Wrapping Up 2024: Rogue & Destiny from Marvel Legends Series: X-Men by Hasbro

 

   In February I'll still be wrapping up some 2024 reviews, but I've got some new stuff for 2025 to look at. I'll also be publishing my annual Best of the Year Awards throughout the month, so keep reading!

   I thought 2024 was a really good year for Marvel Legends. While it was odd that it took Hasbro so long to get out action figures for Deadpool and Wolverine, and then it was a pretty basic lineup (if any Marvel film in recent memory was going to be a surefire hit that was it, plus those two always sell action figures), I think most of the year was excellent. The second series of X-Men '97 figures were great, the 80th Anniversary figures were incredible, whether individual figures, multi-packs, deluxe releases, or Ghost Rider with his motorcycle, the Strange Tales and Secret Wars sets seemed pretty popular, and the Spidey fans got plenty to love. My main Marvel Legends focus is X-Men, and while most releases were excellent, I do want to look at a set that I received for Christmas which was a bit disappointing: Rogue and Destiny. The character selection isn't bad at all (first appearance "villain" Rogue and the first ever figure of Destiny/ Irene Adler), but the figures are the definition of barebones. Compare this set to the Wong and Doctor Strange set, also an exclusive and a 2-pack, and you'll be shocked by what you get with that set versus the single pair of swappable hands that Rogue and Destiny each come with. No energy or power effects? No really cool alternate hands like Rogue taking off her glove? No alternate portraits, or an unmasked portrait for Destiny? Nope. I added this set to my wishlist because while I like Rogue, I really wanted Destiny for my Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Sometimes with figures like this you never know what's going to hang around and what's going to disappear (this year's Target exclusive Warbird and the Cabal set come to mind) and skyrocket in price. Let's take a look at this two-pack after the break...

Wrapping Up 2025: 2-Bopsteady from Turtles of Grayskull by Mattel

 

   If you've been around here long enough, you might have noticed that I didn't review as much Masters of the Universe stuff in 2024 as I had in previous years. While both Origins and Masterverse still have some good releases that come out, so much of the MOTU product I like has gotten really expensive (think Tweeterhead and Mondo) or Mattel seems to be releasing the same characters over and over and over again with little difference. Yeah, there were some new characters and such, but a good bit of things felt a bit stale to me this year. The most exciting line Mattel did for MOTU last year was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover, Turtles of Grayskull. TMNT has crossed over with everything out there, but the MOTU crossover feels more organic than most of the others. I've skipped a lot of the figures in the series, sure, but I did want to get 2-Bopsteady as it's just such a wildly wonderful concept for a figure and it contained the final pieces for the Metal-Boto figure. Ready to see what happens when Bebop and Rocksteady get uncomfortable close? Then let's check out 2-Bopsteady, the "Two-Headed Mutant Monstrosity," after the break...

Wrapping Up 2024: Col. Siege from Action Force by Valaverse

 

   I didn't review as many Action Force figures as I thought in 2024, but I've still got a couple reviews planned as I only recently received a shipment of figures and accessories from series 5, which was released near the end of 2024, along with one or two items that are just now shipping at the beginning of 2025. Today I'm checking out the figure from series 5 that I was most looking forward to: Col. Siege! Col. Siege has decades of military experience and helps recruit new talent to Action Force, but do you know why I really wanted him? He reminds me of Col. John "Hannibal" Smith from The A-Team. Heck yeah! I love The A-Team and imagining Col. Siege as Hannibal-like cigar chewing mastermind who can get the job done in a variety of unorthodox ways. He's a cool figure and I'm excited to add him to my 1/12th scale forces. Let's check out Col. Siege after the break...

Wrapping Up 2024: Storm Shadow from G.I. Joe: Classified Series by Hasbro

 

   The 1988 Storm Shadow V2 was my first Storm Shadow as a kid. Actually, he might have been my only Storm Shadow until I got into G.I. Joe: Sigma 6 during my senior year of college (I was married by that point) and got back into G.I. Joe pretty heavily. I loved the version 2 Storm Shadow as he just looked incredibly cool and has an very impressive array of accessories. I'm impressed that Hasbro has managed to stay conservative with variants in the Classified Series and it's been a bit since the more classic Storm Shadow and the Retro Series Storm Shadow. During the 2000s Storm Shadow variants came in the 1/18th scaled lines quite often. This is a great update of the vintage figure with a few new details. Interestingly, this entire series seems to have a lot of reused accessories. The Iron Grenadier, Storm Shadow, Alpine, and the Iron Grenadier all have a lot of accessory reuse from other figures. That's not the end of the world or anything, but it does make me wonder if that was a way of offsetting some costs or something without doing a series full of repaints? Ready to check out Tommy Arashikage as part of the G.I. Joe team? Then join me after the break...

