MUReview Christmas Giveaway! SpecTACuLARRRR!

Happy Ho! Ho! Holidays from MUReview.  We want to spread a little bit of holiday cheer to our readers.  Our cupboards are nearing bare, but we still have some neat stuff around.  Please understand…we wish it were more, but times are tough, just a glass 3/4 full of awesome.  The NYCC 2011 Exclusive Diamond Select Deadpool Minimates Box Set!, AND! The coveted and dramatically eBay over-priced, Marvel Universe Holiday Gift Set featuring Thor, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, and Wolverine, are up for giveaway from 12/15 – 12/23, winner announced 12/25.

Now, I know the general consensus is that alot of people that collect MU probably wouldn’t pay for the Gift Set…so I figured it’d be a heck of an idea if I could give it to someone, they could get it, and then they didn’t have to pay for it!

How To Enter: You can enter up to 6 times and each of the following is one entry (you only have to do one of the following for one entry).

  • Leave a comment on this post (You will need to include name and email in required fields so I know who you are).
  • Like us, MUReview on Facebook – Like Us here
  • Follow @mureview on twitter and tweet about this giveaway with hashtag #mureview, copy the tweet link to your comment. Follow us here
  • Post in our forums – anywhere – 3 posts will be counted, anything after is just you having fun! (only contributing posts will be counted)
  • (6 entries total per person).
  • Automated entries and duplicated e-mails will not be counted. Cheaters will be disqualified.
  • Previous winners must wait 60 days to participate in another giveaway.
  • Previous Twitter follows and Facebook Likes will be counted.

Entry Period: 12/15/11 – 12/23/11 (10 days).

Results:  Results will be announced 12/25/11, the winners name and state only, will be shared.  If the winner wants to pose with their Deadpools and gift set and send me a picture, I’m happy to post that to the site as well.

OFFICIAL RULES: Your email will not be shown and will be kept private (unless it’s your user name on the site). Giveaways are open to readers 18 years or older with a shipping address in the contiguous United States only (sorry Alaska, Hawaii, and the rest of the world, shipping is expensive). If you enter, make sure you have a safe location in the USA for me to send this to.

The winner will be generated via http://www.random.org/. Winner will be notified by e-mail within 5 days after the entry date deadline. Winners must respond within 5 days or the prize will be forfeit.

The use of any automated launching or entry software or any other mechanical or electronic means that permits the participant to automatically register and/or enter repeatedly is prohibited and all such entries will be disqualified.

How To Enter: You can enter up to 6 times and each of the following is one entry(you only have to do one of the following for one entry).

  • Leave a comment on this post (You will need to include name and email in required fields so I know who you are).
  • Like us, MUReview on Facebook – Like Us here
  • Follow @mureview on twitter and tweet about this giveaway with hashtag #mureview, copy the tweet link to your comment. Follow us here
  • Post in our forums – anywhere – 3 posts will be counted, anything after is just you having fun! (only contributing posts will be counted)
  • (6 entries per person).
  • Automated entries and duplicated e-mails will not be counted. Cheaters will be disqualified.
  • Previous winners must wait 60 days to participate in another giveaway.
  • Previous Twitter follows and Facebook Likes will be counted.

Entry Period 12/15/11 – 12/23/11

Results will be announced 12/25/11, the winners name and state only, will be shared.

Fine print

MUReview is not responsible for any late or lost entries, electronic, hardware, Internet or other computer/communications related malfunctions, giveaway disruptions, injuries, losses or damages caused by events beyond the control of MUReview, any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the giveaway or prizes lost in shipment. All federal, state, local or international taxes associated with the prize are the sole responsibility of the winner. By entering the giveaway through this website, you release MUReview from any liability whatsoever, and waive any and all causes of action, related to any claims, costs, injuries, losses or damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the giveaway or delivery, mis-delivery or acceptance of any prize (including, without limitation, claims, costs, injuries, losses and damages related to personal injuries, death, damage to or destruction of property, rights of publicity or privacy, defamation or portrayal in a false light, whether intentional or unintentional), whether under a theory of contract, tort (including negligence), warranty or other theory. About the prize: Purchased by MUReview at NYCC 2011.  If you have previously won anything from MUReview you must wait 60 days to participate in any additional giveaways.  Previous Facebook likes and Twitter follows will be counted and do not need to be re-done.

NYCC 2011 Hasbro Exclusive Compound Hulk Giveaway Winner

NYCC 2011 Hasbro Exclusive Compound Hulk Giveaway Winner

Thank you again for everyone that participated in this giveaway.  Please, look forward to more giveaways like this in the future, Exclusives, Customs, whatever neat stuff I can find that you good folks might want. To keep things fair, the winner of this contest CANNOT win the next.

