ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES

Yes i ended getting the infamous Aliens: Colonial Marines for the PS3 despite the bad reviews it had. In the end it wasnt such a bad game, it was just mediocre and had a couple of nice horror moments here and there. Tough the best thing of the game was deffinetly its special edition that includes some patches, blueprints, photos and the main dish: a figure.

More than a figure it was an statue that came in a pretty cool transluscent display box with Xenomrph printed all around, just like with Batman Arkham City, this figure is best display on its case. I have no idea wath company produced this statue, but its not really big, kind of an average action figure but considering the size of the Power Loader and the Xeno, the scale is kind of tiny.

The scene shows a colonial marine (i dont think he is a particular character) inside the Power Loader battling against a Xenomorph in a plataform. The scene is really good looking and nicelly designed since like any good statue, it can be displayed from many views of points and looks good, focus on the action or one of the tw characters.

The base have the title of the game on the bottom and the overall sculpt of the statue is really detailed, mostly of course in the Power Loader since its full of details, bolts, anthennas, pivots, lots of tubes (the view on the back is really spectacular) and even the small red siren on the top.

The Xenomorph is really nice too, with legs steping ont he legs of the big machine while one of her claws is about to strike the marine in any moment, the sculpt is detailed anough for the size (specially on her head and spectacular looking long tail) and then it comes the marine, with an OK sculpt but i guess it makes sense since he is the character under the robot mechanism and under the Xenomorph attack, soo he is actually pretty difficult to see.

The paint is really really good on the Power Loader, with brigth yellows combined with rusty tones, signals of extreme use, black stripes, logos and red markings, the paint job is really exquisite and vibrant. The Xenomorph is a little ligth on the paint department, just black with some blue tones in the rigth lace to give it volume, he have a weird drawing effect on him but i guess he is perfect as it is.

Then it comes the marine, who is again, the weakest since his face is all sloppy painted and not very detailed. His body is OK, with a camo patern and metalic tones but since hs is inside the Power Loader, i guess it was a reall challengue to give him a much soficticated paint.

Despite the weakest parts on the piece, this little statue looks fantastic and is deffinetly the best thing that came from the boring Colonial Marines. I miss those times when even weak games had fantastic special editions to a cheap price like this one.

BATMAN

 

Now this is the Batman i fall in love with!! Speaking of those good times when videogames not only were better than now, but they also offered much more for a much lower price, its imposible not to talk about Batman Arkham City. The game wasnt only brillant, but that beauty was on its outsde package as well: a square perfcet transluscent box with a Gotham landscape inside and Batman and Joker images on the outside, with a little shelf in the bottom with the game and an artbook, and at the center of all, this figure of Batman.

This is one of thsoe rare scenarios where the figure looks really good both outside and inside of its package. The figure - a statue actually - is not that big actually, its shorter than your average action figure but since Batman is crouching his overall scale is bigger soo the details really shine, and wath details he have!!

He is at the corner of a roof, getting ready to jump and punch someone but still looking very depredatory and manly, you can feel the motion of his movement and yet he looks solid as a mountain. Like i said at the begining, i am totally in love of this Batman design, this is the exact image that appeare on my mind when i hear "Batman" soo i am not impartial to really like this.

Every detail is present, like the puches on his belt, the bolts on his outfit, the texture with little holes on the suit, his generouse muculature and how the cape huge his body soo perfectly thanks to the sift plastic material.

Paint is as perfect as the sculpt tough for some reason he is black and white but is difficult to notice since his only color part would be his face and his belt. I do love the grey shadows and white tones that give a lot of volume to his muscles, its actually quiet easy to take pictures of him.

He is posed on top of a big corcular base with the Arkham City logo in red. Really stricking for a black and white figure and  under the base is signed by Kotobukiya. No wonder the high quality of this statue, just like theyr Bishoujo line and the rest of his products. I can say with confidence this is one of my favorite Batman figures i ever seen.

INJUSTICE

 

Oh i still remember the times when videogames had always a physical release and a Special Edition of some sort, a Collectors Edition that didnt cost as much as a whole console. It wasnt too long, but jus one generation ago (two generations with the PS5 out now!!), when i was able to get a lot of figures to a really nice price included each one of theyr games. 

One said game was Injustice, i game that ended with a lot of ups and downs, it wasnt fun to play but it was fun to watch, with all its funky looking animations. Despite the quality of the game, it came in a huge box with some goodies, but most importantly, a pretty spectacular statue figure of Batman facing Wonder Woman.

