A to Z Challenge: Zemo

 Now to complete this half-assed A to Z Challenge in a pretty half-assed way.  Like with Y, there aren't tons of options for Z.  Zemo has a couple of figures, one from the MCU and maybe one or two from the comics.

The MCU one is basically just Daniel Bruhl in a coat with a gun.

The comic book one(s) has the purple face mask and dark blue-and-purple suit.  Obviously one is more realistic than the other.

That brings this A to Z to a close.  All that remains is the reflections entry.  Huzzah.  I hope you had fun looking at some figures and hearing my boring "stories" about how I bought them.  If there are any of mine you particularly like and want to make me an offer I can't refuse, go ahead and do so in the comments.

A to Z Challenge: Yondu

When it comes to Y, there aren't a lot of options.  Unless maybe I can think of someone who has a name beginning with Y.  There is Yelena Belova, Black Widow's "sister," but I don't have anything of her.

I don't have a Yondu either.  I never saw him in a clearance bin and other than Rocket Raccoon I've never really given half a shit about the other GOTG characters.  Sorry, it's just not my jam.  I got Rocket and Death's Head II from Five Below in Canton, but I don't remember if they had Yondu that day and I didn't get him or not.

There only seems to be a figure of him from the second movie, at least on Amazon and I don't feel like digging around considering they probably wouldn't be much different.  Spoiler:  he died in the second movie so I wouldn't look for more figures of him unless they reissue something.

I like how that one has a whistling head and a regular head.  So it's not a bad figure; it's just not one I really care about.

There you go.  Next, the last entry!

A to Z Challenge: X-23

 Yesterday we had Wolverine.  Today it's his female clone, X-23.  There haven't been nearly as many figures of her, because she's not as popular.  Like Wolverine, the first one I got of her was the gray-and-black X-Force one:

It was pretty cheap on Amazon.  I'll bet you can still get it pretty cheap somewhere because it was one of those peg-warmers.  But they did also make one of her in her yellow spandex.  It always looked kind of weird in the box with the big Build-A-Figure pterodactyl guy piece.

I think that's pretty much it for her.  I mean she hasn't been around nearly as long as Wolverine and in the only movie she showed up in she was 11 years old.  Anyway, that's pretty much it for stuff from my collection--such as it is.  The last two letters I didn't really have stuff for.  Oh well.

A to Z Challenge: Wolverine

 Like Deadpool and Spider-Man, I wanted a Wolverine figure, but not really any of the 500 variants.  Just a pretty basic one.  I remember one time I was in Target in Farmington and I saw the basic yellow-and-brown one they had out at the time and I almost bought it--but then I didn't.  And of course it was never very cheap online, so I've kind of kicked myself over that.

Why did I not buy this when I could?!

Like Deadpool I did get a gray-and-black X-Force Wolverine that was pretty cheap a few years ago.  But it's just not the same.

Last year they came out with a "House of X" yellow-and-brown one and I put it on my Amazon Wish List.  Of course when it came out the supply was limited and price was volatile.  I had to wait a few weeks to get it for a reasonable price--and for it to be in stock.

It's an OK basic Wolverine, but the heads kind of piss me off.  The facial expression on the one head seems kind of goofy.  The other one has this gray goatee for some reason.  I tried coloring it black with a marker, but it didn't work so well.

There is a new basic Wolverine coming out late this year that's more 90s inspired with the yellow-and-blue costume, which really is more appropriate than brown because the Michigan Wolverines are "maize" and blue.  If I could actually buy it then I might because it's a little better looking than the House of X one.

There's also an actual 90s cartoon one through the subscriber service Hasbro Pulse, which I don't have.  I don't know when or if that will come out.

Of course there are all sorts of other ones.  There are ones based on Hugh Jackman in the movies.  There are Weapon X ones.  There's an Age of Apocalypse alternate universe one where he only has one hand because Cyclops lasered the other one off or something.  There are Old Man Logan ones for both the comics and movie.

He has adamantium or bone claws!

Age of Apocalypse

Weapon X

Old Man Logan comics

But for me, just give me the yellow spandex.  Is that weird?  Probably.

