Aug 9 2010

GI JOE: Rolling Operations Command Center (ROCC) by Hasbro

Back in the dog days of Sigma Six, the traditional 3 3/4 GI JOE figures and vehicles were confined to Hasbro’s new Direct To Consumer line, which meant the only way you could buy them was on online or at Toys R Us. This DTC line featured a sparse series of figures, most of which were kitbashed (ie. cobbled together from the parts of various other figures). It produced very few figures that I found worthwhile, and even fewer toys. Its something of a contradiction then that this was also the time that we got one of the coolest and biggest new JOE vehicles to come down the line in a long while.

I love the box that this thing came in. Its very reminiscent of the vintage Joe packaging. No frills, no fancy diagonal corners, just a big brick of a box. The front of the box has some artwork of the vehicle in action and a cutout window to show off the Long Range figure, which I could not find for this article. No big loss, he was a mediocre figure at best. The toy inside is pretty much already assembled and it will roll back into the box by taking just a few bits off of the top.


Of course, the idea of a rolling command center is not new to GI JOE. There was the Mobile Command Center, the more recent PITT and to some extent, I suppose even The Defiant could count. Its not a coincidence either, but rather a clever attempt by Hasbro to address the idea that playsets don’t sell well, but vehicles do. Hence, the vehicle-playset.

In vehicle mode, the ROCC is pretty straightforward. I let Matt Trakker drive it, because its elaborate conversion reminds me of a MASK vehicle. The front cab windshield folds down to accomodate a driver and four passengers. The goofy turret system on the back of the vehicle is the one real sticking point for me. Through an overly convaluted hinged arm system, the turret pod, which holds one figure, can be maneuvered to sit in the hole in either the front or back of the vehicle. It seems like an awful lot of needless maneuvering just to slide the thing front and back and if there was a gunner in there while it was shifting, I’m pretty sure he’d be puking his guts out while being bounced around inside the turret. The one thing this complex arm system does allow for is the pod to orientate itself into a useful firing position on the back of the ROCC’s base mode, so I guess there’s a reason for it. The curious thing about the ROCC is the number of sockets that look like they were intended to plug guns or equipment into, but nothing came with the set to make use of these holes.


Once converted to command base, this toy’s fun really takes off. The back splits open revealing the command area, a vehicle maintenance area, complete with ramps and a robotic arm, and a launching gantry for a small one-person stealth fighter. The vehicle area is only large enough to fit the smallest of Joe vehicles, but chances are you have something in your collection that will fit in there. The ATV or RAM Cycle both fit fine. The command area seats four figures, although only one really has access to any controls, so I’m not sure what the other three are supposed to be doing.


The stealth jet is a pretty simple little toy, and somewhat reminsicent of the Cobra Firebat that came with the old Terrordrome. The cockpit opens to seat one figure, and that’s pretty much all this little jet does. Again, besides the socket that hooks the jet to the gantry, there are a couple more conspicous sockets under it that look like they were intended for something else.


With the command base set up, the cab portion of the truck can deploy to create a little scout vehicle, which is quite reminiscent of one of the old 70’s GI JOE Adventure Team toys. This little vehicle includes a missile launcher, that holds a formidable eight firing missiles (or seven if you’re like me and just shot one behind the couch).

As a playset, this thing is nowhere as big or complex as the Mobile Command Center or the PITT, but then again, it doesn’t look like a Jawa Sandcrawler either. On the contrary, its truck mode looks great and its playset mode offers more than a few cool features. I stumbled upon this thing at a TRU somewhere around 2005 and was amazed at its reasonable $29.99 price tag, so it came home with me. Its pretty cool for what it is, and while its plenty large, its still a good compromise if you want a mobile base for your JOES, but don’t want to store the gargantuan MCC or PITT.

Aug 8 2010

Transformers: Autobot Blaster (SDCC Exclusive) by Hasbro

Last year Hasbro gave us the very cool Soundwave gift set as their Transformers SDCC Exclusive. This year, it seemed only natural they compliment that release with Soundwave’s Autobot counterpart, Blaster. They also seemed to up the production numbers on this one, possibly as a response to how quickly Soundwave sold out last year. So is this set as impressive and desireable as last year’s offering? Yes and no.

Hasbro pulled out the stops on the presentation of this set, making it look even more impressive than the formidable Soundwave release. The set comes packaged in a reflective cardboard sleeve with a huge Autobot symbol and Blaster’s name written in a cool, funky retro 80’s style that certainly suits the figure’s character.


