I have found it difficult to get excited about the Black Series 6" Clone Trooper. I am not sure why. Maybe it is because I prefer the mk2 helmet or perhaps I was expecting him to be a bit "cartoony" like some of his 3.75" brothers. I finally picked him up a couple of weeks back from Film n Figures in Chorley, but had him whipped away and "put away" for my Birthday. Now I finally have my hands on him I am still not overly excited with him as a figure, but he is much better than I was perhaps expecting. The Trooper arrives in the now defunct black with orange trim box, and is packed with a rifle and a hand blaster. Paint is good, but like the Stormtrooper there are small areas that just arent quite perfect - although these dont detract massively from the figure. Posibility is good and on par with the Storm Trooper, and despite the armour he can achieve a number of good poses and hold his rifle in one or two handed poses. Negatives are the plastic used for the knees which are obviously black and then painted white - unlike the rest of the armour which has been cast in pure white. Like the ST this guy is going to come into his own displayed in squads or even larger armies. As a luke warm fan of the PT I will probably add one more and then the upcoming sergeant to make a nice trio for the PT display. Going forward I then expect Hasbro will give us plenty of different clone flavours and colours, with Commander Cody already on the cards. Solid enough figure, but not exciting enough for me. PT and CW fans should love him.

I think, although it is getting confusing, Anakin Skywalker is part of wave 4 of the Black Series, and is number #12 and is also the one of the last figures to come in the red trimmed box. Wave 4 also includes the Clone Trooper as well as repacks of Boba Fett and the Storm Trooper. UK distribution is still sketchy on these with specialists seeming to be the only avenue, although I have seen one story of them being located at Toys R Us in the UK and now a confirmed sighting in Smyths. Not much to talk about packaging wise, its the usual sleek black box that the BS6 is known for. My first concern on receiving my Anakin, who was ordered rather than chosen in store, was what appeared to be some pretty bad black marks on the alternative head. However, once out of the box these wiped away easily - phew. Anakin comes fitted with his "standard" head and the paint and sculpt on mine is spot on. The outfit is also very well done and quite intricate when you compare it to say Obi Wan's. The skirt is a very nice mix of soft goods - both cloth and some leather type material. Anakin comes with his lightsabre, which can be hung as just the hilt on his belt, or posed in either hand. Unfortunately as yet I haven't managed to get Anakin in a decent "action" pose with his light sabre, nor does it seem he can hold it in both hands without looking very odd. The negative on this figure is the second head, the Darth Vader head which illustrates him turning to the Dark side. Paint aps on this are poor on the hair, with the flesh colour bleeding into the hair, the head also sits slightly too high on the next piece - although I have a feeling the head was designed to be looking down slightly which improves the look. With this head I wanted to replicate the look of Anakin on the steps of the Jedi Temple as he leads his clones to massacre the Jedi, so add a custom cloak and Anakin looks just the part.

Wave 3 almost carried on where Wave 2 left off, but thank fully the Black Series immediate future was secured in Wave 3 by the absolute superb job Hasbro did with their 6" StormTrooper. Thank fully the decision was made to provide the Stormtrooper as a carry forward into wave 4 and to be ordered as solid cases . This meant that retailers were given some alternative options to meeting the Stormtrooper demand and the potential for the other 3 wave 3 figures peg warming was reduced. Han Solo, #08, was carried forward in this wave - so the case include 3 new figures. #09 was the first of these, and the one that potentially saved the line. The Stormtrooper, like Vader, is one of the figures you have to get right in any Star Wars range and Hasbro pulled it out of the bag with this one. The Stormtrooper is perfectly articulated and comes with 2 different weapons and a working holster. The armour is moulded in white plastic so is crisp and shiny and the only downsides of the figure were painted joints at the elbow and knee's which could be sloppy but also, by the nature of this being white paint on black plastic, doesn't match the rest of the armour. The Stormtrooper was a hit, being in significantly short supply for a number of weeks while the collectors and Army Builders went to work. #10 saw a return to the prequals, Obi Wan Kenobi from Revenge of the Sith. This could have been en epic figure but turned into arguably one of the worst of the range so far. Issues are aplenty with Obi Wan. Firstly his articulation isnt great, so he cant really achieve a natural 2-handed light saber pose. His head is undersized, so much that you cannot display him with the Anakin counterpart (see wave 4) as they look ridiculous. The head also suffered from bad paint apps. The lightsaber was the only accessory included and the blade too light and looked almost clear. Finally Obi was not supplied with a Jedi cloak which does go some way to rescuing the figure - as can be seen by those who have bought custom cloaks online. #11 was the 2nd Luke of the range so far, Bespin Luke as seen in Empire Strikes Back. Luke is actually a pretty solid release. He didn't appear to suffer from poor paint applications and his articulation was fairly good. Luke however lacked accessories, particularly when you compare him to X-Wing Luke from wave 1. Fans screamed for alternative hands, or a battle damaged head.

