Marvel Legends DP&W Blade & X-23 review

It took only 2 years for Hasbro to finally do more characters other than just the titular Deadpool & Wolverine, and it's probably due to there not being much presence for the MCU for the first half of 2026 (until the release of Brand New Day). I already got the brown suit version of Wolverine because that was a genuinely good figure for a suit I liked even more in live action, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to get more characters based on the movie. Cassandra Nova wasn't a character I was that big of a fan of, and I didn't really want to get Cowboypool since I grew tired of Hasbro not wanting to make any unmasked Wade Wilson heads. He's partially recognizable from that moldy nugget noggin of his, so why is Hasbro afraid of representing him compared to Sideshow? That said, I did want to get versions of Blade and X-23 since they were represented in the movie as one of the best parts overall, though no word if anyone else like Human Torch, Elektra, Gambit, or any of the other villains connected to Cassandra would ever get made. Once the prices went down for these two, it was time I gave them a shot and see if they're worth owning. Spoiler alert, one kind of is and the other not so much.

Here we have Blade in-hand, based on the modified armor he wears in the movie. It's a decent take on what he usually wears in the original trilogy, even if I prefer the sleeveless arms and trenchcoat look more. That being said, I'm not sure if the proportions for this figure are 100% accurate to the physique Wesley Snipes had during filming. I know he aged in the 20 years since Blade Trinity came out, but the proportions on this figure are comparable to what the tiger stripe Wolverine figure had, only less noticeable here because it's predominantly black. The arms should have a little more density in them, and the hips, though not as bad as on that awful Wolverine I talked about, shouldn't stick out like that. Also while the paint apps are decent on the figure, the suit should appear less pristine and more worn out with a wash so it wouldn't be this shiny black. On the flip side, he has fingerless gloves this time rather than fully covering his hands. So while it does the broad strokes mostly fine it's far from perfect and I have a hunch this dude was made by the same person who made the awful Tobey Spidey, even if this is nowhere near as abominable.

Head sculpt is okay for a likeness to 2024 Wesley Snipes, and he thankfully manages to look good even in an older age; that said the white on the side of the hair is meant to be accurate to the movie yet but looks like a paint mistake. I would have rather it be non-existent because it looks random on a guy who generally still looks young-ish for a man in his 60s. Articulation consists of a double ball neck joint, shoulders on a rotary joint similar to a McFarlane DC Multiverse figure, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, double jointed elbows, wrists swivel as well as either hinge up and down or in and out, and a torso that has passable diaphragm range and an average waist twist. Hips work as standard for Legends, thighs rotate, knees are double jointed, and the ankles are able to hinge and pivot. His weapons include a dagger type of knife and a gun, both of which can slide into their respective sheath and holster.

The sunglasses on the figure slide on decently, and while I wish they could stay on more securely, they at least strengthen the Wesley Snipes likeness better than without them. Especially for the second face when he does that grin. For a comparison spanning between 2 decades, here he is with the ToyBiz version. Both wear different kinds of tactical armor, one is sleeveless, the other used more red, both are merch based on the only one Blade. However, I stand that the ToyBiz version holds up decently, and it does some things better than Hasbro with the value for money we used to get, the likeness being good for an older figure, and having more paint to accentuate the sculpt beyond specific costume details.

Who does the better likeness to Wesley Snipes? Keep in mind one was meant to represent him in the late 90s/early 2000s while the other is an aged version from 2 years ago, but it's great that ToyBiz was able to capture the look of the actor while sculpting the figure by hand rather than using the face-scan CAD files commonly used nowadays. This is even better executed than the likenesses used for the X2 and Spider-Man 2 figures, likely because Blade was meant to be more higher end than either movie's 6-inch figure line. Will Hasbro do a trilogy Blade that is even better than the ToyBiz version? We'll see, but I know including it with the bike means the price will go up. 

