u/TheDK220

Ever since the original COIE Kid Flash came out way back when, I genuinely didn't think we'd ever get or need another Kid Flash as part of this line. Granted, he had the baby hands, but eventually, I came to not mind as much. After all, functionally? He was still a pretty good figure. It's just that now we have this one, which is better in every conceivable way. Seriously, I love the fact that it's on the teen body, I love that the design is still really well applicated, and the headsculpt? GET OUTTA TOWN. Along with the new Silver Age Robin, the Starfire I have, and the upcoming Raven? I'll have the start of a pretty solid Titans roster. I just need Cyborg, Changeling, and if they don't update Donna Troy? I'll have to go back and seek her out as well.

After a month of waiting, I FINALLY have this new wave in my clutches... which means that in my excitement? I basically ran through the entire thing and did shoots for all 4 figures in one night. Yes, I got ahead of myself, but when you have easy access to a ton of figures, and you're able to actually enact scenes and recreate covers? You tend to get excited! Especially when you finally have a stellar Silver Age cast like we do now. As much as I LOVE the modern stuff and even the edgier 90's/00's designs? These Silver Age era designs that were right at home in Super Friends are my jam. Which is hilarious, considering I was never alive when Super Friends was airing! Doesn't stop me from enjoying it, though, and there's little better joy than seeing a goofy little Tony Curtis-esque headsculpt on my Brainiac action figure.

Of course, since I've done shoots for every figure in the wave? It means I'll have to pace myself when it comes to posting. One a day!

I think that I could have easily picked up the Troika Batman for a long eared variation, one that held this same kind of stature and head sculpt. At the same time, Troika was ALL BLACK, and I needed something more akin to the original Kelley Jones art. Something cool hued but not pitch dark. So I picked this one up since it was new, and I was able to feel that the wiring in the cape was different than that of the World's Finest release. I WILL SAY....I think the cape should've been larger. I know a ton of people may have an issue with large capes, but this version of Batman is so known for the length and coverage of his cape. To have something more encapsulating and fuller would be ideal. I would've LOVED something that could drape over his arms and almost drown him. That way, he can come closer to the art. Do I regret grabbing him? No, but man, a bigger cape would've cinched it.

I'm not sure WHY they planned a bunch of Christmas releases in early August, but all the same, there's a Santa themed Ghostface in my collection now, and the puns are running rampant. Really, what better way to bless a gimmick themed figure than by thinking about all of the ways a Christmas themed Scream movie would work? Honestly, other than "Scream in Space," having it be Christmas themed is one of the things I'm surprised haven't been done yet. Seven movies in, and we have neither decked the halls with the bowels of Holly nor have we really tried to check if someone can hear screams in space. Either way, this was a surprisingly fun release, I do hope, however, that this is my last Ghostface. I wasn't expecting GHOSTFACE of all characters to end up being something I'd have three different variations of, but here we are!

Out of ALL of the things that NECA released from the vault late last month, seeing The Faun coming out is easily the thing I expected the least. Really, finding any of the GDT figures is something I didn't expect, and while I wasn't lucky enough to snap up that old Devil's Backbone figure? I wasn't gonna take the chance on this and snapped it up despite it working against my budget. I needed this, just as I'm sure I NEED a bunch of the other vaulted figures. The Pale Man, The Asset, even the old SDCC Guillermo figure, they're all on my list! Hopefully this is just the first in a long line of things that'll be eventually checked off.

At this point, I'm still working under my "only 4 figure" rule for both Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. I wanted to allow myself the room to have a plethora that signifies different periods of a characters history, and for me? 4 figures encapsulate it pretty well. In the case of Savini Jason, tho? He works outside of that rule, much like the video game homage Jason I grabbed earlier this year. He's not an OFFICIAL movie design, but he earns a place on the shelf both for conceptual impact and the rule of cool. Honestly, when I look at this figure and learn of the backstory? It makes me wonder why we never got a movie based around it. The design is there, the concept is certainly there, and in an age of shifting timelines and retcons in classic slasher flicks? I don't see why we can't make a sort of "What If?" style movie about what would happen if Jason clawed his way from Hell rather than being pulled out by Freddy. Either way, it's SUCH a rad figure.

