Nendoroid Ranma 1/2 Male & Female review

Another Nendoroid review, this time one based on the titular gender-bender, Ranma Saotome. Funny enough, Akane Tendo and Shampoo arrived before I got either version of Ranmald McTome and it was mostly due to Amazon claiming there was no stock available from their site for either gender as well we Kirby, and I have to call bullshit on that knowing the way they failed me at times with preorders. Thankfully, I was able to get both versions in other sites, though it took a while to get them given there were other things going on at the time. Now that we have the 2 genders of Ranma Saotome together, let's see how well they turned out.

Here we have both versions of the character together. Given the nature of Good Smile's chibi aesthetic, we don't have much to distinguish the two genders beyond some wrinkles in their clothes. Both of them still have the standard attire the character was known to wear as a guy and a chick. The paint apps for both have no discrepancies or quality control issues at all, but what I also appreciate is that they don't have any differences for the shades of red and blue on their clothes. I also found it surprising that they have differently sculpted torsos, giving Female Ranma breasts while Male Ranma is flat chested. Even some wrinkles on certain areas of their clothes are tweaked somewhat, as are the vanilla hands associated with each character; fists for the boy and open hands for the girl. That said, it does leave me wondering why we couldn't just do a Ranma set that has both boy and girl-specific accessories without splitting them into two separate releases. I know this made sense for the Figuart because it was much easier to distinguish them from body type, but this could have been a Deluxe set in a way reminiscent of the second Lum Nendoroid that gave us the usual tiger stripe bikini and the school uniform. I know why they went this route for the sake of displaying both at once, but at the same time what difference would it make unless Female Ranma had a different outfit?

Articulation is consistent between the two, including the neck joints with asymmetrical disk swivel movement for the seam line. Accessories for Male Ranma include a curious face as well as a surprised one, with a set of crossed arms, hands meant for holding the tea kettle, and those hands that are not meant for thwipping web. 

As for Female Ranma, she comes with a bucket of water no doubt based on her gender changing ability, bent forearms that go with fists if you want her to be angry, and a thumbs up hand with a delighted faceplate and a swappable bent leg to go with the third pose. Swapping the parts here was much easier than with my first copy of Shampoo.

As far as I know, the female version of Ranma is the only figure in the wave that comes with a preorder bonus: a hand holding a taiyaki. It's a Japanese treat shaped like a fish and is filled with either red bean paste or custard inside the crust. Would be nice if a bo staff was included with male Ranma, but as it stands, these two are pretty good to have if you want to own either gender you see fit. I wish we got them as a set, or at least gave the female version a different outfit that could be "unisex" for when you want the male version to wear it instead, but they're pretty good versions of the dude(tte) of the titular anime. Just be aware of the slight price increase and the fact that Amazon failed so many preorders for OVER A YEAR.

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

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Krillin 3.0 (Son Goku's Old Friend) review

What else hasn't been said about Krillin that was already brought up in my last review involving his past two releases? Last time we took a look at Goku's best friend was in the 2.0 version of his Z-era self and the childhood version that was even shorter than Krillin is usually depicted (but not as short as his first appearance in the lore). I don't have the 2013 version, but I know he has the manga accurate white for the eyes and a head looking to the side representing when Android 18 kissed his cheek. This newest version is part of the current 3.0 wave, with Tamashii Nations more likely to do new versions of existing characters than do a complete Z-Fighter roster or anyone major in GT or Super beyond the main faces of each series. Krillin's most recent figure is a Premium Bandai release, and will cost a bit more than the others, but will it be as good of a release as he is a friend? Let's find out.

Here we have Krillin in-hand, who already has an appropriate build with being a bit wide and stumpy yet still powerful as the Earth's Strongest Man. The figure is also sculpted so as not to appear broken up from articulation joints, yet still be as poseable as a Figuart should be. The only unsightly area to me would be the waist area, where you have a bit of a thong look to the figure; it's hidden somewhat by the strands on the waist band, so it doesn't stand out as much as it does on MvC Spider-Man. The skin tones thankfully match between the head, arms, and the exposed area around the neck, and I can confirm that joint tolerances are a non-issue for this figure, though I can sense a slight bit of wiggle within the hip assembly; maybe it's due to the materials used for making the waist. His accessories include four alternate heads, 5 alternate pairs of hands, one set meant to work with the blast effect, and a 2-piece stand for said blast effect.

