Apr 11 2014

The Avengers: The Hulk ArtFX+ Statue by Kotobukiya

Yes, it’s time to give more money and attention to the wizards at Kotobukiya. Having done some amazing work with DC’s Justice League, they are now branching out their ArtFX+ line to include Marvel’s Avengers and for the first release they’re bringing in the big guns: It’s The Hulk and this statue is… dare I say it? Incredible!

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The Hulk comes in a box that absolutely dwarfs the packaging used on most other statues in this line. Standing at a little over 12-inchs tall and nearly as wide, this is one epic box. Of course, The Hulk is a big boy, so this piece still conforms to the usual 1:10 scale of the ArtFX+ line. The box features some shots of the statue and a nice piece of artwork on the back featuring all The Avengers. It’s a nice teaser of the forthcoming releases. No offense to the artsy boxes Koto used for the Justice League, but this is the kind of box I like to get my statues in. It’s attractive, it’s collector friendly, and it’s durable for long term storage. The front of the box declares that this piece is a “pre-painted model kit” and while the Justice League statues didn’t require any assembly, it’s not uncommon for other ArtFX+ statues to require you to plug some pieces together.

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Inside the box, The Hulk comes in three pieces all sandwiched between two clear trays. It’s not unlike the Iron Man ArtFX statue that I looked at last week. All you need to do is attach the two halves of the figure at the waist, pop on the head and you’re good to go. You also get two of the standard black metal square bases, because The Hulk is way too big for just one.

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So, before I start gushing all over this piece, let me deal with the drawbacks. Because there are some seams that didn’t show up in any of the pre-production photos. Yes, The Hulk is a kit so seams are to be expected, but the arms come already attached, so the fact that they are running across his biceps is unfortunate. On most pieces, these wouldn’t be a problem, but since Hulk is mostly skin, the seams do stand out. I just have to keep reminding myself that as far as statues go, this one is a fairly low end piece.

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And apart from those seams, it is indeed easy to forget that this is merely a $60 statue because the rest of it looks like something far better. I adored the metallic snap and relative simplicity of the Justice League statues, but there’s so much more opportunity to shine in a piece like this one. Koto went wild reproducing The Hulk’s muscles, veins and tendons, which all conspire to give this statue a feeling of pure power and rage. Even the composition, with one foot in front of the other and a fist winding up to smash, is just totally out of sight. This Hulk feels like a much higher end piece that has been shrunken down to the 1:10 scale range. And even in this scale, The Hulk stands at about ten inches tall! The portrait is every bit as stunning as the rest of the statue. The powerful furled brow, the broad nose, and the exposed teeth is indeed anger personified. This likeness is pure iconic Hulk through and through.

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As wonderful as the sculpting is, it wouldn’t succeed without the proper coloring and this statue has the paintwork to make it work. The green skin tone looks perfect to me and with just enough wash to bring out the detail in the muscles. For a statue that is mostly green skin, there’s a ton of depth and variety to the coloring. The same goes for Hulk’s iconic purple shredded pants. Simply exceptional!

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The bases work the same as previous ArtFX+ statues. They are simple black metal squares and they work with the magnets in the Hulk’s feet. You can slide them around to decide how you want your statue to sit on the shelf.

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I’ll confess, I thought it a bit odd for Koto to lead with The Hulk, I would have bet on Captain America or Iron Man. But when you’re sitting on a piece this impressive, it doesn’t hurt to get it out at the front of the line. And everything about this piece is indeed just so goddamn impressive. What’s really great about this statue is that it totally succeeds as a stand-alone display piece. And that means he won’t look out of place waiting for the other statues to be released. Indeed, even if I had no interest in collecting a full Avengers line, I’d still happily grab this guy up and at the $60 price point, he feels like a bargain.

Apr 10 2014

Transformers: Masterpiece Lambor (MP-12) by Takara

Last week I announced the Bayformer takeover of Transformers Thursday, and this week I’m already reneging on it. Yup, I’m a big fat liar. In fact, the next three weeks of TFT will be devoted to some new acquisitions. What can I say? I didn’t expect to be buying a lot of Transformers this month. But fear not, that will still leave plenty of time to spread the Bayformer hate love during the following month. Today we have bigger fish to fry because I’m taking another crack at MP-12 Lambor. For those that don’t already know, I’ll preface this feature by pointing out that this is indeed the second time I bought this figure. I got the original release of MP-12 and wound up selling it because the paint job was so god awful, that I was furious at myself for spending $80 on it. I had it up on Ebay within hours of receiving it so I didn’t even bother to feature it here. Fortunately, Takara has done a second run on this figure and the word was that Takara “should be” addressing the QC issues this time around. With the three Datsuns under my belt, I had to roll the dice again. Let’s see how I made out this time.

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Back then, Lambor was our first look at the MP Autobot Car packaging, but we’ve already seen it here three times with Prowl, Streak, and Smokescreen. There’s not much new to say. It’s compact, it’s collector friendly, and it gets the job done. I like it. I’ll also take this opportunity to say that from now on I’m calling him Sideswipe.

