Dec 25 2016

Masters of the Universe Classics: Castle Grayskull by Mattel, Part 2

Merry Christmas, everyone! I’m spending this morning on the living room floor, under the tree, in my footie pajamas with a cup of cocoa! Not really. I don’t have a Christmas tree, I’m actually wearing sweatpants and an old T-shirt from a Journey concert, and I’m having an Irish Coffee with extra Jameson to infuse myself with good cheer for the day ahead. But, I might as well be a kid again, because it’s Christmas morning and I’m opening up one of the coolest playsets ever. OK, technically I opened the box a few days ago and checked out the exterior yesterday, but Christmas Eve is all about peaking, right? And today’s the day I get to open up Castle Grayskull and really start playing with it.

When you first open this sucker up, you’re met with a massive interior and a lot of parts. Parts in bags, parts in cardboard, parts in other bags stuffed in cardboard. There’s a lot here to process, and a giant sheet of instructions to tell you where everything goes and how everything works. The first thing to do is put the three floor pieces down, which locks the playset in this open position and gives you a place for figures to stand, and maybe even a place to park a vehicle, but I’ll come back to that later. There’s so many things to look at here, I’m just going to start on the ground floor and work my way up. But first…

These are pieces that I’m not using. One is a decorative point for the top of the castle and the other is a carry handle, just like the original playset had. I like these, but word is once you put them on, they can be really hard to get off again and I don’t want to risk breaking anything trying to take them off. Why would I want to take them off again? Because Grayskull won’t fit back in the box with these in place and I want to hang onto that option at least until I can find some place to actually display this thing. That may be never, so for now these pieces are being set aside. Now, back to the ground floor…

Naturally, you have the inside of the jawbridge, which can be opened by sticking a sword in a slot and triggering the mechanism. Next to it, there are a couple of places where you can clip shields to hang them on the wall. The set even comes with one to get you started. There’s another, similar set up on the other wall. This one has a sword behind it. The shields look really good on the wall, but if you’ve had them clipped onto your figures’ wrists for a while, it may stretch them out too much for them to stay put here. Also, to the right here you can see that backdoor we saw yesterday from the outside. It’s sculpted to look like it’s reinforced on the inside with a plate of steel.

Also down here is this horrible little dungeon with a sticker showing more horrible things locked away under it. For a bunch of good guys, the Masters don’t seem to be very humane to their prisoners. Sure, you can argue that they’re all monsters down there. But let’s face it, this is Eternia, and that sticker might as well be a picture of any Eternian’s family album. The cell door opens and closes and you also get some chains for the prisoners. One of these sets of chains is designed to peg into somewhere… anyone happen to know where that might be, cause I sure don’t!

Also down here is this nifty training device. I love the sculpted detail on this thing, especially the ornamental head and the giant hand that’s designed to smack you when you’re trying to hit it. Also check out some of those hack marks in the wood. This is such a beautiful piece!

You also get a handful of weapons, including an axe, a mace, and two laser pistols. Now would be a good time to dig out that weapons rack, because it looks fantastic in the corner, and you shouldn’t just leave weapons lying around.

You can climb to the second floor via the ladder or just take the elevator. The lift features pegs for a figures’ feet and it holds strong enough to carry the weight of a figure without sliding back down. At least for now. The second level features more of those lovely sculpted floors.

A little further on is this spiffy computer bank with a scanner screen. One of my favorite things about MOTU has always been the melding of fantasy and science fiction, so there’s just something about seeing high tech stuff like this in a medieval style castle really does it for me.

Speaking of which, the next point of interest on our tour is this crazy space armor. It’s a static piece that just pegs into the floor and makes for quite the conversation piece. It’s also positioned next to another hi-tech computer bank. Or that might be Grayskull’s central AC unit. Moving on…

Behold… The Throne of Grayskull. This is a regal chair, indeed. I love the gold paint used on it and the two blue orbs. The starburst on the back looks great too. There’s a lot going on in this picture, so let me break it all down. First off, that sword on the wall up there is removable and you can replace it with most other swords. There are two battle standards that hang down on either side of the throne, and if you look to the right you can see the secret door that leads out to the ledge on the exterior. That’s clearly the “Oh, shit!” door, used to bugger off when the rest of Grayskull’s defenses fail. Oh, yeah… and speaking of defenses, you see that horribly garish rug beside the throne?

