Yearly Archives: 2012

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.
Feb 11 2012

Thundercats: Classic 6-inch Lion-O by Ban Dai

So, let’s deal with the elephant in the room. After releasing only two Classic Thundercats figures in the 8-inch scale, Ban Dai decided to go back to the drawing board and start over with a 6-inch line. I don’t have any inside information as to why they would do this, particularly since the 8-inch Lion was easily my favorite figure released in 2011, but it might have had something to do with the fact that a lot of collectors were bitching that the 8-inch format was an oddball scale and you couldn’t swing a cyber-cat around most toy forums without hearing the lament that they didn’t fit into scale with the Masters of the Universe Classics line.

Honestly, I don’t care so much about the scale, or even having to buy Lion-O a second time. If starting over in 6-inch is what we need to do for Ban Dai to get us all the Classic Thundercats and hopefully the Mutants too, then I’m fine with that. If they go ahead and release some more in the 8-inch scale, I’m fine with that too. What I’m kind of pissed about is the idea that Ban Dai’s Thundercats figures need to conform to the scale of Mattel’s MOTUC line, as if the later has become some holy industry standard and must be obeyed. Look, I make no bones about the fact that I love the MOTUC line and I’ve certainly bought my share of the figures. But last time I checked, Thundercats was the line that’s actually being sold in stores and MOTUC is the one hiding out through a particularly crappy online-only retail service. My point is that Ban Dai doesn’t owe any homage to MOTUC when devising the scale of their Thundercats figures. But if bending to the will of a bunch of He-Man collector fanboys is what we need to do to get Classics Thundercats figures, then so be it. Just bring them on. Ok, rant over, let’s look at the figure…
It may be a whole new scale, but Ban Dai didn’t mess with the design of the packages. Lion-O comes in a sort of box-card hybrid that looks almost exactly like the one his 8-inch cousin came in. Its even almost exactly the same size too.  I’m fine with this packaging, particularly because it is so collector friendly, and it does a fine job of showing off the figure and accessories you’re getting. The figure comes nestled in a tray with a nice colorful cardboard backdrop that can easily be slid out the bottom and easily returned.
In a lot of ways 6-inch Lion-O is just a scaled down version of the 8-inch figure. He seemed rather small to me when I first got him out of the package, but that’s probably because despite being scaled down to the MOTUC size, he’s still not all bulked up and ‘roided out like the MOTUC figures are. As a result even after all the fuss, Lion-O here still isn’t going to look at home standing next to He-Man. So take that, bitches! But as far as the body is concerned, you’ll see very few differences between this guy and his slightly larger predecessor. Its still an amazingly cool, and delightfully toyish, looking sculpt with the same excellent paintwork, sans painted ankle joints. The only major difference is that this smaller Lion-O has some rather unsightly exposed screw heads on the back of the figure, which did not show on the larger one.
Plenty of cyber-ink has been spilled over Lion-O’s new head sculpt and the fact that he’s sculpted into a perpetual angry scream. I certainly don’t like it anywhere near as much as the 8-inch head sculpt, but honestly its grown on me to the point where I don’t dislike it. I’ve also heard some gripes about the windblown look to his hair, but I find it to be a nice homage to the way his hair looked on the vintage LJN figure.
6-inch Lion-O features almost the exact same articulation as the 8-inch version. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps, and ball jointed wrists. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, feature swivels in the thighs and just above the boots, have double-hinged knees, and hinged ankles. Lion-O also features a ball joint in his waist and another ab joint just below his chest. The only real difference that I see is smaller Lion-O seems to be missing that extra up-down hinge in the neck and simply features a ball joint there. Still, not too shabby in the poseability department.
Surprise! 6-inch Lion-O also comes with the same accessories as larger Lion-O. You get the same swappable hands, The Sword of Omens in large and small versions, the Claw Shield, and that awsomely clever little hook that can attach it to his waist. The swords are both very nicely sculpted, but this larger Sword of Omens is a lot more bendy than the 8-inch Lion’s sword. Once again, the smaller Sword of Omens can be stored in the Claw Shield.
So if you have 8-inch Lion-O do you need 6-inch? Well, that depends on whether you’re banking on getting a whole set. While Ban Dai claims they will continue to support the 8-inch line, I don’t see this happening. I’ll be happy to eat my words if I’m wrong, but I just don’t see it happening. This new 6-inch scale is the one that will likely see the release of the complete Thundercats and hopefully many more figures. Plus, Mumm-Ra is already available and that’s cooler than Tygra. Make no mistake, the 8-inch Lion-O is a superior figure in every way and still stands as my favorite figure released by anyone in 2011, but this smaller Lion-O is pretty sweet too. I’m not at all bitter at having to buy a second, as I’m willing to purchase every Classic Thundercats toy that Ban Dai puts out just to support the line and see it go as far as possible.
Tomorrow… Mumm-Ra!!!
Feb 10 2012

