Toy Review - Transformers: Titans Return Highbrow (Wei Jiang version)

If you've tried to buy Transformers in the past few years you'll have heard of third party figures, which is when a company designs their own version of a character (usually Devastator), puts it into a small production run through some Chinese sweatshop and charges the customer the fucking Earth for it even if it doesn't really work. It's a decent way of making coin out of so many Transformers fans' legendary impatience and poor judgement of value for money. 3P manufacturers aren't seen as bootleggers as while they entirely steal the designs and trademarks of others to cash in they do at least use their own engineering. Amusingly and predictably a certain tribalism has grown around the thing and many fans ardently follow certain 3P companies. If you want to know which one just go on the internet, it seems part of any transaction is a contractual obligation to be a dull 3P evangelist.

Toy Review - ACE Tumbler (3P Masterpiece Transformers Cliffjumper)

I have a mixed relationship with third party toys; my collecting is very much on a budget so I've largely cut my cloth to match with the (recent, decent) Masterpiece line as a collection hub, with the line's staggered release schedule and popularity with Chinese bootleggers keep a steady drip of affordable largely good (only serious miss to date is Tracks) figures coming my way that display well together and have the same ethos. I'd love a Masterpiece Skids and Hound and Trailbreaker and Jazz but I'm in no race, and beyond the 1984-1985 originals there are few who pique my interest that aren't Throttlebots. Don't get me wrong, most of the best Transformers fiction comes post-1985 but the majority of the non-Throttlebot designs are repulsive; Scorponok was a great character but he was a green and purple monstrosity with claws for hands who transformed by lying on his back and flailing his limbs around. No thanks. So I largely stick to the official releases (or versions thereof) and have no interest in either racing through to complete the set or in pushing on to many later characters; if/when Takara-Tomy complete the line-up of cars from the first two years, garnish with Throttlebots some of the less lurid Decepticons and hopefully a squad of Dinobots I'll probably have filled the space I have and it will naturally all tail off. However, there are - to date - four non-Throttlebot exceptions I've made to this policy and Cliffjumper is one of them.

Toy Review: Grind Rod / Masterpiece Rollbar (KO version)

I've long had a genuine unironic love of the Throttlebots; they were the only team I was able to complete as a child, the toys were good simple fun (and could zip for miles when new) and their profiles had great potential even if they tended to be "Goldbug's mates" in the various media. So the prospect of third party toys for them was salivating but at £60-80 a throw out of my reach as I try not to spend such amounts since becoming a parent. Step in the backbone of my toy collection, Chinese bootleggers (in this case Weijiang) and the inestimable Denyer, who sent me the oversized knock-off version of Grind Rod (i.e. Rollbar, the team's sort-of leader depending on what Goldbug was up to).

Minifigures - The Miracleman Family

Ah, Miracleman. The greatest comic of the eighties, possibly ever, before the collapse of publisher Eclipse started a rights fiasco which took the book out of publication for more than twenty years. Marvel finally secured the rights in 2009 and set out at undermining buyer confidence by releasing sealed hardcovers containing chintzy vintage material than did little to hide its' origins as a knock-off of the original Fawcett Captain Marvel rather than the seminal update but since 2013 the good stuff has gradually leaked back into print; at the time of writing the first genuine new material from the proper creative team is due in a couple of months. Naturally despite being back in print the series has little to offer Bob Iger in terms of limp CGI blockbusters and so there have been no official Lego Minifigures; however, expert customiser Penzora has tackled most of the principal players in the saga.

MIRACLEMAN

The main guy himself. The figure uses the 1980s updated costume with the neat stacked "MM" that would serve as part of the comic's logo and would later inspire a faintly daft story explaining how the character's clothes could change while he apparently spent the time between his old Miller & Sons adventures and the new strips in Dez Skinn's fantastic Warrior apparently in suspended animation. Elsewhere the paint apps are sharp and really pop out the details in what - with Garry Leach's refinements - was one of the best superhero costumes of the time, which still stands out nicely. There's been no detail skipped, including the distinctive studded collar and the red/yellow boots while the blonde slicked back hair tops the figure off nicely; I've played around with some yellow hairpieces for dot-printed accuracy but it looks too cartoony.

