Monthly Archives: February 2012

Feb 21 2012

Kre-O Transformers: Bumblebee by Hasbro, Part 2

Back again, with the second part of my look at Kre-O Bumblebee. So, enough with admiring the car mode. Time to bust it down and build the robot. Looking at Bumblebee’s robot mode from the boxart it seemed to use a lot of the pre-assembled car bits, so when I broke down the car mode, I left some parts together, particularly the front bumper and the doors. I’m not sure if that helped or hurt in the end, but breaking these models down after you build them is a pain in the arse. Once again, I recommend having a razor blade (be careful!) or some thin utensil that you can use to pry the stubborn bricks apart.

Once built, Bumblebee’s robot mode is absolutely fantastic. The final build in my hand looks tons better than what’s on the front of the box. His proportions are excellent and the car kibble is all strategically placed very well. Keep in mind there are A LOT of parts left over after his robot mode is built and as with Megatron, I tried to incorporate some of the more car kibbly bits onto him to make the transforming illusion look more plausible. For example, none of the wheel wells  are used on the official build, whereas I found places to put them on his legs, as it just makes sense that they would be visible on his robot mode if he were a real Transformer. There’s no doubt Bumblebee is heavily influenced by the Bayformer version, but he’s still got a bit more blocky and appealing G1 feel to me. The head certainly helps as its sculpted to look just like his G1 animated version.
Bumblebee sports excellent articulation with ball joints in his neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles. He’s a solid enough figure, and holds positions very nicely. But he is still a building set so if you play around with him long enough, bits are bound to fall off.
I bought this set at the regular retail price of $24.99. Now, wait. Megatron was $29.99, but he had 25 less pieces. That’s weird. Either way, you can’t really touch a Lego set with 300+ pieces at this price range, let alone a set that is designed to build two different things, so once again I’m going to have to say these Kre-O sets are an amazing deal.  I’m every bit as impressed with Bumblebee as I was Megatron, and I’m anxious to check out the next one. I’m going to take a break to look at a few other things and then in a few days, we’ll check out Kre-O Sideswipe.
Feb 20 2012

Kre-O Transformers: Bumblebee by Hasbro, Part 1

As promised, I’m back with more Kre-O! Yes, I was so impressed with the Megatron set, I ordered a couple more and Bumblebee came in yesterday. Was Megatron a one-shot wonder? Are all Kre-O sets as cool as him? Let’s find out as we check out the Autobots spunky little scout-slash-warrior, Bumblebee.

There’s the box and once again, Lego, take notes. It easily opens up like a briefcase giving you a great place to store the pieces and a nice makeshift tray to try to keep control over all the tiny pieces. Inside the box you get an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and a bunch of baggies containing a total of 335 bricks. You also get three Kreon minifigs, each individually bagged. Once again the baggies aren’t numbered so you need to spill all those bitches into the box to begin your build. Here’s something a little different, you get a plastic parts tree with all sorts of weapons and equipment for the Kreons. Interesting. What are we starting with? The Kreons, of course!
You get three Kreons: Two are adorable little Transformers and one is a generic human driver. At first, I thought he was going to be Spike or Sam, but nope, he’s just called “Driver”. The Transformers are Bumblebee and Red Alert and both little guys capture the G1 Transformer designs pretty well. Bumblebee is my favorite of the two. I love his little G1 horns!
I really need to start timing myself on these builds because I have no idea how long it took me to put together Bumblebee’s sportscar mode. It was definitely more than an hour, but some of that time was spent trying to keep my goddamn cat out of the parts box. [Pro-Tip: Cats are counter-productive when it comes to Legos and even not-Legos! -FF] And yes, as expected, Bumblebee is a yellow sportscar with some black detailing. He’s not quite a Camero, but definitely closer to the Bayformer alt mode than anything else we’ve seen Bumblebee turn into.
Sadly, I don’t think Bumblebee’s alt mode looks nearly as good as Megatron’s did, but in fairness, the truck cab is more boxy and easier to do with bricks. I’ll also cut it some slack as these Kre-O sets seem to avoid cheating by using a lot of specialized pieces. I think the biggest problem with the way the car mode looks lies with the roof, which would have benefited by using smoother, more rounder pieces, like the hood, rather than just being a slab. On the other hand, its not that bad for a Lego-style car. Its pretty big and very solid and the interior is nicely detailed and can fit two Kreons. I also like the optional missile launcher that can be attached to the top. The fugly roof can also be easily removed to better place the Kreons in the seats, and you can even leave it off altogether to give Bumblebee a cool convertible treatment, which looks quite good. By the way, isn’t it really bizarre that you can have Kreon Bumblebee driving himself? What kind of twisted universe is this?
There were a fair number of pieces left over after the sportscar is built. These are mostly joints and stuff used for the robot mode. I was able to fit nearly all the extra parts on Megsy’s cab mode, but there’s nowhere to put them on Bumblebee here. I did manage to use one of the robot joints for a cool trailer hitch, though.
So all in all, this is set is pretty good. I don’t know that I would recommend it on the sportscar alone, so give me a day to break it down and build the robot mode and we’ll see what happens, mm’kay?
Feb 20 2012