I am not too much of a fan of the idea since i dont like Wonder Woman and see her beating the crap out of Batman is not pleasant, but in here it makes sense given she is one of the villians of the game and i really dislike this version of Batman. It would make more sence to have something related to Superman tough or if someone would asked me i would prefer a Lobo statue.

But anyway, the truth is that this figure is actually quiet fantastic. First of all is really HUGE and despite its towering size it have no balance issues. It have two characters battling with some background elements but thanks to its big size, the characters dont look tiny or distant, they have a very good scale of a standar action figure size.

I have no idea wath brand developed this statue but the quality of the material is really good, soft to the touch and specially good looking on Wonder Woman´s skin. The sculpt, overall, is really dynamic and full of details. The body of Wonder Woman is really amazing and athletic and you can feel the energy on her jump while she holds the drone. Batman´s sculpt is also really good, with his cape giving him all the movement neded and his horrible looking armour abundant in detailing.

The paint is as perfect as the sculpt, specially on Bamtna´s mouth and Wonder Woman´s face, with her beautifull blue eyes and red lips looking really fierce. There is a lot foinf on here, like how there is a batarang stuck on the drone on Wonder Woman´s hands, is evident Batman defended himself here but with not much succes, and i really like how he is strugling with the Lasso of truth, tough the Lasso´s end dosnt conect with anything at all....maybe it is supposed to conect to Diana´s hip?

But my favorite part are deffinetly the ice sections on the base, mixed with the jade looking rock and the grey smoke coming from the drone, all done with transluscent plastic. The material add a lot to the display since it catches lieght pretty nicelly.

But i guess the best part of this figure is the fact you can display it from any direction, any point of view, and its gonna looks really good and exciting. There is not "bland" spot in here, from every direction all the action can be seen and new details appeare, this is a fantastically designed scene all around.

POISON IVY

 

Twenty years ago the japanese brand Yamato released a bunch of Batman merchadise. This was quiet weird since it was the very first time a japanese brand was releasing american comic book characters and it was really unique to see the the japanese version of the characters, mostly designed by Kia Asamiya. The collection consisted in Batman, Robin and many of the rougue gallery from Gotham tough my favorite is deffinetly Poison Ivy.

This figure is not too big actually, she is smaller than your average action figure scale, smaller than NECA or McFarlane and thats the biggest issue i have with her. If she was bigger this girl would be really spectacular. Not like the is not spectacular in this scale tough since her sculpt is really REALLY amazing for her tiny size.

The details like the leaf on her costume and hair are really cut deep and extremelly defined. Her face is also really elegant and mature, unlike expected from a japanese brand, she dosnt have giant anime eyes or anything like that, her face feature are really reminescent to the american comic book style and her pose is really dynamic but realistic: she is stretching in a sensual way and her hair moves along her back in a pretty beaitufull way.

The paint is also really exquisite, her skin tone is pale but dosnt looks like doll paint, and the red on her lips, hair and greens on her outfit are really vibrant and livelly, i also like all the different tones in the rigth zones that give dimension to the sculpt. 

She cant stand on her own soo she comes with a stand diorama base of a dirt ground, with a cuuple of man eater plants and a jungle in the background. The quality of this base is actually abismal, since its made with soft plastic and dosnt have any of the dimension and detail Poison Ivy have. The ground is boring and the jungle in the back, while it have different greens for different leafs, have pretty pale colors and the sculpt dosnt help it.

The man eater lants, gladlly, are much better looking thanks to a cool looking purple and theyr small fangs and they cna be removed. Is wierd the base is soo basic and boring compared to the figure, but this makes Ivy stand more somehow. Oh, also, she comes with a green vine that cna be wrapped around her body and counts as an accesory i guess?

After twenty years, this figure still looks amazing despite her size, in both sculpt and paint and design, i find this to be the closest representation of the comic book version of Poison Ivy. While i dont care for the rest of the characters, i wish i got Batman to pair her with.

LAND OF THE LIVING - EVERGLOT SET

 

Corpse Bride was one of the most inspired moments in the carer of Tim Burton but it was also one of the last points of inspiration of McFarlane Toys since they not only released an action figure serires but they also sis miniatures, plushis, dolls and even a giant talking Scraps. Not even The Nightmare Before Christmas had this much merchadise at launch.

After the action figures the minatures were the collest item to collect since they came in sets with different themes. The Land of the Dead had the main character as well as some of her deceased pals while the Land of the Living set was divided into the Vandort and Everglot set featuring both familys together.

