Regrettably, Part 3 of my Review of Hasbro’s Titan Class Devastator will be delayed due to alcohol. This is why I try not to schedule Features on Saturdays anymore.
Come back tomorrow and I should be good to go… Hopefully.
Transformers Combiner Wars: Titan Class Devastator by Hasbro, Part 2
Alrighty, folks, I’m back to check out the second half of Hasbro’s Combiner Wars Constructicons. Yesterday I looked at Scrapper, Mixmaster, and Long Haul and today is all about Bonecrusher, Scavenger, and Hook. Let’s go ahead and take them in that order.
Bonecrusher stays true to form with a bulldozer alt mode, which features molded treads an articulated front plow, and a fair amount of detailed sculpting, particularly on the outsides of the treads. He also comes dangerously close to melting my eyes with all that neon green and showing very little else in the way of color diversity. You get a little silver paint on the side vents, some purple paint on the windows of the cab, and some black on the robot parts showing from the back. All in all, it’s a tight little construction vehicle that rolls along on some wheels concealed inside the treads and pays respect to the original toy. Unlike the trio we looked at yesterday, Bonecrusher actually features some relatively complex transformations, with some pretty impressive results.
The original G1 Bonecrusher was my least favorite of all the Constructicons because his robot mode was awkward and even as a kid it didn’t work for me. This updated version bucks that trend and becomes one of the best this new bunch has to offer. Most notably, he’s surprisingly well proportioned and best of all he has some of the best articulation in this whole set. You get proper ball jointed elbows and even lateral rockers in the ankles. Oddly enough, the first time I played around with him, I had all sorts of trouble keeping his crotch together, but I haven’t had that problem since. Maybe I just didn’t have it locked together properly.
Bonecrusher features a fantastic head sculpt, which invokes the original G1 character beautifully. The way the back of the plow becomes his chest works remarkably well here and there’s a ton of sculpted detail and paint to reproduce the look of the sticker on the original toy. I can’t say enough how much I love this new silver paint Hasbro is using. It really looks great with the red and purple paint and you get a Decepticon emblem right in the middle of his chest. Beautiful! I didn’t have any high hopes for this guy, but he’s probably my favorite figure in this set, next to Scrapper.
Also running high in my favorites is Scavenger. The alt mode here is a familiar backhoe and thanks to some purple paint on the sculpted treads, he isn’t quite the green-overkill assault on the eyes that his tracked-brother Bonecrusher is. You also get some purple paint on the cab windows, a little silver on the scoop hydraulics, and some red and silver vents on the sides. Sadly, Scavenger cannot pivot on his tracks, but you do get two points of articulation in his scoop arm, so that’s not too bad. Like Bonecrusher, Scavenger has a relatively complex transformation, which results in another great looking robot.
A lot of what i said about Bonecrusher is the case with Scavenger here. The way the treads form the legs is almost identical and while Hasbro could have easily gotten away with repainting and reusing the same treads here, they are actually completely new sculpts, which is cool. Scavenger also features the better articulation with ball jointed elbows. The crane arm folds up into his back as best as can be expected. It’s still rather obtrusive, but surprisingly enough Scavenger isn’t terribly back heavy and I have no problems getting him to stand up.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Scavenger’s head sculpt, mainly because of that weird box that makes up his mouth plate, but I’m still glad that Hasbro reproduced it faithfully here and they did a nice job with it too. The familiar silver plate that makes up Scavenger’s chest is also recreated nicely with more of that beautiful silver paint.
Last up is the leader of the Constructicons, Hook. Again, we get a very faithful recreation of the original G1 vehicle mode, in this case a boom crane truck. Hook features a fair amount of color diversity, at least within the confines of the Constructon deco. You get a lot more purple showing than some of the other figures and also some black on the wheels and side panels, and a little bit of silver on the hook itself. Hook has a bit of an undercarriage, which prevents him from rolling as well as I would like. Also, the crane will not rotate, which is understandable. What’s not as understandable is that the boom doesn’t extend, although it does at least raise and lower on a hinge.
Hook feels like he has a lot in common with Scrapper in the way he transforms and he does have some little drawbacks. Unlike Mixmaster, Hook’s back kibble does drag on the ground, so when he’s standing, he’s usually also leaning on the hook. You can angle it back further if you want him in a deeper stance, so it’s not that big of a problem. One annoying characteristic is the way his feet can pop off when I’m posing him, but at least he does have lateral ankle rockers. The arms technically have elbow hinges, but they’re placed a little too far down for my taste. Plus they’re those weird hollow elbows made up of a hinge on the end. I’m mostly content to just pretend he doesn’t have any elbow articulation at all.
