The Matrix MIA

Classics Rodimus, Generations Orion Pax

Here's my latest purchase - Transformers Generations Orion Pax, with my not yet spotlighted Classics Rodimus standing in behind him. The more recent Deluxe figures being smaller like this isn't such a big deal for Orion Pax here, as he's not yet evolved into the Matrix-bearing Prime he will be, and he makes a great addition to my Autobot shelf. Both weapons (his cannon and axe) look great, but the winningest part is how the axe can be carried neatly on his back. Who needs a Matrix when you have weapons storage?

Despite how good this figure is (and it is very good), the size drop does puts me off getting the fantastic looking Megatron from this wave. I already have a Galvatron that looks stumpy next to Cyclonus; I don't want all my Decepticon leaders to have height complexes... That also brings me to my next point though - I got burned out with collecting Star Wars toys after completing my stated goal of getting the best modern vintage 12 figures. The Transformers line is in rude health right now between Hasbro and all the third party manufacturers, and it's something I'm considering getting back into - but only within certain pre-defined limits.

Destined for Greatness!

As I work out what those limits are, I'll be selling off more figures from the collection to raise funds. Here's hoping that this time next year, when I'm on the eve of turning 31, that I have a collection that's both focused and concise. No more messy shelves!

Photoshop

Gold and Blue Team.

Whilst perusing some toy photography shots on the web, I came across this photo of Bane from El Dave Photography. Reading through the description I decided to mess around with layers in Photoshop with one of my own lightbox images to see what I could come up with...

The Original Image

Firstly I duplicated the image twice, each time into a new layer. I made the top layer blue and reduced the opacity until it simply created a pale blue tint over the image. With the next duplicated layer down I increased the contrast and the brightness, which really helped clarify the details.

Post-Photoshop

Then I pulled the photo into PicMonkey and got to work. After cropping the image I put a gentle vignette over it, which helped to soften the corners, and then used the Orton filter to give it a slight glow. The finished image is a bit too soft for my preference, the compsition's not fantastic and the reflection of my hand in C-3PO's shiny frame is a bit too blatant to ignore; but all the same I'm impressed with the results of ten minutes experimentation.

As an aside, this was the kind of vibe I was going for with the original photo. Probably.

"My joints are freezing up!"

It was in my ESB folder anyway, so I'm guessing this is what I was thinking...

Thanks for reading!

The Purge: Part Three of the Exciting Trilogy!

OK! It's the final post on this weeks batch of figures for sale. As of typing this everything but the Action Fleet Landspeeder has a bid on it, so barring a mass buyer pull out these figures are already as good as gone. Without any further ado then, let's give these guys a decent appropriate send off!

No Good Words.

You know the thing about this Yoda toy, from the Vintage Collection? It's a very good action figure, a good likeness of the Prequel character it's based on, and aside from the pea-green hair, fairly flawless. The problem though, is that it's based on Prequel Yoda. The lightsaber wielding, fight happy, non-sensical little CG-goon that killed ESB's mystery and went on to whore himself out to Vodafone. He really is nothing like the wise little Jedi Master so many of us were enthralled with for nearly two decades. Anyway, something struck me when watching ROTS the other day - AOTC is awful, obviously, and Yoda's Sonic the Hedgehog impression goes some way to furthering that impression. Now, imagine if we never saw Yoda as anything more than the vulnerable muppet he truly is through Episodes I and II, actually living by the mantra that 'wars not make one great' - how much more of an impact would the Order 66 Kashyyyk scene in ROTS have had then?

That right there is the meaning of restraint, George.

Bad Dad.

On the subject of ROTS, here's Anakin Skywalker from the 2005 toy line. He comes with a blue lightsaber wielding right hand, an interchangeable open right hand, and Count Dooku's red lightsaber for some left-handed decapitating action. He also has the 'squeeze my legs and I slash' action feature as practised by incontinents and Obi-Wan Kenobi toys everywhere. It's a decent likeness that has served me well enough for the last few years, but the new Saga Legends Anakin has now rendered this completely obsolete.

Redeemed Dad!

Speaking of obsolete, here's the Vintage Collection Darth Vader that's also up for grabs, and currently subject of a fierce bidding war. I have 2007's Anniversary Collection Vader, with a one-piece removable helmet that can actually stay on, and also without that ridiculous silver chain around this guy's neck. Sith bling. He can also hold his lightsaber in his (correct) right hand. Whilst the two part helmet of the VC figure looks neat, it's absolutely rubbish even as a display piece because it falls off so frequently and doesn't even fit together properly when it's on. How people can swoon over this and have an unbridled hatred for the recent Mission Series Vader, I have no idea. Well, actually I do. It's called idiocy.

