Jim's Toy BoxCollecting and sharing moments and memories.ace frehley

2015: You wanted the best….

KISS and Bif Bang Pow are bringing back the hottest band in the world!

Ace, Peter, Paul and Gene are back together again and with your help they can all play nice too! Check out these prototype pics of some really awesome classic KISS merchandise that will have the KISS Army mobilized and totally worth a Deuce! (Yeah, the Rock and Roll all Night puns are well done and over with 😉 )

And we’ve only just begun…

Now, Go Play! – Jim 1/08/2015

Haters gonna hate but three million albums later? Yeah, that’s a Dynasty!

May 23, 1979 – KISS released the album “Dynasty.”

KISS Alive! The Spaceman Ace Frehley!

Long time visitors to the site will remember I’m a big fan of Ace. Always have been, always will be. No Regrets! Just like his book that I reviewed many moons ago. This figure helps ensure that fanboy happiness remains!

The new sculpt is great! It has a far better resemblance to Ace than the original Mego version. Plus he’s not staring up into the stars. The only thing that takes away from the sculpt is the hair. This is not a huge distraction though. Considering the style of Ace’s real hair I can see where the production process on this scale could be a real bear to capture it properly.

The costume is great. The FTC folks took some liberties with the rhinestones but that’s OK as far as I’m concerned because honestly without them the suit looks very boring. The shoulder rings are also very cool to. I am truly impressed with their design process here. It’s an extra step that really adds so much pop to the whole figure.

The shoes are very good as well all though this particular version of Ace’s garb is my least favorite. Something about a Spaceman wearing high tops just doesn’t work for me. Actually it’s never really worked out. Just ask Michael Jordan when he went on his Space Jam.

Again I can’t stress how much I am impressed with the improvements to the body. Now that the bands are the proper length you can pose Ace in that classic stance with his Les Paul. Mind you the figure doesn’t come with a Les Paul but you can do like I did and make one or I can make you one for $5 shipped to your door. I’m doing the same thing with Paul and Gene’s guitars as well. Order your Ace guitar by clicking here:

Overall this is a fantastic figure that I can easily recommend. Be sure to check out the reviews of Peter, Paul and Gene too! You get back where you came from by clicking HERE.

Now, Go Play!

Jim 04/10/14

Buy via the links below and the Entertainment Earth gods will smile upon me.

8 Inch Figures

12 Inch Action Figures

Carrying Case

Show your KISS colors!

Fun Stuff

PLUSH

KISS Alive! You wanted the best, you got the best!

Figures Toy Company has done something that I can’t help but applaud loudly:

They Improved!

While their first series of KISS action figures made me all giddy as you may recall these new figures blew me away. All of my complaints except for one has been addressed and corrected. In a totally backwards fashion I’ll go ahead and start with that one gripe just to get it out of the way.

That gripe? The packaging. Still huge. Takes up too much real estate and the card art is far from inspired. And the reproduction album jacket is still pretty lame. But honestly I could care less about those things because these bad boys demanded to be freed from their giant plastic prisons! I was more than glad to oblige.

The “Alive” series of KISS classic Mego style 8 inch action figures have improved heads and shoulders above the first series I reviewed back in 2012. New sculpts from the incredibly talented Farrow; the wonderfully stylized costumes that capture the essence of the “Alive” stage show; and last but most certainly not least the improvement in the stringing of the bodies. No longer are they twisted and tough to pose. These figures are most certainly ready to Rock N Roll all night and party every day!

Considering each character is its own personality it seems only fitting to devote time to each one Solo album style….Click on the corresponding Solo Album to get to the individual review.

The stress test – These things are TOYS.

In my Sheldon Cooper review I put the Bif Bang Pow body to the test by manhandling the figure. It passed with flying colors all to the Kid’s Bop version of “Can’t touch this”. This time however I had a much better stress tester; my 4 year old daughter. Actually I didn’t have a choice. She really wanted to play with these figures. Being that I’m not an over the top IT MUST REMAIN MINT CONDITION collector these days (and I love watching my daughter play) I said, you know what? Go for it baby! And she did.

It was a flurry of activity as Paul tried to run.

Paul was caught while Peter looked for an exit.

Kaitlynn experimented with different stage set ups too.

The figures held up wonderfully. I’ll be honest I held my breath for the first few poses but by golly they took the playtime like true toys should. And that really, really impressed me. Not only was I pleased with the looks of the figures and felt that those positives alone justified the retail price, seeing my daughter actually PLAYING with them made my purchase completely satisfying.

Conclusion

How much do I like these new figures? So much now I and Kaitlynn want ‘em all! Except the Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer figures. Thanks to Paul I could really care less about those two. They are now scrubs and impostors in my eyes. I will say though that the sculpts do look really good and I’d venture to guess that the quality is up to par overall. For me though the characters have no nostalgic connection. If I want a spaceman I’ll buy another Darth Vader. If I want a Catman I’ll just do a gender swap and get a Catwoman.

Seriously though these figures are excellent and I will most certainly be saving my pennies to pick up the Dressed to Kill figures. Probably some extra sets actually so I can trade out the Love Gun and Hotter than Hell with these new sculpts. Still need the first album figures too. I also hope that Figures will continue the line with at least Dynasty. Sure it was a lack luster album but the costumes were sweet.

Be sure to click out all of the individual reviews including the review of Paul’s new book as well as my take on the KISS / Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Debacle.