Kastor’s Retro Reviews

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Kastor’s Retro Reviews

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Finally the new home is OPEN

Hi all just wanted to give all an update.  Kastor’s Korner has a new home @ http://www.kastorskorner.com/   This week will see the long over due HML3 final review as well as DCUC wave one.  We should also have some Mattel answers soon

Hasbro Marvel Legends 3: The Cap Compare

Captain America may be dead in the comics but he is still kicking in the Marvel Legends line.  This new Cap marks the return of the 1^st appearance figures.  Joining the ranks of figures like Spiderman, the Thing, Ironman, the Hulk, Wolverine, and the Punisher, this Captain America is a standout figure.  Though there is a very cartoonish look to him, he really does reflect the original design of the character. The figure reflects the comic look of the character, however the figure loses points area of articulation.  

As part of the Hasbro Marvel Legends this Captain America has a great deal of decreased articulation.  In this review we will take a look at how Hasbro has actually set the figure back instead of moving Captain America forward.  I decided to look at this figure in stages, highlighting the difference between Marvel Legends 1(ML1) Cap, Face-Off (FO) Cap and this Hasbro Marvel Legends 3(HML3) Cap. There was an Ultimate Captain America but for this review we will stick to the 616 universe figures, besides the Ultimate figure is similar to the previous Captain America.   

Starting top down on the figure the heads all seem to have a good sculpt, reflecting the look of the Captain America they are modeled after.  This is the one place that all the figures have been successful.   

Where the differences seem to be most apparent is in the body.  The joints, such as the arms and legs, are the most glaring examples of the decrease in the quality of this line.   Starting with the arms: you can see all figures have the ball jointed shoulders. In both ML 1 and HML 3 you can the joint is not as well hidden as in the FO.  The one thing Hasbro started to get right as you can see here, they all share the same elbow articulation in the double joint.  The double joint was missing in the other figures in previous waves of HML.   

Moving our way down the arm to the wrist you can see the articulation is hidden on the new HML Cap, whereas in the older Caps you can see the joint as part of the sculpt, not hidden at all. This new way of hiding joints can be both a blessing and a curse.  While the hiding of the joint gives some figures a more realistic look, it also hinders the range of motion.  This new figure fails in the hand itself of the new HML3 Cap.  While you can see how in the first ML 1 you could close his hand, and next in the FO Cap the added finger articulation, the new HML 3 Cap has no finger articulation.  While it’s not always necessary, I think it just adds to the growing cost-cutting of the figures. I would have expected this type of sculpt and lack of articulation in the first offering of the figure, not the 5^th.  You can also see the lack of detailed sculpt from the elbow down of the new figure.   

Moving down the body to the legs, we see the same decrease in both detail and articulation.  Again you can see here the ball joints at the hips and the double knee joints as you move down the figure both the detail and the articulation decreases.  The lack of articulation leads to the inability to pose the figure.  The loss of the toe joint makes it harder to get the figure into various poses as well as balance the figure.  There is also a hidden ankle joint like the wrist and while it may help to make the figure look a little better, you can tell when you start to pose that the ability to move the feet in certain directions is impossible, once again limiting the movement of the figure.   Overall this is a solid figure, just not a solid Marvel Legend.    

Hasbro Marvel Legends 3: The Boxes

Coming up over the next few days will be the full blow review of HML 3.  Come back tomorrow for the faces.
 

Thanksgiving

I struggle a lot on what should be part of this blog.  As time goes on and this site evolves I feel that while yes I love to review and show new cool toys, it’s also an outlet to explain the mind of a collector.  While I don’t think I will go too deep into the difficulties I have every year during this week, I will share some parts through the week. 

Today I want to show off one of the most impressive pieces of my collection, my Spidy bookends.  This statue was from the mid 1990’s during the comic boom, but before all the great statues we have today.  This is both a great addition but also sentimental, because I got it at thanksgiving about 12 or 13 years ago from my Aunt. 

         

Stan the Man

So here it is, the one figure I never thought I would see, let alone own.  This is not a custom but a real figure produced by Hasbro. This man has for decades created what most of us call our heroes.  He was the voice of Saturday morning cartoons and had cameoes in our Marvel movies of today. 

Without Stan Lee we would not see movies like Spiderman, Hulk and Daredevil come to life though some of us wish they did not.  But Stan has given generations of families heroes to look up to and also reflected the real world around us. 

 After years of collecting Marvel Legends Hasbro finally gave fans the man who created most of the Marvel Legends characters.  This figure while hard to get last week, a SDCC exclusive, this week you can be bought from Hasbro Toy Shop for 14.99 plus shipping.  Hasbro has given us a figure and made it fairly easy for collectors all over the country to get.  I got mine throught my fellow collectors on Fwoosh, thanks Matthew K.  Here is the step by step opening of this great figure. 

      

After getting him out of the box the fun starts not only is he Stan the Man, but under his coat he is also Spiderman.

   

Now while moving has packed most of my Marvel Legends except Deadpool.  Here he is to compare scale and have some fun with Rory and Stan.


Rory was bored and decided to take old Wade out of the picture.  But Wade was not done playing around so when the cat left he decided to have some fun.

   
Meet Deadlee and Spiderpool the newest Marvel team-up. 

I also Updated my collection page 

Next up JLU…..

Superhero Squad

After building my Robot Heroes and Galactic Heroes displays I had to build one which would hold my all my growing Superhero Squad figures.  Now all I need is those new larger ones to really round out the display. 

But of course Rory had to help me build this new one, and she decided to to attack the Marvel heroes. 

   

  

After working this post I found the new super superhero squad figures so I add them and moved some stuff around. 

Look what my wife started

So for our anniversary this year my wife thought these were cute and knew I liked them.  I did not want to start becuase then I would want them all including some Star Wars and Transformers.  Well it has been a week, she gave me 4 packs, and now look what I have found.  I have waves 1 through 3 and really can’t wait for 4 to hit retail.  As it grows I will post but here they are, aren’t they cute. 

  

                      

Now I know these are made for kids but really when did old Frank Castle become 3yr old friendly??? 

     

The Faces of the Blob Wave

The good: Great figures and good characters

       

The bad:  We did not need these figures in Marvel Legends

    

The Ugly:  What more can be said about this face

More HML 2 to come

The Hasbro Lean

While doing reviews for some of the newest Marvel legends one thing that really stuck out was the lean that most of the figures had.  They all seem to lean to the right and part of the problem is less articulation.  Hasbro has lowered the level of articulation, which also hurts the figures ability to stand straight. 
          

You can see how these feet don’t stand flat on the floor, though they can stand it hurts the look of the over all figure.   

 

 We only hope as more Hasbro figures come out this problem will be fixed.