Favorite Series: ERTL Thomas
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Yo ho ho!
Ah, the Star Raiders. Essentially an excuse to work in characters from diverse continuities, they're good old-fashioned space pirates the nerds can geek out over. And here's the captain now!
Hailing from Transformers Prime, 'tron is a straight-up pirate. Tall hat, big ol' beard, massive shoulders, hook hand, peg leg (optional), and armor that mimics coattails. The shoulders rise high enough to give the impression of a tall collar, but the head ends up looking oddly narrow. The usual lion face stares out from the chest.
Articulation is fairly standard, apart from the right ankle. The wrist swivels are rather stubborn, but at least they're sturdy.
Accessories include his cutlass (thankfully without an integral action feature this time) and a foot for the peg leg. Said foot can be attached to the sword, but not in a way that looks great.
Transformation is weirdly fiddly the first time around, but it goes away fast. Lion mode is honestly decent, given the aesthetic. The front legs are pegged in at the forearm, but can be unplugged for better range (if not strength). Hinged jaws are always fun. The sword stores unobtrusively via a slot on the lower back.
Calcitron is apparently a pile of Energon that gained sentience. Sure, why not. But it's on my shelf, so now it's a Rock Lord. This is mostly the Magneous mold again, now in a cool blue color scheme. It's new to me, at least. While the waist is oddly cylindrical, the remainder mostly succeeds at being primarily unpolished rock. I like the stocky proportions, and the matte plastic feels unlike most of my collection.
The head is new, an almost Haunter-esque visage. Like Geocron, it's taken almost directly from the Daira rock creatures in the Headmasters series. And also like Geocron, that full face makes it as pure a Rock Lords homage as one can ask. Reminds me slightly of Saberstone.
Articulation is the usual fare above the waist, but the ankles deserve special mention for the amazing forward-back range. How many TFs can actually kneel?
The only accessory is a sort of pickaxe, which can double as a crossbow. The wrists have just enough tilt to pose with it menacingly. The car roof can also be held (at a weird angle) as a shield.
Going from robot to car is a lot easier than the other way, thanks to the wheel wells and their uncooperative clips. It, like so many in this subset, basically looks like a regular vehicle covered in regolith. Plenty solid, just.... odd. The weapon plugs into the top to serve as a spoiler, or the bumper as a godawful battering ram.
I may as well touch on the Armorizer function; it's not as complete as some, being just the limbs and their respective armor plates, but at least they can combine with the pick to make a big ol' mallet. This still leaves one with half a robot laying around, but so it goes. Added fun for the kids, anyway.
Speaking of added fun, apparently the solo release of Thundertron had a pair of inexplicable slots on his shoulder. Well, apparently they're sized for the Ratbat mold's feet, because they also threw in Nightstrike. Presumably this didn't cost out the first time.
It's pretty nice looking. The blue and white look pretty nice here, although the black head makes it a tad hard to parse the face. The wings raise and bend, but cannot flap, limiting the poses a tad. I've found that tilting him forward slightly once he's plugged in leaves just enough room to tuck the wings behind 'tron's shoulder, and fake a parrot pose. The head moves very far forward, but not back. How strange.
Transformation is... nothing. It's G1 Ratbat, this was always dead simple: fold up the wings and tuck the feet in. I'm not sure what it's even supposed to look like: it's no longer a tape since the spools are far too low, and there's a jagged section missing near the bottom. It is decorated with a stylized black skull, so maybe it's meant to be a pirate flag? It has nowhere to go otherwise, that's for sure.
So, what do we have here? A reissued Voyager with a redecoed pack-in and a Deluxe in new colors with a new head. Retail seems to be $60-65, although Ross scored a batch and is unloading them at $19.99, so that's why I bought in. It's (technically) worth full price if you missed the earlier releases (I did), but shouldn't this have been enough of a cost-saver to knock a few bucks off in the first place? Especially after the recent price hikes. Good stuff all around, at least....[See More]

NECA's Universal Monsters x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line has been a pretty cool one, but I'll admit I haven't been too into them. There's only so much Turtle figures a guy can get, and I'm more focused on the cartoon and comic stuff they're doing. If you've been to Ross lately, they've been stocking up hard on figures for the holiday season, especially NECA, with figures there being only $17-20 each! That includes a few of the early Monster Turtles, such as the first Leonardo in the line. Interestingly, he's not combined with an iconic monster, but rather made into the hunchbacked Igor, who's commonly associated with Dr. Frankenstein.

James Groman has been behind the designs for this line, and being the same mind behind Madballs, you know some of them are going to look rather creepy. Leo is not a pretty face, bearing misaligned eyes, crooked teeth, bushy eyebrows and facial hair, a stitch on his upper lip, and a couple of warts. Tony Cipriano brought this design to figure form, and he did a great job capturing this hideous rendition of the Ninja Turtles' leader. There's also a scaly texture to the skin, but it's more subtle on the head than the rest of the body.

