MARVEL LEGENDS : Red Onslaught Series

Hey welcome back toy people!

This time i come here to review the most recent line of Marvel Legends Action Figures!

Yes, i know those are not vintage but i have been following the Marvel Legends line for a long time and i think they are doing a decent job with their figures.Hasbro is doing a very good job improving their figures and being better than toy biz was mostly i think.The Build-a-Figures are quite impressive too(Odin was great).....especially this one which i will describe in full detail later!

I am a pretty big fan of Captain America esp. in the Comicbooks since Ed Brubaker did the Series and i love the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Red Skull and Onslaught so i had to get those figures!


The line consists of:

1.Captain America

(Comic Book Version, Wolf Cap alternate head and 2 interchangeable hands and shield)


2.Taskmaster

( Ultimate Spiderman Version, Laser sword, Shield and alternate UDON design head)


3.Sharon Carter

(S.h.i.e.l.d. gun)


4.Mockingbird

(Daredevil style Batons)


5.Whirlwind

(2 saw blades to put on his forearms)


6.Cottonmouth

(nothing at all)


7.Demolition Man / D-Man

(shotgun, pistol and knife)


8.The Red Onslaught Build-a-Figure !!!

(This is my reason to get the whole set, a truly awesome figure!)





So lets get started on the figures now:

1.Captain America

Steve Rogers : Captain America

WOLF CAP!!!

Captain America has a dark blue on his costume and he comes with 2 straps that can be put over his arms on his shoulders so that it looks better when he is wearing his shield on the back.Unfortunatley these will come off very easily and they don't stay on where they should be.i used some black sewing string to tie them together on his back so that fixed the issue.
He wears his classic costume just on the head you get the impression its a bit more modern with lines of armor plates or a kevlar mask underneath the costume.

Otherwise cap has the standard articulation for marvel legends and also has ankle pivot!

The interchangeable parts are all awesome and especially the wolf cap head is a nice addition !


Cap gets an 8 of 10 possible Schnitzels!

Here you can see the back of the packaging from this line

2.Taskmaster

Taskmaster, Ultimate Spiderman Version

Taskmaster UDON Version

So this is the Taskmaster and i think he is maybe the best figure of the whole line (except Red Onslaught and Cottonmouth).
The figure has an additional head so you have display options which is always nice!
He can store his shield on the back which is pretty cool and he comes with some lightsaber style weapon that has a nice vibrant orange color!

Articulation is the same as always with marvel legends figures.Also the ankles pivot!
He is a very fun figure to play around with.I did some outside shots with him as well....

Taskmaster on the hunt for something!

Taskmaster gets the full Schnitzel 10 of 10!!!








3.Sharon Carter

Well i didn't like her when i saw the pictures but in person she looks a lot better actually i feel.Her white combat suit is sculpted well with the shield emblems on the shoulders.
She has some sort of weird handgun coming with her and that one is ok.
What bugs me are the non removable guns on the straps and there is no actual holster for the gun that she comes with.

Articulation is pretty standard here too except her head is somewhat hindered by the long hair.

Overall she is a good figure nothing to complain here expect the gun holster issue.

8 of 10 Schnitzels



4.Cottonmouth

Cottonmouth is a shield agent as far as i know so i don't know why she has no S.h.i.e.l.d. insignia somewhere on her costume.(She appears also on Agents of Shield).
I have not read a comic with her inside yet but the costume looks cool with the black and white and the buttons.Her weapons are the billyclub / batons from Daredevil and you can put them together to have a staff.She can hold it well and is very posable like sharon is.
Some holster on a belt would have been cool here because there is no way to store the batons.
Her glasses can be removed and are made from some rubbery plastic.They are very small so i don't wanna loose them they will stay on!


Good Figure overall maybe a little shading on the hair would look cooler.

8 of 10 Schnitzels



5.Whirlwind

I was not impressed at all at first but once i cracked the box open i think this is a cool guy!

I remember seeing this character on the old spiderman cartoon and he got his ass whopped by spidey!
Being some unsuccessful B- or C- list villain i think he does not get a lot of love out there but a least he has a cool action figure now !

