Monthly Archives: September 2010

Sep 18 2010

Star Wars: The Rise of Boba Fett Ultimate Battle Pack (TRU Exclusive) by Hasbro, Part 1

Never in a million years did I think I’d be dropping a hundred on another Star Wars item so soon after picking up the gargantuan AT-AT last month, much less on what is essentially a Clone Wars set, and yet here we are. In fairness, this isn’t just one toy, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t buy it for basically just one of the toys in the set, and that is of course the new Slave-1. I tried to convince myself to wait for the inevitable Empire Strikes Back themed release, which would likely contain just Slave-1 and a couple of figures, but there was no getting out of it and I crumbled. Didn’t I stop collecting Star Wars stuff a couple of years back? Yeah, I thought that was me, but maybe not.

This Ultimate Battle Pack consists of the brand new Slave-1, Mace Windu’s Jedi Starfighter, and five Clone Wars figures: Boba Fett, Mace Windu, R8-B7, Anakin Skywalker and Mace Windu. So, as I gather it, the content of this set is based on one of the later episodes of season two of The Clone Wars series. I have seen most of the show, but watching it is such an extremely low priority for me that I’m probably five episodes or so behind. It doesn’t matter. Even if I’d seen it, I’m sure I would have little interest in the five figures included in this set. The Jedi Starfighter is decent enough, and I guess as long as I’m now compelled to own one, it’s not a bad thing to have a Mace Windu and R8-B7 to go along with it, but yet another Anakin? Or young Boba and cartoony Bossk? Hells no. They’re bound to be consigned to one of the dreaded hodge-podge totes in the deepest, darkest recesses of my toy closet or perhaps tossed on The Block, also known as Ebay.

Anyway, I’m going to divvy this review up into three parts. First we’ll look at the packaging and the figures. Next we’ll look at the Jedi Starfighter, and we’ll save the main attraction, Slave-1, for last. That way, if you have no interest in the Clone Wars stuff, you can just wait for Part 3 to turn up. Probably tomorrow.

The box for this set is understandably large, as it contains two mostly assembled ships and a handful of figures. But it isn’t as large as the box for the AT-AT. It’s probably as long, but only about half as tall. The packaging includes a front panel illustration of Slave-1 and Mace Windu’s fighter blasting away. There are two windows to display the five figures. The box also proudly proclaims that Slave-1 is over 18″ long, that the figures come with the accoutrement needed for that crappy card battle game, and that this is indeed a Toys R Us exclusive set. The back panel shows actual photos of the toys and some of their action gimmicks. Tear the box open and you find that the Jedi Starfighter is completely assembled and Slave-1 just requires you to attach the stablizer wings. The figures’ stands and cards come in a baggie, along with the instruction sheet, a small sticker sheet, a dice, and the missiles. You could conceivably pack everything back up into the box again, but getting the stablizers off again once they are attached isn’t at all easy, nor is it recommended.

Ok, let’s look at the figures.

Let me start out with the disclaimer/reminder that I am not a big fan of the character designs for the Clone Wars series and so none of these figures are at all aimed at me and my collecting tastes. As for this particular assortment: I’ve got way too many Anakin figures already. I can live with the Mace Windu and R8-B7 since they compliment the Starfighter nicely. I have no interest in owning a young Boba Fett figure, especially since Slave-1 will be going to my fully growed up Fett. And as for Bossk, I’m perfectly happy with my VOTC version. Nonetheless, I’ll try to give each figure his due and be respective of their proper context, and above all not offend anyone who digs these style of figures. Of the five figures, two of them (Anakin and Mace) are repacks, whereas the other three are brand new and exclusive to this set.

The Anakin figure is the least cartoony of the bunch. In fact, I’d dare say he could pass easily for a regular Star Wars figure. I don’t have a lot to say about him, although I will point out that his face is scarred up and he looks pissed. He is nicely articulated, with ball joints in his head, shoulders, elbows and knees, basic joints at the hips and a swivel waist, and he comes with his lightsaber and a stand. Interestingly, he has a socket on his belt to hold a lightsaber hilt, but the light saber he comes with does not have a removable blade and he does not come with a separate hilt to attach there. All in all, I think this is a very good version of Anakin, but chances are most of the people buying this set already have one.

