Marvel Legends - DESTINY!

Marvel Legends -  X-Men: Rogue and Destiny 2-Pack -  Hasbro 2024

The powers that be behind the Marvel Legends line have been reading my mind recently. A Destiny figure has been on my wishlist for years, but I figured that an older (sometimes elderly?) blind lgbtq precog would be an unlikely choice for retail shelves. But I wasn't considering two things: 1) Online retailer exclusives are great for obscure character releases. And 2) Destiny had a major popularity boost due to the 2022 Destiny of X storyline. Regardless of the factors behind her release, I'm just ecstatic to finally have a true action figure of Irene. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants were my favorite adversaries when I first started reading X-Men in the 80s, and I'm glad the roster is finally filling out. This figure was really tricky for me to photograph. The metallic facemask messes with my camera's color sensor and every photo ends up looking like a different shade of blue. I took hundreds of photos of her, but this set (with flash) looked the most consistent. Let's check out the long overdue Destiny figure below!

Marvel Legends - ROGUE!

Marvel Legends -  X-Men: Rogue and Destiny 2-Pack -  Hasbro 2024

Rogue was one of the very first female villains I was exposed to in the Marvel Universe. I had picked up a backissue of Dazzler sometime in the late 80s and was obsessed with this green-suited young woman causing chaos. I picked up all her early appearances in books like Avengers and ROM Spaceknight and couldn't get enough. I thought it was great when she came to the good side and joined the X-Men, but I think I was the only fan that wasn't on board with her transformation into a sexpot in the 90s. It just seemed too out of character to me. But that popularity is why we get so many cool toys of her, so I try to embrace it. A first appearance Rogue has been on my Marvel Legends wishlist for many years, and so has Destiny. So this 2-Pack is like a dream to me. The Rogue figure isn't perfect. I find her hair especially baffling. In this era, she always had two white streaks coming off her temples (often curling up in little Quicksilver-esque whisps). This slicked-back center streak just looks odd and a little boring to me. 

POP Funko - SPINNERET!

POP! Marvel #1293 - Entertainment Earth Exclusive - Spinneret - Funko 2023

I've been collecting toys for a long time and sometimes I get cocky thinking I can predict release and distribution patterns. But I'm often wrong. When this Spinneret Funko Pop was announced last year, I knew I had to get her. I've slowed down my Pop purchases a lot, but Bat-Family and Spider-Family females will always have a place on my shelf. The problem was that this was an online exclusive, and I am very picky about paint, especially with Spider-characters where web patterns tend to get sloppy (I had to order eight Spider-Woman Pops back in 2018 before I got a good one). But Spinneret was exclusive to Entertainment Earth, which I've noticed has a relationship with both FYE and Go! Calendars and Games, where you can almost always find EE exclusives (in limited quantities) in person. So I waited. And waited. Eventually she sold out on the EE website and eBay images were annoyingly all solicit renders. I thought I was screwed. But luckily I found a ton of her from vendors at NY Comic Con 2024.

Transformers - ARCEE (ONLY HUMAN)!

Transformers/G.I.Joe Collector's Club Exc - Arcee (Only Human) - Hasbro 2017

There are only a handful of classic Transformers episodes that are still fused into my brain as an adult, and amazingly most of them have managed to get action figures. An iconic episode for me was Only Human (S3 E23, November 1986) wherein Ultra Magnus, Springer, Rodimus Prime, and Arcee fall victim to a plot by the mysterious Old Snake (Cobra Commander in disguise) and have their consciousnesses transferred into humanoid synthoids while their empty robot bodies are piloted as weapons by the bad guys. Three figures were released based on this episode; Arcee, Rodimus Prime, and Old Snake. (Springer, Ultra Magnus, and Victor Drath prototypes were shown at conventions, but never produced). This episode is quite well-known for linking the Transformers and G.I.Joe universes (even if it's just strongly implied), so producing these club-exclusive Transformers figures using G.I.Joe body construction was a genius move. They are pretty amazing. Let's check out Only Human Arcee below!

Nintendo - POM POM!

World of Nintendo - 4" Series Wave 39 - Pom Pom - Jakks Pacific 2024

I've been collecting the Jakks Pacific World of Nintendo line for almost ten years now, but 2024 marks the first year that I was exposed to a new character that I had never seen before (and there's a new-to-me Sonic character coming, too). Pom Pom is a "new" Koopa Kid introduced in 2011's Super Mario 3D Land as a counterpart to Boom Boom. She has a face and body design very similar to Boom Boom, but with more proportional arms, pink skin, and feminizing details (like eyelashes, a ponytail, bows, and her namesake pom-poms). Since 2011, she has appeared in ten different games, but somehow I had never seem her image before. I stumbled across solicitation images of this figure on a foreign website back in June and have been eagerly awaiting her ever since. Her entire wave has been showing up at GameStop for a few months now, but Pom Pom seems to be excluded. I luckily picked mine up from a toy seller at NYCC in October and I think she's awesome. Let's check out Pom Pom below!

