Yearly Archives: 2012

Jan 14 2012

Young Justice: 6-inch Series: Robin by Mattel

I did my best to resist Mattel’s 6-inch line of figures based on the excellent Young Justice cartoon, and opted to collect the smaller 4-inch figures and build the C&C Hall of Justice. But the harsh mistress of clearance overcame me when I was able to scoop up the first two figures in the series for just under fifteen bucks a piece. It seemed like a good opportunity to see what they’re all about. The first two figures consist of Robin and Artemis, so let’s start out by checking out the Boy Wonder himself and see if I turn out being overwhelmed, underwhelmed, or just merely whelmed.

The figure comes in a window box that does an amazing job of showing you exactly what you’re getting in terms of the figure and the base. Robin is in an action pose, the base is on the bottom of the package and his weapons are spread out off to the side. It’s possibly a little too roomy in there, but the base really is big, and unlike Artemis’ it doesn’t come apart. The packaging deco is pretty close to what we’ve been seeing on other DC Universe figures, but with the addition of the Young Justice logo and the character illustrations on the side panels of the box. The layout of the back panel should be instantly familiar to any collectors of DCUC, JLU or Infinite Heroes. It has a little bio of Robin and shows some of the other figures in the line. It’s pretty easy to get everything out and the packaging is certainly collector friendly enough to return it all to the box for display if you should desire. I was a little worried about the action pose wrecking my figure’s joints, but everything seemed ok when I got him out.
So what we have here is basically a somewhat stylized DC Universe Classics figure, and that is definitely not a bad thing. Mattel took the basics of the DCUC body and made it conform to the more animated stylings, while keeping it more or less in line with other figures in the DCUC lineup. More importantly, these figures are slightly smaller and thus actually properly in scale with DCUC. For example, does your DCUC Kid Flash figure piss you off because he’s too tall? Well then, these should make you happy. On the downside, Robin’s limbs feel very soft and rubbery. I’m not sure if its just a different plastic or if its because he’s slighter of build. Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to effect the joints all that much.
Every bit of Robin’s sculpt is wonderfully executed. The body is a nice mix of paintwork detail and some sculpting, and he sports a short rubbery plastic cape. His head sculpt is complete with his dorky ears and his conceited little smirk and really captures all the personality of his animated counterpart. Articulation consists of standard DCUC poseability. The head is ball jointed; The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows; The legs have universal movement at the hips, swivel cuts in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles; And the torso has the DCUC ab crunch hinge and swivels at the waist. I do think this new line would have been a good opportunity to standardize the double-hinged knees that we saw in some of the more recent DCUC figures, but sadly it wasn’t the case.
In addition to a great figure, you get a pretty amazing and impressively large base. Robin’s is the corner section of a rooftop with a gargoyle statue. There are three pegs on it, so you can securely pose Robin in a few different areas or pose more than one figure on it. It’s a really nice piece and versatile enough that you could probably use it for a number of DCUC figures too.
                                     
Acessories include Robin’s battle staff, a couple of batarangs, a very cool translucent blue hologram wrist computer, um, a gun of some sort… and two um… hmmm. Maybe explosives or mines or something. I’ve seen almost all the episodes of teh cartoon, but I can’t seem to remember what the hell these things are, and I’m a little iffy on the gun too. Either way, it’s a nice assortment of stuff.
In the end, I’m really thrilled with this figure. If you’re a fan of the series, and don’t give a crap about building the Hall of Justice from the 4-inch figures, these 6-inchers are definitely the way to go. They look great, feature nice poseability, and they make great display pieces with their bases. The only sticking point can be the price, which is admittedly all over the place. $20 seems to be the average, and I guess that’s fair enough. I usually spend between $15-17 on my DCUC figures, and here you’re getting a huge base and a fair amount of accessories. Toys R Us seems to be the odd man out, charging $25 a pop, which really seems excessive, so shopping around is a good idea. I should be back tomorrow to check out Artemis.
Jan 13 2012

Marvel Universe: Falcon by Hasbro

I’m almost caught up on my backlog of Marvel Universe figures, as I’ve got just a few more new acquisitions to feature here. Today we’re going to check out Falcon. I’m actually kind of surprised they didn’t save Falcon for the “Comic Series” of Captain America’s movie line, but the timing of his release was still fairly on point. Honestly, I’ve never been a huge fan of the character, but I certainly don’t mind him when he makes an appearance in whatever I happen to be reading. He was definitely a challenging figure for Hasbro to tackle what with the heavy reuse in the line. Did they pull it off? Let’s see…