Wave 2 of the Black Series both lit the touchpaper of the Black Series, but also came close to killing it completely. Wave 2 was always going to be massive due to the inclusion of Boba Fett, but putting him in a case with Slave Leia, Greedo and Han was always a disaster on paper. Retailers had to order heavy to get in enough Boba's to satisfy demand but were then left, for anything up to a year, with peg warmers of Leia and Greedo in particular. Add to this some poor paint apps in Wave 2 and Box Set re-releases and carry forwards the damage Wave 2 caused is still being felt today. #05 was Slave Leia, as seen in Jabba's palace. Although this is an iconic outfit for Leia, it does fall down as an Action Figure as the joints on Leia's arms and legs are a little bit too visible. Leia also looks a bit under sized vs the male characters - although the scale has been proved correct against the character bio's. Leia came with two weapons, and a neck chain which could be clipped off. Her skirt is soft goods but is prone to fraying. Leia is pretty well articulated thanks to those ugly joints, but cant really achieve the sitting pose for putting her on the end of Jabba's throne, she was also prone to pretty sloppy paint applications. Leia was always destined to keep pegs warm and should have really been a pack in for a box set or with Jabba himself. #06 was the one everyone wanted, Boba Fett. Boba first turned up as a 2013 SDCC exclusive, boxed up with Han in Carbonite. Soon after he arrived as a single release and old sold all the other figures in the case. Boba comes with his rifle, blaster and backpack and has soft good cloak slung over his shoulder. His articulation is great, if not a little wide legged in his stance and a couple of decent poses that cant quite be realised due to the leg pouches. Boba would go on to be re-released in wave 04 to meet demand and get a repaint for a Wallgreens US exclusive in 2014. #07 was Greedo, a nice background character and an obvious partner piece of the Han (read on). Greedo got the award for least accessories so far, coming with his blaster only. As with Leia, Greedo was tagged as a peg warmer and this was made worse by the release of a 2-pack exclusive to Toys R Us that contained both Han and Greedo in the Cantina scene. This 2-pack should have been Greedo's route to Market, and the single slot in Wave 2 set aside for a figure big enough to sell as much as Boba would. #08 and the final piece of Wave 2 was Han Solo, as seen in A New Hope. Han was a big enough character to go against Boba, but still suffered due to the bizarre decision to carry him through into wave 3 as well as release him in the cantina box with Greedo. Han comes with blaster, Stormtrooper rifle, alternative hands (flight gloves) and an alternative storm trooper belt. Han, like Leia, suffered with sloppy paint applications and was often found cross-eyed on the shelf.

