Dec 19 2016

Star Wars Titanium Series (Rogue One): Imperial Cargo Shuttle by Hasbro

I just got back from seeing Rogue One and I really wanted to talk about it. But FFZ is a toy blog and not a movie blog, so I needed a thinly veiled excuse to discuss it. One quick trip to Target on the way home netted me exactly what I was looking for. The Titanium Series Imperial Cargo Shuttle, so let’s talk about this cool little ship and not in any way use this Feature as a means to interject some random thoughts about the movie!

The ship comes in a little window box that closely matches the packaging used for the Star Wars Black 6-inch series and includes some schematic-style line drawings of the ship. The side panel also denotes that this is #31 in the series…. holy crap, there have been 31 of these ships released??? The packaging is collector friendly and fairly attractive, although mine looks like it was beat to hell in the stockroom or kicked around the floor by kids. Honestly, I think going with a window box for these feels a little pretentious on Hasbro’s parts and I prefer the cards and bubbles that Mattel uses for their Hot Wheels ships.

So, how about that Rogue One, eh? I had mixed expectations going in. On the one hand the trailers have gotten me pumped more and more with each new glimpse. On the other hand, I’ve read some tempered reactions to it. Some people were saying it was too dry and didn’t feel like Star Wars. Now, I will freely admit that it lacked a little of the heart and soul of The Force Awakens, but I didn’t find it dry at all, and indeed I felt it to be extremely Star Wars-y. In fact, I thought it felt more like Star Wars to me than anything we’ve had since The Original Trilogy. I loved The Force Awakens, but in tone that movie felt more like Return of the Jedi. It tackled some heavy themes, had some dire scenes, but it was also rather jokey and lighthearted at times. But that was appropriate, since it was a sequel to ROTJ.

Rogue One felt more like A New Hope to me, which is good seeing as how it leads directly up to that film. It had that grittier feel and everything from the sets and the ships and the tech all looked seamless to me. It delivered some amazing battles between the Rebellion and the Empire, which, Battle of Hoth not withstanding, is something that I’ve always wanted to see more of in a series called Star Wars. It was great to see the Imperial Forces in action and there was a lovely variety to the engagements. It also felt pretty damn epic, spanning a lot more locations than I had expected. What’s that? Oh, right… the toy review!

Imperial Cargo Shuttle SW-0608 is arguably one of the most important ships in the Star Wars universe, as it’s used to ferry the team of Rebel commandos to steal the plans for the infamous Death Star. It’s got some similarities to the Imperial Lambda Class Shuttle design, with the hull elongated, the main dorsal fin removed, and an extra set of articulated wings.

One of the coolest things about Rogue One was that it answers that age old gripe about why the hell the Death Star would have such a stupid design flaw. Alas, I can’t talk about that any more without going into spoiler territory. As much as I was anticipating this movie, I thought the story itself would be the least interesting thing about it, but there were some genuinely cool little twists and turns that kept me interested, even though I had an idea in my head about how it would play out and naturally what the outcome would be. Whoops… back to the review…

As some of you may know, I’ve been going with Mattel’s Hot Wheels line for my tiny Star Wars ships, so this is my first foray into Hasbro’s Titaniums, or at least since the line came back. At heart this feels a lot like the Hot Wheels line. The hull is made of die-cast metal and the wings are plastic. There’s a decent amount of detail to the sculpt, mostly in the form of panel lines. You get some different shades of gray to the paneling and there’s a little weathering as well.

I’ve read a couple reviews that accused the Rogue One of not having memorable characters. I’d take issue with that. None of these characters had the same instant appeal to me as Rey, Finn or my man-crush Poe, but I did find that the movie did a fine job of fleshing out a fair number of them. I really liked Director Krennic. He was a lot more developed than I expected him to be. I thought Jyn and her father were well done also. On the flip side, I would have liked to know a little more about Cassian Andor. I liked him a lot, but I felt they could have explored his backstory a bit more. Let’s check back in on the review…

The wings on the shuttle are articulated. I’ve come to expect that from the Hot Wheels line as well, but here, Hasbro goes that little extra inch and gives the ship a couple more bells and whistles. You get an opening boarding ramp under the cockpit and four teeny tiny sets of landing gear. I actually had to dig each one out with a razor blade because they’re so damn tiny. Impressive!

Some of the more deliberate call backs to the other movies felt forced. The person Jyn bumped into on Jedha was potentially cringe-worthy, but in the end, I found them to be fun and didn’t mind them. In fact, the only thing that put me off a little was how different Vader sounded. That really took me out of those scenes. I appreciate that Jones is a lot older now, but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard him portrayed by other actors in games where he sounded more like Vader than he did here. Considering some of the digital lengths they went to bring back other characters, it seems like they could have cleaned up Vader’s voice a bit and had it sound more like it used to.

Very minor gripes aside, I came out of Rogue One pretty pumped to see it again. I thought it was a great and unexpectedly epic piece of work. It was definitely a different direction from the regular Saga, but at the same time it felt like pure, distilled and concentrated Star Wars to me and I loved it for that. Where The Force Awakens felt very small and compact, this one was a far more expansive trip through the Star Wars Universe. I can see myself going back a few times before it leaves the theaters and this is one movie that I already can’t wait to own on Blu-Ray.

