Okay, we’re gonna try “Guardians of the Galaxy” Week. I say “try” because my computer is seemingly on it’s last legs. It’s been a good beast, but it’s eight years old and just isn’t keeping up as well as it should. It cut out right in the middle of SDCC Armchair Coverage and has only been functional sporadically since. Even now, I wonder – can I finish this review before we encounter a problem? We’ll see. Note to my readers, this is a spoiler-free review!
So why Guardians of the Galaxy Week? For one, because I’ve got a whole wave of figures to get through. And two, because I loved the movie. Loved it. (There are a few nitpicks – more characterization for the villains (this is the one area Marvel movies tend to be weak), and maybe more time to flesh out the supporting cast overall. But I loved it. Nearly all the Guardians became favorite characters in a little under two hours. I bought the MLs. I want the Hot Toys. When I’m at TRU, I think about if I want any of the other merch. Surely, I’m on a GOTG high, but the movie earned it as far as I’m concerned.
Originally, when I ran across this wave of Marvel Legends, I picked up my all-time favorite character, Nova. At SDCC, Hasbro mentioned he’s one of the best selling MLs they’ve ever done. Crazy. I waited on the rest of the wave because I hadn’t seen the movie and I’ve been waffling between collecting the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the much cheaper ML scale and the much nicer HT scale. So far, I’m failing because I keep buying both. My wife wants to have a talk with me about this.
When I bought the whole wave and sat down to start reviews, I wanted to kick off with my favorite non-Nova figure even if he’s the BAF: Groot. I love Groot in the comics and he, along with Rocket, were my most anticipated characters in the movie. Even better, Groot got a great figure.
The Flora Colossus is an 100% original sculpt and the detail work is amazing as a result. I haven’t really checked it with the animation model in the movie, but nothing about him looks wrong. The upper torso and head, included with Rocket, are the highlights of the figure with a little more texturing and detail for the moss than anywhere else on the figure. I would like to see that level of detail throughout, but it doesn’t clash. The figure is a mix of hard and softer plastics depending on the amount of tendrils in any location. Sadly, this did lead to one QC issue. Continue to Page 2…
I thought the movie was kind of “meh.” I didn’t hate it, but I can’t really say I thought it was great, either.
The figures, I want to love, but first I’d have to be able to find them. That Iron Man’s totally peg-warming (for this line, peg-warming means “you might actually be able to find out at retail), but other than that, nothing. Every Target (and the one TRU) nearby seems to have gotten one case a couple months ago and nothing ever since. I snagged Gamora, leaving behind a Drax, figuring I’d be able to find him any time. I’ve never seen Rocket or Nova (not that I want Nova, but I do want his BAF piece), and it’s even been a couple weeks since the last Starlord disappeared.
Add this to the still-mythic nature of Black Widow, and I’m not having the easiest time giving Hasbro my money these days. And that doesn’t take into account the Walgreens exclusives (really? Walgreens? I’m never going to lay eyes on an Agent Venom, I’m calling that right now) or Star Wars Black (which also has a Walgreens exclusive figure?! That’s a repaint of another figure that I’ve never seen on shelves?! What kind of sicko is running the toy business these days?).
your stores had GotG months ago? my HTS case had a street date of 6/20 on it, but I didn’t see it until three weeks ago. She was just resetting the ap2 area into GotG, came back a couple hours later, and Starlord and I think Drax. then 2 IM showed up a week later, no sign of any others since. I asked before seeing the movie Saturday, catching them stocking the toy area. (scored SW6″, but that’s it.)
I keep hearing about cases of 2x Widow shipping, too, and some are finding them now, as well as BBTS having a 2 Widow mix and a AIM/Hydra//Widow mix case.
oh, and add a GOT “Tyrion the Hand” variant to Walgreen’s sudden influx of exclusives. Apparently, the first was only s1 Tyrion?
I haven’t seen any GOT, but I did hear their ML Agent Venom sold out online in one day, and Boba shortly after. Now the current furor is whether or not TRU will honor their online pre-sales of the X-Men Jubilee wave or not? Emails have been sent out, telling of delays, and possible cancellations are likely. People are not happy. Several have already found the wave in stores for more than they paid online, and left them, assuming they already had a guaranteed set coming, but are now doubting it.
The Targets around here all had their GotG stuff set by early June. TRU set their section a couple weeks later, but didn’t get any of the Legends until a week and a half ago, and by the time I got there that day, all they had was one Iron Man and one Starlord.
