Marvel Legends Black Panther/Spider-Man Noir/MvC War Machine review

Covering Marvel Legends can be a bit tricky if there isn't much to go over while covering one in a single review. Especially if you only have so little in terms of accessories or comparisons. Which is why I bunched up two similarly themed figures in a single review unless they can stand on their own for more to discuss. These three make sense for a review, as I wanted to review a comic Black Panther, the Spider-Verse iteration of Noir himself, and the MvC War Machine redeco as a final revisit of the Modular Iron Man mold. So let's take a look at three superheroes who are back in black, cliche as that sounds.

Let's first cover Black Panther, as he is the new one for the site as far as the comic iteration. This guy reuses the Sunfire base mold, already having some better proportions than the Bucky Cap body due to a more natural physique that fits the character even more in my opinion. Black Panther doesn't have much in terms of paint apps beyond the silver of the eyes or the gray gloves and boots, so to make up for the flat black plastic, he comes with a small cape with a collar surrounding his head to help him stand out from most of the other versions of the character we got in Legends past; close one to have a cape was the first Legends BP and its somewhat heavier appearance with more texturing and gold paint apps to make him more regal rather than prowling for evil in the shadows. As we'll get to, the cape is removable.

Head sculpt is certainly a Batman-esque mask with the mouth region covered up, which is unique to this guy as he conceals his face entirely and only lets the personality shine from the piercing eyes with furrowed eyebrows molded onto the mask. The eyes being silver does make them shine, but white paint would be a bit more preferrable for a standard display. It's a YMMV thing. Using the Vulcan buck, Black Panther has a good amount of articulation, with a ball joint and neck hinge, shoulders that move front and back, in and out, bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, wrist swivels and hinges, ab crunch, waist swivel, hips move front and back, in and out, thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, boot swivels, ankle hinges, and pivots to boot. His elbows and knees use pinless joints and are done successfully here.

Apart from the alternate hands and I guess his cape (which is removable by first popping the head off and lifting the cape over the neck before sliding the chest straps down the legs), he comes with one of Attumu's legs...and that is a BAF I doubt I'm going to complete as I have no interest in MCU Legends so far. 

For a size comparison, here he is with two Avengers from previous waves. The Bucky Cap old was deemed too skinny for the previous versions of him, whether it's the 2013 Rocket Racoon version, the Walmart-exclusive wave version that ditched most of the blue, the Retro version that was metallic and had a more rounded head design, so using the Vulcan gives him his needed bulk while still making him smaller than either Iron Man or Captain America, two more bulky characters in the Marvel universe. If you see Black Panther for cheap, go get him.

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

And here we have Spider-Man Noir from Into the Spider-Verse. Surprisingly took Hasbro 4 years since the movie came out, though TBF, the earlier Spider-Verse figures that were not the Miles/Gwen 2-pack from Target were made a few years since the film's release, and this came out half a year before his brief cameo in Across the Spider-Verse. The figure appears to have a lot of new parts, which is especially appreciative since one would expect he would never receive this kind of treatment as a retail-exclusive. Yes, this guy was a Target-exclusive. Anyways, this figure is generally accurate to the movie, but he is missing the buttons on the shirt. His trench-coat is sculpted to be in a dynamic flare, similar to the McFarlane DC Multiverse toys of Superman and Batman. While it's great for photography, it looks awkward for vanilla poses, though I guess it's either this or a stationary one that limits posing, and it's not like Hasbro would make a cloth one that looks good and poses with bendywires. While the figure is colored black from top to bottom, there are a few paint apps around the legs to break up the color. One thing I should mention is that the hands might be reused, because while they look like black gloves from far away, the detail of veins on the outer portions of the hands as well as fingernails when seen up close is eyebrow raising with Hasbro's decision to not sculpt the hands like that.

Head sculpt is where most of the paint apps reside, with the spot pattern for the hat, the lenses for the mask, and the webbing for the mouth region of the mask. It's a successful part of the toy in my opinion. His articulation is the about the same as Black Panther, and by extension, every Marvel Legends figure of late, only he has a double ball neck joint, no butterfly joints, and no boot swivels. One of the few accessories he has is a pistol that can be stored away in a holster and stay stuck in there unless you shake it out. 