His articulation includes a double neck joint meant to house in the head swap system unique to Krillin, and the shoulders can move front and back as well as in and out; butterfly joints are part of a more elaborate system so the arms can look naturally connected to the body without compromising the silhouette. He has a double ball peg for the torso, which provides a reasonable amount of range going all around but not much due to his design. Biceps swivel normally, elbows double bend, and while he uses the standard wrist system, swapping the hands is a bit scary given the size of them. Getting PTSD from Wicked Lady's fragile wrist pegs. Anyways, the hips can move around decently thanks to the rubberized waist piece that doesn't disrupt the sculpt, thighs swivel as they should, knees are single jointed, and the feet can swivel, hinge, and pivot.

Let's get this out of the way: his bullet looks like a dick with two balls under it. There is no other way to describe it, especially with the way it's molded. I mean, with a choking hazard label on the box, it's for the best that it also applies to women wanting to get some Krillin action. No wonder he's doing the second pose with all that anguish. 

I'm sure you may wonder if the Dragon Ball from the Planet Named is included with this figure, and it is not. Tamashii only presented it in the stock photo to represent the Namek Saga, but here he is being super excited to meet Peter Griffin. Friggin sweet, indeed.

For some size comparisons, here we have him with the other versions of Krillin that I own. He's in between his kid self and his recently reissued Earth's Strongest Man counterpart. If you ask me, this almost works as a height evolution for the character, but the problem stems from the fact that Krillin shrank over the years in the series. I mean, he's about a head shorter than Goku in the Saiyan Saga, and then in the Namek Saga, he's a few inches taller than the young Gohan. I plan to get the Battle Clothes version someday and see how the scale works.

With Goku (using the Saiyan Raised on Earth version) and Android 18 (Universe Survival Saga version), we're going to have to keep in mind that 2.0 likely represents the height Krillin would normally have if he was still a short king yet grew naturally. 2.0 scales best for the scene where we see the group together in the Saiyan Saga (where Krillin was nearly as tall as Goku). As for 3.0, he scales best for any other saga, at least before Super and Daima shrink him further. Apart from that dilemma, should you get the new Krillin? For the most part, he is good, but as a P-Bandai release (to my knowledge), paying nearly $80 for a figure like this is far from ideal. While the articulation and aesthetics are good, you're getting something comparable to an aftermarket price. Maybe he did need his effect part to compensate for his short height, but it sucks that this was put in premium price hikery. I would only recommend him if you see him for $70 or less, because Krillin deserves more accessibility to collectors new and old despite not being either Goku or Vegeta.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Super 7 Ultimates Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) Splinter and Foot Soldier review

A few quarters ago, I took a look at the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the Super 7 Ultimates line. They were pretty good for the most part, with the biggest issue being the price they all share ($55 a pop). I was still interested in checking out the rest of the lineup because of my love to that version of TMNT, but I would rather wait for the price to go down instead. The first issue that arose was the $10 increase for the second wave, which consists of Splinter, Casey Jones, Shredder, and a Foot Soldier. This time, I'll split the wave in half and review them in pairs for the sake of not delaying things as much as I can. For today's review, we'll see if any more red flags pop up as we take a look at the master and fodder of Ninja Turtle lore!

Here we have Master Splinter in-hand. For anyone wondering, this version was the actual rat owned by Hamato Yoshi, though he clawed Hun instead of Shredder given the different bearers of that title throughout this continuity. What I like about Splinter's design is that it captures the essence of an old, wise mentor as an anthropomorphic animal without making it too cartoony or something that a furry freak would be attracted to. As for the translation from digital animation to plastic, I want to say they mostly nailed the look of the character, but the problem many will bring up is how cheap he kind of feels. Super 7 usually has this PVC look to their toys in order to better make the sculpts smoother, hence being animation accurate, but the company sometimes makes the paint apps somewhat chalky or nowhere near as premium as one would hope. The grey plastic used for his head, arms, and legs is meant to match the animation, yet it kind of feels somewhat flat for a character meant to be in that color. Almost like it makes the white for the eyebrows appear indistinguishable from the shade of grey used for the rest of him. At least they got the legs correct with the digitigrade bone structure, and the tail at least had some lines sculpted to resemble some skin texture found on actual rodents, but alas, no bendy wire implementation. 

The head sculpt manages to resemble how the character looked, and the eyes are thankfully locked out better, but the nose could have been painted better. As for the whiskers, I understand there are some limitations with the size and durability, but they holes used for inserting them could have been a bit less unsightly. Articulation consists of a double ball jointed neck with the standard side to side turn and somewhat limited up and down. Shoulders are able to move front and back with slight hindrance from his robes; in and out movement works fine as well as the bicep rotation yet the elbow joints barely go past 90 degrees. Wrists have tiny pegs for rotation and equally small hinges for moving them in and out, which despite being functional makes me worry about the longevity. He has a reasonably workable torso joint, and while the bottom of the robe inhibits his leg movement somewhat, the legs are able to move around reasonably well on ball joints. He has thigh swivels, double jointed knees, ankle hinges, and a swivel in lieu of ankle pivot given the nature of his legs. The tail is articulated at the base where it connects, but that's it for it.