Ulysses 31 - THEMIS!

Ulysses 31 - 1:18 Scale Action Figures - No. 88516 Themis/Yumi - Popy 1981

Ulysses 31 is a classic French/Japanese animated series from 1981. I have been hearing about this show my entire life. It's often listed among the greatest "forgotten" 80s cartoons. And the theme song also tends to top similar lists. But in the United States, this show never had the same impact that it did in the rest of the world. It only aired in 1986 in the DiC KideoTV lineup alongside shows like Popples, Rainbow Brite, and Lovely Ladylocks. As a mythological/futuristic adventure series, it didn't really fit in with the other shows and never captured a strong audience here. The show features Greek Mythological characters in a futuristic space-faring setting. Ulysses pilots the spaceship Odyssey with his son Telemachus and the young blue-skinned Zotran, Themis (named Yumi in the English dub of the cartoon). Zeus has banished them on a voyage through space to get to Hades to revive his crew and return to Earth, encountering legendary mythical figures along the way. It's really fun and inventive.

Indiana Jones - HELENA SHAW!

Indiana Jones Adventure Series - Dial of Destiny - Helena Shaw - Hasbro 2023

Tonight I had dinner with a good friend that reminds me so much of Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Halfway through the meal, I realized that I photographed this toy last year but never actually posted it. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) was a surprisingly entertaining movie. After the lackluster Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), I was nervous that this epic 80's franchise just couldn't be continued in modern times without coming off as super cheesy. But Dial of Destiny was great. It had a good story, it was well-paced, and it tied into the Indiana Jones mythos wonderfully. Phoebe Waller-Bridge played Helena Shaw, the daughter of Indy's late friend and adventurer Basil Shaw. She appears at Indy's retirement with new clues to an abandoned archeological adventure he began with Basil decades earlier. She convinces him to delay his retirement for one last quest and the rest is history. The snarky dynamic between Indy and Helena really makes the movie special. Let's check out Helena Shaw below!

Transformers One - ELITA-1!

Transformers: One - Elita-1 (Cogged Mode) Advanced Model Kit - Yolopark 2024

These Yolopark model kits are a really fun line to augment all the Hasbro and Takara Transformers product. I've noticed solicitations for a while featuring classic Transformers, Rise of the Beasts, and Evangelion, but the two Elita-1 figures for Transformers One were my first purchases. They were fun to assemble and display great. The two different modes in the One line come at different scales and pricepoints. Cog-Less Mode is 5.12" and runs $21.99 and the Cogged Mode is 6.89" and runs $36.99. Surprisingly, I had multiple issues with the larger, more expensive one (details below). But none of the issues were dealbreakers, just surprising quality issues. I eagerly look forward to the next female Transformer they might make (I'm assuming Arcee) and will gladly make the purchase. This review is for the larger 7" Cogged version - after Elita is rejoined with her Cog of Transformation and gets powered-up and is able to transform. (Note this model does not transform. Only robot mode). Let's check her out below!

Transformers One - ELITA-1!

Transformers: One - Elita-1 (Cog-less Mode) Advanced Model Kit - Yolopark 2024

When the Transformers One product was revealed and started hitting shelves earlier this year, Elita-1 was depressingly absent from the character representation. As the primary female character in the movie, prominently featured in all the posters and trailers, this was baffling and disappointing. For a brief while, I thought the Burger King toy would be the best movie Elita figure. But things have turned around. When all is said and done, there should be seven new Elita-1 toys in this design, but the release schedule is very slow (The Hasbro Movie Masters figure currently has a release date of exactly one year from today, Nov 3rd 2025). But in the meantime, the first real articulated figures are two model kits from Yolopark featuring both versions of Elita, Cog-less (before she has the ability to transform), and Cogged (after her Cog of Transformation is reinstalled). Neither figure is transforming mind you. This review is for the smaller 5.12" Cog-less model kit. Let's check her out below!

POP Funko - SCREAM!

POP! Marvel #1026 - GamerVerse Spider-Man 2 - Scream Symbiote - Funko 2024

Ever since the first Venom movie came out in 2018, I have been hoping for Scream to hit the silver screen. There was a cameo tease of a yellow symbiote specimen, but it seems like it just wasn't meant to be. However, 2023 saw the release of Spider-Man 2 by Insomniac Games for Playstation which featured Scream in a pretty prominent role. This wasn't her first appearance in a video game (in fact, I believe it's the sixth), but this was the first significant boss fight appearance. significant enough to inspire merchandise. This design of Scream is slightly altered from her traditional Donna Diego look. Most notably, her face and hair are now a deep ruddy color (as opposed to the black face with bold streaks of yellow in her hair). At first, I didn't like the change, but it quickly grew on me. And I like that the symbiote looks different when bonded with different hosts (the video game features a new host for Scream). I'm hoping her newfound fame inspires a new Legends figure. But in the meantime, check out her Funko Pop below!