Keeping up with all of them.

I'm selling this group of Indiana Jones figures as one lot, because I now have one quality Raiders-style Indy and a playset section to display him on, and don't really feel the need for anything else to display my fondness for Dr. Jones. I was considering keeping at least one of the KOTCS Indys, but decided against it for reasons I will outline below...

*

You know a 3.75" figure that I've always wanted?

Rick O'Connell from the Mummy films. Sure, the sequels sucked fairly massively, but for one exciting film we had a genuine 90's take on the Indiana Jones archetype, and it was awesome. Maybe the fact that I'm willing to give the Scorpion King a pass as a decent film betrays my status as a fan, but whatever. That's why we write these blogs, isn't it?

Anyway, I'd planned to use one of the jacketless Indianas from the lot above, along with parts from the Prince Dastan I highlighted on Wednesday to build an O'Connell figure, but I just kept the figures in a box for months without doing anything with them. I've repainted a figure before, but never properly customised one, and I realised when I saw these figures sitting in their box that I never really had any intention to. I struggle to build dioramas, something I profess to enjoy, and the fact that I wouldn't know where to start with a custom is about all I need to put me off.

I guess the short of it is that if a company ever made a 3.75" (or 6", I'm not fussy) Mummy line, with Rick being joined by Evy, Beni, and John Hana, then I'd give them my money. But do it myself?

Nah.

Thanks for enduring my ramblings reading!

The Purge: Round Two

Welcome to the second of three posts on the first lot of figures I'm shifting on Ebay this week. It's been mainly Star Wars figures I'm selling so far, is that going to change today? I sincerely doubt it... On to the toys!

Big Millennium Falcon

Mace Windu here is from 2007's Anniversary Collection, and looks pretty neat. The Sith lightning on his lightsaber is a nice touch that's really well realised, but I have zero interest in this figure. I have massive respect for Samuel L Jackson, but I also think that Mace Windu is one of the biggest wastes of space in the Star Wars universe, with terrible dialogue and not much to do but sit around and be a bit of an arse to Anakin. And I never liked the purple lightsaber either. Easy sell!

If only Qui-Gon were here...

On the opposite end of my preference spectrum is Episode I's esteemed elder Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn. Liam Neeson is the best actor in the whole of the PT for me, lending Jinn the nobility and authority the role required, and he's captured here in the plastic for 2012's Movie Heroes line. I picked this up for cheap but as I established before, I have no interest in collecting anything from TPM or AOTC. Also the light-up lightsaber feature actually momentarily blinded me when I looked at it wrong, it's that bright - two good reasons that he's got to go.

With Action Feature!

Qui-Gon's apprentice is next up. This Obi-Wan Kenobi figure is from 2005's ROTS line, and as such is imbued with a 'slash attack' action feature - basically, you squeeze his legs, and his torso jerks left and right, waving the lightsaber around. It's actually a pretty neat feature. I've gotten some alright shots with this figure before, but he's since been replaced by a far superior Kenobi (review and pics to follow).

I am wondering... Why are we here?

This may surprise longer term readers to see these two gone for auction, but I can explain - I picked these up in a POTF2 lot earlier this year, duplicating two of my collection's stalwarts. I love these figures and would recommend them to anyone, but I only need the one set myself.

The Flop Film Cast (John Carter not present)

Today's final lot is a small selection of figures from the Prince of Persia and Golden Compass movie tie-in toy lines. I've highlighted the Lyra figure before, but Prince Dastan (who came as a pack in with a fantastic gate backdrop) and Setam (bought on clearance from Toys 'R' Us) have both been largely anonymous on the blog. I did toy with the idea of picking up discount lines a while back, but ultimately had no real interest and found I was just buying junk. Not saying these figures are junk, but they're no longer items that I want in my collection, and hopefully putting them together as a lot means I can sell them all a little bit quicker.

*

I had planned to tackle sculpt versus articulation today, but that's a debate which is just getting bigger and bigger to attempt to do justice to in one or two paragraphs, so it'll be the subject of a future post of its own. In the meantime I'll be back on Friday with the last of this week's Ebay listings as well as some ideas on custom figure recipes that I never quite gave myself the time to try...

