Oct 27 2012

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splinter (Nickelodeon) by Playmates

I did my usual pass through the Wally World action figure aisle this week on my way to stock up on toys groceries, and sure enough they had a whole pallet of the new Nickelodeon TMNT figures. I was absolutely blown away by the Turtles figures in this line, and I had always planned on picking up at least three more: Shredder, Splinter and Amy, so I didn’t have a chance in hell of getting out of there without buying something. I wound up with Shredder and Splinter and since I have a weekend to kill before getting back to my Toy Show haul on Monday, I thought I’d give this pair a looksie. And no, I still haven’t seen an entire episode of the new series, and it’s really not a priority for me.

When we last saw the new TMNT packaging I gushed on and on about how much I loved it. Well, I still do. At the risk of repeating myself, this packaging just shows me that Playmates gets it. (Yeah… there’s a concept. Playmates, the masterminds behind the 2009 Terminator and Star Trek figure debacle, actually gets it!) By “it”, I mean, they understand how to make a toy package simple, functional, and yet oh so appealing. As an adult collector, the retro goodness baked into this package design makes me want to buy it, because it really does summon up memories of seeing the Turtles on pegs back in the day. But even if I were a kid, just seeing these figures on these cardbacks would make me swear up and down to take out the garbage, wash the car, and neuter the dog, if only my parents would get me a couple. The back panel has a clip out file card and shows off the other great figures in this little line. Oh yeah, Splinter comes in the package with his tail off. You just need to get it off the tray and plug it into his butt and you’re all good to go.

While I took to the new Turtle designs right away, I was really iffy on the newly designed Splinter. He didn’t look like a rat to me, but rather some kind of bizarre Australian marsupial. Still, the Turtles need their “Honorable Sensei,” and so I was willing to give him a try. I’m very glad I did. His design is still pretty out there, but with the figure in hand, I’m really digging him a lot more than I thought I would. I think my biggest sticking point on the design is the black and white paint on the face. It looks more like aboriginal war paint than rat coloring. Rat coloring? Yes, rat coloring. Turns out, it was just a matter of getting used to it. His stringy little beard is awesome and I love the little nicks in his ears.

Spinter’s robes are sculpted in soft plastic and attached over the figure’s body. You can theoretically take it off, but then Splinter would still have awkward looking sleeve arms, as those are sculpted as the upper arms. His forearms have sculpted wrappings and he has cool, ugly little rat feet. The tail looks good too and it’s rubbery so you can bend it around to try to keep it out of the way.

For a Sensei, Splinter isn’t exactly sporting martial arts caliber articulation. His head turns, his arms are ball jointed at the shoulder and swivel at the elbows. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, and his tail swivels. The lack of knee articulation really doesn’t bother me so much, since the design of his robes would probably render it mostly inert anyway. The lack of hinges in the elbows, however, bugs me a lot. Actually, it should bug me a lot. In reality it doesn’t. He displays just fine and I don’t need my Splinter to be super-poseable, especially at this price point.

What does bug me a little more is the lack of accessories with Splinter. You get his stick, and that’s it. It’s also molded in a translucent plastic, which seems kind of weird to me. Considering the Turtles all got “Ninja Arsenals” I think they could have helped a rat out and gave him some extra goodies. Maybe the point is that Splinter is so badass all he needs is his stick.

Playmates set the bar for the Nickelodeon line very high with the four Turtles. They had great articulation, superb sculpting, and loads of weapons. They were just an amazing value. Splinter features less articulation and virtually no gear, but the sculpting here is still good and the paintwork is solid. I understand the reasoning behind investing extra money into the articulation and accessories of the main characters, and I’m perfectly fine with it. For a figure this size at the eight dollar price point, I’m still plenty happy with him.

I’ll be back later to check out Shredder.

Oct 26 2012

Matty Collector: Club Lion Force Voltron by Mattel

Mega thrusters are go, Bitches!

It was a long wait, folks, and a unique and epic experience: A subscription that sends you a series of stand-alone toys, which in the end will piece together to form one ginormous robot. Throughout the course of my 30-some odd years of toy collecting, there hasn’t been anything quite like Matty Collector’s Club Lion Force: A year long journey, in which every couple of months brought me one step closer to something really damn cool. It was an idea that took the Collect & Connect concept to the extreme, and one that was perfectly suited to the Voltron property. When I came home to find my Black Lion sitting on my stoop, I was so relieved excited to know that the journey was finally complete.

Before moving on, let me throw out a little disclaimer. I realize for some people this ride was not a smooth one.  If you’re a toy company doing something like this, you really need to be able to get your shit together, and that’s something that Matty can’t always claim to be good at. I realize that some people had QC issues with individual lions, others had typical Digital River snafus, and when you’re dealing with parts of a whole, any one of these issues could be enough to ruin the entire experience. I’ve seen the horror stories from the people for whom one problem along the way stopped them from completing their Voltron. If you’re one of those people, I really feel for you. It’s not like you can take these back to the store for an exchange, and the prices of these damn things on Ebay are getting outrageous.

