Monthly Archives: August 2010

Aug 16 2010

MOTU Classics: Orko and Prince Adam by Mattel

It was with heavy heart that I ultimately decided not to subscribe to Matty’s Club Eternia for next year. Well, not really a heavy heart. For a while now, I’ve suspected the line would not have enough core characters left to make me want all the figures next year, and from early indicators (ie. 2011’s first figure being Bow from She-Ra… wow, really Matty? Really??) it looks like I was right. Granted, I am not the diehard Masters of the Universe fan that a lot of these figures are aimed at and I don’t have a pressing need to own every figure that comes out. As such, Orko and Prince Adam were among two of the last “must have” figures for me. There are still a few that I missed that I would like to own, and I’m still waiting for The Sorceress, but from here on in, I’ll be cherry picking the line carefully. Even if I wind up paying a little more for individual figures on Ebay, it’ll be less bother than having to sell off all the ones I don’t want.

Before getting into these figures, I should say that I have no idea if this set is still considered to be an SDCC exclusive or not. I know the shitty looking color change Orko was the one that was *only* available for sale at the show. This regular flavor Orko went up for sale on the Matty Collector site afterwards and quickly sold out. Is it still considered a Con exclusive? I have no idea. Probably not. There’s nothing on the package that says so.

Speaking of the package, I really hate the direction Matty went with on this set. Oh, the card and bubble and all that jazz are fine as they’re the same classic inspired deco used on the rest of the line and it still looks awesome. It also still comes in the traditional white mailer box. What I hate is the way Matty tried to be cute and put Adam on the bottom as an accessory and have tiny Orko hovering like a dot amidst all the waisted space. If I were a mint-on-card collector, this would have infuriated me to no end. Fortunately, I just tear it open to get at the goods inside. Either way, I think the presentation would have been better served with Orko mounted hovering next to Adam. Not as clever, but it would have looked a lot less ridiculous.

Let’s start with Orko, since its his name on the card. There were a lot of directions Matty could have gone in making this figure, but in the end I think they really nailed it. He’s perfectly in scale with the other figures, and the addition of the clear stand to give him a hovering effect is just what I was hoping they would do. The sculpt is spot on, with a striking resemblance to the Filmation character design. The blue skin tone on his hands and ears is perfect, the eyes and scarf look great. The only nitpick I can come up with is that there are quite a few shades of variation between the red used on his hat and his cloak. No big deal, though.

Orko has a decent amount of articulation for what he is. He has ball joints in his shoulders and elbows, his hands have swivel cuts, and I suppose you can count the ball and socket to his stand as a joint as it allows you to tweak the position he’s hovering in. Oh yeah, even his, erm… head is balljointed giving him more movement there than I would have expected.

Orko comes with two accessories: A wand and a spell book. His right hand is sculpted to hold the wand. As for the book, I can just about get him to hold it in both hands, but not easily. The wand is a wink back to the 200x Orko figure. I suppose you can count his stand as an accessory too.

Prince Adam is also a very nice figure. Once again, I think Matty hit all the right points on his design. They kept the controversial purple tights and purple furry diaper. His white shirt is painted on, which does look a little cheap around his neckline, but not too bad. His bracers are smaller than the ones on the He-Man figure, and they are painted silver. Matty went with a soft plastic tunic, similar to the type used on Teela and it works very well. I’m very glad they didn’t opt for using soft goods here. I would, however have liked a loop on the back of the tunic to hold his sword.

Adam comes with two interchangeable heads. One is pretty much the same as the one used for previous He-Man releases, the other is a resculpt that has him grinning. I like the sculpt on the grinning head as being more appropriate to the figure, but the skin tone is waxy and it looks like Adam is sweating profusely. The other head is fine, but I don’t think Adam should look that pissed off. I’ll have to decide between the lesser of two evils when displaying him. He also comes with one and a half power swords.

Adam’s articulation is typical for the line. He has a ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders and hips. His elbows, knees and ankles are all hinged. He has swivel cuts in his biceps, wrists and waist. He has the torso hinge, but the tunic prevents it form being much use. Unfortunately, the joints on my Adam are mighty loose right out of the package. Especially his ankles. I can tell right away he is going to be a shelf diver.

As mentioned at the beginning, this set sold out crazy fast when it went on sale at Matty Collector on the 2nd. That was, of course, to be expected, since even the regular figures sell out like mad. I was lucky enough to get in on a pre-order at another site (which also sold out shortly after) offering the set for $45. Honestly, I expected to get beaten up a lot worse on the price. Considering there are technically two figures here and how important the characters are, I don’t think I did too badly. Although in hindsight I would have done better on Ebay where he has been frequently selling for around $25-35. Live and learn. I’m just happy to have it, as these are both fantastic figures.

