Gormiti The New Era - WINDEL!

Gormiti The New Era - 6" Gormita Series - Windel (Air Clan) - Giochi Preziosi 2024

My favorite thing about the new Gormiti: The New Era show is the character design for the for the elemental Gormita characters. The token female is Windel, the Gormita of the Air Clan. With her gold armor and wings, she looks like a futuristic angel warrior and immediately drew me toward this toy line. In the past Gormiti (animated) iterations, these Gormita have been very organic/beastly looking characters, with no female characters beyond the first or second season. So this is a stark change, but a cool one. It's only a shame that Giochi Prezio seems to have their product confined to the European continent now. Once upon a time, you could find Gormiti toys on North American toy shelves, but those days seem like a distant memory now as they've only been available in Europe for many years. I bet if these toys showed up in the US, they would sell very well. In the meantime, I'm awaiting news about a potential second wave. These are too fun to be one-and-done. Let's check our Windel below!

Gormiti The New Era - GENERAL AUDRA!

Gormiti The New Era - 6" Villain Series - General Audra - Giochi Preziosi 2024

Gormiti:The New Era is the most recent iteration of the long-running toy and animation Gormiti franchise, and notable for being the first live-action interpretation. The premise is essentially the same as the previous animated series, with several young civilians being selected to have a connection to different elemental deities in order to combat hidden threats and save the world. The design for The New Era is very different and is suddenly very reminiscent of the Super Sentai genre. The four teen scions looks like an alternate universe version of the Power Rangers and the villains looks just like the Evil Mutants. General Audra is the first female villain merchandised in the entire Gormiti franchise, and I think she's amazing. As first glance, she reminds me of Scorpia from Sectaurs (unfortunately she's too short to pair with Stellara). I haven't watched this show yet, but it's my understanding that Audra is a former Gormita of the Air Clan who is now one of Graven's evil Generals. Let's check out Audra below!

Marvel Legends - MOONDRAGON!

Marvel Legends - Guardians of the Galaxy - Moondragon and Drax - Hasbro 2024

Moondragon is yet another character that I was first exposed to when reading the Infinity Gauntlet in my formative middle school years. I often blame those stories with souring my love for superhero comics for a solid decade (the constant crossover hype and disjointed story threads left me feeling like an unsatisfied sucker after years of dedicated reading). But at the same time, those stories first exposed me to characters I'm still fascinated with decades later - like Gamora, Nebula, Nova, Mistress Death, and Moondragon. Moondragon has been on my want list for many years, but I was also apprehensive because I didn't expect a toy to capture her essence. And I hate to say it, but I think I was right. While I was happy to finally have a Legends figure of Moondragon, I'm a bit underwhelmed at the result. There's no single improvement I can suggest, but she just seems "meh" to me. I'm reminded of my reaction to the 2017 Polaris figure - it completed the assignment but left me wanting more.

La Borinqueña - LA BORINQUEÑA!

La Borinqueña - 1/12 Action Figures - La Borinqueña - Boss Fight Studio 2024

I've been a fan of Boss Fight Studios since I pledged all-in for their first 2014 Kickstarter campaign for their Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S. line. I loved these figures, but I'm typically more drawn to larger scales than their traditional 1:18 product. But luckily they've greatly expanded their variety, I've been eagerly buying almost all of it. The Power Stars, Strawberry Shortcake, Fraggle Rock, Bucky O'Hare, and Saurozoic Warriors make up an extremely diverse portfolio. But I admit I was always hoping they would do a traditional Marvel-Legends-esque series. And I finally got that with this amazing female-centric La Borinqueña comic line (for some reason I never picked up the Lucha Libre ladies). But these figures are beautiful and very fun. I've been a casual fan of the comics for years, but these figures bring them to life in a whole new way for me. It also prompted me to order the comics I'm missing to learn about the new characters in the line. I hope BFS makes a wave two. Let's check out Marisol aka La Borinqueña below!

