Vamp-Pa
Super Naturals (Tonka) - Ghosts
Rated 4.00 stars by Karl T. Face
Super Naturals were an interesting toyline, trading mostly on 3D holograms and fairly cool designs, but not offering much in the way of story. If I recall, they were also a bit on the pricey side, but for those a little short on pocket money (or just not as savvy in terms of Market Six stores), the Ghostlings were certainly something. Around half the size of the Warriors, these dudes lacked legs entirely, consisting of a hologram-bearing, translucent inner "body" nestled inside a hooded robe. Said robe only came in two variants, one for the heroes and one for the villains, but both shared glowy hands and carried rather chunky swords. The best part was that you could totally separate them and have two different phantoms, which I often did. As there were only two sculpts (in various...[See More]

Snakebite
Super Naturals (Tonka) - Forces of Evil
Rated 4.50 stars by Karl T. Face
Super Naturals is an odd beast. Tonka wasn't trying very hard here in terms of story- or marketing, for that matter- but whoever they had working on the toys clearly had a lot of passion, because these things deserved more than they got. Part of the first and only wave, Snakebite here is rocking a vaguely Egyptian snake-cultist look, which seems at odds with his undead pirate master and armored elemental comrade, but that's how Super Naturals rolled: it doesn't have to make sense, as long as it looks awesome. Simple swivel joints at the shoulders and hips give precious few posing options, but they do at least leave the sculpt largely unbroken apart from the T-crotch hips. Blanketed as he is in diamond-shaped scales, this isn't quite the boon it is on Skull, but the orange-on-copper is...[See More]

Skull
Super Naturals (Tonka) - Forces of Evil
Rated 4.75 stars by Karl T. Face
Well, for a company that's absolutely not known for its action figures, this is absolutely killer. I'll admit to a bit of nostalgic admiration here, but c'mon. Look at this guy. Okay, he's only got 4 POA. The sculpt is remarkable, though, from the pitted and withered skin to the bundles of bone tied around the legs. Paint is simple but effective, including a paint wipe on the chestplate and some really great, understated colors. Almost no slop or poor coverage, except for a little bone-white spilling onto the legs. This is some spooky stuff right here. (Side note: "spooky" rests at the intersection of "scary" and "just plain fun". Think rubber bats and neon-colored skeletons) The reason this guy barely moves is the gorgeous 3D hologram that makes up his head and torso. All but the face is...[See More]

Arzon
Visionaries (Hasbro) - Spectral Knights
Rated 4.50 stars by Karl T. Face
Confession time: I knew almost nothing of this line, or its cartoon, until this guy pretty much fell into my lap; over the course of a few months, I happened upon every bit among various secondhand stores (except the mace, which had to come from eBay), and here we are. For what's essentially an oversized GI Joe in terms of articulation and detail (hey, if it ain't broke...), Arzon is pretty impressive looking, sporting pretty decent detail, especially in the head and upper body. The face in particular is quite impressive, his thoughtful expression playing into the character bio. Everything's pretty glossy-looking, but them's the breaks with this era. It works. Of course, the base figure takes a back seat to those wonderful 3D holograms. I won't go into how they're made, but trust me,...[See More]

Tidalwave with Ramjet
Transformers - Armada (Hasbro) - Gigacon Assortment
Rated 3.00 stars by Karl T. Face
While the Armada cartoon mostly flew under my radar, the toys were quite fun, but certainly had their flaws. Here's one now. So, Tidal Wave is something of an oddity: Far more out-of-scale than most, there was no way they were making this beast close to the right size, so we get a Voyager-class version instead. Still a fair bit taller than average, head and shoulders above most of my army. The usual spread of joints we're used to these days was not so standard back then- in this case, ratcheted swivel/hinges at the shoulders, elbows, and hips, plus hinged knees. Which would be decent if the knees didn't bend sideways. No, really. He can stand around, maybe gesturing or doing a Frankenstein walk, but no dynamic poses from the waist down. Between that and the odd purple and green areas,...[See More]

