Jul 27 2012

Vintage Vault: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Zarak by LJN

Yes, we’ve come back around to LJN’s AD&D line again. Today we’re checking out another one of the standard figures. He’s Zarak, the Evil Half-Orc Assassin! It’s been a long week for me, so I’m just going to get right to it.

Zarak came on a standard AD&D card, with some subtle differences depending on whether you got him as part of Series 1 or Series 2. The character art is pretty cool. It’s a lot darker and more sinister than the somewhat goofy figure. As always, you get a rather lengthy bio blurb on the front of the card, which is more about the Race and Class than it is the specific character of Zarak. I always found it odd that LJN decided to do a Half-Orc figure and never a full-blooded one. Maybe they had one planned before the line was cancelled.

Out of the package and Zarak is an odd little fellow indeed. Yes, “little” isn’t what one tends to think of when one thinks of Orcs, but Zarak probably got his altitude-challenged nature from his human side. Still, he’s got a stout, stocky build and crooked shoulders, which helps give him an undeniably twisted look. I like his outfit, it’s black with some red trim, red gloves, and he even has a whip and a red pouch sculpted onto the back of his belt. I’m a little divided on the head sculpt. First off, he has a blue hood with a black outfit? Girlfriend, you need to learn how to accessorize! <double snap> It just looks weird and wrong. I’m tempted to pick up a spare and paint it red or black to see how it looks. And then there’s his face itself, which kind of looks like Shrek with chickenpox. He’s certainly an ugly bastard!

Zarak has five points of articulation. You get ball jointed shoulders, ball jointed legs at the hips, and a head that turns side to side. His short, stubby legs and arms don’t give you a lot of poseability, but the articulation is pretty standard for the line.

Our little assassin friend comes up pretty light in the accessories department, which is disappointing. LJN obviously didn’t use a lot of plastic on him, so one would think they could have thrown a few more goodies into the mix.  All he comes with is a little yellow dagger. How about the whip? Why not include a whip instead of just sculpting it to his back?

Even all the nostalgia in the world can’t help some figures, and Zarak is almost one of those. There’s not a lot of redeeming qualities here, but I still have too many fond memories of him as a kid to hate on him now. Granted, as a kid I just used him as toady, rather than a fierce assassin, but there was still always a place for him crawling around my Fortress of Fangs playset. Still, you can pick him up for pretty cheap nowadays and if you get him without his dagger, you aren’t missing out on much.

Jul 26 2012

DC Universe Signature Collection: Rocket Red by Mattel

Hey, look! It’s another bonus feature! I decided to just go full guns this week or else I’m going to get too far behind, and this way we can break up the streak of Marvel stuff with a pinch of DC…

It’s been another smooth month for my Matty subs, where I was actually charged the correct amount and my figures were shipped out ahead of the Sale Day. That’s three in a row, I believe, so keep it up, Matty, you’re getting better. I’ve got two Club Infinite Earth figures to look at this month, and I decided to start with the oversized quarterly figure: Rocket Red. This guy has been a pretty controversial figure, mainly because of the size and design that Matty decided to go with.This version obviously wasn’t my first choice for the character, I know I’m not alone in that, but we’ll try to get past that and have a look…

 

Ok, so obviously, I knew going into this one that he was an oversized figure, but holy hell, look at this packaging. Look how massive it is next to one of the regular sized figure boxes. That’s nuts! Otherwise, the box is just a larger version of the same design we got with Jay Garrick and Atrocitus. The window is big and really shows off the figure nicely. The back panel has a big piece of character art and a blurb about the Rocket Reds. I’ve been gushing over the character art on these packages, but this time around I’ll just say it’s nice, not spectacular, and leave it at that. Hey, Matty, you need to be up to date on your DC lore or at least read your own bio. These are dudes in suits… why is he so damn big? As always, the box is collector friendly so you can take him out and play with him and return him to the packaging for display.

Rocket Red is built off the buck used for Atom Smasher, the Build-A-Figure from DC Universe Classics Wave 7. So think about that right now, A Rocket Red as big as Atom Smasher? Yeah, and he’s even bulkier when you consider his armor. The helmet and arms are almost to scale for a regular big-sized dude, but for the legs to work, the guy in the armor would have to be a giant. So to make this guy work in my display, I’m either going to consider him a straight robot or some kind of freak specially engineered to wear the armor. I think I’ll go with the first.

