Random Happenstance

One's a hardass, by-the-book 24-7 cop...and the other one's Judge Dredd.


When it comes to action figures, not everyone is going to as lucky as Darth Vader or Spider-Man, getting dozens of different toys in various scales and levels of articulation and sculpting. Lots of properties would be lucky to get toys at all these days, due to fewer toy outlets now and the collapse of several smaller companies. Also, if you're a fan of a lower-tier character, like, say, the Question, your choices might be, um, one; and it may or may not ever be available to buy again. So, you might not get to be as choosy.

The flipside to that, would be characters I like and want an action figure of, but just one. I've been mulling over biting the bullet and getting the remaining Legendary Heroes and building Pitt, but I already have two other Savage Dragon figures. It's not a bad book, but I'm not so excited about it I need a third; and it's not really a figure I want to give to my son. (I haven't read it regularly in a while, but Savage Dragon is occasionally too violent or risque for a nine-year-old, although he loved the Hellboy crossover...) By the way, out of the six regular figures in the Legendary Heroes initial lineup, at least three are cops. Weird.

So, in that vein, let's look at before-and-afters for Judge Dredd and Witchblade, since my Wife was kind enough to get me them for my birthday. (She did raise an eyebrow at Witchblade's "costume," and I had to try to play it off: "Um, he comes with Pitt's head! Yeah.")

I've been a fan of Dredd for years and years now, even if I don't keep up on it as regularly now. The old one was part of a short 2000 AD line...hmm, I say short, and it had Judges Dredd, Death, and Anderson; Slaine the Berzerker, Strontium Dog, and Durham Red: not too shabby, really. Pity it didn't get another series, though: I would've loved a classic Rouge Trooper, and characters like the ABC Warriors would be toyetic as all get out. Thinking back, I probably paid full price for Dredd, but I'm pretty sure I got the rest of the line (except Durham) for something like $3.33 each, probably from a KB Toys.

I figured the older one would look like a Jimp now, but the elder Joe Dredd doesn't look too bad, really: he's a hair taller, more in scale with DC Direct style figures. I also like the older Lawgiver pistol better, and he came with a daystick; the Legendary model had two Lawgivers and a boot knife, along with the requisite more articulation and Pitt part (a leg).

Witchblade, on the other hand, is a character I've barely read, ever. Maybe a crossover here or there, but I'm just not a fan of Top Cow's line. Still, say what you will about her costume (or lack of same...see, like that) it's a toy that looks interesting even among a ton of others--like Bulleteer in DC Comics, I'm afraid Witchblade's for filling out crowd scenes. No pun intended. I bought the old version, a Moore Collectibles/Top Cow number, from a KB Toys again, which should give you an idea on the time frame, since neither company is doing a lot lately on the action figure front. She was only $3.33, I remember that much, well below whatever starting price she may have had. (All those figures I bought for under five bucks, and I'm surprised there's no KB Toys in my area, the toy market's depressed, and there's fewer toy companies?) Since I mentioned it with the 2000 AD line, I think this lineup was the Sara Pezzini Witchblade, Pirate Witchblade, and guys Ian Nottingham and Kenneth Irons.

The Legendary Witchblade doesn't get as many points of articulation as the guys in the line do, partly because of her size and thinner limbs, but also because some feel that too many points make for too many lines interrupting the sculpt. Moore takes that philosophy to heart, as the old version has a minimum of joints for that very reason. Legends Witchblade is also considerably less tan, shows less skin, and seems to wear less makeup than her older counterpart. Check out the new one on the rack, though: if her hips are rotated wrong, you can see her balljoints. Perverts.

So, where are we as far as Pitt? Well...

Ugh. Well, Superpatriot may win me over yet, but Ripclaw, ah, Ripclaw: trying to out-'extreme' Wolverine, and yet failing. Although, for some reason it occurred to me that I couldn't name a Native American character that I had an action figure of.

Oh, and I still had more build-a-figure pieces:


Let's see here: Witchblade's bike in the first picture is Kaneda's classic bike from Akira: from McFarlane Toys, it was sold separately in a line with a Kaneda that didn't have enough joints to sit on it. Dredd is perched on Leila's bike--the Leila from Futurama, but from Vampire Hunter D.

The Question was in a DC Direct wave that probably had a name, but included Blue Beetle (check), Phantom Lady (check), and Uncle Sam (pass). Like the other Charlton characters, Vic hasn't gotten a lot of toy love: he and Captain Atom have never been made in the Justice League Unlimited line, for example.

The Savage Dragon in the police uniform is from the 1995 Playmates line, for his short-lived cartoon. McFarlane made at least one other, since I have the one from the Image 10th Anniversary wave, which also included Ripclaw. A kinda terrible looking Ripclaw.