Although most anime are adapted from manga, there are plenty of good anime-first/only series, the most notable being Cowboy Bebop. Despite only having 26 episodes and a movie, it's considered one of the best anime of all time, especially outside of its home country, thanks to a great story, the perfect mix of Western and sci-fi elements, and a well-made dub. It's gotten its fair share of figures over the years, as Tamashii Nations did two characters for their S.H. Figuarts line, followed by The Loyal Subjects giving us cheaper, but still enjoyable, options. Now Mondo's tackling the license, and aside from some vinyl figures of the iconic corgi Ein, we also got a figure of Spike Spiegel, the MC himself.

Mondo tends to do simple packaging, but this is probably the most simplistic they've gotten. The box is solid black, with the logo on the front, top, and sides, and credits on the back. This is a five-panel box like usual, with the reverse side of the flap having the famous message at the end of almost every episode, "See you, space cowboy." Most of the contents are visible through the plastic window, but this is a figure you'll really want to open up, and getting everything out is easy.

Although Spike is the first anime action figure they've done, Mondo always nails it when it comes to animated characters, and he turned out great. Sculpted by Alex Brewer and Tommy Hodges, Spike looks just like how he did in the show, with a neutral expression and messy hair, and the paint for the eyes and mouth is very clean. As always with Mondo, he comes with extra portraits. One of them is the same as the default head, but wearing goggles, and the other is a cockier expression, with a cigarette in his mouth. I would've preferred different expressions as opposed to specific looks, but the heads all look great, and they swap with no issue.

Spike wears predominantly midnight blue clothing, save for the yellow shirt and black tie underneath his suit. The colors are dark and bold, with a subtle wash to the blue clothing, and the finish isn't quite matte, with a bit of shine to the plastic, but it looks good nonetheless. There are some tiny marks here and there on the torso, but they're hardly noticeable, and the work is very clean for the most part. Spike is tall and slender, and the proportions are recreated well, with the various joints blending in well with the sculpt (though as expected out of such joints, the double elbows and knees look a bit awkward when posed). Mondo usually produces figures in a 1:12 or 1:6 scale, but for some reason, they went with a 1 scale for Spike, putting him at about 10 1/4". I would've preferred them going with 1:6, but the figure looks so good I'm not too bothered by it. At least he'll kind of fit with their Squads line.

As an agile and expert fighter, Spike needs plenty of articulation, and Mondo made sure to give him all the joints he needs. Working our way down, he has a barbell head, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, double-hinged elbows, hinge and dual-swivel wrists, barbell chest, ball-jointed waist and hips, swivel thighs, double-swivel/hinge knees, swivel calves, and swivel/hinge ankles. The joints have enough range to get him in all sorts of poses, though the way they sculpted the socket in the neck limits the head's movement a bit. There are a few tight joints, mainly in the legs, so I'd recommend some heat to help get things moving. As mentioned before, the heads swap easily, as do the hands, though for those, you're supposed to pop the joint out of the forearms, not the wrists.

Mondo packed in a lot of accessories with this release, including tons of extra hands in addition to the heads. Spike has a pair of fists as well as three different pairs of grips for holding his other accessories, alongside a wide-open left hand and three extra right hands: one giving a thumbs-up, one holding the key to his ship, the Swordfish (which can be removed), and one with a vial of red eye, the drug from the first episode. He's armed with a pistol, but he also gets two larger weapons: a flamethrower and a net launcher/bazooka. The weapons have a great wash to them and come with fabric straps, which is uncommon for action figures, though I wish the flame effect could be removed from the flamethrower. He also has a tool belt that goes around the waist, and you'll have to pop him apart there to get it on, which thankfully isn't too hard, and a meat skewer designed to fit in the key-holding hand. He also gets a stand with a posable arm, as to help keep him stable in more dynamic poses.

As if Spike didn't already have enough accessories, Mondo put out a limited edition that gives you a few more. For starters, he gets two more heads, one of which is another neutral expression, but with Zeros, the cat from "Heavy Metal Queens," resting atop his head. The little guy is nicely detailed, and creates a fun extra look. The other head comes from the final episode, where they weren't afraid to have the main character die (or does he?). This head gives Spike a slight smile, a closed left eye with blood over it, and a cut on his right cheek. To further recreate the iconic scene, he also gets a pointing right hand and a fabric trench coat with posable wire in the edge and belt to make it look more dynamic. The last extra accessory is another left hand, this one holding up Ein. Ein is solid plastic, so he can weigh down the joints in the arm a bit, but it's nice they represented him. For $15 more, you're getting a great selection of extra items.