No doubt, I was really lucky. I haven’t had a single QC issue with any of my Lions. Nonetheless, my heart was in my throat as I opened Black Lion in fear that something would be wrong with it, and my journey to form Voltron would crash and burn just inches from the finish line. In the end, he turned out fine. And now with Voltron standing in front of me, comes the inevitable question: Was he worth it? Was he worth the stress and the money? The answer in a word? Yes. The answer in a few more words? Hell fucking yeah, he was worth it! So let’s form Voltron!

Plugging the limbs into the Black Lion goes very smoothly and the connections hold very well. I was a little afraid of how difficult it would be to disconnect the limbs without forcing them, but they all separate again just fine. The arms pull out without any undue pressure and the legs eject just by pressing the buttons on the backs, very similar to the Toynami Voltron.  I’ll confess to not being a big fan of the spring-loaded transformation gimmicks, but I sure do love the way you press in the chest crest to make Voltron’s head snap open and into position. It’s awesome! Once assembled, Voltron’s proportions are excellent and he looks mighty goddamn majestic. I stood him on a table and went to get some work done on the computer, and I just found myself admiring him every couple of minutes. He’s certainly an attention getter.

I try to keep the majority of my toys in my display areas, so they don’t take over the whole house, but dammit if I don’t want to just stand him on an end table in my living room like a vase or something so that guests would say, “Hey FigureFan (because that’s what everyone always calls me), what’s that on your end table?” And I would just say, “That’s my goddamn huge Voltron, son.” And with that we would go back to sipping cognac and playing Scrabble. Let’s just drop in a shot of him standing behind my Toynami Voltron for the proper size perspective.

Obviously we’ve already seen a lot of Voltron’s sculpt when we looked at the individual lions, so I won’t go into a lot of detail there. I will say how much I adore the face. It’s beautifully sculpted and perfectly captures Voltron’s stoic portrait and the paintwork is excellent. The chest crest is really great looking too. I was a little worried about how it would come out since the individual lions were missing some of their finer details, but it has a nice, chunky animated look that makes me smile.

Easily the biggest complaint I’ve seen about Voltron is his inability to stand in action poses or with his weapons in hand. It’s not so much an inability as it is people deciding to come out of the gate bitching, rather than take the time to play around with him to see what he’s truly capable of. He is definitely top heavy, there’s no doubt about that, but in a way very similar to Toynami’s Masterpiece Voltron. Still, his ratcheting joints are strong and effective, and he balances perfectly fine when placed in a typical standing pose. When you put his sword and shield in his hands, you do need to work at it to get him to stand, but I’ve had tons of success posing him while brandishing his weapons. There’s plenty to tweak to get him to stand. Besides the fold down heel struts, you can also make some little adjustments to the Yellow and Blue Lions’ paws for a little added assistance. I generally find that he will stand in all sorts of great action poses on carpet, but he tends to slide real easy on tables or smooth surfaces.

Naturally, Voltron comes with his weapons. We’ve already looked at the Collect & Connect Blazing Sword, but I’ll admit I was surprised to see the extra Sword in with the Black Lion. I’m sure it was revealed during the course of the year, but I must have missed it because I genuinely thought the Collect & Connect sword that came with the figures was all we were getting. Both the sword and shield have huge pegs that go into the recessed sockets inside the Red and Green Lions’ mouths, holding them in place very well.

I was really dismayed by how much negativity there was on the Matty forums about the finished Voltron. Surprised? No. Only dismayed. I’m not talking about the people with QC issues, I’ve already empathized with them, and they have every right in the world to be royally pissed. No, I’m talking about the bunch of whiny fuckers who are bitching just to bitch. Ever since getting my hands on the Red Lion, I had a pretty good idea what the finished product was going to be like, and everything fell right into line just as I imagined it. I wasn’t expecting a super-articulated ninja robot, and there was no reason for anyone to expect that. What I was counting on was a big, heavy beast of a toy that would have been perfectly at home in the 80s. I wanted a showpiece reminiscent of a time when toy companies weren’t shackled by safety regulations and they could produce a giant robot that would crush a kid to death if it fell on them.  No, if the final Voltron held any surprise for me, it was just how majestic he looks fully assembled and standing there on display. I know, I’ve probably thrown the word majestic around a few times in this feature, but it’s honestly the word that best describes him. I adore this thing, and might I remind you all that I’m the guy that cannot stand the Voltron cartoon.

Oh yeah, and while I know it would never happen, Matty if you ever do decide to do a second sub with a similar scaled vehicle Voltron, I’ll be there on day one with my money to suffer through it all again.

Oct 25 2012

DC Universe Signature Collection: Elasti-Girl by Mattel

This month Matty brought double the DC goodness to Club Infinite Earth subscribers with another oversized quarterly figure, and it is none other than Ms. Rita Farr aka. Elasti-Girl! Matty made a point of saying that they wanted to use CIE to finish up some teams, and they certainly are delivering. This year we’ll get the rest of The Metal Men and the figure we’re looking at today brings us one step closer to rounding out the Doom Patrol. Personally, I’ve yet to pick up Beast Boy or Robotman, so I only have Negative Man to keep her company. Either way, let’s take a look at the lovely lady and see how she turned out.

