Recovering Lost Things & The Weekly Comic Haul

Hey guys, to make a long story short, I'm back...for real this time. Last time all the photos I had taken for the planned reviews were deleted due to an issue with my camera's SD card, so between having to retake the pictures, and college, I've finally gotten back on track. I also picked up some truly amazing figures. One of the first ones which will take precedence over the others and will be reviewed first probably tonight, is the Walking Dead Series 5 Daryl Dixon and Chopper box set. Truly an amazing figure, and my first Daryl Dixon figure. I had ordered him from Toys R Us' website where he sold out in about a day or two, he should still be up for preorder on Amazon and other figure websites. Another option is to check your local Toys R Us as I've heard he is popping up there, and because I got Daryl, I had to pick up Merle. The Dixon brothers go hand in hand.

Next, I also scored the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier, Winter Soldier and Stealth Captain America movie figures!

Lastly, I got my hands on a DC Collectibles Arkham Origins Deathstroke!

And now, for the weekly comic haul!

Superman/Wonder Woman #6

I am a huge Tony S.Daniel fan so that was reason enough for me to jump on this title when it came out, but it has surprised me and is quickly becoming my favorite New 52 title for Supes. The writing by Soule is just spot on for all of the characters, and this issue had an incredible fight with Superman and Wonder Woman against Zod and Faora. This was my pick of the week, until I read the next comic book...regardless this gets a 10 out of 10!









Superior Spider-Man #29

Everything in SpOck's world is coming to a head and the Goblin King is going to tear it all down around him. Holy crap guys, this issue was absolutely amazing. Between a really awesome plot-twist, some old characters returning to their roots, and SpOck becoming that much more like Peter, these last two issues look to be phenomenal.
10 out of 10 and PICK OF THE WEEK!










Nightwing #29

The end is in sight, as the next issue is the final one in the Nightwing series. I really loved this issue. it continues the story started in #28, and just really makes me love the Nightwing character even more and makes me really sad to say goodbye.
10 out of 10!











Hawkeye #17

This is so weird. It's one of the odder comic books but I love it for that reason. Clint watches a Christmas special with a family that lives in the apartment building he bought, and falls asleep. He dreams about himself and other Marvel characters as characters from the show...It's odd in all the right ways.
9 out of 10!











PICK OF THE WEEK:

























COVER OF THE WEEK:

Review of the Play Arts Kai Arkham City Joker

Character Bio:
"Batman's arch-nemesis with the deranged deformity. Blood-red lips stand in
stark contrast to a pale white complexion completely devoid of life. His
deranged deformity is assumed to be due to an illness. The Joker has lost to
Batman once before and he stands in Justice's way once again with even more
intense insanity, burning for revenge.
Scale: 9"
Price: $69.99 at your Local Comic Book Shop, $70.00 and up online.



Paint and Sculpt:
As the great Barney Stinson once said "New is always better", and boy oh boy is it! This is Play Arts Kai's second attempt (third if you count the B&W repaint of the original) at an Arkham-verse Joker figure, and he is a vast improvement. The sculpt is fantastic. The suit is even more detailed than the original. I might be wrong but I believe the body is an entirely new sculpt, no reused parts. They could have easily modded the old, but they didn't and for that, I applaud them. Now the body sculpt looks fantastic, no doubt, but the main attraction are the heads. The normal head, while still not a dead on likeness, is miles ahead of the original (pics below), but the real gem is the smiling head. My God that is a beautiful head sculpt. The paint is perfectly applied, not too much shadowing, excellent paint shading, and just a well executed paint job.

 

 

 Articulation and Accessories:
In the way of articulation, Mr. J here features a ball joint at the top of the neck and at the bottom of the neck. He has a butterfly shoulder, a swivel-hinge shoulder, a hinge and a top and bottom swivel at the elbow, a hinge and a top and bottom swivel at the wrist, a ball joint at the mid-torso, a ball joint at the waist, swivel-hinge hips, double hinge knees, and a hinge and a top and bottom swivel at the ankles.

In the way of accessories he comes with his interchangeable heads, 5 hands, a knife, a gun, and the now standard Play Arts Kai base. One thing I was curious about was whether the gun from the first PAK Joker would fit in his hand because I love it oh so much, and yes, yes it does.

