Feb 14 2024

G. I. JOE Ultimates: Scarlett by Super7

It’s taken me a long time to get back to Super7’s Sunbow cartoon-inspired series of GI JOE Ultimates figures. So long, in fact, that a new wave has arrived before I even got to spotlight any of the second wave here. The right thing to do would be to go through all of Wave 2 before tackling the new wave, but man I was just too excited for that. So, I’m jumping ahead to check out Scarlett from Wave 3 and then I will double back and hit some figures from Wave 2, and alternate like that until I’m all caught up. Savvy? Good, then let’s check out Scarlett!

Here she is in the very stylish Super7 Ultimates packaging with some minor changes from the last two waves. The slipcase is now more of a flat, satiny finish as opposed to the glossy premium stock. This change carries over to the box itself, where Scarlett’s dog tag under the window also looks flat and less premium. It’s not a huge departure, but it’s definitely a tiny step down from what we were getting. You do still get some nice printed weathering on the sleeve and some character art on the back panel of the box. I should also note that these are no longer coming in brown cardboard mailers, but rather just plastic wrap. On the plus side, the window shows off the goods as great as ever, and oh boy am I thrilled to see a Sunbow-styled Scarlett in my collection. I remember that as a kid, cartoon Scarlett was the cause of some pretty funny feelings down in my government issued undies and somehow Hasbro’s figure, as cool as it was, never reached those heights for me. So, let’s get her out and see what we’ve got!

Sunbow Scarlett’s outfit came pretty close to the original figure’s design, with a tan one-piece, gloves and high heeled boots along with green sleeves and leggings. The figure sports a fairly minimalist look when it comes to detail, and that’s in keeping with the cartoon style. She has her familiar red recoil pad on her right shoulder, some silver shuriken and edging on her gauntlets, a wide silver belt, and some sculpted pouches on her boots. I would have liked a little more definition in her caboose, but all in all I really like what we got here when it comes to the body and outfit.

You get three different head sculpts, and while there isn’t a huge difference between them, I think the one that came on the figure is the best. She has a pretty determined look with downturned eyebrows and mouth. This is probably the face she pulls when she catches Duke making out with Selina or other random Cobra slavegirls that he rescues. The eyes are printed very nicely, and while her hot pink lipstick doesn’t quite fill out the mouth sculpt, I still think it looks pretty good. The fiery red hair and ponytail are both pitch perfect, But now is about as good a time as any to point out the ugly seam running up the sides of her neck. Yeah, that’s a shame.

The second head is a bit of a smile and some less severe, more rounded eyebrows. This one is OK, but I don’t think it has as much personality as her battle face. The third is pretty close to the first but with the addition of a headset and I do like this one. I’ve heard some people argue that it’s too specific, as the headset is meant to be used while she’s flying a Skystriker, but I think it works for just battlefield communication. Suffice it to say the first head is the one that will be displayed on my figure most of the time and it’s the one I used for the bulk of the pictures in this review.

Unless you’re new to this line, you should know by now what to expect when it comes to articulation. Love it, hate it, or just accept it. But if this is your first rodeo with Ultimates, don’t expect anything as good as the Classified line. Rotating hinges is the name of the game and you get them in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles. There’s a swivel in the waist and a ball joint under the chest. The hips and neck are ball jointed, and you get some lateral rockers in the ankles. I don’t mind this articulation so much, but I do wish you got better range in the elbows. Scarlett also comes with three pairs of hands: fists, karate chopping, and gun/accessory holding. Swapping the hands requires a little more force than I would like, but other than that it works just fine.

As for accessories, well it wouldn’t be Scarlett without her trademark crossbow and you get two to choose from, along with an assortment of arrows and a quiver with a shoulder strap. The first crossbow is a short pistol-type and is similar to the one released with the vintage RAH figure. It’s an excellent sculpt and has a deep groove so that you can load it with an arrow using the fletching to anchor it in place. It works pretty well for display on the shelf, but they will fall out if you move it around a lot. Her ammo includes three normal arrows, one bomb arrow, one arrow with a really broad point, and a grapple arrow with a yellow string attached. You can comfortably fit the three regular arrows and the bomb arrow into the quiver all at one time, but the broad tipped arrow is too big and the grapple arrow takes up most of the room. Otherwise the quiver works pretty well, but I might put some blue tack inside to help hold the arrows in place.

The other crossbow is more of a rifle design with a skeletal stock and a scope. This one had some serious warping in the plastic strings, but much to my surprise a little heat straightened them out immediately. I seem to recall Sunbow Scarlett’s crossbow being a bit in between the pistol version and this, but I definitely like this one a lot. It’s not going to be an easy choice as to which one to go with most of the time.

And for when Scarlett needs a little more firepower, she comes with an M16, and I’m not sure why because I don’t remember this being a thing in the cartoon and it definitely wasn’t included with the RAH figure. It is a pretty nice toon-ified version of the iconic infantry weapon, although the barrel is very prone to bending and I had to heat it up as well to get it even close to straight. And yes, it is a little irksome that Hasbro can deliver most of the weapons in their slightly smaller scale Classified line at half the price and have them come out straight most of the time, not to mention also have detachable magazines and occasional blast effect parts. To be honest, I will likely never display Scarlett with this weapon, and I would have much rather just gotten another one of the XMLR-3A Laser Rifles that most of the JOEs used in the cartoon and that came with Snake Eyes, Duke, and Flint.

Scarlett’s final accessory is a walkie-talkie, which seems to be a popular pack-in for most of the Ultimate JOEs. Not that I’m complaining, it’s a good accessory for infantry to have. This one looks pretty cool and retro with it’s boxy design and it’s classic design speaker. The left hand that can cradle her weapons can also hold the walkie pretty well, but the elbows won’t let it get too close to her face.

Scarlett was one of my most hotly anticipated figures in the Ultimates line and she didn’t disappoint. Yes, I had a few nitpicks here and there, but certainly nothing to diminish my happiness with her. She really captures the look and spirit of the cartoon and that’s something I’ve wanted ever since I was a kid. I’m very curious to see how Hasbro’s Scarlett do-over for the Classified line turns out as that one will be a lot closer to this classic look than the figure that shipped way back in that first assortment, which had something of a Fortnite flavor to her. In the meantime, when I next visit with GI JOE Ultimates, I’ll be flipping back to Wave 2, before coming back to this third wave.

Feb 12 2024

The Sheriff (Bravestarr) by Dasin Toys

“One day, a lawman appeared. With powers of hawk, wolf, puma and bear. Protector of peace, mystic man from afar. Champion of justice, Marshall Bravestarr!” As if to carry the baton for the aging Masters of the Universe line, Mattel introduced their new toyline, Bravestarr, to the scene in 1986. And just like MOTU, it was accompanied by a Filmation cartoon to help sell those toys the following year. The Native American Space Marshall and his equine companion, 30-30, helped protect the good citizens of the planet New Texas and its rich deposits of Kerium Crystals, which had amazing healing powers. Both the toys and cartoon were something of a short-lived endeavor, but still fondly remembered by many 80’s kids. Despite so many toy revivals from the time, Mattel hasn’t resurrected the battle between Bravestarr and Tex Hex, so some industrious (and perhaps unscrupulous) third-party companies have decided to do it themselves, namely Ramen Toys and Dasin Toys. I have a little bit of nostalgia for the cartoon and toys, but maybe not enough to go for Ramen’s $90-ish figure, so I decided to go with Dasin’s $40-ish.

The figure has been officially solicited as The Sheriff, but what’s the point of pussy footing around when you’re literally branding the box with Bravestarr? Forget about the powers of Hawk, Wolf, Puma, and Bear… Damsin Toys had better hope that Bravestarr doesn’t call upon the power of copyright attorneys, because this is about as ballsy as intellectual theft gets. There’s some fine print on the bottom panel of the box, but other than that there’s just the window to let the contents do the talking. And the minimalist approach certainly works, because I was impressed before I even opened the box. As for scale, he’s pretty damn close to 6-inch scale, but he’s slightly smaller when compared to Marvel Legends and a lot smaller than McFarlane’s DC Multiverse.

Bravestarr comes out of the box sans hat and looking like he just jumped out of one of Filmation’s animation cells. There was a fair amount of differences between Mattel’s original figure and the animated version, and Damsin has clearly chosen to embrace the animated look over the vintage figure design. And I’m happy they did, as it isn’t just updating an old figure, but rather giving us something we haven’t had before. The coloring here is really nice, although the differences between the orange and the yellow can be subtle in most lighting. I like the deep chocolate brown they used for the boots and the red and blue on the chest and back really make the figure pop like the cartoon. The silver hits on the badge, belt buckle and gauntlet accents are sharp and snappy. Comparing this to the original animated character model sheet shows that these guys did their homework. But besides getting the details right, I cannot overstate how impressive the quality on this figure turned out. The colors are vibrant and the paint is super clean. The plastic feels great in the hand and the joints are all easy to work with right out of the box. Every bit of this toy feels like a professional and polished product, and that was quite a nice surprise considering this is my first experience with the company, and I had no idea what to expect.

For the portrait, you get five different heads and two different hair pieces, both featuring his stylish ponytail. One hairpiece is full and intended for display without the hat, while the other plugs into the hat to complete the head when he’s wearing it. It’s a clever system that’s easy to swap out and by making the hair and hat separate, it allows you to display him holding the hat if you want. The expressions on the heads include neutral, neutral with side eye, smirk, open mouth smile, and full on battle yell. Neutral and smirk are my favorites, while the shouty face feels out of character for The Marshall. I get a bit more of an anime vibe to the portraits, so I don’t feel they are a very close match for the cartoon, but from a technical standpoint they still look good. Filmation style portraits all have similar characteristics and I feel like Mattel and The Four Horsemen are among the few who have been able to get them right.

The hat scales really well for being a separate piece and sits perfectly on the figure. I think it’s worth paying a bit of caution toward the tiny antenna that juts up from the side. I will say that at one point I accidently bent it in my hand and was sure it was going to snap off, but it just bent and returned to normal without even leaving a stress mark. Still, I wouldn’t test that too much.

The articulation features ball joints and rotating hinges in the shoulders and hips, double hinges in the elbows and knees, rotating hinges and pegs for the wrists, swivels in the thighs and biceps, rotating hinges in the ankles, hinges and lateral rockers in the feet, ball joint in the neck, and ball joints in the waist and under the chest. All the joints on this figure are smooth as butter and he is crazy fun to pose and play with. The tolerances are solid and the shoulder joints are designed to pop out if overstressed, rather than break. But, I will throw out a few nitpicks. The elbow bends are impeded by the muscle sculpt, so about 90-degrees is as good as you get. Also, the design of the shoulder hinges do show more gap than I’m used to seeing. Neither are a big deal to me, but still worthy of note. You do get a total of five pairs of hands which include sets of fists, OK gestures, grippy hands, trigger hands, and relaxed hands. All of these are easy to swap and come on a clear plastic sprue.

Bravestarr comes with two weapons: His pistol and some kind of space bazooka. The bazooka has a cool pearlescent aqua-green finish and features minimalist detail to the sculpt, which I suppose is in keeping with the animated look. I don’t remember this weapon from the cartoon, but it’s pretty cool and Bravestarr can wield it with one hand or two. With that having been said, I would have much rather they included an updated sculpt of the scoped rifle that came with the original figure as I find that one to be pretty iconic. I doubt this one will get much display time.

The pistol, aka The Neutra-Laser, on the other hand is awesome and to me this is one of the more iconic cartoon weapons of the 80s. The original toyline focused quite a bit on this pistol with special figures designed to use battery backpacks and infrared beams to shoot each other and they released a full size Neutra-Laser toy that could also be used to shoot down figures, so I think they knew they had something special with this design. This accessory is a nicely detailed sculpt with some added paint hits and even some tiny western-style scroll work patterns that you sometimes see on vintage lever actions. They really put some love into this little gun and it looks so iconic in the figure’s hand!

And even with all of those goodies, in the box you also get a stand, which can double as storage to keep your extra pieces. The black storage box is even branded with the Bravestarr logo! There’s a very Figma-style hinged arm that pegs into the top of the base and can grab the figure around the waist to help with action poses or just to keep him standing. And if you don’t want the added elevation of the storage box, you can just use the top as a stand all by itself. Yeah, the ingenuity of the design on this stand really blows me away and it’s something that I’d love to see more toy lines embrace.

Damsin Toys did an amazing job on this figure and I really can’t stress what a polished and high quality toy this is. I’ve had Bravestarr on my desk ever since I got him and I find myself constantly picking him up and playing around with him. Everything in this box is excellent right down to the innovative storage stand and I couldn’t be happier with this purchase. Even better, the going price seems to be around $42-45, which feels like a great value for such a well produced figure. The only downside here is the uncertainty as to whether we will see any more figures in this line. Ramen Toys is already showing off a prototype for their 30-30 and I would really like to see Damsin at least give us Bravestarr’s partner. But I’d certainly be down for Tex Hex and Judge McBride! Both Damsin and Ramen Toys figures seem to be getting a lot of buzz in the collector community, and while I don’t expect Mattel to revisit this line, maybe if these sell well, it will inspire another company to work out a deal with Mattel to use the license.

Feb 9 2024

G. I. JOE Classified: Breaker with Ram Cycle by Hasbro

There was a lot of GI JOE Classified content here leading up to Christmas, so I tried to give it a rest for at least a couple of weeks and I guess that turned into a whole month. But truth be told this line has been one of my absolute high points for collecting right now and there’s so many goodies to cover, so here we are again with another vehicle from Classified. Sure, that HasLab HISS Tank is going to be hard to beat with a mere motorcycle, but the GI JOE line has some truly iconic smaller scale vehicles that are so totally doable as retail-friendly releases. And the Ram Cycle is certainly one of them! Also, this was only the second vehicle to release in the line, so it was a pretty big deal when it did!

