Jan 9 2017

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Karl Mordo by Hasbro

Yup, I’m still working my way through the Doctor Strange wave of Marvel Legends, and at this rate I’m at least on course to get through it all before the film hits home release. Oh, and if you haven’t seen the film yet, I’ll toss out a spoiler warning here now. But, c’mon… it’s been out long enough!

I have mixed feelings about the way the MCU treated Mordo in Doctor Strange. On the one hand, I was expecting him to be revealed as the villain to be a turning point in the movie, and I think that would have made for a more interesting story (remember, I liked this movie, but I didn’t love it). On the other hand, having him be a decent guy for the bulk of the film and doing the turn as part of the post-credit stinger, probably gave him some more depth and gives me something to really look forward to in the inevitable sequel. I’ll also confess that I really adore Chiwetel Ejiofor as an actor. He proffered a solid performance in this film, and if his wonderful performance in Serenity is any indication, he has the potential to be the best villain in the MCU since Loki. OK, granted that isn’t saying a lot, but my point is I am super excited to see him and Strange face off in the future. Anyway, with that huge digression, let’s take a look at the figure…

Mordo dons sculpted mystical robes quite similar to what he wore in the film. There are some minor inconsistencies, but overall I think Hasbro did a decent job with the costume. The top half of the costume is sculpted as part of the buck, whereas the bottom is soft plastic and hangs down around the legs. You get some nice detail in the form of cut lines and texturing, which to me are reminiscent (maybe a bit too much) of the costume designs for MCU’s version of Asgard.

There’s a lot of detail in the belt, although the frayed trim that is supposed to hang down from the belt is just sculpted onto the robes and isn’t terribly convincing. Am I nitpicking? Probably. While the deco here is fairly muted, you do get a nice range of colors, including two shades of green, some gray, some blue, and black. The color scheme gives a bit of a nod to Baron Mordo in the comics. All the paint on my figure is very sharp and clean. With all that having been said, I just don’t find this figure terribly exciting and that falls more on the design than it does on Hasbro’s efforts. Plus, since I haven’t opened my MCU Doctor Strange yet, Mordo is quite the loner right now and forced to hang out with the comic-based figures.

The portrait is quite good and hits all the right points for me in sculpt, paint, and likeness. It’s a sharp sculpt that picks out enough characteristics in Chiwetel Ejiofor to make it recognizable to me. Incidentally, this is one of those many times, I’m happy I stick with written reviews, as I don’t have to butcher his name by trying to pronounce it. One odd thing worth mentioning is the really obvious seam running down the front of his neck. Weird.

The articulation here holds no surprises. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. It’s worth noting that the hinge on the right hand is orientated front to back, while the one on the left hand is side to side. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels at the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

In addition to the BAF parts, Mordo comes with his staff. It’s obviously a very simple accessory with just some wood texturing in the sculpt. It’s a little bendy, which is expected, yet nonetheless disappointing. And here’s the one place that the figure really stumbles for me and that’s not having a way for him to wear the staff on his back like he did in the film. A separate cross strap with a simple loop in the back would have been extremely welcome here.

Mordo is a nice enough figure, but I think he suffers from a bit of a boring design, as well as being a sort of “one-off” release. I mean, sure we were going to get an MCU version of Doctor Strange, but then to just give us Mordo and not The Ancient One and Kaecilius seems like an odd choice. I mean, even as I was writing up this piece, I was wondering, “is anyone even going to care enough about this figure to read it?” Maybe once he becomes a proper bad ass, presumably in the next film, but then he’ll likely get a new costume and a new figure. Indeed, if Hasbro wasn’t going to go deep into the movie’s characters for this wave, I would have just rather they gave us comic book Baron Mordo, so I could put Strange on my MCU shelf and have a Mordo for my comic shelf. There’s certainly precedent for that, as they gave us a comic version of Batroc instead of the MCU version from Winter Soldier. Ah, but I’m probably being too picky.

Jan 6 2017

Alien 3: Ellen Ripley and Dog Alien by NECA

What’s that? You hate Alien 3? Fantastic, that just means more for me! Yes, I will stand up to be counted as one of the few true fans of this flick. Awww, but it sucks because Newt and Hicks died. DEAL WITH IT! Life in the future is a toilet and there’s a long line of Xenomorphs waiting to take a dump into it. And in space, no one can hear you flush. Seriously, though, I dig this movie a lot and it fills my heart with happiness that NECA graced it with a wave of figures. I’ve already looked at the Weyland-Yutani Commando from this wave and today I’m checking out Ripley and the Alien.

We all know the deal when it comes to NECA’s Alien packaging. You get a hermetically sealed clamshell that keeps the baked plastic goodness fresh and hot. I like to poke a little hole in it, insert a straw into my nose and snort the plastic fumes right from the source. Seriously kids, don’t do that. As always, these packages show off the figures beautifully, but they are not collector friendly, which saves me the trouble of deciding whether to keep the packaging or not. Let’s start with Ripley…

As you might have noticed from the package shot, Ripley comes with an extra pair of arms, so there are two display options here. Out of the package she comes with her jacket on and the rest of the fatigues that Clemens gave her. As a sidebar, I’m not entirely sure why her package reads “Prisoner,” because she wasn’t. She was just an uninvited guest there waiting to be picked up by Weyland-Yutani after her escape pod crashed on the planet. Anyway, the details in Ripley’s costume is as excellent as I’ve come to expect from NECA’s figures. You get all the tiny obligatory stitching lines and in this case some nice weathering, including torn holes in the pants. The paint detail is exquisite, from the drawstring on her pants to the individual laces and silver eyelets on her boots.

The jacket includes a sculpted quilted pattern on the back and a hood sculpted in the down position behind her head. There’s sculpted elastic trim around the waist and cuffs of the sleeves and she’s wearing a pair of black gloves. The outfit on this figure is just another great example of how NECA spares no expense when paying attention to the tiniest details.

The portrait here is not my favorite example of NECA’s work with Sigourney Weaver. That having been said, NECA has had a fair amount of experience sculpting her portrait and this is a very distinctive look for Lt. Ripley, especially after her haircut. I don’t dislike it, but there’s something slightly off about it. I think it may be that it strikes me as being a little more stylized than the previous Ripley figures. Still, the paint is sharp and clean and they even gave her a nasty bruise on the left side of her forehead.

The figure’s second look involves pulling off the arms, taking off the jacket and putting the bare arms on. The swap is really easy and you get a cool variant that most other companies would have packaged and sold separately. It’s a profound enough change that this is one of those instances where I’m considering picking up a second Ripley so I can display her both ways, because I really can’t decide which one I like more.

Ripley comes with two accessories: A flashlight and a torch. Both are decent enough extras and definitely fitting for the character and context of the film, but neither are terribly exciting. It’s also worth noting that only one of her hands is really designed to work with the accessories. I can get her left hand to hold the flashlight, but it’s obviously not the intent. Let’s move on to the Xeno!

Awwww, shit! This thing is gorgeous! One of the things I love about this movie is that we’re back to just one Alien against a handful of barely armed prey. Xenos are so bad ass, that unless you’re the creatively bankrupt gestalt known as Hollywood, you don’t need to cram a million of them into a movie to make them scary. The Xeno in this wave was unique in having burst forth from a dog (originally an ox) and this figure is available in two colors: Brown or gray. I went with the brown one, just because I associate this entire movie’s dreary and industrial color palate with lots of browns and rusty oranges.

The design of this Xeno makes it my second favorite in the series, right behind the original 1979 Big Chap. Because it’s birthed from a quadruped, it’s back logs are structured like a dogs’ with the extra joint below the knee and the ankle up off the ground. The other given name for this guy is The Runner, and it’s easy to see why. It also makes him extra terrifying to me, not to mention he has a spear tip on the end of his tail. As usual, NECA packed all the lovely Geiger-esque bits into the sculpt, including the creepy mix of exposed sinews and and bone-like structures. The glossy brown wash brings it all out with striking clarity. If you want an example of a work of art expressed as a $20 action figure… here it is!

Another of my favorite things about this Xeno’s design is the structure of the head. It features the smooth, transparent dome that’s reminiscent of the original Xeno design with a segmented skull visible within. The jaw on this guy is articulated and you can open it up and pull out the secondary mouth.

The articulation is very much in line with what I’ve experienced with NECA’s other Xenos. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, wrists, with dual rotating hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and include double hinges in the knees, and hinges in the secondary knees, and in the ankles. There’s a ball joint in the chest and another in the neck. The tail swivels at the base and is made of bendy material that can take and hold a pose. Overall, my only real nitpick here is that the head does not go far enough back to get him looking forward when he’s running on all fours. But based on the sculpt, it looks like that would have been pretty tough to do.

The Xeno does come with one accessory and that’s this nifty stand to help keep him upright. I was actually pretty surprised at how many poses I could get him into without needing to rely on the stand, although as is the case with most of these Xenos, the leg joints can have difficulty sustaining the weight of the figure in the long term. When I do get a shelf cleared for my NECA Alien figures, I’ll definitely be making use of this one. His feet are also supplied with peg holes, so you can use the regular NECA stands with him as well.

It’s hard to pick a favorite Wave when talking about this line, because quite frankly NECA slams them all right out of the park, but this one ranks pretty high for me. It’s not just because I’m a fan of the film, but because it’s such a wildly unpopular film that it’s surprising NECA risked making these figures at all. Although, it does seem to be performing fairly well at retail. While Ripley is readily available at a number of e-tailers for deep discounts, the Commando seems to be in high demand, particularly among troop builders, and the Xeno (which are admittedly always popular with collectors) can be really tough to find at a decent price. NECA has teased on Twitter that there’s more Alien 3 goodness to come, and I’m rather intrigued to see what that means.

Jan 4 2017

Transformers Titans Return: Blowpipe and Triggerhappy by Hasbro

It’s the first Transformers Thursday of the new year and… oh, shit. That’s right, it’s Wednesday. This new schedule is going to take some time to get used to. Either way, it’s time to check out the last of the Wave 3 Deluxes from Titans Return and it is indeed the wonderfully named, Triggerhappy!

I’m in uncharted waters here, because I have had next to no dealings with the G1 incarnation of this character. Never owned the toy. Never encountered the character in any of the fiction. I only know that he was a Decepticon Targetmaster that turned into a spaceship, and his Targetmaster was Blowpipe. This should be refreshing! Let’s start with his alt mode…

If I were to express sexual desire in the form of a high-powered Decepticon attack craft, surely this would be it. Indeed, this sexy ship looks like it would be right at home in any number of top-down arcade shooters and that’s a big part of why I love it so very much. With an ultra-aggressive profile and bristling with laser cannons, Triggerhappy is so very aptly named, and I’ll bet his alt mode makes all the other ‘Cons rage with jealousy. The ship design is finished off with detachable guns under the forward-angled wings and a single folding landing gear under the cockpit. Simply magnificent!

The coloring here is pretty good as well. You get a two-tone deco of pale gray and royal blue plastics, along with some lovely gold and silver paint apps on some of the vents and panels. The wings are striped and have Decepticon emblems in the traditional purple and silver, and there’s an additional emblem, in white, stamped right behind the cockpit.

Blowpipe is a pretty typical little Titan Master. There’s no paint, but at least he’s composed of the same blue and gray plastics as Triggerhappy, giving him a little variety in color. The cockpit’s canopy hinges open in the middle giving the little guy a place to sit.

Triggerhappy’s transformation is both very easy and pretty clever. Basically, the nose of the ship and the back of the ship rotate to switch positions, allowing the cockpit to split apart, which makes the final robot mode look like the transformation should be a lot more complicated than it is. Truth is, you can convert this guy back and forth very quickly, and that’s always a big plus for me when playing with my change-o-bots. But, can Triggerhappy’s robot mode possibly rival such an amazing alt mode?

Yes it can… and it does! As mentioned above, the cockpit splits so he’s wearing part of it on his lower torso with the nosecone packed onto his back. The torso and legs are amazingly clean and well proportioned, and even the wings on his lower legs look more like a style choice than actual kibble. In fact, the only real kibble here are the back swept wings on the shoulders and the dual cannons that are folded up on each arm, but I’m OK with that, because those cannons have a purpose in that they can be folded down to give Triggerhappy some insane arm rifles.

They can be made even crazier if you plug the rifles into them. It’s not my personal favorite way to display him, but options like this are always fun to have.

Triggerhappy looks pretty solid from the back too. Yeah, he’s got those hollow lower legs. Some of the Titans Return figures have been good about closing them up, others don’t seem to care. The nosecone from the spaceship mode isn’t terribly bulky and it stays put nicely when posing and playing with the figure, and those extra long heel spurs help keep this fellow standing upright. Even those wings that hang off his shoulders are kind of stylish and they don’t get in the way of his arms too badly.

The toy’s deco doesn’t really change much in robot mode. You still get a pleasing balance between the blue and gray plastics, with the same silver and gold paintwork showing. I think the gold thrusters on the shoulders look great and I really dig the way the white Decepticon emblem lands right in the middle of his chest. And I have to say, I absolutely love the head sculpt on this guy. There’s certainly an unusual Optimus Prime resemblance in there, which comes from the combination of the “helmet” and the face plate. The yellow paint on the eyes and red face plate both look great.

Naturally, the guns that un-peg from under the spacecraft’s wings can be wielded as rifles. If I’m nitpicking, I wish these were cast in the blue plastic to offer a little more variety to the coloring. They can be pegged together to form a large double-barrel cannon that Blowpipe can operate, but there’s really nowhere to use it with Triggerhappy. Or at least not one that I’ve found.

This third Wave of Titans Return Deluxes may have been skewed in the Autobots favor by three to one, but that’s OK, because there’s no doubt in my mind that Triggerhappy is the strongest figure in this assortment. Keep in mind, I absolutely adored both Hot Rod and Twinferno, so to give this guy the nod as my favorite… well, that’s saying a lot. It’s hard to think of many Transformers that feature such strong robot and vehicle modes and are this fun to play with. And that catches me up on the Titans Return Deluxe figures. When I revisit this line in a week or so, it’ll be to check out the big daddy of the series… Fortress Maximus!

Jan 2 2017

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Nico Minoru by Hasbro!

While there are changes coming to FFZ this year, Marvel Mondays will not be one of them. I now have two complete Waves waiting to be featured, unfinished business with a third, and yet another that I haven’t even started buying yet. And with that, let’s continue through the Doctor Strange Wave and kick off the New Year with a certain little Witchy Woman… Nico Minoru!

Nico is the other half of the “Mystic Rivals” slot, sharing it with The Enchantress, so her name doesn’t actually appear on the front. It’s a pretty ballsy move on Hasbro’s part, because let’s face it, Nico probably isn’t a household Marvel name. I’m sorry to say that I’m not a big fan of the current run of The Runaways. She has, however, appeared in a number of other event books, but I remember her most fondly as Sister Grimm in the Mystic Arcana mini-series. She certainly fits this wave quite well, as she’s not only part of Marvel’s mystical side, but was one of the runners up to possibly become Sorcerer Supreme before the job fell to Brother Voodoo.

Looking every bit the *ahem* runaway from Father Flanagan’s Home for Unwanted Goth Kids, Nico presents as one of the most unique looking figures to come out of the modern run of Marvel Legends, and I absolutely love that! With her black dress, chunky belted boots, black and purple striped tights, and long black gloves, she looks like she’d be more at home in the pages of a Zenescope book than a traditional Marvel comic. The sculpting on this figure is all new and it’s great that Hasbro is willing to invest this kind of tooling on someone like Nico.