Slide off the sleeve and you have a pleasingly large box decorated in a G1 fashion very similar to Soundwave’s release. The key difference, besides it being bigger, is that Blaster’s box has a front flap that covers the window display. Open the flap and you can see photos of the toys on the reverse side and the window revealing Blaster and three of his cassette minions, Steeljaw, Ramhorn and Eject, all in their robot forms. On presentation alone, this set gets full marks.

Slide out the inner tray and you can get to the goods. Blaster is a satisfyingly large figure, much bigger than Soundwave. He’s colorful, boxy and the epitome of glorious G1 Transformer design. His stickers come already applied, and mine were applied pretty well. The only real disappointing thing about Blaster is the complete lack of detail on his back. Granted, it is authentic to the original toy, but it looks lacking, especially compared to Soundwave’s belt clip and opening “battery” compartment-slash-weapon storage. Oh yeah, his head always looked way too small to me.

Blaster has pretty limited articulation, which is to be expected for a G1 Transformer and most of his existing articulation is a by-product of his transformation process. He can turn his head, his arms rotate at the shoulders, his hands can swivel, and his legs can move laterally to change his stance. That’s pretty much it. His tape door is spring loaded and ejects with the press of his eject button. Its a first for me, since the eject button on the original G1 Blaster I owned as a kid was broken right out of the box.

Transforming him into his boom box mode is only slightlly more involved than Soundwave. Its a very simple conversion, although there are a few neat tricks, like the way the arms fold in or the way the grab bar comes out of each of the legs and joins together. The final result is more toyish looking and less convincing than Soundwave’s walkman form, but it gets the job done.


Blaster’s cassettes are a bit of a mixed bag. Steeljaw and Ramhorn are pretty cool, although they suffer from the same two-dimensional design as Ravage and rely on their added parts to give them depth. Both figures are pretty well designed, though, considering what they transform into, and Steeljaw in particular has a ridiculous number of shifting plates to help along his transformation. Eject has never been one of my favorites, probably because of his weird looking arms. He’s certainly not awful, but compare him to the Rumble and Frenzy design and he comes up severely lacking. As with the Soundwave reissue, all of Blaster’s cassettes come with clear plastic cases.



Blaster retails at the same price as last year’s Soundwave set, $49.99, and I’d say that’s quite a deal. While original G1 Blasters can still be commonly found for sale at the usual places, his tape door is often an early casualty of play wear and tear, and his cassettes can be a lot tougher to find in good shape. Either way, you’re getting quite a lot here for your money.

As previously noted, the production on this set seemed to be a lot higher than Soundwave, as Blaster was still available for almost a week after going up for sale at Hasbro Toyshop. The only sticking point is that I don’t think Blaster has ever reached the insane levels of popularity as his Decepticon counterpart Soundwave. I know that I never much cared for his character in the series, but I always liked the figure. That lesser demand plus the increased production likely led to him sticking around a lot more. Still, any diehard G1 fan would do well to pick this set up. The presentation is wonderful, the figures are solid, and its certainly priced right.

Aug 7 2010

Doctor Who: Amy Pond by Character Options

Ah, Amy Pond. While I’m not all that fond of the way many of the stories fall back on using her to solve a lot of The Doctor’s dilemmas, its so hard to dislike her. She’s brave, spunky, adorable and sexy and there’s an undeniable chemistry between actress Karen Gillan and Matt Smith that I truly think surpasses the relationship that Billie Piper had with David Tennant. Feel free to throw cans at me, but that’s just the way I see it. So, obviously, I was anxious to add an Amy Pond figure to my collection. Afterall, here Series 5 is already over and my 11th Doctor still stood companionless on the shelf.

The packaging here is identical to what we saw with the Dalek Ironside. The blue background and new logo match the Series 5 credits nicely and the regular card and bubble has replaced the clamshell used for the last few assortments of figures. I really like this new design, although the front insert does conceal a fair amount of the figure’s lower half, and covering up Amy’s legs is just a crime. The back panel shows the selection of figures that comprise this first Series 5 assortment.