And as for Laura, aka X-23, she has gotten older since we last saw her in Logan, learning from the skills she briefly got from her dying "father" during the escape from mutant purges before having her universe set to be pruned by Cassandra Nova (aka a har har Disney is making other universes non-canon moment). I don't know if she reuses any parts from existing figures in the MCU waves, maybe America Chavez or some other throwaway character the comics made a bigger deal about than needed. Like Blade, she could use a wash to make the clothes somewhat worn in appearance, but at least the sleeveless shirt, combined with the two-tone nature of the jacket and pants with the black SAVAGE shirt underneath, makes this figure feel slightly less cheap than Blade does. A negative I have is that the arms could go down a bit more, because as it stands, she looks either like she's bloated when she isn't or her arms are appear much longer when they're normal length. 

Her head sculpt is thankfully done very well, and possibly better than Blade's thanks to Dafne Keen being much younger and likely easier to translate than a man 3 times older than her. She has that eternally stern look to her that fits someone who's been cloned from Logan's DNA and is now having to deal with living with the Others in a dimension far unlike what she once resided in. Her articulation is generally good, but it suffers from the joints being too flexible, and the bicep pegs almost want to bend while indirectly forcing the arms off by accident. Why are we still having this issue with your joints, Hasbro? Also, if you want to give her the clawed hands, be sure to watch over the little rubber rings that complete the look. I nearly lost one of them while trying to look into how the arms look gloveless. Further more, wouldn't it be funny if Hasbro actually gave us swappable shoes so she can be displayed without the toe claws constantly? At least she has some cool shades like the ones she stole in the convenience store.

She also comes with the helmet of Juggernaut, likely meant to be used to save our titular duo by putting it over Cassandra's bald head. Maybe Hasbro is teasing us with a future figure meant for that dude but good luck making people patient thanks to the price hikes! She does have a backpack that may also be reused from somewhere else. Color of choice is appropriate but once again no paint.

Here she is with her fellow Logan cast members, and it's crazy I haven't pulled them out for so long. While Laura is no longer a little girl like she was in the movie she appeared in, I at least appreciate that she can fit in well enough with her as much as she does the Others (minus anyone yet to be made). Honestly, I really wanted to like both Blade and X-23, but they each have their own issues that keeps me from recommending them 100% at normal retail price. Blade has some weird arm proportions going on, Laura's joints feel cheap as hell, and both could use more paint in addition to more refined articulation than the range they currently have. I don't regret buying them at discounted prices, so I will make two ratings for them: on clearance, they are easier to accept like getting figures loose in a job lot. At normal price, they show how Hasbro is far from reliable when it comes to delivering quality while raising prices.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (at discount for both)

⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (at normal MSRP)

S.H. Figuarts Dragonball Z Future Trunks review

You probably remember when I covered Trunks last year in his battle clothes; while that was a more readily available version for more casual fans, this more expensive figure comes in what is undoubtedly his most iconic look: the Future outfit seen from the apocalyptic Earth where Androids reign supreme. Trained from a fully grown Gohan, the duo went on their mission to avenge the Dragon Team, but sadly, Gohan died during their crusade. This moment caused him to fully go Super Saiyan, but he was unable to take these Androids down without the help of Future Bulma's time machine. At that moment, he was able to warn the Dragon Team in the present day about the impending doom while also bringing the needed cure to keep Goku from dying by the heart virus. And from there, the life Present Trunks experiences would be very different from Future Trunks (until Super happened with story arc involving another apocalyptic future thanks to Gohan Black). Now we shall see if the reissue of this figure is worth waiting after many fans complained about breakage!

Here we have Future Trunks in-hand, and compared to the usual gi or battle clothes found on most of the characters, we gave street clothes with two shades of blue and a black tank top likely to help Trunks blend in better with the rest of the heavily damaged environment than to look cool. That said, he has the Capsule Corp logo on the sleeve, so he knows who to rep even in troubling times like what he went through. That said, while I don't mind having to break up the sculpt for the leg articulation to work, the jacket looks like it was awkwardly made as three pieces from some stupid "trend" fashion TikTok vomited. It was eitheraling the thing cloth goods and look bad on a figure of this scale, or leave it sculpted yet have it less appealing to the eyes. At least it's not as bad as GT Trunks and his coat looking messed up from the back. The rest of the figure generally looks good, even if the upper body looks slightly smaller than the lower body (even with the DBZ artstyle usually being exaggerated). The knee joints could be a little easier on the eyes, though. 

