It’s been another trying week for me, and by that I mean trying to get time to contribute any content here. To be honest, the one day I had any meaningful time, I spent being a lazy slob and reading comics and drinking whiskey, so I have no one but myself to blame. I almost wasn’t even going to bother checking in at all today, but then I got a huge lot of Reaction figures from Super7 that were on sale and I decided I’d drop in today with a quick look at some of them, or to be more specific… the Robotech line! If you’re not familiar with it, the Reaction line has had its share of ups and downs. It started with good intentions, take the original prototypes of the never produced Alien figures and release them. There were probably more than a few other licenses this would have worked with, like The Last Starfighter, which also had unproduced figures. But then Funko went berserk and started producing them for every license they can get a hold of. Some of these were pretty cool. I liked the 80’s Slashers and the Big Trouble in Little China figures, but a lot of them were just garbage. Well, Super7 has taken back their ball and it looks like they’re doing some interesting things with it. They produced six figures in this Robotech line, but I’m only looking at three of them today.

Robotech was huge for me growing up. Back then, I didn’t know that it was a cobbled together mess of something called Macross, but in that regard I guess it was the first anime series I was exposed to. I loved it and I wanted those Matchbox toys something fierce. I never got them, because my parents were shrewd about me investing in toy lines I already collected rather than branching out, and in retrospect it was a good idea. Nonetheless, when I first got wind Super7 was doing Reaction Robotech, I dreamed of seeing Rick Hunter, Roy Fokker, and the like all on beautiful cardbacks. And who knows? Maybe even some bigger vehicles. Well, Super7 went a different way and gave us the vehicles instead. It was a weird move to make, especially in the 3 3/4-inch scale, and so I passed until a few turned up cheap. Ultimately I picked up The SDF-1, VF-1S, and a Zentraedi Battle Pod. I’m not opening these, but we’ll take a quick look at them in package.

The SDF-1 is obviously the biggest of the bunch, although since it isn’t in scale, the card size is the same as the others. The card art is pretty cool, especially the way it shows it towering above the city-scape. The figure itself is a great sculpt for a figure in this size and I think the coloring is pretty on point too. It strides the fine line between being retro and actually looking like a decent figure. Articulation includes swivels in the shoulders and hips, and I’m not sure if the head can turn or not. This one was easily the most unlikely candidate for this type of figure, but in the end, I think they did a nice job with it. The back of the card has a little blurb about the vehicle as well as artwork for each of the six figures available in this line.

Next up is the VF-1S Veritech Fighter, and as the back of the package points out, it’s Roy Fokker’s Skull One. Once again, this is a decent sculpt for the format, although the proportions feel a bit off on this one. I feel like the legs should be longer and beefier to make up for the broad shoulders, but maybe they were intentionally going for a certain retro charm. The paint on the figure is especially well done, with the appropriate black and yellow accents and the Jolly Roger stamped on the chest. You get the straight five points of articulation and there’s a rifle included. The rifle can be held in the hand or clipped to the forearm.

And finally, here is the Zentaedi Battle Pod, and I think this is without a doubt the best looking of the bunch. The sculpt is simple, but it looks dead on, and the paint looks great. Because of the unusual design, the articulation is a little different. You still get rotating legs at the hips, but there’s obviously no arms or head. Instead, Super7 gave the guns ball joints, which is a mighty nice surprise, especially for a figure in a strictly 5-POA style collection.

I dig these figures quite a bit, but I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to complete the series, and I probably won’t buy doubles to open unless I can find them for really cheap. As is the case with a lot of Reaction figures, the appeal here is supposed to be in the presentation. On that note, I probably would have preferred Super7 went with screen grabs from the cartoon for the card art, or even just copies of the animation models. Don’t get me wrong, I like what we got here, but direct art from the show would have been better suited to what they’re doing here. And I’d still like to see Super7 expand this line to the actual characters from the show. I’d buy all of those in a heartbeat.