Congratulations to MUReview reader almostoutofweed

PM him and post on the forums about how much of a big jerk he is for winning something everyone else wanted.

Thank you all again for participating and stay tuned for more in the future! (We’ve got Deadpool Minimates, custom Fantomex, and MORE!!!)

 

 

NYCC 2011 – Victor Von Doom Marvel Digital Comics Review

By way of Marvel Digital Comics, Hasbro made available a truly unique figure.  The maskless Doctor Doom! For the price of an annual subscription, New York Comic-Con goers were granted the honor of being able to walk away with this really nice piece.  Scroll to the bottom of the page, or check out a summary of our new rating system HERE.

Victor Von Doom

Packaging

Doom comes in a plain white box with a maskless classic image of Victor on one side of the box.  This falls right in line with the Marvel Digital exclusive packaging, Fury, Archangel, and now Doom.  Opening the box you have some outstanding card art, the same Doom image that is on the outside of the white box, and a nice little Doomscription.  Judging from the advertised figure on the back Doom is not intended to be associated with any wave.  The could have otherwise advertised the Skaar / Falcon wave here.  Another nice touch, where we usually see the S.H.I.E.L.D. or H.A.M.M.E.R. logo, we get an Infinity Gauntlet!

img_6337

Paint

The bulk of this figure is identical to the wave Skaar / Falcon / Doom wave released this year.  Victor is finished in the darker green of this year’s release as opposed to the much brighter Secret Wars 2-pack Doom.  I prefer the look of the darker green, it seems more defined.  Legs and arms are the classic Doom / Ultron body parts matching the Ultron Secret Wars 2-pack figure.  Where this Doom really truly makes his money is the face and head sculpt.  It’s a flat head swap with the 2011 Steve Rogers figure.  Two nice touches, the dark brown hair and the scar on the face.  This really gives the figure new life and makes you feel like you are looking at something different.

img_6343

Articulation

The body here has the same movement as again, the Ultron / Dooms of old.  Leg movement is slightly limited due to the skirt of the shirt.  None of the new 2011 articulation is featured on this figure.

img_6349

Character Likeness

While the hair could have been a little bit more wild, we’ve got Doom through and through.  Doom, Victor Von Doom.  Depending on the version of Doom they were going for, they could have probably mangled up the face a little more.

Accessories

One of the awesome things about this figure, is that it comes with it’s own Infinity Gauntly.  It’s a nice looking accessory, but there is kind of a big problem here.  The glove doesn’t fit (you must acquit!).  The glove is not a handswap, it’s a hand covering.  Dooms hands are shaped in a way that it looks like it might fit, but most ways you apply the glove, fingers show from behind.  I found a good way to get it on.  Pull Doom’s hand off.  Trouble with that is it apparently requires sort of breaking the hand, as, after I pictured it, I had an impossible time getting his hand back in.  Another point of accessory to note.  Without the full sized / hooded / masked head, there is very little holding the cape on.  There are two indents in the back of the cape that line up to two back mount pieces but the fit is still loose.  Otherwise,  the stand displays the full “Victor Von Doom” name and 027, so that’s nice.  I could have sworn the original Doom in the line had a gun, and this one has a holster…just sayin.

Overall

The face makes the figure, the body is the same old.  For me though, this is absolutely the definitive Doom.  If you don’t have a Marvel subscription, get one and get this figure.  It’s a great value for the year.  Oh right…it’s not being offered yet….Give it a month or two, I’m sure you will be able to grab a subscription and a maskless Doom. If you do have a Marvel subscription, or you don’t want to wait till you can buy one, what you are going to pay for it on eBay is a tough sell.  Still, it’s a pretty sick figure.

Displayed but more to the side – 4 out of 5

 

 

 

 

 

Rating System  Each figure will be reviewed under the following categories:
Packaging
Paint
Articulation
Accessories
Character Likeness
OverallEach figure will then be given an overall grade out of 5 levels:
Displayed front and center – Perfect score
Displayed but more to the side – Second best, nothing wrong with that
Displayed somewhere I might see it – Displayed, it’s good, I like it, not as much as others.
Displayed but buried in the back – Not all that great, but no other options for this figure
Stored* – It’s really not worth displaying.
*This will be caveat-ed, if the figure is excellent but is being moved out in favor of a better version of the same character, this will be explained.

 

NYCC 2011 – MUReview.net Recap and Wrap up

New York Comic-Con 2011 came and went like a thunderstorm.  A thunderstorm full of more people than I have ever seen in one place in my entire life (Saturday). 