Standing about 6 1/2" tall, Leonardo is more dressed-up than usual, though his clothes aren't in the best condition. His shirt appears to be made out of burlap, with a rope belt and various patches and a few bugs crawling over him. His pants are ripped at the cuffs with various stitches, and a shackle on his left leg. His carapace has a lot of damage to it, and a few pieces of metal holding it together, including a padlock. Adding to Leo's creepiness are the stitches on his hands and collarbone; and I assume he wasn't made from recycled parts like the monster was, but rather had some wounds that needed tending to. He's still a Ninja Turtle, so he's also wearing elbow/knee pads and a belt with a shoulder harness. The paint is clean all around, with plenty of wash to help bring out the details.

The articulation on the Monster Turtles reminds me a lot of the movie line, and there are plenty of useful joints. Leo has a barbell head, swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows (double-jointed), wrists, and ankles, ball-jointed midsection (possibly a barbell), and hips, double-hinged knees, swivels at the top and bottom of the thighs, and a ball-jointed mask tassel. The joints move very well, with no tight wrists like FrankenRaph had, though the knees are quite limited due to the thick kneepads. When moving the knees, I'd advise you to hold the legs near the lower joints rather than the shins because, and I speak from experience, you could rip the shins right off if you try to force the knees too far. That happened on both legs on my first one, and they kept coming off despite how many times I reglued them, hence why I sold that one and eventually got this replacement.

Leo is more accessorized than Raphael was, with plenty of accessories to help him with fighting or laboratory-assisting. He comes with four pairs of hands - grasping, closed, pointing, and gripping - and they swap pretty easily. His katanas aren't anything too unique, with the spiked ends being the only special detail. The box provides instructions on how to get them in the hands to avoid breakage (put them in aligned with the thumbs, and then tilt them to go under the other fingers). The flame effects for the blades are pretty cool, and they slide on with ease. As for his tools, Leo has a little shovel and spade, a bone, a skull, and a brain in a jar. The jar's lid can be opened so the brain can be removed, in case you want someone to hold it by itself.

I can't forget to mention Leo's most unique feature: his shell opens up! Inside the shell, aside from a spider, are some shelves right on his back with pegs for the skull and brain jar. The other half is meant to hold the digging tools and bone, with some sculpted indents to indicate what goes where. It can be a little difficult to get the items to fit in there snugly, but it can be done (I'd suggest putting the spade in at an angle, and putting the shovel in last). There are also slots for the katanas to slide into, further making the shell a useful storage tool. The opening shell is a fun gimmick, and I have a feeling they took cues from the old "Storage Shell" Turtles (that reminds me, I need to get those sometime).

I got Hunchback Leo when he first started hitting stores, but later sold him for reasons mentioned above. With Ross now carrying him (and Mummy Michelangelo, who I got as well) for just $20, I was willing to give him another shot. Making him into the typical Igor was an unusual decision by NECA, but I guess it was that or make him the Wolf Man again (they saved that for Raphael), and the uniqueness of the figure combined with the fun features and accessories make him pretty worthwhile, especially now that he's gone down in price.

- 12/11/25...[See More]

Favorite Figure: Farm Boy Luke
Favorite Series: Legend of the Lone Ranger
First Figure: Farm Boy Luke
Currently Collecting: Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, Legend of the Lone Ranger
Want List: Tomy robot family from the 80s
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I am trying to find this line in the listings and I have had no luck. Am I overlooking something? I've found the Super Powers line, FUNKO, and other various MacFarlane lines. But no luck on this one. Trying to figure out if I'm missing anything....[See More]

Comments: I often use Green Stuff to sculpt.
Favorite Series: Lego, Mega Bloks, Roblox figures
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Current Projects: Custom MOTU Origins Fuerza-T characters
Favorite Series: Masters of the Universe: Origins
Currently Collecting: Masters of the Universe
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eBay User Name: tapinewoods1994
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Currently Collecting: Anything Deadpool
Want List: Everything Deadpool
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Although I have yet to watch any of Demon Slayer beyond the first season, the anime has proven a success, especially the recent Infinity Castle movie adaptation. With the anime nearing its end, Tamashii Nations has given us a great line of S.H. Figuarts, but the ever-increasing prices have made me hold off on buying mostly. I've only got two other figures so far aside from Tanjiro, one of whom is his sister, Nezuko. I already have the Figma version, so it's time to see if Tamashii did better.

Some of Nezuko's attributes resulted from her transformation into a demon, such as her pink eyes and long hair, and Tamashii's sculptors nailed the look. The eyes are printed on cleanly, and the paint for the orange ends of the hair is near-perfect. Her hair is made out of a softer plastic, and there are two hinge-and-dual-swivel/revolver joints for the back, allowing the hair to get out of the way of the body for posing. Even though Nezuko is able to resist eating human flesh unlike other demons, she still wears a bamboo muzzle just to be safe. The muzzle can be removed easily, as it slides out from underneath the head. Popping off the head will make it easier, and being SHF means much of the joints can be popped apart with ease.

