Feb 6 2018

Star Wars “The Force Awakens:” Snowtrooper Officer 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys

Hot Toys and impulse buy aren’t usually words that go together, at least not for a working stiff like myself. But last week on Amazon, some Marketplace sellers have been blowing out some of their First Order troopers from The Force Awakens at prices that I just couldn’t refuse and before I knew it I was clicking away a large chunk of monies. The first one I went for was the Snowtrooper Officer, mainly because I dig the design so much and I was happy to see these guys turn up again in The Last Jedi on Crait (as Salt-troopers?), because it makes this review just a little less dated.

If this is your first trip to the Star Wars Hot Toys rodeo, you should know that the boxes all feature the same stark black-on-slightly-less-black decos so they do all match, but to me they aren’t very visually striking. Indeed, the only art here is a nice photo of the figure on the front panel. But what these boxes lack in artistic value and eye candy they make up for with overall construction. These shoe-boxes are very much like the higher quality boxes Hot Toys used to use for all their lines before moving to the flimsier window boxes in sleeves. And there’s something to be said for that when you’re paying a lot for a figure and want to store the extra pieces in something other than a Ziploc bag. You also get a really nice illustrated cardboard insert placed over the tray, something that Hot Toys also used to do. Inside the box, the figure comes on a single tray with all his extra bits flanking him on both sides.

The First Order Snowtrooper comes out of the package all bundled up and ready to hunt Resistance scum through the snowy tundras or clear out their icy hidey-holes. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that the classic Imperial design is tough to beat, but I’ve really come to love the new First Order look, possibly even a wee bit more. Either way, the design makes for an interesting figure in this scale because of the mix of plastic armor and fabric. Indeed, I don’t think I really realized how much of this uniform was fabric until holding this figure in my hand. It’s just not something that I got a sense of with Hasbro’s 6-inch version, and it’s not like these guys were on screen all that much.

The underlying suit is beautifully tailored with some lovely quilting effects on the arms and legs, as well as immaculately stitched borders running down the front of the suit and the edges of the kama. He has a pair of knee pads attached with elastic straps and below that is all sculpted plastic leading down to the boots, with black paint applied to the sculpted straps. Moving up from there, he features a codpiece, armor sleeves on his forearms, and a chest and back-plate with the shoulder armor attached with flexible straps. The most striking thing about this figure for me is how shockingly bright all the white is. He’s like a walking advertisement for bleach. This is a figure that makes me want to scrub up before handling him, like I’m going into surgery, for fear of leaving a smudge on the fabric. I should also say how much I dig the contrast between the shiny armor pieces and the fabric of the rest of the uniform, both in texture and finish.

The black belt around his waist features two pouches, which are basically fabric wrapped around boxes to help them keep their form. They’re non-functional, and I’m not sure what he’s supposed to keep in there. Maybe rations or just extra power magazines for his blaster. The backpack features some great detailing on the sides, and attaches very simply by sliding it onto a triangular tab. It’s easy to take off, but it also holds on very securely. I’ll also note here that the predominantly fabric uniform makes this Snowy a lot of fun to play with. There’s still more restriction than I would like in the legs, but the arms have a lot more range than Hot Toys’ regular First Order Stormtrooper, which is a pleasant surprise.

The only thing that I can tell that sets this guy apart from the rank-and-file Snowies is his right shoulder pauldron. This piece of flexible plastic has a leather-like texture and is painted with a deep red finish. The head is easily removable, but it looks like the pauldron is attached to the armor pretty well. It may be possible to get it off if you want to convert him to a regular trooper, but that’s not something I’m going to risk messing with. I’m guessing this could be intentional so that Hot Toys could sell more of the Officer and Trooper two-packs.

As for the helmet itself, it’s a great piece of work. The nearly featureless, and totally flawless, smooth curves make it super creepy and intimidating to me. It features black markings running around the back to the sides, a narrow, visor, and two silver caps on the end of his breather units. Like all the armor pieces, the helmet features a super glossy finish.

As expected from any Hot Toys offering, the Snowtrooper comes with a hearty helping of hands, which are fairly easy to pop on and off. You get a pair of fists, a pair of relaxed hands, a pair of weapon holding hands, a single left hand with the fingers opened, and a pair of accessory holding hands. The accessory holding hands are designed to work with his binoculars. The binoculars were a nice surprise, as I didn’t know they were included. They’re satisfyingly large, beautifully detailed and have a hinge in the middle to fold them up. They’re also pretty rugged, making it easy for the trooper to hold them and I was happy to see that the articulation allows for him to hold them up to his face. Am I ever going to display him with these? Probably not. If I had more than one of these guys on my shelf? Then definitely.

His only other accessory is his blaster rifle, the E-11D, and this has got to be one of the sexiest weapons in the Star Wars Universe. One of my favorite things about the First Order design aesthetic is the addition of white paint to the Stormtroopers’ weapons. It really makes the designs pop and look so much more distinctive than those of their Imperial predecessors. This scoped blaster features a telescoping stock and a fold down grip under the muzzle. It’s a striking piece of futuristic military hardware. Unlike the binoculars it does have some delicate parts, but the articulated parts seem to allow for a little give to help minimize breaking.

Finally, the figure comes with a hexagonal stand that is identical to the type used for the previous First Order releases. The base features the First Order emblem and the front reads “Star Wars First Order Snowtrooper” so, no it does not denote this fellow’s rank. Attached to the base is a simple post and crotch cradle to help keep him vertical. It may not be flashy, but I really appreciate it’s simple design and the fact that it doesn’t take up much space on my shelf.

