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Darth Vader, the #02 figure from wave 5, brings me up to speed with the Black Series releases to date. I picked him up earlier in the week from Film and Figures in Chorley and have taken a couple of days to play around with him before launching into my review. Any Star Wars figure range will be judged on Vader. He is the key iconic image from the Original Trilogy and holds a presence through all 6 movies to date in one way or another. Unusually Hasbro held Vader back until wave 5 of TBS6 and attempted to go all out first time round with a 2-piece removable helmet. When he debuted at Toy Fair in January 2014 the images were blow away, then he turned up at retail and the reviews and feedback have been less than complimentary. The first thing that sprang to mind when I picked up the figure was that he actually looks much better in the flesh. Granted this may be a cliche, but a number of fans have said the same - he just seems to photograph really badly and after loading my photo's, I have done little to show Vader in a good light even with my new camera. I wont dwell on the box, its the standard blue trimmed wave 5 box and inside you will find Vader and his Lightsaber. The first thing anyone will do is take off his helmet, so starting there the sculpt underneath of aged Anakin is very good. It is a little washed out compared to the NY Toy Fair images, but let's face it - how many of us will actully display him without mask. Moving on to the Mask this is in two pieces - face plate and then dome. There is something "off" with the mask and it seems to be centered around the eyes which are red tinted and perhaps a tad too large? To get the best look for Vader you need to get the dome and faceplate all seated nicely on the head. Moving onwards the soft goods on Vader are amazing in terms of how the material flows. However, choosing to pin the cape eitherside of the shoulder armour is another point that has ruined the figure - I have some ideas on fixing that, so will come back to you. Outside of the cape the armour is nice and chunky and Vader stands a good head height over Luke. Poseability is limited but he can achieve a two handed light saber stance and also his arms can be positioned in the "I am your Father" stance, although swapable hands to achieve this or a force choke would have been preferable. Painting is crisp, granted its all black - but the lights on the chest panel and instruments are all picked out nicely. The lightsaber is again standard with the other Jedi we have seen, with removable blade. It is a pity that there is no where for it to hang on Vader's belt. All in all this is a reasonable representation of Vader. It is certainly not perfect, but it is better in hand than what you see on photo's. I also think it has potential for improvement and will have a play over next week with some ideas for re-seating his cape. Without incurring the wrath of dark side too much, I am going to score Darth Vader 3/5 and give him the comment, good try but room for improvement

Wave 5 of the Black Series see's a big move from Hasbro to new packaging which can accommodate taller figures. They also move from orange to blue trim and most controversially have reset the numbering system back to #01 onwards. Wave 5 has not really hit the UK as yet, but having seen these with our friends in the US for some weeks I dived in and picked up two from eBay and had them imported over. The first thing to notice is the new box, which now has a clear window right to the top of the box and wrapped over. This means that taller figures like Chewbacca can stand fully without heads being obscured - a must for MIB collectors. The change to the blue trim is nice, but likely an annoyance to MIB collects, as will be the bizarre numbering system which has now been reset. The grey shaded image of the character remain in the top corner as does the blurb on the back. The only other significant change I noticed is the addition of the Disney logo. I extracted Jedi Luke from packaging first. He comes with two shirt options and a light sabre. Those who saw how Darth Maul or the Sandtrooper were packed in wave 1 would be right in expecting a little bit more from this figure. Perhaps the Endor helmet and Poncho, or the Jabba Palace Cape, blaster and skin toned hand? Unfortunately Hasbro seemed to have moved away from loads of accessories to represent multiple scenes, and I expect both a Jabba's palace Luke and Endor Luke (likely with Speeder bike) in the future. Putting this aside, Luke is a stunning figure. The two shirt pieces work really well. My preference is the open flapped version, just to add a little bit of difference to his black outfit. My head was painted pretty well and for me is a decent likeness for Mark Hamill. The beauty of this figure is pose-ability. After failing with Obi Wan and Anakin to get any decent poses for light-sabre duels or action poses - Luke is a joy, specifically holding the sabre with both hands. Luke, for me, gets a strong 4/5. Only let down by a lack of accessories and the rather rubbery feel of his light-sabre.

