Indiana Jones (Club Obi Wan)
Indiana Jones - Adventure Series (Hasbro) - Basic Series
Rated 4.25 stars by Wes68
The fact we have a Club Obi Wan Indy at all is pretty great. It's one of the most iconic scenes in perhaps the entire trilogy. It's been reported that Spielberg wanted to do a James Bond film. Unable to do so you can tell Spielberg wanted to pay homage to 007 and hey he finally did get Bond in Indiana Jones in Last Crusade with Sean Connery. The parallels are hard to ignore and the white suit Indy wears is a homage to Connery's Bond. The figure is notable for a few reasons. It initially was an exclusive and pretty difficult to find. Preorders for the figure from what I had read were canceled before the figure even hit shelves at Target. The figure does reuse parts from other figures but that white jacket makes him instantly stand out. (Don't store him with Toht's black suit as paint...[See More]

Doctor Jurgen Voller
Indiana Jones - Adventure Series (Hasbro) - Basic Series
Rated 3.00 stars by Wes68
Voller is one of the weaker offerings in the line compared to others. This is a problem that is typical of all the Dial figures which feel more like an afterthought than some of the other more ancillary characters like Kazim. Unlike Kazim who comes with three guns? Voller only comes with his satchel. He does have removable glasses which does allow a pretty good likeness of Mikkelsen to be seen. The reason most will want to pick this up is for the included Grail table back piece. It is a sizable piece of plastic so it is something of a wash. By comparison, Kazim doesn't have an artifact piece but feels more desirable because he frankly has a more interesting design up front. This is a "men in suits" line. And Voller doesn't break that mold. Kazim while in a suit looks distinct from...[See More]

Czarface
Czarface (Super7) - Ultimates
Rated 4.75 stars by RMaster007
While I can't stand modern rap, due to its incoherent vocals and crap instrumentals, Czarface is an exception. I don't think it's often you get a hip-hop/rap group nowadays, and its pop culture influence and consistently great songs make them stand tall above the rest. Admittedly, I was introduced to it through Super7, who started out with ReAction figures for their mascot before giving him a proper Ultimate. Their track record with music Ultimates has been great as of late, so I was more than happy to get him. At times, Super7's been able to do some pretty cool packaging, and Czarface is one of the better Ultimates boxes. It's designed after his head, with the upper part of his head serving as the slip cover, and removing it gives the impression he's opening up his mouth to reveal the...[See More]

Casey Jones (Business Suit) & Foot Soldier (Split)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - Multi-Packs
Rated 4.70 stars by RMaster007
NECA's TMNT line has notably seen a shift from doing just about everyone, both major and one-shot, to putting out a bunch of character variants at once. Not that that's a bad thing, as I've said before, variants are common in animated licenses, and the original cartoon has plenty of unique outfits, if not forms, for each character. That includes Casey Jones, a minor presence in the show compared to everything else TMNT, with his much-requested suit and tie from "Corporate Raiders from Dimension X." Since we've gotten Casey Jones already in the line, NECA could've just reused the head from the regular version for this specific look. But no, he has a newly-sculpted head provided by Tomasz Rozejowski. The mask is smaller and shaped better, with his ears being visible behind it, the eyeholes...[See More]

Marcus Brody / Rene Belloq (Ark Showdown)
Indiana Jones - Adventure Series (Hasbro) - Basic Series
Rated 3.00 stars by Wes68
Marcus and Belloq arrive in a 2-pack. Again this is probably not seen as essential unless you are looking to have a complete set including exclusives, etc. The retail price for this set was $56. BigBadToyStore currently lists it for $62.99 (collector grade), $58 (standard). This is far too overpriced on BBTS and they will charge $4 flat rate shipping on top of this. You can find this set much cheaper elsewhere. For example Hasbro Pulse has it listed for $20.91+Shipping. Gamestop also has it listed for $29.38 which may even be cheaper if you have Pro. For two figures the initial price was more than two individual figures from the adventure series. At these discounted prices it is much easier to justify this two pack especially when it is fairly light on accessories one of which is on the...[See More]