Resident Evil 5: Sheva Alomar by NECA

Collecting Video Game based figures isn’t really my thing. I pick up a few from time to time, but I don’t make an effort to hunt them all down. Nonetheless, having finally gotten around to playing Capcom’s Resident Evil 5, I decided I needed me some figures and NECA stepped up to the plate. I don’t have a lot of experience with NECA’s video game figures. I’ve been scared away in the past because a lot of them are basically just statues with some added articulation and I find NECA and McFarlane are just two of the biggest offenders in this category. After reading some reviews of the RE5 figures, the concensus seemed to be that these were bonafide action figures and not mere statues, so I decided to pull the trigger and give them a try. I really teetered between just getting the complete set of three (Sheva with Chris Redfield and an Executioner), but I found a really good deal on Sheva alone, and thought I’d test the waters first.

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One thing NECA has always been good at is their sculpts and Sheva here is no exception. Her face and figure are just as attractive as her in-game counterpart. Giggity! Her top half is fairly simple, as she’s just wearing a two-tone purple tank top and so a great deal of the sculpting has gone into her from the waist down, where here gear is kept. That sounded wrong, so let’s move on. Her belt features decorative tooling, ammo pouches and a fanny pack. Her right thigh has additional magazine pouches strapped to it and her left has a holster for her pistol. Her pants feature stitching and wrinkles and her boots are cowboy/biker style with stirrup-style straps and buckles. She’s also got a sculpted necklace, a communication rig on her right ear and some kind of armband device. Yessir, a lot of nice work went into this sculpt making it one impressive piece of work for this scale.

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NECA has been known to slip up with their paint apps from time to time, especially on their smaller scaled figures, but they’ve definitely been getting better and Sheva’s a prime example of that. The paint on my figure is overall quite good, with only a few notable blemishes. She does have a bit of inconsistancy between her right and left eyes, but it isn’t too bad. The tattoo on her left shoulder is crisp and very nicely printed and there’s really no slop to be found. The painted weathering and texturing on her gear is also quite impressive.

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Sheva has an admirable amount of articulation. Her neck and shoulders are ball jointed. She has swivels in the biceps and wrists. Her elbows are not hinged, but rather diagonal cut swivels that can imitate a hinged joint in some ways, but ultimately I would have much preferred a simple hinge. Her upper legs move up and down and feature lateral movement, her knees are hinged, and she has swivel cuts at the top of her boots. She can also swivel slightly at the waist. This is what I call an action figure! She’s loads of fun to pose!

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Sheva comes with three accessories: A Sniper rifle, an automatic pistol, and a knife. The pistol fits into the molded holster on her belt and features a snap down retaining flap. Egads, I love functional holsters! She can comfortably wield the pistol in either hand. The knife fits into the scabbard on her belt and she can hold it surprisingly well in her right hand, even though it’s clearly designed for the gun.  The sniper rifle is nicely sculpted, and despite having an ultra thin barrel, mine shows no evidence of warping.

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Sheva set me back a mere ten bucks plus shipping, which is certainly decent for a figure like this. I expected a solid effort, but what I got was a downright exceptional figure. The sculpt and paint here are absolutely superb and while there are a few funky designs to be found in the joints, I can have a blast putting her in all kinds of poses with her different weapons. I’m going to go ahead and say that this is one of the better figures I’ve picked up in a long while and certainly and I’ll recommend her to anyone who’s been a fan of the game and looking to represent it on their action figure shelf.

