Jul 21 2011

Marvel Universe: Bucky by Hasbro

In case you haven’t noticed Captain America is all the rage these days, what with the movie coming out and the pegs in the toy asisles adorned with figures from the new movie. I only have one of Cap’s movie figures, Red Skull, but as expected there’s some overlap between Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line and the line of figures based on the new movie. This allows me to be topical while checking out Bucky, one of those Marvel Universe figures that I never got around to looking at here on FigureFan. So let’s see how the MU version of Cap’s stalwart comrade in arms turned out.

Bucky comes on the standard MU packaging. His assortment is part of the Dark Reign style releases with HAMMER themed packages, as opposed to the SHIELD logo. Bucky’s artwork is pretty good and dominates the upper portion of the card. The figure comes posed with one of his Tommy Guns in his hand. As always the presentation here is solid and despite being an opener, I sure wouldn’t mind having a second run of some of these figures carded to hang on my wall.

Overall I’m happy with Hasbro’s sculpt, although there are a few nits to pick. The detail on Bucky’s tunic is good and includes the sculpted brass buttons on the front, his high collar, and his belt with pouches. The head sculpt isn’t one of MU’s better examples, but it does work. I’m trying to remind myself that this is a somewhat earlier figure. The hair is decently sculpted and the mask looks fine, but I would have liked it if the rest of the face sculpt wasn’t so soft. One complaint I do have, however, is the figure looks rather top heavy and the belt looks kind of chunky. Bucky is by no means a bad looking figure, but proportionally he just looks a little off.

You get standard MU style male articulation. This includes universal movement in the shoulders, hinged elbows and swivels in the biceps and wrists. He has universal movement in the hips, double hinged knees, and hinged ankles. His neck is ball jointed and he has universal movement in the waist.
Bucky comes with a fair amount of goodies. You get his Secret Documents, his personalized display stand and not one, but two Thompson submachine guns. I really like the guns. Yeah, they’re a little oversized, but the sculpts are excellent. I may even do a little paintwork on the socks if I get really bored one day. I was surprised that Hasbro included two of the guns with the figure, and he can hold them nicely in both hands. Chances are, though, one of these babies will go into my GI Joes’ armory.

No doubt, Bucky is a great and necessary addition to the MU lineup, especially for us Cap fans. I haven’t seen a Bucky figure in the new Captain America line yet, so it’s hard to say whether it will be an improvement on this figure or just a straight on repack. Either way, chances are I’ll settle for this one as the Bucky for my Marvel 3 3/4″ collection.

Jul 20 2011

Marvel Universe: Grey Hulk by Hasbro

Some of the figures that have been hanging out in the limbo of my In Box are there because I just don’t have a lot to say about him. Say, hello to Grey Hulk. I have never been a big fan of The Hulk in any shape or form. He certainly can’t hold my interest as a main character, but I don’t mind him when he’s attached to The Avengers in a supporting role. Still, I had no problem picking up a regular flavor Hulk for my Marvel Universe collection. Grey Hulk, on the other hand? The only reason I own this figure is because he was included in a case assortment that I purchased to get at a bunch of other figures. On the plus side, I haven’t looked at this sculpt yet, so let’s see if I can pad this out to a full length post.

Grey Hulk is from an older wave assortment before Norm Osborne took over the Hasbro factory and started stamping his HAMMER logo on all the packages. As such, the bubble insert brandishes the SHIELD emblem. The artwork is decent and Hulk certainly fills out the card, but there’s not much else to say here.

Surprise! Grey Hulk is just a repaint of the green single carded Hulk, and that’s a shame because the sculpt was pretty crappy in the first place. I passed on the original single carded Hulk in favor of the version from the Secret Wars comic pack. Sure, that one isn’t perfect either, but it’s a breath of fresh air compared to this sculpt. The body is fine, actually its the same as the Secret Wars figure’s body, but let’s look at the head. With the figure on the card, you can make an easy comparison to the decent character artwork and the figure under the bubble, and see that Hasbro turned The Hulk into a pinhead. The face looks emaciated and his flat head gives me a Frankenstein’s monster vibe. It looks more like this should be zombie hulk. Grey Hulk’s got blue pants and a decent wash over the rest of the figure to give him some depth to the sculpt.