So with the scale issues set aside, I really do dig the look of this guy. The chest armor, shoulder armor and backpack are all cast in one piece of softer plastic and worn over the figure’s torso. The armor has a simple, almost retro-primitive look to it, which really scratches my itch. The cool wrist weapons are permanently attached to the arms with molded, painted straps. The blank-faced Cobra Commander styled helmet really tops everything off nicely. On the down side, I’m not a fan of the veins sculpted into the arms, because it’s at odds with the robot theory that the size of this figure is making me adopt.

The paint is fairly simple here with only two colors used on the whole figure. The base body is red and the armor is silver and most of the pieces are molded in their respective colors. That’s pretty much it! He has a star and “01” stenciled on his chest plate, which looks nice and crisp. There’s a little bit of scuffing to the right wrist weapon, and some abrasions to the faceplate, but overall the colors are fine.

The articulation here is pretty solid and predictable for this size DCUC figure. The head is ball jointed; The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs have universal movement in the hips, the knees and ankles are hinged, and there are swivels in the thighs. You also get rockers in the ankles, although they don’t have a lot of range of motion. The torso swivels at the waist and has a workable ab crunch hinge hidden under the chestplate. I’ve seen quite a few complaints about review samples of the figure not holding together well, but I don’t see that problem on my figure. I’ve spent quite a lot of time fiddling about with him and I haven’t had anything pop off him yet.

Rocket Red cost me $30 plus shipping, which is no little sum for a single action figure, and that price was because I’m a Club Infinite Earth subber. If you bought him off the Matty Collector site, you paid a ridiculous $45 plus shipping, and that’s just insane. No doubt, he’s a big, solid and satisfyingly large figure, but the sculpting and paint apps don’t hold up to the $55 you’d have to pay to get him a la carte. Now, don’t get me wrong, as a stand-alone piece, I really do like this figure, and I’ll even find some justification to shoehorn it into my DCUC display, but there was absolutely no reason for Matty to have given the Reds the super-sized treatment to this extent. Besides making the figure cost way more than it should have, the scale will be too much of a stumbling block for a lot of fans to accept this figure into their collections. Amazingly enough, by the time you read this, Red will have long since sold out, so in the end, I guess Matty was justified. It’ll be interesting to see what he goes for on the secondary market.

Jul 25 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Madam Hydra by Hasbro

The second wave of Marvel Legends is the wave that keeps on giving, thanks to the ridiculous number of variants. Not long ago we checked out Piledriver, the swap-out figure for Thunderball, and today we’re looking at Viper, or Madam Hydra if you prefer, the swap-out figure for Madam Masque. I’ve flipped my opinions on this figure more than a few times. When I first heard she was going to be part of this wave I couldn’t wait to get her. When I saw some initial pictures, the head sculpt was a deal breaker. Next, I saw some photos of the actual figure and I was willing to give her a try. In hand, I think I may like her even more than Madam Masque. Let’s take a look…

There she is in the package. I have little left to say about this delightful package deco. As with the Wrecking Crew figures, Viper’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on the package. Instead Hasbro was content on using the “Marvel’s Madams” moniker and illustrations of both characters to allow for the shared packaging. I’ll also go ahead and mention here that this figure comes with a variant of the Arnim Zola BAF figure’s torso with Red Skull’s face projected on the screen. Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not going to pull apart my Zola figure to make this one, so you’ll have to be content with seeing him in the package.

Madam Viper uses a straight repaint of the Madam Masque body. There’s no new sculpting, but I have to say I really dig the paintwork on this figure a lot more than Masque. She has a glossy green outfit and gloves, with lighter green boots painted on, and painted skin tones for her arms. Besides the colors just being more vibrant, I never really cared for the way the blue paint wash looked on Madam Masque’s white outfit. Sure, these are two different characters and each one has their own look going on, but from a purely aesthetic point of view, I just think this figure’s body looks a lot better in both design and execution. The separate belt is still present, and includes a functional holster.

And then there’s the head sculpt, about which I’ve waffled back and forth on so many times. My main concern was that it looked too man-ish, and it still does mostly when viewed dead on. On the other hand, if you catch it at the right angles, she’s a bit more passable. Either way, the face is definitely harsh and angular, but not at all ill-suited to a villain. At the right angles (and with the right number of beers) she can even be somewhat attractive… or not. At least the paint work on the face is sharp and clean, particularly the emerald lip gloss and the eyes. The sculpted hair looks good, although as one might expect it does impede the head articulation to a point.

