Aug 6 2014

Star Wars: Droid “Special Action Figure” Set by Hasbro

I’ve still been on a bit of a Star Wars kick lately, which mostly amounts to me finally getting around to opening some of the figures in my receivings stack and getting them featured here on FFZ. A couple of years back Hasbro released some neat tributes to the old Kenner three-packs with modern figures in the old style Kenner packaging. Yup, it was pretty much an extension of the Vintage Collection. At one point Amazon was selling these sets for six bucks and I said, “why not? I like droids!” and I tacked it on to one of my orders.

Despite growing up during the heyday of the Kenner Star Wars Toy Age, I have no recollection of the original three-packs. I’ve seen them on collector sites and from time to time at Toy Shows, but I don’t think I ever saw these as a kid. Maybe I just wasn’t interested in them because I already had the figures. Anyway, the package consists of a vintage style Kenner card that sort of morphs into a window box at the bottom to display the three figures. It’s a great reproduction of the original package and deliciously nostalgic, but at the same time kind of bland because there’s very little artwork on the front. Nonetheless, it’s still plenty cool.

The back shows all three of these recreated sets that Hasbro produced. I can’t vouch for the “Villain Set” but I’ve seen lots of photos of Kenner’s original “Droid Set” and the “Android Set.” Wait, Android Set? It’s got Chewie, R2, and 3PO, how does that constitute an Android Set??? Oh, never mind. The set we’re looking at today contains R5-D4, Death Star Droid, and Power Droid, and that makes it a nice tight set focused on the Jawa droid sale on Tatooine. Sadly, the packaging is not collector friendly as the bubble is still glued to the backing, so you’re going to have to do some damage to get these droids free.

I’ll just take these figures in order going from left to right and that starts us off with R5-D4. The body of this mold has been around the block a couple times, starting out life as Vintage Collection R2-D2, and even this R5 is a straight repack of an earlier release, complete with the glued down front access door. Not that I’m complaining because I think this figure happens to be pretty great.

He features the usual removable third leg, which is how I think the Astromechs should always be done in this scale. Hasbro, I love ya, but cool it with the third leg that’s tied to the head rotation. Oh wait, there’s still a head turning gimmick… D’oh! In this case the head is tied to a second antenna that comes out of his head. It’s a pretty crappy gimmick because you have to have R5 turning his head all the way over his shoulder to get it to stick up. Always with the head turning gimmicks, Hasbro, enough is enough, eh? Actually, I take that back. Give me an R5 figure that actually blows his top. That would be cool.

The only discernable difference between this R5 and the previous release in my collection (other than the missing antenna) is the paint. This new release is much cleaner, particularly on the head and it doesn’t have the extra silver paint slop around the eyes. I’m not usually a fan of Hasbro’s attempts to dirty things up with paint, but in this case I actually like the weathered one better. Either way, this R5 is still a great figure and I’m glad to get another one.

Next up, we’ve got Death Star Droid, also known as RA-7. For some crazy reason I was obsessed with the original Kenner Death Star Droid as a kid. I used to pair him up with R5 and they used to be the Imperial versions of R2 and 3PO and show up in all my stupid adventures. Old habits are hard to kick, and since then I’ve always tried to get whatever figures Hasbro made of this guy. After my Great Star Wars Purge, I only have two RA-7’s left, I thought this one would be another repaint of them, but not so! It’s a completely different figure.

Yeah! Gotta love that funky purple RA-7. He’s from the Marvel Comic Pack with everybody’s favorite comic, The Jawas of Doom! But that’s a feature for another time. The biggest giveaway is this new figure’s enormous head, which I’m not all that keen on. I don’t know if it’s really more screen accurate or not, but it looks kind of ridiculous next to the other two Death Star droids with the more sensibly sized noggins.

The other big giveaway is all the extra articulation. My other RA-7’s only have the five basic points plus swivels in their waists. This guy has ball jointed elbows, hinged knees, and a ball joint in the torso. Honestly, the added elbow articulation doesn’t really do much to enhance the figure, but at least with the knees he can sit down and take a load off. I’m pretty sure he was sitting down in the Sandcrawler, so that’s a big win to anyone looking to recreate that scene. Oh, and then there’s this…

Yeah, he just pulls apart, which leads me to believe this figure is just a bunch of repainted Build-A-Droid parts. The new grey paintjob is pretty good and it makes him stand out among his two brothers. While he’s not quite the same without that bitchin’ chrome finish from the original Kenner figure, I still like this figure a whole lot. That’s OK, he’s still cool enough. And now I have a Death Star droid that can get blasted into a million pieces.

And last up is the Power Droid. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Oh, crap… not another one of these stupid boxes on legs. Yeah, I have a couple of these Gonk Droids, so I wasn’t expecting much either. But it turns out this one is the only completely new figure in the set, or at least I’ve never seen him before. He’s a nice surprise because he looks pretty screen accurate and he doesn’t have any kind of stupid walking gimmick like previous releases. In fact, his legs just have regular hinges at the tops and at the ankles. I really dig the paint wash on him too. And then there’s this little surprise…

Yeah, I already spoiled it in the earlier pictures, but it sure surprised the heck out of me. You can lift off the top and reveal his smooth and creamy caramel droid center. Actually he’s just full of droid parts. There’s some extra paint hits in there, but that’s a bout it. Ok, so after all the fuss, he really is just a box on feet and there’s not a lot else to say about this guy. But I still love him, dammit!