Raphael (Frankenstein)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Neca) - Universal Monsters
Rated 4.85 stars by RMaster007
Remember when Playmates actually tried with TMNT? The original line from the late-80s and early-90s had a lot of creativity put into it, and we had Turtles as olympic contestants, astronauts, sumo wrestlers, and Universal Monsters. The last of those sub-lines has come back not through Playmates, but rather NECA, who currently owns both licenses. The first one, Raphael as Frankenstein, came out a few months ago, and we should be getting Leonardo in this line soon. The packaging art on the front isn't too special, just being a painting of the figure, but it looks really nice, so much so you'd think it was a photograph. The back feels reminiscent of an old movie poster, with eye-catching photos and text. This is the usual fifth-panel NECA packaging, so you can flip open the front and see...[See More]

Warlock Dragon (Green)
Blackstar (Galoob) - Accessories
Rated 4.00 stars by Karl T. Face
Well, this was a lucky find. $3 at a thrift shop? Yes please. I never got into Blackstar as a kid, but I can certainly appreciate the aesthetics, and Warlock here is a solid example. The hollow, unarticulated body (as was the custom) captures the oddly smooth, almost equine build and featureless tail. Even the head isn't quite your typical dragon: toothy, short horns, yes, but the mouth is cartoonishly large, and very square. The wings are the only points of movement here, on somewhat flimsy swivel/hinges. Now, there are two versions available: this all-green one, and one with yellow wings. Only the yellow-winged version came with a saddle, though frankly, I can't imagine how that would have worked, given that Blackstar can barely straddle the thing as is. No matter which version you...[See More]

Style Guide Colors (4-Pack)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - Multi-Packs
Rated 4.75 stars by RMaster007
Given how all the TMNT cartoon pre-orders on the NECA Store seemingly won’t be shipped out until Q4 this year, we got ourselves a bit of a break from that sub-line. We still have some stuff lingering at Target to pick up, though, such as a new four-pack. A couple fans have asked NECA if the “style guide” turtles would be coming back, and they honored their wishes with not two two-packs, but a single set. It’s been showing up in surprisingly large amounts, and I’ve had more luck seeing it in stores than the Turtles in Disguise set, which I’ve never seen at retail. Speaking of which, you know how that set had a fifth panel box with awesome artwork? The box for this set isn’t like that. It’s a long window box with the same design cues that the two-packs have, but we at least got some nice...[See More]

Horn Head
Madballs (Premium DNA) - Basic Series
Rated 4.85 stars by RMaster007
Premium DNA’s first wave of Madballs figures has been pretty great so far, and I’m down to the last one for now, who also happens to be one of the more well-known ones in the franchise. Horn Head may look like a brute, but according to the original line, he’s one of the good guys. Then again, does anyone in the Madballs world look like a pleasant person? The head sculpt here looks a good deal nicer than how he did back in the 80s. Specifically comparing him to the original “Head Popping” figure, his eye and horn are larger, and there’s a couple white spots all around his head (what are those, pimples?). Looking him up, I saw that he looks like that in most Madballs products nowadays, and it carried over here. His body is covered in fur, even though he has a bald head and blue facial hair...[See More]

Antrax and Scumbug
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Classic Cartoon (Neca) - Multi-Packs
Rated 4.85 stars by RMaster007
They want more than crumbs… The old cartoon made sure to work in almost every character that appeared in the original toy line, even if some only appeared for a single episode. Amongst the one-offs included the insects Antrax and Scumbug, who only appeared in season 7’s “Night of the Rogues”, joining the turtles’ other past foes to take them down, even though they never fought them before (or at we didn’t see them fight for the first time). Still, NECA did them. We got Ace, who only had a few seconds of screentime in the show, as a figure, so I think anyone’s possible by this point. The box is pretty much the same as the rest of the line, so why bring it up here? Because behind the plastic tray where everything’s in, there’s another tray that has… nothing? I guess they included it to...[See More]