Signature Collection packaging! We just saw it on Monday with Poison Ivy, so I’m not going to spend a lot more time on it. It’s exactly the same as the regular monthly figure packaging, only bigger. The artists at Matty did another great job on the character art. I’m not so sure the sculptors had the same image in mind, but the art here is just gorgeous. I’m so glad these packages are collector friendly, because it gives me an excuse to keep all this stunning box art.

A lot of your personal mileage with Elasti-Girl is likely to vary based on how well you know or enjoy the character. Sure, that’s the case with a lot of DCUC figures, but in this case it’s even more so. If you’re not in the know, she is essentially just a really tall chick in a skirt, and unless she’s seen alongside other DCUC figures, she’s just a chick in a skirt. Nonetheless, fans of the character should find this figure to be a real treat, because it really does her justice. As already mentioned, the head sculpt isn’t quite in tune with the box art, but I still really like what we got. She’s pretty, I dig the slight upturn to her eyes and the face features some truly immaculate paintwork. The hair is sculpted with a band to hold it back, and the hair is short enough so as not to inhibit the head articulation too badly.

The rest of the figure’s body features sculpted gloves and boots, and a belt around her slender waist. The skirt is made of particularly flexible plastic, and it’s wide enough so that you can really get some good range of motion out of her hip joints. The top half of her outfit is painted, with some nice sharp lines between the red and white and the neckline. I would have preferred a paler shade of blue for the belt and boots, but now I’m really nitpicking. She’s also got some seriously nice muscle tone sculpted into her arms.

Elast-Girl’s articulation features that new torso joint that we first saw with Poison Ivy. I’m still on the fence over the new design. Is Matty only going to be using this with all the ladies? Time will tell. It doesn’t seem to have the same versatility as the waist swivel and ab crunch, but it is a lot better looking. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinges in the knees, and swivels at the wrists and biceps. The legs have the regular universal movement at the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. Naturally, the head has the usual ball joint. I’m not sure if it’s just because of her size, but I really would have loved to see double hinges in her elbows.

Elasti-Girl comes with a tiny version of herself, which is a very cool bonus. She’s very similar to the Antman that Hasbro put out with their Marvel Universe Yellowjacket, or even the tiny Wasp that came in the Secret Wars comic pack. Just be careful not to sneeze while you’re holding it, or you may lose it forever. The resident FigureFan feline has already been scoping it out for his larder of trophies behind the sofa.

I was pretty delighted when Matty revealed this figure, as I truly believe we would have had no chance of getting her anywhere else. A while ago, maybe I could have seen her as a C&C in DC Universe Classics, but with the direction the line went toward the end, I don’t think it ever would have happened. So what’s the downside of Elasti-Girl? Well, besides now being motivated to go back and pick up the rest of the Doom Patrol, I’m really hankering to pull the trigger on the insanely pricey Giganta, just so I can have another huge chick for her to fight. Then again, I’ve got do some rearranging on my DCUC top shelf in order to fit another oversized figure. At the moment, even poor Rocket Red is still chilling in his box and waiting for some shelf time.

Okdoky, tomorrow we will round out this Matty Haul Week with a look at the Big Guy himself… Voltron! It will, however, likely be posted pretty late, as I’m pulling the graveyard shift tonight and I’ll likely be sleeping most of the day tomorrow.

Oct 24 2012

Voltron: Black Lion by Mattel

Yes, it was the final month for Matty’s Club Lion Force, and that meant that not only did we subbers get Keith, but we got the last and biggest Lion of the pack: Black Lion. Ever since the beginning of the month, I’ve been on pins and needles, worried about getting this thing safely into my collection. Was Digital River going to screw up? Would Black Lion be stricken with some horrible QC issues, like having four back legs and missing a head? Or would Matty just send me one of the Avatar beasts in a Voltron package. I was seriously stressing out. But it was all for naught in the end. Blackie arrived on my stoop with the rest of my October haul and now he’s safely in my clutches.

Once upon a time, I marveled at the size of the Yellow and Blue Lions. But damn, this guy is really big. He comes in the same style box, which has a cardboard base and back, and four clear plastic walls. The animated backdrop shows the Castle and all in all, this thing looks mighty impressive in the package. Matty probably should have mentioned somewhere on there that the Sword and Shield are concealed under the cardboard base, since none of the other lions have had any accessories packaged down there. I have to imagine someone, somewhere is going to pitch the packaging before realizing their horrible mistake.

As soon as I got Black Lion out of the box I gave him a good once over. It was like pulling someone out of combat and searching them for bullet wounds. There was a minor paint smudge on one of his red wings, but it came off with a little magic eraser treatment, and a tiny bit of black rubbing on one of his yellow shoulders. Other than that, this guy is fine.

 

As expected, Black Lion is the boxiest of the lions, but that goes with the territory of being the torso. On the other hand, he’s also the most complex looking of the bunch. The wings on his back stay folded up quite well, and you only need to lift them up to reveal the key slot for Black Lion’s cockpit. Push in the key, or any pointy object, and the hatch will release to reveal the cockpit compartment for your Keith figure. If you were wondering whether Black Lion’s huge size would give it a more roomy or complex cockpit, well, that isn’t the case. The inside of the cockpit is similar to the other lion interiors. There are some well-placed stickers to make up the instruments, and it’s just big enough to comfortably fit the figure.