I forgo the usual welcome to our #SatTOYday news as this week's issue is of course coming in the wake of the death of the icon, Stan Lee. Stan shaped my youth and my interests from a young age, particular seeing his characters come to life on screen with the early TV Hulk movies and then into the X-Men 1990's TV series. And of course most recently with his impact on the 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe where his characters have been brought to the forefront of current interest and how the flaws he built into them help us associate with them directly. What Stan built, along with the other writers, is a legacy that will last a lifetime and I salute Stan the Man and will not forget what he did.... This week's issue is dedicated to Stan Lee, with all the usual news inside - from Stan's beloved Marvel, to other licences that he and his company touched and influenced including NECA and McFarlane. I hope you will take a moment before diving in to remember Stan. Excelsior! CLICK HERE to read this week's issue, and to visit our archive of older issues #ActionFigure #News #Hasbro #NECA #McFarlane #Mezco

A new image has surfaced for the Harry Potter Professor Snape figure that was revealed a month or so ago. It doesn't give us too much new info about the figure, other than it will include two head options - one neutral and one angry. Snape will likely be a 2019 release, joining the 2018 releases of Harry, Hermione and Ron.

Things have been relatively quiet on the Power Rangers front since Hasbro bought the property and announced a full 6 inch line of figures called the Lightning Collection. We saw this prototype of a White Ranger earlier in the year, but since there has been nothing. A number of Amazon listings now seem to have expanded on what we can expect in the first wave of the Lightning Collection, although there still remains no official images. In wave 1 we will be getting both white and pink mighty morphin Power Rangers. They are joined by the Lost Galaxy Magna Defender, Shadow Ranger from S.P.D. and Dino Charge Red Ranger. From Beast Morphers we get the Red and Gold Rangers. The wave is completed by Lord Zedd. #Hasbro #PowerRangers #LightningCollection

Medicom are are releasing a MAFEX 6 inch (1/12 scale) Pennywise Action Figure from the 2017 It movie. The confirmation came initially via a magazine image from the Far East, and official images were released soon after showing the figure along with three head options and his red balloon and paper boat. Pennywise is scheduled for an August 2019 release. #Medicom #MAFEX #Pennywise

McFarlane have announced the next two figures to join their 7 inch Fortnite Action Figure line. Drift and Rex will join the line in February 2019 and will come in the Fortnite themed window box. The will come with appropriate accessories and a display base and will retail for $24.99 in the US, around £22 here in the UK. At this stage there is no images of the figures or an indication of which skins they will be sculpted as wearing - Drift in particular has a plethora of options right through to his Stage 4 long coat and feline mask. FORTNITE DRIFT 7-INCH PREMIUM ACTION FIGURE The Fortnite Series 1 Drift 7-Inch Action Figure features design and paint decos from in-game assets. The Figure is hyper-articulated at over 18 points of articulation: perfect for Emote posing! The Drift figure is showcased in premium glossy Fortnite themed window box packaging and stands tall on a Fortnite branded display base! In Shops: Feb 27, 2019 SRP: $24.99 FORTNITE REX 7-INCH PREMIUM ACTION FIGURE The Fortnite Series 1 Rex 7-Inch Action Figure features design and paint decos from in-game assets. The Figure is hyper-articulated at over 18 points of articulation: perfect for Emote posing! The Rex figure is showcased in premium glossy Fortnite themed window box packaging and stands tall on a Fortnite branded display base!? In Shops: Feb 27, 2019 SRP: $24.99 #McFarlane #Fortnite