I am Groot.
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;
;
[translation:
“I’m glad I splurged and ordered the GotG case off HTS for my birthday, as otherwise, I’d only have that hideous IM and StarLord.
My Groot’s green isn’t as thick, nor is it as glossy as yours, even when holding him right up by a lamp. Not his chest, head, nor elsewhere. Makes me wonder if tht paint app changed or something during production?
I couldn’t help but notice that Groot also has …erm, “cheeks” in the movie when he was walking away. The figure’s aren’t as prominent, but I don’t think I would have noticed them if I had to wait any longer see the movie like another one that came out this past weekend. (koffCalvarykoff)
I really didn’t look at mine before this review. “It’s ok, he’s assembled. Man, this Rocket wasn’t worth it, was he?” Then paired them of into the toybox until I hear from SS (NOV!!). Looking at him now as I read along, he is kinda neat, great sculpt, and better than expected articulation. Now I’m hoping 6″SW Chewie can compare to this guy when he hits.
(IS Chewie hitting? I found Anakin/Clone/Boba the other day before seeing GotG, but not sure who the 4th was?)
Also, messed me up, seeing this, Nova, and BAF Rocket reviews up, as my laptop is also crapping out less than a year old, and I know I rebooted at least once over the weekend and didn’t see anything new before tonight/this morning. Then I looked at the dates. D’OH!]
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I am Groot!
[oh, and Birthing Anniversary Tidings, Noisy!]
Slowly seeing these hear and Nova is who I want to start with. Also finding a Big Time Spidey trade for $5 and seeing volume 1 of the current GotG book for same price has me debating if want to finish but man a lil comic pottd Groot woulda been a funny bonus with on of these. (The mu one is too small)
Groot is growing on me more I see previews and after seeing TF4 and getting free passes do too a projector prob ofcourse gonna see the film. Loving the soundtrack and looking for it and no luck as well.
Boy note to self no typing when just get up.
Forgot to mention was a good review and got me.thinking about competeing this guy
You really should just pick up another Star Lord, that way, you can cut his jacket into the regular length one that he wore for most of the movie. also, you’re going to have to boil and pop the elbow to get that arm right, because for once, Hasbro has mad a BAF with really solid joint sockets all around. He’s not coming apart easily.
everybody wants to trim that coat down to a jacket.
I trimmed mine, but I followed the lower curved arc “seam”, so it hangs a bit lower. almost grunge look, if Quill had still been here for that.
Yeah, everyone else seems to just cut it along the straight line that runs all the way around it. I think that makes it too high. I cut mine like you did, the length is right, plus that line gives it a bit of trim like an actual jacket.
Great review! I absolutely loved the movie. It is the single reason for me now buying the legends marvel universe figures. (I had a few). I went on a massive toy run Friday. It was glorious, picked up gamora and rocket, found the captain america revision wave in Walmart… ON CLEARANCE! $15 EACH! got black widow(!!) Winter soldier, stealth cap and cap now (now I need that ww2 cap!). Found venom for $15 as well!!! Also saw full price drax but some douche nozzle stole his knives! But left the Groot piece (the hell). Saw a nova at a different store. Missing Groot piece tho, I regret not getting nova in June when I saw him alone, but oh well. Also saw the saw black speeder bike and jabba and a friend picked up sun storm and acid storm using the bogo 50% off sale at tru. If only I saw prowl.. my wallet is dead. I bled it dry. The figs I still need are on clearance at bbts (besides drax and nova). But I’ll see them again. Oh and o got the soundtrack too. All because of how much I enjoyed that damn movie
(Edit: Carnage* for $15 not venom)
Who does dc have that’s more popular than groot now? Superman and batman, that’s it. Arrow isn’t pulling the number of eyes gotG did this weekend (unless you take cumulative eatings) neither does teen titans. Who else is getting any media exposure?
Um, Robin? Aquaman? Joker? I get the joke Noisy’s going for, but there is a long list of DC characters that are grandfathered in as household names. GOTG has been amazing, but seventy years of publishing can put up a big pedastal.
Grandfathered in what sense? Three batman movies with nary a robin… and joker, while he might have name/face recognition, isn’t moving product nor being featured in a mass market media product. His most prominent role since he killed heath ledger has been as a side character in a successful video game. So maybe he counts as number 3 but my larger point is, DC has had much less success making multimedia stars out of their characters in Marvel has up to and including groot.
