Unbox Indistries Marshal Law review

Many years ago, at age seven or eight, I was reading through the only comic I read at the time, Marvel UK's Transformers, when I turned onto a page advertising a new comic. It depicted a Superman-like character with a T-rex's head, and he had a massive hole blown through his torso. Opposite Super Rex stood, what looked like, a leather bound, German prison guard aiming two massive guns. Long after I had finished reading the 107th variation of good robots punching bad robots I would go back to that advert and pour over the artwork from Kevin O'Neill over and over again. I had never seen anything like it. "They must have to lock this guy up at night" I thought to myself as I obsessed the tiny details O'Neill would include on his art, right down to the puns scribbled on guns and bits of the background. A year later- thanks to a randomly bought issue of fantazia- I would find out the fascistic cop was the (anti)hero of this unknown comic strip, his name was Marshal Law and he hunted super heroes. Having eventually read Pat Mill's scathing satire of the super hero genre (Law is cited as a huge influence on Garth Ennis' The Boys) the last thing I expected to ever see was a figure of Law himself,  but Unbox Industries - who made the Zombo figure I reviewed at before- have only gone and produced a vinyl figure of San Futero's top hero hunter. If only he could find some.

Disney Toybox Wolverine review

The Disney Toybox figure line, sold exclusively through Disney stores,  don't get enough love in my opinion. They're quite underrated as action figures go and only cost £10, so let's change all that, because it can't be all high-end, adult collectibles or else I'd go broke. The Toybox line breaks down into three main categories- Disney /Pixar characters, Star Wars, and Marvel. Now that Disney owns Fox, that means the X-Men are ripe for exploitation which results in the line getting it's first mutant, the old canknuckle head, Wolverine.

Super7 vintage style filmation Teela review

Super 7's retro line of vintage style, 5 inch figures, based on Mattel's original Masters of the Universe (MOTU) toyline, but if they looked closer to their Filmation cartoon design, has had its ups and downs. Just previous, Super7 released a cracker of a Man-At-Arms figure. But there's also been a disappointing She-Ra that barely stood up and didn't resemble her cartoon model. A vintage Teela in a She-Ra costume, and now I'm reviewing that very figure, sans cosplay. Will this Filmation style Teela succeed where She-Ra failed?

My camera tripod isn't wonky, this is how she stands

Teela's trademark "vague interest" expression

In profile, you can really see the improvement in Teela's face sculpt

This shot took over 10 minutes to set up.

Side side comparison with her dad, also from the Super7

Side by side with vintage Ram Man

Comparing Teela's facesculpt to She-Ra's, I can instantly see a marked improvement. The face doesn't quite capture the likeness of the Filmation character model, but looks much more like an adult woman (unlike She-Ra's Miley Cyrus face) and it's not like I'm expecting Hot Toys levels of detail- simply because you can't get that from something about the size of my fingernail- but Man-At-Arms set the standard, so I can't just ignore that the face sculpt doesn't quite capture the cartoon likeness  the way her dad did, but it still looks pretty good. The profile is sharper than She-Ra's and the paint apps are done well, although the eyes aren't 100% dead on, but doesn't ruin the face. The hair sculpt (making her resemble a young Mrs Cunningham from Happy Days) and tiara are also excellent- absolutely nailing the cartoon look.  I think if the face was painted with arched eyebrows, as Teela had in the cartoon, then it would have been near perfect. Her  (for lack of a better term) swimsuit is really well realized- what with Filmation wanting to keep detail to a minimum (makes for easier and cheaper animation)- even though there's not much to to her outfit, other than the ram horn top, the flaired collar, and that leaf thing that hangs down from the middle of her waist all  look correct. The dark gold are a good match for the cartoon outfit, although the gold on the swimsuit is coloured plastic so it has a shiny finish as opposed to the same dark gold on the tiara and arm bracers which are painted with a flat finish. The only paint issues are the arm bracers, the white paint is a bit sloppy at the edge and there is a white speck on the arm. Speaking of arms, because this figure shares the same mold as She-Ra, that means she also has the same weird left arm with the downturned hand that looks a bit like an empty, flesh-coloured glove. I know, Super7 is just keeping things faithful to the original Mattel design, but it looked bad back in the 80s and it looks bad now. I still can't fathom why a professional toy designer would make such a...wait a minute, I think I've figured it out...

