all. He can barely twist his torso, and his ab crunch is, quite honestly, pathetic. Aside from his torso, the rest of the figure is great, and he's fun to handle.

 A small gripe I have with the figure, is that the holstered gun is a single piece, how cool would it have been if the gun was an extra accessory? Both gun and holster are VERY detailed, so why not just go for the extra mile?

 This is as far as his chest and waist can turn, which is nothing at all.

 That's as far as his ab crunch goes forward, which as I said above, it's quite pathetic.

 And that's as far as it can go back.

 And that's about it for Reno. He's a good figure, really, but he lacks the extra little things that would make him great, like a better ab crunch, and maybe having the gun be another accessory. I mean, I'm satisfied with the figure, but Figuarts can do, and have done, much better.

7.5

Action Figure #382: DC Comics Unlimited Aquaman

  Yes, another Aquaman. I did mention that I loved Aquaman, right?

 Not content with having two Aquamen, I just had to get another Aquaman. I did mention how I wasn't much of a fan of Arthur's black trunks, and as neat as my New 52 Justice League Aquaman is.. he is a bit taller than my other DC figures, so... I found the perfect Aquaman for me: DC Comics Unlimited New 52 Aquaman!

 This guys is almost identical to my DCUC Aquaman, but he seems to have a less muscular torso, a different belt, no black trunks on the outside, and a completely different head sculpt. I actually like how he looks quite a bit. I bought him used, so the seller just shipped him with this trident that's lost most of its paint, but I don't mind, I've enough tridents for him! I also love the fact that he has a right and a left bicep, unlike my unlucky DCUC Aquaman.

 Articulation-wise there's nothing to say, maybe that his legs were kinda tight, so I had to oil them up a bit. That aside, he's just like any other DCUC figure, and he's slightly taller than the Bucky Cap mold. On this last photo, Arthur's back is not as straight as it could be, that's why he looks AS tall as Bucky Cap and not taller.

 Well, boys and girls, this is my new display Aquaman when posing the Justice League. He's a decent enough figure, and I prefer this design to the more classic one.

7.0

Action Figure #381: Marvel Legends Jack O' Lantern

 Halloween can't come soon enough, best moment to display this guy!

 And the last figure from my little haul, Jack O' Lantern. Not a huge fan of this classic design, but the other Jack O' figure had ball-jointed legs, and those are not worth the hassle. Besides, I used to come across Jack O's vintage action figure a lot when I was younger, I'm sure some of my friends owned it. Plus, this would be Jason Macendale's version of Jack O', who'd eventually become one of the many Hobgoblins!

 Looks-wise... just look at the guy! He has Vulcan's arms and Cap's beefy legs, and even better, he has a scaly torso with butterfly joints painted in a metallic green that looks great. The Pumpkin head seems to have some sort of wash that makes it look really nice, and the translucent fire effect is just the cherry on top. He comes with two sets of hands, fists and grabby hands so that he can grab his bomb. He has 5 bombs permanently attached to his belt, but the sixth can be taken of so that he can grab it, pretty cool! He also comes with his glider. While I'm not a huge fan of the look, I'll be the first to say that he looks really cool.

 The articulation matches the Vulcan sculpt. His belt gets a bit warped when using the waist swivel, however.

 The huge, BIG issue with the figure.... is that his arms are as gummy as Avalanche's, and the sockets seem to be just as large, so the peg is constantly being stressed. I reinforced the pegs with super glue and now they don't get stressed as much, so... I'm a bit more relaxed when it comes to playing with the guy.

 This figure could've easily being amazing. The sculpt is great, the paint is great, the accessories are great, how the bomb and the belt work is great... but these gummy arms are not acceptable. This could've been a standout fig, but not like this.

7.5

Action Figure #380: Marvel Legends Last Stand Spider-Man

  That one Spider-Man that appeared that one time in for like 4 panels.

 To be fair, Last Stand Spider-Man would later reappear in the Spider-Verse events, although as Ezekiel Sims rather than Peter, so he is not THAT obscure of a costume.

 This guy looks cool, he does, who'd have known that a red jacket could do so much for Spider-Man? He also has cool gloves, red on the top, black on the bottom. He has two alternate fists in case you want him to punch instead of getting handsy.

 I do like the look. It doesn't look like an average super hero costume, and it makes sense, as this is an older Peter who has lost everything, so this no-nonsense design works for him, and it translated relatively well into action figure form.

 The thing is... the articulation is a bit lackluster. No butterfly joints, and no ab crunch whatsoever. I'm sure they could've easily worked a ball joint or a hinge in the middle of his torso, it's just criminal for a Spider-Man figure not to be able to bend forward, even if he is supposed to be an older version of Peter. Adding to the fact that he's an older Peter, his frame is a bit small, he is as tall as the Bucky Cap mold, mind you, but his shoulders don't strike a very imposing frame.

 The worst part about him is that he has gummy shoulder pegs/large arm sockets, so moving his arms are stressing the pegs. I tried lubing up the hinges on the shoulders, but I think I'll try something different later...