As for my little Imperial Shuttle… It may not be the most exciting ship design around. In fact, it really does feel like a computer model that was kit-bashed for an Expanded Universe video game. But, after seeing the movie, I found that I really wanted a representation of this intrepid little ship in my collection and this seemed to be the only way to go. I’m somewhat impressed with my first Titanium purchase and I might even pick up a few more of these to compare them with my growing Hot Wheels fleet. At the very least, I’m happy to see that the two lines go fairly well together.

Dec 19 2016

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): The Enchantress by Hasbro

While Doctor Strange has been in theaters for a little while now, this wave of Legends is still topical for me, as I just got around to seeing the film for the first time a few weeks ago. I don’t want to turn my blog of toy ranting into a blog of movie ranting, but I’ll just say that I liked Doctor Strange, but I did not love it. It was certainly enjoyable and I think they did a pretty good job with the character, but it was probably my least favorite MCU release so far. As negative as that may sound, it’s worth noting that I’ve loved them all, so taking last place in this case is nothing to be ashamed of. With that having been said, I’m kicking off this wave with the figure in the assortment that I identify the least with Doctor Strange… The Enchantress!

Enchantress is one of the “Mystic Rivals,” sharing her slot in this wave with Nico Minoru. As a result, her name does not appear on the front of the package, only the back. There’s no actual Doctor Strange branding on this package, but you get the same orange colored side panels, which feature some really nice character art of both Nico and The Enchantress, one on each side. As always, these window boxes are collector friendly, but I’m about to shred this thing to pieces and pitch the remnants.

Behold! The Enchantress! This lovely lady uses the exact same body as The Scarlet Witch, back in the Allfather Wave, but it totally works and so I won’t hold that against her. I will, however, hold anything else against her, if she’s up for it, because she’s quite the knock out. The bulk of the outfit is achieved through paint. You get black leggings that end in high-heeled boots. Her rather iconic ring patterns are painted on the fronts of her legs in metallic green. Her painted top is dark green and her painted arm bracers are metallic green to match those leg rings. The paint on this figure is very sharp and clean and the colors look great.

The newly sculpted piece for her outfit consists of a soft plastic green skirt with a gold painted belt. The skirt is designed so as not to hamper her hip articulation. Her hands are the same ones used for Scarlet Witch as well, giving her those wonderful spell-slinging fingers.

I really dig the portrait here. The paint work on her lips, eyes, mascara, and eye brows is all nice and clean. She has a wonderfully slight smirk on her lips, which gives her a little extra personality. Her tiara is sculpted onto her hair, and the hair does its best to not inhibit the neck articulation too badly. My figure does have a weird scar above her chest that looks like came out of the molding process. It’s not a big deal, but worth mentioning. I thin it looks a bit like a battle scar.

Since they share the same body, the articulation here is identical to Scarlet Witch, but I looked at her a long time ago, so I’ll do the rundown again. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint just below the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The hinges are all strong and tight and she’s surprisingly easy to stand, even with those heels.

Enchantress comes with the same magic effect parts we saw with Scarlet Witch. Actually, we’ve seen these several times since as well. They seem to be Hasbro’s favorite accessory, based solely on how many times they’ve recycled them. This time they’re cast in a wonderful neon green plastic, which practically glows under a good light source.

I was absolutely thrilled when Hasbro revealed Enchantress would be in this wave, not only because I love the character, but because for a brief time it looked like she would be a limited release. She was originally included as part of the 2016 SDCC Exclusive Marvel Legends boxed set and that made me very angry collector. While I was pretty confident she’d eventually see a retail release, they don’t usually follow too soon after the exclusives. Fortunately, Hasbro showed pity on us fans who don’t like hunting exclusives, or paying through the nose for them, and the lovely Enchantress got a wide release after all. She was definitely one of my most anticipated figures in this wave and I think she turned out great.

Dec 16 2016

DC Super Hero Girls: Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn by Mattel

On the last DC Friday, I had a look at Batgirl and Supergirl from Mattel’s DC Super Hero Girls line of 6-inch action figures. Today, I’m finishing things off with Harley and Ivy. Yes, interestingly enough Mattel and DC rolled the villains into the fold as heroes in this line. And for some reason I get a perverse pleasure out of a character like Harley Quinn, who herself is the epitome of perverse pleasures, appearing in a toy line aimed at delivering positive messages to little girls. Yeah, wrap your noodle around that one, eh?

I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging. It’s colorful, it’s attractive, you get personalized character art on each card. It’s worth noting that Harley is the only figure that doesn’t get a bio on the back, because what are they going to say? She’s a psychotic murderer? The “accessories” that are called out on the bubble continue to be a little dubious. Sure, Harley’s got a hammer, but Ivy’s accessories are her vines? M’kay. The packages are not collector friendly, but lets not hold that against them, because these are in no way figures aimed at collectors. Shall we start with Ivy?

Of all the Super Hero Girls, Ivy looks the most normal. She’s got a green dress, green knee-length pants, and green shoes. Her plant fetish is evidneced by green ivy painted on her lower legs as well as a vines making up her belt, adorned with a single rose. She also has a sculpted vine in her hair forming a braid. Articulation includes rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, a ball joint in the neck, and swivels in the wrists and ankles. My biggest issue here is that her lower legs came out of the package a little warped. That’s been a minor issue with all the figures because of the way they’re posed in the tray, but it’s been especially bad with Ivy here and Wonder Woman.