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Inside you get a plastic tray that holds the toy in its alt mode along with the gun, the missile launcher, and the two piledrivers. I totally forgot that the piledrivers came with him, and I also totally forgot to snap a picture of him with them on. Unless you see one, and that means I had the time to come back and do it. Hey, I post at least five features a week, there can’t be time for everything! Anyway, you also get a folded instruction sheet and a profile card with some boffo character art. I just said “boffo.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m drinking. But yes, I am.

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Takara has also been bundling these MP figures with collector coins and US importers have been charging more if you want them with the figure. I couldn’t give a crap about these, so I haven’t been getting them. Nonetheless, my Sideswipe came with one because the retailer I bought him from didn’t give an option to get the second run figure without it. So here it is. Oddly enough, it says Hasbro on the back. Weird!

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As any good TransFan worth their energon knows, Sideswipe is a sexy red Lamborghini Countach. As I removed the figure I let out a sigh of relief. This time around, the paint is indeed quite good. Is it perfect? No, but I really have to nitpick to find flaws in it. There are a couple of grains of dust under the paint on the hood, but you have to get the light to hit it just right to notice. I tried to get it to show up in the pictures, but I don’t think it did. That’s how minor a flaw it is. There are a few minor instances of slop around the black triangle on the driver side. And of course, the shade of red on the roof doesn’t match the rest of the car because it’s painted over clear plastic. Considering the first Lambor I got had huge swirls and chips in the paint and red slop on the windshield, this one is a huge step up. Indeed, the fact that I am nitpicking the paint this time around is a wonderful thing. Anyway, Sideswipe has one hell of a solid alt mode with just some minor issues with getting some of the plates to line up perfectly. I blame this as much on my transforming skills. I’m possibly not comfy enough with him yet to get everything aligned just right. But I tend to get some gaps in seams along the sides and the two halves of the spoiler tend to separate a smidge.

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There’s a slot on the top of the roof in case you for some reason want to mount his missile launcher on there. You can even plug the rifle into it too just in case a Lamborghini with a giant missile launcher on top didn’t look ridiculous enough. It’s nice to have options, but I can’t imagine ever making use of this feature again.

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I found transforming Sideswipe a little more tricky than the Datsuns, but that could just be because I’ve been through it so many times with those three figures that it’s old hat to me now. There’s nothing terribly uncomfortable about the process, although his legs do involve quite a bit of fiddly bits. I’ll also note that it’s sometimes difficult to get his chest to stay plugged in, whereas the Datsun’s chests locked into place with a rock-solid snap. I think my problem is that I don’t always have the torso packed away properly and I suspect I’ll get better at it.

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Of course, it’s hard to argue with the end result and Sideswipe’s bot mode looks amazing. The proportions are perfect and I love the way the legs pack and tab together so perfectly. It’s brilliant. Even from the back he looks so clean and tight. Oooh, baby… so tight. Sure there are some exposed screws visible from the back, but I suppose they had to land somewhere. I’m also happy to say that the paint job looks just as good in robot mode as in his alt mode. There’s no chips or bleeding or any of the crap that I got with my orginal issue Lambor. Either I got lucky with this one or Takara did indeed step up the game on their QC for this second batch. Either way, a winner is me!

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Lambor features a white cannon or missile launcher that pegs comfortably into either shoulder and can still be angled up or down so he can attain that perfect firing arc and blow Decepticon Seekers out of the sky. He also comes with a hand gun, which looks great, but doesn’t stay in his hand as well as the guns do on the Datsuns. It seems to tab in fine, but when I close the fingers around it, it seems to knock it loose again. No biggie. It’s just a matter of striking the right balance on the finger hinges.

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Having a Sideswipe-shaped hole in my MP collection was really pissing me off. It was even more maddening because I had the figure in hand and had to give him up for being unacceptable. I can’t properly express how happy I am that Takara made this happen and re-issued him. He’s a superb figure and certainly worthy of the name Masterpiece. And he finally offers up a little more diversity to my MP Autobot shelf, which so far was populated mostly by the Datsuns. I’ve got a pre-order in for the second run of Red Alert too, so I’ll be anxiously awaiting his arrival later this year!

Apr 9 2014

Doctor Who: Assault Dalek and Imperial Guard Dalek (3 ¾” Scale) by Character Options

Today I’m pressing on with Wave 2 of Character Options’ 3 ¾” scale Doctor Who figures and we’re looking at Daleks! Yes, today I’m doing TWO figures because these Daleks are just very minor variants of the ones released in Wave 1 and I doubt even I could pad out the feature enough to give them each their own spotlight. In fact, this shouldn’t take long at all. But don’t think that speaks badly about them because these figures are fantastic! Army building the little Daleks has been the best thing about this line so far and these two new pepperpots are every bit as cool.