SH Figuarts have released details of an exclusive 6 inch (1/12 scale) Iron-Man figure for the Marvel Age of Heroes exhibition in Tokyo Japan. The Mk22 "Hot Rod" armour, as seen in Iron-Man 3, will come with the usual SH Figuarts articulation and swap out hands and blast FX pieces. Its due to be available between December 2018 and January 2019 and we assume only sold at the Exhibition itself - making it a very tough figure to obtain if you are outside Japan. We will bring you more details if and when we get them #Ironman #Marvel #SHFiguarts

NECA have shared a further packaging template image for their upcoming Alien vs Predator Arcade Action Figures. The Hunter Predator shares most of the same design principles as the Warrior Predator with the front profile illustration of the character and the left hand spine updated to be character specific. The back of the packaging "screenshot" is also updated to the relevant figure. The AvP Arcade figures are still expected for an end of 2018 release in the US, we may have to wait until early 2019 here in the UK. Checkout the Warrior Predator packaging shared earlier in November 2018 by NECA #NECA #Alien #Predator #AvP

Welcome to our review of The Dark World Sif from the Marvel Legends The First Ten Years series of releases from 2018. Sif comes in a two pack with Thor who we will be reviewing separately. If you have come here after the Dark World Thor review then please feel free to skip the Packaging segment which is a repeat. Packaging 5/5 Rather than stick with the scooped sided packaging of the main Marvel Legends line, the First Ten Years packaging reverts to a standard box with a gloss black finish. The figures are displayed through a shaped window, trimmed in gloss red. The main logo is that of Marvel Studio's First Ten Years, with the Legends logo slightly smaller to the opposite side. The two character names sit under the window in an expanded section of the red border. The names are simply given as "Thor" and "Sif". Across from this is confirmation that these are taken from the 2nd Thor movie, The Dark World. On the right hand side spine is a montage of conceptual images from The Dark World including Thor wielding Mjolnir. The spines on the side of each of the First Ten Years line up to make a full montage of those First Ten Years. So even if fans open the packaging they may wish to keep the box. The left hand spine is designed more as a data card and carries a synopsis of Thor : The Dark World. This is in white text over a red box and is headed by Thor's hammer logo. Beneath this the set is confirmed as #5 in the First Ten Years series. "A Legendary Warrior, Sif fights alongside Thor in the Marauder's war at the battle of Vanaheim to regain control of the Nine Realms. To end the siege, Thor strikes down the giant rock monster. Together, Sif and Thor take the Marauders prisoner and bring them to Asgard to face justice" ​​ The reverse of the box repeats the First Ten Years and Legends Logo's with the number 5 confirmed again as the set number in the corner. Under this sits two circular images of Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Jaimie Alexander as Sif. Under each sits a short bio piece about the character. "Thor : Side by side with his childhood friend, Sif, Thor strikes down the Marauders on Vanaheim, seeking to bring peace back to the Nine Realms." "Sif : A long-time ally of Thor and a powerful Asgardian warrior, Sf battles wit a double-bladed sword and a keen understanding of her enemies." To the side of this sits the movie poster for Thor : The Dark World. The figures are accessed via either of the two side flaps and slide out in a plastic tray set into an inner cardboard tray that is decorated in more grey scale montage images of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sculpt & Paint  4/5 As a brand new figure, as opposed to the tweaked older figure that is Thor, Sif is beautifully sculpted and painted using the face printing technology. The