Standard Marvel Universe packaging. The character artwork is quite nice. A bit more gritty than some, but you get a nice shot of him flying out of the card with Redwing in tow. Falcon certainly has no trouble filling out his bubble as his wings are spread behind him, and actually detatched from the figure, along with his personalized figure stand and his little Redwing accessory. It definitely feels like you’re getting more than your average amount of plastic on this card.
Despite being a relatively newer release, Falcon’s sculpt and articulation feels dated for the line. The paint job and the wash on the figure itself also makes him feel more like one of the somewhat lesser quality comic pack figures that we were getting back in the Secret Wars series. I don’t want to rag on him too badly, though, because in overall design and appearance, I think he makes up for those vibes. Hasbro nailed the look of the character quite nicely, particularly the head sculpt, and while I do find the wash over the white parts a little cheesy, the rest of the figure’s paintwork is quite nice, particularly the deco on his chest.
I’m still pretty undecided on the wings. They’re sculpted in translucent red plastic, which makes for a very nice effect, but the way they clip into the slots on the back of his biceps is a bit questionable. When he’s just standing there, I think they look pretty good, and you can get some pretty nice poses out of him if you’re focusing on the positioning of the wings. On the other hand, putting Falcon into some pretty standard action poses makes the wings look kind of wonky and awkward. I’ll confess, I’m not sure I could have designed a better solution, though, so I’ll defer to Hasbro on this one. All in all it works, most of the time.
Redwing is a nice little sculpted piece with a clip on the bottom so that you can attach him to Falcon’s arm. The bird itself looks great, but I would have preferred the clip be turned 90 degrees. Not only would I prefer that for clipping him to Falcon’s arm, but I think it would have looked more like Redwing’s legs and feet, rather than just a giant ring clip underneath him. I’m nitpicking, I know it. For a little 3 3/4″ scale bird, he’s pretty good.
When all is said and done, I’m quite pleased with the way this figure turned out, but it does still feel like one of the earlier MU figures, rather than one of the more recent waves. Maybe Hasbro had to save some money on the body to cost out the extra plastic for the wings. Either way, it’s not a deal breaker for me. I think he’s well worth picking up as I still consider him to be a fairly iconic character and he looks damn fine on my shelf.
Jan 12 2012

Captain America: Captain Britain (Comic Series) by Hasbro

I’ve surprised myself with how many of the Captain America movie figures I actually wound up buying. I was nowhere a completist, but I went in expecting to just buy a couple and I came out with more like six or seven. It’s a fantastic line that, despite being littered with the usual “hero in different climate battlegear” nonsense managed to add some excellent additions to the 3 3/4″ ranks of the Marvel universe. Today I’m going to check out Captain Britain. He was on my list of figures to buy from the Marvel Univese line, but when I saw this version from Cap’s movie line, I opted to get it instead. Why? Because he’s purdy.

Speaking of purdy, the Captain America packaging sure is nice. Too bad I won’t be seeing it much more, since I’m just about done with cherry picking this line. You’ll note on the package that this figure is from the “Comic Series” so no, you didn’t fall asleep during the part of the movie that Captain Britain turned up in. It’s worth noting that nearly all the figures I bought from Cap’s movie line were part of the “Comic Series.” Anyway, Captain Britain is mounted in the bubble standing beside his accessories, one of which is awesome and the other was thrown out the moment I was done taking pictures. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s check out the figure.
Yep, Captain Britain has one sexy paintjob. The white is done in a regular matte finish, but the blue and the red are the same style of lush reflective car lacquer that Hasbro likes to use for the Iron Man armors. Damn, he’s shiny. Now, I do have to note that the paintjob on my figure does have its share of issues, particularly where the white tends to bleed into the other colors, but its mostly in out of the way spots and unless you look really close it doesn’t hurt the figure’s aesthetics all that much.
Articulation? If you have any of the Cap movie figures, you’ve got a good idea what to expect. The head is ball jointed, although you really don’t get a lot of movement apart from side to side. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and elbows, and have swivels at the biceps and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the ankles and knees, and have swivels in the upper thighs. You also get the ball jointed ab.
How about those accessories? You get the awesome Excalibur sword. Getting Excalibur in a 3 3/4″ scale sculpt practically pays for the figure right there. It really looks great and isn’t all bendy and warped like you might expect. The other accessory is a horribly shitty firing missile that I’m pretty sure is just a repainted Iron Man missile. It’s crap, but at least you can throw it away and forget about it.
Captain Britain is one of those figures that just looked so snazzy, I was sold on him as soon as I saw him hanging on the peg. Does it mean I’m going to pass on the Marvel Universe one? Probably not, but having him definitely pushed that figure down the chain quite a bit for me. I just love the way this guy turned out on pretty much every level. Now I just need to finally pick up Super Combat Cap and I’ll be able to put this line of figures to bed.
Jan 11 2012

Doctor Who: “Enemies of The Third Doctor” Collectors Set by Character Options

Ever since CO abandoned the release of Classic Who figures in single carded waves, we’ve been getting story-specific sets. That’s fine with me, but now CO has opted to go right for the jugular and bundle different enemies of a specific Doctor together. Personally, I’d rather get classic companions bundled with my baddies, but this formula works ok for me too. This one is based on three no-good-niks that have plagued The Doctor in his third incarnation. You get the original vintage style Auton that appeared in The Third Doctor’s inaugural episode, “Spearhead From Space.” You get Omega, who was admittedly a bastard, but as we learned in “The Three Doctors” he got a pretty raw deal. This was the first story where we learn that the Time Lords are kinda dicks. Then we get the showpiece of the set, the giant Drashig that appeared in that surrealest of episodes, “Carnival of Monsters.” You might say one of these turned up again later in another episode, but that was actually just a projection playing on Jo Grant’s fears and not a real Drashig so i doesn’t count. Ahem, sorry, nerdgasm.

Holy smokes, the box is huge. It obviously had to be big to hold that Drashig, but at the same time, there’s a lot of room in there for the other figures. As with “The Chase” set, there’s no backdrop insert, but that’s to be expected here since the figures all come from different episodes. Instead the tray is designed to mirror the diamond deco of the box and the overall effect is gorgeous. The figures are held in place with the string, which is easily clipped away to get at the goods.
Starting off with the Auton. You didn’t think you were going to get away with buying a CO figure set and not get some reuse, did you? HA! The Auton is a heavy reuse of the original Captain Jack Harkness figure, and I don’t care one bit because the end result looks fabulous. Basically the entire body is the same, save for some minor resculpting of buttons and a beltbuckle. Some have complained that the new scarf makes the neck look unnaturally elongated, but I think it adds to the figure’s creepiness. It is afterall an animated maniquin so it doesn’t have to be proportionally correct. I’m particularly happy with the paintwork on this figure. The deep blue of his outfit looks great and the silver detailwork on the buttons and belt buckle are immaculate. Whoever painted this figure should start doing the Dalek figures. Snap!
Thanks to the reuse of parts, the Auton’s articulation is a throwback to the older figures. The head rotates, the arms rotate at the shoulders, swivel at the wrists and have hinged elbows. The legs have universal movement at the hips and hinged knees. It’s not a hell of a lot, but in fairness, he is a friggin animated plastic mannquin so we don’t need a lot of poseability for him to lumber along and shoot people.
The modern Auton figures were a little disappointing as you merely pulled off their fingers to reveal a hole that was supposed to be their gun. It wasn’t really screen accurate. Here, you get an actual replacement hand with the fingers flipped down and the gun clearly sculpted. This is how it should have been done in the first place, CO! I don’t want to take away from the modern Autons, but to me this guy is much scarier, much cooler looking, and overall a better figure even with all the reuse of parts. I love him and I really wish CO would do a two-pack of these guys. I would definitely buy a couple more.
Next up, let’s check out Omega. I’ll admit I was a little leary about CO going with softgoods on this figure. Sure, we saw softgoods on the Sea Devils, but I thought the use of it here might look out of place in the line. I mean, why do softgoods on Omega’s robes and not the decayed Master figures? Well, I’m prepared to eat those words now, because this figure turned out to be visually stunning, mostly thanks to the shimmering whispy cloth robes. Even more surprising is that the glitter doesn’t come off in my hands when I play around with him. The sculpted parts of the figure look equally amazing. I’ve always loved the design of Omega’s mask and it looks outstanding here and the chunky sculpt and bronze finish make it look weighty and antiqued and oh, so cool.
Omega features all the new articulation seen in CO’s recent releases, including those wonderful new ball jointed shoulders. The only main difference here is that the swivel in the forearm is located higher up, rather than at the wrist. One cool little extra is that Omega’s head is removable. It’s a nice nod to the scene where Omega removed his helmet and there was nothing underneath. The head is attached with a heavy socket joint that lets the head rotate without pulling off too easly. CO, I adore this figure!
And then there’s the Drashig. It’s not exactly a figure, and yet it’s not the static piece that the Fendahleen was. It’s a hand puppet! Hell, I guess you could say its a prop replica since the original one in the series was some kind of puppet. This one looks as good as the one used in the series, too, although that’s not saying much since the Drashig were not the most convincing of Doctor Who monsters. In any event, this thing is sculpted in soft rubbery plastic with some very nice paintwork. It’s completely hollow, so you can just slip your hand right into it to work its toothy mouth. It’s big enough that it can scoop up other Doctor Who figures in its mouth. I was pretty sure that this thing was going to be designed for a kids hand and that I wasn’t going to be able to use it, but even my meaty paw can get in there to operate it without a problem.
As with “The Chase” set, this one retails at just under fifty bucks. Yes, its a premium, but these are action figures based off of a science fiction series in the 70’s from another country, so I’m willing to pay that premium. The Auton and Omega turned out great, and while I was a little leary about the Dreshig, I think it turned out to be a pretty cool item. I applaud CO for taking risks like this and producing unconventional things like the Drashig. Especially since the Drashig isn’t exactly a high profile Doctor Who monster. I just hope it pays off for them. Keep cranking them out, CO, and I’ll keep buying them. I do like this format, but I do hope you get back to doing some new companion bundles too. I just know you guys have that Jamie & Yeti set hiding back there somewhere.
Jan 11 2012

Doctor Who: “The Chase” Collectors Set by Character Options

Yessir, we’re back with more Classic Who figures, and this time Character Options is taking us all the way back to 1965, when Doctor Who audiences embarked on the extra long serial known as “The Chase.” It was a meandering, exciting and sometimes silly epic in which The Daleks built their own time machine and set about to hunt The TARDIS’ crew through time in an effort to, well what else? EXTERMINATE THEM!!!! This what you might call a cracker of an serial as it not only featured the return of The Doctor’s most popular enemies, but it also introduced The Mechanoids, a race of mechanical killing machines that were created by the writers with the express purpose of giving The Daleks a run for their money. In the end it was more of a stalemate through mutual destruction, but I’m sure it was a ratings draw nonetheless. The serial was also noteworthy for seeing the departure of The Doctor’s first two companions, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. And hey, The Beatles even made a guest appearance… or sorts. It was also actually the first time that we saw Daleks in Manhatten. Suck on that nuWho! But enough with the history lessons. The fact that this set exists is giving me goosebumps so let’s get on it with it.

The set comes in the gorgeous new retro-styled deco with the appropriately classic series logo. As usual it’s a window box, but this time there isn’t a printed backdrop insert, but rather just a colored backdrop that matches the box deco. I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have preferred a backdrop, but that’s fine. The set is a lot bigger than most of the other sets we’ve seen, mainly because The Mechanoid is pretty big by itself and when you toss a couple of Daleks into the mix, you need some serious real estate inside that package. As you can see, the set includes one Mechanoid and two Daleks. Let’s start with the Daleks.
The two Daleks are identical and are extremely close to the Daleks in the introductory episode and released by CO as a figure in the first of the two Dalek 3-packs way back when. In fact, these are practically identical to that figure except for the addition of the mesh wrap around and “shoulder slats” that have become common in pretty much all Daleks since. They even feature the same silver paint job with baby blue spheres that was used in the very first story. Next to the gun metal blue of the late 70’s Daleks, I think this is my favorite color scheme of them all. If you’ve collected your share of CO’s Dalek figures then you know the paintwork can be hit or miss and this pair of figures is a great example of that. One of them is absolutely perfect. The other one has a huge blue smudge right in the front middle of his apron.
Articulation on these guys is what you should expect by now. They roll around on three spinning wheels concealed beneath their aprons. Their sucker arm and gun arm are both secured with ball joints and you can pop them off if you want to create double sucker Daleks or double gun Daleks. Their heads turn 360-degrees and their eye stalks can look upward.
And then there’s The Mechanoid. Designed by humans to tame planets for colonization, these giant balls were more likely outfitted with their gizmos to be able to deforest areas or take care of hostile wildlife. But those gizmos work just as well in dealing out death to Dalek fools. If you were expecting a hollow rotocast blob, think again, as this is a nice hefty toy that outdoes the Daleks by rolling around on not three, but five wheels. Take that Daleks! It has a single stalk arm that houses a flame thrower, two pincer arms that fold out from its hemisphere and a sensor module that can rise and retract from the top of its globe. The flame thrower arm can be swapped out with an arm that doesn’t have the molded flame on it, if you prefer to display your Mechanoid in a more docile posture.
The cost of this battle in a box? Well, it’s right around the same fifty bucks that most of CO’s recent multi-figure packs are running. If you figure The Daleks at about fifteen bucks a piece and The Mechanoid at twenty, well… it still seems like a good chunk of change. On the other hand, this is easily the best army building pack that CO has put out. Even the old Dalek 3-packs each came with a Supreme that would have been redundant. This set gives you two awesome Daleks and the new Mechanoid and I gotta say, I’m really tempted to pick up a second one while I can. Unfortunately, with so many other Doctor Who sets coming up, I think I’d best save my monies. But even so, I can’t help but look at this set as pure loving fanservice. I probably first saw this serial about 25 years ago when I was 15 and I could never have dreamed to own these figures back then. And now I do! Life is awesome!
Jan 10 2012

Marvel Universe: Doc Sampson by Hasbro

I got pretty long winded with the last couple Doctor Who features, and I thought I should try to catch my breath before diving into the Doctor Who pool again tomorrow with the first of two new Classic figure sets. So, let’s collectively take a day off from The Good Doctor while at the same time giving me a quick and easy figure to look at today. Doc Sampson should have been really easy to find, but oddly enough I didn’t come across him until I was scooping a bunch of Marvel Universe figures from one of the more recent assortments from off the pegs.

As expected, Doc comes on a standard MU card. The artwork is pretty nice, and I like the green striping used around his name on the bubble. Speaking of bubbles, Doc fills his out pretty nicely as he’s packaged in a nice wide stance with arms out. He also comes with the ubiquitous personalized figure stand.
You might expect Doc Sampson to be one of those really simple MU figures that can get by with a standard buck and some paintwork. Well, you’d be a hundred percent right. Besides his head, belt, and his boots, Doc Sampson uses a generic sculpt with black painted trousers, with red stripes, and a red painted shirt, albeit with his lightning emblem emblazoned across his chest. Keep in mind, I’m not complaining as the figure looks great and the paintwork on mine is nice and clean. The head sculpt is solid if unremarkable apart from his long sculpted green hair.
Doc Sampson also gets by with the somewhat older articulation. You get a ball jointed neck. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. The legs feature ball jointed hips, double hinged knees and hinged ankles. He’s also got the usual ball joint in his ab. Conspicuously missing is the swivel cut in the thighs, which I happen to miss a lot when it isn’t included.
And there ya go. It’s a quick in and out kind of day today. I like Doc Sampson a lot. He’s a great 3 3/4″ representation of a character that I was anxious to get into my collection. Is he going to blow anyway away? Probably not, but I doubt anyone was really expecting him to.
Jan 10 2012

Doctor Who: Sontaran Field Major Styre Retro-Style Figure by Biff Bang Pow

As promised, I’m back today with the second half of the Biff Bang Pow Doctor Who figure feature, with a look at the Sontaran, Sytre. Hopefully, I won’t be as long winded this time.

Styre uses the same awesome card that The Doctor came on. I neglected to point out last time that the cardback shows off two additional figures: A Cyberman and The Master. These figures have already been produced and were apparently exclusives at last year’s San Diego Comic Con. And, yes, I will be getting them at some point. All four figures use the same generic card. As with The Doctor, Styre has a backing tray to hold him steady in his bubble and he’s packaged with his helmet off and at the bottom of the bubble. Styre also has the hologram sticker denoting the number of the figure and the limitation to 3000 pieces. All in all, the presentation here is great, and if it weren’t for the terrible packing job, and the fact that a dog apparently chewed on the edges of mine, I would have kept him carded.
Starting with the head sculpt, there’s something definitely off about Styre. Oh, there’s no doubt that he’s a Sontaran, but the likeness to the mask used in the episode is nowhere near as good as the The Doctor’s sculpt is to Tom Baker. Nonetheless, it works just fine for this sort of stylized figure. The head can turn from side to side, which is probably more than could be said about The Sontarans themselves. The helmet snaps on over the head and stays in place very nicely. And yes, even the little vent is sculpted onto the back of Styre’s cowl.
Styre’s uniform is much simpler than The Doctor’s ensemble, as its basically a metallic looking jumpsuit with a silver belt that closes around his waist with velcro. The jumpsuit is enhanced with plastic bits for the cowl around his neck and his boots. The jumpsuit doesn’t give the quilted look that The Sontarans’ armor had on the small screen, but its a passable approximation. My only real complaint is that the legs of the jumpsuit end just above where the boots start. You can tuck them in, but they tend to pull out again. Unfortunately, the right knee armor on my Sontaran is cracked. Its made of very flimsy plastic and while it isn’t a crippling fault, it’s definitely noticeable and very disappointing. Despite the crappy shipping job, the bubble wasn’t damaged at all, so it looks like this figure went right into the package already damaged. Once again my experience with BBP’s quality control is hit and miss.
Styre comes with two little accessories. You get his control box, which clips onto his belt pretty nicely, and you get his ping pong gun, which is very similar to the one CO sculpted to go with their 5″ Styre figure.
As with The Doctor, Styre sells for twenty bucks. It’s steep, but considering this is a niche collectors item and supposedly limited to 3000, I won’t complain. On the other hand, dropping $20 for a figure that was put into the package with noticeable damage is worth complaining about. For items that are obviously designed to be collectibles, BBP really should be more careful about their quality control standards. That having been said, I’m still pleased enough to venture a purchase of the next two figures: The Cyberman and The Master and see how I make out with those. There are two more planned, Leela and Sutekh, but I’ll see how I make out with the next two before I plan to go any further with the line.
Jan 9 2012

