Jan 7 2019

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Serpent Society by Hasbro

As promised, I’m back on this fine Marvel Monday afternoon to kill off another wave of Marvel Legends this week, this time it’s the sort of Infinity War-themed wave that gave us four figures from the flick and three unrelated characters from the comics. Obviously, King Cobra fits into the later!

I’m sure it has something to do with copyright issues, but for whatever reason the box just says Serpent Society. I’m sure King Cobra was taken by some other company for some other product and, for whatever reason, Hasbro thought tossing Klaus Voorhees on an action figure box wasn’t going to cut it. Maybe Serpent Society Leader would have been better? Maybe it wouldn’t fit in the space on the package? It doesn’t matter either way, I’m throwing out the box.

And hey, some of this guy sure looks familiar! The bulk of this buck was seen here last week when I looked at Black Knight, and it was used for Green Goblin before that, and Hobgoblin before that! Nonetheless, the sculpted scale pattern on the arms and legs certainly works well for King Cobra and I’m a big fan of the way it looks in general. The boots and hands are changed out, the former are pretty non-descript and the later are pointy-fingered clutching hands. He also has a couple of flat gray belt, which likes to ride up and down his waist, and similarly painted wrist bracers, all of which look a little out of place when mixed with the purple and green deco of the rest of the figure. And on that subject I can’t say enough good things. The coloring on this figure is absolutely gorgeous, with deep purple and bright emerald-green metallic paints.

The cape is totally rad, as it’s meant to look like the hood of a Cobra from the front, widening at the shoulders and narrowing down toward the ground. I really dig it. It pegs into the hole on his back and hovers a bit over his shoulders. It’s just the kind of accessory that would have made Cobra Commander or Serpentor proud!

The head sculpt is decent, but not extraordinary. I like his toothy maniacal grimace, but it’s a little soft and lacks some of the flair that so many of Hasbro’s better villain portraits exude. The mask is painted to match the scale armor and while it looks good, the lines between the mask and his skin aren’t as sharp as they could have been. Thankfully, the black lines around his narrow yellow eyes are applied with more precision. The hood is a separate piece so as not to impede the neck articulation and it’s painted in a darker green. My figure has an unfortunate blemish on the right top side of the hood.

After seeing this body three times already, I’ll refer you to one of those reviews (linked above) to get the down-low on the articulation. The hinges in the elbows and knees are still rather gummy, and the ratchets in the shoulders are oddly strong for a figure with such a slight build. Nonetheless, he’s still fun to play around with.

I can’t say as I’ve ever been all that excited by The Serpent Society in the comics, but these colorful characters in their outlandish costumes really translate well to action figures, and so I’m always going to be glad when we get a new one. And while I’ll freely admit that the recycled buck works perfectly for Klaus, I think it might be a good idea to put this one away for a little while, Hasbro. Three times in one year is getting a little excessive and you wouldn’t want it to outstay its’ welcome. And I’m not done for the day, so don’t pass out on me yet… I’ll be back one more time tonight to do a quick review (sort of) of the Thanos Build-A-Figure!

Jan 7 2019

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Proxima Midnight by Hasbro

My New Year’s resolution is that I’m determined to start getting caught up on my Marvel Legends reviews and get through some more of these older waves. And since I only have two more figures to open in the Thanos Wave, let’s go ahead and knock out that one today with a Triple Play. And so this morning I am throwing randomness to the wind and opening up the only other member of Thanos’ Black Order currently available: Proxima Midnight! While she’s not the stand out thug in Thanos’ stable, (that honor goes to Ebony Maw!) at least Proxima got some lines in the flick. She also had a couple of really bitchin’ fight scenes, so we’ll rank her in at number two.

I don’t have anything to say about the packaging, other then she comes with Thanos’ torso and there was a lot of speculation about her when this figure was revealed before the movie hit. Unlike Proxima’s cohort, Cull Obsidian, her figure is based closer to the way she appeared in the movie, but she’s still not 100% screen accurate. And for the record, I think her MCU look is a pretty damn cool adaptation of her comic look. Although to be fair, she’s a pretty new character, and I sometimes wonder whether Marvel is designing the new characters with potential MCU conversions in mind. Probably not, but it’s fun to think about it.

Wearing what is basically a black and white bodysuit, Hasbro could have easily cheaped out on Proxima with a simple painted buck. Instead, they went with an elaborate pattern of etched lines running all over her body. It almost looks like a topographical map! When coupled with the black and pearlescent white deco it looks quite striking. She also has some platinum colored armor pieces sculpted onto her lower right leg, her forearms, and a pauldron on her left shoulder.

The head sculpt is where the design of the figure and the on screen look differ a bit. The dark blue sculpted hair looks on point, as does the horn-like things that come up from her eyes. It’s the paint on the lower half of her face that doesn’t really jibe with the movie makeup. Her skin tone should be lighter, she shouldn’t have painted cheeks, and she should have a single stroke of paint running from her bottom lip down the middle of her chin. It’s not a bad looking portrait by any means, but I think this is another case of Hasbro working off of designs that weren’t quite finalized at the time. Indeed, there are actually promotional pictures of the character that looks just like this.

Proxima’s articulation actually breaks Hasbro’s tradition of cheating the gals by giving her double hinges in the elbows, instead of rotating hinges, as well as bicep swivels. The shoulders and wrists are the usual rotating hinges. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The torso has a ball joint under the chest and the neck is hinged and ball jointed. The shoulder armor even has a little give to it so as not to inhibit the left arm too badly.

Ms. Midnight comes with one accessory and that’s her very distinctive looking three-pronged spear. It’s cast in a platinum-gold color similar to her armor pieces, and it’s actually a pretty good match for the one she carried in the film. Only her right hand is sculpted to hold it, and I would have liked a swap-out left hand with the same ability. The spear is a bit bendy, particularly at the tips, but I dig it.