The outfit features some nice little details, like the painted lace on her sleeve and the sculpted fringe at the hem of her dress. Her corset-like top has all the stitching sculpted in and the rows of buckles on each of her boots are individually painted silver.

While the costume is great, I think it’s the portrait that really makes this figure shine. It’s a beautiful face sculpt with some very sharp paint for her lips and eyes. And, oh, those eyes! Her red pupils and heavy mascara are totally Goth Chic! The hair is also particularly well sculpted.

The articulation here is pretty spot on, despite being a rather unconventional new buck. The arms have 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 as well as at the tops of the boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint just below the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. Even the dress isn’t too restrictive on the hip articulation.

Despite including the rather beefy lower half of Dormammu’s torso, Nico also comes with some pretty cool accessories. First off, you get an interchangeable left arm, which is the same sculpt, but this time partially cast in purple translucent plastic as a spell effect. You just pop out the stock arm at the shoulder joint and pop this one in.

Nico also comes with the Staff of One, which has a removable effect part cast in the same purple plastic as the extra arm. The staff is a very simple sculpt and cast in gold plastic. It’s also, unfortunately, a little bendy and it can be a little tough to get her to hold it once the effect part is wrapped around it. Still, a cool accessory, nonetheless. I really dig that they made the effect part optional.

Nico may just end up being the breakaway figure of this wave for me, despite having only limited exposure to the character. I love everything about this figure and it both surprises and delights me to see Hasbro willing to invest so much in what is very likely to be a one-off buck. I just can’t see any of this going to another character. In a line that is often content (and usually justifiably so) to get by with just repaints of basic bucks, Nico is a stand out release and a real treat in this wave!

Jan 1 2017

Happy New Year!!! Less Content in 2017!?!

Yes, 2017 is upon us and I’m going into the new year with a plan to scale back a little so I can engage in some other pursuits. The plan is to cut back to three Features a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The challenge to myself will be sticking to that and not falling back into a Monday through Saturday thing again. And believe me, it’s not going to be easy because I really love keeping this blog, I love writing about toys, and I worry about getting backlogged. I basically want to try this, at least for the first quarter of the year, and see how it goes.

The new structure will keep Marvel Mondays, because if I don’t I’ll never get through the stacks and stacks of Marvel Legends figures I have waiting to be opened. Wednesdays will rotate between Transformers and whatever else and Fridays will rotate between DC Fridays and whatever else. Anime Saturdays will continue, but probably only a couple times a month.

By not committing myself to the insane schedule of six days of content each week, I hope to spend some of that newly found time reading my backlog of comics, playing my backlog of video games, and just trying to be a smidgen less obsessed about writing about toys all the time. Ugh, it hurt just typing that. It’s like a parent saying “I’m going to try to spend less time with my kid next year.” If I see myself falling too far behind, I’ll likely supplement with some extra Features, but I’m going to try my damnedest to stick to this.

With that being said, I’m looking forward to a whole new year of chronicling the horrific depravity of my plastic addiction and I’ll be kicking it off tomorrow with the first Marvel Monday of 2017!

Dec 30 2016

My Ups and Downs of Toy Collecting in 2016

So, I’m mixing things up this year and casting off my week of traditional week long Top Ten lists for something a bit more laid back, before taking the weekend off. The lights are dimmed, my trusty cat is cleaning his asshole on the side of my desk, and I’ve poured myself a nice tall Jameson. It’s a little taller than the last one, but not as tall as the first one. It’s probably about the size of the three or four I had in the middle. So let’s do this thing, and take a whimsical romp through my Ups and Downs of Toy Collecting in 2016…

Kickstarters!

Up: Mythic Legions! Nobody should be surprised to see this Kickstarted line appear so prominently on my list. If you’ve spent any time this year reading my deranged ramblings about toys here, than you already know that I’m absolutely smitten with this line and that it has been, without a doubt, the highlight of my year. It was a brand new toy-line, it wasn’t tied to any existing media or franchise, and I spent a shit ton of money on it. Although technically a good deal of that money was spent in 2015. These figures are like magic to me and I’m still in awe of my display whenever I pass by it. I’ve got more figures coming soon and I’ll be going deep into Wave 2.0 Kickstarter… DEEP!!!

Down: The rest of the Kickstarters. I didn’t have the funds to go in on Dime Novel Legends, because… Fiscal Responsibility! I am, however, hoping those figures will be available to buy at some point down the road, because I really want to get some of those when my belt isn’t pulled quite so tight. I was also hoping for the folks at Warpo to come out of hiding and reveal a new line this year, but sadly it didn’t happen. Vitruvian HACKS finally shipped this year, and while they were incredibly solid figures, the fact that I still have a lot of those left over to look at in 2017, shows just how overshadowed they were by Mythic Legions.

Transformers!

Up: Combiner Wars and Titans Return have been a treat since day one, and I’m hoping that Titans Return continues strong through next year. Sure, Combiner Wars started feeling rather played at the end with a lot of mold recycling, but we still got some amazing combiners and some pretty damn cool Leader Class figures. As for Titans Return, the Deluxes have been the high point of these lines for me, but then I still have quite a few of the bigger figures from Titans Return to pick up… not to mention Fort Max himself! I went into 2016 thinking that it wasn’t going to be a big year for me and Transformers, and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Down: Third Party Transformers… Now don’t get me wrong, those third-parties are still churning out some fantastic stuff, but 2016 is the first year in a little while that I didn’t buy any Third Party figures. In fact, the last third-party product I purchased was back in the middle of 2015. I’m still planning on finishing Fansproject’s Lost Exo-Realm series, but after that I don’t see myself going back to that well again. I don’t regret any of the purchases of elicit convertobots that I’ve made in past years, but getting that monkey off my back will be a relief to my wallet.

Down: Masterpiece Transformers… Again, I’m not slagging on Takara’s amazing MP line, but the fact is that I only picked up two MP figures in 2016 (Tracks and Ironhide) and both were in the first quarter of the year. Still, next year should see more activity on this front. I still hope to get Ratchet at some point, Megatron is pre-ordered, and Inferno is going to be coming home to me soon.

Hasbro 6-inch!

Up: Marvel Legends… Back when Hasbro rebooted this line in 2011, I never could have guessed that it would become the (dare I say it?) Juggernaut that it’s become today. Legends is at the point now where it has surpassed the 3 3/4-inch Marvel line as a Universe building series and we continue to get a great mix of B-listers and C-listers tossed into the mix. Not all the figures have been exceptional, but very few have been truly bad. The fact that it was a struggle to keep up with this line throughout 2016 was a nice problem to have, and I hope Hasbro can keep it going strong in 2017.

Down: Star Wars Black… The 6-inch Black line continues to sputter between solid and disappointing releases. Very rarely are these figures terrible, but even some of the better ones are a far cry from what my expectations were after the initial wave. I keep asking myself are these really any better than what we got (or could get) in the 3 3/4-inch scale and the answer is invariably no. On the other hand, they aren’t flooding the pegs like Marvel Legends is, so I keep collecting these without breaking the bank.

Matty and Matty!

Up: 2016 was Matty Collector’s last year of operation and while some may hate to give them credit, I’ll concede that they accomplished just about everything they set out to do. We got all the vintage figures as Classics updates, plus a bunch of Filmation style figures and other characters no one ever thought possible. Not to mention vehicles and playsets and mounts. I look at my beautiful collection of Masters Classics and I can’t help but smile and say, good on you, Matty. And thanks for all the great figures.

Down: Of course, there was a lot of typical Matty bullshit in 2016 as well. ThunderCats Classics was cancelled leaving us yet again with just bits and pieces of an incomplete line. By the time most of us had purchased the ThunderCats SDCC Exclusive, news trickled in that the line was dead. QC didn’t seem to be nearly as tight on some of the MOTUC figures as the line neared its finale. Plus, there were horrible delays on most of the figures towards the end. In fact, I have a huge box of figures from the last two months that were all dumped on my doorstep last week because of delays in shipping. One might think that Matty was hoping fans would see them off with tear-filled eyes, and yet they did their best to fill us with rage and contempt. The legacy of Matty Collector will certainly go down as a bitter-sweet one.

And The Rest…

Up: NECA… If it weren’t for The Four Horsemen’s Mythic Legions, NECA would have won the year for me. From their excellent Aliens and Predators figures, to Rocky and their new Heroes of the Storm line, NECA knows how to get to my wallet. Not to mention the incredible Ultimate Series of releases, which never fails to live up to its name. These guys are true craftsmen at their trade and I’m looking forward to throwing a lot more money at them in 2017 just to get caught up. The only downside to NECA is that they’re usually impossible to find in my area, so I have to hunt them online and usually wind up paying a premium… but hey, they’re worth it!

Up: Hot Toys… It’s always a good year for Hot Toys, but in my case 2016 started with a lot of additions to my collection and gradually petered out during the final half of the year. I finally completed my “one of each” of The Avengers and dabbled a little in The Force Awakens, including two figures that I have yet to review. I’m suspecting that 2017 will be somewhat light for my Hot Toys purchases. With most of my Marvel Universe covered, so far I’m only committed to picking up Drax and Doctor Strange. And hopefully Poe will finally get his due.

Up: DC Icons… I swore I wouldn’t get into this line when it was first revealed. I didn’t want to start the whole DC Universe again in a slightly smaller scale. But in the end, I buckled. I caved. I gave in. And I’m glad I did. These figures have been excellent from the very first release, and judging by next year’s solicitations, DC Icons has every chance to take up the mantle that DC Universe Classics left behind. So long as DC Collectibles keeps up with their own release schedule, you can expect to see a whole lot of this line featured on FFZ in the new year.

Down: Doctor Who… Let’s face it, being a Doctor Who fan in 2016 sucked. There was no TV series and the action figures have all but dried up. I looked at only two offerings from Character Options this past year, and both of those were in the beginning of the year, leaving me with just the 12th Doctor Sixth-Scale figure from Big Chief later on. Part of me was really hoping that Character Option would have a few surprises for the 5-inch line throughout the year, but even the crappy 3 3/4-inch figures seem to be drying up.

Up: Prize Figures… The beginning of the year was a strong one for my Kotobukiya Bishoujo habit, but the releases got fewer and farther between as the year went on and I needed to find another solution to get my fix on little plastic anime gals. As a result, 2016 was the year I started collecting Prize figures, mostly from Taito and SEGA, with a few from Bandai and Furyu thrown in. It became such a prolific new area of collecting for me that I had to create the Anime Saturday features just to cover all my new acquisitions.

And that’s it for me for the year, Toyhounds. I’ll be back on the first with a brief announcement about next year.

Until then, have a safe and happy New Year.

Thanks for reading and keep collecting!

Dec 29 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Throttle and Breakaway by Hasbro

I’ve got time to get in just one more Transformers Thursday before 2016 wraps up and it just so happens I’m right in the middle of my look at Wave 3 of the Titans Return Deluxes. I’ve already checked out Hot Rod and Twinferno, now it’s time to look at the one that I was really looking forward to. The figure that I knew was going to be amazing before I got him in hand. That’s right, it’s… Breakaway? Really? This guy? Nah, of course not. I’m being roboto-sarcastic. This figure is the quick-and-dirty repaint that Hasbro snuck in to help cost out the wave.

If you haven’t guessed by the packaged shot, Breakaway is a straight repaint of Chromedome. He’s also an homage to the G1 Powermaster, Getaway, and the Titan Master, Throttle, is an homage to Getaway’s little engine buddy, Rev. Hey, if Hasbro’s going to give us a repaint, at least they did it trying to deliver us another updated G1 toy. Let’s start with his alt mode.

Yup, it’s a white Chromedome. The car design is definitely not a close match for G1 Getaway, unless you’re grading it on the most abstract of scales and count it having four wheels and, well… also being a car. With that having been said, Hasbro tried to match the deco is best they could. You get the red and blue stripes on the sides of the hood and again on the blue panels in front of the rear wheel wells. The red tinted windows and yellow stripe above the windshield is a nice touch too.

On the downside, it loses points for not having a spoiler, especially when you consider one could have been added by a relatively simple remold. I also think that the front grill and headlights are desperately in need of some more paintwork. It’s honestly not a bad looking car, but if I didn’t already know it, I’d be hard pressed to identify this guy as an update to Getaway.

Throttle is a simple enough little bot. As expected, there’s no paint on him, but I will give him credit for not being all one color. In this case, his body is white and his arms, legs, and head are blue. I think it’s odd that they didn’t try to color match Rev, but matching the colors between Titan Master and robot seems to be the order of the day here. As you probably guessed, Throttle does not turn into an engine, but he can sit in the driver compartment of the car and the fact that he’s got a lot of blue in him means that he doesn’t blend in with the same colored plastic interior like a lot of these little guys do.

Breakaway comes with the exact same weapons as Chromedome, this time cast in blue plastic. The toy allows for several different ways to attach the weapons to the car, one of which provides a gunning station on the roof.

Obviously, Breakaway transforms exactly the same as Chromedome and here’s where this toy starts to lose me a little. It feels a bit too much like a throwback to the engineering we saw on some of the Combiner Wars Stunticons. Sure, I loved those toys, but this is a new line with a new direction and after getting so many repaints and remolds of those figures, I’m not crazy about seeing it reproduced here again so soon. And yes, these are all issues I had with Chromedome too. Still, if you can get past the deja vous, the robot mode isn’t bad at all. He looks particularly good from the back because everything packs away very cleanly.

The new deco does its best to differentiate Breakaway from Chromedome. You get paint apps that serve to accentuate this and diminish that. I will say that I was surprised by how good the white plastic looks and feels. I was expecting it to be the cheap stuff Hasbro sometimes uses, but it’s quite good, as is the quality of all the paint applications. The deco, however, doesn’t do that great a job of matching Getaway. The arms aren’t blue, and you don’t have the red on the lower legs. Obviously, the chest is not made up of the roof of the car either, but the deco does feature some red and yellow paint to make it look like a heavily morphed version of the windshield.

The head is a decent enough sculpt, but thanks to the “gray” helmet, the colors don’t match Getaway like they should. Also, while I’m used to seeing mouth plates, Breakaway is really just lacking a face altogether. He’s just got eyes and a big blank under them. It’s kind of creepy.

We already saw that the weapons are the same as Chromedomes. That’s a good thing, because I really like this gun mold.

Cards on the table: If it weren’t for the fact that I bought the whole wave in one go, I wouldn’t have bothered picking up Breakaway at all. Now that I have him, I have to admit that I like him a whole lot more than I thought I would. He will not be going into the dreaded Tote of Unwanted Repaints and instead, I have him displayed with the rest of my Titans Return figures and looking pretty sharp. Yes, the homage to Getaway is quite a stretch, but then Getaway was a figure that I didn’t even remember existed until I consulted some photos of him for this review. Besides, now Rewind can have that Menage-a-Trois he always dreamed about… and film it too!

Dec 28 2016

Mythic Legions: Skeleton Legion Builder by The Four Horsemen

Well, looky here, I’ve managed to sneak one last Mythic Legions Feature in before the end of the year! Today’s figure comes from the small selection of Wave 1.0 figures that T4H put up for pre-order back in November. Finally, I was able to get myself a Skeleton Legion Builder. Not picking him up on the first go around was a major regret and I was lucky to get a second crack at him without having to go to Ebay where these figures are selling for a king’s ransom.

We’ve seen this packaging plenty of times, but it’s been a little while, so here’s another look at it. I can’t stress enough how difficult it was to choose just seventeen figures for my original Backer Reward. I stretched my budget to the max to get as many as I got and I regretted every one I had to leave behind. With that having been said, it’s somewhat ironic that this much coveted Legion Builder is really just a more basic repaint of Tibius. And since I already reviewed that figure earlier this year, I can be a bit brief when checking this guy out.