Star Wars Black Series : Wave 1 It was a bold move to move the well established Star Wars characters from 3.75" to a new 6" scale, but in 2013 that is exactly what Hasbro did as they launched The Black Series, highly articulated and detailed collectors figures. The Black Series included the traditional 3.75" figures, but a brand new 6" scale which brought Star Wars in line with Hasbro's Marvel output. Wave 1 was released in 2013. The interesting element of wave 1 was a choice of characters that didn't include Darth Vader or a traditional Storm Trooper. Instead Hasbro went a little left field and delivered what, even today, are some of the jewels of the line. The honor of #01 went to Luke Skywalker, which is predictable, however they released him in his X-Wing outfit from a New Hope. An odd choice you may think, but unlike a lot of Luke's costumer this figure allowed Hasbro to show what they could do with the Black Series. Luke comes with a removable X-Wing helmet, blaster and lightsaber. With a wealth or articulation you can pose him to your hears content and represent a number of looks - my favorite of which at present is the "Top Gun" pose holding his helmet under his arm. #02 is a Darth, but was Maul rather than Vader. Maul comes packed so he can represent both his cloaked Tatooine gear and uncloaked Naboo Duel. The cloak effect is sculpted which to me works for this figure as opposed to the soft good route. His head is sculpted into the cloak and to un-robe him you swap the head with the alternative version provided. Maul comes with his dual lightsaber, which comes apart into two separate sabers and can also be used without blades (unlit). His final accessory is a pair of binoculars. Maul does suffer a little with articulation compared to Luke, particularly when in his cloak. #03 is a Sandtrooper, Orange Pauldron. It really showed us early on what a Stormtrooper sculpt could look like in the Black Series, but by making this the Sandtrooper they got to include more accessories - which included the back pack (which does sit a little high vs what we saw on the film) and 3 separate guns/rifles. Sandie also includes some specific "sandtrooper" elements in the sculpt vs a standard Stormtrooper including a knee pad, and paint variants on his helmet. #04 is a companion piece to Luke, and is everyone's favourite droid R2-D2. R2 obviously lacks a lot of the articulation due to the nature of his design. But this is overcome with a box full of accessories and arms that allow you to have an Artoo for any situation including the leg boosters from Revenge of the Sith to the Lightsaber launcher from Jabba's sail barge. Artoo also comes with the 3rd leg which can we wound up or down by turning the head. He is a little small scale wise if you look at him on-screen, and whether this becomes a bigger problem will depend on when C3P0 is released and how the two look together. Wave 1 set the benchmark for Black Series. It contained 4 interesting figures with great articulation and each with a real good depth of accessories. Although it would be Wave 2 and the arrival of Boba that lit the match for Black Series, Hasbro would not match what they did in wave 1 in any future waves with accessories and options being significantly scaled back. Wave 1 remain, at the time of writing, the rarest figures of the range to date. None of them have had a re-release, and with many collectors jumping on board at later waves, making these four launch figures highly sought after.

This massive vehicle is an homage to a classic Kenner vehicle from the 1993 Predator toy line. When fully assembled, the Blade Fighter is over 2 feet in length and accommodates most 6″- 8″ tall action figures! (Figures sold separately.) This is a must-have for Predator fans and will come in gorgeous closed box packaging featuring original art and illustrations like the classic toy lines of yesteryear. Features: –hinged cockpit –ball-jointed cannons –spring-loaded projectile –spring-loaded detachable 19″ long blades –removable wing guns (can be hand held by your Predator action figures) –areas for extra weapon storage –clips for holding an extra Predator mask

The 12th series in our most successful and longest running figure collection introduces our first ever Predator from Dark Horse’s Predator: Bad Blood comic book series, along with a new and improved Elder Predator from Predator 2 and an all-original NECA creation: Viper Predator! Enforcer Predator makes his action figure debut and is based on the series by Evan Dorkin and Derek Thompson. First seen way back in Series 3, Elder V2 features additional articulation, a shoulder cannon, new straps and belts, and new feet, all upgraded and improved from the original version. Viper Predator, pilot of the Blade Fighter vehicle, is an original design featuring deadly wrist blade gauntlets on both forearms, a removable mask, and 2 pairs of hands. Figures stand approximately 8″ tall, feature over 25 points of articulation and come with character-specific accessories.

