Spawn - The Art of Spawn (McFarlane Toys)

The Art of Spawn - Spawn

Neither an angel nor a demon; made by hell, revered by heaven. The second and final monster that I'm gonna be unleashing this weekend for my "Pre-Halloween Monster Treat" needs no damn long introduction. He is McFarlane's finest creation, one of the iconic figures in comic book history, and the one that made Marvel and DC superheroes a bunch of incompetent bedwetters. He is the darkest superhero of all time! Enter Spawn!

















Like every Spawn figures, this 12-inch tall masterpiece maintained his traditional black and white suit with the enormous cape from hell covering his entire body, and carries this spiked armguard to his right hand. The only difference with this one from other Spawn action figures is the height; he is upscaled to 12 inches (almost as tall as the Marvel Legends Sentinel). This Spawn is from the Art of Spawn Series toyline, still created by McFarlane toys, where every action figure are three or four times bigger than their 6-inch counterparts.


One of the things I like about this one are those chains, which I believe made from sterling silver laced around his right shoulder and hanging unto his belt buckle.

















The artists must have done some crazy job sculpting and painting that red cape of Spawn. It just looks as though Spawn is trying to manipulate that cape and have it dance so gracefully around him. I just don't know how the artists did this but it just looked fantastic!

Despite all these hellishly overwhelming "badassery", Spawn has a very limited movement and articulation. Aside from being neither an angel nor a demon, with this beautiful piece of work, his reputation goes beyond being neither an action figure nor a statue. He has a tinnie winnie rotation and movement to his waistline and ankles, and that's all about it! No head, shoulders, arms, legs, tongue joint articulation or whatsoever! But I kinda see why, ...because for some reason the Art of Spawn is made simply for the sake of art (bet you didn't know that).

And now for a size comparison together with his partner on this Pre-Halloween Monster Treat weekend! ...You know, I think they can be best buds!

Happy Trick o' Treating!

Pitt (Legendary Comic Book Heroes)

Legendary Comic Book Heroes Pitt

Enter Pitt!! Tonight's "Pre-Halloween Monster" that I'm gonna be talking about is not from Marvel Select nor DC Direct but from the Legendary Comic Book Heroes (LCBH) toyline by Toy Biz (yep, the guys that created the original Marvel Legends). And for those people who haven't had any clue what this action figure is, Pitt here is a build-a-figure (BAF), and stands about 9 inches tall! He is part of the Image Comic Universe, the company that brought us some real awesome characters like The Crow and Witchblade, and other cool comic book heroes that can "wow!" even the most undesirably die hard Marvel or DC fan.













To tell you a little bit of background about LCBH, when Toy Biz lost its ownership rights over Marvel Legends, they started this new toyline that is based on non-Marvel and non-DC comicbook characters. It basically follows the same framework with Marvel Legends; stuffs like BAF's, 2 Packs, special editions and so on.

To build Pitt, you need to purchase each of his parts individually together with the action figures that comes with it. I just bought him on eBay already in one piece so I didn't go through the hustle of finding each of them month after month. But if you want to experience the thrill of the hunt, then this will be one challenging task for you. It's actually not hard to find a cheap price for Witchblade, Savage Dragon, Madman & Superpatriot, but Judge Dredd and that elusive Ripclaw... goodluck!

What made this action figure really an eye-catcher is this sort of intimidating look he carries over his face and physical features; he is massive and the hands are almost the size of your 2-year old kid. Pitt got this large talons or claws that could probably deal some damage with its ripping power! The details on his arms, legs and feet are lifelike, and this is the reason why I respect Toy Biz even more than other toy companies, cause these guys are just serious at doing their job.

Like I said, he is 9 inches tall. He stands an inch taller than the Marvel Select Hulk. What I thought was the biggest action figure, the MS Hulk stands a little shorter than Pitt. Click this link to see a size comparison.

You know, I honestly thought this action figure was a Marvel Select action figure but then I realized that his fingers are articulated individually. I thought maybe he is Marvel Legends but found no Pitt action figure listed when I dig through some of the websites. After awhile, I knew this was a Toy Biz figure before I purchased him on eBay. With all these amazing detail and articulation, I knew there is only one company who can put these all together.



Toy Biz Pitt vs. MS Colossus

Hope (Marvel Legends)

Marvel Legends Hope

Hope Summers a.k.a. "The Mutant Messiah" is one of the main characters, and the center of the story of the comicbook series, Avengers vs. X-men. She is the adopted daughter of the mutant-cyborg, Cable. Hope is believed to be the first mutant born after the Scarlet Witch decimated the mutant population on the face of the earth (with only 198 mutants left) using her probability-altering powers. So there's our brief background on Hope, and I honestly have limited knowledge about her since I hadn't followed the House of M series, but thanks to Wikipedia I know basically who she is.
