Until then, thanks for reading!

The Purge: The First to Go...

I have my first few listings up on Ebay for the Purge, the catch-all term I'm using to describe the stripping down and streamlining of my collection. Every item is at a 99p start and with reasonable postage, so I'm really not trying to rip anyone off; I'll just be happy to clear out some space (both physically and mentally) and make some pennies whilst I do it.

First up is the Anniversary Collection Evolutions Jango Fett figure, which I obtained in the AOTC Bluray multipack...

The Ultimate Army Builder.

I've highlighted this figure before here, but now it's time to say goodbye. Despite coming from Episode II, an instalment better forgotten, Jango is actually a fairly decent character as a gun slingin', 'simple man' of a bounty hunter.  The thing is, this toy looks awful. I mean, it's in good condition, but look how squeezed that helmet is on the head, and how off-colour the purple jumpsuit looks. I don't watch AOTC with regularity at all, but I remember it well enough to know that Jango looked a lot more blue under the armour than he does here. Regardless of the many points of articulation this version has, the 2013 Saga Legends edition just looks far, far superior.

The Ultimate Penknife

R2-D2 here was a present that came from the previous incarnation of Saga Legends, although research tells me it was originally available in 2005 as part of the Revenge of the Sith line. It's a decent figure, good sculpt and size, but it's one of four R2s I have - the OTC Dagobah R2 is also electronic and is part of a set, the Saga Collection R2 is my standard go to Astromech and the POTF2 version I'm keeping for the sake of sentimentality. This isn't a bad figure at all, but it's a case of being the odd droid out.

Hero Lot

Luke & Han from TAC are both figures that I acquired in job lots, and I don't really have any need for either. I've photographed this Luke figure once, but generally use the Legacy Collection version as my default whiny farmboy. I would use the Han if I had a Millennium Falcon, but I very much doubt I'll own one of them any time soon...

Hot Wheels? No Wheels!

There's actually a bit of an embarrassing story behind how I ended up owning this Galoob Action Fleet Landspeeder, because when I bought it I thought I was getting a rather cheap Hasbro/Kenner POTF2 version. As soon as it arrived I realised my error, but it was my fault for not asking any questions of the seller and leaping on the purchase at the last minute, however vague the listing was. I still managed to work it into a few shots though and, needless to say, I've been crystal clear when listing it this time around.

Dark Knight in Bright Light!

It's not all Star Wars. This Batman figure from Mattel's DKR line was bought for a reduced and insanely low price, and it's served its purpose for one shot. However I've since acquired the Play Arts Kai Dark Knight Trilogy Bats, and since I'm not picking up any other 3.75" DC heroes, I've hit the end of the road with this one. As a kid I would've loved this Batman, as opposed to all the day-glo versions we got from the movie lines and animated series, but it's now surplus to requirement.

*

And so the Purge has begun. Do I have any second thoughts? Well, Jango Fett is the first figure that really raises any questions for me, because not only is it the only figure I've looked at today that I don't own another version of, but it's also something that I'm in two minds about whether to even replace. I'd like the 5POA Mission Series Jango, and also the Class II Slave 1 ship for him to pilot (toys being toys again!) but as I inferred above, Episode II doesn't hold any huge appeal for me. As collecting is becoming affordable and interesting again with both Saga Legends and next year's Rebels, I think it's important to set parameters - and the first of those is to stick to my stated Star Wars focus of collecting Episode III and onwards only. It felt good remembering this when I came within a whisker of picking up the Geonosis Mission Series pack today.

I'll be back on Wednesday and Friday highlighting and justifying the rest of the stuff I'm selling, whilst also thinking out loud about the 5POA vs SA debate, and why I'll never be a customiser...

As always, thanks for reading!

The Great Purge Has Begun!

First for the Chop

I've written before about my need to pare down my collection, which has grown incredibly bloated and in all sorts of unfocused directions over the last few years, and this weekend I've finally been able to sit down and start the process. It's been a case of going for the low-hanging fruit to begin with, as I'm getting rid of all of the odds and ends I've accumulated through bulk purchases, discount impulse buys, and older versions of characters that I've since replaced. Still, at least it's a start!

I'll be profiling the different figures over the coming week as they await their fates on eBay, and giving some insight as to why they no longer make the cut for the collection. Hopefully from this I'll have a clearer idea of which direction my collecting focus is taking as well, which would be nice...

Thanks for reading!