Chewie is a big hitter that many have been waiting for and he is one of the reasons that Hasbro turned to the new box. Originally Chewie should have been the elusive #13 from wave 4, but was pulled due to the ridiculous pose he had to pull to get in the old style box. Chewie is a big lump of plastic and towers over other figures as he should. I agree with others that he perhaps looks a tad too tall but I can get over that. Paint apps were good and I actually quite like the sculpt of the face with the open mouth. Chewie has nowhere near the pose-ability of Luke. In face after some playing I can only really get him into a neutral stance, everything else looks a bit odd. Chewie comes with his bandoleer and man-bag, which are very well done and can be removed if you wish. He also comes with his bowcaster, which comes in two pieces in the box and actually breaks down to 3 as the sites can be popped off. For me the bowcaster is terrible as not only is it really difficult to get into Chewie's paws, but more frustratingly the bow part will not stay on the gun. I spent a good 10 minutes trying various options before packing the gun back in the box for now and posing Chewie unarmed. Granted you could glue the bowcaster, but I shouldn't have to and this accessory is a big fail I am afraid. For shelf presence, sculpt and paint job I would give Chewie an 4, but he drops 1 point due to the bowcaster so he comes out at 3/5 for me.

Liz Sherman appeared in both Hellboy movies, but it was Hellboy 2 in 2008 that saw her Action Figure added to Mezco's 7" releases. Liz comes packed in a standard clam-shell packaging. The front panel is decorated in a bronze/gold colour with the HB2 logo and the cog's that symbolise the Golden Army. The backing card includes a blown up view of Hellboy himself, and the reverse includes a plot outline for the movie as opposed to a bio of Liz's character. The rest of the back is dedicated to images of the other figures from the range. Out of the packaging and Liz comes packed with a two alternative hands. The alternative right hand is sculpted holding her BPRD revolver, whilst the alternative left hand is sculpted with a blue flame effect. Considering this figure is now 7 years old, the sculpt holds up really well. The head is a close likeness to Selma Blair and the hair is style is sculpted and layered nicely around the head. The leather jacket contains a tonne of detail, from the "Cantona" collars to the pockets and buttons, which are all sculpted into the design. Beneath the jacket, and Liz has her crucifix on a choker around her neck. The arms follow a similar sculpt of folds and ruffles and stop just after the elbow joint. It is a this point that the lower arm and hands pop off to be replaced with whatever combination you wish to use on display. Liz has a belt that is a separate piece to the figure, although not removable. The belt contains a selection of pouches and a larger over-sized belt buckle which is emblazoned with the BPRD fist holding a sword hilt symbol. If there is any criticism of the top half of Liz it is that she is a little comic in proportions with a ridiculously tiny waist which then isn't helped by the oversize belt. The lower half suffers a little with the hips where looks have been sacrificed for articulation, it gives Liz a little bit of an odd look where her thighs seem to be much wider and away from her waist. Like the top the textile of the cloth for the trousers is well executed and the legs finish in some suitably Gothic looking biker boots with three fastening buckles and a chunky sole. Paint is pretty well executed throughout. The head is neatly done with eyes and lips picked out really well. There is a tad too much "blusher" on her cheeks which do look like Liz has just come in from the cold. The crucifix is picked out in a plain black, and this is a tad messy as the skin tone has bled into the necklace in places. All the clothing is well detailed with bronze and silver used to pick out the buttons and buckles. There is some subtle dry brushing on the black outfit as well that brings out the folds of the cloth. The only downside is that the whole outfit looks like one jumpsuit rather than the leather jacket and black jeans as used in the movie. The paint effect used is great for the jacket and works really well but I would have liked them to do a darker flatter black for the trousers to break up the figure and match the movie costume a little better. Articulation is pretty decent, but no where near as good as what we would expect nowadays. The head is on a ball joint and rotates fully round as well as looking up and down. Liz can also cock her head to the side. The shoulders are on ball joints so can straight out to the side or above her head, this allows you to pose Liz in a firing pose with her gun or a charging pose with her flame effect. Elbows are a basic bend and there is no swivel at the elbow or upper arm. By the nature of the swap-able element for the fore arms these rotate in their peg socket and are easy enough to swap over. By being designed to slot in at the sleeve of the jacket the joint is also well hidden. The swap-able parts work, and you must assume this was a cost saving decision considering other figures of the era come with separate weapons that can be slotted into the molded hands. Zero movement at the waist and there is no torso joint either so Liz is pretty fixed in her upper body position. The hips, as discussed, have a good range of movement with articulation chosen here over looks. Sadly the hips are quite loose, even on a new figure directly out of the packaging and I would guess Liz will eventually become difficult to stand in time. There is a well hidden knee joint to allow Liz to kneel if needed or assume a seated position. There is then an ankle rocker, which works really well to ensure Liz is stood flat to the floor when posed. It is always hard scoring a figure of this age as you just can't judge it against the standards of say NECA's new releases. For a 7 year old figure, Liz stands up really well in terms of sculpt and her articulation is still reasonably comparable to say what we are getting from Diamond. My gripes are around the over-sized belt which looks ridiculous, the lack of paint variation between jacket and trousers, and those horrible hips and thighs which just look plain odd. Put on the positives, the swap-able arms do work and Liz looks awesome posed up with Hellboy and other figures from the range - and in fact doesn't look overly out of place with other 7" figures in my collection (she has aged well). I am going to give Liz a 3 out of 5, a solid result just not as good as other figures from the same movie.