 

Aug 15 2010

Transformers The Hunt For The Decepticons: Sea Spray by Hasbro

The new Transformers are showing up all over the place here. Its taking all my resolve to resist picking up all the new stuff in one shot, but I’m trying to pace myself and just grab a couple new figures each time I hit the toy aisles. On my last trip to Walmart for groceries, I didn’t intend to pick up any new toys, but when I saw Sea Spray, I couldn’t help myself.

Ok, so technically Sea Spray is part of The Hunt for the Decepticons line. Its how he’s listed in retail inventories and that’s the style of packaging he comes in. But why? Clearly this guy should have been released as part of Generations. I’m guessing the reason is that Hasbro didn’t plan on anything in Generations being larger than a Deluxe, so it was just easier to go with The Hunt packaging. Either way, I consider Sea Spray as part of the whole Classics/Universe 2.0/Generations continuum. Besides being an obvious G1 homage, his style clearly doesn’t fit in with the movie stuff.

The Voyager Class figures in The Hunt lineup are packaged in robot form. I like this idea, because I get a good look at what the bot form looks like. Afterall, the alt modes are almost always solid. I’m not so crazy about package deco used on this line, though. It still looks like its hanging on to the Egyptian theme from Revenge of the Fallen and I really think its time to move on from that. The angular edges on the box does make the package stand out nicely and the package is pretty collector friendly if you want to return your figure to it for display.

The most obvious thing about Sea Spray is how much he’s grown since his humble G1 days as a minibot. As a Voyager, he stands shoulder to shoulder with Classics Optimus Prime. I don’t mind this so much, because despite being larger, Sea Spray’s proportions still work with the Classic style figures, whereas when fellow minibot Power Glide got the larger make over, he just didn’t seem to fit in with the Classics. Besides, which Sea Spray’s alt mode is designed to carry other Autobots, so his larger size just makes sense.

Sea Spray’s alt mode is a hover craft, and a good one at that. There isn’t a lot of substance to him as he’s pretty much hollow underneith and a good portion of him is the flatbed platform. The main bulk of the toy is the ring that runs around him and the control cabin. There’s a good amount of detail on the cabin structure, and the blue ring is textured. Sea Spray features two firing missile launchers, adjustable fans in the back, and a moving ramp to provide access to his flatbed. The flatbed will fit most Scout Class vehicles, but Minicons definitely work better. Overall, this is a great looking alt mode, and with the blue and white color scheme, he’s a good match for G1 Sea Spray, although he would have been closer if Hasbro had used yellow instead of gold for his fans.

In theory, transforming Sea Spray is pretty simple, but things get a bit sticky because of the way the blue ring locks together. Its tough to figure out where to disconnect it first to start the transformation. I’ve done it quite a few times, and locking/unlocking the final pieces always seems to be a little frustrating.

Sea Spray’s robot mode is outstanding. The proportions are excellent, making him look like one powerful dude and he has good balance. There’s a great deal of nautical influence in the robot mode as well. Sea Spray’s head is obviously derived from a diving mask complete with breathing aparatus, his back with the twin fans looks a bit like a diving backpack, and if you so desire, you can fold flippers out onto his feet. I just pretend that option doesn’t exist! The side mounted missile launchers from the hovercraft mode wind up on Sea Spray’s arms, giving him some solid firepower.

Articulation includes universal joints in Sea Spray’s shoulders and hips, as well as hinges in his elbows, knees and ankles. His head can also turn and you can make adjustments to his fans.

Sea Spray retails for $19.99, which is right on point for the Voyager size toys. As far as I’m concerned, Hasbro hit a home run with Sea Spray. The size change made good sense, and they made good use of it to create an impressively designed toy. He’s a nice update to the vintage character, loads of fun, and makes a great addition to my collection of Classics, er Generations, er whatever.


Aug 14 2010

GI JOE The Pursuit of Cobra: Ghost Hawk by Hasbro

The Rise of Cobra line was really starting to get long in the tooth, so its a good thing that the new Pursuit of Cobra toys are starting to hit the shelves. My last trip to Toys R Us didn’t net me any of the new carded figures, but the initial assortment of vehicles were out so I picked up the Ghost Hawk here. Obviously, the Ghost Hawk is supposed to be an update to the vintage Sky Hawk, which was re-released in the 25th Anniversary line under the new name, Ghost Hawk. When I saw the initial brief shots of this vehicle, I thought it was going to be a remold of that reissue, but as it turns out, this baby is a brand new toy, and one fantastic update to a classic design.

The Ghost Hawk is a one-man, short range verticle take off and landing attack craft. Just think of it as a tiny attack chopper without rotors and you get the idea. Its a pretty simple toy, but very well executed and it features a number of nice improvements over the old model.