 He's alright. I think I just expect more of Spider-Man figures, y'know? He's an agile, athletic character, so he should be able to be posed in dynamic poses, and this figure just doesn't deliver on that front.

6.0

Action Figure #379: Marvel Legends Black Winter(Thor)

  So it's not Winter that's coming, it's actually Thor who's coming?

 Who is Black Winter(Thor)? I do not now, but he came with Zabu's head, so I needed him. For such a Thor hater I sure do have a lot of Thor-related figures, eh? 

 This one is a reuse of the 'Thor(Herald)' figure that I do not own and I do not plan on getting, ever, but painted in black and blue. So he looks rather... simple and lazy, but if you look at the art on the box... he is supposed to look like this, so I won't fault them for it. Besides, he makes up for it with an intricately sculpted hair, I mean, look at all those flowy strands! While he is a reused sculpt, the body is very detailed, completely black, but very detailed. He also has a very detailed tattered cape that is semi translucent. Very much despite myself, I think he looks kinda cool. But just kinda. His hammer comes with a removable black flame effect that looks really nice too.

 He comes with two alternate hands, so that he can either punch people or hold his hammer or his enemies. His wild tuft of hair also means that he is a bit top heavy, so you might have to play around for a bit before he decides to stay up.

 The articulation is Marvel Legends standard, but no waist swivel and just single jointed elbow, albeit they have enough range on them so as not to be an issue. What I did have issues with were his right appendages, namely, the arm and the hand. The right hand comes off very easily, I think it's because they made the gauntlet piece a bit more gappy than the left one so that he has range to flick his wrist with the hammer. But the end result was that his hand comes off easily. But more surprisingly, while playing around with him... his right arm ALSO came off very easily. I pushed into the socket with all the strength I could muster, but even now I still feel like it could come off easily.

 He is quite a bit taller than Bucky Cap.

 Not the most interesting character or concept, but he's not a bad action figure to own I guess. That said, I wouldn't have bought him if he I didn't need him to complete Zabu.

6.0

Action Figure #378: Marvel Legends Superior Iron Man

  The Inferior Iron Man joins the Inferior Spider-Man.

 I don't know what is it with the 'Superior' characters and Iron Man figures, but it seems like Hasbro just loves dropping the ball with them. Much like Midnight Sons Iron Man, this Superior Iron Man is just lazy. And it sucks, because I thought the idea behind Superior Iron Man was son interesting, so I actually read the comics, and I've been looking forward to this figure for a while now...

 And well... for starters, I didn't care too much, but a lot of people were annoyed at the pearly white paint they went for him instead of Silver. I didn't mind, depending on the colorist, it could look white, so I really don't mind it... but the black? C'mon, the black parts of the costume DO NOT look like this. The rest of the sculpt is SO good, even the torso is right, but they couldn't get the black paint right? C'mon now. On a more positive note, the alternate head sculpt looks so devious, I love it. I will have him around with the helmet on, but the Tony Stark head is perfect. He comes with a pair of alternate fist hands and two energy effects for his feet or hands...

 The articulation covers all the Marvel Legends basics, but he has no waist swivel, just a ball-jointed torso that has great range to the sides... but not a lot of ab-crunch forwards or backwards, which kinda sucks. He is a bit taller than Bucky Cap.

 As seen here, the energy effects don't fit very well on his hands, the sockets aren't deep enough, so they fall down pretty easily. Kinda disappointing, haven't had this happen with any other Iron Man figure, not even the Midnight Sons one.

 And look at this, even the back of the box shows you how the black paint should go on his abdomen and sides, but it looks NOTHING like this, and I don't know why they did it this way. They sculpted all the other details on his armor right, but they couldn't get the paint right? Was the black paint too expensive? I don't know.

 This is as forwards as the ab crunch goes...

 And this is as far back as it can go. Not very good, if you ask me.

 Another botched Iron Man figure. Look, in a vacuum, this is a decent action figure, even despite the mediocre ab crunch, but, BUT, how could they get the paint scheme so wrong? Some people have been posting photos of their customized Superior Iron Men, painting it right, and it looks incredible, so why did Hasbro fumble the bag so badly?

3.5

Action Figure #377: Marvel Legends Mania(Venom Space Knight 2-Pack)

 I've got a bit of a Marvel Legends mania myself.

 It's time for another revelation... I never got around to reading anything about Mania, I just thought that Flash having a side-kick was so cool, because I liked Agent Venom so much, but I stopped reading comics midway through Agent Flash's solo run, so... as much as I liked the guy, I never got around Mania besides looking at the covers and thinking she was cool.

 I didn't realized she'd be so small! She's on the awful, terrible female teenage mold... or is she? Find out on the next paragraph! But before I get ahead of myself, I love how she looks. She's another black-and-white figure, but, her leg and arm armor pieces are painted in a dark metallic purple that looks so nice on her. I really liked her overall look, including the Goku spiked hair-like head. On thing to keep in mind is that she has a lot of spikes. On her leg-guards, on her arm-guards, on her belt and she's even wearing spiky bracelets, and unlike most Marvel Legends, these are pointy! It felt almost like messing around with Figuarts Ichigo! 

