Acromancer is the main villain in Wave 1 and appears to be the main villain of the entire series. This dude is a dark warlock who marched into the pits of hell, wearing his stolen Helmet of Hades and attempted to use it to take over the underworld and unleash it upon the Earth. Thankfully Hercules is here to stop him! In the first mini comic, we also learn that Acromancer is responsible for creating Hercules’ sword of Heroes.

Using his wicked helmet, Acromancer is able to control the Archfiends, which are traditionally Hades own personal servants. You know you’re a bad dude when you’re stealing from Satan! As for the figure himself? Well he’s quite cool. Boasting some of the neatest elements of the Realm of the Underworld line to date.

Packaging:
It comes in a package!

Sculpt/Paint:
At first glance, you can see this guy was obviously inspired by Remco’s Jewel Thief. He’s got a lot of the same color, although he’s quite a bit different. There is just a lot going on with this figure and he’s definitely the one that really stands out in Wave 1 (although I am a bit partial to Hercules) with his cool helmet, body armor and big axe.

There is a lot familiar about this guy, but he’s a lot different as well.

Underneath Acromancer’s helmet is a wicked skull face. Yes, the skull face is essentially the same sculpt as the Archfiends but it’s not the exact same.

It’s actually considerably smaller. The helmet won’t fit on the bigger headed skulls.

Kissing Underworld cousins!

I’m honestly not sure why Zoloworld even bothered with the bigger head, aside from the fact that this smaller head is pretty hard to get off of Acromancer’s body. I suggest giving him the hot water treatment to remove his head. The skeletons look pretty good with the smaller head.

My only real issue with this figure is the body is painted, not cast in red plastic. This can be an issue around the legs where there could be some rubbing. I should point out that mine came from the factory like this, and it hasn’t worsened any with play, so it’s a not a huge issue, but it’s definitely something to watch out for.

The armor is completely removable and underneath is a basic body. He does have some good detailing and paint work on his fancy underwear. There’s a lot more paint on this guy than the Archfiends, even if it’s all pretty simple, it looks good. These could be done in a million different color schemes and still look fresh. That’s what we call a timeless design, people!

Articulation:
The articulation is the same basic cuts and ball joints that this line has become known for. You have the reinforced core to allow with parts swapping. This is so that the figure won’t break like the vintage ones did. It’s much easier to swap limbs. Of course, you should still be careful.

You can get some pretty good movement out of the legs on the these “human” figures, with that traditional ball and socket joint at the legs. It’s certainly better than some of the old rubber band styles.

But this is not a hyper articulated figure. It was never meant to be. It’s perfectly fine in it’s retro styling. This might put some people off, but if you mess around with them, you’ll realize why these were so popular back in the day.

Accessories:
Arguably the best part of the Acromancer is his accessories. He’s got the most since Hercules. And thankfully he doesn’t have any of the issues that the of the Ultimate Evil Archfiend had.

You’ve got his big axe which is a nice weapon. It can also double as a staff. I suspect we’ll get a proper staff in the line at some point, but for now, this works.

The helmet is fantastic and clearly the big draw of this figure.

The armor is nice and solid, so you don’t have to worry about it falling apart. A lot of the vintage figures that had a similar armor didn’t always hold up to play. All of these pieces have other origins, so it’s nice to see them worked into this line so seamlessly.

And of course, the best part of the accessories is mixing and matching.

As much as I love the Realm of the Underworld storyline itself, my favorite part is being able to create my own characters and designs. Zoloworld knows this is a big part of the appeal of ROTU. That’s why they worked to make everything some interchangeable.

Value:
This guy definitely feels a lot more like a value than some of the others. The cool helmet, the additional armor and all that beefs up his replay value. Even our pal Phil Reed from BattleGrip.com liked it. There must be something there, right? Plus it’s on sale right now!

Score Recap:
Packaging – 9
Sculpt/Paint – 6
Articulation – 7
Accessories – 9
Value – 7
Overall: 8

We’re back to an 8 on this guy. Yeah, still not as high as Hercules, but a pretty great score all things considered. If I didn’t have the minor paint issues, this would be a bit higher. Still, this is a pretty fantastic toy. I would love one in classic Jewel Thief translucent styling!

There’s a lot to like in ROTU wave one. If you’re a fan of these old school type figures, you owe it to yourself to check a couple out. Once you get into this line, you might have a hard time stopping yourself! I know that’s my problem. I can imagine all sorts of other cool characters. Let’s hope Zoloworld can keep cranking out new and creative ideas with Realm of the Underworld for a long, long time!

These skeletal minions are slaves to HADES – the king of the underworld. Each entity are drones to serve the dark leader, but also can be commanded by the one who wears the HELMET OF HADES. These skeletons are surrounded by an aura of dark magic. Without it, they can not exist on the world of man. This aura emanates from the underworld and empowers these dark minions. Once the gates to the underworld has opened, their power increases and they become more difficult to defeat.

Is there any reason to buy this figure over the basic version? We’ll do a complete breakdown, including an unholy image you can’t erase from your mind, behind the cut. Step into the Underworld with me, won’t you?

Packaging:
I already went over the packaging extensively in my Hercules Review so if you want to hear my more elaborate thoughts, read that.

Sculpt/Paint:
The sculpt here is identical to the previous Archfiend, so I’m not going to go over it too much. It’s a nice, retro skeleton with a few details that are definitely pretty good when you consider the basis of this figure was sculpted in the 1980′s. However, if you’re looking for hyper realism, this isn’t it.

The difference here is the paint work. Instead of being white, he’s a dark gray, with a lot more overspray shading than the basic Archfiend. There appears to be a slight brown hue to it as well. I won’t say it’s “better” but it definitely pops a bit more at first glance. I’ve went back and forth on which version I prefer.

My favorite detail is the arm/wrist bone which is open. This is the perfect spot to pop in the included shield and it’s also a neat structural element to the figure.

He has the same cod piece/loincloth deal that the other Archfiend skeleton had, but this time the middle is painted red. Again, it’s a subtle difference but it does help the figure stand out. As before, it’s completely removable.

The scale on these is interesting. The head is actually bigger than the vintage Pirates of the Galaxseas figure that it’s based off of. Why Zoloworld decided to do that, I’m not entirely sure. As a result, this guy ends up being a bit bigger than the rest of the figures.

Of course, the skeletons were always going to be a tad large, because they have longer necks.

The extra height allows him to infiltrate other lines a bit easier, either as a large imposing skeleton warrior or one that’s just the right height.

The entire figure can break down, for mixing and matching parts. Right now that’s not all that exciting because there just aren’t that many parts to choose from. The concept is good though.

KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Just imagine the unholy creations you can make with just a few spare parts.

I hate it when that happens.

Unfortunately as I mentioned in the other review, the skeletons aren’t as interchangable as the regular figures. The skeleton torso just doesn’t grab onto those arms as tight. So they fall right off. It’s a minor issue, but it’s one you should be aware of. The legs swap just fine, though.

Articulation:
You get a pretty standard old school articulation scheme here. The skeletons are no different from the regular ROTU guys in that sense. If you ever owned one of the Remco guys, you know what this is about.

The best part is the ball joint legs. They are vintage, true ball and socket joints. While the range of movement isn’t anything to write home about, they function nicely and allow you to balance him well. Given that the figure is so light, this is important.

The removable parts allow you to cut off limbs or heads. That’s always fun!

Alas, poor Remco! I knew him.

As I always say, decapitation is a boy’s best friend!

Accessories:
The accessories are a bit frustrating. Poor Philip over at BattleGrip nearly flipped his proverbial lid when he reviewed this figure because of the accessories. While I find them a bit annoying, it doesn’t bother me as much as it did Phil.

You get three accessories: The belt, the shield and the knife.

The belt and shield are the same as the other Archfiend. The sculpting on the shield is quite nice and yes, it does have other origins. A lot of these accessories started in other lines.

I’m not sure Philip understood how to snap the shield in, but this is how I think it displays best. Otherwise, yes, it’s hard for him to hold it in a traditional manner.

The knife is the real sticking point. Actually, I think it’s an axe or a clever, but you get what I mean. It’s SUPER loose in the hand and will fall out at the drop of a hat.

The reason that this is frustrating, is that Zoloworld had to have known this wasn’t going to fit. They should have either retooled this to have a thicker grip or chose another weapon. Back when this line was called something else, the skeletons were shown coming with much cooler outfits. I wish we’d gotten those helmets and swords for the skeletons.

On the plus side, the knife weapon does fit in the hands of other figures in the line. Just not the skeletons. Or you could wrap a small piece of tape around the handle and get it to fit more snug.

Value:
Normally these guys run almost $24 before shipping. That’s pretty steep in today’s market, although still considerably cheaper than the closest competitors. The good news for you reading this right now, is that Realm of the Underworld is having a sale right now on the figures in conjunction with the pre-orders that will start tomorrow for Wave 2. So you can shave a few bucks off if you order now. Again, the price is probably the biggest hurdle for most folks, but these are really well constructed and don’t feel cheap or “bootleg” at all. The low runs and limited nature of them make them a better value than they might appear on the surface.

Score Recap:
Packaging – 9
Sculpt/Paint – 7
Articulation – 7
Accessories – 7
Value – 7
Overall: 7

I dropped this guy’s score down over the regular Archfiend because his accessories just aren’t as good. The paint is slightly more interesting (but I like both) but the lack of a really good weapon brings him down a notch.

If this guy had a different weapon (one that fit snug in his hands) and that cool helmet, he would be a must have. As is, he’s a nice figure but not as good as the other Archfiend. Somewhere between the two is a nearly perfect figure, but on their own, neither quite reach that level.

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This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Flickr was founded in 2004 and quickly grew to the most recognizable photo sharing site on the web. Eventually they lost that title, but remained a staple for people who took photography serious. While they were never the place to go for hosting random photos, they were the place where you could build up a “portfolio” and almost instantly they attracted legitimate photographers to their website. What Flickr also built up, was a huge collection of hobbyists who weren’t “pros” necessarily, but who were interested in photography, art, composition and all the things that make taking photos great.

Soon Flickr implemented many social media aspects, long before they were commonplace on the internet. Yet despite these changes and somewhat highbrow content, Flickr never went too far outside the box. Flickr became something rare, a community. What was great about Flickr was that people with $2,000 cameras could share photos with those who had much simpler point and shoots, while developing a common bond and interest in the medium.

The layout was simple and at the crux of the design was the ability to upgrade to Pro status for $25 or so a year. This gave you unlimited storage. The other nice element of Flickr is that if you let your Pro lapse, your photos didn’t disappear. You couldn’t access them directly anymore, but Flickr never deleted them. They were there waiting for you should become Pro again, likewise they remained in any groups or other content you placed them in.

But all that changed this week when the new Flickr rolled out. Flickr has been owned by Yahoo for a few years and fresh off their purchase of Tumblr, they decided to reinvent Flickr as a new “hip” photo site. Flickr has never been about being cool. It might have been a trend briefly after it’s creation, but it soon settled into being a site that had fantastic, but basic functionality.

Yahoo’s new vision of Flickr is to try and be a cool site like Tumblr and Instagram. Yahoo is furious that Instagram has so much of the market share. What Yahoo failed to realize is that Flickr doesn’t share the same market with Instagram. Flickr wasn’t ever about posting the latest photos from your iPhone. And no, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t people who did that. Flickr welcomed those people with open arms. They were part of the community, but they weren’t the basis of it.

Flickr’s new layout, like their focus, puts emphasis on all the wrong things.