The head sculpt is pretty cute with orange hair and the typical large eyes that gives her that slightly familiar Disney Princess look, hopefully without stepping on any copyrights, BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THE ONLY COMIC BOOK DISNEY PRINCESSES NOW COME FROM MARVEL!!! While the overall design of the figure makes sense for Ivy, I’m not sure I would recognize her if I didn’t know she was supposed to be a DC character. That having been said, I still dig her well enough.

Lastly, Ivy comes with her “accessory,” which is just a sculpted vine that clip onto her wrist. Jeez, Mattel, you could have at least given us two of these, no? Moving on to Harley…

Well, there’s no mistaking who this is supposed to be! While much of Harley’s harlequin outfit has been converted into what looks like a prep school uniform, there’s still plenty of Harley here. She has black and gold diamonds running down the front of her buttoned own shirt, blue shorts and sneakers, and red and black leggings. They even kept her adorable little spiked bracelet. Articulation is identical to Ivy’s, but without the skirt, Harley has much better range of motion in her hips.

The head features a sculpted and painted black mask and very pale blonde hair with red and blue stripes in her pigtails. This is definitely my favorite of all the SHG’s new looks.

Harley also features the better accessory, her mallet. indeed, I’d argue that next to Wonder Woman’s lasso, Harley’s mallet is the only thing in this wave of figures that could really be considered an accessory.

Once again, I’ll point out that the best thing about this line is that they sneak in with a retail price at just under ten dollars and thanks to holiday sales, I grabbed most of mine for even less than that. I’ve noticed that some vehicles and playsets are appearing on the shelves, but I think I’ve gotten all I can out of this girls. It was a fun ride and these gals will no doubt occupy the corner of some shelf as curiosities. Although, I won’t rule out the possibility of checking out a couple of the 12-inch dolls at some point down the line, especially if they happen to hit clearance.

And I’m calling it a week folks! Sadly, there will be no Anime Saturday tomorrow, as I’ve got a busy working weekend ahead of me and I’m not sure how much I’ll be home. I’ll catch y’all on Monday when I’ll be kicking off an all new wave of Marvel Legends!

Dec 15 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Firedrive and Hot Rod by Hasbro

It’s time to start digging into a brand new wave of Titans Return Deluxes and I couldn’t be more excited! I fished around in my new box of convertobot goodness, pulled out a random figure to start with and I wound up with Hot Rod. I’m cool with that, since my Classics Hot Rod has been showing his age and itching for a replacement for a little while now. Will this be the figure to do that? Let’s find out!

Here’s the packaging and there isn’t much new to say about it. Hot Rod is another one of those cases where Hasbro has to toss the word Autobot in front of the name, probably because of copyright issues. As for Firedrive, Hasbro no doubt derived that name from Firebolt, the name of G1 Hot Rod’s Targetmaster, since he was never a Headmaster. The Headmasterfication (it’s a word that I just made up) of non-Headmaster G1 characters seems to be pissing off a number of Transformers fans, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Let’s start off with the vehicle mode, but first, I’ve got to cut a dozen of these damn plastic retaining straps.

Oh man, I’m in love! In keeping with his G1 namesake, Hot Rod’s alt mode is a futuristic red sports car with a big yellow spoiler on the back. He’s wide with a low profile, banks of exhaust pipes on both sides, an exposed engine block on the hood and a blue canopy. I absolutely adore the styling and the colors on this car. It’s both dead sexy and instantly recognizable as Hot Rod. The red plastic is nice and bright and the yellow and orange paint operations on the hood really drive the homage home, if you’ll pardon the expression. This is one sleek ride.

Firedrive is a great sculpt, but as has been the case, Hasbro stopped painting these tiny fellas and it really hurts what could have been a beautiful little figure because he’s just all gray and kind of bland. Naturally, Hot Rod’s canopy opens up so that Firedrive can sit in the driver’s compartment. I just wish Firedrive and the cockpit weren’t the same color plastic, because when I seat him in there, he just sort of blends in with the rest of the gray plastic. Unfortunately, that’s been an issue with a lot of these figures.

You have a couple options for Hot Rod’s rifles. My preferred use is to plug them into the sockets just behind the front wheels.

But, you can also connect the two together and form a gunning station that plugs into the engine. It looks ridiculous, but I kind of dig it!

The transformation is very intuitive and reminds me a bit of some of the engineering used for Cybertron Hot Shot and Excellion only with a lot more sophistication. Whatever the case, the result is an absolutely gorgeous robot mode that hits all the points I was looking for in a modern Hot Rod figure. The sculpt is solid enough, but it’s the colors that really sell this figure. All that beautiful red plastic is now met with some equally brilliant orange. You get some gray plastic accents and a little yellow and silver paintwork to spice things up. In terms of coloring alone, Hot Rod is easily one of the most dynamic looking figures in the TR Deluxe line. Sure, the spoiler could have sat a little higher on his back, but when everything else is so good, I’m not going to nitpick the little things.

From the back, Hot Rod is a lot boxier, but he’s also very clean. His rear wheels and exhaust pipes fold up in the back to fill out his lower legs and you can see the front parts of those exhaust pipes form his arm guns. I think he could have used a bit more in the way of heel spurs, as he can sometimes topple backwards when put in certain poses, but again, this is me nitpicking what is a really great figure.