 As for the articulation... THEY FIXED THE TEEN FEMALE MOLD. Yes! She has range on her legs, so I was able to very easily put her into dynamic poses. Even better, she has double-jointed elbows! She's a fantastic little figure to play with, it took them some time, but we're finally getting there. She's smaller than Bucky Cap

 She's the reason I bought the double pack, and I'm more than happy with her, she looks cool and she's fun to play with, and I love the fact that they got this teenage female buck right.

8.0

Action Figure #376: Marvel Legends Venom (Venom Space Knight 2-Pack)

 It's out of this planet.

 So, technically, Venom is a cosmic character. He's operated on the Earth, most of the time, but he comes from outer space, making him a Cosmic character. So, Flash Thompson, at some pointed joined Guardians of the Galaxy... and afterwards, he became Venom Space Knight. He was cooler as Agent Venom tho.

 What can I say? This is definitely a rather unique look for Venom. Agent Venom was a militarized take on Venom, but you could still see him as Venom, this look however... nothing screams Venom about it to me. If I didn't know it was Venom, I wouldn't be able to tell, so... yeah, not a fan of this look. What I will say is that the sculpt itself is very nice, although the figure feels a lighter than he looks, I mean, the new Tombstone feels like a much more solid figure, and he is much smaller! He comes with two tendril accessories for his arms, as well as an alternate head, these two didn't come with the original BAF release, so they are welcome.

 Articulation-wise he covers all the Marvel Legends basics, so he has a lot of poseability. He is much taller than Bucky Cap.

 The one issue I have is with the right tendril, and yes, it IS the right tendril because this one has a very ugly looking gap below. Was it done to make it cheaper or was it done to make it lighter? I don't know, but it looks ugly, and limits how high he can raise his arm while equipping it without looking awful.

 I don't care about the look, at all, but in case that you do... he is as good as Marvel Legends get, so how much fun you have with the figure is directly related to how much you like this design. The right tendril accessory should've been better tho.

7.0

Action Figure #375: Jada Toys Ken Masters

 The original Shoto-Clone!

 And now, it's time to talk about my boy, Ken Masters! Did you know? He was given the Masters last name due to Barbie's Ken! Regardless, Ken has always been my go-to character in Street Fighter, from his blonde hair, his red clothes or the fiery Shoryuken, this guy is my guy.

 While it looks like the figure is a clone of Ryu's, much like in the games themselves, not everything is as it seems! Look at his belt! Look at his gi! THEY ARE DIFFERENT! That's right, what could've been a very simple reuse was actually given love and care, who'd have known? As for the figure itself, both headsculpts look a bit off from certain angles, I think it's the nose looking a bit too pointy, but he looks much better in person. My only big complaint would be the accessory, Jada Toys has done SO well with the accessories, but instead of a fiery punch effect, which could've worked like Fei Long's effect, he was given an orange Hadoken for some reason. As per usual, besides the Hadoken Effect, he also comes with a pair of alternate hands and an alternate angry head.

 The articulation is excellent, as with all the other Jada figures. Swivels on his biceps, thighs and feet, double jointed elbows and knees, ball jointed waist and ab crunch and even butterfly joints. You can easily take the top of his clothes too if you wish. He is slightly shorter than the Bucky Cap Mold.

 As mentioned before, the belt is different, because Ryu had some Kanji on one of the ends of his belt, as for the Gi, Ken's looks new, while Ryu has tattered edges on the shoulders and on the ends of his pant legs. While this difference in Gis actually started around Street Fighter III, it's still a really neat way to make the figures look different.

 What can I say? Another Jada Toys banger. While the Street Fighter II designs aren't my favorites, I just can't help but to want to collect them all because Jada are just SO good at what they are doing.

9.0

Action Figure #374: DC Universe Classics Power Girl

  The power of the cleavage window.

 Talk about infamous! Power Girl is complicated, her story is almost as convoluted as Super Girl's, so I won't even try. But she's infamous because an artist one time would increase her bust size with every new issue to see if the editors would notice! Her design is also a bit... egregious, so some writers have tried to give her cleave some sort of significance, but it hasn't worked.

 She's built on the same adult female figure as the rest of the DC Universe classics, but she gets some unique of sculpting of her, like the, em, enlarged bust size and her boots and gloves. She has a unique cape piece that looks really good on her. I think the figure as a whole looks really nice, the color scheme works on her. That said, as with the other female figures, her arms are just too thing for a super heroine, particularly Power Girl. Where's the power?

 Articulation is the usual for these figures. Outdated? Yes. Serviceable? Definitely. She's almost as tall as the Bucky Cap mold.

 She's a good figure, I think she might be among my favorite DCUC female figures... not that I own all that many of those!

6.0