YOUNG MIRACLEMAN

Young Marvelman was the first attempt by Miller & Sons to add another character to their bow and his solo series lasted as long as the parent title. Alan Moore's version however was much more rarely glimpsed as he spent the majority of the English writer's material believed dead, only appearing in flashbacks (including a silent solo fill-in strip). Moore's successor Neil Gaiman brought him back across his first arc however and the character is a key player in the semi-published Silver Age. The custom is again a brilliant barrage of primary colours, complete with vintage logo (Young Miracleman's costume having not been updated) and the right mix of clear relation to Miracleman himself but just enough differences, like the larger collar and varied belt and boot designs.

KID MIRACLEMAN

The third addition to the Miller stories, Kid Marvelman had inverted fortunes to Young Marvelman. In the original material he only appeared in the Marvelman Family team book but comes the eighties he became the villain of the piece, having spend all the time Miracleman was an amnesiac and Young Miracleman an exploded thing using his abilities to build an empire. The first version is based on his original appearance, only glimpsed in flashbacks and then in internal conversations with alter-ego Johnny Bates, complete with the jaunty logo. Again the figure is well painted with variation in the template rather than just being a palette swap; my only slight quibble - and it's a pedantic impossible wish - is that while the adult version did occasionally wear this costume it'd have been cool to have a short-legged version as the fifties K.M. was always shown as considerably smaller and younger than his team-mates. However, Penzora prides themselves on printing only on official Lego parts and there have yet to be official yellow short legs; come to think of it the bootleggers don't seem to have made any either. Maybe one day Lego will use them (we could do with a Toad too) and the figure will get an update.

MIRACLEWOMAN

Introduced in the epic third arc "Olympus", Miraclewoman was technically an all-new Alan Moore creation, though the inspiration was clearly Mary Marvel, replaced by Fawcett with the male Kid Marvelman. Penzora once again gets the character's sleek costume, a female equivalent of Miracleman, absolutely perfectly, right down to the similar boots and eighties "MW" logo on the belt. The hair proved a bit of a challenge, however; the custom originally came with the trendy fringe piece in yellow. The problem is Avril's hair in the comic's was basically the same as Miracleman's with just a tad more length and texture to give an air of androgyny and as much visible overlap with her male counterpart as possible. I played around with a few different pieces before settling on the one pictured, which is maybe a touch too styled and voluminous but works nicely as a part of the display.

YOUNG NASTYMAN

A fifties villain from Young Marvelman, Young Nastyman was broadly analogous to Black Adam from the Captain Marvel series. In the eighties material he was barely glimpsed but still important, breaking loose after Emil Gargunza's abuse of the fictional universe used to keep his creations in check caused a mental breakdown and dying in Iceland combatting Miraclewoman. His figure is close to a palette swap with Young Miracleman but it works nicely and he still has his distinctive individual badge on the front and a nicely unhinged face. While Penzora's original figure had the same slicked-back hair as the Kid Miracleman figures I went for a more ruffled piece both for variety and to depict him in his only significant appearance as a dishevelled mess.

THE ADVERSARY

Kid Miracleman made a full return in the "Olympus" arc and famously killed London; while he started out in the same business suit he had worn in "A Dream of Flying" as it disintegrated is revealed a black version of his suit, corrupted by his total degeneration (the darkness having spread ominously as he gained strength inside the juvenile Bates' head). Like Miracleman's suit the style also changed to something more modern and the revised chest log and boot design are nicely replicated here on the striking figure.

JOHNNY BATES

This one is a simple home-made mashup; the eighties adult version of Kid Miracleman spent most of his time in his day job business attire from running Sunburst Electronics and keeping to it while he kicked Miracleman around London twice before it was burned off him battling Huey Moon and Aza Chorn. The Jonah Jameson figure provided a close enough if not spot-on version of the waistcoat and shirtsleeves, topped off with the same head and hair as the Penzora figure.

Minifigures - The Avengers, Part 2

The next batch of Avengers minifigures covers the first recruits of the sixties, when the team began to firmly establish its' ethos - unlike the JLA being made up of the company's established star properties the Avengers, having started out that way and usually having some of the founding members on the strength, tended to introduce roster members who were either brand new or had been guest stars in another title, with the first real roster refresh consisting of three reformed villains joining Captain America after the founding members - Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp - decided to take a break from the team.