His powered up head sculpt looks great with the gradient effect from the base of the scalp to the spikey points, and he thankfully hasn't struggled with nailing the side profile compared to his father (considering how DBZ characters are 2D, nas getting them 100% right in 3D isn't always easy). As far as accessories go, he has three alternate faces meant for the Super Saiyan head, a normal head with lavender hair, 5 pairs of alternate hands, an alternate hair piece representing the bangs flowing in the air, and a sword within a sheath.

Articulation includes a double ball jointed neck (with a hinge for better up and down motion), shoulders on ball joints, up and down motion on the hinges, bicep rotation, double jointed elbows, double ball peg wrists in hinges, a double ball peg torso, hips are able to move front and back effectively, in and out with the additional aide of the drop down hip system, rotation at the thighs, double jointed knees, slight ankle movement for the hinge and pivot with the traditional toe-ticulation. If you really want to make the pose for the sword as it's about to be unsheathed, be sure to have the hand on the sword handle after removing the bottom piece, reattaching said bottom piece, and have the arm posed at a spot where it can reach the socket of the right hand. Be ready to also wrestle with the peg for the sheath's strap wrapped around him. I also have to comment on the pre-Super head he has, which is great that a character has these options so you can display them with or without going Super Saiyan constantly (unless we're talking about Goku and Gohan during the Cell arc), but the hair and faceplates also detach like on the Super Saiyan head. Perhaps this is compatible with the GT version?

The sword looks great on him if you want to use not just the brawn of a Saiyan but also slice and dice enemies when you want to see them in pieces as much as you want to beat them into pulps. Posing him wasn't as difficult since Tamashii didn't mess up his joint cuts or range as badly as some of their recent figures have, but as I mentioned before, it does come at the cost of the jacket's aesthetics from the back. Luckily, the sheath is able to hide that flaw, but at the same time, I already know I hate how the peg of the strap wants to fight me. On a positive note, the hips are less likely to break on me like I've seen on the original run of this figure. Hopefully me saying that won't come to bite me in the ass.

For anyone wondering, you can give the lavender hair head to the battle clothes version of Trunks but keep in mind that given how distinct the haircut is for their Super Saiyan forms, then the same should be said for this considering he has a ponytail when he was on the present day. Anyways, both Trunks have gone Super Saiyan, so here we have one in his base clothes and one in battle clothes. Thankfully the height is consistent between the two despite what the hair spikes would make you believe, but now it makes me wonder if the GT version of Trunks and DB Super's version of Trunks are consistent with the heights as well. For anyone who say these reviews, you should know by now that Tamashii mostly has the Battle Clothes version of Trunks at a lower price since that is one figure to reel casual collectors in the line, but for something like his Future clothes, they'll go all out with a more elaborate sculpt and make it a higher price tag. We're comparing a around $39 for the Infinite Latent versus $82 for the Boy from the Future. The former came with two extra faces and pairs of hands as well as folded arms, while this comes with an extra face, an extra head, an alternate hairpiece, 3 more pairs of hands, and the sword and sheath. All that and the addition of making new sculpt for this character compared to the CAD file likely being reused on most versions of the Battle Clothes Saiyans wear with proportion modifications depending on a specific character. So is Future Trunks worth picking up? For the most part, he is, but not at $80. Granted, I know Tamashii, being under Bandai, is less likely to jack up the price for most DBZ figures than they would IPs they don't own the main merchandise rights to (i.e. look at Gamerverse Spider-Man's accessory count, and don't get me started on the Ranma Reboot cast or the Evangelion pilots); that said, I am hesitant to say he is 100% worth picking up considering there are also issues with the way the jacket looks from the back as well as the sheath strap being a bit annoying. And don't get me started on whether or not those hips will break again...so for now, I can say he is one you shouldn't skip out on, but maybe get The Coming One from Demoniacal Fit instead just in case. At least that one has a removable jacket!

