Yearly Archives: 2012

Feb 4 2012

Green Lantern Classics Wave 2: B’Dg, Despotellis, and Dex-Starr by Mattel

It’s been a little while since I last looked at Mattel’s Green Lantern Classics. We last left off with Skallox/Nite-Lik and Medphyll/Naut Kei Loi and that leaves four more releases plus the C&C Stel figure. Apart from the aforementioned combo figures, I felt this to be a fairly underwhelming, rag-tag assortment of figures leading up to one incredible Collect & Connect, Stel. As a result, I’m going to try to rocket through these pretty quickly, partly because I’ve got so much other stuff to look at, and partly because a lot of these figures just don’t invoke a lot of excitement in me. Today we’re going to kick things off with this curious little three pack that I like to call Green Lantern Critters.

As odd as this three pack is, Mattel still managed to maintain the standard style of packaging. You get all three characters: B’Dg, Despotellis and Dex-Starr staggered on the card as if they’re fighting. Well, B’Dg and Dex-Starr are fighting, Despotellis is just kind of sitting there and trying to look as interesting as a translucent yellow plastic virus can look. As one might expect, Mattel chose to include Stel’s massive torso piece in with these little guys to kind of balance out the plastic content.
Ok, so B’Dg and Dex-Starr both feature excellent sculpts and paintwork, particularly for the tiny little figures they are. I was also happy to see that the figures actually do feature a respectable five points of articulation, with swivels in the shoulders, hips, heads and tails. Sure there’s not a lot of great poseability here, but its better than just getting completely static hunks of plastic. Dex-Starr also comes with a translucent red energy blast that can plug into his mouth. Nice effect.
And then there’s Despotellis. He’s crap. I can appreciate that there’s not a lot Mattel could possibly do with translating this character to plastic form, but maybe that means they shouldn’t have attempted it, eh? Seriously, he looks like a gummi candy. End of story.
I wanted to like these figures, I really did. Actually it would be fair to say that I really like B’Dg and Dex-Starr, but in the end these three figures don’t add up to one regular Classics figure, at least as far as I’m concerned. These guys would have been better bundled with a regular figure, or possibly this should have been a four-pack with something else included to give it more weight. Or maybe swap out Despotellis for a better and more substantial figure. I’ll freely admit that I’m really glad Mattel got these figures out to the fans, and I’m happy to have them, or at least two of them, but I don’t think this was the best way to do it, especially not at fifteen bucks the the three of them.
Feb 3 2012

Marvel Universe: Masterwork Galactus Figure by Hasbro

It’s taken me a long time to finally get my hands on this figure. I shyed away from ordering it online because it was so friggin expensive to ship. I had it in my hands at Toys R Us a whole bunch of times, but I always opted to pick up four or five figures that I needed over this one, single beauty. And then, naturally, when I was finally ready to buy him, he was gone. I hunted him at three TRUs and he had already been replaced by The Sentinal figures and he was starting to go for a premium online. Thankfully, an online retailer that I’ve done business with a bunch of times was able to set me up with one at the original retail price and didn’t beat me up on shipping too badly either.