Full transparency? I don't like the Terrifier movies. I've seen all three, and I find them to all be somehow insanely droll and completely full of themselves at the same time. Part of that maybe has to do with the mentality of the director himself, whom I'm not a fan of, but mostly? My opinion of the series is that it's always been one step behind where it should be narratively. The original short film was something intriguing. It pulled me in, and I wasn't bored. There was an insinuation of lore, and that was cool! But when the first movie came out, it didn't feel like the short film. It didn't even feel like a film! It felt like proof of concept, which is generally what a short film is for...so why not build on it? Come to find out, that's what the sequel did, and the third did some more. So, for me, the series doesn't even hit its stride until its second installment, and that's a strange structural trajectory for a horror series to take.

I think since the fourth one is the last, I won't have to suffer it for much longer. With that being said, I like Art The Clown as a character. The actor behind the makeup did a TON of legwork during con season during the sequel's release year that I ended up becoming endeared to how he handles the whole thing in a cultural sense. When untethered by the constraints of his movies, Art The Clown is insanely charming and filled with personality. So I knew eventually, I'd have to get the figure.

This figure is so fuckin' conceptually cool. On its head, it isn't super impressive. It's pretty minimalist for the price point and doesn't come with really, well, anything. But the fact that you can kinda have a stylized version of The Thing as it mimics others without going out and buying the Ultimate Thing Dog set is a treat in and of itself. I suppose that's why I didn't take any substantial pictures of this guy either, because most of the time I have an idea of the things I wanna do, but I'll have other accessories to back up those concepts in my head. This time, it's just McCready, something I was able to make work without even trying to go out and dig his accessories out of the bin. Could I have probably done more? Sure. But I'm satisfied with what I've done, so I'll save this dude for my contemporary horror display and leave it at that.

One of the last Wonder Women that we're gonna get... or at least one of the last ones that I'M gonna get. With so few being released during the duration of McFarlane's run, Wonder Woman has been used less as someone to collect on her own and more used as a completion benchmark. How many era specific trinities can YOU collect, citizen? My benchmark, currently, is three. Though it may end at four if he manages to release Absolute Diana at some point under the wire. I know we're to get Absolute Batman, and the other two are rumored, so it's a waiting game at this point.

I figured if this was my last chance at a good Diana (and honestly the one I've wanted all along), I needed to go all out with some of the stuff I haven't either been able to do or just not been able to bring myself to do. In particular, I've kinda strayed from the concept of bondage with Wonder Woman, despite it being a part of her iconography. If she's bound with her own lasso, she's powerless, and she's tied up A LOT back in the day. I just never wanted to shoot her in a way that read as...distasteful, but since I've been improving? I think I'm able to push past that insecurity and get a few good shots. Albeit, within the limitations set before us, I did have to use two different Golden Lassos to make it look believable. As you can see tho, I had a ton of fun! Now I just gotta wait on the latest villain (and Kid Flash) wave to arrive!

I'm so glad we got a Poison Ivy. A true blue COMIC Ivy at that. Now, with the soon to be released Hush Harley? We're gonna be swimming in much sought-after femme figures. We can only hope that the rumored Big Barda is gonna come to pass.

FINALLY, finally, finally. I, as much as everyone else, was anticipating a standard Black Mask like crazy. We never thought we'd get it after the Batman imposter design, and as much as I liked that figure? I was worried that it wouldn't beat the buzzer, and we'd be stuck with a ton of the Rogues gallery in designs that simply weren't their own. Granted, we won't be getting a normal Hugo Strange, and that's even more of a bummer, but this felt like a huge win even if it was a red platinum. It moves well, it feels good to pose, and that HEADSCULPT, my goodness, this turned out better than I could've hoped.

