Mar 20 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Kithaba and Nikto by Hasbro

It’s the final leg of my quest to assemble a crew of Vintage Collection Skiff Guards for my Tatooine Skiff. The last two I needed were Kithaba and Nikto. Yeah, these guys are definitely back-benchers, but hey, they can’t all be Weequay, right? You’ve got to have some less popular dudes to fall into the Sarlaac when the plan to execute the Jedi and his buddies goes tits up, and in my universe it sure ain’t going to be Weequay or Klaatu.

Normally I shed a tear when I have to rip open Vintage Collection packaging, but this time around it didn’t bother me so much because I’m not particularly fond of either of these cards. The deco is still awesome, but the pictures of the characters are rubbish. Kithaba looks like he’s posing for a vacation photo. “Here I am in front of Jabba’s Sail Barge. I got everyone t-shirts at the gift shop.” Nikto looks like he’s about to push a reporter’s camera out of his face. “Nikto… Nikto… Is it true? You let the Jedi and his friends escape?” “What do you want me to say? We did the best we could. Just leave me alone.” Naturally, both cards are ruined anyway by giant stickers of Darth Maul’s face telling me I could win a life sized statue of him signed by Lucas. Honestly, I’d rather have an Ewok shit on my carpet then have that in my house. But enough preamble, let’s bust these guys open and we’ll start with Kithaba. Wait, wasn’t this guy Barada? Oh sweet Jesus, it’s a different guy??? I’m not going to become embroiled in another Klaatu vs Wooof debate. If you’re interested, you can check out particulars at SKIFFGUARDS.COM, which I might add is probably one of the greatest sites I’ve ever seen and quite probably the reason the Internet was created. Where was I? Oh yeah… Kithaba.

Once again, Hasbro, you are blowing me away with these figures, particularly in your attention to the sculpted detail. Kithaba’s shirt and vest are wonderfully recreated here and the shoulder strap and pouches are actually sculpted as a different piece. Damn, that’s cool! He also has a functional holster for his hold out blaster, and you all know by now how much I love those functional holsters. Kithaba’s portrait is pretty accurate to his on screen appearance. A lot more so than the crappy photo-shopped image used on the card, for example the error in his bandana color is correct on the figure. The face sculpt is pretty spot on for a Klatooinian, as he kind of looks like a cross between a lizard and a very ugly bulldog. The paintwork is excellent, particularly on his little row of bottom teeth.

Besides the aforementioned hold out blaster, Kithaba also comes with one of those weird, long gun-pole things. It’s a damn ambiguous weapon, and if I was a Skiff Guard and got one of those instead of the much cooler and functional force pike, I would have been mighty pissed off.

Moving on to Nikto, he too is an amazing little sculpt that really captures all the fine points of the character. Nikto was a well-known fashionista as is evidenced by his fancy puffed out shirt and his metrosexual front-laced turquoise tunic. He’s got quilted pants with a stylish yellow stripe running down each leg. Of course, he also has a piece of armor over his chest, because looking good at the cost of getting stabbed in the throat isn’t a worthwhile trade off. I’m not sure about the hat, though. It looks like he’s wearing a dog bed on his head, which leads me to the other amazing point about this figure… HOLY CRAP, YOU CAN TAKE HIS HAT OFF!

Yes, you could also take off Wooof’s hat, but for some reason the fact that Nikto’s hat comes off is a lot more impressive to me. I’m not saying that as a kid I used to stare at my vintage Nikto figure and curse Kenner for not making his hat removable, but I literally had to pause and take a breath before finally being able to take a peek at Nikto’s bare noggin. My reaction? Huh, his head’s smaller than I thought it would be. It was a little anti-climactic.

Nikto comes with the same pole-gun-thingy as Kithaba and a silver painted hold out blaster, which can fit in his functional holster. Yay!

Both figures feature the same articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. They have swivels in their waists and wrists, and their hip joints are the traditional t-crotch.

So, there ya have it. Two more excellent Skiff Guards from the Vintage Collection. And while this pair technically completes my Skiff Guard collection, I’m still going to go after the Deleted Sandstorm versions of Lando, Han, and Luke just because they were there too and I need them to round out the display. I should note, that buying these figures has made me take a second look at some of the other Vintage Collection figures out there. I’m trying not to go nuts, because after all I don’t collect Star Wars anymore, right? But I will have another Vintage Collection figure to look at next week.

Mar 19 2013

Legends of Chima: Winzar’s Pack Patrol (#30251) by Lego

With my new found love of Galaxy Squad, I’m really reluctant to get started with another new Lego series at the same time. Nonetheless, all my attempts to turn a blind eye to Legends of Chima isn’t going so well and I decided to break down and pick up one of the small polybag sets that Target had in their Valentine’s Day dump bins. Because I guess nothing says “I love you” like a cheap Lego set. I’ve found the polybag sets can be hit and miss, but at least it gives me a chance to sample the line for a five dollar bill and still get change.

What the hell’s a Chima? Well apparently it’s a world where a bunch of anthropomorphic animals are battling each other for a rare and magical resource. The two main opposing forces are the Lions and the Crocodiles. If this is sounding to you a bit like the Thundercats reboot, you’re not wrong. And yet while on the surface it may seem like a rip-off, I think it stands to be one of the most creative and potentially long term original lines we’ve seen out of Lego in a while. It’s f’ing Lions and Crocodiles fighting each other with tanks and warplanes for crying out loud! In what universe can that not be awesome?

But forget about crocs and lions for now, because today’s polybag set features Winzar, from the wolf tribe. The set includes 38 pieces, which builds the Winzar minifig and his little sled. You also get a blue crystal, which I presume is a piece of Chi, the magical substance that all these critters are slaughtering each other to possess. Lego must be onto something here, because I’m pretty sure my cat stole mine.

Winzar features a generic minifig body with some cool printing showing tribal accoutrement and a nice six-pack that tells us this dude likes to do his crunches. The head is printed on both sides, and would look fine on its own, but there’s also a proper wolf head that fits over it so that the printed eyes on the inner head show through. Lest you thought this was a cutesy kiddie line, think again. Winzar’s face is all kinds of messed up. He’s got bloody gashes all over the left side of his face and his left eye has been literally clawed out. That shit is seriously hardcore!

The sled is about what I expected from a polybag set. It’s a little better than the token rocket sleds that I was bitching about a while back when I was looking at one of the Galaxy Squad sets. It sits up high in the back on a pair of blades, which can easily be pulled out and used by Winzar as weapons. The front sits low and there’s a dog bone axel holding the front skis in place. How adorable is that?

Obviously, this set isn’t going to take anyone more than a few ticks to build and the sled isn’t likely to impress anyone. Still, a little taste of Lego in the middle of the week is sometimes just the thing that hits the spot until I can get myself a bigger and more substantial set. But above all, this set is worth picking up for the Winzar minifig. He’s an awesome little figure, and even if I manage to hold out against the temptation to start buying Chima sets, I’m pretty happy to have him in my collection.

Mar 18 2013

Marvel Universe: Kraven The Hunter by Hasbro

It’s Marvel Monday. It’s been a rough working weekend. Today’s going to be kind of quick and to the point. Keeping all that in mind, I decided to go with a look at Kraven today, because despite really enjoying me some Spider-Man, I’ve never been a big fan of Kraven. He’s a very cool character design, he has an ok backstory, but I’ve never really bought his paring with Spidey as making a whole lot of sense. Nonetheless, I’m all about building up my Spider-Man Rogue Gallery in 3 ¾”, so adding Kraven to my collection was only natural.

Kraven comes on the typical MU card, although he does require an extra deep bubble because his costume is a tad bulky. He’s carded with his accessories around him and he really fills out the bubble nicely. The character art isn’t up to some of the line’s better work, although the more I look at the illustration, the more I feel that Kraven is staring out from the card and directly into my soul and trying to mesmerize me long enough to stick his spear in my throat. Flip the card around and you have Kraven’s bio along with the adorable and deadly Rocket Raccoon telling you that you better buy every damn MU figure you can find or else he’s going to tip your garbage cans, and then bite you and give you the intergalactic rabies.

Actually he just says, “Never doubt a raccoon.” I can’t believe we’re going to see him in a feature film soon. These are truly amazing times we live in. Let’s rip this guy open…

So, I may not be the biggest Kraven fan around, but holy hell, this is one amazing figure. I mean, damn Hasbro, you guys went all out for this guy. What we have here is definitely one of the best sculpts in my MU collection and probably one of the better sculpts of any 3 3/4″ figure I own. That’s not hyperbole, folks, that’s just me being really impressed. The head sculpt is top notch for a figure in this scale and the buck used is replete with sculpted muscles. The arms are achieved with painted armbands and wrist and hand wraps, but the paintwork is spectacular. The lower legs are new sculpts with skull knee guards, fur fringe and wrapped boots.

The rest of the figure showcases the unbelievably awesome lion head vest. It’s gorgeously sculpted and painted. The mane, which makes up the shoulders and the back makes for a wonderful effect and the paintwork on the lion’s face is immaculate. Kraven also has a belt of pouches with front and back sashes. The outfit is tied together with a little necklace, which you need to pop off his head to put back on.

Kraven isn’t based on the most articulated of the MU bodies, but he does have some great poseability. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, ankles, and torso. His arms have hinged elbows, and swivel wrists. His knees are double-hinged. He’s missing the thigh swivels, but after how crappy those joints were in my Kang figure, I’m perfectly fine if Hasbro starts leaving them out. Which leads me to point out that the quality of plastic Hasbro used for this figure is very good.

Besides his necklace, you get two accessories with Kraven: His spear and his knife. The knife can be held in either hand and can also be trust into his belt for storage. The spear is a nice looking piece, but it’s a little bendy. He can also hold it in either hand or both.

In case you haven’t guessed, I am completely blown away by Kraven. I have little love for the character, but I have to give kudos to Hasbro for putting some unprecedented work into this figure. One of the many reasons I hate to collect Marvel Universe, is that few of the figures seem to justify their price tag, but Kraven’s superior sculpt and paintwork and his accessories make him feel like a great deal. In fact, he’s almost on par with something I might get in an exclusive set. I’m thinking this guy might split his time with my GI JOE collection, because I think he would fit in pretty well as some kind of insane Cobra. Either way, Kraven is one outstanding figure.

Mar 16 2013

Avengers: Black Widow Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys

Way back when, the Iron Man 2 version of Black Widow very nearly became my first Hot Toys purchase, but she sold out before I could get the funds together and she was going for ridiculous prices on the second hand market. And so that honor eventually fell to Captain America. But some things happen for a reason, and one look at Widow’s second version from Hot Toys and I found myself actually glad I missed out on the first, because I can’t say as that figure has aged well. Needless to say I pre-ordered The Avengers version as soon as Sideshow put her up. It was a long wait until December and then, as is often the case with Hot Toys releases, she was delayed and delayed again until finally arriving fashionably late here in the middle of March.

The packaging is nowhere near as flashy as my previous Hot Toys purchases, but it certainly gets the job done with just enough style to boot. The figure comes in a window box with a cardboard sleeve over it. The sleeve has a newsprint-style photo of Widow on the front with the Avengers logo in foil print. Apart from the fine print on the back, the only other printing on the sleeve are the two hourglass emblems on the sides.

The interior window box is silver with the same hourglass emblems on the sides, the Avengers logo on the front and “Black Widow” in big print on the top and bottom. The back panel has the usual Hot Toys credits listing the people who worked on the figure. The window shows off the figure, but until you open her up and clear all the plastic and wrap away, you won’t really get a great look at her. Inside the window box, the figure rests in her tray, flanked on both sides by her accessories and extra hands. Her stand is positioned at the bottom of her tray, between her legs. Sometimes less is more, and in this case I think there’s a certain minimalist grace to Widow’s package. Nonetheless, long time Hot Toys collectors may feel let down by the lack of flashy presentation here. But enough about the packaging, it’s time to get her out and see what we’ve got…

Let’s deal with the elephant in the room… rooted hair! ROOTED HAIR!!! Widow’s rooted hair was the only thing that made me think twice about ordering her. I am not a fan, because it’s often hard to manage and quite frankly the idea of sitting at my desk and brushing and styling the hair on an action figure comes dangerously close to making me reconsider my hobby. It’s one of those things that when successful, it looks amazing, when unsuccessful it looks terrible. It’s a big risk to take on a $200 figure. But even more so, I have a real problem with inconsistencies, meaning if I have one Hot Toy figure with sculpted hair, I think they all should have sculpted hair. That’s my borderline OCD talking. Either way, I was a little bit terrified to open her up and see what I was going to be up against.

Fresh out of the box, it certainly looks rather frazzled, but I don’t think it’s as bad as it could have been. There are inevitably going to be some stray hairs, but even those are usually easy to get under control. Most of the problem comes with when you’re manipulating the figure and her hair gets mussed as you can see in some of the photos. On the other hand, if she’s going to be on the shelf and left alone for a while, spending five minutes to get it under control is worth the pay off. Besides, I always thought Widow’s hair was a little too perfect during the intense battle scenes of the movie, so a few flyaways here and there don’t bother me all that much. I’m not going to say Widow converted me to an advocate of rooted hair, but in this case Hot Toys knew what they were doing and in retrospect, I probably wouldn’t change it.

As for the portrait itself, this is a solid representation of Scar-Jo, but not a perfect one. It’s not one of those instances where I marvel at whether or not I’m looking at a figure or the actual person. The nose and mouth and overall face structure are great, but I think maybe the eyes needed to be a little bigger? I’m not sure. I do know the paintwork is so good that it’s downright eerie. I thought the head sculpt on the Iron Man 2 version was passable, and I think this is an improvement over that release. In the end, it’s still an amazing sculpt and I’m perfectly happy with it. The body is a huge improvement over the train wreck that was the Iron Man 2 release. Some may argue that the proportions still aren’t quite right, but I think she’s pretty spot on.

I wasn’t expecting to have a lot to say about Widow’s outfit. I mean there’s only so much you can do with a leather body suit, right? Well, in hand I really am impressed. The material has just the right weight and pliability. It fits the figure extremely well and yet it hardly inhibits her articulation. Although, granted there’s only so far I’m willing to go with her hip joints, because I don’t want to pull the stitching. The blue piping looks great and there are even more subtle “panel lines” running throughout, plus the SHIELD patches on the shoulders are superb. The stitching is all neat and clean and sculpted rubber boots blend wonderfully with the legs of the suit.

Widow features a regular belt with her hourglass belt buckle and a second weapons rig which rests on her hips and secures her two thigh holsters around her legs. The straps are all tight and look amazing and I absolutely love the minimalist approach to the holsters. They basically just hold the muzzle of the weapons and yet they are totally secure. The weapons rig also has four sculpted pouches with non-removable throwing discs, two front and two back.

Widow comes with a lot of hands! These are all easily swapped out, and you also get an extra set of posts in case you snap the ones that come on the figure. She comes packaged with a set of fists attached, you also get a set of pistol hands, you get a right hand designed to rest on her hip, and you get a right hand that is designed to hold her throwing discs. I don’t often do a lot of hand swapping with my figures, so the gun hands will spend the most time on my figure. You also get a set of “tazer effect” fists to allow her to show off her “Widow’s Sting.” These come in a separate tray and accompanied by a second set of bracers. These parts have some blue paint to show off the electrified effect of the sting. It looks Ok on the fists, but it’s barely noticeable on the bracers.

Accessories… Assemble! On paper, it looks like Widow comes with a lot of goodies, but in reality once you get through all the hands (so many hands!) there’s not a lot here that I’m interested in. I’ll start with what I considered essential and that’s her guns. She comes with a pair of Glock 26’s. These compact little beauties were great choices for her in the film and Hot Toys really nailed their 1:6 versions. Not only do they look great, but they actually have spring loaded action and removable clips with painted rounds showing at the top. These pistols fit perfectly in her holsters and in her set of gun hands.

Next up is the Chitari rifle. The Chitari were the only thing I didn’t like all that much about The Avengers, so I certainly didn’t consider this piece essential. On the other hand, it is a pretty cool looking alien rifle and I am very glad they included it with the figure. It’s nicely sculpted and beautifully painted, but it doesn’t have any moving or removable parts. Will I ever display it with the figure? Probably not.

Lastly, you get a pair of her teeny-tiny throwing discs. I don’t scoff at extra accessories, but it’s hard to justify the point of these little things. She can barely hold them and I can’t imagine many people choosing to display her with them.

Black Widow set me back $189 and there are no regrets here. She’s a fantastic looking figure and well worth the wait. I know some people have been grousing about the cost. She is, without a doubt, what would be considered among the basic assortment of Hot Toys figures and yet she was $20 more than the last Marvel Hot Toys I bought (First Avenger Cap was $169), but if you take into account the rising costs of everything, I don’t think the increase is all that bad. I mean if Deluxe Transformers can jump a third more in price in a year, the extra Andy Jack it cost me to get Black Widow doesn’t seem so bad.

I’m not setting out to pick up a full set of Avengers, but rather just cherry picking my favorites. Indeed, the next Hot Toys purchase I make will be doubling back to pick up Red Skull. On the other hand, if Thor hangs around long enough at any e-tailers, I might be tempted enough to pick him up at some point.

Mar 15 2013

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fishface (Nickelodeon) by Playmates

Last week I checked out the amazing Dogpound, who by the way is still sitting on my desk because just looking at him makes me happy. This week, I’m looking at another one of Shredder’s wacky new minions, Fishface. Like Dogpound, this guy was impossible to find during the Christmas season, but thanks to recent restocks, he’s starting to turn up on the pegs again. And yet, with eight pegs of TMNT figures, my local Walmart still only had one Fishface. The rest of the pegs seem to be filling up with the gimmicky Turtle variants. I haven’t decided on picking up those yet, but today we’re here to talk about Fishface. I like saying Fishface. Fishface!

Have I mentioned how much I love Playmates’ TMNT packages? Yes, I have. Many times. Because of his unusual fishy shape, Fishface is carded on his side as if he’s running. Think about that for a moment. He’s a fish and he’s running. You just know wackiness is going to ensue and I’m really excited to get him out of the package, so let’s get right to it.

So, Fishface is basically a fish with arms and a set of cybernetic legs and a water-breathing apparatus. It seems like if the Kraang could mutate him into a fish with arms, they could have gone all the way and given him legs too. Maybe it’s a dodgy process. Then again, a fish with legs is nowhere as cool as a fish that has to wear robotic pants to walk around, so I’m not complaining. I’m sure this kind of thing has been done before, but I still love the concept and Playmates has incorporated it beautifully into their TMNT line.

The sculpt here is pretty awesome. Fishface has a great scaly texture all over his skin and a fin-mohawk protruding off the back of his head/neck. The combination of underbite and protruding teeth gives him a ton of personality, and he’s got the cold, yellow eyes of a killer. The mechanical sculpt of his robot pants really contrast nicely with his fish features and they even have sculpted treads on the bottoms of the heavy feet. Fishface is a bright and colorful figure, although in the interest of finding something to nitpick, I’ll concede that the red used for the front of the face should have matched the back a bit more, and the bright orange used for the breathing apparatus is rubbish. I’d like to pick up a second Fishface and try to paint the apparatus, but he’s tough to find again and my customizing skills are crap, so I’ll make do.

The figure contains more articulation than you might expect a fish to have. He has swivels in the neck and waist, his arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and have swivels in the wrists, and his robo-legs rotate at the hips. Not bad for a fish out of water!

Fishface comes with a pair of rather unusual looking blade weapons. The sword has a katana blade, the other is a little dagger. They’re sculpted in grey plastic and he can hold them very well in either hand.

And so the Nickelodeon TMNT line continues to delight me. For a while I thought I’d be able to contain myself to just the main figures I know and love, but Playmates has been working their magic with the new characters as well. I certainly haven’t regretted any purchases from this line, and it’s nice to be able to walk out of the toy aisle with a figure as cool as this for under ten bucks. Now I’m on the hunt for Metal Head.

Mar 14 2013

World of Warcraft: Demolisher Attack by MegaBloks

Once again, I’ve managed to kick my World of Warcraft habit, but I’m still picking up the Megabloks sets now and then. This time around, I’m up against a WoW set bigger than anything I’ve looked at before. It’s the Demolisher Attack and at 299 pieces, it’s twice the size of Sindragosa and The Lich King. Let’s check this beast out!

The set comes in a massive box with some really nice, colorful artwork. In the past, MegaBloks has had a habit of using oversized boxes with a lot of extra room, but that’s definitely not the case here. This big box comes stuffed with 7 bags of unnumbered bricks, a bag of mystery loot, an instruction booklet, and a B&W addendum sheet because I guess they screwed up when printing the book. You also get a single loose brick, which they either threw in there because they forgot it or whatever. When you’re done you get ~~everything~~ almost everything (more on that later!) you need to build a Horde siege engine, an Alliance outpost and three minifigs. As always, let’s check out the minifigs first.

MegaBloks’ WoW minifigs, or micro-figs if you prefer, always impress the hell out of me and that’s the case with this pair too. You get a Horde Blood Elf Death Knight, Severin, and an Alliance Human Warlock, Markov. The Warlock even comes with his Voidwalker Minion. As usual, the minifigs come assembled and the sculpted detail and paint work on these tiny guys are amazing. You can break down their armor and swap it between figures, which is awesome because it means that any minifigure can loot another after he ganks him. Severin comes with a mace and Markov comes with a staff and they each have clips to store the weapons on their backs. Once again, Megabloks, these figures are absolutely stellar!

The Demolisher siege engine takes up more than half of this set’s parts and it was a very fun and satisfying build. It’s bigger and more intricate than I had anticipated, and while it does make use of some rather large pieces, like the wheels and a frame, it still uses plenty of other smaller parts, so building it doesn’t feel like a cheat. Indeed, there are at least a few very tiny parts involved, so try not to sneeze while building it!

Some highlights of this cart of rolling destruction include a working catapult on the front, beautifully sculpted and painted wheels, a cauldron on the back to store flaming projectiles, Horde standards on each side, and some cool spikes and chains that really add a lot of character to the model. I’m still not a big fan of the swirly paint used on some of the brown bricks, but it isn’t as unsightly here as in past sets. On the contrary, I just love the way this thing looks!

There’s a single seat with a peg to hold a figure, and while The Demolisher is really only designed for the single pilot, the whole thing is big enough to have a couple extra passengers, maybe hanging off the back. The finished build holds together very well and it rolls along great. The printed addendum page seems to correct the instructions for rigging the rubber band for the catapult. It’s nice that they found and corrected the error, but it reminds me that I’m not dealing with the higher quality standards of Lego here.

Completing the Demolisher would have left me plenty satisfied, but it’s nice to know that there’s more to build, and the Alliance outpost is no slouch either. While the bulk of the tower is made from two panels, the base of the structure is a pretty involved build. I love the way the set uses a mix of rounded and regular stone pieces to give it a realistic masonry style and the paintwork on the “stone” bricks works quite well. You do, however, have to be extra careful when doing the build because the difference between rounded and squared bricks is subtle in the illustrations. With a similar architecture and design, building this outpost offers a nice taste of what the Stormwind set is going to be like. No monies in the budget this week… must… resist… buying Stormwind set.

The outpost features three levels, and while not terribly large, you can easily get a figure on the second and third floors and two or three on the ground floor. The second floor features a Horde shield in the wall and a clip to store a weapon. The outpost doesn’t feature an actual base, so if you happen to have a spare Lego base kicking around you may want to make use of it here. It’s not necessary, though, as the building holds together just fine without it. I’m pretty sure I could drop this thing and it would hold together. On a carpet, mind you… I’m not crazy! You also get a firing catapult, which can be mounted on the roof or placed strategically around the outpost.

Alas, this really fun set suffers from one flub: Mine was missing a piece, and that piece was a big ladder. Now, on the plus side, it’s a good thing that the set wasn’t missing something crucial to completing the build. The ladder is a nice extra for the interior of the outpost, but it’s probably the one piece in this set that could be missing while not being essential to the build. On the other hand, it’s a huge f’ing ladder… how do you leave that out??? If it were a small piece, I’d have given MegaBloks the benefit of doubt and assume I lost it, but there’s no way I could have lost the ladder. I was half hoping my mystery loot would be a ladder, but nope… it was a nice pair of spiked red shoulders. The infuriating thing is that I had 17 extra pieces in the set. If only I could melt them down into a ladder.

[Update: While I was going to just let it go, I wanted to give Megabrands a chance to make this right, and I’m glad I did. Their customer service was really cool and professional about this and quickly had the part on its way to me. I was expecting to be told I needed to produce a receipt or buy the part. Nope. No charge, and no proof of purchase required. You’re a class act, Megabrands, and my Alliance Warlock will appreciate being able to reach the second floor of his doomed little outpost.]

Missing ladder notwithstanding, Demolisher Attack is a great set. You get three awesome little figures, and everything you need to have a battle. And since I only roll Horde, I love that the Alliance outpost doesn’t look like it will stand a chance against the Horde Demolisher! Yeah! Horde gonna roll right over you! Suck on that, Allie bitches!!! Nothing against Severin, but I’ll probably have one of my Goblins or Orcs driving the Demolisher, just because. But yeah… The build is not only satisfying, but rather challenging since the bags aren’t numbered and you’re dealing with nearly 200 pieces all at once. I had a lot of fun putting it together and I’m already looking forward to my next WoW set.

Mar 13 2013

Transformers Prime: Cyberverse Star Hammer w/ Wheeljack by Hasbro

I’m still working my way through the TF: Prime lot that I got from Ross last week. Today we’ll check out the Cyberverse Star Hammer vehicle bundled with a tiny Legion Class Wheeljack. While I haven’t picked up a whole lot of Cyberverse, I generally dig the idea of making a small line of Transformers that have vehicles and playsets. It taps into the whole Action Master and Micro Master gimmicks from back in the day. The Star Hammer looks more like a ground vehicle to me, but it’s obviously patterned after Wheeljack’s spaceship, the both delightfully and ridiculously named “Jackhammer,” as seen in the episode “Loose Cannons.”

The toy comes in a window box that shows off everything you get and does a good job of showcasing the various features of the toy, even if it doesn’t tell you much about what it’s supposed to be. While the Star Hammer is the bulk of what you’re paying for here, I’m going to start off with Wheeljack.

I’m not gonna lie, this guy is kind of impressive. His vehicle mode is solid and it looks like a shrunk down version of the Deluxe toy. He’s mostly white plastic with a black windshield and he has some red and green paint apps, that we’ve all come to associate with the Wheeljack character. The transformation engineering is pretty good for such a small toy and when you’re done converting him you get a good looking little robot. Between the paint apps, quality of the plastic, and the engineering, I honestly feel like this little guy is better executed than some of the Deluxes I’ve looked at recently. The paint work alone on this tiny bot is a thousand times better than what we got on Deluxe Bumblebee. Hey, Hasbro. How come you can paint this guy’s tail lights, but you can’t do it on the $15 figure of one of your main characters? Even his articulation, which features ball joints in the shoulders and hips and hinged knees makes him a perfectly playable little figure. Wheeljack also has a pair of blue translucent energon blades, which he can hold in his hands or clip onto his roof in car mode. This little guy is fun!

