Wave 1
Up

 

Home

Middle-earthToys

Astro City Toys

MessageBoard

Links

Thanks

 

Wave One:

Featuring:   Samaritan and Confessor
Release Date: June 1999
Price Range:  $12.50-$15.95
Variant Count:  Samaritan:  Premiere Samaritan (Diamond), Samaritan at Work (Stnd).  Confessor:  Vampire Confessor (Standard), Masked Confessor (ToyFare), Future Confessor (Diamond).
Sculpted by:  Alex Ross, Sam Greenwell, and Raven Hood

 

Samaritan:

samaritanatworkbigweb.jpg (58407 bytes)

Final Blister Packaging Note:  ZJ Toys is the Jack-in-the-Box's toy company in Astro City.

Now that the figures have come in, I'll give a give review of the Samaritan.   Right off the bat, the head sculpt is excellent.  Looks just like Alex Ross' artwork, and why not?  Alex Ross DID sculpt the head!  The body is simple in detail, matching the comic book.  You can see folds in the body suit in the wrist and armpit areas.  The figure itself is a great representation of both Alex Ross' and Brent Anderson's artwork.  There is one, unfortunate, design flaw.  Samaritan's left arm cannot move forword due to the restirctions of his cape. The cape is so tightly held to the figure (surprisingly, since it is only connect at two places, the gold button on the waist, and the gold button on his wrist) that if you raise the left arm the cape hinders it's motion.  Continuos pulling will result in the yellow button popping out of Samaritan's wrist (Mine popped right back in with no problem).  The Zxyometer is not that great weither.  When Samaritan is holding it, it looks like a wierd lollypop.  If/When you buy this figure, I think you will be very impressed in the amount of stitching he has on his cape to hold it firmly to his shoulder (Yet still be removable!)

smart.jpg (22210 bytes) smart10.jpg (11203 bytes)  smart3.jpg (13815 bytes) smart4.jpg (14578 bytes) smart6.jpg (13539 bytes) smart7.jpg (14593 bytes) smart8.jpg (13430 bytes) smart9.jpg (11649 bytes) smart10.jpg (11203 bytes)

 

In case you were wondering....on the back of Samaritan's packaging it lists the following figures as coming soon:

Winged Victory (2nd Assrt), Confessor (Out now), Silver Agent (Possible 3rd Assrt), Jack-In-The-Box (2nd Assrt), The Old Soldier, and Cleopatra (I think it is Cleo II).

 

Confessor:

FutureConfessorBIGWEB.jpg (55279 bytes)

Final Blister card for the Future Confessor (Diamond Exclusive)

VampireConfessorBIGWEB.jpg (51505 bytes)

Final Blister card for vampire Confessor

BASIC001.jpg (15329 bytes) BASIC003.jpg (15349 bytes)

BASIC006.jpg (14572 bytes)BASIC008.jpg (15146 bytes)BASIC009.jpg (18467 bytes)

 

 

The Samaritan is currently planned to have two variations, the Diamond Comics version is called "Premire Samaritan" and is based upon his first appearance in Astro City (Note:  This is not his first appearance in the comic, however).  This version of Samaritan appeared in Astro City Volume 1 Issue 6, and is capeless.  He also comes with a little newspaper with the headline:  Flying 'Samaritan' Saves Challenger.  His final accessory are some flowers that he gave Winged Victory on thier first date (Also in Issue 6 of the first Volume).  The second version is Samaritan at Work, and is based upon the Samaritan's appearance in Astro City number 1 Volume 1.  He comes with his cape and zxyometer.  The Samaritan is articulated at the head, elbows, shoulders, legs, knees, and ankles giving him eleven points of arituclaiton.  Rumors have it that there may also be a Battle-damaged Samaritan with a torn cape and award from the Astro City FireFighters Association.

 

Confessor has several more variations than the Samaritan.  The first two are the Vampire Confessor and Future Confessor.  The Vampire Confessor is the standard release version which features an exclusive head showing his fangs.  Eventohugh the head suclpt is very nice, this head is inaccurate.  The only time we see the Confessor's fangs, his black hood is still covering his hair.  The second variation is the Future Confessor which features the head of Altar Boy who took up the mantle of the Confessor.  Even though Altar Boy has only been Confessor for one page, Kurt Busiek has plans to use him again in the future.  Coming up later is the Regular Confessor which features his unmasked face.  This version of the Confessor matches how he looked while in his secret hq at the Cathedral.  The final, and my favorite, variation is the ToyFare Magazine Exclusive Masked Confessor.  This is the Confessor as he appeared while fighting crime, with his full mask on, and will include a glow-in-the-dark paint job on his cross and eyes.  Each Confessor comes with a cloth cape and has the following points of artiuclation:  head, shoulders, elbows, mid-bicept, wrists, waist, legs, knees.  This gives the Confessor 14 points of acticulation.

 

Terragon's List of Other Possible Varients (If you have one email me at terragon2814@hotmail.com)

Samaritan:

Future Samaritan with his natural brown hair, no-cape, time-travel chair, and maybe a differently styled Zxyometer.

 

Confessor:

Confessor in Black robe:  With black robe and black cord.

Final Confessor:  New head showing him wither away with the wooden stake launching gun.