The new Flickr is supposed to be a place where you post up all your random, pointless photos. The original Flickr gave you information on the camera used, aperture, shutter settings and allowed you to interact with the photographer to learn more. These options still appear in the new and “improved” Flickr, but they’re buried away because they aren’t flashy enough.

The old layout of Flickr wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but it was very functional. It wasn’t broken, so it certainly didn’t need fixing. But Yahoo has made sure that the new layout is super sleek and fancy. Unfortunately this also comes at the cost of slower loading times (to the point that apparently users with even slightly sluggish internet speeds can barely use the site) and almost zero functionality. Many of the old options are there, but they’re scattered throughout a clunky interface that’s designed to dazzle you, not help you.

Simple things like profiles are either completely removed or buried so deep that even experts at Dig-Dug can’t find them. What was once painless navigation, is now just a myriad of massive images and odd little hidden areas where you have to click through screen after screen, hoping to find what was once a simple text link. Even the commenting system, which was basic but very effective in the old Flickr is now flashed up so that you have constantly scroll down and let new comments load up.

Ultimately the redesign is 50 pounds of gloss shoved over what was already a pristine paintjob. Some of the additions aren’t bad, but rather than rolling them out slowly or allowing users the options of customizing their interface, Flickr just changed everything overnight. They didn’t bother warning their users (not even those of us who pay for Flickr), because everyone was gonna love this, right?

Flickr now offers a terabyte of free storage, which is much more than the old 200 free photos that Flickr used to offer. It certainly sounds good on the surface, but with that free terabyte comes an influx of advertisements. The Pro level that used to offer unlimited photos is gone. Lots of Pro users are threatening to quit, but sadly it’s falling on deaf ears because Yahoo has already said we can’t quit… We’re fired. In it’s place is an option that costs twice as much and offers no more space, but simply removes the ads… For you. Yes, you can pay $50 for what is essentially ad blocker for your Flickr, but anyone else who views your stuff will still see the ads.

While a terabyte is more than 99% of the users on Flickr will ever use, it also is a huge reduction in overall space. As I mentioned before, the old Flickr, even at the free level, offered unlimited storage. You could only see 200 photos for free, but you could upload unlimited and for $25 or so a year, you could see unlimited too. No ads, no fuss, no muss. Now they offer the Dublr program, which gives you an extra terabyte (but doesn’t remove the ads at all) for the low, low price of $500 a year. It’s a steal!

Flickr replaced many of the useful options like stats, with pointless ones like one click slideshows. Because slideshows are cool! Or at least they were in 1994.

Ultimately the new pricing reveals the true goal of Yahoo’s new Flickr. They don’t want you to pay for anything. They want you to use the free terabyte. Anyone who’s foolish enough to pay $50 for an advanced ad blocker, is just icing on the cake for Yahoo. They’re not counting on those dollars. Flickr is pushing out the Pro users by design. This site that you’ve supported with your dollars for nearly a decade, isn’t for “you” anymore.

Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer made it very clear in her press appearance about the new Flickr that this was exactly her intention.

“Flickr was awesome once, it languished, and we want it to be awesome again,” Mayer said.

If you’re wondering how much it’s languished, Flickr only boasts a paltry 8 billion photos and nearly 90 million users. With hundreds of thousands, if not a few million, paying users. Egads! No wonder it needed such an overhaul!

Mayer also said that there’s “no such thing as professional photographer anymore,” which has drawn a lot of sharp criticism. Honestly, I feel there’s been far too much focus on this statement. I could care less about the semantics of this, dunderheaded as it is, because it just cuts more to her overall philosophy of Flickr. It’s not about the photographs, it’s about shoving as much crap on there as possible. Forget Bram Stoker, we want Twilight!

And that’s exactly what Flickr wants. They want teenage kids posting up all the stupid duck face photos that they litter Instagram and Facebook with. Because those teen kids, are ad revenue. If you’re hip, people will pay big bucks to advertise on your site. And if you offer tons of free space for kids to post duck face photos, you’ll draw in lots of users and that means lots of ad revenue. Who needs 89 million users and thousands if not millions paying for yearly usage of the site, when you can have 200 million users paying nothing but attracting big ad revenue? Apparently not Yahoo.

Mind you, Flickr has always had ads. They’ve always gotten revenue from other sources. Getty Images had a deal with Flickr. Special ads were used in other places. But the overall concept of Flickr was to generate money from a variety of avenues and to keep the community one that had a sharp focus on quality. Even if there was a lot of junk on there, Flickr never concerned itself with being cool.

Yahoo has remained a company that’s been desperate to be cool for years. Mayer is a former Google employee, who in the last 10 months has promised to make Yahoo “cool” again. Thus far they’ve managed to pay over a billion dollars for Tumblr, which has yet to make anything close to that and redesigned Flickr so that it will no longer have a safety net profit by having paid users. It certainly seems doomed to fail.

Perhaps that’s my biggest gripe. After being around a decade and still going strong, it always seemed like Flickr was going to be there. I never really worried about Flickr going away. After all, it had millions of users and a large portion of which, paid for the service. But now? Flickr suddenly feels uncertain. I am less trusting of investing my time uploading photos to Flickr, because I get the feeling that in a few years, Flickr will be going the way of MySpace.

That is unless, Mayer and the folks at Yahoo realize they’ve made a major mistake. Since rolling out their changes a few days ago, hundreds of thousands of Flickr users have complained. This is not a few folks complaining, this is the clear vast majority. As bad as the ads are, most people aren’t even upset about that. It’s Flickr’s new focus and perhaps most importantly, the layout.