The head sculpt is fantastic and I’m pleased that the plate hovering above his shoulders doesn’t interfere with the head articulation at all. Hook does have a combiner link making up his chest, so his torso isn’t quite as stylish as all the others, but it still looks good thanks to some great sculpting and a little paint work.
And that wraps up my look at the individual bots. I dig these guys a lot and getting them was such an amazing surprise that I’m hesitant to nitpick a lot. Nonetheless, when you look at how great Scavenger and Bonecrusher came out in terms of articulation, I really wish they could have done a better job with the others. I’ll also point out that the lack of individual guns is a huge issue with me, making it more likely that I will be picking up the Takara release later on down the road. Yes, the combiner parts have some afterthought weapon functions, but nothing in my opinion that is worth bothering with here. Nonetheless, each figure has its own charms and they look absolutely fantastic displayed on my shelf as a team. Ah, but let’s face it, the real draw of this set is the ability to build a giant Devastator and tomorrow I’ll be back to do just that!
Transformers Combiner Wars: Titan Class Devastator by Hasbro, Part 1
Ever since the Toy Fair in Germany earlier this year I’ve been waiting to get my hands on Hasbro’s latest bombshell reveal… A Titan Class Devastor comprised of Voyager sized versions of all six original Constructicons. I mean, holy hell, I can’t think of too many toy lines getting as much love these days as Hasbro is showing toward their change-a-bots. Of course, since then we’ve been treated to peeks at two other versions, including an SDCC Exclusive and Takara’s own with some added articulation. I went with Hasbro’s for now, but I’m not ruling out picking up the Takara version later on down the line. This Feature is going to be broken down into three parts. Today I’ll check out the packaging and the bots that make up Devy’s lower half: Scrapper, Mixmaster, and Long Haul. Tomorrow, I’ll check out Hook, Bonecrusher, and Scavenger. And on Saturday we’ll take a look at Devastator himself.
The package here is pretty damn simple, and I don’t have a lot ot say about it. It’s a completely enclosed box, which is not nearly as big as the Metroplex box, despite them both being classified as “Titan Class” figures. The deco is in keeping with the style introduced for the Combiner Wars line with a landscape style front and some really nice artwork of Devastator doing what he does best. On the back of the box you get pictures of both the individual vehicles and robots, as well as the combined mode. Inside the box is a cardboard tray, which has the figures in their vehicle modes. You also get one character card for Devastator (sadly, none for the individual bots), and a huge folded instruction sheet. It’s all totally collector friendly, and while I do still have my Metroplex box, I doubt I’ll hang on to this one.
Before getting into specifics, I’ve got to say that these guys are an odd bunch and I feel like I need to offer up a disclaimer. They definitely feel like up-scaled figures in that they are very simple and chunky and feature rather limited articulation. The plastic used here also feels lighter than what I’m used to getting and I suspect that has something to do with making the combined mode work without being too heavy. In all honesty, if someone had handed me one of these figures without me knowing what it was, I would bet money that it was a knock-off, albeit a mighty nicely sculpted one. I know, that sounds bad, but the truth is when all is said and done, I’m able to look past that, because so much of this set is executed so well. It’s just worth noting that if you’re expecting the same quality, detail, and complexity of other Voyager figures, you aren’t going to find it here. These guys are scaled to work with the Masterpiece figures and they scale well with a lot of individual 3P combiner figures like Worbotron and Feral Rex, but the style and detail in the sculpt isn’t there to back it up. On the other hand, they do look just fine displayed alongside Leader Class Megatron. Anywho… let’s start checking out the individual figures and I’m going to start with Scrapper, because he’s always been one of my favorites…
Scrapper is probably my favorite of the entire lot because he looks like a properly updated version of the original toy. His vehicle mode is what I like to call a scoop-dozer, because I have absolutely no idea what you really call these things. It’s a pretty good rendition of the original vehicle mode with a fair amount of panel lines, sculpted bolts, ladders, vents and all the other bits and bobs. He rolls along on four chunky wheels and you get some nice articulation in the scoop.
There are virtually no paint apps showing on Scrapper’s vehicle mode other than the purple on the windows and a Decepticon emblem on the roof. You do get a little hint of purple plastic peeking out here and there from his robot parts, the black wheels, and a whole lot of glorious neon green plastic. I’ve heard some people complain about the green being off. It’s definitely brighter and more intense than the original toys, but it works just fine for me.