MUReview.net was honored to have been able to bring our readers news, exclusives, reviews, panel coverage, and more from the event.  Quite a bit of what we published was non-editorial in nature, really just telling you guys what was happening which, is what we set out to do.  We really tried to focus hard on our name sake (Marvel Universe MU), while bringing you other things that you might have found interesting…and where that formula failed, or I just didn’t care, I went to go check out stuff I thought would be neat.  Thankfully I feel like we were pretty spot on for the duration.

Check out a quick day-by-day recap, and for those of you that just want pictures…scroll down.

Thursday

Preview day, and I am not going to lie, I was nervous.  I didn’t know how much work this was going to be, and at the end of our coverage, I know that I couldn’t have guessed just how much.  Nicely enough though, Thursday we waited in line for about 45 minutes after grabbing our passes, got in, and lined right up for Hasbro exclusives.  We got our share and then turned the corner in their booth to get you the outstanding pictures you saw in our Hasbro Booth coverage post.  Between the cases and the diorama, we were shooting for almost an hour.  Side note, I picked up a Compound Hulk for you guys, keep checking back for that giveaway!

Once we had picked Hasbro clean, we sauntered down to the Marvel booth and had a look at the display.  There wasn’t much else going on there preview night.  We were able to peruse the booths a little bit, but admittedly up through our last day there was a whole half of a floor we didn’t even really know was there (mostly Intel / Gaming / Artist Alley).

Even though Thursday was a short day (about 2:30 – 6:40), we were spent probably worse than any other day.

Friday

On Friday we went in with a bit of a posse (not of MU staff…there is no such thing, just my brother and I, the rest of the posse were friends along for the ride).  We made it into NYC from our LI home a little after the show opened up, so we didn’t have to contend with any lines which worked out great! We shot right for the Hasbro Booth again because I wanted to grab any updated figures (there were none at that point). 

We then went back over to Marvel, I grabbed the MDCU Exclusive Dr. Doom figure which, will be reviewed here this week.  A crowd gathered by the stage, so I went to go check it out.  They were giving away maroon colored Avengers T-Shirts with a Hawkeye logo on the back.  I worked my way up to the stage and waited patiently for about 25 minutes.  The guy giving out t-shirts, who was apparently trying to be very fair and conscious about matching a shirt size to an actual standing individual, came upon a handful of 2x’s!  I was thrilled, he gave the second one to me (being that I am a small scale giant).  I mention this mainly because it was a big highlight for me :).

There wasn’t much more time for browsing, we walked around a little, then sat for the Guild Panel and a few others (we dispersed).   You saw our panel coverage so I’ll skip that. 

Moving on we ducked out of the Javits Center for lunch at a pub called the Twins two blocks north and a little to the right.  Can’t recommend it enough.  Cold beer, great steak sangwich. 

Back to the hall, we finished the day out with other panels, and you know about those.

Saturday

I’m not lying to you, I’ve really never seen this many people.  It took us nearly a half hour to make it from the Hasbro Booth to the DC Booth (maybe 1500 feet as the crow flies?).  We got in at about 1, our focus being – hit the Hasbro Booth, take more pictures (we did), then head on over to wait for the Walking Dead, Avengers, and Hasbro panels.

My nephew and I (recruited to replace Mike (brother) for the day), waited on line from about 2 to 4:30 in a loading bay type room WITH NO CELLULAR OR WIFI SERVICE!!! It might have been the longest I was disconnected in a decade. 

You saw the coverage from there really.  Still, what grabbed me about Saturday was the swell of humanity.  The disappointed fans that were way too far down in line to get into Walking Dead or the Avengers panels.  There were points that I thought…wow…maybe if most nerdy folk weren’t so lazy (self-included), there’d be some sort of riot!

Highlights of Saturday though can’t be overlooked.  I got to meet Dan Curto of http://www.cooltoyreview.com and http://www.rebelscum.com fame.  I can’t tell you enough how nice of a guy he is, and he is responsible for introducing MUReview to some important people at Hasbro, for that, we thank him.

We also met up with the toy guy at http://www.mtv.com/geek.  MTV sponsored this event, heavily, so it’s a testament to how much NYCC doesn’t care who you are. I met Jason waiting in line for the Hasbro Panel.  Check him out over at MTV Geek, and a big MUReview thank you for providing some of the shots that my camera missed at the panel (Hasbro). 

Sunday

We didn’t go, because Saturday was so crazy!  We updated you with some shots from Marvelousnews though so you could see the new figures in the Hasbro booth. 

