Monthly Archives: December 2017

Dec 9 2017

Star Wars Rebels: Darth Maul, Seventh Sister Inquisitor, and Princess Leia by Hasbro

I’ve got one more set of reviews in me for today and I’ve lost track at what update this is for 5-POA’PALOOSA. I can tell you that I have four cigarette burns on my arm to keep me going. What’s that? No Rebels love yet? OK, let’s remedy that right now. For the life of me, I can’t understand why Hasbro has had so much trouble getting this line off the ground, despite the series spinning a rich tapestry of characters ripe for the action figure treatment. The original line was short lived and difficult to find, to the point where I still can’t find Agent Kallus for under twenty bucks. In the meantime, Hasbro continues to pepper whatever the current line is with s smattering of Rebels releases.

Case in point, both this two-pack and single carded figure were marketed under the Rogue One line, and these aren’t repacks, but rather their first releases. As always, I’m loving the artwork on these packages. Let’s start off with the Versus Two-Pack and The Seventh Sister!

I would not have believed this character design would have lent itself to a 3 3/4-inch figure very well, but Hasbro sure proved me wrong. She’s magnificent and this is an instance where the 5-POA style really suits her. I couldn’t imagine working additional jointing into her super thin arms and legs without compromising the look of the figure, let alone have the figure be stable. It’s crazy that she can even stand by herself, which is a gripe I’m going to have with one of today’s other figures. There’s a decent amount of sculpted detail on her outfit, but it’s the paint that really carries the day. I love the contrast of matte and gloss black used here, plus some silver and white, as well as the Imperial emblems stamped on her shoulders. The head and helmet are about as perfect as I could expect in this scale.

The Seventh Sister also comes with some pretty cool accessories. First off, you get her little probe droid. The head can plug into the circle on her back. Take it out and plug in the legs, and he can hang out on her shoulder or go off scouting. It’s hard to believe that Hasbro was able to make this work at this tiny scale.

She also comes with her mask. It simply goes right over her face and tucks under the helmet to hold it on. This thing looks great and holds in place very well. Once again, a pretty cool feature for a 3 3/4-inch figure!

And finally, she has her lightsaber, which she can hold in either hand. It’s got the same circular ring design to the hilt that we saw with the previous Inquisitor figures. Moving on to Maul!

To know me is to know that I’m no fan of Darth Maul. I thought he was a non-character in The Phantom Menace, and while various aspects of the Star Wars Expanded Universe had tried its best to flush him out and make him interesting, I just can’t give a crap. Needless to say when he turned up in Rebels, I really wasn’t impressed. But, I’m not going to hold any of that against this figure, because it’s pretty damn nice. The pants feature a nice texturing, he’s got sculpted knee pads, gloves, and a shoulder strap. And while all that is well and good, the best thing here is the crisp paintwork for his chest and arms. The black and red pattern is sharp and snappy and looks great. The head sculpt is also a winner, right down to tiny horns on the top of his head.

Maul comes with a hood, which fits right over his head and looks pretty good on him. It shrouds his face pretty well, although a little light in there really brings out how creepy he looks.

He also comes with his double-bladed lightsaber. Pfft. Remember when this thing was the coolest thing ever? It’s only fitting that he show up on Rebels where all the Inquisitors carry them like it’s no big deal.

And we can’t look at a Versus Two-Pack without some goofy big weapon and Mauls is so damn big that I had to bust out a figure stand just so he could hold it without toppling over like a jackass. This thing looks familiar and I’m sure it’s been recycled from another set. And god help me if I don’t love it. Oh, I think it looks stupid on Maul, but I’m sure I can find someone else to put it on. I really dig this Versus pack and while I would have guessed it would have been really popular, it seems to not be selling all that well. The Target in town had dozens of these and it’s been deeply discounted at a lot e-tailers. And speaking of figures that you can pick up for stupid cheap… let’s move on to Princess Leia!

I seem to remember this figure being crazy hard to find at first, but now she’s everywhere. Last I checked you can get her as an Add-On item through Amazon for less than three bucks. If you want to do conversion on that, it means that I would need to trade like seven of these Leias just to get me one Agent Kallus. That’s crazy! I’m not sure why that’s the case because I don’t think she’s a bad figure at all. She’s wearing a very McQuarrie-esque costume, and I think the head sculpt is great. The downside is that she will not stand on her own, which makes no sense to me. If The Seventh Sister can stay vertical, I don’t know why Leia can’t.

Leia comes with two accessories: A standard E-11 Blaster and a zipline accessory, which struck me as being very familiar, but it’s actually not the same one that came with Cassian Andor. Hey, I don’t care what you say, I would have loved to get one of these as a kid. I was always ziplining my figures all over the damn place with string. I think this thing is pretty damn cool.

It’s a shame we have to get by with table scraps thrown into other lines in order to get our Rebels action figure fix, but quite frankly, I’m just glad Hasbro is still releasing them here and there. All three of these figures are no-brainers and I’m happy to have them in my collection, even if nobody else seems to want them. Yes… even Maul! OK, that’s going to do it for me today. I’d like to say I’m going to rest up, but in reality I’m off to do my actual paying job that allows me to buy all this shit! Come on back tomorrow morning, and we’ll start fresh with a whole bunch of more figures!

Dec 9 2017

Star Wars Rogue One: Galen Erso, Jyn Erso (Imperial Infiltrator), and Admiral Raddus by Hasbro

Congratulations! If you’ve stayed with me this long then you’re a real trooper. Unless you’re just finding this review at random and then you’ve missed out on watching a grown man grinding himself down to a weeping nub from reviewing too many action figures in a very short period of time. And this show is just getting started. Right now, I’m going back to Rogue One with an assortment of figures that I didn’t pick up until the very tail end of the line. Actually, Rogue One figures were mostly off the pegs by the time I got around to getting this trio.

Here are the packaged shots, which I borrowed from Hasbro’s official images because I opened these a while ago. Note Jyn’s image has her helmet on in the package, but she actually came with the helmet beside her on the tray. Otherwise, there’s not much else to say about the cards, so let’s jump right in and start with Galen Erso…

For a while it looked like we weren’t going to get a figure of Galen at all, but I’m glad Hasbro delivered in the end. I’m not so happy that the figure isn’t that good. Granted, I didn’t expect him to be the most exciting figure around, what with him just being an older guy in an variant Imperial uniform. The tunic is fairly familiar, but it’s colored teal around the shoulders, perhaps signifying he’s in the Engineering Corps? The belt is standard Imperial issue and he has a patch on his shoulder that is unfamiliar to me. The head sculpt might be halfway decent with a better paint job, but it looks like the work of a bad custom job. What a shame!

