Kool Kollectibles content

27 Sept 2017

Upcoming preorders and reviews in Q4 2017

Here's a quick discussion on what I have coming up over the next 3 months leading to the end of 2017. It should be a great end to the year, and really looking forward to some of the things coming out in 2018 too!


Some of the things I have coming up include:
- Hot Toys Dr Strange, Ellen Ripley, Marty McFly, and Doc Brown
- Blitzway Ghostbusters
- Bandai Star Wars Movie Realization Darth Maul, Jango Fett, and Shadow Trooper
- Sideshow Zuckuss and Han in Carbonite
- Pop Culture Shock 1/3 scale Ryu
- TF Masterpiece MP-39 Sunstreaker, MP-12+ Sideswipe (Anime version), and MP-15/16E Cassettes

Hope you can all subscribe to the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel and stay tuned for all the upcoming reviews! :)

10 Sept 2017

Hot Toys MMS390 Luke Skywalker from The Force Awakens

It's taken seemingly forever for Hot Toys to finally release I think the last figure from their series of figures from The Force Awakens. Perhaps it was all down to some marketing strategy to release it closer to The Last Jedi hype train starting.

Either way, I think it's a pretty decent release if not something that is going to be overly memorable in the scheme of my collection. It's great to have good representations of old Han and old Luke to offset the other younger versions I have from the original trilogy.

Click through the link below to check out my full video review over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel! Scroll further down for more pics and thoughts.



The set doesn't really come with all that much to be honest. The bonus preorder stand is nicely sculpted and painted, but other than that all you really get are a few swap out hands. While we're on the hands, the relaxed hand, force gesture hand and its corresponding mechanical hand all seem slightly over sized. When the arms are at his side, the large hands really accentuate the gorilla look.

But swapping out to the more close fisted hands hides the size issue better, which is what I went with for my display pose. Those hands are more suited for posing him pulling back his hood, which is what many collectors will chose I think.



Aside from the hands, I think everything else on the figure is pretty great. There have been a few complaints about the head sculpt, but I think it matches the prototype photos well, and is a decent likeness from the movie scenes I've compared it against.

Similar to the old Han Solo sculpt though, Hot Toys went with a almost golden sheen look to the hair, whereas a much greyer colour would've matched not only te movie, but the colour of his painted beard too.

The outfit is very nicely tailored, with several layers and different materials. I like that they didn't use a wire for the hood, which makes curving it and using some water treatment a better way to pose it around the head. I still need a bit of work on mine, but you get the idea.

The magnets that hold the cloak to the shoulders could work a little better, and need decent futzing to get the material to lie realistically. I think in the last movie scene, the cloak can be seen to actually be sewn to his tunic that runs down the front of his body, which seems pretty silly. But I guess they need that to make sure it stayed on his shoulders! So Hot Toys' use of magnets is probably as best a compromise as any.



Articulation is decent, and getting the arms up for the pose was straight forward. The large and obvious wrist joint that becomes more visible is a bit of an eyesore, but not much can be done about that. Perhaps look for a smaller wrist joint from other figures that have a similar skin tone, which might work to hide it.

The torso area has some definite foam padding of some sort, that really seems to restrict the articulation in the torso area. But for most poses I was going for, it wasn't too big a deal. The material of the pants doesn't hinder the hips or upper legs, so you could go for wider action poses if you wanted.

There's not too much ankle movement though with the use of sculpted boots. The ankle is separate to the calf area, so you can can some rocking action there, but not too much on mine. It would've been nice if they went with material for the strapping and boots, similar to the previous DX07 Luke Skywalker, but it's not too big a deal.



Standing with the other heroes from The Force Awakens, I think Hot Toys has done a pretty great job with all of these figures. Each of them aren't perfect in their own right, with at least a few things to complain about with them all (eg. Chewie's snout, Finn's excessive height, Rey's lack of height).

But together I think they look pretty amazing. The only figures I really hope they make for The Last Jedi that they missed for the previous movie would be General Leia and Poe Dameron. If they make those two for the new movie, I think I'll be happy enough for the new trilogy.



Up on display with the bad guys I have from the movie, I like the overall aesthetic that they went with. Familiar of course, but at least different enough to be interesting. I'm not sure I'll be tempted to get any more trooper figures, but will be interesting to see how Captain Phasma and Snoke play out in the new movie.



So to summarise, if you were a fan of The Force Awakens and started collecting these Hot Toys figures, I think you'll be pretty pleased with this new old Luke Skywalker. I'm sure there'll be a new Luke released for The Last Jedi, but this one will do for me.