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nendoroid Kirby review

I think everyone knows about Kirby by now; we know he loves to eat food, we know he's adorable, as he is known to go on these adventures to save the cutesy world of Dream Land from any ominous gods of powers beyond your wildest imagination. You should be aware of him by now if you've either played one of his games, mained him occasionally in Smash Bros, or saw the anime Kirby: Right Back At Ya (which had a pretty good English dub, don't let subtitle suckers tell you otherwise). That said, I technically had a bit of history with this Nendoroid, though it was my brother's, and it was a bootleg. As far as I remember, the paint quality seemed decent but the mouths were redder on some of the faceplates while the magnets are made differently. Now I have an official version after Amazon fucked up and canceled my preorder, so let's see if waiting a whole decade later for an official Kirby was worth it!

Here we have Kirby in-hand. Given his design, the only priorities are that the eyes and cheek paint apps are as straight in his face as they possibly can be, and that the magnets work so the stubs and feet can stay on his body. Thanks to said magnets, his articulation is extremely fluid at those four appendages, so he won't have any issues with however you want to pose him; just know that the mouth and the peg hole near his rear won't work (and yes, the latter looks vulgar). One issue is that without the display base, he ends up falling back, and I wish the feet were flatter so he can stand on his own. In fact, I have seen people talk about how their Kirbies tend to get either sticky or grimey after some time, either from being in storage or general exposure to certain room temperatures, so be careful if you clean him. Setting aside this being a technical time bomb, Kirby also has a cool feature for swapping parts: the faces can be twisted off and replaced with three of the other options he comes with: one includes him sucking whatever is in his range or him fully stuffed or puffed up as he flies.

Some of the other accessories he comes with include a stub meant to hold either his wand or his sword, and angry faces to accommodate either his Sword or Fire abilities. We also have hats appropriate for each ability. Further still, an additional stand is included for the fire effect part. The biggest issue with the hats is they don't stay on as well as the limbs due to the weight they have, and I have a feeling it will mostly apply to other hats. At the very least, all of the accessories are nicely painted, and they feel just as nice in-hand as Kirby himself 

As far as other versions of Kirby are concerned, we have the 30th anniversary version with a retro smile, a more modern face with starry eyes, an expression with his eyes comedically wide like an animanga character would, and one of him looking dizzy. The other is of the chef variety meant to tie-in with Kirby Cafe. His cheeks are more squiggly to fit the artstyle, and he also comes with a face of him with his mouth full (but not the whole body) as well as a chef hat, a fork, and cup, a sign for said cafe, a dessert piece, some icing on his face, and the icing tube. 

Planet Robobot also got some attention, with the mech suit either including its own Kirby or sold on its own. The helmet and the determined face complete the look of the cover art, and I want my hands on this asap. I wonder if it is made of die-cast....

As for power ups, we have Ice Kirby with his body in baby blue, and Beam Kirby, with a removable jester hat so he can be Keeby if you want. I love the headpiece on Ice Kirby for how much it looks like a Crystal Crown while he uses a similar set up for his ice wind. He comes with a spitting star piece as well as a parasol, headband, and sleeping faces for normal Kirby. Beam Kirby uses larger beam pieces but has no accessories meant for regular Kirby.