Mace Windu isn’t too bad either. His face is definitely stylized, but not ridiculously so. Mace comes with a Clone Trooper helmet as well as three pieces of removable Clone armor, but the armor on his forearms is part of the sculpt. He also comes with a stand and his purple lightsaber. Like Anakin, his lightsaber is one piece, without a detachable blade. The articulation on this figure is a bit subpar for today’s standards. He’s ok from the waist up, with ball jointed neck, shoulders and elbows. Below the waist, however, he only has standard joints in his hips, but at least this allows him to sit in his starfighter. His waist features one of those annoying spring loaded gimmicks to make him snap back. I’m told there’s a far better Clone Wars-styled Mace figure hanging on the pegs now, so this throwback isn’t likely to excite anyone and if you already collect the Clone Wars, there’s a good chance you own him already anyway.

I really like R8-B7, despite his simplified cartoony sculpt. He actually looks like he could fit in with regular Star Wars figures as a variant design. His legs rotate at the “shoulders” and have hinged “ankles” and his head turns 360 degrees. His third leg is removable so you can have him standing still or rolling. What I really like about him are all the little gimmicks. His front has two doors that open to reveal a retractable claw and a laser gun or welding arm or something. His back also has an opening panel that reveals a grappling hook. He’s also got a sensor-periscope thingy that pops out of his head. Hasbro packed a lot of cool stuff into this simple little droid figure.

Bossk is an extremely nice figure for this style and I’m guessing that if you collect the Clone Wars figures, this guy is going to be a really big deal to own. His sculpt is certainly simplified to maintain the cartoony appearance, but still hits all the points and overall he looks pretty decent with a nice balance between the two styles. The biggest difference is in his forearms, which are much longer, thinner and rubbery, which give him an enhanced lizard-like appearance. Bossk’s articulation sports balljoints in his shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles as well as his torso. His neck rotates, no balljoint there, and he has standard leg joints in his hips. Bossk comes with his blaster rifle and a stand.

I have the least to say about Boba Fett, because he’s basically just a bratty looking kid in desparate need of a haircut. The sculpt is pretty good, as is his articulation. He has balljoints in his neck, shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles. His hips have standard leg joints. His right hand looks like it is sculpted to hold a blaster, but he doesn’t come with any accessories apart from his stand, so maybe it’s sculpted so that he can pick his nose.

The figures each come with their collector card and stand. Yes, even the droid comes with a stand. You can plug the cards into the stands and have them fight each other by rolling the dice and checking numbers against each other.

So yeah, I’m not really the target audience for these figures and I tried not to be too hard on them. I suppose if you are a collector of the Clone Wars figures then the exclusives in this set are pretty cool. True, you are getting saddled with two pretty common figures, one of which is a subpar repack, but then I guess only two out of five isn’t so bad.

Next time… we look at Mace Windu’s Jedi Starfighter.

Sep 18 2010

Transformers Generations: Autobot Drift by Hasbro

Drift was a strange choice for the Generations line. With so many classic and popular Autobots and Decepticons awaiting their chance at an updated form, it just seems odd to be introducing a brand new character to what is essentially a line of updated classic figures. In fact, the only other Transformers figure to bear the name was a Minicon. Does that make Drift any less welcome? Nope. Mainly because he happens to be one of the coolest designed Autobots I’ve seen in a while.

Drift comes mounted on the new Generations style card in his vehicle mode. The artwork is nice and there’s a cool bio blurb on the back about how he used to fight for the Decepticons. Good thing I open these things, because I ordered my Drift figure from Walmart online. The .97 cent shipping is a great deal, but the cards get totally mangled in the paper shipper envelopes they use.

Drift’s car form is a somewhat generic, but overall nice looking sports car. I like the clear windows, the spoiler and profile are also nice. On the downside Drift’s colors are a pretty blah. He’s mostly white with some red splashes on his sides and red stripes on his hood. He’s also got Asian-style emblems emblazoned on his doors, which I’m not crazy about. This guy could have at least used a little more silver to liven things up. I have to imagine that Hasbro has a repaint of this figure in mind and I’ll be looking forward to it, because a figure this well designed really needed a more interesting paint job.