Shelf Review: Vintage Trilogy Saga Collection Greedo

"I'm lucky I found you first..."

Shelf Review! Not as in-depth as my regular musings, but a look at the equally-deserving items on my toy shelf all the same. Today I'm taking a look at Greedo, from 2006's Vintage Trilogy Saga Collection. The question is, is he as bad a figure as he is a bounty hunter?

Wrong Trade, My Friend.

I'll put you out of your misery straight away - Greedo is much better at being an action figure than he is a hired goon. Coming in at 14 points of articulation, with soft goods, a working holster, a striking colour scheme and exemplary sculpting (particularly on the head), this version of Greedo is as definitive as it gets.

 

All-Round Rodian.

As with all the better 3.75" Star Wars figures, Greedo has a good weight to him, and feels like a solid mass of toy. The joints are stiff on my version, which always helps to make a figure feel robust and well made, and because of this Greedo is easy to stand and pose unaided. The working holster is a treat, and the gun fits securely both in there and in his hand, which should really be a minimum essential for any figure that comes packed with a weapon. I know some folks aren't too keen on the soft-goods coat, but for me it's one of the better examples of soft-goods in the Star Wars line - I appreciate it hangs a little low, but it can be easily trimmed if you're so inclined. Otherwise it has a great colour, it fits, isn't see-through (ahem, Darth Vader) and generally looks great. For me it's the coat which takes the figure from solid to spectacular, which is really saying something for a minor character when it comes to my personal tastes.

Super-Size Greedo

As I'm sure most of you are aware there's a newer, bigger version of Greedo coming in the Black Series Wave 2, due in November, which I think looks ace - but it has some pretty big shoes to fill. If you're after the definitive 3.75" Greedo for your collection, then you should look no further than this superlative VTSC figure.

*****

Thanks for reading!

Back to the Fold

The Best at 6"

I've been pretty slack here for various reasons over the last month or so, the better of those reasons being that I've just started the third year of my university course. Whilst that is (rightly) going to take up a lot of my focus, worry not about my Star Wars fan status - my dissertation is going to be on George Lucas himself, and the many, many contradictions that he presents. If I don't end up hating every word I've jotted down by the deadline, I may even post it up here for your perusal...

Looking for Someone...

My apologies if you came back here expecting Black Series 6" reviews - whilst I have three out of four of the first wave, I've not gotten around to objectively collecting my thoughts on them yet. From my limited 'playtime' I would suggest that the Sandtrooper is the best of the bunch, but it's difficult for me to judge, with X-Wing Pilot Luke Skywalker being one of my favourite versions of the character in any action figure line anyway; even the times when he's actually a Snowspeeder Pilot!

Lightsaber Duel? I Maul For It!

Other than these guys I have no recent purchases to highlight, vintage or otherwise, which should allow me the opportunity to catch up with some of my backlog a little bit. University deadlines or not, I'm sincerely hoping to give you many more reasons to return for the next couple of weeks at least...

Thanks for sticking around!

Star Wars: The Black Series - Top 5 Wants

The Black Series is finally hitting over here, and it is good. I had planned to stick to the OT with this line, but I think Hasbro really knocked Darth Maul out of the park - review to follow shortly - and with Wave 2 looking solid as a rock there's now no telling where my collection might end.

In light of that, and inspired by The Fwoosh's Five Characters (That We Won't Get!) article, I thought I'd put together a top five of my own, for the unannounced (but hopefully likely) figures that I'm really looking forward to in this line. I double-checked my original post on the topic over at Rebelscum (find me under TJapes) and saw that three of my six choices have since been revealed; in light of that, let's see who else I'm hoping for before Episode VII commands the limelight...

5. General Grievous

With ROTS Obi-Wan coming in Wave 3, there's no Separatist I'd rather see than the good Jedi-hunting General. As long as he's made to the correct size (and if Hasbro have to change the box size to accommodate him, I'm OK with that), with all the multi-limb twirling articulation possible, a soft-goods cape to the same standard as the 3.75" Blu-Ray figure and multiple stolen lightsabers, then the big H will be on to a winner. Throw in a burning heart alternate chest piece for ultimate screen accuracy and you'd have my favourite Prequel figure ever.

4. Yoda

And with that, we leave the Prequels entirely alone*. This is how Yoda needs to be done - no pristine robes, no lightsaber, no debate over which shade of green - Stuart Freeborn nailed it first time around, and this is the only Yoda I want to see. Pack in Luke's lamp and flight cases for Dagobah scene setting and the release is perfect. And then we can forget Yoda was ever in any of the Prequels.