When it comes to Hot Toys, I tend to avoid the “Troop Builder” type figures, because it’s a dangerous road to go down. Even now, I find myself wanting to pick up a regular Snowtrooper to display next to this Officer and keep burning myself with cigarettes every time the thought comes up. But the truth is, one of the reasons I try to resist these is that the Troopers tend to be priced right in line with the regular Hot Toys releases, and I have a hard time swallowing that. Case in point, This Snowtrooper retails at $219 over at Sideshow. I’m not saying there isn’t a great amount of craftsmanship at work here, indeed he’s a gorgeous figure. But I’m taking into account that they didn’t have to sculpt and paint a likeness for his portrait, they don’t have to pay an actor for the likeness rights, and he doesn’t come with a whole lot of accessories. Also, they knew they were going to be able to sell at least one variation of this guy too. All that conspires to make me feel that Hot Toys could have snuck these in at under the $200 mark. Maybe that’s why some retailers are slashing prices. When this guy turned up on Amazon for $139.99, I didn’t even have to think about it. And yes, I will eventually get around to reviewing the First Order Stormtrooper that came with Finn. I just need to find the time to go into the storage and find his box.

 

Feb 5 2018

Marvel Legends (Man-Thing Wave): The Punisher by Hasbro

What better way to celebrate the beginning of a new week then by opening up some new Marvel toys and playing with them? Well, that’s how I roll here on every Marvel Monday. Even better, I’m starting a vacation today and to be frightfully honest, I’m anxious to get to the orgy of drinking and video games, so let’s jump right in and check out the second figure in the Marvel Legends Man-Thing Wave… Frank Castle, aka. The Punisher. In case you haven’t guessed, I’m doing all the Netflix figures first.

Frank comes straight off the screen from the Netflix Series. Well, not straight off. This is actually The Punisher from the second season of Daredevil and not the more recent Punisher series, hence the Daredevil logo on the front. He comes in the same style of window box we’ve been seeing for a while now. Oh, and see that silver pistol in the package? I already lost it, so we won’t be seeing it again. And the fact that it’s silver means my cat has probably already dragged it to one of his secret stashes of precious treasures.

The Punisher comes out of the box looking as iconic as can be. While I’ve actually been a fan of all live-action Punishers over the years (all for very different reasons) this one has become my hands down favorite. And while I can’t lie, I wish he donned his official costume more than he does, I can understand why they go the more subtle route. Anyway, Frank comes dressed all in black, which includes: Big honkin’ black combat boots, rugged black manly-man-pants, a black tactical vest, and a black trenchcoat. The only thing that breaks up the black on the costume is his trademark skull on the front of his vest, and it looks fabulous. We’ll take a closer look at that in a bit.

Hasbro did a nice job on the sculpt here, although because of all that black, it can be difficult to make out all those details. The coat uses the traditional trick of a soft-plastic vest with the sleeves sculpted as part of the arms. The effect is a little bit marred here by the fact that the sleeve holes are so large, but if you’re looking at the figure dead on, it really doesn’t show. Most of the sculpted detail on the rest of the figure comes from the rumpled material of the pants and sleeves. Oddly enough, it’s the boots that are the immediate stand out here. Not only are the laces individually detailed, but you get some heavy duty treads in the soles, perfect for curb-stomping the injustice out of criminals.

Because of the larger sleeve holes, the coat can be taken off pretty easily. I think the figure displays surprisingly well without the jacket, even know the jacket sleeves are still on his arm, they could pass as just sleeves from a bulky shirt if you don’t scrutinize it too closely. Either way, it’s worth doing, just to get a better look at some of the detail in the vest as well as the work of art that is his skull emblem. The image is printed using the new printing technique that Hasbro is currently embracing. Seriously, this came out looking great!

The portrait here is also mighty good, although I think it helps that Jon Bernthal is a very distinctive looking fellow. I’m really impressed with the subtle things like the shape of his nose, and the ears. Getting his haircut couldn’t have been easy, but I think they did a passable job there as well. I do wish they weren’t using such glossy plastic for the skin tone, though. Also, I’ll probably keep mentioning that the new printing technique for the faces look fantastic with the figure in hand, but tend to look blurry in close up shots. It can be a little vexing for people who enjoy photographing their figures, but I think the trade off is worthwhile since it looks so good to the naked eye.

Despite being a walking tank and overall pain sponge, The Punisher features some pretty solid articulation. The arms have swivels in the biceps, along with rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have rockers. The torso features a ball joint under the chest and the neck has both a ball joint and hinge.

If there’s one area this figure comes up a little light, it’s with the accessories. The Punisher needs guns. Lots of guns. Like a whole shit-load of guns. This guy comes with two… and I already lost one, and yeah that’s on me, but still. I feel like two guns aren’t enough, and yet with the Man-Thing BAF part in there, the package doesn’t feel light. It’s just that back in the day we used to get a lot of accessories with some figures. Remember how many guns Mystique came with? Oh well, at least the one I still have is a good one. It looks like an AR-15 with a rail-mounted scope and an under-slung grenade launcher. It’s a great looking rifle, and if I want to give him some more, I’ve got plenty other figures that I can borrow from.

I’m also glad that playing with The Punisher gave me an excuse to pull out Daredevil again, because I failed to mention what a wonderfully balanced figure he is. If some of the poses up top look a little stiff, it’s because I tried to do them without stands, so yeah that dude really can balance on one leg pretty spectacularly. Ah, but this is Frank’s review, Matt. You’ve already had your turn. But all I’ve got left to say is that so far, Hasbro is doing a really nice job delivering on the Marvel Netflix figures. Daredevil and The Punisher are both fantastic, and I’m anxious to start in with the ladies on the next Marvel Monday. Who will it be, Elektra or Jessica? Well I’ve got a week to decide.

 

 

 

Feb 3 2018

Variable Action Heroes (One Piece): Nami by MegaHouse

It feels like forever since I did an Anime Saturday, but for those of you who miss it, I promise it’s going to be making a regular return. Indeed, when FFZ’s 8th Anniversary rolls around later this month, I’ll be making some change-ups to my content schedule that should free me up to do more of these, because I have a lot of figures waiting to be opened and reviewed. And yes, Anime Saturday is usually a morning routine, but today’s edition is posting late because I’m working this weekend, and it was a real struggle to get it finished in time. So I’ll trade in my usual Saturday morning pot of coffee for a nice tall evening pour of Jameson in a rock glass and check out Variable Action Heroes Nami!