Turn the throne and it activates the trap door. I used Tri-Klops to demonstrate, but only now am I realizing that I should have put Trap Jaw down the Trap Door. It would have been poetic. Anyway, I love this thing! It’s very design counts on your enemy besting all your defenses, finding his way into an impenetrable fortress, fighting his way through all your Men-At-Arms, confronting you as you sit on the throne, and then standing there and monologueing like an idiot for long enough for you to activate the trap. How unlikely is that to work? Oh, wait, we’re talking about Skeletor here. Never mind, it’ll work. Unfortunately, when it does work all it does is drop him down a floor and makes him ride the elevator back up again. That’s probably what the “Oh, shit!” door is for.

The rooftop level is accessible by the elevator. Here you can admire the flag or open up that little door to reveal whatever the hell this thing is. Seriously, what is it? Anyone know? The instructions are failing me on this one.

Finally, our last stop on the tour is a mounted laser gun for fending off attacks from Snake Mountain. And if all that isn’t cool enough, back on the ground floor, there’s room to park the Wind Raider!

Well, sort of. The circular slot is designed to take the Wind Raider’s stand. And while this beautiful craft does technically fit, it’s a tight squeeze and it eats up a lot of real estate. It also kind of looks like a big albatross and probably cooks anyone locked in the dungeon when it takes off. To be honest, I’d probably be more likely to park it a little further out and off the floor pieces.

The Sky Sled, on the other hand, is compatible with the same stand and it fits a lot better. hell, even if you want to do away with the stand, there’s plenty of room to tuck this vehicle in here without compromising all your play room. And speaking of playing… this set really starts to shine when you load it up with figures.

In case you haven’t guessed by now, I am absolutely in love with Castle Grayskull. In fact, I love it so much that I almost feel bad that I waited until it was on clearance to buy it. Grayskull originally debuted at $300, which in itself is a huge chunk of change, but that sum inflated even more when you added tax and Matty’s crazy idea of a reasonable shipping rate. When all was said and done, I think it cost around $360 to get this thing shipped out. Back then I couldn’t fit it into the budget, and I cried myself to sleep many a nights (when I was drinking) over the fact that I would never own it. Then last year, Matty blew this beauty out at $150 with free shipping and that made it practically an impulse buy. No regrets!

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And thus ends the chronicling of my magical Christmas morning with Castle Grayskull. I really did feel like a kid again while I was setting this up and getting out all my figures to put in it, and hopefully I was able to convey some of that in my ramblings. To me, this is a big part of what Christmas is all about. Remembering happy times of Christmas Past and feeling young at heart again. As to the other part, I’m about to head out to spend the rest of Christmas with my family, eat a lot of great food, come home get drunk and watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special. And that, my friends, is my formula for a perfect Christmas.

Whatever constitutes your Perfect Christmas, I hope you all get it. Have a happy and safe holiday and I’ll see you on tomorrow for Marvel Monday!

Dec 24 2016

Masters of the Universe Classics: Castle Grayskull by Mattel, Part 1

It’s finally Christmas… well, almost! As a kid, this was always the one chance of getting that huge playset from my favorite toy line. The one that I had no chance of coaxing out of my parents any other time of the year. Asking for such a grail would always elicit the same response, “Put it on your Christmas list!” It was a good strategy on my parents’ part, because if it was still on my list six or seven months later, chances are I really wanted it! I can remember a lot of examples of these from Christmases past. Whether it was the Micronauts Mega-City, the Star Wars Death Star Playset, the GI JOE HQ Command Center, or The AD&D Fortress of Fangs. These were the big guns that I begged for all year, and I was a lucky little shit, because Santa always delivered. This Christmas, I wanted to relive some of that glory from my youth by opening up and featuring something comparable. Something special. I wanted to feel like a kid on Christmas again. And so I’ve been saving Grayskull all year for just this occasion.