Yup, this one has been out for a while. So long, in fact, that it’s even been re-released as a Tiger Force repaint. But, as I’m sure you’ve heard a lot by now, a big part of 2024 for me is going to be taking care of unfinished business. FFZ has never really been about being cutting edge. I leave that to the people willing to pay triple on Ebay for stolen toys to get that FIRST IN reputation. Anyway, this set comes in a beautiful window box that shows off the toys very well. It also has the dreaded Cobra Island moniker, signifying that it was a Target Exclusive. Remember how much fun that was kids? It was actually a lot worse with the Baroness and Cobra COILS set, which I never actually saw at a Target and quickly became scalper feed, but there were eventually shelves full of the Ram Cycle, so I guess lessons were learned. Let’s start with Breaker.

Breaker dips all the way back to that initial first year of Real American Hero figures. On the one hand, I’m not sure I dig Hasbro taking figures that were originally carded releases and bundling them with vehicles, but Hasbro’s model seems to require figures with all the vehicles, so I can dig it. Also, the 2008 version of the RAM Cycle was released with a Corporal Breaker, so at least Hasbro is being consistent. The JOE Communications officer was a pretty simple figure, and this release really reflects that. You get plain green fatigues, granted with a lot of sculpted detail, black boots, rolled up sleeves, black gloves, a green wristwatch, and an absolute slab of a combat vest with sculpted pouches and black shoulder straps. The vest adds some crazy bulk to the figure, which surprisingly to me looks less obtrusive when viewed from the side than from the front. Some may balk at the relative vanilla look of this guy, but personally, I enjoy the more traditional military looking figures, and Breaker here has that in spades.

The head sculpt is really solid and presents a very classic JOE look. I’m talking classic 12-inch JOE look! You get the black beard with some back-swept hair, a prominent nose and a stoic, slightly determined stare. He definitely lacks the sleepy, dead eyes of the original RAH figure, that made me think Breaker was a stoner. On the downside, the seam that bisects his hair is kind of ugly, especially by Classified standards. Still, if Hasbro ever wanted to give this guy a camo paintjob and release him as an Adventure Team exclusive, I’d definitely be down for that.

Breaker is definitely light on the accessories, which some may blame on him being bundled with a vehicle, but in fairness the original Breaker didn’t come with a whole lot. He had a helmet, radio headset and backpack radio. Here we get the helmet and headset all in one, with the helmet repurposed as a motorcycle helmet with a visor. The helmet looks great and includes a microphone. The lack of a backpack still kind of bugs me, although a radio backpack would be kind of outdated for Classified. Maybe they could have given him a SINCGARS unit. That would have been cool. At the very least, he should have come with a pistol and holster, even if the original figure was released unarmed. Heck, Baroness got a ton of extras and she was bundled with a motorcycle as well.

Moving on to the RAM Cycle and this is an absolute beauty. As with a lot of what Classified is doing now, it takes the original design and just injects a dose of modern realism into an updated sculpt. The body is mostly cast in an olive green, which is a lot duller than the RAH toy, but adds to that more realistic look. You also get some black and gray in the mix, found in the engine, wheels, tires, exhaust, seat, and other little bits and bobs. There is some wonderful detail in the engine, a few panel lines, and some sculpted bolts. This bike looks great!

The RAM features a lot of the same markings as the original toy, this time all printed on. The MG 1027 can still be found stenciled in white on the gas tank (although I could have sworn it was MC 1027 on the original), along with the updated JOE star emblem. Other insignia and markings are present, including the American Flag.

The dash is very well detailed. I was surprised to see the gauges were actually sculpted and painted, rather than just stickers. I like the bit of added sculpting in the handlebars and you even get some extra detail on the gas cap.

The side mounted minigun adds the Rapid Fire in this Rapid Fire Motorcycle and the sidecar-type attachment also stabilizes the motorcycle so it can stand fine for display purposes. As a kid, I remember the idea of attaching a chain gun to a motorcycle sidecar was about the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I remember even my Dad being pretty impressed at the concept. Somehow I don’t think it’s real world practical, but boy is it an amazingly toyetic concept.

As we saw in the packaged shot, the minigun pod is not only removable from the cycle itself, but it can also be opened up and the gun can be removed and wielded by hand, which is so awesome. There is a flip down kickstand to stabilize the bike when the weapon pod is not attached. And yeah, I guess this would make up for the fact that Breaker doesn’t come with a pistol. About three thousand rounds a minute? That’s what I call communication!

And Breaker does indeed sit quite nicely on the bike and looks damn good on it! His hands can grip the handle bars and his feat peg into the pedals. His butt does hover a bit off the seat, but that’s fine. There’s even enough room for a second rider if they don’t mind getting cozy.

One of the cool things about the Real American Hero line was the wide range of vehicles and playsets. For every wallet-busting USS FLAGG there was a small and affordable toy like The RAM Cycle that let kids actually save up allowance and add to their toychest. Granted, the Classified version is bigger and pricier, but it still feels like a decent enough value when you bundle in the figure. The sculpt here is excellent and the added feature of the removable minigun adds tons of play value. It’s a little tougher to find at a decent price these days, but well worth it if you can hunt one down.

Feb 7 2024

Marvel Legends (Void Wave): Crystar by Hasbro

Y’all remember Crystar? Goodness and Light! Evil and Might! …the winner is up to you! Well, nobody really won, because the comic book only lasted 11 issues and the toyline by Remco fizzled out pretty quickly. Not even a cartoon! I never owned any of the figures, but damn that commercial made me want them and I did have a couple issues of the comic, picked out of 25-cent milk crates at the used bookstore downtown. For a failed toy franchise, it sure left a big impression on me. If someone told me that we were getting a modern Crystar figure, I would assume it would be through a company like Nacelle or Zica, but nope… it’s Hasbro accessing the license through their Marvel Legends line. And I wouldn’t get too excited, because this is almost guaranteed to be a one-off, like that Matt Tracker Hasbro released through the GI JOE 25th Anniversary line.

Even stranger, Crystar was not released as a single store exclusive, but rather as part of a regular wave created around The Void Build-A-Figure. To the uninitiated, Crystar is a Prince of Crystalium and fights against the chaotic forces of Moltar and his Magma Men. It’s a classic good vs evil toy premise, but with some pretty hardcore stuff like people shooting out each other’s eyes and the body horror of Crystar himself having to be rended from death by merging his body with The Great Prisma-Crystal. It was an imaginative line and the toys looked great, so getting a modern updated Crystar figure like this definitely scratches a very old itch.

And wow, did Hasbro go full-on crystal with this guy! The bulk of the body is cast in a gorgeous translucent blue plastic with crystal-like facets sculpted all over the place. The gauntlets, boots, and undies are all cast in red plastic and he has a blue crystal embedded right where his belt buckle would be. This is an absolutely beautiful update to the vintage Remco figure! And while the original Crystar had to get by with just old school 5 POA, plus hinged knees, Hasbro’s new release conforms to the Marvel Legends standard. And since the body is entirely new, they went with pinless joints. You also get two sets of hands, which include one pair of accessory holding hands, a right fist and a left hand with splayed fingers.

The portrait also falls pretty closely in line with the original figure. The head and helmet are both sculpted in more of that sumptuous crystal blue plastic while the front crest and the side wings are cast in the same red plastic used for his boots and gauntlets. The original figure had a red connecting band between the crest and wings making it more like a complete crown (it was also removable), so I’m not sure if that was an oversight or an intentional stylistic change here. It might be fun to get an extra figure to make that simple change with some red paint. It looks like there’s some added face printing in there, but it’s kind of hard to tell as it gets lost in all that blue crystal.

The vintage Remco figure came with three accessories: A sword, shield, and prism looking-glass. These looking-glasses were color coded and included with each of the original figures. Hasbro nixed the prism, which is honestly totally expected, but he does get his trusty sword and shield. The sword is cast in transparent blue plastic and hits all the beats of the original sword design while smoothing out the proportions and giving it a bit more detail. The hilt has a ribbed grip, the crossguard hooks toward the blade at the ends, and there’s a diamond-like swell near the base of the blade.

The shield is also cast in translucent blue plastic and is a nice homage to the original figure’s shield. There’s a octagonal central boss with arrow like designs connecting the corners of the hexagon with the outer ring of the shield. The inside of the shield has a grab bar which works well with the figure’s grippy hands. I love how immaculate and clear this shield is, as it offers very little distortion when looking through it.

Crystar is a really cool figure and a beautiful update to the original Remco release. The only downside for this guy is that now I obviously want more, and I think it’s a safe bet this will be a one-time deal. I don’t know what the appeal of this fellow will be at retail, as both the comic and action figure line lean toward the obscure these days. I doubt there’s a whole lot of love for the original comic series, and the character only appeared in a handful of other Marvel books. I’m actually still pretty surprised that Hasbro included him as part of a Build-A-Figure wave rather than just a one-off store exclusive. But even if you are buying him just to get that Void BAF piece, I think he’s a fantastic figure and definitely worth a place on that ecclectic corner of the Marvel Legends shelves that all of us collectors probably have. ironically, the only two figures that I pre-ordered in this wave was Crystar and Power Princess, although I’ll agree that this wave is pretty damn strong, and I may wind up grabbing some more if they turn up on sale here and there.

Feb 5 2024

Gatchaman: Ken the Eagle by Storm Collectibles

I probably spent my entire childhood not knowing what the hell Gatchaman was, but it’s hard to overestimate just how freaking cool the Battle of the Planets cartoon was to little 9yo me. Like Robotech, BotP was a reworked anime with lots of changes for the US market, partly to make it more kid friendly and partly to make it more appealing to Western sensibilities. From its cool spaceships to its blatant R2-D2 ripoff narrator, 7-Zark-7, this shit was practically custom made for me. Not to mention the first episode had our superhero-like team fighting a giant robot monster. It was great! Naturally, I really wanted toys from the show when I was a kid, but it wasn’t to be. The best I got was a lunchbox, and boy do I wish I still had that! In the 40 years or so since, we’ve had some figures of varying quality produced, mostly in the early 2000’s, and now Storm Collectibles is testing the waters with a release of Ken the Eagle. Of course, I knew him as Mark, the leader of G-Force!

Like Storm’s other figure series, Ken is 1:12 scale and comes in a big window box. Storm’s presentation tends to range from decent to utilitarian, but they really upped their game here. The colors are so vibrant and the character art is fantastic. The window shows off the contents very well and the back panel has some gorgeous shots of the figure in action. As imports, most of Storm’s figure boxes are bilingual, but this one emphasizes the Japanese over the English quite a bit.

You get a total of three wing-capes for the figure, and Ken comes out of the box wearing the closed configuration. Each of the Gatchaman Team wore a different bird-themed suit, hence his moniker, Ken the Eagle. Similar to many plastic capes in this scale, the wing-capes are cast in softer plastic and simply hang off the figure with a neck hole. The closed wing piece looks great for displaying the figure in a neutral stance, but it also renders the arm articulation useless and covers up a lot of the figure’s body. If they ever get around to doing the whole team, I could see myself displaying them like this in the interest of shelf-space economy, but with just Ken so far, I won’t be using this wing configuration all that much. Still, it’s pretty damn iconic looking and still manages to show off the beautiful colors of the costume. The whites are super white, and the added blue, red, and yellow make for an electrifying deco.

You get two heads, both of which are helmeted with removable visors. The visor reflects and distorts quite a bit, so it’s really hard for me to capture the detail of the face through it in most of these pictures. Removing the visor is easy as it just tabs in securely between the helmet and the head sculpt. Both head sculpts look great, but the differences are kind of negligible when the visor is on. The first has a somewhat determined expression, while the second has him gritting his teeth like he means business. The paintwork on the helmet is pretty crisp and the only thing to watch out for here would be the antenna jutting out the top of the back. It doesn’t seem that fragile, but I’m not sure it would survive a shelf dive.

The second cape has the wings spread and billowed out and here’s where you really get to see the underlying figure. I expected the body to be a generic buck, but you do get sculpted lines at the tops of the boots and the ends of the gauntlets. The belt is a separate piece with a holster for his boomerang on his right hip, a sculpted G-for-Gatchaman belt buckle, and a little pouch on his left hip. His left wrist is fitted with his communicator band, and he has the Gatchaman logo printed on his chest. I really can’t say enough about how great the coloring on this figure turned out. In all the memories I have of watching Battle of the Planets, I recall the show being pretty washed out, so this figure really pops for me like I’m seeing the character for the first time in high-definition.

The third wing configuration is full spread with the edges angling upward and I think this is the one best used for flight and gliding poses. I’m pretty impressed at how these heavier and wider capes hang on the figure with just the neck hole. They can even be angled pretty well for different display options.

Articulation here sticks closely to what Storm has been offering in this scale across their other lines. I’ve reviewed enough of Storm’s figures that I’m not going to run through all the articulation here, but I’ll say that I continue to really love their system of jointing as it makes for a great compromise between aesthetic and poseability. Now, with that having been said, I would have liked to see a little better range of motion in the elbows and knees, as the sculpt prevents them from bending as tight as I would like, but it’s certainly not a deal breaker for me.

You get a heaping helping of hands, six pairs in total. These include fists, relaxed, grasping, loose grasping, pointing, and a set for holding his boomerang.

The boomerang comes in two styles: One closed and one open. The closed one fits into the holster on his hip, and both can be held securely in the hands dedicated for it.

I have been super excited for this guy since the pre-order dropped and now that he’s in hand, I have to say he does not disappoint. The figure by itself is iconic enough to me as a stand alone piece, but I think Storm would be crazy not to do more of the team. They have showed off Jun the Swan (aka Princess) but no pre-order yet and it’s been a while since I’ve seen anything new on that front. Storm tends to be a little erratic when it comes to fleshing these lines out. For example Golden Axe has been going full guns, but we’ve been teased at more Streets of Rage for ages now. It seems like Joe the Condor could be an easy release with a lot of parts borrowed from Ken. I guess we’ll see. In the meantime, Ken is still available at most retailers that sell this sort of stuff and retailed for $119.

Feb 2 2024

Cosmic Legions (Gravenight): Slygor Ryz/T.U.5.C.C. Gravekeeper by The Four Horsemen

It took a little longer than I intended, but here we are finally at the last Cosmic Legions figure from the second wave! I last checked in on this line a week or so ago with the slightly disappointing Aius Cyppiteon, but I can all but guarantee you that we’re going out with a bang with today’s figure, Slygor Ryz!

As we’ve seen with the past TU5CC faction figures, Slygor can double as a specific character or as more of a troop builder. The Gravekeepers are the guards of Hvalkatar Prison’s Cell Block 5 and Slygor is their commander. But while most of the previous TU5CC figures got by with just different heads to distinguish them as separate figures, Slygor here has a lot more going on. Indeed, with so many different combinations to kit this figure out, it’s kind of hard to decide exactly how to tackle it, so let me just jump in and start with the base figure and go from there.

Slygor is built off of the same body we saw used with the TU5CC Sentry as well as the shoulder rig and belt, with added armor pieces for his hips and thighs. And while the sculpt was every bit as fabulous with that previous figure, it’s so nice to see it all lit up with some beautiful paint, as opposed to the flat grey used with the Sentry. Here we get a gorgeous metallic blue over most of the armor plates, with some black and gray hints and a few hits of silver on some of the bolts. It’s not the most complex paint scheme, but it is amazing the difference it makes in picking out all the little details in this suit. I especially love how the blue contrasts with the panels of mesh left in the bare gray plastic. It’s just lovely!

I’m going to say that Slygor’s head sculpt is probably one of the weaker efforts in this line, but that’s not to say it’s bad, but maybe just a tad generic. Honestly, I think that says more about how off the charts many of the other alien portraits have been, rather than anything negative about this one. The head is sculpted in brown plastic with some some darker brown stripes. The beady eyes are set far apart and sunken under the brow, his ears have points, and his nose is both broad and flat. No doubt, he looks like a pretty hard dude.

This shoulder rig can support the included space helmet with a large translucent purple dome. We’ve seen this helmet a few times in this series and while it looks great, I’m still not thrilled about the fit. It’s mostly held on by friction in the back and it leaves gaps down under the chin. I’m no spaceologist, but I’m pretty sure having gaps in your pressure suit is hazardous to your health. I just wish TFH had designed the way this attaches to the figure a lot more secure, especially since it’s a piece we have seen over and over again.

If you want to customize the figure as a Gravekeeper, you have two alternate heads to choose from, both of which we’ve seen included with the previous TU5CC figures. These are both really cool designs and are painted to match the rest of the suit and have removable translucent purple visors. I still get a bit of a Geth vibe off of these form Mass Effect, and that ain’t a bad thing.

You also get some larger pieces that can replace the visor: One painted to match the armor and the other cast in the same translucent plastic as the regular visor. Just on the heads alone, you could easily buy five of these figures and have different portraits for each one.

There’s an alternate shoulder rig available if you don’t want to use the one compatible with the domed space helmet. This one works with along with the two pieces of included shoulder armor and covers more of the chest. It really transforms the look of the upper body, giving it a lot more bulk, and you get a pair of hoses that can be plugged into the various ports on the figure to present a number of different display options. I tend to favor this shoulder rig for the two helmeted heads, while I like the previous one for the Slygor character, but the option is there to go whatever way you like.

As for accessories, we get some repacked stuff, but we also get some new stuff too, so that makes me happy. We get the standard rifle again, this time cast in black plastic with some gray paint hits. It feels like this weapon has been released with every other figure, but I don’t mind. it’s a great no-nonsense design, and exactly the sort of weapon I could see lined up in closet in the Prison Security Office. It definitely suits Slygor and the Gravekeepers perfectly.

You also get a Stun Club and a riot-style shield. The shield is something we just saw last time with Aius and while I wasn’t keen on it with that figure, it definitely suits the Gravekeepers a lot more. It’s got a new paint job with some alien script and symbols painted on the front. You can also swap out the front plate for a translucent purple piece and turn it into a partial energy shield.

The Stun Club is brand new and includes two different tops: One off and one with the electricity on, which is conveyed with a bit of translucent plastic lightning crackle inside it. The shaft has a bit of blue paint to match the armor and you get some black and gray pieces to further mix things up. I like this weapon a lot and it looks like it would be pretty formidable club even without the electro feature.

And finally you get a hologram insert for his gauntlet. This one is the solar system projection that we’ve seen before but recolored in translucent purple.

Wow, this figure is a huge step up from the bare bones malaise of Aius Cyppiteon. Sure, there are a lot of reused parts here, but they present us with a lot of new combinations to create what is not only a pretty fresh feeling figure, but one where you could buy a half dozen of this guy and still not be able to display him in all his various possibilities. I promised myself no army building when it comes to Cosmic Legions, but if this guy ever goes on sale through some of the online retailers that carry them, I sure would be tempted to break that promise. In the meantime, that catches me up on Cosmic Legions, so hopefully I can start chipping away at some of my Mythic Legions backlog because the latest wave is about to ship soon!

Jan 31 2024

Silverhawks Ultimates: Quicksilver and Tallyhawk by Super7

One of my biggest shortfalls in 2023 was not wrapping up my look at Super7’s Ultimates Silverhawks figures. I got sooo close, but fell one figure short. What’s worse is I promised myself I wouldn’t dig into any of the other Super7 Ultimates until I made good on this, so it’s kind of holding up a bunch of GI JOE and ThunderCats Ultimates reviews as well. So, let’s finally get caught up with the Silverhawks and check out the team’s leader himself, Quicksilver and his bird buddy, Tallyhawk!

When it comes to packaging, you know the drill by now! The figure comes in a window box with a slipcover, all done in a sumptuous silver and blue foil finish. The window allows you to see the figure and all the extras inside, and you get some character art and a little bio on the back panel. It’s all collector friendly, and I am trying to keep these boxes because they look so damn good. They also take up a lot of room, so I have since put the figure accessories in organization trays and put the empty boxes into storage for now. Yeah, that’s usually just a pitstop on the way to the garbage, but I’m going to put that off for as long as possible. Since it’s been a while, feel free to get caught up on all my Super7 Ultimate SIlverhawks reviews if you need to!

Quicksilver continues the use of a sort of satin to matte paint finish to convey the cartoon look, as opposed to the vac-metal finish of the original Kenner figures. It’s far from glossy, but not quite flat either. To me, it does a decent job at presenting the animated look, but to me the rest of the team’s blue came across as more pleasing to the eye than Quicksilver’s gray. I think the blue just gave them more to work with. With that having been said, you get the same minimalist detail for the animated style with some soft muscle definition, a few panel lines, and the belt buckle-type fixture center on his waist. The right arm is flesh tone, making up the partly real aspect of the tagline, while the left arm is completely gray. I dig it! Quicksilver has his communication bracelet, which is painted up in yellow with some additional paint apps to the controls. This is a separate piece, so it can be swapped out to the winged arms as well.

The head sculpt is a decent likeness for the animated character. I know there have been a lot of complaints about the basic level of paint on the faces here, but I don’t know how much more detail they could add and still keep that toony aesthetic. My figure has sharp lines around the face and helmet and the eyes and eyebrows are neat and tidy as well. You also get the masked head, but I found it interesting that we didn’t get a second unmasked head with this figure, since the others all came with three heads total, but I’ll hold onto that thought until the end.

As with all the Silverhawks in this line, the articulation probably looks better on paper than it actually is, and that’s because of the limited range of in many of those joints. You get a lot of rotating hinges and no double hinges, and neither the elbows or knees are capable of pulling off even 90-degree bends. Quicksilver also has a bit more limitation in the hips than his other teammates, which is odd because the construction looks about the same. The end result is something far better than retro but not quite up to the best modernity has to offer. That doesn’t bother me as much as it does others, but that may be because I knew what to expect from Ultimates going in. I will happily report no QC issues on any of Quicksilver’s joints, which was quite the relief after the nightmare that was Steelwill. As with the other figures, you get a nice selection of hands, which include fists, flying/chop hands, relaxed hands, and accessory holding.

As with the Steel Twins, Quicksilver comes with winged arms that can be swapped out at the shoulders. You can also swap out the shoulder pieces themselves to display the gun ports open or closed with or without the wings. Once again, I had no issues doing the swap here, which was quite refreshing and the wings look really good.

You get the same two laser effect pieces that came with the Steel Twins, and these plug into the shoulder ports. There’s been a lot of back and forth over whether the starbursts are supposed to represent the beam firing from the shoulders or hitting a target. Either one works, but I’m pretty sure I remember the official solicitation shots showing the starbursts as impact effects.

Of course, this set includes Tallyhawk, who was really the cartoon team’s only bird buddy until the others were finally created in Episode 24. You get two versions: One perched and one in flight. Both of these sculpts are very nice and they each include articulation in the feet and neck. The wingspan on the flight version is looks amazing!

And with Quicksilver under my wing, I’m finally caught up with reviewing the two existing waves of Super7’s Ultimate Silverhawks. I like this figure, but he feels rather light on the extras. He’s the only figure on the team to not come with a second head, and if you look at Bluegrass and Steelwill, they both came with a lot more stuff. Surely there were a few episode-specific accessories that could have been tossed in here to buff him out, because as he stands, he feels like the least value out of the whole team, and that’s not a good look for the leader!

As for the line as a whole, I freaking love these. Silverhawks was one of those franchises where I watched the cartoon but never had any of the toys and it’s damn cool to get an updated series like this. Granted, t I do think that this line has been a lot weaker than the ThunderCats, as that’s a line that tends to display more intricate sculpts and paint, with absolutely none of the QC issues I’ve had with this Silverhawks line. Yup, I’ve had some sort of QC issue on three out of the four Silverhawks, ranging from very minor to a critical break that led me to having to get a replacement figure. Meanwhile, the members of the Limbo Mob have been universally fantastic. I’m not pre-ordering the vac-metal repaints of the Silverhawks, because I don’t have the confidence that those finishes will hold up, especially around the joints, but I will consider it if they are well received when they ship. In the meantime, I do have the next wave of regular releases on pre-order, which will add Stargazer and Hot Wing to the good guys and Mumbo Jumbo and Molecular to the Limbo Mob. These figures all look great, but I would have happily traded Hot Wing for the Copper Kid and Molecular for Melodia or Hardware. Here’s hoping those two figures still get made.

By figurefanzero
2
Jan 29 2024

Masters of the Universe Origins (Cartoon Series): He-Man and Beast Man by Mattel

Here we go again! As the vintage-style MOTU Origins line winds itself down the Filmation off-shoot is just starting with more cartoon accurate versions of the characters. The last time we saw this phenomenon was when Matty Collector’s MOTU Classics gave way to the Club Grayskull’s cartoon style figures and eventually handed the whole shebang off to Super7. I really wanted to collect that line, but coming off of dropping untold amounts of monies on the superb and expansive Classics line, I just couldn’t bring myself to start all over again. Well, it doesn’t seem quite so daunting a task this time, as the figures are smaller and aren’t terribly expensive. Also, I’m not going to be aggressive about hunting down the remaining releases from the vintage-style Origins line, especially if they’re going to be Mattel Creations exclusives. So, I decided to dip in with the initial releases and see how deep I’m willing to go. The first two figures are He-Man and Beast Man, so let’s see what we got!

The cardbacks get a complete redesign, and as much as I loved the vintage-style cards, these are even more spectacular. The logo is now reflective of the cartoon’s title as HE-MAN and the Masters of the Universe and you get some very colorful and Filmationy artwork. I’m guessing there was some licensing issues with putting FILMATION on the bubble, so they did a work around with the word CARTOON in the Filmation logo colors. These packaged figures look absolutely amazing and it’s almost a shame to tear into them. I may wind up doing what I did with the vintage-style figures and pick up an extra He-Man and Skeletor to leave carded. Each figure also comes with a comic book behind them, and it’s the same comic for both figures. Let’s start with The Most Powerful Man in the Universe…

He-Man’s redesign does indeed make him look like he ready to jump off the TV screen and spout pithy PSAs at the children of the Earth. And I’ll say straightaway that I did not expect this much difference between the vintage and cartoon versions of this line. You get a whole new body that’s designed to stand taller, eschewing the squat poses of the vintage toys, while at the same time simplifying some of the details found on the original figure in favor of animation accuracy. The boot sculpts look pretty close, minus the yellow fringe, but the belt and wrist bracers are now lacking the studs. The chest harness is also smoothed out, and the red panels on the upper straps are gone. The new figure comes with two grippy hands instead of the open slap left hand, and you get a brand new scabbard for the Power Sword on his back. The articulation points are identical to the regular Origins figures and these are still modular if that sort of thing interests you. And while the size change is quite notable, it isn’t enough to prevent these new figures from using the old Origins vehicles.

I really dig the new Filmation portrait. I thought Super7’s was pretty good, but I think this simpler version nails the animation look just a bit better. The expression is fairly neutral, which is great when you’re only getting the one head. He looks determined but not mean, just like cartoon He-Man should look. I think they could have added just a bit more sculpt to the hair, but it still looks fine the way it is.

Naturally He-Man comes with his Power Sword, but not his Axe or Shield, because he didn’t use those in the cartoon. I love the fact that this is the whole sword and not the ugly vintage-style half-sword. I’m pretty sure this is repacked from one of the exclusive Origins sets and that’s fine because it looks great with this figure.

What’s not great is that Mattel didn’t include a second right hand with a hinge that would allow him to hold aloft his magic sword and say the words. I mean, for crying out loud, how hard could that have been? Instead of being able to hold it pointing straight up it can only go at an angle. It’s not a complete deal-breaker for me, but the fact that it’s such a small thing to make the figure near perfect to me, I can’t help but be frustrated by it.

You do get a second accessory, which is The Sword of Ancients, which appeared in the episode Masks of Power. Now, this is a really nice looking accessory, and I love the idea that we may be getting episode specific accessories with each figure. But, I would have gladly traded this for an extra right hand so he could strike his transformation pose. It would have used less plastic, and would have probably been cheaper. OK, I’m done bitching about that. I promise. Let’s move on to Beast Man…

Put on your shades, everyone, because we’ve got some retina-scalding orange plastic coming at ya! The cartoon version of Beast Man didn’t really have any furry detail on most of his body, so Mattel was able to use regular He-Man parts for a lot of him, and that’s fair play. It’s kind of like how I was never sure if the ThunderCats were supposed to be covered in fur or not. He’s also got the same belt and wrist bracers devoid of studs and very simple boots. The shoulder armor sports less detail and his furry chest harness is all smoothed out as well with a simplified blue emblem in the center. I think the orange plastic used for the body should have been closer to the regular Origins version, but it’s not that bad. The added blue and yellow paint accents really make this figure pop even more. If I stare at him too long I can still see him when I close my eyes.

The vintage Beast Man will never not be funny to me, because I think that figure had one of the dopiest and ugliest heads ever put on an action figure. It actually looks like it’s a bootleg of itself, and don’t try to figure that out, because it doesn’t make sense. The cartoon design took the train wreck of a face they had to work with and made it look good and the sculpt is wonderfully executed on this figure. The colors on the other hand, needed a more fleshy tone for the face and ears. It’s there, but my eyes can barely make it out among all that bright orange.

Like He-Man, Beast Man comes with two accessories, the first of with is this bugle with a string on it. I kid… it’s his whip and I really hate this accessory. It’s just a recolor of the one included with the original Origins figure. I was willing to accept that as an homage to the vintage toy, but the accessory for the Filmation style figure should have been redesigned.

On the other hand, you also get the Hover Ray that Beast Man used to move dragon eggs in The Dragon Invasion, and I love this! I have a weird affection for Filmation-style tech, whether it be from He-Man, Flash Gordon, or even Ghostbusters. I just think it all looks so cool and I hope we get a lot more of it. I actually can’t wait to get The Stasis Ray bundled with Man-At-Arms. This device really isn’t a weapon, but rather an anti-gravity field for lifting stuff, so it’s probably not as exciting as it looks, but I sure do dig it!

I picked these figures up for $20 each and I have to say I’m excited to be starting this line. I have Man-At-Arms and Skeletor in hand and I think Teela and Trap-Jaw will be next. I think He-Man is the better figure in this pair, only because Beast Man could have used a little color tweaking, but I’m still really happy with both. As for the extra sword hand… Mattel can easily fix that by putting one in with a Prince Adam figure, so let’s hope they do the right thing.

Jan 26 2024

Ultra Street Fighter II: Chun Li by Jada Toys

Last year Jada Toys came out of left field with their new line of Ultra Street Fighter II figures and blew a lot of people away. This is a company known for making cars and metal miniatures, so I don’t think anyone expected them to toss out such exceptional figures with so little experience. And yet Ryu turned out to be one of the better 6-inch scale figures I reviewed here last year, doing a lot of things better than veterans like Hasbro and Mattel. After playing around with him, I quickly decided I was going to be collecting this line, although I probably won’t be all in on the variants. I picked up two additional figures last year, but they didn’t get the spotlight here, so let’s start remedying that today with a look at Chun Li.

The packaging here goes a long way to show how much passion Jada is putting into this line, as you get a window box recreating an arcade coin-op machine with some character art at the bottom left hand corner. The window shows off the figure from the knees up, as well as most of the accessories you’re getting. The illustrated backdrop has some pixel art from one of the stages in the game, although it’s rather obscured by all the stuff. I love the health bars up top and you get a recreation of the character select screen on the back. Best of all, these boxes are totally collector friendly, and you can bet that I’m keeping them all.

While I tend to play Street Fighter III: Third Strike on my Dreamcast more than any other game in the franchise, this look for Chun Li is still about as iconic as things get for me. And boy, Jada did a great job rendering it in plastic! Chun Li’s qipao is cast in a vibrant electric blue plastic with some very fine texturing. All the trim is sculpted as well as painted in some very nice gold leaf paint with some pretty sharp lines. The lower part of the dress is cast in soft plastic and hangs down the front and back, with wide cuts in the sides so as not to try to contain those magnificent thighs. As if anything ever could! The poufy shoulders include short sleeves, which are sculpted separately from the biceps, there’s some great sculpting in the lacings of her white boots, and her spiked bracelets are separate pieces, so keep an eye on them when you swap hands! From the coloring to the sculpt, this figure just looks absolutely superb!

You get two heads to display on the figure: One serious and one shouty-serious! Both of these look great and follow the stylized game art fairly well. Punching in with the camera doesn’t do them a lot of favors as some of the paint quality breaks down the closer in you get. That’s to be expected with most figures, and it’s not something that I notice at all with the figure in hand. I think the biggest problem with paint on my figure is slop around the yellow fringe against the white covering on her oxtails. Again, not that big a deal when viewed with the naked eye, but it looks pretty bad when zoomed in. I do have a dark spot on my shouty face’s right cheek, but most of that has managed to come off with a little wiping. Yes, I would have really liked a happy victory head too, but at this price point, I think two heads is reasonable. Also, I’m pretty sure I saw somewhere that a recolored variant will include that head and if that’s true, then I’m on board!

One of the things that impressed me most about Ryu was how great the figure felt in hand and how much fun he was to pose. Well, all that is definitely the case for Chun Li as well. All the joints on this figure are solid and easy to work with, and there was nothing stuck or problematic as she came out of the box. It’s sad to have to point that out, but I’ve had a lot of issues with stuck joints on figures these days, it’s great to see Jada getting it right. They’ve done an excellent job of balancing sculpt and aesthetics with lots of useful articulation. You need only go back and look at the SOTA Chun Li to see how far we’ve come!

Chun-Li includes two sets of hands: Fists and tight-fingered chopping hands. The pegs are pretty robust and these are easy to swap out without fear of anything snapping.

The final accessories are the effect part for Chun-Li’s Hundred Lightning Kicks, which comes with its own dedicated stand. The stand is hinged at two places and plugs into the bottom of the effect piece to support it. The effect piece itself is cast in soft translucent blue plastic and you just insert Chun-Li’s foot into on of the slots and it works really well. The stand can also be repurposed to support the figure for other action poses, even though it wasn’t really intended for that purpose.

Boy do I love this line! The retail on these figures remains about $25 each, which is great for people who don’t want to sink $100 a pop into Storm Collectible’s far more premium line. I’m not about to tell you the two are in the same league, as Storm’s figures are scaled bigger and tend to have a lot more accessories. But as someone who does collect several of Storm’s series, proportionally speaking, I think the value is far better on Jada’s figures. These are incredibly fun toys that pitch perfectly capture the spirit of the game characters and are tough to put down. The amount of extras feels just right and when it comes to sculpt and coloring and overall quality, Jada is absolutely eating Hasbro’s lunch when it comes to figures in this scale. The next time I pop a quarter into this machine, we’ll check out Fei Long!

Jan 24 2024

Transformers Legacy: Pointblank and Needlenose by Hasbro

I’ve made a commitment to myself to go back and take a look at some of the Transformers I missed spotlighting here last year, and there are quite a few of them! It’s also the only way I’m going to get much Transformers content, because I’m really not interested in too much Hasbro is doing with the brand right now. Anyway, I picked up Pointblank and Needlenose when they were first released and while I remember opening them, I guess I had something else going on because they wound up bagged and toted before I even spent any serious time with them. So let’s get these two Targetmasters out have a look!

The Legacy package design sure was something! I often gripe about how bland the package design got after the live action films, but I think this was a case of overcompensation. The colors are obnoxious and nothing about this look really screams Transformers to me. Also, these are the windowless boxes that expose the toys to the elements, meaning sticky kid fingers and boogers, so it’s safe to say I’m not a fan. And I still don’t know what the added Evolution moniker was all about. Anyway, both of these guys were G1 Targetmasters with Pointblank releasing in 1987 and Needlenose was out the following year. I would have been 16 and out of the Transformers game, but I did later own an original G1 Pointblank when I got into collecting Transformers in my 30’s. I never did own an original Needlenose, so let’s start with him!

Needlenose’s alt mode is a super sleek fighter jet with a fair amount of robot bits packed into his undercarriage. And that’s not a complaint, I always like to imagine these undercarriage constructs as just meant to be cargo pods or something. The dorsal section of the aircraft has some lovely sculpted panel lines and a pale gray and dark blue deco with some teal stripes and a Decepticon insignia printed on one of his stubby wings. The design sticks pretty close to the original toy with a horizontal stabilizer added to the tail fin and some short angled wings protruding from just in front of the cockpit. Also, the cockpit is painted orange, while I think the original’s was translucent orange plastic.

Not only is Needlenose a Targetmaster, but he comes with TWO little Nebulan buddies, Sunbeam and Zigzag. These are pretty standard stuff when it comes to these little fellas. There’s no articulation in the robot modes but these are impressive sculpts for such tiny figures and the paint is pretty damn good as well. The designs don’t stray too far from the original G1 Nebulans, and Sunbeam even has a gun sculpted in his hand, just like the vintage toy.

When transformed into their weapon modes, the Nebulans can be pegged in under Needlenose’s wings to give him some serious firepower. Sunbeam turns into a stocky purple cannon, while Zigzag becomes a black double-barreled gun. I’m not a huge fan of the asymmetry here, but it’s still plenty cool.

Needlenose’s transformation is a lot more clever than I was expecting. As always, I like to do these without the instructions and it was a tad confusing at first, but once I figured it out I think it’s pretty fun. The robot mode here is a fantastic update to the vintage release, recreating the general design of the chest plate, paying homage to the stickers down in the legs, and adding some great detail to the arms. Most of the deco translates from the jet mode but with some more purple added to the mix. The proportions are also perfect, and he has all the articulation I expect from a modern Transformers figure. Yes, he is basically wearing a jet on his back, but that’s been a favorite design trope of mine ever since the Aerialbots, and I love it here just as much. The jet does truncate a bit and I dig the way the wings angle back behind the shoulders in true Seeker fashion. The large phallic nosecone hanging down between his legs is maybe a bit unfortunate, though! Or maybe it makes him extra popular with the femmebots.

The head sculpt takes the likeness from the original toy and just polishes the heck out of it. I’m a big fan of the knight’s visor motif above his eyes. The yellow face is punctuated with red eyes and most of his face is dominated by a mouth plate. Hasbro did a great job on this one!

And of course, Needlenose can wield his Nebulan guns in his robot mode as well as his jet mode and he looks all sorts of bad ass while doing it. As far as I’m concerned, Legacy Needlenose is pretty much Deluxe Class perfection. He looks fantastic in robot mode, very good in jet mode, and he’s fun to transform and play around with. This figure represents the Hasbro design team firing on all cylinders! Now, let’s move on to Pointblank!

The Autobot Enforcer’s vehicle mode got a pretty big overhaul for this modern release, while still hitting most of the design beats from the original futuristic sportscar. I think the only things I kind of miss here are the spoiler/shield piece that filled in the gap in the back (more on that in a bit) and the flame deco on the sides, but otherwise I think this is a great update, that is more elongated and sleeker than his G1 version. The red plastic looks very sharp and the teal bits are a lot more vibrant than what I remember being on my original toy. There’s a good amount of sculpted detail in the body and the addition of the translucent blue canopy over the painted one on the vintage release is a huge improvement. Most of all, I just really dig how great this car looks parked along side some of the other recent Autobot cars updates like Kup and Blur.

Pointblank comes with the Nebulan Peacemaker who is the spitting image of his G1 counterpart only with a lot better sculpted detail and a few more paint applications. The black and red plastic looks great together and I’m really impressed at the paint on his tiny face and visor, as well as the panels on his shoulders and chest.

Pointblank can equip Peacemaker in his auto mode and this does help fill out the gap left behind by the absent shield piece. It looks very good and even allows for Peacemaker’s gun barrel to angle up so he can try to take out Needlenose or any other Decepticon fliers. But, it does make for an aesthetic departure from the look of the original toy, which may irk some people. In the end, I’m fine with it.

I did not find Pointblank’s transformation to be nearly as fun as Needlenose’s. There are some fiddly things to the engineering here, not to mention the pair of ball jointed door panels that seem to pop off so often, that I resort to just popping them off on purpose to get them out of the way until I’m ready for them. Still, when all is said and done, the final robot looks fantastic… at least from the front. The translucent blue cockpit cockpit looks great on his chest, the bold shoulders with forward facing wheels is a great design, and you even get the blue kneepads present on the original toy. But, he’s kind of flat when viewed from the side and he’s quite the eyesore from the back. You get hollow leg syndrome, unfinished panels with screws in the shoulders, and just a lot of rough stuff back here. It kind of reminds me of those old Hollywood studio sets where the buildings are only finished on the side facing the camera.

The portrait is fantastic, giving the Autobot Enforcer a stoic expression. The visor is a very pale blue, which was a good choice as the coloring on the original toy often struck me as not having a visor at all. The silver face paint pops nicely and he’s got a single fin cresting from the top of his “helmet.”

Naturally, Peacemaker becomes Pointblank’s weapon in robot mode as well as car mode, and while he is a tad chunky, he gets the job done. Even with all that nasty business in the back, Pointblank is still a very cool figure and a superb update to the G1 toy. He does suffer from a fiddly transformation, and those door panels popping off gets really annoying, but his two very solid modes help smooth things out with me.

Wow, I’m glad I dug these guys out and finally gave them their due, because these are both really great figures and just lovely updates. But, if you want me to pick favorites, I’m going to give Needlenose the nod as the better of these two figures. Overall, he seems a bit more polished and comes with two Nebulans instead of just one. I also like transforming him a lot more than I do Pointblank. But I’d still recommend Pointblank as a pick up, and these two have been chasing each other around my desk for the better part of a week now.