"Hey, baby. Check my flex!"

Normally I'd go through the articulation from the head, down to the feet. But I felt I had to go straight to I was slightly dreading, after what I went through with She-Ra I had to address main issue with the vintage Teela design, those sanity breaking legs. Sadly, but not surprisngly, the legs are in the same, akward position. Thankfully, Teela's legs are nowhere near as loose as She-Ra's, and, although stuck in the wierd stepping forward position they aren't as terrible to pose because there isn't a solid skirt to restrict leg movement. In fact, the legs have more mobility than any male MOTU figure, they rotate at the hip 360 degrees and pivot out so there should be no problem sitting her in any MOTU vehicle. So that's a nice payoff for all the pain you'll go through just trying to get her to stand. So, as always, get some MOTU stands.  Anyway, back to the usual formular...

The head rotates 360 degrees, both arms rotate 360 degrees at the shoulder- so She-Ra's skirt was hindering the left arm as well as both legs it seems. The waist turns as part of the classic MOTU "power punch" action feature. Although the spring on my Teela seems a little off as the torso is a little off center no matter how much I try to click it back. Don't gert me wrong, the torso does face forward, but to a pandantic weirdo like me, I can notice how it doesn't quite 100% line up straight, and it winds me up.

"For just 9.99, you can sign up to the Eternian captain yoga"

Yes, the shot Filmation's animators seemed quite fond of

"Throat kick! Wait, do you have a throat?"

You don't get anything extraordinary with Teela, there's the always exccellent art card, depicting a georgeous image of Teela in the Filmation style, with a short blurb about the cartoon design originating in an animated advert for Castle Greyskull on the reverse. You get the Filmation style sword which- thanks to Teela's evolutionary development of a thumb- holds in the right hand a treat, as it should do as the handle is huge compare to the figure. It almost looks like it belongs to a larger scale figure, but it holds in just fine. Even the power punch wont dislodge it.It is a tight fit though, so I would imagine if you keep the sword in there for any great amount of time, the hand would bow out.  Less stellar, but just as welcome, is a shield, which clips above the wrist and looks the part, and, being a circular shield, doesn't look weird when the arm is posed up or down. Unlike the sword, it doesn't hold on very securely, so take care if you do the power punch.

*plays "aso sprach zarathustra"*

That's not shifting

CLANG!

Side by side with Super7 He-man

Full tooled up captian of the guard

In spite of the limitations of the vintage Teela base, Super 7 have done a decent job in bringing the Filmation design to three dimesions- like installing central heating and broadband in a stately home. The paint job is mostly on the money and is a better figure than the She-Ra, although that's a low bar to jump over. Teela was a major character in the Filmation show, and, as a fan of said cartoon, this figure passes muster. Where the She-Ra looked like another character dressed as She-Ra, this (even in passing) is absolutely cartoon Teela. But save yourself the misery of posing her and get a figure stand as well.



Company: Super7
Price paid: £21.97
Bought from: Kapow Toys
Age: 14+

Neca Ultimate Gamer Gremlin review

You gotta hand it to Neca, they know how to get the most from the Gremlins line. OK, they've not made every Gremlin from the two movies (hello, Greta or the veggie gremlin) but who else would of made the electricity or the spider gremlin?And, as of late,  they've really tried to get the most into the scant releases there's been. This isn't a  re-release to squeeze more juice (or whatever that yellow stuff is that comes out of a gremlin) out of a previously made figure. As part of its "ultimate" line, Neca has updated the base gremlin with a bunch of accessories to kit out your army builders.  so turn on all the lights, check all the closets and cupboards, look under all the beds, 'cause you can never tell. There just might a gamer gremlin in your house.