In robot mode, Drift is just plain cool, thanks to a fairly unique style of transformation and some really neat features. The way his legs fold out of the rear of the car is nothing new, but I absolutely love the way the front quarter panels become his shoulders, along with some snazzy double-hinged plate action. Not only does it look great, but it adds to the arm articulation quite a bit. The way the windshield becomes his chest is also a bit different to what we’ve seen before and it looks nice. Drift also has a great, classic looking head sculpt. His mostly white paint scheme as a car gives way to more of a two tone in his robot form, which I’ll confess looks quite good.

Now, I’ll admit I’m not all that big a fan of swords and knives with my Transformers. But even I cannot deny that the real cool thing about Drift is the way his doors become scabbards with removable tanto knives. I absolutely love the way this feature was designed. Very clever. Drift also comes with a huge two handed sword that stores on his back while he’s in robot form or underneith his auto form. Awesome! Every last detail of this figure’s sculpt and transformation were amazingly well conceived.

Based on the initial news, I wasn’t all that happy that Drift was going to be taking up a precious slot in the Generations line up, but now that I have him in hand, I’ll admit he’s a fantastic figure and well worthy of a seat amongst the other Classics style Autobots. I’ll still be looking out for that repaint, though, and right now I’m thinking that in a repainted form, he’d make a mighty fine Decepticon.

Sep 13 2010

Vacation

I’ll be on vacation for most of the rest of this week. Well, not really vacation, but I’ve got family coming in, so it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll be able to post any updates until this weekend.

I picked up a few things in the last couple days and hoped I would get on with them, but it just didn’t happen. Here’s a taste of the big’un for now.


See y’all Saturday or Sunday.

 

Sep 11 2010

Doctor Who: Earthshock Cyberman Leader Helmet (LE 500) by Weta

I never thought a Weta product would ever land in my blog. It’s not that I don’t appreciate their products, quite the contrary, I love drooling over their new product images each time they come out. I especially love their line of trippy retro-style ray guns, but not to the point that I could justify their $500+ price tags. It’s just not in my budget, and the smaller scaled ones don’t interest me. Weta has been securing the rights to doing other licensed products. Recently, they’ve acquired the license to make products based off the District 9 movie, and they’ve had licensing agreements with the Beeb to do Doctor Who related items for a little while now.

One of Weta’s newest lines of Doctor Who based products is a series of limited edition scaled helmets. These have included a Sontaran helmet, an Ice Warrior, a Time Lord headpiece and cowl, and the Cyberman Leader head that we’re going to look at today.

The helmet comes in a very nice illustrated box with a decor similar to what Character Options has been using for their Classic style figures. There’s a blue swirly background with the Doctor Who logo from the 2005-2009 series. Every panel of the box shows a photo of the helmet from a different angle, so you definitely can see what you’re getting despite it not being a window-type package. The back panel has a couple of paragraphs about Doctor Who in general and the side panel has a blurb about the episode, Earthshock and the Cyber Leader.

The first thing I noticed about this box is how freaking heavy it is. Before I could even get it all the way out of the shipping box, I began feeling a sense of satisfaction with my purchase. Inside the box, the helmet rests safely encased in two styrofoam trays with a QC sticker seal attached.

The helmet itself is cast in metal with a silver painted finish and encases the black, matte polystone stand from which it cannot be removed. The only seam that’s present is on the sides of the neck, which I believe is a detail copied from the actual prop and not part of the manufacture process. Either way there are no other visible seams in the sculpt, which is something I am particularly happy about. The mesh screen in the eyeholes is nicely reproduced, as is the segmentation on his “ears” and handlebars. The chin plate is transparent plastic revealing the black stand underneith. The appropriate rubber hosing protrudes from each side of the helmet and runs back to a socket on the stand, since the lower portion of the Cyberman where these would plug in is not recreated here.

The stand itself has a hexagonal base and the matte black finish really contrasts nicely against the silver finish of the helmet. The base stands on four protective rubber grommets and the bottom contains the production information, including the signature of sculptor, David Tremont and the production number, in this case 487 of 500.

The Cyber Leader helmet set me back sixty bucks. It is admittedly quite an extravagance for me since I’m not usually into statues or busts, and this piece definitely falls into both of those categories. Nonetheless, the Earthshock Cyberman has always been my favorite of all the Cyberman designs and considering the limitation of this piece to only 500, the price seemed like a good deal. Still, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what to expect, but now that I have it, I can’t say as I have any buyer’s remorse. It’s a beautiful, well-crafted piece which will get a prominant place in my display case.