I’ll admit, i was pretty apprehensive about how Character Options was going to do with Amy’s likeness. Granted, more often then not their sculpts are right on the money and both Rose (their second attempt at Rose to be specific) and Martha turned out fine, although I was never entirely happy with Donna’s figure. As it turns out, Amy is another win. I will say they didn’t quite get her eyes right. Considering Amy’s “go to” look in almost every scene is a wide-eyed expression of amazement, this sculpt’s eyes are too narrow. Interestingly enough, this significant departure doesn’t really spoil the likeness, as it still looks like who its supposed to be.

CO had a few outfit choices to go with. I wouldn’t have minded getting Amy in her jim jams, but this outfit will do just nicely. She’s wearing a short leather jacket, a red pullover and a fairly short skirt and cowboy boots. This Amy ensemble first materialized in Victory of the Daleks and it certainly gets the job done. There’s also some really nice little attention to detail, like her thin gold choker necklace and the scrollwork sculpted into her boots. Her hair is also exceptionally well sculpted and despite the fact that it hangs loose around her shoulders, it is cast in soft enough plastic to not hinder her head movement all that much.

Amy features standard articulation for this line. Her head turns, her arms rotate at the shoulders, have hinged elbows, and feature swivel cuts in the biceps and just below the elbows. Her legs have universal joints at the hips, hinges at the knees, and swivel cuts in the thighs, which are concealed under her skirt. She also swivels at the waist.

About the only downside to Miss Amy Pond here is the cost and availability. Like all the figures in this wave, her initial offering was pretty high at most e-tailers. I paid $20 for her, which was doubly painful considering she was released the exact same week that I was forking over money for several SDCC exclusives. Unlike other figures in this wave, Amy actually sold out at that price at most places around the web. Hopefully CO will produce more or include her in a future wave, because with the exception of maybe River Song, none of the Doctor’s previous companions have been all that difficult, or expensive, to get. My advice is if you find her, buy her. She’s a great figure and obviously a key character that no Doctor Who collection should be without.

Aug 7 2010

Doctor Who: Planet of Fire 5th Doctor and The Master (SDCC Exclusive) by Character Options

For a while now, Character Options has been dancing around giving us certain characters from the classic show. We’ve gotten all The Doctors, and our share of aliens, but the “human” characters have been off limits. With the release of this set, we’re one step closer to breaking that unfortunate lock out. The “Deadly Assassin” Master previously released was all well and good, but I, like many fans, were waiting to get a figure based on one of the proper incarnations of this evil Time Lord, and now we have it. The Planet of Fire set gives us another version of the 5th Doctor plus The Master as portrayed by the late, great actor Anthony Ainley.

The packaging here is the same type we’ve been seeing on all the classic style two-packs. The logo and artwork is based on the 2005-2010 series and the figure is sealed in a clamshell. An insert on the bottom shows off images of The Doctor and The Master and the back panel has a blurb about the episode and The Master. The 2010 SDCC logo is printed in the upper right hand of the card. Planet of Fire has never been one of my favorite episodes, but it does introduce the appealing companion, Peri, and it is a pretty good final showdown between The 5th Doctor and The Master. Ainley would also reprise his role to face off against both the 6th and the 7th Doctors in future episodes. Oh yeah, Planet of Fire also sees the departure of Turlough… good riddance!

Before getting started, here’s a quick and possibly unnecessary disclaimer on The Master as he is portrayed in this set. Technically, this is not The Master, but rather the shape-shifting android, Kamelion, assuming the form of The Master, who was in actuality stranded in his TARDIS in a… um… diminished state. Its only really relevant because The Master never actually wore a suit like this and this was an opportunity for CO to create an Ainley Master while reusing some parts from the John Simm Master. Do I care? Nope. If CO sees fit to release a proper Master figure later on down the road, I will pick it up, if not, I’m perfectly happy with this one. Its amazing how easy I am to please when dealing with a figure I thought I’d never get.

At first glance, many thought that this Master’s body was a complete reuse of the body used for the John Simm Master, but that’s not entirely the case. The arms and legs are the same, but the torso has significant differences. The details on this new figure’s jacket are much better sculpted, he’s wearing a vest under the jacket, and the wrinkles sculpted into the back are more pronounced. The sculpting on the Simm Master’s coat looks really soft when compared to the crisp detail on this one. The head sculpt is obviously new and quite excellent. CO did a fine job capturing Ainley’s slightly evil smirk and his mesmerizing, piercing eyes. There’s a tad of paint slop on the goatee, but nothing that is unacceptable. All in all, this is an excellent figure.

