Dec 11 2023

Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron AT-AT Walker (Hoth) by Jazwares

It’s the middle of December and you know what that means? Cold and snowy scenes! Well, not where I am in Florida, but all the more reason to turn to snow to evoke the Christmas Spirit! And I’ll be going with that theme a few times as we march toward Christmas! And today’s review is actually even more Christmas related, because the original Kenner AT-AT Walker was probably one of the most memorable toys I can remember opening on a Christmas morning and I have fond memories of dragging it out into the snowy backyard and playing with it until my face nearly froze off. Granted, today’s offering is a lot smaller than that one, but nonetheless still pretty cool!

I really dig the packaging Jazwares uses for this line. It consists of a huge window showing the toy against an illustrated battle scene. The included mini-figures and Speeder Bike are also displayed front and center, and you get some snappy foil on the box too! And it’s a sizeable box for a toy released as part of a MICRO Squadron. The box also calls out some of the toys features, including the electronics. Sadly, there is no Try Me feature, and you’ll have to supply your own batteries. Everything is collector friendly and the Walker comes out fully assembled. I will likely display this little beast in the packaging because it looks so damn good in it. Let’s have a look at the little figures first.

There are five figures included with this set: General Veers, Luke Skywalker, an AT-AT Driver, and two Snowtroopers. It’s a good assortment, but I really wish Jazwares could have squeezed one more figure in there to give us two Drivers. And if not, I’d rather have had another Driver than Luke, since we got a similar version of him with the Snowspeeder. Either way, bigger vehicles like this make a strong case for Jazwares to release figure packs, but I don’t think that’s likely to happen. Anyway, the detail on these little guys is really good considering their size. You even get some dirty wash on the Snowtroopers, and little details like Veer’s rank insignia. Even the Imperial emblems printed on the Driver’s helmet are better than the ones on my 6-inch Black Series figure, and that’s pretty impressive. As usual, you get four points of articulation on each figure, allowing them to sit and move their arms at the shoulders.

The AT-AT looks spectacular, and this toy really gives me a sense of being a shrunken down version of the big AT-AT Hasbro did a short while back. The Micro Galaxy line continues to deliver on some very detailed sculpts even on the smaller ships, so they were able to really go nuts on this one given the bigger canvas they had to work with. The armor is covered with panel lines, vents, and other bits and bobs with only some exposed screws on the interior of the legs to muddy the realism. Much of the toy is left in pale gray plastic, which looks great with a bit of understated weathering. I can’t emphasize that enough, because the heavy handed dirt and weathering on the Endor release made that one an easy skip for me.

If you’ve handled Kenner or Hasbro’s AT-AT toys, the articulation here should be readily familiar. You get strong rotating joints where the legs meet the body and again at the knees and ankles. The leg joints hold fast and make this a fun toy to pose and play with. You also get jointing in the neck tube, which is covered with a soft rubbery plastic. The cheek guns can rotate just like on the older toys. There are buttons on the front side and top which will activate the electronics. This includes lights in the cockpit, voice clips from The Empire Strikes Back, laser blasts, and the stomping and whirring of the leg motors. The sampling is all very loud and clear and I think it really adds a lot of value to the toy.

Both the head and body can be opened to reveal interior play areas. The interior of the head really reminds me of Hasbro’s big boy, as it has room for two Drivers and a place behind the seats for Veers to stand, along with a clip to hold him in place. It’s a great use of space with some nice detail to the controls. It’s just a shame that one of those Driver seats will always be vacant.

The body section opens up completely by lifting off part of the roof and side. I really wish Hasbro’s did this with theirs, as it gives better access to the interior, which in this case includes three areas: An upper seating area for the assault troops, a garage for up to four Speeder Bikes, and a deploying area with light up computer stations.

There are no less than ten seats in the upper area, plus room for officers to stand and brief the troops. Again, it’s sad that I’ll never have enough figures to fill this, but if this Walker ever drops in price like the Falcon did, I’d be down for at least one more. But that won’t even fill one side of these chairs!

Like the big Hasbro toy, this one also has a winch that can be lowered and in this case it makes for a good way to deploy the Speeder Bikes to the ground or raise cargo up to the interior. The speeder looks like it’s the same one that was available in the small mystery boxes. Again, lots of nice detail for such a tiny toy and it seats a figure really well. It also comes with a tiny stand. I should note that you also get a grapple hook for Luke to climb up and plant his detonator, but I didn’t bother much with it because the string is too long and he just winds up dragging on the ground.

I have to admit, at $60 I had my doubts about this thing, but once I had it in hand I was completely sold on it. Indeed, I think it’s safe to say that Jazwares has produced one of the best AT-AT Walker toys ever made. Sure, it’s hard to compete with the appeal of the ones that can hold 3 3/4-inch figures, but the amount of detail and play value that Jazwares packed into this toy really makes it stand out as an absolute gem. The detail and finish on it makes it a perfect display model for your desk or shelf, while still having all the interactivity of a truly fun playset. And considering what the big ones go for these days, $60 for this beauty ain’t so bad.

Dec 8 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Croc Master and Fiona by Hasbro

I’ve mentioned a few times before that Classified is moving into lesser known territory for me and starting to release figures based on characters that came out after I had sort of grown out of GI JOE. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m not familiar with these characters, indeed I wound up picking up the 25th Anniversary figures of a lot of them as an adult collector. It just means that I don’t have the same childhood nostalgia for these. And Croc Master definitely fits that bill. Cobra’s reptile trainer first hit the shelves around 1987-88. I was 15 and my life was all about watching Star Trek and Doctor Who, and less about playing with toys. He was also too late to be featured in the Sunbow cartoon, so as cool as he was, he was an unknown to me. But that’s not to say I’m not absolutely chuffed to get him!