 

Sep 10 2010

Transformers Generations: Cybertronian Bumblebee by Hasbro

The first wave of Generations figures included two figures from the Transformers video game, The War for Cybertron. These are heavily G1-based reinventions of the characters we all know and love, only in their Cybertronian (ie. Pre-Earth) forms. We already looked at one of these two figures, Optimus Prime, now it’s time to look at the spunky little Autobot warrior, Bumblebee.

 

The War for Cybertron figures come on the same cards as the regular Generations figures. Unlike the other Generations Transformers, however, Prime and Bumblebee are both carded in their robot forms. I’m still loving the artwork on these cards. The back features a cool little bio blurb about Bumblebee being a courier on Cybertron. Oh yeah, my card is bent to shit because it was shipped by Walmart Online in an unprotected mailer bag. That’s not a complaint mind you. At 97 cents for shipping, I’ll happily accept a mangled card.

Bumblebee’s Cybertron from is an egg-like car. It’s a really cool design that looks like something straight out of Tron. The windows are clear, tinted plastic and the car rolls along really nicely. There’s not a lot else to say about this alt form. It’s obviously not the design from the original cartoon series, as that Bumblebee was more like a hovercraft with stubby wings. Still, this is a nice, original design that suits the character really well. Unfortunately converting him into his alt mode is a real bastard. Bumblebee is primarily a shell-former, and even when all his parts are folded in perfectly, I still can’t seem to eliminate all the gaps on his various plates. At least he does lock together pretty well.

Bumblebee’s robot mode is pretty good, although it has a few sticking points. His torso is a little abbreviated, and at certain angles he seems to have the physique of Dr. Robotnick from Sonic the Hedgehog. If you’re scoping him out from behind he looks particularly bulbous because he’s wearing half his car shell as a backpack. I really love the new head sculpt, though. He’s still got the little G1-inspired horns too. I also love the way parts lock around his wheels to form his feet. It’s very clever. The good definitely outweighs the bad here and I think he makes a fine figure.

Bumblebee has two red, translucent retractable energon blades on his arms and he also comes with a blaster pistol that can be stowed away in either his robot or vehicle forms.

You can pick up Bumblebee for around $11.99 at most toy retailers. These have been pretty easy figures to find, at least in my parts. I’m not quite as fond of him as I am the Optimus Prime figure, but he’s still quite a good figure in both design and execution. Thus far, the Generationsline is batting 4 for 4. Now, bring on Soundwave and Megatron!!

 

Sep 9 2010

Star Wars: Pirate Speeder Bike with Cad Bane by Hasbro

As soon as I saw this set, I knew I was going to have to buy it. No, I’m not a big fan of the Clone Wars series (I just can’t get past those goofy, stylized character designs), although I’ve seen most of it. As a result, I’ve never been tempted to buy any of the figures until Cad Bane came along. I love Westerns. I love Clint Eastwood. When you mix those things together with Star Wars to create a Bounty Hunter character, you’ve pretty much got me hooked. Make a figure of him bundle it with a cool Speeder Bike and my money is yours, Hasbro.

The packaging is a sort of hybrid between a window box and a pegged cardback. It shows off the figure and vehicle nicely and it converts to a little backdrop diorama too, which is always a nice touch. I don’t find a lot of appeal in the Clone Wars packaging artwork. It just seems too confused and busy, but then it’s hanging on the pegs next to the vintage style stuff, so it’s hardly a fair comparison. Either way, this packaging is serviceable. Let’s start off with the figure.

Ah, Cad Bane. Even his ridiculous name works for me, although it makes me wonder how long it will be until Lucas just gives up his thinly veiled names completely and introduces a character named Jerk Badguy or Nast E. Douchebag. Either way, Bane’s character design is an obvious homage to the classic American Western icon. He is the Star Wars equivalent of The Man With No Name right down to his wide brimmed hat and dual pistol belt. Maybe there’s more Lee Van Cleef in him than Clint Eastwood, but either way I’m surprised he’s not wearing a poncho. Maybe I can find my Hawkbat figure and make him one. Seriously, the only thing missing here is a tiny little cheroot hanging out of the corner of his mouth. The other thing I like about this figure is that it is sculpted to fit in just fine with the non-cartoony Star Wars figures in my collection. Try doing that with the Clone Wars version of Count Dooku!

