Ogre King
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (LJN) - Basic Series
Rated 3.50 stars by Karl T. Face
Ah, ogres. Classic fantasy fare, they've graced the mythology of many a culture, and earned thousands of players that last chunk of XP to level up. And now I can have one on the shelf! The first word that comes to mind is "bright". The olive green skin contrasts strongly with the bright blue armor, and the yellow highlights aren't helping. There's enough black and grey to break it up, though. Sculpt mitigates this a bit, with the various armor bits sporting at least basic textures and the face looking very animated indeed. The paint is plenty tight, and overall, it's a decent if slightly cartoonish presentation. While elbows and knees weren't popular in this line, the hips and shoulders are at least balljointed. Swivel neck, not surprising. The joints are actually pretty good still, at...[See More]

Wheelie
Transformers - Generation 1 (Hasbro) - Series 3
Rated 2.00 stars by Karl T. Face
Well, it's Wheelie. If you're the type to want to read Transformers toy reviews, you're probably not a fan of this guy. Hell, Floro Dery doesn't care much for him, and he designed him! But that doesn't necessarily guarantee a bad toy, does it? And hey, he was the only new-mold Minibot of his wave. Had to be something special, right? Either way, be thankful I'm not doing this whole thing in rhyme. For starters, vehicle mode. It's, ah.... creative. Definitely looks like an alien car. Also looks like a dustbuster, or a geoduck. Or other, less polite things. The color scheme, best described as "candy corn: disassembled", works better in person than on paper, and the wheels roll well. The Autobrand is, oddly, barely half an inch from the rubsign. Kind of redundant. The arms/fenders are a bit...[See More]

Nag Nuts Nina (Orange & Green)
Nina Dolono (Fewture) - Basic Series
Rated 4.00 stars by Karl T. Face
Mr. Nirasawa has an interesting visual style when it comes to women: I'd describe it as Patrick Nagel meets Tim Burton. And then they took drugs and brainstormed submissions for Heavy Metal covers. Pretty much all his merch follows this pattern, and Nag Nuts Nina is no exception. NNN is apparently a form taken by the titular antihero, thanks to the adaptable nature of her nebulously-defined enhancements. If there's official fiction that explains this further, I haven't come across it, but basically, that weird Gigeresque arm of hers was destroyed in battle and replaced by a decidedly goofy, very inorganic design. Built by magical means. And yet it now has an eyestalk of its own, snaking out of the back of the shoulder pad to peer down at her right hand. A second one emerges from her pants...[See More]

Buzz-Saw (with Shredator)
SilverHawks (Kenner) - Basic Series
Rated 3.50 stars by Karl T. Face
Silverhawks wasn't high on my list as a kid, but once in a while, I'd find something I wanted anyway. Buzz-saw and Mon-Star made their way into my collection, but the easily worn vac-metallized parts and fragile wings turned me off the heroes. Having found this guy once more, I may as well cover him. For starters, I can't get over how much Buzz looks like he stepped right off an animation cel. Not from the show proper, mind you, but perhaps early concept art or even a coloring book. He's all flat colors and simple angles, but it works. The bright green/yellow is a nicer contrast than the near-total goldenrod of the show. Limited paint means limited scraping, so apart from the ever-present danger of discolored plastic, it's a good tough chunk of plastic with a satisfying heft. Articulation...[See More]

Weird Wolf
Super Naturals (Tonka) - Ghosts
Rated 4.00 stars by Karl T. Face
Y'know what, Ghostlings are weird as hell. You have a hooded robe with ghostly hands sticking out the sleeves, carrying very large GITD swords. Then, where you'd expect a head and torso to be, there's an entire "person" in there, arms and all. Nothing about these made any sense unless you separated the two, which I almost want to recommend. Two ghosts for the price of one! As I mentioned in my Vamp-pa review, each side of the conflict had a singular sculpt for these sidekick characters, and the evil ones had somewhat tattered robes and clawed, knobbly hands. Their swords were also a bit spikier. Overall, a much spookier look. I think this guy is the only "modern" character in the line, a very stocky punk rocker with a pretty weird face- almost simian. He's also one of the fancier models,...[See More]

