The Cabal 3 pack brings together some notable villains. Whether this pack resonates with you will largely come down to whether or not you either already own the figures; or your personal preference for one figure over another.

From my perspective for example? I have no real attachment to or knowledge of Iron Patriot. I do now of course learning that it is essentially Norman Osborn in Iron Man armor.

This pack does reuse a lot of things. The Iron Patriot appears to be a reuse of the Iron Man Extremis armor. There may be some new sculpting, and the Norman head is new. So if you have a retro Goblin? You can use the Norman head on him.

So let's talk about Taskmaster next. Taskmaster may offer the most bang for your buck. He uses a newer vulcan body versus the prior Bucky Cap body. His headsculpt is new. He is largely new with the exceptions being his gun, sword and bow. Unfortunately his cape does limit his articulation somewhat so you can't get him into a crouching pose all that easily. His one arrow can be put in the quiver so that is really cool. Unfortunately his quiver is molded to the cape.

Finally we have Doom for last. This is arguably why I bought this three pack. Taskmaster sweetened the deal a bit. But I was looking for a Doom figure. There was the Super Skrull Doom which admittedly has better looking armor. But I would have had to pay $70 or so for just him alone. So while the 3 pack was more expensive? The cost of each figure was comparatively cheaper. This doom is again a lot of reuse...but not without some notable changes. For starters, the tunic is shorter which allows greater range of motion/articulation. There are some subtle differences in paint application as well. The bit of stitching at the top of his tunic is painted brown whereas the previous wasn't painted. The straps on his armor are not painted whereas they were on the Super Skrull Doom. His chain design pegs into two holes on his chest which holds the new soft goods cape. He has the same holster and gun. And he does have pinned joints which don't really bother me. He does have some extra hands.

But what this Doom offers that is pretty cool is a alternate Doom Bot head. So if you already own the super skrull doom? You can turn this one into a doom bot or vice versa. He is still a solid figure though he may lack some of the positives found on the previous release. If you like to customize? The sky is kind of the limit here. For starters? You can order a bendy wire cape to pose him with. Secondly? You can use some spell effects from other figures like the Khonshu BAF Loki.

There is also the 80th anniversary 2 pack with Photon. This doom is ideal for that Doom Bot head. Furthermore? That doom has an unmasked head and a separate mask plate that Doom can hold. It also has a bit of a "collar" to simulate his hood being down.

There are also a few plasma effects to simulate his rocket boosters or Patriot's repulsor blasts.

The Cabal is a bit hard to find at the moment and can be pricey. Whether you feel it is worth picking will ultimately come down to how much you want any one of or a few of these. Doom isn't exactly an easy character to find at the moment. There may be a new one that releases to coincide with the new Avengers with RDJ's return as Doom though that will be a MCU doom rather than a comic Doom. Doom seems to be one of those characters you don't want to sleep on if he comes out. He certainly won't end up at Ollies.

In the end it's a solid pack with mileage that will vary depending on you the individual....[See More]

While most anime collectibles come from their home in Japan, there's been plenty of western toy companies who have tried their hand at figures, with varying results. Nowadays, Bandai and McFarlane are doing a few anime icons, and while they could look much better (with some looking worse than others), they serve as good alternatives for those who don't want to pay import prices. Jazwares announced last year they're getting into the anime figure game with their "Total Anime" line, and they're tackling today's most popular series first, alongside a less popular series in Tokyo
Ghoul, with Ken Kaneki being their first work with the license.

All of the packaging across the figures is the same, with official artwork and a cross-sell and figure photo on the back, but the colors vary between properties. Kaneki uses purple for his box, and the packaging as a whole looks great, and stands out a bit more from other anime line. The boxes are designed for easy opening, and while most of them have those consistently-present plastic ties, Kaneki lucked out by not having them. The window box gives you a good view of everything inside, but this is a figure you'll want to open up.

This figure depicts Kaneki after his personality shift, as brutal torture turned him from a meek but gentle boy to a ruthless, but still kind-hearted, opponent to anyone who dares threaten him. His natural black hair turned white upon fully embracing his ghoul side, and the sculpt here is brought out by the wash. Usually we don't get this kind of paint work with anime figures, but I guess Jazwares was trying to add a touch of realism to these figures. He wears an eyepatch over his human eye, leaving the black ghoul eye exposed, and the lower part of his face is covered by a mask with a zipper resembling a set of clenched teeth, and the mask extends down to the neck. Two maskless face plates - stoic and psychotic - are included, as is an alternate neck piece for them. The paint and printing on the faces is really clean, and they nailed the likeness, standing out as the best of the figures Jazwares' done so far.

Kaneki stands 6 1/2" tall, which is the scale Jazwares chose for this line for some reason. I don't mind it much, but he'll look out of scale with my other figures. His season two outfit has been recreated well, with some of the lines in the clothes becoming subtle stitches, and a loose-fitting look to the sleeves and shorts. Some parts of the outfit, like the upper torso and thighs, are separate pieces overlaying underlying parts, presumably to cover up some joints for a better aesthetic. The paint on the outfit is clean, utilizing both wash and metallic accents, but there should be a bit more color variation to it. The shorts should be a different shade of gray, and the shoes need to be a different color from the leggings. It's okay for the market and price point, but some more accuracy would be nice.