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The packages are mostly the same as the ones we saw with the 12th Doctor figure. The big difference here is the addition of the “Heritage Line” on the bubble insert. It seems to be a sub-line that will draw material from earlier periods of NuWho, as both of these Daleks come from stories that pre-date Matt Smith’s tenure. I would presume that the 10th Doctor and Amy Pond figures that were shown off at Toy Fair may be released under this moniker. The only other thing worth pointing out here is that the Daleks do not include stands, but they certainly don’t need them.

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If you haven’t clicked back to my review of the Wave 1 Dalek, just imagine that CO took their excellent 5-inch scale Daleks and shrank them down to this smaller scale. Nothing is lost in the translation as they are superbly painted and detailed and everything I could want in a tiny Dalek. Stand one of these next to the 11th Doctor figure in the same scale and there’s such a wide chasm of quality between the two they feel like they come from two totally different lines. And I don’t have to spell out how awesome it is to have Daleks roughly in scale with Star Wars or GI Joe figures, do I? Anyway, let’s press on to what makes these little containers of hate different from the regular Daleks.

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Both of these variants come from the 9th Doctor episode “Parting of the Ways.” First up we have the Assault Dalek. This figure is your basic regular Dalek with his plunger arm replaced by a claw arm that can double as a cutting beam. This was the Dalek that tried to cut the bulkhead to get to “Lynda with a Y” before one of his chums blew out the window to space and robbed him of the kill. That’s it! That’s really the only difference. There’s nothing else to say about this one except he’s awesome.

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Next up, we have the Imperial Guard Dalek. This little fellow’s plunger arm is replaced with a big sphere arm. It’s called a sensor arm, although I don’t think it was ever established in the episode what it was used for. The other notable difference is the repainted black dome. I honestly didn’t even know these Daleks existed until I re-watched the episode to specifically look for them. He’s an interesting variant, but I don’t dig him as much as the Assault Dalek.

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And that’s all I got on this pair. I told you today would be brief! Obviously these figures were pretty quick and dirty tweaks, but that doesn’t make me appreciate them any less. I’ve got a nice little army of Daleks building up in this scale so I’m happy to pad out their ranks with a couple of unique models. I’ll likely be picking up some more of the Assault Dalek and maybe one more of the Imperial Guard. Next week, I’ll wrap up my look at the figures I bought from this wave with the one I was anticipating the most… The Zygon!

Apr 8 2014

Masters of the Universe Classics: Hydron by Mattel

So far I’ve been mighty happy with my decision to sub to Club Eternia for 2014, but I knew sooner or later that contentment could be shattered and this month’s release looked like it might be the one to do the job. The New Adventures line never meant anything to me as a kid, and I never looked twice at it as an adult collector either. But I never let my ignorance of a specific character mar my potential enjoyment of a figure and there’s no denying that Optikk was a great addition to my collection. And so I try to approach the New Adventures figure, Hydron, with an open mind. Let’s see if he can win me over. Also, apologies for this feature being a little late, but I could only squeeze one Matty figure into the tail end of March and obviously I went with The Unnamed One!

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Gone are the white mailer boxes and in their place are brown ones that look like they’re made out of recycled Shop-Rite grocery bags. Oddly enough, mine also said Grizzlor on the back of the box. But open that sucker up and you’re treated to the same glorious Greyskull-themed package we’ve all come to know and love. Hydron’s package has a “Galactic Protectors” sticker on the bubble signifying that he comes from the New Adventures of He-Man mythos. There’s nothing else new and noteworthy here, so let’s bust him out.

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While Icarus was clearly designed to fight in the skies, Hydron battles evil below the waves. I get a very strong Centurions feeling out of these guys, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Hydron comes fully decked out in his underwater gear, the centerpiece of which is the rubbery chest piece that fits over the figure’s buck. It’s sculpted with various hoses and vents to keep him alive during his underwater doings. In a place as wacky and diverse as the Masters universe, you’d think The Guardians could find someone that can actually breathe underwater to take care of your underwater ops. But nope, that falls on this guy. Other notable points of interest on Hydron’s costume include webbed flippers on his feet and a sculpted knife strapped to his right leg.

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Hydron features a clear dome and a backpack with breather hoses, all of which can be removed to get a better look at the head sculpt. The portrait includes a very retro-looking fin helmet and he has a red breather mask permanently attached to his face. Why wear the breather mask in addition to the dome and breather apparatus? I don’t know, why does the gardener have a giant robotic elephant head? It’s best not to ask these questions. It is, however, annoying since Hydron didn’t always walk around wearing it in the cartoon. It kind of defeats the purpose of being able to take off his gear.

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In addition to his removable gear, Hydron comes with a crazy looking trident gun. It’s a cool design, but as far as MOTUC accessories go, it’s pretty weak. It’s cast in super soft yellow plastic with no paint apps. Hydron can hold it in either hand, but it seems to be designed for his left. On the plus side, it is designed so it can be worn on his belt by passing the handle through the loop.

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I’ll confess, there are plenty of other characters I would have rather had occupy this slot, but that doesn’t mean I’m angry or bitter that Hydron was included in the Sub. At least I have someone to keep Icarus company on the shelf. I don’t know what the general feeling among the Masters community is about New Adventure characters in the sub, but I’m it for the figures and Hydron is certainly a pretty cool figure. I probably wouldn’t have bought him Day of Sale, but considering how much I love Two Bad, Glimmer, Modulok, and The Unnamed One, I don’t have a problem having this one thrown into the mix.

Apr 7 2014

Doctor Who: The 12th Doctor Regenerated (3 ¾” Scale) by Character Options

Getting The War Doctor as a 5-inch scale figure was a nice treat, but now it’s back to reality as CO continues to push the smaller scaled NuWho figures on us. If you haven’t been keeping track, I’ve found the aliens in this line to be fairly good to excellent, but the 11th Doctor and Clara were rather weak efforts. This new assortment is being called Wave 2, even though we Yanks got a complete wave of variants in between, which I suppose we’ll call wave 1-B. I guess numbering these waves properly will be as confusing as the new numbering scheme for The Doctor’s incarnations. Anyway, in addition to the figure we’re looking at today, this wave features a pair of new variant Daleks, a Zygon, a Weeping Angel, The 11th Doctor in his tweed jacket and what appears to be a straight repack of Wave 1-B’s red dress Clara.

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The packaging hasn’t changed much. You get a generic cardback with the TARDIS on it and a bubble insert specifying who the figure is. The back of the card shows off the other figures in the wave as well as a pair of those cardboard Time Zone playsets that we’ve seen before. All in all the packaging is serviceable and suits the smaller line of figures pretty well.

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As is often the case with the regeneration figures, this 12th Doctor borrows heavily from the previous Doctor figure. I will, however, give CO credit for not just doing a quick-and-dirty head swap. The torso has actually been re-sculpted to account for the fact that he removed his bowtie before regenerating. The collar on this figure’s shirt is open at the top button and properly sans bowtie. Apart from that what we get here is the same purple coated body complete with right hand sculpted to hold the sonic screwdriver accessory that is inexplicably absent from this package. There is one minor variation in paint worth mentioning, the vest is slightly lighter. Alas, I can’t tell what color his kidneys are painted.

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Of course, the biggest issue I had with the 11th Doctor figure was the poor head sculpt. You’d have as good a chance pulling a random mini-marshmallow from a bag and having it resemble Matt Smith more than that figure did. I’m happy to say that CO has upped the ante and this new Peter Capaldi sculpt is actually not bad at all. It’s a fairly detailed portrait for such a small figure and the likeness is undoubtedly there. We don’t have a lot to go on as to what kind of Doctor Number 12 will be, but CO went with a raised eyebrow and an offset smirk that seems to agree with what little we’ve seen so far. Even the paintwork here is quite good.

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Same body, same articulation, but let’s run through it anyway. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, hinged at the elbows, and have swivels in the wrists. The legs feature a simple T-crotch for the hips, hinges in the knees, and swivels at the boots. There is no waist or torso articulation and his head can rotate.

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While CO decided they couldn’t afford the few millimeters of plastic needed for the recycled sonic screwdriver accessory, we do still get a figure stand. It’s the same “DWARTIS” style logo as the previous stands only cast in grey plastic. Um, what? Why?? Laying aside the fact that my borderline OCD now has to deal with two different colored stands, why the change from the traditional TARDIS blue?

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I tossed this figure into my shopping cart just because I was buying a bunch of others and I just said, “why not?” As it turns out I’m mighty glad I did because I really dig this figure! The portrait is leaps and bounds above the last Doctor in this scale and it actually gives me renewed hope for this line. In fact, even if they just recycle this head again, I’m still really looking forward to the release of the proper 12th Doctor in his new costume. If CO can pull off this kind of Capaldi license, I’m thinking that their forthcoming David Tennant and Karen Gillian likenesses in this scale might not be so bad after all. It’s certainly possible that the first wave was just a matter of awkward first steps and we could start to see better. Here’s hoping!

Apr 5 2014

Marvel Legends Infinite: Captain America (Marvel NOW) by Hasbro

Hey look! A Bonus Saturday Feature! I saw Winter Soldier yesterday and loved the hell out of it. I’d gush on and on about it here, but since we’re here to talk about Comic Book cap and not Movie Cap it seems like it wouldn’t be appropriate. Nonetheless, I still wanted to express my Captain America love in some way so I decided to dig into the Marvel Legends Infinite bag again. I’ve already featured two of the three movie based figures from the Legends line, but since I’ve yet to find Black Widow, that’s why we’re moving on to the comic based figures. Let’s start with Cap…

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The packaging is pretty much the same as what we’ve already seen in this wave. Since there’s not much new to talk about here, I’ll take this opportunity to say how much I love Hasbro for mixing the comic figures in with the movies. It’s a clever way to sneak the more collector orientated comic figures onto the pegs of retailers who always seem willing to lay out cash for movie toys that almost always tank horribly. On the flipside, you all know I’ve been a huge supporter of Legends since its return, but the Targets around here still have pegs crammed with Klaw and Hope Summers from the first wave. I could understand why they would be leery about seeing more comic figures coming in the door. So when Mr. Walmart Buyer sees Marvel NOW Cap or Baron Zemo he doesn’t see a comic book figure, all he sees is a figure with a multi-million dollar movie marketing campaign behind it. Is that how it really happens? I have no idea, but I’d like to think so.

