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