Scrapper’s transformation is pretty simple. There’s a little more going on with the legs, but otherwise it ain’t all that different from the old G1 toy and damn it the results aren’t amazing. This is every bit a larger and modern update to the Scrapper toy I knew and loved as a kid, and that is wonderful. You do get some hollow caverns in the back of his lower legs, and no articulation in the elbows, well none other than swivels, but just looking at him standing on the shelf makes me happy.
It’s obvious that all of the paint apps went into the robot mode and there is indeed a lot of nice work here. What was once stickers on the G1 toy are now replaced with sculpted detail and some beautiful red and silver paintwork. You also get another big Decepticon emblem on his chest and a little gold trim on his waist. And check out the head sculpt. It’s pure old school goodness. I absolutely love this figure!
Moving on to Mixmaster, here we have a pretty big departure from the old G1 toy. He’s still a cement mixer, but a different style, with cabs on the front and the back. I’ve been told by someone who would know this is a legit design, but it feels so weird compared to the more simple G1 design. The drum is now angled up on the front, at least I think that’s the front. Holy crap is this a confusing design! You get the same black, purple and green deco on Mixmaster, with a little silver on the side tanks, front grill, and the smokestacks. In all honestly, he’s probably got just as much paint as most Deluxes shipping these days, and probably a few Voyagers too. Still, I can get behind this design, especially when the transformation preserves so much of the look of the original robot.
Yup, that’s Mixmaster, alright, right down to the twin cannons positioned on a shelf over his head. He’s even got the twin wheels positioned on his arms… beautiful! He does feature a cement drum tail hanging off his back, but it’s not too bad and it doesn’t need to rest on the ground to help the figure stand up. Mixmaster also features hinged articulation in the elbows, which is definitely one up on Scrapper.
I love the headsculpt on this guy, as it feels like a nice homage to the old toy. And as with Scrapper, you get all kinds of great sculpted detail on his chest along with some gold, silver, and red paint in place of stickers. Whatever points Mixmaster might lose because of the crazy new truck mode, he easily recoups for a bitchin’ robot mode.
And now we come to the big elephant in the room… Long Haul. Long Haul was my first Constructicon as a kid and so I have a special level of affection and nostalgia for this guy. He’s still a dump truck, and he’s a mighty big one, which makes me think of him as a hybrid of the original toy and the Revenge of the Fallen version. Besides being a big boy, Long Haul has some nice sculpted detail, and with some black, purple, and silver paint showing, he’s a little more dynamically colored, but you do still get an awful lot of neon green. I loved this mode to begin with, but once I got a look at that Decepticon emblem above the front grill, it was on a whole new level of greatness.
Of course, there’s been a lot of hate thrown Long Haul’s way because in robot mode, he’s a bit husky. So what? It’s been 30-years since we’ve seen this guy and he’s let himself go a little. I’m a somewhat portly middle-aged fellow, so I can relate, Long Haul. You won’t get any fat-shaming from me. All kidding aside, the thing I loved the most about G1 Long Haul was the way he wore the front of his vehicle mode as his chest, similar to some of the Autobots, and this design keeps it real. Sure, he’s got little stubby arms, but so did the original toy. The bottom line is that Hasbro had to make this guy a powerhouse in order to take on the center of Devastator and I’m fine with that.
No, I think if I had one gripe about Long Haul, it would be that I wish they had painted his “helmet” black like the others. I don’t dislike his head. It’s got an interesting Cylon motif going on, but it just doesn’t match the others and that bugs me a little bit. Otherwise, Long Haul’s robot mode features some nice silver and red paint apps and there’s that Decepticon emblem on top of the grill. Don’t let the haters get you down, Long Haul, I’ve got your back!
Despite my initial disclaimer, I hope I’ve made it clear how much I like these figures. Yes, they’re a bit strange, and it’s so hard for me to put my finger on why these figures feel so different from any other Transformers Hasbro has been putting out lately. Yes, there are some paint apps I would have liked to see added, but there’s also some particularly nice paintwork on display here as well. Maybe it’s just the recognition that they seem to have started life as something smaller, or maybe that’s not even true. I’d be really curious to see how they would have turned out as Deluxes, putting them more in scale with the rest of the Combiner Wars, but then I’m getting ahead of myself, as I still have three more figures to look at. Tomorrow, I’ll be back to check out Hook, Bonecrusher, and Scavenger.
