The Kyle Robinson Bugle » Reviews

New Holiday Displays From AFD!!!

Kyle Robinson — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 04:00:53 +0000

HEY EVERYONE! Wanted to let you know that AFD has some great new stuff going on for the holiday season. This holiday season AFD is offering a limited-edition Christmas display. This display works perfectly with all the classic holiday toys such as Rudolph, Frosty, Grinch and many more. As of yesterday (Sat, the 20th), you can find the limited-edition Christmas display HERE. Also, for the holiday season AFD is offering FREE SHIPPING on all US orders!!

I have been personally using these great displays for a long time now, and they just keep getting better and better. So get over to the AFD website and snag the latest. They obviously make a great gift for any collector.

NECA Player Select Street Fighter IV Ken

Kyle Robinson — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:17:05 +0000

HAPPY DAY!! Sorta I finally found the new Player Select Line of street fighter figures at my local TRU (for $13.99). Bad news is that they only had Ken. The wave consist of 3 characters if you didnt already know. Ryu, Ken, and a new female character named Crimson Viper (C. Viper for short). He was not only the only character, but the only SF IV figure on the peg (only one peg I might add) The cashier added “Pretty figures, they have been flying off the shelf like hot cakes”.

So lets talk about Ken and all his awesomeness. Below you will see the package images of Ken, the Packaging is basically what you expect from NECA by now which is pretty great. The back gives you some specs on Ken, a list of the figures in the series, and a Devinci like diagram of how the articulation works.

After opening Ken, I was immediately impressed just by holding him. He is solid, heavy and just feels like a quality figure. I haven’t been this impressed since opening my NECA Ryu Hyabusa (go figure).

Ken is 7 inch scale and stands slightly taller than SOTA Previews Ken, and MUCH bigger than the 6 inch SOTA SF Ken (see image above). I liked the previews Ken, but in comparison I would have to say NECA made a much better figure with stronger articulation and much better sculpt IMO. This Ken is based off the up coming Street Fighter IV video game coming out on the 16th of this month. NECA did a great job of capturing the look of the game perfectly and I really love the hair sculpt most of all.

Ken’s Articulation is just amazing, he is stiff and strong and can balance on one foot with ease. You never feel like your going to force/break his joints like I know many of us have with SOTA Previews SF (I even made a tutorial on fixing the leg that came off instantly when I opened my Dan figure). Ken has 35 Points of articulation (POA) and comes with 2 sets of hands. On set of hands are 2 fist, and the other set is one fist and one thumbs up/thumb Down hand (and yes, from what I see, in both sets you get the same right fist). Some of you might be turned off by overexposed peg holes, I know were all use to seeing them, but NECA shows way more than lines like Marvel legends, and could easily had been covered in the shoulders and such, but I don’t mind at all, after all, it IS an action figure (its not fooling me)

Ken’s paint is very nice and I only found one or two minor flaws (like over painted his belt onto his top). His hair is astonishingly blonde in comparison to what SOTA has done with him, very saturated. His top is casted in red rubber and is not sticky (had some stickiness issues with SOTA rubber). his flesh tone is various realistic tones of color casting flesh and airbrushing, really looks great and basically flawless.

You can see more of the torso articulation, flesh tone paint and awesome body sculpt if you remove the top. The top is NOT suppose to come off, you are actually breaking the glue to get it apart and even then, there is a hole in his back that it’s glued into. For the sake of this review I took the top off anyway, you can too if you feel confident in gluing it back together.

That wraps up my review, and if you haven’t guessed I gave it 5 out of 5 stars, a PERFECT figure in my book.

KyleRobinsonCustoms.Com

Hasbro Spider Man Series Review

Kyle Robinson — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:06:39 +0000

Hello collectors! Kyle Robinson here, and I’m back with my latest review. Im not going to do the whole set here, since I didn’t buy them all (I didn’t like any of them from what I saw, especially Juggy)

I picked up just Venom and regular ol’ Spidey. We will start with Spidey since he is lesser loved of the 2.

**Spider-Man (Click thumbs for larger images)

I picked up Spidey because I planed on doing so from the day I seen him on TNI. He looked like he would make for a good Capcom style custom, but like most figures, his final project fell short of the what I accepted from the promo images. I picked him up anyway since he still has lots of potential.

I really like the torso of the figure, and the over all proportions of the body Although the first nitpicks I have is that the hands are too big and he virtually has no neck for his oddly shaped head to sit on. you can consider the hands and head as good as gone once I really get into this figure for customizing.

Now the articulation on Spidey is not too bad. He has about 16 POA which will make most collectors scoff, but he has it in all the right places with no half calf or mid forearm swivel along with very smooth double jointed knees and a waist pivot. He is lacking abdominal crunch articulation, but for the most part im not a big fan of that anyway since it takes away from the over all torso sculpt IMO. What Spidey is missing in the articulation dept. though is Ball jointed thighs and shoulders, this makes it impossible to rest his arms and do the splits properly. Not only did Hasbro leave out the ball jointed shoulder, but he has no upper biceps swivel to make up for it, this makes his arms very limited in their movement, on the only way to make a palm up pose is to rotate the wrist, the elbow will always be in the back. The head sits on a ball that jives him limited “look around” and the head pops off with nearly no effort, I think this is a bad thing since the head sits so low on the anti-neck that you cant even make him look up.