He has a cool looking body armor and the eyes under his helmet are very cleanly painted and look very nice!He has some removable saw blades that are attached to his forearms and i like the goofy helmet design.The Dark green Silver contrast also looks good!
He is a winner for me!

9 out of 10 Schnitzels






6.Cottonmouth

Cottonmouth is ready to fight!

I really have not read any stories with the Serpent Squad yet but this guy makes me want to change that!
Generally i like some cool serpent themed action figures like King hiss from the masters of the universe or Serpentor from Gijoe.This figure here is no exception!

The best thing about him is probably the head sculpt which is very badass and the vibrant color scheme is also what makes him a highscorer for me!
A little downer is the total(!) lack of accessories on this guy and there is no sculpted-in scales on his body just on his head.
Articulation is great and also body sculpt fits well on this guy.He seems like a trained professional bad guy ready to kick some asses!

This is one of the best figures on this line for me so he gets a 9 of 10 Schnitzels



7.Demolition Man / D-MAN

D-man has nothing to do ....

D-Mans old costume looked very much like an overweight Daredevil / Wolverine crossover and while i think i would have enjoyed seeing this as an action figure we get the new updated costume Demolition man here.
There is nothing wrong with this figure at all and i wish that they had put the same amount of work into some of the other figures as well.He just feels more polished than Mockingbird or Sharon Carter.
They even included some nod to the old version of the character by coloring his weapons in brown and yellow which were his old costume colors!That said this is a decent figure just a little generic and boring.
The new helmet is pretty cool here though and also he has working holsters for his handgun and knife!
He is a great release but the chubby version with the stupid costume would have been more fun i think!

Demolition man gets an 8 of 10 Schnitzels





NOW.......finally the star of this line is THE RED ONSLAUGHT !!!!

"Come get some!!!"

Red Onslaught is a very beautiful figure and for me the best figure in this line absolutely!

Hasbro will even release another original onslaught head in the next X-Men line of Marvel Legends Figures which is pretty cool so there is also a cool figure for the original Onslaught out finally!(the older one looks just terrible, a hideous thing. )
The Red Onslaught has a decent amount of articulation (just the waist has none but the upper torso instead), including double jointed knees and ankle pivot!
He stands a little more than 9 inches tall.


10 of 10 Schnitzels !

"AAAARRGH!Let me go u damn bastard!"......"MUHAHAAAAAA!"

If u want to check out the story of how the red skull became the red onslaught, read the 2014 X-Men / Avengers crossover event "AXIS" from Marvel Comics.
Also the Prelude to "Axis" is pretty cool.If you like either the X-Men or the Avengers you can't go wrong here.The Artwork is above average here too!

Marvels AXIS

my copy of Uncanny Avengers Axis Prelude

Here is some more pictures of the big guy!

Hope you guys enjoyed my review of this Marvel Legends line!


Cheers!



and here as a little bonus is the classic episode of the Captain America Cartoon with his origins:

By FLO SCHNITZEL

MICROMAN / the Micronauts SPECIAL !

Takara Microman : Pharoids with Timechambers, 90s reproductions.

Japanese Toys from Takara were known to me already when i was a kid but it was mainly the G1 and G2 Transformers that i was crazy about as a boy and also other 80s classics like GIJOE, Masters of the Universe and Starcom.
The Micronauts were introduced to me in Comicbook form when i was a Teenager in the mid 90s but i didn't pay much attention to them because i could not connect them to any toys that i had or found interesting.
When i grew up in Germany in the 80s and 90s there was no sign of Micronauts / Microman toys anywhere.

During my one year stay in Japan 2 Years ago, i learned that Microman was a huuuuge hit in Japan and they also were the predecessor of the Transformers /Go Bots.
In the late 70s, Mego distributed some Microman toys under the name Micronauts in America and Europe.Even some in Germany through Airfix!

Together with the also very awesome Henshin Cyborg, Takara released a large amount of very cool boys toys in the 70s and 80s and Microman really stands out as something special and very creative!

To make a long story a bit shorter i will try to explain a bit about how the Microman Toyline came into being although i am no expert and didn't grow up directly with the toys.