The figure comes in a window box with some great shots of the figure and the One Piece logo in the upper right hand corner. It matches the other boxes fairly well and it’s totally collector friendly. I own several of these Variable Action Hero figures, all from One Piece, but I’ve only really spent any time with the leader of the Straw Hats, Luffy, which I reviewed back in 2016. I love the larger scale of these figures, and they come with some really cool stuff, but I’m not ready to see them replace Figmas or even SH Figuarts as my favorite figures from the East. The main reason I pick these up is because it’s the only way I can get my articulated One Piece figure fix. There’s actually a third version of Nami in this line shipping soon, so I thought I’d better check this one out before the new one arrives.

Nami sports her trademark orange high-heeled sandals, tight blue jeans, and a teal and white bikini top that leaves not a lot to the imagination. The sculpt really brings out the stylized beauty of this shapely Navigator, and while the jointing does break up the otherwise smooth curves with plenty of rotating hinges, it’s a necessary evil when you’re looking at this level of articulation. In additional to the usual points of articulation, Nami also includes a neck ball jointed at the top and bottom, lateral hinges in the shoulders, and hinges in her feet. In addition to the great sculpt and ample poseability, there’s some great coloring on display here. The jeans are a vibrant mix of dark and light blue to simulate the wear of the denim, and you get some soft sculpted belt loops and a button at her waist, as well as the distinctive gold and orange circlets on her hips. The skin tone is warm, with some painted highlights to add a little depth and texture. The bikini top features sculpted strings tied off on the back and some sharp paint lines for the white patterns.

A couple of other nice details include her trademark tattoo, which is sharply printed on her left bicep. She also features the Log Pose strapped around her left wrist as well as a gold bangle. I love the attention to detail on this piece. It’s cast in clear blue plastic and you can see the compass needle inside. The bangle is a cool touch too, but since it hangs loose on her wrist, it has a habit of dropping off when I change her hands, so I’ve been extra careful not to lose it.

Nami comes with four different portraits, and these are changed out just like the faces on a Figma or Figuart. You simply remove the front of the hair, swap the face plate, and replace the hair. Two of the faces are pretty similar to each other, featuring slight smiles, but one has a more sinister tone to the eyebrows. The third face is her shouty, action face, and the fourth features her winking. I will hand it to the Figuarts version of Nami, as it came with a few more creative expressions, but what we got here is still fine and I think they captured her adorable portrait perfectly. Her fiery orange hair is sculpted to cascade down her shoulders. It’s not terribly restrictive, but it can get in the way of some of the more extreme head poses.

As one would expect, Nami comes with a whole slew of interchangeable hands. Most of these are straightforward. You get a pair of fists, a pair of accessory holding hands, a pair of relaxed hands, and a pair of karate-chop type hands with the fingers closed together. The most unique hands include a right hand making the “OK” gesture and a pointing left hand.

She also comes with her trusty Clima-Tact, which appears to be a simple bo-staff with a snappy metallic blue paint job. It fits really well in her accessory holding hands, and it makes for a fun piece to pose her with. And thanks to a couple of nifty effect parts sets, she can also unleash a few of her signature attacks with it.

First off is the Thunder Charge, which includes a translucent yellow piece that snakes around the staff and a ball of lightning that pegs into the end. Put the two together and you get a pretty damn cool effect. The pieces hold in place really well too.

The other parts make up her um… I’m going to say Milky Ball attack, although I suppose it could be a few different ones. Like the other set, this effect is made by two pieces, one passed through the staff and the other capped on the end.

With how much I loved the VAH version of Luffy I have, I was a little afraid that Nami wouldn’t be able to live up to my expectations, but she really does. The sculpt and paintwork are fantastic and they did an exceptionally fine job with her weapon and its effect parts. The frustrating thing about this line is how the prices tend to go all over the place. I hunted Nami here for a while before I was able to grab her for around $70, which is not a bad deal considering Usopp and Sanjii both top out at well over $100 these days, and that’s more then I’m willing to spend right now. Nowadays, I just make sure I get the pre-orders in rather then take my chances. The Summer Vacation version of Nami is due sometime in March, but before then I’ll try to carve out some time to look at Roronoa Zoro. I’m also seriously considering grabbing the yellow shirt version of Luffy, just because it comes with a wider range of facial expressions.

Feb 2 2018

DC Multiverse (Doomsday Wave): Lex Luthor, Mutant Leader, and Doomsday by Mattel

Oh dear god, it’s been a rocky road to completing this wave. I started it so long ago (July of last year!) with DCTV’s Supergirl, and the mediocrity of each figure has worn me down to the point where I’ve had to space these reviews out just to avoid having to dread the coming of DC Friday. Well, today I’m finally going to kill it off with a look at the last two packaged figures, Mutant Leader and Lex Luthor, and finally the one reason I suffered through all this… The Collect & Connect Doomsday figure. I feel like I should apologize in advance, but it’s too late for that now.

Here are the packaged figures. I’ve got nothing more to say, so let’s just start with Lex Luthor, because I want to get him out of the way quickly so I can toss him in the garbage. I was originally going to just post a picture of the figure and let that speak for itself, but no, let’s do this. Let’s fully diagram the anatomy of a fail.

So, it literally makes me sick to own an action figure based off of Jessie Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. No, really. Let me tell you how I really feel. Of all the things wrong with that abomination of a movie, the casting and treatment of Lex shines like a beacon of shit in a fog of missteps and terrible ideas. But seeing as abstaining from this purchase would have put me just one C&C part away from my goal, I sucked it up. My only hope was that with the DC Multiverse likenesses being so poor, I could pass him off as a comic Luthor. But it was a red herring anyway, because this figure is so god awful, I don’t even want it in my house. When you’ve been making action figures as long as Mattel has, how do you screw up a guy in prison overalls? The buck looks so awkward, thanks mostly to that torso. Mattel can’t even be bothered to give Superman an ab crunch, but they have to stick a huge ugly one in the middle of this figure. Also, the sculpted details on the jumpsuit, like the pocket and the collar, are so soft they might as well not have bothered. I could probably make a better looking guy in a jumpsuit out of Playdoh. Oh yeah, and let’s give him and nobody else in the wave thigh swivels, because that makes sense, right?

As I said, I was hoping the head sculpt would just pass for generic comic Lex, but it really does look like a horribly misshapen Eisenberg. I know, that’s kind of redundant, but whatever. This portrait makes me wish I was 6-inches tall, so I could punch it. Also, what’s up with his prison number? That’s a weird place for a Stormtrooper reference, but I can’t believe it’s a coincidence.

The only positive thing I can say about this figure is that the chains come off, so if you want to use them for one of your DCUC villains or another figure, that’s an option. They do peg into the back of this figure to hold them in place, but I would imagine they’ll still work on other 6-inch scale figures. I’m going to save mine when I toss this figure. And that’s all I’m going to say about Lex here, other than I feel bad I’m wasting space on my server with four pictures of him. Moving on to The Mutant Leader…

If there was any semblance of a theme to this wave, I guess it was The Dark Knight Returns. At least three figures in the wave share that common source. And the DKR figures were probably the ones I was most excited for. Batman and Robin put a damper on that excitement. I don’t think they’re as bad as Lex up there, but I found them to be on the low end of average. I was hoping Mutant Leader could right this ship, and as it turns out, I think he’s pretty OK. Granted, a lot of him is just a muscular buck in pants, but there are some nice flourishes of detail, like in the spiked belt, as well as the wrist and ankle cuffs, and especially in his gnarly mutant feet. Articulation is fair, but he’s missing some obvious things like thigh swivels.

I really dig the head sculpt on this guy. Not only does it capture the character pretty well, but the attention to detail in the open mouth goes above and beyond for this line. The expression is great and the way the facial detail disappears behind the visor makes it almost look like it could be a separate piece. I don’t have a lot of praise for any of the other portraits in this wave, so it’s nice to see at least one figure succeed on that front.

The Mutant Leader also excels in the accessories category. Well, he has two. First off, he has a big torch that looks like it’s welded out of junk and features a big cartoony flame blooming off the top of it. Secondly, he has a crowbar. Neither of these are anything special, but at least he comes with some stuff. And with that final ringing endorsement of the packaged figures, let’s take a look at the figure that led me through this morass of plastic despair… Collect & Connect Doomsday!

And hell, yeah! This is a pretty damn good figure. I missed out on Matty Collector’s version from a few years back, and that bad boy has since escalated on the second hand market close to the $200 mark. There was no way I was ever going to pay that, so building this version seemed like a fair consolation prize, and I really do love how he turned out. I was up for an uphill battle, however, putting him together. The arms did not want to go in the sockets, and the rotating hinges in the shoulders were fused. It took some work, but I finally got him assembled and all the joints working fine. Doomsday has never been a favorite of mine, but he’s an important enough character in the DC Universe that his absence from my shelf was pretty obvious.

The build on this guy is great, the sculpted tufts of white fur look good, and you get some nice detail on his shorts. The craggy spikes coming off his back and shoulders are really cool, and I love the spikes on his knuckles. The coloring is pretty simple, but the gray and white deco looks good and you get some green and black in the pants.

The head sculpt is also fantastic. I love the open maw surrounded by a full mouth of white teeth. The rocky mess on his forehead is all individually sculpted, and those beady red eyes are superb. There’s a huge disconnect between the quality of work on display here and that seen in the individual figures of this wave.

So was it all worth it? Absolutely. I love Doomsday, and I’m especially happy to see that he displays really well with Mattel’s New 52 Superman from a little ways back. I’m still going to keeping an eye on the Doomsday and Superman boxed set that DC Collectibles has out on the market right now. If it drops significantly in price, I’ll likely give that one a try as it also looks like a superb piece of work.

Of course, when I say buying this wave was worth it, I should point out that the only one I paid more than $10 for was Supergirl. The rest averaged around $5-6 a piece. Even at that price, it was tough to drum up a lot of love for this motley wave. It’s tough to look at this group shot and realize that this is the same company that did DC Universe Classics not so long ago. It’s even harder to consider that this collection of figures netted around $120 at retail when they were released. It’s no wonder, I can’t find any of the current figures on the pegs, because the stores near me are still choked with Batman, Lex, and Mutant Leader. All I know is that if Mattel or DC Collectibles can’t get a decent cohesive line of action figures going, DC Fridays are going to become a thing of the past.

 

By figurefanzero
1
Feb 1 2018

Transformers “Power of the Primes:” Jazz by Hasbro

After some detours into the larger Voyager Class and smaller Prime Master figures, it’s finally time for me to steer back to that first wave of Deluxes from The Power of the Primes line. I already checked out the two figures that I was most excited (or curious) about, Slug and Swoop, and today I’m opening up Jazz. I don’t know, Hasbro. You did a mighty fine Jazz back around 2011 in the Reveal The Shield line, and he still holds up pretty well today. Are you sure you want to take another crack at him? The pressure is on. Let’s take a look…

Same old packaging, but once again with some absolutely bitchin’ character art. Also, have a look at the ubiquitous Prime Armor piece in the lower corner of the tray, because you won’t see it again in this review. It’s going into the Accessory Junk Drawer! It doesn’t say anywhere on the package, but like all these Deluxes, Jazz is indeed a Combiner limb. I won’t grumble about that too much because it’s hidden really well. OK, let’s start things off with the alt mode.

LIBERTIES! Yes, Hasbro has taken major ones with Jazz’s new auto mode and that leaves me a little torn. No, this isn’t really Jazz to me but the design of the car is great, and it’s executed brilliantly. I will note ahead of time that some of the seams you see in the picture show a not so tight transformation, but I’ll blame that on user error. I did have some difficulties getting his arms packed in just right. But let me go on to say that the detail in the sculpt is especially nice. Not only do you get plenty of panel lines, but you also get some cool vent panels on the sides of the engine, and even a detailed gas cap. The clear plastic windows and, tinted blue plastic looks fantastic on the headlamps. I just wish they could have spared some paint for the taillights and rear bumper.

The rest of the deco is fabulous. This is some of the brightest, and most prettiest white I’ve seen on a Transformer in a while. Just look at the comparison with the previous Jazz. I know, how can I get so worked up over white? Well, it just looks so much better than the white we usually get and when combined with the blue and red stripe down the middle, this car really pops. You also get some graphics tampo’ed on the sides, including “Autobot Jazz” which is ironically there because you might not otherwise recognize him. It’s like when they used to print the character name on the apron on those old Ben Cooper Halloween costumes. A little silver paint on those front grills would have been nice, but you do get some red trim around the apron. Yup, apart from a brighter white, there’s really no contest to me which alt mode comes out on top and screams Jazz to me. Still, I love this car, and am hoping we get a repaint into another character. More on that later.

Before moving on to the robot mode, Jazz does come with a gun that can be pegged into the top of the car on any one of three ports. I kind of dig it straight up in the center. You can also substitute any of the Prime Master Decoy Armor in their Targetmaster modes. I’ll also note that there are some foot pegs on his back, so Prime or Titan Masters can ride him into battle!

The transformation here is pretty similar to many of the Combiner limb cars we’ve seen in the last few years and the result is a pretty great looking robot mode and a little bit closer to the Jazz I know, but still not quite there. I do appreciate the front of the car forming the chest, as this configuration is to me the most iconic as well as my all time favorite look for an Autobot Warrior. I think it’s the lack of door wings that really throws me off. With that having been said, this is a remarkably well-proportioned robot mode, and you’d have to look really close to even notice that there’s a combiner port embedded in his chest. I will, however, say that the forearms look pretty cheap. The lack of paint, the car shell extending behind the fists, and the ball jointed elbows all scream Legends Class to me.

From the back, there’s absolutely nothing to complain about. This is one of the cleanest robo-backs I’ve seen in a while. There’s none of that “hollow leg syndrome” and the canopy piece for the car forms a solid slab of a back. Not bad at all.

Unfortunately, the head is a little off for me. It’s unmistakably Jazz, but it feels a tad undersized. Also the facial features below the visor are very soft. The nose and mouth tend to get lost in the reflections of the silver paint and it’s almost like there’s nothing there. But once again, those blue headlamps look great, as does the bold Autobot emblem stamped on his chest.

Jazz comes with a neat little blaster, which we already saw on his alt mode. In robot mode he can hold in either hand. The articulation here is overall pretty good, with the one exception being the shoulders. The lateral hinge is pretty awkward to work with and the lack of a bicep swivel makes some of those action poses a little hard to achieve.

There’s a lot I like about this figure. The detail on the mold and the coloring are great in both car and robot mode. The engineering is solid, but not overly complex. And lastly, I really dig how well they hid the fact that he’s a Combiner limb. Had they gone with using this mold as a different character I would have been a lot happier to own him, but with the Reveal The Shield Jazz holding up so well, this one just feels redundant. For some reason I keep thinking this figure would have worked as an homage to the G1 Omnibot Overdrive. Either way, if you were a fan of the Combiner Wars G1 Autobots, you might actually dig this guy a lot, and I’d say he’d fit in pretty well with that lot.

Jan 30 2018

Star Wars Black (Legends): Jaina Solo by Hasbro

Folks, I’m kind of at a crossroads with the 6-inch Star Wars Black Series and today’s review is a great example of why. For the most part, this line hasn’t been living up to my expectations, at least not consistently, and I’m constantly considering whether I really need to keep collecting it. At the same time, there are enough genuinely good figures tossed in at regular intervals to make me want to stick around. Either way, I was genuinely excited to hear that Jaina Solo was getting a release, especially since she’s been wiped clean by Disney’s purge of most of the Expanded Universe. I’m actually quite surprised she would get a release at all, since the current Trilogy has replaced Han and Leia’s Expanded Universe kids with Ben Solo, and acknowledging her existence is somewhat problematic and potentially confusing to some of the younger fans out there.

And yet here she is! Because in the end it’s all about finding new ways to bring in more Republic Credits, right? And I guess if that means merchandising those characters that now never were, so be it. Case in point, by slapping the name “Legends” in parenthesis on the package characters like Jaina Solo can live again, even if she is no longer canon. Of course, Jaina’s appearance is mostly thanks to the results of a Fan Poll a while back. Prior to that one, a previous Poll gave us Darth Revan, which granted is also an Expanded Universe character, but seeing as how he’s from The Old Republic, there’s no reason to presume he can’t still have existed in the current Star Wars canon. Sheesh, this is all so complicated, let’s just look at the figure.

OK, so first off, is this really supposed to be her Stealth-X suit? If that’s the case it’s pretty far off the mark, at least going on what I remember from the Dark Horse comic. Then again, I suppose there’s no definitive design for Hasbro to work off of. Maybe I’m just a little bitter because I wish she was wearing just a regular orange X-Wing pilot suit. With all that having been said, the suit is nicely detailed with the ribbed vest, control box on the chest, leg straps, and all the trappings of your typical Star Wars Universe flight suit. She also has a smuggler-style belt with a low slung holster, just the kind that dear old Dad used to wear. There’s some copper paint on the straps for the chest box, but the underlying black suit is devoid of almost all other color. It only has some orange piping, which we’ll be able to see more clearly in a bit, and  you get a little extra gloss in the black boots and gloves.

Other than choice of suit, my biggest issue with this figure is the proportions, specifically in those arms. Why are the elbow joints placed so low? Why are her biceps so long? At first, I thought it was an optical illusion from the suit sculpt, but the more I look at it, the more I realize that someone at Hasbro doesn’t fully understand human anatomy, because the ratio of forearm to bicep on this figure is seriously askew and it really looks strange to me.

The portrait is also a sticking point for me. I don’t think the sculpt is bad. It’s a little soft, but they did get a little personality in there with her smirk, a little something else she picked up from Dad. I also can see a little of her Mom in her cheeks. The hair is sculpted pretty well too, with a hair band forming a pony tail at the back. I think it’s the paint here that really musses things up. Besides being the usual bare-minimum-basic paint job that Hasbro has been giving us with the human portraits, the eyes on mine just look terrible. They’re uneven, and they’re perpetually looking up. I’ve seen a lot of those pictures around the Net of people who do some amazing paint work on these portraits, but Jaina here doesn’t need amazing to be an improvement, just competent would do.