Odd choice of scale aside, Spike is a great figure, and probably my favorite Mondo's done. He looks dead-on to the show, has plenty of articulation, and is loaded with episode-specific items that'll please any fan. Hopefully, Mondo doesn't stop at just him and gives us the rest of the main crew, but you know, there's another 90's space western anime by Sunrise that could really use some figures…

- 1/28/26...[See More]

Favorite Figure: Skeletor (1982)
Favorite Series: MOTU vintage and New Eternia
First Figure: He-Man (1982)
Currently Collecting: MOTU vintage and New Eternia, vintage Star Wars
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Harry Francis Smith (born August 2, 1985), better known by his ring name Davey Boy Smith Jr., is a Canadian professional wrestler and catch wrestler. He currently performs for Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he is a two-time Opera Cup winner and a former two-time MLW World Tag Team Champion, and All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion. He is best known for his time in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was a former three-time IWGP Tag Team Champion as part of the Killer Elite Squad with Lance Archer, as well as being a two-time GHC Tag Team Champion in Pro Wrestling Noah (also alongside Archer) due to NJPW's working relationship with Pro Wrestling Noah. Smith is also known for his time in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where he was a three-time NWA World Tag Team Champion, and WWE from 2006 until 2011 under the ring name David Hart Smith, where he won the Unified Tag Team Championship along with Tyson Kidd as part of The Hart Dynasty. He also performed in WWE's then-developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) under the ring name DH Smith. Smith has also appeared for World of Sport Wrestling (WOS Wrestling) under the ring name British Bulldog Jr.

A third generation professional wrestler, he is the son of "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, and Diana Hart, the youngest daughter of promoters Stu Hart (a former wrestler in his own right) and Helen Hart....[See More]

Brian Knighton (April 21, 1971 – February 4, 2016), better known by the ring name Axl Rotten, was an American professional wrestler. In the early 1990s, he was a part of the tag team The Bad Breed with Ian Rotten. He had a short stint with World Championship Wrestling in 1991, and was better known for his matches in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1993 to 1999.

Bad Breed competed in ECW's tag team division in the early years of the company until the team was forced to disband after losing to The Pitbulls and engaged in a rivalry against each other that Pro Wrestling Illustrated named Feud of the Year in 1995.

After an unsuccessful singles career, Rotten formed short-lived tag teams with Hack Meyers and D-Von Dudley before forming Hardcore Chair Swingin' Freaks with Balls Mahoney in 1997. The team lasted until he departed ECW in 1999. He then wrestled on the independent circuit and appeared at World Wrestling Entertainment's ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view in 2005....[See More]

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Daniel DeWayne Severn (born June 9, 1958, nicknamed "the Beast", is an American retired professional wrestler, retired mixed martial artist and amateur wrestler. A UFC Hall of Fame member, Severn is considered one of the leading pioneers of mixed martial arts and the first true world-class wrestler to compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is best known for his success in the early years of the UFC where he became the first UFC Triple Crown champion in history by winning the UFC 5 tournament, Ultimate Ultimate 1995, and UFC Superfight Championship. Severn has also competed in King of the Cage, PRIDE FC, Cage Rage, WEC, RINGS and MFC, and holds a professional MMA Record of 101–19–7.

In professional wrestling, Severn is a two-time world champion by winning the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship twice, with his first reign lasting for over four years, and an NWA Hall of Fame member. During his almost year-long tenure with the World Wrestling Federation, he was managed by Jim Cornette. He is the first man to compete in UFC and WWF at the same time and held the NWA and UFC championships at the same time. Severn is a world record holder for holding 13 championships. He is also the only person to be honored by the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame three times.

In amateur wrestling, Severn was a two time All-American at Arizona State University and a U.S. Olympic Team alternate....[See More]

Barney William Irwin (born September 17, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Wild" Bill Irwin. Irwin is also known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation as The Goon in 1996 to 1997. He is the brother of the late Scott Irwin....[See More]

Collection Size: About 60 figures.
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TMNT has crossed over with many other properties over the years, including Batman, Power Rangers, Universal Monsters, Ghostbusters, Naruto, and many more, and oftentimes said crossovers are toys. It's been a minute since Playmates did a TMNT crossover line, but last year saw the debut of a TMNT x Godzilla line, since Playmates has the license to that as well. There are only three out now, but they should be easy to get ahold of, despite being Target-exclusive.

Rather than being on cardbacks like usual, these figures come in window boxes, and the packaging looks nice. The crumbling city background makes sense for Godzilla-themed figures, and there's a great illustration on the back of all four turtles merged with the monsters (or in Donatello's case, an android) of the Godzilla world. You'll have to snip a few plastic ties, but everything is easy to take out, and even if you're an in-box collector, you can see everything clearly through the window.