Vamp-Pa
Super Naturals (Tonka) - Ghosts
Rated 4.00 stars by Karl T. Face
Super Naturals were an interesting toyline, trading mostly on 3D holograms and fairly cool designs, but not offering much in the way of story. If I recall, they were also a bit on the pricey side, but for those a little short on pocket money (or just not as savvy in terms of Market Six stores), the Ghostlings were certainly something. Around half the size of the Warriors, these dudes lacked legs entirely, consisting of a hologram-bearing, translucent inner "body" nestled inside a hooded robe. Said robe only came in two variants, one for the heroes and one for the villains, but both shared glowy hands and carried rather chunky swords. The best part was that you could totally separate them and have two different phantoms, which I often did. As there were only two sculpts (in various...[See More]

Snakebite
Super Naturals (Tonka) - Forces of Evil
Rated 4.50 stars by Karl T. Face
Super Naturals is an odd beast. Tonka wasn't trying very hard here in terms of story- or marketing, for that matter- but whoever they had working on the toys clearly had a lot of passion, because these things deserved more than they got. Part of the first and only wave, Snakebite here is rocking a vaguely Egyptian snake-cultist look, which seems at odds with his undead pirate master and armored elemental comrade, but that's how Super Naturals rolled: it doesn't have to make sense, as long as it looks awesome. Simple swivel joints at the shoulders and hips give precious few posing options, but they do at least leave the sculpt largely unbroken apart from the T-crotch hips. Blanketed as he is in diamond-shaped scales, this isn't quite the boon it is on Skull, but the orange-on-copper is...[See More]

Skull
Super Naturals (Tonka) - Forces of Evil
Rated 4.75 stars by Karl T. Face
Well, for a company that's absolutely not known for its action figures, this is absolutely killer. I'll admit to a bit of nostalgic admiration here, but c'mon. Look at this guy. Okay, he's only got 4 POA. The sculpt is remarkable, though, from the pitted and withered skin to the bundles of bone tied around the legs. Paint is simple but effective, including a paint wipe on the chestplate and some really great, understated colors. Almost no slop or poor coverage, except for a little bone-white spilling onto the legs. This is some spooky stuff right here. (Side note: "spooky" rests at the intersection of "scary" and "just plain fun". Think rubber bats and neon-colored skeletons) The reason this guy barely moves is the gorgeous 3D hologram that makes up his head and torso. All but the face is...[See More]

Arzon
Visionaries (Hasbro) - Spectral Knights
Rated 4.50 stars by Karl T. Face
Confession time: I knew almost nothing of this line, or its cartoon, until this guy pretty much fell into my lap; over the course of a few months, I happened upon every bit among various secondhand stores (except the mace, which had to come from eBay), and here we are. For what's essentially an oversized GI Joe in terms of articulation and detail (hey, if it ain't broke...), Arzon is pretty impressive looking, sporting pretty decent detail, especially in the head and upper body. The face in particular is quite impressive, his thoughtful expression playing into the character bio. Everything's pretty glossy-looking, but them's the breaks with this era. It works. Of course, the base figure takes a back seat to those wonderful 3D holograms. I won't go into how they're made, but trust me,...[See More]

Tidalwave with Ramjet
Transformers - Armada (Hasbro) - Gigacon Assortment
Rated 3.00 stars by Karl T. Face
While the Armada cartoon mostly flew under my radar, the toys were quite fun, but certainly had their flaws. Here's one now. So, Tidal Wave is something of an oddity: Far more out-of-scale than most, there was no way they were making this beast close to the right size, so we get a Voyager-class version instead. Still a fair bit taller than average, head and shoulders above most of my army. The usual spread of joints we're used to these days was not so standard back then- in this case, ratcheted swivel/hinges at the shoulders, elbows, and hips, plus hinged knees. Which would be decent if the knees didn't bend sideways. No, really. He can stand around, maybe gesturing or doing a Frankenstein walk, but no dynamic poses from the waist down. Between that and the odd purple and green areas,...[See More]