Luckily, Jaina comes with a helmet to help cover up the amateur hour paint-job. Again, the paint on this seems way off from what I remember in the comics. That one was sleeker and had little in the way of colored markings or detail. This one looks more like a Resistance helmet from the current Trilogy. But with that having been said, the paintwork on it is pretty good and I like how worn and weathered it looks. The visor could have been a little cleaner, but hey, all the better to hide her eyes.

What’s cool about this figure is that the flight gear is easily removable and under it you get an outfit that could pass as just her regular space-adventure garb. Here’s where you can see more of the orange piping on her top, as well as a thin belt with silver belt buckle hiding behind her gunbelt. The gunbelt features some nice detail on the pouches and even some silver paint for the button snaps. The holster fits her blaster quite well, and she also has a hook to hang her lightsaber from.

I’m not sure if the blaster is new or not, but it looks a lot like the standard DL-44 we’ve seen a few times in this series. It features good sculpted detail and Jaina’s right hand is sculpted with a trigger finger and holds it really well.

Her lightsaber hilt is quite unique and comes with a detachable purple blade. It even has a little purple paint on the side of the hilt, making it all the more distinctive. She can hold it either hand or wield it two-handed if you prefer.

The articulation here is pretty typical for Hasbro’s SWB ladies, with just one big surprise. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, but there are no bicep swivels. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, hinges and rockers, in the ankles, and swivels in the thighs. The torso features a ball joint under the chest, and here’s the big surprise… an additional ab crunch hinge just above the waist. Finally, the neck is both ball jointed and hinged.

Make no mistake, there’s some great stuff to be found in this figure, and I was pleasantly surprised at how versatile she is with the removable flight gear. But the portraits in this line continue to disappoint me, and let’s face it, this one wasn’t even based on any specific likeness, but rather a comic character at best, or a description in a book. Toss in the bizarre arm proportions and we’ve got some serious problems for a $20 figure in a line for collectors. And yes, I still wish they released Jaina in her regular orange flight suit, but that last bit is just my personal preference. I probably have five or six SWB figures that I still have to review, and as I get around to reviewing them, I’m going to really be weighing the merits of staying in this line, or maybe just being a hell of a lot pickier about the figures that I buy from it.

Jan 29 2018

Marvel Legends (Man-Thing Wave): Daredevil by Hasbro

It feels like forever ago that I wrapped up the Gladiator Hulk Wave of Marvel Legends, but I took a few detours afterwards and now I’m ready to jump back in to a new assortment. With Black Panther hitting theaters soon, I was really tempted to dig into the Okoye Wave, but then I thought it would be more fun to look at those figures after having seen the film. So let’s go back in time to last year and kick off the Man-Thing Wave with Daredevil from the Netflix Series!

While Man-Thing and a couple other figures may have little to do with it, this majority of this wave, four figures to be exact, belongs to the various Netflix Marvel series. And really, I can’t express enough how happy I am to see these versions of the characters getting immortalized in 6-inch plastic form, because now they can co-exist on my shelf alongside their MCU allies. I’m kicking things off with Daredevil because his was the first series, and he remains my favorite character among the Netflix Defenders. Plus, after already reviewing the Hot Toys version, I’m super curious to see how Hasbro’s smaller version turned out.

While it’s sometimes hard to tell on screen, The Daredevil suit offers plenty of opportunities for detail, and Hasbro really stepped up here. The black and red areas are clearly distinguished by sculpted lines and the texturing is quite well done. There’s a really great sense of layering that makes the suit look almost convincing enough to be made of separate pieces laid onto the buck. The scalloped motif on the forearms and lower legs look great and you get some nice sculpted detail in the boot laces and even the stitching in the gloves. Neat silver paint hits punctuate the various buckles and catches and I like the use of both matte and gloss black. It really looks like Hasbro did their research when sculpting this guy and poured a lot of love into him. Truth be told, I’d like to see a little less black used on the design, but that might be something the creative team is saving for Season 3.

The head sculpt is solid is a bit more of a mixed bag for me. I think the mask looks every bit as good as the rest of the costume. You get more of that great texturing on the neck as well as the exposed black mesh areas between the helmet. The contours of the mask and horns are fantastic and I really dig that they put the little slits in over the ears. They even used a little gloss for the eyes to reproduce the creepy reflective effect they give off in the show. If the portrait stumbles a bit, it’s in the lower half of Matt Murdock’s face. I really don’t see a lot of resemblance there and the paint lines between the skin and the mask on mine aren’t as crisp as I would have liked. Granted, it’s challenging enough to do a good likeness in this scale and price point, and I imagine it’s doubly so when just doing the bottom part of the face. Still, I think what we got is solid, and I don’t want to pick at it too much.

Daredevil includes a set of holsters for his batons, and it isn’t lost on me that these actually work better than the ones on the Hot Toys figure. There they were too snug to insert the batons, but here they fit great and are easily removed. The batons themselves can be connected together into one longer truncheon via a peg. You also get two pairs of hands: One set of fists and one set to hold the batons.

The articulation here is very good. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs. The ankles have both hinges and rockers. The arms have rotating hinges at the shoulders, hinged pegs at the wrists, swivels in the thighs, and double hinges in the elbows. The torso has a swivel at the waist, an ab crunch hinge under the chest, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. Oddly enough, the feet are actually pegged into the legs, which is something I don’t recall seeing too often on my Marvel Legends figures.

I’ve been hoping for a Legends Daredevil from the Netflix Series from the very beginning, and while I think there’s a little room for improvement in the face sculpt, the figure still turned out pretty great. The detail and paint on the suit alone really carries the day and the articulation makes him a lot of fun to play around with. A second set of batons with the cord attaching them would have been pretty cool, but as he is this is still a great figure to kick off the new wave with. When this assortment first hit, it looked like they were going to be really hard to get, but eventually things cooled down and I was able to get Daredevil, and the entire Netflix team, off of Amazon for around $15 a pop. Not bad at all.