I’m pretty sure these sets were originally Target Exclusives. That’s the only store I ever recall seeing them in and boy were they clogging the pegs for a long time. I remember scoffing at the original MSRP that put them at about $25 and they hung around the clearance endcaps for a while too. Yeah, for three figures, twenty-five bucks really isn’t that bad, and I wasn’t buying Star Wars at the time anyway, so it’s not like I was the intended audience for something like this. Somewhere along the way Amazon must have nabbed a ton of these because they still have them on sale. They’re not six bucks anymore, but they’re only ten, and at two-fitty a figure, that’s still a nice deal. Now I just wish I had forked up the money for that Original Trilogy Collection Sandcrawler so I can fill it up with all these nifty droids.

Aug 5 2014

S.H. Figuarts: One Piece Nami by Bandai Tamashii Nations

Holy hell, it’s my first foray into the wonderful world of S.H. Figuarts. This momentous event was supposed to start with a different figure, but since that one will be the first in a series, I thought I’d get Nami out of the way beforehand. I don’t have any immediate plans to pick up any more One Piece Figuarts, so she is most likely going to be a stand-alone acquisition. Anyway, some of you may remember a few weeks back that I picked up the Portraits of Pirates Nami Ex Model Statue by MegaHouse. Only it wasn’t by MegaHouse. It was by MegaBootlegs!!! I promptly sent it back and got my money refunded, which in itself is a joke. They’re like, “Oh, you caught us selling illegal bootlegs. Bad on us. Have your money back and we’ll never speak of this again.” Screw that… I want Interpol raining down on your asses!!! It would be one thing if it was a couple of crooks, but it was Amazon. I decided to roll some of that money over and try my luck on this version of Nami. Let’s take a look at the spunky navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates…

There’s the box and… HOLY SHIT, IT’S ANOTHER BOOTLEG! Nah, just kidding. This one is legit. The box, however, was a little rougher than I had hoped. To say it’s rather shopworn would be an understatement. Normally it wouldn’t bother me, but I tend to keep packaging for figures like these to hold all the extras bits, and it’ll still serve that purpose just fine. The box features a simple map motif with a big window on the front to show off the figure. The back has some photos of the figure in action along with a bunch of copy in Japanese, which I can’t read. Nami comes nestled in a clear plastic tray surrounded by a crapload of extras.

And there’s Nami looking as cute as ever. They did a wonderful job capturing all the nuances of the character. She comes clad in a top, which amounts to little more than a short vest to cover her boobs, and a really short skirt pleaded skirt. My favorite look for Nami is her jeans and bikini top, but this one works fine too. It’s cool that the bangles on her left wrist are both separate pieces… until you swap that hand and they go flying of onto the floor. It took me like ten minutes to find them again. I’d say the only odd thing about the sculpt is her enormous feet, which I suppose she needs because can be a tough figure to keep standing. And after going back and checking it does tend to agree with much of the artwork. Overall the paint is pretty good, although there’s a little bit of slop on her sandals and some slight inconsistencies in her skin tone, mostly on the backs of her legs.

Of course, articulation is what Figuarts are all about and I dare say I had quite a lot of fun messing around with her poseability. In fact, I kept her sitting on my computer for about a week so that I could pick up and play with her on my downtime and in doing so she’s become quite a fun distraction. The skirt does inhibit some of her hip articulation, but overall what’s here is certainly good. Of course, there’s a tradeoff between the articulation and rather unsightly jointing. It doesn’t necessarily lend itself all that well to a figure with bare arms and legs, but I can live with it.

Nami comes with a bunch of stuff, and most of it amounts to extra hands and faces. Yup, you get a total of five interchangeable faces. In addition to the normal one that comes on the figure, there’s also one with a bit more of a sly look with a smirk and her eyes looking off to the side. The other three faces consist of her crazed angry expression, the classic “greedy dollar signs in the eyes” expression, and a super happy expression with her eyes closed and a huge smile. The faces are swapped out by removing the front of her hair and then just pulling off the face and tabbing in the replacement. It’s easy to do, but it can be rather unsettling. Actually, now that I think about it anytime anime style emotive faces are translated to 3D it creeps me the hell out. The extra faces are fun to play around with, but I’ll likely stick to one of the two more conventional expressions for everyday display. As for the hands… well, they went overboard on the hands. Do I really need this many hands? You get a pair of fists, a pair of open hands, a pair of open hands slightly splayed out, a pair of weapon holding hands, and a thumbs up hand. Changing the hands out is a bit precarious because those posts sure are tiny.

Last, but not least, you get two complete versions of Nami’s Clima Tact: Assembled and separated into three parts. One of the three parts has an attachment to peg it to the back of her skirt, which requires removing the plug that’s normally there. You also get an effect part for the tip of the assembled one.

Nami’s definitely an unbelievably fun little figure, and considering that I picked her up for about $25 shipped, I have no complaints. Well, actually I do have one. She didn’t come with a stand. The stand that I used when shooting her is from another S.H. Figuarts release. Even for normal poses, Nami can be tough to keep standing on her feet, but when you really take advantage of her crazy articulation, you pretty much need a stand if you’re going to display her in action. Now, with all that having been said, I’m not sure that getting this figure has fully satisfied my desire to own a proper statue of the character. And so the hunt continues.

Next week we’ll revisit the S.H. Figuarts line for a little… MOON TIARA ACTION!!!