Galen comes with a pistol, although he has nowhere to store it. I don’t recall him actually having a sidearm in the film, nor would I expect Krennic to allow him one, but I’ll never scoff at getting an extra accessory.

And speaking of extra accessories… Oh, look! It’s another zipline! We’re going to see at least three of these before the weekend is over. What’s crazy is that this is entirely different than the one that came with Cassian Andor. I can’t believe that Hasbro is actually creating different versions of these for different figures! The fact that Galen comes with one also makes me believe that there were even more deleted zipline scenes in Rogue One than I had originally imagined. Like maybe Galen didn’t die on that landing platform. Maybe he ziplined to safety! I guess we’ll never know.

Oh yeah, Galen also comes with this rather large mouse droid. Yup, it’s the same one we just saw with General Hux from The Last Jedi. I’m guessing at this point Hasbro was just tossing whatever they could in there to make a scientist figure more attractive to the kids. I’m surprised they didn’t make the mouse droid actually fire the zipline. If you can’t tell, Galen is a little disappointing, but in the end, I’m still glad to have him in the collection.  Moving on to his daughter…

This is Jyn in her Imperial Ground Crew disguise while infiltrating the Scarif Base. And as you might expect, this is the exact same figure as the regular Ground Crew figure, only with Jyn’s head popped on top of it. She also comes with a soft plastic removable helmet, which fits really well and looks good. If you passed on the Ground Crew figure, this is a nice pick up, because she really can double as either figure. It’s also a pretty damn nice sculpt.

Jyn comes with the same batons as the regular Ground Crew figure as well and she can hold these in her hands or they can store on the slots in her back. I couldn’t remember whether they were supposed to store with handles up or down, so I may have them in wrong. I suppose I could have checked a shot from the film, BUT GIVE ME A BREAK I HAVE A LOT OF GOD DAMN FIGURES TO REVIEW THIS WEEKEND!!!

And lastly, she comes with this ridiculously large missile launcher, which she can’t even hold without putting her on a stand. It’s a great looking sculpt and a cool design, and I may wind up giving it to one of my 6-inch figures. It did come with a purple blast effect missile, which shot into the other room the moment I took it out of the package. Normally, I’d go look for it, but I’m in the middle of a review marathon here. I like this figure a lot, but that’s not surprising, since I liked the Ground Crew figures enough to buy a couple of them. I really wish we got this version of Jyn in the 6-inch Black Series. It’s hard to believe that Hasbro passed on doing a 6-inch scale version, but Hasbro did it in Sixth-Scale. Craziness! Next up… Admiral Raddus!

Yes, I saved the best of this trio for last. I’m never going to turn down a chance to pick up a member of the Mon Calamari brass, and this is such a great little figure! I love his short and stocky build. It makes him look like an old warhorse. I picture him walking the battle lines like a fishy version of Rommel, barking orders to the troops! The uniform features some wonderful detail, including ribbed sections behind the knees, behind the biceps, and on the shoulders. But the real draw of this figure is the superb head sculpt, and the fact that the jaw is hinged, bringing him to a whopping SIX points of articulation. Want to hear something even crazier? This won’t be the last time we see a hinged jaw on a 3 3/4-inch figure this weekend! What are the odds of that, eh?

Raddus comes with a pretty beefy blaster pistol, but for when the shit really hits the fan, he also has this giant rifle that shoots a bolt of hot flaming death out of it! Like Jyn, Raddus also can’t hold his missile launcher without putting him on a stand.

All three of these figures are fairly solid releases, but Galen easily comes out on the bottom thanks mostly to some terrible sloppy paint on his head. I like Jyn because she harkens back to some of the past Kenner figures we got of our heroes in disguises. But Raddus is the star of this show, and the fact that he got such an excellent figure in this scale almost makes up for the fact that he didn’t get the 6-inch Black Series treatment.

Dec 9 2017

Star Wars “The Force Awakens:” First Order Snowspeeder by Hasbro

What? Did you think it 5-POAPALOOSA was going to be all figures? Nope. If it’s 3 3/4-inch scale and I haven’t reviewed it, then it’s fair game for this weekend. And right now I’m about to open up the First Order Snowspeeder from The Force Awakens! A couple of these speeders were used in a chase sequence on the surface of Starkiller Base, which was never finished and cut from the film. It was, however, included as bonus content on the Blu-Ray release. I gotta be honest, I wasn’t terribly interested in the toy because it wasn’t featured in the actual the film. But when it was re-issued and clearanced for dirt cheap, I couldn’t resist.

The Snowspeeder comes in a fairly large box with some bitchin artwork of it in action and manned by a pair of First Order Snowtroopers. There’s also a window that shows the First Order Snowtrooper Officer that’s included inside. Note that the top strip of this re-issue box is branded for Rogue One and it simply says Star Wars. Inside the box, you get the vehicle, the figure, a bag of parts, and a folded instruction sheet. Assembly is very simple. You just snap in the tops of the seats and the two railings, peg the cannon onto the stand and place it in the vehicle. But before I get to the vehicle, let’s take a quick look at the figure.

As expected, the Snowtrooper Officer shares the exact same sculpt as the regular Snowtrooper, however, there are a few paint variations, mostly confined to his chest armor. The biggest difference here is his orange pauldron, which can be removed by popping off the head, if you’d rather have a regular rank-and-file trooper. He also comes with the same backpack and rifle as his squad-mates. This is a great looking figure, I really dig how glossy the helmets are, and I’m certainly happy to add him to my ranks. Moving on to the Snowspeeder…

Let me start out by saying that I think the design of this thing is very utilitarian and really lacks the iconic charm of the more familiar and fan favorite Star Wars vehicles. I don’t dislike it, but it’s not something that’s going to stick in my imagination like the Snowspeeders from The Empire Strikes Back. I just don’t feel like they poured a lot of love into the design. At the same time, the function over form here makes it look like a pretty credible and realistic vehicle. There’s a lot to like about what Hasbro did with it, but also some things that could have maybe been done better.

The overall sculpt is quite nice and there’s a good amount of detail on display. From the panel lines on the body, and the texturing on the seat cushions, to the molded supply containers stowed in the front of the cabin, there’s a lot of neat stuff to look at here. There’s grating on the floor panels, little hatches and rivets, and front and back of the engines look good.

What works against it is the feel of the plastic and the lack of paint. I don’t think the quality is poor here, it’s a pretty rugged little toy, but the Speeder has a light and insubstantial feel to it, as it basically just a hollow shell. The only moving part on the Speeder is the fold down landing gear, and while I’m not a big fan of play gimmicks, this thing really needed a couple more features. There’s a panel on the back that looks like it was meant to open at one time, but it doesn’t. That would have been neat to be able to store guns and backpacks back there.

I’m not usually a fan of this swirly gray plastic, but it works OK for this craft. Most of the coloring variations on the toy are subtle and achieved by using different colored plastic. The supply containers are teal, the seats are molded in a pale blue, the railings are cast in a paler gray, and some of the components of the hull are cast in a more coppery color. As for actual paint hits, there’s just a little bit of silver and black here and there. I’m not so sure that this is an instance of Hasbro being cheap, but maybe the design just not warranting it. Still, I would have liked some dry brush weathering, insignia, registry numbers, or anything to help it along.

The Snowspeeder is designed to carry two figures, one in the driver seat and one in the passenger seat, and I think it’s scaled very well. Hasbro has a habit of shrinking down vehicles, but in this case, I think they did good. Technically, the figures will sit OK with their backpacks still on, but it works much better if you take them off. One word of caution: There’s a hollow space under the steering column for the driver’s feet. Try not to loose any guns in there, because getting them out again can be a real bitch!

Of course, the passenger can also man the cannon. There’s a peg to hold him in place, but if you clip his hands onto the cannon handles, he should stay put pretty well. The cannon mounts by tucking the base into a slot. It stays in there pretty good, but the post can disconnect from it fairly easily. Of course, the cannon also features a firing missile. And if you want to set up a ground defense, you can remove the cannon and stand from the vehicle and set it up on the ground.

I like this vehicle, but I don’t love it. It’s kind of fun in a very simple way, and it looks great when it’s decked out with a couple of Snow-Stormies. At the same time, it feels kind of rushed and unfinished, or maybe like a Playmates vehicle from a franchise far less prominent than Star Wars. Keep in mind, I picked up the Snowspeeder for eight bucks and at that price it was worth the figure alone. But the original MSRP of this thing was $30. THIRTY DOLLARS!?! That feels outrageous to me for what you’re getting and if I had paid that I would have been pretty pissed off.

Dec 9 2017

Star Wars “The Last Jedi:” Luke Skywalker, Jedi Training Rey, C-3PO, General Hux, and Kylo Ren by Hasbro

Star Wars 3 3/4-inch Weekend is cruises onward. This is the third installment of what I’ve decided to call 5-POA’PALOOZA, I’m on my second pot of coffee and feeling one with The Force and maybe a little jittery from all the caffeine. Tired of Rogue One stuff? Ok, we’ll take a breather. For now, let’s fast forward to five more figures in the initial assortment from The Last Jedi.

As will be the case for a few of these 5-POAPALOOSA Reviews, I opened these figures a while ago, so I cribbed these official packaged shots from Amazon, which is only fair because that’s where I bought them. I’m also pretty sure I’ve paid for at least one of their warehouses, so it’s about time they paid me back a little. Anyway, I really dig this package design. It’s white and clean and some of the character art is wonderful. Look at that picture of 3P0! I think that’s borrowed from some vintage art, because I remember obsessing over a very similar piece of art when I was young. Also, I finally had some time to play around with that Force Link thing, which they were demoing at Target a few weekends back. Can’t say I’ll be buying one anytime soon. And with that ringing endorsement… Let’s start with Luke Skywalker!

It was both cool and frustrating, how difficult it was for me to find this figure on the pegs. Cool because I love that the figure is so popular, frustrating because he shouldn’t be that hard for kids to find. I eventually gave up and bought him online with the rest of these. This is a very simple figure of Luke as we saw him at the end of The Force Awakens. He’s in his light colored robes and cloak and I think it’s just fabulous. The head sculpt and paint are particularly solid, I love that they added gray to his beard with some halftone printing. There’s even some detail in his tiny mechanical right hand.

The plastic cloak fits the figure quite well by just resting on the shoulders. It comes off easily to reveal all the little details sculpted into Luke’s outfit. Again, for a simple outfit, they did some nice texturing to the fabric and some different shadings. The belt has a silver buckle, a sculpted pouch, and a tiny hook for the lightsaber hilt that he does not come with! In fact, the only thing he comes with is his robe. I’ve got nothing else to say, except I love him! Next up… Rey!

Rey sports her somewhat new-looking costume. Actually it strikes me as mostly the same as her Jakku costume, only gray instead of tan. I’m glad I didn’t pop for the Hot Toys figure of her outfit from the end of The Force Awakens, because it doesn’t look like she’ll be wearing it much. I do, however, have the 3 3/4-inch version and maybe we’ll see that before this weekend is over. Anyway… The sculpt here is very well done, with a number of different textures and details on display. The paint on her costume could have been a little tighter in some places, but it’s not bad. I do think the likeness is a big improvement over that initial release of Rey from The Force Awakens. I realize that’s a back-handed compliment, but I don’t think this one is too bad. Unlike Luke, some of Rey’s costume is cast in softer plastic and layered onto the figure itself and some of her hip articulation is hindered by that. But then if you’re after good articulation, these figures aren’t for you, anyway.

Also unlike Luke, who came with bupkis, Rey comes with three accessories: Her staff, her pistol, and Luke’s lightsaber. The pistol fits into the holster on her right hip, and I can’t show it to you because I lost it, goddammit! In my defense, it was very small and I recall being pretty drunk when I opened these. Then again, I think I may have lost the same gun for each of my 3 3/4-inch Rey figures. The staff is similar to what we’ve seen before, with a plastic shoulder strap. It is a new sculpt, but I’m guessing it’s supposed to be the same staff.

The lightsaber has some nice detail in the hilt, and it does have a ring, so theoretically you could hang it on Luke’s belt, but the blade is not removable, so in practice you can’t. All in all, I think this version of Rey is decent, but probably not the star of this show. This version of Rey was also released as a two-pack with the Praetorian Guard. Will we be seeing those this weekend? Maybe! Next up… Goldenrod!

I actually never picked up the 5-POA C-3PO from The Force Awakens, so this is my first figure of him in this scale in quite a while. I’m not sure if this is that same mold or not, but I will say it’s a fantastic little sculpt, the proportions are great, no details are missed, and the coloring is superb. Even the paintwork on the wires in his exposed midsection is super clean and precise. It’s nice to see he got his gold arm back. Or did he have that at the end of The Force Awakens? I think he did. It must be time to watch that one again!

Another nice bonus is that articulation isn’t as important with 3PO because he isn’t all that agile in the films. I barely even miss it here. I honestly didn’t expect to be this blown away by a 5-POA 3P0 figure, but if you’re in the market for one, this is a great one to get. I actually like it loads better than the allegedly premium Vintage Collection release, and I’ll just go ahead and say that it’s my favorite version of Goldenrod in this scale. Moving on to the bad guys, cue the Imperial March… here comes General Hux!

The Hux figure from The Force Awakens was pretty good, but this one is better! The most obvious difference is that he’s not wearing his officer’s cap and the likeness is far superior. This is a damn fine head sculpt for this scale. He’s wearing the same uniform with black trench coat, but this time Hasbro took a different approach with it, but sculpting the coat out of soft plastic and sculpting sleeves on the arms. This is the method they used for the 6-inch Black Series figure and it looks fantastic on this little guy. On the downside, you probably won’t be able to get him seated in any vehicles, because of the coat.

Hux comes with a blaster pistol, but sadly no holster to store it in. That was a gripe I had with TFA version too. Where does he keep that thing when he’s making those spittle-spewing speeches? He also comes with a mouse droid. I’m sure this guy is recycled, but I’m not sure if I own the previous release or not, so I’m happy to have this one. OK, that’s four figures down and one to go. Let’s wrap it up with a look at the biggest asshole in Star Wars history…

Kylo Ren is back and apparently now that he’s murdered his loving father in cold blood, he doesn’t have to hide behind a mask any more! His outfit has changed a little. He’s traded in his longer black robes for something more like a tunic. It has the same overall texture as the original Kylo figure, and the same sculpted belt. In addition to losing his mask, he’s done away with his hood and now has a cape that he wears on his shoulders and it’s easy to take off for when he needs to throw down. The cape looks great from the front, but it gives him a hunchback look from the back. I think the likeness here is pretty good for this scale. They did a nice job accentuating his scar, although it doesn’t have the creepy metal mesh, it’s just a red line. Still, neat though.

In addition to his cape, Kylo comes with his wicked and now very iconic lightsaber. He can hold it in either hand. Before I wrap this up, let’s take a look at the new versions of three of these figures with their counterparts from The Force Awakens.

Like I said earlier, Rey’s likeness on TLJ figure may not be a masterpiece, but she’s a huge improvement over the first TFA release. I think the Hux is a huge improvement from head to toe. Both Kylo Ren figures are pretty solid, but I’m surprised at how bad ass he looks without the helmet. I’m going to enjoy that in The Last Jedi.

The last time I visited with The Last Jedi 3 3/4-inch line I was notably impressed, and that impression remains with these figures. I guess I can understand collectors dismissing these out of hand because of the limited articulation, but these are all very solid sculpts and great looking figures. 5-POA or not, the appeal is clearly still here for me, and I’m looking forward to grabbing up more of these! For now, I’m going to splash some cold water in my face and be back in a little bit and get back to Rogue One!

Dec 9 2017

Star Wars Rogue One: Jedha Revolt 4-Pack by Hasbro

Welcome back to 5-POA’PALOOSA, a name I came up with because “Star Wars Three-and-three-quarter Weekend” just doesn’t roll off the tongue.  I’ve got more Rogue One coming at you, this time with the Jedha Revolt 4-Pack, which offers up a trio of 3 3/4-inch Exclusives, two of which were bewilderingly never released in the 6-inch Black Series.

You know I love the packaging on the two-packs, well this is just like two of those stuck together. It’s collector friendly, a big window shows off all the figures, and you get some lovely character art in the bottom right corner. The set includes… Saw Gerrara, Edrio Two Tubes, Jyn Erso in her Jedha outfit, and an Imperial Hovertank Pilot. This set kind of feels like they just needed to toss all the remaining releases into one box so that they could get on with promoting The Last Jedi. Let’s start with Saw!

Wow, this is a pretty ambitious sculpt for this scale and price point! Saw’s suit was pretty complex on screen and Hasbro did a damn fine job recreating it here for the 3 3/4-inch line. He’s got his various breather hoses, the robotic right leg, old man sandal, and I really dig the cape, that looks a bit like he re-purposed it from an old flag. When I first got this figure in hand, I must have spent a good five minutes just turning it over and checking out all the nice work they did on the sculpting and paint. Even the likeness is solid, and here was Hasbro’s big chance to actually paint a wonky eye on purpose! Sorry, Forest, I love you, man!

Saw comes with two accessories, his walking staff and his pistol. The staff is actually useful, because Saw can be a bit difficult to keep standing without it. The pistol features a cool and unique design, fits into a holster on his right hip, and he can hold it in his right hand. The staff can be held in either hand. Next up… Sergeant Jyn Erso!

I didn’t really get a good look at this set when I bought it, and I just assumed Jyn would be a repack figure that was thrown in just to fill out the set and so Hasbro could get some money back, but then I remembered the single carded release featured her Eadu outfit. I’m like 99% certain this figure is exclusive to this set, but someone please correct me if I’m wrong. [Edit: I’ll correct myself! Yes, this figure did get a single carded release… carry on!] In any case, this is a simpler sculpt than the Eadu one, but I think this is the better Jyn figure, mainly because the likeness is better. She comes with the sculpted head wrap on, but you can take it off without even popping the head.

In addition to the head wrap, Jyn comes with her blaster pistol, which fits into the holster on her right hip, and she can hold it pretty well in either hand. If you’re in the market for a 5-POA Jyn Erso figure, I think this is the one to get. Next… Edrio Two-Tubes!

Edrio was one of the aliens that seemed to get featured a lot before Rogue One hit theaters. I assumed he was just going to be another Constable Zuvio, but at least Edrio had some screen time and a few lines. I think he would have made a damn cool 6-inch Black Series figure, but this smaller scale consolation prize isn’t too shabby. Hasbro invested all the usual rumples and wrinkles into the sculpted outfit here and the grimy paint-wash is really well done. And while his name would suggest otherwise, he actually has three tubes, two coming off his face, and one running from the control box into his belt. The chest box is rather reminiscent of the ones worn by the various fighter pilots. Also, the paint and sculpt on his deep set eyes is particularly creepy. I love this figure!

Mr. Two-Tubes comes with his rather unique looking rifle. which is very long, very thin, and rather fragile. I gut a stress mark on mine just from having him hold it near the muzzle. And because it’s so long, and Edrio is just a 5-POA figure, he tends to look better holding it like a walking stick, than he does holding it like he’s about to fire it. On to our final stop… The Hovertank Pilot!

Crazy enough, the one character in this box that had the least screen time is the one of the two that also got a 6-inch Black Series release, but I’m just as happy to have him in this scale too, especially since it looks like we’re actually getting a 3 3/4-inch scale Hovertank at some point down the road.

Hovertank Pilot comes with his carbine. It’s a cool sculpt and has a nice silver wash on it, but there’s not a lot else to say about it.

For as good as it is, this set languished on Amazon at deep discounts for a long while. I think I paid $11 for mine, which makes it worth it just for the Saw or Edrio figures alone, but to be honest, there isn’t a bad figure in this set.  I seem to recall this one releasing fairly late in the game, so maybe a lot of collectors were already done with the Rogue One line. That was my mentality when I passed it over at full price a couple of times. It was already getting tough to find some of the last releases, like Bodhi Rook, at decent prices, and I was ready to give up. Whatever the case, I’m glad I picked it up.