His only other accessories are the fedora-less head that reveals the rest of the mask and a slightly recolored Spider-Ham. The same one that came with Gwen Stacy. Honestly, I wish Noir came with another Spider-Ham that's posed differently and comes with a hammer accessory. Even an alternate expression would be appreciative. Apart from richer colors, there is no difference in molding between the two Spider-Hams. So that resolves Spider-Man Noir, a figure I took too long to review because I was hoping to get this guy in a shared review with a Peni Parker & SP//DR toy set, but it never happened because I am still holding on for a proper Legends version that has the general accuracy of the Sentinel release but with a joints that are easier to manipulate and Peni Parker with good articulation and is the same look as the figurine from that set. Noir is a mostly good release, but the inflated price tag is not worth it for him unless he is on clearance.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

And let's get a DBZ homage out of the way as Iron Man and War Machine perform a fusion dance to become...well, a War Machine that's recolored from an Iron Man. To the average Marvel fan, this makes no sense, as it was never in the comic books and it would lead to fans thinking this is just a lazy repaint. But if you look into the history of War Machine, you may recall that he was once a recolor of Iron Man in a video game that is old but still loved by fans. If you're someone who only knows the MCU and heard of the most recent game from this crossover I'm about to mention, I pity you, but before we had a fourth mediocre game, War Machine was in the first two entries as a recolor of Iron Man's sprites in Marvel vs Capcom and its sequel. Iron Man was only present in Marvel Super Heroes and was absent in Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, while War Machhine filled in for his fellow Armored Hero by reusing the Iron Man sprites with his own colors. Iron Man did return in MvC2 before taking over entirely in MvC3.

His accessories include repaints of the new spike-glowball and a unibeam effect piece that were originally from the Hasbro Pulse exclusive Iron Man with Proton Cannon in 90s-style packaging and colors. There is no paint for the spikeball, but it and the repulsor blasts and unibeam (which does have paint) are cast in red plastic and fit nicely with darker color scheme. Honestly, the black and steel blue combo is gorgeous, even if fans would probably wish he was a little more accurate with a purplish tint to the black and the blue a lighter shade. This is one I recommend, especially with Modular Iron Man already being a favorite of mine.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Rise of the Beasts Scorponok w/Sandspear review

Of all the toys that we got from the ROTF toys, some characters are more prominent than others. Obviously, the Optimus Duo and Bumblebee get the spotlight, with a secondary tier dedicated to Cheetor, Scourge, Rhinox, etc, and some even have a smaller presence. Then there's Scorponok, who is not only lacking in merchandise apart from this one figure, but it's also going to make people raise questions if whether or not he's even going to be an individual character or be connected to Blackout. I mean, G1 had two Scorponoks, with one being a Titan and the other being a Predacon that's much smaller by comparison, but who knows what ROTB will have. It might even be a case of Hasbro reusing names for more recognition. But let's see if this guy is worth getting, even if he is a Target exclusive.

Here are the scorpos in their titular modes. Their designs more or less match up to the appearance they'll take in the movie. They aim for a more technorganic design philosophy rather than what the original Scorponok had as a fully robotic design. Obviously, the beast mode is not going to be that poseable, a common trend for various insect or spider-like creatures. The tail is on two ball joints, though the back of it is much blockier than the front. It's a much simpler design in order to integrate the toyetic aesthetic of the Beast Weaponizers. Sandspear's aesthetics are a little more refined, but his articulation is more or less the same.

Here is Scorponok next to his Beast Wars counterpart made in the Kingdom line. With the likelihood of the ROTB guy being a minion of the chaos bringer Unicron, I went with the idea that the new Scorponok is a character with nothing in common from the pet of Blackout, much like the same going for the Beast Wars guy having nothing in common with his G1 self. Of course, they both have aesthetics that are different from each other, with different color schemes and design philosophies to boot. BW Scorpy's pretty much a mixed bag in his beast mode if I'm honst, so I guess the ROTB guy does a better job at looking cooler.

Transformation is very basic. Flip the legs down and hide the scorpion legs, straighten the arms out, hide the beast head, and rotate the robot head. That's it. The resulting robot mode is the standard Moviefied look on the Beast Wars designs, with the Maximal receiving that design approach. While it does feel pretty much what I'd expect for a transforming toy, the figure is annoyingly hollow; the back of the robot has nothing really filled in, and there are plenty of holes from the forearms and the knees. I do wish that the scorpion legs can be folded away.