The Master’s articulation includes a rotating head. His arms rotate at the shoulders, are hinged at the elbows and have swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists. His legs have universal joints at the hips and hinged knees. He is, however, missing the swivel cuts in the thighs that many fo CO’s Doctor Who figures have.

The Doctor is also a fantastic figure, although he features far less original sculpting than The Master. The body sculpt is virtually identical to the one used for the previous single carded release, with the only difference being the celery on his lapel. I suspect it is identical to the Doctor released in the SDCC exclusive Time Crash set, released a few years back, and it may be the same body used on the one in the recent Eleven Doctors Set, both of which also feature the ornamental vegetable.

The head on this figure is a resculpt, changed just enough to accomodate the hat, which is not removable. The paint on this figure is very crisp, with the only flaw I can see being a small red dot of paint on the left shoulder of his coat. I’m not someone really interested in collecting a lot of variants of each Doctor, but I was glad to get this one because of the celery and I think the hat looks quite good on him. Right now, this one is replacing my other 5th Doctor as my main display piece. That’s how much I like him.

The Doctor features the exact same articulation as his previous releases. He has a rotating head. His arms rotate at the shoulders, are hinged at the elbows and have swivel cuts in the biceps and wrists. His legs have universal joints at the hips, hinged knees and swivel cuts in the thighs.

The set only comes with one accessory and that’s a sonic screwdriver for The Doctor. The obvious miss here is the lack of a Tissue Compression Eliminator for The Master. Oh well!

The Planet of Fire set retailed at $39.99, which is exactly what we’ve come to expect to pay for these limited issue two-packs. Sure, some might complain about the reuse of parts on The Master, or that he’s actually Kamelion and not The Master at all. Others might complain that they have to buy another Doctor just to get him. Me? I’m thrilled with this set. Its actually the one SDCC exclusive that I decided I couldn’t live without. As it turned out, it was a pretty easy set to get and many e-tailers still have it available at the original MSRP.

Aug 7 2010

Doctor Who: Dalek Ironside by Character Options

The episode, Victory of the Daleks was definitely not one of Season 5’s high points, but it did have its moments. Most of those moments was getting to see the Daleks acting as subserviant soldiers to Churchill and the British armed forces in World War II. Of course, this was all a ruse and one that was revealed pretty early on in the episode, but it was all worthwhile just to get a figure of this unusual variant WWII style Dalek known as an Ironside.

This is the first of the new series of figures I’m looking at, so we finally have all new packaging. The artwork is similar to the style used on the 11th Doctor Crash Set with the blue background and the new logo introduced in Series 5. The big difference here is that CO finally gave up the use of a full plastic clamshell and went back to mounting the figure in a bubble on a simple card. The package is wider and appears more squat than the previous designs, but overall I like it. It looks pleasing and its much easier to get into than the clamshells. Although, I imagine if you’re a mint on card collector this might be a setback, since these cards are more easily damaged. On the other hand, the logo insert in the bubble does obscure the bottom third of the figure.

A large portion of this figure is a reuse and repaint of the 2005-2010 Daleks we’ve been seeing all along. In fact, the only new sculpting here is the equipment belt that’s covering up the Dalek’s shoulder slats. The belt is very nicely sculpted and textured and includes several pouches, a canteen and an unkown silver container. The new paint job is a solid olive green with some silver accents to the belt and a tiny British flag painted right under the eyestalk.

The Ironside has the same articulation as previous Dalek figures. The sucker arm and gun are both on ball joints, and both arms can be removed from their sockets. The head rotates 360 degrees and the eye stalk can raise and also be removed from its socket.


On initial offering, these Series 5 figures have been far more expensive than previous releases. The Ironside set me back $20 and while its possible some e-tailers will price drop somewhere down the line, I didn’t want to risk missing out on him. He’s a striking looking figure and a very cool design concept, even if his role in the story turned out to be fairly short lived and forgettable. The only thing that would have really improved this figure would be if it had a voice chip that screamed, “WOULD YOU LIKE SOME TEA????” Who knows, maybe CO will grace us with a 12″ talking RC version. Yeah, pretty doubtful, but I’d be on board if they did.

 

 

Aug 6 2010

Trigun: Vash the Stampede by Kaiyodo

I’ve never been a huge follower of anime, but there have been a few series that I enjoyed enough to own, and one of these is Trigun. If you haven’t seen them yet, there are some new Revoltech figures coming out now based on the Trigun series, and while I haven’t picked any up yet, and possibly never will, its as good excuse as any to take a look at the one Trigun figure I already own.