The new Pursuit of Cobra packaging is fantastic. Its a pretty simple window box, showing off the toy and the figure, but I love the way Hasbro has themed each of the toys into a type of mission and then decorated the package with that theme. The Ghost Hawk is part of the Jungle Attack mission, which apparently entails hunting for the location of the Terrordrome base in the jungle. [No fair, Hasbro. Don’t drop the name unless you plan on releasing the playset!]. This year, Hasbro is taking a page from their defunct Indiana Jones line and having the toy box’s inserts convert into dioramas. I don’t have a lot of use for the gimmick, but its a nice idea. The Ghost Hawk comes mostly assembled, but with a whole mess of stickers that need applying. And some of those stickers are ridiculously tiny.

Once out of the package, the Ghost Hawk is ready for action. The toy features rotating engines, an opening cockpit and two detachable weapon pods on the undercarriage. One is a missile launcher, the other is a chain gun. The missile is ridiculously long, but if you’d rather have realism over play features, you can remove it and launcher could double as just an extra fuel pod or a bomb or something. There’s also two chin cannons under the cockpit that can swivel a bit from side to side. That’s about all the features this thing has. Like I said, its a simple toy, but the beauty is in the design.

The sculpting on the vehicle is extremely well done. There are lots of panel lines on the hull and every inch of the toy is brimming with details.The Pursuit of Cobra line definitely looks like its going for realism in the sculpts, even if they are based on fictional vehicle designs. The original Sky Hawk featured a completely open cockpit, and the reissue had clear plastic added, but this new model has an enclosed, armored cockpit with a small red tinted clear window. There’s also a sticker to go inside that shows a digital Heads Up Display on this screen. I also like the new streamlined stablizers in the back, as opposed to the big square ones on the old model as well as the modernized VTOL engines.

The Ghost Hawk’s pilot is called Tomahawk. He’s a pretty nice figure, especially for a pack-in, but I hate the name. Hasbro must really be taking a beating with the copyrights on their character names, because they’ve come up with some real stinkers lately. Tomahawk has a removable helmet and flight vest and he comes with a combat knife that can fit into the scabbard sculpted onto his leg. No gun or stand, though. Right away, he reminded me of 25th Anni. Mutt and after comparing the two I see its because they share the same bottom half. The only difference is Mutt’s holster has been resculpted into a scabbard for Tomahawk.

In case you haven’t guessed, I’m really happy with this vehicle. Its an Alpha Class toy, so it retails at around $16.99. I think its a much better value than the Alpha Class toys from Rise of Cobra, all of which I passed on. The Sky Hawk was always a favorite of mine, and this is an awesome redesign that brings a lot of realism and grit to the original concept without sacrificing anything that made it so cool to begin with.

Aug 13 2010

Transformers War for Cybertron: Optimus Prime by Hasbro

I don’t play a lot of video games these days. Well, at least not nearly as much as I used to back in my game junkie days. But I did pick up War for Cybertron and I played it like crack until I was done and then started it all over again. Besides being a great game, it really brought the characters to life and featured some downright fantastic re-designs of some of my favorite childhood characters. Needless to say, when I found out that some of these designs would be transformed into figures for the Generations line, I was mighty excited. The initial assortment features Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, and today we’re going to look at Prime.

Hasbro opted to include these in the Generations line so you get the exact same style of package as we saw with Thrust. Prime is mounted in his Cybertron truck form. Its a very appealing presentation, but I would have liked something different about the card to make the War for Cybertron figures stand out a bit more. Even a sticker on the bubble might have been nice. Then again, I just rip these things open, so what do I care?



But wait, what’s this? Optimus Prime’s a Deluxe? Yeah, that doesn’t happen too often, and I don’t think it should have happened here. Granted, in the game, Prime wasn’t much taller than his fellow Autobots, but I still think Hasbro should have made this figure a Voyager Class. Not only because Prime is usually taller, but for reasons of the figure’s complexity that we’ll get to in a minute. With the popularity and press about the game, you’d think some Voyager sized toys wouldn’t have been that big risk. I mean, even Sea Spray is a Voyager so… come on!

I love the design of Prime’s truck mode. Its got a retro look to it, what with the curving shape of the front quarter panels and the grill, and yet it still looks futuristic. Its also got no windows, which makes sense, because, afterall, in his natural Cybertron form, why would he have windows? The truck mode locks together really well and rolls along great. There’s a socket on the top that you can peg his gun into, which is great because in the game, all the Autobots packed quite a bit of firepower in their alternate forms.


Transforming Prime is a daunting task, at least the first couple of times. The package lists him as a Level 4 Advanced conversion, and they’re not kidding around. There’s a lot of moving parts on this guy and more than a few double hinged pieces that need to be moved just right to get everything else to work. I can usually work out my Transformers without instructions, especially Deluxes, but I had to glance at Prime’s a few times to get it right. Still, after a few conversions, he’s not so bad. In fact, this is one of the more clever transformations I’ve seen in a while.