And here it is. The ginormous box that’s been sitting in the corner of my closet since last December, building my anticipation to the bursting point. Gosh, has it really been that long? Yes, I’ve been gazing longingly at this glorious artwork and anticipating the day that I would finally slice that tape and open her up. While a lot of those old playsets from my youth would probably seem pretty small to me now as a grown up, MOTUC’s Grayskull is appropriately inflated to account for my adulthood. This has quite simply got to be the largest boxed toy I have ever owned. And that’s saying something, because I have owned a shit ton of toys. Hell, the box dwarfs He-Man so much, he looks like a 3 3/4-inch figure in this shot. All I have to say about the artwork on the front is that if I ever do get rid of this box, I’m going to frame that panel and hang it over my fireplace. Oh wait, I live in Florida… I don’t have a fireplace. DAMMIT! What am I going to do with all these chestnuts I bought?

But besides just being a huge playset, this Castle Grayskull is kind of special to me. Masters of the Universe was one of those few major 80’s toy-lines that I wanted to get into as a kid, but I never owned any of the toys. Oooh, poor me! Don’t feel bad… I had plenty, and my parents had to draw the line somewhere! Well, for the past few years, I’ve been living that missed opportunity of my youth through the Masters Classics line. The feeling of getting to open up a gigantic updated Grayskull like this when I already have a huge collection of figures to go with it is as close as I can get to going back in time and experiencing Christmas again as a child as I’m ever likely to get. Plus, now I’m drinking a lovely Jameson when I open it, so even better. Grayskull comes packed in the box surrounded with some cardboard padding and wrapped in a huge plastic bag. Surprisingly, it comes out all in one piece and that’s it! There’s nothing else rattling around in that huge box. All the extra pieces are conveniently stowed inside it’s green plastic walls.

Look at the sculpting and color on this thing! The jagged, unfinished rocky base gives way to the smoother, worked stones of the massive castle walls. It’s so goddamn iconic. I love the subtle variations of gray and green and the wash that picks out all the details. Just taking this massive playset in from the front suggests it may very well be toy perfection. I am literally in awe of this thing and I simply can’t compliment the guys who worked on this enough.

The massive fanged skull that dominates the front facade is just amazing. It’s also one of the things that confused me the most about the He-Man continuity. I mean, let’s say I was a third party arbiter brought in to mediate the ownership dispute between He-Man and Skeletor over Castle Grayskull. All I would need to do is meet those two and I’m going to have a pretty good idea who’s castle it really is. I mean, am I going to give it to the tanned dude with the Prince Valiant haircut, or side with THE GUY WHO’S FACE BEARS A PRETTY STRONG RESEMBLANCE TO THE DESIGN OF THE CASTLE?

The drawbridge door is one of my favorite aspects of the exterior. The coloring and ancient wood texturing on the planks looks incredibly realistic, as does the hammered finish on the “iron” hinges, the cross bar, and handle. The whole thing is topped off with a beautifully sculpted coat of arms. I could picture Skeletor battering on this thing forever and it never giving way to his attempts to gain entry. It looks virtually impenetrable.

As we turn the mighty fortress to the right, we can see the two catches that hold the castle together on its left side. There’s a ledge that winds its way around the left tower and toward the front. It also looks like there’s some kind of hidden panel above it. What could that be?

Coming around to the back shows more of that amazing stone detailing, as well as some truly spectacular coloring, as well as what appears to be a hidden back door, complete with a tiny keyhole in the stone.

The little details here, like the wooden ledges under the windows, really give the castle an authentic medieval feel. I particularly love the sculpted thatch roofing and the wooden support beams on the turret. All the windows here are actual windows, teasing me with the dark and mysterious interior of this structure. What amazing features await us, as we flip over to the castle’s right side?

Eh, nothing really. Just a hinge.

Finally, I love how the top of the castle offers this walkway to put figures on even when the castle is all closed up. While the inside of the tower is just the unfinished reverse of the sculpted stone, I can let that slide because look at the sculpted detail in the wood floor on the battlements. You also get a smaller, sculpted wood door leading into the depths of the castle. I have to be honest, wherever I wind up displaying this beauty, space limitations will probably demand it remain closed up. So, it’s nice to know I’ll still be able to put some figures on the battlements.

And did I mention it was big? Yeah, I did. Probably several times. But it is! I seem to remember a big controversy when the prototype was shown about how He-Man could barely fit through the front door. Well, they sure changed that. He looks properly scaled standing right in front of the mystical fortress. Even if this thing didn’t open up, it would be worth owning just to be able to stand He-Man in front of it, looking all majestic. It reminds me of just how much I adore this toy line and how, even despite the bumps along the way, I’m very grateful to Matty for delivering it to us these past few years. You see, opening up this beautiful castle on Christmas, wasn’t just about getting to experience being a kid on Christmas again, but it was also an opportunity to celebrate the ending of Matty’s run on this fantastic line of toys.

And unfortunately, that’s all I can show you today. Because it’s only Christmas Eve and I can’t open my present until Christmas morning. So come on back tomorrow and we’ll open her up check out all the amazing goodies on the inside of this marvelous playset!

Dec 22 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Daburu and Twinferno by Hasbro

Welcome, my friends to what might be the last Transformers Thursday of 2016! Then again, it might not. Stick around at the end for some administrative notes on what I’ll have going on for the rest of the year. In the meantime, I’m particularly excited about today’s convertorobot, Twinferno because he’s a modern update to the Monsterbot, Doublecross. I never had Doublecross as a kid, but when I got back into collecting G1 Transformers sometime around 1999, I picked up a nice example of him off of Ebay and he turned out to be one of my favorite figures. The fact that Hasbro worked him into this newest wave of Titans Return line both surprises and pleases me to no end.

There he is in his package. And yes, he’s another example of a Non-Headmaster G1 character that has been made into a Titan Master. This seems to bother a lot of people, but not me. And can I just say that Twinferno is both one of the cheesiest and most glorious re-names I’ve seen in Transformers in a while. As for his little buddy… Well, as I understand it, Daburu, is an homage to the Takara Beastformer figure White Leo (that’s Battle Beasts to us ‘Muricans). But that’s enough chit-chat about names… Let’s rip this bad boy open and start with his beast mode!

Oh, hell and yes! True to form, Twinferno’s alt mode is a two-headed dragon and it’s almost everything that I look for in my cyber-beast-formers. In fact, my one design gripe with this guy is one that I shared with the original G1 toy is the decision to make the arms and lower legs look organic while the rest of the alt mode is more cyber-creature. To me it always made the toy look like a hodge-podge of ideas. But hey, that’s just my personal hang-up and in the end it wasn’t a bad decision to be faithful to the G1 toy. If anything it gave this guy a strange charm. The largely black and gray deco looks good, especially with the white heads and little bits of red here and there. Another favorite detail of mine is that they made his stubby wings partially transparent. Oh yeah, it’s also worth mentioning that Hasbro sculpted the tiny thumb wheel as a nod to the original toy’s sparking gimmick. So cool!

The heads are excellent and I really dig how the horns are now more obviously part of the head, whereas the old toy molded them into the neck to the point where they were not even all that noticeable. There’s some good articulation in there too, as they can swivel at the body, they’re hinged a little above that, and the jaws on both heads are articulated. All around, I find this guy’s beast mode a lot more fun that Titan Returns Mindwipe, which looked good, but just stood there.

Daburu’s white, black, and gray plastic helps make up for the absence of paint apps. He’s a heck of a lot more colorful than a lot of the other little Titan Masters. On the other hand, with no paint on his head, it’s hard to make out the sculpted eye patch they gave him to pay respect to White Leo. In fact, his face really just looks like a lump of plastic. Nevertheless, how cool is it that Hasbro is spending time making these obscure references? I really enjoy this sort of thing.

Daburu has a few options on where to ride Twinferno. First, there’s a cockpit compartment in the chest. This is similar to what we saw in Mindwipe and I like it a lot. He’s fully enclosed in there and it looks like he’s controlling the beast mode like a mech.

Secondly, the two guns can be combined and placed on Twinferno’s back, offering a gunning station. Both options work really well, but I think this one is my favorite. Now be honest, let’s say your Daburu and you’re going to ride this dragon. Would you lock yourself up in his chest or would you ride into battle on his back with the wind blowing through your… er, eyepatch, guns belching out hot death on the enemy below. This is the only way to go! The guns look fantastic on the back of the dragon, especially when he’s flying. Nothing says bad ass like a robotic two-headed dragon with guns strapped to his back and a little robot lion-man riding him. Add a guitar and some hellfire and the above picture is practically made to be the cover of a Meat Loaf album. Daburu pegs in there pretty good too, so you don’t have to worry about him falling off when you’re swooshing the dragon around the room. Trust me… I’ve tested it!

You also have the option of mounting the guns on Twinferno’s wings. It’s the same amount of firepower, just spread out a little more. I like this, but overall I still prefer the double guns on the back. I suppose it’s a good way to go for when Daburu is riding inside him.

As much as I dig Twinferno’s dragon mode, it’s the robot mode that really shines for me, because it’s such an amazing update to the G1 toy. I mean, this guy looks perfect. The details on the body are so sharp and the colors are gorgeous, with the red and white complimenting the gray and black plastic just beautifully. Toss in some silver and yellow applications and this guy feels like he’s got more paint on him than most of his brothers from the earlier waves.

There are some surprisingly clever bits of engineering to the transformation. The way the dragon arms fold into compartments in the sides of the torso is very cool, as is the way the upper legs of the dragon become the robot modes feet with the lower dragon legs folded into them and functioning as heel spurs.

You can also keep his twin guns mounted on his back for storage in his robot mode. I think he looks pretty good with the barrels rising behind his shoulders. Onslaught, eat your heart out!

Daburu makes for a pretty good head. It’s definitely a decent update to Doublecross, but because it’s mostly molded in that white plastic the details aren’t all that sharp and other than the blue visor it is a bit bland.

Twinferno technically has dragon heads for hands, so I’m not sure he really needs weapons when his hands can both punch and bite foes at the same time. Nonetheless, the guns are designed to peg into the sockets that make up the hinge for the dragons jaws. Herein lies my only real issue with this robot mode. When he’s holding his guns like this, the elbow joints have to be positioned on the sides of the arm, so he can only aim his guns with his arms straight out. It’s not the end of the world, especially since it’s one of the few things things I can find to bitch about. I just love this guy too much.

So yeah… Monsterbots! Who the hell ever could have guessed we’d see updated versions of these guys from Hasbro? Not me, that’s for sure. Doublecross was just one of those quirky late G1 figures that did it for me and I’m absolutely delighted to have Twinferno as his modern version. Is it possible that Grotesque and Repugnus could be on the horizon? Oh, Primus… I hope so! I never found either to be as good a figure as Doublecross, but I’d still love a complete set of the Monsterbots trio.

And now for some administrative stuff! I’m all caught up on my new arrivals DC pile and I’ll be working some crazy hours tomorrow, so there will be no new Feature Friday. I will, however, be back on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with a special two-parter. I’ve also decided that I’m not going to be doing my traditional Favorites/Disappointments Lists this year. I know, I’ve done those like five years in a row, but I honestly don’t have enough stuff this year to bitch about, and that’s a good thing. I may just do a one-off retrospective on some of my favorite things this year. I may do a more laid back Ups & Downs of 2016 Feature. Then again, I may just stick to regular content as usual next week, as I’ve got a lot of stuff stacking up to be looked at.

That’s it for now… If you’re doing last minute shopping, be safe and I’ll see y’all on Christmas Eve!

Dec 21 2016

Ash Vs Evil Dead: Ash Williams (Value Stop) by NECA

Starz delivered on another superb season of Ash Vs Evil Dead this year and I continue to be amazed at not only how great the concept works as a series, but how far the creative team is willing to push it. Not to mention how attached I’ve become to Ash’s sidekicks. Of course, NECA is on the scene and delivering some figures from the series. I’ve already looked at Hero Ash and the Eligos Demon and today I’m wrapping up the initial wave with a look at Value Stop Ash!

The package is identical to what we saw with the previous figures in Wave 1. You get an attractive, collector friendly window box that shows off the goods and has some photos of the figure and accessories on the back. I’ve been hanging on to these boxes, at least for the time being, but chances are they will eventually have to go bye-bye to make room for more figures.

While Hero Ash was the iconic, chainsaw wielding, Deadite hunter, this version is the lowly retail stockboy. Here, Ash dons his company-approved red Value Mart button-down shirt, complete with pocket protector full of pens and his employee name badge. The detail on the name badge is particularly well done and you get all the meticulously sculpted wrinkles and stitching that we’re used to seeing on NECA’s plastic wardrobes. The articulation is identical to what we got with the Hero Ash figure, including those double rotating hinged elbows, which is a huge improvement over the single rotating hinges we usually get. Beyond that, Ash features rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the wrists, rotating hinges in the knees, and ball joints in the hips. The ankles feel like ball joints, there’s a ball joint in the waist, and another in the neck.

So, let’s deal with the elephant in the room. Somewhere along the way S-Mart got replaced by Value Stop. It’s a minor point, but I still would have loved to hear Ash spout out the motto, “Shop smart, Shop S-Mart” one more time. There’s no in-universe explanation for this, but apparently there were trademark issues, which probably involved not having the rights to the third Evil Dead film. I’d just like to think he got fired from S-Mart for lighting the place up with his boomstick and Value Stop was the next employer on his way down the ladder of retailers. Anyway, let’s get back to the figure.

Value Stop Ash includes two portraits and as you might expect from NECA, both are excellent. The first is a pretty neutral expression, or possibly one of slight befuddlement, which is appropriate most of the time for Ash. The heads included with Hero Ash were both on point, but I think this one tops them all in terms of overall quality of likeness. It really is superb.

The other head really works for me as either a screaming Ash or a laughing-his-ass off Ash, although as we’ll see in a minute the intent here was the former. Once again, this is a great likeness and the detail in the mouth, in particular, is fantastic right down to his tongue and upper dentures. And just to sweeten the pot, both of these heads are interchangeable with the heads that came with Hero Ash, and vice-versa, so while the overall appeal of this figure will likely not be as high as Hero Ash, you really are enhancing that figure by picking up this one. I particularly like the screaming head on Hero Ash.

While not really an accessory, Ash also features his wooden right hand and it is removable. As long as we’re talking hands, it’s worth noting that Ash’s left hand is the same one used on Hero Ash, so it is capable of holding the Boomstick that came with that figure, or any other weapons you may want to rob from NECA’s expansive arsenal of guns included with figures in this scale. It also works pretty well as a pointing hand.

“Looking for Tampons? They’re over in Aisle 4. Shop Smart, Value Stop!” Nope, just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

And yes, in case you were wondering, the chainsaw from Hero Ash can be used on Value Stop Ash. It’s just an easy pop-and-swap.

Ash comes with one accessory and that’s the possessed doll from the pilot episode. It’s crazy tiny, but nonetheless still remarkably well detailed and painted. It’s also designed to attack Ash’s face.

Getting this to work can be difficult. I think the doll’s hand are actually intended to grip him by the nostrils, but I couldn’t get her to stick. I was able to get her to grab his nose between her tiny arms. All it takes is a little patience. It’s a surprisingly fun accessory for such a tiny piece of plastic.

Value Stop Ash is another fantastic figure in NECA’s ever growing and always impressive stable of licensed action figures, but let’s lay cards on the table and concede that this one is for the die hard collectors out there. Most of the casual toy collectors (is there really such a thing?) are going to be happy with Hero Ash and leave it at that. In fact, I’m surprised that NECA didn’t make this one a two-pack just to make sure they could move an adequate number of Value Stop Ashes. Me? Oh, there was never any question that I needed both and if you’re on the fence, the extra heads really are worth having to get the most out of Hero Ash.

Dec 20 2016

Star Wars Black (Rogue One): Scarif Stormtrooper by Hasbro

After a weekend of avoiding all of humanity for fear of spoilers, I finally got to see Rogue One yesterday morning and that evening, I got all the gushing out of my system with a bonus feature. But even a day after seeing the movie, all I wanted to do was play with more Rogue One toys. Lucky for me a couple of Scarif Stormtroopers showed up at my door just a few days before and were waiting to be opened.