So, Proxima Midnight isn’t a perfect match for her big screen counterpart, but I still want to give this figure a pass. The sculpted lines added to the body really makes her stand out, and the head sculpt makes her look even more sinister than she did in the film. The divergence in design may bother me a bit more when I finally get Ebony Maw and Corvus Glaive on the shelf, but for now, I think she turned out pretty great and I can get some kicks posing her fighting Black Widow and Okoye. And that’s the first part of today’s Marvel Legends trifecta! Stop back this afternoon for a look at King Cobra and later on tonight for a half-assed quick look at the Thanos Build-A-Figure!

Jan 4 2019

Star Wars Black: Zuckuss by Hasbro

I’ve been waiting for it ever since the beginning of the Black Series, and now I’m almost there! Hasbro has finally delivered on a complete run of the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back in the 6-inch scale. And while Admiral Piett may not need their scum, I absolutely do! I’m still hunting down Dengar, so in the meantime I might as well open up the penultimate bounty hunter release and Disney Store exclusive, Zuckuss. This guy arrived a bit before Christmas and got lost in the insipid miasma of the Holiday Season, and I’m more than ready to check him out!

I was pretty vocal in my anger when I saw that Hasbro agreed to license out Zuckuss as a retailer exclusive release. Making it tougher to get a complete set of these guys is just bad business. But as it turns out, Disney Store exclusives are pretty easy to get, and I don’t mean because I live just a few hours away from Disney World. Nope, I just hopped on the store website and had no problem getting him sent. They were even running a free shipping special for the holidays! If only Hasbro’s own site would make it this easy to buy their regular releases!

And damn, don’t he look cool! Zuckuss has been the subject of some truly memorable figures over the years. Even going back to his Kenner mail-away when he was called 4-LOM. I had no idea who he was when I first saw that commercial, but once he showed up, I knew it was five proofs-of-purchase well spent. His 4-inch outing in the Legacy Collection was pretty damn rad too, so I had high hopes for the 6-inch Black Series version, and I am not disappointed! Interestingly, there are a number of key design differences between the two figures, and from some cursory glances at pictures of the original costume, I think this is probably the more screen accurate, but I’m not about to jump down that rabbit hole of nitpickery. I will say that this figure looks great and features some nice improvements over his most recent 4-inch predecessor.

First off, the cloak goes back to full soft-goods like on the original Kenner figure. The Legacy figure had only a partial cloth cloak and sculpted sleeves. I also really like the material they used. It feels soft, but it looks like whatever that heavier and grimy material was that they used for the costume. The coloring makes it look appropriately greasy and the speckling looks pretty damn good too. The fit isn’t perfect. It does look a puffy around the arms, but I can’t say that’s not entirely inaccurate. His harness features sculpted pouches on the front and back as well as some light wash to give it a little wear and tear and make it look like leather. The biggest difference in design between him and the Legacy figure is the backpack. That one was silver and more rounded, this one is a dark metallic color and more squared off. It also has a little black hose running from it into the harness that looks like it could serve no possible purpose.

The head sculpt is right on the money. The wrinkled segments in his head look fantastic and contrast beautifully with the large silver compound eyes and the the breather piece covering his lower face. Indeed the silver paint they used is quite striking. The tubes coming off his head look like umbilical cords and I love the way the same lumpy organic stuff partially covers his breathing canister. I honestly have no idea what’s going on with Gand anatomy here, but it looks gross as hell, and I mean that in every good possible way.

As for articulation, it’s impossible to see what’s going on under that robe, as I’m not prepared to take it off, but what’s here feels pretty similar to what we usually see on the 6-inch Black Series figures. There are cuts in the lower cloak, so he can still get some pretty good range of leg movement too. I will note, however, that the left elbow on my figure is rather loose.

Zuckuss comes with one accessory, and that’s his very distinctive blaster carbine. I swear this was one of my favorite guns from the old Kenner line and even after all these years, I could still spot it out of a lineup. OK, maybe that’s not so impressive since I still have the Kenner figure on my shelf, but I do love the design so much and it’s cool to see it blown up to the 6-inch scale and even featuring some additional paint apps for the stock. They also sculpted his left hand as the gun holding hand, which lines up better with his iconic pose from the film. And despite him just having three big fingers, he can hold it surprisingly well.

For a guy who had a few seconds of screen time, it’s stupid how happy I am to have this figure. He’s always been among my favorite Star Wars alien designs and I’m doubly happy that my 4-LOM doesn’t have to be alone any longer. And speaking of which, after the wonderful job that Hasbro did with 4-LOM, it’s nice to see Zuckuss arrive with an equal attention to detail and execution. I think this is one of the rare exceptions where Hasbro made good use of the larger scale to deliver a truly better figure. Everything just came together beautifully. And as I put these figures together I realize more and more how badly IG-88 needs a re-do for this series, because he’s the only one in the bunch that falls shy of excellence.

Jan 2 2019

Mythic Legions (Advent of Decay): Faunus by The Four Horsemen

It’s the my first review of the New Year, and I’m thrilled that it also happens to be Mythic Legions Wednesday! Because what could be better than ringing in 2019 by opening up a brand new figure from this amazing line? This week I’m going a bit random and I just picked the first figure in my stack that I laid hands on and it turned out to be Faunus! This dude is not only billed as a powerful Elemental Warrior, he’s also the Commander of the Silverhorn Sentries and Defender of Castle Silverhorn. Not too shabby for a tree!

And what an interesting looking guy this is. He’s an armored Ent… with hooves! Sure, why not? While Faunus is fresh off the recent Advent of Decay Kickstarter, all his parts (well, at least from the neck down) come from the initial Kickstarter. He actually shares arms, legs, and hooves with the Silverhorn Sentry, while his tabard-wearing torso comes from Sir Gideon. He also borrows his armor belt, hip armor, and gorget from other first generation knights. So, if you’ve been with the line from the beginning, this ensemble isn’t exactly strikingly fresh, but thanks to a particularly sumptuous new paint job, it looks absolutely gorgeous. The bulk of the armor is decked out in a snappy emerald green with some tasteful gold trim. There are also copper plates on his upper legs and his shoulders. Finally, you get a little metallic silver for the chain-mail that’s exposed near his joints. The sculpted tabard is a deep blood-orange.

The head sculpt is all new and it’s the first time we’re seeing someone of Flaurus’ breed. His skin has a wood-grain finish with branches that flow up and out of his head like antlers. He has an almost catlike structure to his lower face and two piercing green eyes that stare out from under a heavy brow. The portrait is finalized by sprigs of greenery, which jut out from each side of his head like veggie-ears. Faunus sports a noble expression with a hint of determination that clearly conveys the message, “Don’t bring your evil here.” Actually, that quote may already be taken. But you get the point.

One of the most interesting things about this figure is that he has two distinct looks, and that’s because of his rather unique cape design. The orange cloth garment is colored to match the tabard. It’s also smaller than most of the other capes we’ve seen in the line and attaches to the figure differently. Instead of having holes that require the shoulder armor to keep it in place, this one simply has a neck hole. It makes for a unique look, but it also means that you can’t use it with both the shoulders attached. Or at least not very well.

You can, however, put one shoulder on and have the cape off to the side, sort of like a shoulder sash, and I like the way this looks a lot. I’m particularly fond of this option for when he’s just carrying his staff and dagger and looking like a kick-ass forest-dwelling battle mage.

The staff makes use of the rod that we’ve seen a few times before, painted gold, and with a brand new top piece. This new piece is sculpted to look like a gnarled piece of wood with a green orb on the end. I don’t pretend to understand the nuances that has a tree-person topping his staff with a piece of another tree, but I’m sure it’s all kosher. The staff is doubt used to cast all sorts of elemental spells, or perhaps just to command the trees to rise up and defend Silverhorn Castle.

The dagger is the same one we first saw with Lucretia the Vampire. It’s small with a curved blade and it includes a sheath that clips onto the belt. The sheath has the same eye emblem on it and this time is painted orange and gold, whereas the dagger itself has a gold blade and a copper hilt. I get more of a ceremonial vibe off of this weapon because of its’ demure design, but as a last resort, it could probably be used quite effectively.

Faunus’ other look is to just forget the cape and go with both pauldrons, which works really well when outfitting him with his sword and shield. If the cloaked version was more Mystic Faunus, then this is full-on Warrior Faunus. He looks great with the shoulders added and they continue the emerald and gold coloring that makes for such a beautiful deco.

His sword and shield are both familiar. The sword is the same two-hander we’ve seen again and again. This time it has a gold painted hilt and the sword is painted with a bright silver luster. It’s a good thing that I love this sword design as much as I do, or else I’d be getting pretty sick of seeing it by now. Whether it’s a good idea for a guy with a head shaped like that to be swinging a sword around is another question entirely. The shield, on the other hand is a bit more uncommon, although it’s been included with some of the gladiator-type figures. It’s round and painted copper, with an ornate emerald colored inner ring and a simple gold boss right in the center. Mine has a few minor scratches on the face, no doubt blows deflected by Faunus in the heat of desperate battle. Or maybe just some QC issues at the factory in China. Either way, it’s nothing bad enough to detract from the beauty of the accessory. What does detract is that the peg on the inside of the shield snapped off in the handle and so I’m forced to use a bit of tacking putty to have him hold it. I’ve had precious few noteworthy QC issues with my Mythic Legions figures, but when I do, it’s only fair to point them out.

And there ya have it… Another Wednesday, another great figure from Mythic Legions. I’m pretty sure I mentioned last time how much I dig some of these unique looking creatures that offer a little more variety to the Skeletons, Orcs, Dwarves, and Elves. Not that there’s anything wrong with those, but getting these more unique races makes this universe all the more diverse and interesting to me. And I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing some more of Faunus’ ilk in future releases. I’d really like to see one with a helmet that’s left open at the top for the branches to extend out of. I think they could do some cool new stuff with this design. Either way, I now wish I had picked up one more Silverhorn Sentry to go with him.

Dec 31 2018

Marvel Legends (Cull Obsidian Wave): Cull Obsidian Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

Here we go! It’s the very last Marvel Monday review of 2018 and I am still ridiculously far behind on my Marvel Legends, but I’m so very glad to be ending the year with a figure from Infinity War. As far as movies go, that one was one of the highest points of the year for me. So much so, that I’m going to be ending the year watching it on Blu-Ray tonight for the the umpteenth time. So let’s get right down to business so I can watch my movie and you all can go about your New Years Eve business!

For all intent and purposes, Cull Obsidian is the Black Dwarf of the MCU’s Black Order and only the second of Thanos’ minions (so far!) to get a figure in the Legends line. He’s comprised of seven parts, if you include his weapon, spread out over all six figures in this wave, with the weapon being doubled up with one of the arms. Before slapping him together, it’s worth mentioning that this figure deviates a bit from his look in the film. The body and head sculpt both look pretty much on point, but he wore a lot more armor in the film. Is this one of those cases of Hasbro being given early concept art to work with? Probably. Does it hurt the figure? Not necessarily.

Sure, if you’re looking for a perfect representation of Cull Obsidian on the big screen, you’re going to be disappointed, but with that having been said, I think this guy turned out fantastic. This fellow is a good head and shoulders taller than his boss Thanos, and that makes him pretty imposing when compared to the regular-sized figures. He’s a big reptilian brute covered in scaly skin, with ridges on his shoulders, powerful hands, and three-toed feet. He kind of looks like something you’d find Duke Nukem fighting, and that ain’t a bad thing. As mentioned, the armor is quite different than what he wore in the film. Here he has grieves on his lower legs, a metallic armored belt with sculpted plastic cloth hanging down in tatters, a segmented piece of armor on his right forearm, and a massive piece of armor on his right shoulder, which is actually a separate piece and can be removed if you want to.

From the back, you can see armored plates running up his spine and a single armor plate stuck to his lower left leg. The coloring is mostly brown with some black wash to bring out the details, and some yellow-brown added to his chest. I would have loved to see a little wash on the armor, as it looks rather flat when compared to the rest of the body. The body features solid articulation for such a big guy, indeed it’s basically the same as what we get in the regular releases. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, the elbows are double-hinged, and there are swivels in the biceps. The legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double-hinged knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s a ball joint under the chest and the neck is ball jointed. As expected, this guy is as solid as they come, and he’s loads of fun to play with.

The head sculpt is a thing of beauty, and by that I mean it’s ugly as sin. Like the body, the portrait looks pretty close to the character seen in the film. I love the tiny piercing gold eyes, and the things on his chin and lower jaw that look like tusks. There’s some wonderful detail in the lines of his face, the ridges on his head, and all the other little scales and bumps.

If this figure disappoints at all, it’s definitely because of his weapon. In the movie he carried a cool axe that could shoot the head out on a chain. It looked like it was made out of space junk, but really cool looking space junk. Here we get this hammer thing that looks like a lame Minecraft weapon. It kind of has an MCU Kree technology flavor to it, but I just don’t dig it. He can only hold it in his left hand and while I’m sure he could do some major damage with it, I’d much rather we got something closer to the weapon in the movie.

Lame weapon notwithstanding, I absolutely love this figure. It really doesn’t bother me that he strays from the actual on-screen look, especially since the difference is mainly in his costume. He’s big and nasty-looking and he’s definitely going to spend some time fighting The Hulk on my shelf. Pretty soon I’ll be opening up Proxima Midnight and I’m really looking forward to the release of Ebony Maw and Corvus Glaive. I think they’re going to make for one hell of a display!

And that’s a wrap for 2018. I’m not doing any kind of End of Year list this year, mainly because I’ve got a busy couple of weeks with work and also because I don’t want to fall any farther behind in my backlog. At some point in the next month or so, I’ll probably be doing a Marvel Legends week, just to try to get me a little boost, although at this point I would need to do a whole Marvel Legends month just to try to get sort of caught up. Anyway… thanks to everyone who stuck with me for another year and I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year! 

Dec 31 2018

Marvel Legends (Cull Obsidian Wave): Malekith by Hasbro

It’s the last Marvel Monday of 2018 and I vowed to get through one more wave of Marvel Legends before we flip the calendar to 2019, so I’m going to be doubling up today. This morning I’m opening my final boxed figure in the Cull Obsidian Wave, Malekith, and I’ll be back later to build Cull Obsidian, himself… Let’s go!

Malekith is the third figure from the 2017 SDCC (Now Not-So) Exclusive Ragnarok (the others being Jane Foster Thor and Thor Odinson) to get a subsequent retail wide release. Sure these were all repainted, making those versions still technically exclusive, but that leaves just Ulik and Bor as the only figures in that set not to get a brick-and-mortar treatment. You could argue that those two are the best in the set, but I still haven’t opened mine yet, so off-hand I couldn’t tell ya. It also means I won’t be doing any side-by-side pictures of this Malekith and the SDCC version, but I will be doing some verbal comparisons.

The retail release is so very nearly a straight repaint of the SDCC version, but there is one change and that’s the left hand. The exclusive version had an open hand, this one has a closed accessory holding-hand. Why the change? Maybe it was just so they could point to something other than the paint to distinguish the two figures. I dig it, because now he’s ambidextrous! Although the grip on mine is actually closed, so you’ll need to make do a quick slice with a razor if you want him to hold the sword in the other hand. Malekith makes use of a lot of paintwork to characterize his costume, but there’s some new sculpting attached here as well. The shoulders and collar are cast in one piece of soft plastic, although it looks like three separate pieces from the front. Happily, the flexibility in the shoulder armor means that it won’t inhibit the arm articulation. He also has two belts, One with the skirt attached to it, which feels like it might be glued into place. The other hangs loose on his hips and features some sculpted pouches on his left side. Finally, the forearms are sculpted with his wrist bracers.

As for the deco, well that’s going to be an issue of personal preference. This retail release is definitely brighter and cheerier, but I’m going to go with the Exclusive version as having the more appealing deco. The darker red and the black in place of maroon just makes for a more sinister and striking figure to me. That’s not to say this one is bad, they’re both fine. I dig the gold paint on the bracers and necklace, although I would have liked some additional paint hits to the belts.

The head sculpt is quite spectacular. I love his broad, evil grin, and the black and blue paint on the face looks great, even though they splashed some blue onto his teeth. The hair is sculpted as a separate piece to give the portrait some depth. Early pictures made me think that the hair was going to be more of an orange-yellow tone, but in person it’s very pale and I’m happy with that. Although, I think I still prefer the whiter hair on the exclusive over what we got here.

The articulation here is pretty standard stuff. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs have ball joints in the hips, double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs and lower legs, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The torso features a waist swivel, an ab crunch hinge, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

Malekith comes with his sword, which is an absolutely bitchin’ design. The hilt is fairly simple with a ribbed grip, no cross-guard, and a gold finish, but the blade is so distinctive! It narrows at the hilt, then swells out, and ends in an upswept clipped point. It also features a nasty looking serrated back. It’s one vicious looking piece of cutlery!