Flickr has decided to “grandfather in” existing Pro users, so that you can continue to pay $25 a year of unlimited photos and no ads. It’s a good deal, but again, it’s a surface thing. Flickr has made it clear that this could end at any time. They are only agreeing to honor it for as long as they decide to honor it. Traditionally Flickr wasn’t one that had wild whims, but that was the old Flickr. Who knows when they’ll drop Pro, now. They redesigned the entire site without so much as a warning peep. It could be any day now. And anyone who wasn’t Pro when they made the switch, is SOL. Doesn’t matter if you’ve been Pro for years and just let it lapse a few days, Pro is gone.

The other option is to allow users to customize their interface to something akin to the classic Flickr layout. This seems rather easy, particularly since most of the functionality appears to be in tact, just buried under the new layout. Despite requests from thousands of users, thus far Flickr hasn’t addressed this. In fact, Flickr hasn’t addressed anything.

Over on the official Flickr Twitter, they posted this yesterday:

To our pros, hobbyists, snap shooters & film freaks. Our students, naturalists & travelers. Our dads, sisters & friends. We love you all.

It’s a nice sentiment, but it’s pretty clear how to read through the lines here… We want to be a website that doesn’t have a specific focus. We want to be all things to all people. Of course, this has never worked for any company in the history of the universe. Best to focus on doing a few things really well, than trying to bring everyone under the umbrella. Even Google, McDonalds and Walmart can’t be all things to everyone, try as they might.

In the end, perhaps Flickr will see the light. Perhaps this influx of teens and tweens will actually happen and the terabyte shell game will entice even more professionals and skilled hobbyists that the Flickr community will thrive like never before. Perhaps Yahoo will listen to it’s massive base of paying customers and decide to reimplement the old Pro program and allow the basic layouts to return. I am hopeful that will happen, so that it can shore up Flickr so that it can remain the vibrant community that it has been for so long… But I’m certainly fearful that the ignoring of suggestions will continue and Flickr will eventually just be another failed CEO retool experiment.

Only time will tell…

This website is frequented by concerned parents and Mothers all the time. That’s why we’re quite fond of the new Baby Growth Chart Widget that’s available for websites. What this widget does, is allow you to keep track of your child’s growth in a fun and interactive way. If you run a “Mom Blog” or have a site the caters to kids and the parents who raise them, this widget is an essential way to keep things engaging and entice other Moms and Dads to stay longer on your site.

This growth chart uses the rigid and very useful international standards for child growth. This is the information officially used by the World Heath Organization, to help make sure your baby is reaching their targeted growth in an optimal environment. This is useful not only for Moms and Dads, but for anyone who visits your website. Potentially increasing your SEO in the blog and also giving you more fun downloads for your visitors. Did I mention that you save this as an image or print the charts out? Well you can! Talk about keeping things simple and carefree.

Whether you’re looking for a Baby Height Chart or a Baby Weight Chart, you can use the widget to you advantage. This is a key element in helping create that community aspect, that blogs are so often focused on. When parents visit our website, they’re often looking for tips on the latest trends for their children, but using something like the Baby Growth Chart Widget in conjunction with our information, would give them the one-two punch that they need to keep coming back.

That’s why almost any site could use the widget and it’s why it’s sure to be a hit for your users if you install it. As always, visit their website for more information and check out all the official details. Then figure out which chart widgets are best for you and start optimizing your site right away!

Of course Remco was the main supplier of those types of barbarian lines and Zoloworld have perfectly recreated these concepts with their own twists. One of the most popular and sought after figures, were the Remco skeletons. You could spend hundreds of dollars on those vintage skeletons, or you could snag one of these really nice homage recreations from Zoloworld for a fraction of the price. Getting these classic designs into the fold, is one of the key elements that make Realm of the Underworld such a fun purchase for classic figure collectors.

There’s something about these vintage skeletons that immediately harken back to the late, great Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts stop motion creations. This certainly isn’t lost on the folks behind Realm of the Underworld and I couldn’t help but put a few of the Archfiends into action against Hercules and recreate some of that action. These are just fun toys to mess around with and the Archfiend is no different. But does he hold up as well as the others in the line?

Packaging:
If you liked the first package, you’ll love this one! These all use the same retro style packaging. The only downfall would be that they aren’t in collector friendly resealable packages. Zoloworld does sell some plastic clamshells you can put them in, should you like, though.

Sculpt/Paint:
The sculpt and paint here are really simple. While that may turn some people off, this line really isn’t for hyper detail or anatomic authenticity. This is about fun toys of yesteryear, brought into the modern age.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice details here or there.

The spine of the Archfiend has some nice skeletal structure as an example.

There’s some interesting scale here, as the skeletons are actually bigger than the humans. A lot of that has to do with a slightly oversized skull head. Not that scale is necessarily the most important thing in a line like this.

There’s a few splashes of paint wash to give him a little color, but it could probably be done a little better. The face is painted pretty well, however, as is the belt buckle.

The arms, legs and head can be removed. This allows you to swap parts between other figures. Unfortunately a lot of the skeleton parts can’t be swapped onto the human bodies. It’s not a deal breaker by any means, but it’s a shame that things couldn’t have been slightly retooled to allow such stuff to happen.

Articulation:
The articulation is pretty basic in nature, but it’s been revamped enough to allow the legs greater posing than some of the vintage counterparts.

This definitely adds to the value. You won’t get the loose, floppy legs of yesteryear. Although the vintage skeletons didn’t usually suffer from that.

I don’t feel the need for wrist swivels as much on this figure as I did about Hercules, but I’m sure articulation junkies may be a bit put off.

One of the nicest aspects of these figures is that reinforced core, which allows the figures to keep their balance and hold poses pretty tight, even after swapping limbs.

Accessories:
One of the best and worst parts of this figure is the accessories. First, let me be clear, I love the accessories themselves.

The Archfiend comes with a nice broadsword that really looks like the type of thing you’d find on a barbarian battlefield. The problem is that it doesn’t fit as tightly into the hand as it should. It works better than the other Archfiend’s weapons, but still not that great.