GIANT-MAN

Naturally Giant-Man wasn't actually a new recruit to get the tenuous theme of this overview off to a winning start, being the second of Hank Pym's 427 costumed identities and thus a founding member as much as Ant-Man was. He's had even more costumes than he's had alias though Marvel's brand awareness means they've finally started to settle on a variation of the red/black original. This one, a Chinese copy, is based on the version in the non-Lego Avengers Alliance video game; the only official Giant-Man figure is a wonderful brick-built thing that - understandably if annoying - follows the template of the film version's costume. The paint apps are nicely done though with the character's antennae-things being 3D (instead printed on the head) it's a little featureless. Oh, and it's really small; while I'm not crazy about Big Figs, and certainly not for a human-shaped character, the extended limbs seen on Mr Fantastic would have greatly improved this one; sadly while there's a version of Plastic Man that's a good source for the arms the legs retain that character's distinctive leg pattern. It's tempting to get an extra pair and paint them but then if I'm painting I'd be more tempted to get one of the poseable Technic figures and just do it from scratch. If only I had talent for that sort of thing. 

CAPTAIN AMERICA

It's one of those little comic quirks that Captain America, mainstay of the Avengers, didn't show up until the fourth issue of the series, famously being found floating in a big block of ice after his World War 2 exploits. He's big news, though, and between his own films and his prominent role in the Avengers movies he's racked up 11 variant official Minifigures. And about 1100 unofficial ones. The sticking point seems to be what to do about the head; a printed design works for a mask but it's difficult to mount details on them so while the official figures have gone either that way or unmasked in reference to the way Cap spends half of his movies unmasked because they've paid Chris Evans money. With the added variation of either comic-influenced light blue or the navy seen in the film there's quite a variety out there. For now as my 'comic Avengers' Cap I've settled on this one, which features an additional helmet rather than a painted head. The extra piece isn't overly bulbous and while it doesn't have the wings it does add a little definition; the flesh head underneath actually has a flesh coloured mask printed on it that gives the impression of a chin-strap and I'm intermittently questing for a similar version in the right blue to blend while also having the eyes at the right level to meet up with the mask. 

QUICKSILVER

Pietro and his sister Wanda debuted as members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants over in the X-Men before becoming part of the new-look second Avengers roster, both becoming staples of the team. It's left them in a weird place between the Disney-owned Avengers and Fox-borrowed X-Men films, however, though a deal was recently reached to see some character crossover. Quicksilver has since appeared in two X-Men films and Avengers - Age of Ultron. His one official Minifigure follows the look in the latter as a result of Disney/Marvel's unofficial policy of restricting the merchandise for characters who they don't wholly own and thanks to the bland look he had in that movie it's a travesty, a hipster in a jumper. As ever, the bootleggers do provide; there's a good one out closely modelled on the character's very different look for the Days of Future Past but the focus here is one that's based on the character's classic look. Thankfully the awful green original costume has been ignored; this is the later two-tone blue seen around about the time of Kurt Busiek's classic Avengers run; I would possibly have preferred the one-tone blue example from the sixties but I'm nitpicking and this one has more variety to it anyway. There's a nice scowling face and the swept-back hair also suits nicely; the one fault with this bootleg is that the paint on the feet is never (at least not after three purchases from different sellers) applied thickly enough on the dark blue legs.

THE SCARLET WITCH

Pietro's sister and go-to source for causing contrived 'summer events' that ensure the comic book industry's continued shrinkage while superheroes are bigger than ever. While Pietro's done stints in the likes of X-Factor, X-Men and his own poorly-handled solo title Wanda's largely been an Avengers homegirl but her Minifig story is much the same - just a single figure based on the Hot Topic cashier-inspired film look. Bugger that. Thankfully the superb customiser Penzora has done a version modelled on the costume that stuck for the character for some forty years with only minor modifications. The only problem is there's never been any sort of half-decent mask piece from Lego (or any bootleggers) with paint apps having to do the work; the result is the Scarlet Witch's distinctive headpiece is squashed onto her face below the hairline. But that's nitpicking; elsewhere the detail is nice and sharp, an excellent piece for any Avengers display

HAWKEYE

Completing the second line-up of the Avengers, Hawkeye had started off as a villain in Tales of Suspense (at the time basically Iron Man's book) and soon became something of a cult favourite, in that he was always one of the most popular members of the Avengers due to his sardonic attitude and willingness to chuck in against Ultron or whoever armed with a bow and trick arrows but never quite had the appeal for a solo book, instead headlining in West Coast Avengers and later Thunderbolts in between stints. However, his stock went up a notch of late due partly to the Legolas-driven pop culture archery boom, a well-written part in the prominent Ultimates series and then through his core appearances in the team's theatrical adventures. Te latter means most of the Minifigures have a distinct Jeremy Renner feeling to them (including one released as a promotional polybag that can be found for only a couple of quid). As ever there are further unofficial figures out there including a little masterpiece modelled on his classic appearance. The winner here is the mask part, spot-on with even a raised 'H' while painted details include a quiver on the back (and is a bit of a pain as it can't be covered by a quiver part). I could maybe do with having the palette darkened a notch or two but again that's nitpicking. 