A to Z Challenge: Venom

 Almost as popular as Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Deadpool is Venom.  There have been a few figures over the years, some of them were larger Build-A-Figures.  The Spider-Ham I bought has a Venom Build-A-Figure chest, but I never bought any of the others in that line to get the remaining pieces.

Then a couple years ago on Target.com they had a movie version of the figure on sale and I bought that for a birthday gift to myself.  It's from the first movie and is only a little larger than normal size.  So there's none of the Spider branding on it and it didn't come in a bunch of pieces to assemble.  You have to love the Gene Simmons tongue there.

As far as Venoms go, I think he's pretty cool for just your basic Venom.

Recently they had a wave of "Venomized" figures like Captain America and Miles Morales with Venom-type black stuff all over them.  I don't see any need to own those either. 

With the second Venom movie they came out with some figures from that like Carnage and Shriek.  Maybe someday I'd get a Carnage, but I don't really care that much.

A to Z Challenge: Union Jack

 Union Jack should not be confused with Captain Britain.  They're both British and have a Union Jack on their costume, but they're different characters.  I guess.  I mean, I don't know that much about either one.  I think Captain Britain is supposed to be more their Captain America/Red Guardian while Union Jack is more of a Hawkeye or Black Widow type.

Anyway, I mostly just got this one because he was part of the series with the Hulk Build-A-Figure and I had the other parts and it was probably again just as cheap to get the figure with the part than to buy the part separately.  I mean if you can get the part with the whole figure for the same price (or less) why not do that?

The face makes me think of the hooded Cobra Commander.  That's really all I got to say about that.

A to Z Challenge: Thor

 When it comes to Thor, like Loki, I don't have any that are actually based on the movies.  Obviously there are a few of those that vary in their Chris Hemsworth-ness.

The one I have is the 80th Anniversary one that I previously mentioned on Action Figures I Like.  He's a larger, really detailed one based off the comics.  He comes with extra hands and a hammer that actually has the inscription spelled out!  Like the Iron Man one I got it on clearance for $12.50 at Meijer and now I'm sure it costs a lot more than that.

I also have the Jane Foster Thor that came out a few years ago.  It's based on the comics, not Natalie Portman in the upcoming awful movie.

And I have Beta Ray Bill that also came out a few years ago.

I also have a smaller size Jane Foster Thor and "Unworthy" Thor that came in a two-pack at Five Below with a copy of the first issue where Jane becomes Thor.

That's not a lot of Thor, considering how much exists out there.

A to Z Challenge: Spiders

 When it comes to Spider-Man, obviously they've made a ton of figures over the years.  I mean he's the most popular character or at least in the top 3 with Wolverine and Deadpool.  Despite that, it wasn't until fairly recently that I had an actual Spider-Man figure.

Like Black Panther the first Spider-Man figure I ever bought was a movie one from  Homecoming.  I got it from Ollie's for like $5.  And for a while that was good enough because the Marvel Legends figures were either different costume variants or any of the more basic ones were pretty expensive.

He's pranking Grand Admiral Thrawn...

When they finally came out with a retro 90s wave of figures, I got the basic Spidey along with Gwen Stacey.  He comes with a couple of extra hands and a different head that has slightly different eyes.  That's pretty much it.  But that's fine with me because I just wanted a normal Spider-Man.

I also have Spider-Ham.  I saw him at Meijer in Waterford and instantly bought it for regular price because I figured I'd never see it again on shelves and it would never be all that cheap online.  Looking it up on eBay, you can get the mini one that came with a more recent Into the Spider-Verse wave for like $10 but not the one I have, which is more comics based.

And I have Spider-Woman that I got on eBay with a couple of Build-A-Figure parts as mentioned previously.

As far as the Spiders go, I would like the original black suit one or maybe the Scarlet Spider, but most of the different variants I'm not going to waste money on.  That's just me.

A to Z Challenge: Red Guardian

 In the comics, Red Guardian is the Soviet version of Captain America, which might make for a good Yakov Smirnoff joke.  I haven't really read much with the character in it; he might have been more in older Captain America comics, before the Soviet Union broke up.

Anyway, I got one of the comics-related Red Guardian figures I think from Amazon when it was cheap.  He was part of the Captain America Civil War line, which I wish I had gotten the rest of because the Cap, Iron Man, Black Panther, and Nick Fury ones were pretty awesome-looking.  But I only got this one and Nuke, I think I got Nuke for cheap online from Walmart.  So I have Giant Ant-Man's chest and right leg.