Bane is designed to fit perfectly on the Speeder Bike, and yet apart from a slightly wide stance, nothing was sacrificed for it, as he is a great stand alone figure too, with excellent articulation. His hat is removable, as is his shoulder bag. His blasters fit into his belt holsters too. He’s got all sorts of controls and gadgets sculpted onto his arm bracers and he’s even got the jets on his legs that he used to fly around in the show. They did a good job recreating his character, but not making it overly stylized and cartoony. Like I mentioned earlier, this guy will fit in with regular Star Wars figures quite nicely.

The Speeder Bike is really cool. I’m pretty sure this one has been released before, but it is new to me. It has a nice chopper-style front stablizer, seats for two figures, and a clip on the back to hold Cad’s blaster carbine (also included). There are also twin blasters that can flip out of the rear stablizers to give it some firepower. Bane sits on the bike really well, and the pedals have pegs to help keep him seated if you are so inclined to zip him around the room on it.

In addition to the figure and vehicle, you also get a figure stand, a game card and a six-sided dice. These trappings are for the new card battle type game gimmick that Hasbro launched with their 2010 Star Wars figures. The idea is you plug the card into the stand, you face it off against another figure and its card, you roll the dice add up some numbers and see who wins. Sounds fun, right? How did I ever manage to play with figures when I was a kid without this ridiculous convaluted system? I guess video games, Pokemon and Yugioh have robbed kids of all the remnants of imagination so this sort of thing is necessary now. At least the gimmick doesn’t detract from the toys at all, and the stand is still perfectly serviceable.

This set cost $15.99 at Walmart and I think it was a pretty good deal. I’m not sure what the centerpiece of this set is supposed to be, the figure or the bike. I’m guessing it’s the bike since that’s what’s stressed in big letters on the package. I’ll confess, I bought it mainly for the figure, since I haven’t seen him carded alone yet, but the bike was a really nice bonus too.

Sep 5 2010

Star Wars: Protective Figure Cases by Hasbro

I am not a mint on card collector. Oh, I’ve got boxes in storage full of carded figures, but they’re all doubles that I got through buying Lots or full cases in order to get at a few figures I needed. But as a rule I don’t buy figures with the intent of keeping them unopened. The exception to that rule has been Hasbro’s Vintage Collection of Star Wars figures, started with the Original Trilogy Collection and now reborn in their current vintage styled line.

When Hasbro reintroduced the vintage style packaging, they decided to forgo the customized protective clamshell case that every VOTC figure came in. Generally, I consider this decision a win, as it cut the cost of the figures considerably. Toward the end of the VOTC line, I was paying around $12.99 for some of these, which is about five bucks a figure more than I’m paying for the current line. I’m certain there were other factors involved in the price drop, but not including the case had to help. Now sure, I’m buying the cases separately from Hasbro at added cost, but since I’m pretty much buying a second one of each of these figures to open, it works out in my favor. And at $1.50 a case, things still work out in my favor.

The protective cases come in packs of ten and arrive nested in this plain white mailer box. They share some similarities with the ones Hasbro used on the VOTC line, but there are some significant differences too, so even in these cases, the VOTC and VC lines will not look completely uniform when displayed together. The biggest and most obvious difference will be the lack of the printed foil insert on the current collection. It sure looks nice on the VOTC line, but it also obscures part of the card and the figure, so I’m pretty tempted to say I prefer the figures without them, but not enough that I’m going to go ripping them open to remove them.

As for the cases themselves, the ones you can buy from Hasbro still have the embossed Rebel and Imperial symbols on the top, and they still have the “Star Wars” logo embossed into the back. The biggest difference is in the depth of the bubble. Because the cases that Hasbro sells are designed to fit just about all carded Star Wars figures, they are much deeper than the ones Hasbro used for the VOTC collection. You don’t get the same economy of space, but they do a better job of protecting your figure since the VOTC figure bubbles were pressed right up against the surface of the case.

As mentioned, a box of ten of these sell for $14.99. It’s a pretty good deal as far as I’m concerned, but then again, I’m only buying enough for my Vintage Collection figures. I can imagine that for some of you who display hundreds of carded figures, this can get rather expensive. Also, I’ve heard that some people have had issues with getting a bad fitting case in their batch now and then, so that might be something to watch out for.
 