Over all, I give him 2 out of 4 Stars and thats only cause I feel he has potential if your a customizer like myself

***Venom

Here is Venom! The one I have been waiting for, but once again, just a few things bug me a bout him which make him just short perfect. First of all, I HATE the stupid bug arm accessory, and your much better just throwing it out (or into he fodder box) It makes him very back heavy and barely even stays on anyway. Again I love the torso on this figure, the proportions and muscle sculpt are 2nd to none, it even has nice abdominal articulation that doesn’t really distract from the overall look.

The paint apps on this guy are another thing, the face isn’t that bad, but the logo on his torso is messed up on all 3 that I have (yes, I liked him enough to buy 3 of them). The paint don logo has over spray all over and on his back all 4 spider legs on the left side are blended as one (again on all 3). They did give him some nice airbrush highlights though, over all paint job is tolerable.

The articulation on Venom is alot like that on Spidey, No ball joints and cant rest arms or do proper splits. He has single jointed elbows like spider and double jointed knees. No pointless articulation, but still not all the proper POA needed for agile characters. The head is properly done with a ball joint you cant pop off just by dropping it, pretty good movement too.

You can expect me to make a better venom from this (along with a Sabretooth and Blackheart) but as a collector I would be just fine with him as my new Venom. Over all I give 3 out of 4 stars.

All figures come in minimal packaging, and seem to not be aimed at the collector market such as marvel Legends. But they fit right in with your ML figures and do the job well. I have a feeling this Venom will be popular, so make sure you snag yours up soon.

Thats it for my Review, hope you learned something
THANKS FOR READING

~KyleRobinsonCustoms.Com

Kyle Reviews the Marvel Legends Ares Wave

Kyle Robinson — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 08:56:50 +0000

The Marvel Legends Ares Wave (exclusive to Wal-Mart)
Review By Kyle Robinson Customs

Hasbro’s Ares wave of Marvel Legends Have arrived at my local Wal-Mart this week here in the Northwest, and I happened to be able to snag them all. The series contains 8 figures with assorted paint variants (like Human Torch) and blister variants (like Scarlet Spidey). Each figure is packed with a piece of the BAF Ares (which doesn’t scream BAF at only 7 inches but is impressive none the less). The Series of characters contains Heroes reborn Iron Man, Crossbones, Scarlet Spider, Human Torch, Ultimate War Machine, Vision, Guardian, and Kang. Below I will review each figure and rate them on a scale of 1-5 stars (5 being best).

See all images and review after the Link

Heroes Reborn Iron Man (Helmet and Swords) ****

Right out of the package iron Man is an impressive figure. The articulation is smooth and the figure just looks great. I don’t know about you, but I frown on the socket joints Hasbro has been using to use as of late and this Iron Man has them in his wrist, elbows and feet. These are the only POA that do not impress me but as long as we don’t get them in the knees im fine with it. These types of joints hinder the articulation of the feet big time, and wont let you get a full “in flight” vertical stretch but since he is neither equipped with a flight stand or even a hole in his back for one, it shouldn’t really bother you. Im mostly impressed that we got a fresh sculpt for the HR Iron Man which shows a level of dedication on Hasbro’s part (kudos). Iron Man is Casted in solid red that has a nice glossy finish and though the Gold area is painted with nice wash details, the red sections leave alot to be desired in the detail department, a black wash would put him over the top. Over all I give HR Iron Man a 4 out of 5 star rating, great effort!

Crossbones (left Leg) *****

What a great figure! Sure he is about 90% Recycled (cause after all, hasbro is one of the best customizers around..heh) But the parts used for him work much better him than you could imagine. The whole body is a re-cast of the Young Avengers box set Hulkling figure with a new head and removable rubber vest. The head cast is dead on and is in great scale with the body, and the vest is very detailed with its blue dry-brushing and its easily removable.
Crossbones comes with 2 Guns, both have witch have been seen before with our Hydra Agent. The grey guns lack any kind of detail in the color department and really seem to be out of place compared to the level of detail we get on the actual figure. The guns are also next to impossible to hold one you remove clear rubber bands and if you you want to pt his finger on the trigger of the pistol don’t hold your breath. Crossbones stands at about 7 inches (about the same, if not, taller than the BAF figure Ares..Heh). Aside from the guns, im still willing to give the figure a full 5 stars since its one of the best Legends I’ve seen from hasbro yet bar-none.

