Marvel Universe Wave 22 (Teaser)

Marvel Universe Wave 22 (Teaser)

Howdy folks. Just wanted to drop a line to the good Marvel Universe fans out in the world. Things have been quiet for a little while but the fish are starting to jump again as we get near to summer and as we get near to San Diego Comic Con.

We already have an inkling that we will be getting the Deadpool Corps as the SDCC 2013 exclusive (one of them). MUReview will have images up of those soon.

This week, you will also (hopefully) get a first review look at Marvel Universe Wave 22 featuring:

Captain America

Elektra

Rhino

Mysterio

They are all here..I just need a few minutes to get things down on paper and take some nice pictures. Look forward to it!photo

Minimates: The Worthy Box Set

Minimates: The Worthy Box Set

Minimates The Worthy Box Set

I gave the impressions of the Fear Itself story line in last weeks Minimates review (The Mighty).  Here, I’ll talk about a few different things.  First and foremost, can’t stand Hells Kitchen, drives me nuts, yet because I’m married, I have seen pretty much every episode.  Now that that is off my chest, let’s talk about The Worthy!  Four of the most evil, unstoppable villains the Marvel Universe has ever seen.  Red Skull’s Daughter, The Serpent, a more evil Grey Gargoyle and a really mad Thing.  (Skadi, The Serpent, Mokk and Angrir).  I feel like a bit of a broken record but Minimate plastic is golden plastic and once again they have absolutely nailed these characters in this scale like no other in even larger scales.

Skadi

The Good:

  • The amount of depth that can be added through a paint application alone is staggering and displayed in outstanding fashion here.
  • Add to the depth brought by paint, the depth brought by ornamentation and accessory.  Shoulder armor, hair, hammer, they all mesh well together

The Bad:

  • The Red Skull was always one of my least favorite villains.  Not because he wasn’t bad, but because I just didn’t enjoy reading his style of bad.  That said, I don’t much care for his daughter either…but the figure is awesome.

Mokk

The Good:

  • We get the Grey Gargoyle!
  • He looks even meaner than usual.
  • As usual, laser fine detail.
  • Shoulder pads, greaves, head spikes, I wouldn’t mess with Mokk and I probably wouldn’t mess with this 2 inch tall version of him either…

The Bad:

  • It took us this long to get a stellar Grey Gargoyle.

Angrir

The Good:

  • The Thing like you have never seen him before.
  • Something that I haven’t really addressed and that is regrettable to this point, is that the paint applications, specifically on these Asgardian touched figures, the glow is captured in fantastic fashion.  The paint almost hums off of these tiny masterpieces, Angrir more so than the others, but they all look fantastic.

The Bad:

  • The weird fleshy bits put me off in the comic, they put me off a little here too…

The Serpent

The Good:

  • The Grand Pooba of this motley crue, the Serpent captures the sneaky evil that he was portrayed with in the comics.
  • The ornamentation on the weaponry may go unnoticed at first glance..but look again…go ahead, it’s pretty freakin’ sweat.
  • The way the long hair blends with the cape works very well here.

The Bad:

  • Guy was really kind of a d1ck…

The Rest:

  • It is no surprise, each Minimates set is generally better than the last.  Just stop goofing around and go get this.

Availability:

  • Get em alone, or get em with The Mighty, but go get them soon because if they are still available, they probably won’t be for all that long.

The Comic:

The Pictures:

MUReview received these products for free.

Minimates: The Mighty Box Set

Minimates: The Mighty Box Set

Minimates The Mighty Box Set

Marvel had this neat thing before The Avengers teed off against The X-Men, it’s starting to dim in many peoples minds, but it was full of a lot of fun battles, a lot of interesting story lines, and we have Art Asylum to thank for keeping us fresh on this.  Oh right…this, I’m talking about Fear Itself!  The event re-imagined many of our favorite heros, villans, and in some cases, heroes as villains.  Captured in Minimate form, they do not disappoint!

Iron Man

The Good:

  • One of Stark’s more interesting armors, forged in the fires of Asgard, the important thing here.  The helmet comes off to show excellent facial detail.
  • Why just have a stand when you can have a burst of flame coming out of your feet!!  Iron Man’s stand allows for excellent blast off poses.
  • Excellent fine point armor detail, clean lines, as always exceptional paint application.  Working in this scale, I’m always impressed with how well this line does.

The Bad:

  • I wouldn’t say a negative in any respect, but maybe a missed opportunity to put Stark in his Asgardian armor through letting the ‘user’ build it on him.  It’s an awesome box set, that’s probably asking a lot.

Spider-Man

The Good:

  • Once again, really fine detail here, tons of tightly spaced pin point lines.
  • All of Spidey’s accessories are nice snug fits with no wiggle or fall out.

The Bad:

  • I think it’s time, and maybe it’s just me, for us to start consistently getting Spider-Man figures with removable masks.

Hawkeye

The Good:

  • Brilliant coloring here, more finely detailed lines.
  • Minimate artists should be proud of themselves, I’m near gushing but I picture people with very tiny hands painting with very tiny paintbrushes to make very tiny prototypes absolutely perfect.
  • Always love accessories, and Hawkeye has some nice ones with the swappable hair / mask, bow, arrows.  LOVE the quiver.

The Bad:

  • Little tiny loose arrows means lost little tiny loose arrows.

Odin

The Good:

  • Odin is the beefy figure of the bunch here, loaded with armor and decked out in all kindsa ornaments.
  • Odin is made to look every bit the monarch that turned the wheels to put an end to the chaos wrought in Fear Itself.  The helmet, the cape, the color all just ooze power.