The Jazwares figures I grew up with had joints that were floppy, prone to breakage, and/or oddly designed. Thankfully, that's no longer the case. Kaneki has a barbell head, ball-jointed neck, chest, and waist, swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, and ankles, ball-jointed and hinged hips, double-hinged elbows and knees, swivel biceps and thighs, and pectoral hinges. The joints in the torso are a bit wobbly, like they'll hold a pose but not too tightly, but everything else has no issues and moves perfectly. You can even get him standing on one foot, but the ankle swivels aren't too tight, so he can lose his balance if he's weighed over too much on one side. The different parts swap with no need for heat, and in addition to the closed hands, there's also loosely gripping and finger-cracking sets of hands.

The ghouls in the series, aside from needing to eat human flesh and their eyes often turning black, also have "kagune" that they use for combat, and Kaneki's consists of four tentacle-like appendages that come out of his back. These are not small pieces, each being 6 3/4" long, and are designed with scales and plenty of shading for a more defined appearance. They're not super screen-accurate, but the work is still impressive. In addition to swivel/hinge joints where they plug into the back, they also have bendy wires that move with ease, allowing for many dynamic poses. If you don't want Kaneki with his kagune, there's an alternate back piece with no tentacle ports, and it swaps out easily. Speaking of stuff that pops out of the back, there's a small piece of plastic higher up that covers up a port used for dynamic stands like Revoltech or Figma. Kaneki doesn't anything like that, but he does have a clear, oval-shaped base that helps support him.

I'll admit I lost interest in Tokyo Ghoul long ago, but learning of a Kaneki figure coming from Jazwares of all companies caught my attention. I've gotten a few of these Total Anime figures already, but Kaneki's proven my favorite, thanks to the great sculpt and quality combined with a surprisingly low price of $17, where other companies would charge around $30-40 for him. Only issue is that he's a Target exclusive, and not an easy to find one at that, since my Targets don't really carry these figures (in fact, this single one was the only figure I've seen there so far). Hopefully they pick them up more soon, or least this half-ghoul isn't an exclusive for long.

- 1/16/25...[See More]

Favorite Series: Masters of The Universe
First Figure: He Man and Battle Cat
Collection Size: Very big
Currently Collecting: Masters of the Universe Origins, GI Joe Classified
...[See More]

A beautiful doll with surprisingly accurate clothing for the price. The dress is quite beautiful, with a separate belt. The face doesn't look entirely like Cate Blanchett, but a repaint could do wonders. The head is a bit on the smaller side, but it's not as disproportional as the Arwen doll. My main complaint is the strangely large breasts that appear pointy and prominent under her gown. All the female dolls of this line seem to have this and it looks quite strange with their loose gowns....[See More]

Current Projects: Currently collecting the playmates origional tmnt line
...[See More]

...[See More]

...[See More]

...[See More]

...[See More]

...[See More]

...[See More]

...[See More]

...[See More]

In addition to Sonic, Jakks Pacific has been putting out a good Super Mario line, with great sculpts in two different scales, and plenty of accessories. The line started off as a general "World of Nintendo" line, focusing on various series, until Jakks realized Mario was the biggest seller and prioritized that. The figures drew me and my brother in from day one, and we got a few of them in its first year or so, and we've held onto most of them.

The World of Nintendo line followed a mostly uniform motif, but with different colors and stock art for each property. Mario had a red cardback motif, but the back was the same across figures, showing off the figure and articulation, alongside the figure's height (something we don't see on post-WoN release). The figure is easy to open and out, and the accessory is contained in a question block-shaped box, meant to be a "mystery" accessory. They eventually got rid of said gimmick and left the extra visible, likely to keep from confusing people that the accessory was different with each unit.

In the ten years since releasing their first Mario, Jakks has done multiple reissues and variants, and eventually an updated sculpt, but this one still holds up very well. Mario has his commonly-seen happy expression, and even if we got a redone version of this figure, it's very accurate to the official model at the time. The eyes are a little on the small side, or at least the sculpt seems that way due to the large pupils. The head is pretty solid plastic, and there's more paint here than I'm used to seeing on Jakks figures nowadays. The work on him is pretty clean, aside from a few small marks here and there.

Mario stands 4" tall, which is the standard scale for this line. As in, the figures are usually 4" tall, with no regards to scale between characters. Put him up next to the Link we got in the first wave and you'll see what I mean; the plumber is way too big next to him. They matched Mario's squat, cartoonish proportions well, complete with his signature blue overalls. The torso seems to be cast in blue plastic, with the shirt and buttons painted on, though there's uneven edges and the plastic showing through the paint. The shoes are also painted, and the work on them is better.

The Jakks Mario was released around the same time as the S.H. Figuarts Mario, so it's not the most articulated figure of the character, but it still moves well. Mario has a ball-jointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders, ball-jointed hips, hinged elbows and knees, and swivel wrists. The head is pretty limited due to the design, but you can manage some good arm and leg poses at least. His "mystery" accessory is a Super Mushroom, and the sculpt and paint on it are good, but like Mario himself, Jakks would eventually redo it to look better. Also, since Mario's hands are closed, he can't hold the Mushroom, so all it does is just sit there.

Jakks managed to put out a strong start to their Nintendo license, with great sculpts and details for the designs, albeit in inconsistent scales. They've improved quite a bit since that first wave, but with the work they managed to put out then, it's no wonder why they still have the license. And if you didn't get this initial release, they've made sure to keep Mario on shelves, and I may have to get the newer version some time.

- 1/11/25...[See More]

Current Projects: Working on an original project.
Favorite Series: Marvel legends and DCUC
...[See More]