The head sculpt is right on point as well. His face is painted a very pale gray or off-white, with blue eyes, and his “helmet” is comprised of the same bright red plastic. Here you can get a better look at the silver engine block in his chest as well as those sexy flames and he has a crisp Autobot emblem stamped just below the engine.

Hot Rod’s guns can be held in either or both hands and he looks damn good wielding them. I like how the tabs that lock them into the engine block look like side-mounted ammo magazines.

Titans Return has been impressing the hell out of me since the beginning and if Hot Rod here is any indication, Wave 3 should be continuing that trend quite nicely. I love just about everything about this figure I’ll most definitely be retiring my Classics Hot Rod in favor of this shiny new bot. Between this line and Combiner Wars, I haven’t been this excited about Transformers in a while, which probably explains why my Third-Party purchases have all but dried up. And I’m lot happier spending $15 on a great figure like this, than having to go $60-100 for someone else’s unofficial take. My only hope is that Hasbro keeps it up and doesn’t kill this line in favor of the latest Michael Bay atrocity.

Dec 14 2016

Alien Isolation: Amanda Ripley (Jumpsuit and Compression Suit) by NECA

If you think I’m seriously back-logged in looking at my toy collection, you should see how far behind I am on my video games. I literally have games from two Black Fridays ago sitting on my shelf still in the cellophane. Part of that is because I still spend a lot of time playing my older consoles, but I’ve been trying to work my way through the newer stuff little by little. Case in point, I finally got around to playing Alien Isolation on the PS4 so I thought I’d celebrate and open up NECA’s figures of Amanda Ripley, both in her jumpsuit and in her compression suit.

The figures come in standard sealed clamshells. I remain torn on this style of packaging. I can’t deny it looks great and shows off the figures beautifully, but I think we’re getting to the point where this feels archaic compared to window boxes, especially since NECA themselves are doing collector friendly packaging for so many of their other series of action figures. On the other hand, I cannot deny the appeal of the plastic fume rush I get when I slice into one of these. Mmmmm, you just can’t beat it! I should note that both of these figures are re-sculpts and repaints of figures I’ve looked at before, so a lot of this Feature will be a call back to those figures. Let’s start with Amanda in her Jumpsuit!

If you haven’t guessed, this figure shares a lot with NECA’s Jumpsuit Ellen Ripley from the first Alien film. In fact, the only new sculpting here is in the head and upper arms, but thanks to a lot of new paint, the figure works quite well. Amanda’s jumpsuit is repainted to brown and actually features more paint details than her mothers’ outfit. You get sharp gold paint on all the zippers, white painted trim around the collar, and the lacing on the back of the suit is neatly painted as well. Her sneakers are also a lot cleaner. Since the body is the same, the articulation here is identical to Amanda’s Mama. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles. The wrists have swivels, there’s a ball joint in the torso, and the neck is also ball jointed.

Amanda’s upper arms feature sleeves which are rolled up higher than her mom’s, with sculpted straps and circular painted shoulder patches.
The head sculpt here is pretty good, although it looks like it might have been pinched or came out slightly off in the molding process. Since the game is a first person experience, I don’t really have a strong memory of what Amanda looked like outside of some cut-scenes and the box art. Oddly enough, I kind of see a little Sophie Aldred in there from Doctor Who. I think I’m getting that from the lips and cheeks. I really dig the detail they put into her hair and it not only features her ponytail, but also some strands that hang down over her face. She’s also wearing a headset which includes a camera and microphone.

Amanda comes with three accessories, two of which are familiar. The flamethrower is the exact same sculpt as the one that came with Ellen with just a subtle variation in the paint finish. I love the detail on this thing, it really looks like a weathered piece of tech. The shoulder strap is cool too. I will note that it can be tough to get her to hold it properly with both hands. Hinges in those wrists would have helped a lot.

She also comes with a motion tracker, which I’m pretty sure was released with one of the marines. Again, there’s some crazy detail in this from the tampo on the screen and the textured grip, to the tiny red diode on the side. This is a brilliant little piece of kit and I can never have too many of these.

Finally, the one new accessory (or at least new to me!) is her rucksack, which can be slung over Amanda’s shoulder. Let’s move on to Compression Suit Amanda!

You know I love a mold when I’m willing to buy it four times over like I have with the Alien Compression Suit figures. This is without a doubt one of my favorite space suit designs in all sci-fi film history and NECA has beautifully reproduced it for their Kane, Dallas, and Ellen figures and they’ve done it again here. As far as the suit itself is concerned the only thing that’s new is the box that hangs on the middle of Amanda’s waist. Her mothers’ suit didn’t have one and the design here is different than the one seen on Dallas and Kane’s suits.

I won’t spend a whole lot of time gushing over how amazing this sculpt is, because I’ve already done it three times. Let’s just say that this suit design gave the wizards at NECA something they could really sink their teeth into and they went all out. The texturing, the wrinkles, the sculpted straps, the lacing, the studs on the shoulder armor, it’s all here and it all looks so damn good. The deco is also entirely new and features a wash that really brings out all the details. As I’ve said before, the articulation on this figure is quite serviceable. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, and also include swivel cuts in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and feature rotating hinges in the knees and ankles. There’s a ball joint in the waist and another in the neck. Obviously the sculpt of the suit restricts the movement a bit and I think that’s pretty accurate to what wearing the suit would have been like.

The portrait here is again pretty solid with Amanda now wearing a pretty surprised expression, which quite frankly works considering the context of the game. The face has a lot better symmetry here and it’s definitely my favorite of the two. She has the same kind of arming cap we saw with the Dallas figure.

The helmet is the same sculpt we saw with Dallas and Kane (Ellen Ripley’s didn’t have the light) as well and splits apart in the middle to make it easier to put on. You simply pop off the head, put on the bottom half, connect the first hose to the back, then put on the top half and connect the second hose.

Compression Suit Amanda comes with just one accessory and that’s the trusty pistol that she carries through most of the game.

Here’s where I put cards on the table and admit that overall I found Alien Isolation to be rather disappointing. My enjoyment of the game started high and gradually leaked away with the more I played it. Add to that the fact that these are basically remold/repaints of figures I already own and I think it’s a testament to the incredible work NECA poured into these that I still had to have them in my collection. Oh yeah, and in case your wondering, there is indeed a third figure in this wave and it’s the Xenomorph design used in the game. I’ve only been able to find him priced a lot higher than retail and while I haven’t given up the hunt, I decided I didn’t need that variant enough to spend a premium on him. Besides, I have plenty of other Xenos for Amanda to fight.

Dec 13 2016

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): C-3PO by Hasbro

So far, I’ve been OK with the bizarre relationship that Hasbro and Walgreens have forged over exclusives. In fact, most of them have been figures that I could live without so I haven’t really been hunting many of them. The one exception would be Marvel Legends Namor, and I was able to get him off the website easy-peasy. But now all bets are off. Because Original Trilogy C-3PO is a Walgreens Exclusive while the red-armed version from The Force Awakens is the wide release. And the very fact that I’m taking a look at TFA 3PO today means that I’m still hunting the exclusive one and stuck with the consolation prize. Not cool, Hasbro. Not cool.

3PO comes in what is now the standard Black Series window box, with the figure’s number (in this case #29) on the side panel. These packages aren’t branded specifically to any movie, but this version is called “Resistance Base” 3PO and the blurb on the back calls out his continued service to General Leia. All that and… oh, yeah the red arm is all you get to designate that he’s from Episode 7. I have to say, I was pretty impressed with this figure just seeing him in the box, so I’m anxious to get him out and see if that impression holds.

The first thing I have to say is that I really dig the gold finish on him. 3PO’s coloring is hard to get right. Do you go clean? Do you go dirty? Do you vac-metal him? Here we have a relatively clean finish, but somewhere between matte and reflective gold. It’s kind of a satin look. I think he was a lot more shiny in TFA, but even with that having been said, I really like the gold paint Hasbro used here. It looks rich and metallic and it’s just beautiful. And best of all, you don’t have to worry about him chipping or scratching. Indeed, the coloring here reminds me a lot of the paint my dad and I used when we built the MPC 3PO model kit when I was a wee lad.

The sculpt and proportions on this droid look really good as well. I’m sure fanatics who have scrutinized the costumes can point out all the differences, but he hits nearly all the right points for me. If I had one complaint in the sculpt and paint department, it would be the left arm. The sculpt looks a little softer, and I suspect that’s due to the different type of plastic used and the fact that it’s unpainted. I think it also looks a lot more obvious that the left arm is static with no elbow joint and it looks a little weird, but I’ll come back to my outrage over the articulation in a bit.

As a quick interlude… I should stress here that the red arm in TFA didn’t bother me like it did some. It did seem like a long way to go for a quick one-off joke (although I’ll confess that scene did make me laugh), but 3PO wasn’t a major player in the film so I didn’t really care. It makes sense that people would swap out damaged parts on their droids all the time and those parts wouldn’t always match. It’s like seeing a red Camaro drive by with a black bumper waiting to be painted. And, yes I know that Marvel explained the arm in one of their comics. Anyway, I’m certainly not opposed to having a TFA accurate version of 3PO, but not at the cost of being able to easily find the regular one.

Like the coloring, 3PO’s head is also something that can be tricky to get right. Here, I think they did an admirable job. There are still certain angles where it looks better than others, but all in all I’m quite pleased with it. I especially like how they painted the tiny starbursts in the eyes to replicate the lights on the costume. I do wish they had blackened out the inside of his “mouth,” but that’s something that I can do fairly easy with a marker.

3PO’s exposed midriff, for lack of a better term, looks pretty good as well. The underlying covering is sculpted with a ribbed pattern and the wires are all sculpted and painted as well. The paint could be a little neater in some areas, but it works for me.

Alas, the articulation is this figure’s biggest downfall and that’s mainly because he’s completely missing elbow joints. I didn’t know that going in and I could hardly believe it when I got him out of the box. I mean, I was legitimately flummoxed. I’m sure there are all sorts of reasons why Hasbro didn’t do it. Maybe the joints would look weird. Most likely, it was too hard to make it work with the pistons at this scale. But you know what? Hasbro released a 3 3/4-inch 3PO back in 2010 that had elbow joints so why not here? Granted, that one didn’t have the pistons at all, but frankly I would have rather had the articulation. Besides, NECA managed to put working pistons on the legs of their RoboCop figure and he wasn’t much larger than 3PO. All I’m saying is that I was really shocked at the lack of articulation in 3PO’s arms, but the more I played with the figure, the less it bothered me.