In addition to the relaxed hands hands and the set of hands in the articulation segment, Splinter comes with a stick fitting for his name, a pair of hands to hold it in either side, a pair of splayed open hands, and a pair of fists. He also has an alternate head with his eyes closed as he meditates. Fits very well for a wise mentor such as himself.

He also comes with his pre-mutation self and a quartet of baby turtles. I like that the paint on them is reasonable, though Splinterat suffers from having the feet and tail off level with the rest of his limbs. 

As for the Foot Soldier, this manages to be mostly better than Splinter interns of plastic quality visuals. The black, gunmetal grey, and light grey combo may be fairly monochromatic, but at least nothing feels as cheap as some Super 7 items come across. Granted, light bounces off a bit on the area where the logo is printed, but he doesn't have a cheap, unfinished look to him compared to Splinter. The grey on the gloves and boots also help from representing protective pads that deflect any cuts from swords or anything similar. The anatomy is slightly stylized, which is appropriate for the show's aesthetics, but it also fits given their lean and agile nature as ninjas, of course. 

Head sculpt is simple in terms of sculptwork, and much like plenty of older Spider-Man heads, does appear somewhat balloonish, yet the creases for the eyebrows and the eyes raised in relief help make it look more like a human is underneath that mask. The yellow eyes are the best part of this toy, too. As for his articulation, the head is on a ball joint, shoulders and biceps work similarly to Splinter, though he has slightly better double jointed elbows, the wrists use the same level of range, torso moves around a bit more, hips have more range than Splinter does thanks to the shorter skirt, thigh swivels are present, double jointed knees actually work on him, and he has the more traditional ankle hinge and pivot.

One of his alternate heads has him with the left eye squinting somewhat, adding a bit of personality to a featureless mask. Not only that, but it goes well with either the bo staff or the throwing stars, which has their own dedicated hands. Thankfully, the bo staff is not reused from Donatello.

He also has a pair of katanas also new to his sculpt, which also helps that his weapon holding hands are able to hinge downwards as all sword wielders should have. He also includes an alternate right hand more gestural than the others with a third head featuring a headset; this represents the Foot Technician, though some wires on the back would have completed the look.

For a size comparison, here they are alongside Leonardo. We'll see who will pop up with Shredder and Casey Jones for their review. As one would expect these match closer to the 1/10 scale more than anything, so you can put the 2003 cast with your DC Multiverse collection for any crossover displays. The turtles will mostly work fine enough for 1/12 scale, though, and moreso than the Playmates Classic Collection molds. So where do I stand with our rat and foe? Sadly, Splinter falls short thanks to his overall qualities being outweighed by his negatives, from how drab the grey plastic looks on him to the head sculpt being let down somewhat by the coloring of the eyebrows and thick whiskers. Not to mention his rat form has some wonky molding to him, and the articulation he has could be better. The Foot Ninja does a better job at being an action figure, and I appreciate the accessories and personality he has for a Super 7 Ultimate. However, the two get points taken away from a $10 price hike. Sure, they're new molds and have a reasonable number of accessories, but are they worth getting at those prices if fans should know the Turtles' prices weren't already that great? I really want to say they're great as a dan of the 2003 series, but I have more issues with them than I do the turtles. Splinter moreso than the Foot Ninja. With discounts popping up here and there, pay around $45 or less for all Super 7 Ultimates. Don't be ripped off by their tariff bs, especially after they did their layoff and went on like nothing happened (which is more noticeable for a smaller company than the average conglomerate given you'd think there'd be more standards for the little guys).

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Splinter)

⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Foot Ninja)

McFarlane DC Multiverse Black Adam & Kid Flash review

It's about time I got to do a review involving these two. While some people may know who Black Adam is (or at least know of the movie that underperformed despite boasts of changing hierarchies), I'll go over a brief bio on the character: real name Teth-Adam, this character was once granted the immense power of ancient gods from the original Wizard Shazam. Unlike the present day Captain Marvel/Shazam, Black Adam was merciless to those in his way, and while one would see the need to avenge his family from curb stomping his oppressors, he was kept within the imprisonment of his home nation, Kahndaq, for thousands of years until he became a full-on foe against CM and later Superman or serving as an anti-hero. As for Kid Flash, this is the Wally West version of the mantle, who was a sidekick of Barry Allen as well as being his nephew thanks to the OG Flash being married to Iris West. Wally would later serve as a founding member of the Teen Titans before succeeding Barry Allen as the next Flash post-Crisis. With these brief overviews on the characters taken care of, let's review them together while understanding they are paired both because of the wave they're in and because of the lightning bolt chests.