My movie collection is pretty eclectic at the moment and ranges and I try to stick to main characters for the films I really like from both my youth in the 70's and 80's to more recent releases like the Avengers figures from Diamond Select. All my Grail items are currently from this 7" Movie side of figures, and one of the big ones I had always yearned after was the Mezco 7" scale Hellboy from 2004-2007. Until recently I wasn't really aware of Mezco, and was also unaware they, or anyone, did figures from the Hellboy movies. These figures got limited UK exposure and now, some 10 years later, come up very rarely for sale and command a reasonably high premium on the secondary market. I attended my first large scale collectors Toy Fair recently at Bolton's Macro Stadium and amongst the usual model train and model car stalls were a good smattering of stalls doing action figures. I had to take a second look as I was passing one as at the back of the stall was what looked like a Hellboy figure. Upon closer inspection it was the 2004 Hellboy in trench coat with Ivan the corpse, and was what I believe is the harder to find closed mouth version. He was pretty clean aside from a bit of dust and his gun was still in its holster. I was expecting the worst on price, but when I found out it was £20 I was sold and Red came home with me. Hellboy stands just a bit over 7" a perfect size match for both Neca and Diamond Select. This figure is based on the first movie and depicts Hellboy in his black trousers and vest with trench-coat. For a 10 year old figure the sculpt is amazing, as is the painting and detail - with some lovely intricate painting on his coat and belt. The eyes are also something special as they almost seem to be glass as they reflect the light. Red is fully articulated, including 3 points of articulation on his tail. He comes with a gun, which can be held in a holster under his coat, or placed in his normal left hand. In keeping with the film, Red comes with a corpse accessory which is basically another half a figure - comprising of a head, torso and arms all of which have basic articulation. The Corpse can be slung over Hellboy's back via its own rope & noose to represent scenes from the film. I may be over invested in this figure, but I cannot find any major downsides to this release. Even at 10 years old it stands up to anything Neca or Diamond are doing at the moment and for any comic/superhero/movie fans I would highly recommend this for the collection. I give Red 5/5 and I am even keeping an eye out now for maybe a couple of companion figures. I really like the look of Wink but price on this is even more than Hellboy. Perhaps I will get lucky at the next fair.

As seen in the Dark Horse Comics series Fire and Stone, beginning October 2014! In his prime, Ahab took deadly trophies from countless worlds, his scars a proud record of glorious battle. Now an elder of his tribe, he leaves small game to the next generation as he looks to his final hunt. Following a lifelong obsession, Ahab searches for a creature more formidable than any Predator has ever faced before. The 7″ scale figure features over 25 points of articulation and comes with removable backpack, removable mask, and spear staff accessory.