For a comprehensive look about the awesomeness that is microman i can recommend this page :

http://www.microforever.com

(it's really amazing how much stuff there is….! the original vintage Micromen come with a hefty price tag quite often nowadays but they are worth it mostly, also in terms of quality!)


also check out Ishii sans awesome toyshop in Tokyo when you have a chance : TOY CATS ! (his shop Rules!)
he is one of the greatest experts on Microman in whole Japan!

https://www.facebook.com/toycatstokyo/


Microman was developed from a toyline called the Henshin Cyborg which was exclusive to Japan!
The Takara Company bought molds for making GIJOE 12 inch figures, but during the Vietnam War and shortly after no one wanted to play with Figures based on American GIs and that would also have been a political statement which was not so popular for obvious reasons in Asia at that time.
So Takara decided to use the molds for the GI figures in a more creative way and created the HENSHIN CYBORG!

The background story for him was quickly told as some scientist created a human like cyborg in order to save humanity against some invading alien forces from other planets.the cyborg was humanities last hope.

The 12 inch body was cast in a translucent plastic and they gave the figure metallic looking innards underneath.Also the translucent head could be popped off to reveal a robot head.The design was excellent and very unique compared to other figures from the same period of time.
No need to say the figure became a great success in Japan with several characters that were added to the line later.The villains also tuned out to be great.Weird colorful aliens with interchangeable parts.The idea with the interchangeable parts would continue as some kind of bonus feature to make the figures even more appealing.
I just own a bunch of the 90s repro Versions of the Henshin Cyborg called Neo Henshin Cyborg.
They also added some crazy weapons and special Armor as well as a light up feature in their hearts for this newer line in the mid and late 90s.

Neo Henshin Cyborgs with Armor parts and weapons! Those are in the 12 inch scale.

The Henshin Cyborg figures were a pretty complicated build that cost quite some money for the manufacturer Takara so at some point later they decided to reduce the scale of the figures and alter their appearance a bit.
A new background story was invented for them and thus the MICROMAN line was created.

His size was reduced to 3,75 inch instead of the 12 inch size that was used before.That was also done because as a space traveller and hero he would need some cool vehicles.


Like i said the documentary of all the microman figures and their villains and vehicles has been made and and if you want to see all of them which i highly recommend, go over to the www.microforever.com page!



Micromans enemies were also a very unique and awesome design : the Acroyear!


Take a look for yourself:

Acroyear RED by Mego 1978! the japanese versions had a more vibrant coloring but basically they were the same figures.

Acroyear RED and GREEN by Mego 1978

Those guys were basically aliens that crashed on earth and they were altered by environmental influences from the regions on earth that they landed in.Green was the smartest one and Red was the most aggressive one.
In the Comicbook this was differently done.I don't want to spoiler the Comicbook story here because its really cool and u should read that if you like (the) Microman/Micronauts!

The main Villian of this Series is Baron Karza!
He is bigger than the Acroyear figures, almost 6 inches tall and has some totally different features like his interchangeable limbs and a jetpack with rockets.He is also magentic at his joints!
He was developed from another Takara figure that was JEEG Robot, from a popular mecha anime series.Takara changed the head and the Colour so they could produce the Baron Karza Figure!
He is really impressive, his head design resembles darth Vader and Mephisto!He also features spring loaded firing fists and a spring loaded firing rocket in his belly!The guy is armed to the teeth!

With Force Commander they later created a powerful leader to stand against Baron Karza.He was cast in White plastic and had the same magnetic build and features so you could also mix them up if u wanted to.

Baron Karza in the Micronauts Comics!

BARON KARZA, the Micronauts /Micromans main villian!

There was also a crazy horse that could be mixed with parts of Baron Karza to create an ultimate Centaur like version of him with additional rockets on the sides and even wheels.

I could go on for hours and hours here but instead i will now just show you a bunch of the Microman/Micronauts toys that i could gather over the years!

My buddy jeremy is also a microman buff so check out his page that has some Microman /Micronauts related stuff on it!
http://tokyotoybastard.blogspot.de

Acroyear Cosmo Satan Arden, repro 1999 by Takara

Green Knight Microman! I don't know the exact release year….end of the 80s early 90s i guess.