Aug 4 2014

Marvel Universe Infinite: Wasp by Hasbro

Poor Janet Van Dyne, it’s not enough that she gets slapped around by her husband, but she hasn’t been getting a lot of love from Hasbro either. I remember how pissed off I was that neither she nor Hank Pym were going to be in The Avengers film. Outrageous! How can you omit the two founding members? Of course, after basking in how awesome the movie turned out, I quickly forgot my haughty principles and shut the hell up. Wasp sort of got her due in the Avengers Assemble cartoon (it was a great portrayal), but then that got shit-canned. And now Ant-Man is getting a movie (assuming the production stops imploding) and she’s still left in the dust. Well, at least now she’s finally been represented in the action figure aisle, possibly for the first time since that Legends MODOK wave from the Toy Biz days. Unless, of course, you count the tiny wasp that came in the Secret Wars comic pack.

Here we see Wasp comes in the drab and joyless Marvel Infinite packaging. Blah. These cards are an opener’s dream come true because they’re so ugly I actually want to shred them to pieces to get the toy out.

This figure features Wasp in her most recent comic look and at 3 ¾” scale if you want to imagine she’s shrunk down, you can even consider this a 1:1 scale figure. Neat! Just like we saw last time with Ant-Man, Wasp makes use of a pretty standard buck and uses paint apps to make up her costume. She’s cast in black plastic and there’s a little bit of gold paint used for the deco on her torso and the soles of her boots. The gold looks nice next to the matte black of the rest of the costume. There’s some uneven application of the paint on her chest, but the rest of the deco is sharp and overall it still looks pretty good.

Of course, the other aspect of Wasp’s costume is her wings and I absolutely love the way Hasbro handled these. They actually come detached from the figure and make use of hinged pegs that fit snugly right into her back. Between rotating the pegs and working the hinges, you can get a pretty good range of poses out of them. The wings themselves are cast in a clear yellowish green plastic, which look great.

The portrait on this figure is among one of my favorite Marvel Universe headsculpts that Hasbro has turned out so far. It’s clearly defined and attractive with some very sharp paintwork on the eyes and lips. What really makes it work is the wonderful pixie-style hair sculpt. One look and there’s no mistaking it… that’s Janet! As Wasp uses one of the more modern female bucks, the figure delivers a good degree of articulation. The shoulders and elbows are pegged and hinges and the wrists have swivels. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double-hinged at the knees and feature swivels in the thighs and lower legs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint just under her chest and the neck features both a hinge and a ball joint.

As with Ant-Man, Wasp comes with a tiny static version of herself. It’s pre-posed in flight with some basic paint apps and translucent wing parts. This piece is a tad bigger than the tiny Ant-Man and I’ve actually managed to not lose it. I dig that Hasbro includes these bonus items, but I really have no use for it and I can’t even think of a decent way to display it.

I’ve been waiting for Wasp to get her due in action figure form for a while now and I’m so happy to finally get her. This is a great little figure and it’d be really cool if we could see a repaint in her classic red and blue costume, which happens to be my favorite. I wish there were some way Hasbro could have worked a simple flight stand into the deal, but I can see where that would have been cost prohibitive. Still, I have to say, crappy package design aside, Marvel Infinites has been impressing me a lot so far, and I’ve only just started opening these!

Aug 1 2014

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Supergirl by DC Collectibles

The last time I looked at the Cover Girls statues was way back in January and it was that sumptuous she-bot from the Metal Men, Platinum. Today we’re looking at Supergirl! Supergirl is one of a handful of lower priority DC books that I’m catching as they come out in trade paperback collections. I think it started on a high note, dropped off for a bit, and lately it’s starting to pick up again. It’s not great, but I still enjoy reading it. This is a statue that I had on pre-order way back when it was first revealed, but she got bumped for other things more important to me. Ever since then I’ve been keeping an eye on her and it took me until now to finally fit her into the budget.

The packaging is right in line with what we’ve been seeing from the Cover Girls ever since DC Direct became DC Collectibles. It’s a fully enclosed white box with some shots of the statue to show you what you’re getting inside. As far as presentation goes, this is about as utilitarian as it can get. Call me crazy, but I expect something a little more exciting and colorful out of my comic book collectible packages.

The back panel of the box shows off two other statues in the line, Batgirl and Batwoman, both of which look pretty good. The statue resides between two styrofoam trays and wrapped in plastic. So far, each of the Cover Girl statues I own have come ready for display, but Supergirl needs to be pegged into her stand. The peg is sturdy metal piece, which fits in easily and holds the statue securely. The reason for the support rod has everything to do with the composition of the piece, so let’s start there.

The pose here is supposed to be Supergirl levitating and I think it’s a great look for the statue. She has just the toe of her right boot touching the base, making it look like she’s coming in for a landing. I suppose if you want to ignore the base, she could just be suspended in mid-air. Kara is striking a pose with both hands curled into fists and flexing with her right arm. I think this is the first statue in the line since its relaunch that has a character capable of flight and I’m happy to see they showcased it in pose. The composition is completed with windblown cape and hair.

The sculpting here is certainly a solid effort. All the painted aspects of her costume are also part of the sculpt, which works well to accentuate the New 52 style. Overall, I don’t have any problems with Supergirl’s current look, although I’ll concede the idea behind the cutout knees in the boots is rather perplexing. The portrait is clean and simple. Kara has just a wee bit of a smirk, which lends some whimsical personality to the piece.

The paintwork has been hit or miss on this line. All of my Cover Girl statues have been acceptable, but there have certainly been opportunities for improvement. I think Supergirl reflects that same trend. The paint on the costume is overall excellent. The lines are fairly clean and the glossy paint used on her one-piece contrasts nicely with the slightly more matte finish on her boots and cape. The skin tone is nice and even and the paint on her face is clean. I’m not a big fan of the wash they used on her hair. It’s there to give it more depth, but I think it just makes it look a little dirty. Really, the only other gripe I have with the paint is that the brush strokes on the base are a little too apparent. So, all in all, not bad.

While the first releases in the rebooted Cover Girls line were environmental designs, DCC seems to be moving more toward a standard oval base for the current releases and while I hate when lines like this change styles in mid stream, I still think it was a wise move. Technically, these are still limited pieces, but with a run of 5200 pieces (I see what you did there!), the limitation isn’t too stringent. I’ve also noticed that DCC has been reissuing a few of the earlier releases (or at least they are for Harley Quinn), so I’m not sure how they work that into the limitation. The statue is numbered on the bottom of the base.

In the end, I’m glad I finally got around to adding Kara to my Cover Girls collection. She’s a great representation of the character and overall feels like a fairly solid value for the money. While this rebooted Cover Girls line continues to have its critics, I remain a fan, albeit a rather tepid one. These aren’t something that I often pre-order like I do most of Kotobukiya’s stuff, but then I tend to like the PCV format over this cold-cast porcelain for my statues. Nonetheless, at roughly 1:8 scale and around $80 each, these statues fall right into my sweet spot and keep me coming back for more.

Jul 31 2014

Transformers Generations: Legends Class Swerve by Hasbro

If you haven’t read the More Than Meets the Eye comic from IDW you are missing out on one of the best comics of all time. That’s not hyperbole, that’s really how I feel. It’s got something for everyone and as far as I’m concerned, the book has managed to create some of the most memorable characterizations of any Transformers fiction to date. One of those characters is Swerve and everybody loves Swerve! Well, everybody except the crew of The Lost Light. They kind of hate him. But either way, the MTME iteration of the character finally got his own official action figure from Hasbro and that figure has quite suitably landed in the Legends Class assortment.

There’s the packaging and I’m still digging the G1-style deco and the bitchin character art that Hasbro is using on these cards. Ok, I’ll admit I would have liked to see Swerve holding a drink, but I’m guessing that such a thing wouldn’t have been deemed acceptable on a toy package. Remember, kids, learn to love booze early and it’ll make life so much more bearable. Either way, at least they included his awesome shit-eating grin. Swerve is packaged in his robot mode beside his Targetmaster, Flanker, who is in his jet mode. Let’s start with Swerve and his alt mode.

Swerve is a pick-up truck, which works for me. The truck mode isn’t overly encumbered with sculpted detail, but it does have some nice attention spent on the front grill and headlights. Yeah, there is major seaming working against it on the sides of the truck, but that’s something that often plagues Deluxes too, so I’m not going to make a big deal about it when talking about a Legends Class toy. The coloring is bright and appealing, with a satisfying red plastic that is sparsely deco’ed out with some white and silver paint apps and black painted windows.

The Legends Class figures, or any Transformers for that matter, aren’t exactly slaves to scale, and that goes extra for Swerve. So far we’ve seen a tank, a jet, a truck, and a sportscar, and none of them have really been in scale with each other and yet they still seem to belong in the same line. Well, Swerve’s is the first alt mode here that clearly feels like it was designed to interact with a different line. When you put him next to his fellow Autobot Legends Class alt modes, he just looks too big and chunky to belong. Is that a bad thing? Well, I’ll come back to that in a bit.

Transforming Swerve is pretty damn easy. It’s so easy that it harkens back to the old G1 Minibot days. You unfold his legs from the back, pull out his arms and tuck the hood behind his back. The result is a pretty spectacular little version of the Lost Light’s resident barkeep.

Yup, that’s Swerve alright! From the detailing on his chest to the way his wheels land on his shoulders, Hasbro did a wonderful job on this guy, despite the simple conversion process. His robot mode also brings a lot more color to the table by showing off his white torso and his silver upper legs. Plus, with ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, and hips, and hinges in the knees, you can get some decent poseability out of this little scrapper. I do wish his head would turn, but as it is it can only look up or down.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Swerve without that smarmy expression and Hasbro nailed that pretty well too. This isn’t the sharpest head sculpt I’ve seen in the Legends Class, but it certainly gets the job done. I will, however, note that Swerve unfortunately has some sloppy paintwork. The silver on the grills on either side of his head aren’t fully painted in and there’s a big dallup of silver in the top right corner of his right chest gril. There’s also a bit of the red plastic bleeding through his white face paint. It’s not the end of the world, but if I find another on the pegs with better paint, I’ll definitely pick it up.

So, back to that whole scale thing. Despite being a Legends Class figure, Swerve feels like he was intended to interact with the regular Generations line. Stand him next to Legends Optimus and he stands bulkier and even a smidge taller than the Autobot leader. On the other hand, put him beside Classics Rodimus and he feels right at home. My guess is that Hasbro wanted to get the figure out for the Classics/Generations line and the Legends price point was the only way they could do it and I certainly applaud the decision.

Swerve’s Targetmaster, Flanker is a little blue jet. He’s a simple little guy, but his paint unfortunately reflects some of the paint issues with Swerve. The white striping on his wings is rather spotty and the blue plastic is bleeding through in afew spots. His jet mode is Ok, but the lack of detail in the nose makes me want to consider him more of a drone than a proper jet. I do, however, dig his robot mode a lot.

