The Series 2 Super Powers figures from McFarlane (Green Lantern John Stewart, the Batman Who Laughs, and the Flash) were a big improvement over the series one releases (Batman, Superman, and Darkseid) and, so far, Series 3 looks to have improved even more. I reviewed Deathstroke last month and now I'm checking out Nightwing. While Dick Grayson did appear in the vintage Super Powers line as Robin, in the comics at the time Jason Todd was Robin and Dick was Nightwing. This isn't the Nightwing costume of that era, however, but the Nightwing of the late 90s to early 2000s. I ..read more

     McFarlane Toys' DC Multiverseline made my Top Ten Toylines of 2022 list that I published yesterday, so I wanted to show off another figure from the line since I didn't review many of them last year. Well, a figure from a companion line, I guess. This figure of John Constantine is from DC Page Punchers and it's released by McFarlane Toys and DC Direct. McFarlane has been releasing and managing DC Direct product over the past year or two and while these 7 inch Page Punchers are built and feel just like DC Multiverse figures, they have different branding. It's been a long t ..read more

     It's February and that means it's time for my annual awards lists here at Action Figure Barbecue!     I feel like I say that every year is an interesting one for action figures, but it kind of feels like the truth. There's always some fascinating, unusual stuff that happens. So, what happened in 2022? As the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions largely waned, at least here in the United States, product releases seem to have returned more to normal. The toy product on shelves largely matched up with media releases, many conventions were back to being in-per ..read more

     The New Eternia releases in the 2022 Masterverse line seem to have been very well received. While I love the character selection and variety of the Masters of the Universe: Revelation and Princess of Power subsets, the New Eternia designs made for some of the coolest figures of last year. I mean, they've even made Stratos really interesting. I've talked before about how I've never been a big Stratos fan; I didn't have him as a kid, he doesn't usually have any weaponry, and he's usually a bit dull to me. This one's a real winner, though. Ready for a look at a Stratos figur ..read more

     Once February hits I'll definitely be reviewing far fewer figures from 2022 unless things get slow, but I've still got a few I want to show off before I get around to doing my best of the year lists and today I'm checking out the Clone Wars version of Mace Windu from Star Wars: The Black Series. Mace Windu, along with a few other figures, are part of a special subset exclusive to Walmart based on the 2003 Clone Wars animated series that aired between the releases of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. While they supposedly were released earlier in 2022, I didn't ..read more

         There aren't many collectibles of She-Ra herself that I don't have in my Masters of the Universe Museum and if you had asked my prior to December which one was my favorite piece, I would have quickly responded the Sideshow 1/5th scale She-Ra statue. Mondo's 1/6th scale She-Ra shipped in December of 2022, however, and I have to say that it's probably my new favorite She-Ra collectible. She might not be as dramatic as the 1/5th scale maquette, but this is without a doubt the coolest She-Ra collectible ever made. She-Ra was a Mondo timed exclusive who went on sa ..read more

     Last year I started getting into McFarlane's DC Multiverse line a bit more, particularly because of the release of more characters who look like standard comic depictions of the characters rather than really story specific variants (think Metal, Last Night on Earth, Dark Knight Returns). It looks like we're in for more great releases in the months to come and I've went back and picked up some of the figures I want, mostly Batman centric heroes and villains and characters associated with Justice League Dark. Hey, Man-Bat fills both of those criteria! This version of Man-Ba ..read more

     Masters of the Universe Origins was on a roll in 2022 and today I'm checking out the last release from last year that I'm looking at for the moment: The deluxe King Hiss. I love King Hiss and the Snake Men and I'm thrilled that we're finally getting them in Origins. I was curious as to how Mattel was going to handle King Hiss in Origins; I assumed he would be handled like the Masters of the Universe Classics figure with a separate upper torso you could swap out. Instead, Mattel went with kind of a blend of the vintage toy and Classics as he does wear armor covering his t ..read more

     I've only got a few 2022 reviews left to finish up before the end of January but I'm anxious to jump into the 2023 G.I. Joe: Classified Series figures since it's pretty much my favorite line currently on the market. Target's current theme for their exclusives is Tiger Force versus Python Patrol and I've got a load of new troops from both subsets to check out. Let's start by taking a look at Bazooka, or David L. "Bazooka" Katzenbogen, as the packaging calls him. That is his file name, after all, so it's not something Hasbro just went and made up new. They've clearly lost ..read more

   Near the end of last year I received the newest series of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe figures from Mattel's toyline based on the CG animated Netflix cartoon. While the toyline has been hit or miss, the show itself has been quite fun if you're up for a very different take on the Masters of the Universe mythos. The newest series of figures are labeled as "Savage Eternia" and, rather than the Power Attack feature that the earlier figures had, these figures now have slightly better articulation, most notably balljointed shoulders. Since I'm trying to wrap up my reviews of ..read more