“Like his people, the king of dead men beyond Dunharrow is a cursed soul. In ages past, he and his army had renounced their pledge of allegiance to the King of Gondor and fled to their mountain homes. Since that time, they lay bound by a curse to the shadowy depths beyond Dunharrow as bodiless spectres, awaiting the chance to honor their broken oath. Only a true King of Gondor can wield the power to release the dead King and his ghostly multitudes from this curse. Thus for many an age they have haunted the Paths of the Dead, awaiting the one that can set them free.”

Packaging: It’s minimal, it holds the figure in, keeps it relatively safe from damage, and tells you what it is. It does it’s job, even if it’s not the most eye-catching package out there. *Snicker* For those that just rip them open anyway, like me, who really cares?

Sculpt: Wonderful! Great details, and most of the figure is a kind of rubber, which makes it easy to move things around if needed. His withered face has every little detail, his armour is perfect down to the chain links of his “skirt”. I’m very impressed. The only thing that looks funny is if you remove his cloak, his ball joint shoulders look a bit odd.

Articulation: Way more than I expected, but up to par with most Toy Biz figures.
ball jointed head
ball jointed shoulders x2
bicep swivels x2
double elbow joints x2
wrist swivels x2
ball jointed legs x2
thigh swivels x2
double jointed knees x2
hinged ankles x2
side to side ankles x2
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23 total POA

Paint: this is the one place I was dissapointed. There are really no paint apps here. There is a crappy wash put on there to help bring out the detail, but I think it would have been better to actually paint the details in. I probably will sometime, but I shouldn’t have to.

Accessories: He comes with a helmet, which not only fits on his head, but looks good and in proportion at the same time. He also has his sword with scabbard, his cloak, and a sculpted cloth type thing that I think is supposed to be part of his robes. With all his robes and cloak on, it hinders his posability a bit, but it’s not that big of a deal. If you leave his robes off and cloak on, it works pretty well.

Action Feature: This dude glows in the dark. I haven’t tried him in pitch dark yet, being he’s on my desk at work right now, but I stuck him in a darker corner of my work area, and he glew quite well. I’m sure in the pitch dark he looks quite awesome.

Disaster (or minor annoyance) strikes! This figure also marks the first time I have had a Toy Biz figure break on me right out of the package. As I was trying out his wrist swivels, the left hand twisted right off. I jammed part of a paperclip in the stump and into his hand connecting the two and Viola! It’s good as new! I have heard many QC concerns with LOTR and Marvel Legends in this regards, so I guess it was bound to happen to me sooner or later.

My opinion: All in all, I am very happy with this figure. Toy Biz is my absolute favorite toy company right now, due to the properties they have, the prices they charge, and the level of care they put in to their figures bridging the gap between kids and collectors.

Who thought this was a good idea? The combination of imagery and tagline are just…

There are no words.

So this is the Captain America Movie Figure that will be hitting store shelves in time for the film, as revealed by Hasbro last week at SDCC.

Looks cool to me! It will join my shelf of Cap stuff. I still miss the wings on the side of head. I hope that they will decide to paint some on during the filming.

I. AM. CAPTAIN AMERICA! Hmm. Doesn't have quite the same ring to it...

Anyway, here is the picture and the linky:
http://movies.ign.com/articles/110/1108431p1.html

And here is another shot:

I’m not sure what I think of it. I love the original, and it was fun to see someone try and do something with it. I don’t really think it was “good”, but it was interesting.

The concept behind it is that the filmmakers took the original film and digitally pulled out the sets from the original 1920 film. They then filmed the actors on a green screen and placed them into the old sets. It gives it a similar feel to “Sky Captain”, and I kind of dug that. I sort of liked the bizarre combination of old-style look and modern acting. It took a little bit to get used to, but I ultimately enjoyed it.

Sadly, the main reason I was excited for the movie ended up disappointing me. I was eager to see legendary Doug Jones play Cesare the somnambulist, but he really didn’t have much to do, and just kind of looked silly. I think all the other actors did surprisingly well, and the guy playing Caligari himself hit all the right notes for me. I also thought the actor playing Alan had some good charisma.

Overall, it was a worthwhile oddity for a “Caligari” fan to watch, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone that isn’t a fan of the original.

If video isn’t working try this: TRON legacy merchandise video

Or this: TRON Product Images – Disney Consumer Products2

Warner Bros. Animation (owner of Cartoon Network) is producing the show which will feature a hyper anime-style thanks to a deal between Cartoon Network and  Japanese animation production house Studio 4C with whom past collaborations include Direct-to-DVD features Gotham Knights, The Animatrix and Halo.

The original 1985 series was a Rankin/Bass production (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Year without a Santa Claus and The Hobbit) and featured anthropomorphic cat-people from the distant planet of Thundera who flee shortly before their homeworld self-destructs. They arrive on a planet known as Third Earth and struggle to rebuild their civilization while fending off mutants who pursued them, lead by the reptile-like Sliiithe, and Third Earth’s resident demon-lord, Mumm-Ra, an ancient warrior sorcerer who was a cross between Boris Karloff and Hulk Hogan.

***

Personally I’m excited about this as I loved the cartoon as a kid. However when I revisited it in my early adult life in the late 90’s (rerun on CN’s Toonami block), I was somewhat disappointed as the storylines were often non-sensical in their random-plotting (yes – I know it was a cartoon) and I found the original animation rather stiff. I did find the series contained very good morals that were smoothly integrated into the plots and touched on at the end of every episode, usually through Lion-O, a literal boy in a man’s body (due to a cryo-stasis malfunction his body aged while in space).

I’d love to see this blow me away after all the currently failed 80’s revamps.

Thoughts?

I have to say…

…I FRIGGIN’ LOVE IT!!! MAKE MINE MARVEL for SUMMER 2011!!!