Monthly Archives: January 2015

Jan 7 2015

FigureFan’s Favorites 2014, Part 2

 

Welcome back my friends, to my Favorites of 2014! I’m so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside… Oh, wait, I lapsed into Karn Evil 9 for a moment there…. Today we’re wrapping up this list with the Final Five. I really didn’t organize this list into any kind of priority, but I did save most of the heaviest hitters for today. Let’s dive right in with…

Masterpiece Transformers MP-10 Optimus Prime by Hasbro: There was never any doubt that I was going to have a Masterpiece Transformer on this list, but they’re all so damn good, so which one? Well, in the end it turned out to be Prime for a couple of reasons. First, for a while he became my White Whale. As his price soared high on the secondary market, it seemed like he would never hit a price that I was willing to pay. At least not until this bizarre Hasbro reissue for the Asian Market turned up. Secondly, after wanting him for so long I was worried that the figure couldn’t possibly live up to my anticipation. In the end it did. I’d still argue that this is far from a $160 figure, but I’m so very glad to finally have him in my collection, I’m willing to look past that. And if you’re interested, if it wasn’t for Prime, Wheeljack would have taken this slot.

The War Doctor by Character Options: Thanks to Character Options, I have a collection of quality Doctor Who figures that I could have only dreamed about owning as a kid. Alas, they have since “jumped the shark” and moved on to producing a pretty crappy 3 3/4” line. They do still throw us a bone from time to time, and one of those this year was a proper 5-inch scale War Doctor as played by John Hurt in the 50th Anniversary “Day of the Doctor.” This was a version of The Doctor that just absolutely had to be represented on my shelf. Not only is this an important figure for any Who collection, but CO happened to do a wonderful job with it. The likeness is there and they even threw in The Moment as an accessory. Now I can only sit back and hope that 2015 will bring a proper 5-inch scale 12th Doctor.

GI JOE Zartan Sixth-Scale Figure by Sideshow: Whaaa? GI JOE on this list? Crazy! I actually compiled nearly all of my Sixth-Scale Cobra figures in 2014, so it was a tough competition to see who came out on top. These were all great figures, but there was one breakaway release that just stole the show and that was Zartan. This figure blows me away on every level. The head sculpt, the costume, the amazing assortment of accessories. It’s both a familiar and original take on the character and just a masterful tribute to Zartan in this scale. As much as I dig all the other figures in this line, if I had to give up all but one, Zartan would be the figure I kept. He’s just that good!

Movie Masterpiece RoboCop by Hot Toys: I got some great Hot Toys figures in 2014, but there was only one that I spent most of the year waiting for and that was RoboCop. The fact that this guy managed to live up to all my expectations despite a growing crescendo of ungodly anticipation that built up for over a year just makes him all that more special. Sure, he was a little light on accessories, and yeah the way the electronics reset themselves after just a few moments of inactivity is a pain in the ass, but when everything else about a figure is so good, I can overlook a lot. To borrow Hot Toys’ own moniker, this figure is indeed nothing short of a masterpiece!

Feral Rex and the Feralcons by Mastermind Creations: While I maintain that there was no real order to this list, if pressed I suppose these last two would have tied for first in this list of favorite purchases. Technically, listing all five of MMC’s Feralcons should be a cheat, but the fact that they can combine into Feral Rex sorta, kinda lets me get away with it. It’s true that Feral Rex himself is just beyond impressive and deserves placement on this list, but I love these guys just as much for their individual bot modes too. They have so much personality, so many weapons, and they are so much fun to play with. I added some amazing 3rd Party Change-a-bots to my collection in 2014, but none of them were able to touch the collective mastery of MMC’s Not-Predacons.

And there ya have it, folks. Some things from 2014 that I threw a lot of money at and made me happy. Tomorrow we start the long, dark descent into the flipside. The missteps and unfortunate blunders of some not-so-happy transactions… My Greatest Disappointments of 2014!

By figurefanzero
3
Jan 6 2015

FigureFan’s Favorites 2014, Part 1

Here we go, Toyhounds… Most everyone does “Best of” lists this time of year, but I can’t stress enough how this isn’t really one of those lists. On the contrary, it’s a very personal list representing nothing more than ten of my favorite purchases in 2014. It’s compiled more as a fun exercise wherein I uncork a rather special bottle of Jameson and peruse my features from the past year, taking note of which purchases were really great and which ones turned out to be sour turds, and we’ll get to the turds in the second half of the week. And so, without further jibba jabba, let’s take a look at a selection of the stuff I blew money on last year that still gets my nod of approval…

Masters of the Universe Classics Modulok by Mattel: 2014 was the first year I subbed Club Eternia and contrary to what seems to be the popular concensus, I think it was a pretty solid year. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, that I knew something from the line was going to make it on my Favorites List, but it was hard for me chisel it down to just one figure. In the end, I really wanted to give props to Light Hope, Eldor, and New Adventures Skeletor, which were all excellent figures. Nonetheless, Modulok stood head and shoulders above last year’s best mostly because of his gimmick alone. I mean, just look at all those parts! He’s creative, he’s ridiculously fun to play with, and he’s the perfect homage to the vintage figure. Mattel totally knocked this one out of the park and I found myself fiddling with Modulok at my desk for quite a few weeks before I finally retired him to my MOTUC shelves. Great stuff!

Street Fighter Bishoujo Cammy by Kotobukiya: Between the Bishoujo and ArtFX lines (not to mention some of the anime statues), Kotobukiya got a lot of my money in 2014 and there wasn’t a single piece that didn’t live up to or exceed my expectations. Choosing one best piece for the year was pure agony. I was eventually able to narrow it down to something from the Bishoujo line and even from there I was looking at some amazing statues like Mara Jade, Armored Wonder Woman, Spider-Woman and Chun-Li. In the end I went with Cammy because, while all these statues were fantastic, I think Cammy and Chun-Li came the closest to perfection and it just so happens that  I have more of a thing for Cammy than I do Chun-Li. But really, ladies, you’re both winners… NOW FIGHT!!!

Marvel Legends Star-Lord by Hasbro: 2014 was the best of times and the worst of times for Hasbro’s Marvel Legends. It saw some really cool figures like Superior Spider-Man, STRIKE Suit Cap, Drax, and the Groot BAF. It also saw some total shit, which we’ll be giving some dubious honors to in a few days. In the end, though, I gave the nod to Star-Lord. This guy isn’t a perfect figure, not by any stretch of the imagination. The likeness is a bit soft (figuratively) and the joints are a bit soft (literally), but I think the good really outshines the bad here. The detail on his outfit is outstanding and he comes with enough goodies and a swappable head so that you can practically get two figures out of him. Seeing Guardians, which was easily my favorite movie of the year, made me feel like a kid again, and that kid would have loved to have had this figure to play with after seeing the movie. I can think of no greater praise than that.

Figma “Attack on Titan” Mikasa Ackerman by Max Factory: 2014 was the year I made my first Figma and S.H. Figuarts purchases. I actually bought several Figuarts (mostly from Sailor Moon) and only one Figma. I was so impressed with these figures, I knew one had to make it on the list and while I cannot deny the sheer awesome factor of my growing Sailor Scouts display, this is more about the quality and impressiveness of a single figure and so I had to give the nod to Figma’s Mikasa Ackerman, which is absolutely incredible in every discernable way. The base figure is superb enough, but her Omni Directional Mobility Gear is the real star of this magnificent set. Even the effect parts are wonderfully executed. I spent two nights of glee just posing and shooting this figure long after I had everything I needed for the feature.

Quarter-Scale 1989 Batman by NECA: I added some great NECA figures to my collection last year, including their Classic Planet of the Apes, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Bioshock Infinite figures, just to name a few. Nonetheless, there were two figures that stood out, partly because they were huge and partly because they were so wonderfully executed, and both of them were versions of Batman. Trying to decide between Quarter-Scale West Batman or Keaton Batman was really tough. They’re both superb sculpts, but in the end, I just had to give the nod to Keaton Batman and I think a lot of it has to do with how imposing he looks with his cape spread and the clever rods that were included to make that happen. Even as a collector who is rapidly running out of display and storage space, I had to buy this figure against my better judgement and I certainly wasn’t sorry I did.

And that’s where I’m going to wrap things up for today. Join me again tomorrow as I count down the Final Five in 2014 Favorites, Part 2…

By figurefanzero
1
Jan 5 2015

Say Goodbye to 2014 and Say Hello to Insufferable End of Year Lists!

