Action Figure #558: Star Wars The Black Series Cad Bane(Clone Wars)

 The good, the bad and this one's definitely the ugly.

 Could it be? Well, yes, it is: Cad Bane, yet another character I know nothing about but have been using in the mobile game.

 Sculpt-wise he looks amazing. His vest, gauntlets, jacket and belts look incredible, and as far as I know, it's a completely unique sculpt. I can't speak for his accuracy to the source material, but he looks mean and badass. He comes with two guns, which can be holstered, a satchel that goes over his shoulder and a cowboy hat. The cowboy hat is kinda funny because it stays on better if you put it the wrong way over his head.

 Articulation is what we've gone to expect. Single jointed elbows and knees, butterfly joints, no waist articulation but a ball jointed ab crunch. Lastly, he has thigh swivels, to make it look as if he was wearing chaps, He has articulated... jets? on his ankles. He is a touch shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Cad Bane is a really mean looking villain, and I do like the end result even if I feel like he is nothing special.

7.0

Action Figure #557: Power Rangers Lightning Collection Power Rangers S.P.D. Shadow Ranger

 The goodest of boys.

 I was too old by the time Power Rangers S.P.D. released, and didn't watch it's Super Sentai counterpart either, but, c'mon, look how cool the Shadow Ranger looks! As soon as I saw him up for sale I had to spend money I shouldn't have spent on him!

 I can't tell you just how accurate he is to the show, but I can tell you that he is one badass looking design. For the blue paint they went with a shiny, metallic skyblue that stands out very nicely against his black costume. There's two gripes I have with him, firstly, that despite him being an older figure he feels a bit gummy... and that his shoulders feel too low in relation to his torso. That aside, he looks fantastic. He comes with an alternate dog head and neck, which I'm never going to use, two alternate hands, a cellphone thingie, a sword and an energy effect for the sword.

 For articulation, he gets double jointed elbows and knees, bicep and thigh swivels, butterfly joints, a reverse-hinge on his waist and a ball jointed ab crunch. It looks as if he has boot swivels, but they aren't, the boots are just separate pieces over his legs. Honestly, it's pretty good, and he has good range on all his articulations.

 This is what I meant by his shoulders being too low. He is as tall as Bucky Cap.

 The Shadow Ranger is a really dope figure, I kinda wish I had gotten into this line before the prices skyrocketed.

8.5

Action Figure #556: Star Wars The Black Series Princess Leia Organa(2025)

 Excuuuuuuuuuuuse me, Princess!

 And this figure here is the reason I've been missing a Princess Leia Organa figure for so long: I knew she was coming. By the time I decided to start collecting Black Series' figures and decided to complete the original trio, I knew that if I had to have one Leia it HAD to be the classic look, and as luck would have it, an updated rerelease was coming out, so... I decided to wait.

 Well, in comparison to the other Leia, which I've only seen in pictures, the face sculpt seems leagues better... however, I don't know why they went for soft plastic instead of soft goods for her skirt. Leia is a very tiny, very simple figure, but she looks really neat. I think a more defiant smirk would've suited her better, but this serious look also fits her really well. Beyond that, the resemblance to Carrie Fisher is really good. She comes with her cowl, and two blasters, her trademark gun and the Stormtrooper blaster.

 The articulation is... well, she singled jointed elbows, but single jointed knees and thigh swivels, with a ball-jointed waist. Surprisingly, she has butterfly joints, but I don't think they are very valuable on Leia, since they range they add to her arms is minimal. The skirt is made up of two pieces of soft plastic, which is pliable enough, but she won't be crouching or sitting anytime soon. I also found that making her stand takes a bit of finesse.

 Her tiny hands are not large enough to properly hold the StormTrooper blaster. Shame! As previously stated, she is tiny, way shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Leia is alright, but it's a bit tough to get her on really good poses. She really should've come with soft goods for her skirt.

5.5

Action Figure #555: Marvel Legends Agent Venom(Retro-Carded)

  You may call me Venom, agent Venom.

 If a figure was deserving of a long overdue upgrade it was Agent Venom. Look, the original was alright, for its time, but now it was nothing more than a clunky piece of plastic, so I'm glad that we finally have a proper upgrade.