Feb 19 2012

Batman Legacy: Harley Quinn by Mattel

Ugh, I’m recovering from a bit of a bender last night, so I’ll give this a go and hope its coherent… Its time for my second [And last, as I’m not picking up original Batman or Nightwing -FF.] foray into Mattel’s third wave of Batman Legacy figures. This time around its Harley Quinn as she appeared in the recent release of Arkham City. [A game that I am ashamed to say has been sitting on my media shelf since it came out and I have still not made the time to play it. -FF] I’ve had the DC Direct versions of Arkham Asylum or Arkham City Harley on my“To Buy” list for a while now, and I’m glad I waited because I’m much happier to have this better articulated release that fits better into my DCUC collection, even if she doesn’t fit in all that perfectly.

The package design is the same as we saw yesterday with Catwoman, but the deco is completely different. The logo and artwork here features the more gritty look of the games and quite frankly it makes it really feel out of place. Mattel seemed to be releasing the movie stuff in two-packs and the more comic book related stuff in these single packs, which makes me wonder why the game figures weren’t done in two-packs as well. I’m not complaining, mind you, I’m just glad to have Harley with the better articulation.
Its not just the packaging, however, that makes Harley stand out in the Legacy line. The sculpt is dripping with detail and the paintwork is phenomenal. Stand this gal next to any DCUC figure and the difference is like night and day. Yes, I realize that as comic characters the DCUC figures are supposed to look simpler, but it doesn’t change the fact that Mattel poured a lot more effort into the detail and paintwork of this figure and yet still worked it into the same assortment and price point. Harley really looks like a DC Direct sculpt only with DCUC levels of articulation, and that’s just awesome. Her outfit is packed with sculpted buckles and straps and buttons, her head sculpt is damn near perfect, and she even has remarkably intricate tattoo tampos on her right bicep and left hip.
Unfortunately, while Harley looks fantastic, her scale is a bit off to the DCUC figures. She’s about the same height as my DCUC Batman figures, and she’s actually taller than my Joker. Even with the platform stripper shoes, Harley should have been shorter and slighter of build, and so she looks pretty out of place standing on my DCUC Batman shelf.
As already mentioned, Harley has the DCUC level of articulation, minus one point. Her head is ball jointed; Her shoulders are ball jointed, she has swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. Harley’s legs feature universal movement in the hips, swivels at the tops of her hips, and hinged ankles and knees. She swivels at the waist, but does not have the usual ab crunch hinge.
Harley comes with the same style of personalized stand as Catwoman, but she also comes with an additional accessory. Its a rubbery, bendy baseball bat with a candy cane deco. I thought it odd that even with all the extra work that went into Harley, Mattel was still able to cost out a baseball bat for her, while they couldn’t repack a simple whip into Catwoman, who reuses parts. Oh well.
I paid the same $20 for Harley as I did for Catwoman, and while I balked a bit at Catwoman’s price, I’m perfectly happy with spending the same amount on Harley. Not only is the sculpting and paintwork above and beyond any of the Legacy figures I own, she obviously doesn’t reuse any parts, and she allows me to take the DC Direct versions off my want list. She’s an amazing looking figure and I’ll grant her the highest honor I can grant a new purchase. She’ll be living on my desk for a while before retiring her to my DCUC display shelves.
Feb 18 2012

Batman Legacy: Catwoman by Mattel

It’s been a week, and that means my self-imposed ban on Marvel and DC figures is done. And that’s a good thing because I’ve got some new figures to look at from both comic juggernauts. [Not to mention Wave 1 of Hasbro’s new Marvel Legends trundling their way to me via UPS! -FF] Today we’re going to start with a one-two punch of Batman femme fatales from Mattel’s Batman Legacy line with Catwoman today and Harley Quinn tomorrow. Catwoman has been getting a lot of attention lately, what with her latest appearance slated for The Dark Knight Rises. No doubt we’ll get plenty of Dark Knight Catwoman figures, but I’m happy to say that Mattel also decided to go back to her roots with a figure based on one of her earlier appearances.