Madam Hydra’s articulation is solid, although granted she is not one of the most poseable figures in the line. You get a ball jointed neck, ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows and swivels in the gloves. The legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. There’s no waist articulation, but she does have a ball joint in the upper torso that allows her to swivel.

Viper comes with repaints of the same two weapons as Madam Masque. You get the scoped, AR-15 style assault rifle and the pistol. The pistol is repainted emerald green, the rifle has some green accents where the cream colored paint apps were on Masque’s weapon. The pistol fits into the holster on the belt and she can hold both weapons pretty well.

And there you go. I ended up liking this figure a lot more than I thought I would, and ultimately, even more than I liked Madam Masque. The paint is excellent, I dig the colors, and in person, the head sculpt isn’t the stumbling block I thought it was going to be. I don’t think I would have paid a premium to get her, but finding her just hanging there on the pegs was a welcome treat.

Jul 24 2012

Avengers: “Fusion Armor” Iron Man Mark VII by Hasbro

A little bonus feature for this week. I’ve actually got a lot of stuff in this week, so I wanted to get through some extra stuff this week so I don’t get too far behind. We all know Tony Stark has more Iron Man armors than most people have pairs of socks, and damn if he doesn’t have the plethora of action figures to prove it. As much as I love the character in the comics and on the big screen, even I suffer from Iron Man figure fatigue. Nonetheless, I picked up this one because it’s the new armor in the movie and it’s the suit he’s wearing toward the end of the film when shit really starts getting real. Did I really need to own this one? Let’s find out…

It’s the Avengers 3 ¾” figure packaging… Yuppers. Is there any more to say? There’s a “Try Me” slot so you can spin the ridiculous saw blade weapon, which probably somehow hypnotizes you into forgetting you already own a dozen Iron Man figures and that you desperately need this figure in your collection. Once again, the packaging is attractive and serviceable. Let’s shred it so I can get to my figure.

So, the most obvious difference on this suit, from the previous Avengers Iron Man figure is the Arc Reactor in his chest has gone from being a triangle, back to being a circle.  I actually prefer the circle, and that’s why I bought this figure. It’s a lot bigger than the circle reactor on previous figures in this scale, and it looks like just a big white dot, which is disappointing. A little blue hue around the edges would have been cool, because it really looks like they forgot to paint it. The rest of the armor is quite nicely sculpted and is completely different from the previous figures in both subtle and not-so subtle ways. I like the additional sculpted bits on the shoulders.

I’m a little happier with the paintwork on this figure over the last one. The red is more glossy and vibrant and more like that awesome “new car finish” style lacquer that Hasbro used on the Iron Man 2 figures. The gold isn’t quite as vibrant and there’s a little slop on the back of his legs, but overall, the colors and paint on this figure pop nicely.

The articulation here is identical to the last Iron Man figure, which means it’s not that great. You get nine points and all of them are ball joints. That’s the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. Yep, there’s zero articulation in the torso and that definitely hurts the figure. There’s also a lot of limitation to the hip joints. I didn’t mind the diminished articulation so much in Thor, but you can’t really get Iron Man into any great poses.

Iron Man comes with one accessory and… wait for it… waaaait for it… Yep, it’s a piece of garbage. It looks like it’s supposed to be some kind of shield with blue energy that spins around it. I was going to throw it out, but my cat took a fancy to it and now all I have to do is put it on the coffee table and spin it, and the cat goes absolutely nuts playing with it. Maybe this should have been called Iron Man “With Bonus Cat Toy!”

As much as I should, I cannot hate on this figure. It looks great standing on my shelf besides my movie Avengers. I’m not a big stickler on articulation, so the figure’s biggest stumbling point isn’t a deal breaker for me. Did I really need this one? Nah… but at seven bucks, it didn’t really break the bank either. I suppose the real issue is that I should have passed on the first Avengers Iron Man figure and waited to get this one, because I didn’t need both of them. But that’s it, Hasbro, I’m done buying 3 ¾” Iron Man figures for quite a while now. And based on what I’ve seen of the armor design in Iron Man 3, I may be passing on that figure too. You can, however, sell me a Ben Kingsley Mandarin figure… because seeing that on the pegs… well, that’s just going to blow my mind.