THE SWORDSMAN

Tied in to Hawkeye's origin, the Swordsman briefly joined the line-up shortly after his former charge before being revealed to be up to no good - the first run-out for what would be a semi-regular Avengers story template. After being chased off he was an intermittent presence on the team before getting killed by Kang, since appearing as a plant alien (no, really) and inspiring a couple of alternate universe examples - one introduced in the early nineties stuck around for occasional appearances and an odd choice to make part of the Heroes Reborn soft reboot, where he weirdly remembered events in the main Marvel Universe and then trained up the Remnants in a one-shot that was actually quite good. All of it makes for a not particularly well-known character and it's little surprise there's no place for Jacques in the Marvel money-making machine. Enter Penzora with another neat, faithful custom including a crisp, character-packed face. It's nice work, very nice, and it's hard to see how an official figure if it ever came out would get closer.

Minifigures - The Avengers, Part 1

As other people owning or part-owning various rights to Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men have denied the Disney-Marvel alliance some of their most high-profile properties they've been largely left to focus on the Avengers for their multimedia attack and this has resulted in a barrage of Minifigures. I've always been a fan of the group so I've been testing and tweaking the various Chinese copies thereof to try and get 'definitive' versions, ending up with a decent chunk of the line-up. I'll be splitting these up for such a large roster; sorting the five founding members for the first seems a logical step. 

ANT-MAN

This was basically the Minifigure that turned this from "hey, those are cool I'll pick up a few" to "OMG I MUST LET THIS TAKE OVER EVERYTHING". Hank Pym is one of Marvel's more interesting characters, if occasionally bizarre and controversial; unlike so many of his contemporaries he's undergone genuine character development over the years rather than periodic stunts; it was very edifying to see a somewhat low-profile character get some serious love in the Ant-Man film, even if it was via the backdoor as a support role. And the original Ant-Man costume is a period classic, with its' big fifties hangover helmet and neat red/black jumpsuit. I have no idea what the origin of this figure is - there's no official match, the Lego version of Hank Pym being the live action version with a black helmet to differentiate him from Scott Lang - but they nailed it. The helmet's slightly oversized but fits in nicely with the Lego ethos while the paint apps are just right; the only weirdness is the eyes being printed slightly too far apart, presumably to line up with the helmet's holes. Originally he came with a pair of brown spiders, the closest thing in the Lego menagerie to look anything like ants at the time I guess; it doesn't really work and part of me wonders if they couldn't have come up with an ant from scratch but then even bootleggers who aren't paying for rights have a budget and I'm happier that the money's gone to the helmet.

THE HULK

Officially the Hulk has been released by Lego in three forms - a Minifig, a Bigfig and one of those short-legged Mighty Micro ones. The Bigfig came in the 'classic' green with purple pants but has been bootlegged both in this scheme and many others, from grey and red skin to various pants colours. I'm not actually crazy for the Hulk so this one and one of the bootleg Minifigures was enough for me. As I've said before I find Bigfigs to be something of a cheat, especially when they're like Groot and just a statue which can be stuck on Lego bases. Hulk isn't as bad as that, with a Minifig-style head with removable hair, and it feels better having him tower over everyone. The moulded crouching pose works, articulation being limited to the arms, wrist and neck - and naturally this makes him to right size to square up to the bootleg Ben Grimm which seems to be largely based on the same cast. 

THOR

Official Thor figures have naturally been very much based on Chris Hemsworth's live action incarnation, though his stubble has been interpreted as a full beard for most of these; the most common one found itself into a promotional polybag and is thus more common than most bootlegs. The bootleggers have got their mileage out of him anyway with several variations on the chest armour pattern and presence or otherwise of the cloak, most sticking with the long blond hair and beard combo. I always preferred the comic look but thankfully the pirates have me covered there, or at least near enough. There's a version that not only features a more complex armour pattern that includes the legs (not entirely comic accurate but better than plain) and a winged helmet that's a fair stab allowing for Lego-style proportions. This originally came with the obligatory bearded head but it's easy enough to switch a shaved face in; naturally the figure comes with Mjolnir, a moulded piece for the Lego version rather than an extant hammer part.