I don’t remember exactly when and where I picked up this figure. It could have been Ebay, it could have been at a local comic shop. I just know it was back when the series was still coming out on DVD and I was still into it enough to want to buy a Vash figure. Honestly, the series started to wear thin for me toward the end when it gave up its fun and flippant nature for the usual tiresome anime melodrama. Either way, I don’t have an in-package shot of this guy, but I do remember that Vash came in a standard blister card, and the figure was titled, “The Planet Gunsmoke.” I also remember that I would have so bought the Insurance Ladies if they had been offered as figures as well, but sadly they were not.

Out of the package, Vash looks really nice. There’s decent detail in his long coat, which has a nice high gloss red finish. His head and hair are spot on, although an alternate head with those ridiculous hippie glasses would have been cool. Vash also drums up that age old debate: Figure or statue? There are points for each column, so I’m not going to get into it. I will say he has pretty good articulation in the arms, which includes universal joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivel cuts at the elbow and wrists. He also has a ball jointed head, and a swivel in his chest. From the waist down, bupkis!

As for accessories, Vash comes with a really nice display stand that includes a signpost complete with a sculpted wanted poster offering the infamous 60 billion double-dollar reward, a handcuff with a real chain connecting his left arm to the signpost, and his famous gun. He also came with the little black cat and a soup can, both of which I have rattling around in the bottom of a box somewhere. The display base itself is made to look like a wooden floor and its littered with empty shell casings.

I have no idea how much I paid for this thing back in the day, but he’s still easy enough to find brand new in the package for around $20 and sometimes even less. Granted, if you are a fan of Trigun and are looking for a Vash figure, you may want to investigate the new Revoltech figure first, as it is a true action figure with a ridulous amount of articulation. On the other hand, if you’re just looking for a cool looking Vash to stand up in the corner of your desk, you really can’t go wrong with this one.

 

Aug 5 2010

Transformers Titaniums: The War Within Optimus Prime by Hasbro

While I have yet to find him at retail, Hasbro’s new Generations Optimus Prime is finally starting to show up across the country and at various e-tailers. Obviously, I’m anxious to get my hands on this figure as its one of the few depictions of Optimus Prime in his Cybertron form. But until I do, I thought I’d give a look at one of those other pre-Earth versions of Prime. In this case, its the Titanium series War Within Optimus Prime.

For those of you who missed out on this short lived series, these Titaniums (not to be confused with the much smaller diecast statues) were roughly deluxe-sized transformable figures that were made of both diecast metal and plastic. They didn’t really follow any set series, as what few figures were released were inspired by every corner of the Transformers Universe. They were, however, a nice nod and wink back to the older fans who remember their Transformers having diecast parts, but the lack of continuity and some serious durability issues made this series a flash in the pan. The first assortment gave us figures inspired by the popular and canon-bending War Within comics, which gave us Megatron, Optimus Prime and Jetfire in their native Cybertronian forms.

In vehicle form, War Within prime is a vaguely familiar looking red, blue and silver truck. Its not a terrible looking vehicle, and I actually like certain elements of the design, but the simple transformation on thid figure makes it easy to recognize most of Prime’s robot kibble in his truck mode, particularly his arms, which are just hanging off the back of what would be the cab.

Prime’s robot mode is a nice recreation of the design from the comic, but the diecast used on this figure causes some cosmetic issues. The sculpting in the diecast looks somewhat primitive when compared to Prime’s plastic parts. The paint job on the diecast is also really questionable. You can see the swirls in his bodyworks and the paint will chip at the drop of a hat. There are places where this figure looks more like a custom fan project then a licensed, professionally made toy.

The biggest issue with these figures in general, and Prime specifically, is the weight displacement. The heavy diecast metal parts are at constant odds with the lighter and flimsier plastic. As a result, the figures don’t want to hold their forms very well and just trying to get Prime here into some different poses usually results in a half-transformed mess. His shoulders flop around and he’s way too top heavy for his own good.

WW Prime comes with two accessories: His blaster rifle and a personalized display stand. The same stand came with all of the Titanium figures, with a separate front piece that featured the robot’s faction symbol and name. It was a really nice extra and accentuated the fact that these figures probably should be considered more as collectibles than actual toys.