Scarlet Spider (Right Arm) ***

Scarlet is by no means the worst figure ever, but I am a little more than unimpressed here. First off, don’t expect any spider-like articulation when you open this one, and say good bye to the low hunched McFarlane pose (the group shot at the top is as low as your getting here) cause this figure has very little movement in his feet and also his wrist (although the wrist is mainly hindered by the silver wrist guards). The hip joints are another main detour in his spidey like movements. I love this sculpt and so do they [obviously] But I do not think it works for spidey, it just lacks to much movement. Another feature that bothered me a little is that the head has sculpted detail for the black webbing, and this level of detail is no where to be found on the rest of the figure. The body is Beautifully painted for sure, but it just seems to clash with the head cause of the routs chosen for detail. Over all though, the figure moves smooth and not as clicky as the “Bulleye Body” and I like smooth datail of the body with solid color casting (although some paint wash would make him pop more) I’ll give him a 3 out of 5 ^_^

Variant Human Torch (Left Arm) ****

Why we need another Human Torch so soon is beyond me. but at least they got the head sculpt down this time, cause it is awesome. I did scalp ALL the figure (c’mon, give me some credit, I did leave 3 ^_^ ) So I left the Normal torch there. I did however take the variant cause I thought he was more interesting. The only difference in in the flame color and also, the variant has cracked lines painted on him. The flame color looked really cool to me, something different then the 100 other Johnny figures. We do however get that same body sculpt he have all seen on johnny (with those feet I can bitch about for days cause they move like a joke). All in all, we didi get a good HT this time around and maybe we wont have to see him again for at least 3 waves. 3 out of 5 stars.

Ultimate war Machine (Head) **

Excuse me if I get really negative on this one, but is this not the most lazy wave filler you have ever seen? (don’t answer) Not only is this just a simple re-color re-cast, but its a pretty bad one at that, customizers have been making Ult WM from Ult IM for some time now and a simple Silver and black does it. Why they busted this Titanium Copper color and flat grey is beyond me, but if that is not enough to make you want pass on this figure then hold on to your hats… THE HELMET IS NOT REMOVABLE but at least the took the effort to make the skin color right when you look up in to the chin are (**claps) did I mention this figure comes with the head of Ares? A perfect example of BAF marketing to sell peg warmers. Sorry hasbro, but this one is a FAIL in my opinion. 2 Stars for being a lazy, yet clean looking figure.

Vision (Right Leg) *****

Im Starting to feel a little bipolar, but this is a very bipolar wave. Vision is perfectly executed figure, again they used the body I will dub “The New Bullseye Body”. This time around, unlike spidey, I think the body is perfect for vision. The body is not to slim and not to muscular, and his hands (although non articulated) are not doing anything too suggestive. The color casting is great here, and although it lacks detail is makes him look very crisp and smooth. Visions head is in great scale too and is actually bigger than his neck (back to that when I get to guardian). My favorite part about him is his cape, it has a very prestigious waft to it and I just love the way it hangs in the wing behind his left arm. Vision gets 5 stars cause I cant find anything that makes me want to melt him

Guardian (Lower Torso)***

Alot of good, and some bad here, lets start with the good. The figure has the articulation we know and love with the “bullseye Body” Mold and the airbrushing on his white parts, as well as the rest of the paint apps are very clean and look great. Some of the things I don’t like about the Guardian figure is the head, the ab-crunch articulation and the hands. First off I think the head is too small and is actually smaller than the neck is. The hands are from quicksilver and don’t make sense for him like they didi for Quicksilver. Finally, Even though the body was from the original Bullseye cast, somewhere along the Time line, Hasbro seems to have screwed up the ab-crunch articulation. The Joint has more extreme clicks compared to the original body (I.E. Bullseye, Havoc, Moonknight, ect) since hasbro took the mold, you can either click it to where the chest is to far out or the figure is too far forward. This has been happening since quicksilver, and also exist on the target black spidey (which also has a tiny head..heh). Over this guy gets a 3 (hey a C is still passing right?)

Kang (Upper Torso)*****

NEW SCULPTS…sorta! (in the ML Line at least) That is what I like to see, I call it effort and the Kang Figure has plenty of it. From head to toe we get something a lot of us have never seen (since the ToyBiz Biz Fantastic 4 Kang was so rare That not even I knew it existed). The articulation is spot on, and the scale is all good (YAY a normal head!). Kang also has has great paint apps with more than just color casted parts. For these reasons, I will give the Kang figure 4 stars, pick him up if you see him.

Ares (Build A Figure) ****

Last but not least, we have the Build A Figure Ares. Is a Ares a great choice for a BAF? Well… not really. But is Ares a great figure? YES, once built you will fall in love with his detail and articulation. The waist articulation is very cool in the way it swivels and rotates (you will see how it works before you put it together) and all the joints are nice and thick, yet very flexible. Ares is what Action figured should feel like in your hand, heavy, solid, and well constructed. The only reason I didn’t give him 5 stars is cause, frankly, he is small for a BAF. There is easily dozens of more obvious choices for a BAF (Lets see a BAF Juggernaut for one). Ares stands about as tall as crossbones (maybe even a bit shorter with his flimsy helmet off) which isn’t very big, and we wouldn’t a crossbones BAF now would we? I know I wouldn’t. But hey, we cant always win, and Ares seems to be a little more well crafted than your basic figured even though he lacks BAF stature we all want. The paint apps on him a are TOPS! The Skull on his chest is painted to perfection and if your a Ares fan then you should probably shell out the 80 bucks and buy the whole set before we see the price jump Target had with Marvel Legends.

I hope you found my review Informing and fun
~Kyle Robinson