Sep 3 2010

Lego Mini-Figures, Series 2

I’m not a huge Lego collector. I love building the kits, but collecting Lego can be a ridiculously expensive hobby, so I’m forced to pick them up only now and again when I’m tapped out on all my other priorities. The mini-figures usually don’t interest me much either, but I was in a black mood when getting off of work this afternoon and I was looking for something to cheer me up, so I grabbed a handful of these things out of a bin while picking up some provisions for the weekend. I wound up with nine of them, and at $1.99 each, I got out for just under $20. Let’s see what we got.

The figures come blind packaged in these baggies, which, as far as I can tell, are impossible to open without a pair of scissors or a razor blade. Blind packaging is another expression for “crap shoot.” You have no idea what figure you’re getting and if you buy a handful of them like I do, you are bound to end up with some duplicates. In fact, the first two I opened were duplicates, which threatened to sour me on the whole endeavor straightaway. Strangely enough, I then proceed to open seven more before I got to my only other duplicate. The first two and the last two. Surely the Lego Gods have an odd sense of humor. Each figure comes with a simple black Lego block stand and a generic instruction sheet, which also shows all the other figures in the Series.

So here’s a rundown of my assortment. I don’t know the official names of these figures, so I just assigned my own.

  • Surfer Dude (x2)
  • Disco Fro Guy
  • Safari Joe
  • Weight Lifter Guy
  • Roman Gladiator
  • Skiing Guy
  • Mime (x2)

I think they’re all pretty cool in their own way, except for the Mime. I suppose some might be happy to got doubles of the one figure that comes with multiple heads, but nope, I just hate Mimes too much to be happy about that. Getting two of these is like Lego sticking its thumb right in my eye. But then I suppose I could have had nine of them, so I shouldn’t complain too much. The three faces convey the three absolutes of the Mime emotional spectrum: Happy, Scared or Sad. I think what disappoints me the most is when I first opened the bag, I thought I scored some kind of Zebra-human hybrid.

On the other hand, I would have been perfectly fine with opening up five or six of these Roman Gladiators, as he is without a doubt my favorite figure of the bunch and a natural army builder. He’s so cool, he makes the other figures look lame by comparison. His helmet and gear are awesome and he even comes with a little cape. A cape!!!

Surfer Dude and Skiing Guy are both cool, although I could have done without doubling up on Surfer Dude. Skiing Guy came with a spare set of poles, so I’m pretty sure Lego expects me to lose these immediately. I imagine his gear will come in handy if you have any of the Star Wars Hoth sets, because you can turn your Snowtroopers or Rebels into Finnish Ski Patrols ala World War II.

Disco Fro Guy is just funny. I like him. Safari Joe is a cool little figure too, although his magnifying glass accessory is a bit of a reach. He should have come with a rifle. I did get an extra pair of binoculars with him, another piece that Lego is confident I will quickly lose. Weight Lifter Guy is just completely out of left field. I can’t see how he made it into the second series. He’s more like Series 47 material.

Normally I would point out how completely not worth two bucks a pop these tiny little guys are, but then again I suppose anything you can get with the Lego name on it for two bucks is probably a good deal. I’m definitely not the market these figures are aimed at, but I can still appreciate them. I don’t know if I’ll pick up any more, especially since the odds are against me for getting ones I don’t have, but I’ll be damned if I’m not tempted to go back to the store and start ripping them all open to find all the Gladiators.

 

By figurefanzero • Tagged
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Sep 2 2010

Transformers Power Core Combiners: Huffer by Hasbro

Here we go, the last of the Power Core Combiners from the first assortment. The new ones are starting to hit online retailers and will probably soon be showing up on the shelves and pegs, if they haven’t already. Of course, apart from the Rallybot and Destructicon sets, the new figures are going to be a mix of new and repaints from the current assortment, so this initial run will likely be the last wave of completely original toys in this line. Today, we’re looking at Autobot Huffer and his Minicon pal Caliburst.

Huffer is one of the single pack PCC Commander figures, and that means he comes mounted on a simple card, in robot form, with his Minicon beside him. It also means you won’t be able to take advantage of his combination gimmick unless you have either the Aerialbot or Combaticon drone sets, or one of the new sets, if you happen to stumble upon them. The card features some nice artwork and has a little bio blurb about Huffer on the back. Nothing special, but it gets the job done.