The shield works okay for me. You can have him hold it in a variety of ways. Of course, he can’t really hold it in the ways you might expect, but I didn’t have too many problems with it. The cod piece or whatever you call it, is nice as well. It’s adjustable so it can be swapped between figures.

Mixing and matching accessories is one of the best parts of this line. With a little bit of window dressing, you can make the characters really stand out.

I found that a lot of old TMNT weapons fit into the hands of the Archfiends fine, so it does make me wish that either the hands or the weapons had been retooled for a tighter fit.

Value:
The price will be a sticking point for a lot of folks. That’s why if you’re interested in these guys, I suggest preordering when they go on sale. You can shave a few bucks off the price and that will no doubt greaten your enjoyment of these Realm of the Underworld figures.

Score Recap:
Packaging – 9
Sculpt/Paint – 6
Articulation – 7
Accessories – 9
Value – 7
Overall: 8

I’m sure I’ll take some heat for my ROTU love, but either you get these guys or you don’t. I really “get” them. Ever since I’ve had them, I have been messing around with them almost daily. I really can’t thank Zoloworld enough for getting these figures into my hands. They are just downright fun retro toys.

As always, your mileage may vary. I think the general consensus on these ROTU figures has been quite good, but not everyone is a fan. I, however, am looking forward to Wave 2 and beyond! To me this is everything that MOTUC just isn’t anymore.

If one were to go by the internet community, then Ultimate Cap has been “available” for several months now. I put the word in quotation marks as it appears that those who were able to procure him either ordered him online or somehow found him when Wave 4 of Marvel Legends hit the few stores that actually ordered the series (as of right now, my Target is still sitting at a fresh restock of Wave 1, and only scatterings of Wave 2 have been at my Wal-Mart).

That being said, Ultimate Cap was one of the few figures from the fourth wave of Hasbro’s resurrected Marvel Legends that I really wanted. I haven’t read a Marvel comic in years, so that ticked X-Force Wolverine off my list; I may snag Archangel, but I’ve slowly begun phasing X-Men out of my collection so that’s another low priority. Iron Fist (who is the running change for Protector) makes for some good Bronze Age charm, and even though he’s in his modern outfit it’s a welcome update; I have my eye on Red She-Hulk, and should the running changes happen (we’re still waiting on Wave 2’s changes with Moonstar and Blade, who has finally been announced) I will definitely get the Sentry and She-Hulk updates. Until I find those, I’m pretty good with just Cap.

One last thing before I move over into the review: I’m shaking things up, and doing away with the compartmentalized nature of my previous reviews. What this means is that I’ll only occasionally take pictures of the packaging, rather than make it a consistent feature like I have been. I’m not much of a MOC collector and only seldom am I finding the packaging worthwhile to comment on. I may return to this when I receive the DC Infinite Earths Wally West Flash figure, so I’m not ruling out anything for the future; for another thing my comments will be less itemized and more free-wheeling and relaxed. I welcome feedback from those out there who have read my previous musings, and if they miss the old structure I’ll bring it back.

ULTIMATE CAPTAIN AMERICA…America’s first super soldier battles evil wherever it arises!

When Hasbro took over the license from Toy Biz, they kept up with the brief biographies on the back of the package, but now that they’ve restarted the line again they’re keeping bios short, sweet, and maddeningly vague. In some cases a full rundown would help in learning teeny bit about a character who exist on the fringes of the universe (like Hope Summers) but a pass can be given in the case of Ultimate Captain America. This isn’t the first time that the character has seen an action figure: he first showed up in Wave 8 of the Toy Biz line, and yet again in a two pack with the comic version of Ultimate Nick Fury under Hasbro (later given a single card release in the Captain American movie line). That Hasbro would chose now to do an update is interesting given the plethora of other Ultimate characters yet to be made, but I can understand their trepidation in going into that universe too much—previous Ultimate characters under their banner such as Iron Man and Wolverine were met with ho-hums and jeers (that Ultimate Wolverine headsculpt…the less said the better).

Because I haven’t read much Ultimate comics outside of Ultimate Spider-Man, I can’t say if the sculpt is designed to be artist specific or not. The old Wave 8 version was a little inspired by Bryan Hitch’s artwork but not much. I’ve heard that Cap here is meant to be based on his look either during or after Jeph Loeb’s run on Ultimates; the problem with that hypothesis is that there is a choice between Joe Madureria, David Finch, or Frank Cho. I want to think that it’s more than likely a Frank Cho Captain America, since he shares a few Cho trademarks (slightly cartoony face, exaggerated eyebrows) but it could otherwise function as a nice generic Ultimate Cap.

The body is based around an old Toy Biz mold, specifically the Punisher from the Face Off two-pack with Jigsaw, a mold which also saw reuse for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. The reuse was a solid choice: if this Cap is meant to be a Cho Cap, the smoothness of the Punisher body was much needed (since Cho never drew Ultimate Cap with the chainmail). His vest and utility belt are separate pieces and as such can be removed. However, the holster and gun on his right leg are molded as one solid piece and can only be removed by cutting the thing off him. I’m not without my armaments to give him, but it does suck as it would have been nice to have that extra piece as an accessory. There is a hole in both the back and vest, reminiscent of the holes for the Doop flight stands, or any flight stand, to help with simulating the high kicking martial arts moves Cap was known to execute.

His right hand is sculpted with a closed fist while his left is open, almost in what I would say a trigger finger. It speaks to the differences between 616 Cap and Ultimate Cap in their willingness to kill or even brandish a gun. There are far more instances of Ultimate Cap willfully killing without considering the moral compass of the act, whereas 616 Cap has had a “no kill” policy much like Batman, only breaking it under the most extreme circumstances. And like Batman, the 616 Cap has used a gun but again those instances are few and far between.