Groot is a big screen star before Wonder Woman or the Flash. That’s something else, ain’t it?
Hayden has the right idea. The picture is definitely making fun of DC’s inability to market out their characters of late so there’s not big disagreement there. However, as of right now, Aquaman is likely still more of a pop culture icon than Groot.
An even dozen may be generous, but no more so than putting Groot immediately behind DC’s big two after one big weekend! 😀
Think of it like a Jaywalking skit. If I take a picture of Groot around Burbank, more people are going to know Groot than would have weeks ago, but that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t still identify Robin, Aquaman, Catwoman, etc.
Still haven’t seen any of these! Ugh!
Which, reminded by groot, I must ask.. would there be a better time to reintroduce Swamp thing than now? We finally have access to effects that could do his powers justice and he has a deep enough backstory that you could get a really quality film out of it that people would remember for more than just plant FX. He also provides a backdoor segue into some of DC Comics lesser-known heroes and gives you an avenue to give them a stage that they could not reasonably share with Superman or Batman.
I’d tend to agree, but the old film has such a B-movie reputation that the studio might be hesitant to pull the trigger. Kind of like a new Howard the Duck feature. The old ones were two generations ago, but still…
There’s also the matter of doing the story justice. It’s very easy to get comic book adaptions very wrong, and even more so when the idea is as high-concept (or mid-range concept?) as Swamp Thing.
I was reading the other day that Constantine will be following some early story arc leading into his appearance in Swamp Thing comic, so we MIGHT see Alec there?
Note I said ALEC and not “Swampy”.
(and I got into a discussion at my theatre that it is ConstanTYNE, not TEEN, and I’m not holding much hope for Gotham s2 or Ant-Man)
Arrow and now Flash are namedropping left and right (Firestorm, Atom, Plastique, Ra’s, now Mark Shaw, etc), building up their TV-verses, which unfortunately can’t cross over with Constantine and (thankfully!) Gotham.
So is it exactly 12? I did a quick poll in my Marvel house which DC characters my boys knew…
Superman
Batman
Robin
Wonder Wonan
Green Lantern
Cyborg
Beast Boy
Starfire
Raven
Joker
Green Arrow
Flash
That was about it. Teen Titans affected a good deal.
I would say Lex Luthor is a player in name recognition.
Great film, cool figs, fun review as always!
Thwipp!
lol I really did just a pick “twelve” out of the air. Your kids are doing good though. I’d say that six of the seven big name JLAers probably make the cut (the same as you listed, poor Martian Manhunter), though Green Lantern might be a more all-encompassing idea and not one specific character over the others. Flash is probably the least of the six, but he is still high concept. People know the name. I also rank Aquaman higher because the concept of him lingers over from when DC was more high profile in the 70s with the various tv specials and cartoons and were promoting their full brand and not just the low-hanging fruit of Batman & Superman. (the glory days, when even Plastic Man had a cartoon).
The second six, I would tend to lean towards the supporting cast or villains like Robin, Joker, Luthor, Lois Lane, etc, but shows like Young Justice & Titans would definitely factor at this point and those characters.
There is a thing about being a DC fan though (and I’m sure Marvel has an equivalent, Silver Surfer’s strange popularity comes to mind), it’s weird the names random people will drop when they find you out love DC Comics. The strangest one to me is usually Hawkman. Sooooo many people bring up Hawkman to me and I just don’t get it. I like Hawkman, but what has stuck out about him to so many people?
Just saw the flick earlier today and now want me a groot. I enjoyed it al the way. Brought some mints if got dry mouth from laughing or something but was too into it to care. That openning hit me hard though. Was not expecting that.
Let my hunt begin.
Personally, the Guardians I’d like to see done in Marvel Legends scale are Vance Astro, Charlie, Martinex, Yondu, and Starhawk.
Admit yes this crew needs to be made just expect 90s looks over classic but never know.. Read a few stories this week, the Krovac saga (Library has Comics who knew) and with HIM in the Collector’s spot. (Some think its Beta Ray Bill)
Gotta dig out my MU Trading cards and check out the Guardians in that set 3rd set as well set 4.
So what exactly should I look for in the piece with Starlord? Reread and trying to recall exactly. Was looking the pieces over and forgot what it was.