Feb 8 2013

Transformers Fall of Cybertron: Sideswipe by Hasbro

It took me a while, but my Xbox is up and running again and I was finally able to play through Fall of Cybertron. And play through it again, and one more time. Needless to say I enjoyed the hell out of it, and it’s given me a new motivation to track down some of the remaining figures. Yeah, Jazz’s figure left me cold and he made my naughty list for 2012, but the three Combaticons I’ve featured so far more than made up for him. Let’s see if some remolding and fresh paint can make the Jazz mold better the second time around.

There’s the Generations packaging. I love it, but I think I’ve said all there is to say about it. Sideswipe comes packaged in his robot mode and his card sports some very nice character art. I also really dig his bio on the back of the card about him being a contender for racing champion before he joined the Autobots. He didn’t play a very large role in the game, but we won’t hold that against him. As always, let’s start in vehicle mode.


So, obviously Sideswipe is a remold and repaint of Jazz, but Hasbro did some nice reworking and recoloring of the mold to make him look like a new vehicle. The top of the alt mode is completely new, including the configuration of the hood, front bumper and spoiler. Gone are Jazz’s exhaust pipes and in their place is a more conventional looking car canopy. Sideswipe features less sculpted panel lines, but makes up for it with a more dynamic deco. The bulk of the body is red plastic with painted white racing stripes and silver and black accents. All in all, I had no problems with Jazz’s vehicle design and I dig Sideswipe’s too. It comes off as a much sleeker, speed machine, although some may take issue that he looks more like a concept Earth car than some of the other Cybertron alt modes in the game. Me? I’m fine with it.

Despite the changes to the mold, Sideswipe transforms exactly the same as his Autobuddy, Jazz. It’s a frightfully simple transformation on paper, but in practice, it’s oddly finicky. Going into alt mode requires a lot of tabs lining up just right, and going into robot mode requires a ridiculously annoying mechanic involving the torso, which can’t be adequately conveyed in the instructions. I found I just had to fiddle with it, becoming white with rage, until I finally remembered how it works.


In robot mode, the parts shared between the figures are a lot more obvious. The legs and arms are identical molds, but the paint differences distinguish them apart pretty well even when the figures are standing alongside each other. Sideswipe’s deco is really sharp and it shows just how far some nice coloring and good paintwork will make a mold. I’m still a little iffy on how the head just kind of floats inside the torso, but I do really like Sideswipe’s head sculpt. It really suits the character. Sideswipe also still has that extra set of wheels in robot mode, but as with Jazz one set is mostly concealed at the shoulders. Unfortunately, Sideswipe still has Jazz’s size problem. In robot mode he just feels a little too small, especially if he’s standing beside WFC Bumblebee or Cliffjumper.


Sideswipe comes with a huge ass gun with an extending barrel. I can’t decide whether it’s a cool BFG or just awkward and goofy. He can hold it in either hand or it can mount onto his vehicle mode, but it looks terrible mounted on his alt mode. The weapon is a decent enough design and sculpt, but it’s really way too big and I don’t tend to think of giant guns when I think of Sideswipe.


So, yeah, this guy is a cool little figure and I do find myself enjoying the mold a lot more than Jazz. Maybe it’s because Sideswipe’s red plastic and more accomplished paint apps look so much better than Jazz’s bare white plastic. Maybe it’s because I had a better idea of what to expect from the figure having already owned Jazz. Whatever the case, Sideswipe shows that Hasbro can be masters at tweaking a mold and making it work very well for different characters. He’s still not a lot of toy for $15, but maybe I’m getting desensitized to that as well. Sure there are things that irk me about Jazz’s design, which are still present here, but I’m not at all sorry I picked him up.

Feb 7 2013

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Sewer Cruiser (Nickelodeon) by Playmates

Yesterday’s pizza playset is going to be a pretty tough act to follow, but today we’re going to see what Playmates can do with a vehicle. No, this isn’t the first vehicle from their Nick Turtle line, but it is the first one that I’ve picked up. I usually talk price at the end of a feature, but in this case I’m going to bring it up now. You see, I was a little skeptical about buying this thing because it was only $11.99 and the box felt really light. I even had to double check to make sure this was scaled for the figures and not something else entirely. But after checking out the box for a bit, I decided, to go for it. Playmates’ new Turtles haven’t done me wrong yet, and I had nothing to lose except twelve bucks. Turns out it was a really good move.


The box is everything you’d expect from the TMNT line. It’s wacky, it’s colorful, and it features amazingly exciting artwork. This is every bit a package that you’d expect to find in the toy aisles 20 years ago and I mean that in every way as a compliment. Like most of the second wave of TMNT toys, this vehicle is part of the Mutagen Ooze line, meaning it has a gimmick that is meant to interact with the ooze. I haven’t decided whether I’m actually going to buy any ooze yet, but even if I do, I doubt I’ll be willing to gunk up my toys with it. The box is a really weird shape and it seems way too small to contain the zany awesomeness of a worthwhile TMNT vehicle.

But that’s because this thing is in pieces. Oh yeah, it’s toy building time! The Cruiser comes in a cardboard tray with two baggies full of parts, a small sticker sheet, and an instruction sheet. It’s pretty easy to put together and you can easily take it apart again to store it back in the box. Once together, the Sewer Cruiser is actually a really nice sized toy that fits the figures perfectly. Most of the pieces are hollow, but it doesn’t feel cheap or flimsy. In fact, I suspect it’s mostly hollow so that it can float, and while I haven’t tested out its ability to tread water, the package does indeed promise that it can.


The Cruiser is clearly one of Don’s wacky, cobbled together inventions. It’s made from a motorcycle chassis attached to a surfboard, with two ooze barrel pontoons, and a tailgating cooler on the back. It’s quite the imaginative piece and it’s positively (dare I say it?) oozing with great detail. If you look closely at the barrels, you can see a sculpted weld line where the Turtles welded together the two barrels in order to make the pontoons. That’s awesome! The motorcycle engine is detailed as are the rivets holding it together. Even the crosshatch seat has some broken straps to show wear and tear. I love how the cooler even has four cup holders on the top and a couple of fish sculpted into the bottom. This kind of detail in a toy is love, folks… pure love. Playmates loves you.

The coloring on the toy is straight out of the neon 90’s. It may have sucked for some toy lines (*cough* GI Joe *cough*) but it worked just fine for the Turtles and it still does. Most of the colors are the actual plastic and not paintwork. The motorcycle is grey, the barrels are bright neon green with black supports, the board is orange and turquoise and the cooler is red and white.

Any one of the turtle figures will fit just fine on the Cruiser, even with their weapons still stowed on their backs. However, there are two clips on the handlebars so you can store their weapons more conveniently. Indeed, even some of the lesser articulated non-Turtles can ride it pretty well.


The Sewer Cruiser isn’t exactly loaded with play gimmicks. In fact the only one is the ability to fill the cooler with ooze and tip it over in order to slime pursuers. If you don’t have any ooze, the toy comes with three little plastic splotches of grey ooze, which look more like tiny metal shavings or possibly ravioli. Chances are I’ll just use the cooler to hold shuriken.

In the end, the Cruiser is a solid and fun toy at an amazing price. I’ve often remarked how the Nick Turtles are the best value in action figures hanging on the pegs, so it should follow that the vehicles are too. I mean, seriously… twelve bucks for a fun vehicle for your Turtles to ride? I think I paid more than that for my last 3 ¾” Marvel Universe figure and he had minimal new sculpting and didn’t come with any accessories. Like I said before, folks, Playmates loves you!

Feb 6 2013

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Anchovy Alley (Pop-Up Pizza Playset) by Playmates

I’ll admit it. I’m ashamed at my decision to not buy Playmates’ epic Secret Sewer Lair playset. I’m the first collector to go around pining for the good old days when toy companies made playsets, and when someone finally steps up and releases one, I abstain. I wanted it really bad. I still want it really bad. But I keep looking at it and realizing that I have nowhere to put it. And even if I could squeeze it in somewhere, it would take up what little space I have left for all the other things I’m going to want to buy this year. I was tempted to just buy it to show my support and keep it boxed, but even the box is huge. Plus, I know I’d have to open it as soon as I got it anyway because I have all the willpower of a crack addict. Fortunately, Playmates threw people like me a bone by releasing a more compact way to display my Turtles… behold Anchovy Alley, the Pop-Up Pizza Playset. It’s proof that Playmates may actually be a bunch of geniuses and have just been trolling us for the last couple of years.

The box has all the trappings of the TMNT Nickelodeon toy packages illustrated as if to be wrapped around what looks like a pizza box with a sketch of the Turtles on it. Holy shit, this is cool! It’s so cool that I wish it was designed in two layers so the wrap-around could come off and I could have the Turtle pizza box by itself. In typical Playmates fashion, the box has a ton of information printed on it. But rather than feel like overkill like on the old Star Trek cards, this box makes me think the designer of the package was genuinely excited about the toy and had way too much caffeine. But the best is yet to be seen.

Flip the box over and the back shows the toy in action with some of the best copy I’ve ever read on a toy box. It invites you to “serve up a fresh slice topped with furious ninja moves!” Plus it has a whole catalog of great pizza related puns that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger proud. “Table for one!” “Special delivery!” “Hand tossed!” “You got served!” The folks at Playmates are obviously having way too much fun with this line and it makes it all the more endearing. It’s like suddenly they get it and most other toy companies don’t. Even if my interest hadn’t already been peaked, there’s no way I could pick up this box in the toy aisle and not buy this thing. Oh yeah, it even opens like a real pizza box and it’s so heavy and dense that it feels like it contains a solid brick of plastic.

And that’s because in a sense it is. The playset comes folded into a plastic box that very nearly fills out the entire inside of the package. There’s just room for four corner protectors, an instruction sheet and a sticker sheet. This thing is designed so well that when it folds up there’s barely a square millimeter of space that isn’t used up. Because the playset is designed to unpack itself, there’s really no assembly required. There are, however, some very large and crucial stickers, which take a lot of care to put on. I gave it my all and I still had a couple of creases in mine.

So, when it’s all folded up, the set is designed to look like a plastic pizza box. It’s passable enough with the traditional red checker pattern running around the side. The illustration on the package is reproduced smaller as a green stamp on the upper right hand corner. I think Playmates should have just reproduced the pizza box on the cardboard package here, or at least printed PIZZA on it. You get the idea what it’s supposed to be, but they could have gone a little further with it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all good. This baby will spend most of its time deployed on my shelf and whenever it is collapsed down, I’ll likely put it right back in the box.

When I say this thing unpacks itself, I really mean it. Once you fold it out you’re 99%  good to go. The only thing left to do is take the pizza shooter and the pizzas off the outside wall and put it into one of the three available sockets. It’s a simple spring loaded disc launcher and while I’ll likely choose to display my set without it, it makes for a very cool added play feature for the kiddies.


Once unpacked, Anchovy Alley stands 18-inches tall and has a similar set up to the Secret Sewer Lair in that part of the set is meant to be above ground and part below. The above ground is a colorful pizzeria with an awning, street lamp and opening doors. There’s only a small ledge to represent the street level, but it’s just enough to get a turtle to stand on it, even with their bulky shells. The streetlamp is spring loaded so you can attach a turtle to it, pull it back, and have him knock another figure right through the pizzeria doors. “Bahfangul! Wathca a-doin out there? Stop-a kicking da dirty foot clan into-a mia pizza parlor! Turtle Svacheems!”


The subterranean side is some kind of underground limbo that exists between the subways and the sewers. It offers up three levels of play, all connected with ladders, and includes a manhole cover that can launch figures into the air, and an opening sewer hatch on one of the walls. There are also some railings the figures can grab and swing on. The sculpted detail on the base is particularly impressive. You’ve got tires, dead fish, and all kinds of bottles and cans and other refuse. If I had the talent, patience and materials of a customizer, I would go to town painting the base of this thing.

The durability of the playset varies a bit. None of it feels cheap and when it’s unpacked it’s pretty solid. On the other hand, some of the rails feel really weak so I don’t know that I’ll have my figures gripping them that much. I could see them developing stress marks pretty easily.


The fact that Playmates actually named this thing, Anchovy Alley, rather than just Pop-Up Pizza Playset, makes me hope that they may do a few more. This formula is just too good to be a one-shot deal and other toy companies really should take notice. I’m not saying I want a pizza box that unfolds into a GI Joe playset, but Hasbro you could make it an ammo box or something. Use your goddamn imaginations because Playmates certainly is. Either way, this thing is proof that you can do a solid playset without taking up too much space on the retailer shelves… or setting too high a price tag. Anchovy Alley’s box takes up less space than most mid-range vehicles and only set me back $25. Whether you want to use it so your Turtles can mix it up you’re the Foot Clan or just want somewhere to display your figures, I can’t recommend this set enough. It’s awesome!

Tomorrow we’ll keep the Turtle goodness rolling with a look at the Sewer Cruiser.

Feb 5 2013

Galaxy Squad: Swarm Interceptor (#70701) by Lego

As promised, I’m back to look at more Galaxy Squad, and this one is the next size up from yesterday’s set. The Swarm Interceptor gives the Galaxy Squad something with a little teeth to fight back with against the Space Swarmer.


A bigger box and some cool artwork showing the ship in action as well as illustrating its many play features. Inside the box you get an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and two numbered baggies containing 218 plastic bits. When all is said and done you build the Swam Interceptor, a small buggy rocket sled and two minifigs. What shall we start with? MINIFIGS!!

As expected, you get a bug and a human. The bug is extremely cool with a unique head sculpt that includes a pair of tiny bendy antenna. These things may qualify as the smallest Lego pieces I’ve ever seen and one of them very nearly got tossed with the empty baggies. He has a nicely detailed printed body, a pair of translucent neon green wings and a zap gun. I like the fact that the bug aliens are all different. The one in the last set looked more like a larva guy, this one looks like a wasp guy. Cool!

The Galaxy Squad guy is pretty generic but I like him nonetheless. He’s got a printed body, a removable helmet and two printed faces, one of which has some kind of breather mask. He’s pretty similar to the guys from the Alien Conquest series. In fact he’s wearing the exact same helmet. I’m cool with that. I think Lego killed Alien Conquest too soon, so I appreciate that these sets can hang together.


I was a little worried the Interceptor would be too derivative of the Space Police ships, but it took just a little time with this set to realize that wasn’t going to be the case. Don’t get me wrong, this ship would look fine bulking out your Space Police armada, but there have obviously been a lot of creative advances in Lego’s starship design teams over the last couple of years. At first glance, this ship may look a little generic. It’s clean, it’s efficient, it’s a one-seater fast attack ship with a cockpit up front and wings in the back. But Lego also packed a lot of play gimmicks into the design, and every one of them is a homerun.


First off, the cockpit portion of the ship has a gyroscope feature so that no matter what position the back of the ship is in, the cockpit is always oriented the same way. You can spin the whole back of the ship if you hold onto the cockpit. I don’t know why I love this gimmick so much, but I do. Secondly, the wings are multi-positional, so you can fold them all the way down and rest the ship on them like landing gear, put them straight out, or even angle them down into a classic Bird of Prey configuration. There’s a cleverly hidden missile launcher that flips up out of the back and the front cockpit can detach from the rest of the ship, fold out it’s little wings and become a little fighter. This last feature reminds me of the whole Hyperspace Ring design used for the Jedi Starfighters.

If I were a cynic I’d cry foul at Lego for being so lazy and using the whole rocket sled motif so often for their smaller vehicles. We’ve seen this thing a hundred times from Atlantis to Alien Conquest to Space Police and even in the Chitari had them in the Marvel Super Heroes Avengers-based sets. Oh, wait, those were actually in the movie. Still, my point holds. Nonetheless, it’s a perfectly fine little vehicle and I’ll grant you that Lego certainly customized it to fit perfectly into this new line, right down to the little translucent wings that hang off the back.

I haven’t been big on experimenting with Lego builds, but I do love the fact that this little sled can clip onto the back of the Swarmer from the last set. It looks like a stinger, adds two aft guns, and it can detach quickly to convert into its sled mode. Very cool.

The Interceptor is a great ship and it really compliments yesterday’s set nicely, as the two ships are fairly evenly matched. I enjoyed building this one a lot, and the finished model is just plain fun. So far I’m really impressed by this line and I fear I’m going to be in it for the long haul. I can already feel the shakes as I try not to jump in the car and head down to Target to pick up a couple more sets. But then I still have some Alien Conquest sets to build, which I’ve been saving for a rainy day. Nonetheless, I’m going to exert some willpower and give the Lego a rest for the rest of the week, because I got me some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys to look at!

Feb 4 2013

Galaxy Squad: Space Swarmer (#70700) by Lego

I’m usually up on my toy news, and yet somehow Lego slipped two brand new series, Chima and Galaxy Squad, under my radar and onto the shelves. I saw them the other day while buying groceries and I wish I had been wearing a monocle, so it could have popped out of my head to illustrate my surprise. Both new lines look excellent, but Galaxy Squad tipped me over simply because it reminds me of my beloved Space Police line from a few years back. Ah, Space Police, the gateway drug that brought me back to you Lego. Well done. It was a funny scene, as I was passing through the aisle when I saw some kid holding one of the Chima boxes and I said to myself, but also out loud, “is that new?” The kid thought I was talking to him and he said, “Yeah, it looks cool. Those are new too!” and he pointed to the Galaxy Squad. I picked one up and said, “Yeah, this looks cool too!” So, I picked up the two smaller assortment sets, which we’ll be checking out today and tomorrow.


We’re starting toward the bottom rung of the line with a set that clocks in at just 86 pieces and there’s the box. I dig the Galaxy Squad logo and the fact that you can infer all you need to know about this series from the box art: There are space bugs… and it’s up to Galaxy Squad to murder the shit out of them all! Inside the box you get an instruction booklet and two unnumbered bags of bricks, which build the alien Space Swarmer spaceship and two minifigs. To the minifigs!

As is the case with any good Lego set, you get a good guy and a bad guy. Let’s start with our new friend, the bug alien. He’s a simple enough figure. His body relies completely on a generic body with some cool printing. His ugly bug head has a tail that runs partially down his back and does keep his head from turning. Not a lot more to say, but I dig him.


The Galaxy Quest guy is really interesting because of his uniquely sculpted head. It might be a helmet, but then again he might be a robot. He kind of looks like a robot. Do you think he’s a robot? I’m going to say he’s a robot! Either way, he’s really bad ass and has a cool jetpack, which is very cleverly built out of a control stick and a couple of guns. And speaking of guns, he’s got a doozy of a BFG, which is only fair since this set is pitting him up against an opponent in an attack ship.


And what a cool little attack ship it is! It feels like a lot of ship for a twelve dollar set, and I attribute that to the incredibly cool and creative design. Obviously bug aliens have bug ships (well, duh!), and this little one-seater is made to look like a nasty flying insect, complete with translucent neon wings coming off the back and four articulated insectoid legs, which can serve as landing gear and actually support the weight of the ship quite nicely. The front of the craft has three articulated mandibles, which can rotate and grab its prey. The one-bug cockpit has a dome canopy and there’s even a clip on the back to store the pilot’s gun. The coloring used for the bricks is also worth mentioning. The neon green, grey and red mesh wonderfully together. It’s a tad derivative of the Alien Conquest color scheme, but Galaxy Squad still manages to own it pretty well. I’ve also discovered a neat little way to combine it with a component of the next set, but we’ll look at that tomorrow.

Lego rarely disappoints, but it’s still hard for me to remember the last time I was this delighted with one of the sets in the $11.99 price range. The minifigs are great, but the real star of this show is the Swarmer itself. It’s such a cool little build with a design that takes something that could have been rather trite and stale (oh, ships that look like bugs!) and really turns it into something amazing. I’ve never double-dipped on a Lego set before, but I can easily see me buying another one of these. It was a fun build, it’s a great looking ship, and it feels like a super value. Things are looking pretty good for Galaxy Squad and I’m anxious to see what tomorrow’s set will bring to the table.

Feb 2 2013

Star Trek Holodeck Series: “A Fistful of Datas” Collector Set by Playmates

You didn’t think you’d escape a week of Toy Closet Finds without some Playmates Star Trek loving, did you? DID YOU??  Truth is I can’t turn around in that damn closet without knocking over a towering skyscraper of Star Trek figures, so by doing just one feature this week, y’all are getting off way too easy. Besides, the last two Saturdays were Star Trek, so I’ll just keep the ball rolling. Oh yeah, while it wouldn’t be FigureFan without a stray cat hair in my photos (it’s practically my watermark!) things got a little out of hand today and I’d already had more than a few Jamesons before the shoot, which meant I didn’t notice until it was too late. Enjoy!


Hey, look! It’s the Holodeck Series! I haven’t done any of these before! But first, let’s wax nostalgic about the Holodeck for a moment. When I was a teenager, “The Next Generation” was destination television for me every week, and every time a Holodeck episode came up I would flip the hell out because I thought it was a waste of a slot and I’d have to wait another week and hope for something better. Now, in my old age, I’ve mellowed a lot on these episodes, and while some of them are still terrible, others are not so bad. Next to the Sherlock Holmes episodes, “A Fistful of Datas” is probably my favorite. It may have to do with my love for westerns; it may be because it tugged at my nostalgic love for the Classic Trek episode “Specter of the Gun;” but in the end I think it’s because it’s a fun episode that makes really good use of Worf and Troi it’s one of the few episodes with Alexander that I can stomach.

The set comes in a compact little window box and is branded under the general “Star Trek” line. The front window displays the three figures Worf, Alexander, and a Holographic recreation of Data (ok, so it’s really two and a half figures!) and each of the figures are held in a tray against an illustrated backdrop that shows part of the “Ancient West” town and part of the Holodeck grid. As always, there’s a foil sticker with an individual collector number. The back panel of the box has a blurb about the episode, a shot of the figures against the backdrop and shots of three other boxed sets available in the line. I’ll point out here that Sheriff Worf was available as a single-carded figure, but if you wanted the other two in this set, I’m pretty sure this was the only way to get them. Bastard points go to Playmates for forcing us to double dip!


Starting off with Data, we get a Holodeck recreation of our favorite Starfleet android as a crazed gunslinger. The head sculpt is pretty good, and possibly better than my regular Data figure. He has the little added mustache and his hat is removable, which I was not expecting. As for the rest of the figure, the sculpt is very simple but it does hit all the right points. His black coat bellows up a bit behind him and reveals his holstered gun on his left hip. He’s an Ok figure, but he does seem a little lacking compared to Worf.

Yes, Worf is clearly the star of this set as Playmates put the most work into him. That probably has something to do with the fact that he was also a single-carded release. The head sculpt is excellent, and while the hat isn’t removable, that just means it doesn’t constantly fall off like Data’s does. Worf’s outfit consists of a detailed kerchief, a vest with buttons and his sheriff badge, and a buttoned shirt with the flap hanging down. The proportions are also a lot better than previous Worf figures. I love this figure!

Last up is Worf’s son, Alexander, which is just a static piece. I expected him to be a throw-away, but Playmates stepped up on the sculpt here. He’s wearing a miniature version of Worf’s outfit right down to the vest with the little deputy badge. I also get a chuckle out of the fact that he’s the only one in the set holding a gun and he looks like he’s ready to gleefully murder someone with it.

The paintwork on all three figures is quite excellent. I don’t know why, but I love the high gloss paint that Playmates uses. It makes them look so toyish and 90’s. Feeling nostalgic for the 90’s is a scary thing. The contrast between Data’s muted grey and black outfit and the brighter browns and reds of Worf and Alexander’s makes for an appealing set and I’m particularly impressed by the paintwork on the little Alexander figure. In terms of overall coloring and paint, this is some of Playmates best work on the Star Trek line.

The three figures in this set are like an illustration of the evolution of action figure articulation. Worf features most of the points we’ve come to expect from Playmates Trek figures. His arms rotate at the shoulders, swivel at the biceps and have hinged elbows. His legs swivel at the hips and have hinges in the knees. He can also swivel at the waist and his head turns. The only thing really missing here are the thigh swivels that began to appear late in the line. Data, on the other hand has the five basic points (neck, shoulders and hips) plus swivels in his biceps. He does have a waist swivel, but his coat prevents it from working, and it severely limits his hip articulation too. Last up is Alexander, which as I already mentioned is just a static figure. I don’t have a big problem with Alexander just being a display piece, but Data’s limited articulation really irks me. He should have at least had elbow and knee hinges.

The sad thing about this set is you get zero accessories. Granted, Playmates’ accessories usually suck, but if you want Worf’s accessories you need to buy the single-carded figure as well. Or you can buy Troi as Durango and give her stuff to Worf since she can’t hold any of it anyway. You do, however, get a display stand with an illustrated sticker to match the backdrop. The idea is you cut out the backdrop and stick it into the slot on the stand. If you’ve ever picked up any of Kenner/Hasbro’s Star Wars Cinema Scene sets than you already get the idea.

I have no idea how much this sold for originally, but I recall picking up mine at a Trek Convention for $10 and you can’t go wrong there. The lack of accessories is a downer and Data’s sculpt and articulation doesn’t jive with the work put into Worf, but all in all this is still a cool set representing a fun little episode.

And that’ll put this week of Toy Closet Finds in the bag. I’ve still got a bunch of unearthed treasures from my trip into Narnia, but the rest will have to wait, because I’ve also got a bunch of new receivings piling up and begging for attention. Next week I’ll be doubling up on some new Lego, new TMNT, and new Transformers. See y’all on Monday.

Feb 1 2013

Witchblade: Medieval Witchblade by Moore Action Collectibles

With the exception of encountering Sara Pezzini in a couple of my funnybooks, I have managed to avoid everything Witchblade. That’s no small feat considering it’s a fairly prolific franchise, which even managed to bust out of the comics and onto the TV screen. Nonetheless, I’m a big fan of Clayburn Moore’s sculpts and so I just so happen to have a lot of Witchblade figures in my collection. Today seemed like a good day to feature one, because I have an appointment at the corner pub and with so little background on the characters, I can probably get through it quickly.


If you’ve picked up any of Moore’s indie comic figures, you have a good idea what to expect from the packaging. The figure comes on a fairly uninspiring card with a big bubble and the figure and accessories all laid out for you. The back is a little more exciting with some decent artwork, a blurb about the character, and photos of four of the other figures available in this series.


Even if you aren’t a sculpting connoisseur, chances are you can recognize a Moore sculpt when you see one. Most of them are scantily clad ladies with ample breasts, a perfect ass, and a wide-eyed, full-lipped featured face. Katarina here hits all those points. Her face does have less of a realistic look and more of a stylized anime visage than Moore’s usual work, certainly more so than Lady Death or Ariel Darkchylde. I don’t like it as much, but I’m certainly not hating on it either. I do really dig the way her long braid snakes its way down her back and around to the front. The sculpting on the Witchblade itself is both beautiful and intricate and it makes for a striking contrast with the figure’s smooth skin. The crosshatch pattern on her boots is actually sculpted in and there’s some subtle but nice sculpted muscles as well.

While rarely poor, the paint on Moore’s figures can sometimes be a mixed bag, and Katarina here is a good example of that. The skintone is glossy bare plastic, which doesn’t give you the nice soft look of painted skin. I’m always torn on this, as I like the glossy toyish sheen and painted skin doesn’t always turn out that great. On the other hand, the bare plastic skin doesn’t photograph as well and doesn’t give you that added sense of realism. Nonetheless, the paintwork that’s here is pretty good, particularly on her face, her outfit and the Witchblade itself. The hair, on the other hand comes off as a little hamfisted. The mix of orange with black wash doesn’t give it depth as much as it just makes it look dirty. I seem to recall having a similar problem with the Darkchylde figure. Then again, considering the price point on these figures, the good certainly outweighs the subpar.

Moore figure collectors won’t be surprised by Katarina’s articulation. You get standard five points, swivels at the neck, shoulders, and hips, and only three of those are really useful. The hip cuts don’t really help at all, unless you want her awkwardly sitting on the floor with her legs spread wide. If you find that useful, please keep it to yourself while I pretend to be appalled. No, this figure is designed to stand in a wide leg stance and give you a few options on how to pose her with her weapons.

Weapons? Yes, Katarina comes with a nice array of accessories. You get a sword, spear, and battle axe. All three are beautifully sculpted and painted to look like extensions of the Witchblade. I’m particularly impressed with the sword sculpt, which includes all sorts of cool little nicks and pitting on the blade. Oh yeah, you also get a decent figure stand with the Witchblade logo on it.

A lot of collectors look down on Moore’s indie comic figures as being dated products of the 90’s. Fair enough, but I really enjoy them. One of the finest compliments I can pay an action figure line is that I’m willing to collect them when I really care nothing for the franchise they’re based on. Of course, it helps when they’re sexy chicks and when they’re cheap.  Witchblade figures can certainly be had for next to nothing these days. They’re probably still hanging in a dark corner of your local comic shop, or you can just go buy them on Ebay and probably pay more for the shipping than the actual figure. Either way, Katarina’s a cool figure in my book.

Jan 31 2013

Dusty Trails: Corporal Smith by Dusty Trail Toys

This week of Toy Closet finds chugs along and our next stop is 2003. Ah, 2003. It was the heyday of my trips to the KB Toy Liquidators at the local Outlet Mall. GI Joe was featuring SpyTroops, those Ninja Turtles were still representing, and <sniff> Palisades <sniff> was still alive and churning out those awesome muppets, none of which I ever bought. You also had McFarlane Toys trying to let adults know that it was ok to buy action figures, so long as they were basically just statues. Personally, I was always skeptical, but some companies jumped on board this philosophy and Dusty Trail Toys was one of them. Kicking off their short time in the sun, the company produced “Dusty Trail, Action Series 1” which was a collection of six action figures statues based on an odd mix of generic historical characters ranging from WWII Soldiers to Pirates all represented in about a 6-inch scale. I actually owned three of these, but the Gunfighter and the Pirate were broken somehow, leaving me with just Corporal Smith, whom I never got around to opening… until now. Let’s do it!!!

Just look at the packaging! The sealed clamshell case with printed insert has got McFarlane wannabe written all over it. It also hasn’t aged well as the clamshell has gained a nice hearty yellow tint that makes it look as if it spent the last decade fermenting in a bucket of piss. The back of the insert has shots of the other statues in the line and a little blurb about Corporal Smith. I think they would have been better off just calling him “WWII American Pathfinder,” rather than drumming up some hokey character name like Smith, but I won’t hold that against him. Speaking of holding, the sickly color of the package is making me nervous, so I’m going to hold this thing far away from my face when I cut into it. I’ve opened plenty of toys a lot older than this one, but I’m seriously afraid I’m going to let loose some kind of dangerous bacteriological plague.

With the package opened, there were thankfully no spores, but I did get that same overpowering plastic smell that comes with opening any McFarlane clamshell for the first time. Will the similarities never end? The package promises “some assembly required” but all you have to do is plug the huge peg on Smith’s left boot into the base and put his Thompson submachine gun in his hands. Getting Smith pegged into the stand was a trial in itself. I’m not sure if the peg expanded over time, but it seemed way too big for the hole. Giggity.

Ok, there’s actually a lot I like about this piece, so let me get the one glaring problem I have with it out of the way: His pose. Smith is designed so he’s stepping off the base and I absolutely hate that. What’s the point of having the base at all if he’s going to be hanging off of it like that? Is it supposed to be some metaphor about the toy being so action packed that he’s jumping right off his own base? Probably not. The other problem is that judging from the pictures, the foot that’s extending off the base is supposed to be hovering and in reality it just rests on the display surface, which means Smith is almost more horizontal than vertical. I realize that I’d probably hunch down pretty low if I had a bunch of krauts (hey, I’m allowed to say that, I’m German!) shooting at me, but I think he’s leaning forward way too much for the pose to look natural.

With the negativity out of the way, I have to say this statue represents some very impressive sculpting, and I’m not even going to qualify that by pointing out that it’s a 10 years old piece made by a small upstart toy company. They myriad of gear strapped all over Smith is recreated in stunning clarity and detail. He’s got a backpack, a canteen, a “U.S.” embossed holster for his .45 automatic. He’s got his web belt, entrenching tool, combat knife, and at least a half dozen other pouches, which I cannot identify but in no way do I doubt their authenticity. Included amongst all that detail are the various wrinkles in his fatigues and the meticulous recreation of the netting and camouflage on his helmet. Even the head sculpt is phenomenal. Smith’s expression is a visceral, war-weary battle cry frozen in time. Magnificent!

Incredibly enough, the paintwork manages to live up to the sculpting. The camo pattern on Smith’s fatigues looks great, the brown for the leather of his knife sheath and pistol holster looks totally authentic, and the tiniest of details are painted right down to some of the stitching and buttons and clasps. The shoulder patches are also crisp and even though the print is tiny, you can still easily read, “Airborne.” If you hold the figure up and peek in just under his left armpit, you can read the gold painted lettering on his smoke grenade. It’s almost totally hidden on the statue, and yet these guys took the time and care to paint it. Cool.

Corporal Smith’s base doesn’t quite live up to the rest of the statue’s perfection. It’s designed to be part grass and part sandbags. The grass pattern is sculpted and painted, but the sculpt is rather soft. The Thompson submachine gun, on the other hand, is a gorgeous little piece that outshines most other 6-inch scale weapons I’ve seen. The sculpting is detailed right down to the receiver action and the wood stock and grips are all carefully painted. It practically looks like a Hot Toys weapon shrunken down.

Sadly, the Dusty Trails line was quickly swept off to the clearance and closeouts stores, which is where I picked up mine. In terms of quality of paint and sculpt, Corporal Smith deserved better than that. This is a piece that could go toe to toe with some of the best offerings in its class, but I can’t deny it was a strange assortment of statues and I’m guessing that the marketing just wasn’t there. Maybe had they decided to do a wave of WWII based statues, then a wave of Gunfighters, then Pirates, there would have been a little more of a feeling of cohesion for collectors to get their arms around. Either way, we’ll never know and Dusty Trail Toys has since gone down that dusty trail and into the sunset. As for Corporal Smith, well I have an entire bookcase in my library devoted to WWII history and I do believe he’s going to live out his days on one of those shelves.

Jan 30 2013

Vintage Vault: Bionic Six Madame-O by LJN

Sigma Six. Bionic Six. Coincidence? Yes, actually it is. I’m not doing any kind of thing with sixes this week. It’s just that I realized it’s been about five months since “Vintage Vault” was a regular feature around these parts. And since then I’ve only done it two times. Sadly, I’m not prepared to bring it back regularly yet, but I did find some goodies and today we’ll look at one of them for this week of Toy Closet Finds. Who’s my favorite femme fatale from Bionic Six? Why it’s Madame-O, daaahling!


And there’s the Bionic Six packaging in all its misspent glory and questionable design. Seriously, LJN, what were you thinking? The cartoon was so beautifully drawn and animated, particularly the intro, and this psychedelic B&W pattern and second-rate character art was the best you can do? Shame on you! On the plus side, with cardbacks this ugly, I don’t care about tearing them open. The back panel shows off every figure the line had to offer. There were a couple of vehicles and a playset too, but they’re not pictured. I’d take this opportunity to offer that Madame-O was another one of those cartoon characters that I had a crush on as a kid, but then I wasn’t quite a kid anymore when this cartoon first aired, so let’s just forget I said anything about it. Awkward!


Some of LJN’s Bionic Six figures were pretty faithful to their animated counterparts, but unfortunately Madame O isn’t one of those examples. I mean… woof! Just check out her head! The hair and the goggles and the mask are all vaguely correct, but Madame-O was all about her alluring eyes and, well how do I put this? THE FIGURE HAS NO EYES!!! In fact, it looks like her face is just one big blank. I can’t help but hope someone in the LJN factories at some point held one of these packaged figures looked at the figure and then across at the character art and wondered how they could have messed up so badly. How hard was it to just paint a couple of eyes on there? Even if they didn’t look like her line art, at least she’d have eyes!

The rest of the figure is actually decent enough. She sports her pink track suit with Scarab insignia on her chest, yellow belt, and her one black boot betrays her obvious hatred for symmetry. She hates symmetry, daaahling!

If you’ve read any of my past Bionic Six features, then you know I’m not a big fan of the die-cast parts in these figures. And I’m particularly not fond of it being used on the Scarab figures. There’s no reason for parts of Madame-O to be metal. She wasn’t bionic. I imagine LJN kept it in all the figures as a bit of a running gimmick and to add some consistency, but die-cast is hard to paint well and it chips too easily. That having been said, Madame-O here has the best looking paint of any of the B6 figures in my collection, and virtually all of them came new and in the package. Her coloring is nice and bright and there’s no chipping at all.


Madame-O comes with a clip-on jetpack and a gun, but I seem to remember that in the cartoon she had a trademark lute or harp or something so she could trade destructive notes with Rock-1. Ah, screw it, these are cool accessories. I’m not going to complain about her not coming with a harp when she doesn’t even have any goddamn eyes.

Jeez, this is a frustrating line of action figures. I collect them because I enjoy the cartoon so much and because they’re all that’s available. As already mentioned, I was a little bit beyond playing with action figures at the time this cartoon and toy line came out, so maybe I’m just not being blinded by the same nostalgia as I am other 80’s toy lines. Either way, they just do not hold up well, and I find myself wanting better. If I had one toy-related wish, I might very well spend it on a full set of these figures recreated in the DCUC style. Well, either that or Kidd Video toys. I always wanted me some Kidd Video toys.

Jan 29 2013

GI Joe Sigma 6: Cobra HISS Tank by Hasbro

Many collectors would argue that Hasbro’s Sigma 6 figures are the red-headed stepchild of the GI Joe franchise. If that’s the case than the Sigma 6 2 ½” scale sub-line of vehicles and figures would be that red-headed stepchild’s red-headed stepchild. These things clogged the pegs and shelves of my local Target and Walmart, perplexing kids and collectors alike. What was the point? What was Hasbro going for here? If they wanted to do Sigma 6 with vehicles, why didn’t they just keep the line 3 ¾-scale? Was this Hasbro trying to have its cake and eat it too? Why am I asking so many questions? It’s because this line confounds and confuses me. It created some really cool vehicles (not to mention one truly amazing toy, the Dragonhawk, which I promise to feature someday), but its mix of cool vehicles and shitty little figures made it a difficult concept to get behind. Let’s get an idea of what this line was all about by looking at its treatment of one of GI Joe’s truly iconic vehicles: The Cobra HISS


I’ve got to say, I dig this packaging. It’s a mostly closed box with two windows on the front to show off the figures. This was a bold move, Hasbro, since the figures are easily the weakest part of these sets and you probably shouldn’t be displaying them with pride. On the other hand, at least the windows let potential buyers know what they were getting. I totally dig the illustrated metal frame deco that surrounds the box and the artwork on the front is excellent. This presentation is damned exciting! I remember when I first saw it on the shelf it made me want to buy the toy even though something inside my head was telling me to drop it and back away. The back panel has a great photo, showing you everything you get inside. Once again, Hasbro was really good about letting you know what you were getting yourself into.


That’s what I like to see! Bags of parts and a sticker sheet! Stuff to put together! I miss the days of having to assemble and sticker toys. It really added to the anticipation. Actually, the stickers here are a bit disappointing. Many of them have white outlines, which don’t look good on the toy so I left them off. At least the instrumentation and the hazards stripes look ok. But before we put together the HISS, let’s look at those figures.


Ok, you get Cobra Commander and a Cobra Trooper. Cobra Commander is a decent enough design and sculpt, but he represents a lot of what was wrong with these figures. Specifically, he’s perpetually standing there pointing and holding his bendy, warped scepter. He does have four points of articulation, which consist of swivels in his shoulders, his neck and his waist, but it’s all mostly useless. The Cobra Trooper fares a little better with the basic five points: Shoulders, hips and neck, but man his design and coloring is shit. Even with two Cobra emblems, he doesn’t look like a Cobra Trooper to me. Nope, he reminds me of some knock-off Hoth Trooper. Keep in mind, these are amongst the best figures this line had to offer, as many of them were even more pre-posed and static. I’m not going to blame the small scale. It was clearly a deliberate style choice on Hasbro’s part, because we’ve seen figures in this scale executed a lot better. Now where was that? Well, I’m sure it’ll come to me before the end.

Once assembled, this HISS should look familiar to most Joe collectors. It’s the same design as the one used for the Direct-To-Consumer HISS and that is not at all a bad thing because I really dig this design and all the features it has to offer. The overall configuration is the same as the original vintage HISS, but this model comes loaded for bear with dual missile launchers on either side of the cockpit and four missile launchers mounted up on the turret. Joes seeing this thing barreling toward them would surely have shit their pants. There are also two smaller swivel guns, one of which can be swapped out for a Cobra flag. The cockpit is designed to lower closer to the ground for easy boarding. The hull features some minimal panel lining and Cobra emblems, and the canopy has a cool painted frame, which is something I always thought the original HISS should have had. There’s no two ways about it, the profile for this vehicle is one hundred percent bad ass.

Just like the DTC HISS, the back compartment opens up on either side and there’s a hatch that drops down out of the back to unload troops. In fairness, with the turret in place there isn’t a lot of room back there for personnel. You can take the turret out to make room and that leaves a port for them to emerge and take pot shots at the Joes. This feature was one of my favorite things about the DTC HISS as it converts the fast attack tank into a vehicle that can charge across enemy lines, deliver the shock and awe of a missile barrage, safely insert a squad of Cobra Troops into a critical position, and all without sacrificing any of its original design. And honestly, if I were on Cobra’s payroll with Joes shooting at me, I’d much rather ride inside the thing then hang off the back.


The conversion gimmick involves taking off the top of the back compartment and unfolding it to turn it into an armed bunker. It’s not the most innovative gimmick around, but it does give you some play and display options. You can position the “bunker” into a straight wall fortification (my favorite) or you could angle it. The bunker can arm itself with two of the missile launchers as well as the smaller guns. The main turret of the HISS has fold down stabilizers to turn it into a missle battery emplacement. As much as it may seem like a tacked on extra, this bonus bunker mode actually makes sense to me. I can imagine HISS Tanks could be used to gain ground and then set up these fortifications to hold it while the remaining part of the HISS goes back to get outfitted again for another charge. All in all, it’s a pretty cool idea.


And yeah, about that other line of 2 ½” figures… Like all the vehicles in this line, the HISS’ scale meshes almost perfectly with Kenner’s old MASK line. This HISS blends especially well because of its converting ability. I really dig this cross-compatibility of these vehicles and it’s probably the core reason as to why I’m ultimately a fan of the line. Unfortunately, I can’t help but think of how much cooler it would have been to have had the Sigma 6 figures been in the same style as the MASK figures.

And that’s the Sigma 6 HISS. If you can accept the figures for being what they are, I call them lost opportunities, the vehicle itself is pretty damn cool. The design looks great and it’s a nice quality construction that can get banged around pretty good. If you give this thing a chance it’s definitely a well-designed toy, but then most of the other little Sigma 6 vehicles were too. I’ll eventually get around to looking at the rest of the line, but tomorrow we continue Toy Closet Finds week with another treasure from the abyss.