NECA Toys are now offering the second wave of their Defenders of the Earth line, inspired from the classic 1980’s cartoon and given modern sculpts. The team is finally complete (minus the kids), as The Defenders of the Earth gets Mandrake and his assist Lothar, to join forces with wave 1’s The Phantom and Flash Gordon. This wave also includes Garax, his loyal ice robot from the series. The 80’s was certainly awesome when it came to cartoons and the launch of many big franchises such as Transformers, Ghostbusters, TMNT, ThunderCats, Masters of the Universe and others, and Defenders of the Earth is lesser known, but still extremely memorable in the hearts and minds of fans of that era.
Thank you to NECA for sending along their Defenders Of The Earth Wave 2 Figures for review.
Availability: Q4, 2022; January 2023
The Defenders of the Earth figures are packaged in a window box, with beautiful artwork of each character in the box on the front, as well as the logo on the sides. On the back are images of the figure, a description, and a look at the entire line-up announced.
Mandrake is a magician, and comes in his black tuxedo, red vest, white shirt, black bow-tie, black pants, and black shoes with white details. He also comes with a white handkerchief, and a black top hat. The soft goods cape includes a wire for posing,
Mandrake comes with a cane, blaster, two attachable blast effects, and interchangeable three additional hands. The blaster is the same as we’ve seen with The Phantom, Flash Gorgon and Lothar. The cane can be used for his magic spells and fits in nicely with his open grip hands. The blast effects clip on the tip of the blaster,
Lothar comes in a black outfit with an insignia on his chest, a grey vest with pouches, including a holster for his knife, green knee pads, grey and green boots, green wrist bands, a backpack and a rope sculpted around his left shoulder. There is also a green holster that fits on his right thigh.
Lothar comes with a blaster, two attachable blast effects, grappling hook, and two additional interchangeable hands. The grappling hook can open up and extend, which is a great feature.
Garax is an ice android and has a blocky and smooth line sculpt to represent this, and the deco certainly highlights the details with crisp lines, including several shades of blue, white and red on the face. The design has a great representation to his appearance on the show, and given a touch of realism as well. The head sculpt is where you see the robotic likeness, with the red and black mouth, which works great with the overall design.
Garax includes an arm cannon and a blaster with attachable blast effects, four additional interchangeable hands, a piece that snaps onto Zuffy, allowing him to hold the small character in his hand, and black effects. The blaster can also be plugged into the bottom of the arm cannon for even more firepower, which is a nice feature, and the blast effects can be plugged into the arm cannon and the blaster at the same time. This blaster is brand-new, and not a reuse from the existing figures.
Articulation for each figure is highlighted in the video above.
Overall, NECA’s design team have certainly been going all out with the Defenders of the Earth line and offering fans something truly special here. Best of all, if you’re familiar with their TMNT Ultimate line, these fit into scale nicely with that and the same love and attention is given to all of their offerings. Make sure to add these figures to your collection, and with a little luck, maybe we’ll get those kids and more of Ming’s androids into this line as well.
Purchase:
Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore, Hobby Link Japan, Things From Another World, Zavvi – U.S./Canada and Zavvi – U.K.
If you preorder anything at $39+ on Entertainment Earth, make sure to use coupon code: FREESHIP39 for FREE USA shipping. For in-stock orders, use code: ToyHypeUS for 10% off plus FREE USA Shipping on orders of $39+.