La Borinqueña - LÚZ LA LUMINOSA

La Borinqueña - 1/12 Action Figures - Lúz La Luminosa - Boss Fight Studio 2024

I've been aware of La Borinqueña since 2018 when I ordered a comic and a vinyl figure featuring the titular character emblazoned with the Puerto Rican flag. I can readily admit I'm pretty ignorant of the culture, language, and social issues of Puerto Rico, so this comic was exposing me to a whole new world (and I'm not even referring to the superheroics in the story). I enjoyed the comic quite a bit, but it quickly got buried in my stacks of weekly comics and (nearly) forgotten. I would pick up the occasional one-shot comic at my lcs, but somehow I missed out on the expanded La Borinqueña universe with all the new costumed heroes until a few years ago when this toy line by Boss Fight Studio was unveiled. I now have a shopping cart full of backissues on my browser as I type this, and am intrigued by a hardcover collected edition supposedly hitting stores in two weeks. But in the meantime, I have to judge this character, Lúz La Luminosa, purely on aesthetics. In short, she looks awesome and tough as nails.

Transformers One - ELITA-1!

Transformers One: Classic Class Model Kits - Arcee - Bloks/Buluke/Blokees 2024

I love that action figure model kits are becoming so prevalent in recent years. Transformers One hit the theatres this past Fall and the majority of the products I've picked up so far have been model kits: two Yolopark kits from a few months ago, and now this Blokees kit. This is especially amusing since the main Studio Series Elita-1 from Hasbro isn't being released for another nine months. But these kits are an amazing way to pass the time until then. My first Blokees figure was Arcee from Rise of the Beasts. I had lukewarm feeling about her because of her odd proportions and construction. It seems like the majority of Transformers Blokees have been in a super-deformed style, so I assumed that would be a consistent design for the brand. But luckily this Elita-1 has perfect proportions and overall design. And with the cool light-up eyes feature and the $16 pricetag, I might even say this is the best value movie Elita-1 out there (if you can overlook the fact that she's non-transforming). Let's check her out below!

Turtles of Grayskull - APRIL O'NEIL!

Masters of the Universe X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - April - Mattel 2024

This figure is one of the biggest surprises for me in 2024. I had a total turnaround in my appreciation level in the span of a few months. When she was first revealed earlier last year, I was very excited to be getting another female character in the Turtles of Grayskull line, but I was very underwhelmed with the design. I viewed her as an unimaginative mashup that didn't satisfy either the TMNT or MOTU genres. But now that I have her in hand, I don't know what I was thinking, because I think she's incredible. I like her very specific visual references to Sorceress while paired with unmistakably April O'Neil face. Plus the the newly-tooled wings have tons of potential applications. I know Vultak has been shown, but Queen Angella and a 200x Sorceress would be awesome uses as well. I don't know if there will be any more ladies in this line, but I hope the same level of quality and fun goes into the ThunderCats figures. The early pics look great. Let's check out April O'Neil as Sorceress below!

Turtles of Grayskull - TEELA!

Masters of the Universe X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Teela - Mattel 2024

Toy property mashups are a pretty fun trend in modern toy lines. The longest-running and most notable examples are definitely Transformers with their early Crossovers lines with Star Wars and Marvel (2008-2010) and then their Collaborative line with Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, TMNT, Top Gun, etc (2019-present). But back in 2019, Mattel started doing mashups with their highly versatile Masters of the Universe Origins line and WWE. These we fun and I loved the three ladies produced: Chyna, Steph McMahon, and Becky Lynch. But it wasn't until the Turtles of Grayskull line where two truly iconic lines were combined that I got obsessed. While the two figures I've purchased haven't quite been the combination of two characters the way I expected, they are still fun reinterpretations of the characters in the other universe. In this case, Teela as an armored turtle warrior. She's very weird but very cool and I hope there are more in the works. Let's check out the Turtles of Grayskull Teela below!

Power Rangers - DINO THUNDER YELLOW!

Power Rangers Lightning Collection - Dino Thunder Yellow Ranger - Hasbro 2022

The recent news of a new Playmates Power Rangers line has inspired me to finally post the last few Ranger figures in my queue. No one really knows what the Playmates figures will look like yet, but the five-year Hasbro run seems to have drawn to a close (2019-2024). Dino Thunder was the eleventh iteration of the US Power Rangers franchise and the first to revisit the dinosaur theme since the initial Mighty Morphin series. This series is personally notable to me because the Bandai Dino Thunder figures were the toys on the shelf when I began collecting action figures a an adult in 2004. The toys were pretty simple and having only one lone female character in the roster kept my interest mild. I never made any purchases, although I did recently pick up a great vintage piece I will review soon. I only have one more Lightning Collection figure to review after this one (plus the two Street Fighter crossovers). It's a sad close to a powerful toy line, but excited to see what the future holds. Let's check out Dino Thunder Yellow below!