For anyone wondering about a size comparison, here he is with Pac-Man from the Figuarts line. The scale almost fits since I would imagine Kirby would still be small, but keep in mind that Smash Bros scale isn't in consideration. I love putting these two since they're both well-rounded food lovers, they both have limbless forms somehow, and they tend to go against threats bigger than them. Hell, Pac-Man World 3 predated the Robobot concept with the round dude riding a Toc-Man now used for good rather than identity theft in the first game. As for Nendoroid Kirby, he has some issues with longevity for the texture and some of the hats not staying on that great, but he's easily my favorite Nendoroid that I own and possibly of all time. With how samey the super deformed motif is for Nendoroids in general, especially with the whole "oh they have two extra faceplates where they are angry or cutesy", but being a wholly simple yet different design does this super tuff pink puff so many favors. I know I will feel like I am repeating myself if I ever review the Ranma duo, but I don't think that will be the case when I review Meta Knight. I hope Bandana Waddle-Dee and King Dedede get reissues, but apart from the already existing blue and yellow Kirbies, I want ones in red, green, purple, brown, light brown, white, grey; in fact, give me all the Kirbies!

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Studio Series 86 Kranix review

The term "glup shitto" gets thrown around a lot for an obscure character that somehow gets a huge following or is heavily obsessed by a specific fan. That is usually thrown around in the Star Wars fandom, or at least the Disney shills who would parrot the "EU was never canon" claim while gassing up any character from whatever slop gets made under their favorite corporation. In the case of Transformers, people like to say that about certain background characters or ones who have a bit of a need for a certain toy like Devcon from DOTM, but how different were the G1 characters, really? I'd argue that while those who were reoccurring in either the show, the Marvel comics, or at least had a toy around in the original G1 line would mostly be saved from that term, the same can't be said for the likes of G1's own Devcon, the female Autobots beyond Elita-1 nowadays solely for her attachment to Optimus (on top of replacing Windblade and Arcee as the main female lead for recent media) and possibly Chromia, and the unlucky sucker known as Kranix. You may know him best as the dude who was crying to his oomfie, Arblus or whatever his name was spelt, about Unicron coming to kill them all. Now we have a toy of an actual glup shitto, so let's see if Kranix deserves to exist in the line compared to anyone else who should have been here sooner (cough Twins).

Here we have Kranix in his scrapped spaceship mode. While it could have easily been labeled a "Concept Art" release, this was actually used in the Marvel adaptation of the 1986 movie where he did transform into his own little shop. Obviously, he never had to use this when he rode an actual spaceship, but even with the knowledge that this was a thing in a version of the film, this altmode feels unbaked compared to the Cybertronian altmodes we got in later media. He looks like he is pretending to be either a glider or a torpedo. Maybe both but with a duck bill. What a piece of quack.

For an alt mode comparison, he makes for a good companion piece with a Sharkticon, especially one like Gnaw because look at how much better and cooler Sharkticons generally are.

Transformation is more like a readjustment of limbs while tucking the duck bill away so it won't be that visible in robot mode. As for said robot mode, it looks about as basic 80s drone with beige and some gaudy coloring as you can get. He's like a the love child between a robot with round joints for better rotary joints, a basic ass design that is more plain than G1 Ironhide, and it's clear this was always going to be a lesser robot than the Cybertronian species. One positive is that he's not hollow, but with a design like this, he would be better off as a Blokees figure or remain as that one WFC Trilogy figurine that came in the Pit of Judgement set.

Head sculpt looks like it the waitress droid from Dexter's Diner was made during the Original Trilogy. With that dual pink hairdo and mustache, maybe he could be comparable to some receptionist with a hint of a news reporter thanks to his mustache. Articulation consists of a neck swivel and hinge, swivel shoulders for moving front and back, hinges for moving in and out, bicep rotation, hinged elbows, waist rotation, universal hips, hinged knees that can bend forwards, and barely any ankle pivot as significant as his weapon.

Here he is with Gnaw once again. I bet the Sharkticon with a name would make fun of him for being a virgin plain robo while he is the chad chunkster in comparison. 

Overall, I can't say to much for a dude as plain as Kranix. While he isn't a downright terrible figure, he is far from a great one. There is just so little to say about a character like this who was solely made to demonstrate how hungry Unicron was. Worst part is that he gets to have a toy while more important characters are set to the wayside. I demand Hasbro make an apology tour for shoving the 86 movie nostalgia down our throats while also only recommending this figure at clearance. He is no Astrotrain, but then again, anything is better than that choo choo turd.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