But the whole story of the Avengers vs. X-men, that I know! I have read this 12-issue comic book since April this year and I wasn't too impressed with the storyline.

This action figure comes with a big futuristic gun, something like the one she's holding in this cut out here. Now, I lost that gun somewhere in my room but I don't like the design of that gun anyways, and that I'd rather have Hope wield Mystique's assault rifle cause it's more kick-ass.















The articulation and, especially, the body mold is the same as the Marvel Legends Madame Hydra and Mystique. No articulation to the hips, and just limited movement to the head because of that hair and that thing around her neck and back.

Hope, being a tall figure is a little odd the fact that she's a teenager and suppose to be standing a little shorter than the Marvel Legends Mystique. When compared to the Toy Biz Cyclops, they are almost of the same height, and as what I've observed, she isn't really compatible with other Toy Biz Marvel Legends, or even that from Hasbro.

"Take that you sick bastard!"

If you're collecting the Terrax BAF pieces to build "Terrax," then I think you gotta get Hope cause she have his head and axe weapon. This figure is not the best though but it's pretty looking. You'll love it!

Sentinel (Marvel Legends)

If you happen to know guys who collect Marvel Legends, ask them if they own the Sentinel, and mostly, they gonna say "are you kidding me? Got an army of them!" Some guys will tell you they just got one of these 15-inch toys towering over the rest of their collection. There has been hundreds of reviews on blogsites and YouTube about this Sentinel because this action figure is just so cool! This is one of ToyBiz's masterpiece, and one of the reasons why Hasbro was still standing on its shadow for quite a long time.

Marvel Legends Sentinel

I started collecting action figures for already 10 months now, and this Sentinel here came out around 2005, so... I can understand why you'll probably just look at all the photos and skip reading all the features and description about this toy, especially when you already had one a long time ago.

Anyways, this action figure is a build-a-figure (BAF), and the first BAF I completed. Parts like the legs, arms, torso and head comes with the action figure that has been designated to them. So like the Right Arm comes with the Black Panther and the Upper Torso comes with Spider-Man; and there is actually a list you can find online that can guide you in assembling Sentinel.

The paint detail and the sculpt on this guy is amazing. It's got a realistic feature that is unique and distinguishable to that of the Marvel Universe Sentinel. In other words, this is way better looking than the MU version. It's got a fine metallic wash on its armour, and you can see the wires and cables exposed around its sides.

The poseability on this Sentinel is neither impressive nor something of a letdown. I think some of the areas needs a bit of articulation to be added. Starting from the top, Sentinel's head can rotate 360 but cannot look up and down at full range. Underneath this pliable shoulder guards are ball-hinged shoulders and bicep swivels. He got double-jointed elbows, wrist rotations and the fingers are articulated individually, and you can stick these robotic tentacles to its palm- truly, I love this part here. At the torso area, Sentinel has diaphragm swivel, waist swivel and ball-jointed hips. Now the problem with Sentinel are its legs. Although it got double-jointed knees and swivel to the upper thighs, but the movement around his ankles are limited.

  

Marvel Legends Sentinel (Series 10) just towers over any Marvel Select action figures out there that ever existed. Truly, a masterpiece by Toybiz and, for me, building this figure is one of my greatest accomplishments.



Colossus (Marvel Select)

This guy has been capturing my attention lately and probably been an attention-grabber time and time again to every comic book readers of Marvel now that, especially, he is wearing the crown as the "new" Juggernaut. Although the original Juggernaut for me, is inarguably the best guy to hold this title, Colossus will remain one of my favourite guys in the comic book world and it doesn't matter whether he has changed or unchanged.

Marvel Select Colossus

And for its action figure, the Marvel Select Colossus easily got sold out at my local comic bookstore in less than 2 months. Truly, a hot item! Marvel Select had done a great job making this guy. By far, this is the only Colossus action figure that has a perfectly sculpted body; the definition of his muscles, the fine ridges around his body, and the length of his arms and legs are accurately well-done.

 

He stands about 8.2 inches tall, just towering over every member of his team of X folks. Literally, his presence is felt, outshining every Marvel Select action figure that stands beside him. Moreover, this guy just makes the Select Wolverine obviously a poorly designed and less poseable action figure.

 

 

One thing that irks me is that this guy is missing waist articulation! He's got ankle pivots, ball-jointed neck and everything but waist articulation that would have made him as poseable as the Marvel Select Ultron (which I already did a review on this blog), but this is no biggie. In addition, this guy only has single-joints to his elbows and knees but I can still make him pose the way I like him to do.

 

If you're a Marvel Select action figure collector, I would definitely recommend you to get this guy. He just looks neat and awesome, and he is one of the greatest figures of Marvel Select.