Jun 27 2012

Voltron: Pidge (Green Lion Pilot) by Mattel

Alrighty, folks, we’re pushing on with Matty Madness week. The DC stuff is out of the way and now we can check out June’s Club Lion Force offerings. This month, we got the Green Lion and Pidge. If you’re keeping score, this release officially gets us over the hump and more than half way to completing the BFV*. I’m getting seriously excited now! We’re going to take a look at the Green Lion tomorrow, but today we’re just going to focus on its pilot. Yes, it’s the annoying know-it-all kid of the Lion Force… Pidge.

We’ve seen this packaging before, but let’s go through it anyway so I can pad out this feature a bit and pander to the people who weren’t here for the last two pilot figures. Pidge comes in a snazzy little box with a window that shows the figure. Each of the boxes are color coded to each pilot’s lion, so this one is green. The character artwork is pretty solid and the back shows off photos of the figure, the key stand, the C&C Blazing Sword piece, as well as an illustration of how the figure fits into his lion.

The package opens at the top or bottom and allows you to slide out the tray and get at all the goodies. No surprises here. You get the figure with his extra helmeted head mounted beside him. You get the C&C sword piece, in this case it’s part of the blade, and you get the key stand. The package is delightfully collector friendly, which is a big bonus, as I will likely be keeping the figures in these boxes even after I’ve completed assembling the Voltron.

Pidge is tiny! Yes, I expected him to be small, but man he’s small. That’s not a knock against the figure, mind you. Something I love about the way Matty is doing these figures is the way they’re all differently proportioned. Part of me was expecting the same body on all of them, including Pidge. Ok, not really, but the point is that while there are a few things I would do differently with these guys, the relative scaling is not one of them. It’s quite perfect. The head sculpts are very well executed and oozing with personality right down to his huge dorky glasses. If you want a great example of why Matty didn’t go with removable helmets on these figures, Pidge is it. There’s no way all that hair would have fit under one!

Matty managed to get the same level of articulation into Pidge’s tiny body. That means you get a ball jointed head, ball jointed shoulders and elbows, universal movement in the hips, and ball jointed knees. The joints don’t quite have the range of motion as the bigger pilots, but for a figure this size, I’m pleased.

Of course, there are a few things I’m not so pleased about, and these are mostly the same gripes I have with the Lance and Hunk figures. The fact that the gun is sculpted onto the belt and not removable still pisses me off. And yes, I’m going to mention it every time I look at one of these guys. The fact that the key stand doesn’t have a sticker on the reverse side really irks me a lot too. At $15 a figure, these things are not a lot to ask for, but obviously, Matty isn’t going to make any running changes halfway through the subscription.

And there you go. I think we all know what to expect from the pilot figures now. If anything, Pidge surprised me a little because of his excellent scale and the way the articulation wasn’t sacrificed too much for it. I like these figures well enough, but when you consider their cost, Matty should have put a little more into them. Collectors may find this sentiment to be especially the case with Pidge because he is indeed so small for a figure with a fifteen dollar pricetag. Either way, I’m happy to have the third member of Lion Force in my collection. Tomorrow, we’ll check out Pidge’s ride.

*Big Fucking Voltron!

Jun 26 2012

DC Universe Signature Collection: Atrocitus by Mattel

Yes, it was a busy month for Club Infinite Earth subscribers. Not only did we get our sub exclusive figure, Metron, but also our second monthly figure, Atrocitus. While I wouldn’t rank Atrocitus here as high on my list as Jay Garrick or Metron, he is a figure that I was pretty excited to add to my collection. The Sinestro Corps has been greatly outnumbering the Red Lanterns on my Green Lantern shelf, so any chance to beef up the Ranks of Rage make me a happy collector.

By now we know what to expect from the Signature Collection packaging, as Atrocitus comes in the same style window box as Jay Garrick. I gushed a lot over the deco yesterday when looking at Metron, so suffice it to say I’m really digging this one too. I think these boxes feature some of the best character art I’ve seen in an action figure package in a long time, so please keep it up, Matty. The package is completely collector friendly, so you can display your Atrocitus loose and return him to the box with no worries.

