Oct 16 2013

DC Universe Classics: Swamp Thing by Mattel

Yes, with Club Infinite Earths dead, I’m looking backwards and working on slowly completing my DCUC collection with maybe two figures a month. Swamp Thing was a special stand-alone release drummed up as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive for 2012 and later offered on the Matty Collector website. I really wanted to pick him up at the time, but funds are usually tight around SDCC time and I had to make some tough choices, one of which included taking a pass on him. Luckily, a couple of months ago BBTS got hold of some of Matty’s unsold stock (hey, not all of it went to Big Lots!) and cleared them out at half price. A winner is me!

The fact that this guy was a special exclusive release is evident by the conspicuously awesome packaging. It doesn’t actually say SDCC Exclusive anywhere, but just take one look at this presentation and you’ll know that this was a special release. I believe the only difference between this and the one sold at the Con was the inclusion of some Un-Men figures in the Con version. The huge outer box is printed with a swamp motif and the DC Universe logo. The front of the box has gaps cut between the vegetation, so you can see Swamp Thing peering out at you from within as if to warn you not to bring your evil here. There’s also a color pamphlet made to look like Alec Holland’s diary.

Inside you get a giant Swamp Thing head that’s made of some kind of crappy bio-degradable material. It feels like old newspapers and you can actually wear the front as a mask if you’re insane, or just tight on cash this Halloween. It also attracts cat hair like nobody’s business! Ok… so, Matty, my hobby includes amassing a collection of as much plastic as I possibly can before I die, and you’re business involves producing as much plastic as you possibly can sell. Is this one bio-degradable package going to help negate any of that? I get it, Swamp Thing is all about protecting the environment, I’m just busting balls a little.

Anyway, open up the head, which is hinged on the bottom, and we finally get to the goods! The inside tray, made out of the same material, holds the Swamp Thing figure and a display stand.

Out of the package and Swamp Thing looks spectacular! We’ll get to the rubber skin in a minute, because the first thing that struck me about Swamp Thing when I get him out is how freaking huge he is. DCUC has never been a stickler for proper scale, but I guess since this guy was a special release they were able to go apeshit with his size. And boy did they! He’s a full third taller than your average DCUC figure.

And yes, the figure is covered with a rubbery vegetation skin that feels just a little creepy and looks amazing. When I first saw this figure in hand, I realized there was no other way that they could have done him such justice. For starters, the portrait is just absolutely stunning for a figure in this scale. They captured his noble bad-assery without any compromise, right down to his grim mouth, piercing eyes, and heavy brow. As far as head sculpts go, this is just fabulous stuff!

Of course, the detail over all of the skin is just as impressive. Besides a rough mossy texture, you get some really cool painted and sculpted bits, there are vines snaking all around his body like exposed veins, flowers sprouting on his chest, fungus growing here and there, and what appear to be some kind of turnips growing on the back of his shoulders. This guy is a veritable walking salad bar.

Swamp Thing features only four exposed joints. His head is on a regular ball joint, his shoulders are on rotating hinges, and his hips are ball jointed and will pop off, rather than break, if you stress them too far. The rest of the joints lie hidden under the rubbery skin and include hinged knees and ankles and, surprisingly enough, the ab crunch hinge. The biggest compromise comes in the absence of any swivels. He’s not the most poseable figure out there, but you can still do plenty with him and I think the trade-off for the skin was a good one.

Also included in the package is a very nice environment figure stand. It’s a swampy patch of land with a couple of trees and the remnants of a skeleton partially concealed. There’s one peg that fits into the peg hole on Swampy’s right foot and holds him there quite well. The sculpt and paintwork on this piece goes way beyond anything I’m used to seeing out of Mattel on any level. Yes, that’s a left-handed compliment, but I meant it with all due respects.

I was extremely happy to get a second crack at this figure from a retailer (I’ve been kind of burned out on hunting figures on Ebay lately) and the fact that it was half price was just the icing on the cake. Had my budget not been bursting last Summer, I would have been happy to have paid $30 for him because he really is that fantastic and he’s definitely going to be a highlight of my DCUC shelves. I’d dare say that even if you aren’t a DCUC collector but still a fan of this character, this is a fine stand-alone piece for your shelf. Mattel did a beautiful job on this guy, and I’m only hoping that the rubber skin stands the test of time.

Oct 15 2013

Transformers: Masterpiece Prowl (MP-17) by Takara, Part 2

I’m back today to wrap up my look at Takara’s Masterpiece Prowl. His vehicle mode is quite nice, but how about his robot mode? Well, transforming him is fairly simple (at least for a Masterpiece toy) and remarkably similar to the basic transformation of the original G1 toy. There’s just a little more engineering added to help out his proportions and his added articulation. The new steps that are the most conspicuous involve folding in the panels with the rearview mirror stalks, unfolding the legs from the back of the car, and shifting some more pieces to become the feet. The shoulder cannons store on his back inside the car roof, very similar to the ones on Universe 2.0 Prowl. Like I said, it’s the same basic transformation from the G1 era with just a few added enhancements. I found it wasn’t uncommon for the arms to pop out of the shoulder ball joints during the change, but when you’re done everything locks together quite well and you have a solid action figure that looks like this…

Yes, Prowl’s robot mode is drop dead gorgeous! I’ve always considered this design to be my favorite of all the Autobot forms and MP-17 pulls it off with great aplomb. I’m particularly happy with the way the torso locks up front and back. You also have a choice as to whether you want to have his doors go straight out for a G1 toy accurate look, or angle upward for a more cartoon or comic accurate look. Brilliant! The proportions are beautiful and ever since I’ve placed him on the shelf across from my desk, I can’t help but stop and admire his beauty from time to time.

But before we start looking at some particulars, it’s worth noting that upon first transforming him, I found that Takara’s shitty QC struck my figure in a most cruel way. He had a huge black scar on his chin from where silver paint had been scratched away. It was an odd defacement (Har! Har!) because there’s really nowhere that the face rubs against anything else in the transformation. But our friends at the Chinese factory thought nothing of it and packed him away to ship to poor, disappointed FigureFan. They might as well have just taken a shit in the box as well. Fortunately, this was a pretty easy fix, even for someone like me with no customizing skills at all. The repair is still visible on a close-up picture, but without zooming in with a camera, you have to look really, really close to see that there was ever a problem. That’s good enough for me!

Yes, it is inherently wrong to have to do touch up work on my $80 figure, especially when none of my third-party transforming robots have had any similar problems, but with Takara’s spotty QC on these figures, I’m just happy that it’s all it needed. I’d like to say it’s going to give me pause about buying the other Datsuns, but truth be told, once they turn up In Stock at the retailers, I will likely throw the dice again.

I think most would agree that Prowl is just about perfect from the waist up, with only the exposed screw in the back of his head being an annoyance. If there are any real gripes to be had, it’ll likely be with the feet. Yes, they are hollow, but thanks to some clever plate placement, they don’t really look it from the front or the sides. The fact you can see open compartments in the back of the feet and the lower legs may be a legitimate complaint for a Masterpiece figure, but it’s not one that I’m going to have, not when everything else on this figure works so well.

One of my favorite things about Prowl is the ability to stow the shoulder cannons inside his back, just like the Universe 2.0 figure. Keep in mind that this is a little bit of a back-handed compliment, because I don’t think the cannons look that great. They feel kind of cheap and they’re just bare white plastic. They’re also showing some mold flashing. I won’t deny that it’s nice to have an option to display them, but my Prowl will be going sans-cannon most of the time. I do think they will look much better on the other figures where they will be painted, or at least molded in colored plastic.

Articulation! Prowl sports plenty of great articulation. The neck is ball jointed and offers a great range of motion. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, swivel at the biceps, and have double hinged elbows. The hands swivel at the wrist and the knuckle is hinged so that all the fingers move as one. His legs have universal movement at the hips, including swivels, his knees are double hinged, and his ankles are hinged and have rockers to help with those wide stances. Last up, Prowl can pivot at the wrist. The joints are all tight and since the Prowl’s robot mode locks together so well, he feels more like an action figure than your typical Transformer. Very nice! He’s tons of fun to play with and a very hard figure to put down.

As mentioned last time, Prowl comes with his trusty gun. It has a peg that secures it to his hand, so that once you have it pegged in and the fingers closed around it, he can hold it with a firm grasp. He can also comfortably hold it in both hands, which is likely the pose he will have on my shelf most of the time.

If the goal of the Masterpiece line is to produce a figure that portrays the essence of the character both in its classic animated and toy forms, then MP-17 is an absolute and unbridled success. The transformation represents some nearly flawless engineering and both the auto and robot modes are things of beauty. From a design standpoint, I can find no fault with this figure at all. It’s only in the quality control and the fact that he feels a bit more like a $30 Alternator than he does an $80 Masterpiece figure. If you demand diecast, rubber tires, and perfect paint, then you may find Prowl lacking. Me? I’m not going to quibble, and if you’re luckier than me and you get one with no QC issues, than all should be well. It’s just a shame to me that when Takara reaches this level of perfection in design and engineering that they let the line continue to be marred by poor paint quality issues. I’m at the point now that I will happily purchase figures from companies like Fansproject, TFC and MMC without a thought of worry about QC problems, but a new official Masterpiece figure from Takara? I’m still afraid to open the box.

Oct 14 2013

Transformers: Masterpiece Prowl (MP-17) by Takara, Part 1

I’m prefacing today’s little ditty with story time, so get your milky babas and blankys, kids. Once upon a time, yours truly pre-ordered Masterpiece Lambor. It arrived; I opened it, and was confronted with a paint job so bad that even if it were a $15 Hasbro Deluxe, I probably would have taken it back to the store. Lambor didn’t even make it to the review table on FFZ, because I just wanted to wash my hands of him. I was pissed that I spent so much money on him and I wanted him out of my life. So I sold him and had him shipped out the very next day. When the Masterpiece Datsuns went up, I pre-ordered them, hoping that Takara would have gotten their shit together with the QC. Then in-hand photos of Prowl turned up with melted glue all over the front bumper, and horrible paint on the roof. I cancelled the pre-order. But those pictures kept tempting me. The design of the figure still looked all but perfect. And when he finally showed up In Stock at the retailers, I lost all my resolve, rolled the dice, and bought him anyway. Was it a worthy gamble? Let’s find out…

There can be no doubt, Prowl has always been my favorite Autobot toy, most likely because he was also my first. I got him for what was probably my 12^th birthday along with Optimus Prime and Thundercracker. While Prowl wasn’t exactly the most developed character in the Sunbow cartoon, when I played with my Transformers, I always used him as Prime’s Executive Officer. He was Prime’s go-to robot. If you needed to talk to Prime, you better damn well have cleared it with Prowl first. And he was always the first to throw himself in front of a fusion blast meant for the big guy. What I’m telling you, folks, is that Prowl was legit and when he wasn’t safeguarding Autobot security, he was off having a foursome with Elita-1, Chromia, and Arcee. He was just that cool. Since this is the first time I’m checking out Takara’s MP line on FFZ, I’m going to start today with the packaging and the alt mode, and tomorrow we’ll check out the transformation and the robot mode.

Prowl comes in a fully enclosed box, which is something I appreciate in my higher end collectibles. Window boxes are fine for something I’m going to buy for $20 and toss the packaging, but Prowl’s box is a nice quality and I’ll definitely be hanging onto it should I ever need it for storage. The front has a great photo of Prowl in both modes and points out that he has been designated MP-17 and that he is the Autobots’ Military Strategist. It also points out that he transforms into a Nissan Fairlady 280Z-T. It is an officially licensed Nissan product and you get a little G1 style Transformers logo. The deco here walks a fine line between being serviceable and attractive. I would have preferred something more like the G1 packages with the red grid pattern and all that, but there’s nothing wrong with the presentation here either.

The back of the package features a whole lot of text that I can’t read. It also shows more pictures of Prowl in his modes, a shot of everything you get inside the box, and some pictures of Prowl alongside MP Prime and driving out of MP Prime’s trailer. I’m still not happy with the scaling between Prowl and Prime. I think Prowl should be closer to Prime’s shoulders, but considering that I don’t own MP-10, that’s not a big deal for me. And as we’ll see in a few moments, I’m actually very pleased with Prowl’s size as a stand-alone piece.

Open iup the box and you pull out a clear plastic tray with Prowl in his police car mode nestled in the middle of the trays. He is placed beside his weapon and you also get a baggie with a folded instruction sheet and a color profile card. No, there’s not a lot of extras or fanfare here, and that may disappoint some. Me? I’m cool with the presentation letting the toy speak for itself.

And this toy does a great job of that! Sure, a lot of people have been upset with the new Masterpiece scale, but I have to say that I think Prowl’s alt mode is the perfect size. The car holds together in a very solid fashion, with everything pegging in securely, and rolls along on its wheels quite nicely. It certainly feels closer to a Voyager than a Deluxe to me, and I’m happy to see that it scales very nicely with the recent Generations Triple Changers and even my Fansproject Function figures. Anything bigger than this and I think the toy would have become cumbersome and not nearly as solid.

However, like the practical packaging, some collectors may take issue with other perceived cuts in the toy. The tires, for example aren’t rubber, they are plastic. In fact, everything on Prowl is plastic. No diecast. Frankly, I’m ok with that. I’m not of the belief that gratuitous use of diecast improves a toy. You only need look at the original top-heavy Masterpiece Prime to realize that’s not always the case. Yes, rubber would have been cool, but the plastic wheels look fine and I don’t have to worry about the rubber rotting away like it did with many of my original G1 toys. I will concede that I would have liked the plastic to feel a little heavier. The toy doesn’t feel delicate, but it doesn’t have a lot of heft to it for its size, making it feel closer to a model than an actual Transformers toy. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful update to the original vehicle. I’m probably not alone when I say how much I appreciate the addition of the side view mirror stalks. They’re soft, bendy plastic so as not to snap off, and they really add to the improved credibility of the vehicle mode.

I started off this feature talking about the horrible paint on my Lambor. Naturally, I was really nervous when I first sized up the Prowl’s paintwork, and I’m happy to say it’s infinitely improved over Lambor. The white is bright and crisp and the black has a rich and glossy finish to it. The lettering is sharp and there are no embarrassing spelling mistakes that appeared on early shots of the toy. Even the Autobot insignia on the hood is crisp and straight. That’s not to say, however, the paint is perfect or even as good as it should be. The passenger side panel near the rear window has some excess paint swirl and there’s some slight bleeding between the white and black. There’s also a small chip to the white on the upper driver side windshield. This last bit worries me, as the roof of the car is clear plastic painted white and will likely be very prone to chipping if not handled carefully. None of these points are enough to ruin the car as badly as my Lambor’s horrific paint, but it is still certainly disappointing to see on a collectible toy this expensive. Had this been the first MP release I’d seen I would probably be more outraged, but I guess the terrible paint on Lambor really tempered my expectations.

Prowl’s gun can clip into a slot in the back of the lightbar to give him some firepower while in his alt mode. It’s pretty goofy looking and I can’t see myself ever utilizing the feature, but it doesn’t detract from the toy and some collectors may dig having the option to display it this way. While attached, the gun can even pivot up and down a bit.

Paint flubs aside, I’m very happy with Prowl’s vehicle mode. I think it’s perfectly sized, it holds together beautifully, and it looks great in all the most important places. I’m going to break here, but I’ll be back tomorrow to get my new buddy Prowl all transformed so we can check out his alt mode.

Oct 12 2013

Masters of the Universe Classics: Jet Sled & Sky High by Mattel

I had all but given up on getting my Jet Sled as it was lost in the mail for the better part of two weeks. The tracking said it was delivered, while reality proved otherwise. The nice people at the USPS continued to claim that the carrier placed the box in my post box, but after making a pest of myself and insisting that I would have noticed a huge parcel in my post box if it had been in there, the package eventually arrived on my doorstep. I’m not going to dwell on it, because quite frankly the USPS has a pretty good track record with me and besides, alls well that ends well. Anywho…

It’s been almost a year since Matty released the first, and what seemed like maybe the only, vehicle in the MOTUC lineup, but now it’s finally time to make some extra room in my Masters garage because the Jet Sled has arrived! I always thought this would be the first vehicle release of the line, because it’s so much easier to produce than the Wind Raider. It’s also a bit more iconic to me, because for whatever reason I just remember He-Man jumping on this thing and flying off more often than he did in the Wind Raider. Ok, honestly it’s really because I used to like checking out Teela’s tushie when she flew it. The fact that this vehicle is very reminiscent of the jet sleds used in Flash Gordon doesn’t hurt either. I love Flash Gordon! Of course, the Wind Raider turned out to be an amazing toy in and of itself, and now that I’ve got a Jet Sled in hand, I won’t quibble over Matty’s strategies here.

The set comes in a window box, not unlike what has been used for most of the MOTUC multi-figure sets. It’s nice that you can see what you’re getting inside, but I’ll say straightaway that I wish Matty had put this set in a regular box like they did with the Wind Raider. The decision to use a window box for something that will never be sold in a store (unless it’s on clearance at a Big Lots) escapes me. Actually it doesn’t, because a regular box would need cool box art and that costs money. But the real reason I would have preferred a regular box is because it’s just easier to store it and chances are, the Jet Sled may wind up in storage until I can expand my display room a bit. I guess I’ll just save the white mailer box.

Anyway, the package certainly looks great, but all the artsy-fartsy angles make it a challenge to get everything out and still keep the box intact. Nonetheless, it can be done, so we’ll call it collector friendly.

Let’s kick things off with Sky High. He was not the main attraction for me here, but I do kind of dig Matty including him with the release. I’m not a He-Mans expert, but I believe this guy is based off artwork for the Wind Raider pilot? If I’m wrong, send your “You don’t know shit about the He-Mans” hate messages to me in the comments below. Some have accused him of being a kitbash release, but this is MOTUC, so I don’t know why we need to single this guy out for what the line has been doing all along. To be honest, the only thing that struck me right away as obvious were the legs being a straight repaint from Trapjaw. Who cares? They work well on the figure. The vest is a separate and removable piece with some nice tooling on the front. It does bulk out the figure’s top quite a bit and limits how far down his arms can go, but all in all, I still dig it. Sky High doesn’t have a face, just a sculpted helmet that is delightfully reminiscent of an old Greek or Roman helm. Since Sky High is basically a dude in a flight suit, you can swap his head with another figure. I’ll finally have a use for that spare He-Man head that I have rattling around in a tote somewhere!

While I like the overall look of the figure a lot, it seems to me like Sky High took a couple steps back in overall quality. The plastic looks and feels a little rougher than what we usually get and the paintwork is especially rough. There’s slop all over the place, albeit most of it is behind his legs so at least it isn’t all that apparent until you inspect the figure more closely. I’m guessing Mattel took some shortcuts here because he is a pack-in figure, but I have no confirmation of that. It could just be I drew an unlucky figure. I’ve had very few QC issues on any of my MOTUC figures, so what’s here just tends to stand out a bit more.

Sky High has standard MOTUC articulation. Considering that I still have the vehicle to get to, let’s just leave it at that. He does, however come with a set of wings that clips to his back. I really like this piece as it’s designed to be multi-functional. It could serve as a gliding device in case our buddy gets shot down and needs to glide to the ground. Think about it, the Jet Sled is a death trap just waiting to toss you off of it so you will plummet to your death. No, the wings don’t look aerodynamically sound, so call it magic if you want! If Orko can perpetually levitate, I’ll grant it that this guy can glide back to the ground on these wings. Why not just use a parachute? Oh, for godsakes, it’s the He-Man universe, folks, where people put out fires with their robot elephant heads. Let’s just move on. The wings can also serve very nicely as a bladed weapon. Several other reviewers have also pointed out that it’s designed to look like the wings of the Wind Raider and if you sit Sky High in the Raider, it looks like another set of wings. That’s cool! I do think he should have come with a blaster pistol or something, but I have enough extra MOTUC weapons kicking around that I can lend him something.

Moving on to the main attraction is the Jet Sled. As one might have expected, this thing is just a hollow piece of plastic, but that’s really all it needs to be. And I might add that it is a beautifully sculpted and painted hollow piece of plastic. I think what impresses me most about this piece is that Matty resisted the temptation to cheap out and go with stickers. There are no stickers. Everything on this toy is sculpted and painted. That means the dragons on the sides have a nice 3D feel to them and even all the little knobs and switches on the dash board are all part of the sculpt. Every little rivet is sculpted and painted, and there’s even some decent detail work on the undercarriage. It’s kind of cool that they even left the clips on the side where this thing would plug into the non-existent Battle Ram. There are some great looking guns on this piece too!

The fit for the figure is serviceable enough. You can’t quite get the feet planted squarely on the foot pedals, but you can get it close enough that most MOTUC figure (male or female) will look credible while riding it. Once the hands are in the grips, you can woooosh it all over the place and he ain’t gonna fall off.

So, what’s here is really good, but it’s what’s not here that gives me pause. The stand you see in the pictures was borrowed from my Wind Raider. The Jet Sled is made to work with it, but you don’t get one. Wait, what? At a $50 price point, that stand really needed to be included with this set to make it cost out for me. Mattel already has the molds for the stand, they should have just stamped out a bunch more of them for the Jet Sled. It was a missed opportunity to throw a little extra value to the fans for dealing with the rest of the Matty bullshit all year round.

Nonetheless, I’m not going to let a missing stand put a damper on my enjoyment of this set. It really is a nice release and I’m kind of surprised it happened at all, considering Matty’s claims that they were disappointed with the sales performance of the Wind Raider. The price point isn’t too bad and I do like the Sky High figure. On the other hand, had Matty released the vehicle alone with a stand for ten bucks less, I probably would have bought two. But who am I to quibble with success, because the Jet Sled still sold out after just a couple of days.

Oct 11 2013

Galaxy Squad: Crater Creeper (#70706) by Lego

It’s been about four months since I’ve built a Lego set, and I’ve been jonesing something fierce. Yesterday, I stopped by Target to get provisions for the weekend and decided to pay their expansive Lego aisles a visit. I was thinking about another Lone Ranger set, but I’m still holding out for those to go clearance since the movie flopped so badly. So, instead I came home with another Galaxy Squad set. I’ve built two of these already and the series has treated me pretty well, so today I’m building The Crater Creeper.

I’m still digging the artwork on this series. Obviously, the focus here is on bulking up the alien forces, which works well for me because I already have the Swarm Interceptor and I need something substantial for it to fight. The front panel of the box shows one of the Galaxy Squad members going up against the giant Crater Creeper in a tiny little attack sled. Wow, that guy’s got balls! I like balls.

The back panel shows some of the action features of the completed set. It also shows our little friend getting his attack sled grabbed by the Crater Creeper’s jaws. Does this faze him? Nope, he just jumps out of his ship, climbs onto the hood of the Creeper and proceeds to shoot the pilot in the face with his pistol. Holy shit, this guy is hardcore! I think I’ll name him Spunky McBalls.

Open up the box and you get four unnumbered bags containing 171 pieces, a very small ~~instruction~~ sticker sheet, a box with a rubber band in it, and a beefy instruction book. This is a middle of the road sized set and falls right in between the two other Galaxy Squad sets I have already built. When you’re all done you’ve built the Crater Creeper, The Attack Sled, and two minifigs. TO THE MINIFIGS!!!

There’s nothing groundbreaking here. You basically get Spunky and a Bug Guy. Spunky is a cool little figure in a space suit. He has a helmet with a clear visor and two printed faces, one with an oxygen mask and one without. I like his unshaven face. I like to think he got all liquored up at the base camp and just decided to steal an Attack Sled and attack the Bugs all on his own in a drunken rage while screaming obscenities. His space suit is green, which is at odds with the blue suit worn by the Swarm Interceptor pilot. Either he’s in a different branch of the Galaxy Squad military or these guys just wear whatever the hell they want to work. The Bug Guy is cool, but he’s the same minifig that came with the Space Swarmer.

The one-man Attack Sled is a pretty cool little vehicle. I’m on record stating that I’m not often a fan of the little Lego ships, but the design of this one actually shows some imagination, and with two flick fire missiles and two guns mounted on the front, it can probably pack an impressive punch for such a little craft. Ah, but this is not why we bought tickets to the show. The main event is…

The Crater Creeper! And it is rather glorious. It looks like a giant mechanical ant, with a seat for the pilot, two flick fire missiles, and grabbing mandibles that are powered by a rubber band. I love the neon green and burgundy deco on these Bug vehicles, and the clear shell on the back with the translucent sticker works really well. The pilot’s gun can clip into the back under the shell, which may not be a convenient place to keep it, but it does add some aft defenses!

Builders will either be pleased or disappointed that the legs are each just one big piece. I was surprised. Building the same leg six times over out of tiny pieces can get tedious and redundant, but I know some people like the added challenge and build time. On the downside, this vehicle doesn’t feature a lot of articulation. The front and back sets of legs are just static, whereas the middle legs are only hinged where they join the body. Still, what the vehicle lacks in articulation it makes up for in stability.

This set was $20, which seems about right for the piece count, and it was a fun build, albeit relatively quick and straight forward. I’d actually recommend it for a starter set in this series, as it gives you a pretty good idea what Galaxy Squad is all about. It also makes a very nice companion set to the Swarm Interceptor, if you don’t mind your ship attacking ground targets. Above all, it felt really good to build a Lego set again after so long and it’s definitely primed the pump and made me want to pick up one of the bigger Galaxy Squad sets in the next week or so.

Oct 10 2013

Transformers Cybertron: Soundwave by Hasbro

With the recent releases of Soundwave in the Fall of Cybertron and Masterpiece lines, it’s worth remembering the long stretch when the character got almost no love from Hasbro. A lot of this probably had to do with the dilemma of what to do about his outdated alt mode and how to incorporate his tape feature into an updated alt mode. Well, back in the Cybertron line, the folks at Hasbro finally stepped up and gave it a try by turning Soundwave into a futuristic jet bomber and having Laserbeak turn into a bomb. While the idea is sound enough, the figure itself is an abomination on many fronts. I don’t usually like to slag on my beloved Transformers, but I thought it was an opportune time to parade this guy out. No package shot, so let’s just check out his alt mode.

Like I said, Soundwave is now a jet. Hey, he was once a missile carrier truck, so I’m willing to give Hasbro a pass on the choice of alt mode here. I think this is supposed to be loosely based on an F-117A Stealth Fighter in that it’s basically wedge shaped and has some fins at the back, but we’ll just call him a Cybertron jet and be done with it. I’ll start off by saying, there are some high points to this toy. The blue plastic they used here is very nice, and some of the gold paintwork on it is absolutely gorgeous. I like the translucent purple used for the cockpit and there is also a crazy amount of detail sculpted into the wings and such. The little spikes on the nose cone are a nice touch too. All good stuff, but it’s not enough to save this guy.

The overall design here wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that he’s just plain ugly. It’s blatantly obvious that the top half of the jet is made up of his contorted robot legs and there are so many gaps and hinges and spaces, that it just doesn’t work for me. And I never understood the point of that stupid design on the top behind the cockpit. It looks like some kind of crop circle. Of course, the real reason I hate this alt mode is because it’s so difficult to get everything to fit together just right. Get the feet plugged into the nose and the cockpit pops up. Peg the cockpit in and the feet pop out. You need to have everything absolutely correct to within a micron of tolerance and then maybe, just maybe, this alt mode will hold together like it should. And even at that point, what you’ve got is still pretty damn ugly.

The gimmick for the alt mode is if you put a Cyberkey into the slot on the back, Soundwave’s bomb door will open and he will drop one of his bombs. One of those bombs is Laserbeak. We’ll get to him in a bit. It’s not a bad concept in that at least it still allows Soundwave to deploy a minion and it kind of reminds me of Nick Roche’s Decepticons that turn into bombs in my beloved More Than Meets The Eye comic. Ok, so the alt mode isn’t terribly good. Surely, that’s because Soundwave’s robot mode is absolutely fantastic… right? RIGHT??

Oh boy. So, it’s hard to miss the Soundwave homages here. The head sculpt is a pretty cool modern update to the guy we all know and love. He’s got a big tape door on his chest, which can hold the Laserbeak bomb. The coloring is certainly G1 Soundwave, at least to a point. At the same time, those huge wings really work against the homage to the extreme. I think this figure could have been saved if it weren’t for a whole host of really poor design choices and laziness.

So first, you’ve got those giant wings. They are totally immobile and get in the way of posing. A couple extra hinges could have helped these along. Maybe packed them away into a backpack or at least gave them some movement so they weren’t in the way all the time. But in truth they’re the least of this guy’s worries. Both arms have huge pieces of jet kibble hanging off of them. The right arm is cursed with the nose of the jet, while the left arm has the cockpit. There is no way to position these so that they aren’t just cumbersome dead weight and they are always hitting against the wings when I try to pose him. . Last up, he’s got tiny little legs that are in no way up to the challenge of holding all that upper body bulk. The knees are heavy ratcheting joints, but the hip joints are week and floppy as all hell, so unless you have Soundwave’s legs standing straight and at full attention, he’s going to want to do the splits and collapse.

And then there’s Laserbeak and while it’s crazy to say it, the truth is he’s the shining ray of light in this otherwise terrible figure. His bomb alt mode is basically just a black hexagonal cylinder with red paint apps on the sides and his transformation just has him fold out into his little bird mode, which is pretty damn good for what it is. It even sort of foreshadows the Dark of the Moon Laserbeak design with VTOL engines in the wings. Everything about Laserbeak works well and I’d argue he’s even better modern update than the disc Laserbeak that came with Generation Soundwave. There are a few places where Laserbeak can peg into Soundwaves arms, but because all of the shit hanging off him, you’re better off just trying to stand him on his arm. He’s also designed to peg into Soundwave’s wings and perch up there, but I think it looks rather dumb.

Oh, did I mention that the peg that locks Soundwave’s right shoulder down snapped the very day I took him out of the box? Yeah. That happened. The crazy thing about Cybertron Soundwave is that I can remember wanting to get him so badly. I don’t know if it was just the fact that he was finally a new Soundwave, or the online pictures didn’t make him seem so bad. Maybe it was because I just love the Cybertron line so much. Either way, I hunted for him all over before finally finding him at a Walmart like 30 miles from my home. I couldn’t wait to get him home and, suffice it to say, he was a huge let down. He’s one of the few Transformers in my collection that tempted me to throw him against a wall in disgust. There are some good ideas here, but so much went horribly wrong in the end. To be honest, now that I’ve dug him out, I’m not sure he’ll be returning to my collection. I look at him and just see a waste of space.

Oct 9 2013

Feral Rex (Reformatted Series): R-03 Bovis by Mastermind Creations, Part 2

Alright, I gassed on for quite a while yesterday about Bovis’ packaging and his glorious robot mode. And yet my words were inadequate. They should have sent a poet to pay tribute to this guy. Today I’ll try to embrace brevity and wrap things up with a look at Bovis’ alt mode. Time to take the bull by the horns!

Transforming Bovis seems like it should be really straightforward. I mean, we’ve been seeing the same basic things in beast transformers for a long time now. The arms become the front legs, the robot legs become the hind legs, the animal head flips down over the robot head and bob’s your uncle. Yes, that’s still essentially what happens here, but there are just enough tweaks thrown in to allow for the superb articulation and, let’s be honest, to provide some engineering that justifies the cost and scope of the figure. I actually had to look at the instructions for this guy the first time, which is something I rarely ever have to do with my transforming robots, but once I saw what was going on, everything was easy-peasy. Nothing here is as clever as what’s going on in the hind quarters of Fansproject’s Quadruple-U, but it doesn’t have to be. What’s here is just solid engineering that works beautifully.

Bovis’ bull mode is more compact than his robot mode, but every bit as powerful looking. As with his robot mode Bovis sports all sorts of cool little sculpted details including little vents and the mechanical joints on his little bull legs. I really dig the angular sculpt of the bull’s head, although the fact that you can see Bovis’ robot head when you open the mouth is both funny and a bit of a bummer at the same time. In fact, that’s probably the only gripe I have against the entire figure. Also, if you’re someone who’s likely to freak out over inconsistencies in bull anatomy, Bovis doesn’t have a tail.

The articulation in bull mode decent enough, but this is not a super articulated bull. The legs all have a nice radius of movement where they meet the body. They can rotate as well as tilt laterally. There’s a tiny bit of movement in the second joint down and then the hooves are ball jointed. The head can move quite a bit at the neck, the horns can swivel, and as already mentioned, the jaw can open.

While he looks menacing enough by himself, you haven’t truly witnessed the awesome power of Bovis until you attach the massive cannon backpack to him and transformed him into a true Battle Bull. It clips on to his back, and it requires quite a bit of force until you hear that satisfying snap. It’s a testament to the quality of the plastic used here that I didn’t even feel nervous while doing it. While I tend to prefer Bovis in robot mode without the backpack, I can’t help but love it on his alt mode because it makes him look all the more formidable.

Of course, if you want to keep piling on the ordinance, all of Bovis’ weapons can attach to his bull mode, via ports on his legs, for SUPER MAXIMUM 110% BOVINE DETRUCTION!!! Yup, when you see this guy fully loaded and coming at you, you might as well get a shovel and start digging your own grave.

I’m not sure if you can tell, but I adore this figure. To sum up Bovis as succinctly as possible: He is exactly what I would want out of the official Masterpiece treatment of Tantrum, which Has-Tak would never give us anyway. In design, engineering, coloring, and quality, he’s exactly that good. Now, at $109, some may argue that with the recent Masterpiece Autobots as a guide, Bovis runs about $20-30 higher than he would if he were an official Takara release. True enough, but I would submit to you when you toss in the weapons and the large backpack/combiner piece, Bovis is using up a lot more plastic, and that’s where the value goes. I can’t vouch for the rest of the Feral Rex team yet, but if they’re anything like Bovis, this is going to be an amazing set of figures.

Oct 8 2013

Feral Rex (Reformatted Series): R-03 Bovis (Supply Specialist) by Mastermind Creations, Part 1

It’s funny to think that last year I was too skittish to order any third-party Transformers because I was so afraid of paying a lot for knock-off quality garbage. Well, the third-party transforming robots industry has come a long way, and I’ve been sampling most of the heavy hitters with a great deal of joy and success. With Fansproject, Mech Ideas, and TFC all under my belt, I started eyeing up the likes of Mastermind Creations and their glorious looking Feral Rex (aka Not-Predaking). As with TFC’s Uranos line, I was drawn to these guys mostly by their superb looking individual robot modes. On the other hand, having never owned Predaking as a kid, I’m much more excited over the combined mode this time around. The first release in this series is The Supply Specialist, Bovis, who looks enough like a certain G1 Predacon to make Hasbro have a Tantrum. See what I did there? Okdokey… let’s look at the box and robot mode today and tomorrow we’ll check out his alt mode.

Damn, this box is heavy. It’s like a solid brick with some serious heft to it. It’s nice to know that before I even get the bubble wrap off, the weight is helping to justify the cost. The box is big, but not quite as big as the box used for TFC’s Blackbird. You get a grid like pattern on the front, which is slightly evocative of the old G1 packages and a CG model of the figure, which really doesn’t do it justice at all. One side of the box has the name of the figure printed in foil lettering, so the boxes can be lined up on the shelf. The front of the box is a flap that is held down by a magnet (classy!), which opens up to reveal a window displaying the figure in robot mode along with his accessories.

Bovis comes on a plastic tray with a cover piece. His combiner part-slash-cannon-slash-backpack is beside him along with his arsenal of weapons. Behind the tray you get a baggie with a very nice sized instruction booklet-slash-comic book (ok, I’ll stop with the slashes) and a full color profile card. The presentation of the box is a nice effort and it’s executed with high quality cardboard and printing, but the artwork all comes up short in presenting the awesome figure that lies within.

I don’t usually say a lot about the ephemera that the companies toss in with these figures, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it. In the case of Bovis, the profile card is quite similar to what TFC and Fansproject have done in the past. The instruction booklet is actually useful, which is more than I can say for some of the other third-party robots I’ve picked up. I also like the fact that if you flip the book over the back half has a comic book that I actually found pretty enjoyable and a very nice bonus. Ok, enough with the preamble, let’s break tradition and start off with Bovis in his robot mode…

Fansproject’s excellent Causality figures proffered the idea of “less can be more” with their smaller size and great designs. Well, MMC says, “screw that, more is more”and proves it by delivering one seriously hefty figure. I was probably grinning ear to ear when I took Bovis out of the tray and for the first time got a sense of just what an impressive figure he is. Part of that heft has to do with his size, as he easily stacks up to a modern day Voyager, and part of it has to do with him being a chunky powerhouse of a robot. The fact that the plastic is very sturdy, and of the highest quality, certainly adds to the figure’s heft as well. Either way, I absolutely love the way this dude looks and feels right out of the package. He screams quality and assures that it was money well spent.