So the other day the postman dropped him off outside my door and when I went to retrieve him I was pretty taken back by the sheer weight of the package. Yeah, like I said, I had him in my hands at the store a couple of times and still every time I pick him up I’m impressed by the heft on this figure. He was shipped to me in the original Hasbro casepack, which holds two, which means it must have required super strength just to get it from the stockroom to the shelves. Yeah, I’m exaggerating a bit, but it is a weighty figure. In a perfect world, dealers selling this toy would have to mail you the Silver Surfer figure a few days ahead of time so that he could herald the coming of Galactus to your home. But, alas, no.
The packaging is a thing of beauty. It’s a massive slab of a box littered with gorgeous Marvel artwork. Lift up the flap and you can see Galactus and the tiny, by comparison, Silver Surfer in all their splendor. Naturally, there’s a “Try Me” hole so you can hear the mighty Galactus threaten and taunt you without even having to take him out of the package. Honestly, the speakers are mostly located on the back of the toy, so he does sound rather muffled when he’s still boxed up, so let’s get this sum’bitch out and witness him in all his glory. The box is very collector friendly and you can slide the whole tray right out of the package. A bunch of twisty-tie untying later and I had a figure that is not big enough to devour worlds, but big enough to send FigureFeline running for his goddamn life. Seriously, he was terrified of this thing for a while and then was just content to nest in the tray that I discarded on the floor.
Let’s get the Silver Surfer out of the way first. He’s a great figure, but let’s face it, by definition there isn’t much to him. He features a pretty standard and early version of the MU buck painted with a nice, shiny silver. There are some black paint apps around his eyes, but that’s about it. I actually picked up this figure carded a while back but opted to leave him in package because I knew one day I would have a loose one when I bought his oversized cosmic master. The surfboard isn’t the same shade of silver, but rather more like a matte grey. It has two pegs for Norrin to stand on, which brings us to Surfer’s articulation…
Norrin sports the older degree of articulation from the MU line. He has ball joints in the neck, shoulders and hips, double hinges in the knees, hinges in the elbows and ankles, and swivels in the biceps and forearms. He also sports that ball joint in the torso. The problem is that his lack of swivels in the legs and rocker hinges in the ankles makes it a little tough to get him to peg onto the board with both feet. Peg one foot in and the other one wants to pop out. You can still get him on some nice poses with the board, but he always seems just a bit too precariously balanced.
As for Galactus… holy shit. To place him in proper scale, your average MU figure comes up just to the top of his boot. But besides being a whopping 19-inches tall and weighing a ton, he features a really amazing sculpt, particularly in his bucket of a head. The helmet is magnificent with translucent bits that show off the light up features nicely. The small portion of his exposed face is also beautifully sculpted with an appropriately smug impression. I particularly love the detail work on all the bits coming off his helmet around his chin and the sides of his face. Stunning! The rest of the body is packed with little striping or interlacing bands that give the figure a lot of depth, and the chestpiece and skirt are both sculpted separately in softer plastic. All the details on the figure are sculpted in, rather than rely solely on the paintwork as Hasbro often does with the regular MU figures.
Of course, Galactus is an electronic figure. Press the central disc on his chest and his eys light up, as do all the clear bits on his helmet, and he speaks one of his 10 phrases, which include….
  • You serve me now!
  • Who is so ignorant as to confront Galactus?
  • You will witness the end, for I am power incarnate!
  • Behold! The world eating machine!
  • I hunger!
  • Know me mortal. Know me and know fear!
  • So speaks Galactus!
  • Who dares defy Galactus?
  • I am the devourer of worlds!
  • Tremble at the might of The Power Cosmic!
Sometimes electronic features can hinder a figure, but I don’t think that’s the case here. Galactus speaks a nice smattering of phrases and the voicework is particularly well done. Bravo, Hasbro!
Ah, but Galactus may be a brick in size and weight, but not in articulation. In fact, he actually has better articulation than Silver Surfer and many of the older MU figures. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, wrists, and hips, double hinges in the elbows and knees, hinged ankles, and swivels in the biceps and forearms. What’s more the joints are all nice and strong to support his bulk and allow him to retain the poses you put him in.
It takes balls to put out a toy at mass retail and refer to it as a “Masterwork Figure.” You’re setting expectations pretty high, and yet I really think Hasbro stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park with this one. I’m sure few Marvel collectors ever expected a better Galactus figure than the Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Hasbro delivered it here. The sculpt, the coloring, and the sheer size do this magnificently terrifying character justice. Now granted, he set me back $70 when you factor in shipping, and I still think he was well worth it, but if you happened to not hesitate like me and got him at retail at more like $50-60 than I think you really got a deal. Galactus is an awesome figure and a great centerpiece to any Marvel Universe collection.
Feb 2 2012

Marvel Universe: Cable by Hasbro

Holy crap, I’ve been trying to track down Marvel Universe’s Cable figure for ages now without having to pay a premium online. In the end, I sort of caved and wound up getting him off of Amazon without getting beaten up too badly in my wallet. But, honestly, if I knew just how great this figure was going to be once I got him in hand, I would have been a lot more willing to pay a premium.