It is indeed that time again folks wherein I sit back and take a long look at all the plastic I bought last year and pass judgment on my purchases. It not only makes for a fun romp through some of my Features in 2014, but it gives me a week off to recoup from the Holidays and recharge my batteries. I won’t lie, it’s been a real bummer of a 4th Quarter and I need to crawl into bed for a week. And yes, as a blogger, I am indeed contractually obligated to produce end of year lists. If I don’t the Elders of the Internet will come to my home and do horrible things to me. Last year, I started this list on New Years Day, but this year I decided to finish off my regular week of features and postpone until this week after. And so, I have donned my obligatory tuxedo and my cat is inserting my IV tube with the Jameson drip… It’s showtime!

If this is your first time at the rodeo, here’s how it works. My list is broken down into two halves: My Ten Favorites (covered tomorrow and Wednesday) and my Ten Biggest Disappointments (covered on Thursday and Friday). I’ll spend the weekend swimming back to the surface from my alcohol induced coma and then we go back to business as usual on Monday.

We are not animals and we live in a society governed by law, so there must be rules, albeit completely arbitrary ones! The items I’m looking at don’t have to have been released in 2014, but I did have to feature them in 2014. With that having been said, I think most of what I cover are from last year. Also, to keep things current any Vintage Vault or Transformers Thursday Retrospectives are off the table. I am also imposing some other limitations. Each company is only allowed one shout out per list, with the exception of Hasbro, which is allowed one toy-line per list. Sorry, but at last count I collect something like five different lines from Hasbro (that will likely change a lot in 2015) so exceptions had to be made. This keeps me from being a douchebag and spamming the entire Favorites List with Third Party Transformers and the entire Disappointments List with 3 3/4” Star Wars Black figures. As always, keep in mind that these are not the Best and Worst releases of 2014, but my own Favorites and Disappointments from my own purchases.

And that’s it for me. I’m putting FFZ on Auto Pilot and I’ll be back next week to start a new year with all sorts of new goodies. Come on back tomorrow to see the 2014 Favorites, Part 1…

By figurefanzero
0
Jan 2 2015

Masters of the Universe Classics: Mermista by Mattel

Yup, it’s Masters time again. Second time this week! Oh, don’t give me that… you’ve all been warned. My pile of unopened Matty figures has now grown to two beasts and four figures and the next Sale Day is just two weeks away so I’ve really got to try to get through all this. Today I’m checking out another Princess of Power figure, although she’s actually from the Club Eternia Sub and not the Club Etheria Sub. It’s confusing, I know. My plan was to pick a random figure from my pile for today, but then I picked Gwildor and swapped him out for Mermista, because I really wanted to open Mermista and I’m good at lying to myself. Hey, did you hear the packaging is now totally redesigned?

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Nah. It’s really not. Now, I’m lying to you! It’s the same old Greyskull deco, but hey there’s nothing wrong with that because it looks great. Mermista features a “Princess of Power” sticker on the bubble and I’m rather impressed that they got all of her into a regular sized package. I’ll bet she’s packed in there like tuna. Heh… tuna… she’s half fish. Moving on… Her tagline reads, “Mermaid Friend of She-Ra” which sounds kind of racist to me. Is that how She-Ra introduces her to people? This is Mermista, she’s my mermaid friend. Hmm… Mermista’s biography reads kind of like a magical fairy story until it gets to the point about her taking Mer-Man’s trident away from him and sawing off his head with it. I’m not even kidding… HOLY SHIT!

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Mermista is packaged with her fish tail on, so let’s start with her aquatic form. The tail is an absolutely beautiful piece with an intricately sculpted scale pattern, a really pretty shade of teal and a generous splash of glitter. I was afraid the glitter was going to come off, and while I did notice a few specks on my hands when I first opened her, it seems to have stopped so I’m hoping it was just some stragglers that didn’t get a full dose of glue. The tail is articulated with a hinge at what would be her hips and rotating hinges at what would be her knees and ankles. It’s actually sculpted to resemble a woman’s legs in a mermaid sleeve, but just a little too skinny to look like a mermaid costume. Overall, it’s a very impressive piece. You also get a little plastic stand that snaps into the base of the tail so you can stand Mermista in her mermaid form. It’s a cheap little piece of plastic, but I still found that to be a pretty cool bonus.