Dec 9 2017

Star Wars Rogue One: Baze Malbus vs Stormtrooper… Plus Chirrut Imwe and Cassian Andor by Hasbro!

With The Last Jedi nearly upon us, I promised myself that I would get caught up on reviewing some of the past 3 3/4-inch Star Wars figures that I have piling up in the back of the closet. Why so many? Because as much as I enjoy them, the 5-POA figures don’t really lend themselves to exciting reviews or exciting pictures, so I usually save them up to do a wave at a time. Then I forget and it gets to me too much to deal with. The only way to go now is to do some speed reviewing! To that end, throughout this weekend, I’ll be dropping a bunch of reviews for the 3 3/4-inch figures that are lying around here. How many is a bunch? As many as I can possibly cobble together without going insane or dying from plastic fume inhalation, so between now and some point this afternoon, I’ll be dropping a new review every hour with some random figures, vehicles, or whatever. Then tomorrow, I’ll do it all over again. You’re going to get some Rebels, you’re going to get some Force Awakens, definitely some Last Jedi, and right now you’re going to get some Rogue One! Let’s get crazy…

I opened some of these backlogged figures a while ago, so I’m not doing packaged shots for all of them, but I will try to get at least one for each grouping or grab some of Hasbro’s official packaged shots. Here’s the delightful, compact window box for the Baze and the Stormtrooper. The box is collector friendly and features some fantastic character art. I love these little sets and I’m happy to see they’re continuing into The Last Jedi line, even if the initial offerings are underwhelming. The other two figures that I’m looking at today: Chirrut and Cassian were both single carded releases, but we all know what that looks like by now, right? I’m not going to cover articulation, because these are all standard 5-POA figures, so you know what you’re getting. Let’s start with Captain Andor…

Cassian features his Eadu outfit, which is the same version we initially got in the 6-inch Black Series line. The heavy blue jacket with the fur-lined hood certainly looks like cold weather gear, but much to my surprise they really never featured that kind of environment in the film. The sculpting here is fantastic for this scale, and I’d even go so far as to say that there isn’t much here that the 6-inch Black Series figure did better. You still get all the sculpted gear on his belt, as well as the little wrinkles and rumples in the jacket and trousers. The paint is very well done, with little hits of silver on the belt buckle and the gear. Even the likeness is probably on par to the 6-inch line, so really the only thing lacking here is the better articulation and the ability to remove the helmet.

Captain Andor comes with his little silver pistol, which he can hold in either hand and use to murder panicking contacts in back alleys when they’re about to compromise his cover. It also fits securely in the sculpted holster on his right hip.

Of course, all of these figures still come with a big gimmicky weapon or accessory. Cassian’s is a zipline and it’s surprisingly cool. The main piece clips onto his arm and the string feeds through the two pulleys. Each end of the string has a grappling hook on the end. I get the feeling that there were a lot of zipline sequences pulled from this movie during edits. Either that or someone at Hasbro just really loves ziplines. Whatever the case, I imagine this accessory is pretty fun for the kids. Next up… Chirrut!

Chirrut Imwe features his sculpted robes, as well as a separate sculpted piece, which fits over his shoulder and includes a cape on the back and whatever that thing is supposed to be on the front. This extra piece gives his outfit a little more depth and complexity for a figure in this smaller scale. If you split his legs, you can see that Hasbro sculpted the legs and the inner details of the robes as well. There’s some ribbed texturing on his left sleeve and he also has the white guard on his left forearm. I think the likeness here is pretty good for this scale and the paint for the eyes and eyebrows is very clean and accurate.

Chirrut comes with his staff, which is sculpted to look like a gnarled old piece of wood. It also has a sculpted cap on the top and a grip, both of which are painted gray. He can hold it in either hand, but the articulation really limits what you can do with it.

Chirrut’s gimmick accessory is this bow-caster type rifle. I think it’s supposed to be the one he used to shoot the TIE Fighter down in the film. This thing looks more like a crossbow, than a rifle, but it’s not too bad as far as these things go. It did come with a red missile and I have no idea where it is. I’ve checked all the cat’s usual stashes. Onward to Baze…

Baze Malbus is part of the two-pack and as such he comes with the most stuff. The basic figure is very well done. He’s got his tan jumpsuit with the red and white armor bits. There’s some nice rumpling and texturing sculpted into the suit, and he has some pouches attached to his belt. The paint here is pretty solid as well and the likeness is fine for this scale. There’s a slot in his back so that you can attach his mega-blaster backpack.

The drum tabs in and secures pretty well. I haven’t had any issues of it popping out on me. It’s neatly painted with a red and silver deco, and it includes a sculpted black sash. The cable from the gun is permanently attached to the bottom of the drum and it’s flexible enough so that you can still move Baze’s arm a bit while he’s holding the weapon. The only issue here is that the drum makes him pretty back heavy. It looks like they tried to account for this by having his legs sculpted sculpted so that he stands with them slightly part. It helps a little, but getting him to stand with the backpack takes some finesse.

And then there’s this thing! Yes, Baze also comes with a big gimmicky missile launcher. These things are almost always terrible, but I have to confess… I love this one!  It attaches to the figure with a pair of shoulder pieces and can fire two missiles. There’s a cable that comes off of it and connects to a hand-held trigger. The cable is made to look like the one on his regular weapon and there’s some especially nice sculpted detail in the launcher itself as well as some silver dry brushing to give it a weathered look near the tubes. It looks like Hasbro really put some love into this thing, plus it really fits Baze’s role as a Heavy Gunner. Our last stop… The Stormtrooper!

There’s not much to say about this guy, other than the Rogue One Stormtrooper sculpt is pretty fantastic and I have a ton of them. This one doesn’t include the extra chest piece that came with the single carded release (which is no great loss), but he does have an orange pauldron. The paint is clean, especially on the helmet, and he comes with a standard E-11 Blaster.

As far as 5-POA figures go, I give all of these high marks. The sculpting on all the figures is well done, the paint is pretty solid, and they all come with the accessories I would expect to get. It seemed like it took a while to get a solid group of the Rogue One Rebels assembled, but Hasbro got us in there in the end, with more to follow. And now I can just sit back and enjoy this collection of characters that are all dead.

Dec 8 2017

DC Multiverse (Ares Wave): Wonder Woman by Mattel

Welcome back to another one-two punch of DC Friday content. It’s a strange thing to still be talking about a wave of Multiverse figures after wrapping up the Collect & Connect figure, but in this case, Toys R Us had two exclusive releases, which weren’t necessary to build Ares, but did give him some extra accessories. This morning, I had a look at Menalippe and this evening I’m checking out Wonder Woman.

