The Evolution of Mischief: Loki figure reviews!

I really wanted this to be in the 100th post but that would have 1.) made it really long and 2.) I didn't have the last figure I needed in time, but without further ado, I bring you The Evolution of Mischief, a review of Secret Strike Loki, King Loki, and Cosmic Spear Loki!

Let's kick it off with Loki as he started out in the Marvel Cinematic Universe shall we?

Secret Strike Loki:

Though Loki is no coward, he prefers to test his wits against his enemies, rather than the strength of his arms. Coercion and mischief are his tools for victory. Other gods sneer at his avoidance of combat an attitude they will learn to regret when they finally get a taste of his triplebladed sword.Challenge the forces of justice with your menacing Secret Strike Loki figure. This ferociouslooking warrior is already a force to be reckoned with, but his sword accessories holds an extra advantage they combine to become one giant sword for facing his enemies!

Secret Strike Loki was the first movie Loki to be produced and represents Loki very early in the Thor film. The sculpt on this figure is great for a figure of this scale. In terms of the Thor toyline as a whole, the two main things it had going for it were paint and sculpt, but I digress. The detail is well done on this figure with the armor in all the right places and the wrinkles in the cloth look great. As for the headsculpt, while it isn't dead-on Tom Hiddleston, the actor who portrays Loki, it's pretty close, and looks good enough for this humble reviewer.

In terms of paint apps its great except for the head. As you can see in the above picture the hair right behind the ear is missing but it's not too bad. Other than that I have no complaints but check the gold paint apps as that's where other figures have suffered.

In terms of articulation, Loki has a swivel-hinge head, swivel-hinge shoulders, swivel-hinge elbows, swivel wrists, ball-jointed waist, swivel-hinge hips, swivel thighs, double-jointed knees, and swivel-hinge ankles. For accessories Loki has two throwing knives, and his gimmicky-weapon (never get tireid of these), which is his "secret pop-out blade" OF DOOM!!!!!!!

Next up, and my personal favorite of the three is:



King Loki:

King LOKI was adopted by ODIN and raised as the brother of THOR. The discovery of his true origin-the son of ruthless Frost Giant LAUFEY, would turn him into the most feared enemy of Asgard! Ruthless King LOKI will do anything to keep his kingdom, even if it means battling THOR! This powerful, brave ruler is also a skilled warrior who is not afraid to use his battle sword to fight Asgard's heroes. Armed with a launching missile, his sword makes him especially prepared for crushing his foes and gaining victory!



 The sculpt on King Loki just knocks Secret Strike Loki out of the water. This is truly fantastic work. The armor is looks fantastic and is movie-accurate to the smallest detail. His Shoulder pads even have straps sculpted on, I honestly did not expect THAT much detail in this figure. The cape is sculpted  so it looks like it is flowing to the side ever so slightly. In terms of face sculpt, again it looks better than Secret Strike Loki but not completely there yet. The helmet, which is one of the reasons I wanted this so badly, looks stunning. There's something so cool about the horned helmet that just makes Loki look awesome. The hair coming out from the back is a nice touch too. In terms of paint, the paintwork is solid but not always movie accurate. The Horns should be gold, not dark brown, there should be more green in the chest armor, and the pants should be brown not green. The cape's green is also not dark enough. Not movie accurate, but still looks great to me. Could be biased because I just love the figure as a whole so much, but I personally am willing to forgive the fact that it's not completely movie-accurate paint-wise.

In terms of articulation, Loki has a swivel-hinge head, swivel-hinge shoulders, swivel-hinge elbows, swivel wrists, ball-jointed waist, swivel-hinge hips, swivel thighs, double-jointed knees, and swivel-hinge ankles. In terms of accessories Loki comes with no regular weapon......just his gimmicky weapon....the flying sword missile...OF DOOM!!!!!!!!!!! I however have made a staff for him. I took the gimmicky weapon from the Avengers Ultimate Thor and removed the pop out blades and what-not, painted the grip silver, and wa-la! Not perfect but it will suffice.

And finally we have the under-whelming:

Cosmic Spear Loki:

Even after being cast into the dark place between worlds, LOKI continued to plot the downfall of Earth and Asgard. Patient years spent exploring the dark nowhere have finally led him back to the world of light, where his diabolical plans threaten all of creation.

