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

Action Figure #547: Star Wars The Black Series Fifth Brother

 And now comes the least threatening Inquisitor.

 Oh boy, I had issues with the Grand Inquisitor, but I've got even more issues with the Fifth Brother. Or rather, it's the same issues but worse.

 Remember how much I complained about Black Series' not using the best version of the Grand Inquisitor? Well, they picked the lamest version of the Fifth Brother. In Star Wars Rebels, this guy looks tough, powerful and, above all, scary. His live action incarnation in Kenobi is one of the least intimidating creatures to ever feature in Star Wars. Jar Jar is more threatening than the Kenobi's Fifth Brother. And sure, there's a lot of unique sculpt work in this figure, but, this face sculpt looks so lame. And no offence to the actor, the team at LucasFilms could've easily added make-up on his face to make him look as tough as his Rebels counterpart. Instead, they painted his face white... and his helmet doesn't translate well on a realistic medium.

 Articulation is the same as it was with the Grand Inquisitor, everything I wrote there still stands for the Fifth Brother.

 ... and he also comes with his own issues with his lightsaber. Once again, the plastic on his hands is rather hard, heck, my figure already has stress marks on his fingers due to me having to pull so hard on his hands to get him to open it.... because his hilt has this ENORMOUS peg that makes it even harder for him than it was for the GI to get a good grip on his blade.

 Oh, and what's up with his oversized feet? He just looks silly now. He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Yeah... I'm just not all that fond of this version of the character, which in turn, makes the action figure just look silly. He is the Inquisitor everyone bullied and make fun off I figure.

5.0

Action Figure #546: Star Wars The Black Series Grand Inquisitor

 Pin-Head's brother became a Sith.

 Well, since I'm on a Sith streak might as well get the big kahuna himself, the Grand Inquisitor. He is a rather curious figure, for various reasons...

 For starters, while he debuted in the Rebels CG show, his very first Black series figure is based on his blander Kenobi incarnation. His head is not as long and angular, and his face markings are not as creepy, and it all makes him look not even half as threatening. The constipated face paint they gave him doesn't help with that either. That said, he isn't half bad, it's just that they could've gone with a much better version of the character. Much as it happened with another figure(SPOILERS!), but I'm getting ahead of myself. I do like the soft goods cape, and he has a ton of sculpting unique to him. His only accessory is his light saber... more on it later.

 The articulation is the usual: Single jointed knees and elbows, butterfly-joints and a ball jointed ab crunch. He also has swivels on his thighs.

 His saber is kinda garbage. His hands are too hard, and there are TWO pegs on the handle that make it hard for him to hold it well. I might cut off those pegs because, really, I'll never store his blade on his back. He is as tall as Bucky Cap.

 I've been harsh on him, and while a lot of my complaints are valid... others just come off out of me not thinking they picked the best version of the Grand Inquisitor.

6.0