Jul 23 2012

Avengers: “Cosmic Spear” Loki by Hasbro

For such a huge and wonderful movie, the Avengers didn’t have a lot of staying power in the toy aisles around here. The bulk of the stuff has already been supplanted by Amazing Spider-Man and the few pegs that are left for the Avengers 3 ¾” figures are choked up by Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America figures, because some retailers have merged the SKU’s on the four lines (Yes, if you haven’t guessed already, I’m in the retail biz). As a result, I’ve been relegated to ordering the rest of what I want online. Yesterday, I got a package from Toys R Us with a couple of the 3 ¾” Avengers, and today we’re going to check out Loki. I’m sort of excited, since I never picked up any of the previous versions of Loki in this scale.

We’ve seen the packaging for the Avengers line here before, and we shall see it again. I don’t have much new to say, except I’m still digging on it. It’s attractive and serviceable. There’s a “Try Me” cut out so you can see the pathetic oversized weapon in action, but I can’t seriously imagine pressing that button will sway anyone’s opinion in favor of buying this figure. The back panel shows off a big photo of the figure, as well as some of the other figures in the assortment, and you also get a little blurb about Loki.

Out of the package, I’m pretty impressed with the sculpt of the figure. The head sculpt isn’t exactly a dead-on likeness, but it’s still a nice sculpt, complete with helmet and his trademark horns. The body depicts him wearing his full Asgardian armor, which is actually layered with some soft rubber pieces hanging off his torso and then his cape on top of that, hanging off his shoulders. The layering gives a nice depth and complexities to the already solid and detailed sculpt. The bulk of the figure is black, with gold paint apps for his armor pieces, and some green fringe, and a green cape. The cape is sculpted so that it’s blowing a bit off to the side. It isn’t terribly intrusive, but I really do wish it were removable.The paint apps on my figure are clean and precise. The gold paint is particularly nice and vibrant, and the whole deco really makes the figure stand out nicely on the shelf.

Loki’s articulation is pretty limited compared to Hasbro’s past Marvel movie figures. He has a ball jointed neck; His arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and again at the elbows; His legs are ball jointed at the hips and again at the knees. He has no torso articulation at all, and he’s also lacking wrist and ankle articulation. It’s not ideal, and if articulation is a major factor for you, you’re probably better off going with one of the Loki’s from the Thor line. On the other hand, the joints on this guy are solid and he stands very well on his own.

You get two accessories with Loki, one of which being the shitty oversized gimmick weapon called the “Cosmic Spear” It’s basically an overcomplicated pole axe with two stubby little blades that come  out of the sides when you push the shaft up. I’ve seen worse… at least it isn’t a missile launcher, but I really have no need for it so into the Tote of Forgotten Gimmicky Oversized Weapons it goes. One day, I shall bury that tote in the backyard and teach the future generations never to dig there. Of course, the good accessory is his Chitauri Staff, which featured so prominently in the movie. It’s a pretty nice likeness of this distinctive weapon. On the downside, only one of Loki’s hands is sculpted to hold it, the other is a fist, so he can’t hold it in both hands, like I’d like him to.

No real surprises here. In the end, Loki is a fantastic looking figure with articulation issues. I’m happy to have him on my shelf beside my Marvel movie figures, and I think kids could have a lot of fun with him, but if you’re a collector into posing your figures, he’s likely to disappoint. I tend to display my figures in a standing position and take them down every now and again to fiddle about with them, so the articulation doesn’t really bother me too much. Either way, the real reason to buy him is to get the Chitauri Staff.

Jul 21 2012

Star Trek Innerspace: Shuttlecraft Goddard by Playmates

Playmates put out a shit ton of Star Trek action figures and ships and roleplay toys, but they also launched a pair of interesting little lines called Innerspace and Strike Force. These consisted of little transformable playsets with minifigures. The concept is very close to the Micro Machines Star Wars playsets in that they’re pretty simple and you can close them up and take them with you. We’ll get into the Strike Force stuff eventually, but today we’re going to take a look at one of the Innerspace toys. It’s the shuttlecraft Goddard, and it’s one of the better toys in this little series.