G1 fans will recognize the intended homage here to the original Minibot, Huffer, although apart from his name, and the fact that he’s an Autobot and a truck, I don’t think the connection is all that strong. For starters, the coloring is pretty different, with the old Huffer being orange and this Huffer being more of a mustard color. Also, this new Huffer is an extended cab, as opposed to the original Huffer’s cab form. I’m not complaining, mind you, I know this isn’t the Generations line, just making some observations. Overall, Huffer’s truck mode is quite nice, in fact, I’d say this is my favorite alt form of any of the Power Core Commanders thus far, with Smolder taking a close second. You can still see two of his combiner pegs, but they aren’t as out of place as they have been on some of the other Commander figures.

Huffer converts very easily. You’re basically just standing him on his end, pulling out his legs, splitting the cab and folding his arms into position. In fact, the hardest part is splitting the cab in half, which really wants to stay pegged pretty tightly on mine. Still, he has a really nice, clean and pretty unique robot form. Like his alt form, Huffer’s combiner pegs don’t stick out and detract from this mode, which has been a recurring complaint of mine with these figures. In robot form, Huffer looks like he was heavily inspired by Energon Stongarm.

In robot mode, Huffer’s articulation includes a rotating head, ball joints on the shoulders, elbows with both balljoints and a double hinge, universal movement at the hips, and hinged knees.

Caliburst is a pretty solid Minicon and his Targetmaster style gimmick works quite well. His robot form is decent and his cannon form is quite good. I particularly like the side pieces that look like the elevation gears on a large piece of artillery and this form mounts nicely on the back of Huffer’s truck mode. Caliburst’s gun form for Huffer’s robot mode isn’t too bad either, although it has to clip onto Huffer’s arm, rather than have him hold it in his hand. Forget about the power armor mode, it’s crap. But then again, none of the PCC Minicons have managed to get this third mode right.

Huffer’s torso combiner form is pretty good, although it is very similar to his robot mode. The larger head swings out from the back and has a pretty cool sculpt. I didn’t think Huffer would look so great combined with the Aerialbot drones, so I went off the reservation and forced him to combine with the Combaticon drones instead. I think the results are pretty good despite the fact that it is an unholy union of Autobots and Decepticons.

Huffer and Caliburst sell for around $9.99. He is a neat enough little figure that you might consider picking him up, even if you don’t want anything to do with this line. If you disregard the whole combiner gimmick, he still stacks up pretty well against the Scout figures released in the Energon andCybertron lines. I like him a lot.

On a side note, I know a lot of people aren’t really clicking with this curious little line, but I have to say I’ve been pretty satisfied with it. If you go back and read my posts on the initial assortment of these figures, you’ll find I’m definitely lukewarm on some of the them. There’s definitely a few things Hasbro could have done better. And as I’ve said before, I’m probably going a lot easier on this line because I know that there are also Hunt for the Decepticons and Generations figures out there as well. I think it comes down to this: A lot of the action figures I collect just stand on the shelves (or lay in bins) waiting for me to take them down, admire them a bit, maybe put them in a different pose, but in the end, I see them ascollectibles. Transformers have always been toys I enjoy fiddling about with, converting them back and forth, and whatnot. You can actually play with them without actually playing with them, if you know what I mean. These Power Core Combiners jive with that feeling really well. They’re just fun to play around with, and I’m looking forward to picking up more drone sets to mix and match with my Commander figures.


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Sep 1 2010

Doctor Who: The Master and Axon by Character Options

Having barely recovered from holding in my hand an action figure based on The Master as played by Anthony Ainley, Character Options delivered the rapid one-two punch by leaking photos of another Classic Master figure, this time the original as played by Roger Delgado. In a bewilderingly fast turnaround, leaked photos turned into finished product and scarcely a month later I now hold in my hands The Claws of Axos set, which is comprised of the aforementioned Master and a Krynoid… no, wait… I mean an Axon.