Street Fighter: Juri Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya
Can this be? Has it really been four months since I last looked at one of Koto’s Bishoujo statues? Yes, I’m ashamed to say that is indeed the case and I am woefully behind on this little obsession of mine. I feel that Koto is partly to blame because they have really been upping the ante and releasing these things like crazy. I need to start scrambling to get caught up before the ones I missed start rising on the second-hand market, which is already the case with at least one of them. Anywho, back in March I checked out the lovely Julia Chang from their Tekken line, now we’re going back over to the Capcom side of the fence to look at Juri from Street Fighter!
Aww, yeah. We all know what to expect from this packaging by now. You get a window box, which gives you a little tease at what’s inside and a lot of great artwork from Shunya Yamashita. While the comic book statues come in white boxes, Koto has been releasing the video game pieces in these black ones. I’m still partial to the white, just because it’s a cleaner look and makes the artwork pop a little more. But hey, who’s complaining? Not me, because I got a new Bishoujo to open up. Let’s do it!
Juri comes already attached to her stand and ready to go, although she can be removed from it if you want to. Once I got her out of the box, my first reaction was… Holy crap, look at those boobs! Actually, I meant to say that I was impressed with the size of this piece. The last couple Bishoujo’s I opened were from the Tekken series and those are scaled a bit smaller. In contrast, this is one big and beautiful figure!
While both Chun-Li and Cammy are caught in mid action poses, I think Juri looks more like she’s posing for the “camera.” The box suggests she’s readying for a kick, but I don’t get that kind of energy from the composition here. That is not in any way a complaint, mind you, just an observation. Truth be told, I think this is a fantastic pose and I’m particularly fond of when Koto can get their statues to balance like this. Juri stands balanced on the toes of her left foot with her right leg drawn up at the knee, one hand on her hip and the other held aloft as if to say, “behold my bad ass sexiness!” Ooooh yeah!
Juri’s outfit includes her puffy pants, a long belt, which bellows out at her side and a a rather revealing top that just amounts to a breast plate with a bunch of straps running to her back to make up a bitchin’ spider motif. Funny, I don’t remember Juri being quite so well endowed in the game, but she’s positively busting out of her top here. She’s also sporting some sleeves, finger-less gloves and spiked bracelets.
The portrait here is a beautiful piece of work. Juri has a rather sly look as she glances off to the side and licks her lips. She seriously looks like she’s about to relish kicking the shit out of someone. The eyes are absolutely gorgeous and they did a wonderful job recreating her distinctive hairstyle.
The coloring on this piece feels a little muted compared to most Bish statues, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s certainly in character. I think the fact that there’s no glossy aspects to her clothing is a big part of that. Instead of getting that contrast between the soft skin and the sheen of the clothes, everything is soft. The pallet is even a little more limited, with basically just black purple and gray. You do get a little bit of sheen on her belt buckle, her gloves, and the nail polish on her fingers and toes.
As with the previous Street Fighter statues, Juri comes on a clear disc stand with a choice of two inserts. One has the Street Fighter logo and the other a piece of Shunya Yamashita’s character art on which this statue was based. I’ve gone on plenty about how I’m torn over these clear bases. On the one hand, they look nice and don’t detract from the figure, on the other hand, they show fingerprints really easily and the bottoms have a tendency to fall out when you pick them up.
And to the great surprise of absolutely no one, I’m in love with yet another one of Koto’s magnificent Bishoujo statues. Considering how iconic Chun-Li and Cammy are, it’s no small feat to say that Juri can easily hold her own on the shelf next to her fellow game gals and with Sakura and Poison coming up next, I expect great things to continue for this sub-line. Now, I just have to backtrack and pick up the ones I missed, like Jun Kazama and Nina Williams from Tekken, oh and I think Anna Williams is shipping soon. And Batwoman and Jubilee… good grief!
Masters of the Univere Classics: Multi-Bot by Mattel
Last year Matty Collector creeped me out with sheer delight when they released Modulok, a figure that came with enough pieces to create your own Human Centipede monstrosity, or at least as close as I ever want to get. This year we get the robotic equivalent of the same idea with Multi-Bot, the bizarre member of the Evil Horde, which can also interchange parts and challenges you to create whatever your imagination can muster up. With July’s figures already landing on my doorstep, I’m already woefully behind on this guy, so let’s jump right in and take a look…
Multi-Bot comes in an enclosed box, just like Modulok. It’s colorful and gives you a good idea of what lies inside. Unfortunately, Matty still hasn’t learned the way of sealing boxes with a piece of cello tape so I had to carefully work one of the glued flaps open. I don’t often keep my MOTUC packages, but with all the extra parts involved, these guys are an exception to the rule.
Inside the box, you get a tray with Multi-Bot’s two humanoid forms surrounded by a bunch of other parts, which include two weapons, an extra pair of legs, and a bunch of combiner pieces.
And they are an odd pair indeed. Why does the Masters world love to put monster heads on robots so much? Who cares… it’s a glorious practice. These guys look exactly like some crude drawing I might have done as a kid on my Trapper Keeper back in the 80’s and that is one of the many things I love so much about this line. It’s a child’s fever dream of monsters and robots and swords and sorcery and lasers and castles and giant cats. The coloring features a nice mix of drab green and blue with some bright orange and yellow thrown in. The torsos are black with some sharp silver paint to pick out the details.
Individually, these guys actually have more articulation than a regular MOTUC figure. There are rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. There are swivels in the biceps. The wrists swivel and the ankles are hinged. They can rotate at the waists, have ab crunches in the torsos and ball joints in the ankles. The guns appear to be recolors of the ones that came with Modulok and they can still be combined to form a larger weapon. Of course, the real fun comes when you break these guys totally down and start using your imagination…
With a total of three pairs of legs, two pairs of arms, a couple heads and torsos, and no less than fourteen different connection pieces, the real draw of this set is tinkering and seeing what you can come up with. The system works exactly the same as the one used for Modulok and the two figures are indeed compatible for even bigger and more bizarre creations.
Last year, Modulok landed prominently on my Favorites List for being such an amazingly fun toy, so it’s no surprise that Multi-Bot has become a fast favorite of mine in this year’s Club offerings. Sure, he’s more of the same, but if you missed out on getting Modulok, you can get the same play pattern here and if you already have Modulok, well tossing both of these figures into a bin and mixing up the parts just makes for a total blast. Just be ready to do some painful sorting when you’re all done and ready to put them away!
Marvel Legends (Ultron Wave): Wasp by Hasbro
I’ve made no secret about the fact that I was initially disappointed the Marvel Cinematic Universe didn’t include Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne in The Avengers, but then everything turned out so well, I’ve since been content to let it go. Hank is finally getting his screen time in theaters now, albeit taking a backseat to Scott Lang. Janet, on the other hand, well I don’t want to go into spoilers this close to the film’s release, so let’s divert our attention away from the movie and into the pages of the funnybooks…
I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging here. Wasp comes with her wings detached, so you just have to plug the bottom ones into the top ones and then peg those into her back. She also comes with the torso BAF piece for Ultron. I’ll note here that this is the same version of Wasp that we got in the Marvel Universe scale not too long ago, and that release was a mighty damn fine figure, so I’ll probably be making some comparisons throughout.
And there she is, wings attached and all ready to go! Janet is donning the modern black and gold suit, which is not my favorite look for her, but I don’t dislike it at all. The costume gets by with a black female buck and gold painted detail only. There’s gold trim around the soles of her boots, on the palms of her hands, and the deco on her torso. Most of the paint is applied pretty well, although some of the decorations around her chest could have been a bit sharper. Wasp features those oogity-boogity spell-casting hands that we’ve seen on a lot of the ladies lately. I would have probably preferred at least one fist, if not both. I usually picture her launching her Wasp Stings from her fists and not opened hands. But, hey… no biggie.
The wings look great. They’re cast in a transparent yellowish-green with sculpted veins (or whatever you call those things) making them look a little icky. The Universe version of Wasp came with only two wings, but the Legends has four, with two plugging directly into her back and the other two socketing into the primary wings. It offers a good deal of articulation and I haven’t had any problems with them coming out while posing her.
The portrait really could have made or broken this figure and I’m happy to say it turned out fine. Janet is sporting her pixie cut, with hair a little shorter than what we got on the Universe version. I have heard horror stories about the paintwork on her eyes, mine look just fine and the paint on the lips is pretty good too. Her hair features some lighter brown highlights.
Articulation is the usual female buck fare. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and wrists and double hinged at the elbows. Alas, there are no bicep swivels. I really wish Hasbro would finally make those standard on all the Legends figures. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double-hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. She has a ball joint just below her chest and her neck is ball jointed and hinged.
Once again, Hasbro has been serving up some solid figures in their Legends series and Wasp here is no exception. The only real complaint I have about Wasp here is that between her lithe legs and back-heavy wings she can be a little difficult to stand. Luckily Legends figures aren’t too difficult to fit and I’ve found that the NECA and (ironically) DC Collectibles stands work pretty well with these. Of course, the cool thing about having a matching Legends and Universe version is that I think the two look great displayed next to each other, similar to the set up that Bowen did for one of their contemporary Wasp statues. I like this figure a lot and it’s even possibly motivated me to hunt down the red and blue costumed version (my favorite look for her) from that old MODOK Wave.
Transformers Combiner Wars: Thundercracker (Leader Class) by Hasbro
Hoo boy, folks, am I excited to have this box in my hands. Although, that excitement is tempered a bit by the fact that there’s a shipping box in the corner containing Devastator, but we’ll save that for next week. When I first heard that Hasbro was making the Seekers using a tweaked mold of Generations Jetfire I was both fascinated and horrified. How could that possibly work? Well, all I know is I wanted it to work. I needed some Seekers for my Combiner War Megatron to order around. Aaaand, it doesn’t hurt that Thundercracker has always been one of my favorites because as a kid he was my first Decepticon and one of my very first Transformers.
There’s the packaging. Thundercracker comes in a sizeable window box and packaged in his robot form. Check out the character art on the front of the box. He is seriously pissed off at someone. I suppose the whole Combiner Wars thing on the package could be a little misleading, since he most certainly does not combine with anything and he is woefully out of scale with most of the other figures in this series. But, hey, that was the case for Leader Class Megatron too. The box is totally collector friendly if you have a little patience and a pair of clippers, but I have neither right now, so I’m about to tear this sum’bitch open. Let’s start with his alt mode!
If you’re looking to see the magic of Hasbro’s mad remolding skillz in the alt mode, you’ll be disappointed. This is basically a repaint of Jetfire without the booster assembly pieces (although the clips are still there) and with a new pair of wings. Now, that having been said, it totally works for me as Thundercracker and that’s all thanks to the gorgeous coloring. The bulk of the jet is cast in a deep, rich blue plastic with silver and red paint and a yellow tinted canopy that opens to reveal a detailed cockpit inside. Slap a couple crisp Decepticon logos on the wings and yeah, this’ll do just fine as my ‘Cracker. Not only is the coloring beautiful, but it really brings out some of the panel lining nicely. I don’t know where Hasbro got this new silver that they’re using, but it is fantastic.
Thundercracker comes with the same two sets of guns that came with Jetfire, only instead of that obnoxious red metallic finish, these are just black. You can still clip them onto the wings and undercarriage to give him a lot of firepower. In lieu of the booster pieces, T’Cracker comes with a pair of null rays, which can mount under his wings. Transforming this guy is the same as Jetfire, making him fairly easy for a Leader Class figure, but I’m not going to argue with the results…
I think I’m a little bit in love with this guy. Maybe more than a little bit. He’s got a brand newly sculpted chest, complete with the same style of fake-out chest cockpit that Jetfire had and with the real cockpit on his back. He’s got newly sculpted shoulders too. I think the one thing that bothers me about this figure is the unfinished wings showing to the front. They were already changing the wings, if only they could have prettied them up on the side facing out. I didn’t mind the rough wings so much on Jetfire, but here it bugs me a little, but not enough to ruin the figure. The thrusters peeking out behind his head is certainly a new look for the Seekers, but I’m not hating it, and the detail sculpted into those turbine intakes where his nipples should be is pretty great.
The headsculpt is fabulous. It’s a crisp sculpt with more of that luscious silver paint and some light piping that’s a bit hard to activate. I’m surprised that I didn’t even realize that those iconic Seeker shoulder scoops were missing until after playing around with him for a bit. I wonder how long it will be before a third-party comes up with those? There are even very obvious spots where they could socket in. If someone were to release three pairs of them in a set at a decent price, I’d probably go for it.
Naturally, you have some options with all those guns, but they’re all clearly designed to go somewhere specific. The larger ones can be left on the outsides of the legs to fill out that area, which I think works rather nicely. The null rays can socket into his arms, but unfortunately they socket into the forearms so they do interfere with elbow articulation a bit, and don’t really work when angled up like the original G1 figures or the Classics Seekers. The smaller pair of guns can be pegged into his wings or just left off. While I wish the null rays would have socketed into the shoulders, I still think they look really good when in firing position.
Thundercracker also comes with the missile launching rifle that Jetfire had, only this time cast in black. It’s not a bad gun, but hand guns really aren’t the Seekers’ style so it’ll probably end up going into a drawer, or I might just give it to Jetfire so he can deep six the metallic red one.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this figure, but I was more than a little afraid that he was just going to be Jetfire masquerading as Thundercracker and that is not at all the vibe that I get off of him. It works really well as a new take on the Seeker mold, so long as you’re willing to give up stuff like the shoulder intakes and not having Decepticon emblems facing front on the wings. Like Jetfire, he’s loads of fun to play with thanks mostly to the strong ratcheting joints and the interchangeable weapons. He also scales beautifully with CW Megatron as well as MP Soundwave and MP Optimus Prime. I’ve already got the Starscream repaint pre-ordered and I’m looking forward to seeing Skywarp!
Nothing To See Here, Except Some Admin Stuff…
No new Feature today as I’m using the time to get caught up on my Index of Reviews, which is now about two months behind. I’m going to try to hit the Pre-Order Page too because that thing hasn’t been touched in forever.
Also, with the return of Marvel Monday, I’m going to have to take the other two dedicated days (Star Trek on Wednesdays and GI JOE on Fridays) and roll them into a rotating Friday Feature, otherwise I’ll have too much other stuff piling up. Of course, Transformers Thursday will stay right where it is because it is an unswerving tradition around these parts and you just don’t mess with that kind of thing.
As for Comic Con… I was going to do a list of stuff that interested me, but lists bore me to tears. I will say that I’m really looking forward to seeing what Matty is going to do with the Thundercats license and yes, I’m totally on board with it. Hopefully they can generate the staying power that Ban Dai couldn’t. Also, very pleased to see Mezco still planning on releasing the Mega Scale Tygra so I can at least complete my collection of core Thundercats in that scale. Who could have guessed my two favorite things to come out of the Con would be Thundercats related when the line looked all but long dead!
And that’s all for today. I’ve got Devastator due to arrive tomorrow, so I’ll get to work on what will likely be a three-part Feature starting next Thursday. Lots of other goodies, too, so stay tuned!
Star Wars Black: Commander Cody by Hasbro
A new wave of Star Wars Black hit my doorstep this week. This time the assortment is comprised of all new releases (IG-88, Leia as Boushh, and Commander Cody), but the case breakout included two Codys. It’s a real shame that Hasbro has been getting away from the original concept of delivering four new figures in each wave, but they’ve become real inconsistant on that point now, causing me to buy these guys individually and pay a couple of extra dollars for each. Cody is actually the one figure in this wave I’m least interested in, but I’m a little pressed for time today so I thought I’d knock him out.
The packaging is still great at showing off the figure, but from an art design standpoint it’s totally utilitarian. Why is there so much text on the box? We’re now up to four different languages and the left panel, where some companies put the name and an image of the figure, is just clogged up with disclaimers and copyright bullshit. They’ve even removed the useless character quote from the back. Oh well. I don’t keep these packages anyway, so let’s shred it open and get Cody out.
If you picked up the 6-inch Black Clone Trooper then a lot of this figure should be familiar to you. He uses a repaint and slight resculpt of that body. The orange trim and unit markings go a long way to making him distinctive, and he’s also got some matte gray paint on his belt and midriff. The resculpted parts on the body consist of a new backpack, an armband, and a rubbery antenna like thing coming off his left shoulder armor. He also has a rank bar on his chest. All in all, this is a decent enough body sculpt. My biggest nitpick would be that they still haven’t opted to paint the pins in the elbow joints to match the black part of the inner suit. It seems like that should probably be something a $20 collector figure would watch out for.
The helmet is all new and it seems to be a pretty good fit for Cody. I’m one of those weirdos who prefers the Phase I armor over this more Stormtrooper-like style, but it still works for me. Cody’s modified helmet features the visor and the antenna, setting him apart from the rest of the cannon fodder. I do think they did a pretty nice job with the paint on the helmet. The blue paint on the side vents is extremely clean and I like the little flame effects on the induction filters. There’s also some decent weathering to the gray stripe on top.
Articulation is the same as we got with the regular Clone Trooper, which is to say pretty good. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and ankles, have double hinged elbows, and swivels at the thighs. His torso is ball jointed just below the armor plate and his neck is ball jointed too. The armor doesn’t really interfere with his poseability and I like that you can actually get him to aim down the barrel of his rifle. Not bad!
Speaking of rifles, Cody comes with the same two weapons as the regular Phase I Clone Trooper. You get the standard pistol and the large rifle, both cast in the same black plastic. It’s always kind of bothered me that these guys don’t have holsters for their pistols like the Stormtroopers do. Or even shoulder straps on those rifles.
I try to be very selective about the Prequel figures I buy because I tend to like those movies even less with each passing year. I can’t even begin to count how many 3 3/4″ Prequel figures I sold off during my Great Star Wars Purge of about five years ago. Nonetheless, I kind of dig Cody here. He’s a solid enough figure and I suppose if I’m going to own one of the Clone officers, it might as well be Cody. On the other hand, if I apply the old FFZ Test to him and ask, “does this figure really benefit in any way from being done in the 6-inch scale?” I’d have to say no. I’m pretty sure Hasbro has done just as good a job with Cody in the 3 3/4″ scale, but I suppose that says as much about how good some of their smaller figures have become then anything else. I suppose a next a regular Phase 3 Clone Trooper is inevitable and yeah, I’ll probably pick one of those up too.
Marvel Legends (Ultron Wave): Ant-Man by Hasbro
It’s been a little while since I last did a Marvel Monday, so how about we start busting into the latest wave of Legends figures and look at Ant-Man from the Ultron BAF Wave. But wait, isn’t the Hulkbuster BAF Wave shipping too? Damn you, Hasbro! Give a brutha’s bank account a little breathing room, will ya? I’m not sure which of these has priority in terms of release, but I happened upon Ant-Man and Wasp from the Ultron Wave first, so that’s where I’m going and I’ll likely run through this whole wave before I start getting into any of the others.
There’s the packaging and, wait… Ant-Man Wave? With an Ultron Build-A-Figure? That’s a bit odd, isn’t it? In the Comic Universe it wouldn’t be odd, but in the Cinematic Universe it sure is. Then again, this isn’t really much of an Ant-Man Wave anyway. It’s half an Ant-Man wave at best. But who am I to complain? We’re getting a MovieVerse Ultron and I don’t care which figure assortment they choose to bundle him into. In this case you’re getting the head. So, where was I? The packaging… there’s nothing new to say about it, so let’s get to the figure.
Obviously, this is Ant-Man from the soon to be released (This Friday… SQUEEEE!) movie and that makes him Scott Lang and not the Hank Pym Ant-Man that so many of us comic readers know and love. That’s OK, though, because I really dig this suit and I’m really looking forward to the movie. And did I mention I love the suit? Well it’s worth saying twice because this is easily one of my favorite costumes to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It toes the line just enough to be easily recognized as Ant-Man without wandering too close to the Ultron design, which shared similarities in the comics, but shouldn’t in the films, because of obvious changes. At one point in the movie, Lang speculates as to it’s purpose by referring to it as a motorcycle suit and it does indeed give me that vibe. If it’s something that the elderly Pym wore back in the day then the retro feel is certainly appropriate.
The detail on the suit itself is quite well done and includes a lot of silver trim and fixtures. The red and black deco looks sharp and the silver paint exhibits a tarnished look to give the “metal” pieces a bit of an aged patina.
The portrait includes the very detailed helmet and mask, again with the same aged and distressed silver paint. The exposed mouth area is sculpted rather soft, which is a little at odds with how detailed and sharp everything else on this figure looks. I’m curious as to whether the chin strap will double as a microphone that he will lower his mouth into for the man-to-ant communication. From what I’ve seen, it looks like it might just be a telepathy, rather than a vocalized command and I guess I’m OK with that. I’d say the only other thing about the head that’s worth mentioning is the paint for the eyes is a little thin. I’m considering coloring it in with a red metallic Gundam Marker, but I’d like to see how common the figure is before I start experimenting on it. My experiments at customization usually don’t end well.
Articulation is about what I’ve come to expect from the Legends line, which is to say pretty good. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, and swivels in the thighs. Lang can swivel at the waist, he has an ab crunch hinge in the torso and a ball jointed neck.
In addition to the Ultron BAF part, the figure comes with a handful of extras including a miniature Ant-Man and an ant for him to ride and a miniature Yellowjacket. All are just static pieces and while the Ant-Man and Ant are nowhere near being in scale with this figure, or any figure for that matter, it’s still a nice little bonus. The Yellowjacket, on the other hand, isn’t something I have any use for. Do him in Legends scale, Hasbro, and I promise I’ll buy him. The only thing really missing here is an alternate unmasked Paul Rudd head. I only mention it because we’ve been getting a lot of extra unmasked heads in this scale lately. Iron Man, War Machine, Captain America, Star-Lord… this one really seemed like a no brainer, but I guess if you want that you’ll have to go the Marvel Select route.
There are a lot of furtive whispers about whether or not Ant-Man could be Marvel’s first cinematic flop, but then I seem to recall a number of people saying the same thing about Guardians of the Galaxy and look how that one turned out. Whatever the case, I was honestly worried for a while that we might not see any figures from this film and I’m mighty glad those fears were groundless. Having a Cinematic Universe Ant-Man on my Avengers shelf has made me a very happy camper and I am super pumped to go check out this movie on Friday. It looks like it’s going to be loads of fun.
FigureFan Zero 