While there were some larger, boxed Innerspace toys, the majority of the line came carded, which should give you an idea about just how small these things are. The Goddard is partially opened so you can get a peek inside and the two tiny minifigures are mounted off to the side. The back panel of the card has some specs and background information on the shuttlecraft, consisting of both fictional details as well as its first appearance in the series. You also get a bunch of close up photos of the toy and the various features. The packaging isn’t exactly attractive, but then this is Playmates we’re talking about. It is, however, informative and there’s even a little punch out collector card.

Out of the package, the Goddard is a really nice little recreation of the shuttle designs that started becoming standard about halfway through The Next Generation. In fact, it’s pretty spot-on. How small is it? Well, it falls right between the size of a Deluxe and Scout Class Transformer. There are a few nice details in the sculpt, and the markings on the toy are a combination of paint apps and fairly well applied stickers. About the only complaint I have here is that the windows are stickers instead of paint, and the main windshield is actually two stickers placed on each side of the seam where the toy opens up. I may get inspired enough to actually paint the windows on this thing one day, as I think it would be a big improvement.

The aft of the ship opens up and the boarding ramp drops down, just like it did in the show, and you can reach in and slide out the cargo pallet, just like you could on the larger Goddard vehicle that was designed for the regular action figure line. There are a couple of pegs under the shuttle that can be used to land on and pick up the pallet for transport. Honestly, even if this were all there was to it, I would still really dig this little toy.

But as the name, Innerspace, implies, the Goddard can be split down the middle and opened up to reveal an interior play area, as well as the minifigures (assuming you put them in there). The interior of the shuttle is even a bit more accurately portrayed than the larger Playmates shuttle. There’s a pilot area with a swiveling chair in the front, with some pretty cool stickers to make up those distinctive LCARS control panels. There are similar stickers on the two halves of the shuttle that open up, including stickers showing a replicator serving up a meal and another a piping hot beverage… earl gray tea perhaps? The back portion contains the cargo pallet, which can be slid out to allow the passenger seats to fold open. The interior really is well executed for such a tiny little toy.

The minifigures consist of Lt. Commander Geordi LaForge and Commander Deanna Troi. Really? A Commander? Every time I’m reminded of her rank, I want to call bullshit. But I digress. Imagine what you think of when you hear the term “minifigure” and now shrink it down a lot more, because these things are really friggin small. And yet, overall the sculpt and the paintwork are well executed to the point where you can certainly tell who they’re supposed to be. Geordi even has a little tool molded into his hand so he can run one of those damned Level 5 Diagnostics he was always talking about. Geordi is articulated at the hips so he can stand or sit in the pilot chair. Deanna on the other hand, has zero articulation, so she can either stand behind him and nag him while he’s flying or just lay out in the back cargo area. Her paint is a little less polished than Geordi’s. In fact,  someone went a little crazy when painting her comm badge.

The reason this toy works so well for me is because it’s totally in scale with the figures. There’s really no gimmick here, it’s just a little vehicle that opens up to let you play inside it. I would have LOVED it if the larger Goddard toy had been designed more like this tiny little toy. Unfortunately, the Goddard is pretty atypical for the Innerspace line, and as we’ll see next Saturday, most of the rest of the toys feature the huge Starships that really require you to suspend your beliefs and summon up all your imagination for them to work. Next time, we’ll look at the Romulan Warbird and the Klingon Bird of Prey.

Jul 20 2012

Vintage Vault: Sectaurs Skulk and Trancula by Coleco

Today’s foray into the world of Sectaurs presented me with a real quandary. Generally speaking, I don’t like to feature figures that aren’t at least close to complete. That’s not usually a problem, since a majority of my features cover new, nearly new, or mostly new toys. Obviously, Vintage Vault can pose problems, and while some of the toys I have featured here have at least been close to complete, the stuff I’m looking at today is missing virtually everything. Nonetheless, Skulk and Trancula are so cool, and it’s been so long since I’ve been back to look at Sectaurs on Vintage Vault, I thought I’d make an exception here.

 

Obviously, no packaged shot, but Skulk came riding atop Trancula in a magnificent window box with his gear mounted beside him, still waiting to be clipped off the plastic tree. I’ve found this set to be among the harder ones to find complete, along with an example of Winged with his wings still attached. In fact, I picked up Trancula all by his lonesome from a fellow collector and Skulk came in an assortment of Sectaurs figures and parts that I grabbed a long while ago off of Ebay, so these two aren’t even from the same set. Skulk was loose, so I don’t have any of his accessories. I was tempted to just look at Trancula and come back to Skulk when I could get myself a better, more complete example, but then Trancula is a riding beast, so there’s no point in looking at him without including a figure.