As with Menalippe, there’s no specific TRU branding on the package, which is weird, because TRU loves to stick their foil Exclusive stickers on everything. The only other thing notable here is that this figure is added to the back of the box, where she wasn’t pictured on either of the four wide release versions. Makes sense. Target and Walmart don’t want packages advertising figures you can only get somewhere else.

And here she is, Wonder Woman in all her cloakless glory, and she is a damn nice figure. Yes, I still find it really odd that the cloaked version was the regular retail release and the more iconic one was an exclusive. This is mostly the same figure I looked at last week, obviously minus the cloak and with re-sculpted head and arms to remove the hood and sleeves. I don’t own the Superman V Batman WW figure, but I think it’s very likely that this is more or less the same one with a new (and better) head sculpt. I’m also all but certain that the Justice League version, which I have yet to open, will also be a repack.

The sculpting and paint on her outfit is fantastic. So much so, that it’s hard to believe this is a Multiverse figure. Yeah, I’ve said that about several figures in this wave, but it’s worth repeating here as well. Her outfit features sculpted lines, including some battle scarring, and a leather-like texture on the skirt. The gold, red, and blue all have a bit of a metallic sheen to them, and it’s great to see this outfit in all its vibrant glory and without it being shot through a depressing filter or overly saturated.

Her gold and silver bracers include some sculpted panel lines and she has brown wraps for her hands, while her red and gold boots feature sculpted straps and some more scrapes from battle. Everything about this costume really shines!

Except maybe the shoulder rigging, which I’m still very torn on, and is permanently attached to her back. It was a little less bothersome on the cloaked figure because it was partially concealed, and it looked less bulky with the big cloak over it. But here it does get in the way of my enjoyment of the outfit. At least it serves a purpose, with a pegged loop on the right hip for her lasso and an enclosed loop on her left hip for The Godkiller. I guess I just wish it fit the figure a little more snugly.

The head sculpt is also excellent. There’s definitely some Gal Gadot in there, but I’m willing to be forgiving because it is generally a very good looking portrait. She’s pretty, the paint is applied with precision, and her the detail in her hair is very well done. The fact that part of the hair is sculpted to spill over her right shoulder doesn’t even hinder the neck articulation as bad as I thought it might. As far as 6-inch scale portraits go, it’s not up to Hasbro’s MCU standards, but I’d say it’s better than some of the Star Wars Black Series in my collection.

Wonder Woman sports some excellent articulation, but nothing we really haven’t already seen in this wave. Her arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows, and swivels in the wrists and elbows. The legs have rotating hinges in the hips, hinges in the knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. The torso features a swivel in the waist and she has a ball joint in the neck. The only thing really missing would be some lateral rockers for those ankles.

Both the sword and lasso are the exact same accessories that came with Cloaked Wonder Woman, so I won’t spend much time on them here. The lasso is sculpted in a coiled configuration and the sword is still a great looking sculpt and nicely painted. It would be nice if Mattel would toss in a piece of gold string to double as an uncoiled lasso, but I suppose that shouldn’t be too hard for me to find.

The new accessory is the shield and it’s a fantastic piece. This is definitely the more ornate version that she had in her own movie, as opposed to the blander one she carried in Batman V Superman. It features some sculpted geometric patterns, which make it look more Art Deco than Greek to me, but I don’t care, because it just looks fabulous. The shield itself is dark gray with bronze paint on the sculpted lines. The back of the shield features two soft plastic straps, which slide over the figure’s arm. I couldn’t really get her to grip the second one, but it works just fine without it in her hand. And speaking of shields…

Wonder Woman comes with a shield for Ares too, and it is an absolute work of art. I mean, just look at this thing! It’s got some insane sculpted detail decorating the front and a beautiful silver-blue finish, which matches the painted parts of his armor. It works the same way as Wonder Woman’s shield, with two straps on the back that slide over his arm. I’m definitely going to have to give his flaming swords to another figure, because there’s just no way I’m not going to always display him with this shield and his sword.

While I’ve enjoyed this assortment from the beginning, I have to say that this particular figure is a total home run. It’s a great sculpt, beautifully painted, and she’s lots of fun to play with. The only downside here is that it really should have been the wider release instead of the cloaked one. There are no Toys R Us stores near here and I wasn’t able to get her through their website. Nope, I had to hunt her down through a secondary seller. I didn’t get beat up too badly on the price, as she was just a couple of bucks more than she would have been at retail. But even with that having been said, this Gal is worth hunting down. On the next couple of DC Fridays, I’m going to switch gears to some DC Collectibles figures and then I’ll come back to Mattel to check out their DC Multiverse Justice League movie figures.

Dec 8 2017

DC Multiverse (Ares Wave): Menalippe by Mattel

YES! DC Fridays are still alive and well, and should be going strong well until next year! Last week, I wrapped up the core figures in this Ares Wave of DC Multiverse Wonder Woman movie figures as well as had a look at the Collect & Connect Ares figure. But the wave doesn’t end there. Toys R Us had two exclusive figures for this wave, each of which came with extra accessories for Ares, making them completely optional for the C&C build, but still worth checking out. I’m going to have a look at both of those today, starting this morning with Diana’s friend, Menalippe.

There’s nothing on the box that states this is a TRU Exclusive, which is pretty weird, because The Giraffe House usually loves to plaster foil stickers on these releases. Nonetheless, you still get photos of the character on the front and side panel, and the only other difference is that where the back used to show only four figures in the wave, here Menalippe has been added as #1. As always, the box is collector friendly, but I’m about to tear the crap out of it to get at my goodies.

So, I can’t say as I actually remember Menalippe in the movie, but I’ve still only seen it once and I was pretty well sauced. I hope to remedy that sooner or later. But despite being a specific character, I think this figure could probably work just as well as a generic Amazon army builder. She features a very handsome suit of maroon, black, and bronze armor with some cut lines running in a “V” pattern on the torso and some additional pitting sculpted in. Her arms feature shoulder pads and wrist bracers. The ensemble isn’t as flashy as what we saw on Queen Hippolyta or Wonder Woman, but it makes for a great rank-and-file soldier.

The bronze belt looks like it’s supposed to be an eagle motif, with the wings reaching out and back around her hips. Below the belt Menalippe has a soft plastic brown skirt, which is sculpted to resemble strips of leather. Under that she has sculpted high boots with grieves and knee armor. My only real gripe here is that the color of her flesh tones doesn’t match too well between her upper biceps and lower arms. The upper biceps are painted, but the bottom arms are bare plastic.

The head sculpt is good and I can see a little bit of the actress likeness in there, but then again, she’s got her helmet on, so some of the features are concealed behind the sculpted cheek guards. There’s a lot of detail in the hairstyle, and the paint on the face is basic, but all around solid. The seams running up the sides of her neck are a little f’ugly, though.