Standard Marvel Universe package with some really kick ass character art on the card. Between his sheer size and his embarrassment of accessories, Cable really fills out the bubble beautifully. As with the newer figures, you get a standard, personalized figure stand.
And there’s Cable, folks, and he is one awesome figure. In a line where we’re used to getting the same standard buck over and over again with a few tweaks to the tooling and a painted costume, Cable shines like a rare gemstone. Starting with the head sculpt, as far as I’m concerned it is one of the best Hasbro has put out in this line to date. Cable’s grim, chisled look translated to this figure perfectly. His chest harness, shoulder armor, belt, and holster are all sculpted in separate pieces. Yes, you’ll note my figure is sans Baby Hope, and I’m perfectly fine with that. The holster holds his pistol perfectly and there’s a peg on the back of his harness to clip his rifle onto. When you look at all the beautiful work that went into this figure, it really puts a lot of the other figures in this line to shame.
Accessories aren’t usually the MU’s strong point either, but once again Cable flies in the face of convention by coming packed out with his own little arsenal. You get his pistol, assault rifle and spear. The weapons are really nicely sculpted and as mentioned you can store both of his firearms on his person.
Cable features the more modern level of MU articulation. You get the ball jointed neck, with an additional hinge so he can look up and down better. He has ball joints in his shoulders and hips, swivel cuts in his biceps, wrists and upper thighs, double hinges in his knees and hinges in his elbows and ankles. Cable also swivels at the waist and features the ball joint in the torso. Nice!
Yes, I gave a lot of the other MU figures a lot of shit over how great a figure Cable is, and I realize that’s not entirely fair. A lot of Marvel’s characters are little more than people in colored costumes and there simply isn’t a lot of unique sculpting needed. On the other hand, Cable has a really detailed and unique outfit that demanded a lot of new sculpting and Hasbro stepped up to the plate to deliver. All that having been said, Cable really stands out on my MU display shelf. He just looks so damn good that its almost like he’s a figure from a completely different line.
Feb 1 2012

A Wee Bit of Filler… I mean, News…

Generally speaking, I don’t cover industry news here because there are plenty of sites that can do it far better than I can, but I wasn’t able to get a proper feature in today and so I thought I’d just duck in under the gun and point out a couple of really interesting items…

First off, it looks like Hasbro’s new Marvel Legends are showing up at retail and boy are they looking magnificent. I’m really digging the packages and the figures look pretty solid too. Considering how badly Hasbro mucked up this line when they took it over from Toy Biz, I was a little worried about seeing these things, but now I’m actually starting to get excited to get them in hand.

Secondly, Hasbro’s Avengers figures are also starting to show up in promo photos around the web and, well, they’re not looking so great. That SHIELD helicarrier on the other hand, I may need to pick me up one of those.

Thirdly, Hasbro has shown off pictures of some of the action figures from the new GI JOE: Retaliation movie, and holy shit do they look amazing. Cobra Commander’s new design is damn near perfect in my book and the new Cobra Troopers look pretty cool as well.

And lastly and most important, Playmates showed off their new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line and I was completely blown away. I wasn’t so impressed by the Classic style turtles, but the ones based off the upcoming cartoon look amazing as do the vehicles, not to mention a playset that is so enormous its hard to believe it’ll actually be released.

You can check out photos of most of this stuff over at www.toynewsi.com

And that’s all I got for today. I’ll be checking in tomorrow with a look at Marvel Universe’s Cable.