Rustin's Spoils of the Week #135.2

Yesterday, I began this week's haulage most mighty! Today, we continue with the second half! Read it! Read it all!

Hasbro - Amazing Spider-Man: Capture Trap Spider-Man
As you may recall I'm that guy who has little love for Spider-Man and even less love for his tired, boring costume. My favorite look for the webslinger is Ben Reilly's outfit but like hell I'm going to pay for $10+ for yet another Spidey. This is actually a pretty nice figure since they sculpted on many of the details. Like most 4" Hasbro figures of late, he gets swivel neck, T-Crotch, and balljointed shoulders, elbows and knees. Poseability is good enough, though the lack of wrist articulation is pretty annoying. Aside from articulation limitations I'd say this is the best Ben Reilly toy yet made. Oh, and he comes with a pincer accessory since that's more important than knocking a dollar or two off the pricepoint.

Hasbro - Amazing Spider-Man: Grappling Hook Spider-Man
I'm pretty shocked that they'd dig up the weird "Manga Spider-Man" costume but at least it's comic-based, I suppose. Even if it is on an adult Spidey rather that the boy as in the comic. Like Ben Reilly above, this is arguably a better figure than it should be, with more unique sculpting than one might expect. He gets the more relevant of all pack-ins, a backpack with a grappling hook and tow line so one can sort of recreate his wall crawling. Seeing how well this turned out I'll concede that it's disappointing they didn't do a Scarlet Spider since that's a more recognizable costume.

Hasbro - Amazing Spider-Man: Web Cannon Spider-Man
There but for the grace of Ben Reilly's Costume goes the suit from Amazing Spider-Man 1. Sure it has some very stylistic flourishes but it's just as implausibly made by a teenager as any of the movie costumes, and this has the benefit for being new and different! Since these were on sale I decided I wanted to get on in the modern style of Hasbro articulation partly for solidarity's sake and partly because the sculpt is better by being less inhibited by articulation. This seemed the most accurate of the various paint options though the blue is too dark. Still a nice figure for what it is (and yes, I definitely got a second of the phenomenal Super-Articulated version).

Hasbro - Marvel Legends: Drax
With the rumors (since confirmed) of a SDCC exlcusive 6" Starlord I figured now was time to finally pick up this surprisingly boring figure. Drax isn't that exciting of a design and this toy does him little favors. I'm sure there's a couple new pieces but effectively this feels like a straight repaint. The highlight are his two daggers which fit nicely in sheaths on the back of his belt. He comes with Arnim Zola's left leg which give me a torso that can stand now, so that's a plus. I guess this means I gotta fork out a fortune to get the Rocket Raccoon BAF now...

Hasbro - Superhero Squad: Spider-Man & Vulture
Vulture is possibly my favorite Spider-Man villain, an opinion rooted in his being the villain of the first comic book I ever read. Plus he looks awesome! I'm confident I have this set but for just a couple bucks I opted to double up. We get the vulture in sadly muted colors with his left arm in a punchy pose (so no flight pose for you). There's also an umpteenth Spider-Man but the highlight is the peg on his web sploosh which plugs in to the included streetlight! Absolutely worth having an extra one of those super cool atmosphere pieces. Between that great pack-in and cool bad guy this is arguably the best release from the entire Superhero Squad line.

Mattel - Action League: Flashpoint Wonder Woman & Flashpoint Aquaman
Eeeeeeh what the hell, it's got Aquaman and it was like $4 or so. Flashpoint struck me as a particularly bland mega-event in an era of bland mega-events. I will say "what's the point of doing an alternate reality when the costumes are so uninspired" but then I recall it's DC... the home of uninspired costume redesigns. "Wonder Woman" is at least visually interesting if not all that cool while certainly being unique within the collection. Giving Aquaman black pants is easily the laziest costume redesign ever (and yes, I'm including the time they redesigned Aquaman so he had no shirt and just the green pants...). I guess he's meant to be swimming here but it's fairly vague and he can only stay upright when on his stand. Despite my sourpuss-ing this is pretty much the last interesting Action League set they made and if nothing else I now have THAT crossover event represented in the collection.

Mattel - Monsters University: Johnny
Target has been clearancing out their Monsters U stuff, including an almost-everyone boxset, so since I enjoyed that movie surprisingly so much I figured I buy in. Johnny here is one of three figures not in that boxset so I picked up here for about 4 bucks... on 60% clearance... This "toy" has two point of articulation (swivel shoulders), no accessories, rough paint and can barely stand. And Mattel charged $10 for him. Ten Dollars. I just... can't... I mean... Wow...

Mattel - Monsters University: Sulley
The boxset comes with T-Shirt Sully so I figured I get this regular (or "naked") Sully for completion's sake. You know, these figures are about 5" scale so I suppose that makes up for the valley between them and the rest of the market (plus, Mattel can't seem to get 4" out for under $13 anyway... Market Leaders...). This gets V-crotch, swivel neck and tail plus balljointed shoulders and elbows. For what this is, it's good enough, particularly at $4. If you haven't seen Monsters U I recommend you check it out. It's possibly the best prequel yet made, with some fun nods and an increasingly good plot which, by the end of the film, convinced me of why sidekicks actually exist for the first time in all of my comic book fandom.