IRON MAN

Thanks to the character always being cool but never given much spotlight and being brought to life so well by Robert Downey Jr even in third gear. As such the character's so far become the posterchild for the film universe as a whole, and the multiple armours used in the movies are manna for anyone up for a recolour. Lego themselves have put out 15 variants while those cunning bootleggers have added probably the same amount again, from early marks to bizarre schemes only occasionally glimpsed; only Batman comes close to matching the number of possible variants available. I do have a live-action version or two which I'll cover at some point but for this grouping I've gone with one of the few comic-influenced versions. I've not yet got one of the early flat metal or gold versions because I'm not crazy about them (though I am highly likely to buy some at one point or another as I am no longer in rational control of this). No, instead I've gone for the one figure to properly do the yellow/red scheme - an official Lego figure from the Mighty Micros subline. Aimed at young buyers, this consists of duelling short-legged characters in fun little vehicles. As such I needed to switch in some full-length red legs but aside from that he's very good fun for capturing the way the character appeared for much of the sixties and seventies, with the large visible mouth on the removable helmet (less crazy than many of the Mighty Micros figures, though the face inside is unhinged), the big round chest deco and the neat, clean colour scheme.

WASP

Jan's the sort of character that usually gets shafted in this sort of thing, being an unflashy stalwart for fifty years without ever threatening to truly break out, despite leading the team several times and naturally being embroiled in much of husband Hank Pym's storylines. The forthcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp film is likely to see daughter Hope getting most of the focus, Jan having only appeared in a brief flashback. As such there's been no official Lego figure and only one bootleg; this, like many of the Minifigures with no official release, is lifted from the Lego Marvel Superheroes game, the tampographs copied from the in-game model and applied to extant parts. As she's a figure in a suit with wings (using the fairy wing 'backpack') the result is rather good, even if it's naturally something of a shame she's in a sensible modern battlesuit rather than some of the insane outfits she's turned out in over the years. The game version had a black bob but the figure has a brown ponytail; this can be switched out easily naturally but I've actually got used to her looking like this.

Minifigures - The Guardians of the Galaxy

Considering the low profile of the characters to the wider public it was perhaps a surprise that Guardians of the Galaxy was such a hit. Or maybe considering it followed Marvel/Disney's template of promotional bombardment followed by some two hours high in CGI and funny banter while low in surprises and innovation perhaps it's not. We're rapidly reaching the stage where they could put out two hours of Robert Downey Jr gurning into a mirror for 134 minutes and IMDB fanboys would still give it 9/10. The main point of Disney's infantilisation of Marvel is to make merchandise to sell to seven year-olds and with its' apparent belief that saying "asshole" is inherently amusing Guardians is a prime asset in that regard. Upside is we got a full set of Lego Minifigs. Nearly. And they got bootlegged. Nice.

STAR-LORD

There have been two official Star-Lord figures and two unofficial; they overlap on the one I've got, which has the character in prison uniform. There's a cool official one with the jacket open that hasn't been copied and goes for too much for such a minor variation and a bootleg that goes for a jacket-less appearance and inexplicably replaces the helmet piece with a painted face. Whereas this guy has a very cool removable helmet, complete with moulded hair - though the bootleg has varying quality in terms of how well this is painted. It's not too bulbous unlike the similar piece for Iron Man and can be slid off to reveal a smiling stubbly face - switch in some brown hair and you've got how the character appeared for much of the film so we'd remember he was played by Chris Pratt. The rest of the outfit is nice and crisp right down to the brown 'leather' gloves and he comes with a neat pair of pistols; it's a very good take overall.

GAMORA

Team totty Gamora had only a single Minifig; thankfully it's a decent one, again wearing the prison suit for his continuity. She's about 83% better dressed than the screen version with cleavage kept to a dignified minimum. Good detail paint apps help considerably, notably gold tattoos on the face in addition to a nice snarling face (the official one is reversible, the other side having a smiling face) and purple highlights in the hair. Add in the doughty Lego samurai sword and you've got someone perfect for will-they-won't they-oh-they-are winkery with Star-Lord or clunking rivalry with Drax.