Here he is, and he’s a great example of how even the “budget” figures in this line still look amazing. The Legion Builders are designed to be troop builders or custom fodder and the fact that they have less detailed paint allowed them to be priced significantly less than the regular figures. And it’s exactly that less-premium paint job that I love about this guy. He’s wearing old, grungy armor, making him look like a fallen warrior that’s been rotting in a tomb, or perhaps the bottom of a bog, for centuries before once again rising to the call of battle.

Even without that extra paint, the detail in the armor here still impresses. This guy does come with the shoulder armor and I’ve included one snap of him wearing them, but I do believe I’m going to display this guy most of the time without them. I really dig those segmented armor plates over his biceps and I’d rather not cover him up. I also like that he looks a little frailer and more skeletal without them. Besides, I prefer saving the “good” armor for the named characters and let the rank-and-files go into the fray with lighter armor.

Like the armor, we’ve seen this skull before and it never ceases to amaze me. In this case, it isn’t just the sculpt, but the fantastic paint wash that makes it look like it’s been in the ground. This is one of the most authentically aged skulls I’ve ever seen on an action figure and it’s not lost on me that it all comes down to the paint… on a figure with what is supposed to be a “budget” paint job.

In addition to the shoulder armor, Skeleton Legion Builder comes with a satisfying collection of weapons, which by now should all be very familiar. For starters, he has the long sword with the fantasy-type crossguard and skull-crusher pommel and a dagger painted to match. Both have black grips and bright silver paint for the metal bits. Yes, I would have enjoyed getting some weathering on these, but it’s hard to deny that those gleaming blades are pretty.

Finally, you get the standard Mythic Legions battle axe, painted black and silver to match the other weapons. And, as always, you can switch it between a single bladed weapon, or a double.

I can’t deny that Tibius is the more impressive figure, what with the paint detail on his armor, ragged cape, and excellent weathering. But I didn’t feel like my Skeleton forces were complete without at least one grunt and this guy fits the bill. This is exactly the kind of fella I used to doodle on my Trapper Keeper while daydreaming in class. He’s such an iconic design and he would look right at home, whether battling my other Mythic Legions figures or shambling through the halls of an AD&D Dungeon. I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to get the time to do my usual End of the Year lists, but just in case I don’t, it’s safe to say that Mythic Legions was the highest point for my action figure collection in 2016.

Dec 27 2016

ThunderCats Classics: Pumyra by Mattel

Cheetara is dead! She was killed alongside Tygra when the two ‘Cats stole a Sky Cutter to escape Mutant custody and it was shot down causing them to burn to death in the wreckage. You could smell the burning cat hair all the way to the Berbil Village. The humanity! But after a long period of mourning, Pymyra stepped up to take Cheetara’s place. This is the sort of sick and twisted canon I have to come up with in my head to justify why certain characters are missing from my ThunderCats team, because Matty screwed us all over. So let’s check out Pumyra, also known as NOT-EFFING-CHEETARA!

The packaging comes in a black mailer box with some minimalist artwork, serving as only a teaser of what lies within. I’ve said my piece about this packaging, but it stands repeating. It’s gorgeous, it’s collector friendly, it feels premium, and it sickens me that I won’t have dozens of these lined up on my shelf. In fact my only gripe here is that the character art on the back is pretty bad. Pumyra looks less like a ThunderCat and more like something Buffy would poke with a wooden stake.

Fortunately, the figure fares somewhat better than the box art. Overall, she’s a pretty solid recreation of her counterpart on the Classic cartoon. Her outfit consists of that same slinky brown dress with the sides cut out. It’s funny how I distinctly remember that seeming really risque for a kid’s cartoon back then, meanwhile Cheetara’s cat-boobs were practically busting out all the time. The dress is sculpted directly onto the buck, instead of layered onto it. This feels a little cheaper than what Mattel often did with the female MOTUC characters, but in the end it looks fine. They did a particularly nice job with the ThunderCat emblem on her chest. She also has a sculpted pouch on the right side of her skirt and a belt that can be removed by un-tabbing it where the tails hang down. Also, I’m pretty sure the belt is supposed to also be her weapon, buy I’ll come back to that. The ensemble is rounded out by a pair of boots and a ribbed shoulder pad… ribbed for her pleasure… and protection… of her shoulder.

The portrait here is where my admiration for this figure begins to waver. There’s something about it, and it’s hard to put my finger on exactly what that is. I think it’s the shape of her face. It’s possibly too elongated and the contours are exaggerated. I’m not sure, but something feels off. I do, however, like the way they painted her eyes. It’s very distinctive and the paintwork is pretty clean. Also distinctive is Pumyra’s coif, which is pretty well sculpted, albeit with the white paint application being rather heavy handed. I’m not prepared to write this portrait off as a total miss, but to me it’s just not nearly as good as the Lion-O or Jackalman.

The articulation here doesn’t hold any surprises. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips with swivels set right up at the hip joint. The knees are hinged, and the ankles feature both hinges and rockers. She has a swivel in the waist and her neck is ball jointed. As usual, the skirt impedes the range of motion in the hips.

For accessories, Pumyra comes with her projectile-tossing whipcord, which again… I think it’s supposed to be her belt. In any event, I’m going with that and removing the belt when I display her with the whipcord readied. This is a pretty cool weapon with some sculpted and painted projectiles in loaded up and ready to launch.