As probably expected, Grey Hulk is light on the accessories. All he comes with is his envelope of Secret Documents from the Fury Files.

So, yeah, I really hate this figure. I’ll grant you it doesn’t help that I had no interest in a Grey Hulk to begin with, but let’s face it, I’ve been known to fall in love with figures based on characters I didn’t care about or even know, so I’m not giving Grey Hulk any free passes. I mean, was anyone really satisfied with this sculpt? If a non-Hulk fan like me hates it so much, I would imagine the real Hulk fanboys are livid. On the upside, it was worth getting saddled with him to be able to pick up the other figures in this assortment that I needed.

Jul 20 2011

Iron Man 2: Iron Monger (Movie Series) by Hasbro

Yeah, there’s some seriously backdated stuff in my hopper, including some figures hanging around from the Iron Man 2 line. I picked up this figure quite a while ago. Every time I was sure I was done with this line, another figure would turn up on the peg that I couldn’t resist. Last time it was this Iron Monger from the original Iron Man movie… on an Iron Man 2 card. I’ve got some seriously mixed feelings about this one… let’s see why.

It’s no surprise that Iron Man figures are still hanging on the pegs, as Hasbro is trying to keep it relevant until The Avengers movie comes out. Hasbro has abandoned the now dated Iron Man 2 cards in favor of calling the line just plain Iron Man. This may be the last time we see the Iron Man 2 packaging here on FigureFan, but then I can’t promise anything. The package still looks awesome, and I actually like it much better than the packaging that has replaced it. Iron Monger is a big figure, pretty close in overall girth to the Hulkbuster Iron Man figure that I’ve looked at some time ago. Suffice it to say he really fills up the bubble and gives the card a satisfying, hefty weight.

Ok, so let’s talk about the good stuff first. One thing I’ve come to expect from Hasbro’s Iron Man 2 line is gorgeously detailed sculpts and Iron Monger here is no exception. Unlike many of the Iron Man armors, Iron Monger doesn’t rely on any spiffy paint jobs to make him look good. Nope, it’s all sculpt, and he can definitely pull it off. The design holds back just enough to make him look a little primitive when compared to the modern Iron Man armors, but there’s still plenty of delicious detail, particularly in the limbs and the back. I also like the way Hasbro used the soft rubbery plastic for his shoulder armor so that his articulation wouldn’t be articulated. All in all, he looks absolutely awesome.

The not so good? He’s a big figure, but not big enough to be in scale with the other figures in the line. I know, I’m being stupid picky here, since making him any bigger would put him at a higher price point, which the line didn’t really have. The obvious alternative, if you want a more properly scaled version is to go get the one released for the original movie. The only problem is, I don’t think that figure’s sculpt really approaches this one in its beauty. There’s the dilemma.

As with all the Iron Man 2 figures, Iron Monger comes with the stand that’s slotted to hold the three Armor Cards. Two of the cards are transparent and when you display them together it completes the schematic of the armor. I didn’t think much of these stands at first, but when you display all the figures together on the stands, they sure look nice. The only problem here is that the stands are dwarfed and blocked by the bigger figures like Iron Monger here, and you can really only get one of his feet on it. I know, he’s too small… he’s too big, he can’t win with me.

If scale isn’t a huge issue with you than Iron Monger is a nice figure. He still displays great next to the other figures in the line, but it’s hard to recreate the battle at the end of the original film without a much bigger figure. Still, the sculpt is impressive and this figure is a fine example of everything I really loved about the Iron Man 2 line. Which is why I’m willing to bet it won’t be the last time we revisit the line here on FigureFan.

Jul 19 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 11: Cyborg Superman by Mattel

Huzzah! Cyborg Superman is the last figure I need to look at in Wave 11 and he’s pretty badass. Back when I ordered this case I was under the false assumption that this was going to be a new version of regular flavor Cyborg Superman, but as everyone else probably already knew, he is the Sinestro Corps version. which was a really cool surprise and pretty relevant now since the DCUC line is now pretty congested with Green Lantern stuff right now.

Behold for the last time, the Wave 11 style packaging. Cyborg Supes fills out the huge bubble pretty well, even with the C&C pieces hidden under the bottom insert. He’s a little pre-posed, but no worries, its nothing that warps the joints. I really like the little Green Lantern emblems embossed into the bubble. Outside of the DCUC figures, how often do we see mass release toys with individualized bubbles on the packaging? Cool.

I don’t own the regular flavor Cyborg Superman, which was originally released as part of the DC Superheroes line, but from what I can tell this appears to be nearly a straight repaint of that sculpt. I’m guessing the only difference is the Power Rings sculpted onto his fingers, which is an awesome little detail. Even still, this is a pretty dramatic repaint, which really makes him look like a whole new figure. His iconic chest emblem is replaced by the Sinestro Corps emblem, which looks cool when fitted into Superman’s triangular shield. The head sculpt is particularly noteworthy, with plenty of grisly detail blended between Supes’ human features and the Cyborg features. The maroon and black color scheme of his outfit don’t really scream Sinestro to me, but the coloring is faithful to the source material.

That’s not to say this figure doesn’t have a few issues that bug me a bit. First off, the head seems too small. I don’t know if it’s an optical illusion because of the sculpt, but it just seems disproportionately small for his body. Second, the cut around the neckline of his cape is rough, like it was done as a custom job with a razor blade. Lastly, the Sinestro emblem on his cape doesn’t look that great in black. Although in fairness that’s more of a personal preference.

This figure features standard DCUC articulation. The arms have universal movement in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. The legs have universal movement in the hips, with swivels in the thighs, and hinged knees and ankles. Cyborg Supes swivels in the waist, has the ab crunch joint in the torso and a ball joint in the neck.

Cyborg Superman does not have any accessories, but he does come with the head and torso for the C&C Kilowog figure.

Don’t let the issues I have with him fool you, I really love the way this figure turned out and he makes a great addition to my Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps shelf. Of course, I’ll still need to go back and pick up the regular Cyborg Superman at some point, either the original release, or the subsequent repack with Mongul. And so that finally puts DCUC Wave 11 to bed. I’ve got a clean slate now to move on to DCUC Wave 16 when it arrives on my stoop next week.

Jul 18 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 11: Deadman by Mattel

Next up on my very belated wrap-up of DCUC Wave 11 is Deadman. To me, Deadman is one of those characters who has a really compelling backstory, but I’ve just never happened to read any of his own funny books. Being the Jack Kirby whore that I am, it was probably in the pages of The Forever People that I first met the character, and ever since my only real exposure to him has been from his appearances in the pages of other people’s books and some of his animated appearances. The Brave and the Bold comes instantly to mind. Nonetheless, I was still very excited to get Deadman, mainly for his cool character design and what looked like was going to be an amazing sculpt.

dcucdman6

Yup, it’s same package we just saw with Shark. Deadman fills the huge bubble a bit better than Shark did, but it still feels like there’s an awful lot of room in there, especially since the C&C piece is mostly obscured by the insert on the bottom of the tray. At least the back of the bubble is illustrated with figures from the wave and makes for a nice presentation.

Egads, do I love the sculpt on this figure, or more specifically… the head. You could certainly argue that it’s a little intense for Deadman, but it’s some truly remarkable work that extends down to a good portion of his exposed chest. The sickly grey coloring on his dead skin is perfect and the expression on his face is downright scary.

The rest of the figure is pretty simple. I love the exaggerated collar, although the only other real sculpting on the outfit is the belt and shoes, as the “D” and the gauntlets are just painted on. The color scheme is simple two-tone red and maroon, which is certainly appropriate to the character and the paintwork on my figure is very crisp and clean. The body build is good for the character, although possibly could have been a bit lankier looking in the limbs, but it still looks fine the way it is.

Deadman features your standard DCUC articulation. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs have universal movement in the hips, hinged knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. Deadman swivels at the waist and has the ab crunch hinge and a ball jointed neck.