 I've seen that a lot of online reviewers have criticized this figure a lot, and, well, they are wrong. Much like Kaine, he is pretty much an entirely new sculpt, and I don't see how they can reuse these parts for anything other than, well, Agent Anti-Venom. A lot of the complaints are about his size... Dude, Agent Venom has been drawn in various sizes, but as far as I remember, this lean, athletic-type build was the one they've used the most. He comes with a gun, that can be holstered, an alternate head, two alternate pairs of hands and a rifle. Kind of a nitpick... But he doesn't come with the back accessory that the previous Agent Venom did, the one that allowed his tendrils to wield guns, which, fair enough, but... there's no hole in his back to plug the older accessory, bummer!

 The articulation is as follows; Double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on his thighs and biceps and a ball-jointed ab crunch with decent, but not spectacular, range. No waits swivels. His only downside is that the armored legs prevent his feet from pivoting or twisting too much, which will limit some of his poses, that said, you can work with his feet anyways. The pauldrons rotate alongside his shoulders, so no issues there. He is a touch shorter than Bucky-Cap, and a lot shorter than the previous figure.

 Hasbro cooked with this figure. Considering the Revoltech Agent Venom is a thing, I'd hesitate to call this one the definitive Agent Venom, but for the price, there's no going wrong with this one.

9.0

Action Figure #554: Marvel Legends Spider-Man Unlimited

 And when a figure NEEDS cellshading they skip on it!

 Ah! Spider-Man Unlimited, the show only 50 people ever watched... including me. I kinda liked it, and specially the new costume and art-style, so I hoped that eventually we'd get him in action figure form, but never really thought Hasbro would.... until they did.

 Well, the bad news? He is not cell-shaded, which was the most unique aspect about this version of Peter. To be fair, I suspected translating that look would be kinda impossible... but I've seen some custom paint-jobs online that prove that it can be done. That said, this wasn't a lazy effort, as a lot of unique sculpting was done on his chest, shoulders, butterfly joints and boots to highlight his design. He also has a cape on his back, as well as soft-plastic pieces on his forearms. For the colors, they went for a muted red and a somewhat metallic blue, which makes him look really nice. He comes with two alternate pairs of hands. All that said, this is the gummiest figure I have gotten in a long time. His legs almost feel like rubber, and they look as if they will come apart every time I move the legs.

 The articulation is the same as the Sunfire Buck, so it's pretty good, but, despite that, he is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Look, the lack of cell shading I can forgive. The sculpt is fantastic. But we can't let Hasbro keep getting away with using this sorry excuse for plastic. Every now and then they release these figures that have such rubbery joints that feel as if they will break at any moment, and it's just unacceptable.

6.0

Action Figure #553: Marvel Legends Kaine

 The least cloned of Peter's clones.

 Finally, we finally have a classic 90's Kaine figure. Say what you will about the clone saga, the fact is that it introduced Kaine and Ben, two of the most beloved Spider-man characters.

 90% of Kaine is made up of entirely new sculpted pieces just for him. The shoulders, the hands, the feet and the butterfly joints are the only parts that are reused. See all the veiny accents on him? Fully sculpted. They really went the extra mile with Kaine, and he looks amazing. He comes with two pairs of hands: Fists and semi-open power-wielding-looking hands that are perfect for his trademark Mark of Kaine.

 As far as articulation goes, it covers all the ML basics, he is of the hinged ab-crunch and waist-swivel varieties. AS previously mentioned, he also has butterfly joints. His only big issue is the sculpted cape. It goes over his shoulders, so he can't fully raise his arms, and tied that to his fabulous mane of hair and... his head movement is also a bit hampered. With a soft-goods cape, he would've been perfect.

 A small nit pick... his back has no veins. They probably thought that it was worthless since he always has his cape on, but.... That aside, he is slightly taller than Bucky Cap.

 Hasbro delivered with Kaine. But really, it's about time they start implementing soft-goods for some of these capes... and they really need to start using better plastic. At least, it's not too bad on him.