When I was planning my Avengers setup I chose to go down the Dark World Thor route for my collection. Having now been dragged into filling in all the gaps on the Movie Select figures I found myself with a difficult job tracking down the original Thor figure, but finally here he is. Thor was released in 2011 along with the much sought after Loki, with the two of them being released with a connecting Bifrost base to bring them together in a display. Thor arrives in the standard Select packaging, with a nice panel on the side of Thor "The Mighty Avenger". On the rear is a stock image of the figure, along with a paragraph about the character and an image of Loki. Once out of the box Thor stands a touch over 7 1/4" high and comes with Mjolnir and the gold circular bifrost base. I think Thor suffers from being difficult to photograph and he is one of those figures that is actually a lot better in hand than any image. The face is a very good likeness of Chris Hemsworth and their are plenty of detail in the armour, the chest being particularly impressive. The arms are done in chain mail and this is a little soft in terms of sculpt but is passable. The legs, like Loki, are a bit plain but there are some sculped knee armour and decent boots. Thor's cloak is done in soft plastic, and hangs pretty well off the shoulders. Mjolnir itself is a bit of a let down as its also done in some soft plastic and the handle is bent on mine, and the strap is then not soft enough, or moveable like it is in on the DW Thor, so hangs at an odd angle in a lot of poses. Paint is crisp and with no obvious paint bleeding. The face is nicely painted with Thor's piercing blue eyes. The hair is a little basic but is shaded and with highlights - although this is a bit amateur and could be done much better. The armour is nicely done in silver, but not too bright to detract from the detail and there is evidence of some darker wash on the chain mail. The red is bright on the cloak and on the trim on the arms and legs. All good so far. But then we talk about articulation, and it is here that Thor loses points in a big way. Starting with the head, it is clearly on a ball joint and can rotate a full 360 degrees. The hair however stops any movement forward or backward to allow Thor to look up or down. The arms are terrible, with a ball jointed shoulder that doesn't allow the arms to go anywhere close to being flat at Thor's side. Nor do they go up very far so you can either get a wierd "chicken impression" pose or the arm being 90 degrees from the side of the body. The elbow is then jointed and can swivel, as can the wrist - but without a full range of movement in the shoulder you absolutely can't get Thor into the lightening summoning pose many collectors would love. Like most early Select figures there is no torso joint, but there is an articulated waist. The waist however cannot move more than a few mm due to the armour. Hips are ball jointed but barely move, even with a significant amount of force - the joint is just too small to move the legs any distance. The knees are meant to bend, but don't, and the best movement is on the ankles which pivot and swivel. So without any movement in arms or legs, you aren't going to be able to do much with Thor other than a neutral pose. And that is where the biggest design flaw comes in as the cloak hangs down longer than Thor's feet. This means the cloak pushes him forward and stops him standing. You could trim the cloak, or drag the cloak back a few cm away from the body - which looks a tad odd but allows him to stand. Onto the base which is pretty plain. It is simply a 7 1/2" gold disk, with a smaller 5" disk on top. The dais is in what looks to be 4 pieces, but as far as I am aware it comes assembled in the packaging (mine was bought loose). Without the Loki piece (and you try finding that) the base is irrelevant and doesn't add much to the figure - I would have preferred Select to do something like a stand-alone Asgard base for the figure - but I do appreciate that as a business DST are using the interconnectable bases as a selling tool for collectors to get all the figures, a business model that continues today with the 2015 releases. So let's not beat about the bush. Thor is a nicely sculpted piece, but is more statue than figure with almost zero practical articulation. The cloak is an oversight which is a shame and the base is a bit boring until you can get Loki's piece to go with it. DST certainly massively improved Thor with the Dark World version, which is bigger and bulkier but perhaps not as good a likeness for Hemsworth, I am going to risk the wrath of Asgard and award Thor a 2 out of 5.