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But Mermista’s got legs and she knows how to use them! That’s a little ZZ Top for you younger folk! To swap the tail you just pull her apart, the break is at the waist, in a fashion similar to King Hsss and then pop on the set of legs. In humanoid form, Mermista sports a pair of green boots and arm bracers, and a rather short blue skirt with an ornately sculpted silver belt. She has a green top with a pair of stereotypical clamshells for her booberz and the magical necklace spoken about in her bio is sculpted right onto her neck. All in all, her humanoid costume is rather simple and understated but I like it a lot.

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The portrait here is possibly one of my favorites in the Princess of Power line. It doesn’t really fall into the sameness that I’m always griping about between all the ladies’ faces. There’s just something about the facial structure that stands on its own and makes her especially attractive. The paint on her eys and lips is nice and clean and she has a great sculpted head of hair that sweeps down past her shoulders in curls.

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Despite her swappable nether regions, in humanoid mode Mermista features all the articulation we’ve come to expect from the ladies of The Great Rebellion. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have hinges in the knees and anles, and swivels in the hips. There’s a little bit of a rocker to the ankles, but no swivel in the lower legs. She can swivel at the waist and has a ball jointed neck. Thanks to her extra short skirt, Mermista has great range of motion in her hips, much better than most of the other laides, which is kind of ironic because she has a tail most of the time.

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If there’s any area where Mermista flounders it’s in the accessories department. She comes with a horn and a shield. The horn is cool enough, but it’s tough to get her to pose in a position so she looks like she’s blowing it (giggity). The green jeweled shield on the other hand is the same old PoP shield we’ve seen all along only curved at the bottom. Is that intentional or was it just damaged in the package? I’m really not sure, but it looks neat and at least it’s a little different from all the others. I would have liked to see something more substantial in the accessories, but considering we got the tail and the legs, I can see where the money went so I’m willing to forgive. Besides, she can always keep Mer-Man’s trident after she decapitates him.

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Mermista was one of my more anticipated figures in the 2014 lineup and I’m very pleased to say that she lived up to all my expectations. It’s really cool that Mattel was able to give us both human and mermaid versions of the figure in one package and she’s certainly one of the most striking ladies of the Rebellion so far. This kind of figure is exactly the reason I’m enjoying the Princess of Power figures so much. Next week’s regular scheduled programming will be interrupted by insufferable End of Year Lists, but when I return the following Monday I’ll come back to MOTUC and check out Gwildor… Moooooo!

 

Jan 1 2015

Transformers Generations: Roadbuster by Hasbro

It’s New Year’s Day and a lot of y’all probably have hangovers. Well, welcome to what I like to call… “every single morning, ever!” It just so happens that the first day of 2015 lands on a Thursday and, unlike Thanksgiving and Christmas, this time I’m not bumping Transformers Thursday. Instead, let’s look at something else I got for Christmas… Roadbuster! This is a momentous occasion for me, as I have been collecting Transformers since 1984 and yet this is my very first Roadbuster figure [No it isn’t, you idiot, you got the one from Dark of the Moon!]. In fairness, I can’t recall there being too many of them since the original. And that original figure, paired with Whirl, was one of them weird Transformers that didn’t seem to quite fit with the others so as a kid I stayed away from it. This is also a bit of a sad occasion too, as 2015 will see the end of the excellent 30th Anniversary “Thrilling Thirty” releases and move on to that whole Combiners Wars thing, a line that I will be really selective about buying.

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Sigh… There it is, the 30th Anniversary packaging. Aside from that nonsensical angled corner on the bottom, I really liked this stuff. Granted, these Voyagers didn’t come with a free comic book like the Deluxe packs, but I’m still going to be sad to see this line go. The box features that familiar G1-style grid pattern and some rather nice character art along with a window to show off the figure and some of his goodies.

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The back of the package shows off the toy in both modes and has a little bio blurb about how Roadbuster loves murdering Decepticons more than anything else, including eating chocolate ice cream. OK, I made up that last part, but I bet it’s true! Theoretically this box is collector friendly, but between the tray and the twisty ties and all the other nonsense, I haven’t gotten one of these Voyager Class figures out without shredding the packaging to all hell. That’s alright, though, because I gave up keeping Transformers boxes back when I opened one of my closets and got buried in an avalanche of empty Transformers Armada packages. That, I didn’t make up! Let’s start with Roadbuster’s alt mode.