I’m pretty sure I gushed over the Batman Legacy packaging when I looked at the last wave, but let’s do it all over again because this packaging is simply gorgeous. Its technically just a big glorified bubble on a cardback, but the way its designed makes it look more like an intricate window box. You get the colorful Batman logo across the top with an illustrated cityscape and a very fetching piece of artwork on the side panel featuring a comic-panel style illustration of the gal herself. The back panel has more great artwork and a little blurb about Catwoman. I think I may have shed a tear or two while I was shredding this thing to get at the figure inside.
If you aren’t familiar with this little sub-line of figures, Batman Legacy are figures that fit right in with your DC Universe Collection, which makes this one a great pick-up if you happen to collect DCUC. Catwoman has been released in the main DCUC line before, but only in her more modern catsuit. Here we see her in her more vintage dress and cape, which I’ve always enjoyed and I think it holds up pretty well today in terms of looking both retro and drop-dead sexy. The head sculpt is particularly well done and accentuates her almond eyes and pouty lips, complete with mask and adorable little cat ears. Her hair is focused a bit more down the back rather than poofed out as often seen in the comic artwork, but I think this look works well for the figure.
The outfit features a green rubbery cape that is sculpted in a separate piece and hangs around her neck. From the waist up, her costume is all paintwork, with a pretty pronounced plunging neckline, which while technically accurate, shows off considerably more than the vintage comic art ever did. Thems some serious mammories! The bottom half of the figure reuses parts from DCUC’s Raven figure, which was pretty obvious to me as soon as I saw it, but the boots are new, giving Catwoman a pair of proper high heels, as opposed to Raven’s rather disappointing grandma shoes. Overall the paintwork on the figure is excellent, with no real slop or bleeding to complain about and even her fingernails are individually painted.
Catwoman features pretty standard DCUC female articulation. Her neck is ball jointed, although the hair does inhibit the head’s movement a bit. Her arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists and biceps. Her legs feature universal movement at the hips, again somewhat restricted by the sculpted dress, hinges in the ankles and knees, and swivels in the thighs. I had some bad luck with my first Raven figure snapping at the thigh swivels, and I’m happy to report that Catwoman didn’t have any similar issues.

Catwoman comes with a gold, personalized stand similar to the ones that came with the last wave of Batman Legacy figures. Her lack of anything else is pretty disappointing, however. Her right hand is obviously sculpted to hold something, which makes the absence of a simple whip all the more conspicuous. Oh yes, she also comes with a rolled up comic cover poster.
I’m not collecting all the Batman Legacy figures, but I am jumping pretty quickly on the ones that I want so as not to miss out. The distribution on these in my area is pretty crappy and apart from the movie-based two-packs and Mr. Freeze, I haven’t seen any of these hanging around the pegs in the local toy aisles. I grabbed Catwoman through an online e-tailer and she ran about $20 with shipping. Its steep for a figure like this, particularly with no accessories, but I didn’t see a lot of other options, and unlike the last wave, I wasn’t interested in buying this entire assortment. And with the figure finally in hand, I’m not regretting the purchase, as she turned out really great.
Feb 17 2012

Kre-O Transformers: Megatron by Hasbro, Part 2

Last time, after a brief interlude to gush over Ninja Turtles, we checked out the Megatron Kre-O set in his vehicle mode. It turned out to be a pretty amazing set, so surely Megsy’s robot mode can’t be any good, can it? Well, I’m here to tell you it ain’t too shabby. Let’s have a looksy…

Once again, keep in mind that these sets do not transform. You basically build either the vehicle or the robot and then tear it all apart and build the other. Some may take issue with this approach, but I rather like it a lot. Hasbro’s last experiments with transforming building sets (see Built to Rule… on second thought, don’t) were pretty shitty. Besides, who hasn’t finished building a Lego set and lamented that it was all done? With Kre-O’s it really is like getting two sets in one, and I found building Megatron’s robot mode, just as fun and challenging as building his truck cab mode. The only downside was ripping apart the cab. I’ve built my fair share of Lego sets, but apart from taking a few parts off of the finished toys for storage, I’ve never broken one down completely until I had to do so with this Kre-O set. It was handy to have a razorblade handy to separate some of the more stubborn bricks. It was also handy to have the briefcase style box so that when pieces went flying, they usually wound up trapped in the box and not somewhere under the desk.
And there’s Megatron’s robot mode. First off, he’s huge, measuring in at about ten inches tall. Secondly, I really like the way the designers made him look like he could transform, even though he doesn’t. His obvious truck parts are positioned in a pretty logical manner. I will point out that some of his car parts weren’t included in the building instructions, so rather than leave them off, which felt like a cheat, I incorporated as many of them as I could into the robot, and I think it worked out rather well. There are, however, a few rather conspicuous pieces that I couldn’t find a good place for, like the windshields.
From a design standpoint, Megatron is a somewhat fresh take on the character. He definitely sports some of Dark of the Moon’s characteristics, but at the same time, he has a more G1 feel to me as well. I really like the head sculpt, the way the gas tanks sit on top of his backpack. and the way the front bumper sits on his chest. He also wears the prison from his cab mode as a backpack so he can still carry around prisoners. Megatron features a shoulder mounted missile launcher, with clips on his back to hold the spare missile. The missiles are the pieces used for the exhaust pipes in the truck mode and they flick-fire just like in Lego sets. The only thing I’m really missing here is the lack of some kind of arm cannon. To me, Megs just isn’t Megs without a giant fusion cannon on his right arm. I like to compensate by taking the missile launcher off his shoulder and attaching it to his right arm. I don’t tend to stray far from the instructions when building my Lego sets, but I’ve had a lot of fun tinkering with customizing this Kre-O set.
As an action figure, Megatron is fairly solid, although fiddle about with him enough and bits are bound to fall off. He has excellent articulation, with ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles. He also swivels at the wrists and each of his eight fingers are articulated at the base. He stands very well and can hold a lot of poses, although if you give him too wide a stance, his hip joints tend to buckle under the weight and he’ll wind up doing the splits. Still, all in all he’s fun to play around with and he works really well if you want to have him fighting the Earth Defense Forces from Lego’s Alien Conquest series or attacking one of the many buildings from Lego City. I’m actually tempted to start collecting a lot more Lego City sets just to give my Kre-O Transformers a place to fight with collateral damage.
So, let’s talk value. The Megatron set comes with four Kreon minifigs, 310 pieces, and I got him at regular retail price at Walmart for $29.99. To compare, the last Lego set I featured here, UFO Abduction from the Alien Conquest series, was also $29.99 but only had 225 pieces. That makes Megatron a pretty good value considering you’re getting almost 100 more bricks and one extra minifig. And that’s not even considering the fact that this set gives you two toys to build. The quality is just as good as Lego and whle the instructions may frustrate every now and then, it makes for a good challenge. I’m so sold on these Kre-O’s I’ve already ordered two more sets, so expect to see more featured here in the next week or so.
Feb 16 2012

Kre-O Transformers: Megatron by Hasbro, Part 1

I’ve been putting this off for a while. Dipping my toe into the pool of Transformers Kre-O. I’ve been waffling back and forth, but I knew that sooner or later I was going to buy one of these sets and see what they’re all about. Well, yesterday was that day, as I finally picked up the Kre-O version of Megatron. As it turns out building this set was a lot more involved than I had expected, and it is technically two, two, TWO sets in one, so I’ve opted to break down this feature into two parts. Today we’ll check out the packaging and the Kreons and Megatron’s alt mode and tomorrow we’ll see how he looks in robot form. I had some high hopes for these Kre-O toys, for a number of reasons, so let’s see how my first Kre-O adventure turned out…