Figuarts often includes plenty of face options for their figures, and Nezuko has more than average with six different expressions. She has a neutral face, two cheerful faces (one with open eyes and one with closed eyes), a mad face, another mad face depicting her activating her demon powers, bearing more intense eyebrows, veins, and more detailed eyes, and a confused dot-eyed face. Having all these options is great, and even with the mouth covered by the bamboo, there's enough emotion in the eyes alone to give the faces a lot of variety.

Standing about 5 1/8" tall, Nezuko is fully dressed with a long kimono and haori, alongside sandals and thick leg coverings over her shins. Your first thought probably is "How's she supposed to move her legs with all that covering them?" Well, good news; just like the hair, the kimono and haori have soft plastic and articulated sections to make them less restrictive on movement, and there's no need for alternate dress parts like the Figma had. The kimono's pattern is sculpted on, which I think is a nice touch, and the paint on the edges and obi is very clean. Same goes for the leg clothing, and the articulation all around blends in with the sculpt very well.

Like Tanjiro, Nezuko is loaded with articulation, which is nothing new for SHF. Working our way down, she has two revolver joints in the back of the hair, a barbell head, ball-jointed neck, ball/hinge/swivel shoulders attached to hinged pectoral ball joints, swivel/hinge/swivel elbows with ball-pegs going into the forearms and bicep and sleeve pieces over the pegs, revolver wrists, three revolver joints for the haori and two for the kimono, ball-and-double-hinged chest, ball-jointed waist and hips, swivel thighs, revolver knees and ankles, and hinged toes. Everything works well, and I found her joints less frustrating to work with than the Figma. The legs are an area that could use improvement, as her hips can't go out to the sides all the way, and the ankles feel a tad loose. Still, you're getting a lot to work with, and Nezuko can achieve a ton of poses.

Since Nezuko doesn't have any weapons like the other heroes, she makes up for it with plenty of swappable parts. Aside from the multitude of faces, she also has three pairs of hands: relaxed, closed, and clawing. The extra hands are good for combat scenes, and they swap with no issues. She also gets a hand-holding piece for both her and Tanjiro, and it's often nice when SHF includes parts for other characters with their figures, as it gives you more of an incentive to get them. Lastly, there's a lower body part designed for sitting down on a seat or ledge. As said piece consists of the upper legs and lower part of the haori and kimono as a solid piece, you have to pop apart the waist, lower legs, and articulated haori pieces to get it on. The knee joints are in somewhat tight, so they'll take a bit of work to get out, but you can do so without risk of damage. It would've been nice if they included her wooden box for Tanjiro to carry, but I assume they'll make that eventually.

Aside from the issues involving leg articulation, Nezuko is a great figure, but the price is the main problem with her. Tanjiro was a great value at $35, but Nezuko-chan is $75; that's forty dollars more than her brother. If she was closer to $50, then I'd have gotten her sooner, but I doubt Tamashii will make most of their figures around that price again any time soon. You can find her for a little less than retail now, so I'd advise you to find the best deal before her aftermarket value goes back up.

- 12/4/25...[See More]

Currently Collecting: Transformers and Star Wars figures
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Current Projects: A invincible viltrumite custom im working on
Favorite Figure: Neca bioshock 2 subject delta
Favorite Series: Bioshock and splatterhouse
First Figure: A 2007 black suit spider man from marvel legends but its sadly been lost to time
Collection Size: Over 200 plus figures and counting
Currently Collecting: Mostly any figures that peak my interest
Want List: A Omni-Man action figure
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With the end of the year approaching, Jakks Pacific has found the time to put out one more wave of Simpsons figures before 2025 is over. We're onto wave six now, and while the mini figures seemingly haven't shown up anywhere outside of online retailers, the 5" figures are getting well-stocked at Target again after dragging their feet on stocking wave four and getting wave five well after everyone else. And it's perfect timing as well, as they recently held a sale on these figures, so I was able to grab everyone for about $8 each.

We have a Homer variant leading the wave again, but it's a simpler one than the softball Homer from wave three. This version comes from "Selma's Choice," where he falls ill from eating a moldy hoagie, and the body is the same as the first wave Homer, but with a new head and left hand. The queasy expression looks great, and the shape of the head looks a little better than previous Homers. His skin tone is a sickly yellow-green, and his beard is a lighter color as well, matching his condition from the episode. I know Jakks likes to reissue key characters from their Mario and Sonic lines with the occasional new head and/or hands, so getting something more than just that with Simpsons is nice (hopefully that rumored "woo-hoo" Homer in the next wave is more than just a new head).