Damn these trooper exclusives! First it was the TRU getting the Hovertank Pilot and now it’s Walmart getting the Scarif Stormtrooper. Why make a troop builder an exclusive and the Squad Leader a wide release? It made a whole lot more sense when they made the Snowtrooper Sergeant from The Force Awakens an exclusive and the regular a wide release. In this case, however, I was lucky enough to pick up a couple of these from Wally World’s Website and didn’t have to pay scalpers on the wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Ebay. Anyway, I was hoping to get the Squad Leader by now so I could look at the two together, but as luck would have it I’m still hunting him. I’ve got nothing to say about the box, other than these figures are not numbered because they are exclusives.

Damn, I love the look of these guys! But, I’ll confess I didn’t even realize that this armor shares so much with the Hovertank Pilot until toy blogger extraordinaire, Carnitas Fever, pointed out in the comments. Yeah, I’m pretty terrible at noticing details like that, which is probably why Hasbro can get away with selling me so many repaints. Nonetheless, the torso, arms, legs is the same mold used for the pilots with some variations in paint. It’s movie accurate, and it doesn’t make me enjoy these any less, but it’s still worth pointing out. Not to mention the fact that this was an excellent sculpt to begin with. You still get some nice ribbed textures in the bodysuit, beautiful contours in the chest armor, and some sharp details in the leg armor.

In terms of sculpting, the biggest differences come in the belt, which is not only completely different, but also features some hip plates, as well as a magazine pouch slung low and off toward the right hip. These are all cool additions that look great, but they do inhibit the hip articulation a bit, which is unfortunate.

Of course, these troopers also get a completely different helmet. The extra armor on this helmet’s forehead (blast shield?) is similar, but the down-swept cheek plates are a lot more prominent on this guy. The visor and mouth piece are very reminiscent of the Imperial Scout Troopers. I’m not sure how all these differences specializes them to patrol the beaches, but it’s definitely a cool look and let’s be honest, that’s what’s important.

Like the Hovertank Pilot, the armor here is weathered but much more, and that’s another thing I love about these guys. They look like they’ve been in the thick of battle. There’s mud and grime present and the armor itself is yellowed. It’s a great contrast to the pristine white armor of the regular Stormtroopers. You also get red and yellow paintwork on the right upper arm, almost like an armband, and a white stripe on the left shoulders. I’m guessing these are regimental markings. If I had a copy of the Visual Dictionary, I probably wouldn’t have to guess.

Because the body is essentially the same as the Hovertank Pilot, the articulation here is identical. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, with swivels in the thighs and double hinges in the knees. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist and a ball joint just under the chest. His neck has both a ball joint and a hinge.

The Scarif Troopers come with their trusty E-11 Blasters. They’re very nice sculpts and they even feature some silver dry brushing to make it look like the finish is worn. My only complaint here is that he doesn’t have a holster or any way to clip it onto his belt or leg.

I found so much to love in Rogue One, but among my favorite things was getting to see the Imperial Forces in action once again. In fact, I love how the film handled it. They didn’t replace my beloved Stormtroopers, but rather just augmented their forces with some brand new types of soldiers for me to buy action figures of. The Scarif armor is definitely my favorite of all the new Troop armor on display in this flick and after drooling over the design for a while, it was great to finally see them in action on the big screen.

Dec 19 2016

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dec 19 2016

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): The Enchantress by Hasbro

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dec 16 2016

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dec 15 2016

Transformers Titans Return: Firedrive and Hot Rod by Hasbro

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dec 14 2016

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Masters of the Universe Classics: Castle Grayskull by Mattel, Part 2

Masters of the Universe Classics: Castle Grayskull by Mattel, Part 1

Transformers Titans Return: Daburu and Twinferno by Hasbro

Ash Vs Evil Dead: Ash Williams (Value Stop) by NECA

Star Wars Black (Rogue One): Scarif Stormtrooper by Hasbro

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

Marvel Legends (Dormammu Wave): The Enchantress by Hasbro

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

Transformers Titans Return: Firedrive and Hot Rod by Hasbro

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

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