8.5

Action Figure #552: Marvel Legends Dark Avengers' Warbird

 Wears a scarf but no pants, sure, that makes sense.

 This Warbird figure is kinda weird, because this is Ms. Marvel's second costume, and also, when Moonstone, was it, took her place in the Dark Avengers she also used the Warbird codename, so something tells me they didn't want to associate her with the Ms. Marvel monicker.

 Technicalities aside, I've been wanting this figure for two big reasons: A) Finally an easily accessible way to get my hands on the new female buck and B) Ever since I started reading Spider-man from the very first issue, I fell in love with this costume. Funnily enough, while I hate fanservice, I kinda liked the version that showed her navel, but whatever, I love this version almost as much. First of all, I love this new buck, it looks great, and I love the proportions. The paint job is fantastic too, and she comes with an alternate pair of hands, two effect pieces and an alternate head.

 Well, the future is now, because we've finally got a female buck that is on par with the male bucks. Butterfly joints, double jointed elbows and knees, a ball jointed ab crunch with good range and a reverse hinge joint for the waist, as well as thigh swivels and bicep swivels. She's a ton of fun to play with. She's a few milimmeters shy of Bucky Cap's height.

 I love this figure, fantastic articulation, fantastic proportions, great costume, great sculpt... fantastic figure.

9.5

Action Figure #551: S. H. Figuarts Okarun(Transformed)

 Well... this is a drag alright.

 Well, I've written about Dandadan a fair bit on Momo's entry, but it's time to write about Okarun now. And... he kinda sucks.

 I'll tell you this much, unlike Momo, he does come with a ton of accessories. Five face plates, five pairs of hands as well as an extra 11th hand, glasses, a mask accessory and a half-mask accessory. Now this is what I'd expect from a Figuarts release. The mask accessories plug into a hidden hole on his hair, which you have to remove a tuft to access and... while the full mask stays relatively well, as long as you don't move it too much, the half mask... just won't stay put in. Much like with Momo, Okarun doesn't feel as if he  was based on his manga counterpart, his hair is too long, the lines in his face aren't thick enough... Maybe he is based on how he looks in the anime? I also feel like his chest and and back might be a bit too broad. I don't know, he looks like Okarun, but... he also doesn't feel like Okarun, at least to a manga reader.

 The articulation is kinda.... bland. From top to bottom, his head is on a double ball-joint through the neck. But the neck is always angled forward, which is so limiting. The ab-crunch is on a ball joint, but you can only spin it a few degrees to either side, which sucks, but at least the ball joint on the waist allows for 180 degrees rotation. The shoulders have butterfly joints, which are very nice... but also very loose, his shoulders WILL fall down, and this is a common issue. The arms connect to the butterfly joints via ball joints, and the elbows are double jointed, which is all fine and dandy... but no bicep swivels, so Okarun won't be folding his arms any time soon. The legs have thigh swivels, and while the knees are single jointed, they have pretty good range, so no complaints there... but the feet are on ball joints, not hinges, so no diagonal feet posing. The coattails are made of a rather solid plastic, which is alright, as they'll always stay flowing behind him, and they don't hinder his waist too much.

 Okarun has a fantastic bend backwards...

 But this is as much as he can bend his torso forward. This is absolutely unacceptable on a character like him, as he is always bending forward.

 Lastly... his butterfly joints feel needlessly over engineered. He is as tall as Bucky-Cap.

 The Dandadan Figuarts line continues to blunder it's way forward. I hope Aira and Jin come out better, because Momo and Okarun have been lackluster to say the least. 

4.0

Action Figure #550: Star Wars The Black Series Cal Kestis(Deluxe)

  Just how many Cal Kestises am I going to buy!?

 Initially I wasn't going to buy this version of Cal Kestis, even though I knew it existed, because I preferred the look without the poncho. But playing through Jedi Survivor recently reminded me of just how much I loved Cal... so why not get him again?