With the Black Widow movie they made a couple from that in the David Harbour mold.  The one I have is the young Red Guardian that was sold individually.  I got it on Mercari for pretty cheap.

The other one is an older version that came in a two-pack with his "wife" Rachel Weisz.  It would have been cool to get that just for her figure. Yeah, you know what I mean...

Betcha can't guess what the S entry is...

A to Z Challenge: Quill, Peter

 There aren't many figures for Q.  Three characters that could fit are Quicksilver, Quasar, and Quake, but they don't seem to have any recent figures for any of them. Since I obviously have an "S" already, and I had something for "P," even if it sucked, why not fudge a little bit and put Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, as my Q entry?  I think he would approve.

The Quill I have is from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie.  I got him for $6 on clearance from Target along with the "Cosmic" Iron Man.  

Later I could have got a two-pack with Peter and his dad Ego from the second movie for $12.50.  That figure had a little more Chris Pratt-looking head and different coat and T-shirt, but I'm not a big Star-Lord fan so one copy of the figure was enough for me and I really didn't feel like spending $12.50 on an old Kurt Russell figure.

They haven't apparently made any 6-inch versions from the comics before the movies, which tells you how popular he was until the movie.

A to Z Challenge: Paladin

 My previous entry was on a Build-A-Figure character.  And this is one I bought for the Build-A-Figure part.  A couple years ago I had most of the pieces for Sasquatch and I probably checked on eBay and saw it was cheaper to just buy this new on Amazon than to buy only the part on eBay.  Sometimes that happens, especially with an unpopular figure.

Like Eel, I really know nothing about this guy.  He's kind of generic-looking and comes with two golden guns and a knife.  The box says he's a merc, which is probably why he's in a Deadpool series of figures.  So maybe he shows up in Deadpool comics?

Anyway, that's him:

Exciting!

A to Z Challenge: Okoye

 Most Build-A-Figure characters are larger ones like the Hulk, Sasquatch, Abomination, and so on.  For the Black Panther movie series of figures, though, the Build-A-Figure was Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje.  I managed to get all of the pieces and put her together.  This is the result:

It's a decent looking figure and has a spear and knife thing.  Still, she's a lot smaller and skinnier than your typical Build-A-Figure character.

A to Z Challenge: Nico Minoru

 I had this one in the "Action Figures I Like" back in 2020, but I didn't know her name.  So for this I went and Googled "Marvel Legends Goth Girl" and images of the figure came up with the name Nico Minoru.

The funny thing is, when I saw some of the images of the packaging, I can see why I didn't remember her name.  Her name isn't even on the front of the box!  It's only shown on the back.  It's kind of bizarre to market a figure like that.  Maybe that's why she was on clearance at Walmart in Walled Lake.

As I said before, I like the Goth girl look but she doesn't stand very well and that staff with the purple stuff that attaches to it doesn't really go in her hand very well.  I guess that extra arm is supposed to be mystical or something.

I'm sure she's in comics, but I don't really know which ones.  And why should I:  I just found out her name!

But my Blogger buddy Arion mentioned her being in this LGBTQ+ compilation from last year.  I guess she was part of the Runaways series, which I think had a show on FreeForm for a season or two or maybe three; I never watched it.

A to Z Challenge: Miles Morales

 In the comics, Miles Morales was introduced in the Ultimate Spider-Man like 15 years ago when the Peter Parker of that universe was killed off.  Miles got bit by the same spider or a similar spider and also got spider powers, though he has some slightly different ones like he can electrify webs.

When Marvel decided to roll all of its universes together in Secret Wars II (which was totally NOT a reboot, lol) Miles was one of the characters who survived the destruction of his universe.  He's had his own series and shown up in other series.

For whatever reasons (cough, racism, cough) Sony refuses to make a movie with a live action Miles, but they did make an animated version in Into the Spider-Verse.  It used a lot of the Ultimate backstory for Miles and mixed with the Spider-Verse series of comics that added a whole multiverse of Spider-People.