In robot mode, Prime is just a fantastic looking figure. In fact, he’s one of my favorite looking Prime figures in quite a while. His head sculpt is classic Prime, but with a few more stylized features, like the longer ear antenna. I like how this design leaves in the chest “windshields” even though they aren’t part of the truck design. The various bits of the truck’s outer shell fall into line nicely to form pieces of armor for his shoulders and non-obtrusive back plating. Its a really elegant design and a really convincing concept of what a pre-Earth Prime should have looked like.

Prime has great articulation, which includes a rotating head, ball joints in the shoulders and hips and hinged elbows and knees. His joints feel pretty loose right out of the package, but he doesn’t have much trouble standing or holding his positions.


Cybertronian Optimus Prime retails for around $11.99, which is about right for Deluxes these days and actually not bad for a figure of this complexity. Actually, he’s an amazing enough figure that I would have probably paid a lot more for him if I had to. I sincerely hope he sells well, because I’d like to see a lot of figures produced from the War for Cybertron game beyond the handful that we’ve seen so far. The early pictures for Soundwave look great. Now bring on the Seekers, Warpath, Ironhide, Sideswipe, etc. etc.

 

Aug 12 2010

Transformers Generations: Thrust by Hasbro

When Hasbro came out with Starscream and Skywarp in the Classics line, I thought they were among some of the best Transformers figures ever produced… and I still do. They took the classic design of the G1 toys and made them into the actual articulated action figures that I always wanted to own as a kid. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in being pissed off that Hasbro decided not to complete the set with Thundercracker. And even when we did get Ramjet later on, Dirge and Thrust were nowhere to be found, unless you lived in Japan or were willing to drop a couple hundred dollars for them on Ebay.

Well, with the Classics line once again renamed (this time as Generations), we are finally getting another Decepticon Seeker here in the States. While I would have preferred Thundercracker to complete my set of the original three, Thrust here is still a very nice pick-up. Let’s take a look…

I like the packaging on the Generations Deluxe figures. Yes, Generations. What used to be Classics and then Universe (Universe 2.0 to many fans) is now Generations. The cards feature unique character art, and the large bubble shows off the figure nicely in its jet mode, although its kind of odd that he’s carded with his VTOL engines mounted under the back wings. The back panel has a photo of Thrust in his robot mode and the usual little bio blurb. There’s a new sticker on the bubble advertising Hasbro’s upcoming TV network, which will be the home of the new Transformers series. Ah, but packaging was made to be ripped open, so let’s get to the figure inside.

Thrust is one great looking jet. The brown and deep crimson colors are extremely close to the original G1 toy and the clear golden cockpit looks striking against the darker colors. The main body of this figure is naturally a reuse of the Ramjet body, with the new wing designs, complete with removable VTOL engine pods. You can also mount Thrust’s rocket launchers under the rear wings if you prefer. Next to Skywarp, Thrust here is now my favorite of the modern Decepticon seeker jet designs.

Converting Thrust to robot form is fairly simple, but I’m not sure I would agree with the package in calling it Easy. Especially not since these are designed for little kids. Either way, he transforms exactly the same way as the other Seekers, until you get to his wings and there you have a couple of options. You can transform him the same as Starscream or Skywarp, or you can remove the VTOLs from his larger wings and mount them on the smaller wings near his feet. Going with this second option gives him a little more clearance for moving his arms.

Either way, Thrust looks awesome in his robot mode. Hasbro did a fine job making this figure resemble its original animated counterpart. As with the other newly designed Seekers, I do wish the missiles weren’t so large. I realize its a safety issue, but I would have preferred they just molded these into non-firing laser cannons to make them smaller and more animation accurate. Still, with a figure this good, I’m just nit picking. Thrust has solid articulation. He can turn his head. He has universal movement in his shoulders and upper legs, and his elbows and knees are hinged. Essentially, he can do all the things I wished my G1 Seekers could do.

Thrust retails at $11.99. The price of the Deluxe figures are slowly creeping up there, but I don’t think they’ve reached unreasonable levels yet. That’s especially the case when you take a look at how much the Henkei Thrust was selling for on Ebay or import toy sites. Either way, I’m really happy with this figure and I’ve got new hope that we may yet still see Dirge and Thundercracker on this side of the Pacific.

Aug 12 2010

Transformers Power Core Combiners: Skyburst by Hasbro

Not long ago, I took a look at the Combaticons Power Core Combiner set, now its time to check out the Autobot competition: The Aerialbots, led by Skyburst. In case you missed out on the Combaticon post, here’s a quick breakdown on how these Power Core Combiner 5-packs work. You get one Commander figure (roughly Scout Class size) in this case that’s Skyburst, who transforms into a robot. He comes with four smaller drones that don’t transform into robots, but do automatically convert into limbs when plugged into the Commander figure’s combiner pegs to create a larger combined robot. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the Aerialbots.