In theory, Black Lion has about the same articulation as the others, but the fact that his shoulders form Voltron’s hips and shoulders actually give him a little more range of motion. I also really dig his tail a lot more than the other lions’ tails. He’s got three hinges in it, and it looks wavier, fluid and tail like, while the other lions’ tails look more like antenna.

In addition to the ubiquitous mouth blade weapon, Black Lion comes with the aforementioned Star Shield and Blazing Sword, but I’m actually going to cover those pieces when I look at Voltron on Friday.

I feel kind of bad for Black Lion. He’s easily the most impressive lion of the pack and yet he’s probably going to get overlooked by a lot of collectors who will be using him to form Voltron the moment he arrives and so he won’t spend nearly as much time in his Lion mode as the others. Still, he’s a great looking piece and makes for an awesome display when perched at the head of the group. In the end, I’m just so happy he arrived and in good condition so I can put an end to the rather trying, yet ultimately satisfying, ordeal of Club Lion Force .

Oct 23 2012

Voltron: Keith (Black Lion Pilot) by Mattel

It’s the final month for Club Lion Force and thank Christ for that! While I have been lucky enough to have a pretty good experience with Matty on this subscription, my stress over each release has been mounting, until finally reaching a fevered pitch with this final month. But we’ll get to that tomorrow when we discuss Black Lion. Today, we’re going to check out the final pilot figure, Keith, and I’ve looked at enough of these that I’m going to try to go through this one pretty quickly.

As expected, Keith comes in the exact same style window box that we’ve seen with all the figures, except Sven. The box is black to match his lion and features some decent character art on the front along with a little window that displays the figure, the alternate head, and the key stand. The back panel has a little blurb about Keith and his lion, photos of the completed Blazing Sword and a shot of the figure fitting into the Black Lion’s cockpit. As always, the box is totally collector friendly, which is awesome. On the downside, the Blazing Sword is designed to lock together, so once it’s assembled, it won’t be going back into the boxes.

Keith holds no surprises. He has a solid head sculpt, and appears to be built off of the same body as Lance and Sven. The paint on the figure is great, with no smudging or dirt on the white, and no bleeding around the red. The alternate helmeted head is overall pretty good, but there’s an annoying black spot of paint on his visor. This black spot is the first true defect I’ve had in any of my Club Lion Force toys, so in the Voltron Quality Control Lottery… A winner is me!

Articulation includes a ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders and elbows, universal movement in the hips, and ball joints in the knees. Once again, the fact that the pistol is sculpted into his holster and cannot be removed is a constant sticking point with me and these figures, but I take a small bit of solace in the fact that this is the last time I have to mention it. Speaking of repetitive criticisms, I still really wish the key stand had a sticker on each side.

In addition to the key stand, Keith comes with the tip of the Collect & Connect Blazing Sword and the last two pieces of the stand, so we can finally put this thing together. The sword consists of snapping together the hilt, guard, and three pieces of blade. The blade is painted with a faint swirly energy pattern and the edges are sculpted with translucent yellow plastic flames to make it appear to be pulsating with Ro-Beast killing power. In reality, it looks ok, but I tend to prefer the regular Blazing Sword that comes with the Black Lion. But more on that tomorrow!

So, let’s take a moment to ruminate on the pilot figures. Remember when the first Lion Force sub details came out and Matty was going to sell the pilots and lions separately? Well, I think grouping them together was one of the better decisions. Sure, it meant that collectors couldn’t order extras, but I would have been plenty peeved paying $15 plus shipping for these things had Mattel shipped them separately on non-Lion months. A few of my friends maintain that I’m discounting the cost of the Blazing Sword pieces, and yeah it was a nice bonus, but I would have been fine without it. I still like the pilot figures, Keith and his teammates are plenty cool, but there’s no doubt Mattel took shortcuts with them, making them in no way worth the price.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the grand daddy of all the Lions!

Oct 22 2012

DC Universe Signature Collection: Poison Ivy by Mattel

I think it’s probably safe to say that Poison Ivy was a predominant name on many DCUC collectors’ wish lists. It’s kind of hard to believe that the line lasted 20 waves without her showing up. Even I, someone who only bothers with Batman when he’s part of the Justice League, was pretty excited to finally get the character in my collection. Of course, Matty was well aware of her popularity and wound up pimping her out as a threat to get people to subscribe to Club Infinite Earths. They even went so far as to warn collectors that if the sub didn’t go through, Poison Ivy would never be made. Pretty classy stuff, Matty.  Instead of a thermometer, they should have had a live cam of the prototype being slowly lowered into a bucket of acid and a tagline, “Only your subs could stop the descent!” Well, all the threats and recriminations are behind us now because the sub did go through and I’m holding in my hands, the DCUC version of Poison Ivy.

I’m always glad to see the Signature Collection package. It looks awesome, it’s collector friendly, and what’s inside seldom disappoints. I’ve been a big admirer of the character art that Mattel has been using for these packages and Poison Ivy’s continues to raise the bar. It was actually a pretty ambitious and risky piece of art to go with, because it’s a lot more detailed than the actual figure, particularly where the vines are concerned, but we’re going to come back to that in a second. You get the usual little bio blurb on the back and as always, the box is totally collector friendly.

A lot of the early criticisms of this figure have been that she looks too plain, and I think those are valid complaints. Just look at the character art on the box and all of those little vines and tendrils. That kind of detail is tough to create in an action figure at this price point, and so compromises have been made. Mattel went with using some simple, sculpted plastic vines, which are molded in spirals so that they snake around her arms and her left leg. They add some depth to the figure, they don’t inhibit her articulation, and generally they look good, but they don’t convey the beauty and complexity of what’s seen in the art. I think the figure would have been much better served with the vines sculpted into her arms and legs and then painted in, but remember, Mattel’s game is to create versatile sculpts that will serve them again later. In the DCUC line, they can often get away with it without compromising the figure, but that’s not the case with Poison Ivy. Her torso suffers from a similar problem. There’s foliage sculpted along the edges, but the rest is plain. In this case, however, it’s less forgivable. The entire one-piece should have been sculpted with vegetation. It would have helped the figure look less spartan. I’m actually surprised that Mattel went with bare feet instead of boots, but I’m glad they did, as it adds some individuality to the figure.

That all having been said, I’m very happy with the way the head sculpt turned out. Ivy’s face is beautiful with a slightly stern expression. The hair is absolutely amazing. It’s intricately sculpted and peppered with leaves here and there. The same effort that went into the hair sculpt should have been vested into her one-piece. That would have helped the figure along quite a bit.

Poison Ivy’s coloring is quite good. Mattel went with a minty colored, unpainted plastic for Ivy’s flesh tone and it looks very cool. A darker green was used for her one-piece and vines, the paintwork on her face is immaculate, and even her toenails are painted. But, again, it’s the hair that really shines here. The deep red paint is gorgeous and really brings out the details in that sculpt.

Ivy features most of the same articulation we’ve been seeing all along in DCUC. Her arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, hinged at the elbows, and feature swivels in the biceps and wrists. Her legs have the usual DCUC universal hip joints, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. Her head is ball jointed, but her sculpted hair does inhibit the head movement quite a bit. It’s in the torso where things get a bit kooky. Instead of the usual waist swivel and ab crunch, Ivy has a swivel just under her breasts. It’s admittedly a lot less unsightly than the traditional DCUC articulation, but it’s not as versatile either.

Poison Ivy was a long time coming, so it’s natural she’s going to be subjected to a lot of extra scrutiny. I’m actually fairly happy with what we got, although I will concede that, unlike most DCUC figures, she doesn’t hold up to her character art. From a business standpoint, I understand why Mattel did what they did, but then I shouldn’t have to look at a figure and justify its production from a financial standpoint. On the other hand, despite this line being billed as a “collector club” it’s still essentially a mass market line and for a more complex looking sculpt, we have to look elsewhere. One of these days, I’ll pull out my Bishoujo Poison Ivy statue and we’ll see how great this gal can really look in plastic form.

Oct 21 2012

Transformers Prime: Bulkhead by Hasbro

Primus knows, I haven’t been the biggest champion of any of the modern Transformers TV series, but I’ll happily admit right now that I dig Bulkhead. While most of the characters we see in Transformers are all reworks from the G1 days, Bulkhead is one of the few new characters that has survived to be re-imagined across two otherwise unrelated series. I find him to be a really endearing character, good comic relief, and one that deserves to be added to the catalog of Transformers that will continue to get recycled through future reboots. As a result, I was pretty excited to pick up the TF: Prime Bulkhead, especially since none of the TF: Animated versions have found their way into my collection.

Transformers Prime… Voyager packaging… Yeah! It’s essentially the same thing we’ve seen with all the TF: Prime Voyagers. It’s very cool, Bulkhead is packaged in robot mode, and there’s a hole in the window that lets you try the shitty light up Mech Tech style weapon. Let’s get back with tradition and look at Bulkhead’s vehicle mode first…

But, before we get to the figure, here’s a quick Public Service Announcement from FigureFan. Kids, when your new toy comes in a window box, take a look at it before you buy it. I didn’t, and my Bulkhead has scratches all over his hood. Granted, the figure was in robot mode in the package, but I still could have seen the scratches if I looked hard enough. I could take it back, but it was the only Bulkhead they had, so I guess I’ll consider it the ultra-rare “Battle Damaged” Bulkhead and live with it.

In alt mode, Bulkhead is a big military vehicle. I’d say he was supposed to be some kind of jeep, but he’s obviously a lot bigger than the other cars, so I’m going to go with some kind of variation on a Hummer. His vehicle mode is solid enough and while I’m not a big fan of painted windows, at least the front windshield is transparent. There are some seams on the sides, but for the most part they synch up with the doors so they aren’t terribly unsightly. A socket on the roof allows you to plug in his battle ram, or if you want your toy to look terrible, you can plug in the light up Mech Tech thingy. All in all he’s a solid toy and rolls along great.