Here we have Black Adam in-hand, who reuses the Captain Marvel version of the Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman body mold. It's always an appropriate choice for someone as powerful and robust as him, Teth and Recovery Suit Supes are two of the buck's uses to not come with a cape (at least in my collection). The black and gold combo is always a favorite of mine, and especially with the lightning bolt on the center. I'm not sure if the boots are painted gold like the bolt, forearm guards, and belt, but if they're molded in a metallic gold, then they're thankfully able to color match the rest of him that is colored gold (hopefully no GPS in sight). All that said, this does just about what I would expect a classic Black Adam to look like, and the body mold will always be one I appreciate they use instead of Hush Superman or AC1000.

Head sculpt is pretty consistent with the likeness to the comic version of Black Adam, at least the classic look with the widow's peak and the ear shape that Dwayne Johnson lacked in his version of the character. While articulation is standard, he can pull off the superhero landing pretty well. 

His only accessories are a pair of alternate hands that we got with plenty of other Supermen in this line. Was it hard to at least retool these to come with lightning zapping out of the tips of his fingers? I get that some figures need to have the bubble trays intact for the sake of keeping costs down, but how hard could it have been, really? Also, it looks like some stress formed at the center of the palms, which is the first I'm seeing with this figure. It didn't show up on all the Supermen I own, and I'm not sure if this is a rare issue or not.

For a comparison with a more heroic champion, here he is with Page Punchers Captain Marvel. The same buck they're sharing is at least great for some consistency between Teth-Adam and Billy Batson, and while some retooling to slightly raise the symbols in relief would be even better, reusing body molds based on their lore with Wizard Shazam makes perfect sense. Sadly for Black Adam, he loses to the present day pupil, as just coming with a pair of hands and nothing else pales in comparison to the BB coming with a wired cape and collar, on top of including a comic book for about $24.99! By contrast, Black Adam lacks cloth goods and any comic so to speak, making him less worthy of his slight price hike than what CM got. Shame too because I mostly like this figure if not for how cheap the value is.

As for Kid Flash, this figure is a retool of I believe the Jon Kent Superman body mold. I have that buck as 90s Superboy, the Page Punchers with the disappointing lack of a leather jacket, but as one would probably expect, this figure suffers from keeping the same ridges for the boots associated with Jon Kent. It's always going to be an issue no matter what color the legs are in, but and it makes me wish McFarlane did some retooling to not only reduce the need for any inaccuracies. I'm sure there are boots that aren't too thick for the build of this character, especially since it'd prevent any poor paint coverage or bleeding between any parts colored or molded either in red or yellow. Some may think the build is a little too muscular, but that's to be expected from superheroes built in this era. After all, he wasn't from the time when artists would draw twinks in cosplay.

Head sculpt is kind of dorky, but that's to be expected when you're trying to go for a trademark of your own rather than the eventual task of filling in for your dead uncle-in-law. At least there is a bit of a wash to the hair, and as the articulation is consistently the same with 98% of the line, let's go over the accessories. He comes with a pair of running hands that I wish the other Flashes came with, and he also has some lightning effect parts that to onto the hands to simulate his power through the Speed Force. Normally, I dread putting these on since they don't specify which ones go where or how they're supposed to fit on, but these are a little easier to keep on him than the Snyder Cut Flash effect parts, for sure. You might get them to fit on his eventual grown up Flash suit form thanks to the slightly thicker proportions on the Blue Beetle body.

Here he is with his mentor, and you can tell that photographing these two wasn't easy thanks to the constant change in coloration despite the modern age of cameras we have. In that case, we have a problem where Wally has a more pinkish red than it should be, while Barry Allen shouldn't have that dark of a red for his suit. Maybe Wally should be a bit shorter than he currently is, but then again, I suspect that was a byproduct of using the Jon Kent body mold, who is slightly taller than teenage Wally West. If you want to imagine how he looks next to his successor era self, pretend Barry is using the Wally West tooling. 

Overall, Black Adam looks better as a figure than Wally West, yet the latter has more accessories to offer than the old champion could ever offer. It's more of a pick-your-poison situation with these two than I felt with Sinestro vs Brainiac, because a more classic Teth is something many people likely want more than they do a pre-Crisis Wally. Especially knowing how some fans grew up with the DCAU version of Flash, who was Wally in this case. Get whichever figure you want, be it Black Adam to put against Captain Marvel and Superman, or Kid Flash to form your Teen Titans.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (for both)