I’ve already looked at one of the Sectaurs riding beasts, but in case you missed out, these toys are among the more clever ideas to come out of any of the 80’s action figure lines. They’re basically half toy, half puppet. You put your hand into the back and you can work the legs with your fingers and sometimes other parts of the toy via a lever or pull mechanism. Coleco wasn’t the first to come up with the idea of puppets interacting with action figures. I still remember being freaked out by the spotty, green alien hand in my old Mego Star Trek playset, but Coleco really took the idea and developed it into something new.

If spiders creep you out, then you may want to stay away from Trancula, because he’s one big hairy spider, and yeah, I think it’s the hair that creeps me out. The fur is thick and brown and has various black patterns and markings on his big bulbous backside. It’s really pretty ceepy and disgusting. But, is he actually a spider? Not really. He’s only got four legs, but that’s your fault because you only have five fingers and the middle finger goes into a pull-ring that works his jaws. I suppose Coleco could have tacked on some extra non-working legs to bring the count up to eight, but I think that would have ruined the illusion. Besides, these are all alien mutant insects anyway. Nonetheless, his spider characteristics carry through to his face with his multiple red eyes. His jaws have white fangs on the top and bottom and, as mentioned, his jaws open and close at the command of your middle finger. There’s a sculpted saddle that snugly holds a Sectaurs figure so he can ride this beast into battle.

Skulk is a very cool and distinct looking figure. He lacks the humanoid facial features of many of the Sectaurs and shares his beast’s spider-like features. He’s got six red eyes scattered about his face and a small mouth with two big white fangs. The back of his head has a gross bumpy texture and, take note, my Skulk’s antenna have been clipped off close to the base.

The body, on the other hand, is more humanoid. His torso is a fairly standard Sectaur sculpt with a chiseled, muscular build and slight flares to the shoulders. His arms and legs are segmented, just like an insect’s, and they end in big white claws. Skulk features the standard Sectaur’s articulation, with the arms and legs attached with ball joints, his knees are hinged, and his head rotates.

Skulk comes with a ton of cool accessories and weapons, and as I warned earlier, I have none of them. The only thing I have with this figure is his harness. The harness secures snugly around his torso and has a really cool sculpted backpack. It also has a functional scabbard loop for his sword and a holster for his gun.

I’ve featured enough Sectaurs here that you should know by now how much I love the Sectaurs figures by themselves, but I absolutely adore the whole hand puppet beast and rider gimmick. Skulk looks amazing seated atop Trancula and the pair makes for a great display. You could argue that the Battle Beetle has a better biting gimmick, but Trancula’s creepy spider factor just pushes him over the top for me. I’m also always amazed at how well these ride-ons held up over the years, particularly where the hair is concerned. Sure, he’s got some scratches to the paint, but the fur is all clean and fresh, even after almost 30 years. Yeah, it’s too bad my Skulk is missing… well, everything, but don’t worry, we’ll come back to him somewhere down the road when I finally track down a complete version.

Jul 18 2012

Lego Mini-Figures, Series 7

Last time I did a feature on Lego minifigs it was waaay back in Series 2 and I bought enough blind bags to make it theoretically possible to get them all. Obviously, I didn’t get them all, but I did do pretty well with only a couple sets of doubles. Well, five series later and I haven’t been holding out featuring these. Nope, I just haven’t been buying any. Why? I honestly don’t know, because for $2.99 you get an amazing moment of either sheer delight or total devastation as you spill out the parts and see what you got. Anyway, I decided to break the unintended moratorium today as I was bumming around the toy section on the prowl for early releases of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures. This time, I was content with just picking up two packets of blind bagged Lego goodness.

Yes, if you don’t know the deal, the Lego Minifigs come blind bagged. There are all kinds of tricks to figure out who’s actually hiding inside, but I honestly think that ruins the fun. Keep in mind, I’m not a diehard collector, and I do feel for you Legophiles who are dead set on getting every last figure, but for a guy like me, I’m happy to go with the luck of the draw. So let’s check out the first one.

The Olympic Swimmer? Son of a fucking bitch!!!! So much for the luck of the draw, as I think this is the one figure in this whole assortment that I wanted the least. I mean, seriously? What the fuck am I supposed to do with this? Godammit! She’s so terrible that she isn’t even pictured on the baggie, only on the folded checklist inside the baggie. Why? Why, Lego Gods? Why have you forsaken me??? I suppose if I had any Star Wars Minifigs, I could use the medal as a Battle of Yavin medal. The swimcap would work if I ever custom make a Moe Howard Minifig. …Seriously, I’ve got nothing else to say about this one, except she’s got two printed faces and for some reason the one with the goggles makes me really angry. I’m going to try my luck on baggie number two. And so help me God, if it’s another Swimmer…

Fuck and yes! The Black Knight. Not only is this one absolutely amazing Minifig, but it actually goes with a lot of the sets I have. Just check this guy ou! He has slick armor patterns printed on his legs, and a blank upper body with a separate armor piece that slides on. The silver deco printed against the black really looks fantastic. And check out that printed face! He looks like he’s going to kill you and then use both your femurs as chopsticks to eat your intestines as if they were a delicious Lo Mein. Sadly, he only has the one printed face, but look at those bloody rage-filled eyes and tell me you would prefer something else. The helmet is nicely sculpted, and he comes with a cool sword and shield.

Ok, so as pissed as I was to get stuck with Olympic Swimmer Lady, I have to say getting the Knight cancels out the anger. This guy is one of my favorite figures in this assortment, although to be fair, this is a pretty great series with a number of truly great Minifigs, which kind of makes getting the Swimmer suck all the more. Either way, I’m not deterred by the experience. If anything, I want to try again and pick up a couple more real soon.

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Jul 16 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Piledriver by Hasbro

My last trip to Wally World to stock up on beers and frozen dinners netted me a nice surprise in the toy aisle. Not only did they finally restock Marvel Legends, but they restocked it with a case containing all the variants that I was missing from Wave 2. I only grabbed the ones that were new characters, namely Piledriver (variant of Thunderball) and Madam Viper (variant of Madam Masque). Today we’re going to check out Piledriver and we’ll take a look at Viper in the not too distant future.

Ah, the packaging… I still love this packaging. The local Walmart hasn’t had any Legends figures for a couple of months, but once they restocked, my eyes were immediately drawn to the pegs where these big bad babies were hanging. The top of the card features both Thunderball and Piledriver, allowing the card to work with either of the variant figures. The sticker on the bubble reads “Marvel’s Wrecking Crew” but oddly enough neither character’s name actually appears on the package anywhere. Did I notice that when I looked at Thunderball? Feel free to nip back and have a look. Anyway, I’ve gone on and on about the ML packages enough in the past, so I’ll save any further gushing for when Wave 3 finally comes out. For now, let’s just move on and look at the figure.

 

As mentioned, PIledriver is a variant of Thunderball, and that means he’s absolutely huge. He uses the exact same body as his fellow teammate, with nothing re-sculpted or changed aside from the paint. His pants are painted reddish brown, his shirt is white with a blue wash, and his gloves and boots and belt are blue. I wasn’t a big fan of the blue wash when it was used on Madam Masque, but here it doesn’t offend me quite as much. All in all, it works quite well, but I honestly do wish that Hasbro had retooled his hands, or at least one of them, into fists, but I’ll get back to that when we talk accessories.

Naturally, the head sculpt is entirely new and, while it seems like I’m saying throwing this compliment out there a lot where Marvel Legends are concerned, it’s absolutely fantastic. He wears the same style hood as Thunderball, exposing his tuft of blonde hair, but it’s his facial expression that really wins it over for me. Hasbro really has a knack for deranged looking faces in this line, and Piledriver just looks like he’s inviting you in for a beat down and that he’s going to thoroughly enjoy it. He’s just dripping with character.

As expected, articulation is identical to Thunderball. The head is ball jointed and features the additional hinge. The arms have ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and gloves, and hinged elbows. The legs are ball jointed in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, hinged ankles, and hinges in his feet. He can swivel at the waist and he has the usual ab crunch hinge in the torso.

Ok, so accessories. You get two very small parts for the Arnim Zola Build-A-Figure: His remote control and his ESP box. If you’ve already picked up all the regular versions of these figures, you have little need of these items, although I think it’s nice to have a spare remote because my Zola likes to plunge off the shelf and sooner or later my cat is going to make off with the remote and hide in the network of tunnels that he has hollowed out under my apartment. You also get the exact same ball and chain that came with Thunderball. Granted, this doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I’m not going to quarrel with getting a second one of these, as it’s an awesome accessory and Thunderball can wield one in each hand. On the downside, including this accessory gave Hasbro an excuse not to give Piledriver fists.

As far as variants go, Piledriver isn’t a terribly ambitious figure. He’s just a repaint with a head swap. If you’ve followed any of Hasbro’s SDCC coverage, you may have seen that they have a lot more extreme makeovers for future releases to become two different characters. With all that being said, I do really dig this figure. Once I get past the lack of changes in the hands, it works fine the way it is and Hasbro certainly didn’t cheap out when sculpting the new head. If this is the only cost effective way to get these kinds of figures, I’m all for it. Now I just want me a ML Wrecker. Come on, Hasbro, don’t leave us hanging.

Jul 14 2012

Star Trek: Classic Crew Bridge Set by Playmates

It’s Saturday… It’s Star Trek… It’s Star Trek Saturday! Playmates started out with only the license to do figures based on The Next Generation. Obviously that eventually expanded to epic proportions. As memory serves, today’s featured item was Playmates’ first foray into the “expanded universe” of Star Trek by going back to its classic roots with figures based on the crew from the original series. Instead of making collectors buy up an entire wave of single carded figures, Playmates issued this attractive seven figure boxed gift set.

Playmates is not exactly known for their tasteful and attractive packaging, but they really stepped up to the plate with this one. The set comes in a window box with a folded 3D cardboard tray illustrated to look like the bridge of the original series Enterprise. In retrospect, it’s a little off, and that big empty cardboard Captain’s chair in the middle of the package is kind of strange, but nonetheless, it did a nice job showing off the seven figures. The box deco was a simple space theme with “Classic Star Trek” in the old TV show’s font and an illustration of the old Constitution Class Enterprise. I had to borrow a stock photo for this set, as mine was opened a long time ago and let’s just say the packaging didn’t survive the process. Nonetheless, if there was ever a set of Playmates figures I wouldn’t mind buying again to have MISB, this one would be it.

Included in the package is Captain Kirk, Lt Commander Spock, Lt Commander Scott, Lt Sulu, Lt Uhura, Dr McCoy, and Ensign Chekhov. The figures reuse a lot of parts between them, but because they’re all wearing the same basic uniform with just a recolored shirt, it doesn’t feel so obvious. The sculpts are all actually quite well done for a Playmates 4-inch line. The badges are actually part of the sculpt, and not just painted on, as are the deco around their shirt cuffs. I was happy to see that Playmates went with a more prone and poseable style to the sculpts, rather than some of the pre-posed and awkward stuff they did with the early Next Generation stuff. The head sculpts on this classic set are all decent likenesses too, and there is the occasional flare for detail, like having Spock’s right hand in the form of the Vulcan salute.

Articulation is another thing Playmates did right with this set. All the figures have the same points. The heads turn, the arms rotate at the shoulders, swivel at the biceps, and are hinged at the elbows. The legs rotate at the hips and are hinged at the knees. All the figures can swivel at the waist. Again, unlike some of the early Next Generation figures that felt like they were designed to be poseable statues, these guys felt more like action figures meant to be played with.

The set came with the same accessories for every figure: Each one got a phaser and a communicator. While they were a tad oversized, these accessories were actually painted, and were loads better than the usual monochrome, day-glow crap that Playmates stuffs in with their other Star Trek figures. All the accessories came together in a single baggie, and you also got personalized stands based on the classic series badges, each with the correct department symbol for Command, Engineering, or Sciences. Cool! A couple of tricorders would have been nice, though.

Nowadays, this set is pretty easy to find on the second hand market and like most of Playmates figures, it hasn’t really gone up in value, so you can still pick up a set new in the box without blowing a lot of latinum. In fact, I’ve seen them listed on Ebay and go unsold in the $20 -30 range, and keep in mind we’re talking about seven figures! It’s a great deal, considering these remain some of my favorite Star Trek figures that Playmates ever put out. If they had produced a similar set with the Wrath of Khan theme, I would have probably died of pure joy.