So what did we get? The shoulders are ball jointed, and the shoulder cups are separate pieces, which swivel at the shoulder and that’s pretty cool. The wrists are on rotating hinges. The legs feature ball joints at the hips, swivels in the thighs, which are concealed under the plates, and hinges in the knees. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. Yes… we got a 3PO with no elbows but lateral rockers in the ankles. That makes sense! There’s a ball joint inside the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

Having had an R2-D2 since the very first wave of the Black Series, it was really odd to have to wait more than 28 figures later to get 3PO. I’m very glad to finally have him, even if it means I’m still searching for the regular version. Yes, the lack of elbow joints is not ideal, especially on a modern collector figure. It’s something that will always stick in my craw when looking at this figure. On the bright side, everything else here is pretty well done and overall I’m still surprisingly satisfied with him. And hey, we can all thank god that Hasbro didn’t decide to give him removable plates as an homage to Episode 1 3PO like they did on the Vintage Collection version.

Dec 12 2016

Marvel Premier Collection: Spider-Gwen by Diamond Select

With how many piles of Marvel Legends figures I have lying around this place and waiting to be opened, I really shouldn’t be taking any detours. Maybe in the future, I’ll start covering other Marvel stuff on different days, but for now, let’s take a brief hiatus from the Legends landslide and have a look at a new statue that landed at my door a few weeks back. This is my very first foray into DST’s Marvel Premier Collection, as I just could not resist another Spider-Gwen piece for my shelf. At the same time, I’ve been an admirer of Clayburn Moore’s work for a long time and while I have some figures he’s worked on, I really wanted one of his statues in my collection.

This is a pretty sizable box, made all the more impressive by its width. And that’s understandable because the statue is pretty big. While the back of the box claims she’s 12-inches tall, she’s actually closer to 14-inches. She’s not quite Sixth Scale, as the base elevates her quite a bit, but between her height and the fact that her arms are stretched out in opposite directions, she has quite the presence. The box is fully enclosed with lots of pictures of the statue and features a sticker with the limitation on it. Inside the box, the resin cast statue comes wrapped in plastic and encased between two styrofoam bricks. The only assembly required is plugging the figure into the base via a metal post in the left foot.

All set up, Gwen makes for an impressive display piece. Moore is an accomplished sculptor when it comes to the human form, particularly the ladies, and it certainly shows here. The composition is one of the things that drew me to this statue when I first saw it and I just love the balance of this piece. Gwen stands on the pedestal on her tip toes with her right leg drawn up. She’s bending forward and reaching out her right hand, ready to THWIP! and her left hand is stretched out behind her.

Because Gwen’s costume is fairly simple, the bulk of the sculpted detail here comes in the definition of her muscles. It’s particularly well done in her thighs, back, and abdomen. You do get some sculpted detail in the web pattern cut-outs on her arms and under-arms. Of course, she’s got curves in all the right places, too!

Likewise, Gwen’s outfit doesn’t require a whole lot of detailed paint work. It’s mostly black and white with turquoise used for her slippers and purple and turquoise used for the web patterns. The paint applications here are overall very good. The lines are fairly sharp and the white paint is very clean, even, and vibrant. The paint we get in the production piece is never as good as the promotional pics, but the work here is still solid.

The portrait is pure Clayburn Moore. Once you know his work, it’s impossible not to spot it a mile away. I find that people tend to either love it or hate it, but I place him up there with J. Scott Campbell in terms of sheer distinctiveness of style. So, yeah, I’m a big fan. Here you get more of the web pattern inside her hood and her hair is blowing off to the side as she gazes upward and looks for a target for her the web she’s about to shoot. As with the costume, the paint here is pretty solid. I’d say the eyes could be a little more evenly applied, but the lips are sharp and I really like the warmth conveyed in her complexion.

The base is a simple pedestal painted to look like cracked marble with a metallic purple middle and more painted webs to match Gwen’s costume. The statue is hand numbered on the bottom. Mine is 2,427 of 3,000. It’s by no means a strict limitation, and yet considerably less than that of DC Collectibles Cover Girls runs.

As I said in the beginning, Gwen is my first foray into DST’s Marvel Premier Collection and I’m very pleased with how she turned out. This isn’t a very expansive line right now, but there are a few other pieces I’m interested in, particularly their 90’s Rogue and modern take on Gamora. Whether or not I can fit those in the budget next year, however, remains to be seen. The last thing I really need to do is to start collecting another line of statues. With that having been said, Diamond released Gwen with an MSRP of about $130, but I was able to pick mine up for a little under $100 and that felt like a solid deal. I feel as if she’s roughly comparable in quality to DCC’s cold cast porcelain offerings, although she is a lot bigger. Not the trick is to find a shelf for her to live on.

Dec 11 2016

Lego Minifigs Series Crapshoot… DISNEY EDITION!!! #1

It’s been a long time since I featured any LEGO here on FFZ. I did a Minifig Crapshoot back in March, but you’d have to go back to last year for the last LEGO set I built. It’s nothing personal, LEGO, I love you. But you’re expensive and I mostly used to buy you when I went hunting other toys at the store and came up empty handed. I don’t go toy hunting much anymore, and that’s why I haven’t picked up much LEGO lately. I’ll have to remedy that next year.