Oh god, I love this package. It’s a standard looking box, but it has a pop up handle and its simply taped on the sides, so you can open it up like a cardboard briefcase and put everything back inside when you’re done. Cool and functional! Take a look at these boxes, Lego, because its so much nicer to open one of these rather than having to chew through the side of one of your boxes. Inside you get a meaty instruction book, a sheet of stickers, and a bunch of baggies that contain the 310 bricks. Each of the Kreons are individual baggied too. As we do with Lego, let’s start with the minifigs… er, um… Kreons!
So, the Kreons are indeed basically minifigs and they come in two types. You get some humans that can intereact with the Transformers Kre-O toys and you get some that are made to look like little super-deformed versions of G1 Transformers themselves. The Megatron set comes with two of the humans: A specialist and a cop; And two Transformers: Megatron and Shockwave. I absolutely love the Transformer Kreons, especially Megatron as he comes with a huge fusion cannon and an evil smirk. These little guys are just fun and highly collectible. I’m tempted to say Hasbro should be blind-bagging them, but right now I think the strategy is to use them as an incentive to buy the sets. The humans are ok, although I’m not sure what the Specialist is supposed to be all about. Nonetheless it is really cool to have little figures in scale with the Transformers.
Laying aside the Kreons, let’s move on to the pile of bits that will eventually become Megatron. I found building this set to be a lot more challenging than any Lego set I’ve done so far. I think part of the reason is that the instructions aren’t quite as clear as the ones in the Lego sets. There were a few times where I couldn’t quite figure out where the selected bricks were supposed to go until a little bit of time spent studying the picture. Another reason may have been the fact that the majority of this set is comprised of just three different color bricks: Black, grey and light grey, and there’s a fair number of the same bricks in different colors. It also doesn’t help that none of the baggies are numbered as with Lego sets, which means you basically have to dump all 310 pieces together and hunt for each piece in a much larger pile. Good thing you can use the box as a dump for all the pieces. I’m not complaining, mind you, I actually enjoyed the challenge and the fact that it took me so long to complete.                                    
The instructions first show the build to truck mode and then, starting from scratch again, show the build to robot mode. Yes, unlike those shitty Built To Rule sets Hasbro put out back in the Armada days, these Kre-O sets don’t transform, rather you build each version. It’s a cool idea that gives a lot more build value out of the sets, but it is kind of a bittersweet moment when you finish the first mode and realize its time to tear it apart to build the second.
Megatron’s alt mode is a truck cab similar to the one seen in Dark of the Moon. Typically with Lego sets, I tend to find the final result a lot smaller than I was expecting. That’s certainly not the case with Megatron here. The cab is huge and can seat two minifigs. It rolls along on its six wheels rather well and looks fantastic. Both doors open, the sideview mirrors are hinged, as are the claws on the front of the bumper. Megatron even has a little prison cell in the back of his cab. There are actually a number of left over pieces that are used for the robot and not the cab mode, but I managed to work everything onto my finished cab by getting a little creative, or just putting them on underneath where they won’t show. I think my only complaint here is that Lego vehicles are usually designed so the top can easily come off to seat minifigs inside. Metagron’s cab is so intricate that you really can’t do that and you’re left tucking them in from the side, or just building the cab around whichever Kreon you want in there.

So far, I’m really sold on Kre-O. This was a really fun and challenging build that creates a huge, fun toy, and I’ve only seen and done half of what this set has to offer. I love the fact that you can even put Lego minifigs in the cab, and if I compare it to the Lego City tractor trailer I own, it’s just massive by comparison. Tomorrow I’ll be back to take a look at Megatron’s robot mode. Until then… I’ve got some building to do!
Feb 15 2012

Transformers Reveal The Shield: Special Ops Jazz by Hasbro

It seems like forever since I last looked at any Transformers. That’s primarily due to the fact that the Dark of the Moon toys didn’t hold my interest and Hasbro’s got nothing else on the pegs or shelves that I want. [Except for those Kre-O sets, and we’ll likely be looking at one of those before the end of the week. -FF] Anyway, thanks to the Ross Toy Graveyard I was able to get almost all the Reveal The Shield figures I needed to complete my Classics/Generations/Universe collection. That is all except Jazz and finally one of the online retailers I deal with regularly was able to get me a pretty decent price on him and so here we are today…