N.B. I would have put Dagobah Training Luke on this list, but with the Bespin Luke and R2 already coming, Yoda here is all we'd need for some swamp planet action...

3. Endor Luke Skywalker

Given the amount of accessories we're seeing with the Black Series figures so far, there's the possibility that we might see an 'ultimate' ROTJ Luke, with new lightsaber, three right hands (flesh, damaged and gloved), a vest robe, helmet, poncho, gun belt and final duel tunic flap. This would be fantastic, but whatever happens I want to see Luke in his Endor get up. This is one of my favourite of Luke's looks from the trilogy, and as I've touched on before I live in an ideal part of the world for taking Endor-esque woodland shots. There's also the small matter of the Speeder Bike and Scout Trooper having already been announced to sweeten the deal further. Bring him on!

2. Princess Leia in Boushh Disguise

To me this is Leia's coolest costume in the trilogy, and I'm not even a huge bounty hunter fan. It's so detailed and worn that I can't help but think it'd look fantastic at this scale, and for the limited screen time there are enough accessories to merit the price - the staff, thermal detonator (possibly with a swappable hand to hold it better), and either a removable helmet or alternative head for pre and post-reveal posing. With the Han in Carbonite possibly seeing a wider scale re-release (which I'm really hoping), this is all we'd need to get crafting our 6" scaled Jabba's Palace alcoves...

1. Darth Vader

Unless something very strange happens with the Black Series, this figure is a no-brainer. Regardless, I cannot wait to see it! I'd like to see two different heads, one with a removable, three piece helmet and the other with a fixed, iconic Vader look that doesn't fall off all over the place (also, it should go without saying, but Sebastian Shaw likeness, please). A removable hand with wires sticking out of the wrist joint for some father/son revenge action and a wire laced, heavy material soft goods cloak would also be ideal. Stick him on a shelf with next year's Bespin Luke, and watch the sparks fly!

*Not entirely...

Bonus Wish!

I'm not stopping there, however! With the Speeder Bike, Jabba the Hutt and either a Tauntaun or Wampa coming down the line in the not-too-distant future, there is one more creature I'd like to suggest...

What can I say? I'm a fan of the Battle of Utapau...

Thanks for reading!

Ackbar!

Life on Home One

Sorry for the lack of updates; between an extremely poorly relative, client work and another film entering pre-production the last 10 days have absolutely flown by, and I've had no time to post anything. Even this is a fly-by blogging - I just wanted to show off a shot I took of Admiral Ackbar last night...

On a collecting note, I've finally spotted the Mission Series two-packs in the wild (at Forbidden Planet Sheffield), and they look good, particularly the Utapau Clone Trooper set. I also saw the ROTS Obi-Wan Kenobi in hand as well, and it looks much better than any pictures I've seen of it online. As I already have an Anakin on pre-order (scheduled to arrive with the good Black Series Luke X-Wing and Sandtrooper), that may be a final 3.75" temptation.

On that note, I've also started to reach some conclusions about my collection, and the direction I'm taking it. The Purge is coming... As soon as I get a free day to sit down and actually do it! For now though, I'm all about dealing with what's immediately in front of me; and that's a house in mid-sort, and a film that needs a production office. None of these things are mutually exclusive, but at the moment collecting is fairly low on that hierarchy. Hopefully though it won't be too long before I'm back with more regular updates, and maybe even a Black Series review... 

Until then, thanks for reading!

On Location

Leo going solo.

I re-arranged my Flickr sets today, and as I pored over the photographs from the last three years I was struck by how bad some of my initial efforts were. Unfortunately, some of the more recent ones stuck out as well, and it struck me that my biggest issues are lighting and setting, two of the three key components of a photograph (the third being the subject). I thought I'd pay a little attention to this for today's post...

Leader in blue!

It's unfortunate that I don't have room to store different sets, much less the time to build them nowadays, and a cluttered house doesn't really cut it as a backdrop when photographing 1:18 scale figures. Fortunately though, as fantastical as Star Wars is, if you live near a swamp, woodland, desert or beach, or even some destitute scrub land, you've got the ideal setting for your action figure photographs. Although living in the middle of the UK isn't ideal for a desert or beach, it more than does the job when looking at Dagobah or Endor...

BTS: The glory of cropping!

