Kane
Masters of the WWE Universe (Mattel) - Wave 6
Rated 4.50 stars by Karl T. Face
May as well review something spooky this month. Kane appeared in the 90s, which is a vibe all its own. A bit of a cartoon, he was Undertaker's brother, left deformed and mute by a house fire, but with ill-defined fire powers. Over time, he used a voice box, then regained his speech, lost the mask, and quietly dropped the supernatural angle to good effect. This appears to be his recent retro look, mapped onto Origins Roboto. And you know what, it works. The greebles are unpainted (no doubt to preserve the color balance as much as the budget), and end up looking somewhat like athletic support devices. Sci-fi devices. Helps balance out the human torso. The head is new, of course, and looks great. The hair is translucent yellow, so the unpainted parts really stand out. This guy can in fact...[See More]

Powerpinch
Transformers - Beast Wars (Hasbro) - Basic Series
Rated 3.50 stars by Karl T. Face
This is what it looks like to be a winner and a loser at the same time. An early toy-only minion, this guy's only real personality trait is "cartoonishly evil". And as far as the beast mode goes, this is pretty good. It's a fairly good, if squarish, representation of an earwig, with defined segments, accurate mouthparts,and only slightly exaggerated cerci. The majority of the toy is cast in translucent green plastic, but it's so dark as to appear almost black in indirect light. The legs, face, and pincers are a nice Halloweeny orange. All in all, slightly evocative of a decaying leaf pile. Articulation is limited to a pair of hinges in the tail, enough to curl the pincer forward, and the pinchy pinchy action (lever-driven). Transformation is somewhat like a typical car, oddly- fold out...[See More]

Psycho
Toxic Crusaders (Playmates) - Basic Series
Rated 3.75 stars by Karl T. Face
Bet you didn't see this review coming. The Evil Advisor is a pretty common trope in fiction, doubly so if the person they're advising is also evil. What set Toxic Crusaders apart is that Psycho, here, can actually tell the future, but the heroes' tactics are invariably so ridiculous that Dr. Killemoff assumes a bad reading every single time. No wonder this poor guy never seems to have much enthusiasm. As was the house style at Playmates, while the toy looks like the character, it's somewhat extreme by comparison, with plenty of fun details. His double chin is spattered with red goo, chunks of green slime cling to his clothing, and his fully sculpted bellybutton is nearly lost in the folds of his stomach. He's got a slightly dazed look on his face, for whatever reason. Said face has lumpy...[See More]

Tombstone
Rock Lords (Tonka) - Evil Rock Lords
Rated 4.00 stars by Karl T. Face
I actually have a piece of the rock this guy is based on. Tombstone is a typical overconfident evil henchman of the 80s variety. He's got style, at least. Carries a scythe and all. This toy doesn't, but we'll come to that. This fellow basically has a little snake head on a long neck, spindly arms, and a beefy torso. Some damn big boots, too. And yet, it feels fairly cohesive. The "robot" parts are a sort of lime green. The deep green and uneven sculpt of the rocky areas are true to prasiolite, which I assume is the "quartz" listed on the package. Articulation, as usual, is a mixed bag. The hinges knees and swivel/hinge hips are decent enough, but the head only has vertical movement, and the shoulders and elbows are both ape-arm hinges, which is a pretty useless combo. The weapon here is...[See More]

Air-Raiders - Battle Squad
Air Raiders (Hasbro) - Soldier Assortments
Rated 4.25 stars by Karl T. Face
Many 80s toylines were a gimmick first and a story second. It worked for a lot of them, but there were casualties. As I've said before, this was a small-scale army builder type of line, and there were often empty seats on the vehicles regardless. Once again, we have four troops and an officer. The grunts are tan, with orange torso armor. Said armor is intricately plated, almost buglike. A few hoses snake in and out, and there's a pistol holstered on the waist. The arms are fairly plain in the hands and biceps, but the bracers are a mass of greebles. The legs are also basically spandex above the knee, but the "boots" look like futuristic sneakers with leather leggings and heavy braces on the ankles. The helmets, meanwhile, are oh so pulp: almost a HALO jumper sort of thing, but...[See More]