Where Flanker really shines is his gun mode. He converts into what looks like a three-barreled minigun of some kind and it’s totally bad ass. It also doesn’t look as terribly oversized as some of the other Targetmaster guns in this line. Sure, I would have preferred Hasbro find a way to give him his “My First Blaster” gun, but it’s at least comforting to know that the third party companies have that accessory covered.

The price point, packaging, and Targetmaster may put Swerve in the Legends Class assortment, he’s still going to be going straight onto my Classics/Generations shelf. I think it’s awesome that Hasbro was able to recognize that this was a character fans would want and I have to say this is one of the first Hasbro releases where I can honestly say that I’m happier to have their version than the third-party Swerves that are out there. Maketoys “Trash Talk” comes closest to getting the job done, but it’s a little too white for me, and with the big gulf in price differences, I don’t even consider Hasbro’s official figure a compromise. Now if only Hasbro would get us some more crewmembers from The Lost Light, I’ll be a happy camper.

Jul 30 2014

Masters of the Universe Classics: Flogg by Mattel

So last week we checked out the first Club Etheria figure, Double Mischief, and I found her to be a double downer. Today we’re checking out July’s Club Eternia figure, Flogg and I actually have some high hopes for this guy. While I’m not really a fan of the New Adventures continuity I do rather like the idea of it and so far I’ve been really enjoying the wacky designs of the Space Mutant figures. Optikk was one of my all-time greatest “I have no idea who this guy is, but he’s awesome” figure purchases. I’ll note here that I was on my fifth or sixth Jameson when I decided to open Flogg and my alcohol addled brain failed to realize that I had not yet snapped an in-package picture of him. No biggie, we all know what the packaging looks like by now and Flogg’s is more of the same. With that having been said, let’s just jump straight to the figure.

Unlike a lot of the New Adventures characters, I sort of know who Flogg is. I don’t know him intimately, but he featured heavily on the few fleeting parts of the NA cartoon that I have seen. But I can set that aside, because I think this figure gets by solely on his own merits. The design reminds of some of the vintage Major Matt Mason alien designs. It’s probably the goofy retro alien head and the ribbed tubing on the arms and legs his space armor. The armor definitely features some reused parts. I see some Trap Jaw in there, and I’m pretty sure those are Hordak’s flipper feet. Still, the overall look of the armor is fresh to me and quite striking as well. There’s plenty of great detail in the vest and I particularly like the sculpted ammo pouches that line the back of his belt. The arm bracers and boots have all sorts of bolts and straps and the texturing on the shoulder armor is pretty nifty too. Besides the great sculpt, you also get a very snappy deco with the deep crimson contrasting beautifully with the metallic silver parts.

Flogg’s portrait is probably one of those love it or hate it kind of deals. He’s got a weird expression, sort of like he’s just realized Icarus has fired a missile at his face and there’s nothing he can do about it. I still like the head sculpt a lot, particularly the huge eyes and the way the helmet goes along with the raised collar. It almost looks like he could pull his head in like a turtle to protect himself. I seem to recall Matty originally showing off Flogg with a removable helmet, but that seems to have been nixed in the final release. That’s Ok. Options are nice to have, but I can’t imagine I would ever want to display him without his helmet anyway. What’s also cool is you peek down into the neck guard you can see his purple scaled skin runs all the way down his neck.

The articulation here offers no surprises. Ball joints abound in the neck, shoulders and hips. The arms have swivels in the biceps and wrists as well as hinged elbows. The legs have swivels at the hips and hinges in the knees. The ankles are hinged and also feature a bit of a lateral rocker. Flogg can swivel at the waist and while his ab-crunch hinge is buried under his vest, you can still get a wee bit of movement out of it.

There are two accessories included with Flogg, but only one is for him and that’s his… um… ah… weapon? I have no idea what this thing is. The bio talks about a whip of some sort. This is a pole with a control pad near the grip and what looks like a caltrop hanging from a string. Yeeeeeah. I got nothing. My cat does enjoy playing with it though.

The other accessory is a more Filmation accurate Power Sword, pictured up there in He-Man’s left hand. Honestly, I have no use or interest in this piece. I had to hold it next to the sword released with the original MOTUC He-Man just to make out what the differences were. It’s going straight into my bin of accessories.

I’m at a weird stage with the MOTUC line. I’ve never been hardcore with the fiction or the vintage toys, so Matty has already covered most everyone I was actively looking for. On the other hand, one of my favorite things about this line has been its ability to deliver figures that I love, which are practically unknown characters to me. Flogg certainly falls into that category. I’m thoroughly delighted with this figure. He’s colorful, he’s wacky, and he’s going to look great on my shelf amidst the menagerie of other Space Mutants, once I manage to pick up more of them. As for now, he’s just chilling in the corner of the shelf with Optikk.

Jul 29 2014

Star Wars Black: Darth Vader (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

If you haven’t noticed, I’m trying to work one Star Wars feature into each week when possible. I’m doing this not only because getting a box of my old vintage Kenner figures has rekindled my love for the stuff, but also because I have a heck of a lot of Star Wars figures sitting in a pile in the corner waiting to be opened. The 3 ¾” Black line has been hit and miss with me, but mostly miss. Nonetheless, it’s figures like Vizam that give me renewed hope. Today I’m opening Darth Vader because I really need another Vader figure… yeah, like I need a barbed kidney stone lodged in my urethra. Even after my great Star Wars toys purge from a few years back I still have tons of Vaders. Nonetheless, that didn’t stop me from picking up this one last Christmas when Amazon was practically giving them away with a qualifying order.