I’m thrilled to finally have the comic version of Malekith represented on my Legends shelf. Hell, he’ll even be represented twice if I ever get around to opening the SDCC set! He may have been a bewilderingly odd choice to include in this wave, but generally speaking, I don’t care how the assortments play out, as long as we get the figures. It’s just a shame that the character was handled so poorly in the MCU, but then the villains have rarely been the MCU’s strong point. Anyway… give me a little time to recoup and I’ll be back later on tonight to check out Cull Obsidian!

Dec 28 2018

Transformers Siege: Skytread by Hasbro

Hasbro’s new line of Transformers continues to hit retail and I’ve just about completed picking up the first wave of Deluxe Class figures. Today I’m opening my second of the bunch and while he’s called Skytread on the package, I’ll happily re-name him Flywheels, because he’s a modern update to my favorite Duocon.

The new Siege packaging abandons the traditional card and bubble for a collector friendly box with some bitchin’ artwork. Of course, the Duocons were a new breed of Transformers gimmick that Hasbro introduced in 1987. These Decepticons could split in half, with each half transforming into its own independent vehicle. It was hardly a sub-group, as we only ever got two of these guys. The other was Battletrap, and Hasbro gave him an update as part of Power of the Primes, but he’s not really a proper Duocon. It’s too much to get into here, but maybe now I’ll get around to opening and reviewing those figures. But I digress… Skytread’s alt modes consist of a jet and a tank, so not entirely unlike Big Daddy Overlord, but these vehicles are pretty small and very simple. They’re also very similar to the original G1 toys, and some collectors will love that, others maybe not so much. Let’s first look at his jet mode…

Awww, who’s a cute little Decepticon attack jet? You ARE! Flywheels’ jet mode was an adorable super-deformed attack craft and this modern update really stuck to its guns on that account. It’s actually a pretty nice mold, with plenty of panel lines, sculpted rivets, flaps, and vents, but it still looks a bit like a chibi Harrier Jump Jet to me, even though the proportions probably aren’t that off. The coloring is mostly confined to the maroon plastic with painted blue cockpit and some gold painted trim, while there’s some brown showing on the obvious robot arms that make up his undercarriage. I would have liked to see a little in the way of paint detail, but as it stands, it sure beats the one color of plastic that passed for Flywheels’ jet deco. All in all, this is a frightfully simple little toy jet, but it begrudgingly gets my seal of approval because it serves up some major nostalgia for a toy that I really loved. Moving on to the tank mode…

This is the half that even nostalgia cannot save. It’s not too dissimilar from Flywheel’s tank mode, but even so, there’s just nothing at all appealing to me about this little piece of rolling armor. The brown body features some sculpted panel lines, decently sculpted treads, some gold paint hits and some silver weathering along the sides. The two guns are maroon plastic with some gold paint. The design isn’t very exciting at all, the back is hollow and ugly, the main gun barely stays put, and the top pieces are very difficult to keep tabbed in, despite this being a frightfully simple transformation. You can mount the smaller gun on either side of the main cannon or even on the sides, and while options are nice, it just isn’t enough to save this tank for me. The last time I was this disappointed with a Transformers tank mode had to be the Titans Return Cassette Tanks, and those were pretty damn bad. I will, however, allow this one to squeak by because he’s part of a bigger picture.

And because that’s one heck of a cool looking robot mode. As with Flywheels, Skytread’s tank mode forms the lower half of the robot with the jet forming the upper half. OK, it’s not exactly like the Duocon that inspired him, but it’s pretty close. And what deviation there is just serves to modernize the figure beautifully. There’s nothing terribly exciting or inventive about the engineering here, but it’s hard to argue with the end result. All those panel lines on the vehicle modes add some wonderful detail to the robot mode, and the two-tone brown and maroon deco works well for a Decepticon soldier. Besides, the blue cockpit and hits of gold paint do their parts to make him pop a little. The proportions are great and it holy hell, he actually has functional legs, which is a boast that the old toy couldn’t make.

From the back Skytread looks fairly clean and tidy. He wears the back half of the jet plane on his back, complete with an adorable little tail and you can even use the peg on his back to store one of his guns, or both if you want to combine them. My only real complaint here is that his torso is hollow, but unless you’re scrutinizing him from the sides, it isn’t really a big deal. And no, I’m not going to gripe about his big feet, because that’s just another loving nod to G1 Flywheels.

I can rarely find much fault in Hasbro’s bot-noggins, and that’s not going to change here. Skytread’s head sculpt is fantastic and a perfect homage to his predecessor.

Obviously, Skytread’s two tank guns also serve as weapons for his robot mode, and while the designs are pretty generic, he looks good holding them. The smaller gun is my favorite of the two, just because it’s compact.

 

The longer gun is fine, but it’s design is even more generic than the smaller one. Fortunately, you can peg them together…

To make one big rifle. I really dig this feature as well as the fact that there are two pegs for him to grab.

Skytread is so much fun in robot mode, that I’m not willing to let the crappy tank and mediocre jet modes tear him down. But then I’m a real sucker for modern updates and as far as I know, this is the first time Hasbro’s revisited this character. There’s just something so cool about taking that old design and doing it over with proper proportions and useful articulation. And yeah, there’s also a good deal of nostalgia at work here. As it happens, Flywheels was one of the last Transformers figures I ever bought before I got away from toys, and that was pushing it because I was 14 when he originally came out. He lacks a bit of the polish and premium feel that oozed out of Hound, but in the end I’m still smitten with how this modern Duocon turned out.