Croc Master, founder of the ill-conceived “let’s use giant reptiles instead of dogs for security as a business model” Guard Gators, Inc., comes as a Deluxe set in a big window box and bundled with Fiona, his pet croc and a bunch of accessories. This set makes a good argument in favor of the window boxes, because you really do get to see all the cool stuff you’re getting in here and the toys look great against the crimson Cobra artwork printed on the cardboard backer. Let’s take a look at Croc Master first…

Oh yeah! By 1987 Cobra was really committing to becoming a right bunch of glorious weirdos. Maybe they were just embracing their newly discovered Cobra-La origins. Either way, Croc Master is practically the poster child for this new Cobra, looking every bit like DC Comics’ Bane with a reptile fetish. This guy is jacked and more than a little bit terrifying. His croc-skinned onesie is punctuated in the middle by a silver and yellow belt with one giant croc eye painted on the buckle. He’s got black trousers, reptile boots, and a brown holster and sheath strapped to his legs. One bold silver arm bracer is locked around his right forearm while a coiled reptile skin one adorns his left. I really dig the sculpted Cobra medallion on his chest and the painting and detail on the croc skin shirt is just superbly done. You can call him goofy, but don’t try to tell me you wouldn’t be shitting your pants if this guy came running at you in the middle of a swamp.

The head sculpt really drives home that Bane flavor. Croc Master has a form-fitting black hood with a giant silver breather mask covering his mouth and nose. There’s a black hose that leads off the side and connects to a horizontal canister across his back. Maybe this is oxygen so he can lie in wait under the water, but I’d like to think that this is just so he can breath horrible swamp gas wherever he goes. The deep crimson eyes contribute nicely to the intimidation factor here.

Croc’s more normal accessories consist of a fighting knife and a pistol, each of which can be stored on his person in the sheath and holster. The pig-sticker is mostly bare gray plastic, but it does have some green paint on the wrapped handle, giving it a bit of personality.

The pistol is a beefy, all black magnum revolver, which I think suits him pretty well. It’s fun to imagine that when he pulls this and shoots you, he’s just going for the knees because he wants you alive and screaming when his crocs eat you.

Similarly, his giant hook is likely embedded into your flesh so he can drag you back to the Croc Pens, Leatherface style, and drop you in. Yeah, this was a great idea for an accessory! There are a lot of horror elements tied up with this guy.

And his final accessory is a big coiled whip. This is a cool accessory, but I find it disappointing to think that Croc Master whips his beloved crocs. Then again, he is a bad guy, so he probably does. The whip is cast in soft plastic, but it pretty much stays with the end coiled up, which works better for posing than it does play.

And then there’s Fiona, which is a hell of a pack in, as it uses more plastic than Croc Master himself. And hey, if you’re in the market for a 6-inch scale croc, Fiona is the girl for you! The sculpted detail on this beast is absolutely gorgeous with every inch of her covered in scales or rough textured skin. Her legs are articulated with rotating hinges at the ankles and again where they meet the body. She also has points at the base of the tail and at the neck.

Of course, the upper jaw is articulated and she can open up nice and wide to better showcase those lovely teeth. Look at them snappers! This is an all around amazing toy and I can pretty much guarantee that my Hasbro Indiana Jones will be meeting Fiona at some point or another.

Croc also has a spiked collar and leash for Fiona. The whole thing is cast in soft plastic and the collar fits right over her head so he can better keep her under control.

And last but not least, Hasbro threw in too little baby crocs: One green and one albino! These are just simple static pieces, but oh so damn adorable! Why did they bother including these? I don’t know, but I’m glad they did!

Croc Master was released quite a while ago, so he’s one of those figures that has been languishing on my backlog for bit. I’m glad I finally got around to opening him, because this is an absolutely killer set, no pun intended. Croc Master himself is a fun design with some great paint and detail, but Fiona comes pretty close to stealing the show here while offering a lot of crossover potential for other toy lines in this scale. He was originally released at around $40, which is a damn fine value for what you’re getting, but nowadays you can find him for even less online. At some point, he may even drop low enough for me to pick up a second set just for another Fiona!

Dec 6 2023

Cosmic Legions (Gravenight): Kanoxx Vull by The Four Horsemen

Welcome back to Hvalkatar Prison, a den of aliens, intrigue, and vicious gladiatorial fights! Today, I’m pressing on with my look at the second wave of Cosmic Legions and I must say I’m having a blast with these figures! This time, Gravenight offers up another one of the unlucky alien contestants with Kanoxx Vull. And I have to say, based on his appearance, I wouldn’t bet against this guy in a fight!

Vull comes in the now familiar window box with some character specific art on the front and some blurbs about him and the overall narrative on the side panels. His species is called The Raseeris and he hails from a colony of laborers called The Red Spiral. His background reminds me a lot of Kraggnar from the first wave, in that he’s not necessarily a bad guy, just another unfortunate alien being used in the fights because he happens to be an intimidating bruiser.

Vull kind of looks like a buff Grimace that’s been assimilated by the Borg and I’m here for that! He’s got a rough-textured purple skin, which is exposed on his upper chest, arms, hands, legs, and right foot, while his lower left leg has been completely replaced with an artificial limb. He sports some coppery armor around his waist, which extends in segments upward to cover his abs, plus he has some silver armor up on his shoulders and around his neck. Some of his accoutrement appears to be life support, as he has hoses running from the cylinder on his back to his hip, another from his hip to his artificial leg, and a big one feeding out of the back canister and into the side of his face. Then again, these may just be there to buff his cool factor. We also get a bit of fuzzy softgoods around his unmentionables.

The detail work in the artificial limb is excellent. The foot is sculpted with what looks like articulation in the toes, but alas these are static. I dig the little pistons and wires and it supports the figure just fine. I should mention that both of the hoses that lead into the hip pieces sometimes fall out when posing, and I may wind up just gluing them in place, because there’s really no need for me to ever remove them.

As usual, you get two heads, one with a passive expression and one with a more fierce one. Vull’s facial features reminds me of some of the designs from the old Oddworld games and that ain’t a bad thing. He’s got no visible nose and a broad mouth. Hey, did you know Kanoxx Vull has no nose? Really, how does he smell? AWFUL! OK… Full disclosure, I think this guy probably smells like lavendar and cosmoline. The right side of his face has one red beady eye while the left side has some cybernetic elements and an ocular implant with a blue lens. The wide hose that feeds into the side of his face stays put pretty well, but it does inhibit his ability to turn his head to the right without it pulling out. The antenna is made of soft bendy plastic to keep it from snapping, but that gives it a natural curve.