Super 7 vintage style Filmation Man-At-Arms review

Man-at-Arms: A well known Masters of the Universe (MOTU) character; lecture-giver to Orco; one third of He-Man's secret keepers; master of  weapons; and winner of "best facial hair in Eternia" three years in a row. But is one I would file under "didn't look like the cartoon character so I got Leech instead". As Mattel soon realised, Duncan (to use his off duty name, and because it's quicker to write than Man-At-Arms) without his moustache isn't a proper Man-At-Arms- even though the toy, sans 'tache, was designed before the cartoon was ever in production. But it's my toy collection, so if I insist Duncan looks like a Tom Selleck dressed as a techno knight then I will. And now Super 7 has seen fit to correct that plastic error of old by releasing a proper, moustached Duncan as part of their vintage style line inspired by the old, Filmation cartoon of the 80s.

Super 7 vintage style Filmation Skeletor

So far Super 7's line of vintage style Masters of the universe (MOTU) figures- made to resemble the original Filmation cartoon series-has been hit and miss. For every good idea (cartoon accurate Hordak's arm canon) there would some something not so good to counteract it (She-Ra's face looking nothing like her animation model). The only reason I pre-ordered more than one of the line is because I was able to get them from a UK site, thus avoiding the exorbitant shipping prices from the official Super 7 web store. But now the line has hit its stride with the clear standout in this first wave.

Super 7 vintage style Filmation She-Ra review

Seeing as I just got Hordak, it would be remiss not to get his daughter. So this is for young me- who was too afraid to ask for the original She-Ra toy, because he knew it would never get past mum and dad. Well forget them because when you grow up you can buy whatever toys you want.  Vintage style Filmation Hordak was a bit of a mixed bag for me.  A great idea that didn't quite live up to expectations. Will the leader of the great rebellion be an improvement?

Super 7 Vintage style Fimation Hordak review

Back in 1986(ish) I had to make a stand one Saturday morning in Woolworths. I wanted one of the new Masters of the Universe (MOTU) line, the evil Horde- Mantenna. But my dad had an issue with him, "That's one of the baddies from She-Ra. That's for girls". Do I give in and settle for a less interesting toy? Or do I stand my ground and double down on the rationale that the Horde figures come in the same "boxes" as the other He-man toys? With a combination of supreme logic and expert whining  I'd won him round, and Mantenna was mine. The first of several Horde members I would get as a child. I loved the Horde, they all had unique designs above your average henchman and cool play gimmicks (Grizzlor notwithstanding). I had nearly all of them, except one. Being a pedantic little geek, even at the age of six, I didn't want a Hordak figure because he didn't look like how he did in the cartoon show. Cartoon Hordak had a angular, robot-like face, blue skin and a laser gun arm. Toy Hordak had bad acne on his forehead, gray skin, and red bat thing that rested on his arm.  But 33 years later, Super 7 have corrected that mistake by remaking vintage Hordak in the cartoon design. Will he live up to six-year-old me's expectations?

Lego Movie 2: Benny's Space Squad

Can you hear that? Concentrate and listen really hard, and you can hear the  crying of those people who paid well over the odds for a Benny mini-figure on ebay, back when the Lego movie came out.  For those that couldn't afford the spaceship (or SPACESHIP!) or missed the double sofa set, and had enough sense not to feed the scalper economy, your patience has been rewarded. Good for you!

London Toy Fair 2019: HEO and Revell

Oh, you thought I just took photos of Pop Vinyls before my old legs gave up and I had to go have a sandwich and a nap? Well you (partly) thought wrong. Because not only did I check out some new releases via distributor, HEO and some cool stuff from Revell.

London Toy Fair 2019: Funko

Check us out! I got to go to London Toy Fair this year (good for me) and, along with people from the toy and retail industry- looking to see what might be this year's big seller. So I had a little look  and took some photos of stuff you might be interested in, including some things you may not be aware of yet.