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I’m a big fan of Cap’s current look in the comics and this figure brings it home. Granted, Cap’s costume isn’t a huge departure from past traditional versions. You do get the grey padding under his arms and the grey kneepads. It’s not really a traditional part of the costume’s color palate, but I don’t think it detracts from his iconic look. If anything, these parts add a certain amount of tactical design to the outfit that makes it as real as a guy running around in a red, white, and blue costume could without losing that comic flare. I especially dig the sculpted honeycomb pattern on the top part of his costume. It just adds character to the suit. The portrait on this figure isn’t anything special, but it gets the job done. Of course, the coloring here really backs up the sculpt beautifully. The vibrant red and blue and the striking white is a celebration of bright comic book brilliance. I love it!

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Articulation here is mostly great. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, have double hinges in the elbows, swivels in the biceps and both swivels and hinges in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs and boots, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles have both hinges and rockers. He has a ball joint and hinge in the neck and an ab-crunch in the torso. I’ll note that the muscled arms tend to restrict the elbow hinges and the shoulders don’t quite go as high as I would like without rotating the whole joint 90 degrees. Also, the absence of a waist swivel is rather baffling. Still, the joints are very solid. There aren’t any of those soft rubbery hinges. He’s a damn fun figure to play around with.

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Naturally, Cap comes with his trusty shield, and this time it’s a return to the clip and peg style that we got with earlier Legends Cap figures. In fact, without grabbing one of my old figures to compare, I’m pretty sure we’ve seen this same shield plenty of times already. I tend to like this one because it can store on his back, although it does ride rather high over his shoulders, it’s still nice to have the option to put it there. I also like having the peg as Cap can grab it and adopt a throwing posture. And of course the clip works perfectly.

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Everything about this figure delights me. I realize some collectors may be getting Captain America fatigue by now, but then those collectors are likely just filthy anti-patriotic communists who secretly want to murder Americans in their sleep. Sure, we’ve had a crazy number of Caps since Marvel Legends returned, but you’ll hear no complaints from me. Cap ranks among my favorite Marvel characters and I’m always happy to get a figure that is accurate to how the character appears in the current run of books. It also doesn’t hurt that I love this modern look and the figure pulls it off brilliantly. This Cap figure has secured a place in the front ranks of my Marvel Legends shelves.

Apr 4 2014

Iron Man 3: Mark VII Armor ArtFX Statue by Kotobukiya

It’s no secret that Kotobukiya has been sucking down a whole lot of my money lately. It started with the Bishoujo line and then spread to their ArtFX+ statues. Now the epidemic has spread once again with my acquisition of one of their ArtFX statue kits. Not to be confused with the smaller 1/10 scale ArtFX+ the regular FX line consists of the full Sixth-Scale mamma-jamma’s. In my defense, I didn’t wander into this line by mistake, but rather with a single purpose in mind. I desperately wanted a Sixth Scale Mark VII Iron Man to display with my Hot Toys Avengers without having to blow the ridiculous amount of money that the Mark VII figure is going for these days. At least once a week I punch myself in the balls for not picking up that Hot Toys figure when I had the chance. Anyway, after a little searching around, this beauty seemed like a pretty good fit.

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The statue comes in a large and wide package that dwarfs most Sixth-Scale figure boxes. Because this statue is a kit by nature, there’s no window or anything to show you the goods inside, but it does feature some nice artwork and some photos of the assembled statue. It’s worth noting that while this box was re-branded to take advantage of the hype behind Iron Man 3, the statue is the exact same piece that was previously released under The Avengers moniker. Believe me I know, because through a comedy of errors I wound up getting two of these in the same week (one from IM3 and one from Avengers) and in the end due to seller mix-ups and terrible customer service, I didn’t have to pay for either one of them. Freebies! Gotta love em. Branding this statue as part of the third movie doesn’t make a lot of sense, seeing as how little the Mark VII armor was featured in the Iron Man 3, but I’m sure it was just to cash in on the marketing juggernaut.

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Avengers Assemble! Yup, as the box says this is a “pre-painted model kit” and as you can see assembly is required. The statue comes in four pieces (lower half, torso, arms) plus the base and the box for the electronics. You also get three button batteries. But not to worry, you don’t need to be Tony Stark to cobble this baby together. It’s a quick and easy job that just takes a few minutes. You pop the batteries into the box that sticks out of the bottom half of the figure, attach the arms to the torso and put the two halves together, lastly you plug the feet into the base and you’re good to go. Everything fits together very snugly and it is possible to disassemble it again without stressing any of the parts. Being a kit I was worried that this statue would be flimsy, but in hand that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The figure itself is solid and has a nice, satisfying heft to it. The base is made of lighter plastic and it is hollow underneath, but it still supports the figure beautifully. Once together you’d never know it was a kit.