 This Cal is based on his Pilot, orange, color scheme, and wearing his signature poncho. This was the color scheme I used the most when playing the game, so I'm quite happy with it. As a matter of fact, with a bit of hot water, you can swap this figure's poncho with the other one's vest. As for what's beneath the poncho, he is identical to the other Cal, but with another color scheme and a different chest-accessory. His BD-1 comes with a different color scheme, he comes with two poncho hoods, one that goes below his head, as if the hood was resting on his shoulders, and one that goes over his head, a Boglin, a dual bladed lightsaber, a single bladed lightsaber and the holocron cube. A neat little detail is that his poncho has a hole for BD-1's leg, so that he can climb on Cal's back, just like he does in the game. I noticed that Cal's single saber is gummier than the original, and, also, the dual-bladed saber is a bit gummy as well. I actually love this amount of accessories, and I think that Cal should've come with a saber of each color, considering it's customizable in-game. I gave him Ymir's yellow blade, heh! That aside, the cube is cool 'n' all... but Cal can't hold it in his hand. Boo! And, I know this is a nitpick, but the dual saber should've just been two interconnectable hilts, but, ah well, I'll take it.

 Articulation is exactly the same as with the previous Cal. That said, the poncho is very restrictive of Cal moving his arms straight upwards. You can sorta kinda bend the poncho, because it's rather soft, but, it's not the best nor does it look the best. He is almost as tall as Bucky Cap.

 I saw reviewers claim that the hood looks good on Cal. No, it doesn't!

 That said, if you squish it, and maybe use hot water... then it could look good.

 The armored vest is probably a bit cooler than the poncho, but it's hard not love all the accessories this figure comes with. I also love the fact that we got a Cal with one of his alternate color schemes. All in all, a great addition to Black Series, but I wouldn't get him over the original.

8.0

Action Figure #549: Star Wars The Black Series Commander Pyre

 The Trooper that wanted to be an Oscar statue.

 I don't remember how or why it happened, but one day I discovered that there was a golden Trooper. Just like that I had to figure out who he was, turned out he was Commander Pyre, and the next thing that I had to know was if it had a figure, turns out he did. So here we are.

 Well, this is gonna be easy, because everything I said about Captain Cardinal applies to him as well. Same exact mold, but in much cooler gold. I was hoping he'd be as tall as Phasma, but nah, he is as short as any other trooper. He only has two differences with Cardinal: He has a shoulder-pad instead of a cape and his blaster rifle is different, but other than that... he is identical, even the side arm is identical.

 And as you'd guess, the articulation is exactly the same. The shoulder piece does limit how high he can raise his right arm, and it is made out of solid plastic, but it's not to hard to spin it out of the way, if you need, or you can just remove his head and remove the piece. That aside, he has the same issues with his legs, but the same enhanced range with his elbows.

 So, does a cooler paint job make it a cooler figure?... yeah! He is a cooler version of Captain Cardinal, I mean, he is a gold Trooper, what else could you want!?

6.5

Action Figure #548: Star Wars The Black Series Captain Cardinal

 They come in red now!?

 Well, I wasn't planning on collecting Troopers until the pair of Storm Troopers that came with StarKiller made it into my hands, and now, I can't stop. Captain Cardinal is a First Order clad in red, kinda like the Sith Troopers, but with a cape. 

 And well, yeah, he is a First Order Storm Trooper but painted red... and with a soft-goods cape. In other words, he is pretty much a Sith Trooper but with a cape, not that I mind, but... I sorta expected him to at least be taler, like Phasma. But no, if it wasn't for his cape, he'd just get lost among Sith Troopers. Be that as it may, he is still a red Trooper, so he looks badass. He comes with a gun and a rifle, either can be stored on his leg, but the pegs are a bit short, so they don't hold very well.

 Articulation is the same as with the First Order Executioner, but a bit better when it comes to the arms. As per the norm back then, single jointed elbows, but double jointed legs. No arm swivels, but he has thigh swivels and a ball jointed torso.

 As per usual with these FO Troopers, the pouches on his belt restrict how far to thesides his legs can go.

 That said, he has a much deeper con on his elbow than Phasma or the FO Troopers, so he does reach 90 degrees of articulation. He is as tall as Bucky Cap.

 Well, Captain Cardinal is kinda cool. I'm happy they finally fixed the issue with the troopers' lacking elbow bend, but the issue with their legs is still disappointing.

6.0