The packaging is the same as the one used on the Combaticon set. Its colorful, exciting, and pretty pleasing on the eye. The front panel of the box has a large window to show off the toys inside. Skyburst is mounted in the center in his robot form and flanked by his four nameless drones in their vehicle forms. There are two helicopters and two jets. The back panel shows the combined figure and there’s a description on the side panel about how the whole Power Core Combiner system works. All in all, its a serviceable package and its fairly collector friendly if you wanted to return your Transformers to the box. I do, however, disagree with the conversion level at Intermediate. There’s nothing even remotely challenging about transforming Skyburst.

On my last trip to Toys R Us, I specifically left this set on the shelf and bought the Combaticons instead, just because I thought this one was the lesser of the two sets. That assessment, of course, was based just on quick initial impressions, but boy was I right. While the Combaticon set pretty much sold me on this whole iffy drone combiner idea, this Aerialbot set makes me start questioning it again. There’s just very little to like about it.

Skyburst is a pretty average figure. His jet mode looks like it was inspired by G1 Silverbolt. Its not a bad looking jet, although I’m not thrilled about the drab gray and gold colors. There’s some decent sculpting of the panel lines, the landing gear works, and unless you turn it upside down, you won’t see too much robot kibble. The minicon peg on the back of the jet is unsightly, but I guess its part of the line’s gimmick. One nice thing is that he doesn’t have any of his combiner pegs hanging off of him like Bombshock’s truck mode does.

His transformation is pretty simple even for a Scout Class, which have been getting remarkably sophisticated these days. But even compared to the Combaticon Commander, Skyburst comes up severely lacking in robot mode. He wears most of his jet mode as an enormous backpack, which apart from giving him the illusion of height, just looks ugly. Apart from that at least his articulation is fairly good, with ball joints in the shoulders, elbows and hips, and hinges in the knees. Even still, Skyburst’s robot mode just doesn’t hold up all that well to today’s standards. I’ve certainly seen worse, but its just average and uninspiring.




I wasn’t terribly impressed with the Combaticon drones, but they were ok for what they were. The Aerialbot drones don’t fare quite so well. The blue helicopter gunship is just a mess. The yellow (rescue?) chopper is ok, but it almost looks like its supposed to be superdeformed. The black and grey jet would be passable if it weren’t for the huge and unnecessary minicon peg towering up from behind the cockpit and the massive hole between the wings. At least the white electronic survaillance jet is a pretty cool little Autobot jet. I really don’t have anything bad to say about that one.

At least the combined robot form is solid right? Eh, no. While I expect combiner robots to have a hodgepodge element to their aesthetics, Skyburst’s combined form really goes too far. The white jet makes for a pretty good arm, but look at the yellow helicopter’s limb. What the hell is going on with that thing? Its just awful. And both of the legs are wobbly and unstable and I had to do quite a bit of fiddling to get him to stand up right on these legs, even though they are supposed to auto-transform. The chopper leg doesn’t offer a lot of support and I’m still not sure what the jet leg is really supposed to do to be correct. I also had a real tough time getting the grey jet pegged into his combiner port without transforming it manually first. Skyburst’s torso form is actually not too bad. Its a clever transformation and pegs together well. I do, however, hate the head as it seems to be inspired by the Bayformer heads, whereas Bombshock’s was clearly a G1 homage.

In the end this Aerialbot set is an epic fail for me. I could forgive certain things about Skyburst and his drones, if they added up to a really cool combined form, but they don’t. This set just doesn’t really succeed at anything. If you were on the fence over whether or not to embrace these Power Core Combiner sets, this one will likely make up your mind against the idea. Bombshock’s set made for a pretty cool and solid combiner, whereas this one is just not very well executed and not a lot of fun. I’m glad TRU was having a sale on it, because at least I saved $2. My recommendation is to invest your money in some of the other awesome Transformers figures showing up right now, and leave this set on the shelf.



 

Aug 9 2010

GI JOE: Rolling Operations Command Center (ROCC) by Hasbro

Back in the dog days of Sigma Six, the traditional 3 3/4 GI JOE figures and vehicles were confined to Hasbro’s new Direct To Consumer line, which meant the only way you could buy them was on online or at Toys R Us. This DTC line featured a sparse series of figures, most of which were kitbashed (ie. cobbled together from the parts of various other figures). It produced very few figures that I found worthwhile, and even fewer toys. Its something of a contradiction then that this was also the time that we got one of the coolest and biggest new JOE vehicles to come down the line in a long while.