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Retro-Style Figure by Bif Bang Pow

[The sheer insanity of Classic Doctor Who figure releases continues, as Character Options has announced two new sets of 5-inch figures this week. Both are two-packs. One is based off of “Attack of the Cyberman” featuring yet another variant of the lovely Ms Perpugillium Brown and what appears to be a rogue Cyberman. The other, based off of “Remembrance of the Daleks” features Davros as the Dalek Emperor and a destroyed Imperial Dalek. Photos have also surfaced of a “Seeds of Doom” set with another 4th Doctor and a Krynoid, but that one has yet to be officially confirmed. But today, we’re actually looking at some Classic Who figures that were not churned out by Character Options. In fact, these guys were licensed and made by an American company! Ok, enough preamble… on with the figure!]

I can’t tell you how many times I waffled back and forth over buying these figures. On the one hand, they’re retro-style figures based on an episode from the 70’s and that’s pretty nifty because this style of toy matches so well with the vintage characters. On the other hand, I don’t collect a lot of the Mego style figures. I like them well enough when the style fits the license. The Real Ghostbusters figures worked well with the style, and I still have a hankering to pick up the ones BBP did of Flash Gordon and The Dude from The Big Lebowski, but generally speaking these guys aren’t really my thing.

I’ve also been iffy on the prototypes BBP showed off from the beginning and I haven’t exactly been impressed with the few Bif Bang Pow toys that I own. I guess I’m still bitter over my Ming the Merciless’ arm falling off right out of the package. Nonetheless, when I saw the in-package shots of the finished products, I simply had to have these. Thus came my second dilemma. I really intended on buying these and not opening them because they looked so good in the packages. On the other hand, I hardly ever buy toys without the intent of opening them. The obvious solution was to buy two sets, but at $20 a pop, I wasn’t about to do that. So I opted to let fate decide. If the figures arrived with the packaging in excellent condition, I would leave them carded. If they arrived with the packages all miffed, I would open them. And the results are…
Holy Hell!!! Well, the shipping gods were pretty definitive in their answer. These figures are without a doubt in the worst condition I’ve ever had toys shipped to me. Not only are the cards warped, the edges look like they’ve been chewed on by a small dog, and they were taped together with the kind of postage tape that takes all the print off the card when you try to remove it. There was clearly maliciousness at work here. They were shipped for free, though, so I guess I can’t complain too much, plus I guess I’ll be saving some money on clamshells from zoloworld. Let’s take a look at the packages and then rip these bitches open.
In the traditional Mego style, The Doctor come in a coffin-shaped bubble and mounted offset on a simple cardback. The usual practice with the Mego-style is to just let the figures rattle around loose in the bubble, but The Doctor is cradled on a partial inner tray with a twisty tie holding his neck in place and another tray holding his Sonic Screwdriver accessory. His hat is off and at the bottom of the bubble, which was a good choice because, as we’ll see in a bit, the hat would have been better left out. There’s a small hologram sticker on the back of the package that identifies the figure number in a series of 3000 produced. Considering how easy these figures are to get, that limitation seems kind of suspicious.

