Wednesday, December 31, 2014

A Cold Knight in Gotham City

A Cold Knight in Gotham City



My favorite Two-Pack. I wish they had included Batgirl instead, but whatever. We get a cool Batman variant anyways.



Freeze is a shiny repaint of the "Mr. Freeze" mold. Go see the review for that. I'll just say this: I LOVE THE CHROME ON THIS FIGURE! And the smaller gun, too! My favorite Freeze from this line. As for Batman, this is one odd figure. He has a chrome chest-plate, and best of all...FREEZE EFFECTS! I've never played the Cold, Cold Heart Arkham Origins part, but I saw the whole movie so we might as well draw comparisons. Batman's Snow Suit is kind of cool, heading in a weird Nightwing phase...but it's the pose that kills him. It's kind of hard to stand him up. He falls over a lot. But it's still a cool costume. Better than all the variants in the line. The freeze effects are the coolest part though! We'd never see a frozen Batman again 'till Mattel's The Batman line! More on that later!



This was rare when I bought it... Don't know how rare it is now, but it's definitely my favorite two-pack. Then there's the next review...which I shall post...eventually! I hope you've enjoyed this trio of two-packs!

Night Hunter Robin vs Evil Entrapment Poison Ivy

Night Hunter Robin vs Evil Entrapment Poison Ivy



I rather like this duo! Their cat and mouse game throughout the movie divided the Bat-family, but we know Robin was just going through a phase, and definitely on drugs. Now before we start, I'll mention that while I have no package pics, there was a variant in cardboard inserts. The more common variation featured a lazy picture of both figures, but the rarer version featured a nice painting of both figures duking it out. I REALLY like how the art came out. I actually had the rarer one, but the cardboard insert has been lost to the sands of time. Bummer. Pics are out there, so look 'em up. Poison Ivy looks very New 52 in that!



Ok. Robin: He's cool, nice pose, cool weapon, nice shiny red. I had never seen shiny red before like this, did we? Whatever. It's a nice figure. Poison Ivy on the other hand is my FAVORITE IVY FIGURE EVER. She has always been my favorite Ivy! I can't tell you enough why she's so awesome! She's got an awesome claw hand, she has transparent pieces and full body suit! Obviously, she never wore this in the movie, but she's so much better than the other Ivy figure... And she was so modern! Very nice.



Should you ever get this, please do it for Ivy! She's my favorite Ivy ever produced! And who doesn't love Poison Ivy? Who doesn't love Uma Thurman? Is she going to KILL FREEZE? This figure sure as hell looks like it. Hire Emotionally Torn Bane, give him some more drugs and they might just stand a chance. (and then kill Batman and Robin)

Brain Vs. Brawn

Brain Vs. Brawn



Uh...sorry for lack of updates. I've been busy with the holidays and whatnot. The usual. Well let's just chug through this last bit of B&R so we can go ahead and transition into something better...



Brain vs Brawn. What a joke of a name. We all know Bane is one of the smartest Bat-villains out there. Here we get instead Silver Surfer Batman and Emotionally Torn Bane. They are nice figures though. I love Batman's movie accurate Bat Taser, and Bane comes with Bane tube and a buncha chains he can toss around Batman. He also has clear plastic bits. Half of him is Poison Ivy's b*tch, and half is well...you know who's. Still, very nice sculpting on both figures. It's nice to get unique figures and not repainted or re-hashed molds, don't you think?



If you've been following my blog, you know that I'm a sucker for chromed up figures. Sadly, this may not be the case, because Batman is kind of a statue. Bane on the other hand is the better figure of the two! And besides, he's BANE! He's not just another Bat Variant! It reflects his state throughout the movie as an ally to both villains. It's a really cool Bane mold.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Frostbite

Frostbite



This is the only line thus so far that has provided us with Henchmen...Ok fine, Movie Masters from the TDK line gave us Joker henchmen...and then there's Bob from Toy Biz 1989, but I never counted him as a henchman, but as Joker's number one..."guyyyyy!"...Anyways, this is a very fun, customizable figure unlike anything we had seen before. In fact, he's so unique, I've never seen anything like this in figure form ever. I almost want to buy more of these and build an army, but he's become his own villain.



The transparent armor can be used in many MANY several different ways:



Opening up the armor doors slightly turns the armor into a backwards sled. The sled is also a launcher where the hockey stick missiles fire from.