Ah, but it’s Christmastime. A time when devious retailers put out boxes of blind bagged Minifigs near the registers and I can’t help myself. I spotted these the other day when I was buying cat food for my son (it’s OK, he’s a cat), and tossed four of them into the basket. And yes… they’re the first series of Disney Minifigs! I didn’t try to feel these out in the package, I suck at that and it ruins the fun. I did, however, live tweet this out yesterday, so if you follow me on The Twitters, the suspense has already been ruined. And the first figure is…

Alice from Alice in Wonderland. I’ll confess, I had no idea who she was until I saw the bottle with “Drink Me” on it. She’s cool and I’m happy I got her. The skirt is a new piece to me. I’ve never had a Minifig with it before. Now I really want a Cheshire Cat, but I’ll concede that the odds were against me. I felt as if I’d be more likely to get another Alice than a Cheshire Cat. Nonetheless, I pressed on. And the second figure is…

Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I was pretty happy with this one, not only because it’s such a unique little figure, but now I have the power to turn any one of my Minifigs into a mermaid. Mermaid Captain America. Mermaid Lone Ranger. Everyone gets to be a Mermaid! Besides being a cool little figure, she comes with a clam that can be displayed closed or open with a pearl in it. Nice! Moving on…

YES! I scored big with the Cheshire Cat in bag #3. This one is a very simple build: Head, torso, legs, tailpiece, but it’s all about the sculpt and paint on that head. Fabulous! One more figure… what was it going to be???

ARGGGHHHH! Another Cheshire Cat! I rarely ever look at four random Minifigs without getting a set of doubles in the mix. Now I have to start troop building Cheshire Cats.

All in all, I thought this was an OK assortment, doubles not withstanding. Part of me kind of wishes I had picked up four of the regular blind bagged Minifgs, because I think they would have had more appeal. I enjoy a number of Disney properties, but straight up “classic” Disney films aren’t really my wheelhouse. Then again, the only reason I bought these was because they were there right by the check out. It was an impulse buy, so I can’t really second guess myself.

Dec 10 2016

KanColle: Myoko Class Heavy Cruiser Ashigara Kai II by SEGA

What, What? You want more KanColle? Of course you do! Everyone surely must share my borderline obsessive love for collecting figures from a browser game-slash-anime series, right? Well, that’s a good thing because I do indeed have more Kantai Collection love coming your way on this beautiful Anime Saturday morning. Today I’m checking out another character exclusive to the game and it is indeed The Myoko Class Heavy Cruiser, Ashigara, in her second upgrade, and oh boy is she a beauty!

The figure comes in a fully enclosed box with perforations on the sides to make handles. It’s pretty standard stuff for a prize figure, but it’s also quite attractive. You get some lovely shots of the figure as well as some gorgeous character art. There is, however, precious little in the way of English on the box. Practically none, in fact, so this is one of those situations where you really need to know what you’re buying. And since Ashigara is a full 1/7 scale figure, the box is pretty tall. The back panel features a picture with simple instructions on assembling Ashigara’s rather large gun mounts. Besides that, you just plug her into the base and she’s good to go.

And check her out! Most of the KanColle prize figures I own are the smaller ships, basically destroyers and below, which makes sense based on their size and complexity versus the relatively low price point of these figures. But here, SEGA tackled one of the big mamas and brought us a full on Heavy Cruiser in her most powered up form. This is definitely one of the most complex figures I own in either SEGA or Taito’s KanColle lines and she is absolutely splendid.

Ashigara’s final form, so to speak, sees her wearing a regal purple blouse with white piping, an extravagantly patterned neck tie, a short black skirt, white gloves, white stockings, and a pair of ankle boots. There’s a little bleed through on her white piping and the patterns on her tie could be a little sharper, but I still think the paint on sculpt on her outfit are fantastic for a figure in this price range.

Her portrait is simple, but attractive. Her long brunette hair shows some stray strands blowing in the wind and she looks off to the side as she is about to unleash the full force of her guns on her hapless adversary.

And my, what guns she has! As a heavy cruiser, Ashigara is armed to the teeth! Most notable are her two arm assemblies, patterned after the prows of ships. The right contains three turrets and the left two, and each of those turrets are equipped with twin 20.3cm guns. These are harnessed to her back and she clutches the handle on one with her left hand while the other hangs free.

Next she has two tiny guns hanging off her belt. I’m going to assume these are anti-aircraft guns, but they aren’t called out in her in-game character stats, so I’m not certain.

Finally, Ashigara features two 61cm quadruple oxygen-powered torpedo mounts, one strapped on each of her thighs. All of her weapons are cast in gray plastic and feature simple, but effective use of detail. The gun barrels are soft plastic, but all the guns on my figure are pretty straight.

The base is a simple white hexagonal piece with her name and class printed in blue. I really appreciate that her name is properly orientated on the base to the angle that I’m most likely to display her. That was a minor quibble I had with last week’s Sword Art Online figure by SEGA.

While Ashigara is a full 1/7 scale figure, she isn’t perfectly sized to go with any of my other SEGA KanColle girls. She’s about the same size as the Super Premium Destroyers (Fubuki, Yuudachi, and Mutsuki) but those are supposed to be younger girls and smaller ships, so Ashigara should be a little bigger. On the other hand SEGA’s Carriers, like Akagi are scaled smaller and closer to Taito’s prize figures. It’s not a big deal for me, as I’m just as happy having each character different, but it’s bound to irritate those looking for a more uniform display for their Fleet Girls.

