Marvel Universe 3.75" Mutant Leaders: Ultimate Magneto & Cylops

No peeps, this ain't no two-pack--I just happened to snag them at the same time and thought it would be more fun as a double review. :)

Props to the Rangerlord who hooked me up once again.  I swear, he's somehow become my full-time plastic crack dealer.  He also happens to to have me by the short hairs (to use the polite term)--no reviews, no hook ups!

Ok, so maybe he didn't put it in so many words.  But he did say he wanted to "speak to me" about picking up my review slack.  Now that's a veiled threat if I'd ever heard one!

So that's yet another reason to double up--I don't want to be found frozen to death from withdrawal symptoms outside a Toys R Us, my fingers bloody to the bone from trying to claw my way in.  *Shudder*

I'm kinda starting to feel fidgety and stuff...so...*scratchscratch*...*sniffle*...yeah, let's move on to the review!

Marvel Universe 3.75" Commander Steve Rogers

I knew I wanted to get this figure the moment I saw the photos from the SDCC 20011 Sneak Preview.  And it was simply because it would be the first version of Steve Rogers that had him unmasked.

Boy, was that a mistake.

Because this guy is awesome for so many more reasons than that!  And to think when the Rangerlord spotted him on one of his now famous rangings, I was kinda ok on getting him.


I mean, I wanted the guy, but not "ok-you-gotta-get-him-for-me-no-matter-what" kind of wanted the guy.  It was just: "Ok, I'll take him.  That is, if you don't want him, though."


And so it was that Steve Rogers became mine--no prizes for guessing how this figure turned out! ;)

Marvel Universe 3.75" Fantastic Four 4-Pack: Future Foundation

Here's the problem with all the Marvel Universe Fantastic Four figures--There isn't any four of them in the same uniform!  The single-carded light blue modern/ultimate versions of the Human Torch and The Thing (in full pants) came first, but there was no Reed Richards or Sue Storm.  Then came the running change of the Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm in dark blue with white gloves/boots.  By this time, the Secret Wars two-packs series had a Mr. Fantastic in the same dark blue (packaged with Ultron).  Secret Wars also had a dark blue Speedos Thing (packed with the Wrecker.)

Still no Sue though.

Then came this 4-pack all in modern light blue or in Future Foundation white: Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, Sue Storm (Yay!!!) and...Herbie?  Wha?...

Ok, well at least now we have all 4 members of "a classic" Fantastic Four.  But all the 'Bro really had to do was just toss in a dark blue Sue and viola!--we'd have had a complete 'Four.  Instead, now we get the three guys in dark blue and Sue in light blue...Hm.  Ok.  No problem.  We'll just have to put the light blue Sue with the light blue Johnny Storm and Thing and Mr Fantastic.  Only one problem though--I went for the dark blue releases instead of the light blue, so I'm effectively screwed.  Lol.

Moral of the story: prepare to get teased as you wait to complete your favorite superhero team, even if it's a team that's this classic and more famous as a team than as individuals!

My solution: get the Future Foundation white.  At least the previous members of the 'Four you got can still be completed separately as a classic team (if they make 'em...) while you get yourself a variation of the modern day Fan Four!

So let's see how this 4-pack measures up!

Star Wars Vintage Collection 3.75" Darth Vader

When it comes to Star Wars figures, I'm the king of not opening them.  It's not that I have no intention to, but that I tend to procrastinate--either the latest Marvel Universe figures come in or the latest DC Universe ones and I put the relatively newly acquired SW stuff aside until they become oldly acquired.

I've come to a point that I realized if I open every Star Wars figure I've gotten in the past 2 years, I'd have an instant display.  After all, I was building up towards doing an Endor battle scene complete with Ewoks hanging off hang-gliders, swinging off branches, tackling AT-STs, and humping Han Solo's leg.  Ok, maybe not so mch the last one, but I digress...

One of the figures I got because I had to get the perfect version of him was Darth Vader.  I had snagged over the last 3 or so years the Power of the Force version of him on card for S$10, as well as later getting the album-plus-medallion 30th anniversary release for just S$5 complete with album.  But neither of these I opened because I was told by a reliable source (aka the Rangerlord) that they weren't the best versions anyway.

