Action Figure #559: Game of Thrones Legacy Collection Jon Snow

 You know nothing, Funko... about making action figures.

 While I knew they had a bad rep, while Daenerys broke out of the box, Jamie was so good that I decided to give these figures a few more tries, so here comes Jon Snow, and much like Daenerys, he broke right out of the box!

 So, from the neck down this figure is spectacular. The armor, the coat, the cape, the belt, everything is very faithful to the show, and looks incredibly badass. His only accessory, his blade, is a faithful adaptation of Longclaw, and there's some white spray on his cape, coat tail and boots to simulate snow. Heck, Longclaw has a blade filled with details too. And then... you look at his face. This is not Jon Snow. This is not Kit Harrington. This guy passes more as a Black Watch extra than Jon Snow. What the hell went wrong here? And even beyond the face not looking like the actor, he has this bored, plain, generic look to it that just makes him... dull. It's such a shame that an otherwise fantastic sculpt takes a hit with the head.

 The figure has single jointed elbows and double jointed knees, while his ab crunch relies on a ball-joint, and it has pretty decent range.

 But what murders this figure is that his joints are made out of clear plastic, making them brittle. In Jon's care, his left elbow broke and I had to glue it onto his arm. Bummer. The arm that hasn't broken has a very deep cut, so it reaches a nice bend that is over 90 degrees, pretty good! He is quite a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Look, without the clear plastic joints, he would be a really good figure, and with a better head-sculpt, even if it didn't look like Kit, he would've been great. But the head sculpt is ugly and the figure is fragile, so he is kinda lame.

5.0

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