The bits of armor can also separate. The oddly placed pins fit into grooves placed throughout the figure. Oddly enough, this feature is NOT explained in the instructions as far as I can remember, so you have to figure it out yourself! And it looks extremely cool! This is by far my favorite mode! Clipping the chest plate onto one of the arm pieces of armor makes the launcher actually usable!



Removing the armor reveals the most detailed figure out of the entire line. He's got more paint apps on his form than any other figure despite the dull-ish colors, and the sculpt isn't just cool. It's AMAZING. This is a dude who's dying of cold but yet looks scary as hell and is always ready to play dirty. Definitely a hockey player! I wouldn't cross this guy... Hockey Team from hell indeed.



I highly recommend this figure. I know it's uncommon, but not rare. Find this figure today! I know I'm going to end up buying several more! This would have been easier back in the day, but oh well.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Bane

Bane



Bane's portrayal as Ivy's bodyguard by the late Jeep Swenson was hated by most, since Bane is an intelligent, powerful adversary to Batman, but the figure does the character a ton of justice, as it looks more like the comic book version than the version portrayed on film. If you need a 4.5 in. tall Bane, this is it, and he's surprisingly common and cheap!



A beautifully sculpted figure, this is THE Bane everyone had been waiting for prior to 1997. But due to the film making Bane into a mere afterthought, this was found and pirated EVERYWHERE.



He comes with a punching glove and a swing axe, and of course, his venom tube, which is removable. Very nice for such a strong arm. That makes him extremely dangerous.



I highly recommend this figure. If there was one figure I'd have to recommend from this line, this Bane would be it. It's one of the best Bane figures ever produced! B&R did it! I don't know why y'all have to hate this movie and the toyline. They gave us one of the best Banes ever! I mean, I don't think I know how to improve this figure, to be honest. It's better than the BTAS version since the action feature severely cripples that figure. Heck, I even expected some sort of swinging arm or something on this figure. Nothing! It's the best Bane in that scale.

Jungle Venom Poison Ivy

Jungle Venom Poison Ivy



I really wish this Poison Ivy was more than just a generic sexy female villains and looked more like Uma Thurman did on film with the famous hair cones...or at least with the red and black leather outfit from the final battle. This figure was done early one and likely the first figure sculpted for the line as reported by the souvenir magazine by Topps back in the day... Still, it's not a bad figure.



If anything, this is a very modern Poison Ivy. Full on green suit and so forth. Maybe if her flesh tone was grey or milky white THEN we'd have a better Poison Ivy. The version from the two-pack as we shall see is better, but this is still a dynamic femme fatale with some awesome accessories. Ok fine, the top heavy water squirter sucks, but the vines are very nice and highly usable on enemy forces.



She has nice details, like sculpted vines running up her suit, and so forth... maybe my issue is with her hair. B&R had a very flamboyant Ivy who had a thing for putting up her hair in a space opera fashion that is emulated by Poison Ivy cosplayers around the world... Why didn't this figure feature that?! Why didn't we get as many variants as Freeze did? I would have totally gone for a Gorilla Ivy...



I say skip this figure and go for the one in the shiny Robin two-pack. This figure was a shelfwarmer, and it can be found very cheaply around the web. My theory is that if they had done a BETTER figure in terms of movie accuracy, then she'd be more interesting. As you shall see, the one from the two pack is an extremely modern figure reminiscent of the New 52 way she is being drawn.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Jet Wing Mr. Freeze

Jet Wing Mr. Freeze



Another cool scene specific figure, Jet Wing Mr. Freeze is the hardest or more expensive figure in the line. It cost me an arm and a leg to acquire it, so you're lucky to see it both MIB and outside of the box!



This figure is actually rather simple. There's nothing much to it except for the wings and blaster. The wings are actually drilled on to the figure so you can't really remove it, but at least you can put them in non flight mode.



Another remold from the Mr. Freeze figure, this one also features googles. The ice blaster does not fire anything, which is kind of lame, but it's very cool to have a scene specific movie that also manages to be accurate. I also really like the deco on this figure.



Based on the infamous surf's up scene from B&R when Freeze jumps out of the rocket followed by Batman and Robin, this figure isn't one to be missed, especially if you're a completist. I think it's one of the better additions in the line.