I love the box that this thing came in. Its very reminiscent of the vintage Joe packaging. No frills, no fancy diagonal corners, just a big brick of a box. The front of the box has some artwork of the vehicle in action and a cutout window to show off the Long Range figure, which I could not find for this article. No big loss, he was a mediocre figure at best. The toy inside is pretty much already assembled and it will roll back into the box by taking just a few bits off of the top.


Of course, the idea of a rolling command center is not new to GI JOE. There was the Mobile Command Center, the more recent PITT and to some extent, I suppose even The Defiant could count. Its not a coincidence either, but rather a clever attempt by Hasbro to address the idea that playsets don’t sell well, but vehicles do. Hence, the vehicle-playset.

In vehicle mode, the ROCC is pretty straightforward. I let Matt Trakker drive it, because its elaborate conversion reminds me of a MASK vehicle. The front cab windshield folds down to accomodate a driver and four passengers. The goofy turret system on the back of the vehicle is the one real sticking point for me. Through an overly convaluted hinged arm system, the turret pod, which holds one figure, can be maneuvered to sit in the hole in either the front or back of the vehicle. It seems like an awful lot of needless maneuvering just to slide the thing front and back and if there was a gunner in there while it was shifting, I’m pretty sure he’d be puking his guts out while being bounced around inside the turret. The one thing this complex arm system does allow for is the pod to orientate itself into a useful firing position on the back of the ROCC’s base mode, so I guess there’s a reason for it. The curious thing about the ROCC is the number of sockets that look like they were intended to plug guns or equipment into, but nothing came with the set to make use of these holes.


Once converted to command base, this toy’s fun really takes off. The back splits open revealing the command area, a vehicle maintenance area, complete with ramps and a robotic arm, and a launching gantry for a small one-person stealth fighter. The vehicle area is only large enough to fit the smallest of Joe vehicles, but chances are you have something in your collection that will fit in there. The ATV or RAM Cycle both fit fine. The command area seats four figures, although only one really has access to any controls, so I’m not sure what the other three are supposed to be doing.


The stealth jet is a pretty simple little toy, and somewhat reminsicent of the Cobra Firebat that came with the old Terrordrome. The cockpit opens to seat one figure, and that’s pretty much all this little jet does. Again, besides the socket that hooks the jet to the gantry, there are a couple more conspicous sockets under it that look like they were intended for something else.


With the command base set up, the cab portion of the truck can deploy to create a little scout vehicle, which is quite reminiscent of one of the old 70’s GI JOE Adventure Team toys. This little vehicle includes a missile launcher, that holds a formidable eight firing missiles (or seven if you’re like me and just shot one behind the couch).

As a playset, this thing is nowhere as big or complex as the Mobile Command Center or the PITT, but then again, it doesn’t look like a Jawa Sandcrawler either. On the contrary, its truck mode looks great and its playset mode offers more than a few cool features. I stumbled upon this thing at a TRU somewhere around 2005 and was amazed at its reasonable $29.99 price tag, so it came home with me. Its pretty cool for what it is, and while its plenty large, its still a good compromise if you want a mobile base for your JOES, but don’t want to store the gargantuan MCC or PITT.

Aug 8 2010

Transformers: Autobot Blaster (SDCC Exclusive) by Hasbro

Last year Hasbro gave us the very cool Soundwave gift set as their Transformers SDCC Exclusive. This year, it seemed only natural they compliment that release with Soundwave’s Autobot counterpart, Blaster. They also seemed to up the production numbers on this one, possibly as a response to how quickly Soundwave sold out last year. So is this set as impressive and desireable as last year’s offering? Yes and no.

Hasbro pulled out the stops on the presentation of this set, making it look even more impressive than the formidable Soundwave release. The set comes packaged in a reflective cardboard sleeve with a huge Autobot symbol and Blaster’s name written in a cool, funky retro 80’s style that certainly suits the figure’s character.


Slide off the sleeve and you have a pleasingly large box decorated in a G1 fashion very similar to Soundwave’s release. The key difference, besides it being bigger, is that Blaster’s box has a front flap that covers the window display. Open the flap and you can see photos of the toys on the reverse side and the window revealing Blaster and three of his cassette minions, Steeljaw, Ramhorn and Eject, all in their robot forms. On presentation alone, this set gets full marks.

Slide out the inner tray and you can get to the goods. Blaster is a satisfyingly large figure, much bigger than Soundwave. He’s colorful, boxy and the epitome of glorious G1 Transformer design. His stickers come already applied, and mine were applied pretty well. The only real disappointing thing about Blaster is the complete lack of detail on his back. Granted, it is authentic to the original toy, but it looks lacking, especially compared to Soundwave’s belt clip and opening “battery” compartment-slash-weapon storage. Oh yeah, his head always looked way too small to me.