There’s the packaging and man do I love it. No, wait… love isn’t the right word. Oh yeah, now I remember… I friggin hate it because it looks like garbage. Normally we can rely on the clear view of the figure to help elevate the presentation, but here we have black Vader against a black card. It doesn’t help. I should probably note here that this is Vader from The Empire Strikes Back, specifically inspired by the “We’d be honored if you would join us” dinner party scene. But before you get the cold sweats and flashbacks to the scene specific figures of the Attack of the Clones days, fear not. The specificity of this figure mostly relates to the accessories. I hate to admit it, but even though I own a hundred Vaders in this scale, it’s been so long since I got a new one, I’m rather excited to check this one out.

And here he is out of the package. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen this figure before and I’m pretty sure I own it already. He’s got a few strange quirks about him, but I still dig him a whole lot. For starters, the use of soft goods here is excellent. The cape feels really good and falls about the figure as well as a 3 ¾” scale garment with almost no weight to it can be expected to. But it’s the addition of the second layer of cloth underneath that really makes this guy stand out for me, particularly the way it’s fitted under the shoulder cowl and belted. The cape comes attached via a hole that passes through the neck post, but I found it to fit better if you pass the post between the cape and the neck chain. The helmet looks pretty good to me, but I’m not one of those people who could point out all the differences from one movie to the next. It does have a very nice “new car” shine to it and that makes me happy.

The figure does have a couple of minor setbacks. First, the middle of his cowl seems to be pushed in. It looks like a bantha kicked him right in the plate there. I’m not sure if that’s a problem with just mine or with all of these figures, but it’s hard to ignore it. It doesn’t look as bad when viewed from an angle, but I can’t not see it when viewing the figure dead on. The other issue is the head, which tends to pop off rather easily. I tend to have to push down a bit when turning it to keep Vader’s noggin from separating. I think it has to do with the cape material being between the head and body.

The articulation here is Ok, but not great. The shoulders and elbows are ball jointed and there’s are swivels in the wrist and again in the neck. Vader can also swivel at the waist. Alas, Hasbro is really sticking to the T-crotch design and it feels rather backward when compared to the rest of the figure’s articulation. I’d blame it on this guy being a repack, but the T-crotch has also been plaguing the Vintage Collection too. Beyond that you also get ball joints in the knees and ankles. Vader isn’t exactly an action star, so he’ll still be able to do most of what I want him to, but I would have enjoyed the ability to get him into a wider stance.

Vader comes with three accessories: His lightsaber, a swap-out hand with effects part, and Han’s blaster. The lightsaber is pretty self-explanatory. It looks good, but it is one solid piece, so you can’t detach the blade for a deactivated hilt and even if you could there’s no place on his belt to peg it into.

The other two accessories are meant to recreate the dinner scene at Cloud City where Vader deflected Han’s laser blasts and then force-yanked his gun away from him. I give points to Hasbro for trying something here, but in all honesty I don’t think it works. Effect parts are often hard enough to pull off in larger scales and here it just doesn’t look anything like what it’s supposed to. As for the blaster… I recently realized that the Han that came with my Legacy Falcon doesn’t have his anymore, so I was able to hand it off to him.

There was a time when I thought I would rather stub a cigar out on my genitalia than buy another Darth Vader figure. And it’s very probably that this exact figure is already somewhere in one of my storage totes. Now, with all that having been said, I do like this figure quite a bit. It’s not perfect, and I’ll concede that’s kind of disappointing. How many decades has Hasbro been making Vader figures in this scale now? You’d think they could finally produce one that hits all the right points. An update to the T-crotch really would have been a welcome improvement and it takes a lot of effort to futz with his cape to make it look just right. Otherwise I’ve had some fun playing around with him, and now I think I’m going to stand him up on the shelf in front of my Imperial Shuttle because I have no idea where the Vader went that came with that ship. He was definitely worth picking up on the cheap.

Jul 28 2014

Marvel Universe Infinite: Ant-Man by Hasbro

I love Hank Pym. He’s one of those wonderfully flawed and ultimately very “human” characters that are oftentimes scarce in mainstream comic books. Of course, sometimes it’s hard to love him, but I think that’s what makes him such an interesting character. Anyway, the sad truth is that up until now I had absolutely no representation of his Ant-Man persona in my collection. But now, thanks to the new Marvel Infinite Series, I finally have me an Ant-Man figure. And thanks to the wonders of Pym Particles, he’s a figure that can fit in with my Universe, Legends, and hell even my Hot Toys Marvel figures.

There’s the packaging and I’m still not a fan. There’s no craft of presentation here. All this does is protect the figure and allow you to get a good look at what you’re buying. As far as I’m concerned Hasbro might as well dropped it into a Ziploc bag and wrote Ant-Man on it. Blah!

Ant-Man makes use of the same slender buck that Hasbro used for their previous Hank Pym figure, Yellowjacket. This is also one of those figures that rely almost entirely on paint apps for the costume details. In this case, you get his red costume with blue and black deco and there’s an effective use shading to give the outfit a little more depth. Yes, from the neck down Ant-Man is an extremely simple figure, but in the case of this character it certainly works. Articulation consists of ball joints in the neck, chest, shoulders, hips, and ankles. The arms feature hinged elbows and swivels in the biceps. The legs have double hinged knees and swivels in the thighs.

