Monthly Archives: March 2011

Mar 7 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 11: The Question by Mattel

I didn’t forget that I need to revisit the rest of Wave 11, so in the interest of taking a short break from the cavalcade of Tron Legacy toys, [oh yes, there’s more coming… so don’t pass out on me yet, Calahan! -FF] I thought I’d take a look at the other figure that was my most anticipated release of the wave: The Question.

During the heavy comic book reading days of my youth, I had an on-again off-again relationship with The Question. I can’t say as I particularly loved the comics I read, but I did recognize and love a lot of the same styles that were present in my favorite pulps like Mickey Spillane and the like. Beyond that I just loved his character design. You want to instill fear in the scum of the city, don’t dress up like some fruity bat. No, come out of the dark at them with a raincoat, fedora and no friggin face! That’ll scare them straight. More recently, I kind of rediscovered him based on his appearances in Justice League Unlimited as he was voiced by the masterful Jeffrey Combs, a performance that really added a lot of depth to the character.

Pretty standard DCUC packaging here. Remember, this is Wave 11, so there’s no Collector’s Button peeking through the bottom insert of the bubble. I’m both delighted and amazed that The Question appears as a Fan’s Choice selection and there’s a sticker on the bubble distinguishing him as such.

In a line of figures that tends to rely a lot on generic bodies and painted costumes, The Question is certainly a very unique looking figure. Mattel obviously had to do a lot of original tooling for this guy and it was certainly worth it. His double breasted vest and trenchcoat are both separately sculpted pieces, as is his necktie. It all conspires to give him a layered realism to his sculpt. I guess if you’re going to do a sculpt this unique, you might as well go all out. His face is obviously blank, but there’s some good detail in his hair and the sculpted fedora. And between that fedora and high collared raincoat, this guy’s profile is that of a truly classic pulp icon.

As you might expect, The Question’s sculpted plastic trenchcoat takes its toll on the figure’s articulation. His legs have all the points you would expect from a DCUC figure, including universal hip joints, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. You can get some movement here thanks to the soft sculpt of the raincoat, but there is some limitation there. From the waist up, he has universal joints in his shoulders, swivels in the biceps, hinges in the elbows and swivels in the wrists. His head is also ball jointed.

Considering the DCUC line is mostly based on colorfully costumed superheroes, The Question may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But obviously there’s enough love floating around for him to get him picked as the Fan’s Choice figure. Whatever the case, it’s hard to deny that Mattel went all out on the sculpt. He’s just plain awesome.

Mar 6 2011

Transformers Generations: Scourge by Hasbro

The new upper eschelon of Decepticon leadership was easily my favorite thing to come out of the original Transformers movie. I can’t exactly put my finger on why, but I absolutely loved Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge from the moment I laid eyes on them. They were all so sleek and new and nothing like the Decepticons that had come before them. Scourge got a little love not all that long ago as part of Hasbro’s short lived Titanium line, and now he gets the proper mainstream overhaul in Generations. Purists may be a bit bummed out about his new alt mode, but I think most will find a lot to love in his new robot form. Let’s check him out!

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Ahhh, yep. That’s the Generations packaging. We just saw it a few days ago when I looked at Kup, so I’m not going to say a lot more about it. Scourge comes packaged in his alt mode and he fills the bubble out pretty nicely. His weapon is mounted alongside him.

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Scourge’s new alt form is a flying-wing style bomber, and I really thought I was going to have a huge problem accepting it. In fairness to Hasbro, it’s a pretty good homage, considering they decided to go with a real world aircraft and not the sci-fi interstellar hovercraft thingy that the original G1 Scourge used as an alt form. Why they decided to make the change is another matter. The G1 inspired colors translate very well and there are a lot of other similarities at play here. Scourge can even poke his head out of his alt mode like he sometimes did in the G1 cartoon. Some sculpted panel lines add detail and there are two sets of folding landing gear that are a nice touch but really don’t support the aircraft. All in all, this alt mode comes close, and as much as I would have preferred a sci-fi alt mode, this bomber mode ultimately gets the job done.

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Transforming Scourge is fidgity and not a whole lot of fun. Some of the parts shifting is stubborn and the hinges on his wings are prone to pop off at least once during the transformation process. I also tend to think that Hasbro over complicated his arm designs just to beef up the complexity of the toy. Nonetheless, once he’s in robot form, I’m willing to forgive an awful lot of this toy’s shortcomings.

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Yep, that’s Scourge all right. There are obvious differences to be found, particularly in his legs and feet and the configuration of his wings, but when you look at where it really counts, this Scourge is close enough to the animated original to make me a very happy Transfan. The configuration of the chest is particularly nice as is the way he wears his offset Decepticon insignia. The head sculpt, though, that’s where this figure is a real homerun. The paint apps on my Scourge’s face aren’t quite as neat as I would have liked, but they aren’t bad enough to ruin the figure. And speaking of paint apps, they even painted the tips of his claws, just like the animated version. Sweet. You can split his wings to come up with something a little more like the original toy, but I’m content to leave them in the bomber configuration, as they don’t get in the way as much.

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Scouge comes with a beefy gun that is a big tease because simply by looking at it, it seems like it could be a Targetmaster. But don’t get your hopes up, as this is not Fracas. The gun simply splits apart and folds up so that it can be stored inside his wings. It’s a cool gimmick, but with the tooling that went into making the gun do that, Hasbro could have just as easily given us a proper Targetmaster like they did with Universe 2.0’s Cyclonus figure. Boo!

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In the end, Scourge is far from a perfect figure, but he does hit enough points to make him a big win in my book. Granted, a lot has to do with the fact that I love the character, so I may be willing to forgive a few more sins than the average collector. The new alt mode is something that I’m gradually getting used to, mainly because it undoubtedly captures the color and personality of the original toy. And in bot mode, Scourge needs to make no apologies at all. It’s only the troublesome transformation that blemishes this figure a bit for me. If you’re really a G1 purist, you may still want to consider the Titanium version, as it did a remarkable job capturing the spirit of the original toy, diecast and all. But believe me when I say, this Generations version is still an excellent update.

Mar 5 2011

Tron Legacy: Deluxe Clu by Spin Master

Here we go, the last of the four Deluxe figures from the Tron: Legacy movie. This time it’s Kevin Flynn’s evil Cyber-Doppleganger and Dictator of The Grid: Clu, implessively played by the computer generated and de-aged Jeff Bridges. The last two figures we looked at in this assortment had pretty simple electronics, but Clu goes back to the same innovative formula used on the Deluxe Sam Flynn figure by including not just lights, but an impulse projected face and a soundchip.

Yep, Clu comes on a big card with the same deco we’ve been seeing on all of these figures. There’s a Try Me hole cut out in the bubble so you can see his electronics. It’s a great feature for MOSC collectors, although what they do when the battery runs out is beyond me. There’s an illustrated insert in the bubble to customize the package to fit the character and the back features a little bio blurb about Clu and a whole lot of safety and warnings gobbledygook about the toy’s electronics.

When I first had Clu out of the package, I thought for a moment that he just a repaint of Sam with some new electronics, but that’s not the case at all. Put them next to each other and you can see that Clu is a completely new sculpt, although he does look closer to Sam than either Rinzler or the Black Guard. Also like Sam, Clu’s got a lot more paint apps to replicate the lighting from the character design.

The electronics gimmick is activated by pressing the button under Clu’s left armpit. Pressing it once activates the orange lighting on his torso and pressing it again activates the impulse projected face and the voice clips. The face is a pretty good likeness of young Jeff Bridges and the speech is loud and clear. He spouts off the following quips:

  • So, you like bikes!
  • Flynn lives
  • Out there! Is our destiny!
  • You get the reward you deserve
  • Greetings, Programs!

Clu’s articulation is also identical to the Deluxe Sam Flynn figure. He has the ball jointed shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles. He also has swivel cuts in the wrists. Because of the impulse projection gimmick, Clu’s head is not articulated.

Clu’s accessories consist of his Ident Disc and a Light Katana. Interestingly, he doesn’t come with a baton and the figure lacks the peg on the thigh used to secure it as we saw on Rinzler and Sam.

So, Clu wraps up Tron Legacy’s Deluxe line of figures, at least for now. Overall, I was pretty impressed with this line and I would have liked to see it go on. I guess it’s not impossible, but we’ve already seen the second wave of figures and toys from the movie hitting the shelves and online sites, but there hasn’t been any news or images about the Deluxe line continuing. Granted, I think another complete wave of four figures might be pushing it, but a case revision with Quorra and one of Clu’s Sentries would have rounded out the line pretty nicely and been most welcome.

Mar 4 2011

Lego Atlantis: Seabed Strider (#7977)

I promised myself I wasn’t going to dive into the Atlantis line unless it was an absolute last resort for my Lego fix. But right now the only set on the shelves that I’m really after is the Pharaoh’s Quest Pyramid and $100 just ain’t in my budget for Legos this week. [Next paycheck, though, it’s going to be a sure thing! -FF] Anyway, I was really jonesing pretty bad, so I caved in and picked up this little set to tide me over. Ha ha.. I said dive and tide and it’s an Atlantis set and it’s all about water and stuff.

Seabed Strider comes in a little box that boasts 105 pieces. The box contains two unnumbered baggies of bricks, an instruction booklet, and a small sticker sheet. The 105 pieces include parts for two minifigs, a pedastal holding the Golden Shield treasure, and the Strider vehicle. At over a hundred pieces, it may seem like a lot for such a small and inexpensive set, but keep in mind that a lot of these are really tiny pieces. That having been said, this was a surprisingly complex build for such a little set, possibly because the vehicle involves a number of articulated parts and a simple little transformation gimmick.

The minifigs consist of diver Axel Storm and the treasure guardian Hammerhead. Axel has some amazing painted detail on his body, including little gauges and stuff for his dive suit. He also has a set of oxygen tanks, flippers, and a dive helmet. The Hammerhead figure features a cool translucent red head that the rest of the head fits over for a pretty neat effect. He also comes with a trident weapon. These are the first minifigs from the Atlantis line I’ve actually seen and I’m fairly impressed by them.

The Seabed Strider is a cool two-legged mech. Axel doesn’t actually sit in it, but rather he holds the handlebars and floats along behind it. The minifig grips it tight enough so that he will hang there in mid air, making it seem like he’s actually underwater. The vehicle includes cips for the two included harpoons and two grabber arms, along with a couple of jewels to put in them. I like the red, black and gray coloring on this thing and the stickers go a long way to give it detail.

By folding back the legs and the feet and folding up two wings, the Strider converts into a little one-man sub, which is presumeably how the Strider travels to and from the surface or a larger mother ship. It’s not the most complex transformation, but it is a really cool little gimmick that certainly shows some thought went into the the design.

I’m actually kind of miffed that I like this set so much. I meant it strictly as a little fix to get me through another week or so until I can buy a proper set in one of the lines that I already collect. Up until now I was pretty indifferent on this Atlantis line, but now I’m rethinking whether I want to check out any more of these sets. I may have to sample some of the other small ones and see if the appeal still holds. Afterall, I’m running out of the sets that I do collect, so I’m going to need to branch out or just wait for the new 2011 Kingdoms and Pharaoh’s Quest stuff.

Mar 3 2011

Tron Legacy: Deluxe Black Guard by Spin Master

I’m at the halfway point looking at these Deluxe Tron figures from Spin Master. We’ve already looked at Sam Flynn and Rinzler, now it’s time to check out Clu’s faceless and ruthless soldiers of his Grid police state. It’s the Black Guard!

Once again, the figure comes on a big card that features a great deco, with the awesome looking Tron logo running up the side and a whole lot of weird warnings and information about the toy’s electronics on the back. The bubble shows off the figure very nicely and includes the cut out Try Me hole so you can light him up. It’s great for MOSC collectors or if you just want to see how the lights look when you’re deciding whether or not to buy him in the store.

By now, the overall design of these guys may be bleeding together a bit to the casual eye. Yes, they’re all dudes in black body suits and helmets, but the sculpting is most definitely unique on this figure and while some of the subtle texturing is hard to make out against the all black figure, you can definitely make it out under close inspection and the Black Guard does have some really distinctive elements to his design. I like the gas mask style components on his helmet, which is a little reminscent of the ones on the masks of the MPC Guards in the original Tron. He also has the little demolision charges sculpted into his legs. There’s not a lot of paint apps here, just some orange detail work scattered here and there and on the solar panels of his wings.

Yes, wings. The Black Guard also comes with his wings attached and deployed. These are the parachute-like devices used by The Guard when attacking The End of Line club. They can be removed in two pieces, and simply clip into holes on the figures’ back. Unfortunately one of the clips on mine seems to be missing. I don’t think it’s broken, it seems more like a QC issue with the mold. It will stay on fairly well, but it doesn’t lock in as solidly as the other one.

As with Rinzler, The Black Guard doesn’t feature any sound or Impulse Projection. Instead, the figure’s electronic gimmick is confined to the lights in his chest, activated by pressing the button under his left armpit. His lights are similar to Rinzler’s as they’re orange and basically scattered points, rather than the long strips seen on Clu and Sam Flynn. They are bright and clear, though, and look pretty good. In addition to the removable wings, The Black Guard comes with his Ident Disc and two Batons. The Disc can clip onto the figure’s back just like the other Deluxe figures, although you do need to remove the wings to clip it on and remove it. The two batons can be stored in sockets on his elbows.

I’ve really been digging all of these Deluxe figures, but I think the Black Guard here edges out the others as my favorite. Besides being the most distinctive sculpt, it’s obvious that Spin Master put a little extra love into him. As with the other Deluxe figures in the line, this guy runs about $14.99 and I’ve got no complaints about the price tag. With three down, that just leaves one to go. Next time we revisit the Tron toys, I’ll wrap up the Deluxes with Clu himself.

Mar 2 2011

Transformers Generations: Sergeant Kup by Hasbro

Oh yeah, new Transformers! Woo Hoo! It’s been a looong time since I’ve found any new Transformers hanging on the pegs. The lack of TF’s featured here certainly doesn’t mean I’m losing my adoration for this beloved line, but the new Generations figures just haven’t been showing up in my area until now. I’m still trying to find Tracks and Jazz, but when I was picking up groceries at Wally World this morning I found Kup and Scourge buried on peg. Today we’ll kick off my look at this pair with everybody’s favorite Autobot war vet curmudgeon, Kup.

It may have been a while, but the packaging for Generations hasn’t changed a bit. In fact the only real difference I notice is that the bubble is no longer cluttered up with stickers advertising The Hub network or whatever else Hasbro is schilling. Kup comes carded in his vehicle mode with his “musket” mounted next to him and there’s the ubiquitous bio blurb on the back. I really don’t have anything else to say about the packaging. It looks ok, and it’s easy to tear into. That’s really all I’m looking for here. I’m guessing Hasbro lost the trademark to Kup somewhere along the way, only instead of just slapping the word “Autobot” in front of his name, they went with “Sergeant.” I’m cool with that.

Of course, long time Transfans will remember that the original G1 Kup was a futuristic pickup truck and the Generations version springboards off of that concept pretty nicely. This version is certainly rooted in a more realistic design with a touch of retro thrown in, but I think the homage is still pretty well defined. This Kup has a more functional truck bed and rolls along nicely on his wheels. He also pegs together really well in his vehicle mode and allows for his rifle to be stored underneith, where the barrel peeks out the back to become one of his exhaust pipes. The toy is cast in a color very similar to the original Kup, and features very little else in the way of paint apps. All in all, it’s an attractive alt mode, perhaps blemished just a bit by the seaming along the doors and the curious fact that you can see where some of the parts of the toy were removed from the mold trees.

Kup’s robot mode is a homerun, which made me somewhat surprised about how easy his transformation is. With the exception of fiddling with his arms to get them just right, and the fact that his shoulders don’t really peg in to anything, he’s remarkably simple to get from truck to bot and back again. While Kup’s lower half may be at odds with the original character, not to mention sporting some enormous feet, from the waist up, it’s pretty amazing just how Hasbro’s designers were able to nail this toy’s faithful look. I’m particularly fond of how the head sculpt turned out, as it’s remarkably close to his animated G1 predecessor. Yes, the arms are a little fidgity, particularly with the way the wheels on his shoulders just seem to float, but they’re serviceable and they can hold his weapon just fine.

The Generations line has yet to really disappoint me, and that record holds strong with Kup here. He’s a fantastic looking figure that manages to take the original character design, tweak it here and there and create a marvelous update to a character I really loved as a kid and still do. I was never satisfied with the original Kup toy (but then the original G1 movie-based toys were never my favorites) and Kup really hasn’t head any loving since, so this updated figure was long overdue.

Mar 1 2011

Marvel Universe: Constrictor by Hasbro

I’m still working on catching up on all the Marvel Universe figures that I’ve added to my collection this past couple of weeks. Today, I thought we’d check out Frank Payne, aka. Constrictor. While I think Constrictor was a great character for Hasbro to add to the MU lineup, there’s really one main reason I wanted this figure as badly as I did and that’s because he spent some time as Deadpool’s roommate,[Somewhere back in the #40’s of Deadpool, Vol. 1 -FF] along with Absorbing Man’s wife, Titania, who actually turned out to be Copycat in disguise. Yeah, great stuff.

Constrictor comes on the almost standard MU card. He was actually a Runner-Up for the Fan’s Choice Figure, so there’s a little band saying so in the upper left hand corner and the border along the left side of the bubble is foil, making the package stand out a little from the other ones on the pegs. He was released among the waves stylized after The Dark Reign story arc, so the package has the HAMMER logo instead of SHIELD. Constrictor is nicely displayed in the bubble in a fairly passive stance with his tendrils hanging down at his sides. I really like the character art used here. It’s actually a lot more exciting than some of the images used on the cards of far more mainstream characters.

No doubt, Constrictor is a pretty distinctive looking character, and the figure certainly does his design justice. There isn’t a whole heck of a lot of sculpted detail on the body, as it mostly relies a generic body sculpt and paint apps. The paintwork is overall very good, except for one major flaw. There’s a big blue dot right on his belly, which is pretty unsightly. The head sculpt, however is really fantastic, especially the grimace on the exposed lower half of the face.

Apart from his figure stand and cache of documents, Constrictor doesn’t come with any accessories, but he does have his two Vibranium tendrils that are permanently attached to his wrists. They’re made of soft flexible plastic and honestly look like gummi worms. I don’t really mean that as a criticism, because they really do look great and while they aren’t poseable, they work fine in pretty much any pose you put him in.

Articulation is what we’ve come to expect from the MU male figures. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders and hips, hinges in the elbows and double hinged knees, swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists, both swivels and hinges in the ankles, and that universal type joint in the torso.

I’m not sure whether this character was all that high on a lot of collector’s lists. Yeah, he was a Fan’s Choice runner-up, but I tend to find these selections rather dubious. He does have a sufficiently deep background to make him warrant a figure, but as I’ve already said, the the main reason I wanted him is because he was Deadpool’s roommate in a particularly entertaining story arc. As a figure, he doesn’t break any major ground in terms of sculpt, but he’s a solid representation of the character and well worth hunting down for the fans out there.