ROCKET RACCOON

The Funny Animal of the team is the long-established Rocket Raccoon, finally dumbed down to a level where he's popular thanks to being all aggressive despite being short, which is frankly amazing characterisation. He was a big enough hit wif da kids to get a brace of Minifigures, one in the orange uniform he wore for the entire film and one for the prison uniform he didn't wear. Thankfully those great humanitarians ripping off Lego figures in China resisted the temptation of doing a matching set and did the orange version. Most of the work is done by the all-in-one unique moulded head and shoulder pads, though this means the head can't turn while this is a good a place as any to ponder why Lego still haven't made short legs that have actual movement. Decent paint apps, though.

DRAX

Another long-serving character chewed and spat out was Drax. I always liked the guy, especially when turning up in Peter David's Captain Marvel, but the film didn't have space to do him much justice as he was relegated to the role of a muscle guy who gets kicked around so we can see the bad guys are serious business. And Lego dicked him over too; the character's sole minifigure boasts a complex set of printed tattoos and prison uniform trousers only to inexplicably make his skin grey rather than green, a mistake carried over for the bootleg. Couple of knives aren't going to help it swim back from that one.

GROOT

Emotional Manipulation Tree Man didn't get a proper Minifig, Lego instead building the guy up out of bricks and adding a head, which is a neat choice to simulate the wood but wasn't really what I was after. Bootleggers provided a Big Fig that seemed to be a totally new mould and really was more like an action figure than a Lego toy, with only the shoulder connections and stud spaces on the legs to even link it to the building bricks. It was also far too tall. A respectable compromise is the knock-off Minifigure, which works the Woody mould already roped in for Mr Fantastic to make a taller Minifig very reliant on painted detail to get the texture across. It's not a great success but it is probably the most successful of the approaches yet tried.

Minifigures - Watchmen

Zack Snyder's misguided, redundant and awful cinema adaptation of Alan Moore's superb Watchmen might have been like watching a loved one attacked by a hyperactive moron with a Stanley knife but it did at least raise the comic's profile. One of the most recent trickle-downs is is a Chinese set of Minifigures based on the six main characters; naturally the film's violence (it seems something of a misstep to refer to Snyder's output as 'mature') meant zero chance of official Lego product but again come the bootleggers. Actually, fair's fair, the set are quite heavily based on some customs made by Penzora; there are some small tweaks and obviously there's going to be some overlap as both are based on the same source but it's clear that the bulk of the work was already done. Morally that makes for a weird grey area; the custom designer's been nobbled to a certain degree but they were based on an extant property anyway. To be honest the financial choice made my mind up for me - I love Penzora's customs and they're my guilty treat when I have the funds but at ~£10 a figure compared to under ~£2 for a bootleg (and having the money to then spend on a Penzora figure that doesn't have a bootleg equivalent) made my choice for me.

The six main characters (I am never, ever, ever going to call them The Watchmen) are the subject of the set - the vigilante Rorschach, government superbeing Dr. Manhattan, retired crimefighter Nite Owl (the second Dan Dreiberg incarnation), retired crimefighter the Silok Spectre (the junior version, Laurie Juspeczyk), business magnate and former adventurer Ozymandias and late government headcase the Comedian. It's a good choice; another six covering the likes of Hollis Mason, Captain Metropolis and Dollar Bill would have been cool but these six get it done.

RORSCHACH

One of the good things about the film was it got three of the costumes right by largely just copying the comic designs and the crucial Rorschach was one of them. Thus it doesn't make any difference that the set seems to be film-orientated for this nutter. The use of extant Lego parts means he's got more of a cowboy hat than a fedora which is a slight shame, though to be fair official Lego gangsters have the same deal. The tampographed suit and mask are absolutely spot-on and very sharp, then only real flub being the matching between the plastic and the fabric trenchcoat, which is a shade darker. The trenchcoat is probably the ideal colour with the main plastic being slightly redder; I'd have settled for either if the matching was spot on by it's not a hammer blow. And winningly he comes with his grappling hook gun thanks to Lego having already done the right parts, probably for Agents or a similar line.

NITE OWL

While Roschach was nailed his semi-reluctant partner in crimefighting and then plain old crime got screwed a bit by the movie bods, Dan Dreiburg getting to dress like a nineties Batman. Sadly the figure follows this closely with a simplified take that's largely one colour. It doesn't help that Lego's parts catalogue doesn't really offer a way of doing the avian head design nor does it include a cape. The former is represented by a few paint applications; it's on my to-do list to have a look at some Chima figures to see if there's anything which might be salvaged but I'm torn on putting much effort into realising such a bland costume compared to the marvellous (if admittedly near-impossible to do in Lego) comic costume. There are of course brown capes out there but it seems like doing half a job. So Dan, sadly, is a miss.