Head sculpt may seem like a G1 homage, but the head sculpt actually comes from a custom Scorponok figure that was meant to be BW accurate with a head sculpt taken from ROTF Dead End...soooooo, maybe a freelance designer stole from a custom that was basically not the intended look of an official toy? Anyways, the articulation consists of a neck swivel and ball joints for the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. His tail can be straightened into some sort of sword, and the scorpion can become a spear of some kind that looks a bit unwieldy with how the legs aren't folded away.

For another robot mode size comparison, here he is next to his Beast Wars counterpart, and you can see where some of the inspiration went between the two designs to some extent, although the green is also part of the G1 homage along with the head sculpt. So overall, this is a basic figure of a Predacon that is actually a Terrorcon and a minion of Unicron that can be army-built for the movie if you really must. It is a cheaper figure than from what I've seen of the Beast Weaponizers, so I'd only recommend this guy if you're a fan of the movie, or if you like Scorponok (but not if you're that one CBR writer who is still whining about how Scorponok is not a Titan in the movies as if it was some sort of requirement by law and is probably faking his TF knowledge).

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Power Rangers Lightning Collection Wave 13 review

I've taken longer than usual at this review, mostly because I've been trying to make more shelves for the Lightning Collection while also trying to find the right way to describe my thoughts on the review. We had some QC hiccups for the first few reviews involving this wave back in 2022, but things got worse when they were properly released earlier this year. Koda's legs broke off, accessories are wrong, and Izzy's heads keep coming off. Luckily, my copies turned out alright, but the same cannot be said for a lot of other fans. Let's see if these figures are still worth recommending, even without the QC issues that plagued other fans.

Let's start off as always in odd-numbered waves with the chronological order, as Dino Charge Blue takes the spotlight. While he may seem the same as the other figures we previously looked at, there are a few differences in tooling that affect not just the articulation but also the aesthetics. This figure uses pinless joints, a double ball-neck, altered shoulder joints, and drop-down hips. The shoulders appear to be a response to most figures' arms not going down all the way, while the pinless joints, double ball neck, and drop down hips have been features plenty of Marvel Legends as far as I know. While these features are neat, the way they were implemented on these figures is not done too well. In fact, Dino Charge Blue is the same as Time Force Blue in terms of quality control. What's with the Blue Rangers coming with bad QC for the drop-down hips when the Spider-Man figures turned out great?

His helmet is accurate as always for the Dink Charge crew, and the paint apps are thankfully consistent with the rest of the team. The articulation is par for the course with all LC males, but the changes added to the sculpt mean he has a more fluid neck (in theory) rather than a ball and hinge combo while the legs can be pulled down from the hips to allow for him to either better ride on vehicles or for better kicks if we account females with skirts, they make the figure feel looser than a Bucky Cap reuse. It's a miracle my figure's feet never broke on me.

His accessories are par for the course, with the same lightning effect used for Red and Green but in purple, weapon-holding hands with the same missing silver paint, a Dino Charge Morpher with the same varying deco choices, a Dino Charge Saber, and a civilian head representing Koda.

The likeness to Yoshi Sudarso is fine, but the paint apps are a bit misaligned. Apparently, the morpher has a hole between where the blasts come from, which seems redundant given that we have blast effects made for the Morpher in mind. Otherwise, same affair we mostly expect.

Here he is alongside the other Dino Charge Rangers we previously looked at. While they are great as a complete team, especially since Tyler began the Lightning Collection along with Tommy, Cruger, and Zedd, I have to admit that the paint app/accessory inconsistencies are annoying as hell. I could care less for them going all out with the accessories,  but I wish the rest of the team had the silver paint on the gloves like Tyler, Ivan having a painted neck, Chase having his belt buckle properly painted, Shelby coming with her saber rather than a useless weapon with her zord logo painted on it, and now Koda having the proper yellow on the border of his buckle. That and better QC for him, even if my copy turned out fine.

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

And here we have the Beast Morphers Yellow Ranger. What took them so long?! The fact that we got 3 of the members for the team in the first few waves of the line and nothing after Blaze made me feel Hasbro probably didn't expect fans to not want to buy them right away when their basic figures were still around. Luckily, Hasbro gave us a Zoey to at least present the main trio. She looks great as with the other Beast Morphers Rangers, and I especially love the aesthetics of the suits Go-Busters made with the leather outfits contrasting the normal spandex sith other additions like a silver pattern for the ohter parts of the suit/inner parts of the arms, the straps on her torso, and the zipper. Her shade of yellow seems pretty accurate to the show apart from the boots maybe being a more faint shade.