And so as I mentioned in the G entry, I got a two-pack of figures that features Miles and Spider-Gwen.  It was only like $12.50 from Target in Hartland, so that was less than one figure would normally cost.  The Miles figure has some extra hands and a regular head along with the Spidey head.  The costume is pretty much the final one he wears in the movie, with the more homemade logo than in the comics.

Like with Gwen, I have him sort of hanging by my shelves like he's swinging from a web.  Yee-hah!

They have made a couple of other figures like one that's a normal comic book version and an exclusive one from the Miles Morales video game:

And there's an individual one from the Into the Spider-Verse movie that has weird-looking legs:

There's another one too that will be part of the V entry...

A to Z Challenge: Loki

 I'm sure Toybiz/Hasbro had a Loki figure before he was introduced in the MCU, but obviously his popularity in the Thor movies and Avengers made for more figures, exactly 0 of which I own.  But I do own 4 other Lokis.

I bought this traditional comic book one because it came with a Build-A-Figure for the Ruffalo Hulk.

And then I got the female Loki, aka Sylvie, from the Disney+ series.  I did an entry on her before as she was on my list of ones I wanted and when she was discounted a little on Amazon, I got her.  Her jacket slides off and she has a knife, but other than that, not much.

There is a Lady Loki one based more on the comics coming out that would be neat and maybe at some point I'd get a Tom Hiddleston one.  Or not.  I did buy this "Marvel Select" two-pack because it has the Agent of Asgard Loki from the comics I read:

Technically it's not a "Marvel Legends" one because it's made by Diamond Selects, not Hasbro, but it's the same kind of figure.  The kid Loki is not poseable for whatever reason but the older one is neat.  Except I don't get why they give you extra arms but not extra hands.  And the arms aren't really that different.  I'm not sure what the point of them is.  I don't think they're a Build-A-Figure type thing either. 

Anyway, those are my Lokis.

A to Z Challenge: Kamala Khan

 It was like 8 or 9 years ago when Marvel introduced the new Ms. Marvel, a Pakistani-American named Kamala Khan.  I read the first volume of comics and they were OK but not something I felt the need to continue reading.  I mean I'm not Muslim or a teenager or a girl, so I don't have much in common.  Cancel me for that if you want.

Anyway, a couple years ago they came out with some new Avengers video game and Kamala was one of the characters added to the more traditional team of Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, etc.  There was a tie-in figure that was on sale on some toy store site on Facebook that advertised on my feed.  So I got it for like $10.

That's good because it's slightly smaller than the average figure, more like 5 inches instead of 6.  She has stretching powers so the figure comes with alternate arms that are longer than normal.

With her getting a show on Disney+ and being in the next Captain Marvel movie, I'm sure there will be more figures of her coming out.

A to Z Challenge: Jean Grey

 I still don't have a J Jonah Jameson figure, but I do have a Jean Grey Phoenix figure.  It's the old Toybiz figure from a while back that for some reason is cheaper than the newer Hasbro version.  I don't know all the things that came with it because I got it loose from Mercari.  The molding is OK except the limbs are really spindly, making it hard for her to stand. 

I'd still like to get a better one, but it's probably too expensive.  They obviously make other Jean Grey figures based on the various Fox movies and the comics, including the more recent House of X comics featuring Jean in her goofy "Marvel Girl" getup.  

The Age of Apocalypse one is notable for how she's positioned in the box with the Build-A-Figure Sugar Man dude.  They seem pretty cozy in there.

Hey, baby, I hope you like tongue...

There's one coming out on Hasbro Pulse from the 90s cartoon:

I like it better than the Marvel Girl one but not as much as the Phoenix.

A to Z Challenge: Iron Man

 They made some Iron Man figures early on, but obviously once the movie kicked off the MCU and was wildly successful, they made a bunch more figures.  But I'm not a big Iron Man fan so I only have two of the figures.

One is this weird "Cosmic" one I got for $6 on clearance from a Target:

And the other is the 80th Anniversary one I got on clearance for $12.50 from Meijer:

The latter one is a good representation of some of the comics and has a bunch of extra heads and hands and flames for his hands and feet.

I don't have any of the actual MCU versions, probably because they're too popular, so they don't usually end up getting discounted much.  But there are a lot of them if you want them:

And maybe here's a song:

That's right, it's (probably) the Shatner version. lol