Blaster has pretty limited articulation, which is to be expected for a G1 Transformer and most of his existing articulation is a by-product of his transformation process. He can turn his head, his arms rotate at the shoulders, his hands can swivel, and his legs can move laterally to change his stance. That’s pretty much it. His tape door is spring loaded and ejects with the press of his eject button. Its a first for me, since the eject button on the original G1 Blaster I owned as a kid was broken right out of the box.

Transforming him into his boom box mode is only slightlly more involved than Soundwave. Its a very simple conversion, although there are a few neat tricks, like the way the arms fold in or the way the grab bar comes out of each of the legs and joins together. The final result is more toyish looking and less convincing than Soundwave’s walkman form, but it gets the job done.


Blaster’s cassettes are a bit of a mixed bag. Steeljaw and Ramhorn are pretty cool, although they suffer from the same two-dimensional design as Ravage and rely on their added parts to give them depth. Both figures are pretty well designed, though, considering what they transform into, and Steeljaw in particular has a ridiculous number of shifting plates to help along his transformation. Eject has never been one of my favorites, probably because of his weird looking arms. He’s certainly not awful, but compare him to the Rumble and Frenzy design and he comes up severely lacking. As with the Soundwave reissue, all of Blaster’s cassettes come with clear plastic cases.



Blaster retails at the same price as last year’s Soundwave set, $49.99, and I’d say that’s quite a deal. While original G1 Blasters can still be commonly found for sale at the usual places, his tape door is often an early casualty of play wear and tear, and his cassettes can be a lot tougher to find in good shape. Either way, you’re getting quite a lot here for your money.

As previously noted, the production on this set seemed to be a lot higher than Soundwave, as Blaster was still available for almost a week after going up for sale at Hasbro Toyshop. The only sticking point is that I don’t think Blaster has ever reached the insane levels of popularity as his Decepticon counterpart Soundwave. I know that I never much cared for his character in the series, but I always liked the figure. That lesser demand plus the increased production likely led to him sticking around a lot more. Still, any diehard G1 fan would do well to pick this set up. The presentation is wonderful, the figures are solid, and its certainly priced right.

Aug 7 2010

Doctor Who: Amy Pond by Character Options

Ah, Amy Pond. While I’m not all that fond of the way many of the stories fall back on using her to solve a lot of The Doctor’s dilemmas, its so hard to dislike her. She’s brave, spunky, adorable and sexy and there’s an undeniable chemistry between actress Karen Gillan and Matt Smith that I truly think surpasses the relationship that Billie Piper had with David Tennant. Feel free to throw cans at me, but that’s just the way I see it. So, obviously, I was anxious to add an Amy Pond figure to my collection. Afterall, here Series 5 is already over and my 11th Doctor still stood companionless on the shelf.

The packaging here is identical to what we saw with the Dalek Ironside. The blue background and new logo match the Series 5 credits nicely and the regular card and bubble has replaced the clamshell used for the last few assortments of figures. I really like this new design, although the front insert does conceal a fair amount of the figure’s lower half, and covering up Amy’s legs is just a crime. The back panel shows the selection of figures that comprise this first Series 5 assortment.

I’ll admit, i was pretty apprehensive about how Character Options was going to do with Amy’s likeness. Granted, more often then not their sculpts are right on the money and both Rose (their second attempt at Rose to be specific) and Martha turned out fine, although I was never entirely happy with Donna’s figure. As it turns out, Amy is another win. I will say they didn’t quite get her eyes right. Considering Amy’s “go to” look in almost every scene is a wide-eyed expression of amazement, this sculpt’s eyes are too narrow. Interestingly enough, this significant departure doesn’t really spoil the likeness, as it still looks like who its supposed to be.

CO had a few outfit choices to go with. I wouldn’t have minded getting Amy in her jim jams, but this outfit will do just nicely. She’s wearing a short leather jacket, a red pullover and a fairly short skirt and cowboy boots. This Amy ensemble first materialized in Victory of the Daleks and it certainly gets the job done. There’s also some really nice little attention to detail, like her thin gold choker necklace and the scrollwork sculpted into her boots. Her hair is also exceptionally well sculpted and despite the fact that it hangs loose around her shoulders, it is cast in soft enough plastic to not hinder her head movement all that much.

Amy features standard articulation for this line. Her head turns, her arms rotate at the shoulders, have hinged elbows, and feature swivel cuts in the biceps and just below the elbows. Her legs have universal joints at the hips, hinges at the knees, and swivel cuts in the thighs, which are concealed under her skirt. She also swivels at the waist.