I was certainly expecting a fair amount of reuse from the previous Red Lantern Corps figure, Skallox and Nite-Lik, and I certainly wasn’t wrong. After all, I do want a certain degree of uniformity in my Red Lantern Corps figures. Nonetheless, a combination of retooling and paintwork certainly makes Atrocitus his own figure. The arms are reused, but with brand new hands, and the body and upper legs are a straight reuse, but with a slightly different paint deco. Curiously, the lower legs are different and instead of having the sculpted line at the top of his boots, Atrocitus just has it painted. It’s a slight step down and I’m wondering why Mattel just didn’t go with the other lower legs. Ah well.

What is new is quite excellent. The head sculpt is absolutely fantastic. It’s intricately detailed with the mouth open to display his amazing set of choppers. The tiny deep set beady yellow eyes are great, and the whole head is framed by a new combined cowl and shoulder armor piece, which is soft plastic so as not to impede Atrocitus’ head articulation.

Articulation? You should know the drill by now. The head is ball jointed. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. The legs have universal movement in the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. He can also swivel at the waist and has an ab crunch in the torso.

You do get one accessory with Atrocitus and, you guessed it, it’s his Red Lantern. It’s the same piece we’ve seen before only with a snazzy glittery red paint job. I’d be tempted to complain that neither of Atrocitus’ hands are sculpted to hold it, but honestly, I never display these figures holding their Lanterns anyway.

After the Green Lantern overload that punctuated the ending waves of DC Universe Classics, I should be a bit more critical about Mattel including this figure so early on in the subscription line. Green Lantern fatigue was a running theme for me in 2012. So, I should be more critical, but I’m not. The Red Lanterns are woefully under-represented and Atrocitus is a very cool figure. He also serves to remind us that while the Signature Collection may have a new name and snazzy new packaging, it’s still just an extension of DC Universe Classics, and I’m perfectly fine with that.

Jun 25 2012

DC Universe Signature Collection: Metron & The Mobius Chair by Mattel

Way back when Matty first floated the idea of Club Infinite Earths, they had a poll to see who the Sub Exclusive figure would be. There was always a pretty good chance that I was going to join out of the sheer desire to keep my DC Universe Classics collection going, but when Metron won out as the Exclusive, and me being the huge New Gods whore that I am, I was totally sold at that point. Naturally, I’m glad to finally get this guy and his cosmic furniture into my collection. This is also the first time I’ve got one of Matty’s Subscription Exclusive figures. Does he live up to expectations? Let’s see…

Metron comes in a standard Matty Collector white mailer box. Inside you get a satisfyingly large window box with the snazzy “DC Universe Signature Collection” printed across the top and “Signature” in shiny foil lettering. One side panel features artwork of the character and the back panel features a larger piece of character art and a little bio. As with the Jay Garrick figure, Matty has gone above and beyond with the artwork here. It’s colorful, vibrant, and absolutely fantastic.

The Metron figure is packaged standing beside the Mobius chair and with the chair’s base mounted separately behind the tray. Here’s where my only issues with the packaging come into play. If I were a MISB collector, I would definitely have preferred Metron to be sitting in his chair. I’m an opener, so I’m not going to nitpick about that. On the other hand, while the package is totally collector friendly, the chair is designed so that once you snap it together, you risk damaging it if you’re going to try to pull it apart. Of course, you have to pull it apart to return the figure to the package, and that’s my only complaint. I really want to save this package, but knowing I can never return the chair inside, it seems pointless to do so. In the end, I’ll probably just wind up clipping off the back panel, because I just can’t bring myself to throw out that gorgeous character art.

Metron is one of those DC Universe figures that gets by with very little original sculpting and mainly some original paintwork to make up his costume. The head sculpt is the only thing that’s really new here and I’m actually delighted to see how much of it is sculpted and not just paintwork. The face is excellent, with a bold, piercing gaze. I expected the piping on his brow and helmet to just be paint, but all the detail work on his hood is fully sculpted. The hands appear to be new sculpts, but someone may correct me on this point. They’re configured so that they can rest convincingly on the control panels arms of the chair, but when out of the chair they look as if they are about to unleash some form of cosmic power.

The cosmic deco on his chest is tampo’ed on with crisp precision. The bulk of the figure is cast in a nice, deep blue plastic and the lighter portions on his pelvis, hands, and chest are painted on as is his belt. There’s a little bit of smudge on the left side of my Metron’s belt as a reminder that while this may be an exclusive figure in a subscription collector line, Matty is still sticking to the regular mass market standards of quality control. It’s easily fixed with a little black pen work, but nonetheless a little disappointing.