The other face is pissed off Vull and makes for quite a statement. His mouth is opened to expose a wall of jagged sharp teeth, his brow is crinkled up, and he just looks like he’s about to put his opponent through the wall. It’s a wonderfully expressive piece of work and I love it!

As for accessories, Vull comes with very little, and I’m guessing that’s because a lot of extra sculpting and plastic went into his cybernetics, hoses, and armor. I was actually expecting him to be an Ogre Class figure because of the lack of accessories, but he’s just normal sized. Anyway, his one accessory is a rather large spiked mace, and while the shaft has a polished industrial look to it, the spiked head feels like it’s right out of Mythic Legions. I do love me a spiked ball on a stick, but I think a little more imagination could have gone into Vull’s weapon, especially since he’s only got one.

Kanoxx Vull is an extremely cool looking figure and even among a line of alien weirdos, he still manages to invoke a lot of personality and individualism. The sculpt and character design gel really well together on this guy and the paint and colors are quite striking. With that having been said, Vull feels like he has one foot in the Mythic Legions line and one in the Cosmic Legions line. I’m not sure if there are Mythic Legions parts in here, but his bare body parts could certainly pass for Orc flesh, plus the fuzzy diaper and mace both look like they were pulled right out of Mythoss. Not necessarily a bad thing, though, and the cybernetic bits certainly help to carry the day.

Dec 4 2023

Playmobil A-Team (#70750)

As some of you may know, Playmobil was a big deal for me as a kid. Whether it be space explorers, pirates, or cowboys, Playmobil sets were some of my most played with toys… at least until Star Wars came around. But licensed Playmobil sets are a relatively new thing thing, and in some cases the license pairing can be downright bizarre. I’ve already checked out Playmobil Ghostbusters, Scooby-Doo, and Star Trek, and this time we’re having a look at a certain crack commando unit that was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. If you have a problem… if no one else can help… and if you can find them in the toy aisle of your local retailer… maybe you can purchase… The Playmobil A-Team!

I mean, HOLY SHIT! Right? Sure, the A-Team was good natured 80’s prime-time TV fun (not to mention a surprisingly good remake-movie), but it sure as hell wasn’t a kid show. It dealt with violence, mental illness, vigilantism, PTSD, and a whole lot of crap I wouldn’t expect Playmobil to tackle, and yet here we are! Set #70750 delivers an entire set of A-Team figures along with their iconic van, and a bunch of accessories. I love it when a playmo-plan comes together!

The figures come on this really cool cardboard tray that doubles as a display. The A-Team logo is printed in the middle and there’s a compartment for each figure with the character’s name printed beside it. Let’s have a look at the figures!

Hannibal is just an adorable little George Peppard with his distinguished coif of white hair and a popped collar on his jacket. There’s some crisp printing depicting the pockets on his jacket and the buttons down his shirt, as well as his belt. The only thing missing is a little cigar, which I guess was a step too far for Playmobil. As for B. A. Baracus, well I pity the fool who don’t dig this figure. He has a full sculpted beard and mohawk, gold bracelets on his wrists, a gold necklace around his neck, and lots more gold printed onto his denim jacket. They even get the red stripes on his athletic socks on there. There isn’t much going on on their backs, but as we’ll see in a minute, the budget for back-printing got spent elsewhere.

The second half of the team is made up of Templeton “Faceman” Peck and Howling Mad Murdock. Face is probably the least recognizable of the bunch, although he does have his blue blazer, khaki pants, and feathery coif of patented Dirk Benedict hair. But holy crap, did they go all out for Dwight Schultz’s Murdock! He has his signature blue ballcap as well as his Da Nang Tiger jacket. Seeing that jacket on an official Playmobil figure may very well be both the single most charming and terrifying thing I have ever witnessed. He also has his sock puppet, which is just another chef’s kiss for this figure!

And of course, you have the iconic black van with the red stripe, which is incredibly enough just a repaint and kit-bash of Scooby-Doo’s Mystery Machine. The body is the same, but you get a new roof piece, complete with rear spoiler, and a ramming bar on the front. The tires are rubber and the wheels are bright red, you also get some spot lights on the roof and license plate stickers for the front and back. The back doors open and there’s an opening side door as well. My only gripe here is that there are no plastic windows in the back, which was also my one beef with The Mystery Machine.

The top of the cab opens to put figure sin the front seats and the roof lifts off to give access to the rear compartment. There’s even a spot on the dash for the B.A.’s two included milk cartons.

The rear compartment has three chairs, allowing this vehicle to comfortably sit five figures. There’s an equipment bench in place of The Mystery Machine’s computer. Here, there’s a peg board to clip on and store some of the accessories, including a flashlight, binoculars, a pack of dynamite, and two walkie-talkies. There are also a pair of PDA with stickers showing the schematics for the van and a third with a sticker showing a reel-to-reel tape recorder. One of these can be displayed on the bench and the others can slide in for storage. It’s an interesting mix of modern and retro technology to say the least!

B.A. comes with his toolbox, which he guards closely because YOU SHOULD NEVER MESS WITH ANOTHER MAN’S TOOLS! He also comes with a welding torch and tank, which can mount inside the van beside one of the seats. Who gets to sit next to that tank when people are shooting at them?

Wow is this a fun and unexpected set! As I mentioned in the opening, this is one of the most adult-orientated sets we’ve seen out of Playmobil and it makes me wonder what their limits are. It’s also not a cheap set, but that’s been the case with some of the more obscure licensed releases they’ve done. With an MSRP of $89.99, this one was going to be a pass for me, but it went up for half off on Cyber Monday, so I couldn’t resist. It’s pretty steep, considering the Mystery Machine typically retails for $25 less and included electronics. Still, you do get four figures, a cool vehicle, lots of accessories, and literally the only A-Team toys on the market since Jazwares put out a line for the 2010 reboot movie. And it sure is a conversation piece!

By figurefanzero
2
Dec 1 2023

Batman (1966 Retro Series): Batman & Robin and The Batmobile by McFarlane

I have so much McFarlane stuff to look at, it’s really going to have to become a semi-weekly thing next year. There’s Retro 66 Batman, DC Multiverse, Warhammer 40k… I mean, holy crap I really went ham on these lines in 2024. I already dipped into the Retro 66 Batman pool a short while ago with a look at Boxing Batman and Riddler, but today I’m going to go back to basics by checking out the Dynamic Duo and their bitchin ride. Let’s start with the figures…

I won’t gas on and on about what the 66 Batman TV Series meant to me, as I already did that in the above referenced review. I will point out that I’m looking at the re-issues of this pair, as the originals sold out a while ago and climbed to some crazy prices on the aftermarket. I actually decided to skip the line entirely because of that, but Todd got smart and made them available again. I don’t know if there’s any differences in the packaging, but it looks to be pretty much the same. The front of the cards are generic, but the back have some character specific pictures. It’s a bright and colorful presentation, just like the show, but it also kind of leans toward that deliciously cheap rack toy motif that I find irresistible and makes me want to keep them carded. And so I picked up doubles of just these two to have carded examples of the line. We’ve pretty much seen a lot of this Batman figure when I looked at the Boxer variant from the episode Ring Around The Riddler, so I’m just going to tackle both of these figures together…

McFarlane is calling these Retro figures, but they really don’t match the styling and poseability of any vintage figures that I remember. The sculpts are certainly modern and all around quite excellent, so I think the retro moniker which means they have less articulation than the DC Multiverse. But we aren’t talking 5-POA here. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, single hinges in the elbows, and rotatin in the wrists. There’s an old-timey T-crotch for the hips, but you get hinges in the knees. The necks are ball jointed and you get a swivel in the waists. Really, the only thing keeping them from fully modern articulation are what’s missing in the ankles and torso, and maybe some bicep swivels.

As for styling, I think the only thing that detracts from Batman is the bulk of his utility belt, otherwise everything looks fantastic. But surprisingly, I think Robin is the real winner here. His costume just looks so damn on point with some wonderful sculpting flares like the tops of his boots and the fasteners running down the center of his tunic. Both figures have super sharp paint and the colors really pop. I think my biggest gripe with both figures are the capes are a little on the cheap side. But hey… RETRO! Throw that word into your toy line and it can explain anything away as intentional!

As for the head sculpts, both are decent, but again I think Robin comes out on top. Neither are slam dunks in terms of likeness, but I see a lot more of Burt Ward in Robin than I do Adam West in Batman. But, toss in the iconic cowl and mask and it works just fine. I think it’s the depth of sculpt on Robin that impresses me more. The way his domino mask looks like it’s actually sculpted onto the head with the eyes fully sculpted and painted behind it just looks superb. The paint doesn’t hold up quite as nicely when you punch in really close with the camera, but it looks fine in hand.

As for accessories, you get comic-style punching effects that clip onto the figure’s wrists, just like we saw with the Boxing figures. Batman comes with POW!! and KAPOW! and Robin comes with BAM! and WHAMM!! and I appreciate what they were going for here, but I would have rather had figure stands or actual accessories like batarangs, bat grapple hooks, etc. Mattel’s 66 Batman line combined these familiar comic visuals with the figure stands and that was a good idea, but it’s not like McFarlane could have copied that.

I dig these figures a lot and there’s a lot of give and take if I’m comparing them to the older Mattel line. Obviously the articulation is more limited, but I think the sculpts and coloring are either on par or in some cases better. They look so iconic together and display really well on the shelf. But how about that Batmobile…

So let me just say straightaway that McFarlane’s 66 Batmobile is a step down in every conceivable way from Mattel’s release. But to be fair Mattel’s version was an absolute gem of a toy. Even when I off-loaded most of Mattel’s 66 Batman line in one of my seasonal toy purges, I couldn’t bring myself to part with that Batmobile and the Batman & Robin (and Batgirl) figures. That does not mean that McFarlane’s is bad, but there are aspects of it that really push the whole retro toy concept and that’s found mainly in how small it scales to the figures. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The Batmobile comes in some of the absolute worst packaging I could imagine: A box that leaves the toy completely open to the elements. If you buy this in the store there are probably boogers stuck to it. People have coughed on it. And there are probably sticky gummi-worm finger prints on it. This is awful packaging and it should be outlawed by the Hague Convention on the Just and Humane Treatment of Toys. That having been said, mine came from a reputable online retailer and it arrived clean and unscathed.

The sculpt here is pretty nice, and like Mattel’s it is a big plastic shell rolling on wheels, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You get a subdued black plastic sheen on the body with the right amount of red trim and the bat emblems printed on the doors. The front and back canopy pieces are clear plastic with just a bit of frost to them and just about all the added sculpted bits to the top, like the exhaust pipes and aerials are cast in very soft rubber. It’s understandable, but there are lots of potential problems when you consider the open packaging and the possibility of them warping. Overall, the pieces on mine look fairly straight and I’m glad for that. The backside has the sculpted parachute pouches, which is a great touch, but that turbine is just itching for a flame effect part that wasn’t included.

The interior has a lot of detail, but again comes up short when compared to Mattel’s. Still, you get some detailed cushions sculpted on the seats, the Bat Fire Extinguisher and Bat Phone, both in red plastic, and some gauges and a shifter handle, as well as the handle protruding from the roof bar. This all looks pretty good.

It’s really the scale here that is such a downer. The figures are a tough fit, and they look way too big for it. The roof bar is at their shoulder line and their heads wind up just above the windscreen. So, here’s where that retro moniker really works as an all-excuses pass, because the scaling here really is pretty close to the scaling between MEGO’s vintage Batmobile and the figures in the line. And admittedly, there’s certainly some relative charm to it, especially if you’re like me and grew up playing with those toys. Honestly, the scaling here is actually a little better than what we saw with MEGO’s toys, but that’s still a pretty flimsy excuse to make an under-sized Batmobile.

In all fairness, I knew about the size thing when I bought the Batmobile. I was originally going to just use the Mattel one to display with these figures, but then I decided I was going all in with this line, so I picked it up. With a $30 MSRP, it’s almost half the price of the Mattel Batmobile, and that’s not counting for inflation on a toy that came out about eight years ago. Granted, I got my Mattel Batmobile on clearance for $22, but that was just a really lucky grab! Knowing what I was getting going in, I’m not at all sorry I picked it up, but if you do already own the Mattel version, you may want to give this one a pass! On the other hand, that toy is going for quite a bit these days so this might be a decent cheaper alternative, especially if you just want a Batmobile to display on your shelf. It’s one of those give-and-take scenerios. I am excited to see how this will look with McFarlane’s Batcave playset when I eventually get to opening it. But next time I revisit this line, we’ll check out some of Batman’s Rogue Gallery!

Nov 29 2023

G. I. JOE Classified: Buzzer by Hasbro

One thing I was very thankful for this past Thanksgiving week was the arrival of some choccy donut chomping, grape soda slurping ruffians in the form of some Classified Dreadnoks. Well, at least Buzzer and Ripper. And as the great philsopher Meat Loaf once said, two outta three ain’t bad. Even as I was starting to drift away from GI JOE around 85 and 86, Zartan and the Dreadnoks captured my imagination, mostly thanks to their wonderful debut in the Revenge of Cobra miniseries. Boy was I excited for these guys in Classified!

Buzzer comes in the now standard plastic-free fully enclosed box. Word is that Hasbro is going back to window boxes, but so far I’ve only seen evidence of that with the upcoming release of the Deluxe Mutt and Junkyard set. I’ve said before I like this packaging and I’d be happy if they stuck with it, but chances are I’ll only be keeping the cardboard footlockers and eventually ditching the boxes. Buzzer was my favorite of the original three Dreadnoks, but I couldn’t write you an argument as to why I favored him as a kid. I just did, and still do.

And just as I hoped and expected, Classified Buzzer hits all the familiar beats of the original RAH figure with enough added detail to bring him up to date with modernity. The khaki button down has ragged cuts where the sleeves were and a plunging neckline to show his manly hooligan chesticles. You get a right side shoulder strap with some sculpted grenades, one pineapple and one cannister, and these look almost good enough to fool me into thinking they’re removable. He has a badge and some dog tags on the left side of his chest, brown gloves, a wristwatch, and just check out that bitchin’ silver skull and crossbones belt buckle. So cool! The trousers are blue, he has thigh armor with integral holster and sheath, knee guards, and some kicking brown boots. The sculpt here is great and while the colors are a bit more muted than the RAH figure, the deco still works as a faithful homage.

The wrist watch is on a wide band and it’s removable. I also dig the tattoo on his left bicep. The tat is a beautiful update to the simple stamp on the RAH figure and it’s been relocated from the front of the bicep to the side, which feels more appropriate.

The head sculpt is also excellent even if I feel it strays quite a bit from the vintage influences. There’s a wee bit more Sunbow in here and a good bit of James Marsters as Spike from the Buffy TV series, and I sure ain’t hating it. He’s got some chiseled lines in his sunken cheeks, a cleft chin, and a prominent brow. His blonde hair is sculpted in a tight fashion, pulled into a ponytail in the back. This portrait works more as a dangerous villain than the clowning hooligan from the cartoon and I dig it a lot. And then there are the glasses…

For a company that gave us some absolutely incredibly 6-inch scale specs in the Indiana Jones line, these are kind of rough and disappointing. And it’s not that they look bad, but they just don’t fit the figure well, nor do they stay on. And that’s because there’s no design mechanism to keep them in place. They’re sort of supposed to tuck behind the ears, but they really don’t. The best I could get was for the left arm be flush with the head and the right arm popping off to the side. I may wind up gluing these to the figure and if I do that I’ll hope to pick up a second Buzzer on clearance down the road. Either way, this should have been done better. With that said, let’s check out his weaponry… And we’ll start big and work our way down…

They don’t call him Buzzer for nothing! This malicious miscreant comes with his trademark chainsaw. It’s a menacing looking bit of hardware with a black casing and silver blade. The casing and motor has some really nice sculpted detail, as does the chain on the blade. The final piece is missing some of the silver paint hits shown on the package rendering, but it does add some flat gray plastic parts, which I think makes up for it. Buzzer’s left hand isn’t quite positioned perfectly to make use of the grab bar, but he can make it work. The only thing disappointing here is that he doesn’t come with the Alice-Frame mounted gas can that the vintage figure had. I’m not sure how Hasbro missed that, but it’s another bit of disappointment to add to Buzzer. Also, since they didn’t include the gas can backpack, I would have loved to see a peg on the chainsaw so he could wear it on his back.

Buzzer also comes with an update to the RAH figure’s weird chain axe weapon. I consider this to be pretty iconic for him too, and Hasbro did a decent job with it. The chain is just sculpted plastic, but you get some sculpted wrappings around the handle. A real chain would have been preferred, but I still like this weapon a lot.

Another interesting piece for his custom arsenal is this baseball bat with two serrated axe blades mounted to it. I’m not sure if this is a weapon included with a later version of the figure or just something Hasbro made up for Classified, but I heartedly approve. I love the idea that the Dreadnoks spend their downtime in a garage bolting together various bits to come up with crazy new murder implements. The bat is black, the blades are painted silver and you get some silver paint on the handle wrappings. It’s pretty bad-ass!

And lastly we come to the two more conventional weapons: A fighting knife and an automatic pistol. The pistol is a compact little piece cast in black plastic. I guess when you carry around blades on chains and baseball bat axes, you don’t need to make a statement with your sidearm. It has good sculpted detail and even some painted wraps around the grip, which is a surprisingly nice little touch.

The knife is simple, but looks good. Hasbro ponied up for some silver paint on the blade, which is always a welcome treat. Both the knife and pistol are the only accessories that he can store on his person.

Buzzer is a really good figure with a few missed opportunities. I love everything about the figure itself, but it’s hard to imagine how Hasbro thought the glasses were supposed to work. As I said earlier, I may just wind up gluing them on, but I’m going to wait to see if I can find a second Buzzer on clearance down the road. The missing gas can is also a shame, but an easy fix for that would be to include it as an accessory with a Dreadnok motorcycle release later on. I don’t really think that will happen, but it would be an easy re-sculpt using parts from some of bikes released in the Marvel Legends line and I’m pretty sure it would sell. A set of three Dreadnok bikes and accessories as a HasLab? Yeah, that might work.

Nov 27 2023

Cosmic Legions (Gravenight): Mbyra Jmgyra by The Four Horsemen

Welcome back, Toyhounds! I’m back from my little Thanksgiving break and have completed the first lap of my personal marathon of crippling holiday depression! I hope you all had a peaceful and pleasant time, and I’m ready to get back to some toy talk. Last week I started looking at the new wave of Cosmic Legions with the random pick of Noveunn Leen. It was a strong start to the assortment and a fantastic figure! This time I’m selecting a specific figure, Mbyra Jmgyra, because in the Cosmic Legions narrative, she’s a fellow member of The Bleeder’s Guild and sometime partner of Noveunn.

I still haven’t decided whether or not to keep these boxes, but chances are they will eventually get downsized to the trash for lack of space. I like them better than the card and bubbles of Mythic Legions, but I’m still not crazy about the extras kept on the inside of the tray. It’s stylish and all, but it makes them difficult to get to. As for Mbyra, well thankfully I do written reviews and not videos so I don’t have to worry about pronouncing her name correctly, but I’m going with Embiera Jimgiera. She is classified as a member of the Scorrox race, which as we’ll see have some interesting characteristics. We’ll also see that I found much of this figure to be cool ideas in theory, but kind of problematic for the figure.

Mbyra is certainly a distinctive looking lady and I do love the overall design. She likes to show a lot of skin with her metallic green armor consisting of two shoulders pieces, an upper chest, forearm bracers, lower grieves, and some hanging plates around her brown belt. The armor is very cool and has an almost floral motif to its sculpting and pattern. It also has what look like jump jets located behind the knees, something we’ve seen on some of the wave one figures. Also pretty noteworthy is the long scorpion-like tail that hangs down from the back of Mbyra’s head and ends in a rather nasty looking sting. There sure are some imaginative beats on this body, but I can’t say I’m impressed with everything.

One of her more interesting features is her semi-transparent skin. Yeah, The Four Horsemen went with a heavily orange tinted, semi-transparent plastic for her arms, legs, hands, feet, and mid-riff. It was a surprise to me when I got the figure, as I didn’t really notice it in the solicitation photos. And to be honest, I’m not really sold on it. It makes for a nice, vibrant glow under the right light, but it comes off to me as cheap looking in the hand. I was worried about it creating problems with the joints, but to it’s credit that wasn’t the case. It does however make for some mangled fingers on the extra hands, which are super soft and bent. I did have problems with the shoulder pieces, they were ridiculously tough to get pegged in and yet the right one pops out at the slightest manipulation of the arm. Finally, the scorpion head-tail is a cool idea, but it’s a stagnant piece that relies on an added bump in the back to keep it in check and it severely curtails the articulation of the neck. It’s a shame this piece couldn’t have been jointed.

You get two head sculpts, with the tail and cheek piece being shared between them and it can be tough to get that whole shebang to slot around the head securely. Still, when it is done right, it’s neat how it isn’t readily noticeable as being a separate piece. The portrait has some nice things going for it, with the top of the head resembling a scorpion carapace and the side pieces influenced by their claws. It’s all cast in the same type of plastic as the body and the face is painted in an off-white with bright green eyes and red lips. It’s not as impressive a head sculpt to me as what we’ve seen in the past, but it’s different and certainly not bad. I will say that seeing the orange of the head framed by the green of the armor makes for quite a strikingly beautiful color combination.

The alternate head has an angry expression with her mouth showing off some pointy teeth and just an overall scowl on her face. It’s a very expressive alternative good for fierce battle poses. The open mouth isn’t as convincing as we’ve seen with some of the other figures in terms of depth, but it still looks good. This may be the one I go with the most for display. So, how about weapons? Are we going to see some new ones?

Sort of. Like Noveunn, the only new piece we get is a plug-in for the gauntlet and in this case it’s a curved blade. It’s actually a very cool addition and it looks right at home on the figure. I actually like it a lot more than Noveunn’s rocket. Pity we didn’t get two of them.

As for the rest, Mbyra favors the weapons issued with the Sphexxians from the first wave, so for starters you get the big alien blaster rifle. I absolutely love the sculpting and design of this piece and it fits the character really well, but I’m just convinced that it’s too big and ungainly to really work with the articulation style of these figures. It’s hard to get her to hold it all that convincingly. Also, what I think was supposed to be the trigger-finger right hand was mangled so badly because of the super soft plastic, I have to resort to her regular gripping hand to hold the rifle. At least she’s practicing proper trigger discipline. The deco for the weapon gives it a nice coppery sheen and really brings out all the detail in the sculpt. The power nodules are painted metallic purple.

The other weapon is the Electrostaff. I like this one a lot too, and once again I think it suits the character really well. The staff is painted to match the rifle and you get silver paint on the blades. Maybe it would have helped if TFH had included an energy effect part or something in this wave to help add a little something to a weapon we’ve already seen quite a few times. It’s worth mentioning that going All-In on this wave included a bonus accessory pack and I also got an extra bag of parts, both of which I may check out when I get through all the figures, but it’s a shame they couldn’t bundle some of those new pieces with the figures.

Obviously, I have a few issues with this figure, but that doesn’t mean I hate or even dislike Mbyra. She’s pretty cool and very distinctive, but I think she may be the weakest figure in the line so far. At least for me. The translucent plastic really does look decent under the right lighting, but in hand and on the shelf, it just doesn’t look that great to me, and I would have rather it just have been regular painted plastic for the skin. Working out even some basic articulation in the tail would have also gone a long way to make her more fun to play around with. The armor looks great, but having the shoulder piece falling out can be irritating. All in all, I’m still glad to have her. Next week, I’ll open another one in this wave and I’ll make it a random selection.