Rescue Team Microman 1979

Spy Magician, repro from 1999 by Takara

Pharoid, smoke clear version, repro mid late 90s by Takara

Pharoid, rare translucent sparkly version, mid late 90s by Takara

Pharoid, translucent green version, mid late 90s by Takara

Pharoid, blue version, mid late 90s by Takara

Pharoid, orange version, mid late 90s by Takara

A time chamber from the other side.Good for storage as well!

Here are some of the Micronauts Comics which all have some pretty amazing covers!

Some later numbers that i was able to get for a very cheap price, note the xmen crossover!

Micronauts Nr 1 by Marvel Comics 1978

And finally here are come cool vintage toy commercials from Takara from the 1970s:

enjoy collecting!



by FloSchnitzel

Kabuto Mushi 2 by the GODBEAST !

Kabuto Mushi Invasion Force!

A few weeks ago i ordered some of the cool looking KABUTO MUSHI 2 Figures from the godbeast store!
BTW : Kabuto Mushi (japanese) is translated as japanese rhinoceros beetle!

I just saw some pictures on other toyblogs of them but man i had no idea HOW AWESOME they are!

The are compatible with the glyos joint system by Onelldesign and they totally rock the shit!

But please see for yourselves:

This is the KTX Mushi

This is the Amazon Tigerforce Mushi with metallic teal

I think they are roughly 4 and a half inches tall i didn't measure them.

Those guys feature a little one part mini mushi coming with them.He has a unique design too!
As if they didn't look awesome enough alread you can actually take them apart completely and build your own figure designs with it!Also they are compatible through the stick joint system called GLYOS so you can interchange parts with other figures and create something entirely new!You can also just rearrange the parts and create new figures out of one!

The materials used in casting here are totally awesome because the figures feel really nice and sturdy not cheap!

It's a ton of fun posing them in your garden as part of an alien invasion going on!

Here are some more pictures of my invasion team!

The metallic purple guy is also really amazing, in the sunlight the colors really shine!

The KABUTO MUSHI figures are really a great addition to every figure collection and if you don't have any figures, these are the ones to start your collection!

Thanks to Marty the Godbeast!

You can get these awesome figures here…..and some others:



http://godbeast.com/shop.htm



And check out the Onell Design Page for some more about Glyos!


http://www.onelldesign.com

Also check my buddy J's page:

http://tokyotoybastard.blogspot.de

by #Floschnitzel

DUNE! Actionfigures by LJN and some general info about it!

Since i want to introduce people to some awesome action-figures let's have a look at one really awesome and weird line of toys as well as the Dune books and feature film!

I don't really get why some people dislike this film so much but then on the other hand it's just not every bodies darling and it doesn't try to be…. unlike most major movies today(don't get me started!).
For people with a heart for challenging stories, i really recommend watching the over 3 hour tv - cut of the original movie if you get a chance, otherwise the regular release will do, it's just not as good as the other version.
I grew up watching the classic Star Wars Trilogy and Star Trek Movies and Series.
As a boy i already loved science fiction movies very much and so i was thrilled to see Dune on german tv with my parents one night which i totally had never heard of.

Patrick Stewart (the famous,then not so famous actor of star trek and xmen fame, also shakespeare theatre actor) was in it so that was cool and i remembered the face of kyle mac lachlan from somewhere (maybe twin peaks which ran on german tv at that time).
The movie turned out to be really cool and a bit mind-blowing for me.I don't recall exactly when that was was maybe around 1992…..

Dune Movie Poster

A bit later i played the Dune game on my Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) extensively and for hours and hours.It was a really captivating game that had all elements of great real time strategy games already but it was not quite so polished as the later command and conquer games from the same developer Westwood Studios.Anyway i had a blast playing it and the harkonnens had some terrifying weapon that was like a nuclear rocket that wiped out your main building with a single well aimed shot.I remember being shocked over and over again by the shitty computers voice saying something like "Deaths Hand (name of the weapon) approaching!"
I really liked that game until the famous successor C&C came out for the PC.
Even today it can be fun to play it if you are ok with some rather terrible graphics.
Later there were some more dune games for the pc and playstation but those were mediocre exept dune 2000 which was also pretty good with improved graphics.