Duke Nukem Forever: Duke Nukem by NECA

The last thing I want to do here is recount the tortured and well known history behind Duke Nukem Forever. Suffice it to say the game lingered in development limbo for nearly 20 years before finally shipping last year. The final product was not only disappointing but it was easily one of the worst games I’ve played in a long while. It was poorly designed, occasionally broken and just no fun. But worst of all the gimmicky gameplay seemed to entirely miss the point of what Duke Nukem was all about: Blasting the shit out of stuff. You could argue that the developers tried to reinvent the game for a new age, but the point is that Duke Nukem should do what he does best, shoot things and make quips. A old school style shooter in the mold of Serious Sam or something like that could have been a fun nostalgic romp, not the crap we wound up with.

Nonetheless, I love Duke Nukem. He’s an important part of my gaming youth. I even read his funny books. I was on board way back when the now defunct Resaurus was making Duke Nukem figures and so it was only natural that I would get around to buying NECA’s recent treatment. Let’s check him out.
If you’ve picked up any of NECA’s recent releases, then you know what to expect from the packaging. Duke comes in a compact clamshell with a printed insert. I like this packaging as you can easily razor along the back to get at the figure and then you can return him to the package without it looking like it was ever opened. They obviously had a lot of fun when writing the copy for the package and it shows. It even recommends you take him out with you for adventures like some kind of strange My Buddy doll. There’s no need to take Duke seriously and NECA certainly doesn’t.
The sculpt here is pretty good. Its a more realistic looking Duke than we’ve ever seen, which is a reflection of the better (and yet still dated) graphics from the recent game. The figure does have a bit of a hunched over look, but its nothing to get too upset about and in a sense I guess it stresses his whole ‘roided out gorilla look. The sunglasses are sculpted onto his face, but they’re done so well that they really do look like they could be removed. Speaking of his face, Duke sports a great little over confident smirk that suits the character really well. There’s not much to say about his outfit. He’s wearing a red wife-beater, fingerless gloves, blue jeans and boots. Its all nicely detailed right down to his iconic belt buckle. The ammo straps are sculpted as separate pieces and hang loose down near his belt to allow for his torso articulation. The flesh paint features a bit of a wash to give him a slightly dirty look, which I think looks rather good.
So let’s talk articulation. Duke has some seriously weird ass articulation. He’s quite poseable, but NECA devised some truly and inexplicably awkward designs for his joints. His neck is ball jointed, which is normal enough, although he has very little up and down movement. His shoulders are ball jointed, but might as well just be swivels because he has very little lateral movment. But then he’s got an additional pin joint just under the shoulder, which seems redundant. The figure would have been better served with a swivel cut here. The rest of the arms are pretty standard with hinged elbows and swivel wrists. His legs have normal movement at the hips with the addition of another oddly placed pin joint that gives his legs lateral movement. You then have double hinged knees and swivels in the ankles. Lastly, Duke can swivel at the waist and has an ab crunch in the torso.  I have no idea what happened here, particularly with the shoulders and the hips, but it seems like NECA went out of their way to needlessly reinvent some very conventional points of articulation. Like I said… weird.
I can’t say that NECA has ever been heavy handed in the accessories department, and Duke here is par for the course. You get an automatic pistol and a cigar. That’s it. It feels woefully light, considering Duke should be a one-man walking arsenal. Where are the trademark weapons from the game? Where’s the Devastator? The Shrink Ray is even mentioned in one of the quips on the package, but its nowhere to be found. How about a friggin Pipe Bomb or combat knife? You don’t even get his Boomstick. Resaurus’ figure came with a bunch of cool accessories, here you get bupkis and that’s almost as disappointing as the game. I’ll admit the cigar is a cool little accessory and he can even hold it quite well, but the lack of an alternate head with the ability to hold it in his mouth seems like a missed opportunity.
Duke originally retailed for around $15-17 and you can still grab him at most Toys R Us stores for around that price. I got him on clearance through an e-tailer for $10 shipped, so I’m going to cut him some slack. It really is generally a nice sculpt and the articulation is perfectly serviceable albeit oddly designed, but ultimately the lack of accessories hurts this figure a lot. If you’re really jonesing for a Duke figure I suppose this one ain’t bad, but you might be better off hunting down the old Resaurus version. It may be a much simpler sculpt, but its as a toy its a lot more fun.