So, I’m particularly fascinated by the packaging BBP used because it’s identical in design to the new retro style packages adopted by Character Options for their 5″ action figure line. I’ve never seen two different companies produce their own toy lines based off the same license and use an identical style of packaging, and yet here it is. It even uses the same little Timeline of Doctors down on the bottom of the card. It’s weird, but I’m very glad they did it, because I adore this new deco and it works really well with the Mego-style cardback.
Once out of the package, I’ve got to admit that The Doctor looks pretty good. BBP frequently showed off a prototype with a horribly oversized head, and while we shouldn’t expect perfect proportions out of this style of figure, the final result is pretty close. The head is soft and squishy, but the sculpt is a fine likeness to actor Tom Baker. Granted, anything would have been better than the prototype shown at the expos, but I can genuinely say that I’m happy with the final result.
BBP also did a fine job with The Doctor’s iconic outfit. He has a brown jacket, complete with elbow patches, a checkered vest, a necktie and a white shirt, plain kakhi trousers and plastic boots. The clothing fits him very well and everything is nicely stitched. The scarf is without a doubt a big win for this figure. Afterall, the mile long scarf is The 4th Doctor’s most iconic accessory and to be able to do it in real cloth is pretty cool, and it looks great on the figure.
As mentioned, The Doctor comes with a plastic fedora. The sculpt is good, it just doesn’t fit right on his head, thanks to the sculpted mop of curly hair. I’m not going to blame BBP for this snafu, since we’ve seen plenty of problems with toy companies trying to get Indiana Jones’ fedora right on larger scale figures. Either way, the hat isn’t a must, so I’m happy to just have him holding it, or setting it aside all together. The other accessory is the Sonic Screwdriver, which is a nice little sculpt and he can hold it well in either hand.
More than anything else, I bought this figure out of a sense of obligation. Sure, I already have shelves and totes bursting with Doctor Who figures and toys, but here was a Fourth Doctor figure actually licensed and sold by an American toy company. There was never any doubt that I had to have it. In the end, I was a lot more impressed than I thought I would be and I can genuinely say I’m extremely pleased with the way the figure turned out. I should even note that the joints are pretty solid for a Mego style figure and The Good Doctor doesn’t have much difficulty standing up on his own. As for the price, twenty bucks seems like a lot for a Mego style figure, but I’d dare say that the sculpting and clothing on this figure goes above and beyond what we’ve seen on a lot of figures in this style. BBP really hit a homerun on this one.

I was going to look at both The Doctor and Sontaran Field Major Styre together, but I’ve ran kind of long with this one, so I’ll be back tomorrow to check out The Sontaran.
Jan 8 2012

Masters of the Universe Classics: Wind Raider by Mattel

None of the figures offered up by Matty Collector last month really grabbed my interest, but I couldn’t resist the first vehicle released in the MOTUC line. The Wind Raider was pretty much a no-brainer as a choice for the first vehicle since its relatively small and apart from the Sky Sled is probably the most iconic vehicle from the Filmation cartoon and the comics. I was almost positive this thing was going to sell out in under ten minutes, but it actually hung around for at least a couple of days, making grabbing one a pretty painless affair. Of course, as usual shipping was less than painless. $15 to ship and it takes over two fucking weeks to get here. That’s why I’m checking this thing out so late. It actually didn’t arrive until a few days after New Year’s. I realize this is a tough time of year for shipping, but it seemed like everything I ordered from everyone else got to me pretty fast and its not like Matty doesn’t have a track record for slow, expensive shipping.  Matty, you have some of the worst customer service on the planet.