Dec 26 2018

Mythic Legions (Advent of Decay): Boarrior by The Four Horsemen

Happy day after Christmas, folks! I hope the holidays treated you well and I once again apologize for not delivering my usual Christmas Day content. It was a day spent getting badly needed rest and with my family. But now I’m recharged and ready to have at Mythic Legions Wednesday and with the taste of the holiday ham still lingering in my memory, today I’m going for one of the oddball figures in the Advent of Decay series… The Boarrior!

He’s not an Elf or Skeleton, nor is he a Human or Vampire. The Boarrior are dwarf-pig hybrids employed as shock troops by The Legion of Arethyr, and known to be rather nasty little beasties. These little bundles of porcine awesomeness are comprised of a wonderful mix of parts, many of which hearken back to the original run of Mythic Legions. Like the Dwarves, the Boarrior use the regular sized trunk, arms and waist pieces, while kitted out with shorter legs, and in this case hooves for feet. The full plate armor is taken directly from this line’s beginnings and looks as great as ever. It’s colored with a dingy and well-worn iron finish with silver paint highlighting the edges and rivets, and some red paint used for some of the trim. The waist piece consists of plate armor for the hips and the sculpted leather scale hanging down to protect his piggy jumblies and if you turn him around you can see his adorable little pig tail hanging out the back of the armor. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, T4H’s ability to sculpt and paint plastic to look like real weathered metal never ceases to amaze me!

As always, the figure comes with pauldrons that peg into the back and beef up his armor. In this case, they’re recycled from the jagged and crude looking Orc armor that seems totally appropriate for this savage little fellow. Indeed, without them I think his armor looks a tad too sophisticated for such a creature. But toss them on and it makes him look more brutish. The Boarrior also comes with a standard brown sword belt, and while he doesn’t have any swords or daggers in his arsenal, I think it works well for his mace.

The head sculpt is completely unique and it’s a beauty! The snout and jowls protrude outward pretty far and feature sculpted fur as well as two powerful tusks protruding from his mouth. The head is protected by a crude looking helmet, which is cast as part of the head sculpt and painted in a copper finish to match the shoulder pauldrons. You also get some silver around the edges and on the large rivets. Some cracks and wear back up the bit in the bio that says these guys sometimes like to toss their weapons and just ram things. And speaking of tossing weapons, let’s check out the gear he comes with!

We’ve already seen the mace tucked into his belt. This baby has a head that looks like it could bash in just about any plate armor and make pretty quick work of skulls too. It’s painted silver with a wash to give it a worn look. I’ve had maces included with a couple of figures up to this point, but this one is a completely different sculpt than what I’ve had before. It’s nice to have a new and novel weapon after opening so many figures with basically the same swords.

Next up is this primitive looking axe. Like the mace, this one has turned up before, but very infrequently. The handle is sculpted to look like a piece of bone and the blade is painted as well worn metal. I think this weapon is particularly well suited to The Boarrior because it reminds me of the axe included with Kenner’s old Gamorrean Guard from Return of the Jedi.

And finally, we have the giant hammer, and this completes a trifecta of weapons that I’ve seen before, but just not very often. This is a favorite of mine, not only because it looks so powerful, but the sculpt is just gorgeous. It also conveys just how strong these tiny oinkers must be to be able to wield such an obviously heavy weapon, which is almost as tall as he is! The hammer is finished off with a silver paint and some black wash, similar to the mace.

As much as I love this guy, The Boarrior almost didn’t make the final cut of my Advent of Decay purchase list. As I was crunching my budget he came off a few times, only to get included back in. In the end, I’m very glad I opted to get him. Not only is he a great looking figure, but he adds that little extra bit of variety to a line that is made up predominantly of larger factions. And the more diverse Mythic Legions gets, the better I like it!  I’d love to see T4H produce a Boarrior Legion Builder somewhere down the road, because as a regular figure he’s a bit pricey to troop build, but at the same time, I feel like I need at least a trio of these little piggies. Considering the head sculpt is completely unique, I’d imagine they’re looking for a way to reuse it and get a little more money out of it, and I’m quite excited to see what that will entail!

Dec 24 2018

Marvel Legends (Cull Obsidian Wave): Black Knight by Hasbro

After a few diversions, I’m back to spending Marvel Monday digging into my pile of unopened Marvel Legends. Although, today’s figure isn’t random, I actually picked it because I want to complete one more wave before the end of the year, and with two figures left to open in the Cull Obsidian Wave, that’s the one I’m going with. I also thought it would be fun to go with Black Knight, because I’ve been devoting one slot a day to opening Mythic Legions. So what do we call today’s figure? Marvel Legions? Mythic Legends? Whatever, the point is it’s Marvel’s Black Knight!

Here he is in the box, and with only Malekith left to open, Black Knight is the penultimate figure in this wave for me. He’s also one of those characters that I only recall encountering a few times in my 35 years or so of Marvel comic reading. I know he’s been around in one form or another since forever and it’s been about that long since I remember seeing him in my funnybooks. If anyone knows a good run for us to get introduced, please feel free to lay it on me.

And for a character I simply don’t know all that well, I have to say that I dig the look of this figure a lot. Hasbro took the torso, arms and legs right off of Green Goblin and Hobgoblin, which makes perfect sense because of the excellent chain-mail sculpt on the limbs. I was surprised to see that they didn’t recycle the gauntlets or buccaneer boots. I mean, I wasn’t expecting them to use the curled toe boots, but it seems like they could have cheaped out and recycled a lot more if they wanted to. Whatever the case, it all works well for the medieval knight motif. It kind of gives him that vintage Prince Valiant flavor that hints at just how far back the character goes. The tabard is achieved with a painted torso and a separate sculpted belt piece that hangs down below the waist and is pretty convincing as all being part one garment. The belt is 100% comic, though, with a monstrously large belt buckle and enough sculpted pouches to make Deadpool jelly.

The coloring here is fairly dark, but nicely done. I really dig the silver and gun-metal blue they used for the chain-mail. The gauntlets and boots are both matte black and there’s some red striping around the edges of the gauntlets, as well as the arm holes in the tabard. He also features a red flying eagle emblem on his chest. The belt is brown with some dull bronze paint for the buckle, but unfortunately there’s no paint on the pouch snaps.

The cape attaches via a peg in the back and hangs off the shoulders, so it doesn’t impede articulation much, but you can easily take it off for the more action-packed poses.

You get three different heads to choose from, each designed to offer a different one of his looks. The stock head features a helmet that covers the nose and leaves the lower half of the face exposed. It’s got some nice gold paint and the way it’s sculpted makes it almost look like it could be removed, even though it can’t. I dig the wings on the sides as well. This is easily the character’s look that is most familiar to me.

The next head features a classic Great Helm with a similar black and gold coloring. This one isn’t as convincing as a real helmet, since the eye holes are shallow and just painted over in black. I do like the eagle crest on the top, though. It’s cast in a soft plastic and looks great.

Finally, you get a noggin that looks like it’s probably meant to be for villain version of Black Knight. I’m not as big a fan of this one. The head sculpt is actually quite good, but the helmet itself reminds me of a Nova Corps helmet (as well as Captain Britain’s!) a bit too much. Still, not bad at all.

Black Knight comes with his trusty sword, The Ebony Blade. It would have been damn cool to get his photonic blade sword as well. I suppose I could always steal the one off of Taskmaster. Anyway, the sword is a nice sculpt with an elongated two-hand grip, and there’s a slot on the belt for him to wear it. The hand sculpts they went with for him aren’t perfectly suited to holding the sword. The left hand works best, and while he can hold it in the right hand, the grip is somewhat loose. He can also wield the sword with both hands.

The articulation here has all the right points, and rather than go through them all, I’ll just refer you back to either the Green Goblin or Hobgoblin reviews. The problem here is that he’s got some seriously gummy hinges in those elbows, which can be a bit of a drag when playing around with him.

Ultimately, I dig this figure a lot. He looks great standing on the shelf and there’s just something about his design that takes me back to films like the 1953 classic Knights of the Round Table. The extra heads go above and beyond for fans of the character who want to go with one particular look, and if this guy ever starts showing up for as cheap as some Legends figures have, I could easily see myself picking up a couple more. And that’s almost a wrap for this wave. Next Monday I’ll be back to check out Malekith as well as the Cull Obsidian Build-A-Figure.

And I can’t depart without wishing everyone a happy and safe Christmas Eve today and a Merry Christmas tomorrow. I also need to face up to the fact that I’m probably not going to be able to do a big review on Christmas, like I’ve been doing the last few years. Usually I can get a jump on that well before Christmas Eve, but this year my work schedule, family obligations, and other stuff going on in my life just hasn’t afforded me the time. I’ll still check in tomorrow, and maybe throw something together for Christmas Day, but I can’t promise anything. Perhaps, I’ll try for something special on New Year’s Day instead. 

Dec 21 2018

Transformers: Masterpiece Ratchet (MP-30) by Takara

Folks, I’ve been a bad MP Transformers collector. After a long run of scarfing up each of the releases, I hit a wall. My last MP purchase was Ironhide, and I reviewed him over two years ago! I love this line, so I could only attribute me falling off by the rising prices. I thought Ironhide was well worth the extra bucks, but $90 for a repaint? That’s considerably more than each of the three Datsuns set me back. And I didn’t want to skip Ratchet and go for Inferno, because that would be cheating. Ultimately, it was a renewed sense of urgency that got me back on track. Ratchet was selling out at a few places, and I worried that if I didn’t buy him now, I’d regret it later. Even better, I sold off a couple of Third-Party Go-Bots that I didn’t need in my collection and that more than paid for him. And so here we go!

It’s been a long time, but the packaging hasn’t changed. Ratchet comes the same kind of collector friendly enclosed box as Ironhide did, which is bigger than the previous MP Autobot cars. You get plenty of pictures of the toy in its various modes, but you don’t get a lot of English copy. All in all, I dig these boxes a lot. They aren’t flashy, but they are classy, and they’re made of heavy stock, so they store well. I actually keep my MP Collection boxed for the time being and they look great all lined up on the shelf.

Inside, the figure and goodies come on clear plastic trays, and it’s easy to see where the extra money went. Not only is Ratchet a big boy, but he comes with a whole bunch of accessories. You also get folded instructions, a character card and a set of stickers with two optional layouts. Yup, stickers! I went with the Autobot crosses because I just think it looked neat, but I’ll come back to the stickers in a bit. Ratchet comes packaged in his alt mode, so let’s start there!

It’s common knowledge that the early 80’s was the pinnacle of Japanese van design and nothing illustrates that better than the Nissan Cherry Vanette. And I’m not ashamed to say that after 35 years, it was only recently that the MP Collection taught me the make and model Ratchet and Ironhide’s alt modes. And yes, in van mode, Ratchet is just a straight recolor of Ironhide with a lightbar added to the top. He’s nearly entirely white, with a red stripe running along each side, blue windows, chromed out bumpers and matte silver wheels. All in all, it’s not a bad looking van, but there are a hell of a lot of seams breaking up the sides.

I’m not a huge fan of the exposed robot face behind the windshield. OK, it’s a cute nod back to the original toy, but probably not one that needed to be so in my face every time I look at it. Also, it serves no purpose at all, which makes me even more sorry that they added it. Does it ruin the van mode? Nah, not really, but it’s worth picking at all the same. You do get a nice Autobot emblem right on the front of the van, and while there are stickers for the auto mode, I’ve chosen to leave them off for now.