The new pieces on him include the gloves and boots, which have been sculpted with an impressive amount of wrinkles and texture. I do wish the boots had been painted differently, or rather the shoe strings been a different color like black, because right now both boots and strings are one color, red. This does bring back the comparison to the Toy Biz figure and the changing of times for action figures, when there would have been money in the budget for such a thing and a wash could be applied over the whole figure. Hasbro’s Ultimate Cap doesn’t get much of one, except on his vest which has a dark wash to give it that worn in leather look. Even his the utilities on his utility belt have all been painted on color, brown, and given a slight wash, but things like his tear gas canisters or the hilt of his knife should be given their own distinctive paint app. That sounds petty but with amount of money spent on figures these days I think one can afford a little pettiness.

Underneath his boots have been sculpted with treads. It’s a detail that could have been overlooked and I’m glad it was remembered. It’s a reminder that this isn’t the simplistic 616 Cap, this is a whole new gritty beast of a Captain America.

Speaking of paint details, one important detail separating Ultimate Cap’s costume from his 616 counterpart is the stars on the shoulders. The Toy Biz Ultimate Cap had them, but this version doesn’t. I think this is where speculation of the artistic origins of the figure, as Marvel has used aspects of the Ultimate universe Cap for both his animated appearances (Ultimate Avengers, the best Avengers movie before the live-action flick) and his big screen adventures, in that the wings on his mask have been done away with and his costume is meant to be more realistic. I don’t have my Avengers Movie Cap on hand to check but I don’t think that version had the stars on his shoulders either, so either Marvel is telling Hasbro to streamline their versions of certain characters (so that Ultimate Cap can function for any universe), Hasbro painters forgot to add the stars, or in the long run it didn’t cost out to add them. It just serves to make Ultimate Cap into more of a Generic Cap, not a bad thing considering the lack of Ultimates cast members from Marvel Legends.

The rest of the paint appears to be fine. As I said earlier there is no wash over the figure to bring out any details but given the smooth quality over the majority of the body I don’t think they would have been necessary except on the boots and gloves. At present his torso, arms, and legs sit on that nice border between looking like spandex or a a stretchy cloth material, definitely not chainmail or armor.

Ultimate Cap’s accessories includes his shield (obviously), and probably the vest and belt although I’m only counting those because they are separate removable pieces. The shield is a reuse from the Bucky Cap of Wave 2, painted a deep red with a grayish white ring. The shields are smaller than Toy Biz, but thankfully there’s enough around that I can just give him an extra but on the other hand this one is nice on its own that I might just keep as is. One neat little thing about the shield is that while missing the straps of the Toy Biz releases, he does come with a nice hook to attach onto his left wrist, as well as a handle to further help with poses when resting the hook. You can also plug the shield into the hole in his back, to make it look as though he his carrying it, so Hasbro didn’t forget that Cap sometimes did that.

I didn’t mention the head when talking about the sculpt and there’s a reason why: someone at Hasbro or Marvel must have wanted this to be the standard look for Steve Rogers that they remembered the Commander Rogers figure from Wave 1 and based the headsculpt of Ultimate Captain America off that. And when I say based, I mean the structure of the eyes and chin are dead on similar. The head also adds a nice little fun factor, in that you can pop it off and plop that Commander Rogers head right on him for an unmasked Ultimate Cap and everything fits like a glove. Both Rogers and Ultimate Cap share the same size hole for the balljoint, which makes the swap terribly easy and leads right into my next comment on articulation, which if you collect toys and have collected Marvel Legends in the past, then you know how high the bar was set for articulated action figures. Hasbro had a few hits and misses when they took over the license, and it wasn’t until the last two or three years that we’ve seen them step their game tremendously.

Ultimate Cap has a lot of the classic articulation: balljointed neck, shoulders, and hips, with double jointed knees and elbows. The tops of his bootcuffs and gloves are on a swivel, while at the ankles they are probably the best rocker joints I’ve ever seen on an action figure. I kind of miss the joint at the tips of the toes but it doesn’t hurt the figure, and posing isn’t hampered without it.

So with all that being said, how does Ultimate Cap stack up? He’s a nice update of an old, hard to get figure but was he really needed? Part of me thinks that Hasbro could have used this slot for another Ultimates character, namely Thor or even giving the comics Ultimate Nick Fury a single card shot. Or, since the Iron Man Legends series was already stacked, an update of Ultimate Iron Man is much needed. Hopefully one day Hasbro does do an Ultimates wave with either a Hulk or Giant-Man build-a-figure, but I digress. At $14.99 Ultimate Cap isn’t cheap, but where I have in the past complained about that price regarding Mattel’s DC figures and lack of reason to cost so much, Hasbro has given Cap enough articulation and accessories to ensure that all important fun factor for either display or articulated comic book art work.

I really hope Hasbro does more with the Ultimate universe, if not another Ultimates character then it’s not too late to think of Ultimate Spider-Man or someone from the Ultimate X-Men as a future contender (perhaps an update of Wolverine in a box set exclusive with Cyclops and Jean Grey?).

Til then, this is the Batced signing off.

Hey, ho…let’s go!

Alright, you like open-ended, broad topics, well here’s another one just for you. This week’s topic for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers is… Why? No, really. WHY?

So the League is back and this time we’re just supposed to talk about why. Why what? That’s up to you to decide. For me, the choice was simple. Why the hell haven’t they made War of the Gargantuas figures yet? Okay to be fair, they HAVE made quite a few different vinyl figures of Sanda and Gaira, but not nearly enough. I almost bought some of the vinyl figures a while back, but that would just make me want real figures even more. I would even settle for a good vinyl. Most of the vinyls that have been made are not very good in being actual representations of the characters. Instead they tend to be those wacky “fun” Japanese vinyl types.