The head sculpt is where it’s all at. I’ve always the design of Ant-Man’s helmet and Hasbro did a nice job reproducing it here for the 3 ¾” scale. The front part of the mask is actually sculpted separately and permanently attached to the helmet. Having it separate from the face gives the portrait a lot of depth and credibility and I’m surprised to see something like that done in this scale. Even the deep set eyes are clearly defined and look great. Critics may take note of the lack of antennae. I don’t think that was an oversight, but rather just a concession that it would have been impractical to do them, make them look right and have them not break off.

Ant-Man comes with one accessory… himself! Yes, it’s a tiny little PCV version of himself, which features some remarkably good sculpting and paintwork for such a teeny little piece. I thought this was going to be the same pack-in that was included with the Marvel Universe Yellowjacket figure, but it’s actually brand new. It’s also something that I lost almost immediately after opening him up. It must have dropped onto the floor during the photo shoot and in my house anything that small that drops onto the floor instantly becomes the posession of the cat. Poor tiny Ant-Man no doubt currently resides in the kitty’s personal cave of trophies that is also sometimes known as “under the sofa.” Perhaps the little guy will find some ants under there to help him escape.

Ant-Man is one of those characters that was mighty high on my list for the Marvel Universe line and it’s good to see him finally getting the spotlight in the Infinite Series, especially when his film seems to be languishing in developmental purgatory. Speaking of which, it’s kind of odd to me that Hasbro went with Pym over Scott Lang, since it is the latter that will be taking on the mantle of Ant-Man in the movie, but I’m glad they did because finding out that Hank Pym wasn’t going to be the focus of the Ant-Man film really knocked it down a couple notches for me. Either way, as simple as this figure is, Hasbro did a fine job on him and it’s great to have him in my collection. Next time I revisit the Infinite Series we’ll check out Wasp!

Jul 25 2014

Masters of the Universe Classics: Double Mischief by Mattel

Another Matty Sale Day has come and gone and you know what that means? Subscription figures are landing at my door! Yes, this month it’s figures (plural) because in addition to the Club Eternia release, the Club Etheria Mini Sub kicked off this month and that’s the one that I’m going to look at first. This is the second of these Mini Subs that I subscribed to, the first being the Club Filmation. I can honestly say that I didn’t think there was a bad figure in that entire series. Will that be the case with Club Etheria? Well, let’s take a look at Double Mischief and find out.

While she may hail from a new Club Subscription, Double Mischief features the same great packaging we’ve been seeing all along. The only difference worth noting is a snazzy 30^th Anniversary She-Ra logo printed on the back of the cardboard mailer box. You’ll have to take my word for it, though, as I tossed it before I was able to shoot any pictures. The front of the bubble has the Princess of Power sticker on the front. The back of the card has the usual bio and pictures of other figures in the line. Looks like I’m only missing Bow and Snout Spout. The bio proclaims that Double Mischief’s real name is Rebekkah Kettle. Wait… what? Ok, well for the rest of the feature I’m calling her Becky, because I don’t want to keep typing Double Mischief.

Holy shit, this figure is crazy! I realize that’s usually a compliment for MOTUC figures, but in this case I don’t necessarily mean that in a good way. Becky’s gimmick is that she’s basically a female Man-E-Faces and while I happen to dig the Man-E figure a lot, in this case I’m getting more of a weird and off-putting vibe. I guess I’ll start with her portrait, because that’s where it’s all going on. She has the same bucket-head kind of helmet with a rotating set of faces. In this case, Becky only has two faces, one good and one bad. The idea is that she’s a member of the Great Rebellion posing as a Horde member. She’s a double agent, get it? So why does it work for me with Man-E-Faces and not with this chick?

It’s tough to put my finger on exactly why. I think a big part of it is that Man-E was more of a freakish monster and Rebecca is just a regular lady with a monument sized bucket on her head. And girlfriend, that hair ain’t helping any neither. <insert double-snap here> The hair is not only a ridiculous fountain of plastic spurting out of her top, but the paint on it is terrible making it look dirty and just plain nasty. It looks less like hair and more like what you get when you push play-doh through one of those toy pasta maker machines.

You switch faces simply but turning the knob on the top of her helmet and the main difference between the two is in the eyebrows. One face has a set of eeeevil eyebrows. And god help you if you stop halfway through changing the faces because you’ll be confronted with a featureless lump of flesh that will haunt your dreams forever.

It’s a shame because I think the rest of the figure looks mostly good. I like the green dress and the high collar and those silver Go-Go boots look like they’re right out of a classic Star Trek episode. I had high hopes for the translucent green cape, but in person it looks kind of dingy and not so great. From the neck down, Becky has the same articulation as most of the other females in the line. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, hinged at the elbows and have swivels in the biceps and wrists. Her legs have universal movement at the hips, hinges in the knees and ankles, and swivels at the upper thighs. She also has lateral rockers in the ankles. Naturally, there’s no neck articulation because this chick doesn’t really have a neck. If you want her to look in either direction you can work the knob on the top of her head. She’s not someone you want with you in battle because she’s got zero peripheral vision.

Becky comes with only one accessory and that’s her Horde crossbow. It’s designed so that it can convert to a less evil looking crossbow for when she’s with her Rebellion chums. You convert it simply by twisting the front. It’s because of the crossbow that I’ll probably keep her displayed with my Horde figures.