Jan 26 2018

DC Bombshells (DC Designer Series): Hawkgirl by DC Collectibles

It’s DC Friday again, and after a few detours it’s time to get back to checking out the second wave of DC Collectibles’ Bombshells figures. If you’re just joining me, these are action figures based on the original statue designs DCC has been putting out for the last couple years. The DC Bombshells have become super popular and have not only spawned merchandise from other companies, but also their own comic book series. I absolutely adored the first wave of these figures, but the first figure I reviewed from this new wave, Mera, left me a little cold thanks to cutbacks in accessories and articulation, not to mention a joint breaking right out of the box. Let’s press on and see how Hawkgirl turned out.

There’s really nothing new to say about the packaging. This is the same style box we’ve seen across most of DCC’s Designer Series figures with the angled edge on the window and some nice character art on the side panel along with the figure’s number in the series, in this case Hawkgirl is #6. The presentation here is nice and clean, and everything is collector friendly, but I can’t help but notice a lot of empty space on that tray. Uh oh… looks like the accessory cut-backs continue!

And here’s Hawkgirl out of the box! I’m not sure exactly what they were going for here in terms of design. That famous first jetpack flight of the Bell Rocket Belt was in the early 60’s so it’s a little too late for the Bombshell’s era. I’m going to go with a vintage Buck Rogers or maybe a Rocketeer kind of vibe. Whatever the case, I like this design a lot and I came damn close to buying the statue even after I had sworn off collecting them because of lack of display space.

Hawkgirl features a green jumpsuit, with the top unzipped and hanging down around her waist and legs, exposing her rather tight yellow tank top. The lower half of the jumpsuit effect is achieved simply with paint, while the top half is sculpted separately and attached to look like it’s hanging off of her. She also wears a pair of long gloves and tall brown boots with yellow trim and sculpted and painted laces. Some nice little touches include the subtle wing motifs etched into her boots and the elastic cuffs on the loose, hanging sleeves of the jumpsuit. The paint on this figure is pretty solid, but then that’s been the case for this line from the beginning. Granted, there isn’t a whole lot of complex brush work going on here, but the yellow on the boots is pretty sharp, as are the stripes on the legs, and they even painted the buckles on the boot straps with a little gold paint. Likewise, the tiny buckles on her shoulder straps are painted silver, and the silver on the helmet looks great. There is a stray spot of red paint on her nose, but otherwise no complaints here.

I really dig the portrait here a lot. Hawkgirl is wearing a wry smirk that gives her a lot of personality. She wears a very familiar hawk-styled helmet, and they did a nice job sculpting the patches of her red hair that spill out from under the tight-fitting helmet. She has a loose pair of goggles hanging around her neck, and the shoulder straps for the jetpack rig are part of the sculpt, so they’re present whether she’s wearing the pack or not. I do wish they could have worked out a way to make her blowing a bubble an option, as that was such a distinctive aspect of the statue, but I guess it wasn’t to be. Before we talk articulation, let’s get her suited up to fly!

I already griped about the accessory cut-backs being a trend in this second wave of Bombshells, and yes the jetpack is the only accessory included here. Gone are the extra hands and various extra bits of fun. In the case of Hawkgirl, I’m almost willing to look past it, because the jetpack uses a little more plastic than your average accessory. It attaches simply to her back via two pegs, but getting the control arms into her hands is a little scary because they are pretty fragile. The pack itself looks pretty good. It has an appropriately retro design with some sculpted panel lines and a pair of wings to follow through on the Hawkgirl theme. There are some red rings painted on the twin cones and the thrusters are painted black. The control arms feature painted wire snaking around them, and the hand grips have red thrust buttons on the tops.

The articulation is overall pretty good, especially when you consider some of DCC’s other offerings. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and double hinged at the knees. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s an ab crunch hinge, but it’s all the way down near the waist, and also a ball joint just under her chest. Finally, the neck is ball jointed. I do still miss the swivels in the thighs, and while I appreciate the torso articulation, you still can’t get her in a decent flying position where she’s looking up, but she can do some pretty good hovering poses. Also, while it’s a shame I have to mention it as a plus, I was happy not to have any joint snapping issues here. All of Hawkgirl’s articulation was smooth right out of the package.

After a dodgy start with Mera, Hawkgirl here goes a long way to rekindle my hope for this second wave. Sure, removing the thigh swivels still pisses me off, and even with the jetpack, I would have still liked a few more extras in the box. I can’t help but think that if this figure shipped in the first wave, she would have had an extra pair of hands, maybe an alternate bubble-blowing head, or at least some effect parts for her jetpack. That having been said, she’s still a lot of fun to play with and I was happy to not have any QC issues with this one. But best of all, I can finally stop feeling remorse over not picking up the statue, because at least now I have Bombshells Hawkgirl  in my collection as an action figure.

Jan 25 2018

Transformers “Power of the Primes:” Legends Class Beachcomber by Hasbro

It’s time for another Transformers Thursday fueled by the Power of the Primes! If you’ve been following along with my previous PotP reviews than you already know that this line has been a little hit and miss with me. But one thing it’s doing pretty damn well is the Legends Class figures, so let’s check out another one today. And if it isn’t an honest to Primus homage to G1 Beachcomber! “Ooooh, my. Booboobadooboo… this is gonna be paradise!” 

Everyone’s favorite Cybertronian Tree Hugger comes on your typical PotP card with some truly bitchin’ character art at the top. As far as I know, the last time Beachcomber got a figure was back in the Generations line around 2008. That one was also a Legends Class, but I only owned the repaint, Sandstorm. In fact, the last Beachcomber figure I owned was that giant futuristic dune-buggy from the Energon line. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to get this figure in hand. He comes packaged in his robot mode, but as usual, let’s start with his alt mode.

And it is indeed a good old fashioned blue and gray dune-buggy! There’s just the right amount of detail in the sculpt, which includes shock absorbers on the front and back wheels, headlamps, and some panel lines and further detailing on the running boards. You also get a little basic detail in the driver compartment, and some great looking treads on the plastic tires. The coloring is largely achieved through the blue and gray plastic, although the back engine area is painted gray and the two circular components are painted silver. There’s also a nice big Autobot emblem printed on the hood and bisected by the seam. I’ll admit that a few more paint hits would have been welcome, like some yellow on the headlamps and maybe some black for the driver cage, but I’m still pretty pleased with this little buggy.