There’s nothing wrong with that, on the surface… But I want something poseable. I want something like a MonsterArts figure! It seems like such a no brainer to make Gargantuas. We got a Revoltech Baragon, so I thought maybe we’d see some Gargantua action, but no dice. Heck they even made the MASER and included mini Gargantuas, but no actual figures followed. What’s up with that?

These two behemoths could reuse a lot of the same sculpt. All you’d need was a new head and some alterations to the chest. That’s easy money! Yet we just haven’t seen it in toy form. I suppose it could be because getting really detailed and poseable versions of classic kaiju is a relatively new thing. But man, War of the Gargantuas, I mean come on!

So why not get on with it?! Somebody needs to make these things. There have been some incredible model kits. Yet when it comes to toys, the selection is so small. Maybe someday I’ll get my Sanda and Gaira… But until then I’m left to wonder, WHY!?

They made a Maser Canon but no Gaira?!

I feel like some Gargantuan action figures could ease my pain. It could answer all my whys. Oh well, a boy can dream, right?

Elsewhere in the League, Calvin posts pictures of some girl I don’t know, while Travelin’ Pics has photos of toy toilets. Don’t ask why!

Inspired by Batman, Barbara Gordon fought Gotham City evildoers as Batgirl. But when the Joker shot her in the spine, she was confined to a wheelchair indefinitely. Determined to walk again, Barbara trained intensely and was able to resume her work as the crime-fighting Batgirl. Although her traumatic memories will not easily fade, she can once again be seen fearlessly swinging over the rooftops of Gotham City as a sign of hope and perseverance.

First and foremost I’d like to dedicate this review to Carmine Infantino, Batgirl’s co-creator and a titanic talent during the Silver Age, along with being a brilliant editor and publisher during the Bronze Age for DC Comics and Marvel, who passed away on April 4. The comics industry is still feeling his influence sixty years later.

At first announcement, I thought DC was going to retcon “The Killing Joke” in order to make Barbara wear the cowl again. The story needs no introduction or much mention of the name; I’m sure the readers of Infinite Hollywood have read the story numerous times by now, its importance nothing to sneeze at. But DC editorial assured that certain things would still be in continuity in the New 52, especially in regards to the Batman universe. Thusly, Barb still felt the Joker’s bullet knock her down. She also still became Oracle, and was a member of Birds of Prey. Since the New 52 relaunch, Batgirl’s solo title has been a pretty moderate seller; the new title’s first trade paperback “The Darkest Reflection” was also a New York Times Bestseller. Not too shabby for a character who hadn’t been in the cowl for twenty years.

As one of the prominent members of the Batman family, Barb has seen several incarnations as a figure under many different corporations. Under the Four Horsemen’s watchful eye for Mattel, we’ve had two previous versions of Barb, one in Silver Age appropriate colors, the other coming from late in the Bronze Age (when she ditched the black bodysuit and dark blue cowl for a gray bodysuit and lighter blue cowl). And now we have one for the New 52 Age (if anyone’s calling it such a thing) courtesy of the new Batman Unlimited series from Mattel. Swing a bat-line with me and we’ll go over its finer points.

Packaging:
Barb comes in the standard packaging for both Batman and DC Unlimited. As stated previously in my New 52 Batman review, the packaging design was inspired by last year’s Batman Legacy line, with the series logo prominently displayed on top, the character name on the bottom, and a portion of artwork on the left hand side.

The portrait artwork on the front comes from the cover of the relaunched title’s first issue by artist Adam Hughes (he of the cheesecake in comics). A larger portrait can be found on the back. It’s a good choice as a dynamic piece: it shows Barb in full on hero-mode amongst a flock of bats, grinning broadly from ear. I’m probably reading too much into it, but the work recalls the whimsical fun of the Silver Age with the brooding darkness of the Modern Age.

Underneath the portrait is a blurb about Batgirl’s statistics, with an image of New 52 Batman and the Super Powers deco’d Penguin. Open the folds up, and there’s advertisements about MattyCollector, Mattel’s online service that offers subscriptions for several lines (beginning with the Four Horsemen’s second go-round with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and now splitting off into DC Comics, Voltron, WWE, and Ghostbusters).

Sculpt:
At first glance, Batgirl appears to be the same body we’d seen used earlier, the previously mentioned Silver and Bronze Age incarnations. Mattel and the Four Horsemen have dropped a rarity: a brand spanking new sculpt for Batgirl…well, scratch that. The head looks to be a reuse of the older Batgirl head, but it’s been given a new paintjob that it looks wildly different from the previous Batgirls.

From the neck down it’s all brand new, beginning with a newly sculpted torso to simulate the armor of her costume (which does raise the question of who is going to use this body later on with so many specific pieces to Babs). Her bat logo is sculpted and raised, along with her belt (reminiscent of her Silver/Bronze Age costume which had a stylized bat for the buckle, something the figures did not accurately represent). The tops of her boots, which were sculpted onto the lower shins originally, are now a separate element made from soft plastic. The potential for future warping is there, which makes me wonder why they didn’t just sculpt them directly onto the figure like before.

Missing this go-round for Babs are the famous spiked gauntlets, replaced instead by gloves that have a flare where the elbow inserts into the glove. These are also sculpted with various striations on the forearm. The hands are a remake from the older figures, with the left hand being open and ready to hold a batarang and the right being closed into a fist. Lastly, Babs is given a new cape, black with a purple undercoat.

There’s more to say about other sculpting choices, but I’ll get to that when I mention the articulation.

Paint:
New 52 Batgirl’s color scheme looks to be inspired by the way Alex Ross depicted her in “Justice”, with a strong contrast of gold and black. There’s some mess on her belt, and some uneven painting on her logo, but over all this is one of the rarer pieces I’ve bought where I’ve been satisfied enough with the paint job.