DR MANHATTAN

Dr Manhattan was another who looked largely the same in both the proper and barely literate moron versions of Watchmen. The figure is based on the only occasionally glimpsed phase where he actually wore undercrackers, which is fair enough and skirts around the whole weirdness of trying to paint a small Lego-styled penis on the chap. It's probably the best of the set with the blue about right, some nicely alien eyes and his hydrogen atom forehead mark but it's less dramatic than the others because it's basically a light blue guy with a moderately memorable head - though this would make him a decent base for any light blue customs of your own.

SILK SPECTRE

Laurie of course went from Silver Age sauce to modern PVC-coated slut for the film to give the movie crowd something to wank over in lieu of Gerard Butler's pecs. Missed the point of the character pretty massively there Zack, but never mind, crack on with Suckerpunch and just do a whole film of this crap. Sadly while the top half of the figure is about right the bottom half makes clear that she's got three-quarter length hooker boots on. Aside from that the hair's only about the colour of the comic version, which is odd. Overall though the figure gets across the high-kicking eye candy of the film rather than the smart, funny comic character and that's a shame; there are already plenty of supertarts and Minifigures thereof out there.

OZYMANDIAS

Adrian had arguably the most dramatic redesign of all the cast but while the Minifigure is clearly more influenced by the movie it ends up not particularly looking like either version. The use of heavy shoulder armour actually goes too far when painted detail would do and the paint applications that are present make it look like black plates rather than the metallic ones used. Also unfortunate is the use of the classic Ye Olde Hairpiece; while Adrian did indeed rock the sideparting the more modern 'combed' version would have fitted better. While this has to the best of my knowledge yet to be made in this colour this obviously isn't a problem for bootleggers recolouring parts as they go; for buyers it's left to decide between this and the scraped back style, which I plan to try out. No idea what that grin's all about, though.

THE COMEDIAN

Eddie benefits again from being kept close to his comic conception and the basic look is spot on, with his combat vest and even a cigar painted onto the face - not going to get that with actual Lego, are you? Sadly it's one of the only ones is the set where outright corner cutting hurts it - while the Comedian's patriotic sleeves are kept the blue and red is painted straight on the flesh arms rather than surrounded by white, which really makes the figure look cheap. Another missed opportunity is not giving him greying temples. Oh, and originally the figure came with a Stormtrooper rifle - I've switched that out for an assault rifle, that sort of weaponry being easy to find in the various unlicensed modern combat lines.

Overall the set is a missed opportunity; Roschach and Dr Manhattan are solid successes and on the rest your mileage will vary according to acceptance of the film's designs. The bottom line is it's likely to be the only set of Watchman minifigures ever made, so you've basically a choice between settling or not getting. Considering with a bit of hunting on ebay you can find the lot for less than a tenner on ebay they're worth a punt.

Minifigures - The Fantastic Four

Before Disney took over Marvel the House of Ideas didn't have the funding for their own "Cinematic Universe" (stop sniggering) and instead sold the rights off to other people. The result is that three of their biggest properties in the form of Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic 4 were farmed out, which at least means their own films have given more of a focus to the Avengers and other properties that wouldn't have got a look-in otherwise. Of the three the F4 have arguably suffered the most; there were a couple of crude films from 20th Century Fox a decade ago, directed by Tim Story. These received a moderately warm reception at the time but are now poorly thought of, especially compared to the CGI-and-banter saturated Whedonfests Disney churn out every summer. However, the rights for the properties only revert back to Marvel after a certain time without production and Fox decided to effectively cockblock them a year or so ago by rebooting the F4 films, just as Sony did with Spider-Man. Josh Trank's take on Marvel's first family served a double purpose; not only was there a chance for it to make Fox money but it kept the rights out of Disney's hands and took a competing property out of the running - likely for the next ten years.

Trank - a highly talented director whose Chronicle is one of the better superhero films of the recent explosion of the things - turned out a film that was obviously tampered with but also suffered from severe miscasting. The result was panned by critics and did poorly at the box office; Marvel however sealed the deal by doing every little thing they could to undermine it - while Fox owned the film rights Marvel owned basically everything else and were effectively able to block any F4 merchandise at the time of the film to avoid it competing with stuff they owned 100%. This even led to the long-running comic book series being placed on hiatus while Lego were obviously leant on to make sure no F4 characters appeared in their ongoing Marvel Superheroes line.