No standard clamshell package this time. The Axos set comes in a cool, compact little window box, featuring the blue background from the newer Series 5 packages, but still retaining the Doctor Who logo used for Series 1 through 4. Yeah, part of me wishes they would release these Classic figures with one of the original series logos, but then again, I toss the packages so what do I care? The rear and side panels feature photos of Roger Delgado as The Master and the Axon creature and there is a synopsis of the episode on the back panel as well. The box is totally collector friendly and the insert can come out and double as a nifty little diorama depicting the Axon spaceship.

The Master and the previously released Ainley Master represent the first two non-Doctor figures from the Classic series based on actor’s likenesses (ie. not heavily costumed aliens). This is a big deal, because CO went on record a while back saying that this would probably never happen. Granted, they were speaking more about Classic companions than anything else, but I’m buoyed in my optimism that if we can get figures based on Ainley and Delgado, then Classic companions can’t be too far behind. I realize a lot factors into it, especially differences between securing the likeness rights between living and deceased actors, but I’ve never been more confident than right now that we will see Classic companion figures.

But besides being a milestone release, the Delgado Master is also an absolutely fantastic figure. The likeness in the headsculpt is excellent, even for CO, a company that has been known for producing very good likenesses. The paint apps on the face are extremely well done, with just a tiny bit of slop along the hairline. I especially like the darker pigments around his eyes and the streaks of grey in his goatee. Even the skintone is perfect for Delgado.

The body does not feature a lot of paint apps or sculpted details, but it is a great likeness of The Master’s iconic black suit. In fact, the only place below The Master’s neck that isn’t black is the little bit of white on his cuffs that peek out from under his sleeves. He’s even wearing black gloves. It may not be the most visually stunning outfit, but it is totally in character for The Master’s wardrobe. He comes with his Tissue Compression Eliminator, a ghoulish device that basically shrinks its targets, killing them in the process. The sculpt here seems a little too cylindrical, more like a black and silver Sonic Screwdriver, but I’ll take what I can get.

The Master’s articulation is on par with the current waves of Doctor Who figures. He has a rotating neck, rotating shoulders, hinged elbows and knees, universal leg movement in the hips, and swivel cuts in the biceps, thighs and wrists.

The Axon figure has a bit of a history to it, as it started life as a Krynoid and was even originally leaked as a possible Build-A-Figure for a forthcoming wave of Classic figures. It’s certainly big enough for a BAF, but in the end the idea was nixed and it was unknown whether we’d ever actually see this figure released in any form until now. And so, the Krynoid figure was retooled and repainted to be an Axon as a companion figure needed for a Classic Master release. It’s only fitting, though, since the Krynoid suit worn in the Seeds of Doom was a modified version of an old existing Axon costume. In other words, the fact that this Axon started out as a Krynoid does not bother me one bit. On the other hand, they could have bundled the Delgado Master with just about anything and I still would have bought it.

Regardless of his origins, the Axon is a very cool looking figure. There’s a ton of sculpted details on his copious body. In fact, there simply isn’t a spot on this figure that isn’t elaborately textured in some way. The tendrils are made of bendy rubbery plastic and protrude off of his body at various points. The main complaint here isn’t likely to be the amount of effort that went into him, but that the detail makes him look more like a plant than anything else. It’s also worth noting that the tendrils on the Axon costume were a lot thinner and more stringy. Still, we can blame that partly on the similarities of the costume, and partly on CO wanting to cut costs by reusing a mold. Hey, Hasbro and Mattel do it all the time, so I’m willing to let CO get away with it now and then. And either way, I’ll be happy to buy this figure again when CO inevitably repaints him green and releases him as a Krynoid.

The Axon’s articulation is a lot more limited than most other Doctor Who figures, but I blame this more on his body type than any lack of effort on CO’s part. He has a rotating head, universal joints in the shoulders and hips, and swivel cuts in the wrists and ankles. His waist looks like it contains a joint of some kind, but mine doesn’t move at all there. I’m guessing this seam may be a holdover from the figure’s BAF origins.

The Claws of Axos set retails at around $39.99, which I think is pretty good considering the size of the Axon figure and the fact that we are getting two completely new figures in the set. CO could have easily bundled The Master with another Dalek and put it out at the same price. Needless to say I am absolutely thrilled (and still just a little bit stunned) to finally own a figure based on this version of The Master, especially one that is so wonderfully executed. Now to let my wallet recoup a bit before the release of the newly revealed Revenge of the Cybermen set.