Tyrants of Wind - The Enforcers
Air Raiders (Hasbro) - Soldier Assortments
Rated 4.25 stars by Karl T. Face
Air Raiders. Quite the obscurity these days, it was mostly just 5 issues of a comic I've never seen anywhere, and a gimmicky toyline. But it had a lovely swooping aesthetic, rather like pulp sci-fi art, with oddly detailed figures. And the best part was, there were troop builders. The Enforcers are the rank and file troops of the Tyrants of Wind, who tyrannically rule a large colony on an otherwise airless planet. They're totally brainwashed, and live to subdue, terrify, and enslave. Our daring rebels have their work cut out for them. And what figures they are! In simple blocks of desaturated purple and grey, without a lick of paint, they still look great. A visored helmet tops a knight-like environment suit with heavy gauntlets, thick boots, and concave pauldrons. Bits of hose peek out...[See More]

Sgt. Hacker vs. Scalpel
G.I. Joe vs. Cobra (Hasbro) - Spy Troops
Rated 4.25 stars by Karl T. Face
Sometimes the also-rans are also worth it. What we have here is a pair of characters that were present in the current comics, but pretty much disappeared shortly afterward. The Spy Troops line was plagued with odd proportions, ugly action features, and some fairly hilarious disguises. But even those have their uses. Opening with Sgt Hacker, ostensibly the meat of the set. He's the tech guy, that's about all there is to him. He's got a wee little torso, but everything else is in proportion. It pretty much goes away if you put him behind the wheel of something, or just have him crouching over an access panel. I always appreciate some nice plain colors in this line, and while we get a fair amount of highlights in blue-gray and two blues, he's still very plain and utilitarian. Apart from the...[See More]

Bonehead
Toxic Crusaders (Playmates) - Basic Series
Rated 4.50 stars by Karl T. Face
Ladies and gentlemen, The 90s! Toxic Crusaders was an anomaly. The latest in a long line of R-rated films to become a toned-down cartoon, but it was the first to carry a clear environmental theme. Captain Planet via Troma. Also, it was from Troma. Case in point: this half-skeletal neon biker punk. The hideously deformed equivalent (of superhuman size and strength!) of the average Tromaville hooligan, this guy's rocking the full biker outfit in various colors ranging from dark purple to flame orange. Although there's no visible flesh on him, other than his incredibly withered face, the clothed parts are still pretty normal-shaped. Probably the only thing holding him together. As was the Playmates custom at the time, the sculptors far outstripped the paint budget, and there are an awful lot...[See More]

Faker
He-Man - Masters of the Universe (Mattel) - Series 2
Rated 3.50 stars by Karl T. Face
Cue the Eiffel 65. I'm not going to harp on the ineffectiveness of the disguise here, as it's been done to death by better writers than myself. Even if the cartoon had him flesh toned, all other media was garish to some degree. Frankly, he wasn't even a robot in the cartoon, so that's a different continuity anyway. What we have here is a blue He-Man with orange hair, wearing neon orange Skeletor clothes. The "robot panel" sticker on his chest is, sadly, mostly hidden, but it's got a reel-to-reel tape on there. That's charming as hell. Accessories are pretty limited for a simple redeco- just the sword. This would've been a great opportunity for the axe, given the more brutal nature of the character, and he'd look slightly less like a retread. That said, the colors and parts do play well...[See More]

Mr. Satan (Hercule)
Dragon Ball Z - S.H. Figuarts (Bandai) - Basic Series
Rated 5.00 stars by Karl T. Face
I've always been drawn to the underpowered (or non-combatant) side characters that nevertheless have very important roles to play. In the DBZ universe, even the awesomely-named Hercule Satan, the World Martial Arts Champion, is primarily comic relief. But he's still, unironically, one of my favorite characters in the series. Does that justify what I spent here? Probably. For starters, this is Figuarts. It's already coming with a hell of a pedigree, and doesn't disappoint. For the uninitiated, this generally means articulation out the wazoo, plenty of extra hands and heads/faces, and a few accessories to boot. Trying to list all the joints would be tedious, but it's a couple notches above Marvel Legends. The legs are slightly restricted by the poofy pants, but otherwise everything has...[See More]