And here comes the best part of collecting these prize figures. How much was Ashigara? $18 shipped. Yes, Amazon continues to be a rich source for these imports with many of them shipping from inside the US and also qualifying for free Prime shipping. It’s such a treat not having to deal with long overseas shipping times and currency conversions when buying these imports. If it weren’t for Amazon as a resource, I probably would never have even realized this figure existed let alone have her standing on my shelf right now!

Dec 9 2016

DC Super Hero Girls: Supergirl and Batgirl by Mattel

It was waaaay back in April that I first dipped my toe in the pool of DC Super Hero Girls 6-inch figures with a look at Wonder Woman. At the time, these figures were impossible to find on the pegs, and going for crazy money online, so I was content with a one-and-done look at the line. Well, times have changed and these are now all over the place. A few weeks ago, I was able to pick up the rest of the initial assortment at a deep discount, so let’s take a look at a couple more today.

The packaging is bright and colorful and features some attractive character art on each card. They’re not collector friendly, but then these figures aren’t aimed at collectors. The bubbles do, however, give you a great look at the figures inside. The back of the cards features a little blurb about Super Hero High and the character. My only bone to pick here is the way they call out the cape and backpack as accessories. All that really does is just draw my attention to the fact that these two figures don’t come with any accessories. Let’s start with Supergirl…

Of all the Super Hero Girls, Kara’s look has changed the least from her more classic appearance. She’s still got her blue top with her S-shield, red skirt and red cape. The top features a white collar, which is a little evocative of a school uniform, she has a pair of high top red sneakers with painted white laces and tiny S-shields sculpted into them. She also has red and white wrist bracers. Apparently, one of Supergirl’s powers is to use her intensely bright red and yellow plastic to throw my camera’s light sensors for a loop, so please excuse the color balance on some of these shots. It was the best I could do. ARGGHH! The red is burning my retinas!!!

The “accessory” cape is removable, but I don’t see why anyone would want to. Also, the paint on her “sleeves” is a lot darker than her top. It seems like it should have been easy to make the blue match better. As it is, it looks like the one area of plastic was faded by sunlight. Other than that, I dig the costume a lot. It’s bright, colorful, and the paint applications are clean.

Supergirl has the typical young and cutesy head sculpt with blond hair and a blue head band. I’m getting a little Gwen Stacey vibe off of her. Hey, you got your Marvel in my DC! The paint for the eyes and lips is very clean and clear, but the plastic is really waxy and makes Kara look like she’s suffering from a Kryptonite induced flop sweat. Moving on to Batgirl…

Batgirl’s costume is a lot more original for this series, although I feel like there are some nods to the recent Batgirl of Burnside comic style. She’s got a purple top with a sculpted yellow bat symbol on her chest, black pants, and bright yellow boots, wrist bracers, and utility belt. The belt even features lots of sculpted pouches and a bat-shaped buckle. I really like the mix of colors on this figure a lot. And speaking of bat-shaped…

Batgirl also features a batpack. And yes, that’s just a backpack shaped like a bat. It’s held onto the figure with arm straps, and it seems to be removable if you work at it, but I wasn’t willing to try. Batgirl also has a bunch of copy stamped on her back and tush.

Batgirl’s hood is removable so you can get a better look at what’s going on under it. I like the head sculpt here a lot and once again, the eyes and lips are painted perfectly. She has a sort of domino mask, which is both sculpted and painted and she has bright orange hair.

The articulation on both girls is identical. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and knees, ball joints in the hips, and swivels in the wrists and ankles. Supergirl is is a lot more limited in her hip movement because of her cape. The articulation here seems fine for playing, but it’s lacking when it comes to getting many fun poses.

I’m not sure why, but I genuinely expected to dig these figures a lot more than I do. Yeah, that’s admittedly strange, since they’re toys aimed at little girls and not collectibles aimed at middle aged borderline alcoholics comic book geeks like me. I’m also surprised that DC couldn’t whip up a genuine animated series for this line, rather than the Flash-animation-looking webisodes that they went with. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate these figures for what they are and if I had daughters I’d be delighted to have them want to play with these, so long as they played with Transformers and GI Joe and Marvel Legends too! Another important factor to toss in is that these are 6-inch figures being sold at the ten dollar mark and that’s a rarity these days in any toy aisle. And since I got these at essentially half off, I went all in and I still have two more Super Hero Girls to check out, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, and I just might do that on the next DC Friday.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Monthly Archives: December 2016

Star Wars Titanium Series (Rogue One): Imperial Cargo Shuttle by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): The Enchantress by Hasbro

DC Super Hero Girls: Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn by Mattel

Transformers Titans Return: Firedrive and Hot Rod by Hasbro

Alien Isolation: Amanda Ripley (Jumpsuit and Compression Suit) by NECA

Star Wars Black (The Force Awakens): C-3PO by Hasbro

Marvel Premier Collection: Spider-Gwen by Diamond Select

Lego Minifigs Series Crapshoot… DISNEY EDITION!!! #1

KanColle: Myoko Class Heavy Cruiser Ashigara Kai II by SEGA

DC Super Hero Girls: Supergirl and Batgirl by Mattel

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