At one point I owned almost all of these Titanium figures, but my overall disatisfaction with this line led me to sell them off until I was down to just Prime, and the only reason I really kept him is because I try to collect most of the Optimus Prime toys released, even those that I’m not all that crazy about. These figures were an interesting experiment on Hasbro’s behalf, but ultimately an unsuccessful one, and the only one I really regret unloading was Soundwave, as it was easily the best G1 homage of the character Hasbro has done since. Otherwise, its hard for me to recommend these.

 

Aug 4 2010

GI JOE Rise of Cobra: Cobra Gunship by Hasbro

I’ve wanted this thing since the ROC toys first hit the shelves, but I’ve held off buying it on principle because of the high price. $24.99 for a Bravo class vehicle was way too steep when we were getting roughly comparably sized toys in the 25th Anni. line for around $15-20. I did cave and pick up the Cobra Steel Crusher, but that seemed like a better toy. Anyway, the toy aisles of the Walmart here are empty and awaiting transition, but at least some of the old stuff, like this Gunship, is left at decent clearance prices.

By the way, what the hell is Walmart thinking with their pricing strategy on their Rise of Cobra figures? For the longest time, they were selling them at $5 a piece. A few weeks ago, they were at an unprecidented $9.98 each. They didn’t even sell them for that much when they first came out! I even scanned one to see if it was a label mistake. Now, they’re on clearance for $7.00 a piece. I can’t figure out what the thought process is behind that. What’s even sadder is the Walmart here never put out more than a few cases of figures beyond the initial wave assortments. Anyway, I digress… back to the Gunship.

The packaging for this line is pretty cool. Its a simple box with some angular corners to make it stand out. There’s a window on the front to show off the included Firefly figure, along with an illustration of the toy in action. The back panel shows off an actual photo with some of the play features detailed. The box is actually significantly smaller than the actual toy, as the tail boom has to be locked on into place. Pretty much everything else comes already assembled. You just need to load up the bombs and pop in the missiles. There are also stickers to apply, which I love, and if you’d rather leave the Gunship more movie accurate, you could leave the Cobra emblems off.

I think the most obvious thing about this toy’s design is the fact that it was originally intended to be helicopter, because it is for all intense and purposes a helicopter without rotor blades. Is this what the vehicle looked like in the film? I can’t really remember, and I’m not curious enough to subject myself to watching it again just to see. What I’m getting at is either this toy started life as a helicopter, or the original design was intended to look like the Gunship was converted from a helicopter. Either way it explains why there’s an conspicuous bump on the top where a rotor blade assembly was originally intended to be placed.

With that curious design element aside, the toy is pretty cool, although it doesn’t do a whole hell of a lot. Weapons include a rotating chin gun, firing side mounted missiles, and there’s a hatch in the top where you can load up three small bombs and drop them out the back, just like Hasbro’s Tie Bomber from the Star Wars line. There are three short landing struts that fold down, two removable engine access panels and the main body opens up with a drop down hatch. For some reason, I love the fact that the cockpit opens up to the side and not straight up and down. Don’t ask me why. The cockpit holds one figure and the rear compartment has seats for two. There are also several handle grips on the bottom so figures can hang on while its in flight… another detail which supports the used to be a helicopter theory.

I think this toy’s greatest disappointment is its size. It really needed to be a little bigger to make the passenger compartment work. As it is, you can barely get one figure in there comfortably, let alone the two it seems to be designed to hold. If both sides had opening hatches, that might have helped too. It would have also been nice if the craft sat higher on the landing gear, as they hardly do anything to elevate it up when its grounded.


The Firefly figure is ok, but at the same time he’s nothing special. I also think he was a strange choice to be bundled with this vehicle. Firefly was a demolitions expert, so when did he change career paths to become a pilot? Nonetheless, he comes with a removable flight helmet and a flight vest with hoses that can plug into his helmet as well as two holes in the cockpit control panels. If you take off all his flight gear, he makes for a serviceable Firefly figure, but his chest area is pretty bland. He also doesn’t come with a stand or any weapons, despite having a molded pistol holster on his leg. He’s also a bit of a tight fit in the cockpit with his helmet and gear on. He’s not going to satisfy anyone looking for a definitive Firefly figure from this line. I think this vehicle would have been better served with a generic Cobra pilot figure instead. Personally, I like using the 25th Anni. AVAC figure.