There are some shell-former shenanigans going on with Bulkhead’s transformation, but it’s mostly with the arms. It took me a couple of tries to get them locked down just right. Apart from that, he’s got a pretty cool and innovative design that gets him into and out of his robot mode.

I am a big fan of Bulkhead’s robot mode. In fact, the only thing that bothers me about it is that he seems a little short when standing alongside the Deluxe figures. That having been said everything else is pure love. Bulkhead’s TV design has some wonky proportions, but this figure makes them work really well. I love the way the doors form extra armor plates on his chest and the Autobot symbol on his shoulder armor is a nice touch too, especially since it isn’t upside down like Starscream’s Decepticon shoulder emblem. Bulkhead’s headsculpt is right on the mark and his jaw is even a little articulated. I’ve heard tales of him being really hollow and awkward in the torso, but I don’t see it at all, and even when viewed from the back he’s got a nice squared off backpack with wings.

Oh yeah, there’s one other design element that I wanted to nitpick. Hey, Hasbro, what is up with the faked out wheels on the robots lately? I noticed these when I featured Cliffjumper and here they are again. Right on the outside of Bulkhead’s legs you can see clearly sculpted tires that have been left unpainted. Bulkhead is a four-wheeled vehicle and all of his actual wheels are accounted for, so I have no idea why Hasbro is doing this, but little things like this have a habit of eating away at me when I’m trying to sleep.

Besides the light up weapon that I already tossed in a bin, Bulkhead comes with his battle ram, which can be attached to either arm. I really wish he had some kind of serviceable spiked ball attachment for his hand. Alas, Hasbro incorporated that into the Mech Tech weapon, making Bulkhead the only figure which is really affected by the fact that I throw those out.

Yes sir, Bulkhead is a great figure. I like him so much, that I might be persuaded to pick up one that isn’t scratched to shit if I happen to find him again. He’s loads of fun to play around with in both robot and vehicle modes and he really captures everything I love about the character. But best of all, he brings me one bot closer to completing my core Autobot team. I’ve yet to find Arcee on the pegs, but I’m thinking I’ll have to bite the bullet and snag her online.

And that leaves me with just one more TF: Prime figure to look at, but I’m going to have to come back to him. Schedules must be kept and the trains must run on time. Tomorrow I’ll start looking at some more of the odds and ends that I picked up from the Toy Show a few weeks back.  

A rather large box from Matty Collector landed on my stoop yesterday afternoon, so there’s going to be a little change of plan.

I’m bumping my original plans for this week back so I can check out the new goodies. I’ll kick things off tomorrow with DC Club Infinite Earth’s monthly figure, Poison Ivy. Then we’ll get into the Voltron goodness with Keith on Tuesday and the Black Lion on Wednesday. Thursday I’ll bring it back to DC with the quarterly oversized figure, Elasti-Girl, and the we’ll cap off the week with a look at the big boy himself, Voltron in all his ginormous glory.

Oct 20 2012

Transformers Prime: Dreadwing by Hasbro

The TF: Prime pegs here may be crammed with nothing but Bumblebees and Cliffjumpers, but the Voyagers have certainly been arriving in a timely manner. Much to my wallet’s chagrin, I was able to find both Bulkhead and Dreadwing sitting on the shelf the other day and I couldn’t help but grab them both up. Dreadwing seems to be the hotter of the two, and definitely the one I was most anticipating, so let’s check him out, and we’ll look at Bulkhead tomorrow.

Dreadwing comes in the same style window box that we saw with Megsy, Prime, and Screamer. He’s packaged in his robot mode, which is a great choice on Hasbro’s part. I defy any Transformer collector to see this guy standing there in the box and not have to take him home. The window has the “Try Me” hole for the token shitty Mech Tech style weapon. The fact that it lights up just draws attention to how horrible it looks and we will speak no more of it. The side panel features a little bio on Dreadwing and the back shows him in both his modes. I know, I usually do the alt mode first, but the transformation and alt mode really irk me, so I’m going to get all the gushing out of the way first.

In robot mode, Dreadwing is an example of all that is right with this line. He’s a satisfying size for a Voyager class figure and I’m pretty sure he’s meant to be based on the Skyquake character in the TV show. The coloring is a pleasing mix of deep blue and light grey with some translucent yellow parts peppered about, including the cockpit on his chest. The head sculpt is fantastic and the face is beautifully painted gold with red eyes. He’s a great mix of organic curves and jagged plates and I really dig the way his jet exhaust hangs off his back like a jetpack. Dreadwing also comes with a sword, which he can hold in either hand.