Indiana Jones (Temple Escape)
Indiana Jones - Adventure Series (Hasbro) - Basic Series
Rated 3.00 stars by Wes68
The Temple Escape Indy is not bad persay. Indy is nicely detailed as is the case with the standalone Raider's Indy release. The problem with the temple escape is that at the time of release it was frankly overpriced in my opinion. Originally it released for $40 US. With Indy's standalone release being $25 it meant you were paying $15 more for the plinth and a bag of sand accessory. It doesn't sound like it's too excessive for what is a set piece. That is until you realize that the temple escape Indy lacks the two extra sets of hands that the standalone Indy comes with. I feel like more could have been done to make this repackage of Indy stand out a bit more and give folks who bought the standalone Indy more incentive to double dip. A Satipo figure probably would have been asking a bit...[See More]

Short Round
Indiana Jones - Adventure Series (Hasbro) - Basic Series
Rated 3.75 stars by Wes68
Temple of Doom is underrepresented in the Adventure Series. So many key characters were outright ignored. Willie Scott, Lao Che, a Thugee Guard, and of course, Mola Ram are entirely absent. There is a whole discussion to be had about the 'controversies' surrounding the Temple of Doom, but that's for another time. So while it is disappointing we didn't get those iconic characters? We thankfully did get Shortround. It should be noted that Shortround costs the same as the other 6" figures. Shortround is as you would expect, much shorter than 6". To Hasbro's credit, it does feel like they realized it would be a tough sell to ask the same price for Shortround as a full 6" figure without offering more. Shortound as a result does come with a decent number of accessories (as well as a...[See More]

Walter Donovan
Indiana Jones - Adventure Series (Hasbro) - Basic Series
Rated 3.50 stars by Wes68
Walter Donovan is not the most exciting addition to the Adventure series line, but he is a welcome addition in a line that has too few baddies. The figure itself is fine, though he is a bit light on accessories. He also reuses some parts as the legs appear to be reused from older starwars figures like Grand Moff Tarkin. His face sculpt is generally pretty good and captures the likeness of Julian Glover pretty well. I said he is light on accessories, but thankfully those he does come with are fitting for the character. He comes with a part of the grail tablet which as I saw someone post, you can create a rubbing with. It's a nice bit of set dressing, though Donovan is wearing the wrong outfit here. However you could use a Club Obi Wan Indy and do a repaint and head swap if you want...[See More]

Kang
Simpsons (Super7) - Ultimates
Rated 4.30 stars by RMaster007
Although Super7 chose a good starting lineup for their Simpsons line, with a mix of major and minor characters, the third wave was when things steered into an unusual direction. Mr. Burns and Ralph were expected, but not Kang and Kodos, with no figures of the family themselves. Sure, Playmates went a few waves of their line with none of the family, but Super7 doing such a thing this early was quite a gamble. The Rigelians are some of my favorite characters in the show, so I was happy to get them sooner than later, or not at all given the early death of the line. One thing to note about the pair is that they come in huge boxes, and I mean huge. They aren't as big as Grimlock, but still rather tall and deep, though bear the same graphics as the rest of the line. There's a lot more stuff...[See More]

Mr. Satan (Hercule)
Dragon Ball Z - S.H. Figuarts (Bandai) - Basic Series
Rated 5.00 stars by Karl T. Face
I've always been drawn to the underpowered (or non-combatant) side characters that nevertheless have very important roles to play. In the DBZ universe, even the awesomely-named Hercule Satan, the World Martial Arts Champion, is primarily comic relief. But he's still, unironically, one of my favorite characters in the series. Does that justify what I spent here? Probably. For starters, this is Figuarts. It's already coming with a hell of a pedigree, and doesn't disappoint. For the uninitiated, this generally means articulation out the wazoo, plenty of extra hands and heads/faces, and a few accessories to boot. Trying to list all the joints would be tedious, but it's a couple notches above Marvel Legends. The legs are slightly restricted by the poofy pants, but otherwise everything has...[See More]