She also comes with a throwing star, which is a pretty basic piece and not terribly remarkable. To handle these weapons, Pumyra comes with a total of four hands, one pair of which is designed to hold the weapons in either hand. She also has a right fist and a left hand with her fingers reaching out.

And then you get this thing. It’s like a big amulet on a stand or a wand of some kind. Seriously, what is it? I have no idea. I have a feeling it’s there to mock me for not knowing my Season 2 ThunderCats stories better. And yet, I know many of the First Season stories by heart. Go figure…

Pumyra is the first figure in this line that I feel isn’t a home run. She’s not fantastic, she’s not terrible, she’s a solid OK. And I swear to Jaga that I’m not just saying that because she isn’t Cheetara. Not to be a devil’s advocate, but it made sense from a business standpoint for Matty to not give up all the core ‘Cats in the first sub, but once the whole thing collapsed after just the one year, it backfired on us fans when we have Pumyra and not Cheetara in our collections. Do I sound bitter? Good, because I still am.

Dec 26 2016

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): “Masters of Magic” Doctor Strange and Brother Voodoo by Hasbro

So, I’ve decided to go with new content this week, rather then put the blog on autopilot with insufferable lists and hide under a blanket from the encroaching new year. This Friday I will likely be churning out some kind of retrospective and then embrace the New Year weekend from inside of a bottle. Either way, this is still the last Marvel Monday of 2016, and holy hell, even after 52 Marvel Mondays, I’m still falling behind on featuring my Marvel Legends, so let’s double up today with two figures.

Pressing forward through the Doctor Strange Wave, today I’m checking out both of the figures released under the “Masters of Magic” Slot: The comic version of Doctor Strange and Brother Voodoo. I’ll go with Doctor Strange first, because I don’t have a lot to say about this guy.

And that’s because he’s very nearly just a repack of the Doctor Strange we got in the Hulkbuster Wave and I can just refer you back to my earlier review of that release for most of the details. The key difference is that here, Strange has been reunited with the Amulet of Agamotto and the Cloak of Levitation. As for the base figure, the only variation is in his gauntets. The previous release had them sculpting as part of his forearms, while here they’re just painted. It’s a strange (Haha!) change to make. Why would you go through the trouble of taking away sculpting in favor of paint? I think the other version’s gauntlets looked better. But it’s a moot point, because you can easily just swap the Cloak onto the previous release. It’s also worth noting that the red paint on this new figure is a little brighter.

As for the Cloak… it’s a nice piece of work. The high collar looks great, as does the gold painted border with the sculpted scollwork running through it. On the downside, it does make the figure very back-heavy and difficult to stand.

You get the same pair of magical effect parts that were included with the last release, only this time they’re molded in orange plastic instead of green. So, let’s move on to the figure here that I was really looking forward to…

I first met Brother Voodoo as a result of my favorite past-time as an early teen: Bicycling downtown to the used book shop and rifling through their stacks of used comics in a dark corner under the stairs to the second floor. Strange Tales was a title I always bought when I could find it, even if they were practically falling apart. And while I never had a complete run of Brother Voodoo’s stint in the book, but I enjoyed the two issues I did have. Naturally, he’s gone on to feature prominently in some heavy-hitting story-lines and needless to say, I was very happy to see him turn up in this wave. And wow, did they do a nice job on him.

Hailing from the pages of The New Avengers, Voodoo features a basic black buck with the white skeletal motif painted onto it. All the other aspects of the costume are derived from additional pieces. You get the gold wrist bracers, the long green belt with skulls hanging off the back, and the ragged red cape that hangs around his neck. I’ll concede that this is not my favorite look for the character, but I still like it a lot. The costume looks absolutely fantastic and is a fine example of how easy it is to build a great looking figure off a standard buck and some additional parts.

The portrait here is also superb. I love the grim countenance they gave him and his features are well defined.

Brother Voodoo includes a pretty cool staff, which I do remember him having in The New Avengers, although not quite looking exactly like this. Either way, I can’t remember if it has a name or specific purpose. I like the transition from painted wood to translucent blue plastic.

And yes, it is possible to convert Voodoo into The Sorcerer Supreme by giving him the Amulet and the Cloak from Strange. Alas, Voodoo’s hair is a bit at odds with the high collar making it a tight fit, but it certainly works.

I’m tempted to complain about the fact that despite sharing a slot, you still need both of these figures to complete the Dormammu BAF. But then, I probably would have picked up this version of Doctor Strange anyway. It’s just a shame that Hasbro couldn’t have given us this more complete version first, because now that initial release is pretty much superfluous. Either way, taken on their own, these are both great figures and solid entries into this wave.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Karl Mordo by Hasbro

Alien 3: Ellen Ripley and Dog Alien by NECA

Transformers Titans Return: Blowpipe and Triggerhappy by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): Nico Minoru by Hasbro!

Happy New Year!!! Less Content in 2017!?!

My Ups and Downs of Toy Collecting in 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Throttle and Breakaway by Hasbro

Mythic Legions: Skeleton Legion Builder by The Four Horsemen

ThunderCats Classics: Pumyra by Mattel

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): “Masters of Magic” Doctor Strange and Brother Voodoo by Hasbro

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