Thursday, July 31, 2008

There's nowhere left to run! This is the hour of Fin Fang Foom!

I've recently become interested enough in the Marvel Legends line (formerly by Toy Biz, currently by Hasbro) to start trying to acquire some. What really pushed me into following the line is the Build-a-Figure concept, started by Toy Biz with series 10. Each figure of that wave came with a piece of another figure. In this case, they assembled into a Giant Mutant-Killing Robot Sentinel. Sentinel is around 13-14 inches tall, which is nice and big compared to the 6 inch scale for the regular figures. He's kinda hard to put together now, but I'm working on it. I also decided I wanted a few of the other BAFs, such as Onslaught, and Annihilus (which I almost have completed).

I really like the BAF idea, as it allows us to get figures we wouldn't normally, like less likely to sell well as a single carded figure, such as a Giant Mutant-Killing Sentinel. A lot of people have complained about Hasbro's BAFs because compared to several of Toy Biz's they're quite small. Ronin is the size of a regular figure, Annihilus is a little bigger, but not 9-10 inches like Onslaught, let alone the Giant Mutant-Killing Robot. But, with Hasbro's latest Marvel Legends line they really tried to match up to Toy Biz's fame with a Giant Green Dragon Monster, by the name of Fin Fang Foom. Derek and I went shopping last night in our weekly toy hunt and found the complete set at Toys R Us. I had been planning to buy the pieces on eBay because I only like two of the figures, but after watching some of the pieces sell for over $15 by themselves I realized it was cheaper to buy all the figures at $15 a pop and sell the ones I don't want.

This wave is know as Hulk Legends and is comprised of eight figures relating to the Incredible Hulk. We've got things like Bruce Banner's cousin the She-Hulk, his son Skaar, Savage Gray Hulk, the Absorbing Man, and then we have more interesting things like Wendigo a demon spirit that possesses people and drives them to violent, mindless ramages until something stronger than it (like the Hulk I guess) stops them. This is one of the only two figures from the set I really like.

The only other figure I like is King Hulk, from the same storyline as Son of Hulk. Something to the effect of people (Superheroes) think Hulk is to dangerous and unpredictable so they put him in a rocket and blast him off into space. He lands on a planet called Sakaar where he finds he fits in great because everyone is violent and mean. He enters into some sort of gladatorial combat (whence comes the Planet Hulk gladiator figure in the Annihilus series, the only figure from that wave I want to get for something other than the Annihilus piece), I guess he wins, eventually kills the evil king, takes his throne and his queen and has a son. Then Earth's 'Superheroes' blow up the planet and kill everyone and everything on it, except Hulk who survives, comes back to Earth and is really not happy. Anyway, the figure is cool, that's why I'm keeping it. He also comes with an axe, but after helping me open several figures Katie was playing with it and I forgot to put it in the picture.

Katie and I spent a good while opening these figures so I could get the pieces for myself and list the extra stuff on eBay, and when we were done this is what we had. As you can see, Foom is comprised of several pieces - 11 spread out over 8 figures, especially compared to DCUC BAFs (Collect & Connect's technically) which only require 5 pieces. Even Sentinel, which is almost as tall as Foom only took 6 pieces.

Once assembled Foom is tall, the packaging says over 15 inches, which I take to mean 15-1/32 or -1/16 inches, but it could be more than that. It doesn't really matter though, because by far he's the tallest thing I have. He will be lots of fun to display against the smaller figures, be it the 6 inch DC and Marvel figures, be it the 5 inch Halo figures, or 3 3/4 Star Wars (and upcoming Marvel figures). In fact, I think the smaller the figures are the cooler Foom will seem. I'm definitely going to give the small Marvel Universe figures a try once they come out, since Wolverine and Iron Man should be some of the earliest figures, and it'll be exciting to set them up with the Star Wars figures and have them take on the Giant Green Dragon.

Okay, enough babbling, right? Let's see him once he's assembled. . Right, that's great and all but it doesn't really show how big he really is, so we've got some comparison pics. As always, click the image for a larger picture.

Fin Fang Foom is awesome. He's also the first Marvel Legends BAF I've completed. And the most expensive. There are a few nits to pick, and since I spent a ton of money on him we'll pick them. King Hulk's left arm is supposed to be silver, but is cast in a plastic that is gray, not shiny or metallic looking at all, and has a bit of a yellow tint to it. I plan to do some touching up of that arm to make it look like he's got a metal sleeve. His skin could use either a dark wash or dry brushing, but I'm not sure which so I'll probably just leave it. Derek thinks the leather stuff needs some work, probably a dark brown or black wash to make it look a little more real, or less like unpainted brown plastic. Some of Fooms joints don't look like they connected well enough, mostly the upper torso area. The arms don't look like they're in far enough, there's too much of a gap, and similarly where the lower and upper torsos connect the gap seems too big. Only the double elbow has enough movement. The ankles and wrists in particular could use more movement, to cover the joint the leg and arm extends too far over the joint, kinda like a sleeve. With some careful trimming the movement range could be enhanced. The knees also could use such tweaking, and maybe the mouth to get it to close a little more. I don't know if I'll make any of these changes though, because he's really great, and I am happy with how he is. He could just move a tad better.

Unrelated Addendum
I recently encountered Evanescence's (of whom I am a big fan) first CD, Origin, of which I am now a bigger fan. It is such a great album it is a damn shame that it is so hard to come by. Everybody deserves to hear it. So, I present for your listening pleasure the first part of the instrumental end track, Eternal.

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Friday, July 18, 2008

Blue Beetle is coming to town!

Toy Guru has given us a sneak peak of what we'll see at San Diego Comic Con in the DC Universe line, and so far it is plasticky awesomeness!

Blue Beetle! who I'd never even heard of until I recently read Countdown to Infinite Crisis, and in that one issue I came to care for an empathize with him, and wish I'd known him as well as Batman.
And then he died.


Thanks to VeeBee at The Fwoosh for letting us all know.

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