Von Doom's Toy Archive

Lingjihun Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I thought it was finally time I picked up a set of super premium non-media-specific evergreen Turtles. After all, I love TMNT. It's one of my favorite things ever so I thought it deserved to have some high grade representation in my collection. I've always hesitated since I knew I had to grab the full team, which would be an expensive endeavor. The choice was down to either the Mezcos or the Lingjihun Turtles. I went with these because the Mezcos use pleather material that is just asking for wear and the headsculpts always looked super weird to me. Also I'm still salty over the Mezco Doom breaking so I'm kinda burned on their stuff!

Leo and Raph are still coming in the mail, so let's start by taking a look at Donnie and Mikey. Let me begin by saying that these things are incredible. I love these designs. Every head is really expressive and chock full of detail. As I've mentioned before, I grew up on the 2003 series so I tend to prefer my Turtles really burly and stocky. These guys deliver in spades. They might even be too big for their advertised 1/12 scale, but mutant turtles don't really have a set real world scale so whatever. Handwave it, the mutagen just turned these guys into absolute tanks like the Bay Turtles. Hey, maybe these are the Absolute Ninja Turtles! Regardless, while they might have the size of the 2014 Turtles their designs much cleaner. Though, you do have options to add extra detail to Don as I'll get to later.

Both come with an insane range of accessories, more hands than you'll know what to do with. I love the inclusion of pointers, thumbs ups, and especially the hang tens. They also include peace sign hands I didn't take pics of. At least they might be peace signs? Or Vulcan hands. Hard to tell when you only have three fingers. Their weapons are pretty nice too, but this might be where my complaints first come in. Mikey has two sets of 'chucks, both with bendy wires. Cool! The second set are fiery nunchucks. Ok? I don't get it. Is it like, he's spinning them so fast they catch ablaze? A bizarre attempt at motion effects? Or is he using mystical Ninja Tribunal type powers on them? I dunno. They're neat, but I would have preferred standard motion effects or a pair of spinning 'chucks instead.

Don includes two bo staffs. One that's a basic stick you'd expect from him. The other has these metal attachments at both ends. I'd like to imagine they're some kind of shock prods, but it's ambiguous. It's a cool inclusion if you like your Don to have extra tech-y accessories, buuuut since the staff is one solid that means it doesn't really work with Don's other tech. That being the metal waldo you can attach to his shell. This extra appendage includes multiple different attachments so it can either have a repurposed MOUSER head, Doc Ock style claw, blowtorch, camera, or a tube-like implement that you can slide his staff into. These are all super cool, but also where the problem comes in. Due to the width of the tech-y bo's ends, it can't slide into said tube. Would have been nice if it popped apart at either of the ends. This means you can't put it into his back's weapon holster either. A bit of a missed opportunity!

Speaking of tech extras, he also includes a pair of goggles and a wrist comm type device that clips onto his forearm quite easily. I typically prefer a more stripped down and basic look for Don, but I must admit all these extras are very fun inclusions. The goggles are a tight fit and my second major complaint comes in here. While most of the figure seems cast in the proper plastic colors with paint over it, the masks are cast in white plastic. How can I tell? The goggles caused some slight paint scratching on the mask of Donnie's stoic head. I patched it up, but c'mon. I think parts not being cast in their most predominant color is always my most consistent nit with figures, it really bugs me. The mask ties also plug into the heads super tight out the box, scarily so! Have a bottle of shock oil at the ready or maybe dish soap.

Finally, let's talk articulation. These guys move really good, definitely the most articulated Turtles in my collection. For the price, you'd sure hope so! Some of the joints are ratcheted, but the detents aren't heavy so they still feel very smooth to play with. They glide into different poses with great ease. Everything feels heavy duty, with the possible exception of the articulated back shell. The shells don't feel flimsy, but they aren't quite as solid as the rest of the figure. Some boot swivels might have been nice. Their ankle pivots are set at a bit of an awkward angle that makes wider stances tricky and a little unnatural looking. The torso articulation is nice to see on a Turtle, even if they don't crunch forward a great amount. I've seen some people say the butterfly joints are useless, which I think is an exaggeration. They can help for certain poses, but it is true you aren't getting full unrestricted range thanks to the plastron. Same goes for the hips as you can't kick the legs past about 90 degrees. Being humanoid turtles seems to always come with movement restrictions. If you keep that in mind and try to work within those limits, I think you can still get some great poses out of these.