So when they released a Vintage Collection Empire Strikes Back version I immediately got him...And kept him for quite a bit because, well, sometimes Hulk or the Avengers, or SDCC sneak peaks or Batman or Zatanna got in the way.  But no longer!  It's hard to resist the power of the Dark Side succumbs eventually, and it has finally compelled me to open the Dark Lord of the Sith himself!

Lego Minifigs Complete Series 5 Review!

I love Lego!  Say it with me!

All right, you don't have to.  But my wife does and we love to go feeling for minifigs together.  Back in January we found a somewhat untouched box of Series 3 in New Zealand and found three Elves.  When she got me the Star Wars Home One Lego set we built that together, along with the TIE-Advanced and Y-Wing set.  So it was natural that when I split a box of these nyum nyums with the Rangerlord that the wife and I immediately got to feeling out the 16 figures from this series.  It turns out we had 15 of the figures and were just missing the Zookeeper.  The Rangerlord had everything but he Graduate.  A shimmy and a swap later and we had our complete sets.

I tell ya, my wife's got a knack for this--she felt out he gloves of the Boxer and the ridged tail of the Lizard Man.  Me?  I just felt happy, as I always do when we do Legos together.  I also felt out the lone Gladiator.  Yes, thank you, thank you.

For those, who like me, want to get a complete set, splitting a box is definitely the way to go.  Take the half-box home, feel it up, crack it open, and sell on the remainder.  Better yet if you feel out another set and can sell it as such!  That's what I'm gonna do.  Or at least I plan to...

But for now, the review!

Star Wars Vintage Collection 3.75" Lando Calrissian - The Ladies' Man

How do I know he's the ladies' man?  Well, the wife and I are watching The Empire Strikes Back and she suddenly says, "I like Lando.  He's my favorite Star Wars character."  Just like that.  Not Chewie, not Wicket, not Luke.  Lando.  See?  Ladies' Man.

I guess it didn't help that Ladies'-Man-Wannabe Han Solo was proving to be an obnoxious piece of bantha poodoo throughout the Original Trilogy.  But come on!  You put that next to Lando "I'm respectable and have got a lot of responsibility, so I betray my friends to Darth Vader" Calrissian and Lando still comes off as more likable?  It's gotta be that slicked back hair and the artfully trimmed 'stache.  It's gotta be.

Captain America The First Avenger 3.75" Red Skull

What a movie it was, huh?

Though I liked it a lot, I think I still like Thor better for now out of the two Marvel movies this summer. I say for now because I had the chance to watch Thor thrice, with each time better than the next.  So until I get to watch Captain America: The First Avenger three times, I'm only going to make a temporary judgment. ;P

As far as toy lines go, Cap certainly does have the better variety.  I mean, you can put ol' Stevie R in winter gear, jungle fatigues or even toss him in with a spiffy vehicle but you can't really do the same with our favorite Norse god.  Mjolnir can only be repainted in so many ways before people will start to think Hasbro is up to something.  Well, actually we'll know even before that.  But you get my point.

The range of characters we get from the First Avenger line is also larger in terms of characters they can put on a card and sell to us.  Captain Britain, U.S. Agent, Winter Soldier, Red Guardian, and Crossbones all don't appear in the movie but are in the line.  Thor has no characters from outside of the movie so far.

What does this mean in terms of the Red Skull figure?  Well, nothing! ...Except that the Rangerlord and I managed to find a whole bunch of him and Crossbones, both of whom are shortpacked, when we went to our usual Toys 'R' Us.  And we paid retail price too, so one more notch in the belt for the knight/ranger toy-hunting dynamic duo.  Lol.

To be honest I was less than excited about opening Red Skull up until I saw the movie opening night (28th July) here in Singapore.  But after a great movie and a masterful performance by the evergreen Hugo Weaving, I had to bust the figure open and do this review.  Let's see how it went! :)

Oh, and this review will contain spoilers, so be warned! (Even if it is two months since the movie opened.  Heh.)  ;P