Omega Rangers - BLUE AND YELLOW RANGERS!

Power Rangers Lighting Collection - Omega Rangers Pulse Exc Set - Hasbro 2023

In the pages of Go Go Power Rangers #32 (Boom! Comics, 2020), we were introduced to the space-faring Omega Rangers faction when Zack, Trini, and Jason became the Black, Yellow, and Red Omega Rangers. Kiya Kyatyl was blue-skinned Khoodjah who eventually became the (third) Blue Omega Ranger. (She also eventually became the Blue Drakkon Ranger on a team with Ranger Slayer). I never read these comics and didn't know anything about the characters when this Pulse-Con 2023 boxset was released. But the character design really appealed to me (as do most of the Boom! Comics characters) so I didn't hesitate to order them. It's a great set, the only disappointment for me was the lack of unmasked heads (like we typically see with the Lightning Collection figures). And honestly, that's only because a quick google showed me that the Blue Omega Ranger was a blue-skinned alien and I'm a sucker for inhuman hues. But alas, I just have to imagine her face. Let's check out Trini (or Puram) and Kiya (or Haza) below!

Transformers - SLIPSTREAM!

Transformers Legacy United - Slipstream (Cyberverse Universe) - Hasbro 2024

A fantastic side effect of Windblade's popularity is that every once in a while we get a retool of her toys as Slipstream. As a clone of Starscream, the majority of Slipstream's action figures have been simple repaints of his sculpts, with no effort to give her a more feminine design. Luckily the modern interpretations of Starscream have have very androgynous bodies, so there are plenty of great Slipstreams out there. But it's just nicer when it's an intentionally female sculpt. This newest figure is a retool of 2023's Legacy Windblade and she's been pretty difficult to find at retail. I saw her at New York Comic Con in October, and then once in November at GameStop. Other than that, the only place I've seen her available is on BigBadToyStore. Which is all a shame because she's such a cool, wicked character and it's been six years since we've seen her on the shelves. There aren't any more announced female characters in the Legacy line, so it's possible that she's the last. Let's check out Slipstream below!

MOTU Revolution - SNAKE SORCERESS TEELA!

Masterverse Wave 14 - MOTU Revolution (Netflix) - Sorceress Teela - Mattel 2024

My favorite thing about Masters of the Universe Revelation and Revolution was the constant evolutions of the two main female characters, Evil-Lyn and Teela. The journey of these characters was organic and fit into the Masters mythos seamlessly. Evil-Lyn was on her unquenchable quest for power, and Teela was facing her mysterious origins and family legacy. And as toy hobbyists, we have thankfully been blessed with action figures of nearly every incarnation of these characters (at this point, I think we are only missing Teela's final two forms). At the penultimate battle in Revolution, Teela has to call upon the ancient magics and become the ancient Snake Goddess to save Preternia. The lore of the familiar staffs (The Staff of Zoar, the Staff of Ka, and the Havok Staff) each being linked to a different form of Sorceress is genius. Plus the tie-in to the old Preternian Goddess stories from the vintage mini-comics is some glorious fan service. And who doesn't love a cool reptilian action figure. Let's check out Teela below!

New Eternia - EVIL-LYN!

Masters of the Universe Masterverse: New Eternia - Evil-Lyn - Mattel 2024

As much as I've embraced each MasterVerse purchase I've made with enthusiasm, I can admit I've always been a little let down with some details. Namely the bland faces and the ugly articulation. But way back in 2022, a new sub-line named New Eternia was created within MasterVerse. I always took note of the reimagined aesthetics of these toys. They kind of had a Frazetta-like barbarian quality, while maintaining the color palettes and essence of the original characters. My first purchase was Mer-Man in 2024 and I was obsessed with his detail. I bought the first female in the line, Evil-Lyn, a few months later, and am incredibly impressed. Her face looks like a painting, her articulation cuts are discreet, and overall she perfectly embodies a reimagined (almost cinematic) Evil-Lyn. Now I'm excited to see how other female MOTU characters would look in this style: Teela, Sorceress, and She-Ra would all be amazing, although no upcoming females have been announced. Let's check out New Eternia Evil-Lyn below!