Bidding a fond farewell to the Reveal The Shield packaging, as this should be the last time we ever see it here. Truth be told, I was never all that fond of it. Its basically the Generations cardback with a less Tranformer-like orange color to the card rather than the more traditional red. Jazz comes packaged in his vehicle mode with his gun mounted beside him. Note the name, “Special Ops Jazz.” This isn’t some kind of special repaint or variant, but rather just one of those cases where Hasbro lost the rights to use the name Jazz by itself so their lawyers told them they’d be safe if they tacked on “Special Ops” before the name. The bubble also sports the ubiquitous Hub network sticker to remind you that there’s a current Transformers series running, but doesn’t mention that Hasbro continues to make it next to impossible for you to buy any toys based on it, unless you fancy paying about forty bucks for a Deluxe on the Interwebs. End bitter rant now.
Out of the package, Jazz’s car mode is indeed quite nice and very reminiscent of his original G1 Porsche mode. He is cast in that white plastic that makes me afraid that it will yellow over time, but it’ll probably last longer than my liver, so who’s worried? His color scheme includes blue and red striping up the middle and sides and his racing number four on the hood and doors. The Rub Sign is on the roof of the car and mine doesn’t work worth a damn. God, how I hate these things.
Jazz is really easy to transform and in robot mode he looks outstanding. I’m not one of those collectors that hate on the Prowl/Bluestreak/Smokescreen mold from Classics, but even I have to admit that Jazz looks tons better and doesn’t suffer from problems like the door panels falling off nearly every time in mid conversion. Yeah, I realize that G1 Jazz used a different mold as the G1 versions of those three, but the robot modes are so similar, the comparison is still valid in my book. Either way, great job on this one, Hasbro!
Jazz does have one cool little gimmick and that’s the speakers that deploy from behind his car door “wings”. I love that Hasbro included this as it really gives the toy a lot of personality and its a nice fanwank back to the original Sunbow cartoon. They’re ball jointed so you can position them in all manner of ways.
And so Jazz rounds out my collection of updated G1 Autobots quite nicely. Sure there’s still Skids and Trailbreaker and Hoist and more Minibots to make, but based on what we heard at Toy Fair this year, it looks like we’ll have to wait until 2013 for those. I was able to get Jazz for $17 shipped, which is about what I would have paid if I would have ordered him off of Hasbro’s own Toyshop, assuming he was ever actually available. Sure, its a lot more pricey than the other Reveal The Shield figures, but then I was able to find all of those on clearance at Ross. You can’t win them all.
Feb 13 2012

Ghostbusters: “Ready To Believe You” Ray Stantz by Mattel

[Howdy, folks. I hope everyone is having as good a time following all the Toy Fair coverage as I am. I was actually going to take today off just to recoup and digest, but then I figured why break a perfect daily streak of updates for February. I will be getting around to posting a little roundup of my impressions of what we’re seeing at TF2012, but that will likely come around Wednesday or so. No major surprises so far, unless you count how badly Hasbro seems to be half-assing their GI JOE movie year toy push. Jesus. Anyway, until then, let’s see what figure is on tap for today, eh? – FF]

We all should know by now that Matty has pulled the plug on the Ghostbusters subscription. We will supposedly get some more figures here and there, but apart from that they’ve abandoned the pretense of trying to hold this mess together as a cohesive line of action figures. That also means that some etailers are starting to unload their stocks on the cheap, which is the only reason we’re talking about Ghostbusters today. At $30 a figure (Yes, I include Matty’s shitty, extortionary shipping in the price) I was only prepared to buy the four Ghostbusters, but anytime I can pick these figures up for around half price, I’m willing to give it a go.
Ghostbusters packaging. Haven’t seen this in a long while. I still think it looks great. You get the main figure and the ghost beautifully displayed in a huge bubble with the colorful GB emblem right up on the top. The back of the package is an illustrated image of a cluttered desk with all kinds of trivia about our hero, Ray Stantz. Actually, the back of the cards aren’t my favorite aspect of these packages. There’s some goofy stuff on there, but oh well.
Ray comes dressed in his lab coat as he appeared for about 30 seconds in that “We’re Ready To Believe You” commercial. He probably donned this outfit at some other point in the movie too, and I can’t deny that having a Ray figure in a labcoat is a cool idea since he was one of the chief tinkerers and actual scientists of the group. This figure was an obvious choice for Mattel since it once again allowed them to use the same body to release all the Ghostbusters. Ray’s wearing black trousers, a white button down shirt, a tie, and the rubbery labcoat complete with sculpted pocket protector. For what it is, the body is pretty good, but its still hard to get excited about a dude in a labcoat. What is cool is that this Ray figure features what is either an entirely new head sculpt or at least a drastic resculpt of the head used on the original release Ray Stantz. Gone is the pinched-head syndrome and what you get is something that looks a lot less silly and closer to Dan Ackroyd’s likeness. Too bad Mattel couldn’t have delivered this sculpt on the original figure.
You also one accessory and its the “ghost sniffer” that Peter used in Dana’s apartment in the first movie. Ray can wear it slung over his shoulder and he can hold the plunger in one hand and the wand in the other. Not bad.
And then there’s the ghost figure. I can’t place this one in the movie from memory, but I’m guessing its one of the ones from the montage where the containment system blew and ghosts were running wild all over the city. I really like this guy. He’s similar to Slimer in that he’s a blob with two arms. Ok, maybe not so much a blob, but more like one of those blind fish they haul up out of the deep trenches in the ocean. He’s cast in a really cool looking translucent blue plastic and his arms feature ball jointed shoulders and hinged elbows. He also comes with the same stand that all the ghosts in the line seem to come with. He’s definitely a cool addition to my little Ghostbusters collection.
In the end, this is not a bad figure, it just isn’t one that I absolutely needed in my collection until the price dropped. And even then. I am impressed that the head sculpt is so much better than the original, but than I get a little peeved that Matty couldn’t have delivered that head sculpt on the original release. The accessory is pretty good and I’m really happy with the ghost. At $13 shipped, basically an impulse buy, this figure was a nice little pick up.
Feb 12 2012