Now to be clear, when I say underwhelming, I don't mean sculpt because that's all this figure has going for it. The sculpt is beautiful. I'd say it's on par with the previous King Loki, except for the headsculpt. While it is getting closer to Tom Hiddleston, one eye is bigger than the other (I checked many other figures, it's not just mine.) But back to the figure as a whole the armor is wonderfully painted and that cape. God I love that cape, It's so dynamic and vibrant. It just looks so damn cool. In terms of paint, while it is generally well done, certain areas have slop, again, mainly where the gold is applied. The eyes can be wonky on some figures, and fine on others so thats definitely something to look out for.

In terms of articulation Loki really goes down. He has a ball jointed head, swivel-hinge shoulders and elbows, no wrists, no waist, no torso, swive-hinge hips and knees, swivel thighs,  and no ankles. I was able to get literally only 1 cool pose out of this guy, that's it. For accessories he has his epic spear and then his unbelieveably bad cosmic spear. It has pop out blades....look at the images below and see if you can spot the difference, because this is the worst gimmick ever and i've seen quite a few.



OVERALL:



Secret Strike Loki:Good sculpt, good accessories, great articulation

8 out of 10!!

King Loki:Fantastic Sculpt, decent accessory, great articulation

9.5 out of 10!!

Cosmic Spear Loki:Good sculpt, good accesories, decent articulation

6.5 out of 10!



THE 100TH POST!

Welcome, faithful readers to my 100th post. Today we will be taking a look at last weeks comics haul, my last "BIG FIGURE HAUL!", a reflection on how running this blog has been so far, a message to you guys, the readers, and a surprise (unless you scroll down and ignore this) to bring it all home. That said, let's begin!

THE WEEKLY COMIC HAUL FOR 4/18/12:

Avengers vs. X-Men #2 of 12


Here it is folks, the start of the brawl that promises to be the biggest event of 2012 and I have to say i'm a bit...underwhelmed honestly. Don't get me wrong its a good read and the art is alright but the fight itself has so much going on that it's hard to maintain a good pace. The fight isn't even well executed, people are just fighting,  there's no planning from the master tactician's Capain America and Cyclops,  the end though does look promising but the fight itself just didn't impress me. The fights in Civil War made this look like a pre-school party. Not bad, but i'm hoping it really picks up in the next few issues.

Justice League #8


So this issue sees Green Arrow trying to join the Justice League, even though the cover doesn't show that.....which is wierd. However the issue itself is great. The story is short and contained in one issue but doesn't lose any traction. The ending sets up for what could be some cool flashback issues and hints to future story possibilities. That said, this weeks artist Carlos D'Anda needs to be on this book more. I loved his art style and I want to see much more from him in the future. Great, great issue.
5 out of 5!

Nightwing #8


This issue expands on the major event in the bat-verse, the Court of Owls. This issue delves into the past of one of the assassins of The Court named William Cobb. That said I can't really say much without giving out any spoilers but the story and art were fantastic. This is without a doubt one of my all time favorites of the New 52!
5 out of 5!!


Pick of the Week:



Justice League #8!! I went back and re-read this about 5 times. Definitely one of the best issues of the series.


The final BIG FIGURE HAUL:

Ok guys, so this will be my final figure haul of this size for quite some time.
Top picture from left to right DC Universe Classics Wave 20 Metallic Hal Jordan Green Lantern, The Avengers Cosmic Spear Loki, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood ToysRUs Exclusive Unhooded Ezio, DC Universe vs. Masters of the Universe Set Aquaman. Bottom Row from left to right, Mega Bloks Cyclops, Silver Surfer, Big Time Spider-Man, Mr. Fantastic, and I got another wave 2 Thor and Wolverine, Ultimate Spider-Man Action Vigentte Figures of Venom and Spider-Man. Lastly I recently ordered a figure that I have wanted for some time and it hasn't  come in yet but I'm so excited I just had to post a pic. Thor: The Mighty Avenger King Loki Figure!!!!