The Bad:

  • Odin is prone to loosing feet / shin pieces.
  • Nothing to do with Minimates.  Seriously Odin, you could have hooked up these heroes something lovely 5 minutes before the Serpent decided to start getting uppity and this story line could have been put to a decisive end.  I enjoyed it…but come on man, …come on.

All

The Rest:

  • This is a really fantastic set.  We get four heroes never before seen in plastic form. …I’ve never seen them before this in plastic anyway and I don’t have a need to look any further.  All four characters are perfect representations in this scale and any complaints I have are nit-picky and nominal.  You should go get this.

Availability:

  • You can go get this.  You can also get the Worthy set which is equally full of awesome.

Comic:

The Pictures:

MUReview received these products for free.

Minimates: Toys R Us Heralds Of Galactus Box Set

Minimates: Toys R Us Heralds Of Galactus Box Set

Minimates Toys R Us Heralds Of Galactus Box Set

Sometimes you feel like the universe is listening to you.  Other times you don’t.  I can’t really explain how long I’ve waited for Morg.   Not only do I get him but I get 3 of his closest friends!   The best part, if you look hard enough, you can grab them too!

Galactus

The Good:

  • He comes with a little teeny tiny baby Silver Surfer!
  • Excellent molded costume detail heels to helmet tips.

The Bad:

  • His head is firmly stuck in his helmet.  Not sure if it’s how it’s supposed to be or if mine just has a little plastic shrink.  One way or the other I don’t want to force it because I really dig this figure.

Terrax

The Good:

  • Exceptional stand and outstanding axe.
  • Excellent fine point paint detail.
  • I’ve got Terrax a few times over from the classic Toy Biz era to the current Legends BAF and this little guy fits in and holds it’s own very well.

The Bad:

  • Love him, nothing negative to report.

Morg

The Good:

  • My favorite Herald (besides the Surfer).
  • The arm bracers and the boots both look and fit perfect.
  • The bald top and tuft of white hair looks outstanding.

The Bad:

  • The axe is scale perfect…but a little bigger never hurt nobody…oh wait.

Nova (Frankie Raye)

The Good:

  • I will never complain about well done flame hair.
  • Excellent face detail.

The Bad:

  • Really had a hard time working out the stand.  I wasn’t ever able to get it to really sit right.  **Update** Please note, I’m not removing this.  I’m dumb and you should all know that.  After some instruction from Zach over at Minimates base camp, I was told that a little tip piece of Nova’s hair comes off and the stand fits nicely inside forming an outstanding single piece.  Thanks Zach!
  • I know Nova has been colored differently at different times, but the silvers on Minimates sparkle and shine better than most other toy lines.  I would have loved to have seen the gold do the same here.

All

The Rest:

  • It took me a while to track this down.  Even the one I found looks like it went through the ringer.  That’s a testament to how great this set is.  I’ll never back away from action figures because of a bad box, I display loose anyway.  This did help to inspire a hunt though, let’s put together all of the Heralds and I think I did a great job of that.  You can check out the pictures for all of the collected Heralds (Surfer, Air Walker, Firelord, Destroyer).  Who are we missing…The Fallen One…consider him on my wish list.

Availability:

  • You can pick up The Heralds of Galactus Box Set at Toys R Us if you are lucky enough to find one still in stock.  There is a reason, folks, that these are difficult to find.  They are absolutely fantastic pieces.  Get your hands on them if you can!

The Comic:

The Pictures:

MUReview received these products for free.

Minimates: Toys R Us Wave 15 Juggernaut As Kuurth & Hulk as Nul

Minimates: Toys R Us Wave 15 Juggernaut As Kuurth & Hulk as Nul

Minimates Toys R Us Wave 15 Juggernaut As Kuurth & Hulk as Nul

One of Marvel’s more recent over-arching story lines (just before A versus X), Fear Itself took many of the universe’s favorite characters and temporarily (at least) re-invented them.  Art Asylum and Diamond Select do not disappoint in delivering these Marvel re-imaginations in glorious 2 inch scale plastic.    You can check out our reviews of the Minimates The Worthy, and The Mighty box sets, here though, we are going to have a look at Hulk as Nul and Juggernaut as Kuurth.

Hulk as Nul

The Good:

  • Nul’s darker Hulk green, nailed it.
  • Armor molding as has been consistent through the Minimates Toy line, is great!
  • Every line is pinpoint accurate, the yellows pop and glow.
  • This is one of the meanest looking two inch figures I’ve ever seen.
  • There are just so many fine painted points of detail here.

The Bad:

  • I found this to be present in most of the larger footed figures,  the feet tend to pop off a little easily.
  • Nul’s weapon was a little tough to get into his hand.

Juggernaut as Kuurth

The Good:

  • Not captured in a picture and I apologize, but the head with the helmet removed is all black except the mouth…and that is epic.
  • The helmet comes off!
  • It’s exceptional how flat paint can emulate glow so well.
  • I buy that Kuurth is totally unstoppable and again that says a lot in 2 inches of plastic.  I wouldn’t mess with him…this is all I’m trying to say really.

The Bad:

  • Loose feet, otherwise, big fan.

Both

The Rest:

  • These are two big, beefy …Minimates.  Both look outstanding and if you enjoyed the Fear Itself story arc, these are absolute must have Minimates.  These two will look outstanding to your Worthy and Mighty boxes!  Also of note, every other figure in this wave is awesome.  Annihilus, Surfer, Air Walker, Firelord, Thing and Human Torch.

Availability:

  • I bought mine 3 days ago, you can find em’ at a Toys R Us near you.

The Comic:

The Pictures:

MUReview received these products for free.