12″ figures of Jack Bauer are probably some of the few that I will buy no matter how many versions are produced. Yes, I am still looking out for the suit version of Medicom’s Jack Bauer from Season 4. It stems from my love for the excellent 24. I know, I’ve cooed about the greatness of 24 in several posts now. But… it’s not gonna stop. Ha. It’s certainly music to my ears that the new Season 7 will be reinvented.
Here’s a gem of a figure right out of the popular tokusatsu Japanese genre. Toku… what? Tokusatsu refers to live action films notably from the Japanese film industry. But the term is most popular for referring to monster and superhero driven movies such as Godzilla, Ultraman and Kamen Riders. And Masked Rider No. 2 here is one of the characters out of the popular Kamen Riders franchise. In fact, here is a reboot of the foremost classic riders.
Here’s a toy that I committed my toy dollar just because it was Darth Vader… and because it was a diecast Vader. It sure looked good in the promo pics I received in the email from the local store. After the shortest of hesitation, I put down the PO and here it is. It’s not frequent that I dig into the 1/6 budget to get a smaller scale product.
Here’s a figure taking after an interesting character out of Star Wars. Everyone knows Boba Fett – whether by name or by his distinctive armour. But no one on the original Star Wars movie set could guess that a character with such little screen time would be so enormously popular with movie-goers… or fans of Star Wars.
Here’s something you don’t get to see too often up close – the Sideshow 1/6 Holo Darth Sidious with Mechno Chair! It’s really a Star Wars furniture imagined in the same vein as the droids, holo projectors and Dejarik chess game made hugely popular in the Original Trilogy. And it’s Nute Gunray’s version of what R2D2 is to Luke only it looks more lavish and the holo ‘screen’ is bigger. Some things don’t change even in the realm of sci-fi huh.
I’ve hunted for a Leia in Boushh disguise 12″ figure even before Sideshow landed the Star Wars 12″ license. Hasbro’s Leia Boushh was my target and it came in a pack of three with Luke and Han. But despite my numerous bids on eBay, I was not successful. Most of the sellers were from the U.S and the U.S buyers usually outbid me easily as I had to factor in shipping charges. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just that I was unable to pose the Boushh armour next to my Hasbro Carbonite Han. With the release of Sideshow’s Leia in Boushh disguise figure, not getting the Hasbro version does not seem so bad now.
This review of the Hot Toys Private Mark Drake took much longer for me to write. Drake was a rather minor character in the movie Aliens. To gear up better for his review, I watched the dropship sequence in Aliens on YouTube several times to gain more insight to Drake. Unfortunately, the video’s resolution wasn’t great and Drake’s scenes were mostly fleeting. And it doesn’t help that Aliens was largely dark and had dimly lit environments. Makes it hard to spot details.
The second son of Denethor the Gondor Steward clocks in as the final review of August on SWFToys! With this fourth figure for Sideshow’s The Lord of the Rings line, it seems certain that Sideshow is cranking out all the good guys from Tolkien’s classic. Already announced are the ‘semi’ wonderful Hobbits. I would expect Merry and Pippin to be next. The last 2 members of The Fellowship of the Ring should be in the pipeline even as we speak. I wonder when the Haradrim, Uruks and Orcs will start to appear. Or for that matter, the militaries of Middle Earth.
SWFTOYS - Reviews, Showcase and Musings 