Greetings. Being my first "significant" post of actual content for mind consumption I apologize to those who may have been waiting. Which in turn means I'll probably only owe myself an apology. That isn't a surprise.

 

Well, word-flesh cravings for the rabid are no more. It's dinner time.

 

Today's agenda consists of (random) thoughts on facets of the figure spectrum and maybe other tangent ramblings.

 

I find myself liking the figures based on the Crysis 2 video game. There's a few reasons behind it. I've only purchased two of the initial (and maybe last?) wave mainly because I was somewhat skeptical and they were the two that I haven't seen multiples of yet. So after a dismal drought of figure hunting these finally caught my eye. I'd glanced at them from time to time since they're conveniently pegged right between the POC Joes and the Halo figures. Long story short I have the CELL Unti soldier and the Alien Stalker. Both are cool in their own right. The CELL soldier reminds me of the Joes I personally grew up with which were the 80's 3 & 3/4 inchers with the inner band holding the legs to the torso. He just has that "feel" to him with the added bonus of articulation at the biceps and ankles. Although articulated differently than the POC (and 25th Anniversary) Joes he fits in well with those line, moreso the POC. The weapons assortment he came with is solid and overall he's sold me on buying one of the nanosuit-clad main characters. This is probably the right time to say I've never played the original Crysis game, I've never played played this new Crysis 2 game that these figures are baed on and I'm now learning that there's even a game that's apparently part 1.5 that was after the first and before the second. But based on their size and design I had an outsider's appeal and decided to buy in and I'm glad I did. OK, now to the alien stalker guy that I also bought. The Stalker is apparently the most agile and mobile of the 3 alien units offered in this wave so he's the more undersized and streamlined of the 3. Of the 3 alien units I really like his head/helmet design. I need to inform myself more but I'm wondering whether or not these are cybernetically altered humans because the upper torso is humanesque with the Doc Ock-ish tentacle arms and robo-legs jutting from it. Nevertheless I dig the design and the look of these alien units but was disappointed that with the tentacle-like arms not being bendable. They're in a fixed position so it limits what he can be posed doing with them. On a positive note the legs have some great movement and pose options are very high due to the lower half's design and the ball hips. He crouches great and can get in great poses to display overhead on a ledge waiting to pounce his prey. All in all it looks to be a solid set. I'm not fully aware whether or not the figure representations match up to the game models 100% but based on the cardback art they both look close. If anything the CELL soldier's head is a smidge too small. This is far from a guarantee but pics of these in my blog with other similarly-scaled figures is a high possibilty. Stay tuned.......

 

No sooner that I cave in and buy figures from a line based on a game I've never played much less had heard there's was game(s) prior to this one featuring some of these characters I see the new stuff from the Green Lantern and Captain America movie lines. First off I'll hit some points on GL stuff. Considering what I'd seen from the Dark Knight line in a similar scale plus the Infinte Heroes and finally the prototypes I finally had the (un)fortunate opportunity to hold the smaller scaled GL figures in hand. The few I purchased were not for me, I was solely doing my due diligence in helping one of my longtime friend's in the figure-collecting realm. Anyway, they weren't terrible and actually resemble who they are. Aside from the obvious lack of articulation they were decent and IMO opinion the line's saving grace is the inclusion of constructs. Dare I put my for-now-anonymous friend squarely in harm's way when I say he mainly wants these 4in GLs so his construct-lacking 6in GL figures have constructs to wield in his display?!? Call me crazy but I'm of the thinking that he isn't alone in the DCUC collecting community. Poor saps are lucky to get the very power battery that gives the GLs their minty green will-driven energy, much less a construct. Well, until now that is. I gave the Movie Masters figures a once over and aside from being OK the price tag I've seen on these from both Toys R Us and Target make me oh-so-happy I'm not dying to have these. I will add in a small bit about Movie Masters Hal. His face looks pretty crappy with a non-sculpted mask over his eyes. I know, I saw the movie, the damn mask is energy generated and blah bleh blah. There's tecture all over that energy generated suit he wears too yet the figure's body carries that texture throughout. And unless u fell asleep or aren't the type to grasp detail you can see that the energy generated mask had features (like the brow) that were accentuated. So IMO it comes off as cheap when the Hal head has a (sloppily in some cases) painted mask. Funny thing is the 4incher Hals have sculpted edges to distinguish the mask from the rest of his face. I'm not a huge GL fan, most of the GL stuff can sit and fester before I gave a shit but looking at it from a collector's eyes I would've been pretty bummed seeing a nicely sculpted texture representing the costume yet a crooked painted mask on his face. Its detracts alot from the potential it had.

Oh well, on to the Captain America figures. These are figures I'd been anticipating. Of all the recent Marvel movie made I enjoyed them with hopes that Cap would get a damn good treatment in the future. Its only a matter of time before I can answer that once the movie hits theatres but I've been anxious. Just to throw it out there Cap was never on my radar as a character I'd give money to sit down and read a story about until Marvel started Cap's main book over at issue #1 a few years back and Ed Brubaker was in the writer's seat. Pick up some of those TPBs if u want some cool Cap shit to read. I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend them. Back to figures, I'm used to the concept stuff since they did it with Iron Man's toyline but seeing comic version Crossbones was downright awesome. He is my current favorite figure from all recent lines in this scale and although he's not perfect articulation-wise he's a very badass looking figure. So far I have him, movie Cap, Bucky as Cap and movie Red Skull. US Agent is probably next on my hit list but I've seen plenty of him everywhere and as usual when you see figures you have to choose your battle wisely and get the short-packed ones first if you can't splurge for them all. And honestly I haven't purchased an entire wave of figures since one of the pre-Metallo waves of DCUC because I've just beaten myself up over getting them when I don't necessarily want them all. Its very rare nowadays that I see a full wave I must have. Back to the figures, they have a hip articulation system that I've become a fan of but I can already see that some probably wouldn't be a fan of it. Its probably too much of a departure from the hip joints they're used to seeing at this scale like the more-recent Joes or even ball hips like the 6in Marvel Legends had. I think this style of hip articualtion looks more natural than most ball hips ever did and add a swivel point that Joes don't have. For those wondering which was my least favorite of the 4 figures I'd safely say its Red Skull. His right hand could've used a better pose for holding the included gun, the head could've been set a smidge lower and most of all he should've been given ankle articulation. As much as I love Crossbones I'm prefectly fine saying that the Bucky as Cap figure is my favorite from the other 3 I purchased. He seems to have plenty of range from all his joints and I'm a fan of this newer Cap costume design. He looks very slick and less cartoony. It just sucks he came with such a gimmicky shield. Once thing I have noticed is that I'm glad I lucked out and had a few to choose from because paint slop of the face and chest/torso has been hit and miss with the Bucky as Cap figures as well as the Captain Britain figures I've seen. Most of the GL stuff I've seen aside from the Movie Masters Hal's crooked mask epidemic has been fairly spot on.

 

Hopefully there's plenty to chew. Don't be bashful, comment if the mood strikes.......