A long time ago, when Mr. Bones released, I yammered on about how they could tool various parts to do a standard Black Mask. One of the big ingredients in that recipe was the head of Mr. Bones. But with that being said, I think this is a different skull altogether? Someone should tell me if I'm wrong, partly to back me up, partly because I'm too lazy to pluck Mr. Bones off my shelf. Either way, Black Mask is gonna have one hell of a presence.

Yesterday was Batman, which means today gets to be the Man of Steel's time to shine! I really like that they've been using this buck for Superman now. Whether he's on the Silver Age body or this one, which I can only assume might be the Strange Lives buck, I think McFarlane really ended up getting a nice handle on Superman. Sure, they spent a lot of time on Batman, but when they put some elbow grease into it, I think we got just as many good Superman joints during the line as we did for the flying rodent. The Alex Ross designs have been some of my favorite thus far, both in terms of artist representation and execution.

The last Superman figure, at least last NEW Superman figure I plan on picking up, is gonna be the Absolute figure that we get in a bit. Now that they've announced Absolute Batman through SDCC, it's only a matter of time before the rest of the trinity gets put through. Other than that, I've got maybe 3 or 4 older Superman figures I'm after, but none that are of a crucial importance just yet.

It's nice to know that while everyone who's lucky enough is out at SDCC, I'm still getting my fix and having figures shipped in. Out of the nearly 10 figures I ended up snapping up, how cool is it that the first two I get are the new Alex Ross sculpts. For a while, I figured that the two Kingdom Come sculpts would be it. That's all she wrote. But I'm glad I was wrong enough to see a standard Batman and Superman coming in clutch. Obviously, today, I'm posting Batman. That way, both of them have the space to breathe, and I can have material to post leading up to the next set of goodies. But more than that, I really love how fluid these guys came in out of the clamshell. Sure, it's a little on the loose side as far as torso articulation, but I almost prefer a little loose rather than UNREASONABLY tense and unable to scooch a single centimeter. That and the surprisingly dope headsculpt means that this is an EXCELLENT Batman to get in the final moments. Too bad we never got Red Rain or Gaslight, but we can't win all the time.

BOY, this was a long time coming and very well met. Not only was I fundamentally excited for this to drop, especially ever since I generally decided to just start collecting these Sesame Street figures, but I might have even set my expectations too low for what ended up showing up at my doorstep. When I say I was not expecting Big Bird to be this...well, BIG? I'm sincere because he is one whole unit. As soon as I saw the size of him, I knew I had to do some kaiju shots of SOME kind. Otherwise, the scale would be wasted.

But on top of that, I just ended up having a ton of fun with him! NECA once again nailed the sculpt, the likeness. Everything is exactly as it should be. Even to the point where he may be a contender for Top 10 Figures of the Year. I got to pair him up with most of his friends and even pulled out my Nicholas Hammond Spidey to act as a stand-in for the Electric Company version. Yes, sister shows aren't the actual show, but the Spider-Man for Electric Company WAS a regular Big Bird suit performer, so it felt appropriate! I can't wait for Oscar and Herry Monster. The momentum this line has is unequaled, and I can't wait to see what they're cooking now that summer con season is here.

Just got this in the mail yesterday! Sure, it means I also have to pick up X and Amazon, but since I was planning on doing that this month anyway? Then this is just me being proactive, in a way. Since buying V3, I've gone through several Reiwa shows in the interim, and I've also started Kuuga (I'm almost halfway through as of writing this). The good thing about Heisei and Reiwa is the confined nature of each season of Kamen Rider, at least for me, because it makes jumping around so easy. I can't really do that with Showa because other than Skyrider? All of it feels very interconnected when looking at the big picture. V3 is a direct sequel to Ichigo, and other than Amazon? Ichigo and Nigo have made multi-episode appearances in all the showa era shows. So, for me, it's a lot like the Godzilla Showa era where the seasons are their own stories but are all in the same timeline. Going chronologically is only going to benefit me in the long run. Which means before I can crack this open, I need to get X and Amazon!