The toys on the other hand….
Just like the figures, the Wind Raider comes in a white mailer box. Sliding it off reveals the actual toy’s box underneith, which is all kinds of cool since it really recreates that vintage boxed toy feel of the 80’s, complete with exciting illustrations and not a single photo of the actual toy on the box anywhere. The last time I can remember getting this nostalgic feeling from a boxed toy was when I got Bandai’s new Thundertank earlier this year. The box art is indeed nice, and I especially like the antiquated looking schematics sketched onto the back. Its also kind of exciting to see those spinning hover vehicles pictured on the front illustration. I know Mattel said there would be no vehicles in 2012, but if another one is coming, that one looks like it would be pretty easy and cost effective to produce. Plus, it seems only fair that the next vehicle go to the bad guys. Anyway, the box is a little bigger than the boxes for Hasbro’s $20-30 Star Wars vehicles. The vehicle requires a little bit of assembly. You need to pop on the rear tailfin and the wings.
Before I get to the toy itself, I just want to say: Holy crap, it comes with that display stand!!! I genuinely had no idea this was coming in the box. I saw it sitting on the stand at the various conventions and expos, but I always assumed it was just something Mattel was using to show it off. Getting the stand with the toy was an amazing surprise and just impressed the hell out of me. It’s a nice big disc with the Masters of the Universe logo etched into it, front and back. It has a curved stand with a ratcheting sphere that pegs into the bottom of the Wind Raider. The result is you can position the ship at all sorts of angles. It’s an amazing bonus for what is already an amazing toy.
My first thought as I was taking the Wind Raider out of the box and snapping it together was about how big this thing is. It’s a nice, hefty toy with a huge wingspan and when  you put a figure in it, it looks wonderfully scaled to the figure, whereas the vintage one always seemed too small. I was expecting a lot of stickers, particularly in the cockpit, but that wasn’t the case. The striping and artwork on the body and rear wing are actually expertly applied decals, but apart from them every little detail, and there’s a ton of detail, is sculpted and beautifully painted. The detail work on this thing is just breathtaking. The panel lines, the little wires and cables, the cushions on the pilot seat, and most incredibly all the controls on the console… it’s all sculpted and painted and absolutely gorgeous. It may be a toy, but it really does look more like a highend display piece when perched on its stand. I’ll note here that the decals on the sides scare me a bit, as they will be prone to chip over time, so if I ever put this baby into storage, I’ll probably have to wrap really well in something.
The Wind Raider actually does have a few play features. there are two opening compartments that reveal sculpted and painted missiles inside, the wings pivot and lock into various position, like flaps on an airplane, and the front harpoon fires, albeit not very far. You can lift the large dragon disc on the Wind Raider’s hood and crank it to retract the harpoon and cable.
The Wind Raider is priced at $45, which feels like a pretty great value for what you get. Unfortunately, with the only way to get this thing being online and through Matty, you really need to factor the shipping into the retail price, and that brings it up to $60. Nonetheless, even at sixty bucks, I think this thing was well worth it, maybe not a great value, but definitely worth it. It really is just an amazing looking piece and extremely well constructed. I haven’t decided where I’m going to display it yet, so right now, I just have it sitting on my coffee table with He-Man at the controls. I’ll probably leave it there a while because every time I walk past it, it puts a huge smile on my face.
Jan 7 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 19: Lord Naga by Mattel

I should be trying to space out some of these posts so I don’t spend all my material at the beginning of the month, but truth be told, I have a shit ton of figures coming in over the next week or so. As a result, I’m back to look at the last of the Wave 19 DC Universe Classics figures I currently have and that’s Lord Naga the head of Kobra. He’s another one of the figures in this assortment that I was pretty excited to get and he’s definitely one of the more unique looking additions to the DCUC collection.

And… there we go again, the standard DCUC packaging. I’ve got to say Naga looks amazing inside that bubble. He really fills the card out well and the artwork on the cardback really frames this figure beautifully. I’m not sure about his icon on the bottom insert, though. It’s supposed to be the emblem on his hood, but what’s that supposed to be? A snake scale? Either way, this was one figure that made me a little sad to rip open because he looks so good packaged. Lord Naga comes with the torso for the C&C STRIPE figure, which is barely contained under the insert on the bottom of the bubble.
So, to the uninitiated Lord Naga kind of looks like Zartan cosplaying Serpentor at a Comic Con. But anyone familiar with the character should be pleased at how well the figure nails the character’s design. He may reuse some parts here and there, but the figure is so well put together that he looks one hundred percent new. The scaled green buck really meshes beautifully with the gold sash, gauntlets, boots and shoulder plates. The sculpted hood is a separate piece, which allows the head to take full advantage of the ball jointed neck.
Articulation roll call. Neck? Ball joint. Arms? Ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. Legs? Universal hip movement, swivels in the thighs, hinges in the ankles and knees. Torso? Standard funky DCUC ab crunch. Yep, even with all that awesome sculpting, Lord Naga doesn’t miss a beat of the standard DCUC poseability.

In addition to the Collect & Connect piece, Lord Naga comes with a golden cobra staff that would make Cobra Commander proud. Yep, the Joe references practically write themselves with this guy. Hell, he even feels everything his former conjoined twin brother feels. Crimson Guard Commander twins, anyone? His hands are sculpted so that he can hold it in either hand or wield it in both.
Lord Naga was an awesome surprise for this wave, as at this point I really didn’t expect him to show up in the line at all. Well, at least not until the early production shots started leaking out. Once again, I think he was a great choice for a figure and another reason why Wave 19 has been one of my favorites in a while. As far as villains go, Lord Naga didn’t really play favorites with any one hero, so he’s a great compliment to any number figures in your DCUC collection, and he just looks damn great on the shelf.

I’m going to take a little break from DCUC for a bit, but I have just put in an order for the last two figures I need in Wave 19: Hawkman and Magog. I’ll move on to some other goodies and probably be back to cover those figures and the C&C figure, STRIPE, toward the end of next week. Afterall, Wave 20 is now hitting retail, and I’m pretty anxious to get my hands on those figures too.