Mondo, a known name I never owned a single figure from. Why? I don't collect 1/6 scale. Simple as. But they've recently taken a dive into 1/12 with their Real Ghostbusters and He-Man 200X lines. Now, their RGB line doesn't have much interest for me, especially at that price. GB was always more my brother's thing. He-Man, though, I do like me some He-Man. The 200X series is the one I grew up on so that's a major bonus. Though, I can't actually remember if I caught that many eps as a kid except the one I had on VHS. But I did have some of the toys and I really liked them so I still have a nostalgic attachment to this era. I watched the whole series just recently so this dropped at the exact right time for me to want it bad. I grabbed it soon as it popped back up on Mondo's website.

Mondo has impressed me a lot with this one. If you've ever owned a Storm Collectibles figure, I'd say it's comparable to that but even smoother. The sculpt is gorgeous. I love all the headsculpts. He even has one based on that original toy. My favorite, though, is the tooth gritting head. So much personality! It looks like he's gonna shatter his teeth he's so angry. The accessories are all very nicely detailed, both in terms of sculpt and paint. Articulation is very good too. The range is there to get him into all kinds of poses. You can even get him into a double handed sword aloft pose! Wow! Just fun to play with. Also love the real cloth furry underwear and boots. That's just cool.

It's not perfect, however. The hands are a bit loose in their sockets, they pop out a bit too easily for my tastes. I do kinda wish he came with a few more accessories for the price. Granted, I'm not sure what else a He-Man really NEEDS so I might just be crying for nothing. Maybe a smiling head and screaming head. Boot swivels might have been nice. He gets by without, but would not hurt to have. Also gotta say, not really a complaint, but he might have what is the most gratuitously oversized box in my collection. It's ridiculously massive. I guess it's to aid in that premium feel, which this figure really does have. One more note, he's pretty big for being advertised as 1/12 scale. I don't mind as I feel He-Man should be large, but maybe you disagree.

Lot of new start ups have been entering the collecting scene these past few years. Many got their start as third party unlicensed manufacturers before becoming official licensees. One of the companies with a lot of buzz surrounding them is UPF. Or LPZZ now I guess. After seeing their Arkham Knight Deathstroke in stock on 5ktoys, how could I resist?

The hype is pretty justified, I gotta say. This was not a cheap toy, impressively it totally feels worth its price tag. With a lot of these expensive premium figures, I often feel the value just isn't entirely there for whatever reason. This, though? Yeah. It feels warranted. I think, what impresses me most, is just how solid he feels. You see a figure with this much gear and bulk, you expect for it to feel a bit flimsy. Oh surely parts are popping off constantly, right? The shoulder pads, the pouches, the gun, the holster, the joints, something. No. When you pose this guy, EVERYTHING stays put. Nothing pops off or flops onto the desk. The belt does pop in two parts at the hips, but that's actually intentional so it can get out of the way. It disconnects at one part on the front and stays attached at the back. Same for the straps at the legs and bandolier. They come loose from the belt, but still stay attached elsewhere. The only thing is that the sword slides out from the sheathe a little easily, but that's only when I hold the figure upside down so that's not even a complaint. The paint, sculpt, articulation, it's all excellent. The engineering is very impressive. I often find with figures this pricey, the accessories leave me wanting but not this time. This has everything I'd want from a Slade.

Complaints, complaints. Uhhh, the trigger finger hands. Wish they gripped the guns better, he holds them a bit loose. The staff was a bit confusing to configure out the box, but that could just be down to me being stupid. I really don't have a lot here honestly.

Something a bit different. Most of the time I'm looking at super articulated figures based on nostalgic, time worn properties that were created long before I was born. So, how about unarticulated figurines based on an anime that's, almost 16 years old oh jeez. Was 2010 really that long ago?

Seen in these images are the Phat Company Angel Version Panty & Stocking alongside the Hello! Good Smile iterations of those same characters. While I do generally prefer articulated figures, the only toys of the Anarchy Sisters with articulation go for insane prices. They don't look particularly great either. The designs just don't translate to full on action figures. Especially Stocking. Her hair traffic cones all possible movement.

The Phat Company figures are smaller than I expected, but still nicely sculpted. They look quite dynamic despite their fairly vanilla stances. I can just hear FLY AWAY NOW looking at them. They also came with a Heaven Coin... that mine did not include since I bought these loose. Looks like I'm stuck here on Earth.

The Hello! Good Smile figures are pretty nice too. Bigger than expected. If you've ever handled a Nendoroid by the same company, they have a similar handfeel but even more parred down. Their details are obviously simplified, resembling how they appeared in the credits sequence for season 1. Barring Stocking's longer hair that is. She had a shorter cut in the actual credits, presumably because she couldn't really bob her head with the long hair. And yeah, the tilting head does not work that well with her big ass hair! The teal earrings on Panty reveal that these are based on their tweaked season 2 designs. If you want S1 credits P&S specifically, you gotta get the pack with See Through.

Behold! The vaguely and confusingly titled 'Evil Ghost of Skeletor,' Scare Glow! A fan favorite based solely on his truly gnarly design. Another from the Chronicles line, I'll try not to say as much about this as I did Skeletor since they're very similar in terms of engineering.

One major difference between the two is the cape. This guy comes with a cloth cape. It's not bad. About standard for mass retail cloth capes and an improvement over previous Mattel capes. Sculpt is awesome, the exposed muscle striations and bones poking through is truly a cool reinterpretation of the design. The wreath of flames is a great addition, but also removable for those who want a bit more of a traditional look. The Scythe of Doom's redesign looks pretty sick too. Granted, it's still not really a scythe now is it?

Articulation is about as good as Skeletor, if a tad limited by the cape collar and shoulder armor. It's a great baseline, but again thigh swivels and better forward crunch in the torso would be nice. Still, you can get some great poses out of him and he carries major display presence in all of them.

Far as complaints go, they're mostly paint related. The paint is a touch sloppy on the bones. Also, come on. This Scare GLOW does not glow, except the head. That's a bit lame. There's also bones on his back that weren't painted. They'll be covered basically all the time so no big deal, but it is worth bringing up. I'd also prefer if he had red eyes. Maybe the green is meant to make him feel more distinct from Skeletor. However, I like how the red pops more. More accessories would always be nice. Once again I am asking for a full set of hands. Oh! One more thing: Walmart exclusivity. Thanks for guaranteeing most people who want this will not be able to get it without going through scalpers. Awesome work, Mattel.

Soo, if you know what's up with the Doctor Doom figure in these pic you're probably screaming. There's no way he did that. But I did do it. For those unaware, this is the Marvel Legends Super Skrull wave Doctor Doom with the cloth goods and hands from the Mezco Doctor Doom. There's no way someone would cannibalize a $150 premium display piece for a mere $20 toy, right? It's insane to think, but I didn't do it unprompted. You see, what happened is that my Mezco Doom's shoulder became stuck and then snapped when I tried moving it. Could I have fixed it? Possibly, but it seemed unfeasible. So, rather than waste all the good stuff I decided to see what I could salvage.

The final results are... pretty sick, actually. I liked the Mezco Doom a lot, but I had my complaints. The heads, while VERY sculpted and detailed, felt kinda big. The articulation was actually kinda worse than the ML? Not better, at least. And the diecast, ugh. I hate diecast goods on action figures. It's such a gimmick that always leads to problems in the long run. The paint scrapes so easily and figures with it always end up becoming floppy. My Mezco Doom was showing signs of both before it decided to simply break. Where it really sang was its wide array of accessories and the sheer aura it commanded.

The ML Doom was a great figure, one of the best ML ever even now, but of course its low price meant certain issues. Particularly the limitations of the plastic cape and tunic. The lack of accessories too. A full set of hands was sorely missed.

Could it be, if I combined both I'd get the ideal Doom? I had to undo the stitching on one side of the Mezco Doom's tunic to get it off the figure. I then restitched it onto the ML by hand. I also tacked down the hood so it would sit over the smaller heads better. The hands were an easy pop and swap. Colors match very well. They're kinda big proportionally, but combined with the oversized tunic I feel it gives the ML some of the Mezco's large mass. Overall, I'm actually a fan of how it came out. I might even, like it more than the base Mezco? What's wrong with me?? It certainly feels more fun to pose and that's the biggest plus in my book.

Whenever a new figure line hits stores, I take notice. Often I find myself passing by, but sometimes you can't help but give it a whirl. That's where I'm at with the Chronicles movie Skeletor, despite my indifference towards the upcoming source material. Between their acquisition of DC and TMNT licenses, it's clear Mattel wants to take advantage of Hasbro's increasing stagnation within the action figure market. This new Chronicles line only further proves that ambition.

This is an incredibly fun toy. You know it's good when you can't stop taking pictures of it. It's actually impressive what they made happen here, especially considering this is a Mattel release. Mattel! A perennial punching bag in the collecting community! The paint, the sculpting, the articulation, it all comes together in a nice way. The white drybrushing on his blue skin in particular stands out as a little extra detail that goes a long way. It makes him look totally dried out and decayed. When it comes to movement, the shoulders and neck really stood out to me as getting some great range. The head in particular gets more movement than you'd expect having that hood. The limbs also have import style knees and elbows which is very snazzy looking. The posable jaw is also very welcome and surprisingly rare on Skeletor figures. Gotta love how they partially painted the neck black to provide the illusion of a void beneath the mouth. The skull sculpt is great, the highlight being the deep set red eyes that are so menacing. Also bonus points for the skull being a deep shade of yellow. It's hard to tell with all the varying lighting, but I don't think it's quite this vibrant in the movie. This is a good change since Skeletor always looks best with a yellow skull.

However, there's still some work to be done with the formula seen here. While it has some very impressive articulation overall, the torso is somewhat lackluster. There's not enough forward range for my tastes, especially for Skeletor who should be able to do some major hunching. The hips, too, leave something to be desired. They get crazy major outward range, like he can do full splits with ease, but forward range is just... fine. It's workable, but I'd like for him to get better forward kicks. I think the lack of thigh cuts isn't helping. He has some swivel up there, but with full cuts you could cheat some forward range. I know it's not the most aesthetically pleasing POA, but the lack of it hurts. I'm always in favor of articulation over aesthetics so YMMV on that one. Soon as we figure out a more aesthetically pleasing alternative to thigh cuts that doesn't miss out on its range, then I'm all for that. The hips are somewhat loose too after some play. Not floppy, but they glide too easily in some poses.

As for accessories, they're solid. The cape he came with out the box was a flat piece of soft plastic. I get why they did that, so it'd have the texture and spinal detailing. But that's stuff I'm willing to trade away for something more dynamic, so I picked up a nice, shiny cloth cape for him. It definitely makes this great figure even more awesome. That being said, the cape he came with was pretty solid as far as plastic capes go. It didn't inhibit any movement, it just looked kinda flat. Would like more hands. At least a pair of fists and a pair of open hands, rather than a single of both. I also don't know if he'll use a sword in the movie, but is a bit of a bummer the figure doesn't have one. Both of the Skeletors I have around this size don't have one.

While I'd consider myself a MotU fan, I'm not really interested in the new movie. It's giving Thor movie and I don't mean that nicely lol. Even if I were, I'd MUCH prefer someone who isn't Jared Leto in the role of He-Man's most iconic foe. While whoever else they got likely wouldn't even touch Frank Langella's tour de force performance in the '87 film, Leto isn't even in the same solar system. Luckily, having a skull for a head means I can divorce this figure from both the source and his crappy actor pretty easily. One thing I'll give the new movie is that the designs look quite faithful to the source and totally unashamed of it, which is nice to see from a big budget Hollywood film. Skeletor is actually one of the most redesigned, really. I'll admit without the full harness with straps he looks kinda naked. But I can deal with it.

Sooo, I guess I must have decided I still don't have enough Shredders since I pieced a bunch of spare parts into a new one. What can I say? One of my favorite villains ever. Though, my total number of Shredder figures technically went down by one since I used two different ones for this bad ninja turtle slicer.

The recipe was an Articulated Icons Shibito, a Black Series Jedi Luke tunic, NECA Shredder gauntlets and hand blades, a wired cape and sash from GPSlot on eBay, and finally a BST AXN Shredder head with shoulder pads. I had those BST AXN Shredder parts lying around for awhile since its leg pegs shattered right out of the box. Really bad figure, but it had some really good sculpt work with a lot of potential for a better body.

I made this for a couple reasons. The big one is that I just really love the IDW design, it's a top contender for my favorite Shredhead design. It's so clean and works perfectly as a kind of, evergreen nonspecific Shredder since it blends so many past iterations seamlessly. While this isn't an exact copy of the IDW design, it's a close approximation with some liberties taken. I wanted a Shredder that isn't too media specific. The open shirt sure isn't accurate, but I do like how it calls back to the vintage '88 toy's exposed chest.

Two, I wanted a super articulated 6 inch scale Shredder that I can keep on-hand for photos and stuff. Many of the Shredders I have can fit into a 6 inch display, but it's always with an asterisk. NECA's comic/toon figures are advertised as 1/10, but really they're more like 1/11-ish. They're too short for a true 7 inch display, but maybe a little too big for 6 inch. Slightly larger than ML scale. Especially more recent ones. And those more recent ones feel like they're losing movement range as they're not nearly as fun to pose without modding. I still think that original Mirage Shredder sculpt poses the most fluidly out the box. It also works great as the kind of generic Shredder I'm after since it's the baseline for everything that came after. However, as that figure shoots up in value I do feel like I am playing with fire whenever I take it down from the shelf for a pose sesh. This one I don't have to worry so much about.