Mezco - DC Mez-Its: Batman Beyond & Cyborg
I really don't have much left to say about these since they're pretty much identical. Mediocre body, pretty good paint for the scale, very high price for what you get. This is easily the weakest of all releases since it's an odd pairing of B- and C-list characters. Batman Beyond is in there as an excuse to re-use that head tooling but if it had to be him then I wish they'd done one of his villains like Blight or Spellbinder.

NECA - Portal: Chell
Yeah! Score! Got this figure for $7, niiiiice! Since I'm not really into videogames my knowledge of Portal basically begins with the fan films and end with this figure, but she is both cool and unique. I dig the sort of casual/worker costume and the articulation is pretty great too. She wearing "space heels" which annoyingly means she can't stand on her own, and since she has to have both feet plugged on the pegs you can't really do much dynamic leg stuff anyway. The waist-up articulation is pretty good AND she comes with a kickass gun that has a beautiful, bright, blue LED in it. I knew the gun lit up but it very impressive much cooler the whole figure looks with that light turned. This figure is a testament to NECA's ass-kicking - a toy worth having despite a total lack of knowledge of the source material, it's simply just that cool of a toy!

NECA - Prometheus: Battle Damaged Engineer & Trilobite
This set was clearanced out for $14, so of course I bought in. This represents one of the many lowlights of shockingly weak film but it also lets me complete the "every alien in the movie" set from NECA, so I got that going for me. Plus, I really love the design of the Engineer. This guy gets a new head, torso and upper left arm with battle damage, so that's fun. The Trilobite is a well sculpted, well executed toy of a dumb creature that I find wildly implausible, but hey... it's a Lindelof script... check your brain at the door. The seven limbs are pretty effective bendy tentacles attached by ball-in-socket joints. There's a handful of little tendrils coming from the maw which is were the penis plugs in because who needs subtlety these days. All snarkiness aside, this is an excellent two-pack as far as toys go. It's just a weak design from a weak scene in a weak movie.

NECA - Robocop: Night Fighter Robocop
Score! I've been lamenting not getting this since getting the Kenner Predators and now I got him and on sale! I'm a bit split on opening him or keeping closed. On the one hand I've become obsessed with glow-in-the-dark toys and and all of mine in a special display which this guy would fit nicely in. On the other hand 60% of his novelty comes from the packaging... so... I think he'll stay carded for now. It's kind of strange they didn't homage the Kenner figure more directly (i.e. metalic blue instead of black, and paint the mouth flesh tone) since that would have looked MUCH cooler, but maybe the licensor wasn't into it (and maybe NECA might do a version 2.0 in that style now that they're doing a brisk trade in retro toys). For $7 i have zero complaints about this figure, though I suppose it is telling that the paint choices bugged me enough that I didn't get him until now...

NECA - Various
Readers, we've done this dance over 130 times now, so you have a solid sense of how I collect so I have no need to justify my doubling up to you. Suffice to say these were all $7 a pop, a price which can not, WILL NOT be denied! The Engineer is really an indulgence purchase since I love that design so much. David 8 is a great figure (well, almost great since he has infuriatingly poorly designed elbows) and with alternate heads that means he's a definite double purchase for me so that both versions can be on display. Jungle Patrol Dutch, aka Tank-top Dutch, is my pick for Best Figure of 2013 so of course I wanted another while Jungle Disguise Dutch, aka Muddy Dutch, is an insanely awesome figure with so many accessories you need at least two to recreate the several iconic poses with this look. The Lightning or Electricity Gremlin is just a fun little thing and marked done for $4 it's worth getting an extra to hang from a lamp or stick next to an outlet.

Playmates - Star Trek Fighter Pods Fighter Pods: Attack Pods Phantom Striker
These are finally getting dumped hard and since I was dumb enough to buy some back when they launched I've decided to put a little effort into completing the set. This is the last of the "vehicle" sets I needed but the first I opened. Much like the torpedo from the Enterprise this spring has a hair-trigger so it launches/pops open way too easily. It's also just a hokey, made-up design which just highlights the undesirability of the line. It's kind of crazy they didn't do stylized versions of the Klingon ship, shuttle craft, Mudd's ship and the med-ship Kahn flies in the beginning instead... but hey... they clearly hate Star Trek so who cares. This nonsense comes with an exclusive Kirk in wetsuit figure and I needed both of these Klingons. Well... "need" is a very strong word. It is a damn hard time to be a toy-loving Trekkie these days.

Playmobil - Western: Fort Brave
On the downside, while it is large it feels small for a Fort (at least they sell wall extensions through the Add-Ons/Direct Service catalog!). I'm also not terribly crazy about the rock mound. It's cool in theory, and I dig the tunnel within but it's a rock color there is very little of elsewhere and it is so specific is lessens the benefits of buying multiple Forts. Also, the house is cool (I quite like the logs on the upper walls) but it due to the footpaths it is definitively a defensive post rather than an office or barracks. It also kills me that the interior walls are flat - why no rock texture? And of course, the biggest issue overall is the use of the annoying-as-hell System X. On the plus side though we get a very unique new Fort and while the System X is a letdown, the sculpting on the log walls is pretty great and I love the cannon ports and pegholes for the flaming arrows. Also, in a welcome change of pace, we finally get two soldiers in the same uniform, so it's almost like a real army now! This is a very good, very cool new set. There is certainly plenty of room for improvement and I'm not convinced it was the right choice for the line's anchor but with the Fort out of the way next time they revisit Western hopefully we can get more town buildings and the like.