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Reed Richards, the leader of the Fantastic Four. This is his seventh minimate version and actually second with the “Stretch” name (previous being the Stretch Attack). 

Marvel Wave 48 and TRU Wave 15 do a good thing by going with a uniform outfit for all the F4 members (counting Thing’s shorts). The bad news, at least for this figure is the paint apps are sloppy. I think the main issue is the base plastic is dark navy blue rather than white and the white paint applied on top doesn’t fully cover as it should. Best example are his arms; check out the white hands (base white plastic) but then check out the white on his forearms. You can see the blue bleeding through; same goes for his legs. And horrible job on having a straight even white edge for top of his boots and gloves. His belt is not too bad with just a little bit of blue showing through. The white details on his torso are much better (pretty sure it’s a base white plastic, I need to double check) however on my figure it has a glob of blue on his back.

Reed’s face is well done, simple expression but recognizable as Mr. Fantastic. His hair though; yikes, when did he sport a mullet? Seriously the hairpiece extends too far past his head and even the little strand of hair on the front seems more distracting than iconic. My best advice for the hair is to toss it or throw it in your parts bin and swap out with ANY of the hairpieces from the other Reeds released so far.

So he’s not all bad, he comes with some really good extras. He has a large stretch arm fist (same seen from MvC Super Skrull) and a new stretch arm gripping hand that can fit around a minimate torso. You’ll notice how much better the white colors look here; it’s because they’re base white plastic. But still the same messy edges. Reed also comes with the coiled base we’ve seen several times before; unfortunately paint apps are just flat out sloppy. Also included is a stretch neck piece. This is a cool new piece that really makes Reed look all stretched out. But one word of warning on this piece is to be careful taking it on and off as the plastic in the middle is not as strong and can bend/break. One more accessory making its debut is the Ultimate Nullifier (history lesson click here) and it is spot on for such a small accessory.

This figure is a hard one to rate. I want it to be good because I really like the consistent team outfit and the extras (Nullifier!!) are really cool. But honestly this figure falls extremely short of fantastic.

MMC Score – 2 out of 10

Puppet Master

Phillip Masters, stepfather of Alicia and periodic tormentor of the Fantastic Four (more especially Thing). He’s able to mold radioactive clay into little puppets of people and control their actions.

Right off the bat he has an awesome facial expression! It’s funny, menacing and creepy all rolled into one. And thankfully no hole in the top of his head; they’ve done a lot better with not doing that to bald characters over the years.

His outfit is relatively simple with great reuse of pieces. His apron is the one from the Universal Monsters Villager repainted in grey. Underneath a simple looking button down shirt and green pants. The dark garnet of his gloves (buccaneer cuffs with basic hands) contrast well to his outfit. He also comes with a spare pair of green arms and accompanying green jacket (reuse of one seen on Prof X and Justin Hammer). Like I said very simple but very well done.

For accessories he comes with little grey miniature minimates (clay puppets). They’re not articulated, just simple small castings, but they are awesome. Just be careful since they’re so small that you don’t lose them. Both figures in this set come with clear bases. Custom-wise this figure is a dream. It has such great simple outfit pieces that makes a good base for ready-made civilians.

I was very surprised by this figure. I bought the set for Mr. Fantastic but Puppet Master completely blows him out of the water.

MMC Score – 9 out of 10

Review and pictures by Lurch77

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