So about the transformation… I love figuring out the transformations on these guys by myself, and that’s a good thing because Dreadwing’s instructions not only suck, they are downright misleading. The changeover to jet mode features a lot of stuff moving at once, but for the most part it is surprisingly intuitive, until you get to the part with the tail section. Looking at it, it’s easy to see what’s supposed to happen and where everything pegs in, but when I set that up Dreadwing’s hands were just hanging there about half an inch past the exhaust of the jet. “That can’t be right,” says I, “Let’s consult the instructions.” No, really… I said that! Sure enough, the instructions indicate I’m doing it right, but it doesn’t show the robot hands hanging off the back. I had to go online and find some gallery pics to show me that the instructions are pretty damned misleading, and that I was doing it right all along. While omitted from the instruction illustrations, and carefully hidden in the product pics with tricky perspectives, the hands really do hang off the back end of the jet. I call bullshit, Hasbro!

Overall the jet mode looks pretty great from almost every angle, just don’t look at the back. Sure, there’s a lot of robot kibble on the undercarriage, but you know what? That’s a fact of life for most Transformer jets, and I’m fine with that. The blue and gold deco looks very nice and really reminds me of Revenge of the Fallen Dirge.  The wings on his Decepticon insignia are a nice touch that reminds me of the Cybertron Defense emblems used for some of the Autobots in the Cybertron line. Dreadwing holds together very well and sits nicely, provided you can get his front landing gear down, I had quite a struggle with it. Nonetheless, those hands hanging off the back are just terrible. It really feels like they either just ran out of money while engineering the toy, or they got that far and just said, screw it… that’s good enough. Either way, it’s one of the most overt examples of rampant robot kibble in a Voyager alt mode that I can remember since Hasbro just left poor Energon Ironhide’s head sitting right on top of his roof.

I think the biggest shame with Dreadwing is that 99 percent of this figure is so damn good that those hands hanging off the jet mode just makes me weep. Even if you could just pull them off, it would have been an improvement. Ultimately, the good still outweighs the bad here, and I say that mainly because I display my Transformers in their robot mode and damn if Dreadwing isn’t one great looking bot. Tomorrow, we’ll see how Bulkhead fares!

Oct 19 2012

Doctor Who: Character Options Moving To 3 3/4-Inch Scale!

Anyone who’s poked around FigureFan for any length of time should know that even after nearly four years of cranking out ramblings on toys, I tend to shy away from industry news. Why? Because I’m not an insider, I’m just a collector, and there’s a thousand other places on the InterWebSuperHighway that are plugged into the industry and who can deliver the toy news faster and better than I. Nonetheless, every now and then something pops up that affects me enough that I feel the need to tap out a few paragraphs.

I am a Doctor Who fan. My avatar, the very face of FigureFan itself, is from NuWho, and I’ve been watching Doctor Who since I first discovered it sometime when I was around 12 years old. That was in 1984, on account of me being really old.  Obviously, I collect Character Options’ line of Doctor Who figures. I haven’t featured a lot of stuff lately, but that’s because it’s been a while since they’ve put out any Classic Who stuff, and the NuWho stuff has been rather uninspiring. But am certainly still been anxious for more.

Well, a few days ago, in an interview with www.toysnplaythings.co.uk, representatives of Character Options have revealed that they are planning a scale change for their Doctor Who line. As of now, there will be no more NuWho figures produced in the existing 5-inch scale and going forth the figures for Series 7 and beyond will be released in what they call the “industry standard” 3 ¾-inch scale. This revelation means that the forthcoming Rory figure should be the final 5-inch figure based on the modern series. I have to admit, I started freaking out, until it was further revealed that the scale change will not affect the Classics line, which will continue on at the current 5-inch scale and will not be produced in the new diminished form. Phew!
If the Classics scale was changing, I would have been pretty devastated. The line is sporadic at best and really tests the collectors’ patience with repacks and remolds, but they’re figures that I would have killed for as a kid and so I’m willing to take it as it comes and support it all the way. It’s not lost on me that the Classics series only exists in the first place because of the modern series toys, and that the scale change for the NuWho figures does probably make the existence of the Classics line a bit more precarious. Yes, that worries me. Nonetheless, we’ve got a “Pyramids of Mars” coming at the end of this month, and The Brigadier and Jo Grant coming in January and I’m hoping to see more in 2013. All I can do is wait and see. Nonetheless, I’ve always said that should the Classics line stop at any moment, I would still be so grateful for the collection I have and I’d continue to cherish it always. The fact that it exists at all is nothing short of a little miracle.

As to the modern line going to 3 ¾-inch scale, well, I’m kind of interested to see what comes of it. I’ll admit to being sometimes frustrated at the use of the oddball 5-inch scale, but changing it up this late in the game is quite a coup. On the one hand, I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t want Doctor Who figures in scale with some of my other lines of figures, vehicles and playsets. On the other hand, I do like to mix my new and old Who figures, so it’ll be sad to think that if some cool new variation of the Cybermen or Daleks, or other Classic Who baddie debuts on the show and gets a figure, they won’t be able to hang with my Classics. Boo!

The advantages of the scale change should be obvious. The figures are cheaper to produce and cheaper to ship. We could get a wider range of characters and possibly even vehicles and playsets and even some characters scaled bigger than the others. If this change were already in effect, I can think of quite a few things we could have seen, like some dinos and the robots from “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship?” Maybe a Dalek Zombie 2-pack from “Asylum of the Daleks?” maybe last Series we would have seen a Silent TARDIS, and the Minotaur from “The God Complex” could have been more likely.

To be frank, most of the figures for the last two Series of the show have been poor. Sure, I dig the New Paradigm Daleks. They actually work for me as figures, just not so much on the screen. I also adore my Silurians, and like the Silents well enough. But there were a ton of characters that deserved figures, which we never got and if the scale change allows us to get more, than I’m interested.

And that’s all I’ve got to say on the matter. People who know me are probably surprised that I’m not feaking out over this. Frankly, if the NuWho 5-inch figure line had been more expansive and better thought out this past year or so, I would be more upset, but as it stands, it’s just not cutting it for me. So long as CO keeps the 5-inch Classics coming, I’m ok with it. And besides, I already have my armies of NuWho Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, and Silurians to represent on the shelves… that is if only I had room for them all. The pics I’ve posted are just what I have room to display. Yeah, I’ve got totes more.

I guess what I’m saying is, Doctor Who figures are the flagship of my collection, and I’ve got room in my heart to support both lines. And I will.
Ok, back tomorrow to wrap up Star Trek week…

Oct 19 2012

Star Trek: Mugatu and Harry Mudd by Playmates

On Wednesday, we looked at a couple of the ladies of Starfleet and today we’re going to check out some of the baddies from The Original Series: The Mugato and Harry Mudd.

 

Both figures come on the same style card with “Star Trek” in the old movie-style logo. Obviously, Playmates is trying to aggravate my OCD by using the movie logo for Classic Trek figures and using the Classic Trek logo for movie style figures. Even more confusing is the fact that The Mugatu gets his own Skybox Collector Card, but Harry doesn’t!  What the hell, Playmates? What the hell? Either way, I’m so glad I open these things, so I can toss the packaging and forget all about it. Let’s start with The Mugatu.

The Mugatu was featured in the excellent episode, “A Private Little War” in which the Klingons were screwing around with the development of life on a primitive planet. I am in no way ashamed to admit that when I first saw the Mugatu it totally scared the piss out of me. Sure, it’s just a guy in a white ape suit with a horn on his head, but even when I was a little older and they used to show Classic Trek re-runs at midnight, that thing creeped me the hell out. I’m happy to say that Playmates managed to translate all that creepiness into this little sculpt. The face really is spot-on, the hair is sculpted all over his body, and he even has ugly ape hands and ape feet. What’s more, Mugatu is the first Playmates Trek figure I’ve ever had to assemble. He comes with his spine and tail as a separate piece, which plugs into a slot on his back.

The Mugatu actually comes with accessories, all cast in a muddy brown plastic. You get a clutch of Mako Root, which looks like a pile of turds. You also get a drum and a hand phaser, both of which look like they were sculpted out of a pile of turds. The Flintlock isn’t too bad, and he comes with a unique figure stand.

The Mugatu features only five points of articulation. You get standard head, shoulders and hips. It’s not great, but it’s just enough to put him into some pretty good mauling poses.

Harry Mudd was one of many colorful no-good-niks that crossed paths with The Enterprise crew, but he was special in that he had actually got to come back for a repeat performance. Part loveable rake, part murderous bastard, he was a great character that I would love to see revisited in the 2009 reboot films. Personally, I think JJ Abrams missed a huge opportunity not going with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Mudd. That stuff practically writes itself.

Mudd’s sculpt is pretty solid. In the series, Mudd was played by Roger Carmel, a prolific performer who also leant his voice to some other iconic toy characters, like Cyclonus of G1 Transformers fame. In truth, the figure looks more like Carmel if he played the role as a baby but kept his mustache and comb-over. Still, there’s no guessing as to who he’s supposed to be, thanks to his iconic costume and mustache. Yes, he’s got his billowy blue swashbuckling shirt, complete with medals and epaulets, and the sculpting and paintwork on his comb-over is hilarious. I’d say Playmates did a solid job capturing what the character is all about.

Mudd shares all the same points of articulation as the rest of the Trek crew. You get a head that turns, arms and legs that rotate at the shoulders and hips, swivel cuts in the biceps, and hinges in the knees and elbows.

Mudd’s accessories are all molded in red plastic. You get a case of the Venus Drug, a ridiculous red Starfleet Communicator, and a couple of Lithium Crystals, which look like absolutely nothing. You also get a goblet, which is kind of ok. Oddly enough, Mudd comes with a Starfleet-style figure stand.

I’ve had this pair on my Want List for quite a while and it’s good to finally have them in my collection. The old adage says always leave fans wanting more, and while Playmates produced more Classic Trek figures than I could have ever dreamed possible, this pair really makes me wish they had produced more of the one-off baddies that appeared in the various episodes.

And that wraps up this Star Trek Week. Unfortunately, I only got to cover about half of the Trek stuff that I picked up at the Toy Show, so we’ll have to come back to it either in another Trek Week or just here and there. This weekend I’m going to circle back to some of the Transformers Prime figures I still have waiting around, specifically Dreadwing and Bulkhead, and then next week we’ll dip into some of the other, Non-Trek, stuff I picked up at the Show.