Her helmet is accurate to the prop, but is it me or is the visor outline inaccurate? There is no border on the show prop, and it'd work better for a future Beast-X mode, a detail which the basic figures embarrassingly lacked. She also doesn't have metallic paint to represent the chrome unique to the colored visors of Beast Morphers, leaving it a pearlescent piece separate from the head. It does the job fine but not to an extent I'd see as definitive. Her accessories include her civilian head representing Zoey Reeves, an effect piece that's NOT reused from the boys in blue and red, a Beast-X Saber, and both a karate right hand and a left fist.

Her display options are mostly fine (the likeness to Jacqueline Scislowski is 50/50), and while it is interesting that Hasbro chose to go for a different accessory from the guys with her saber, it's stupid that she doesn't get anything else to make her unique, since Devon came with his Cheetah Beast Blaster and Ravi with a punch effect. Next to her original self, she is a general step-up from an already good toy. The proportions, articulation, and details are much better than what we previously got...apart from the visor. Also, my copy seems to have an issue with the diaphragm joint, where it kind of tilts at an angle when it should be stood straight.

And here she is with the Grid Battleforce gang minus Blaze because he's evil. It's great that we get her to complete the team, and she appears to have the least reports on quality control compared to the Dino Duo of this wave, but the lack of an additional accessory and the minor visor nitpick I have do pull it down somewhat

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Not too long after the Dino Fury Red Ranger, we get the Green Ranger! Now this one has received the most controversy in the wave. While the paint apps look nice and the figure is accurate, this figure has received numerous deserved complaints regarding its quality control. Misassembled arms, very warped swords, missing morphers, broken feet, swapped arms, one figure's visor wasn't glued in, and the worst part being the necks breaking off. It's just as bad as the damn neck fragility of MMPR Yellow, and the worst part is that the assembly for the double neck is poorly executed. It also doesn't help that the figure came with the civilian head attached, so the fact that you'd automatically want to replace it with the helmet, only for it to break, makes this toy feel like defusing a bomb. What the fuck happened, did the Hasbro factory workers hate Izzy or is this a shitty batch people got?

Her helmet is painted and accurate to the show. While my figure has slight misalignment at the visor, at least it is assembled onto the thing. Her accessories include a surprisingly normal saber, an orange effect piece, two weapon-holding hands, and the Izzy head.

One thing new to this figure is the forearms being able to rotate, which might come in handy for the morpher if you want to pose her with it (even if it is unpainted). The head looks decent to the actress playing her, Tessa Rao. Now for another comparison to a mainline figure, here she is next to her basic figure, which has a power up sleeve. Once again, same details as with Beast Morphers Yellow, but at least the basic toy didn't break. 

And here she is with her teammate, Zayto. To give this figure credit, she looks good with her team's Red Ranger, and gee left arm looks more opaque than her leader's, but I would be hesitant in getting her if you are willing to buy her from Amazon. Also, the lightning effect doesn't fit that well, what a controversial release.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

And finally, here we have the Putrid. He is very basic and shows the new tooling the best with the torso, and the legs. It only has red lines and circles with gold cuffs on the wrists and ankles as well as a belt. A simple figure that does the job like a Putty 9 years before it.

The head sculpt is a purple smile with a gold horn and matching eyeliner. Replacing the open right hand is an accessory-holding hand and the left fost a karate chop hand. His bat accessory, which was once found with a Dino Charge Blue Ranger, and the effect piece is oversized on it.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall, this wave may be better in quality control for me, but that still doesn't excuse the issues fans had with the line. Between missing pieces, incorrect accessories, duplicates of certain accessories, and breakage issues, this line hit a low point for many fans that were buying the line, and it was also a rocky start for 2023. I didn't buy the Ninjetti figures and I know they had various reports on quality control issues that plagued the wave in 2022. And that was also around the time some figures began transitioning to the windowless packaging, leading to a downgrade in how the toys are treated by Hasbro's factory workers while also cheapening the quality of a line that, while not perfect, was still good. Going from $19.99 to $24.99 may not seem like a lot to worry about, but the same can ot be said with going from the first 3-4 years to the latter half of 2022-now. Overall, Power Rangers fans may fail the "try not to bitch about every minor detail" challenge (IMPOSSIBLE), but this was one of the instances where they had the right to be upset about a Lightning Collection wave.

Overall ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