 

OVERALL:
Play Arts Kai are known to have some Quality Control issues. Unfortunately that strikes here. Mine have somewhat loose hips. It's not a deal breaker as it doesn't interfere with the figure, and so far I haven't seen many with this complaint except for me and one or two others. I just feel it's bad that a figure line that is considered "high end" and goes for about $70 a figure would have issues with quality control. Other than the hips, this guy is perfect. An improvement in every possible way, and definitely worth a pick-up. So close to perfection, but loose hips get in the way.

9.5 OUT OF 10!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Comic Bowl trailer blowout!

Alright, so below are the new trailers and "Big Game Spots" from last night's game! My personal favorite is the trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, they did him justice, but my buddy Nathaniel would naturally disagree and say Spidey's was the best. Regardless, Enjoy!

Captain America:

 

 

The Amazing Spider-Man:

 



 

 

 

Transformers: Age of Extinction:

 

Transformers looks like the usual mind-numbing fun as always, and that shot of Optimus riding Grimlock, man that looks sick. Hope you guys enjoyed and if you watch the superbowl and were a Broncos fan...well....good luck at work/school today!

Marvel Legends Infinite Series Amazing Spider-Man 2 Spider-Man Movie figure

I love how this pic came out so much, yes that is the figure!

Character Bio:
No matter what evil rises, the Amazing Spider-Man will summon the courage to defeat it, for with great power comes great responsibility.
Price: $15.99 - $19.99 retail, $20 and up online.
Scale: 6"










Sculpt and Paint:
I have never been so torn down the middle with a figure because there is a lot to love but a lot to not be so thrilled with. Let's start with the sculpt. The sculpt is great. The webbing is sculpted rather than just painted. The spider symbol is great and the head sculpt is probably my favorite Spidey headsculpt. The suit has that texture about it where you can tell it's a movie suit, and the web-thwiping hands look great as well. He does seem REALLY lanky though. I mean I know Spidey isn't built like Captain America but I don't know, his arms and lower legs just seem really thin to me, and one thing was bugging me so much but I could never put my finger on it till now. His torso seems a bit too long for me. Either that or his ab crunch is too high..I can't tell but something just seems off in his torso region. Speaking of that, if you push the ab crunch as far as it can go. You can see inside the figure. Not too much, but definitely noticeable. Another complaint about the figure is the shoulder articulation. While it is the same on the Superior Spidey, that figure hides it so much better by having his chest extend further out and the base of his neck sculpted over it rather than sculpted into it, the pics below will show what I mean.

 

The green marks where the joint is and where the outer sculpt meets/covers it.

 

Now onto the paint. Let me tell you, when I opened this figure I wanted to go to Hasbro's quality control and ask them how the hell this was let out (not the figure in general, just the one I got. His right leg was totally warped. His right shoulder blade, you'll notice looks like a different shade of blue. Yeah. That's because mine HAD NO PAINT ON IT AT ALL. I would have returned it but dear lord finding this figure again?? Not worth it, so I got the closest match paint wise and did their job for them. Not a perfect match but decent. The red plastic bleeds through the blue on his arms a bit, and would it really kill them to have painted over the red dots on the inner elbows from the hinges?

Articulation and Accessories:
Two areas where the figure shines. His articulation is superb. Hinge and balljointed neck, butterfly shoulder blades, swivel-hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, double-hinge elbows, swivel-hinge wrists, ab-crunch, swivel waist, ball-jointed hips, swivel thighs, double-hinge knees, swivel boot, and hinge/rocker ankles. The articulation is top notch, some bits are just not well hidden enough for my liking. In terms of accessories he comes with two sets of hands, a pair of fists and a pair of web-thwipping hands, as well as the BAF piece, the right arm of Green Goblin.

 

Overall:

I am so torn on this figure. He has great articulation that allows for some great poses, although his ab crunch can be limiting with them. He has a great sculpt but it's somewhat botched by the shoulder articulation that could have been better concealed. The suit detail is really well done although the paint doesn't compliment it as well as it could had the paint been properly applied and given a blackwash on the blue areas. So when it comes down to it, can I recommend him? Well, this one I have to leave up to you. I think I would have enjoyed the figure more if he had good paint aps. The shoulders and ab crunch would still have been an issue for me. Do I regret getting him? Not entirely, as I would need him to build Gobby, and if I get him in a good pose, I'm fine leaving him like that for the rest of his days. So he is fun to mess with and get in cool poses, but that's where the fun ends for me sadly. I'm going to have to give this moderately Amazing Spider-Man a 6.5 out of 10...

Now, onto the fun aspect of the figure. Photo time.