The Star Hammer is basically a mobile weapons platform, with a one-seat cockpit and two configurations. One mode has the side panels perpendicular to the ground, the other angles them out more like wings and deploys the two large missile launchers forward and reveal gunner stations in the back. The first mode allows for one figure to sit in the cockpit, the second mode allows for two more to stand behind the launchers. The conversion is automatic just by sliding the lever on the top. The design is nothing special, but it is a pretty good toy version of Wheeljack’s ship as seen in the cartoon.

The electronic gimmick lights up a translucent blue energon blaster, which is attached to the toy via a big ugly cable. The idea is that you can detach it and have other figures wield it, so long as they don’t stray too far from the vehicle. The LED is extremely weak and while it’s supposed to light up the entire gun on the top of the cockpit, it barely lights up the little one. If you have any of the TF: Prime Voyager Class figures, you’ll know how little to expect from the light up gimmick. If you’re into this thing for the electronics, you might be disappointed.

I don’t think the Star Hammer is a bad toy, but I’m not really wowed by it either. The conversion is cool enough and it feels like it’s made out of better, sturdier plastic than we’ve been usually getting out of Hasbro these days. If nothing else, it is a fun way to give your little Legion Class dudes some major firepower to ride around on. I think it says a lot that I’m more impressed with the little Wheeljack figure than the Star Hammer itself. If the idea of giving your Transformers converting vehicles doesn’t already excite you, then I doubt this thing is going to win you over. On the other hand, if you’re all about the concept, than you’ll likely get some fun out of this set. All I know is if I had a little Wheeljack like this guy when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have ever left the house without dropping him into my pocket.

Mar 12 2013

Star Trek Starship Legends: USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (“Wrath of Khan”) by Diamond Select

Science fiction has given us countless space faring vessels over the decades. Many have been one shot wonders, while select few have come to be considered iconic. But for my money there has never been a space ship more iconic, more graceful, or more beautifully designed than the Constitution Class Refit Enterprise. The ship made its debut in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but it wasn’t until Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that we really got to see the ship in all its glory, both trekking through the stars and slugging it out ship-to-ship in a bitter fight to the death. If I were to use one word to describe this incarnation of the Enterprise, that word would be “noble.” I can’t say exactly why, but she has a glorious nobility to her that has always embodied the values of Star Trek to me. And now, I finally have the Starship Legends version of this ship in my collection. Yep… too bad it’s a piece of garbage. Now would be a good time to remind you of my colorful language disclaimer. Ok, let’s do this… Set phasers to maximum disappointment.

We’ve recently seen the Starship Legends packaging for the Enterprise-D and the Bird of Prey, so this Enterprises’ box should look pretty familiar, although it is a lot more compact and while the other ships came completely assembled, the WoK Enterprise requires you to attach the warp nacelles. This worried me at first, as I like the option of storing the ship in the box. Fortunately, the nacelles can be easily removed again for storage. You get that same blue starfield deco, which looks ok, but doesn’t really convey the Star Trek franchise to me and the combination of the Classic Series font and the image of Kirk in his Classic Series uniform just feels out of place for a ship based on the feature films. The box is fairly collector friendly, although the two pieces of the stand are sealed under plastic, so you will have to tear them up to get those pieces out. Still, you can do it with minimal damage and return everything to the box, which is a good thing, because this is a toy that I’m not anxious to display.

Let’s start with the few good things I have to say about this Enterprise: First, let’s talk about the sculpt. The sculpted detail on this piece is bewilderingly awesome. From the tiny panel lines to the faint Aztec pattern, Diamond obviously did their research and meticulously etched it all into the hull of this toy. Second, let’s talk about the hull’s finish. I wasn’t too sure how much I’d like the pearlescent finish on the plastic, but in person, it really brings out all that detail in the sculpt. If you manipulate the ship in your hands and shift the light around its surface, it really brings out all of those amazing and intricate little patterns. Lastly, there’s the lettering. The lettering on the ship all looks crisp and clear. From the large and obvious printing on the top of the saucer section to the minuscule “United Federation of Planets” on the sides of the saucer and the sides of the primary hull. The lettering is excellent. That’s it, folks… the rest is all downhill from here.

The quality of the plastic on this piece is downright terrible. It feels flimsy and cheap like a ten dollar model kit. There’s a huge gulf separating the quality of this plastic and the stuff used for Diamond’s most recent Bird of Prey. If you silhouette this ship against a light, you can practically see right through it. Seriously, I can see my fingers right through the saucer section! That’s bad enough, but when you activate the lights, they bleed through the flimsy plastic hull and make for a terrible effect. But we’ll get to the electronics in a bit. I’m not done harping on the shitty plastic yet. The top rear of one of the nacelles looks like it was repaired with some kind of gloppy glue and it looks like crap. That right there is a complete absence of quality control. If I purchased this second hand on Ebay, I would accused the seller of shenanigans. Seriously, Diamond? You’ve got to be kidding me with this shit.

The paintwork on the ship is also pretty bad. There’s bleeding and slop all over the place and the deflector dish is painted black. Yes, black. Holy fucking shit on a tribble, why in the name of all the holy mother-fucking Gamesters of Triskelion would you paint the goddamn deflector dish black? Looking at it, it’s hard to imagine it wasn’t a decision that was made to deliberately ruin the whole thing, especially since this the toy is designed to light up.

Which brings me to the electronics. I could take this opportunity to bitch that there’s no option to display the ship with just the lights on, like there was with the Enterprise-D or the Bird of Prey. But that’s ok, because the light effects are so terrible, I wouldn’t want to. They basically just come on in sequence with the sound effects. Diamond made no effort to simulate actual running lights or any of the Enterprise’s on screen lighting effects whatsoever. The back of the bridge lights up, the impulse engine lights up, the area around that shitty black painted deflector dish lights up, and the interior of the warp nacelles light up. Virtually all of the lights that you see are actually just bleeding through the cheap plastic. The ship doesn’t look that great as it is, but it looks worse with the lighting effects illuminated. That’s quite an achievement.

The sound is a mix of sound effects and voice clips from the movie. I suppose I could bitch about the fact that most of the quotes are taken from instances that don’t actually take place on the Enterprise, but this thing is such a mess, I’m going to give it a pass. Here’s the rundown on the audio…

Kirk: “Fire!” [ship phaser effects]
Khan: “From hell’s heart, I stab at thee!”
SFX: Warp
Kirk: “I don’t like to lose.”
SFX: Alert Claxon
Khan: “Let them eat static.”
SFX: Impulse
Khan: “Fire!” [ship phasers effects]
SFX: Hand phaser(!) … What. The. Fuck?
Khan: “Times up, Admiral.”
Kirk: “Lock phasers on target and await my command.”
SFX: Ship Phasers
Khan: “Time is a luxury you don’t have.”
SFX: Explosion
Kirk: “Kirk to Spock.”
SFX: Transporter Effect
Kirk: “I don’t believe in a no win scenario.”
Kirk: Khan scream!

Wrath of Khan is a highly quotable film, so there’s some good material here, and I’m also a huge fan of the film’s sound effects. The transporters and the phasers sound particularly good.

I took a lot of issue with the stands included with The Enterprise-D. Well, the stand that comes with this ship is in some ways better and in some ways worse. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the stand itself is unbelievably cheap. The other stands featured two sides coming up from the Starfleet insignia base, making up a triangular cross-section, whereas this one only has one, making it seem like a totally deliberate way to shave a couple pennies of cost out of this thing. When I first took it out of the box I literally thought I was missing a piece. I mean it really is insulting and shameful to have a stand this shitty for a $60 collectible. On the plus side, the ball joint will actually hold the ship upright, which I attribute mostly to this Enterprise weighing a lot less than the Enterprise-D. There is an extra battery cover, which can be swapped out so the bottom of the ship doesn’t have the hole in it for the stand. It seems like a nice bonus, but than I realize the hole for the stand is the least part of this ship’s problems.

I have had nothing but good experiences with Diamond Select and Art Asylum in the past, which is probably why I’m so incredibly surprised and irritated over what a terrible ship this is. It’s so far beneath the other releases in the Starship Legends line, that it feels like it’s some kind of terrible and cruel joke. It just fails on so many levels that it’s almost inconceivable that Diamond would have the nerve to pack it into a box and sell it for $60. SIXTY DOLLARS!!!! Even at a third of the price, I couldn’t have been happy with this thing. I just look at it and think, what a waste of money! Even the novelty packaging Enterprise model that holds my 2009 Star Trek Blu-Ray is better quality collectible than this unfortunate piece of garbage.

Computer, initiate destruct sequence… I’m going to get some Romulan Ale and drink to forget.

This Feature was Re-Shot on 4/23/15

Mar 11 2013

Marvel Universe: Kang by Hasbro

I would understand if readers out there assumed that I stopped collecting Marvel Universe figures. The last time I looked at one was way back in November 2012 and I haven’t bought any until now. The truth is, I can’t find any on the pegs around here, and I refuse to pay a premium for them online. Here’s a novel idea, Hasbro, why don’t you sell the current figures on your website instead of listing them as sold out. Don’t you make these goddamn things? Haven’t you now missed profit goals and laid people off for the second fiscal period in a row? Don’t you want to sell them and make money for your shareholders and keep jobs for your employees? I can sort of understand the problem with retailers not having them, what with distribution issues or peg cloggers, but these are YOUR figures and YOUR website. Put enough of the current releases on your web store so people can buy them and you make money. Simple enough? Anyway, at least I’ve found that if I’m patient, Hasbro’s online shop finally gets enough of the older figures I missed out on so that I can rack up enough to get free shipping. I guess I have to be happy with crumbs. Ok, enough rant… today we’ll start with Kang.

When you drink as much as I do, you get distracted and confused rather easily, hence the empty package picture. At some point when I was heavy into the Jameson, I likely muttered something like, “c’mere Kang, you’re the only one who understands me” and ripped him open, oblivious to the fact that I hadn’t yet taken a packaged shot. Remember kids… booze makes you stupid. But it also silences your demons, lets you fall asleep, and helps you to cope with life. Forget Kang, booze, you’re the only one who understands me.

I’ve got to admit, as much as I sometimes hate to collect this line, it feels great to be holding a new figure, especially one that’s pretty far up on my Want List. The packaging is the same as we saw last time, with the jagged bubble and the “Collectible Comic Shot” which is just a tiny piece of cardboard with a comic cover printed on it. You’ll also note he’s called “Marvel’s Kang” which is Hasbro’s way around copyright issues. I question, why not just go with “Kang the Conqueror?” Surely they could copyright that and it sounds much better than the alternative. Oh well. I don’t think Kang’s character art is among the best the line has offered, but it’s still pretty cool. The back of the card has a little bio and MODOK taunting you to collect them all by reworking the acronym for his name. Fun!

Let’s break Kang down into two categories: one good, one bad. If we’re dealing with the sculpt and the paint, he does very well. Check out that head sculpt, it’s fantastic, and I really dig the way they made the cowl and helmet two pieces. Instead of just a standard, painted buck, Kang’s got a loose fitting tunic. It looks like the torso could be from Dr. Strange, but if I’m not positive at a glance, than that’s good enough for me. The bottom of the tunic is part of the new belt and he’s got some bitching thigh-high future despot boots. The coloring on the figure is just as good. His amazing future suit is green with subtle and effective wash. The boots, gauntlets, helmet, and cowl are all metallic purple, and his face is a great shade of blue. No doubt, Kang is a gorgeous little figure. Oh yeah, he comes with a gun too!

Ok, now the bad stuff… quality control! For starters, the swivel cuts in the thighs have huge caps in them. I could already see them before I took the figure out of the package. It’s bad enough that I probably would have left him on the peg if I were buying him in the store, but since he was a web order, I didn’t know until he was already in hand. Trying to screw them tighter helps a bit, but eventually they return to their natural state, leaving those annoying gaps. Next up, his legs are pretty messed up out of the package. This issue I’ve managed to fix a bit with a blow dryer, but it pisses me off that I have to. He’s not even in any kind of dynamic pose in the package. It’s just god awful cheap plastic. Hasbro, if you’re going to send out figures like this, at least start putting stands in the packages again.

In terms of articulation, Kang doesn’t disappoint. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, and wrists. He has hinged elbows and double hinged knees. There are swivels in his biceps, thighs, and just under his knees. His ankles feature regular hinges as well as lateral rockers, and he has a ball joint in his torso. Not bad!

Remember how I said that sometimes I hate collecting this line? Kang is a great example of why. Hasbro delivered an amazing looking treatment of the character, but when you get down to the QC issues, he sure doesn’t feel like a ten dollar figure. Overall, the great paint and sculpt wins the day and makes me happy to have him in my collection, but in the unlikely scenario that I actually see him on the pegs, I’ll likely try to look for an upgrade without the big gaps in the thigh cuts. I shouldn’t have to do that, but it is what it is.

Mar 9 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Weequay and Wooof by Hasbro

A couple of weeks back I promised I’d be hunting down more Vintage Collection Skiff Guards and I have indeed done just that. If I promise you I’ll take out the garbage or leave the toilet seat down, I’m probably lying, but a promise to buy new toys is a promise I always keep. The next two nefarious sand pirates to join my crew are Weequay and Wooof. Wooof? WOOOF??? This guy is Klaatu. What the hell is this Wooof nonsense all about? Well, in a flurry of Jameson-fueled irritation, I found my way to a wiki article that is telling me that he was called Klaatu but then the original production name for him was Wooof, but then it says they were two different characters, and now I’m just as confused and back to just saying screw it… I’m calling him Klaatu. It helps that I got him loose, so there’s no evidence he was ever named Wooof.

So, I’ve got no card to show you for ~~Wooof~~ Klaatu, but there’s Weequay’s card. As you can see, this isn’t the imposter, known as “Skiff Master Weequay,” that we looked at last time. No sir, this is the Weequay I grew up with and the one that will always have a special place in my fanboy heart. Look at him standing there proudly on the bow of his skiff. So noble… so magnificent… so Weequay! Since time began, Weequay figures have been sculpted with only one thing in mind… to hold their force pikes across their chests and mimic that… dare I say? Iconic pose. But now we finally have an articulated version that can do so much more. Let’s get him open and check him out…

Weequay has always had pretty good figures, and the Vintage Collection version just does some fine tuning. He’s not the most intricately sculpted of the Skiff Guards, but that’s more on his character design than anything else. Weequay sports his trademark ribbed brown leather vest with shoulder guards and a simple belt with some sculpted pouches. There’s no functional holster, but in fairness the on screen character didn’t have a holster either.

The head sculpt is fortified with all that raisin-headed goodness that I expect from my Weequay figures. He looks perpetually pissed off, as if letting us know that even an awesome job where you throw prisoners into giant sand vagina monsters can get to be a chore after a while. As with Skiff Master Weequay, I think Hasbro could have done a better job sculpting his braids, but they’re not bad. Weequay’s articulation includes ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. He has a T-crotch, swivels in the wrists and he can swivel at the waist. He comes with his pike and a hold out blaster. Well done, Hasbro.

And then there’s Klaatu. I gotta tell you, Hasbro went above and beyond on this guy. The head sculpt is fantastic. It’s as expressive as you can get from a lizard man in this scale. His vest is sculpted over an armor plate and his belt secures a softgoods skirt that looks like it’s some kind of crazy Tatooine goat hair, but I’ll concede that it’s probably not.

Klaatu features a removable hood, a removable bandolier strap, and a functional holster. Hooray for functional holsters! He comes with the same force pike (but different paint job) as Weequay and a very cool hold out blaster. Klaatu features ball joints in his neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. He has a T-crotch and he has swivel cuts in the waist and wrists.

Weequay and Klaatu are a seriously cool pair of figures. If the Vintage Collection’s aim is to produce truly definitive versions of characters, Hasbro certainly succeeded here. Granted, I’m a little biased since I love the Sarlaac sequence in RotJ so much, but it’s just great to see these guys get such amazing figures. I grabbed them for ten bucks each and now my Tatooine Skiff is just that much nearer to being fully crewed. That leaves Kithaba and Nikto and I’ll be checking them out next week.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Monthly Archives: March 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Kithaba and Nikto by Hasbro

Legends of Chima: Winzar’s Pack Patrol (#30251) by Lego

Marvel Universe: Kraven The Hunter by Hasbro

Avengers: Black Widow Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fishface (Nickelodeon) by Playmates

World of Warcraft: Demolisher Attack by MegaBloks

Transformers Prime: Cyberverse Star Hammer w/ Wheeljack by Hasbro

Star Trek Starship Legends: USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (“Wrath of Khan”) by Diamond Select

Marvel Universe: Kang by Hasbro

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Weequay and Wooof by Hasbro

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