I think, like the majority of people, I was super excited to get one of these Battle Damaged Spideys when they were announced. I originally couldn't get mine because of financial restraints, it's also one of the main reasons why I just haven't gotten everything from that initial crossover wave that I wanted yet (2 down, 1 to go). However, as these got shipped out and people started to mess with them? The QC issues of it all made me super hesitant. I figured that MAYBE it would he an issue with a handful. The stiff joints, the rotators that snapped off, the overly gummy knees leading to breakage after breakage after breakage. The more it kept up, the less excited I got.

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But I caved because I always cave, when I wanted to have a GOOD battle damaged Spider-Man for an earlier Symbiote shoot. The only thing is that I knew I'd have to he EXCRUCIATINGLY careful with him. There was no way that I'd let his legs snap off five seconds after owning him because I didn't want my Spidey to be legless. Thankfully, the more I used him, the more he did, in fact, loosen up a bit... not a lot, but a bit. Funny enough, he kinda became an even bigger mixed bag! While I saw that the joints were insanely tight? Other parts of him got loose and wobbly. It's like an IcyHot but in action figure form, a total enigma on how it is the way it is.

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Am I gonna use him to the extent that I use other Spiders? Not really, but he's gonna look great on my shelf.

Much like with Shadowhawk? Getting Savage Dragon in the collection is such a cool thing to see. More than anything, it makes me feel hopeful for this new subline. I wanna see so much more from the Image imprint as far as action figures go, that I'm honestly super curious as to what the NEXT batch of figures is going to be. The Maxx? The Freak? Maybe he'll try and put out an Invincible line to go up against Jada since they're producing the figures for Amazon. Either way, I'm very intrigued despite the flaws of each release.

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Which, speaking of flaws? I was very much hoping that this would be more poseable than it was. I did my best, but he kinda moves like a brick! You can get him into some general poses, but due to how top heavy and rigid he is above the belt, there's not a ton to do unless you spend some time breaking him in, which I obviously didn't do the entire way down. He'll look great, posed up next to Shadowhawk and other figures, but I think this is one of those situations where Todd should've considered butterfly joints.

I'm so glad I managed to snap up Shadowhawk and Savage Dragon despite missing out on Spawn. Hopefully, we're able to get a ton more Image figures from this subline.

Getting straight into an Ultron shoot was fun, I always enjoy a photography shoot where I get to mess around with a bunch of different figures that have ties to each other on different levels. Obviously, Iron Man and Vision have a connection to Ultron via the MCU's interpretation of the characters, and that's going to be satisfying to see for some folks. But the comic book link between characters is what I usually go for, so having the three included characters in the shoot was wildly intentional.

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Especially since, thanks to modern perception, Hank Pym isn't seen as Ultron's creator to the general public, despite Ultron being one of his BIGGEST storylines that's persisted well into the modern day. The thing that genuinely and quite literally haunts Hank's narrative. Pretty sure they've even fused in more recent comics, but since I'm not caught up on my Ant-Man lore, I can't say for sure as to whether that's still a thing or not. Either way, BOY, what a figure. So much fun!

I'll be the first to admit that I've had this two-pack now for an exorbitant amount of time. Mind you, I got it during its reissue, sometime after Christmas of last year, but I held off on shooting them because one VERY important piece was missing. I knew that if I was going to have Hank and Janet with completely unmasked heads, with beakers and a soft goods lab coat to boot? I needed to include Ultron in SOME regard. So I held off until I could get an Ultron that wasn't completely unreasonable, and I got to work last night.

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I think it worked out GREAT. I also have an examination table from a Mythic Legions pull, so it had that added effect of Ultron being strapped down. I really wanted to be ambitious, and I think I managed to do everything I set out to do, both creatively and in terms of intent. Of course, Ultron is gonna get his own dedicated photoset, but I had to get these out of the way first.