I usually save the discussion of price and value for last, but in this case I lead in with it, so let me just reiterate that this is in no way what I would consider to be a $25 toy. Compare it to Hasbro’s Star Wars vehicles at the same price, and in those cases, Hasbro is carrying the cost of an expensive licensing fee, whereas they own the GI JOE brand themselves. Needless to say, despite being a nifty little vehicle, at full retail I would rate this toy pretty low. I got mine today at half off, and I’m pretty happy with it at that price. I probably would have picked it up a long time ago had it been $20. Its not like the extra five bucks was going to break me, but at some point I just feel I need to take a stand on the rising cost of toys.

Aug 2 2010

Back From The Weekend…

Yep, I worked this weekend. I had hoped to get one more post in before the end of July but it just wasn’t meant to be. Wednesday, I’m off, and I plan on hunting for some new Transformers, so either way I’ll be back with something, old or new. I’m probably going to start running through all the Transformers Classics and Universe 2.0 figures in anticipation of the release of the Generation figures.

As expected, I got shut out on Matty’s SDCC stuff. Well, I really only wanted two items. Orko went fast, as expected, while I was in a flippin’ staff meeting at work. The Retro Peter Venkman is still available, but I’m opting to get the whole set in one shot through another e-tailer.

I did manage to secure me a Blaster figure from Hasbro’s site, although it won’t be shipping until next week. But seeing as that was the one SDCC item I wanted the most, I’m cool with that.

Lastly, the new Doctor Who stuff is being released fast and furious. Today I ordered up a couple of the Series 5 figures, Amy Pond and the Ironside Dalek, as well as the SDCC Planet of Fire set with the 5th Doc and The Master. I would have probably ordered more of the Series 5 figures, but at nearly $20 a pop, that’s just too much for any figure that isn’t a must have and Amy and the Dalek are the only two figures in that assortment that I can’t live without. No doubt, the others will be deeply discounted eventually.

That’s all for now, I’m off to have a couple of Scotches and turn in early. Catch ya’ll in a couple of days.

Jul 29 2010

Doctor Who: 1:6 Scale Judoon Captain by Character Options

I’m more than willing to accept my share of the blame for CO bailing on their 1:6 scale figure line. I only own two of these things and I think they’re pretty amazing. So, its not like I did my part for sales, although I must say I’m tempted to pick up some of the others some day when I’m caught up on all my other wish lists. Nonetheless, last time we looked at their 12″ Cyberman, and this time its their even more impressive Judoon Captain. So, without further ado… Ma-Ho!

The Judoon comes in the same style box as the Cyberman. Its perfectly serviceable, very collector friendly and the window shows off the figure nicely. The back panel has a small blurb about the Judoon, although this figure was released before Series 4, so there’s nothing in there about them being the stormtroopers for the Shadow Proclamation. The box is also a lot thicker than the Cyberman’s box, as needed to accomodate this heavy brute of a figure.


Once out of the box, the Judoon Captain is a thing of absolute beauty. That is, if you’re partial to hulking, heavily armed space rhinos. The figure is, however, amazingly well executed in just about every way. The sculpt is phenomenal, from the head to the excellent detail on all the buckles and fringe of his leather outfit. Those of you who own the 5″ version of these guys already know that you had to buy the Judoon either helmeted (Trooper) or without the helmet (Captain). There’s no such compromise here, as this version comes with a removable helmet that locks into place quite nicely.

Two of the biggest drawbacks about the Cyberman were lack of accessories and articulation. The Judoon Captain fixes both of those. Besides his helmet, the Captain comes with a laser pistol that fits snugly in his holster and can be held in his right hand. He also comes with a language assimilator, which can be plugged into the port just under his neck, and he has a brainwave scanner. Both the scanner and the assimilator also clip onto his belt.

As for the articulation, the Judoon’s head does not turn, which is probably to be expected. His arms rotate at the shoulders and have some limited lateral movement. His legs have universal movement in the hips, his ankles have limited mobility and both his elbows and knees are hinged. He also has swivel cuts in the biceps, thighs and wrists.

I’ll confess that the Judoon are my favorite of all the aliens introduced in the modern Who series, so yeah, I’m a bit partial here. But I don’t think I’m overstating it when I say this guy is just awesome and is easily one of my favorite one-six scale figures in my collection. Character Options just nailed all the points and produced a great figure. The only thing that could have made this figure any better is if it talked.

The original retail was $29.99, but if you look hard enough, you can still find this guy for closer to $20. In fact, last time I checked even the Toys R Us was selling it on their US site, so there’s no excuse not to hunt one down.