Unfortunately Club Etheria isn’t off to a great start as far as I’m concerned. I find it odd that Matty put Double Mischief out there as their first offering and one that would land on people’s doorsteps smack dab in the middle of Subbing Season for 2015. I thought she was a dubious offering from the beginning and there are much stronger figures and characters that they could have used as their inaugural release. There are precious few figures in the Masters Classics collection that I don’t enjoy on some level, but I think Becky here is going to be counted as one of those few. Fortunately the rest of this Club’s offering should be a lot better.

Jul 24 2014

Transformers Generations: Legends Class Megatron by Hasbro

Wow, it’s Thursday again. The week just flew by and it’s time for more Transformers goodness. We’re in the fourth week of my infatuation with the Generations Legends line and so far everything about these little toys has been nothing but kittens and rainbows. Well, sadly that trend is going to end today with Megatron because I’m just not digging this guy as much as the others. Let’s take a look…

Here’s the packaging. Well, the deco is still awesome, but I can’t say the same for the character art. Oh, the artwork is just fine, but when you get down to it, I just don’t like this design for Megatron. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Megsy comes packaged in his robot mode with his Targetmaster, Chop Shop beside him in his bug mode. There isn’t much new to say here, so let’s start out with Megatron in his vehicle mode.

Megatron is a tank, and honestly if he isn’t going to be a gun, this is my preferred Megatron alt mode. If you can’t be a gun, be a tank! Interestingly enough, Hasbro actually used the Legends Class assortment a few years back to get us a new G1-style gun mode Megatron, but I was ignoring the Legends line at the time so I never picked him up. Anyway, I don’t have a lot of quibbles with this Megatron’s alt mode. Sure, you can see his hands on each side of the cannon, but even though they’re right there, I don’t think it looks too bad. It’s a rather f’ugly mode, but it still works well enough for what it is. Overall, there’s some nice detail in the sculpt, particularly in the tiny faux treads, and I appreciate the fact that the turret can rotate. I’m not a fan of the plastic they used for the two parts on the back of the turret, which becomes Megatron’s shoulders. It looks cheap. I think it’s the weakest of the Legends alt modes I’ve looked at so far, but for a toy this size, I’m willing to give it a pass.

Transforming Megatron is pretty simple and apart from maybe the way the lower legs pack in there’s nothing terribly clever here. The result is a fairly decent representation of a version of Megatron that I just don’t happen to enjoy all that much. Honestly, I think a big part of my problem with this design is the coloring. It’s that black chest and head with the yellow hazard striping effect. The Megatron I know wouldn’t walk around looking like that. That’s not to say that the quality of the paintwork here isn’t excellent. The yellow hits are crisp and the little touches of red around his midsection and elbows are welcome. I still maintain that there’s better and more complex paint on these little guys than a lot of the Deluxes I’ve seen in the past few years. Either way, with a more G1-style deco I could probably be more accepting of this figure.

Megs features decent articulation for this size class. You get ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, and hips, and hinges in the knees. Some of his transforming parts don’t lock in as well as I would like, but he’s still a fun figure to play with. The tank cannon works OK as his arm blaster. It’s a little thin to drive the homage home, but at least it’s there. It’s also ball jointed, so you can shift it between the outside of his arm or have it like he’s holding it like a gun.

And then there’s Chop Shop! I was unusually excited to see this guy because the old Deluxe Insecticons don’t tend to get any love these days. I never owned any of the originals as a kid, but I was certainly curious about them, mainly because they didn’t look anything like the rest of the official Insecticons, who were official in my eyes because they were actually in the cartoon. I like Chop Shop’s beetle mode a lot and while his robot mode just consists of standing him up, I still think it’s pretty cool. Again, the sculpt and paint on these teeny little figures is impressive to me.

I guess it’s a misnomer to call Chop Shop a Targetmaster, since his weapon mode isn’t a gun, but rather a giant pincer claw. It’s also not really an independent mode at all. You’re just sticking his beetle mode on Megs’ arm and you can work the claw by opening and closing the back half of the beetle. Personally, I think it works better as a shield. Man, that would suck being the Transformer that turns into a shield for another Transformer! I was kind of hoping I could stick Chop Shop onto Megs’ back because positioning the pincers behind his head would give him a cool Armada Megatron look. Sadly, the socket on Megatron’s back is too big for the peg. It seems like either a wasted opportunity or a tease. You can also stick Chop Shop on top of Megsy’s tank mode, but it just looks like exactly what it is, a giant beetle riding on top of a tank.

So, Megatron is not one of my favorites in this line, but that doesn’t make him a terrible figure. Most of what’s here works just fine and my real issue with him is just my personal disinterest in the design. I’m certainly not sorry I added him to my collection. At $10 a pop, these little figures aren’t exactly a high risk gamble. Next Thursday, the Legends Class train will roll on with a look at a very highly anticipated figure… Swerve!

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Star Wars: Droid “Special Action Figure” Set by Hasbro

S.H. Figuarts: One Piece Nami by Bandai Tamashii Nations

Marvel Universe Infinite: Wasp by Hasbro

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Supergirl by DC Collectibles

Transformers Generations: Legends Class Swerve by Hasbro

Masters of the Universe Classics: Flogg by Mattel

Star Wars Black: Darth Vader (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

Marvel Universe Infinite: Ant-Man by Hasbro

Masters of the Universe Classics: Double Mischief by Mattel

Transformers Generations: Legends Class Megatron by Hasbro

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: