Mar 26 2013

Uranos: SR-71 Blackbird and X-47 Phantom Ray by TFC, Part 1

It took me longer than expected to get my Blackbird, the third release in TFC’s Project Uranos series, but it’s finally here and I’ve had some time to play around with him. He’s a bit of a controversial figure because he’s a deviation from the original concept. Despite being a Silverbolt homage, TFC decided to base him off of the famous SR-71 Blackbird spyplane rather than a Concorde. The decision further begged the question, would he be black like the SR-71 should be, or would he remain true to the G1 character’s color scheme? And what’s with that smaller Transformer he comes with? He forms the gestalt’s chest piece? That’s not very GeeWun! It seemed like whatever TFC did they were going to alienate some people, but I tried to keep an open mind.

I’ll gladly concede that I would have preferred TFC stuck with the Concorde design, as it fit the character better. Besides being a jet that was afraid of heights, Silverbolt was a lot more reserved than the other Aerialbots. Quite frankly, most of the Aerialbots were dicks and Silverbolt wasn’t, nor was he as quick to jump into battle. I always thought it was cool that his personality was reflected in him being the only one of the team that wasn’t a military jet. On the other hand, homages or not, I really dig when these third-party releases bring something original to the table. I also enjoy the idea of having a more cohesive team of military jets as my re-imagined Aerialbots. As for the color scheme, I think they made the right decision. But I’ll come back to a lot of that later… for now, let’s check out the packaging and the alt modes.

With two releases under my belt, I’ve come to know what to expect from the Uranos packaging. However, Blackbird is the largest of the figures and he also comes with a companion figure, so I was interested to see if TFC mixed things up at all. Nope. What we have here is the same basic deco and design as the other window boxes. It’s just bigger. That’s a very good thing, because I really love everything about the presentation on these guys and Blackbird’s box raises it to an epic and impressive scale. The package features the same cool artwork and line-drawings on the front and sides, and the photos of Blackbird’s three forms on the back. There’s also an amazing color line-drawing inside the cardboard tray. Blackbird comes packaged in his robot mode and Phantom Ray comes in his little alt mode. Inside the box, you get a collectible card with his character art and stats, a fold out poster, and a color instruction sheet.

Straightaway, I love Blackbird’s alt mode, and a lot of that has to do with my love for the stylings of the real aircraft. It’s certainly an attractive design and TFC did a nice job reproducing it in toy form right down to the little panel lines. There’s a fair amount of seams and hinges, but you’ve got to expect that in Transformers and I don’t think they detract much from the aesthetics. Aircraft purists will scoff at the unconventional white body and yellow trim, but I’m glad they went with the G1 color scheme, because it was clearly needed to drive this homage home. A couple of repro Autobot insignia on the wings and he definitely looks the part.

Blackbird rests nicely on three sets of folding landing gear and he has two cool chainguns situated under his cockpit. From the top down, this is a great looking toy, although mine had one annoying quirk. The two plates that lock together behind the cockpit simply would not stay together, and left a huge and f’ugly gap. This was seriously pissing me off. I must have played around with it for a half-hour trying to see what I was doing wrong, but that gap would not go away. Finally, I shaved a little off one of the pegs inside the plates and now they mesh perfectly. I’m not a fan of having to tinker with a $130 toy to make it right, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Some may be vexed by the fact that you can see the bulk of Blackbird’s robot form simply by looking under the jet. Honestly, this doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Just as whores will have their trinkets, so Transformer jets will have their kibble. There are two different configurations that his legs can peg into under the wings. One places them more toward the center, the other more toward the back. I prefer to keep them toward the back, since the wings and engines hide them a little more when viewing the jet from the side. But whatever you do there’s going to be a lot of baggage down there. Case in point, after I shot the pictures, I realized I forgot to fold in his feet, but given what all is down there, little tweaks like that don’t even matter all that much. It’s like trying to hide an elephant under a washcloth.

As with Phantom and Eagle, the quality of the plastic here feels really nice. This is a hefty and very solid toy. There’s no noticeable mold flashing and the paint apps are all precise and clean. Let’s move on to Blackbird’s little robot sidekick…

Phantom Ray’s alt mode is an X-47 Drone and he’s a pretty simple little guy. TFC played a little fast and loose with the accuracy on him. He’s a lot more angular than the actual aircraft and while he holds his alt mode fairly well, he doesn’t peg together quite as solid as his larger bot-buddy. He does have some wheels, although they are set so close to the undercarriage that he might as well just be sitting on the ground. There’s a socket underneath him that can peg into the top of Blackbird via the folding peg, and the two look pretty good when joined up. Ever since I was a kid and saw the Space Shuttle being ferried on the back of a 747, I’ve always thought the idea of aircraft riding piggy back on another was pretty damn cool, although you’re mileage may vary.

I’ll be honest, that gap in the back scared the shit out of me, but thankfully it was an easy fix and so far, I’m very pleased with this guy. Blackbird’s jet mode is big, well-constructed, and a great looking toy. I really like how he scales with the other jets. He’s definitely bigger, but he’s not so much bigger as to feel too out of their league. Phantom Ray is… well, he’s not much to write home about, but he is a cool little accessory and I do like the way he looks pegged onto Blackbird’s back.

Tomorrow I’ll be back to transform these guys and check out their robot modes.

Mar 25 2013

Marvel Universe: She-Hulk by Hasbro

I know, I know. I ended last week with Marvel. That was bad planning on my part knowing that I was starting this week with Marvel Monday. But in my defense, Saturday was Marvel Legends and today is Marvel Universe. And I do still have several of these MU figures to get through, so the show must go on. Besides, I have a bit of a hangover so I’m looking for something easy. Speaking of easy, today we’re checking out She-Hulk… oh, snap! Many of you know, I’m not a big fan of Hulk’s solo books, but I have read my share of She-Hulk, because I dig the snappy wit and since I’m 40 going on 16 a little T&A is still all it takes to get me to read a funnybook. Let’s check out this figure…

Marvel Universe packaging! It hasn’t changed much since the last two MU figures I featured. I am definitely digging Shulkie’s card art and the figure itself looks mighty nice in the package. Am I the only one wishing that Hasbro would have done a variant She-Hulk in her lawyer attire with a briefcase? Seriously, I’m sure they could have reworked the sculpt into a Pepper Pots or something. Ah, but that’s ok, I’m still happy with this version. Plus, I’m pretty sure we’ll be getting a Fantastic Four variant somewhere down the line. The back of the card has a little bio blurb and a photo of other figure’s in this wave and MODOK commanding me to “Collect Them All!” I’d love to collect them all, MODOK, but I can’t find Scarlet Witch anywhere, except online for ridiculous scalper mark-ups plus shipping. Ah, but I’m sure that evil sonvabitch already knows that.

The last MU figure we looked at, Kraven, blew me away with some truly amazing sculpting and paintwork. But MU being what it is, you never know what you’re going to get, and She-Hulk is a return to a painted basic buck. I know, it’s not really fair to compare a dude who wears an elaborate lion-head costume with a green chick in a one-piece. And besides, She-Hulk turned out really nice.

So yeah, there’s not much in the way of original sculpting here apart from the head, but I am quite happy with the way the head turned out. The portrait is pretty simple, but attractive and Hasbro’s sculptors did a particularly nice job with her rich mane of hair. The paintwork is very solid too. They even painted on a teeny coat of glossy green lipstick.

She-Hulk’s painted one-piece uses a nice, metallic purple for the side panels. There’s a little bit of slop around the edges, but nothing too bad. The same purple is used to paint on her fingerless gloves.

I’m also really pleased with the articulation and quality on this figure. Shulkie utilizes one of the more articulated female bucks. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, ankles, and chest. She has double hinges in both her elbows and her knees. She has swivels in her biceps, wrists, thighs, and at the tops of her boots. And lastly, she has that marvelous extra hinge in her neck, a nice thought even if her sculpted hair renders it almost useless. But the best thing is that the quality on her joints is all excellent. There are no big gaps in the thigh swivels and no misshapen hinges. Everything is really tight and solid.

She-Hulk isn’t one of the most exceptional figures to come out of Marvel Universe, but she is a very solid effort and a character that I was very much looking forward to adding to my collection. You get a very good head sculpt, excellent articulation, and I’m happy to say there were no QC issues on my figure to speak of. I could gripe about a lack of accessories, but I can’t really think of anything essential that Hasbro could have included. You’ve been on a roll with these figures, Hasbro… keep it up.

[And by the way, congratulations, Shulkie, you were the 900th Feature on FigureFan Zero! It wasn’t planned this way. I actually didn’t even realize it until I had uploaded it. But, hey, it could have worked out a lot worse. Now we start the home stretch to 1,000. -FF]

Mar 23 2013

Marvel (Iron Man) Legends: Iron Patriot by Hasbro

In honor of the forthcoming Iron Man 3 movie, Hasbro has hijacked a wave of Marvel Legends to produce six Iron Man themed figures. Actually, they’re coming out in two small waves of three figures each, but collecting all of them will give you the parts needed to construct a comic version Iron Monger BAF. I was quick to roll my eyes at the thought of more Iron Man figures in the Marvel Legends line, but then I saw the actual Iron Man 3 figures that Hasbro released. Yeah. Considering how unbelievably shitty they look, getting some Iron Man loving in Marvel Legends seems like a nice bone to throw to the collectors. I haven’t committed myself to buying all of these yet, but I couldn’t resist grabbing Iron Patriot when I saw him in the toy aisle the other day.

The packaging is a hybrid of Marvel Legends and Iron Man 3. Although it still retains the “Legends” moniker on the bubble insert, the top of the cards read “Iron Man” and it features an illustration of that terrible new Mark 42 Armor. It also includes the “Avengers Initiative” emblem, which suggests a tie in to the movie-verse despite the comic book nature of this figure. The back of the card shows the figure in photo and in illustration and has shots of the other two figures from the first half of the wave with the final three blacked out. All in all, I think the presentation here is good, even if the BAF part overshadows the actual figure. Let’s bust him open and check him out…

But wait? Haven’t we seen this figure before? Yes, he’s a repaint of Extremis Iron Man from the initial wave of the Marvel Legends relaunch with a slight resculpt to the chest. That was a figure that underwhelmed me enough to make my Biggest Disappointments of 2012 list. Why buy him again? Well, partly because I do love me some Norman Osborne and Dark Reign, and partly because… well, it’s amazing the difference that a nice paint job can make. The quality of the paintwork was one of my issues with the original figure, while the size and articulation were the others. At least this figure corrects one of those problems.

I’m still underwhelmed by the lack of panel lines and detail in the sculpt. I like the overall contours of the figure, but it still seems rather bland for a 6-inch scale piece. Besides the resculpted star on the chest, Iron Patriot also features swapped hands from the Extremis figure, where the right hand is now opened to show the repulsor in the palm and the left hand is now partially closed into a fist.

Obviously, the big difference here is the paint. I’m always a sucker for the Iron Patriot deco, and Hasbro has done a fairly good job with it here. The metallic blue used on this figure is gorgeous, and I’m also pretty fond of the pearlescent white. The red is a little inconsistent. It has a nice metallic finish on the lower legs and upper chest, while the effect on the forearms and shoulder armor isn’t quite as brilliant. Still, I’m nitpicking here, overall the paintwork is a solid effort and I’d say an overall improvement in quality over the original.

Despite fresh paint and a little tweaking to the mold, Iron Patriot has the same articulation as Extremis Iron Man. It’s important because one of my major issues with this mold is the hip joints. I’m generally not a huge fan of Hasbro’s ball jointed hips, but they’d be welcome compared to what this guy’s packing. While you can still achieve a fairly wide stance, the forward and backward movement of the legs is inhibited by the sculpt. And the wide stance doesn’t help a lot with no ankle rockers. Granted everything else is pretty good. There are ball joints in the neck, shoulders, wrists, and chest. The elbows and knees are double hinged, there are swivels in the biceps, thighs, and ankles, and the neck has an extra hinge to look up. I would have added a waist swivel too, but nobody asked me.

Iron Patriot doesn’t come with any accessories, but you do get the big torso for Iron Monger. I wasn’t really chomping at the bit to build this guy, but I have to say I’m impressed with the paintwork and sculpt on the torso. Maybe just enough to change my mind.

I picked up this guy for around $15 and it certainly beats the inflated priced I’ve had to pay when hunting down some of the other Marvel Legends figures. I still have issues with his articulation, and I still think he’s undersized. That having been said, I’m still happy to have him on my shelf. As mentioned earlier, I haven’t decided on whether or not I’m going for this whole wave in order to build Iron Monger. I guess that’s going to depend on how many I can find on the pegs or whether I would need to hunt them down. Either way, this is a solid, albeit not spectacular figure.

Mar 22 2013

Causality: CA-09 Car Crash by Fansproject

Last year I started getting heavy into Legos. This year, I was bitten by the third-party Transformer bug. It seems like every year I adopt horrible new tortures for my bank account to endure. It all started with TFC’s Project Uranos and Mech Ideas’ Demolition Crue and since I’ve been thrilled with everything so far, it was only a matter of time before I branched out to buying the wares of third-party heavy hitter, Fansproject. And seeing as how I simply cannot resist Decepticon cars, it was a no-brainer that I would begin by jumping on board their set of “Not-Stunticons.” The fact that we haven’t seen final pictures of their combined mode [We have now, and it looks glorious! –FF] doesn’t bother me at all, because I’m picking up these guys primarily as individual figures. We’re kicking this team off with Car Crash (aka “Not-Breakdown”). Let’s take a look at the presentation…

I’m always excited (and sometimes a little apprehensive) about getting my first product from a company, particularly where the packaging is concerned. TFC’s is awesome, Mech Ideas’ was underwhelming. Where does Fansproject’s Causality packaging fall? It’s awesome! They had me right away with the G1-style grid pattern on the box. Car Crash comes in a beautiful and compact little window box that shows off the figure in his robot mode. There’s a nice piece of character art on the front and on one side of the box, but other than that FP lets the images of the actual figure do the talking. The side, top and back of the box show Car Crash in all his awesome glory. The box is totally collector friendly, which is always a plus for me, especially when a toy is this expensive and you want to preserve it exactly as you got it.

Open the box and Car Crash is wrapped in plastic and nestled in a clear plastic tray with another tray covering it. You get a collectible card, a color instruction sheet that shows you how to change him from either starting point, and he also comes with a handgun. What? No combiner parts? I’m sure those are all coming with “Not-Motormaster.” As usual, we’re going to start with his alt mode.

The original Breakdown was a white Lamborghini Countach with red trim on the hood. Car Crash’s alt mode serves the source material well. He’s not quite a Countach, but he’s a similar concept car that’s close enough to drive (“har har”) the homage home. He’s a solid little car, which in size falls somewhere between one of Hasbro’s standard Deluxe and Scout Class Transformers. I took some shots to compare him with Classics Sideswipe and you can see that he’s unfortunately not quite to scale. Still, with scale being what it is in the world of Transformers, it’s not impossible to squint and make it work. Afterall, the G1 Stunticon figures were a lot smaller than the regular Autobot cars.

The deco is simple enough, and utilizes mostly the base white plastic, red paint on the hood and tail lights, a little silver for the head lights, and some blue for the running boards. The windows are also all painted black, with a little bit of sparkly finish. There are obviously some seams from his transformation, and a hinge back by the engine, but nothing too ugly and the whole car mode locks together in a tight and snug fashion. The wheels are nicely sculpted and he rolls along quite well, despite the fact that the inner parts of his back wheels are static. In this alt mode, Car Crash’s gun stores underneath to become exhaust pipes.

Transforming Car Crash is a bit of a bitch. It’s not because he’s really complex, but because everything locks together so tight, and for some steps, you have to use a little too much force for my comfort level. Going from his robot mode to car utilizes telescoping arms and legs that fold into themselves, and getting everything in just the right spot and tabbed together is a pretty deliberate affair. When changing him to robot, it’s getting the feet split apart that I find really taxing.

Now is as good a time as any to point out that the quality of the plastic here is excellent. I’ve changed Car Crash back and forth a bunch of times now and I’ve seen no sign of any stress marks. I did have one of the feet pop out once, but it’s on a ball joint and pops right back into place. Considering that you have to apply a good amount of force at a couple points in the transformation, I think that’s pretty remarkable. His joints are tight and the overall feel of this guy is absolutely fantastic, but that doesn’t change the fact that I get a little nervous sometimes when transforming him.

As with the alt mode, the robot mode’s size places Car Crash somewhere between being a Deluxe and Scout. Even with his shoulder armor, he doesn’t quite come up to the shoulders of your average Classics Deluxe figure. If you’ve picked up any of the previous Causality figures, you should know what to expect. If not, this guy may seem rather small to you. But if you can get past his size (and believe me, you should try), he is an amazing looking robot. His legs consist of armor made out of the folded front end of the car, giving him some amazingly versatile ankles and feet. The subtle way the wheels fold in is very clever and looks great. His forearms are wearing the doors and his shoulders consist of his back tires and are crested by the rear quarter panels of the car. The shape of the torso gives him that great angular G1 style that I love so much and that head sculpt? Well that’s just pure win, Fansproject. Car Crash’s color scheme definitely pays its respects to the G1 Sunbow character, albeit with more white on the lower legs than blue. The mix of white and blue, two-tone grey, and metallic silver all look fabulous, but it’s the red painted face that really ties this figure together for me. I’ll admit that I find his car mode rather bland, but his robot mode exhibits some really beautiful coloring.

As great as this figure looks, he’s just as much fun to play with because he has crazy articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips and ankles. He has swivels in the biceps, waist, and thighs. His elbows and knees are hinged. I’ve had tons of fun fiddling around with him and putting him into poses.

Car Crash set me back $68 shipped. Yep, that’s a nice chunk of change to pay for a figure that isn’t quite a Deluxe. On the other hand, any time you can get a decent third-party Transformer figure for under $100 it seems like a treat. And Car Crash isn’t a decent figure, he’s an exceptional one. He features a solid car mode, but more importantly a gorgeous and wonderfully articulated robot mode. He’s also packed with quality and I find him to be well worth every penny. Sure, I would have preferred him to be more in scale with my Deluxes, and yeah I would have paid more. But I’m still happy with what we got and I’m really excited to see T-Bone show up on my stoop next week.

Mar 21 2013

DC Universe Signature Collection: Elongated Man by Mattel

Hells yeah! This is the kind of thing I joined Club Infinite Earths for! Finally, it’s the f’ing Elongated Man! Not to slight any of the excellent figures that have come from CIE before him, but I’ve had a certain DC Direct version of this guy chilling on my DCUC shelves as a place holder for a little too long now. Next to Jay Garrick Flash, this is the one CIE figure that scratches my itch the most. Sure, that DCD version is great and all, but getting an actual DCUC style figure of Dibny? Well, this has been a long time coming. Let’s check him out…

It’s the ever so slightly redesigned Signature Collection packaging. I think this is the third time we’ve seen it and it’s starting to grow on me. Or at the very least I’ve decided the changes are mostly harmless. Truth be told, I’m only hanging onto the boxes for the oversized quarterly figures now, so I’ll be taking a pair of scissors to this box to save the back and the rest will get trashed. Hey, space is precious and Dibney’s going right on my shelf anyway. Generally speaking, I’m usually blown away by the character art Mattel uses, but that’s not so much the case here. I appreciate that they are trying to show off Dibny’s elastic personality, but I’m just not feeling this character art. The bio on the back chronicles Dibny’s troubled life, but it does not explain why the DC writers like to mentally torture him so much. Let’s check out the figure…

Starting off with the head sculpt, I think the portrait here is excellent. I was very pleased with the DCD version’s head sculpt, but now that I’ve seen this one it’s a little hard to go back. This portrait is less harsh and angular than the DCD version and he’s not as sickly pale either. It makes sense, though, as the DCD version is from “Identity Crisis” and this one looks like Dibny from a less tragedy stricken time in his life. I’m not entirely sure the expression they were going for with this figure, but I do love it. It’s a little neutral with a bit of “gee-whiz” deduction thrown into it. I’ve always had a soft spot for Ralph and I think this portrait captures his personality extremely well. At least before he completely lost his shit over the tragedy with his wife, but I’m glad that Mattel didn’t try to sculpt angry-desperate-vengeful Dibny.

As expected, Ralph’s costume is achieved mostly through paintwork on a standard DCUC style buck, so there isn’t a lot of original sculpting here. He’s mostly red with black gloves, boots, and the “V” down the front and back of his torso. There are yellow borders around his boots and gloves, and he has a sculpted belt comprised of a simple black and yellow band. The paintwork is overall pretty good, although there are a few small spots on my figure’s chest where the black chipped.

In package, Elongated Man comes with his right arm stretched out, but you also get a regular fist that you can swap with it to make him normal. The DCD figure had a lot more stretchy gimmicks, with two bendable arms and an extending neck. I wouldn’t have minded two stretch arms for him, but I’m still happy with what they did here. It’s just enough to show him flexing his powers without going all nuts. He also comes with a very cool magnifying glass, which he can hold in his left hand.

Elongated Man features your standard DCUC articulation. That means a ball joints in the neck and shoulders, the arms feature swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the elbows. The legs have the classic DCUC hip joints, which allow for lateral movement, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. You also get an ab-crunch hinge and a swivel at the waist.

And so, finally I can retire my DCD version of Ralph Dibny to my DC Direct drawer and represent the character on my shelf in proper DCUC style. In this case, however, I’m still happy to own both versions, as the DCD figure does offer a lot more display options, but each figure brings its own charms to the table. On the other hand, I really am thrilled with this figure’s head sculpt. Sure, he’s a simple enough figure, but Mattel really did a wonderful job with it. Now I really need to double back and pick up Firestorm and Red Tornado.

Mar 20 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Kithaba and Nikto by Hasbro

It’s the final leg of my quest to assemble a crew of Vintage Collection Skiff Guards for my Tatooine Skiff. The last two I needed were Kithaba and Nikto. Yeah, these guys are definitely back-benchers, but hey, they can’t all be Weequay, right? You’ve got to have some less popular dudes to fall into the Sarlaac when the plan to execute the Jedi and his buddies goes tits up, and in my universe it sure ain’t going to be Weequay or Klaatu.

Normally I shed a tear when I have to rip open Vintage Collection packaging, but this time around it didn’t bother me so much because I’m not particularly fond of either of these cards. The deco is still awesome, but the pictures of the characters are rubbish. Kithaba looks like he’s posing for a vacation photo. “Here I am in front of Jabba’s Sail Barge. I got everyone t-shirts at the gift shop.” Nikto looks like he’s about to push a reporter’s camera out of his face. “Nikto… Nikto… Is it true? You let the Jedi and his friends escape?” “What do you want me to say? We did the best we could. Just leave me alone.” Naturally, both cards are ruined anyway by giant stickers of Darth Maul’s face telling me I could win a life sized statue of him signed by Lucas. Honestly, I’d rather have an Ewok shit on my carpet then have that in my house. But enough preamble, let’s bust these guys open and we’ll start with Kithaba. Wait, wasn’t this guy Barada? Oh sweet Jesus, it’s a different guy??? I’m not going to become embroiled in another Klaatu vs Wooof debate. If you’re interested, you can check out particulars at SKIFFGUARDS.COM, which I might add is probably one of the greatest sites I’ve ever seen and quite probably the reason the Internet was created. Where was I? Oh yeah… Kithaba.

Once again, Hasbro, you are blowing me away with these figures, particularly in your attention to the sculpted detail. Kithaba’s shirt and vest are wonderfully recreated here and the shoulder strap and pouches are actually sculpted as a different piece. Damn, that’s cool! He also has a functional holster for his hold out blaster, and you all know by now how much I love those functional holsters. Kithaba’s portrait is pretty accurate to his on screen appearance. A lot more so than the crappy photo-shopped image used on the card, for example the error in his bandana color is correct on the figure. The face sculpt is pretty spot on for a Klatooinian, as he kind of looks like a cross between a lizard and a very ugly bulldog. The paintwork is excellent, particularly on his little row of bottom teeth.

Besides the aforementioned hold out blaster, Kithaba also comes with one of those weird, long gun-pole things. It’s a damn ambiguous weapon, and if I was a Skiff Guard and got one of those instead of the much cooler and functional force pike, I would have been mighty pissed off.

Moving on to Nikto, he too is an amazing little sculpt that really captures all the fine points of the character. Nikto was a well-known fashionista as is evidenced by his fancy puffed out shirt and his metrosexual front-laced turquoise tunic. He’s got quilted pants with a stylish yellow stripe running down each leg. Of course, he also has a piece of armor over his chest, because looking good at the cost of getting stabbed in the throat isn’t a worthwhile trade off. I’m not sure about the hat, though. It looks like he’s wearing a dog bed on his head, which leads me to the other amazing point about this figure… HOLY CRAP, YOU CAN TAKE HIS HAT OFF!

Yes, you could also take off Wooof’s hat, but for some reason the fact that Nikto’s hat comes off is a lot more impressive to me. I’m not saying that as a kid I used to stare at my vintage Nikto figure and curse Kenner for not making his hat removable, but I literally had to pause and take a breath before finally being able to take a peek at Nikto’s bare noggin. My reaction? Huh, his head’s smaller than I thought it would be. It was a little anti-climactic.

Nikto comes with the same pole-gun-thingy as Kithaba and a silver painted hold out blaster, which can fit in his functional holster. Yay!

Both figures feature the same articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. They have swivels in their waists and wrists, and their hip joints are the traditional t-crotch.

So, there ya have it. Two more excellent Skiff Guards from the Vintage Collection. And while this pair technically completes my Skiff Guard collection, I’m still going to go after the Deleted Sandstorm versions of Lando, Han, and Luke just because they were there too and I need them to round out the display. I should note, that buying these figures has made me take a second look at some of the other Vintage Collection figures out there. I’m trying not to go nuts, because after all I don’t collect Star Wars anymore, right? But I will have another Vintage Collection figure to look at next week.

Mar 19 2013

Legends of Chima: Winzar’s Pack Patrol (#30251) by Lego

With my new found love of Galaxy Squad, I’m really reluctant to get started with another new Lego series at the same time. Nonetheless, all my attempts to turn a blind eye to Legends of Chima isn’t going so well and I decided to break down and pick up one of the small polybag sets that Target had in their Valentine’s Day dump bins. Because I guess nothing says “I love you” like a cheap Lego set. I’ve found the polybag sets can be hit and miss, but at least it gives me a chance to sample the line for a five dollar bill and still get change.

What the hell’s a Chima? Well apparently it’s a world where a bunch of anthropomorphic animals are battling each other for a rare and magical resource. The two main opposing forces are the Lions and the Crocodiles. If this is sounding to you a bit like the Thundercats reboot, you’re not wrong. And yet while on the surface it may seem like a rip-off, I think it stands to be one of the most creative and potentially long term original lines we’ve seen out of Lego in a while. It’s f’ing Lions and Crocodiles fighting each other with tanks and warplanes for crying out loud! In what universe can that not be awesome?

But forget about crocs and lions for now, because today’s polybag set features Winzar, from the wolf tribe. The set includes 38 pieces, which builds the Winzar minifig and his little sled. You also get a blue crystal, which I presume is a piece of Chi, the magical substance that all these critters are slaughtering each other to possess. Lego must be onto something here, because I’m pretty sure my cat stole mine.

Winzar features a generic minifig body with some cool printing showing tribal accoutrement and a nice six-pack that tells us this dude likes to do his crunches. The head is printed on both sides, and would look fine on its own, but there’s also a proper wolf head that fits over it so that the printed eyes on the inner head show through. Lest you thought this was a cutesy kiddie line, think again. Winzar’s face is all kinds of messed up. He’s got bloody gashes all over the left side of his face and his left eye has been literally clawed out. That shit is seriously hardcore!

The sled is about what I expected from a polybag set. It’s a little better than the token rocket sleds that I was bitching about a while back when I was looking at one of the Galaxy Squad sets. It sits up high in the back on a pair of blades, which can easily be pulled out and used by Winzar as weapons. The front sits low and there’s a dog bone axel holding the front skis in place. How adorable is that?

Obviously, this set isn’t going to take anyone more than a few ticks to build and the sled isn’t likely to impress anyone. Still, a little taste of Lego in the middle of the week is sometimes just the thing that hits the spot until I can get myself a bigger and more substantial set. But above all, this set is worth picking up for the Winzar minifig. He’s an awesome little figure, and even if I manage to hold out against the temptation to start buying Chima sets, I’m pretty happy to have him in my collection.

Mar 18 2013

Marvel Universe: Kraven The Hunter by Hasbro

It’s Marvel Monday. It’s been a rough working weekend. Today’s going to be kind of quick and to the point. Keeping all that in mind, I decided to go with a look at Kraven today, because despite really enjoying me some Spider-Man, I’ve never been a big fan of Kraven. He’s a very cool character design, he has an ok backstory, but I’ve never really bought his paring with Spidey as making a whole lot of sense. Nonetheless, I’m all about building up my Spider-Man Rogue Gallery in 3 ¾”, so adding Kraven to my collection was only natural.

Kraven comes on the typical MU card, although he does require an extra deep bubble because his costume is a tad bulky. He’s carded with his accessories around him and he really fills out the bubble nicely. The character art isn’t up to some of the line’s better work, although the more I look at the illustration, the more I feel that Kraven is staring out from the card and directly into my soul and trying to mesmerize me long enough to stick his spear in my throat. Flip the card around and you have Kraven’s bio along with the adorable and deadly Rocket Raccoon telling you that you better buy every damn MU figure you can find or else he’s going to tip your garbage cans, and then bite you and give you the intergalactic rabies.

Actually he just says, “Never doubt a raccoon.” I can’t believe we’re going to see him in a feature film soon. These are truly amazing times we live in. Let’s rip this guy open…

So, I may not be the biggest Kraven fan around, but holy hell, this is one amazing figure. I mean, damn Hasbro, you guys went all out for this guy. What we have here is definitely one of the best sculpts in my MU collection and probably one of the better sculpts of any 3 3/4″ figure I own. That’s not hyperbole, folks, that’s just me being really impressed. The head sculpt is top notch for a figure in this scale and the buck used is replete with sculpted muscles. The arms are achieved with painted armbands and wrist and hand wraps, but the paintwork is spectacular. The lower legs are new sculpts with skull knee guards, fur fringe and wrapped boots.

The rest of the figure showcases the unbelievably awesome lion head vest. It’s gorgeously sculpted and painted. The mane, which makes up the shoulders and the back makes for a wonderful effect and the paintwork on the lion’s face is immaculate. Kraven also has a belt of pouches with front and back sashes. The outfit is tied together with a little necklace, which you need to pop off his head to put back on.

Kraven isn’t based on the most articulated of the MU bodies, but he does have some great poseability. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, ankles, and torso. His arms have hinged elbows, and swivel wrists. His knees are double-hinged. He’s missing the thigh swivels, but after how crappy those joints were in my Kang figure, I’m perfectly fine if Hasbro starts leaving them out. Which leads me to point out that the quality of plastic Hasbro used for this figure is very good.

Besides his necklace, you get two accessories with Kraven: His spear and his knife. The knife can be held in either hand and can also be trust into his belt for storage. The spear is a nice looking piece, but it’s a little bendy. He can also hold it in either hand or both.

In case you haven’t guessed, I am completely blown away by Kraven. I have little love for the character, but I have to give kudos to Hasbro for putting some unprecedented work into this figure. One of the many reasons I hate to collect Marvel Universe, is that few of the figures seem to justify their price tag, but Kraven’s superior sculpt and paintwork and his accessories make him feel like a great deal. In fact, he’s almost on par with something I might get in an exclusive set. I’m thinking this guy might split his time with my GI JOE collection, because I think he would fit in pretty well as some kind of insane Cobra. Either way, Kraven is one outstanding figure.

Mar 16 2013

Avengers: Black Widow Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys

Way back when, the Iron Man 2 version of Black Widow very nearly became my first Hot Toys purchase, but she sold out before I could get the funds together and she was going for ridiculous prices on the second hand market. And so that honor eventually fell to Captain America. But some things happen for a reason, and one look at Widow’s second version from Hot Toys and I found myself actually glad I missed out on the first, because I can’t say as that figure has aged well. Needless to say I pre-ordered The Avengers version as soon as Sideshow put her up. It was a long wait until December and then, as is often the case with Hot Toys releases, she was delayed and delayed again until finally arriving fashionably late here in the middle of March.

The packaging is nowhere near as flashy as my previous Hot Toys purchases, but it certainly gets the job done with just enough style to boot. The figure comes in a window box with a cardboard sleeve over it. The sleeve has a newsprint-style photo of Widow on the front with the Avengers logo in foil print. Apart from the fine print on the back, the only other printing on the sleeve are the two hourglass emblems on the sides.

The interior window box is silver with the same hourglass emblems on the sides, the Avengers logo on the front and “Black Widow” in big print on the top and bottom. The back panel has the usual Hot Toys credits listing the people who worked on the figure. The window shows off the figure, but until you open her up and clear all the plastic and wrap away, you won’t really get a great look at her. Inside the window box, the figure rests in her tray, flanked on both sides by her accessories and extra hands. Her stand is positioned at the bottom of her tray, between her legs. Sometimes less is more, and in this case I think there’s a certain minimalist grace to Widow’s package. Nonetheless, long time Hot Toys collectors may feel let down by the lack of flashy presentation here. But enough about the packaging, it’s time to get her out and see what we’ve got…

Let’s deal with the elephant in the room… rooted hair! ROOTED HAIR!!! Widow’s rooted hair was the only thing that made me think twice about ordering her. I am not a fan, because it’s often hard to manage and quite frankly the idea of sitting at my desk and brushing and styling the hair on an action figure comes dangerously close to making me reconsider my hobby. It’s one of those things that when successful, it looks amazing, when unsuccessful it looks terrible. It’s a big risk to take on a $200 figure. But even more so, I have a real problem with inconsistencies, meaning if I have one Hot Toy figure with sculpted hair, I think they all should have sculpted hair. That’s my borderline OCD talking. Either way, I was a little bit terrified to open her up and see what I was going to be up against.

Fresh out of the box, it certainly looks rather frazzled, but I don’t think it’s as bad as it could have been. There are inevitably going to be some stray hairs, but even those are usually easy to get under control. Most of the problem comes with when you’re manipulating the figure and her hair gets mussed as you can see in some of the photos. On the other hand, if she’s going to be on the shelf and left alone for a while, spending five minutes to get it under control is worth the pay off. Besides, I always thought Widow’s hair was a little too perfect during the intense battle scenes of the movie, so a few flyaways here and there don’t bother me all that much. I’m not going to say Widow converted me to an advocate of rooted hair, but in this case Hot Toys knew what they were doing and in retrospect, I probably wouldn’t change it.

As for the portrait itself, this is a solid representation of Scar-Jo, but not a perfect one. It’s not one of those instances where I marvel at whether or not I’m looking at a figure or the actual person. The nose and mouth and overall face structure are great, but I think maybe the eyes needed to be a little bigger? I’m not sure. I do know the paintwork is so good that it’s downright eerie. I thought the head sculpt on the Iron Man 2 version was passable, and I think this is an improvement over that release. In the end, it’s still an amazing sculpt and I’m perfectly happy with it. The body is a huge improvement over the train wreck that was the Iron Man 2 release. Some may argue that the proportions still aren’t quite right, but I think she’s pretty spot on.

I wasn’t expecting to have a lot to say about Widow’s outfit. I mean there’s only so much you can do with a leather body suit, right? Well, in hand I really am impressed. The material has just the right weight and pliability. It fits the figure extremely well and yet it hardly inhibits her articulation. Although, granted there’s only so far I’m willing to go with her hip joints, because I don’t want to pull the stitching. The blue piping looks great and there are even more subtle “panel lines” running throughout, plus the SHIELD patches on the shoulders are superb. The stitching is all neat and clean and sculpted rubber boots blend wonderfully with the legs of the suit.

Widow features a regular belt with her hourglass belt buckle and a second weapons rig which rests on her hips and secures her two thigh holsters around her legs. The straps are all tight and look amazing and I absolutely love the minimalist approach to the holsters. They basically just hold the muzzle of the weapons and yet they are totally secure. The weapons rig also has four sculpted pouches with non-removable throwing discs, two front and two back.

Widow comes with a lot of hands! These are all easily swapped out, and you also get an extra set of posts in case you snap the ones that come on the figure. She comes packaged with a set of fists attached, you also get a set of pistol hands, you get a right hand designed to rest on her hip, and you get a right hand that is designed to hold her throwing discs. I don’t often do a lot of hand swapping with my figures, so the gun hands will spend the most time on my figure. You also get a set of “tazer effect” fists to allow her to show off her “Widow’s Sting.” These come in a separate tray and accompanied by a second set of bracers. These parts have some blue paint to show off the electrified effect of the sting. It looks Ok on the fists, but it’s barely noticeable on the bracers.

Accessories… Assemble! On paper, it looks like Widow comes with a lot of goodies, but in reality once you get through all the hands (so many hands!) there’s not a lot here that I’m interested in. I’ll start with what I considered essential and that’s her guns. She comes with a pair of Glock 26’s. These compact little beauties were great choices for her in the film and Hot Toys really nailed their 1:6 versions. Not only do they look great, but they actually have spring loaded action and removable clips with painted rounds showing at the top. These pistols fit perfectly in her holsters and in her set of gun hands.

Next up is the Chitari rifle. The Chitari were the only thing I didn’t like all that much about The Avengers, so I certainly didn’t consider this piece essential. On the other hand, it is a pretty cool looking alien rifle and I am very glad they included it with the figure. It’s nicely sculpted and beautifully painted, but it doesn’t have any moving or removable parts. Will I ever display it with the figure? Probably not.

Lastly, you get a pair of her teeny-tiny throwing discs. I don’t scoff at extra accessories, but it’s hard to justify the point of these little things. She can barely hold them and I can’t imagine many people choosing to display her with them.

Black Widow set me back $189 and there are no regrets here. She’s a fantastic looking figure and well worth the wait. I know some people have been grousing about the cost. She is, without a doubt, what would be considered among the basic assortment of Hot Toys figures and yet she was $20 more than the last Marvel Hot Toys I bought (First Avenger Cap was $169), but if you take into account the rising costs of everything, I don’t think the increase is all that bad. I mean if Deluxe Transformers can jump a third more in price in a year, the extra Andy Jack it cost me to get Black Widow doesn’t seem so bad.

I’m not setting out to pick up a full set of Avengers, but rather just cherry picking my favorites. Indeed, the next Hot Toys purchase I make will be doubling back to pick up Red Skull. On the other hand, if Thor hangs around long enough at any e-tailers, I might be tempted enough to pick him up at some point.

Mar 15 2013

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fishface (Nickelodeon) by Playmates

Last week I checked out the amazing Dogpound, who by the way is still sitting on my desk because just looking at him makes me happy. This week, I’m looking at another one of Shredder’s wacky new minions, Fishface. Like Dogpound, this guy was impossible to find during the Christmas season, but thanks to recent restocks, he’s starting to turn up on the pegs again. And yet, with eight pegs of TMNT figures, my local Walmart still only had one Fishface. The rest of the pegs seem to be filling up with the gimmicky Turtle variants. I haven’t decided on picking up those yet, but today we’re here to talk about Fishface. I like saying Fishface. Fishface!

Have I mentioned how much I love Playmates’ TMNT packages? Yes, I have. Many times. Because of his unusual fishy shape, Fishface is carded on his side as if he’s running. Think about that for a moment. He’s a fish and he’s running. You just know wackiness is going to ensue and I’m really excited to get him out of the package, so let’s get right to it.

So, Fishface is basically a fish with arms and a set of cybernetic legs and a water-breathing apparatus. It seems like if the Kraang could mutate him into a fish with arms, they could have gone all the way and given him legs too. Maybe it’s a dodgy process. Then again, a fish with legs is nowhere as cool as a fish that has to wear robotic pants to walk around, so I’m not complaining. I’m sure this kind of thing has been done before, but I still love the concept and Playmates has incorporated it beautifully into their TMNT line.

The sculpt here is pretty awesome. Fishface has a great scaly texture all over his skin and a fin-mohawk protruding off the back of his head/neck. The combination of underbite and protruding teeth gives him a ton of personality, and he’s got the cold, yellow eyes of a killer. The mechanical sculpt of his robot pants really contrast nicely with his fish features and they even have sculpted treads on the bottoms of the heavy feet. Fishface is a bright and colorful figure, although in the interest of finding something to nitpick, I’ll concede that the red used for the front of the face should have matched the back a bit more, and the bright orange used for the breathing apparatus is rubbish. I’d like to pick up a second Fishface and try to paint the apparatus, but he’s tough to find again and my customizing skills are crap, so I’ll make do.

The figure contains more articulation than you might expect a fish to have. He has swivels in the neck and waist, his arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and have swivels in the wrists, and his robo-legs rotate at the hips. Not bad for a fish out of water!

Fishface comes with a pair of rather unusual looking blade weapons. The sword has a katana blade, the other is a little dagger. They’re sculpted in grey plastic and he can hold them very well in either hand.

And so the Nickelodeon TMNT line continues to delight me. For a while I thought I’d be able to contain myself to just the main figures I know and love, but Playmates has been working their magic with the new characters as well. I certainly haven’t regretted any purchases from this line, and it’s nice to be able to walk out of the toy aisle with a figure as cool as this for under ten bucks. Now I’m on the hunt for Metal Head.

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