Metron features standard DCUC levels of articulation. You get a ball jointed head; The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. His legs feature universal movement at the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. He can also rotate at the waist and has the standard DCUC ab crunch hinge in his torso.

The Mobius chair, as mentioned, comes in two separate pieces. The base snaps onto the rest of the chair and it does it more or less permanently. It’s a sturdy piece, but the plastic is light enough that I wouldn’t risk disconnecting the base once it’s attached. At the very least it feels like it would produce some nasty stress marks.

As a display piece, the chair looks fantastic. It’s perfectly sized and fits the figure very nicely. The back disc spins and Mattel put a lot of love into the sculpt, giving it a lot of fine detail even under the base and behind the seat where it isn’t going to be readily noticed when on display. The chair is cast in green plastic with metallic gold paint to fill in the deco. Most importantly, Metron looks outstanding seated in it.

No doubt in my mind, Metron is a very cool figure, especially for a subscription exclusive. Granted, you’re mileage may vary. DC Universe Classics was always a line that tested the true limits of fans and collectors with some really obscure characters, and while I certainly wouldn’t call Metron obscure, he’s probably not on the forefront of a lot of want lists. I’ve already labeled myself a New Gods whore, as some of the first DC comics that I read as a kid on a regular basis were Mister Miracle and Orion, so this set is targeted squarely at me. It’s true that Matty didn’t go above and beyond with the figure itself. Metron is a typical DCUC figure through and through, but when you bundle him with the chair he makes for a nice exclusive piece. Either way, he’s definitely going to be a showpiece in my DCUC collection.

Jun 25 2012

Matty Madness Week

I’m coming off of my three-updates-per-week rotation this week in order to get through all the Matty Collector stuff that was dumped on my stoop this weekend. Later today I’ll be posting a look at the Club Infinite Earths Metron figure, tomorrow it’ll be Atrocitus, and then Wednesday and Thursday we’ll look at the Club Lion Force Green Lion and Pidge. Friday I’ll return to normalcy with Vintage Vault.

 

I’m a strong proponent of giving credit where it is due, especially when I spill so much electric ink here bashing Matty Collector’s poor performance. This past Matty Sale Day, they did everything right, so here I am applauding it. It was a big Sale Day for me as I have both Voltron and DC Infinite Earth subscriptions and they both synched up, which meant I was getting Green Lion and Pidge, plus the monthly DC figure, Atrocitus, plus the DC Sub Exclusive figure, Metron. A lot could go wrong, and nothing did. Not only did I get billed the correct amount on the Monday before the Sale Day, but everything shipped out two days before the Sale Day as well. The shipping is still pretty slow, but certainly not nearly as bad as previous months. Plus, considering how much they were shipping to me, I’ll even say the shipping charges were pretty reasonable.

So, bravo, Matty, for a job well done this time.

Jun 22 2012

Vintage Vault: Wheeled Warriors Armed Force by Mattel

It’s long past time that I introduce a fresh toy line to Vintage Vault, so here we go. Today we’re checking out the Wheeled Warriors. Introduced by Mattel back in 1985, the Wheeled Warriors were a somewhat short lived line of vehicles with a load of customization and play value, summed up by the tagline, “quick changing fighting machines!” The battle raged between the good guys, called the Lightning League, and the bad guys, The Monster Minds. Like all good toy lines of the 80’s the Wheeled Warriors featured a cartoon tie-in, called “Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.” Unlike a lot of the 80’s cartoons, this one was ret-conned from a toy line that didn’t really have any characters or story and it shows. It was well animated enough and sometimes entertaining, but despite the fact that it featured Mattel’s vehicle designs it just didn’t mesh well with the toys. The bizarre mix of magic and fantasy elements and the ungoing story involving space exploration and the quest to find the lead character’s father seemed obviously tacked on.

Anywho, today we’re going to look at the lead vehicle from the good guys, Armed Force. Each of the vehicles had a signature weapon and Armed Force’s is a giant claw. I don’t have a package shot, but these vehicles came in slightly elongated window boxes with the core vehicle on one side and the various parts mounted to the right. The packages displayed the toys well enough, but the deco wasn’t terribly attractive or exciting. Someday I may get to feature a packaged Wheeled Warriors toy here, but I won’t be going out of my way to get one.

And there’s Armed Force in all its stripped down glory. The set includes the vehicle’s chassis, hinged cockpit, driver figure, drive frame, the claw arm, a missile, and three guns. You also got six wheels, but mine is missing the two extras. The missing wheels are basically the same as the smaller ones, but have a swirly pattern instead of the gears. Remember, the gimmick here is complete customization, so each of the vehicles had sockets to plug the weapons into and even the drive systems and wheels could be pulled out and interchanged. Armed Force has enough sockets to get everything onto the vehicle, minus the two extra wheels, and still have three sockets left over.  There are plenty of custom options for each individual toy, but ideally the more toys you had the more you could play around with, plus each side had an Attack Pack available with extra parts. You can even link up multiple vehicles. It works better in theory than practice, but you can still do it!

The Armed Force toy itself is a very nice piece. The body is cast in white plastic and paired with some gorgeous gold vac-metal to give it a snazzy look. There are sculpted panel lines, vents, hoses and various other thingamajigs all over and even some colorful decals on the top with the Lightning League logos. The canopy opens up to reveal the cockpit for the driver figure. The drivers aren’t much to rave about. They’re smaller and less detailed than Kenner’s MASK figures, and only feature four points of articulation (shoulders and hips) but having a removable driver is still a cool bonus. The use of gold vac-metal carried over to some of the parts as well and the claw arm has a simple chomping gimmick that can be worked with the lever on the back.

I absolutely loved the concept of these toys as a kid, but between Transformers, GI Joe, and Star Wars my allowance and Christmas wish lists were always already spoken for so I never owned any. When I finally tracked down this decent and almost complete Armed Force, I was a little apprehensive about what it would be like in person, particularly since these things aren’t cheap. When it finally arrived I was happy to see that it lived up to, and possibly exceeded, my expectations. These are really fun and well- designed toys that hold up extremely well. If Mattel wanted to they could easily re-launch this line under the Hot Wheels brand and probably be pretty successful with it. I know I would buy the hell out of them. But for now, I’ll have to be content with hunting down the vintage versions. Oh yes, we’ll be looking at more Wheeled Warriors in the future!

Jun 20 2012

Lord of the Rings: Uruk-Hai Army by Lego

It’s been a while since we looked at any actual Lego sets here on FigureFan. I guess I’m still bitter over them dropping my beloved Pharaoh’s Quest line. Either way, Lego launched two brand new lines last week so it was time to sit up and take notice. There’s the Monster Hunter line, which doesn’t really grab my interest right now, and then there’s a little known license called… Lord of the F’ing Rings. Obviously, the Lord of the Rings sets are right up my alley. I grew up reading the books and my favorite Lego sets have been the Kingdoms, Castle, and even some of those Prince of Persia sets. The LotR stuff seems to mesh pretty well with that whole medieval theme and so Lego had my monies from day one on this series. I was oh so tempted to jump right in and pick up one of the biggest of the sets, but cooler heads prevailed and I went with one of the middle of the road sets. Good thing too, since my computer died the very next day, hence blowing my budget for the week.

The packaging is pretty standard Lego fare. It’s a box with a cool LotR-inspired deco on it that shows you exactly what you’re going to get inside. Keep that in mind, as it’s important later. Inside the box you get two good sized baggies containing a total of 257 pieces, and a fairly hefty instruction book. The first baggie contains the Uruk-hai forces, made up of four minifigs and a siege crossbow. The second baggie contains a section of wall and two Rohan minifigs. Normally, I cover all the minifigs first, but this time we’ll look at each bag in order, so let’s check out the Uruk-hai. Keep in mind, the content of these sets seem to draw strongly on the movie, rather than Lego going with their own interpretations from the books. That’s probably a good thing, since most casual fans will relate to the movies and with The Hobbit coming out (eventually) these sets will help keep the property in circulation. Ok, onto the toys…

Yes, as the name of the set suggests, you get an instant squad of Uruk-hai soldiers. Really, it’s the same minifig four times over, but you get different pieces to customize them and make them each a little different if you want. The pieces include three helmets, one hair piece, two poleaxes, two swords, two shields, and two breast plates. The printing on the figures is excellent and each one has a double-printed face to help you mix things up even more. The equipment consists of the vicious killing tools from the movie shrunk down to adorable minifig form. I’m particularly fond of the swords, as they look just like the mass-produced, utilitarian choppers seen on the big screen. I really wouldn’t change a thing about these guys. Well done, Lego!

You also get the big siege crossbow, which is a very cool piece. It rolls along on four big wheels and flick fires two huge battering missiles. It uses some cool new pieces that have printed wood patterns on them and really go a long way to give it a natural look to the construction. I’ve got quite the growing number of siege weapons from my Kingdoms and Prince of Persia sets, and I’m happy to add this fine piece to my ranks.

And then there’s the second baggie with the Rohan stuff. You get two minifigs, Eomer and a Rohan Solider, you get a horse, and you get a section of wall to defend. The minifigs are both excellent. Eomer features some beautiful printing to make up his outfit, a double-printed face to mix up his expressions, and one of those cloth capes that I love so much. He also comes with a gilded helmet, a sword, a shield and a spear. The soldier has some equally fine printing and the same helmet as Eomer only not gilded since he’s just cannon fodder. He also comes with a quiver that slips over his neck and a bow and arrow. The horse features a saddle with clips to hold two pieces of equipment and it’s also articulated in the neck and in the back legs so it can rear up on its haunches. Is this new? I don’t remember my other Lego horses being articulated at all, but maybe I’m thinking of the Playmobil horsies. The horse also comes with the bricks to fill up his mid-section in case you just want him chilling out in the background.

Ok, so let’s talk about that wall. It has two levels, so you can stand figures behind it or up on the top of the battlements. You get a mounted catapult just like the ones we’ve seen in Kingdoms and Prince of Persia. There’s a staircase leading up to the battlements, and a torch and a flag. It’s certainly serviceable to give the Uruk-hai something to attack and the Rohan people something to defend, but it feels incomplete, and that’s because it is. You see, it’s actually designed to link up with the Battle of Helms Deep set, so by itself, you’re just getting a piece of a larger wall. I would have much preferred a tower or something that could both stand alone and link up with Helm’s Deep, rather than an incomplete structure.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, the box shows you exactly what you get, so Lego isn’t pulling a fast one. They even show you how the wall links up to Helm’s Deep. They even have the audacity to suggest you buy two Helm’s Deep sets and link them together. That’s awesome, Lego, but the Helm’s Deep set costs $130. I’m not made out of money, damn you!

Maybe I’m making too big a deal about the wall piece. The truth is, this is still a great set and it gives you everything you need to have a little battle right out of the box. What’s more, this set is absolutely perfect for army builders. You can buy multiples of this set and if you’re willing to count Eomer as a Captain and not a specific character, then every piece goes toward building a bigger army. And that’s a big part of what LotR is all about, huge battles. It’s cool to see that Lego recognizes and embraces it. At $30 you’re getting a lot of absolutely fantastic minifigs and two set pieces to have a battle. The fact that this set will mesh so well with Helm’s Deep when I finally pick it up is just icing on the Lego Cake.

Jun 18 2012

Transformers Prime: Ratchet by Hasbro

It’s time for more Prime! This time, we’re taking a look at one of the Autobots and also my favorite character from the show. Or at least the episodes that I’ve actually watched. Yep, it’s Ratchet. Not only do I love the way he’s portrayed (he’s crotchety and acts like everything is an imposition and a bother), but you can’t deny the greatness of Jeffrey Combs who provides his voice and personality. It also doesn’t hurt that G1 Ratchet always had a special place in my heart after he became the last Autobot standing back in the original Marvel comic. Suffice it to say, I was pretty happy to get this figure and to see if it does his TV counterpart justice.                 

What? No package shot. Here’s what happened. My computer died last week and while I’m up and running with a brand new setup, I haven’t had time to recover the files off the old computer’s hard drive. That means not only am I having to re-write this feature (and about three others), but the in-package shot of Ratchet is currently inaccessible. You can reference the general package design by looking back at the Vehicon feature from last week. Ratchet’s character art is fantastic and the bio blurb is downright disturbing, as it generally suggests that his intimate knowledge of anatomy makes him great at killing and dispensing pain. Wow! Pretty dark stuff for the back of a toy packet.

In his vehicle mode Ratchet is an ambulance. What? Crazy, I know. His general configuration is a bit more like a utility truck from the Bayformer movie-verse than most Ratchets from the past. The sculpt is pretty solid and there’s a lot of little panel lines and details. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot of jigsaw puzzle seaming on the sides. Remember Classics Ratchet? Well, it’s not quite that bad, but it is close. The deco also feels somewhat unfinished. Ratchet is molded in white plastic, with some red paintwork on his front end and the roof of his cabin. There’s also some red striping. It’s pretty basic ambulance colors, but its missing the lettering you usually find on an EMT vehicle. Like I said, the deco just feels unfinished.

Ratchet’s ambulance mode has two sets of ports for his blade weapons. You can plug them into his front bumper for some pretty vicious ramming action, or you can plug them into his roof. Not real sure what purpose that serves.

Transforming Ratchet felt a little involved the first time, but once I saw where everything goes it’s actually pretty easy. He is a bit of a shell former, but most of the ambulance kibble forms the backs of his legs and a backpack that isn’t too prominent or intrusive. No, Ratchet has one outstanding looking robot mode. He’s not only very faithful to his onscreen counterpart, but he’s also just a generally clean, balanced and proportional design. What’s more most everything clips or tabs in very nicely to make a figure that is every bit as solid as he is great looking. It doesn’t hurt that Ratchet’s deco fares much better in his robot mode than ambulance. He’s still primarily white, but there’s a better use of the red paint. Oh yeah, in robot mode, Ratchet can wield those blades like crazy little daggers, one in each hand.

No doubt, Ratchet is an amazing figure. Yes, his ambulance mode is somewhat lackluster. It is by no means terrible, but the seaming on the sides can be an eyesore and I really wish Hasbro had tampo’ed some lettering onto him to make him more polished and convincing. This guy really feels like some of the coloring was nixed to keep costs down. On the other hand, once you get him into robot mode, he makes up for every one of his shortcomings as an ambulance. Of course, I may be a little biased because I tend to display my Transformers in bot form.

Jun 15 2012

Vintage Vault: Sectaurs Skito and Toxcid by Coleco

Its Friday and that means its time for another AD&D… oh wait, sorry, force of habit. As I’ve been promising for a while now, we’ll give AD&D a break for two or three weeks. today we’re taking a look at those loveable mutant insect warriors from the planet of Symbion. I’ve featured the Sectaurs here on FigureFan numerous times in the past, but this is actually the first time I’m looking at one of the bad guys from the Dark Domain of Synax. Part of the reason I pushed this one back from last Friday was because I was desparately looking for some of the stuff that came with him. I have all his accessories, but somewhere, I have an envelope with the mini-comic and other ephemera. Alas, I still couldn’t put my hands on any of it, so we’re going to just press on with the figure.

No in package shot. One day, I’ll get around to actually looking at one of these figures or beasts in a package. I remember getting Skito in a window box, but I’m pretty sure some of these figures were available carded as well.

And there’s Skito. Damn, I love the designs on these figures. They’re so very distinctive. Skito’s head sculpt is a little more human-ish than some of the bad guys we’ll eventually look at. He is separated from the good guys by having an olive colored skin. He’s also sporting pointy ears, fangs, and a set of cool, segmented antenna. There isn’t a lot of variation in the core bodies of these figures. Skito features the usual armored chest with flared shoulders, four fingered hands, both of which can hold his accessories, and feet that end in three pointy toes. The rest of Skito’s color pallet features a lot of black and green. His feet desolve from green into borwn. As always, I like the slightly metallic twinge on his chest paint.
Skito has the same standard points of articulation as all the Sectaurs. His head turns, his arms have ball jointed shoulders. His legs feature ball jointed hips and hinged knees. Not exactly super articulation by today’s standards, but not bad for the day. You can get some decent poses out of him.
As always, you get some cool gear with the figure. Skito features a removable harness that goes across his chest and around his waist. It includes a fully functional shoulder holster for under his right arm, and a scabbard loop on his left hip. The pistol is a little grey snub-nosed affair with a wonderfully detailed sculpt. The sword is also grey, slightly curved and the blade is segmented as if its made from bone or something. Lastly, he comes with a small shield.
Of course, one of the gimmicks of the Sectaurs line was the psychic link between the characters and their little buggy sidekicks. In this case, Skito’s is Toxcid. Toxcid’s big claim to fame was his ability to spit acid in people’s faces. The toy replicates this by allowing you to fill up the bug with water and squeeze it to shoot. I used to use Kool Aid to give it a red venomy look. In terms of play value, Toxcid probably isn’t the most exciting of the bug companions. He isn’t at all articulated, and unless you’re actually going to fill him with water and squirt people, he just kind of sits there. Still, I think his gimmick works better than some of the other bugs in the line. At least he doesn’t have a grappling hook built into him. Either way, he is a very nice sculpt and the coloring on him is very cool.
The Sectaurs figures continue to amaze me. As a kid, I was totally in love with this line, even though I never owned any. But nowadays they impress me all the more because of how well they hold up after all these years. Skito is a fun, well designed figure with lots of cool gear and he’s totally representative of this line as a whole. What’s more, they display beautifully on any retro-themed toyshelf or even beside my Masters of the Universe Classics.
Jun 13 2012

Transformers Prime: Vehicon by Hasbro

Ok, its come to this. I was pretty determined not to pick up any of the Transformers Prime toys for a number of reasons. Its true I’m pretty lukewarm on the show. I can watch it and enjoy it, but I don’t seek it out and therefore have only seen a handful of episodes. But let’s face it, if I only bought Transformers from shows I enjoyed, I wouldn’t have the dozen or so totes full of them that I do. No, the main reason was one of discipline. My Transformers collection has grown so out of control over the years that I can’t even display most of it and so I decided to limit myself just to buying the Classics/Universe 2.0/Generations themed figures. I’ll also admit to not being a huge fan of the overly stylized Transformer designs, but that never stopped me from buying a buttload of TF: Animated figures. Anywho, with things being so slow and no new Avengers figures showing up at the local retailers, I caved in this last weekend and bought a couple of TF: Prime Deluxes, The Vehicon and Ratchet. We’ll check out the first one today: The Vehicon!

I gotta say, I really dig this packaging. Sure, its a simple bubble on cardback, but the deco is gorgeous and really jumps off the peg at me. You get an extended card at the top with the series logo, a nice piece of personalized character artwork and a giant Decepticon logo with lightning shooting across it. Holy hell! The bubble has an insert showing the figure’s name and allegiance and has the “Robots in Disguise” monikor, which distinguishes it from the rarer and superior figures most of will never see “First Edition” versions of the line. Its best not to get me started on that nonsense. The figure is carded in his vehicle form with his “Snap On Blaster Cannon” mounted beside him.
The back panel of the card shows a shot of the figure in both modes and has a little bio blurb that is not only better than what we usually get, but better than it has any right to be, considering who this character is. You see, the Vehicons are the cannon fodder of the show, similar to the Vehicons in Beast Machines or the drones in the Fall of Cybertron game. They’re there to be blowed up and get the slag beaten out of them. That having been said, the bio gives them a lot of personality. But enough preamble. Let’s rip this guy open and check him out. We’ll start with the vehicle mode.
Awww yeah. That’s what I’m talking about. I’m pretty sure I’ve expressed my irrational love for Decepticon cars before, so straight away The Vehicon is tugging at my heart strings. Plus, I love this car mode! Ok, it is somewhat smallish and yeah, it is seriously lacking in the paint apps department, just some little bits of purple accent, but the design is killer.  The wedge-shaped wall of a front end makes it look like it was built for ramming Autobot fools off the road. The rear spoiler fins give it a bit of a Batmobile look and the tranlucent plastic on the windows and front headlamps make me happy. There are sockets just above the rear wheelwells on either side that let you plug the Vehicon’s gun into. Its a shame Hasbro couldn’t have engineered some flip-up guns into this thing somewhere. Anyway, I love it.
The Vehicon is a bit of a shellformer, but his transformation is clever enough to make me easily forgive this sometimes lazy method of design. The entire top of the car from the back to the windshield splits and folds up into his legs. The result is you have no real car shell kibble, only a sleek and sexy looking Decepticon badass.
And badass he is! He’s got that lean and spindly look many of the TF:Prime robot designs feature, although he still remains very well proportioned. What’s really cool, though, is that despite being largely a shellformer, its tough to see where it all goes, thanks to the clever design of his legs. The only real car kibble lands on his shoulders and sides of his legs, and these pieces look strategically placed as armor. The head sculpt is great. It took me a while to place it, but it definitely has a little Battlestar Galactica modern Cylon thing going for it. I’m also a big fan of the little exposed part of bare metal on his chest with a Decepticon logo and a piece of clear plastic laid over it. Very nice! The Vehicon’s robot mode features more of a purple and black deco make for classic Decepticon colors. He and Skywarp could definitely hang out.
Articulation is, in a word, solid. He’s got balljoints in his neck, shoulders, and hips. His elbows feature a weird combo balljoint and hinge. His knees and wrists are also hinged. You can get some nice poses out of him. At first I wasn’t sure about his funky arm construction, but I’m growing to like it.
As a Deluxe, The Vehicon ran me $12.88 at Walmart. Yes, Hasbro has been scaling down their Deluxes and Voyagers and while this guy can still hang in scale with other Deluxes he does look diminished. We also seem to be getting less in the way of paint apps. Even with all that in mind, I think the price is pretty reasonable here. Its only about three bucks more than your average 3 3/4″ figure and let’s face it, this toy required a lot more engineering and careful tooling than a Spider-Man or Star Wars figure. No, the price is fine, and I was actually surprised to be able to find him on the pegs, since he is a very highly sought after figure and I’m sure some collectors are army building them. The final point here is that my initial foray into the TF: Prime toys has been a positive one. I’m very anxious to rip open Ratchet and check him out next week.
Jun 11 2012

GI JOE Retaliation: Cobra Trooper by Hasbro

As promised, its Monday and I’m back with another look at Hasbro’s tenuous and poorly timed launch of the Retaliation figures. I’m still not prepared to say whether or not you’ll be seeing any more of these figures featured here. Cobra Commander and this Trooper were the only two that jumped out at me, but if things don’t liven up around here in the toy aisles, I may be buying more of these out of sheer desparation. While Cobra Commander was a “must buy” for me, I just picked up Cobra Trooper so I’d have someone to stand beside him. I wasn’t completely sold on this guy when I saw him on the peg, so let’s see if he can win me over.

The packaging. Oh, god, the packaging. I ragged on it pretty good last time, so let’s just say it looks rushed and amateurish and leave it at that. The bubble shows off the figure very nicely and the insert has the figure’s name on it and shows a picture of the included parachute in action. Flip the card over and you’ve got a couple shots of the figure as well as three others in the line. There’s a pointless little blurb on the Cobtra Trooper and a couple points emphasizing that working parachute again. Let’s rip this guy open and see what we’ve got.
The obvious first impression is that this isn’t a traditional Cobra Trooper, but that’s fine, since this is a movie product. He comes sculpted with grey fatigues, a removable helmet, and removable webgear with a functional holster for his sidearm. The removable helmet is a very nice touch and it stays on surprisingly well. The removable webgear is now pretty standard fare for GI Joes, but in this case it allows you to swap it out and turn him into a paratrooper, which we’ll get to later. The sculpting on the webgear is exceptional. You can see all the texturing in the belts, the sculpted grenades, the clasps and pouches. Its very nice work.  The headsculpt consists of a mask and visor that looks a tad like paintball gear and covers every bit of the trooper’s face. I kind of like it. Its rather sinister.
Its on the coloring of the figure, where things break down for me a bit. The grey fatigues that comprise most of the figure’s body look great, but they really don’t feel like Cobra to me. The blue helmet and webgear help a bit, but I would have preferred blue fatigues, blue helmet, and black webgear. He has a nice Cobra emblem tampo on his helmet and his chest, but you can’t really see the one on his chest when he’s wearing the webgear. All of my issues with the coloring on the figure come from my personal conceptions on what a Cobra Trooper should look like. If I toss that aside, I think the colors on the figure work great for a military trooper.
The Cobra Troopers articulation is the same as what we saw with Cobra Commander. He has a ball jointed neck. His arms feature ball jointed shoulders, ball jointed elbows, and swivel wrists. His legs are ball jointed at the hips and hinged at the knees. Lastly, he can swivel just under his abdomin. Again, considering how upset collectors are over the cuts in articulation, this guy still has plenty of poseability. Sure, what’s missing sucks, but it is what it is.
You get some solid accessories with this figure. His weapons include a tiny little automatic pistol, which fits snugly into his holster. You also get a rather unusual looking assault rifle with some kind of canister coming off the stock. And then there’s the parachute. To work the parachute you swap out his webgear and clip the nylon cords onto the top straps of the webgear. It looks and works pretty great. I am particuarly impressed with the quality of the parachute. The material and cords are nice and heavy duty and the Cobra emblem printed on it is really cool. And yes, it works pretty well. I chucked him up into the air and it opened just fine.
Kudos, Hasbro. You were indeed able to win me over with this figure. I still would have preferred a more conventional Cobra paintjob, but what’s here works fine. Its a good design, a good sculpt, solid weapons, and the ability to convert him to a paratrooper is a really nice bonus. I’m not going to go army building this guy like I have in the past with the Vipers and the Crimson Guards, but I could see myself picking up one more just to display him as both regular trooper and paratrooper. He’s a solid figure and I’m really glad I picked him up.