Since Homer is mostly reused tooling, the articulation remains the same as everyone else, with the usual joints for the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. The waist was stuck at first on mine, but it broke free easily, and the forearms tend to pop off if you try to bend the elbows too far. A few issues, but very minor ones at least. The aforementioned sandwich is included, mostly eaten away and with a sculpted indent so Homer can hold it. He also has a blanket that drapes over his shoulders, and he looks great with it on.

Homer isn't the only variant here, as Ned Flanders makes his 5" line debut, but in his "stupid sexy" skiing outfit from "Little Big Mom." Given how memetic that moment was, it's no wonder Jakks chose to make this version first. He's donning a helmet with a flipped-up visor, and I would've liked it if you could put the visor down, as it looks like there's enough clearance between it and the face. Speaking of which, his likeness is great, and the glasses look better than the smaller-scale Flanders, thanks to them having clear plastic lenses instead of ones with the eyes painted on.

Standing right at the 5" mark, Flanders' skiing suit is red and blue all over, with the chest and shoulders being blue plastic with the red painted on, and vice versa for the rest of the body. The paint is fine for the most part, though the red over blue could look better, as I can see some of the blue through it, and there are at least two areas of paint chipping off. Flanders is quite buff underneath his usual sweater, and his physique is more prominent here, owing itself to plenty of articulation. I'm not sure if the waist is a ball joint or just a loose swivel, but he gets the unique addition of a ball chest which is nice, but both it and the elbows need better range. Unsurprisingly, his accessories are a pair of skis and poles, and the skis have pegs in them that the feet fit snugly on. Both the articulation and accessories allow for plenty of ways to display him, including the iconic "nothing at all" pose.

Moving onto another iconic character is Ralph Wiggum, who we've already seen in the smaller-scale line. While Jakks didn't do much more than upscale the mold they've already done, I will say he looks a little nicer in this scale. They again did the hair as a separate piece on the top of his scalp, which continues to bother me as he's supposed to have a bald spot. It would've been more possible for them to sculpt the strands as part of the head and paint over them like Playmates did, but it looks better than the smaller Ralph, so I'll give them that.

At 3 1/8" tall, Ralph, like all the other kids, is out of scale with the adults, but fits just fine with the other youths. The body looks better here, and the paint on the belt buckle looks just fine, but the pupils are a little misaligned. His shorter arms mean he lacks the separate bicep pieces that go over the elbow pegs, but the elbows are designed to still have a full range of motion (which is more than I can say for King Homer), and everything else poses fine, but some more range at the waist is much needed. He comes with one of his favorite snacks, a paste jar with a separate lid, and the jar has a tab on it so he can hold it. It looks as if the lid is designed to go into the jar, but the hole is slightly too small for it, and the soft material of the lid prevents it from going in. Still nice to have them as separate pieces rather than molded right into the hands like a certain "ultimate" version of this little guy.

Rounding out the wave is Mr. Burns, and I'm happy to have a standard 5" version of him in this line following the Dracula version. Like Ralph, we already got him in the 2.5" line, which gave us a good idea of what to expect the larger version to look like. He's another example of a figure looking better in this scale, and at 4 3/4" tall, he looks great all around. He still bears his typical unamused expression, but a notable change from the smaller version is the ears, which are sculpted as part of the hair instead of his head. It's a little odd to see them detached like that, and the paint is okay aside from some uneven edges, but making them part of the head proper would've been better. The suit color is a little different, but it's still the bold dark green he's had on since the show switched to digital ink and paint.

Like Ralph, Burns' articulation is cut down on slightly due to the sculpt. His ankles are only swivels due to the designs of the shoes, but everything else is no different from the others. His suit is a softer plastic than I expected, allowing his hips to kick forward and to the sides a good amount. I would've liked a ball-joint for the neck so that it can move more naturally, but I doubt Jakks is going to add more to the movement of these figures any time soon. His accessories remind me of the Playmates figure, as he has a wad of cash and Blinky in a bowl. The big difference here is that Blinky is separate from his bowl, and he fits in it using a peg. I would take care when getting him off it, as the peg broke on mine trying to free him from it, and I'd recommend using tweezers when doing so.

Jakks did a great job with this wave, and the lineup is pretty good. Sick Homer wouldn't have been my first choice for another variant, but it's great they're doing versions of characters that haven't been done before, and getting a Stupid Sexy Flanders that can fit with the Playmates line is a big plus as well. The rumored wave seven lineup is interesting, as while Nelson and another Homer are expected, Fat Tony and an Itchy and Scratchy Land mascot are not. It may not be long for us to see if it's actually the case or not, but I'm hoping for a variety of both recognizable and deep-cut characters, and with how much Jakks put out this year, I have a feeling they'll build up a huge cast of characters in no time.

- 11/30/25...[See More]