likeness to Jaimie Alexander is exceptional, with those expressive eyes and even her beauty spot. The hair cascades down either side of her face in a softer black plastic. The armour is as seen in Dark World with a silver armoured bodice trimmed in crimson and with sculpted edge detail down each of the pieces. There is then a Roman style sectional skirt and knee high armoured black boots. The painting on the body is quite simple with silver, burgundy and black used and with no washing or added effects. The engraved look around the edges of the armour might have benefitted from a wash, but stands out enough without it in natural light. There are areas where the paint wanders, particularly round the triangular designs above the knee armour and on the arm bracers with silver creeping across the red striping. Hasbro has a tendency to sculpt Asgardians a lot taller than normal humans. Sif has a little of that, standing a half head taller than Black Widow. But a tad shorter than Valkyrie and a lot shorter than Hela. Articulation 3/5 Once again a female figure gets short changed a little with her articulation, 16 points in total  The key difference to her male counterparts comes in the arms with single jointed elbows that can only bend to 90 degrees and no further. The shoulders are ball jointed and there is a clever movement when these are raised as the shoulder panel moves with the arm up and over the shoulder. The arms end with pivot wrists. The head rotates on a pivot, and the hair is cast in a softer plastic so this can move with the head. A torso ball joint is included under the chest allowing both the upper body to rotate but to also lean in and out of poses. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and with a thigh split - both hidden under the skirt piece which like the hair is flexible enough to move with the legs. Knees are double jointed and we finish with ankle rockers. ​​ Accessories  3/5 Sif comes with what initially looks like three identical swords. The first of these is just that, a sword. It is cast in silver plastic with basic brown paint around the handle - this is applied quite sloppily too and doesn't fully cover the sculpting of the wrapped leather design. The other two swords actually connect together to make the double bladed staff/speak that Sif uses in The Dark World. Like the first sword, these two pieces are cast in a softer plastic. They connect reasonably well, but are not quite straight once locked together. All three swords can fit in either hand, although the lack of double jointed elbows does make two handed poses with the connected spear difficult. ​​ Sif comes with a fourth accessory, a small shield also seen in The Dark World. This is cast in silver plastic with some nice scroll work in the sculpt. There are no applied paint apps which might have helped the shield look less plastic and made the scrollwork pop. Round the back are two hoops designed to allow Sif to hold the shield. This doesn't quite work in plastic as the loops are too small to let Sif's hands slide through. The best you can do is pop off Sif's hand then try to attach the shield before popping the hand back in place - hardly ideal. While the sheet quantity of accessories for Sif is impressive, the quality on all of them is very low and maybe less is more in this case? Summary Sif is a wonderful looking figure with excellent likeness to the actor delivered by the face print technology. The armour and outfit is well executed also, but is lacking a touch of paint and where paint is applied there are some messy areas. Articulation suffers from the ongoing issue with not giving female figures a double jointed elbow and that has a knock on to the use of the larger weapon. Sif looks fantastic alongside Thor and it does make me hanker for more Thor movie figures like Malekith, Kurse and other Asgardians like Heimdall. I score Sif from Thor The Dark World a strong 4 out of 5 Read our associated Dark World Thor review here