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I really like the composition of this statue, mainly because it isn’t the now cliched “stop in the name of love” pose that has Iron Man firing off one of his palm repulsors. Hey, I dig that pose as much as the next guy, but it’s been done to death and it’s nice to see something a little fresh for this piece. In this case we see Tony in the process of channeling his repulsor power through his Arc Reactor. His elbows are bent and his hands are clenched into fists while the sheer power of the blast causes his feet to dig trenches into the ground. Awesome! In a sea of Iron Man collectibles, I think this one stands out primarily because of this pose. It works well and it really conveys a sense of sheer energy and excitement that makes for a great looking display piece.

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The Mark VII armor is hands down my favorite of any of the movieverse suits and I own enough 3D representations of it that I feel I know it intimately. I doubt anyone will ever do it as well as Hot Toys, but Koto took a swing here and I think they nailed it as best they can in statue form. Granted, the Mark VII is a fairly complex suit and it really does need a lot of individual and articulated pieces to make it stand up to close scrutiny. The sculpt here isn’t up to Hot Toys quality, it can’t be because it’s sculpted from solid plastic, but what’s here is still plenty detailed and I love it. The panel lines are all present and you even get some opened flaps on his legs. I also really dig the bulky stature of the upper body. One thing so many Iron Man figures get wrong is the scale. There’s supposed to be a guy in there and the proportions of this statue makes me believe it.

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I expect nearly flawless paintwork from my Koto statues, and the Mark VII here doesn’t disappoint. The metallic red luster on this figure has that supple new car shine that makes the armor appear as if it just rolled off the assembly line. The high gloss red contrasts nicely with the slightly duller silver and gold to create this iconic ensemble that has become so familiar to both movie and comic book fans alike.

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Of course, bases can sometimes make or break the composition of a statue and in this case, it definitely enhances and elevates the presentation. The way his feet are tearing into the ground adds excitement and intensity. What’s surprising is that the base is a simple hollow piece of plastic, but when viewed from above it looks like something far more substantial. Beyond just looking great, it serves the ultimate purpose of giving the figure a solid foundation to stand on.

The electronics consist of powerful LEDs in the chest and eyes. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but it’s nice and bright and makes for a striking effect. The concealed switch is easily accessible simply by removing his left shoulder plate. In addition to the regular on and off settings, there’s also a sensor setting that will light him up when it detects movement or changes in room lighting.

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Even though I wound up getting this piece for free, I went into the deal paying $120 for it. I was a little leery about spending that kind of money on something like this when I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Koto has never let me down in the past and they certainly haven’t now. The sculpt, paint, and sheer heft of the piece make it well worth the price. The pose is pure killer stuff and best of all this piece displays beautifully on my Hot Toys shelf, which is why I got it in the first place. But the best endorsement I can give this piece is that I’ll be hunting down some of Koto’s other statues in this ArtFX line. Because they just aren’t getting enough of my money as it is.

Apr 3 2014

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen: Skids and Mudflap by Hasbro

Hey TransFans, it’s Transformers Thursday again and as I threatened promised last week, TFT is getting hijacked by Bayformers! You know what that means…

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100% MORE EXPLOSIONS! No, actually it just means that I’ll be looking at figures from the three Michael Bay movies as we approach the impending release of Age of Extinction where Optimus Prime will ride Grimlock into battle while bellowing, “I came in like a wrecking ball.” I’m 41. I’m both ashamed and dismayed that I am hip enough to make that reference. Anyway, just to pour salt in everyone’s eyes let’s kick things off with everyone’s favorite racist robot twins… Skids and Mudflap… as an ice cream truck.

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Obviously the packaging is long gone, but I can still remember how hard this figure… er, these figures… were to find. At the time they were going for a fair amount of money online and I finally found one in a CVS or a Walgreens of all places when I ran in to get some cough drops and flu medicine. At the time I wasn’t really committed to buying a lot of Revenge of the Fallen figures, but this was a freaking transforming ice cream truck. How could I not buy that? I don’t care if freaking Uwe Boll made the movie, I can’t not buy a Transformers ice cream truck. Satan himself could have come up with this idea and I still would have applauded and supported it.

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Besides being an ice cream truck, I also love the fact that it’s a vintage one. There’s something about Transformers with vintage alt modes that does it for me and Revenge of the Fallen actually gave us a few of them. It seems like the Go-Bots were a lot more willing to do stuff like that. Anyway, this is a great looking alt mode, complete with soft serve swirl on the top and a loudspeaker to blast the music. The two-tone white and pink colors work well for what it is and the ice cream cone tampos and lettering show that Hasbro went that extra mile for this truck. I’ll confess to be a little put out that it doesn’t have “Decepticons, suck my popsicle” anywhere, but I’m guessing that was deemed a little inappropriate for a kids toy. The deco is bright and cheery as opposed to the rusted out vehicle used in the movie, but if you look closely enough you can actually see where Hasbro included rusted spots as part of the sculpt. I should add that this is a really solid and sturdy alt mode when you consider that it pulls apart to become two robots. Let’s look at the front half first. I’m proud to say I had no idea which robot was which, but a little research tells me that the front is Skids.

