TRISH STRATUS - Mattel Elite Collection Series 24 Flashback Figure

Mattel's new Elite Collection Series 24 Trish Stratus figure sports a strong likeness from head to toe. The face is attractive despite a blue application above the eyes that's a bit too heavy for me and hair that could use some highlighting to offer contrast (though that's par for the course as far as Mattel WWE women go).

Trish is on the shorter side, with athletic thighs and a thicker torso. The top is well-designed and decoed, the work on the outside of the legs much less so. The flesh tone paint doesn't match the rest of the figure, and the pink x's look cheap.

The most frustrating part of this figure, for me, is the articulation. The head is immobile as a result of the hair. The hips don't move backwards at all and their forward movement is tight and pretty restricted. Worst of all is the right arm. It's bent awkwardly in the package, resulting in a nasty warp at the bicep swivel and the shoulder joint doesn't allow the arm to come down near to the body. The way it sticks out in my pics as as close as it comes. Finally, the hands are pretty stupid. The giant left man-hand comes standard with nearly every Mattel WWE female, I think, and though I don't have anything against fists, it would be nice if Trish could actually hold the Women's Title belt she comes with.

The torso sculpt allows for an additional "ab crunch" joint where the shirt meets the midriff (there's also a cut waist). It's one of the better joints on the figure, and allows for some decent tilting action.

Despite some shortcomings, Trish Stratus is a figure worth getting, especially for fans of hers. The likeness is good, she's sturdy, and she'll be a welcome addition to the shelf and the collection. There have been some pretty horrible figures of Trish Stratus produced in the past, but this isn't one of them. I'm not entirely convinced it beats my JAKKS Pacific Summer Slam Trish, but I'm happy with the purchase...

COMMANDO SPAWN - McFarlane Toys The Adventures of Spawn figure

Commando Spawn was released by McFarlane Toys as part of the Series 32 Adventures of Spawn (2nd set) wave a few years back. The figures are done in an animated style, with bright colors, angular designs, cartoonish proportions and lots of smooth surfaces. They still sport some great detail, although it's done on a "simpler palette", if that makes any sense.

Ok, let's get this out of the way first: no matter that the packages call these "Ultra-Action Figures", these are slightly adjustable statues. Expect nothing more, and you won't be disappointed. They are either pre-posed in extreme leans (the women, especially), or are designed to stand tall in a vanilla pose.

Commando Spawn looks great doing just that. His right fist is clenched tight and his left is wrapped around a ginormous rotating barrel design. There's a hose running from the back of the weapon to a large backpack on his back, and a bandolier of large shells across his chest. Come to think of it, they really don't seem to match the weapon at all, so I don't know what they'd actually accomplish other than looking wicked.

He's got a small removable dagger strapped to his right thigh, ammo pouches around his left one and his belt, and a handful of grenades around his left bicep. There's another pouch sculpted onto his right bicep.

The backpack looks like no backpack I've ever seen, with a couple more hoses and lots of geometric designs all over it. The color scheme for the entire figure features matte black and grey, along with a deep red offset by olive green. The whole thing works really well: this guy looks dynamite.

As mentioned earlier, Commando Spawn is a glorified statue. His head has a cut joint, as do his shoulders, forearms (at the tops of the gloves) and calves (at the tops of the boots). That's 7 points. The leg joints allow you to get the feet to lie flat. The shoulders look odd when the arms are raised, because it throws the sculpt off, and the forearms function fine, even with the hose attached to the cannon on the left.

Commando Spawn stands 7" tall. He came with a display stand sporting the Spawn logo, but it isn't needed to help him stand at all.

One thing worth mentioning here is that Commando Spawn sports a hollow torso. He's incredibly light for his size, and I'd assume that this was done to prevent him from being too top-heavy. However, Tremor (from the same series) is completely solid, and is so heavy that he can't stand up at all, despite a special display stand. So that doesn't seem to be the reason (since the manufacturing isn't uniform even across the same series).  That leaves me thinking it had something to do with the manufacturing process. In any event, you may feel ripped off paying a ton for this guy once you have himin hand unless you go in knowing that he's gonna feel pretty light for his size.

Commando Spawn is a great looking statue. The sculpt and paint are terrific, and I really like the design. Everything works well together. No, he can't achieve more than two or three different looks, but that's ok for my purposes, since he'll be spending his time on a shelf looking menacing, rather than being played with...