Bovis features that awesome boxy G1 design, but with plenty of panel lines and sculpted detail to give that extra oomf you would expect in an animated or comic book makeover. There’s a lot of particulars in the design to love, but if I had to pick one favorite thing it would be the way the silver mesh on his chest turned out. The contouring of his torso looks great and there’s even a convenient indent in the shape of a Decepticon insignia, should you happen to have a spare one lying around. The head sculpt is also fantastic, even if it does lean a bit more toward the organic comic style than the actual cybernetic look of vintage G1. It just exudes personality and works quite well for me. The yellow paint could have been a little thicker, as some of the red plastic can still be seen, and I know some collectors have reported their figure showing some paint rub on the chin while in the package. I don’t have anything like that here, but I guess it’s something to look out for. While on the subject of coloring, Bovis gets by mosty with colored plastic and some minor paint apps here and there. The coloring is pure Predacon goodness, and the use of the orange is far more welcome than the colors used on some of the earlier test shots.

The proportions on the figure are excellent for what he is. He’s got giant, powerful legs and beefy shoulders. The way the bull’s head crowns the robot mode helps to balance everything out and I’ve always loved the way Tantrum’s horns are framed on the sides of his head. This figure replicates that perfectly. I’m also quite happy with the way the beast mode’s legs all pack in securely. Bovis is a robot that wears his kibble with style and there’s nothing left to flop around or get in the way of having fun with him.

Bovis features a great range of serviceable articulation. The arms rotate at the shouders and have some lateral movement as well. The elbows are double hinged, and swivel at the bicep, and the wrists swivel as well. The legs rotate at the hips with ratcheting joints and also feature lateral movement. There are swivels in the thighs and the knees are hinged with ratcheting joints. The feet are attached to a hinged arm with ball joints. Bovis’ head rotates and he can also swivel at the waist.

Bovis looks like he’s perfectly capable of pounding Autobots into the dirt with brute force, but he still comes with a nice little arsenal of weapons and a bevy of ways to use them. You get a pair of pistols and a pair of knives. The pistols are nice pieces, but not overly special. The knives on the other hand… they’re fabulous. I’m not usually a big fan of having my robots wielding edged weapons, but the designs here are just too awesome to overlook. Bovis can hold the weapons in his hands, but they can also attach to his forearms or his lower legs.

Bovis also comes with one foot and hand for his the combined mode of Feral Rex. The hand folds up nicely into the foot and the entire assembly can be used as a backpack for both Bovis’ robot and bull mode. So, if you’re the kind of guy that doesn’t like extra combiner parts lying around, or you want to make Bovis even bulkier, he can wear the foot and hand piece as a backpack and he looks damn fine doing it. Yes, it does make him a tad back heavy, but he can still stand just fine with a modicum of futzing. Bovis can also wield the backpack like a giant cannon. The foot alone gives us a wonderful sneak peak at what’s to come. It’s larger than your average Autobot Deluxe car, suggesting that Feral Rex is going to be a beast of a gestalt mode. But we’ll save all that for when the team is complete.

Ok, I’ve gone pretty long just gushing about Bovis’ robot mode, but it’s kind of hard to contain myself. I’m seriously in love with this figure, and we haven’t even seen his alt mode yet. I’ll come back tomorrow and we’ll talk about his transformation and we’ll see how he looks in his beast mode!

Oct 7 2013

Transformers Generations: Orion Pax (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Hey, folks, it’s time for a look at another one of Hasbro’s “Thrilling Thirty!” to celebrate Transformers’ 30th Anniversary, and oh my God, it’s Orion Pax. YES!!! I have wanted a genuine Orion Pax figure ever since he first appeared in the episode of the original Transformers cartoon, “War Dawn.” The e-hobby repaint of Kup was a pretty cool figure and that would have done the job back in the day, but it hardly fits into my modern TF collection. The fact that I had to settle for an IDW version as opposed to a Sunbow version doesn’t really faze me, so long as the character is finally represented on my shelf. And here he is!

This being my final feature of Hasbro’s initial wave of IDW Comic Packs, we’ve already seen the packaging several times. Pax comes carded in robot form with a reprint comic on a G1 style card. Suffice it to say, I find the presentation here perfect in every way. The comic is pretty good too. It stands on its own quite well, so if you’re like me and haven’t gotten around to reading Autocracy, it won’t count against you. There’s plenty of good action, familiar faces, and decent lines. Let’s start out with Pax’s alt mode.

While in alt mode in the comic, Pax spends most panels pulling along a trailer of Decepticon prisoners. Better get busy making that trailer, third-parties! That having been said, Hasbro did a fine job reproducing the vehicle mode here, sans trailer. Pax is a Cybertronian truck, a bit more like a pick-up truck than a semi cab, but he still looks pretty good. The deco is a mix of red and blue, traditional Optimus colors, with some silver and yellow accents. I think it’s one of the better quality decos in recent Generations releases. True there aren’t a lot of paint apps, but I genuinely don’t get the feeling of any of the paint cuts that I have from some other modern figures. The clear windshield shows an Autobot symbol as well as some of the detailing in the inner workings of the cab.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Pax’s alt mode is a bit small. Yup, that’s a common complaint against most modern Deluxe figures. He would work Ok as a sporty little pick-up truck, but he doesn’t look big enough to be pulling a trailer with two Decepticons in it. Prime comes with two weapons, a blaster and an energon axe and both accessories can peg into the sides of the vehicle to give him some firepower in alt mode. The blaster looks pretty good and even the axe can double as some kind of cannon if you use your imagination.

Transforming Pax is easy and pretty clever. I like the way the side panels of his alt mode fold up and pack away on his legs. His wheels stow neatly behind him and his shoulders shift forward and lock into place securely. The resulting robot mode is excellent and there are no fake outs, so the windshield in his truck mode is really his chest in robot mode. The only distraction for me is the plate that sticks up behind his head, but I’m really just looking for things to pick on at this point. The truth is he’s a very clean looking robot with great poseability.