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Oh, sweet Jesus. Ok, I’m going to try to be a little generous here. For a figure that’s engineered from half a Deluxe alt mode, it’s hard to come down really hard on Skids. I don’t like his arms, I think they could have been done better. I don’t get why his right arm has a real hand and the left one is just sculpted in and left unpainted. I think the whole gimp hand was part of his character design and I don’t really get it. I think only Michael Bay gets it. I dig that he wears the truck’s grill as his chest and I dig the way the old-timey fenders become his shoulders. If Hasbro ever did a proper vintage Transformer, I’d like it to use a similar design element. Everything else is pretty bad. His tiny legs can barely support his upper half and as for the head sculpt… I had forgotten how terrible the Bayformer portraits were. Let’s see if Mudflap fares any better…

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Nopenopenopenope… No! Without any recognizeable parts of the vehicle to base his robot mode on, Mudflap just looks like a goblin made out of shifting plates and linkages. He’s a perfect example of the jumbled mess that passed for a lot of Bayformer designs. Ok, so there’s something undeniably appealing to me that his shoulder slats read “Creamy Ice Cream” and he has ice cream cones tattooed on his forearms, but he’s still a freaking mess.

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So, high marks for a great alt mode, but it’s hard to find anything to love in these robots. I have to give some credit for trying something different and I can’t deny that the scale had a part in crippling the outcome. Had this set been a Voyager sized vehicle, I think it could have been a lot better. But it still would have been limited by what are two of the worst Bayformer designs. Maybe I should just relax and try to see these guys as goofy and fun and be happy that something this bizarre exists. Does the charm of a Transformer ice cream truck cancel out the horror of Devastator’s wrecking ball testacles? I don’t know. No one does. There’s no quantifiable scale to make the comparison. But I can safely say that this was at least one interesting idea that came out of an otherwise horrid movie.

Apr 2 2014

Star Wars Black: Imperial Stormtrooper by Hasbro

Let me lay my cards on the table right now. I have nothing bad to say about this figure. Discounting Han, who is the infamous repeat from the last wave, this Stormtrooper is certainly the best of what Wave 3 has to offer. So let me use this space to just bitch about Hasbro’s case Wave 3 case assortment. So far the 6-inch Black figures have been one per case. That is to say, each wave makes up its own little case of four figures. I thought that was a great idea up until now when Hasbro decides to fill a vacant slot with a repeat. Having only three new figures for Wave 3 was the perfect opportunity to pack two Stormtroopers into the case and make every fan happy. Hasbro, by your own admission this is a collector’s line. Collectors army build. How are you not seeing this? Everybody wants multiples of this guy. That’s why he’s selling for $45 on Amazon right now. Why am I pitching this fit here? Because I love this figure and I’d really like to get a couple more of them, that’s why. Ok, the rant’s over, let’s look at the figure…

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There’s the Stormtrooper in his package and much like the Sasquatch or the Jersey Devil, this is not something you’re likely to see in the wild. I dare say your average Imperial Stormtrooper has a better chance of hitting something he’s aiming at than me finding this figure in the toy aisles. In fact, if you’ve ever seen this hanging on a peg count yourself among the blessed. It’s like an angel kissed your cheek. Sadly, it’ll never happen to me. The Walmarts here don’t even carry the line. The Targets are choked with X-Wing Luke’s and R2’s and the nearest TRU is an hour away and even if they weren’t I’d bet they’re charging Ebay prices. No, I got my lone Stormy in a case I ordered online. I had to choke down a mediocre Prequel Obi-Wan and a second Han Solo. And it was still a better deal than buying a single Stormtrooper online. I know, I said the rant was over, but I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging, so I meandered.

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Ah, gorgeous! Hasbro did a wonderful job on the Sandtrooper and they did it again here. A lot of knee-jerk reactions to this figure suggested it was just a straight repaint of the previous grimy trooper. I hate scrutinizing subtle differences between figures, but you don’t have to have a sharp eye to see some of the differences in the armor. The two most obvious changes are the resculpted left knee and lower abdomen. Minor changes? Maybe, but let’s give credit where it’s due. I also happen to love that Hasbro kept the peg hole in the back so you could have him wear the backpack from the Sandtrooper for the rarely seen pre-deployment Tatooine Trooper. You can have him sitting in the dropship chatting with his squad mates. “I hear it’s hot down there… you think it’s hot down there?” “Maybe. As long as there isn’t any sand. I hate sand. It gets everywhere.”

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Articulation is exactly what we saw on the Sandtrooper, which isn’t a bad thing at all. The neck, shoulders, hips, wrists, and ankles are all ball jointed. The arms have swivels in the biceps and double-hinges in the elbows. The legs have swivels at the hips and double hinges in the knees. The torso also features a ball joint with a solid range of movement. Yes, the sculpted armor still restricts some of the range of movement, but I have to imagine that would be the case with the actual dudes in armor.