Thundercats: Classic 6-inch Mumm-Ra by Ban Dai

No offense to Tygra, but this is probably what the first pairing of figures should have looked like in the 8-inch line: The chief good guy and the chief baddie. In fact, as long as Ban Dai is commited to producing all the Thundercats in this scale, I think it would be cool if each wave included a Thundercat and a Mutant or some other bad guy. But then I’m getting ahead of myself. Hello, all, and welcome to today’s feature: 6-inch Mumm-Ra, The Ever Living!!!

Yuppers, the package is the same as Lion-O and basically a shrunk down version of the ones used for the 8-inch Classics. Mumm-Ra is displayed nicely in the package, although you don’t get the full effect since his bandages are all crumpled up at the top. The side panels feature some nice art with Mumm-Ra’s ugly mug and damn was he ugly. Jeesus. Once again, this packaging is very collector friendly, although I don’t suspect I could ever get his bandages back in just right without going insane.
And there he is. Ban Dai did a great job bringing Mumm-Ra’s 80’s animated goodness to action figure form, although in fairness he isn’t an overly complex character design. He’s mostly all greyish-blue skin and muscles. The head sculpt is quite good and they really managed to capture that hideous visage that really creeped me the fuck out back when I was a kid. No kidding, when he turned to Mumm-Ra and started screaming like a banshee on crack, I used to get pretty disturbed. His ceremonial helmet is nicely detailed and the streamers coming off the back are sculpted as if they’re blowing all over the place. If you never saw the classic Thundercats, Mumm-Ra always looked as if he had a high powered fan blowing straight at him from off screen. Apart from his headdress, he’s got a skirt and some lower leg armor, all nicely done.
And then there’s those bandages. Ban Dai got really creative here and included two sets of bendy bandages that plug into his back to simulate the look of them whipping all over the place when he makes his change. Whatever you do, don’t lose the instruction sheet in the package as it shows you how to fit them on just right. There’s a little bit of room for a custom look here, but honestly, these things were meant to go on a certain way and it isn’t all that easy to figure it out without seeing pictures. Oddly enough, there are no pictures of the figure wearing the bandages on the back of the package. Mumm-Ra also comes with an extra pair of hands, which are pretty unnecessary as far as I’m concerned.
As for articulation, Mumm-Ra has decent poseability, but he’s nowhere near as agile as his nemesis, the Lord of the Thundercats. His neck is ball jointed, but there’s limited movement apart from going side to side. His arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, swivels in the bicep and ball jointed wrists. His legs are also ball jointed in the hips, but his skirt limits a lot of the upper leg articulation. You also get hinges in the knees and ankles. Mumm-Ra is ball jointed at the waist, but he lacks the extra joint in the upper torso.
And that’s all I’ve got to say about Mumm-Ra. He retails for around fifteen bucks, which seems about right to me. Ban Dai seems to have really great distribution with this line, as I’ve seen these guys on the pegs all over the place. I really do wish we got Mumm-Ra in the 8-inch scale, only because I think the larger version would have displayed better next to the 6-inch Lion-O. While the LJN figures were roughly the same size, Mumm-Ra always seemed bigger in the cartoon. That having been said, I think Ban Dai did a great job with him. The more restrained level of articulation is likely to irk some, but we already saw a drop between 8-inch Lion-O and Tygra, so I don’t think its the fault of the smaller scale. He’s a great figure, but I can’t say I’m not disappointed he didn’t come with a little Ma-Mutt.