About the only downside to Miss Amy Pond here is the cost and availability. Like all the figures in this wave, her initial offering was pretty high at most e-tailers. I paid $20 for her, which was doubly painful considering she was released the exact same week that I was forking over money for several SDCC exclusives. Unlike other figures in this wave, Amy actually sold out at that price at most places around the web. Hopefully CO will produce more or include her in a future wave, because with the exception of maybe River Song, none of the Doctor’s previous companions have been all that difficult, or expensive, to get. My advice is if you find her, buy her. She’s a great figure and obviously a key character that no Doctor Who collection should be without.

Aug 7 2010

Doctor Who: Planet of Fire 5th Doctor and The Master (SDCC Exclusive) by Character Options

For a while now, Character Options has been dancing around giving us certain characters from the classic show. We’ve gotten all The Doctors, and our share of aliens, but the “human” characters have been off limits. With the release of this set, we’re one step closer to breaking that unfortunate lock out. The “Deadly Assassin” Master previously released was all well and good, but I, like many fans, were waiting to get a figure based on one of the proper incarnations of this evil Time Lord, and now we have it. The Planet of Fire set gives us another version of the 5th Doctor plus The Master as portrayed by the late, great actor Anthony Ainley.

The packaging here is the same type we’ve been seeing on all the classic style two-packs. The logo and artwork is based on the 2005-2010 series and the figure is sealed in a clamshell. An insert on the bottom shows off images of The Doctor and The Master and the back panel has a blurb about the episode and The Master. The 2010 SDCC logo is printed in the upper right hand of the card. Planet of Fire has never been one of my favorite episodes, but it does introduce the appealing companion, Peri, and it is a pretty good final showdown between The 5th Doctor and The Master. Ainley would also reprise his role to face off against both the 6th and the 7th Doctors in future episodes. Oh yeah, Planet of Fire also sees the departure of Turlough… good riddance!

Before getting started, here’s a quick and possibly unnecessary disclaimer on The Master as he is portrayed in this set. Technically, this is not The Master, but rather the shape-shifting android, Kamelion, assuming the form of The Master, who was in actuality stranded in his TARDIS in a… um… diminished state. Its only really relevant because The Master never actually wore a suit like this and this was an opportunity for CO to create an Ainley Master while reusing some parts from the John Simm Master. Do I care? Nope. If CO sees fit to release a proper Master figure later on down the road, I will pick it up, if not, I’m perfectly happy with this one. Its amazing how easy I am to please when dealing with a figure I thought I’d never get.

At first glance, many thought that this Master’s body was a complete reuse of the body used for the John Simm Master, but that’s not entirely the case. The arms and legs are the same, but the torso has significant differences. The details on this new figure’s jacket are much better sculpted, he’s wearing a vest under the jacket, and the wrinkles sculpted into the back are more pronounced. The sculpting on the Simm Master’s coat looks really soft when compared to the crisp detail on this one. The head sculpt is obviously new and quite excellent. CO did a fine job capturing Ainley’s slightly evil smirk and his mesmerizing, piercing eyes. There’s a tad of paint slop on the goatee, but nothing that is unacceptable. All in all, this is an excellent figure.

The Master’s articulation includes a rotating head. His arms rotate at the shoulders, are hinged at the elbows and have swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists. His legs have universal joints at the hips and hinged knees. He is, however, missing the swivel cuts in the thighs that many fo CO’s Doctor Who figures have.

The Doctor is also a fantastic figure, although he features far less original sculpting than The Master. The body sculpt is virtually identical to the one used for the previous single carded release, with the only difference being the celery on his lapel. I suspect it is identical to the Doctor released in the SDCC exclusive Time Crash set, released a few years back, and it may be the same body used on the one in the recent Eleven Doctors Set, both of which also feature the ornamental vegetable.

The head on this figure is a resculpt, changed just enough to accomodate the hat, which is not removable. The paint on this figure is very crisp, with the only flaw I can see being a small red dot of paint on the left shoulder of his coat. I’m not someone really interested in collecting a lot of variants of each Doctor, but I was glad to get this one because of the celery and I think the hat looks quite good on him. Right now, this one is replacing my other 5th Doctor as my main display piece. That’s how much I like him.

The Doctor features the exact same articulation as his previous releases. He has a rotating head. His arms rotate at the shoulders, are hinged at the elbows and have swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists. His legs have universal joints at the hips, hinged knees and swivel cuts in the thighs.

The set only comes with one accessory and that’s a sonic screwdriver for The Doctor. The obvious miss here is the lack of a Tissue Compression Eliminator for The Master. Oh well!

The Planet of Fire set retailed at $39.99, which is exactly what we’ve come to expect to pay for these limited issue two-packs. Sure, some might complain about the reuse of parts on The Master, or that he’s actually Kamelion and not The Master at all. Others might complain that they have to buy another Doctor just to get him. Me? I’m thrilled with this set. Its actually the one SDCC exclusive that I decided I couldn’t live without. As it turned out, it was a pretty easy set to get and many e-tailers still have it available at the original MSRP.