And, yes, once again like a lot of Deluxes these days, he’s small. Now, Pax’s small size in robot mode does not bother me. Sure, he’s about the same size as the other Autobots in the comic, as Wheeljack just got him a new body. Nonetheless, to me Orion Pax should be slighter than he was as Prime and so his smaller stature in robot mode doesn’t concern me as much as his compact auto mode. On the other hand, I guess it’s hard to have it both ways, so I’ll let it slide.

I’ve already mentioned his weapons. I absolutely love his rifle, because it finally gives us a G1-style Prime gun that can work with WFC Prime or even Classic Prime. The energon axe is pretty sweet too.

Size quibbles aside, Orion Pax is an awesome figure and probably second only to Trailcutter as my favorite in this initial crop of IDW releases. It’s been a solid wave and I’m anxiously waiting for my Thundercracker and Hoist to turn up. I’m also really pleased to see the reveals of the next wave of four, which will include Skids, Waspinator, Goldfire, and Dreadwing. Yes, indeed, there’s some great stuff coming down the pike for us Transformers fans and lately Hasbro has been showing me that it doesn’t all have to come from third parties!

Oct 5 2013

Masters of the Universe Classics: Octavia by Mattel

I had originally planned on looking at the Jet Sled and Sky High today, but the USPS had other plans. Despite the tracking telling me it was delivered last Tuesday, I have to beg to differ. I’m pursuing the issue, but I’m not terribly optimistic about a favorable outcome. Getting something lost in the mail sucks, but I’ve got a lot of third-party Transformers coming in these days, so if the USPS had to lose something, I’m kind of glad that’s what it was. Anywho… In an effort to keep today’s slot about MOTUC, I’m substituting in this figure, which happened to be sitting around and waiting to be opened… Ok, end of prologue… let’s go!

So, we’re still a couple of weeks away from the next Sale Day for Matty’s Club Eternia, but I’ve been doing a little MOTUC shopping early to pick up some figures I was missing. One of those figures was Octavia, because with just Hordak, Katra, and Grizzlor, my Horde Forces are rather weak. I can’t remember whether Octavia sold out super-fast, or I just wasn’t privy to her Day of Sale, but having to pick her up second hand cost me an extra ten bucks. Let’s see if she was worth it…

In package, Octavia offers few surprises. It’s the same great green brick Greyskull-inspired packaging we always see with the additional Horde sticker on the bubble. She is, however, an absolute bitch to get out. The figure is secured with clear rubber bands, which are woven throughout the tentacles and the crossbow. It’s a veritable Gordian knot that demands to be cut if you ever want to free her.

Flip the card over and you get some previously released figures and Octavia’s biography. I have absolutely no recollection of the character from her pair of appearances on She-Ra, but having She-Ra on the TV was a dangerous thing. If detected, it would provoke instant teasing from my older brother and that would result in a cage match that often led to getting both of us grounded. Anyway, I’m missing quite a few of the figures on the back here. Of the six pictured, I only have Grizzlor and Katra.

While Octavia is not really complete without her tentacles, they take up a lot of room and chances are I may have to display her without them, so I thought we’d start by just looking at the base figure. For a disgusting fin-headed sea monster, Octavia is kind of smoking hot. Hey, Rule 34 tells me that at least one of you out there is into this chick! She uses a fairly standard female buck with a one-piece dress layered onto the figure. The belt is a new sculpt, as is the awesome Horde emblem on the front. She has simple red gloves and some really snazzy boots, each with a Horde symbol sculpted in. The coloring here is a bit drab with the dress being… what would you call that? Ochre? But the high gloss black paint for the boots helps and I do like the color green they used for her skin.

The portrait is very cool. Octavia looks a little more pouty than angry, but I like the head sculpt a lot and the flowing orange hair is just crazy enough to work. The paintwork on the face is quite nice and I dig the crazy eye shadow.

Octavia’s tentacles are four independent pieces, each with a hinged ball joint that plugs into a socket on her back. It helps to pop her head off to get that hair out of the way and some of them are tough to get in. Once set up, though, they’re totally impressive, and I am surprised how relatively easy it is to get her to stand with them. They have a little bit of bendy element to them and the ball joint and hinges give you some added poseability. You can also mix up the way you insert them to offer some different configurations. Each tentacle is sculpted with some rings and there are suckers at the ends. It would have been nice if Matty could have matched the color a little better with her skin, but it’s close enough.

In addition to the hinges and ball joints on the tentacles, Octavia has the usual articulation for the MOTUC female buck. The arms have ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips with swivels, and there are hinges in the knees and ankles. She can swivel at the waist and her head is ball jointed. As expected, there is no ab crunch.

With a lot of arms, comes a lot of accessories! Octavia comes with a Horde crossbow with a Cthulu-like face sculpted on the end of it. She also comes with four identical swords that can clip to her tentacles. What I love about the swords is that they don’t have crazy hilts to accommodate the tentacles. Nope, they’re designed so they can also be wielded by any MOTUC figure.

As I hinted at earlier, the only issue I have with this figure is the space I’m going to need to display her. My MOTUC shelves are getting rather congested, and you need a lot of room to display Octavia in all her tentacle flailing glory. Truth be told, she looks good enough displayed without them, but it’s almost a shame to do that because when you get them deployed and each wielding a sword, she looks absolutely bitchin’! I do think it’s kind of strange that we got her before some of the other Princess of Power characters, like Glimmer or Scorpia, but since those ladies are on their way next year, I’m not going to complain. Octavia is indeed an excellent figure.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

DC Universe Classics: Swamp Thing by Mattel

Transformers: Masterpiece Prowl (MP-17) by Takara, Part 2

Transformers: Masterpiece Prowl (MP-17) by Takara, Part 1

Masters of the Universe Classics: Jet Sled & Sky High by Mattel

Galaxy Squad: Crater Creeper (#70706) by Lego

Transformers Cybertron: Soundwave by Hasbro

Feral Rex (Reformatted Series): R-03 Bovis by Mastermind Creations, Part 2

Feral Rex (Reformatted Series): R-03 Bovis (Supply Specialist) by Mastermind Creations, Part 1

Transformers Generations: Orion Pax (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Masters of the Universe Classics: Octavia by Mattel

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