As ever where there's such a gap in the market there are Chinese bootleggers. Copies of Lego's superhero minifigures are abundant and great fun; most are near-perfect copies of those available in sets, usually for around £2 a piece. But if you're a bootlegger with access to moulds and tampographing equipment it's probably easy enough to design your own and the gap in the market for F4 toys gave several (naturally elusive, considering the copyright violation) companies inspiration. There have been sets of both the classic costumes and the white ones seen in the film; after a little trial and error I've managed to put together a set that I like - or two sets, as there are options out there to do a 'casual' and 'action' set.

MISTER FANTASTIC

There are two or three Reeds out there; a stretched version with elongated legs and arms, both lifted from the licenced Minifigure of Woody from Toy Story, is the most common and is available in both the blue classic and white uniforms. It's actually a decent enough way of representing his power in hard plastic while also meaning you can actually do stuff with him. There's a neat version of the swept-back hair complete with greying temples that really adds to the personality as well. 

The only 'standard' Minifigure I've yet come across for Reed is an underwhelming little thing with a silly face design and a much less impressive hairpiece (though it does still have grey on the temples). Really, the most sensible option was to buy a second 'stretched' figure and swap in standard sized arms and legs, which were easy enough to find. Accessories-wise I think the gun came with the stretched version and I have no idea where the other little bit of machinery the smaller one is holding is from; the fun thing is that with 30+ years of space-themed Lego there are lots of fun bits of kit that go nicely as one of Reed's gadgets.

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN

There are again two or three versions of Sue, though these are closer and more consistent that the different Reeds. Again, there's blue, white and powered up. The latter is one of my favourite Minifigs outright; there's something very, very cool about the transparent plastic all over while the little detail paint apps really pop out even if they're slightly illogical. The uniform seems to correlate more with the white version but not by enough to bother me and as you can gather I'm pretty particular about this sort of thing. Perhaps as a reflection of how cool it is this is one of the slightly harder to find off-brand figures, but not to the point where you'll spend a fortune.

The 'standard' version is available in blue or white. The blue version is more refined than the similar Reed and complements the 'invisible' version nicely, with the same hair and facial features, though the uniform doesn't quite line up. And the fun thing is that if you want a representation of Sue's forcefield power basically any shaped clear part that can clip to the Minifigure's hand will do.

THE HUMAN TORCH

There have been several versions of Johnny in both flame on and standard. For the 'action' one there are three 'classic' versions - a solid version with dark red plastic, a transparent version and a transparent version with the '4' logo. The second is the more accurate no doubt but I eventually settled on the latter for the entirely selfish reason that it means the one without the logo can be repurposed as the original Human Torch. More obscure is a version based on the most recent live action movie where the character was played by Michael B Jordan; as a result the Minifigure head was brown (even through Jordan's skin colour can't be seen when he's flaming) and the uniform and wavy flame hair are yellow; this is often labelled as Pyro due to its' broad similarities to the Brotherhood member but it's got a 4 logo. Very odd.

For standard versions there is again the white and blue. The latter again fits well, though I can never quite decide on a hairpiece that looks good; the blonde spiky one fits the character's personality in lieu of anything much better; the modern side-parting might be a better fit but isn't yet out in any 'fair' colours.

THE THING

The Thing has had probably the most diverse treatment, with three totally different Big Figs and at least one Minifigure out. The former takes three different approaches - one seems to be a heavy retool of the official Hulk Big Fig and is by far the best fit; for added variety this is available in blue, white or red (either a reference to the team briefly having red uniforms or I have half a recollection of him donning these when he briefly left) pants. There's also a brown figure that's a notably different sculpt featuring a large cylindrical Minifigure-style ehad; the style doesn't really work even if the colours and detailing are nicer that the orange one. Finally there's a totally different sculpt with seems based on the latest film and looks awful.

Personally I'm always torn on Big Figs; they feel like cheating but they do the job well and some characters just don't look right at a small scale. The Thing is arguably one, though I picked up the small Minifigure as much to line up with the other three 'standard' guys. It's got some nice detailing but does look underwhelming at the same height (though it's worth nothing the Thing was illustrated as roughly human style in the first two films).