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The official name for Roadbuster’s alt mode is a Combat 4×4 and that’s a pretty apt discription. It’s also a pretty good homage to the original G1 toy. Stripped down to its basest form, Roadbuster looks like an armored off-road vehicle bristling with connection ports just begging to be customized with his inventory of weapons. Load him up with his ordinance and he looks like something that should be patroling the deserts in a Mad Max film. The green, brown, and orange paintjob is ugly as sin, which matches the design of the vehicle as well. But, what Roadbuster lacks in aesthetics he does make up for with playability and swapping around the weapons can be rather fun.

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It’s also worth noting at this point that Roadbuster comes with a sticker sheet. They’re totally optional, but if you want to get a look approximating what’s shown on the box, you’ll have to have a little patience and slap some of these things onto the toy. Actually, better make that, carefully place them onto the toy. It is indeed an odd thing to get stickers with Transformers these days, although Metroplex came with them and as I understand it so does Whirl. Overall, I think the stickers are value added, although I was a bit choosey over which ones I put on and which I left off. Some just don’t fit in the proscribed area. I also got a good chuckle out of the “Do Not Paint” stickers and the irony about how few paint apps appear to be on the 2015 figures. It looks like someone at Hasbro is taking that idea rather literally. Anyway, the point here is that even if you aren’t into stickers, you might want to consider applying at least a few of these, because he looks rather barren without them.

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Transforming Roadbuster is relatively simple and satisfying, but it’s here where I really felt that the odd quality of this figure starts to show itself. It feels a little cheap and hollow and a lot of the moving parts, thankfully the ones that aren’t the robot’s joints, feel rather loose and floppy. It’s hard to explain but this just doesn’t feel like a Generations figure to me. In fact, it kind of feels like a knock off. Once in robot mode things are on the upturn. I absolutely love Roadbuster’s robot design. It takes everything about the original G1 design and makes it modern and better proportioned and actually articulated. Like his alt mode, he’s ugly and raw and clearly built for one thing… battle. Even when he’s just standing on the shelf at attention, this guy looks still looks like badass personified.

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Yeah, look at that mug. It’s cold and completely void of emotion. Take a good look, Decepticons, it’s the last thing you’re going to see before he rips your energon pump from your chest and drinks from it. Yeah, I realize he doesn’t have a mouth, but it still sounded cool. He has a clear plate on the back of his noggin for light piping, but it seems like they painted over the visor, because I can’t really get any light out of it.

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Roadbuster features some solid articulation and thankfully lots of ratchet joints to keep his general floppiness from effecting the important joints. The shoulders have swivel hinges, the elbow had double hinges and there are swivels in the biceps. The legs have universal movement in the hips, double hinges in the knees and hinges in the ankles. The ankles also feature rockers as a side effect of the transformation and the neck is on a ball joint. My one complaint here is that the lateral movement in the hips is not ratcheting and my Roadbuster has a habit of doing the splits if you make his stance too wide.

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As with his vehicle mode, you can go crazy customizing the weapons on Roadbuster’s robot mode. He has pegs on the tops of his shoulders, sides of the shoulders and he can hold them in his hands. It all makes for some good fun… except for that little rocket pack piece. That piece can go to hell, as it doesn’t seem to want to fit anywhere without excessive force. Best I could do was get it into one of his shoulders.

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I seem to recall a lot of fans losing it when this guy was announced and when you add that to the fact that Fansproject’s version before this sold quite briskly and for a lot of money, I come to the conclusion that this is a character that is really popular with the fans. I’ve already indicated, however, I’m not a huge Roadbuster fan, but I’ve got nothing against him, nor do I have a lot against this figure. Like the original G1 toy, it’s rather odd, it feels different, and the stickers and customizable weapons make him a bit of an anomaly. On the other hand, he looks great and he is rather fun to play around with, so I will happily find him a place on my Wreckers shelf. I’ll also add that he was a great gift, because I probably would have never bought him myself and I would have been missing out on a rather cool figure like I probably did with the original toy back when I was a kid.