Marvel Universe

[JediJman]

I think the Astral Plane Strange shipped first.  He was all I saw initially at three different places.  Now those are gone and the regular has taken his place.  I was on the fence about getting even the normal version, but had to pull the trigger with him being in the Avengers for so long now.

I got around to opening a bunch of MU figures today.  I started with the earlier figures and have been really impressed with the detail and articulation.  The sheild gmick they're using (hook to place on wrist or pegs/strap to carry elsewhere is pretty cool.  I noticed after a few figures that they stopped including the "secret files" packet, which is fine as these were often out of date anyway.  I do really like the cool black stands each figure comes with.  Then I got to a few of the last waves to discover the stands are gone now too.     I get raising the price OR offering less, but its a buzzkill when companies start doing both.  How much cost does the stand add to the figure anyway?  4 cents?  Lame.  The new figs like Psylocke, Storm, Steve Rogers, Iron Fist are really fantastic, but not having the stands leaves a black stain on the experience for me.  The comic packs don't come with them either I suppose. 

If anyone has extra stands they don't want, I'm in the market for some.

I also opened up a few Captain America and Iron Man figures.  The USA Agent and Bucky-Cap are pretty solid figures, but the Iron Man 2 line takes the cake.  I ripped into classic horned faceplate IM, the Stark Armor Iron Man, Titanium Man, Stealth IM, and my absolute favorite, the blue comic series Iron Monger.  I don't know how they got away with selling that figure at regular retail - its like a Darktrooper on steroids with added detail and articulation.  I just cherry picked figures from these lines, but am really loving the ones I got. 

[shmashwitdaclub]

I agree, that comic Iron Monger is a beast over a figure - but from that line I think I have another figure that is my favorite - Ultimate Iron Man.  I am not a hardcore fan or anything so I don't know if there are any details to scrutinize him over - but man his action figure rocks ultra articulation that works extremely well.

[JediJman]

I have been seeing Black Widow, Storm, and Psylocke all over Target lately if anyone needs them.  did they ever come out with an actual Blonde Black Widow or was that just a rumor?

[shmashwitdaclub]

she still has never been released

[Dressel Rebel]

I agree, that comic Iron Monger is a beast over a figure - but from that line I think I have another figure that is my favorite - Ultimate Iron Man.  I am not a hardcore fan or anything so I don't know if there are any details to scrutinize him over - but man his action figure rocks ultra articulation that works extremely well.

That is funny you posted this today, I just opened this figure an hour ago.  Had him sitting in a TRU bag with some other figures I picked up from that wave.

I currently read 15-20 Marvel titles per month, none of them are Ultimate Universe.  But this figure looks great displayed with Ultimate Thor, Hawkeye and Cap.

[Dressel Rebel]

Here are some of my latest Marvel Universe creations.  I know this thread isn't real busy and I post these a few times a month at Marvelousnews and OPP, but maybe a few of you will like them:

Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler X-Force:



Songbird:



Secret Invasion Venom Skrull:




Jack Flag:



Radiation Man:

[JediJman]

Awesome customs as usual DR.  That Nightcrawler looks amazing.  Didn't realize he was part of X-Force though...didn't they kill him off a while back?

I was browsing through the "local" Wal-Mart last night and found the MArvel 3-pack box sets were marked down to $9 for some reason.  They only one White FF set and the Space guys, but I bought up both at that price.  Might be worth checking out your local WM if anyone's still looking for these.  I was just looking at them at Target a few minutes prior, where they are still $22. 

[McMetal]

I was browsing through the "local" Wal-Mart last night and found the MArvel 3-pack box sets were marked down to $9 for some reason.  They only one White FF set and the Space guys, but I bought up both at that price.  Might be worth checking out your local WM if anyone's still looking for these.  I was just looking at them at Target a few minutes prior, where they are still $22.

My local Walmart has had both those packs on clearance for weeks now, definitely a good deal. They still have a stack of Sentinels for $20 too.

[Dressel Rebel]

Awesome customs as usual DR.  That Nightcrawler looks amazing.  Didn't realize he was part of X-Force though...didn't they kill him off a while back?

Thanks!  The Nightcrawler who is part of X-Force right now is Age of Apocalypse Kurt.  The Earth-616 Nightcrawler is in fact still dead like you said, taken out by a Sentinel protecting Hope during the Second Coming storyline.

AoA Nightcrawler came through a portal created by Dark Beast along with Sunfire, Sabretooth, Wild Child, AoA Jean Grey and a few others.  The portal had been opened to get to the AoA to get a life seed to plug into Archangel freeing him of Apocalypse's influence.  So basically Warren is out of X-Force and AoA Kurt is in.  Uncanny X-Force has been really good for the past 2 years.

[Morgbug]

Psylocke/Storm wave finally showed up, along with a price increase.     $1.00 more now and up to 10.77 plus the 12% tax.  Yuck.  Pretty much deterred me from buying the Storm and black suited Daredevil figures I might otherwise have bought.  I'll look through my stuff and see if I want that Storm.  Think I have two versions of DD so really not needing a third. 

[Dressel Rebel]

So, I took matters into my own hands here and made an Invisible Woman phasing into invisibility.  It's the same legs as the regular Sue Storm, molded and casted with clear acrylic resin:



And here she is with the rest of the Fantastic Four!

[Sprry75]

I am so jealous. She looks fantastic.  Awesome job. And where did that Johnny Storm come from? Is he a custom, too? I don't think I've ever seen that version that matches.

That phasing Sue is amazing dude.

[JediJman]

******* awesome Dressel.  Nicely done.  Any chance of you casting more legs like this for the rest of us chumps?  Would be cool to do this for the white outfit version as well.

[Dressel Rebel]

Thanks guys I appreciate it.

Sure I can pump out some copies I guess.  I need to do that for the stormie helmet and these legs and a couple other things.

The Johnny Storm is just a head swap custom.  I think the head came from the generic JOE trooper with all the weapons from ROC.  I saw it in the store and I was like, "sweet, a Torch head."  The body is from Reed Richards from the 3 pack.

Oh p.s. as I sit here I am working on a long stretchy twisted neck for the Reed 3 3/4" figures.  You guys might want that too if you're gonna buy some translucent legs for Sue.  I might be able to paint them for you too for the phasing effect.  I posted over in OPP forums though (where I am an exalted moderator haha) that I didn't articulate anything but the hip.  The pegs in the ankles and pins in the knees would completely mess up the translucent effect in the legs.  See the marvel legends showdown Sue for what I mean on this.  All of the joints showing inside the legs ruins the phasing effect in my artistic opinion:

[Dressel Rebel]

Been workin' on a little stretchy-twisty-headed Reed Richards action.




Also Simon Williams with activated ionic energies: