Model Review - Bane Thugs 2 (Venom Soldier and TNT)

I just got my grubby little hands on the new blister of Bane Thugs ("Bane Thugs Set 1"), and I was really excited to get started on them - but not before I took pictures for all our readers to see what's inside!  In the tradition of my previous reviews (Mercs, Ivy, Deathstroke), I give you a quick review of the Bane Thugs Set 1: TNT and Venom Soldier.

These guys come in a mercifully-small number of pieces.  Venom Soldier is upper body + lower body + venom tank, and TNT is body + gun arms and gun.  Easy peasy.  TNT also comes with a textured plastic base, while Venom's larger base is just the plain one (which suits me fine, because then I can base him the way I want!).

Here are some close-ups of the minis without the cards.

In terms of mold lines and flash, these models had very little.  My only sculpting issues with these guys is that A) TNT's gun isn't straight, nor are his sockets easy to fit together (I needed to do some judicious filing and bending to make it work), and B) Venom Soldier's waist tab is far too big for its socket (again, more filing and cutting).

Even when I finally got Venom's waist down to size, I needed to add some filler in order to make everything flush.  After that, though, it was all smooth sailing.  You might notice that I used my own basing for TNT - that's because I always cut the tabs off my models' feet, so the prepackaged textured base wouldn't have worked very well in terms of contact points.  I find that cutting off the tab gives you more flexibility in terms of model positioning on the base.

Above all, I'm just very happy to have more Bane henchmen.  Also, these guys were a lot less of a hassle than the Mercs, which signals a good direction for sculpting and quality control on KM's part.

How do you feel about these guys, or about any sculpts you've picked up lately?