Reflection Time Boys and Girls: Wow. 100 posts already, it doesn't even feel like it. However it has been fun as hell. For all those times that I missed the upload date  I promised, I want to apologize and will try to be more punctual. I can only hope the reviews on the site have not only entertained but possibly help you guys decide if a figure is worth buying, as other review sites have done for me. Now with that out of the way I want to thank you guys, the readers, for sticking with the blog. For supporting Geek4Life and hopefully I've been able to help and entertain you guys for the short time so far that this Blog has been up. It's been a blast so far and I hope I'll be here to get to the 200 mark. Thanks again for sticking with me guys, it means the world to me!


And now to bring it all home, here are two new Avengers movie clips!!!!!

The Avengers - Face Off Clip:

The Avengers - Loki Imprisoned Clip:

Post #99 and what to expect soon,

Alright so I put off the review of the Thor movie Ice Giant, Destroyer, and Loki. Why? I'll show you in 5-10 business days. For my 100th post it will be the usual weekly comcis haul on wendsday, plus a little something extra! Why the surprises? Why the suspense??? I don't know, but be patient loyal readers and you will soon see all...until then....enjoy the following video (no none of the people in the video are me):

Review of Spider-Man Classic Heroes Action Figure Venom with Scorpion Stinger

The Basics:Price: $14.99-$35.00

Scale: 6" without stinger, 6 3/4" with stinger

Venom (Mac Gargan):

Mac Gargan isn't the first psycho to meld with the Venom symbiote, but he's certainly the most dangerous by far.  Originally a regular guy hired by J. Jonah Jameson to take down Spider-Man, his sanity was damaged by the experiment that gave him his powers. It was destroyed entirely by his bond with the symbiote. Now, with full knowledge of the web-slinger's secret identity, he becomes the most dangerous foe Spider-Man has ever faced!

Venom has a very nice sculpt. All over his huge body are muscle lines, veins, even tears here and there in the symbiote goo. The hands look great, very veiny and each finger has the whole fingernail-claw thing going on. The face sculpt is probably one of, if not my favorite Venom face sculpt. I mean it just looks so damn cool. There's so much detail going on in that face sculpt, it's ridiculous. The teeth look awesome on the gums and the tongue, dear lord where to begin. It has the texture of a real tongue......i'm not even kidding. It's long as hell too, and thats perfect because one of Venom's trademarks is his unnaturally long tongue. It puts poor Gene Simmons to shame. Overall Venom has a great sculpt that really hits it home. Great work Hasbro, great work. For paint, the work is well done. The white is solid, no slop ( at least on mine) on the spider logos. The red eyes are siginificant to the Gargan Venom and look great. ( I myself am considering for making them white too though, only because I think it would look creepier, again just my thoughts). His main color is black but it has shades of purple, which you can better see in the picture below.

Alright, now lets get into accessories and articulation.

In terms of accessories, Venom comes with his Scorpion Stinger:



The stinger itself is very nicely sculpted. It is removeable but unfortunately leaves Venom with a hole, or in this case square, in his back. So if you want to display Venom without the stinger, like me, either have his back always to the wall or invest in clay, which I am. The stinger has 5 swivel-hinge joints allowing for cool poses, if you choose to display him with it. It's a nice accessory and i'm glad Hasbro gave it to us.
In terms of articulation, Venom has a swivel-hinge head, swivel-hinge shoulder, hinge elbows, swivel-hinge wrists, ball-jointed abs, swivel waist, swivel- hinge thighs, double-hinge knees, hinge ankles. There are a few pieces of articulation I would have liked to see. It detracts from the overall score of the figure for me but not too much as you can still get some nice poses out of him.

Overall:

Yes, he is missing some articulation, but that doesn't bother me too much because they actually put articulation in the tail, and he can still pull of poses. This Venom looks amazing, and is a lot of fun. Sure he could have used a swivel at the biceps, hips, and even a rocker ankle, but you have to admit, Hasbro did a very good job on this figure. He's one of my favorite Marvel Legends scale figures from the Spider-Man sub-line and you owe it to yourself to pick this guy up. When I got him last year he was $18.99, but since then Toys R Us has dropped it to $13.99 so go out and get yourself one, hyou'll be glad you did!

9 out 10!!!