But what about the urban heroes? Northampton really isn't much of a cityscape, the lift tower being the sole defining feature of the skyline, and if I struggle with building a set for something fictional, I think I'd really mess up a scale recreation of an NYC rooftop. So how best to photograph them? Why, multistory car parks, of course!

Miles Morales...

I frequently try and find a lighting set-up that works best for me at home, in the lightbox or otherwise, but hands down using natural light is the best. The colour balance looks right, and if you pick a  good spot (somewhere open but out of direct sunlight) the lighting is crisp and even across the subject. Occasionally you may need to use a reflector to get the light to go exactly where you need it, but you should be fine without. Also, the more light that is available, the less your camera has to compensate by auto-filling information. This is what happens when dark pictures appear grainy; there's not enough information for the camera to create a whole picture, so it fills in the gaps itself. It's always better to shoot light and darken the image in post, if needs be.

...the Ultimate Spider-Man!

A car park fits the bill of being somewhere open but out of direct sunlight, and provides a gritty and urban setting for our more 'street' figures, with a view across the rooftops to boot. Furthermore during the day the higher-up levels of the car park are rarely used, providing all the privacy a grown man playing with toys in public needs!

Ninja Protector!

It's not perfectly to scale, but the car park fits the bill well enough, and it's nice to finally have somewhere to play with capture my superhero figures at work. What's even better is that I'm finally starting to get the quality of photograph that I've been after since I started. Onwards and upwards, I suppose...

Good luck with your own on location shooting, and thanks for reading!

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man 6" Figure Review

Definitely not in bad taste.

This week we'll be looking at the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man 6" figure, from last year's Amazing Spider-Man movie line. The single wave consisted of the ASM (movie costume) Spidey, the Lizard, and in a nice surprise this guy, the new Ultimate Comics webspinner Miles Morales. "Who is this usurper?" and "how good is his action figure?" are questions you may be asking yourself. Well, read on if you'd like to find out the answers!

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1

After being bitten by a radioactive spider that was smuggled out of an Oscorp lab by his uncle, thirteen year old Miles Morales developed similar (but not identical) powers to those of Spider-Man. Following the death of the Ultimate universe's Peter Parker, and Miles' guilt at not helping in the fatal battle, he takes up the mantle of Spider-Man himself. As with all good spider-men personal tragedy runs rife, and he's already paying a high cost for the costume...

Packaging Front & Back

So, on to the figure. The packaging follows the template from the ASM movie line with the same visuals and cut of the card, and there's really not much to say about it, other than that this costume pops on the image on the back. These things are made for opening though, so let's see what we get!

Figure, shield and stand.

UC Spider-Man comes packaged with a stand and a clip on web shield, both of which look pretty cool and provide a good looking, if not particularly Spidey-esque display option. That's already more than what came with the 3 3/4" Ultra Posable Spidey, so we're off to a good start...

Face front!

First thing I noticed was how sturdy the figure felt out of the packaging; although I then felt like I was putting that theory to the test with my first attempt at posing. The joints were properly stiff, and I felt like I was going to snap the leg off, but after the first click the hip joints started to move a bit more freely. This figure boasts a whopping 25 points of articulation (including double joints on the shoulders, elbows and knees) which allows for amazing posability, but unfortunately it also suffers from only having a swivel head, which limits how good some poses can look. This is compounded by the hunched neck, which looks cool in some poses but really doesn't work in others. The thighs can only bend so high, which restricts some of the more athletic poses we're used to seeing with Spidey, but really these are the only drawbacks; the articulation is otherwise very well done.

And back!

Cast in black plastic, there's very little actual paint on the figure, but what is there should be good. The intricate lines and design of the costume are very cleanly applied, and the eyes have a pearlescent sheen that matches the black and red colour scheme perfectly and looks beautiful. It's a good looking costume and one that they've applied to the figure very well. On my sample (mail ordered) there were some chips in the paint which are noticeable on close inspection (and unfortunately I can't unsee the red dot on his left eye now), so if you get the chance to inspect this figure before picking it up it's worth giving it a scan. Individual blemishes aside though, the paint job is very well done.

The last strike against this figure is more about the character than the toy itself; Miles is a young teenager and is drawn as such in the comics, whilst this figure looks more like a fully grown and pumped adult. Overall though it's good we've gotten an action figure of Miles so soon in the character's history, and despite its few flaws this is a very solid toy.

*****

Thanks for reading!