Nov 20 2023

Masters of the Universe Origins: Sssqueeze by Mattel

Last week I got into some MOTU Origins Snake Men with a look at Rattlor and Kobra Khan, and as promised I’m back this week with another one of these slithery villains. Yeah, I’m really set on wrapping up loose ends when it comes to Origins, so hopefully I’ll get it into the regular rotation a little more often as we approach the end of the year. Today’s figure is that loveable, huggable Sssqueeze, and it’ll be a miracle if I can get through this whole review spelling his name with the right number of S’s.

As we saw last time, the packaging has been updated to feature the Snake Men deco encroaching on the top of the card and a Snake Men sticker slapped on the front of the bubble. Sssqueeze himself comes bundled pretty tightly in that snug bubble, and like Rattlor, I’m a little surprised that Mattel didn’t just spread him out onto a larger Deluxe card and charge more for him. I probably shouldn’t give them any ideas, but there is a lot more plastic here than with the regular releases.

Freed of his cramped quarters, this Evil Long-Armed Viper’s arms unfold to ridiculous proportions, so let’s just talk about them first! These scaly grabbers are cast in a soft bendy plastic, which do a pretty good job of holding whatever shape you choose to bend them into. The color of the plastic is also a close match for the sculpt and color of the rest of the figure, despite being made of entirely different material. On the downside, there are no rotating hinges in the shoulders, they just plug straight in so they will rotate 360-degrees, but the rest of the poseability is in the bending. And, in fairness, that’s more than the vintage figure had. The hands do attach with pegged hinges, but I can’t get a lot of movement out of them and the connection is pretty frail so I’m not willing to force it.

As for the rest of the figure, well he’s just plain awesome! The neon lime green coloring on his skin mixes with the orange on his undies and boots with the metallic purple chest armor to make for quite the retina-searing deco. The color ensemble is only brought down a bit by the matte gray on the boots and leg armor, and I’m convinced that those pieces exist to create some kind of neutrality in the color spectrum that prevents anyone looking at the figure for too long from going blind. Oh, and can we talk about those abs! Holy shit this guy is ripped! Kind of surprising since pretty much every day for him is probably arm day at the gym.

I really love the head sculpt, as it’s one of the more grounded looking Snake Men heads. It’s not overly goofy and actually quite dinosaur like. He’s also got teeth for days! If he grabs you, he’s probably going to make you into a snack.

Sssqueeze does come with a weapon and it’s a pretty wild design. It’s basically a purple snake with a gun coming out of its robotic mouth. He can hold it pretty well in either hand and the gun-snake’s body is designed to coil around Sssqueeze’s long arm to further hold it in place. I don’t know, it’s OK. But to be honest, I’ll likely display this figure without it.

Sssqueeze is a great looking figure and in incredibly fun toy to play around with. Mattel knew how to inject some really fun gimmicks into this line and giving a snake person long bendy arms was just the ticket to get kids’ attention. The rubbery plastic they used is great and hopefully it will stand the test of time without tearing. Otherwise, this is a just a fabulous update to the original figure and a great addition to my Snake Men team!

I will be taking a few days off for the Holiday so there will be no regular update for Wednesday or Friday, but I will be back next Monday…

Until then have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 17 2023

Transformers (Studio Series 86): Brawn by Hasbro

Looking back, I’ve only showcased a handful of Transformers here on FFZ this year, which is pretty indicative of how little attention I’ve been paying the line these days. There are still one or two figures that I’d like to review before the end of the year, but for the most part Hasbro and I have parted ways on their magnificent line of convertorobots. Even the reveals of their new line this past week has left me cold. And that’s fine. It’s an amicable breakup and I’ve got a ton of great figures on my shelf. But I would be remiss if I let the year expire without giving Studio Series Brawn his due!

Brawn has got to be one of the standout OG Autobots that has gotten the least amount of love from Hasbro over the years. We got a live action movie version of him based on his cameo in the Bumblebee flick, but the closest thing to a mainstream release was the Legends Class figure from Titans Return. I liked that figure well enough, but even back then I was still jonesing for a proper Deluxe Class update, and here we go. It’s kind of ironic that when we finally do get this figure, it’s based on his appearance in the 1986 movie that he is only in long enough to get unceremoniously murdered by Starscream using Megatron as a gun. Eh, I’m OK with that. The cartoon version of Brawn always struck me as a bully and a jerk, so I didn’t shed any tears when he got sent to The Great Scrapheap in the Sky. Let’s start with his vehicle mode…

Brawn’s auto mode is a 4×4 off-road jeepy kind of thing. It’s kind of ugly, but that sort of lends itself well to the rugged and utilitarian design. It’s definitely a decent looking update for the original toy and cartoon versions. The bulk of the vehicle is cast in olive green plastic with painted aqua blue windows, which give it a bit of an animated vibe. I like the satin silver finish on the grill, headlamps, and the bit of orange down near the bumper. There’s an Autobot insignia on the hood, a spare tire up on the roof and lots and lots of exposed seams and hinges all over the place. I’ll confess I had a bit of trouble getting everything to close up in this mode and found that whenever I got everything packed up on one side, something would pop out on the other. Still, all in all, this alt mode works for me.

You do get the option to weaponize Brawn’s jeep mode by plugging his hand gun into the spare tire. Plugging weapons into the car modes doesn’t always work so well, but here’s a case where I think it looks pretty good. I could even imagine the gun popping out of the top like this in the cartoon, although I don’t think it ever actually did.

Transforming Brawn into robot mode is fairly easy and there are some cool things going on with the engineering. And it’s hard to argue with the resulting robot mode, because it looks really good and pretty damn faithful to the cartoon look. Just like his G1 design, the figure wears the bulk of the jeep on his back, with a wall extending up past the back of his head. He’s got an appropriately bold and boxy chest and an overall pretty clean look. The way the sides of the jeep fold into his lower legs is pretty neat, and I dig the way the two sets of wheels wind up together on each of the backs of his legs. You also get some really nice coloring on this figure with the olive green of the jeep landing mostly on his limbs and back and the bright orange on his chest, pelvis and behind the head. The silver paint on the arms looks sharp, and you get a bold Autobot insignia on his chest.

The head sculpt is a direct hit and a dead ringer for the Sunbow animated portrait, which gave him a lot more personality than the generic robotic face on the original toy. The dome-shaped helmet is painted in gray and the face is painted in a metallic silver with the eyes in blue. Very nice!