Toy Review: Dracula from Vinyl SODA by Funko

 

   With the release of Robert Eggers' Nosferatu last month, I've been thinking a lot about Dracula films. There have been quite a few retellings of Bram Stoker's classic story and while the name is different, Nosferatu definitely counts in my book.  I loved the 2024 Nosferatu but I think my favorite Dracula film is still Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 masterpiece Bram Stoker's Dracula. While there are elements of Nosferatu that made me think of this film, the vampire is completely different as he's just downright evil, uncharismatic, and utterly irredeemable with a demonic origin. Coppola's film, while still giving us an evil, corrupted Count Dracula, also does give the Count some humanity and a tragic backstory. I don't want every take on Dracula to have that, but it works really well in this film. I wanted to talk about the movie and while I desperately hope that someday NECA releases figures from the film, the most recent company I can think of who did release some versions of Dracula and Van Helsing is Funko. I really liked the Vinyl SODA figures overall and this was a simple but nifty take on Count Dracula/ Prince Vlad in his super cool red armor. Ready to chitchat about this figure, Gary Oldman, and Bram Stoker's Dracula for a bit? Then join me after the break...

Wrapping Up 2024: Albert "Alpine" Pine from G.I. Joe: Classified Series by Hasbro

 

   Now that I've finished off reviews of the entire HasLab Dragonfly crew it's time to jump into the.... well, not the most recent series, as Letherneck, Zandar, Dial-Tone, and the S.A.W. Viper are currently out. Most of the set is on the way to me as I'm writing this, but I guess I should cover the set that came out at the end of 2024, huh? Let's start by checking out Albert "Alpine" Pine. And, yes, that's his real name and always has been. On the original figure, his real name was only visible on the file card on the back, though, but in the Classified Series Hasbro has his real name and code name together, front and center. Alpine is another figure that came out before I was collecting Joes as a kid and who I don't ever remember seeing in stores. He had a pretty solid presence in the Joe media, particularly animation, but he was never released in one of the repaint subsets nor was he given a second figure in the vintage line. I'm pretty sure my first Alpine was one of the Valor Vs. Venom versions from 2004, though I also did later have the 25th Anniversary figure, too. Alpine ought to be a pretty popular figure as he's a well liked character, clad in a more traditional military color scheme, and has a nice assortment of weapons. He's also the star of one of the popular Fensler films, so if you need a guy too harass lost kids at a carnival, Alpine is your dude. Huh. Maybe the whole review should just be me typing "memememememememe." Kind of like if Beaker from the Muppets wrote the whole thing. And then instead of saying the figure is Crap, Eh, Good, Great, or Epic, I'll just end with a video of a fart. But I'm not going to subject you to that. Instead, I'm giving Alpine the respect he deserves. Let's check this guy out after the break...

Action Figure Review: Imhotep #1082 from POP! Movies: The Mummy by Funko

   There have been a handful of "modern" updates of the classic Universal Monsters horror films and while I like quite a few of them, I still think the best of the lot is 1999's The Mummy. It's been one of my favorites since seeing it when it was released in May of 1999 back when I was in 9th grade and I still love it today. I like the entire series of The Mummy films, even if the two sequels aren't as strong as the original (I barely remember The Scorpion King, though, and I never saw any of the sequels to that). It's as much an adventure film as it is a horror movie, but it works so well. The 2017 The Mummy with Sofia Boutella and Tom Cruise that was meant to launch the Dark Universe just didn't hit quite right, but Lee Kronin's The Mummy is scheduled for next year as part of the Blumhouse Universal Studios collaborations. I'm excited to see what happens there. Lee Whannell's Wolf Man was OK, but his The Invisible Man was really quite good. For right now, though, I thought it would be fun to check out this Funko POP! of the Arnold Vosloo version of Imhotep from the 1999 The Mummy film. Vosloo was a very intimidating presence in a different way than Boris Karloff was and the film made great use of special effects to really showcase Imhotep's sorcery. Ready to check out Imhotep? Then join me after the break...