The main character from the Everglot set was of course Victoria, wich is extra special for me because i dont own her action figure soo this is the only figure i have from her. Again, hes sculpt is really exquisite, specially on her dress and her delicate face features, tough her face expression is kinda lost.

The paint is really well done, specially on the strips of her dress and she can stand on her own perfectly thaks to her body shape.

Finis Everglot is Victoria´s father and he is one of the most difficult figures to handle since he is just a huge ball with a pair of tiny little legs. He cant stand on his own soo he have a metal rod coneccting his back to a base designed like the floor of his mansion.

The evil face expression and grey color palette is a perfect match to how he looked in the movie also, the chain from his clock is a real metal chain and is a little bit tricky to fit the clock inside the jacket pocket.

Maudeline Everglot is Victoria´s mother and she is the tallest of the set and she can stand perfectly thanks to her dress but really, she is a proof of the amazing cartoon deign of Tim Burton. Her body shape is really amazing and her HUGE head contrast a lot with her thin and small neck, soo eventually she broke her neck and i had to glue her back (wich was a challengue).

The sculpt and color on her dress is really minimum but the detailing on her hair and face expression are brillant, specially the curl in the center of her hair.

The last figure from the set is the main villian of the movie, Lord Barkis Bittern. Is weird that Victor and Victoria´s parents were not made into big size action figures, but is even more strange that McFarlane only did the main villian of the movie as a miniature.

Barkis comes with the same base Finis have and again, his pose is full of personality as well as his relaxed and evil smile. The color palette is completelly blick and white this time tough.

While this tiny figures dosnt look like too much once you get to a closer inspection it gets pretty clear they didnt skip any detail on both sculpting and painting and they even had higher quality than many of McFarlane big standar action figures. Its a shame they didnt explore this scale after this serires, and maybe thats why this things are ultra expensive now.

LAND OF THE LIVING - VANDORT SET

 

With the release of Corpse Bride on teathers, McFarlane released an spectacular collection of products for the movie even moving to uncharted terrain for him like glases or plushis. After an amazing collection of action figures the company entered into a kind of obscure era where all theyr products had a free fall of quality, soo i cant stop feeling nostalgia for theyr Corpse Bride serires as one of the last McFarlane figures i fall in love with.

I already reviewd the action figures i own here (i am missing most of them!!) and the first set of miniatures as well: "Land of the dead - Corpse Bride set", a testament of McFalrane state of the art sculpt and paint for perfect miniatures, is hard to belive they didnt explore this scale given how good they did in here and soo it came the second set of miniatures called "Land of the Living - Vandort Set" and basically consist on Victor´s familly.

The first figure is Victor and he is more like a stick than anything, standing tall and holding his tie with an anxious expression. The sculpt is really good tough this time is less definned than the action figure. The aint is good too, specially with the lines on his pants tough he is almost black and white...there is almost no color on him at all.

Since he cant stand on his own given his tiny frrt, he comes with a wooden base, a pretty discret base and the opposite of the grotesque and huge base of the dead characters.

The second figure is William Vandort, Victor´s father. The interesting thing about this figure is how important of a character he is and how he never was released as action figure, soo this miniature is the only figure in existance of him. He is lanky and almost reminds me a muppet, actually his face looks similar tough, with his hige hat and tiny golden gases, leaning on his cane. 

He comes with a base based on the street of the town he lives in and both the base and figure have a really exquisite sculpt and paint. His hair and mustache looks awesome and he is a little bit more colorfull than Victor thanks to his brownish suit.

The third figure is Nell Vandort, Victor´s mother. Again this is the only figure of her since they never released in standar action figure scale wich is a shame because i fond her shape really interesting and "Burtonesque". Both the feather and her fan are made with sort plastic but my favorite details is deffinetly the dead fox around her neck, this kind of details really bring her to life.

To life, that strange given how dead is her color palette since she is as black and white as Victor and the shadows on her eyes are kind of creppy looking, gives her a n expresionist look. Thanks to her dress she can stand perfectly soo theres no base.

And the final figure is Pastor Galswells, the ancient autorithy and rigthousnes embodiment. Even with his hunched position he is as tall as Victor and even tallest thanks to his hat. He can stand perfectly and have the same dull and grey color palette the other living characters share. His pointing hand and face expression makes him looks kind of menacing and he is the only figure with an accesory: his staff.

Despite the boring color in this set i really like it given the heavy importance this characters have and how this was the only scale for them. Having the Vandort familly together is really nice for the display and again, i ams till amazed by how good looking are this figure with theyr tiny size.