Initially, I thought the lightbar would prevent Ratchet from catching a ride in MP Optimus Prime’s trailer, but it’s spring-loaded and you can push it down to roll him inside. It does sometimes get caught when trying to get him out and a few times, I’ve had to pop open the trailer, rather than risk scratching it.

Finally, like Ironhide, there’s a flip up socket on the top of Ratchet’s van mode, which can be used to insert any of the weapons that are designed to be held in his hands. And who doesn’t love a weaponized ambulance, eh?

As expected, the transformation is identical to Ironhide and if you want to share my wonder at experiencing it for the first time then dip back into my Ironhide review. Sadly, the magic is old hat now, but I can still appreciate what Takara’s teams of convertorobot engineers have pulled off here. This shouldn’t work. You shouldn’t be able to get that much robot into that little van. Hell, they couldn’t even come close with the original toy. And yet here it is. Ratchet’s resulting robot mode is almost identical to Ironhide. Takara changed up their pelvic plates, but from the neck down the only other difference is the coloring. And that’s a good thing, because I absolutely loved this robot mode on Ironhide and it looks just as fabulous here on the Autobots’ Chief Medic. From the front, everything looks so impossibly clean and boxy and every other ideal that a G1-designed Transformer should strive to be. The legs are nearly devoid of any van evidence at all and I dig the little armor plates that land on his hips. The front windshield of the van is worn perfectly as the chest, and it impresses me to no end that there aren’t even any wheels visible from the front.

Turn him around and things aren’t quite as polished. There are a lot of exposed screw holes and for the money involved, it would have been cool if Takara had plugged these, or at least offered plugs for us to do it ourselves, like TFC did with their set of Not-Aerialbot figures. You do get a smidgen of van kibble from the back, notably the chrome bumpers on his heels, the windows on the backs of his forearms and his wheel butt… WHEEL BUTT!!! I’ve been in forums where fans complained about this stuff and I was amazed. Hey, complain about whatever you like, that’s your right, but I think this figure is a great achievement of design. He’s also a hefty, solid bot and so much fun to play with!

Obviously we got a brand new head sculpt, and it captures all the character of Ratchet from the Sunbow cartoon. I love the rounded “helmet” and the giant wings over his eyes. The eyes themselves are a bright and beautiful shade of blue, and the rest of the face is finished off in a pleasing matte gray. And if you want to add a little variety to your display options…

He also comes with a second face plate, this time offering a delightful smile. And as long as we’re focusing in on the head and shoulders, I’ll toss out there now that I’m not a big fan of the stickers for the shoulders. To be fair, they look pretty good, and I understand why Takara had to do it. Apparently there were trademark issues concerning the use of the Red Cross. Personally, I would have been fine if they just printed the ones I used on there and been done with it, but I guess some collectors were looking for something more traditional. I just hope they stay on well and don’t yellow over time. But, enough about that… let’s look at some accessories!

Ratchet comes with a boat load of accessories. Or in this case, a sled load. Like Ironhide, Rachet includes a plastic base, which is an homage to the sled that was made up of the bottom part of the original toy’s van mode. This isn’t a direct copy, there’s no treads on the bottom and it isn’t involved at all in the transformation. It is, however, a place to store all those accessories in a way that nods back to the original. For a medic, Ratchet comes with a lot of guns, so let’s start with those first!

A number of the accessories are recycled from Ironhide, the first of which are the twin laser guns. I love these things! They have a nice satin gray finish and fit perfectly into Ratchet’s hands with a tab to secure them into the palms. Getting them out can be a little tricky, but he looks great wielding them.

Next up is what I think is called a Static Laser. It’s instantly recognizable as the gun that was positioned on the front of the original toy’s sled, and I used it to demonstrate the way Ratchet’s mode can be weaponized. It’s got a chrome finish and a white handle. It’s a very distinctive design, but probably not one that I’m going to display him with a whole lot.

Next up is the last recycled accessory from Ironhide ant that’s the missile launcher that plugs into his back. I can remember Ironhide shooting this thing off while flying in the Sunbow cartoon, but I don’t recall Ratchet ever using it. Still, it’s a logical accessory to recycle seeing as a similar piece was included with the G1 vans and I dig it quite a bit. The launcher has a satin gray finish and the missile is chromed out. It can come out of the launcher, but it doesn’t actually fire. Moving on to the new stuff…

Ratchet has one new gun and it’s this little pistol. It’s a cool design, but I really don’t have much else to say about it.

Like Ironhide, Ratchet could retract his hand and deploy various tools. In this case he comes with what is either an arc welder or a cutting torch… or why not both? To attach it you just flip his hand back into his arm and tab it into the spot where the hand used to be. It’s a useful tool for when he needs to do a weld on one of his wounded cameras or cut human survivors out of fallen debris. I don’t know why, but I always loved when the Transformers made use of these types of gizmos.

Ratchet can also produce a repair beam from his forearm. This just plugs right into the peg hole on either of his arms. There’s also an effect part that pegs into the end of the emitter and you get an illustrated cardboard insert that can be slipped in behind the windshield on his chest to produce vital signs. I’ll likely be displaying him with this all the time!

And finally, Ratchet comes with some wrenches, two regular and one magna-wrench.

I collect a lot of toys and other shit, so naturally my budget has its limitations. So throwing $90 at what is mostly a repaint of Ironhide certainly gave me pause. It was my love of Ratchet that finally got me to knuckle down and take the plunge, and I think the fact that it took so long for me to do it worked to my advantage. Two years after getting Ironhide made picking up Ratchet a lot more of a fresh experience and it made me fall in love with this mold all over again. I’m still in awe of how they made this toy work, and it’s a tribute to its intuitive engineering that even after a long while away from this mold, I was able to transform Ratchet without using the instructions. And it makes me happy to finally have the two Autobot vans together at last. If anything, I came away from this review with a renewed passion for the MP line.