Again, thank you all for checking here daily for your NYCC 2011 news.  We want to make sure we are around for next years, and for Toy Fair, and for so much else.  Visit our sponsors, buy stuff from our Amazon links, check out our partner’s eBay auctions…check out our eBay auctions! We aren’t scalpers we are just trying to finance a website!  If not for our readers we’d just be people talking on the Internet.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You’ve seen the pics specific to each post…now here is everything else!

Marvel Universe NYCC 2011 Exclusive Compound Hulk Review

It is with great pleasure we bring you a review of the NYCC 2011 Exclusive that is the Compound Hulk.  Part Green Hulk and part Red Hulk it is safe to say this really is one monster of a figure.  The figure is based on Hulk #30; Impossible Man returns to Earth where he witnesses a battle between Hulk, Red Hulk, and Xemnu. Impossible Man uses his magic to combine Hulk and Red Hulk into the Compound Hulk. Impossible Man watches as the Compound Hulk fights Xemnu’s minion Kluh (a smart version of the Gray Hulk).  Also, scroll to the bottom or check out a summary of our new rating system HERE.

Packagingimg_6320

As with most exclusives Compound Hulk comes in not only your typical MU blister package, but also an exterior box.  Adorning the front of the box is the Compound Hulk face front and center with artwork by Ed McGuinness.  A full size image can be found on the front of the blister card as well.  Also on the front of the box is the NYCC Exclusive sticker to show you the item is in fact authentic.  The front and back of the card have a few nice details that really make this packaging standout.  Where the normal S.H.I.E.L.D logo would sit is a head shot of Mr. Impossible.  Also the usual Marvel Universe is colored a vibrant orange to match the energy that usually emits from the Red Hulk.  On the back of the card we get another picture of Mr. Impossible crying out, “You’ve been compounded!”  The details on the card really start to make this figure standout from the pack.

 

Paintimg_6323

Now with the amount of different colored Hulk’s released previously and the fact we really have two figures in one here I”m going to skip comparing this figure to any of the previous incarnations.  The paint here has been amped up a notch and that can been seen by looking at the shadow detail on the red side of the figure.  The shadows do a great job of accenting the huge muscle that is the Hulk/Rulk.  Also, when you take a close look at the eyes they did a great job with the green side. The green side has a nice white pupil with a green iris that you come to expect with any Hulk while the red side has a completely black eye.  I will take slight points off here though as I would have liked to have seen an orange eye of sorts to match what is on the packaging and the original artwork.

img_6327Articulation

From what I have seen with most MU figures the bigger the figure the less articulation.  No real major changes here from previous incarnations.  The head, hands, torso, arms and legs all spin 360 degrees.  The lower leg will also spin 360 at the knee joint.  The legs bend at the knees and the arms bend at the elbows.  The feet also bend front to back.

Character Likenessred-hulk-wave-4

When you compare the figure to the original artwork I think you have a pretty good match.  As I mentioned in paint they came up a bit short with the eye for the red side.  The other short fall is the hair.  The Hulk usually has a mane that just can’t be tamed, while Red Hulk goes for a nicely combed back head of hair.  In this case they clearly took the head from the previous Red Hulk figure and painted as needed.  Otherwise, the figure is exactly what it is meant to be, Hulk and Red Hulk in one.
Accessories

Compound Hulk does come with a figure stand.  A nice detail was added here by using the normal numbering section to put this figure as 50/50.

Overall

Compound Hulk is a figure that I am happy to add to my collection.  Everyone loves a superhero team up and you get all of that and more in this figure.  If you were happy with the previous Hulk’s in the MU line than you won’t be disappointed here.  If you hated the previous Hulk’s you might want to skip this one.  However, you could just get this one and skip the original Hulk and Red Hulk figures.  Two figures in one, what a bargain!  Both my Red Hulk and Green Hulk will probably be put into storage and replaced by Compound Hulk.

Rating

Displayed but more to the side (4 out of 5)

 

 

 

Rating SystemEach figure will be reviewed under the following categories:
Packaging
Paint
Articulation
Accessories
Character Likeness
OverallEach figure will then be given an overall grade out of 5 levels:
Displayed front and center – Perfect score
Displayed but more to the side – Second best, nothing wrong with that
Displayed somewhere I might see it – Displayed, it’s good, I like it, not as much as others.
Displayed but buried in the back – Not all that great, but no other options for this figure
Stored* – It’s really not worth displaying.
*This will be caveat-ed, if the figure is excellent but is being moved out in favor of a better version of the same character, this will be explained.