Handbook of the Dune Genesis/Megadrive Game

I was not able to read the book until much later but it really pays off once you are familiar with the characters a bit.Its a thrilling read!I don't want to spoiler those people who have not had the pleasure to read it yet.
Once you started reading there is a lot more to discover than just the first novel.there are may more.
Frank Herbert created something unique and really thrilling, on par with the scale of stories like Lord of the Rings (yes, other genre!) or Star Wars or the Neuromancer Trilogy!

Frank Herberts Dune the new german edition

Very recently there was a newly done translation released so for all german people that would be a good opportunity to start reading it!Do it now!

Frank Herbert came up with a dense and cruel but also very fascinating world.The movie doesn't do this justice like it is very often the case with movies based on novels!I mean this is more complicated than star wars( love sat wars too….but for other reasons than the story) and also maybe a bit more off mainstream because inside here is drug use and a lot more things that appeal more to a grown up audience!

The movie was overambitioned and wanted to make the big money like the Star Wars films did…... it failed to do so miserably!

I don't like the theatrical cut of the movie which is too short and leaves out many cool scenes.I think the viewer has not enough time to fully understand what is going on at times.

Clearly, if the movie would have been aimed toward an older audience other things could have been possible but the money related questions stood in the way from the beginning.At least a very talented director and cast did a pretty good job.Also the whole set design and costume were very cool.

this is the german multi language double dvd edition
it contains both the theatrical and tv version 

So the movie was pretty dark and non - mainstream - ish, but this did not stop the marketing people to order some Action Figures by LJN (most famous for the Thundercats Figures that were also very cool).

It is indeed a bit baffling that the figures came out because there is a problem.Not with the Figures themselves they are quite awesome.
BUT trying to market figures of some very questionable fat floating man and his criminal nephews as well as just two heroic characters for a toyline is a very difficult thing to do.
Boys don't want a fat guy with exposed nipples to play with.They want heroes or clearly defined bad guys like skeletor from the masters of the universe line by mattel.
SO the figures turned out to be a shelf warmer in the stores and nobody wanted to buy them.That was also connected to the films failure.

Until much later when adult collectors and dune fans realized that they are actually very awesome and likeable!

Dune figures came out around 1984, in germany i think there was no official release (just some random small shops had some i was told)  and in the uk and the us the figures were totally unsuccessful at the time they came out.

They are about 5 and a half inches tall and all of them have some cool action feature called Battle - Matic that allows the figures arms to move by pushing a lever on the back or side.
They also come with quite many accessories for example guns and knives and cannons, a cat in a cage (feyd, holy crap that scene in the movie…..) sonic guns and worm riding equipment!

There is 6 Figures that came out in total and they are:

Feyd Rautha Harkonnen aka Sting :

Feyd Rautha Harkonnen with a golden knife (that was added by me from a tex hex figure because i got him loose)

Stilgar the Fremen :

Stilgar with sonic gun and worm riding gear (also improvised by me, i will try to get the original parts as well but this works for me)

…..futhermore there is :

- PAUL ATREIDES ( Kyle Mac Lachlan)

- THE BEAST RABAN (Paul.L.Smith)

- BARON HARKONNEN (Kenneth McMillan)

-A SADAUKAR WARRIOR


and a Spice Scout Vehicle in scale with the figures.

Additionally there was a set of three smaller vehicles (Sand Roller, Sand Tracker and Sand Crawler)
Those were motorized and had a 4 wheel drive called Rough RidersTM !

but this is not enough yet (see they really wanted the toys to push the movie) also there were:


- A Sandworm that looked quite like a piece of poo with teeth :D !(that thing is quite cool but not in scale with the figures)

- two toy guns ( for role play) namely : the Sadaukar Laser Gun and the Fremen Tarpel Gun with lights and sounds.

And there was a Viewmaster (yeah those old picture viewers with the disk shaped things to put in……) …..sigh.

I will put up some more pictures here as i get more dune stuff in the future!



Dune is absolutely awesome!

If you need further proof here is :

A movie Trailer !

by FloSchnitzel

Also check out my buddies pages :


http://tokyotoybastard.blogspot.de

http://godbeast.com