As with most of the Legends Class vehicles lately, you can fit a Titan or Prime Master into the driver seat, in this case simply by disconnecting the bars to the driver cage and angling them back.

It’s also worth noting that the socket near the engine area can fit the weapons from the Prime Masters’ Decoy Armor. It may be a little odd to see the peace-loving Beachcomber toting around extra firepower, but somebody’s gotta save that pristine Golden Lagoon from the Decepticreeps!

Beachcomber transforms pretty much exactly like the old days. The legs fold out from his hood and the arms pull out from the sides. Compact the torso and you get your head reveal, and the results are superb! You get the same wheel placement on the shoulders and lower legs, a sticker on the chest similar to the original toy, and some blue, yellow, and orange paint on his abs to match the other sticker on the original. I also really dig the sculpted piston design in his chest. Some additional gray paint is used to pick out his fists. This guy looks absolutely amazing.

He looks damn spiffy from the back as well. Sure, you get a little of that hollow leg syndrome, but I’m willing to accept that in these Legends Class figures. I love how two of the cage bars form heel spurs, and the rest of the cage folds neatly down and close to his back. The positioning of the two silver drums on his upper back looks great as well.

The only thing this figure needs to round out the homage was a great head sculpt, and he’s got that too. The pronounced silver visor rests above a pretty human-looking face, which matches his Sunbow design spot-on. I can practically see him pursing his lips and whistling to the birds!

The articulation here is pretty much what I’ve come to expect from these Legends Class figures. That includes ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, and hips, hinges in the knees, a ball joint in the neck, and much to my surprise, this little guy actually has swivels in the thighs!

Beachcomber fits right at home among some of the more amazing Legends Class G1-homages we’ve been getting in the Titans Return and now the Power of the Primes runs. Everything about these little fellas make me smile, but Beachcomber scratches that special itch, because this really is the first decent official version of him we’ve had in ten years, and even that one wasn’t all that amazing. Part of me would still have liked to see these guys get the Deluxe treatment, but then there’s something so appropriate about the old Minibots getting to keep their smaller and simpler stature. Either way, there’s no doubt in my mind that Windcharger and Beachcomber rank in as my two favorites of the PotP lines so far.

Jan 23 2018

Masters of the Universe Classics: Hover Robots by Mattel

My Christmas excursion into Masters Classics last month got me good and fired up about picking up some of the figures missing from my collection, and finally opening up some of the stuff I’ve been waiting on. Hell, I still have a unopened Battle Ram lying around here somewhere. Suffice it to say, I still have some unfinished business with MOTUC. Take these Hover Robots for example. Missing out on these the first time broke my heart. And then just as I was getting over that heartache, I missed out on them again. Luckily, I peruse Mattel’s Ebay page every now and then, and they just so happened to turn up there over the Holidays… and on sale too! It was like a Christmas Miracle!

Despite being a three-pack, these figures come in the same size and style card-and-bubble that we’ve been seeing throughout the Masters Classics run. If you’re unfamiliar, these tin cans are from the Filmation cartoon, and occasionally served as Skeletor’s soldiers as well as enemies for He-Man to beat up without having to depict him actually inflicting violence on living beings. It’s sort of like the Battle Android Troopers in GI Joe. Acceptable cannon fodder. I seem to remember one of He-Man’s signature moves was to grab one robot and toss it into a group of others, resulting in them all explode. Even the delightful tagline, “Evil Mindless Robot Goons” stresses that they have no sense or feelings. Some of you may know that I have a “love to hate” relationship with the Filmation cartoon, but I always loved these robot designs.

The three-pack does indeed consist of three of the same figure. I’m a little surprised Matty didn’t do something to distinguish them apart like they did with the Horde Trooper two-pack. Maybe scorch marks on one? But don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they didn’t. The robots come with clear plastic stands that plug and unplug easily into the socket at the bottom of their little hover tube. These are similar to the stands used for Orko and The Unnamed One. They balance quite well and certainly serve their purpose, but it would have been cool if Matty could have given them a ball joint or some kind of articulation. Maybe it could have been something put into one of the accessory packs, if these were released earlier in the line’s lifespan. But I didn’t come here to complain, I came here to praise these adorable little death machines.

Each of the robots are very simple figures, but that’s not a criticism, but rather what the design demands. The sculpts feature minimal details and minimal paint, but both of which works to maintain the Filmation animated style. You do get a little bit of metallic blue paint on some of the panels, as well as silver paint on the hover tube and the arms. The dome at the top features bright yellow paint for the eyes and black for the “V” shaped area that houses them. It helps to give them a rather sinister look, despite their somewhat dumpy design.

The coolest detail on these guys is the lenticular sticker used for their “mouths.” By viewing it at different angles, it changes the pattern of the oscilloscope-like wave that would react when the robots spoke. It was a great idea and it works really well. Other than the animated mouths, the articulation on these fellas is pretty simple, but all the necessary points are there. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and elbows, and they hands can rotate at the wrists. The dome with the eyes can also swivel from side to side.

The pack includes an extra set of propeller hands for each of the robots, and swapping them in and out is really easy. I seem to remember the robots in the cartoon using the propeller hands as weapons by spinning them really fast to chop up their foes. I suppose they could really do some damage with those if they got up close and personal. Good thing for The Masters of the Universe that these guys were pretty useless.

And really, that’s all I have to say about the Hover Robots, but don’t be fooled by the brevity of this review. These are fantastic little figures and I’m so happy that I was finally able to snag a set without paying crazy money for them. They look great, they capture that Filmation design perfectly, they’re fun to play with, and even though I never owned any He-Man figures as a kid, I still would have loved to have a set of these. They’re still available on Matty’s Ebay Store, although since I picked mine up the price has gone back up to $35. But that includes shipping and is certainly less then they would have cost if they were included in my Club Eternia Subscription back in the day. Either way, I’m in love with these dopey tin cans and I do believe I’m going to try to grab another set before they’re gone.