Playing the role of the king of monsters himself is Leonardo, whose design mainly takes cues from the 1987 cartoon but with a lot of Godzilla's attributes (the packaging says these are also inspired by the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla series, but I'm not seeing it). His head shape remains the same, and he has all of his ninja gear as well, but the face is quite different, bearing Goji's snout and fangs, alongside two spikes on his scalp. The eyes and mouth are painted, and while the colors all around are good, the face suffers from bleed and uneven edges. It's a semi-mass-market figure, so it's passable.

The box says these figures are in a "1:1200" scale, but Leo stands 5" tall, which would be bigger than an actual Godzilla in that scale. While Leonardo keeps his shell, there are scales breaking through the carapace, and he also gets Godzilla's tail, rough skin, and chunky body and legs. The skin texture looks and feels on the soft side, but still, good on Playmates for making the figure's design lean more towards the monster. The carapace is separate from Leozilla in the box to help him fit inside, but it clicks in easily and can be popped back off with some force and little fear of breakage. While these figures keep the variety of colors simple so they don't have to do so much painting, the plastrons have a wash on them for a more defined look. Imagine how great these figures would look if they had a wash all over!

The articulation isn't too different from Playmates' output nowadays, but with a few additions. The basic setup is a ball-jointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles, and swivel wrists and tail. Swivel/hinge ankles are something Playmates really needed to give their Turtle figures, and while I would've preferred a rocker-like swivel for better deep stances, it's no doubt an improvement. Even as giant monsters, the Turtles still have their weapons, with Leonardo retaining his katanas, albeit with a fiery blue aura around them, resembling Godzilla's atomic breath. The hands are made out of a softer plastic to make holding weapons easy, and Leo poses great with his.

Next up is Raphael, who has been turned into Rodan. He's been given the pterodactyl-like monster's horns and beak, with the upper part of the beak being a separate piece from the rest of the head so that the bottom part of the mouth could be painted. Like Leo, the mouth suffers a bit from bleeding and colors not lining up quite perfectly with the sculpt, as do the other painted areas, especially the slop above the left kneepad. Still, the colors are good, and rather than retaining his green skin, Raph is colored brown, just like the monster he's been merged with.

Raph stands a little taller than Leo at about 5 1/4", with a ridged look to the shins, bumps on the shoulders, and a few other ridges sculpted into his limbs. The key feature of Rodan's design is his bat-like wings, which connect to the arms, and the sculpt combined with soft plastic here is to keep them from limiting arm movement. It doesn't keep them from completely restricting articulation there, but you can still get some good poses out of his arms. Another limiting factor to his movement is that the knee joints are on the upper legs rather than the lower legs, meaning you get a shin swivel rather than a knee one, so you won't get as much out of the legs as the other Turtles. Overall, his articulation is weaker than the others, but the cool design makes up for it. Raph's weapons are his sai, but the prongs are replaced with red flames, which are just as cool as Leo's atomic breath katanas.

Lastly, Michelangelo plays the role of King Ghidorah, and I honestly think he's the coolest design out of the three. The gold skin color goes along well with the scaly texture, and like Raphael, his proportions are more in line with his standard design. There's some color variation to the skin, giving it a shinier look, and the paint for the mouth is much cleaner than the other two. All in all, he has the best paint overall, but it really depends on what you find on the pegs; you're just as likely to find a clean one as you are one with notable bleed or slop.

Mikey is the tallest of the line, but not by much, as his horns only bring him up to about 5 3/4". He does take up the most space, however, thanks to the twin tails and massive wings. These come separate in the box, but everything pops together easily. The wings are cast in clear yellow plastic, but they fade to green near the back, giving off some nice color variation (curious on how they were able to do that). Unlike the monster he's based off of, Mikey has arms and only one head, with the dragon shoulder pads reflecting Ghidorah's extra heads. However, the shoulder pads can be removed and placed over the hands in case you want more accuracy to the monster. Mikey's weapons are his nunchucks, which are cast in clearer yellow plastic, and the chains are replaced with energy/flames.

The TMNT x Godzilla figures are the first crossover figures Playmates has done in a while that retain the 5" scale while giving the Turtles crazy mashup designs, and it's nice to see them try to bring back the creativity they had with the OG Turtle line. While not without their issues when it comes to paint and articulation, they're a lot of fun to play with and will fit great with the "Super Kaiju" figures by Super7 you can also find at Target. Jet Jaguar Donatello has been all but confirmed, and hopefully we can get some more info on him, but I saw Playmates is also going to make Power Rangers x Godzilla figures, which should be quite interesting.

- 1/25/26...[See More]

eBay User Name: eapho17
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Collection Size: Over 300
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