Welcome to our review off the Imperial Patrol Trooper, as seen albeit briefly in Solo : A Star Wars Story The Imperial Patrol Trooper was part of the Star Wars Black Series Wave 19, released in the Autumn of 2018. It was joined in the wave by Val, L3-37 and Rio Durrant all also from Solo, as well as Lando in Skiff Guard, Leia from Hoth and Dengar. Packaging 4/5 The Patrol Trooper is packaged in the Phase 3 red packaging with black box and red side spine. It is number 72 in the 3rd phase of releases. As is common with the Star Wars Black Series, there is no specific reference on the box to the source movie (Solo) and the figure is titled Imperial Patrol Trooper. We get the usual illustration from Gregory Titus, drawn to show a side on view of the Patrol Trooper's helmet. Around the back the artwork is repeated over which is printed the simple bio. "As the Empire reinforces its hold on worlds across the galaxy, local defence forces are being supplemented - and eventually completely replaced - with Imperial Stormtroopers. To cover distances across sprawling settlements and cities, Patrol Stormtroopers police the streets and alleys aboard swift interceptor speeder bikes." Sculpt & Paint 4/5 Out of the box and it is clear that this is another wonderful armoured trooper sculpt from Hasbro. While the helmet shares similarities with the Mimban trooper, it is not the same cast and has a squarer finish and wider nose piece - but does have the larger "enhanced imaging electronics" dome section. The head is cast in gloss white, with black applied to the visor, breather masks and nose/cheek panels. There is more paint detail on top of this also with silver panels on either side of the head and across the nose. The body is similarly cast in white gloss plastic with black plastic sections and painted detail. While parts do look familiar here too - particularly the legs to the Scarif Trooper Body - I am fairly certain everything on this trooper is a brand new sculpted part. Hasbro have a great track record of armoured troopers, and the same execution is seen here with crisp panels overlaid with sculpted grills, panel lines and control elements. The only criticism I have of the body is that it might have benefited from a touch of weathering to line the panels and grime it up a little to represent its role on Corellia. Articulation 4/5 The Patrol Trooper weighs in with 16 points of articulation - standard for a Black Series figure. We start with the helmet which is ball jointed and has a full range of movement although the ability to look down is hindered once the chin of the helmet hits the chest armour. The chest itself is ball jointed under the midsection and this allows rotation of the upper torso as well as leaning movement and posing. The stomach armour is sculpted enough so that even when leaning all the way back the lines of the figure are not broken. The arms are ball jointed shoulders, and unlike other troopers there is no engineering to allow the shoulder armour to slide into the chest piece - that leaves the arms only having the ability to be raised by about 45 degrees. The elbows are also not great and both of mine were ceased and needed some work to open them up and get the joint moving - I suspect a few people may end up with a broken joint here. Once freed up they work well, but it is unusual to have such trouble on both joints out of the box. The elbows are single joint that rotate and bend to just past 90 degrees. The arms end with pivot wrists. The legs are less restricted by armoured panels and have a ball joint hip, thigh split, double jointed knees and an ankle rocker. I will say the hips feel a little loose on the side ways axis, and while there is no issues in standing the Patrol Trooper in various poses, he can start to slide into the splits. If you check out the bonus section to the review you will also see the articulation is enough should the Trooper want to "take a ride" at some point.... Accessories 4/5 I missed the first accessory upon opening the box as it is not presented in the packaging and comes ready fitted into the holster on the figure. This is simple baton and is cast in black plastic with a ridged section either side of a central smooth collar. It is basic, but matches what we see on the actual trooper (ref. Solo Visual Guide by Pablo Hidalgo). The baton fits into both hands and when not in use slots back into the two flexible loops on the left hand side of the Trooper's belt. The second accessory is packed independently of the figure and is the Troopers main weapon. This EC-17 "Hold Out" Blaster is the same one used by the Biker Scouts, but it is a new cast weapon and is larger and more robust than the one packed with the Biker Scouts in 2014. Considering its size, the sculpt on the EC-17 is impressive. It is cast in grey plastic with a bright silver paint app on the handle, and a gun metal detail on the barrel. It fits into the right hand of the trooper, with the hand sculpted so that the first two fingers slot into the handle to grip the blaster. This is a bit of a cop out as the blaster is not held like that on screen - and it does look a bit odd. If you aren't happy with the Trooper wielding the gun then like the baton it too can we stowed on the belt in a flexible plastic holster into which the blaster fits snugly. Summary The elephant in the room for this release is the lack of a ride. In the film he rides a Aratech C-PH Patrol Speeder, and it might have been nice to see another new Speeder added to the line and the figure released with that. That being said, the execution of the Trooper as a standalone figure is very good with just a few niggles around the shoulder articulation and the blaster and gun holding hand. I score the Imperial Patrol Trooper a very impressive 4 out of 5. Got a Ride? If you are itching to get your Imperial Patrol Trooper mounted on a bike of some description then we are happy to report that the figure can be used with the existing Speeder Bike mould (either standard or Shadow Squadron). There is enough articulation as to get the Trooper seated on the bike, and the only downside is that the holes on the Patrol Troopers feet don't like up with the pegs on the foot pedals.

Not sure this can go much lower.... the Star Wars Black Series Rey and Jakku Speeder 6 inch set is down to just $9.99 on Amazon US. The good news is this ships to UK, so with custom charges and delivery you will be paying circa £25. Delivery on the basic price is usually within 10-days (tracked), just don't expect mint packaging on arrival * Deal was correct at time of posting. This is an affiliate link