Tamashii Effects Series - Effect Thunder Green Ver. fir S.H. Figuarts

These have been sitting on the back burner for a while now, so this week will be all about the effects pieces! The Effect Thunder is a set of three clip-on lightning pieces, including a large base lightning piece, an attaching columnar lighting piece that plugs into the base, and a single straight lightning piece that plugs into the top of all three. They did a good job here, making the lightning erratic in direction. I love the clear green on it, though sometimes I feel the white translucent plastic highlighting might take away a little too much in some cases. The pieces are very pokey! The figure attachment pieces are a little more difficult to put on than the fire ones, but overall, this is very cool! If you have a Deku figure or anyone else with a greenish lightning effect, this is a solid must-have! It does work for some of my Blue Lightning users, but I will probably get that specific set in the future anyway.

Tamashii Effects Series - Burning Flame RED Version for S.H. Figuarts

 I recently acquired quite a few Tamashii Nations effects pieces as well as the new Ichiraku Ramen diorama so this week I'll be trying to review them all! That said it may not all happen at once. Anyone who knows anything about action figure photography knows that with diorama or effects you can have multiple figures, using multiple accessories with a variety of poses to get some good range of shots, so it takes quite a bit of time to set up everything! 

This time I'll be doing the Red version of the Burning flame effects. These are honestly so cool and work well with all the flame based heroes. The reflection and translucency of the fire parts is awesome. With four smaller flame parts that can fit around figure limbs and three larger aura-like fire effects, these pieces work well on many levels. 

I realized I had to make an all new system to review effect parts and dioramas because the model for figures doesn't quite fit the bill. 

Revoltech Amazing Yamaguchi Batman - Arkham Knight

 I don't need to tell you about Batman in the Arkham Knight game. It's an amazing game with a great story and graphics, and it is the techiest suit I've seen in the series. It's also 11 years old at this point, so if you haven't played it yet, it's cheap in the Arkham collection on most game stores if you want to grab it. 

I started my very first toy collection by purchasing some 2012 TMNT figures and a 4 pack of Arkham City figures. I loved the games, and having some fun to play with representations was kind of like a little physical memento I could display on a shelf. It was all downhill into toy collecting from there! 

Out of all the Arkham figures I own, this may be the most excitingly poseable Arkham knight figure I've ever owned (that is under the Hot Toys price). The figure has a ton of dynamic movement and unique accessories I've never seen before, AND they really learned from their fragmented plastic shard cape fiasco from the 009 Batman figure by making this one with a poseable wired cape. 

This is only the second Amazing Yamaguchi figure I've owned, and while it is extremely poseable, it's almost a 3D puzzle to figure out how to get it exactly how you want it. I'm still not well-versed in this despite playing a bunch with the Ver. 1 of the Arkham Knight itself. As an aside, they are coming out with a Ver. 1.5 of that figure that actually has their two pistols and rifle. I'm a little tee'd to be honest that I bought the version previously, knowing how DC was being weird about it's license for figures that used guns. Sigh! Anyway, into the review!

McFarlane Toys Robin (Damian Wayne)- Page Punchers

I've reviewed a few Damian Wayne Robin's before, and even one from McFarlane, but I specifically ordered this one for a couple of reasons.

1) My old McFarlane Robin had a broken arm after some light handling, and despite gluing and drilling in a metal peg, was still too wobbly so it's permanently glued in place now. 

2) I didn't love the weird lopsided grimace on that one

3) The weapon he came with was really a Deathstroke blade and was bent as hell in the package. 

4) That figure's joints aren't doubled at the knees or arms and have limited motion

So here we are, I had never bought a Page Punchers figure from McFarlane before, but this one sold me pretty well! If you've never bought one, Page Punchers include a comic book featuring the character. I liked the comic, Batman and Robin. It takes place in the Reborn line where Bruce is dead and Dick Grayson has taken over as Batman. I never actually assume in comics that Batman is actually dead, so we'll see how this turns out! The main featured villain is Professor Pyg, thus the included accessory!

The figure does really well at giving Damian a new look. He's got better articulation, a sword that is actually meant for him, a removable, fabric hood attached to it, and a fabric cape that all have bendable wire in it! It's not the smallest stitching I've ever seen, but it works and adds more dynamism to posing. 

The main cons here are that he could be a more complete representation of his look in the very comic he comes with! The boots in the comic are longer, the belt is completely bright yellow like his cape, and I don't see any artist lines for his red tunic on the left and right of center in the comic. Strange. Yet, the cover is pretty close to the figure. I don't know what that's about, maybe his costume changes later in the line. The other con is because the sword is a bulky plastic, it is once again very bent. Hopefully, some boiling water and an ice bath will fix and straighten this out.