Brawn comes with a black handgun, which we already saw stuck into his auto mode. The figure can hold it in either hand… yes HANDS! Another gift Sunbow gave poor G1 Brawn was actual hands and not just robotic hooks like the toy had. The gun looks great and Brawn sports some excellent articulation making him just a joy to pose and play around with.

Brawn was one of the last G1 updates on my want list, so I’m especially glad to get him now that Hasbro seems to be turning its attention away from Generation One and onto other things. I wouldn’t say no to an Outback repaint, but I’m not really hoping for it either. Indeed, the only one of the Class of 84 Autobots I’d still like to see updated is Hound. We got a decent version of him about six years back in Siege but I’d still like a Studio Series style version of him with his Earth alt mode, because he remains one of my all-time favorite Autobots. In the meantime, I still have Dinobot Snarl to look at and a smattering of other change-o-bots that I picked up a while back and never featured here, like Sky Lynx and Skyfire, so even if I drift away from collecting these wonderful toys, the Spark shall live on with more future reviews on the way!

Nov 15 2023

Cosmic Legions (Gravenight): Noveunn Leen by The Four Horsemen

I was hoping to get to some long overdue Mythic Legions figures before the end of the year, but then the second wave of Cosmic Legions landed on my doorstep and I decided I might as well hit these while they’re fresh and new. Considering I have a Mythic Legions pre-order in there from almost a year ago waiting to be fulfilled, this new assortment of Cosmic Legions was a pretty quick turnaround for The Four Horsemen. Gravenight is billed as Hvalkatar Book Two, continuing the prison story laid out in that initial wave. And while the space prison thing isn’t gripping me all that much, I’ve always been with TFH’s Legions lines more for the figures and less for the fiction, so that’s fine.

We’re kicking things off with Noveunn Leen, part of an organization known as The Bleeder’s Guild, which seems to be a league of bounty hunters who’s specialty is locating and extracting information rather than bringing in bounties. He’s a real piece of nasty business and his race is known as Carzynians. Sounds good! I’m on board so far… 

Noveunn feels like a pretty fresh figure to kick off this wave with. He comes out of the box needing his shoulders attached, which peg into the back just like the Mythic Legions figures. He still has a collar piece that looks like it’s designed for a space suit with the matching shoulders adding to that bulk. The collar piece even has some cool tanks sculpted into the back with some snazzy silver paint. But the rest of the figure lacks the armored space suit look we got with a lot of the first wave, offering a nice bit of variety. The bulk of the body is a sculpted blue jumpsuit with a weave-like texture and some wrinkles and rumples. There’s a segmented matte gray armor piece running down his front and ending in a codpiece.

His belt is a collection of brown pouches with neatly painted silver buttons and clasps and two pieces of gray hip armor with orange accents to match the collar and shoulders. His right arm has an armored bracer on the forearm while the left is a simple medieval-style brown gauntlet, again with some lovely little touches of silver paint on the rivets and buckles. The brown boots are reinforced with matte gray bands and heavy soles. I kind of get a little Boba Fett vibe off this guy, what with the blue jumpsuit and matte gray armor, but it’s not enough to make it feel like a direct homage. I also love the overall color scheme here. The blue, gray, and brown bits look great together and the orange and silver adds just the right amount of pop to the deco. There’s also a generally cool mix of sci-fi and medieval design here, which is a neat aesthetic for a guild of ruthless and savage info hunters.

TFH have been on fire with the head sculpts in this line and Noveunn is no exception. His chiseled reptilian face is chock full of detail and I had a blast just turning these heads around in my hand and inspecting every last inch of them. The color goes from green on top to a sandy yellow in the middle and a tan on the jowls and chin. You get some cybernetic gear grafted into the sides of the head and some horns protruding from each side of the chin with lots more jutting out the back of the head. The beady yellow eyes are sunken under a prominent brow ridge. Noveunn is just a fantastic alien design that feels wholly original and terrifically fierce.

And you get a second head with an open mouth, which is extremely well done. I dig the cavernous maw and the high gloss used on the deep red tongue. Both of these portraits are gorgeous and it’ll be a tough decision on which one to go with for regular display.

And before we dig into the accessories, here is a look at Noveunn with his collar and shoulders removed. There’s some nice detail hidden under those pieces, including the buckles holding the chest plate to the shoulder straps and some painted silver bolts in the chest piece itself. I’m not really big on the modular nature of deconstructing these figures, but I think this looks really good as an alternate display option. It also opens up the option for rifle storage on his back by using one of those holes that the shoulder pieces peg into.

And since I mentioned the rifle, let’s start there with his accessories. Without cheating and looking ahead, my hope is that we’ll see some new gear in this assortment of figures as the first wave was pretty bad about recycling the same handful of weapons. But, if Noveunn is to be any indication, I don’t think my hopes will pay off. This rifle is the same one we’ve seen a few times in Book One, although I will say it’s my favorite use of the mold so far. The matte black paint does a great job in bringing out just how impressive the detail on this weapon really is. Couple that with the hits of silver paint all around and this is just a phenomenal looking space rifle.

And the twin pistols make a return appearance, and once again these are my favorite versions so far because of the matte black and silver accents. As before, the figure comes with clear pegs, which can be used to attach the pistols to the sockets on the hip armor and this works really well.

And there is one new accessory included and it’s a rocket to peg into the socket in his arm bracer. I guess this can either be a permanent attachment or something that’s meant to pop out of the bracer when needed. Either way, it’s a cool addition, but I would have liked a bit more in the way of new accessories for this second assortment.

Noveunn makes for a strong introduction to this wave, and that’s promising because I picked him out totally at random as the first figure to open and review. I dig the slightly less armored look to the suit and there’s some absolutely wonderful use of color for what is an overall pretty sedate deco. And those headsculpts! TFH never disappoint when it comes to the head sculpts! Seeing the same old weapons was a bit disappointing at first, but these are undoubtedly my favorite versions of these weapons to date, so that helps to cushion the blow. All in all, a really fun and great looking figure that makes me eager to tear into the next one!

By figurefanzero
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