The articulation here is identical to what we saw with the previous female figures. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, bicep swivels, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs have rotating hinges at the hips, hinges in the knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. She also has a swivel in the waist and a ball joint in the neck. The skirt is designed so that it doesn’t hinder her leg articulation too badly at all.

Menalippe comes with three accessories: A bow, an arrow, and a spear. The bow is brown with a gold grip and additional gold fixtures. There’s no string, and it doesn’t look like one could be easily attached, so you just have to use your imagination. The arrow is also brown and gold. Mattel designed the figure to have a socket in the right hand to plug the arrow into. The downside, it renders that hand useless for anything else, but it does mean you can actually get her to hold the arrow well and even pose as if she’s knocked it and is ready to shoot. A swap-out hand would have been nice, especially since it’s a common thing to see in Hasbro’s 6-inch Marvel line, but let’s face it, DC Multiverse isn’t working at that level yet.

The spear is a completely different sculpt than the one we saw with Hippolyta. This one has a plain elongated gold point, and looks more like the weapon of a soldier. I dig that. Her left hand is clearly sculpted with the intent to hold the bow first and the spear second, as a result the spear can be a little loose in her grip. Before wrapping up, let’s see what this box has for Ares.

HOLY SHIT! The Ares accessories are a pair of flaming swords and these are some bitchin’ looking weapons. If this guy didn’t already look like he belonged on the front of a Metal album cover, he sure as hell does now. The underlying sculpts are meant to resemble the sword he came with, so I guess he just ignites that bitch and splits it into two swords.

These are each cast in an orange-yellow translucent plastic and there’s some paint spray to bring out the swords which are supposed to be at the heart of the flames. The effect isn’t bad, and I’ve got to appreciate how much plastic went into crafting what are essentially a couple of bonus accessories for a Collect & Connect figure. Indeed, considering I didn’t pay a lot more than ten bucks for Menalippe, these swords were almost worth the price of admission alone. And Ares doesn’t know it yet, but he may be lending these puppies out to some of my Mythic Legions figures.

I think Mattel made some solid character choices for this wave, beyond the obvious ones, and I’m really happy that they leaned heavy on the Themyscira stuff, because that was my favorite part of the whole movie. The fact that I hunted down Menalippe just goes to show how happy I’ve been with this wave, and she displays quite nicely with the other Themyscira-based figures. Later on tonight, I’ll come back and check out the last figure in the line… Wonder Woman!

Dec 7 2017

Transformers “Power of the Primes:” Slug by Hasbro

Let’s all take a moment to bow our heads and mourn the passing of Titans Return. I think it was one of the best modern Transformers lines Hasbro has ever done. Bold statement? Yes. But that’s how I feel. Oh, I’ve still got more reviews coming from that line, but as far as Hasbro is concerned, it’s done and its replacement, Power of the Primes, has arrived. I thought I should at least check some of these new figures out while they’re still fresh, and where else better to start than with the Dinobots, Slug and Swoop!

Behold, the Power of the Primes packaging! The presentation is nearly identical to Titans Return and to Combiner Wars before that, which suggests just how much Hasbro is trying to tie these lines together.  This deco has never been my favorite, but then I don’t save the packaging, so it’s not a big sticking point for me. I do, however, really dig the character art on the card, and in case you haven’t guessed, Slug is the new name for Slag. We’ve had some modern Dinobots over the years, and plenty of Grimlocks, but never has Hasbro given us a full on team of G1-inspired Dinobots until now. We’ll see them all released in Power of the Prime, and like it or not, they will be a Combiner Team.

With that said, it’s time for full disclosure: I was thrilled when these Dinobots were first revealed, but a lot of that exaltation burned off when I found out that they were going to be a Combiner Team of Deluxes with Grimlock as the torso/Voyager Class. Now, I’m not inherently against making the Dinobots into Combiners. I respect Hasbro for trying new things. But by making them combiners, they were locked into these size classes, and that’s the root of my disappointment. In my opinion, proper Dinobots should have been Voyager Class figures with Grimlock as a Leader Class. Obviously, I knew this going in, but it’s still going to color my reviews. OK, let’s start with Slug’s dinosaur mode.

Well, this is pretty damn good! Just one look and there’s no doubt who this cybernetic Triceratops is supposed to be. Aesthetically, Hasbro did an admirable job giving us a proper update to G1 Slag. Hell, I’d even go so far as to say that this is one of the best sculpts we’ve seen in a Deluxe Class figure in a while. Just look at how much detail they packed into this little guy. There are panel lines, little hatches and vents, segmented joints in the legs, and the pattern in his collar looks fantastic. I also really dig the sculpted circuitry that can be seen through the translucent plastic discs in the hind legs and in the tail. You even get some pegs to put some Titan Masters or Prime Masters on his back.

The deco is also pretty spot on to what I would want in a modern Slag. Much of Slug’s coloring is derived from his rich gray plastic, but you also get some black and gold paint, as well as the previously mentioned yellow-tinted clear plastic. A little red can be glimpsed from his undercarriage and his horns are red as well. There are even a couple stickers near the base of his tail. The only thing I would have added would be some silver paint to his collar, but I guess you have to leave something for Takara to do in order to tempt the importers.

The articulation here is very basic, but not too bad. The front legs are ball jointed at the top and have ratcheting hinges in the middles. The back legs rotate at the tops and have hinges in the middles as well, but these middle hinges can only work backwards. His mouth can also open thanks to a hinge in the lower jaw that is also part of the transformation. In truth, there’s not a whole lot to work with here, but at the same time, it doesn’t really feel like he’s missing a lot, except for maybe a swivel in the neck.

Slug comes with two accessories: His gun and his Prime Armor. I’ll get to the Prime Armor at the end, because it involves this line’s running gimmick, and is not something I’m going to focus on in any reviews after this one. I mention the rifle now, because you can plug it into his back if you want your Triceratops to have some added firepower. Before moving on to his robot mode, let’s do some size comparisons…

Aaaaand, Yikes! Not only is Slug a Deluxe Class figure, but in his Dino mode, he’s a damn small Deluxe Class figure. He’s barely bigger than Legends Class Bumblebee and Deluxe Class Hot Rod practically dwarfs him. And here’s where the disappointment sets in. Now scale has always been a funny thing when it comes to Transformers, but The Dinobots are supposed to be giants and this scaling just doesn’t work at all for me.

Transforming Slug into his robot mode is pretty easy and mostly involves just folding the back half into the legs. It’s not that dis-similar to the G1 toy, assuming I remember that correctly and the result is that this damn fine little Dino turns into a damn fine little robot. Like the Dino mode, Slug’s robot mode hits almost all the right points that I’m looking for in my updated Slag. The rear Dino legs land on the lower legs, the lower jaw becomes the chestplate, and the top part of the Dino head frames the robot head. It all looks great, and the deco matches almost perfectly. His proportions are fine, although I think he could have used some more bulk. It’s almost like something is missing.

Oh yeah, it’s his wings, and this is my only real sticking point with the robot mode design. The Dino mode’s back actually looks like it’s sculpted with a fake hinge, which is kind of like a big tease. I think if this part did hinge open and press in closer to the back, it would have made this robot mode perfect, instead of just really close to perfect. Maybe that was too much engineering for a Deluxe Class, but considering how relatively simple everything else is, I don’t think that’s really the case. Oh well.

The head sculpt is fantastic and the red painted eyes look especially nice. They’re so bright and vibrant it actually looks better than a lot of the light piping effects I’ve seen int he past. You can actually turn Slug’s head, which is something I wasn’t counting on, but I’ve only been able to get it to turn a bit and I really need to get your fingernail in there to do it.

As already mentioned, Slug comes with a rifle, which e can hold in either hand. Alas, he does not come with a sword, which is a real bummer. I’ve been trying to swear off Third Party Transformers and kits lately, but if someone out there cares to make a weapons pack for these Dinobots, I’d probably pull the trigger on that.

Unfortunately, size is an issue in robot mode as well as in Dino mode. It’s not quite as egregious here, but still an issue nonetheless. At least he’s bigger than a Legends Class now, but as you can see, he’s roughly the same size as Deluxe Class Hot Rod. If he were a little bulkier, I might have been a bit more forgiving, but he still seems really puny for a Dinobot. OK, our last stop is going to be a quick look at the Power Armor, because it’s the key to unlocking the entire gimmick behind Power of the Primes…

And as gimmicks go, it kinda sucks. This giant plastic albatross plugs into the chest and yes, it is as unwieldy in person as it looks in this picture, if not more so. The idea is that you take the clear plastic cover off and plug one of the Prime Masters into it. That’s supposed to give him enhanced powers based on whichever Power Master he bonds with. The powers are outlined on a card that comes with the figure. Unfortunately, this is more of a pretend kind of thing, whereas the Titan Master gimmick was a practical part of the design. Yes, these are toys for kids, and that’s great, but I’m not getting anything out of it. It’s worth noting that the Power Armor will double as Combiner parts as well. The other bummer is that unlike the Titans Returns figures, which each came with a Titan Master, here the Prime Masters are sold separately. I haven’t picked up any of those yet, but in a fine example of Transformers Body Horror, the Titan Masters are also compatible with the Power Armor.

And holy shit! It’s like, hey “Hot Rod, let me borrow Firedrive, so I can get some of his powers. Also, I’m going to use your face to deflect laser blasts aimed at my chest! Sound good?” Oh wait. This is supposed to be Slug talking. “Me, Slug use your face as shield!” OK, this isn’t really the intended use, because Prime Masters turn into chips and not heads, but I’ll still happily choose to ignore this gimmick. On the plus side, it doesn’t really effect the toy itself if you just choose not to use it. Also, the Prime Masters come in G1-style Pretender Shells, and that makes this nonsense all worthwhile!

Wow, that seemed like a really long write-up for a Deluxe Class Transformer, but I had a lot to say. And in the end, Slug turns out to be quite the mixed bag for me. Taken on his own, he’s a great figure and a superb homage to G1 Slag re-imagined as a Deluxe Class release. And that’s what makes the downside all the more of a bummer, because his size really is a deal-breaker for me. No, I’m not sorry I bought him, because it’s going to be cool to have a cohesive G1-style team of Dinobots, but they just don’t interact all that well with the other figures. It’s a case of Hasbro coming sooooo close, but not quite. Next Thursday, I’m going to double down and check out not only Swoop, but we’ll also see that the Power of the Primes Dinobots can get even smaller with Legends Class Slash!

Dec 5 2017

Terminator 2 “Judgement Day” 3D: T-800 by NECA

I’m a little pressed for time today, so I’m checking out something from my pile of new arrivals, that should be quick and easy. It’s NECA’s T-800 from Terminator 2 “Judgement Day” 3D!!! What does the 3D have to do with it? Nothing really, but it was a great excuse to get this figure back on the pegs again. Or at least most of it.

The T-800 comes in an attractive and collector friendly window box, which features that iconic shot of The Terminator on the motorcycle in the front and lots of photos of the figure on the back. You also get a cool flame motif on the insert behind the tray. And yes, the package is indeed branded to match the 3D re-release of the film. If the figure looks familiar, this is essentially a minor repaint and re-issue of the Ultimate T-800, released back in 2015. What’s different? Let’s open him up and find out!

So, as far as the figure goes, this is the same sculpt as the Ultimate T-800, which I reviewed a couple of years back. It features the T-800 in his motorcycle jacket, leather pants, and black boots. Yes, there’s a whole lot of black in this outfit! The biggest difference between the two figures is the color of the shirt. The Ultimate had a gray shirt and this one has a black one. This version also isn’t wearing gloves, doesn’t have the bandoleer strap of grenade rounds, and the pants have more of a leathery sheen to them. Both jackets have the bullet holes in the front and in the back. Obviously, the articulation is the same, and I’ll refer you back to my review of the Ultimate for the rundown of the points.

This version comes with two heads: One with sunglasses and one without. They appear to be the same sculpts as the heads that came with the Ultimate T-800, although I think the paint on these are a little better. The Ultimate also came with a third damaged head, and this one does not.

This T-800 does come with the M1887 lever-action shotgun. It’s the same accessory that we got with the Ultimate. It was great then and it’s still great here. His right hand is perfectly sculpted to hold it and he can cradle the front in his left hand.

And he also comes with the automatic pistol. It has a painted silver finish. And that’s it for the guns. Absent is of course the M79 grenade launcher and the minigun that came with the Ultimate version. But, you do get one accessory that’s exclusive to this release.

And yes, it is indeed a cardboard flower box. It’s also the best damn 7-inch scale cardboard flower box I’ve ever seen and it’s just big enough to conceal the shotgun inside. Look, I’m not going to say this one accessory is worth buying the figure again, but it sure does let you recreate one of the coolest scenes in the whole damn movie.

As I mentioned on the outset, this release is really just a great opportunity to pick up the T-800 if you missed out on the Ultimate version and don’t want to pay the $50-60 that it seems to be going for these days. Sure, it’s a stripped down release, but it’s still a great figure and a worthy addition to any action figure collection. I think it’s MSRP is around $20, which granted isn’t a lot less than the Ultimate version released at, but I was able to pick mine up for a couple dollars under that. Truth be told, there are so many different display options for the Ultimate version, it doesn’t hurt to have a second one on hand to display with that extra head or different weapon load out. And I’m always happy to throw my support at NECA.