Babs is a well known redhead, like Ralph Dibny—Elongated Man—and while her earlier figures attempted to paint the hair as accurately as possible, the results were hit or miss. The red this time looks really nice, with a black wash applied to it. The wash is uneven and looks like it was just tossed on there but in the right light makes her hair pop immensely. I’d mentioned before that her head is a holdover from those old figures, just repainted differently and the difference shows: little details such as makeup, mascara, and the cleanest lipstick I’ve ever seen on a figure of a woman make the world of difference. However, the head is one area I would keep a lookout for: there have been some reports of a brunette Batgirl shipping in some cases. I don’t know if that’s a paint error or running change circulating but it does prove interesting that such a “variant” would exist.

Speaking of variants, the more I looked at this head and body, I realized that this would make a perfect base for the Modern Batwoman.

Articulation:
I had to cut my discussion of the sculpt early to save some details for this section, namely because there are some issues where the sculpt overrode the articulation. For one thing, Batgirl is missing an ab-crunch that was prominent on the previous figures, as well as a lack of a waist. She does have a torso swivel that is often seen on Hasbro females, but unlike those figures, Babs can’t move up and down with hers. She can barely move left to right, and I’m afraid to push it any further but the way the joint is constructed she can bend over for any dynamic action poses. Part of me thinks this choice was made to sacrifice the torso articulation for the sculpted armor but I could be wrong here.

She’s also lost the swivels in her shoulders; these are also replaced by Hasbro style balljoints found at the forearm. She can bend that arm just shy of ninety-degrees, but it just barely creeps there. The Hasbro balljoints can also be found at the tops of her boots, which caught me by surprise that she’d be tooled with such a joint when there hadn’t been a distinctive need for one before (of course, I’m sure others thought the same way when Mattel began introducing double jointed knees and elbows late in DC Universe Classics run). That balljoint actually causes restriction, where the knee can’t bend to its full ninety-degree range.

All counted, Babs moves at her neck, mid-torso, elbows, wrists, hinge-hips, lower legs, and ankles.

Accessories:
As I said before in my Batman review, it is not like Mattel isn’t without its backstock of batarangs to give to the Bat-family. Babs gets zilch in terms of accessories, which is a shame given that she has a hand perfectly sculpted for something. But on the one hand, given the fact that she is a new sculpt, it’s very likely that an accessory for her didn’t cost out when all was tallied.

Value:
And we come to whether or not she is a worthwhile purchase. Babs retails for $15.99 plus tax at Target, which is where I bought her from. I cringe when I remember Marvel Toys (formerly Toy Biz) produced Legendary Comic Book Heroes at the cost of $8.99 a figure barely half a decade ago, but that was when the prices of oil and plastic was at least slightly stable.

Her lack of accessories and poor articulation will make her take a serious hit. For the price, you are getting a 100% new sculpt which is such a rarity in these days of repaints and reuse. She is in a nice costume that pops from the shelf (the gold really looks fantastic in person) and for the most part is a solid figure all around. But the flipside of that script is you are going to have to deal with the poor articulation , especially if you’re like me and love posing your figures.

Final Thoughts:
I may have been born twenty years after, but I did grow up on reruns of the 1966 Batman TV show, and Yvonne Craig’s portrayal of Batgirl was my favorite. I’m a moderate Batgirl fan, I enjoy many of the Silver and Bronze Age adventures thanks to DC’s reprint collections she gets featured in, and her use in media related to Batman. Slowly I’m accumulating more Batgirl figures than Robins.

I think that this will be the last version we see of the Barbara Gordon Batgirl, as Mattel has seemingly covered all of her costumes up to the present and I do not think they will visit her Oracle phase (especially since DC Direct already included an excellent one in the Birds of Prey box set from years ago). I do foresee them reusing this body, potentially for the Kate Kane Batwoman or even the Stephanie Brown Batgirl (the latter probably more likely than the former). The design on those characters may be different but I can’t imagine why the Four Horsemen would go through so much trouble designing a new body like this if it weren’t there for potential reuse in the future.

Compared to New 52 Batman or Hawkman, Batgirl falls flat. I do wish the figure had been tooled a lot different for a new sculpt, because there is honestly a lot to like here that it’s to forgive many obvious oversights made in her construction. But comparing her to the other two Babs figures, this one sits low on the totem pole as a not needed addition unless you, dear reader, are interested in collecting New 52 merchandise and are curious as to the sculpt’s newness.

1. What would Mattel say is the greatest strength of the Masters of the Universe Classics line to date?

The power of our fans!

Editor’s Note: I guess that’s what I get for throwing a softball. To be fair, I guess it IS an accurate answer.

2. Has Mattel shopped around the idea of other MOTUC exclusives to retailers? Obviously the TRU experiment was met with limited success, but since that time has Mattel pitched any new concepts like this to other retailers?

At this time MOTU will remain exclusive to Mattycollector.com. We do not have plans for retail product.

3. Will Aquaman get a singles release in the new Target line? It seems like right now he’s only available in the multi-pack. It seems like he should be available as a single with his trident.

He will not be a part of the 2013 singles assortment. So if you love Aquaman, the multi-pack is the place to get him.

Editor’s Note: NOOOOOO! He’s the only one I really want. I guess I have to wait for that pack to go on clearance.

4. There already seems to be a lot of Superman variants hitting the shelves. What exactly is the strategy behind putting out so many different Superman figures in wacky alternate costumes?

The Man of Steel line celebrates the film and Superman. The various costumes will allow boys and collectors to play out a variety of Superman stories.

Editor’s Note: I just wish they tried a bit harder on these variants. Is it that hard to come up with a really compelling reason for a new Superman suit?

5. Will the old WWE Hardcore title see release anywhere aside from the upcoming Kane exclusive?

Not at this time.

If you have questions you’d like submitted to Mattel (I sent in a few this round from folk’s submissions to be answered next time around), email me or reply here with a question and I’ll try to get it asked. No matter what your question, I will ask it of Mattel. I need some good questions folks.