I won’t lie, my main interest in Wave 11 was the Green Lantern figures, but Deadman was a nice addition to this wave and one that I certainly didn’t mind having to buy to get to my C&C Kilowog. He’s a fantastic looking figure, very faithful to the source material, and he ranks up there as having one of my favorite head sculpts in the DCUC line so far. Deadman was also available in a variant phasing version, which looks very nice, but I seldom buy the DCUC character variants unless they are entirely different sculpts or they are included in a full case purchase.

*This photos for this Feature were revised on 1/30/2016

Jul 17 2011

DC Universe Classics Wave 11: Shark by Mattel

Back when I was slobbering over the Tron Legacy toys, I got sidetracked and dropped the ball on looking at the second half of DCUC’s Wave 11, so before I get more of these figures piling up next week, I wanted to get some closure on it. This was one of those DCUC waves that I needed to complete because building the C&C Kilowog figure was a must for me. Fortunately, I was pretty happy with most of the figures in this wave, so I wasn’t buying too many that I wouldn’t have purchased on their own. One of the figures that I was sort of lukewarm on was Shark. And by lukewarm I mean I never would have bought it in a million years if I didn’t need that damn C&C piece. Back when you could actually find DCUC figures on the shelves around here, Shark was often two or three of the five or so figures you would find. Let’s face it, the DC Universe has no shortage of freaky looking characters, and yet Shark still sticks out as looking downright cheesey. It doesn’t help either that he ranks pretty low on the totem of villains. So let’s see what we’re dealing with here…

Let’s go back in time to look at the Wave 11 packaging. Not hugely different from what we’re used today, at least not in terms of the style of art deco. I’m not sure if its the way he’s posed, or the lack of accessories, but the bubble seems to be way too big for Shark, especially since the C&C part is almost completely obscured by the bottom insert. Still, I love the fact that there are bubbles sculpted into the tray and all in all the presentation here is nice looking.

So, yeah, Shark is a guy with the head of a shark. Ok, actually he’s a shark with the body of a man thanks to a nice dosage of nuclear waste. Either way, he’s a goofy looking dude, but honestly, the longer I had him, the more he’s grown on me. The body features a very simple sculpt and uses some really nice shiny purple paint to make him stand out even more than you would expect a shark headed guy to stand out. I would have bet serious money that Mattel would have reused some Aquaman parts for Shark, particularly on the boots and gauntlets that have the sculpted fins just like Aquaman does. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Shark’s fins are all original sculpts, so kudos to Mattel for not taking an easy shortcut here. On the downside, both of his hands are sculpted into fists, which precludes him from borrowing any accessories from other figures. I think he would have looked cool holding Aquaman’s trident or Black Manta’s gun. Shark also features a good sized dorsal fin on his back. The head sculpt is nice enough, with the mouth partially open and showing off a ton of teeth.

Shark features standard DCUC articulation. The arms have universal movement in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs feature universal movement in the hips, hinged knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. The figure swivels at the waist, features the ab crunch hinge in the torso and has a ball jointed neck.

Shark doesn’t come with any accessories, but he does come with the all important right leg of the C&C Kilowog figure. And let’s face it folks, that’s the reason a lot of us own this figure.

Like most people, Shark was my least anticipated figure of this wave and at first he was the one that I resented having to buy just to get his Kilowog part. But DCUC often has a habit of winning me over with figures I’m not too keen on once I get them into my hands and that has been the case with Shark here as well. He’s certainly on the bottom tier of my collection, but that doesn’t mean I dislike him. In fact, he’s a nice reminder of how comic books shouldn’t be all about melodrama and need to goof it up now and again.

Jul 16 2011

Matty Sale Day, SDCC Exclusives, and Other Stuff…

Matty Sale Day was yestereday and it was a big one. There weren’t that many new figures, with only Clawful and JLU STRIPE making their debuts, but there was a ton of second and third chances at older figures from MOTUC, Ghostbusters, and a little bit of DC. I was pretty sure I wanted Clawful, and I didn’t get a chance to see what was being offered in the so-called All Stars Sale ahead of time, but I didn’t have high hopes for getting anything as my social calendar had me going out straight after work and not getting home until around 2am. Take a lesson, kids, like the mongoose to the snake, the social life is the natural enemy of the toy collector!

Anywho, it turned out fine, as Clawful was still available when I got home. I will admit to hesitating a bit before pulling the trigger. I wanted the figure, but man at $30 a pop it’s getting harder and harder to justify some of the background characters. I desparately looked around for something else I wanted, if only to defray the cost of shipping, but I wound up not getting anything else. I would have liked to get a clean Egon with the PKE Meter or the unslimed Venkman, but not at $20 each for variants of figures I already own. I might have picked up Winston, the last of the four 12″ Ghostbusters I need, but I had just dropped $100 on a new wave of DCUC figures. Speaking of which, I was disappointed that there weren’t any DCUC figures in the All Stars Sale, but I’m guessing its because those figures are sold at retail. Well, theoretically they are. I’ve not seen any at local stores in a very long time.
It was an interesting Sale Day, as it shows us that Matty has a lot of stock on these figures kicking around. Logging in a day later and Clawful is the only item on the large list that has sold out. Pretty crazy since they aren’t placing limits on any of the All Stars items.

Moving on to next week… SDCC kicks off next week, which means I’ll be spending some time between now and then researching the exclusives that I’m not up to date on and trying to figure out what I’m going to try to chase after and what I’m going to pass up. Here’s a quick rundown on where I stand with the items on my radar.

Hasbro: GI JOE/Transformers: Starscream Skystriker: This is one of the must-have items on my list. It’s also one that I’m worried about getting. At only $50 I think it’s very reasonably priced and that may cause scalpers to have a field day with it, knowing that they have a lot of room to mark it up. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to snag one on HTS but my luck with SDCC exclusives on the site has been hit and miss in past years. All I know is that I will get it, whatever it takes.

Hasbro: GI JOE: Zarana and Cold Slither Variant: I need to research this one a little more. I’m guessing it’s a two pack? I haven’t seen any in-package pictures, but either way I want it. It’s another exclusive that I’ll probably be spending whatever it takes to get, so it’s a good thing I didn’t spend much money on GI JOE this year.

Hasbro: Transformers Prime: Optimus Prime: Easily the most disappointing exclusive of the show. After getting such beautiful Soundwave and Blaster re-issues for the last two shows, this thing is just a dud. The figure looks mediocre at best and I’ll be able to buy it for about $10 at Walmart soon anyway. I don’t care about the Matrix packaging.

Ban Dai: Thundercats: Classic Lion-O: I would love to own this figure, but not at $40. It’s the same figure that I have pre-ordered at $17 only the exclusive has a weapons rack and some better paintwork. Easy pass at that price. This is listed as a TRU Exclusive too, so I’m willing to bet it’ll show up on clearance in the stores or on the website just like Giants of Justice Flash did.

Mattel: MOTUC: Queen Marlena and Cringer:This must-buy ranks up there with the Starscream and Zarana sets. I predict it’s going to be really hard to get, and I’m going to pay more for it than I want to. Than again, I was able to get last year’s Orko and Prince Adam for only a bit over retail, so hopefully I’ll get lucky again.

Mattel: Ghostbusters: Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man: This is a really nice piece and I sure wouldn’t mind owning it, but at $70 (and likely to be considerably more after the show) it’s an easy pass. I’m perfectly happy with my smaller yet nicely sculpted Diamond Select bank standing in for Mr. Stay Puft on my Ghostbusters shelf.

Mattel: DC Universe Classics: Swamp Thing: I’m not terribly excited over this figure, probably because despite being a DC property, I just don’t think it belongs in my DCUC collection and I’m not a big enough fan of the character to want the figure on its own. It’s highly unlikely I pick this one up unless the price is really right. Besides, I have zero confidence in that skin covering holding up in the long term.

Mattel: Voltron: I need to see more of this figure before deciding whether or not I need it. I may wait to see what Matty has planned for the Voltron subscription toys. As much as I like the looks of this one, it might be too redundant to warrant a purchase.

Character Options: Doctor Who: River Song with Pandorica Chair. Not the slam dunk exclusive I was hoping for, but I’ll definitely pick this up for the River figure. It should be easy enough to get too. I’m still waiting to find out what CO’s Classic Who exclusive will be.

As far as the blog goes… I have a lot of figures and toys due to be rolling in over the next couple of weeks, including that aforementioned wave of DC Universe Classics, and I’m still hoping that some of my Thundercats preorders may start shipping earlier than expected. So I’m devoting next week to cleaning up my In Box and featuring some figures that have been lingering in the hopper for a long time. My In Box is basically a folder on my harddrive where I have in-package shots of figures that I haven’t featured yet. It’ll be a mish-mash of somewhat older stuff, but just by perusing what i’ve got in here, I’m seeing that most, if not all, of it will be comic book related figures. I’ve also got one more Dark of the Moon figure to toss in too and I’ll try to save that for later in the week.

Jul 15 2011

Voltron Lion Force Collector’s Set by Toynami, Part II

So, last time we checked out the Lions and this time we get to see what they create when joined together. Transforming the Lions is pretty easy, at least where the limbs are concerned. You basically just tuck in the arms and legs, stuff in their tales, and for the feet you fold back the heads. The Black Lion is a little trickier and getting his feet folded up just right can sometimes be fussy, but it’s still no big deal. The Lions snap together with a sastisfying click and hold together just strongly enough so as to make me nervous when pulling them apart.

Once assembled Voltron looks amazing. The figure’s proportions are excellent considering its an actual combiner and not just an articulated figure. In fact, on first glance, I could easily be convinced that this guy looks too good to separate into the Lion Force. I’m particularly happy with the head sculpt and the paintwork on the face is crisp. On the downside, some of the seaming on the silver plastic is a little more pronounced than I’m used to seeing on the toys. Does this have something to do with going from diecast to plastic? I don’t know, but it’s there. I commented last time about how much I love the coloring on the Lions, and that’s doubly true for Voltron’s combined form.

Voltron’s has an impressive amount of articulation. His head is ball jointed. His arms rotate at the shoulders and have lateral movement, the elbows have hinges and swivels, and his hands swivel at the wrists. His legs have ratcheting joints and some lateral movement in the hips, they are hinged at the knees, and hinged again at the ankles. Voltron can also swivel at the waist. I think my only complaint about the articulation here is that while the ratcheting joints are nice and strong to hold the figure in place, they don’t allow for as much tweaking in the actual poses.

While on the subject of articulation, I should point out that Voltron is a tad top heavy. I was hoping that this problem would be improved upon by the all plastic version, as it’s very similiar to the balance issue present in Hasbro’s Masterpiece Optimus Prime. It’s not a critical issue, mind you. Voltron can stand perfectly straight with no problem at all, but when you start to put him into some action poses, his tendency is to fall forward.

Voltron comes with his sword and shield. Both pieces are simple sculpts but perfectly fit their iconic on-screen counterparts. They each have pegs in the handles that fit into sockets inside the Red and Green Lion’s mouths so Voltron can hold them in a nice and secure fashion. Displaying Voltron with his sword is pretty much a must. I’ve never been a big fan of the shield, but it’s been growing on me a lot likely.

Toynami really made my day when they released this set. I spent a lot of time handwringing about whether to blow the cash on the Masterpiece set when it came out. And when I didn’t, I spent a lot of time wondering whether I should have. Being able to get this set in my collection was a great compromise. It only set me back about $60 with shipping, and I still consider that a steal. It’s hard to imagine that a better looking combining Voltron figure could be made, but I’ll be anxious to see if Mattel can pull it off when they start producing their classic-based Voltron toys.

Jul 14 2011

Voltron Lion Force Collector’s Set by Toynami, Part I

Amazing but true, I’ve yet to feature anything from the Voltron franchise here on FigureFan. Also amazing but true, I hated the original Voltron cartoon as a kid. Hated it! And yet I watched it religiously. Why? I’m pretty sure it was because it came on right before or right after something I actually liked. I should also note that while I’ve seen every episode of Voltron and hate them all, I still absolutely love the concept and design of Voltron itself. As a young lad I wanted me some of those Matchbox Voltron toys so bad, but I always got the same response from my parents. “You hate Voltron. Why do you want to buy that? Go get yourself some nice Transformers instead.” I guess they had a point. Nonetheless, Voltron is back on the small screen and soon to return to toy shelves, so I thought it would be cool to take this set off the top shelf and take a look.

Toynami first released this set as Masterpiece Voltron. It featured diecast parts and came in a really cool collector book-style package. It also came with a price tag that I was unwilling to pay. I’m not saying it wasn’t worth it. Especially since it was the only option available at the time. But it was still too much to pay for something from a franchise that I only had marginal interest in. Toynami later took the same mold and released the toy again, this time cast in all plastic, in a more sensible package, and a far more sensible pricetag. The resulting release is often referred to as Plastipiece Voltron, and that’s the set we’re going to look at today.

The new package may be less spectacular than the original Masterpiece release, but it’s no slouch either. It’s a sizeable, briefcase-style box with a handle on the top. Open the lid and there’s an illustrated cover with cut-outs that show off the five Lions, packaged snugly in the styrofoam tray, along with the sword and the shield. Wow, real styrofoam. That’s pure Earth-killing nostalgia, baby! There’s no doubt that if you’re a packaging whore, you’re going to want to spring for the more pricey version, but it’s worth noting that the package used for this one still looks like you’ve got something special in your hands, rather than something you might pick up in the toy aisles at your local retailer.

It’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure the individual Lions were the same size on the cartoon. Maybe the black one was bigger. Sorry, Voltron fans, I just don’t remember. Either way, some scale and style adjustments were necessary to make toy Voltron look great when combined. There are three different sizes of Lions, with the Black being the biggest because he makes up the torso, the blue and yellow the next biggest, as they make up the legs, and the small guys are the red and green, who make up the arms. You might think that the two limbs and the two legs are repaints of the same lion, but nope. Surprisingly, each of the Lions is a unique sculpt, which really shows that Toynami saw this set as a labor of love.

The Black Lion is understandably boxy, but he still looks pretty good, thanks to some clever panels that float in and out where his front legs connect to the body. Voltron’s wings fold up pretty nicely on the Lion’s back and he’s got the best tail of all the lions, since it folds back instead of just pulling out from the ass. His legs are proportionally a little diminished in the lower halves so that they can fold up into the upper halves. The mouth is articulated, but you do have the slight problem of having Voltron’s face in his mouth if you open it, so it’s best displayed with the jaws closed. All in all, I think he looks pretty good.

The Blue and Yellow Lions are similar in sculpt, but have some important differences. Blue has that bank of instruments on his head that looks like a family crest. He also has those silver ears and all in all a fairly boxy, squared-off head. Yellow Lion’s head is a lot smoother and more rounded and has that fetching stripe running from the nose to between its ears. He’s also got that silver tube thing on his back that Blue is lacking.

Red and Green Lions have similar heads, but their bodies are both distinct sculpts with Red being boxy and Green being more rounded. There legs and tails are pretty much the same as is the middle joint that forms Voltron’s elbows. Since these guys form the arms, they’re the smallest of the Lion Force, but they still look fantastic.

They all have legs that are jointed at the top, knee and ankle, the blue and yellow have articulated mouths, and the green and red can bend and swivel a bit in the middle of their torsos. I’m in love with the colored plastic that Toynami used for this set, as everything is so bright and vibrant and very reminiscent of the cartoon and the old Matchbox toys. The silver on this set has more of a matte finish over the diecast Masterpiece version. It doesn’t look as strikingly brilliant, but I do think it matches the animation a bit better, and it certainly simulates the look of metal pretty well.

I can imagine some may be disappointed by the differences in scale and style with each individual lion, but they just aren’t being realistic. Personally, I’m happy to sacrifice a little with the lions to get a better Voltron. The old Matchbox toy is a pretty good example of the big, clunky Voltron figure you get when you try to preserve the individual Lions over the gestalt form. Not that it was a bad figure, I’d still probably do unspeakable things to own one, but I just like the route that Toynami went with this set a lot better.

In Part 2, we’ll take a look at these five Lions combining into the Voltron figure itself.

Jul 13 2011

Transformers Dark of the Moon: Topspin (Deluxe) by Hasbro

I had high hopes for The Wreckers appearing in Transformers 3. Why? I dunno. It was clear they wouldn’t match the awesomeness of their comic book counterparts, but I thought it was cool that something so obscure outside the Fandom were being worked into the movie. As it turns out, they were OK, but they never really attained a level of kick-assery that I was hoping for. Nonetheless, today we’re going to check out my first Deluxe Class Wrecker figure. He’s Topspin, also known as the Lowes car.

There’s that awesome DotM packaging. I love it. It’s functional and yet so much more pleasing on the eye than the Revenge of the Fallencards. You’ll notice that Topspin is one of those names that Hasbro needed to tack the word “Autobot” in front of in order to avoid some kind of copyright infringement. For those of you old school G1ers playing along at home, you’ll remember that Topspin, along with Twintwist was one of the Battlechargers. Anyway, Topspin is packaged in his auto mode with his MechTech weapon mounted beside him. There are Tech Specs and a bio blurb on the back of the card, and as with Cyberverse Leadfoot, nowhere on the package does it say that Topspin is in fact an asshole.

I really dig the whole NASCAR-attack-vehicle thing that the movie did with The Wreckers. It’s as dumb as all hell, and makes no sense, but you could probably say that about the whole damn movie and I still loved it, so why should this be any different. Anyway, the sculpt is really nice, with lots of little details like armor and spikes. Topspin has four guns, all of which peg into sockets on the car and are thus removable. The MechTech weapon pegs into the hood, but we’ll save that for later. The bright blue and grey and silver color scheme is pretty pleasing and many will be happy to see that the Lowes emblem made it onto the toy. I’m guessing since Lowes doesn’t sell toys, the other big boxers didn’t care. There is some unfortunate seaming on the rear quarter panels, that just don’t seem to fit together all that tightly, but otherwise, this is a nice looking and fun alt mode.

Transforming Topspin isn’t terribly difficult and the resulting robot is pretty good. You do get some odd bits of car kibble hanging over his shoulders. They sometimes get in the way, but if you fiddle with them enough you can probably find a way to position them so that they aren’t that much of an eyesore. I’m not terribly keen on Topspin’s head sculpt. I think he’s supposed to have a mullet, but the sculpt just makes him look strange. The rest of the robot, however, looks great and I’m particularly fond of his huge pincer claws, which are a nice change from the norm. Topspin has sockets on his arms so any of his weapons can be pegged in, giving him some serious fighting chops.

Topspin’s MechTech weapon is a gun that converts into a capture claw. Honestly, I had high hopes for these MechTech weapons and on the whole, they just aren’t really jiving with me. They’re a cool idea, and I like the fact that they’re interchangeable, but I don’t think Hasbro has really captured the full potential of the gimmick. Either way, the weapon can peg onto the hood of the car or it can be pegged onto his arms when he’s in robot mode.

In the end, I’m a little torn on this guy. I love his vehicle mode, but I’m kind of iffy on his robot mode. It’s not terrible, and you can get some nice poses out of him on the shelf, but the kibble hanging off his shoulders feels like a half-assed design and the more I look at his head sculpt the more I hate it. I’m glad I have him in my collection and even though he’s got issues, but you could do worse. And that kills off the first Trifecta of DotM Deluxe figures. I’ll try to mix it up a bit this week before getting back to the insane amount of Transformers I’ve yet to look at.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Marvel Universe: Bucky by Hasbro

Marvel Universe: Grey Hulk by Hasbro

Iron Man 2: Iron Monger (Movie Series) by Hasbro

DC Universe Classics Wave 11: Cyborg Superman by Mattel

DC Universe Classics Wave 11: Deadman by Mattel

DC Universe Classics Wave 11: Shark by Mattel

Matty Sale Day, SDCC Exclusives, and Other Stuff…

Voltron Lion Force Collector’s Set by Toynami, Part II

Voltron Lion Force Collector’s Set by Toynami, Part I

Transformers Dark of the Moon: Topspin (Deluxe) by Hasbro

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