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The Stormtrooper comes with two weapons. First you get his E-11 Blaster, which is the same piece that came with the Sandy. This figure, however, does have a functional holster on his belt to store the weapon, which is awesome. The other weapon is a rifle, which is different from the longer, thinner one we got with the Sandtrooper. He can hold both of them really well.

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I suppose it’s a good thing when all I can do is bitch about distribution. I was jonesing for this Stormtrooper the moment the 6-inch Black line was announced and now that I have him he’s proven to be all that I wanted him to be. The armor looks great, he’s loads of fun to play with, and the only bad thing about him is that he doesn’t have a couple of friends to hang out with. I reckon when 6-inch Vader does finally get released, I’ll be willing to pony up a premium to get just one more of these guys so that I can have them flanking him on the shelf. On the other hand, Hasbro answered the call about complaints over collectors not being able to find some of the recent Marvel Legends figures. That particular wave of figures will be re-released, so maybe they’ll get the message here as well.  

Apr 1 2014

Game of Thrones Legacy Collection: Jon Snow by Funko

Last week’s first dip into Funko’s new Legacy Collection was a rather mixed bag. We got a figure that featured a great sculpt, solid paintwork and accessories, but had some serious problems with stuck joints and a breaking part. In the end I was still glad to have picked up The Hound and today we’re going to see if Jon Snow fares any better. As mentioned last time, Clegane and Snow are the only two figures I picked up so far and whether I go any further with this line will depend on these two.

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The figure comes in a window box that is, deco aside, lifted almost directly from Hasbro’s Star Wars Black 6-inch line. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that as the box shows the figure off nicely and is totally collector friendly. Jon Snow comes packaged beside his sword and the box art features the House of Stark’s sigil, The Dire Wolf! The sigil is printed again on the side panel of the box. Beware upon opening this figure, it is going to stink worse than a White Walker, which I presume smell pretty bad. This is some industrial grade plastic stink.

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The back of the box has a photo of the character from the TV series and a list of other figures available in this wave. I’ll confess that Jon Snow’s story has not been my favorite aspect of A Song of Fire and Ice. I like the character well enough and it’s interesting to see his story arc, but I much preferred the characters and intrigue going on south of The Wall. Most of the time when the books or TV series switches to Snow’s story in the North I found myself growing restless and longing for a return to the political intrigue, backstabbing, and far more colorful sets and characters. Nonetheless, Jon Snow was on sale for a couple of bucks off and the figure looked nice, so I tossed him in my basket when I bought The Hound.

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First off, I’ve got to give major props for the sculpting here. Jon comes smartly clad in his Night Watch outfit, which is reproduced here brilliantly. Granted, this outfit doesn’t offer as many areas to shine as Clegane’s armor, but Gentle Giant did a wonderful job with what they had to work with. The straps that criss-cross Jon’s chest are sculpted separately from his buck, as is the detailed belt. The soft plastic cloak features nice texture work in not only the fur collar but the cloak itself too. It also hangs comfortably off the figure without curtailing the articulation too badly. While there isn’t a lot of opportunity for paintwork here, Funko did what they could. The tiny silver buckles are all painted neatly and there’s some nice white dry brushing to indicate snow.

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The portrait here is quite good. I think they got the hair perfectly and the likeness is pretty close to the actor in the series. He wears that stern and joyless expression that he has on his mug most of the time. The paintwork on the head holds up pretty well at casual inspection. When I get in really close and scrutinize it then I could pick some fault in the beard, but when he’s posed on the shelf I think the paint here is overall rock solid.

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Ok, so let’s sing a song of articulation and quality control. On second thought, let’s just talk about it. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, swivels and hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double-hinges in the knees, and hinges and rockers in the ankles. There is a ball joint in the torso and again in the neck. This figure has far less QC issues than The Hound did. I still had to be really gentle when getting him off the tray and several of his joints were stuck and need some friendly persuasion. No boiling water was required and eventually almost everything became unstock. The only thing left are the swivels in the thighs, and I just don’t want to mess with them for fear of twisting them off.

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In terms of extras, Jon seems rather light on the accessories, especially when compared to the two swords and helmet that came with The Hound. Nonetheless, you do get his sword, Longclaw, which is pretty nicely done for this scale. The blade is etched and the sword fits comfortably into the detailed scabbard on Jon’s belt. I haven’t had any issues with the scabbard pulling off, like I did with The Hound, but it doesn’t look like it would take much for it to happen. Jon can hold the sword in either hand, but I did have to razor the connection between thumb and fingers on his right hand to get it in there.

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So, after checking out The Hound, I was still totally on the fence over whether to keep pursuing this line. I was hoping that Snow would push me over one way or the other, so that I could either abandon this line or just get the rest of them. Ultimately, my experience with Snow gave me a slight nudge and convinced me to try just a couple more. Snow is not as exciting a figure as Clegane, but he is a totally solid effort with a really good likeness. The quality still feels a little precarious in a few areas and it would be nice if I had access to those thigh swivels, but overall I’m still quite happy with the purchase. I think I’ll buy Tyrion and Ned Stark next.